How to hold one's attention in a meeting

Had a meeting today and a lady with a sexy outfit was there. Needless to say, all eyes were on her, even when she was not speaking ;)

Trumpet Blowing

May 18th, 2007. It was the parents-teachers meet at my daughters school. Althou I didn't go to the school expecting a lot of complaints, I was sure there would be a few issues here and there. Specially about her loud voice and screams. She is so loud, that I can hear her screams from our 6th floor apartment when she goes to the playground or swimming pool.

But, what did I get on that day? A glowing picture of a sweet and soft girl who likes to impress the teacher and is ready to share with her friends!! (this is something I am yet to see, because she is generally very reluctant to share even with us).

There was this Chinese teacher who was all praise about her and sharing bits of information on how she responds in Chinese...this was another bit of surprise for me. I only knew that she could sing a few chinese songs and count from one to ten. Looks like my little one can identify the colors and a few characters in Chinese. She can also coin a few words together to form meaningful sentences. The teacher wanted my daughter to continue her chinese classes. She was even ready to help her when she goes for higher classes. I was dumbfounded.

I then met one of the assistant teachers and her comment on my daughter was the highlight. She told that my daughter is very diplomatic and a good arbitrator. Now, who would have thought that about a 3 year old? I do have a lot to learn about my daughter...

ஈண்ற பொழுதினும் பெரிதுவக்கும் தன் பிள்ளை சாண்றொன் எனக் கேட்டத்தாய்
(INRa pozhuthinum perithuvakkum than piLLai saaNRon enak kEttaththaay)

She made my day.

It's the mango season.... again

Normally we have visitors from India in May and get the juicy Thathacariyar Gardens Imam pasand mangoes. But this year, we didn't have anyone coming in May. June had come and no one was planning to visit us in the first two weeks. So I was sure that we had missed the mangoes this year. But, as luck would have it, the mango season was delayed this year and so when my parents came in mid June, they got those juicy mangoes... Now, this is life :)

Super singer Junior

We had been on a cruise and on the last day, all those embarking in Singapore were asked to assemble at the auditorium. The cruise members were keeping everyone engaged with a few games and fun activities. Then they invited kids to sing. No one was willing. My little one suddenly got up and went boldly to the DJ and told her that she wanted to sing. When she was given the mike she sang "Twinkle Twinkle little star" clearly and loudly and got the prize and came back to her seat smiling broadly. The moment she was seated comfortably, she asked me "Mummy, when will they show me in the Super Singer Junior programme in TV?"

Moving houses

We are planning to move to a house near my daughter's school next week. So we were busy packing our stuff during the weekend. All the furniture is provided by the house owner in our current house as well as the new one we are moving to. So we don't have much to pack...or that is what we thought, until we started. There were hordes of letters and bills to sort out, toys and clothes to be sorted and discarded and stuff that we didn't know existed. We managed to fill three large boxes with books and files!!

Now I dread packing the kitchen items and clothes :(

Punishment

Saw Thiru Ranga, Arputha Theevu, part of maayakanadi and Naan avan illai during the weekend.

Across the miles....

Got a call from a long lost family friend last night. The last we heard from them was 20 years back. She took the pains of finding a mutual friend and getting our contact number from them.

Getting a call from someone who you think about quite often, but have lost touch is wonderful.

Where are you from?

During a recent trip, a lady asked my daughter,

"Where are you from?"

Pat came the reply: "My home!!!"

Within a year

Last year, I was boasting to a friend in Switzerland that the rents in Singapore were comparitively lower. This year it has almost doubled :(

Fashion Statement

Mummy I can't wear this dress and go out today.
Why?
B'cos I don't have a matching watch!!!

- from my 3 year old.

Door

The little one bangs her hand against the door and cries out in pain.

"What happened? Oh...you got hurt? are you ok? Let me take a look..this naughty door, hitting you like that. Now, don't cry, I'll hit the door"

"Hmm...mummy, but what did the door do? It had to be there right? It didn't hit me purposely!!"

"ahh...hmm"

காசிருந்தால்...

காசிருந்தால்...

10 நாட்களுக்காக புதிதாக தற்காலிக Road போடலாம்.
100 Police Security போடலாம்.
500 புது BMW வாங்கலாம்.
1000 கணக்கில் பூக்களை குவிக்கலாம்.
$2000 - க்கு பரிசு பொருட்கள் கொடுக்கலாம்.

இதையெல்லாம் ஒரு IMF meetingக்காக செய்யலாம்

This is for people like ME, who cannot read Tamil.
If you have money...

You can lay a new road temporarily for 10 days
Have around 100 Policemen as security
Get 500 new BMW cars
Get around 1000 Flowers
Can give gifts worth $2000

All this for a IMF meeting!!!

IMF singapore - general observation

Three meter high barbed wire fence, police men at every nook and corner, a dozen fire engines, riot police...does this sound like a scene from the high security camps? Well this is how it is around the Suntec area in Singapore. The IMF meeting is taking place at the Suntec Convention Centre. All roads leading to the convention centre, including the overhead bridge are blocked to public. A whole battalion of police is located behind the convention centre, ready for any challenge. There are a lot of fire engines, police vehicles and ambulances stationed there.

The hotels where the delegates stay have security checks including baggage screening similar to the ones we see at the airport.

But, the road blocks have not caused traffic jams as expected. We are still able to reach office with minimum discomfort.

All shops and restaurants in the Suntec vincity have special offers or discounts for the IMF delegates. But I have not seen many delegates shopping :)) Have to check with the shoppers...

The pedestrian way along Nicoll Highway had beautiful flowers. There were bees bussing in the morning. Gives a refreshing feeling when you walk to office. But I feel a bit sad to see the plants. These flowers are all temporary arrangements and so they are still in pots. The pots are buried under sand, to give an appearance of being planted directly. Each potted plant is tied together, so that the flowers are bunched at the top. But this looks so artificial, although it gives a neat look. I would prefer the unruly bushes with flowers :))

Colorful Singapore

A new comer to Singapore would be stuck by the greenery around him. Everywhere you go, you would find green trees and shrubs. Even in the highly populated City area, you would find fresh green plants smiling at you.

With so many plants you might think that there would be a few flowers around. Especially, since Singapore is touted as the Garden City. But, except for a few pathetic Bouganvilla plants along a few flyovers, there were almost no flowering plants. Visitors from abroad used to ask us about this and I never had a proper reply to this.

Now the image has changed suddenly. With the IMF meetings in Suntec, the area around suntec are surrounded by beautiful flowers. Daisies, marigolds and Canna adorn the city. A colorful smile to welcome the delegates.

PS: But somehow I feel that the flowers have removed the elegant and orderly look of Singapore ;)

Interview

There was a big recruitment spree going on in our company and specifically in our project. Most of the openings were for a few months contract job and so the project manager and higher officials were not interested in conducting the interviews. There was also the time constraint as there were nearly hundred people required for the project on short term basis. The candidates were shortlisted by the HR and the project manager would just pass the resumes to the Team Leads to conduct the interview. All of my friends had had a go at interviewing and so I was eagerly waiting for my chance. It never came and the recruitment was also completed. After almost a week, I got a call from my Project Manager and was asked to Interview a guy.

I just had time to skim through his profile before going to the meeting room where the guy was waiting for me!!! We greeted each other and I started off with the usual question of "Tell me about yourself". -- I needed this, as I didn't know much about him. That was when I got the shock. It was like a school boy reciting his homework. It went like, "My name is XXX. I have done my YYY at xxx college. I have X years of experience..blah blah. blah". This guy had some experience in the telecom sector and nothing much on what we required. I had made up my mind that this guy would not be suitable for us and that's what I told my PM too.

Then came the second shock. This guy was a relative of our CEO and had been offered a job in the company already. As they didn't have a suitable job for him, they wanted us to take him into our project. The third shock came when the PM asked me to take this guy into my team! Everything had been already decided and this was just an eye wash interview. I felt like a waste cloth!!!

But out of all this, I had got a GEM of a team member. He was a hardworker with a will to learn. He was also one of those guys who would never say die. In fact I was pretty unwilling to let him go when my company got a telecom project.

Beauty of Numbers

Got this as a fwd...

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?

And finally, take a look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

Home Again

When you plan for your trip back to India, what would you expect? Seeing your parents and relatives? Meeting friends? Eating home made food?

From experience, it's all of that and most importantly very busy weeks...you almost have no time, trying to squeeze in as many obligations as possible...Especially the courtesy visits. Then, there are those temple visits and the functions they plan to have when we are there.

A friend of mine, had been to India recently for three weeks and during the days she was at home, she normally woke up at 5am and went visiting people. Now, doesn't this sound like a Minister's schedule?

Candles

In almost all the houses that I had visited in Switzerland they had candles lighted in their house. Right from the huge pillar like candles lighted at a corner of the room or small candles on the dining tables, there were sure to be candles. I was fine with all these and felt a bit enchanted tooo...until I saw a candle in the shape of a small dog. I instantly remembered the Balachander Film (don't remember the name...saw it when I was a kid) where the heroine would be enraged to see a candle in the shape of a kid burning away. I was very disturbed when I saw it as a kid and I had the same feeling when I saw the dog candle too. I normally never buy beautiful candles as I can't see it melt away...and one of the gifts I got in Swiss was a beautiful Rose candle.

Alps malai kaatru vanthu ennai thotathu.......

Had been to Swizterland the past three weeks....

Wow, what a place...a picture book.

It's supposed to be summer but the maximum temperature is only 21 C. And that was not always. It went to - degrees most of the time. There was even snow fall in a few places!! It was a wonderful experience...the first time I saw snow fall. The sun made sure that we never forget that it was summer, it sets only at 9.30pm!

The Swiss card appears to be a bit pricy, but is sure worth getting one if you intend to travel a lot. It provides for unlimited travel in all the public modes of travel. There's also free entry to some of the museums. The trains are wonderful in Switzerland. The routes that they cover are awesome and some of them were built as early as 1903. On the Glacier Express we got to see lush green meadows with quaint little houses. The sound of bells from the cows was like ARR music to a Mani Rathnam Film!!! But I did feel sorry for some of the cows, the bells around their neck were as big as a temple bell!

Bern was not part of our plan. But I'm happy that we went there. And a pleasant surprise was a clock tower there. I had seen it on Discovery Travel network a few years back, but had forgotten where it was. We reached the place exactly at the moment when the clockwork was going to strike the magic!! We got to see it... a dream come true for me!!!

Why Gold rates increase