Kodai Trip

Last June my company arranged for a 3 day team outing to kodaikanal. We all reached madurai by train and boarded a maxi van to reach kodai. We booked a nice 3 start hotel and went for sight seeing around kodai after some rest.


On first night of our stay we all went to see the movie Shivaji-The Boss, staring Rajinikanth and Shreya. We occupied the last row and till start of the movie to end made so much buildup and sound people on the front seats before out row, moved 10 rows ahead.


Next day our first stop was kodai lake, we went for cycling around the lake and boating in lake. I enjoyed horse ride for nearly half an hour. We also went to kurunji andavar temple and many more locations like pine forest for a day. During night we arranged indoor games like antarakshari where every one of our team participated and had a wonderful experience.




The trip was exciting and enjoyable............

Chennai Flyover Construction

Nowadays I noticed spate of construction activities in all important road junctions like Kathipara, Koyembedu, Padi, Airport, North Usman Road, Panagal Park, to ease traffic flow during peak hours.

Take an example of Padi junction at any point of time during morning and evening peak hour’s traffic will stagnate for over a kilometer on all four sides of the signal. Kathipara junction is another example because it is a important gateway to south of the city, as all the traffic coming from south must pass through to reach western and northern parts of city.

Traffic in Kathipara

The government has sanctioned thousand of crores to build such flyovers by fast track method, in congestion prone traffic junctions. Construction activities in kathipara, airport and Padi junction is nearing completion and will be opened for traffic with in a year or so. Construction activity for Koyembedu junction has been already started after a lengthy court battle for land acquisition (marriage hall). Perambur flyover which is long delayed due sinking of pylons, has been restarted with fresh design for anchoring pylons over soft substrate. And Chennai will soon also get metro rail services soon.

Artistic impression of Kathipara Flyover

Artistic impression of Koyembedu Flyover

Artistic impression of Padi Flyover

Insights in to Dyslexia Issue through the Hindi film Taare Zameen Par

Last Sunday i went to watch the Hindi movie Taare Zamen Par (Hindi: तारे जमीन पर) featuring Aamir Khan in lead role. The story narrates about the difficulties faced by a eight year old Dyslexic child Ishaan(Darsheel Safary) in learning day to day subjects and his sufferings at the hands of teachers and parents. But the kid's exceptional artistic talent was identified and recognized by his art teacher(Aamir khan - who himself was a Dyslexic) brings out change in the boy by his unique style of teaching.

Aamir khan is portraid as a temprovary art teacher Nikumbh, who takes up the responsibility to develop and improve the kid's reading and writing abilities. Nikumbh uses unique and scientific method of teaching to make the kid learn easily and understand the fundamentals. This bring remarkable improvement of the kids progress in studies. And finally Nikumbh organizes an art fair for staff and students of the school. Ishaan's painting, which was creative and artistically good was declared as the winning painting and was printed on the front cover of school's year book.

Aamir khan has to be credited to go away from traditional action or romantic based script to that of a different unusual script. The message conveyed by the story was the problems of the dyslexic kids and how the society views them. Aamir Khan, as a director and producer, handled the delicate theme well to portray to audience about the disability, and how the school teachers and management view it.

After watching the movie i came to know about a NGO in chennai called as Madras Dyslexia Association(MDA), whose volunteers train Dyslexic kids to overcome their disabilites by scientific methods.

The Madras Dyslexia Association can be at:

Madras Dyslexia Assoxiation
11, Sambasivam Street
T. Nagar, Chennai 600017
Phone: 011-91-44-8234908

Map to the location:

View Larger Map

Creative mind

At the end of college days during last day, i did an art work on egg shell and present to my class mate.
We went to madurai for my friends marriage and there i saw a big banner for a brand new apartment...i took this snap holding it in my hand

ICE Kachang

On one occasion our team went for a team lunch for successfully completing the project in a famous chinesse restaurant. A group of 8 boys (including myself) sat on a table, and each one started to order starters individually. We soon realized that the starters we have ordered was so huge that we have to complete our lunch only with starters itself. After finishing the starter only lunch we all ordered deserts with the items like ice cream, cool drinks, salads, etc. I went through the menu and noticed that there was a special ice cream called "icekachang" which was costliest of all the deserts.

I and my friend ordered the item and waited for 20 minutes or so while rest of my team mates completed their deserts. We created so much build-up about the desert item like special integrands and preparation (with out actually knowing any thing about it) to other people. At last the bearer brought our item to our shock it was plain ice flakes with colors and essence. We tasted a spoon but was horrible to even swallow, we tried to pass the item to other mates but every one understood how it would be and refused to eat it. We had no other go other than to consume the so called ice cream. One of the lighter moments was snapped by one of my team mate.

Murukz timing jokes

Once i along with my team mates went out for a group lunch to a popular restaurant. We placed our orders and waiting for the dishes. Next to our table a family was seated, in which a teenage girl was holding a three year old girl on her lap. A girl from my team on seeing the kid commented

"antha ponnu evvallavu cuta irrka ella?"
(Look at the girl she is so cute?).

For which out a sudden came a flash reply from me
"chinna ponna periya ponna ?"
(small girl or big girl)

Once one our team mate was discussing with me about a suitable gift for her parents on their wedding day. After much discussion she said a chain for my mother and pant/shirt for my father would be appropriate. she was not satisfied with the gift, and doubtfully asked it was suitable for them. Suddenly these sentences striked my mind "Being a daughter to them was a greatest gift given to your parents by GOD"
Howwazit

Life of a software enginner (myth vs reality)

Hi folks,

Lets discuss about life of a software engineer - the pressure, deadlines, conflicts, uncertainty, late night working, bugs, bashes, appraisal remarks, hike variance, uncertainty....etc: the reality
vs
what the external world imagine us - secured life, great job, good salary: myth.

"My brother used to comment: If you throw a stone in chennai it may fall over street dog or software enginner- 24 hours day/night"

After my first stint in a small company i moved on to a reputed IT company in search of greener pastures. Every thing around me seems to be different from my older company - atmosphere, work culture, supervisors, colleagues and work . It seems i was lost in the ocean of the large company, during initial few months it was very difficult for me to coupe up to new job. I will return home completely tired and worn out. My family members and relatives who were in cloud nine after i got this job, consoled me that in such a big company there would be some pressure and complexity in work, which had to be matched.

Internally i would feel the pressure but i won't disclose it to them, many days i lost my sleep worrying about work. The first and foremost problem was fitting into a big project - handling a module according to requirements, schedule, methods, target set by some one else - process driven.

It was far different from my previous company where we are out own boss - we set our own requirements, methods, schedule and target to get result- result driven. In our older company we don't have resource or band-with for implementing a process, many times we use methods to get the result with minimum amount of effort, knowledge, resource and time (smart working).


WOW what a life........................


To be continued