Little Joys of Life

Got this as a forward email and couldn't resist posting this :) Sorry for not replying to all your comments. Will surely do it next year :P

I know it's a bit early, but incase I forget or don't have time or don't make it or get hold of you I am just taking this opportunity to thank everyone , I mean everyone , who made 2009 a fabulous year..

Hoping 2010 will be even better.

• For all those I've made promises to and never kept - it was not deliberate but I will "improve" in 2010.
• Those that I owe lunches, movies, night out , etc..., I'll fix that as well, I'll make time . For sure.
• For those that have supported me and made me smile through all my hardships...I salute you! halaala.
• For those I've disagreed with, argued with and just never got along with......well, I'm Sorry!!!!!!! Let's try again next year.
• Those that I've hurt.....unintentionally/intentionally....I've already apologized "I'm Sorry" again...
• For those that stuck a knife in my back the past is all forgotten.... forgiveness is the best revenge Maybe!!!
• For those that have let me down.....oh well.... I should have known better
• All the true friends that I have: you Rock!!..Awesome!
• Congratulations to all the new mommies & fathers, newly weds etc..., no funerals please guys

But all in all, you guys have made 2009 a great year; I wish you and your loved ones prosperity, good health, wealth, happiness, greener pastures, abundant blessings,

• And Oh!! a wonderful festive season.

May 2010 be the year you achieve wonderful things in God's guidance and strength.
May God Be With You.........Be Blessed!!!!!!!

Regards

For people like me who keep on thinking about topics to post, tags are a boon :)) And this time zanychild helped me by tagging. Here goes her tag..

Are you better than where you were when the year started?
Yes

Did you get a notch up on the ladder of wisdom?
A few steps ;)

Did you laugh more till you cried or cried more till you laughed?
Both. first half of the year was faced mostly with tears and second half with more laughter :)

Did you meet new people?
Undoubtedly yes

Did your friend list swell a little?
It shrunk a little and also swell a little. So now it is back to same size ;)

Did you have to let go of people?
Yups

Did that hurt you a lot?
Not exactly. Holding them was more hurting. Letting go off was more easier.

Did you have to put up a false smile and bear things with a grudge?
Nopes. Evenif a situation comes, I dont think I could do that.

Did you have to act happy when you hurt inside?
Nopes.

Did you achieve something great this year?
Will you accept starting this sweet little blog as an achievement :P

Do you regret anything you did this year?
Hmmm.... yes.

Did you fall in and out of love, necessarily not in that order? :p
Luckily No :)

Did you grow?
Physically, mentally, Emotionally - Yes in all ways :D

Was this one of your best years?
If you consider only the second half

Did you learn something new?
Quite a lot

What was the most memorable in this year?
My Dream come true moments - Attending ARR's concert, Visiting Tanjore BIG temple
My visit to Madurai
My trip with friends to Nagercoil (Especially the send off my friend gave me @ Tambaram station :P)

Would have done anything differently this year if given a chance?
Yes. But at any cost, I dont want to go back to those situations in my life :(

You travel a lot this year?
Undoubtedly YES.

Will you mark this year as one filled with fond memories or bitter ones?
A mixture of both :)

P.S. : As we have only 2 more days for year-end, I am not tagging anyone in particular to write this tag. People who wish to write, can take up on their own :)

After passing out from school, I hardly remember celebrating Children's day. And now, After all these years, the thought of celebrating children's day brings a huge smile on my face :) Yes, We are going to celebrate it @ our office. In our organization, they have a CSR initiative which was started approximately during the same time in 2004. Every year they used celebrate their anniversary on Nov.14th. And this time, as they are completing 5 years, they have decided to celebrate it for 1 complete week (Nov 16 - Nov 20). We do have a lot of attractions. Completely decorated office, kids invited from homes, movie screenings for them, stalls, games for children and for us too :))

The top one on the list is the part "High school Musical". Each floor in the organization is supposed to be one school and people have to come in school uniforms on last day (Nov 20). After a lot of discussions we decided our uniform will be of white and khaki combination. (White shirt and khaki pant for guys, white chudi and khaki dhuppatta for girls). We are asked to come with school bags, if possible with a lunch bag too ;))) We also have interschool competitions to exhibit our talents :))) Now, with all these introductions, I am eagerly looking fwd to the new week :))

This is one of my favourite song which takes me back to my wonderful school days.

The original season 1 song.. but the clarity is really bad :(

This little angel Kurinji malar(a) pappu 's bday was on Oct 28th and her mother sandanamullai (a) aachi arranged a special bday party for blogger friends on Oct 11th (Spl ppl get first preferrence u see ;)). I was so unlucky to miss the party, as I had to go for ARR's concert. Surprisingly, she called on friday and told there is another party on this saturday for pappu's school mates. It was so nice of her to reinvite me and I confirmed her that I would definitely be there for the party.

Next day after few roundings (in search of her street) @ Madipakkam, I reached her house. Initially pappu dint recognize me (as we had met only once and that too was longtime back). But within few minutes we got along nicely and split up into two teams. Pappu and myself in one team while aachi and aadhi (Her neighbour's kid) formed another team. We started creating an elephant using building blocks game. Slowly people started coming in.

I was so happy to meet varshini & venmathi (pappu's classmates - Whoever reads aachi's blog would have known known them very well as most of her posts are about pappu and her little world :))) ). Then these motherly talks started. I was surprised when aachi told, "everyday pappu will be asking her to put different types of hairstyles ( two plaits one day, just a clip another day.. ), the reason being varshini, who came with that particular hairstyle on the previous day :D She proudly said varshini is the role model for pappu :)

Varshini and pappu were in full form to roam around the house playing hide and seek, karate fighting, lifting each other etc.. Venmathi on the other hand was so reluctant to move away from her mother even when pappu and varshini called her for n no.of times. Later they decided that she will not come without her mother and directly called venmathi's mother to come with venmathi :))

There was this kid Harshith (If I remember the name correctly). He was reacting like a big man saying no for photos and girly games. He was more interested in getting updates about cricket score. Then there were few neighbour's kids. Then we had tailing the horse game and cake cutting ceremonies. After snacks session, as everyone left, venmathi was busy painting. Aachi and venmathi's mom got busy with their motherly topics. So pappu and myself were left alone and we started playing with an imaginary cat. We were running around hiding from the cat, but the cat finally got us and started biting :( So we throwed the cat via balcony gate and returned to our room. After few seconds, pappu with a sad face said "poonai azhuvudhu" (Translation for swaram - cat is crying ;)) Then we felt pity for the cat, took it back and gave it shelter :))))

Before starting aachi was giving return gifts to all kids and surprisingly she gave me one too :)) A key chain and a camel miniature :))) Enna innum kozhandhayaavae paakkara ivangala ellam nenacha.. avvvvvvvvvv... enakku azhuvaachi azhuvaachiya varudhu ;))) [Sri, I leave this translation part to U :)) I know u could do it better than me ;)]

On the whole it was a very fun-filled evening. Special thanks to aachi and pappu :)))

After seeing Gils's 55 fiction, I couldn't control my eager to write one. Let God save my readers ;)))

Warning : This is going to be a long post :)

Oct 15 - After a break of three and a half months, I am back to work in a new company. The work environment and my project seems to be extremely impressive. I am so happy for getting this opportunity. Regarding team mates, it takes sometime for me to mingle with them.So lets wait and see how it goes.

Oct 19 - First time in the history of Gils's biography he came first for the meet and waited for others to come. In the mail, I clearly mentioned that the meet was @ 11.30 and on that particular day when I gave him a wake up call (To confirm that he would come for the meet) he asked about meet timings. Suddenly, the little devil inside me came to action and told him that meet is at 11 AM. To all our surprise he came at 11.15 AM and waited for us :))) There were lots of comedies during the meet and the best one was when the server brought the bill, we told him "Sorry boss. We dint ask for this. You can take it back" :P (As we completed even deserts before kanagu came, looks like the waiter decided himself that we finished or lunch and brought the bill. We told him that we are waiting for another person. Unless he arrives and completes his lunch, we will not leave the place :P). Later, when I asked gils to show me the bill.(to check if the dishes were correct) But he mistook that I was planning to pay the bill :P and said no no i'll pay the bill. But unfortunately, his dubakoor card dint work there and I had to pay the bill. I told him ok let this be my treat for my new job. He refused to accept and said "This is my treat only but u paid the bill". (Meaning, I will not even get the reimbursement. Enna kodumai sir idhu :( ) After the meet, I went for Aadhavan movie with another friend of mine and sighted Surya happily in the big Screen :)))) Since Aaarti & Rat could not come for the meet we thought of having another meet in the evening. Since Gils came early for the first meet, I suspected his punctuality for the evening meet. And this time he dint come late. Instead, he cancelled the meet itself :(

Oct 21 - Had a blasting time at my friend's marriage. Initially I was reluctant to go for the marriage. Later another friend called and said we will go for the marriage. I never thought I would meet a few more people whom I had seen almost 4 yrs back. It was nice to see them all and everyone were proud to say that they have joined the father's club. We also shared updates about few common friends who dint come for the marriage :))) Overall, the evening was wonderful.

Oct 23 - Another blog friend Raam was returning back to singapore after his diwali vacation. So we decided to have a small meet at Jayanthi's house. Totally 5 of us were there, including the host & her husband. We all met at around 7.30PM and had a great time pulling each other's legs. When we got sweets and dry fruits for Jayanthi, her husband was pleading us to take it back stating that she is already putting lots of weight :P Jayanthi prepared dosai, onion chutney and sambar for the dinner which was extraordinarily delicious :P But as you know, we were not accept the fact initially. So when she started preparing dosais we started fighting who is going to be the testing rat and finally we forced raam to be the one :P Since raam was healthy after eating few dosais, we too joined. At around 9.30 we started back, did some small shopping @ Tambaram and bid him farewell @ airport.

Oct 25 - Today morning my friend came back from Qatar. She had decided to keep it as a surprise visit and dint inform her home about her arrival. So, we thought we will have a small meet @ Airport Sangeetha (What to do, when I think of a meet, it always ends up to be @ Restaurants only :P). 3 other friends joined us and we were at the airport for 2.5 hours. As usual the normal process of pulling each other's legs, sharing gifts, updating about each others etc etc.. went fine. Finally we drove her back to the bus stop and helped her to board a bus to go to her native.

Overall, days are moving as happy as ever :))

And finally all the excitements about attending a live concert has calmed down now. Yesterday's ARR's concert had its own pros and cons. The experience could be rated as OK. Not tooooo good at the same time not tooooo bad too :)

Few things I loved in the show

* First comes the sound effect. Wow.. The balloons in our hands were vibrating terribly :P
* The LED effects.. For few songs the visualizations added more impact.
* Stage decorations. The lower level of the stage had orchestra and singers. The upper level had LED effects and dancers. The lighting effects and the stage effects were amazing.
* ARR's entry to the stage & his performance on the crane (Jiya se Jiya song)
* Medley by ARR (Started with Azeem-o-shan (Jodha Akbar), continued with music and humming from Rukkumani rukkumani (Roja) and ended with Veerapaandi kottaiyilae (Thiruda Thiruda) )
* Dil se re (Dil se), Taxi Taxi (Sakkarakatti), konjam nilavu (Thiruda Thiruda), Mayya Mayya (Guru) songs were my favourite performances.
* Dancers at the backdrop were the best part of the show. A visual treat to all our eyes.
* The college girls gang behind our row and guys gang behind them. They were shouting, whistling and commenting throughout the show. People in the front rows were turning again and again to watch these girls (Needless to say that I too joined the chorous shouting :P)

Few things that could have been better

* The concert was supposed to start at 6 PM. But it started only at 7.30PM. There were no announcements regarding the delay in schedule.
* More than 50% of the performances were hindi songs. And in the rest you also had malayam / telugu versions of the songs. At one point, the crowd starting shouting "We want Tamil" :))
* The huge screens they had on the sides to show live performance, captured only one person at a time. Even in group performances !!
* They said not even plastic bottles were allowed inside the auditorium. We thought we would have some options to buy water there. Adyar ananda bhavan had a stall with only snacks and juices. No water bottles :( Enna koduma sir idhu !!!

And the worst part it, we could not attend the full show. Since the travelling time was almost 2.5 hrs, we could not wait after 10.30 PM :( The show actually ended at 11.10 PM.

When we were expecting to reach ennore minor port, the bus dropped us at the gates of Coromandel Fertilisers factory. Puzzled at the location, I inquired my dad and he said when the higher level people at Coromandel Fertilisers knew about our visit, they were happy enough to invite us for snacks at their campus. [Naatla innum nallavanga neraya per irukkaaingappa ;)]

We gathered at the place where they had made seating arrangements for us. They served sweet, mixture and juices. By the time we had snacks they explained briefly about their company. Looks like earlier the company was owned by EID Parry group and was taken over by Murugappa group lately.

The interesting part came later. They explained about their method of importing ammonia (which is one of the major source for producing their fertilisers). As road transportation has its own risks they could not transport ammonia that way. They had to go for rail transportation. But this costed them a fortune as they also had to pay for the empty boxes. Then they had implemented this new strategy (first time in India). They had laid a pipe under sea (for 1.8 kms) and they transport ammonia to their factory directly from the ship.

This is a single pipe with no joints and was imported from Denmark. Looks like there is a special jet ship to lay this pipe in the sea. The theory was simple(at least seemed to, when we heard it). When you stand in sea water, sand gives space for your legs and as waves comeback, your legs are covered by sand. Similar strategy is used in laying the pipe. The jet ship will be carrying this pipe and as it moves faster the sand gives the space. As the pipe is laid there, sand covers over the pipe. I thought if I could watch it in a video or live, it would be more of a visual treat ;)

They expect a maximum of 10 shipments a year. One day earlier to the ship's arrival, a diver will go into the sea and bring the hose (a connector to the pipe. Since the ship will be moving in waves, they cannot connect directly to the pipe) up and leave it. The next day when the ship arrives they connect this hose to the ship and ammonia is transferred via the pipe. Ammonia is transferred in liquid state and to avoid it from converting to gas state they maintain the temperature of pipe at -33 degrees. The pipe has 7 layers to avoid the fluctuation in temperature.

With all these informations I was more eager to watch the location and when we went there it was just like another sea shore filled with rocks along the shore. They asked to see in the middle of sea - 4 yellow coloured buoyancy's were there (at a distance approximately more than 1.5 kms.. avvvvvvvv). When the ship arrives they will stop at that location and tie it to the buoyancy's and connect to the hose. As there were no ships, we could see only the buoyancy's. With that our trip came to an end and we all started our journey back to home.

This part doesn't have much pics as I was not sure if we can take any snaps inside the factory. I got the following picture from my father's collection. Looks like this was taken when a ship came to deliver ammonia.

Attending a live music concert had always been my lifetime dream but never came true till date. I have never even told about this dream to many peoples. Always these concerts are held in the evenings and end at late nights which is one main reason I cant go with friends. With my parents - it would be another dream. As they both were working and father being transferred mostly to some other place. They always used to tell me to go out with my friends (for movies, beach, theme parks.. ) as they dint want me to miss out those fun just because they cant take me out :)

Once we got tickets for Shankar Mahadevan's concert held at Anna university as part of their cultural programme (Obviously, OC Tickets provided by office). But unfortunately we were not able to make it on that day :( So, for all these years it was like, I want to go but not sure how / when it will happen.


And finally, the day has come. Just a few hours back my father called up and completely surprised me by telling he got few passes for AR Rahman's live concert on 11th October. I am extremely thrilled and eagerly waiting for sunday now ;) My father said he will also come with me for the concert. So no worries about the location or late night travel :P

When we reached Ennore major port (Major ports are the one's that are directly under Govt.'s control and minor ports are the one's that are under the control of state board) we were doubtful whether any ships would be available during our visit. Luckily there were 2 ships. One was named Tamil Anna (Poombuhar shipping Corporation) and the other one was from some other country. I dint knew which country it belonged to. But both the ships had Indian Flag. It looks like to whichever destination the ship is traveling, it needs to hoist the destination country's flag in it.

Apart from that there will be an Ensign flag on the ship. Each shipping corporation will have its own ensign flag. one-fourth of this ensign flag should have the shipping company's national flag embedded.

The Tamil Anna ship was unloading coal into the conveyor track, which directly moves coal to the Thermal power plant at Ennore.



The other ship was loading iron ore from a barge. Since the barge was on the other side we couldn't see it :( But we were able to see the cranes lifting the iron ore from the barge and loading it into the ship.


Next we moved to the signal station. The control room was at 6th floor. As it was too small and was covered with glass windows couldn't take snaps from there. Came back to 2nd floor and took few snaps :)


When we came back from signal station time was 1 PM. So our next target was for lunch. Lunch was arranged by L&T [L&T Shipbuilding. Bus arrangement was also provided by them only :)]. Imagine having lunch @ seashore at a pleasant climate. That too Saravana Bhavan's food brought specially for us (They had arranged to get it there at ard 12 PM). Haiyooooo.. The food was like devamirtham !;) As per Aalavandhan's request here goes the menu - Chappathi with chenna, sweet pongal, sambar rice, tamarind rice, curd rice, potato chips, pickle and aalo fry. Finally they also provided juices Pepsi/Miranda/7-up of our choice. Post lunch, we spent some time at the sea shore enjoying nature :)



Then we started our journey towards our next location - Ennore Minor port.

To be continued..

Two weeks back my father told me that they are planning for a family trip to Ennore port and whether I would be interested to visit the same. Who would say a NO?? Immediately I nodded Yes and yesterday morning we were all set for the trip.

We were supposed to assemble at my dad's office at 7AM. His office is not new to me as I always have the habit of visiting his office for some reason or the other. Since its a govt office you don't have strict rules about visitors. And my father being one of the senior officer I was always treated with a red carpet welcome ;) A visit to my mom's office would be completely different. We can go there only during Ayudha pooja celebration. But that would be a more friendly environment since everyone is of equal role and friends for almost 3 decades now. I enjoy being in both environments :)

We (dad, mom & myself) reached dad's office at around 6.50 AM . As people arrived one by one there were introduction between families and it was good to see people of various ages. Starting from a 1 yr old kid to 50 + years oldies :P. Breakfast arrived at 7.30AM from Hotel Ananda. After completing our breakfast, we were asked to come down and board the bus. There were totally 3 buses. And each bus had an in-charger. My dad was in-charge for the third bus and hence we had no other choice. Had to go only for the third one :)


The first destination we reached was CWDL (Chennai Water Desalination Ltd) at Kattupalli. As the name says, they desalinate the sea water and convert it into drinking water. Looks like they are still in testing phase and guaranteed that by Jan 2010 this plant will be completely on the GO. They said that the production cost per litre is around 48.6 paise and the target is to produce 100 Million litres per day. We were taken through each phase of the process.


As explained to us, Initially they take sea water and fill it into a tank. While doing so, the chemical Ferric chloride is added to sea water. When the person said Ferric chloride my mind was thinking Whether it is FeCl₃ or Fe₃Cl :)). After this the water is agitated (they said its a natural agitation as the path of the water flowing is set like a snake) and then it passes through two stages - Gravity settler and Gravity sand filter. After this the water is pumped to the final station where the incoming is just salt water (all other particles in the water have been completely removed in the initial phases including the chemical added earlier). At this place they use the concept of reverse osmosis to separate salt from water. They said there are 7 filters which is involved in this reverse osmosis process and finally the outcome is pure desalinated water. We also tasted the water and it was actually as good as the outcome of any water purifier (only taste and clarity :P Other technical details me the no idea :)) ).


For people like me who do not know what is an osmosis process, they explained that water (lighter density) when we drink gets mixed with blood (higher density) in our body. This is called osmosis process. Hence in reverse osmosis process they apply pressure to the salt water and after passing through the 7 filters with this pressure the salt is completely removed from water. It was actually more like an educational trip than a casual trip. But still it was nice to know these things. Then we started to our next location - Ennore Major Port.



To be continued..

After 3 years of blogging in Tamil (Tanglish too), today I am starting this english blog. Its been a very long time since I wrote long paragraphs in english (Obviously, I dont count the official emails here :P). So Kindly bear with my grammar mistakes for the initial few posts :)

Coming to the blog title. Big joys / achievements come only once in a while. But these little joys are spread around us in our day to day life. It might be a simple phone call from a friend after a long time / a rainy day / a timing joke that made you laugh until your eyes were filled with tears /.........../ a funny comment from your fellow blogger. This blog would capture all those sweet little joyful moments ,treasure and share them as "Joy Shared is Joy doubled"

Looking forward to add more and more joys to my treasure house :)