Reflection on the act of terror

Everyone in our country is aware act of terror and the sinister deeds that has happened in our country a few days back. But how many of us are really affected by the act of terror. It is probably those have lost their loved ones, those who were in the site of the blast and probably the residents of those cities affected by the bomb blast. Our society acts passive towards the act of terror. Politicians play politics, news agencies use this as an opportunity for their business and we residents just go to the maximum extent of sympathizing with the situation.

We Indians are really driving a car fast enough on risky road looking through the rear window the where the road was safe. Because past was safe and secure we all have a feeling of safety and security. It is essential for us to learn from the near past where things were not secure. It is essential for us to understand that anything happening anywhere else will also affect us. Less proximate is not safer!

Now it is time for us to act. Politicians in power should act on the situation. They should take necessary steps to strengthen the social security. The press, especially the news channels should act more responsible. And last but not the least, we civilians who make up the society should keep the social fabric strong. We should understand that what happens to our fellow citizens in Ahemedabad, Bangalore or Surat can happen to us. Our active support to an efficient government with aim to create a strong security will ensure peace in India.


“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
- Mother Teresa

Creative EP 630 In Ear Phones - A review of my experience

I own a 80 GB 6th generation ipod classic. Most of the time I listen to apple lossless files riped from my vinyl copies. ipod is in its own way a great piece of equipment for listening to music. It gives a very fine signal in a 3.5 mm standard earphone jack. Initially I was happy listening with the ear-buds which came with the ipod. I also listen to music from my laptop using my Technics head phone. By comparison I found that the apple's ear phone was not reproducing the bass as it was done faithfully by my headphones. With a little of market research I found that the ear canal/ in ear phones give deep bass reproduction. Initially I was attracted with brands like Shure, Senheiser, UE, Etymotic etc. Later I found that panasonic and sony (MDR) also have in earphones. I Listened to music from a panasonic earphones and it was great. I found a lot of decent feedbacks about creative EP 630. I bought it in India for Rs 750 at Ritchy street. Man I tell u, it made whole lot of a difference. The sounds were accurate. It was better than my regula ear enveloping headphones. If u properly seal ur ear canal with the silicone flanges provided, the bass becomes really remarkable. I did the comparison of apples phones and EP630 in my ipod with Munbae Vaa Song (Sillunu or kadal - ARR) in apple lossless format. I wud say that the bass reproduction was uncopparable with the apple ear buds. For that matter I dont think any other ear-buds will give that. Simultaneously with the bass all the minute trebles and ringing sounds were precisely reproduced. When you buy an ipod by shelling out a few 100 dollars, you shud definitely go for a good ear-canal phones to experience the music from an ipod. I would recommend EP 630 for listening to quality music. I am sure a Shure, Senn , UE or etymotic can be better if u have the capacity to shell out money.

Features & Specs

Driver Units:
9mm Neodymium magnet transducer

Frequency Response:
6Hz ~ 23kHz

Impedance:
16ohms

Sensivity:
106dB

Net Weight:
9g (without packaging)

The Creative EP-630 earphones is designed with ergonomic soft silicon in-ear earbuds for excellent noise isolation. Powered by quality Neodymium magnet transducer, the EP-630 offers high-quality audio reproduction with extraordinary bass that is ideal for digital music playback.
Pristine audioHear your music in greater clarity from the 9mm Neodymium magnet transducer. It is specially designed to deliver optimum performance whatever the music genre.

Noise isolation

Soft and ergonomic silicone in-ear earbuds provide excellent noise isolation so you hear your music better. Pick the perfect fit from the additional pairs of alternate sized earbuds that is included.

Clear transmission


The gold-plated 1.2m Oxygen-Free Copper cable provide uninterrupted transmission of your music from player to earphones. So you can enjoy the clearest audio possible.

Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati Gita Discourse

This is my understanding from the summary and relevance to managerial effectiveness :)

Our own body, mind and knowledge will not come to help us if we do not manage ourselves effectively. Things like emotional attachment and ego will hinder us from achieving our objectives. Hence a man who cannot manage self cannot mange others. Self management should be the first objective one should achieve before thinking about managerial effectiveness. This state of emotional maturity and self-control can come if we can understand some of the concepts which are stated in the Gita.

There are things which are right to do in a situation. And there are things which we like to do in a particular situation. The things which are right to do in a particular situation are universal and are common to everyone. We do things which we like to do because of our emotional attachment. This shields the dharma and the real objective situation before us.

Objective view is the real view one see without any perspective distortions produced by the influence of ones own likes and experiences in his life. The judgments and decisions one takes with this objective view and mind following the universal rules of dharma are the right decisions. Most often there is a gap between this right and what we feel is right. Although these actions bring short-term happiness, in long term we hurt ourselves.

Many a times we have multiple roles to play in life. Some roles have a high degree of psychological influence on our emotions than others. There is often a confusion during our decision making in some roles when there a “transference in psychology” or superimpositions. Having an objective mind can call these miseries.

At the time of conflict between what we like to do and what is right to do it is always good to take the help of a person with a neutral view and judgment. One should be humble enough to seek the truth at the time of trouble. Even in our regular life and at work there are many situations where, knowingly or unknowingly our ego shields us. For example we sometimes do not do some work which we are supposed to do, if we feel that it is inferior and will hurt our ego. Being humble will avoid these problems.

As human beings we all have emotions. Gita doesn’t say that one has to be without emotions. Its about having the right positive emotions. Love when distorted can become anger and jealousy which have a negative impact on ones effectiveness. The ability to mange emotions depends on the degree of emotional maturity and this will determine managerial effectiveness.

We all have desires and objectives to reach. Most often there is a gap between what we want to be and what we are. And this gives us uncomforted. We find that, how much effort we put, we are unable to reach the destination. We can reach the objectives only if we have a direction. Most often our efforts lack a direction and our energies get dissipated. The lack of direction prevents us from taking wrong decisions which impact our efficiency and remains as an obstacle towards the final objective.

In many situations our objectives are material. We do not recognize that such material objectives can give lasting happiness. Still we associate success with things like becoming wealthy, getting a post etc. Happiness is a state of mind. It is associated with your level of emotional maturity.

As human beings we are programmed to become better and better every day. Hence by becoming better, in that process we create a lot of material value too. Most of us fail to understand that you do not have the capacity to consumer all. A consuming state of mind will never get satisfied. This dissatisfaction will impact you happiness. When you are a contributor your mind will be satisfied with whatever you have. People derive happiness by making other people happy. And, only a happy man keeps people around him happy. Hence material success and inner success can co-exist. But happiness cannot be achieved only though material success.

Thoughts of Swami Vivekananda on Human Excellence.

1. Why does Swami Vivekananda consider building up our character as an essential element to Human Excellence?
Every individual is unique and the character is his identity. Building up character is through the process of education. Education is not only the process of acquiring knowledge, but also how efficient you are in putting the knowledge to action for handling men and nature around him. This education combines with strength of self conviction and the depth of thought enables a person reach character excellence. The character energy that comes out of this human development through education, especially the tremendous amount of faith in one-self enables him to overcome any difficulty or obstacle that comes in his way to reach his objective. Only those people with a high degree of character excellence can nourish this world. Hence the character-energy / excellence is an essential element for human excellence.

2. What is the learning from the west on managing self?
According to Peter Drucker each person has inherent strengths and weaknesses. One cannot identify the strengths of self and identification of areas of self strength can be only though feedback analysis. A person’s performance/ efficiency can be improved only in his areas of strengths and trying to improve the weakness will only lead to mediocrity. The above points are quite against the principles of the east. The west agrees with the concept of self-conviction when they state that “only internal success leads to external success”.

3. What does Upanishad talks about efficiency?
According to Upanishad, anything done with vidya, sraddha and upanisad can alone become supremely efficient. To be efficient you need to equip yourself with the knowledge or know-how first. Once you equip yourself with the knowledge, efficiency can only come if you have a strong faith in yourself and the personal conviction to do it. It is a totality of positive attitudes that you develop towards achieving your objective. Upanishad considers that you are completely equipped to achieve the efficiency only you do think deeply and meditate on the subjects required to achieve the concerned objective. When all these three powers are combines you get a superlative degree of efficiency which he terms as human excellence.

4. What is the learning from the east on managing self?
Knowledge is the manifestation of what is already innate in man. The east believes that any of the competency or skill can be learnt and the superlative degree of efficiency can be achieved by equipping oneself with knowledge, having self-conviction to achieve it and by thinking deeply thinking and meditating on the competency concerned.

5. What constitute human excellence?
There lies an infinite man behind the finite and an immortal man behind the mortal man which are not within sensory cognition. Improving ones efficiency to a superlative degree with vidya, sraddha and upanisad exposes the infinite and immortal man within who has the energy to achieve any objective which nourishes and heals the world. This constitutes human excellence.

Mozhi - Review

Simple things are more profound. Mozhi is a simple movie and yet profound. The movie is based on a simple fact that language is just a vehicle for communication and need not be always verbal.

Prakash Raj has produced this movie which is directed by Radha Mohan. Each and every part of the movie has a deep thought behind and they are well connected. The side stories and supporting characters strengthen the main characters Archana (Joe), Karthik (Prithiviraj) & Viji (Prakash). I don’t really consider Swarnamalya as a key character. She plays a role to balance Archana and Viji(esp. at the end). Not everyone (including the audience) can understand everything of what Archana tries to communicate.

The story starts with a typical pannayar magal scene in village girl who is closely followed by a rustic guy. Thought it was meant to strike a humor by blatantly exposing the re-recording activity, the director strikes a beautiful introduction to the profession of Karthik (Prithviraj) & Viji (Prakash Raj) who share deep friendship besides their common interest of music.

After a short introduction to the musicians the frame shifts to an apartment where Archana & her mom, the apartment secretary and a mentally upset professor live. Karthik falls in love with Archana at first sight. Later he finds that Archana stays in the same apartment where he stays. He tries to speak with Archana several times, but every time he will be interrupted by the mentally retarded professor. The director had done his level best in blending comedy wherever possible in the movie. The comedy in this movie is essentially situational. It cannot be explained. U got to watch the movie to enjoy it. The concept of bulbs getting lighted and bells ringing when a person gets a crush is used in few occasions which always gives the view a mild burst of laughter ;)

Later, one day when Archana’s mom faints in the apartment, Karthik comes forward to take her to the hospital. This is when he gets into contact with Archana for the first time. In the hospital when he tries speaking with Archana, he finds that Archana is both deaf and dumb. The best part is the confidence with which Archana expresses that she is deaf and dumb. Her auditory impairment is shown as her character rather than a symbol of sympathy. Knowing this fact and looking at the air of confidence Archana left, his love for her grows stronger. That she is deaf and dumb is not only a surprise for Karthik but the viewers too… I’m committing a sin by letting out this surprise.

Besides all these things the small fights and humorous situations with the apartment secretary, Archana’s dog chasing Karthik and a fellow girl in the apartment who gets impressed with Karthik really spread humor and cheer. The director makes sure that u have a mild smile on your face all thru the first part. Though the professor has a sad background of loosing his son in 1984 by a road accident, because his memories are limited to 1984, it creates a mild humor in the begining and also goes to support the nature of Viji and Karthik.

Viji and Karthik then try to meet Swarnamalya who is a close friend of Archana. They get into contact with her and Karthik tries to learn more about Archana and the way to tell his love. He even makes efforts to learn sign language which he wants to use to communicate effectively with Archana. Both Viji and Swarnamalya help a great deal in getting Karthiks wish done. Archana and Swarnamalya work in a school for deaf and dumb children. The way Karthik celebrates his birthday and the children clap (silently) were truly impressive. Swarmalya is also a dance teacher there.

The rest of the story goes on with how Karthik expresses his love to Archana. Archana always liked him, but she always had a good reason to shun Karthik’s love. She shuned his love with pain. In the end Karthik’s love won over her determination. His love, Arachans nonverbal expression were painted in emotions. In spur of a moment Viji Proposes his love to Swanramalya in his own humorous way helps to break the emotion in the story.

The way Archana explains what is music for her to Praksh Raj was the most impressive one. The director has very clearly made what he wants to tell in this movie when she replies “Music is another language like tamil and English to me. I don’t know any of the languages u speak. But I can speak one language none of speak, its mounam (silence)”

Later on in the movie, when Archana comes back to Karthik’s room and asks him what music is, he lays Archana’s hand on the monitor (speakers) and plays a track he composed. Now simultaneously as she feels the vibrations he asks her to follow his hands. After a short while, even after he stops moving his hands Archana invoulonatrily stars following the music. Joe you are great… She expresses that in her eyes and facial reactions. It was phenomenal!

I particularly liked the scene shot in the 5 rathas at Mahabalipuram. Karthik tries imagine Archana’s voice as she expresses things with gestures. When he tells this to Arhcana she gets damn angry. Though deaf and dumb, she wanted to be appreciated of her skills than somebody sympathize her. Sympathy for her is like pointing out her disability to hear and speak. Archana is a good painter and has put in efforts to learn martial arts like judo and Karate. She tells that, she being deaf and dumb is real and imagining her with a voice spoils originality as she doesn’t even know what it is. I really appreciated this….

Archana had a point to make when she shunned Karthik’s love. This was partly due to the fact that her dad deserted her family when he found her disability. Also she feared that if she marries, her child may be born with disabilities. The way Karthik convinces her was great. When she tells that she doesn’t want to see him any more, Karthik still continues to love her and respects her feelings. He keeps away from her. I liked this. ….

The final scene when Joe asks by sign language if he is able to see her face in the moon was too impressive. The director conveys the feeling of a deaf and dumb child when she says Karthik that her mother has never told her any stories during her childhood.

Lot of wide angle photography was tried in this movie. Some of the unique angles were interesting. One of the song sequences was having the look of Infra Red color film. I don’t know if it was digitally altered.

Mozhi here is not verbal. Expressions were the vehicles for thoughts to move from one person to the other. The screenplay comes with music, with occasional dash of surprise and a tinge of Love.

Ennoda padam...

Hi Ppl...

Please find my photo psots @

www.photo.net/photos/karthik_r

http://www.digital-photo-forum.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/96

Photography Competition

ISRO - NASA MOU - My Reflections

The annual turnover of the company Im working is around 580 Cr INR. This I feel must be the average turnover of any company (division) in the manufacturing sector. This is the state and level of our economy. But, the Chandarayan project is alone 386 crores. Well, I don’t expect any satellite launch to be less than this amount. My debate is on the purpose of this launch.

The purpose of space exploration is a topic of debate all thru the world. Whether the money expended for it is worth or not! Well it can be a topic of debate in country like USA. That money can do great things in India. For me it could lay one more channel of rail between Chennai and Coimbatore which could accommodate two more trains reducing the travel time and need not plan my travel months ahead. For ISRO its just a new trail and promotions to a few scientists. (My sincere apologies to all hard work by our scientists).

Technology developed and areas of research should be towards the welfare of the people and the country. I dint say that the works done by ISRO are all waste of money. The educational SAT and the satellites for military applications have taken our nation several leaps.

US by deploying M3 pay load get the benefit free transport and easy results on their table. Also it is a easy way to have a sneak preview of the Indian technology. We wont be able to have any tangible benefit by mapping the terrain and minerals on the moon’s surface.

Any technology developed should have direct impact on the people. Im not denying the need for “fundamental research”. But, we should see that the benefits should be tangible.

When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination. Why don’t we think about that?