Vetayadu Vilayadu

I got to watch Vetayadu Vilayadu (Hunt and have fun) here at Bangalore. Apart from the visual treat that the film had to offer, I also got a chance to catch up with the fan-following related whistles, claps that is very common in Tamil Nadu. But I was relieved that they did not over do it, as I was able to watch the film comfortably without too many paper bits flying all around as you would see in a Rajnikanth's movie.

I personally liked the movie for too many reasons - the cinematography, the background score, the holloywood kind of visuals taken in New York (where the major part of the story revolves around) and the charismatic Kamal Hassan. And it was realistic. Kamal Hassan's age shows, but he lives up to the expectations of the character.

The movie is an episode that takes place in a Cop's life. Though its just another cop story where the cop gets over the bad guys, its a well narrated story that keeps you at the edge of your seat through out the movie.

DCP Raghavan (Kamal Hassan) goes to Madurai to investigate the gruesome murder of the daughter of the City Police Commissioner. Rani gets brutally raped and her finger is hung as a dristi rope along with three green chillies and a lemon, outside her house. This is how the story begins.

If you hate such scenes please avoid the movie. There are a lot more scenes in those lines. Gruesome acts by psychopathic serial killers!! Though the violence part is on the high in the movie, I guess with all the violence headlines going around in the real world, its just the reflection of the sort of crime that happens in the society today.

Here are some other interesting aspects about the movie...

There are many scenes where the cop is on conversation using his Motorola V3 Razr mobile phone. And guess what is the tone that has been used... its "Hello Moto". I think there is a commercial part associated to it. No wonder that Motorola is quite desperate to reach the No.1 spot in the mobile industry.

And don't get to the movie expecting too much of the usual romantic scenes in Kamal Hassan's movie. There is hardly a scene where he touches Jo. So don't expect a hollywood touch from that view point. Doubt if that was a part of the aggrement before Jo agreed to do the movie. Oh! I guess that is getting too much and will stop it here!

And there are loads and loads of censorship done to the bad language used through out the movie. Both in english (for the shots taken in the US) and in tamil (shots taken in Chennai). But of course there could be this justification that cops need to use these words to match them word-for-word just as they match them hit-for-hit. Huh!

My wife felt that the movie was not as entertaining as Kakha Kakha and was disturbed by the violence shown. But I felt that it was a good movie to watch... because it was different. Its different from most of the Tamil movies made today and different in many aspects. Thumbs up to the movie.

I doubt if I would have liked the movie to this extent, if it had been watched via a DVD on a TV. Have to watch the movie at the theatres to enjoy the superb visuals and the musical treat, and not to forget the timely comments passed by the audience. It was a plus, because there is no other major commedy element attached to the film. So, watch it in theaters and you could help the no-piracy movement also!

Surviving an attack

A forward that might help...

Let's say it's around 10 PM and you are going home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You are really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in yourchest that starts to adiate out into your arm and upinto your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home or to somebody who can help you out.

Unfortunately you do not know if you will be able to make it that far. You havebeen trained in CPR, but the guy that taught thecourse did not tell you how to perform it on yourself. So how do you cope with the situation?

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heartattack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deepand prolonged, as when producing sputum from deepinside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every twoseconds without let-up until help arrives, or untilthe heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughingmovements squeeze the heart and keep the bloodcirculating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get themselves to the nearest hospital or helping point.

Internet Explorer 7

Checked out IE 7 (Beta) and have fell in love with it.

I accept the fact that Microsoft does a lot of copy-cat stuff and it is no wonder that they were the ones who introduced the concept of "copy-paste"-ing. In one of my previous posts I had talked about Mozilla FireFox and the new concept of tabbed web pages under one browser window. I was for sure waiting for a similar version from windows.

Yesterday, I downloaded the software and checked it out. I was amazed by the improvisation done by Microsoft on the "copied" stuff from FireFox.

For me the most amazing feature was the Quick Tabs (which is something new ... I would call it an improvisation on the tab idea). For a guy like me who open hundreds of WebPages a day, it gives me a quick snapshot of all the WebPages I have opened. I can just click the one I want to switch to and get into it. And that lets me have only one browser window to manage all the pages I visit.

But hey, they validate you to have an original windows version when you download. Do you have one?

Latest Version Features * Download * Microsoft Interent Explorer

The Broken Strings

Bangalore might have been a dream place to live a decade back. But personally I look at it as a much-hyped city than anything else. And don't ask me what I do to make it better. I admit that I don't do much. But I do whatever that is easily possible for me to make it a better place. One, I don't throw garbage on the streets. Two, I guess I have become a more sensible rider of the two-wheeler. I don't storm into the other side of the road to beat traffic. Well, most of the times. :) And, what could be the reasons that we are so careless about caring for Bangalore? We had a little chat at the office about this and most of us felt that a major part of Bangalore is filled with aliens and that could be the vital reason. People who have settled here from the neighboring states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerela; for the young and the old, Bangalore has changed very little in terms of giving them a pleasure but for the weather factor.

The new initiatives like the "Refresh Bangalore" where great minds have started brainstorming on the ways to effectively improve the city are welcoming ones. They are more action oriented and that is the good part. It is in the initial phases and one has to wait to see if it is just another bureaucratic move. Gone are the days when you take pictures of the bad state of roads and email it to people and just hope that the city gets better. There is no room for such wishful thinking any more.

Okay, taking a deviation and thinking more in terms of the different breeds of people that Bangalore accommodates makes me write about something else. I come across very few native Bangalore-ians. Interestingly, when we meet new people at office and in public, most of us tend to pop up the question - Where do you come from? Answers - Tamil Nadu. Andhra. Kerela. Bihar. Delhi. Kolkota. Mysore. And then there would be Bangalore!! And when I ask many about their roots - parents, most of them feel that they are pretty happy at their Native place doing what they have been doing all these years and would not relocate here. That has been the case with me too. And that is the sad part. You would love to have them next to you and spend at least a couple of after-office hours with them. But how many get that opportunity? When I was single I visited my parents quite frequently. Now being married and both of us working the frequency has reduced. I am aware that I am not doing any good in taking the extra effort to connect to them often … in person! But I am also lucky that I am not too far away from them.

All the laughing, joking, sarcasms, talking, crying is done over Abhraham's instrument. Or should I be saying Dhirubhai Ambani’s instrument. We have a Reliance phone which can talk to any other reliance phone non-stop for a rental of Rs.750/- bucks a month. That's not bad.

But I must agree that even the time spent on the phone has come down. It could be for varied reasons. Mostly it is because we aren't in the same place and both the ends aren't free when the other one wishes to talk. It is when the family next door visits your place when the phone rings. When you call your folks back home there is a doctor who is entering to treat patent’s ailments and therefore an abrupt end. The call gets postponed. And so does the enthusiasm. You concentrate on something else and that is it. Fast paced life. Hell with it!!

My wife and me are missing our parents so badly and wish we could spend some time with them. Breaking the normal routine of we visiting them, we wish they could have a break at our place in Bangalore. I just spoke with my dad who isn't doing very well and got him evaluate the option of spending at least a couple of days with us during holidays. My mom would love to have such a break and be with us. But my dad is a hard nut to crack. I am just hoping that they make their trip here. I am sure it is going to be a pleasant change for every one of us. It would definitely be a special one for us as it would be the first time that they would be coming here after our marriage. Need to have better plans to reconnect to the broken strings... meaning living together with them.

Coming back to Bangalore, the administration needs to take even more innovative and tougher decisions to connect all the broken strings and make it really a "Sakka Hottu Maga..." city to live in.

A new beginning...

Got wired and going wireless

I guess this has been the longest gap between two postings in my blog. I switched companies and it took quite some time to settle down. All these days, it was tough to stay offline from the connected world. It was very difficult than that I had imagined earlier. I am now breathing back after getting wired to the connected world of internet.

And thanks to all those guys who had visited my blog and had asked if I was alive or not. Thanks for constantly checking my space. To all of you guys here is the update.

I have moved to Cognizant, a company which works on offshore-onsite model and which exercises on the services space. And I consider myself still lucky to stay attached to the telecom domain as most of the work that I have been associated with has been in the same domain.

This time around, I am going wireless. That is, I am getting into the development of embedded Wireless applications for the mobile devices. It is a bigger role and so are the expectations out of it. Wireless application development is a cool thing but can become a pain when ported onto devices. I just hope all the prior experience with J2ME and Qualcomm BREW comes in handy.

The sense of ownership and the freedom to innovate at work are the few good feelings that I have already started experiencing at the new place. I have been endowed with the responsibility and at the same time given the freedom to strategically plan and implement a way by which competency can be built on the wireless development arena. I am excited about the assignment and at the same time am aware of the steep mountain to climb. It would definitely be a challenge but a challenge that would give me a first real foretaste of what I am capable in terms of management, planning, scheduling, apart from delivering on the technological front.