Butterflies of the spraying rain..

As aficionados of this movie will recognize, that's the translation of 'Thoovaanathumbikal', the forever classic from Padmarajan. I have already downloaded this movie thrice, losing my copy to scratches, carelessness and in general, life! And now, I've blogged about this movie twice already. And I still can't explain why I just love this one so much.

And a character off of it still haunts me. Granted, Jayakrishnan (Mohanlal) is an interesting character with his little whims and fancies , his little wishes and dreams. Also worth meeting in real life is Radha (Parvati) with her inexhaustible reservoir of undying faith in love. But so intriguing, so marvellously crafted and so precisely portrayed is Clara (Sumalatha). Every time I watch this movie, I know her further, I know her better. And a few dialogues from the movie, some of them lost even on the protagonist, still come back to me, every time I think about this movie.

Like, when she says, 'Enthaayaalum Nashikkum, Ennaal Anthassaayittu Nashichu Koode, Aasha Theerthu Marichu koode?',

or when, on the beach, she reveals the depth of her character and her perceptiveness, when she says, 'Monae, thadi contractore, Nee Aaraa, Ullathu Para, ..'

or, when she tells him, 'Njangade koottathil cheranam, kadalil ponam, Poyaa pora, thirichu varumbo valayil enthenkilum undaakanam', or one of those thousand other moments in the movie.

I know Clara better now. I know she loved Jayakrishnan. But she probably knew better than him that he did not love her. I can now see the pain she must have had right upto the end. In the whole story, there is but one moment she loses her composure, when for one moment, she is tempted to give in, when Jayakrishnan asks her 'Njaan Claraye marry cheythotte..?', it is the deepest desire for her to live with him for ever, but she knows that he isn't proposing out of love, so she goes away, hiding her pain, taking it with her...

To Padmarajan...

-----

P.S. : This time, I got a version with proper digital subtitles so I can share it with someone else, but beyond the language, I doubt if they'll know... whether they'll understand, whether they'll identify with the characters..

Org - Reorg

Without reference to anything, in general, how does a company know how best to organize its functions. Whether to cut it into really thin vertical pieces that tasks flow horizontally across, delayed by the interval it suffers at each vertical organization slice? Or does it just split up regions and divide up into teams that kind of go do everything. Traditionally, I think, small companies tended to be organized the latter way mainly because there would only be one team and experts on different areas within that team. And bigger companies would choose to go the vertical way coz with that, every team has to focus only on the small part they do, and at worst, the next and previous steps.

But does that work? Because over time, it's very very possible that they lose that very thing, focus. Focus on what happens, the idea of the big picture. The basic notion of 'Why are we doing this?'.

To Computer Architecture enthusiasts, this is similar to the Intel P4 vs. AMD Athlon architecture debate that started around 2000. Does it make sense to have a huge pipeline with lots of small stages, or a small pipeline with bigger stages. Or maybe, just one whole block that does everything, just that you have a lot of those blocks working all over the place.

Maybe, I'll find out the answer. One thing is for sure, there's no 'mathematical / analytical way' to get to the bottom of this.

Missouri vs. Kansas

So, having shifted from Missouri to Kansas, what are the first few pluses / minuses that come to mind? off the top of my head,

The Pluses

1. The highways don't tell me to hit a worker anymore, like they used to in Missouri :


This is one of those boards on which, if you're one of those persons who reads Headlines only, you might just be tempted to go target one of those flourescent jackets!! Also on offer is another sign (not pictured anywhere online) which is a display screen that switches between two screens. The first one that says 'Hit a worker' and the second screen that says '$10000 fine'. If you are driving fast enough and catch just the first screen, it just might seem like a job assigned by MoDoT.

2. When you buy stuff online, and you have to enter the state, with Missouri, I had to, like, press 'M' 7 times and wade through all the irritating states like Mississippi. But with Kansas, I have to press 'K' once!!

Now, for the minuses :

1. Amazon charges tax for Kansas deliveries. That's outrageous. Even more disturbing is the fact that I'm so close to Missouri that if I fell off my bed accidentally, I'd probably land on the State Line.

2. Also disturbing is the fact that Kansas doesn't have any rivers to go floating or rafting and stuff. And I'd probably need to go as far as Osage Beach, MO to do any of this.

This list is going to get a lot more stuff in there, as I learn.

What month..?

The nice ladies on Customer Service are all great, courteous and fun to talk and all but there just seems to be a little bit missing.

For example, consider what I heard today. They asked me for the secret password on my account which happens to be someone's birthday, the month and the date, and I replied ' Zero Four Twenty nine' (The actual date varied to prevent Security breach) and the lady replies ' Is that April 29?' I pause a moment and say.. 'No, it's the Fourth day of the Twentyninth month in my very own homemade calendar'..

No, of course I didn't say that. How I managed to hold off, God only knows!!

Finally, I shifted...

Three days past the scheduled date, I shifted to Overland Park on Thursday morning and managed to boil some milk at my new place within the auspicious time. I also managed to make it spill eastward, which makes it even better. After four days of mostly sleeping, cooking, eating, browsing for furniture and pouring various fluids on my new laptop, it was Monday, my joining date at Sprint Nextel. Eight hours there, and I am now back home, overwhelmed, wide-eyed, and bracing myself for the next four or so weeks in which I expect to know something about what I am doing.

In other news, after getting bored with dancing, politics and North - South Indian comments, Hema Malini mailed me today with a placement offer in DB / IBM. Oh Well.. I guess she was a beauty in her time and used to having people come at her beckoning, but no, lady!! I am staying put!

Call Waiting

I beg some researcher to come forward and find out, on average, how long each American spends on phone with some kind of customer service, or listening to the deeply mystical music tones that keep playing while they put you on perennial hold.

I combated the customer service wait syndrome all of last year through Skype and putting the call on a speaker and picking up only after the cust-rep came on line. But Skype having resorted to revenue generating methods, I must now suffer on my phone. Over the last couple of weeks I have been on phone with Sprint's verification people, Sprint's people, the apartment people, the utility people, and finally more than an hour listening to time warner cable's phone music.

They should probably also research soothing tones to reduce impatience among calling customers so they will be happy and elevated by the time a cust-rep gets to talk with them.

No wonder India is booming with the Call Centers, where else would you get enough people to keep all of America on hold!!

Back after a long time...

After a really long extended hiatus, I am back to blogging. The good news this time is that I think I am going to blog regularly. Why? Coz I'm encouraged by the number of people landing on some of my pages from search engines and more importantly the stuff they have been searching for. These are mainly the 'Thoovanathumbikal blog' and the 'Cow eating' blog, followed by a lot of the smaller and less popular ones.


Now, as to my life, I've made an India trip in Jan, come back to Rolla on the 7th of Feb and as most of you who know me already know, I've accepted a position at Sprint Nextel at Overland Park, so I'll be shifting home on a 230 mile drive in 2 - 3 days. No, I will not be workblogging especially considering the number of people who have lost their job thanks to letting out company secrets and the fact that the Sprint offer letter states that 'We or you can terminate your employment at any time with or without notice.' (Oh! Have I already let a little cat out of the bag??) Anyway, so shrouded in being alone, my major entertainment is probably going to be Youtubing, blogging and making phone calls contingent on Sprint giving me free phone service. I will henceforth also be recommending Sprint rather that Cingular or T-mobile to friends because of the 'thinna chorinu nandi' policy!!

That's all for now. Count on me blogging at least once a week from now!!

Signing off...,