9 Nations In 9 Months : 2007 A year to remember...

It all started so simple, I left India on 9^th March this year. Since then I travelled across 9 nations. This blog summarizes the most unforgettable moments in each nations (Alphabetical order).

Belgium - BRUSSELS: Bilingual sign boards, UN, EU HQ, and NATO proved Brussels is the potential candidate to become the capital city of European Union. I found people of every nationality in Brussels only after London.

Denmark – VRADS SANDE: Gelid weather did not bother me; warmth of the beloved was there throughout the stay.

England - LONDON: Sivaji – The Boss. I was one of the first 3 persons to enter in to the cinema on First day First Show in London Cineworld, Thalaivar Rocks!!! What a fun, we recreated the same fun anyone would have experienced at Albert theatre in our own Singara Chennai.

Finland - HELSINKI: When I landed at Helsinki Vantaa airport during late July, I did not expect I am going to see bright sun just over my head. It was 8.45PM and I was amused it was so warm and bright like Indian noon with Sun at its full form, what an experience…

France – CALAIS: Crossing English Channel can be done by taking Euro Star at Lille or Ferry from Calais. Both are most exciting thing to do when you travel to England from France. I took the later and I will never forget the fun I had in top deck of P&O Ferry service to Dover, England from Calais, France.

Germany - BREMEN: I could feel why Germany is the strongest economy in Europe. German precision is not a phrase simply said, I found at least 1 factory or industry at every mile of travel from Hamburg to Dusseldorf near Holland border. Wow what a country!!!

Holland – ROADSIDE MOTEL: A 10 minutes coffee break and loo at highway motel before crossing Belgium border. Oh what a relief!!! ;-)

India – MANAPAKKAM, CHENNAI: Back home just for a week but I don’t have words to describe how happy I was at Manapakkam to meet my master, mom and my sweet heart. There is no other place which can make me happier than Manapakkam, Chennai.

Oh which is the 9^th country…? I leave it to the reader to find out that…

The Road Less Travelled : Things I noticed on my way to work.

11:55 PM, 7^th December 2007

1. My better half waving her hand and shouting come back soon.
2. Annoyed old lady, staring me riding bicycle on the pavement
3. Young single moms taking their kids to nearby school.
4. Bunch of factory workers taking a break for smoke.
5. Teen age boys enjoying their pint of morning beer at river side.
6. Wind whistles to celebrate my arrival.
7. Virgin train (Now its named Cross Country service) crossing Thames River and disappearing into woods.
8. Milky white swans and ducks, migrating to my town for better life.
9. Absolute silence and no sign of human existence around.
10. Smoke from boat house kitchen with egg scramble odour.
11. Horses and sheep having breakfast in the lush green field.
12. Cute young lady from Far East, jogging on an attempt to keep herself fit.
13. Car horn sound from far distance.
14. Young executive riding bicycle smiling at me while passing by.
15. End of tow path and woods, glimpses of concrete jungle.
16. Road closed for motor vehicles due to minor accident at the junction.
17. Cars, Cars, Cars everywhere. Felt how lucky I am to overtake them effortlessly.
18. Oh forgot to tell I am Singing,”Its now or never, I did it my way, I just want to live while I'm alive cos, IT’s MY LIFE”.

Completed this blog and turning back, my lovely lady lit the candle to celebrate my birthday.

Silence Of A Lamb

If you expect a spine chilling info ahead, I regret this one doesn’t deal with Cannibals. It is not even nearby what portrayed in Anthony Hopkins’s brilliance in the early 90’s movie. It’s about silence and it is also about a Lamb. Lamb!!! Yup an herbivore’s week out to live in silence, not his experiences but my suppositions

No doubt by now many of you crossing the fingers to read further or not. Never mind, I am proceeding.

Our Lamb is a unique creature but a harmless one. Among the chosen few, this one derived his pleasure by feeding not only his friends but uninvited guests who pop up often at his premises without prior notice.

If you had a plan to slaughter our Lamb for your next supper, I warn you… he will show his other side, which u don’t want to see.

Recently our Lamb travelled 4500 kilo meters to the southern part of India in quest for his inner self. In the process of his search, he remained in silence for 7 days and meditating almost 16 hours every day.

I feel pity on many dumb parrot heads, can’t cease their vision and concentrate for 10 minutes.

24 x 7 x (1) in silence, how it will be… I could imagine to some extent. Lamb would have gathered enough information from few who attempted and succeeded in the past. I think, he also had much insight on… what will happen in the first place after the journey from his anarchic outdated city.

May be the 0^th hour approaching for the Lamb to start his silence…

10 seconds more, 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0

Quite a vibe, leading to stillness

Quite tranquil, imbibing tenderness

Quite stable, imbuing silence

Quite bright, diffuse to destiny

Quite nothing, yet everything

Quite quiet, quite quiet

APOCALYPTO – Hats off to Mel Gibson but…

I couldn’t pay attention anywhere else for 2 hrs & 15 minutes, even though it was not an English movie. Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto met the expectations. He also maintained the high standard set with Brave Heart. This movie is about the Mayan Civilization of Mexico and Central America. Note down, it’s a full length feature film in Yucatan Mayan language with English subtitle, like Passion of Christ in Latin and Aramaic.

The first fifteen minutes was amazing and made me to expect an absolute brilliance in the later stage. The same pace was maintained till the end. Yet, I am hesitating to recommend to any of my friends. I don’t know why.

The guy who played the lead role Jaguar Paw was outstanding in his job, I don’t remember his name but he definitely resembles Lewis Hamilton a bit.

There was 1 disappointment; there is no depiction of Mayan’s brilliance in Science, Engineering and Mathematics.

This movie triggered a question within me… Is it possible to outrun the destiny?

Briton Is Not A Secular State... my ordinary approach

It was surprising news to know Britain is not a secular state. In the early days, Church united 7 sovereign kingdoms of Angles and Saxons. Even now, Coronation of queen is performed by the Arch Bishop taking an oath to maintain the protestant established law across the United Kingdom.

There is quite an amount of pressure from various individuals and organizations these days for a shift to secularism. It may change the constitutional laws considering Her Majesty’s nation’s multicultural qualities.

I believe there is no need for secularism at all. It may seed another instance for a communal disturbances to an extent at constitutional level, which India is facing for the last two decades.

Anyway, that is not my concern, I will be much happier if the Monarchy declares national holiday for Diwali, Ramzan and much more.

Al-Jab’r W’al-Muqabala

In the earliest age of the gods, existence was born from non-existence.
The Rig Veda.

8th Century AD: The rulers of Islam conquered nearly half of the Europe and Asia. Their boundaries are drawn from China in the east to Spain in the west. The Indian subcontinent succumbed to never ending bloody battles resulted in ruthless killings and gruesome murders.

Baghdad being the heart of the empire and the cultural crossroad, the region flourished because of massive wealth and enormous quest for knowledge. The scholars of Baghdad in the House of Wisdom learned Indian Vedas, Upanishads, Western philosophy, Aristotelian doctrines etc.

Nothing can be created from nothing
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 99-55 BCE

Mathematics was one of the important subjects they dealt. The Islam and the west followed Aristotle’s theory of mathematics which never had Zero. In fact Aristotle was feared about the concepts zero, void, and nothingness. Since he never knows Zero, he never understood Infinity. There was a chaos among the Aristotelians while subtracting a number by itself. No one dared to discover the answer.

Where there is the Infinite there is joy, there is no joy in the finite.
The Chandogya Upanishad

Zero was deeply rooted in the Indian culture and it had an enormous importance with a spiritual meaning. Even the Hindu god Shiva had an incarnation called Nishkala, whom he is shapeless, formless and attribute less. Being nothing is everything is the scenario even today in Indian spirituality.

Does man forget that we created him out of the void?
The Koran

Even though Islamic scholars followed Aristotelians, they were not quite satisfied. The problem of zero always exists in their mind but Prophet Mohammad being the messiah was aware of the reality. One among those scholars was Al’ Khwarizmi, the renowned mathematician of medieval world and the hero of modern day mathematics who paved way for the birth of zero through his book al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala. Means “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”, the modern world got the words Algebra from Al’Jabr and Algorithm from Al’Khwarizmi.

Punch of 11^th Century AD: Interestingly the debate on Aristotle or Al’Khwarizmi continued until the Muslim philosopher Abu Hamid al-Ghazali declared adhering Aristotelian doctrine should be punishable by death.

Being omnipotent, god can create vacuum. There exists void!!!

Gowri Shankar 1978 - 20... AD

It is unfortunate; I wasn't there to explain Aristotle. He would have accepted my theory without hesitation.

At 25000 Volts, It’s massive, fast and furious

“Dei Kandy, my physics viva examiner asked only one question daa!!!” I shouted loudly and running towards Kandy who already boarded and comfortably sitting in the bus about to leave the BIST campus.

“What, Only one question? Are you joking?” Kandy replied me and told Harry, “Dei Harry, Gary is in deep trouble, it may be a simple question, and our junk Gary would have puked some stupid answer to leave the examiner clueless what to ask more”.

“Illa machi, It’s true” I replied, by now I am hanging near the bus foot steps holding the iron rod to support. “Dei Gary, Careful… You may fall down” Harry yelled at me. “Dei Harry, you too inside the bus?? I am falling down but it’s worth a risk to catch the BG by 4.05PM.” I replied back to everyone's surprise.

“We are all boarded the bus long back, Machi” Premy’s voice emerged somewhere deep inside the crowd. I turned to find where he is? I could only see huge mass of flesh affectionately called the Great Gujili obstructing the foot steps. “Dei Gujili, Ulla poda” I yelled at him. Gujili realized few lives are at his stakes and squeezed himself inside the crowd to provide room for 3 more guys.

Now, I am quite comfortably away from all dangers to hear the voice of Andy. “Dei Naai, I had a doubt whether you want to catch BG or Yeman’s eruma maadu”.

It wasn’t me alone rushing; the gang of 6 guys’ only aim at that moment was to catch the recently introduced broad gauge train service between Tambaram and Chennai Beach station. There is a strong reason for that… It was massive compared to the meter gauge train, it can travel twice the speed of its counter part, general public disturbance won’t be there, the train itself won’t make much noise and on top of it… it will save us from the sophomores waiting to rag us.

Personally, I felt it may be the 8^th wonder, I still remember how much excited I was while travelling in that train. Even my first flight journey did not give me a joy of that intensity. Being fresh engineering students, we learnt as much technical information about the mechanism of broad gauge train. This train service doesn’t even had a platform at my area to stop but I preferred to go to the next available stop and come back travelling a meter gauge train. This train was the only inspiration for me to select electrical engineering major.

“Dei Kandy, Its Mambalam daa… I have to get down” I told out of agony, got down from the train and started walking slowly. Kandy asked “Dei Gary, what is that viva question?” I turned towards them cheerfully and replied “What is the input voltage for broad gauge trains in India?”

I could hear all my buddies laughing and yelling “Sappa Question daa”. “Examiner would have shocked and question less (clueless), hearing Gary’s rapid reply”

The Goal : 2Yrs 24x7 Ate, Slept and Achieved @ ANN Lab

It was a dark Saturday evening during the winter of 2002. Almost every Junta in the IIT, Madras are approaching the open air theatre (OAT), they are quite excited and appreciating the fact that recently released Brad Pitt movie reached their campus well before the anticipated delay. The electrical engineering department was literally deserted without a single human being except the two in the artificial neural network (ANN) lab.

Their immediate problem is to discover the entire pixels in the space to connect two imaginary coordinates. Quite a simple problem but few boundary conditions are failing. It dragged their patience beyond their limits and fuel to the fire, 30 more minutes for movie start. This task was not an important one for anyone else in this universe except those two deserted souls at that moment. I would call in one word “Passion”; both the guys are extremely passionate about what they were doing for the past 1 year. They are passionate because they believed; they are going to turn the attention of many and their beloved Dr.Chakra towards them. The algorithm they wrote is lengthy but robust and impressive too. The current issue may be the final task to get the visual feed back of audience. They want to complete it by that night but struck so deep inside the problem to skip their movie. They are aware; only one man can give a solution whom they want to impress their progress when the next week starts.

Out of frustration, Dutta the junior among the both proposed for a cup of coffee and Gary agreed for it. They started walking through the corridor, tossing the prepaid coupon towards the coffee vending machine which doest cost much to scratch their wallet. Do the poorly paid chaps had anything good ever in their wallet is a different story?

A beam of light caught those two night owls' attention leaking from Dr.Chakra’s office through the curtain. Not surprising but the fact Dr.Chakra is working in his office at that odd hour brought some cheers within themselves. Precisely, he was the light source for their 2 years 24x7 research on an algorithm resulted in at least 3 technical publication and an appreciatable revenue for the institute. They forgot the need for coffee and dropped themselves inside his office to get a 4 line fix in 2 minutes for their most challenging problem at that moment. That was also the incident later on to remember as the turning point of Gary’s love towards mathematics and algorithm development.

Those 4 lines of code is an explicit transcription of an illustrious mathematical formula. Dr. Chakra’s command over mathematics was known and proved once again. He has the ability to make his associates to visualize every mathematical equations in terms of geometrical figures or a real world event. Often he takes his associates for a cup of coffee and samosa to the nearby tea stall. Those moments are a great privilege for the young researchers who willing to dedicate days and nights for him. Out of all attributes, his simplicity and focus on the problem made him remembered and admired forever as a great teacher and guide.

Gary-The Cook : Intermediate Level

To my surprise, I started cooking few weeks back. It was plain Pasta initially and it matured to spiced one. One fine day, I purchased a bottle of olive oil and chopped vegetables from Tesco. I don't know at that time, the purchase of olive oil is going to be the major break through for my future food supply. The same night, I cooked instant noodle with deep fried vegetables. I derived this combination from the food I had in "The Royal China" near Canary Wharf in London.

My friend Stuart taught me how to make Pasta. Continuous experiments with different ingredients proved, the best taste can be achieved with hot Indian spices and fried green peas. Adding grated cheese also an option.

My rice making skills were not appreciating because of the bad rice i purchased. It was American Long Grain rice, guys never purchase it, if you are from east. After a painstaking search, I found ,Tilda Basmati and Ponni in the Cowley Pakistani store. Cooking basmati is quite easy, I never felt... I need a rice cooker. Boil the water in the kettle, pour it in the cooking pan and add the rice. 10 Minutes, Sexy rice with stunning odour is ready.

Now, I will call my self "Cook : Intermediate Level", who can make Aloo Gobi, Capsicum curry, Mixed Vegetable curry, Bombay Potato etc. Thanks to the Great cooks who taught me directly or indirectly. To mention few BB, Mom, Kannan, Patro, Srinu etc.

Today's dinner is Quiche, Bread and Butter. Planning to learn Rasam making... my long time dream.

C++, Tamil, Kumauni, Hindi, English, Japanese

My wife was a student of biology when we met first, who spoke a lot about genetics, mutation, DNA etc which i never understood. I was(am) a poor parrot head, for me these terms are known but in my own way, Gene(Jeans) means something I love to wear, DNA may be an inverse operator of logical AND(&) and PDBs are the symbol files to debug my kernel mode device driver. She tried her best to enlighten me but gave up at the end.
On the other hand, for her Microsoft means some soft micro organism, can be seen only with microscope and software (soft wear) is apparel made of soft fabric, she would have planned to purchase, when we go for shopping next time. There were many differences between us; the prominent one, we can neither speak nor understand other’s native language. Exciting right? Yep quite exciting issue for others, not us… huh. What to do? I know only three languages, out of my 3 primary languages; C++ and Tamil are ruled out for communication and given with English to speak.
Many friends of mine are pondering, which language my child is going to speak. I prefer C++. I can understand C++ better than any other language...

The Change : Moving To Oxford

Relocating to a new place where I don't even know single human being is not new to me. My 1st move to Pune, I was not knowing anyone, then when I was back to Madras I lost all my contacts in my own city and then to Bangalore, I was knowing only one guy. The other short trips are well planned. The fact was I am quite confident, I will find one known contact(definitely known to known) when I got down from The First Great Western Train to Oxford from London Paddington. I was unaware at that moment it is going to become nearly impossible task to find even “a known to known to known” buddy here. “Ahandhai” is the word I would call in my native language Tamil, The feeling of “I am having my brothers and sisters all over the world” was shattering slowly. I did not believe initially then I couldn't accept for a while, in fact i was not even attempting to search a shelter for me in this beautiful town.

The reality started biting, I was able to realize a week after my first visit, 5 more day to move completely to Oxford . Even on the dooms day, I was unaware where I am going to sleep that night. I could find 2 good hearted people who offered me accommodation at Oxford. I can live with them for the next 5 days, that means I have to get my own hut within 5 days and move there. I never know, whether it is possible or not. Since my work was not demanding, there was little hope somewhere in the corner of my heart, I will find time and place to move.

To every ones surprise it happened, a 7 bed room house with a common kitchen and living room. Sounds big but to be shared by 5 people. All are from different countries who gave a warm welcome to the poor Indian. I will be living with a British gentle man, a German lady, a Slovakian professional and a South African girl until my better half arrives here. The setup did not surprise me because before landing at this place, I was almost finalized a place where an Iranian girl who works for a software firm, a French professional, a British bartender girl and a German guy to live with. I dropped moving to that place because that was very near to my office.

The greatness about Oxford is multi cultured, u may end up having morning tea with a Brit then breakfast with Slovakian, Walk to bus stand with a German, travel to office sitting next to a Japanese, work next to a Pakistani and have lunch with a Turk, like me. That is also the greatness about human life, the only permanent attribute in our life is “Change”. Change offers something “New” to life, a new aroma, flavour, colours, experiences, people, language may be A NEW LIFE. The one who afraid of change is afraid of living in this ever young mother earth.

Still searching a “known to known to known to known” person, yet to find other than the two who gave me shelter on the cold summer evening(cold summer evening!!!, yeah here summer also cold) but now I am known to many here.