Who Knows Wht!

Reviewing the reviews ...

2012-01-12T12:08:00.001+05:30

Inspired by awesome review of the review of his book, I am here.

I loved some movie reviews better than the movies! And I make sure that I read all such reviews even though I have no intent to watch them!

Life-style

2012-01-12T12:03:00.003+05:30

IT life-style - an insidious way towards death?

Heck, any life-style insidiously leads to mortality. Only the rate differs!

Organized living

2011-11-24T23:19:00.001+05:30

Does regulated traffic fetch better returns?
Does organized retail lead to better GDP?
Does macro-management result in better productivity?

Technology can come to a rescue here. Simulations may help not just in finding the answer, but also an optimal way of doing it. The bigger question is - can we extend the conclusions from here to answer this:

Does organized living help attain a better life? :P

Simulate & Dissimulate

2010-09-21T17:15:00.000+05:30

Simulation and Dissimulation are closely related, but not really the antonyms of each other!

Upon further delving, I gathered this from here - Simulation is one where one exhibits false information. Dissimulation is one where one hides information (eg. concealing one's identity in order to gain advantage)

Vuvuzelas ...

2010-06-16T19:22:00.008+05:30

I am watching FIFA world cup matches with the TV audio muted for most part of the time, just to avoid the deafening noise caused by this plastic musical device Vuvuzela. Damn the traditions! I am not an avid fan of soccer anywayz, so I am quite happy missing out on the crowd noise too :-)

Thanks to my 3-yr stint at Ikoa, I have been tuned to look for a noise-cancelling signal processing solution that can save at least the TV audience, if not an active-noise-cancelling gadget for those in the ground (players, referees, audience). Canceling the crowd noise isn't a big deal, but filtering out just the Vuvuzula noise could well be tricky. A straight-forward equalizer or a phase-canceling mp3 file may not be the best of solutions, an adaptive filtering process is the best bet.

Also, BBC is planning to telecast a Vuvuzela-free variant, to appease the minority like me.

Vedam Versus Crash ...

2010-06-11T23:06:00.003+05:30

I watched the Academy Awards winning hollywood movie Crash way back in 2004, even before it got nominated for Oscars. I was oblivious to the happenings in Los Angeles and yet, the movie totally blew me off. More than the screenplay and the way the characters are interwoven, it was the stories and the underlying theme which intrigued me. IMO, the theme is simple - it takes extraordinary circumstances, at times multiple of them, to bring in a humane change.

Back to 2010! I found the tollywood movie Vedam (which has got mixed reviews) just a notch above ordinary! Blame it on high expectations? The best portions of it - the screenplay and the underlying theme - are heavily inspired from Crash. The only original part of Vedam is the story (rather, the stories), which could have been a lot lot better. Perhaps, one can attribute it to the dilemma of satisfying all the stars of this multi-starer (with no real stars ? :P).

Vedam is probably a unique attempt at borrowing the ideas from Crash, but it certainly isn't ground-breaking!

Gender bias & Sex ratio

2010-06-07T20:34:00.000+05:30

A friend recently posed this hypothetical question -

In a community where people are obsessed with male gender, every family continues to give birth until they have a boy. They stop once a boy child is born. Assuming that the likelihood of a couple giving birth to a male or a female child is 50% and the community is against female foeticide/infanticide, what would the sex ratio be?

Paradoxical it may sound, the answer is 1:1. If there are N couples, all of them will eventually end up having a son. While (N/2) of them will not possess a daughter,

(N/2) of them give birth to 1 daughter
(N/4) of them give birth to 2nd daughter
(N/8) of them give birth to 3rd daughter
And so on ..

As N tends to infinity, the total number of daughters would be ~N (sum of the above geometric series)!

Now, this proves yet again that it is not the gender bias, but the female foeticide which led to the odd situation we are in!

An alternate solution can be found here (look for the correction at the end)

V for Vendetta

2010-05-28T11:27:00.001+05:30

The most awesome introductory dialog ever:

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

In simpler words ...

Behold! Before you is a humble stage performer, cast, against his will, by the whims of fate, to the roles of both victim and villain. The face you see now is not just some meaningless costume. It is a remnant of the People's Voice, which has since gone and disappeared. However, this past annoyance stands courageously reborn and has sworn to conquer the evil and corrupt, who promote greed and the violent suppression of free will. The only choice is vengeance; a personal war held as a promise, but not in vain, for the importance and self-evidence of this quest shall one day exonerate the watchful and the righteous. But in truth, this thick soup of words has become too excessive. So, let me simply finish by saying that it's my very good honor to meet you, and you may call me V.

How about improvising the dialog.. Stay tuned ;)

Crushes live on ...

2010-05-21T10:34:00.001+05:30

Awesome Ad!!

The lead lady in this Tanishq jewellary advertisement, it seems, is same as Aditi Sharma, the one who acted opposite Uday Kiran in Gunde Jallumandi. Most of my friends and relatives have no problem figuring that out. But I am not convinced even now (I liked both the girls.. rather the same girl with different make-ups :D )

Religious fascination in twin cities

2009-10-06T00:00:00.000+05:30

I am not a Hindu fanatic. In fact, I am one of those who has zero interest in religious fundaes. This is just a comment on the ongoing proceedings from a passive observer ;)

Census 2001 says Hyderabad constitutes 55% Hindus and 42% muslisms and less than 3% christians. On a particularly religious-day, three different religions events were organized in the twin cities (all in Secunderabad!), viz.,

Recitation of Bhagavat Gita Slokas in Keys High School (Closed auditorium)
Prajapita Brahmakumari Iswariya Viswa Vidyalaya's meet in Gymkhana grounds (Open Air)
Bible preachings in Parade Grounds (Open Air)

The R-day in context was a Sunday. And applying Markov theory to the week's history, one would say that there is 95% chance of rain that evening.

Given this info, any statistician would conclude that the attendance at #1 would beat #2 and #3 by some margin. However, the reality was disturbing. #3 saw maximum attendance, followed by #2. Against all odds? Not really!

The local Christians are absurdly sincere when it comes to religious activities
Hindu mythology seldom interests Hindus. Or is it the Hindus hardly care?
Secondary pop-ups like Prajapita are splitting the Hindu base!

I was compelled to draw those conclusions!

Btw, I hid info, which some may consider as crucial. The attendance was actually proportional to the area of the venues. But to me, this only shows that the organizers are well aware of their reach :-)

PS: This is 2-month old story (October 2nd 2009 week). Just clearing my drafts :D

Obituary for the blown down trees

2009-05-20T17:07:00.001+05:30

[Obituary]

To all the famous trees on the Lumbin Park-NTR Park road, which were blown out by heavy storms and rains last evening.

[/Obituary]

Am not sure if obituaries are written for the death of a tree. Nor am I sure if this is how an obituary is written. :P

Nevertheless, I saw A FEW trees toppled by strong winds night. However, I noticed almost 50% of the trees being cleared off today morning. When I inquired a guy around, he confirmed that they were all blown down by rains. Could this be a case of illegal cutting of trees? Or shrewd precautionary measures? Or plain Vandalism?

Early monsoons is what the MET says. Signs of commute troubles already. The will-power to move closer to office only gets stronger.

Laksha Gala Sankeertanarchana

2009-05-10T22:01:00.000+05:30

Here I am posting right after the event claimed to enter the Guinness Book of World Records.

Some info about the event can be found at http://www.siliconandhra.org/sablog/post/sablog/40/LAKSHA-GALA-SANKEERTANARCHANA. The event saw around 1.6 lac participants and I was one of them :D

The event had its moments of joy and pain. As a small group, we had awesome fun singing and poking fun at ourselves. However, I am not sure if it really had the effect of chorus singing. I got the feeling that the stage singer won against all-of-us put together, hands-down. Nor could I get to see a decent number of traditional gals ;)

I would say- the event was well-organized given the resource constraints!

"The Prestige" Rocks

2009-04-28T18:38:00.000+05:30

How often does one get to read about his personal diary in his counterpart's personal diary? And now, how often does one get to see this enacted superbly.

The Prestige is a 2006 British film directed by Christopher Nolan, with a screenplay adapted from Christopher Priest's 1995 novel "The Prestige".

An amazing story-line and an enthralling screenplay! A big thanks to Vinay ;)

Bayesian Probability

2009-04-21T20:11:00.000+05:30

Two related questions which troubled my mind at different points of time -

Given the integrated circuit with N number of bugs, what is the probability of it working (using software work-arounds). From my professional experiences , I get the feeling that the chance is never zero for a finite N.

Given the existing road infrastructure in Hyderabad, what is the probability of handling N times the current traffic without stalling? My personal experience says N can go as high as 2.5 to 3. Perhaps, N can go upto 5-6 with some innovative traffic management techniques*. ;)

*Techniques not be revealed so early :P

It works!

2009-04-10T18:15:00.001+05:30

It works. In spite of the chaos all around. Most of the times! Under most circumstances!

I have always been amazed by this theory which states that there is an inherent "order" in a chaotic system (chaos theory or butterfly effect). The theory seems to grow with age ;)

Some classic examples -

In spite of the unimaginable number of mistakes a company makes, it runs successfully.

In spite of the misunderstandings in relationships, it lives on!

In spite of the endless procrastinations, work gets done.

In spite of the endless bugs an integrated circuit has, the customers love it.

In spite of the recklessness of the drivers on the road, commuters reach their destination with a very high likelihood.

Gives me a feeling that life is so forgiving! One has to just make sure that the boundaries of the elasticity are not stressed too much ;)

Statistical surveys

2009-04-07T19:01:00.000+05:30

Bored with the routine daily schedule, I started off the day differently - A unique combo of bike-pooling and car-pooling :D

My sister dropped me at St. Anns School on her bike, from where Sumanth planned to pick me up. In the brief non-commute mode, I had a chance to study Hyd traffic:

I started counting the vehicles crossing the point I am facing -

From 9:01 to 9:02 AM, 31 four-wheelers (of all sizes) went past the point I am tracking. And this is close to the average I observed in the next five minutes

9:01 to 9:02 AM -------- 31
9:02 to 9:03 AM -------- 22
9:03 to 9:04 AM -------- 43
9:04 to 9:05 AM -------- 33

I took a step further to kill the time and starting counting two wheelers now.

9:05 to 9:06 AM -------- 62
9:06 to 9:07 AM -------- 55
9:07 to 9:08 AM --------110
9:08 to 9:09 AM -------- 85
9:10 to 9:11 AM --------- 81
9:11 to 9:12 AM --------- 55
9:12 to 9:13 AM --------- 70
9:13 to 9:14 AM --------- 120
9:14 to 9:15 AM --------- 85

Now.... Interpretation left to the readers :D

DELTA RESEARCH

2008-04-13T08:16:00.001+05:30

Let's put all conflicts on research Vs money aside - for the time being :D

One of the good things that happened after I shifted to Hyd. is the chance to spend with my friends, who came all the way from US for a brief vacation. Except for one, they all fall into either MS (follow_up_with_job) or Phd (_and_pain_students_later).

On one such occasion (happened sometime around Jan/Feb 07, more than an year ago), I shared this upgraded version of an interesting quote with two of MS-only friends :

There are 10 kinds of people. One who understands ternary, the other who doesn't and the third who confuses it with binary.

(All three of us knew the basic version then: There are 10 kinds of people. One who understands binary and the other who doesnt.)

There was this spontaneous witty comment from one of my friends: "A classic example of Delta Research!". He went on to say that DR is the most common kind of research done in most of the univs., where the funda is straightforward - Keep reading a research paper several times and you will see more than one way to improvise it!!

It generated good amount of fun then and probably "research" has degraded in our minds. However, In retrospect, I feel DR isn't that bad! In fact, it is more than necessary to improvise our solutions. Fortunately, we got people to do that.

PICK these things before you leave!

2007-02-22T21:12:00.000+05:30

These days, I keep reminding myself to PICK (Purse, ID, Cell and Keys/Kerchief) them before I start to office. :-)

CAS, DTH or the regular cable!

2007-01-21T20:32:00.000+05:30

CAS! Set top box! DTH! There has been so much fuss on these for about three years. This is one of the few issues that attracted me somehow :D

However, CAS has been implemented only in Chennai so far (South Delhi had it for a very short period). Once I got my Sony 29" Vega, I decided to check out set-top box in Chennai. I learnt a hell lot on how monopolised the situation could end up with this system. Hathway and SCV (owned by Sun TV/Karunanidhi) are the only two authorised MSOs controlling Chennai. And to make things worse, most localities have a single dealer which means you got to go for it i.e, if u decided to watch at least one non-FTA channel!. So, this ruled out competition completely. And they have their own rules regarding set top box rentals and the monthly charges. In fact, SCV doesn't offer set top boxes for rental. You got to buy it - some low end stuff costing upto 3k.

Back to the present - no CAS in Hyderabad. Cable TV still rules. The recent burst of DTH ads. and/or my inability to bear the cable quality have tempted me to opt for DTH! (not before having a minor tussle with the cable guy and spending a few days with idle idiot box :D)

Rather by instinct, I went and asked a dealer about Tata Sky. He sort of gave a negative review on that - low quality, expensive blah-blah-blah! So, I had to go for Dish TV - okayish review from a colleague and an excellent review from the dealer (how many times should I remind myself to not care brokers/middle-agents/sellers!). Installed it the very next day and am able to see almost all the channels for the first seven days! Opted for DishPlus package which comes at a price of 225/- (plus taxes; i wish my salary had a plus tax component instead of a minus :P)

The quality works. But the speed sucks. I didn't realise it in Chennai - but the perceivable delay for every click on remote strikes you sooner or later. Add to this - the complication it brings with the two remotes . The schedule and the programme info are pretty useful. Didn't find the multi-channel view that attractive. But then, some software updates may help. SUN network channels are nowhere in the Dish TV offer. Rumors are long floating that SUN is planning to venture into DTH business soon.. Even in that case, these channels should be included in the near future, assuming that DTH is here to stay :P. Never tried out the silly games and all !

Latest: No NEO sports (Tata Sky has them)l as yet :-(

An incident to remember

2006-11-30T18:45:00.000+05:30

It has been around 40 days since I got my bike. I was a bit sceptical about my driving abilities on these busy hyderabadi roads for the first week or so. Since then, I grew in confidence and have been driving with ease - from home to office and back - very much aware of my reaction times and speed limits. Or so I thought.

I usually reach office by 9 - 9:30 AM. But the fateful day has been unusual. I was alone at home and stayed late the previous night browsing and trying to reinstall OS on my system. I started off at around 10 AM and it was all too good till I reached the Hi-tech city junction. Waiting for two iterations at the junction, I moved on relieved to be moving away from the heavy traffic zone.

It is just a few minutes ride now. I was riding at around 50 kmph, staying close to the road-divider. Ahead of me, a bit to my left, there was another bike moving at slightly slower speed and directly in front of it was an auto.

It is an unmentioned fact that auto-wallahs are reckless. One can never be sure of the trajectory of the autos in the city. Well, to be fair to the auto guys, they are always in search of their source and destination points unlike us. So, it is left to us on how to deal with them. Afterall, driving is all about reading minds of others on the road :D

On the fateful moment, the auto guy stopped - right on the middle of the road - all of a sudden! And the bike guy behind it was reckless enough. He was obviously not bothered to look at his rear view mirror in this dilemma. He took a wild turn to the right to overtake it. And that almost blocked my path as I was trying to ride past them. I was either too overconfident that I can make it through the remaining portion of the road or too slow to react or too stupid, I didn't apply brake. And things happened so fast in the next few seconds, I can't put them all into words. Blame game - people coming from nowhere - other vehicles slowing down to see the nuisance. I was all there in the middle of the Hitech city - with one chappal on my foot and searching for the other one, with my shirt torn intermittently, looking at my bruises in between and listening to all kinds of inputs from junta around me. In the meanwhile, the bike guy slowly got away from the place. The auto-wallah was nowhere to be seen in the vicinity.

Not heeding to others that I should have got hold of the bike guy, I took my chappal on my bike pedal, picked up my mobile from the ground, checked if my bike is alright (except for a few scratches and a slight bend of rear view mirror handle, everything looked fine). Called up my colleague and informed him that I wont be able to make it to office. Took a U turn and reached hospital safely.

Probably, these incidents are the need of the hour to teach the much needed lessons :-)

10k - A wonder!

2006-11-28T19:30:00.001+05:30

Finally, Finally, Finally, I proved to myself that I can run 10 kms within an hour :D. The full credit goes to my co-participants!!

With a few well-planned practice sessions - walk &/or jog for ~7 kms with sufficient breaks, I was all set to be part of it. I have been sleeping so early (at most 9:30 pm) that my sister cribbed that I have been chilling at office (she feels I have no work at office) and crashing happily at home when all the while, she has been struggling to prepare for her sem exams (obviously last minute preparation) :D

On the D-day too, I woke up at 5 AM and had a small photo session - my sister was very eager to take my 'last pics'. I rode on my bike for around ten minutes and realized that I don't have my helmet. I was wearing a jacket though, which protected me from the cold climate. I reached there within twenty minutes ..I covered a distance of 12-13 kms in 20 mins. After parking in front of IMAX, I moved to People's Plaza to find n-juntaaaa (not as many as I saw last year in Chennai or not even as many as the last yr 10k event in Hyderabad itself, I was told). There were hoardings of all sizes of various sponsors all over. The participants were of varying ages from little cute kids to very senior citizens. But most of them were youngsters (early 20's) and from all kinds of IT companies like Microsoft, Deloitte, Qualcomm, TCS, Infy, CA etc.. I found out that the half marathon (from People's Plaza to Charminar and back!) had already began.

After the celebrities arrived and people went gaga, there was a small warm-up session by some training consultant, obviously yet another sponsor. And by the time 10k was officially started, I was in the middle of the ground with people all around me and with my jacket on. I felt for a while that I should go keep my jacket in my bike and join the event, but somehow had moved on with the crowd. It was as expected for the initial period. The enthu levels were quite high for the first one or two kms and gradually, I found people taking breaks or slowing down. At the same time, I found a few energetic guys (and a few girls) crossing me. I kept my cool so as to run as much as I can before my first break.

There were volunteers - mostly school kids - cheering up, supplying water, glucose and medical aid. And countdown markers. By the time, I reached the countdown marker "6 to go", I decided to take a break. I had some water and was trying to walk briskly for a km or so and was shocked to find "6 to go" again at some point later. Probably, the earlier one was for the half-marathon and this one pertinent to the 10k racers. I took off slowly when I could see "5" from a distance. I wanted to experiment with my body and check if I can do it w/o any further breaks. I took glucose wherever I could and wasted bottles of water to pour on my head (refreshes the brain? :P). These minor things are certainly a big boost, I realized.

I noticed a cap dropping from a kid. I picked up the cap and tried to catch her up (I could have shouted, but decided against it). She was far younger and far quicker than me. I could have sacrificed my decision to not take another halt, but I just kept track of her under the assumption that she would stop somewhere soon. And she did, to tie her shoe laces. I moved close to her to hand over the cap. As I did that, she said that she didn't want it. But still took it from me.
I moved a bit further and looked back. She dropped it behind and started running again. I was slightly embarrassed, but moved on. Probably, she felt it as a disturbance and removed it then! (Hell, I am carrying my jacket all along in all kinds of postures since then)

Once I found the 1K mark, I was rejuvenated. I just rushed through the last km with my jacket in hand. I moved out of the crowd and was walking slowly when I suddenly noticed one of my seniors at IIT. But somehow I missed him after that. I took more water, settled there for some more time watching the guys finish the race, on the big screen.

After a while, I took the participation certificate and decided to move on ignoring the prize distribution going on.I was told that the 'great' singer Karunya had his share of time at the end when most people started to disperse!

I dropped a TCS guy at Ameerpet while returning. He said he struggled to make it and took more than 100 mins and I was so happy that I could do it in 50-55 mins!!

Later on, I was considering the possibility of running back home from People's Plaza :-). But I guess that would have been improbable not definitely because of the additional 2-3 kms, but because I have to do it all alone.

Hyderabad 10k Race

2006-11-14T15:33:00.000+05:30

I am not sure if the registration is still open :

http://www.hyderabad10k.com/

I am in :D

Google Adsense!

2006-11-04T11:41:00.000+05:30

Hmm.... Quite a few changes since my last post :-)

* Moved to Hyd. Into my second company (yep, already). Left Atheros in just 15 months and 15 days :(.
* Started staying with parents (and started realising how tough it is :P)
* Bought a new bike in the form of Bajaj Discover DTS-i - not heeding to friends and relatives suggestions :D
* Got interested in google's activities!!

I recently read 'Google's Story' by David Vise. It had cool fundaes about google and its founders (though, may be exaggerated). As per the book, Google never spent on marketing and it worked only because of its sheer brilliance. And more interestingly, its major revenue comes from helping others market themselves or their products - yeah, from its sponsored ads!

I got so interested that I enabled Google Ads and Google Adsense referrals in my blog now :D. The intention here is not to earn millions (but, who knows :P) or to make this my major source of income but to understand the advanced economics of marketing!

Mobile - Pros over Cons

2006-05-27T19:52:00.000+05:30

NoT that I am asked to write an essay on that, but I have been thinking over that for some time now - rather forced to think. I lost my mobile on 17th night/18th morning of June, 2006. It was just over an yr since I bought it and that looks quite a long time in this fast-changing world!

Funnily, I lost it in my office - the place I considered to be the safest till then.:(

Reservations - (Merit? Vs Social Justice?) ?

2006-05-17T12:36:00.000+05:30

I confess I have little knowledge on politics. My opinions on Indian politics are mostly based on my own analysis of what I heard from my friends in my four yr stay at IIT and may be to an extent on what media (paper, TV and cinema) tries to rub on the viewers.

I know I am in a city where 69% reservations are succesfully implemented (which I got to know only in the recent past). One can expect these guys to show their frustration before others, who only saw 50% reservations! Surprisingly, the upper castes here are indifferent to the nation-wide protests against reservation. In fact, most of them are in favor of it (i.e, if we are to believe the news articles). None of my colleagues support reservation openly, anyway.

I was completely against reservations until I read this: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/may/16inter2.htm
(not that this reversed my mind). Most of the arguments he presented were unimpressive. But, this is quite disturbing:

"For long, in many places 70 per cent to 80 per cent seats were open in the general category. The upper castes were using it. Right? Now they have been given 50 per cent of the total seats whereas the upper caste population is just 15 per cent. I think that is good enough. What more do the upper castes want?

It is a good deal that 15 per cent of India's population has 50 per cent of the seats. Do you want India's majority on the streets agitating against this 15 per cent?"

"Upper castes" contribute to only 15%? If this is true, it resolves my major doubt on how politicians are gonna gain from all this.

I think I got a good chance of understanding the situation from a close view in my four yr stay at IIT. I agree that they added more variety to the campus, but that was never the intention. SC's neither enjoyed their stay nor made others feel happy about it. They carried the heavy inferiority complex and to make things worse, they were looked down upon by others. So, extending reservations to this level didn't give any real advantage!

To look at the psyche of this generation, let me put down the message, a reserved categ. guy gives to a general categ. guy in a JEE coaching institution:

(GC guy plays some pranks on the lecturer)
RC: GC, Why dont you conc. on studies. You need to work hard. I am not sure if you are half-ruined because of me. I am different, I can get into IIT even if I dont work hard, but you shouldn't forget to put in a very good effort from your side"

Looks pretty good! Two things could be understood from here:

* RC's are easily pushed into the trap of complacency due to these reservations!
* Most RC's are unwilling to give up their 'right to use reservation' even when they know very well that there are more deserving guys.

To me, the second point is the solution. It is the SELF who should be able to decide if he/she really needs reservation. Bringing awareness on this would do a hell of lot of good as this would fulfil the main purpose of having reservations - bringing the real deserving guys to get a chance to come into the picture!

Expecting this to happen in these times - when people are willing to buy SC certificates just to use the reservation "privileges" - is to hope against hope. But, WHO KNOWS!

Bangaram - 24 Carat Frustration!!

2006-05-16T21:55:00.000+05:30

After the huge hype about the Pawan Kalyan-AM Ratnam combo., the movie bombed as I expected!!

Before we go any further, this is strictly for serious telugu movie-buffs :-)

I had a nice conversation on this (after the movie release) with two of my close friends. One of the them, say G, was a desperate* fan of Pawan Kalyan, the other, say A, has a soft corner for Bala Krishna (another "big" star). BK's Veerabhadra, also released during the same time, was doing a bit better than PK's Bangaram. I plainly opposed A's plan to watch BK's movie as I cant bear the mental trauma involved!

A's logic to argue over the state-wide agitation against BK's movies is simple: "why attack him when everyone in the industry is doing the same". Pretty interesting!

I retorted back saying, " This is just selecting the most evil guy and trying to eliminate him. This should help other such guys realise the fate of doing so". G was with me then!

A isn't convinced. "Attacking just one guy and encouragin all others - Mahesh Babu's Pokiri also falls into the same category, though a lot better - is foolishness" is his point.

Very true. So, we decided (?, should say concluded) to stop encouraging such movies and never watch such movies.

Can just 3 of us decide the fate of a movie? WHO KNOWS? :P

*So desperate that G watched Bangaram (an equally bad movie) at home not long after this conversation! Yeah, people worship their heroes here ..........

Back!

2006-05-16T21:51:00.000+05:30

Unwary of people's comments on the blogs being too long, I am back in action - at least until another dead phase arises :D

Series of old incidents: 1

2006-02-07T22:05:00.001+05:30

I didn't find much time to update till now. I guess I can spend some time on this from now. I wanted to write about a few interesting incidents that I had to face after I joined my job in chennai.

This happened one-and-a-half months after I joined my job, to be precise on 22nd July, 2005. This is an excerpt from what I wrote to my friend then :-)

"I have been to tirupati last weekend and this has been the best trip so far!!

It's a trip planned by two colleagues of Atheros India LLC. We knew it was raining heavily in quite a few places in AP. So, we decided to land in Tirumala directly.

It started raining heavily when we started to Tirupati on 22nd evening . We had expected this and luckily got an umbrella with us. We got into a Hitech bus to Tirupati at around 10:30 pm (direct buses to Tirumala were all normal buses. By the way, this choice of ours led to a drastic incident later on).

We started looking for a bus to Tirumala at 2:00 am. Supposedly, no buses are allowed to go to Tirumala from 12 mignight to 3 a.m. There were a number of buses and also huge groups of people (even at that time) to fill them up.

After i am completely awake (or so I thought), I decided to give a try in the next bus (to get a seat for the next 1 hr journey). So, I rushed towards the bus and got into it just to realise something really bad happened. I got down and was there in Tiruapti itself for another half an hr. Then, I regained my strength and went to Tirumala. Darshanam was not at all a problem.(was done within one and half hrs.)

But, I was still worried with what happened that morning in the bus. As usual, I (tried to) make myself feel happy for what happened and tried to analyse the positives from that incident.

Thanx for bearing with me till now. Hope you can bear for few more minutes.

I came back that night after watching "Anukokunda Oka Roju" (my colleague went to his home town Nellore). I liked it a lot.

I took a train from Tirupati (yeah, I do stupid things for just the sake of 'variety'). It was raining all the way and i was extremely pained to stay for more than 6 hrs in the train.

Okay! I was pick-pocketed in that bus. I lost all 3 of my debit-cum-atm cards and company ID card, cash of 600/- and not to forget, priceless childhood photos:(((((((. "