Peak Day Blues

A nice poem, do read it! A drunk man in an Oldsmobile They said had run the light That caused the six-car pileup On 109 that night. When broken bodies lay about "And blood was everywhere," "The sirens screamed out eulogies," For death was in the air. "A mother, trapped inside her car," Was heard above the noise; Her plaintive plea near split the air: "Oh, God, please spare my boys!" She fought to loose her pinned hands; "She struggled to get free," But mangled metal held her fast In grim captivity. Her frightened eyes then focused "On where the back seat once had been," But all she saw was broken glass and Two children's seats crushed in. Her twins were nowhere to be seen; "She did not hear them cry, " "And then she prayed they'd been thrown free, " "Oh, God, don't let them die! " Then firemen came and cut her loose, " "But when they searched the back, " "They found

Track and field line judge Lia Mara Lourenco is helped after a javelin hit her in her foot during 'Brazil Trophy,' a national track and field competition, in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006.

Finally, have uploaded all the snaps taken during the Family Day organized by KGiSL. Click here to view this set

Am sure you guys will remember my post a few days back on called " Jai Chella Keshava " Now, here's one more from the great star where again he uses his "finger" power, plus some English which not even the British can speak!

The Tata Group is known for its commitments and a large presence in philanthrophical activities. It was actually a philanthropical decision when the Tatas decided to have their Rs. 1 Lakh car dream project based out of West Bengal. Coming from a state ruled by communists, many an eyebrows were raised, but the reassurance for a pro-business Chief Minister set the ball rolling. But, India is after all India and the dirty politics will continue. Sensing a chance to score some brownie points, Mamata Banerjee joined hands with the remaining 40% of the people who were unwilling to lend their lands for this mega project. She even claimed "harassment" by police during on of her "shows" of protest and now it has snowballed into a big-time political drama with other political parties getting into the milieu. According to this report from TOI, the Tata Group is seriously considering to withdraw their propsed plant from West Bengal because of this anti-business climate prevail

In a new study conducted by IIM-Ahmedabad, most call center employees remain loyal to their employers and are happy about their work, even if it means working in the night shift, according to this report from DNA. The article cites better pay package, higher standards of living etc. as the main reasons for this. However, Aruna Raghuram, the journo who wrote the article has tried to tweak in the report by adding "cyber coolie" to call a BPO employee, thus putting parts of the article in bad light. If you call youngsters who work hard at night, thus bringing a whole new economic development to India as Cyber Coolies, then I don't know what we should call the so called "white collared" journos!

Can you identify this place??

Got myself a membership at Cinema Paradiso , a superb place to get all the Hollywood movies that you always wanted to watch... Will write a detailed review of the shop later, but at this point, would like your suggestions on movies to watch!

Nokia today introduced the Nokia N95, an all-in-one multimedia computer with a pioneering 2-way slide concept, integrated GPS functionality, a 5 megapixel camera and support for high-speed mobile networks, making it easier to watch and record videos, listen to songs, take high-quality photos, browse the internet, or catch up on email while on the move. Though at 35,000/- INR, it may still be out of reach to many, I consider the advancement in mobile technology as a positive move, since it combines several technologies into one. Imagine, you don't need a walkman/mp3 player, neither a digital camera or a handycam. You can use it as a phone primarily, and as a PDA or a Blackberry. You can browse the net and use it as a clock or an alarm!! Whooof!

A few years ago, it came as a rude shock to many American citizens, when their savings were wiped off because of a few fradulent multi-national companies like Enron and WorldCom. But now it's pay back time as former WorldCom CEO, Bernard Ebbers is serving a 25-year imprisonment and former CFO of Enron got a 6-year jail term

Picture 094 Originally uploaded by Peakday Blues . Caught this rather "amusing" snap @ Kodai where a bunch of monkeys were robbing this bike. Once we came in, all ran away, except for this braveheart who continued chewing on the leathers! What next? Monkeys riding the bike! :-)

"Pithamagan JVK" in his avataar on top of a tombstone at Guna Caves!!

Alternatively, head over here to watch it individuall in the bigger format

I got myself a Flickr Pro account yesterday for $25. This will help me with organizing all the photos into sets and a 2GB upload limit vs. 20MB for the free account. So, head over to my photo sets to watch all of Kodaikanal Photos. Will be uploading and sorting all the other photo sets also pretty soon! Keep an eye :-)

Can anyone guess at which place in Kodaikanal you can find this? Easy, rite?

There have been some many theories doing the rounds about what actually happened on that fateful morning of September 11, 2001. But one of the most prominent and the one I think has a possibility is that of controlled demolition of the twin towers after the planes hit. I've seen many buildings come down in unison in some program in AXN. And here's a video which gives you a good explanation!

Like tamil mega serials, which you can watch from your childhood till you die, my series on Kodai will continue till we go to the next trip ;-) So, here's presenting the First Episode of my Mega Serial - Kodayil Jillunu Oru Bhookambam!

Online activity is finally catching up in India with the recent splurge in Broadband.(At least from among the educated urbans). I still remember the days when I used to pay Rs. 120/- for an hour of net surfing at now unthinkable speeds. Today, one can even access Internet over his/her GPRS enabled phone for as low as 20 rupees for 24 hours (read: Airtel). As this penetration grows, online businesses are here to mushroom. Case in point? Imagine you have a credit card, you can literally sit in front of a computer and do all the things that a normal person does by going out to shop. Shopping? There's a myriad of online shopping sites from where you can buy everything from Clothing to the latest mobile phones. Some of the established players are Ebay India, Indiatimes, Fabmall, Sify, Rediff etc. Bill Payment? Now you can pay all your bills, from electricity, telephone, water, cable etc. at the click of a mouse. Try visabillpay.com if you don't believe me. Loans/Banking/Financial

*will post the rest of the Kodaikanal Trip write-up soon ;-)

The August issue of KGiSL Spotlight is released. Click here to read the issue

What's the difference between Anu Malik and Bill Gates??? Well, none. Both love to copy the good stuff from others and make it look/sound better! Microsoft recently launched an iPod killer called Zune (by now, am sure most of you would have read about it) and is now hell bent on entering the online video sharing segment, dominated by YouTube. Microsoft just launched its own version of video sharing service called Soapbox today. Well, as long as they don't flex their muscles and make a kill (remember good ol' Netscape), consumers can't complain!

Other than sharing a common name, Lalu Prasad Yadav and myself were miles apart till a few years ago (my pet name at house is Lalu btw). In fact, I hated politics just because of this so called buffoon from Bihar whose famous video of that along with a cow was flashed across TV screens (even today, a news channels uses that video footage). But a lot changed, when I read and heard about his miraculous turnaround of the Indian railways since he became the railway chief. As most of the other goverment run organizations, the Indian Railways was running at a huge loss and was at the verge of bankruptcy when he took charge. Rail accidents were happening every other day and red tapism and beauracracy was at its highest inflection point! This uneducated, but worldly wise man pulled the right strings and adopted some strategic changes to the railways and made it turn around and become profitable. This rags to riches story has now become a case study at IIM Ahmedabad, where Lalu recently visite

Competition can make you do more and do it in a better way! This seems to be the mantra of Zee promoted Dish TV which gives you direct to home satellite services. I had bought on this March and was quite happy with the service. Recently, after TATA's launched Tata Sky DTH service, Dish TV has upped its services. They have added all channels now (thx to a directive from the government), with CNN-IBN also joining the bandwagon. But the icing on the cake is their new Interactive TV, known was Dish ACTIVE. One should experience it to truly appreciate its value. Thru Dish ACTIVE, one can watch news clippings of various stories whenever you want, with news stories in the sidebar (at present Zee News). With Sports Active, which is a big hit with me personally, you can watch two TV cameras all the time without any commentary, see all the match stats, watch instant highlights... you can do sooo much! Plus they also have games, ooh la la! Time to go for a dish if you haven't already mate

Gautham's `Oru Murai Paarthadhum' gets a thumbs up review from the ace journo Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu.... Click here to read the review

I was in for a pleasant surprise when I came and checked my blog stats... Peak Day Blues has crossed 50,000 hits!! It's been two years (June 13, 2004) since I started blogging and am really elated to have hit the 50k number. And all this wouldn't have been possible, without YOU, the folks who come regularly and read my blog. This was the biggest break I had taken from blogging since I started and I promise you that regular updates will happen from now on.... THX A MILLION!!

LN Revathy of Hindu Business Line had an article about smaller cities gaining momentum in IT/ITeS/BPO space, with Coimbatore as the focus this past Monday. In the article , she discusses in length about the new opportunities that has presented itself for the Coimbatoreans and about MNCs entering Kovai. It has also got tit bits from Mr. Sridhar of KGiSL. Do read it .

Back in action folks... will b updating pretty soon...