What a coincidence!!!!

I observed it just now. It seems like a coincidence. A wonderful coincidence indeed. My last post starts at Glendale 7:00AM and it was posted at 7:03AM. It seems like everything happened within 3 minutes. But it is very difficult to have put all those thoughts into words in three minutes.
Actually I had written the post for the entire day in office in small gaps and around 5:30 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time) I pushed it live (That’s the language I speak in office).
And I never thought that my blog settings still corresponded to the famous IST (Indian Standard Time).
Generally IST is referred by Indians for things that gets done late, be it reaching office, attending meetings or reaching any appointments for that matter. But here it seems exactly opposite.
So for people who run out of time or those who are popular for being late, change your clock to some other Standard Time and you will never miss an appointment!!
It is time for me to leave home. This is the only thing that most of us want to do on time, but even this ends up getting late.

PS: This post also corresponds to IST. My next post will be PST and till my next post keep counting the time difference.

MRTS ---> MetroLink

Today, 7:00 AM, Glendale
The blue skies with little white clouds here and there, a gentle breeze, the bright sun, all of these made today a pleasant and wonderful day. Except the fact that, it was Monday and I was walking towards office and not jogging, everything else looked the best. But this does not conclude the fact that I go to office at 7:00 AM or go for jogging daily. Today was an exception in almost all senses.
The side walkway was almost deserted. It is always that way with only few people prefer walking. Again it is not that I prefer walking, but I do not have a vehicle and the office is very close for some kind of public transportation and I end up walking daily to my office.
It was very silent, except for the rustle of the trees in the gentle breeze and the dried leaves getting crushed under my $200 Florsheim shoes. It made me feel that man made sounds are the ones that irritate the senses. But sometimes, these sounds strike a chord with each and everybody’s life that, they are no more irritating.
At that very moment I heard that. It should have been the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line bound for Los Angeles Union station. It did not sound to me as a cacophony. It suddenly struck some chord with me.

1996, 4:30 PM, Chennai
We had crossed “The Oasis”. Oasis in Chennai? Sounds like some restaurant? Well it is not. It resembled a real Oasis, the ones that are found on the deserts. There was a big tree, and we (Me, Keerthivasan and Prakash) used to stop there on our way back from school, drink some water that we were carrying, and if anybody got some little money from home on the pretext of buying a pencil or eraser, we used to buy some snacks from the little shop nearby. Keerthi’s house was pretty close by and I and Prakash waved goodbye to him and proceeded towards our houses.
We pedaled our cycles in slow motion till we reached the slope that leads to the railway gate. The gate was closed as usual and we crossed all the four wheelers waiting for the train to pass and the gate to open. We ducked down the gate, pushed our cycles below it and were almost near the tracks. It was then I heard it and I knew I will. I could see the engine at a distance. Then within seconds the Bangalore bound Lalbagh express crossed by, its siren seemed like a perfect example for the Doppler Effect. We stood very close to the tracks, just to feel the power of the speed in which the train traveled, ignoring the dust rain that the train would spill over both of us. Lalbagh express was considered one of the fastest trains originating from Chennai after Rajdhani express during 1996, a period when Chennai did not have the Shatabdi Express.

2004, 3:30 PM, Chennai
I saw myself wearing a white and blue uniform, holding the handle bar of my old Atlas cycle, a big bag stuffed at the stand just behind the seat. I was actually traveling to Bangalore in Lalbagh Express and when I looked out of the window as it crossed the suburban Villivakkam station, the scene just flashed for a second.
Almost eight years had flown by. I had left Chennai in 1997 and did not return before 2003, except for the occasional visits. Even now I had not moved to Chennai. I had become a Post Graduate student and was working on an academic project at Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, Bangalore, which came under the Defense Research and Development Organization of Indian Ministry of Defense popularly called as DRDO. To visit my parents in Chennai or to report to my college at Vellore, it was this Lalbagh Express that I traveled mostly.
Every time I traveled, I would go back to those olden school days and wonder, if at any point of time, did I have a very little clue about me taking this train very frequently, or making me feel a little bit nostalgic. I really do not know if nostalgic is the right word, but something very similar to that.

2005, 7:18 AM Chennai
Time flew and I almost forgot about Lalbagh express and in general the trains, though about hundreds of train passed right behind my house. As I told earlier, it had kind of struck chord with me and the noise of the passing trains never really bother me. It was to such a great extent that, I was surprised by guests who kept asking us if the train sounds continued all through the day.
I was now working in a software company. The proverb “All roads lead to Rome” had become something like “All engineering colleges lead to software industry” regardless of the engineering branch of course.
When the option of taking train or bus to the office training center came, I naturally chose the train. I took the 7:18 AM bound for Chennai beach and my fellow colleagues used to join me at different stations. Since the training session was for a fixed schedule, we got the 6:40 PM return train from Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station, come to beach and used to take the next local bound for Avadi or Tiruvallur. Even when there was a 15 minutes of time between the connecting train we used to grab a dosa from the newly opened Saravana Bhavan in the Chennai Beach station. It was a time, when we knew the money we were spending was earned by us. The best part was when we were made to run with the last piece of dosa in our mouth by the train horn. Those were the times, when we kept our ears open for the horn. If we missed the train, we had to wait for almost an hour for the next one to come.

2008, 7:00 AM Chennai
Two months flew by happily. Fixed working time from 9AM to 6PM. The train journeys. Everything came to a stop, when our training got over and we were posted to projects.
I got used to the new routine, a routine that I hated more than the job. A company bus at 7:45 AM and I never knew the time when I will be starting back for home. I was lucky if I reached home on the same day. The traffic jams, the honking and the cloud of poisonous gas surrounded me, and I kind of got used to it.
Now after three years, there was one more change. Trains were back in my life. My office building got shifted to MEPZ Tambaram, close to Tambaram Sanatorium railway station. I had to take two trains, but that never bothered me. In spite of the crowd, it was comfortable. I could never imagine traveling the same distance by bus. I never came across Lalbagh express, because I never had the chance to leave the office so early to reach Chennai Central by 3:30 PM; still I had trains around me. I will be doing injustice to myself if I do not mention about Navjeevan express, which I took during all my undergraduate years. I will make up for this by writing a separate post on that. I am really confident of filling three more pages when I talk about that.

Today, 7:00 AM, Glendale
As the security at my office wished me “Good Morning”, I came back to reality. A quick journey triggered by the train horn ended there. Be it MRTS or the MetroLink, both have struck a chord in my life.

Glendale....

Glendale.. What does it sound like? A fairy tale location? A remote village in England? Nope. There might be one, but what I am talking about here is my new home. My home for the next one year. Glendale is a city in California (there is one in Arizona too), very close to Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Glendale is a cute little city. This is called as the Jewel City or Jewel of Verdugo, because this has a jewel like formation to the Verdugo mountains nearby. The climate here is very pleasant, not much cold, not much hot.
For people who have heard or tasted Baskin-Robbins ice-cream, this city is the birth place of this world wide famous ice cream chain.
I have just started exploring this place, and will surely write more about this place. And writing about this topic as my first blog this year makes a lot of sense. Doesn't it?

Reborn???

Sounds different.... reborn has become a phenomenon with the media and advertising industry using it everywhere. Wear a shirt and you are reborn as..... (something like that). Anyway this post is nothing to do with it.
After about three and half months of "dormancy", what better day it could be than my birthday to start this blog again. I have to sustain the resolution that I had made at the beginning of this year.
Things have changed a lot after August 7 (My previous post). Chandrayaan has reached the moon, Obama is in White house, the world reeling in an economic crisis, the small plant near the tracks in Egmore station grewn a bit (more about this in my next post).
The only thing that has not grown is the posts in my blog. Its again a time for a change... time for a rebirth.
Harish is reborn with this post....

After Three years…

It might sound like O. Henry’s Short story. Well I really cannot say how it is going to be once you are done reading this. But I am sure this is not a story.
Serving the society or giving back something to the society is one thing that most of the people want to do, but there are only few people who really succeed in it. John Milton once said,

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."

So if the people who stand and wait also serve the God, then it also means that, there is really no measure of success in serving the society. Whatever little a person does, can bring a good amount of change. And if many people start doing the same at small levels, it is definitely bound to bring a sea change.
As I walk back four years in my life, I remember that day very well. I was getting prepared for the first job interview of my life. Who will not forget that day? Though it was bound to happen, I was least prepared for it. The most surprising part was that, I had cleared the first round of written test and had reached to this stage. Wearing a formal full hand shirt (I hate them always..) tucked properly in my trousers, I walked towards the block where the interviews where being held.
There I met a few fellow mates, who have attended the interview already. Most of them had been grilled in all computer concepts for around an hour. I was very happy. I did not know anything about Computer Science. I would have gladly answered questions on RADAR than about computers.
Once the questions on computers were done, the students were asked about their interests and hobbies and then the students were supposed to ask anything about the company, work environment etc.
Before I could think about anything, I was called inside for the interview. Seeing me “Areas of Interest” as RADAR engineering, he asked two basic questions on RADAR. I do not know how much aware my interviewer was, but he immediately started topic about my personal interest and hobbies. Once this started, it was more like a discussion rather than an interview. We “chatted” for about ten minutes and then it was time for me to ask some questions.
I did not want to pose the same questions about the corporate work culture etc etc and I did not know what else to ask. I badly wanted to ask something, as there was not much scope for me in the interview, because of my lack of computer knowledge. From some where in the middle of the mind, the question came out. “Is Cognizant (that’s where I work) involved in Social Service Activities?” I asked as though, I was involved in such activities from my early childhood, and the company also should provide a platform for the same. That had never happened. I gave my interviewer a big smile when he answered “YES” for my question and told about few activities that they were involved in. The smile in my face would have surely made him think, I was born to help the society.
The interview was over with that, and hours flew by. It was evening and the results where supposed to be declared. Fortunately or Unfortunately I got selected. And as I write this blog, I have almost completed three years in the company.

But, it was only last week that I was involved in some CSR activity. Our team had donated a set of age specific toys to the Neo Natal Care at Voluntary Health Service (VHS), Taramani, Chennai. These toys will be used for analyzing new born babies for any abnormalities. There are therapists who analyse the response of the child to these toys. We had a demo of the usage of these toys to babies who were 5 to 6 months old to kids aged 2 years. People who have seen the movie “Taare Zameen Par” (I have not seen it) would understand this better.
At the end of the day, it was really something different. Few things learned and few things done is what I can say.

New fashion in town...

It has become an old fashion accessory, but I got into the groove just now, a little late of course. But that does not mean, I too follow that, it is just that I have started noticing it now.
Thanks to the shifting of my office, and with the administration saying there will be no office bus, I have started using the public transport. And now I see a lot of people, people from different backgrounds, different jobs, schools and college students. And it seems, this thing has taken everyone into itself.
It comes in both wired and wireless formats. Not surprising, because this is a period, where you can make anything wired or wireless.
I did not notice this at least for two or three days. The strangest thing is that, I too own that, but have never used it like how people use it.
I got down at my station, and started walking. The sun was well on top, and was determined to fry the people who ventured out. Suddenly I heard a guy saying hello. I turned back thinking it must be somebody from the office who also must have taken the same train. But to my surprise, I saw a man, whom I have never seen. Just when I was about to think, If he is a long lost school friend of mine, I heard him continue his talk, and walk past me, never bothering to turn towards my side. Anyways, there was no necessity for him to do so.
Just then, I realized he was talking to somebody over the phone, through what is called a “Handsfree”. His hands were really free. A bag in one hand, and the other one free.
It was then that I started observing people’s ear, for any such thing. In an unofficial and random survey, I found that more than 40% of the people used it, with the ladies using it more than the guys (From ages back, the ladies always had more to talk.).
The best thing was how it had turned into a part and parcel of one’s life. Just like the bracelet or any other thing, it had become a necessity.
The thing that made me admire was how it blended very much with the guys. Taken over by curiosity, I attempted to wear it one day in vain. First I did not know where to put the phone, and then the other was to take the wires from the phone to the ear with the wires visible only near the ears. Hmm…. It was really tough and I have dropped the idea of using it.
If one did not get that many calls, then this was used for hearing music, radio or mp3, whichever one wanted.
The guy who introduced me this handsfree, and the one who overtook me and went was in his own world.
As he walked down the platform, and crossed the tracks, he never bothered to look for any trains coming. If luck was not on his side, the words which he talked in the phone would have been his last ones.
Though, handsfree is a better option, with people not being exposed to radiation, it is still wise not to use while walking. Else, it would be their last words or the last song they hear.

New York/Chennai

The building was on fire. It was so tall that more than half of the people working there never realized that there was a fire in the building. With two towers, each with 110 floors, it was considered to be the business center of the world and its name World Trade Center was more than apt for it. But on this day, 9/11, everything was different. People from big businessman to the bell boys where running down the stairs.
The local train pulled into the park suburban station in Chennai at a good pace. The train was almost empty. But within seconds, the seats were occupied and it was on its way to its next destination.
The aero plane had hit the building at the correct place. The crash had started. People started running down the emergency stairs. As they looked down at the ground, it seemed as if, they were spiraling down in an infinite well. The World Trade Center had been attacked. It was a black day. Millions of dollars transactions have stopped, with people not knowing when things will get back to normal.
A small girl bought me back to ground reality from ground zero, from New York to Chennai. Jeffery Archer had described the last minutes at the World Trade Center in a detailed way. I closed the Jeffrey archer novel and looked at her. She would have been some three years old. Her white dress was almost brown with dirt.
She tried her luck with an old fellow sitting near to me. The reward was two rupees. If that was the start for the day, then I bet it was a good one.
As the next train pulled into the station, I hurried as usual, a routine, which I almost got used too. As I took the window seat, my eyes rested again on her. She was running now.
The train driver blew the horn, and the train started. My eyes refused to move away from the small girl. I was curious to see where she was going. The train slowly started picking speed. She reached a place, where three people were sitting, a man, a woman and a small boy, whom I presumed to be her father, mother and brother. Her father and mother were busy talking something. She went to her brother and showed the two rupees coin. After a very very brief pause, they both smiled and hugged each other, a very spontaneous action. The train moved out of the station, but that scene refused to move out of my mind.
Most of the days would have been black for the small girl, unlike one black day for New York. She had told a story better than Archer.

3...2...1...Go..

The facility was different. It was half constructed, and still the workers were moving around, trying to complete the construction of rest of the facility. Something always looked different here. I was a newcomer to this place. It was only a week since I started working from here.
The environment was totally different from my previous office. Doors with access check everywhere, two or three doors for canteen, rest rooms etc, people with robes as if it’s a nuclear plant made it look very different. As I walked into my small cubicle, I perfectly looked like an engineer, who is designing a small part of the satellite that was going to be launched in 6 months.
Satellite design involves a lot of technical complexities. That is the reason “Rocket Science” always involves people belonging to a different plane. It requires a lot of precision and even a simple calculation may lead to its complete failure.
I had a bad habit of sleeping. So anyone who passed by my cubicle could see a poster with my writing in big “Do not Sleep”. The people who did not knew me, also stopped by my cubicle, just to find out why I had put it up there, and my lead when he finds me sleeping, waked me up and shows the poster (I give a wry smile in response).
Rocket science was a field, which interested me a lot (It is for many people in this world). Becoming a rocket engineer was a dream for me. Here in this office, I found my dream come true. The IT job I was doing had paid me more, but never satisfied me.
I was woken by my lead suddenly. I had slept again. I responded with my usual wry smile. He had lost all hopes of keeping me awake and so did not bother. He directly asked “When is the launch?” Without realizing that he was asking about the web site launch, I replied “6 months” telling about the satellite launch of my dream.
If you really did not understand anything in this post, it is not a fault of yours, since I wrote this in office half asleep.

Hibernation...

The books lay scattered in my bed. I rarely read nowadays, and the reason I give is lack of time (though the real reason is lack of time management), the rubik's cube, which I bought with a lot of enthusiasm lay on the stand, hoping that it would be turned and rotated one day. The shelf was haphazardly arranged. It is always like that, except for a week after I arrange all of them.
My office desk too was in a bad shape. Having moved to a new office two weeks back, i never had the patience to arrange the things. I had just dumped everything on the desk and it loyally remained there. My beard started pricking my face in this Chennai summer. Then I realised that, I had not shaved.
All these indicate my hibernation mode.
Today, my beard is gone. So I am not hibernating. But all the other things i mentioned above remains the same. The only change is more posts in this blog will keep flowing. Be ready to get wet this summer.

Perfect 10 satellite gone with the wind...

The sea was unusually silent. They did their job of reaching the shore and receding very quietly. It was an island, not very far from the main shore. A perfect place for satellite launch, the island of Sriharikota, generally a calm island was buzz with activity. The clock showed the time as 0723 am 28th April 2008. The two hour count down had just began at that instant. It was a big day. Ten satellites being launched at one shot. A day not to be forgotten for ISRO. It was a world record. As 9:23 am approached, the launch vehicle took off and within minutes, put all the satellites into orbits. It was hailed as a theoretical launch.As I logged on to www.ibnlive.com at around 10:30 am to check about the launch, the main screen splashed with Harbhajan Singh's photo. I had to search the page to find about the launch. Other sites (NDTV,headlinestoday etc) were not far behind. Some sites had photo of Sreesanth hugging Harbhajan. I was very disappointed to find no comments in the news "Perfect 10 for ISRO, PSLV lifts off successfully" whereas the Harbhajan singh's news had more than 100 comments from the readers. The worst part was the interview of Harbhajan's mother about the incident. Does the media knows what needs to be projected and what need not? If the India's leading news channel do like this, what can be expected out of others?The satellite launch would have taken years to complete with crores of rupees spent. The Cartosat which was sent in the PSLV (Was a major payload) would be used to analyse the Earth, soil and earthly resources including water. Is this not a big achievement? Why does the media shy away from putting this in the front? putting in a big banner? These satellite launches are not to prove to the world that India is a super power. These are for the development of the country. They have been developed by the country, for the country and of the country. What is the media going to lose by projecting this? Is Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth needs this much hype?
Shame on the Indian media....

Chennai....

At last I saw Chennai... I have been a Chennizen for the past 3 years. Though my home town is Chennai, I had been moving around to many places, and for the past 3 years, I was here, and most probably going forward, will continue here.
Please do not get surprised, when I say that, I am seeing Chennai at last, even after being here for 3 years. It is almost the same case with everyone in the city.
The Chennai Corporation's order to remove all the big and illegal billboards and hoardings did the trick. The city is very different now. At some places, people are able to see the blue sky now only. Some hoardings were so huge, that it looked like they were painted on the sky.
But now, only the steel frames remain. The city looks different. For a change, many buildings can be seen.
Though the ads in the billboard were eye catchy with some of them being too good, still the removal of them is also a welcome thing.

A long gap..

Not again... I cannot allow this. It almost half a month since I last blogged. In this duration, there were many times, when I just logged in to the site, then decided against posting anything. Lack of topics, personal and professional life, I can keep on adding reasons for all this. But does that makes sense? Not at all. Will keep this going through all kinds of trials.

The wonder that was India

The thought of a visit to a book shop makes me happy. It is as if, I love being surrounded by books, browsing through different titles, different section, checking out new authors, all being more fun than reading a book. Sometimes, browsing the cover pages of many books, gives an immense satisfaction of really gaining some knowledge, rather than reading one whole book (novels excluded).
With the same intention, I was there at landmark at Spencer's. I directly went to the special and new books section. Most of them were Sujatha's books. Though Sujatha is not with us, his words will remain for a long time. அவரை பற்றி எழுதுவது என்றால் தமிழில் தான் எழுதியாக வேண்டும். தமிழில் புதிய எழுத்தாளர்கள் வருவதற்கு, அவர் ஒரு முக்கிய காரணம். தமிழ்நாட்டிற்கும், இந்திய வோட்டிற்க்கும், அவர் செய்த பணி என்றும் மறக்க முடியாத ஒன்று.
Then, I moved on to other sections. As i was browsing, a name caught my attention. The book's title read "The wonder that was India". Curious to read what it meant, i pulled the book from the shelf. This was a History book, written by A.L.Basham. The title struck to me as an odd one. Why is the author saying "The wonder that was India". India has been a wonder, and it still is a wonder, and it will be one always. So just to know how the author justifies the title, i bought the book. Its a big book with around 500 pages, almost resembleing an old time dictionary. As i started reading, the title was justified in the "foreward" section itself (I could have read that in the shop itself, and kept the book back).
It seems, the author was totally against this title, because he too felt that it was not relevant. But the publishers said that this book was a sequel to other books on ancient civilizations like "The grandeur that was Rome", "The splendeur that was Egypt", and even this book should have a similar title. And so, India is no more a wonder according to the title.
I am currently reading this book (Completed almost 200 pages). I think my history teacher would have been very proud and happy, if she came to know that i am reading this book. Just like a typical history book, its taking a lot of time for me to move ahead. I completed 3 other books in the meantime, but this one is still going on.
But it is not as boring as a history book. The author has tried to present many interesting facts about the lifestyles of ancient civilisations. Be it the public political, economical details or the private life of a man and woman, the author has tried to throw light on whatever is known about those days.
A good read for people with a lot of patience and time.

Does the human race think??

I do not know what you people think, but Edward de Bono says "How the Human Race has never really learned to think" in a book with the same big title. In a book of about 120 pages, he tries hard to put down many a example to say that, what humans do is work on a pattern or recognition. The brain is trained to handle all things, based on patterns that are stored, including the previous experiences a person has had.
The first 30 pages went very fast, and at a point I thought I will complete the book in two hours (That would have been a record, considering my poor reading speed which is about 12 pages/hour). Even with such a poor reading speed I was one among the person who read a lot of books. But this was before i started working. Things changed once i started working. "I was born intelligent, but my job ruined me", kind of works for me (Hope my manager does not see this).
Anyway coming back to the discussion of human race, thinking, pattern and de Bono, after 30 pages I found myself asleep for about tem minutes. Then the book did not raise any of my interests and after struggling for 3 hours i completed about 80 pages.
I do not know how long more I would spend on reading this. The only thing in the book is some of the practical examples the author had explained about some simplex (simple-complex) problems. One more thing was about the general tendancy of human beings, sticking holily to the proverb, "Necessity is the mother of invention". Even i am no exception. Currently I am into a maintanence project, and I do not bother about the system that is existing. It is really designed bad and pathetic, but since things are running, I do not give a damn to it. The author has pointed out this example only in the book. It was as if he was talking to me and telling me to do something extra (Just like my boss). This is generally called "Value Add". Frankly I do not know if I will follow this or not.
If the author by any chance reads this (Which is impossible), he would put a comment saying that, i had written this post wearing a "Black Hat".
Luckily, I did not spend money on getting this book :).

Odyssey

A journey that i took 2 years ago had stopped suddenly. Stopped for no apparent reason. The odyssey (thats how i refer to the journey), took a back track with me not able to balance my work personal life. But its the wish, desire and whatever one calls it, made me start this journey once again. And i badly want to continue this journey till where my legs and body take. Because, my mind can assimilate many places, but not my legs and body. And i am very happy to invite you all to join my ODYSSEY

New Year Resolution II....

New Year resolution…

New Year resolution? Again? People might think, it is already March, too late for a New Year resolution and early for a Tamil New Year resolution (Tamil New year generally falls on 14th April). This is a result of the “New Year resolution” (http://kuppathotti.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-year-resolution.html), I had already posted.
I am a person who strongly believes that a resolution can be taken at any time, but the important thing is to keep it going. Yes, keep it really going (I have flunked many of the resolutions that I had already took).
The “New Year” post I had put was just to motivate myself. Yesterday, in one book, I had read that “Tell your plans to your well wishers, then at least to show them, you will follow the plan”.
Unknowingly, I did the same thing.
But it turned out to be in another way. After reading that post, many of my friends were more inspired. I got a couple of mails saying that, the post was good and they too were going to blog regularly. Few of them had a blog and were not posting regularly, and others did not have one at all.
This made me realize the positive effects of something told positively. Once, Kalam had commented about the print media in India. He was presiding over a function hosted by a leading newspaper in the country (I am really not sure which one). He generally commented about the news that is printed in the front page. Mostly, they were about some bad incident that took place. When the reader starts his day with this news, it fails to boost the morale of the person. He starts cribbing about the world in general. If the good news, however small it may be, is put in big and bold letters, it will surely bring a visible change.
So, “Happy blogging” to all those who have started fresh and for those who are continuing their old ones. Spread the positive note and do your bit. It does bring a change.

Reel to Real

As i took the news paper in a hurry to have glance before i started for my office shuttle, the photo in the front page made me sit down. But time never stops for us. As seconds ticked away, i quickly decided grab a few minutes to read the article. It was the photo of Thanjavur Brihadisvara temple, and my recent visit to Gangaikondacholapuram had evinced an interest in the ancient temples. The story was about the tamil historian Kudavayil Balasubramaniam (http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/02/29/stories/2008022951100100.htm) in the Friday Review published by The Hindu. As i read through the article, i felt as if the character in my previous blog "proposal" (http://kuppathotti.blogspot.com/2008/02/proposal.html) resembled this person in real life. When i had written the post "proposal", half was true or rather i can say that i could map the characters to real life persons. This part was not so. The archaeologist i had mentioned was truly and completely imaginary till i had read this article. Though i had a hint that there will be persons in the real world just as i had mentioned in the post. But i came to know about it pretty soon.

Result...

I didn figure in the list of first three prize winners for the proposal writing competition :(.
http://kuppathotti.blogspot.com/2008/02/proposal.html

What now???

Its one week from my the time i posted my last post and its time for the next one and i swear i am dried out of topics. I was pre-occupied with many things last week that there was no idea that sparked out. இப்போ தமிழிலும் ப்ளோக் செய்யலாம் :). ஆனால் இப்படி செய்தால் தமிழ் மறந்து விடுவோமோ என்று தோன்றுகிறது.

சீக்கிரம் மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம் .

Proposal...

The following is a proposal writing i had to write in an hour for a competition at my office. There was actually a day, but i was able to give only one hour to it.

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The terrain was very rough. Each step spelt danger. One wrong move and you are deep down into the valley. Ramesh moved very cautiously. The dawn had not broke still now. The temperature did not wish to rise above the zero level. The gun firings which had started the day before had not stopped. He heard few hours before that, the enemies had been marching continuously and they more and more troops had been deployed on heir side. Trying to throw away the memory of all his family members, the chillness that was boring down into his bones, the death that awaited on the deep valleys on one side and the enemy bullets on the other side, he bravely marched ahead, to chuck the enemies out of his country.

The train entered the station smoothly. It was the Delhi Metro, an engineering marvel even in the 21st century, executed in time and within the allocated budget in spite of the red tapism in the government. An alternate, affordable, pollution free, fast transport was developed with the efforts of a lot of people from engineers to workers under the leadership of Sreedharan. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has bought in many “Best Practices”, even to the high performing private sectors in India.

In a village in Kerala, as the kid reached the school, he was surprised to see a small TV there. One can easily count the number of times he would have seen a TV, and he never expected to see one in the class. As the class began, a lady whom the boy never saw in his village appeared and started teaching him. It was a very new and exciting to him. It will still take him few years to know, how the efforts of scientists at ISRO and other organization has started making impact on the education in India.

The old man tried hard looking at the photo. It was very easy to spot him among the big chunk of people, who had gathered to visit the “Exhibition on Wheels” organized by the Indian Railways to celebrate 150 yeas of “Revolution of 1857”. The expression in his face told that, he still remembered those times. He was wearing a White Khadi shirt with white Khadi Dhoti. As he walked along the compartments of the train, it showed that his will power and love for the country has not aged with him.

The man felt the stone for one more time. He had always loved them. It all started from a visit to the Brihadisvara temple at Gangai konda Cholapuram in TamilNadu. He would have never thought that he would be spending most of his life in this temple with the beautifully carved stone structures. As an officer in the Archeological Survey of India, he was posted at the same temple, where his love for old temples began. He was responsible for maintaining the temple, the temples which are the living proofs showing the ingenuity of Indians.

“I love you ‘my country’. I love you ‘the people who love my country’”