RESEARCHERS investigating the achievements of thousands of innovators have established that 29 is the age at which you are most likely to have your first big, original idea.
adadaa adaadaaa.. now i know why i am getting brain waves at 4 am.
Folks click here
An important deliverable transformed the hardly working pk to a hard working pk.
That and some minor eye ailments kept me way from blogosphere.
Today being free, i went out with my camera with vatsan to give me company.
No great shots, i just wanted to use this camera more often. And whatever little doubts i had about my camera is gone now. The pictures are indeed razor sharp. For a mass produced product, the standard 18-55 kit lens works real fine.
No post-processing in Adobe needed. D50 rocks.
Shot from broken bridge - a place where the Adyar river joins the Bay of Bengal. ISO was set to 1600. The Camera was handheld. Came out ok 
The “Veeramani” of young bloggers, Vatsan
The Famous Gandhi Mandapam. Reminded me of some post cards people used to sell for 10 bucks. Not exactly amateur photographer stuff :)
To Narayanan sir and others,
i think i owe you this post. What i meant was not about starting rasigar narpani iyakkams for worshipping all the celebrities. But my point is there are some whose sole job is to criticise others. They do nothing else. And unfortunately, they are prevalent in India. This they do merely to show off as someone who is different from the masses , as Jo correctly pointed out and also because of jealousy as viji said.
‘Sachin is not the best batsman and he should retire’ is your opinion. You are entitled to that.
I am talking about some specialists especially in the older generation who wud find fault with anything and anybody.
For eg. “Ippo elam enna music podaraa? Naraasama irukku. Andha kalathile ellam..”
One thing here. This is not to assume this guy would’ve appreciated the old music when he was young. In other words, he does not want to appreciate the old film music. He is using that as a comparitive to criticise the present day’s music.
This is a far cry from consructive criticism.
There are people say “Oh yeah, Sachin is a waste!”. You prod them further and ask who in their opinion would make a great player, maybe Dravid? Nopes, they find 100 different flaws in Dravid. Even those who do intiially, would find a lot bad with Dravid once Sachin is gone. What they need is aval to chew in their empty mouth.
It does not take great intelligence and character to talk negatively about anything, let alone a celebrity. Those who are so generous in critizing someone are really miserly in appreciating anything positive in anyone.
That Sachin is not the Sachin he was in 1998 is known to all. But such negative vibes about someone as accomplished is not really healthy. Compare that with Australia, they had the gall to drop Steve Waugh for One-dayers, but never did they indulge in such mud-slinging before they dropped Steve. He was given the respect he deserved, nothing more nothing less. It was also made clear that Australis can win matches even without Steve.
(One trivia here, Sachin is an elderly stateman in world cricket. There is no body senior to him cricketing-wise)
What do you think of Abdul Kalam? As a layman i think he is a symbol of optimism and hope to the younger generations in India. Believe me, there are people who’d say Kalam is over-hyped. Oh yeah, even these people are over-rated as humans.
So why is this celebrity bashing so bad? First and foremost this mentality is sick. It reflects a lot about that person’s mentality. Second and more importantly these people are sending wrong signals to budding young talent.
A lot of talent will come to the limelight only when they get the feeling that their skills will be appreciated and respected. All this celebrity bashing will make the young brigade feel restless.
If u dont spare a thought before bashing Sachin, the mindset for any budding cricketer would be, “If this is what Sachin gets, where will i be when i go out of form?”
There are some who strive to be popular just by attacking someone popular and good.
I am talking against those intellectuals.
India is a land of many great thinkers and visionaries. But we Indians are born with a genius-like ability to find fault, to say something negative about even the greatest of people in any discipline even among our own brethren. We are indeed masters. Masters in the art of nit-picking our own great countrymen.
To give some example, there are some intellectuals according to whom Sachin Tendulkar is a waste, Sunil Gavaskar is a bigger waste, Kapil Dev is over-rated all rounder, Sania Mirza hardly knows how to hold a racquet, Ilayaraja is repetitive, A R Rahman is a copycat, KJ Yesudoss is juat a singer playing to the gallery, Mani Ratnam is a mediocre film-maker, Sujatha is just a commercial writer. No contemporary deserves whatever respect he gets now.
Don’t get me wrong here. I am not against criticism. Something which is done with malicious intent, something which is harmful ought to be criticized and condemned.
But barking against everyone or everything popular and successful is not a healthy attitude. Afterall its not for nothing that some people are acclaimed in one particular area.
If none of our scientists, musicians, artists, engineers would be lauded, encouraged and recognized by our own people for whatever little they achieve, how and when will India produce that pathbreaking research finding, or that breathtakingly original software product, or that impossible Olympic gold winning athlete, or that politician with good intent? It is interesting that a place of such nit-picking critics will also be the epicenter of mindless worship and jingoism. Every mass hero film release date is a testimony to that.
The single most important thing any artist, performer or innovator would expect from his own country folks is sincere appreciation and encouragement. I remember Australian Commentator Bill Lawry always referred to Steve Waugh as “The Best Batsman in the world”. Hows that for recognizing Steve Waugh?
If only all Indians decide to sincerely appreciate at least one person a day – it can be their spouse, friend, parent, child, neighbor, contemporary. India will be a better place to live.
There is an Organisation in Purasawakkam in the name of Accident Relief Force.
Suppose we see an accident on the roads. We want to help but dont know what to do and how to proceed.
We can call their 24 hour helpline number 52077777 within Chennai and the person from ARF would come to the spot, get the victim and get him admitted to a hospital, handle the police formalities, will make the calls to the victims family and make sure some one is there to take care of the victim. ARF does all this free of charge.
There is another scheme in ARF and its really useful too.
ARF has this group membership scheme where the subscriber pays Rs. 390 per annum (When i last met them). For this amount AF will do all the free services (helping out the accident victim, andle the police, get the person admitted in hospital, take care of him till one of his family/friends/relative are available) plus provide reimbursement of hospital expenses for upto Rs. 1,00,000. They are able to do this through the group insurance schemes.
Hope this information is useful to someone at some point in time.
Please make note of their helpline number: 52077777
Vatsan had written about Ilayaraja’s concert tomorrow in chennai and how its happening in an indoor stadium and at cheaper prices than ARR’s concert and how Ilayaraja is doing this to thank his fans for the reception to Thiruvasagam.
Let me make my stand clear. IR is a musical genius and nobody in his right senses will deny that. I too have been in awe of him for the past so many years. I strongly feel the musical peak he experienced in the mid 80s will remain unattainable to anyone for some more time if not for ever. I am writing this post even as I listen to one of IR’s compositions.
Its an absolute must that one goes to a concert with optimism and expectation. And i wish Vatsan a great time there. But let us not get into a debate on non-musical things like who is doing anything for charity or gratitude. The reality is, nobody is doing anything for charity or gratitude.
Vatsan may let us know what prevents Ilayaraja from talking about his first Symphony done about 10-12 years ago for which he got the “Maestro” title from the same Tamil koorum Nallulagam. Maybe he can take steps to release it in Tamil Nadu to show how much he loves Tamilians? I would be the first in Q to get that (for a price). One would like to know the efforts he has taken in the past so many years to make it available to the Tamil audiences to whom he feels he supposedly owes so much.
Also, maybe IR can come forward to name and recognise all those key orchestra players whom he has relied on including the violin piece in “How to name it” for which Vatasn has given a link.
Would Ilayaraja dare explain the merits of Bhavatharini which deserves to let her sing in his albums? Is she like another Lata mangeshkar or what? Can Ilayaraja speak with conscience on that front? What basis has Bhavatharini got to be featured in Thiruvasagam other than the fact that she’s his daughter?
There is a fine line between appreciating someone and worshippng artists.
I still believe when it comes to Film Music there is but one King - Ilayaraja. But that will not make me worship him.
Waterways in IT Highway.
I posted this pic more as a statement than anything else. Taken bang in front of an IT major on the Old Mahabalipuram Road this morning.
This spot is notorious in the sense one can find this natural swimming pool even days after the rains have abated. And did i tell u this is IT Highway?
On the one hand you can find Technology companies and their educated workforce. On the other hand you can find a general apathy towards the road conditions.
This in essence is India.
My experiments with Low - Light Photography
After about an hour of setting things up and 10 different shots, I got this.
Paulo Coelho’s “Zahir” provided an interesting backdrop.
The noteworthy factor is the light for this shot. The light source is nothing but the light from the cellphone display. Some light got reflected from the adjoining room.
This shot was possible because of tripod.
Thanks to my friend Amar who gifted me one.
Exposure Settings
Aperture: f11
Shutter: 8-10 seconds
ISO:200