3 and growing!!! Thank you once again!!!

Hi Guys,

3 Years – 181 posts – 85000+ hits - This is what my blog has received after it came to life.

3 years is something special. An age when a child starts going to school. An age at which some responsibility is pushed upon the kid. An age that means the kid has survived more than 1000 days. All this creates a sense of responsibility in me. My blog has crossed this stage. I should be more meaningful and provide a better sense to my readers.

Thanks to each and every one of you who believed in me and came to my blog and keep coming to my blog. Hope, I’m not disappointing my readers.

The credit of whatever I have done in my blog goes to three people. I have already said it during the first and second anniversary. I will keep saying it as long as I write. The first two persons, who inspired me and motivated me to write a blog – Vijay Dinesh and Nataraj Gandhi – a big thanks to you! These days we chat very rarely – our career and life has pulled us in its own streams. Hope to see you people soon!

The third person is my brother Narayanan – I think he must have read my blog more than anyone else. I still remember the days when he I used to send him posts and he used to correct them before I post. He was in Uruguay back then. Communicating from there was difficult and still he spent a lot of time with me to improve my blog.  Thanks bro! This year, I promise to write a post about you or your cute little daughter or if possible both. Also, I have to thank my sister in law too. She has helped me a lot by publicizing my photographs. Sometimes she exaggerates too much and sometimes the opposite happens. Apart from this,  thanks for the good food you prepare for me all the time I come to your home.

The other two persons, I have to thank – my dad and mom. My mom reads every post of mine as soon as I post. She enquires with me about what I am writing, what I had written and what my thought process is often. The only time she gets angry is whenever I write something about her (a good lesson for me – that’s why I generally avoid writing about known people). Dad reads some posts in my blog based on references. My mom handpicks some of my best posts and asks my dad to read. Sometimes, if the post is good (or if he feels so), he asks me for a hardcopy. My dad has been a great marketer for my blog. Whenever he introduces me to someone, he will introduce my blog too. Personally apart from dad and mom, I avoid discussing about my blog with anyone (I always stick to my blog, twitter, facebook and mail for my blog). It’s a very great feeling from when your family considers your work as a good one. Thanks Dad and Mom.

I must also thank my blogger friends. Arti, who keeps visiting my blog and encourage me to write better. She started writing blog a little late than me and now she has reached the pinnacle and I’m still in the base compared with her. A blogger who I respect the most. Also, thanks to the wonderful photographers Team G Square who frequently visits my blog and comment. Thanks to Abhishek Bhardwaj – my first reader and a great blogging friend – hope to see you in the blogging world soon.

Another two sincere readers and supporters of my blog –  Lakshmanan Periappa(my father’s brother ) and my cousin Anand anna. From the time they knew that I am blogging, they started supporting me and appreciated my work. Whenever I write a good post, my cousin sends me a mail and that’s when I realize I have written quite well. Thanks periappa and anna! Also Nana, my cousin despite his busy schedules preparing for CA reads my blogs and enquires about that now and then. It’s wonderful to have such readers!

Another person who is a big fan of my blog – my dear friend Vimal Raj. He has the same taste like me in books and movies. I discuss a lot of general stuffs with him. Hope you have wonderful days ahead! Also thanks to Santhosh, Jhaya Krishnan, Saravana Kumar, Ram Prasad (I won’t forget the way you started your blog – my facebook post and how you stopped later), Jothi Kameswaran, Jothi Vasanthan, Vijay Anguraj, Varatha Rajan, Ganesh, Siddiq, Dhasthaheer (remember the Sleepy Technology classes post) and all others who have been regular visitors of my blog.

Finally it’s time to thank my newer set of friends who knew about my blogging habit and started to appreciate straightaway. It’s always encouraging when someone comes to you and asks about the way you write. Many of you assume I spent lot of time writing. The truth is I spent very little time. Thanks to Santhosh, Vikas (thanks for marketing my blog), Tejas, Vijay, Saheel, Om, Nirav, Tarun, Bhavesh, Insha (I will write more posts about snakes), Alekhya, Shilpha, Anrav, Ankur (finally I got time to post this one) and many others (sorry if your name is not here – I don’t remember everyone who enquired me).

There are numerous people who I have not mentioned here. Thanks to every other reader whose name is not mentioned here!

Happy Reading!!!

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Movie Review

Hi Guys,

A movie review after a very long time. And that too a review of a newly released movie after a very very long time. I generally don’t risk reviewing a new movie as I’m not a very good reviewer. Let me try something this time.

Christopher Nolan – My most favourite director. He designs his movies very intricately. After the amazing success of The Dark Knight and the Inception, I was wondering how he is going to meet with the expectations. But he has made the movie in such a way that our expectations increase further for his future movies.

The Dark Knight Rises – the concluding part of the Batman Trilogy. The setting is perfect. Batman is considered to be a criminal in Gotham. The Joker is dead and Harvey Dent is celebrated as hero. So, we are pretty clear that the movie can’t continue without new characters and Nolan has filled the space with some interesting characters.

A new masked man enters the scene. He is Bane (Tom Hardy). His main aim is to destroy the city with his aides. Meanwhile, there is this Cat Woman (Anne Hathaway) who is a small time burglar. She helps Bane by taking Wayne’s fingerprint and demolishing his wealth.

There is also Blake (Joesph Gordon-Lewitt) who is a patrol officer and deep believer of Batman. He discovers that Batman is Wayne. He grew up by means of orphanage funded by Wayne (Christian Bale). Meanwhile Comissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is unable to reveal the truth of Batman and Harvey Dent.

Wayne locks himself in his house and after all the years, when Bane comes to the city, the city needs him. Gordon is shot down by Bane and is in hospital. He promotes Blake to Detective. Wayne is not as strong as he was. He loses his power in the company. He makes sure that the nuclear power is not used for the wrong purpose, but Bane attains control. Meanwhile, Fox designs a new flying vehicle for Batman.

Wayne meets Bane due to the tricky works of Cat Woman. The Cat Woman realises her mistake by then. He takes Batman to a prison from which escape is nearly impossible. Bane plans to destroy the city soon. He brings out Gordon’s secret notes and hands over power to prisoners, whom he calls the people of Gotham.

How Batman comes back strong? Who is Bane? Why does he want to destroy the city? How does Batman prevent that? Watch the movie!

You can find lot of Nolan’s signatures in the movie. There is one scene is the concluding part where good becomes bad and bad becomes good and the motive is explained. Nolan likes have his previous cast members in the new movie. Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard are also main actors in Inception. Needless to say, most of the crew is same as The Dark Knight. There are many other signatures which Nolan fans would recognize.

Background Score is one the biggest advantages of the movie. Hans Zimmer is splendid with the background as usual.

The first two series were mostly filmed in Chicago. In order to avoid repetitions, this time they moved to Pittsburgh. Some of the scenes have been taken in Jodhpur (easy to find out).

Chris Nolan wasn’t interested in doing this part and he accepted to do this only after some hesitation. And he has created yet another Masterpiece.

This makes me wonder how Nolan will bear all the pressure to produce a similar movie next time. As far as now, sit back and enjoy the movie.

Happy Reading!!!

Is Flipkart losing its path?

Hi Guys,

Two or three days back, there were many angry views on Flipkart in Twitter. The reason was Flipkart increased the minimum price for Free Home Delivery from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300. There were already a few murmurs here and there and this announcement made e-shoppers fuming.

I still remember my first purchase on Flipkart. How I came to know about the site was far more interesting. It was nearly three years back or might be a little less than that. My dad was searching for a book that was a detailed city map of Chennai. He was not able to get it at most of the shops. A few days before this incident I read one of the Chetan Bhagat’s books and went to his website to see more details about him. That’s when I saw the link for Online Purchase. And so when my dad was searching, I thought why not try it online.

Of the two or three sites (that were actually referring to Chetan Bhagat’s books) Flipkart had the book my dad wanted and that was the first purchase. Its value was Rs.240. No discount was given for the book. Anyway we were impressed with the packing and my dad was not able to believe the service.

Days went by and I bought quite a lot of books at Flipkart. I started referring the site to my friends too (Flipkart was not advertising then). My classmates turned out to be a big customer for Flipkart in the following time (particularly during the Placement season). The free home delivery price was Rs. 100 then.

Next story is How I moved out of Flipkart. I can’t say I moved out completely, but then I detached myself from Flipkart Books service. The reasons were simple. I was able to find books at a cheaper price in some other sites. Sites such as Junglee, provided a comparison and gave the best offer. There were sites which gave Free Home Delivery for literally everything they sold.

Still, I made my brother buy his mobile phone through Flipkart and recently I too got it via Flipkart. In terms of mobile phones or electronic gadgets, I think Flipkart is still a very competitive one.

But in terms of books, which was their starting point, I think they are slowly losing their path. Most of the books cost below Rs. 300, so who will buy the books from Flipkart. The price might be cheaper than the book at a bookstore, but still to a customer, Rs. 30 seems to be a big value. And most of the other e-stores offer at a very less price.

And there has been many other complaints too. Some of the goods, they display as In Stock are actually Out of Stock. After making the order, someone calls you after a week and say that it is unavailable. How terrible will it be? It is happening particularly in the case of highly expensive low moving products. This makes the higher end customers move out.

On the whole, it seems like the biggest online store of India, that set example for many others is slowly losing its path. With competition coming in from various other sites in many parameters, if Flipkart doesn’t respond there is a huge chance of the company being overtaken by some other e-store.

Happy Reading!!!