Well, its been over 2 years since I last blogged.... Not that I had been busy - or not that nothing interesting happened... Its just that I have become more lazy and bit more busy.. but have finally decided to catch up...
Hopefully, the next blog will not be in 2010 (and Sam will write a comment that I am not blogging :) !!
Had been wanting to restart since Kannan restarted ... So, starting off with Google trends... And a bit on Software testing, which has taken centerstage in my professional life....
Some interesting Trendz for all the persons interested in S/W Testing:
QTP Vs WinRunner:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=QTP%2CWinRunner&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
The trend clearly shows how WinRunner's forced retirement is helping QTP....
TPI Vs TMap:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=TPI%2C+TMap%2C+CMMI&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all&sort=1
This trend clearly shows how Sogeti markets TPI and has forgotten TMAP
ISTQB Vs ISEB:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=ISEB%2C+ISTQB%2C+CSTM&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all&sort=1
How ISEB is losing its sheen since being taken over by ISTQB
SOA Testing Vs Agile Testing:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=SOA+Testing%2C+Agile+Testing&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
How Agile testing is becoming one of the buzz words....
And finally - for all those who are not interested in the software testing terms,
Why we shouldnt jump to conclusions on Industry trends based on Google Trends :)
http://www.google.com/trends?q=Vista%2C+Windows+XP&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
If we had read the above trend in the same way as others, we would have believed that Windows Vista is better than XP ;)
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Speaking after a long time
It is a long time since I wrote in my blog. So nearly after four months I have decided to write or rather speak. Since I had to to write about so much of events I've wanted to make life a bit simple. So, I decided to download a speech to text software. After a bit of search, I found this software. It is pretty good. I have spoken about hundred words and the software has been the right about 90% off the times. [even though it had difficulty in differentiating 90 and nineteen. Good this this time it recognized 90 and nineteen ]
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Weekend Adventure 2 - Ice Skating
With the first adventure behind me, the expert 10 bin bowler Anand, wanted to try out something new - this time it was the Ice Skating.. Even when people discouraged us saying that it was a risky game, we (Ravi, Rajesh, Gautam and me) decided to have a go at it..
In Bristol, we had 3 ice skating rinks... We selected the Ice Rink near the city center and reached there at about 3pm. It was great to see kids whizzing by...
We wore the thick shoes with the iron rod in the middle of it and tried to walk !!
We found it very difficult to walk :-( !!!
The way we walked reminded me of tamil movies where heros will teach some village girl to walk with high heels... we sort of reached the ice rink from the shoe counter in 10 minutes (20m or so !! ).. The kids were walking fast towards the ice rink :-( !!! when we entered, we did not konw what to do.... :-( We caught hold of the rails around the ice rink and tried to walk.... :-( !! After the first few minutes, we had progressed about 5 m :-) and we realized Ice Skating is not a great sport.. Ice Walking should be much more interesting ;-) So, we decided to do ice walking !! (if you search for ice walking in net and if you are not able to find it, mark my words - its the game for future !!! )... after 20 excuriating mins, we had crawled 50m :-( ... and had reached the next entry point.. Gautam and Rajesh decided to call it quits.... but the never say die ravi and anand continued.... after a coupld of mins, we realized our basic mistake. We are supposed to tie the lace till the top of our shoes.. We were wearin it only till our feet.. so, we were not able to balance correctly.. After that, we found the going a bit easy..
My first complete round took 1hour... Ravi had found his foot and was moving fast !! He encouraged me saying that even if we fall, it is not hurting... He encouraged me to let go off the rail and try to walk.. I tried that.. It was sort of OK.. its true that i could not balance myself and fell forward a couple of times but i was able to walk.. there was a gleam in my face.. i was grinning - i was walking - without holding any rails :-)) and believe me, the second round took us only 20mins.... and the third round of walking - even lesser... it was fun..... we took a couple of snaps and then called it a day.. one more new sport learnt :-)
In Bristol, we had 3 ice skating rinks... We selected the Ice Rink near the city center and reached there at about 3pm. It was great to see kids whizzing by...
We wore the thick shoes with the iron rod in the middle of it and tried to walk !!
We found it very difficult to walk :-( !!!
The way we walked reminded me of tamil movies where heros will teach some village girl to walk with high heels... we sort of reached the ice rink from the shoe counter in 10 minutes (20m or so !! ).. The kids were walking fast towards the ice rink :-( !!! when we entered, we did not konw what to do.... :-( We caught hold of the rails around the ice rink and tried to walk.... :-( !! After the first few minutes, we had progressed about 5 m :-) and we realized Ice Skating is not a great sport.. Ice Walking should be much more interesting ;-) So, we decided to do ice walking !! (if you search for ice walking in net and if you are not able to find it, mark my words - its the game for future !!! )... after 20 excuriating mins, we had crawled 50m :-( ... and had reached the next entry point.. Gautam and Rajesh decided to call it quits.... but the never say die ravi and anand continued.... after a coupld of mins, we realized our basic mistake. We are supposed to tie the lace till the top of our shoes.. We were wearin it only till our feet.. so, we were not able to balance correctly.. After that, we found the going a bit easy..
My first complete round took 1hour... Ravi had found his foot and was moving fast !! He encouraged me saying that even if we fall, it is not hurting... He encouraged me to let go off the rail and try to walk.. I tried that.. It was sort of OK.. its true that i could not balance myself and fell forward a couple of times but i was able to walk.. there was a gleam in my face.. i was grinning - i was walking - without holding any rails :-)) and believe me, the second round took us only 20mins.... and the third round of walking - even lesser... it was fun..... we took a couple of snaps and then called it a day.. one more new sport learnt :-)
Weekend Adventures 1 - Ten Pin Bowling
Surprising though it may sound - I had never tried bowling when I was at Chennai....
2 weeks back, when couple of my projectmates suggested that we should go for ten pin bowling at the mall, i immediately said OK to it...
That was my first experience with 10 pin bowling. I learnt all about Strikes and Spares.... Needless to say, my first three tries ended up hitting no pins :-( !!!
In the first game, I ended up with a poor score of 43. Thats only to be understandable - as I had missed most of my chances :-(
The second game, I did a lot better - scoring 93 :-) and finishing second in a group of 10 players.... :-) I managed a STRIKE and also a SPARE :-))
It was definite fun. I will definitely try it again....
(If you would like to know what a Strike is and what a spare is, click here
2 weeks back, when couple of my projectmates suggested that we should go for ten pin bowling at the mall, i immediately said OK to it...
That was my first experience with 10 pin bowling. I learnt all about Strikes and Spares.... Needless to say, my first three tries ended up hitting no pins :-( !!!
In the first game, I ended up with a poor score of 43. Thats only to be understandable - as I had missed most of my chances :-(
The second game, I did a lot better - scoring 93 :-) and finishing second in a group of 10 players.... :-) I managed a STRIKE and also a SPARE :-))
It was definite fun. I will definitely try it again....
(If you would like to know what a Strike is and what a spare is, click here
Friday, November 18, 2005
Telephones - On a seriuos Note !!!
On a seriuos note - are phones bad ???
Well, snail mails was means of communication - then came phones - then came e-mails...
Earlier, I remember very well, my mom used to write to my grand parents every week... she would spends about an hour or so writing to them..... Then, phones came... I speak with my mom for abt (max of) half an hour... probably, if i need to mail her, it will be a oneliner.... so, with the advent of technology and shrinking of distance, is the time that we spend for our loved ones also shrinking ?????
Which one will you prefer - a snail mail or phone or e-mail ?? I will say i would prefer to make a phone call - because I get to hear their voice and its quick way of knowing the other person's reply.... But, if I have to receive a comunication, I would like it to be snail mail - because i can read them whenever I want it - but a telephone conversation cannot be repeated again...
I still remember.... When my school friend left to mumbai(he had been my friend for 8 years - right from the stage of a boy to a young man !!!) at the end of 12th std, we used to write to each other - pages... every letter used to be atleast 4 page on a full-scape paper - double sided... I dont remember what we used to write.. But i can still read them because I have them stored... So, to me, its like wordsworth's words (in daffodils)...
"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. "
Sure, a telephone conversation cannot do this.. But, when you are staying away from your family and friends, and if you need to let your near and dear ones know that you are thinking of them at that moment, then, what better way than a phone !!!
So, what happened to the e-mail... I like chatting in e-mail :-)
but long mails, i dont like typing much in computer
(Big blogs are exceptions ;-) !! I take ages to type them out !! )
Its basically like this - either you can spend time working and in the hard-earned money, buy a costly gift or spend all your time creating the gift article...
Forwards, though they are just saying "i remember you!!", it still conveys the meaning that you are still in somebody's address books....
Chat is also good in a way.. i can share the chat conversation between me and my friend with other common friends to update them on what is happening in our lives...
My conclusion - telephone is easy way of communicating... e-mail, quick way of communication.. Snail mail - best way for writing long mails where you want to compose your thoughts......
My grandfather had stored my first letter to him.. The contents - me scribbling tamil alphabets in half a page of inland letter.... On the other side of the photo album in which this half piece of inland letter is present, is a letter written by my cousin when he was 6 ( and i was 3 !!)...
It goes on like this...
"thatha,
i got first rank in the exams..
Did anand search for me after waking up? Did he cry?"
(My cousin had started back to his hometown after vacations in the early hours when I was sleeping and i wasnt told the previous night about it because i might cry !!! )
Definitely "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever"
There is one more piece of interesting possession.....
My mother's first e-mail to me..
It was a oneliner :-))
But i can imagine her searching the keys in the keyboard to send out the test mail - to see whether she got the correct email id or not !!!!
And then clicking the "Send" button and hoping that the message would reach her son - who is thousands of miles away !!!
I am sure she would have spent about half an hour to send it...
There are only 2 types of people - those who hate cellphones and those who dont..
well I belong to the second type - I dont hate them because I use it to call my parents and friends and I dont exactly love it because it also serves as an incoming machine for my office calls :-( !!!
Tell the next post, signing off.....
Well, snail mails was means of communication - then came phones - then came e-mails...
Earlier, I remember very well, my mom used to write to my grand parents every week... she would spends about an hour or so writing to them..... Then, phones came... I speak with my mom for abt (max of) half an hour... probably, if i need to mail her, it will be a oneliner.... so, with the advent of technology and shrinking of distance, is the time that we spend for our loved ones also shrinking ?????
Which one will you prefer - a snail mail or phone or e-mail ?? I will say i would prefer to make a phone call - because I get to hear their voice and its quick way of knowing the other person's reply.... But, if I have to receive a comunication, I would like it to be snail mail - because i can read them whenever I want it - but a telephone conversation cannot be repeated again...
I still remember.... When my school friend left to mumbai(he had been my friend for 8 years - right from the stage of a boy to a young man !!!) at the end of 12th std, we used to write to each other - pages... every letter used to be atleast 4 page on a full-scape paper - double sided... I dont remember what we used to write.. But i can still read them because I have them stored... So, to me, its like wordsworth's words (in daffodils)...
"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. "
Sure, a telephone conversation cannot do this.. But, when you are staying away from your family and friends, and if you need to let your near and dear ones know that you are thinking of them at that moment, then, what better way than a phone !!!
So, what happened to the e-mail... I like chatting in e-mail :-)
but long mails, i dont like typing much in computer
(Big blogs are exceptions ;-) !! I take ages to type them out !! )
Its basically like this - either you can spend time working and in the hard-earned money, buy a costly gift or spend all your time creating the gift article...
Forwards, though they are just saying "i remember you!!", it still conveys the meaning that you are still in somebody's address books....
Chat is also good in a way.. i can share the chat conversation between me and my friend with other common friends to update them on what is happening in our lives...
My conclusion - telephone is easy way of communicating... e-mail, quick way of communication.. Snail mail - best way for writing long mails where you want to compose your thoughts......
My grandfather had stored my first letter to him.. The contents - me scribbling tamil alphabets in half a page of inland letter.... On the other side of the photo album in which this half piece of inland letter is present, is a letter written by my cousin when he was 6 ( and i was 3 !!)...
It goes on like this...
"thatha,
i got first rank in the exams..
Did anand search for me after waking up? Did he cry?"
(My cousin had started back to his hometown after vacations in the early hours when I was sleeping and i wasnt told the previous night about it because i might cry !!! )
Definitely "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever"
There is one more piece of interesting possession.....
My mother's first e-mail to me..
It was a oneliner :-))
But i can imagine her searching the keys in the keyboard to send out the test mail - to see whether she got the correct email id or not !!!!
And then clicking the "Send" button and hoping that the message would reach her son - who is thousands of miles away !!!
I am sure she would have spent about half an hour to send it...
There are only 2 types of people - those who hate cellphones and those who dont..
well I belong to the second type - I dont hate them because I use it to call my parents and friends and I dont exactly love it because it also serves as an incoming machine for my office calls :-( !!!
Tell the next post, signing off.....
Amji-kku one more badhil.............
The following incident is fully fictional and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental...
Mr A (from UK) called Mr P (in US) and both of them called Mr X (in US).
Conference call - as usual....
This was a normal practise for over 6 months..
But this week, it was getting beyond the limits..
Mr X was ottified by Mr A and Mr P for 1.5 hours...
Mr X was literally begging A & P not to pull his legs....
But A & P didnt stop.. so, what does Mr X do ?
He hangs up the phone....
Goes to nearest computer ( his laptop is not working ) and posts the following message in his blog !!!
I hate phones
If you have come to the conclusion that Mr A is Anand, Mr P is Padhu and Mr X is amjith, then, I can only say that you have great creativity ( not detective powers !!)
Mr A (from UK) called Mr P (in US) and both of them called Mr X (in US).
Conference call - as usual....
This was a normal practise for over 6 months..
But this week, it was getting beyond the limits..
Mr X was ottified by Mr A and Mr P for 1.5 hours...
Mr X was literally begging A & P not to pull his legs....
But A & P didnt stop.. so, what does Mr X do ?
He hangs up the phone....
Goes to nearest computer ( his laptop is not working ) and posts the following message in his blog !!!
I hate phones
If you have come to the conclusion that Mr A is Anand, Mr P is Padhu and Mr X is amjith, then, I can only say that you have great creativity ( not detective powers !!)
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Amji-kku sila badhilgal !!
Amji's comments to my previous post on 'Western India'
How about throwing in your thoughts on what you feel about the changes in the younger generation?
I for one would like to think that we should do what is comfortable for us. Not heed to the social pressure. I really like to wear shorts for my office. Its just a lot more comfortable and I don't imply any kind of dishonor for the work environment. But can you even imagine doing that in India. Of all the places the most appropriate place to wear shorts is Chennai, can you deny that?
Anyway, love to hear what you have to say about this.
The changes in the younger generation is always a good one !!
After all, if we are not making any changes, then we are not younger generation at all !!
( Amji, Don’t mistake me – My intent is only to defend younger generation guys like me and not hurt older generation ppl like you ;-)
I will perfectly agree to what you say – Shorts is the more suited for chennai...
There are companies which agree to shorts ( pls note: agree not encourage !! )
It really depends on what you are doing – if you are going to sit in chennai and if you are going to answer a caller from San Fransisco or if you are going to sit in chennai and code a page which will be viewed in web – then its fine... What is important here is – the message that is conveyed to the consumer..
Can you imagine your father or my father going to bank office in casuals – one simple reason that will stop them is – the customer will begin to doubt their seriousness in the professions... So, the issue on going by our own thoughts / without social pressure is – ‘How much it is going to affect the people around us !!’. I would like to see my marketing executive come in a different costume which makes people turn around and look at him – but I would not expect to see my banker like that.... ( Well thats again a personal opinion !! If you would want your financial advisor to be daring and taking a hell of a risk, then you might hire him)
Coming to the discussion on – Yielding to social pressure
If you do not heed to social pressure and if you are going to live on our own thoughts / wishes, then man ceases to be a social animal..... We need to see what the society is doing – but not make decisions based on them... I will not say that we should follow the society in everything that is currently in place.. If everybody started doing that – then there will be no changes at all in the society and we will be in the same way even after 200 years.... No – thats not the idea. The idea is that society will change ( for better !! ) – because we are changing and we are the society......... So, if the society is suggesting something - check out whether it will suit you - after all rules were only made to make life easier and organized... If a rule is going to cause inconvenience to you and breaking it is not going to affect anyone - Change it !!
In Devar Magan Sivaji style ‘Mathungappa !! Adhan ambuttu padichittu vandhu irukkeengalae !!’
After reading through what I have written – I feel that I am being a perfect consultant ;-)
Beat around the bush – but dont say no to anything ;-)) and dont say yes to anything ....
( Software industry has changed me :-( )
Disclaimer: If you have come to some conclusion on the original topic after reading what I have written, then its purely an accident
The statemenets in bold are copyright of anand and should not be used in next rajini or vijayakanth movie without prior written permission from me !!
How about throwing in your thoughts on what you feel about the changes in the younger generation?
I for one would like to think that we should do what is comfortable for us. Not heed to the social pressure. I really like to wear shorts for my office. Its just a lot more comfortable and I don't imply any kind of dishonor for the work environment. But can you even imagine doing that in India. Of all the places the most appropriate place to wear shorts is Chennai, can you deny that?
Anyway, love to hear what you have to say about this.
The changes in the younger generation is always a good one !!
After all, if we are not making any changes, then we are not younger generation at all !!
( Amji, Don’t mistake me – My intent is only to defend younger generation guys like me and not hurt older generation ppl like you ;-)
I will perfectly agree to what you say – Shorts is the more suited for chennai...
There are companies which agree to shorts ( pls note: agree not encourage !! )
It really depends on what you are doing – if you are going to sit in chennai and if you are going to answer a caller from San Fransisco or if you are going to sit in chennai and code a page which will be viewed in web – then its fine... What is important here is – the message that is conveyed to the consumer..
Can you imagine your father or my father going to bank office in casuals – one simple reason that will stop them is – the customer will begin to doubt their seriousness in the professions... So, the issue on going by our own thoughts / without social pressure is – ‘How much it is going to affect the people around us !!’. I would like to see my marketing executive come in a different costume which makes people turn around and look at him – but I would not expect to see my banker like that.... ( Well thats again a personal opinion !! If you would want your financial advisor to be daring and taking a hell of a risk, then you might hire him)
Coming to the discussion on – Yielding to social pressure
If you do not heed to social pressure and if you are going to live on our own thoughts / wishes, then man ceases to be a social animal..... We need to see what the society is doing – but not make decisions based on them... I will not say that we should follow the society in everything that is currently in place.. If everybody started doing that – then there will be no changes at all in the society and we will be in the same way even after 200 years.... No – thats not the idea. The idea is that society will change ( for better !! ) – because we are changing and we are the society......... So, if the society is suggesting something - check out whether it will suit you - after all rules were only made to make life easier and organized... If a rule is going to cause inconvenience to you and breaking it is not going to affect anyone - Change it !!
In Devar Magan Sivaji style ‘Mathungappa !! Adhan ambuttu padichittu vandhu irukkeengalae !!’
After reading through what I have written – I feel that I am being a perfect consultant ;-)
Beat around the bush – but dont say no to anything ;-)) and dont say yes to anything ....
( Software industry has changed me :-( )
Disclaimer: If you have come to some conclusion on the original topic after reading what I have written, then its purely an accident
The statemenets in bold are copyright of anand and should not be used in next rajini or vijayakanth movie without prior written permission from me !!
Friday, October 21, 2005
Western India and Eastern UK
How many times we would have read articles about the YOUNGER generation following the WESTERN culture.... I just decided to pick a line from a good article
The Effect Western Culture Has on India
"You might hear people say, “What is happening with the ‘younger generation,’ I mean girls are wearing sleeveless tops and skirts shorter than their knees! It’s appalling! In my young days, we always used to wear skirts down to our ankles. It’s the parents fault, they have no control…” "
Well, this article is nothing to do with the effect of Western Culture on the younger generation of india... But the effect of people from Sub-continent in UK...
1. Food
How many times in do you see KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) do you see questions about the starter dish in UK restaurant... A couple of months back, the question in 'Who wants to become a millionaire' was 'What is the starter in Indian Restaurant' a.Pappad B.bajji ( I dont remember the choices for C & D !! ).. The correct answer is 'Pappad'.... One can find lots and lots of Indian restaurants in UK... ( But after having food in some of the so called Authentic Indian restaurants, I have decided not to visit them in future !! ).... One of my manager ( from UK ) told me proudly one day that he made pilau rice and it came out very well !!! The famous indian recepies include - Naan, Rice, Pappad, Bajji ( you will get frozen bajjis in supermarkets !! )
2. Yoga
When you see any ad for a gym or mind relaxation in newspapers, you will find the word YOGA... Lots and lots of people are turning towards yoga for relaxation !!!
3. :-)) The event that triggered this blog.... Great English movies will be telecasted in Doordarshan often in the late nights ( No ! No naughty smiles ;-) ...
On Friday evening, in Channel 4 ( one of the 5 free channels in UK ) Sarfarosh was telecasted.. Though the movie started only at 1am, i decided to watch it for some time... Incidentally, Sarfarosh was only my second hindi movie in theater . Dont think I have watched a lot of hindi movies in theater.. I have watched only 3 - first being Kuch Kuch Hotha Hai and third being Dil Chatha Hai.. And Channel 4 is not going to stop with Sarfarosh - Coming soon Saathiya, Dil Chatha Hai :-))
I will keep on adding whenever I come across some indian thing !!
The Effect Western Culture Has on India
"You might hear people say, “What is happening with the ‘younger generation,’ I mean girls are wearing sleeveless tops and skirts shorter than their knees! It’s appalling! In my young days, we always used to wear skirts down to our ankles. It’s the parents fault, they have no control…” "
Well, this article is nothing to do with the effect of Western Culture on the younger generation of india... But the effect of people from Sub-continent in UK...
1. Food
How many times in do you see KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) do you see questions about the starter dish in UK restaurant... A couple of months back, the question in 'Who wants to become a millionaire' was 'What is the starter in Indian Restaurant' a.Pappad B.bajji ( I dont remember the choices for C & D !! ).. The correct answer is 'Pappad'.... One can find lots and lots of Indian restaurants in UK... ( But after having food in some of the so called Authentic Indian restaurants, I have decided not to visit them in future !! ).... One of my manager ( from UK ) told me proudly one day that he made pilau rice and it came out very well !!! The famous indian recepies include - Naan, Rice, Pappad, Bajji ( you will get frozen bajjis in supermarkets !! )
2. Yoga
When you see any ad for a gym or mind relaxation in newspapers, you will find the word YOGA... Lots and lots of people are turning towards yoga for relaxation !!!
3. :-)) The event that triggered this blog.... Great English movies will be telecasted in Doordarshan often in the late nights ( No ! No naughty smiles ;-) ...
On Friday evening, in Channel 4 ( one of the 5 free channels in UK ) Sarfarosh was telecasted.. Though the movie started only at 1am, i decided to watch it for some time... Incidentally, Sarfarosh was only my second hindi movie in theater . Dont think I have watched a lot of hindi movies in theater.. I have watched only 3 - first being Kuch Kuch Hotha Hai and third being Dil Chatha Hai.. And Channel 4 is not going to stop with Sarfarosh - Coming soon Saathiya, Dil Chatha Hai :-))
I will keep on adding whenever I come across some indian thing !!
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Tamil Historical Novels
I am definitely not a person to write about the works of great great novelists... I should say that this blog is nothing but a small tribute to the great authors - about how they were able to imagine events, fit them into historical events and leave a lasting impression on the readers... If advertisements are a few mins fascination, a good movie has a impact for few days but a good book - leaves its impression for a long long time...
The following are the list of tamil 'Historical' novels that I have read (in the chronological order of my reading !! )
1. Ponninyin Selvan
2. Vengaiyin Maindhan
3. Sivagamiyin Sabadham
4. Parthiban Kanavu
5. Kayalvizhi
After reading these novels, I consider myself luck in one way - I didnt get the order wrong much... because in the order of events, the correct sequence is as follows
1. Sivagamiyin Sabadham
2. Parthiban Kanavu
3. Ponninyin Selvan
4. Vengaiyin Maindhan
5. Kayalvizhi
In this blog, I will only talk about the general outline of the story - definitely not about any of the twists or even hint about them and if it has to be made into a movie, who is the best fit ( if one is available )
1. Sivagimiyin Sabadham - The story of a great bharathanatyam dancer from Pallava Period. Kalki impresses a lot with his ability to create twists - the way Mahendra Pallava plans for his kingdom is amazing... The treats his people, the way he dreams about his kingdom, the way he delegates work and trains the next generation - perfect example for Valluvar's kural...
The link in the start of this para is a great one and explains all I have to say.... PS lovers, please excuse !! I personally feel that this is worth 102/100 wheras PS deserves 101/100 !!!
For the movie section - I am sorry.. I cannot find ppl for this from the current industry... So, I have to go back a bit in time and hope that this movie had been made 15 years back...
Mahendra Pallava - Sivaji Ganesan
Narashima Pallava - Kamalahasan
Paranjothi - Rajinikanth ( i didn't insert him into this movie because i am his fan.. After finishing the novel, you will feel that he fits into this ! )
Sivakami - Ramya Krishnan / Revathi ( Pls remember, I am talking abt 15 yrs back !!)
Naganandhi - Suggns Welcome !
Ayanar - Nagesh
2. Parthiban Kanavu - Pls Pls dont read this novel unless you have read SS. The primary reason being, this novel is like a sequel to SS. So, if you read this first, you will not be able to appreciate the subtle events referring to SS. If you think that Parthiban will be the hero of this novel, think again. Parthiba maharaja dies in the first chapter - the whole novel is how son goes about fulfilling his father's dream of estabilishing a chola empire.. After typing the above, I searched in net and found a link for parthiban kanavu and the link agrees with my opinion. ( Pls dont click on the link for SS in this site.. it tells the story of SS in short !! )
For actors, I can find people for this from contemprary movie
Vikraman - Surya
Kundhavai - Jo ( main reason for selection being presence of surya ;-)
The rest can be continuation from previous movie ;-)
3. Ponniyin Selvan - There have been loads and loads discussed about the great novel and I am sure that even hardcore Archer's fans will agree that this novel is greater than 'Kane and Abel'. The time frame is 300 years after period of Narashimma Pallavan. I will not discuss this as a movie - ( - with all due respect to the direcotrs / actors/ actress) because I am sure no director can make it into a movie - and we cannot find that many number of great actors / actress to reflect the characters in this movie.
4. Vengaiyin Maindhan - I am surprised.. When I searched Internet for this novel, I found only 4 pages and 2 of them were not relevant to this book... ( I shld say, I am even hurt !)... Akilan won the Sahitya academy award for this novell in 1963. This novel is also a beautiful one. With due respect to akilan and his writing style, if someone gives you this novel and says that it was written by kalki as a sequel to Ponniyin Selvan ( just like SS & Parthiban kanavu), you will have no doubts that it is as good as any of kalki's other works... Akilan definitely deserves a better search result in the world of internet.. I just hope that I had spelt Vengaiyin Maindhan incorrectly ( resulting in this fewer results !! ).. This novel is the story of Chola Kingdom attains its greatest glory and the story of a young hero who helps the chola kingdom to attain its glory - Again, the individuals may be forgotten - but the glory of a kingdom will never be...... Definitely a must read after reading PS..
5. Kayalvizhi - Again !!! This time i was not surprised... Because of my bad experience during searching about vengaiyin maindhan, i was mentally prepared.. Only 10 matches found out of which not even 5 are relevant matches. This book is definitely inspiring... how an individual changes the lives of thousands of people... Its about how a country(pandiya kingdom) crushed by the mighty cholas stand up again and how individuals dream and work towards bringing their dreams to life.. This novel also involves a dancer - unlike SS, here, the heroine is not a bharathanatyam dancer, but a koothu dancer... she is one among the people.. Its a beautiful story, describing about how a prince dreams of a free Pandiya kingdom.. This book has so much reference to valluvar... Thirukkural is the guiding force for the prince... This has been already made into a film - Madhuraiyai meeta sundarapandiyan by MGR and Latha.. My personal opinion is that the movie does not do justice to the novel - because in hero worship of MGR, the true spirit of the novel had been lost in the movie....
The following are the list of tamil 'Historical' novels that I have read (in the chronological order of my reading !! )
1. Ponninyin Selvan
2. Vengaiyin Maindhan
3. Sivagamiyin Sabadham
4. Parthiban Kanavu
5. Kayalvizhi
After reading these novels, I consider myself luck in one way - I didnt get the order wrong much... because in the order of events, the correct sequence is as follows
1. Sivagamiyin Sabadham
2. Parthiban Kanavu
3. Ponninyin Selvan
4. Vengaiyin Maindhan
5. Kayalvizhi
In this blog, I will only talk about the general outline of the story - definitely not about any of the twists or even hint about them and if it has to be made into a movie, who is the best fit ( if one is available )
1. Sivagimiyin Sabadham - The story of a great bharathanatyam dancer from Pallava Period. Kalki impresses a lot with his ability to create twists - the way Mahendra Pallava plans for his kingdom is amazing... The treats his people, the way he dreams about his kingdom, the way he delegates work and trains the next generation - perfect example for Valluvar's kural...
The link in the start of this para is a great one and explains all I have to say.... PS lovers, please excuse !! I personally feel that this is worth 102/100 wheras PS deserves 101/100 !!!
For the movie section - I am sorry.. I cannot find ppl for this from the current industry... So, I have to go back a bit in time and hope that this movie had been made 15 years back...
Mahendra Pallava - Sivaji Ganesan
Narashima Pallava - Kamalahasan
Paranjothi - Rajinikanth ( i didn't insert him into this movie because i am his fan.. After finishing the novel, you will feel that he fits into this ! )
Sivakami - Ramya Krishnan / Revathi ( Pls remember, I am talking abt 15 yrs back !!)
Naganandhi - Suggns Welcome !
Ayanar - Nagesh
2. Parthiban Kanavu - Pls Pls dont read this novel unless you have read SS. The primary reason being, this novel is like a sequel to SS. So, if you read this first, you will not be able to appreciate the subtle events referring to SS. If you think that Parthiban will be the hero of this novel, think again. Parthiba maharaja dies in the first chapter - the whole novel is how son goes about fulfilling his father's dream of estabilishing a chola empire.. After typing the above, I searched in net and found a link for parthiban kanavu and the link agrees with my opinion. ( Pls dont click on the link for SS in this site.. it tells the story of SS in short !! )
For actors, I can find people for this from contemprary movie
Vikraman - Surya
Kundhavai - Jo ( main reason for selection being presence of surya ;-)
The rest can be continuation from previous movie ;-)
3. Ponniyin Selvan - There have been loads and loads discussed about the great novel and I am sure that even hardcore Archer's fans will agree that this novel is greater than 'Kane and Abel'. The time frame is 300 years after period of Narashimma Pallavan. I will not discuss this as a movie - ( - with all due respect to the direcotrs / actors/ actress) because I am sure no director can make it into a movie - and we cannot find that many number of great actors / actress to reflect the characters in this movie.
4. Vengaiyin Maindhan - I am surprised.. When I searched Internet for this novel, I found only 4 pages and 2 of them were not relevant to this book... ( I shld say, I am even hurt !)... Akilan won the Sahitya academy award for this novell in 1963. This novel is also a beautiful one. With due respect to akilan and his writing style, if someone gives you this novel and says that it was written by kalki as a sequel to Ponniyin Selvan ( just like SS & Parthiban kanavu), you will have no doubts that it is as good as any of kalki's other works... Akilan definitely deserves a better search result in the world of internet.. I just hope that I had spelt Vengaiyin Maindhan incorrectly ( resulting in this fewer results !! ).. This novel is the story of Chola Kingdom attains its greatest glory and the story of a young hero who helps the chola kingdom to attain its glory - Again, the individuals may be forgotten - but the glory of a kingdom will never be...... Definitely a must read after reading PS..
5. Kayalvizhi - Again !!! This time i was not surprised... Because of my bad experience during searching about vengaiyin maindhan, i was mentally prepared.. Only 10 matches found out of which not even 5 are relevant matches. This book is definitely inspiring... how an individual changes the lives of thousands of people... Its about how a country(pandiya kingdom) crushed by the mighty cholas stand up again and how individuals dream and work towards bringing their dreams to life.. This novel also involves a dancer - unlike SS, here, the heroine is not a bharathanatyam dancer, but a koothu dancer... she is one among the people.. Its a beautiful story, describing about how a prince dreams of a free Pandiya kingdom.. This book has so much reference to valluvar... Thirukkural is the guiding force for the prince... This has been already made into a film - Madhuraiyai meeta sundarapandiyan by MGR and Latha.. My personal opinion is that the movie does not do justice to the novel - because in hero worship of MGR, the true spirit of the novel had been lost in the movie....
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Good Bye - Tunbridge Wells
Well, the time has come for me to say good bye to the 'First Place' in UK for me..
Tunbridge Wells - a beautiful, quiet and peaceful town.....
But, to me, I will remember it more for the long hours spent in office ( my first such experience !! )....
40mins from London Bridge, great life with friends around...
Nevill Garden - Cricket Lovers, check the link... !!!
The Dudley road, where more than 10 properties were occupied by my collegues.... Guess I am already feeling nostalgic :-(.....
The time has come for Good Bye to Tunbridge wells and friends...
The first of those good bye was to Seshikanth....
Seshi had decided to go back to India and was bent on reaching India before vinayakar chadhurthi.. When, we(sethu, anand and Prabhu) went for Send off, the discussion was as follows...
For subbu's send-off 4 (anand, prabu, sethu and seshi ) had come.
Now, for Seshi's send-off, anand, prabhu and sethu have come..
Who is gooing to go to india next ???
Meeting Nagma in the airport does not require any mention here !
Then, in original Timeline, 'Bench@Onsite' should be read....
More than Good Bye to Tunbridge wells, this is a good bye to the happy Bachelor Families @ Dudley road and York Road...
Sethu, Seshi and Jerome in India
Anand and Gautam in Bristol
Prabu-s ( Mani and Prabu anand ) in Basingstoke..
Good Bye - from Tunbridge Wells :-(
Tunbridge Wells - a beautiful, quiet and peaceful town.....
But, to me, I will remember it more for the long hours spent in office ( my first such experience !! )....
40mins from London Bridge, great life with friends around...
Nevill Garden - Cricket Lovers, check the link... !!!
The Dudley road, where more than 10 properties were occupied by my collegues.... Guess I am already feeling nostalgic :-(.....
The time has come for Good Bye to Tunbridge wells and friends...
The first of those good bye was to Seshikanth....
Seshi had decided to go back to India and was bent on reaching India before vinayakar chadhurthi.. When, we(sethu, anand and Prabhu) went for Send off, the discussion was as follows...
For subbu's send-off 4 (anand, prabu, sethu and seshi ) had come.
Now, for Seshi's send-off, anand, prabhu and sethu have come..
Who is gooing to go to india next ???
Meeting Nagma in the airport does not require any mention here !
Then, in original Timeline, 'Bench@Onsite' should be read....
More than Good Bye to Tunbridge wells, this is a good bye to the happy Bachelor Families @ Dudley road and York Road...
Sethu, Seshi and Jerome in India
Anand and Gautam in Bristol
Prabu-s ( Mani and Prabu anand ) in Basingstoke..
Good Bye - from Tunbridge Wells :-(
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Bench @ Onsite
All good things should come to an end - so should hard times...
After 14x7 in design phase, it came to 12x7 in execution phase and 10x6 during ending stages -and finally, the project came to an end - abruptly..
For some reason the project was put on hold ( I will not discuss the cause and cost - due to confidentiality issues !! )
After all the hectic work in the proj, we were in bench..
We were asked to wait in UK itself - to see whether there were any other openings...
When clients heard that we were not sure whether we will be going to India or other place in UK, they felt bad for us - about the uncertainity - little did they realize that the whole of s/w industry in india worked that way only...
Day 1 in bench - K3G looked a great movie ( i used to say it was a lengthy movie.. not when i am in bench )... then, watched 1 cd of Kakka kakka ( the other was lost !).. browsed net for some time and then took 2 books from library - Nostradamus for Dummies and the other one - I dont remember... It was decided that cooking will be done in only one place - either dudley road or york road... Then, watched DCH...
Day 2 in bench - KKHH morning show, DDLJ afternoon show and night show was dhalapadhi...
Day 3 in bench - again few more movies... (all repeat telecast !! )
Day 4 in bench - no problems - Ashes test 5 was live - so, no pblms about time pass.. Watched Shane bowl beautifully ( with a nearly new ball - unfortunate / unexpected ).. In the afternoon, went to London temple ( for vinayakar chadurthi ! )
Day 5 in bench - again Ashes - and then Kakka Kakka, pithamagan ( evening show and night show respectively !! ).. By the time, it was clear to me that i will be going to bristol - so, packing had to be started !!! Time for Good Byes were coming nearer... :-(
After 14x7 in design phase, it came to 12x7 in execution phase and 10x6 during ending stages -and finally, the project came to an end - abruptly..
For some reason the project was put on hold ( I will not discuss the cause and cost - due to confidentiality issues !! )
After all the hectic work in the proj, we were in bench..
We were asked to wait in UK itself - to see whether there were any other openings...
When clients heard that we were not sure whether we will be going to India or other place in UK, they felt bad for us - about the uncertainity - little did they realize that the whole of s/w industry in india worked that way only...
Day 1 in bench - K3G looked a great movie ( i used to say it was a lengthy movie.. not when i am in bench )... then, watched 1 cd of Kakka kakka ( the other was lost !).. browsed net for some time and then took 2 books from library - Nostradamus for Dummies and the other one - I dont remember... It was decided that cooking will be done in only one place - either dudley road or york road... Then, watched DCH...
Day 2 in bench - KKHH morning show, DDLJ afternoon show and night show was dhalapadhi...
Day 3 in bench - again few more movies... (all repeat telecast !! )
Day 4 in bench - no problems - Ashes test 5 was live - so, no pblms about time pass.. Watched Shane bowl beautifully ( with a nearly new ball - unfortunate / unexpected ).. In the afternoon, went to London temple ( for vinayakar chadurthi ! )
Day 5 in bench - again Ashes - and then Kakka Kakka, pithamagan ( evening show and night show respectively !! ).. By the time, it was clear to me that i will be going to bristol - so, packing had to be started !!! Time for Good Byes were coming nearer... :-(
August Long Weekend - Day 2
Sunday - Notting hill carnival
We cannot postpone this outing - as this was an event happening only duirng sunday and monday.
Monday had already been declared as rest day. So, we had to go on sunday.
And I was also plannin to meet Abi akka and arun in the carnival..
Our first plan was to visit Greenwich - the place from which Greenwich Mean time is derived..
Two options to reach Greenwich - Tube / Thames Cruise.
Select Thames Cruise if you have to have a quick view of London. We did. It was a good experience - a refreshing one I should say - as it was a hot day ( temperatures reaching 30 degrees !! ) and the breeze was cool..
Chennai nanbargalae... dont pull my legss.. I havent forgotten 45 degrees :-)
We reached Greenwich and went to the museum on top of a mound.. This is where the observatory is located.
There was a line marked in the observatory, splitting the world into eastern and western hemisphers..
There was a long queue for taking photograph with one leg on either side of the line.
Since we were running out of time, we took photographs in the nearby spot and went to the museum...
The museum had lots of observatory tools - which meant nothing to me..
Just quick glances and then started walking out ( after all, this tour was a free one ;-) !! so, no need to worry about wasting £s !! With all due respect to the people interested in these things - I am sorry, I dont understand these and they mean nothing to me ! )
And then notting hill carnival.. It was good...
There were lots and lots of carribean people, coming in groups, playing their songs in big trucks and dancing to the tunes... I liked one song - 'raise your hand - trinidad'... It was good !!
and then to the famous hindi shooting locations - piccadily circus !
took some snaps and then to Trafalgar square...
It was 10pm by the time we reached charing cross, with barely 10 mins for our last train.
We caught the last train and reached home safe...
Tired - but with great experiences....
So, that marks the end of the the long weekend experiencess..
The next weekend is a long way to go and i cannot predict where i will be when it happens... :-) Hopefully India :-))
We cannot postpone this outing - as this was an event happening only duirng sunday and monday.
Monday had already been declared as rest day. So, we had to go on sunday.
And I was also plannin to meet Abi akka and arun in the carnival..
Our first plan was to visit Greenwich - the place from which Greenwich Mean time is derived..
Two options to reach Greenwich - Tube / Thames Cruise.
Select Thames Cruise if you have to have a quick view of London. We did. It was a good experience - a refreshing one I should say - as it was a hot day ( temperatures reaching 30 degrees !! ) and the breeze was cool..
Chennai nanbargalae... dont pull my legss.. I havent forgotten 45 degrees :-)
We reached Greenwich and went to the museum on top of a mound.. This is where the observatory is located.
There was a line marked in the observatory, splitting the world into eastern and western hemisphers..
There was a long queue for taking photograph with one leg on either side of the line.
Since we were running out of time, we took photographs in the nearby spot and went to the museum...
The museum had lots of observatory tools - which meant nothing to me..
Just quick glances and then started walking out ( after all, this tour was a free one ;-) !! so, no need to worry about wasting £s !! With all due respect to the people interested in these things - I am sorry, I dont understand these and they mean nothing to me ! )
And then notting hill carnival.. It was good...
There were lots and lots of carribean people, coming in groups, playing their songs in big trucks and dancing to the tunes... I liked one song - 'raise your hand - trinidad'... It was good !!
and then to the famous hindi shooting locations - piccadily circus !
took some snaps and then to Trafalgar square...
It was 10pm by the time we reached charing cross, with barely 10 mins for our last train.
We caught the last train and reached home safe...
Tired - but with great experiences....
So, that marks the end of the the long weekend experiencess..
The next weekend is a long way to go and i cannot predict where i will be when it happens... :-) Hopefully India :-))
Sunday, August 28, 2005
August Long Weekend - Day 1
The long awaited long weekend.. 3 days break in August - the best period for travelling..
So, heading to - any Guesses ?
Here were the places that crossed our minds ( and finally - only our minds :-( )
Italy - Schengen visa required
Switzerland - No visa required - but will 3 days be sufficient for seeing swiss
Scotland - Not even flight required...
and with the project coming to an abrupt end, we were not sure who will be where in a couple of weeks.
So, whats going to happen on the 3 day weekend ?
The words of the great philosopher Sethunanda predicted
'Italy-kku poga vendiya ellorum Eastham-la okkandhu idly sappitikittu irukka porom!!'
Thats what precisely happened..
We were sitting in Tunbridge Wells on the day before the long weekend started.
And then the sleeping tourist in all our hearts woke up - and said,
'No problem if we are not going for an international tour.
Lets atleast ensure that we cover the places surrounding London fully - we should leave no stone unturned'.
So, it was decided that we will go to the long pending places and for the first time - an Event
Day 1 - Oxford University and Naesdan Temple
Day 2 - Notting Hill Carnival - the biggest carnival in Europe.
Day 1 - As always, the first day of any tour, you happen to be rearing to go..
We ran to the railway station and we had only the ticket counter standing between us and the train..
And finally, the ticket counter won and we missed the train and had to wait for another half an hour in the tunbridge wells station.
We finally reached London at around 10:00am and went to paddington to catch the train to Oxford.
We got the train to Oxford at around 11:15am - just missing the 11 am walking tour.
We got the walking tour's map and then started following our own path.
With the great map reader Officer @ Prabu Anand, we had no difficulty in finding our way around Oxford.
And the duties of the 2 cameras ( Sethu's and mine ) were cut out.
Sethu's camera to be used one and only for Sethu's Mappillai photos ;-) and my camera for group photos.
We started our walk and we came across a bull statue in front of Oxford station. There was a big crowd of Japanese tourists in front of it and taking photographs..
The japanese ppl are excellent role models - so, follow suit blindly ;-) ( only in taking photograph ! ).
We also took photos there in front of the bull and then started moving to the city.
Against popular belief, if you are travelling to oxford, you cannot visit oxford university.
Because, there is no specific building for the university ( based on the oor-suthifying that we had done !)
Oxford university has lots of colleges affiliated to it and we saw some of the colleges.
Including the Trinity College...
And then, we entered some college - for seeing how the college looks..
And later on, when we watched Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Ghum, we realized that the college in which Sharukh studies is the same college that we visited :-)
And then to the most interesting portion of the day's visit - a visit to Science Museum
There, we saw the blackboard in which Einstein had written during his visit to Oxford, the first differential machine that charles babbage created and many more artifacts ( Some from tamilnadu also :-) )
We started from Oxford and caught the train to London.
Again, as usual, delays due to missing the train within minutes. :-(
The next place was Naesdan Temple. We got down at the station suggested by the temple authorities and started walking, walking , walking..... and finally reached the temple. The temple was a huge one - and later on, we came to realize that it was the largest temple outside India
That brings an interesting question. Which is the largest temple in India ? ( I dont have the answer !)
And only one lesson there - I saw a tortoise in front of Lingam.
( Actually, in between Lord Shiva and Nandhi ! )
And the explanation was - Just like tortoise can pull its 4 legs and 1 head ( 5 parts ) inside its shell, if a human can control his 5 senses, then he can attain the blessings of god !
Interesting correlation....
Then, from Naesdan, we caught the bus back to railway station and went to Southall.
Our first visit to Southall - The Mini-Punjab :-)
When you get out of the train, the first thing that strikes you is - the station name will be written in Punjabi and English :-))
When you start walking out of the station, you will notice lots of Jelabi shops, Gurudhvar, Merc convertibles racing with 'balle ! balle' blarring - the punjabi version of UK.
And walk straight ahead and you will reach the market.
You will somehow feel that you are in Ranganathan Street of Punjab.. There will be so many platform shops - but with hindi cassettes and vcds instead of tamil in Ranganathan Street...
You will feel that you are in Punjab - one or two british people will pass you - you can consider them as tourists ;-)
Chat corners ! Hot Jelabis ! Hindi Dvds ! Indian vegetables - you name it, you will get it..
Thats southall for you...
There were shops named Chandini Chowk, Paalika Bazar :-)
We had our dinner in Chandini Chowk - I wouldnt rate this restauarant as Superb - but I would also not deem it as a total failure. It was good food !
Tandoori chicken was very good - it told us that the supposed tandoori chicken that we make at home is only a poor imitation of the real tandoori chicken :-(.. No problems. we will improve the process :-)
And then, only after some time, v realized that we were running out of time.
The last train to Tunbridge wells will be at 11:30 and we were standing in southall at 10pm only to realize that we had again missed the train by a whisker and that the next train will be only at 10:30pm..
we had to reach tube stations and then reach charing cross.
Thankfully, we reached the station and reached Tunbridge wells at half past midnight !!
I can already sense that there will be drop-outs on the next day outing...
So, heading to - any Guesses ?
Here were the places that crossed our minds ( and finally - only our minds :-( )
Italy - Schengen visa required
Switzerland - No visa required - but will 3 days be sufficient for seeing swiss
Scotland - Not even flight required...
and with the project coming to an abrupt end, we were not sure who will be where in a couple of weeks.
So, whats going to happen on the 3 day weekend ?
The words of the great philosopher Sethunanda predicted
'Italy-kku poga vendiya ellorum Eastham-la okkandhu idly sappitikittu irukka porom!!'
Thats what precisely happened..
We were sitting in Tunbridge Wells on the day before the long weekend started.
And then the sleeping tourist in all our hearts woke up - and said,
'No problem if we are not going for an international tour.
Lets atleast ensure that we cover the places surrounding London fully - we should leave no stone unturned'.
So, it was decided that we will go to the long pending places and for the first time - an Event
Day 1 - Oxford University and Naesdan Temple
Day 2 - Notting Hill Carnival - the biggest carnival in Europe.
Day 1 - As always, the first day of any tour, you happen to be rearing to go..
We ran to the railway station and we had only the ticket counter standing between us and the train..
And finally, the ticket counter won and we missed the train and had to wait for another half an hour in the tunbridge wells station.
We finally reached London at around 10:00am and went to paddington to catch the train to Oxford.
We got the train to Oxford at around 11:15am - just missing the 11 am walking tour.
We got the walking tour's map and then started following our own path.
With the great map reader Officer @ Prabu Anand, we had no difficulty in finding our way around Oxford.
And the duties of the 2 cameras ( Sethu's and mine ) were cut out.
Sethu's camera to be used one and only for Sethu's Mappillai photos ;-) and my camera for group photos.
We started our walk and we came across a bull statue in front of Oxford station. There was a big crowd of Japanese tourists in front of it and taking photographs..
The japanese ppl are excellent role models - so, follow suit blindly ;-) ( only in taking photograph ! ).
We also took photos there in front of the bull and then started moving to the city.
Against popular belief, if you are travelling to oxford, you cannot visit oxford university.
Because, there is no specific building for the university ( based on the oor-suthifying that we had done !)
Oxford university has lots of colleges affiliated to it and we saw some of the colleges.
Including the Trinity College...
And then, we entered some college - for seeing how the college looks..
And later on, when we watched Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Ghum, we realized that the college in which Sharukh studies is the same college that we visited :-)
And then to the most interesting portion of the day's visit - a visit to Science Museum
There, we saw the blackboard in which Einstein had written during his visit to Oxford, the first differential machine that charles babbage created and many more artifacts ( Some from tamilnadu also :-) )
We started from Oxford and caught the train to London.
Again, as usual, delays due to missing the train within minutes. :-(
The next place was Naesdan Temple. We got down at the station suggested by the temple authorities and started walking, walking , walking..... and finally reached the temple. The temple was a huge one - and later on, we came to realize that it was the largest temple outside India
That brings an interesting question. Which is the largest temple in India ? ( I dont have the answer !)
And only one lesson there - I saw a tortoise in front of Lingam.
( Actually, in between Lord Shiva and Nandhi ! )
And the explanation was - Just like tortoise can pull its 4 legs and 1 head ( 5 parts ) inside its shell, if a human can control his 5 senses, then he can attain the blessings of god !
Interesting correlation....
Then, from Naesdan, we caught the bus back to railway station and went to Southall.
Our first visit to Southall - The Mini-Punjab :-)
When you get out of the train, the first thing that strikes you is - the station name will be written in Punjabi and English :-))
When you start walking out of the station, you will notice lots of Jelabi shops, Gurudhvar, Merc convertibles racing with 'balle ! balle' blarring - the punjabi version of UK.
And walk straight ahead and you will reach the market.
You will somehow feel that you are in Ranganathan Street of Punjab.. There will be so many platform shops - but with hindi cassettes and vcds instead of tamil in Ranganathan Street...
You will feel that you are in Punjab - one or two british people will pass you - you can consider them as tourists ;-)
Chat corners ! Hot Jelabis ! Hindi Dvds ! Indian vegetables - you name it, you will get it..
Thats southall for you...
There were shops named Chandini Chowk, Paalika Bazar :-)
We had our dinner in Chandini Chowk - I wouldnt rate this restauarant as Superb - but I would also not deem it as a total failure. It was good food !
Tandoori chicken was very good - it told us that the supposed tandoori chicken that we make at home is only a poor imitation of the real tandoori chicken :-(.. No problems. we will improve the process :-)
And then, only after some time, v realized that we were running out of time.
The last train to Tunbridge wells will be at 11:30 and we were standing in southall at 10pm only to realize that we had again missed the train by a whisker and that the next train will be only at 10:30pm..
we had to reach tube stations and then reach charing cross.
Thankfully, we reached the station and reached Tunbridge wells at half past midnight !!
I can already sense that there will be drop-outs on the next day outing...
English Tea
Having read a lot of Enid Blyton books in my younger years ( sometimes, even now ;-) ), I was always fascinated by the English Tea and I remember how the kids used to love it in the books... I had the chance to experience such a high tea - thanks to the wonderful English Couple and my friends the Chaseleys.
Since the testing team ( our team ) did not have space to sit in the IT building, we were sitting in the Customer Service Area... And we were indeed a noisy crowd :-)....
One day, one lady came to our section and said "i may be a bit nosy - but we just wanted to know - what are you people doing - where are you people from - we have seen you sitting here for 3 months but we dont know anything about you people"... we told ( in vivek style ) the history of our testing and the geography of our country ;-).... She introduced herself as Maureen, a head nurse with the dental section, handling dental claims.. Since we were sitting near the entrance of the room, everyone has to cross us before reaching their desks.. So, every weekend, before leaving home, maureen, will ask us - what plans for the weekend... and we will tell her - "Rest"...Little did she know that weekends means working hours at onsite ( and at offshore also - if you are the unlucky ones !! )... the starting time of our proj was real hectic - 14 hours a day means - its an easy day... and we were working 7 days a week.... slowly towards feb, the pressure eased a bit - meaning, we will get a few days off - one cannot predict when a day will be off day, but we will get them.. so, roaming in england started and I have already written a bit about it in my blogs.. so, every monday, i used ot change the wallpaper in my PC and tell everyone abt the places I had visited....
The insider information for most of our weekend visits was provided by maureen - the best views in coastal areas, any spl weekend happenings etc.... and when the summer came, maureen invited whole of our team for a barbeque party at her place.. she told us that their family had travelled a lot and her husband would love to meet us and hear about India.... And somehow or the other, we were held up during the weekends ( she took 2 weeks off for a vacation ) and then we were roaming in europe :-) and then proj got hectic again... Finally, when we decided to have the BBQ, weather turned against us. So, BBQ changed to a high tea...
I was joined by Sethu and Mani... After a lot of brainstorming, the Indian recepie was shortlisted - just 2 sweets... Paal payasam and Rava Kesari... After thinking of making bajji etc etc, we finally decided upon just sweets - bcos bajjis are available even in superstores.. So, we made the sweets and started at 4pm... :-( We were supposed to be present at her place at 4pm :-(.. unfortunately, the cab was delayed - so, we reached her place at 4:10pm and we were greeted by the Chasleys.. And :-) they had a dog.. ( had !! because the dog was in its last few days... and is no more ! ).. Not highly trained like other dogs in UK, but still - it was still a proper dog ( love the owner no matter who it is !! )... Then, Barry ( Maureen's husband ) told me about its history - it was a rescue dog in some team - so, it was not trained for home activites..
We had a cup of tea - to start with.. And people if you think 'High Tea' means tea with biscuts, please change your mind.. When we went to the dining table - we could see a spread.. She had indeed cooked for an army.. To list some of the dishes - vegetable sausages, shepherd's pie, pickled eggs and onions, corn pasta, salad - and these dishes were only the main dishes.. she had desserts too - another big list :-)) strawberry something, home-made cake, scones.... It was a great evening... talking about india and UK.. they were surprised to hear about indian weddings.. to them, the biggest marriages had 400 guests.. They had travelled extensively and it was good to hear about their travel experiences...
After godd food and great company, we left the place at around 7pm - having visited a english family and experienced an english evening...
Since the testing team ( our team ) did not have space to sit in the IT building, we were sitting in the Customer Service Area... And we were indeed a noisy crowd :-)....
One day, one lady came to our section and said "i may be a bit nosy - but we just wanted to know - what are you people doing - where are you people from - we have seen you sitting here for 3 months but we dont know anything about you people"... we told ( in vivek style ) the history of our testing and the geography of our country ;-).... She introduced herself as Maureen, a head nurse with the dental section, handling dental claims.. Since we were sitting near the entrance of the room, everyone has to cross us before reaching their desks.. So, every weekend, before leaving home, maureen, will ask us - what plans for the weekend... and we will tell her - "Rest"...Little did she know that weekends means working hours at onsite ( and at offshore also - if you are the unlucky ones !! )... the starting time of our proj was real hectic - 14 hours a day means - its an easy day... and we were working 7 days a week.... slowly towards feb, the pressure eased a bit - meaning, we will get a few days off - one cannot predict when a day will be off day, but we will get them.. so, roaming in england started and I have already written a bit about it in my blogs.. so, every monday, i used ot change the wallpaper in my PC and tell everyone abt the places I had visited....
The insider information for most of our weekend visits was provided by maureen - the best views in coastal areas, any spl weekend happenings etc.... and when the summer came, maureen invited whole of our team for a barbeque party at her place.. she told us that their family had travelled a lot and her husband would love to meet us and hear about India.... And somehow or the other, we were held up during the weekends ( she took 2 weeks off for a vacation ) and then we were roaming in europe :-) and then proj got hectic again... Finally, when we decided to have the BBQ, weather turned against us. So, BBQ changed to a high tea...
I was joined by Sethu and Mani... After a lot of brainstorming, the Indian recepie was shortlisted - just 2 sweets... Paal payasam and Rava Kesari... After thinking of making bajji etc etc, we finally decided upon just sweets - bcos bajjis are available even in superstores.. So, we made the sweets and started at 4pm... :-( We were supposed to be present at her place at 4pm :-(.. unfortunately, the cab was delayed - so, we reached her place at 4:10pm and we were greeted by the Chasleys.. And :-) they had a dog.. ( had !! because the dog was in its last few days... and is no more ! ).. Not highly trained like other dogs in UK, but still - it was still a proper dog ( love the owner no matter who it is !! )... Then, Barry ( Maureen's husband ) told me about its history - it was a rescue dog in some team - so, it was not trained for home activites..
We had a cup of tea - to start with.. And people if you think 'High Tea' means tea with biscuts, please change your mind.. When we went to the dining table - we could see a spread.. She had indeed cooked for an army.. To list some of the dishes - vegetable sausages, shepherd's pie, pickled eggs and onions, corn pasta, salad - and these dishes were only the main dishes.. she had desserts too - another big list :-)) strawberry something, home-made cake, scones.... It was a great evening... talking about india and UK.. they were surprised to hear about indian weddings.. to them, the biggest marriages had 400 guests.. They had travelled extensively and it was good to hear about their travel experiences...
After godd food and great company, we left the place at around 7pm - having visited a english family and experienced an english evening...
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Tour De Paris - Day 3
The last day of the paris trip....
And only 2 places left to visit - The pending visit to the museum and Versailes Palace
We started with the museum..
My God !! It was HUGE !!! I was not sure what would be there for ppl to spend 4 months... There was lots.. We spent half a day in the museum and we hadnt even seen one portion of one floor... We targetted only Monolisa, lost our way a bit and then saw lots of egyptian sculptures - Amazing...
And after a lot of lost ways, this way ! no no that way arguments, we finally reached the room where monolisa painting was kept... I am no art lover.. and to be frank, Monolisa didnt impress me :-(( .. There were lots of paintings in the same room that were much more beautiful to me - I am not a art critic and I cant differentiate monolisa painting from muniamma painting.. ;-)).. But like thirupathi, there was a big queue for taking photos.. and we also waited ... took photograph and came out...
We came out of the Museum, because we had to visit the palace too and it was already past 11am ( our train is at 7pm !! ).. Went to the Palace - and thankfully, it was closed for maintenace and only the garden was open - thankfully because we didnt have time to visit the palace... The gardens were beautiful.. spent some time till about 3pm..
We started towards paris and then decided to go to Eiffel for one more photo session.. At about 5pm, we finished with the photos and started walking in the direction opposite of tube station - to find out where the next nearest tube station is... To our surprise, we came to the beginning of the road in which our hotel was...
So, actually, our hotel was only 15mins away from Eiffel tower ( for all the 3 days !! ) and we didnt know it.. :-((
So, the lesson is - ' dont go for Orgainsed tours!! If you go for organised tours, you will not have such nice surprises !! '
We vacated our hotel rooms and reached the railway station. .there was about 1 more hour to go... So, Sethu and I decided to go out and try to find out something to eat for all of us.. There was a Mcdy close to the station.. We decided to try our luck. After 15 mins of enquiry, we found 'Madras Cafe' :-)) and then got Onion Oothappam, Chicken Kurma & Chappathi!!! We had the food in International Railway Station - with people sitting around us munching the burgers, we opened the Onion Oothappam with sambar and chppathi with chicken kurma ;-)) ( Jenma sabalyam adaindhom ;-))
Reached Tunbridge wells at 10pm.. :-)) with great experience of Paris !!!
( Short post - because even I am bored of seeing the same title for a long time.. and i had decided not to write anything else until i complete the paris trip !! )
And only 2 places left to visit - The pending visit to the museum and Versailes Palace
We started with the museum..
My God !! It was HUGE !!! I was not sure what would be there for ppl to spend 4 months... There was lots.. We spent half a day in the museum and we hadnt even seen one portion of one floor... We targetted only Monolisa, lost our way a bit and then saw lots of egyptian sculptures - Amazing...
And after a lot of lost ways, this way ! no no that way arguments, we finally reached the room where monolisa painting was kept... I am no art lover.. and to be frank, Monolisa didnt impress me :-(( .. There were lots of paintings in the same room that were much more beautiful to me - I am not a art critic and I cant differentiate monolisa painting from muniamma painting.. ;-)).. But like thirupathi, there was a big queue for taking photos.. and we also waited ... took photograph and came out...
We came out of the Museum, because we had to visit the palace too and it was already past 11am ( our train is at 7pm !! ).. Went to the Palace - and thankfully, it was closed for maintenace and only the garden was open - thankfully because we didnt have time to visit the palace... The gardens were beautiful.. spent some time till about 3pm..
We started towards paris and then decided to go to Eiffel for one more photo session.. At about 5pm, we finished with the photos and started walking in the direction opposite of tube station - to find out where the next nearest tube station is... To our surprise, we came to the beginning of the road in which our hotel was...
So, actually, our hotel was only 15mins away from Eiffel tower ( for all the 3 days !! ) and we didnt know it.. :-((
So, the lesson is - ' dont go for Orgainsed tours!! If you go for organised tours, you will not have such nice surprises !! '
We vacated our hotel rooms and reached the railway station. .there was about 1 more hour to go... So, Sethu and I decided to go out and try to find out something to eat for all of us.. There was a Mcdy close to the station.. We decided to try our luck. After 15 mins of enquiry, we found 'Madras Cafe' :-)) and then got Onion Oothappam, Chicken Kurma & Chappathi!!! We had the food in International Railway Station - with people sitting around us munching the burgers, we opened the Onion Oothappam with sambar and chppathi with chicken kurma ;-)) ( Jenma sabalyam adaindhom ;-))
Reached Tunbridge wells at 10pm.. :-)) with great experience of Paris !!!
( Short post - because even I am bored of seeing the same title for a long time.. and i had decided not to write anything else until i complete the paris trip !! )
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Tour De Paris - Day 2
Day 2 - Started with the usual buzz.....
The plan - Paris sight seeing - including Eiffel tower.
The first stop was meant to be at Louvre Museum - to take a photo with monolisa - and proceed - We had been told earlier that if we spend 1 minute in front of every object, we will need 4 months to see the whole museum. So, we decided to restrict ourselves to Monolisa alone...
And when we went to the entrance, we were surprised to see that it was locked - May 1 - Labour day :-( ... So, Monolisa is not going to smile at us today !! And then change the plan - go to the next point - Sacre Coure.
This is a church - Sacre Cour - located on a high mount in Paris - The second highest viewing point ( next only to Eiffel tower )... The church was a very old one - and great one - indeed !!!
We spent close to 4 hours in the Church - and then moved on to the next place...
But - what about lunch?? We were told by a tamil guy the previous day that there are tamil restaurants in Notre Dam and one more place ( i forgot the name now ). We decided to go to the second place - as it was on the tube map and we could spot it quickly ;-)
We got out of the tube and it was 3 pm... Our stomach was screaming
'Vayattrukku unavu illadha bodhu,
Siridhu kannukkum iya paddum'
And the first sight that greeted us when we got out was 'Gopal Palporal Angadi' :-))
God !! you should have seen our faces...
Its not going to be McDy bun :-)).. its going to be Tamil food in France :-))
We just continued walking in the street and found to our amazement a video shop..
The DVDs were damn cheap - 4 euros or 5 euros... v shopped a lot ( for abt half an hour ).. we were like kids lost in a big candy shop - not knowing which to pick and which to leave... finally we left the store carrying with us lots of classics....
Sample combinations -
1 . Dalapadhi and Nayagan
2 . Mounaragam and Idhayathai thirudadhae
3 . Vasool raja / Thenali
4 . Karnan
5. Roja / Kannathil Muthamittal
And then to the hotel.. ' unavagam' ..it was a buffet..
Sambar, rasam, biriyani, kathirikaa poriyal.. :-))
One can appreciate it only if he has been cooking all these dishes for 6 months and then eating burgers in Mcdy / Sub-way.... :-(
It was run by a Srilankan Tamil and he told us - 'Unga veedu madhiri nenachu sappidingo... edhu venumunalum kettu vangikollungal'... Long Live !!!
The next place was Notre Dam - Another church - with the largest window in Europe or something like that... Add one more to 'I have also visited this place' list...
Thats all I can say about it....
Then - to Eiffel tower.... Definitely man made wonder !!
And there were some inscriptions in the first floor - Ampere and some more scientist names ... That reminded me of xii std books ( pls. note i dont remember seeing any engineering college book in my life ;-)) !!
and then a long wait - the queue for getting tickets took us almost 1 hr..
The plan was to climb up Eiffel tower when it was evening - and then watch the city of paris in Evening / Twilight / Night....
Good plan indeed - but we got tickets only till 1st floor :-(( - and were advised that we can get the tickets to the top in first floor. the tickets for top floor were not being issued because of the crowd that is already standing in the top floor !! :-(
So, 'Paris in Evening' was only possible from 2nd floor of Eiffel tower...
The breeze was strong.... Saw prithviraj @ babloo standing in queue in front of us...
Could hear a lot of tamil words :-))
And then to the top floor of eiffel tower and 'Paris in Twilight' and 'paris in night' - beautiful....
It was 10pm by the time we got down...
Even if it is 10pm, we will plan for the next place.. Thats the great thing abt tours..
The last spot for that day was decided as - Diana's Last Minutes....
The tunnel where Diana lost her life...
We enquired abt the place - and took a tube to reach the place...
We were surprised to find that there was no memorial for her near the entrance of the tunnel... There was no indication at all that it was the tunnel where diana had lost her life... Then, when we started going closer to the tunnel, we realized that there was a lot of scribbling on the rails...
The govts. might not have made any memorial for her - but the people more than made up for it... ( there was some golden hand - near the entrance of tunnel.. it had nothing to do with Diana. It was erected couple of years ago - for US-France goodwill !! )
The railings were full of wordings abt diana...
'Diana, you are not the princess of wales.. you are the princess of US too' - name, Michigan...
'Long live diana' - People of Brazil.
So, we too wrote our wordings... in Tamil - and returned back to hotel..
Today also, we didnt get any tubes :-( and there was no taxi driver to help us... but today, we ended up walking just for 1 hr :-) and finally reached our beds...
And the plan for tomorrow...
Arambichatangaya arambichittanga !!!
The plan - Paris sight seeing - including Eiffel tower.
The first stop was meant to be at Louvre Museum - to take a photo with monolisa - and proceed - We had been told earlier that if we spend 1 minute in front of every object, we will need 4 months to see the whole museum. So, we decided to restrict ourselves to Monolisa alone...
And when we went to the entrance, we were surprised to see that it was locked - May 1 - Labour day :-( ... So, Monolisa is not going to smile at us today !! And then change the plan - go to the next point - Sacre Coure.
This is a church - Sacre Cour - located on a high mount in Paris - The second highest viewing point ( next only to Eiffel tower )... The church was a very old one - and great one - indeed !!!
We spent close to 4 hours in the Church - and then moved on to the next place...
But - what about lunch?? We were told by a tamil guy the previous day that there are tamil restaurants in Notre Dam and one more place ( i forgot the name now ). We decided to go to the second place - as it was on the tube map and we could spot it quickly ;-)
We got out of the tube and it was 3 pm... Our stomach was screaming
'Vayattrukku unavu illadha bodhu,
Siridhu kannukkum iya paddum'
And the first sight that greeted us when we got out was 'Gopal Palporal Angadi' :-))
God !! you should have seen our faces...
Its not going to be McDy bun :-)).. its going to be Tamil food in France :-))
We just continued walking in the street and found to our amazement a video shop..
The DVDs were damn cheap - 4 euros or 5 euros... v shopped a lot ( for abt half an hour ).. we were like kids lost in a big candy shop - not knowing which to pick and which to leave... finally we left the store carrying with us lots of classics....
Sample combinations -
1 . Dalapadhi and Nayagan
2 . Mounaragam and Idhayathai thirudadhae
3 . Vasool raja / Thenali
4 . Karnan
5. Roja / Kannathil Muthamittal
And then to the hotel.. '
Sambar, rasam, biriyani, kathirikaa poriyal.. :-))
One can appreciate it only if he has been cooking all these dishes for 6 months and then eating burgers in Mcdy / Sub-way.... :-(
It was run by a Srilankan Tamil and he told us - 'Unga veedu madhiri nenachu sappidingo... edhu venumunalum kettu vangikollungal'... Long Live !!!
The next place was Notre Dam - Another church - with the largest window in Europe or something like that... Add one more to 'I have also visited this place' list...
Thats all I can say about it....
Then - to Eiffel tower.... Definitely man made wonder !!
And there were some inscriptions in the first floor - Ampere and some more scientist names ... That reminded me of xii std books ( pls. note i dont remember seeing any engineering college book in my life ;-)) !!
and then a long wait - the queue for getting tickets took us almost 1 hr..
The plan was to climb up Eiffel tower when it was evening - and then watch the city of paris in Evening / Twilight / Night....
Good plan indeed - but we got tickets only till 1st floor :-(( - and were advised that we can get the tickets to the top in first floor. the tickets for top floor were not being issued because of the crowd that is already standing in the top floor !! :-(
So, 'Paris in Evening' was only possible from 2nd floor of Eiffel tower...
The breeze was strong.... Saw prithviraj @ babloo standing in queue in front of us...
Could hear a lot of tamil words :-))
And then to the top floor of eiffel tower and 'Paris in Twilight' and 'paris in night' - beautiful....
It was 10pm by the time we got down...
Even if it is 10pm, we will plan for the next place.. Thats the great thing abt tours..
The last spot for that day was decided as - Diana's Last Minutes....
The tunnel where Diana lost her life...
We enquired abt the place - and took a tube to reach the place...
We were surprised to find that there was no memorial for her near the entrance of the tunnel... There was no indication at all that it was the tunnel where diana had lost her life... Then, when we started going closer to the tunnel, we realized that there was a lot of scribbling on the rails...
The govts. might not have made any memorial for her - but the people more than made up for it... ( there was some golden hand - near the entrance of tunnel.. it had nothing to do with Diana. It was erected couple of years ago - for US-France goodwill !! )
The railings were full of wordings abt diana...
'Diana, you are not the princess of wales.. you are the princess of US too' - name, Michigan...
'Long live diana' - People of Brazil.
So, we too wrote our wordings... in Tamil - and returned back to hotel..
Today also, we didnt get any tubes :-( and there was no taxi driver to help us... but today, we ended up walking just for 1 hr :-) and finally reached our beds...
And the plan for tomorrow...
Arambichatangaya arambichittanga !!!
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Tour De Paris - Day 1
Day 1 - Disneyland
The day started great - warm, sunny..
And the usual problem started when 3 working ppl stay together - who is the luckiest one to wake up last !!!
Since I got up a bit early - 7am, i went in first.
Our tour convenor, Mr. Sethu Madhavan had ordered that we should be leaving the hotel at 8am..
With Gautam on our side, I was very confident that we will somehow squeeze extra half an hour ;-) ( Gautam - no pun intended !! )
As planned ( by Gautam ;-) ), we left hotel at around 9am...
To quote Sethu, 'Come guys.. lets attack the disney land'..
Thats his way of saying ' v should explore the disney land fully' ;-)....
We went to the nearest tube station and got the 3 day pass ( 18 Euros ) - and we thought that it was all zone pass..
We changed trains ( Come on man !! we are all experts in reading underground maps - be it London or Paris ;-) !! ) in the correct way and reached Disney at around 11am.
When we started coming out of the disneyland station ( i was the first one to go thru the ticket counter ), the machine threw back my ticket :-((..
i tried in the next machine - it worked and i went thru.. the others followed suite..
our American Spy( sorry sorry Guy ) - got pissed off because the machine was not working - so, with a plan of sueing someone, he went to the ticket collector - to find out why the machine was rejecting his ticket.
The ticket collector gave a stare at our hero and said - 'u r in zone 5 and the ticket u have is valid only for zones 1, 2 and 3. Pls pay and get the tickets here.
The ticket is 25 Euros.' !!
Our hero parted with 25 euros and came in.... we decided that others will get the one way ticket from zone 5 to zone 3 during our return ;-) what else to do.. 3 day pass is 18 euros.. one fine is 25 euros... v r not gandhi's grandchildren.. so, v didnt pay the fine - since v were already inside...
v got the tickets for disneyland and went to the disney studio first...
Expert opinion - sethu who had already visited disneyland in US told us that disney land will be mostly kids stuff and disney studios will be good...
The tour of disney studio.....
One thing that first comes to my mind when i start talking about disney studio is - stunt show...
On the day we visited disney land, there was a motor stunt show.... they were showing us how they will shoot the car chase / stunts etc live.. the show was damn good... v saw lots of tricks being performed in front of our eyes...
The next thing was a train ride - if u think it will be a normal ride - think again.. v were sitting in a train travelling close to a mound and a petroleum trailer was on top of the mound. Suddenly, the train stopped, petroleum trailer caught fire and started rolling slowly - towards the train... They were showing us, how real shooting will happen... suddenly, some water tank was opened and the fire was put out... good experience...
Then, of course, snaps with mickey, goofey... Then, there was the armegeddon
Then, a roller coaster ride - a ride with a difference - its not the normal roller coaster - where u will travel in open space.. u will be travelling in a roller coaster underground - so, u wont know whether u r going to turn left or right - or turn upside down until u r actually doing it... damn good - the best roller coaster ride i have had..... Gautam, after seeing the name aerosmith, thought that it was some pop show.. then, v stood in the queue.. When he and jerome realised that it was a roller coaster, they decided to quit.. but v somehow managed to pull gautam into it... gautam agreed and joined us - and when v came out, he told us that he is not going to agree to anything else v say for the rest of the tour.... :-)
It was time for the disney parade
V watched the famous disney characters parade - mickey / minney / goofey / pluto / uncle scroodge / donald duck / daisy duck / 101 dalmations / chip and dale
It was around 5pm in the evening and v had not even finished the disney studio rounds... Disney park was still unexplored.. so, v decided to skip the rest of the attractions in disney studio and went to disney park..
Disney park was totally different one - like 18th century US( not that i have seen US in 18th century ;-)) V roamed in disney park for about an hour and at around 6 pm, decided to start from disney village....
As planned earlier ( ammmam.. periya master plan !! ), v got tickets from zone 5 to zone 3 ( it was only 3 euro per person ;-).. and came to central paris..
The destination - Cruise in Seine...
Again, our underground map reading skills were tested - the problem was v didnt know where the river cruise started from... v can see river seine flowing right across the map - and which point do we start our journey from :-(...
Then, v started using the next skill - ask any auto driver ;-)) .. But there were no autos around... and v started asking the ppl around us in the train... But they had never heard of Seine :-(( Puzzled - dont be.. we were pronouncing it as Sc-ene... Then, use the next technique - Rajni's english - River ( waving our hands to show water symbol ), then boat ( again with hand symbols ) .. Then, ppl realized what we were looking for... We got the anwer to our question.. The cruise starting point was very close to the eiffel tower.. it was around 8pm in the evening and it was still bright...
V got tickets for the river cruise and boarded the boat... The ride was good... Because at around 8:30, the sunlight was fading and Eiffel tower, which was behind us looked more beautiful...... V passed the French Parliament, some famous bridges, Louvre museum, Notre Dam Cathedral. V were told that if a person spends 1 minute in front of every object in the Louvre museum, it will take him 4 months to complete the tour... :-( ( and v had planned to spend 4 hrs in it ;-) Even our schenen visa was only for 2 months !! )... At around 9, Eiffel tower started glowing.. Eiffel tower has lights fitted all over and once every hour, they will switch on the lights for about 5 mins - flickering lights.... It was damn good...
The boat ride ended near the eiffel tower again and we started to walk towards the nearest tube station.. little did we know that our hotel was only 15 mins walk from eiffel tower :-(.. v changed 2 trains ( underground ) and reached our hotel after 1 hr... Yes - v did lose about 45 mins - but u see, v r real french ppl - v will find our own routes and v will travel on our own ;-))
And if u think that our day is over and u can start reading day 2 - think again.. Becuase, paris is famous for night life and night had only set in.. so, v will go to hotel - refresh ourselves and get ready for more walk - dont ask me how much v had walked that day... The plan for night - walk through the champ de ellyses road - mount road of paris.. u can see all major brands showroom there - louis vitton, gucci - u name it, u will get it.. We decided to start our walk from Nepolean's arch and then proceed towards the parliament / monument at the end of the road... It was about 1 in the morning ( ideally speaking - day 2 of our paris trip )... The road was damn busy - it was like 10 am traffic in mount road on a busy day ( or scene podanum endral, like 8am traffic in London Bridge !! ;-)... One thing v realized very soon - drivers in paris are different from drivers in Uk - in UK, i have noticed that ppl are more patient during drives and pedestrians are always given preference - not in paris.. after crossing about 3 or 4 roads, we realized how different it was from Uk.. The indian in us who was sleeping woke up - and then v didnt have much problems.. v started running whenever v came to the crossings.. after some time, when we reached the monument, we had to cross a road - with 6 lanes - Gautam decided it was too much for him.. He told us - 'Boss.. i am not crossing this road.. u ppl go and see it and come.. i am not coming'.. so, the dare devils ( nangadhan.. nangadhan !! ) crossed the road the saw the monument ( god (& the french ppl) only know what was written in that !! )..
It was about 2am.. We had walked for more than 2 hrs.. ( in the night alone - forget about walking in disney land ).. our legs were begging for rest... v decided to take a taxi.. when v waited for a taxi, v realized that things r lot different in paris.. u cannot stop a taxi in the main road- u shld go the taxi stop and wait.. if a cab driver sees u waiting in the spot, he will come and slow down and take u :-(( ( hmmm. chennai autos enga kai thattinalum nikkum !! kai thattalainallum nikkum ) and the nearest taxi point was about half an hour walk :-((... v slowly started walking - and the tubes will not be available after midnight ... paris - in night lights will look beautiful - not if u have been walking for 3 hrs continuosly.. and then v met a cab driver.. i wont forget his life - atleast not in this lifee... he looked like eddie murphy - v told him the address of our hotel - he didnt understand it - so, v wrote it down on a piece of paper and he laughed at us and said - 10 mins walk.. go straight.. V thanked him - discussed how auto ppl in chennai would have taken us for an hours ride and started walking... v walked, walked and walked - for more than half an hour - and then realized - the cab driver must have mistaken us for Maurice green and Carl lewis.. ( and after the bad experience. v will remember him as urang uttan x-( !! ) V reached the hotel and 3:30 am..
And sethu walked straight to gautam and said - tomm., as per the plan, v shld start at 8am.. Gautam fainted !!! and he never woke up until 8 am next day....
And the next day experience - in day 2
The day started great - warm, sunny..
And the usual problem started when 3 working ppl stay together - who is the luckiest one to wake up last !!!
Since I got up a bit early - 7am, i went in first.
Our tour convenor, Mr. Sethu Madhavan had ordered that we should be leaving the hotel at 8am..
With Gautam on our side, I was very confident that we will somehow squeeze extra half an hour ;-) ( Gautam - no pun intended !! )
As planned ( by Gautam ;-) ), we left hotel at around 9am...
To quote Sethu, 'Come guys.. lets attack the disney land'..
Thats his way of saying ' v should explore the disney land fully' ;-)....
We went to the nearest tube station and got the 3 day pass ( 18 Euros ) - and we thought that it was all zone pass..
We changed trains ( Come on man !! we are all experts in reading underground maps - be it London or Paris ;-) !! ) in the correct way and reached Disney at around 11am.
When we started coming out of the disneyland station ( i was the first one to go thru the ticket counter ), the machine threw back my ticket :-((..
i tried in the next machine - it worked and i went thru.. the others followed suite..
our American Spy( sorry sorry Guy ) - got pissed off because the machine was not working - so, with a plan of sueing someone, he went to the ticket collector - to find out why the machine was rejecting his ticket.
The ticket collector gave a stare at our hero and said - 'u r in zone 5 and the ticket u have is valid only for zones 1, 2 and 3. Pls pay and get the tickets here.
The ticket is 25 Euros.' !!
Our hero parted with 25 euros and came in.... we decided that others will get the one way ticket from zone 5 to zone 3 during our return ;-) what else to do.. 3 day pass is 18 euros.. one fine is 25 euros... v r not gandhi's grandchildren.. so, v didnt pay the fine - since v were already inside...
v got the tickets for disneyland and went to the disney studio first...
Expert opinion - sethu who had already visited disneyland in US told us that disney land will be mostly kids stuff and disney studios will be good...
The tour of disney studio.....
One thing that first comes to my mind when i start talking about disney studio is - stunt show...
On the day we visited disney land, there was a motor stunt show.... they were showing us how they will shoot the car chase / stunts etc live.. the show was damn good... v saw lots of tricks being performed in front of our eyes...
The next thing was a train ride - if u think it will be a normal ride - think again.. v were sitting in a train travelling close to a mound and a petroleum trailer was on top of the mound. Suddenly, the train stopped, petroleum trailer caught fire and started rolling slowly - towards the train... They were showing us, how real shooting will happen... suddenly, some water tank was opened and the fire was put out... good experience...
Then, of course, snaps with mickey, goofey... Then, there was the armegeddon
Then, a roller coaster ride - a ride with a difference - its not the normal roller coaster - where u will travel in open space.. u will be travelling in a roller coaster underground - so, u wont know whether u r going to turn left or right - or turn upside down until u r actually doing it... damn good - the best roller coaster ride i have had..... Gautam, after seeing the name aerosmith, thought that it was some pop show.. then, v stood in the queue.. When he and jerome realised that it was a roller coaster, they decided to quit.. but v somehow managed to pull gautam into it... gautam agreed and joined us - and when v came out, he told us that he is not going to agree to anything else v say for the rest of the tour.... :-)
It was time for the disney parade
V watched the famous disney characters parade - mickey / minney / goofey / pluto / uncle scroodge / donald duck / daisy duck / 101 dalmations / chip and dale
It was around 5pm in the evening and v had not even finished the disney studio rounds... Disney park was still unexplored.. so, v decided to skip the rest of the attractions in disney studio and went to disney park..
Disney park was totally different one - like 18th century US( not that i have seen US in 18th century ;-)) V roamed in disney park for about an hour and at around 6 pm, decided to start from disney village....
As planned earlier ( ammmam.. periya master plan !! ), v got tickets from zone 5 to zone 3 ( it was only 3 euro per person ;-).. and came to central paris..
The destination - Cruise in Seine...
Again, our underground map reading skills were tested - the problem was v didnt know where the river cruise started from... v can see river seine flowing right across the map - and which point do we start our journey from :-(...
Then, v started using the next skill - ask any auto driver ;-)) .. But there were no autos around... and v started asking the ppl around us in the train... But they had never heard of Seine :-(( Puzzled - dont be.. we were pronouncing it as Sc-ene... Then, use the next technique - Rajni's english - River ( waving our hands to show water symbol ), then boat ( again with hand symbols ) .. Then, ppl realized what we were looking for... We got the anwer to our question.. The cruise starting point was very close to the eiffel tower.. it was around 8pm in the evening and it was still bright...
V got tickets for the river cruise and boarded the boat... The ride was good... Because at around 8:30, the sunlight was fading and Eiffel tower, which was behind us looked more beautiful...... V passed the French Parliament, some famous bridges, Louvre museum, Notre Dam Cathedral. V were told that if a person spends 1 minute in front of every object in the Louvre museum, it will take him 4 months to complete the tour... :-( ( and v had planned to spend 4 hrs in it ;-) Even our schenen visa was only for 2 months !! )... At around 9, Eiffel tower started glowing.. Eiffel tower has lights fitted all over and once every hour, they will switch on the lights for about 5 mins - flickering lights.... It was damn good...
The boat ride ended near the eiffel tower again and we started to walk towards the nearest tube station.. little did we know that our hotel was only 15 mins walk from eiffel tower :-(.. v changed 2 trains ( underground ) and reached our hotel after 1 hr... Yes - v did lose about 45 mins - but u see, v r real french ppl - v will find our own routes and v will travel on our own ;-))
And if u think that our day is over and u can start reading day 2 - think again.. Becuase, paris is famous for night life and night had only set in.. so, v will go to hotel - refresh ourselves and get ready for more walk - dont ask me how much v had walked that day... The plan for night - walk through the champ de ellyses road - mount road of paris.. u can see all major brands showroom there - louis vitton, gucci - u name it, u will get it.. We decided to start our walk from Nepolean's arch and then proceed towards the parliament / monument at the end of the road... It was about 1 in the morning ( ideally speaking - day 2 of our paris trip )... The road was damn busy - it was like 10 am traffic in mount road on a busy day ( or scene podanum endral, like 8am traffic in London Bridge !! ;-)... One thing v realized very soon - drivers in paris are different from drivers in Uk - in UK, i have noticed that ppl are more patient during drives and pedestrians are always given preference - not in paris.. after crossing about 3 or 4 roads, we realized how different it was from Uk.. The indian in us who was sleeping woke up - and then v didnt have much problems.. v started running whenever v came to the crossings.. after some time, when we reached the monument, we had to cross a road - with 6 lanes - Gautam decided it was too much for him.. He told us - 'Boss.. i am not crossing this road.. u ppl go and see it and come.. i am not coming'.. so, the dare devils ( nangadhan.. nangadhan !! ) crossed the road the saw the monument ( god (& the french ppl) only know what was written in that !! )..
It was about 2am.. We had walked for more than 2 hrs.. ( in the night alone - forget about walking in disney land ).. our legs were begging for rest... v decided to take a taxi.. when v waited for a taxi, v realized that things r lot different in paris.. u cannot stop a taxi in the main road- u shld go the taxi stop and wait.. if a cab driver sees u waiting in the spot, he will come and slow down and take u :-(( ( hmmm. chennai autos enga kai thattinalum nikkum !! kai thattalainallum nikkum ) and the nearest taxi point was about half an hour walk :-((... v slowly started walking - and the tubes will not be available after midnight ... paris - in night lights will look beautiful - not if u have been walking for 3 hrs continuosly.. and then v met a cab driver.. i wont forget his life - atleast not in this lifee... he looked like eddie murphy - v told him the address of our hotel - he didnt understand it - so, v wrote it down on a piece of paper and he laughed at us and said - 10 mins walk.. go straight.. V thanked him - discussed how auto ppl in chennai would have taken us for an hours ride and started walking... v walked, walked and walked - for more than half an hour - and then realized - the cab driver must have mistaken us for Maurice green and Carl lewis.. ( and after the bad experience. v will remember him as urang uttan x-( !! ) V reached the hotel and 3:30 am..
And sethu walked straight to gautam and said - tomm., as per the plan, v shld start at 8am.. Gautam fainted !!! and he never woke up until 8 am next day....
And the next day experience - in day 2
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Tour De Paris - Day 0
Friday:
The official day started in the same way. We were supposed to complete our Run 1 completion report on that day. We had done it already - just last minute revisions and all. At about 2PM, everything was finalized. So, till 4PM, relaxed a bit and left home. The train to Waterloo East was at half past 5. As planned, 3 of us ( Sethu, Gautham and Anand ) started with a French ;-)) beard.... Senthil was supposed to join us at Waterloo station. We reached Waterloo at around 6pm. The eurostar train was at 8pm. We searched the Waterloo station for samosas and had them hot :-)..
Almost all the major railway stations in UK will have the samosas :-))... We boarded the train at around 7:45 pm.
Experiences in Eurostar:
We had great expectations for the Eurostar. It definitely didnt stand up to our expectations - I should say. We were thinking that it will be like some bullet train or so - and that it would travel at 300 kmph or something like that. But that was not the case. 4 of us ( Gautam, Sethu, Senthil and Me ) had the tickets in one compartment and Jerome in another. Just like we see who is sitting next to us in the railway charts, we were curious about who will be sitting next to Jerome. Our ( the four of us ) fate had already been decided when we booked the tickets. Senthil and I will be sitting together and Gautam and Sethu in another seat. Gautam was already upset that he had to sit with Sethu. To add to his misery, he was allocated a beautiful window seat from which you can see only the window frame ;-)).... He started saying to Sethu ( who had paid for all the tickets ), 'Boss.. I am not paying you a penny for this seat !! '... Senthil and I sat together and I took the window seat.... Time was spent reading the Sportstar, listening to Chandramuki / Anniyan songs, Watching movie in Sethu's Laptop and playing Cricket 2005 :-))... It was good.. After about one and half hours, we started to get bored. The total travel time was 2 and half hours. We reached Paris at 11:30pm.. ( 1 hour time difference ).
The weather was definitely warm. We were thinking that we might need our pullovers - but it was hot when we wore our pullovers. We waited in a long queue for taxis, missed a couple of Merc taxis :-( and finally got into a Peugot !! ( The system works like this. Everyone stands in a queue. Whatever taxi comes up, you take it ). The time was close to 12:15 when we got the taxi ( the queue was a very long one indeed )... we reached the hotel at around 1am... Gautham, Senthil and I shared the 3 bedroom room in 6th Floor. Sethu and Jerome shared the 2 bedroom room in first floor. The schedule for the 3 days was like this.
Day 1 - Disneyland
Day 2 - Laure Museum, Sacré-Coeur, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower
Day 3 - Chateau De Versilles
Let us see how things go !!!
The official day started in the same way. We were supposed to complete our Run 1 completion report on that day. We had done it already - just last minute revisions and all. At about 2PM, everything was finalized. So, till 4PM, relaxed a bit and left home. The train to Waterloo East was at half past 5. As planned, 3 of us ( Sethu, Gautham and Anand ) started with a French ;-)) beard.... Senthil was supposed to join us at Waterloo station. We reached Waterloo at around 6pm. The eurostar train was at 8pm. We searched the Waterloo station for samosas and had them hot :-)..
Almost all the major railway stations in UK will have the samosas :-))... We boarded the train at around 7:45 pm.
Experiences in Eurostar:
We had great expectations for the Eurostar. It definitely didnt stand up to our expectations - I should say. We were thinking that it will be like some bullet train or so - and that it would travel at 300 kmph or something like that. But that was not the case. 4 of us ( Gautam, Sethu, Senthil and Me ) had the tickets in one compartment and Jerome in another. Just like we see who is sitting next to us in the railway charts, we were curious about who will be sitting next to Jerome. Our ( the four of us ) fate had already been decided when we booked the tickets. Senthil and I will be sitting together and Gautam and Sethu in another seat. Gautam was already upset that he had to sit with Sethu. To add to his misery, he was allocated a beautiful window seat from which you can see only the window frame ;-)).... He started saying to Sethu ( who had paid for all the tickets ), 'Boss.. I am not paying you a penny for this seat !! '... Senthil and I sat together and I took the window seat.... Time was spent reading the Sportstar, listening to Chandramuki / Anniyan songs, Watching movie in Sethu's Laptop and playing Cricket 2005 :-))... It was good.. After about one and half hours, we started to get bored. The total travel time was 2 and half hours. We reached Paris at 11:30pm.. ( 1 hour time difference ).
The weather was definitely warm. We were thinking that we might need our pullovers - but it was hot when we wore our pullovers. We waited in a long queue for taxis, missed a couple of Merc taxis :-( and finally got into a Peugot !! ( The system works like this. Everyone stands in a queue. Whatever taxi comes up, you take it ). The time was close to 12:15 when we got the taxi ( the queue was a very long one indeed )... we reached the hotel at around 1am... Gautham, Senthil and I shared the 3 bedroom room in 6th Floor. Sethu and Jerome shared the 2 bedroom room in first floor. The schedule for the 3 days was like this.
Day 1 - Disneyland
Day 2 - Laure Museum, Sacré-Coeur, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower
Day 3 - Chateau De Versilles
Let us see how things go !!!
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Easter Weekend - Day 2
Easter Weekend - Day 2
The plan for next day ( sunday ) was to visit Dover Castle & White Cliffs.....
I had looked into the time table - the train was at 8:56.
As usual, Anand the lazy guy - slept till 8am..
My guess is, senthil got ready by 7:30 am....
It was nice to have somebody waking u up every 5 mins, saying that v will be late and me making excuse - just 5 more mins pls.....
Finally i got up and got ready - v reached the station at 8:40...
But there was a big queue in front of the ticket counter :-(
and the day wasnt sunny either :-((.. it was windy and chilll.....
I chked my cellphones - v had 16 mins more.. i thought v can squeeze it...
bcos , if v miss this train, then, the v will not find the connecting trains at correct time and then, v will loose atleast 1hrs.... ( our plan was to reach dover by 11am )
I was casually glancing at the Time table displayed in the TV and i was surprised to see that the next train was at 9:52. ( What the hell happend to our 8:56 train then ??? )...
I checked my watch again - it was 8:50 and we were almost there at the ticket counter...
Then the annoucement came - 'he train for London Charing Cross will be arriving at Platform 1 at 9:50am and will be leaving at 9:52am ).... i was shocked. What had happened to my mobile... had it stopped working ? i grabbed senthil's arm and looked at his watch - it also read 8:50..
i checked his mobile - no change - 8:50... i asked the lady standing next to us - she said - The time is 9:50am - Yday night, we moved to british standard time from GMT...
Aha - Arambichittangaya Arambichttanga.... Senthil only said one thing - "Dei.. thoongikittu irukkum bodhu mudhugulla kuthitanga da"..
V had to revise our plans - no change in destination - but change in timings...
v reached the dover castle at 1pm..
Suthi parthom.....
Then - went to the GRAND thing - That was too good...
A walk in the Cliffs....
Chk out the snaps 1 2 3 4 5
It was a good experience - walking at the cliffs - with the sea 500 ft below you and just a few feet away from the edges... With IllayaRaja playing melody in your ears....
'Ilangathu veesudhae...." :-)
On a sunny day - the france border will be visible from that point..
These cliffs have protected the British coast for years from foreign invasion......
That was a good experience indeed.
Amji - ezhudhinadhu podhuma ?
Anand
The plan for next day ( sunday ) was to visit Dover Castle & White Cliffs.....
I had looked into the time table - the train was at 8:56.
As usual, Anand the lazy guy - slept till 8am..
My guess is, senthil got ready by 7:30 am....
It was nice to have somebody waking u up every 5 mins, saying that v will be late and me making excuse - just 5 more mins pls.....
Finally i got up and got ready - v reached the station at 8:40...
But there was a big queue in front of the ticket counter :-(
and the day wasnt sunny either :-((.. it was windy and chilll.....
I chked my cellphones - v had 16 mins more.. i thought v can squeeze it...
bcos , if v miss this train, then, the v will not find the connecting trains at correct time and then, v will loose atleast 1hrs.... ( our plan was to reach dover by 11am )
I was casually glancing at the Time table displayed in the TV and i was surprised to see that the next train was at 9:52. ( What the hell happend to our 8:56 train then ??? )...
I checked my watch again - it was 8:50 and we were almost there at the ticket counter...
Then the annoucement came - 'he train for London Charing Cross will be arriving at Platform 1 at 9:50am and will be leaving at 9:52am ).... i was shocked. What had happened to my mobile... had it stopped working ? i grabbed senthil's arm and looked at his watch - it also read 8:50..
i checked his mobile - no change - 8:50... i asked the lady standing next to us - she said - The time is 9:50am - Yday night, we moved to british standard time from GMT...
Aha - Arambichittangaya Arambichttanga.... Senthil only said one thing - "Dei.. thoongikittu irukkum bodhu mudhugulla kuthitanga da"..
V had to revise our plans - no change in destination - but change in timings...
v reached the dover castle at 1pm..
Suthi parthom.....
Then - went to the GRAND thing - That was too good...
A walk in the Cliffs....
Chk out the snaps 1 2 3 4 5
It was a good experience - walking at the cliffs - with the sea 500 ft below you and just a few feet away from the edges... With IllayaRaja playing melody in your ears....
'Ilangathu veesudhae...." :-)
On a sunny day - the france border will be visible from that point..
These cliffs have protected the British coast for years from foreign invasion......
That was a good experience indeed.
Amji - ezhudhinadhu podhuma ?
Anand
Saturday, April 09, 2005
-Easter Weekend - The Loooong Weekend - Day 1
Easter Weekend...
First planned destination - SWISS ( in Feb )!! :-))
Second Planned destination - Paris ( In Mar ) !! :-)
3rd Planned Destination ( 2 weeks before Easter ) - Scotland :-!
4th Planned destination ( 1 week before easter ) - London :-(
5th Planned destination ( just before easter ) - Tunbridge Wells :-((
Hmmm... On the start of long weekend, we realized that our environment was not available for testing. So, we had all 2 days off...
First Day:
I planned to go to london and meet V Senthil..
Meeting him after some 6 months or so... though I used to chat with him regularly ( after he came to UK ), this was the first time we were going to meet in UK...
We decided that we will do some sightseeing in london ( planned for tower museum, duck tours and London aquarium in that order)
The plan was to meet in London bridge station at 8:30am
I was damn sure abt senthil meeting me at the right time - because he is a sort of 'proper' guy...
I decided that I should also keep up the time and i decided to catch the 7:32am ( thats what I thought the train time was ) train from tunbridge wells...
When I went 5 mins early, the train was abt to leave ( the correct time was 7:28am - 2 mins on the other side of 7:30 !! ).... I got into the train and got the ticket inside the train.
At 8:15 I reached the london bridge station and met senthil as per the plan..
No changes in him at all - whatsoever....
We started to the London Tower Bridge - Took some snaps in the tower bridge
Then went to the London Tower Museum - Where we saw the Kohinoor !!!
After completing the sight seeing of Tower Museum - v were left with 2 choice...
Have lunch at McDonalds and go to Duck tours ( a amphibious tour - in road and thames !! ) and the aquarium ( supposed to be good ) or
Have lunch at Chennai Dosa ( because Chennai dosa was in East Ham and the travel will take atleast 1 hr ) and see the aquarium alone...
Finally - Our stomachs had the final say - We went to east ham and had Non-Veg Meals...
Though v r capable of cooking all the dishes that they served ;-), it was good food to taste....
Then, went to Aquarium - saw the JAWS !!!
Then, outside the aquarium , v saw something like Bunjee jumping....
But the best picture of the day - shld be BIG BEN - because the background was beautiful..
any comments from the audience - i know that you will argue that the photos in which i am there r the most beautiful ones - but once in a while, u have to give credit to big ben as well ;-)
it was not bunjee jumping - but jumping on a rubber sheet from some 20ft high...
v decided to try it out.. It was damn good :-))
It was like elastic ropes - so, we were bouncing off the rubber base - up and down - great :-)
That brought us to the close of the day's sightseeing.We returned to Tunbridge wells - Made some Tandoori chicken ;-) and watched some movie - guess lesa lesa songs and then went to sleep....
End of Day 1
First planned destination - SWISS ( in Feb )!! :-))
Second Planned destination - Paris ( In Mar ) !! :-)
3rd Planned Destination ( 2 weeks before Easter ) - Scotland :-!
4th Planned destination ( 1 week before easter ) - London :-(
5th Planned destination ( just before easter ) - Tunbridge Wells :-((
Hmmm... On the start of long weekend, we realized that our environment was not available for testing. So, we had all 2 days off...
First Day:
I planned to go to london and meet V Senthil..
Meeting him after some 6 months or so... though I used to chat with him regularly ( after he came to UK ), this was the first time we were going to meet in UK...
We decided that we will do some sightseeing in london ( planned for tower museum, duck tours and London aquarium in that order)
The plan was to meet in London bridge station at 8:30am
I was damn sure abt senthil meeting me at the right time - because he is a sort of 'proper' guy...
I decided that I should also keep up the time and i decided to catch the 7:32am ( thats what I thought the train time was ) train from tunbridge wells...
When I went 5 mins early, the train was abt to leave ( the correct time was 7:28am - 2 mins on the other side of 7:30 !! ).... I got into the train and got the ticket inside the train.
At 8:15 I reached the london bridge station and met senthil as per the plan..
No changes in him at all - whatsoever....
We started to the London Tower Bridge - Took some snaps in the tower bridge
Then went to the London Tower Museum - Where we saw the Kohinoor !!!
After completing the sight seeing of Tower Museum - v were left with 2 choice...
Have lunch at McDonalds and go to Duck tours ( a amphibious tour - in road and thames !! ) and the aquarium ( supposed to be good ) or
Have lunch at Chennai Dosa ( because Chennai dosa was in East Ham and the travel will take atleast 1 hr ) and see the aquarium alone...
Finally - Our stomachs had the final say - We went to east ham and had Non-Veg Meals...
Though v r capable of cooking all the dishes that they served ;-), it was good food to taste....
Then, went to Aquarium - saw the JAWS !!!
Then, outside the aquarium , v saw something like Bunjee jumping....
But the best picture of the day - shld be BIG BEN - because the background was beautiful..
any comments from the audience - i know that you will argue that the photos in which i am there r the most beautiful ones - but once in a while, u have to give credit to big ben as well ;-)
it was not bunjee jumping - but jumping on a rubber sheet from some 20ft high...
v decided to try it out.. It was damn good :-))
It was like elastic ropes - so, we were bouncing off the rubber base - up and down - great :-)
That brought us to the close of the day's sightseeing.We returned to Tunbridge wells - Made some Tandoori chicken ;-) and watched some movie - guess lesa lesa songs and then went to sleep....
End of Day 1
Welcome to UK - Senthil
Thank God !!
One more therincha jeevan in UK - V Senthil reached UK safely.
Waiting for prabhu anand now !!!
One more therincha jeevan in UK - V Senthil reached UK safely.
Waiting for prabhu anand now !!!
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Forwards - This is sent to you bcos somebody cares for you
There used to be so many fwds that I used to receive - messages on friendship / to save somebody's spouse who is suffering from a disease that only he/she has ( and the doctor community has never heard of it ) / fwds to make you smile / fwds to ensure that you receive god's grace
I never complain about the forwards - bcos of the simple reason - the last line will be ' You have received this forward because somebody wanted you to know this ' -definitely I appreciate that the person has spent time in sending it to me - if he selected my name from his address book, then he had spent considerable time in selecting names from address book and if he had typed it from memory - then great bcos he remembers my mail id...
Nowadays, i dont receive any forwards at all - well one thing is I cannot use client id for receiving forwards - but i guess i am missing the forwards... And about mails - Sometimes I am feeling happy when i dont get mails :-( - the reason - very simple.. it does not make me feel guilty that i haven't replied to mails... :-( i want to write a lot replies but somehow or the other i didnt do it... :-( things were pretty hectic and somehow i skipped mails and to make matters worse - i dont have access to gmail or yahoo... :-( so, my mailing habit has decreased a lot...
Hope that atleast in the near future i start mailing regularly...
Till my next mail ... sorry sorry.. blog..
c u
bye
Anand
I never complain about the forwards - bcos of the simple reason - the last line will be ' You have received this forward because somebody wanted you to know this ' -definitely I appreciate that the person has spent time in sending it to me - if he selected my name from his address book, then he had spent considerable time in selecting names from address book and if he had typed it from memory - then great bcos he remembers my mail id...
Nowadays, i dont receive any forwards at all - well one thing is I cannot use client id for receiving forwards - but i guess i am missing the forwards... And about mails - Sometimes I am feeling happy when i dont get mails :-( - the reason - very simple.. it does not make me feel guilty that i haven't replied to mails... :-( i want to write a lot replies but somehow or the other i didnt do it... :-( things were pretty hectic and somehow i skipped mails and to make matters worse - i dont have access to gmail or yahoo... :-( so, my mailing habit has decreased a lot...
Hope that atleast in the near future i start mailing regularly...
Till my next mail ... sorry sorry.. blog..
c u
bye
Anand
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Akkarai Cheemai Vs Sorgamae Endralum
How much I appreciate the poets - i am not sure who the poet was on those 2 occasions - but they have captured the different moods of people felt by people when they are not in their home town..
If you are in a corporate jungle, the HR will use this as a reason when they are moving you from your familiar place - 'If you are in the same project for 2 years, that will become your comfort zone and people in comfort zone never learn much' - I am not going to enter into an argument about this - because the primary aim of my blog is not to have arguments but to share experiences / ideas.. ( again - another chance for an argument - how can we share ideas unless we have arguments ;-) ) - so, arguments are welcome !! ( theliva kozhapittanaa ?? )
Ok.. coming back to the main topic - 'Akkarai Cheemai Azhaginilae'...
a small flashback - i will never forget the way i felt when i had landed in london and came out of the flight - ONSITE - a dream of almost all the s/w professionals - fulfilled.. I had just smiled to myself.. I still remember - how i took photos of green hills on my way to tunbridge wells from london - how different the whole world looked.... to put it in simple terms 'Akkarai Cheemai Azhaginilae Manam ada kandanae - Pudhumaiyilae mayangugiraen' ( just play those words in your mind in yesudas's voice - u will love it :-) .....
The roads were clean - the hills beautiful - the climate pleasant.. Nobody would have believed that it was a december afternoon in UK.... But thanks to tube light ( thats what I am calling Sun in UK as - it is just providing some light... I am not able to feel the heat at all :-( ).. So different...
When i left india, i thought it will be snowing in UK during christmas and all ( thanks to all those Enid Blyton novels - which will always talk abt snow duirng christmas and new year).. But atlast snow came in February last weekend ( Pudhu vellai mazhai ingu pozhigindradhu...!! )...
Now, to the second song... the road is clean, hills beautiful, climate pleasant, wonderful people -
but something is missing...
dont ask me what - but something is missing....
thats when you appreciate the poet for the song ' Sorgamae endralum adhu namma orai pola varuma -ada en nadu endralum adhu nam naatukku edeeguma..'...
Hmmm - the english here kekkum podhu - 'desam muzhudhum pesum mozhigal tamizh pol inithiduma'.....
When you are shivering in the cold, if you think how hot chennai will be and how the sun will the GREAT in chennai ... hmmm.... its a long sigh !!!
Today when I called my mother she was saying that they had hired a driver to drive the car to some temples. I asked her whether they still have a opening for me. she said that my opening was always available ( as a driver) but she cant pay me in the level of my offshore salary - but i feel that i will be much happier being the driver there, driving my parents to places - rather than coding ( pls dont read my post Nothing Technical abt it - regd my work ) here !!! Dont tell me this looks like some forward abt life in onsite.. but thats how life is !!!
See u ppl until my next post....
anand
If you are in a corporate jungle, the HR will use this as a reason when they are moving you from your familiar place - 'If you are in the same project for 2 years, that will become your comfort zone and people in comfort zone never learn much' - I am not going to enter into an argument about this - because the primary aim of my blog is not to have arguments but to share experiences / ideas.. ( again - another chance for an argument - how can we share ideas unless we have arguments ;-) ) - so, arguments are welcome !! ( theliva kozhapittanaa ?? )
Ok.. coming back to the main topic - 'Akkarai Cheemai Azhaginilae'...
a small flashback - i will never forget the way i felt when i had landed in london and came out of the flight - ONSITE - a dream of almost all the s/w professionals - fulfilled.. I had just smiled to myself.. I still remember - how i took photos of green hills on my way to tunbridge wells from london - how different the whole world looked.... to put it in simple terms 'Akkarai Cheemai Azhaginilae Manam ada kandanae - Pudhumaiyilae mayangugiraen' ( just play those words in your mind in yesudas's voice - u will love it :-) .....
The roads were clean - the hills beautiful - the climate pleasant.. Nobody would have believed that it was a december afternoon in UK.... But thanks to tube light ( thats what I am calling Sun in UK as - it is just providing some light... I am not able to feel the heat at all :-( ).. So different...
When i left india, i thought it will be snowing in UK during christmas and all ( thanks to all those Enid Blyton novels - which will always talk abt snow duirng christmas and new year).. But atlast snow came in February last weekend ( Pudhu vellai mazhai ingu pozhigindradhu...!! )...
Now, to the second song... the road is clean, hills beautiful, climate pleasant, wonderful people -
but something is missing...
dont ask me what - but something is missing....
thats when you appreciate the poet for the song ' Sorgamae endralum adhu namma orai pola varuma -ada en nadu endralum adhu nam naatukku edeeguma..'...
Hmmm - the english here kekkum podhu - 'desam muzhudhum pesum mozhigal tamizh pol inithiduma'.....
When you are shivering in the cold, if you think how hot chennai will be and how the sun will the GREAT in chennai ... hmmm.... its a long sigh !!!
Today when I called my mother she was saying that they had hired a driver to drive the car to some temples. I asked her whether they still have a opening for me. she said that my opening was always available ( as a driver) but she cant pay me in the level of my offshore salary - but i feel that i will be much happier being the driver there, driving my parents to places - rather than coding ( pls dont read my post Nothing Technical abt it - regd my work ) here !!! Dont tell me this looks like some forward abt life in onsite.. but thats how life is !!!
See u ppl until my next post....
anand
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Nothing Technical About it....
Today, i went to view my blog and just like that decided to click on amji's blog link to visit his page.
Two things stcuk me... his list of "To Do's" - my god !!
How much change our lives have changed in the past 2 or 3 years... 2 or 3 years back it will always be the same ( almost... I will have a stray 'study' entry and he will have stray entry for 'movie' ) - Now, if i prepare a To do list, it will have the following entries - Call up offshore, call home, buy some groceries - otherwise no dinner :-( )......
God - it reminds me how much i am moving away from a technical line...
I sometimes wonder whether my job will ever be TRULY TECHNICAL !!!!
hmmm. ennavo ezhudha arambichu - engiyo poiduchu... but surprisingly, i didnt digress much...
amji had introduced a new link in his blog for my blog...
I was very happy ( hmmm... enaikkum amji-kku proactive steps oda reactive steps dhan pudikkum )...
just bcos i included his link in my page, he has included my link in his page ( actually, i included his link not bcos he is friend - at that time, i couldn't remember any good links !!! thats the plain fact ;-)
And when i said i was very happy - its bcos when you click on the link, instead of going to my blog, it will take you to 'Rich Burridge's ' blog - hmmmm... a techie's page for a non-techie :-(
But I am not very sure whether Rich Burridge will be a very happy person...
Amji - pls correct your mistakes !!
Hope my next blog will be something for everyone !!!
Anand
Two things stcuk me... his list of "To Do's" - my god !!
How much change our lives have changed in the past 2 or 3 years... 2 or 3 years back it will always be the same ( almost... I will have a stray 'study' entry and he will have stray entry for 'movie' ) - Now, if i prepare a To do list, it will have the following entries - Call up offshore, call home, buy some groceries - otherwise no dinner :-( )......
God - it reminds me how much i am moving away from a technical line...
I sometimes wonder whether my job will ever be TRULY TECHNICAL !!!!
hmmm. ennavo ezhudha arambichu - engiyo poiduchu... but surprisingly, i didnt digress much...
amji had introduced a new link in his blog for my blog...
I was very happy ( hmmm... enaikkum amji-kku proactive steps oda reactive steps dhan pudikkum )...
just bcos i included his link in my page, he has included my link in his page ( actually, i included his link not bcos he is friend - at that time, i couldn't remember any good links !!! thats the plain fact ;-)
And when i said i was very happy - its bcos when you click on the link, instead of going to my blog, it will take you to 'Rich Burridge's ' blog - hmmmm... a techie's page for a non-techie :-(
But I am not very sure whether Rich Burridge will be a very happy person...
Amji - pls correct your mistakes !!
Hope my next blog will be something for everyone !!!
Anand
Sunday, March 06, 2005
This Weekend
this week was sort of free for me...
i asked subbu to come to tunbridge wells.. he chked tickets and couldnt get return ticket.. i chked and i got bus tickes... so, here i am in nottingham, mailing u ppl after a heavy lunch of sambar, rasam, aviyual :-) listening to 'Sorgamae endralum....' song ... 'namma orrai pola oorum illa'....
regd the the journey, it was interesting... nottingham is abt 5 hrs from my place in bus.. since it was last min plannin, i didnt get any tickets in train ( train takes only 3.5 hrs )... so, i decided to take train till london and then a bus to nottingham and the bus was at 6:30,... i have to switch from railway station to bus station in london. i didnt have the faintest idea abt the distance / time... since they looked close in the map, i decided that they must be cose and that i can reach in 10 mins... so, my plan was like this... 4:57 - catch train to london... 5:55 reach london.. catch underground tube - reach bus stand in 15 mins.. 6:10 and then sit in the bus :-) ,... all very good for plannin.. the train was late in tunbridge by 5 mins... when i reached london, it was 6 and i had to switch 2 underground trains and i missed both within seconds ( freq will be like 1 in 4 mins ) - and i reached bus stand and when i looked into the notice board and found the platform and ran to the platform 14.. the entrance of platform had a big clock which said 18:32.. shit :-(... but namba mentality enga pogum.. i went to the time keeper and asked him.. 'has 6:30 bus to nottingham left ?' he said that it had left.. then, i used my next question ' is there any hope of me catching it ;-) ' ( i meant whether it will be waiting in some signal near entrance etc etc so that kai katti eridalam-nnu). he said, u r late and how do u expect me to stop the bus for u :-(... i couldnt reply.. i changed my tickets to the next bus ( 8:30 :-( ).. hmm. when the bus came, i was the first to sit inside the bus at 8:20.. at 8:32, the bus hadnt started.. i wanted to go and hit the time keeper now :-(...
it wasnt until 8:40 before the bus left the stop :-( ( hmmm. ellam namba neram ) and i reached nottingham at midnight - had dinner - chatted till 3... hmmmm. thamizhan pesalai-na sethu poidduvan ;-))
viravil - with more updates
i asked subbu to come to tunbridge wells.. he chked tickets and couldnt get return ticket.. i chked and i got bus tickes... so, here i am in nottingham, mailing u ppl after a heavy lunch of sambar, rasam, aviyual :-) listening to 'Sorgamae endralum....' song ... 'namma orrai pola oorum illa'....
regd the the journey, it was interesting... nottingham is abt 5 hrs from my place in bus.. since it was last min plannin, i didnt get any tickets in train ( train takes only 3.5 hrs )... so, i decided to take train till london and then a bus to nottingham and the bus was at 6:30,... i have to switch from railway station to bus station in london. i didnt have the faintest idea abt the distance / time... since they looked close in the map, i decided that they must be cose and that i can reach in 10 mins... so, my plan was like this... 4:57 - catch train to london... 5:55 reach london.. catch underground tube - reach bus stand in 15 mins.. 6:10 and then sit in the bus :-) ,... all very good for plannin.. the train was late in tunbridge by 5 mins... when i reached london, it was 6 and i had to switch 2 underground trains and i missed both within seconds ( freq will be like 1 in 4 mins ) - and i reached bus stand and when i looked into the notice board and found the platform and ran to the platform 14.. the entrance of platform had a big clock which said 18:32.. shit :-(... but namba mentality enga pogum.. i went to the time keeper and asked him.. 'has 6:30 bus to nottingham left ?' he said that it had left.. then, i used my next question ' is there any hope of me catching it ;-) ' ( i meant whether it will be waiting in some signal near entrance etc etc so that kai katti eridalam-nnu). he said, u r late and how do u expect me to stop the bus for u :-(... i couldnt reply.. i changed my tickets to the next bus ( 8:30 :-( ).. hmm. when the bus came, i was the first to sit inside the bus at 8:20.. at 8:32, the bus hadnt started.. i wanted to go and hit the time keeper now :-(...
it wasnt until 8:40 before the bus left the stop :-( ( hmmm. ellam namba neram ) and i reached nottingham at midnight - had dinner - chatted till 3... hmmmm. thamizhan pesalai-na sethu poidduvan ;-))
viravil - with more updates
Friday, February 25, 2005
I will also try bloggin
Vanakkam.....
Blog-pandradhu-nnu mudivu panniyachu..
Enna ezhudhardhu-nu theriyalai..
Naanum edhavadhu ezhudhunum-nu thonuchu... :-))
Ok- Id create panniyachu... appuram enna pandradhu....
yosichu parthal enna ezhudhardhu-nnu theriyalai..
adhanal, yosikkamal ezhudhuraen :-)
Thanx to amji for telling me abt blogs...
( Amji's page - Amji's Core Dump ;-) )
Viraivil veli varugiradhu - Leed's Castle-il Anand
Thiraikadhai / Vasanam / Direction / Padalgal / Music / Produced by - Anand
Anand :-)
Blog-pandradhu-nnu mudivu panniyachu..
Enna ezhudhardhu-nu theriyalai..
Naanum edhavadhu ezhudhunum-nu thonuchu... :-))
Ok- Id create panniyachu... appuram enna pandradhu....
yosichu parthal enna ezhudhardhu-nnu theriyalai..
adhanal, yosikkamal ezhudhuraen :-)
Thanx to amji for telling me abt blogs...
( Amji's page - Amji's Core Dump ;-) )
Viraivil veli varugiradhu - Leed's Castle-il Anand
Thiraikadhai / Vasanam / Direction / Padalgal / Music / Produced by - Anand
Anand :-)
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