Saturday, February 10, 2007

Koffee with Anu (Sibiraj and Namitha)

The program today was great....

Sibiraj and Namitha were cool! I didnt understand that Sibi is junior to Simbu!

Namitha looked thinner than what I have seen of her at Dr.Batras in August.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Blood Diamond

Beuatiful movie, best act by Li Caprio, sure Oscar Winner.

Sierra Leone is well documented as in 1994.

Amistad actor is cool, sure to win best supporting actor Oscar.

Sentimental. Children becoming soldiers shown clear, as all in Asia.

I hope they live in peace.

Well Indians live on their diamonds too! Send me the biggestone.

Fabmall is Indiaplaza

My favourite Fabmall is Indiaplaza now!

K Vaitheeswaran is COO! Go got it baby!

Now Subiksha is in queue... Reliance knocks.

How others steal your money?

http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/investigation/skimmingcreditcard/skimmingotherpeopleswealth/
market/stocks/article/259606

Use the link to find how someone can rob you.....

Steps to avoid

(1) Never use the credit card in restaurants
(2) Never allow the card leave from front of your eyes.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Poems by William Wordsworth that I Like

Poems that I like!

William Wordsworth was born on April 17, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the Lake District.
The magnificent landscape deeply affected Wordsworth's imagination and gave him a love of nature. These are some of his collections, which I cherish.

The Solitary Reaper

BEHOLD her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?�
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;�
I listen'd, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

--William Wordsworth

Daffodils

I wander�d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed�and gazed�but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

--William Wordsworth

Ode
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;�
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth.

Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound,
To me alone there came a thought of grief:
A timely utterance gave that thought relief,
And I again am strong:
The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;
I hear the echoes through the mountains throng,
The winds come to me from the fields of sleep,
And all the earth is gay;
Land and sea
Give themselves up to jollity,
And with the heart of May
Doth every beast keep holiday;
Thou Child of Joy,
Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy
Shepherd-boy!

Ye bless�d creatures, I have heard the call
Ye to each other make; I see
The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;
My heart is at your festival,
My head hath its coronal,
The fulness of your bliss, I feel�I feel it all.
O evil day! if I were sullen
While Earth herself is adorning,
This sweet May-morning,
And the children are culling
On every side,
In a thousand valleys far and wide,
Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,
And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm
I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!
�But there's a tree, of many, one,
A single field which I have look'd upon,
Both of them speak of something that is gone:
The pansy at my feet
Doth the same tale repeat
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something of a mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely nurse doth all she can
To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.

Behold the Child among his new-born blisses,
A six years' darling of a pigmy size!
See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies,
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,
With light upon him from his father's eyes!
See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,
Some fragment from his dream of human life,
Shaped by himself with newly-learn�d art;
A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral;
And this hath now his heart,
And unto this he frames his song:
Then will he fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or strife;
But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with new joy and pride
The little actor cons another part;
Filling from time to time his 'humorous stage'
With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,
That Life brings with her in her equipage;
As if his whole vocation
Were endless imitation.

Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy soul's immensity;
Thou best philosopher, who yet dost keep
Thy heritage, thou eye among the blind,
That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,
Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,�
Mighty prophet! Seer blest!
On whom those truths do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to find,
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;
Thou, over whom thy Immortality
Broods like the Day, a master o'er a slave,
A presence which is not to be put by;
To whom the grave
Is but a lonely bed without the sense or sight
Of day or the warm light,
A place of thought where we in waiting lie;
Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The years to bring the inevitable yoke,
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?
Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a weight,
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!

O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That nature yet remembers
What was so fugitive!
The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise;
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realized,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,
Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,
To perish never:
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence in a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound!
We in thought will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day
Feel the gladness of the May!
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquish'd one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripp'd lightly as they;
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is lovely yet;
The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

--William Wordsworth

Prayers Answered?

Definitely yes. I am fascinated with MGR even today (courage...), dont ask me why, as I am educated engineer and Art of Living Sudharshana Kiriya practisioner, in 1984 he was bedridden, with multiple diseases attacking him fully. Had been sent to Brooklyn Hospital to revive. There were enormous prayers done, and I whole-heartedly I prayed for his well-being and I still believe it had a part to bring him to life and I even got a chance to meet him at Music Academy on November 1987 a month before his death, even though at family front we needed more prayers, and that was being answered. The second most experience was, after my degree (I was selected in campus) started with a software support job, and I was praying intensely everyday, that I should get into software development while doing justice for the job I was doing, which was honoured with a promotion in 9 months. My prayers were answered, and I did move to a pure development job. Still there are more un-answered prayers to varied degrees. One trivial, but interesting short prayer that was answered, when I started for job and after training at Delhi, and I was posted at Secunderabad. I went to my hometown Tiruppur, and after spending 2 days, started for Secunderabad, and reached there late in the evening. I had the address, with an A missing in the Chandragiri Colony. The Plot no was given and found a empty plot, where my friend Chelliah was to stay. The auto driver dropped me of there, and left with all of the Rs 30/- I had in pocket. I felt miserable, and wondered what to do. I prayed then feverishly to help me out of the situation. Within few minutes, a scooter came, and one person took me to the exact house... I thanked the person and asked for his name. He said Sai. I also asked him where he lived, and he said nearby only. Later I tried to search for him in the neighborhood, and never could find him there. Mysterious but mystical. Prayers answered!

The Win for this blog from Microsoft BhashaIndia.com

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Funny Interview? II part

Story I
E: Do u have a boyfriend?
C: I have.
E: Is he working Locally?
C: No. He is working Overseas.
E: Sorry, my company cannot employ u !
C: Why?
E: U will not be able to settle down here permanently. And my Company don't want to pay extra expenses on the Overseas calls just because of u.


Story II
E: Any girl friends?
C: No.
E: So far chased any before?
C: Have, but not successful.
E: Ever think of getting a job first then start looking for a girlfriend?
C: Career is first priority. Currently didn't want to consider This personal issue.
E: Sorry, my company cannot employ u.
C: Why?
E: You are lacking of P.R skills and confidence!!


Story III
E: Any girlfriends?
C: Yes.
E: Is she pretty?
C: Not quite.
E: Sorry, my company cannot employ you.
C: Why? Will this affect your company's reputation?
E: No, it does not affect the company's reputation but because My company is dealing with arts, our company requested an artist.


Story IV
E: Any girlfriends?
C: Yes.
E: Is she pretty?
C: yes
E: Is she your first lover?
C: Yes.
E: Sorry, we can't employ you because you lack of fighting spirit.



Story V
E: Any girlfriends?
C: Yes.
E: Is she your first lover?
C: No. Have a few already.
E: Sorry, my company cannot employ you because you are a "grasshopper"! (Job hoper lah!)


Story VI
E: Any boyfriends?
C: Yes.
E: Is he rich?
C: No.
E: Then sorry, my company cannot employ you because our Company is dealing with money and you will seduce.



Story VII
E: Any boyfriends?
C: Yes.
E: Is he rich ?
C: Yes, very rich.He owns a company.
E: Sorry, we cannot employ you because your boyfriend don't Even want to employ you, neither do we!
C: But,...... there is no position in his company.
E: Then,..... what is your qualification?
C: Secretary!
E: Sorry, we still cannot employ you because your prettiness Will affect your managers' working spirits.
C: But,...... I am not pretty at all.
E: It is even worse because my managers will not be interested In you!!












Enjoy this interview conversation............



Candidate: Good Morning...

Interviewer: Good Morning, So, tell me something about yourself.


Candidate: I am Rameshwar Kulkarni. I did my Tele Communication engineering from BabanRao Dhole-Patil Institute of Technology.


Interviewer: BabanRao Dhole-Patil Institute of Technology? I had never heard of this college before!





Candidate: Great! Even I had not heard of it before getting an admissi! on into it . What happened is - due to cricket world cup I scored badly! in 12th.I was getting a paid seat in a good college. But my father said (I prefer to call him 'baap') - "I can not invest so much of money".(The baap actually said - "I will never waste so much of money on you"). So I had to join this college. Frankly speaking this name - BabanRao Dhole-Patil, can at the most be related to a Shetakari Mahavidyalaya.


Interviewer: ok, ok. It seems you have taken 6 years to complete your engineering.


Candidate: Actually I tried my best to finish it in 4 years. But you know, these cricket matches and football world cup, and tennis tournaments. It is difficult to concentrate. So I flunked in 2nd and 3rd year. So in all I took 4 + 2 = 7 years.


Interviewer: But 4+2 is 6.





Candidate: Oh, is it? You know I always had KT in maths. But I will try to keep this in mind. 4+2 is 6, good, thanks. These cricket matches really affect exams a lot. I think they should ban it.


Interviewer: Good to know that you want cricket matches to be banned.


Candidate: No, no... I am talking about Exams!!


Interviewer: Ok, What is your biggest achievement in life?





Candidate: Obviously, completing my Engineering. My mom never thought I would complete it. In fact, when i flunked in 3rd year, she was looking for a job for me in BEST (Bus corporation in Maharashtra) through some relative.


Interviewer: Do you have any plans of higher study?


Candidate: he he he.. Are you kidding? Completing 'lower' education itself was so much of pain!!





Interviewer: Let's talk about technical stuff. On which platforms have you w! orked?


Candidate: Well, I work at SEEPZ, so you can say Andheri is my current platform. Earlier I was at Vashi center. So Vashi was my platform then. As you can see I have experience of different platforms! (Vashi and Andheri are the places in Mumbai)


Interviewer: And which languages have you used?


Candidate: Marathi, Hindi, English. By the way, I can keep quiet in German, French, Russian and many other languages.





Interviewer: Why VC is better than VB?


Candidate: It is a common sense - C comes after B. So VC is a higher version than VB. I heard very soon they are coming up with a new language VD!


Interviewer: Do you know anything about Assembly Language?





Candidate: Well, I have not heard of it. But I guess, this is the language our ministers and MPs use in assembly.


Interviewer: What is your general project experience?


Candidate: My general experience about projects is - most of th! e times they are in pipeline!





Interviewer: Can you tell me about your current job?


Candidate: Sure, Currently I am working for Bata InfoTech ltd. Since joining BIL, I am on Bench. Before joining BIL, I used to think that Bench was another software like Windows.


Interviewer: Do you have any project management experience?


Candidate: No, but I gues! s it shouldn't be difficult. I know Word and Excel. I can talk a lot. I know how to dial for International phone call and use speaker facility. And very important - I know few words like - 'Showstoppers ' , 'hotfixes', 'SEI-CMM','quality','versioncontrol','deadlines' , 'Customer Satisfaction' etc. Also I can blame others for my mistakes!





Interviewer: What are your expectations from our company?


Candidate: Not much.


1. I should at least get 40,000 in hand.


2. I would like to work on a live EJB project. But it should not have deadlines. I personally feel that pressure affects natural talent.


3. I believe in flexi-timings.


4. Dress code is against basic freedom, so I would like to wear t-shirt and jeans.


5. We must have sat-sun off. I will suggest Wednesday off also, so as to avoid breakdown due to overwork.


6. I would like to go abroad 3 times a year on short term preferably 1-2 months) assignments. Personally I prefer US, Australia and Europe. But considering the fact that there is a world cup in West Indies in 2007, I don't mind going there in that period. As you can see I am modest and don't have many expectations. So can I assume my selection?

Interviewer: he he he h! a ha ha. Thanks for your interest in our organization. In fact I was never entertained so much before. Welcome to our organization.. :-)) We look forward to working with you..:-))

Churning of investments

Churning of investments

Will not help, if you have invested for a lesser period, like less than a year or have got the dividend just around 80 days before (dividend stripping).

Two things you have to keep in mind

(1) Identify the bad investment, which are performing lesser than the best market interest rate & inflation.
(2) Identify the consistent performance investments and fund house.

Even if you need money, if you are having 6 months monthly expense as the buffer, dig into that, for a very short term, like a month - cash balances.

Then when the market is upbeat, move that equivalent amount from the dud investments.

If you had made some capital gains in that particular financial year, it makes to take the loss, and adjust it to that extent only.

What do you loose by churning?

Load costs at 2.25%
STT on the sale of the old investments - not accounted on anything 0.25%
Capital gains, short term if less than 365 days
Mental stress.