Chennai drive after a long while

Since my return back to US, it was very hectic and did not even had time to realize how much the Chennai I know has changed or changing.. Last week had the opportunity to spend some time to receive my relatives from CMBT and host them for couple of days.

First of all it was Saturday morning that I had the confirmation from my wife that they are arriving by noon at CMBT. We had plans to be at place beyond Tambaram for a weekend work(rent collection!! not very exciting).

In one way it was lucky I should say, you know why? It took only 30 mins for me to reach CMBT from Tambaram, yes that's true via ORR or the Chennai By-Pass. Amazing this is the first time I traveled this route. Though the roads a not maintained like say NH4 but still good enough for a 80 kmph drive.

Though we reach Koyambedu in 30 mins, I took a wrong turn into the Market (Thanks to the road sign which said "CMBT ->") and those roads remind you a roller coaster. It took literally another 30 mins to come out of this and reach the CMBT entrance, which was in IRR and I had to take a big detour to take a U turn.

Finally as I reached they were there waiting for us, I managed to find a parking slot for the car and my wife took the challenge of somehow to find them in CMBT. Finally she did a good job back in 10 mins and we are off the CMBT.

Well as a host I had the responsibility of answering their queries and also providing additional info.

To start with it was Chennai Metro, from the Cranes to the road blocks and diversions, to the active construction right through the route to Velachery. We reached Velachery and we were all hungry so instead of going home took a turn to enter into Ananda bhavan. We had good food (I had a faluda to top it up). Then reached home to take rest.

In the evening we decided to go to beach. There was a discussion whether to go to Marina or Besant Nagar. Time was already 4:30 pm by then, my vote was for B.Nagar, which every one agreed, especially if we have to make it on day light.

So we got ready and found our way via Adyar, I did not take the Taramani route(though shorter), as there are enough road's been dugout and traffic diverted in one side for a considerable stretch.

Now as we reached B.Nagar to my surprise it was very crowded oh no! there was some beach event going on and there was not even a single parking spot, not even on the smaller by lanes. Then we all sadly agreed to drive to Marina, knowing that by the time we reach it would be dark.

Luckily as we were finding our way out of the beach road in one of the by lanes we passed notices a spot for parking and parked the car. Hurray, we finally get to have the water splash on our feet by the day light.

We went in had fun by the water, my nephews a 4 yr old and 2 yr old had real fun. Then we decided to walk along and sit around at a place near to a Bajji shop. The beach popularly know as Elliot's beach was buzzing like Marina. It seems very different from the Elliot's beach that I know off. Lots of shops, more family crowd, people playing and running. It was amazing. I bought my nephews a beach ball and lighted devils horns head wear. It was very intuitive. They loved and played along.

It was a our lucky we happened to see the third day moon as well, "Moondram Pirai" as we call in tamil. We usually miss the third day, as my grandma used to say that it is rare to see one and brings good fortune. Then we were all hungry I got my sister-in law a roasted sweet corn. Then we decided to give it a shot on Bajji's. We went for the favourites, Milagai, Vazhkai, Urulaikizangu and Vengayam. We were full. My wife wanted to try a Kulfi on the stick.

On our way out I got her the Kulfi. By the time I got the car the Kulfi is all consumed and sticks thrown and ready to hope in for the drive back home. What a pleasant way to spend a day in Chennai and experience the new Chennai. It is always refreshing and wonderful.

World Cup 2011 so far..

Its been yet another slow start to a long World cup format. Now (March 4th) it has started to enter the dramatic phase. So far, with confusion around tickets sale for semis & final, a tied match with a score of 338, and an a great upset of Irish beating the English. Well what else could you ask for and it is not even half way mark in the Group stage.

The sides that are impressive at this point includes South Africa, well I should say they looked solid in their bowling than their batting, which is not bad either. Though, I believe they are yet to be tested by a strong side. First one will be the English on Sunday 5th March. Still they have got a bowling attach which can get the 10 wickets on sub continental flat tracks.

Next, I would put Pakistan, unpredictable yes, but at this point they have got a nice momentum going, their batting is still shaky at times, scoring 180 and odd against Canada, mmm need to get their acts together and keep it that way through the distance, its any one's guess how it will go.

Then the dark horses, Australians, I thought I would not get to say this so early, hot favorites in the last 4-5 World cups now not any more. But don't rule them out yet. They are the only side packed only with the quicks and do not rely on the spinners. Well it could backfire if any side goes on rampage as they are all more monotonous. Will be eager to watch Aus vs SL, Aus vs Pak.


Last but not the least India, though they are by far the strongest batting team in the tournament and who on paper can get / topple any score or set any target, their bowling and fielding a big worry. Especially if it is a flat bed of a track. Not sure if Piyush will be more relaxed in his initial overs and bhaji will get the first wicket quickly to get his confidence on the high in a match. Well there are quite a few ifs and there is the history that none of the hosting teams of final have won a world cup.

Anyways, nice to have a world cup where there are no clear favorite. I am enjoying thoroughly, though from US with odd timing to watch crucial matches, but happy that at least I get to watch.

Final word on this article to the Cricket administrators in the subcontinent, they should start thinking and building more sporting wickets with something also for the bowlers. I agree every one wants to see a 50-50 over matches and not one sided or 180 allout contests, but that does not mean that 320's -4 to be toppled again with 321's -3. It is not interesting is it?

Windows 7 My First experience

 

I was wondering if I got my laptop a bit too early to miss the Windows 7. Luckily I noticed that it has a upgrade. I requested the upgrade. I had to wait for more than 6 months to get he update. But it was worth waiting.. My first experience is amazing.. and Wow.. not sure if it is because of the Vista experience being so bad. This one is good definitely good. You can feel that the system responds to you.

I usually switch to classic settings and avoid all the gizmos and gadgets, but with Windows 7, it make sense to enable them. The performance is amazing, I could not believe that I am using Windows. Probably the best performance I have ever seen since Windows 95 days. At last I feel I have a OS from Windows which you feel like using the add ons. Lets see how it spans over days. The initial verdict is a thumbs up for Windows 7. Go for the upgrade if you are eligible for it..

Astrology - Astronomy

A bit of Indian history
In the Indian Astrology which according to historians, has been practiced even from BC times, a person's life could be analysed as soon as he is born by merely knowing the date time & place of birth. Well is that statement that could go well in today's scientific world.

If I have to say this in the western world, or ever for that matter in India among the scientific community, how many takers would be there? Well even how many would continue to listen / read this article if I continue to explain the same.

Eventhough it is not practical today for the astrology practitioners, I have a theory, whereby we can explain both Astrology and Astronomy(Science) together.

Hyposthesis

This is my hypothesis based on various concepts that I have come across and some reasoning that I did.

In Astrology
Let me first explain what Astrology says:

Everything (Living non living) is influenced by Planetary motion (4 planets excl. earth, + notional planets Rahu and ketu along with then sun + moon). This causes the Good and the Bad deeds. Happiness and Sorrow. Life and Death.

For the Living ones by knowing the positions of the above heavenly bodies we can predict overall major happenings and its impact upfront.

Like, what impact this new born will have on the family, what education level he/she can attain, how many marriages :-), how many children, travel abroad, ill health and even possibility death and near misses.

Thats to put a few things. Does this sound too much? Well it is and it does, but not all can be laid aside all together. There are few which can be explained by science and maths, also explains how it could have been possible if at all.

In Astronomy

In parallel if you look through the prism of science for a possible explanation, then this what I see.

Energy produced during the big bang is being reflected back and forth in the Universe as MicroWaves (the white and black dots you get when you switch on your tv with out tuning to a channel). These are photos gettting bounced all over the place with varying energy levels. There energy changes based on the reflection and refraction. These are part of the cosmic rays that reaches earth.

Now, so what how could they decide whether I am happy or sad on a day. All our emotions and we ourselves are into existence due to various chemical reactions that take place with in our biology. Meaning, assuming we have probe in our body and monitors various reactions, then we can predict our emotions at any given point of time without having to look for our typical exterior reactions like the ones through the face and tears. So, all our good deeds, emotions are nothing but a set of chemical reactions induced and influenced by some of virtual triggers like social interaction, goals, efforts and results. End of Day everthing are set of chemical reactions.

These reactions are affected / impacted like any other by the high energy photons that hits us, the probability of some high energy photons hitting us from those reflected from the near by planets are higher than those far away.

This holds good not just for planets since sun due to its huge size in the proximity and moon by its sheer proximity also plays a big hand on those photos getting to us. Since, it is the position of these planets when we came into direct contact with the photos from them (during birth) which determines the first configuration. Any subsequent reactions seems can be predicted if you know the first and then the time ellapsed since, by mear use of Mathematics and Patterns of reactions as against planetary arrangement for a specific pattern of birth Star positions.

Astrology vs Astronomy - Why getting difficult to correlate today?

If thats the case why are we not able to predict today?

Possible reasons:
a) On those days in BC the pollution was literally non existent and these photons interaction with the current polution levels have brought in additional variables on to the equation which were earlier almost constant and now giving enough deviation to throw the earlier math of the track.

b) The math was not taught or understood the same way over the generations and in ability to adapt the equations to the new variables that have started to cause effect. Had we compensated to these new entrants on the stage then the predictions could have been much more accurate.

Conclusion
Not sure whether this was worth a read, but it was my wife who inspired me to put this. Any comments would be welcome.

Vantage Point - Understand how it would be from other Key persons point of view

I had recently watched the movie 'Vantage Point'. I felt that the movie was not creating the expected excitement, atleast to more than half of the crowd in the theater.  That's not the point which I am intended to discuss. This movie is based out of the concept that same incident in the view point of different individuals with varying knowledge creates different impression and conclusion.

Now that is our topic of interest. Any individual when they join the stream of work, is more likely to b one dimensional in this aspect. Meaning mostly thinking about, how things have to span out in their career and what they need to get as they grow and achieve.

But the point here is unless you understand how your actions evoke reactions from various by-standers it is difficult to grow up in the career. Many a times you wanted to convey something but you end up conveying something else.

That is you need to evoke very predictable and desirable reactions. Desirable does not always mean positive and sometimes a negative response is what we wanted to evoke.

Those who start becoming multi dimensional in understanding others point of view before an action and its consequences would have higher probability of growth. Ofcourse how you use it your advantage is based on your Emotional Quotient. Nevertheless a word of caution some people think so deep about the reactions that it leads to 'Inaction'.

Think before you act, but definetly you have to decide sooner than later to act.

You Hurd it right. - About a top CEO

Nice quote I happened to read about one of the smart CEO's Mark Hurd (CEO, HP). This was the remark made during Hurd's earlier assignment, where he grew from an ordinary sales man to a CEO.

"Our theory on people was that you give them responsibility," says Gilbert Williamson, a CEO of NCR during Hurd's rise. "To my knowledge, every time we threw Mark out the window he landed on his feet. So we moved him up a floor, and he landed on his feet again."

This should be a motivation for any one who aims to grow vertically at a good pace with lots of learning without hopping jobs.

Responsibility

Responsibility is a word which most of us use very commonly. This comes up mostly during the discussion on any new upcoming task or during a post-mortem of a task. So, have we ever wondered what is responsibility and what makes us being 'Responsible'.

Every action we make leads to consequences. It always leads to a Desirable and Undesirable outcome. Key to note here is that the very same outcome which we might think as desirable to one could be undesirable to another. For instance, helping a colleague on his work is desirable as well undesirable. It gets the work done quickly probably and saves time, which is desirable. On the other hand it prevents them from being creative or learning from mistakes (that is undesirable).

Without taking any more time, and being 'Responsible' person, let me get on with the point of Responsibility.

'It is to understand the desirable and the undesirable consequences of any of your actions before it is actually being done and decide whether it is appropriate to take such an action'

Meaning, understanding the positive and negative impacts of your actions and weighing them before we actually proceed with the action.

Do we understand the consequences every time before we act?? Well there is the point, most times especially in our work setting we tend to execute (Act) instructions from our boss. If it leads to mostly undesirable consequence, then who is responsible. Lets make it more interesting assuming my boss has just translated my Super boss instruction, now who is responsible for all the negative effects?

Super Boss? Boss? or ..... thank god we have this on the list 'You'/'Me'/'Us'.

Any Guess? If you have said any one of the above its not correct, it is actually all of the above.

Don't agree?, lets look at the scenario again. Before giving instruction, my Super boss made a decision to do so. Meaning he had a Yolk in front of him, to go left or right was the decision point. Lets assume in this case he decided to travel right and that was the decision. Now that came to the boss, again he has a Yolk to decide, again he took a right and it comes to you you also did a right in your Yolk, which led to Undesirable effect.

If any of them in the Action, have been responsible then they should have travelled up the Yolk and explained the impact to the superior and could have lead to corrective action. Since none of them did it led to the effect. Hence they all were not acting Responsible.

For any Organisation or Team to succeed quickly it needs to practise 'Collective' responsibility. Meaning every individual should understand the impact of action they take or part of and make sure the if any undesirable impact is foreseen the same is highlighted to higher up the Yolk and the same is corrected.

Google Opens OpenSocial Site And Provides Orkut Support

The Google OpenSocial site is now live (here). The video above comes from the Google OpenSocial Campfire held Thursday night and is featured on the front of the new page.

The site includes the complete OpenSocial API Documentation, FAQ and Group area.

Also now live is OpenSocial support for Google’s big in Brazil social networking site Orkut (here). According to Google, the OpenSocial implementation on Orkut has the following benefits:

* Building both showcase and canvas views, with Apps having the ability to create multi-page experiences in the full page canvas view.

* Foster communication among friends by allowing access a user’s profile information, friend list, and an update feed so that people can see what their friends are up to.

* Learn once, write everywhere as apps written for Orkut under OpenSocial can be used to build social apps for other websites.

The OpenSocial team also has a blog here.

Orkut joins Plaxo, and possibly tonight Ning as being the first sites with OpenSocial support.

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Dual Core - Dual Processor !!! Getting confused here we go..

Here is a very easy and good article to explain the Dual core. It explians when it make sense to go dual core and how it is implemented by various chip makers and what is the difference. Atleast it help me to make out what it means..

Blasts that could just rock Mumbai, but not break..

Its very disheartening to hear such incidents... Be it in London or in Mumbai, its one of the worst news you would want to hear where ever you live. I was just back from work and switched on the tv sets to see the horrible news of the blasts.

It was deadly scenes and any traveller's worst nightmare, that is seriel blast on crowded trains. What could be the major motive behind such attacks.. What could just have been gained by killing so many common people who would not even have ever met these bombers in their life before, leave alone doing any harm to them.

The only conclusion you can come up with is, that they want to create fear and insecurity among people. If at all the bombers stood there to watch the aftermaths I am sure they would have realised that they failed miserably. People did not flee the place in fear.. they stayed there to help the others. they did not feel insecured that there could be more devices but stayed to help to carry the injured and dead to the hospitals and away.

That alone is good enough to show these cowards that they have lost and have not and cannot acheive what they aimed for this time and hopefuly anytime.

Hats off to those who stood and helped, even if few did so instinctively..

Lets hope our policy makers get it right here on and can avoid future incidents.