Google, the god, sent one more messenger: Google Chrome. For people like me, who always relied on Google for my engineering projects and even for the smallest source of information, I have trusted and worshiped Google more than God :D

Google officially launched the web browser on 2nd Sep. I have downloaded the browser and exploring its features. Like all other google applications, Chrome is also in beta version.

For the past few years, I have been using Firefox, another open source browser, which provides the needful and most preferred compared to Internet Explorer, Opera. Though, I downloaded Safari from Apple, AOL, I vote for Firefox when compared to the features it provides. Flock is another browser which promised to provide such features, but nothing can beat Firefox.

The Chrome browser does not support the Adobe Flashplayer and lacks many features, hence in beta stage. Add-ons are not yet available.


It can be downloaded from here . Google developers have shared their experiences on their blog. Also, try to access gmail on Chrome.

Scott McCloud, the famous cartoonist, came up with comics on this. Read the comics here and here. 

© Manasa. All rights reserved.

The schedule was so hectic that I did not browse for three long days. I have loads to write and read all your blogs and comment :)

And how do you like this footer at the end of the post?

I watched the movie: Kung Fu Panda today. The movie is an animation with perfection. The story is all about a panda: Po, dreaming of being a Kung Fu warrior by defeating Tai Lung(another Kung Fu warrior). Po is an expert noodle cook like his father.

One fine day, Po is selected as  Dragon Warrior and his journey begins in learning Kung Fu. His master, Shifu, dislikes Po like the other students and want Po to quit. But, Po doesn't give up so easily. He is constantly bullied as fat bellied, stinking...

Shifu's master dies and as a new master, he is left with no other choice rather than supporting the Kung Fu fanatic, Po, as the successor. Shifu teaches his best to him. Having learnt a good deal of the martial art, Dragon scroll is handed to Po in which he finds his reflection and nothing as he expects. Disheartened Po, now comes to his father. His father reveals that there was no special ingredient added in the noodle soup. It was the way he presumed that made it special. Having realized the ultimate truth, Po runs to rescue his master and defeats Tai Lung(a well learnt Kung Fu warrior who once loast the chance of being Dragon Warrior).

The ending was awesome. Po holds his enemy's paws just the way his master-Shifu once held his paws threatening him to quit or else he would see the end. When Tai Lung, the tiger, asks him if Shifu taught this? Po says: "No". Likewise, there are several things which wouldn't have been taught by our teachers at school or parents at home. Few are learnt only by careful observation and analysis. Just the way few students score high marks in the toughest question papers during exams. Many answer to the direct quests but correct answer to the trickiest question make them unique which others wouldn't have answered or even tried to just because they weren't taught in the class.

Apart from being portrayed as an animation movie, it has a moral, too :)

I was put into a new project in a new team with entirely different set of people whom I knew little. As time passed on, my acquaintance grew much better with them. Though, I knew most of them, I wasn't much closer or shared personal matters with any. Few things I knew about the senior teamates were the existing facts which others also knew-how old they were in this team or company, if they were married or not, where they resided and nothing much personal was ever disclosed.

My acquaintance with my teamate, R~, grew stronger. R~ was an year senior to me in age and the team as well and she would board the same bus in which I travelled. R~ became closer to me, she would share her personal experiences. I would rather say, R~ was more a friend than a colleague. Soon, R~ introduced me to another senior member of the team, J~, who was senior to both of us.

Once, R~ invited J~ and me to join her for the tea and evening snacks. Three of us would meet for tea, everyday. J~ was a new person to me and so I was. Hence, I restricted myself to talking only the project related stuffs. No sooner, J~ also began opening her mind, her journey in life. She had a little angel who was just two year old and was taken care by her parents in her native town. One fine day, I learnt her life.

She was married to a post-graduate engineer who was ambitious of pursuing doctoral studies, though he worked for one of the best companies and had a well paid job, it couldn't stop him from taking up the thesis. J~ convinced and motivated her husband that she can run the family alone and he shouldn't give up his hope so easily. She was carrying when her husband quit his well paid job. Her husband was a major son and also a bread winner of the family of four: her father-in-law who was retired and no longer worked, her brother-in-law who was still a student. Behind every successful man, there is always a woman. How true!!!

A few months later, her FIL fell ill and the medical expenses reached as high as 1.5 lakh. Having no money on hand, they were completely under debts. Yet, J~ did not lose hope and did not allow her husband to give up his studies, either. After her baby was born, she had to leave her under her parents care.
When she finished telling this, I was lost in deep thoughts. How difficult it might have been to leave her daughter miles away. The moments she wished to hear her daughter utter first words, the glimpse of her laughter, holding her tiny soft fingers when she might start to walk.

As a wife, she brought in the confidence in her partner to achieve his goal. As a daughter-in-law and sister-in-law, she had done the needful to her family. Her support to the family was magnanimous.

Though, J~ had faced so much at such a young age, she would never crib over it or boost of her deeds. She would say - Cribbing makes the problem more worse and bigger than it is. Her deeds spoke of selflessness. A courageous lady with a smiling face. 

Last friday, she quit the job. I wish her the best endeavours in life.

Its been a long weekend for me. Four continuous days resting at home due to cold, cough, head ache and sore throat. On thursday night, having attended my cousin's wedding reception which had yummy ice cream, chats, paan and ask what not! Though, it was not a perfect weather for ice cream, I ate it heartfull.



Head ache, cough, sneeze and sore throat are the best companions which cannot live without each other. Though, I am taking medicines, they are reluctant to leave me alone! The climate is so chill that it drives me to sleep..yaawn! This evening, after sipping the steaming tomato soup with pepper and salt already added by Knorr, it was a great relief from those uninvited guests!

Now, I am ready to attend office tomorrow!

I, finally watched this movie: Dashavataram last week. The media went ga-ga over the publicity of this movie. I had even received many forwarded chain mails praising the performance of the renowned South Indian actor, Kamal Haasan, how well he enacted the ten roles with different makeup in various situations.


When I sat and watched this movie, I couldn't even tolerate it for more than 45 minutes :( Though, Kamal Haasan wanted to make this movie a record, he couldn't patch up the flaws. The involvement of too many characters has also made it boring just the way - "Too many cooks spoil the broth". Asin's acting was not pleasing, either. Her way of speaking adds ghee to the fire.


When I heard: Dasavatharam, I imagined the story to be very mythological involving the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu since the movie starts with a story which happened 800 years ago with Rangarajan sacrificing his life for Lord Ranganatha before the King and the movie ends with Tsunami deserting lives of millions.


The movie could have been made much better. Sometimes, there wasn't any connection between the characters and were involved just for the sake. The makeup was not that impressive as in his earlier movies like Indian - Kamal plays the role of an aged man and Chachi 420 - he plays an aged strong woman(Remake of Tamil movie: Avvai Shanmugi which in turn is a remake of Mrs.Doubtfire) etc. I would say his earlier classical movies were excellent where he plays the role of classical dancer. The movies Swarna Kamalam and Saagara Sangamam won many awards.

Though, Kamal has potential to do better movies, its not reflected in this movie. Also read review on rediff.

EDIT: Note added on Aug 28: Also read the review by fellow blogger: here

Disclaimer: This post reflects my opinion only. It is not posted to hurt anybody.

I sometimes wonder, what makes a country strong: is it the huge buildings, posh roads,  etc or the strong wise men to build a nation? Is it not that both the former and latter are equally essential? Is it so the former can be  accomplished only if we have the latter ones??? The latter ones say that there is no reason to be here since there is no career and recognition for merit. The latter ones remember that they once belonged to this land and come back when their kids begin to grow up in a foreign land. As for me, just because the neighbouring house aunty is modern and gorgeous, I can't stay at her house as a guest for a long time and can't love her as much as I love my mother. No matter how ever my mother is, I love her and the love is eternal.

On thursday morning, while I was stuck up in a traffic jam as usual, my attention was caught by the two little kids aged around 10-12 years who were asking the car owners or the bike riders at the traffic signal to buy the tricolor flags or the badges. But nobody even bothered to look at them. I was watching this through the window of the bus which was far away from those kids. Many people speak of abolishment of child labour and lengthy speeches on it, if they are so concerned why wouldn't they help those kids by buying a flag/badge which would cost them less than Rs 10/- or did they think it was a waste of money buying them? The child wasn't begging or stealing. He had chosen a path of decent living.

At office, grand celebrations went on in the evening which included cultural dances and finally concluded by National Anthem. All of us stood up, no matter we were eating or hurrying for the bus. There was some sort of oneness to which all of us are bound to.

For those people, who work on daily wages. Those who sustain eating once a day or thrive with hunger for days together, who don't even have voters card nor a shelter to protect them, it was just another day in their life.

Janani janmabhoomisch, Swargadapi gariyasi (the mother and motherland are dearer than heaven)

Now you can receive news updates from CNN IBN right on your gtalk. Just add IBN alerts in your gtalk and receive updates even while you are offline.

me: help im: These are the keywords you can use:

top: Gets you all the latest stories from IBNLive
sports: Gets you all the latest sports stories from IBNLive
biz: Gets you all the latest business stories from IBNLive
ent: Gets you all the latest showbiz stories from IBNLive
search: Search IBNLive's stories (Example: "search Euro 2000")
subscribe: Shows you the ways in which you can subscribe to or manage alerts

Twitter had introduced sending and receiving updates via gtalk which conked off in mid-May and they haven't restored it.

Lets see, how far this feature introduced by IBN will maintain its charm!