Nirenjan’s Space

I’ve heard of doomsday prophecies, but this one really takes the cake. Full article at ChennaiOnline.com. What do you think?

No, not really. But I came awfully close to it. It all happened when I decided to leave the office early. Had no means of transport other than the famous MTC buses. Boarded a 147 cut service, planning to take a 23A (usually uncrowded) from El Dorado. It so happened that I nearly missed my stop and rushed to get down. In the process, my belt pouch gave way and my mobile fell out. I noticed it only after I got down from the bus and felt for the mobile, which wasn’t there. It gave me quite a shock. 6000 rupees down the drain, for a mobile that wasn’t even 6 months old.

Luckily for me, and my bank balance, the mobile had fallen on to the road right next to me, so it was quite safe in its cover. Better start taking extra precautions while I’m travelling.

Chennai’s Law of Increasing Proportions: The crowd in a city bus is a complex function of the time of day and is directly proportional to the frequency of the bus service.

What a comedy of rumours it was today. I got a message over the LAN from one of my colleagues. It simply stated “Karunanidhi out.”. I dismissed that message and continued working until a friend called me up and said that Karunanidhi had passed away. As usual, I dismissed the rumour until it became pretty big office talk. To top it all off, Karunanidhi appeared on TV tonight, hale and hearty.

By now, the whole world must be knowing about the earthquake in Chennai and the tidal waves that came after. What is really heart-rendering is the way so many bodies are lying around in parts of Chennai, families evacuating their houses in search of safer places. This may be the biggest exodus of the decade. May God have mercy on us and shelter us from the onslaught of Mother Nature.

Check out today’s New Sunday Express for a coverage of the new vs. the old devices in use by Savitha Karthik. I get a mention as well. Read my take on audio cassettes.

Assuming anybody still wants them, I have a 3 GMail invites available. Drop your comments here if you want one.

I tried Googling myself today for the fun of it and was a bit more than surprised when my name came out on two websites where I never expected it. One was in a Tamil Films forum where apparently I posted something about Simbu being a fit for nothing actor. Funnily, I don’t even remember visiting that site and posting about Simbu (this was about a year back).

The second, more concerning, had a list of names and corresponding e-mail addresses. Granted, it was an alias that went dead, but all the same, it is rather disconcerting to see that e-mail addresses are being displayed in such a prominent fashion, to be harvested by more spambots.

My office organized a Christmas party for orphans from Baby Home, St. Thomas Mount today. The little ones put up a beautiful show with songs, dances and finally, beating drums to a rhythm. In the end, the office also organized special snacks for us, cutlets, fingerchips, cake, etc. and “Christmas Juice”. It looked like grape juice to me, and tasted exactly like fermented grape juice - wine. Half a cup of that is enough to make me feel dizzy, and I’m terribly dizzy now…

No, no, this is not about the movie at all. Which I haven’t seen, by the way, and which I don’t plan to see, even if somebody paid me to.

Anyway, back to the topic. AirTel is becoming almost as bad as those credit card hounds. Till yesterday, they were sending SMS after SMS to make me subscribe to their Hello Tunes service. Today, it hit the roof. They actually called me. And no, it wasn’t an “executive” talking, but a recorded message. It started, “Dear Customer, Welcome your callers with Hello Tunes…” at which point I cut the call. Another colleague had got the call yesterday, so I was forewarned. I know that AirTel is aggresively marketing it’s products, but this takes the cake.

If you’re wondering about the title, read Predators and Predators Part II. ESKAEP!!!

4 and a half years is a long time. That’s how long it’s been since we left school. Earlier this evening, I met up with one of my old school buddies & our teacher. It felt good reminiscing about the good old times, and just talking about how the school has developed, how we were, what we were doing and lots more.

In the end, we decided to try and rope in the entire old gang and try to restore some form of contact. Having been with them for 6 years, it’s not easy to forget them, but it does happen. A new life in college and a complete lack of contact with the old friends can do that.

So in the end, this is a call for all Vidya Mandir (Adyarites) (if I could use that term) of the 2000 batch. If any of you see this, drop me a line at write2me AT nirenjan DOT com. Don’t forget to pass this around to the people you know.

I was busy working when the alarm sounded. I knew the drill, wait calmly until some announcement came over the PA system, then follow the instructions. The next second, I just turn my head towards the door and see a crowd waiting to get out. I joined them quickly, thinking that I had missed something. Two minutes later, the announcement came over the PA system.

“This is a hoax!!! Somebody has played a prank on you!“

Check out this website. It hosts a short (and I mean SHORT) movie - just 3 minutes long, including the credits. But the movie is really good. From what I could make out, this movie was shot by two people in three months.

Go to http://www.405themovie.com/

The Old
One day a man was having a conversation with god when his whole life flashed before his eyes as a series of footsteps on the sands of time. He saw that there were two pairs of footprints, but during the most difficult periods of his life there were only one set of footprints. He asked God, “You said you will be with me throughout this journey, but why have you deserted me during the most critical times of my life??”. To which God answered, “Son, I did not desert you, I was always with you…you see only one set of footprints because during those difficult times in your life, I was carrying you.”

The New
Another day a Software Programmer was having a similar conversation with his PM when his whole project flashed before his eyes as a series of footsteps on the sands of time. He saw that there were two pairs of footprints, but during the most difficult times in the project there were only one set of footprints. He asked his PM, “You said you will be with me throughout the project, but why have you deserted me during the most critical times of the project??”. To which the PM answered, “Son, I did not desert you, I was always with you…you see only one set of footprints because during those difficult times, I was sitting on your head!!!”

Savitha Karthik’s article on MP3 players is up here.

PS. Should have actually put this note up yesterday, but was too tired to & completely forgot to do it this morning.

I’ve received my first spam message on GMail, from some company called Broadcast Emailing Today. How they got hold of my ID is anybody’s guess. Also, my ID’s been used in a spoofing attack on some random email address. Nothing new there…