Bye Bye 2007!!!

What a day to start with? Loads of emails wishing for a great 2008 and emails from friends who were not in touch for long time - This gives a sense of excitement, hope and a great feeling!

This is my last blog post for this year. Wanted to end this year's blog post as simple as possible. I'm excited for another reason - For being consistent and finished my 75th post with this, as I assured.

Thanks to all who read my blog this year and gave comments which made me to write better (Is it so? :))

Bye 2007 and Welcome 2008!

I wish everyone a happy, prosperous and healthy New Year!
Have a blast and enjoy the new beginning!!!

Brand 'Rajma'!

You would have heard about Tofu soup, tomato soup, minstrom soup etc., etc., Have you heard about Rajma soup??? If not, here is the chance to get a simple Rajma recipe which is called Rajma soup. First, lets see about its health benefits. Kidney beans aka Rajma is a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. In addition to lowering cholesterol, kidney beans' high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making this a good choice for individuals with diabetes or hypoglycemia.

Ingredients (for two):
Bread - 8 slices
Rajma - 1 cup
Chopped Onions - 1 cup
Tomato - Finely chopped
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Salt - As required
Ginger Garlic paste - 1/4 teaspoon

Method:
1. Soak Rajma for about 8 hours. I think the ideal time would be soaking it during night and using it the next day
2. Cook the soaked Rajma and keep it aside
3. Cut the bread into small pieces
4. Toast the bread or fry the bread in oil/ghee as you wish
5. Fry the mustard seeds and Jeera in oil and put chopped onions
6. Once the onions turn golden brown, add all the spices (Salt, turmeric powder, Garam Masala powder, Chilli powder) along with tomatoes and Ginger Garlic paste and fry for few mins
7. Add the rajma with the water that is used for cooking Rajma
8. Leave it for 5- 6 mins until Rajma gets mixed with the other ingredients
Now, take the Rajma soup in bowl and add the bread pieces at the sides as I did :) Use a fork/spoon to take the bread pieces along with the Rajma soup (gravy). Hmm...It's simply tasty with a blend of crispy bread and spicy gravy. Ready to hog???? Have a look at the pic :):):) Enjoy cooking!!!

Blogging - Roll of Honor!

Accidentally, I saw this when I was surfing the net today. It's blogger awards! I wasn't aware that they give awards to bloggers, until I hit this site - http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com

Although there are various categories for which polling has been announced, I guess this category would be the 'catch' of all eyes - The Entertainment category. For this category, the highest number of votes has gone to http://arunz.co.nr/. As the polls indicate, this site is good. The very first hit I did was to know his 'About Me' and I was surprised to see his' - It contains not only his details but also his family's. His mention about W(L)ife is noteworthy :)

Do check out his site - It's a variety galore!!! No doubt why his sitemeter has around 1 lakh visitors and he has got highest votes for the 'Best of Entertainment blogs'.

A Wake-up call!!!

Why so early??? It's always been a methodology that most of them would like to follow but fail incessantly. What am I talking about? It's a very simple act of waking up early.

In the olden days, getting up early was a common thing among people but in this fast paced world, it's no more common. Why is it so? People spend most of their times in laptops/PCs till late nights for watsoever reason - be it a movie, music, work, news. This is in USA but when we track back to people in India, they spend late nights at office coding, emailing, chatting etc., The effect of spending late nights lead to the common practice of waking up late. Waking up late is not a crime but as the adage goes 'Early to bed and Early to rise is good for health', I am not sure whether it's good for health but it's a great time saver indeed. I have been experiencing it for the past 10 years or so. Waking up early has innumerable benefits and the fact is almost all successful people are out of bed early.

Let's take a look at how it acts as a time saver.
1. You can get rid of a fight for restroom with your rommmates if you live in a shared accomodation. You can take your time to take bath, even you can wash your clothes in that time
2. You can practise yoga or meditation
3. You can reach office early avoiding traffic
4. When you reach office early, you can work quiet without anyone disturbing you. Believe me, it's a good time when you can complete most of your work easily with a fresh mind. Early Mornings are great time to work! Your work is uninterrupted. If compared, a work that takes atleast 3 hours to complete can be easily done withing an hour this way. Because there is no one out there to divert your concentration and you can get it done so fast. Overall, your productivity is high!
5. By going office early, you can leave early as most of the work hours are scheduled for 8 hours
6. When you get home early, you can sit and relax and give some time for yourself
7. Most of all, you can revive your interests, hobbies and even if you want to study something to improve your skills, you can do so. You can blog, listen to music, read books...
8. There's time for work-out, sports after you come home early
9. You can take time to cook your own food
10. At last, you can surf the web for sometime before you go to bed early
By this way, there is no haste and hurry by which people tend to miss/forget something which is important.

Jus to take the advantages from the advantages listed above, your work is appreciated with high productivity that you have shown, your interests go unwasted, your care for health, children, hobbies doesn't stay unnoticed. That's the simple recipe for a successful human being!

As far as I am concerned, there's no frame called 'I don't have time' as most of the people tend to say. That's the most stupid line that I would ever like to hear from anyone. Many people believe that being a night owl has more benefits than an early riser. This is a widely held misconception. Anyone can wake up early once they get used to it. It's a real true fact that walking up early is difficult at the beginning and to establish, but when the routine is set, it's not that difficult as thought before.

I would say this is one of the best practices that I have inculcated and borne the fruit too. If you are an early riser like me, Congratulations! If not, 'Early to rise' is not a difficult thing. Believe in 'Practise maketh a man perfect' and try this out for a few days and I am sure you'll find it refreshing, rejuvenating and helpful in many ways. Get...Set and Go...:):)

The 'BIGGS' day!

Do you know Mr.Biggs? He's not a cartoon character, not a nickname of any celebrity... Guess wat??? It's an indoor fun place to enjoy!!! And this is how my day went in Mr.Biggs...

Stepped into Mr.Biggs and waited to quench the hunger pangs - Yeah! With a hand full of spoon, fork and knife (as if I am going to use that ;)) I headed towards the lemonde machine and pushed it until it filled 3/4th of the cup..No ice though, on this cold weather. Then I was watching what others in the line took to eat. Basically I was looking for any veggie items and got a veg and cheese pizza slice and sprinkled chilli flakes...Hee...hee...I love pizzas :) After my first round, had a chance to grab a brownie...Yum..Yummy!!! Huh...done with eating and now for the fun part.

Night rider Speedway: Wow! wat a big line for this! All electric cars in the indoor track and hairpin bends for testing your racing skills. A Go-kart! I din't want to waste time in standing with the big line and hence left it out
Laser Jam: Laser Arena with a laser tag in each one's body and a play gun to shoot the other team with a different colour tag. It's a kind of maze wherein you can hide yourselves without getting killed by other team. I was in the 'Blue' team and hit as much as the 'Reds' I can. I liked it a lot and my team won with a difference of 1500 points. Good job :)
Bowling: I need not give any explanation on this. I am not great at it but I used to give away all the inertia that I have when I try to bowl. I played 2 games and din't get a strike even once...Bad! Got spare six times and of course, gutter 8 times :):) Anyways, my team came second. I was amazed to see a guy in the next lane getting thumbs up every time he bowled...How can he get a strike every time? Great!!! I was watching him with great excitement and wonder
Battletech: It's a simulator pod to engage oneself in the battle combat. You know wat? After entering into the claustrophobic shelter for this game, I was playing for few minutes without striking the 'ON' button...Wat a buddhu I am! I din't even know before the support staff came and told me that...I was giving a fake smile and restarted the virtual reality...(Another oxymoron here, I think I should write a book on oxymorons :)) It's a game of battle where in you have to kill each other in the game with their virtual identity shown in the screen. I was killed 6 times and I shot only once and came the last before the one with 1375 points.
Putt-Putt: I was surprised to see my golfing skills although I don't know the golf terminologies. My targets were correct most of the time and got a few of the toughest ones in one shot. I give a pat to myself for this :))

It was getting dark outside and hence had to finish off the attractions of Mr.Biggs therby.

Overall, It was a day full of fun and frolic...

KALLOORI...

With great excitement after listening to the songs, I was ready to watch the movie yesterday and I did watch it till the end. Instead of writing in different paragraphs as I usually do, thought of trying a different way - That's the origin of this kind of blog post.

College goers: Tamanna, Akhil, Balamurugan, Hema, Rajeswari, Sailatha, Mayareddy, Arunkumar, Alex, Prakash
Sight seeing @ Tamanna: Hero Muthuchelvan and his friend Ramesuu
JP (Jollu party): Senior who changes his get-up like a typical Iyengar paiyan for the sake of Sobana :)
Music by: Joshua Sridhar
Gana/Kuthu Medley: Vandhanam Ayya Vandhanam - The entry song f the movie
Song(s) I liked: Sariya Idhu Thavara and the Theme song
Song that is murmured by most: Un aruginil varugayil
Waste part: Un Paarvayil Orayiram song in a marriage reception
Best part: When Sobana says some dialogue to Muthuchelvan about his family and why he should succeed
Worst part: Heroine disregards her Birla Academy offer because of the friendship of 9 people that she gained the day before...I dunno in which world this happens other than local (T)(B)(K)ollywood :)
Emphasized on: Friendship
Not much on: Love
Hero: Resembles Vishal to my eyes at some instances
Heroine: Resembles pukka Iyengar ponnu :)
What I liked: The casual acting nature of all those who were in the movie
What I hated: The irritating comedy of 'Enga, kaekurangala...Neenga sollunga' by those two comedy guys
My rating: **
College students rating (My wild guess): ****
Top scorer: Haricharan for rendering the songs perfectly
Most expected: People coming out from the theatre giving feedback on local TVs like SUN, RAJ, VIJAY like 'Supernga!', 'Padam romba nalla irukunga', 'Romba realistic!' and etc., etc.,
Least expected: The tragic end of the movie and a big BULB to the Hero :(
Reviews say: Trendy and Youthful
I say: Okie Dokie...:)

Now, go ahead and enjoy the spirit of watching 'Kalloori'!!!

Life's laps!

Jus wanted to give a shot on 'Food for thought' for the first time and came up with this blog post.

At times, we wonder what's life? What's the purpose of living? Why are we here? What did I dream of? What should I achieve in life? Why few people are successful and why some are not? Why I am/was entitled to such a situation? Human mindset is like that. Most people are not satisified with what they have.

When people go over different laps in their life, they tend to think that the lap they are in, is not good most of the times. Say when you are at college, you feel your school life was the best and after college, you think your college life was the best. When you are in your own country, you strive hard to go to some other foreign destination and when you are finally in that foreign nation, you think that your own country was the best. I have never seen a person who says that he/she is satisfied with the life they live and with whatever happened/happens. Human minds always aim for something or the other and have a sense of dissatisfaction when they fail. Why don't we think like this 'Yahoo!!! I did it!' when we win and "Hmm..well...It din't click me or din't work out for me" when we fail and go with the same feeling as we would have won???

New things always excite people. Be it a new job, new school, newly wed, new friend, new dress but as time fades, fun degrades...Those 'once new' things are not new anymore and not interesting anyhow....Why is that? As we take new laps in life, we leave things behind which were new before and concentrate on the new 'new' thereby.

As PravsJ says 'No one is born with an objective'. It's the one that we create. It's like - When you were at school, your objective was to get a name in your school's roll of honour. When you were at college, your objective was to enjoy the first few years and when you slid towards the end of your college life, your objective was to get a lucrative job or go for higher studies. When you were at job, your objective is to go onsite or get a promotion. When you spent considerable amount of time @ gaining work experience, your objective was to get an aparmtent/flat or build a house and get married. When you hit your late twenties, your objective was to bring children into your life. When your children grew, your objective was to shape them towards a goal for their better lives. And these objectives metamorphasize into new shapes when you drive into different laps. But why does the objectives in each lap remains the same for almost everyone? While these objectives are not predefined rules in a dossier, why everyone takes the same road??? Well, I guess no one has an answer...

But life goes on and on...And we run towards/behind something as always...

FSJ revealed...Finally!!!

Huh...You can ask me who's FSJ? It's Fake Steve Jobs...If you take a close look at my 'I peek @' list, you can find his blog there. I have been reading his blog since when I started blogging and finding who he was, was a mystery to me although I had few clues. I was thinking it's someone who might be a personal secretary of Steve Jobs, someone from his close friend knit or might be an employee of Apple. Sometimes I used to think it might be Steve Jobs himself when I read posts about Scobble, Facebook, Gates, Cathleen Griffin, Andy Hetzald, his secret web crush 'The Helmet Girl', but I was wrong! He's no more anonymous to me....Yeah! I found who he is!!! The real 'Fake Steve Jobs' is revealed..Well, It sounds like an oxymoron...:)

Whilst my 'Books to read' list was shaping up, this book 'Options' found the top position in my list and was browsing the web to read reviews about it. Probably I was out of details because I was thinking the author of 'Options' is Steve Jobs...Nope, it's Fake Steve Jobs...It is shown clearly in every site that the author is FSJ! But I missed it somehow! This concealed identity was bothering me till I clicked 'Options' tab in Amazon which took me to a link..Youtube has it all...FSJ was revealed to me and henceforth to those who all read this post too..:) Who is he??? Curious to know that? Hmmm...It's Daniel Lyons, the Senior Editor in chief of Forbes. I was not aware of his public speaking skills...He's amazing! A tint of humor, clarity, candor is what he is composed of!

It's about an hour video and I thought it would send me to a room of boredom but it dint..It was interesting to watch the video which revealed his identity as well as the evolution of FSJ and Options..And the questions that bombarded him from the crowd were the questions that I would have asked him if I had a chance. So, I enjoyed it to the core.

He starts with why he chose Steve to make a parody? He says that he even thought of trying out on Sergey Brin but gave up the idea later. When Forbes wasn't aware of this FSJ and asked him whether he can be hired for Forbes, the way he explained it, was awesome...Dan, you rocked with your speech! :)) I am not surprised that you have a minimum of 500,000 blog visitors a day but I am surprised to know that you blog even when you travel. What a commitment! I salute it! Peace and Namaste (as you say :):))...

For those who would like to watch the video, here you go... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLpxX9vqr5c

The 'Bat & Ball' Inn

Are you a cricket lover? Then, this news is for you...Would you like to add a flavor of cricket when you have breakfast? Want to glimpse through Sir Gary Sobers, Sir Don Bradman and cricketing legends like them, with a munch? Then, this is the ideal place for you. The youngste(a)rs Robin Uthappa and Sreesanth have created this arena, a cricket memorabilia with innovative ideas on bat/ball and of course cricket.

I liked the whole idea and mainly the name 'Silly Point' cafe :) It's full of Cricket, Cricket and Cricket...

If I was there, what would have happened? A virtual tour and a running commentary here:
Glad to see the first visitors - Who else? The Indian team...
Irfy, Irfy..you seem to have lost some pounds...Hey, I am a great fan of you :):)
And BTW Mahi, who's that pretty lady holding your hands? ;);)
Yuvraj, You are bubbly as usual...
Sreesanth, I thought you would recite a poem on your cricketing setup but only heard few lines of your speech...
Karthik, as composed as always, with your newly wed...
And here comes the former captain, the sober Rahul...
RPSingh, munching with the group with a smile...Watz going on man? :P

I could catch only these...but you can grab everything here:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtvcricket/videolisting.aspx?id=20522

Good luck Robin Uthappa & Sreesanth on this new venture!

70-20-10!!!

What does that mean to you? Well, I don't know. But to me, it's the former CEO of GE, Jack Welch's differentiation principle. Basically, I like this principle of his, which makes more sense to me. After reading this in his book 'Winning', I thought of glimpsing through the web to see if there's any company that makes use of this principle and I did find out! Wow! It seems there are more than a dozen of CEOs who believe in this thumb rule.

Ok...What it's all about??? As I said in the opening lines of this post, it's all about differentiation. Differentiation by means of favouritism is not what I am talking about. It's about people and performance in lieu of company's growth. Perfomers are categorised into 70-20-10...Hmmm...the numerical figures might appear frequently in this post to make the term look less intricated. Although 70 appears first in 70-20-10, these are performers who are considered average, the mid level. 20 are those in the top level and 10 are those who are underperformers in the bottom level.

The top 20 always add value to the company and the company never want to get rid of them by any means because their growth is a fuel to the company's growth in turn. The average 70 are fair to be in the company and the company nurtures them to excel by three channels of 'tion' - compensation, recognition, motivation. The bottom 10 are underperformers which is a loss to the company. It's not only by their means of not performing well but their presence may discourage the 70's and 20's. Let us take an example - Consider that you are one among the 70s and there is someone out there who is one among the 10s in your team. When he/she comes and does nothing but get paid and enjoy all the luxuries that you get, won't you get demotivated, depreciated and depraved? Hence Jack Welch say's those underperformers should be ruled out keeping company's future aspects in mind. But I would think of giving them an opportunity to prove themselves and if not, rule them out as Jack Welch says...and that should be a doyen's job...

I believe in this strategy for a corporate success...

The ardent biz woman in me is peeping out and it has driven me to write a book. Not sure how long it tends to go...But got good reviews on the first chapter from two of my good friends who encouraged me to make a debut in writing a book! But no assurance on whether it's shaping well after that but no plagiarism for sure:):) I may not be great at writing but I always like to make an attempt and hence started it...

Signing off from this Biz talk and catch you all in my next post soon...

Feel it! :))

I guess this particular scene in the movie 'Alaipayuthey' would be a favourite scene for almost everyone and I am not an exception in this case. I can watch this scene umpteen times...Not only this scene but also the whole movie as such...

I was browsing through youtube and this video caught my attention. Ha...ha...It has got a 5 star rating :)

When Shalini says 'En enna thedi vara ivlo naalachu?' and Maddy says 'Doctor sonna sonnadhu dhaan' - hmmm...the way both of them have expressed their feelings - Great! It makes you feel it, even though you don't have a boy/girl friend :) Correct dhaane? Now, feel it by watching it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fniUVpU45hY&feature=related

Interpreneur/Intrapreneur

Happened to read two different things on Entrepreneurship today - 1) A prologue of the book called 'An Interpreneur's Journey' and 2) The new buzzword Intrapreneur. Let me take through step by step...

1) 'An Interpreneur's Journey' - The birth of a "new economy" business
An Interpreneur's Journey is about business, entrepreneurship, and the Internet. It is an instructional guide as well as a true-to-life story about starting a business. The book describes the startup experience through the eyes of someone who is actually going through it.

The main character, Bill Partridge, is an everyday guy who loses a job he held for 14 years. He knows little about starting or running a business, but when confronted with a long unemployment, he decides to take a chance. He starts a contracting company selling radiant heating systems. The book describes how he gets started and his experiences each step of the way—the uncertainties, the pressures and the pitfalls. When his business stumbles and he starts to run out of money, Bill makes an important discovery—he can sell his systems over the Internet. By reinventing his business, Bill is able to sell to customers all over the country.

Bill Partridge joins an emerging class of entrepreneurs who are using the Internet to create new kinds of businesses and reinvent old ones. The ranks of these Internet entrepreneurs—Interpreneurs—are growing quickly.

But An Interpreneur's Journey is more than just an interesting tale. At the end of each chapter is a "lessons learned”startup guide. Readers can see what the lessons mean in the real life context of Bill's story. In addition, readers are directed to the New Interpreneur website where they can find additional story content and extensive resources designed to help aspiring Interpreneurs start new ventures.

An Interpreneur's Journey is a timely and useful addition to the genre of business startup books. It speaks to the millions of people who have been outsourced or off-shored and who seek refuge from unemployment. This book offers useful insights and points them in the right direction.

Source: www.newinterpreneur.com

2) Intrapreneur is the new HR Buzzword. This is about nurturing employees to have entrepreneurial spirit and create entrepreneurs. Intrapreneur is an employee who is mentored to become an Entrpreneur by the company. By providing such an opportunity, it is beneficial for both the employer and the employee. Employer can cut hiring costs down and retain his employees whereas the latter can puruse his entrepreneurial drive even being on pay-roll.

This phenomenon is largely seen across sectors like IT, Manufacturing, textile and logistics

Source: Sify

'The Split Personality'

Curious to read this?
Do you think that I am going to write about some psychological aspects of 'Split personality?' No...
Do you think that this is about 'Anniyan' movie? No...

Here is a new innovation that I am going to write in this blog - 'The split personality' of a PC :) In this fast paced world, usage of PC is at every other corner in all parts of the world. Be it a data entry operator, Software developer, a school kid, a house wife writing blog recipes - Each one of them use a PC. So, what is this Split personality? Scientists from Microsoft Research have come up with a clever piece of software where two users can use the same PC by having control over the same PC with two different mouse and keypad. This combo can be used to edit different pieces in the same PC by two different users or they can control the same document/part they work on.

This is a Beta version from Microsoft and add-on features have to be plugged in to place this as a real product. This beta version has been submitted in the 'Innovation Summit'.

Details of this research can be found in this page:
http://research.microsoft.com/users/udaip/splitscreen.htm

Lax - A go-getter!

Since it's a weekend, I was asleep for a long time than usual and woke up when I got a 'beep' sound from my mobile. It was my friend who sent a SMS giving me an info that 'Laxman has hit a century :)'. You should have guessed by now why he has sent a message like this to me. Yeah! I am a fan of Mr.V.V.S Laxman.

India is playing against the rival pak. I am not much interested to watch the longer version of the game - a 3/5 day test match. Used to skim through the e-news the morning after to know the details. And I did it today too. Although VVS comes rarely in the shorter version of the game, I like his batting style. Sometimes I feel bored to watch him stand for a long time without getting runs which is necessary for test matches. But his stroke play and drive through covers is what I like in him.

A peep into his statistics below:
Full Name: Vangipurappu Venkat Sai Laxman
Batting Style: Right Hand Batsman
Bowling Style: Right Arm off break
Special: Solid Middle Order Batsman
Local Team(s): Hyderabad
County Played for: Lancashire
First Test: Vs SA on 20th Nov, 1996
First ODI: Vs Zimbabwe on 9th Apr, 1998
Batting average: 43.46
Highest score: 281
Bowling Average: 105.00
Best bowling: 1-32 [:(]

VVS enthralls the crowd by his batting style like plucking the flowers in Garden is what people say :) His style looks like his Mentor Mohd. Azharuddin, the former captian and his fellow statemate who has the art of wielding the willow and pitching bouncing balls fluently.

Congrats Laxman! And India, great innings so far in this match! Let's see what the rivals have to give you back...