You've got (other's) email

We all know Gmail is buggy. But, does the Gmail team say its a feature ? Are we not glad about the fact that they have accepted it and even provided us with the required justification - http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313#

Well, am talking about this one bug of first.last@ being treated as firstlast@. Since the time we have owned a gmail id, we have been many a times equally annoyed and entertained by messages. To some i politely reply back saying that its not 'me' who they are looking for. There are few sensible brains out there who immediately apologize and carry on with their conversation with the right person,thankfully, not including me there after. But, there are the rest - who in spite of all the gentle reminders keep annoying us.

Resume - These are the most common ones. Does it make me happy that there are many a HR personnels and recruiters by my name ? No, thank you not one bit. Because these folks sending out their resumes - the biggest blunder from their side - they do not make a proper note of the email-id of the person they speak to or the one who asks for their data. For example, if they spoke to someone by name Adya, they figure out all possible ways of writing the name and then send their resume out to,

adya@gmail

adyaa@gmail

adhya@gmail

adyah@gmail

and whatever they can come up with. Given a chance, I definitely do not want to recruit them!

If this is the story of the job hunting-laid back group who email not just one person but many by the same name, there are these well established and educated folks holding responsible positions, making the same blunder. A mail from someone in Dept of ECE, Wayne State Univ. And the irony, this mail is received by my Mr. Phd :-p

"Hope your GRE preparation is progressing smoothly.Scoring high in the verbal section requires lot of hard work.Make sure that u complete atleast 1 word list per day along with a decent practice of RC.You should be finishing RC in a couple of days,after which you need to start with Sentence completion and subsequently Analogies.ALL THE BEST.Study well"

A tutor from NIIT sends a mail out to the pupil, "Dear Axxx, Your java class starts on 13/12/09 10.00am.we are not able to reach you through phone. Regards, Jxxxxx NIIT SALEM"

These are human blunders. The Gmail bug [adyah==adya.h errors]has made us receive umpteen number of passport copies, source code from software professionals. A s/w engineer emails us thus, "Mr xxx, How r u? how was the life, I am fine, I have on doubt please clarify. I have one geodatabase is having 4 lakhs polygons. I want export to shapefile is it possible or not. we tried but not get it." Oh, Yes, "How was life ?" is the apt question if the person reading this died of verbal crucifixion.

A hilarious mail conversation that we shared with our parents and the whole family had a good laugh. I blame not the affectionate mother but the son, who should have sent them a test mail or written his email address in a diary or a safe place for his parents. This is from a mother to her son who has just set foot in US of A for his graduate studies. This fellow, looking at the tone of the email, has been talking to them on and off since his landing but looks he really hasnt written any email to them and has only conveyed verbally his email address to them. The 1st mail from the mother goes thus,

" hi

thank u for ur greetings

how do u feel there?

are u getting enough water(tap) water to drink?

what did u cook today

what are u doing for washing clothes?

ur room mates are daiictians or from other college/

i think they are from UP.

what is ur daily routine there?

take care and eat regularly,and eat healthy food.

yesterday was ganesh chathurthi. did u remember?

for taking bath do u get hot water?

is geyser there?wi

will u come for g talk or skype today at 8pm like yesterday?

bye then

rest in next mail

amma &appa"

This is a perfectly normal email from a mother whose son has for the first time is staying away from their watchful eyes and in a different continent. We were reminded of all those questions our parents and even our friends's parents asking us about Pilani, which is very much within India. I remember my friends parents even used to sympathize with mine for i was studying in a desert leaving behind all the luxuries of a college in Erode or Coimbatore. Need we say about the first time US traveller's parents ? My Mr. was a little apprehensive about replying back to this email saying "I am not the A you are looking for" which is usually the response or in this case, something like "I am not your son...". He feared, what if the parents panicked that their son has disowned them just hours after landing in America ??

So silence prevails and we do not respond at all and looks like their biological son too never emailed them. 1-2-3-4 days gone, 5th day, we receive an other email from the mom,

"Hope u will get on well there.everyday at least u send one mail sothat u r alright-we can assume.Keep contact always. amma"

In the meantime, the mom had also sent out a gtalk invite. Neither did we reject nor accepted it. But our Mr. was feeling sorry for this affectionate mother whose son never bothered to call or email them. He also wanted to convey and make her understand that all the while she had been emailing not her son, but, someone else by the same name and spelling too. So, he bravely accepts the chat invite to put an end to the pseudo mom-pseudo son connection - make her understand and to some extent have control over the emotions of the mom at run time as they chat.

It was a lazy saturday afternoon, a ting-ping sound alert, a message appears on his gtak.

Mom: hi. laptop vangiyacha?

Mr.: hello

Mom: hi (again)

(takes a look at Mr's profile pic on gtalk)

Mom:"what photo? un face madiri illai"

This was ultimate - we laughed our guts out, blaming that irresponsible son and empathizing with the mom's feelings. We shared this dialogue thats it, the whole family was in a roller coaster of laughter for almost 1 hour. Of all the questions about the geyser, hot water, remembering to take bath - this photo-face thing topped the list!

We resume ourselves and now was the moment, Mr. gathers guts to type 'the' line - "my name is first name last name." And then the unutterable yet had to be uttered at this point. "i am not your son." We were imagining all sorts of drama like the mom having a stroke or high palpitation due to this heart breaking message from a son. There was a long pause for 3 minutes, which seemed really long at that moment for us, we didnt know about their end. The very response of my name is.. should have conveyed the message, but just to make sure she was alive and to break the ice Mr. typed, "i think you got the wrong email address. " Yet again a pause, and the last we heard from her was, "Oh. sorry."

When 60 year olds behave like 6 year olds...

Mail 1: "My 3 BHK flat at yyy zzz is available for rent. Expected rent is 17k (negotiable)."

Response : "Kutta kamina haramka......"

The authenticity of the message is still not known. The mail says its been sent from a blackberry or we do not know if its one of those geeks playing around with some pop mails. God knows whats the enmity between the 60 yr old man from whose id the mail seems to have been originated from and the actual person who sent it.

Thats the story from the rental side. Lets hear the selling side,

Person 1 : "My house nnnn in yyyzzz is ready for sale" something like that.

First response on this thread,

Person 2 :"Have you done any interior? How much are you quoting for this? If you can answer these two questions it would be nice."

Person 1 : "YES, Flat includes modular kitchen and modular ward robes (3 in no), have done customization and electrical fittings. Ready to move Flat, all these works costed me around 4 Lakhs Total price I am expecting is 70 L (including customization cost) + registration

If you don't require modular ward robes, we can take them out"

OK, this has justified his pricing enough. Now comes the actual drama -

Person 2 : "I think the running rate in yyy zzz is not more than 60 for a flat of that size. Any bargaining possible?"

Bargaining ?? Is that the term you use when you speak real estate and when you speak in lacs ? I thought bargaining or haggling applied to 'kathirikkai, vendai kai vyaparam' meaning eggplant and okra business.

And in a community there are always some silent observers whereas some are not -

Person 3 : "I know from a broker that a yyy zzz flat sold for 66 lakhs with out wood work or electrical fittings. 70 is fair price with wood work and electical fittings... any way good luck with bargaining.. . "

Now, we do not know if this person really heard it from a broker or if he is just trying to press the point that whatever Person 1 is quoting is right so he could do so too when it comes to selling his flat. And why the good luck, who is he trying to wish here ? Who is going lose and who's going to gain in this bargaining act ? And again bargaining strikes! Hmph!

Our man looks like being in a great hurry to get rid of the property and returns thus,

Person 1: "My quote is 66 L (including all deposits) with out customization cost. This is running price, no much bargaining pls"

This reminds of a famous Koundamani-Senthil comedy from movie "Ulathai allitha", where the said comedian or villian goes, "Tempo ellam vechu kadathirken pa, konjum pottu kudupa" meaning he kidnapped using a tempo so he's kind of trying to bargain for a higher price.

One must remember that all this so called 'bargaining' is happening in public i.e reply-all mode. Looks like the bargaining bit helped after all, that he came down to 66 from 70 in just 2 email exchanges. A funnier aspect of this whole conversation is, we do not know if the person selling the property is really aware of the fact that the person trying to bargain is only yet an other property owner in the same community and was only trying to ask the rates for GK purposes and is not really interested in buying. Or may be that person was gathering pointers to sell their own or just to check the extent of possible bargaining. Unlike yesterday's passive (shy) 30 year olds ( 3 year olds), these are the nosy citizens who cannot just ignore messages that are meant for prospective tenants and buyer and NOT for them. They just feel like the ice-breakers and have to have a say in every mail thread. I'm only reminded of those inquisitive 6 year olds in their 1st or 2nd grades. When the teacher asks the class a question, all of them go in chorus, "Me, me, me", "I know it, i know it" instead of quietly raising their hands and letting the teacher choose a pupil to answer.

When 30 year olds behave like 3 year old...

"Kalyanam panni paar, veettai katti paar" meaning perform a wedding and see, build a house and see is not a faltu (something like worthless) statement after all. The difficulty in organizing a wedding by the bride's father is matched to the difficulty in building a house. The wedding part, once the marriage is performed the parents can be rest assured the girl is in safe hands and they take good care of her and vice versa. But when it comes to the house, a flat in our case, its a life long tragedy of putting up with few jug-heads. The book, Bonsai Manager clearly states that the politics in running a company of the size of Tata (s) is far less than the politics of running an apartment society. This is so very true!

When you buy an apartment, you dont want to be left behind on some important news and notices about Khata transfer, Service Tax and many more - things that require all of the clients to stand together to fight against the builder or the government. So we subscribe ourselves to the e groups or the common floor community mailing list and all those on earth. For once i acted wisely and subscribed with my mail id that i retired a few years ago. Retired as in I dont use it for mailing/ stay-in-touch purposes but for other uses like e-cards, e-shopping registration, e- reservation etc. I make it a point to check it once in a month or so. I happened to browse through it today and noticed many many funny yet annoying instances. But, looking at the amazing emails, looks like i will be checking that inbox more often - a great way of entertainment!

Corporate mailing rule1 : Do not subscribe your official id to any kind of social networking sites or e groups.

Do we adhere to these rules, NO, NEVER. First thing we do as we receive our mail id at work, email all our folks and send a note asking them to add this new-official-mail-id to all the existing groups. Put the same mail id on Orkut or Facebook or Twitter, simple because they are banned at our workplace and we will remain clueless what our friends are up to when we are at our desks just pretending to work. And the need to be updated with all/any kind of news the very nanosecond the sender clicks send.

Corporate mailing rule2: Never do a Reply-all, unless your message is of public interest or one that requires wider audience and opinions.

No and never adhere to this rule too, even if its the same message they are trying to propagate, they reply-all saying, " Please do not reply-all" instead of just sending it to the sender alone.

The next hilarious bunch of mails i noticed are the ones announcing the availability of the flat for rent or sale. Of the 40 minutes i spent in reading through the 75 odd emails, i noticed 30+ friends of the current occupants wanting to rent a flat, 5+ friends wanting to buy, 20+ owners wanting to rent out , 4+ owners wanting to sell. Note that these gentlemen and ladies sending our mails asking "if any flat is available for..." are not doing so for themselves but for their friends who are trying to move to Bangalore from elsewhere. When they are so very concerned and really want to help them find a house, since they are already on this mailing list, they should simply do a search in their archives/ Inbox and give them the contact details of the already advertised flats/owners. No, they will never do that, simply because - its home work <=> hard work.

Instead they plainly send out a mail saying "my good friend is looking for an apartment to rent..." CC-ing him of course, is the highest honor of help they are doing to that person. And this fellow who is interested in renting out, does not email the person on CC, rather would do a reply to the whole egroups announcing his flat's availability.

The same goes with buying and selling. The owner who wants to sell does not do his home work reading through his old emails and contacting those prospective buyers, but once again emails the group. Assuming that the person who sent a mail out asking if there was any flat on sale would pay attention to his email now. But, why would he, he emailed not for his sake but his friend's, about whom he probably would have forgotten the minute he sent the mail out copying his mail address. And so, this mail now is of no use and again goes into their collection of emails.

When nobody really reads any email, why do they want to get their official ids subscribed ? If you give me an answer that you are the busiest man at work, then 1st thing to do is unsubscribe the official id from the groups. None of the emails are serving their purpose. Even more annoying, getting an Out-of-Office response on egroups. When will these people ever grow up ?Have these people picked up new hobby of email-collection ??

There's an other episode of the nosy 60 year olds who read all their emails, rather every line of the email and reply-all asking unwanted questions. Will write more on it tomorrow may be, when 60 years old behave like 6 year olds.

The delicious Vangi bath

For all those Brinjal /egg plant lovers - the delicious Vangi bath (brinjal rice)

The simplest way is to use MTR Vangi bath powder on cooked brinjal and mix with steamed rice.

To make it freshly at home we need to prepare the Vangi bath powder first. It requires,

2 tsp corainder seeds

1 tsp Urad dhal

1 tsp channa dhal

6 red chillies

1 inch cinnamon

1 cardomam

5 cloves

less than 1/2 tsp fenugreek

1/2 cumin seeds

less than 1/2 tsp peppercorn

Heat a spoon of oil and fry the above. Allow it to cool and make it into a fine dry powder. Folks having trouble with their mixer like i do, can add little water and make it into a thick paste. The advantage of making a powder is you can re-use it later and it stays longer than the paste.

Vangi bath is best made with the long green brinjal , but any brinjal/egg plant also tastes good.

Long brinjal - 5 (or) 1 big Egg plant, cut into small cubes

1 cup of rice to cook

2 tsp of Ghee or oil

Mustard seeds, Urad dhal, 3 Red chillies, Asafoetida (Hing)

Salt to taste and turmeric powder.

50ml of tamarind juice. (adding this is said to remove any kind of bitterness from the brinjal)

Roasted Copra (dry coconut powder)

Some curry leaves, cashew nuts and coriander leaves to garnish.

• Cook 1 cup of rice and keep aside.
• Heat oil or ghee in a pan and fry mustard seeds, urad dhal and red chillies. Sprinkle some Asafoetida powder on top.
• Add the cut pieces of brinjal and the tamarind juice, salt to taste and a pinch of turmeric powder on top and cook till the brinjal is done.
• Bring the flame to a minimum/low & add the roasted copra and the vangi bath powder/paste. Let it stay on low flame for a couple of minutes before you turn it off.
• Once the brinjal and the powder are finely mixed, add the cooked rice and mix again.
• Roast some cashew nuts and coriander leaves and add on top of the rice and serve hot. Garnish with freshly cut coriander leaves.

Kannadigas say this is best had with a coconut chutney, but i prefer having it with a cool cucumber raita.

A sunny Saturday

Saturday n' Sun
Shades n' Shadows
Shantaram.

Its Buzz off for Buzz

When no body wants it, what are they trying to improve ??

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article108054.ece?homepage=true

Mint-Tofu rice

Blogging took a back seat as we started concentrating more on travel and photog. But i never said i stopped cooking and trying out new recipes :-). Yesterday was one of those lazy evenings when i didn't feel like - cutting vegetables, adding too many spices, using too many utensils but still had that feeling, "edanum nanna sapadanum". Opened the refrigerator and found some mint, coriander, Tofu, boxes of strawberries and many many colorful vegetables which only my eyes were eying but my mind was already working on something minty - Voila! why not a mint-tofu rice ? It only took 15 mins to prepare.

1. A cup of rice to cook/steam in the rice cooker.
2. Cut the tofu into chunks and toss them in a pan so they become golden brown/crunchy and keep them aside.
3. Grind the following,

1. 2 handful of mint leaves

2. 1 green chilly

3. 1 medium sized onion

4. 1 medium sized tomato

5. 2 garlic cloves.

Pour this gravy/mix into a wok or pan, add salt to taste and bring it to boil and switch the burner off. Thats it!


By now, (considering you took 12-15 mins in gathering the above requirements and grinding them) the rice should have been cooked. Allow the steamed rice to cool for a couple of minutes and then add it to the mint gravy in the wok and mix. Once you feel the rice is well mixed, add the chunks of tofu on top of it. Yummm, i'm a big fan of mint, the flavor, the fragrance, the health benefits - everything is good about mint. If one prefers paneer to tofu, you could do that too and even garnish with some roasted cashew nuts.

Our man, Rah man is here too..