About an Unbelievable Author

Of all the 3 or 4 or may be 5 friends who read my blog, how many of you know that there was a great author called Erle Stanley Gardner? How many of you know about one of the most famous fictional detective/lawyer Perry Mason? Perry Mason is the first English novel I had read in my life. Because of the ingenious story, I got attracted to reading more novels and so, I am dedicating a post for this author and the character 'Perry Mason'

I wish each and everyone reads at least one of his novels to check why his stories are so special. I have to admit that I don't know many authors and I don't know if there are any similar novels which are better than this. I am not telling that this could be the best ever series of novels in this genre, but what I can promise is, anyone will enjoy this series.

Erle Stanley Gardner has written more than 80 Perry Mason novels and his records were unbeatable and it hold even Guiness Record for most selling books which is greater than other 3 famous authors number of copies sold put together. I heard or read (but I am not sure) that Erle Stanley Gardner used to write multiple stories at the same time and each will be a very complex detective case.

I have read twenty one Perry Mason stories (till date). Even though every one of the book is awesome in its own way, I would like to recommend some of the books I thoroughly enjoyed, which you can start with:

• The Case Of Screaming Woman
• The Case Of Mythical Monkeys
• The Case Of The Drowsy Mosquito
• The Case Of The Footloose Doll
• The Case Of The Caretaker's Cat

My father's most favorite ones:

• The Case Of Duplicate Daughter
• The Case Of Haunted Husband
  

If you are already a Perry Mason fan, feel free to suggest your most favorite book. If this post made you to read any Perry Mason book and if you enjoyed it, feel free to thank me :)

A Completely Imaginary Story

[Disclaimer: This story is not recommended for anyone who is not 18+ years old. This post contains suggestive materials which are not recommended for everyone, even if they are adults. Readers' discretion is required]

Vignesh has never felt like this. Mentally, his whole body is shaking, but physically, he is just all right. He can not say whether he is excited or tensed or worried. After all, this is the first time he is going to do that thing. The first time anxiety has taken over his entire stability. Though he was sure that he is going to get a damn good experience, he is worried about the safety also. He just wanted to get advice from his friend.

"I am just nervous. I am worried about the safety", he told his friend. "Come on... SHE is awesome... this is what you have been dreaming for so long. You have got the chance. Don't be afraid. Go ahead... Good luck", encouraged his friend with a smile and a wink. Vignesh knew that this would be the encouragement which he will get from any of his friends, though, if they get an opportunity to do that thing, they will also be tensed.

Vignesh is the kind of the man who tells/confesses everything (of course, not everything, but almost everything) with his parents and brother. But will they understand him if he tells them about this? Will they ever forgive if they come to know about this later? After all, everyone (of course, not everyone, but almost everyone) will do this thing before their marriage (I don't know what they think... perhaps they think loyalty is a dog thing???)

One of Vignesh's thousands of thoughts is 'In this present world, my wife may appreciate me about this'. He has done enough thinking. He realized that no matter how much he thinks, he is NOT going to lose such an opportunity. So, he consoled himself that ' though my parents and brother does not have enough maturity to know the current trend, they will be happy once they see the result. They may be a little worried about what the relatives, who don't know anything about software industry, will think if they come to know that I quit Infosys and join this unknown product company called Software for Hyper Enterprises (SHE). But this salary hike at this point of time is extremely needed and even my wife (if I get someone soon) may appreciate this'

He went to his computer and started a mail with subject "Resignation Letter" after working in that company for six years, his hands starting to shiver a little bit physically also!

Uniqueness of each musical instrument

I am in a pursuit of learning a music instrument for past couple of weeks. I don't know when it will be over and how it will be over (whether I accomplish my goals or I say 'you know what? I had quit'). But luckily I have a motivation. One of my friends has also started learning a musical instrument so, we had promised to motivate each other when the other is having hard time learning the instrument.

Interestingly, I have two more friends who are just beginners whose instrument of choice is different. So, we are now four guys with four different music instruments. I use to think that my instrument of choice is the best and everyone thinks the same for their instrument of choice :). My questions was "What is the best music instrument?". So, I was thinking of uniqueness and greatness of each instrument. Of course, all the musical instruments are great. This is the comparison of Guitar, Violin, Flute and Keyboard (Piano)

First, let me tell the uniqueness and greatness of Violin. Violin in the only instrument which can produce continuous sound/music. All other instruments can only give discreet pieces of music. Also, Violin is the best instrument to shower melancholy. But the negative part is, if you don't know how to play it, the will produce the most horrible noise which no other instrument can produce.

Flute: Flute is an amazing instrument which can give melody like no other instrument can give. The music a Flute can produce can literally mesmerize anyone. It is almost close to Violin regarding the continuous music, but when the player breathes, it will have to break at least for some seconds. Also, it is the most light-weighted instrument and the most compact instrument ever. The negative part is, it drains energy out of the player.

Keyboard (Piano): It is the only instrument that could be played to produce 10 Swaras (notes) from various octaves. Since all ten fingers could be used at the same time, it is superior to any other string or wind instrument in that regard. Also, a duet could be played with a single instrument, one playing in lower octaves and the other playing in higher octaves. The negative part is, it is costly. A grand piano could cost easily above Rs. 25, 00, 000.

Guitar: I don't know of any uniqueness for Guitar, but, it is also one of the greatest instruments. Simply stroke the strings and you will get a good music. Also, almost all the songs require a Guitar. It is also one of the most stylish musical instruments to give pose with :)

[I am not sure whether whatever I think is right. If you find that I have given some wrong information, please do comment about it. Also, if you know anything to add up to, please feel free to add it as a comment.]

Brainy Friend - Part III - The Power

[This is a sequel to Brainy Friend Part II post. It is highly recommended that you read that post first before reading this one, or click here to go to the first post. The disclaimer for that post holds good to this post also, as a matter of fact to all the posts for this story]

Knock... Knock... "Satesh... dear... is there anything wrong? What was that sound?". Satesh's mom had come to his room after hearing that 'thud' sound of Satesh falling. All of the sudden, instantly, Satesh came to his life. He opened his eyes and realized that he is lying on the floor. Immediately, he answered his mom's call by saying, "Mom... there is nothing wrong... please wait... I will open the door"

Satesh's mom was shocked and very much worried to see him, and she told in a feeble voice, "What has happened to you dear? Why have you sweated like this? Did you faint and fall? I heard a sound like you fell". Just then Satesh realized that he had sweated like hell and he is completely wet. 'How come I didn't realize that I am wet???', Satesh asked himself.

"Mom, I was awfully tired and fell unconscious I think."
"If you had fallen unconscious how come you opened that door as soon as I knocked? I just came right after that sound. Dear... is there anything wrong? Do you want to tell me something?"
"Nothing mom... It is just the experiment I was doing... I have gotten some weird experiences... I am perfectly all right mom. You please don't worry... I will surely tell you if there is anything wrong or if there is anything important I have to tell you."
"Honey... I always wanted to support your experiments. But if it is going to affect you, I wont allow it. Promise me that you will be careful and that you would let me know if anything is wrong."

It took a long time for Satesh to convince that there is nothing wrong. He told her that he would consult a doctor and spent extra time with her to soothe her. After she left, Satesh came and sat in his chair. He couldn't understand how his mother came so soon. He was asking himself, "It seemed that I had talked to that voice for a long time, but mom says she had come right away... what is happening to me?"

"So... now you should have understood what was happening to you", the same voice echoed from somewhere. Satesh was then irritated and yelled "What in the hell is this bull shit?". Just then he realized what was happening and the very second he had a victorious smile in his face to have understood everything. "Yes... you got it... I knew you will get it...", said that same voice.

'Oh my God... this is what it has been happening... So, everything that was happening from the moment I lost consciousness was just my thoughts. I was not speaking to anyone... I was just thinking and the other guy... or the voice... or whatever... was able to get whatever I thought and it was replying to me... throughout the time, I hadn't opened my mouth... and moreover, the communication happening between me and that thing is instantaneous... So only, all the communication which should have taken more than 15 minutes had just happened in less than a second...' is what Satesh had understood. He figured it out what he yelled 'What in the hell is this bull shit' to that voice in which he didn't utter anything, but just thought as a reply to that voice.

Yet Satesh is not fully convinced or fully understood about this brainy friend (from now on, I would refer the one-more-consciousness of Satesh as brainy friend). That brainy friend could get whatever Satesh thinks but he couldn't get whatever it (or the brainy friend) thinks...

Their conversation was about to start in which Satesh remained in the same posture as how he was sitting... He is going to listen and get the whole picture of this brainy friend...

To be continued. [Coming soon: The power continued]

A Help Needed

[If you thought I was going to ask a help and still wanted to read this, I have to appreciate you. This blog is not about asking help. This is just a topic about help.]

Asking for a help is an art, in my opinion. The chances of getting the request done is completely dependent on how you ask for the help, and of course, to whom you ask and how big is the help, etc. There are a lot of various parameters involved in the success of getting the help done.

I am quite sure that everyone would know how to ask for the help and to whom to ask that help. But, what I wanted to convey is, how mature you should be before asking the help. Generally, when I ask for a help, I would consider that it is going to be rejected. You should be completely prepared to get your request declined. If you are not ready to face this, you should not ask for the help.

If you are not ready to hear a NO for your help request, it would mean that it is not a help you are asking, but you are ordering your friend/relative to do something for you. So, whenever you are going to ask for a help, no matter how close your friend/relative is, you should be ready to accept a NO from them.

If you are asking for a big help, a very critical help, and yet your friend/relative is not in a position to help you, you should never point that out in your future meetings with that guy. If you have vengeance for the declination, it would surely spoil the friendship. So, next time when you are going to ask for a help, ask yourself, "Am I ready if he/she says NO? Would I be able to like him/her even if it is rejected?".

If the answer is YES, you can go ahead and ask for the help. If it is NO, it is better you don't ask for that help. Of course, if the situation is too desperate, you can give an attempt, but you should be mentally prepared and matured to accept it and continue with the friendship.

This is my thought. Any comments? Want to refute it? Want to tell something? Want to give an example? You can leave a comment. This is just a filler blog written in just ten minutes without even thinking about it, as I desperately wanted to post a topic before June starts. So, forgive me if this is junk :)

Unfinished Story

[Disclaimer: Everything that takes place in this unfinished story is purely imaginary]

Senthan never believes forward mails, especially those which ask him to forward to some number of people, promising fortune and which threatens disaster if not forwarded to others. He is sick of those kinds of mails. His disbelief increased a lot after he read this blog. But he is a little confused, worried and afraid today.

For the past one week he had been feeling pain in his chest, and that too in the left side, whenever he lies down to sleep. To add to his fear, there was a definite pain in his left hand. With his very little medical knowledge, these two are the strong symptoms for heart attack. So, everyday he slept, for the past one week, he thought he wont wake up.

But today is different. He heard a lot of problems in the family; the cliched misunderstanding between family members, his bank balance is utter low, his friends asking back their money Senthan had got from them, work pressure from office, other health issues, etc. Everything came at the same day. He was almost sure, he would get a severe heart attack tonight.

To relax himself, he started checking his mails in his Yahoo mail inbox. One of the mails asked him to forward it and that if he would not forward it, he would die in two days. It was the day before yesterday. He didn't forward it to anybody, though something inside him urged him to. He remembered that suddenly today. Disregarding that and to sleep, he lied down on his bed.

The worry just kept increasing. Senthan was not worried about dying young, was not worried about dying as a virgin, was not worried that he had not even flirted with girls, was not worried that he hadn't even had a single fag, was not worried about the loans he had to pay back and the home loan and the only property he ever owned, was not worried about all his ambitions that would die along with him, if it happens.

He was worried about only two things. First being the family, he just called his family and talked to his father and mother casually. He then asked them to give the phone to his only brother and he advised his brother to study properly and get a good job. The second worry, being his unfinished story in his blog and that he didn't want to disappoint his blog readers, he started to write a blog to finish the unfinished story. When he was about to finish the story, he felt an severe pain in his heart and

Brainy Friend - Part II - Result

[This is a sequel to Brainy Friend Part I post. It is highly recommended that you read that post first before reading this one. The disclaimer for that post holds good to this post also, as a matter of fact to all the posts for this story]

After what it seemed like eternity to Satesh, but in real, after 2 seconds, Satesh heard the same voice, talking calmly and slowly, "Too much of anything is good for nothing, isn't it?". Satesh didn't know what to tell or how to react. What he saw, was complete darkness. He shouted, "Who are you? Where am I? Am I abducted? What is happening to me? When...". Satesh was interrupted by the deep calm voice, "I just told you 'too much of anything is good for nothing'. It holds good for the number of questions you ask also".

"Where am I? What is happening to me?"
"Still, you are asking too much of questions. Which one should I answer?"
"Do you think it is funny, you bloody as..."
The voice interrupted Satesh again, "Don't scold yourself dear. Calm down and be cool"
"What?"
"At last, you have asked one question. I think you are now calm. Listen to me Satesh, I think I am the result of your experiment."
"You think? What do you mean?"
"I am one more conscience from inside your brain. It is like I have got completely detached from your conscience. I reside in your brain. I am part of your brain, but I am independent. I also can control you body. You can consider that you have two brains now. I am YOU."
"This is too much for me to take. You mean I have a split personality?"
"I don't know much about split personality as you haven't read much about it. I know only what you know. So, from our knowledge, split personality would mean that we both can't be present at the same time. Since we both are present at the same time, I think it is not split personality"
"Oh.. then do you mean that I and you are like Edward Norton and Brad Pitt in the Fight Plan movie"
"I am not sure. In that movie, they act against each other isn't it? I wont act against you. I am YOU okay? I think, what I am, is a completely new phenomenon."
"Could be... I am confused... I think I will have to refer Yahoo health to find out if there is anything like that."
"I would do that for you"
"By the way, why did you start with a philosophy? That 'too much of bla bla bla?' And why did you have to be sarcastic to me? How could you be so calm when I was scared to death?"
"Haha... I thought you would figure that out. You, that is we, are one of the most brilliant guys in the world. But you were not satisfied. You tried to increase you intelligence beyond a normal person. I am the result of that isn't it? That is what I meant. I was not sarcastic. I was calm as I know there is nothing wrong. I did not want you to feel angst."
"Haha... but in my case, too much of anything is very good for something isn't it? By the way, now, can I consider myself as a super human?"
"You can consider yourself as a super human. But it wont be true. You wont be able to fly, you wont be able to punch through walls. You wont have spider webs coming from your wrist. All you can do is, you can use me to become more and more brainy. You can do whatever it is humanly impossible with respect to your body-and-mind"
"Could you please explain. I got no clue what you are talking about."
"Where do you think we are having this conversation? You had shouted and screamed hadn't you? Why didn't your mother come for your rescue?"
"..."
"Let me explain"

Please click here to read the next part: The Power

Advertisements

Dear blog readers, I have come up with a decision after giving much thought about it. It is not 'I am going to stop writing' or something like that. I wont give you happy news like that. Ever. It is about one of the most irritating things IMHO. The decision is to, have Google Ads in my blog pages. Before taking any decision, please read through this post.

The first thing I want to assure is: I am NOT expecting my friends to click the ads. I am NOT expecting to become rich out of this. Then why in the world should I have them in my site? Just to experiment what is there in it and how it works. I will NOT have the ads in this main blog I have. I will only have that in my favourite dialogue blog. This blog will remain as pure as it is.

The average visits for my blog sites are around 150 per month. I know about 20 of my friends who visit my blog. All others are some anonymous visitors who visit the page from Google search. Why I am telling this is, to emphasize that, what I am doing is NOT out of an expectation from my friends. Why I keep telling is, I use to get offended if a blog site has Google ads. I don't know why, I used to get it. I don't want any of my readers to get offended.

I have heard a lot of times my friends saying that, 'Your blog is for what you feel like writing or having. You don't have to worry about what others will think'. But I feel it in a different way. I feel that I am honored when my friends (or anyone else) visit my blog. I would like to do whatever in my power to keep them visiting my blog. That said, I would like the finish this post with a small ancient story in Tamil. This story is supposed to have no relevance to this post :), and I am just telling this here.

An old woman who is very poor finds a new business, selling 'curd'. She invests all her money and buys a clay pot and some curd, getting ready for the first day business. She falls asleep and gets a dream: 'She sells all the curd and makes some good money of it and then she invests that money and makes more money out of it and more and more money out of the business. She becomes so rich that she has got a lot of servants. One of the servants when serving her, is not good and that she kicks the servant out of anger.' All these things happen in the dream and in real she has kicked the clay pot and lost all that she has got.

The Power of 50 Paisa

[Some of the content in this post is not appropriate for all audience, as it contains some suggestive material. Readers' discretion is required.]

I think I can start a separate blog for my travel experience; don't think that it would be about tourist spots and my holiday plans; it is about how horrible traveling has become today and the various aspects of traveling.

Let me tell you one of the various aspects. It is the 50 paisa the bus conductors never give back. It happens in Tamil Nadu, India. If the ticket costs X rupees 50 paisa, then it could very well be considered as Y rupees, where Y = X + 1. It is almost always the case. The only way you can get that 50 paisa, is to give a 50 paisa and get one rupees instead.

In my personal experience, it has happened many a times. Very very rarely a few conductors give back to money, but rest of the time, it is impossible. If you ask that 50 paisa change, they would get furious as though we asked a night-out with their wife. Their attitude gets very bad even if you ask for the first time.

You wont believe me, but this happened to me. Once, when I had to get one rupee as remaining, the bus conductor gave me 50 paisa. It really happened to me. If I had to get 50 paisa, he would not have given that :) I didn't ask for another 50 paisa as I thought I can use that 50 paisa somewhere else to save someother time.

The reason I don't ask remaining money is because of some other experience. Once, when I was in a bus, a passenger had to get .5 rupee as balance. As usual, the conductor didn't give that money back. But the passenger was a tough guy (mentally, not physically). He kept asking for the balance and the conductor kept saying he would give it later. Both of them got furious and there was almost a fight.

The driver stopped the bus and they both started shouting at that guy. So, he had to get down. Of course, when he left, he said something like, *I would consider that I had given you that 50 paisa for * [I would say it was because he was furious and went to Level II. Had that guy been in Level I, he might have stopped with the wife :). A sheer observation of public and sometimes myself, gave this knowledge. There is a Level III which is very rare to see or to get, which I wont discuss here].

There are two things that could be done. They are:

1. The government has to change all the ticket price to be of a integer (no decimal parts). If government does that, I am sure its revenue could increase in crores per week.
2. If someone is denied a 50 paisa, they can watch for others and ask them to give 50 paisa less. An understanding that people has to have, but very hard to achieve that.
   

Brainy Friend - Part I - Prologue

[Disclaimer: I am planning to write a completely imaginary story. It may end up un-proceeded like this one. Let me try to complete it. All characters are completely imaginary and all the things explained are completely imaginary. Don't try things that come in this story in your home :)]

Lets jump into the story... The name of the hero of our story is Satesh. The story goes like this...

Despite being a software engineer, Satesh had a great interest in Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani and other natural therapies. He is not as expertised in these therapies as his software skills. Whenever he gets free time, he would Yahoo! it and study and learn about these things. Since he lives in a completely disciplined way, he needed only five hours of sleep. So, rest of the time he was not doing office work, he would do research.

Though he was more intelligent than most of the intelligent people in the world, he had always been greedy to become more and more intelligent. So, he started a new project called 'Brainy' in his Mac laptop. The purpose of the project was to find a new potion that would increase the intellectual capacity of his brain to an extraordinary limits.

So, in a brute force way, he just started adding all the herbs and things that are known to increase the brain power. Some of the ingredients include Centella asiatica, Ash friut, Arokya 4.5 milk, Tata salt and other 100 ingredients whose name we cant pronounce. He processed them at his intuition and prepared the potion after 8 days.

The potion had turned into a fluorescent green and was stinking like, you know that. Somehow Satesh felt that he had created the potion correctly but the look and smell offended him. He could not throw it away; after all, he had come up with a tumbler of potion from 100 kgs of ingredients. Not knowing what to do, and not willing to discuss this with his friends as they may make fun of him, he decided to go for lots. If YES comes, he would drink it and if NO comes, he would try to go for the lots again :)

He tried 99 times and only NO came. Tired of this, he thought, if the 100th time also NO comes, he would give up his idea. So, he put the lots and picked it up and read it. It was NO again. Then he came to know that, he would anyhow drink it, and, without any thinking, in a fraction of a second, he gulped half of the potion. Despite the look and the smell, the potion tasted like elixir.

For the first few minutes there was no reaction. He tried to do complex arithmetic in his mind but could not do any faster. He tried to solve hard Sodoku and he could solve it only in 45 seconds as his usual record. When, he was thinking that the entire experiment was a crap, suddenly, he felt an unexplainable feeling in his body.

Was it pain? Was it pleasure? Was it nice? After all, it was unexplainable. [But I know how it felt... it felt as though 100s of ants had appeared inside his body and was happily wandering on his skin from inside his body] He could not even shout for help and he was in his room alone. When he thought, he is going to die the next second, he heard a voice, "Hello Satesh...". A voice he had never heard before... Even before he could recognize the voice, he fainted and fell heavily on the floor.

To be continued...

Click here for the next part.

[P.S.: I am sorry, if my story has some influence of the great story teller Vijay. After all, I am his fan and I don't feel shame if this has some influence of his stories]

Special Post!

Dear friends, this post is a special one! This is my 50th and as well as my 100th post. 'But how could the same post could be both 50th and 100th?' could be your question. This is the 50th post in this blog, amudhans and this is the 100th post when I put all my 3 active blogs (amudhans, AmusMovieReviews, and AmusFavouriteDialogues). So, I would like to use this post as a flashback and a little history and geography of my experience of blogging. (It would be like a documentary blog... very un-interesting...)

First of all, I sincerely thank each and every one of you who read my blogs (hehe... I know that there are hardly ten of you who read my blogs because I am your friend and not because it is interesting). If it is not for you guys, I would not have written these many posts. So, please accept my gratitude!

First when I started to blog, I didn't know what it was and I had no idea about it. So, I wrote this junk and I forgot about it. Later, my friend Anu asked me why I am not writing anything. She had come to know about my blog from my close friend Shriman. When she asked, I didn't remember my credentials and I didn't even know my blog address. Luckily, by that time, Blogger.com had enabled logging into it with gmail credentials (otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to continue with this address).

So, I thank Shri and Anu to have given me a start. After that I started writing. I thought of writing about the games I play; then the books I read; then the movies I watch. I have to admit that, blogging has really made me to read more books. At least to blog about, I used to read more novels. After that the perception of blogging changed and I strated to write my karuththus (opinions\advices) with a cheap tag *Karuththu Kandasamy*. I didn't know about labels and so I used a tag in the headings.

Then one more perception came into my mind, things which are neither opinions nor advices nor movies\games\books. So, I named them with another junk tag called *Mokka Muthusamy*. Then another category called *Idea Aiyasamy*. By that time, I created a blog specifically for movies. Later for my favourite dialogues. Of course, throughout the time, the one or two comments from my friends kept my spirits alive.

I had an opinion that only if someone comments about a post, it is good; otherwise, it is bad. Earlier, if I don't get any comments, my spirits would go low. I used to feel that it is waste to write anything new. Then I realized that my opinion is wrong (and that no matter what, my posts are bad :)) and started to digest the fact and continue writing and here I am now!

I want to use this post to thank my friend Prabakar who used to comment for almost all my posts; even if it is extremely junk he would write a one-word (not the four letter word :)) comment for my posts. Sometimes, I had even felt that I was writing a blog only for him. I would also like to thank all those who had taken time to comment to my blog (some of them includes: Vijay, Sakthi, Natraj, Vijesh, Sathyan, Shan, Raghu, and Gawaskar)

I would like to mention my most favourite posts of the blogs I read:

• CWA - Prabakar
• Robots in the city - Vijay
• Truths of Life - Sakthi
• Deepavali Trip - Natraj
• Code Review - Vijesh
• UTLS - Sathyan
• Missing You - Shan
• Cycle Rickshaw - Raghu
• A Dream Called Life - Gawaskar

I would also like to mention about the posts I enjoyed writing:

• Forward Mails - The first big post with R rating
• Tale Of Two Friends - The first story series I started (and ended)
• Mother's Love Vs Father's Love - The first sensitive topic
• Stock Market - The first post which got more than 5 comments (a milestone for me)
• setAcclerator - First technical post and most viewed from google search (search in google with: setAcclerator method)
• Wrong Turn - I enjoyed writing this post, especially

I am sorry to have written such a lenghty post. Once again, I thank each and everyone of you who has read at least one of my posts. See you in my next post!

Trendy Vs Traditional - Part I

[Disclaimer I: The Disclaimer I of this post holds very true to this post also]
[Disclaimer II: This post is intended only to discuss about Mouse, the gadget which we use with our computers. If the post seems to have a double meaning, it is entirely\completely because of the reader's perception and that is not what I intended. Having made sure that it does NOT have a double meaning, let me jump to the blog]

Recently, I had to buy a mouse. So, I went to a shop to look for a mouse. There were so many types and so many variteties of mice available. I had an option of choosing a trendy mouse, a semi-trendy mouse and a completely traditional looking mouse. I chose the trendy mouse.

It looked so nice, so beautiful, so slim with nice curves and seemed to be a little costly, but affordable. Thinking that, it would be great to have such a trendy mouse, I bought that. When others see that, they will definitely be envy on me. I would also feel great to hang out with such a cute mouse. Everything was okay, but...

It was hard maintaining it. First few hours was okay, but after that, I could not stand the pain. Just because I had been proud and showing that to everyone, I have to have that for ever, otherwise, those guys would surely make fun of me. The mouse which I use in my office is very traditional. It looks big, fat, bulged, etc. The first time, when I saw that, I thought, "What a distasteful guy, who bought this mouse"

Though the looks were not so great, it was so comfortable, so pleasing to use that mouse. I didn't realize the value of the completely traditional mouse, till I bought a trendy one. Now that I have learnt a lesson. Looks is not always important, when comparing to the comfort and convenience and peace.

But there is another choice, if looks seems to be the highest priority and comfort could be a little compromised. For that, we can go for semi-tredy-semi-traditional mouse. Its look will not be so great as trendy ones, but with less uncomfortable feeling. So, which one you choose, is completely upto you.

Be it mouse, or whatever, when you are going to spend more time with it, it is better to think twice before choosing a flashy, trendy ones, just for the looks. Consider comfort, peace, dignity, maintenance, etc. also, is what the tiny mouse taught me.

Puzzling PJ - Train Puzzle

When I was a small kid (which is only a few years ago), I would be too much interested in solving puzzles. My dad had invested a lot of his money for the puzzle books and almost 95% of the money was like it was invested in a share market. I didn't use many of the books.

But one of the earliest puzzles I was asked from a book is: *Suppose if A has a watch which is 10 minutes slower and B has a watch which is 10 minutes faster and if A thinks that his watch is 10 minutes faster and B thinks that his watch is 10 minutes slower, who would miss the train they have to catch?*

What is the answer? Have you found out the right answer? Yes, B would catch the train and A would miss the train, according to the puzzle. But now, if someone asks the same question to me, I would say, *Both would catch the train, as anyhow, the train would come 1 hours 30 minutes late on an average*. Almost everyone of my travel expereince could be written as a blog. Travelling is always a pain, giving so much of frustrating experience.

Every time the notorious Yashvandhpur Express (Bangalore to Chennai) would always come at 12:30 to 1:30 when it is supposed to come at 11:30. Surprisingly, last time when I and my friend were waiting for that, it came at 11:35. But the arrival of the train has satisfied its purpose, that is to disappoint us, because, just 5 minutes before 11:30, 3 girls (and one of them was pretty good) came and stood in front of us and the bloody train just came almost on time.

Confirm Before You Communicate - Part I

It has been a long time since I met you guys through my blog. This post is about a few of my experiences, that have the potential of being lifelessons. The lesson is, confirm the other party when you are talking over phone or IM before you make funny comments or sarcastic remarks or harsh statements.

The first time when I wanted to shift my company, I have uploaded my resume in Monsters.com and I had got a call from a consultant about a company called Portware and I said okay to attend a telephonic interview. I attended it and I didn't do badly. Shortly after some time, I got another call. The other person told, she was the HR consultant and I I interpretted, out of excitement that, she was the consultant of the job consultency company and she was going to tell about future interviews.

She asked me how did I do my interview and I told I did well. I confirmed that she was just the job consultant. She then asked me to tell about myself. I got offended, 'why does she want to ask these questions?' and I answered insincerely (or sarcastically). I had been laughing when I was answering, happy about how funny I was to answer like that. She asked, "Are you laughing out there?" and I said, "Yes... it makes me laugh to tell about myself to others"; or something like that. The advantage about that is, I had been completely honest in answering the question and I didn't bother to answer ideal or standard answers.

The call went for more than the time a job consultant would prolong.  I started to get greatly annoyed and a little scared. Due to low battery, I asked her to call me to my second phone. After I cut the call, I realized that I had been talking to the HR consultant and not the job consultant. What kind of a fool I should have been? 

That is one of the incidences... I have more incidences that were more deadly. Even now, I haven't fully learnt the lesson. But believe me, no matter how good or great you are technically or personally, it only takes seconds to break the image and ditch you in a deep pit of shit. Though it is better if you don't use such remarks or comments, if you want to use it for fun, make sure you are talking\chatting to the right person.

P.S.: If at all you are curious, I got the offer from the company. You can share your experiences if you had any. If it is too dificult to write a comment, at least please vote for the poll in the right side of your brower window.

Chrome - does not get any crown from me!

I was wondering why Google would do this. I thought Google and Mozilla are friends and Google wouldn't develope a browser. Lets not worry about their business relationship. But my loyalty towards Google has tremendously reduced for my own business reasons :). So, let me tell you first why Chrome sucks. 

1. It is very user unfriendly, in my opinion. No Menu Bars, meaning, less use friendliness.
2. When you close with multiple tabs, it wont warn you. There is no where you can configure it to ask you a warning question.
3. Even if a download is going on, it will happily cancel the download. [actually this is what made me to write this post. I was downloading a file for more than 35 minutes and I accidentally closed Chrome and it cancelled the download. Bull shit.]
4. There is no Google Search Bar. Actually if you type anything in the address bar, if it is not a valid url, it will do a Google search. I didn't know this for some time.
5. No addons or plugins.

But I also have to tell the cool things about this Chrome.

1. It loads very faster. It is very thin. If you want to open a browser the next second you click the icon, Chrome is your toy.
2. The progress of page loading looks cool. The overall GUI is very cool.
3. It has in built download manager I think so. Downloads are done pretty fast.
4. It is a product of Google.
5. Instead of boring useless about:blank page, it shows thumbnails of recently visitated pages.
6. It is very small in size and easy to download.

That is it. Your views are most welcome.

The Rise And Fall Of A Love - A Truly Imaginary Story!

I can never forget that day. It is the day I felt that darkness will prevail in my entire future. It is that day I felt like a part of my heart is ripped off. It is that day I felt excruciating pain without even being touched by anyone or being beaten by a broom. I was not poisoned but I felt my vision was blurring and I was going to die.

But, nothing happened. She left me without any reason. How could she even do such things like that. Before she left, she could have killed me. That would have made things easier for me. But our love is true. I will never doubt that. After the day she left me, she told me what happened to her through... I don't know... how will you call that... did I dream it? or did she tell that through what you call telepathy?

I don't want to investigate further. It was a dream or telepathy. I got answers... that too from her. I felt like, I saw her in real. I still could feel the depth of melancholy that was present in her tears when she told me. May be it is real. Or may be it is a dream. She told that, out of a sudden she was pushed into a complete darkness, and she couldn't realize what happened and the next day, she was in some other place. Who could have kidnapped her? Or she is dead and this was just a dream?

Whatever it may be, she did not leave me. She did not betray me. She was still in love with me. And I am sure, if she is still alive, she would be thinking only about me. Just imagine how horrible it would be for her... to be blindfolded and be kidnapped by some ruthless humans. She told me about how she really felt when that incident happened. I pray God that it should not happen to anyone. Not at least those who are being loved to the deepest possible level.

Why do I have to remember that day today? I wanted to forget that day for an year. Now, today, I am made to remember that day because I am forced into the same situation. Suddenly the day became dark and I am completely wrapped. Bull Shit. It should be again the merciless humans. I don't know who gave the humans the rights to kidnap and transfer innocent, harmless, cockroaches like me? God curse them!

PS: I wrote the story on behalf of the cockroaches which are being packed when we shift the house. One of my friends, went to Korea and when he had unpacked, a cockroach had run out of his suitcase. It was funny to hear.

APS: Recently, we shifted the house. And I was sure, we would have packed several cockroaches with our packages. When we were packing, I drafted this story. I know... I know... it is the junkest of all the blogs you would have ever read. But I just wanted to write stories like my room mate, Vijay, which I know is very tough. By the way, it is him who had kidnapped the cockroach to Korea :)

YAPS: To know how much I hate cockroaches, please click here. Since I was portraying a cockroach I talked about being beaten by a broom or being poisoned in the first paragraph. Don't know how many felt bizarre about those sentences. Also, APS = Another PS and YAPS = Yet APS.

An Interview With A Mega-Serial Director - Mr. TheruChelvam

Click here to read the prequel of this blog and if you are then still alive, continue reading this. Well I don't see mega mokkais a lot. But I have been in my house for a week and so happened to see those shits and they triggered me to write this shit, sorry, blog.

[Disclaimer: This post has some contents that is not suitable for everyone. Viewers' discretion is required. Also, this is just for fun and not to hurt anyone. If it is okay, the go ahead, otherwise, click here.]

Though I really wanted to write like the previous blog, as point by point tips to become a mega serial director, I am so much pissed off by the mega serial called "Kolangal" (Rangoli, it means) which is being cast for some years. Suddenly an idea triggered in my mind as to write a blog which will portrait an interview with the director of the serial. Please imagine that I am interviewing the director Mr. TheruChelvan.

I: "Mr. Therushelvam, what is the current situation in your shit called 'Kevalangal'... sorry... 'Kolangal'"?
B. Guy: "Aadi is trying to kill Abi as she is growing in her status"
I: "Well what was the situation a 6 months back?"
B. Guy: "Well, Aadi was trying to kill Abi as she was growing in her status"
I: "Sir, I asked a different question"
B. Guy: "You didn't note that the 'is' became 'was'"?
I: "Sorry Mr. Theru, next question, what was the situation an year back?"
B. Guy: "hmm... Aadi was trying to kill Abi as she was growing in her status"
I: "Oh my God... What was the situation when it was started?"
B. Guy: "hmmm.... oh.... I forgot"
I: "Let me tell you, Aadi was trying to kill Abi as she was growing in her status."
B. Guy: "Wow... you should be my fan..."
I: "(in a low voice) 'Idhukku nee enna keta vaarthai kondiye thiti irukalam...' huhum... next question. Have you seen your face in the mirror ever before?"
B. Guy: "Excuse me???"
I: "No Mr. Theru, when I was 5 years younger and when your serial started, you were loved by Abi's friend, after that, you had a woman in your house who desperately loved you, then even Abi had a crush, then her sister, then a beautiful girl was introduced and she loved you, then a girl from Cylone who was a terrorist liked you... in the very little time I happened to see your serial due to my bad time, I came over so many situation as to all the girls have a crush on you. Why?"
B. Guy: "Don't you know, why?"
I: "Because you are the director?"
B. Guy: "(Shocked and sweating) No... no... the story needed that"
I: "How come the story needs you to have so many crushes even if that remains a constant?"
B. Guy: "Sorry??? Come again..."
I: "Leave it... next question, I have noted that when 2 character talk to each other, they never see each other. They don't even see the camera. They talk to each other by looking at a different angle, person or object. Why is that? Are all the character blind when they talk"
B. Guy: "Show me one mega serial in which characters talk to each other by seeing each other!"
I: "You win. It is the fate of the viewers. Let me go the next question,

I: "Thank God your name is Tholgapiyan in this shit... had it been Ponniyinselvan or something, your serial might have got an A rating"
B. Guy: "Why are you saying that?"
I: "I knew you wont understand. If you had had that much brain in your head, you should have finished the serial a decade back"
B. Guy: "..."
I: "Leave it... next question, in the very less times I had seen your serial, 100s of attempts were made to kill Abi by minister, rowdies, professional killers, police, etc (sorry if there are a lot of tautologies here) but none of them succeeded. Is it because, Abi is a Goddess or the rowdies and others are lame or the people who watch are fools in your opinion? But I think the first option is obviously wrong and the second option should also be wrong as they are showed killing others easily and we are left with only one option. What is your views"
B. Guy: "hmm... could you repeat the question?"
I: "(thinking) 'Go fuck yourself'... Leave it... let me go the next question, You have brought back a character called 'Karthik' who was Abi's sister's lover. A few years back when I saw him, he was mental patient... but I was shocked to see him 2 days back in a nice coat suite... You can say he is a software engineer or he has got a distant relative in Mysore, but, my question is, why is he struggling to talk in Tamil? Also, does he have any problem with his tongue? or Neck? I didn't understand what he talks for most of the time"
B. Guy: "I can't do anything if you don't know Americal English accent"
I: "Oh... I am sorry... my bad... please put in text in the bottom of the screen that 'Mr. Karthik is now talking english in American accent. Don't pity him thinking that he has got sprain in his tongue'. That will help innocent people like me. Well, that has also answered my other question. The latest villainess also has trouble in speaking... but now I realize that is also American engleepish... next question, for about centuries, Aadhi was showed as the main villain, but now, a new character was introduced and she happens to be looking very good and wears glamorous dresses, is portrayed as the top priority villain. What made you change this?"
B. Guy: "Well... haam... what can I say??? hmm.... for one reason, the serial should prolong till eternity..."
I: "That we know by the nature... answer my question"
B. Guy: "hmm... you can have like she satisfies me with her hard work"
I: "You bloody son of a bitch... this is the interview seen by 1000s of families and you are blatantly talking like this... You..."
B. Guy: "No... no... I said she acts well... no... no..."

And all cameramen and others come and stop me from hitting him and the interview is over in the middle. So, if possible, if the people who see half of the interview want the other half also, the rest of the interview will be taken.

[The director is nicknamed as B. Guy meaning Brilliant Guy and not anything else, anything bad.]

Advices for Stock Market

[Click here to read my first post on Stock Market. The disclaimer of that post still holds good except for that fact that I have got better, meaning, seen a lot more losses. You may also click here and here and here to see my previous posts about share markets.]

During my earlier life in software industry, I was annoyed and confused to see that, in the TV in the cafeteria\breakout area, almost always news channels will be kept. I even remember a manager who uses to change the music channel to news channel even if everyone is watching the TV interestingly. That time, I didn't know why one would always watch the news channels. Later I got to know that a lot of people are looking for the market advice and the price list that is shown in the news channel.

If you listen to the advices they give in those channels, it will be humorous. Suppose if a stock price of a company increased by Rs. 10 the previous day, then in all the channels, guys sitting with power suit and power tie will tell, "The share of this company X is increasing. There is a strong support for this company. The price of its stock will go +50 rupees in one week and it will become +100 or +150 in another 3 months".

If the next day, the same stock price has decreased, they would advice, "Sell the stock immediately. A lot of negative things are reported. Bla Bla Bla.". Sometimes, in two different channels, two guys (again, in power suit... they think they are the most intelligent guys in the world. Bull Shit.) will give exactly the opposite advice. One guy would say, "Immediately buy this stock and it would go +50 rupees" and the other would say, "Close all your position. Do strong short selling" for the same company.

Why do we need to listen to those guys? Even a child could give such advices. If a stock increases, advice others to buy it and if it decreases, advice people to sell it. Nonsense. Why didn't those so-called market analyst guys tell people that the market would fall heavily before it fell on January 16 to 22 2008? They will say, this was not foreseen by anyone. If those guys can only tell things which everyone knows, why should we even listen to them?

It is also very true that, if someone has bought a share, they can boldly appear in TV and say that this share would increase like hell. After everyone buys the share, he can easily sell that for profit and go to other company share to play with. They need not do this for all the shares they play with. They can tell genuinely (there is nothing genuine here. Everything is an bullshit, but here, it means, what they genuinely think will happen) for 8 cases and they can use people as a scapegoat for 2 cases.

So, the best advice what I can give is, don't listen to advices and invest blindly to the companies which you don't know about. If you want to invest in a company, pray to god and do that :) as no factor could help you do the right thing, absolutely no factors like, charts, history, news, records, etc. will guide you do the right thing always.

Stay tuned for more blogs about share market, commodity market, and other live examples of how market could screw you completely. Please share your views and comments about share market and about this post.

Caution - Some tips for avoiding to become a Jackass!

[Disclaimer: This blog is not for readers who are less than eighteen years old or readers who easily get offended. Readers discretion is required.]

I didn't know that Bangalore is notorious for petrol thieves. Almost everyone in the petrol bunk is a trained professional thief and they act in a good team work. One day I went to the petrol bunk and asked the attender to fill petrol for Rs. 200. The innocent looking guy filled petrol for Rs. 50. I said, "I said Rs. 200". He apologized me and started to fill the petrol. Immediately another guy just came and asked me, "Sir, card or cash". I said, "Cash". He asked, "You don't have card, Sir?". I said no.

I was a little shocked to see the petrol was filled for Rs. 150. I had a small doubt whether the innocent guy had started from 0 or from the 50 itself. Wondering about this, I left the bunk. Later, when I told my friends about this, they said, it is the custom of almost every attender in Bangalore to divert attention and fill only for less money. I felt like I was a jackass and was very angry on those bastards.

Then, later on, I used to be very alert when I go to petrol bunk. I had seen many times, attempt being made to fill for only Rs. 50 even if I had said Rs. 200. I used to say aloud, "I said Rs. 200" even before they start filling it avoid becoming a jackass. I used to think that I had become a brilliant guy after one experience.

It is always true that thieves are a step ahead than the police in techniques. Recently, it got proved. I went to a petrol bunk, asked the bastard to fill for Rs. 200. I carefully watched him entering 200 and starting from 0. When he was filling my bike's petrol tank, another guy came and asked "Sir, cash or card", even though I was having Rs. 200 in my hands (after the first incidence, I used to take out the cash and show them and say aloud, "Fill for Rs. X"). I said, "Cash".

Something inside my mind told that, I am being made a bloody fool. When I turned and saw the filling bastard from the speaking bastard, in a split second, my subconscious mind had seen the filling bastard entering 200 in the machine. I could not ask whether he had really filled for Rs. 200, or simply, in the middle, typed 200 in the machine. But I knew, I was fooled and later proved due to the reduced mileage.

No matter how much we are aware, those sons of bitches know how to fool us. I had decided to first pay the money and then NEVER to look aside when the petrol is being filled, no matter how gorgeous a girl comes and stands in the nearby queue. I don't know, they may have another counter for this. But, whenever you go to petrol bunk, make sure, you are not made a jackass!

What you can do is:

1. Tell them aloud, how much you want to fill for.
2. Give the money immediately, even before they start to fill.
3. Check for the amount he enters (If that is less, you are in the process of becoming a jackass. Stop immediately and refuse to become one)\
4. Never ever look somewhere else (if there is a gorgeous girl out there, you can wait for 30-45 seconds)
5. If they call "Sir?", just say to yourself, "You bloody bastard, I am aware of you." and never listen to him till the petrol is filled. (If you don't speak bad words, you can replace that b-word with thief, but never turn around)
6. If still somehow, they cheat you, Welcome to the Club!
   

[P.S.: First I thought to name my blog, "Caution: There are bastards around there!", but later decided not to use that as a title, but somewhere after the Disclaimer]

Mother's Love Vs Father's Love - Part I

[Disclaimer: I understand that this (mother's love and father's love) is a case by case basis. If either of them is too bad in character (like forcing us to read or compelling us to take tonics or preventing us from playing games during exam times, etc.) we will be biased, that we will not love as much as love the other. But this blog has nothing to do anything like debating which one is a greater love. I believe both the loves. I could not digest the fact that father's love is not so much appreciated.]

I understand that, that is a very sensitive topic. But I had always wondered why, in almost all the poems, only mother's love is praised. Why don't the world talk about father's love? Both of them love us as the other one does and only one of the loves is rejoiced by the world. Why? I don't know...

I just wanted to say one incident. I was waiting in a railway station for my train (when have you waited for the flight to arrive in a railway station, may be your question) at 12 in the night (and that bloody train was supposed to come at 11:15). Everyone was almost as restless as I was, standing in the platform. [The station I was waiting is Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore, in which you can hardly see any good benches to sit and the electronic message display will give very useful information like, "Don't spit on the platform", "Get your platform ticket", "KR Puram Railway Station welcomes You", but no information about which train is going to come in which platform and what is the arrival time of the trains, etc.]

At about 12 everyone lost patience and stood near the tracks longing to see a distant hope of a train coming. Near me was standing a mother carrying her daughter. She was so lean that she was not able to manage the weight of the 5-6 years old child. The father of the child was standing near her with free hands. I got very much irritated. Why in the world he is not carrying the child and let her be free? Is this the reason why mother's love is so much appreciated? Is only a mother could bear any pain to see the child sleeping peacefully? Is really mother's love greater than father's love?

These were the thoughts running in my mind. To my relief, the father asked her to give the child to him. I was so much relieved, but not fully happy as he delayed so much to ask the child. I was somewhat persuaded that father's love also exists in the world. Surprise! The child woke up... started to cry aloud. He tried to persuade the child to sleep. It didn't work. The mother also tried a lot to let the child stop crying. No use. The child wanted the shoulders of the mother to sleep. The dejected father gave the child back to the mother. [And to make it dramatic, you can imagine like, one more young, handsome, brilliant, cool, etc. :) guy comes and stands near them after this incident... in some time, he gives the father with a contempt look.]

So, I consoled myself that, right from the birth, there is a bias for the children towards mother. Fathers have nothing to do with it. Even if they love their children, God has so programmed that, to prove a father's love, is difficult and needs extra effort. So, both loves exist and it is the part of the children to rejoice both the loves.

[P.S.: The reason why I praise father's love is NOT because it is only my father who is going to read my blogs (and he will get me a new laptop or bike) and not my mother:). The real reason is, check later for the part II of this series]