Book a HOME before U book a flight.

It been about 4 days since I have landed here and I and my friends have been doing full-time house hunting at Tucson. A very tuf job considering the fact that we were not used to the places and stuff. Considering the fact that its tough to find a rented apartment after cuming to Tucson, I would suggest prosepective students to find a rented apartment before they come here.

There are lots of sites which would help can help you find in Tucson, the most preferable one being the craiglist (http://tucson.craigslist.org/hhh/) and also the apts near to the Eller university namely Univ Park, Univ Gardens, Palm shadows and Park Adams are good places to be in. So the most important thing is to book homes and make sure that you move into the permament apartment as soon as possible.

The Flight Journey.

My flight journey towards the "Land of Opprutunities" USA was a very long and tiring one. I and my friends (Karthik and Pandian) had boarded the flight at 4 am in the morning at chennai. We reached Dubai airport at arnd 7 AM in the morning. The airport is a man made wonder and we nearly saw abt 500 planes standing inside the airport. As we stood over-awed by the structural beauty, we had more of that to come. The interiors of the airport were the best I have ever seen so far. As we freshend up and got ready to catch the flight to Houston, we saw Abhishek and Aiswarya Bachan. We were very surprised and it took us a while to realise that the world famous couple were standing close to us and they also boarded our flight on the way to tucson. Though we were not able to get any autographs, we managed to take a pic of them and boarded the flight to houston.

The Dubai-Houston leg of the journey was a loooong 16 hrs. Though we were offered great food and had a wide plasma screen for entertainment, the long journey was very tiring. Finally after 16 long hrs we landed at US-Houston airport. After getting our immigration done we travelled to the check in counter of the Tucson flight. We still had about 2 hrs left and I dozed off under the weight of tiredness. My friends woke me up for flight to Tucson. But the tiredness was not over and I dozed off again to just wake up before the flight landed at Tucson. Thus the loooooong India-US journey came to an end. I would suggest people coming to West Coast of US from India to take the Cathay pacific airlines which trips from LA to Chennai with a stop over at hong kong.

Tucson is comparitively a big city than we had expected it to be. We had informed the students at the India Club present at Tucson to pick us up at the airport. I would like to thank them for their hospitality in picking us up and also the indian students who have been giving us temporary accomodation till now.

Human Psychology..

A kinda feel that it’s a strange topic for me to blog on this topic as I believe I am NOT that old to write on this J. But I wanted to share some thoughts that I read in a book recently. The author of the book explained the different human psychological patterns and the key to understanding the different patterns. Though I don’t remember all the content of the book, I would just wish to share a few points available in the book.

One of the most crucial aspects of the human psychology is the ability of a person to interact with one another. In the book, Human Communication is defined as 10 digit mobile number. Even if we dial one number wrong we could miss the communication link it seems, which I feel is quite true. The book states that while communicating we need to understand the nature of person, his present mental position, his surrounding and mostly importantly the topic of the conversation. If that’s very tough to comprehend then the book gives a simple solution. Just give yourself a 5 sec breather time, wherein you can asses the situation and present your thoughts. I guess in present day life its tough to follow but I am trying to practice it.

The second point is related to the first. It relates to the old clichéd adage “First impression is the Best impression”. The book states that most people remember the first meeting or a first movie with a friend more than any other instance. So I guess it’s important to make the First Best impression. I guess the solution to this is again the 5 second breather time method.

The other main thing is ego. Ego is kinda related to self-respect of the individual. For example a friend unknowingly teases or hurts his friend, then the friend feels humiliated and wants to get back at that friend and that creates a bad environment between them. If it’s a boss scolding his junior then the worker has no way to show it back and he in turn shows it to somebody near him. So there can be a big amount of bad energy created by these small events. The solution to this would be watch once words before they speak as anger is quite contagious like flu. Anger is another expression more closely related to Ego. I guess I need not explain things on anger J as everybody has got tons of it including me. But the point specified in the book is if anger helps you solve a problem then it might just be a temporary solution. The real solution would be to understand what infact caused the problematic situation. Whenever I get angry, I would kind think whether my anger would help me solve the problems. They actually do not and sometimes further complicates the problem. So this thought has kinda reduced my anger. I somehow don’t believe in the laughter or any theory on controlling angry as these are temporary solutions. The permanent solution is to eradicate situations that cause anger.

The last and the most important thing in human psychology are relationships. According to me and the book (Both same opinion ... strangely J ) relationship are kinda strange. They mostly depend on the situations around them. Relationships require constant care. The mom-daughter-son-sis-bro-father and friends relationships are easy compared to lovers or relative’s relationship. The reason is that the latter relationships expect more out of you and understand you a little less J.

So I believe this kinda boring blog would have helped you gain some insight into how human psychology works. You would know all these facts but would not have read about them. Do let me know if these hints have helped you in your life.

Lord KABALISWARAR with Peacock Ambal.

KABALISWARAR temple has been one of the real landmarks of our Singara Chennai city. I had visited the temples many times, but each with visit of mine to this temple; I am overawed by the structural beauty of this magnificent temple. I had recently gone to this temple along with my parents had a great darshan of the Lord Siva and Ambal. After darshan of the main deities we can actually have a view of all the gopurams by standing in one of the corners of the outers praharams (Outer passages of the temple). This corner of the temple passage has a temple bell over it.

There are other small temples around the main temple. I was actually surprised to see one Siva temple containing a peacock statue near it. Usually one would be able to see Nandhi (bull) standing in front of Lord Siva. I then read the history of the temple written on the main door of the temple. The story goes something like this- "Long time back when Lord Siva and Parvati were having a chat, Parvati noticed a beautiful peacock, was enticed in its beauty and therefore did not listen to what Lord Siva was speaking. This angered the Lord and he cursed the goddess to be re-born as a peacock in her next birth. Goddess asked the Lord to forgive her and then a cooled down Lord told her to take the next birth as a peacock and worship Lord at a particular place. So the goddess took the avatar as a peacock and worshiped the Lord. The Lord pleased by goddess devotion gave her darshan and mukti". So the name of this place where this temple is situated was named Mylapore (Peacock City). So next time when you guyz go to the temple you can worship the Lord and Ambal knowing the superb history behind it.

I also visited the Vellishwarar (Silver Lord Siva) temple which is situated right behind the Kabali Temple. This temple has Lord Siva in a silver Lingam form, a real treat to watch. This temple also contains Lord Sarpashwarar (head of a lion and body of a snake) and Lord Sukrashwarar (Lord Sukran worshiping Lord Siva). This temple is a must watch especially on Sunday 4.30 PM to 6 PM when we have Rahu kalam pooja for Lord Sarpashwarar. I hope to visit the famous Chitra Kulam nearby the Kabali temple. So next time you are in Chennai, don’t miss these superb temples and also the huge pond at the back of the Kabali temple.

The Mystery Muder Case...

Whenver I see any news channel on TV, I keep hearing this news or news related to it everyday. The Aarushi murder case has meandered thru the twists and turns that would make a very good thriller movie script and it’s also one which would even have challenged the best in murder investigation business.

The murder of this young gal with her head smashed by a hammer and her throat slit by a surgical knife has sent shock waves thru everybody in our country. It’s a gory murder by any stretch of imagination. Then started the drama of the servant being suspected and his body found in the home’s terrace 2 days later. The case twisted even further where the police accused the father of committing the murder as he saw his daughter close with his servant. Unfortunately the police were not able to recover the murder weapons.

I believe the media too placed a lot of HYPE on the case and this immensely pressured the investigation agencies. On the whole the young gal’s life has been analyzed to the most extent by the MEDIA and the police. With the CBI taking over the case I believe the case would be closed soon with the real culprit caught soon.

But the whole point behind the case is why anybody would do that to a fun loving kid like Aarushi. I have a cousin sis that age and this case has shocked, saddened and angered me on the way it’s handled by the MEDIA and the investigation agencies. I request the newsprint and the other people in association with that to be more sensitive while sharing information to the outside world. I hope the world becomes a better place to stay where such incidents don’t happen. My deepest condolences to the Aarushi family.

My Saviour Mantram..

I had been an atheist till my 12th standard. But somehow, I had gone to temples to pray for my 12th results. I could hear an inner voice whenever I used to visit the temples. Then thru my college days, I did not visit temples often. In the 7th semester of my BE, we had campus interviews. All of us were very keen to get into any one of the big IT firms. After my disastrous interviews with INFY and WIPRO, I was devastated. I can still remember how time literally came to a standstill. That’s when my dad told me how he used to visit a temple (Shivili Maharaja Siva temple) at his native place, Tharuvai and he asked me to pray to lord. My interview with TCS clicked for me and from that moment my devotion towards god increased. I visited that temple and me and dad performed pujaas.

Though I would go to temple once in a while, I never used to pray at home. But that changed after a big incident. I had been preparing for my GMAT for quite sometime. But I was not getting the desired scores in my practice tests. The situation at my workplace also was not very rosy and also I had big-time health problems. Facing such a big strain and pressure from all ends, I was mentally and physically exhausted and I got affected with viral fever. At this point of time, an uncle who resided above my home provided me with homeopathy medicines and also told me a story which changed my life completely.

I had my upanayanam (thread ceremony) when I was studying my 10th std. But I did not comply with the rituals associated with that. One of the important part of the ritual is the recitation of Gayathri Mantram for 108 times. Now this was the same thing that the Homeopathy doc uncle had told me lot of time before. I actually never took it seriously. But that day when I was sick he told me a story about this gayathri mantram.

"Long time ago, during Akbar’s rule, Akbar and Birbal would go around the city secretly at night to check the needs of their people and stuff. Now they noticed a beggar who approached them for alms saying that he had not eaten for 2 days. Akbar spoke to the beggar, enquired about him and gave him alms. On the way back to the palace Akbar taunted birbal by saying that the beggar was a Brahmin and that muslim people don’t beg for alms. Birbal didn’t reply to this. The next day he called for the beggar and told him that he would give him 25 paise if he would recite "Gayathri Mantram" 10 times. The beggar was overjoyed and promised that he would start reciting the mantram. Slowly the Brahmin noticed lots of changes in his life. He started getting food and alms without asking. After a month birbal called the Brahmin and asked him to recite the mantram and that he would pay him 50 paise for it. The Brahmin accepted the offer and started praying big-time. Now it happened that people who came and told the Brahmin their problems had their problems solved. Birbal had called the Brahmin again and asked him to recite the mantram for 1008 times and told him he would give him 1 rupee for that. The Brahmin told birbal that he would recite the mantram and he would not need any money for that. Soon the Brahmin kept on reciting 1008 times Gayathri Mantram and Goddess Gayathri gave him darshan and he became a saint. Whoever told the problems to the saint, their problems vanished and so the Saint’s popularity grew and Akbar got to hear about this saint. Akbar decided to meet the saint and he along with Birbal went to seek the Saint’s blessings. The Brahmin and Akbar had a discussion and Akbar sought his blessings. On the way back he asked Birbal on how they missed having the darshan of this saint before. Birbal asked Akbar whether he had seen the Brahmin saint before in his life. Now Akbar was very confused and said no. Birbal then replied saying this is the same person who once sought alms from them and the power of Gayathri Mantram had changed him. Hearing this Akbar was very astonished."

When the uncle told me this story, for the first time I kinda quite believed it. I started reciting Gayathri Mantram daily and it had an immediate effect. I could see my scores in my GMAT prep test increase, my health and my office problems lessen. I started reciting 1008 times the Gayathri Mantram everyday before my exam and this directly reflected in my exam where I got 710. The most interesting part of this is that I had expected only in the range of 610-620(my friend Vikram would know about this for sure ;) ) and that I have had heard many people getting higher scores in preparatory tests and low scores comparatively in the real tests. But I guess for me it came the other way round.

The Gayathri Mantram:
"Om Bhur Bhuva Suvah
Tathsavithur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodayat"

U can also view this site : "http://thillasthanamsabha.freehosting.net/Gayathrijapam.htm"

The Raja of Remakes..

The Remake Raja or the "Raja of Remakes", however you call him has come back with a hit again in his latest movie – Santosh Subramanium. The master director ‘Raja’ had given 3 big hits in the form of ‘Jeyam’, ‘M Kumaran- Son of Mahalakhsmi’ – my favourite and the 2006 release ‘Something Something-Unakkum Enakkum’. I agree with the facts that he has copied the scripts, location and everything for each of his movies, but still there is something in him which makes him choose the correct movies. How many of us can recollect a director who has given 4 hits continuously??

I believe that eventually he will make a movie of his own script and that will also be a big hit, if not a good family entertainer. The Raja-Ravi combo has been renowned for the blazing hits they have given. I didnt like the first movie ' Jeyam' that much but I loved 'M Kumaran' and ' Something Something'. The mother- son relationship shown in M Kumaran is something close to my heart and the 'Neeye Neeye' song makes my eyes moist considering the fact I would be away from my mom for two whole years. 'Something Something' Trisha was awesome. Clad in a davani she looked very cute and the story of bro-sis-love was great entertainer.

Next in line to these great movies has come Santosh Subramanium which is a great story on a father-son relationship taken from the original "Bommarillu" which ran 200 days in Andhra. Sidharth was at his THE BEST in that movie. The comparison between both the version of the movie though inevitable have started. The tamil version has been pictureized beautifully and probably is an exact replica of the telugu version with little deviations.

I believe that this movie too would scale the heights of his previous movies. Anyways I am great fan of this mastercraftsman whose worth would surely be tested in the coming years.I hope Raja will soon prove his detractors wrong and come up with a high successful movie.. of his own script .. :)