Braga brags...

Cross Roads

2011-10-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

We have always been presented with choices. Right from the objective questions in first grade to selecting a brand for your first bike choices follow us. Even for an apt picture for this article, I had to choose. Choices are what decides our life. There are innumerous forks possible if you had chosen something for something else. In most of the cases our choices prove to be irreversible. The magnitude of the choices vary for each situation.
Choices made that are morally and objectively correct are always the toughest to choose. With age, our conscience gets better and unfortunately we tend to know the difference between which is right and which is wrong. At times this may involve in absorbing an insane amount of pain. You don't have to as there is always an exit available in this highway called life, but then success always takes the most toughest path. Its been like that and will always be like that.
In the cross roads of life, choosing a path that is made of principles, courage, righteousness and self sacrifice will definitely lead to character and mould us into a better person. Easiest to say, toughest to implement.

Addiction

2011-05-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

Addiction can be crudely classified in two categories. Physical and Mental both driven by the latter. This is when your heart really takes over with the head being a mute spectator committing an array of temporary suicides.

One of the best things, beauty perhaps is how one convinces himself about the submissive nature and tries to align himself so that the guilt is constantly subsided. There are infinite types of addictions; the top three being Alcohol, Smoking and Drug. The above three are associated with the physical forms. They cause damage slowly and steadily.

Addiction's worst form is when the mind falls a prey. Its like a virus right at the source of thoughts. It pollutes everything. You value something, values turn into thoughts, thoughts turn into action, and actions are what defines you. When you screw up your prioritization, everything falls apart and follows a rugged path. The thing that many wise people do here is to understand this and have the courage to come out of it. Whereas the genius one will understand and fall into it. At times, its preferable to be wise than genius. Period.

A Golden mistake

2011-05-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of Jay Weidner, a less known figure who has framed a lot of theories especially pertaining to where this world is headed and how fast things happen and about 2012. For some reasons, I was able to tune well with him. Most of my own analysis and predictions happen to sync with him. Time has started to move at a very fast pace, the tension is getting heavier by the day.
The future is very dark in terms of where this society going towards. Human beings have been given the liberty to value whatever they like and the objective feeling on what value point towards love. Unfortunately, there are lots of other things considered valuable these days. The pinnacle of it is the rise in the demand for Gold being exponential. Below is the latest graph on the change in price of Gold over the past 20 years.

I am not going to bore you with the impact of the increased demand of this metal on the society and to this world. My strong feeling is that this particular metal is going to cause a lot of damage and the day where Jay Weidner going to tell us "I told ya" is not very far away. What we are doing is really a golden mistake.

Potential Energy

2011-05-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

PE = mgh Joules. That is potential Energy in scientific terms. Few examples are a raised hammer, water stored behind a dam, pressure inside a cylinder. The gist here is that energy is stored in a stale form ready to be vented out. The output will in turn be converted into some other form of energy as we all know about the law of conversation of energy. Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed; it can only be transferred from one form into another.
I just felt how much potential all of us have and all they need is a trigger to vent itself out. The outcome of a heavily stored energy although predictable, can equally lead to disaster. An atom bomb is a very good example. The potential each atom possesses in this nature is immense given its miniscule nature. Although most of the energy it vents out may be properly used, the side effects are something that are not desirable which in turn has very high potential to result in catastrophe. Channelizing this is of prime importance. One who does it effectively in a good direction becomes successful. Because you can use it effectively in an entirely disastrous direction as well.

The downward Spiral

2011-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

I develop a lot of applications and software in my day to day work. One of the most important aspect that determines the "quality" of the application being developed is to stress test it. Stress testing can be of many forms. How good is the system responding at various loads. What is the upper bound of load the system could withstand? What would be the number of simultaneous requests it could take and could still serve its purpose? What resources usage it would require to accommodate the standards that has to be met?
Well the answer to all these always are specific. I found this so much related to life or was this imbibed a lot from life?
Life would be perfect if you go through your happy day scenario. You have born with a silver spoon, good parents, good education, good life, good spouse, good children, good everything. This in most of the cases will not happen. We need to prepare ourselves for "other" cases as well. What if this goes wrong, what if that goes wrong, how do I react to it. Beauty is, people tend to learn a lot from every experience and maturity levels keep getting better when you face the worse often. But at times, when the stress/pressure is too much, there is great possibility that the system will crash. This phase is called the "DOWNWARD SPIRAL".
Things suck during this time. Nothing will go right, even if remotely something does, brain tells that its not right. The self demotivation will be at its peak. Anything that is supposed to be helpful will result in tragedy. It would be insanely painful to withstand this period. There would be lot of easy escape routes tempting to be taken. It wont matter how talented you are, you could still be a victim. This is the most darkest and the dangerous zone a person can be put into.

Braga

Am I satisfied?

2011-01-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

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

Chess and Life.. Continued

2010-11-17T02:01:00.000-08:00

One of the things that does not occur so early in a game of chess is resigning. Grandmaster Gary Kasparov once resigned his game after very few moves against a computer opponent as a result of blunder. He knew that he could not carry on. Even if he did, it would have only yielded embarrassment. He could have chosen to continue the game, yet he did not simply to escape the pain during the game. This is where the 'style' of the player comes into effect. He can choose to play or give up as soon as he wants.

Same things may happen in life as well. If people come to know that they have made a blunder that cannot be taken back, then they will be forced to quit irrespective of how strong resources they have in their arsenal. Although its a snap decision, it can be the right one as well. But people are often appreciated if they fight a battle where defeat is inevitable instead of giving up so soon.

Cheers!
Braga

Saturation levels getting reached. Next stop Breakdown.

2010-04-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

Nature's beauty is that it doesn't want anything to be static. Everything keeps changing and change is what we call as time. Time is one mysterious concept that many physicists/scientists want to beat/break. It has been impossible since and I don't see any advancements in that area in the near future.

I have a very strong feeling that we are in a saturation level right now. Yes, there is an immense scope of expansion/innovation in technology, lifestyle and all that. But all these are happening at a pace even nature cant control.

Its very hard to digest/see the imbalance between the rich and poor in the society exceeding limits. The climate is severely getting damaged. The raise in temperature every year is going to beat Moore's law. We tend to remain close doors, put AC, pump out the air from our homes, buildings, vehicles and send it out to the atmosphere. There is a limit that it can take. One of the lethal weapons that nature has in its Arsenal is the calamity. We're experiencing too many in the recent times and its only going to get doubled each year.
It is not going to be a big surprise if end will be reached in 2012, in fact many people would prefer that then.

Random thoughts, stopping now
Bragaadesh.

Why food prices are rising like hell ?

2009-12-17T00:11:00.000-08:00

Am writing this with immense anger over myself and my surroundings.
Everyone should now be aware of the recent food prices soaring like anything. There are almost many factors that determine food prices around the world. The lacuna between the production and consumption has certainly widened. It is every individual's duty to know how he/she is responsible for contributing to this carnage. I already predicted this a year and a half before.
The country's worst nightmare has come true. This definitely is a bright sign that this world is heading towards perdition. People who are reading this may not be directly influenced by the price hike at all, but its only a matter of time we are going to face the ramifications directly.
Last week, I was supposed to go to a lunch with my team where the cost of a single buffet was 650 bucks! Is it really worth it? Definitely no! We should certainly realize that there are many people who cant even afford to their basic amenities which ofcourse is food. Now, why the hell should I pay that much to have a single lunch? Well, one can immediately counter that I'm not the one paying for it, its my organization. So, what ? Paying and having a nice team lunch is going to improve my rapport with the team, strengthening the togetherness bla bla, but the price I pay is too much, literally!
The future is certainly doomed and this world is heading towards a direction beyond repair. Unless, each and every individual accepts that he is part of this catastrophe and act accordingly, definitely this world will come to and end soon.

Chess and Life.. Continued

2009-12-05T03:32:00.000-08:00

Although the opening moves in chess might have had a little impact on how the game is going to progress, the middle games are equally important as well. This is the period where players try to utilize their powers to the maximum. They try to bring out all their powers, the knights, bishops, rooks and ofcourse their ultimate weapon - Queen. Good players try to depend on all the powers rather on concentrating on one singe piece thus ensuring they cover most part of the board. Sacrifices are made during this phase of the game. The core purpose of making a sacrifice will be to gain a better position/mobility etc., Middle games often tells how competent you are on the board.

Similar way during our second phase in life we tend to utilize our full potential, using all our possible powers may it be money, hard work, commitment or whatever it is we have. This is a period where risks/sacrifices will be made in an attempt to attain better position later in life. If you mess up in this phase, its game over!

Chess and Life

2009-11-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Life is a game of chess!

Chess looks very simple on the outset. It has a simple 8x8 board and both sides start with equal set of pieces. But one astounding information about chess is that the possible number of positions is infinite! There are 8,902 total possible positions after just 3 moves! And there are 120,921,506 total positions after 6 moves!!! No two games will have the same set of moves but can only be similar.
Similarly life also looks very simple. There are almost infinite number of possibilities on how one's life is going to be. No two lives are going to be same. It can be similar but definitely not the same.

Lets just compare on a high level on how just life and chess is so much synchronized. You start your game with opening moves. Openings are very vital in a game of chess. There are lot of well practiced openings. However, a bad opening will not always result in failure; similarly a good opening will not always result in success but definitely opening plays a huge part in the later part of the game. Opening you have all your power, all your pieces are safe and there are hardly any risks involved during this phase of the game. It paves way to lay a strong foundation.

The initial part of our lives can be compared with Chess openings. There a lot of well practiced ways to be successful which includes being healthy, proper education and good care which all points in laying a strong foundation. Although we do have a lot of power within us, we will not be using them to their potential, yet it will remain within ourselves. A life not started well does not always going to result in failure but most of the cases it does and vice versa.

To be Continued...

Dominating Chess Game

2009-11-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

This game i had the white pieces. Instead of starting out aggressive, i played a calm headed chess constantly trying to dominate the board by snatching the odd pawn now and then. Middle game proved decisive by me winning couple of pawns while pressuring his king by sending all my troops. My opponent resigned when all of his hope went down!!

Queen out early!

2009-11-23T09:28:00.000-08:00

Good example for a game where queen is out early. Although queen is a powerful piece, bringing her too early in the game would prove fatal.

My Chess Game - Pins (With commentary)

2009-11-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

You can find many pins in this game. Enjoy!

In chess, a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece. "To pin" refers to the action of the attacking piece inducing the pin, and the defending piece so restricted is described as pinned.

Only pieces that can move an indefinite number of squares in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line, i.e., bishops, rooks and queens, can pin opposing pieces. Kings, knights, and pawns cannot pin. Any piece may be pinned except the king, as the king must be immediately removed from check under all circumstances.

"The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary." - Aron Nimzowitsch

Source: wikipedia.org

The IMMORTAL GAME

2009-11-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

This game was played in 1851 between grandmasters Anderssen and Kieseritsky in London. One of Anderssen's masterpieces, known as the "Immortal Game." Black neglects his development, and Anderssen offers both Rooks to show that two active pieces are worth a dozen sleeping at home.

My best chess game

2009-11-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

This is one of my all time favorites..

I started with black and played "Counter Game" as my opening move. Slowly gained supreme movement by sacrificing pieces. I had to sacrifice a pawn, a bishop and a horse to finish off this mini masterpiece :). Opponent's rating was 1444 in Yahoo chess.

My guilty conscience

2008-06-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-03-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-08-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

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..

2007-08-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

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) Training 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

2007-08-05T13:48:00.001-07:00

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.