Am I satisfied?

I have always wondered about the 'nature' of people. Each and every person will have something unique compared to the other. Have you ever asked yourself this question 'Am i satisfied?'. Many may unfortunately come up with an answer NO. Dont try to argue to me, but definitely NO is the answer most of us will get. If you're getting a YES, then your heart is something really gifted. Being satisfied is like chasing a white smoke. There are various levels of satisfaction. Some may never become satisfied irrespective of whatever money they earn, whatever places they go, they simply need more and more. Well, I am not blaming them, I'm just saying that is how their heart is structured. On the other hand, some people may very well remain happy with whatever they possess. They may not be using their potential to the max, yet they can remain satisfied.

Satisfaction is a purely relative concept. Say, there is an ultra talented person who can do marvels when he exploits his god given gift. Still, he may not be using it and will remain satisfied with whatever he is doing. But this might look crazy and annoying for some other person who knows clearly that the other is not utilizing his talents.
Remaining satisfied may imply being lazy too. Laziness is not a bad thing. It is something you are gaining in the present, something you are enjoying the 'now'. Even laziness has many forms, many bands of laziness are there. Crazy lazy is one extreme level where the basic necessity of a person comes under question. I am speaking at an elevated wavelength, people at my level can very well grab what I am trying to say :).
'How to get satisfied?' Well this is a million dollar question. There are lots and lots of possible answers to this question. Many may be correct and many my not be but still there are almost infinite number of solutions possible for this. Ofcourse, I have my own perspective, one in zillion. Well that is, "Dont worry too much about the future, try to enjoy the present". Easier said than done :).
Please dont expect a proper introduction/conclusion to my posts, as it will be scattered and thoughts are been spit out.
Leave some comments if you have anything to say.

Thanks
Braga

My guilty conscience

I am very much guilty as an IT engineer in having a major hand for the recent hike in petrol price. Seriously, the industry i am working simply ruins everything! Infact, in the near future, many riots/bandhs etc., are expected. This is the one responsible for increasing our already worse hit inflation. If you see or analyze deeply, you can find out why only IT industry. For those who dont know what inflation is, i can give a brief explanation. Its just every individual's spending power. More the spending power, more the inflation. Inflation should be there but in a very controlled manner. I dont want to speak lot into that.
I have few predictions on how the future of India is going to be.
Growth is good. Growing too much is also fine. But it should be done in a controlled environment. For example, you can extract huge amounts of energy from an atom. But if its not controlled, we know wat'l happen. The growth in India is going to bring in hell a lot of ramifications. For instance, take US. They are also growing, having problems with their economy as well. But again, they have a good design at the top most level. Atleast a design far better than ours. For a country of such immense potential itself, they cannot suppress few problems happening in their economy. Then take the case of a country like India where we have leaders who are ultra illiterates and greedy fellows who for once have never thought about the needs of the public. Exceptions may be there, but on a whole they're just shit.
What i am trying to say is the growth in India is not controlled. Many think tanks have to take major and crucial decisions in the top most level which lacks heavily in our country. Because if you take a minister in the top level, he surely will be a t-kada owner or something in his early ages.
A price hike in petrol is going to affect the transportation heavily. It is going to reflect in all ways. For instance, take the food price. I have seen within one year, the place i used to have lunch have increased their rate from 25 to 33 which when you calculate in percentage is simply not acceptable. The common man is affected here. Rich gets richer and poor gets poorer. This is like a virus and the effects will be very well seen in the near future.
The problem is many IT people dont even know how they have done a damage to our economy. The impact done by us is very huge. We are the ones responsible for increasing the real estate prices. We are the ones who have made this cash flow by leaps and bounds, encouraging banks to offer more loans. The gist here is inflation goes up when there is huge cash flow. And the team lunch/dinners etc - we have simply raised the demand in food and the hotel owners are having any cost they like. In my earlier days i use to order food by seeing the cost on the right side, but these days i hardly care for it. So, the hotel can charge any money they want. And that is going to increase the food price at the end of the day. I am very disappointed to see many people in IT industry not even knowing how the food price is going to increase just because he/she is having a luxurious team lunch.
So, as an IT fellow, is it possible for me to stop this? The answer is NO!. We have swallowed the poison. The effect has already started. The only thing that we can do right now is not spend our money unnecessarily. If possible, try not going for movie in the weekend. Reduce or discourage treats for birthdays, promotions etc., If possible, try totally to abolish this team outing!

Computer games once i was addicted to....

I was a mad computer gamer once. Started with Dave, came across many sorts and types of games and was almost addicted to them. It took me almost ten years to overcome my craze for it. Will just list my once most favorite games below..

Racing games :

The racing games that i've almost played for god knows how many hours primely include Road Rash, and Need for Speed.

Road Rash

Need for speed 2


Need for Speed III - Hot Pursuit


Need for Speed IV - High Stakes


Need for Speed V - Porsche Unleashed



Need for Speed VI - Hot Pursuit 2


Need for Speed VII - Underground


Need for Speed VIII - Underground 2


Need for Speed - Most wanted.

Besides these, i've played many other racing games like superbike, F1, Sega Rally, Motocross madness, motorbike madness etc., Of these, the one i've completed within two to three days time was the need for speed mostwanted where you need to clear all the 15 ranking levels to reach the top meet the most number of cops chasin you.

Cricket Games:
I was a mad gamer of cricket too. If India tours Australia, then i also will create a tour in these games and will make my batsmen score centuries. I dont know why, but it gave myself and my soul some immense pleasure playing this game. I have to blame the AI in these games though. There will always be some expectations before a new release comes. But once you find the way to score runs easily, then it will no longer be fun. I remember my friend Jack playing the stupendous sixes when i was in hostel. This guy created a character called Jacque. And before Richie Benaud finishes saying 'Jaaacque', we all will hear a sound 'bhokk' and you can see sixes flying all over the ground. Phalgun tried very hard at this game until he too found his rhythm when he first scored 90 odd using Dravid in medium difficulty while we were in 2nd yr of our college. My friend Hari even started playing this game long time back. He is a master of EA Cricket 97.
Comparing the AIs of Brain Lara Cricket and EA, nothing much to tell compare actually :). As i said, if you find the technique to score runs easily, the game starts become boring. But not for guys like Madhan. He used to tell that these cricket games had to be played with a spirit. Yeah, it will sound funny. But i dont know where his spirit will be when he makes India score 1000+ and keep on supporting team Australia.
Special mention has to be made about the only test match myself and Baju played during our 2nd year in hostel. It was cricket 2002 i guess. I won the toss and elected to bat first. It was a five day test match!. Weather was great and pitch conditions favored batting. I used keyboard while he took joypad. It was versus type of game. I remember choosing India and he chose Australia. It was so funny, that he bowled to me for two full days. Although he racketed my top order, players from the tail like Bajji, Zaheer headed up and played the innings of their lives ;). I scored some 380 odd in 120 overs. Yeah! Baju bowled all 120 overs which meant some 750 odd balls. Thank god!, by the time indians got all out in their first innings, baju lost his nerve and we both accepted a draw on mutual agreement. Otherwise, i too would hav had to bowl for more than two days!! Those days i cannot forget!!

EA Sports Cricket 2000


Brian Lara Cricket 2000


EA Cricket 2002


Internation Cricket Captain 3


EA Cricket 2004


EA Cricket 2005


Brian Lara Cricket 2006


EA Cricket 2007

The FIFAs
Another game that i've played like mad was FIFA. They all were from EA Sports. Never liked the Pro Evolution Soccer. If you add all the games in the versions listed below, i would have played some 10000+ games scoring some 30000+ goals.
One best thing that reminds me about this game was again the fight between me and Baju in hostel. We used to play this in against mode and when say i score a goal, i'll sarcastically mock him heavily and i'l get the same treatment when he scores one. The audience used to be Kalaharan, Karate Prabhu, Jp, Kariyan.
And i cannot forget Jp scoring a cheeky goal in Fifa 2006 over network in final year hostel.

FIFA 2000


FIFA 2002


FIFA 2003


FIFA 2004


FIFA 2005



FIFA 2006


FIFA 2007

And sadly, my last FIFA game would be FIFA 2007. I dont think my system will support these hi-fi games. Even if they do, i've lost my craze for them. :(. But man, i've played this game like thousands of hours especially during my pre final and final years in college and first year at verizon.

Freestyle games
I'd like to specially mention about these two games which i once was really crazy about. They were the GTA Vice City and San andreas. Its the gameplay. You are a thug who can roam around the city of Vice City/San Andreas and you get jobs from mafias and gundas like assasinating the president, successfully making a drug deal etc., These games were so cool.

GTA Vice City



GTA San Andreas

Strategy type games
One of the most addicted strategical type games that i've played for a long time was Age of Empires 2. Although the game is very simple, one need to strategically plan on building the city to battles. During our final year in college, this game was played for hours continuosly. Professional players in this game include Raja, Jack, Karate Prabhu, Kalaharan, Vicky Vignesh and Jp. I remember HariG getting wiped out in a network game within minutes due to the strategic play of Jp and Raja.
Besides AOE, i've played Lord of the Rings - The battle for middleEarth, Hidden and Dangerous, Caesar 3 and Red Alert.
Broken sword 3 was a game filled with puzzles. I was able to finish it with the help of walkthroughs from internet :). And about puzzle type games, Baju used to play a game called 'Urutu Vilayatu', where the objective of the game is to roll a device time and again and it will make go back and forth in time. Other than that, it did not serve anything. Yet, Baju was real crazy about that one. Till date, i dont know why!

Age of Empires 2 - The Age of Kings


Caesar 3


Hidden And Dangerous


Red Alert 2


Lord of the Rings - Battle For middle Earth


Broken Sword 3

Shooting
I was really ruthless when it comes to first person shooter especially during games like Call of Duty and Quake3. No one in hostel was really able to beat me in a terrain called 'Longest yard' in Quake3 Arena. Even in Call of duty, i was almost unbeatable when i was holding machine guns. Am not that good sniper. Sniping missions - Jp used to be the topper. We used to play individual games/team games.
Lots of my batch mates were addicts of this Call of Duty. Baju, Jp, Karate, Kari, Raja, Mamu, Andi, Shanmu, Palgun, Hari, Jack, Pravin, Maani, Delhi - all these guys transform themselves into soldiers while playing over LAN. Most of the project semester mornings were spent in this. Worst performers of this game were Shanmu, Mamu, Andi and Palgun though. Their stat read like Kills - 5, Killed - 30 :). They were like a treat in the game especially for guys like Jp who used to melee them from back! :)

Call of Duty


Medal of Honor


Quake 3 Arena


Unreal Tournament

Miscellaneous Games
Virtual Cop, Worms World Party come under the miscellaneous category. These games, i've played for hours. Especially Worms world party, the cute sound of worms. And i cant forget Karate Prabhu involving in the game mostly as a spectator with a maths note in his hand :P . He did like this for almost 1 1/2 years!. And the current game that i've been playing is Yahoo! chess.

Virtual Cop


Worms World Party


Yahoo! Chess

Hope you've played atleast a few of the games i did and recall your funny memories over em!!

Tour de Pondy

Jp(Jayaprabhu) once sent me a mail with the subject line 'Karate for u', depicting a motorcyclist doing a venturous stunt. It was just a 45 seconds clipping. I never thought our karate (Lt.Prabhu) would take it seriously. Ironically he did. It was on our jaunt to Pondy, karate exhibited some vivid bike driving skills along the ECR road on 11th of August 2007. The road was very narrow and had a fine turn where speeds of even 70 kmph would prove to be fatal. But karate still managed to park the bike going at 90kmph!! It was due to his superior reflexes, he brought the bike to a halt. Many might say it to be an accident. But i personally dont feel so. Its simply because, the place he landed was no desert. It was infront of a snack bar :).

This trip to pondicherry is definitely not a memorable one. It was just because more than half the defaulters - Baju, Abhi, Delhi, Sankar, Amit and Lava were missing. Compared to excursions like ooty, yercaud, kodaikanal etc, this one was nothing.

Maani and Arvind desperately wanted to chill themselves by having a bike trip to any place. Around chennai, pondy is the only recognizable spot and known well for its cheap booze. Arvind, myself, jp, maani, karate, mamu, sudan and roger geared up. Jack, Baju and Lava had their own reasons not to come.

Nothing great to say about the trip. We started off at 2PM compared to the planned time of 10AM on saturday. Reached there around 6PM and were straying in the streets to find a decent room. Finally got one at a heavy price of 3600 a day!!. The only joyous moment was that night where there was a series of disputations between Maani and Arvind both having their 'moments' ridiculing each other. It was really entertaining and funny. Other than that, nothing more to say about this one. 6.5 out of 10.

Kozhi's grand finale

We all had to come out of the teynampet dhaba with our bells loosened and aiding each other from not collapsing. It was due to the wide range of delicacies we had that night. One of my best friends in verizon (Rajagopal a.k.a kozhi) was forced to choose a better life. Yes, he decided to leave Verizon and join Ericsson. His harbinger would be thala kotta (Arun) who inaugurated this trend. Hope i also join this league in the near future.

Kozhi's treat was on dilemma. He was dilly-dallying and procrastinating many times. Finally a committee was formed under bala and andi to fix the venue and day to be August 6th, 9PM at teynampet dhaba, a place renowned for its potpourri of chickens.

Myself, Bala, Andi, Madan, Praveen, Phalgun and Murli were invited to embellish Raj's final treat. Palgun drove his car accompanying Kozhi and Murali with him. Myself, andi, praveen and madan came by two-wheeler. We all reached there on time. And we found a decent place in the open. The environment was colorful ;).

Lavish Murali and Ravenous Andi dictated the items. Palgun, Raj and Madan were the 'veggies' who were in lesser number (or is it greater ;-) ?) that day. Tomato soup, Hot & Sour chicken soup and Jaljeera were ordered to stimulate our appetite.

Then the starters which was really an elongated list of chickens included Dragon chicken, Tandoori chicken, Reshmi kabab, Tangdi kabab, Chicken 65 and Ginger chicken. Along with that we also ordered Chilli Prawn, Paneer tikka, Gobi fry. These items forced the main course out of the question. Still we had to order something for namesake. I recall them to be Butter naan, Romali Roti and palgun ordering some brown colored naan. I was full after having three to four pieces of chicken. And so were Murali, Madan and Raj. The remaining 'husky 4' raped the dishes that were served.

Amidst our banquet, we found ways to pass time joyfully which included eyeballing an iyer girl from the next table, badgering madan, pepping up kozhi etc.,

For desserts, we ordered Gulfi, Gulabjamoon and Jilabee. Beverages were pepsi and lime soda. Snapped these memorable moments with praveen's sony ericsson.

We all greeted Kozhi for his successful future ahead. All the very best da Kozhi!!! Consider this an apocalypse and seek a new and fruitful beginning!!!

My 1st year at verizon..

This one i wrote inside comments section of madhan's blog. I was not having a seperate blogpage then. Having my own one now, its more appropriate to move it here..

Is first year a champagne or cyanide at Verizon?
I'd say it was full of champagne coz of the following reasons
1) Traing period.. A WELL BEGUN IS A HALF DONE. nalla entertaininga irunthuchu.. esp our salaivaan; avaru classla vanthale comedythaan.
2) Project - nalla project. OPyum adikalam, workum interestinga irukum. nalla lead. (en lead kaeta, he'l say 'enna paathu nallavanu sollitanapa') :)
3) Friends - got a uniq set of close friends : bala, madan, rajagopal, andi, abinav
4) Figures - konjam kammithaan, irunthaalum oru 10-12 paera paathu site adichu adichu kannu avinji poachu.
5) My workstation : Good place to pass time after spending many tiring hours @ Cafeteria/Breakout/Dhanam mess /Food court/Olympia lawn. (he he he)
6) Sametime/Lotus Notes : ithu irunthathaan en kalai(well, for most it'l be aftnoon) velaigal sevvaney seyalpadum.
7) TT (latest fever) : daily oru 2 hours.

But a lil bit of cyanidum iruku.. :(
1) verizon policy : cell phone, mp3 player edhuvum kondu vara koodathu. Thummanumna kooda, ivanungalta trouble ticket raise panni permission vaanganum.
2) perutha avamaanam in april 2007 (guess my vz friends can understand this :) )
3) thoppai - s/w engineeraga maarnathuku kedacha thandanai.Ithoda niruthikiren..
overall solla pona this 1 year's rating : 8 outof 10.

My Pilot

Time : 2:18 AM
Date : August 06 2007
Bored after reading my 38th wordlist in GRE Barron's book, i thought i would take a break. Amidst studying the list, lava showed me a post in his blog. It was impressive. Moved by that, i thought why not create my own blog? Had to copy lava's title though ;-). Two full days i did not touch my book. Watched two movies Zodiac and Apocalypto.
Zodiac was a nice movie. Started watching that movie with Jp, Karate and lava at usual 2 AM on saturday night. Jp retired at the start going into deep sleep. Karate was there for some half hour watching the murder scenes alone by some X serial killer he had to retire as well. Our lava murthy tried his max to keep himself up for some 70 mins, but he too cant withstand as it was already 3.10AM and still some 70 more mins were left in the movie!! Everyone were asleep. So i switched over to headphones and finished off that movie. It was good. I've seen many movies of this kind - serial killer based. Some of them include se7en, primal fear, silence of the lambs where the killer will finally be revealed through some three to four twists in the climax. But in this movie which is based on a real incident, the killer is still not found, although they have one suspect name 'leigh', but this case is still open in vallejo, SF. Finally went to bed at 4.45 AM.
Next day woke up at 2PM. Well i did not intend to. A phone call from my relatives made me do it. That full day was spent playing chess. Night ordered pizza and finally felt that two days i did nothing. Out of guilt, started a wordlist and then this blog. Enough for a pilot version. I stop here.