MELSS

Finally had some time to scribble a new post. This is all about my experience with MELSS.Why MELSS after a long time? Read further.

It was in 1998 timeframe, when my first placement was at MELSS - a company known for punctuality and discipline; apart from manufacturing Board-Wizards. It all went fine for the first few days - just looking around, amazing what an "industry" would look like. More feel-good was the thought about the Rs.810/- stipend that's going to be in my hands at the end of the month. First professional salary, isnt it?

Not even a week passed, I was called-in by my mentor for a discussion. Okay; its really not a discussion, but a informal call (thambi inga vaapa) to inform me the work that I need to do for the next 6 months. MELSS as a product company had different sections - Production, R&D, Testing, Inspection, Documentation and other supporting functions. As an Electronics student, I was expecting me to be placed in Production - where soldering is the primary work. That could give me some chance to improve my soldering skills, learn some ICs and their numbers, and of course, interact with Kanaga madam.

Well, it didnt happen the way I thought. I was placed in Documentation section and my work was to draw professional diagrams for the components/accessories used in Board-Wizard like Cable assemblies, guiding rails, chassey, connectors etc etc in trace papers. To be exact, its like the work of a civil engineer. One other Civil engineering student from MPT who was placed along with me was put in library to take care of book Inventory. I was in a better ship compared to him, but still civil is not my work. But first job and no courage to say a NO.

I was allotted a biiig table, biig board, sliding scale attached to the board, variety of stencils, marker pens,   trace paper roll, erasers and hell a lot of other tools for which I don't know the names still. A good civil guy might know their names atleast.

I was then given a crimped FRC (Flat Ribbon Cable) cable and asked to replicate that on a trace paper with exact dimensions. I really even don't know how to use the pen (its a special drawing pen), ruler and stencil, but no way out. Even after wasting few trace sheets, the cable remained cable still. It did turn up as drawing.  Even the little guidance from my civil colleague didn't help. He just smiled and went away. I gladly understood the meaning of that smile.

I couldn't do anything much till that evening, the productivity was zero, wastage was high; but the heavy concentration on staring at the cable, trying to draw with absolutely no interest gave me an immense head-ache. Luckily my drawing took-kit has an dragon liquid balm already, but that was no match for my pain.

It was at that moment, I really broke-down, felt like my future got dark and had no hope to live. Will the so called "industry" be like this? Giving tool-kit along with dragon liquid balm? Which company will recruit me in campus, if i say that I'm experienced in drawing? Will my complete life go in drawing, since I'm getting trained in that? Am I not fit to do soldering? Is my career starting with a bad luck? How many CLs are allowed per month? Lot of such thoughts - and they all said the same thing "you are screwed". Adding fuel to the fire was that my other three classmates were placed in soldering section.

I was close to tears, and when the pain finally went beyond control, it turned out as courage. I walked directly to my mentor and said "I want to be in soldering and I don't want to do a Civil work". I thought he would understand my situation, but he didnt even show a simple reaction on his face. He coolly said "Do this for one or two days and then lets see how it goes". Though I didn't win, his words gave me some hope at that moment. If i report him a NO for the next 2 days, I can surely get into soldering. Bell rang and day was over.

Next day, I again started staring at the cable, but this time my head-ache was not that intense. After learning the tips and tricks of using the pen, stencil and the ruler - the cable began to take shape on the paper. I also need to mark the component name, company name, "drawn-by", date and other proprietary information as part of every artifact. After the final touch-up is done and the finished drawing was in my hand, I really felt the first taste of success. After a real hard-work, whatever the result it makes - its a pride to enjoy. And if the result is encouraging, joy knew no bounds. My mentor and even the civil guy appreciated my work, since it was out of my domain.

Believe me or not, in the next 6 months, I did drawing for close to 80 accessories for board-wizard. I somehow developed a love towards that job. Complex cable assemblies to simple electromagnetic pen traces - all had my signature. Even now, I believe they will have those originals. They later took a real blueprint of all my drawings and showed me a copy. I till now couldn't believe I did that. Later I was also involved in soldering for few complex FRC assemblies, testing board wizard and helping out QA, but all that became a side-work. I didn't give up the drawing till my last day in MELSS.

Overall, MELSS taught me a very valuable lesson - "You can master any skill in the world - just that you need to love it"..

So, why am I writing this now?.. Simple. Few days back, the situation presented me an opportunity to recall this incident. The first week of my Extreme Networks experience was nothing different than MELSS. Though I could now proudly claim "Iam 11 years experienced in industry", butterflies still fly in stomach when changing to a new role. Adapting to the current environment is always a challenge; as we cannot expect anything around us to change, except us.

Two weeks passed with a mix of boring, interesting, disappointing and many times lonely feeling. Felt like thrown out of a comfortable to uncomfortable zone. Strangely, I even thought once "Did I make a wrong move?". But then I realized, "I haven't started loving my job yet". It might take some more time to for me to adapt to the new environment, people and the culture there, but once that happens, its going to be a smooth ride. That's when I say "MELSS experience is yielding its results"...

Vaagai Sooda Vaa

After a long time, I had an strong urge to watch a movie in theatre. Biased after reading a positive review for Vaagai Sooda Vaa, I zeroed in for the film. A quick check into the Raaki Cinemas site surprisingly confirmed there are enough tickets available for the film. Since most of the crowd was drawn towards Engeyum Eppodhum and Vedi, MiniRaaki had only some 50-60 viewers in a seating capacity of around 300. One advantage in that was I could peacefully see the film, except bearing some nuisance from a Vellamal college gang.

So, herez my review of the film in my standard review template...

Abstract - Backdrop set in 1966, the film is all about Vimal, a PUC passout and teacher training completed youth waiting for a "Sarkar" job to fulfil his fathers ambition goes to educate students in a remote village temporarily to gain an experience certificate, that could speed up getting his government teacher job. How he gains the village attention and his encounter with the village head who keeps the villagers illiterate forms the crux.

Plus - 

1. Backdrop - Period movies are real tough to make, since each and every minute component have to reflect that old time. Any single instance or object from current period could make us realize we are seeing a movie. In that term, Vaagai Soodava is simply superb. Since the backdrop is a pottal area where bricks are made with some 20-30 houses, the movie didnt have much scope to showcase old time items. But whatever displayed - let it be either the Benz-Leyland lorry or the tea-shop or the costume of Vimal - director has taken immense care in shaping up the movie.

2. Camerawork - Excellent camera work. Opening scene where the complete village is shown and when the villagers gather during the death of that village mystic. Keeps the right ambience throughout the film.

3. Music - New music director it seems. But doesnt sound like that. A couple of songs were pleasant to hear and the bgm was nice. It keeps the movie steady running. Good thing is that the music was kept below the dialogue decible.

4. Comedy - Throughout the movie, comedy is kept at right sense. Vimal in the hands of innocent village children and their teasing, keeps the movie full. I can hear good laughing sound for many scenes in the movie. A classic comedy is when Vimal writes a letter to his father stating the "issues" he is facing in the village.

5. Village Kids - Most of the show is run by few kids. First half is full of their comedy and second half with centiment scenes. In few scenes, we feel the over-acting, but many go well within the story

6. Iniya [heroine] - This was actually my first plus point - but just thought will reserve for the last. A Bharathiraja movie type heroine. Good that Sargunam did not choose a Tapsi or Hansika type heroine for this movie. Iniya, like her name looks very sweet. Though not bearing a top-class look, she fits the movie aptly. Like a Radha for mudhal mariyadhai, she is for this movie. Throughout the movie, she steals the show. In few scenes, her expressions are very impressive. Especially when she hears the "Naan pesa nenaipadhellam" song for the first time and expects Vimal to understand her (or) the way she proposes to Vimal in an innocent way (or) her expressions after she sees Vimal returning back to Village.. shez an village angel... Worth watching the movie once for her alone.

Minus -

1. Storyline - I was really in a dilemma whether to say the story as plus or minus, but I had to put this in minus only for very few points. Overall the screenplay was excellent and the crux of the movie was nice, but I felt it incomplete in certain way. Few things i observed.

   a. No logic in Vimal seeing Ponvannan as villian right from the beginning. Why did  Vimal not meet the village head after he comes to village?

   b. Ponvannan's role is not completed. He goes out of the village with a revenge. Is that all? What will these villagers do futher? Will they join the opponent party?

   c. Climax - As usual, climax just like that ends with Vimal taking a decision to stay back in the village, even after losing his current Grama Seva and sarkar job. How will these villagers take care of him? I felt it should have end with some strong justification, rather just ending abruptly.

2. Vimal Voice - After hearing Vimals "nakkal" and easy slang in Kalavani and Pasanga, his slang here doesnt fit the movie in certain scenes, especially where he speaks with Bhagyaraj when taking his final decision sounds more like drama dialogue delivery. 

3. Vimals acting - Very nice, excepts he acts too "vellandhi" in certain scenes. Watch out for the scene, where he eats the vilangaai given by the village kids and later claiming as poisonous fruit. He overacts. Even Bhagyaraj overacted during the opening scene where he speaks a leeeghty dialogue justifying his ambition for making his son a Sarkar servant. Also heroine overacts in few scenes

4. Cinematic Scenes - Claiming this as "yedhartha" movie, few scenes could have been avoided that follow the tradition cinema template.

   a. Bhagyaraj speaking lengthy dialogue to Vimal in the opening scene - Is that for Vimal or audience? Should that be crisp and short like how a normal father speaks to his son?

   b. Murungakka scene - Though Bhagyaraj is known for this murungakka, should that be impressed here as well? that too when setting the plot for 1966? Pure cinema stuff.

   c. After being beaten to death by village head's baddies, he comes back clean-shaven in the next scene. Even during last scene, he was shown wearing a bandage on his leg before leaving the village. But once he comes back and steps in to the clay, his leg was fine. Sargunam can write a book on how to heal a wound in 24hrs.

   d. Village kids centiment scenes when Vimal leaves the village. Its very cinematic thing stuffed to move the movie towards climax. 

5. Music - Though i mentioned this in positive, there is a certain amount of negative as well. Songs are not  village or 1966 type, and this is a very big drawback. Just costumes alone cannot drag the audience to its ambiance. Except Illayaraja, I cant think of anyone who can do such magic with music. Mudhal Mariyadhai songs are legendary lessons.

Overall - Vaagai Soodavaa is nice to watch once for Sargunam and once more for Iniya. Since it started a very natural movie and stepped into a village, my mind kind-of started comparing it to Mudhal Mariyadhai. After 2.3hrs, i felt that this movie is no match to the legend. But, keeping apart comparison, its good to watch a period movie after a long time. Especially Vimal and Iniya scenes are real cool to watch. Go for it, once.

My Rating - 3/5

MSKs Censored Blog

Not sure how many noted that MSK posted a blog on Sep/8 and removed by Sep/9. Though he is the owner of his site, me and Mahesh clearly said him during our Sep/9 meet that even the owner doesn't have any rights to remove the blog once published publicly. [As long as there is no public request to do so].. But MSK's stand was that he is planning to tweak his blog and repost it. Though that sound well, Iam publishing his original blog here for your information, and obviously without his permission...

Reason - enakku publicity venumnu mudivu panniten...:).. Sorry MSK..

Original Post

Something missing

by MSK

There is something pricking me for all over my life. To be said particularly, am feeling it more after completing my diploma. So, What is it? Is it the feeling of something not fulfilling my life? or I have not fulfilled anything? When I was thinking about it again and again couple of things striking my mind. Would like to share with you people in brief. 

Small story :-)

I have done my primary schooling in Srinivasa Vidyalaya, Hasthinapuram. I rarely remember that I would get 3th / 4th rank in my 3/4/5th standards. It was a bit competetion between 4 of us and yes, it was a healthy one. I had participated in annual day dance programs. I was a good dancer (you should beleive me) at that time, like i will be dancing in the first row always. 

Once I completed the primary schoolings my father admitted me in Government Boys Higher Secondary school, Chromepet for my secondary education. I studied from 6th std to 8th std there. Our class strengths were about minimum 80+ This time I remember well that I am the student of 3/4 th rank out of 3 or 4 ranks. Just imagine about the students educational potential at that time in my class, 4 ranks out of 80 students. I was an very average student where my total would be around 300 out of 500. Since we have shifted our house from Hastinapuram to Kolathur, I studied my 9th and 10th std in ICF Hr Sec School. The same average ranks continued, even I have failed in Maths subject while conducting 10th std half yearly exams. Since it is a public exam my parents asked me to go tution classes to score well. Well, I managed to score 82% in my public exams which is beyond my standard.

Accidentally I got a seat in Murugappa Polytechnic to join and study about Elaectronics and Communication. A good 3.5 years passed with some learnings (subject / personal), with some arrears, with lots of fun. I am still an average student there too, not bothered about to bring up my full potential. Still I doubt on my interest level on subjects while studying.

Matterku varuvom

1st matteru

But whatever the stages I crossed I know I have not made my full efforts to bring up my entire potentials. Being work with 10+ years of industry experience I frankly admit myself that I never put my 100% efforts. But I have a self belief that if I put 100% efforts, i would have been in a very good position designation wise as well as salary wise. When I was working as an IFR coordinator in Airtel, my boss was commented on my ability skills like, "nee nenacha puliya kooda pudippa, aana sethaalum nenaika maata" which i thought it was true. This is the major part which i missed / missing in my life.

2nd matteru

If I just turn and see my past 30 years, hardly I dont feel that I have lived 30 years, its just like an 30 days. Majorpart of my life I have covered in just 3 paragraphs. To say it clearly 50% of my life. Nothing is more to tell you about it.

I have some thought(you may call it as an ambition) of starting a school and give some free education to the people who is living under poverty. This thought i have, since i completed my polytechnic. I really believe that it would be the purpose of my life to live.  But i realise that already 11 years gone since i completed the polytechnic and it passed for nothing. Now, slowly i afraid that another 10 - 20 years also will go like that for nothing. I feel earning and living (survival) itself has become tedious for me nowadays. So what will happen to my ambitions is still an unanswered question. So, Whats missing?

Having good thoughts are fine. But did I learn how to implement those? Its not only the question of learning to implement, Am I ready to compromise my comfort zone what am I in now? Is that fire is always on without getting dim? or do I need fuel consistently to burn it high? What should I do to burn it high to become what in my thoughts? Am I still an average man that I cannot perform any task with my own? Is it the trend that it continues from my schools? Is it not the right time to think about those things?

I dont get answers for some of these questions, some answers to some extent Iam not ready to change myself or compromise my comfort zone. These are the problems that Iam the only person to face? or most of us sailing in the same boat? I dont know. If the answer is yes, then come we will think together to fulfill our life.

MSK

Velliangiri Trekking

During my course of life, I have come across many worst and best days. But if I need to point a day that was both my best and worst day at the same-time, its 16/July, the day we decided to trek Velliangiri hills. 

We were a team of 6 including me, volunteered to trek the hills. Our trekking plan was simple, 

1. Start to coimbatore from chennai on Saturday [16/July/2K11] morning

2. Reach Velliangiri by afternoon

3. Start trekking by evening

4. Reach hill-top by midnight - Stay a couple of hours in hill-top

5. Step-down by early morning and catch the afternoon train

6. Return to chennai by Sunday night

The plan sounded fantastic..and we all agreed to it. Acting a bit professional, we watched for the Coimbatore weather report a day in advance and knew it was raining there. So our trek bag implicitly had a Raincoat along with other items. [Torch, Glucose, Snacks, Dinner, Additional clad].

As planned, we all started by 16th very happily without being aware of the nightmare waiting for us. On the way to Velliangiri foot-hills from CBE railway station, we heard our first demotivating dialogue from the cab driver, who has already trekked the mountains 5-6 times. He said "Trekking at this time? Its heavily raining at the top and you cannot cross even 4 hills. Iam not sure even you will be allowed to trek.."

Having heard enough of it, our worries were all about whether trekking will be allowed or not. With our pulses raising, we reached the foothills of the mountain, and heard from a localite that trekking is allowed.. Felt a bit relaxed we said to ourselves "No one can stop us.. :)"..

By then, it starting drizzling in the foot-hills itself. We casually enquired a local shopkeeper there about trekking who nodded his head side-side and replied strongly "Dont trek now. Its heavily raining at the top and you cannot cross 4 hills. Its very risky"  - Same piece of caution as said by the driver. 

Hearing the caution twice, we had a opinion from one of our friend to "return back safely, rather taking risk". I think thats the time we saw a group of young chaps coming down the hill after a successful trekking. They have started trekking in the morning [7am] and have reached down by 3.45pm. Damn energetic. We again enquired them about the situation at the top, and the reply was - SAME, but with a bit positive statement. "If you have raincoats and torch lights, you can trek". Those guys must have thought we are professionals :)

Hearing these words, we got the courage to say "Lets make it up"... Wise decision indeed.

After finding a suitable "third-leg" [cane of course!], and throwing all burden on Lord Shiva, we entered the zone..

Before going what happened next, a quick intro into what the mountain is all about.. Velliangiri, is a stretch of 7 hills that we need to trek to see a shivalingam on the top of the 7th hill. This hill is not as popular as Sadhuragiri or other spiritual places, and hence still remains a natural hill. Its very raw, shows no mercy  and very few people are trekking now. Professional trekkers rate this in "intermediate" level of trekking. For amatures like us, its obviously "advanced" level. Pathway to trek is clear but very "mountainy"..

1st and 2nd hill - Steps laid using rocks - Close to 4000+ steps, that will test your patience

3rd hill - Climb a slippery rock - Steps carved for better grip

4,5th hill - A Rough path - No proper steps and way full of rocks. Covered by Trees on both the sides

6th hill - A Rough path - No proper steps and way full of rocks. Open landscape without any trees

7th hill - A steep climb to the top. Hill in open space without any trees

Each of the hill demands atleast 45-60mins for trekking..

After 2hours of non-stop climbing in the steps, we reached a small Ganesh temple located at the end of 2nd hill. Meantime, it started raining. Sensing the situation going out of our hands, we had only two choices

1. Stay that night in the temple itself and proceed trekking the next morning

2. Get down and travel back home.

With this discussion going on, we saw a couple of military guys crossing us to trek the hill. Added surprise, one tamil guy was stepping down the hill after his successful darshan. This gave us an additional boost up to take the third option that was not in the list earlier - "Lets proceed"

We walked up, walked up and walked-up is what i could say.

The third hill and the fourth was enjoyable to walk, since both the sides were covered with trees, it was chill and drizlling like heaven. But one thing we kept on hearing above us was the howling of wind.

When we stepped on the fifth hill, lighting fell off and darkness started surrounding. Torches ON, we couldnt see anything next to us. The fifth hill has no trees surrounded, its just a plain area and the wind played a storm here. With heavy wind and severe rain around, we could sense chill up down our spines. To be honest, i have never been in a situation like that before. It was enjoyable, daring and life threatening. I never even imagined in my wildest dream that the sound of a wind could be such scary. More than rain, the wind - its chillness and the sound it made was a perfect mix to make one scared, if he is all alone.

Sixth hill was a real challenge - it was like playing a game where challenges gradually increase with levels. With sixth hill, we had the toughest challenge of our life-time. Wind was so heavy that many times we are about to get pushed-off. If at all, not having the cane for support, we are close to be carried away dead. Such an intense wind. We were literally praying [and joking as well] that lightning/thunder should not happen. We are in midst of the rainy clouds there. If at all, two clouds clash, our scream will be the thunder for the night. Now the rain became very thick and continous and we are walking with bare-foot immersed in water for close to 6hrs - feel the pain.. 

More pain is hearing the sound of rain drops hitting our rain-coat. 6hrs of hearing the "SSSSHHH" sound continuously, it was hell like watching DD channel when signal is cut. Biggest risk again is that at the sixth hills, we are just wakling on the edge of mountains with the deep-side just few metres away and there are is no support to catch if we fall down. Even if could catch the grass and other stuff, we are sure to get sucked by leeches to death. [kirumi-bojanam?]

Completely exhausted, we reached the foot-hills of seventh hill and its one hour straight climb from there. Ela was saying us the seventh hills is just opposite us, but we couldnt actually see even the shade. If at all we couldnt even see such a big mountain in front of us, think of our condition. Just trapped in dark. Such a darkness around us, and looking up for a second will fill our eyes with rain water.

One of our member called for a adhoc meeting at the foot-hills to confirm "Whether to take this ultimate risk".  While many of us were mentally fit to make the ride, our physical conditions showed a lag - 

1. Drenched in rain for 6hrs, we could feel chill down the spine. We were for sure unable to bear the cold. 

2. Wind around us was getting mad [rudra-dhandavam] as well damn chill making the conditions even worse. 

3. Rocks were already slippery with water flowing continously and taking a ride on a steep hill is tough

4. Even if we get to the top by midnight, we cannot stay there for that long to enjoy the sunrise during morning

Finally it was decided its more than enough risk taken till 6th hill, and not to bet nature anymore. Its was 9.30pm or so we took the stand to return back. Biggest challenge again was to walk-down the hills for 6 more hours without any break. But we had no other choice, rather taking it up.

After a non-stop walk for 5hrs - by 2.30am we reached the temple at the base on 2nd hills. Frankly, I have never walked 10-12hrs in my life continously. The trip was such tough, and sucked up all our energies. Biggest pain was we still have to trek 2 more hours to reach the base. Luckily, there was one other group staying that night in the temple and they have already lit campfire. That was a big releif for us to get ourselves warm and had our dinner [or breakfast] that we took with us. After a 30mins break for warm-up, we trekked  [stepped] down 2 more hours to the base by 4.30am.

Other fun down the base was that everyone's alternate clothes were also dripped wet in their bags, except me - for i had them wrapped them in polythene cover. Though it sounds simple, that was the need at the moment - a dry cloth to wear. After managing somehow, call-taxi reached there by 6.30am to get us back to railway station. Luckily rooms were already booked near the railway station in a decent hotel. A good hot water bath relieved all physical pain. 

Though the mission wasn't complete as planned, the experience we had was at its extreme. Even if we had trekked all the 7 hills on a fine breezy day, this raw experience would have been lost. We witnessed a part of how fierce nature could be at its den. Neverthless, Iam not sure if i will face such situations anymore in life - and I dare not. That's one other learning we get from such trekking - face the toughest; and we had it till our spine. But this is not going to drain away our desire to trek the mountain again - if time permits and shiva wishes we will trek once again to kiss the peak. 

PS - After we reached home safely, one of our trekking member informed that he saw a cobra during our way up watching-us in its full-form [padam eduthu ninnuruku]. Not to create any panic, he didnt inform us, but did alert us to take different side of the path. Appreciate his care towards us, but still we missed watching the cobra in a jungle. Anyhow, will watch it next time and write a big blog on it.

Fun part of the trip  -
1. One funny part in this trip was from our team mate Naneswaran [Guy with red-cap in the below picture] who was trekking for the first time [excluding his mini-trek of 1000 steps at kolli hills as preparation for this trip] . At 9.30pm when we decided to return back from 6th hills, he said he was hungry and wanted a dinner break. But since it was heavily raining at the top, we couldn't stop for break anywhere. In 4th/3rd hills, we were under trees and had some shade [only leeches problem here], and he again prompted that he was damn hungry. From there every 10mins, he was reminding that he was hungry and Ela was consoling him that we will reach the temple at end of 2nd hills and plan for dinner. No one cared for stop for him. For us all, it was "lets end the trip somehow". Food was secondary. Finally, it was at 2.30am in the morning Ela allowed him to have his dinner. Though everyone was hungry, he suffered a lot. Poor chap.

2. After reaching the base of 2nd hills at 2.30am, there was one other team who already lit campfire and were warming up. When we reached there, one of their folks asked us to collect some firewood scattered few meters away, since campfire is running out of fuel. Since we were completely drenched and not in mood to face rain again, we just started warming up. After sometime the guy who asked us to collect the firewood, said that he saw some "bright-eyes" in the dark woods and hence scared to go and collect woods. He was cleverly throwing that risk on us. Though we came up from the same path where he said he spotted "two bright-eyes" we were more desperate to warm-us ourselves than getting scared. Ela was consoling us that it could be some forest dog sniffing around. Hope it was so, else we would have missed watching a tiger/cheetah face-face.

Just one sample photo taken at 5th hills on our way up @ 8pm.. This picture says me hell a lot of stuff...

Read Velliangiri Trekking - Part 2 here

MPT Autograph - Guest lecture

One fine day, Mr.MSK FYI'ed me that he has "committed" APS sir about presenting a session on "Networking basics" to our MPT juniors. There is no big surprise element in this news, since everyone in our batch know that Mr.MSK is a MPT-Alumni member, and he always gets insight into whats happening there. No wonder one day he becomes a Board member of the very same polytechnic where he studied :)..

After being tired of his multi-dimensional service to MPT, MSK passed on this opportunity of guest lecturing to me. Since I had no pressing [or even normal] commitments for the week-end, I thought of giving it a try, atleast in the name of "giving back to the society" or more technically a "knowledge transfer" session to current students of where we came in from. One thing I really wasn't sure of what to present, and I kept asking Mr.MSK to send me the syllabus till 11th hour, so that I could prepare something on those lines before going in for the session. [Finally Mr.MSK passed me the syllabus when standing before the students, the 12th hr]

So, it was decided that the session will be conducted on Saturday, 20th August between 10am to 1pm - a 3hour schedule to let students know [not understand] the basics of what networking means. A surprise news from APS came in Friday stating that there will 90 students attending the session and drawing hall is blocked for the event. I wasn't really thinking about that big audience, since we had only 26 members in our batch. I was expecting some 30-35 students at max for the session in PCB lab. Somehow, making up my mind, I  refreshed myself on the OSI layers, Hub, Switch concepts and other basic fundas of networking. A nice reading for me indeed. 

The next-day, myself and MSK were there in MPT by 9.50am - a 10min ahead schedule. A call from APS to MSK said that "APS was on his way still and he will be here in next 15mins.. actually he forgot to bring the drawing room key and he is going back to fetch that".. So, now that we had a extended 15 minute window, we just went through roaming around the campus. The first sight itself was astonishing - a group of 20-25 girls under the tree near the electronics lab all clad in blue. Few boys roaming here and there in small groups. We could see a very good difference between what we were those days and what these guys are now... Boys wearing Reebok shoes with cell phones in hand.. I ain't sure how many of us really know atleast the "Reebok" brand when studying, and cell-phones, not even existing at that time. Only those small pagers and very rich guys having that "brick" model phone.

Now back to story - It was all nostalgic walking through the campus, a trip from the principal room - auditorium - canteen [double decker now] - new building besides canteen - international standard cricket ground [when it was just a ground, it really served its purpose. Now its a cricket ground, but no students to play] - PCB lab - Sheet metal [mallet] lab, mechanical lab and back underneath the tree.. We sat there for few minutes awaiting APS arrival, and finally he came.

Iam really shocked to see APS after a very long time... Though identifiable, he became very lean to what I remember him last. Time shows no mercy to anyone. He really couldn't recollect me, and confirmed with MSK whether I studied in his batch only. Then, he opened the drawing-hall, which is nothing but our old Auto-CAD room where all PCs are removed and benches are now placed. Needless to say, how can one forget this room, the place where we really saw how a computer looks like, a place where we took days to learn how to draw a line from point-A to point-B, a place that VT madam and Philomina was sitting with lot of books and record notes in the center-table, giving the room a hifi computer room look... Its all gone now folks; except the memories..

Within next few minutes all students gathered up in the drawing hall - a close to 70:30 girls:boys ratio. Not sure why there are less boys. When myself and MSK entered in the drawing hall - all students stood up and said "good morning sir". [nammalayum periya manishana madichi....] A quick chat with students, we came to know that there were two batches attending the days session - ECE regular and ECE sandwich making up the ~80-90 headcount. APS sir was sitting in front row with a notepad for taking notes. He is still learning.

Around 10.30am, MSK after his quick into, started the session in his own style, throwing up the first question on "what is networking" and  then going a bit into some postal-address to IP-address mapping,  then handed over the session to me. Just before getting into the session, APS  sir gave us the Networking syllabus with a surprise message that these students will undergo that syllabus only in their next semester, which means the audience in front of me dont know anything about networking. An additional responsibility on us to make sure we don't incept any wrong impression on networking into these fresh minds. 

After making sure everyone knows Tamil, and requesting everyone to close their note-books [as usual everyone has opened up their notebooks to take reference] and only listen to what the concepts are being told, I just started up explaining the same old "lets make two PCs speak through OSI layers". To my surprise, students are really brilliant catching up the concepts to speed. Atleast they looked like they understood. They even throwed back questions like 'what protocol means', 'what is MAC', 'what is Transport and Networking layer doing' and stuff like that.. I really have to dilute the OSI layers to its very simple, just for the students to understand that a packet traverses through some virtual layers before being spit.

After a 5 minute break by 12, we again gathered up for an introduction on Hubs, Switches and Routers. By 12.30, we closed the session with a Q/A part. You will be surprised if i say that all questions that we asked on the OSI layers, Products, Products-OSI layer mapping are answered good. Not sure whether they will remember these concepts for days to come, but I was really satisfied that I have done my job to my best.

Finally, APS sir stepped up on the dias and requested few students to come-up and share their feedback. To be honest, it was the real funny stuff guys. A guy came up and said that "I did not know anything on networking, OSI layers, but now i learnt things.. Thanks to these people".. Next APS called in for a  girl to come up and speak. After a brief silence, the first row girl stood up the repeated what the guy said - just with some is/was changes. Now, APS requested one student from ECE-Sandwich to represent her department. Same old story. One girl came up and repeated the same story - as if she is enlightened on every networking aspects; though we didnt cover even the basics to its fullest. But good, from being "knowing nothing" to "knowing something" makes a difference. For them what we taught is the whole of networking now.

After a successful wrap-up, APS sir collected my details with a note that, an engineer with 10yrs can come as external during examination - which MSK is already doing. I really dont want to step in there, but just gave my contact details for courtesy. 

Overall, it was a very nice experience for me taking a session for such fresh minds, and i need to thank Mr.MSK for presenting the chance and special thanks to APS for organizing it. Later we were informed that these students need [are compelled] to go in for a upcoming 2 day self-paid session by DOT. Without knowing anything on the basic fundamentals, APS is not much comfortable in making these students shell money out of their pocket, which obviously the students are resisting to attend now, and hence this pre-requisite session as a teaser-trailer. 

I really appreciate his care towards the students, taking such a responsibility of catching MSK to organize such session, requesting students to attend, coming-in over a week-end [which is not a compulsion for him], and he himself sitting in the front row taking notes. Its really hard to see such dedicated personnel these times. 

But it was a bit painful for me to hear some comments passed by the current students on him. They right now dont understand what people like APS is doing to shape-up their career. Its all fun for them now, as we had 10 years back. 

1. "Pls dont pass on the session to APS sir - neengale edunga" - This is a common comment and I believe we would have done the same thing if we were in students shoes

2. "When APS is taking networking or C class, he is often jumping into explaining capacitors/optocouplers" - This was really shocking comment I heard. Why the hell an electronics expert like APS is teaching (or asked to) computer networking/C programming? Is polytechnic feeding grass to tiger? An expert should be allowed to become domain-expert, rather making him "Jack of all, Master of none" type. How immersed APS should be with electronics, if he jumps explaining capacitors from C programming that are no way related..

After coming home, I really felt that I should have taken the last couple of minutes to explain students about APS and his dedication in arranging such sessions in the interest of students future. No one was really there to explain us these things when we were studying, but now we are there, just to say them that there are  still "ladders" like APS to shape them up.

HTC Incredible S - Review

After using my HTC Incredible S for successful 10 days, I thought of scribbling a quick review. I'aint going to write anything new apart from tons of review data that is already on Net. But still, as a end-user, will share few honest pros and cons of this phone.

Before getting into the review, just need to say that mobile market has changed. Days are gone where we selected mobiles based on features like dust-proof keyboard, torch light and color display. These are no more considerations now. Differentiators are now Processor Speed, Single/Dual Core, Operating System, OS version, ROM, Camera MP, display size and make.. No more mobiles, they are smart-phones..Unless one has some knowledge about what processor means, which OS is best, its very easy that they fall spending thousands on a wrong device. Whatever we spend is just for the hardware and not for software. Its like purchasing a laptop.

Lets start with Pros -

1. If your requirement is just a mobile, a Nokia 1100 is the choice. If you are thinking of a smart-phone then the second best available phone in the market is HTC brand. Needless to say IPhone tops the chart still. Samsung Galaxy S2, the  new competitor for HTC is picking up market. But it has its own limitations. The display size is big and cannot easily be handled. Cost of Samsung is also high.

2. Android - This is the only word that keeps HTC topping the chart, even overtaking Apple and Nokia counterparts. With Apple running their iOS and Nokia running Symbian, downloading gadgets for those mobiles simply mean shelling few bucks. A monopoly market.With Android, powered by  Google and millions of developers breaking their heads to publish gadgets in Android market, its now your choice on how to mend your hardware. A simple phone or a super computer..

3. Gorilla-Glass display - Chemically hardened scratch proof glass displays. Same like iPhone. With 4" display, viewing web-pages as-it-is [non mobile-version] is easy and you really dont need to strain your eyes. 

4. Sensitive Touch - The display is damn-sensitive is what i would say. Let it be single or multi pinch, the processor recognizes and does the job easily.

5. Apps - Android market is the webspace where all android OS gadgets are available for download. With tons of free Apps, you really dont need to spend anything, except if you need some really cool apps like games. Quick list of Apps loaded in my mobile

Games/Entertainment [Angry birds, Sudoku, Unblock Me, Drag racing, Talking Tom, Trashcan]

Utilities [GMail, GTalk, Mail [Microsoft exchange], YahooMail, Opera Browser, Dolphin Browser]

Others [Youtube, Facebook]

Believe me or not, there are anti-virus [AVG] apps that are available in market for download and use. I havent seen iphone market yet, but Android market has tons of useful apps.

6. Always Connected - HTC has all possible options to connect data - WiFi, Edge, USB, Internet bypass, Bluetooth etc. GPS comes along for navigation. Just enable data connection, and you are live on net. Anytime check your personal mails, publish photos/videos to facebook, chat using Gtalk or get your office mails delivered to your mobile. You really dont need a laptop. Its all there in your hands, very compact. Connect the phone to your laptop and you get a USB disk. Enable Wifi-Hotspot and transform your phone to be a internet gateway for other devices.

7. HTC Sense - This is the HTC theme (Front-end over Android) that is incharge of all GUI capabilities, be it be the multi-home capability to drag/drop/installation/removal of Apps to complete customization of your phone. Very cool GUI. IPhone 4 has comparable features like these in it. 

8. Pricing - HTC comes with a decent price compared to Samsung Galaxy or iPhone 4. Despite paying heavy price iphone lacks adobe flash support, which in my opinion is a very big drawback. 99% internet sites in this world have flash content loaded. Even some versions of Samsung phone dont support flash. However Galaxy S2 supports flash and HTC supports flash in all their models.

9. Audio Quality - HTC provides surround-system [SRS] effects when listening to audio files, and the effect is really cooool... Coupled with their branded ear phones, hearing songs is joy. But a slight disadvantage is that the audio is not loud. I have listed this in negative.

10. Multitasking - No need to exit your Internet browser, when you are addicted to angry birds. Just load the browser, type your URL, go back to phone's main window and start playing your favorite game or do any other mess while your browser still loading your data in background. The phone does effective multi-tasking. 

There are most positives to list, but no time to write.. Now, no product is complete in all aspects, atleast from a tester's view. Few negatives I observed with HTC Incredible S.

1. Pocket-Answering - This is a damn big GUI issue that many HTC users are facing [as seen on HTC blogs]. When your phone rings, you need to "drag-down" the arc-slider to answer or "drag-up" to decline the call. With sensitive touch display, when taking the phone out from your shirt/pant pocket for picking the call, the slider is either dragged up or down when it bruises inside your pocket. Most of time, I take the phone out of my pocket to see that the call is already accepted and someone at the rear saying "helllllo".. A simple solution to this issue is to go for a "slide-side-to-answer" like iphone rather "drag-to-answer". But HTC  doesnt support this swipe-slide model style. Iam planning to purchase a flap-pouch for my mobile, just to overcome this issue. "Workaround" is to purchase a new app from market supporting the slide-style costing few dollars.

2. Unicode Support - This phone doesn't directly support viewing tamil sites or checking a mail scripted in native language using Gmail, Facebook, Mail or YahooMail Apps. A very big setback I observed. Anyhow the workaround now was to use Opera browser that could transform tamil fonts as bitmaps and display it on the phone and this works for now. However, direct unicode support should have done the job. 

3. Audio volume - With our ears used to listen  "mariamma" songs in a high decibel cone tied in front of our door, this phone outputs a decent audio volume, but not enough while travelling in Indian Roads. Even with 100% volume, the traffic noise overtakes leaving no clue of the lyrics heard. But in a silent environment, even the smallest instrumentals used can be clearly noted. With audio Surround enable, you get a good theatrical effect.. Pleasant to hear. Best to use with car audio players.

4. Battery life - If used only for attending calls/SMS, the battery life is damn-good. A charge once in two days should do. But if data services are enabled [mails/gtalk/youtube/GPS/Maps], the phone turns a battery-monster eating up complete charge within a day. Though its understood, batteries needs to be more rugged.

5. Keep an Eye - If its Nokia 1100, we dont mind dropping the phone a couple of times or travelling in a crowded bus with the phone in shirt pocket. [8 years back my Nokia 1100 was pick-pocketed on the way from Teynampet-Central :( ].. But with this significant cost investment, its always pain to watch out whether the phone is still ours. Its just not the phone that gets stolen, your complete Gmail, FB , Yahoo, Outlook, Gtalk accounts are compromised. Its like losing your personal laptop where all passwords are browser-saved.

This is it for now folks. Will write sometime later if i come across any other interesting issues/updates with this phone... Till then, I  look for any comments to this blog or any other counter blogs from new blog-owners...

PS - Spl. thanks to Sarah for her wonderful pose with the Incredible HTC  in hand...

Kuselan

This is not the Kuselan movie review. But about the original Krishna-Kuselan [Sudama] story. So, whats special in the story? Its heard, read and even seen many times. Yes, there is something special in this story that i very recently understood after reading it from Srimadh Bhagavatam. Its all the emotional part that is missing in the version of the story what we [atleast I] heard so far.

Just a recap of what we know widely... Krishna was the king of Dwaraka and Kuselan was his childhood friend. Krishna was rich whereas his friend was leading a poor life. Kuselan's wife once requested him to meet Krishna and seek his help to overcome their poverty. Kuselan accepting her request, journeyed to meet his friend with some beaten-rice [aval] as offering to his friend. Krishna on seeing Kuselan felt very happy, accepted the offering from him ate it. Kuselan after meeting his friend returned to his neighborhood, without requesting for  money in return, just to see that all of his wife's wealth requirements are already satisfied..

Now, the same version of story; close transliteration to what i read in Bhagavatam. The core story is still the same, but the way few small incidents are narrated and emotions are portrayed are excellent in the original version. I pretty well know the emotions will be lost during my translation, but let this create a drop of interest in you guys to read the original story to enjoy its fullness.

With more rhyming and timing...

Krishna after destroying Kamsa started ruling his Dwaraka kingdom. He was tied with full of political duties such that he couldnt go back to his home town Brindavan to meet his family, atleast for 100 years. Day in and out, there were kings, politicians, business man and other big merchants always waiting to see Krishna and seek his help for their needs. Krishna though couldn't get relieved from his political duties,  cannot stop thinking of his family and friends.

On the other end, Kuselan, the childhood friend of Krishna was leading a normal life. Though he possessed no wealth, he had a good wife and children. Kuselan was always thinking about his friend and his god, Krishna. He had a burning desire in him to meet Krishna, but his family conditions didn't allow him. Now, Kuselan's wife thought if her husband could meet Krishna, he could help them to overcome their poverty. But she didnt have the guts to request her husband to seek Krishna for financial help. Though poor, Kuselan had his self-respect. So, one day she requested her husband to go and meet Krishna, since he always remembers and speaks about him. 

With this unexpected permission from his wife, Kuselan exclaimed that he will start the journey to meet Krishna the same day. Now his wife intelligently did one thing. She asked her husband not to go empty-handed to meet his friend, who is now a king. Instead she will pack beaten-rice [Aval], that Kuselan can take as an offering to the king. She then tore the edge of her saree and the torn piece itself had several patches. She wrapped the beaten-rice in the patched cloth. Her idea was simple. Kuselan will never ask Krishna for financial help. But Krishna, if he sees the patched-cloth that wraps the offering, will definitely get a clue of their poverty and may offer Kuselan the required financial help. She saved her husband's self-respect along with expressing their condition to the king symbolically. Genuine thinking.

Kuselan now started his journey very happily, as he was meeting his old friend after a long time. He was running all nostalgic thoughts about their old days on the way to Dwaraka. Finally after reaching Dwaraka, he was astonished to see high-profilic guys like kings, merchants and business man waiting at the gate of Krishna's palace with rich gifts wrapped as offering to meet him atleast once. This poor man lost all his hope that he could meet Krishna. When such top people with costly gifts itself were waiting days to meet Krishna, where is he? With little hesitation, he approached the gate-keeping soldier and informed his wish to meet Krishna. To his surprise, the gate-keeper replied to walk him straight inside the palace and meet the king. Astonished, he asked the gatekeeper on whether he said was for real. Gate keeper said him about the king's order on allowing any holy-men into palace immediately without any wait. Other kings who were waiting in the queue were now looking at Kuselan jealously. Kuselan himself was embarrassed a lot for moving ahead of queue bypassing all other kings waiting to meet Krishna atleast once. 

On reaching the court-yard, Krishna spotted Kuselan coming to meet him. He swiftly jumped from the throne to receive him with a loving hug. Both of them went into tears. Enormous joy gripped them. Kuselan still spell-bound didn't expect the next shock he is going to encounter. Krishna took Kuselan forward, set him in his throne and he himself sat at his feet and asked to bring water: “I myself will wash his feet,” said Krishna. And all those around stood in full perplexity: the very Krishna washes Kuselan’s feet. What else to say? God and Goddess washing a true devotees feet. 

Krishna then took Kuselan to his personal chamber and seated him on his bed and sat down besides him. Krishna then asked Kuselan "What did you bring for me?". Only now Kuselan recovered back and remembered about the beaten-rice that he brought to Krishna. But he is again in shy and trouble. Will a king like Krishna accept this offering? With hesitation, Kuselan offered the rice that he brought to Krishna. 

On receiving the offering, Krishna was so happy and started opening the knot with almost excitement like a kid. He took one handful of beaten-rice and ate it happily. Kuselan felt so subtle on seeing such a king receiving his small offering and asked him "Is this so good than the offerings that other kings have with them waiting in the queue?". 

Krishna said "Precious offering from other kings or merchants to me in turn expects something from me. A king offering me gold expects me to threaten his neighboring king for not to mess with them. Other merchant waiting to offer pearls expect me to do some thing in favor of him".

"But this offering is 'only for me' and has no expectations in it".

Krishna then took the second handful of beaten-rice and ate it happily. He also offered it to his beloved Rukmani. Since the offering came from a poor-house, the beaten-rice was not cleaned up properly and had some husk in it. On husk scratched Krishna's mouth and it started bleeding. Kuselan on seeing this went into tears and cursed him for offering a dirty food to king. He remembered how Yasoda cared Krishna during his childhood, making sure even the softest butter would not harm him. Now the husky offering brought him trouble. But Krishna did not care about this. He was completely submerged inside the love of his devotee.

Now he took the third handful of rice and ate it happily. Kuselan couldn't do anything except watching Krishna with tears of joy. Krishna when tried to eat the fourth handful of beatren-rice, Rukmani stopped Krishna and said "Its enough". Krishna accepted her request.

After few days, Kuselan requested Krishna to relieve him home, since his wife and kids will be waiting. He didn't seek any financial help from Krishna, nor was that his intention for the journey. But, his heart was full of love and completeness in seeing his friend; the god himself. 

He journeyed his way back to get greeted by his family in a rich condition. All the wealth she thought was granted more than enough. Kuselan had no words to thank his friend, but the wealth did not appeal anything to him. He already was enlightened after seeing Krishna. He later quit his family and wealth and started his journey into divine. Kuselan became one of the great saint and achieved oneness with Krishna.

So, whatz missing to be told is "Why did Rukmani stop Krishna from eating the fourth-handful of rice?". With the first two handfuls of rice, Krishna liberated Kuselan from his past and future deeds. The third handful of  offering accepted gave him Moksha. This is the best a god can offer to his devotee. But Krishna was so submerged in the pure love of his devotee, he gave him everything already, still went ahead. I hope, that could put Kuselan more than God himself. Rukmani sensing that Krishna would even give up himself for a true love, stopped him from eating the fourth handful of rice.

The story ends here folks.  This is just a story in the ocean of Bhagavatam. Whenever we think of friendship, we remember Karna-Duriyodhana or the Krishna-Kusela stories. The first story is all about very true and trustful friendship, but the latter is about love and devotion, not just friendship. For Karna, there is a reason for friendship; Duriyodhana saved him from an insult, gave him a kingdom to rule and treated him equal to other kings. But for Krishna-Kusela there are no outward reasons, except they are childhood friends. What knit them together is the devotion Kuselan had for Krishna.

Moral of the story - Nothing... Just read and enjoy..

ஔவையாரும் empty CUP'um...

Few days back I was just snooping through some of the tamil magazines in the library and stepped upon one supplementary magazine that had the following quote boxed in the corner of a page.

எந்தெந்த பொருளின் மேல் உனக்கு ஆசை இல்லையோ அந்த பொருளால் உனக்கு துன்பம் இல்லை - ஔவையார் 

[Rough translation - Anything that you don't desire will not bring you suffering] 

So, what'z special in the above quote? This is just piece in midst of thousands of other spiritual quotes/advice's that we come across. But, the beauty I see in this quote is its simplicity and easyness to follow. How simple? One thing that immediately struck into my mind after reading this quote is the famous message from Gautama the Buddha "Desire is the cause of all suffering". This means, if you need to get out of suffering you need to stop desiring. In my opinion, this Buddhist quote is very abstract, heavy and raw. It just concludes the root-cause for suffering, but fails to mention the ways [easy ways of course!] to overcome suffering. The ways could have been mentioned in Buddhism, but how many have patience to read and follow Buddhist life in full to kill desire, overcome suffering and get liberated?. Everyone likes an easy and shortcut way to follow advices. If there is a machine that can make one enlightened in just few minutes, we will definitely be in the queue. Same case with the above Buddhist quote.. Its easy to say and understand that "desire is the cause", but hard to follow. So we took the easy route "Skip the quote and keep desiring"...

Now, how should one go about killing his desire? That isn't a easy job since "desires" keep the life moving. If you just "empty your teacup" in a second, you will find no meaning to live. Who knows, you can even go mad. 

This is where the above quote from Ovvaiyar comes handy. It breaks down this Buddhist quote into an easy and a followable pattern. Instead of just emptying the cup in a shot, it tells us that "there is no suffering to you from anything that you don't desire". It lets use choose our desire and kill it to overcome suffering. A step-by-step approach. For example, a vegetarian doesnt have suffering as long as he doenst desire to eat meat. But once he desires, he need to accept the "suffering" that comes along with his desire. Same case for every thing. As long as you don't desire money, it wont harm you. Once you "desire" money, you run into suffering. Now there comes few related questions... 

  1. What is the limit for "desire"? 

  2. Should i not desire money? 

  3. How do i live without money?

The answer is simple. If you are "earning money to live" there is no desire. Its all about satisfying your needs for survival. But when you turn "live to earn money".. you get an additional bonus pack of "suffering" along with that. It brings you great disappointment if you cannot earn money when you live for it. You will find that money has taken over your life. Identifying the suffering is to keep a close-watch on your desires (or) watch your desires to avoid suffering.

Having said that, lets do a quick retrospect of ourselves. List down five items that you desire the most [Exclude your life-partner from this list :)..]. Think of the suffering they pose to you. No suffering, the desire is good to go. Higher the suffering, reduce the intensity of the desire (or) avoid it...If at all one desire from your list falls down, Ovvaiyar quote had serve its purpose. If list turns completely empty, the world got one more Buddha.

Now the Climax - Lets not wait for any Buddhist monk in red-clad and shaved-head sitting with mount Everest in background saying us to "empty your teacup". Lets spill our cup drop-by-drop..One day, we will find our teacup empty... 

PS - Though the phrase "empty your teacup" is widely used to represent "learn to unlearn", I  kind of use it to represent "kill your desire".

Aaranya Kaandam - Review

Biased with a lot of negative reviews, I started watching this film "Aaranya Kaandam" online, purely out of curiosity. And to be honest, the film stunned me out. I have never imagined a director who could bring such underworld happenings to limelight without compromising on story. Most of such stories are seen in only in Hollywood or Bollywood [Courtesy RGV], and its good to see such original script in Tamil.

So, here goes my postmortem of the film.

Abstract  - A day in the life of a gangster. Sampath working under Jackie Sheroff tries to double-cross a drug dealing belonging to other gang. Due to other incidents the drug gets into the hands of innocent kid and his father who tries to negotiate with the gangster for a mere peanut amount. After lot of other twists, turns and gang-wars the film ends with a unexpected climax. Ok, I know you couldn't get the story with whatever I scribbled in the last few lines, but believe this is how the story goes. Completely unexpected and full of twists. Watch it to enjoy.

Plus

1. Unexpected and perfectly crafted story play

2. Sampath - He carries the film on his shoulders

3. Jackie - One more "nayagan" after Kamal. Perfect actor. Initial scene where he beats his partner for his impotence - no one can doubt whether he acts or caught with candid camera

4. Ravi Krishna - Definitely better than 7G. Matured acting

5. Cast and Crew - Every single character is justified. The guy who literates audience on how to correct aunties, [I believe he is from chennai-28 crew?] is perfectly portrayed. Leave apart the Rajini-Kamal controversy in the dialogue. He has done a perfect job.

6. Kodukkapuli and this father - Though this kid is one among other character, he stands apart in this film. We can watch the film for this kid alone. His dialogue delivery and action are Class-A. His expression of anger, fun, intelligence, innocence, disability.. damn-good.

7. Dialogue - Razor sharp. If its one or two dialogues that Iam impressed, I could quote them here as examples. But every dialogue is worth a watch. Few dialogues delivered visually are amazing, like Jackie doubting Ravikrishna just by his massage style itself.  Most of the dialogues delivered by Kodukkapuli to his father/Sampath is excellent. I again say, its worth watching the complete film for this kid alone. Natural and matured acting from the first scene. Though many comments said there are lot of unparliamentary words, I never felt like that. Its obvious that one should not expect pure tamil in gangster movies like this. But, its definitely not over dosed.

8. Screenplay - I started watching this movie with one thing in mind "If the movie goes with the reviews I read in the first 15mins, I will better sleep". But 115 mins, I couldnt stop watching despite my Internet usage running out of quota :).

9. Camera work - I dont know much about this, and i obviously watched a degraded version of this movie online. But high quality stills online proves it should definitely be great. Cock-fight should be a feast to watch.

10. Music - Yuvan has done a great job. He keeps the movie flying and knots us to the edge of the seat. BGM like 7G. Few places where it was full of violence, the BGM played really soothened the scenes. Just experience it. And I dont remember any songs in this movie.

11. Story - Excellently crafted mix of 3 different stories in this movie

a) Sampath trying to double cross - Complete gangster story line

b) RaviKrishna's affair with Jackie Sherrofs lady [Yasmeen]

c) Story of Kodukkapuli and his father who was once Jameen, and lost all his wealth now due to his bad habits

12. Intelligence - Who said gansters are fools. Movie full of interesting twists. Just a sample is how Sampath escapes from a grid-lock,and how the other guys responds with "Kasthuriya naanga paathukkarom" reply. Nice touch.

Enough of Pro's now Con's

May be Iam really pissed-off after watching Avan Ivan, and hence couldnt find any big negatives in this film. But still,

1. Could have reduced the Sampath's running scene, chased by opposite gangsters. Though the scene is vital, some more editing could have been done

2. BGM at times was not racy. Yuvan has tried a mexican type of music for one of the chasing scenes. Though its a bit new to see such visuals, it reduces the intensity of the scene.

Good-thing

1. Such stories coming in tamil

2. Charan's effort to release despite such negative spread

Bad-thing

1. Our cine guys spreading such very negative views. One of the review read, "Does charan need to release this movie after 52 cuts". When censor can allow Vijayakanth spinning a top around Sukanya's navel, therez nothing wrong in movies like this. A movie of this creed cannot be less intense. Long back i remember a movie "en uyir thozhan" or something directed by Bharathiraja that portrays the life of rickshaw folks in a slum. I still remember few raw words used in that film. No rowdi will speak "hello madam, i want to kill you pls..."

2. In Jaya TV review, Suhashini was questioning on "What message this film gives to audience". My answer to her will be

  a) Cinema is just an entertainment medium and not a school/library for audience to get message. If you need message, go to Sathsang/Mass.

   b) What message did her husband's film "Raavan" carry. Dont trust your wife (or) use your wife as bait?

Vulgar 

1. Few inparliamentary words/scenes are there in the film, but most of them are censored/beeped. Other escaped words, doesnt make big impact and they are needed to carry the film.

2. A scene where Jackie appears nude [scrambled] - I dont think this scene created embarassment like GK did in Avan Ivan. This scene, though could have been avoided, aptly did fit into the movie.

Overall

Since censor board has scissored all the worst part of this movie, whats being released doesnt create that much negative impact when watching. Though not a family entertainer, anyone who wants to watch a action-packed thriller plus a racy gangster entertainer can definitely watch this one. After parthiban's award-winning "Housefull" this is the second movie I felt that went crisp and racy. Even "Saroja" was kind of this movie, but that had lot of family entertainer stuff and out of logic scenes. This movie did have some out of logic scenes, but not worth considering. One big mistake was not even a single police was shown as if the complete department was transferred out of Tamil Nadu. But remember that the full story happens within a day and we cannot expect police to react soon. Enough of writing, now its time for you guys to watch the film and update the comments with your views.

Rating - 3.5/5

Avan Ivan - My Take

Review - Avan Ivan
Pre-requisite - Watch the film...
Now - Read further...





Review
Great that you watched the film... Only plus in the movie is Vishal acting.. Let it be his look or voice modulation or his sitting style... He rules.. Other side, I dont think GK [highness] acting is very great [except few scenes like where he has clash with Arya and asks him to go out]... Bala was once saying that GK performance will be talked close to Sivaji's performance.. After watching the movie, I dont think Bala is true.. GK's performance is good, but not comparable or even near to Sivaji in acting aspect. Just think of Sivaji's performance in "Mudhal Mariyadhai" or the classic "Devar Magan".. That is what I call "performance".. We cannot see the charector anywhere out of the film.. But here i can see GK "acting" in many scenes. Quite not natural. I would rate the Pithamagan villan [ganja dealer] acting more than GK's performance. He was natural and excellent.


Another hope i had in the film was RK [villan]. First few scenes he appeared, his mannerism and look was classic.. But later he was just portrayed one other villan and beaten to death. Very bad on Bala.

RK - Villan

One main thing missing was "story".... Earlier films of Bala had a very good story-line, let it be sethu or pithamagan or naan kadavul.. They had a very strong and appealing story line.. But here the story is completely missing.. Like Siva said, just few scenes tied around with comedy factor.. Bala could have given a strong warning to audience for not to expect too much out of this..

Annoying Scenes

1. Ambica fight with her sakkalathi... Lengthy..

2. Arya's scene with GK after Vishal gets appreciation from Surya

3. Love between Vishal and Baby... [in one review, they asked about how such girls love Vishal like charector]

4. Arya - tried to be like Surya in pithamagan.. but failed.. but he can feel happy about acting in Naan Kadavul.. Thats his masterpiece.

No Logic

1. Judge granting Arya to use his Car

2. Police releasing Arya/Vishal even after they messed up with three departments

3. Heroines loving Arya/Vishal like charectors

4. Villan RK running such a business is not known to GK/Police/Bluecross earlier

Kodumai

1. GK clad off and getting beaten by RK

2. Police Inspector giving treat [Briyani] to old accused.. 

3. The fat little boy always speaking

Paavam

1. Both the heroines

2. Audience

What the hell

1. Story line

2. Need for heroine and two hero's

Why Bala messes up with

1. Christianity - even in naan kadavul pooja goes to church - atleast that has some meaning, but here the church scene makes no sense

2. Islam - Questions kurbani?.. on why blue cross fails to stop transporting camels for killing in this function..

Leeenghty

1. First half

2. Arya/Vishal performance after seeing GK hanged

3. RK killing GK

4. GK getting insulted by forest officer

Comedy

1. Police as usual... comedy pieces [Don't we have a inspector who can get the s*** out of such thieves]

Music

1. Nice BGM

2. First song [Vishal intro]

Plus

1. Vishal performance

2. Camera work [Rain Scene, Climax fight]

3. RK's performance during his intro

4. Intro song for Vishal

5. GK performance after his clash with Arya [before he goes to their house in rain at night]

6. Ambica at times..

Vulgar

1. Ambica scolding Arya

2. GK clad-off [The scene was more embarassing than sympathetic]

3. Vishal asking Baby about zip in pants... 

Good thing

1. No psycho charector like other Bala films

2. Movie ended in 2.3 hrs

3. OC cinema sponsored by Siva

4. Popcorn sponsored by Mahesh?

Looks like

1. Sequel of Pithamagan

2. Copy/Paste of his different works

Same old style

1. Vishal resembling Pithamagan vikram

2. Heroine's friend opening up geometry box using her mouth

3. Both the heroines acting like "pappa's".. arent they matured?

Could have been best

1. Crisp scene in first half -  reducing the comedy part

2. Portraying RK more RAW.. - Climax not worth the build-up given to him

Expectation

1. Even if it takes two more years, Bala should think of an off-beat film like Pithamagan or Naan Kadavul. 

Rating - 2.5/5

Madhu shalini

Janani Iyer

- Raguraman