Cell phones, Meetings and Randy Pausch.

Guitar and a Friend.

As I write this blog, I'm listening to an awesome version of 'Battle Hymn of Republic' by Chet Atkins, with a few variations. I like the song not only because the lyrics are excellent and they put the living fear into you, but also because 'Glory Glory Man Utd' , the anthem of Man Utd, the best football team in the world, is a parody of this song. Thanks for that excellent youtube link, my friend. You'll be warmly remembered. (Others can hear this version by searching for 'Battle Hymn of Republic Chet Atkins').

Cell Phones and Meetings.

Today, I was fortunate enough to attend a meeting with one of the VP's of my employer. Some big head who heads some big vertical in a headstrong company. A lot of heads in there, and fittingly, his head was littered with snowy white hair. To be fair to the bloke, most of the meetings turn out to be a damp squib, but this one did not.

Most of today's VP's, are so high strung that it's difficult to relate to their clever little motivational speech. But the bloke who came today, made a decent effort to speak to us, and did a concise and a clear speech. He never really roamed away from the subject, made no special effort to underline his 'VPness', and generally commanded the floor well. Till....

The first cell phone ring went off without a warning. The dame, who owned the cell phone, at least had the cell phone in her hand and cut the call in no time. I could see a little wince in the face of the VP, although he took the call in his stride and proceeded with his speech. We were about 25 people in the room, and every one of them were my colleagues for at least an year.

To be fair on them, I could see a couple of late bloomers, reaching out for their cell phones and making sure they had their cell phones on vibration mode. The VP, again held center stage for 5 minutes till, the second cell phone ring went off. This time, real loud (Those damn iPhones). The big guy had to pause for a second to actually let the owner of the cell phone, X, cut the call. I was beginning to like my VP.

Now I'm not sure how smart X is, I'm guessing he's a REC Graduate, but that should have been a pointer, if there ever was a pointer. Unbelievably, X still had not turned the Vibration mode on, and his iPhone went off the second time. If I was the VP, I would have had to make an effort not to fire the guy, right there. Fifteen seconds later, X's iPhone did the 'loud Ring-Ring' tone to make sure X, VP and everybody in the room know that X got a voice message. VP was still smiling. Fifteen seconds later, incredibly, the same iPhone rang loud enough to indicate the keypad was locked.

I'm not sure about the blokes here, excluding Professionalism, Courtesy and every damn intelligent thing, turning off the Cell phone (yes I hear you, and an iPhone too) volume or activating the Vibration mode during an important meeting, is to be classified as an item of Common sense, the last time I checked.

Well, no wonder, Common Sense ain't common anymore!!!

The VP was still smiling on his way out of the conference call. Good on you, mate.

Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was also the author of the famous "The Last Lecture" speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon.

The speech was over an hour's length and it's available on Youtube.com on Carnegie Mellon Channel in youtube. Search for 'Randy Paush the last lecture' and you should be able to find out easily. The way that he had approached the speech knowing fully well that his entire audience knew that he had only 5 more months to live was commendable.

And the way he ended his speech for the 'real' intended audience was one right out of the James Cameron school of best plots. The speech was truly remarkable for the courage of the man himself. There are a lot of cynics out there, who claim, that Randy never had a thing to fear in his life. The death is the biggest of them all. Rock on Randy.

*But for all his brilliance, and for a guy who had everything covered, it's a pity that he chose to neglect the most important of them all. His soul. You lived a great life in this earth Randy. But a guy like you ought to know that, this is just the beginning for the greater things in your soul's life after death. (This is kind of spooky like the mummy in 'The Mummy' saying with a gruff voice 'Death is only the beginning', but that's just how the way it is)

*For people who don't know me and try to comment on my blog, I'm a believer of Christian faith and I believe in Heaven and Hell. As the description of my blog goes, 'This blog, is my blog, is my blog', and I have voiced my opinion about Randy's belief. Please go easy on your comments and make sure it's without any abuse relating to my faith and please please please, don't make me delete them. (Kind of rich coming from me, as I've got 0 Comments on my previous posts so far, but still, the disclaimer is in place).

Youtube link of the day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ylrDwCQj4
Showboating aside, Tommy Emmanuel, take a bow.

The Educated Illetrate and his grandmother.

Just to give you an indication of how powerful, the TV as a media is, read this.

I was in the third standard when this happened. Good old Doordarshan days. There used to be a sustained campaign for literacy in India. There was this awesome promo ad which featured a lady singing 'Purab se Surya Uga' at the top of her voice.

Nothing wrong with her voice alright. But the promo campaign was aired so many times that I asked my parents what the hell was that about, coz you know, I understood zilch when it comes to Hindi. My dad explained in right earnest that it has to do with the alarming rate of Illetracy, and how much it's hurting India. I couldn't figure out how people can be without going to school. Though it sounded cool, somehow it felt not right to me. As I started a spate of questions, My pop just told me that people who did not study are called Illetrates.

I was a sucker for contradictions. I saw the video 'Everybody wants to rule the world' by Tears for Fears band and saw for myself how beautiful America looked when I compared this to the drivel I saw in Tamil cinema songs.

Right there, I made a resolution that I would strive to remove the problem of Illetracy and promote Literacy. I drew up a list of people that were very close to me, as I wanted to make sure my own folks and friends aren't hitting Mother India below the belt. (I wonder if she does wear a belt).

Including the 3 pretty girls next house, the number went upto 9, including my grandparents. I could see the 3 pretty girls were going to school, and my mum and dad went to office. That ruled them out. Out of the remaining four, I had strong suspicion about my grandmother, as she repeatedly kept mispronouncing homework.

Once I drew up the list, I couldn't wait for my dad to get home. I obviously didn't tell him what the list was for, just lied that it was my school homework. My worst fears became true, when I found out that my grandmother wasn't educated.

Even though I was embarrased to have an illetrate grandmother, I loved her much that I did not want to disown her. I decided to take the matter in my own hands and drew up a plan. Those were the days of 6 days a week work for Government offices, and both my parents had to go to work on Saturdays. On the other hand, my school had a local holiday every Wednesday, as we had the local flea market.

I began to use the Wednesday to educate my grandmother. Since I realised that she's poor at pronounciations, I started with some easy English pronounciations. Apparently, I wasn't a good teacher. I took me 3 hours to teach her how to pronounce 'Sky'. Everytime I said 'Sky' and asked her to repeat it, she either just laughed or said 'High'.

After 3 weeks of hard English lessons, I had taught her 7 words. Sky, Salt, Pepper, World and other 3 words which I don't remember now. On the fourth Wednesday, my father was home. And as soon as the clock struck 10 A.M, I started my classes. For a while, my dad did not realise what was going on, as I asked my grandmother repeatedly to say 'Plants'.

When he wanted to know what I was doing, I asked him to step aside, and told him very seriously that he should not be telling Granma that she's hurting India by being an Illetrate. She might get hurt you know. I told him, I was just educating her, so that Mother India would forgive her.

For a long time, I never realised why my father burst out with laughter. Though he kept a poker face, and he called me the 'Education minister of India'. At my age, I thought it was something cool and powerful. I even told the pretty girls about my new mantle, and they went, 'Awwwwwwww, you're a minister'.

Now it's kind of funny. But I realise how TV and 'Purab se Surya Uga' had made an impact on my tender mind. Are you doing justice to your media, Sun TV, Vijay TV, Northie TV's?

Youtube link of the day.
No prizes for guessing - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Va_ml6k7_Fk

My Quest for a Spiritual Home.

I miss my church. When I was a small boy, I was a regular at Church services through out the year. Except for a single week in May for summer holidays, my father always made sure that I gave my fair share of thanks to the Good Lord above. So, if it wasn't the summer holiday week in May, and health permitting, I was pretty much a regular fixture in the 'CSI Church, Manapparai, Trichy Tanjore District'.

Even though I was fairly attentive in my childhood days, I don't remember a lot of Church, apart from the Hot Cross bun on Good Friday, The bidding on Harvest Festival and Biriyani in Easter, and a few fist fights in the Church once in a while, due to internal politics. Even if the Good Reverend failed to bless the Congregation, my father never missed on complaining about the non existence of our Choir and the singing talent of our Congregation. As you see, our town wasn't all that affluent and it did not boast of a single musician who could play at the Church.

And when Mr. James Chellapandian turned up at our Church, people were praising the Father again. As it turned out, Mr. Chellapandian, or James from here on, could play the Church Organ wonderfully well, and the good guys at the Agricultural office where he was working, had transferred him to Manapparai . So James started playing Organ in our Church and people started to realise how wonderful to have a Church with an organist and a Choir.

Both my mum and dad were avid song listeners. For all his complaning about the Congregation, my Dad was in fact a terrible singer. He never sings, Instead he does what I call as 'Nosing', signing with the nose. But my mum on the other hand, had a sweet voice with very little control. But since both of them had a tremendous interest in Music, they taught me a fair number of Hymns and Keerthanai's.

I was 9 at that time, and I must have paid more attention to the Church back then. I seemed to learn more songs, and I even memorised the Order of Service. My life was at peace, till an unexpected occurance rocked my world. Alas, Mr. James was getting a transfer back to his hometown. This caused considerable panic and havoc in my pop's mind, who took it upon to himself to create an organist for the church.

I assume that he had given the first shot at glory for himself. When he realised that he was too old for this kind of tutoring, He decided that I should take up the mantle of the musician. At 9, with no prior pocket money savings and no steady girlfriends, I hardly had a choice. I started learning piano from James and my father even bought me a little keyboard to practise.

Well that was rad and cool. I was mighty proud of my keyboard. SA20 by Casino. All of two and half octaves with little keys, and one awesome 'Wake me up, Before I go' Demo song by Wham, I guess that was a bribe from my father to keep me away from complaining. So began my classes.

Christmas service 1992 was my red letter day. All of 10 years old, I took my Casio 20 and played 'O Come All ye Faithful' with no amplifiers or sound boosters. The only time when you could hear my Casio was before the song, when i lead the congregation with the last 2 lines of the Stanza before the song. Well, a lot of things happened after that.

For the next 11 years, I was the Organist in my Church. Till the time I finished my college, I played Organ through thick and thin. I watched 6 Pastars come and go, seen 12 Carol services , about 15 Marriages and a fair share of Funerals too. I'm sure when i played Organ, I grumbled a few times too. As my age kids were busy playing in Sunday School, I played Organ and listened to Sermon. But i knuckled down and played well too.

But one thing I always enjoyed doing was playing the organ and singing the song. I've had few funny experiences and a few not so funny experiences, but I've come to admire the depth and the meaning of the songs that I sang in the Church. All the contemporary songs would never come close to the Hymns and the Keerthanaigal I played and sung.

This is where I come to the critical point of today's blog. This yearning for Tamil Hymns and Keerthanai's had grown steadily over time and they have hit the ceiling this week. For a desi living in US, the exposure to Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal is fairly minimal, unless you have your own CD's. With this and the growing number of unsuccessful hits on Youtube for old Hymns, I've put forward this idea of having a lyrics website dedicated to Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal.

This idea is still at it's infancy, and I've formed an Orkut community to discuss this with like minded individuals. If you happen to read this blog and you haven't visited my community, Log into www.orkut.com and search for 'Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal' and join the community and pour your ideas.

Yes, I do miss my Church. Maybe this new website with Lyrics and possibly Music with midi files will reduce that longing feeling.

Youtube link of the day.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zF4uoVDSAyI
Terrific singing by the two ladies. Hats off.

A brief thought on Man Utd's Season 08-09.

After the Euphoria of a heady double last season, we are at the door steps of a new season. Most of what should have been a triumphant pre season has been clouded by the long and winding Ronaldo to Real Madrid saga. So what are we going to expect this new season?

This has been a strange pre season in many ways. All the clubs in the 'Mythical Big 4 gang' did not have much joy in the Transfer window so far. Internal turmoil and a new manager at Chelsea, Protracted Barry, Keane, Alonso transfer wranglings at Liverpool, Problems over wage structure at Arsenal has played spoilsport with other clubs.

While Man Utd had a relatively quiet pre season, with the murky Ronaldo storm blowing all the way to Madrid, there has been only one official bid for a player, which is now a well kept public secret. Berbatov.

Coming into the pre-season, arguably, Man Utd had the most settled squad among the Big teams. Rio, Vidic, Brown, Neviller, Evra, Silvestre, Evans and Danny Simpson make a very strong defence with 8 players vying for 4 positions with players like John O' Shea, Fletcher, and Owen Hargreaves more than capable of playing the odd game here and there.

The one change in the best defence in England and arguably in Europe has been Evans replacing Pique. Pique has left for Barca in the summer. We wish Pique well, he needed first team football and with Rio and Vidic playing so well, there is no big opportunity for Pique unless one of them suffers an injury. In Johnny Evans, Man Utd boast more than an equal replacement. Evans played for Sunderland so well, that he was one of the main reasons that they avoided the drop.

The Midfield also has no apparent additions to it. It's difficult not to make a mention of Ronaldo now. He has done nothing to cool the rumour talk, though there has not een a single bid from Real Madrid and no transfer request from Ronaldo. Till at least one of them materialises, It would be futile for the Man Utd board to talk about it, and even for us to discuss on his presence in the midfield. At the moment, he's an United player and as the days pass by, the indications are stronger by the day that he won't be leaving United. At least for this years.

Scholes, Anderson, Hargreaves, Carrick, John O Shea and Darren Fletcher compete for 2 or even 3 midfield places, while Giggs, Nani, Ronaldo, will vie for the wide winger roles. Fletcher, O Shea, and reserve players like Lee Martin, Chris Eagles will also look to put more pressure on the wingers for places. The midfield should at the moment looks very strong and oozes class.

The players know each other well, and there should be no problems in settling down. The entire squad has been practicing together for an year now, and both the defense and the midfield should be a strong knit squad in the football pitch, as we would look to hit the ground running.

The one player whom Fergie bid on, as been the worst kept secret in the history of worst kept secrets. Thanks to our norwegian fan website, which named the player, Daniel Levy the Tottenham board president has confirmed the bid for Berbatov. At 27, He'd be a fantastic addition to the squad. Already a potent strike force, boasting of Rooney, Tevez, Saha, Manucho and the youngsters Frazier Campbell and Wellbeck, he'll add even more quality.

With rumours abound that Saha might be gone for good and Campbell to be farmed out to Hull City for another year on loan, We are left with Rooney, Tevez, Manucho and Wellbeck. It's particularly unfair on Wellbeck with Manucho suffering a suspected Metatarsal break. To expect the youngster to hit the ground running in difficult and crucial matches is just too much. Taking everything into account, the imminent signing of a good striker is much needed and Berbatov would be an awesome addition.

Although questions arise about his attitude on the pitch, this writer not being the best of Berbatov fans, there's no doubting his quality. He will add another dimension to the United strike force. If it's Berbatov we are getting, there are some intriguing questions that will arise. Are we going to play 4-4-2 or we are moving ever closer to the perfect 4-3-3?

Playing Berbatov and Rooney up front with a straight 4 man midfield is an awesome attacking move. It'll be like watching Man Utd of the old. Marauding Ronaldo and Giggs on the wings, with Scholes and Carrick in the midfield with a strong defence is any team's nightmares. There will be a lot of service up front, a lot of width in United's play. But football isn't that simple anymore. More and more teams have learnt to cope up with all out attack and teams with limited quality like Liverpool, Aston Villa are always trying to stifle the opposition and hit us on the break.

The more plausible 4-3-3 option would be to play Carrick/Hargo as a holding midfielder with two wingers, Ronaldo, Giggs on the wings and Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov up front. The tendency of Tevez and Rooney to drop back into the midfield will be a welcome presence if the going gets tough. On our European nights when Fergie tends to favour the 4-5-1, United can easily play with Berbatov/Rooney and Tevez slipping into wide positions and playing with one out and out striker.

But at the mean time, with the team that we possess, even if we don't get Berbatov it is not all doom and gloom. We can easily play a 4-4-2, 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3 with the current team we possess. Rooney and Tevez up front, they proved everyone wrong that they can play together. With Fergie assuring Rooney that he'll be played up front all the time, a 4-3-3 with Rooney up front, Tevez and Ronaldo on the flanks with Nani/Fletcher and Giggs should be a fairly attacking squad.

This will be a flag ship year in the history of Man Utd. The club will be contesting for 7 different trophies. As this article appears online, We have won the Pre season cup in Africa. The last time a club trumpeted that it's going to mount a serious challenge on all 7 trophies, it amounted to zilch. The article makes no mention of amazing players like Anderson, Fletcher, John O shea, Danny Simpson, and the likes. We used to possess a nuclues of a very strong squad. Now our entire squad is stronger, and our second team which would compete for FA and Carling cups ooze class too.

This writer doesn't dare to put on paper the number of cups that United will win out of the seven. Though the number starts with S and ends with N. But we are in for some exciting times as other teams have bought and bought well outside the Top 4. Will this be the season we re-enact the treble act? Will this be the season that one of the big 4, gets dumped into the lower rung? Will this be the season that'll forever be remembered as the Glory year of Man Utd and Sir Alex Ferguson?

Do I know?

Bollocks mate, Let's just sing 'We'll keep the red flags flyin high' at the top of our voices and see the team cruise to glory.