Hunger Games... Makes you feel for the characters

What a thrill ride!!! This book is one of the best Dystopia novel I have read. 


Before I start, I should establish my book cred. I am a die-hard Tinkle fan. Forever have been and will be for long long time. I came into novel reading scene pretty late. My first novel was The Da Vinci Code. I was urged to read this book after I saw news about some people in India protesting against the book. I borrowed it from a library the next day and was a goner. Right from the start I was glued. The following day, seeing the lights on at 4 am, my Mom came into my room and immediately went "How many times will you read that Tinkle book?". Getting angry, I sssshed her and went back to the book. My biggest (dis)advantage is I get really emotional while reading a book and sometimes assume one of the characters and follow the book from that character's perspective. Obviously with The Da Vinci Code I was Robert Langdon. Next day, after I finished reading the book, I asked my parents "Who is GOD really?", you know me being Langdon and all. They stared at me like no frigging tomorrow and I sat there expecting laser rays from their eyes. Fortunately that didn't happen. 


In short, I am a mystery and thriller junkie. Love a good mystery novel that reads easy and gets right to business. (You might be asking, "You could have said this without the big story". But that story made you smile didn't it ? Cmon.. accept it.. )


Hunger Games falls right into this genre. A dystopian mystery narrated by Katniss Everdeen, the main character. The book is about a dysfunctional society's biggest event: Hunger Games. To keep it short (and avoid any spoilers), the event is like Gladiator's combat games instead with children between the ages of 12-18 years old and they are called Tributes. I know many of you might be thinking that the book could contain gory details about the game. The author has done a brilliant job in staying away from most of the gory details. 


The book's backdrop is set in the future but I have to warn you this is not a Sci-Fi book. Unlike some of the Dystopia novel I have read, like 1984 and Foundation, this book focuses mainly on Katniss, her anger towards the Government and the Games, her relationship with other children at home and at the Games. This book is fast paced. The author doesn't waste any time from introduction to the Games. The book also does a brilliant job in providing vivid details about the surroundings and the relationships between various characters.


Overall this book is a must read for anyone who likes a good mystery or want to know how our crazy World might end up becoming 100 or 200 years from now (if we take all the wrong steps)


For Tamil readers, this book is how we would dream every single vijay (forgetting the gender for the sake of analogy) movie to be: Love for her sister, 'subtle' heroism, real life fights. 


If you are still not able to make up your mind, check out the trailer. The movie is scheduled to release next year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S9a5V9ODuY

Curd (Yogurt) Rice and some great Tamil cinema scenes

Have you ever tried the combination? Let me tell you, its awesome. I don't know what happened today but I desperately wanted to watch some great scenes that I could recollect during my lunch which was of course curd rice and mango pickle.

Here are the scenes that I had in my playlist:

1. Anbe Sivam: This is my favorite movie of all times all *wood combined. A lot can be learned by watching this movie and it can easily be overwhelming. This scene esp. delivers the messages very beautifully:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anbe_Sivam

2. Thevar Magan - A film that was nominated by India to Oscars for Best Foreign Language film needs no introduction. Selecting Shivaji Ganesan was the best decision made for this film. This movie can easily be compared to films like GodFather. But none have such a gripping scene like this one (my personal opinion).

3. Thalapathi - Rajini, Mammooty, Arvind Swamy, Illayaraja and Mani Ratnam. Those names will paint a picture of the movie itself. This scene has magic of all five of them:

4. Thillu Mullu - Even though a remake, this movie was a brilliant comedy movie esp. Rajini's dialog delivery was awesome. And who can forget the famous interview scene by 'Thengai' Srinivasan. In the current modern times, this scene deserves a 'ROTFL' label. :)

5. Panchathanthiram - A deadly combination to make you laugh from start to end. Actors from 4 different states and dialog by Kamal and you've got yourself a brilliant comedy film.

That is folks. My lunch was over and these are the few scenes I could remember (and youtube had them). Hope you enjoyed them!

My all time fav TED videos

TED is one of those things that will change the way you look at things. If you have not heard about it already, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It provides a platform for anyone to express their ideas, work, experience, etc. you name it. The end goal is to provide a different perspective for the audience and also to make them more educated about the subject. TED recently started a India version and so far its doing really well. They had some really good speakers. Just couple of months after its initiation, I got introduced to Parikrma Humanity Foundation and Honey Bee network. I was also happy to know that many organizations are out there constantly trying to improve living conditions in India.

Here are some of my all time favorite TED talks:

1. Hans Roslings - Insight on poverty.

- This guy will blow your mind. Period!!!

2. Sir Ken Robinson - Does School kill creativity?

- Brilliant speaker and excellent ideas. This is very much required in India.

3. Sir Ken Robinson - Bring on the learning revolution

- His follow up talk after four years

4. Vilayanur Ramachandran - A journey to the center of your mind

- A brilliant neurologist and funny speaker. I saw a show on Discovery about Ramachandran long time back

5. Harsha Bhogle - The rise of Cricket, the rise of India

- A superb commentator and equally superb speaker

6. Shukla Bose - Teaching one child at a time

- One of the founders of Parikrma Humanity Foundation

7. Anil Gupta - India's hidden hotbeds of invention

- Very enthusiastic speaker who talks about invention in rural areas in India

These are some of the talks I have really enjoyed watching and have watched it multiple times. There are hundreds of other talks which you will find interesting. Enjoy!

Mafia - "nan villager villager villager"

"Nan Police.. and I inquired about Sreevatsa and he is a Mafia" blurts Pavan. Silence prevails in the room....

If you don't know the rules of Mafia game, here is a quick intro:

Its a character game with two main roles: Mafia and Villager. The goal here is obvious. Mafia should get rid of the villager and vice versa. Ithu nama chinna vayasula police robber vilayatu illa. This game is all about talking and convincing people. In a game of say 9 people, 2-3 people will play mafia and others are villagers. No one knows the roles of others except for Mafia themselves who know the other mafias. There is usually a moderator (thala vali vela.. you will know later) who controls the game. Here is how it goes:

Moderator will ask everyone to close their eyes (bayangara sappa makkal nu nenakathinga..). The he/she will ask mafia to open their eyes. At this point mafias decide (using their eyes.. if you make noise you are in trouble) to get rid of the villager. They will tell the moderator their choice. Then moderator will ask Police to open their eyes. At this point, police can point at anyone and ask the moderator the role of that person. Then doctor opens his/her eyes. They will point at a person to save their life. If mafia had chosen to kill that person, then they just got saved by the doctor. Now the moderator will ask everyone to open their eyes. If someone was killed (and the doctor didnt save) then the moderator will announce who was killed and that person is out of the game. The moderator does not reveal the role of the person. Once everyone opens their eyes, they scramble to identify who the mafia is and make a decision to kill that person. As before the role is not revealed again.

... "Machi... Sreevatsa va potu thaliralan da..". At this point I am trying to come up with something as I am the next one to talk. Everyone stops talking and the moderator asks me to talk. Ennakula oru politician irukanu ennaku romba nala oru nambikai... so eduthu vutan... I just realized that during our last Mafia gaming session Pavan was caught red handed trying to masquerade as Police. At that time I was the Police. In this game it was totally opposite. Don't you love ironies... 

"Dae pesu da..." shouts Moderator. "Ungala ellarum pathi nan romba bayangarama yosichirunthan... ippadi sappaya game valayadaringa.. cha.." as I said, edhuthu vittutan... "Dae.. peter a niruthitu matter ku vada" nama Gokul mariyathaya sonnaru.. "Thala.. TR mathiri pesaringa"... "Dae..." moracharu Gokul... "seri seri.. Couple of weeks back mafia game la Pavan police nu solli vasama matunathu nama ellarukum theriyum. Appadi therinchum sonnthama yosikama.. pavan solrathalam kekaringale.. kevalama game vilayadaringa" adichu thaki pesunan. Everyone started thinking. I was thinking to myself "pudhichomillai pudhichomillai pudhichomillai"..

Intha Mafia game a pathi sela pala vishayangala na solla virumbaran (read in parthiban's voice)

1. Ellarum periya avan avanuku raghavan instincts irukiramathiri viladuvanga. For example.. "nan enna nanekuran na.. sreevatsa romba silent a irukan.. so avan mafia a irupano nu oru doubt varuthu.." . Athuku nan kudutha bathil... "dae mani kalaila 3 mani achu da... enna enthuruchu dance a pannasolra."

2. Game starting la pesa arampicha odane.. "nan villager villager villager" nu adhuchu solluvanunga. Example: Sreeram. Nan ippo narrate pannitu irukara game la avuruthan moderator. Intha mathiri atkala than mothala note pannanum.

3. Moderator oda job romba kashtam.. After a while into the game.. avan avan bayangaramana theory la solluvan.. so tharu mara argument nadakum.. Moderator kuttatha samalikaruthu kulla usurae poirum..

And what you are thinking is absolutely true... nanum the above stated points la pannirukan :)

Our moderator came into the picture again and asked Vamsee to talk next. The best thing was Vamsee was the other Mafia :) . He being a very good guy wanted to save me. So he told everyone that he is The Police (avan manasula "We are the untouchables".. kakha kakha padam oditu irunthucha nu theriyala.. entha dhairiyathula sonna nu theriyala) and that he inquired about me and sathiya pramanama nan villager nu sonna. Intha time la nan Goundamani dialogue onnu sollika asapadaren: "adrasaka adrasaka adrasaka". Very interesting part. Nama Sreeram was moderating this game and he was in for a very tough ride after this.

If you have played mafia before, you know by now that this move made by our Vamsee could go either ways. If they believe him then I am safe and Pavan is gone. If not, then myself and Vamsee are gone'o gone and the game is over. Now all we had to do was convince everyone that Pavan was the mole. In a crowd filled with Mafia experts this was tough. We tried our level best and after the first round of talks only one person was supporting us. En manasula appove "kathi sutatha da.. kai vittha da" pattu oditu irunthuchu.

Makkale.. nan romba hype kudhuthu ungala noga adika virumbala. Kadaisi varaikum ennaium and Vamsee ya nambave ille. So tharu mara potu thaltaninga. We lost the game.

We played two more games and to my luck I played mafia all three times. We lost two and was able to win one.

The last session of Mafia was the best game we have had in a long time. If you get a chance to play Mafia, don't miss it.

Ithudan vidai perukiren. nandri vanakkam..

- Sreevatsa (Direction, production, dialogue, screenplay)

Twitter - more than microblogging

Hello Folks. Looong time since I have blogged and read one. Feeling lazy more often :). Anyway, I am blogging again and wanted to write about the new (from fame perspective) socializing service, Twitter.

Couple of months back when I started using Twitter, I was so impressed that I recommended the service to one of my friends. I would regret for doing this in 2 minutes, because this is what he said when we were chatting:

"read on the net

Twitter is an incomprehensible, pathetic tool used by self-centered, insecure individuals that believe the world actually cared about their every move :P".

The first thing that came to my mind was how much I liked smileys (very sarcastic or :P).

The next thing I thought was that could have been the only website on earth to have said that about Twitter. But then I saw this video. Most of you would have seen this video by now:

This video was just one perspective of the social service. The first time I used this service I was instantly impressed. My perspective was it was more of "Leave the crap out" social service. Twitter does one thing best and that is to allow users to post 140 bytes of information each time.

More than microblogging, it was becoming a potential tool for something else: Real Time Search. Twitter understood this at a very early stage. A quick FYI: Evan Williams is the CEO of Twitter. He was the one behind Blogger, the tool I am using to write this blog. They concentrated on improving search and now its greatly improved and readily available for all users on their home page. Anything new happening around the world can be first seen or heard on Twitter. After using it for around 3 months I have found lot of things faster than others. Some examples:

1. Google wave

2. Bumptop

3. Linkin park's "New Divide"

4. Nadal out of French Open

5. How many people are excited about Palm Pre

All these are trending topics on Twitter. No other website had the power like this ever before. It also acts as a broadcasting tool. Many celebrities, large firms, reporters, news channels post latest updates via Twitter.

Some time back Gtalk introduced "Share what you listen" by allowing users to share the name of the song they were listening. It was obvious what Google came up with using that information: Top Songs list called Music Trends. Now just expand it from "Music" to "Everything". One word: "Awesome".

Take a look at the Usage section in Wikipedia and decide for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter#Usage

Enjoy!

What else to blog

Hello everyone. Its been quite sometime since I have blogged. I have started to appreciate the greatness of weekends. I have turned into one of those guys waiting for friday evenings. Well it does not happen all the time but some weeks I just can't wait for weekends to come. So when weekend does come I just don't want to do anything. You know what I am saying right. I just want to listen to some music, sleep and eat. NY weather also has been helping in this matter for quite some time now :) . So the only thing useful and interesting I can do, sitting on my bed, is blog. But whenever I go to Blogspot.com->New Post->Blinking cursor I can't think of anything to share and after sometime I get bored by the blinking cursor.

I am not a economist to blog about the economy and curse Wall Street. If I do write about it, the only thing the readers will take away from it is me crying out loud 'Save the goddamn economy'.
I am not a traveler to blog about beauty of nature and post pictures of all the places I have been.
I am not a writer to blog about 'How to write a good blog'.
Well then I ask myself 'Who am I?". That's when I start to feel hungry and eat some maggi (noodles). Don't start judging :) . I am not who you think I am. I am something. I will let you know soon..

Did you guys know that there is a website out there that helps you in coming up with ideas to blog? The website is www.plinky.com. The website name might be a little suspicious. But its legit guys. When you sign up for it, they send you an email every week with a one liner for you to come up with something to write. The last thing I got in my email was this:

What's the worst way you've ever dumped or been dumped by someone?

Breakups are never easy. How did you or your significant other make it even worse?

The next thing I did was I immediately got myself unsubscribed from the service and starting playing super mario on my PC.

There are two solutions:
1. I start writing short stories as gilmananda.
2. I always wanted to write about my school days and college days, showing a ray of hope to all those day scholars out there that they can have equal or more fun than hostelers.

The problem with the second solution is its too hard to express some of the funny experiences in writing. You will have maximum fun only if its visually expressed. But I am trying my level best to start writing about it.

So I hope you guys will also start blogging more often because that's the only thing that keeps me going during weekends... (big pause)..... well super mario too...(big pause)... sleeping too..(big pause)... movies too. Alright... blogging is ONE OF THE THINGS that keeps me going on weekends...

Until next time see you all and have a great weekend.

aerotravelphobia - Fear of flight travel

When I was in India I had predominately been a train guy. I loved the train, esp. the ones with a cafeteria compartment.
Last week I had to cancel my trip to California. So I had all the time in the world to recollect some of my flight experiences. Believe it or not, every single one of them has been bad. I couldn't believe myself. So I reiterated all my flight travel experience and I was right. All bad. So I decided to re-live these experiences with you guys. After reading my story you will end up with one of these reactions .. "ayo pavam" or in English "Poor guy..." or you'll go "Idiot!" or "This is ridiculous" or just have a good laugh. Here goes.

Destination: Mumbai
Travelling alone: Yes
Was scared: Ofcourse

One evening madhavan calls "Machan... there seems to be a Bharath Petroleum scholarship for students who are going to study oversees. Apply soon". I obviously went "Super...". I ended up applying and also got the interview call. I read the interview call letter and sighed "Oh Shit!". The interview was in Mumbai and in like two weeks time. There was no train tickets left. That's when it all started. I was flying for the first time in my life to the Financial capital of India.
I was at the Coimbatore airport ready to board the flight and I thought to myself "Wow! This is not as bad as I thought." They had TV screens that clearly provided details of flight departures, announced warnings regarding flight timings. I arrived at Mumbai airport without any hassle. I stayed in a hotel for the night and next morning I went to the venue where the interview was conducted. As usual the interview didn't go that well. Apparently people are not convinced when you tell them " I want to be technically sound and be able to design and build good,reliable software" as your short term goal. Anyway, they asked us to stay for lunch. I thought "Lets get it over with". I also thought it might be a good idea to call and confirm if my return flight was on time.
Well, you guessed it, the flight was canceled. My heart started beating faster. The options given by support person "You can either reschedule the flight for tomorrow or you can get a refund". Doesn't sound bad does it? Here was my situation: It was Sunday and I had around Rs.50 left in my account. I had around Rs. 200 with me. I had no money to afford another night stay. I was basically doomed. I immediately took a taxi to the airport. Current situation: Rs. 50 left in my pocket. I was in the wrong terminal. So I was walking to the correct terminal, when an auto rickshaw stopped and asked me "Terminal B?" I replied "Yes". He asked me to get in. I got in and reached Terminal B. I said "Thank you" to the auto rickshaw guy and started walking towards Go Air ticket counter. I actually thought he was giving me a lift for free :) . The auto rickshaw fellow shouted "Whow whow...". I was startled. He said "pachas rupaya". Fifty Rupees. He was about to charge towards me and I lacked impromptu public negotiation skills. So I gave him fifty rupees. Realizing now, How dumb was I? Current situation: Rs. 0 left in my pocket. I started arguing with the Go Air ticket agent for a refund. She said "The refund will go the ticket agency through which you booked". I told her "If I don't get the refund right now, I want you guys to book a hotel so I can stay. She immediately contacted her boss and decided to refund the money and told me that there is a Jet airways flight leaving in half an hour. I rushed to Terminal A, got the ticket and had Rs. 20 left. I called my parents with that money and boarded the flight and was in Coimbatore three hours later. "Phew!"

Destination: USA
Travelling alone: Yes
Was scared: Yes

I could probably dedicate one full blog for all the stupid things I did during this flight. But for now, I going to start from Frankfurt. Current Situation: I am in Frankfurt waiting for my flight to Philadelphia and from there to my final destination, Syracuse. I reached Phili without any issues. But there was one problem. My next flight was departing in half an hour from Terminal F. I was in Terminal A. I had to pick two huge check-in suitcases, dragged them through security clearance and threw them in some random conveyor belt and started running. You might be thinking "Why he is running. He can always get on the next flight to syracuse." Well, I was not aware of this fact. I thought if I missed the flight, I had to buy new tickets. "Ignorance is bliss". This time I lost a few kilos because of that. Anyway, I am still running and finally found out that I had to take a bus to reach Terminal F. I was now certain that I was going to miss the flight. Fortunately, the flight was delayed by half an hour and I was able to board the flight and reached Syracuse safely. But in two hours a mysterious dark toned voice in my head would warn me "This is just the beginning".
My future roommates arrived in the next flight. We all waited for two hours for my check-in baggages. It never arrived. Remember the voice. Two days later, I went to Syracuse airport with another friend of mine to pick up his friend. I checked in the baggage lost area and found one of my baggage. I asked the person in charge "What happened to my other luggage?" She replied "We don't know. That is why we didn't deliver this to your address". I was sitting, disappointed. Thats when the strangest thing happened. I saw someone dragging my other suitcase in front of me. I was shocked. I told my friend "Machi... my other suitcase". He said "Alright.. alright.. lets follow him". We started following him. We cautiously maintained our distance. But the person was heading straight to the Baggage lost area to return my suitcase. I asked him "How come you have my suitcase?". He replied "My sister took it without noticing it. Sorry about that". I was so overwhelmed with joy. This time a voice in "tears of joy" tone spoke in my head "Dude... do you know what is in that bag? 4 kilos of Adayar Ananda Bhavan stuff, 5 kilos of Grand Sweets stuff, 10 kilos of home made stuff. What is your sister trying to do? Kill me!". Well, I didn't repeat that to him. I just replied "No problem". The end.

Destination: NYC.
Travelling alone: No
Was scared: Nah...

This time I was travelling to NYC for my internship interview. Everything went fine.
Time: 1 PM.
I asked "Dude... How did your interview go."
My friend replied "Not so good... The interviewer was a desi guy. He ripped me apart with all sorts of questions".
I replied "Don't worry dude... you will get it." I continued "Someone called me during the interview man. I was shit scared". Another friend replied "Oh.. you got the call too. Its from Delta Airlines. Our flight is delayed by 2 hours. Its departing at 9 PM."
I was surprised. "So what do you guys want to do. We have lot of time."
Someone replied "We can go to Grand Central. There is a samosa place in the station". There was a unanimous "Okay" and we started. Everything went according to plan, the flight too. Sense the tone?.
Time: 7:30 PM Location: JFK Airport
Flight attendant looked skeptic and said "This flight already departed to Syracuse at 7 PM". I replied in shock "Can you please say that again?". The mysterious dark toned voice was about to kick in. I asked my friend "Dude... who called you regarding the delay?". My friend replied "It was an automated voice". I obviously went "wtf?".
We told the Delta airline guys and they were ready to give us a place to stay for the night and we can reschedule for a flight leaving tomorrow. But some people had to attend an important class next day. The next day was Saturday. Who attends classes on Saturdays. "Dude.. you have a class on Saturday?". My friend just nods his head in sadness. That's when the "Street smart" guy enters. FYI, he was one among us who had come to NYC for the same interview. When I say "street smart" I don't mean the phrase. He was actually street smart. He knew his ways through NY city.
His plan:
To take the air train from JFK to train station. From there go to the city (34th Street). Take a Greyhound bus to Syracuse. Reach syracuse at 6 AM next day.
Actually, his plan worked. We were able to board the last bus to syracuse at 12 AM and reached at around 7 AM. After I got all settled in and was having a cup of coffee, the MDT voice kicked in again "You are cursed".

That's it fellows. I think my air travel experience is still cursed and during early last year I developed symptoms of aerotravelphobia which include:
1. Excessive naming on Suitcases.
2. Completely avoiding check-in luggage if possible
3. Reaching airport 3 hours before departure (even for domestic flights)
4. Checking the status of the flight every 5 mins on the day of travel

So people who are travelling, have a safe, painless flight. For people who are not..good for you.
Enjoy!

PS: aerotravelphobia is not a real word. I just made that up :)