Shyam's Blog

My wife and I planned to watch Einthiran at PVR today. Apart from the movie being superclass, the Goldclass experience was an experience of its own. For less than USD 15 for a couple, we were provided royal treatment with welcome drinks at the waiting lounge before the movie started. The screen is designed for a small audience of 30 who sit/sleep in leaning couches which have adjustable buttons to shift from sitting to sleeping position. We are also provided with a pillow and blanket! Lastly, food can be ordered by pressing the 'attendant button' attached to our seat (just like in flight). The movie is one of its kind in Indian cinema. I have never seen an Indian movie with so much graphics and sci-fi action. Rajani rocks the show! Bottonline - Eithiran is worth watching.

Street Vendor's Colorful Ties

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Building Rails, Broadway, NY Near Trinity Church, Broadway, NY Trinity Church as seen from Wall Street, NY Street Stalls, Broadway, NY

GFIG Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Mingyang Wind Power (China) listed in NYSE Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9 Everyday, I walk in front NYSE and see this section of the building to check if any new company is listed. Today, I found this company getting listed in NYSE. I checked the company online to know that it is a data center company. Check about the company here - www.coresite.com

A sunny Saturday was a good day to visit Liberty State Park. Only part that was boring was the walk in the hot sun. I mis-calculated the distance to walk for this visit and got stuck in the middle with fuel meter running low. With lack of restaurants and snack joints, it was a little stretching of energy meter. View of Manhattan The view of Manhattan from Exchange Place, Jersey City is very nice. I had placed to walk from here to Liberty Park. One local suggested me to take the light rail which dropped me just outside the park. From the entrance to the main point of the park, it is a long walk which very few take. I was one of them to be walking lonely and was an easy prey for muggers! Most visitors drove past me to the parking lot which is next to the Historic Rail Station. Old Railway Station Apart from the long walk, the visit to the park was nice. It will be better once Fall foliage appears.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Landed here last week on official visit. With office on Wall Street, New York, I get to see companies getting listed in NYSE. Jersey City has few roads which are totally occupied by 'desis'. Newark Avenue is one place where one could find Indian shops, restaurants, etc. There is also a pan shop. Every morning, one will see 100s of 'desis' with a laptop bag walking briskly towards the train station nearby. Getting a place to stay for individuals like these is very easy and is a phone call away. These are managed by Indian agents and home owners.

With a recommendation from one of my friends, I visited Chinatown today. I was roaming around looking at colorful surroundings and doing window shopping. It is a must place to visit to see vibrant colors and to feel the buzz around any day of the week. I first got inside the Chinatown market - this place had lots of shops selling electronics and gift articles. Also, half of this place was occupied with travel agencies. As I wanted to see the street shops, I headed out of this market. "Paint your name for $10" was the board which reminded me of San Francisco. This corridor of shops was very nice with lots of small gift articles and clothes. End of the corridor was a huge Hindu Temple - Mariamman Temple! Next to this was a very huge Chinese Temple. After walking for a couple of hours, I wanted to hydrate myself and found the right choice - fresh coconut milk. After taking a break to finish this drink, I headed back home. Chinatown - A must visit window shopping place. Photos of...

I visited the Singapore Science Center today. The place is very interesting for kids in the age group of 5-15. For others, it is a matter of recap of the science lessons. Inside the science center is the Atrium, which has the Telsa coil demo twice daily. The coil generates 3.5 million volts. The demonstration was done in a very friendly manner by the host. The audience (about 150) stood forming a circle around the Tesla coil stage. When the coil was powered, electric sparks bursted out of the coil in to the air. Balloon filled with Hydrogen was kept at a distance from the coil. When the coil was ignited, the spark put the balloon into flames and exploded. Moral of the story - Helium and Hydrogen are the only other gases lighter than air. If you want to fill the birthday balloon, fill it with Helium, and not Hydrogen. Last part of the demo involved 5 volunteers from the audience. Each one was given a small fluorescent tube and were told to hold it in the air. When the coil was switched ...

I was reading today's paper and got to know that Indian telecom industry has reached 50% tele-density. After reading this, I checked for the history of Indian Telecom which dates back to 1880s. With around 5 million users in 1991, growth was expected in the next decade or two. Now, there are around 622 million telephone users (both landline and cell included), that is nearly 125 times compared to 1991! This industry is worth more than $30 billion, making it one of the top industries in India in terms of growth and revenue. No surprise, we see Airtel and other private companies sponsoring cricket tourneys like IPL and Champions League!

Got my first smart phone recently. I have been using a few apps which are really helpful. The best available available is the SG Bus Timing app which tells me bus arrivals at a given bus stand in real-time. To test my app, I searched for my bus the moment I stood at the stop. The app said, "2 mins". When the bus was few yards away from the stop, I shook my phone (which is a method to actually refresh the page). The app said, "arriving"! Am really fascinated by the accuracy. Screenshot of SG Bus Timing app on Android

How long does it take to fill a form/application for a phone connection? Around 20 minutes. Add the same process to Broadband connection, tv connection and cell phone connection. With few minutes of buffer and waste-time, it should take around 2 hours to get this done. This is exactly what happened when I went to get the above connections from one vendor here in Singapore. Though the activation of TV and cell phone connection was done instantly, internet took like an 'overnight' time. Land phone will be activated in 5 working days. Best part of the above connections - no need of any service guy to come in and do the installation. No need to give an appointment to the technician for visiting us to set up the connection. Everything is 'do-it-yourself'. Bad part of getting a connection - it took nearly 25 sheets of paper to submit the application. For each type of connection, customer details have to be put in the form. They could have made this a computer based tool and h...

There is a Kannada movie, "Tenali Rama Going to Dubai". I accidentally started watching this movie of Ramesh and Jaggesh. Though the comedy part is somewhat OK, height of imagination in the movie was at its peak when I saw the song in the second half. There are 2 songs which are shot in Singapore! Where did Dubai come in to picture then???? Director should be able to answer. As per the story of the movie, the two characters, Tenali and Rama were duped of being sent to Dubai and they land up in the coast of Goa ;). Singapore is in Goa????

Hunting for a home for rent in Singapore is a big task. Because all homes are taken care by agents/brokers, it is hard to bypass them to get a nice house. After checking out nearly 20 units, I finally got one 15 minutes away from office. Why 20 units??? I didn't choose a few because they were far or not suitable. If I liked the place, the owner found a better deal with some other tenant. Some units are taken away like hot cakes. Within minutes, somebody will bid and closed. My daily routine in the past 2 weeks had been like this: 1) While in office, I would get phone calls from agents about a unit available. 2) Some agents would confirm for a viewing the same evening (by 8pm). 3) I would leave office and head towards the available unit. 4) Return home by 10pm. Now that my hunt is over, I can understand the time consumed in hunting. Not just time; money too! The agent asks for 1/2 of one month's rent. If we are lucky to pick the first house, it is bonus money for the agent since...

Youth Olympics, Singapore 2010. Notice the Hindi words in these stamps! The first Youth Olympics is being held in Singapore from August 14th. Above stamps were released in August 2009 when the official announcement was made about the Games in Singapore. The four Hindi words are visible here - श्रेष्टता, नमस्कार, मित्रता, सम्मान। A non-Indian country having a stamp with an Indian language on it seemed interesting to me.

It has been Super Saturdays for me for 3 weekends. Yesterday was the turn to visit the Chinese Gardens near Jurong East. The whole park is so vast that it takes 7-10 kilometer walk to cover it. Attached with this garden is the Japanese Garden. On Friday night, I had made up my mind to visit this place. The only thing I had kept undecided was the time. As Saturday progressed, I thought that 4-7pm will be a good time to visit. I was in the park by 4pm after getting down at Chinese Gardens MRT. With a few meters walk, I reached the entrance of the side gate. With sun still up, my mouth started to water once I saw the ice cream cart. "One dollar..", said the vendor. I told him to give me a cone and got to know that he has neither cone, nor the stick. Rather, he prepares it from scratch. I just wanted 'some' icre-cream. So, I said, "ok, give however you want to". He had a family pack kind of a thing inside his cart. He cut a slice of it along with the cardboard ...