Why this Kolaveri?

If you are reading this somewhere in Siberia or in some corner of California, it is very likely that you will not know what I am writing about. All of a sudden, facebook brought it to my attention after my wall was populated with one word, repeated over and over: "Kolaveri". It is trending on Twitter big time, and it is all because of a song that has this word in it's title: Why this Kolaveri.  Before you google it out, I will tell you what it is. Kolaveri (கொலைவெறி) is a Tamil language word which would mean, "Murderous Rage" or "Deadly furor".

This song had a whooping 4 million views after just 4 days of it's release and everyone immediately started loving it. The lyric is very simple and amusing. The music makes you tap your feet, and simultaneously flip your fingers without your permission. Dhanush's voice added the right blend of informality. An attempt to try something different has turned out a huge success for Aishwarya R. Dhanush. 

Irrespective of your nationality and fluency in English, you will enjoy listening to this song. It appeared as the number one Indian trend on Twitter this 21st of November. Asia's second famous actor - Rajinikanth's daughter has found the right channel to popularize her first directorial venture: 3. (Three is the name of the movie in which this song is featured).

Update: #22 Dec, 2011

This song now has 26 Million views on You Tube.

It was featured on BBC, TIME and CNN.

Reached the 15th spot of YouTube 100 under Music category.

Here is a promotional version of that song, along with lyrics.

CAUTION:
Whether you press play or pause, it keeps playing inside you, indefinitely! Listen with care.

What's your Schema?

I haven't been blogging a lot these days. Many interesting topics await publishing in my Blogger draft. I am sharing here, a blog post I wrote at the beginning of this year, in a different forum. This blog is related to a non-technical topic which I choose to write in a technical way to fit that forum. If you understand what an XML and XSD is, you may like it a bit more than those who doesn't. But still, incase you don't know what it is, XML is pure plain text expressed in a particular format. XSD (XML Schema Definition) is something that defines a 'particular format'. If XSD is grammar, XML is a sentence.

So, this non-technical post is related to emotions and human psycology. A possible answer to When and Why you get frustrated? When and why you attain happiness?

You get frustrated when you are waiting in a long queue to get something from somewhere like office cafe, theatre, or a billing counter. You become happy when you get your plate of food and walk out of the queue, or when you get your ticket and walk into the movie hall, or when you finally pay the bill and walk out of the counter with your shopped stuffs.

Good, you are happy now, but you are soon to get frustrated again. You will have to take your vehicle outta the parking lot. HONK...HONK...HONK...No one moves. You slowly manage to move out of the place and then comes a "Phew!". Happy again, but screwed up sooner. You reach the traffic signal, waiting for the green bulb to glitter, amongst those awful lot of vehicles around you. Frustration surfaces again. In fact, Waiting in car would've been much better for you can have Shreya Goshal singing a super number on the stereo and/or your family/friends will be sitting with you. Think about waiting in a two-wheeler. You will have to inhale all the  exhausts from those Honda's & Hyundai's. It's the most horrible time (unless your GF/BF is sitting behind you) one can have. With all the carbon-di-oxides, monoxides & all-other-crap-oxides I inhaled over the years, I could build my own chemical compound and compete for a Nobel prize with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. As he is from my hometown, I later choose not to compete :P. Now, forget the Nobel laurations. Most of the ideas struck you when you are waiting in a traffic signal. Even the intention to write this post occurred to me when I was waiting in a signal, this morning. By the time you complete a contemplation, the GREEN candescent comes up. Back to happy mode, you start to steer only to get frustrated by honking again at the old man in his 60's snailing in his sedan, blocking your way. Happy again, after you cross him.

So, What happens here? Why is our mind shifting to different states so much in such a short span of time? We are the reason behind that. It's all about who we think we are which is the key reason behind all your emotions. Every human being has it's own definition of itself. Say, like an XSD. You will define yourselves with certain qualities. Tall/Short, Smart/Dumb, Calm/Cantankerous, patient/short-tempered. Every incident that happens in front of you (Input XML) is validated against your definition of yourselves(XSD). If the input conform to the schema, then the successful validation takes you to a positive state of emotion (or no emotion). If the validation fails, you attain a negative state of mind.

Let's take one example in our life. You feel (or define) like a piece of work you have done (a code/doc/proposal) is done in the best possible way. Someone says, "You did an amazing job, nice work". This comment is an input to the definition of your work being the best. It validates well and you are in harmony. On the other-side, if the comment is, "This is good but could've been even better", then the validation will fail. Someone said something different from what you believe. So you reach a negative state of mind!

This schema not only includes your definition of yourselves but also on other people around you. For Example, everyone thought Sachin Tendulkar is the best ever cricketer to have played the game. He did not have a good time during 2007 which resulted in the questioning of his ability to continue. The definiton of his greatness failed the validation. Ian Chappel bluntly wrote that it's time for tendulkar to hung his boots. But when the same Tendulkar came back strong with blistering performances , it earned him not only the Player of the Year award but made Chappel to re-think and re-write his Schema :)

You want to eat as soon as you enter the Cafe. You want to watch the movie as soon as you reach the theater. You want your bill as soon as you complete your shopping. The parking lot is only for you. You want the green as soon as you enter the signal. The road is laid only for you, and you don't want oldies' obstruction who drive in front of you. All these definitions failed which lead to your frustration. When you change the definition, believe that the world is big and everyone will have a part in it, frustrations will start to reduce. You can never change the  world(input XML). You can only change the schema and you are the only person who can do it. More successful validation = lesser frustrations. The way to experience a clear and peaceful state of mind is to realize when you are not in it and why you are not in it. When I started analyzing every such situation, after reading Howard Falco's I AM, I get frustrated very less these days. This book is a very good read. In technology, the Schema never changes. You only have to put in the right XML. It's vice-versa here. I will not be surprised (or frustrated) if you disagree with this.

What is Maan Karate?

A non-tamil speaking friend of mine did not come across this legendary skill, and I thought of introducing this art of the underworld. I remember one of my high school English text book, having a lesson titled, "Karate: a mighty weapon with the empty hand". I never knew what was the main content because I had the option to skip the questions under that lesson, thanks to the education system which gave me a only 3 out of 5 - choice. 

This is one of the smartest karate, if not powerful, invented in Tamilnadu, by a much recognised man called Thaamu. There are different versions of martial arts. Japanese karate known for its strength, Chinese kungfu known for its flexibility, Boxing known for its punches and etc etc. But no one of the above mentioned could come near Maan karate.

Maan in tamil means " Deer". The main rules of Maan karate is as follows.

1. Be flexible and fit like a deer.
2. Build up muscles like a deer.
3. Exercise each single free hour like a deer.
4. Be sharp and sensitive like a deer.
5. Look and listen to every movements like a deer.
6. Have your own weapon of choice like a deer having its horns.
7. In case of danger first run like a deer and then think what to do.

This is quite easy to learn, and really helpful in danger situations. Just start running like how a deer will do when it encounters an approaching tiger. Happy learning :)

Google, GPS & Me

[Written with Blogger for Android]

It is always scary when you wake up out of no where, during a long journey, especially at the middle of the night, and you ask youself one single question: "Where the hell am I?". I don't know how people manage to get down on time, during a over-night travel. Possible ways would be,

1. Don't sleep. Keep your eyes wide open. Get down on time. (Only maniacs do this)
2. Keep an alarm. Traditional way. If it is a frequently traveled destination, you would eventually know the approximate travel time. You can get down easily, unless you don't sleep desspite the alarm.
3. Tell the driver. He knows when the place comes, and he can get you down on time.
4. Board the bus that has your destination as the last point, which ensures that will always get down on the right place. Even if you over-sleep, you will still get kicked out.

That's all I know. This is such a simple task and there won't be much possibilities. If you know other ways of getting-down-on-time, I am eager to see you write a comment about it. For the current trip, I used a combination of 2 & 3. I told the driver that I wanted to get down in Chidambaram, and he nodded. On the safer side, while I started at 12 AM, I kept an alarm on 3:20 AM, which is very earlier than the average time, which is 4 hours. I slept deeply, despite the humpy-bumpy jerks and still managed to wake up 4 minutes before 3:20 AM.

A quick peek outside revealed a vast majority of darkness and a little of paddy plantations. You have lot such plantations throughout Tamil Nadu, and you will never clearly ge to know where you are. The operating officer boy did not come to wake me up also. I advanced the alarm by 20 more minutes, and slept again. When I woke up again, witnessed a similar sight, as if the bus did not move for a longer while. Same darkness and plantations, and  no damn idea where I was. Suddenly it struck me that I could take my phone out, and identify the location. One of the advantages of using an Android powered phone.

While the Google Maps app started to load, I prepared my mind for embarrassment. I personally felt that I screwed up, and pondered over the possible options. And few seconds later, I found out that I have crossed my destination, and I am now near mayiladuthurai a.k.a mayavaram, a place 60 miles away. While there was some disappointment, I did not worry much. I prepared myself for that situation in advance, and felt fortunate to have found it this earlier. This bus goes to pattukottai, a place 500+ miles from home....I only asked myself, "what next??".

Well at 4 in the night, you can never do any 007 heroics in India. You just have to get down at the next recognizable location and take another bus back home. I did that, and that's where I am writing this blog from: "Mayavaram bus Stop". I was lucky to get a chidambaram bus here, and I am on the way home now.

After all this happened, a little idea struck my mind. How about an intelligent alaram that will wake you up when you near your destination? This requires a solution that makes use of the Navigation API and Alarm API. Scope is simple. I lock a location. It should ring when I near it.

Any takers? I was very good at ideas but the laziest out there, when it comes to implementing it on my own. If I still overcome my lazynesss and go on to build such an app, I will blog it, surely!

#Update: My friend vivek told me that such an app already exist in the Android Market, and it eats a lot of your battery. Well, it have to as it requires continuous checks between the current location and destination!

Miss Unpredictable

I was driving back home on a weekday evening. The Mount Road isn't as populated as it usually used to be, around 7 PM. It might be due to the #IPL effect. I was casually breezing through the road, letting off all the honking cars and buses to go past me. In a flick of a moment,  I witnessed a Pulsar bike which crossed me in a flash. Rightly so, an youngster was driving it, and surprisingly a scary-looking girl on his pillion, eyes closed, heads down, holding something down tightly. 

I don't know why I chose to check out her face. I just wanted one stare at the reaction of that scared-out face. I anticipated it to be cute & funny. I shifted gears. He was long gone, but I accelerated through all those vehicles that went past me, and I am now in parallel to the Pulsar. 

Making sure I am not going to smash any on going vehicle, I sneaked at the side only to notice her holding on to something, tightly. Little acceleration revealed the unexpected. She wasn't scared of the speed or anything. She wasn't holding on to the bike. She was actually busy, typing an SMS!

#WTF 

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On a serious note, using mobile phones while sitting behind a two wheeler is extremely dangerous. One sudden break, and you will have nothing to hold on to, injuring yourselves, and 99% of the time, the driver too! Please don't do it. How fucked up life can get in a fraction of a second, you will only know after the happening of the unexpected!

13 - 360° in 3 Seconds

After a long time, blogging about a personal life experience. I was coming back home in a local bus, lucky to be seated amidst the hugely crowded bus and suddenly, a break. Trrrrrrrr.......All those who stood, got a good hold to somewhere except for one little girl, who had no idea how to stick to, shouted...Aaaaouuuuuuuuuuuu...I thought she smashed something but thank god, she escaped. Chennai MTC buses has the credit of breaking bones on a lot of occasions, with their densely packed, devastatingly maintained buses. Everyday, it happens, with a little swelling being the lesast possible and it can get as worse as a severe fracture.  

What's surprising here is her facial expressions in those fraction seconds. You could see all those organs in the face doing a 360°, 13 times in less than 3 seconds..Eyes lit up, teeth typing from A to Z, mouth wide open....So much of reaction happen in such a short time...Only women can do that i guess...I haven't seen much of a reaction from men...but women, yeah...Movies have shown us a lot of excited expressions..I was talking to my friend about this and made a deal.

One day, i will shoot a HD video of a suprised/excited woman for five seconds, split up the entire clip in to 100 frames and see if they actually resemble with one another...And when i do that, i will write the rest of this blog...

Stay tuned till then...

The Bill gates - Daughter - WAVE

I have witnessed a forward e-mail sent across continents stating the below pretty woman as the only bug-less or best product from Microsoft. Though they claim her Bill Gates' daughter, for the fun factor, it really isn't true!

Someone, so smart did this to poke Bill!

The internet is overloading with the doubted news of this lady being the daughter of Bill Gates, Jennifer Katharine Gates.…..Is it required to tell who is Bill Gates?!

The lady in the picture is simply impeccable. But one thing is for sure. This could not be his legal daughter because as per records Bill gates had tied the knot on 1st January, 1994 with Melinda French from Dallas, Texas.

They have three children: Jennifer Katharine (1996), Rory John (1999), Phoebe Adele (2002).

Now logically Katherine should be of 13 years, and this stunning beauty by no means qualifies the age parameter. It has been referred that she is Alyson Stoner, Max fame, The suit Life of Jack & Cody.

Some are also in a view that she is Hollywood actresses Rachael Leigh Cook.

Who so ever has forwarded the idea has done a tremendous job to rethink over Bill gates personal life.

Anyways the lady is just gorgeous enough to stare and reload the beauty traffic.

Source: Somewhere on the world wide web that i forget !

The girl next door!

The name is Nafia. She is resplendent. Her stare is as shining as the sun when it sets in the sea. Ahhh....those beautiful eyes....and her smile....oh...god...men will die in desperation....Her hair, Summer-short, yet shining...Sometimes, she comes to our home....She likes being with us....Brings along with her a big-bucket full of happiness and a stunning smile that illuminates the house in entirety.

Always wears a T-Shirt and a short skirt or a petite trouser. Slightly chubby yet charming. Lazy. Otiose. An example of innocence at it's extreme best. She always likes to stay with us on weekends. Though her Mom is our house-owner, it's still mattered dime a dozen for us. We just had a ball!

But these days, she is not around. Her mom is preparing her for an interview it seems. Yesterday, as luck might have it, I got a chance to listen to her, preparing for interview on D-Day. Her mom was busy stuffing an almost rotten-roti into her throat but she is even more busy in making a desperate attempt to recall the answer to an important question. She seems tense as it appears to be the FIRST interview of her life. I peeped across the window as she spills it out, one by one. A...B.......C.....