Temple elephant

This is the real thing unlike the green elephants at Ramoji Studios. This was taken outside the temple in Pondicherry. I think the elephant was kinda cute but I always have the fear of getting close to an elephant as one never knows when they would stomp on you.

Which is the best blog host

I have been searching the web for the best free blog host and I was left more confused then ever. I always like the feel of a three column template and the look of the other blog providers but I just can’t seem to find any. I know I can tweak this blogger template to a 3 column blog but I just don’t feel it’s right to that as I am afraid that I would screw up my existing template and I am not an IT nerd either.

Can anyone suggest a good free blog host so that I can test drive that. Or should I stick to what I have now and put this thought to rest.

Unique looking Church

This photo was taken in Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu.

This church has really a unique façade and it looks like the “gopuram” of a hindu temple. I was driving through and got my driver to stop so that I can take a snap shot of it.

Life after 40

Has it ever occurred to you that time just passes you by before you realize it and you are whizzing away to that half century mark in your life. But being in that zone, you don’t realize that you have aged. I still haven’t slowed down yet, but over the years I know I have lost a couple of parts in my body. I took my appendix out when I was 22 or 23 years old and at 46 I took out my gall bladder as I had a 10 mm stone in it. It’s like a car, the older it gets, you have to repair or replace the part, but in my case, it has been taking out the defective parts.

I look at life with a positive attitude and I know whatever that happens, it always happen for a reason. But the funny part is that I don’t know the reasons, but eventually it has a happy ending and also I really don’t have a choice in this matter.

Next year would be my 25th Wedding Anniversary and I am looking forward for that, my first boy would be leaving for Russia for his medical studies and I would also be back working in Malaysia after being 6 years in India.

So I guess, life after 40 is a phase that things get settled down and you can say, wow I have come a long way.

6 years in Hyderabad

Yes that is how long I am in Hyderabad and I can remember my first trip to this city of 6 million inhabitants, the airport was empty and I flew in by Silk Air with my Architect and Quantity Surveyor. In Hyderabad, our local Quantity Surveyor met us and we all stayed in the same hotel.

Since it was a transit flight from Singapore, by the time I got into Hyderabad, I was hungry and could eat a horse. So I went down to the only restaurant that was opened in the hotel, and there they served midnight Briyani and it was also the fasting month for the muslims and hence they had this muslim speciality called “Haleem” and I didn’t know what the hell it was. So for the Briyani buffet, after filling my plate with “Gosh (mutton)Briyani”, I went to help myself with the haleem and to my my surprise there wasn’t any mutton pieces inside the gooey stuff, I thought to myself, hey these people are short changing me since it is mid-night and it could be left overs from lunch or dinner. It was like dal, and I took the haleem and had my supper without complaining as I am in a foreign country.

The following day I casually asked our partner who was a Hyderabadi, what happened to the mutton pieces in the haleem and the hotel is not giving what it promised and to my surprise, he told me that haleem is cooked with flour(maida), spices and mutton over 6 to 7 hours and everything becomes gooey and I had a good laugh.

The most glaring difference that I noticed was the head shaking, they move it sideways for a yes and I had a little bit of a problem with the Indian accent too. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying and I guess they couldn’t understand my accent either. I got over it now and when I go back home, now they can’t understand me.

Visiting the Government offices was a drag, it was just like what the British had left when they left India. And the dressing was casual, the officials wear chappels and shirts not tucked in. I was weary of the water they serve at the Government offices, just didn’t want to fall sick.

I stayed in a Hotel for 7 months and I got used to life in a Hotel, I was upgraded by the Hotel management to a Junior Suite with free fruit baskets and a bottle of complimentary beer everyday along with Lays potato chips and other stuff. I also had complimentary cocoktails from 7 pm. to 8 p.m, which I normally extend by double parking on my drinks and the tidbits would serve as my dinner.

When I think back of those days, the streets in Hyderabad was relatively free from traffic and I guess over the past 6 years, things have changed much. Hyderabad has got it’s new airport and traffic is chaotic now. The beautiful trees are chopped down now in the name of road widening. And I can feel the heat when I am in the city. More pubs and restaurants have opened up and I see many new shopping malls have opened up too as the middle class has increased in proportion.

The only positive thing that I have gained from Hyderabad is learning to be patient(I can sit in a place for hours like a buddha meditating) and also my tolerance to spicy food has increased ten fold.

Firefox 3 RC 1

Well I just downloaded Firefox 3 RC 1 and I am on a test drive now. The browser is cool but my blogger site looks a bit handicapped. Some of the widgets cannot be displayed properly. But overall I think it is a cool browser as it is quite fast in loading the pages and maybe it would take some time for all the features to be displayed as this is not the full version.

Anyone with FF RC 1 having any problems? Do let me know what you are doing to rectify it. I find the themes and add on are meant for the older version, it must be a matter of time for the switch over.

I am blogging now with Fire Fox and I think I have a lot of tweaking to do.

Just in case if you want to test drive FFRC 1, here is the link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

This is a snap shot taken during one of my visits back home for my holidays. I had my relatives from US and they wanted to see Kuala Lumpur and I had the privilege to show them Sultan Abdul Samad Building and “the building has long been a landmark for Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. Its predominantly Moorish appearance suitably reflects the cultural background of Malaysia”.
The Sultan Abdul Samad building was constructed in 1897 and has long been a landmark for Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. The unique Moorish-style building has a 41m clock tower, dubbed ‘Big Ben’.
The design of this building was undertaken by a British architect, A.C Norman, who worked for the Public Works Department at that time. In designing this building, he took into consideration some of the features of buildings in several Islamic countries. The predominantly Moorish appearance of the building suitably reflects the cultural background of Malaysia.
The site of this beautiful building was carefully chosen. It is conveniently located at the centre of the old mining town of Kuala Lumpur. It once served as the Colonial Secretariat offices, but now houses the Supreme and High Courts.

Anecdotes from Hyderabad

There are many incidences that I can recall to have a good laugh at times and I still remember an incidence with my driver.

We stopped under a fly over and I realized that we are waiting for the lights to change colour. I also noticed that my driver had the emergency light indicator switched on. So I asked him, is there anything wrong with the car for you to have the lights on. He said to me, “ No Sir” and then I asked him, why are you having the emergency indicator on. To which he replied, when both indicators are flashing, it means the car is not turning left or right, just going straight. So I asked him, how did you get your license, to which he replied, Sir, I sat for the exam and then went for the driving classes and then passed my driving test for the license, little did he realize that I was being sarcastic with him.

The other incident occurred with my secretary, both us went out looking for a laptop for the office and we were at a complex waiting for the lift. I knew the lift was on the upper floor and we had go to the upper floor too. I pressed the lift button up and shortly I found my secretary pressing the down button. I asked her, why are you pressing the down button as the computer shop is on the 5th floor and down is only car park and basement. She gave me an answer that I won’t forget, she told me that since the lift is on top, she pressed the down button for the lift to come down for us. It really shocked me with her concept and are the lifts in Hyderabad really that intelligent. Anyway I can’t blame her as I had noticed most of them do that here and some press the buttons very hard hoping that the lift would arrive faster.

I hope to share some more in my next postings.

©sukku2008

Cook "cooked" it

After all the weeks of excitement, David Cook finally won the American Idol by 12 millions votes. I guess this year it must have been the toughest and the closest competition and I think David Cook deserves the title as he has the personality to carry it.

The finale was a drag as 2 hours was too long a wait to find out and also this morning I came to know of the result from a blog posting. There went my element of surprise but I had the feeling about the result after watching the show last night.

I guess after sometime, the show gets a bit jaded and becomes quite predictable. But with the younger viewers cropping up each year and with the advent of mobile phones for the teenagers maybe the popularity would still linger on.

Anyway I enjoyed myself and I felt the most touchy show was when a girl contestant had her dad passed away in an accident just before she came in for auditioning, I just can’t place her name, but it sure did bring lots of tears to my eyes.

My best to this years winner and I am looking forward for the next American Idol in January next year.

David Cook won the American Idol

After months of competition and elimination… after 96++ million votes… America voted DAVID COOK to win this year’s season of ‘American Idol’! David Cook got 56% of the votes, while Achuleta got 44%. Quite a close fight! Oh, he cried after the announcement!

Very happy that Cook won and not the little Archie. Although Archie was also good, Cook showed more maturity in his performances, which I think made the audience love him more than Archie. Nevertheless, Archie too will definitely have a lot of recording proposals and contracts wowing him in the next days to come.

Well this news is what I got from a blog in the net and it was a spoiler as I was eagerly waiting for the show tonight in India. Guess it has come to an end and I am happy with the result as I believe David Cook has the personality to carry himself.