Certification Exam! Oh ya???

Well every one knows about these domain certification exams!! Big names like Microsoft, SUN and IBM are the ones who give us these certificates...
But whats the big deal over here? The MS exam has 40 questions, For the ones who find it hard to rem too much too soon, take the 200 questions dump one week before, which comes with answers for the heights of comfort! The advice is to mug these up.. "Don worry you will clear, you have the dumps na, just chill" is what ul hear from every one...
And for the ones who have good memory can use theses dumps for one day!! And out of these 200 atleast 30 to 35 questions will come in the exam(based on ur luck) , that is if you have found the right dump, mind it..and for the rest you can search the forums and blogs... Mug up well, get a good score and your appraisal is confirmed!! If u fail, well the next attempt is free, if at all you fail that too, "its just 2500 bucks yaar, write again na" they say!!

What is this by the way?
worst than college exams, where we used ask the teacher to give us 10 questions, out of which she will give 5 in the internal exam!!!
But all this at a corporate level??? knowledge does not matter anymore!! If at all u fail, you can always pay and get it!! All for an appraisal, for incentives....for MONEY!!!!!!!
Lets make it harder, lets give it a fight, lets actually improve our knowledge... lets change the future!! the time is now!!

PS: Well I must admit, I fell prey to this too.. took up the exam my self today , and cleared it partially due to the dumps only.. I feel ashamed, but it was the need of the hour.. And I do wanna change it.. Hope think alikes out there would help me!!

Its high time we change the mentality

Yesterday we had British Council handing out a special offer to the associates of my company.
My brother had this membership, and I from when I was a kid, I always had this craze to have one, I used to be fascinated by its sophistication, and this is no surprise cause of my love towards books.
Finally yesterday I got my chance and went ahead and got the registration. They gave me a complimentary back pack, about which I remembered reading in the mail,only after they gave it to me.
I have a close friend, who like me, loves to read and has a great command over English which I fancy very much :) I was telling him today about my membership, thinking he would appreciate my action, and in reply he said "every one is crazy for the bag"
Initially I felt offended, later I actually heard and saw many people bragging about getting this membership, to get a bag!!!!! whose amount will be eventually reimbursed by the company. Which implies getting the bag for free and also a library membership, which they would never use!!
Why do people have such mentality?? Why does anything for free make people lose their morals? Is it the same all over the world, or is it just here?? This is a key marketing strategy for companies...
All said and done, what about the people who actually wanted the membership, for purposes truly related to the council alone? Our dedication and motive is lost in front of such people.
Its my request to such people to please think again, and make a choice based on the true purpose, and not on the basis of free gifts!!

My trip - day 2

The next day we set off to Nanjangudu which is near Mysore, on the way to Ooty.
This place is famous for its ancient Shiva temple. I have been here before, but I carried very vague memories. We were there around noon and had very good darshan.
This temple is unique, because Tippu Sultan, being a musalman emperor, at one point of time saw the miracles of this lord and started believing in him too. He has also given a Shiva linga to this temple, which exists till date.
After this we had our lunch and were headed to Tala kadu. We reached there by about 2pm. This place has 5 Shiv lingas and hence also famous for the pancha linga darshanam. The history of this place goes back to when it was under the Mysore maharaja's reign. This is place is supposedly cursed by a lady, and as a part of the curse, these 5 temples get covered completely with sand, and no one can explain how so much of sand came to that place as there is no sea or river bed close by. And by sand i mean huge sand dunes, they looked like mini mountains covered with sand.
It is said that once in 12 years, the government removes this sand so that the access to the temples, is clear again. We heard that this was done in October 2009 for the last time. Government is also taking measures and doing special construction, so that the sand does not cover the temple entrance, and hence darshan be available to tourists through out the year.
Wonder of wonders.... I must say indeed a true miracle!!

காதலர்கள் தினம் - Valentines day

என் கனவிலே வருவது இவனா ?
என் நினைவிலே இருப்பதும் இவனா ?
என் சுவாசத்தில் வாழ்வது இவனா ?
என் தேகத்தை ஆள்வதும் இவனா ?
என் நெஞ்சிற்குள் ஆழமாய் பதிந்ததும் இவனா ??????

yen kanavilai varuvadhu ivana ?
yen ninaivilum irupadhu ivana ?
yen swasathil valvadhu ivana ?
yen dehathai aalvadhum ivana ?
yen nenjukulai aalamai padhindhadhum ivana ??????

A trip after a long time - day 1

My family is knows for its travel adventures. Thanks to my dad.. who to an extent can be termed as a travel freak :) We have travelled almost all over India and have been to Europe too.
Hes a master planner and a super executor of these trips... I will write a separate post on how we go about these trips.. but the purpose of this post is to share the beautiful experience of my latest trip..
Dad had been telling me for quite some time about this place, which he had read about in the Deccan Herald, I was very much interested, but I jus dint find the right time in between my hectic work schedule... Finally the day did arrive on MahaShivRathri, I took an off from office on Friday the 12th of Feb, mom any ways had a holiday... We asked my aunt and cousin to join us.. booked an Innova ... and off we were...
We set off at 8 am, with short breaks we reached a place called Goni Koppal around lunch time, this is in Coorg, in between the forests.. We took a room at hotel Nandavanam for the 5 of us, its a neat and homely place, at quite a moderate price too.. After luncheon we rested for an hour or so , and left to our actual destination by around 3.30pm . Our actual destination "Irupu falls" was around 45 mins from our hotel. The route is through a dense forest, amazing wild life and scenic beauty! A Shiva temple makes its home at the foot of the hill..which we decided to visit after a bath at the falls. We had a medium climb on the hills, and finally we were there, at the falls.. what a delight!! Water coming down in a gush, lapping over the rocks, rising a misty smoke and giving the feeling of bein in the heavenly abode of lord Shiva.. The history of the place describes that this is called the "Lakshmana Theertha" When Rama and Lakshmana were on the move towards Lanka to find Sita devi, Ram feels a sudden spurt of thirst and there is water no where around, then his beloved brother Lakshman aims an arrow at the ground and creates this beautiful spring to quench his brothers thirst.
I was excited to be at a falls , after a really long long time. I jumped in under it, and drenched my self with delight! All the body pain I had due to long work hours started vanishing!
After spending quite some time, and two sessions under the falls for me :) we started our decent. We came to the temple, which was alive with Shiv rathri celebrations... This temple is built in Kerala style, as this forest borders kerala and karnataka.... Kerala architecture never fails to take a plunge at my heart, no different this time, I was lost in ecstasy! After a brief darshan, we were about to leave when we heard that thy are bringing the idol (urchava moorthi as we call it in tamil) out onto the temple premises (pragaram) . So we waited, the wait was quite long, which i realised only when we left, cause during the wait i just did not feel it... sitting on the steps on the pragaram, looking at the hill on the background, im sure no one would realise time passing... Then they brought the idol out, mean while 3 men were playing the chendai (Drum rolls typical to kerala prayer).
There was this man, coorgi by looks, who was wearing a special kinda attire, and he was the desired and destined one to carry the lord. He came round the temple once with the idol in his hand.. then on the second round, he placed the lord on his head and waled another round doin some small dance steps as graceful as a professional dancer. Then he stopped, very close to where we were standing. The beats were on all along, suddenly this mans body shook, trembled i must say, each part of his body literally trembled, right in front of my eyes.. there were all together 100 people watching this... he moved his arms vigorously in movements of a butterfly.. then he started this dance, of turning and jumping and running, with this really really heave idol on his head... which he dint even support sometime with his hands!!!! I felt i was seeing GOD himself come over this man! all these years i had just heard stories... and this was my first actual encounter! I was breath taken, amazed and lost...
Lord Shiva is known to be the cosmic dancer, and here this man was dancing with Shiva him self on his head.. who was making whom dance.. a question that needs to be pondered about! In this manner, he finished his third and final round around the temple.. and after that every one started taking his blessings... I went too, and could see this man panting, after all the energy he had put into this, and i have heard that it can be very tiresome after a man has been taken over by the supreme.
We heard this celebrations would continue all night, but we dint have all night to spend, and had a lil dangerous night journey back. So with reluctance we came back to our place, had dinner at Kamath hotel and went to sleep, and I slept having this feeling that i have made memories of a ShivRathri like never before! And which i am going to remember for ever and ever!!

My first post

Are first times always this tough??
Well I dint mean it jus for the bloggin ;)
Its high time I started writing, its been a lost passion... thanks to that special one out there, who has finally got me to make a start :) Thanks dear!!!