Credit card Trouble

I had a shocking experience with a credit card company recently. I don't mind naming the company, it is SBI card. I have been using it for about 2 years till now, and though I was not happy with their service, I was using the card regularly. The problem started when one of my check I have given for the SBI had bounced. I had dropped the check for SBI credit card, well before the payment date and am really not sure of the reason the cheque bounced. But when I saw the next month statement, it was stated that my previous cheque had bounced and they had add some amount as a fine for the bounce and another amount as a fine for defaulting the previous month. The highlight is the reason they had quoted for the check bounce. It said, "Insufficient funds". I was totally pissed off when I saw that.

I called the customer service and asked why have you quoted the reasons "Insufficient funds", also, I said I wanted a copy of the check that had bounced. The customer service person said, she will dispatch the mail immediately. Since the person sounded as if she had dispatched the bounced cheque copy to me, I totally forgot about it for some time. The next week I got a call from a SBI person, inquiring why I have not paid the bill. Only then I remembered about the bill and said, I have not received any copy of the cheque I have requested, and asked what happened to that. The executive said, she will check up and call back. But she never gave a call back that day. I again made a call the next day to inquire about the copy of the cheque. I was bit frustrated by now, and was in a aggressive mode when I made the call.

The most surprising thing I found when I made the call was that the executive was talking to me with none of my history. When I asked whether they had dispatched the copy of the cheque, she said yes, and when asked about the address the copy was dispatched, she was telling some address. I was so pissed off and started shouting at her, and told immediately to transfer the call to the manager. Without even responding to my query, she had cut the call. The total number of calls they made to me and I made to them would be around 7 to 8 and none spoke like a professional. One lady even told me harshly it is not their responsibility to send the copy of the cheque, and I have to check with my bank.

I was not sure at that what to do. I dropped another cheque minus the fine amount of the previous bill. I am just waiting the another call from the company so as to tell them how unprofessional they are and cancel the card. I am not sure what should I do about this kind torture these company's give to customers. I was just wondering is there any law which will enable me to sue this kind of incapable company handling the operations? I will also tell them to learn some lessons from their bigger counterparts like Citi and ICICI. Not that Citi and ICICI are giving a great service, but at the least they are more professional than SBI credit card guys.


I felt relived and happy after cutting the card in to two.

Auroville Marathon:

At last, 8 months after starting to run, I have completed my first official half marathon at the event conducted by Auroville on its 40th anniversary. A big thanks to Chennai Runners, who has a big chunk in making a runner out of me, especially to Ram, Hari, Ramesh, Vidyuth and Narayanan. I knew Auroville will be a fantastic place to run and I had been training for the past two weeks for that. The travel from chennai was arranged by Karthik and we had a comfortable journey to Auroville and reached around 5.30. Auroville as expected was a serene and so pleasant. The food and stay was comfortable and the arrangement was great.

The race started by 7.00 the next morning. Ram started his Full marathon quest an hour earlier than us. It was the first trail that I am running outside chennai and it was exquisite and challenging. 90% of the run was on forest and barren lands. The uneven surface very challenging to run. I started my run very slowly, infact I was the last one to start from the start line. I continued at the same pace for about 40 minutes. I increased my pace after the first water point and I could lot strong runners struggling in the uneven surface. Good that I paced down myself initially. The volunteers were fantastic and crowds at the water point were great. Though I had a couple of walking breaks in between, I finished the run in 2.36 hrs, which is a pretty good one to me. I am sure, if at all I attend the next Auroville marathon I will be attempting a full.

A very satisfying and enjoyable run for me. The above photo says it all.

Innocent Questions:

It is quite amazing some of the questions the kids asks there parents these days. Some of the them will be really be amusing, some annoying and Some of the questions will forever be echoing on long. I heard one of such questions from my nephew Adhi, a seven old.

My sister and my Brother in law had planned to go to Thirupathi for their 10th wedding anniversary. They had purchased ticket for a special darshan early in the morning by 2.00 AM. So I called them up
around 8.00 in the morning to wish. I was talking to my sister over the phone after wishing her, then suddenly she started lauginhig out aloud. I could hear Adhi talking but could not hear properly. When I
asked about that my sister told, that it is a long story and not for the phone. She invited me for lunch, and told that we will discuss that over the lunch.

When I went there, she narrated me the following. In my newphew's world, there are only 3 languages, Tamil, English and Hindi. So he was confused when he heard a different language. He was some what terrified with the rough crowd inside the temple. He kept on asking why there was not any tamil written around the temple. His mother explained that they are in another town where they speak a language called telugu. So he took it as a game to find out places where it is written in Tamil. After finishing off the darshan and coming to the room came to her and asked "Mom you told that these people will talk in Telgu right?" his mother replied "Yes". He asked again "Then how will the God in the temple will understand what we pray in Tamil?". That was when she broke in a laughter over the phone. When I heard this even I started to laugh hard.

My sister told me about one more question Adhi asked before leaving to temple. They did not inform Adhi that they are going to temple until the last moment since he had a half day of school. So when my sister explained that they will going to a place called Thirupathi, he asked why they are going there. When she replied that they are going for darshan of God, he shot back "Come on Mom, you have a room full of statues and photos of God and why do you want to go a temple and pray. Isn't it enough that you do your prayer from here, why do you have to go there? She was dump struck for some time and gave a usual parental answer to go and ask his Dad the same question. I guess no one will be willing to answer this question :-)

The Kite Runner:

Recently, a friend of mine presented me with the novel The Kite Runner by Khalid Hossaini. It had been a long since have I read an English novel. While giving it to me, she had warned that the book was pretty heavy. The story is a narration by Amir, a young boy of 11 in Afghanistan. The narration starts before the occupation of Afghanistan by Russia. The core of the novel is the friendship between two boys, Amir and Hassan, the unassuming love of Hassan for Amir and Amir's betrayal of Hassan's trust. The novel travel's to US with Amir and his father in the middle of war, but Amir was living the guilt of his betrayal. Amir returns to Afgan in an attempt to wipe out his guilt and make it up for his mistake. We would be seeing the destruction caused by the war by Russia and the Taliban through the eyes of Amir.

The novel beautifully describes the peaceful times in the Afgan and the ugliness of a needless war. The main focus of the novel was the effect the war has on the children of the country, the kind of mental trauma they go through. Though this book may not be in my all time favorite list, I rate this book highly. I would recommend this book to those who could read heavy subjects.

Gaza Breach:

Some of images that occupied my mind for a couple of days. People of Palestine rushing in to Egypt to get their basic needs of food and fuel. Egypt on its part has acted with humanity by not stopping the Palestine's to get the most important commodity, the food and fuel.







Suppression of basic needs is a crime. My personal take on the conflict, violence by Palestine is justified as long as the Israel suppression is in place. Until the time either side is going to stop the violence peace on the region will continue to elude.

An Unique Election:

This years US election is an unique one. It is going make history for sure. Even before the election race began there was a feeling that this election belongs to the democrats. As it seems me, that the real contest is between Hillary and Obama. It will be historic whoever wins this election. For Hillary, she is the first woman presidential nominee and for Obama he will be first black presidential nominee. Both have an enigmatic presence, a crowd pulling charm and seeing them contesting for Presidential Nomination for Democrats is like seeing Agaasi and Sampras in the height of their prowess in the semi finals. Presonally I would like to see a lady president as the most powerful person of the world.

I have a doubt, if at all Hillary wins this election and becomes the president what will Bill Clinton be addressed, First Man ;)

Starting a New Year....

I have always wanted to start a new year in a positive note, but never been able to do so. One way or the other I always ended up screwing the new year day. This year I was pre determined to make it great. Luckily for me my running mates came with a simple plan of doing a 5K run at the Elliott's beach, and a breakfast at Murugan Idly shop. My last good run I had was in September 2007 when I did a 28 KM in 3.20 Hrs. I got injured, traveled to a non runnable place and here am back at my beloved chennai and was trying to run for the past two weeks. Trust me, the most difficult is getting back to your usual self in running after being in a prime form. It was painfully difficult for me, but I was advised by a friend not to push too much, but to take it easy and run regularly.

For the past 2 weeks I was trying hit the road daily and I was doing it. But the run was still painful. Today run was a total surprise for me. There are about 14 of us today for the run. I completed the run in about 30 minutes comfortably with Ram and Hari running with me. I guess the main difference was running with the group. It was great fun to meet the guys after a long time.

As I was about to finish the run, I was thinking about what would be my goal in running. The most satisfying thing would be a "Runner for Life". That's a huge dream, but that's what I want to be. I sincerely hope that I could be one.

It feels so good to start the year on a great note.

Tamil Radio and RJ's

The other day I was listening to a FM. It has been a long time since I had a chance to listen to one. 10 minutes in to the program I was wondering whether I am listening to a Tamil radio or something else. Out of the 10 words of a sentence 6 are English and only the rest are Tamil. I agree language is only to communicate and if some one communicates the meaning properly. But what is the meaning in running a Tamil radio with the RJ's talking as if they learnt Tamil recently and talking with an American accent, actually it was disgusting. Either they could try to stick English fully or make an conscious effort to talk in Tamil rather than kill it. Then I realized that it is not the RJ's talking in the mix Tamil and English, but also the people whoever calling them are trying to talk in the same.

I cannot actually decide who is at fault here. Is there some thing wrong with our language? or we as a people are at fault. Because I think we have started to mix up English with Tamil without even realizing it. Hope I don't see a day where I will longing to hear something in Tamil.

Blogged with Flock

Time Travel:

I was on the plane back to India and was browsing through the flight path from the video panel. There was a link which showed the various timezones available. I was traveling from Minneapolis to Chennai, which has a time difference of about 11.5 hrs. So I would be traveling losing time since I am traveling forward. I was just wondering whether this is time travel. If you are traveling form Chennai to MN starting at a Friday Night 2.00 PM, and you reach MN on saturday evening 4.00 PM, you have actually traveled 26Hrs, but you have gained 6hrs :D. Looks like time travel isn't???

Ok, that was crap, but what do you expect from a guy whose flight got delayed for about 10hrs and struck in Amsterdam??? During that time I visited the Museum at the airport. A war was fought on the place where the airport is there right now, and they have arranged a small but interesting museum out of it. The photos I took there.

Snow Snow.....

I have never seen snow in my life and Hopkins was full of it. The whole town was white. Since that was the last weekend I am going to spent in US, friends took me out for shopping during a snow Strom. Though it may sound odd, it seems going out during a snow Strom is a normal thing there. Some of the icy photos I took during my stay

First Taste of America.

My first taste of America, I would say it tasted good. Some of the things that had me awe struck in US

1. Road Network - What a fantastic network of road they have is really amazing. The roads are so complex even local resident cannot claim that he knows all the route. It is quite orderly, broad, completely marked.

2. There is something that is making the people here to go by the rules. Am not sure what that is, I have not seen a single time anyone violating a signal at all.

3. All the people seems so nice here. At least the ones I have met. For the majority of my stay here, I had been walking to me office. Who ever sees in the road, they used do a gentle nod with a "Hi There" or ""Morning". Even in the office, my colleagues and Peers are aggressive but appreciative and really kind.

4. The funny thing in US, the people you get a frown on seeing you are the fellow Indians. Whenever another Indian sees you, they are the ones who does not smile at you and they will look at you as if you have come from India to snatch his place in US. I got this cold look in almost all the places I went, particularly, If the guy is with a girl he would just kill with his look.

5. The climate : The average climate at the place I stayed (Hopkins, MN) would be around 0. Though I liked the climate initially I cannot say I enjoyed when the barometer dipped to steep negatives. Right now, when I am trying this the climate is -14 and there is a snow storm outside. I think I would be able to tolerate harsh summer back home than a climate like this.


6. Went to Mall of America for a weekend, and it was fantastic. My friend took me along with his friends and their family. There was a kid in group who was the hero of the trip. I could easily say that as the best time of my stay in US. It was great fun and the mall was awesome.

7. Food was one thing that everyone said that is going to be difficult for me. But I had luck in my side, since the friend I am staying with is a fantastic cook and he even tried teaching some of his cooking to me(though he failed). I never had the food trouble some of the first timers used to have.

8. Night Life: I guess no one sleeps till 2 or 3 in to the night on the weekends. I had a taste of that too on some days, clubs, theaters, bowling, shopping, chat's with friends..........

Over all it has been a wonderful trip, though short, it has been great. I enjoyed this trip, and I would not get hesitate to take up another chance to come here.

Going in a Jet Plane:

A couple of weeks ago I got my US business Visa processed through my Company for an assignment in the US. I was asked to get ready to leave to the US in 2 days time. I was bit uneasy at that time since the notice was very short and I do not know anyone to help me out in there. Fortunately or unfortunately the trip got cancelled at that time. Two weeks later I was asked to get ready to leave again, only this time the time given was less than a day for me to pack and leave to one of coldest places in US, Minneapolis.

Though I was thrilled by the fact that I was privilaged to be the first guy from my company to go on for an assignment abroad, I was a bit uncomfortable as I could not call up the few contacts I have there, due to lack of time. A friend of my friend, when contacted had promised to come to the airport to pick me up and provide shelter for a few days before finding a place of my own. Lucky I had a good soul at least to tell this. I was completely banking on him to help me out when I arrive there.

As I got ready in a single day, there are lot of things to be done and even at the company my manager and CEO was trying to give me as much information as possible before I leave. When I left for the airport even I was a bit sentimental as some of the guys at the office are not going to be there when I come back from US. There was a large crowd to give a send off to me at the airport including Kathir. I boarded the flight to Mumbai around 8.00 PM.

That was the first flight I took in my life. I landed at the Mumbai airport around 11.00, a delay of 20 Minutes. I panicked for a moment, whether I would be able to reach the flight in time. The airport it self has arranged shuttle service to the international airport. I had ample of time to get through the security check and immigration. The flight started from the airport around 2.30 AM from Mumbai towards Amsterdem.

Considering the fact, this was my first flight journey, it was surprisingly comfortable. It was a 8 hr long journey and I slept for 5 hr. The rest of the time I was watching a movie. I really thought of having some good conversation with the fellow traveller, but no words was spoken till I landed at the Amsterdem. I really regret not starting a conversation with the gorgeous lady sitting next to me. I reached Amsterdem at 6.30 AM local time and my flight was scheduled at 1.05, so had to wait at the airport for 6 hours. The airport at the Amsterdem was huge, and I simply roamed around the place for almost 2 hours watching awe the magnitude of airport and the people who came there.

Another 9 hours of travel from Amsterdem landed me at Minneapolis. I had a easy time with at the immigration and at the security check. When I came out of the airport and trying to figure out how to contact Prassana, the friend who told that he would pick me up, an Indian voice said Hi from my side. To my relief Prassanna was waiting for me, worried, how am I going to call him after coming out of the immigration. He took me straight to his home. I contacted couple of friends of mine and convey the message back home, sent a couple of emails to inform my friends that I had reached safely.

On the whole, my first trip abroad had been quite comfortable, thanks to my friends at office and Prassanna, now it is with me to make the trip a good success in the next couple of weeks with the client. Hope I could do that.

A Series of Unfortunate Events:

I always thought that a series of unfortunate events are not possible to a single person on a single day. I was proven wrong the other day. I realized again, it is tough belive anything until something happens to themselves.

Event 1:
As usual my day started a bit early (around 4.30 AM). I had planned to go cycling with Senthil as I was advised not to go for running for some time due to my injury. Senthil had worked late to make his spare cycle ready for me. We started aroung 5.00 from his place to reach the starting point. From there we took a route that would be 15 - 20 KM. After that we had a stop and we decided to go for a breakfast at a nearby hotel. While going there, those guys have left fast and I could not cycle at all. Only then I realized that I had a flat tyre. Later I took the cycle in an auto and went Sentil's house to park it there and get my bike. This is my first cycling experience and 1st of the series of unfortunate event.

Event 2:
I need to submit my last 3 months bank statement and I did not have my IPIN number yet. Since this was an emergency the HR spoke to the customer relationship manager to get it done for me. I was told that I had to collect it from the manager by 11. When I went there, the manager was not there and when I called him up, he is simply saying that I have to come in 1 hr later to catch him. I could do nothing, but atleast I was happy that finally I am getting the statement.

Event 3:
One my friend was telling me from last night that she had to eat chicken. So I informed my friends that we would go out today for lunch. Since 3 of 5 guys going are vegetarian's I suggested the Dhabha Express (Mahalingapuram, Kodambakkam). We had been there before and the experience was not that bad, that's why I suggested the place. We placed an order for Kadai Paneer among other things Those guys delayed it very late and when they came up we were damn hungry and started eating whatever was kept. But instead of eating one of the veggie was looking closely at paneer. Suddenly she said there was no panneer, but that is chicken. The other guy who was pure veggie had taken a couple of bites by that time. What those buggers had done is they had prepared the chicken and decorated with vegetables and paneer at the top. I really felt very bad, as I was one who suggested the hotel, and I thought it is fair to pay for the lunch.

Event 4:
This is the highlight event. A movie by the name "Katrathu Tamil (What I learnt is Tamil)" has got released. I was so impressed by the title and the advertisment of the movie that I forced 3 of my friends to watch the movie with me. I booked the tickets for them and made them come. The movie started by 10.30. The movie was so depressing that we could not sit beyond 11.30. Within one hour there would have been atleast 30 gore deaths. None of us could watch the movie at all. When one of the friend asked shall we walkout, all the 4 of us walked out without any other word. It really felt good after coming out of the theatre.

I knew this does not sound like really unfortunate events, I have everything intact with me, but collectively those things made a horrible day for me. Hope this does not gets repeated in the near future.

A Heart stopping Encounter:

I am pretty sure my heart would have stopped beating in the final over of India Pakistan 20-20 final. First ball in the over by Joginder Sharma went as a Widdddddee, the next one went for a dot, next one was a huge six by Misbah. I almost had an heart attack at that time. The next ball, Misbha played an unlikely shot - scooped the ball to a backward boundary, then Sreeshant made the most important catch of his life to make India the first 20-20 champions.

Before the Semi Finals, I was saying to my friends that this Indian side really have a bleak chance of making it to the semi finals. But the young side was so brilliant in the all departments that they outsmarted all the tough teams on their way to the finals. They lost a close match to New Zealand, played some extraordinary cricket to outsmart England and South Africa. The real highlight was when they beat the Austrailans. It was the first match I watched fully without missing a ball in a very long time.

The Last Ball

Celebration

The Champions

Both India and Pakistan played an outstanding cricket which had all the spice required to make it better than the most thrilling movie. Really neither team deserved to lose.

One of the most important thing about the tournament was that the Indian side did not have any coach in the official capacity, but only Robin Singh and Vekatesh Prasad guiding the team as Fielding and bowling coaches. They should have done an excellent work to trasform the teams fielding blunders the indians are usually famous for. Hope this victory would transform the whole cricketing culture of the country and make it more better. Also I hope this victory would not suprass the other sports interests in the country.

Blogged with Flock

A Matter of Pride??

I was browsing through some of the old mails my friends had sent me, which I had marked "to be read later". One particular news caught my attention. It was an link of a CNN page which read like this,

"Russia tests 'dad of all bombs'"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/12/russia.bomb.ap/index.html

It was news about a new bomb that was developed by the Russians, which is a non nuclear weapon, which can create as much destruction as a nuclear weapon could do, without damaging the environment. It is said in the news it was created in response to an American bomb dubbed as the mother of all bombs, dad is 4 times as deadly as the mom.

I was just wondering what the heck to boast about such a capability in a civilized society? Just a bit of a translation to the heading they have given, Russia had developed a bomb which can kill a 400,000 people in a instant without any damage to the environment. How does that sound, sadistic??? And it was created in an response to an American bomb which can kill 100,000 people. Sounds any better? It just translates to this at the end!! What is the all about? They will defend their actions saying that it is only for their defense since US pose a threat to them and it is just a show of strength. But I have a bad feeling about this, and if at all US and Russia go in to the mode of Cold War again, what is the gurantee that they will use these weapons on the countries that support the other power? There is no telling for sure until the exact moment happens! until they fire the bombs on the innocent lives across the globe.

A lingering question comes to my mind now, which country posses the weapons of mass destruction(WMD),
1. Iraq
2. Iran
3. Russia
4. USA

Whatever happens to this international drama, as for me boasting that they have a bomb that can kill 100,000 people is really a matter of shame, whatever their argument be. This world is really to live, not to die fighting for, irrespective of the country and religion.

Blogged with Flock

Where is the Common Sense:

I fail to understand how some people behave as if they don't even have the basic common sense in some situations. The other day I was about to cross the Egmore bridge, I heard a siren screaming behind me. I could see almost everone taking a hasty turn to the left to leave the way for the Ambulance to passon. I think, slowing down and paving the way is the max you could do to an ambulance these days. I too slowed down and went to the left and kept at that pace for the ambulance to pass. The bugger in front of me, who was driving a luxury car never slowed nor gave any way to the ambulance. I was just driving behind ambulance and was wondering why the stupid guy in the car is not at all giving the way. After a few minutes, I could not stand the stupidity of the car driver. I took a risk, by overtaking the speeding ambulance, went near the car and shouted the bugger to move the left and give some way to the ambulance. He gave way only after that. I guess the person in the ambulance is alright. It is a matter of life or death to some one, some family, how the hell the drivers like these are driving without this basic common sense.

The Peril of being in a IT Services Company:

Just now I am realizing the peril of being in a IT services company. 3 months ago I quit my previous company, which is a product based one. Though the product I was working is innovative, it wasn't competitive with the giants in the field. But my job was really cool, with an opportunity to see the product from the design phase to the release phase. I think many would not have the opportunity to see the complete life cycle of a complex telecom product from a close proximity. Due to various reasons I had to quit. That was actually one of the toughest decision that I took in my life.

I had a number of offers at that time and I chose a small, start up company to join. I know that I am taking risk there, but I thought it would be quite interesting to see a startup company from inside. I knew from my other friends that in a service based company an employees interest would never be in the radar of the manager who is assigning the task. The only aim there is complete "whatever" task/module given by the client. But I still wanted to try it as the work environment would be pretty relaxed.

At the time of joining I was dreaming to work in something like, Linux Kernel, device driver, some complex application, etc. I did some interesting stuff too after joining, which I could be proud of. But I was dump struck when I was given the latest module. It was a module that a test engineer would do happily. The task was not a simple one, but it did not have the excitement that I, as a developer need to motivate me to work. When the task was being explained to me, I felt like banging my head on the computer. Only then I realised the peril of working in a service based company. I have risen my voice some times in my previous company when I was asked to do something that is not development like leading a testing team and other things, which had landed me in trouble. But here I held myself back . After all my manager is the holding the whip and I had no choice except to dance.

Also, I guess in India 75-80% of the software engineers are working in the services industry, which in turn depends on the american software industry. What will happen to these company's if the american economy falls? The next day these company's will not have any project, which in turn will affect the 80% of the software engineers. It is such a sad feeling when so much talent is actually work trying to improve the technology for US. Yes, it improves the indian economy, but it has created a strong dependency with the american economy.

I could simply quit this difficult existence, what the hell is stopping me to live the life the way I want to live? Fear of being jobless, surviving, answering questions??? It is a pity after a 3 years of being in the field has done nothing to those fear. As of now, I have nothing but a prayer for the american economy to be good for us to survive. What a terrible existence :(

A Refereshing Book on 'C':

I never thought that any of the authors of book on C would have a bit of sense of Humor and a book I was reading now changed that. I thought that geeks usually have shed their humor when they were banging their heads on the computers during their university days intead of partying and going out with their girl friends. This theory of mine has been true in almost all the geeks that I respect. But I got a pleasent surprise yesterday, that too accidently.

I forgot to pay my internet bill for the last month and i remembered that only when I could not logon. When I was trying to figure out what to do, a book got my attention( this book was in the last of the heap and got in to top when I shifted to a new residence at T.Nagar). The name of the book was "Expert C Programming, Deep C Secrets, by Peter Van Der Linden", which was presented to me by a pal last year. I was really sceptical whether I would go beyond few pages like many of the technical books I bought. But this one was refreshing and funny from the page one. The author is a C Guru, who has written C compiler, and the book is full of funny ancedotes.

Some of the best I liked,
* A $20 Million order was held to a bug which was traced to something like this, x == 2(this ought to be x = 2).
* Bugs section in tunefs of SVr4 Unix.
* How Steve Bourne converted the C in Algol equivalent with the preprocessors, and the response he gave, that he thought that nobody other than him would see the code.

The book was very interesting with lot of niche details about C coding, which was quite exciting to know. I was forced to stop reading as I had to hit the bed early as I do not want to
miss my run tomorrow. Hopefully i will complete this book soon.



Recommedation: This book is surely for those who wants to know the nuances of C and master it.

The Pain of a Loss:

One of the saddest day in my life. I've lost a very close person to me,Kalyanasundaram this
afternoon in an accident. Kalayanasundaram joined my fathers company some 15 years ago. My father by his very nature always treat the members of his company as his family members, but I think he treated Kalyanam a bit above that, he really trusted him. He had been my friend from my younger days.Flashes of our adventure in the cycle, the childish pranks I played on him, the badam geer he would get me after my school, all goes in my mind.

The worst part is he died not realising many of his dreams. He wanted to go abroad to do earn
some big money, he wanted to visit lot of countries and he wanted a businees of his own. These
are somethings he shared with me with the little time that I spent with him. He always flashes
a great smile and does a salute in his own way whenever I go the office. He always advices about the need to maintain a healthy body and the need to exercise. He was very influential in my recent invlovement with jogging. Last time when I visited him, I was telling him about the marathon that I going to attend this december.

I could not believe my ears when my father told me that Kalyanam is no more and our manager is at the hospital with multiple fractures. Kalyanam had always been a very careful driver. He is the who thought me how to drive a two wheeler against my fathers words not do that. But even he could not do much when the tire of the car that is coming in front of him burst and the car rams him killing him instantly.I wish this day had never come.

What could I ever do about this tragedy? I knew thousands of people die each day around the world, thousands of people affected by the death and I could do nothing about it. But the pain of the loss can be understood only by those associated. It is a scar that will never vanish. His thoughts will always be a hauting memory as he lived with my father, his office, our house. Last two times when I took the car out to drive to my uncles house in the next village, he was accombniying me as an escort there. Life will never be the same for those who know Kalyanam. Incidents like these reminds me how short the life is. Sometimes life really sucks

A Radical Climate Change:

Would you belive If I say it is raining in chennai in July? Even I could not believe that the climate is cool here. For the past 3 weeks it was raining atleast twice a week, infact it has somewhat irritating when it rains in the morning during my jogging.

Some of the photos I took this morning.

Though it is somewhat irritating when it is raining in the morning while starting to the office, it is really pleasant feeling. I wonder why this radical change now, Global warming's effect????