To be or not to be.. a Samsung
Samsung Mobiles have always repelled me. To be honest, I have never owned a Samsung smart phone. Reason being that, I never buy a product that is extensively marketed. To me, a product must sell its way, on its own, straight to the heart. Samsung never gave me that chance. They just keep pushing models after models, with loads of variations, in to the Indian market. It was like junk food. Now Samsung mobiles are everywhere It would be difficult to rout their market share position, in the Indian mobile market.
The other mobile manufacturers never see India as a major opportunity. Apple has always been the last ones to arrive in the Indian market. Motorola as a mobile manufacturer never had a stable foot in the Indian market. HTC and LG are lethargic in introducing new models in the Indian market. The Nexus mobiles and tablets never come to India. Nokia and Sony are trying hard for a comeback, but failing to win the heart of Indians. And then there are these numerous small time mobile brands who have made use of this opportunity and bombard the market with mushroom models. These mushrooms are cheap in price, build and quality, short shelf life and have poor service backup. They have scavenged every-bit of market share that was left between the gap of Samsung’s share and the rest of the mobile manufacturers.
A person aspiring to buy a smart phone in India, has no other option, but to buy a Samsung. He can’t buy the latest Apple, because its either over-priced or the latest model is not available in India. He can’t buy a HTC, Nexus or LG, because of the availability. He doesn’t want to take his chances with Nokia, Sony or the cheap brands. He has to buy a Samsung.
But I must appreciate Samsung for learning the market potential of Indian Cellular industry. They seem to give very high preference to the sales figures from India. They know the likes of the new urban Indians. They understand the rural market trends. They have done their demographic study well. They have the right marketing and sales team across the nation. They are setting up a sophisticated service backbone. When all the other manufacturers are either neglecting or exploiting the Indian market, Samsung is the only one who sees the live opportunity. Their naming convention could be confusing. Their designs could be flawed. Their mobiles may not make heads turn. But they are available and reasonable to the uber Indian Mobile market.
Bond subtitled
I was watching Skyfall, the Bond movie of 2012, in a theater with friends. This is not about the movie but its about the conversation between a family, sitting just behind me and trying in all possible ways to spoil the movie watching experience of everyone around. Normally I am not a fan of fake English accent speakers and this family was one gang of it. In the opening scene when Bond was shot, the mother let out a shriek “Ooo shit”. That’s when they got my attention. Then the kid asked, “what happened?”. The mom went on to explain, “The police aunty shot the police uncle”. Mr Bond, you are officially old. Its your 50th film and people must actually be calling you Granpa. Instead be happy that you are “Police Uncle”. The fun didn’t end there. The mother and another lady near her went on explaining every single scene and dialogue to the kid, in the kid’s own understandable terms. And then there was general loud comments, shrieks, laughters, which was quite annoying to me. Here comes the interesting part. When Mr Bond got intimate with his girl in the shower, there was an eerie uncomfortable silence. Then on the gang was relatively quiet. Mr. Bond you have silenced yet another gang.
This kind of public behavior irritates me, but then its public. Everyone is different and I have to live with it. If I can’t, then I must arrange for a private screening which I can’t afford yet. So in the end, its all fun. See you next year Uncle Bond.
Idly halts a coach
I was waiting for my train in a platform in Madurai Junction. That’s when I overheard this cute conversation. Its customary for passengers to check with vendors about train arival time, platform and coach location. You don’t get to see railway employees around with a helping mentality. To us passengers, these vendors are first point of contact for information. This incident involves one such vendor. He was standing on his regular spot selling Idly, vadai, chappathi, poori, etc. for dinner. I was seated somewhere nearby, warding off the pestering mosquitoes and playing temple run on mobile. A passenger passing by the vendor, stopped and asked him “annae, S2 coach enga varumnae?” (in a typical madurai slang: brother, where will be S2 coach come?”). This vendor replies “Idly vaangina inga varum, (pointing to a place where the coach will halt) vaangalana enga varumnu enakku theriyathu… (shrugging his shoulders)” (Translated: If you get Idly the coach will halt here, if not I am not sure…)
The passenger was lost for a minute and then he got the intended pun. They both laughed. He got an Idly packet from him and walked away still laughing. 
Photographic Garbage
Until a decade ago, photography was an art form reserved to people who understand the art and the society called them photographers. I am not talking about small time wedding photo clickers or passport size photo clickers. I am talking about the elite educated bunch of artists for whom photography was pure passion. These artists printed their photos and compiled them as albums or made them into slides to be presented on a projector. That’s the way they showcase it to their audience. A quick fast forward to present day. Facebook. Every tom, dick and harry (intentionally didn’t capitalize nouns) owns a facebook page and calls it either tom photography or dick clicks or harry through the lens or some garbage. They list themselves as photographers. They think they are photographers because their facebook friends said so and liked their page and posts. Well, tom, dick and harry, please wake up. Your friends are either not aware of real photography or are really sarcastic.
Experimental photography. Unless you are writing a tutorial, posting your experimental shots online is totally absurd. You click smoke, drop of water or some abstract effect and you pose the clicks as some art form. No it is not art. It is fart. Any photograph with no real story, subject or moment is just an experiment. How would you feel, if your mom was learning to bake a cake, bought a new owen and served you just the butter mixed with egg.
Bokeh. This irritates me to the core. Bokeh in Japanese means blur. How can you just post a picture with only the blur as a subject? A bokeh makes sense only if it is in the background and there is some subject in the foreground to draw the attention. Now imagine your mom serving you just an empty plate and the cake is locked up somewhere in the attic.
Please don’t go around begging your friends to like your pictures and your page. Don’t keep bumping your posts over and over so it gets the limelight often. If your work is a real work of art, people will like it. Oh yes! don’t take the number of likes too straight to your head. Anyone with the right networking skills and marketing ability will definitely get the numbers soaring. It still doesn’t mean that you are a photographer. You merely own a DSLR, a few lenses and a Facebook account.
Last and not the least, please don’t tag people who are not related to the photo. If you want to bring it to their attention, message them the link, call them, courier them, write a letter or do something, but don’t tag. I may sound rude, but please don’t be offended if I unfriend you from facebook, if you are repeatedly spraying photographic garbage all over the social network.
Android ICS Library for Axure Prototyping
Android ICS Library for Axure is based on GUI elements provided by Android and Techie Talkx. It is optimized for 480 x 800 px screen resolution, which is sufficient for developing the prototype and presenting the design.
Following the huge response for the Android library developed for earlier version of Android, I have put together a library of UI elements for Ice Cream Sandwich. For installation instruction, refer here.
Google Olympics Site not compatible with IE9
The Google olympics mini portal has some great features. I love the way the country vs medals tally was visualized in it. The information was stacked up in 3 levels within the site. On the first level, you can view the overall medals tally on mouse over the country in the map. If you want to view the break up of medals, you click on the tool tip to view the gold, silver, bronze breakup at the second level. To further view who won which, you have drill down by clicking on ‘View all results’ in the popup. This third level of information works fine in Firefox and Chrome. But in IE9 it failed to show the scroll bar, without which the drill-down is pointless. Why this partiality towards Internet Explorer?
Mankatha – Movie review
Movie: Mankatha (Tamil)
Star Cast: Ajith, Arjun, Trisha, Lakshmi Rai, Andrea, Anjali and Premji Amaren
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Venkat Prabhu is known in the kollywood industry for delivering youthful movies with different storylines and screenplays every time. With Mankatha, he has lived up to his reputation. Apart from the story line, there is innovation in almost every field of the film track like photography and stunts. He has made conscious attempt to deviate from the conventional approach.
Graduated out of the Kit lens
Since I got my first DSLR, the world of photography opened its floodgates to me and I had too much to learn and I still find that I learn every time I take the camera in my hands. I have been using the Nikon D3100 with its standard 18-55mm kit lens and I am quite happy with it mainly because of the learning opportunities a kit lens gives me. I found out that macro photography and portraits fascinate me and I also liked wildlife photography. So I decided to get a Tele-Zoom lens with constant and large aperture. The Nikkor 70-200mm lens was quite expensive and though photography is a hobby, it hasn’t turned out to be a serious hobby to me. Hence I decided to get the Tamron 70-200mm lens which was much more economical and value for money for amateurs like me. Sigma was also on the cards, but somehow I wanted Tamron over it. I ordered it from Amazon and got it shipped to India through my cousins in US.
…so, where were we?
I sort of don’t remember when was the last time I sat down to write a blog. I could go to the posts and check on the dates, but I just feel comfortable not remembering it and saying, its been a while I blogged. The reason being many things. One of which is I was just not in the right moment to sit down for a blog post over the past few weeks. A lot has been happening both at home and work. Our family lost a member again and this time it was a relatively young life. My cousin brother died in a road accident. He was just 17 years old and the just finished school and was expecting his results. He got excelling marks, but the marksmen above him overtook him or should I say, “undertake”? If only he wore a helmet and rode a bike that suited his age and physique, he would have still been very much my brother and the son of his devastated parents. Following that loss, while my family is still trying to come out of it mentally, frequent visits to hospitals and uncertain statements from doctors is getting to pressurize the rest of the family members. As I am getting over it, things are not looking very bright at work either. I was starting to get possessed by the dark side and I was afraid that my negative thoughts could spread on and affect everyone around me. The mood around me was quite depressing over the past few weeks and I terribly wanted to get out of it. I tried going out with friends, taking up my long lost hobbies, shopping and all other things that could lighten up my damp spirit and realized that nothing is working out.
Finally a thought struck to me. What can possibly bring back happiness to me than a gadget? and that’s when I decided to shortlist on which gadget I needed to buy. And the winner is “Tamron AF 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD IF Macro Lens” for my Nikon D3100. I ordered it on the Amazon and had it delivered to my aunt in US and she is on her way to India soon. Now I just can’t wait to lay my hands on it. Oh yes! be assured of an unboxing video and an indepth review.
But in the meanwhile, I do think of a lot of topics to write on this personal blog of mine and most of them turned out to be dark themed. I just didn’t want to pass on my depression to you and hence its residing in the drafts folder not progressed beyond the title field. There was also a fun blog which I planned as a series of imaginary stories of a not-so-imaginary character which is residing in the draft folder, but the recent events put on a huge writer’s block and flushed away the funny bone in me. While I dive in to find that bone, and while I am waiting for my Tamron lens, you hang in there and rest assured that I’ll be back.
p.s: Please wear helmet if you are on two wheeler and don’t forget that seat belt if in a car. Your loved ones are waiting for you at the other end of the road.
Kullanari Kootam – Movie Review
Looking into the recent trend, Tamil movies tend to portray Madurai as an uncivilized village filled with uncouth and loud mouthed villains, hillbilly heroes among people hacking each other to death with sickles and machetes as part of their regular lifestyle. Yes, Madurai is not a metro city, but it definitely is a peaceful town and among the last few cities on earth where Tamil is spoken like Tamil and the Tamil culture is still alive.
The moment the Kullanari Kootam movie started with the title credits on foreground and Madurai cityscape in background, I thought this is yet another movie set to deface Madurai. But as the Movie progressed I felt that though they have not captured the real pulse of Madurai lifestyle, they are not here to tarnish the city’s image. It’s a story of a random young man from a middle class family and his love story filled with adventurous twists and funny friends.
Vetri (Vishnu Vishal) is a jobless MBA graduate loitering around harmlessly and aimlessly. He spends his happy little life on the Rs 10 per day allowance from his father. He lives with his family in a small house in Madurai and a few songs and scenes have been shot in typical Madurai landmarks. There ends the Madurai connection for this movie. Vishnu’s father is a strict headmaster and he despises the entire lot of policemen for some unknown reason. Vishnu accidentally recharges a random mobile number when his father entrusts him with the responsibility of recharging his prepaid mobile balance. Apparently (predictably) the random number belongs to a pretty girl Priya (Remya Nambeesan). A few missed calls and some staged encounters leads to love blossom between these two. Priya’s father is a policeman and he promises to give her away in marriage to Vetri if and only if he becomes a policeman. And by now if you had concluded that this is a typical kollywood plot, you are wrong.The second half of the movie shows how Vetri meets with a gang of good-hearted youngsters aspiring to become policemen and together how they manage to become policemen.
This is Vishnu Vishal’s 4th movie and in all four movies his character is almost the same: a naive but straight forward youngster with a will and wish to win. Maybe this is what he does the best. It suits him and he has executed the role perfectly in this movie. Remya is pretty and pleasing to watch (She resembles Divya Spandana @ Kuthu Ramya at many instances). She has very little to do in the movie, but with whatever is there to perform she has done well. The casting for Vetri’s family members are near perfect. Everyone has done well and fit the bill. But the real highlights are the Kullanari kootam (Fennec Fox gang). All four guys have done an exceptional job. Their dialogue delivery, portrayal of down-to-earth attitude and innocence is commendable.
This is a debut film for director Sribalaji. He has tried something different yet so familiar. He could have avoided a lot of over-stretched scenes and cut-short the movie by a good 30-45 minutes. The storyline is neither brilliant nor too dumb. He has delivered a movie that is enjoyable by a wider audience. After a long gap I come across a decent Tamil movie without unnatural heroism, illogical drama, intolerable sentiments, violence, vulgarity or absurdity. Though the movie hasn’t got the best of the screenplay, plot or music, it’s a feel good movie that keeps you entertained for most of the running time.
Petrol Tank Cap #fail
Auto drivers least care about road safety. This is yet another proof of it. The petrol (gasoline) tank cover is a makeshift kludge. Its a bubble water can cap acting as a petrol tank cover. Road safety gone for a toss.
Cricketing, all the way to Glory
I am neither a great expert of cricket nor a cricket historian. To me cricket is the greatest form of entertainment, only next to James Bond movies. Frankly speaking, I had no hopes for the Indian Cricket team to lift the world cup. The way they were inconsistent with their performance, their unpredictability, undependable form and incoherent team composition made them look like the least likely team to win the World cup. It was either Australia, Srilanka or South Africa that were poised to win, in my opinion. I thought it would be a great feat if India crossed the quarter finals stage and the great feat was performed only to be followed by much greater feats. If India had lost in the knock-out stage, I would have felt bad for Sachin. The cricketing God would miss his last chance to recover the most sought after prize for the country. That was my only worry. Like every other cricket fan, Sachin is truly a phenomenal hero for me. I just wished that he lifts the cup for us more than any other cricketer.
Getting back to the ground, it was those last 3 matches that spiked the heart rate of 121 million Indians. Australia vs India, what a match it was? It saw Australian players like Ricky Ponting rise up the situation and send the ball blasting away to the boundaries. Nothing was wrong in their team. It was an impeccable performance in all departments of the game. Fielding and Bowling was excellent. But the Indian squad had answer for every situation. They matched the Australians in all possible ways and played defensively though a large part of the innings and finally peaked at the right moment to sent the Aussies back home. None of the cricketing pundits would have predicted a win for India in that match. This win also ensured a nerve-racking match in the semifinals. India vs Pakistan, the mother of all fixtures. It is a dream come true for any cricket fan to watch the match between these two countries. It is one occasion when the game becomes a battle. And what more you need than a blasting starter. Opener Sehwag opened the flood gates for the runs to flow in with his spectacular boundaries. The run rate was over 9 per over when he was dismissed. At that stage the score could have gone upto 400. But the Indian line up started their defensive attack. The run rate came down to as low as 4 per over. A moderate score of 260 looked liked a sitting duck for the Pakistanis, but they were in for a surprise. This time the bowlers rose up to the occasion. Excellent disciplined bowling attack and committed fielding ensured that the Pakistanis were sent home packing for a 231 runs. If only Sachin has completed his 100th ODI hundred in that match, I would have been 100% happier than Sachin himself. The win ensured a place in the finals for the clash for the title: World Champions 2011.
Sri Lanka is not an easy team to face. They have been a nightmare to many test playing teams. They have had an excellent run in this tournament. Their top order batsmen were in full form. They humiliated great teams like England and West Indies to reach here. Their bowlers were in form and the team had killer instinct to get back the world cup to their country. On the D-Day their top order let them down. But the middle order stalwarts Sangakara and Jayawardane pierced the Indian bowling attack. Jayawardane stayed till the last ball to ensure a high scoring Innings chase for India. Indian field attack on this day was exceptional. Raina and Yuvaraj were fiercely sharp in the field. Normally sloppy fielders like Zaheer and Munaf were also seen diving to save runs. In reply to the Srilankan innings of 274 runs, the Indian openers Sehwag and Saching collapsed their wickets to Malinga the very early stage of the match. But Dhoni came up the order and steadied the ship. Partnering with Gambhir and Kohli, Dhoni made sure that we stayed on course. The innings saw some mature shots and finally the Six from Dhoni’s bat ensured that Indians are the World Champions for the next four-year. It was the greatest gift the team could give Sachin. For all Sachin has done to Indian Cricket over the past 21 years, he definitely deserved it and we Indians wanted and missed the World champions title like the deserts missed the rains.
The team played for each other and stood up for each other through difficult times. It’s an excellent team effort. They kept their calm in the pressure tides. They failed to accept defeat and they never gave up chasing the victory. From what it seemed like an incoherent team composition, they went on win the World title. To me it was the greatest moment of my life. India have won 2 world cups so far and both during my lifetime so far. When they first won their title, I was probably still finding it difficult to get the alphabets and nursery rhymes right. But this time I was there sitting in the living room to witness the dream of a nation go alive. This would go down as the most dramatic moment of my life.
Congratulations! India!
தகிட தத்தோம்
Click to enlarge
It was fun watching last night World cup quarter finals played and dominated by India against Australia. Feels so good that even if India doesn’t go ahead to win the cup, its alright! The boys in Blue have done us all proud. Rock on!
Bull cane juicer
Raguri, a small town on the highway near Shridi in Maharashtra. I noticed this strange mechanical device. A bull driven sugar cane juicer. It was quite interesting. A win win situation. The man gets money by selling the juice and the bull gets to eat the sugarcane fiber after every customer leaves.
The great Irish aaappu!
Technically, ‘aaappu’ (ஆப்பு ) in Tamil, is a metal or wooden piece that’s kept between the tyres of a moving vehicle, to stop it or to reduce speed. This was traditionally used in olden days chariots as they didn’t have brakes. So an aaappu can be loosely translated as ‘brake’. No word suits better than ‘aaappu’ to describe Kevin O’Brien’s knock in yesterday’s match against the English.
Should I take back my words, that the Minnows matches are just a piece of comedy interlude? What a match it was!
மலிங்காவின் அபார திறமை
Srilanka Vs Kenya world cup match resembled this Vadivelu comedy interlude…
In fact, most of the minnows vs the biggies match in world cup are nothing but comedy clips. So why don’t they cut the crap and move directly to the Super Eights Round.
Decal Windows Protect Birds
I heard from a friend that every year millions of birds die because of our buildings. Not just because we cut the trees and build on top, but because we use excessive glass panes on our buildings and skyscrapers. Birds can’t recognize that its a glass and they ram into them head on and die. The plain polished glass pane may look like a decorated piece of magnificent architecture. But for the birds, its like flying straight into the jaws of death.
Today I bumped into an article in Lifehacker, that could actually be a lifesaver for these poor birds. Birds can see reflected UV light. So either put a UV decal (sticker) on your windows or go for a UV film insulation in all those exposed glass panes. UV insulation will also save energy and Decals add a decorative edge to the panes. It’s a win-live situation for us and the birds.
Pizza evening
She felt like eating pizza, but I was hesitant about going to one of those branded outlets to one. Hence we settled on a decision to make our own pizza. We headed to the nearest departmental store and got:
- Two 12″ pizza bread
- 250 g of Mozzarella cheese
- Green and Red capsicum
- Pichkoo Tomato Sauce
- Onions, spinach, tomato and baby corn
She prepared the cottage-cheese a.k.a Paneer and made them into cubes. I cooked the baby corn, while she chopped the other vegetables. Then I spread the sauce on the pizza bread base and arranged the veggies on them. Next the grated cheese was spread evenly, sparing the edges. The paneer cubes and baby corn slices were arranged on top of the cheese. There were many you-tube videos talking about preheating the oven, but I had no idea how to do that in our combo-grill microwave oven. So I just put it on Grill mode and set the timer to 15 minutes and placed the pizza in. After 15 minutes, the pizza was ready and it was piping hot and delicious, way better than those branded pizzas. With that home-made pizza re-enter my menu. I am pretty excited about it, because its my first time with home made (man-made) pizza.
Never far from the Mad crowd
‘Separation’ is a relationship strengthening catalyst. There were times when we were separated from our friends and family and still we felt the relationship grow stronger with the distance and time. Parents would be separated from their kids either for education or work. Friends separated from each other because of change in school, parents work transfer or higher education. But when two long-lost friends meet each other, there is an intense spark. The connection was vibrant. They could chat with each other for hours and days, to fill in what has happened in their lives over the period. The element of surprise was also there. They would be surprised to learn that how different or same the other person has grown into. Parents, when they meet their kids after a long time undergo an intense state of emotion and happiness. They would long to see how the separation has aided the child’s growth and attitude towards the outer-world. This was the time when letter, long distance trunk booking calls and post-cards were the only means of communication.
With the communication revolution enhanced by the mighty social networks, the feeling of separation is heading towards a speedy extinction. You know what the person is having for breakfast. You know what his hobbies are. You are familiar with his likes and dislikes. A quick scan of his Facebook page will tell you about his new friends, his favorite car, his love interest or breakup or gossip and just about anything about a person. You see the person’s photos updated on a regular interval. Over a short period of time (time taken to scan a Facebook profile) you already know so much about the person. The person’s mental pattern and habits can be easily mapped and he/she has become so predictable. When you meet the person in-person, the spark is weak and it feels like you were never separated. You know so much about the person, that you both have very less to talk about. There could be moments of awkward silence while each person is trying to figure out what to talk next. The person you were pseudo-separated from, has become highly predictable. Facebook is just an example, in reality mobile telephony, social networks, text messaging, emails and other such stay-in-touch tools have not only shrunk the world, but have eliminated separation.
There is always two sides of a coin and this is just the share of the darker side.
Duty calls you : Akshaya Patra
Food, shelter and clothes are the basic needs of human beings. This is something we learnt during our early school days. A person can still survive without shelter and clothes. But food is the primary driving force that is fueling the existence of life in this world. Without food, the survival of a human is absolutely impossible. Hunger and Hungry are two different words. You would have felt hungry, but most of us have never experienced Hunger. Missing a day’s meal or two could totally disorient the thoughts and action of a normal person, but he would still survive to see the sunrise the next day. To many people out there, food is a luxury. Hunger is their story of life. When a mother put their food deprived children to sleep, she is not sure if they would wake up the next day.
So how do we change this? How can we make a difference? The virtues of our past life karma, have blessed us with the power to make the change. The power to give. The power to donate. Donating is not an option. It’s the duty, entrusted to us when we were blessed with the virtues. We can donate our thoughts, ideas, money, time or anything that we have been gifted in surplus.
There is a tamil saying which goes like, தானத்தில் சிறந்த தானம் , அன்னதானம். (The best charity is to give food) and there is another saying: குழந்தையும் தெய்வமும் ஒன்று. (Children are equivalent to God). Feeding a child in need is equivalent to serving God. There could be no better deed than serving God. It’s our duty to serve him and thank him for all our blessings.
Akshayapatra is one of its kind movements that help us perform this duty. It’s a mid day meal scheme that feeds the children of under-privileged schools in 8 states of India. It was conceived and is executed by ISKON. Currently they are feeding over 12 lakh young hungry stomach every day. The scale and statistics of ISKON’s Akshayapatra and its success is spellbinding. I have heard about Akshaypatra, but got to feel the experience and hear some firsthand information in the blogger meet organized by Indiblogger at ISKON, Bangalore.
You could learn more about this noble cause from their website http://www.akshayapatra.org. Feeding 12 lakh children is not an ordinary task. This mammoth task needs you to help in anyway you can. You could also do an online donation, or visit ISKON and enroll yourself as a donor or volunteer.
keep going
No matter what you try, your world is not falling in the right place as you expect it to be. You feel that life is broken beyond repair. Your hope starts fading into the sunset. But still you keep going. You don’t give up. You don’t accept defeat. Sometimes you accept defeat, but still keep going. These are not something new to most of us, especially me.
Sometime we contemplate on the need to continue? Why mustn’t we give up? What is keeping us going? What is the need to keep running? What is fueling the fading desire to live? Is it our commitment to the people around us? Is it love? Is it the family bond? Is it the materialistic passion?
Sitting in the darkness of the room, surrounded by nothing but darkness and a distant howl of a stray dog, the mind drifts into strange continents. The pressure to find answers keeps mounting. Answers to questions that have been asked a zillion time since the inception of man kind. Questions that don’t seem to have any sort of finite answer. Tears rolling down, but not crying. Eyes closed, but not sleeping. Thoughts wandering and trying frantically to cure the mind. A deep desire to return to normalcy. But not sure what is normalcy. This state of mind is neither hell nor heaven, but somewhere between. Tired of being tired, the mind and body exhausted, floats into a state which most of us know as ‘Sleep’. Sleep is again not a state of normalcy. The pain is subconscious. The subconscious is never at rest. After hours of struggling with dream, wake up being tired than before. Puffed eyes and sweaty palms are collateral symptoms of this state of ‘living dead’. The state of being a Zombie.
But when you move away from the physical state of being human and look at the life so far from a distant, you feel that it’s a gift. A gift which is supposed to be enjoyed. The purpose of the gift may not be clear, but the fact that the source and destination are same in this journey is as clear as the crystal waters of the pacific ocean. If the source and destination is same, they what is the need for the journey? The purpose is to gain knowledge and a learn. No I am not talking about the text-book knowledge. In fact I am not even clear on what is the kind of knowledge. Don’t understand the meaning of spiritual knowledge. But all that is known is that there is something that is keeping us on course. It’s a force that guiding us and the source of faith. Trying to get rid of all sorts hope. Hope is something that is concerned with the current physical state. Hope must be replaced by faith. Faith keeps you on course and faith guides you. Faith is carried over from one plane to another. Faith is the Highest common factor in all dimensions.
அரிது அரிது, மானிடராய் பிறத்தல் அரிது
மானிடராய் பிறந்த காலையின்
கூன் குருடு செவிடு நீங்கி பிறத்தல் அரிது
கூன் குருடு செவிடு பிறந்த காலையின்
கல்வியும் செல்வமும் தான் பெறுதல் அரிது
Now that is the only reason that the current physical state is a gift. Of all that I know, being a human being is the only way to gain knowledge and understand faith. The prayer is not for materialistic gains. It’s not to honor hopes. It’s not to set the life in your expected path. But the prayer is to help transfer faith and knowledge to the next physical state. The prayer is to show the path and to reach the destination. The prayer is not to give happiness, but to understand the real happiness. The present life is a direct refection of past actions. Actions that could date back to eons and that could have been taken place in any plane. The reactions to these actions must happen now are sometime in future. Not so sure about the past or the future, present is all we have. Why not try to balance the equation now, with the only tool we have: the present.
Somebody told me, Problem is defined as a situation that is born when you expect something to happen in a particular way, but it doesn’t happen as expected. Expectation and hope are the primary reason for the ‘Zombie’ state of the mind. Expectations to be replaced with acceptance and hope to be replaced with faith and then you discover the fuel cells that keep you going.
Manmathan Ambu – Review
The promos of ManMathanAmbu, could push a feeling that it’s a full length Masala comedy flick. But on the contrary, ManMathanAmbu is a mix of many feelings. The movie is so mixed up that we end up confused about its genre. Kamal Hassan comedy flicks like Panchathanthiram, Avvai Shanmugi and Sathileelavathi and emotional genre like Anbe Sivam, Guna and Mahanadhi were master pieces. In this movie he tried to marry the genres, but the stitching fails to hold them together.
AMBUjakshi (Trisha) is a famous heroine in the Tamil and MATHANagopal (Madhavan) an heir to a big businessman, is her fiance. Ex-Military man R. MANnar (Kamal) is a private security agent and as the story is crafted around these characters, the movie has been titled ManMathanAmbu.
Mathanagopal is always suspicious of Ambu’s character and he accuses her of infidelity. Enraged by this she looses control, while driving his Hummer and becomes a cause for an accident with a white Ford. But before they could check out what happened to the occupants of the Ford, a crowd of Ambu’s fans mob them. In a hurry to move away from the place, Mathan bribes the police and they move out. Ambu also decides that they must part ways and she goes on a vacation to France. Mathan wants to prove her infidelity and hires Mannar to get evidence. Mannar goes undercover and this covers the first half of the movie. The story building is pretty good and the sequence of events are kept pretty crisp and fast paced. With complexities like this in a Kamal movie, the audience would definitely expect splitting humor when complexities untangle.
But as we enter into the second half, tragedy genre starts taking shape. Apparently the occupants in the Ford were Kamal and his wife. She was killed in the accident and Ambu discovers this and is greatly saddened. There is one particular scene where she tells him about this and Kamal reacts to her confession. First its shock, then a stint of anger, then acceptance, finally forgiving. Even if one mutes the volumes, Kamal’s expression would easily tell you his feelings. Brilliant acting made to look so natural and performed with ease. No wonder Kamal is an Award winning performer. He is exceptionally talented.
Then the storyline jumps back to comedy genre and the complexities start to untangle. Sangeetha who plays the role of Trisha’s friend has done a perfect job to fit her role. Her dialogues and dialogue delivery are so natural and molds with her character. Trisha seems to have lost the glamor quotient and gained a lot of acting skills. Looks like a good trade-off. She is pretty when its required and she is serious when the story line demands. Madhavan has done a good job too, but he is getting too stereotyped with his characters. A little bit of difference in his dialogue delivery style would have done great difference. But nevertheless he fits the bill.
The climax is a little twisted. The story takes a dramatic turn. Its funny, but not splitingly funny. Running around in circles, twisting words, jumbled letters and happy ending are director KS Ravikumar’s trademarks. A little bit of reduction in the intensity of tragedy and some subtlety in dialogues about sex and infidelity, would have made this movie a total entertainer. But still its a good movie to watch, especially if you are an ardent Kamal fan like me.
Android Library for Axure Prototyping
Based on the Classic Android PSD vector files by webdesignshock, I have developed the Android Axure library (.rplib) file. You may use this for your prototyping exercise to develop any Android applications. Download the file and save it in your computer and follow the instruction below to start using the stencil.
