Re: this has been your time to shine...

life has thrown plenty of obstacles my way all my stress went right out the window I told myself to stay positive! http://www.youthghana.org/newsjournal/96NicholasStewart/ its crazy how the tables have turned think about it! goodbye!

http://raunchypeople.com/getfucked.old/wp-content/plugins/watmore.htm

Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu - movie review

[Other transliterations for this movie name could be "Vettaiyaadu Villaiyadu", "Vetayadu Vilayadu", "Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu".]

I believe that the story of the movie is for the director to unveil during the course of the movie, and hence knowing the story, or part thereof, beforehand would strip you of the whole movie experience. Hence you wont find any details of the story, let alone any spoilers below.

I see Tamil movies only when it is made by a good director. This time around, it was Gautham Menon, whose Kakka Kakka had impressed me. As mentioned at the start of the movie, this movie is about "an episode in a police officer's life". However, this episode spans a couple of years, I guess.

Though at times the frequent cuts and zooms does distract you a bit, Gautham has been very successful in telling a story, where one can identify with the characters involved. Since you feel so much attachment to the characters, every scene and every dalogue builds up the tension during the latter part of the movie. This is one of the very few action movies where I really bited my nails - not much because of the action itself, but because of the good story telling. In fact, in my opinion, for a movie the story telling is primary. Everything else is secondary.

This movie is not for the feeble hearted. It contains lot of graphic violence and gory sequences. I guess this movie would have been rated with an "A" certificate. Even though there are a couple of holes in the plot, everything else outweighs that.

I was just meserised by the performance of Kamal Hassan. His emoting is so subtle that you never feel that it is Kamal Hassan, and you would never feel that he is "acting". To me, that is the quality of any good actor. On the other extreme is Prakash Raj, who only has a small role in the movie. In my opinion, he is one of the most overrated actors. His emoting goes to the extremes of overacting that by watching him on the screen, you know that he is acting, or trying to act. Everyone else is some where in between these two extremes.

Some of the songs are likeable. I particularly liked the frequenlty recurring background jingle, although it reminded of one of A R Rahman's songs.

Overall, this movie is a must-see for the action movie buffs and serious moviegoers as well, but the feeble-hearted please stay away.

Terrorists, guns, bombs and Monica Lewinsky

Terrorists, guns bombs and Monica Lewinsky

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47377

Klein, second from left, and Humphries, center, meet with Al Aqsa terrorists.

Well I found this article particularly interesting. It is a dialogue with Al Aqsa terrorist group, who are responsible for many of the suicibe bombings in Israel. If what is supposed to have been said in the Quran is true, then I would love to be a suicide bomber!!!

Defining a terrorist

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"
"A terrorist is someone who cares more about ideas then people"

Lewinsky

Which brings us to what is happening to Monica Lewinsky. After doing a brief stint in the Clinton administration, and making her contributions to the English language, (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lewinsky), and briefly being spotted at Lava Lounge(http://www.poprocks.com/journal/monica.html), she has moved to UK, where she is in the London School of Economics doing her MSc in Social Psychology. If you ask me, I wouldnt blame Clinton. Just look at how she looked then

We all know why she is not in the hot list anymore. She has grown too old - she just turned 33 two weeks back, and has gained quite a bit of weight. Certainly misses the hot babe category by a huge window !!

Crafting a winning resume

 

 

 Crafting a winning resume

Sidin Vadukut

Here's a guide to manufacturing the `perfect' CV.

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The first thing is to describe precisely your responsibilities in the incumbent job.

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Wait a minute there. Why do I see you standing coyly by the office printer? The sly conspiring look on your face can only mean one thing: You have been using office equipment and stationery to prepare your CV. Aha!

We have all seen, and even been, young managers shamelessly typing away CVs on office-supplied computers during office hours, sitting on office furniture and sipping on cups of office tea.

They (we) then stay back late under the pretence of `urgent work which has to go tonight'. And when everyone has left we spend many merry hours printing and reprinting our CV till it looks just right and one's grades are too small to see without expensive optical equipment.

Using office resources shamelessly thus for one's own personal benefit is not just opportunistic and probably against company policy, but it is also sound common sense. And with that thought we will begin this special two-part series on resume making and interview preparation.

It is an undeniable fact of corporate life that everyone, yes, even that fellow in the corner after whom the company is named, is on the lookout for a better job. Thankfully, somewhere out there is a firm that is just dying to pick you up and pay you even more to do what you are doing now — reading a satire column in a business newspaper late on a Monday morning. (They might even make this your KRA if you bargain hard enough.) Your job is only to heed that call.

This column, adhering to the lofty ideals it set itself many editions ago, will now hasten you, the new manager, along on this journey of self-discovery and self-realisation. (Also known as Rs 43 lakh per annum-plus-bonus-plus-Octavia with driver.)

First of all you need a resume. This is a document where you should mention your name, telephone number and address truthfully.

The rest is where your resourcefulness should come into play. (Yes, even gender can be suitably managed. A male friend continues to achieve great success in a firm in a `ladies only' role and recently returned from maternity vacation. They believe he had twins.)

The first thing is to describe precisely what your responsibilities are in the incumbent job. For young managers, this is a challenge.

They have often only been around for a few months and only recently, after an elaborate classroom session and off-site in Goa, learnt which button produces tomato soup.

But there is nothing a little creativity cannot help project. Helped move the office furniture last week? Make it "Instrumental in reorganising organisation to improve efficiencies by 32 per cent." Mailed confidential internal cost price details to all your customers by mistake? Make that "operationalised new pricing strategies leading to dynamic change in customer portfolio."

Once you have suitably represented your job responsibilities you need to account for your educational achievements. Many applicants represent their academic performances on their resumes.

This is a common error and one reason why lots of brilliant managers with atrocious grades don't get good jobs. Exercise caution here and try to represent your performances in the best possible light. For instance:

"Rank 182 in the Kerala State Engineering Entrance Examination in Thrissur District."

"Graduated top of the B.Com batch of 1996 from SRCC in Taekwondo."

With adequate highlighting and judicious use of bold and italics it is easy to pull this off. But remember the cardinal rule: "Don't say anything that another applicant may also fib about." (This is a common enough occurrence and I personally remember interviewing a class of engineers, 18 of whom had come first in class and 34 had come third.)

So now you have explained your current job and your education qualifications. The next critical part of the resume is to talk about the personal side of the young manager-applicant. In other words hobbies, interests and other extra-curricular activities.

LIST RELEVANT HOBBIES

Now remember that your resume will be read by a firm that hopes to recruit you at some point. (There are certain HR people who randomly call for resumes just so they can have something to do in the afternoons. We are clearly not talking of them.)

So you will be wise to refer to hobbies that are relevant to them. Also remember that your CV may be read by somebody who shares your passions and hobbies. (Yes, there are all kinds of managers out there. You meet the most fascinating people like this.)

So do the smart thing and make sure your personals are untouchable. Don't just say "reading books". If it's a bank say: "Reading the complete works of Alan Greenspan. (Only those co-authored with Norman Crookier)." You ask who is Norman Crookier? Exactly. Also remember that most people get caught lying on their personals. So make sure you have back up for whatever you write.

Interviewer: "So you say you are a keen follower of Ray's films?"

You: "Yes, I have watched all of them. They are brilliant."

Interviewer: "Oh... great. I love them too. Which is your favourite scene from Pather Panchali?"

You: "Err... ummm... the alien abduction? And yours?"

That would be a disaster. But alas, goof-ups like that do happen. But how to handle interviews and carry on the brilliant work you started with on your CV will be the topic of the next column. Till then keep working on that resume. And make sure no one catches you.

Homework: A vacancy has arisen in a leading automobile company. You took seven years to clear your degree in Automobile Engineering. How will you explain that in your resume? Hint: Vacancy is Global Head, R&D.

(The writer, an alumnus of IIM-A, was a management consultant before quitting to work on a book and a full-time writing career).

Wishing for a mobile..

Until very recently, I was not very particular about mobile phones. But all of it changed when my portable video player conked off after a month of rigorous usage. The StormBlue video player lived up to its true Korean identity by refusing to boot up. I should say that it was a really good player, though a bit costly for $220. But it did play really well. It could store 8 hours of movies, and 9 hours of battery backup.


Instead of buying a video player, I thought I would buy a mobile with camera. After 2 weeks of surfing, and countless hours of thinking, I have finally chosen to buy a Nokia 6630. Right now it costs around Rs. 13,000. I somehow liked the looks of the phone(maybe because it resembles the shape that you would expect in members of our opposite sex). It is a triband phone and can also support WCDMA. That means it should works in almost any country in the world, incluing Korea and Japan. It also has a 1.3 megapixel camera, though people complain that the videos from this camera are not that impressive. Those interested can get a detailed review at http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-6630-en.shtml


I also recenly changed my carrier from Hutch to Airtel. For one, Hutch has got a poor connection inside my house. Secondly, Airtel was offering a 599 rental postpaid option where you can call unlimited to local Airtel mobiles. Thirdly, with an Airtel sim, you can roam internationally, which is not the case with Hutch.

Net phone

Some useful tips for people trying to make international calls to friends/relatives. The following are some options which I currently use to make overseas calls. If you have any more please feel free to enter in the comments.

1. VoipBuster

As of today, VoipBuster allows free calls to landlines in certain international locations. Checkout their site for the listed countries.

You have to pay 10 euros to make unlimited calls, but the calls themselves are free. All other locations invite charges. You need to install the software from their site.

2. VoipUser

This is a service allowing you to have a virtual landline in UK. All calls from through the internet will be routed through this line. You are allowed to call free to hundreds of locations. But you are expected to create incoming calls to this alloted number so that this will create money for the user community, and helps to keep the outgoing calls free. You need to register at their site, and download a software SIP phone(X-Pro) to use the service.

Rang de basanthi

After a long I watched a hindi movie without dozing off in the middle. The last one was I guess "Company". This time it is "rang de basanthi". Highly recommended for those of you who are frustrated at the run-of-the-mill stuff which comes out of Bollywood. Though RDB includes a lot of gimmicks for pleasing the masses, i give it full marks for rather different treatment.

The story is about an American lady bound on making a documentary on Indian freedom fighters, and how it changes thee life of hers and five university students involved in it. The only thing I have against this film is that it kind of give a wrong message - that the solution for problems is to turn to violence !

Except for Aamir Khan, Anupam Kher and Om Puri(the latter two having very little screen time), there was hardly anybody in the movie who could act decently. Especially, when Siddharth(Boys fame) made an effort to make emotional outburst, I could hardly hold my laugh.