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BLOG : http://arunpillai.livejournal.com
WEBSITE: http://arunpillai.net .

"Fotographers are damn cruel"

One the recent comment i happen to see on our intranet discussion board is this:

"Fotographers are damn cruel... they first frame u, then shoot u & finally hang u on the wall. "

Good to see people's perception of photography. Now am thinking to enable high level filters for my photoblog commeting agent :)

Can smile,but where'z my penny

"Would you be happier if you were richer?"

Many believes so.But people are commin with lotza fundas either to back this or to deny it.But recently couple of researchers at Princeton University came up with a beautiful case study proving that people,especilly in the middle level and enjoy more than so called "Millioners & Millioners ++".Some of their other studies reveals that people in poorer countries like Brazil,Colombia and Philippines apper to be happier than people in US of America and UK.Most of the case studies target american communities,and they found that Americans in the middle-income range today have a level of happiness that is almost identical to Well-Off Americans.

People with higher incomes spent more time in activities that are associated with negetive feelings,such as tensions or stress.90% of their time goes into calculations and planning shortcuts on how to gain more.Where as the other category spends more time into leisure and family.

Why do so many of us strive to obtain more money,if it won't make us happer ?

Perhaps the answer lies in our nature as purposive beings.We evolved from beings who had to work had to feed themselves,find a mate,and raise children.Think about the nomadic societies,there was no point in owning anything that one could not carry,but whrn humans settled down and developed a system of money,that limit to acquisition disapperred.Accumulating money upto a certain amount provides a safeguard against lean times.But now it has taken a dirty different phase by which people measure one's success by the amount of wealth one sits in.,which is defenitely bad.Finally we end up in missing all in-born talents,but picking up billionaire who found there way in Forbes list with all cut short methods.


Courtesy : Researchers/Prof at Princeton University
Copyright: Project Syndicate

My first love

After months of prolonged waiting,got my Nikon D70s in hand . Don't know how to portray all the stages in this little space,but surely will give a try . It was Anoop Ravi,a good school mate of me,who actually transformed his childhood interest,photography to me . I always watched him frigging around with his device ,eagerly capturing all that he,feels good in front of his eyes.And most of the times, i heard people commenting "is he crazy?". Let me tell you, then i didn't had the will/courage to say, "No he's not". I always used my friends camera to explore more and to test my creativity,but most of the times they revert back saying " Ya, have a look at it,but please No Clicks" . There were not harsh ,but those times it hard for us to think of buying a new roll.More over filming was a very costly process (Thanks to the digital word which we are experiencing now). Later Deepa(my sis) presented me a Canon film camera+15 film rolls,and that was the key trigger. I couldn't travel much nor dedicate any time for photography because of my hectic school/tuition shedules.So rather going for scenery,i decided to focus on portraits(which was readiliy available :)).

As i added qualifications and new skill sets to my CV, photography took a back seat and then ....(few years pass by ....) when i came down to B'lore,met some great people,who has a great vision about what they have to do and what they have to accomplish in life.Out of them,some were more into photography.They contributed in their own ways for me to take my interest to a next level.Finally it took two years from then,for me to decide of buying an SLR.

Rest of the sessions were followed by some quick search in CNET , B&H to find out an SLR,which will satisfy my thirst and fits to my wallet.Problems still haunted me in terms of shipping the devicefrom US to India. Nor Deepa or my relatives were comming down by the time.Then my search was for a person in my workplace whose onsite project term was getting over .Moreover a person, whom i can trust to the core.To add to my enigma,couple of my colleague's term got extended and my patience came down as each day passed by.Finally ,with the help of Dhanya was able to materialize my longing thirst of owning an SLR.Right now am in the phase of polishing/brushing up my skills and creating a comfort level with my new equipment. I've recently started a photoblog .As if now,all the snaps have been tagged under portraits.Yet to really strech out and explore places.

Thanks Dhanya for your support and guidance .
Now time has come for me to explore outskirts of B'lore and reach out all beautiful places/people
in the so called "south zone".North zone,please bear this time .....

P.S:Dhanya,looking forward for more & more aids in future....

Signboards (with a helping hand)

Signboards are intented to make people's life eaiser.Mainly it helps people to get off with their confusions and move forward.For me these sign-boards portrays the mindset/creativity and mainly concentration of the guy who sweat out behind the screen,comming up with a model.And if that bozo turned out to be careless,then ......

As readers of this blog,you might have vitnessed so many of these instances in your day today life.Some of which,you might have noticed ,some of which you have went through with out noticing.I am sure that people who are used to box with a software chipped in,so called "computers" have gone through forwards projecting these kind of idiotic works.Something which i have received recently are these :





From then, i was aware of this and was in look out for the same.And finally it was on 18th June'06 something striked me.It was a signboard which shows up where to flee and make yourself safe on emergency.It 's clearly written "Emergency Exit" and bolded out.But the artist,who created this left out one thing.Can you make out from this figure ?


If yes,proceed reading the next para,else better click the top-right most button on your browser.That way you can honour me :)

It was there for a long ,very long time with out grabbing anyone's attention.And it's very close to my cubicle.I was curious to know why people didnot really noticed it.May be because,there was no emergency declared here ,atleast fot the past 16 months.Seeing this,i couldn't help myself laughing for quite sometime and was feelin better,for having caught this on my eyes,rather someone pointing me out.The moment i captured this on my cell phone and thought will preserve this in the form of this post.

So where will people flee at times of emergency ??
Pictures grab attention of people than write-up/sound by nature and I am sure that atleast some % of them will follow the figure and rest will follow the arrow :)

Media business::The true faces

As you read through this post, you will be experiencing the changes personally ,right from end user point of you as well content providers.

My recent liking for photography and look out for a pretty good digital camera took me as well taught me many things which are floating around on net.Thanks to online reviews and ratings,which actually took me here writting something about what it looked for me "the media business models".

Now portal owners are trying their level best to get their content advertized properly and to make sure that people do visit back next time, impossing a kind of addiction.Now on, the media companies will generate the bulk of their value from serving their ability to aggregate and serve audiences better than the competition. It doesn’t matter if the media company actually creates or even controls the content that draws them. Channels will be transparent and content won’t necessarily even be owned in a syndicated and aggregated content landscape.

Some examples goes this way : Yahoo Q&A section,which probes people to discuss anything under the sun and mostly it's a controlled environment.So a big 'NO' to jugglery,after all people don't have time for that .. Similar ones one the line are dig, , which produces no content of their own but has a very unique way to look into the interests of its users. As a take back, you can directly integrate a digg link to your site.Next was an initiative from Google with it's newly launched Google Pack,which bundles sooo many tools with one install.It won’t be easy or feel natural, but the sooner media companies and marketers can experience these technologies first hand, the better off they will be as more and more consumers adopt them.


So who’s doing it well in the media business? I like to point to CNET’s News.com, which has great news content targeting the tech enthusiast,DP review -which has a wide content info and user reviews and pick of them is Y!,which leads the rail with its new Y! Mail Beta,which is an eye opener.It's something which brings Y! more closer to the public and I am sure that they'll welcome it with both the arms.Again this is what people have to comment on it it.

So if you are not seeing any head nor tail, better start off now,as someone smarter than me said "start small but start now",else you will be loosing out "LOTS".

B'lore gettin dressed-up :)

Finally the Great Indian Monsoon has hit Bangalore .
But it has arrived quite early.
Looks like it has taken the contract of cleanin up all the B'lore roads in one stretch,thanks to snail movement of work that's happenin here . I remember readin an article about Govt. plans to clean up MG road some time back.But that never materialized.Finally nature has taken a call. And that's exactly we are witnessing out here.Most of my weeekend plans came to a halt after all i hate getting drenched.Now I am enjoying the weather stayin back home,under my blanket.This is the best time to kick start my GMAT prep.Better never than late as my time line is gettin over by March'07 . Time'z up for me to pull up my socks.

I Have a Dream >> Chrysallis

The 'dream' of a free world. A world with no barriers, - no distinction of race, status or ability. A world without bondage to narrow perceptions and limited visions. For we are all born free and have a right to live free in a world overflowing with unconditional love and tender acceptance.

I know I am not as able as you are - or as perfect as you might be. My body does not follow a perfect pattern but my spirit soars in a perfect flight.

My 'dream' is to walk with you, to be touched by your humanity and see in your eyes how much I mean to you because I am as much a part of your world as you are mine.

P.S: I know this can motivate many of the readers. That's the vision and thought
Chrysallis spread accorss.I am really proud to be a part of this great group who
has a strong vision to make the life of challenged kids better.
Wanna make a difference ? See here

Orkutting

I never knew there was something called orkut sometime back and one fine day found an invite in my box. Was send by one of one of my friend . I simply ignored first time, but i was people were compellin me to join .The first thing which came up my mind was " What's the big deal about it ? huh " . After that some weeks passed by and when i was bored at office just thought of givin myself a try with this so called "ORKUT". The first impression which orkut gave me was not too pleasing for me(may b coz of their simple interface). But slowly i explored some great communities,digged up some of my old school/office/college friends and i realized it's quite fun and y ppl r crazy abt Orkutting.Looks like Google had taken a pretty good initiative from there end in bringing people closer( thanks to Yahoo for their stiff competetion).Now i make sure that i drop into orkut on a daily basis and see if any new entry found a place in my scrap.Projecting more,i check my orkut first, the moment i land up in office and then go ahead with project work.Anyways google succeeded in takin quite a bit of my time from it's rival product(Y! Messenger) and channalize into their baby, Orkut.Got to see if this is true with anyone else out there ? I am sure to see some raised hands in this vast crowd ...

india is shining

this came to my box as a forward with sub line: "india is shining", so thought i won't get a better post than this.so is this showing india is highly competitive and can enter into a global space ??

Adding up one more tag of what someone smarter than me said ...
"the true measure of a society is how it takes care of those who cannot care for themselves." (thanks to Elaine for this desc...)

creativity @ work

this is somethin intresting ... last thursday my PM forwarded me a mail from a customer asking for a query.he asked me to go through the mail and help him out in resolving the customers query. so i need to respond to this mail by thursday COB(close of business hours) as they often say.i was very drowsy and couldn't stare at the monitor for a long time. so fired a print out of that mail and was trying my level best to get something out of that. in btw i went for coffee and when i came back an artistic talent striked me seeing the way the pen is placed on top of that print out.i took my cel phone and captured a snap thinking it'll be a good combination(pen & paper) . and finally the pic was looking simply awesome in my phone. but in the mean while i never realised that there was just 2 hours left for COB ...
so had a close watch at the code

{
semwx( );
_TIMER(OxFF);
_HELP( );
_RESPOND( );
semx( );
}
/* this is just a dummy code and do not have any resemblance with our existing code base */

and finally somehow managed to respond him by 5.55pm. and on my way back to home, i was eager to transfer this pic from my phone to comp, so that i can have a close loot at it.later thought of capturing this event as a post in my blog.so can this be called as creativity ? if so is it an inborn talent ?

my good old school days

was just thinking about my good old school days :(
really missing those now and moreover it's hard to get back to those innocent days .now ppl are runnning around in and out of frustration behind jargons like "deadline,goals,norms,meeting,money" and on ..... that's life and somehow we have to accept it.my association with sabarigiri goes back to early 1993 where i pitched in to that campus holding my "amma's"(momy) hand. dad was still not happy with my performance overall( after all i heard people saying , i was very naughty). i had some good friends through out right from 3rd standard till tenth. prominent one's from the list are sandeep,jiji,anoop,srejeesh,anu,liju and on and on... everyone are well settled now and fighting hard to meet there norms and goals, so as my case , thanks for sabarigiri for their brilliant coaching and mentoring.
the good part of our batch is we simply keep in good touch and keeps meeting once in every year,which initially started with 5 members and now we are proud to say that the head count keeps increasing each year ( after all every one are getting married back to back ) ^^:)^^ we almost touched 16 now...

oops,forgot to wish anoop for his marriage and his run away bride :) [26/03/2006]
"All the very best anoop & bindhu,may god bless u both"

one think which i took back from those days >>> "we really don't appreciate one's presence or finds how good he/she is when they are around, but does rec·og·nize their value and miss them when they are not in reach" .i am sure that all the readers back me up on this .among the so called "teachers" in sabarigiri, the one's in my favorite list are sreedevi mam(maths),principal(no_name),devaki mam(malayalam).out principal was very strict and and good left-hander. the kind of off/on drives he plays on our body for each silly mistakes still reminds me of the nightmare'z i had those days. but frankly none of his plans worked out well with our batch.

Eg: One fine day ,there was an announcement from our principal saying everyone should only speak english during school hours and he was very much strict when it comes to imposing rules.he ientified one member from each class to monitor whether rule is followed. and this time fate smiled at me. i was identified for the same role in my class. i was successful in forcing my friends to omit english, hoping that there will be a paradigm shift from malayalam to english, but after one week, i myself started off with "malayalam" the moment i pitched in to the class room ,and our principal overheard me .then there was a big lathi charge in front of all. the whole day in class and on my way back, i was cursing him..... but i never realised that i was getting closer to him. and when i went through what he wrote about me in my autograph,tears dropped from my eyes and i couldn't help myself from controlling my emotions. then i realised that i was one of his best students. this is how life is ?

anyways i made up my mind to drop in to my school and to meet my principal.and if he allowme, i would like to sit in the same place where i used to sit in my 10th(10th-B section second last seat from right ) alteast for a minute.hoping that sandeep and jiji will join me .this is something great which u can't express by saying nor by keying in here.

that special was my school and the people there for me!!!

world water day (22-March-2006)

"People who can turn on a tap and have safe and clean water to drink, to cook with and to bathe in often take it for granted, and yet more than 1 billion of our fellow human beings have little choice but to use potentially harmful sources of water,"

- Dr. Lee Jong-Wook : Head ,World Health Organization.

Find more information about WHO's initiative on world water day.
well wanna promote world water day ?
sure , then drop in here

i don't really think to play any role here by adding my own hand-crafted words. it's definitely gonna screw up this article.moreover value of each water drop is well portrayed by this beautiful picture and the beautiful write-up by Dr.Lee Jong. But i certainly wanna know what you guys thought first, seeing this picture. do post your thoughts as comments .

something for chain-smokers

had a bad sleep yesterday and coz of that i was literally napping in cab on my way to office today morning.normally i just enjoy the scenes on road on my daily journey after all traffic in hosur road is very popular now a days to all bangaloreans.so can't say whether vehicles moves faster than snail here :) . so just to capture everything, i just always long for window seat in our bus. today i spotted two young minds smoking on road side.more over they were in their uniforms. i felt so sad about them and wished if i could point them the right track(and trust me i am not perfect guy,but i believe one should be able to find where they are... there lies your power. i know myself better by now, after all its been there with me for past 24 years and we have a good rappo now). so this painful sight of them smoking on their way to school(if i am not wrong) prompted me to say these:

we are here in this planet earth to "enjoy" the short time frame given to us and not to struggle. lets make this time good for us and others around. certainly one thing would be not to smoke ,which can harm u as well as others and the other things is to discourage smoking. People who smoke,please take sometime from your hectic work loads and drop in here :
.smoking hazards

.how can u quit

"In short i say : its your life, live it better "

adwith turning "2" this april

its around 1.30 and unusually am not feelin sleepy today.something is pullin me back from sleepin properly and it was nothing but my roomy hareesh's snore. but was surprised to see abu sleeping 'aaramse' near to him. so weird . huh ??
i tried my level best to manage under my blankets but in vain. then was thinking about my nephew adwith pillai,who is turning TWO this april. Just recalling (04/04/04) when he was introduced to the so called planet earth. and i missed him then and it continues still due to the difference in time zones :) . this time i have to gift him something special.... first thought of doing some online shopping with his address, but then couldn't convince my mind properly. then something strucked me well ..deepa's sister-in-law will be leavin pittsburgh soon and i can buy something for him and sent it accorss through them . so now the real hunt beings for an apt gift for my chottu . anyways heard that he's sleeping on candies and toys and deepa keeps talking about his interests disecting electronic stuffs and similar devices . so adwith will be a happy man, if he gets spanner kit as a gift, but deepa won't really appreciate it. so as my mom/dad.
anyways time's there for me to think upon .... and thanks for hareesh for givin me this opportunity to scrap :)

Your Personality Profile

Your Personality Profile

You are happy, driven, and status conscious. You want everyone to know how successful you are. Very logical, you see life as a game of strategy. A bit of a loner, you prefer to depend on yourself. You always keep your cool and your composure. You are a born leader and business person.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Your Brain's Pattern

Your Brain's Pattern

Your mind is a creative hotbed of artistic talent. You're always making pictures in your mind, especially when you're bored. You are easily inspired to think colorful, interesting thoughts. And although it may be hard to express these thoughts, it won't always be.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

know your special friend --> chrysallis

There'z something great that happened in my life, and a feeling that I did something different, something which gives me immense pleassure,which I haven't experienced from my job and my funs i had. It happened on Saturday 25th Feb 2006.
I went for "Know Your Special Friend" program organized by Chrysallis for challenged children. And this time there was a difference. That is i went there not as a part of audience, but as an volunteer. I was there at the venue by 7.00am and were busy arranging the space given for us (the interaction team) with posters, birds, sun, rainbow which we sweated out on prev weekend. Then by 9.30 children started pitching in from different schools. They were from different schools, different backgrounds, and different places. Moreover it was a combination of regular and challenged (visually/hearing impaired, mentally/physically handicapped) children. Most of them didn't knew each other when they came. Then they were grouped in to teams and each volunteer was assigned to every four groups. Similarly I was given four children. Out of that two were normal and two challenged. Till then i haven't interacted with any of these people and because of that, i was very nervous with lotza questions in my mind like how am I gonna deal with them ?, how i make sure that these four will turn good friends end of the day ? and lots more ...

Thank god for giving me confidence. I talked to them very slowly and in low pace "Hi friends, I am Arun, and may I know your name?” They responded with a gentle smile and said Ajith, Chandra, Deepthika, Nayna. I started from there and went on with their hobbies, their likes and dislikes and so on.... After the 30 min initial session with them, I gave them a small assignment. It goes like this "You guys have to know each other pretty well and when I come back, I will point anyone and ask u to narrate about his/her neighbour". Seems they too were very much interested in that and it was evident from their smiling faces.

Then followed the breakfast. We served them initially and then joined them for breakfast. Once that got over, Ajith called me pointing to Chandra, "Arun sir, this is Chandra, from Tamilnadu and started explaining me about her hobbies.. Infact everything about her". I couldn't believe myself. Those children were simply intelligent and i am sure that their IQ level makes them way ahead of me and they are too creative. Then we gave some words like love, dream and care etc... And asked them to write down something that they feel about it. They wrote about their parents, school mates and to my wonder about me too :) Once that was done, we took back the sheets from them and gave them synthetic clay and gave them the freedom for creating something which represents the words which we gave them in the prev session.

There was a gap of 30 min and I was eagerly looking them and their creativity in work. They started mingling with each other well and looked like a small family. To my truth, I went emotional at times and thanking god again for giving me strength to sail across.After lunch we all very busy preparing for the main show. Children grouped themselves to elves and snowman who were the characters of the program. I was there with the kids, the volunteers and the coordinators till 7.15 and honestly it took me a long way and i had a very nice experiment with those innocent chaps .In fact i took back home a very valuable lesson which will be there with me till my last breath. So if you people are still curious about that Great people and those with Great Mind find them here.

No more excuse on tuesdays &fridays

It was around 12.30, as usual i was in my bay working out and then suddenly, a message popped on my monitor from our internal IP messenger.it was none other that joby.

The session goes like this ...

Joby_12.25: come lets go for lunch ?
Arun_12.27: ya man commin...
Joby_12.29:whats happenin...??
Arun_12.31:Oops!!! commin man . just a sec
Joby_12.35:its biriyani day . it'll get over
Arun_12.37:ok,call up ravi. by the time i'll b there
Joby_12.38:12.32:ok we'll wait for u in ground floor

Tuesday & Friday is very special for me, joby and other briyani fans, these days we get superb chicken briyani at our cafeteria.so joby was pushing me and ravi. as joby's efforts through messenger went invain, he turned violent.Then he decided to meet me in person.he then tuk lift to 3rd floor and rushed to B-wing. There without sensing danger, i was busy reading my sisters mail and my nephews snaps.Then i saw a scary shade on my monitor.when i turned back ............... AHHHHHHWWWW
saw joby'z blushed beetroot red face sayin "how many time i need to call u guys???"
somehow i managed to pacify him and i was forced to follow him without even lockin my PC .Ravi & sidd where waiting for us(infact me,who was late...:) ) .

All the way to canteen i was thinkin about the situation on biriyani getting over.But we were entertained to the cafe with a menu card displayed 'Biriyani-40 bucks"

Thank god. Escaped this time...
Hereafter i'ld take care of my head(Tuesdays & Fridays....)

Thank god, although we went late, those chicken and biriyani's were waiting for us..
so a minor escape this time

tired searching for customercare no ??

Well i was searching around for HDFC customer care number to reset my IPIN, but found it really hard to get a number(which works).Even none of my teammates could'nt help me after all holding an HDFC corp account.Atlast appproached "google" and there i found an awesome post in one Mr.Arjun's homepage.That was simply good and helpful.So thought i too will have a replica of the same in my page too for my own ref &.......

Thanks again to Arjun

• ICICI Bank Customer Care Number
  • Bangalore - 5113 1877
  • Karnataka - 98455 78000
  • For other cities, click here. Phone Banking workflow click here.
• Citibank Customer Care Number
  • All Citibank customers - Bangalore - 2227 2484. For other cities, click here
  • Citibank Suvidha account holders - Bangalore - 2227 2265. For other cities, click here
  • CitiBusiness Customers - Bangalore - 2229 4653. For other cities, click here
  • Citibank Credit Card - Bangalore - 2227 2484. For other cities, click here
  • Priority service to CitiGold Customers, Diners Club Members & Citibank Gold Card members - Bangalore - 2229- 4653. For other cities, click here
• HSBC Customer Care Number
  • Banking related - Bangalore - 2558 9595
  • Credit card related - Bangalore - 2558 9696
  • For other cities, click here
• HDFC Customer Care Number
  • Banking related - Bangalore - 5500 3333. For other cities, click here
  • Credit card related - Bangalore - 5522 4332 (Old No : 520 4332). For other cities, click here
• SBI Credit Card Customer Care Number
  • Karnataka - Bangalore - 98441 05454
  • All India Toll Free - 1600 180 1290 (works only on BSNL and MTNL Line)
  • Other lines : 39 02 02 02
• Manhattan Credit Card Customer Care Number
  • Bangalore - 3030 1969. (thx Sunil)
• Standard Chartered Credit Card Customer Care Number
  • Bangalore - 2559 7777. (thx Suresh). For other cities, click here
• Airtel Customer Care
  • Dail 121 from your airtel mobile
• Hutch Customer Care
  • Karnataka - Dial 111 from your Hutch phone or dial 98860 98860
• BSNL Mobile Customer Care (Cellone & Excel)
  • Karnataka - Dial 94480 24365
  • For other cities, click here.

Unmaad 2006@IIMB

another weekend its comming in its way . this time will have to do something different rather that staying back home ( ^^^Office^^^) lazy. Got a mail regarding Unmaad 2006@ IIMB campus on this saturday.So planning for Jal & Sivamani concert at 6.30 pm. Saturday .... god a hectic shedule.
Morning have to rush MG road for "rang de basanti". Afternoon have to see-off my roomy whoze leaving U.K , evening @ IIMB. Hoping to get some breathing space in btw.... :)


Arun A.S
http://www.arunspillai.blogspot.com
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/arunsasikumar

holidays messed up

Feeling sad and angry about spoiling my 4 days (including Republic day holiday)..................
First planned for a visit @ home(kerala) then somehow changed my mind for Wonderla... but atlast ended up being left at home . Did'nt felt moving out as B'lore is much "hot" these days .
But had a good watch at the test match, after all its nice seeing such a big crowd under one roof.
Anyways called up all my friends and will be planning something really good and worth spenting time around( Wonderla is still whirling in my mind ) ...................