சொல்ல முடியாத எண்ணங்கள்....

A dialogue from the movie மொழி:

"வாழணும்-ங்கர தவிப்பு உன் கண்ல தெரியுது. ஏன் மறைக்கிற? வாழ்ந்து தான் பாரேன்டி. நிச்சியம் தோக்க மாட்ட.
வாழ்க்கைல சில விஷயங்கள கேள்வி கேக்காம நம்பி தான் ஆகணும். நீ எடுத்த முடிவு தப்புனு புரியும் போது அத திருத்திக்கர வாய்ப்பு கிடைக்காமலே போய்டலாம்"

So beautifully etched by Prithiviraj! As I watched this scene for the nth time, it sure didnt fail to bring tears to my eyes!

மொழி - மௌனத்தின் அழகு!

Good Luck Team Cajunbot!

Around the same time 2 years before, I was in California representing Cajunbot, an autonomous ground vehicle in a challenge conducted by DARPA, the US Defense Research Agency. The same challenge is underway in California now, with the robots competing in an urban setup.

Being a part of such a team was a fantastic experience in 2005! I can never forget the visibly joyed faces of every single member of the team when the officials from DARPA announced we were one of the finalists. It was an ultimate experience of holding our nerves during times of turbulence, staying calm and hard as a rock and not cracking down under pressure. We had all forgotten sleep for more than 2 weeks then! But, we were not ready to sleep until Cajunbot was ready to go and drive safe! Reading the blogs on the Cajunbot website brought back memories of enthusiasm, energy, tension and pressure every single day of the challenge in 2005.

So dear Team Cajunbot!

Here's wishing you all the very best and all the luck in the world there ever is! Hope to see you all as winners! Keep up the good work and really proud of you all! You guys are the best!

For folks who are interested to know more about the Urban Challenge: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp

The beautiful Fall.....

[Scene: Monica and Rachel's, everyone has just finished Thanksgiving dinner and are groaning over their fullness.]

Rachel: You know what we should all do? We should play that game where everyone says one thing that they're thankful for.
Joey: Ooh-ooh, I! I am thankful for this beautiful fall we've been having.
Monica: That's very nice.
Chandler: That's sweet, Joey.
Joey: Yeah, the other day I was at the bus-stop and this lovely fall breeze came in out of nowhere and blew this chick's skirt right up. Oh! Which reminds me, I'm also thankful for thongs.
Joey: I mean, it's not so much an underpant as it is a feat of engineering. I mean, it's amazing how much they can do with so little material! And the way they play with your mind! Is it there? Is it not there?
Chandler: Are you aware that you're still talking?
Monica: Is anyone thankful for anything else besides a thong?

As much as Joey is thankful for the beautiful fall for reasons we all know, I'm REALLY thankful for the beautiful fall we've been having. This is my first experience of Fall colors and its the most beautiful thing one can keep looking at!

I mean it's amazing how the leaves change colors like that! My office is situated in the woods with all these trees in vibrant colors and there's a lake with the trees bordering it. I have started taking afternoon walks after lunch, sit a on a bench just near the lake and enjoy looking at the trees......I seriously cant get enough of the colors!

manasellam maargazhi......

Was listenting to nenjam elaam from aayutha ezhuthu today....

The lyrics go like this:

"en manasellam maargazhi dhaan
en kanavellam kaarthigai dhaan"

Couldnt figure out what that means! Please let me know if any of you guys find out or think what it might mean! :)

Just another post....

So, here I am again after a "REAL" long time...
Lot of things have happened.....Have had guests at home, been damn busy at work, visiting a lot of places.So thats how life's been.

My parents are here in the US of A visiting me.I am having a ball of a time taking them to places.I myself am seeing some of these places for the first time.

In the last month and a half or so, we've visted Niagara,NYC,SFO,Orlando,Columbus,DC,Boston. Now thats a huge list and I'm just tired of travelling.I've got the cloy effect.I just want to stay home and relax..Its like, we've been going out almost every weekend. I'm waiting for winter to arrive so I am just bound to stay home. I want my own space, want to do stuff I like at home and enjoy the solitude. And God only knows until how long I can get this solitude and "my space"!

Apart from that, life's jut been the same.Watched a couple of movies over the weekend
1. The heartbreak kid - An ultimate time-pass movie
2. Ammuvaagiya naan - Quite a nice movie, beautiful screenplay and some very good dialogues
(Review to follow in a seperate post)

Life's becoming really stale.I am bored to death.I already feel old.I want someone else to live my days and my life for sometime so I can sit back, relax and watch them do it! Ok, I dont make sense anymore.Let me stop here and be back with some no-nonsense.

Bachelor Of Social Service

Cant wait to see the BOSS! பேர கேட்ட உடனே சும்மா அதுருது இல்ல!

I've been watching this atleast a zillion times!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MWsjfPpN92o

எங்கேயோ எப்போதோ படித்த ஒரு வரி!

"சாதிகள் இல்லையடி பாப்பா" - என்று படித்தேன் கோனார் தமிழ் உரையில்!

சொக்கத் தங்கம் .....

அன்று சீதை தீக்குளித்தாள் தான் சொக்கத் தங்கம் என்று நிரூபிக்க...
இன்று பல சீதைகள் தீக்குளிக்கப்படுகிறார்கள் தங்கம் கொண்டு வராத காரணத்தினால்!

உன்னோடு நான் இருந்த ......

உன்னோடு நான் இருந்த ஒவ்வொரு மணித் துளியும்
மரணப் படுக்கையிலும் மறக்காது கண்மணியே!

தொண்ணுறு நிமிடங்கள் தொட்டணைத்த காலம் தான்
எண்ணூறு ஆண்டுகளாய் இதயத்தில் கனக்குதடி!

பார்வையிலே சில நிமிடம், பயத்தோடு சில நிமிடம்
கட்டி அணைத்தபடி கண்ணீரில் சில நிமிடம்!

இலக்கணமே பாராமல் எல்லா இடங்களிலும் முத்தங்கள் விதைத்த மோகத்தில் சில நிமிடம்!

உன்னோடு நான் இருந்த ஒவ்வொரு மணித் துளியும்
மரணப் படுக்கையிலும் மறக்காது கண்மணியே!

எது நியாயம் எது பாவம் இருவருக்கும் தோன்றவில்லை!
அது இரவா அது பகலா அதைப் பற்றி அறியவில்லை!

யார் தொடங்க யார் முடிக்க ஒரு வழியும் தோன்றவில்லை!
இருவருமே தொடங்கி விட்டோம் இது வரைக்கும் கேள்வி இல்லை!

அச்சம் கலைந்தேன் ஆசை இணங்கி அணைத்தாய்
ஆடை களைந்தேன் வெட்கத்தை அணைத்தாய்!

கண்ட திருக்கோலம் கனவாக மறைந்தாலும்
கடைசியிலே அழுத கண்ணீர் கையில் இன்னும் ஒட்டுதடி

உன்னோடு நான் இருந்த ஒவ்வொரு மணித் துளியும்
மரணப் படுக்கையிலும் மறக்காது கண்மணியே!

உன்னோடு நான் இருந்த ஒவ்வொரு மணித் துளியும்
மரணப் படுக்கையிலும் மறக்காது கண்மணியே!

tamil movie dialogues.....

thookathula ezhupi keta kooda solra top 10 tamil movie dialogues:

1. aih sabaas...sokka sonaiya...idhelaam apdiye thaanaa vardhaan illa (MMKR, always at the top of the list)

2. Shakthi, nan Unnai virumbala, un mela aasa pedala. nee azhaga irukanu nanakala...Aanna ithellam nadandhurumonu bayama iruke! yosichu sollu! (idhula yosikarthuku enna maddy iruku!!!)

3. ungala maadhri thimir pudicha ponnungala paatha, enna vutudunga, en thalai mudi kooda aadaadu (dont have to even say which movie it is! ivar elaathulayum mannan!, indha dialogue-a solra style-e thani!)

4. manippu- tamil-la enaku pidikaadha ore vaarthai (oh c'mon!I had to mention this!!!)

5. kooti kazhichu paar, kanakku sariya varum (idha vera yaar solirundhaalum, comedy-o comedy-a irundhurukum!)

6. en character-aye purinjuka maatengariye! (ivar nenjula irukara mudiku, ivar padichu oru doctor-aavo engineer-avo aagalaamnu vera nenapu ivarauku!)

7. neenga nallavaraa ketavaraa...therilaye pa ( sir, neenga rendume kedayaadhu!)

8. Hai chellllam!!! (idhelaam nee yen solra..nee solla koodaadhu nee solla kodaadhu!!)

9. neenga thotta kambili poochi oorara maadhri iruku! (I cant comment on this! An all time classic!)

10. naataamai! theerpa maathi sollu! (innum theerpe solaleenga sir!)

Some other close competitors were:

1. yendiru anjali yendiru!
2. enna koduma saravanan idhu!
3. epdi irundha naan ipo ipdi aayiten!
4. kazhudhaiku theiryuma karuvaatu vaasanai!
5. paathiya..onna adicha avaluku kovam varudhu!

Comments and additions welcome!

One of those days......

Undhan desathin kural
tholaithoorathil atho
seviyil vilatha
sontha veedu unnai vaa enru alaikirathu tamila
antha naadkalai ninai
avai neenkuma unai
nilal pol varatha
ayal naadu unthan veedalla viduthiyeda tamila

vaanam engum paranthaalum
paravai ennum than kootil
ulagum engum valnthaalum
tamilan ennum thaai naatil
santharpangal valnthalum[?]
angu selva maram kaithaalum[?]
pull manakum kooval unthan seviyil vilatha

Undhan desathin kural
tholaithoorathil atho
seviyil vilatha
sontha veedu unnai vaa enru alaikirathu tamila

gangai unai alaikirathu
yamunai unai alaikirathu
imayam unai alaikirathu
pala samayum unnai alaikirathu
kannamoochi aatam alaika
chinna pattam poochi kootam alaika
thennam thoppu thuravukal unnai alaika
katty kaatha uravukal alaika
nee thaan thinna nila soru naan alaika

Undhan desathin kural
tholaithoorathil atho
seviyil vilatha
sontha veedu unnai vaa enru alaikirathu tamila

pal pola ulla vennilavu
paarthal siru karai irukum
malar pol ulla thai moliyil
maaratha sila vali irukum
kanneer thudaika vendum unthan kaikal
athil serlika vendum unthan maikal
intha desam uyarattum unnaleh
makkal kootam varattum un pinnaleh
anbu thaiyin madi unnai alaikuthey tamila

Undhan desathin kural
tholaithoorathil atho
seviyil vilatha
sontha veedu unnai vaa enru alaikirathu tamila

Happy Birthday,Sachin!

If cricket is religion, Sachin will always be my GOD!

I think I've never felt life to be so monotonous since I was born :)
I assume the major reason for the "non-boring" aspect was the fact I was always with a group, hanging out together and atleast one face to see when I wake up every morning and atleast one person to talk to about how the day was before I went to bed....From the very fact that I'm rambling something so incoherent, I dont want to write more. It'll probably take a long while for me to start the blogging spree again. Come on! There has to be something interesting that should happen in life to write about!

I'm really really looking forward to:

1. C's grad party in Lafayette... It's going to be so nostalgic to visit Lafayette again!

2. ARR's concert in Atlanta

3. My parents visit in June

As of now, nothing else is exciting in life :(

Weekend story!

Friday, March 9,2007:
We officially got approval to get the DirecTV package for World Cup Cricket in the office. That means, endless screaming during office hours! Me turning into a cricket fanatic again!

Sometime around the evening, my manager offered to send me to a summit at the headquarters in SFO. I booked the tickets immediately before he could change his mind :))

The temperature was close to the 60's for the first time in 2 months.

Saturday, March 10,2007
One of my best friends had come to Pittsburgh from NJ. It was great meeting her after 3 years!

Spent the day with her and went around Pittsburgh for quite sometime.

Sunday, March 11,2007

Flew to San Francisco. Reached SFO late that night, and had "aathu" rasam and authentic home-made lemon pickle after a REAL long time in my cousin's place!

Monday, March 12,2007

Got ready early in the morning for the summit. SFO rocked!!!! The weather was beautiful and I was awstruck at the first sight of the NetApp headquarters in Sunnyvale. The infrastructure at the HQ was simply phenomenal!

Day 1 @ the summit was good, though, I was totally swamped with information. Only 20% went inside and rest all were OHT!

In the evening, while waiting at the HQ for my cousin to come and pick me up, I sat in the sun for quite sometime as I realised I'd never get this chance when I get back to Pitt. :)

I loved the roads, the weather and just everything about SFO! By the end of the day, I was pretty much sure I would get a transfer to the HQ after a year more at Pitt, the earliest I can get a transfer!

Had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Silicon Valley and a perfect end to the day with an icecream at an Italian place.

My cousin's place is the best! I watched SUN Tv for quite sometime that night before going to bed and that night was the best sleep I ever had in 2 months!

Tuesday, March 13,2007

Called Sundar and made plans to meet for dinner that evening.

Same routine at the summit-Day 2.

Met Sundar and Prashanth that evening and had dinner at an Indian restaurant, which made the trip complete in all ways! :)

They dropped me at the airport and I am back here at Pitt!

So, that was a great weekend I had after a long time!

Summit Syndrome

It was a regular team meeting at work today. We were discussing the usual achieve milestones,meet deadlines, fix bugs, status updates....After half an hour, my manager started talking about doing a self-evaluation of performance once a week. He gave an awesome talk for about a half hour. Given a chance, I could keep listening to him talk for hours together. He's been in the industry for about 15 years now and he reads a lot. One thing he mentioned today really affected me and made me think a lot.

He talked about the term "summit syndrome", about which he recently read in a Harvard Business Magazine article. Summit syndrome is something that hits extremely talented, aggressive and intelligent people when they overcome their challenges, they find it extremely difficult to carry on with the normal routine. They lose the fire to perform and become obsessive with other things, like sudoku and crosswords at work. And this is very difficult to spot in the early stages. Some of the few effects of people affected by this, which he mentioned were very troubling. This could make people do grave mistakes for which they will repent their life-time, their personal life would be in danger, health problems, people just quit organizations for no reason and start focussing and diverting their attention on other hobbies which are far-less interesting.
So, he talked about how a best manager would be able to actually identify this syndrome before it becomes a threat and avoid it by exposing his employees to other challenging problems.

The talk has been on my mind for quite sometime now and it has sunk in pretty well. Work and personal life are inter-connected with each other, atleast for me and any small ripple in either one of them affects the other drastically. So, thanks to the good talk today, I have decided to do a self-performance evaluation every week, or every 3 days to assure myself that I love what I am doing and if things are going on track.

For people who are more interested, you can read the actual article here:
Harvard Article on Summit Syndrome

Mozhi-A musical feast!

The movie Mozhi has been hailed as a very simple and sweet movie in the recent times. I've been mesmerized by the song "Kaatrin mozhi". It just melts my heart whenever I listen to it. Have been humming it all day long since I woke up. A beautiful melody after a very long time! Vairamuthu has been too poetic and both the male and female versions are equally awesome!

One another song from the same movie, is "kannal pesum penne" by SPB. From the lyrics, I am guessing the song is about a guy trying to console his sweetheart who's angry with him. This song's lyrics is just too sweet. He says, how his life is without talking to her!

"vaazhkai thuvarkudhadi, vayaso kasakudhadi...
saigaiyile enai manithu, saabam theeradi....

sella konjam vendaam...chinna cheendal podhum
paarthu pazhaga vendaam, paadhi chiripu podhum
kaara paarvai vendaam, ora paarvai podhum

vaazhkai kadakudhadi, naatkal naraikudhadi
iru kanaal en vaazhvai nee eeram seiyadi!"

This song is inspired by "walking in the moonlight..Ilamaan kanilude" - (A mallu song sung by Hariharan) by vidyasagar himself.

After a very long time, I've liked all the songs in a movie :)

Edhirpaarpugal :)

Iyengar veetu azhage!

While I was relentlessly thinking of topics for my blog which has been devoid of posts for a longtime now, I was listening to this song "Iyengar veetu azhage" and was simultaneously looking at one of my friend's wedding pictures....(She belongs to the Brahmin caste, more sepcifically Iyer, which is a class within the Hindu society).

While there are a lot of differences between Iyers and Iyengars, what caught my attention the most was the way they tie the madisaar! [Phew!!!I know what you guys are thinkin'....Women indeed never change!!!], I have tied an authentic madisar once during my school days for a fancy-dress competition (wonder what they thought was fancy here!) and I loved it! And like Monica in F.R.I.E.N.D.S, "If only there was a job where I could wear it all the time!!!".....So, I started looking into Iyer kattu and Iyengar kattu and also watched a few tamil movies where women tie the madisar......Oorvasi in MMKR, Kamal in Avvai Shanmugi and Shreedevi in "Meendum Kokila" wear the Iyer kattu and Vasundhra Das in Hey Ram wears the Iyengar kattu AND I am not all surprised all of them are Kamal movies!!! :)

Virtual Stock Exchange for Cricketers!

Cricket and stock trading enthusiasts!!!

Check out this cool website:
www.cricstock.com

CricStock is a stock exchange with a difference. Here, stocks of cricketers are traded instead of companies. Once you register with the website, you get 1 million units of 'virtual' money. Using this money, you can participate in the initial public offering of current international cricketers. Once the stocks are alloted to you after the IPO, you earn further virtual money through dividends(which are decided by the actual performance of the cricketers) and by intelligently trading stocks in the secondary market. Register right away!!!! You could have amazing fun during the world cup!

My first snow!!!!

And it was just like I'd always imagined!!!I am totally excited.....Sitting by the window with a mug of coffee and watching the snow settle down on the window panes has been awesome......I really really wish I had some company to go out and start playing with the snow....I want to make a snowman :( Nevertheless feeling and smelling the fresh snow was wooooooow!!!!

Let me be the crazy girl who goes all gaga over the snowfall! But who cares!
And Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Happy Valentines day folks!