Footloose Programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp" Pix

Click here for my Footloose Programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp" Pix

This following pic is taken by myself while having a ride in the coracle.

Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part II

For Part I follow this link:
Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part I

Nov 26, 0640 hrs

I reached the office 5 minutes earlier to the not-so-expected-departure-time. As it always happen some of the people haven't yet turned up and one of them is a project manager. And the result, we gotta wait for them. There were 2 buses one a full sized one and another a mini. Our big boss also turned up b4 the scheduled departure time and still the manager is not in sight. After sometime we decided to get our places in the bus and van.

I went to the van since most of the people whom I knew entered the van. I was sitting with a guy who started sleeping even b4 the bus started. I didn't wanna sit there anymore and was finding a place to change. And a row b4 mine a gal colleague of mine was sitting all alone in the 2 seater van. She too wanted some company and she was praying that our big boss should not sit with her. Fortunately our big boss spared her and took a seat alone in the front and I ditched this guy to get seated with that gal colleague. I felt bad ditching him but anyway he didn't mind that and went into descent(sleep) again.

After an hour or so the person whom we were expecting turned up and the time when the buses started was around 0830 hrs. Good! Atleast the buses moved atlast. Everyone in the buses were very hungry and I could feel rabbits in my stomach. The bus left before our mini and somewhere near the Hosur Road it stopped and the people in that bus bought biscuits and fruits. We too got some from them. So the snacks will keep us quiet till we reach the place by 1100 hrs. Oh!!! I missed one main thing that happened in that small halt the buses took. Another pretty colleague hopped in to our mini from the bus. She didn't find a gal company in the bus so she changed the vehicle. Here in this mini she didn't find a place to sit except for the lone seat which I left ditching the guy. She sat in that place and I didn't feel bad since she is still very close to my seat.

The travel again resumed. Myself and my colleague next to me were just chatting about all the things in the world. Right from movies to places. I didn't want to doze off as I feel giddy whenever I take short naps. The distance between our office and the place is 135 Km and the roads were too bad. So we expected to be there by 1115 hrs. The travel was not so pleasant except for the company I got. She reminded me of the song "Yuhin kattu jayega safar saathu chalne se" from "Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke". Atleast I was enjoying the company, I don't know how she felt ;) I was giving all my abnoxious fundas to her.

And in between there were some Antakshari going on in the mini. I was singing for both the teams. I wud say I was humming for both the teams as I don't know all the words in those hindi songs. Some of the songs were so old I never heard of them. This way we reached the place which was 135 km by 1125 hrs. We felt relieved when the bus entered the cottage compound there. The place is "Cauvery Fishing Camp" but in Bheemeshwari. None of us knew that there were 3 "Cauvery Fishing Camps" around Bangalore. Our coordinators were waiting in "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Galibore. To add oil to our emotions there was no network in any of the phones we got. Fortunately the place had a land line and we called and enquired the coordinators. We found that we were off route by 80 km. Thats too huge in that hilly place.

After a 20 min break, the bus and the mini started again. We were sure that this one day trip will be over even b4 it will get started. All were feeling hungry and our big boss cracked a stale joke of cannibalism. None of the people in mini laughed. But I shud admit that she always taught us a lesson wherever she could. She said we shud plan properly at the beginning of the trip and shud follow similar things while starting a project too(Afterall its a team building exercise!!). I became the unofficial photographer of our group. I was taking all sorts of pix wherever I found it interesting. After 45 min from the resumption, the buses stopped abruptly in the middle of the road. A road block.... Some one cut a huge tree and put it across the road. Now we were double sure that we gonna pack our bags back home. Our big boss was full of hopes that she waited near the tree and expected the people who were working on it to remove it off the road asap. I took some snaps of the tree trunk across the road and the people working on removing it.

To all our surprise the road block was removed in minutes. And we were all ready for travel again. But some of our colleagues slipped out for smoking and were not to be seen. The mini travelled back in search of them and myself got into the bus with my big boss and some other colleagues. The bus seemed to be empty. Then only we realized how many people are missing from the scene. Our bus stopped so that the mini could catch up. After 5 min the mini turned up and the people standing in the mini got down to the enter the bus. The mini carried twice the amount of people it carried earlier. And all the people who belonged to the mini returned back.

After a painful ride of another 2 hrs, we reached the expected place by 1300 hrs. Wait Wait... the coordinators said. We haven't reached the exact place yet! We gotta travel another 9 km inside to reach the river banks. The authorities in the Fishing camp had their own vehicle to transport people as the road is too bad and only their drivers could drive there. They didn't have enough vehicles to transport all 55 people. So they were doing trips again. I was fortunate that I went in the first trip itself. It is another 30 min trip in that bumpy road. Atlast we(the first set of people) reached the place by 1325 hrs.

Rest in tomorrow's post....

FW: Quick thinking (humour) - Truly Convincing.... good one (From Bharath)

A middle aged man bought a brand new convertible Porsche. He took off down the road, pushed it up to 160 and was enjoying the wind blowing through his (thinning) hair.

"This is great," he thought and accelerated to an even higher speed. But when he eventually looked in his rear-view mirror there was a Police Car behind him, blue lights flashing.

"I can get away from him with no problem" thought the man and he floored it some more, and flew down the road at over 210 km/hr to escape being stopped.

Then he thought, What the hell am I doing? I'm too old for this kind of thing" and pulled over to the side of the road, and waited for the Police car to catch up with him.

The Policeman pulled in behind the Porsche and walked up on the driver's side.
"Sir, my Shift ends in five minutes and today is Friday the 13th.

"If you can give me a good reason that I've never heard before as to why you were speeding, I'll let you go."
The man looked back at the Policeman and said, "Last week my wife ran off with a Policeman and I thought you were bringing her back."

The Policeman said, "Have a nice day, sir" and went back to his car.

Another "7/G Rainbow Colony" in the making? - contd...

I just wrote this comment in my blog post Another "7/G Rainbow Colony" in the making?
(I saw the song today morning in SurSangeet again. The song is "Bindiya Chamkegi" from Bally Sagoo's album. If u see that DJ u need not see this girl here in my company.) When I saw her going past my cube. Wow!! What a coincidence. But my colleague came to my cube and I could not stare at her while she disappeared in the maze of cubes in my office.

Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part I

Nov 25, 2350 hrs.

The buses were scheduled to start by 0645 hrs IST on Nov 26th (Read the word IST - always add an hour to it). I started ironing my clothes listening to songs. I was way too excited that I am going out with my colleagues after 2 years. I wanted to sleep as early as possible so that I won't miss the bus early in the morning. You can't believe I kept four alarms in the room so that I will wake up atleast for one (Two big Orpat timepieces which are very famous to wake up even the next room mate in college hostel, one in my cellphone and one in the TV).

The time is 0030 hrs on Nov 26th now. I switched off the TV and went to sleep in the hall itself (That's my bedroom anyway, I have been driven out from the bedrooms by my room mates saying that I am an untouchable without a gf). I was too tired but still could not get sleep because of the excitement. I turned on the lights, switched on the TV just to make my eyes sore so that it will droop down and I will get some sleep. But still no luck. I am wide awake. My brain immediately thought of a very good idea to induce me in deep sleep... It's reading!! I hate reading books. Whenever I start reading even b4 I complete a page I will feel sleepy. Even the best of the page-turners can't win me in this. I started reading the book "What if?" (a counterfactual book, which shows Hitler in its cover. But too much of history which will make even a fresh mind to sleep). Even this book is playing against me now. I am just reading and reading without making any meaning out of the words I read, but still no sleep. Hmmmmm... atlast after an hour the book fell off from my hands and indicated that I am in a trance and can switch of the lights and TV and sleep.

Hmmmm... Now I am sleeping. But not so fast, the dark angels that surrounded the room told me in my dreams. Suddenly I woke up swatting all over my body. Air raids just started. Mosquitoes could not leave me as my body sends the IR signal through heat. And Army also joined in soon. I meant the bed bugs. I could not sleep any longer. I woke up and made up my mind to destroy the army atleast. I switched on the lights to find a fat bug on my pillow. I just threw it on the floor and stamped it. I operated in "Search & Destroy" mode and soon killed 3 more. Now the air raids withered down. And this operation too was success and it made me too exhausted that I fell back sleeping with the lights on. The time was 0200 hrs.

At 0545 hrs the first alarm broke the eerie silence of the dark. I, being pre-occupied by the trip, got up immediately and switched on the TV and canceled the other alarms too. Getting up that early that too on a week day is very odd to me. I got my teeth brushed and got readied soon that I started off from my home by 0635 hrs. My office is just 3 km from my home and at that early hours there is a very little vehicles on the road. I reached the office in 5 min to see a lot of people waiting (not for me but for the time of departure).

Wait for the Part II. I will be writing it tomorrow.

Weekend movies.

This weekend I watched 7G Rainbow Colony in theatre and realized what I missed in the thiruttu(pirated) VCD. What to do, this moratorium is killing all non-kannada movie fans here in Bangalore. In the VCD all the main scenes are cut-off. Also I was enjoying the movie comparing myself with the hero ;) except for the last few minutes in which the heroine dies. Nice screenplay but the dialogue delivery from the actors is not upto the industry standards.

Another movie which I watched is Vaasthu Sasthra in PVR cinemas(India's largest Multiplex). I went to the film with my friend PK who saw that film in cable channel and said it's good. I didn't find it good infact I felt annoyed when the door closing sound comes every now and then without a reason. Even the small kid sitting behind us felt bored and was kept on asking his parents "When will the ghost come?"

Cool find.

Cool find.. Pigeons use their beaks as magnetic compass to find their home. Their beak has a magnetic particle which acts along with earth's magnetic field to navigate the birds to their home. Cool find. isn't it?
Magnets make sure pigeons fly home

Trivia:
Hippos kill
more people than any other snake or lion or whatever big animal in Africa!

I am going on Footloose programme with my group to some "Cauvery Fishing Camp". Will update my blog soon with that. Keep watching :)

AMD introduces a new Sempron M processor.

AMD introduced one more Mobile AMD Sempron processor 3000+ clocking 1.8GHz and with
"Enhanced Virus Protection" for buffer overflow attacks. Good that they are not relying on M$
to update their OS. It is also compatible with popular wireless solutions, including wireless
LAN 802.11a, b and g. And the price ($134) too looks good for a Mobile processor of this
caliber.
AMD Expands Sempron M Family
AMD announces Mobile Sempron 3000+

Got a new PC at my office desk... Ooooh yet to see how it works though.

Just now one person from System support group brought me a new HP workstation xw4100 with Intel P4 HT logo on it. Waiting for the people to assemble it and install any remaining things to make it running. I am excited to look on how it's better than my rock-solid-age-old DELL Optiplex Gx1 with Intel P2 running at 450 MHz. I love my old m/c very much except for the speed at which it crawls(?). I asked for just an upgrade in speed but they are giving me a new PC itself. Wow!!! I didn't like only onething in the new PC. It has got a M$ Win XP logo too. I hate Win XP. I will switch the desktop appearance to Classic Win2k style once itz up and running! Will update more once I try my hands on my new PC.

Solution Selling!! - A funny fwd from my friend Rajasekar

A keen immigrant Indian lad applied for a salesman's job at a London's premier downtown department store. Infact it was the Biggest store in the world - you could get anything there. The boss asked him,"Have you ever been a salesman before?" "Yes, I was a salesman in India", said the lad. The boss liked the cut of him and said, "You can start tomorrow and I'll come and see you."

The day was long and arduous for the young man, but finally 5:00 came around. The boss duly came up and asked, "How many Sales did you make today?". "One" said the young salesman. "Only one?" blurted the boss, "Most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale worth??." "Three hundred thousand, three hundred and thirty four pounds"
said the young Indian.

"How did you manage that?" asked the flabbergasted boss. "Well", said the salesman, "this man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one and a huge big one. I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast. I said he would probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty foot schooner with the twin engines. Then he said his Volkswagon probably wouldn't be able to pull it, so I took him to the car department and sold him the new Deluxe Cruiser"

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, "You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?".

"No" answered the salesman, "he came in to buy a box of Sanitary napkins for his wife and I said to him, 'Your weekend's spoiled , you may as well go fishing.'"

THAT IS SOLUTION SELLING !!!

Another "7/G Rainbow Colony" in the making?

Well, I am not talking about any other new tamil film in the release line up. I am just mentioning about myself and a cute gal in my office. You guyz believe in love at first sight? I do(Believe me.. It happened to me a lot of times!! LOL). I am just staring at her everytime I get a chance to see her and she too gives me a look but it is just like Sonia Agarwal looking at the hero when she goes with her dad in his scooter. It's an angry glance & not an amiable one. I know why she gives that angry look at me, I used to keep on staring at her when she was in the training room attending some training in her group. My cube is just near the training room she attended and she was sitting in the place where I can see her from my cube and she can see only me. As the hero in the film says... "To get a good figure It's not bad to get beatings and swearings", I too am behind that good figure. Well this exchanging of looks will continue till I get a good slap or a good response from her!!

A 10 year old sandwich sells for $28,000

Wow!! A 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich was sold for $28K on eBay.
Reason: The sandwich is said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary. (I will ask our maid to put some dosa which has Lord Shiva's image in it and I will become a lakhpathi!!)

Software Engineers - Monkeys? - Aryans? - Interesting forward from my friend Vijay.

Note : Plz read this from bottom to top

See how a small discussion changes its Colour easily......

nobody can beat software engg into createing nonsense
-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:39 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: German's ,Jews, Aryans
We sit before the monitor staring into the pixels, making faces the
whole day like monkeys. And you claim that you are not in this
monkey
business? Beats me!!
ANIL JOSHI
-----Original Message-----
From: AnandV
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:13 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: monkeys and dravidians
My theory is first step to identify software engrs.I'm more
interested
in showing that software engrs are not monkeys (bcas they are not
aryans) which my house owner believes!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: DHRUVAV
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:09 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: teachers and dravidian
Your theory only proves that Software engineers are not
aryans.Therefore
they can be any thing other than aryans and not only dravidians.

-----Original Message-----
From: AnandV
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:04 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: teachers and dravidian
B'cas only teachers (arya's) are aryans. So all software engr's are
dravidians.
-----Original Message-----
From: raghavendrak
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:00 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Aryans- H aryana
Let me get it clear.Are u suggesting that all people in haryana are
monkeys?????
-----Original Message-----
From: ashokkm
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 199910:59 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Aryans- H aryana
No, Only the native of Haryana are are aryans b'coz U just remove
the
'H' in Haryana so it becomes aryana.Agreed or not????
-----Original Message-----
From: raghavendrak
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:54 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: German's ,Jews, Aryans are Indians
Then even monkeys are aryans!!!!!!(I think they too have 10
fingers).
That's what ramayan says. So all vanars were also aryans!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:50 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: German's ,Jews, Aryans are Indians
How logical!! Now I could easily prove that even Africans are
Aryans.
They have 10 fingers- so they are aryans. They have 10 toes on their
feet - so they are aryans. Thanks for proving that all are aryans.
ANIL JOSHI
-----Original Message-----
From: Kedardesai
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:40 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Proof:German's ,Jews, Aryans are Indians
Indians invented the decimal system. Ravan(Jew) had ten heads, Ram's
father(aryan + German)had ten chariots (Dash-rath) etc.Thus , the
base
is 10. There fore they are all Indians
-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:58 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
Germans don't play cricket. So cricketers can't be germans. QED
ANIL JOSHI
-----Original Message-----
From: Dinni Lingaraj
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:56 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/ Germans
It just occured that a better subject would have been "CRICKET"
but this &nbs nbsp; one stopped ...."Are our cricketers
Aryans/Germans ?" So we got to solve this one !
-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:55 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Major fallacy/Aryans & Germans
Let the 'intellectuals' decide... you will know who you are soon
enough.
ANIL JOSHI
-----Original Message-----
From: Yeshwant Dattatreya
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 19999:39 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
OH BOY!! WHO ARE WE?
-----Original Message-----
From: ashokkm
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 19999:37 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Major fallacy/Aryans & Germans
According to maxmuller, Aryans came from Middle East.
According to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Antarctica was the home place of
Aryans. And Swami Dayanand Saraswati says Aryans were originally
from
India b'coz the place "saptsandhav" that is described many times in
their book is nothing but Doab region between Ganga & Jamuna.
And One theory according Bhagwandas is that Aryans were originally
from
India then they went to middle east and after some time they
returned
back to India.So there are different theories about the origin of
Aryans
but recent belief is that only India was their native-land.
-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 19999:37 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
So, at present we are at a point where MK's son is a Russian,
implying
MK is a Russian. MK is a ardent follower of Ravan who is a German
Jew.
Looks like the german govt running Karnataka(see our previous
discussions for a proof of it) is conniving with the Russian govt at
Tamilnadu (who support German) to fight the Italian Govts reps at 10
Janpath road. Some heavy international politics we have going on
here.
Wat's d'ya say man!!
ANIL JOSHI
-----Original Message-----
From: amajumder
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:21 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
Importance: High
Might be Russians too.. that explains why MK's son is called STALIN.

-----Original Message-----
From: raghavendrak
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:13 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
Say this to the DMK and they're gonna kick u!! according to them
ravan
was a dravidian and was attacked by ram as ram was an aryan.
So if ram was a german, and assuming he was a 'hitlerite 'aryan,
then
ravan must have been a jew!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 6:57 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
No, on the contrary it proves that Ravan was a German since it was
he
who owned the Pushpak Viman. The passengers could belong to any
country.
ANIL JOSHI
-----Original Message-----
From: vishnoor
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 5:44 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: major fallacy...
After defeating ravana .... Sri Rama flew back in Ravana's pushpak
vimana & This is what the Mordern Lufthansa is . It is the modern
version of the older pushpaka vimana.
The pushpak vimana was "driven" by hansa or swans....
The insignia of Lufthansa is also a swan...
This further proves Sri Rama was a German Hail Rama ....
----------
From: khandelwalh
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 199912:54 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: major fallacy...
the argument is wrong.
the conclusion is fallacious
-----Original Message-----
From: vishnoor
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 4:44 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla
Rama was an aryan ;
Germans claim to be aryans so Rama was a German &nbs nbsp; Hail
Rama....
----------
From: ashokkm
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 199911:53 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla
And what about Home minister Advani & Noble Prize winner Economics
Dr.
Amartya Sen???
-----Original Message-----
From: Sudha Vedula
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 19994:02 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla & Maithili
God Shiva is also a foreigner because
Mt.Kailash is in China. Buddha was also a foreigner because
Lumbini(?) is in Nepal. So was Guru Nanak, because Talwandi is in
Pakistan. So was Porus. So was Gandhari.....:)
-----Original Message-----
From: Vikas Sharma
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 10:14 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla & Maithili
Recently one Congress leader, in defense of Sonia, quoted that Sita
was
also a foreigner because Janakpuri is in Nepal.
-----Original Message-----
From: Pranav Chandra
Posted At: Wednesday, September 01,1999 1:10 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla & Maithili
Maithili is a language which derives it's name from the region in
Bihar
where it is spoken, the old kingdom of Mithla. There is a reference
to
the area even in Ramayana- Janak( Father of Sita) was king of Mithla
and
has been referred to as MithlaNaresh at many places in
RamCharitraManas
- therefore Sita was also called Maithili.
----------
From: Subhashis Roy
Posted At: 1999"N9OE?1"=FA 13:03
Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: what is Maithili ?
Importance: High
Maithili brahmins are known for their gastronome qualities !!!
-----Original Message-----
From: yogesh=5Fpm
Posted At: Wednesday, September 01,1999 12:12 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: re: what is maithili
Maithili is a language spoken in central bihar. It has its own
literature.It has its root in the old kingdom of that area.It is
similar
to Hindi.
-----Original Message-----
From: himanshudas
Posted At: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 9:06 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: What is Maithili?
Hi!
Who or what is Maithili, in context of Indian literature?

News that I read today

News that I read today:
Intel & Nvidia sign up agreement so that Intel can integrate its graphics chip with Nvidia's graphics processor. And Nvidia will get Intel's FSB technology in its products. Nvidia was making graphics processor only on AMD platforms so far. Now thanks to the agreement Intel will have access to Nvidia's powerful graphics technology. As I am a strong supporter of AMD, I felt really bad on reading it.

SpaceShipOne, the world's first privately developed space shuttle that broke into the space, has been named "2004 Invention of the Year" by Time magazine. It also has won the Ansari X prize of $10 million for private space travel after it made two trips in two-week period. Microsoft co-founder, space enthusiast and philanthropist Paul Allen is financing the project.

A new version of the Sober e-mail worm started spreading in Europe on Friday, according to antivirus suppliers, which have given the worm a mid-level threat rating.

Trivia:
Some lipsticks contain fish scales as their main ingredient to make them shimmery.

Quote that fascinated me:
You are good at being bad and I am bad at being good.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Chimera - Hybrid animals

"Every search for a hero must begin with something that every hero requires; a villain. Therefore, in a search for our hero, Bellerophon, we created a monster Chimera." - Excerpt from the movie MI-2.

From the Greek meaning "she-goat" the Chimera is a fire-breathing creature that has the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. Chimera ravaged the Greek city of Lycia until it was slayed by the prince of Corinth, Bellerophon.

I somehow felt that the word Chimera had a charm and attracted me and made me believe that it can't be a name for something evil. Only now I realised that, offlate, scientists have given this name to something else which is going to change the world in near future. Yes! Chimera now represents the hybrid animals which are used in human stem cells research.

Chimeras are animals that have human cells infused into them when they are foetuses. Now there are pigs that have human blood flowing through their veins; Sheeps whose livers and hearts are largely human; mice with human brain cells and immune systems. This stem cell technology will be a boon to humans in future when this technology matures and many people who need organ transplants will get benefitted by the chimeras.

But this technology is being criticised badly that it is against Nature and people should stop doing this. No one knows for sure how exactly this will be bad for the world but weighing the benefits I strongly feel this should continue and provide good result not only for human kind but to the whole world as such.

Spam count!

Do u guyz know how many spam emails Bill Gates get everyday?
Its 4 million !! Hmmm.. Being famous has its own disadvantage.

Blog backfires...

Blog backfires for flight attendant
Published: November 16, 2004, 7:23 AM PST
By Christine Negroni

Until two weeks ago, Ellen Simonetti worked as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, doing her best to project the image of a stewardess from a bygone era.
"In the past, people expected flight attendants to be young and attractive," Simonetti, a 29-year old blonde, said from her home in Austin, Texas. "Maybe I represent the flight attendants of the past."
But it is Simonetti's very 21st-century activities that she says prompted Delta management to ground her, suspending her from flying in September and then firing her a month later.
Simonetti has operated a Web log since January, calling it Diary of a Flight Attendant, and said she did not hear from Delta about the site until after she posted a set of provocative photos of herself in her Delta uniform.

For more visit: http://news.com.com/Blog+backfires+for+flight+attendant/2100-1030_3-5454483.html?tag=st.pop

PRODUCT REVIEW: Microsoft search falls far short of Google - From Seattle Post Intelligencer

PRODUCT REVIEW: Microsoft search falls far short of Google
By ANICK JESDANUNAP INTERNET WRITER
NEW YORK -- Microsoft Corp. isn't often an underdog in anything, so when the software powerhouse released its new search engine, I was anxious to give it a whirl.
First the good news: MSN Search has a few features that go beyond Google - laudable given Google's formidable head start.
Now the verdict: Mr. Bill Gates, you're no Google. I won't be changing my search engine of choice.
Granted, the new MSN is still in a "beta" test phase - a work in progress. ....

Read the whole article at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=Tech%20Test%20MSN%20Search

Myself in Iruppu

Myself in Iruppu

Coorg Trip pix

Click here for my Coorg trip pix

Iruppu falls

This pic is one which Bals love to see.

Diwali/Deepavali - Is the festival's light started dimming?

Diwali is no more the same which I used to experience a 5 yr b4. Earlier I could feel the festive mood even a month b4 the actual day. Now its all gone. I remember Diwali now just becoz I get a leave on that day. What happened in 5 yrs? Is it just me feeling like this or everyone who read this feel the same? Is it becoz I am a grown-up now who doesn't have anything to do on that special day? or Is it the TV channels that is killing the festive mood? or All the people just realized (wrongly) that Diwali should not burn their money in the name of crackers? I am confused totally. Any help is appreciated.

Jupiter: King of planets in our solar system

Do u know how many moons Jupiter has? a whopping 63 compared to one our earth has. Even 63 is mentioned as known satellites. Scientists believe there are still more Jupiter's satellites awaiting to be discovered . For more read at..
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996624

A Trip to Coorg - Part II, Day 2

Oct 23, 0545 hrs

Knock.. knock.. Who's that? f* u. My favourite dialogue in the movie "Catch me if u can". A similar situation happened but in a complete different way. The whole day (& night for Bals) hard work and travel made us sleep as if we were beaten up. At that early hours the calling bell buzzed and Jai was the one sleeping near the door. He barely woke up and opened the door to find the room boy saying "Hot Water Ready Sir! U can start taking bath". Jaiga was perplexed with the hospitality the lodge was showing him. He just closed the door and his eyelids.. back to sleep.

Somewhere around 0700 hrs Bharath woke up using the alarm he set in his T105. And he is the first one to get ready. But for his bad morning... all the other 3 of us were still in the bed enjoying the sleep in cozy bed and the sheet that covered us. hmmm. heavenly. I guess Bharath was in flames on seeing us in the bed still. Thats it.. everyone got up from the bed in another 5 min and our plan that day was to visit Nagerhole wildlife sanctuary and on the way to take shower in the Iruppu falls. Then we 3 brushed our teeth and Bharath planned that 2 of us can go and finish the breakfast while the other 2 can get ready by the time. Bharath and Bals (dirty guy.. just had his teeth brushed) went to the restaurant and myself and jaiga stayed back to get bath and ready. Jaiga went in and started enjoying his hot water bath while I stayed out watching TV. Jaiga came out and its my time to take bath after my morning activities. Bharath and Bals returned to the room finishing their breakfast. I didn't know what they ate but whatever they came quicker than I thought. Now I gotta go down to have breakfast b4 taking bath. "I hate to go out of my room without having bath". But the situation demanded that I shud have to break my code of conduct. I broke and went down to restaurant with Jai while our Bals went to bathroom to finish his activities.

I asked the waiter over there to bring whatever is ready and which will come faster. Jai too ordered something. Again to my misfortune my orders are delayed and by the time I got my orders Bharath was standing beside me. I hurriedly finished whatever I got and ran up to the room. I was in total mess without a bath and I am the last one to get ready. Everyone is ready except me! Someone hinted that since we were going to falls I can take bath there itself but I felt it will be better if I take bath b4 going. Who knows the same fate might repeat as Abbi falls. So I tried hard to get ready in 10 mins. But I guess it took me more time than I planned. Thats it when I came out of the bathroom I can feel dead silence in the room and even the TV was switched off. I rem'd my dad used to do turn off the TV if he is not happy with us. Bharath went out for sometime and Bals said Bharath might be angry bcoz its getting very late. He also said if I wish to live I better get ready in a min. I believed him for the first time :) and pushed myself hard. So all set now... huhn.. I forgot tell u one thing somewhere in between Jai dropped the Mirinda bottle and Mirinda was flowing all over the room like a river of oranges. Ok. we were ready to go out now.

Again we went to that good soul asking for route and bus availability and got that we gotta take a bus to Virajpet and from there to Iruppu or Nagerhole. We 4 walked to the pvt bus stand nearby. While walking I could see Bharath very silent. We reached the bus stand and luck prevailed us.. we got a bus waiting for Gonikoppal which is in the same direction as Nagerhole & Iruppu. We got 2 consecutive 2 seater rows again. I felt relieved that if we had missed the bus I wud have been in ashes from the flames brimming from Bharath eyes. A narrow escape indeed! The moment we sat on the bus everything bcame normal and all were chuckling, joking and laughing. I guess that is where Bharath let out a word "Descent" saying something like Why the y'day bus took so long even though it was going in descent. A laughter bursted from mine and jaiga's mouth. We knew that the bus was climbing up the hill and not going down the prev day. For that whole day Descent was the word of humour and our small nap in the bus was also called "Descending"... We took tickets to Gonekoppal and everything went without problem against all our surprises. The bus stopped at the jn where 2 roads split up.. one to Virajpet and other to Talacauvery. I saw a dog outside the bus and I cud not stop the laughter thinking which dog is fortunate in getting "idly vada" from Vomit Vallal's mouth. And the topic started somehow there. And we were all in for praises of the Vallal's high intentions towards animals. Jai commented that there are lots of Bluecross members for name sake but our great bals is one step ahead of all... giving his food to the animals that too mixed properly and blended with all the edibles that animals don't get. Like that the bus trip to Virajpet went on. And in between we all went descending in the bus.

The bus reached Virajpet and since it is one of the 3 taluks out there the bus stopped for a long time and almost all the people in the bus got down and many came in. We got another good soul in the Virajpet. This guy told myself and bals how we can go about to Iruppu and Nagerhole. He also asked did we swim in Abbi falls. He also said that Raja's seat and Talacauvery are the best places to watch sunset. I forgot one more thing earlier. Jai was hell-bent in seeing Raja's seat and the fort in the morning b4 we went to bus but since time constraints we said we will see it next day. Back to Virajpet.. He said that on a clear day one can see Arabian sea in the horizon while watching sunset from the Talacauvery's hill. I realised what we missed the earlier day. But Bals said it was not a clear sky the day b4. He also said that we gotta take bus from Gonikoppal to Srimangala or Kutta and from there we can take taxi or autorickshaw or we can engage taxi from Gonikoppal itself. Another 15 - 20 kms we gotta go in the same bus to reach Gonikoppal. The distance didn't matter much to us. We had seen lots of kms already. The bus reached the Gonikoppal bus stand.

Bals seemed to be in a mood to donate again. If he wan't to resist it he needed a sprite immediately. Jai took care of Bals and they were drinking sprite while myself and Bharath went looking for taxis. Earlier in the morning we enquired for taxi in Madikeri itself it was costing around 2K for that day. We felt we will get it cheaper when we go near the actual place and engage. But it was the other way it seems.. the more u go nearer the more the price-distance ratio. Jai immediately reminded that his friend advised him to take taxi from mysore itself and he personnaly will arrange cab for 2 days for 2k only. how good it wud be if we had done it earlier. We blamed ourselves for not planning things prior to the travel. But my inner mind said that trips shud be unplanned atleast to some extent or else it will lose the fun. But I was very afraid to tell it out to others as the situation was very very bad.. The jeepwala in Gonnikoppal asked for 800 bucks for a round trip to Iruppu, Nagerhole & back to Gonnikoppal. We still felt that if we can make it to Srimangala by bus we can engage taxi for less. We cling on to a bus to Srimangala and Jai & Bals were scattered and sat somewhere. Myself & Bharath were sitting in the last row and talking how this Iruppu and Nagerhole will be. A guy sitting just a row b4 kept on seeing at us and after sometime he asked us in good tamil (not like Kannada tamil) "Are u guyz going to Iruppu?" Good heavens.. there are people in Karnataka too who speak very good tamil than most of the people in TN itself. He said he knows some van fellow in Srimangala whom we can ask for ride to Iruppu.

The bus reached Srimangala and that guy took us to a shop asking for a driver there. I came to know that guy was from Trichy basically. Now I knew how the Tamil was so good. Jai was very angry that the guy was taking more time in engaging us a taxi and had shouted at him. Then I calmed him saying that he is not working for us and he is doing it as a favour and not for any money. We got one taxi for a 550 bucks for round trip covering Iruppu and Nagerhole. We thanked that Tamil guy and resumed our trip. The taxiwalla also knew tamil but it had a flavour of Kannada. He put some tamil song cassette and the stereo set was a typical car audio which outputs a male voice in female form and a female voice in a child form. We enjoyed it anyway. The taxi took us to the foothill of the falls and we could see a restaurant over there.. very nice we thought. But we were more curious to take a plunge in the falls than to sit back and eat. We gotta climb a li'l up the steps to view the big Iruppu falls.

We were flabbergasted to see it and just the thought of taking bath in it sent chills upto our spine. The water was cold and Bharath was the first to strip off his clothes close enough to show a g-strip sort of jockey he had. He could not resist it and went down into the waters immediately. We were not the only people around there. Lots of others were also there some are inside the water and some are outside just admiring the serene beauty and not taking any chances in the falls. We 3 also joined Bharath and no words can be written to explain the feeling we had when we entered the waters and pushed ourselves under the falls. We were not ashamed of our outfits as all the guys out there in the water were wearing similar things only. The water was coming in such a force that it was real tough to go near the place it fell. The more we close in the more our jockey slipped down and this made Bharath to change the falls name from "Iruppu" to "Izhuppu" falls.

As we were playing in the water, the whole place was brightened up by the arrival of another set of people mostly of kids and others in middle age except for the only one whose aura I am mentioning now. She was a beautiful lass in her late teenage. She was wearing a greenish blue churidhar and looked like an angel to us. We could see all the guyz around were watching her playing with the other children in the water. We were lazier earlier to go up and take the pix of the remaining 3 but now the arrival of that sweet gal pushed me out of the water. I went out of the water and started clicking all over the place. I tried to cover 3 of our guys with that gal in one side of the frame. Then I aimed directly at her and shot one in close up too. I felt guilty in doing that but could not stop my hands doing it. Then I returned to the waters again while Bharath came out to show some of his photographic skills. He took a few snaps of ours and more snaps of her in close quarters. Only when we browsed thro' the pix we found that she had more snaps than all of us 4 put together. We four were playing in the waters looking at her from the side when another group of teens came there. There were some 4 or 5 young gals and a lesser number of guys. We were expecting them to get into the water but they disappointed us by just sitting on the rock and seeing the falls and the people out there. We kept ourselves immersed in the beauty for long and we felt it as long enough then. Then we came out and dressed up again and not to forget I used Bharath's specs for combing my hair. We gave a parting look at that gal and went towards our taxi. Now it is really late for us to go to Nagerhole. We can make it to the safari or ride whatever they call only if we skip our lunch. hmmm.. we decided to skip it but the taxi guy didn't wanted to skip his lunch he halted the taxi in a village called "Kutta" and finished his lunch. There we saw some 10 guys riding 5 yamaha RX135s. They were also like us only just tourists out there. We felt that we too shud have taken bikes instead of relying on bus & taxi. But it was too late now.

The taxiwala took us to Nagerhole and on the way we could see a checkpost saying Kerala border. We were close to kerala there. The taxi entered the gates of Nagerhole sanctuary and it was a good road that lead us to the site where people were waiting for the trip/ride/safari. The road was good and surrounded by lots of green bushes and trees. We saw a lot of Deers in the road. The taxiwala stopped for us to take pix of them and then he took us to the place where we gotta wait for our turn to take a trip. The taxi parked aside and Bharath & Bals went to book the tickets for the ride and myself & Jai walked towards the crowd playing with an elephant calf. The calf was playing like any human baby. It was wrestling with the individuals around and the mother elephant was just seeing it play. Jai was afraid to go near the mother but was very fond of playing with the calf. Bharath and Bals too joined us and we took some snaps with calf & the mother. The van which takes for the ride came and everyone went towards the counter to get the tickets. We were denied tickets because of some other group delta-ed itself in. We were just cribbing that we shudn't have allowed it and we also thought of leaving from Nagerhole since the last bus from Srimangala was at 1830 hrs. We inquired the taxiwala how much he will charge if we have to take the taxi upto Gonikoppal and we were in for another blow. He demanded more and we decided to leave to Srimangala at once so that we can catch the 1830 hrs bus. But the taxiwala convinced us saying that the ride will be good and it will be waste to return without going on that ride. We didn't know what to do. The next set of vans came and we didn't know what to do - whether to leave or take the ride. We made up our minds and took the ride, which is another disaster for us.

The ride started in a good road but gradually the road got deteriorated and the van was tumbling even at very low speeds. The van driver was driving slowly so that we can sight some wild animals. But to our misfortune again.. all the animals went into hiding and we cud see only a few deers. Suddenly a total calmness spread and driver was spotting something and said something to the people in the front. We were sitting in the back just a row b4 the last. There was a family in the last row. The enquired which animal is spotted? I said "There was a penquin out there".. goof there was a loud chuckle at the back. The ride took one hour to complete. We spotted some bisons and some peacocks. But cudn't take any pix as the cam was out of zoom and the animals went into hiding b4 we cud zoom properly. Can you believe... even in this ride Bals was in "Descending" most of the time. He wud have been the only one sleeping in a ride like this. The dad at the back of the van asked his daughter "What did she see?" She said.. "I saw I saw... deers..." and then a long thought then again "deers... peacock". The dad asked her again "What did father see?" The girl said "Papa saw.. Papa saw.. people in the bus" and again a loud chuckle at the back of the van. The ride was almost coming to an end when we sighted a big bull elephant. We thought we were fortunate to see an elephant in wild but we realised that it has been tied there just to make the riders feel that they saw atleast this animal in that ride of 75 bucks. We have seen the deers very close from the taxi than in the ride. I felt it was useless than the ride that I took in Mudumalai when we were in final yr college.

By the time the ride got over it was almost dark and our taxi took us to Gonikoppal. It was a very long ride and the road was very bad. Somehow we made it to Gonikoppal and we were very hungry since we have skipped our lunch too for that useless ride. We went to one bakery and wanted to buy some biscuits. The bakerywala was very congenial. He asked us if we wud like to try the puffs. Bals didn't want to eat anything there (he was afraid of donating his meal to another dog!). But the puffs tempted him more and we bought puffs too. We got a bus to Madikere in the Gonikoppal bus stand we opened the snacks we bought. We finished the puffs fast and opened the bourbon pack. The biscuit was not crisp but still we ate it. Then I opened the orange treat biscuits and gave it to Jai. Jai ate a biscuit and gave it back to me. I distributed it to Bharath and I too took one. I felt that something wrong with this biscuit and looked at the expiry date. The pack got expired a very long time b4. We can't spit what we had ate already. We kept our fingers crossed who will be the next "Vomit vallal". We went into descending again and the bus reached Madikere but stopped in the main road itself. The road was blocked and so we gotta get down there itself and walk up to our hotel.

Now its Bharath's turn to do the donation stuff. The orange treat and the puffs he ate came out but there were no dogs around. So his donations went waste. But Jai wanted something to donate to some animal. So he threw an apple to a cow nearby. But the cow gave a bad look at us and went away as if it were saying "were u guyz eating this s* all the time?". We went to our hotel and took rest. By the time we came down to the restaurant it was closed (Someone wud have paged them that we were coming there!). We went out looking for some other restaurant and found one open too. We had our dinner there and now we were feeling fresh. We heard from others that the whole night the town will be celebrating. The whole place was crowded even at that time. The fort was still open and we heard that there is a procession of Navarathri festival being enacted there and there will be many such procession and they were adjudged by jury and awarded prizes for the best looking enactment. The fort was too crowded and there was a very small passage only. Only one person can go in that passage and it was almost a stampede waiting to happen there if not for the police control. Still people fought against police too and entered thro that way and made the people wait to exist if they gotta use the same way.

Inside the fort we saw one enactment of Navarathri procession. Goddess Kali with her angry face and a trishul in her hands was waiting for the Boar-headed asura. The procession was about to move to the streets from the fort. Jai wanted to take a movie of it. So we 4 moved to the other entrance of the fort thro' which the procession will hit the streets. There I saw another enactment... It was of Bals simulating the film azhagi. There was a teenage girl standing near the gates and watching at us. Bals and that gal were fixed eye to eye and just kept on staring at each other. The fun lights from Kali's head fell on that gal's face and Bals started singing "Oliyile therivadhu dhevadhaya!!". (The only thing he didn't knew was that he was crossing mine and that gal's line of sight and mistook that gal is admiring him.)

Earlier just b4 our dinner we went on to a ground where some live band is performing only A.R.Rahman's songs and many Tamil songs were played. Even in the streets one stereo shop has put only tamil songs and there was a big crowd dancing in front of the shop for the song being played. We all bought the optic fibre light and took snaps with it and thus that night went on for some more time like that. After midnight we were tired and went back to hotel and slept. This night I don't remember Bals seeing Hallmark or any other channel though it was the much awaited Saturday night. But it was late even for the late night movie!!

This post took me a hell lot of time. Will try to post the day 3 exp asap. Comments plz...

test blog

dummy blog to test my feed.

ETM - Thiruvilayaadal

READ BOTTOM'S UP!

-----Original Message-----From: Jai Ganesh Pasupathy Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 6:04 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
Pulavare..avai adakkam…Un idappakam valapakkam ena ella pakkamum vacant-aaga irukkum veruppil pesa vendaam…’piran mania nookaa peraanmai’ enum vaakiyathin vaasanai kooda ariyaatha ungal life-il oru large bug irukka en kavithayil ulla small bug-ai search seiya umakku thaguthi illai….

From: balasubramanianSent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 5:32 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
illai appadi illave illai..ithu naan asinga paduththum jaiga-vin idapakkam amarnthu irukkum ramya-vin mel aaNai..
avarukku vala pakkam amarnthu irukkum nandhini melum aaNai...

From: Jai Ganesh Pasupathy Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 5:21 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
Baals pesum thamizhai vida… naay kulaipathu nandraaga ullathu enbathu…ithi enna kutram??

From: balasubramanianSent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 5:15 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
vanja pugazhchi vendam pulavane...
oru sariyane kavithaikke emathu nanbargal pugazhgiraargaL endraal ennai vida sandhoshapadigiravargan intha ulagil yaarum irukka mudiyaathu
anaal oru thavaraana paatukku parisu aLikka padumbothu...
sari umathu kavithayin utporuL...

From: Jai Ganesh PasupathySent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:58 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
Neer thaan ‘vomit vallal’ baalso…kelvipaturikkiren umathu kodai thanmaiyai….mudindhu pona kadhai patri pesa vendam….athai patrip pesuvathil arthamumillai…prachanaikku vaarungal…

From: balasubramanianSent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:51 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
sor kutram irunthaal thiruthi koLLalaam anaal poruLil kutram irunthaal athai yammal oppu koLLa mudiyaathu...
ezhudhiya kavithayai umadhu comp-ilirunthu anuppaamal ramya-vin comp-ilurinthu anuppiyadhin nokkam??

From: Jai Ganesh PasupathySent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:44 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
Yes da gopi….i typed the kavithai in english which was then converted to tamil…I forgot to type extra ‘a’ in those places..

From: Gopinath RadhakrishnanSent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:39 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
moosa, that was a nice one.
jai, kavidhai romba nalla irrukku.
anna oru doubt. athilae iru pizhai ullathu mathiri theriyudhu,
ithamo, uyiro - rendu kombu illae varanum ,yaen oru kombu?

-----Original Message-----From: Subramanian SudhakarSent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:05 PMTo: 'etmails@yahoogroups.com'Subject: RE: [etmails]
Jai: pinnae naan ezhudhaamae Infosys-la yaaro ezhudhana maadhiriyum adha naan parisukku aasaipattu vaangittu vandha maadhiriyum paesara. naan dhaan ezhudhinaen... naan dhaan ezhudhinaen. Yengae aayiram porkaasugal. sokka aiyayyo sokka.

-----Original Message-----From: Bharath Kumar Balakrishnan Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 3:56 PMTo: etmails@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [etmails]
Dei Jai unmaiya sollu...antha kavithaya nee than eluthunaiya..... trip la nee pesuna tamila kettuttu enakku ennammo nambikkai illai.... aama..Nandini, anjali, aetho lakshmi nnu thaan da polambikittu iruppe... ithu yaaru da puthusa Ramya...

Intel losing on to AMD?

Offlate I hear lot of noises about Intel changing strategy towards dual core processor making instead of its power hungry high clocked pentium versions. Intel scrapped their projects of clocking more than 4GHz and said they are letting out a 3.8 GHz P4 which will be its last in the line of high clocking desktop processor versions for an indefinite time. AMD is a pioneer in this dual core processor section. I like AMD more than their Intel counterparts more for the reason that my 4 yr old 450MHz machine is an AMD one and still rocks. And other reason like low cost adds to my passion towards AMD. I somehow feel WINTEL on the whole is losing "some" of its share to LIN-AMD.