Some of the best Vadivel's Dialogues..

Couldn't stop myself from sharing these hilarious tracks online..













P.S> For the benefit of those who aren't aware of Vadivelu - "He's a leading comedian
in the Tamil Cinema"..

Definition of Cricket..

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game! Simple!

Know your new Airport..

The new Bengaluru International Airport will commence operations on Friday, May 23, 2008 (00:01 hours of May 23). All flights landing and departing after midnight will operate from the new airport and flights arriving before midnight (on May 22, 2008) and departing after midnight will also operate from the new airport. As the date fast approaches, some insights into the whole new passenger experience that awaits you.

Departure from Bengaluru International Airport
Please find information on the location of the airport and the various means of transport how to get there in the attached materials. Once you arrived at the airport, enter the check in hall, which is common for domestic and international passengers. There are 53 Check In Counters and 18 Self check in machines. There is no need to screen your bag before check in.

Once you have checked in, follow the domestic and international departure gate signs on the first floor and proceed through security. Post security check you have on offer a wide array of retail and food & beverage outlets. There are also comfortable lounges for first and business class passengers. Free Wi-Fi Internet is also available for those carrying their laptops.

Arrival at Bengaluru International Airport

The airport is equipped with adequate number of immigration counters and baggage carousels for quick baggage retrieval. A large duty free shop is also located in the baggage claim area.
The following means of transport are available from day one:
* AC Volvo Buses operated by BMTC to key destinations in the city (Indicative Price to MG Road: Rs. 120)
*Reliable professional taxi services operated by MERU and Easycabs, with a metered fare (Indicative Rate to MG Road: Rs. 600)
*Premium Limousines operated by Hertz and Akbar Travels – cars with drivers as well as self driven cars are available.

However, Please note that all international passengers would be charged a user development fee of Rs 1070/- per ticket.

This way your travel experience should be to “Breeze in & Breeze Out”.





Documents for your reference:

Traffic & Parking Map - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Traffic & Parking Map

Airport Shuttle Service - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Airport Shuttle Service

Easy Guide - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Easy Guide

Landmark Map



(Courtesy: Official Website of Bengaluru International Airport)

Innovative Film City, Bangalore

Last week, I happened to discover yet another place to hang-out for a day & loot all the fun :)

Ever heard of the upcoming theme park - Innovative Film City ??

Though much of it is not functional and the theme center is still under construction, they have opened up a sizeable number of activities right now itself (termed as their Entertainment District).
Visit their website for more updates.

Masti UnPlugged!

This place lies on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, precisely near the Toyota Industry in the Bidadi Industrial Estate. So, if you plan to start on any "bangalore-morning", set your timings meticulously to avoid getting there late absorbed by the "baffling" traffic en-route.

We reached the spot @ ~10:30 am, our initial reactions were those of a cornered scapegoat since we were skeptical of the complex and by inspection it sounded/seemed as though entire thing was running on a Trial-Basis! "Laboratory rats" - was the term used by one of my teammates.

Jokes apart, I must say - lot of preliminary planning has gone into this arena and they have planned to endow it with a versatile set of activities that run from the typical rides found @ Wonderla, water park, beach, museums, sports and theatre experience. My personal suggestion would be to visit Wonderla with your peers (as its monopolized with rides, quite unsuitable for older folks & family members) and spend time @ Innovative Film City with your family (trust me, all age-groups have been targeted).

The whole place opens up with the air of a authentic film shooting spot with palaces, pillars and ancient structures designed. Quite a lot of this was still under construction, I just imagined how the whole place would seem when it gets cent percent going.

But, going a little further I could sense that there were actually quite a lot of activities operational and we decided to explore them all.

Dino Park
Excellent for kids. An attempt to revitalize the era of the dinosaurs, with artificially resurrected dino's of all species in their native habitats. They have been made to move and make noises adding to the ambience.

Mirror Maze
Cleverly designed maze wherein you are supposed to figure your way out to the exit. The interiors deceive you at all corners with your brain battling to differentiate the real from the image. If you see your friends anywhere inside, beware! It might just be their images..

Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Consists of Ripley's miracles and all his mysterious collections. What you see inside truly leaves you spellbound!

Wax Museum
Its all a huge collection of Louis Tussaud's Wax works and his expertise shows up in the lusture and intricate looks of all his subjects inside. You find wax statues of renowned hollywood personalities, political leaders, religious and national leaders, fictional characters, etc..

4D Movie Theater

I had been making wild guesses about the fourth-dimension here right from the beginning. But, when it unfolds before you in the theater, believe me - you go wild! Its a movie about the evolution of earth, origin of life, time of the dinosaurs, bla bla bla.. But a fourth-dimension of "sense" has been added to the movie, thereby making you feel the ambience. You find the dinosaurs' walk up to you, open it mouth right at the tip of your nose and a jet of hot air hit your cheeks!! You are taken into the realms of the ocean and you find yourself "actually" drenched!!
You are able to sense octopuses that sneak past between you legs with their filthy skin and touch! Meteors and other celestial bodies that hit the earth leave you reverberating physically!
An enchanting movie during which you buzz off into a dreamland :)

Mini-Golf
My first experience with golf and I would that its the best way to play this game if you don't have the patience to travel long distance with the clubs and time to take your shots. You have 18 holes to complete and get all kinds of terrains to battle through. Surprisingly, I got addicted to this game sooner than I expected!

Go-Karting
Usual stuff. A comparatively smaller race lap. Its designed to lend a completeness to the entertainment-district rather than offer a professional racing experience.
Amateurs - Welcome!
Professionals - Its not your cup of tea!

Aqua Kingdom
Contains an artificial beach ridden with palm trees, benches and a beach-volleyball court. There are wave pools operational in the evening.

The excitement and fun here is gonna double as Innovative gets the rest of its facilities ready!



Download Innovative Map
Download Entertainment District [1], [2]

Another blog bearing details and more profound pics from this place

Contact:
Mr Varma, 9844700098, varma@innovativefilmcity.in
http://www.innovativefilmcity.net/index.asp
Innovative Film City, Bangalore

Does a fish go pee..

Does a fish go pee
when it's swimming in the sea?
Does it ever get the notion
when it's swimming in the ocean?
Does a fish take a leak
when it's swimming in the creek?
Do they do it in a muddle
when you see them in a puddle?
Does a fish ever miss
when it's taking a p___,
Does a fish find urination
when in the farmer's irrigation?
Do you think they're rather fond
of going potty in the pond,
and, then, for goodness sake,
do they go while in the lake?
Do they tinkle at all
while in the waterfall?
Could you see a yellow gleam
as they do it in the stream?
Now take a little quiz:
Does a fish ever whiz?
Does a fish go pee
when it's swimming in the sea?

Courtesy : FunnyPoets

This Is Going To Hurt Just A Little Bit

Just flew past this poem and I thought you should give it a read.. I remember the laughter we cracked when we first read it as our school lessons..

This is just going to hurt a little bit

One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with
my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.

Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.
It is hard to be self-possessed
With your jaw digging into your chest.

So hard to retain your calm
When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life line
or love line or some other important line in your palm;

So hard to give your usual effect of cheery benignity
When you know your position is one of the two or three in life
most lacking in dignity.

And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on.
And it is all cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and
drills and steam rollers and there isn't a nerve in your head that
you aren't being irked on.

Oh, some people are unfortunate enough to be strung up by thumbs.
And others have things done to their gums,
And your teeth are supposed to be being polished,
But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
And the circumstance that adds most to your terror
Is that it's all done with a mirror,
Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only
they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one
hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you
do when you try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget
that left is right and vice versa?

And then at last he says That will be all; but it isn't because he then
coats your mouth from cellar to roof
With something that I suspect is generally used to put a shine on a
horse's hoof.

And you totter to your feet and think. Well it's all over now and after
all it was only this once.
And he says come back in three monce.
And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest, That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good
condition when the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition
is so that he won't have to go to the dentist.

- Ogden Nash

Scripting a World of Imagination!

“What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self” – Helen Keller

TMGi team members at NAB.

There was tremendous joy in the air during the recently concluded TMGi Q1 quarterly event, as every year the team devotes its first quarterly event for a social cause. On March 21, 2008 the team was all set for an exciting visit to the world of folks who are challenged and strong willed. The team along with RDC school children visited National Association for Blind with much curiosity to see how the NAB trainees/individuals are trained to become successful software engineers, call center experts, textile weavers in their own ways.

One of the trainees at NAB displays amazing dexterity in using his Braille notes.

Highly elated, Director of NAB, Mr. Srinivas briefed the team about NAB and its objectives. This was followed by a stunningly fluent and impressive speech by one of the trainees at NAB. He displayed amazing dexterity in using his Braille notes. In order to engage and connect with the NAB students a number of Intel-NAB team building games were organized. The activities included – Blindfolded games, Scavenger Hunt, etc. But the highlight of the day was the Dice-Cricket which set out a flutter of excitement from the trainees.

Highlights of the team building games
Unique Scavenger Hunt: A very interesting and unique Scavenger Hunt was organized, wherein the list of items to be collected were engraved in Braille script and the team comprising of employees and trainees had to find the complete list of items ranging from items like pink clip, leather belt to a dry leaf.

Dice cricket in progress.

Dice cricket: Dice-Cricket was organized by the NAB staff, wherein two teams stood facing each other with a table in between. This table served as the Pitch. The game progressed by players of the fielding side rolling the dice on to the ‘pitch’ and the batting side doing the same to score runs.

Pass-the-parcel game in progress..

Pass–the-parcel: Two teams made up of both trainees and employees were formed. The employees were blindfolded and were asked to pass the parcel. The trainees were all excited and anxious to grab the parcel and record their win! With all the high energy flowing around, few employee volunteers took up the initiative to engage the RDC school children in a variety of events like drawing, coloring, lemon and spoon, singing and dancing events.

The team visits the NAB workshop.

After a lip-smacking and yummy lunch the team visited the training centers to understand how NAB provides training to its participants to become independent individuals. We saw them work on lathe machines, filing, drilling, and engaged in carpentry work as well as programming in VC++/Oracle on the computers. It was a pleasure to see all the resources that NAB had, these resources ranged from Braille Scripts, Slits to help the trainees punch their letters, a full-fledged library with versatile collection of Braille-ed books, electronic Braille Printer and other Multimedia devices just to mention a few. Besides this, NAB also showed us their excellent placement records with their trainees joining leading companies which included IT firms too.

After this short excursion through NAB, we witnessed yet another feat that proved to us that these trainees were multi-skilled despite being differently challenged. Quite a few of the students volunteered during the tea break to entertain us with their melodious songs. Prizes were given away to the trainees who came forward to sing and we must admit we noticed a couple of budding artists.

With fond memories of the day, we bid adieu cherishing the wonderful moments that we spent at NAB with the vivid thumb impressions of all the employees on a flip-chart. It was a feeling of joy and content to watch these students have fun amidst all the challenges that they were faced with.

"Opportunity, rather than charity" is what these individuals need.

Gallery :

Get in Touch with NAB :
NAB Rehabilitation Complex
CA Site No:4, NAB Road, Jeevan Bima Nagar,
Bangalore-560 075
India
Ph: +91-80-25281590 / +91-80-25281439
Mail: nabkarnataka@yahoo.co.in
Website: http://www.nabkarnataka.org/innerpage.html

"Honesty is the best Policy" (Proof & Contradiction)

I am not gonna take you into any proverbial training here! It was an auto-walah who raised this saying (fyi, he did it in English), and impressed us by his square actions.

[All conversation in red are by the auto-walah and are reproduced exactly.. He spoke in English, Mind you!]
I took an auto from Murugeshpalaya (a.k.a Chemfort vicinity), after having had a proper dinner @ Maduri Grand. I was with two of my friends (Antony, Varalu) and we began to chatter in Tamil. We had barely gone few mts that this guy grew interested in us - "Sir, Are you all from Tamil Nadu ? Which place are you from Sir ?".
"Yes, all belong to different places..". On hearing that one of us were from Chennai - "Sir, I would like to travel to Chennai and see the sea there!" (He grinned, glancing back at us, impressed by the literary effect he had successfully created). I was taken aback by his remarkably flawless syntax. Everybody speaks English, but this one was too polished & well laid out for an auto-walah. And so, we told him what he had to do to see the sea :) He seemed happy and continued (willing to converse more in English) - "Sir, how is my English ?". I was too overwhelmed and hit him with my appeciation - "Wah! kya english hai :)".
"Sir, I have been practising this language for the past one month, in just this small time I was able to learn this. I have been reading this newspaper regularly". And he showed us the Mid-Day Newspaper. "It is a very good feeling Sir. Everybody should learn English. Hindi is just our National language, but English is International language!". We nodded. It was a short ride and we soon got down. As we glanced at him to tell us the fare (for every Bangalorean who makes daily auto-trips, this is the most aweful moment with butterflies in his stomach while the auto-walah comes out with his G.P.F - greatest possible fare and presents his magical formula that helped him arrive at this stupendous figure!). He didn't budge, instead - "Sir, how much does the meter show ?". Then he took out his paper that would help him magnify the fare - "New rates sir, for 38 it comes to 40, look sir, correct ?". We would have given him any amount he demanded for the impression he had created, but he insisted - "Sir, it is the right of every passenger to see this and check". The G.P.F for him, pointed to Rs 60/-, which I happily paid (now this is what I called cent-percent Customer Satisfaction) and moved out wondering how the city would be had every auto-walah been like him.
As he rightly said - "Honesty is the best policy".
HENCE PROVED !

Now comes the contradiction, (I cite for this, an incident which occured on the same day, infact just couple of hours before we had dinner and got into the above said auto). We were returning from the brandfactory (marathahalli) in a BMTC bus and I held out the fare (which is also a G.P.F here in Bangalore, bus rates being mercilessly high) - 20 Rs. He gave me tkts which costed 18. I knew I had to get the change back, so waited as the conductor buzzed by to issue tkts to others at the other end of the bus. As my stop grew nearer, we asked him for the change for which made a jeering remark calling us software engineers and hinting at us not to make a big fuss about it. He finally pulled out the 2 Rs and tossed it to me, asking me for our tkts. I was under the impression that he wanted to cross-check and do some ksrtc fundae. But, he did something different. He got our tkts and handed them over to another fellow ! We were spellbound. This was the finest execution of day-robbery (regret : directly translated from its Tamil equivalent).
I have witnessed conductors get money & sneak away without issuing tkts. Others procrastinate issuing the change to passengers till its too late and the passengers let it go. I have often wondered about the number of commuters that BMTC serves and such petty incidents hit the corporation severly in terms of revenue. I must say the goverment takes heed of such acts and ensures people are issued tkts to the right place and at the right scale (leave alone the possibility of them not buying a tkt, its becoming the other way round - Conductors not issuing tkts!).
HENCE, CONTRADICTED !

Dev Camp - Bangalore

DevCamp 2008 was my first unconference & I was pretty much excited to be a part of it ! (missed the BarCamp narrowly!). Getting done with my college review I rushed to Bangalore (accompanied by Varalu) to be on time (the alarming number of registrations being my primary concern - 600 or so). We lined up at ThoughtWorks by 9:30 am on where the preliminary registration got over & we got in. There was a reasonable crowd actually - 200 participants or so.
We got started at 10:00 after an introduction of all those who had planned to deliver talks. My greatest delight was on seeing Martin Fowler there, who though dint plan any talk (as he said : "This camp is for the bangaloreans, not for a Phirangi !"). It was a reasonably large list of sessions and we managed to attend some real cool ones among them.

Sessions I attended :
LINQ: Working with data in a natural way - (by Bijoy Singhal)
Poshzones - A bazaar approach to the Semantic web - (by Sriram Narayan)
Aakraman - A game where your Ruby code competes with that of others - (by Chirag/Akshay)
Monads in Depth - by Ravi Mohan
A brand new approach to Indic Language Typing - by Nigel Fernandes
Mashup of Wordpress and Twitter - by ujji
Programming with Android - by Selvan
Let's Develop an Open J2ME Mobile Game - by Zarina
Session on TringMe and its applications
Product design and definition for developers - by Yogi

And, a special mention to ThoughtWorks for hosting the event & volunteering it well.

Pics on devcamp '08 can be found here : (sad that I couldnt carry my cam!)
Digest1
Digest2


Btw, we did some live blogging too. Read More..

Traffic Tamasha.. (Odd/Even Rule ??)

That Bengaluru is a genuine Garden City is a known & well-accepted fact, with adequate number of parks set everywhere and the wisest decision taken ever - retaining all those good old trees along the roads! But how long this city is going to inspire its inhabitants is a million-dollar question. With congestion developing all over the city and every possible space knit with flyovers, congested roads turning into a candidate for the highly popular one-way philosophy & over 200 new vehicles hitting roads everyday adding up to the already fragile network of roads (one-ways I would rather call them!), I see this cosmopolitan city inching towards a deadend !

Gone are the days when motorists stuck to the roads & traffic signs, new axioms have now emerged - follow the road when the signal shows green, follow the footpath when the signal shows red! The inventor of this new style of driving deserves sheer appreciation. Dangling up & down between the pavement & the road when the signal toggles, these prank loving auto-geeks make it miserable for a typical 'sadhu' driver to move ahead peacefully.

Traffic jams have become inevitable part of the daily life - I have seen the worst ones materialize and worsen in Airport Road and Outer-Ring Road (to mention just a few), wherein vehicles stay lined up for hours together without batting an eyelid. The capacity of roads in Bangalore is in total disproportion to the exorbitantly high number of vehicles plying, thus flushing out traffic from a junction or a signal is not a cakewalk. Statistics reveal that every km road has about 714 vehicles, hence proving that traffic density in bangalore is greatest. Read this wonderful post on Bangalore Jams.

The City Traffic Police has come up with a novel (thoroughly debatable though!) idea of introducing the alternate day system to reduce the congestion on roads (Source: Times of Indian, Jan 13). This rule will allow vehicles ending with odd and even registration numbers, respectively, to ply on alternate days. This means a vehicle owner takes out his/her vehicle on alternate days. By doing so, 30% reduction in the traffic is targeted. Government & Public Transport would be however exempted from this rule. Besides crunching the traffic down massively (a 30-50% decrease == massive), it would reduce pollution and promote use of public transport. But, again these are days of nanos and so if this rule gets a permanent nod, car buyers could go for two nano's (with odd & even registration respectively) thereby, not falling prey to the govt ;) Its now left to the govt to decide within a month's time whether the rule is to be approved or not. Meanwhile its a sit-n-debate time for the audience.

The govt could also take some time off and take some sane decisions regarding widening roads (esp because most of the roads are reported to be surrounded by ditches and wastelands) and limiting the number of vehicles being registered perday/perperson or whatsoever.


Other links I hit upon:
Driving India is a site dedicated to provide Driving Education to people.

Apple releases MacBook Air !

Apple unleashed yet another revolutionary gizmo of its world on Tuesday - "MacBook Air". Delivering the keynote address at the Macworld Expo (I would recommend you to watch this out!), CEO Steve Jobs introduced this phenomenal laptop to the world as "the world's thinnest laptop", probably only comparable to Sony's TZ Ultraportable but ruling it out on "thickness" grounds !

I particularly was impressed by the way he pulled out his MacBook Air out of an envelope & held it at the audience, advocating - "you can get a feel of how thin it is !". Sporting a silvery finish, the MacBook Air features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display that has a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. The backlighting saves power and provides "instant on" response from the moment you turn it on, according to Jobs. The MacBook Air also features a built-in iSight webcam and a full sized MacBook-style black keyboard. The keyboard is backlit, similar to MacBook Pros, and has an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness. The MacBook Air trackpad has something termed as "Multi-touch gestures", which are an extension of the conventional gestures built-in in some standard laptops and ofcourse the iFone !
For instance, one trackpad gesture could be 'moving your finger clockwise on the trackpad to rotate an image clockwise!!'

Air has relied on an 1.8-inch hard disk drive with 80GB of storage capacity standard, with a optional 64GB solid-state disk (SSD) drive, which Apple indisputably relies upon having shipped tens of millions of such miniscule harddisks for its iPod devices. 'But the real magic is in the electronics' - remarks Jobs. Its a complete Mac (all the electronic circuitry) on a board that's just as long as a pencil. It uses Intel Core 2 Duo processor @ 1.6GHz (and optional 1.8GHz).

Turning to the networking dimensions, the Air has its most advanced 802.11n-based wireless networking support and Bluetooth + EDR. Jobs claims that with wireless networking turned on, one can get about 5 hours of battery life.

Jobs is pricing the Air at $1799, its shipping set to commence in two weeks.

For more details and a visual experience of the Air take the Guided Tour !

Other stuff worth heeding to:
Xavier Lanier's 'how-the-laptop-looks-like-in-the-real-world' video
What Sony thinks of MacBook Air

Misty Monday Morning !

This morning was undoubtedly the best ones I have seen in Bangalore, with weather striking perfection. The 17 degrees Celsius Bangalore was clad in cent percent concentrated fog that hovered over every possible corner. As I stepped into the big busy Sony World Signal @ Koramangala, I was only astounded to realize that this junction that saw scores of cabs pass by every morning was literally invisible. Now, this is what I call Zero-Visibility! Company Cabs crawled through the whiteness, headlights on while people standing around waiting for their's marvelled at the meteorological spectacle.

Desperate to ensnare the bewitching weather, I shot a few glimpses of this delightful ambience enroute to my office, resonating between the window seats of my bus. I wondered how my driver managed to creep through, with absolutely nothing to see ahead. Such was the terrific fog that the huge Ecospace building (that housed Accenture) and the entirety of Intel Campus went completely untraceable from the Outer Ring Road. And if the reader wishes to get a hands on experience of this, I would suggest him to buzz by the 500 mt stretch of Sarjapura Road at Agra, wherein the entire space behind the Lemon Grass Restaurant remains disguised in fog, most of the days.

For those who missed out, here's the experience :

(P.S. Special thanks to my friends for their mobile cam's)

(NOTE:: Technical error caused this post to be dated SUNDAY Jan 13, though it has been posted today ie. MONDAY, Jan 14)

LakhTakia gets a rapturous welcome !

Keeping up his promise made 4 yrs ago to deliver a "people's car", Ratan Tata unveiled this Rs 1 Lakh car christened Nano, that's being nick-named "LakhTakia" because of its "One Lakh Price Tag".

Nano comes with a Rear mounted all aluminium 2-cylinder 623cc petrol engine, promising a mileage of 20 km/litre and surprisingly meets all emission/safety standards. Though it is 8% smaller than the revolutionary Maruti-800, it is claimed to be 21% more spacious from inside. Initially, the car will have 3 variants, a Standard Model costing 1 Lakh & 2 luxury(deluxe) ones that would be slightly costlier than its standard counterpart. More variants would be gradually introduced, including one with a Diesel engine.

Technologically speaking, Nano has staged a milestone for not just Indian automobile industry but even the Global auto sector by providing the cheapest conveyance for just $2500, whereas in US the cheapest car comes in a price range of $10,000 - $15,000.

Key Features of TATA Nano:
* Smaller than Maruti 800 in length, more spacious inside.




* Dealer price of Nano - Rs 1 lakh,VAT and transporation cost extra.

* Nano meets emission norms : Bharat III and Euro 4. In safety norms, Nano is equipped with crumple zones, intrusion resistant doors, seat belts, strong seat anchorages & has passed the full frontal crash test.

* Minimal instruments (speedometer, fuel guage & oil light), single windshield wiper.
* Front luggage compartment that holds a battery, windshield washer container and enough space for a SINGLE SUITCASE.
* No radio, air conditioning, power steering or power windows available in the Standard Model.

However, there's leading concern among the Environmentalists that on gaining victory, Nano might clog the Indian roads & add up to the already soaring pollution levels.

Whether Nano makes its mark in the auto-industry & wins the hearts of the Indian population or goes down as another sober design model remains to see !!

Why product testing is so important !

Trip to Chikmagalur

Chikmagalur is situated in south western part of Karnataka. Carved against a mountainous canvas this beautiful place is full of surprises - lofty peaks, sparkling streams, lush forests and bracing mountain air. This district is primarily famous for its commercial crop - Coffee !

I got a handsome opportunity to explore the hospitality offered by Chikmagalur on Dec 22-23, when we planned a weekend trip to Chikmagalur. Getting the stats done and essential food procured, we left the chill weathered Bangalore at 4 am (Sat). Being just 9 of us, a tempo-traveller sufficed. Racing along the empty roads of Bangalore at that odd time of the day, I could find the wind literally freezing me.Having not slept the previous night, most of us got into fits of slumber. But the ultimate word was - "To not let anyone sleep !". And it worked I must say - for everybody kept talking. We took a tea-break and moved on.

A significant activity that occupied all of our minds during the journey was the "Wolf_Game", hats off to Bino for introducing it to us. Each one of us got so involved into the strategy/mindwork of the game that I must say we scarcely noticed it was time for breakfast. We were at Hassan, about 60 kms from Chikmagalur.

We planned to hit Chikgamagalur by noon if all went well. The roads were wide and clean and our driver was doing the best navigation possible. In couple of hours, we got into the Ghat Section, witnessing hilly passages into the unknown horizon. There were yellow grass meadows around and roads meandering uphill amidst them. By 12, Chikgamagalur arrived and we had to head for another 20 kms to our resort - TexWoods. It was surrounded by forests on all sides and offered a spectacular view of the entire Chikmagalur country. This is what their website spoke & I was eager to verify the same. We passed by the Honnala check post and then the road got worse. I was reminded of my childhood strides in Arunachal alongst the hilly slopes of the mountains where the roads used to be just enough to hold a jeep with hill on one side & steep abyss on the other. It was an identical scenario here, our vehicle bumping like it never had done before against the broken tar and tyring ahead. I looked around, it was concentrated vegetation all around with streaks of sunlight lighting our pathways. Desperate to ensnare the view around, I dashed against the camera, but was only partly successful owing to the mighty jerks. There were coffee plantations to be seen around and few cottages, but no TexWoods !! We kept moving and it took a while for our Resort to appear all of a sudden in view. It was relief at the end, we were hungry jackals by now.

We checked into TexWoods and had a refreshing lunch indeed. It was time now to look at the prospects available - we had Trekking, Fishing, Wildlife Safari in mind. But nothing materialized in the end as we slept off at 3 & our souls were woken up only by 7 in the eve. "Let's make the best time of the night at least" - thought we. Following a campfire lit by TexWoods, we had dinner and then sat down beside the swimming pool. I must say this was the best night I had ever been in. We had a full moon, plenty of food/drink by our side, music around (thanks to Bino & his band again !!), Ashish for his professional and fact-filled talk (despite the fact that he had swallowed in gallons and claimed he wasn't high !!), grass on the other side wherein we laid down in peace, forests all around. Noteworthy was the philosophical discussion that ensued (after couple of us decided we were not going to fall asleep so soon) - agenda included/not_restricted to "Defn of GOD", "Universe", "Existential Theory", etc. And I must say our discussion brought out a cocktail of wierd cum logical reasoning, which I would rather prefer to suppress due to an offensive touch ;)

Popular defn of GOD from Bino went along - "When u toss a coin, u get a tail or a head. GOD is the force that eventually decide that !". After a combination of philosophy+physics in the talk which carried us away very far & forth, we decided to take a stroll for a couple of metres to enjoy the forest and moonlight. But there was Ashish - "Come on man ! I am not doing this. Its pretty unsafe at this time of the night..". So we put off the idea, Bino turning around remarking "It's no fun getting along with a guy who's scared..". So we decided to hang around the resort amongst the car park & savour the ambience.

We were just busying ourselves with the surrounding, while I caught glimpse of something dark & hairy moving towards us. "Bloody hell ! It was a dark dog-like creature, having a bushy tail with its eyes sparkling green in the dark. We were petrified, "wat if it was an Wolf ?". "Do you think so" - I asked Bino. "Maybe, bt m not very sure" - was the reply. We suspected it to be a fox, but then it was way too confident & undeterred in its walk. It moved besides the car that was parked and came along the other side, turned around to have a clear view of us. Bino put off his cigarette (lest it be attracted by the fire), me and Ashish stood still pinned to the wall. Not a word to utter, for a moment I had butterflies in my stomach ! This creature then turned back & moved on. We fled into the resort rightaway, but our curious souls never stayed still, we wanted to know what that damn creature was. We spotted it coming along the same path again, then wiling around the resort, swimming pool and looking around as if he was the king of the resort. We took a close look from inside, it wasn't a fox, neither a wolf (for it would have pounced upon us on sight), seemed to be a dog probably wild in nature. Cutting off our endeavour, we got to bed still wondering what it could be. The next day we saw him again, moving along the same place and I managed to grab a image of him (shaky though).

Next day, we geared up for the Jungle Safari at the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. A jeep took us about 10 kms deep into the jungle, which was pretty much awoken by the sunlight and a previous jeep that had passed by. So we couldn't spot anything significant but the ride into the forest was enthralling.

Returning to have the breakfast at the resort, we decided to go fishing and then trek down to a stream in the forest. The idea of a stream amidst the jungle was inviting indeed. We walked along, our guide taking us to the fishing pond where we were given the baits and fishing rods to dip in & let the fishes fool us. We fished, fished & fished, but not a single fish to be fished, oh.. what the fish !! Our guide smiled at us sarcastically- he had caught four of them and we were still not even off the mark ! But more than the outcome, it was a spectacular feeling to sit down, staring into the pond, dipping our unlucky equipment into the water and look at the commotion that followed - fishes frantically closing in onto the bait. After an hour or so, we took a leave. There was a stream couple of kms ahead, with a wooden log over it. We crossed over just for the sake of doing it and then got into the water, beginning the fundamental splashing game. After having gotten drenched & more importantly satisfied that everyone else was drenched, we got out of the stream & trekked back. We were damn hungry by now and I longed desperately for some quantity food. We trekked via a different route this time and then a jeep took us to our resort, tired and hunger-laden souls that we were !

Having a refreshing shower & invigorating food, we bid adieu to TexWoods and subsequently Chikmagalur, reaching Bangalore by midnight. Ample fun & memorable stay @ TexWoods accomplished :)

How to Tie the Tie !!

Most of us have had a tough time trying to Tie our Ties, (atleast me) especially during the Placement Interviews and other official occasions. Just came across this useful piece of info which demonstrates the diverse variations of it :
http://www.bensilver.com/style04/knots_bow.htm

Wonder Valley !

The place was aptly named "Wonder Valley", yet another place of fun & team exercise.
A group of 37 assembled at the Wonder Valley to hang out for a day & drench ourselves in a plethora of planning & adventure.

We were warmed up by the organizers there who made us stand in a circle & did those "energizers" which were the names given to such games. It was done to break apart the lethargy and reluctance among the people to freely participate in teamwork.

Dynamic Obstacle Course (DOC) was the next one, I must say this was the best Team Building Event I have ever come across. The whole course reminded me of Takeshi's Castle in POGO, which I had always wanted to try out. DOC though not so vigorous in degree was atleast similar in intention. Four teams were formed out of the 37 and each was asked to choose their own territories to play the game. Each team needs to go through 3 sectors and get to the other side. There are obstacles in each sector and the team needs to use the resources provided; poles and rope, to get from one side to the other.

So we began having a look at the resources we were given - two wooden poles, two ropes, and a drum (nay I call that a Baby). Yes, the drum was a portable one termed as the "Baby" in DOC game. The objective of the game was to carry the baby from one end to the other (of the entire territory ridden with various obstacles), without putting it down on the ground or handling it violently (by tossing him into air, etc..). In addition, all the team members had to also get over to the other end with their respective resources. The obstacles present were crossbars, swings, rubber tyres suspended from trees, free hanging ropes, stones and other artificially created ones. If a team member touched the ground while crossing over, he had come back & start over again. But the worst part said - "If you put down the baby, all of you need to come back to the starting point & begin again !!"

We were given 10 mins to devise our game plan. We needed to use the poles for walking over from one obstacle to another, exploring every possible way we could best beat the obstacles, keeping the baby safe with us. We could spot another team approaching from the other end. So it was going to be based on mutual cooperation. We both helped us in understanding the sectors each of us crossed and about how we overcame the obstacles.

It took an hour for completing the DOC. Having had lunch then, we were ready for the next activity - "rafting" which was to be exciting specially because it was we who were going to build out raft. The raw materials at our disposal were -
* Bamboos (12 ft, 6ft, 4ft)
* Rubber Cylinders (to be inflated)
* Ropes
The life-jackets, paddles were the common accessories.
We were given 10 mins to sketch the design of our raft and get it approved from our guides. Then we needed to procure the stuff & build the raft.
It was a novel experience out there learning how to set a raft and float on it.

Having built the raft, six of us could get into water with four guys paddling, two at front, two at the rear. Being built of merely bamboos and designed like a grid, we were thoroughly soaked in water. After frolicking in water, going out to three-fourths of the breadth of a lake (which our guides told us was about 60 ft deep), we had to return to our base.

We returned thoroughly drenched & the coffee that ensured was relishing indeed.
Overall a different experience for me :)

Catch the glimpse here :

PaintBall @ Yuyutsa..

Two weeks flew past after I joined my Internship @ Intel and my team was already craving for a "Quarterly", which was how our outings were branded as. And so our itinerary finally stood out promising an exciting finish of PaintBall.

The Agenda for the day long (Dec 7) event run as -
----
10:30-12:00 (Comprised of collective team building activities)
12:00 (Lunch)
Post Lunch (PaintBall Game)

Here we go !! 15 of us set out in the typical IT-Garuda Vaahan (SWARAJ MAZDA), the eternally adapted vehicle for transporting all software engineers and IT analysts across the city. The weather in the city was not very promising but then we hoped that we would invent fun @ the end. The talk in the bus mainly focussed on the heroic and highly inspiring starlwarts of Tamil/Telugu Cinema viz - Vijaykanth, Balakrishna, etc..

After reaching the Confident Casacades Club at 10:30, it was now time for us to settle down at a shelter & plan our team building games. Finding a place was difficult, too many groups had already camped with their own agenda.

Having settled down, we divided ourselves into 3 teams and started off with simple ones like Newspaper Building (in which each team was required to build something out of newspapers). Our teams were supposed to build "Bridge", "Charminar", "Cubicle @ Intel" respectively. After couple of minutes, we got some reasonable pieces of architecture, which each of the teams justified & marketed overwhelmingly. For instance, The Cubicle was designed so that it had a Laptop, ergonomic chair, cupboard, labels, shelf & so on. It was overall a commendable team work. We had couple of other games involving linking random sets of pictures (which turned out an exotic fun to my surprise) & a MinersGame in which we had a 3x8 grid of black&white tiles & each team had to crossover from one end to the other, without stepping on certain tiles which had mines lying underneath them. It involved considerable presence of mind & memory.

It was 12 when we ended & proceeded to the Lunch arranged by the Cascades team.
It was drizzling by then & there was a shallow swimming pool wherein hell lots of school kids were tumbling, tossing each other and wildly diving into the water. We specifically spotted a guy (kid ofcourse) sporting a brown monkey cap, sweater, sitting composed on a chair & staring at the kids as if remarking - "What crazy fun are you having out there !!!" (I suggest you check him out in the pics below). It was awesome to see the diverse reaction that he displayed on his little face.

Lunch was a complete one - Soup to Desert, I don't intend to delve into any specific details.

Post Lunch was the game that we had planned for - PAINTBALL. I had heard of it from quite a lot of sources & the mixed remarks were :

* It might hurt you at times
* It a tiresome activity
* Ultimate fun

We reached the PaintBall spot & I now knew that all the conceptions I had of the game was going to unfold. So here it was before my eyes, two large netted game arena designed much akin to a military field wherein you are supposed to get into in teams of two with guns and protective gear & shoot your opponents with bullets (which were balls filled with paint). Each arena is basically stacked with bunkers facilitating each gunman to hide & march further shooting down their opponents. The bullets used are filled with paint & leave a traceable mark when they strike a person. So the bottomline is - you are out of the game if you get a mark on your body (helmet, gun or elsewhere).

We played three variations of the game -

1.Dead Man Out
The objective was simple. You team has to shoot down all your opponents.
Ideal strategies need to be followed by a team as to the formation, combat & firing their opponents. Once you are hit by a bullet (the paintball pellet spills spreading color on you), you come out of the battle field & watch the game from outside cheering up your team.
2. Center Flag
Aim is to capture the flag at the center and take it to the opponent's base. The team that accomplishes this first, wins. But hold, its not as simple as it may seem. You need to plan as to who gives the person carrying the flag a safety cover & safeguards him, keeping the opponents occupied by engaging them in crossfire.
3. Double Flag
There are two flags each at the base bunkers (the bunker where you hide initially & start the game). Your have a dual role to play - to capture your enemy's flag bringing it to your base & to defend your own flag. You need to execute this combo of defence & attack efficiently.

The game as such exposed huge fun with situations wherein people ran out of bullets & kept revolving around a bunker, people getting shot from behind without noticing their enemy having surrounded them, shots fired from distance of a meter or so (mind you, it hurts at times, especially if fired from so close a vicinity, afterall the bullets travel at a maximum speed of 80 miles an hour !), getting blows on the helmet (bull's eye !!). There are situations in which an the entire team gets out but for a single person & he is surrounded with all of his enemies pointing guns at him. The game drives sheer amount of thrill and fun.

After having completed our three games of PaintBall and couple of our team members injured (because they were shot at their limbs which werent protected properly & they were struck from a very close distance), we made a move.

We then had some snacks @ the club & returned. The experience we had was amazing, I would suggest the reader to go & try it out. It gives you a hands on idea of how a real combat firing could possibly turn out, without the danger of getting killed ;)

Have a luk @ the pics :


Contact:
Raju - 98454 48955
Sharon - 98456 97673
off - 25559316
http://www.yuyutsa.com

0's and 1's are invaluable

Lost money could be earned, lost equipment could be purchased and so on/ so forth with any physical equipment, but data loss is irreparable and unrecoverable !
Being invisible & virtual in nature, it makes it the most vulnerable thing you can lose (at least for me!)

Want to know why I brag about all this so much ?? Well, this is something which happened to me recently that still floats amidst my senses. It was Nov 15, our semester exams ended @ college, couple of my friends had planned to get over to Bangalore for the famous House-Hunt before we joined our internships there. And so that night, I had my invaluable PC (hard disk rather, I prefer to be bound to the 'data') dismantled. I had plans to come back to hostel in a couple of days (after I confirmed my accommodation) and mail the PC straight to my house. So I left my belonging in my room, locked it up and moved to Bangalore. The house-hunt yielded fruitful results (all that s a different story altogether)

Two days hence I returned to hostel and unlocked my room to find something missing. I had placed one more thing on my cot !! Oh my god, UPS ???????? My 2k APC UPS was nowhere to be found. Scouring over the entire room I could find no trace of it. Was it a theft ?? I couldn't believe this totally. After couple of enquiries around, I accepted my fate and finally did let go. But there was more in store !

It was 23 Nov and I planned to pack my PC up and mail it to Bangalore. It was my habit to dismantle the CPU, remove the hard disk and take it with me (I'm pretty much data-conscious !!), so I removed the slate. "So here it is, very tightly screwed eh ?? Good", thought I and began to loosen the screws subconsciously without looking at what it actually was. "Dhunggg.." popped out the "Floppy-Drive..". Wat the hell !! So where was the HARD DISK ?? I frantically dived into the box and put my hand into all slots, but in vain. "Man, I can't believe this. Is this a planned assault on my PC ??" I was in no way ready to accept the fact, I knew what all my drives housed, 160 GB of heterogeneous data, which I could no way compromise with.

Not knowing what to do, I called up my friend and he gave me the shock of my life.
"RAM irukka paaru da !!". And so I peeped in ...........VOID AGAIN.................... The bloody "whomsoever concerned" had robbed my off my most vital components in a planned conspiracy, while I was away. Such incidents do occur in the hostels often (hard disks, mobiles being the major Area of Interest for the culprits), but that it had happened to me was simply indigestible.

And if you are wondering why I give such high a fuss about my hard disk, here are its contents:
D: - All softwares (A-Z) lined up totaling 20 GB, all of my project source code, documents.
E: - Audio/Video songs of diverse languages totally 40 GB (with the most wildest collection ever)
F: - Photographs taken since my first year in college (so that makes another 15 GB), assorted study materials, misc wallpapers (you could find a wallpaper on any topic you chose to) easily figuring 5 GB, my academic stuff & backups of the work/packages I had done over the last 5 yrs.
G: - Tutorials (placements, misc) spread over 18 GB
H: - Stuff on Higher Studies(GRE, bla bla bla...) which summed up to 10 GB.

Besides, there were two Linux Partitions that held significant data as well. Besides XP, I had Fedora 6 & Ubuntu running.. (This is a rough amount of the data I am able to summarize, there were several others ! My hostel-mates will acknowledge that..)

The next one day I turned very suspicious and began eying everybody who passed by my room as the suspect. I put myself into his shoes and began thinking of "5 good reasons why he shouldn't be the culprit !!!". I wasnt worried about the other components, that I had lost "MY PRECIOUS DATA" was thorning my every moment. There I then emerged as Sherlock Homes unraveled his mysteries @ the end. The only difference - I had no Watson to help me :( I had noticed the bolt of the door being unusually stiff and bent the day I came in, but I dint give it any thoughts. So it was actually forced through and the mastermind had managed to retain the lock in its normalcy. I spotted a stone lying at the far end of the corridor, which was probably made use of ! I was able to interlink events now, but it had no potential use now. Tracing a hard disk in a hostel of 2000 inmates was a herculean (rather impossible) task.

The last day @ hostel was extremely agonizing, I was reminded of the loss every moment, all I wanted to do was - "Get out of this damn place as soon as possible".
I reluctantly wrapped up the "mortal remains" of my PC and mailed them.
And drowned into lamentation, I left Coimbatore with a bitter climax !!

That night I wondered of the paramount importance and value, these random bits of o's and 1's hold. Data loss is indeed the severest of all !!

[P.S. Should the reader come across my hard disk, please do let me know immediately. Thou shall be richly rewarded !!]

Group Study @ PSG Tech Hostels..

Hostel life brings relentless fun and memories long cherished. Being in hostel for FIVE long years gives you a huge plethora of events to talk about. "Group Study" was a concept unknown to me until I joined the hostels. In the initial years, I found everyone pouring the lecturers words carefully into their books lest they should miss out any important points. That was the school-ish attitude in everyone.

But several years hence you find the following :
(Conversation among friends on the most hottest topic a day before the exam - "PROCUREMENT OF NOTES !!")

[Its 4:15 pm and the lab session is over]
Params : Machi, nalaiku test da ? Notes irukka ?
Raga : Pathukulaam da, somebody wud have ! Will go to hostel, have some sleep & start studying ok ?
Params : Dei, avalavo laam thevai illa da. Will start after dinner.
Raga : Seri, but machaan I have already bunked first test da. Need to write tomo test better.

[We go to hostel]
Deepan : Dei, unga kitta notes irukka da ?
Raga : Wat ?? U dont have a ?

[All of a sudden we realize nobody has bothered to even xerox the notes]
Deepan : Seri, seekkaram poi Pallavi Notes laam xerox pannidalaam da.
Params : Machi, enakku oru copy da. Kaasu nee potudu, aparam tharen :-)
Raga : Dei enakku also da. Get one biscuit packet also while coming da.
Arula : One appy for me!

[Varalu just entering the room]
Varalu : Enna da idhu. Oh xerox a ?? Overa padikkadinga da ! Seri seri, whatever u take, get me one copy, ok ?

[So couple of guys go out get the notes xeroxed and return to hostel. After dinner...]

Raga : Dei, start pannalaam da. There's lot to study.
Params : Machi, orey-oru Video song da. Then will start.
Varalu : Aaman da, appa thaan da body warm aagum. Podra podra, seekaram podra.

[And so I fish through the drives on my system which contain limitless collections of video songs of different languages. We begin the first one. And everyone starts to pour out his feelings and demands his favourite numbers]

Varalu : Dei, kaaka-kaaka ondra-renda song podra.
Arula : I want 'Aal-thotta bupathi' da.
Params : Dei, First alizee da.. Wait everyone !
Deepan : Vennengala, its getting late da. Stop it.
Varalu : Tutorial laam periya vishyama da ? Life-la varum pogum. Enjoy pannanum da !!

[Its 10 now. Time for TEA in the mess]
Params : Guys, come for tea !
Arula : Vaada polam.
Vasanth : Seekaram poitu vaanga da.

[So we go down to mess. Have tea & post-tea gossip. Come to room by 10:30. Sit around and stare at the notes. Everything seems Greek & Latin. Not a word to be understood]

Raga : Enna kodumai da idhu !
Varalu : Idhallam class-la eppa da nadhathanaanga ??
Varun : Last class la sonnganga da.
Params : Bloody Eli. Onnume puriyala !
[We study for some time, teasing each other]
Params : Podum-da-ba, lets take a break.
Vasanth : Snack bar polaam da. Vaanga da.
Deepan : Yea, let go.
Arula : Enaku oru chips packet & one kadalai vaangitu vaa da.
Vasanth : Panni, Mooditu vaa !
Arula : Dei, naan konjam neram rest edukaren da.

[We walk to snackbar discussing the lighter moments spent in hostel, about the heroic tales of our Tech-Watchmen, etc. On the way back, we stop at the stadium and sit down to discuss about some issue bothering the country]

Deepan : Come da. Lets begin studying. Lots left.
Arula : Dei, enaku thookam varudhu da.
Params : Me also feeling sleepy da. Shall we study tomorrow morning ?
Raga : Aaman da, ippa padicha no use !
Sreekanth : Dei, Mahesh Babu's new movie super a irukku da ! I am gonna watch couple of scenes in it & crash.

[We walk back to room, watch some video songs and collapse planning to wake up the next morning & study. But it doesnt work. We are woken by arula screaming at the top of his voice]

Arula : Dei goyyalungala ! Its 7 o clock da. Test at 8:30. Wake up !!!!
Params : Oh my god !
Raga : Innaiku aapu thaan..

[We try to wake up Varalu]

Varalu : Machi oru 10 mins da. Romba thookam varudhu !

[And so we frantically bury ourselves through the xerox sheets and try to atleast go through the entire crap atleast once. By 8, we wind up, surrendering the rest to almighty]

Varalu : Poda poda, enna padichalum anga poi bla bla bla thaan.
Arula : Dei, exam endha hall da ?
Ant : Y-202 da !
Sreekanth : Pistu da maama. Database da nee !!
Ant : Adhu engalukku theriyum da. Adangu !
Sreekanth : Its late. Come quick.
Params : Dei, pen, pencil edhuvume illa da !!
Raga : Aiyo, me too da. Evano nayeee suttaan da !!

[And so we leave the hostel at 8:25 sharp in hurry to the exam hall]