My Visakhapatnam visit

Last week I visited Visakhapatnam, the place where I started my career. That was so long back. I went there after 15 years to visit my old friends, my colleagues and above all to show my kids what I did in those days. I worked in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. I was so proud to show my kids the basics of Steel Making… the Blast Furnace, the Linz-Donawitz Converter, the Continuous Cast Machines and the Rolling Mills. I am pretty sure my wife and kids never thought that the Steel Plant was that huge.
Read the rest of this entry »

Unusual Oscar and a big day for India

This time the Oscar was entertaining… not because my favorite, Slumdog has won 8 out of the 8 categories it was nominated in. Hugh Jackman’s vision of a “more show less biz” Oscar turned this year’s Oscar as one of the best. Especially I liked it better than the normal version where comics try their old beaten comedy lines that are sometimes more disgusting than entertaining. Hugh’s theatrical talents were seen in couple of acts. Yes – As a host, Hugh Jackman is a big winner in this Oscar. I hope Academy will call him again the next year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Slumdog Millionaire

Few days back I saw the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. Today I came across Priyadarshan’s statement ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is mediocre, trashy.. That made me write this blog. I respect Priyadarshan and loved some of the movies he made. With no disrespect I would say that Priyadarshan’s movies are entertainers not Academy Award material.

A artwork becomes great when the artist puts in a lot detail in the background. Artwork with plain canvas is not amazing. The same way a movie becomes great when there is a lot of vibrant background. A story without a colorful background is not Oscar material. That is the same reason the ‘Gone with the Wind’ is a great book. It takes us through the civil war era with a simple love story. Similarly with a simple story, Slumdog shows the environment an orphan kid has to go through in India. It made me remember another great movie “Life is Beautiful” by Roberto Benigni.

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to my new blog

I used to have a blog running in jroller.com and today I decided that it is time to upgrade. Hence after some deliberations, I started my *new* blog in my domain harinair.com.

I am sure you will ask what is harinair? My original name is supposed to be Hari G. Nair; the middle initial G for Gangadharan (my dad’s first name). Nair is our family’s last name but my parents decided to drop it since it identifies the caste. In late 60s and early 70s there was a sentiment against using caste in the names, at least in the state of India I was born in. In that state, the last name was not important. Hence my name became Hari G.

When I moved out and started working in other countries, I found that the last name is important and I finally expanded my middle initial to make my full name Hari Gangadharan. Later when I got married, fortunately or unfortunately, my wife’s last name was already Nair and we decided not to change her last name to Gangadharan.  When our kids were born, to reduce confusion and to keep the naming a standard (yeah – I like that!) both of my kid’s last name became Nair. Now I am the odd person out! Meanwhile since harigangadharan is too long (I too misspell it) and hari is always taken, I always use harinair for all my online identities. That way I feel I still belong in the family. Few years back, I registered this domain but I am putting this to work only now.

Started with Globalstar

Last March, we abandoned our startup idea to create a Wikiable map for the third world since:

1. We could not get the funding.
2. We were pretty sure that Google is releasing a similar product (They did now – they released Mapmaker couple of weeks back)

Now after all those phases of grief, in May I accepted a position in the SPOT product team  of Globalstar. We provide a personal tracker that can communicate back your latitude and longitude using the satellites. Hence your family and friends can track your progress in a Google Map interface. Also it has a cool 911 button that can send message to the emergency responders. What is great about it? It communicates from virtually any where in the earth even in places where there is no cell coverage. A must have for all the adventurous people…

My work is exciting and some what challenging – hence I am enjoying it. Do you want to know where I am? SPOT tells you where I am.