iyertalks's posterous

Horrendous Holiday. I made a mistake going - End Of Post.

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:24:56 -0700

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Fire - The Integral Part of Hindu Religion.

Thu, 14 May 2009 23:32:09 -0700

Fire - One among the pancha boothams (the 5 essential elements for sustaining life in this planet ). Fire has been worshiped and is being worshiped by all major religions in this world and in Hinduism Fire is prayed as God Agni and forms an integral part of any function. Starting from the first birthday then on to the upanayanam, marriage and finally death, we either sit in front of it or get burnt on it. Sacrificial items are offered to the phyre created, which range from Ghee to even cooked food. The food is cooked and then offered into the phyre during the chants of mantras by learned seers. Also various kinds of seeds and spice items are poured into the phyre which they say cure lot of aliments when inhaled or the smoke touches the body. What you see on the image is the phyre lit in a marriage, where in front the bride and the groom sit and do offerings. Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

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Hotel Indraprastha @ Palakkad

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:58:19 -0700

Not a Bad hotel. It is a 24 Hour check-out and I paid 1500 + tax. The hotel is listed on the google maps so no difficulty finding it. It's 2 Km from the railway station. The hotel serves good food but please be aware that unless you specify the make everything in Coconut oil. Even the Omlette are made in coconut oil :) Here is the address if you want to stay. Hotel Indraprastha English Church Road, Palakkad-678 001. Phone: 2534641 (7 lines) Fax:2539531. E-mail: info@hotelindraprastha.com
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A Group Photo of the Kids at the Marriage.

Thu, 14 May 2009 08:17:01 -0700

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Chitalancheri Kaavu.

Thu, 14 May 2009 06:13:04 -0700

This is the ancestral temple of my wife's family. Each family line in india pray to a particular god. How they select this god is beyond me and I am sure somebody here can enlighten me. If I get to know this than I will update this post with details. Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

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On a Week Long Vacation.

Thu, 14 May 2009 05:02:43 -0700

After nearly a year I am taking a week long vacation and I am in Kerala till the 20th. I am now at Palakkad and then on to Guruvayoor, Thirssur and finally Trivandrum. We went to Neliampathy and also to our Kaavu(the ancestral temple). Have posted a few photos of the former on Facebook and will upload more photos on Facebook in the next 7 Days. Neliampathy is termed as the poor mans ooty and it was a great place though we did not go all the way up as Muktha was feeling a bit nauseous and we expecting the Jr did not want to take risks. More updates coming and in real time follow @iyertalks on twitter. Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

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A Visit from the Relatives.

Fri, 01 May 2009 11:30:53 -0700

Another week gone by and this week i worked for 2 days [Mon & Tue] i.e. went to office. It is 5 Years since i have digested the fact that i don't have to be in Office to be working. I have been working from home for almost 3 years before i started going full time to office.

I had the privilege of experiencing a molten stomach and was bed ridden for the better part of Wednesday and Thursday and was sort of alright on Friday, this does not mean i was not working. On Thursday evening i had relatives from my Mom Side visiting us and it was a welcome to change to have around 7 People in the house for me and my wife. We live in a 3 BHK that is too big for two of us.

Unfortunately they had to leave today and in batches so had to go to Cantonment twice and ensured that they boarded the train safe and sound with ample things to et on the way.

The afternoon trip proved eventful. :)

I escorted my aunt who is 80+ to the cantonment station and in that process did not buy the platform ticket ... I am sure anybody can guess what happened after that :) I had to pay a fine of Rs 275 for that which i willingly paid since it was my mistake but people should see the look the policeman gave me, it was as though i have robbed him off his Rs 200, that he would have threatened me in paying him as "Mamool" and that was fun and priceless.

On the office front we have managed to get an Approva to spend 85K USD on a DELL HW and that is real good at a time when they are asking us to punch more holes into our belt to tighten it...

Ayan review coming your way soon ....

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My First Form 16

Fri, 01 May 2009 09:07:18 -0700

I have received my First Form 16. Should i be thrilled ?

Yes in a way i am thrilled about this whole thing, have never filed taxes in India (Have never earned more than the Exempted Minimum in India), but seeing that i have paid a tax of more than 100K Rs makes me feel sick.

I am just not able to comprehend that i am paying taxes that are going to no improvements for the tax payers. It helps the elected to buy a new Scorpio whereas the tax payer has to think more than twice before he puts his money down for a Nano. (I am not even talking about the car but the Music Player)

Every citizen of India is mandated to get the basic needs of Good Roads & Good Water at a bare minimum from the government. I am sure there will be more than a few people to voice my opinion when i say that the basic needs of a common man are never satisfied in this country/state/city. Every politician here states that he is a Farmer and he is fighting for the farmers cause - Go on tell me have you seen one farmer who drives a Scorpio around, forget Scorpio, he does not even own a Cycle. The only vehicle he owns is a Tractor and that too is under hypothecation with the Bank or with the Local Money Lender.

Is somebody listening ... India is growing at a fast pace .. Lightning fast pace to be exact and only a segmented few are getting benefited by this growth and the majority (like us) are still fighting for those basic needs !!!

India instead of growing should start listening and listening hard to it's inner voices.

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Blackberry Pearl Flip

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:06:23 -0700

via blackberrycool.com

Will This be My Next Phone ... I am really eyeing this as i see my Curve going to a Stale state. The phone is quite impressive and i am looking forward to get my hands dirty on a sure type. Let us see how things go.

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Posterous | Formatting.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:20:15 -0700

It is not a WYSWIG. I typed a huge blog post and it is not all that well formatted. Line breaks are applied only if the line ends with an exclamation. !!!

So I need to reformat the post to make it readable.

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Trains running on time.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:03:14 -0700

Why can't trains in India run on time. It is only 3 out of 10 times I have boarded a train that started on time. Every time it is either delayed or cancelled. Today Fri, Apr 24, 2009 we planned at 1400 that we are going to chennai and I booked the tickets via IRTC and it got confirmed at 2000 hrs. Great, so we reached cantonment railway station in bangalore at 2230 hrs and the board was saying 2300 arrival for the Chennai Mail @ platform 2. We sort of asked around for the coach number and sat at a place where someone indicated that the coach will come. Here is what happened after that. 2300 No train. 2310. The display board changed to indicate that the train is coming on this platform and we were sitting at coach S13 so we left that place and walked over to a sign board which displayed B3. 2320 No train. Waiting tweeting and the wife is frustrated. Me checking on trainenquiry.com and it says no delay !!!

2335 No train. Me loosing the cool. Board still displays 2300 Hrs. I call 139 and the automated ladies voice tells me that the train is delayed by 50 minutes. WTF. 2345 The train comes, we board my wife is almost swooning. We manage to wake the mallu sleeping at a lower berth shift him to the middle and I wait for TTR. My wife sleeps. 2355 TTR comes. I don't have a printout so have to pay 50Rs fine. He checks my PAN card and says the name where my initial is expanded don't match with my pan card. Grrrrrr.
00:05 finally convinced him. Payed the fine and got on the top berth. 00:10 Getting your bed set is an art in itself on the upper berth stole a pillow from the opp berth ;) since my pillow was a wasted flatline. The ordeal of a train journey. I am not sure how people do it every weekend from bangalore to chennai and back. Hats off to you guys !!!!

Now I need to do this every month for 8 months. The next trip is Kerala on the 13th May and hope we won't be subjected to this again. Why Can't trains leave on time. !!!
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Is this an Answer !!!

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:34:46 -0700

We have got this from a candidate who is contesting in our LS Polls. The place he is talking about does not have decent roads nor does it have street lights ... We are in the Baghdad of Bangalore and he claims to have done Electrification of Bangalore. This is what we get and do we have to live with this ???

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Oracle agrees to $7.4 billion Sun Microsystems acquisition

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:44:37 -0700

via boygeniusreport.com

I would say this is one of the most beneficial take overs ever to happen. The DB as well as the Platform on which the DB Runs will all be bundled and we can see great things coming to Oracle and Sun via this overall.

For starters we should start seeing Databases that perform better on the SUN Hardware. A Single point of Customer Support for both the databases and Hardware/OS.

Oracle is all set to get a major chunk of the Database market if this is cleared by the anti-trust laws.

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Photo: Infinite Possibilities by Philip Perold

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:32:47 -0700

via OneXprosure.com

Great Photo. Me and my wife were impressed.

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Photo: Infinite Possibilities by Philip Perold

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:32:46 -0700

via OneXprosure.com

Great Photo. Me and my wife were impressed.

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