Monday, December 13, 2004

Incredible Incident at Vaitheeswaran Koil

I went to see my Kula Daivam in a small village near Chidambaram with my family. I have been taking lots of Photos during this time and I had several photos of my Kula daivam - "Badrakaali Amman". After which, we had travelled to Vaitheeswaran Koil in Chidambaram.
I went near the temple tank and was happily snapping away. The mandap in the middle of the tank looked exquisite in the twilight hour. I wanted to take one different angle, where I could focus on the temple interior through the temple entrance and lo !!! Surprises !!! I find my camera battery empty ! I thought that it was full some few minutes back and I have an indicator which shows if it is on a smaller level. (I have a Canon Digital Rebel SLR).I do have tricks up my sleeve. I switched off the camera. Waited 5 minutes, switched it on. Still no sign of life !! After which, being disappointed, I resigned myself to my fate, and switched off the camera.

I came back home, wanting to download the pictures onto my PC. But I would require to charge battreries since to transfer, it requires some amount of power in the camera. I connected to my PC, just thought I would check if any power was there and again SURPRISES !!! I had a full battery !!! I connected and was able to tranfer all the pictures back to my PC and still the battery was full. Maybe god did not want me to take that picture ? What else could I attribute it to ? My camera is perfect.

I did mention this incident to my sister and she tells me that I was making it up. I am not making it up. In fact both my dad and mom were near me at that time and I did try for some time to make the camera function there. I do beleive now that there was some power near the temple tank which prevented me from snapping in that angle.
I did manage to get one very beautiful picture.

and another one

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Ingenious Crime at the roadside temple

This incident happened just 2 days back. I have a friend by the name of JRN Rao. He has a small temple (pillayar koil) just outside his flat. Normally, he does Pooja to it on a regular basis. On Monday, he saw a small urchin going around the temple with fervor after his morning pooja. His wife who had gone to the temple after he had left came back immediately since she did not like the looks of the boy. She suspected that kid to be a thief and informed that he was behaving in a suspicious manner. Since she was wearing jewels, she came inside the house and complained to Rao.

Mr.Rao (detective) came out and saw that the kid did act in a suspicious manner. He would go around once stop in the front touch the hundi and so on. He had been going around for the past 15 minutes. Mr.Rao kept behind him slowly and peered, he saw that the urchin would go around once, put his hand in the hole in the hundi, stop for a few secs, look around to see if no one was looking, take his hand, and so on.

The next time he came around and put his hand on the hundi, Mr.Rao ran there and grabbed his hand. He questioned him on his actions for which the urchin said he did not do anything. On close scrutiny of the hundi, Mr.Rao saw a small black ribbon hanging out. When the urchin was questioned, he shook his head that he did not know anything.

When Mr. Rao threatened to take him to the police for suspicious activity and behaviour, the urchin started taking the ribbon out, and guess what came with it ???
COINS !!! A whole bunch of them were stuck to the horse magnet attached to the black ribbon.

His mode of operation was explained by the urchin on further questioning. He would go around once. Stop. Put the magnet into the hundi. Go around. Take the magnet with coins outside. Next round put the magnet in. And so on.

After that, he fell down at Rao’s feet and the general sob story..that he was from a good family and he needed money…he will not do it again…and so on. Mr.Rao being a softy had released and told him never to repeat it again.

Many of us who heard this real story from him were very much angry at the boy’s behaviour except some of us including me, who marveled at that street urchin’s ingenuity at committing the crime.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Diwali was good ...

This year Diwali went well. I did manage to get some good photos with my camera. Some of them may not be excellent due to the fact that I did not still get myself a good stand and all the photos were hand-shot. The minimum time exposure being 0.5 secs to 10 secs. My hand was pretty stable...on most of the shots. My sister did exceedingly well...and she bravely set off many cracker...I was the watchful one...One of the rockets headed straight into the neighbours house
(6 secs at aperture 18)


...we did peep after a couple of secs to verify that all were well.
The arial shots were fantastic.
(4 secs at aperture 18)



and a link to one which I made into a wallpaper Glitterring_gems.jpg.


Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Coimbatore is Interesting !

My first visit to the Coimbatore. I went to this Marutha Malai temple dedicated to Lord Muruga. Boy was I surprised on the ATTITUDE of the priests there. We had purchased 4 archana tickets (Rs 2 each) and they would not recite more than one name per ticket and specifically said that they would not say!!!! (In contrast I was thinking about our own Kabali temple in Mylapore, u could tell them a dozen names and they would mention all tose names before the lord). Maybe they should have put a board out there in Marutha Malai...mentioning this fact !!!

When I am spending in thousands to go there, what is a few rupees more ????

Basically I am surprised that such persons with such negative attitude should be near the Lord !!!
A warning to those who want to go to this temple...do buy tickets for archanai for the number of individuals you would want them to repeat ...

The other fact was that they did not place any of the items before the Lord...they rather brought all the items outside and just redistributed...to the persons who had given them. My Chitti & Mom were one surprised lot.

Other than that we went down to visit the cave where the Paambatti Siddhar was placed. The whole place there is very beautiful to look at.

After that we went on a visit to Perks Matriculation School which has an exact replica of the Great Pyramid. Meditated inside it for a while and also purchased a small replica of it.

A funny thing happened...I kept my cellphone full charged near the pyramid...this morning my batteries were empty...and it has shut off...maybe I might have to re-experiment...I don't know how it has happened !

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Japanese Quality Standards

They're still laughing about this at IBM. Apparently the computer giant decided to have some parts manufactured in Japan as a trial project. In the specifications, they stated that they will only accept three defective parts per 10,000.

When the delivery came in there was an accompanying letter. It said, "We Japanese had a hard time understanding North American business practices. But the three defective parts per 10,000 have been separately manufactured and have been included in the consignment. Hope this pleases you."

Photography

I have been interested in photography for quite some time now. Have posted a few of my photographs in the link below. I am just an amateur photographer. Do inform me if you have any suggestions.

http://www.ephotozine.com/user.cfm?user=8150

My suggestion to budding photographers. Do check out this site. They can help you by giving fine pointers.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Search better in external websites

Modified the search query by google to suit myself. Using this query, a better search can be made on websites. Some sites as we are aware have a terrible search engine and throw up all unwanted links. There are also lots of sites who do not have a search engine.

For example: You want to search for customer details in a company's website and it has no search engine. You will end up going through all the links and searching for that information. Now you have a better and faster method of finding information.

I guess, using google, we could have an advantage here.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&sitesearch=satyam.com&q=profits


Enter the name of the new website at "satyam.com" and the search query at "profits".

Those of you who know already, well and good, those of you who don't, check out this one.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Stop Smoking ...NOW...YOU CAN...I DID

I guess it is more than a year since I had stopped smoking. Yeah..that's the way !!!

The technique used by me was a bit unique, so felt it could be used by someone else too. I had been smoking for about 14 years. I had, as every other smoker tried many times but was unsuccessful. I could stop for a maximum period of 3 days and then the feelings would become stronger then ever.

I needed a strong purpose/desire.

The first strong try was for "my sister's request". It was a very strong desire and I was able to stop for 15 days but then again, I started after meeting a friend. A puff became a small cig, and 1 cig, 2 ... and my normal quota of 3 became 5...I thought that I would be able to leave it but again it became a continuous affair.

I knew something was wrong at that stage, since I had a strong desire to leave smoking but unfortunately my progress had setbacks. I started my search for answers. I came across an article that had something like "soul clearing ", mentioned. The article mentioned that there are friendly entities (harmless/harmful depending upon the person) that are attached to the astral body. They would have your similar likes and dislikes but some of them may have some bad habits too. Even if you will to leave a certain habit, their desire would entice you back to the same point. So, the only way to get rid of the desire in entirety is to first get rid of the entities.

For example: A spiritual person would have spiritual entities that help him in his knowledge quest but they would also have the desire to smoke and they satisfy their feelings through him. A trade-off happens most of the times.

The final attempt had the final purpose was that "my sister's request" and "body purification". I cleansed my body of all these entities. I requested them, and compelled them to leave my body through proper directions.

I was stunned with what happened next. I did not have any desire to smoke at all even if I stood near the persons who smoked. That yearning was gone in entirety. But anyway, I avoided all smokers as much as possible for the next fortnight. I did get that desire after 15 days (return of the entity) ... but I had become very careful then and forced them to leave again. Now, I do not have any desire to smoke even if I stand near smokers. In fact, I have become aware of the smell of tobacco. It smelt like a "corpse" !!!

I wish to thank all beings that had helped me in this endeavor and a big thanks to my sister "Chomi". It would not have been possible without her help.

There’s no such thing as you can’t…You Can…You Can…But you have to try first…and keep trying for success.

Offshore vs Onsite

Just received a couple of pictures on the offshore and onsite scenarios. Did find them interesting.
Many of you will find yourself relating to it. :)
Offshore:

Onsite:

Thursday, October 14, 2004

The Japanese Fishy Problem

A Fishy Problem
The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther out into sea. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer.However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference.
So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?
Life’s like That

The human mind is fickle. To be or not to be is an epithet that is as applicable to each one of us as it was to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We’re always chasing dreams. It’s good. In order to exploit the best that life has to offer, it is necessary to keep striving and searching for the “more” that we can get out of life. Problem is, that as soon as we reach our goals, such as finding the right mate, meeting our business targets, getting the right career breaks or whatever else it may be, we tend to lose our passion about it. You no longer feel the need to work so hard as you did when you were trying to get where you are, so you tend to get lax. It’s the same problem wealthy heirs who never grow up and bored homemakers who get addicted to prescription drugs.
So, how do we handle this? Does that mean, one should be continuously chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Does it necessarily mean that success will bring lethargy and a laid back attitude in it’s wake. On the contrary ... like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is simple. Add a zing of challenge to life. It keeps the fizz in and ensures that boredom doesn’t set in.
The Benefits of a Challenge

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you will enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you will be happy. You will think of your challenges and get energized. You will be excited to try new solutions. You will have fun. You will be truly alive!
How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.
Recommendations

Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them. Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Failing makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help. If you have met your goals, set some bigger goals. Once you meet your personal or family needs, move onto goals for your group, the society, even mankind. Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.
Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

The Memorial - A True Story

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge.
"We want to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait," the lady replied.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away.
They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted. "Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him.
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched.... He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."
"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building!
Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs?
We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now.
The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?"
Her husband nodded.
The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.
Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
One can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.

$ 20 Bill

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."
He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?"?
And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. crumpled and dirty.
"Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To God, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless.

Monday, October 11, 2004

The 90/10 Principle

Have you read this before? Discover the 90/10 Principle. It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations).
What is this principle?
10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react.
What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us.
We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off.
A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different.
You determine the other 90%. How? By your reaction. You cannot control a red light., but you can control your reaction. Don't let people fool you; YOU can control how you react.
Let's use an example. You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You haven control over what just what happened. What happens when the next will be determined by how you react. You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit. After a 15-minute d delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home, When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.
Why?
Because of how you reacted in the morning.
Why did you have a bad day?
A) Did the coffee cause it?
B) Did your daughter cause it?
C) Did the policeman cause it?
D) Did you cause it? The answer is D.
You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.
Here is what could have and should have happened. Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "It's ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.
Notice the difference?
Two different scenarios.
Both started the same.
Both ended different.
Why?
Because of how you REACTED.
You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction.
Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle.
If someone says something negative about you, don't be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don't have to let the negative comment affect you! React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc.
How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall off) Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them?
WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive? Remember the 90/10 principle, and do not worry about it.
You are told you lost your job. Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out.
Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job. The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day.
Why take out your frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on. Use your time to study, get to know the other passenger. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse.
Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it. The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle. The result? Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. There never seem to be a success in life.
Bad days follow bad days. Terrible things seem to be constantly happening. There is constant stress, lack of joy, and broken relationships. Worry consumes time. Anger breaks friendships and life seems dreary and is not enjoyed to the fullest. Friends are lost. Life is a bore and often seems cruel. Does this describe you? If so, do not be discouraged . You can be different! Understand and apply the 90/10 principle. It will change your life.

IT salaries zoom; HP best paymaster

October 08, 2004 07:20 IST

Salaries in the information technology sector went up by an average of 19 per cent in 2004 with senior level professionals gaining the most, according to Dataquest-IDC survey.

The survey revealed that Hewlett-Packard, India was the top paymaster among Indian IT companies, followed by Cadence and Philips. It found that salaries of IT professionals with over 10 years experience increased by 26 per cent to an average Rs 12.4 lakh (Rs 1.24 million).

Salaries of those with 5-10 years experience went up 24 per cent during 2004 to Rs 670,000, while in the 2-5 years category salaries went up by 11 per cent to Rs 420,000. However, salaries of freshers in the industry registered a significant 12 per cent drop to Rs 260,000.

The survey also found that despite emerging as the highest paymaster, H-P scored low on employee satisfaction.

While Cadence topped in terms of satisfaction, Philips stood second while H-P ranked eighth. Sasken, which stood fourth among highest paymasters, was ranked sixth as far as employee satisfaction was concerned.

"Money is not the main motivator any more. Companies that are good paymasters have a large chunk of employees dissatisfied, and even dissatisfied with their salaries, and this is a rising trend that we have observed for a few years," Dataquest group president Prasanto K Roy said in a release.

The salary survey, which was conducted across 1,010 employees representing hardware, software and services firms, also revealed that IT companies extended perks and benefits to a larger base of employees in 2004 as opposed to 2003.

It said while salaries went up, the satisfaction with salary levels and "salary as the top reason for joining a company" was declining.

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Indian stock market news & views

A list of my favourite sites for Indian Stock Market:
http://www.nseindia.com
http://www.moneycontrol.com
http://www.myiris.com (Wish I knew this one before !!! Site's a lot slow to load but analysis is good.)

Papers:
Business Line: More accuracy with respect to stock. (I purchase this now)
Economic times: More accuracy with respect to market scenario. (I used to purchase this)

Periodicals:
Business World: Good news on market scenarios with study.
Business Today: Not all the books are good, but some are.
The week: Political scenario and other musings.
Outlook: Good on occasions.

Advice to beginners: Do not trade in futures without good market knowledge. (Don't trust the broker!!! He probably know only 1 % more than you). However, if you a planing to invest 50 Cr...go ahead, you have total control anyway. The big ones control the market, we are just wee tiny ones. So watch out and rely on your instinct and good advice if your instinct is bad. :) Confusing you, am I not !!!

Riddles

Just found this site with a good collection of riddles. Anyone preparing for Infosys: you need to check the alternate thinking style. Check here: http://www.humorshack.com/archive/riddles/index.shtml

My thoughts on life

Life and time are relative. Life appears its length of time the way we look at it. As a human, life to 80 years in human life line. In a fly's life line which lives for only a few days, human appear to live forever. In the view point of a redwood trees, human life is just a dot. Life and time period are less important. What is important is what impression is made in this span. Has a good example been set for future generations ? Character and Attitude appears to have survived through lenghthier times but is there a time period for that too ??? I wonder ?