Yahoo's privileged user!

Two weeks back, I was so happy to see an "Outlook-like" Yahoo Web mail. It read "Yahoo Mail Beta". I was able to Drag and drop items onto different folders. Mark multiple items and perform an action. Cool shortcuts. Great speed. Awesome experience. Amazing! I said to myself. I just wished it not be a one time affair.

I even went home without closing the browser window after I heard colleagues claiming this to be a random beta testing which would be available for only one session. But later I realized it was not to be true. Yahoo!! I am Yahoo's privileged user! Everytime I login, I am taken to the Yahoo Mail Beta environment. So far no complaints.

Yahoo is back to rock! Try it whenever the offering is there and you would love it!

Dasavatharam: Ten faces in two languages?

Tit Bits on Dasavatharam

Mr.Milton and a few others...

I got up today and tuned myself onto a few characters that surfaced in front of my eyes.

Mr.Milton - The guy was 6 foot 2 inches tall. He had a tiger’s teeth attached as a pendant to his heavy jewelry over his neck. He had his own fashion statement showing off his hair in his chest. He always had untrimmed hair and an ambushed beard. He rode a bullet and his favorite statement – “I don’t get paid enough even to fuel my bike”.

Mr.Vellai Chammy - “White God” in English. He sported white pants and was more charismatic and stylish than Mr.Milton. He was instrumental in motivating youngsters.

The Rosario sisters. These sisters are in all shapes and sizes. They are instrumental behind my writing here.

Swarnalatha and Angayarkanni – Ladies whose voices can be heard for a few kilo meters but with pleasing personalities.

Radhika and Shanthi.

Radhika was the one who was so concerned and affectionate towards me. Radhika would smile at me suddenly which would shock others around. More than others, the timing would shock me. Bolt from the blue! Her favorite line was “What do you think? Am I sitting here and hatching eggs?” She had a huge glass which covered half of her face and a long threaded hair style.

I know Shanthi more as an emotional vessel than anything else. I remember the moments when rumors spread like a forest fire spreading the message that she had scratched the name of one of my buddies in her arms and that too with a blade. Her favorite line was “Please… Please… I am going.”

You might wonder what these characters have to do with me. Well, they were some of the interesting characters who were associated with my 14 years of school education at S.D.H Jain Vidyalaya, Madurai. There are lots of people left out. May be there should be a seperate post on them very soon. A little more detailing would be interesting here.

Mr.Milton was the guy who was expected to perform better than any other staff by the school management. He was a totally different Math teacher. He set strict rules on even the order in which we had to answer the question paper. If some body did not follow it, he wouldn’t simply evaluate the answer sheet and would score 0. He knew what he had to do to produce centums year after year. Now I heard that he has moved out of the school. Petrol rates are too high these days you see!

Mr.Vellai Chamy was the guy who talked about the subject I hated the most – Chemistry. When he left, he left us crying with a very emotional speech. Probably the first time that we realized that we would be really missing someone.

Roasarios – still play an active part of the school. They teach the KG kids – probably the only time I loved school life so much. Even today, they remember everybody by name and across generations. They are part of most of the families.

Swarnalatha and Angayarkanni – teachers who taught us Tamil. They gave me a tough time with half a mark deducted for every spelling mistake. When the situation reached a stage were I saw my marks going negative, I switched to Sanskrit (for my second language paper) and managed to pass out by writing the exam in english! Thank god!

Shanthi taught us Botany. She would often leave the class not being able to manage the torrid times that we had to offer her. But she was quite generous in awarding high scores. Even if we din't get one, we could pamper her and get it done, before the scores reached the rank cards.

Radhika taught us English. I guess she left the school when my batch was moving towards the higher secondary. It’s a pity that I have lost the personal greeting card that she had given to me when she left.

Happy teacher’s day!! Thanks for the seeds that you sowed in us. No matter what, we still remember each one of you. We thank you for being a part of our success stories.

Agassi... Simply the best!

I was overcome by emotion and was in tears when the match ended. A phenomenal contest which saw the player how was young at heart win the match. Andre Agassi would be 36 years old, but he show cased why he is one of the all time greats in Tennis. And it was quite an emotional moment when Andre and Bagdhatis embraced and wished each other at the end of the epic match. That is what is called "Sportsmanship". I personally feel it’s difficult to keep such a spirit both during agony and ecstasy. And tennis remains a sport where you often get to see such good examples.

It was just another match which seemed it would never end. Another match which kept swinging both ways. Another match which made you bit off your finger nails. Another match which was such a delight to watch.

The 21-year old, Bagdhatis, played so well and could have put an end to Andre if he had been physically fit - to the fullest. But that is that what a sport is all about? It is about endurance ... both physically and mentally. But yes, no one could disagree that it was sad to see Bagdhatis not at his very best of physic because of the cramps that got on him in the last set.

Saying that, you cannot take away the credit from Andre. He did it in his own style. He knows how to finish matches. It was nothing new. It makes you wonder-struck. While I was wondering how he was able to compose himself so well... John McEnroe asked him the same question after the match. He was cool about it and replied that he was quite happy to live his dream for this long and thanked the human spirit for motivating him to deliver his best.

Have you ever thought of something like this? Living a dream for 20 years!! Well, for most of us dreams remain dreams. I dream of being a sporty-fit person when I reach 40. But drawing inspiration from people like Andre and McGrath would be easy and staying committed to achieve that dream would be really hard. I am happy that I at least have my motivation level reaching a new high after watching this match.