Outspeak

Fault Indicators for Consumer Appliances

2010-01-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

A washing machine fail to work. The Lady of the house wonders what went wrong. She turns it on, clothes are in, water tap is connected, but the machine doesnt start. She calls the vendor. The vendors redirects her to the service shop. The service shop guy asks for details and promises to send a service engineer.

The service engineer drops in after two days. Well dressed even a tie the service engineers speaks half in english and half in regional language. He checks the machine and says there seems to nothing wrong except the motor. He says motor is not his area of expertise so he will go back and report. After another two days an other service engineer turns up. He confirms the motor must be the problem. Then comes the shock! He says the machine needs to be brought to the service shop to investigate and fix this.

You cannot take a washing machine in auto or your home car! So the lady brings a small load carrier, costs Rs. 250 for 4km distance. She takes the machine to the service shop. She then expresses frustration to the service manager and tells him that if the motor is gone bad, she doesnt want to fix it rather she will dispose it. The service manager orders the engineers to check throughly.

Then comes the shock they report that the motor too is fine! At last they find that the unit where buttons operate the machine there is a fault. They changed the swtich assembly and it all works fine. At least seems to work fine. The lady just notices that there are so many other people with grim face waiting to quarrel with the service shop folks regarding one or the other washing machine issues.

Now let us assume the above story goes as below:
When the machine failed, the Lady calls the service shop. The receiver asks the make/model/year of manufacture etc. Then he asks the lady to locate a spot in the washing machine where there are LEDs marked E1, E2, E3, E4. And there is a small glass viewpoint. He asks her whether there is a Yellow and Red color flashing alternatively in the glass viewpoint. The lady says No. He responds that means the motor is not running. Then he asks do you see any of the LEDs labelled E1/E2/etc turned ON? She says yes E1 alone is glowing. He responds that means the switch assembly is gone bad. He says "Madam, we will send our service engineer with tools and for worst case a replacement unit of switch assembly with in two days".

Two days later the service engineer comes, checks and finds a replacement of switch assembly is required. In few minutes he fixes everything. Charges for part and service.

I know it will cost little more money. But when things fail, it anyway costs money, frustration, loss of good will, etc.

NOW IF YOU ARE A STUDENT IN FINAL YEAR GRADUATION AND WILLING TO DO SUCH A PROJECT - I CAN CO-SPONSOR and CO-PARTICIPATE

Sep 2009 South Karnataka Tour

2009-10-17T22:29:00.000-07:00

6 days, five nights

Shimoga, Sringeri, Agumbe -> Jog Falls, Murudeshwara -> Gokarna, Kollur, Udupi -> Karkala, Dharmathsala -> Belur, Halebidu, Shravanabelagola

One museum, two waterfalls, three beaches, four monuments, five national highways, six temples,…

Day One, we drove from Bangalore via Tumkur, Tiptur and Shimoga to Mandagadde. We had booked home stay at Inchara. The stay was very homely and green. Inchara in Kannada means chirping of birds. The name was perfect.

Day Two, we visited the bird sanctuary in Mandagadde. There we only few birds, but it is right on the NH-13. We spotted 3 types of birds. Then we went to Mahishi beach which is clean and there were more pebbles than sand. After that we visited National Poet Kuvempu’s house in Kuppali. The house is converted in to a Museum. Apart from the pictures, articles and other collections the house itself is a masterpiece. We also climbed to the Hillock next to the museum where the Poet use to derive inspiration and was put to rest. It is a Beautiful place. We had tea in the stall outside the museum with Forest Ranger Mr. Jagadish. Then we drove to Sringeri. The parking lot in Sringeri was mess and from outside the place is nothing special. But once you enter inside, the antic temple stands magnificent. The river and the mutt in the background add to the beauty. The temple, verandas and dinner hall are all maintained very clean. After the bliss of serenity from Sringeri we drove to Agumbe. It was extremely cloudy and hence we could not get any view. But the drive to the spot itself was thrilling with visibility only for the next 12 feet or so. We got to definitely make a trip to Agumbe in the right season. We then drove back to Inchara, Mandagadde via Theerthahalli.

Day Three, we drove to Jog Falls. With so much cloud and mist, we were praying for some wind to clear the sky, and to get a glimpse of the water falls. And the prayers were answered. We could see the falls. It was beautiful, but we were told the water we saw was very less. This is an other place that is definitely to be visited again, and again, and my be again! We reached Murudeshwara via Honnavar and stayed in the RNS Residency, fifth floor. Had amazing time with wonderful view, lot of walking in the beach. We visited the temple and had darshan. We had specialty sea food dinner in the Hotel Naveen Beach Resort.

Day Four, we went to Gokarna. Bought lotus flowers, listened to the sthala puranam (history of the temple) and had darshan. We noticed that the Aadi Murti (interpret as Initial Idol or Original Idol) is now almost immersed in water. Pujas and all formalities are happening in a newer building with newer idol. Some native people were still praying the Aadi Murti. Then we moved on to the Om Beach. One of the finest beaches I had visited in my life. We walked almost 75% of the beach and headed back to the hotel to check out. We drove to Kollur. The place and temple was nowhere close to what I remember from my last visit that was roughly 20 years ago. Most of the forest is now seems to be replaced with civilization. After darshan we drove to Udupi and stayed in Hotel Kediyur.

Day Five, went to Udupi Sri Krishna temple and had darshan. From Udupi we went to Karkala, visited the Gomateshwara on hill top. It is a must to see place. The drive to the hill top and coming down was real fun. We then proceeded to Dharmathsala and had darshan after 3 hours of waiting in the queue. Biggest mistake in this tour was this. There is no good restaurant in this area. We drove to Belur for night stay.

Day Six, we visited Belur monument. I had visited it 20 years ago and hence I only had faded memories. This place is one among the ones that every human being can adore. The innovation, modularity, extensibility in the architecture is just amazing. Also we noticed idols of Lion on top of Elephant. This symbolizes Hinduism overtaking Buddhism around the time when the temple was built. After that we also visited the Halebidu monument. We then drove to Shravanabelagola, climbed hill top to have darshan of Gomateshwara. After that we reached Bangalore to our home.

This is our second long drive in our Scorpio Vlx. Lots of driving in rains, bad roads, real test to the Car. 1646 KMs, 37 hours drive, Average Mileage 12.4 kmpl, Average Speed 45 kmph. Highest speed we could get was in NH

Gardening - Vegetable Addition

2009-07-09T06:51:00.001-07:00

Firstly I am a beginner. The garden space I have is 1'3" x 40' on the south side of my rented house. To make it worse the next house on south side is just 3 feet away and is a duplex house. But optimistically I could grow beans, palak (greens) so far very successfully. Motivated by the results blessed by mother nature I further venture out.

Firstly I tilled the soil and generously added cow manure 3 inches under the surface. Removed every piece of stone I could feel with my fingers (need to buy tools). The soil felt more clay and I wasnt prepared. Things to do next time - Add 2 bags of sand, generous amout of compost.

I sowed six tomatoe, six green chillie, nine ladies finger, three Dolichos bean, five cucumber and two bitter gourd. The idea is to grow vegetables close to the proportion of our consumption. Some of my friends grow things out of proportion and try sharing with others which is ok only when the receiver values it!

When I removed palak, I had left 3 of them untouched. They have now grown fully and maybe in a months time yeild us seeds. Since my garden is 100% organic, I want to harvest those seeds if possible.

My concern is whether the creepers (Dolicosh Bean, Cucumber) will hinder sunlight to my other plants. They are going to be on tall poles and wires (due to space limitation). Bitter gourd wont be a problem as it is in the east end where I only have a weed garden. I will write about my 'weed garden' concept in a separate blog. On the east end of my so called garden my wife is encouraging me to put a chicken coup to get some home made eggs! Will post on that if at all I could do it

useful links
Dolicosh Beans - http://www.seedsofindia.com/Beans.htm
Remarkable benefits of Bitter Gourd - http://www.juicing-for-health.com/bitter-gourd-benefits.html

Happy Growing

Learn to suspect

2009-06-09T03:46:00.001-07:00

Have you checked out the driving directions between your home and your friend's place in google maps and got stranded?

You tested multiple times the tool you wrote and ended up discovering due to some build rules screw-up the changes are not even compiled?

You tried so hard to fix a relationship but failed and felt guilty it is all your fault?

Take a deep breath, you need to learn to suspect things. This includes great things like Google to simple things like your shoe lace. Don't assume that things will work perfectly the way they are intended to be. While solving a problem, learn to suspect that anything may be the cause of failure...

Failing to suspect things, and assuming the failure is related to your own may burn out more efforts with no progress.

just my 2 cents...

A Sunday Morning, 15 kms away from Bangalore

2009-06-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

I wanted some time out in nature, green among some flies and birds... Sunday 31st May I got up at 5:30Am and headed towards rural outskirts of Bangalore. Around 12 Kms from Channasandra (near ITPL) towards Chiktirupathi, I went to interior village roads and parked the car.

This is my first such attempt, took some time to figure out. I picked my camera and walked around. The morning time out is such a wonderful experience. Two hours went like 15 minutes. I did clicked some pictures. I think I have a lot of scope for improvement.

I have a Minolta Htsi Plus SLR Film Camera with 28mm-80mm Lens. I havent done justice to the camera yet! The other one is Canon IXUS 800IS 4x Zoom (with digital zoom it can get to 16x - you should forgive me for poor closeup shots :( )

I am amateur in early stages. Your comments, feedback and criticism is of great value. Kindly make time to comment/criticize. For more pictures please click here

May 2009 Kerala Trip

2009-05-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

The trip was to take a break from hectic work life and totally relax. We chose Kerala and it did not let us down in spite of being May summer! Kerala is a beauty. The route we took was
Bangalore - Erode - Coimbatore - Malampuzha - Palakkad - Guruvayoor - Thrissur - Adirapally - Cochin - Munnar - Erode - Bangalore

Visiting Marudamalai and Bharathiar University campus was soothing... All of us who went were from Bharathiar University. And yes we did spot a Peacock in the campus. When we went the boys hostel was empty. Lot of new buildings but the forest feeling is still there (thank god).

I had seen Palakkad fort before but did not recognize it. So worth the visit. The fort had some amazing huge very old mango trees. It is great to realize how old the trees around that fort are standing time. Malampuzha dam was not that pleasing as it was I visited it before. May be due to summer. The dam staff sounded as rude as the ones in Bangalore Lalbagh.
Guruvayoor was crowded. I did not have patience to go through the queue so just prayed from outside. Thrissur was on the way. Somehow we did not plan well to make it to the Vadakkunnathan temple. We saw it just from outside.

Adirapally falls was amazing. When my Dad took us to Kerala tour, this is something we had to give up in our agenda. So I insisted on this in this tour. Going down to the foot of the falls and climbing back was a mini trekking.
We headed to Cochin, stayed there for 3 nights. We booked KTDC tour package to see the backwaters, village life, etc. We had wonderfull Kerala food. The ayurvedic massage was just ok. The ELA restaurant on Marine Drive was good food for reasonable price. Very decent service.

The back waters of Cochin was the key part of our tour. The green, waters, birds and fishes were pleasing to our eyes. I did not concentrate much on my photography. In fact I did not even use my SLR or Tripod. Rather I was just adoring the beauty. But I must do better photography in upcoming tours. It is so good to see the pictures time and again and share with friends.

When we went to Munnar we just realized getting accomodation without reservation is tough. We just changed our mind, roamed a bit seeing the views and headed back to Erode. While crossing Kerala/TN border, the TN check post was collecting Rs 20 from every car. We could not understand what it was for so left without paying it.
Both onward and return we stayed whole day in Erode to spend time with family. Of course we had some good food and shopping in Erode. From Erode we returned to Bangalore.

This is first long trip for my Scorpio. It did excellent. The drive was 1750 KMs. Average mileage was 14.3 Kmpl. Next time I will try to capture average speed between destinations. Kerala roads were really good. The road sense i.e., lane discipline, proper honking, responding to honk was something I should mention. May be it is due to being a highly literate state. But they drive really fast even on narrow roads.

Please leave your comments and let me know what you think

Veluppillai Prabhakaran

2009-05-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

Veluppillai Prabhakaran is shown as dead on news channels. Triggers many questions in my mind.

Who had won?
Who had lost?
From the almost 35 year old civil war...
What are the learnings for members of Minority Communities?
What are the learnings for members of Majority Communities?
What are the learnings for Terrorists?
What are the learnings for Governments?
What are the learnings for Migrants?

In almost all such conflicts in the world today, the one who raises a force usually is the one who is forced to put it to an end!

History is extremely important as it repeats itself

Earlier I felt I am free to live anywhere in the world as long as I obey rules of the land and respect sentiments of the people. But I had grown deeply consious about where I belong, where I can establish and where I can afford to carry my identities openly.

(Note: I had had trip to Sri Nagar too, and had heart felt conversations with kashmiris' too)

Indifference / கண்டும்கானாம ...

2009-05-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes months after I write a blog, some one tells me it was a good one! This happens when I have a phone conversation or meet them. But I have no clue whether there are readers for my blogs are not! It is a great gesture to post a single word or sentence as comment :)

படிச்சுட்டு எதுவும் சொல்லாம போகாதீங்க :(

Ant Nests made of Leaves

2009-04-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

I saw them near the scientists hostel in the DRDO layout in Sir C. V. Raman Nagar in Bangalore. First I noticed it in a the shrubs. I had seen red ants a lot before. During school days we use to play with them. There is fear and thrill in playing with them. You let them climb on your fingers and let them stroll all over your hands but without touching them. The beleif was that if you touch they may sting!

But this red ants looked different. The color is a slight deviation towards orange (செந்தூரம்) and they had an entirely differnet body language. They are always in a brisk and alert movement. And they seemed to even know my presence and alert. May be due to the nest!

Here is the excerpt about them from www.antnest.co.uk
"Some ants in warmer countries build even more exotic and complex nests: Oceophylla longinoda, or more commonly called ‘Weaver ants’, create nests by ‘sewing’ leaves together, using a sticky secretion that is created by their larvae. The workers will form living chains of ants in order to pull the edges of two leaves together and hold them there, whilst other workers will hold their larvae, touch the head of the larvae to one edge and gently pull back. A string of larval silk will issue forth and the worker ant will attach this silk to the edge of the other leaf, and so bind the two leaves together. This will be repeated many times, by many ants, using many leaves, until a ball of leaves all sewn together is created; and it is in this that the ants will live."

Then before leaving I noticed the big one on top of a tree! Fascinating...

வீடு கட்டிட திட்டப்படம் (house floor plan)

2009-04-05T07:43:00.000-07:00

remove செய்ய நேர்ந்துவிட்டது

உங்கள் கருத்துக்களை தயங்காமல் பகிர்ந்து கொள்ளுங்கள்
(please feel free to share your comments)

நட்பு

2009-04-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

மனைவி கிண்டலாக பிடித்தது...கவிதையாக வந்திருக்கு!

Ugadi & Naresh Birthday Trip to Erode

2009-03-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

We made a four day week end and went to Erode. Naresh's birthday was on 27th March which coincided with Ugadi. We kept the Ugadi puja very simple this time. We relaxed completely and spent time at home. We did not travel anywhere. Early summer was real hot.

It took 5 hours onward including the refreshment time at Adayar Anand Bhavan near Thoppur Toll Gate. Average speed of 57Kmph is not bad. The slowest stretch was Erode to Salem.

Route Distnce Time KMPH
=============================================
Erode
Salem /NH-7 61 1:21 45.19
Thoppur/NH-7 54 0:54 60.00
Krishnagiri/NH-7 67 0:50 80.40
Bangalore Border/NH-47 58 0:55 63.27
Bangalore Home 30 0:45 40.00
Erode - Bangalore Average Speed was 56.84.

Being Bold and Proactive to Recession

2009-03-21T22:22:00.001-07:00

This blog comes out of my comment to Navrang's blog. When recession arrived, I had some thought process. I think recession is natural process to fix the gap between reality and hype (boom). This includes real estate, share market, job oppurtunities. I decided to walk exactly in the opposite direction compared to the rest.

What one can do is to take home loan to buy site and construct house. You can buy a car or even a SUV. You can spend on home infrastructure like LCD monitor, Laptop, Inverter with good backup, etc. You get good interest rate, good price, decent service and above all you contribute to the economy when it needs you. Remember customer is kind in recession times.

For safety measures, keep bank balance to run at least 10 months. More important, keep your mind and your family members well prepared for even the worst. Discuss about possibly moving in with close friends or parents (in-laws) in case hit by recession. It could be job loss or close down of your company. Lookup to identify such reliable friends whom you can trust. Even talk to them. That only will let them understand that you are there for them if they are impacted.

But be realistic. You can be with friends or family for 2 to 3 months. After that think about moving to some small cost friendly town or village. Make sure it is well accessible from the City. May be 2 to 3 hours of train ride. For instance from Bangalore you can move to Dharmapuri. From Chennai you can move to Kanjipuram. There are plenty of places. By doing this you can cut down your monthly expenses to mere five to eight thousand. Whereas now in city you will be spending 10s of thousands a month. Note that you have good access to the city to attend interviews and visiting friends/contacts etc.

Now if you have a own house thats far better. If you have home loan EMI then do not hesitate to talk to your bank about possible ways to handle in case there is a event. It could be paying just Interest for few months or even skipping few months of EMI with a written letter from you to them. This is better than uninformed skip of EMI and reactive steps.

This kind of preparation will make the 10 months backup very reasonable and easy to arrange. Retaining normal lifestyle using backup is a very heavy burden.

The most important thing is mental readiness, understanding in the family and a plan that was already well thought about. This will make the experience more of a learning and something great to remember when we recover from it.

மணி (Mani)

2009-03-21T21:26:00.001-07:00

மணி நல்ல கருப்பு. முகமெல்லாம் ஞாபகமில்லை. வேஸ்டி மட்டும்தான், மேல்சட்டகூட கிடையாது. தோட்ட வேலை, மாட்டு வண்டி ஓட்டுவது, தென்னை மரம் ஏறுவது, இப்படி அத்தனை வேலையும் மணிக்கு அத்துப்படி. மணியோட குரல்கூட ஞாபகமில்லை.
மணி சாப்பிடுவதே தனி அழகு. அலுமினிய வட்ட தட்டம். இங்க அங்க கொஞ்சம் ஒடுங்கி இருக்கும், ஆனால் சுத்தமாத்தான் இருக்கும். பெரும்பாலும் ராகிகலிதான் சாப்பிடுவான். தொட்டுக்க நிலகடலை சட்னி, கத்திரிக்காய் குழம்பு, எதாவது ஒன்று. கலி ராகி நிறம், சட்னி 'rose' நிறம், தட்டம் ஈய நிறம். இன்றும் நிலக்கடலை சட்னி அல்லது வரமிளகாய் வைத்து அரைத்த தேங்காய் சட்னி சாப்பிட்டால் எனக்கு மணி ஞாபகம் வந்துரும்.
மணி மாட்டு வண்டி ஓட்டும்போது பெரும்பாலும் நான் அவன் பக்கத்திலேதான் இருப்பேன். சில சமயம் மாட்டோட வாலை கொடுத்து என்னை கடிக்க சொல்லுவான். ஒத்த மாட்டு வண்டி, படு ஜோராக போகும். சித்திரைக் கோயிலுக்கு போனபோது குரங்குகள் வண்டிக்குள்ளே புகுந்து வாழைத்தாறு உள்பட தின்பண்டங்களை சூரையாடிதை மறக்கவே முடியாது. அப்புறம் ஏர் உழும்போது என்னை கலப்பையில் இரண்டுபக்கம் கால் போட்டு உட்கார வைத்து கொண்டு உழுவான். அவன் குடும்பமெல்லாம் நிணைவில்லை. கடைசியாக நான் மணியை பார்த்தபோது எனக்கு 4 வயது.
மணி இப்பொது இல்லை. ஏனோ அதில் துக்கம் துளிகூட இல்லை. ஆனால் முப்பது வருசங்களுக்கு அப்புறமும் மணியை ஞாபகம் இருக்கு.

Too Busy to Live???

2009-03-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

It is more than two weeks since I checked my personal emails. I do not call any of my friends during week days in the past two weeks. I did not blog for 2+ months. I hardly finish reading the DNA news paper. I had no time to arrange creeping threads for the flowering creepers I bought two weeks ago. I get up in the morning tired. Is it really worth being so busy?

Wakeup 6:30
Leave to work 7:45
Reach Office 8:15
Go to Gym 4:45
Leave for the day 6:30
Reach Home 7:15
Water Plants at 8:30
Go walking with wife 9:00 - 9:30
Work from home 9:30 - 11:30

Only entertainment in whole day is listen FM during driving, chatting with colleagues during lunch and tea time.

The story I wanted to post about Mani (மணி) is still pending...

Swayamsevak Sanghs!

2009-02-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

College professor beaten to death. Slowly media moves on to newer news and people forget it.
Artist beaten badly takes months to recover. Slowly media moves on to newer news and fellow artists calm down and people forget it.
Nun gang raped by mob. Media moves on, people move on. There are so many such news and we move on! Same thing will happen to the Mangalore pub incident.

I know people who are angry at the activists. And I also know people who are angry at the women in pub. Personally I dont like violence or obscenity in public. In a incident where both had possibly taken place I cannot take sides.

But I wish there are real swayamsevak sanghs that works on real problems in our country.

Wish we had swayamsevak sanghs that is BRAVE enough to fight terrorist attacks
Wish we had swayamsevak sanghs who can eliminate PROSTITUTION from our country
Wish we had swayamsevak sanghs that saves FARMERS from committing SUICIDE
Wish we had swayamsevak sanghs that are PART OF ARMY to join during emergency wars
Wish we had swayamsevak sanghs who are capable to put an end to BEGGAR MAFIA that deliberately removes arms and legs of helpless children and make them beg in Indian roads to make money as if it is an industry?

I will salute such a sangh and enroll as member

Bought New Car

2009-01-28T09:15:00.001-08:00

2009 first move :)

Relationship

2009-01-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

நீ எஜமான் இல்லை
நான் அடிமை இல்லை
நமக்கிடையே மொழியோ, மதமோ, இனமோ எதுவுமே பொதுவாக இல்லை
இருந்தும் இங்கே இந்த நேரம் நமது இந்த குளிர், இந்த தூக்கம், இந்த வருமை, இல்லாமை இதுவே பொது...

இதுகூட உறவுதானா?
எல்லா உறவுமே இப்படி ஒறு union அல்லது intersection-தானா?

Discover or Define?

2008-12-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

I just happen to read Carl Zimmer's The Meaning of Life. Whether you continue reading this blog or not, I strongly suggest you read the above link :)

I agree with Dr. Cleland. By defining what is life, our scope of observation, exploration and experimentation are limited. In fact like Life even Love and Relationships shall not be defined. Rather they ought to be discovered. Love in and from every person can be a unique composition of fundamental elements like care, attention, desire, emotion, trust, etc.

Imagine a world where people dont have any definition for "husband" or "wife" when they get married. Rather they just are curious and interested in discovering "it". They then could look for it anywhere, not just on thier comfort geos!

Rate my Life???

2008-12-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

First I thought it is funny. But gave a try. Below is the rating I got :)
If you are interested then check out Monkey Quiz's Rate My Life.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.6
Mind:	5.1
Body:	5.9
Spirit:	4.8
Friends/Family:	5.4
Love:	3.6
Finance:	7.6
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

In Detail:
Your life score leaves room for improvement. Make changes to improve your trouble areas. Focus on your weakest points and set about to change them. Do not delay your happiness and success.
Your mental health is not weak, but you are not achieving full mental clarity and function. Learn how to unclutter your mind. Keep learning, keep improving, continue moving forward.
Your body score is fairly average, there is room for improvement. Focus on your physical health. Protect your body as it is your most valuable physical asset. Nutrition, stress reduction, and exercise are key.
You seem to be lacking in spirit. Refine your beliefs and search for answers to philosophical questions. Consider new belief systems if your current beliefs are not rewarding you.
Your friends and family score can be improved. Maintain your current social net, while you try to expand it. Try new things and form new friendships.
You have a rather low love score. You can bring it up by ensuring that your marriage is on a positive track and bringing the romance back. Don't put off the healing.
You have a rather good financial score, which is not all that common these days. Keep doing what works. Avoid common pitfalls and save for the future.

அவசரம்

2008-12-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

விடிந்து எழும்போதே எரிச்சல்தான். மணி 6:41 ஆகிவிட்டிருந்தது. முன்னிரவு திரைப்படம் பார்த்ததிற்கு மனைவியை கடிந்து கொண்டேன். அவள் "ஏங்க 8:00 மணிக்கு மீட்டிங் எதாவது இருக்கா?" என்றாள். "ஏன், மீட்டிங் இருந்தாதான் சரியான நேரத்துக்கு பணிக்கு போகனுமா?" என்று இரைந்தேன்.

காலை கடன்களை முடித்து, சவரம் தவிர்த்து, குளித்து, புறப்பட்டபோது, "ஆரகனில்தான் அனைவரும் சரியான நேரத்துக்கு வேலைக்கு வராங்க, டுபாண்டில் நிரைய பேர் தாமதமாதான் வராங்கன்னு சொன்னீங்க?" என்றாள். நான் மொட்டையாக "எனக்கு டிபன் வேண்டாம் மதிய சாப்பாடுபோதும்" என்றேன். "மீட்டிங் எதுவும் இல்லைனா இப்ப எதுக்கு இவ்வளவு அவசரம்?". எதைப் பொறுத்தாலும் சாப்பிட மறுப்பதை பொறுக்கமாட்டாள் என்று தெரியும். திங்கள் காலையில் சண்டை வேண்டாம் என்று அந்த இரண்டு வாஃபில்ஸ்ஸையும் வேகமாய் தின்றேன். காலணி அணிந்து கிளம்பையில் மணி 7:35 ஆகிவிட்டது.

ஆபிஸ் 19 மைல். ஆனால் வேகம் மணிக்கு 60மைல் தாண்டக்கூடாது. 65-மைல் வேகத்தில் விரைந்தேன். நெடுஞ்சாலை தெற்கிலிருந்து மேற்காக செல்லும். 14-ஆவது மைலில் நெடுஞ்சாலைக்கு குறுக்காக Nisqually ஆறு ஓடும். குறைந்தது 7:50க்காவது அங்கிருக்க வேண்டும். விரைந்தேன்...

இதோ வந்துவிட்டது. அந்த சந்தோசம் வித்தியாசமானது. கார் வேகத்தை 65-இல் இருந்து 55-க்கு குறைத்தேன். சுமார் ஒரு ஆயிரம் இருக்கும், நீர்ப்பறவைகள், ஒரு பெரீஈய.... காற்றாடிபோல் மேற்கில் இருந்து கிழக்காக சாலையை கடந்து போய்க்கொண்டிருந்தன. ஆகா என மகிழும்போது, மனைவியை கடிந்தது நிணைவுக்கு வந்து கொஞ்சம் வருத்தமாய் இருந்தது...

Los Angeles & Las Vegas Trip

2008-12-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

I took two days leave to make thanks giving holidays a 6 days vacation. We flew from Seattle to LA. We left our car in Econolodge lodge for $12 parking fee a day. They drop and pick from airport. We were in LA for 3 days. We stayed at home of my wife's college friend, Shanthi. I met her husband Kalyan, a research scientist. Amazing guy and host.

First day we went to Hollywood. We had only half day so only made it to the wax musion, guiness records and Kodak theatre. Photos are here. Second day we went to Sea World in San Diego. Since this is our first visit to a real sea world hosting dolphins, sea lions, and whales we enjoyed it. The mix of nature, taming and technology was mind blowing. The polar trip using the 4-D theatre was superb. Photos are here. Third day we went to Universal Studios.

We boarded the Seagull travels' tourist bus on fourth day morning in Chinatown, LA. We reached Las Vegas before evening. Room was booked for two nights in Stratosphere hotel, the tallest tower in Las Vegas. The night was literally running hotel casinos making to as many shows as possible. Man made wonders were mind blowing. The best I liked was the Venice, the manmade sky! Photos are here.

All went well and I had a great time until I refused to join my wife in the three adventure rides on the top of tallest tower. She still went for it. And the people there named me 'Chicken' and said I am 'mean' to let her go alone. I never enjoyed the trip after that. In family life no matter how much you get them, it is never enough.

Since Las Vegas is all about night life, the second day we travelled to the Grand Canyon west rim. We visited the famous skywalk horseshoe bridge. Watching nature's grand marvel and manmade great wonders hand in hand was a good experience. Photos are here.

Can pictures teach maths formula?

2008-12-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

Wish I was taught formulae this way :)

ஹைகூ (haiku)

2008-12-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

தொட்டில் பழக்கம்
சுடுகாடு மட்டும்...
காமம்

ஹைகூ

2008-12-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

விடிந்தும் விடியாமல்
தேடிய கசப்பு...
காபி