Remnants of an army, by Elizabeth Butler ..

Lone survivor - Elizabeth Butler ..

The painting of the sole survivor of the British army of 1842 AD consisting of 700 European soldiers, 3800 Indian sepoys and 14,000 civilian staff who fled Kabul, entering Jalalabad in Eastern Afghanistan was a grim scene to be captured by the artist Elizabeth Butler.

The British occupation of Afghanistan which started with great promise but ended in total disgrace is a grim reminder to the forces of the world that even though Afghanistan does offer feeble opposition to its occupation by the different powers of the world, the dogged resistance to foreign authority amongst the disaggregated small groups within Afghanistan has been famed, giving credence to the famous saying yet again : Empires go to Afghanistan to die ....

Alliance lawns ...

Tennis ball game, a good lean continuous improvement exercise..

http://leaninsider.productivitypress.com/2008/12/tennis-ball-exercise.html

When I played this game for the first time in the class, jan 2013 batch, it generated interest and a group of students who were really ingenious, came up with the rolling of the tennis ball making use of gravity to reach the minimum time of 1.3 seconds to roll the 3 balls among all the members of the team.

Was useful in spreading the idea of Kaizen or continuous improvement to the students. I just had to tell them what needed to be done and they did it in the shortest time..

Good work, students !!

Learnings from the game

ge

My new Huawei Ascend G600 phablet ..

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/huawei-ascend-g600-review-50009044/

1.2 Ghz dual core ( upto 1.7 GHz) Qualcomm snapdragon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_%28system_on_chip%29 ) ARMv7 CPU chipset, working on 45 nm technology, this is the best in town at a great price of 15K on flipkart.

4.5" screen, 768MB RAM, 16GB memory, 2000 mAh battery, 8 MP rear camera and a .3 MP secondary front camera and Near field comm chip inbuilt, this is one of the best and cost effective smart phones around.

Even the iPhone 5 priced at Rs 43,000 in India has only 1.2 GHz dual core and 1 GB RAM with a 4" screen ..

Huawei is the world largest telecom eqpt manufacturer, having overtaken Ericsson in 2012. ..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei .. Huawei's treatment of its workforce has received negative comments. Like how Apple phones being made in China by Foxconn had HR problems with its huge workforce in China.


A note for all fence sitters.

Why I went for this product is

1. Huawei is the world No. 1 company in Networking eqpt, having beaten the likes of Ericsson, Alcatel etc who are all history.. They would not stake their repute on this product.

2. The trend these days is to go for Chinese products, like 100% of Apple products is manufactured in China with Samsung Korea display and baseboard components. Be part of the Great China resurgence story ( as all Americans do..) !!

3. Huawei and Samsung are leading the race to ascertain Asia's dominance in the world electronics and networking eqpt esp mobile phones scene.

4. It is always a good feeling and exciting confidence to be with the leader ..

5. Cost innovation Huawei has brought about at just one third the cost of an equally comparable iPhone 5.

6. Value for money is what I would say finally..

george..

At bijuchayans house ..

..

Pic of late Mathew Easaw, my elder bro ..

died on April 7 1978..

Old pic of CET ...

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Bhagalpuri silk saree..

Silky..

Drawing room ...

Happenings in our sister church, Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church, Kerala ..

" Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows " : Galatians 6:7

If one believes in creating discord amongst brethren, disturbing harmony for personal gain, fishing in muddy waters and so on, the result is going to be as presently we read in the newspapers..

After all, finally only truth and justice will prevail .. how much ever one tries to tweak it with money and political influence ..

May God give them the peace and brain to realise this eternal truth !

--
Sincere regards,

George Easaw
Bangalore

Ebenezer, Ebi and his Goobook song..

Please listen and encourage this very good and promising singer from Sri Lanka, my former student, now with Christ University, Bangalore, Ebenezer Bremen Veerasingham, "Ebi", with this beautiful, melodious and adorable song..  It is called the goobook song !! You can google out this song too ..

http://ebisinspirations.blogspot.in/2012/12/the-goobook-song.html?spref=fb&m=1

Ebi also plays the keyboards besides the guitar, composes his own songs and sings them ..

Overall, he is a very humble and lovable character ..

Encourage him by circulating this link to your friends..

george..

Toyota's first car, 1936 ..

Model Toyota AA

ge..

Memories get stronger .. 25 years .. lots more remaining !!

M1 batch from CET, 1981-86

After 25 years, getting together at Leela, Kovalam, TVM. July, 2011.

I was the other day talking to my earlier engg. boss in MRF at a function in Goa. A CET alumnus from '68 batch. Getting ready for their 50th year get-together ..

He was telling how with the passage of time, their friendship is getting stronger and stronger ..Earlier they used to meet once in 2 years, then it got to once every year, now it is once every six months.

There is a popular saying 'familiarity breeds contempt'. It is never so with classmates and benchmates.

As time flies off, initially family gets bigger, hair gets greyer, tummies get
bulgier, wallets get fatter, later when homes become lonely nests and health starts getting dicier, the only firm things remaining are the selfless friends from college days !!

Let us meet more often. Can all of us have a get together around August this year at Gavi, pathanamthitta dist?

US get-together is planned for after the TVM bash in 2014, right ?

Pl give ur ideas here..

ge..

With fr philip kuruvilla in bangalore..

Atop the bandra worli sea link, mumbai..

The world's greatest professional doper.. Lance Armstrong..

Lance Armstrong has admitted to doping in winning all his 7 Tour De France titles, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey ..




Is the winning spirit more important that that of ensuring fair play, of treating your competitors with respect and not with disdain ? Armstrong's stance has all these years been one of total neglect and disregard of the competition. a sinlge minded pursuit at maintaining his winning streak, by fair or foul means ..

Good that finaly he has realised his mistake and confessed before the whole world.. This will for sure, be a welcome step to ensure fair play and competitive sportsmanship in all types of high pressure sports of the world ..

ge..

Cassava with cayenne chutney ..

School children at Alliance uty.

As part of the CSR initiatives, the children from std 1 to 5 from 4 govt LP schools in the vicinity of Alliance University from Chikkahagade, Janata Colony, Kammasandra and Avardenahalli visited the campus today and had a sumpuous lunch, courtesy Ms. Leela Karkaria.

For the students it was a real exposure to an Institute of Higher Learning and we wish this will instil in them the possibility and desire to go for higher learning in their future lives..

ge..

Snaps of provident housing ..

Back side of E5 block ..

Center draught for ensuring cross ventilation

Jobin and Abin in front room ..

Snap of kitchen..

Back side snap again ..

WolframAlpha - Public education spending world countries

WolframAlpha - Public education spending world countries

A very short holiday ..

Rajesh and Archana with bridesmen and maids

Jojen and younger daughter, excellent pose..

I got an opportunity or reason to visit Goa once again in 2013. Since I could not avoid attending the marriage of Archana and Rajesh, ( Archana is the daughter of my former MRF Boss, George Ninan and a long time family friend), Anila, chinnu and myself went to Goa on 4 Jan by KSRTC executive, at 5 PM from Bangalore, We went via Ponda and hence could reach Farmagudi by 8.45 AM where our stay was already arranged at Farmagudi touist cottages by George Ninan.

After taking a quick breakfast I went to Panjim to SBI treasury branch and by by 2.15 PM we were off to margao for the marriage to Lady of Rosary Chapel in Davorlim.

Sandra, Brian and Anila (l 2 r) at Brians home.

It was a big chapel and he function was good. Most of my Ponda, Goa friends and old MRF friends were there. After the marriage we proceeded to the reception which was at diametrically opposite area in Dream World Corlim near to Syngenta.

I proposed the toast to Rajesh and Archana as I was their Professor for a good four years while in Goa Engg College. The dinner was great, We reached back to our rooms by 12 midnight.

The next day we bunked church and instead went straight to Jeevan Thomas' home in Ponda and then to Brian's place in margao. In fact, Brian picked us up and then we went to Sarenbatim beach , cool and serene, in Margao and were back by 6 PM. After a brief singing session, we were all back in the bus by 7.30 and off to Bangalore.

It was a small break, though Jobin could not come due to exams. Back in office on Monday morning.

All of us at Sarenbatim beach having a good lunch

ge..

A real heavy lunch ..

Nathan, Jonathn and Chinnu at Sarenbatim after a dip....

TV impact on the common man ..

I was not aware of the impact TV was having on me till recently when due to a fault on my Toshiba 32" LCD, I could not watch TV for some time. It was exam time for my kids, so intentionally we decided to have the repair done after the exams by New Year.

Now it is past New Year and the feeling of not having a TV at home is not at all felt, as now we have more time to spend with family, more time to have dinner together, more time for prayers and over all less of distraction for my kids and myself from our work.

I may continue this for another two months till my daughter finishes her final exams and then we will take a decision to repair the TV then. Having an unlimited Internet at home does not cut us out from the world at all.

Earlier it was too much entertainment at home, be it films, news, song programmes and so on, all at the expense of quality time at home.

I have finally realised that not having a TV at home is not a sin  or we are not going to miss anything. The newspaper is still the most popular medium to convey news and thoughts to the people and talking is the best means of communicating with others..

ge..

Metros of the world ..

Regarding transportation systems, any system of transportation that has a high frequency and has separate tracks and rails for its free movement, be it overground or underground, qualifies to be called a Metro .

It is this regard that the article in The Economist of Jan 5, 2013 "Going Underground" finds mention. A well researched article, it lists the top ten metro rails of the world in the order of its length of kms running. Undeniably China secures the first and second position, with the oldest and the first metro of the world The London Metro (established in 1863) occupying the third position.



The New Delhi Metro at a running length of about 172 kms is presently considered to be the one of the most advanced in the world.. As of July 2011, it had 1.7 million daily commuters and is now at 2.06 million as of Jan 2013.



But CNN travel website has a different list as given here. Countries are vying with each other to improve the standard of urban mass commuting.

There are many reports which lists the top metros of the world, but on a scan through many lists I found special mention of Korea, Hong Kong and Petersburg Russia to be among the top three.

The list put up bny Economist which lists China to be holding the place for the two longest metros of the world will soon be joined by New Delhi and possibly Mumbai soon, as the ridership and demand for the metro services are far greater here.

ge..

TOYOTA Plant in Japan

Toyota Plant in Japan

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