Muranpaadu: January 2005

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Splendid Moon

Moon thru window

For the last few days I am finding it hard to sleep during the early morning hours (around 4-5 O’clock). The reason being - The Moon. My bedroom window faces west. During early morning hours I receive bright light of Moon thru the glass window doors. I worship this view from my window and this is the first time in my life I feel acquainted to this kind of view. Surprisingly, couple of day’s back I was listening to all Nila (moon) songs in Raaga. Undeniably there is a difference in the way the moon looks here in Edmonds than in India. What’s the difference? The shape of the moon here is square!
Hey relax, just kidding. It is lot whiter than what we see in India (I am damn sure some Indian politician might have swallowed some money allocated to whitewash it). Due to the air pollution it looks almost yellow on most days in Chennai. Most of the days are cloudy here and we don’t often see Moon and Stars. And I got excited by these factors and shot few pictures during early hours. My room mate got flummoxed and is of the opinion that there is something seriously wrong with me. I hope you all disagree with him. We also saw Orion ( not onion fellas).It is a constellation(A cluster or group of fixed stars).It is noticeable during the month of January. Sorry, I could not capture the Orion arrangement. Just click here to check Orion's arrangement. Let me know from people back home how a Moon looks like there. Is Orion visible there? Listening to the song – Punnagaikku neram othukku from Appu.Oops forget to mention about the pleasant view I had on my way to office. The sun was gearing up for its launch and the eastern part of the sky was filled with gold color and the western part where moon is present was filled with purple color. It was an admirable site to picturize in our eyes. P.C Sriram might bring this up in Tamil cinema someday. Click here to see few more Moon sights…

posted at 7:59 PM by Cipher Permalink

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Calendar on a Pentagon Dodecahedron

12 sided calendar

Habitually I read some books or enjoy movies during weekends. It is tough for me to reminisce when I last did something else. Found a 12 sided (Pentagon Dodecahedron) calendar, which I came across accidentally in a blog. After cutting the paper as per instructions I found that I had no glue stick to fix them. Then triggered my brain to school days, used steamed rice to fix the papers (This didn't actually work out well as you could see in the picture). The paper was also too thin. Though it was a flop, I enjoyed the time I spent with this. So guys don't always spend time in computers and books as if you were married to them. There are other things in life! Click here to see the instructions to make the 12 sided calendar.

posted at 8:58 PM by Cipher Permalink

Friday, January 21, 2005

Vikatan.com is going to be a pay site

Starting from Feb 15th we need to pay to read Vikatan online. I anticipated this from the day they started assigning user name and password. Most of the people who live overseas are the ones who use online extensively. And considering their importance and adore towards Vikatan the organization should not have done this. People who live outside India will not have much hesitation in subscribing this. The people who are most affected would be IT professionals working in India. Because it was a pretty good time pass when we have not much work. Though I buy only Ananada Vikatan, during my free time I used to gaze thru the rest of the magazines under Vikatan publication. If I go back to India then I might miss this opulence.
I have done my subscription immediately.Its literally impossible for me to stop reading Vikatan.They have some offers for those who subscribe before Feb 14th.Rush to Vikatan.com

posted at 4:53 PM by Cipher Permalink

Friday, January 14, 2005

Rejoicing Pongal

Thiruvalluvar

I am absent for yet another grand festival season in South India.
Its farmers twirl to get into celebrating mood. And seeing the past few years it looks like we hv let them down. No water, no technology advances in Villages. Let’s forget the bitter things for the time being.I personally consider I am lot more fond of Pongal than Deepavali. One reason being an ardent lover of sweets esp. - Sakkari Pongal (Rice made with jiggery) and Karumbu (Sugarcane). My grandma always used to pat me for the way I eat Sugarcane."Raji u squeeze the cane better than a Juicer”. The other reason is, this is a festival of farmers and I love these ppl.May be because I hv celebrated most of this festival in my mom's village.
Jallikattu is the famous play in villages and all the youngsters will gear up to acquit their potentials in front of their moraipoonu (fiancée).I am petrified to observe the play even in TV. Luckily now no one demands to take part in this to get a girl.
I am just visualizing my early days and celebrating Pongal vicariously. I pledged to take a crack at the sakkarai Pongal. I got the recipe from Home. But I went astray in a silly thing. That's Rice. We didn't stock it. So no way to eat even white rice today. Its irony that I am going to celebrate Pongal by having few slices of Pizza! Pls forgive me I am not Americanized.
I wish u all ppl back home a very Happy Pongal.For ppl who are blessed by God with Sakkarai Pongal pls take few more spoons for me also :-(

posted at 5:49 PM by Cipher Permalink

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Snow At Edmonds

SnowAtEdmonds

At last we had snow yesterday night at EDMONDS. We were expecting it for the last two days as the weather report said we would get snow on Thursday night itself. Ever since I saw Rajini and Amala play in snow in the film Velaikaran, I dreamt of being in snow showers (of course not with Amala). Rahman and Mani Ratnam added fuel to my dream in the film Roja. It was not a big snow shower as in Eastcoast.It was only an inch or so. I got up by morning 8 and the first thing I did was to peep thru my window. Everything I saw was white. I rubbed my eyes. What is this grass are white in color? Hey we had snow last night. Immediately photographer Raj woke up and my Sony Cyber shot was used to its max. The complete apartment atmosphere looked awesome today, as if everything was soaked in milk. Expecting few more snow showers in this week. Click here to see few pics…

posted at 6:34 PM by Cipher Permalink

Yet another creative Ad

Yet another Creative Ad

Thanks Arun for mailing a very cute and thoughfull Ad.

posted at 6:04 PM by Cipher Permalink

Monday, January 03, 2005

Grand way to start a New Year

I cannot think of a better way than this to commemorate my New year.Dec 31st night was depleted with 12B movie. Jan 01 morning a mysterious call woke up us. The msg was – Production job ABEND! No better salutation than this on a new year. No breakfast, no lunch. And by the time we resolved the issue, it was 7:00 in the night. This was absolutely a different experience. Is there anyone who had a better experience than me? The only thing, common between Jan 01 2004 and Jan 01 2005 is – I didn’t take bath on both these days ;-)

Completed the book "The Monk who sold his Ferrari".So what next :-? Last year's bestseller is in queue.Might grab that up in few days.

Vikatan.com has also started assigning user name,password for the readers of Vikatan in web.This is a frustrating.I need to sign in everytime when i want to read vikatan.The password is supplied by them and it is in numerals.How could I remember that?~~As of now no options for changing the password.~~There was a option in the homepage itself.Stalin pointed out this.Thanks Lin.

posted at 5:30 PM by Cipher Permalink