High-Speed Photography - Fwd

Special cameras allow photographers to take pictures of things that happen too quickly to see with your eyes. This photo captures a bullet smashing through a raw egg.

ABCD & MTP

Mr. Saravana Subbaih (director of this movie ABCD), தமிழ் நாட்டு தாய்மார்களை, கண்ணீர் விடவைக்க கங்கணம் கட்டி படம் எடுத்தார் போல. Being a typical “தமிழ்நாட்டு பெண்” and considering my emotions during this movie, I think he succeeded in his wish. Sneha really lived in her role. Once in a while it’s worth to watch kind of sentimental movies as well.


On the contrary, on my way to Newcastle, I watched “Meet the parents”. Though I have seen it before, my God, I couldn’t control my “crazy loud laugh”. I laughed & laughed until I got tears , for this scene where he offers a dinner (very lengthy and funny) blessing at his girl friend’s place. I guess that day who all sat in the airport lounge watched a better movie looking at that "crazy lady (me only)".

Have you heard of this word “PREPONE” ?

If so, you must be an Indian :) . When my hubby used this word to a English man, he was surprised by this new strange word.

The word 'prepone' is found in The New Oxford Dictionary of English, published 1998. It is listed as being Indian (from India) and is defined as: to bring forward to an earlier date or time. Example given: The publication date has been preponed from July to June.

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/000645.php

What's the name ? Fwd

A college student needed a small two-hour course to fill his schedule and the only one available was wildlife Zoology.

After one week, a test was held.The professor passed out a sheet of paper divided into four squares. In each square was a carefully drawn picture of a bird's legs. No bodies, no feet, just legs.The test asked each student to identify the birds from their legs.The student sat and stared at the test getting angrier every minute. Finally he stomped up to the front of the classroom and threw the test on the teacher's desk.

"This is the worst test I have ever given."
The teacher looked up and said:
"Young man, you have flunked the test. What's your name?"
The student pulled up his pant to the knee showing his legs and said:
"You tell me"

அறிந்தும் அறியாமலும் !

friend நல்லா இருக்குன்னு சொல்லியும் நம்பாம, கடனேன்னு, என்ன பண்றதுண்ணு தெரியாம,காலத்தை கொல்வதற்காக (to kill time ;) hehehe ) “அறிந்தும் அறியாமலும்” படம் பாக்க ஆரம்பிச்சேன். To my surprise, it was a good movie. Much better than “சிவகாசி,மஜா,etc..etc”. Wow ! PrakashRaj, Arya, Navedeep and also Prasanna என்னம்மா நடிச்சு இருக்காங்க !



Arya's debut performance is excellent ! கலக்கல் !

Men have to put up signs !

Turkey Day ! Live it Up :)

www.msn.americangreetings.com/view.pd?i=382219626&m=1652&rr=y&source

Deticated to my cute little angel :)

Illusion !

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

திருச்சியில் வரலாறு காணாத மழை !

When i read in the paper, "திருச்சியில் வரலாறு காணாத மழை after 44years", at first I was excited(last year we had water scarcity almost the entire we had to drill the ground (BORE) further down to get water).But, after reading மழைகோட்டை சுவர் broke due to rain, i was worried that the rain is more than what we need [அப்படி ஒரு மழையான்னு ஆச்சரியப்பட்டேன், டக்குனு தோணலை Wall ரொம்ப பழசு, may be they didn't maintain properly ன்னு].

காவேரியில் தண்ணி நிறைய ஓடுதுன்னு கேட்ட உடனே remembered my childhood days. Bi-weekly our grandmother (after whom I am named) used to take us (me and my sister) with her friend(of course another granny)and her grandkids that are of our age to Kauveri. My grandmother tried her best to teach us swimming and we were so scared and never learnt it [I always preferred to stand near the bank]. This swimming class trial worsens when my father also joined us to the river. He will forcefully take me deep inside the river and will ask me to learn/try swimming. Being, brought up in the village and worked in farms my granny and dad were used to the outdoor bath in the well. The well i am talking about here is not like the one which we see in the city or which we have seen in “Ding, dong bell, Pussy's in the well rhyme) which is raised to a height and round in shape.







The wells in the farms/fields are entirely different, they are big square or rectangle in shape and on plain surface with no walls/cautioning and with scary kind of steps without handrail (next time when I go to my grandma’s village, will take a picture of it).

Coming back to Kauvery ,this also reminds me an aunt of mine who was living near the srinrangam side of kauvery river and when we go to her place, with my cousins we went for fishing there with a big towel, the four of us holding four corners of the towel and tried to catch fishes and then throw them back :) Autograph “Gnyabagam Varudhae ” song dhaan Gnyabaham varuddhu :) !

Even in Bangalore there was a heavy rain, Chennai-Bangalore road/rail services has been cancelled and my dad is in B’lore on a trip now. He is hoping to return home by tonight/tomorrow.

Two days back, thatstamil.com open பண்றேன் Flood in Srirangam, Thiruvanaikovil ன்னு போட்டு இருக்கு. எங்க வீடு பெரியார் நகர், இது இரண்டுக்கும் நடுவில் இருக்கு. Papers also said people are given flood alert and asked to move out. I got so tensed, that too my dad is in B'lore. Called my mom and asked her to go to my sister’s place to stay. She said she was fine and things were under control and asked me not to worry about it and also said “In papers, they exaggerate". She was also sure about her decision as my dad called her from Bangalore and assured her that everything will be okay. So, I kept quite.

On Wednesday morning, to make my BP go up, they even mentioned Periyar Nagar is under flood. Even they showed a picture of a car from Periyar Nagar under flood. Below are the pictures of the complex where my dad’s office is in Trichy (Trichy Chataram Busstand) and “where I went for B.E Entrance Exam Course” Trichy Saint-Joseph college.



I was so angry and upset that my mom didn’t listen to us and stayed back and called her again and she picked up the phone and said she was reading Kumudam happily. She had been to see the river and nearby area and there were many police officers and govt. officials who were working very hard and placing sandbags and tree woods etc and she was more confident. I was glad to know about these quick efforts by Tamilnadu Government, though enough damage has been already done in many parts of TN. I wish and hope things come back to normal quickly for the people who have lost their homes due to this rain pour.

Well Done !

Below one was posted 5 months ago,when i started this blog. Guess what, now my BMI is 24 :) Good work, keep it up Viji. Sometimes you need to appreciate yourself, and now is my turn to do that







------------
Just to kill time I was browsing thru' and then thought it would be useful to check my BMI - Body Mass Index. I knew that I have become fatter after my daughter’s birth, but didn't know that my BMI is now 26. Let me note this date and check my BMI after a month. I wish I could go to atleast the "normal weight" (atleast upperbound) next month.

:-)

Kokku ParaPara

It was probably the 40th time I watched the “Chandramuki and Anniyan songs” today. My 15months old daughter most of the times asks me to play “ Kokku song, Raa Raa song, and Randdakka song”. [ In fact, her creche people also said to me "you can bring us those Indian movie songs, we will play those if she is gets bored " :-) ]

Now i too started liking those two songs. And also, I never ever imagined before that I would like to watch “Nursery rhymes and cartoon ”….now I do enjoy them a lot.. ;-)

forwarded : Facts

1. Chewing gum while cutting onions can help a person prevent himself from crying while chopping onions. Try it next time you chop onions!!!!!!!!!!

2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!

3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.

4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite.

5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.

6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe , knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.

7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.

8. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

9. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979.

10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.

11. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

14. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

15. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.

16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system and be excreted.

17. At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.

19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk rightfoot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot,leftfoot

20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal.

21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2005 WHEN...........

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. With every commercial on television, you look to see if it has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Valluvar's words

As my daughter started uttering some words and calls me "amma" now , I could feel this kural much better now...

மக்கட்பேறு
குழலினிது யாழினிது என்பர் மக்கள்தம்
மழலைச்சொல் கேளா தவர்

Kural-66
'The pipe is sweet,' 'the lute is sweet,' by them't will be averred,Who music of their infants'
lisping lips have never heard.

"The pipe is sweet, the lute is sweet," say those who have not heard the prattle of their own children.
[Translation by: http://tamils.tamilpower.com/thirukural-domvirtue1.htm]

GUESS WHO is lucky?

Finally, we (Me and “A”) decided to go for a movie (at CineLac, the open air theater, very close to Lake Geneva). We opted for “Guess Who” instead of “Terminal” and booked our tickets online; then I realized that it was “VF (Version French)” where as the movie Terminal was “VO (Version Original-English)”.

Anyways, decided to look at the positive of it - consoled myself saying that it is the best way to learn French. As we were getting closer to the theatre, I can't explain how much my heart longed for a movie in English/at least sub titles in English. Where as, she (A) was confident that the subtitles will only be in German language.

I was trying to cheer me up to watch a movie in French with German subtitles, ha-ha!
I couldn’t believe my ears ;-) when I heard them speak in English(of course in the movie). But the rest of the crowd was annoyed as they were informed that they have wrongly received the VO of the movie instead VF for this movie. The crowd was offered with both German and French sub titles.

The movie was funny enough to make me feel lucky (though I watched this movie in shivering cold near the lake- wasn’t expecting such a cold in summer time).

Fondue – the Swiss Specialty

I and RC had fondue last week in Geneva. Dining table mela addupai vaicchu paal kaichi/samaichhu sapdurra orru feeling errundadhu. Still we liked it.
Fondue History:

Fondue originated in Switzerland as a way of using up hardened cheese. Deriving from the French verb fondre, meaning "to melt," fondue was a classic peasant dish. Accounts vary on how fondue was originally created. Traditional fondue is made with a mixture of Emmenthaler and/or Gruyere cheese and wine, melted in a communal pot. Cherry brandy is added to the melted mixture, which becomes a dip for pieces of stale bread and crusts.

French gastronome Brillat-Savarin mentioned fondue in his 19th century writings, but fondue really hit its heyday in 1956, when chef Konrad Egli of New York's Chalet Swiss Restaurant introduced a fondue method of cooking meat cubes in hot oil. Chocolate fondue followed in 1964.

Puzzle (from the book - ways of thinking)

Three travelers go into a hostel. Each of them pays 10dollars for the accommodation. Later, however, the innkeeper remembers that three persons in a room should pay only 25dollars, so he sends 5 dollars back to them by servant. The servant, however, thinks that this is an unexpected stroke of luck for the travelers anyhow, and it is enough to give only 1 dollar to each of them. So he can slip 2 dollars into his own pocket. Now, each of guests ends up having paid 9 dollars and the servant put 2 into pocket. This amounts to 3X9+2=29 dollars. Where is the thirtieth dollar?

where is God ;-) ?

______________________________________________________________ Teacher: Where does God live?

Little boy: I think he lives in our bathroom.

Teacher: Why do you say that?

Little boy: Well, every morning my daddy bangs on the door and says, 'God, are you still in there?' _______________________________________________________________

This is how Software Engineers jump from company to company!!!

Ever heard of Salami bread?

I have never heard/thought about this "Salami Bread" until last Friday. I bought freshly baked bread from super market and saw some raisins in the bread. Cool, I like them anyway. When I was ready to eat could smell something weird. Sure, it is from the bread, as nothing else was being cooked at that time/outside.

Great! The brown round things weren’t raisins, its salami. Oops..now it is Salami bread, followed by my Fish croissants. Why does it happen to me often? I know,it’s my fault. I should have learnt French before, so that i can read the details before buying. For some reasons, I never felt like learning french. Anyway, never too late, now is the time. I have enrolled myself into a French course which starts in mid of July.

Finally, yesterday went to “Lake Geneva” and invited some 20 pigeons and 10 sparrows to have lunch with me. While I was eating my Mac-D meals, they were enjoying their Salami bread. I have noticed this even before as well, all these birds, fishes, etc whenever you try to feed them something, they come and fight for the food and eat the food as if they haven’t eaten anything for ages. This saddens me.

Why is this so? Of course, whom will they tell they are hungry and where will they get a regular supply of food from? I know some people have the opinion that we shouldn’t cage birds at home, as their freedom is spoiled (remember சின்னதம்பி movie song – குயிலை புடிச்சு கூண்டில் அடச்சு பாட சொல்லுகிற உலகம்). In my opinion, at least when they are in the cage, for sure they get a food/there is someone who cares for it, isn’t it?? hmm…..anyways, it was nice watching them move and eat. O! Is this called Bird watching ;-)??

New words for 2005 :)) forwarded mail :

1. BLAMESTORMING:
Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER:
A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3. MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

4. 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. (For those in Toronto, it's also Hwy 404... destination can not be located.)

5. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.

Sunday Morning Disappointment:

I went to "Eric Emery"(bakery opposite to my apartment) on Sunday morning at 10am to buy breakfast as I was fed up of having cornflakes during weekdays. There was a long queue outside the shop (reminded me of Indian ration shops) and I too happily joined this queue. When my turn came, I was tempted to buy this mini croissants (with dark brown coating in the pale yellow color) and to add the fuel, the lady who stood before me in the queue bought 12 of them. Then I too bought four of them, ignoring my original plan of buying just the normal croissant.
Came home and reheated them in microwave for 10 seconds, and then there was fish smell all around when I opened the oven. No doubts. The smell was from them. The dark brown stuff wasn't chocolate, it was FISH. Anyways, as I DO eat non-vegetarian gulped them with the help of 2-3 glasses of Orange Juice. But, my taste buds which were craving for a delicious breakfast were really disappointed by these fish tablets.

Grid Vs Cluster

Cluster - is a widely-used term meaning independent computers combined into a unified system through software and networking. At the most fundamental level, when two or more computers are used together to solve a problem, it is considered a cluster. Clusters are typically used for High Availability (HA) for greater reliability or High Performance Computing (HPC) to provide greater computational power than a single computer can provide.

Grid computing - is a form of distributed computing that involves coordinating and sharing computing, application, data, storage, or network resources across dynamic and geographically dispersed organizations. Grid technologies promise to change the way organizations tackle complex computational problems. However, the vision of large scale resource sharing is not yet a reality in many areas — Grid computing is an evolving area of computing, where standards and technology are still being developed to enable this new paradigm.

Grid versus Cluster: At a first glance you may think that Grid is just an extension of cluster technology. This is not the case.

Clusters are made up of dedicated components and all components in a cluster are exclusively owned and managed as part of the cluster. All resources are known, fixed and usually uniform in configuration. It is a static environment.

Grids are configured from computer systems that are individually managed and used both as independent systems and as part of the grid. Thus, individual components are not 'fixed' in the grid and the overall configuration of the grid changes over time. This results in a dynamic system that continually assesses and optimises its utilisation of resources.

Hitchhiker till Ulm:

When my hubby was trying to keep our bag in the overhead luggage rack, I was suggesting him to keep it in the opposite seat. I also told him “who is going to come and sit in here when 95% of the seats are free”. Before I could finish the statement he was with us. Strange ?!?

He came and sat in the opposite seat to us, ignoring all the free seats in the compartment. We were inside the German, Bahn train (two weeks ago), which was heading to Ulm from Stuttgart. His attire resembled the ticker checker, though the cap was missing.


He asked us something in German about the ticket. We just stared at him as we don’t speak German. Then he uttered some English words with which we could coin that “his friend, who was to travel with him with the ticket, did not turn up, so he wanted to join us on our ticket”. With a single weekend ticket (in Germany) maximum five persons can travel together, anyway as we were only two we agreed.

As it was too hot, he removed his coat and also his TIE. After sometime, again to astonish us, he asked my hubby to help him make a tie knot. My hubby made it for him and gave him. He put the tie around his neck, and then after seeking permission from us, he then removed the tie. As he expressed his willingness to learn the thing, there was this 20minitues tie-knot demo session and at the end of it, he could make a Knot by himself. He weaved good bye happily at Ulm. And the ticket Checker didn’t come all through our journey till Ulm ;-)

forwarded mail:NEVER Underestimate the POWER of a Women

There were 11 people hanging on to a single rope that suspended them from a helicopter trying to bring them to safety. Ten were men; one was a woman.

They all decided that one person would have to let go because if they didn't, the rope would break and all of them would die.

No one could decide who it should be. Finally the woman gave a really touching speech, saying how she would give up her life to save the others, because women were used to giving things up for their husbands and children and giving in to men.

All of the men started clapping.

Flower <---> Lady

We hear lot of phrases comparing human beings with flower (baby is like a flower, lady is like a flower etc.). But, this flower is like a lady. I was fortunate to see this flower at Keukenhof Tulip show, Netherlands.

குழந்தையை,பெண்ணை மலர் என்று வர்ணித்து நாம் கேட்டது உண்டு. ஆனால் நான் மலரை பெண் என்று வர்ணிக்கிறேண் இப்போது !ஆம். இம்மலரை கண்ட பின்.

Doesn’t it look like a beautiful girl dancing in yellow Bridal Gown! I am sure it must be a Hybrid flower. Whom do I praise now, God or Human Brain?

TimePass :-)

When u feel lonely and alone & cannot see any one
around you,
the world seems to be fading away,
come along with mei'll take u to an eye specialist !!

Dear Friend,
when i ask u flower,
u give me bouquet
when i ask u a stone
u give me a statue
when i ask u a feather
u give me peacock
ARE U REALLY DEAF ?

A cigarette shortens your life by 2 min..
A beer shortens your life by 4 min..
A working day shortens your life by 8 hours!!!!..

India's "Missile Man"

Today evening our honorable Indian president “Dr. APJ Abdhul Kalam” is coming to CERN. He is going to have buffet dinner at the restaurant which is just behind my building(where i eat lunch everyday ;-)). I am very much excited.

As I am employed by a Belgian University, I have not got an invitation :-( Other Indians will meet him. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I wish i could meet him. Lets see.

Tamil Lovers ????

Chennai: Volunteers of the Tamil Protection Movement, including PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss and Dalit Panthers of India leader Thol Thirumavalavan tried to tar advertisements and shop boards written in English, police said.

What on the earth make them to do this? Don’t we love Tamil too? Are they the only people who love Tamil? Can't they do something constructive? The things these people are involved in recent days (threatening movie makers, burning the movie banners, (I have also heard Ramadoss started his political career by burning a bus)…etc) sounds like a terrorist group instead Tamil Protection Movement. I think all these are the effects of unemployment. If people were employed, who do they go behind these leaders for just Rs20/30?

I am hoping and wishing for changes in this group. Though I am not a great fan of Madam J.J, I am very glad that she has done something about it.

god....................my BMI

Just to kill time I was browsing thru' and then thought it would be useful to check my BMI - Body Mass Index. I knew that I have become fatter after my daughter’s birth, but didn't know that my BMI is now 26. Let me note this date and check my BMI after a month. I wish I could go to atleast the "normal weight" (atleast upperbound) next month.