Wireless @ 63,4th Main

Now that my BSNL broadband is working at its full speed and i have no issues whatsoever in working from house , i am planning to make our house wi-fi enabled.
My "Broadband Wireless Router" from ebay is on the way and i am waiting for the day when i work watching TV or from my bed :)

Internet @ 63,4th Main

Well, after spending few months in identifying good Broadband service providers, i shortlisted Airtel and BSNL. Airtel had no installation charges (for BSNL, it is 1k) but unfortunately our house failed Airtel's connection feasibility test :(
Since BSNL was a Govt one, i had my own hesitations to go for it. Necessity made me go for it. Now to the amazing facts :

1. Within 2 days of application, telephone line was provided.
2. Within 7 days of broadband application , Internet was provided.
3. Engineers in the office were knowing all details of mine including my name which was awesome.
4. Offices were maintained well and had good number of counters to cater various offerings.

Way to go , BSNL

-Arun

Sashi's wedding

May 22nd was Sashi's wedding. Since its on a weekend, we had made a good plan. Totally, some 15 friends wud have attended the marriage in Udumalpet.

We started from Bangalore at 10.30PM on Friday. 5 of us (myself,madhu,jiya,veera and vela)
got down at Avinashi and took a bus to Mettupalayam. Veera's Dad had already arranged a good hotel for all of us to stay in MTP and we were also lucky to get A/C rooms because summer was horrible.

We freshened ourselves and headed to Veera's house in sirumugai (20 mts drive from MTP).
Man, what a breakfast !!! probably my heaviest attempt for a breakfast :) which was supplemented by a good coffee @ his farm. At around 10 AM , we headed in veera's car to Kothagiri. We stopped wherever we liked , took photos , photos , photos , photos etc and it was great fun. Veera's driving was amazing.

Kothagiri was courteous enough to offer some chill air though place was hot. We went to Kodanadu view point and it was cool. Jiya fused us with the clouds with this snap. Trip to a hill station is never complete without this.... well , we had our share too :)
With the energy they got in kingfisher , vela started to pick tea leaves and "anything is possible" Jiya tried his leg against an 800cc vehicle. Fun altogether and when we started to a so-called falls . Though it was not a regular water falls, the scene was beautiful and we took some best pictures here with tea estate background.

Evening tea and we started back to MTP. Had a belated lunch at Arya Bhavan and walked back to a theatre screening 'Chandramukhi' alias "lakalakalakalakalaka...."

Slept late and as usual, alarm was just a formality. Our Qualis driver had to wake us up at 4 AM which was the time we had planned to start for the marriage. Finally, we managed to start at 5 and reach Udumalpet at 7. Other friends were already there and after catching up with all , we went to Thirumoorthy falls. Disappointing one because it was too crowded and too sunny. Heat was on us and regulars like water / tender coconut / water melon helped other than finding a place to swim. We did manage to find a small swimming pool and had cool time.

As i intended, we went to Saibaba colony Annapoorna in Coimbatore to have lunch. Food was as usual good and we had a relaxing time after a hectic travel. We didnt want to miss our great college GCT.
We roamed almost to all the most-visited places in the campus during our college days. CSE , ECE depts and esp the hostel and vasanthi bakery gave us nostalgic feelings. AJN was still the same as seen in this one... :) Great to watch juns maintaining our tradition.

Well, we knew we were ending our trip. Saw of Shik and took our train to come back to Bangalore. It was a hectic one but we just enjoyed it !!!

ps: for more photos , watch my travel blog.

Next in line is a Salem trip for Vasanth's marriage.

-Arun

Mani Ratnam is simpley superb !!!

Yday i watched the Tamil movie "Anjali" directed by "Mani Ratnam".
(The name itself means "precious stone" in Tamil). The director
needs no introduction as he is one of the famous directore of Indian cinema.


Coming to the movie , it is atleast 15 yrs old but i really wonder if
someone can comeup with such a classical movie now as this one; not
even in any other Indian/Foreign languages.

Story is very simple and revolves around a baby girl who is mentally
retarded. Pairs, Raghuvaran and Revathy live in a housing colony
along with their children. The first half is full of fun , thanks to a big
gang of kids in that colony. Its the 2nd half which is very touchy and
the director excels in capturing emotions of the baby, her parents,
brother and sister.

The baby's performance is just amazing and out of the world !!! 100/100
to the director who has extracted such an excellent show from the kid.
If you are too much involved in the movie, u cannot escape some tears
when the kid dies at the end.
I am not sure if it won any awards but to me, it is one of the best and
my all-time favourite movie.

Adding some more kudos, just the previous day, i watched "Bombay", another classic one from Mani Ratnam
which is about Mumbai riots following Babri Masjid incident.
Both Bombay and Anjali have such a contrasting story lines but the way director
has handled is just too good. To know more about Mani's other films , check the above site.

When it comes to Tamil cinema , we talk about Kamal Haasan but to
me the greatest Hero of Tamil cinema is Mani Ratnam.

Eagerly expecting his next big one.

Cheers,
Arun

Migraine ! to hell with it !!

Since this is my first valid blog, let me start with something that has always been in my brain for few years now... :)

Topic : MIGRAINE

A short description : Migraine sucks !!!

Brief description : It is a one-sided headache accompanied by throbbing pain. One cannot sleep / talk / watch TV or do anything other than simply sitting in a chair or walking. Severe attacks will lead to vomitting / shivering etc etc

Technical description : Low serotonin and norepinephrine levels in the brain

What causes migraine : There are many many symptoms for it. Most common is tension.

Others triggers are
-exposure to direct sunlight for a longtime (exactly in my case)
-too much sweating
-going restless / getting nervous
-taking too much caffine content
-food allergions
-protein deficiencies
-dehydration etc
This is a very huge list and always varies case-2-case.

Symptons : well, u will know that ur day is gonna get royally screwd up when u get up from ur bed.

Blog :
This has been giving me problems for the past almost 3 to 4 yrs. Before that i never had one-sided headaches. My close friend Rajakumar also is suffering from this for some years now.

So, in a hunt to get a permanent solution to this, we relied on Homeopath treatment and were ready to travel 20 kms to C.V.Raman Nagar (DRDO colony to be precise). After some initial hiccups, we found the place and i only felt if whole of bangalore is maintained like the DRDO campus, one will never get Migraine.
The campus was amazingly silent and was very very clean. Everything starting from tennis courts to shopping complexes were right inside the campus. It was a self-sufficient township.

Coming back, the clinic captioned "Health for all" offers a voluntary service and medication was completely based on what kind of a person you are. Many questions are posted to you to analyze ur body conditon before suggesting medicines. This reallly impressed me. Infact,myself and my friend got a completely different set of medication.

Its been 10 days since we both are taking this treatment and already i am realizing some effects of it. Migraine stuck once but was cured with a homeopathy medicine insted of saridon which was tilldate my life-saver during such attacks. I have 1 more month to complete my initial medication. I have to wait and watch :)

Thru this blog, i pray for entire migraine-sufferers community !!!

Arun