Venkatarangan Blog

Applications of Tamil IT–A.M.Jain College

venkatarangan — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:15:00 +0000

சில நாட்களுக்கு முன் சென்னை மீனம்பாக்கம் அகர்சந்த் மான்மல் ஜெயின் கல்லூரி தமிழ்த்துறையிலிருந்து ஒரு அழைப்பு. அந்த கல்லூரி எங்கே இருக்கிறது என்றே எனக்கு தெரியாது. அழைத்த முனைவர், வரும் வியாழக்கிழமை கணித்தமிழும் பயன்பாடும் என்ற தலைப்பில் ஒரு கருத்தரங்கம் நடத்துகிறோம். உங்கள் நண்பரும் கணித்தமிழ்ச் சங்கத்தின் தலைவருமான திரு.மா.ஆண்டோ பீட்டர் பேசுகிறார், நீங்களும் பேச வேண்டும் என்றார்கள். நம்மையும் ஒரு கல்லூரியில் அழைக்கிறார்களே அவர்களை ஏமாற்றக்கூடாது என்பதால் சரி என்று சொன்னேன்.

அங்கே போனவுடன் தேனீர் அருந்தும் போது தான் புரிந்தது, இது பிரபலமான சென்னை எ.எம்.ஜெயின் கல்லூரி என்று, அசடுவழியாமல் முன்பே தெரிந்ததுப் போல் சமாளித்துவிட்டேன். சென்னைவாசியான நமக்கு சமாளிக்கவும் உதார்வுடவுமா சொல்லித்தர வேண்டும்!.

கருத்தரங்கிற்கு கல்லூரியின் புலத்தலைவர் (Dean) முனைவர்.ஜி.கே. பிரான்சிஸ் தலைமை வகித்தார். திரு.மா.ஆண்டோ பீட்டர் ‘கணினியும் தமிழும்’ என்ற தலைப்பிலும், நான் ‘கணித்தமிழ் வழி வேலைவாய்ப்புகள்’ என்ற தலைப்பிலும், தமிழ்த்துறை ஆலோசகர் முனைவர். இரா.இராசேந்திரன் ‘இணையத்தமிழ் வளர்ச்சி’ என்ற தலைப்பிலும் பேசினர்.

என் பேச்சு மாணவர்களுக்கு ஆர்வமாகவும் அதே சமயம் பயனாவும் இருக்க வேண்டும் (அச்சத்தில்) என்பதால் மொழியில் தேர்ச்சியடைவதால் பயன்கள், அதனால் கிடைக்கும் வேலை வாய்ப்புகளைப்பற்றி சுருக்கமாக சொன்னேன். இன்று எல்லாத்துறையிலும் கணினித்திறமை எப்படி அவசியமோ, அதுப்போலவே தான் மொழியில் தேர்ச்சியும் அவசியம், குறிப்பாக அரசுத்துறையில், ஊடகங்களிலும், தொலைத் தொடர்பு நிறுவனகளிலும், விளம்பரத்துறையிலும், நுகர்வு பொருள்கள் விற்பனைச் செய்யும் பன்னாட்டு நிறுவனங்களிலும் (FMCG) வேலைகள் கிடைக்கும். தமிழ் தெரிந்தால் இங்கேல்லாம் தமிழ் எழுத்தாளர் வேலை தான் கிடைக்கும் என்றில்லை அது உங்களை தனித்து அடையாளம்காட்ட உதவும், அது தான் நம் வளர்ச்சிக்கு முக்கியம். இன்று குறைந்தளவு ஆங்கில அறிவு கட்டாயம் தேவை, இன்னும் ஒரு பத்தாண்டுகளில் சீனா மொழியும் கூட தேவைப்படலாம், ஆனால் என்றும் ஒரு அளவிற்கு மேல் நம்மை எடுத்துச் செல்ல தாய் மொழி தான் உதவும் என் சொன்னேன்.

பொறுமையாக கேட்ட மாணவர்களுக்கும், என்னை அழைத்த கல்லூரி நிர்வாகத்திற்கும் என் நன்றிகள்.

Shathapthi Express & Bangalore station

venkatarangan — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Travelling to Bangalore from Chennai has been one of the easiest by flight before 2001 and the resulted tight Airport securities. In those days, I have done many morning-evening same day return trips leaving home at 5:30AM and coming back home at 8PM. As Bangalore’s traffic grew exponentially and the change to the new Bengaluru International Airport happened, it made these trips difficult. It takes you to travel from Airport to City (or other way) about 2 hours even by Vayu Vajra buses, which I like.

Today for a business meeting around 12PM, I travelled by Shathapthi Express (Train 2007) from Chennai that reached Bangalore at 10.55AM and returned back by Shathapthi (Train 2008) that left Bangalore city at 4:20PM. The journey was comfortable with food being served more than a full-service Airline all throughout the 5 hour journey. The coaches & toilets were clean, ride was smooth & seats comfortable. This is my third or fourth travel by Shathapthi to Bangalore & highly recommend it for travelling in this sector.

During the return ride from Bangalore to Chennai, I watched the movie “The Help” in my MacBook Air, I love train journey just for this luxury, no need to shutdown during take offs and landings & you can charge your laptop without being in Business class.

While boarding in Bangalore City, I strolled into a small Railway Museum displaying olden days Railway equipment & tools. This is a good attempt by South Western Railways, most stations should have one to encourage kids to learn about history and design for future. Its a free entry, nothing kept here is fragile or expensive but still there were two railway staff manning the museum – proving Indian Railways tradition.

Every time I go to Bangalore City station and walk down between the platforms in the subway I feel like taking it a photograph – I like that long subway, it gives a feeling of exploration.

Lastly, this bright red coach painted with Mysore Sandal soap advertisement was looking so beautiful on the tracks that I immediately clicked it. I wish they paint all train coaches with more of these bright colours and nice pictures.

The Help

venkatarangan — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:47:00 +0000

The movie “The Help” released in 2011 is one of the movies nominated for several awards for this year Oscar. I read about the movie in this article in “The Economist” about servant’s shortage in Brazil. The movie is based on a novel by Kathryn Stockett & is based on 1960s Mississippi in USA where how black maids were treated around the Civil Rights movement’s time period. This movie is one more in the list of Hollywood’s recent obsession to 1960s – remember the TV Serials Mad Men, Pan Am and movies like A Single Man.

Though Emma Stone plays the lead character Skeeter Phelan, a budding white writer who is trying to find her career, it is Viola Davis who steals the thunder in the movie. Viola appearing as an experienced black maid Aibileen delivers an imposing performance throughout the movie & is a perfect candidate to win an Oscar this year. Skeeter is one of the few people in Jackson, Mississippi who seem to be appreciative and sympathetic to the sacrifices the black maid in the city perform. Octavia Spencer coming as Minny provides the needed relief to an otherwise serious story, every scene she appeared I smiled.

Overall a good movie to watch & enjoy.

The Dirty Picture

venkatarangan — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:16:00 +0000

From the time I heard about this movie “The Dirty Picture” acted by Vidya Balan, we (myself and my wife) wanted to see it. After the movie got released few months back we couldn’t make it to the theatre every time we planned to go. In the few months after the release many magazines including Hindustan Times Brunch has written good reviews about Vidya Balan’s excellent performance in the role. I purchased the DVD from FlipKart and saw it today, DVD has the advantage the Hindi movie will come with English Sub-Title making it easier for me to understand it. The movie made by Ekta Kapoor said to be loosely made on the life story of South Indian film sensation Silk Smitha.

The movie didn’t meet the expectations I had. Though Vidya has done a good performance, having seen Silk Smitha on screen earlier I couldn’t see any resemblance of real Silk in Vidya Balan. Similarly almost the entire cast didn’t match the Tollywood or Kollywood people it claims to portray. The settings & costumes were impressive, they have been painstakingly brought back to life the 80s Kollywood. The first half of the movie was boring, the second half was better when “Silk” goes to her high moments and falls back rapidly from it. The makeup of Emraan Hashmi who plays Director Abraham makes him look like Director Cheran, which I think is accidental. The screen play was average at most places with the best in the scene when Silk walks out after her Filmfare award, when the reporter Naina advices her “Don’t think too much, just be yourself”. We are able to enjoy the play of emotions between Silk and Abraham (Director) in the last portion of the movie. The sound track for the song "Ooh La La" makes you hum it few times.

Photography Workshop

venkatarangan — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:01:00 +0000

I was always interested in Photography, but I made little effort to learn it. Just like many others I thought it was about buying a DSLR camera and a good lens for taking great photographs. Which I did few years back when I was visiting Tokyo, I went to Yodobashi Camera store in Akihabara (this is 8 floors of camera paradise) and bought the latest at that time Nikon D80 with a 18-55MM lens. I learnt few tips from asking my friends and reading some articles in magazines that said for a good photograph you need to frame the subject correctly and lighting has to be correct. As you would have noticed seeing photos in this blog that my skills in this area are limited. I bought some books on Digital Photography and a training DVD on how to use Nikon D80 – both are lying unopened in my bookshelf for last 24 months. On top of this the menus in the camera were daunting even for a Software Engineer like me, the minute I came across Shutter Speed or Aperture in the manual I got dizzy, so I put the camera always in Auto and kept complaining why my camera produces lousy pictures and wondered whether I need to buy a TelePhoto lens and so on…

Last week I came across this one-day workshop at Konica Labs in Sterling Road conducted by famous photograph Mr.K.Dhamodharan, who has been a part of the photography industry since 1985. In 2006 Mr. Dhamodharan went for a 9100km, 21 day photography expedition from Chennai – Kashmir – Kanyakumari – Chennai- an expedition that covered the length of the Indian subcontinent. Sounded interesting, so I registered by paying Rs.4000 (plus taxes) online and attended the workshop today.

I was not sure how the program will be, will it be too dry and over my head, who will be the fellow students. But Dhamu (as he is called) put the diverse crowd (which included two retirees, one homeopathy doctor, one animation designer, one Software Tester) at ease. Most of the sample photos he showed were from his own collection. The photos were accompanied by lively commentary of the people in them, their background & a bit of gossip. This made the mostly theory sessions fun and enjoyable, without this I would have gone to sleep. Dhamu covered the basic concepts of camera – Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO in brief, to the extend needed to appreciate them. He went on to cover in detail with lots of examples on framing, lighting, selecting background & foregrounds. Lighting can change the mood and bring in a different emotion to the same subject.

Dhamu stressed the importance of cultivating a third eye to visualize and to learn from disassembling professional photographs we see in magazines & Internet. A photo should always kindle some emotions on the viewer. Then it was about how to take Portraits, Couple and so on in brief. He also covered (surprise, surprise) on how to pose for photographs – the trick is to have a full mouth smile almost showing your teeth. Dhamu kept saying that Photography is one hobby that improves your self confidence a lot, you can also enjoy the attention and the privileges that it brings with it from people around you.

Though it was advertised as a workshop, the practical was limited to the last hour of the program, which is understandable in a 1 day schedule. Overall, if you can afford to spend Rs.4000 and have interest on photography I will recommend this program.

Now that I understand the basics, I have started shooting lots of photos and I think I need to buy a new camera with a Telephoto lens :- )

Below are first photographs I took during the practise session, yes it needs lot of improvement!

Vadavooran

venkatarangan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Last year I had been to “Madras to Chennai” a fine play by Shraddha group. Impressed by the show I became an annual paid member. This new year 2012, there first production is a historical play – Vadavooran (வாதவூரன்). It is about Manickavachagar (மாணிக்கவாசகர்) who gave the great Tamil work Thiruvasagam (திருவாசகம்). The play starts from the point where Vadavooran who was the Chief Minister to Pandya King, sets out to buy fine Roman horses for the king. On the way while at the depleted temple at Tiruperunturai Avudiyar Koil, he realizes the Supreme Being (Lord Siva) and instantly decides to renovate and rebuild the temple. The king imprisons Vadavooran and punishes him severely for disobeying his orders. The play ends with great floods in Vaigai river and the King realizes his folly and Vadavooran becoming the enlightened Manickavachagar. Of course we all know what happened later (Thanks to Sivaji Ganesan’s Thiruvilayadal movie) – Lord Siva coming as a labourer carrying sand for a handful of a traditional snack of sweetened millet flour (புட்டு).

The play is presented in kind of Opera format. To make mortals like me understand the songs from Thiruvasagam, the organizers gave out free booklet with all the songs and meanings – thanks to them I could follow the 4 lines songs, which were not many. The songs were pre-recorded but rendered and enacted superbly. The lead actor is Swaminathan Ganesan, who has done a brilliant job of bringing the character to life. Especially the scenes where he is in inner turmoil between his royal duties and divine calling, Swaminathan brings Vadavooran before our eyes. The little girl who came as Vadavooran’s daughter performed well, kudos to her.

The sets were done nicely, I could not help comparing it to the astonishing set and special effects done decades earlier in R.S.Manohar’s plays that my father took me during my school days, Vadavooran certainly is not in that league but nevertheless it is a great effort for recent times considering the effort and costs. They showed a dragon fly (தும்பி) flying in the stage by suspending it from a rope above, the engineer in me wondered why they didn’t use one of those miniature remote helicopters and then cover it with a costume. The audience were taken for a treat when they showed a real horse on the stage – that should have been difficult managing it and controlling with the changing light effects, great show.

What impressed me most is the on time start of the play, in fact they started the brief introduction a few before 7:00PM. Thanks.

Shraddha doesn’t repeat its plays. So catch ‘Vaadhavooran’ tomorrow.

Review of the play is in the The Hindu here, Behind the scenes work and photos here.

Videos: In Tamil (முன்னோட்டம்), In English (Trailer)

Trip to Taiwan

venkatarangan — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:48:00 +0000

Last month I went to Taipei for a business trip of two days. Though I have gone many times to Hong Kong, this was my first visit to Republic of China (a.k.a Taiwan, RoC is the official name of the country). I travelled by Thai Airways, from Chennai via Bangkok to Taipei, roughly about 3:30 Hours each sector.

VISA fiasco

Before the travel I checked out the Taiwanese Ministry of foreign affairs website and learnt that travellers to Taiwan with Indian Passport and a valid VISA to US or UK don’t need an explicit Taiwan VISA. My travel agent who didn’t know about this rule confirmed this after checking and I double checked with Taiwanese embassy in Delhi by phone as well. What they didn’t say is that I needed to visit Taiwanese Immigration website and obtain a self-service Authorization Certificate and carry the printout. Because of this when I landed in Taipei I was sent back to Thai Airways gate by the Immigration official. Fortunately the Supervisor in Immigration gave me a sample printout of Authorization Certificate which I showed to Thai Airways staff, who after a brief confusion did the registration for me and got the printout. Finally I was allowed to clear immigration. Please be warned that Taiwan doesn’t have VISA on Arrival for any nationals other than Hong Kong and Macau. Later in the hotel when I visited the Immigration Website it had spelled this out clearly “The nationals of India, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, who also possess a valid visa or permanent resident certificate issued by U.S.A., Canada, Japan, U.K., Schengen Convention countries, Australia or New Zealand, are eligible for the visa exemption program, which permits a duration of stay up to 30 days. Those who meet the above qualification and have never been employed in Taiwan as blue-collar workers have to apply to the “Advance Online Registration System for the Visitors of Nationals from Five Southeast Asian Countries to Taiwan” of the R.O.C. National Immigration Agency (website:https://nas.immigration.gov.tw/nase) for an "Authorization Certificate" before coming to Taiwan. After completion, the printed-out Certificate can be used by the foreign visitor for boarding the airplane and the immigration inspection”

Sight Seeing

I reached my Hotel in Taipei on a Wednesday morning and had rest of the day free to myself, the meetings were happening only the next day. There are not many places in Taipei city to see, I narrowed my choice to either Taipei 101 (the world’s second tallest building that I have seen in Discovery channel as a construction marvel) and to National Palace Museum. On the day I was in Taipei it was cloudy and drizzling, so I decided to go to Taipei 101. Even within Taipei 101 there is not much for you to see, a big mall – where there were only designer shops which I couldn’t even afford to window shop & a super market. I went to buy ticket to the ride up for the viewing gallery on top, but the girl in the counter warned me that I can hardly see anything on a day like this and whether I am sure I want to pay NTD 450 for this. I decided to go with her advice and skipped the observation deck.

(a fine supermarket inside Taipei 101)

I found almost all the electronic, even those by Taiwanese OEMs like Asus or HTC to be expensive in Taiwan than in USA or even India.

(The above ultrabook ASUS Zenbook X31E costs NTD 38,900 ~ USD 1313 seems to be expensive than buying it in USA)

A lake is there in an area called Xindian where there was a beautiful park, bridge, food stalls and boating activities.

Commute

Remember that in Taipei very little “English” is used, it is almost entirely in Chinese. So for you to travel from Airport to Hotel by Taxi, it is a good idea (as my hosts advised me earlier) to carry your Hotel Name printed in Chinese characters. That is what I did and after using it few times, I realized how important it was, there is no way I could have made anyone understand the English name of my hotel (as only the Chinese name is used everywhere). I even travelled by Taipei Metro (called commonly as MRT) to return from Taipei 101 to my hotel, it was quite convenient and efficient. You can buy a one-way ticket (they give you a pre-paid token) from the Information counter (to whom you can show the same Chinese character printout of the location) and rest is same as in any other Metro (like in Singapore or Hong Kong). The difference in Taipei Metro station and train is that everything is in Chinese only, only the Station names are in English, with which you can manage to travel just like I did on my first attempt, even managing to switch two lines during my travel. Like Japan there were marked queuing for boarding trains which were followed.

Vegetarian Food

In general vegetarian food is not common in Taipei, but you can find them with a little effort. The challenge is the language and communicating this to the waiter. The hotel were I was booked (I wrote to them in advance by email) arranged me vegetarian lunch on arrival. My host took me to a fine dining Chinese restaurant for dinner and they manage to get me tasty vegetarian food including a Bamboo Root Dish that I tasted for the first time.

(In the first photo on the left you see a dish made from Bitter Melon, in the second photo is a Radish soup they served at the end of lunch)

The full photo album of my trip is here.

Churning of Milk Ocean in Bangkok Airport

venkatarangan — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:30:00 +0000

While on transit in Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok I saw this beautiful sculpture on Scene of the churning of the Milk Ocean – which is an important event in Hindu mythology enacted by Lord Vishnu. I had seen the resemblance to same beliefs and epics of India (Hinduism) followed in Thailand during my first trip there in 1999. Here are the photos (with links to more) of the sculpture that I took with my iPhone4.