je suis retour

I am back for good. Yes good for the company (SAP... I hope you are following the news, Business Objects for which i work for, is intended to be acquired by SAP for 7B USD deal on Oct 6th). So it is eventful period for the company. Everyone is looking for integration related information. Hence not much work :-) Good for the company isnt it??

For someone like me sitting idle is impossible (really!!!) this is what i have been doing these days... Some useful info for you

Have you read the tamil wiki pedia?? http://ta.wikipedia.org
If you are not a chennaite, interested in hearing suryan FM online, check out the online FM radio http://www.sfm935.in/
I am member of Seventymm online video lending library. its really cool now with seventymm http://www.seventymm.com
Did u hear about google programing contest? http://code.google.com/android/ your 10M is lying there....

I also restarted my cooking sessions, so do expect some interesting recipes on the blog...
Also contemplating about restarting flute lessons (readyaa ???)
another one!!! i am trying to see Anand and Partha for a while and discuss some initiative with them. both of them are escaping for a while....

so much more to come!!!!

je suis retour (i am back)

Happy Birthday Raghu

Hello

Thanks a ton for everyone who sent and who planned to send wishes on my birthday raghu. There were calls, SMSs, scraps, emails :-) How lucky am i to have so many friends and relatives who care about you.

we had organized lunch with the students of veda pada salai in T.V. Koil. In few years my life will move in to next decade... may be my mom and dad should know that its time for them to be serious about their action.

until next
Raghu

Our respected parlimentarians

If u ever wonder, what our parlimentarians do in parliment, here is sample on what they discussed in today's sen's comments,

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/aug/21ndeal9.htm

Super

Until next
Raghu

Villain in my Life

Ants are the current villain in my life. they make me sweat, they make me work hard, they make me do all those repetitive household work, they are small, but in numbers they come to my home every day, despite my efforts to keep my home clean.

I might have ignored my parents sometime @ home, my friend's request @ room, here am i always obedient, cleanliness centric, always working hard with lots of sweat :-(

Only villain in my life --- Ants

Cash

Mazhaiukku udangara madhirinu kelvi pattu irukinga la? I happen to visit PVR yesterday afternoon just becz Badri wanted to sleep. It was 3 PM when we two stood in the que looking for tickets for afti show... After reaching the ticket counter, PVR salesman posed us an impossible question. We have tickets for Partner, Cash, which one do u want? Kizhinchadhu krishnagiri nu niniachom.. Still i asked badri, do u wana go? He said he wanted to sleep, We had cash also in our pockets :-) Damn it!! Aunty behind the line must have been wondering about us going through our discussions...

well time was 3.10 when all these were over... we headed right into our M10, M11 seat of Audi 4. The movie started with a song, i thought it is gonna be another one of those bollywoddish movie... i looked at right, badri was already preparing himself, stretching himself with half closed eyes..

Cash is a movie about robbery, thieves, cars, pathetic songs and not so bad screen play. The scenes of the duo ajay devgan and shamita shetty are good to watch (but better watch it in TV yaar). well these guys have lot of cash to take such movies cash... if u are expecting me to run through a previe, my apologies, this movie is worth writing this much.... at the end of 2 1/2 hours of sound sleep (yes, some side effects during his deep sleep), he woke up and said, good movie isnt it!! shall we leave? I said right :-) lets go, we headed straight to... u know what people do after getting up from deep sleep or someone who drank 2 Large Coke during a movie....
Its de pressurising time!!!

Until next
Raghu

so far so good

Hello,

So far so good! in terms of my experience with kitchen as concerned.
In the last 15 days i have tried variety of dishes and most of them turned out to be of similar taste as that of dishes!! few times, i failed dramatically! but i learnt about the mistake and do not worry if any of u are visiting my home, u will not be experimented...

My recipes include - Oninon Rava Uppuma, Wheat Dosa, Chappati with Chow Chow Pallaya or kootu, Saada Saada Dosa, Adai, Tamarind Upma, Bajji (failed here, need to try again), some varieties of rasam - regular rasam, pepper rasam, coconut rice, coconut chutney and ofcousrse lots of time potato fry...

more to come, i am finding lots of time as my office timings have changed and it ends at 5PM!!

Guys! do u know very well a recipe, send it across to me... but only veg!! (eggless)

Come home sometime!!
Raghu

The mindset of a Bangalore driver

I am one of those million drivers in the streets of Bangalore. I feel less pride and more shame in being part of this community.

A lot is said about city's worst infrastructure woes in the past. The situation is improving these days compared to 2001 when i first arrived in this city. What is not changed is the mindset of this cities elite well educated drivers in the road.

Yesterday i happen to stay late in the new office and i faced enough ordeal reaching my home. it took me an hour and 1/2 to reach my home which normally takes 30 minutes if i had started on time. So many of them took platform service road (it was not ready, still people drove in it) and created more traffic jam. they never realized their attempt to go early was making many to wait and a win-loose situation. This mindset i can see everywhere in the city!! A win-loose behavior... this one makes me feel sad and rethink my options of staying here long term plan for this city.

In the last few weeks of travel, i have been analysing the pattern. Bangalore is not like chennai where we know people violate and chennai roads are big. Here roads are narrow (as like the mindset of the drivers). Here there are people who follow rules and there are people who don't. this adds to the chaos...

We have 2 categories of drivers who cause chaos, traffic jams and sometime an accident.

1. one who violates lane rules (most of 2 wheeler riders, cars, all trucks, all BMTC buses, cyclists and auto drivers)
2. one who goes slow in the wrong lane (i see beginners, girls do this often)

well the cost of an accident is huge (both mentally and financially). i have seen myself this in the case of Subbu when he was admitted for a reckless driving by an alcholic and he dashed subbu in a scooty (driven at 30KM). Subbu was in ICU for 3 days :(

We educated people in this city have been consciously attempting all these traffic violations.. when are we going to change? it is in the mindset of these city'es elite educational people!!!

fy entertainment... this happens in most junctions of this city...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luNwDf-BXZQ

Enjoy maadi

Until Next
Raghu

Ah! Vai Raja Vai Raja Vai...

Today 30th July we shifted to our new office premise in Outer Rink Road. i must tell you this is one hell :P of a office for us :) It has space for every one and for everything inside ;).

It has ultra posh reception with LCD displays and all, one huge floor to house entire 3oo staff of business Objects, Huge play area right now with 2 TT tables and some carom boards, huge banners in most of the walls and seating areas representing core values of BOBJ, dormitory and plenty of meeting and conf rooms with wall hanging projectors, and many phone booths, this is quite intuitive and this is backup arrangement in case of conf rooms are full (it cannot happen, still !!!) or if people wanted a private talk. and many more... i think i will keep on talking about this..

Since it is single floor for all of us, we need to walk a bit, it reminds me of REC days :) good for people who are body conscious.

My cabin is really big and with no neighbour around, i have so much space...

tomorrow there will be play cards at my table... wanted to start mangatha club at my place... interested people can join.... ah vai raja vai... vanda pogadhu pona varadhu... ah vai raja vai...

MM - Midnight M$#^

MM is not about yester day's Midnight Masala. This one goes for all those who like to see Midnight moon more than early morning sun...

Midnight Moon

I hold you forthis perfect night
Love is born to linger in your magic light
With that girl beside me and you above
You must also be in love :)

- by Smoking popes

A perfect night my bed is calling ...

Good Night
Raghu

Onion Rava Uppuma

Do you know how to prepare Onion Rava Uppuma? I started experimenting the kitchen labs from today and the first discovery was preparing onion rava uppuma... The recipe goes like this.. You need 2 cups rava, 1 carrot , 4 green chillies, 1/4 cup green peas, asalt (namak) to taste and 2 onions ;) (now u know why it is called ORU - Onion Rava Uppuma)

Steps to reproduce... Oops! this is really top secret. I prefer to prepare this by myself and serve @ my home.. You cant escape :)

I am already thinking about tomorrow's dish.. Small confusion between Arabiatta Pasta or jeera rice with dal fry... hmmm!!

Until next
Raghu

the partha effect

If you are wondering that i am going to write about that elusive parthasarathy, you are wrong :)

Last weekend i had been to trichy. The ususal suspects (me and Badri) had been to Sri Parthasarathy Bhavan in T.V. Kovil and had the taste of those wonderful dosas (with lots of sambar ofcourse :)). I am not sure how many of you visited this place in the past. It is in the lane right adjacent to the temple wall of T.V. Kovil.

This restaurant resembles one of those old iyer hotels of srirangam. It is an old house converted to a restaurant. As you enter, you will be blessed by whole lot of Gods and Goddess (original Goddess ;)). On the other side of the hall, you have series of tables like a typical restaurant. Most of the faces looks familiar as they were around and working in that hotel for long. We happen to meet one Mr. Subramanian and gave our spec for the dosa (saadha saadha) and had our mini b.fast with lots of sambar. if you are cleanliness conscious, beware!! it is like yet another iyer hotels in srirangam area...

Apart from that, i had lots of home food (sorry i cannot stop talking about this ;)). visited our usual places in trichy and watched once again Sivaji with Badri...

got to go

A+
Raghu

Fun @ Work

Lots of companies do different things to create fun @ work. Today my company Business Objects had organized a movie show for all the employees :)

First it was the scary part. they were planning for Jhoom Barabar Jhoom movie. after having read its review, i was thinking the real fun would be, they will tie us all in our chair and make us watch this movie fully... :)

Somewhere our (crying) voices were heard. we changed movie to Pirates of the Caribbean... Although i have not watched Part 1 n 2, it was good movie technically. i am amazed by the performance of Johny Deep as Jack Sparrow... 2nd half is really worth watching... but be sure to watch 1st and 2nd part before this :).

Until next

A+
Raghu

Uncertainty is certain in life?

is this true? ;)

This is my debut to blogging. From the learnings recently i have realized that uncertainty is certain in life. The way we manage things makes these uncertain things certain.

clear now :)

Cheers

R. Iyer