The Red Signal!

Hi Guys,

I have been reading Agatha Christie’s ‘The Hound of Death’ which is a collection of 12 short stories. I have read the first three stories and it has been good so far. The main theme is about different phenomena relating with mind. I liked the second story very much and the story is ‘The Red Signal’

The story is about the voice of our subconscious mind. Before we do certain things, our subconscious mind gives us signal. It gives us green signal if there is no danger and red signal if there is any danger. All of us must have experienced it at some stage.

According to the story, there are two points of view. One is our mind develops an attitude towards things and when something we fear about comes, our mind stops us from doing. The other point is confusion. We will be in a dilemma whether to do something or not. So, when we don’t do it and something bad happens, we think we escaped because we didn’t do it. This is coincidence.

August 15, 2011

It was due for my regular dental check up. I slept well in the afternoon and I got up by 5.15 pm.  Something told me not to go to hospital. The climate was good and so I started to get ready. By 5.40 pm, I got dressed and came out. The climate was gloomy. Black clouds surrounded the whole area. Again ‘A Red Signal’. Something, told me it was going to be a Bad Evening. Anyway, I decided to go to the hospital. My father said that there was no cloud in the west side (the direction in which the hospital was located).

I agreed and started and when I travelled some distance, I knew dad was wrong. There was no cloud in the North Direction and west was filled with black clouds. It was very windy and I struggled to control my bike. The hospital was 5 kms from my home. I travelled nearly 4 kms, before the rain started. I stopped my bike and went inside the nearby shop. It was 6.15 pm when I entered.

It was raining like hell and the whole road started to drench in water. Slowly, fear crept inside me. I was afraid of how I would ride to home. Finally the thunderstorm reduced to drizzles by 7.25 pm. I decided to start back. Water was flowing heavily in the roads. With great difficulty I started the bike and I was shivering as I was drenched in water. At one low point nearby river, water was stagnant for two feet high and I was afraid that my bike would stop if water entered the engines. Thank God, nothing happened and I reached home safely.

My assumptions came true. It was one of the worse days.

Was it a Red Signal or was it a Coincidence?

Happy Reading!!!

Yellow Oleander!

Hi Guys,

Finally the yellow oleander bloomed today morning. It was good to see it bloomed today morning and I captured the flower in my camera's lens.

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636 Days for a Single Flower!

Hi Guys,

In my Holidays Activities post on December 22, 2010 I mentioned that I planted a sapling of Yellow Oleander. The soil there was not so great and the plant was not growing. After some efforts earlier this year, the plant started to grow somewhat. After Now, the first bud has come out. It will probably bloom tomorrow. My mom told me about the buds yesterday and I was glad. I took some photographs of the bud.

Feast for ants!

After the flower blooms, I will take picture and post it too...

View photos at Picasa Web Album

Happy Viewing!!!

My Interview Experience!

Hi Guys,

It has been long since I wrote my last post. The days were hectic and wearisome. But, all the pain and hard work didn’t go in vain. Yesterday was a big day for me and some of my friends and a disappointing day for some of my friends. I got placed in one of India’s leading companies. I received many requests to share my interview experience and hence I decided to write it down.

Day before yesterday, we wrote aptitude test. It was not very difficult to me. But, many of my friends felt it difficult. Aptitude round was a big elimination as two third of the students got eliminated. The remaining students were shortlisted for interview and the first half was scheduled to have interview that day and the remaining half the next day. Initially I was in the first slot, but then later by 8pm my interview was postponed to the next day. Some of my friends had interview that day and the interview extended till 2 am.

I went to college by 8 am yesterday and the Technical interview started at 9 am. I was the second person to attend the interview and I was the first person in the panel I went in. The interviewer was very warm and friendly. I welcomed him to my college and he requested me to sit. He asked me to introduce myself. I just started and he asked me to stop. He asked me, ‘Why mechanical Engineer in IT?’ Before answering he again asked, ‘What you know about our company?’ I inter related both the questions. By the answer he knew I visited the website and he was impressed. He asked me some modern computer jargon and asked what that was. I had never heard that word before and said I didn’t know.

He then asked me whether I have studied turbines and boilers. I said yes and then he asked me the types of turbines and asked where they are used. I explained about that and he asked me about the factory visits we had made during our college life. He also asked about my participation in various events. He was again impressed with my performances. He asked about the Leadership qualities that I had mentioned as my strength in resume. He again said that my profile was completely related to Mechanical Engineering and how will I be able to survive in IT? Somehow I managed the question. Finally he asked me what the latest trend in IT was and I answered it with Cloud Computing. He asked me what it was and I explained.

He asked me to wait for 2 minutes and he filled up some form. After 2 minutes, he gave me a form and asked me to fill and wait for the HR Interview. I came out, filled the form (it consumed some 20 minutes as it was a big form) and I was again the second person for the HR interview.

Again the interviewer was friendlier and it was just a 2 minute interview for all. I welcomed him to my college. He said it was his duty and I replied that it was our pleasure that they were there. He replied that my college deserved that. All this consumed 30 seconds of the 3 minutes. He introduced himself and coincidentally our names were same. He asked about my strengths. I explained them with some real life experiences.

He then asked about my family. I didn’t say anything about my brother. He asked me about my brother and I said about him and incidentally I did not get through that company’s interview (which was the previous one). He asked me whether I attended that interview and asked what happened there. I came out with a neutral answer saying the interviewer might not have had enough time to analyze me and up to my knowledge I didn’t make any mistake. That was the end of the interview!

I came out, filled the feedback form and left the place.

The results came by 3 pm and my name was there. It was celebrations for most of the people as there was very little elimination in the Technical and HR interviews.

A memorable day in my life!!!

Happy Reading!!!

Movies that teaches Life!

Hi Guys,

There are two types of movies in this world – one that entertains you and the other that teaches you life.

The first one makes a huge collection at the box office and the second one draws the attention of critics. I watch the first category of movies, but I am a big fan of the second type. I have posted many of those movies in Movies that touched my Heart post. Now I will post a few more.

Rain Man (1988)

Directed by Barry Levinston, this movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise plays the role of Charlie Babbit. He runs a car workshop at Los Angeles and he learns that his father dies at Cincinnati. He ran away very young as he once stole his father’s classic Buick car and gets caught at police. His father leaves Charlie only his Buick car.

Charlie finds that the remaining $3 million is left to his brother Sanford Babbit (Dustin Hoffman) who is at a mental institution as he is autistic. Charlie is shocked as he never knew he had a brother. He kidnaps his brother and plans to get equal share of the money. Sanford is afraid of planes and hence Charlie drives along with Sanford from Cincinnati to Los Angeles. All the travelling forms the rest of the movie.

The initial hate goes and Charlie begins to love his brother. Sanford is so good at counting. Charlie uses him to earn $80K at Las Vegas. Sanford says he is an excellent driver throughout the movie. He sticks to the time so much that he wants to watch TV at specific time and wants to sleep at 11’o clock and so on. He refuses to wear clothes bought at rest of places. He is afraid after he sees accident in highway and so on.

Dustin’s acting is so good. He portrays the role of an Autistic Patient so good and deservingly he got Oscar award. This movie bagged 4 Oscars.

Mystic River (2003)

Directed by the great Clint Eastwood, this movie portrays the life of 3 people, who were childhood friends until a tragedy took place.

One friend Dave (Tim Robbins) was kidnapped when they were trying to inscribe their names in a cement block. He is still haunted by his abduction. Another friend Jim (Sean Penn) is an ex-con who runs a store and has strong influences. The other Sean (Kevin Bacon) works in the Police department. The plot unfolds when Jim’s daughter is found dead. It interlocks the lives of three people.

The story is about who killed his daughter and the emotional pains going through each other’s mind and the memories of their friendship. It was such a lovely movie. Particularly the epilogue in which the little boy is affected because of his father’s death and the question Sean asks Jim, ‘What if all of us went in the car that day?’ were just wonderful.

The acting of Sean Penn and Tim Robbins were so good that they got Oscar for leading role and supporting role respectively.

(To be continued…)

Happy Reading!!!