From 2008 to 2009

Date: 29th December 2008

Time: 7:10 PM

All of you are aware of the situation around. You'd have received our CEO's mail stating that the requirements should be frozen. However, we will keep up the promise of completing this training that is supposed to run till the end of next month. This programme was started off as a community service for rural students, hence its our duty to keep up to our commitment.

With all this, there is one thing that we should remember. Whatever be the situation we must concentrate, be dedicated to our work. At the same time, lets not give up on enjoyment. Have a great time on New Year's eve. Go and have a blast! In the end, you shouldn't feel bad on missing out on all the fun, in case you are not employed here. Its important to have fun.

Oh! I almost forgot. In case you have any other offers, please go ahead and take them. Be dedicated. Be strong. Thanks for your time.

Date: 29th December 2009

Time: 5:45 PM

This is a very good opportunity. Comparing to what you've done till now, this must be pretty challenging. We'll split the background study we discussed and do some research on the numbers, which means we are going to start this with mathematics and later, go on to decide if some re-designing is needed. In short, we are all gonna get busy and be like that for sometime. We shall meet again tomorrow and pick it up from here.

A satisfied me started to my cubicle, thinking about the big transformation from last year.

I hope they don't scrap this feature in case we couldn't achieve it by April.

And... here we go!!!!

Happy New year all my readers. Let 2010 bring happiness to all the world!

3 Idiots - The genius within

If I had to say anything to Aamir and the team of 3 idiots, it has to be "Hats off!" because Aal eez well about the 2 hour 45 minute, non-stop entertainer.

Strong script

With its inspiration drawn from Chetan Bhagat's Five point someone, 3 Idiots proves that ideal script writers do exist. The story line is way better than the book and keeps you up from the first reel to the last. If the screenplay satisfies the reality lovers, it also satisfies the lot who smile and shed tears for filmy stuff. Right from the time, Virus mentions that his director told him to pass on the pen to whomever he feels is his replacement, one immediately would guess that the pen would go to Aamir, and is not disappointed.

The pace is well maintained and does justice to the Dil Chahtha Hai kind of one liner. Well, one more thumbs-up to the writer to have eliminated the pink t-shirt scene from the book, because most try to retain such scenes to win a few claps and whistles in the theatre. I was half disappointed (and a little excited) when Kareena walked into Aamir's hostel room wearing a pink t-shirt. :P

Credible Casting

Aamir has once again proven that he is a great actor. He has reduced ample weight and never would anyone feel, "Why do these old people never think about passing out of college". The character of Aamir reminded me of a close friend from college, especially, the non-nerdy genius within him. I'm sure everyone would be able to relate likewise. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi have re-created the Rang De Basanti magic by supporting the screenplay with a neat performance. All three of them have stayed within their own characters without crossing each other's way.

Kareena has very little to play but, unlike just dancing to meaningless numbers, she has a role and has contributed to the positives. Bommi Irani needs an applause for his awesome acting, body language and dialogue delivery. He has successfully kindled that bit of anger on "Virus", the Director. Right from Javed Jaffery to Chatur the Nerd, the casting is flawless.

Though everyone has done credibly well, in the end, one would definitely come out with the perfect Aamir experience, because his presence is felt throughout. It was fully Aamir.

ROFL

3 Idiots is a hilarious entertainer is an understatement. It keeps tickling you every time you try to recover from the laughter that almost got your intestines out through your mouth. Worth mentioning is the class for jokes that are actually age old. The ragging scene, Aamir teaching a class, the speech for teacher's day and many other scenes leave you Rolling on the Floor Laughing. Ultimate Entertainer.

Music

I never listened to the songs of 3 Idiots before going to the movie, except for Aal eez well, which is because someone told me that the songs are kinda childish and not that worth listening. After seeing the movie, the songs/background score did not stick, but they very well blended all the time. Nice job!

Lesson Learnt

The cliched "There is a genius within every Idiot" couldn't have been told in a better way.

Mr. Aamir, you can keep saying "Aal eez well" even though you are not gonna keep shooting for 3 Idiots.

Please don't miss 3 Idiots. Its a must watch.

Margazhi Special

Margazhi - Tamil month that falls between Dec 15th and Jan 15th

December has its own charm. Holidays, End of a year, christmas, Newyear, pending leaves taken at a shot and so many exciting stuff would always be round the corner. For me, December has always been a musical month. I can never forget the many years I've spent singing Carols in my school.

One of the biggest months for the classical music field, December sees the busiest of schedules in all sabhas and music academies. With all the tv channels telecasting concerts of various legends, the maamas and maamis of most homes catch every single programme so that they could go like this at a family function, "Avan ennama padaraan diiiiIIIIII?" (How good is he singing?), "Aruna Sairam odu Abang kettiya???" (Did you listen to Aruna Sairam's Abang) and "Maami, naan jaya tv mattum thaan paarpen" (Mate, I see only jaya tv).

I was never too much into seeing core classical music. But, I love to see different stuff that is quite out of the ordinary. My favorite year was when Star Vijay came up with an innovative show of legends performing in a fresh but fantastic experience of a mix of classical, devotional, tamil literature, classical based film songs and more.

Take a sneak peak at this video, where Hari ji sings Suttum Vizhi Sudar kannama from the movie kandukondain kandukondain. Its a Bharathiyar song that was tuned by Rahman. The natural portrayal of rain and nature in the video, blended with his majestic and silky voice made this one popular. The highlight of the below performance is when he compares the cry of a child to that of a raagam and sings that immediately. Hats off to him.

Long live Music and its maestros. :) Have a musical end to 2009!

The Coimbatore Era - Part II

When I wrote part-one, I thought Chiju Speaks would have a series of them going on for sometime. But, it has taken so long for me to come up with this one. Let me take you all through a few more glimpses of my childhood in Coimbatore.

Lisieux

Lisieux Matriculation Higher Secondary School, a well known boys convent school, is where I started my education and it was a long journey till I completed my Higher Secondary education. Wholesale fun, childish fights to prove one's might, funny pranks, naughty jokes, non-competitive sports (well... i was no competition), little academics and full time enjoyment could do little justice to explain my life in Lisieux. Fr. Francis, who gave me admission even though I was not eligible to go to school for one more year, is my all time favorite. He left school when I was in first grade, but came back as a value education teacher in my higher secondary.

The best thing about Lisieux is that I've been able to meet every kind of person and gained lots of experience. I have friends from Lisieux, who are there with me even now (the bunch who were able to put up with me and my ways) and on the contrary, I know guys who would flinch and swear at the mention of my name.

The choir of Lisieux, the only reason why I was not thrown out of school, takes me back to the best of my memories. Being a boys school, there were no nightingales (pretty looking/sweet sounding), so we actually had to perform well to get the guys to clap for us. Well, that has happened, but most of the time, it used to be a crowd tickler fiasco. I've been there in the choir right from the time I entered sixth grade and have performed till two months before my 12th boards (neglecting the look my chemistry sir gave me when he saw me at the practice sessions). Daily prayer, Chirstmas carols, National Anthem (whenever), the many vande matrams for Independence day and Republic day, Krishna Ne Begane from colonial cousins, meditation songs, diwali special songs, Tamil Thai Vaazhthu for pongal and the list goes on and on. National Anthem needs a special mention here because we used to mess it up most of the time trying to keep it at 52 seconds. Once, the keyboard player came up with a Tom and Jerry tune for the start of the National Anthem and we, in our white full sleeved shirts with a bow and pitch black trousers, ended up looking like buffoons lost in the crowd of a circus.

The Lisieux ground takes me back to my old cricketing days. I used to carry my bat and stumps in my cycle and play for even the shortest duration possible, until the watchman calls to close the ground or my mom/sis come in search of me. Then, there is the basketball court where I have spent many evenings. I was not a great (rather good) player but I used to love playing. I used to play basketball and lose my cycle key (it would have fallen off from my pockets while playing). I'd conduct a thorough search and find the key or send word through one of my mates so that people from home could get me the spare key or a hammer (to break the lock).

Extra curricular week during mid October was the highlight of Lisieux. A whole list of events including Elocution, 20 questions, Essay writing, Mock press, Debate, Sketching/Drawing, Music, Dance, Fancy Dress and more would be conducted for all age groups. I have won medals in singing right from my third grade till my twelfth grade. Though singing and essay writing are the only things I could actually do properly, I'd have participated in almost every competition including sketching, just for the sake of bunking classes. Once I participated in a group dance event, in which only one of us in the group could actually dance well. As we completed the performance, the host announced in the mike, "Thanks for the group solo performance". There have been years where I used to walk home with 3-5 medals and a whole bunch of certificates and years where I just carried appreciation for my singing. But, that was not the point at all, it was so much fun to not actually care about any criticism u get especially from a bunch of guys who used to do nothing but sit and laugh at people, ignorant of who are the real losers!

The chapel in school was one of my favorite spots. I used to try and pray there everyday before going to classes. During the exam days, the chapel corridors used to become silent study spots for many. I still remember how once we were caught and inquired as to who pelted stones at the chapel doors just because we used to sit there for our lunch.

That's lots said and lots more to say.

To be continued..

Yet again! Not again?

Not a long time ago,

I was sitting at this play,

Simulacrum of enactments still stay.
But, the lead role will go.

Why it makes me wonder?
The cliched acts dedicated,
For a well-being life, unaware.
The more sacred, the more scared!

Holding the torches to good will,
Carefully alighted the whole time-
Only to see blackened grass,
Soon after we put it out.

The non-sync percussion sounds
The reddish yellow images,
The heated drops and consoling words,
All dedicated to Mother Nature.

Every time I see this play,
Fades the need to explain.
For, the more I understand,
Lesser the questions unanswered.

I stood by the commotion over silence,

My mind, no longer ignorant.

Of the difficult of times that unveiled,

Yet, my promises stay put.

If only I had

If only I had undisturbed sleep,
Unraveling the mystery of many dreams.
Many a missed smiles, retained.
Many disappointments, avoided.

If only I had known the magic charm,
Bringing down the angels and stars,
I'd have crafted the wand and,
Reached it with the longest taken arm.

If only I had the chance to display,
The beautiful portrait I had painted.
Faded off its beautiful flair -
For the colors were taken away.

If only I had chosen the right words,
Would have conveyed more than warmth.
Perhaps, concern did over-shadow,
The depth of love beneath.

If only I had seen what I send,
The train would have halted.
Locking the eyes that caught mine,
All it said was Good-Bye!

If only I had all of it,
Need not an asleep thumb-sipping child,
To keep reminding me -
That life is indeed beautiful.

If only I had gotten the nod,
I could claim Thou Blessed,
For my beach walks be decorated,
With a cute, extra pair of foot prints.

A swapped mistake

Warning: Clueless/Helpless Software guys will definitely get this

Date: Some date in 2019

It is a normal, sunny (rainy?) day in Chennai. People have somehow made it to their offices amidst the jam-packed roads and the unpredictable weather. In short, it was just any other day for a Software Engineer Trainee (SET), except that he was assigned a high priority issue to deal with. For the sincere employee in SET, he immediately sets off to work and opens the file called MathOperations.cc (a c++ codefile that has code for the various Mathematical operations - say addition and subtraction).

It is not that complicated to understand what was in there. He starts reading the code to get a gist of what's been done. The start couldn't have been breezier and the flow smoother. For someone, looking at his face, they could have easily read that he is definitely enjoying what he is doing.

As he was reading, he saw something. His eyes constricted, nostrils widened, mouth curved and his cheeks bubbled up. Something is wrong! This is when the camera focuses on the screen that reads!

Sum = num1 - num2; //Sum is num1 - num2. COMMENT HAS NO TYPO
Difference = num1 + num2;//Diff is num1 + num2. COMMENT HAS NO TYPO

Now, its obvious that the SET gets so angry and frustrated. It is understandable that he abuses the coder who did this so many years back. It is right that SET thinks that the coder was nothing but stupid. But, what the SET doesn't know is......

10 Years earlier... (spiral swiveling)

Feature Lead (FL): This is a funny problem. Are you sure it is swapped?
Ex-Software Engineer Trainee (XSET): Ya, it is swapped. I've checked my part of the implementation. I don't think anything is wrong there.
FL: What about the middle part that calls your implementation and assigns the sum and difference?
XSET: Well, thats just assigning my sum and difference to the respective variables right? It is fine. I've double checked.
FL: Do one thing. Check up with the Interface part and see if they have displayed the right values for sum and difference.
XSET: Fine. I'll get back to you after checking.

Two hours later...

System Architect (SA): Oh! They have swapped it in the interface part, huh?
FL: Ya.
SA: Send a mail to the team in the headquarters and request a change. We have 2 more weeks time for the delivery.
FL: Ok. I'll do that.

Two weeks later.... The Delivery Day!

FL: Finally, the team from the headquarters replied. It seems that they are not going to change it there. They have asked us to change the implementation by swapping the sum and difference.
SA: Oh! Do it that way. Raise a bug on your side and swap the values in your code.
XSET (thinks): So, all that is left to do is inform the Mathematics forum (who maintain math standards) that we are swapping the meanings of sum and difference of two numbers.
XSET (says): But, wasn't this design reviewed and approved? Wouldn't changing this defeat logic?
SA: I understand that there is a logical mistake here.
XSET (thinks): Oh, is it? I thought I did not concentrate in my first grade math class.
XSET (says): So, aren't they supposed to change it?
SA: The thing is the headquarters have released the customer documentation and in that they have gone by the interface definition. If we request a change now, they might come to a conclusion that the architects of the company are stupid.
XSET (thinks): Well, Can we blame them?
XSET (says): So, I'll change the code and look stupid to some guy who looks at this code in future.
SA: Well, you can add a comment near the implementation that points this out.
XSET (thinks): A comment that says "To really know who is stupid, check the interface part"?
XSET (says): Well, lets see. Even if I add a comment, it is human tendency to think that the comment has a typo rather than understand it the right way.
SA: So, you add the comment and write in CAPS: COMMENT HAS NO TYPO.
XSET (thinks): ARGGHHHH!!!
XSET (says): Ok. I'll do that.