A Tale of Two Friends - New Year Gift! (or curse?)

After much contemplation, I have at last decided to write a story in my blog. This story will be continued for a lot of episodes, I am thinking now. It is my long time dream to do so. I was contemplating about the fact that, I do not want to make the very few people reading my blog to run off from my blog forever. But I do not want to follow the policy *Never try... never fail...*

[Disclaimer: Weak hearted, pregnant ladies, Old people please do not read this series as it will be so boring and torture that you may not survive after reading this :D]

I do not want to start the story in this blog itself. Let this only be a build up and a start for the story. What should I name the characters? How many episodes should this come? How long can I write this? I have no idea! Do I know the storyline which I have to write? No!. Do I have a better and a clear script? No!

Then how dare am I going to write such a story? could be your question. Have not you heard about mega-serials? They are my motivation. They prolong the serial for years and years with no story or a nastier-than-a-cow-dung-story. But I promise, my story will not be as bad a bull shit as them. Even if they may be very bad, they wont be pointless, I presume.

Okay, see you all in my A-Tale-Of-Two-Friends blogs. I will post other blogs also in the middle. See you soon!

[P.S.: First I had an idea of asking the reader to tell their comments and start such story only if at least one has interest in and has commented. But I abandoned the idea, as I am quite sure, none will actually post any comments and I do not want to promise-and-withdraw. So, I silently started this!]

பொன்னியின் செல்வன்

மதி மயக்கம் கொள்ள செய்யும் ஒரு அருமையான காவியத்தை, நான் சில நாட்களுக்கு முன்பு படித்தேன். பொன்னியின் செல்வன். தமிழ் மீது காதல் கொள்ள செய்துவிடும் அந்த காவியம். கவிதை மீது காதல் கொள்ள செய்துவிடும் அந்தக் கதை. மற்ற சாதரண கதைகளை காட்டிலும் இக்கதையின் சிறப்பு என்ன? இது நாம் தமிழ்நாட்டின் வரலாறு. ஒவ் ஒரு சம்பவங்களும் நம் தமிழ்நாட்டில் நடந்தவை. தஞ்சை பெரிய கோவில் கட்டிய ராஜ ராஜ சோழனை (அருள் மொழி வர்மன்) பற்றிய கதை. உலக அளவில் அதிசயமாக கருதப்பட்ட பெரிய கோவில் கட்டிய மன்னாதி மன்னனை பற்றிய கதை. ஒவ் ஒரு தமிழனும், குறிப்பாக தஞ்சை மார்க்கத்தில் உள்ளவர்கள் படிக்க வேண்டிய கதை.[என்னடா ஓவரா பில்ட் அப் குடுக்குராநேனு நேனைகுரீங்கள? அப்படிதான் அந்த கதையும் இருக்கும்... ஏக வர்ணனைகள்.. எக்கச்சக்க பில்ட் அப்புகள் அந்த கதையில் இருக்கும் என்பதை உணர்த்தத்தான் அவ்வாறு கூறினேன் (அனால், அக்கதையில் வரும் பில்ட் அப்புகள் ரசிக்கும் படி இருக்கும், இந்த ப்லாக் மாதிரி மொக்கையாக இருக்காது)]

மன்னர்கள் எப்படி மக்களுக்காக உழைத்தார்கள்? மக்கள் எப்படி மன்னர் மீது அன்பு வைத்திருந்தார்கள்? வீரன் என்பவன் எப்படி இருக்க வேண்டும்? அரசன் என்பவன் எப்படி இருக்க வேண்டும்? நாட்டில் குழப்பம் செய்யும் சதிகாரர்கள் எப்படி இருப்பார்கள்? இது மட்டும் அல்ல... கண்டதும் காதல், கேட்டதும் காதல், பழகியதால் வரும் காதல், காதலுக்காக உயிர் விடும் காதல், என்று special attention காதலுக்கும் குடுக்க பட்டுள்ளது.

இதற்கு மேல் என்னால் continue செய்ய முடிய வில்லை. அதனால், இந்த கதையை படிக்க வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்தால் கண்டிப்பாக படித்து பார்க்கவும். இந்த ப்லோகையே இவ்வளவு தூரம் படித்தீர்களானால், கண்டிப்பாக, அந்த கதையை வுங்களால் படிக்க முடியும் என்று உறுதி கூறுகிறேன். இனிமேல் தமிழில் ப்லாக் எழுதினால் கை கால் முறிக்கப்படும் என்று வுங்களில் யாருக்காவது தோன்றினால், கண்டிப்பாக கூறிவிடவும், இல்லையேல், நான் மீண்டும் தமிழில் ட்ரை பண்ணுவேன் என்று எச்சரிக்கை செய்கிறேன்!

A Puzzle and A Joke!

Try to answer this puzzle: A man (or a woman; in this case please replace all the *he* with *she*) has to guess the number which will result by throwing 2 unbiased, perfect dices. There are 11 possible numbers (from 2 to 12) that could come by using 2 dices and he is given 11 chances. He has to guess correctly (luckily) at least once otherwise, he will be killed. In the first ten chances, he simply says 11 and in all the chances the resulted number is 10. So, he has only one chance remaining. So, what will you guess for the 11th chance if you are in his shoes? Guessing which number could save your soul?

The answer is, if you want to take some more time, you can very well think and read further. The next statement will be the answer. Okay? Ready? The answer is, whatever is the number he guesses, he has 1\11 chances of saving his soul. This is because, the result from tossing a dice is 100% random and each and every time, it is tossed, it is a separate and unique event which has no connection with the previous results.

I do not know why, but nowadays, I am little or even more interested in share market. May be it is because my time is becoming bad or because it is becoming worse. This puzzle has a 100% valid connection with share markets. If the market goes up continuously 10 days, we can not be sure that will go up on the 11th day. We can not predict how it will go even within a single day or a single hour or a single minute. For, if anyone could predict that or control that, he\she will or will soon have an own aeroplane. Share market is like a black hole which contradicts a lot of concepts. Calculation, Brilliance, Analysis, Luck, etc. concepts are devoid in share market. For me share market is like a pet lion. It could be your pet for years and years and one day it could kill and eat us.

Lets come to the joke part (it is VVPJ (very very PJ [poor joke])). I and my dad was discussing about a company's share.
My Dad: "We have 500 shares of that company but it does not seem to increase. If a share lingers in a particular price, it is an indication for a break out. Either it could go up rapidly or go down rapidly. But I guess it will go up, but could not say when"
I: "I could say easily dad. If we sell all the shares, it will go up the next minute"
That is all. The joke is over. It was to mean that, we have had a lot of bitter experience that, the moment we sell a share losing the hope, the next minute it will increase and go up rapidly.

I think I will post some more blogs about this lovely killing beast. You may click here to see my first blog about share market. Keep watching both my blog and the market.

A Truth About setAccelerator method in JMenuItem - Technical Article in Java

[Disclaimer: This is going to be my first (and may be the last) technical blog. If you do not understand the subject (especially the words JMenuItem or Java), please click here to go to my previous blog.]

There is a special method called setAccelerator() in JMenuItem which is used to invoke the action listener method of the menu item without navigating through the menus. Simply pressing the key combination would give an effect of clicking the menu item. The most famous accelerators are (ctrl + c, ctrl + v, ctrl + z, ctrl + s, ctrl + a, etc.) which will be available for almost all the applications.

Suppose, if we develop our own application which has a GUI (Graphical User Interface), we will definitely have a menu bar and various menu items placed in different hierarchy of menus. Setting mnemonics is one way to let the user access the menu items without using mouse. But using mnemonics will require the user to navigate through various menus and there could be menus inside menus inside menus, etc. So, for power users, it is best we have this accelerators set.

To do it, we have to use the method setAccelerator() for the particular JMenuItem object. This method takes a KeyStroke object as an argument. This KeyStroke object defines which key stroke combination should be used to activate the menu item. The beauty about this KeyStroke class is that it has various ways to achieve a particular key stroke combination. It has many overloaded methods named getKeyStroke which takes various combination of arguments.

Suppose, if you want to set an accelerator of ctrl+x, if we set the accelerator using menuItem.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('x', InputEvent.CTRL_MASK)); it wont work!!! The character argument is considered as an int and it wont work. So, if we use menuItem.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_X, InputEvent.CTRL_MASK), then it will work fine. But what will we have to do, if we have to set the accelerator based on some runtime input or if we really want to use a character instead of KeyEvent object.

We have one more alternative, and we will be tempted to use KeyStorke.getKeyStroke(new Character('x'), InputEvent.CTRL_MASK). If we use this, we will see that, the accelerator we set, is mentioned in the menu item. But if we use the key combination, it wont work. Because, the key stoke object thus we got is decoded in to "ctrl typed x" but for accelerator it should be "ctrl pressed x". Fortunately, the KeyStroke class one more method which takes a String as an argument. So we will be tempted to use KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ctrl pressed x"). And the truth is that, even this wont work!!!

The reason is that, we have to give a capital letter for the character and not small letter. So, if you give KeyStroke.getKeyStroke ("ctrl pressed X") will only the accelerator work and there is no documentation which says this, that we have to use capital letter in the key stroke object if we wish to set it as accelerator for a menu item.

So, if you wish to develop an application and then set the accelerator for menu items, and if that does not work, make sure the KeyStroke object that is set has the character "upper cased" and it has "pressed" instead of "typed". If you have had similar kind of technical difficulties and found a way to solve it, you can very well share it here.

P.S.: I am really sorry if this blog has been very confusing and not understandable. [I am editing this blog after some months because, I find that this is the blog which is most viewed, most of the viewers from Google searching about this method. If you find this blog is useful (or useless), please comment about it and let me know how can I improve this or my future blogs]

Stock Market!

[Disclaimer - I am not even close to novice regarding stock markets and I do not even have a Demat account yet. Yet, I want to talk about market as much as I know of.]

Stock Market seems to be the future for everyone. Everyone including government employees, house wifes, college students, software engineers, etc. are now in to it. It intrigued me and I learned some thing (which is very very less) about the market and it was intimidating to know how many have lost their life in this game. Game, yes, we can say Stock Market as a game, which is controlled by some one or some thing which in invisible and constantly watching us, for it is the case for almost everyone that, the moment anyone sells a company's stock, the price increases and the moment anyone buys the stock, the price decreases.

The thing which confuses me is that, I have seen lively, no one will be ready to buy stocks of a company, for say, at a particular time, for Rs. X and after some minutes they will be very much ready to buy it for Rs. X+10 (or 20 or 30) and it is the same case for selling also in the negative meaning. Meaning, no one knows the exact price of what they are buying or what they are selling, why they are buying and why they are selling, they simply do as many number of people all over the country do. Do they know that the stock which they buy for 100 or 200 or 500 or 1000 worths only Rs. 10 or even less? Less people will only actually know this and play in Stock Market, but all others just do without even knowing what they are doing.

Some experts say that you have to watch the market constantly to be a millionaire and that expert will not be rich or may even be poor, struggling to get money to invest in it. It is what I have learnt that, knowledge alone will do no good, for you will have to have a lot of money and luck. Luck is needed to help the price increase for the stocks you buy, as there is no way one can predict what the price will be in the market the next minute, otherwise, everyone will earn a lot of money. Money alone can make you earn more money and all other factors like knowledge about the company (whose stock you are going to buy), Predictability, Luck, etc. are secondary things only.

If you want to enter into the share market and if you have a little money, you will surely lose it and if you have money, you will still lose it and if you have more money, you could earn money and if you have a lot of money, you will surely make a lot from it. It is like, grabbing the money from those who have less and give it to those who have more. More over, a statistics says that, 95% of those who do intra-day share meets loss and those who wait (obviously having more money) could gain. Gain more knowledge about share markets before investing much. Much I have told now and you could think all I have said is an utter more bull-shit or some other shit, but these are the things I know with my little knowledge and I may be totally wrong. Wrong or right, I have told my view, and now is your time to share your views...

[P.S.: I have tried much to make every sentence's first word to be the previous sentence's last word. Word used might have given wrong meaning but I just wanted trying. Trying is not a bad thing isn't it?]

Maturity - Different levels

[Disclaimer: This does not mean that I am very mature to classify and discuss about maturity. This blog is about, maturity in my opinion.]

What I mean by maturity is how one behaves in situations or how one handles situations. There could be various aspects of maturity and various form for it also. Different forms of maturity is like, how one behaves in happy moments, sad moments, frustrated moments, angry moments, etc. What I mean by different levels of maturity is, when they show the matured behavior.

For example, when taking a happy moments, showing maturity will mean not to make promises beyond our capacity, when talking about victorious moments, showing maturity will mean being modest, in angry moments, being mature will mean the ability to keep our mouth shut, etc. I would like the tell my opinion about the last case, different level of maturity in case of anger.

Being mature enough, in the first case, will avoid most of the situation to become angry. If we fail in that, being somewhat mature will stop from making the problem bigger. If again we fail in that, and if sudden increase in the maturity happens, we should be ready to apologize for shouting\hitting\sulking\etc.ing. And if we fail to show maturity in all the previous incidence, there is yet one chance to show the maturity. Accepting whatever happened because of the showing anger and appreciating the consequence of bad temper and not showing any more vengeance.

Failing all, will mean a miserable consequence corresponding to the level of the problem and the level of your contribution, being restless, disappointed, worried, still-more-anger, etc. Why I think like this is, I have shown maturity in all the levels in some cases and in most of the cases, I have failed to show maturity in any levels, and in all such situation I was, anyone would be, restless or frustrated.

There is yet another form for maturity, which is to show maturity in humiliating or embarrassing situations. This would be a bit funny to discuss and I would like to spare a separate blog for that case. Feel free to spare your comments.

Exaggeration a tool for humor and horror.

I use to get an unintended grin when I think of Exaggeration. Everyone in the world tend to exaggerate things when they convey or discuss anything, or propagate a gossip, etc. The amount of exaggeration is what that differs and differentiate individual's reliability. I recently heard a very good joke about exaggeration. It is: A mother says to her daughter, "I would have told you a million times not to exaggerate things when you talk".

I remember the word *slapstick* which means the use of exaggerated violence that is intended for humor where if there is no exaggeration, then it will mean a vigorous violence. This is the technique used by many comedians, especially Vadivelu. Even when friends get together and talk about a victim, one among them who will be the target of the speech and will be made fun of, there will be a lot of exaggeration to add masala of the topic they talk about him/her.

On the other hand, when someone is told about someone about something negative, exaggeration will prove to be a drastic tool. A little amount of exaggeration is enough to make adverse effect. Since we always see a lot of people whose habit is to exaggerate even when talking about something which is not for fun, and how we loathe about that and how we always hesitate to believe whatever they say, I always try not to exaggerate things when I talk about serious things. And of course, when I fail and when I exaggerate, I will later despise myself for that, and of course it continues till now.

So, let me try and stop completely to exaggerate; and when I mean stopping, I mean that the exaggerating factor be very very less about +\- 0.0001%, as this is the percentage which will happen without our intention, because of the excitement. What more, let me finish with another PJ (poor joke) which I heard when I was a small kid. 'Three friends are taking and one of them says "I had seen a snake of this much length" and he stretches out his one arm to show the measure. Suddenly the second one says "I had seen a snake of thisss much length" and he stretches both of his arms as wide as possible. Now the third one, slaps hard on the second one's face and says "Now, how can I say a size which is more than yours?, You should have used one and a half arms so that I could have used two arms".'

I could overhear some of you saying, "But you told that you are going to say a PJ?" :D Feel free to comment or tell about your views\experiences.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

If you have not read my previous blog about HP, please click here.

Harry is excited to go his school, Hogwards, for the third year, after the adventures he has done in the second year. Harry is now every student's favorite, as what he has done has made the school Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, to give a school treat of canceling all the exams! Before he is going to start he finds out that a prisoner who is heavily armed has escaped a prison and that everyone in the Muggle world is warned about him.

Disgusting things happen that Harry leaves his aunt's house and soon he finds out that the prisoner who had escaped is not a Muggle but is a very powerful wizard and an expert in dark magic, who had killed 12 people in a single curse. And also this prisoner is the only one who had ever escaped from the Prison of Azkaban, a prison for witches and wizards heavily guarded by Dementors: a magical creature which sucks the happiness out of a person and whose kiss will suck the soul out of the body.

How could anyone escape from such a prison? And in the history, the prisoner is the only one who had ever escaped. And to his horror, Harry finds out that, the prisoner has escaped to kill Harry! Harry is not only chased by this killer, but also by a death omen; a gigantic dog. Prophecy says that Harry has to encounter the Grim (the gigantic dog) and that he is going to die soon! The idea of Hogwards being the safest place also becomes false as the prisoner has already entered into the school and Dementors are guarding the school.

Harry becomes Dementors most favorite target as Dementors easily attack those who have a tragic memory. Harry almost dies in many instances due to the attack of the Dementors and narrowly saved. How Harry is going to tackle the Dementors?, how he is gong to face the Grim?, how he is going to escape from the prisoner? is the rest of the story. An excellent novel with an excellent twist. The story goes slowly in the start and at the end it goes in light's speed. If you have not read this book yet, I strongly recommend you to read it (after reading I and II part) and share your comments.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!

Now Harry is in the second year, of seven years at Hogwards, The school for Wizards and Witches, after the greatest adventure he had done in his first year, encountering Lord Voldemort face to face. Lord Voldemort is the greatest Wizard of Dark Magic, so powerful and dangerous that no one could even address him by his name, addressing him as *You Know Who* or *He Who Must Not Be Named* [and thank God he is not He Who Must Not Be Typed :)]. So, after conquering, or we can say escaping from, Lord Voldemort for the second time, Harry becomes even more famous in Hogwards.

But in the second year there are more dangers and threats awaiting him. Harry faces much more trouble even before going to Hogwards. But soon, a doubt arises to the whole school: "Whether the threat is for Harry or the threat is by Harry". The Chamber of Secret is opened again, which by myth has a dangerous monster locked in it which will kill the enemies of the heir of Slytherin; one of the founder of Hogwards, a very powerful Wizard who dislikes Muggles [non-magic creatures, humans :)]. Strangely those who disturb, or seem to disturb Harry are petrified one by one.

At some point of time, Harry uncovers some truths that make himself to doubt whether he is the heir. All the student fear Harry, talk bad about him, sing bad about him, loathe him. Harry after some efforts find out that, a very trusted staff is the one who has opened the chamber last time! Before he could do any further investigation, his close friend is also petrified. And one more! What happens and what is going to happen then becomes a million dollar question.

How Harry is going to overcome this and how he is going to face the deadly monster that is in the Chamber Of Secret is the rest of the story. A very unpredictable and extremely interesting adventurous story is this. Success of Harry Potter books is that it has many aspects like, sentiment, thrill, horror, who-done-it puzzle, friendship, fight of good and evil, school time adventure, etc. A must read novel! If you find many terms not understandable, it is time you start to read the HP novels. So, read this novel if not already read and comment about this book after you reading it.

Not a Penny {More/Less} - Jeffrey Archer's First Novel

"Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less" is the first novel from Jeffrey Archer, one of the greatest story tellers of this modern time. This story is about a criminal who uses share market to cheat people and earn millions of dollars. In one of such occasions he messes up with a great mathematician, Stephan who invest about $250, 000 and becomes penniless. Not like other people who regret for losing, he wants to take revenge on the criminal, Harvey. Stephan later finds that there are three more people, who do not know each other mutually, who have invested a great amount of money.

With little investigation he finds the other three people to be an art dealer Jean-Pierre, a doctor Robin and a land lord, James who wishes to become an actor. Some how he manages to co-ordinate a meeting with all the three and they four decides to cheat Harvey and get all their money back, not a penny more; not a penny less. Though this is some what dramatic, to have mutually unknown persons meet up and agree to take revenge on an expert in swindling, it is acceptable; after all, anyone could be brain washed.

Everyone except James comes with a plan that could get some money from Harvey; when James meets a stunningly gorgeous a-typical-most-beautiful-girl-in-novels and falls in love with her at the first sight. When everyone dies to device a plan to get their money back, James devices plans to attract her and date with her, and like everyone else, he succeeds in his mission.

All the four of this team take part in others' plan and they somehow manage to get 3/4 of their total money loss; only missing the James part of contributing his 1/4 of the money. And James becomes the hero of the novel by an extra-ordinary twist in the end and he manages to get his team his contribution. There are more good news in the ends and the novel ends with a happy ending.

A good novel which is worth of the time spent in reading that. Though all the three plans are somewhat guessable, the twists and turns that happens when the plans are executed and how they fail because of lack of contingency plans and how they recover quickly from that are interesting. So, if possible read this novel and share your comments.

Idea Aiyasamy - How to blog wihtout going to blogger.com?

I am proud to introduce one more character *Idea Aiyasamy* (to accompany *Karuththu Kandasamy* and *Mokka Muththusamy*) to you all (I could hear some of you saying, "Who asked you to? :) ); wearing this mask I will give you some tips and tricks (trying very hard not to be cliched ideas). First of all the ideas, I wanted to talk about blogging which makes this idea applicable only for bloggers; and I am sorry about this.

Yes, we do not need to go to blogger.com, log-in, click the *New Post* and then again click the *Publish* button. You can simply send a mail and that mail will become a blog (with subject as the heading). Simple isn't it? But before that you have to configure your account settings, a one time job. Click on the *Settings* link of your blog and then click the *Email* link under it. There you could see two rows. First row is to let you get a mail if anything is published in your blog and the next row, you will be asked to configure *Mail-to-Blogger Address* which will have your name as un-editable field and a text field you have to fill in. Fill in the text field with any word to make it a email address for example amudhan.movies@blogger.com like this. And also enable the Publish option by checking the check-box.

You are done! From then onwards, you could just send an email to that configured mail address (from any of your email account) and it will become a blog!!! So, if you are in office and have some free time, you could simply type the content as a email and send it to the configured mail id, thus publishing the blog. You do not have to reveal anyone that you are blogging in the office (and I strongly advice you not to blog in office time when you have work :) ).

PS:

I could hear someone doubting (sarcastically) that, *but you said you will try hard not to discuss cliched ideas? did you lie about that?*

I also could hear some of you saying that the conventional way of blogging is far better than this stupid idea :). But this one is particularly helpful when you do not want to be noticed, while blogging.

Do not reveal to anyone, the mail id you configured as any one could simply send a mail and publich blog in your website. (And do not try to send any mail to the mail id I used for example if you do not want to get bounced-mail ;) )

Karuththu Kandasamy - Reject any proposal that give you short time to think over. (life lesson)

I always learn things by experience; and I have heard of a saying "Experience is a costly school; only fools will learn from it" (but here trying to be optimistic, I could take that I am rich guy learning in a costly school :) ). I have a lot of brilliant people who could advice me very well, but I just do not understand till I experience it. This is one of the greatest advices I have had from my father and that I now understood after experiencing (I used experience a lot of times, I guess) it. Mark my words, *Reject any proposal that gives you a very limited time to think about it*. This is a life lesson; following which you could save a lot of your life (by reducing your BP, tension, etc). When I say something, I want to give you examples only then we could understand the karuththu well.

Here goes the example: One day I got a mail from one of my colleagues at about 11 AM that LIC had announced a very precious scheme and that it is going to be over by 3 PM in the same day and that 1000s of applications are already in queue and that getting that policy will be very tough and that it is very beneficiary, and that bla bla bla. I was so much intrigued by that and called up my father immediately and told him about that. He said coolly that it is all marketing tricks and that I had to wait and think before applying for it. I did not listen to him; got money from my friends (I did not even have money by that time) and got the policy, feeling very proud of my decision.

The next day, the same representative called me up and asked, 'do you have any friends you could refer?'. I was shocked and asked her whether the scheme is still available. She said plainly that the scheme has been extended for one week. Later after some weeks she again asked me to refer any friends saying that the scheme is extended for one month!!! What the heck? I thought and I felt myself as a jackass (and as a matter of fact the scheme is still available after an year :( ). Thank God it is an LIC policy; anyhow I will need it. What if, if that has happened for something very risky? So, what I want to say is that, *unless and otherwise you are given sufficient time to think of any proposal, just ignore it, how much ever it looks precious, unless and otherwise you will any how get that even without the scheme*. Just share your opinions and karuththus about this karuththu; also you could write an example of your experience.

Mokka Muthusamy: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

I am just a new born baby in the Harry Potter world, new friend to Harry, yet-another-guy who longs to enter 9 3/4 platform, who longs to have a broomstick (that could fly, of course), who longs to watch the Quidditch match, who longs to play wizard chess, etc. I hope most of you (again, as though 100s of people are reading this), would have read Harry Potter many times and there would be 1000s of bloggers blogging about this and 100s of Orkut communities etc. But that is not going to stop me from saying what I want to say. First of all, I would like to confess something. I am a conservative sometimes and I do not want to adopt new things; for example, listening to new movie songs, etc. Like this, I had refrained myself from reading HP (Harry Potter) for a long time thinking that everyone is just creating scenes by reading\talking\blogging\etc.ing about HP.

But for a very very close friend of mine who presented me all the six volumes of HP as my birthday gift, I had to start to read HP. The moment I started reading that book, the moment I started liking it. First I thought that having seen the movie, it wouldn't be nice to read that; but that is not true. Reading that book is much more fun and thrill than seeing the movie (but thank God, I have not seen the 2nd and 3rd part of the movies). If you are like me, thinking that reading the book would not be fun after watching the movie, just stop thinking like that and go ahead and read that book. Now that I have finished the first part, in a very less time, in the period I felt ill, in the period I had the most horrible personal problems. Being engrossed in Hogwards School has kept me reading and that relieved me from my personal worries.

After reading that book, I felt very thankful to my friend who had introduced his friend HP to me, and hope that you will also be to me, if this blog made you to read that book. I want to write a lot about this (and I will), how to read HP (similar to the blog Why To Watch Movies) and what will make you like HP (in case you have not read that already). So, what I want to convey from this blog is that, do not be a conservative and refrain yourself from reading it, and do not think that previous knowledge through the movie will lessen the fun of reading and more importantly do not think that HP is for kids (not in the sense that it also has some adult contents ;) but) in the sense that everyone will like it. Read that book (I would prefer to say 'study the book' instead) and share your comments whether, this blog is right or wrong.

Karuththu Kandasamy: Let not the company you work influence your big personal decisions.

This blog applies mainly to the software professionals. This is yet another great advice I learnt after having done the greatest mistakes I could ever make. The karuththu here is that, *Never ever make any personal decision based on the company you work*. Let not the company influence your decisions when you are going to make a big personal decision, as the life of a software engineer is like a life of a monkey jumping here and there. I would say that the life of a software engineer is worse than a monkey's life as monkeys do not go from forest to forest but software engineers go from company to company, state to state, country to country (thank God there is no company in Moon or Mars).

I have seen and I am also an example for this (in fact, I could serve as an example for many better-not-to-do to never-ever-do mistakes, and I will tell you all these in blogs-to-come). Buying a house, not in our native place, but near the company we work (at that time) is one such example. As we may not know where we would be after 2 year, or 2 months or 2 weeks. Having got a reasonably satisfying work and a good lead or manager, we tend to think that we will not shift the company and decide to buy a house near the company premise. Later after the company decides to shift to a luxurious premise located 40 KM away from the place, or the lead\manager is changed, or appraisal comes ( :) ), we will have to worry and keep worrying.

The fact that we bought a house will also make you hesitate to shift the company and being restless with the appraisal or the new (Hari Sadu) leads\managers or the new premise located far far away. So, the karuththu I want to say is that, do not make any big decision based on the company and the location of the company you work, including, finding a life partner (fortunately, I do not serve as an example for this :) ). Feel free to tell about your similar mistakes, and share your comments.

Mokka Muthusamy: Why to watch movies?

*What kind of a question is this? Why to watch movies? Why anyone will watch movies? To have fun and for some time-pass.* I hope this would have been the first reaction for many who read this (I am talking as though hundreds of people are reading this :) ). In my perception, I watch movies to experience the rare situation and feelings which the characters in the films undergo. That is, there are some situations which will happen only in movies, some feelings which we could be felt only through movies.

For example: You come to know that your biggest real time enemy enemy is your lover in the internet (You've Got Mail), You can not lie whatever is the question asked (Liar Liar), You find yourself inside the house of cannibals (Wrong Turn), Fighting with your enemy knowing that you will die surely (Troy), You become the God (Bruce Almighty), etc. Such situations could possibly never happen in our life.

So, to experience those feelings and sentiments, we have to watch movies. Movies, which would put us in a situation that might never happen in life (ofcourse not like fighting with 100s of men, making men fly by daringly seeing at them, etc. they are non-sense :) ). This is just a mokkai (meaning useless talk in Tamil (I am talking as though readers from all over the world are reading this :) )) I wanted to share. I will also come up with another mokkai of how to watch a movie.

Karuththu Kandasamy: Say No at the first time!!! (life lesson)

This is one of the best advices I have ever got. My brother Karthik is one of my greatest inspirations, who has advised me a lot (and I follow most of them). The best of all the advices he has ever given me is: *Say No at the first time itself*. This means that, if you do not like to admit, give, indulge, etc. in anything that you friends, family, colleagues, etc. ask, request, suggest, etc. (sorry for this extremely bad sentence, grammar, usage, etc. with a lot of etc.) say *NO* at the first time itself. This is really tough to do, but failing to do so, will make you unhappy, disappointed, worried etc. later.

Let me tell you with an example, a real time example, which I had experienced. When I first bought a computer when I was studying in my college, my acquaintances wanted to watch movies in my system. I promised myself when I bought the system that, my system will never be used for entertainment (after all all the computers will have this resolution taken on them :) ). Not able to say *NO* at the first time, I allowed them. Soon before I could recognize, that has become a non-sense to my life. Strangers coming to my room to watch movies, play games etc (that became a non-sense as I love privacy when I am not with my friends).

Hope you understand this: this is a simple example, I am saying. Had I said *NO* at the first time, perhaps, I would have faced a little embarrassed to talk to those acquaintances for some days. I might not have lost my peace and happiness. So, if you are not 100% okay with any proposal, say *NO* at the first time, to avoid a great misunderstanding and fight at the later point. This is one of a life lessons, following will keep you happy throughout the life. Please share your comments on this.

Karuththu Kandasamy: Do not stop a parents who rectify their child's mistake!

This is one opinion I always wanted to share and spread. I have seen many parents, including my mom, who love children so much. Thinking that they show their love towards the children, they tend to stop or even scold the parents who are rectifying their child's mistakes. For example, when a child does not greet the guests who come to his\her house, the parents use to tell the child (with sweet voice in the beginning and then harshly, if that continues) to greet those who come. When they scold or teach or tell the child of the respect to be shown, the child-loving-guests use to say, *it is just a child... do not scold him\her... bla bla bla*.

One thing here to understand is that, only because it is a child, the parents have to teach moral. The parents will not be able to teach moral when the child becomes a no-longer-a-child. This is a simple example. Be it whatever, please do not stop any parents. In doing so, you will make a to-be-a-good-guy\girl to yet-another-teen.

Bloody Diamonds

Last week I saw the film Blood Diamond, after a lot of my friends recommending me to see that. ah... I still could not come out of the terrifying truths behind the diamonds, which the film potrays. A father who thinks that his son will become an doctor and will make the place paradise, ends up in seeing his son as a terrorist [yes.. children are made terrorists and are trained to shoot innocent people and army men captured to make their mind a mercy less object] who is ready to kill his father. Horrible isn't it? You will not be able to control crying in many scences. This is a must-see-movie. Please do watch the movie and let me know your comments.

When ever we buy diamonds we have to know that it has a black history of millions of bullets killing thousands of innocent families completely destroying a lot of villages... So, from now onwards I ain't going to buy diamonds besides the fact that I can not buy them.

To know about the movie Babel, please visit http://shriman.blogspot.com/2007/01/babel-review_116983734784996514.html

SPHINX

I read another Robin Cook book: Sphinx, and I want to share about that. It is not a MedicalThriller as supposed be like other Robin Cook books. This book tells us a lot about Egypt's culture. A lot of repeated descriptions about the River Nile and the surroundings make it boring. Till 250 pages, I could see at the most 4 to 5 interesting events, that too will last for about 2 to 3 pages. You will get the feeling of seeing discovery channel program about Egypt. If you expect fast, thrilling medical thriller, this is not the book for you. If you plan to read the first RobinCook book, I would strongly recommend you not to read this book, instead you could go for Mutation or Coma [the only other two books I have read]. But the last 50 pages are quite fast.

Imagine that you are sealed in a room of pitch-black-darkness, leaving no room to escape, with some people accompanying you, who had come to Egypt for the same purpose of yours, who were dead a two years ago. Imagine that you have found a way-out, by using some matchsticks you luckily had, to another chamber of extreme darkness. You have only a limited number of matchsticks left now and you have found a stick like object. Having the idea of burning it, to illuminate the room, with only a few matchsticks left, you lit a matchstick, and you find a mummified forehand in your hand! -my blood was chilled to read this elaborately for about 5 pages. Read this book and let me know your comments.

Life is [not just] beautiful [it is excellent].

I saw the movie *Life is beautiful *. I have no words to describe about the movie. After finished seeing that movie, I was hardly able to think anything else. It is the same case of my friends with whom I saw the movie again and again. Here goes the movie [as far as I understood]:

The first half is hilarious and in this the hero marries his princess[ that is how he calls her]. The second half of the movie is full of tragic-comedy and the climax is tragedy. The story baseline is this: The Jews in the Italy are taken by the German troops to do some work in a camp as slaves. The hero is also taken there with his only son of about 5-6 years old: a very cute boy. In order to keep his son happy, the hero says that all this work is done to win a game and the price is a real Tank. Despite all the problem, he manages to laugh and make his son laugh. Till the end, he keeps his son safe and happy.

After seeing the movie anyone will become speechless. The music is also excellent. I can not help having goose flesh in the climax for all the three times I saw the movie. If you have not watched the movie, please watch it and let me know your comments.

I was in Coma!

There is another novel by RobinCook which I had read. I want to share about that also: Coma. The story starts like, a teenager goes to hospital for a simple treatment and while getting anaesthesia, she goes to sleep... for the last time in her life! Something is wrong... very wrong... [the exact words in the book] She falls in coma; a coma which is irreversible. After about a month, a new college student, comes to the hospital for the first time, sees that patient and feels for her: to see a girl of her age to have fallen in coma. The first patient she encouters is an athlete who has come for simple treatement, talks well to her. After the operation, he does not wake up... Something is wrong... very wrong... [the exact words in the book]. He also falls in coma. A similar incident within a month. This disturbs the new student and she wants to find out the reason. She faces a lot of problems in getting the records of the patients but could not find any clue. When she returns to her house, she is surprised by a assassinator inside a house. He warns her not to do any further investigation and he leaves. This increases her curiosity to uncover the most threatening truths going on. After much twists and turns, in the climax, she undergoes (or she is made to undergo) an immediate-operation. And the last line of the story is Something is wrong... very wrong...

The last 100 pages of the story made me to tremble. All the chapters of the books will have the time of happenings. The whole story takes place within 3-4 days (apart from the first chapter). Read the book and give me your comments.

Mutated a long back.

I thought of telling you about a wonderful novel which I read a long back: Mutation by RobinCook. Robin Cook is a doctor who has written many medical thrillers. Mutation is about a great doctor in neural domain. He changes the structure of the brain cell of his son even before he is born, through some technology he invented [How he does that and all involves some complicated medical terminologies which are out of the scope of this blog :)]. Because of this, his son gets super power brain. He (the child) learns neural network at his childhood itself and becomes very noticable student in the school. Suddenly, one day, he loses all his power and becomes a normal student. In the mean while, his elder brother dies of a very rare cancer. Within a short time, the worker, who is in fond of the elder brother also dies of a very rare cancer. Four children of his same age who were also very intelligent like him, die on a same day due to swelling of brain. All of them are children of doctor's colleagues. This makes her mother worry much about her only-son-left. Her worry turns into fear about his son when she recalls that the worker who died screamed "he (the child) has killed his brother... and he will surely kill me...". She starts to investigate and find that, the only teacher who liked her son died of a... died of a... very rare cancer some monts ago.... There the story turns upside down.

This is a very beautiful story which will not let you put the book down. So, if you ever get a chance to read this book, read it and give me your comments.

Free From Gothic!

At last, I finished that game Gothic II. Now I am free from that game. From at least now, I could start reading books.

What? Has Gothic III been released?

:)