This place is called Thiruvannamalai - well known to all Tamilians for its sacred hills. For every full moon, milllions of people from various places gather here and walk around this hill once.This is called girivalam/kirivalam. It is said that sages who live for decades wander in the hill on full moon night and so praying and walking around the hill that time is considered very sacred. Many people who did this have claimed that their prayers have been answered thus attracting many, irrespective of what religion they belong to.
Everyone in my family have walked except me. I had no time all these years until yesterday. The day had finally come and I wanted to walk this time. Thiruvannamalai is just 1 and a half hour drive from my hometown. We all started walking at 4 with no footwear. The crowd was huge but my parents said it is comparatively less than it would be for the full moon tat comes in the month of April( It is called chitra pournami).
We had to walk 14 kms around the hill. I felt no pain in my leg or my feet until I walked 6 kms. Maybe this is because Ive never walked this long or because Ive never walked without a footwear before. But I never gave up. I didnt want to. Fortunately there were so many arrangements made by the govt like you can sit and relax for a while and then start walking again, many shops are available so that you can energise yourself when you feel like you've become tired and so many small temples are present on the way.
As you know India is a secular country and so are many temples. It doesnt restrict tourists to Hindus alone. I saw many foreigners walking around the hill as well. Shocking, they walk on every full moon. Whats even more interesting is many among them have bought their own homes in Thiruvannamalai and have settled here.
We finally finished our walk at around 9.30. Had dinner at a hotel when I noticed that my feet has already turned red. But my heart felt light. I was happy I walked this long praying my favourite God(Lord Shiva). Walking like this for three consecutive full moon is considered special and good. So Ive made up my mind to walk on next full moon too.
My diary part 2: Addictions !!!
As we grow, many things draw our attention and very few has the capability of having us glued to it. Those addictions keep changing. So I have listed out what my addictions were/are in my life till now.. I just thought about it last night and decided to write it down here..
"Marma Desam" addiction:
As far as I can recollect my first addiction was a thriller tv show("Marma Desam") around the age of 11. No matter what, I would never miss an episode. The show was telecasted once in a week making me think about it for the rest of the days. Every week when the show ends displaying 'continues' at the bottom, I would long for the following week to arrive soon. Finally it ended with a spellbound climax.
"Orkut" addiction:
Ever since Internet connection was given to my PC, my addiction turned to Orkut. It had become like a part of me in a short time.Everytime I switch on my PC, the first thing I wud do is goto my profile,chk out friend requests, looking at my friends pics and so on. As you know, you will lose track of your time on Orkut. Specially when you have lotta friends. So that was an addiction which still isnt completely faded away right now. I wud say Orkut is powerful.
"F.R.I.E.N.D.S" addiction:
What else?? Anything changes with time. And so are addictions. Who doesnt love watching "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" (a popular TV show) when it has the capacity to make you laugh throughout. But I think I watched it very frequently that I got bored after watching all the seasons.
"Blogging" addiction:
Then it was the time I came to know about blogs. I started blogging like daily and I kept an eye on everything that wud make my adsense go high..Inspite of writting unique content I felt sad to see my Page Rank as N/A until recently when my page got a rank of 1/10. (Yaay,,Im happy!). Iam a widgets maniac who try putting all the widgets I see as interesting ones(despite the fact that having many widgets make your page load slower). I was even more happy when I knew few people started following my blog to keep track of the updates.. (Thanks to all of them). Feels good when your work is acknowledged.
"Harry Potter" addiction:
When I had 1-2 months holidays, I started reading Harry Potter. By that time 4 parts have already been screened (I know I was late when I started ).Would you believe it?? I finished all the seven parts of HP in 1 and a half months. Out of 7, I managed to get 3 books and read 4 parts in ebook. That was "Harry Potter" addiction.
"Movie" addiction:
When I got the next sequence of holidays for months, I changed my Internet plan to unlimited and started downloading movies 24*7. Movies of Tamil, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Korean, French and what not.. Well that was the movie addiction for a while. You can also call it Horror/Thriller movie addiction.
"How I met your mother" addiction:
Not before long I realised that Im addicted to watching "How I met your mother" TV show. I bet If you like "FRIENDS" you wud definitely love HIMYM. Till now Ive seen 4 seasons of it and the rest of the seasons are still in the making. Cant wait to watch the upcoming seasons. So this is HIMYM addiction.
"Farmville" addiction:
And now I keep playing "Farmville" on Facebook.. I never thought I wud end up playing Farmville.. Trust me- It is so addictive.
People,,wake up !
The recent hack of the RockYou website has exposed around 30 million passwords. Remember it is none other than you who is responsible for your account getting hacked. You never know the extent upto which your passwords could be used without your knowledge. So why give hackers the chance. Its high time you wake up.
Software companies ensure high password security because they could not afford the loss if confidential data is leaked. And so should you. The following is for non-IT background people or who is not aware how vulnerable weak passwords are.
Ensure your password achieves all these:
1. Keep changing your password regularly (say once in a month or two)
2. Dont keep single password for all your accounts (It becomes very easy for the hacker) just
because it is easy to remember. You know wat,, I'l tell you what I do. I have around 20
accounts (including the social networking and bookmarking sites) and remembering all the passwords would drive me crazy. Heres wat you can do- write down the passwords against the respective account name in a notepad file. Encrypt/Lock the file with a "not easy to crack" password and save it in your hard disk. You are done!! you get to hav a record of all your passwords and also keep it unreadable to others.
3. Do not share your passwords. You know what it leads to. And do not let others to easily guess what your password would be. (Keep weird names but not vulnerable ones.. That helps)
4. Including capital letters, special characters(+,_,@,#,$,%,^,&,*), numbers in between makes
the password hard to get cracked.
5. Most important of all, dont fall for any tricks played by hackers through anonymous mails asking for your password although they claim it is for their own benefit.
I think I have covered almost all the points to be taken care of.
So after the 'RockYou hack' issue a study has come up with a list of most commonly used/vulnerable passwords that invites hackers to do their job very easily.
Have a look @ them
1. 123456
2.Password
3.RockYou
4.iloveyou
5.qwerty
6. abc123
7. 123456789
8. princess
9. (your first name)
10. monkey
If your password is one of these/ if you think yours is easy to track down, change it right away.
Protect your data and stay safe from hackers.
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya
"If music is religion, A.R Rahman is God"
So true.. A.R's first tamil composition after winning the Oscars is Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya. The movie already has so many irresistible attractions like Gautham Menon(director), Trisha(actress), the screenshots of the songs made(which replicates the blockbusters of the past) and like adding feather to the cap is A.R Rahman's music. What is even more exciting is that the legend has sung a song himself.
MY FAVOURITE:
Out of the 7 songs, I wud say "Mannipaya" and "Hosanna" as my favourite songs.
Wats so special about this song apart from music is that it is sung by A.R Rahman and Shreya Ghoshal(perfect blend of voices) and its lyrics:
"MANIPAYA"
My favourite part of the song
(Shreya)
"Kadalinil meenaga irunthaval naan
unakena karai thaandi vandhaval thaan
thudi thuranthaen karainilae
thirumbi vittaen kadal idamae
Oru naal sirithaen maru naal veruthaen
unai naan kollamal kondru pudhaithaenae
mannipaya
(A.R)
maelum maelum urugi urugi unai enni aengum idhayathai enna seivaen
kaatrilae aadum kaagitham naan nee thaan enai kaditham aakinai
anbae ena thodangi anbil mudikiraen"
"HOSANNA"
Music of this song is just WOW..Hats off to Vijay Prakash,Suzanne & Blaaze who has sung this song.
My favourite part of the song
"Ean idhayam udaithai norungavae
En maru idhayam tharuvaen nee udaikavae
En vaasal thaandi ponale
vaerondrum seiayamale
naan aadi pogiraen
sukku nooragiraen
aval pona pinbu endhan nenjai thedi pogiraen
vaazhvukkum pakkam nindraen
saavukkum pakkam nindraen
en meedhu anbu kolla
ennodu saernthu sella
hmmm endru sollu podhum"
I keep humming these lines like 24*7 and these are my most played songs in my player.
Cant wait to watch these songs on screen.
My Diary part1- My first experience in flight
January 1, 2010 was not a great start for me.. The very first day made me cry(though i desperately tried not to). The first good thing that happened to me in this year was my flight experience from Trivandrum to Chennai all alone.
On January 14th my dad after knowing the trains are already packed asked me to come by flight. I agreed and the air ticket was sent to me by mail. After all the unpleasant things that happened around me I was finally happy that i was going home. Heartbroken, I said a final bye to the hostel and Trivandrum(a place where I was for the past 2 and a half months) and hired an auto towards the airport.
Having reached 2 hrs earlier, I went to a restaurant in the airport (which charges 100 bucks for Dosa :O). I finished the breakfast with a coffee and was waiting for the boarding counter to open. Since this was the first time Im flying, a friend of mine assisted me the previous night giving me step by step instuctions right from entering the airport which I followed carefully.
Hardly 20 people travelled along with me. Got my boarding pass and a bus arrived which took us to the flight. An air hostess greeted each and everyone as we entered. I found my window seat in front (which i requested for). God,,,why on earth did I see Final Destination 1???? The very thought of the movie made my head spinning,,but I was brave enough to put those weird thoughts aside and concentrate on the instructions that was being given about the life jackets, exit gates etc.
Trust me,window seats wud be very special to those who fly for the first time. Clouds seemed to be below us floating in the air like cotton.They are not even cotton but thick vapours.And the land below- reminded me of the days when I used to stand on the terrace staring at the flight that fly across the sky and the thought "When will my day come ?"
Above my seat were 2 buttons out of which one is for light and I was unaware wats the use of the other button.I pressed it and a pink color glowed with a loud beep. In few seconds,an air hostess came rushing asking me wat I wanted. Thank God I didnt say "Sorry I pressed it by mistake". Instead I asked her for some water..Ah,,this is why the button is up there!
Flight landed and I followed a fellow traveller who headed towards the conveyor belt to collect the bags. After that I was happy to see my dad waiting outside to receive me. There i was- in my land after a long time happy happy.
Most hummed song of the moment
Everytime there is a music release of a film, I tend to download them at the latest. Well there are many reasons- first-To see if any of my favorite singers have sung the song and second-As im a person who thinks "lyrics make the song and music gives life to it", I enjoy listening to adorable lyrics. As a consequence, i cant stop humming any good song I stop to listen. In tat case, each song stays on my mind for a considerable period and I wait to watch it on screen.
Lately I heard "Un Perai Sollum Podhe" song from Angadi Theru movie(Tamil) sung by Naresh Iyer and Shreya Goshal. The pair has once again rocked after Munbe Vaa song which happened to be the BOX OFFICE HIT.
Lyrics:
Un perai solum podhe ull nenjil kondattam
unnodu vazha thaane uyir vazhum porattam
nee paarkum podhe mazhai aanen ooooh un anbil kanneer thuli aaven
nee illai endral en aaven ooooh neruppodu vendhae mann aaven
Nee perazhagil poar nadathi ennai vendrai,
kan paarkum podhe paarvaiyale kadathi sendrai
naan pennaaga pirandhadharku artham sonnai,
mun adaiyatha vekkangal neeyae thanthai
En ulagam thanimai kaadu nee vandhai pookalodu,
ennai thodarum kanavugalodu, pennae pennae
nee illai endral en aaven ooooh neruppodu vendhae mann aaven
Unn karungoonthal kuzhal aaga thaan ennam thondrum,
un kaathoram uraiaadi thaan jenmam theerum,
Un maarodu ssayum antha mayakkam podhum,
en manathodu serthu vaitha valigal theerum
Un kadhal ondrai thavira en kaiyil ondrum illai,
athai thaandi ondrumae illai pennae pennae
nee illai endral en aaven ooooh neruppodu vendhae mann aaven
Naresh and Shreya, Keep up the good work..!
The controversial website that crashed recently
Walmart Stores is an American corporation which has many departmental stores chained to it throughout the country. Two Americans Andrew and Adam in their 20s are regular customers of WalMart where they seemed to notice many awkwardly/funnily dressed people. This is what their website is all about.
Very soon the site became popular with many people who started digging the articles and pictures. Facebook and Twitter also carried similiar mocks posted by the users which made the site gain heavy traffic. As a consequence, the site's threshold of traffic reached leaving their servers crashed on wednesday.
The owners of this contraversial website says that though it is basically mocking they have their own standards for it. They dont tease people with mental disabilities or people who are just fat but its about people who make themselves laughable by the way they dress (You can call it attention seeking too). Still this answer does not seem to be convince many.
On the other hand the majority seem to enjoy this by giving 500,000 views per day and this has increased to 1.2 million views when a user has posted it on facebook. The site could not afford to bear this heavy traffic and their server has crashed.
"American culture likes to single out people who appear to be different," said Tim Marema, vice president of the Whitesburg, Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies. "Whether it's a joke or not, all depends on which side of the camera you're on."
