end of chapter in life : Part 1

Disclaimer: Pls don't get hurt with any of these comments. All in fun.

Life is lived in chapters. This I had believed right from childhood and it stands very true for my life. I say so because each part of my life is completely disjointed from the other part ,if not mentally at least physically. And as the wheels of life have turned again , I am at the juncture of end of another chapter in my life. Undoubtedly one of the happiest chapters in my life, the chapter when me and my roomies stayed in Bangalore. Now when it is time when all of us are moving ahead /have already moved with their lives , with a heavy heart I am penning down whatever I can remember of the days we spent together. This could turn out to be the most sentimental blog I have ever written .
Our association started off in Oct 2004 when me,Vinu and Partha decided to take a house. I can't forget the day when me and Vinu gradually drifted without realising into egipura while searching for house. Fate intervened and we were joined by 2 more people Jo and Mama and later by my old pal from college Sajith(Bhaiya). How we missed the first house we saw and then entered into 8/1, Aswini Layout is a funny tale. There began our first association. Breakfast skipping on sundays to walking all the way to godavari for a decent meal and the stare waiter used to give when we told no for all the side dishes except for meals, Vinu's constant quetchings about the house and partha and murugan's unnecessary duel are some of the memories which will never be erased. Not that I was the perfect one in the house, I too had lot of shortcomings , lots of angry outbursts for petty things were some of my 'achievements' at the house. By the time we planned to leave the house Murugan had become an inevitable part of our gang. Nov 2005 was when we vacated the house but not so smoothly.

Some unforgettable things/events at this house in no specific order:

• Vinu's histrionics :The way Vinu as soon as he entered the house and put his bed in the first room saying" Naan inga thaan , yaaru venum nallum enga vennalum ponga" and within days he came with his bed to the other room. Vinu packing his luggage to leave the house and inspite of all our efforts he didn't change his decision and one fateful sunday when he asked" kandippa poi thaan aaganum a?"
• Kovai International: The long queue at this place for eating, how the chutney was full watery and the kanjathanam he used to do for putting chutney, the paper thin dosa for 4 rs and the unhygenic serving of the food.
• Sunday morning breakfast: Which we never had. Whoever ventured out first to have T or puffs was made the scapegoat and people used to call him to get something for them.
• Partha vs Murugan vs Natraj: This will undoubtedly be the funniest incident when we recall it say 10 years later. No one knows the exact cause of the dual between Partha and Murugan and how I jumped up in support of Murugan. Silly ! All very Silly!
• Safal , rival for Kovai: For a long time Kovai was the undisputed destination for food for all of us until Safal came up. The red color chutney, the watery dal, aaloo paratha and the endless wait for all of this .
• Entry of the neatness freak Bhaiya:How bhaiya's dad commented on the house being very dirty and dusty and how we had very high hopes on bhaiya being a netaness freak and how he turned our house into a dustbin. Remember the bad smell one day everyone was chasing to find where it is coming from to finally find it is from bhaiya's sweater
  
• Exit from the house: The exit from the house , the owner's behavior and the way he tore away the agreement upon petering him for the balance advance amount.

Hope these memories are everlasting not only in the google server but also in our heart.

Evano Oruvan: Straight from heart!

Truth is always bitter. And that's exactly what I felt when I came out of Chandran theater in udhayam complex in Chennai after watching "Evano Oruvan". The movie comes as a hard punch on all so called happy go lucky youth of India. How we manage to laugh at our problems. How we manage to escape from the basic problems without even thinking about whether what we are doing is just or not. Movie stars Madhavan in an excellent role ( one of his best according to me) as a typical middle class man. The magic of the movie is that his simplicity is maintained throughout the character. Not unlike other such social upheaval movies wherein the protagonist undergoes tremendous change in character and that's what makes these movies unrealistic. This is by far one of the most realistic movies on the social issues till now and the director has managed to maintain the same till the end. The situations where the hero reacts are all very subtle and very common situations and what pinches us hard is how did we manage to neglect all those till now. The climax and the scenes which lead to that are the best in the movie according to me . The movie works only and only because of its simplicity and straight from heart approach. As for the cons , I would say, it is a very slow movie , there is hardly any pace and no "masala" items. A pure classic cinema at its best! But all of us know it's fate. :)

ICL Matches: Fun to watch

ICL matches have begun and have begun with a bang. Packed houses in stadiums and full toosh entertainment. Watch them in all Zee channels . For now I can show you one of the advertisements for my favourite team. Watch it for yourself and have fun.

Advertisement link

The Negotiator: Book Review

This is first of a book review which I am writing. And the book is "The Negotiator" by "Frederick Forsyth". The book begins off rather slowly giving us a backdrop of the cold war and how the two superpowers US and Russian Govt. are trying to patch up and sign a treaty of disarmament. Meanwhile it introduces us to a set of people spread across continents who will be destroyed by this treaty. The kidnapping of a young oxford student happens next which catches you unaware. The real drama begins when the master novelist discloses the identity of the kidnapped boy. And it is from here that the novel picks up amazing pace and generates immense interest. The character sketch of the negotiator is truly awe-inspiring. And he lives up to all the characterization till the very end proving that he is one of the smartest. The novel again reaches its peaks in its penultimate pages and a thrilling climax gives a fitting end to a masterpiece.

I won't call this the best book I have ever read , but it is definitely one of the best. This is the first book by Frederick Forsyth I have read, and am planning to read many of his books now. I am hoping all of his works are equally appealing. People with a taste for thrillers and politics and with considerable amount of patience, recommended for you!

Can't help it

I can't help it. I deliberately do not want to write on cricket as my blog will look full of cricket posts. But Indian cricket board and its management committee think otherwise. And hence, here I am ranting about our cricket board. And as for the title, I did not want the reader to know that it is a post on cricket from the title. Thats' it.
Indian team for the tests came as a big shocker to me. How could they leave out a player like Yuvraj Singh who is in the form of his life. After a series winning performances in the T20 world cup and the Pakistan series where he dominated in all games, how could one leave him out of the test side ? Some argue that he is not a "Test Player". My question to them is why do you brand players? Everyone is playing cricket and it is just about adapting to the situation whether it be tests, one days or T20s. There are moments in test cricket where you need to go out and attack the opponent and there are times when you play literally on back foot in a one day game. Then why this branding like Test player and one day player. The next argument I want to put is we all admire Aussies as champions ( leaving out the sledging and stuff) . If you want to be champions we should start thinking like one first. They don't brand their players like one day players and test players and as a result they have got a match winning batsman in Adam Gilchrist who is equally good in all the forms of game. According to me Yuvraj is better than Gilchrist as a " test batsman" . Then why not give him a chance.
One side they showed signs of "moving ahead" by dropping Dravid ( Though I was not in favor of that as well) and the other side they are taking a step back by choosing a so called typical test team. Hope they show some consistency in their errors at least.

muziboo.com: Music everywhere

Have you ever felt like making people listen to your composition? But could not find people who give honest feedback on it. Here is a site muziboo.com where you can share your music, rather upload it for users to listen to it and comment on it. There are groups,bands of common interests . To upload music all you need is a login account which takes 15 to 30 seconds depending on your name length and your typing speed to create. Once you are done with this, you are all set to harass people with your compositions. The look vise, a rather plain and sober pretext for such a musical site, but you won't complain as it is really fast to load. Song quality also is good. I listened to couple of songs and to tell you what, they were not at all bad. Good going guys!!

So next time you have to show up your music talent you know where to hit.

My experiements with BCB5

BCB5 didn't come to me as a surprise as did BCB4. I knew its date and venue details much ahead in time and I did register also well in advance. Saturday, the way it began I thought we would have a blast. Me(without my camera),Vijesh,Raghu,Prem,Ambuj all met up at Sony world signal and set off to be joined by Suresh in IIM-B. With audi not booked no formal announcements. It was nice innovation to have mattresses and bedsheets for "discussion" based collectives. As volunteers we helped them finish some of the chores. No card hanging around your neck this time. It were stickers. " Cheaper doesn't necessarily mean worse, Natraj". The collective which attracted me from the very time I registered, XP collective, thats where we spent our first half of Saturday. Interesting session on Agile methodology with healthy arguments from all skeptics of the model. Post lunch spent some time (though did not understand) on Ruby collective and then went on to attend the quiz screening teaming up with Raghu. Then there was an interesting arguement going on " Myths and facts about generic girls and boys". After participating in it passively we headed home. Hey! I forgot to mention, we got the T-shirts on Saturday itself. And this proved out to be a mistake on the part of organizers. Sunday morning wore a deserted look. Prem, Ambuj and Raghu from our group did not turn up. First half went for a session on Indic languages and how to use them for various purposes on computer. Though I don't or plan to use it in near future, it was a good session. And hey, were wait listed for quiz finals.Afternoon attended a session on a news site taazza.com, a nice news site which localizes your news contents . After that we did participate in quiz finals.(Raghu came all the way for this). Lets not discuss the results of it here. Then headed back home.
If compared with BCB4, personally i learnt more or rather it evoked the thirst for knowing a lot of things in me, but overall I think the absence of audi and the absence of crowd on Sunday proved out to be spoilsports.

Bangalore Traffic and Diwali

I have experienced it for 3 years. The mad rush of Bangalore traffic on the eve of diwali to reach majestic/station (both are adjacent to each other in case you do not know). This year it began as a different experience for me. First and foremost, no rush in 171 bus from Koramangala stop. So here I was seated comfortably in the bus. Surprise no.1 : Shanti nagar depot having some buses going out to various places. Instant reaction from my brain: Good! They have done their home work well. Surprise no.2: Not much of traffic after corporation circle. Usually this is the place where the whole thing comes to a stop and people walk to bus stand/station during diwali break.
Surprise no.3: I reached majestic in 1 hour time which is a normal duration for Bangalore. Surprise no.4 : By the time I reached my bus platform my bus number was already marked on the list. I was very happy and elated on all this. Thinking that Bangalore has found an answer for the mad rush. The next surprise, told me the truth. Conductor was shouting "Chennai ,Chennai." Thats when I realised, seats in the bus were vacant. Which meant today was not the diwali eve which Bangalore is famous for. Diwali had begun one day earlier for me. And hence without a traffic blast.

Om Shanti Om can be missed

What happens when you buy a cheap canvas and in your efforts to show it as beautiful you paint it all with the most expensive colours of the world? The result is a movie like Om Shanti Om. The colors added are reincarnation , story of a ghost, a half baked love story,mother sentiment blah bhah blah. But, the basic problem of Om Shanti Om is it has nothing new to offer. No story. Funny moments here and there can't compensate for the story. Roping in all the stars of bollywood also can't.
Shahrukh Khan hams all the way in the movie like never before. Deepika is ok. Shreyas Talpade is wasted. I wonder what he saw in this movie. Arjun Rampal is the only performance which stands out. It claims to be a humorous movie. If that is the kind of humor one wants, one can rather watch MTV spoofs on movies. It is no different than that.
Music comes as a saving grace for the film which is well shot as well.
Watch it only if you are a hardcore Shahrukh fan .

My happiest day in Life: A personal diary: Part 1

A very common question one asks is which is your happiest moment in life. Well, even thought no one has asked it here, I would still like to draft this for my own sake.

After missing out on couple of occasions TCS and e-Funds, I was really depressed as far as the placement scenario was concerned. I had started concentrating on CAT as it looked like that was the last resort available. Came 25th September 2003, a day when my life was going to change. Previous day eve my placement rep told IBM has opened for us. With a single eve and a company of IBM's stature I never thought I had a chance. Unusually I slept early that day at 10 pm , to wake up and go for the written exam. Written exam was a usual affair for me. 20 questions on general aptitude and 20 questions on computers. Aptitude questions I not only managed to do it but to cross check it a couple of times. But computer questions, all were kind of bouncers. Come on guys!! only 1 bouncer allowed per over but 20 of them.. back to back... too much... mudiyalai... in vadivelu style. With no hopes of getting selected I continued with the normal life, went for lunch and after that went to hear the results out. And I was one among the 47 selected. 2 from my class. Later came to know the cutt off had been 20 and I had scored 21.

Then, began the preparation for the interview. Unexpected selection meant I was not at all prepared. Luckily, Sundaram Claytons was knocking the doors the next day, off -campus at PSG Tech, so had a shirt and a pant in place. Otherwise I would have been in deep soup, b'cos of my body stature. :)

Somehow collected the rest of it and got ready . Interview was scheduled at 6.30 PM but even a duffer could tell that it will be much later than that. Interviewers asking for the syllabus book started giving me goose bumps. Hence, began my preparation, ( lasted for about an hour only) where I was reading through my own syllabus book and making sure I know to speak on each word mentioned there.

I made sure my freshness was confined to my room till it is time for the interview. My friend went to the interview room and was monitoring. Once my turn came, he came and called me and I was set to what happened to be my last placement interview of life.


As this post is getting unusually big, I will post this in parts. So watch out for Part 2.

My Happiest moment in Life : A personal Diary: Part 2

Our calculation was on target and within 30 mins of me reaching there I was given a call to enter into the interview room. It was a 1-1 interview and one Sridhar was there to decide my fate. I was wearing my fav. sky blue shirt , new one ( wore only for the 2 previous interviews) and a cream color pant, a rather unusual combination, thats what everyone thought. But the black pant had been not so lucky for me. I had decided to take the interview my way and the first question" Tell me about yourself" just made things easier for me. After the initial braggings about education and all I went to my favorite topic of paper presentation in IIT Delhi and ended there for Sridhar to pick from there . I was lucky for this trick to work out and hence, began my explanation of my paper where I was in full form.(must be, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this blog)

On software and languages side, I played safe this time saying I do not know any of them. After about 20 minutes of mostly me talking and he listening he seemed impressed and told me to go on for the HR interview , which meant that I had cleared the "technical" interview. Officially I was informed that I had cleared outside by another gentleman from IBM whose name I did not know. Then after waiting for around 30 mins , I was called for the HR interview, there a very stern Balasubramanian was waiting for me. I tried to be as friendly as possible with him. But he was all the same. He asked " you look tired. It is a long time for you". I replied back " It is the same for you sir" . Then began my HR interview. I had questions on my role model which I had put as the Australian Cricket team of 2003. I had questions on 5 uses of pen apart from writing. Again I tried to use my sense of humour to lighten the mood but to no avail. I had questions on my career ambitions and where do I see myself after 5 years. This is where I thought I had blew if off yet again. I replied back " I do not set myself any goals in terms of position and money. I just want to grow with the company. I will look for challenges at every juncture". To which the question was " What if there are no challenges?". A very tricky one indeed. I tried to manage it with some excuses like I will ask for challenging role and that I will fight for it . He was stern on his stand that there are no challenges. The million dollar question. I played a gamble. I replied " In that case I will quit IBM and look for somewhere else sir". His reaction did not tell me anything. He was a thorough professional. On that note my HR interview was also over after 20-25 minutes of what I will say grilling.

Then it was a wait forever, for the results to come. After interviewing full 47 short listed candidates which went on till about 12 midnight, results were finally announced t 1.40 am. All of us, including friends of those who attended waited with out heart in our mouth. Finally , the HR came out with a list. He announced that they had selected 19 of us. Good news! I thought. Then he began announcing the names. And my classmate's name came . I thought I had screwed it up again based on our logic of only one production guy being selected among every two. But still I was praying and waiting. 16th name was announced " Natraj M" and here I was.... Didn't know how to celebrate I just did a punch in air and then ran out. Followed by our class PRs and other friends who were all happy as we had 2 on 2 in IBM. The late night call to my parents by my friend will not be forgotten by them for the lifetime , I am sure. Rest of the night was spent talking and trying to digest the truth. The truth that I had got placed in IBM. And I spent another sleepless night.

Bangalore : Rediscovered!

On Rajyotsava day, I was served with true delicacy of the real Bangalore and its life. I went for a quiz to Malleswaram, the area which supposed to be the older Bangalore (I would say the truer one ). It had a typical small city feeling about it. No big flats, No big malls, not every third restaurant was a place where you burn half of your day's pay for a meal,(there were not much of hotels also), not a place where every guy and girl dress as if they are going to de-throne Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai respectively, not every 9 in 10 people on streets where 20 something's and the best of it a smoother and better traffic . It was the older and the traditional Bangalore at display. A nice place for dinner, New Krishna Bhawan , a place established since 1954 , where you can find all Mangalore style dosas and stuff, which you won't find in any other part of Bangalore. But as soon as I finished my dinner and went on to catch an auto, I was brought to the reality that I am still in Bangalore when more than half a dozen autowallas refused to come to Majestic. Once I reached Majestic, I was completely brought back to reality , mad rush, mad traffic blah blah blah... all which have now become a part and parcel of Bangalore life.

Dravid's omission: Pains me

Way back in my TCS placement interview to the question of who is my favorite cricketer I had answered Rahul Dravid and it is shocking to see him out of the Indian team now. Though my answer in the TCS interview was just to sound different than the usual Sachin Tendulkar, I have to confess that Dravid has been one of the pillars of Indian cricket in recent times. How can we forget the contributions he has made to the famous Australian tour when we managed to salvage some pride or the Calcutta test against Australia where India won the game after being made to follow on, which changed the approach of follow on forever(Now teams don't ask teams to follow on ). How can we forget the role he played in 2003 world cup directly with the runs he scored and indirectly with him donning the double role of wicket keeper batsman so that India could play the extra batsman. I am not a vivid supporter of historical statistics and I don't argue that he should be kept in the team based on his previous performances. But replacing him for someone like Sehwag is what pains me. Sehwag's form is known to all. Dravid has an impressive record against Pakistan. Can Indian selectors be brave enough to leave him out of the Australian tour? Then why this step motherly treatment towards him ?

Google: The BEST!

Working at Google.. Have a look..No doubt people dream of working in Google.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZhbOhEunY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd6BPhJjYL4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YA9QWceEfE

Democracy: Facts

Be it the reservation row or the Ram sethu row or the nuclear deal row, One wonders whether the policies and actions taken by the Govt. truly represents the mood and opinion of the entire country. Being the largest democracy in the world ideally it should. Here is some mathematics to show how wrong we are if we answer in affirmation to the above question.

Elections are held in constituencies where , lets say on an average 10 contestants from various different parties contest. Lets say the winner gets 30 % of the votes and is elected as a MP/MLA. Now just extrapolating this situation to all the constituencies we get a house of say 500 members each member with 30 % votes from his/her constituency. Now to form a Govt. a party needs majority that is more than 50 % members in the house which is 251 in our case. So the % fo votes for this so called majority is 251/500 X 30/100=15.06%.

Hence, the party having "majority" in a house has typically the support of only 15% of the people who have cast their votes and they in turn choose a leader of their own to run the country/state.


So what's the point? How do we solve this? I am of the belief that the leader of the Govt. say PM/CM must be chosen directly by the people and not by other members who were chosen by people. Along with the ballot box/EVM for chosing the local constituency member there should be anothet box/EVM to choose the PM/CM of their choice and this should be taken into account for choosing the PM/CM. Also, the total % of votes for a particular political party should be taken into consideration for choosing the ruling party.

Banks or Us? Who is to be blamed?

Recent incidents of banks harassing people who are unable to repay loans are making headlines. Who is to be blamed? The banks or the people who fall "prey" to such offers? Here is my analysis to the story.
Banks are doing nothing but selling themselves when they offer loans,credit cards etc etc with lesser interest rates and other lucrative offers. You really can't blame them. Don't all of us do that at some point of time? I personally feel we should be careful about such "lucrative" offers.
Some personal tips and advices.

We should go through all documents religiously before taking a loan/credit card or any such thing. Any * marks should be clarified first shot and all promises made by the agent should be read and verified in the documents.

Do not go for more than one credit card. All the plans of transferring balance from one card to other will surely land you up in trouble one day. As you never know how much you are spending as it becomes difficult to track all the credit cards up to date.

Do not pester bank for more loan or to increase your credit limit on your credit card. Banks have their own mathematics which they use to calculate how much you will be able to repay and most probably that will be the maximum you can do.

Last but most importantly, do not go for anything if not necessary. This is applicable for loans,credit cards or any shoppings you do using your credit cards.

I am not giving a clean chit to banks here. But all I am saying is that , it is our responsibility to make sure we can make ends meet before jumping into something and then repenting for it.

P.S: I know I might be in a minority here supporting banks. I am open to comments. Pls keep them coming.

Chickmagalur trip

There are places which are truly in the lap of nature, It is only nature and nature wherever you see around. I had been lucky the last weekend when I got to see one of such places. I am talking about Chickmagalur, Eagle Eye resort. Chickmagalur, a district in Northern Karnataka is indeed a beautiful place. Our resort was around 50 kms from Chickmagalur town in a ghat situated in deep forest. It was truly a wonderful experience. For the first time in my life I saw real life bugs(not the software ones) and photographed them also. The journey which began with a wrong note ( buses getting delayed by 1.5 hours and journey taking more time than expected), it was sheer thrill once we were on ghat road and we truly didn't mind the length of the ghat journey unless our way was blocked by live electric wire. The hardcore optimist I am, I found this opportunity to photograph some of the best shots I have ever taken and of the live wire which threated us. The moment we reached the resort, the first feeling which came across was that all the sufferings of the 8 hour long journey vanishing in the serene locales which surrounded our resort. As evening set in, we had bon fire and loads of fun before finally calling it a day. Experience of the tree house and the view from there was once in a life time opportunity for me. Next day was full adventure lined up, trekking(with live leeches), boating with self rowing , fishing and swimming ( for those who knew swimming) . Like all good things, this one also had to come to an end. So, post lunch we left for Bangalore with our hearts full of wonderful moments but still yearning for many more.

Australia Vs India : In words

Recently the relations between the Indian and Australian cricket team have gone from worse to worst. From the time India has beaten Aussies in the T20 world cup, there has been a downward slide in the relations between the two teams. But this is nothing new. Since a long time, the arch rivals of India have been Australia and not Pakistan according to me , because the matches played against the formers have been more thrilling than the later. But why this hue and cry now? Relations have touched an all time low now. With Symonds accusing of racist comments from a section of crowd and BCCI playing a deaf ear to the whole episode involving Sreesanth also. As you can't clap with one hand, I feel both the teams are to be blamed here. Sreeshant is to be blamed for staring at the batsman evey ball he bowls. Come on, not even a bowler of Wasim Akram's caliber can manage to dominate the batsman in every ball he bowls. Symonds giving out statements like Indians will have to pay back in Australia , clearly shows the kind of mentality they have. What does he mean, T20 champions have a lot to learn? Agreed he is a part of a champion side, but that doesn't give him rights to make such comments on other sides. With both sides captains and board giving a deaf ear to this whole episode, matters have turn worst. Australia may have won the series , but it is cricket as a whole which has been defeated in this whole series. It is more of a verbal battle than a battle with Ball and bat and the loser is of course cricket.

Chickmagalur : A fun trip

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. So here comes 1000 x 400 odd words on Chickmagalur trip.

Photos link

Chennai going the Bangalore way!!

Disclaimer: People not very well aware of Chennai will not be able to relate to this post.

With IT growth affecting all quarters and all places , how can Chennai be left behind. But what scares me is the area where the growth is happening. The so called urbanization is happening in Arcot Road, which is barely 30 ft road on each side of the road divider and is open for two way traffic. I already see the construction of a multiplex theatre , a purvankara project a prestige group project going on , on this road. Traffic is already at its peak in this road, one wonders how will this road be able to manage the heavy traffic which these structures will generate.

Is Chennai growing the wrong way? Is Chennai not learning from the mistakes of Bangalore? Only time will tell.

Have a look at the map of Arcot Road.

Technology at its best!!

Awesome stuff...

Microsoft Surface

The fever is on!!

Many were skeptical about the new version of cricket , the 20-20 version. With the first world cup coming to an end , I want to put my points in favor of the newer version of the game. So here I go, why 20-20 looks better to me.

1) 20-20 means less time and the match would end soon. Hence you won't have to sit through 7 long hours to finish the match. And which would in turn mean you can do your normal chores on a match day . Which also means fewer advertisements.

2) 20-20 means full entertainment. Not a single over can be take for granted saying nothing important will happen. Just imagine what would have happened if you would have missed the over in which Pathan got Afridi out , it was in the middle of the innings.

3) 20-20 means more focus on youngsters who are physically fit and mentally tough. Yes , this is not a game for chokers. You have to hold your nerves throughout the 40 overs of the game.

4) The onus being on the team effort , individual milestones are of lesser importance. The importance of centuries and individual contribution takes a back seat. For instance, west indies lost the match inspite of a century ( the only century in this world cup ) from Chris Gayle.

5) There is no place for complacency. You just simply can't take things for granted. Every single run counts, every single dot ball counts. Take this for instance, there were matches were 13 runs were scored of the last 4 overs by Australia and matches were 36 runs were scored over a single over.

6)Dynamism is the need of the hour. You just can't simply pre-plan things. The decisions on the bowling, batting line up, fielding etc have to be taken dynamically. Harbhajan Singh was kept shielded for Shahid Afridi to come on is the best example of this.

7) 20-20 cricket is set to make its impact on the bigger version of the game as well. The way one day cricket changed the test cricket , esp. the way Australians play a test match.

8) "20-20 is a batsman's game". I would counter this argument with the logic that bowlers won all the crucial matches for India. Just that the desired level of performance from the bowlers is different now. If he bowls a 6 run over , among the last 3 he can well be the reason for the team's victory.

9) All rounders have come to spotlight. We no longer need specialist batsman or bowlers who can't even manage to do the other thing reasonably well. We need batsman who can chip in with an over or two and bowlers who can bat reasonably well .

10) And the biggest reason why 20-20 will be in spotlight , India are damn good at it. We are the champions.

Lets hope 20-20 fever catches on everyone.

Me:A part of History

There are times when you are short of words but you have the strong urge within you to express. I did not know how to start this blog but then Shahrukh Khan came to my rescue with a statement of his. " I am a part of history". True indeed. Yesterday all those present in the Wanderers and all those who witnessed the breathtaking T20 finals sitting in their house or at office or wherever through whatever means are a part of history. India had surpassed arch rivals Pakistan in a humdinger by 5 runs , a match which went on till the last over and which was equally poised throughout the match. I bet there can't be any one who did not feel the pressure. Two teams knocked out at the first stage in the world cup held in West Indies, what would have one expected out of them. But destiny had different plans. A team going through crisis had in its fate the most coveted trophy of all. And what a way it was achieved. With 13 runs required of the last over and a very tense but firm Joginder Sharma began with a wide delivery all of us had our heart in our mouth. A dot ball followed and then a six on a full toss. Indians held their nerve and Joginder Sharma bowled the decisive ball which was a slower one and Misbah-Ul-Haq , the Pakistani Star of the day tried a backward scoop, one of the recently invented shots in one day cricket only to find Sreeshant who held on to the heaviest ball he had ever held in his life. He had weight of crores of Indian fans on his shoulders and his able shoulders did not fail India. As Misbah knelt on the ground out of disappointment the Indian celebrations began not only at the Wanderes but throughout the world. One of the sample of the celebration in Bangalore. A mob stopped a moving car in the middle of the night and asked everyone to shout "Hindustan zindabad" before letting them go.
The youth and freshness of the Indian team did the trick for me. The way each player backed each other and Dhoni held his nerves at all crucial junctures made us all witness history.
Jai Hind!!

Movie review of Manorama Six feet under

The trailers itself was enough for me to watch the movie. Very simple and next door characters and a weird but interesting title. So here I was in innovative multiplex watching this taut thriller with my friends. We were six of us and including us there were only 25 of us in the gold class :( .

Abhay Deal as Satyaveer Singh , a small town PWD officer and a flop novelist ( how many heroes would have accepted to play this character is another question which lingers in my mind) suspended for taking bribe for the first time. His wife played by Gul Panag is a typical middle class woman constantly bragging over her husband's joblessness and stuff. And their kid.
Enters Sarika , wife of the irrigation minister of the state asking Satyaveer to spy on her cheating husband and hence begins a treasure hunt for Satyaveer. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep the viewer at the edge of the seat. It has the intelligence to make the viewer think at the same time it is not a very complicated stuff. It was very difficult to find any logical flaws in the movie.

As far as the performance goes, Abhay comes around with non-designer clothes throughout the movie and pulls off a stellar of a performance. He plays the man next door with complete ease. Other actors all play their part brilliantly. Special mention must be made of Raima Sen. Music front, only a couple of songs which run in background in the movie which are hummable.

The only thing I found lacking in the movie was pace. I savor movies with this pace but not many ( which was evident from the fact that only 25 people were there on the 3rd day of the movie release). If only the screenplay had been more taut along with being flawless it would have been a better bet for the producers of the movie.

People who savor sensible and realistic movies.. Do not give this a miss.

A Wonderful Weekend

After nearly a month I am spending a full weekend in Bangalore and it proved out to be an excellent weekend. Great entertainment from all quarters. First and foremost , the best moment in Indian cricket as far as I have seen, India entering into the finals of the first T20 world cup beating none other than the world champions Australia. It was a breathtaking match and we were having so much fun late into the nights. Indians all over India celebrated it with equal fervour as I could hear the sound of crackers bursting.

Next to this comes a movie which I saw over the weekend. "Manorama Six feet under" a rather strange title for a bollywood movie, but it is indeed a movie to show that bollywood is going in the right direction. A top notch movie with a flawless screenplay coupled with excellent performances , it had all to woo the hearts of movie goers. But it was sad to see only 20 people in the multiplex i saw it on this Sunday just after 2 days of its release. Of late I am very impressed with this guy Abhay Deol. He stands true to his name "Abhay" as far as his choices of movies are considered. Take this for example, which hero do u remember wearing checked shirts throughout the movie with a simple trouser (no jeans nothing). Twists and turns in the plot catch u unaware as u sit at the edge of the seat. I only hope such movies make some money so that people become "abhay" to make such movies in future.

The joy continues!!

Back to back..this is my second post on cricket which shows I am excited. Yes I am indeed. T20 cricket fever is catching. The new format of the game the twenty twenty cricket or T20 cricket is a fun to watch . With matches ending in about 3 hours we are guaranteed full entertainment. For the first time cricket appears more to be a team game than individual game. Players no longer bother about their personal milestones of 50s and 100s. With more importance to all rounders and team effort this appears like a corporate culture using the scrum model. After a lackluster world cup of 2007 ( not only because of India's early exit but because no team dared to challenge aussies) we have this T20 world cup is a good break. Just when we thought aussies supremacy is over after their humiliating loss to Zimbabwe , we saw them bouncing back with victories. When we thought they had found their way back they suffered a surprise loss to a determined Pakistan yesterday. With "minnows" like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe putting up a good show, one thing is guaranteed, T20 world cup will be entertainment and pure entertainment.

Joys of Watching Cricket..Rediscovered!!

I must confess... After a really long long time I was tense during the last few overs of a cricket match and all that paid off. India pulled off a spectacular win to bounce back in the series and to enter the Mecca of Cricket with a confident frame of mind. We shouted and celebrated like kids after the match was over. Indians showed professional ruthless approach throughout their batting . Sachin and Saurav threw open the gates of heaven for India followed by sensible knocks from Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni. But the man who stole the show had to be Bangalore based Uthappa. (Bangalore is not famous for Uttappam but bisi belle bhath.) He played the gem of an innings under very tense circumstances maintaining his cool and ensuring India were home with just 2 balls to spare.
Hope India performs in the same spirit at the Lords and pulls of a win very similar to the one in Natwest trophy finals which we cannot still erase from out minds and heats.

Learn from mistakes!

How often we hear this phrase " Learn from your mistakes". But no one tells us what to learn from these mistakes. Thats why we learn to do the same mistake all over again. I am referring to the incident of tying a 10 year old to the horse he shooed away as a part of his daily chore. This incident happens within a week of another such incident where a petty thief was beaten mercilessly for over three hours by a mob which included a policeman.

Hence, we should go back and revamp out moral lessons and change the phrase from "Learn from mistakes " to " Learn from mistakes not to do them" for more clarity.

And I thought Indians were one of the sharpest brains around!!!

Bar Camp 4

As promised in one of my previous blogs, I am back with a blog about BCB 4, though late.
This happened to be my first BCB. I had some pre-conceived notions about BCB thinking it might be a place where we are enlightened in a very formal and organized way. Also, I had not registered till the previous night. So this was how I ended up reaching IIM-B at around 9 AM on both days. Climate on both of these days turned out to be at its best. Frankly and honestly I did not expect to see what I saw there. A record crowd of close to 500 people and a total informal environment. I mainly attended blogging collective talks . Apart from some sessions in start up,start up,photography and biking (cycling) collective.

Overall it was a en lighting experience and on thing is sure, I won't need anyone to call me for Bar Camp 5.

Lesser the words , the better it is.

Go thru the album.

Google Desktop...Simply Rocks!!

It's been quite a while I wrote. The reason for that primarily is that I did not find
a topic worth sharing all these days. Last Friday I came across a very good utility
Google Desktop.

For beginners , here is the link for Windows
and for linux

Any words I give would be not much of use. "Try it yourself"
is 3 golden words for the day.

Sub: Mercy petition for our Munnabhai Sanjay Dutt

Respected Madam President,

This is a humble request on the behalf of all the bollywood fans to grant presidential pardon to our own munnabhai. After all what crime has he done? Just had an AK56 for "self protection". So what if people in Iraq and Afganisthan also don't carry AK56 for self protection , our own Bombay is more dangerous than war torn Afganisthan and Iraq and any other such place. So what if he got those ammunitions from his underworld links, he is our own munnabhai preaching gandhigiri. So what if he used all his influence and destroyed the evidence of the guns he had. He still is our own lovable goon, who was the son of a MP and a minister and now is the brother of another.
Entire film industry is right in saying that the judgment is harsh on him because they might not have lost any lives during the riots or the Bombay blasts. And because many of them like Salman Khan might be having loads of such cases pitted against them.

So, hereby I request you pls consider our humble request and grant pardon to Sanjay Dutt so that this comes out as a lesson to others like Afzal who can do whatever they want and then shed some tears and ask for presidential pardon.

Thanking you,
Munna"bhai" fans

India the SUPERPOWER

We hear this so often. India has come of age. India is a globally known super power these days and no one can ignore India anymore. But have we ever wondered how true is this?

Take some recent instances which prove this to be wrong. First, the episode of Shilpa Shetty and Jade. This incident still goes to prove that Indians are still facing racist remarks all around the world. This piece of news got all the attention as it was involving a big bollywood star like shilpa shetty. What if it was you or me?

Next, we can take the episode of Mohd. Haneef, who was framed by the australian authorities and when they released him due to mounting international pressure , we see an arrogant Australian Govt. who is refusing to apologise. They fail to recognize this as an insult to to a country and a community rather than an individual. At least, their co-citizen Ponting was reasonable enough to aplogize to Sharad Pawar after the incident during the finals of champions trophy.

And last, the present England-India cricket match, where England are unable to register the fact that they have both the luck and weather Gods pitted against them in the favor of India and are involving in sledging and all other unparliamentary behavior on the field. And to add to this the umpires don't seem to take notice of that at all.

All this makes me beleive that India still has a long way to go. For me, we have not gone much ahead of the station where Gandhi was thrown out of the first class compartment in South Africa more than a hundread years ago.

If .. only if..

There are moments when you feel overwhelmed and lamented at the same time. You feel you could rewind your life to re-live(read re-plan) some parts of your life again. I had these kind of mixed feelings when I attended the BarCamp Bangalore 4 today.

Overwhelmed because the aroma of intelligence in the air was filling my heart with happiness, sad because I was a guest in a place where I dream to be a part of. It was a dream for me once to be a part of IIM-B. But this happened to be my first visit there.

Lets take the architecture first. (P.S :I am not a hardcore architecture analyst to give this review but just trying to put up some feelings. ) Awesome piece.. The half finished look makes one wonder if some construction is still going on or what. The big blocks used gives the building a royal look. The unpainted look gives the building a feel which cannot be matched by any ( or may be all paint was used by likes of Shankar for painting roads and mountains). The lush green campus, creepers on the walls, the rainy cold weather of the day all added to the magic. The hostel blocks are also made of the same blocks and are equally aesthetic in look. Not to mention of the infrastructure available, most of the campus is Wi-Fi enabled and each hostel room contains a wired network in addition to that.

After relishing all this for a full day, I wish life had a rewind or re-boot switch with which I can go back to the past and plan and prepare to join IIM-B again. But then, the bird in bush may be more tempting but not always better than the one in hand. And when I think which feeling is more dominant in me about the day, I would definitely say it has to be the feeling of an accomplishment of participating in such an event . How wonderful it would have been if... only if......

Details of the events and experiences will follow soon. Keep watching this space.

Cheers. :)

Click here for the album link.

Future of Indian cricket

Headlines read " India NOT in world cup 2015". The story starts this way... India is out of the contention for playing in world cup 2015 after losing its final qualifying match with Canada in the ICC qualifying tournament held here in Sharjah. .......

And it continues with intricate details of the match played which are not of concern to us for this blog. Believe it or not I dream of reading this headline. I mean I yearn to have this piece of newspaper in my hand soon. Before you jump into conclusions of calling me a traitor or some one who hates cricket or some one who is pessimistic, I would like to explain my point.

I feel this should happen because the current Indian team, its management, coach (or no coach) and the selection process are all hopeless ( to put it very mildly). Ever wondered how many selection flaws keep happening and how poorly the richest cricket board in the world is managed. After 2007 world cup debacle we had the board taking some stern steps like linking performance with pay but for how long... Even before India played a single series they reverted back to their old ways of grading players into A,B and C grade and paying them according to their grade which God only knows was decided on which ancient match. Regarding the selection process, we know players are selected into the national team from the ranji and other domestic cricket matches.(* Conditions Apply) But how are players selected for ranji. To be a part of a prestigious cricket club in India you need to be at least from an upper middle class family. How many from the lower and lower middle class really get a fair chance to play and try for the ranji teams? And as soon as someone gets selected for ranji next target for him is to appear in the national team. And they make their debut at the age of around 20. So where is the bench strength of India team. Just to give an example how things should be , a player of Mike Hussey's caliber made his debut into international arena at the age of 30 + .

Coming back to my dream, the next day, BCCI is dissolved and all the money in it is used for conducting a national level talent competition for cricketers where anyone can participate and then a team is constituted for each ranji team from where the national team is picked up.(*Conditions Apply)

And then...........well lets not dream too much.:)


*: I am taking an ideal corruption free selection process into account for this.

Saluting the true Indian Spirit

To the question of which is the most memorable event of your life , he answers ( not in his exact words) " Removal of pain of a young girl affected by the polio and her ability to ride a bicycle after using the light weight Floor Reaction Orthosis made by using carbon-carbon material was the most memorable event in my life."

I am not talking about any hi-tech doctor , I am talking about our honorable President Dr. Abdul Kalam. ( Read: former President if you read it after July 25). This was spoken to a gathering of IBM employees as a part of their annual gathering called the INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP FORUM held at Bangalore on the magical date of 6/6/06. Many believed it to be the date of Satan, but for me it was one of the happiest moments of my life. A day when I was really proud of my country.

Mr. Kalam spoke about IBM, its history,its founder, its path towards innovation for more than 45 minutes which concluded with a standing ovation from the more than 30000 people gathered there. Such was the power of his speech. He had gathered more information about IBM , than may be any of the IBMers gathered there.

Coming back to his favorite moment, he came about discovering this light weight material while doing some research for rocket launching while he was with ISRO. But he found true happiness when it came of use to a young girl who used artificial limb made of that material was able to ride by bicycle in front of him. Thats compassion according to me and thats what India has been showing to the outside world. His life can be an ideal example not only for Indians but for the whole world as to the fact that our origins have no relation with the heights we can reach in our life. And that the higher you reach the more compassionate,humble and gentle you become.

P.S: This is not one of the numerous mails getting circulated canvassing for a second term for Kalam as the President.

tring! tring!... The bugger!

Imagine... Monday morning 9.30 AM ..you set off late from your house for office due to whatever reasons and you are stuck in a very bad traffic in the Hosur Road.. You still happen to maintain your cool and wait patiently wait for the traffic to clear so that you stand some chance of reaching office in time.. Suddenly your mobile rings.... Thinking it is a call from office as you are late for the meeting scheduled.. you sideline your bike (which means you allow another 5 to 10 vehicles to pass you in a minute's time).. pick up the phone seeing a new number which you cannot identify.. you remove your helmet and then put the phone on to your ears.. and then you hear a recorded message from hutch or airtel( P.S. : Such calls are more frequent from the former than the later)... you feel like scolding the person on the other side of the line in all goddamn languages you learnt all through your college life.. but there is no one to listen to you.. angrily you disconnect the phone and start back on the road but by the time you do this you have lost at least 15 mins of your time as the traffic is growing now.. and you are stuck again..

This is the height of consumerism... a mobile subscriber already subscribed to a particular service gets a tele-marketing call....And worse so... the call is immediately followed with an sms informing you of the same scheme... These are not the only useless calls which we get...There hardly goes a day when we do not get a call selling credit cards.. or personal loans or some health insurance or some country club membership... It is really pathetic.. We cannot (read should not) show the anger on the person making the call b'cos this happens to be his/her profession.. But what we need to think is .. is this the correct way to sell a product...

I am thinking now how to end this blog... I mean, what solution can one give.. may be chuck the mobile phone altogether... Oh! I am getting a call on my mobile... Need to attend it and find out if it is a useful call...

A peep into the future!

It is Dec 31 ,2022. Some amusing news about the year that went by.

Indian cricket team still on the look out for the correct "winning" combination for the next world cup in 2023.

Microsoft still holds 90 % of the desktop market with the latest version of windows. It has announced that it will not support Vista any more , however, migrating from vista to the new OS is not recommended. New OS needs to be installed from fresh.

US is still on the lookout for Osama Bin Laden who released 14 videos this year as compared to 13 last year warning the western countries of the growing power of Islam and Al Qaeeda.

US has set 2025 as the deadline for complete removal of troops from Iraq as there is still some political "imbalance" there.

After razing Pakistan, US has North Korea on its target list. Sources say.

Rajnikanth still is the biggest super star of the country at the age of 73. He still happens to be the biggest money spinner in the country.

Kamalhaasan still waiting for the right time to start his mega venture marudanayagam.

Vijay has remade the latest Burmese movie into Tamil which ran to full houses all across the state. In this film he plays a policeman disguised in the form of a milkman.

Amitabh Bachan still features in every third movie that comes out of Bollywood making him the busiest star in Bollywood.

The only post office in the state of Karnataka ( GPO Bangalore) vacated its main building and moved to a single room. This still is the largest post office among 14 post offices spread across the country employing more than 300 people throughout the country making it one of the largest PSU in the country after railways.

TCS declares that it will recruit close to 1,00,000 people this year for its new operational facility in Rajapallayam.

Land prices are set to fall next year. Claim experts. Land prices touched an all time high last year in Chennai and its suburbs with a ground costing more than 15 crores .

India continues its growth as the biggest outsourcing unit for US. India is now the 3rd biggest super power in the world after US and China.

Rahul Gandhi manages to draw crowds yet again in the UP election campaign but failed to woo voters to vote for him as he lost his election to the lok sabha from Rae bareilly.

BJP planning to conduct a Rath yatra from Delhi to Ayodhya to start the construction of Ram mandir in the disputed Ram janmabhoomi.

Google became the biggest company among all this year . it is a Fortune ONE company now.

Bangalore's traffic woes continues inspite of the successful completion of the metro train linking the entire city last year.


And as for me, I am still trying in vain to put on weight.

Happy "Anniversary"!!

We love to remember the past. So much so that we end up remembering all the bad /good things which happened to us that day. But seldom do we realize that what we are doing is not just remembering the event but also creating some unwanted disturbances(in and outside the mind).

For example, every year we all are aware of the tension that grips the country on 6th December, the day Babri Masjid was demolished. We even went out of our ways to "celebrate" 10th anniversary of the fateful day as if it was some marriage or birthday to be happy about. Same is the case with the anxiety we are now generating about 7/11, the date which Bombay suburban trains saw a blast. We have special features and programs across all news channel covering it in full detail.

Are we doing the right thing here? I am of the opinion that instead of concentrating on genuine issues and events we still want to cling to the past and re-live its mourning. By doing so we are giving anti social elements who were the reason for these fateful events a chance to pride upon themselves. I am not of the opinion that such days should not be remembered at all. It should be. But as a day when human spirit truimphed over evil . As a day when people irrespective of their social and economic backgrounds helped each other come out of the agony. Why not celebrate the day when India truimphed in the India-Pakistan 1971 war for instance? I don't know how many of us even remember that date(It is december 16 1971, courtesy Google). Why not celebrate the day when the first Indian super computer was manufactured? Why not celebrate the day when India won its firts olympic gold or the world cup?or any such wonderful moment.

It is absolutely essential to learn from the mistakes but to achieve this the "anniversary" celebrations should concentrate on what loopholes lead to so and so disaster rather than concentrating on the goriness of the event. Lets try to rediscover the optimisim in ourselves and that would add much more colors to our life other than RED.

CNN-IBN Blog: down down2

This is in reply to the below blog in CNN-IBN.

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/anuradhasengupta/164/2079/thank-you-sivaji.html

To answer your questions one by one:

1)We agree that you did not review the film. may be you are not supposed to do also. but you have no rights to call all those who waych sivaji pigs. including yourself into that category doesn’t make it any less offensive.

2)It is not about the regional films thing. just one question on this. which is the film in any god forsaken language which generated this much hype.which was multiplied by all the news channel including CNN-IBN.

3)We are not only protecting Rajnikanth the person. We are out there to protect Rajnikanth the actor as well. For your kind information Rajnikant is a very good actor. If you want proofs for this I would suggest you watch some of the old movies by Rajnikant (for your kind information Rajnikant has also won national awars) and in Sivaji also he has done enough hard work at the age of 58 and the mere fact that the entire movie stands on his able shoulders shows his status.

4)If you can call all who watched Sivaji as pigs then you better watch out and protect yourself from these pigs.

5)Making money is not a bad thing for films and if you are of the belief that whichever movie is not making money is good then i am sorry you are in an absolute minority. The very logic behind pointing out that Sivaji made money was that it has reached so many people and so many people have liked it to watch it shelling out so much money from their pockets.

6)You can understand the story of the movie without knowing Tamil, agreed. But what about the dialoghes of the movie and the healthy comedy track of the movie. If you don’t know that dialoghes are the highlight of a Rajnikanth movie then I am sorry.you need to do some more homework before you see a next Rajnikant film.

7)Well at least now you appreciate things. Thanks. The same energy is being shown by Rajni and all those who were a part of Sivaji. Pls try to appreciate them as well.

8)Well we agree and sincerely hope this is true.

Pls try not to hurt in future.

CNN-IBN Blog: down down

This post is in reply to the below post from CNN-IBN.

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/author/164/2061/anuradhasengupta.html

Once upon a time there was an excellent news reporter named Rajdeep Sardesai. He split ways with NDTV to start a new news channel amidst huge expectations. After seeing him in NDTV people hoped here was a TV channel which they could relate to and which will speak the truth.

But alas, how wrong were they….. After their site ratings fell after the abhi-ash wedding news died off. They chose a rather cheap gimmick to gain back their popularity. This event happened on July 02 2007 when a blog writer from ibnlive.com, Anuradha Sengupta(now fondly called as pig in the replies to her blog) was chosen to be the scapegoat for this cheap gimmick.

They put up a review of tamil movie Sivaji. There is nothing wrong in reviewing a movie and putting a bad review to it but what was disheartening is that the esteemed lady does not understand Tamil and she chose to see the movie in a theatre with no subtitles. Which means she could not understand the head and tail of the movie. Moreover, the language she used and the way she has brought out her so called “frustration” is really disgusting and is not expected out of a respectable news channel ibnlive.com.

But then, after giving it a thought and after waiting for a day, we got to understand the real purpose of the blog. By wednesday July 03,2007 the number of replies to the blog stand at 965 . Now a computer prodigy can tell as to how much traffic this could have created in the site. Hence, in a day due to Sivaji the popularity of the site ibnlive.com grew . So apart from the 150 crores sivaji is supposed to make, this goes as an additional credit to the movie.

A small request to ibnlive.com. In future if you want to increase the traffic , we have some other wonderful suggestions which cannot be disclosed in public. There are lot of sites which generate more traffic .( Hope you got which sites we mean here).

A rotten apple spoils the entire basket. Hope, ibnlive.com continues to remain what it was a couple of days back.

Sincerely hope none of the other news channel follow suit.

Kanaa Kaanum kalangal: Lets dream

For all of us school life happens to be a very cherished part of life. For some like me that happens to be the best part of life. How we wonder we could re-live those moments now almost 7 years after it was over. Well.. for those of who , who feel this way and those who understand tamil to relive those wonderful moments though with new set of characters whom you can identify with.

For those who do not know what I am talking about here.. I am referring to a tele-serial being telecast in vijay TV mondays to thurshdays 8 PM , very promptly named " Kana Kanum kalangal" which roughly translates to "Period when we dream". Well its really strange for me to run to house from work early just to watch this program but here I am doing it. The serial has characters everyone will identify with during their school days. It has situations which all of us must have undergone some moment in our schooldays. It has gangisms,competition,jealousy,love,hatred,friendship etc. etc. and each of these you can associate definitely with. Apart from the main characters of the serial who are split into two self-formed groups always competing against each others and pulling each others legs, we have an entire set of supporting cast who play the roles of teachers,parents and some other small roles like the policeman etc. And everyone excels in their performance. My personal favourite being Pandi(black pandi as he calls himself), with him on the screen it is a laugh riot all over and you forget all the tensions which you carry home from work. The dialogues are well written keeping and observing the present student community in mind. The characters have become so famous that they have started getting chances in movies. We have characters from affluent families and we have characters from families of very modest means to put it mildly . We have characters from a highly intellectual family to a family of grocery shop owner. We have divorced parents to a orphaned girl being adopted by adorable parents. Hence, with limited characters ( in comparision with other mega serials where there is a new character every week to keep the show running) this show strikes the correct chord with all.
The best part of the serial is the delicate balance which it strikes. There has to be someone bad to showcase someone as being good. But showing school children in bad light can have adverse effect on the children.This is handled very nicely by just giving grey shades to characters and that too with some sort of ( though not completely convincing) justifications, which tells us a major lesson of life that none of us is perfect. It is the situations which bring out the real character in us.
To give further details will be like giving away too much. I would recommend this to all who want to re-live their school life once again through these characters. But please don't watch it without knowing Tamil as you will not be able to appreciate the dialoghes and its beauty.Lets get into dreams... and dream about the most wonderful part of our life..with open eyes though.