The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

This poem by Robert Frost will forever be close to many people's life..

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Cars - the Top 5 close to my heart.....

Though I am not a perfect automobile fanatic, Cars have always been a fascinating thing to me, right from my childhood. Today, I was thinking about my favorite car models and here are the top 5 that immediately flashed inside my mind:


1. Maruti 800

Seeing Maruti 800 in this list might sound funny to few people, today. But to me cars meant Maruti 800s only during my school days. In the early 1990's only very few people in our town had cars and all of them were Maruti 800s. Then started my love for the Maruti cars - which is still the largest selling name plate in the Indian market.

At that age, All I wanted was to buy a Maruti 800 car, when I grow big. Something, that didn't happen till today :-(

2. Tata Indica

I started liking this car, when I first heard that all components for this Tata Indica were manufactured in India!!! I don't belong to the Swadesi group, but still I can't understand why this fact, made me like this car.

Moreover, personally I feel Tata Indica provides more interior space than any other hatchback cars available in India.


3. McLaren

The reason why I like this car, is indeed very funny to me. This is the car I liked the most in the computer game "Need for Speed"!!!!!

Even in that game, there were other cars with better performance(!!!) and designs, but still this was very close to my heart.

Hope I'll see at least one McLaren car in my lifetime.


4. Honda Civic

This is my latest crush. First time, I saw this gigantic car near a traffic signal in Chennai. It literally appeared like a ship to me then - I know this is too much - but thats what I felt then :-)

Later after reading/hearing more and more good things about this car, did increase my fascination about this model.

Hope I ll buy (or at least drive) an Honda Civic car in the future.



5. Toyota Fortuner

I like this car- just for one single reason - its Appearance!!!!

If the Honda Civic appeared like a ship to me, this SUV from Toyota, appears like a beast (especially a bison) to me. Once I had an opportunity to just sit in the driver seat of this Fortuner and phewww I have to agree this car is indeed a beast!!!

So whats the top 5 cars that come in your mind????

Jab We Met....

If I remember well, it was in the month of November, 2005. I was returning from Melbourne, Australia to Chennai, after an official trip to one of our clients place there. Though a busy one, the blue beaches, the scenic locations, the beautiful buildings and almost everything there, made that one week of stay in Australia - a wonderful life time experience.

Just as I entered into the Melbourne Airport, I saw her for the first time. She was beautiful or should accept that she was something more than that! She looked like an Indian girl whose age should be somewhere around 20. She was struggling to carry her heavy luggages. It looked as if she was carrying all her furniture back to India.

Few things happen involuntarily - especially when a young beautiful lady needs an help. I helped her move her luggage and then to keep them over the conveyor belt. She smiled and said, "Thank You!" and I replied "Welcome!" and with a smile, I left the place to get my boarding pass.

Then it was inside the airplane, I was searching for my seat, and again to my surprise she was standing there right near my seat - this time struggling to push her big hand baggage inside the small upper loft, there. Again, involuntarily I helped her.

"Hey... you... once again.. (with a smile) Thank You very much".

The excitement in her mind was obvious all over her face. After keeping our baggage we got settled in our seats. Her seat was near to the window and mine next to that.

"So... are you returning back to India?", she started the conversation.

"yeah... came here for a business visit. just a short visit. You??", I said.

"yeah mine too was a short visit,. I am a model and came here for a calendar photo shoot", as she was saying this I was wondering how her luggage would have been if she had stayed for months.

"oh just a short stay...!!! that's why you had so little bags", We laughed at this.

then we introduced ourselves to each other. She spoke a lot about her modeling career, the ads she had done before, why she was traveling alone and lot more. Honestly, I knew nothing about the ads she had done before, but lied to her saying this was nice and that was wonderful.

I have met few chatterboxes earlier in my life, but my God she was superior to all of them, in fact superior even if all of them were combined together. She was the non-stop chatterbox!!!

"So whats your next goal, the Miss.World or the Miss.Universe ?", I asked her.

"Nope. Not that. I want to get into the film industry", she wanted to get there directly. All Miss Worlds and Universes did the same right!!

"Can, you sit in this seat and give me your seat?", I was surprised with this question from her. I thought everyone would like to sit near the window seat (though everything looks blue from the plane), but this crazy girl wanted to sit in the seat near the aisle.

Before I could answer, she continued, "I am tired. If I sit there I can put my legs outside and sit comfortably". That made sense to me.

We changed our seats. She sat a bit cross, putting her legs slightly out in the aisle and resting herself comfortably on my left shoulder. She had become a very good friend then, so I didn't tell her anything. Again she started her talks. This time she asked about my profession, my company, my family and another set of blah.. blah.. blah. I think, the talks about me wasn't so interesting to her, very soon there was silence all over. I looked at her. She was sleeping. All I said to myself was "God must be Great!!!"

I liked that silence after the storm. Browsed through the in-flight magazine and after sometime, even I slept.

I think, we were flying somewhere over the Singapore or Malaysia then, suddenly there was a small jerk on my left side. I think someone had ran over her legs and that woke her up. So did I. Only then, I think she realized that all this while she was comfortably sleeping on my shoulder. She adjusted herself and sat straight.

"Did I bother you much?" she asked me as I was stretching my left arm.

"Not really, you aren't so heavy when compared to your luggage".

"Hey.. that's not too heavy. It has only few dresses that I bought here", with a small pause, she continued, "Hey did you go out for any shopping ???

oooooph... it was again back to one square. The non-stop chatterbox started again. It continued, continued and continued till we reached the Chennai Airport. Though she wasn't boring, but she was talking tooooooooo much. I really felt sorry for her family and friends.

So finally, came the Chennai Airport. She had to take another flight to Bangalore which was her home town. We said bye to each other and left. Only on my way to home in the auto-rickshaw, I realized how badly I missed the presence of the chatterbox - a sweet chatterbox. Long flight trips are always boring, but she made this one an interesting one.

We didn't contact each other after that. Years rolled by and I had almost forgotten about her.

Last month, I was watching the IPL match between CSK and RCB in Chepauk Cricket Stadium, with my friends. Only then I noticed that. The cameramen were focusing on a young lady in RCB's red t-shirt and flagging the RCB flag. First I didn't realize her, but when her face was shown in close-up in that wide screen, I knew it was her.

With excitement, I shouted, "Hey... she is a model. She is Deepika. I know her well!!!". My friends were starring at me, as if I told them India had got independence.

"Yes she is Deepika. Ms. Deepika Padukone. She is not just a model, she is a very popular bollywood actress now and of course we all know her", my friend replied.

She is a popular actress now!!! That sounded great to me.

I don't watch many movies and I think, I had never watched an Hindi movie in the last decade. So it isn't a surprise that I didn't know that there was a popular actress called Deepika Padukone - the same young lady I met in that journey.

I was happy that she had made it to the dream industry. Next time, when she was shown in that TV screen, she was talking to a smart young guy. He must be his boy friend or an actor - I don't know.

I saw her talking.. talking and talking.!!! She is still the same non-stop chatterbox :-)

images from: http://www.gettyimages.com/

...and this is damn serious!!!!

There is a popular saying that goes like this "Time heals what a reason cannot". Yes, that's the power of time. But unfortunately, sometimes even some genuine things get lost/forgotten in the same course of time. That is really bad. (Just like how we all have forgotten our super cow-boy hero Ramarajan)

Well, being a common-man, I cannot turn the whole world upside down to save these things. But still today I can record as many good things I can in the internet, for the future generations to search, read, admire and why not even celebrate.

Here is one such attempt to preserve a truth in the history and that truth is - I am a Cricket Player!!!

I know some of you cannot tolerate this. Check the below image to see how I was portrayed in our team's website (for the intra-company cricket tournament)


Still you don't believe me. Just see the below picture to see a sample of how well I bowled on that day.

The batsman, even after trying to play like tennis, couldn't touch the ball with his bat. Don't miss the terror expressions in the runner's and umpire's faces. You believe it or not - the truth is always truth - I am a cricket player... cricket player... cricket player!!!

Well, if you want to know why I didn't bat and just stopped with bowling. Here is the history for that.

Chennai boy steals Rs. 8 lakhs from his home to buy a luxury car..

This is an interesting incident that had happened in Chennai, which I read in a newspaper yesterday:

A young boy, from Chennai, aged only 16 had stolen Rs. 8 lakhs from his own house to buy a luxury car. The family already had 3 cars, but the parents didn't allow their boy to drive the cars, because of his age.

This boy stole Rs. 8 lakhs from the home and with some help from their house driver, he bought a new car, registered in the drivers name. It seems that every day ,after school, this boy along with his girl friends, used to drive his new car all around the city. Then he will park the car at the driver's place and go back to his home.

Whats more funny in this story is that, only after few months the parents realized about some big amount of money missing from their home and sought the help from police. Chennai police, on their investigation, found that the driver had only recently bought a luxurious car. When the driver was treated in the police way, this entire story had come out.

Dairy Milk Vs Nestle Munch : Ad War

Fighting with advertisements is not new in the Indian consumer market. First we saw two cola companies making ads against each others, then came two hot beverage products doing this and now its the turn for the chocolates - Dairy Milk vs Nestle Munch. 

First the Dairy Milk came with their campaign - Celebrate Month's 1st day with Dariy Milk.

and for the above advertisement Nestle Munch have come up with this reply punch - One can eat Munch even on 2nd, 3rd and everyday of a month

So What's next? Tomorrow Dairy Milk will surely come up with another reply to this Munch and when this cycles continues, its the real good time for those two ad agencies!!! 

Personally, I like the Nestle Munch ad - Very short and nice one when compared to the lengthy (though not-so-bad) Dairy Milk ad.

Cost of a cigarettes pack is $23,148,855,308,184,500 !!!

This incident is really funny!!! Here is the summary of the incident...

Josh Muszynski, from New Hampshire bought a pack of cigarettes in a store using his credit card. A few hours later, back at home, when he checked his online bank account, he was shocked to see the amount that was charged for that single pack of cigarettes. $23,148,855,308,184,500 was charged for that.

Yes 23 Quadrillion Dollars!!!!

Göran Andersson, a member of stackoverflow.com, seemed to have cracked this bug.

According to him, this huge value when converted into cents becomes 2314885530818450000 and then again when converted to Hexadecimal becomes 2020 2020 2020 1250.

"20" is the code for space in Hexadecimal which means 6 white spaces before the actual cost have caused this error.

I don't know if the cost of a pack of cigarettesin New Hampshire is $46.88 but if Göran is right, then one fact is sure - Developing silly bugs is a Universal pattern!!!

Chennai traffic and Pollution

Every time when I drive in Chennai, I see at least one out of ten vehicles emitting too much of smoke. Most of these vehicles just look like the popular Kosu Marundhu Vandi (Mosquito Fog Truck)

We all talk about the health problems because of smoking in public places but no one seems to be bothered about the equally dangerous hazards with this vehicle smoke.

Its really sad to see even the vehicles that are used for commercial purpose (autos, sumos, taxis), in such bad conditions. Their owners should be kicked off. They earn all their bread and butter from these vehicles, but still they don't bother anything about the vehicle (and the environment).

This is yet another problem, where the public should realize their responsibilities.

hopes for change....

Normal food became Fast Food!
5 days long cricket matches changed to ODIs and then to T20s!!!
Lengthy mails changed to SMSes

Almost everything have changed (in fact shortened) for the comfort of people.

In this line, the next big change that I want is shortened tamil movies.

In the recent times, almost all the movies that I watched, was worth to watch only for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. There was stuff only for that duration. For the remaining parts, the directors really didn't know what to show and it was absolute mokkai.

It will really be good to the audience if these people break the normal 2 1/2 hours rule and make some real good movies with the little good things they have.

Lets hope for the change..

That Crazy thing called MONEY!!!!

Everytime when I have little money in excess, I will never find one single way to spend that usefully.

and on another day when there is some real useful and urgent need for money, that crazy idiot will not be in hand.

well to be really honest, its not the money that is crazy. Its me who is really really crazy when it comes to money management.

Hope I get better in future!!!
Nambikai Thaan epavumae Vazhkai [:-)]

Special Thanks to all my Friends, who were able to help me, even during such month ends.

image from : http://www.flickr.com/photos/mybigtrip/2954904100/

Symptoms of Poor Planning

Symptoms of software development with poor planning :

1. You ll have hardly one week for the code freeze but still 3/4th of the Do To list are yet to be started.
2. Even after working for several hours nothing seems to be like working.
3. Your family members say you are not spending enough time with them.
4. Even the most friendly Boss will start his Coo-Coo status update queries.

Right from my childhood I have this problem. Be it an examination or the last day for submitting the assignments or the project deadline, I always suffer at the last minute.

Learn from the mistakes of others; You won't live long enough to make them all.

@pratheeswaran

Paasathuku Kannu illae...

Yesterday evening, suddenly my mother told me that I have gone thin in the recent times and surprisingly my better half was nodding her head to accept what my mother had said.

but the truth is that, the trousers that were correctly fitting me, one month ago, are very tight now. I hope they weren't making fun of me.

Shyaam in Ungalil yaar adutha Prabu Deva!!!

I was watching this program - "Ungalil yaar adhutha Prabhu Deva" in Vijay TV, this weekend. Again this is another reality dance show and this time Vijay TV is searching for the replacement(!!!) for Prabhu Deva.

Not only the title was funny, their choice of Actor Shyam as one of the judges for this show is more ridiculous. It is not that this guy should come as a judge for any reality show. The way he was giving his judgment was so irritating.

For no reasons, the great dancer inside Shyaam was shouting at every contestants. I don't know if this guy will perform better if given the same one week time and the same practice.

I think the TV channel would have asked him to make at least two people cry for every week - so that they can show those footage and increase the TRPs.

After seeing this guy as the judge, now I feel our Namitha was far better as the judge :-)

Some years back there was a singing competition in Jaya TV in which singer SPB was the judge. SPB was fantastic for that job.

.....!!!!

Got Married!!!!

Yes! I m a Caged Lion now...

I wanted to write about this long time back - in fact, before our marriage itself - but was held up a lot at that time.

Gomathi and I got married on November 3, 2008 @ Chennai., with the blessings of parents, relatives and friends. Life after marrige is really Great!!!

----------

The Andamanz...

We went to the Andaman Islands after our marriage. If compared with the dirty beaches here in Chennai, the beaches in Andaman are real heaven.

Our long time desire to fly in an aeroplane and to travel by ship got fulfilled in this trip. The trip was fantastic.

----------

The Mumbai Attack...

Another sad incident in the recent times. As a normal citizen, I can only pray, such incidents should never happen in future.

The Indian News channels used this incident as an opportunity to increase their TRPs.

By the way, why some of them were searching for Raj Thakre during this attack? May be they wanted to spoil the already spoiled situation.

----------

Varanam Ayiram

The first half of the movie was good and the second half was boring. Surya's acting was good. He had put in plenty of efforts for this movie, but nothing of that was needed for this story.

I have a feeling that some other actor should have played that father's role.

When compared to her other movies, Sameera Reddy looked more graceful in this movie.

----------

back @ work...

back to work after 3 weeks break. Its almost one week, since I have reported back at work, but still haven't pulled even a single nail. Trying to figure out the first nail for a loooooooong time.

Hope I will find that soon :-)

Done...!!!!!!

NOTE:
If you are in some hurry or don't want to waste few minuetes, kindly skip to the bottom line section of this post.

AIM:
To measure the mileage of my bike - Hero Honda Passion Plus.

OBSERVATIONS:
Odometer reading when the fuel fell to Reserve level (D1) : 24376.2 kms.
Amount paid for the petrol filled in the nearby bunk : Rs. 100.00
Cost of 1 litre petrol : Rs. 57.60
Odometer reading when the fuel fell to Reserve level, next time (D2) : 24506.8 kms.


CALCULATIONS:

Quantity of Petrol filled : Amount paid/Cost of Petrol
= 100/57.61
= 1.74 L

Distance traveled for 1.74 L of Petrol : D2-D1
= 24506.8 - 24376.2
= 130.6 Km

Distance travelled for 1 L of Petrol : Distance Travelled/Quantity of Petrol
= 130.6/1.74
= 75.06 km

RESULT:
Mileage of the bike = 75* KMPL (aprx.)

*conditions apply
Testing time : mostly around 11 am and 10 pm.
Max speed : 40-50 km/hr
No pillion passenger


Bottom Line:

• Mileage of my bike is 75* KMPL (aprx.) - need to check again : bike & my eyes [:)]
• Above section of this post is just a sample on How to answer a 12 marks question, with just knowing a single word in the whole text book (image - as usual to fill the space)
• This can happen to you, if you stay for too long in the office, on a friday evening, without any valid reason/work.