My Thoughts! - by Prakash G.R.

Yesterday, when I was in Chennai, I run across this Google service accidently. What else to say?

Another V.Good for Google

written by Prakash G.R.

A snap that I took two weeks back in Chennai. It got me quite a lot of good comments. One of my friend pinged me and said that he had this as his desktop wallpaper, so thought its worthy enough to post it here

written by Prakash G.R.

Yesterday I got hold of my 350D and was experimenting it. Dinesh also bought a 350D. Along with the kit lens, he also bought a 50mm Macro lens and 75-300 mm lens, lens cleaner, tripod, a nice bag. With all the gear, he looks like a very professional photographer. As he says, now only thing left is to learn photography properly

First thing we experimented was to play with the different lenses. Fixed the camera on a Tripod and tried to shoot with different zoom levels:

50 mm(the standard view):

18mm:

25mm:

34mm:

75mm:

100mm:

200mm:

300 mm:

Note how the magnification occurs. We also tried some snaps in the beach after 7 PM. The first one is with a 10 second exposure and the other two are 30 second exposures. I didn’t know how to do the rear curtain sync in the second one, so Ravi’s image is little blurred.

Coming back, uploaded the photos to Mac and tried out little post production. Without powerful software like Photoshop/Gimp and just few corrections in iPhoto can bring out some amazing effects. Checkout the photo that was taken in Muttukadu boat house - before and after changes.

Now that there is no wait time for the completion of a roll & then developing, scanning to a CD etc, hope to post more photos

written by Prakash G.R.

The Hindu is a decent daily that contains only the news that you would want. Unlike ‘Times of India’, there won’t be any news if John Abraham vomited in a party or if Briney didn’t wear her underwear during her flight travel. When I went to Chennai last weekend, there was a news item in Hindu about a local thief. I was surprised and pulled up some news from of the “unofficial sources” (My classmates’ girl friend’s dog’s hair dresser’s second wife’s distant cousin). Here are the details.

This guy, lets name him x for now, has started this technique almost an year back. Within few months he has done so many thefts using the same technique. He is bold enough to leave his finger prints. The Police have no match for those prints in their database, so he is new to them. Once it went to a level, where every tuesday night, he would be at work. The police stepped up the night patrol. Once when the police patrol was 4 streets away and he was successful in escaping from the scene after opening a bureau.

The official count of the number of police people deployed on this case stands at 75, but my source claims that it would be somewhere above 350. Everynight they had patroling in many areas. If anyone found to be a suspect, they would take his fingerprints and demand him to show some id. The next morning the fingerprints will be compared with our great x’s fingerprints. Still no use. But after all this, our man was silent for 2 months and then he strikes last friday.

So what is his technique? Check what The Hindu says:

Chennai News : `Bureau-puller’ is at it again

written by Prakash G.R.

Nermaiyana arasiyalvathi, sariyana thappu, konja dooram, intha varisaila Singara Chennai appadingarathum oru interesting oxymoron ayiduchu. athula unmai neraya irunthalum, oru sila samayam athu oxymoron illainnu thonum. antha mathiri orusila moments thru my third eye. Trust me, the last one is a shot of the great pallavan bus!

written by Prakash G.R.

Which is the only metropolitan city in the south?
Which is the most traditional cultured city of all the metros of our country?
Which metropolitan city has the lowest crime rate?
Which city has the second longest beach in world?
Which city in India currently has the highest growth rate of IT? (Don’t think of Bangalore, its all saturated there. The question is about growth rate)
Which city is preferred by most of the automobile manufactures across the world to set up a manufacturing unit?
…

If you are answering Chennai for all the above questions with a proud face, and expecting much more questions like that, you are probably a Chennai-ite. Anything good you hear about this city, you would be glad to add in more points. And whenever people like me talk about the patheticness of this kuvampatti, you would mostly say ‘hey dude. You don’t know about this city. Its a wonderful place to live’. Don’t you? Now here is a must-read book for you: ‘Chennai Latte - A Madras Brew’.

Since 2002, Madras Musings carried a humor column ‘A-Musings’ which was written by Ranjitha & the cartoon by Biswajit. The column discussed about the events and situations of the Chennai city. This book is a compilation of a part of work for this column.

Right from the mosquitoes to traffic to climate to water problem, this book deals all the issues that we face in our day-to-day life in Chennai. With a little humor added in the text, added with a cartoon for every issue, you would realise what Chennai life is really all about, in a lighter way. Com ‘on dear Chennai-ite. You say ‘its THE city to live’, but when was the last time you parked your bike in Spencers without hassle or when was the last time you found a road that is not digged up? Face the reality. I’m sure that it won’t make you to pack your bags and find a job in Coimbatore, but sure, you won’t say again that ‘Chennai is a wonderful place to live’. Don’t worry, occasionaly this book talks about the positive side too (I hear someone there yelling ‘kaapi’)

No matter whether you are a chennai-ite or not, grab a copy of this book. Its a good read.

written by Prakash G.R.

Two days back, around 9.30 PM Ravi got a call that one of our team mate met with an accident and is in a hospital near Thiruvanmiyur signal. As we know him, he is a really tensed person. He actually over reacts for few silly things and will get tensed easily. He is an absent minded person (than me). So the first thought that we had was that he might have driven with some other thread in his mind and might have made the accident. However, last week only me and him went and bought a helmet for him and so there will not be anything serious. But there was a surprise waiting for us in the hospital. He was not admitted in the hospital. He was simply sitting in the ground near the gate and crying. He was not having any injuries in his body. His friends who were there said that he was crying for more than an hour and was not responding to any of their questions. No one knew what exactly happened. All they know was that there was an accident and looks like he was not the reason for it. Someone else who brought him here was the culprit and he is already in police custody. Now nothing to do, we tried to enquire him, which was a useless effort. I thought that he is in shock and will be recovering in the morning after a good sleep. Only when we lifted him to take him into the hospital, we noticed a small swelling in his head. That’s when we realized that things were little serious. We immediately took him to Apollo hospital in an auto. The doctor in the emergency ward arranged an ambulance to take him to Apollo’s neuro specialty hospital in Mount road.

There, a CT scan was performed and the doctor showed us the blood clots in this brain. Its not very dangerous, he explained. It will heal in a week or 10 days. But if more blood goes into the brain, then he is in serious trouble and we need an operation to cure him. He said its good to observe keeping him in the ICU. We agreed and he was admitted in the ICU.

Meanwhile, we were able to collect info about the accident. Looks like he went to meet a doctor for something. After that while he was crossing the road to take his bike, he was hit by another bike. It was a small accident and a small injury. Only thing it was in a very wrong place. It was a direct hit for one of the blood vessels inside the skull and it got puntured. If not hit on that particular place, he would have got up in the spot and scolded the guy and walked to his bike. But things doesn’t always happen right.

The news about his health condition, we got the next day, was little different. The other doctors said that he needs an operation to get cured or else it will be dangerous and the same day evening, they performed an operation as soon as his dad & bro arrived from Madurai. Today we went there to meet him. He was in a little pathetic condition. His hands and legs were tied to bed, because whenever he is conscious, he tries to remove the bandage in wound around his head. The good thing is he is able to identify us (he was not identifying his dad or room mates yesterday). He was clear when he talked to us. He asked us to untie him. We have to explain him the situation, and getting tensed is no way going to help him.

Its sometimes very difficult to face this situation. One moment you are walking in the road, then you wake up only to find that you were hit by a bike and had an operation in your head and for around 2 days you were in an unconscious state. As I told earlier, he already over reacts to silly things and he could not even digest that it has happened to him. After talking to us, looks like he understood a little that staying relaxed is the only way to get out of the ICU. He seems to understand it. He is clinically alright, but mentally he is upset. Lets see what happens in few days.

Meanwhile, if you have faith in God or prayers, please pray for him.

written by Prakash G.R.

Watching sunrise from the beach is really a picturistic. I tried going to the Besant nagar & Thiruvanmiyur beaches. But it is crowded with people. People who come there for daily exercise, people who come there for jogging, people who come there for a fresh air and of course, people who come there to see the sunrise. Me, who hate crowd, switched to VGP. Its lonely and very clean. Even thought I’ve to travel 30 kms up & down to reach the beach, it has become my favourite beach to visit in the mornings. When Jai was here, he used to give company, but now I’m going there alone. Slowly getting used to it - thanks to my iPod.

I’ve had a variety of experiences at that beach. Whenever I go there, I park my bike and start walking near the waves and collect shells. Last saturday, after I collected a handful of shells, I came to my bike, put them on the petrol tank and went again to find more. When I returned with few more, I was surprised by an additional shell. It was very big and looking nice. I don’t know who put it there, but it was cute Long back, when I went with Jai, there were two chinese gals (might have stayed there in VGP resort) came to the beach in their bikini. We started walking towards them. They jumped in the water; collected some shells; brought back to the shore and went back to the water again. When we were nearing them, they removed their tops and kept it near the shells collected on the shore and then went to the water. Aha! Me and Jai was left speechless. We passed them and sat at a distance and enjoying the show. I’ve been there at the beach during the day of Tsunami too. A group of college students, who stayed in the resort, were also at the beach on that morning. It was a cloudy morning and the sunrise was not clearly visibile. The quake happened when I was travelling back home and the waves hit the shore around 9 AM. Hope those students have not gone near the sea at that time. Today when I went there, I saw a guy, who was dressed in full formals including good leather shoes. He sat in the sand near the waves, facing the sea and started meditating. I don’t understand why he has to dress that way and I don’t understand how he selected this place and this time for meditation. Hmmmm, people are just themselves!

What would someone think if they saw me? “What is this guy doing here? Alone; listening to some music with earphones; walking all along the shore; collecting something from the ground; sometimes standing & starring at the sea? Hmmmm, people are just themselves”?

written by Prakash G.R.

Sudhir and Madan came to Chenna to visit our friend, who met with an accident. He has improved a bit since I visited him a month back when he landed here. The first thing I could notice is that he has put on some weight and the visible evidence is his little belly. He refused with his usual witty smile and said that, it was because he was sitting his stomach got that shape, else it will be flat. Still he needs a cuff tied to hold a spoon & assistance from others to move, he regained a little bit of sense in his legs & he could move his fingers. Its a positive sign. Whatever changes, his mental attitude stays the same with the good old sense of humor. As Vens had his Santro, we decided to take him out for a dinner. As moving in & out of a restaurant will be a big ordeal, he preferred a drive-in restaurant. Out of the 2 known drive-in restaurants in the city, Woodlands was rejected because of the number of mosqiutoes. We might need a dozen Good Knight coils there. The only left choice was Planet M @ VGP. I think of the same situation in US. He can get into any restaurant/shop and move without much trouble. They make sure they have every provision for the physically challenged people. Here most of the commericial places have only stair cases & wheel chairs are not welcomed there.
As Maddy agreed to make it as his treat for his 42% pay hike (Damn! Three years back when we came out of college, he was the highest paid in our class!) But for 11 people with all variety of items from Pizzas to icecream, the amount came slightly around 2k. That should be nothing for him. Back home Sudhir started playing our fav. game ever - AOE
I was talking with Sudhir about lot of things and was mentioning about the gal I met at ashram. She is around 18 now. 2 years back she was sold to a brothel house by her own gradma just for Rs. 20k. She was there for an year and got resuced afterwards. Now she is tested HIV +. Sudhir said, thats because its south. What does that mean? He explained that, there in north, gals younger than her will be sold at a cheaper rate and never get rescued. Thinking of people like my friend or these innocent kids, my question on the existence of God gets stronger. Back in my school days my thirst for knowing the purpose of life led to me glance me thru the writings of various Gurus from Vivekanadha to Prabhupadha to Osho. Each of them have their own view on what & who God is and generally I disagree with them in most of their arguements/views. The thoughts I could accept closely is of Kanchi Periyava’s. His book ‘Theivathin Kural’ is THE best reliegious book I’ve ever read. Still there are few things that I disagree in that book too Finally, till now, I don’t believe in Him & His existence and the thought grows stronger everytime I meet innocent people ‘punished’ for doing no harm to others. Thoughts on this now reminds me that a blog on the book is still pending. Got to read it once again to blog about it.

written by Prakash G.R.

No matter about what season it is, sunsets are always beautiful. This one was taken with Ravi’s Powershot. It was sometime in last September, during my company’s anniversary. When the function was going on, we were walking in the near by beach and I was experimenting with Ravi’s camera. The sunset created a wonderful backdrop for the hatchery and I clicked it. The color combination has come out perfectly

written by Prakash G.R.