GB&A guitar

Hey, finally got the much awaited guitar. Diwali and other holidays delayed its arrival.
It is simply awesome. I tried the 'sari gama' and 'twinkle twinlke' for the first time in house.
I will post the photo soon.

Twinkle Twinkle Little star - Guitar

The first time while trying this i thought that it is
difficult, but once you are able to remember the
exact location of the letters and the corresponding
fingers for it, it is a smooth ride :-) .

Here is the Musical Notes for Twinkle Twinkle star using guitar.

AA E#E# FF E#
CC DD BB A
E#E# DD CC B
EE DD CC B
AA E#E# FF E#
CC DD BB A

KSRTC vs SETC booking concessions :-)

It is diwali time and whole India would be returning to home :-) There would be lot of buses in pipeline to meet the demands for the chennai-bangalore commuters. No wonder, the cost of the private bus tickets would be rocketing up like a diwali rocket !

Ok, Lemme come to the SETC vs KSRTC review. It is about the concessions provided for the customers. I browsed through their website and found some interesting stuff about travel concessions that many would not be aware .

KSRTC :-
Group Booking discount
Return Journey discount
Free travel in City Services
Monthly passes
Weekly Freedom tickets
Daily ticket
Suvarna Karnataka tickets
Reference -> http://ksrtc.in/Concession1.html , http://ksrtc.in/Pass2.html

SETC:-
Concessional Annual Ticket Scheme
Weekly Travel Card Scheme
Travel Regularly and earn an addiitional (free) trip scheme
Monthly Season Tickets
Travel as you Please Tickets
- Daily - Weekly - Monthly
Reference -> http://www.tn.gov.in/citizen/trans-e-2005.htm

I find that SETC provides more beneficial concessions compared to KSRTC and is very very attractive. SETC schemes are targeted at the real possible scenarios.

While browsing these websites, i find that SETC website needs improvement on various fronts like Design and Speed . The SETC Online booking facitlity is still not up.

The competition is going tougher and tougher between these two bus services, but it is a healthy competition as there is tremendous improvement in the customer services from both of these bus services. It is good to see such healthy competition !

A room full of Diamond Vanishes

Hey, today i returned earlier. While flipping through the channels, i stopped in Star Movies to watch an English Movie. I will give you a clue for you to guess the movie in the form of a small movie review :-) All the Best !

This movie is full of mixed emotions & ambitions. It revolves around an unmarried lady living just for her career , but never got promoted & an old guy who lost his wife to cancer 15 years back. Both are working for the worlds largest diamond company in London . The lady is angry with the company as she has been denied promotions many times. The old guy is angry with the life insurance company that delayed money transfer with lot of clauses which inturn had been the main reason for his wife's defeat to cancer. Both join together to take revenge against their enemies. The interesting point is the link between the diamond company and the insurance company. Old guy's tactic to make the insurance company pay a huge amount to the diamond company is very thoughtful . The funny part is that the lady never thought that the entire room would be empty and company would be losing almost its entire business such that her job would be at stake.

Were you able to guess it ? Yes, it is 'FLAWLESS'. The movie is fantastic and deserves credit for demonstrating various scenarios that has to be taken care in this modern world - the various wrong things that a person will do while he/she is angry over somone, the problems that can occur if someone loses a loved ones due to unwanted reasons, problems that can occur due to an unsatisfied employee and problems that can occur if one is always behind money. This movie is told as a flashback just like 'Godzilla'.

Analyzing middle game chess

I came across http://www.chesslab.com/PositionSearch.html . It is simply fantastic for analyzing a position in chess. We just need to feed it with the position that we desire to analyze and it does a good analysis.

Computer analysis is not suggested for beginners as they have to think hard instead of depending on computer for analysis. Once you are well built in chess, you can try computer based analysis.

Fully Qualified Domain Name

I came across the term FQDN. It is also called as the absolute domain name.

Given a device with a local hostname 'myhost' and a parent domain name 'example.com', the fully qualified domain name is written like this:
myhost.example.com
The FQDN therefore uniquely identifies the device, while there may be many hosts in the world called myhost, there can only be one myhost.example.com.

Reference -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name

DNS Server and DNS Resolver

DNS Server is looked into for resolving the DNS and the IP address and to forward the message to the particular DNS. In short, the DNS server acts as a database having the IP address and the Domain Names.

DNS client side is called as DNS resolver that is responsible for initating and sequencing the query so that the Domain Name gets mapped with the corresponding IP address. A DNS query may be either a non-recursive query or a recursive query.

Maniac in Car

Today, i happened to see another English movie. I think, it is very easy for you to guess the movie . Lemme tell you the clue in the form of Movie review .

It is a frightening movie about a physcopath in a car. It is so terrible. It is about a Man(Lunatic) calling himself as 'Stuntman Mike' - physcopath. His car has been used for stunts in movies and passenger seat in it is too horrible. He terms his car as death-proof . He follows some girls and joins them for beer in a highway restaurant who are unaware of his maniac character. While leaving to house, he smashes their car causing a head-on crash with his car. This physcopath survives as his car is death-proof for the driver, but all the girls in the other car get killed. He escapes from the eyes of the Law. After few years, he tries the same with another set of girls. But, this gang has stunt performers who really take him and give him a fitting reply in a terrific car chase.

I think, you would have guessed it correctly. Yes, it is 'Death Proof'. The movie is about a maniac driving a car . It is frightening. I wonder how such movies are thought of & directed. It looks to be a different movie and fits into the physcopath category.

Transports himself to anywhere on Earth :-)

Today i watched an English Movie in Star Movies. Try to guess the movie from the brief narration that i am providing to you :-). Here is the movie review .
While giving a gift to his crush, he almost drowns and discovers that he can go instantaneously to anyplace on earth and avoid/escape from the disaster/danger. He takes lot of photos and uses them to go to his desired places by looking/thinking about the place. He discovers that there has been a fight going on between the guys who transport themselves to any place and the paladins. Paladins are always after killing the guys who transport themselves to any part of the Earth. He robs bank and lives a luxurious life and the story takes a new twist when he goes for his school crush. Uses this trick to take his crush to Rome. Later, realises through one of his friend of same skill, that his family and friends are in risk. He rushes to save everyone and finally gets transported to unknown location to live peacefully :-)

Hope you were able to guess it. Yes, it is 'JUMPER'. The use of technology is excellent and i appreciate the graphics. It has some scenes as in the 'Matrix' movie but not in the exact same fashion. But, i find the story to be very weak. It looks to be an ordinary movie but with some visual effects. Heard that 'Jumper 2' is about to be released in 2011. Hope it has a strong story & much more !

Router Discovery Messages

The router discovery messages enable hosts to discover the existence of neighboring routers, but not which router is best to reach a particular destination. If a host chooses a poor first-hop router for a particular destination, it should receive an ICMP Redirect from that router, identifying a better one. These messages do not constitute a routing protocol.

Ardi

Scientists still continue research on finding how man evolved. They have recently discovered 'Ardipithecus ramidus', nicknamed "Ardi". Ardi is closer to humans than chimps. Scientists list down lot of features & justifications that qualify it to be more near to the humans. It has been discovered in Ethiopia.

Walk -> Lurching side to side, due to lack of an arch in its feet, a feature of later hominids.

Feet -> Monkey-like feet, with opposable toes, but its feet were not flexible enough to grab onto vines or tree trunks like many monkeys -- rather they were good enough to provide extra support during quick walks along tree branches -- called palm walking.

Living Place -> Most of Ardi's time was spent upright on the ground.

More Human-Like -> Long dexterous fingers . Wrists were also more flexible than apes and these helped it to catch things on the ground and carry objects. (More near to Human :-) )

Reference ->
http://www.dailytech.com/Close+to+the+Missing+Link++Oldest+Human+Ancestor+Discovered/article16403.htm

Bughouse Chess

Bughouse / Siamese Chess is played with two teams of two, using two chess sets. Each player in the team plays a different color than their partner.

The game is usually played at a fast time control(blitz). This speed, together with the passing and dropping of pieces, can make the game look chaotic and random to the casual onlooker and hence the name bughouse, which is slang for mental hospital.

A player can pass every enemy piece that he captures to his partner, who is allowed to drop the piece in any of the unoccupied space on the board creating new attacks in the game. It seems that there is some exception with that of pawns as they can be dropped only within the middle 6 rows.

The goal is to checkmate either of your opponents, gaining the win for your team.

Reference -

http://www.chess.com/chessopedia/view/bughouse-chess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess

Buying a Guitar

Whenever we buy something, our human mind automatically does the following -
- Requirement gathering and analysis
- Estimation / Budgetary
- Risks involved & Risk Mitigation plan
Doesn't it sound like a part of software life cycle (SDLC) ? Yes, Exactly. Our human mind does many of the things automatically for small decisions/purchases that we do in our daily life.

For guitar, it is no different. I collected the below info before going in for the guitar :-)

Requirement -> For learning guitar and for performing before a small friends group/function

Analysis -> I visited Music shop in Chennai along with my Dad to get an idea. I found GK brand and some imported brands . Rates were starting from around 2500.
http://www.bajaao.com/guitars-c-5.html -> It has info about the cost of various guitars.
http://www.sapthaswara.com/products.asp?id=5 -> Has an excellent big list of guitars but was unable to check the cost online. I think, it will appear only if you feed it with details for purchasing. Imported has good quality compared to home-made guitars. Brand models like Fender, Gibson & Martin are very popular. Fender used by many people. Yamaha is also popular.

Estimation -> 3000 for a guitar with some good tunes for ears & that can be performed before a small group. If it is only for learning, then 2000 range models would be fine.

Risks -> Know more about the lifetime / quality of the parts of guitar .

Risk Mitigation -> Warranty, availability of parts of guitar

I will add more about this once i visit the shop along with my Master & get the guitar :-)

Free Guitar Lesson - 1

The first step to start learning guitar is to feel the guitar :-). Yes, One of the good way to start with the guitar class would be to draw the Guitar in your notebook by looking at a real guitar. This drawing would enable you to learn about the shape & parts of the guitar.

The drawing here was done by me directly using sketch pens without any pencil drawing :-)

The main hallow wooden frame that makes the main part of the guitar is termed as the 'body' of the guitar. The body in one way lookes like a human body with a little bit of tummy :-)

On the frontside of the body is the 'Bridge' that has the 6 strings anchored over it and 'Sound Hole' that is normally round in shape. It is over this Sound hole, you should pluck the strings so that the sound is clear.

Just like our body, the instrument has a 'neck' & 'headstock'. But, the guitar's neck is very long like an ostrich :-) The neck has a series of 'frets' that refer to the piece of metal piece itself on the neck and the space on the neck between two metal pieces in the neck. For a Right hander, the Left hand fingers will be placed between the frets while the Right hand fingers pluck the strings over the Sound hole/Rosette.

The headstock has the 'tuners' and 'nuts'/'pegs'.The 6 nuts/pegs act as the brain in its head that control all the 6 strings . Just as six senses are controlled by human brain, the 6 strings are controlled by the nuts/pegs in the guitar's headstock :-)

A guitar has 6 strings only. Even if the guitar is very very expensive, it has only 6 strings :-)

If you are a Right-hander, the left hand should be placed over the neck and the right hand should be used for plucking the strings over the sound hole on the body. The other way to look at holding the guitar is to have the thickest string towards your face and the thinnest string towards the floor.

Guitar Classes

I was looking for maximising the use weekend time. Dialled to check for Tennis club, Art class and Guitar classes. Finally, I decided to go in for Guitar class . It is very near to my place behind Anjaneya Temple in Agara (Bangalore). The master has multiple branches throughout bangalore and is spending time on round-robin basis on various branches.

I am going through the basic classes of peddaling and different finger-fret combinations to get my fingers on guitar. Planning to buy a guitar with the help of my Music Master .

I have set my ambition as to master few good songs and perform during some function/tour/competition.

Whenever i go to the class, it gives me a fresh feel and i am able to understand the competition in music industry. The musical journey has just begun and hope to find lot of wonderful tunes along the way.

Playing Chess

I renewed my interest in Chess by starting with a match in our corporate competition. I played after a very loooooooong gap. I did not make it up, but that game taught me lot of lessons -
- Preparation is a must for any kind of activity. Whether it is a game/discussion/exam.
- Practise is a must. The more you practise, the more comfortable you become with different scenarios.
- Time consiousness should be there for any kind of activity undertaken.
- Never under estimate your opponent even if you are leading till the last minute. I lost this match in the final 1.5 minute though i was leading in removing major opponent pieces. Keep your eyes wide open till you accomplish your job.

The game served as an eye opener for me and it helped me a lot to take on the corporate internal exams. But how did it help me ? I started playing online chess in http://www.chesshere.com/ and http://www.chess.com/ . I played Short (1 minute / 5 minute / 15 minute) and Long games(30 minutes). The time and the live challenge from unknown person from different parts of the world helped me to sharpen my skills not only in playing but also on any activity that i take. Whenever i take a new activity , i look at the time and try to wrap up quickly. This has increased my efficiency and my concentration within a particular interval of time.

Long back, i took the exam without much preparation/practise and so i was unable to clear the corporate exams. I applied this lesson from the Corporate chess defeat to Corporate Exams. I practised by executing the examples and dumps. My preparation started 2 weeks ahead and daily i fed my mind with some tiny infos so that it is able to digest and remember clearly. I kept that exam as my main target in my mind for the 3 days of holiday and I was able to clear it.

By being in the correct place of the board gives you the edge over the opponent. The same thing applies to life. By being able to get into a situation/position at the right time, it gives a definite improvement in life.

Having plan and Plan-B for every activity in life is very important just as it is for every move that is made in the game. Nowadays, i am able to interpret the emotions/actions of the persons in workplace and take action to make it under my control. It is just the beginning.

I remember that during school days i outnumbered my classmates in Studies,Chess,Art & cycling. Now, i understand that the real reason for that could be Chess which brought in more planning & time consciousness.

Thanks to Chess !! :-)

The phone with a helmet

I am thankful to Nokia for its 1100 model . I have dropped it from Bus, Dinner table and from Desk, but it never bothered to worry. Once it got popped out of my pocket while driving , but it was so healthy that there was no major damage. It is a mobile with a helmet for its display and bullet proof jacket for its body. Minor scratches did appear on body of the mobile during these accidental drops, but they were never major and it always functions happily. We need not run to the 'Nokia Priority Care' or other local dealers for a fix. The drawback with this mobile is that it lacks the extensive range of features that is available with other hi-fi mobiles.

Mobile world should come up with such robust gadgets along with extensive features.

Do Elephants Never Forget ?

The above painting was done by me on Chart using paint & brush. This was one of the interesting elephants that was drawn completely using black color paint. If you want any drawings of elephant, you can mail me the photo of the elephant, i would be able to draw it and send it across to you :-)

Along the lines of the painting of elephant, i would like to share some interesting info that I came across about the famous saying that elephants never forget . It seems that it has been backed by science. Refer to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1285532.stm

It is interesting to see that Humans forget things as they grow older though they are enriched with vast experience of life. But, on contrary, the elephant's memory is so good that it is able to recognize the enemy/friend & also lead the entire herd while becoming more & more old.

Do Ostriches bury their heads in the sand ?

The above painting was done by me using black sketch, paint & chart. It also involved initial pencil sketch before proceeding with the brush. If you want any specific ostrich painting, send me the photo, i would be able to draw it and send it to you :-)

Since i have been talking about my Ostrich painting, i would like to share some interesting fact that i came across about the famous myth that during fear, Ostrich would bury its heads in sand thinking that it would hide its whole body. It does this to mis-direct the enemy so that its enemy might think that to be a bush . Hahah !! It seems that the male ostritch puts the eggs in shallow nests in sand and move it around to protect it and this might be a reason for a distant viewer to think that the Ostrich is burying its heads as soon as it saw him :-) Refer to http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1644/do-ostriches-really-bury-their-heads-in-the-sand

Chess problems

I am re-reading the '300 Chess Problems' book from 'Pankaj Publications' after a long time and i find it to be exiting. The book has middle game scenarios that will enable either white or black to win within another 5 to 7 moves or enable either side to win major piece. So, it is all about clever thinking of 5 to 7 possible moves ahead w.r.t both sides.

It is like a Q&A book that we will be using during our Semester exams. The more you solve it, the more easier the exam would be . Similarly, the more the number of problems you solve from this book, the easier and flexible will be your mind as it depicts different environment w.r.t white/black for every problem that is depicted. Our mind will get accustomed to the wild environments & become stronger.

I used to read this book and try resolving the problems towards checkmate/removal of major piece . It was intially tough as i need to figure out all combinations of the 5 to 7 moves to checkmate. Figuring out either the Black would win or White would win was itself very interesting intially. Slowly, i was able to decode it easily and helped in increasing my Chess skills.

Garry Kasporov , Anatoly Karpov are my favourites in Chess. I have read about their tactics and moves in articles/books. I have not watched Viswanathan Anand matches, but i like him :-)

Man fighting with Lion

This is another painting that i did using black paint, sketch & brush.

Man is still fighting with humans who are like animals in modern society. No idividual/group can be blamed for this. The evolution of the human being bears the responsibility for this err as Man evolved from animals :-)

It is highly probable that the next evolution will continue to have the characteristics of man & degrade their peace even if they have hi-fi brains compared to the current human evolution ! :-(

Movie Rating Formula

I am planning for quantitative information while movie reviews. Here, I am listing few of the requirements for a movie & corresponding points against those requirements. The grand final total comes to 100 points.

1. Story - 10
2. Acting - 10
3. Songs - 5
4. Dance - 5
5. Action - 10
6. Comedy - 10
7. Technology - 10
8. Editing - 10
9. Dialogues - 5
10. Introduction & Climax - 5
11. Success % among youth - 5
12. Success % among kids - 5
13. Success % among middle age - 5
14. Success % among old age - 5

Altogether, it is 100 points . Lemme know if you have other points in mind .

Rooster-man

Today, i saw an interesting Tamil Movie. The clue for this movie in a single line is - 'Rooster-man'. I will provide the other big clue in the form of Movie review .

Just like Superman, He-Man, SpiderMan & Krishh here comes the another man - RoosterMan. :-) . It mixes the story of an indian robinhood wearing a Rooster mask along with Lord Muruga, CBI, romance, action, technology & thriller.In this modern era, website is used for logging in the complaints for getting a solution. (Even in the film 'Anniyan', the superhero was maintaining a website to get in the complaints from the people) . But here, the author has introduced a new way of helping people in the name of God by getting their queries/worries in small sheets attached to the tree in Lord Muruga temple. He satisfies every tiny request from the people.The story also has a side track of DIG trying to trace the RoosterMan to prove to the world that he is a Man and not God. It involves lot of magical fights with the help of graphics technology . Some events appear magical because of improper editing :-) . The climax comes so suddenly while i was thinking 'Here comes the interesting part of the story, the author is going to give some punching thing here' ! . Few fights are so astonishing that they do not use gun to kill instead fight with hands in the middle of the forest. The movie would be liked by the school boys , but i think it will not get enough recognition with the youth/ middle adge / old age people. The theatres promote this movie by providing rooster masks for the kids arriving to watch the movie :-).

Plus - The songs are nice. The Rooster Mask would be a hit with the kids. The simple songs will replace the other kids songs for this year. The fights are magical :-).

Minus - Improper editing, Sudden climax, Weak punch dialogues.

Ok, were you able to guess it ? The movie is 'Kandhaswamy' casted by Chiyaan Vikram & Shreya. Congrats for those who guessed it correctly . I am also promoting the winners with a free offer - you will get a free egg from hen if you buy a hen from me !! heheh :-) Just kidding . Cya !

Auto walas - Chennai

I have earlier written some tactics and counter-tactics for negotiation with auto walas in Bangalore. In Chennai, the situation is completely different. It is very tough as there is no auto rickshaw meter concept. In Chennai, 'positional negotiation' is the trademark of auto walas and they will say some rough values irrespective of the distance. We will be able to negotiate only if we know the actual distance or have an idea about the area.

The best tactic is - 'Walk Away' philosophy if you find it to be an unresanoble amount. Do not stand and get into negotiation. Do not haste as there are many autos .

If you are boarding from Chennai railway station or Koyambedu bus stand, there is a 'prepaid auto rickshaw counter' that provides the best deal.

I got one prepaid autorickshaw fare pdf from 'The Hindu' newspaper that gives you info about the fares related to Chennai Central Railway station. Refer to http://www.hindu.com/nic/centralprepaidauto.pdf

The same pdf can also be correlated with a small chennai map along with some area knowledge to get an overall idea about the possible fare between the two places, so that it would be handy during negotiation.

SETC vs KSRTC bus

எச்டேர்டே, நான் பெங்களுருல இருந்து சென்னைக்கு SETC'ல வந்தேன். KSRTC'கு போட்டியா சாதாரண Non-A/C பஸ்'ல வீடியோ சிஸ்டம் கொண்டு வந்து, பில் கேட்ஸ் ஸ்டைல்'ல Trial version போட்டு தூள் கிளப்புறாங்க. I was thrilled on seeing the quality of picture. This feature provides a definite edge over KSRTC. The bus fare is around Rs 225 to Rs 240 ஒன்லி and it is resonable compared to KSRTC buses. SETC continues to pose a healthy competition with KSRTC by progressive improvement in all frontiers to get a large share of the pie of frequent commuters between Chennai & Bangalore round the clock. Though improvements are there, SETC does not have an online booking/reservation system and hence is unable to reach easily to all the highly educated masses/internet savvy people. People have to go in person to make the reservations. But, KSRTC has an efficient online booking system that attracts many people easily & some people opt for it as it saves lot of time in this growingly busy world.

Russian and German Snipers

Today, i saw an interesting film related to World War II. To make this review interesting & different from normal 'movie review style', i suggest you to try & guess the name of the movie from the brief narration that i provide you :-)

It revolves around Stalingrad where two Russian and German snipers play around with their super sharp skills. Russians try to save every inch of Stalingard while the Germans sneak in to get every inch of Stalingrad . The idea of showing military hats to mis-direct the enemies and also the idea of using other army's dress seem to be common war strategies from ancient time. The use of Heroes name to make false public announcements about the success to motivate the army sounds to be a very very familiar war strategy (Even in the film gladiator, you would find a similar strategy). Here it is Vassili Zaitsev(Russian) who strats from zero and becomes a hero(sniper) after knocking down enough number of Germans with his sharp skills. Germans hire a top sniper(Konig) to eliminate this sharp Russian snipper. Konig shoots almost everyone he sees within a fraction of second. The war between these two snipers in Stalingrad is so exiting to watch as both of them display good expertise and tricks.

hahaha :) Ok, That is the big clue that you could have got for any kind of guess game !! Have you guessed the movie name ? Congrats if you have guessed it correctly, else No problem, better
luck during the next movie review post.
The movie name is ~~~> 'Enemy at the Gates' <~~~. It is worth for watching !

Auto walas - Bangalore

Auto rickshaw business is an excellent business , but the person has to really toil in the roads & dust. With good negotiation tactics, they can triple their income. Here, i am sharing some of the good counter-tactics for those negotiation tactics that will give you a complete win solution or a win-win solution.

Before going ahead, i would like to clarify certain terms that i would be using in this post :-
'Auto rickshaw' is also termed as 'Auto'.
'Auto wala' is a term from Hindi language for representing the driver of the auto.

In the past few weeks, i have been commuting by auto whenever possible to save time. I know the exact distance between Koramangala & ITPL and hence the cost. But sometimes, i found that the meter showed an extra amount of 25 rupees. Initially i did not mind about it, later thought of applying some negotiation tactics in those scenarios to enhance my negotiation skills . Lets see some of the scenarios.

1. While getting down, if the amount is extra(Consider here, the extra amount is 25 rupees), i would say 'Yaar, yeh tho bahud thez cheltha hei, actually 6o or 65 hoga'. Then, he will put down his head as it is the true fact or will say some traffic reason etc.., but finally he would refund atleast the 15 rupees. So, by just telling that the meter is running fast without arguing or negotiating in a high tone , i was able to win 15 rupees back. If you are arguing and getting down in the middle, he is sure to make some noise. To avoid chaos, be patient till you reach the destination and tell the fact in a soft manner. Do not talk much or drag him into negotiation/micro stuffs. It should surely help.

2.Some auto wala's will blindly say some amount. I ensured that i follow the 'Walk Away' principle immediately without further negotiation. They will finally come running behind to our expectation of driving with meter enabled. By this method, i need not put efforts for oral negotiation.

3.Some auto wala's follow the method of getting us into the auto with a wide smile and later while dropping they will not give back 25 rupees stating that he has only 100 rupee notes and does not have lower currency notes/coins. So, i ensure that i have some coins/change before boarding the auto.

4. Some auto wala's realize our intention by checking our sharp eyes on the meter while driving. They will give back the extra money even before we negotiate for it. I used to feel pity and get back only half/quarter of the money from them. But, later i realized that as one of the tactics they follow to win our sympathy and thereby they avoid the negotiation and use us by overriding our consciousness to give them the extra money which we initially hesitated while seeing the fast running meter. So, nowadays i dont fall into that trap :-)

5. Few guys follow the tactics of getting us into the auto and in the middle of the path to the destination, they may halt at a signal and grudge/cribb regarding the traffic and the loss due to it and raise the amount instantly. The best way to deal this situation is to ask the autowala to wait until the traffic clears and to see if it is really so drastic that he is unable to proceed ahead for more than 20 minutes. Few of the new travellers might not be able to judge the situation (It may be the usual traffic in that route) and they may give up to the autowala by accepting his deal. But, after reading this , you should never allow an autowala to exploit you unnecessarily.

General comment - Always, ensure that the auto has the digital meter because the probability of tampered digital meter is very very less.

Itz always an interesting ride in an auto !!

Good signs

Tata Capital started it and now L&T Finance is also in the pool . These are some Good signs that the market is recovering and the economy is becoming stable. IMF's announcement of 'World recovering from economic crisis' has given ray of hope to many share holders. Soon, there will be lot of IPOs from many companies who have withheld it considering the economic downturn. I think this is the right time to invest in stock and i find IT people onceagain starting to talk about the stock market in the corridors after a long time. Hope it lives up to everyone's expectations !

Man has succeeded in conquering the Moon, flying faster than a bird, communicate from one to other end of earth at the speed of light. But , what about the stock market that was created by him. Finding a formula for Stock market fluctuations will be one of the greatest formula found by the human race ! But, will man find a perfect formula for it ?

The ANSI C Programming Language

I have been reading the book 'The ANSI C Programming Language' from 'Brian W.Kernighan & Dennis M.Ritchie'. It is very excellent. I would recommend it once you get some hands in to C language. It does not beat around the bush. A MUST READ FOR A C PROGRAMMER.

Some interesting notes are -
1. '\n' represents only a single character. An escape sequence is used for hard to type or invisible characters.
2. The range of both int and float are dependent on the machine .
3. printf is not part of the C language, it is just a useful function from the standard library of
functions that are normally accessible to C programs and its behaviour is defined by ANSI
std.
4. EOF is an integer defined in
5. An isolated semicolon statement is called as Null Statement
6. A character represented within a single quotes gives numerical value. Ex - '\n' is equal to 10.
7. getchar returns ascii value of character being read.
8.when a string constant like"hello\n"appears in a C program, it is stored as an array of characters containing the characters in the string and terminated with a '\0' to mark the end.
The %s format specification in printf expects the corresponding argument to be a string represented in the above form.
9.An external variable must be defined, exactly once, outside of any function; this sets aside storage for it. The variable must also be declared in each function that wants to access it; this states the type of the variable. The declaration may be an explicit extern statement or may be implicit from context.
10. ''Definition'' refers to the place where the variable is created or assigned storage.
``Declaration'' refers to places where the nature of the variable is stated but no storage is allocated.

C Interview Questions - 100

Hi,
This is a compilation of selective & tricky 'C' questions from internet/FAQs/Dumps so that it could be beneficial for everyone during various scenarios like interviews/exams/quiz.

1. In order to assign attributes to the pointer itself, rather than to the pointed-to object, you put the attributes after the asterisk. like ' char *const p = &c; ' - True/False
Answer - True. It is a const pointer to a char.

2. What is the output of the below code ?
char **p ="Hello";
printf("%s",**p);
return 0;
Answer - Error message 'cannot convert from 'char [6]' to 'char ** ' '

3. There is a char * pointer that points to some ints, and what should be done to step over it ?
Answer -
Consider p is the char * pointer.
int *ip = (int *)p;
p = (char *)(ip + 1);

4. What changes has to be done to get the ouput as "9 8 7 6 5" by the same recursive call
method ?
int main(void) {
int i=9;
printf("%d \t",i--);
if(i)
main();
return 0;
}
Answer - Define 'int i =9' as 'static int i =9'

5. What is the output in the below program ?
void main() {
int z = 12;
printf("%d",printf("Mr.123\\"));
printf(”%d”,printf(”%d%d%d”,z,z,z));
}
Answer - Mr.123\7
1212126
The printf() returns the number of characters sent to the standard output device.

6. You can't 'shift' an array - True/False
Answer - False

7. Is it possible to do like this in C ?
char s[8];
s="ABCD1234";
Answer - No. It is not possible.

8. bit-fields do not provide a way to select bits by index value - True/False
Answer - True

9. Does 'char *a' allocate some memory for the pointer to point to ?
Answer - No. It allocates space only for the address and not for the info that it is pointing to.

10. A null pointer is does not to point to any object or function - True/False
An uninitialized pointer might point anywhere - True/False
Answer - True, True

11. The address of operator will never yield a null pointer - True/False
malloc returns a null pointer when it fails - True/False
Answer - True, True

12. char y[] is not identical to char *y - True / False . Explain the reason for either true/false.
Answer - True.

13. What would be output of the below code ?
char x[] = "abcde";
char *y= "abcde";
printf("%c \n", x[3]);
printf("%c \n", y[3]);
Answer - Both will give the same output.
The array declaration char x[] requests that space for six characters be set aside in the name 'x'
The pointer declaration requests a place that holds a pointer to be known by name 'y'

when the compiler sees the expression x[3], it emits code to start at the location ``x'', move three past it, and fetch the character there.
When it sees the expression y[3], it emits code to start at the location ``y'', fetch the pointer value there, add three to the pointer, and finally fetch the character pointed to.

14. Is it possible to have char x[5] in one file a declaration extern char * in other file ?
Answer - No . It is not possible. In one source file you defined an array of characters and in the other you declared a pointer to characters. C does not allow this.

15. What is dangling pointer ?
Answer - The pointer that does not point to a valid object. Dangling pointers arise when an object is deleted or deallocated, without modifying the value of the pointer, so that the pointer still points to the memory location of the deallocated memory. That is, sometimes if a pointer is freed but not assigned NULL or 0, it becomes dangling as it might still point to the memory location of freed memory even though it does not have the data. And if the program tries to derefernce it , unpredictable behavior may result.

16. Why does the below code cause segmentation fault ?
int* z = NULL;
*z = 1;
Answer - The pointer z is initialized to NULL and hence It points to memory address 0x00. Dereferencing it will give a segmentation fault.

17. What are the two problems in the below code ?
char *s1 = "Hello, ";
char *s2 = "world!";
char *s3 = strcat(s1, s2);
Answer - s1 is in read-only memory which therefore cannot necessarily be modified. If s1 is declared as an array, it should have the size to accomodate s2 also.

18. What is the problem with the below code ?
i) char a[] = "Hello";
char *p = "Hello";
My program crashes if I try to assign a new value to p[i].
Answer - p is in read-only memory which therefore cannot necessarily be modified.

ii) char *a = "abcdef";
*a = 'X';
Answer - Same as above.

19. Some compilers have a switch to control if string literals are writable or not - True/False
Answer - True

20. Three attributes can be assign to a pointer: const / volatile / restrict - True/False
Answer - True. Yes, these are attributes.

21. What are the problems in below code. How will you fix it ?
char *check(int n)
{
char box[20];
sprintf(box, "%d", n);
return box;
}
Answer - box cannot be returned as it points to an array that no longer exists. One temporary fix can by declaring the box as 'static char box[20]'.

22. What is malloc's internal bookkeeping information and how does it play a role in mis-directing the location of the actual bug ?
Answer - malloc sometimes allocate one by extra rather than the actual amount of memory requested . This extra memory is the internal bookkeeping information for malloc's internal operation. Sometimes if you overwrite this area alone, it will not impact immediately, it might get affected during some other call as it has affected the bookkeeping information earlier.

23. Where would you use 'const int' instead of #define and where should you use #define instead of 'const int' ?
Answer - If you want to do more of debugging you need to use 'const int' rather than #define.
Also,if you have some memory available then you can use #define as it saves memory.
If you want to protect the variables inside the function, then it can be done by declaring the function parameters as const.

24. Keyword 'const' refers to read-only -> True/False
Answer - True

25. What is the output of the below code
#define MY_CALCULATOR 2+5+6
printf("%d \n" 3 * MY_CALCULATOR);
Answer - 17

26. How does declaring function parameters as 'const' help in better,safer code ?
Answer - It does not allow the corruption of the data inside the function.

27. Which of the following is correct . Why does point no 'i' gives output sometime & sometimes it does not give output ?
i. char *a = malloc(strlen(str));
strcpy(a, str);
ii. char *a = malloc(strlen(str) + 1);
strcpy(a, str);
Answer - Option number 'ii' is correct as strlen does not count the '\0'. So, it must be taken into consideration while allocating memory using malloc for 'a' before copying using strcpy.

28. How do the below get expanded ? Which one is the preferred method & Why ?
#define mydef struct s *
typedef struct s * mytype;
mydef d1,d2;
mytype t1,t2;
Answer - Both get expanded correctly as 'struct s *'. But, 'struct *s' applies for only the first variable in the case of '#define' and it applies for both the variables in the case of 'typedef'.

29. i. const values cannot be used in initializers - True/False
ii. const values cannot be used for array dimensions - True/False
Answer - True, True

30. Is char x[3] = "wow"; legal ?
Why does it work sometimes ?
Answer - It gives an undefined behaviour. Working fine is also a kind of undefined behaviour.

31. How will the below code corrupt stack ?
void checkstackcorruption (char *var)
{
char z[12];
memcpy(z, var, strlen(var));
}
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
checkstackcorruption (argv[1]);
}
Answer - It has 2 important things. If the user enters more than 11 characters then it will cause stack corruption as 'z' has the capacity for only 12 characters. It is only 11 characters because it will have the '\0' at the end and strlen does not take the '\0' into consideration.

32. Is the below method of usage of realloc() correct ?
void *z = malloc(10);
free(z);
z = realloc(z, 20);
Answer - No. You should not free before reallocation.

33. What does the below mean ?
int (*)[*];
Answer - pointer to a variable length array of an unspecified number of ints,

34. The rank of any unsigned integer type shall equal the rank of the corresponding
signed integer type, if any - True/False
Answer - True

35. The rank of long long int shall be greater than the rank of long int which shall be greater than int - True/False
Answer - True

36.No two signed integer types shall have the same rank, even if they have the same
representation - True/False
Answer - True

37. sprintf function is equivalent to fprintf, except that the output is written into an array - True/False
Answer - True

38. Incase of both sprintf and fprintf , A null character is written at the end of the characters written and that is not counted as part of the returned value - True/False
Answer - True

39. Arithmetic underflow on a negative number results in negative zero - True/False
Answer - True

40.Negative zero and positive zero compare equal under default numerical comparison - True/False
Answer - True

41. 'type cast' should not be used to override a const or volatile declaration - True/False
Answer - True. Overriding these type modifiers can cause the program to fail to run correctly.

42. 'sizeof' yields the size of an array in bytes - True / False
Answer - True

43. How will you determine the number of elements in an array using sizeof operator ?
Answer - divide the size of that entire array by the size of one element of that array.

44. What is l-value & r-value ?
Answer -
In C, the term L-value originally meant something that could be assigned to (coming from left-value, indicating it was on the left side of the = operator), but since 'const' was added to the language, this now is termed a 'modifiable L-value'.
The L-value expression designates (refers to) an object. A non-modifiable L-value is addressable, but not assignable. A modifiable L-value allows the designated object to be changed as well as examined.

An R-value is any expression that is not an L-value, it refers to a data value that is stored at some address in memory.

45. What is the output of the below code ?
char (*x)[50];
printf("%u, %u,%d\n",x,x+1,sizeof(*x));
Answer - Address of x, Address of x + 50, 50

46.How will you declare & initialize pointer to a register located at phys addrs 600000h ?
Answer - int * pPhyRegister = (int *) 0x6000000;

47. What is NPC ?
Answer - Null Pointer Constant

48. Can we compare a pointer and integer ?
Answer - Not recommended. gcc compiler will throw a warning message if we are comparing with non-zero interger values. But, while comparing a pointer with an integer value of zero , it would consider the zero as NULL pointer constant and hence does not throw warning.

49. Why does *ps.i do not work in the below code ?
struct rec
{
int i;
float f;
char c;
};
int main()
{
struct rec *ps;
ps=(struct rec *) malloc (sizeof(struct rec));
*ps.i=10;
free ps;
return 0;
}
Answer -
It should be as (*ps).i

50. The term 'Pointer to pointer' is different from the term 'double pointer' - True/False
Answer - True.
Pointer to pointer - **a;
double pointer - double *a;

51. What is the size of a boolean variable ?
a. 1 bit
b. Depends on system memory
c. 1 byte
d. Dynamically allocated based on the memory usage by that particular program
Answer - c

52. Why does it overflow inspite of having 'long int' ?
int x = 6000, y = 6000 ;
long int z = x * y ;

Answer -
Here the multiplication is carried out between two ints x and y, and the result that would overflow would be truncated before being assigned to the variable z of type long int. However, to get the correct output, we should use an explicit cast to force long arithmetic as shown below:
long int z = ( long int ) x * y ;

53. The string function strcat( ) concatenates strings and not a character - True/False
Answer - True. The below will not work.
char str[ ] = "Hey" ;
strcat ( str, '!' ) ; // character within single quotes
But, the below will work,
char str[ ] = "Hey" ; // string within double quotes
strcat ( str, "!" ) ;

54. Function calls are allowed in initalizers for automatic variables that is local or non-static - True/False
Answer - True

55. Any number of pointers can point to the same address - True / False
Answer - True

56. Can you assign pointers to one another pointer of the same datatype ?
Answer - Yes. The address gets copied from the RHS to LHS during this assignment.

57. What is the problem in the below code ?
int main()
{
char *a;
a=(char *) malloc (100);
a="checking";
free(a);
return 0;
}
Answer -
a is pointing into the string constant table, the string cannot be changed;
But, free fails because it cannot deallocate a block in an executable region.(That is, 'a' is now pointing to a different thing completely).

57. memmove is better than memcpy - True / False.
Answer - True

58. How can will you avoid fixed-sized arrays?
Answer - Use malloc
#include
int *dynarray;
dynarray = malloc(10 * sizeof(int));
Now, you can reference dynarray[i] ('i' can be from 0 to 9).

59. Difference between memcpy and strcpy ?
Answer -
a. strcpy takes only char * as arguments.
memcpy takes void * as arguments. It can be used for arrays of any type.
a. memcpy copies the number of bytes specified.
strcpy copies until a 0 (zero) / Null character is encountered
b. memcpy replaces the whole contents in the destination.
strcpy replaces only the specific number of characters/contents got from the source. The
remaining will be present after the copied characters/contents in the destination.

60. What does the below code do ?
i. x = x+y; y = x-y; x = x-y;
ii. x = x^y; y = x^y; x = x^y;
Answer - Both perform swapping of values of x and y.

61. What will be present in box2 and how to overcome the problem ?
#define LEN 10
char box1[LEN] = "c";
char box2[LEN] = "_Quest";
strcpy(box2,box1);
Answer - box2 will have 'cQuest' . Use memcpy to avoid the box2 from having the other unnecessary stuffs at the end after strcpy.

62.

70. What is the output of the below code ?
int main(void)
{
int a[]={ 11,22,33,44,55};
char*p=(char*)a;
printf("%d", * ( (int *) p+4));
return 0;
}
Answer - 55

71. In the below code, what is the alternative for (*p).i ?
struct rec *p;
(*p).i=10;
Answer - p->i=10

72. What is the output of below code ?
p = 0;
*p = 5;
Answer -
This demonstrates the problem due to dereferencing a zero pointer reference.
The program will normally crash. The pointer p does not point to any block, it points to zero, so a value cannot be assigned to *p. The system will generate error messages if you happen to dereference a zero pointer.

73. Why does this program crash sometimes only ?
int *p;
*p = 8;
Answer -
This is a famous example for demonstrating the problems with uninitialized pointer.
When you say *p=8;, the program will simply try to write a 8 to whatever random location p points to. But, the pointer p is uninitialized and points to a random location in memory when you declare it. It could be pointing into the system stack, or the global variables, or into the program's code space, or into the operating system. The program may explode immediately, or may wait half an hour and then explode, or it may subtly corrupt data in another part of your program and you may never realize it. This can make this error very hard to track down. Make sure you initialize all pointers to a valid address before dereferencing them.

74. The inline directive will be totally of no use when used for functions that are -
i. recursive
ii. long
iii. composed of loops
iv. All of the above
Answer - iv

75. What is the difference between Inline and Macro ?
Answer -


Credit - C-FAQ, C discussion groups & internet.

Ohayo Gozaimasu

Good Morning(Ohayo Gozaimasu),
Soon, posts will be provided in Japanese & French too. It has been almost 3 years that i have not looked into Japanese lessons. I have decided to spend 2 hours every week and later make this blogspot multi-lingual. I will also share some important phrases while i re-visit it.

Here, we go...
Let me start with the basic info about Japanese. It has 3 scripting languages - kanji, hiragana and katakana. And interestingly, they address the people-name with the family name followed by the first name & finally the Mr/Miss.

Lets start with few simple greetings & expressions that we do in our daily life :-
Ohayo Gozaimasu -> Formal way of Good Morning
Ohayo -> Informal way of Hello (Japanese people mostly dont like this type)
Konichi Wa -> Good Afternoon
Konban Wa -> Good Evening
Oyasumi Nasai -> Good Night
Hajimemashite -> Nice to Meet you
Hai -> Yes
Yoroshii -> Good/Nice (Formal)
Dozo -> Please
Sumimasen -> Excuse me
Sayonara -> Bye

Let me introduce you to few of the pronouns also :-
Watashi -> I
Anata -> You

Little bit of Grammer too :-
Desu -> iam, tobe , you
ka -> are

Vinayagar Chathurthi

Today, i got some sketch pens of Faber Castle brand in BDA Complex . I checked for the paint box , but it was not available. I came up with a small greeting card for 'Vinayagar Chathurthi'.

This was also drawn directly in one shot using the sketch pens without doing any kind of initial pencil drawing :-). I felt very much exited & enjoyed drawing this.

Vinayagar chathurthi is a famous Hindu festival in India. It is the Birthday of Lord Ganesha(Elephant headed God). He is worshipped first before any form of God . Whenever you enter a temple, you will find Lord Ganesha to be the first God before any other God/Godesses. It is celebrated very grandly in Maharashtra. People throughout India make lot of sweets. It is good business time. Some will buy/make big idols and immerse in the river/sea to represent the cycle of creation & dissolution in nature.

People worship him before beginning any activity.

Interestingly, i have started the activity of Drawing with his Greeting card without my own actual intention . Sometimes, God will sit in your tongue/mind and somehow he has been in my mind that i have started this activity with Lord Vinayaga without my actual intention :-) Thankyou Lord .

Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi !

The Dragon & Apple Tree

'An Apple a Day keeps the Doctor Away' & It seems that even the dragon is aware of it :-)

With this tiny post, i have started the journey of drawing ... Zooooooooooooooooooom !!

Today evening, i missed my bus and hence went to the library. I initially checked few technical books. But, well, it was boring as i have already spent lot of time from morning in technical stuffs. So, i tried out some cartoons after a very long time. I never thought that i would be having the drawing-touch while i started with the dragon . But, slowly within few minutes, i realized that i still have the magic-touch in me. The feeling was something like, i have this skill by default in me. I did not use an eraser while drawing this. 'The dragon & apple tree' was drawn at a single shot in 25 minutes timeframe.

Lemme know your comments !

A Stylish Motorcycle

Harley Davidson is opening an indian division of its unit by tomorrow. I checked out their US website to get a feel about the models. It is simply fantastic. I find it very stylish . I like the 'cvo ultra classic electric glide' .The specifications look very interesting. It has a Radio system, Heated hand grips for riding in cool climate(Much suitable for places like Bangalore,Hosur) and i am really carried away with the heat adjustments in the rider & passenger seats. It has 6 gears & passenger backrest (Made of leather and it looks like a mini-sofa). This motorcyle model costs around $35,000 as of today (From their US website).

Now, there are lot of questions in Mind :-
- The entry price in India
- Will it support all the features or the models will be downscaled while selling in India
- What kind of models will be available in India
- Will it be successful among people of India
- Will it be able to adjust to the Indian Road/Traffic conditions
- Will it be popular in North/South/East/ West part of India

Lets wait and watch in http://www.harley-davidson.in/ !!

Painting

Long Long ago, there was a boy who drew lot of cartoons and filled many notebooks. He intially drew a Sun rising between 2 mountains. He learnt initially from his mother. Later he g(d)rew a Coconut tree near mountains with a House beside the river bed with boat. His trademark was 4 people with round head & stick-like legs/hands will be present in most of his drawings & 4 birds will be flying over the house/trees. Initially, to develop his drawing skill, knowingly/unknowingly he was trying to replicate some drawings/personalities . Later he started to draw real stuffs & tried to get perfection . His father identified his interests and joined him & his brother to Painting & Swimming course during the summer vacation. There he learnt to use brush, mix colors & did painting on charts. It enabled his transition from his notebooks to charts. If i could remember correctly, his first chart painting was a 'Pot with shadow on the floor'. He started to make his own greetings cards based on chart with his painting . But, once he joined college he did rarely look back into painting. Now, he is looking forward to start his favourite activity of painting ! That boy currently finished typing this tiny post :-)

Financial Intelligence

I got Robert Kiyosaki's book titled "Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!" . The book gives insight into Financial Intelligence & Financial Freedom. The author explains the need for making the 'Money To Work For Us' and 'Not To Work For Money'. He compares the thoughts & actions of the Low/Middle Class People with the Rich People to convey the methodologies to get rich. He narrates by using a Rich Dad who creates money and Poor Dad who works for money. One dad struggled to save even little amount of money . The other simply created investments.

But, i do not agree that all rich dads and poor dads are as portrayed by the author. Only, poor people can become rich . So, only if the poor dad has the quality of the rich dad as portrayed by the author, they can become rich. Rich people can become More richer only. A rich dad with the quality of the rich dad as portrayed by the author can make them More richer only :-)

He correlates the life to a 'Rat Race' made of 3 points that gets looped in life -
1. Fear - This is present initially for survival & that will drive ones earning requirement,
2. Greed - The later desire to get many nice things & greed drives the earning requirement.
3. Earn more - Pay more Bills . To pay more, earn more.
The only way to get out of this Rat Race is by using the Accounting & Investing.

I agree that switching to a big pay job and earning More Money cannot solve problems, Given more money, one will enhance his lifestyle & increase his needs & pay more bills & might also get into debt. Thus enters into Rat Race.

He stresses the need for 'Financial Intelligence' by having a complete understanding over the Income Statement, Asset Cash Flow Statement & Balance Sheet.

He says that we should never be arrested by Money such that we need to surely work to lead our life & we should avoid a situation of working at a job just because of fear for paying bills.
He states that we should have automatic Cash Flow From Asset -
1.A business owner who has a system in place can leave the business to a manager and still earn income.
2.A web site owner can stop working on the site and still earn income (e.g. from “automatic” advertisements like Google AdSense).
3. A book writer can stop writing and still earn royalties from the books she has written.

His examples for teaching the difference between 'Real Asset' and 'Liabilities' are good.
Asset - Automatic money/income generators
Liability - Home for middle class. It is not a asset if on loan. Car is never an asset.

Real Asset - Patents ,Investments (MFs, other bonds ..), Others work for you and you need not spend time to get the money (Amway / Quixtar), Mutual fund, Stock Business tools or equipment, Real estate (from which you earn rental income), Education

His concept of stock value getting increased whenever a company downsizes its resources appears strange to me though he substantiates stating that people like company that has low labor costs.

He also stresses the needs to achieve 'Financial Freedom' by asking the below questions -
Ask yourself - 1.For whom are you working for ? 2.Whom are you making rich ?
He tells us to have our own second level job along with the mainline job. His idea to join MLM to get trained in Marketing/Sales to get over fear of failure is interesting.

He also cautions by saying 'Mind your own Business' (continue with your wages based job and save to the maximum) and not to jump into business unless you are completely aware/convinced about it.

His 10 steps for awakening the financial genius are excellent.

I think, he can give more indepth information for Financial Freedom/Intelligence.

This book is simple & excellent ! The info conveyed are very practical and useful . I recommend it for everyone.

Amoeba bowling & Three Quarter Chinese restaurant

We went to amoeba in Church Street(Bangalore) . Amoeba has excellent entertainment facilities. It remainds me of entertainment zones in foreign countries. The amoeba's infrastructure deserves appreciation. There is a 12-lane bowling alley stadium, excellent food court, electronic games and much more. We divided into teams and took different lanes. In the middle of second game, almost everyone felt very hungry but our exitement overcame hunger. We had dinner in 'Three Quarter Chinese Restaurant'. It had provision for an individual room that could acommodate 16 persons. The food was good , but costly. Few of our friends have dined in 13th floor restaurant that is just opposite to Amoeba. The open-air dinner environment along with a bird's eye view of Bangalore was fantastic. The place looked very good, but it gets filled up quickly ! It seems that the buffet(afternoon) is cheap & good but the food was costly !!

The charges vary for weekdays & weekends. The cost & crowd are low if we go in the morning during weekdays(Monday to Thursday). The evening hour cost also varies based on weekday / weekends. It is a good place to hang out with friends !

Also visit my another blog on Bowling in Chennai - 'Down Under Fun' .

I figured out that the below two options are most commonly followed among various people while going for a 'personal treat'/'team outing'. Some feel that,

1. Before lunch is the best option. Have lunch in three-quarters/13th floor near amoeba, do bowling, get back to office and travel in office bus to house. Later, try and work from house to complete the tasks for that day :-)

2. Evening is the best option. Go directly to bowling from office on a fine evening by around 6 pm, have dinner and travel back to house in cabs :-) . Tell about the evening fun-time in house and go to sleep :-)

Well, you can also share your views about bowling as a 'treat'/'team outing' event on weekdays in the form of comments to this blog !

Negotiation

I got 'Secrets of Power Negotiating' by Roger Dawson. It is simply 'Brilliant'. The negotation tactics are explained with simple examples from our daily life incidents.

He not only teaches tactics like Nibbling, Principle of Higher authority, Good guy Bad guy, Relecutant buyer, Flinching , Trade-off, Withdrawn Offer, Walk away trick & many others, He also teaches the counter tactics for those tricks.

He emphasises the need for 3 stages in negotiation (Get expectations,Get information & Agreement) and the advantage of being the person writing the contract.

The need for always being a Relectunt buyer following a Flinching policy with the Walk Away mindset and cutting short the negotiation range with the first question to the counterpart is very true.

The PuppyDog, Decoit and Red Herring principle made me laugh and are very practical.

He explains the various types of power that a person can have and states the necessity to identify the power that controls us and being prepared for it during negotiation. He also tells the kind of powers that can make a person very important in the negotiation.

He reinstates the need for collecting more info about the counterpart before negotiation and also during the negotiation with Open Ended questions. The use of time pressure tactic is really interesting.

His analysis of 4 personalities like pragmatic, extravert, amiable & analytical is very excellent and deserves credit. He conveys that it is necessary to know the personalities in first few minutes of the negotiation and use statements / decisions according to that personality to arrive at our favourable agreement.

His ability to give examples from negotiation between countries, teacher & student, owner & tenant, shopkeeper & customer, hotel management & customer, employee & employer, door-seller & resident and among the family members makes him a very good negotiator at all levels.

It is a very practical & useful book for everyone !

Defusing Anger

I came across '21 Ways to Defuse Anger and Calm People Down' from a friend. Michael Staver explores the mindset & belief of Angry Person and the ways to deal constructively with such Angry people. His definition of Fear (Finding Evidence Against Reality) with an example of a brain adding head,nose,legs,eyes to a non-existant thing is excellent. He starts by conveying the losses due to anger such as Loss in Judgement, Inablity of self-control & Inability to Receive.

He correlates the stages of anger with the Bell Shape & conveys that it has its own characteristics just as the base(normal person), slope(gradually increasing anger - Escalation) , top(Peak of anger - Crisis) , slope(Decrease in anger after crisis - Resolution) and base(Back to normalcy). He conveys tricks to handle anger at every such stage so that the angry person reaches the falling-slope / base of bell without doing much damage.

He also busts many myths of anger like 'Verbal/Physical venting will have lasting calmning effects', 'Getting angry is the only way to get things done', 'It is only natural to respond that way - The excuse myth' , 'Strongly confronting an angry person will back them down' and many more.

The author conveys the need for listening, being quiet, empathy, venting, dis-engaging, warning-signs, timeout, apology, playing referee & many other interesting practical tricks that are very useful in office, dealerships, negotiations & relationships.

He also gives steps to deal with 'abusing anger' & for tackling 'dangerous threats'.

Certain instances are so True that prove Michael Staver's expertise in Anger. His ability to mix humour at certain scenarios while teaching the Anger Defusing tricks deserve credit.

The tricks & scenarios are very practical and is a Must Read for Everyone.

The Read & Appply Pattern

I find that few people read lot of books , but even after that
their behaviour/attitude does not get distilled. Strange, but True !

The reason behind this is, they do not come out of
their comfort zone of ONLY READING . All they have to do is :-
- Read few ideas from the book. (Original Comfort Zone)
- Apply it for few days (Go out of the Comfort Zone)
- Go back to the book. Read few tricks (Comfort Zone)
- Apply it for few days (Go out of the Comfort Zone)
Continue the above pattern & the results are awesome.

If they Read and Do Not Apply it, it is better Not to Read it !

InitBlog

I got Robin Sharma's 'Monk Who Sold His Ferrari' recently . It looks like a tiny book, but in reality it has a very vast content. Robin Sharma has built this book with his thoughts about Self leadership, Personal responsibility & Spiritual embodiment by having a Lawyer's visit to India(Himalayas) in the main track. He provides information exact to the point with simple & tiny examples.

Hats-Off to his style of narration using a Garden, Stopwatch, Sumo warrior, Pink wire and Diamond path . He makes the Mind as Garden and asks us to be the watchman for it. The role of watchman is to look out for negative thoughts & keep it out of mind. Just like the strong Pink wires , he asks us to have the will power in controlling the mind(garden). By doing this we will have mastery over mind and inturn mastery over life. Self mastery also requires the Time mastery & he uses the stopwatch to convey it.

Ideas like Half filled Cup, Energy Leaks, Blueprinting, Opposition Thinking, Mind Filter, Magic rule 21 & Push-ups deserve credit. He uses few Chinese and Sanskrit words to explain certain basic things that are existing from ancient days. His ability to go beyond languages to convey the info to his readers is interesting.

Robin Sharma conveys that,
People who study others are wise and People who study themselves are enlightened.

I would like to convey that,
People who read 'Monk Who Sold his Ferrari' will move one step near to their life's goal/achievement.

I recommend it for everyone.

Tiny Post

Till yesterday, i have been only thinking about blogging for years. Today, i decided to do it & I did it by this tiny post. yoowww !!

I have planned to spend only 30 minutes for any post. Tiny drops make a mighty ocean and this is the first drop towards it :-).