ExpertDabbler

This is inspired by Vatsan’s cell phone kaviyam here.

I clearly remember the day i got my first cellphone from Reliance Office in Haddows Road. That was the day when our Mumbai Maestro went hammer and tongs against the Pakistanis in the 2003 world cup. That was Sachin’s last big match winning effort.

RIM was a rage then. The crowd at Reliance offices those days would far outnumber the crowd in front of Sathyam Cinemas. Reliance offered mobiles at throwaway prices and forever changed the mobile landscape in the country.

My good friend Kirti, a CA with Reliance, came up with forms et al to my residence and got me the phone in his employee quota. 12 cheques for 36 months and some other nonsense stuffs is what i vaguely remember now.

The first 2 months of my cell phone usage was absolutely free for calls to RIM to RIM during pre-launch period.

Reliance then made an All India launch. Soon horrible customer service, bills for unmade calls, poor connectivity, every Kandaswamy Munuswamy using it, and the need to stick to the same service provider all added to Reliance lose its market share and credibility in a hurry.

Reliance strategy was so quick and flexible that each Reliance Web World would have a different idea of how a particular tariff scheme would work. Talk about keeping everyone guessing.

Roaming in a reliance phone is a process which would put that of a missile lauch to shame. I am not good enough to explain such a complicated process in plain english.
So lets take this with a case study.

Suppose i am travelling to coimbatore.
The signal would go off as soon as the train crosses Avadi.
The next day morning, on reaching coimbatore i need to dial a specific number with some *** s prefixed. (Not very different from ‘Thirandhidu Seesame’). Then after a lightning quick half an hour, i would get an SMS stating that my number in Coimbatore is xxxxxx which is different from my Reliance number in chennai.

Then whatever calls i make would be like me calling from a phone in Coimbatore. Suppose,i am going to tiruppur, i need to do the whole damn process again. Other cell phone operators cried foul over reliance’s backroom tactics for roaming facility. But then Reliance always preferred late cuts to straight drives.

I remember getting ISD calls with local numbers (ironically it was always touchtel numbers;))

A visit to the Reliance cutomer care office is one good source of entertainment. You can see the hapless cutomer and the customer care representative doing a la Prabu and Karthik act of Agni Nakshathiram (Not much physical i could see though. It was all verbal. Tch..Tch)

One of my colleague got around three bills from Reliance for Rs 5000 each.
‘So what?’ you might ask. Nothing wrong except that he was using BSNL prepaid.

Reliance’s billing was if anything, legendary. I have heard cases where customers have been charged for calls the duration of which was 0.1 seconds.
Now, it should take extra-ordinary skills to make a call and communicate in all of 0.1 seconds don’t you think? But thats how it was and yes you were billed.

One of my friend Anand was in Reliance customer care and billing in the Kerala circle. Pity that i miss that guy now. For those anecdotes would keep my blog content hilarious for months to come. Anand was spotted somewhere in Africa when reports last came in.

On the other hand there were customers who used Reliance Phones as mobile public booths, made money overnight and vanished. Reliance had the talent and bandwidth to attract such customers in thousands.

On the positive side, RIM phones were kinda water proof. Once I had the phone in my shirt pocket and entered the waters in TADA falls. The treatment is similiar to wet clothes. Spread it out in the sun, charge the batteries(not needed for clothes) and bingo things were normal.

There were fewer SMS spam in RIM phones those days. And i had fewer calls to take while peeing from tele-marketing execs offering free credit cards, personal loans, home loans, insurance policies blah blah. To my knowledge they offered everything except condoms. I just dont know how these people manage to get my cell number(No, they are not my blog readers anyway). The standard answer was always “Got it from our database Sir”

Which database madam? Oracle or Sybase?

I ditched RIM when my amma gave a deadline to change it. She could never reach me at Navalur when she had to. That ended one hot passionate affair with RIM.

I converted my RIM to prepaid and offered it free to my cousin who is doing his MCA here in chennai. He stopped visiting me ever since.

So my once beloved RIM still stays in my place even though we parted ways long back.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about stickiness factor in Tipping Point. RIM is the stickiest mobile one would ever come across.

Note:
Makkaley idhu koncham serious post but hopefully urupadyana post.
Heart Attack

We all know at least one person in our family and friends circle who has suffered from or succumbed to heart attack. Heart attack or technically Myocardial Infarction(MI) occurs when an area of heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged because of an inadequate supply of oxygen to that area.

A clot in the coronary artery interrupts the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart muscle, leading to the death of heart cells in that area. The damaged heart muscle loses its ability to contract, and the remaining heart muscle needs to compensate for that weakened area.

If the blood supply is cut off for more than a few minutes, muscle cells suffer permanent injury and die. This can kill or disable someone, depending on how much heart muscle is damaged.

An estimated 12 out of 100 people living in cities; and seven out of 100 in rural India suffer from heart disease. By one estimate, 60 percent of the world’s coronary heart patients will be in India by 2010.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Our heart has two main systems that help it run efficiently. First, our heart is a pump. It has a network of pipes (blood vessels) along with some valves and pumping chambers. A heart attack is a problem with the heart’s plumbing system.

The heart also has a complicated electrical system. The heart generates its own electricity and uses this electricity to run the pumps causing them to contract and relax in the proper timing sequence.

Just as our heart can experience a plumbing problem, it also can experience different electrical problems.

SCA is an electrical malfunction in the heart. Cardiac arrests occur when the electrical impulses in the diseased heart become rapid or chaotic or both. This irregular heart rhythm causes the heart to suddenly stop beating. Some cardiac arrests are due to extreme slowing of the heart.

If heart attack is a high profile killer disease, it’s cousin is equally deadly if not deadlier.
One can survive a heart attack but it is almost impossible to survive a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (95% of SCA is fatal). Whats more it is low profile. SCA victims are invariably passed of as “massive heart attack” victims.

It can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, physical fitness, etc. But people with previous heart condition (invariably CAD) are at a particularly high risk for SCA.
Brain death and permanent death start to occur in just four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest.

What is the way out?

SCA can be reversed, but only if treated within minutes with an electrical shock via an automated external defibrillator (AED) or with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). But since that is impossible when under attack, it is imperative to opt for ICD to prevent. One famous person with ICD implanted is Dick Cheney.

ICD

An Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) is a small implantable device that looks similar to a pacemaker. While pacemakers can speed up a slow heart rate, ICDs were designed to slow down a fast heart rate. In addition, many ICDs also contain a built-in full-featured pacemaker. So ICD is a super set of pacemaker.

Research shows that ICDs provide an invaluable form of life insurance for people most at risk. Evidence-based medicine has demonstrated that ICDs significantly reduce death.
Despite these statistics, ICDs are underutilized. Fewer than 20% of currently indicated patients receive the benefits of an ICD despite being at high risk for sudden death (this is in developed countries, so we can guestimate the status in India)

The ICD delivers electrical therapy-pacing pulses or defibrillation therapy as necessary. When not needed, the ICD merely monitors the heart without delivering any electrical energy.

Why this post?

Several reasons. One, the scenario is grim for Indians. India will be the hub of coronary heart disease patients in the years to come. Today, the average age in which a person may suffer a heart attack has come down from 40 years to 30 years in India. And this is mainly a result of today’s changing lifestyles. Indians have smaller arteries than Caucasians which makes us even more vulnerable. India is also a hub for diabetics. And chronic diabetes can lead to heart condition.

We, the blogging population are generally from the comfy placed layers of the society. Talking about ICD will help in arriving at a decision as to whether any of our loved ones are in need of it. Of course after consulting the doctor.

The point is, if we are in a position to afford it, lack of awareness/information alone should not result in sudden cardiac death to any of our loved ones.

Last but not the least. I lost my dad 5 years back to this combined HA-SCA menace.

I am particularly fond of this flash game.
Brings back memories of those days where i had spent months literally doing nothing but just sit and play.
Sometimes i think even life is like this game. Life is all about balance.
The key is to travel as long as possible without falling flat

I was searching technorati for any post on Sir Issac Vivian Alexander Richards
and came across this. Some were simply gems and some were…well….:)
Looks like it comes from their culture.
Makkaley Rated Content but defintely enjoyable.
Read more

Hmm. Wanted to write about this for quite sometime. Initially was a bit embarrassed. Then I thought ‘What the heck. No big deal.’ Sure enough. But, well… its quite a deal actually. What can be a more important deal than arranged marriage for a middle class guy? And let me add with my extensive domain experience, it’s a nagging, frustrating thing alright.

The only area where I could spell out my thought and give light to my true personality to an extent is through matrimonial portals and what I endure will be appreciated only by hapless guys like me.

Profiles will have words like “Traditional, modern, homely, good-looking, well-educated, liberal, moderate, contemperory” and all other million words for which the meaning can be best be described as relative.

And how can I forget this holy word “god-fearing”?. In fact I wanted to write a separate post on this one word. I’ve seen kids fearing ghosts and villains just like we fear Vijaykanth’s close-up but why on earth should one be scared of God?

There are some who would just not respond. Nice people, they would not want to hurt.
But then there has been atleast one instance when the girl was talking to me assuming I belonged to Tirunelveli Saiva Pillai ( I never said so). To make matters worse, we hit off really well.

The phone calls were going on for sometime.I heard the first alarm bell when she said we were just friends. So i was one of the very few who got a friend thru shaadi.com. Then suddenly out of nowhere she calls to tell she has been engaged to some X. Ouch! It hurt.

There was one alliance which came through the more traditional route(read amma and from my community). Things were going smooth until suddenly they realized the girl was employed in Bangalore and it was assumed that I would shift to Bangalore since i was working in a ‘private’ company(The girl worked in a prestigious public sector organization) The story ended when I said my chennai job and other interests mattered to me.

As my blog readers would well know I am one with less than flattering academics though I am doing well enough on the professional front and also happen to be one of the morons who don’t buy this castiest funda. Without dad but with some expectations like compatibility (after all the person should put up with an eccentric like me for life) makes things a little more difficult I guess.

The only consolation so far is that I’ve heard its difficult enough for people with truly flattering qualifications, great looks and H1 jobs.

What is life without hope? But sometimes the whole process makes me wonder ‘Pesama china vayasile edhavadhu ponnai correct pannirukalaam’.
But then I did my schooling in boys only school. That and no college life did not help matters one bit.

Enough rambling anyway. For now the hunt goes on.

Till there are idiots like me, three cheers to Bharat Matrimony.com , Shaadi.com, Kalyana Maalai. Net and their promoters.

Exactly 11 days back, me and my friend Priyums had a chance to visit the documentary film festival organised by Prakriti Foundation at the South Indian Film Chamber theatre.

Three films were shown that day in all. I was late and missed the major portion of the first film by Vinod Raja. I had to miss out the Amudhan directed documentary about the sanitary workers in Madurai Corporation as well.

The film I happened to see and the one which was absolutely mindblowing in picturisation, script, music and cinematography was undoubtedly Shekar Dattatri’s
Nagarahole - Tales from an Indian jungle.

Shekar said during the chit chat with me and Priya that he had a big budget for this one and it took him 18 months and 25 hours of film footage to make this 53 minute film.

Its a pity that such an internationally acclaimed documentary film maker is living right here in Tiruvanmiyur and no mainstream media guys would cover such people.
They are all too busy covering the likes of Nameeta.

Hey folks.

I cooled myself off from blogosphere in the last one week.
Gave myself some time to read some stuff. More on that later.
So on the whole it did more good than even i anticipated.

I wanted to come back with a short story but since that has hardly taken off, let me tell something to enjoy and laugh about.

Check out dubukku’s blog.
Dubukku is a well known UK blogger.

Regulars at Chakra’ blog know him as the one who was featured in Junior Vikatan during the London blasts.

Dubukku’s style is one of the best humour in tamil i’ve seen in blogosphere.

Folks, i am at last done with my story.

I expected to write on my own quietly for sometime but your response,comments and feedback in general has been phenomenal. Reading one long post is one thing. reading a series of marathon posts for close to 20 days and commenting is something beyond words. I am indebted to each and every one of you. This gesture was unforgettable.

I would like to thank especially

Narayanan Sir(his mails about this story - I’ll cherish for ever),
Chakra,(he gave his feedback to almost every post till date, hats off to you Chakra )
Capri(she honored me with a blog post about this story),
Monu(she visited and had something nice to say everyday),
Fathima.

Other regulars include

IBH,
Cipher,
aatma,
visithra,
vatsan,
sukhanya,
swapna,
kavya,
Kaleidoscope,
Anjali,
J’adore,
Siddharth,
Viji,
Gopinath - the one person in this list mentioned here who knows me since my Coimbatore days:),
Divya,
Kutti Priya and others…

This is my first serious attempt to tell a story and please do excuse and let me know if there were any drawbacks / blackspots as it is bound to be in a novice’s work.

Its been one exhausting, exhilirating, exciting, entertaining absolutely fun filled 20 days.

I am taking a small break from blogging. I will read / comment and respond to other’s comments as usual but no active blogging for sometime.

Thanks once again to all of you.

One of the brilliant all-rounders of all time, Sir Garfield Sobers was in front of the camera.

Harsha Bhogle was with the mike “Welcome back viewers, what a match it was!
Perhaps one of the most thrilling of all Cup finals. And any guesses for the Man of the Match Sir Gary?”

Sir Gary smiled “Aditya, for his fighting hundred.”

At the man of the match ceremony.

Ravi Shastri,”Well viewers welcome back to the Man of the match ceremony for the World Cup Finals here at Johannesberg. Here is the time for the man of the match award. The award is being decided by a panel headed by the ICC Match Referee and other eminent cricketers of the past. And the Man of the Match Award goes to Aditya Srinivasan, the captain of the the World Champions.”

The whole stadium erupts in Joy.

Aditya, takes Manjunath along with him. Takes the mike,”
“Good evening dignatories, ladies and gentlemen. In my view, the real man of the match was Manjunath for the way he stood up to Moshin Ahmed in the last over. I thought it was all over when I was dismissed. But Manju never gave up till the end in one of the most nerve wracking of Cup Finals. He is the Hero for me. So gentlemen, please give Manjunath a big hand. Thank you all for the support and encouragement.”

Manjunath hugs Aditya and cries.

Press Conference

Amidst the shutter-trigger happy press photographers. Aditya makes one announcement

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Today, I have played my last international cricket match. I hereby announce my retirement from International cricket. As was evident from this World Cup. I was clearly struggling. In fact I was more like a non-playing captain.
All my guys played brilliantly. If anything, this Cup belongs to each and every Indian who played here, who supported us in the stadium and who are watching us from back home. Its every Indian’s cup.

If there is one adage I believe, it is this Quit Royally. Hence, i take this occasion to announce my decision regarding my career as a cricketer.”

“Thank you all for the love, support and encouragement so far.”

“Jai Hind!”

He left the conference to a standing ovation from the journalists who had gathered from all the Cricket playing nations.

Manzoor Khan wins the toss and elects to bat, the Pakis made 306 in 50 overs.

India started with a bad news. The wicketkeeper-bat Pandey was injured while keeping. Aditya took everyone by surprise by offering to open the bat. He was hardly the prime player he was once but still he thought as a captain he has to take charge and give his best when the chips were down.
He simply tried to play the sheet-anchor role and guide the other players.
He made his first 50 after eons, of 75 balls without a single boundary. Slow considering India was chasing 307 to win.

Rajeev batted briskly and came out with a fine 71 of 59 balls. But when he got out caught behind when the score was at 194, Aditya asked Ratan Shah to come up the order. Again a seemingly insane decision but again it caught the opposition by surprise.

Ratan Shah blasted a brilliant 69 of 49 balls. The middle order, if ever there was one for India suddenly collapsed yet again. 3 quick wickets in 5 overs for a measly 18 runs and India was looking down the barrel.

With 3 wickets in hand, Aditya was clearly frustrated in the middle, the brilliant Pakistani fast bowlers, the fiery Moshin Ahmed having 2 overs to go in the remaining 4 overs, India needed 34 runs.

Aditya decides to go after the other bowler, Salim Khan. He hits three huge sixes and a four of one Salim over. He reaches his hundred with that four.

“Nichayama unnoda kevalamaana hundred in terms of style. But the most important one in your life” he said to himself.

And just when it was all over for Pakistan, a sudden rash of blood saw him run out Ismail the non-striker. The only good aspect was he was the striker for the next over. Very important when the tail is batting.

Two wickets to go, 15 balls and 3 runs to win. Aditya gets a terrible LBW decision to a ball from Moshin Ahmed and it was 9 wickets down. Aditya was crestfallen. His invaluable 106 of 119 balls was going down the drain. Live coverage showed Aditya in tears as he reached the dressing room. It was all over. He knew he has played his last ODI and its going to end on a tragic note.

Moshin had this over and another one to have a go at Manjunath, the last man in.

Adi was sure Manju stood no chance against Moshin, the fastest bowler in the world.

It was a miracle how Manjunath lasted the remaining 3 balls from Moshin. One just missing the off-stump, one fending a bouncer, which falls just in front of the desperate fielder and the last ball beaten outside the off-stump.

Manzoor, the wily Pakistani captain brought back medium pace all rounder Abdul Latif. The over was a maiden. Gurudev faced all the six deliveries. Did not connect a single ball. There were two huge appeals for LBWs. One was rather close.
It was gripping cricket of a different kind.

Last over.

3 runs required. The bowler was Moshin. The first ball, the batsman was Manjunath. Bowled. There was a hush in the Indian Camp and the whole of Pakistan was celebrating and the umpire signaled a no-ball.

2 runs to win, 6 balls to go.

Now the first ball again - beaten outside the off stump. Second ball – wraps in the pads and a huge shout for LBW. Turned down. Third ball, an attempted yorker somehow dug out by Manjunath. Fourth ball, bouncer. Manjunath gets one on his helmet even as he was trying to evade. Fifth ball, Manjunath puts bat to ball and attempts a run. Crowd of fielders converge on Manjunath.

One ball to go. Two runs to win.

Moshin’s attempted yorker express delivery catches the inside edge of Manjunath and races to the fine-leg boundary inspite of a desperate attempt by the keeper.

In one of the greatest cup finals in recent times, India wins a humdinger. Aditya comes running to the ground to hug his bowlers who won it for him with their bats.

India wins the World Cup at Johannesberg after a long long time since Kapil Dev held the trophy at Lords.