Play 'Old Man'

News: Hugh Hefner (the 'old'man behind Play Boy magazine) at 84 got engaged to his girl friend who is 60 years younger.

No comments on the news. 

MANMADHAN AMBU

A romantic comedy with no romance and no comedy.

Gone Green!!!

My recently acquired good habit is drinking green tea. Believe me it tastes so pathetic. First day I had, I almost threw up. But because of the benefits I am tolerating the taste and drinking every morning mixing with honey & lemon for the past couple of weeks now.

Benefits (source: http://drinkinggreenteabenefits.com/)

.......The main green tea benefits include helping with cancer, infections, high cholesterols issues, impaired immune function, cardiovascular diseases and rheumatoid arthritis.

........it lowers cholesterols and aids in preventing heart attacks and strokes thanks that it prevents the formation of abnormal blood clots. This component also limit the negative effects of smoking and a diet with fat.
.........drinking green tea could help in dieting by allowing you to burn more calories. Also it can prevent tooth decay thanks that it is an excellent agent to fight bacteria!

Want to go green?

Best of 2010 - Tamil Movie World

My list of Best of 2010 in Tamil Movies. I have not counted the movies that are to be released after today.

Best Romantic Movie - Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa
Best Comedy Movie - Boss Engira Bhaskaran
Best Entertainer - Singam
Best Period film - Madrasapattinam
Best Sci-fi Movie - Enthiran

Best Song - Hosana from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa
Best Lyricist - Karky for Irumbile Oru Idhayam in Endhiran
Best Music Director - G.V.Prakash for Madrasapattinam
Best Director - Vasantha Balan for Angaadi Theru
Best Actor: Male - Rajini for Endhiran
Best Actor: Female - Anjali for Angaadi Theru
Best Comedian - Santhanam for Boss Engira Bhaskaran (& many other movies)

Bad year

It has been a bad year for my blog. I have posted only 8 blogs all this year. An important observation that I made was when I was actively blogging I was constantly in touch with my friends. When I went passive my contacts with my friends also went down. Blog had been an excellent medium (for me) to stay connected with my friends. I thought just blogging was a stress buster but I think staying in touch with my friends (due to active bloggin) had always been an excellent stress buster.

By the way, I have been thinking lately about ways of stress busting. This blog is a result of that.

Something unusual

I want to do something unusual to spice up my life a little bit. Well, just for the heck of it.

I started thinking about 5 such unusual (& may be a little bit adventurous) activities.

1. Get up by 6 am everyday for 1 week. (believe me I haven't done that for more than a decade now).

2. Catamaran ride into sea. Jump in middle of the sea (of course with life jacket).

3. Publish at least one post per day for 30 days in my blog
.
.
Oh man, I couldn't really think of anything more. Please suggest.

Scared to (of) death!!!

He is so young to die. This news really did scare me a lot and made me think about my life style and insurance cover etc.

Time to change a lot!!!

Tweet Tweet...

Do you tweet?

I started tweeting  around Apr 2007. But stopped after a month with no particular reason. I am getting inclined towards restarting now. 
An interesting statistics from Twitter's blog on number of tweets during the World Cup Football finals.
•The World Cup final represented the largest period of sustained activity for an event in Twitter’s history.
•Throughout the match, Tweets-per-second (TPS) were much higher than average; during the game’s final 15 minutes, this jumped to more than 2,000 TPS. (Spain’s winning goal in the final scored a 3,051 TPS.)
•During the final, people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages.
•At the moment of the winning goal, people from 81 countries tweeted in 23 different languages.
 
Read rest of the statistics and do check the infographic from here.

Smart Move

For a long time now, I have been thinking, why not these IT companies in India come to an agreement (may be with the help of NASSCOM) & come up with min-max salary levels for their employees based on experience, skill levels & roles (just like how the prices of Pepsi and Coke are same). This may help to stop attrition to some extent especially jumping ships for the same role with (way) higher salaries.

Everytime a team member comes to me with his resignation quoting his offer in hand with >50% hike, I stand helpless and let them go with nothing much that I can do to stop them. This agreement among the IT companies will in fact help them to control the spiraling wage increase (not that I am against getting a huge wage increase).

Today when I read this news I was a bit surprised. Though it's not exactly what I have been thinking I think it is a good move and this may be a step towards achieving what I envisaged(!). I am sure the top guys in the Indian IT industries would have already thought about this. Who knows they might have already discussed & dropped or the discussion may still be on.

Snippets of the news...
In Pune, IT companies in Hinjewadi IT park managed to seal a pact under which they will hire from rivals only after candidates have fully served out notice periods.........The companies have also agreed that new employees cannot join without a relieving letter from the previous employer

So suriprised to see how much money these companies loose because of the attrition.

...These companies have been crippled by 17% attrition leading to an estimated loss of about 5% of total revenues — about Rs 850 crore — every year....

Smart move, right?

No Country for Eligible Men?

Not that I am fanatic. But still, out of approximatly 138,188,240 Muslims in India couldn't she find an eligible single, good man? Out of approximately 195 independent countries in the world couldn't she find a good man in any other country?  Why from that country? Why a man with no integrity? Is love that blind?!

Shocked

The fans in Tuticorin inaugurated the All India Thanga Padhumai Tamannah Fans’ Club and performed the Paal Abhishegam on 50-feet Tamannah cut-out during the release of Paiyaa.

My God!!! When I watched this movie, Paiyaa, on second day of its release in Bangalore forum - PVR cinemas, there was heavy clappings from audience during the title (only) when Tamannah's name was displayed. I got to know from my friend Alwa that the same reaction came from the audience in Chennai when Tamannah's name was displayed. hmmm...!!!

This was brought to the notice of the actress, who condemned such action.Tamannah said that she is not aware of the fans club and will not support such actions. The actress maintained that only Gods should be worshipped in this manner and this practice must be denounced.

The part 'will not support such actions' may not be totally true. I am a bit skeptic about it.
 
News courtesy: Behindwoods

Save Tigers

Well, this is not about that tiger, this is about the real tiger.

A campaign to save our tigers is on to save the tigers in India. From 40000 just a century ago, population of tigers is now just 1411. Campaign asks for spreading the awareness to save the tigers. Whenever I saw the TV ads and hoardings on this I had no clue as to what I should do to save tigers. I went to the save our tiger's official site to see what I can do. (By the way tiger is one of my favourite animals). Except for the donation to NGO I still have no clue how can I save tigers. Any inputs?

Pic courtesy: http://www.saveourtigers.com/

Brickbats at Infosys

I was literally shocked to read this. Employee dissatisfaction level seems to be skyrocketing at Infosys. So many good performers (including me!) are leaving Infosys. Honestly, Infosys as a company is a great place to work. So many good things to talk about this company. In recent times its colors have changed a lot. Now the bad things are outnumbering the good things. I felt it's not the company I joined anymore. So I quit. So have many people.

With the IT job market picking up speed, I think it's high time Infosys management gave a good thought about the employee satisfaction and did something seriously to improve the same. Afterall just the concrete walls and great campuses can not make the sofrware!!!

    

An overweight dietician

In an effort to maintain my comeback I have started with a fitness regime. This post is about the dietician in my fitness centre. I had a long discussion with her about my current life(food)style. She had great suggestions and answers to my questions for my diet. She jotted down an excellent diet plan for me. Looks like that overweight dietician's reco is only to the others; not to her self. She is irritably overweight.

Overweight and dietician seem to me wrong association.

I came across this good site on diets. See if this is useful to you.