Dustbin

Cricket Review:Match 1 - Adada paer vaikaliye Vs Marathas

2008-07-25T03:04:00.000-07:00

First an interesting note on the name of the first team. ADADA PAER VAIKALIYE (we arent named yet). When the cricket season starts in our office, the office gets buzzing with talks on forming the team. More than forming the team, we get very concerned about naming the team first and come up with some catchy!!!! names to create a stir among our colleagues. In a pursuit of such a catchy name, this team didnt get any good name..

There would always be an interview of the captains one day before the match and the same would be aired in the lunch hall TVs. This team wasnt named until the time the captain was called for the interview. Hence, when the interviewer asked about the name of the team, they simply utterred "Adada paer vaikaliye".. which the interviewer mistook for the team name and that stayed on. Moreover, they werent a full strength team of 11 and they were running from post to pillar to get people into their team. Somehow after all the confusion, they formed a 11 member team and assembled in the ground on the day of the match.

Their opponents Marathas were quite a strong team and they were predicted to reach atleast the last 4 stage of the tournament which comprised of 32 teams.

THE MATCH STARTED...

The Marathas were put in to bat in the 8 over tennis ball match, which took place in the MCC college ground, chennai. The Marathas being a strong team, marauded the poor bowlers. The ball was in the air for most of the time and the fielders got tired in running and fetching the ball from beyond the boundary. Such was the scoring rate that the Marathas accumulated 76 runs in their allotted 8 overs.

The turn came for the great team to bat. The players had a huddle, discussed stratergy, decided on who is going to open the innings. In went the openers, with their captain Subash cheering them from outside and giving them some last minute tips. The bowler got himself ready and he was in a tremendrous pressure to perform (his fiance was watching the match from the stands). No wonder he was under a great pressure. The batsmen were also under pressure of having to chase the mammoth target ahead. The dressing room!!!! was also tensed. The audience were eagerly waiting for the match to resume.

The batsman took gaurd and waved the bowler to have a go. The bowler came rushing in and bowled a rank full toss ball. The batsman's eye got lit up and aimed a full blooded heave at the ball. There it went a good distance with a good sound of the ball striking the timber and the stump laid flat on the ground a couple of feets away from where it was. IT WAS A WICKET.. that too off the FIRST BALL. The bowler was ecstatic for having maintained his reputation intact (infront of his fiancee). The fielding team was celebrating. The batting team even got tensed. So, the next batsman came rushing in with a plan and determination. The bowler got ready and came running in, bowled the ball and again struck the timber. two wickets in two balls and he was on a hat-trick. So, in came the next batsman with a great aim of atleast avoiding the hattrick for the bowler. The bowler got ready and came running in again and delivered the ball. The batsman was successful in his attempt to touch the ball and save the stump, but he was not so successful to keep the ball out of reach of the keeper. yeah.. he edged the ball, which the keeper pouched safely. so it was a HATTRICK. The bowler was over the moon. Everybody was around him and giving high-fives and literally lifted him off the ground.

In came the batsman no 4 and got ready to face the fourth ball. The ball was delivered again and it was played safely, away from the reach of the stump or the fielders. Atlast a ball without a wicket, a little success for the batsman and for the team. The crowd was roaring and the batting team jumped in joy for not losing another wicket. But, their joy was short lived as the next ball, the batsman in form(remember, he was the only one to face more than one ball till that time) got over ambitious and tried to loft the ball out of the ground and inturn lost his stump. Another wicket and 4 wickets in 5 balls. Wat a match the bowler was having and that too in front of his fiancee. He definitely created a lasting impression and he should be thanking his stars. The next ball didnt produce a wicket.

After the event ful over, the runner atlast got to bat after witnessing his teammates coming in and going out immediately. Started the next over and after the very first ball, this batsman too joined the posession to cool his legs under the cool shade of the pavilion(a tree). Yes. it produced another wicket. This became quite predictable and that over produced another wicket in the form of a run out. The batsman almost got the first run of the innings, when his dreams were shattered when the stumps were shatterd in the form of a direct hit by the fielder when the batsman was just short of the crease. The batsman couldnt believe his eyes and he literally kneeled down in the ground after failing to cross the crease.

Came the third over, from the first over hero and the first ball again produced a wicket. In went their captain subash, with a great hope that he could atleast steady the ship. He was in the runners end when the dramatic thing happenned. The bowler bowled a wide delivery and the team has opened its scoring account. There was a huge cheer among the crowd. The batsmen got happy and wanted to add some more to the score which cost them another wicket. 8 wickets lost for 1 run. The next batsman who went in scored the first run of the team and raised his bat towards the pavilion and there was again an instant cheer among the crowd. So, the captain went in and the team score got off the mark. With his job over, he too gifted his wicket in the same over. 3 wickets of this over too. The analysis of the bowler read as 2 overs-1 maiden-2 runs- 7 wickets. What a day that too in front of someone so special. He indeed bowled a maiden over. finished the over and there was a spring in his step and marched towards his fielding position.

The game progressed to the 4th over and got over mid way through that over. The team got bundled out for 2 runs. 2 RUNS ALLOUT(courtesy 1 wide). Wat a dramatic match. The positived minded people they were, the batting team were cheering and celebrating more than the winning team. They lifted the batsman who scored their first run and took him for a round in the ground. All the crowd were around the losing team and left the team that won unnoticed.

The stratergies got ready for the second match and they came back with a spirited perfomance in the next match (will be logged in the next post)

To be continued .....

Reg. Cricket reviews

2008-07-25T02:54:00.001-07:00

I am a regular follower of cricket and for quite some time been thinking of writing some reviews or news about the current happenings in the world of cricket. But, already one of my colleague took up this job and infact he is doing it very well. Anything and everything that happens in cricket is being logged in his blog. So, why to do one when it is already being done by my colleague and that too being a regular follower of the blog, even if i try to post something about cricket, i cant help but have the influence of his comments in my blog. So, dropped that idea.

But, the mad fan in me still pops up his head and urges me to write atleast something about cricket. so, what if, the international cricket is being handled by my colleague. I decided to write about the friendly matches that i play or once played. Anyway cricket is cricket. The following posts will log some of the interesting matches played in our company's yearly cricket tournament.

Artificial Intelligence in bikes

2008-06-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

The automobile industry is already improving by leaps and bounds. The past decade or so has seen the advent of new technologies like GPS, ABS, child lock and lots of other things that help the driver to care less about the controls of the vehicle and instead enjoy the ride. At this pace, its not long before someone implements the Artificial Intelligence in the vehicles.

Just think about the AI installed bikes. whenever wait in the traffic, it should automatically sense how much time is still left for the signal to turn green and based on that, the engine should automatically turn off. When the time is very short, the engine should keep running. In this way, it not only saves the petrol and thereby being more economical, it also avoids accidents. As the engine is turned off, the driver cannot cross a signal on sighting a small opening. Quite a remarkable technology it will be.. isnt it?

After riding my bike for close to four years, i just came to know that the Hero Honda guys have already tried this technology and that they have implemented this in my bike. WOW.. amazing... i came to know that only a couple of weeks back.. tat too after giving my bike for service.. or is it that the bike mechanic tried something like this.. anyway... i am proud of this new technology being implemented in mine. But, as it goes with every technology, this has got its bugs as well. Not anything big, just that the technology is working in reverse in my bike.

Whenever, i stop the vehicle in a signal, that too for a small duration of time, my bike immediately turns off. By the time i start it and run my bike, the signal turns green and i am left to face the cold stares and some name callings by the fellow riders. Also, when i stop the bike for a longer duration of time.. i voluntarily leave my engine on to check whether it automatically turns off, but that never happens. Even if its for 120 seconds, the engine keeps running. When i take this to the mechanic to show what the problem is and leave it in the idle and wait for it to turn off, it never happens again. But, immediately when i cross the street of the mechanic, it turns off again. And a couple of days back, my colleague unaware of the latest technology in my bike, took it for a ride and nearly fell off when he stopped for a U-turn.

Should ask the mechanic/Hero honda service persons to check it again and give them a chance to implement this functionality in a better way, before any damage is made. if they are unaware of this, i am thinking of patenting this amazing technology. Let me see :)

Housewife_vs_Ant

2007-11-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

Was going through this blogpost yesterday. Found it very interesting and thought how would it be to narrate this in the form of a cartoon strip rather than this plain text. Is it possible? in the world of web2.0 everything is possible. There is a cool site www.toondoo.com , developed by our company which can be used to create cartoons and thought of giving it a try.

Check it out.

If you cant view the pop-up, then check it out here.

Certain things do not change

2007-11-16T04:14:00.000-08:00

"Y do certain things happen in the same way it happens? that too with amazing regularity?? Y does it happen to me always? don't i have a control over the proceedings?? From the outset, everything seems to be going fine. But as i near my goal, i am made to look like a fool and the fate pops up its ugly head and suddenly the target seems to go very very far. So near yet so far. Wont there be light at the end of the tunnel at all?? These things make me believe there is something called destiny and certain things are out of our hands. If you are not destined to get something, then u will not. Whatever may be the efforts you put to reach ur goal, it still eludes you. The saying "there is always a slip between the cup and the lip" holds true in many cases. Somehow someone comes in my way and prevents me from reaching my goal."

che... Sachin missed his 42nd ton again by a whisker

The above content might be the thoughts eating the mind of Sachin Tendulkar after having missed out yet another century this year.

The manner in which he finds ways to getout in nineties and his 42nd century jinx is certainly the topic of discussion of many nowadays to such an extent that mails are goin around trying to explain the reason he misses the much coveted mark in lighter vein. One of my colleagues, went to the extent of creating a toon-strip using the product developed by him, where he strongly believes that Sachin will fall in the nineties again.

Do check it out. Lets see how long it takes before the little master proves my colleague that his prediction is wrong.

Six_Reasons_why_Sachin_Tendulkar_will_get_out_in_the_nineties_again

Foot board travel

2007-10-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

Footboard travel... one of the major issues faced by the transport corporation. The city dwellers might very well have noticed this daily. Atleast 20-25 people cling on to the bus precariously either in the foot board or the window bars. Most of them JUST manage to place their toe and palm in the bus and still pay the same fare that a person comfortably sitting inside the bus would pay. Quite unfair.. isnt it? something has to be done regarding this. The college students take this as an opportunity to showcase their hanging skills. They come a long way running behind the bus and somehow manage to get a hand and a foot inside the bus and just stick on to it. By the time, they are into the bus, the next stop has already approached and they have to get down to give way for others to board/alight the bus. Inshort, they mostly run behind the bus, thus keeping them in good shape. Now i understand why they are always energetic. But, it needs lot of stamina to run across the city in this traffic. Here too, they waste the money in the form of ticket/season ticket just for running behind the bus.

The govt tries to put its best foot forward in this regard by introducing lots of services, launching the new automatic door closure buses, increasing the passenger capacity of the buses.. but all their effors fail(fall) and they are left bewildered like a poor commuter who just fell out of the bus. But still the government cannot meet the growing needs and this menace still continues and lots of passengers still hang out of the
buses putting their lives and the fellow passengers lives in danger.

As a last and brave attempt, the government has introduced a new type of bus where the passengers just CANNOT travel in foot-board. Currently, as a trial measure they have introduced only one service in some other part of tamilnadu. If this measure proves successful, this will be followed in the city as well. Anyway, kudos to our transport corporation for such an innovative thinking and the way they MAINTAINing it as a secret till now.

See the below picture to get a sneak preview of this.

(Image courtesy: As usual, mail forward :) )

Mentos...life to aisi....

2007-10-15T03:57:00.000-07:00

Myself and my wife recently shifted to a separate house. We are using a fridge that has been unused for around 3 years. Since, it has not been used for a long while it is not functioning properly and whatever thing that we keep inside it, just stays as it is without getting cooled in spite of the fact that the fridge is running all day with the chillness adjusting disc pointing to the maximum value. On certain cases, we noticed that the item inside it is slightly warm. Very strange isn't it...

Day before yesterday, we prepared sandwich and decided to finish some house hold chores before having breakfast. Hence, to keep it hot, we kept it inside a hot pack and continued our work. After an hour or so, we finished our work, got ready and opened the hot pack expecting to much some hot sandwiches. To our disappointment, the sandwiches got so cool and the hot pack failed in its duty (you too?? :( ). Eventhen, we ate those sandwiches thinking on how to preserve the milk until the fridge gets reparied and how to maintain any stuff in its hot state until we get a new hot pack.....

The sandwich did the trick and we struck up an idea to combat this situation. We have decided to keep the things to be cooled(like milk, curd) inside the hot pack and the things which has to be maintained in the same temperature(sandwich,noodles) inside the fridge.

Cool.. no no.. hot.. no no.. some crap.. isn't it??

Who said, only mentos can give you great ideas.. even sandwiches can.. try it out....

tamil tamil everywhere....

2006-11-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

Happenned to watch the film "Varalaaru" ( Godfather ) last weekend. It was good and entertaining. The movie was earlier named as "Godfather" and then re-christened to "Varalaaru" to gain the tax exemption announced by the TamilNadu Govt. for the films that has Tamil names. Recently, lots of movies had a name change, just to gain this exemption. The great Tamil language has grown in stature and has shown its prominence everywhere. Right from the movie names, to the name boards, to the milestones and location indicators along the national highways(where Hindi n English words were coated with a layer of tar).

I have a thought that it wouldnt take a long time for the ever growing tamil language to set its foot on the currently hot IT industry. We could expect some announcement like "IT exemption for all the software professionals who code in tamil", "Professional tax waived off for the Tamil programmers", "Free houses for the techies who develop products in Tamil". I wouldnt be amused to hear something like these.. Everybody be prepared and train rigorously to code in tamil. Grab the opportunity with both the hands and enjoy all the soaring benefits. Its predicted that soon the our tamil software will spread its wings to all parts of the world and we all might get a long onsite trip to foreign lands. Wherever you go, tamil will be there to safagaurd you.

I would like to keep myself prepared for the upcoming tamil wave and get myself benifitted from all these special discounts. Hence, i have already started to develop programs in tamil and here is one sample piece.

The following is the original java program,

public class Project
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
int a;
string b;
if(a==0)
{
b = "Zero";
}
else
{
b = "Non-Zero";
}
return;
}
}

And the following image has the tamil version of the same program.

PS : The image is just a mail forward ( as usual ).

Win-Win-Win deal

2006-10-09T02:48:00.000-07:00

For long, myself and my mom wanted to get one urli ( a big mouted basin in which flowers are floated over water ). We both like the very sight of this big bowl filled with multi coloured flowers. My mom is too fond of gardening and has grown lots of flower bearing plants around our house, and good number of flowers in different colours grow each day. So, we neednt have to worry about the flowers to fill up this urli with. Infact, this urli wont be enough to place all the flowers that bloom in our house. Such, is the growth of the plants n the flowers it give out. Still, we didnt buy it for long. The reason being my brothers son ROSHAN. He is around 3 yrs of age and is very very naughty. He wont let us keep anything on the floor or the shelfs which are within his reach. If at all, we keep this urli, we are sure that he wont let the flowers be inside it and wil also splash the water. Myself and my mom wanted to place this urli in the floor and not to hide it in some place thats out of his reach. So, considering all these reasons, we didnt get that one till this time. Then came the time of the navarathri and we have the habit of placing golu in our house. Also, Roshan was about to join the school by the end of the navarathri. So, we thought that it is the right time for us to get this urli. As, we were about to place this golu in a separate room, we can lock it during the day time and open it only when needed so that this urli is safe. Also, by the time this navarathri ends, he would have joined the school. By the time he returns in the afternoon, he would feel tired and sleep till the evening. So, we could safegaurd it for the most part of the day.

Keeping this in mind, myself and my mom went out for buying this urli and someother stuff. We first headed straight to a famous shop and enquired about this. He showed us a moderately wide bowl. It was in bronze and it cost Rs. 800. He showed us the biggest one he had. We werent satisfied with the size, but we thought that we wont get this anywhere in that area. Also, he told us "the price of bronze has risen considerably. So, if you come nextweek, u are not sure if you can get a big one. Even the price of this piece will get more.". As we didnt have any other option, we had to settle for this piece. We paid the bill and came out of the house. We visited lots of shops for getting the other stuffs. Just then, we came across a big urli made of brass in one of the shops. Brass is somewhat inferior in quality to bronze, but in what way is that goin to affect as long as it looks good. When we set out for shopping, we had this size in mind. So, at the first sight itself myself and my mom liked it very much. Also, it was a bit cheap compared to that one. It cost only about Rs.670/-. Both of us thought that it would be better to return that old one in that shop and get this one, as this was the size we were looking for. But, most of the shopkeepers dont have the habit of returning the money. Either they dont accept the products we return or they ask us to buy something for that price. Anyways, we atleast wanted to make a try.

I went to that old shop to return that piece. Initially, he didnt agree to return the money. He asked us to buy something else for this amount. But, i persisted on getting the money back, as we had finished all our shopping. The talks went on for a few minutes. And finally, i asked him to atleast deduct some amount and return the balance. He thought for a while and then deducted nearly Rs.30 and returned Rs.770. I am sure that its a good bargain for him. As the price of bronze has risen, he can quote it under the new price system and sell the same material for a higher price. He has also gained Rs.30 from us. I came to the new store and bought the big brass urli.

Now looking all these from the perspective of a marketing analyst, there arises a rare commerical scenario of win-win-win situation. For the first shop, as said earlier he has gained some amount from us and he is sure to get higher benefits due to the rise in the price of bronze. As far as the second shop, he has made a sale, which is a gain for him. We also had a virutal gain in this bargain. Considering the first urli we bought, the second one was big and cheap. So, we were left with the satisfaction that we got what we wanted at a lower price. Hence this win-win-win situation.

As soon as we came home, we cleaned it and filled it with flowers and placed it along with the golu and took many snaps of it. We change the flowers daily and admire its beauty daily.

Here are some snaps for u. Let me know how they look.

Most unforgettable day

2006-10-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

This post is about the one of the most unforgettable days in my life. Its not about the day, i got the "Best student of the year" award in my college, not the day i got the State first in Higher secondary, not the day i got an award from the President of India, not the day i went for a date with my dream girl..... ofcourse, all the above didnt happen. Its about the day, i was caught by the police. Its not a typo.. I repeat.. its the day i was caught by the police. Let me be in more detail.

It was around the august of 2002, i went to the tambaram railway station to book tickets for my mom. I took my brothers bike and parked the vehicle in the place where i used to park usually. I got into the station, booked the tickets and came back to the parking lot and took my bike. Just then a well dressed man in his forties came to me and talked something. He looked very decent and well behaved, with his shirt tucked in properly, sleeves rolled down fully and buttoned, spects with a thread running around his neck. He walked near me and told that he wanted to talk something with me. When i started the bike, he said me not to and asked me to come with my bike to the nearby vacant area, which is the front portion of the railway police station. Only then he told me that its a restricted area that belonged to the railway police and the public is not supposed to park the vehicles there. I told him that I had parked here earlier and there was no sign board referring that this is a no parking area. But, he didnt listen to my words and asked me to come there and he wants to talk with me for a few minutes. On nearing the police station, he took the bike key and asked me to wait inside the station. The same happenned for a few other guys who parked their vehicles there. Only then i came to know that he was a Railway Police in civil dress. It was around 10:30 AM.

I entered the police station and there stood nearly 30 hapless men who were charged under "crossing the railway line" and "smoking inside the railway premisis". I waited there for nearly 30 minutes and they brought another 20 other guys inside. After a few minutes, they segregated the crowd according to their offence. The major part of the people belonged to the other two category of offenders. I was accompanied by 7-8 guys for the parking offence. Then they explained us what they were about to do with us. As this belongs to the railways, they said that they would take us to the railways court ( which is about 25 kms away ) and produce us before the judge, where we have to pay our penalty. On knowing this, every guy started to tell some false excuse and wanted to escape from that place after parting some money to them. These guys were very duty conscious (wink), they wanted atleast some of them to come to the court, so that they can show to the judge for the record. So, they collected some money from the persons who wanted to leave that place due to other reasons and retained the persons who didnt have any money to pay. The idea was, the one who wanted to leave should give some money and the one who was retained will pay that money. Three police persons were involved in this work. They collected money from each of the ones, who cited some valid reasons and retained the ones, who didnt have any money. I wanted to tell some reason and come out of that place. I was supposed to return to my college ( near erode ) on that night. Just then, i saw them collect a huge money from each of them. When the offender resisted, they went even to the extent of beating him. The offenders were left with a minimum money just to travel to their workplace or wherever they wanted to. I had nearly 1000 rs with me. If i have to pay the fine, then its only about rs.100. So, i thought it is better to go to the court and pay Rs.100 instead of parting a huge sum to these police men. So, when they asked me whether i was willing to come to the court and pay the fine, i simply nodded the head. After all these screening process, the number of persons left were only 17. They have filtered we 17 from a crowd of 51. By the time, all these processes got over it was around the noon. Then we were provided with water and we were taken to the railway station CROSSING THE TRACK. ( here we didnt take the over bridge, we were made to cross the track accompanied by three policemen ).

We took a vendors compartment in the train and the normal passengers werent allowed to enter this compartment. Just the 17 offenders and 3 policemen. Here again, the policemen collected money from the people who had money with us. I was asked to pay Rs.100 for the penalty. Some of them had the money and some didnt. By the end, they counted their total collection. I closely followed the counting and it summed up to nearly Rs.6000. And the amount that was supposed to be paid by the left out people as penalty was nearly Rs.3000. So, a good collection of Rs.3000 for the policemen. After all these work, the POLICEMEN SMOKED INSIDE THE COMPARTMENT.

We reached the Egmore railway station around 1:30 PM and again CROSSED THE TRACK to reach the court, which was in the opposite platform. We were accompanied by lots of similar offenders from various stations. I asked one policeman to let me call my house and let them know that i would reach home around evening. I kept on asking them from Tambaram itself. But, he didnt let me. He said that the judge would come by 2:00 PM and after all the formalities i can leave. Here again, the judge didnt turn up at the appropriate time. In the mean time, just to kill time one policemen ( the one who caught me first ) talked with each of us and asked us about our profession and all. I was doing my college then. On coming to know that, he asked me "why didnt u tell it before? usually, we will leave the students". Even i had this thought before itself. But, feared that they might take away all the money. I simply smiled and then again i asked him "whether i can go to a pco and call my house?". Now, he accompanied me to a nearby phone booth. I called my mom and told that due to some work, i would reach home by 6 PM. Then he enquired me about the engineering studies and some good colleges and similar kinda stuffs. Even here, the policemen all joined together and SMOKED in the platform outside the court.

Around 3 PM, the judge entered. We were informed that we will be taken into the wooden dias where we would be asked two questions. First, "Did u park ur vehicle in the no-parking area?". Second, "You are imposed with a fine of Rs.100". For the first, we have to answer "yes" and for the second "OK". Three guys were made to stand in the dias and we three answered as per the directions of the policemen. Then, we were made to stand in a small room in the court. It was worst than the jails usually shown in the films. This room was very small and smelled really bad. 17 members were stuffed into this for 5 minutes. Though it was for 5 minutes, it seemed like hours. This is where, i completely understood "Einsteins theory of relativity". :) Then, we signed in one note and received a receipt for the penalty amount and then came out. ATLAST, around 4:30 PM we were let free.

All through this time, i had gained a good rapport with a few guys there and we just made fun about the policemen among ourselves and had a good time. So, didnt feel much bored and enjoyed the time. Its strange to enjoy the time being spent in the police station and court.. but anyways, i felt like it.

By the time i reached home it was around 6 PM. Narrated all the stories to my parents. Had my dinner and started for my hostel.

It was the first time i ever entered a police station. Good that, it was for just a simple reason and nothing serious. The second time was during the Passport verification. Only pray that no need arises in the future.

PS : please ignore the words in bold. That wasnt to show the way the police men violated the rules. Afterall, they are policemen and who can question them?? Everything is an offence only when others commit...:(

All set for the show

2006-08-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

At last, the most awaited film of the year "Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu" is all set to hit the theatres today. This film has been in and out of trouble right from the day, the shooting began. There were lots of controversies surrounding this film and for a while it seemed as if that the film wont see the light at all. We all thought that its going to be yet another Sun TV release. Cant imagine how a big star like KamalHassan's movie got struck like these. And atlast, the film is getting released today. The trailer and the promos are very much sleek, suave and promising. Need to wait and watch the fate of the film in the hands of the audience.

Couldnt get the tickets for this movie. The day the reservation started, the online booking portal of Sathyam Theatre went blank. Couldnt get it through other sources too. Infact, we thought of getting a ticket through one of the assistant directors of the film, but at the last moment had to drop that idea. Anyways, waiting for a chance to see this movie.

Hope, Pratheeswaran will be very happy, as the film is about to roll out and slowly the bad name that fell on him due to my previous post is set to fade away...

A funny incident

2006-08-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

This funny incident happenned in my office, a couple of days back.

Lets name our protagonists as A and B. A went out of station for the weekend. He also booked the train for his return journey. But unfortunately he misssed the train and he explained it to B. The following is the excerpts of his conversation with B.

A : Hey man, you know I missed the train yesterday night.

B : Oh too bad. Then what did you do? How did u reach chennai then?

A : What else, had to come by the unreserved compartment amidst all those chaos and crowd.

B : Oh.. In the same train????

A : :##@@@%%%???

Only after a few seconds, B realised his mistake and both burst out laughing. During our lunch A was explaining the whole thing to our gang and we all burst out laughing.

It was just a simple mistake and a slip of tongue by B, still it had erupted laughter among all of us. Its a good enjoyable real-time joke. Even the very thought of it makes us laugh.

I hope that both A & B wont forget it for the lifetime and this thought will come to their mind everytime they book tickets.

ayyo.. ayyo.. eppa thaan thirundha porangalo????

2006-08-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all.. please go through the following set of rules being laid out in the great Sathyabama College of Engineering ( This is what has been mentioned in the mail. Dont know whether its true or not. But these guys are capable of laying these kinda stupit rules ). I got this as a mail forward n found it to be very much funny. I am sure everybody who happens to read this will find it to be very much funny.

Atleast some rules which restricts the students from carrying high valuables, huge money and mobile phones are somewhat acceptable. But the rule stated against point "e" is too funny. I dont understand the reason behind this rule. Why shouldnt boys and girls shouldnt interact with each other? that too being in a co-ed college? Why the hell should they run a co-ed college if they are to ask the boys n girls not to talk with one from the opposite gender? I think the college administration runs nearly 4-5 college. Why not they split them and conduct some colleges only for girls and the remaining only for boys? Just for gaining some attraction they use the word co-ed, but the real meaning of that word is not being followed. Its simply as if the girls and boys are put together in a single class room partitioned by a glass wall. I dont see any purpose behind boasting themselves as co-ed college and maintaining such a big line of separation between them.

The rule stated against point "a" is the height of comedy. If the student has to go to the director even for a simple thing like taking leave, then what else is the role of the class incharge, HOD and all the other staff members? Half of the day will be over for the student to wait for the director and get his leave granted.

Only one thing comes to mind after reading this....
ayyo ......ayyo... eppa thaan thirundhaporangalo????!!!!!!!

Anyways, i feel good that i didnt study in a college that has these stupid rules.....

---------------
Shankar.N

Bad Examples....

2006-08-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of days back, i had a chance to go via the Marina Beach road. There i noticed that the statue of Kannagi stood with all its glory. After all the controversies about the presence / absence of that statue, the Tamil Nadu government has atlast managed to place it back there. Infact, this is one of the main action items that the new government has mentioned in their election manifesto and they have promptly executed this one. ( very useful to the state!!!?? ). Now they can feel proud and boast about their great achievement !!!.....

The new government talked as if the whole image and the growth of the state lies only on this statue and by placing it in its original location, they have regained the lost image and purity of the tamil tradition. This seems to be absurd. They created a lot of problems when the statue was removed from its original location during the reign of the previous government. They behaved as if a great sin has been committed to the tamil culture and that TamilNadu will face lot of problems when this status is removed. But, no such bad effects was found to haunt the Tamil people after the statue was removed. Now, it should be nearly 2 months since, the statue was placed in its place. No significant improvement to the tamil culture, tradition or the lives of the people was found ever since this statue was placed.

This amuses me a lot as to how our bad politicians can play on each and every move carried out by the opposition government. I wonder whether all these are important?? Whether that statue of a lady can change so much?? Will it change the face of TamilNadu?? How rudiculous the political parties are to wait for a small opportunity to blame the opposition?? How ignorant we people are to stil follow these leaders and talk high of them, inspite of all these childish stuffs they do?? Are they concerned only about this statue when there are lots n lots of problems remain unattended??

On thinking more on these lines,...Does the statue deserve all these respect..???? leave alone the statue.. does the lady KANNAGI deserve all these respect???? is she worth so much??? what significant thing she did in her life to gain such a big name in our tamil literature??? the answer that i got for all these questions is a BIG NO.....

Infact, she has set a BAD EXAMPLE for the generations to come. Let me not describe her story again. But, it was very crude and unhumanitarian on her part to destroy the whole of the Madurai town for the loss of her husband. The Pandian king being the real culprit in giving out his judgement, how come its right on her part to burn the entire Madurai thereby claiming the lives of thousands of innocent citizens?? Is claiming the lives of the innocent people is a great bravery act to be placed in the history books??? She could have punished the king alone or did anything else not to affect the poor people. For all her lunatic behaviour which deserved a punishment, she was given a great honour.

Its even more disheartening that her life has been taught to the young school students as a part of their curriculum. They are mislead by this behaviour of hers and made to assume that, its fair to affect the lives of the civilians just to get thier work done. No wonder, nowadays there are lots of clashes, strikes and terrorist activity. Even the most recent Dharmapuri bus immolation incident is similar to what Kannagi has done. Dont blame them. They have been brought up in that way.

Not only kannagi, even most of the personalities in our so-called epics and godly tales have set a bad example for us. If its Rama in Ramayana to doubt his wife after all the struggle to retrieve her from Ravana, its the turn of the Pandava brothers to gamble over their wife. Lord Krishna is said to have lots of wives, the forerunner of existing custom of polygamy.

The worst act was performed by Lord Shiva. The poet Nakeeran was reduced by flames by him. The guilt of Nakeeran is being honest?? For finding the fault in the poem composed by the Lord and saving his King from awarding the prize to a poem that doesnt deserve the prize, he was punished. From that period, it has been considered as a sin to be honest. Nowadays, many of the rare honest officials are being punished for being honest and discharging the real duties expected of them. The fore-runner behind this is the Lord himself.

In all, our fore fathers have mislead us by telling the stories of people who have played with the lives of others just for their selfish motive. This way, we were made to praise and follow someone, who doesnt deserve such a treatment. All the ancient stories and personalities has set real bad examples for us.

Dont know where all these will lead to??????????????????

Interesting guy - Prathees

2006-07-15T05:08:00.000-07:00

This post is about one of my colleague named Pratheeswaran ( name not changed as nobody requested ). I find him a bit interesting. He is a cool guy and will take everything in a sportive manner. No matter, how much we make fun of him, he will never lose his cool nature. He is very lively and friendly. He was also nicknamed as the spammer and virus of our company. Still, he keeps on moving around as if a great privilege or honour has been placed on him.

The most striking quality that i find very interesting in him is his bad luck. May be i am sadistic to describe about ones bad luck, but on reading this you might also do the same. Because, most of the things that he tries, ends up in failure. Its not just a small failure that affects only him, but a gaint one that it affects thousands of people. I think you will be confused as to how a small mistake by one simple normal guy will affect a whole lot of people. Here are few instances justifying them...

Instance 1 : It was around an year ago. This hero got settled in our company and began to earn well. Just as every other human being, he struck with the idea of saving the hard earned money and invested in the nearby bank. You may ask what is wrong with it. Yes, his intentions are good. But, the bank which he invested was "Global Trust Bank", which was closed soon after he invested the money. There he stood outside the bank with hundreds of other poor fellows who lost their money too. :'(

You may say that this is just a coincidence. Infact everybody of us, thought the same. But the following incidents told us that its not so and how unlucky our guy is.

Instance 2 : This guy is like a phoenix. He didnt give up. He then thought of making some investment by getting some gold. He did that too. Alas, the rate of gold which has been in a steep increase till that day, began to fall down for the next few days. Though the rate of fall in gold prices was marginal, it did fall and good thing ( rather bad thing for him ) is that it didnt raise.

Instance 3 : This guy then decided to change his area towards the share market. The one which was booming and one which seemed to be a safe option considering the market uptrends. This over enthusiastic guy wanted to set his foot firm on that too. He did some investment in the form of some mutual bonds, shares. Within a week, there was a big commotion and all the channels flashed the news that the share market has been freezed for a couple of hours. Nobody can believe this. The share market, which was consistenly on a rise for the past few months, faced a sudden fall. Some of his cubicle mates, the fellow investors began to lament as to "how could this happen? how can the market fall like this?". None of them knew that our hero, who was silently sitting beside them is also the reason for this.

Dejected at all this, he then decided to watch any good movie to cool him down and to think of any other new areas to enter. But, he wasnt able to do that. The reason behind this happens to be the next instance.

Instance 4 : This guy took a resolution that he will become very selective in watching tamil movies and that he will watch only "Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu" and "Imsai arasan" for this year. But, despite the fact that both the films were completed, they were not released by that time. Even the kollywood is affected by our guys resolution. :-D ( Imsai arasan got released by this time,but our hero decided to skip that movie)

After going through all these, you might have come to an conclusion whether all these things are just coincidental or any divine powers ( rather devils power ) this guy has got. Do let me know.

Now we are all keeping our fingers crossed as to what this guy would try next and what might be the impact of it. O:-)

He has now bought a brand new Hero Honda Passion Plus. Dont know what is in stake for the Hero Honda company. In one way, i m the reason for him to choose this bike. So, i am pretty much tensed now. ;-)

PS 1 : Based on the feedback, i may write about someother guys as a sequel to this post.

PS 2 : I have posted this after getting consent from the concerned party

Living to the name

2006-06-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

Today i dont have anywork. I am very idle and just dont know how to kill the time. I have tried all the ways possible. I even went to the extent of going through the blogs that i have posted till date.!!!! ( Now you would have known how vetti i was ;-) ). The very few ones who have visited this space, know it pretty well that i have made a very few number of posts. Out of those very few, i have lamented in three of them. I dont know why, but nothing came to my mind, other than these stuffs. I know it that, writing those stuffs in the blogs wont do any good or bring any change. Atleast, i am satisfied that i try my hand in doing some writing stuff. Afterall, Its my space and i am allowed to write anything and everything. There are some prolific writers, who does the same thing in the newspapers or the blogs, and they get the right visibility and their concerns are addressed, atleast one or two.

I feel like one old freedom fighter ( the ones portrayed in some old tamil films ), who submits the petition complaining about the lack of facilities to the local Collector or any of the politicians, only to see his petitions dumped in the dustbin. I am no different from him. wait wait. did i tell that i am not different from him.....now i revert those words of mine... here is my statement....No. i am a bit different.. just now i noticed whats the difference. If you look at the title of my blog space, which has been aptly named dustbin ( the reason for this, i have already mentioned in my very first post ;-) ),u will find the reason.

The way i am different from the freedom fighter is his petitions or writings will go to the hands of the officials and then will fall into the dustbin, but mine it directly goes to the dustbin ( my blog's name ) :-D .

Now, u would have understood.. why i have named my blog with this name.. n i could see you feeling that this post too deserves the same place....anyway, i am happy that i have aptly named my blog and writing some truly deserving stuffs...ha ha ha......

Thanks for being with me.. bye till my next post.... :-D

Customer service at its worst....contd

2006-06-05T03:27:00.000-07:00

this is in continuation with my previous post about the kind of customer service that i faced at the hands of Airtel.

It was nearly a week since i lodged a complaint against Karthik and Irfan of Airtel. I completely forgot about it, when one Riaz called me up on a saturday morning and enquired me about the problem i had, and what prompted me to lodge a complaint against these two. I explained all that happenned, starting from my first request for the plan change to Irfan's indifferent attitude towards me. Riaz listened to all these patiently and asked me to specify the date on which i first made the request to change the plan. He told that he will get back to me after checking with the previous records, and if he can ensure that i have already made this request, then he said he will waive off the excess amount charged for the period from the time of request to the time of processing that request. After a couple of hours a lady called me and informed that, they did check the past records and confirmed that my request was spotted there. Also, she felt sorry for the poor response from their side and negligence and also made sure that they will try their level best to avoid it in the future. Also, they will be adjusting the excess amount in the next bill. To be frank, i didnt expect even this kind of response from them.

Still i have a lot of hard memories with the customer service persons there and the poor service that they offer. One related to the activation of GPRS service for me, which wasnt activated even after 7-8 activation requests through messages and over phone. The other one related to surrendering of the post paid connection of my friend, which is worth to be posted in a separate blog. ( But dont worry, i wont ponder again. I know that if i do so.. even the very few ones reading this, will stop visiting my space ). I have heard that Airtel is well known for poor customer support. Now, atleast they are trying to wipe this stain off them. Good signs.

When i called them the next time, they asked me "Sir, are you satisfied with the interaction you had now?" and also they do send us a message asking for the same. They are doing this for all. Good that they try to improve on their customer service front.

Hope that they keep on improving it.

Customer service at its worst

2006-05-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

This post is about my experience with Airtel recently. Somewhere around the last week i called up the airtel customer care and asked them to change my billing plan from Rs.225 / month to Rs.349 / month. The efficient guy named Karthik who picked up the phone told me that " Sir, i have opened ur account in my monitor and i will instantly change your plan sir." I believed his words. he also mentioned that I will be intimated about the change in the plan, and revised call charges will take effect from the sameday midnight. But, i didnt receive any message for nearly one week. I finally put an end to my wait and called up the customer care again and enquired them about the billing plan that i am currently in, only to find that the efficient guy didnt do his work properly. He didnt process my request. I was still in the old plan. Again, i asked the gal who attended me to change my plan, and within an hour, i got the confirmatory SMS. Cant understand why that guy took nearly 7 days and still not finish the work, if that can be done within an hour. I just got it confirmed and then left this matter.

The next day, a guy by name Irfan, who claimed himself as a member of the airtel group called me on my mobile and just enquired me whether i was satisfied with the service being provided by Airtel and the coverage and all other details. I informed him that i was not at all satisfied with their customer service. When he wanted to know the reason, i just told him all the background details. But, this guy didnt even let me talk continuously for a minute. Whenever i started speaking, he interrupted me and asked me some irrelevant questions. Finally i just asked him to give me some time to talk and then let out all the above mentioned things. He said that, " sir, we will see to it that mistakes like this wont happen in the future". But, i dont find any purpose in this. The damage to my wallet has already been done. I just asked him "whats the point in preventing this mistakes. What am i going to gain. Will u waive off the call charges that were charged additionally". Then he did the GREAT thing, which no person with a good customer interaction manner would do. He just hung up the phone. I got infuriated and then tried calling him from my mobile. He simply cut the call. Then i called him from my office landline number, still no answer from him. Onething i dont understand is, why the hell should they call and ask for feedbacks, if they are not ready to face the negative feedbacks. They are allowed to hide the mistakes or say any false reasons to convince their customers, but hanging up the phone.. is just TOO BAD.

Then happenned the biggest joke. When i visited their website, i found the following line in their homepage.

To be globally admired for telecom services that delight customers.

We will meet global standards for telecom services that delight customers through:
• Customer Service Focus

Some more complaints about the same provider.. buts its very late and me signing off..

Thank you Edward

2006-05-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

After a long time, i have come back to this place. Thanks to my friend Dheepa. If not for her.. i would have completely forgotten that i have a blog account. I just visited my blog ( ofcourse.. the only visitor ).. and read thru the very few posts that i have made.. just as i was reading my last post.. titled "frightened".. something struck me....i just cant believe what i saw....i wiped my eyes twice.. just to check whether i am seeing it right....

enough of suspense... what i saw was.. there were some comments to my blog post.. ya.. that too two comments.. out of curiosity.. i clicked the comments link ...n i was very disappointed to know that the first comment is a spam one.. that too a porn stuff......i just thought that the spam industry has grown big.. n it has hands and legs in all areas of the internet.. just like the GOOGLE.....

I then switched my attention to the second post.. expecting another spam stuff... but to my astonishment.. its not a spam.. n its a real guy by the name Edward Gibson.. who took the pains to read thru my blog and also bothered to make a comment about it.. n he has quoted the work "inquistive" in his comments.. dont know whether he is making fun of me.. but anyway.. i would like to thank Edward Gibson for his efforts....coz, he has proved my wrong belief that i am the only visitor of my blog....

so, taking a cue out of this...i have decided to visit this space often.. n wil try to post something or the other......

Lets c.. whether Edward visits me again.....

N.Shankar

frightened...

2005-06-24T02:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,,,, I am back.. not with a bang as they usually say for some legends,,, let it be modified as back with a bore... thou not sure what others feel about this... i think it is a bore thing... to just post a blog for the sake of posting one... nothing special or worthy to be mentioned or posted....but still there is a need for me to post something .. as it is a long time since i posted something and moreover.. i am in the office now.. after a heavy lunch... and my main aim is to see thru these sleepy hours.. by engaging myself in something or the other... here the project related work is a strict no-entrant... so just do something different by letting my situation be known to many of the fellow-bloggers...

Ok.. now into the topic... just after i came back from my lunch..and browsed our local blogs... i was shocked to see a blog post in which one of my colleague met with an accident but escaped unhurt... thanks to the helmet he was wearing.. though he was hesitant to wear one.. he did it. which eventually saved him from heavy damage. This is not the first one i hear within the last few weeks... particularly over the last three weeks.. i have been hearing of various accidents involving my friend, relation... or colleague.. someone or the other.... most of the cases is due to the bad roads or the arrogance of the lorry drivers... beaming their headlight just like a light house...

I usually drive from my residence, in East Tambaram.. to my office Velachery, in my two wheeler... i was comfortable so far.. but over the past few weeks, after hearing such incidents.. now i am more concerned and want to be at the safest side as far as possible..and moreover the bad roads.. and the occassional short spell of rain.. which is enough to fill the potholes in the road... adding to my voes. The road near my office, used to be a good.. wider one.... but that was 4 days ago... today on my way to the office, i noticed that it has shrunk to nearly half its size, due to the work on the storm water drain.. i was shocked to notice that, the yellow line which was drawn in the middle of the road, is now at the border of the road.. quickly losing itself to the sand accumulated in the sideways... and all these two wheelers and four wheelers have made it as a parking lot.. to consume much more space... The good broad road doesnt solve the purpose, it was meant for.!!! what to be done.. everyone says that all these will be only for another two years, and after the infrastructural work... everythin will be fine...but i couldnt find any.. spent nearly 23 yrs in this earth... still everything remains the same....

stop... stop.. stop.. why am i saying all thes things... what is the purpose of this blog.````` yes.. i got it ... it is not about the bad roads ornot about the recklessness of the drivers... and not even about the incidents that i came to hear in the past few weeks......... infact it is to drive away my sleep... not that it has been done... i am stopping it here.... dont want to confuse you further... ( though no one will be reading it )..

now i got fresh.... its time for you to get afreash after going thru this confusing, idiotic words of mine for the past few minutes..... if anyone is patient enough to read till this last line...its a big THANKS . have a hot cup of coffee and get back to work.. if u r soooo patient, then look at this link atleast occassionally.. u will be fed with another interesting!!!!! thing like this.

Top 21 Things an Indian does after returning from US

2005-05-12T01:50:00.000-07:00

The stuff I am posting here is just a mail forward. Not intended to hurt anybody. If at all anybody happens to read this, plz read it and enjoy and dont try to relate it with any of the real life incident. Everything is meant only for fun!!! fun!!! fun!!!

21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always
speaks of health
conscious.

19. Sprays duo such so that he doesn't need to
take bath.

18. Sneezes and says 'Excuse me'.

17. Says "Hey" instead of "Hi".
says "Yogurt" instead says "Curds".
Says "Cab" instead of "Taxi".
Says "Candy" instead of "Chocolate".
Says "Cookie" instead of "Biscuit".
Says "Free Way" instead of "Highway".
Says "got to go" instead of "Have to go".
Says "Oh" instead of "Zero", (for 704, says
Seven Oh Four Instead of
Seven Zero Four)

16. Doesn't forget to crib about air pollution.
Keeps cribbing every
time he steps out.
15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo
Meters), and counts
in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)
14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as
far as possible
(but deep down the heart multiplies by 43
times).

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a
milk pocket.
12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed),
repeats "Zee"
several times, if the other person unable to
get, then says X, Y
Zee(but never says Zed)
11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching
traditional DD/MM/YYYY,
says "Oh! British Style!!!!"
10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian
Road Conditions.
9. Even after 2 months, complaints about "Jet
Lag".
8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.
7. Tries to drink "Diet Coke", instead of Normal
Coke.
6. Tries to complain about any thing in

India

as
if he is
experiencing it for the first time.
5. Pronounces "schedule" as "skejule", and
"module" as "mojule".
4. Looks speciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.

Few more important

3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the
stickers of Airways by
which he traveled back to

India

, even after 4
months of arrival.
2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in

India

, tries to
roll the bag on Indian Roads.

Ultimate one

1. Tries to begin conversation with
"In US ...." or "When I was in US..."

justification for the name

2005-05-11T00:28:00.000-07:00

I think many of you willbe confused as to why have i kept such a name to my blog ( Just a hype, not sure whether anyone else will be visiting this page, other than me. But thats the way people normally say.). didnt i get any other good stuff to name my blog. the fact is that, even i am confused with the same thought. I think I have changed the name of my blog thrice before even making my first post. Iam not impressed with the previous names, even though its all my choice.

I am a very poor writer. Infact this is the first time i am trying something like this. I am sure, my writings are worth enough to find a place only in the dustbin. so, if anyone say it, i can say them thats the reason i have named by blogspace as "Dustbin". So i am justifying the name of the blog by filling it with some worthless stuff.

Let me see, whether i gain something by writing this stuff and go on to become atleast a normal writer.

neway, for the ones who get to read it by chance, thanks for your patience and will update you with some funny stuffs and a very rare useful forward.

Till then, its bye .

test

2005-03-30T00:41:00.000-08:00

HI all,
this is just a test posting.