One beautiful evening at XL

The evening sky at XL is one of the most beautiful things for a photographer... A splendid sunset throws rays that extends well into the night. I have tried to capture some of the most resplendent moments
The times that we spend doing "adda" at JLT, our corridors reminiscent of the fun we've had there, and a green city...Go have a look...
Splendid evening at XL

Simbhu and his acting

i asked sk how was VTV... here goes the conversation:

karthicksaravanan: trisha was too good..
everything was good.. except simbu's acting


muthuraja: that's only to be expected :P


karthicksaravanan: madhavan or sitharth would have done it better..
but its a tough role..
not of his type..


muthuraja: which role is of his type da?
;)

muthuraja: whenever rahul dravid gets out u used to say "that was an unplayable ball da"... ippo simbuvukku "kashtamana role da"...

ippadiye vetti pasangala support pannitu iru :)

karthicksaravanan: :)

Amazing trip to Egypt

I went on a trip to Cairo to (ostentatiously :P ) take training for people in Egypt centre of Oracle. The trip was eventful and I had quite a few memorable moments.
My friend Hemachandran was already working in Cairo and we had wonderful time together with his friends.
I have uploaded the Cairo pics at http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/vv340/muthu_raja/cairo/
We visited Pyramids in Cairo. So at last I have visited a world wonder. It looks amazing from the outside. Just check out the pics where I have climbed on the pyramid. Each stone is as tall as me and it weighs in tonnes. I really wondered how they managed to take it up for that height with just bare hands.
We went inside the pyramids too. It looks like caves. It's suffocating on the inside because there's very less oxygen. We weren't allowed to take photos inside though. Also nothing noteworthy was there inside.
We also visited a mall called city stars. It was a mammoth mall with lots and lots of shops. It was so uncrowded and pleasing to be.
We also visited a market for gift articles in a place called Khan El Khalili. There were lots of beautiful paintings made in ancient paper called Papyrus, which is made out of papyrus tree and banana tree. I bought few articles like glass pyramids, alabaster stone (it was translucent) and a wall hanging.
From our apartment we had a beautiful view of the Nile River. The Cairo tower (tallest in Cairo) and Cairo Opera House were monuments that we went past daily.
Alexandria pics are at http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/vv340/muthu_raja/alexandria/
We went to a beach city called Alexandria another weekend. Alexandria is a beautiful city and the second largest city. It got its name because Alexander the great captured it. It's 250 kms from Cairo in the northern part of Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea. It used to be the capital of ancient Egypt. It has many ancient architecture like Fort, Palace, Library, etc. One of my trainees and resident of Alexandria, Nabil accompanied us. He had studied at Collège Saint Marc, an important educational institution in Alexandria.
I have uploaded photos taken in the fort (morning photos), library (big, modern building) and palace (evening photos).
The view of the ocean from fort and palace was breath taking. It was so blue and pure. Fisherman fishing along the shore side and the waves trying to engulf them was a pretty sight. The fort looked majestic and had an Egyptian flag atop it. It closely resembles Indian flag except that it has an eagle pic in the middle instead of chakra.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria) was built from 1995 to 2001. It looked massive. Its outer side has a slant with lots of windows on the rooftops. It is designed such that the windows resemble eyes and the window shields resemble eyebrows. Inside there were quite a few old printing presses and stuffs used in ancient times. They had 2 museums inside the library itself containing photos of old Egypt and artwork. The library had inscriptions in all languages on the outer wall. Even Tamil characters were there. Look out for them. Some of the floors of that library were under the sea level.
We visited the palace in the evening. It was chill and the breeze was awesome. The evening sun played out vivid colours on the ocean front. There were lot more places in Alex but we had less time. So we left with our hearts wanting for more.
Here are some exotic photos : http://flickr.com/photos/muthuraja/

Visweswaraya Museum

When my parents came to Bangalore I had a dilemma where to take them. I thought that taking them to temples and parks would be the safest option so that they won’t get bored. As it turned out I took them to Lal bagh the first day. They got bit tired after watching all the different trees and love-birds (pun intended). Then I wanted to take them to a place nearby. So I took them to Visweswaraya Museum.
My mom and dad have a nose for science. We used to watch science related programs on TV like Surabhi on doordarshan from my childhood itself. So they quite naturally loved the science stuff in the museum.
In the ground floor there were working models of various mechanical components especially engines. The Kamalhassan movie style balls moving through various pipes and taking different paths and finally reaching the starting point was fascinating to watch. Demonstrations of waves and ball moving up with the help of pedal power were nice learning experiences.
In the other floors there were models in Electronics, Space science and Bioscience. Electric arc formation during lightning was also demonstrated with good effect.
We also saw a 3D video show in which they showed about underwater exploration. At one point we felt as if a thing in that movie was moving straight towards our head. The 20 minutes video was awe-inspiring.
We also attended a science magic show. In that the ‘magician’ showed magic based on science. He burnt a paper but it didn’t change into ashes. It was brought back as it was before burning. He did that by soaking a paper in a chemical (whose name I don’t remember) and water mixture. He lit the paper with a matchstick. Due to lower density the chemical stays on top of the paper and it alone burns. The water saves the paper from burning.
He performed various tricks. Finally he called me up and asked me how many of his questions I have answered. I said none. So he said I deserve punishment and asked whether I want a single punishment or the same punishment 100 times. I obviously opted for the first one. He took one square board with a big nail on the center of the board and told me to sit over that. All broke into laughter and I told I would better go for the other punishment. Then he gave me another square board with 100 nails on that and told me to sit over that. He gave the board to another volunteer and told to check the sharpness of the nails. They were sharp indeed. I bravely(!) sat and the audience went silent for a moment. Nevertheless nothing happened. I knew nothing would happen because pressure = force / area. Since force was spread all over the area pressure would be less and hence I won’t tear my trousers and its contents.
If you get time do visit the museum once. It’s definitely better than spending time in parks and malls. What I have mentioned in this blog is very less. There are lots of interesting stuffs and I guarantee that you won’t get bored.

Commercialism or Faith?

Last weekend, when my parents came to Bangalore, we visited 3 temples. The temples that we went were huge. Those temples were awe-inspiring architectural marvels. Most of the Gods’ statues were decorated with Gold, diamonds and other valuable stones.
Nevertheless they didn’t give us a divine feeling. Getting tickets to see the Gods’ statues sooner and at close quarters gave me a sense of false faith. Are the poor not allowed to see the shrine at close quarters just because they don’t have money?
You lose the feeling of the divinity and tranquility associated with temples when you see various shops and eatables within the temple premises. What would a child who comes to visit the temple think? It might think that temple is yet another shopping mall.
In another temple they had kept miniature models of Gods and their avatars that move with the help of motors and microprocessors. As we had expected tickets were collected to see these things. Selling books, gold coins, lamps, etc adds to these. How much more can one commercialise things!
The money, which is gained in such a way, is purportedly used to support a charity school. In this case the temple authorities could very well spend the entire money used to build the temple for the cause of charity. The gold, diamonds and other valuable stones used for decorating the statues and gopura would be worth lakhs and they could have rather been used to serve the poor and the downtrodden.
I do donate to one charity school. I visit the school in regular intervals and have some fun with those children. What could give you more happiness than seeing a poor child getting new clothes during a festival? Give some money to the poor whenever you can and see their happy faces. That will give you more peace and satisfaction than visiting thousand such temples.
All that said I maintain that I am not an atheist. I do believe in God. According to me temple is a place where there is peace and you can meditate and pray. Temple is a place where there is no difference between rich and the poor. For me God is not a statue decorated with valuable stones. God is Love.
I would like to quote a few lines from a song in my favourite movie “Anbe Sivam”:
யார் யார் சிவம்
நீ நான் சிவம்
வாழ்வே தவம்
அன்பே சிவம்

Bad Way to Know People’s Needs (KPN)

Last Sunday night I had a horrible experience with KPN bus service. GG's friend (girl) was supposed to leave on that night in KPN bus to her hometown from Bangalore. She had booked a Sleeper bus that was supposed to leave at 11 p.m. She had reached the place at 10 p.m. itself.
The other buses came and went but her bus never came. Finally at 12.30 a.m. the KPN guys had told that the bus has met with an accident and they don’t have spare buses. They just offered to refund the money. They told the stranded passengers to find their own way out. When GG’s friend had asked the KPN guy how could they be so irresponsible, that guy responded rudely, “We are like this only”.
The passengers got agitated and fought with the KPN guys. At one point one of the passengers who is a lawyer went on to slap the KPN guy. Then the KPN guys took steel rod and the situation seemed very precarious.
GG’s friend panicked and called GG and I went to that spot at 1.30. By the time I went Police had reached. One of the passengers called up the Police and the Police intervened at the right time.
The Police, however, were only able to stop any violence from happening. The KPN manager came at around 1.30. He said that since it’s Sunday they didn’t have any spare buses. He told that he has called up Vellore KPN guys and they are sending a bus. That bus will come only by 4 a.m. The Police couldn’t help much when the manager told like this.
The Police told the passengers to take a call. After all the drama most of the passengers didn’t want to stay anymore in that office that didn’t even have a toilet. Almost all passengers got just the refund of the ticket cost and left.
The sheer irresponsibility of the KPN guys was shocking. How can they keep the passengers in waiting at late night when they knew their bus had met with an accident? How can they be so rude to their passengers without whom they can’t run their business?
KPN refunded just the ticket cost without even the tax amount. Compare this with an airline; in Europe if your flight gets postponed by a day the airlines have to give each passenger 500 Euros per day as compensation.
It’s more appalling to know that a well-established bus service like KPN lacks even spare buses. How do these guys operate such a mammoth bus service when they don’t even have a spare bus?
It was a sorry sight to see women among the passengers. They were horrified after seeing all the verbal and physical fight. By the time we collected the refund and left the place it was 2 a.m. Leaving the passengers helpless in the night was a terrible thing.
The most ironical thing was KPN stands for Knowing People’s Needs. If this were their way to know people’s needs they have a long way to go indeed.

Art of cooking

Not long ago I used to think that cooking was a very big deal. I used to wonder how my mother toils in the kitchen. When our batch girls started to cook and boast the next day, “we cooked sambar yesterday. We tried rasam day before”, I used to be jealous thinking how healthy these people are eating and what a great deal of work they do after going home. Only after we started cooking we came to know how simple it is.
Thanks to Pachai we cook anything and everything these days. Before Pachai became our roomie we used to cook only non-rice food like dosas, chappatis, omelettes, upma, idly etc. These days we often cook full meals - rice with sambar, rasam, curd (ofcourse we buy curd), poriyal (sometimes 2 poriyals) and appalam. Man it’s so easy. Some of the pics we took are ample testimonial to this (Iam posting these so that you won’t have any doubts in our cooking). You can see the sambar decorated with coriander and cut tomato (this is what is called heights!). And the best part is we don't use any podis and we add so much vegetables.
Earlier we used to compromise the taste. In the very early days we used to think, “we have eaten Anna University hostel food itself. We can simply eat anything. We will survive even if we were put in some other planet”. If we put less salt some day we used to tell “if salt is less it’s good for health”. Even if salt is more we won’t lose heart. We used to say the dialogue “if the salt is too much then we will get more anger (romba uppu sethu kitta romba rosham vanthurum)”. One other day when carrot hadn’t boiled properly we told ourselves “partially cooked food is better than fully cooked food! (samaikkatha unave sathulla unavu)”
These days we don’t have to resort to such consoling words. Pachai has become a master cook and we the master cutters and choppers.
The other day when Sorna and GG came to my home for dinner they were so much enticed by the taste that they ate more than what we thought they would eat for the entire week! They gorged so full that they simply couldn’t walk home and I had to literally drop them at their doorstep.
Well Pachai says he’s not able to eat outside properly these days since he is so fond of his own cooking. So much so that he told his mom that she isn’t upto the high standards he set with his own cooking
We started cooking on New Year’s Day of 2007. It’s been more than a year and we like it more and more as every day passes by.