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.