Friday, June 24, 2005

Travel time...

Two weeks at Bangalore and back to Chennai. I had actually planned to go for the next weekend, with two weeks after that over here before I bid adieu to Oracle. Mother sentiments...you really can do little when u repeatedly get called up and asked to try to come home, as you are missed...ok, ok...no attempt at lachrymal triggering...seems Murali is coming along with me...In the previous two trips, I was accompanied by Ankur, my fellow intern from IITM. The poor guy went last time to meet his project guide, who eventually didn't turn up on both the days he stayed at Chennai. Some of these project guides insist that their students stay in the lab instead of going for an internship, and his guide happens to be one such person...As a matter of fact, Ankur made full use of the simple observation that the project guide first needs to know that you are going for an internship before he can crib to you about it. I guess he realised that his futile attempts at trying to meet his project guide were only eating off his internship stipends. About murali, well...no...about him, its worth writing a full blog entry...later...

Anniyan seems to have released online. Got to see it in PVR theatres at The Forum here, along with murali, sanjeev, ed and shrinivas. The story seemed to be slightly repeated, but the way it was presented was par excellence. And I really don't need to talk about the grandeur in Shankar's movies, he has really outdone himself this time. Just that we spent 100 bucks per ticket to end up in the third row from the front, so felt that it was too close for comfortable viewing...sometimes ended up seeing blurred images...guess it is reason good enough for me to go, probably with my family, for a second time...For guys not that ethically puristic, rips are online...I guess you get a 1.6 GB one at streamtamil.

Some music for the day...listen to the song 'mama mama - instrumental' from the album 'The Blast' by Yuvan Shankar Raja. There is a hilarious vocal version as well, that's exactly why I am recommending the instrumental one. Excellent piece of music, based on raga Aabhogi (now, how often do you find Yuvan churning out carnatic based songs), and excellently improvised. I guess this only strengthens my belief that many good songs never get popular (and many popular songs aren't that good as well).

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Life's getting boring....

Just hoping that the title isn't repulsive enough to take anyone away from this blog....Well, as a matter of fact, life at Bangalore is getting too routine...If internship could be like this, just wondering how I would be when I actually get down to some work later on...So, this is how a day gets spent "fruitfully" at the office here. Entry at 11:30 in the morning, to the 4th floor, and straight to the pantry (yeah, I haven't talked about going to my cubicle as yet)...the flavoured milk they have gets over quite early...so, if I am lucky that day, I get to down one. Then make myself comfortable and start reading mails, the lion's share of the time going for tam_gumbal, one hopelessly jobless group of tams at IITM...The gumbal outdid itself in May, pooling in more than 7500 mails for the month...and curse google groups for putting up the top ten posters at the group site, it was one hell of hectic mailing for aspiring toppers in the group...so turned out that the jobless guy writing this blog emerged the winner (collars up...)...So, come June, and a i-don't-know-from-where-it-suddenly-sprang-up burst of responsibility and enthusiasm made me decide that I put brakes on my gumbal mailing and do useful work in office...Now, you are going to ask me whether I actually did useful work after that....NO, that question is not allowed...nevertheless, I still do read quite a few of the mails...and having accomplished the arduous task of cleaning up my mailbox, you must have felt that I would need a cup of coffee...That done, I should make it clear that the others at internships aren't really quite busy as well...then, what are instant messengers for...Burdened with the self-assumed responsibility of ensuring that such ingenious technology never goes unused, enlightening discussions carry on the day till about 1:30 in the afternoon, leading to a realization that food isn't just for thought alone...after lunch, it is work interrupted by two sips of badam milk, one visit to the cafe for some juice and snacks, some mindless browsing, some mindful browsing, some hunting for music I was longing for, not to forget that tam_gumbal and other sources ensure that I get mails almost every five minutes, some walking around to spy about what the others interning were upto....Yeah, I did mention that I was working all the time, these were interruptions. You got that point clear, right? And then, the hard day's work ends with dinner at 8 or later, and then to the room...What a slogger I am...

It will be back to Chennai this weekend....mom ensures that I be there back at home once a fortnight...heard that Chennai is getting showers....What on earth...this isn't fair...I was happy that I escaped Chennai's heat by coming to Bangalore...now this place is getting cold and Chennai's pleasant...some cosmic conspiracy...