Grandmaster is the new Name-Game Show being aired in Vijay TV. Mr. G.S. Pradeep is the grandmaster who tries to find out the personality that the contestant has in his/her mind. The rules are simple and are given here. Seeing this program reminded me of a similar situation that happened a year before. It was not a game show but I could draw some parallels to it. Even I was only required to answer a yes/no. Only this time the goal was not to find the personality that I had in my mind but rather to find out who I was!

I and two of my friends visited vaitheeswaran koil last year. This place is famous for the sevvai temple (Lord Mars) and also for Naadi Josiyam. It is believed that Sage Agasthya has written all about us in palm leaves. Naadi means thumb impression. So all we have to do is give our thumb impression and the astrologers would pick a set of palm leaves pertaining to that thumb impression. Then there would be a one on one interaction, where the astrologer would try to find the leaf that has all our details. Looks like a tall tale. I wanted to check if that was true. So I and my friend wore our Sherlock homes hat and decided to investigate.

Sage Agasthya

As soon as we reached vaitheeswaran koil, we gave our thumb impression. The astrologer told us that it might take some time to find the correct lot of palm leaves and in the mean time asked us to visit the temple. We had a quick darshan and were back to the astrology centre in 10 minutes. The art of nadi josiyam is taught like the old gurukula system. The students have to stay with their guru, do their house chores and then learn. One of the astrologers brought a set of palm leaves. The deal was that he would find my palm leaf  by asking few questions and I just had to answer a yes/no. Once he finds my leaf I have to pay him else there was no charge.

The game started and the astrologer started reciting some poem that was written in the palm leaf. He would stop after reading a poem and then questioned me “Were u born in the month of Thai (Jan-Feb)"?

Me: "No"

UPDATE :-

Cliff from editgrid has pointed out another online spreadsheet application. I tried editgrid and it looks great. I like the real time feed from stock market and the current currency conversion rate. The usability is really good.

I got an invitation to try out Google spreadsheets today. On first glance Google spreadsheets looks impressive. Google spreadsheets is nothing but the web version of Excel application. You can create a new spreadsheet or import an existing document. The menus are neatly arranged and have couple of cool features.

Features I like:

• We can create a new spreadsheet or import an existing file.
• We can export the saved application as an HTML file (This is already available in MS Excel)
• We can freeze a set of rows and then sort on the columns. (Cool feature)
• Alignment of Cells is easier.
• Gives a list of in built formula (Mathematical, Financial, Logical, Statistical etc)
• Other in-built Google features (Auto Save, Ajax enabled)

Features I wish that are included:

• Cannot create charts (Disappointing)

Earlier in one of my posts I had already mentioned about Zoho Sheets. It has all the features that Google has plus we can create charts. In this aspect I feel Zoho wins over Google spreadsheet.

In a country not far away from here two distinct groups are engaged in a conflict. The first group comprises of Non-Arab black people and the second group, also black by non-african standards, includes the Arab tribes. The crisis is no different from the other issues that’s happening around the world. One group is trying to oppress the other and this has resulted in 400,000 deaths so far. Genocide is taking place in that tiny country when the rest of the world is unaware of it. This is happening in Darfur in Sudan. Though we cannot do anything about it, let us be aware of it. We don’t need a movie like Hotel Rwanda to tell us about genocides that go unnoticed.

I am grateful for living in Chennai and not in the war struck Darfur/sri lanka/Iraq.

I have decided not to crib about the traffic in Chennai. At least I am struck in traffic full of cars and buses, not tanks and military vehicles.

Let there be peace in the world.

Years ago, I asked God to give me a spouse. Not only I asked for a spouse but also explained what kind of spouse I wanted. I wanted a nice, tender, forgiving, passionate, honest, peaceful, generous, understanding, pleasant, warm, intelligent, humorous, attentive, compassionate and truthful. I even mentioned the physical characteristics I dreamt about.

As time went by I added the required list of my wanted spouse. One night, in my prayer, God talked to my heart: "My servant, I cannot give you what you want."

I asked, "Why God?" and God said "Because I am God and I am fair. God is the truth and all I do are true and right."

I asked "God, I don't understand why I cannot have what I ask from you?"

God answered, "I will explain. It is not fair and right for Me to fulfill your demand because I cannot give something that is not your ownself. It is not fair to give someone who is full of love to you if sometimes you are still hostile, or to give you someone generous but sometimes you can be cruel, or someone forgiving; however, you still hide revenge, someone sensitive;however, you are very insensitive...."

He then said to me: "It is better for Me to give you someone who I know could grow to have all qualities you are searching rather than to make you waste your time to find someone who already have the qualities you want. Your spouse would be bone from your bone and flesh from your flesh and you will see yourself in him and both of you will be one. Marriage is like a school. It is a life-long span education. It is where you and your partner make adjustment and aim not merely to please each other,but to be better human beings and to make a solid teamwork. I do not give you a perfect partner, because you are not perfect either. I give you a partner with whom you would grow together".

- Author Unknown

This is for all: the recently married, the ones who have been married, the soon to get married,and the ones who are still looking.

This Conversation took place last week.

Me : "Amma, I want to visit Amarnath. Shall we plan a trip?"

Mom : "What? Enna loose-a ne? Amarnath-ku pogura age-a ithu? Go to Singapore, ethavathu jolly-ana place-ku po."

Me : "OK. What’s the right age to visit Amarnath?"

Mom : "After 50."

Me : "Appadiya. OK. So when are u going?"

When the student is ready, the master appears - Buddhist Proverb.

Swamimalai Murugan from Skanda Purana.

It doesn't matter who gives an advice. It might be your subordinate, your children, a kid in the street or a beggar. All that is important is the lesson. Next time when someone, whom you think is inferior to you, gives you an advice or a lesson, open up your ears and be a student.  

This is not about the chemisty between people. This is about people in chemistry. Not long back I wrote a post on Lord Shiva in Chemistry. Now it's the role of humans in chemistry. Where do we actually fit in chemistry? In Molecular diagrams. Take a look at the below figure and see if you can identify humans or human shapes.

Pic. Courtesy : The scientific Activist.

Do you see humans dancing in the form of molecular diagram? Scientist are finding ways to make chemistry more interesting. The equations are too complex for me but look at the diagrams in this white paper.

India:From Midnight to Millennium. This book introduced me to Shashi Tharoor. The book was an honest appraisal of the current Indian situation. The Great Indian Novel, a political satire, made me his fan. The story of Mahabharatha was weaved into the political system. Now Shashi Tharoor has been appointed as India's candidate for the post of UN Secretary General. It will make us proud if he becomes the successor to General Kofi Annan.

Pic Courtesty. Rediff.com

All the best sir.

American Film Institute has released the list of 100 Inspirational Movies. I am very happy that "It's a wonderful Life" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" has taken the podium. These are my favourite movies of all time and I can watch them over and over again. I am normally considered as a guy with little or no emotions. But the movie "It's a wonderful Life" literally made me cry in the end. There are other great movies like "Saving Private Ryan", "The Shawshank Redemption", "12 Angry Men", "Dead poet's society" in the list. "The truman show" unfortunately has not made it into the top 100.

If you can get hold of these movies please don't miss them.

Mathematics is a subject most of us would love to hate. I feel this is one subject were we find people at both the extremes. There are people who use calculators for simple calculations and at the same time there are people who use super computers to prove equations propounded by greats like Fermat. India has made a big contribution to mathematics. OK. We invented Zero. We invented chess or chaturanga as it was commonly known at that time. But this post is not about zero or chess.

I stumbled upon quite a few things and ever since my mind is always on the run. The actual credit should go to Dan Brown. After reading Da Vinci Code, I have been trying to analyze every possible symbol that I see in temples, books, fliers. This guys post on the meaning of the star of the David or Lord Muruga’s chakra was an interesting read.

Kubera Kolam.

My mom draws this floor painting called Kubera Kolam everyday in the pooja altar. She draws a 3X3 square, writes some numbers on it, keeps one rupee coins on the number, puts vermilion on the coins and finally some flowers on them.

When I asked her about the significance of it, she told me it’s called Kubera Kolam and believes that the house will never be short of money. I am not interested in her belief but now more interested in the numbers. The numbers are from 20-28. When we sum the numbers across the rows and columns they always end up in 72, which again boils down to 9 which is considered a divine number.

There is a variation to this called “The Lo Shu Square”, originated from china. This is also a 3X3 matrix that has numbers from 1 to 9. The sum of numbers across the rows and columns is always 15. If you add 19 to every number in the Lo Shu Square you get Kubera Kolam. There is also a big story to it. You can read it here.

While I was contemplating on the Kubera-kolam, something bigger hit me. I bought a new purse and while I was transferring the contents from my old purse, I saw the copper plate that I had in my purse. I bought this in kuchanoor (a sani bhagawan temple near Theni), around 8-9 years before. That time I was under the 7 and half years influence of sani and my mom insisted me to keep the copper plate in my purse. The plate has a 9X9 matrix and numbers across the cells. It’s called Sani Bhagawan Rakshai (Mandiram).

The photo looks really pathetic. It really looks like a copper plate from the 2^nd century. Here are the numbers in the plate.

Once upon a time there was a Messiah who had come to Earth. After spending a long period on Earth, he decided that he would quit. So he went on top of the mountain and told everyone present, “Listen, today I am going to quit. I am no longer a Messiah.”

Hearing this, the people were shocked. They said, “You can’t quit! If you leave us, how will we communicate with God? How can we keep in touch with Him? So you can’t do this!”

He said, “Listen, you’re a fisherman; when you get tired, you don’t go fishing. You are a manager; when you get tired, you don’t go to work. I am a Messiah, and I don’t want to do it anymore so I am quitting.”

Preethi's face was beaming with joy when she pushed the ignition switch. This was the day she was waiting for. She was with her first love. That's what the ads. said. She would have got her scooty a week before had she not insisted on getting the pink one, her favorite color. After much pleading, cajoling and threatening she managed to get her vehicle. She felt as if she owned a Harley-Davidson.

"Listen to what I say", shouted her mother. "Don't go too fast. Always wear a helmet. If you see a lorry behind just pull over. The traffic in this city is very bad. Most important, Do not compete with boys. I am going to be really worried until you come back safely". She then sent a barrage of words towards her husband for giving in to Preethi's request. Preethi pacified her mother and assured her that she would follow all the rules and behave properly.

She cruised at a minimum speed and felt as if she was in seventh heaven. Just as she turned round the corner, she saw him. Their eyes met for a brief moment. He was smartly dressed, had a clean shaven face and was good looking. Time seemed to freeze for a minute. It took a couple of seconds for her to regain her composure and by that time she had already crossed him. She wanted to look into her rear-view mirror and see what he was doing. She slowly drew herself backwards and peeked into the mirror. She was shocked. He was following her.