Happy New Year 2006

The Bombs are already getting onto the headlines. This time around the terrorists are targeting Bangalore's New Year eve, following the shoot out at IISC, Bangalore. Let us forget all that and expect a peaceful and a happy year ahead.



Wishing you all a very happy new year.

Hip Hop and the Las Vegas Connection!

Right from Childhood I have been fascinated by Rap music. I would glue my eyes onto MTV RAP numbers then. Of late there has been a lot of Rap and Hip Hop numbers from Tamil and Hindi music directors. Amitab and Abhishek do a lot of Hip Hop songs these days. And our guyz deliver it on par if not better than the western counterparts, added with the desi touches to it.

So what is Hip Hop? It is a mix of Rapping (hey read carefully!), DJing (producing scratchy music), wearing your pants half way through your bums (showing your underwear is optional), dancing those crazy moves and of course "Yo Yo"ing.

Talking about Hip Hops …

I still remember the first live experience I had at Las Vegas. I dont drink and it was the first time I accompanied a couple of buddies to a happening Pub. We waited in line along with the American folks. The entrance was guarded by hefty guys. They would open up the chain and let us in as and when people come out of the pub. When we entered, I could see smoke and hear music. I kept bumping onto someone. Hey don’t think otherwise... it was because of poor visibility.

It was some kind of a weird feeling to see huge guys (like the ones seen on TV) flanked by babes on either side glancing at us and probably sending the message "what are these kids doing?” Huh! Probably those were words from my rather insecure inner self. There were a few others who gave a smile with raised eyebrows - probably saying "Hi!”. As we moved on we hit the dance floor, again flanked by a chain of body guards around the dance floor. The music was on and you guess what. Yes, Hip Hops.

We too were dancing to the tunes with bizarre moves. It was rather easy as you just need to follow the crowd and move along with them. When I was busy with that, my buddy was making other moves. He was slowly catching along with another babe along with the item number that he was following. Rather disappointingly, another dude whirled her away. When I was thinking - "wow! This guy is making great moves", he quickly started inviting another one. I could only think that all those powers were from the bottle of bear that he was holding. This girl was a Chinese. She moved out after some time along with her friends. When I was just telling my buddy that he had chased a girl out of the dance floor, he was surrounded by Chinese Jackie Chans (her boy friends probably). We dint understand what they were saying (as the music was damn loud). But I could see danger brewing as they were all angry. Before things could get nasty, I pulled along my friend and moved out of the dancing arena. Ho! We panicked, but nothing else happened. I thanked God – “Yo! God!!”. By the end of it my friend lost all the hip hop spirit that had climbed onto his head. It did not end there though. Buddies continued to dance with bear bottles in hand. One of them was dancing crazy with all Desi steps along side a huge black American woman. She enjoyed it for sure. We were laughing our lungs out. What was I doing? By then I had said enough is enough to myself and was taking snaps, so that I could share it along with friends back home. Later I managed to slowly drag them out of the crazy place well past mid night.

Back to Hip Hops… however crazy it might seem, they do really fire up the Josh-engine in you. These days I do dance to the Hip Hops rather instantaneously; and of course in indoors and with all the curtains down. Hip hop ... Yo Yo!!

Here are my favorite Hip Hop artists/groups:
50 Cents, The black eyed peas, Diddy or Puff Daddy, Eminem, Outkast, Snoop Dogg

The Massacre of an Ambassador?

One of my good buddies wanted me to re-model an Ambassador car. He was interested in re-modeling his 1965 Amby, which he had bought recently.

Having not ventured into anything like this before, I took up the challenge. Would not be too proud of the output, but it’s just the beginning. Did it sound like "another car designer in the making?". If so, forgive me. I no nothing about cars!

Anyways my friend is taking it seriously. I know that it would not be that easy, as it would require some technical effort as well to aid the design ideas. Both of us are new to this and are just crazy about producing a .... Crazy idea? :)

Look at the massacre design ideas below...



The idea behind the first design was to blend bizzare vintage curves to the body inorder to make the 1965 Hindustan Motor's Ambassador, a unique one.

The second one depicts the vintage style via the BIG WHITE MUSH quite similar to the ones sported by the good old maharajas of India.

History behind "Paid Leave".

Ever had a look at September 1752 calendar? Huh!

As you see in the above snapshot, eleven days went missing. What is the story behind it?

That was the time England shifted from Roman Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, and the king of England ordered those 11 days to be wiped off the face of the month of September of 1752. The workers worked for 11 days less but got paid for the entire 30 days.

And that is how "Paid Leave" was born.

The New Year Will Be A Second Late!

AS NEW Year revellers count down to the last second of 2005 this December 31, time will, literally, stand still for a moment.

But only for a second, as standard clocks around the world will add an extra second to the year, to make up the difference between solar time and “real” or “absolute” time. For the first time in seven years, that is, since 1998, a “leap second” will be added to time standards, on instructions from the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERRSS) located in the United States.

Indian Standard Time (IST) will also add this time-difference. IST is monitored and controlled by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Delhi, which maintains SI units in India, and also calibrates the National Standards of Weights and Measures. “Through an act of Parliament, we have been designated the official timekeepers of India. And it is our responsibility to see that we keep time properly,” says Mr P Banerjee, head of the time and frequency division at NPL.

This time-addition, however, takes place even as scientists, astronomers and technologists debate on the need for “leap seconds” at all. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) at Geneva recently postponed its decision on a proposal to ban leap seconds from December 2007, in view of continuing discussions on the subject. “The debate was postponed because people are confused,” says Mr Banerjee.

There are two time systems which are accepted world-wide: International Atomic Time, based on relatively stable, invariant atomic clocks, and Universal Time, derived from the rotation of the earth. The difference between the two systems should not exceed 0.9 seconds. If so, it is decided to give a jump in the opposite direction, and this jump is colloquially termed “leap second”. “The decision to introduce positive or negative leap seconds was made in 1971, and the first was added the following year. Since then, we have added 22 such seconds to our clocks. And this will be the 23rd time in the history of time,” he says. “NPL has been following the system for years. If the ITU chooses to continue with it, it is fine. If it chooses to ban it, there is still no problem.”

“One can perhaps consider it when the difference reaches that of one hour. Which means 3600 seconds.

And taking an average addition of plus or minus 1 second per year, it means approximately 3600 years, which is equivalent to several human lifetimes,” the scientist says. Astronomers and navigators who want their clocks to match the natural day-night rhythm of earth’s rotation tend to prefer the leap second, because it helps them keep track of where astronomical objects are in the sky. Whereas, technologists, who depend on the unvarying, uniform frequency of the atomic clock, are not entirely in favour of the leap second.

For it can create problems with modern communication systems and other electronic operations which rely on synchronicity. “In the olden days, time as we knew it was determined by the rotation of the earth. Based on calculations, and the periodic difference from sunrise-to-sunrise, people arrived at the duration of a second,” he says. “Now, we have moved far beyond the pendulum and the quartz-clock. The standard of measuring time is now the atomic clock.”

“It is very stable since it is based on atomic phenomena, so much so that it led to the discovery of the variation in earth’s rotation, which effectively meant variations in the length of day. It was then discovered that we needed to keep the atomic clock in time with the earth clock. Which is how scientists arrived at the need of the leap second,” he says. - PTI

Extract from: The Economic Times, New Delhi 22 DECEMBER

Be insured against ALIENS!

Do you know people insure themseleves against Aliens? You think this is a joke. Read on...

Today I read in the TIMES magazine that over 4,000 people on both sides of the Atlantic have taken out protection against kidnap by aliens. A UK based insurance company, Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson (GRIP) provided this service to those frightened by the little green men throughout the 1990s. Back then, the cost of protecting yourself against UFOs was a mere £100 a year. Any individuals who could prove they’d been kidnapped by folk from another planet were entitled to claim for a bumper £100,000.

These bizarre policies made up over 10% of the company’s profits – and they didn’t stop with aliens. They also insure virgins against immaculate conception, prostitutes against loss of earnings and many more. It may sound bizarre, but it is true.

Unfortunately, GRIP insurers no longer provide protection against alien encounters, but America’s UFO Abduction Insurance Company will still insure those individuals scared of being spirited to a galaxy far, far away.

So its time to get insured. Against becoming a Vampire, being eaten by an alien,
against becoming the invisible man and many more. Anyhow, the Indian version must be different. May be we Indians must be insured against THEIVA KUTHANGALS ("sins towards Gods") and other God borne transition effects.

ENV ... Envy the future.

Intelligent Energy, a British hydrogen energy technology developer have showcased their new ENV (Emissions neutral vehicle) motorcycle recently. The super-futuristic looking bike runs on compressed hydrogen gas, run through a fuel cell to power its 6kW electric drive motor. People who have test driven it seem to be saying that artificial sound needs to be added to the bike as a safety measure to the pedestrians. Of course, the indian versions would have a BIG HONKING horn facility. Otherwise the company would be risking its Sales value.

The current prototype zips from zero to ­its top speed of 80.465 KMPH in just 12.1 sec. A tank can serve a distance of upto 160.93 KMS on a single tank. The hydrogen fuel tank is a catridge which can be removed and replaced, just like the catridge in a printer.

And when can we get to ride them? When the company produces them. These models are prototypes only showcasing the company's core technological strength. For more info, visit http://www.envbike.com/.

Narain - next to numero uno in test drive for Williams

Our coimbatore lad has done a great job in testing for Williams. Narain Karthikeyan, who made his debut with the Jordan team last year, joined the Cosworth-powered team on 14 Dec 2005, for a three-day test drive session at Jerez (the Spanish Circuit).

Sir Frank Williams did not comment on his first test drive which itself was an excellent performance. And yesterday, our lad has done an even more better performance by coming second after Frenchman Franch Montangny. Mark Webber who is also testing in a Williams, clocked almost a second slower than Narian, taking sixth position. Columbia's Montoya, who was in his Mclaren finsihed eigth.

Way to go Narain! We expect you to reach futher speeds, get the testing role for Williams and in due course, take our Indian flag to the podium.

Firefox 1.5 ... Irresistable.

Have you ever tried out the new browser from Mozilla?

Though I have looked at Firefox browsers on my friends PC, I was not really convinced. But itz a totally different feeling after having downloaded and used it. Itz awesome.

So whatz the secret? All but simple features bundled into a cool product. Herez a brief of what struck me the most.

• You can have a tabbed view. You need not have the problems of having different IE windows open for each site. Just swap tabbed pages and move on. So I come to the office and open the browser only once a day. For all others, you right click on the tabbed pane and say "New Tab". Ctrl + tab - enables you to move across web pages (between tabbed panes).

• The find toolbar. A super-cool find toolbar pops at the bottom of a web-page (or rather a web-tabbed-page), where in you could type the search criteria. It gets immediately marked in the page. To move back and forth you need to click on Find Next and Find Previous buttons. You could also highlight them all at a time.

• Therez more. An information bar (similar to IE6) pops up whenever a page is blocked or during a restricted download. It keeps you well informed of what is happening.

• Therez a web features option pane where you can have a wish list of what patches that can and cannot be automatically downloaded.

• You also have a separate bookmark manager tool.

I would recommend you to try it once. You will then use it forever.

Shivaji - Rajnikanth's next venture.

The poster is out!



I got this poster from a friend of mine. Couple of days back (12 of December) Rajni celebrated his birthday. How old is he? No idea. You should be asking my wife for a quick reply.

This reminds me of another thing. My wife who is a mad fan of the super star turned lucky on the same day (12th of December), by bagging a job. This time around it was the typical kind of job that we were looking out for her. The idea was to balance both home and work; and I guess with a Mon-Fri, 10 AM to 6 PM job, it helps. The office being 10-15 minutes away from home is another major plus. No wonder she says "Rajni, your birthday brought me luck!".

[Updated]
I recently updated the blog with a post relating to the debate over Rajnikanth's getup in a song. It also has a few video links that takes you directly to the shooting spot in spain. Click here to go to that post.

A painting and a scribbling...

Dreams


Painted this for a decenly big-sized art work for my living room. Haven't found the time to get it printed and framed. The original image is a 3 x 3 foot painting. Let me know if anybody is interested in this piece of art.

Reach Out



A one minute sketch during boredom to motivate thy self!

Aaru - The film is out in theatres!

Aaru ... The next release for Surya is said to be released in theatres. But I haven't seen much of ads on TV or on walls (posters). May be that is the scene in Bangalore. The walls in Tamil Nadu must definitely be bearing posters of this new film staring Surya and Trisha.

And what is the movie upto? Read a review here

http://www.teakada.com/archives/001634.html

The josh experience...

- 08 Dec 2005 -

It was another dull day at office.

I was just waiting for my wife to return. Of late she has been on an interview hunt (literally), and just now I got to know from her that a company was interested in taking her aboard. It was surprising to see her attitude change drastically over a period of a month. Can I attribute all this to the desperation of a house wife? Initially though she did not show eagerness to take on interviews. But I should say that she has been enjoying the experience for the past two weeks. She has a rather unique way of creating the josh … she goes to malls and coffee shops, relaxes and then meets the consultants and takes on interviews now and then. Strange but true! Slowly the cosmopolitan effect is catching on her.

Though I feel happy that her efforts had paid off, I am not too happy for the fact that it is the BPO segment that she is getting into. I feel that would take a bit out off both of us. So what is the job all about? Calling UK customers and selling products. She is happy about it. I can understand it for the fact that so far she has not got enough of an opportunity to build her communication skills. And here comes one and she is ready to grab it all.

I need to congratulate her for getting through the various rounds. I was under the notion that there would not be much of a test for BPO careers. But that is not true. Getting through the communication test, accent test, aptitude test, grammar test, selling skills test and typing tests itself should have been quite an ordeal for this girl from down south.

It is getting late and I got to pick her up. I am feeling hungry too ... contemplating on having parata from the road shop where we get good madurai-style parata and chalna.

Dude ... Watz Up??

Check out this video.



The "Yo Man" dudes and the paati have done a great job in this 2 minute video. A good video portraying an equally good concept.

Transit - The Movie.

Last Saturday having not much to do in the evening, I was hopping from one channel to the other on TV. To my surprise I saw a movie being aired on VH1 … which is primarily a lifestyle and music channel.

The film: “Transit”. It resembled Manirathnam’s mode of film making. i.e., screen play was in bits and pieces portraying what different characters were undergoing in different stages of their lives. And later, the links between them were established via a sequence of interestingly poised events.

It was fast paced and fictitious. But it did the job of delivering the right message in a strong manner. The film explored the themes of emotion and sexuality in a candid and compelling manner to engage young people and encourage them to practice safer sex.

I personally thought that it was a very good film. The sensitive subject was filmed so graciously that by the end of the two hours of viewing, the strong message would have definitely gone into one's head that they would not forget it easily.