Blogs

It was probably because of her shopping experience with me that Sharanya decided to give me an award.

The Brilliant Weblog award is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere.

The Rules of the Award say:

• When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
• Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
• Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with the Brilliant Weblog Award.
• Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
• And then we pass it on!

These are blogs that make my day!

Jammy - The good ol’ funny man of blogosphere.

Krish Ashok - Third time he’s getting tagged by the Telugu Ink Manufacturing company!

Anju Sabu - A brilliant illustrator. Check this out. Me simply loves her slimy friend!

The Desi Pradhan Mantri.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. The Sensex tycoon’s lesser known avatar fake blog! Amazingly makes fun of everybody and gets away with it! Simply hilarious!

I’m sightcha bending the rules and stopping with 5. There are so many other blogs that I enjoy reading which can be accessed in my blogroll.

I tried the The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator, which was recommended by Rohit.

Here it goes.

Peter Pan! I just got slapped with a wet salmon - really - I have not updated this since long before Shakespeare wast a boy… You would not believe that I’d been abducted by aliens. Stupid Global Warming!.

I am flat out like a lizard drinking with learning to play lawn bowls, a ticking crocodile, just generally being Snow White to the bodyguards of the blogger I am stalking, my day is filled with fluorescent light from when the nightclubs close to I run out of alcohol. I am avoiding recapture. life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

I swear on the bones of my ancestors I will make more of an effort to blog more often until the nice men in the white coats come back. If you have kids. The Piccaninnies say I have to!.

Wierd! Anyway, I really have not been finding time to blog.

To know more on what I have been doing, you can check out Aravind’s blog.

In other news, I have been composing a few songs and badly need lyrics. In case, you think we can work together, please drop me a mail. Language no bar. Genre is mostly soft rock, alternative, experimental and nu metal.

Also, if any of you can play any wind instrument, again please mail me. Gapp, are you done with learning to play the tin whistle?

5.30 AM - 10.00 AM

Started from home early in the morning to SIET College where Aravind had promised to pick me up for the 9th Chennai Photowalk. Walked till C.P.Ramaswamy Road and it was 5.45 already. A small hike till Mount Road and we were soon settled in Aravind’s car. Had to pick up Varun as well from Guindy station and he had been apparently 5 minutes away from Guindy for the past half an hour. He arrived finally and we soon arrived at the foot of St.Thomas Mount. A quick breakfast at the roadside shop with fellow photowalkers, Chandru & Anand and we were off. It was exhausting. I didnt take much snaps, but enjoyed the walk. I also learnt a few stuff about a specific person. Keeping up with the tradition of meeting new people each time, I met Laskhman and Gaurav Mishra of BharatMatrimony.com.

Then a small discussion about our childhood beliefs which ranged from Anand’s assumption of how milk was ‘manufactured’ when he was 8 and another bugger’s assumption of how women got pregnant when he was 7! Born pervert!

Then the drive back into the city is also worth mentioning as Sharanya made the mistake of hitching a ride in Aravind’s car. Me and Varun had a good time bugging her. She would probably not even step into Aravind’s car again!

A couple of snaps from the Photowalk.

After the walk. Me, Sudhamshu, Varun, Sharanya, Shreya and Gautham.

10.00 AM to 11.30 AM

We had to while away time as the mini blogger meet we had called a mini blogger meet at 12.30 PM at Amethyst, Chennai and the best option was Alliance Francaise De Madras, which had almost become third home to me. Second home is FindNearYou.com! After having a catnap at Alliance Francaise de Madras and biting into Yusuf’s delicious chocolate cake, we were off to Amethyst.

Me and Varun at Alliance Francise de Madras.

11.30 AM to 2.30 PM

A nice get together. Just 5 of us and we had the entire Amethyst shaking with our laughter! Me, Aravind, Varun, Rohit and Sandhya Rajan. Had great fun. Had a great time teasing Koyanda Sandhya! She apparently thinks I’m horny! Atleast thats what she said! He he!

Me making a point. Hence the crooked mouth. Koyanda Sandhya is all ears.

We need not be rocket scientists to tell who Rohit is checking out!

2.30 PM to 3.30 PM

Then the five of us were off to Little Mount. We were about to leave and then I saw John. We were meeting for the first time after college ended and it was greaty seeing him again. We were so close in college and we had trouble talking to each other today. Words failed us! And we were actually very lucky to have seen him because he got access to us inside the two caves there and it was kickass! A quick goodbye later, me and Aravind and me headed to Mathsya while Rohit joined us there after he dropped Varun and Koyanda at Guindy station.

Varun, Koyandai Sandhya, Rohit, Aravind and Me at Little Mount.

3.30 PM to 5.30 PM

A late lunch at Mathsya with Rohit and Aravind. Again had fun recalling funny moments about Koyanda. We were the only people in the restaurant and were laughing at the top of our voices - thanks to Koyanda !

Working with FindNearYou.com is being of great source of experience to me - most of it wacky! I’m in the team that handles WheelsAndRevs.com and RockandRaga.in and since it is a small team - a 5 member team to be precise, the same person ends up doing so many things. For instance, I would be doing some content work in the morning, tweaking with the code in the noon, doing SEO stuff by evening and providing support to our users by the night.

I have of late been confronted with a lot of strange support requests. I am publishing a few here. It may be just coincidence, but most of these wacky support mails land up only in rockandraga’s mail box.

Support@rockandraga.in is available for chat at gtalk and there was this guy from Chandigarh who had trouble setting up his blog.

ABC Singh: I have trouble setting up a blog at rockandraga

Support (Me): No worries. Just tell me what exactly is your problem

ABC Singh: I’m not able to figure out even a percent of how to proceed.

Support: Our blogs are based on wordpress. You can always have a look at their faq or try the support forums. I can help you out if you tell me your exact problem.

ABC Singh: Can you give me your mobile number so that we can talk?

I didn’t want to give my mobile number and the phone at our department is always busy, thanks to telemarketers Shiny and Jincy. So I decided to give my mobile number. Aarva kolaru!

Support: Sure. 9884xxxxx

ABC Singh: Cool. I have stored your number. Now you can call me.

*Head to desk*

——-

Then there was this mail from another moron.

Hi,

You guys are doing a great job out there.

I stay at Coimbatore and love music. Can you guys teach me music?

An ardent music lover,

XYZ

Enna Koduma Saar Idhu!

——-

Hey Rock & Raga,

Going by the term rock and raga, i think its all about fusion music. I am very much into fusion music. Can I join your team? We can create some exciting music!

Cheers,

ASDFG

P.S: I really love the site!

A note to Ram: I really need a vacation!

——-

This is the most kickass of all support messages, again on gtalk.

ZYX: I really like the site very much.

Support(Me): Thanks a lot ZYX!

ZYX: There are however a few changes in the design that I feel would be great.

Support: Thats brilliant! We would love feedback.

ZYX: Great! I myself use Wordpress and I am very good in php. Just pass me the admin username and password and I’ll make the changes asap.

Dei… Inda madiri ethana per da kelambirukenga?!

In case, you want to be mentioned in this blog, just shoot a wacky support mail to support@rockandraga.in and I’ll be too glad to publish it here.

A lazy Sunday started with a message from my cousin, Gopi that he was visiting us. Great! Now there is ritual in our place. When someone announces his/her arrival, we start cleaning our place. Thats when we actually clean our home! And if someone comes unannounced, its at their own risk! So a couple of hours of cleaning and it was already 1 pm. Gopi came and we soon left for Citi Centre. An hour at Landmark and about half an hour at Coffee Day later, I started. I picked up Shillika on the way to the Hotel. Update: The next few lines were removed due to requests by the person concerned.

We arrived at Hotel Dee Cee Manor a few minutes past four. We walked in to find a few Photowalkers, Varun, Arvind aka Pseudonym, Sudhamshu already there. Then Chandru, Vatsan, Sandhya and Dhruva walked in. The first half of the proceedings was boring, esp the introduction part and the ‘one minute of fame’ though the later saw lot of wisecracks from the audience. Then it was dinner time and time to network. Had a chat with Kribs about podcasting. Met interesting people like Joel, Naveen, Rohit and Jackie. At one point of time, I even cursed Gapp as I found myself sitting between X and Y!

It was then the jigs round where the organizers read out random comments from random blogs and the blog owner does a jig. it was actually funny to see bloggers of all shapes and sizes doing jigs! Then there was a skit by The Rebelz which had the audience in splits with their jabs at people ranging from Balaiyah to Vijay Mallya. Then there was the skit by the Indibloggers Team. At the last was the occasion everyone was waiting for - the T Shirts!

Most of the people had left by then and the remaining people had a quick snap with a few of the organizers. Most of the bloggers who attended the meet found the proceedings boring and this is probably because Chennai has seen lots of such events like BarCamp, BlogCamp and of course the Chennai Photowalk where most of the people are bloggers! Still, the IndiBloggers Team deserves a pat on the back for organising such an event.

From left (clockwise) Dont know the first two peeps’ name, Arvind, Myself, Varun, Joel, Naveen (the guy who got owned last week!) Rohit, Murali, Jackie (she is Naveen’s owner!) Sandhya Rajan and the girl whose name also i dont know.

We then pushed Rohit’s car whose front wheel was stuck in the parking lot and it was then the drive to the deserted Marina beach with Pseudonym where we spent around 20 minutes before heading back home.

Lessons I learnt today:

1) Networking in Chennai means meeting the same people again and again as the same folks turn up for all meets.

2) In Chennai, girls blog; babes dont!

3) Never offer to pick up any girl you know up! Especially, if she is doing third year VissCom in MOP Vaishnav College!

Update at 6:10, 9th June: More posts about the event can be read here.

You must all have read about Gapp’s so called prank targeting me that bombed disastrously for him!

Well, here is my version of the conversation

Note: This is an english translation of the original conversation.

Me: Hey

Ganesh: Oye. One side X and one side Y. Nice.

Me: Dude! X atleast ok da. But Y wont suit my weight da.

Ganesh: You do realize that I am the guy who posts convo in blogs.

Me: WTF!

Ganesh: 2 minutes… am blogging.

Me: Shit!

Ganesh: Done! DO comment

Me: Hmph!

(After a minute if frantically refreshing my page and clearing the cache)

Me: I cant see any post.

Ganesh: lol.. had you there didn’t I?

Ganesh: lol

All along I was worried because the equation me = gentleman was at stake! But the pervert that Gapp is misunderstood one of my Tamizh words used in the convo to another meaning which he found to be funny.

The rest you know was a failed attempt by Gapp, the trickster who used to specialize in such notorious activities of pulling unsuspecting gentlemen’s legs! The joke is on you dude! Now, the whole world knows what kind of a KVK you are - a result of your own blog post!

A note to Gapp: Maybe you are getting old for this dude!

And if you people are wondering about the title, here it goes!

Its good to be back to blogosphere after a small hiatus.

I have moved my blog from wordpress.com to my own webspace. This move is mainly for experimenting with wordpress and some gethu ! So dont be surprised to see ads here as I may place them to take care of my hosting needs.

Also I have joined work at findnearyou.com and am enjoying work. The working hours are long and I am even working at home in the night (And if both of you are reading this, take the hint Mr. Ram and Mr. Seshadri! :D) and as result I may not update this blog regularly.

I know most of you would be secretly happy (some openly) due to prospects of reading less shit from now on.

Right now, revamped the About page and scouting for a good theme - 3 column and minimal. Tell me if you come across one.

There was a blog war starting brewing me and PSP but things got sorted out. Cha. I was expecting something big to happen! Anyway, PSP is going to Anna Nagar tomorrow for some entrance examination. The real motive though is that the boutique next to his examination centre belongs to Esha’s mom! He has even promised to tonsure his head at Tirupati if he manages to catch a glimpse of his mamiyar! Now what do I say? Pervert or hopeless!

Met more interesting people in the last week. Ram, Seshasdri (Both are my bosses) Ravi, Sivakumar and Sandhya. Ravi and Sivakumar are the techie guys in findnearyou.com and we have been working together for quite some time on the findnearyou blogs. Sandhya is a blogger who blogs at findnearyou.com and is the second person next to Shillika whom I have promised to take to A R Rahman’s studios. Only if they find out I dont even know his studio’s address. Yeeps!

Finally I went to college to collect my course completion certificate and met my college friends. We sat on the stone benches beneath the famous Mechanical Marathadi and it was good to relive the older times - pulling everybody’s legs- esp Sanjay and PSP, cracking wisecracks, the good old mokkais (We were shouting so much that we had to evicted from the campus!) and having heated arguments over cricket - today’s argument being who will emerge winner in the DLF IPL? Many supported CSK while there were some Rajasthan Royals fans(remember mine is a merchant college! :D) However my take is that the ultimate winner of the DLF IPL is Lalit Modi! I wont be surprised if acquires a Porshe by the end of the season.

And he has been happily flirting with Preity Zinta all along! While the whole of India stomach burnt.

Clear winner!

Anyway, I have lost all my blogrolled links in the transfer. I remember most of the links I visit. Incase, I forget one or two, just remind me. Also, people who have blogrolled me as sathyanarain.wordpress.com, kindly edit the link to sathyanarain.com.

If you are a blogger who loves Wordpress, but are turned off by the fact that it doesn’t offer specific features like CSS editing and monetizing your blog and cant afford spending big bucks for hosting, here is a solution.

I am giving out hosted and pre-installed Wordpress blogs for a considerably lesser price than normal hosting.

If you would like the sound of this, drop in a mail at mail@sathyanarain.com or call me at 91-988-443-6508 and we can get talking.

Not for marketing, but I really say one must get a hosted Wordpress blog if he/she wants to experience the depth of Wordpress. I have been writing on a hosted blog just for the past few days and the amount of gyaan I obtained was simply awesome! Not a marketing gimmick. You ask any person who is into hosted Wordpress blogs and you will know!

Guys,

Check out my new sexed out header!

Ok! Not so sexed out header!

Um. Ok.

Guys,

Check out my new header.

Mayank is back in Gurgaon.

I spoke to him yesterday and he is missing Chennai already. And he came up with a big confession at the end!

Mayank: You have time to visit Landmark and blog about it! But dont have the time to write for Reviewsaurus?

Me: Hi Mayank. How is it to be back home?

Mayank: Ya. Its good to be back. But I miss Chennai now.

Me: Ahaa!

 Mayank: Anyway, you answer my question. You dont have time to write reviews for us and you have time to comment on somebody’s blog. 

Now, Mayank had clearly mentioned the name of the blog’s author. I am refraining from naming the person here because I am a perfect gentleman! *Applause* 

Me: Hey hey hey. Just a minute. What did you just say? Was it a casual statement or something sinister? 

Mayank: Well… 

Me: I presume you followed the link to her  blog from Sagaro’s blog and saw the comments I had written. 

Mayank: Hmm… Yes. 

Me: And may I ask why is that you did not notice the comments I leave on other blogs in Sagaro’s blogroll like Planemad, Jammy, TUDinesh? 

Mayank: Its like… 

Me: And any person who reads sagaro’s blog will go on to read this person’s blog after all the traffic he generates for her! 

Mayank: What are you trying to say? 

I cut short this conversation here as it went on for half an hour more and included many other things not related to this topic. 

A note to Sagaro:This has nothing to do with you. I will still have the remote!  

A note to Mayank:This has nothing to do with my salary.  

A note to that person:I know I could have named you as it is quite bvious who you are; but I am a gentleman!   

Epilogue:At the end of the conversation, Mayank came up with a big secret. Any guesses?  

Over the half past few months, more than ten people I know have started blogging.

The reason - not to expand their writing hobby or for networking, but due to misconceptions that placing google ads in blogs can turn them into multi-millionaires overnight!