Raasukutty's

Category: Blog

  • Surabhi

    I was browsing the internet as usual. But unusually, I was searching for A R Rahman videos on YouTube. That is when I spotted this video.

    A R Rahman in Surabhi

    Surabhi, if anyone of you would remember used to be aired in Doodarshan (DD1). I still remember that period, when cable TV was not known commonly in India. My full family used to watch them. We never understood or knew Hindi. But we just watched them.

    Krishna, Chandrakantha.. I am remembering these serials as I type it in. Wonderful days. We used to discuss in school, about it. We used to be discussing about Kurur Singh and his “Yakkooo..”

    In this video, that should have been taken by 1992, after Roja release, I am wondering about what he says. Hear Sridhar say, about his sound technique, “Theatrical”.. he says. Rahman wanted not the base sound of the flute but the air from it… And then the song plays… Wow, really A R Rahman… is a genius.

  • Haircut

    I had my first haircut in America yesterday. @Virginia Hair.

    One hair cut costs $35.00 equivalent to roughly Rs. 1750. That is a huge sum of money. In India, I used to have haircut for Rs. 20.00. The maximum that I used to spend was Rs. 500 equivalent to $10.00.

    So the lesson is, earn your money in America, spend it in India.

  • Spoilt Indian

    In India, in most households, parents take care of all the things for the children. Food, clothing and whatever. I am one among those spoilt Indian kids.

    We are spoilt totally, that we cannot take care of ourselves. At least, I was never into the kitchen to cook food, till I was in India. I have never washed dishes, rooms, etc. Everything my mother used to take care.

    I would help her with talking her to the shop on my bike. But it was she who would do all the shopping. I have never wished to learn how to shop for groceries, vegetables, etc. I think that is the case with any kid who grew up in towns of India. In the villages, kids are to an extent independent. This I can say, as I see a lot of my friends from the villages, know quiet a lot than me.

    When I was left alone, that is when I realized, the world is too big. Getting things together, cleaning, washing, cooking, making the bed, everything seemed to be an area of study for itself.

    I am turning independent. It has its own thrill.

  • Survival of the Fittest

    This is going to be a musing… A rant, a self confession, a analysis.

    WARNING: Boring rant ahead.

    I have never been to the kitchen at home, in neyveli, or in chennai. I was just as worried, when my company offered me a H1B visa and wanted me to work from the client’s location. I am a foodie. I can’t live without tasting the great Rice for at least one meal a day.  But things have changed quiet a lot now. I am cooking my own food here. What has changed?

    Is it love? Might me. My girl helped me pack all the luggage for me. She got me two good books on cooking. She wanted me to help myself so that I don’t miss home food. She packed up everything I would require. It was very nice of her to do it. Also my mom did the final touch ups. It must be that I am in love and I end up doing something to please her?

    Survival? I am reminded of the film ‘Puthupettai’. There are two songs ‘Oru naalil valkai’ and ‘Nerupu vaiyinil oramai’, two of my all time favourite songs. The theme of the film is ‘Survival’.  When you are pushed to the limits, you tend to fight back, face the reality, tend to move forward. The simple ‘Darwin’s principle for evolution’. Not perpetuation, or theory of natural selection, I am not going scientific here. It is just the ‘Survival of the fittest’.

    Just analyzing on the same subject, we tend to perform or succumb when we are pushed to the limits. The is a comedy in a film that I watched recently, where the comedian says ‘I am cornered’. This has nothing to do with this post. Is it survival or love or desire or just a new learning? Questions unanswered.

    Hey why am I ranting. Actually cooking is good. So why this post at all in the first place. I have time to kill!

  • Here I Come

    United States, Here I come. With lots of dreams, awe, fear, feelings. I am now an amalgamation of various feelings. I am about to get into a country, that had transformed dreams into reality for many, changed lifes completely from riches to rags and rags to riches. People chasing dreams, money and pleasure. A land that I have always wondered about all these years, Here I Come!

    Dreams of what is in store… Computers, People, Music and Stuff.
    Awe of the single name… United States.
    Fear of what is yet to come… How is America going to treat me, A lone traveller in a stranger land.
    Feelings of leaving home land, leaving home food, leaving my beloved here for a while..
    Questions about life….

    America! Here I come!

  • Sick

    What a month!

    Started off, being sick  on the very first day! Loose Motion! Very loose I must say. I have not been having any junk foods recently. But then, I am having a running stomach now. It has been so for the past two weeks.

    Doctors! Wow! First when I visited, they gave me two tablets to stop it. Ya! it stopped! But then again it has started in two days. With it now the situation is quiet complex, I have fever, cold, cough and this loose motion stuff!

    Visited another doctor yesterday! She says that I have Stomach Flu (rhymes well with Swine Flu, she must have caught that term from there, marketing fellas wake up, now you have a new kid on the block). She says a Bacteria might be the cause. Yet she has prescribed medicines for three days, after which she says she might take the motion test.

    Another three days!!!! No Spicy food! No Oily food! Bread and Idly! Hope I get better soon!

  • July – August Roundup

    This is just an account of what happened in July and August, the period I have been passive on the internet. July 2 saw me turning into a Photographer at my friend’s Soms marriage. One event that I have been looking forward too for sometime. The wedding and reception were good. Special mention to the food served there, a buffet with stalls for Panju Mittai (What do they call it in English?), Pop Corn and Sweets. A different reception altogether.

    Then I received my first ever proposal, from a girl whom I have known so long, but have talked to very little in the recent past. A moment to cherish forever. That kept me busy for the remaining part of the month, deciding!

    Computers saw a sudden set back in my life, after nearly seven years! Cell phone took over a priority. Most of the evenings spent  and late night chit chats! Life is beautiful! I went on a trip to Athirappalli on the first week of August with Maarshal. It was a really nice trip. The second week I was sick at home. The third week went on visiting beach, giving parties and cinema halls.

    Between the wiring and painting work in our rented house is done. Now it is habitable, really nice interiors and colors. Wonderful lighting! Do visit! I promise a nice dinner or lunch to anyone visiting us.

    Have seen Ice Age 3, Nadodigal (thrice), Malai Malai, Aachamundu Aachamundu in these two months. Right now back in Neyveli, to have Kollukattai for Vinayaka Chathurthi.

  • Happy Married Life Soms and Aishwarya

    Somasundaram weds Aishwarya, on a fine thursday morning. One more member in my friend’s circle is happily married. To a girl of his choice, his first love, the only wish he had for some time now.

    Somasundaram – Met this guy during the second year of my college life at MIT. He was transferred from GCT, Coimbatore. He had the typical ‘Palam’ look in him. But he was ready to shed it the immediate instant he joined MIT. He could never speak more than a few sentences to any girl. No one ever imagined, he would fall madly in love someday, and never marry the same girl whom he loved.

    Life is really a interesting piece of mystery! When it reveals itself, you are a bit surprised. And really we were, when he revealed that he was in love with his team mate at his company. She, Aishwarya was in the testing team, and Soms was in the development team. When he announced his love to us, we would comment, “Instead of fixing the bugs that she reported, you fixed her”. An interesting person, he was, the comedian of our gang, the rocker who never listened to Tamil songs, till he found his lady love.

    I am reminded of the speech that Shahrukh Khan delivers in “Om Shanti Om”. “Happy Endings – If it is not happy, then it is not the end”. Here is one such really happy ending.

    Wishing Soms and Aishwarya, all the wonderful things on earth. Let them be blessed and ever live happily. For all those who missed the marriage occasion, here are some of the moments.

  • 3 yrs into IT industry

    Today, I complete three years in the professional software industry. I thank all who have lent their helping hand in making the journey possible for a guy with little knowledge in software to what I am now. There are still hundreds of miles to go. This is just a small step.

    Three years. Why is this special? With three years experience, you are no longer considered a newbie. People start to have expectations out of you. You are supposed to have atleast some basic understanding of how a professional software project setup is and how it operates. You are given more responsibilities in the projects. You also qualify for most next level positions in all the job search engines like Naukri or Monster.

    So what have I learnt or unlearnt in these three years? I should say a lot. They may not be big things, but they surely are something that is really needed.

    Things that I have learnt:

    • Debugging a program
    • Searching the internet effectively (Googling up things)
    • Write effective emails.
    • Sell solutions to the clients.
    • Work as a team.
    • C# and the .Net platform. (Yet to start using the features in version 3.5)
    • Technical Writing.
    • The bare minimal HTML, CSS and Javascript.
    • Talking on conference calls.
    • Using Source control.
    • Unit Testing.

    More to learn, more experience to gather, more to everything. Yet again, I am forced to quote, “Miles to go, before I sleep…”. Will be sharing the experiences here on this blog with you, as and when they happen.

  • Dreams

    Borrowing the idea from Sharon‘s post on prophecy of dreams, here’s my take on dreams.

    Dreams are a way to vent out your mind, that is what my mom says about dreams. They reflect the deepest desires in your heart. I dream a lot, by lot I mean everyday. All my dreams are centered on the theme “Me, Rajeshwaran”. I always and mostly 99% of the time dream in the first person, i.e., I dream where I do things, not that I see me doing things.

    One that I have told all my friends about and to the person involved in this:

    “I am in my college’s hangar (MIT has a hangar, where aeroplanes are supposed to stand. We use it for conducting culturals and indoor games, that is a different matter altogether), sitting in the very last bench in one corner. I see her (the heroine), coming a taking a seat next to me. I am in a sober mood. She starts the conversation asking me why I ignore her. She asks me to come closer and sits next to me. (I still remember with precision, the dress color she was wearing, a black shirt with white flower patters and a sky blue jean). One of our college professor, a close aide of her father, sees us there and moves past us. The scene ends there. (Might be, I changed to a different position in sleep, that changed the course of the dream). It again starts, where she and myself are holding hands together, ready to begin a run. We are chased on a bike by the same professor, who saw us chatting. We run across our college roads and reach the Rubber and Plastics Department. There we see a small cottage (There  is no cottage in MIT near RPT dept.), we enter it, actually it a small illicit arrack shop. I search for known faces all over, I see a very close friend of mine coming towards me. He asks me why I had brought her to this place, I tell him that the professor is chasing us. We turn back, at the entrance. we see her father standing. He calls out her name and asks her to come with him. She just hides behind my back and says, “I want to stay with Esh.”

    There the dream ends. What to conclude from this dream? But the dream was one that I will remember forever.

    Some one month back, I had a dream, where I am standing on a mud path. I have to go some route, I see a lion eating a deer lying on the mud path just ahead of me, turning to the right, I see one more lion roaring and getting out of a small pond on the way. I turn to see another path, where a tiger is just lazying. I decide to take the path, where the lion is eating a deer, my consciousness in the dream, says, since the lion is eating he won’t mind you taking his path. Totally weird dream, could not make a head or tail of it.

    Just share your dreams. I invite Sudar, Yuvi, Sukumar and Kaddu to continue on this meme “Dreams”.