Foolers and the fools

Write-up posted on www.mouthshut.com ... but deleted because Mouthshut hates transparency ...

Hmmm Mouthshut is not just about writing reviews. But also about reading. Well its not just about reading, but knowing the writer when reading ...

You can have your Mouthshut, but dont have your EYES SHUT

I was once recommended a review by radhikas and when I went to the review I could see it was just so brilliant with so much specific details. The writer (?) was kalyan_baital. As I kept reading the review (on a tourist attractions), I could see details like 1315ft, etc etc. If you write a review will you give details to such a precision? And if you give such a detail would you not mention the source from where you derived that data??? I knew it was copied from somewhere else ... I googled and could see the exact wordings somewhere else on the net ... sorry, the entire review was picked up from somewhere on the net .. I mentioned the link in the comments and marked it NU. But everyone else had given it an VU!

So think from the writers perspective ... you can spot plagiarism ... mostly

Now, when you dont spot plagiarism what happens?

The answer is very obvious ... (atleast because I have mentioned it in the title) we becomes fools and foolers become contest winners! Yes, kalyan_baital gets to win the ’Go goa’ contest!!!

Is mouthshut not professional enough and efficient enough to spot this or there is some other tale behind this? It is understood that there are review flooding, and it might not be possible to spot every copied review by Mouthshut, but we can. Mark the plagiarized reviews as NU (Not Useful).

Where mouthshut went wrong ..

They can atleast do some work on the reviews written of the ’to be’ contest winners. Ok if they miss one or two; if all the reviews from the contest winner are copied and if Mouthshut doesnt spot it ...I am sorry I am not able to comment further.

I stop here to show you how kalyan_baital has copied ... (I am not sure why I stick to just this person .. but it is not my job to check reviews, itz Mouthshut’s job). All his reviews are ’Tourist attraction’ reviews ... and after the contest he hasnt written one rev ... probably he is busy in Goa ..

Here it goes ...

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1)

Excerpts:
Permits to visit other parts of Sunderbans can be obtained from the Divisional Forest Officer, 24 Parganas, 35 Gopalnagar Road, Kolkata.

For foreigners, permits are available at the Forest Department in the Writer’s Building, Kolkata. Note that the core area- the National Park- is off-limits for tourists; you’ll only be able to visit the wildlife sanctuary.

Review: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Sunderbans_Wildlife_Sanctuary-103006-1.html
Other place on the net: http://www.journeymart.com/Dexplorer/AsiaIS/India/india_addon/wildlife/sunderbans.asp

2)

Excerpts:
Within Srinagar, on its highest hill is the Shankaracharya temple, nearly one thousand feet above the city. It is devoted to Lord Shiva. The site dates back to 2,500 BC. The philosopher Shankaracharya stayed at this site when he visited Kashmir ten centuries ago to revive "Sanatan Dharma".

Review: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Srinagar-102677-1.html
Other place on the net: http://www.travel-himalayas.com/himalaya-travel-attractions/srinagar-travel-tours.html

3)

Excerpts:

Somnath at Somnath Patan, near Veraval in Gujarat is a pilgrimage center held in great reverence throughout India. Somnath is considered to be the first of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Shiva. Somnath is situated on the south coast of Saurashtra

Review: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Somnath-102676-1.html
Other place on the net: http://www.templenet.com/Western/somnath.html

There should definitely be more ... I bet ... But I dont have time and itz not my work either ...
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So have your eyes wide open, there are foolers around ...

Signing off,
-Vinayak
(I know I havent given much details about reading review here ... but this review has a purpose ... I am not bothered about how you might rate this review of mine... but will be happy if you have just read it and understood what is happening around. Thanks for reading. As always available for your comments ... )

Google Video!

Google keeps adding depth to its searches and it somehow proves itself as the top search engine. Not just search, but with images search, books search, desktop utilities and the latest sensation Google earth, Google is undoubtedly unbeatable. Now, I am stunned to know that Google has come up with Video search!

There is more to it. It gives a facility where you can include any video in your web page!

As always cricket has been my first interest (This video i seached on google and i am embedding here):

The one-dayer at Madurai – 4th Jan 2006

It was such a memorable day; I did not want to forget the events/visuals. So I thought putting them down here could be of help, not only for me to remember forever but also for you people to refresh madurai memories and get updated on how madurai looks today.

It was a one-day trip, well planned in advance. Though I had second thoughts about attending the marriage (should I say whose marriage?), I knew I was just fooling myself away from the inevitability of me attending the marriage. Pandian express on 3rd evening would take me to Madurai on 4th morning at 6:00. I had a return ticket on Ananthapuri express scheduled to leave madurai at 11:10p.m meaning I had a whole day to spend at madurai.

Events started right from 9:00 at Egmore station. As soon as I reached, I wasted no time to reach S11 and dumped my bags. Then I went to the AC coaches, AS1..AS2 … looking for the name ‘Aravind/Arvind’ on the charts. AS3 … and I found a bunch of names with Last name ‘Lee’. This could be it, Arvind’s family? I scanned the chart but found only Anand Lee. Ah ah. This is not the coach. The A2 .. .A1 … then oops … Unreserved compartment. No luck. No ‘Arvind’ on the charts. I went back to my coach and waited for mai to arrive.

By the time she came, I saw 3 people, and one of them had a familiar look. I tried hard to compare Arvind’s photo and yes there was resemblance. I scanned the AC coaches again. Yes I found a name ‘Arvind Lee’. Lee? Yes I had missed the name in my first attempt. I scanned the Lee list once again. I found ‘Anand Lee’ as well. Confirmed, I had missed Arvind on the first attempt. Seat number 40. Ok. I went back to S11. It was 9:12 and mai hadn’t arrived yet. How could I alone go and speak to Arvind. ‘Mai come fast’, I said to myself. The phone rang.

At 9:15 we were inside S11. I said, ‘Mai lets go and meet Arvind. I have seen him and his coach number’. We did not even plan what to speak. We went straight to AS3, confirmed the Seat number to be 40 and went straight in. Mai was speaking on her mobile to her room mate while she got into the coach … ‘We are now going to meet Shirley’s would-be now …’, she hadn’t finished. I was nervous. Seat number 64 … 56 … Mai was not finished yet. Made me more nervous. Seat number 40 and yes I saw Arvind; Mai was just in time to cut the call.

I went past 40 a little, turned back and called out … ‘Arvind?’.

‘Yes…Arvind’, he announced.
‘Arvind, CMCH?’, one more confirmation just in case and he nodded.
‘Hi, this is Vinayak and this is ..’
‘Niranjana’, Mai joined, ‘We are Shirley’s friends’.
‘Oh, you both work at Satyam?’, Arvind did not understand who we were; Of course we hadn’t told him yet.
‘No! We both work at cognizant’, I said. That was a stupid and irrelevant answer.
‘We are her college mates’ Mai saved me.
I could see smiles and laughs from his family members. There were around 10 of them. We didn’t know what to speak. And even he didn’t know what to speak. That’s very natural. And as usual I started blabbering …

‘We knew you would be in this train, so we thought we could search you and introduce ourselves. Tomorrow you might be very busy that we cannot think of personal introduction. Just thought we could say a hi … ‘ when I could not proceed Mr.Arvind took over. ‘This is my cousin Anand …. and this is his wife and that is my parents … ‘ but why introduce us to all? There is nothing more we could speak at that time. I knew I was putting myself into an embarrassing situation. So more blabberings …

‘Ok … its almost time. We have to go till S13’ It had to be S11 but I don’t understand till this point why I said S13.
‘Oh you are traveling in the same train?’ Arvind asked and others around appeared as though they had the same question in mind.
‘Yes’ we said together.
‘Ok, so meet you tomorrow…’ Arvind concluded. Thanks. Everyone was giggling. We got down.

I was sweating. But somehow it was not a flop. Though words did not come out as well as I liked, I was a bit happy that I will not be lost in crowd the next day at marriage. Then after a small conversation that lasted about 30-45 minutes, mai and me went to our respective berths. I tried to sleep immediately. But it did not work. Just as I was thinking the lights were off, and there was no chance for me to read ‘The other side of me’ I remembered that the lights will be on near the door. I went there and a policeman occupied the seat near the door. From then on till 12:00 I was in company of Sidney Sheldon. His life-story was as boring as mine!

I woke up at 3:00. Tried hard to sleep more. But again, nothing works out, as I want. I couldn’t sleep. It was 4:00 and I gave up. Resorted back to Sidney Sheldon. We got down at 6:30.

Now, I give you a chance to escape my story, but hey I will take you around Madurai here (with snaps): The familiar places of madurai and the marriage.

Sony Ericsson took revenge on me again. Battery was again low. It could get switched off any moment. My energy battery was also very low that I could hardly walk. My legs were paining as never before. I dragged myself to enquiry, and yes! Status of my reservation improved from RAC/1 and got confirmed. The coach was S10 seat number 64. I thought I could finish off Sidney Sheldon. I tried but I was too tired to concentrate on pages. The train came; I was the first to get into S10. 64 was side upper. I was disappointed. But that’s ok if I get some sleep. I slept immediately. I don’t remember whether I got up myself or the TTR woke me up. I showed him the ticket. He handed it back. And immediately I was doing my duty with all respect – Got up only at 8’o clock at chengalpet. Life will be back as usual in one more hour.

The familiar places of madurai and the marriage

Mai’s cousin had come to pick her up from station. I handed the gift to her and asked her to bring it to the marriage. My mobile battery was very low and it got switched off. I told mai that I will call her myself in the evening around 4’o clock. I was then thinking of ‘Prem Nivas’, the hotel in which my uncle had stayed once. I rang home from an STD booth, but nobody picked up. I went straight to ‘Prem Nivas’, but to my dismay the no rooms were available. I tried ‘College house’, but no luck again. I was stranded.

Just then I remembered Vairavan, who is still put up at madurai. I switched on my mobile, to exhaust the very little charge that would come back when we switch on. I got a piece of paper from the ‘College house’ receptionist and wrote down vairavan’s mobile number. Then I called him, from my mobile. I took almost 6-7 rings before he picked up.
Thank god that he did. The time was 6:40 and he had to leave to office at 7:30. I knew I could make it to Aparna towers before that. He promised to leave the keys with his house owner incase I missed him.

I went to periyar bus stand. The bridge that led to Arasaradi (the one in which satya did a stunt when we were studying) was in all ruins. It was being repaired.

Got into the bus ‘C2’ and reached Aparna towers. My instincts took me to vairavan’s room, which I had visited a year back. He left at 7:30 and I got myself dressed up at 8:30.

• First straight to periyar, buy a charger (the one which can be operated with battery instead of power), have breakfast at ‘Ganesh mess’. This I wanted to finish off before 9:15
• Visit college and say a ‘vanakkam’ to all IT dept staffs and visit Thirunagar (This could get over by 11:00)
• Go to ‘mappillai vinayagar’ (for those of you who don’t know or have forgotten, it is not a temple but a theatre) and watch any English movie. This will be over only be 2:00 or 2:30.
• Go to any browsing center and sit there till 4 and then leave to church for the marriage.
  
  This was my original plan.
  
  Periyar hasn’t changed much actually … Pazhamudhir sozhai still in business, British bakery was decorated for new year and Thanga regal maintains its reputation to show decent movies! But the sachin-baba poster near the bus stand is missing. I reached Ganesh Bhavan and had my breakfast. The dosa was not as tasty as I expected, but still far better than what we get here in Vasantha bhavan or Hot chips. The time was already 9:15 and I realized my plan was too tight that I had to skip something. I decided to skip browsing.
  
  I walked the entire town hall road looking for the charger, which I did not get. Then I tried Nethaji road, the road parallel to townhall road (the bus stand road). No luck there either. Few said I could get it in the Bazaar. I forgot the name, when I enquired they said – ‘Meenakshi bazaar’. How could I ever forget the names. It is just 1 and half years since I have left madurai. It was far to walk and I took an auto. I got down there only to find people who does not even know that you have a charger that runs on battery. Instead of wasting my visit to the bazaar, I bought few DVD’s – 5 in 1 Arnold movies, The terminator series and 3 in 1 Jim carry movies.
  
  I could not imagine my day without mobile. I kept walking, now beside the bridge and reached the road near the Archie’s. There were few mobile shops there. In one shop (Madurai mobiles) he understood what I wanted and that gave me hope. He then said he actually has the charger I was looking. I was feeling ecstatic. He asked me the model. He searched and came up with Panasonic, Nokia, Motorola … but no Sony ericsson. Aiyo, seriyana kaduppu. I then got a regular charger that runs on power. But was wondering where to charge my mobile. I was thinking of a browsing center. But going there so soon would spoil my other plans. Took a bus from there to periyar.
  
  Got on to a bus to Tirupparangundram police station. The route was all-familiar (Pazhanganatham, pasumalai … ). After around 20 minutes, when I was looking at Aarthy (the drive-in) I felt the double-jerk (the speed breakers at the railway crossing) and I was at the college. I took ‘lift’ to reach the inside of the college. Went straight to IT department. The HOD had changed. I met the new HOD, got permission from him to visit the staff room. Met Emil sir first. He recognized me immediately. Then had a chat with him for about 5 minutes and went to staff room along with him. Found a plug there to charge my useless mobile phone. I put it in silent profile and left to see other staffs. I wished Muthuramalingam sir in advance for his marriage. Met venkatalakshmi mam and all others in the department. Everybody seemed to be happy to speak with an old student, especially venkatalakshmi mam with whom I spent chatting for about 20 minutes. I was there in the college for about 1 and half hours from about 11:00 to 12:30 and then started from there. But the best outcome of my visit was that my mobile was now up and running!
  
  I got a lift while coming. There was nobody while returning. I had to walk. But I got a chance to help myself with paneer soda at ‘Akka kadai’. It is still run by akka. I walked till bus stand and was waiting for Thirunagar bus. None came my way till 1:00. Then a fellow came by bike from inside the college and was about to turn left. ‘He should definitely be going to Thirungar’ My conscious told me. The usual hitch and I got a lift. I was right. Ganesh, 3rd year Computer science was infact going to Thirunagar(I actually don’t know him, that’s how he introduced to me while dropping me). He asked ‘Which year?’ I told him ‘6th year’. He was puzzled and before he would ask again I said ‘Alumni’. The reply was, ‘Oh!’.
  
  Thirungar is also still the same. Devi kalaivani is still in business, even though it lies out of the city. Impala hotel has not removed one single advertisement posters. But third stop looked a bit different. Looks like there will be road now. (But wont they think of putting those electric posts on the side of the road)
  
  

I bought a battery pair for the camera that I had borrowed from my uncle. I loaded it and went straight to take a snap of that demolished house, in which we took shelter for 2 years. I was getting prepared for a ‘before-after’ photo of our house to put right below this paragraph here. But I was shocked to see the house intact. In fact, looked better after a whitewash and new paint. How could that be possible? I was expecting debris. But heard from ‘Iyer Mama’ who provided us food that nobody has occupied since we left. Also heard that the house owner was reluctant to give the house for students. Consolation at last. We ‘Barbarians’ have saved our reputation.

By now, I had prepared my mind to skip browsing. I called mai. No she called me. No I don’t remember. I told her my plans to watch a movie and we decided to meet at the church by 4:30. Akila was also coming and we knew only we three were attending the marriage. It was 1:30 and 3 more hours to go. I took a bus from Thirunagar to pazhanganatham. From there I took a share auto to Kalavasal (I forgot the name of this place. I asked the name of this place to one fellow in the bus. 3 people replied and 5 advised me how to get there. That is madurai!).

It was 1:45 and the tickets were distributed only at 2:00. I survived the next 6 hours on Bourbon biscuits which I had from a bakery there. It was ‘Myth’ the mallika sherawat-Jackie chan movie in Manikka vinayagar and ‘6’ in Mappillai vinayagar. I took ticket for ‘6’ and the movie started at 2:25 sharp. The movie got reduced to ‘3’ instead of ‘6’, that I left the theater immediately after the interval.

People misunderstood ‘Karimedu’ for ‘Narimedu’ and misguided me from one bus stop to another. I got fed up, went near Solamalai theater and got a bus to periyar. Caught a straight bus to the OCPM stop at Narimedu.

The marriage:

Mai and akila arrived and they were late to read my message that said: “Innum 5 mins dhaan, illana 2 kola”. Fortunately they arrived just in time to stay alive. You do lose temper if you roam all over a city without knowing how to pass the time.

The marriage ceremony was gorgeous. The church was very neat and immediately on arrival I understood why my ever-special friend was reluctant in calling everybody for the function – The gathering was rather small than I expected.

The marriage ceremony began and I had more than one failure attempts at taking a good snap of the couple. Seemed like everything was over in a jiffy, but for the fathers who will never stop speaking. Why would one speak of ‘divorce’ in a marriage ceremony? I felt that odd, but the ‘congregation’ showed no reaction. Except for that, the couple looked great together. A wonderful event.

We left the church and arrived at P.T.Rajan mandram, by walk. Akila left early to catch the train at 8:45. I admired Arvind for the way he spoke on stage – very matured and composed without any signs of stage fear or any inclination to be over-smart. Mai and myself went on stage to congratulate the couple. Shirley tried introducing, but we had already got introduced to arvind ourselves! The couple had a small moment to laugh in an otherwise busy reception. The cameraman did not know to operate the digital camera that I gave him and he screwed up the snap. I am sorry; he did not take a snap. The crowd looked healthier at the hall than the church. Probably the church was bigger or many attended only the reception, which I am not sure. We had dinner; there were separate sections for vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Caught a bus to the railway station from there. The only thing that I had missed was pazhamudhir solai. So went there. Got the bill for a lemon juice. Cant explain in words how good it was – a full mug of lemon juice when the legs are tired and mouth was dry. I could hear the muscles in my leg crying, but somehow managed to walk till the railway station.

TDS ... Tedious

TDS (Tax deducted at source) rhymes with TEDIOUS; Coincidental? May be, but truly it is tedious.

Salary is supposed to be Salary rite? But it actually is not. Basic salary, Gross salary, Net salary ... ooops, i forgot the allowances HRA, Medical allowance, travel allowance, "other special allowance" and other terms that you might have never heard of could come and suck out your salary and WYSINWYG (What you see is not what you get). You never know how money comes in and goes out. Which allowances you are eligible to avail completely or partly or not at all; you never know. Your joining letter would show you a salary which will make you feel proud. But what you get ... ok let me not describe it. Want to hear a few other terms? Here it goes ... PF (Provident fund), Professional tax (One more tax!), Investments (declarations and actuals!).... all sorts of complex terms and finally .... I dont get my full salary.

And Tax ... out of my income a part goes to the government. I hope i understand it is my duty to pay tax. But hey you are taking out my money( I am speaking about TDS)... let me atleast understand how and how much of it is gone. Things are rather too complex with this system ...

I WANT MY FULL SALARYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Ghajini - must watch movie

If 'Ramana' was a no-nonsense movie, you will find cliched climax along with misplaced song sequences in Ghajini - A.R. Murugadoss's second venture. But a good story line with just-short-of-excellent screenplay is what that makes Ghajini a 'must watch' movie.

As one of my friend said,"the song sequences come in like advertisements while watching a movie in sun-tv". They are real speed breakers in an otherwise pacy movie. Harris jeyaraj is not at his best in Ghajini. Background score is also not too impressive. The other negative is the climax, which is just a typical tamil movie climax where the villans forget that they have a gun.

Apart from that, the movies is really good. I always try and find out 'logical-flaws' in a movie that has a difference in the story line. I couldnt find much in this movie. Surya, as always does his job to near perfection. He seems to be a good actor with a class of his own, without all those punch-dialogues and heroic gestures. Asin does a tremendous job and she is stunningly attractive. Its not just Sanjay ramaswamy (inspite of being a memory loss patient) who is not able to forget kalpana. She stays occupied in our minds too.

Me being a person with a mindset to find faults, i could give the movie a 'EM (Exceeds most expectations)' rating. If you watch movies just like that, you would probably want to give it an 'EA (Exceeds all Expectations)'!

My first Novel - Not a penny more not a penny less

The first few pages of Not a penny more Not a penny less will make you feel that this is not the book one should begin with, to develop reading habit; Especially, if you are new to hear the terms 'stock' and 'shares'. But as the story progresses, you get involved so much that you tend to forget the world outside. Even though there are predictable events, the story moves smoothly and interestingly. The climax was a googly, which makes me rate this novel as one of my best novels still.

It also created an intrest for me in stocks and shares.

Right Justified?

There are many things that have come out of this Greg chappel - Sourav issue. What I find is that all those who are involved have crossed their 'Rights'.

1. It is not within chappel's right to ask sourav to step down as captain. Personal advices are allowed, provided there is a bit of intimacy. It is apparent that there is no intimacy as sourav goes to media discussing about someone asking him to step down as captain. And when there is no such intimacy, things have to be official and it hasnt been. It either had to be official or personal. There is no middle line.
2. It is not within the rights of the media to publish things that are supposed to be personal. Reach does not imply 'right'. It is high time the press realizes that there is something called as social responsibility. The issue comming public has caused a very sensitive situation. We all know that greg chappel can be right. But that doesnt mean we have to give in for a new comer against sourav whom we have know for years and who has done well for us in the past. What is the stand that we take?? Difficult decision ...
3. From where did Harbajhan come into picture? Why does he have to comment on the issue?? This is not right ...
4. Last but not the least, the cause of all the issues - Sourav Ganguly. We all know he is never right. I respect him as a good leader. But as a player he has gone below standards. He had been a great player. We do not need players. We need only performers. And we know he has not been performing. If he had been performing such an ironic scenario would not have come up.

Now that this issue has come public, it is very clear that it has to be either sourav or chappel (If at all things work out smoothly we can only be happy). There is one more option - neither sourav nor chappel. The ball is in BCCI's court and lets see whether the right is justified ...

(I know i cannot be right in all my view points ... Its only my perspective ... )

Google - features galore

I just started using the google desktop utilities. They seem to be very very handy ...
The picassa, sidebar, google talk, and desktop search ... such good utilities. The side bar can hold all of your other desktop features and you can minimize it to your taksbar as 'deskbar' (It nicely fits in one corner of your taskbar). One of my other latest craze is google earth. It is unbelieveable i tell you ... you can go to any place in the earth ... you can even see the cars parked in front of buildings! (I took a virtual tour in the london-eye, saw big ben and my onshore office at hywycombe). Google desktop search is ultimate. And all the utilities does not slow your system down, another big plus.

Google's print.google.com was another useful google search that i was using. It is a bit unfortunate that i am sure whether i will be able to use it again ... people are callilng it a breach of copyright policy ... Google's copyright violation