Hearty Congrats Ani

I had mentioned in one of my former posts about the Microsoft recruitment that happened on this Woman's day March 8th. And hey today happy to say one of my friends, Anitha got into MS. Yaa the entire herculean process, guess with some 3 technical rounds that followed the written test. Happy for you Ani. This gal has got a rare mix of talent and hardwork. Should say she has been an inspiration all the way. What runs in almost all our logins in lab is her programs. Well it was not that which inspired me, it was her out-and-out commitment in giving her best shot even if it is anything of less value. For eg. a paper presentation , an assignment or just a problem given for homework for that matter. TCS gotta lose a talented and devoted future employee...haha... Wish you all success Ani. Guess you would remember this Woman's day 4ever. N hey happy 'Coding for Bill'.

A Fanatic's Minutes Of Paradise

It was to celebrate Times Of India launch of it's Chennai Edition and who else could have made the event big than the 'Mozart Of Madras', A.R.Rahman. The circulation of Times Of India had started on 14th April and there was a free pass for the 'A.R.Rahman Changing Notes Concert-20th April' given for each TOI paper you buy that day. The free passes were meant to be a part of the standing gallery. The concert was held on St. George's Stadium, Poonamale yesterday, the 20th. Me and four of my friends reached the place by 6 pm. The stadium was right opposite to Pachayappa's college and I came to know there was a traffic block right from 5, nearly 40,000 people were present. We gotta stand in one corner of the standing gallery, from where the performing podium was just about visible. One of my friends was gasping and the other saying there might be a stampede. For me it was ' ANYTHING FOR THE MAN'. Someone who had enchanted all of us right from his Roja to his Jodhaa Akhbar. My ardor for ARR music came quite late, approx 4 yrs back when I joined college. Bored and bugged with the mammoth sized Engg books, I started engaging myself with music. The kick off was with R.D.Burman and slowly I moved on to collect almost all filmy songs, old and new; tamil and hindi. My weekends helped me make my computer a real juke box. It was then I began listening to ARR more, I was amazed to see the change he had made in MUSIC, pure innovation, and excellent modulation. The song Chinna Chinna Aasai(Dil Hain Chota Sa) from Roja, a master's first piece and very much a masterpiece. The mix in instruments, first interlude would be guitar whereas the second one would be violin, sheer transition skills. The mix in the flute and guitar, the folk sounds and the use of natural sounds, chime instrument for the bell sound, it was celestial. So many instruments in one song, all that to get that village feel. From then on I have garnered almost all his songs till date. Khamosh raath's silence to the Azzem-O-Shaan Shehensha's beats. It was a wish to see him perform live or to see atleast one of his recording sessions. Standing in a crowd of thousands, for the first time I didn't mind the B.O, the dust. One of my friends frowned at me and I smiled back. You see it was bliss for me. But yaa I wished there could have been an IPL match in Chennai yesterday. Atleast some percentage of the crowd in St. George's Ground would have come down. It was past 6.30, repeated display of the promo of TOI launch flashed on LCD projectors. I asked my friend impatiently, ' Where is my guy??' She was like ' Really Ramya who is he..?' I said who else... my Rahman, they all gave me a dirty look.

By 7pm striking varied colored lights flashed on the stage and there was this roaring by the crowd signaling the arrival of the Maestro. Within few minutes he took stage, dressed in white and black. Ya, I could see him though from far. Making my day and that of other Rahmaniacs. ' Jaage hain dher thak hamein kuch dher sone dho thodi se raat aur hai subah tho hone dho, aadhe adhure khwaab jo pure na ho sake, ek bhaar phir se neend meinwoh khwaab bhone dho... ' he got going with these beautiful verses by Gulzar from Guru. The crowd was singing along. Then came the energy-packed ' Ella Pugazhum Oruvan Oruvanake' and the galore of us joining him in the chorus 'Munnal Munnal vaada'. Next came Shankar with ' Endrendum Punnagai'. Everyone, Shankar, Hariharan, Karthik, Naresh Iyer, Mohammed Aslam, Sivamani, Blaaze, Javed Ali, Karthik, Tanvi, Madhushree, Chinmayi, Nithyashree, Sadhna Sargam and few more singers( I couldn't recognize few faces). I wished Shreya Ghoshal was there. The other songs that made the crowd wind off were Varaha nadhikkarai oram, Vaji vaji, Barso re, Girlfriend, Rubaroo, Enn Solla Pogiraai, Kehne Kho Jashn-E-Bahara hain, Kannodu Kaanbadhellam( Nithyashree started on a classical note,it was my favorite of the few I heard) NewYork Nagaram, Munbe Vaa. By 8.30 we had to make a move, having promised our parents to get home by 9. I missed many numbers, esp Khwaja mere Khwaja, In Lamhon Ke Dhaaman, DilSe, Chayya Chayya, Tere Bina. Heard from friends the coda was simply great. I reached Perambur with my friends in auto and from there in my scooty back home. The concert was exceptional and my evening very special. A day I would remember for years to come. Thanks to TOI.

In college I was called Ms. Quote( don't read it as misquote:D) Ya any speech, debate I will have one or two quotes to justify what I am saying. I remember once saying something totally irrelevant, only a few of my friends understood, thankfully:) I was going through my diary(whenever I feel low, dats what I do either spend some time with my diaries or listen to my songsophy playlist) You can call it magic, within minutes time I am in high spirits. Dats my way of becoming happy. Do tell me wat you ppl do when you feel exasperated or you are feeling blue?? One of my friend calls me up when she is sad, I blabber something and she becomes alright(weird na??) Happy for you dear, anytime I m just a call away:) These few quotes or thoughts are very dear to me.

*The ability and energy to do something lies in the self-interest of wanting to do it, if we can just put fear and doubt beyond our imagination.

*When a man's fight begins within himself, he is worth something.[Currently experiencing...:)]

*Vision is the ability to see what the end looks like before you start.[Do you have one??]

*I love you because you have done more than any creed would have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.You have done it just by being yourself. Perhaps that is what being a friend means after all.[To My Best Friend]

*One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.

*No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

*The great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. [My Fav]

*Maturity is the ability to express ones own feelings and convictions balanced with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of others. [ Becoming older doesn't make one matured, not many know this]

*Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race. [Kairegayil ondrum illai, kayil vendum dhil...:)]

Meera - Graceful

Today is Vishu(Malayalam New Year). Evening I watched Rasathandram, a Malayalam movie in Asianet. The heroine is Meera Jasmin. Right from the film Run to her latest movie I have admired her sheer acting skills(Malu movies is her niche). The National award and filmfare awards stand testimony to that. I see her on screen I will be prompted to think about Kerala. The eyes, smile, hair reminds me about my cousin Amrutha. It's been nearly 2 yrs I have been to Kerala. Waiting for sem to get over. Browsed on Meera's photo gallery. Couldn't resist saving some pics into my desktop.

I wish...

I wish this day never ends...
Or I wish the rest of my life is filled with such todays.
My path of life have had both roses and thorns,
Sometimes it has been fragrance, and sometimes pain,
But when time made one of my wish come true today,
I agnized my wishlist is no more a dreamlist.
I now don't care the thorns, the pain or the path,
Coz this day has given me the courage to move on.
And now I wish this life never ends...

Free! We who cannot, for a moment, govern our own minds, nay, cannot hold your minds on a subject, focus it on a point to the exclusion of everything else, for a moment. Yet we call ourselves free. The mind uncontrolled and unguided will drag us down, down, forever - rend us, kill us and the mind controlled and guided will save us, free us.

-Swami Vivekananda

Syllabus book, Slam Book and Scribble Pad

A final project review tomorrow and in the month end three final sem papers, everything gets over by May 8th. College life at it's fag end. I was looking at my syllabus book. When you look at slam book you remember your friends. But when you look at your syllabus book, you remember your teachers and yaa few papers which were nightmares(thr was a time in school when I felt bad scoring in 80's, but now 50 is the target, 36 external and 14 internal:) Unlike in school where I remember almost all my teachers, college the count is only about 2 or 3. Latha mam she handled 3 subjects for us, PCD, OOAD and HSN. ' Ramya na chetta, chetta na ramya...' I gotta hear these lines almost every day. I have tried to look innocent and explain her many times, yours is the only class I listen to. Guess what she told, when I said that, ' Not just my class, I found you talking incessantly in Data Warehousing class too, Why don't you think about the teacher who is taking class?' I wished I could say, Oh Mam when I am sleeping and falling on the bench, how could I think about you? Mam does her homework perfectly, but she expects the same from us:) Never mind, she is such a sweetheart, she is the first person who will come to help voluntarily. Such a soft and soothing voice she has got. Be it advising or scolding, I don't hear the words, it's jut the BGM:):) Then yaa Vinodh sir, he is our hero. During practical exams if he spots us sad and scratching our head, he will come either correct the mistake in the program or put Output Verified...hehehe. My practical papers wouldn't have been that easy without him. I haven't got the autograph and words of wisdom from my teachers. Will take my autograph book to collg tomorrow. I took my slam book next, made out that I wouldn't miss many. Me, Akhi, Divi and Uma, I haven't got that close to anybody else. Since Divi and Akhi will be along in TCS too( atleast during the training), Uma must be someone I will miss as she is into Infy. Uma is a bit techie and a big foodie:) We have asked her mom to get her married to some hotel owner. I needn't spend much when she is along, the smell of pizzas, cakes and her scooty will automatically stop. I was turning pgs in my slam book....Who else...? Siva, Sunny two good friends I made in college. Promises of staying connected through the phone and net. Guess I won't miss them much. Then I took my scribble pad, it's the book that has saved me many times. Keep scraping something and teachers would think you are writing notes. It has a big collection of quotes, film dialogs, middle lines of songs, some compeering stuff etc. When class really gets boring, many of us start writing our own kavidhais. Divi writes really good ones. I found few lines that I had written. Some scrap nothing upto the mark.

This was during an AI hour:

' Kadhalargaluku kann pesum varthaigal purigiridhaam,
Aanal ennamo Manavargaluku Aasiriyargalin vaai pesum
varthaigal purivadhe illay!!!! '

This one during Cryptography hour:

'Yein boardil ulavay edhuvum vilangave ilay,
Naduthuvadha cryptology enbadhanala..??'

And yaa there was one of this favorite quote of Robert Frost

'Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence'.

:) :) :)

Yaaradi Nee Mohini ~~~ Mohini pisasu!!!

It was perdition, but why..? Coz I lied to my Mom that I will be moving out to work with my friends on our Project Report. Since theaters were closed on 4th due to interstate chaos, we had decided to watch the movie 'Yaaradi Nee Mohini' yesterday. Within half an hour we understood we weren't in a theatre, it was hell and I was choking. The hero(Dhanush) fails to make it into any interviews. Scoldings from father Raghuvaran(he passed away few weeks back, I really wished this great baddie and character actor on the big screen could have ended up with some character in a worth-mentioning flick). Now hero meets heroine(Nayanthara), falls in love(I wasn't irritated coz it was very much obvious...) Our lead lady is a project manager in a software firm. Our hero applies and also gets through, in the GD round namba hero speaks in Tamil(!). I didn't know in a day's time a project can be done. Hmm...our hero does that too for our heroine. They move to Australia for a project(enna koduma pa idhu...) They do almost everything other than project work. At last the usual blockbuster scene of most of the romantic flicks came, ' Hero proposes, heroine disposes'. What made me gasp, was the reason she said, ' Our family is very conservative, what you are seeing now is not the real me and now get out of my life as I am already engaged'. The most stupid thing in the movie was to kill Raghuvaran(till that time I was watching the movie only for him). He dies of heart attack seeing his son sad about his lost love. After this, the hero's friend played by Karthik( Suchitra's hubby...yet another bad characterization) takes our dismayed hero to his native place 'a village'. To make things worser, Karthik is engaged to our heroine (hehe...orre bulb namba heroku) Now it's every person's guess, the rest of the story, how the hero captures the heart of the heroine and her family members. I don't know how to pen about this movie anymore, it isn't easy to scrap about crap . I tried getting out of the theatre in the middle, but I had parked my scooty in the last row, the man in the parking area told me that I will have to wait until the movie gets over and others take their vehicle. Scorching sun outside, choking film inside. I went inside to watch the rest of the drama. Dhanush and Nayanthara hugging tight and poor Karthik watching over in a fix. I said to Akhi, 'The charring sun was ton times better di'. I wont tell anyone the climax, it's very very special:D. ' Naam petra thunbam vayakamum perave'. What I couldn't comprehend was 'what was that special thing in the script that made the actors sign for it?' Usually the director will have a concept in mind and buld the story on that. In this movie there was neither concept nor story only madness. In Rajeev Masand's words, the movie is dump, gooselike, disgusting and lacks even a bit of life. A big thumbs down to the director for making the viewers feel sick:(:(

Techbit

Few days back I received a mail from one of my friends. Yesterday made a small search on dat, but couldn't find any pertinent answer.

The matter is if you add a '+' followed by any words into your id or add dots anywhere in between your id, you can still get mails in your original inbox?

For eg: My gmail id is tamana.ramya@gmail.com

But if you send a mail to either 'tam.ana.ramya@gmail.com' (or) 'tamana.ramya+rums@gmail.com' , still the mail comes to my original inbox.

Yaa it's not a problem and it's also fine when people by mistake type your id wrong. But then you have the address book too, so thats not much likely. Do try it out and if you people have an idea about this do comment.

Songsophy

Song + Philosophy = Songsophy:):) Hey just wanted to mention 4 songs with some comforting, great and yaa philosophical lyrics. B4 I could tag these numbers philosophical, I wanted to know what is the actual meaning of philosophical coz I m using it then and there....LOL. Philosophical- meeting trouble with level-headed detachment. Yaa then fine the songs I have chosen definitely falls under this genre. Not exploring much of the lyrics except for one song ( don't worry no translation...if any one wants to know the translation you can surely comment)

1. 'Manithan Enbavan Deivam Agalam' from Sumaithangi. I should say this song brings in such a feeling, 'like if there was an older version to Anbe Sivam'. Brilliantly written by Kannadhasan. ' thunindhu vittal thalayil endha sumayum thaangalaam...ghunam, ghunam adha kovil aagalam'.

2. ' Ovoru Pookalame' from Autograph. This song need no intro. The prayer song in some school, that says it all. The thirst to win besides setbacks, the two verses covers life's darker shades the best way. Kudos to P.a Vijay.Few lines: ' Kaala pokill kayam yellam marandhu pogum mayangal... Oru kanavu kandaal, adhai dhinam muyandraal oru naalil nijam agum... Oru mudivu eduthal, adhul thelivu irundhaal andha vanam vasam aagum'

3. ' Yaai Re Yaai Re' from Rangeela. It is a zippy song. The music definitely outshines the lyrics. But there are some discerning lines in this song by Mehboob. 'Taang hain ji uspar, dhuniya mai he rehkar, dhuniya mai jeene ki andaaz ko naa jaane. maate ya haathon pe , chaand yaa taaron pe, kismat ko dhoonden par kudh pe kya hain na jaane...'

4. The fourth and the final song, 'Oru Naalil' from Pudhupettai. Wonderfully composed and sung by Yuvan and sharp-sighted lyrics by Na.Muthukumar. The lines are so simple. It rips apart life. What is living all about...? I haven't come across any other beautiful song that explore life like this one. It's my 10 on 10 number. If you haven't listened to this song, do download. The music and lyrics both are outstanding. It's your life, just yours. We are each of us, alone!!

Lyrics of Oru Naalil from Pudhupettai:

Oru naalil vazhkai inge engum odi pogathu
Marunallum vanthuvitaal thunbam theyum, thodarathu
Ethanai koddi kaneer mann meethu vizhindirkum
Athanai kandapinum boommi ingu poo pookum

O … O … Ohh … Karuvaasal vittu vantha naal thottu
O … O … Ohh … Oru vaasal thediya vilaiyaatu
O … O … Ohh … Kan thiranthu paarthal pala koothu
O … O … Ohh … Kan moodi kondal …
O … O … Ohh …

Pourkalathil piranthu vittoom, vanthavai ponnavai varathumillai
Kaatinile vaazkhindrom, mutkalin vali onrum maranamillai
Irutinile nee nadakayile un nizhalum unnai vittu vilagividum
Nee mattumthaan intha ulagithile unnaku thunai endru velangividum
Theeyodu pogum varaiyil theerathu intha thanimai

Karai varum neram paarthu kapalil kaathiripom
Erimalai vanthaal kooda yeri ninru pour thotupom

O … O … Ohh … Antha deiva ragasiyam purigirathe
O … O … Ohh … ingu ethuvum nilai illai karaigiruthe
O … O … Ohh … manam vetta veliyile allaikirathe
O … O … Ohh … antha kadavulai kandaal …
O … O … Ohh …

Athu ennaku ithu unnaku, idhayangal podum thani kanaku
Aval ennaku eval unnaku, udalkalum podum puthir kanaku
Unnakum illai ethu ennakum illai, padaithavane ingu yeduthukollvan
Nallavan yaar, ketavan yaar kadaisiyil avane mudivu seivaan

Pazhi podum ulagam inge
Baliyana uyirkal enge..?

Ulagathin orram ninru athanaiyum paarthirupom
Nadapavai naadagam endru naamum serunthu nadithiripom

O … O … Ohh … pala mugangal venduma, seri maatikolvom
O … O … Ohh … pala thirupam theriyum athil thirumbikolvom
O … O … Ohh … kathai mudiyum pokkil athai mudithikolvom
O … O … Ohh … maru piravi vendumaa …
O … O … Ohh …

To My Friend

Down but not out... Sometimes in life it's important to be like Dravid 65 out of 200balls, to stay on the crease even if you are not performing. What is important in the long run is holding together and retaining your shape. You guys must be wondering what is she about to say..? One can turn philosophical when they are sad or when they have had a breakthrough. My situation is a kind of both. You should never become emotional when the outcome from an incident is a phenomenal realization. My best friend Akhi used to tell me many times, 'In this world you can't afford to make everybody happy everytime'. Ya my dearest Akhi, she learns from others mistakes. But some like me are Patta Dhaan Thirunduvein type (learn from your own mistakes). But let me tell you there are still others in the world, 'Pattutum thirandhadha type'(they keep committing mistakes). For those remember this life of yours isn't meant for that, neither is this world a place for that. You can't expect solace each time, the soon you learn the better. My friend asked me ' I just asked you to support me, to console me when I was sad'. For the first time in my life I replied ' No friend, you can't expect me to console and be along with you every time'. There ended our friendship. I had too say that coz misunderstandings and silly fights were increasing each day between us. What I said might be wrong, but sometimes when expectations start increasing you gotta choose to be a bit harsh. Expectations even if it is word of comfort can cost you high sometimes. Coz in this world where tomorrow is very much unkown, how can you afford to promise, how can you give dreams of hope to someone...? These words DREAMS, HOPE, EXPECTATIONS, INSPIRATION are those that one should search in oneself and not in others. If you lookup inside yourself, you will surely find millions of answers. THE REAL HELP COMES FROM INSIDE YOU. Not told by me, it is the words from yesterday's, today's and beyond doubt from even tomorrow's achievers. When you look back at your life, you will realize the same. I know my friend is going to soar heights. Will understand then, what I told wasn't the wrong thing to say at that time.