Meera alias M.S.Subbulakshmi

I Know that I am in no capacity to write abt one of the greatest doyens of modern day classical music. As a small child I was seeing Mira Bai movie with my parents and infact was awed by the divinty in the music and the singer. Infact from that day I even thought the queen of music who portrayed Mira was indeed the real Mira . Post facto I still think that my thought could have been true. MS amma as she is known could have been a reincarnation of Mira herself . Just listen to "Katriniley varum Geetham " and I know as the song says , your heart will melt for her music.

If you by any chance listen to classical music , you would have for sure not missed listening to MS. The beauty in MS songs lie in the fact that the listener attains a trance state . We all get elevated due to the divinty that her songs posses . For one instance I listened to "O Rangasayee " by her in Kambodhi and started to collect songs in Kambodhi only to realise that the song's beauty lies in the voice of the singer and not in the song itself.

So many awards , money , fame had not deterred the Vaak Saraswati from charity. Her service to humanity through Maitreem Bhajatha which she included in all her concerts sings for itself. Anything special that made me write abt this art form today ? She attained mukti on Dec 11 ,2004 . But her music remains in all of us at least in me till I remain .

Madhu
-an atom writing abt a galaxy

Marana Kadi

I went to my cousin's marriage when my small little nieces and nephews were all over me to share them with kadi jokes(Poor Jokes). In my school days these kadi jokes used to be really popular. Let me see if I can recollect some of them and post them. Please do post your answers . Most of them are old jokes and really common ones. You need to understand Tamil to answer them.

1. The most famous one - Bus Pinnala thallina enna agum
-- Pin Valayum
2. Oru Naal enga amma Murukku panina . After week we found that they were dead .Why ?
-- Adhula Thookula potuirundanga
3. Thayir( Curd) en velai (white) a irukku
-- Pala thothca(wash) thayir varum
4. Whats the opposite of STD ?
-- No Coffee Da
5. Palvalikku mukiyaman Karanan enna theriyuma?
--Pal daan
6. Patient: Neenga oru "Pal Doctor" a ?
Doctor. Illai Naan " Muppathirendu pallukkum Doctor".
7. Oru girl veettukku late aa vara. odane antha ponnu appa "yen lattu" appadinraru. amma asked her "why are you late?" annan "thum late kya karum(hindi )" appadi nnu ketaru akka "enthukku lattuka uchchavu (telugu)" what can you infer from this.
--Oru Ponnu Late a vanda , 4 peru 4 vidama kepanga
8. What is the similarity between short circuit and poramai?
--Wire eriyardhu
9. LEO coffee a yaen kalyanam pannikka mudiyaadhu?
--Leo coffee manamana coffee
10. LIC oda 14th floorla sandhanam poosi yirukkanga. Yaen?
11. yen manaivi vayil pudavai dhan kattuva (aachariyamaga)yellarum iduppula dhane pudavai kattuvanga
12. Mylapore-kkum, Mandaveli-kkum sandai vandha edhu win-pannum?
--Mylapore , enna dhu kitta daan tank irukku
13. Russia-la yen kosu-ve illai?
--Ena anga kosukkku vera peru
14. Ramar Sithaiyai thedindu Lankai kalambumbodhu kadal ai thaandarathukku varar.Appo enna aschariyam! Kadal avarukku appadiye vazhi vittuduthu. Yein?
-- Enna avarukku kitta "will" irundhadhu. where there is a will there is a way
15. Mickey Mouse , Donald Duck and pluto were playing. Suddenly Mickey's tail started growing long. It grew very long .It went to a corner and Started writing Ramayan ? Yean?
-- Enna adhu valmiki ayiditchu :(

I can see all of you running towards me for hitting me..Naan abscond ........

Cheers,
Madhu
Kadi Kadi

Sundal Garam Sundal

Dusserra is a festival which is celebrated in all parts of India for various reasons. North of India , people celebrate on the victory of Ram over Ravan . In the East people enjoy the festival as Durga Pooja with "Sandesh". In the South people celebrate it as victory of Durga over Mahishasuran by having a Kolu ( dolls ) . Each of the regions have their own culture and reasons to celebrate .Navarathiri is most well known for Ladies going to one another's house on one of these 9 days . Ladies sing songs , interact with others . On the whole the whole environment is spiritual . The celebration of Kolu is by placing divine mud dolls on an odd number of steps . The fact that we place mud dolls symbolizes that after death we also become mud .

I being from south have my own reason.I celebrate kolu for a very special reason . Yes your guess is right . I enjoy the sundals . Being from a small colony called Kalpakkam , I used to go to most of my friends houses and eat sundals from each of the houses . Being a good critic of food , I gained popularity for giving genuine comments on sundals .It became well known in a circle of our friends that my certificate was valid for all the 9 days. On the day I certify a sundal to be good , it was like Vasishtar Vayal Brahma rishi for the sundal Mami . Like today's Microsoft certification for MCSE or Sun ceritification for Java, those days were popular for Madhu certified sundals .
My amma's speciality was Puttu . This is made of Arisi Mavu( Rice flour) and generally made on a Friday . My God! , I still remember our house used to be full of people on Fridays. People from 21 street( farthest from my house) used to come to 5 th avenue to taste my Amma's Puttu .
The days are gone , now a days we havent been celebrating kolu for this reason . Its been more than 2 years since I have eaten sundal . I miss my Sundal . Hoping against the hope to start celebrating kolu again atleast for my sundal wishes .

Cheers,
Madhu
Sundalan

Savings A/c or Short Term Debt funds

The Indian equity markets are at dizzy heights and it seems they have taken steroids . They are running up as if they want to catch up with Ben Johnson . Ofcourse this comes with a lot of risk .
Thanks to these heights I have seen a lot of mutual Fund AMCs launching arbit schemes under various names . Though I feel most of them dont have any value addition. I have seen a lot of ppl running behind just because the new funds have no Entry Loads . Should only Equity market be our investing strategy . Why is Debt Funds not being discussed at all ?
Actually Debt Funds should also be given its due . Actually I tell you short term debt funds are more tax efficient that your saving account interests . All this assuming you are in the highest tax bracket and you file your tax returns as a nice and honest citizen . Let me explain how .

We all know SB a/c in any bank gives us a return of 3.5 percent . For an amount of say 10000 the ROI = 350 ( I hope my Maths is correct ) after a Year .
That means all 350 Rupees is taxed at your highest tax level . 350 * 30/100 = 12.25 .(Actually these numbers are small ) but the numbers proptiantely increase if the principal is more .

Lets take the same amount in a reasonable shot term debt fund . Ideally if you are in the highest tax bracket , You should be going for a divident option . this is because the dividend payout is made after the tax . So the dividend that you receive is not taxable . typically the NAV falls after a dividend payout . So you can just keep pocketing the dividend . This would be intune of about 4-4.5 5 (average performing fnuds ).It could go up higher . Another thing about short term funds are its far less riskier that Equity funds ....Of course MFs always comes witha statuatory warning . For short term funds there are no entry/exit loads too :)

You might want to visit this for more details .

Next time chose you better not park your money in SB instead think of investing short term money in Short term funds with dividend options .

Cheers,
Madhu
Money manager

The Prize Winner

Everyone wants to be the prize winner . This is what happened in a party that I had attended recently . There were 3 prizes A, B and C . Prize A was the costliest . Prize B was a normal prize .Prize C was a googly prize . One of the prizes was promised for everyone . But there was a condition.

The participant had to make a statement . If the statement was true , he would get A or B randomly. If his statement was false , he would get prize C . Obviously as a participant I eyed the prize A. I went ahead and asked them a question which made the organisers to give me Prize A.

What do you think would have been my question ?

Cheers,
Madhu
- Questioning the Questions .

Volunteering

This weekend was pretty hectic for most of us from the organization. Not because we had to fix bugs but some of us had volunteered for community service. Some of the activities were enjoying with Specially privileged children, old aged ppl , helping out thalasemia patients ,etc. I decided to volunteer to for a couple of activities.
Chord was one such event. This was the one for helping out bringing in scientific temper among the under priveleged children who had been child labors and who were being taken care a NGO called Chord. We meticulously planned the various activities beforehand so that nothing crashes on the day of event . Ppl were assigned various responsibilities, food committees, science committees , etc were formed to take various roles. Leads took care of the overall arrangements .
Why should I participate in this event , Is it because I didnt want fix bugs on a Sat , was I getting a free T-Shirt , was it that I wanted a change or was it a small step from me to do a small service to humanity in my own small way ..Thinking and contemplating I boarded the bus which took us to the school ( I am not sure if I could call it a school). It was a faraway from Hyd about 25 Kms . We played a lot of games with the children . Musical chairs, some cultural activites with the kids made both us and the children enjoy the event. "Breakfast guys"..called the lead and all of us broke our fast .
After the breakfast , the main event took place.

Science Exhibition.

Volunteers went around the exhibits prepared before hand by the students with the help of their teachers. The main idea for around was to help them understand the basic science concepts and their real life implications. Rain water harvesting , Capillary action , Water pressure expts, Salt water synthesis , Electrical circuits , Optics .All parts of the science was touched. We went around each of the exhibits to help them . This was the toughest part. They were not able to communicate with us..And our Telugu was terrible. In our toota foota telugu we managed to tell them whatever we knew and they understood things in their own way (Hope we havent taught anything wrong) .
After this the children demonstrated the same to their school mates and explained them. The children did their work with a great deal of enjoyment and involvement . As we were showing the exhibits , Lunch was being taken by other children keeping in mind of the small kitchen. Biriyani ..Curd Rice ..Kids thought it was festival time ..this was the most relishable time for the kids .
Post lunch was devoted to origami classes. With Papers it was amazing to see of some of our volunteering to teach making elephants, birds..mmmm. God I also tore a lot of papers !..Kids got them correct and I presume they would possess these pieces pf papers as really valuable pieces of their creativity .
Day was coming to a close when we decided to share way the prizes to winners of events whihc we conducted all thru the day like memory game, art competitions ,etc . The kids also performed their part in singing songs, dancing etc to entertain us . Good Show guys... "Tata , bye Bye ..please come again sir/Madams", said the kids as we parted way after a long anjd memorable day.
I boarded the bus with a heavy heart again thinking if I had got the answer ..I believe I got the answer .

Cheers,
Madhu
Volunteer.

Fnd the bug

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,i=0,_;while(_=l[i++])for(O=0;O++<_>>5;)*I=*(I++-(_&31));*I=0;puts(o+5);}





Cheers,
Madhu
I am the Original Kernighan

The Mathematician's delight

Its Sequence time again . Again this should be a simple one to crack .

2, 27 , 271 , 2718, 27182 ,....


If I give a hint , my teacher who taught me Maths would kill me.

Cheers,
Madhu
Not a Napier

Matreeex

Fill up the matrix

 _  T  T  F  F
 S  S  E  N  T
 E  T  T  F  F
 S  S  E  N  T

Hint: it's not 'E'

G Selvi

GSLV is what I wanted to call it. Today Indian Rocket scientists have added another feather in their caps by successfully launching INSAT 4R using GSLV . Congratulations . ISRO can now call itself the cheapest and one of the most efficient Satellite launchers. Europeans and Americans , Are you listening, Now come on start launching satellites using our Selvis ...
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle is as the name suggests a launch vehicle which is helpful in putting the payload INSAT into its orbit . These satellites are the real objects which are revolve around the earth and are helpful in communication , DTH etc. GSLV is a three stage vehicle meaning , the propellant (which pushes the rocket up ) is of three types. A solid propellant in the first, liquid in the second and the third stage consists of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen. These all help in pushing the satellites to be in the orbit . Its actually a really complicated setup as is generally know is Rocket science .
As a child each one of us would have played with paper rockets . Havent we wanted to fly in to the space , moon ..These Indian Scientists of ISRO I am sure would make our dreams come true by the chandrayan mission . All the best guys .
I am looking forward for the Diwali , in which I would burst the Rockets ( crackers) and dream of becoming a rocket scientist if not in this Janma but atleast in next .

Madhu
Rocketeer.

Sum it if you can

A bit early as promised last week. Coz want you guys to ponder over the puzzle being posted over the weekend . Guys find the Sum of this .

S h O L E -
B I L E -
S O L -
h E I L +
S O L E +
O h -
L I E -
S h O E -
h O L E +
B L I S S

===========



Cheers,
Madhu

Hyder "Bombed"

"Hyderabad Explode ".. "Twin Cities twin Blasts " .."Terror Strikes Hyderabad again" ..Who would have imagined they would have to read the morning newspaper with these headlines .
Would the relatives of the people who had gone to see the Laser Show at Lumbini Park in their wildest of dreams dreamt that they would be victims themselves . 42 lives were just plucked away by a cowardice terror act . Such a brutal act by some silly stupid people who do not know want they want should be condemned .
Call it Intelligence failure , Govt mismanagement , anything.. at the end of day the fact of the matter is , innocent people t their lives . We would have certainly not missed the clipping of the various news channel covering this 24 * 7 since the blast took effect . I have once seen a bomb blast in front of my eyes in Srinagar in 1999 . I tell you its really scary and I realized how much value human life has on that day. I would post that another day .
Now we might need to attack the root cause of the problem . Terrorism . First and foremost these idiots must realise that they are not going to achieve anything by victimizing innocent public. Probably a 5 min sadistic pleasure . Are you not a human . Dont you have any values ? If you have any problems talk it out with the govt , instead of taking to such incorrigible acts.
If you people could suggest some ways that would abolish terrorism it would be a great value add from we citizens . The first and foremost is Poverty . If we could reduce poverty , I tell you half the problem is solved. Mostly in almost all cases the people who execute the action is a very poor uneducated guy who is puppeted by a rich business man.
Education . Moral education should be imparted to every human. Gandhism should be propagandized. People should made to realize that Peace harvests Peace and Violence sprouts Violence.
We at this hour should stand united and see to it that we wade this crisis as effectively as possible. Our heart felt condolences to all those who lost their lives. In a way they are Martyrs too fighting against an unknown enemy .

Madhu
- Lover of Gandhism

Khul Ja Sim Sim

This week will play Khul jaa sim sim .You are a contestant on the game show.

Three closed doors are shown before you. Behind one of these doors is a car; behind the others are "Fish". You do not know where the car is, but the presenter does. You pick a door and presenter opens one of the remaining doors, which doesnot have the car ..
If you have already chosen the correct door, Presenter is equally likely to open either of the two remaining doors with the fish.After presenter has shown a fish behind the door that he opens, you are always given the option to switch doors.What is the probability of winning the car if you stay with your first choice? What if you decide to switch? Would you prefer to switch doors . Explain .

Cheers,
Madhu the monty hall

NB: From next week I will post puzzles on Fridays for you to think over the solution over the weekend . Check for other puzzles from the labels link.

Omnibus of R K Narayan

Starting this week, I would try to post reviews of the books that I have read and I am reading . As always the disclaimer is that these are my own thoughts and they may not reflect that of the author's. Who can forget the Malgudi days serial in Doordarshan which used to be telecast on weekdays a few years back. RKN , the indian father of modern English Fiction is the author of this book by Everyman's library . ISBN : 185715-294-8

Sampath - Printer of Malgudi .

Srinivas is the publisher of the Banner a newspaper in malgudi .
he has tough times in running the paper.As he runs into financial problems his own printer comes forward to help him. Actually the printer Sampath puts Srinivas into greater trouble when the pres comes to a grinding halt . He advises Srinivas to screenplay for his directorial venture of a film . Srinivas who is a confused person not clear with his goals joins him only to realise that Sampath is just a pompous guy who ruins his life due to his pomposity.
This story has a subtle humor which is the trademark of RKN . It depicts the normal middle class Indian mentality.Though the story was well narrated , I somehow felt I had to skip through the pages in some parts of the story in the middle.It catches up the speed finally .

Verdict : All in all its worth a read .

The Financial expert

The Protagonist Margayya is of the cadre of udayan Mukerjee's and Rakesh jhunjunwalas Though he doesnt have any money himself,He advises people financially and charges them for his expert comments. Somehow he goes to make a big fortune, thanks to Dr Pal.Years flow by and margayya becomes an A class money lender and has no time for his family . Due to circumstances theres a turnaround where in lands back to the same banyan tree he started his life losing all his money .

Interesting Quotes.
This happens when Margayya meets Dr Pal when Margayya is in search of milk from a 'smoke' colored cow as
" Are you an ayurvedic doctor or an aphrodisiac -maker".

You read this chapter and if you dont laugh, I bet you should meet a doctor . As I read the omnibus , I began feeling this was a much better narrated story than the previous one. I never felt that I could afford to lose anything in between for the fear of losing some interesting humor
and the story . The story ran really fast . Infact a bit too fast for me only to realise it was over .

Verdict : A certain read .

Waiting for the Mahatma
Sriram is normal individual who grows up in Malgudi . When Mahatma Gandhi arrives in malgudi , he gets a glimpse of Bharathi and falls for her. How his life changes after this is the story. What sufferings did he have to undergo, all for Bharathi is excellently narrated. The end is so gripping when the real meets the surreal. I am sure people who have been in the independent india and pre independent India would feel with the story .

Verdict : I have already bought a copy of this book . Of all the three this is the best .

Cheers,
Madhu
RK Narayaning......

Whats in my name ?

As a student of class 5 , all of us must have heard of the story of Rumpelstiltskin . The dwarf challenges the queen to guess his name to let her child of free. The story goes on wherein the queen discovers this uncommon name of the dwarf.
I dont think Madhusoodhanan is anywhere close to Rumpel . This is a very much common name in India , especially south India . Names are really close to one's heart as it marks the identity of a person. In India , we have the habit of naming the children with a God's Name so that the child inherits all the qualities of the name . Each name has a meaning as does mine. In the epic Mahabharata , lord krsna's name was Madhusoodhanan as he killed a demon by name Madhu. Madhu (demon)+ soodhanan ( Killed ) .
Now , from my memory I have heard people call my name in whatever they like . In my school , there used to be my friend who called me "Madu". I guess he couldnt pronounce the "DH". Moving to college, some of my friends jocularly said my name contained all the vices one should not possess. Madhu in Tamil means whisky...Extend madhu to Maadhu , the meaning is ladies and Soodhu from Soodhanan reflects gambling . Good that my parents didn't hear these guys definition of my name . They would have got my name changed in the gazette right away . They would have never wanted their kid to get any of these :(
Some more weird pronunciations , Muddy , Maad , Maadu ( cow) , and what not . People of have played with my name to their convenience . In my office when I interact with my US counterparts , they started with Mad U , improved to Made U ..Oh GoD , please teach them how shd I be called. Finally they settled for madwho ? thats much better . One day when we were in a meeting , my US colleague said that my name is a complicated tongue twister!! You know what his name was Xing Xang Xhu... Now you people tell me which is a twister ?
Most of the guys around me call me Madhu . In fact, I prefer calling myself Madhu . I hope by the virtue of the same old theory of the character getting inherited by name, I don't become the demon . I would rather be a docile , nice hearted person as Madhusoodhanan .

Now guys can you go and count back how many Mads are there in this post. I hope you don't get Mad counting.

Cheers,
Madhu the Mandu ( as some call me )

Cake Cutting

This week's puzzle is a very simple one . BTW were you able to solve last week's puzzle. I need to tell you that one of my juniors got the right solution . So as a treat I gave him the cake below and this puzzle.


You have a round cake as a treat . With three straight slices of a knife, divide the cake into 8 equal pieces.



















Can you help him enjoy his treat .

Cheers,
Madhu
Cake Cutter as they call me @ work

Freshening Up

Come Sundays , Appa ( dad) had an important work . He used to go to Pudupatinam Market to get the vegetables in his moped. Kalpakkam, being a small township had only one market . Market was flooded with vegetables only on Sundays. There was a huge amount of business going on as mostly all the families made their purchase over the weekend and stocked it for the week.The non veggies would get their pile of fresh fishes and meats on Sundays. Just in case you go to pdpm on Sundays you could catch up with almost all your friends . The vendors knew almost all the residents by heart as did we know the vendors personally. The Kallans, senthils , muthus shops were all lined up just after we took the right from the exit gate .

Appa had the strategy of giving equal business to all the shopkeepers getting one vegetable from each one of them dropping them into his green bag . Appa never used to bargain . I used to silently observe the business acumen of each of the vendors , their speed in dealing with people and calculating the fractional quantities without computers :( . Probably those guys ate more of their own ladies fingers !!!

Amma never used to go the market. She went only on festive occasions to make special purchases. Otherwise she was more reliable on the street vendors like Mookan the Long Nosed

Pallan , Who had a specific teeth structure which gave him this name or Maariamma ,Who had such a big kumkum on a forehead( I used to be scared of her vermilion) . They were more of the door delivery types. They used to scream at the top of their voices to get the attention of the dwellers in the flats. They had specific times for each areas. Our area was covered by them in and about 3:30 pm .

Amma's business was drastically different from Appa's .Amma used to haggle a lot with them even for a rupee. She used to compare all the vegetable vendors prices and always made sure she got the best deal .As a child I used to be amazed by her bargaining skills.. God Knows how she came to know those details sitting back home . Kosuru ( extra vegetables after the normal weighing ) was one important point amma made during her business. Some days I used to get so irritated with Amma over the bargains she made with them . It was another matter that she used to give the hungry vendors food from our house after the business deal was over . I had once asked her why do you have to bargain for one rupee and give the vendor food, instead give that extra rupee to Mariamma . My mothers answer was pretty simple , buying vegetables was business and serving people was humanity ..Point well taken mom..Appreciate it.
Sir , you could either pay the bill for these vegetables over the credit card or use the sodex ho coupons said the person on the otherside of the counter in the air condtioned Fresh outlet near my house at Hyd .My lifestyle has changed even for buying vegetables. I walked out of the outle t with the frozen vegetables pondering about the hundreds of Kallans and Mariammas who would have been affected by the Chain of Outlets like Reliance , Fresh , Subikshas .....

Cheers,
Madhu
-Vegetable buyer .

Puzzling Prisoners

There are 100 prisoners assigned by numbers in 1 to 100 . Any number can be assigned to them . They need not be unique. They can talk one time before they assigned and then don't have any connection. Each one is requested to guess his number (they can use different strategies). He can see their numbers (but not their guess).
How can they do it so at least one of them guesses correctly his number?

If you get this puzzle , I get you a treat .

Answer for this would be posted in2 weeks time . All discussions are welcome .

Cheers,
Madhu
-Intelligent Prisoner

Plucking the String ....

Classical Physics was insufficient to explain all the natural laws , which gave birth to quantum physics. Is this insufficient too ? Most of us would be aware that all forces of nature are a form of any of the 4 fundamental forces gravitational force , strong force, weak force and the electromagnetic force. Partially this work has been done by the laureates Sheldon Lee Glashow,Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg.

They in a sense had come up with a model or a framework which could bring in symmetries between the 3 of the four mentioned forces. G force was left behind. Theoretical physicists are working to come up with the Grand Unification of theory.
While quantum theory works for point like particles whihc operate on zero gravity , the g force is close to the classical model .The big bangs, the massive objects follow the classical model.
As scientists were pondering how to bridge the gap, they came up with a new model "String theory". The first time I heard of this was in 1998 when I was doing my research program at TIFR as a part of VSRP. OK Let me tell you in very basic terms how this is modelled . All particls are not point like objects. They are like small strings ( about 10⁻³⁵ m) yeah..very tiny strings . They vibrate like normal strings of a violin or guitar and appear in multiple states depending on the energy acted upon them . Sri Lalgudi G Jayaram , would be very happy to know this .
Physicsts are still working on experimental proofs based on this theory to prove the all the forces of the nature are unique , its still a far away truth .One thing we know for sure is alls s one with the nature . Just that one is a form of another . Like God which is One .

Madhu
- Stringer ?

This week's puzzle

This week's puzzle is pretty straight forward one . I had shared a sequence fillups with my friends. As a sequel , I have a few more ..


1) M, V , E , M, J , ......


2) A , E , F , H , I , K , ....


3) 4, 27 , 3125 , 823543 , ....


I guess you shd be able to crack all the three. Post your answers as comments . Add your names when you are posting your comments.

Cheers,
Madhu the sequencer

rOsOgOlO

One favourite sweet dish of mine is the Bengali Rosogola. Its a milk sweet which cant let your mouth go unwatered . You do not be a culinary expert to know abt this dish. The first time I had tasted this was when Banerjee aunty gave us the dish for Durga Pooja . I was just 4 then . Aunty had come back from Calcutta ( now Kolkotta ), she gave us a tin of Rosogollas . Aunty had a tough time convincing Young Madhu that this was not made of egg and I could eat it which would not make me a Non Vegetarian. Amma too had a great part in making me eat this .
The first golla went into my mouth then amma's challenged polled across . She could not let me stop eating the remaining of the gollas. it was just amrit ...Aunty promised me that she would get me a tin everytime she came back from Kolkotta. But I am not sure if she ever kept her promise . My tryst with Rosogolla had just begun .
Scene 2 , Calcutta to Sindri , Black Diamond express , morning 6:00 Am . We were travelling to Sindri . I was just spell bound to see the bengali babus taking Rosogullas for breakfast . Sweets for Breakfast was just not acceptable to me . It could only be a Dessert. It started to sink in only then why the dish is more a Bengali dish .
SOmetimes I used to ponder why bengali people's accent had a lot of O's . For example , "Chakravarthy" was "chokroborty", etc . Could it because of eating of the O shaped Rosogollas . The bengali girls are sweet girls probably for same reason of eating rosogollas in the morning . I should start advising my Tamil girl friends to do the same thing for them to get sweeter .
Recently I read an article in TOI , saying this is an Oriya dish and not a bengali dish. This I would say is patent violation. All these years Rosogollas have gone synonymous to bengalis . One fine day a guy does some arbit research and publishes some article on which falsifies the the birth of Rosogolla.
Who cares about the birth of Rosogollas as long as its a sweet dish and keeps people happy . Would you care ?

Madhu
- Mouth watered thinking abt Roshogollas

Madame Prez

As I write this post India should be proud to have its first woman president , Madame Prathibha singh Patil . Its such a great development in India that even developed countries like US cant boast about .
I have been seeing people talk about equality in gender, caste ,creed etc . Having been born and brought up in a cosmopolitan place like kalpakkam, i have seen that educated ( Not literates ) people are always broad minded . They dont care all these . They just care for good humanity .
I should also bring to a point that as we got our Prathibha singhji , we also see a tug of War between another able police office Crane Bedi and the system. Here the system has won over her and she couldnt get to the post of Delhi Police Commisioner even after being the senior most .
I just remember a small incident even in my life . In my 12 th Std , we had a school election where my (she) class mate won over my ( he ) classmate . We ( the Hez) couldnt just accept that we lost to a She. We did a lot of pranks to digest the loss . if i think backof it I feel ,How silly of us .
Though we fight for reservations for ladies , the system( including me) is just hypocratic . Are we ?


Cheers,
Madhu

Kalyani---

Kalyani if I remember correctly is of 65 th Mela. The arohanam and avarohanam goes as
S R2 G3 M2 P D2 N3 S
S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R2 S
Obviously the speciality of Kalyani is the Madhyamam. We wouldnt have missed kalyani and we cant afford to miss this sampoorna ragam. This is one ragam any singer would prefer to do a Ragam Thanam Pallavi (RTP) in his concert . If you have even learnt a few geethams or varnams, I challenge that you would have learnt " Vanajakshi"..
Ilayaraja, one of the greatest musicians of our era has been the best exponent of this raagam in film songs. If a listener has not listened to "Amma endru azhaikadha" - ( Mannan) the I am sure he has not listened to Tamil songs at all . Illayaraja has composed innumerable songs in Kalyani .
Some of them are "Sundari Kannal oru seithi - Dalapathi" ," Janani Janani - Thaye Mookambika" a small piece in Sethu , I think it starts as "Sharanam bhava", "Nirpathuvae nadapathuvae "These are some of the gems I could remember just like that. There are many more . I just have question raja ...Why do you like Kal + Aani ?

Madhu

Con "Fusion"

We must be aware of the recent G8 summits, the nuke deals, world environment days . Instead of planning and discussing on what we shdnt be doing to pollute , we can think constructively. Why don't we think of alternate sources of energy instead of the age old petrol , diesel oil sources. There are a lot of benefits if we could find such sources .
Have you ever thought how Sun gives us so much of energy ? The process of energy production in Sun is Nuclear Fusion . This is the sister of the very well known nuclear fission which is used in Atom bombs and nuclear reactors . As the name suggests, Fusion is just combining a few lightweight isotopes into a heavier atom . Scientists have identified that Deuterium , Tritium ( H2 and H3 isotopes of Hydrogen) combine to form Helium and a neutron. In this process of combining a lot of energy .

"So trivial isnt it ". Why are scientists not doing this then ? The catch here is this whole process of this combination can be achieved only at very high temperatures at the order of 100 million degrees . Sustenance of these high temperatures is just not easy . There are special designed devices/machines for these called Tokamaks. Recent developments have been able to sustain this state of plasma only for a few 1000 seconds . But for fusion to become viable and a source of energy we need to sustain these temperatures for long periods of time. Hope scientists come out with a path breaking discovery as soon as possible.
Now FYI , 30 mg of deuterium produces about energy equivalent to 300 liters of Oil. Come on guys we need to achieve this process of fusion as soon as possible.
Having said all these, I was just thinking on a lighter note , construction on any day is a tougher task than destruction as is fission which is much more easily achievable than Fusion . What say ?

Madhu
- Fishing the fusion .

Grandmaster

Vishy as he is called,is one of my favourite sports icon . I like the icon obviously for his performance. Other reason ofcourse for his style of play. He is one of the fastest players in chess. Recently I saw his interview in NDTV. I was amazed when he said he could listen to harmony when he played the chess and when the pieces when the pieces were in place. Amazing how gr8 player are passionate . I also saw him talk on chess just by alphabets like E4, E5.....Probably this come by practice.
Officially hez the world champion. Kudos Vishy. Another important thing abt him he is one of 3 players who has crossed an ELO rating of 2800 which is more than amaznig.

Recently he seems to have started an academy in association with NIIT . All the best in your new venture. Hope you acheiver greater heights and bring laurels to India.

Madhu

Wish y's fan.

Maitreem Bhajata

This song is also one of the pieces very close to my heart . The essence of the song revolves around Universal Peace . . MS has the distinction has first Indian Artist to perform in the UN. This song was composed by Sri HH Chandrasekara Saraswati Swamigal for this special occasion. The song is known for its poetic and literary excellence as well . We see the use of "Da" deftly by the poet from the Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad. ( Mail me to know the exact story )
Like my previous song list , Let me try to put its meaning along with the words ,etc.


The Song is rendered in Ragamalika . Meaning Pallavi is song in a particular raaga , anupallavi in another while the charanams in others.
Now to the Song :

maitrIm bhajata, akhila hrit jaitrIm |
Atmavad Eva parAnn api pashyata |
yudhham tyajata, smardhAm tyajata |
tyajata parEShu akrama-AkramaNam ||

jananI prithivI kAma-dukhArtE |
janako dEvah sakala dayALuh |
'dAmyata, datta, dayadhvam' janatA |
shrEyO bhUyAt sakala janAnAnAm ||

Its Meaning :
Maithreem - Friendship , Bhajata - Pray ,
Akhila - Whole world , Hrit - heart Jaitreem - Conquer
Atmavath = Self , Paraath- Others - Api - Also , Pashyatha - See
Yudham - War , Tyjata - Leave,refrain
Smardan - Competition
Pareshu - others , Akramam - Agresssion


Janani , Prithvi - Mother Earth , Kama - Desires , Dukarte -Satisdfy
Janako Devaha - King Janaka ( Father ), Sakala - Among all , Dayalu - compassionate
Damyata - Self Control , Datta - Give , Dayadvam - Kind
Shreyo - Happy , well being , Bhooya - be , Sakala - All , Jananam - Beings .

The coherent meaning is

``Cultivate friendship which will conquer all hearts.

Look upon others as thyself.

Renounce war; forswear competition.

Give up aggression on others which is wrong.

Wide Mother Earth, our Mother is here ready to give us all our desires.

We have the Lord, our Father, compassionate to all.

Ye peoples of the World!

Restrain yourselves, Give, Be kind.

May all people be happy and prosperous".

Madhu

- one who believes in Maitreem Bhajata .. probably the modern day terrorists need this song .



NB: I was just thinking shd a particular raaga be sung for a particular mood. Isnt this is general conception.Mukhari is supposed to be a sad raaga . But to my surprise , " Anandam Anandam ..." is in Mukhari

Puzzling Pirates...

Its Puzzle time again . I was planning to post puzzles as often a spossible . Thought this is an interesting and a simple puzzle too.. If you get the answer, please post the answer with ur name.

Five pirates discover a chest full of 100 gold coins. The pirates are ranked by their ages. Pirate 5 is 50 years old, Pirate 4 is 49, and so on down to Pirate 1. To divide up the loot, they agree on the following:
The most senior pirate will propose a distribution of the booty. All pirates will then vote, including the most senior pirate, and if at least 50% of the pirates on board accept the proposal, the gold is divided as proposed. If not, the most senior pirate is murdered. Then the process starts over with the next most senior pirate until a plan is approved.
All Pirates are equally intelligent and selfish. Their preference is first to remain alive, and next to get as much gold as possible and finally, if given a choice between otherwise equal outcomes, to have fewer pirates on the boat.
Assume you are the senior most pirate in the group. Come up with a plan that maximizes your gold, and others will accept. How will you divide the coins? Can you generalise ..

Madhu
Captain of Pirates

MMTS Timings again

Ppl have been asking MMTS timings. SO I thought let me upload this jpg file and increase the traffice to my page ..

Mergers and Acquistions

Recently we come across the major deals happening ... India Inc. has been going great guns thanks to huge deals taking place recently . 2006 had mergers worth close to a few million dollars. Come 2007 , the feather of India Inc , TATAs made a giant leap in Indian acquistions . Worth Over 19 billion dollars, they took over CORUS over a stiff competion. They had increased the offer price close to 60 Percent over their initial bid to come through the bid successfully . This certainly is one of the major milestones in Indian history. Not that its because of the TATA brand. Its about the size of the deal and the sector of the acquistion. Prior to this India was more considered to be the back office support of the service industry . Come in the acquistion, India Inc is in the foray among the best in world manufacturing . It catapulted Tatas frm abt 50s in steel sector to No.5 which is quite a huge jump. All this has been happening with with so much hue and media attention, here comes another man by name Kumaramangalam Birla , silently took over Novelis.
Novelis is an aluminium company based out of Canada and Hindalco is the flagship of the famous Aditya Birla group. The deal is valued at abt 6 Billion dollars and is an all Cash deal .Kumaramangalam envisaged that his flagship should enter the fortune 500 by 2010. This deal has made the group to sail through the fortune list easily. Seems kumar's hunger is not satisfied . Reports say he is set to prowl on acquiring foreign cement companies.
This acquistions and mergers is not over. Suzlon is hawking at a few energy companies in Europe. Great guys , Indians fighting gloablly and making mark . A couple of years back when Oracle took over Peoplesoft its closest competitor amongst a lot of hue cry and litigations, we knew it was consolidation time for industries .
Now I see the the big Indian guns, Tatas and Birlas not afraid of hunting in foreign grounds and making a mark globally and making Indians proud.

Some time back I happened to see a movie by name "We are not Tata Birlas " ..I think I would make a movie.." We should be Tatas Birla"...
Think Big guys ..We should atleast dream big even if we dont acheive it .

Madhu

2 Extra dosais

This happened to me when I was in the first semester of MCA. We just finished what I would call the toughest practical examinations in my life. Ask my MCA classmates, they would agree that the first semester electronics lab exam was more a theory exam than a practical exam. Myself , Maha and Kums were the 3 lucky people who got the kind of qn which one would have never expected. All the 3 of us were fuming when the exam was finally over. It was not that the qn was tuf but it was monotonous and it cudnt have been completed in 3 hrs by anyone and there were not enuf chips in our labs to execute the circuit.
I was dead tired and frustrated with the exam and walked after a long 3 hour exam . I was hungry . I wanted to eat as much as possible and walked to one of the best restraunts in TPK . As I was walking towards the restraunt, KK another calssmate joined me . He wanted to know how the exam was and I had to narrate him the whole story and that I was going to have my fill. He wanted to join me and we started walking.
We were close to the bus stop as Muthu another of my classmate was walking and he was also interested to join us for the snack. We were all hungry and went to a small restraunt near the TPK temple to have our fill.
Each one of us were hungry and were ordering gulping the snacks as if we hadnt seen those food items at all. Each finished our idlies and next came the set dosais , gulped a few chapatis and finally the coffee to refresh ourselves.. Each of were full and could not have anything more for the rest of the day.
"Bill Please", said Muthu. The waiter gave the bill and the bill was Rs.82 .I was having Rs 50 and asked KK to pay the rest.I was always of the opinion that as my classmates joined me one by one they would be having enuf cash with them. Now KK didnt have money nor did Muthu. KK and Muthu were thinking that others wud be having enuf cash to pay out the bill. Each of us were looking at each other's face not knowing know this embarassing situation. The waiter was walking up and down around us with accusing look.
Luckily for us Muthu's house was close to the restraunt and he said that he would get the money. 5 mins passed after Muthu left , myself andKK were in unknown waters. KK hit an idea . He called up the waiter and ordered for another 2 dosais for each of us.I was confused and got his idea. KKs idea was simple. By the time Muthu came back, we would slowly munch the extra dosais so that the owner didnt think bad of us . But then we were already full . Still , we slowly munched the extra dosais and thank God by the time we finished the extra dosais, Muthu came back with enuf cash frm his house.
If Muthu had not been in time this blog would have been 10 extra dosais . Myself and KK would have gone in an infinite loop for sure. What say KK ?

Madhu
- Dosai eater

Milk Forest Tamil

What the heck is Milk Forest Tamil ? This was how I was teased by my friend . Transliterating Milk= Pal , Forest = kadu .
I had been to Kerala to attend my ex Roomie's wedding . I was put up in another of my friends house. Now this guy talks a different Tamil . I shdnt call this tamil , infact I should be saying this is Talyalam...no infact it should be malayil ..Whatever we name it , i had one of the tufest time in their house. The last time I have heard abt Palakad Tamil was in MMKR . Now i dont think I shd be expanding this. But these ppl beat the movie hard.
To be frank , my Malayalam is reasonable and my tamil is infact decent( I have started reading Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki)...But these guys were driving me crazy . They were talking in a fashion which neither my Malyalam Parser nor my Tamil Parser could decode. My parser was throwing uncatchable exceptions. Adhu daan ba I wasnt able to understand a bit of their language.Continous context switching and I had to give up .
I had no clue if these ppl were talking malayalam or Tamil ...Finally , Some of the things I have accumulated are
I had always thought Kali was a food item given in Jails , but it referred to games...
Saram was some thing in the house ..but it means a dont care state.
and Raavila meant in nights but this was a turnaround, it actually means in the morning.

I finally took the train thinking why we shdnt have a separate state for these ppl if Indian states are based on languages. Oops...I am adding to more confusion.

Madhu
-kozhandai ( means kutti papa in tamil but is more referred to guys in Palakkad)

Restart ....

Lemme try restarting my blogging. I was tied up with some work ( summa solradhu daan) .. coz of which my writing came to a temp stand still.
I will try to be as regular as possible from now .

This reminds me of the famous cigarette joke.

" One of my friends said he has stopped smoking several times " and restarted smoking many more times .

Discipline is more important . Pongal should mark a discpline in me to write and throw my views

Madhu
- ctlr+alt+del