My experiments with tooth

24

2009-02-12T19:25:00.003+05:00

After Prison Break the other series that got me hooked to it, is 24. Initially I was absolutely fascinated by the concept of one entire season happening in 24 hours with each of the 24 episodes covering every consecutive hour of the day. But then after watching more seasons, the time of the incidents didn't seem to matter and after a point I stopped keeping track of the time. Cos any incident may happen at any time of the day, but it's just that they are happening continuously over a span of 24 hours.

However, there must be a willing suspension of disbelief when it comes to questions like "How the hell are the characters staying awake for so long???", "When do they eat, or even attend nature's call for that matter??" But the entire series will be an edge-of-the-seat thriller if we are willing to accept one basic fundamental law of 24: JACK BAUER CANNOT DIE!!

Here are a few of the funniest Jack Bauer Jokes that I found on the net:

It takes you 24 weeks just to watch what Jack Bauer does in a single day.

When a convicted terrorist was sentenced to face Jack Bauer, he appealed to have the sentence reduced to death.

Jack Bauer quit for just five minutes, and a nuclear bomb went off.

If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer's instructions, it would be called "12".

Jack Bauer always tests positive for steroids. Not that he uses steroids. It's because steroids are made from Jack Bauer.

Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

Jack Bauer forced Mother Theresa to confess to several crimes.

Jack Bauer once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.

When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.

Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That’s why there’s no life on Mars.

While undercover, Jack Bauer once killed 100 babies to prove his loyalty to a terrorist organization, then killed all the terrorists with a pencil and two rolls of Scotch tape.

Once again a loong delay!

2009-02-12T19:15:00.002+05:00

One of the best thing I like about blogging is that even if I come after a zillion days it still stays as it is. And no one is forcing me to keep writing stuff unless I really feel like it. So I don't think there's a reason to feel sorry for it. And for the simple reason that its always there for me whenever I need it, I love blogging!!! :-)

Prison Break

2008-05-27T14:46:00.003+05:00

One of those series that I had reserved to watch during the holidays. For when my brother introduced me to Heroes during the middle of the semester, I got so hooked into it that I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Watching these series makes you wonder why they don't make such series in India. They've shamelessly copied all the reality shows from the West, but when it comes to fiction, they stop with the soppy saas-bahus and mega-serials. But you can't blame them for the absence of creative story-tellers, for if there were good ones, first the movies here would be far better.

I've just finished watching season 1 of Prison Break and I can't wait till this weekend to get the next season from my friend. What I like more about Prison Break than Heroes was that the characters were normal without any extra-ordinary powers. When I saw heroes, I though that it should require some grandiose imaginations like these to make a thriller of a series. But Prison Break proved that it was possible to make a better thriller with just human characters. Making an intelligent storyline not only ensures an interesting watch but also fills the viewers with self-pride when they realize that the director has not underestimated their tastes.

Michael Scofield's character is inspirational and the way he comes up with his ingenius ideas to get things done makes you wonder if anyone can actually be that intelligent. But Paul Scheuring who has come up with the entire thing has to be. Having the entire plot in hand before starting to narrate is the most important quality of a good story-teller. This is something our story-writers have to learn from the Westerners if they want to produce great thrillers.

I had a vague idea of the story before i set out to watch it. But I wondered how breaking out of a prison could be made into a 22 episode series and then into more seasons that would also be entertaining to watch throughout. If you have the same doubt watch it and you will not regret it.

Dea(r)th of Good Movies

2008-05-27T13:53:00.003+05:00

And finally holidays... two months of sleeping eating and sleeping once again... one of the main things that keeps a college student alive during his holidays is movies. But sadly what struck me hard as soon as the holidays started was the absence of "one" good movie that would give you the feeling "I'm waiting to watch this movie on the day of the last exam." Looking at the list of Tamil movies that have released so far this summer, fills me with nothing but nausea. But here's a list of those movies that I've survived through these twenty days of holidays. Kudos to myself...

Santosh Subramaniam - This is Raja's 5213247th remake of a telugu movie, again with his brother Jeyam Ravi (do either of them make movies with others?). The only originality in Raja's movies is the selection of the proper Telugu blockbuster that would become a hit in Tamil too. Otherwise the movie is a scene-by-scene dubbing of the original flick. Genelia's character is mind-numbingly naive and a typical attempt to portray the bubbly Kareena of Jab We Met has taken her way overboard making her appear not just comical but a little irritating. And sadly (for tamil cinema), the usual Telugu movie marked by its lengthy mawkish dialogues in the climax scenes, has come to be accepted even by the Tamil audience. The only thing that has made this movie a hit is the basic story which retains its slight tinge of originality from its Telugu version (after all it was a blockbuster there, it must have had something in it).

Yaaradi Nee Mohini - A comic relief after watching Santosh Subramaniam. But it was just that. Gaining back my senses a few days after watching the two movies and thinking of the scenes in this movie, I can't believe how I was able to digest them in the first place. Raghuvaran-Danush dialogues were highly unrealistic to the point that they could have been avoided. And where can one find a family like Nayan's still living in the villages following ascetic lifestyles as depicted? But scenes like the hero being asked to sing about his friend's fiance and the dumb friend's smile upon seeing the two hugging each other during the song makes you forgive and forget all the other exaggerations in the movie. The climax was not very clear too.

Vellithirai - Feels like I'm still watching this movie. Sooooo loooooooong. But its one of those sensible movies that deserve some critical appreciation. 'Cos otherwise if such movies arent liked by both the critics and the general audience, its movies like YNM and SS that directors will be forced to make, for at least they'll be a commercial success. And surely we don't want that. The last half an hour was refreshingly different and the most intelligent way to end the movie. But the question is if we are prepared to withstand the first two hours for that. A very good performance from Prakash Raj, Prithviraj and Gopika. But Prithvi has to do something about his Tamil accent. Sounds quite funny when he's delivering serious dialogues.

Kuruvi - Statutory Warning: Watching this movie can be injurious to health. Pregnant women, old people and heart patients are strongly recommended not to see.

So eagerly waiting for Dasavatharam and Vaaranam Ayiram to dig out and revive Tamil Cinema from its graves.

PROJECT K WINNER!!!

2008-02-09T22:52:00.000+05:00

Kurukshetra was finally over and my only regret was not to have won anything, nor even participated in many, mainly because of organising two on-the-spot events. Except maybe came fourth in K! Sci-Tech Quiz. (Ya there was cash and certificate). But still didnt have the opportunity to win in any event. We were selected as one of the three finalists from around twenty teams, in Project K! and were counting on it to get some prize. The other two teams were equally good and we were nervous if we would be sent empty-handed after all the hard work. We were asked to display the projects during Kurukshetra when they would announce the results. Finally Kurukshetra was over and the result was not announced yet. It took them a week to decide amongst themselves before they came to a wonderful conclusion, which we were more than happy to hear, forgetting all the delays caused. All the three teams were given first place with the total prize money divided amongst us. No losers (well except those who didn't get selected in the previous rounds). After all, when we show our certificate in the future, who's gonna know there were 3 first places!!!

Our project details -

I-Robot -

Interactive robot. A companion in the house, to interact with. A servant to obey commands. Interfaced with the computer database, to store our daily schedule and contacts. Reminds us of our next appointment by sending a message to our mobile. Controlled by the computer, through RF remote circuit connected to the parallel port. Face recognition using SIFT(Scale Invariant Feature Transform), to recognise the face of the user. Fully voice operated. In stealth mode of operation, when the user is not in the house, it scans the room and sends a message to the user's mobile if there is any motion in its field of view. This can be extended to be a companion for a blind person to guide him through the house to predefined locations, a translator for sign language when interacting with a mute person etc.

P.S. We actually built a working model of all that was mentioned above. Hope there was no doubt in that.

Math Modelling

2008-02-09T22:26:00.000+05:00

Kurukshetra, Day two -

First round, 3:00 p.m.

I was busy with Alcatraz, so couldn't help much with this on the spot. But I helped with framing some of the questions. The sponsor Hey Math! were a group of fun people , who insisted that the questions must be framed in a humorous way. And the question paper did turn out to be fun as we expected. There was a decent show up. Close to 150-175 teams. Correcting the math modeling papers was a joy compared to Alcatraz, as we just had to take most of the papers from the uncorrected bunch and turn the pages and place it on the corrected bunch. The questions were of a high standard. Maybe many teams found it difficult, but we had to (a) maintain the standard of Kurukshetra and (b) select really good teams for the finalists (also making our job easier). In other words, the teams who got selected for the finals really deserved it. The people from Hey Math! were really overwhelmed by the particiaption and had the opportunity to film the entire event.

Kurukshetra, Day three -

Second Round, 11:00 a.m.

The no.of questions were lesser (four) than the prelims but the same time was given. The questions were interesting. There was one on proving the result of a vedic math method, one on functions etc. But don't know what the reason was, (maybe the teams started thinking too much), except for the winner, no one had tried obvious methods for proofs like induction, binomial expansion etc. While we were correcting the papers, the Head of Chennai, Hey Math!, interacted with the participants about their interests in Math and what they would like to do after college. At the end, after announcing the results and giving mementos to the sponsors, we were asked to say a few words as organisers, on camera. Over-all it was a fun event to organise.

Alcatraz: Great Engineering Challenge

2008-02-09T20:34:00.000+05:00

This was one of the events in Kurukshetra in which I was a part of the organizing team. It was an event to find the ultimate engineer - one who was both theoretically and practically set to be an all-round engineer. The event was to have three rounds. In the first round the participants' basic theoretical knowledge in most of the disciplines of engineering had to be tested. The second round was a hands-on round in which the selected ten teams were given items to design or assemble on the spot. To be frank, the first two rounds were just perfunctory ones, to filter out three teams for the final showdown. Our entire event was focussed on the final round.

The participants, three teams of three, would be put in three identical prison-like environments and they must escape within two hours. The prison would have a cot, a table, a chair and some posters on the walls. Nothing more. Of course, the prisons had to be classrooms in Science and Humanities block which limited our choice of devising a dramatic escape route. Hiding the key in the room and making the participants find it would be too cliche. We weren't satisfied with that. First we thought of hiding a screwdriver and making them remove the window grills(which we would have loosened before) to escape. But there would be an obvious opposition from the authorities. To find out what we did, read on...

Kurukshetra, Day one:

First round, 10:00 a.m. -

Two months of sweat and blood. The judgement day had finally arrived. The moment of truth. It was the first event in Kurukshetra and was to be the major crowd-puller. All the rooms in the Science and Humanities block second floor were flooded with the most energetic participants (fresh bloods without the strain of the battle yet). The prelims was for an hour. Written. The 30 questions were of excellent standard as was accepted by all the participants who wrote. There were questions from day-to-day life which we would have never given a second thought to(like why was the sky blue and not violet according to Rayleigh's scattering law, why are the containers in water lorries ellipsoidal instead of cylidrical etc.), questions from basic engineering designs(like designing mechanical equivalent of logic gates, gear trains etc.), questions from physics(on half-life period, relative velocity etc.) and many more, each of which left the participants thinking, "Why have we not thought about this before?" Feedback from one of the teams, "Our paper is full of intelligent questions but stupid answers." Our day was made.

Second round, 2:30 p.m. -

Ten teams were selected from the 400 odd teams that participated in the first round. The second round was design round. There were three problem statements. One, a dismantled alarm clock was given which was to be reassembled from the first gear and screw and made to work. Two, an intact cycle bell had to be opened and its working had to be explained with suggestions on improving its efficiency. Three, a tensegrity tower had to be constructed from sticks and rubber bands. It was interesting to see the teams working on their problem statements. Hope it was as interesting and educative to the teams.

Kurukshetra, Day two:

Third round, 1:00 p.m.

The participants were put in three rooms on the first floor of Science and Humanities block. Identical. When the participants entered the first thing they would notice is the diary of the previous prisoner. The only prisoner to have escaped the Alcatraz - "Where you realise hell is better". I came up with that and wrote the quote on the blackboard of the 3 rooms. So, the escaped prisoner has left some clues for these guys to escape, but wants to ensure that only the deserving, would escape. The teams find out from the diary that the prisoner has a habit of solving sudokus and crosswords in the newspaper everyday. They search for any newspaper in the room and find one under the bedspread. The sudoku has some unsolved numbers circled, with an arrow pointing down or towards the right. After solving those numbers, their corresponding solutions the prisoner has scribbled in the crossword( the number along with down or across) is verified and the words "next step board" is found.

The blackboard is searched for the next clue and the writing "dangling spinner y in this room" is found under the rim of the board. The dangling spinner refers to the fans. The fans are ensured to be off. We switched off the power supply. The blades of the fan contained pieces of jigsaw puzzles, which the teams had to get using the chair and table. The pieces of the jigsaw when arranged had a maze with letters. The correct path would have the words "if cities were stars, trace the prisoners escape route on the map." The diary had the cities that the prisoner planned to follow after he escaped. When the cities were joined on the India map on the wall, the shape of Libra constellation was obtained. There was a Zodiac chart stuck on the wall, with an unrelated picture for every sign. The sign of Libra had the picture of the chair. When the chair was searched, inside its hollow leg a sheet of cryptic code was obtained, with the number 1.618.. on the top which denoted fibonacci number. When the letters in the code were decoded by taking fibonacci numbered letter in the table, the words "Second word in schedule" was found. There was a prison schedule stuck on the wall. The first letters of the second words in the schedule spelt "Take times as flags".

Next taking the times as semaphore flags, with the decoding sheet hidden in the back cover of the diary, the words "Morse codes wanted" was obtained. There were wanted posters on the wall with the pictures of the three prisoners (team members). The pictures were stuck on the wall using staplers and bell pins on the ends. The staplers denoted _ and bell pins denoted . of the morse code. Decoding those words using the sheet, they got the words "shout aloud lumos". When they shout "lumos", one of us organisers, who is inside filming the entire event, throws an invisible ink reader to them. Using the reader on the pages of the diary, they find one of the pages has a picture of the top view of the room with a chain a saw and a cross on the door, written in invisible ink. When they search the door, they find that it is actually chained from the outside and can be pushed open from the inside. But the chain would open enough to let them out. Upon searching the top of the door, they find the blade of a saw outside the top grill of the door. They use the saw to break the chain and get out.

All these clues were designed with the idea that they wouldnt seem obvious before they knew what to do. Two teams went through it all and escaped. One team knew that there was something in everything in the room, but couldnt figure out what and gave up. But on the whole all the 3 teams enjoyed the entire event thoroughly and couldnt stop talking about it for some days whenever they saw us. Our only regret is that only the 3 teams and few others knew about it and appreciated it. Had the video of the entire thing been properly edited and displayed as a movie, it would have been the biggest event of Kurukshetra. But on the whole it was an wonderful experience conducting it.

Sorry for the loooong delay!!!

2008-02-09T20:30:00.000+05:00

I sound like my blog is one of the most read and the fans have been waiting with bated breath for my next blog...

Actually the sorry was to myself... to my website... that I wasn't able to concentrate on my blogging for the past two months... Well a lot had happened and I didnt have time... good thing is... got lots to write...

Kurukshetra

2007-11-24T22:28:00.000+05:00

One of the biggest battlefields of all-time, it is not only a field of war, but also a field of knowledge, for the holy Bhagavad Gita, the purpose of life, the only teachings in which the Guru is the God Almighty himself, was preached at this very place. And here at Anna University, we bring this battlefield back to life. We recreate this epic scenario; where you can fight the biggest battle of minds, at the same time learn the purpose of your life as an engineer. “Why am I an engineer? What are my duties? How can I make this world a better place to live?” Find out the answer to all these questions and more. Come with your troops, for the battleground is open, the horn is blowing and it’s time to prove your might…

Enter the site of the battle.

Om Shanti Om

2007-11-24T22:19:00.001+05:00

“I believe you when you beat up ten guys. I believe you when you jump of a building and not die or when you walk on water. So why won’t I believe this?” This one dialogue sums up the entire movie. This is probably the only line in the movie that comes closest to credibility. But what the heck!!! We don’t go to a movie for reality. We go for fun, for laughter or as Om Prakash tells Shantipriya, whenever we are sad, we go to a movie to forget our worries. The mantra of “Om Shanti Om” is ‘you can sell anything to the audience as long as it’s entertaining.’ The most appreciable aspect of the movie is that both Shah Rukh and Farah don’t mind laughing at themselves. Be it the award nominations scene in which Shah Rukh openly accepts his stereotypical roles or the credits in which Farah arrives last, only to find that the fans have left. But does that justify their spoofs of other actors? Farah has not spared anyone; from Manoj Kumar to Bhansali to Suraj Barjhatia. And Abhishek must be appreciated for accepting such a self-humiliating role, which was without doubt the funniest scene in the movie.

What was Shah Rukh trying to prove with the six-pack? That he could not only make the audience laugh or cry but also puke instantaneously? The screen was full of it and there was nowhere else to look. It was artificial to the extent that it looked like the work of Sabu Cyril, the art director. And he has done an excellent job in the movie. Kirron Kher’s stunning performance as the over-acting ‘filmy maa’ sadly loses its importance in the second half. And I don’t want to talk about Dee(slurp)pika, because that would exceed my blog limit (Ya, I know it’s unlimited). Thankfully the second Deepika was just a look-alike and not another re-incarnation. Because you see… we will believe one re-incarnation but not two! Shreyas does a remarkable job. And incidentally, he gets the most appropriate dialogue in the movie “Agar thujhe hero bannna hain tho there nam ke peeche Kapoor ya Khanna hona chahiye.” And although the scene where he sticks a mole on his face and says no one will recognize him mocks the 70’s movies, sadly the movies these days are no better, where a grey dye is enough to make the villain look thirty years older. Arjun Rampal has also come up with a commendable performance. Where the movie loses out is in the fact that the young hero tries to take revenge on a 60 year old villain who has nothing more to prove in life, for a crime he committed thirty years ago. I mean… what’s the point yaar? And that wouldn’t have been the biggest mistake he would have done in his life for sure, for him to even remember it leave alone repent for it. In the last few scenes where the movie is being shot I was not sure whether they were trying out a comedy track or serious bits, because they were absolutely non-sensical. Like the story resembling the villain’s life would go unnoticed by him till he sees Shanti’s face on screen or the hero singing the entire story was still not enough. And had Om taken the entire unit into confidence? Because otherwise all those would not have been possible. All of Farah’s mockery of other films loses meaning in the way she has taken her own movie to the end. The climax could have been better. Was it enough for the villain to die? Shouldn’t he be brought to trial? Isn’t that what Om wanted? I was definitely misled by SRK’s punch line and was under the impression ki “Picture abhi bhi baki hain.”

Youngest CEO in the India!!!

2007-10-30T21:39:00.000+05:00

Hey everybody... Check out these links... I'm really proud to say that that's my little brother Ashwin... Studying 12th...

YOUNGEST CEO IN INDIA

BUSINESS BYTES INTERVIEW PART 1

BUSINESS BYTES INTERVIEW PART 2

BUSINESS BYTES INTERVIEW PART 3

I'm astounded and inspired by his skills, his drive and the amount of hard work he's put in at such a young age. All the best Ashwin for all your future endeavors.

Remembering our roots

2007-10-18T19:32:00.000+05:00

When the tablets of Crete were discovered, they contained symbols, whose pronunciation, let alone the meaning, could not be guessed. Pure logical reasoning and ingenious assumptions helped unravel the mysteries of the language, now called Linear B, used five hundred years even before the Greek civilization was supposed to have begun. Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of Greek and it seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization, around 1100 B.C. Hieroglyphics, the ancient language of the Egyptians, also seems to have died around 400 A.D. after the Roman emperor Theodosius I, who ruled Egypt at the time, forced all non-Christian temples to be closed. The list of languages lost in the sands of time is endless and many more are on the verge of extinction. One such language that was developed around 1700 B.C., before civilizations around the world had even started to develop, but is now on the verge of extinction, is Sanskrit. With Sanskrit being offered as a third language to higher secondary students and many students taking it up with interest, one might wonder why it is being referred to as “verge of extinction” but the 1991 Indian census reported just 49,736 fluent speakers of Sanskrit. Although it is a wonder that it has survived so many millennia, which goes on to prove its strength as well as simplicity, it has not come this close to dying in its 3700 years of existence.

In the past three decades, much time and money has been spent on trying to find an unambiguous method of representation of natural languages to make them accessible to computer processing. It is accepted widely that natural languages are unsuitable for the transmission of many ideas that artificial languages can render with great precision and mathematical rigor. But a report produced by the NASA scientist Rick Briggs, on Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence, states that this dichotomy is a false one. He says that there is in fact a language, Sanskrit, that had been the spoken language for more than 1000 years, whose grammar has all the requisites of an artificial language. To summarize his report, the semantic network of Sanskrit is a context-free one. For e.g. the English sentence “Rama kills Ravana”, can be written in Sanskrit as “Ramah Ravanam Vadathi” or “Ravanam Ramah Vadathi” or “Vadathi Ramah Ravanam” or in any other way the sentence could be formed. This is because a noun’s property of being a subject or object does not depend on its position in the sentence as in most other languages, but in the form of the noun itself. Thus even if the verb appears before the noun, since the subject and object are clear, the sentence has no way of being misinterpreted. This makes instructions in Sanskrit unequivocal. Understandably, this feature gives poets a very high degree of freedom. This is one of the reasons why Sanskrit is sometimes referred to as the most poetic language. The Ramayana consisted of 24,000 verses and the Mahabharata with more than 74,000 verses, long prose passages, and about 1.8 million words in total, is one of the longest epic poems in the world. The poetic freedom given by Sanskrit is what has made epics of such magnitude to be written as poems, instead of direct prose.

The older form of Sanskrit utilized in epic literature—namely the Ramayana and Mahabharata—was slightly less strict in its grammatical codification. The form of Sanskrit which has been used for the last 2500 years is known today as classical Sanskrit. That Sanskrit is a language of the Hindus alone is a misconception for it is also the liturgical language of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Further, it must be considered only as a language, just as English is considered only a language and not the language of Christians. The Sanskrit literature is not only rich in drama, art and poetry but also in scientific, religious and philosophical texts. It is a sad state for the language that these texts are unable to be read now by a majority of the people. Since the 1990s, efforts to revive spoken Sanskrit have been increasing. Organizations like the Samskrta Bharati are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. We as Indians must actively try and restore the language, for knowledge which has been our nation’s greatest wealth, found its first words in Sanskrit.

"Ram Sethu" or just Adam's Bridge?

2007-09-14T19:35:00.000+05:00

"Contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharita Manas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters, or the occurrence of the events, depicted therein.''

Does this mean that all the beliefs held by Hindus about their gods and temples and rituals hold no meaning? So a temple can be demolished to build a highway because there is no written piece of record to prove that the place has an importance to Hindus and their religion. It's just an eyesore to the "developing" nation.

Can anyone dare to make such a statement about any other religion? When Jyllands-Posten the Danish newspaper depicted controversial cartoons, it led to protests across the Muslim world, some of which escalated into violence (more than 100 deaths, altogether), including setting fire to the Norwegian and Danish Embassies in Syria, and the storming of European buildings and desecration of the Danish and the German flags in Gaza City. Either we are too naive or too lazy to protect ourselves. Are there any written records of the miracles performed by Jesus? Even if there is, is a piece of writing enough to prove them? Are there any videos of the deeds? Religion is a set of belief that extends beyond proof. In the words of Douglas Adams "proof denies faith and without faith God is nothing." Expecting to prove a set of beliefs is not only absurd to the level of trying to find the end of the universe but also hurts the group of people who believe them. Can any government make a statement on this issue and get away with it? Is our government so insensitive to the feelings of a section of people? Why don't the politicians ever try to put their hands into other beehives? It is a fact that only the revenues of the "Hindu temples" go to government and not the donations given to Mosques or Churches. This is one of the primary reasons why many temples are poorly maintained and some are in dilapidated conditions. Why such a pathetic treatment to the so-called "majority" in a "secular" nation?

There is a big debate going on about whether sainthood should be given to Mother Teresa.Since Mother Teresa's death in 1997, six people have come forward to say prayers to her have led to miraculous cures.At least one miracle must be proved to a medical committee before she can be beatified. A second miracle must be proved before she can become a saint. The miracle that will most likely be attempted to be proved involves a Bengali woman who says her life-threatening tumour disappeared within days of her prayers to Mother Teresa. In a rare interview in 1986, Mother Teresa told CBS News she had a calling, based on unquestioned faith. "They are all children of God, loved and created by the same heart of God," she said. Shortly after beginning work in Calcutta's slums, the spirit left Mother Teresa. "Where is my faith?" she wrote. "Even deep down… there is nothing but emptiness and darkness... If there be God — please forgive me." Eight years later, she was still looking to reclaim her lost faith. "Such deep longing for God… Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal," she said. This comment of Mother Teresa has sparked a huge controversy about whether sainthood should be conferred to a person who had no belief in God. When a Christian with a saintly character and even the so required "miracles" in her account, is denied sainthood just because of her once disbelief in God, what punishment must be given to those trying to find evidence of God's existence in our religion and even daring to bring it into scientific inquiry?

The point is not about whether Rama actually built the bridge or not but about respecting the sentiments of people. And mere removal of a paragraph from the affidavit will not suffice. The action must be stopped. Of course, those raising voices against the issue may just be trying to take political advantage of the situation, but it is good that at least some are raising their voices.

The other controversial aspect to this issue is whether the project itself is sensible. There have been numerous articles in reputed dailies and news channels condemning this move and proving with calculations that the project will turn out to be a huge loss to the government. What is the strong motivation for the government to continue the project after all this, remains to be the million dollar question.

Golden Profit

2007-08-12T11:38:00.000+05:00

The business of buying and selling gold and the profits that the gold dealers made out of it became clear to me when my mother bought herself two new pairs of gold bangles few days back. Before that, the concepts of Service Charges, Wastage Charges etc., were thought of by me, to be just a part of the formal procedures when you buy any gold ornament. But now I have realized that that is the only place where the dealer actually makes some profit for himself. You would have seen ads in TV and newspapers, of the jewelery shops boasting of lower price per gram of gold compared to other shops, lower wastage percent, no service charges etc. But do you seriously believe they would offer these discounts if they didn't see any profit in them even otherwise?

Consider that you buy a gold ornament weighing 40 gms. Suppose the cost of gold per gram is Rs.820 that day. The shop charges 16% wastage, i.e. 6.4 gms for 40 gms, but it offers Rs.60 less per gram. For those of you who don't know what wastage is all about, 16% wastage means that for every 100 gms of gold melted to produce the ornament, 16 gms is wasted in the furnace while heating at high temperatures and during the other chemical processes, which the jeweler feels is a loss to him. So he expects you to pay for that wastage, because it is for you that the ornament was made. Technically he's giving you only 40 gms of gold, so the net loss for him by giving that discount is Rs.2400. But he's charging you Rs.760 for 6.4 gms that you never bought, which comes to Rs. 4864. He ends up making a profit of more than Rs. 2400 apart from the profit he would have made normally, without any offer (by selling at Rs.820 per gram and no wastage charges). Of course, that wastage is actually a loss and has to be made up for. But with all the latest technology and machine-made ornaments, you can be entirely convinced that the maker will go to any lengths to recover that lost gold or to make sure that there is no wastage. The strongest argument in support of this is the fact that there are shops giving 0% wastage charges (they make up for it by selling gold at normal rate).

The worst part of this wastage concept is that, when you sell your gold ornament, the shop charges the same wastage charges. This is because if he tries to melt it and make a new ornament out of it, he believes he would lose that much weight of gold by the same assumption. Also, he believes that since it was worn by you for many years, dirt and dust particles would have stuck to it making it heavier when it is being weighed. But this argument does not stand in many cases as the customer would be having his bill and would sell for the same weight he had bought. In any case, the wastage charges would not be dispelled. So, when you sell 40 gms of gold ornament and buy 40 gms of the same gold ornament (newer design say), you would be charged 6.4 gms extra for the gold you are buying, and the gold you are selling would be taken for 6.4 gms less. So 12.8 gms * Rs. 760 = Rs. 9728 is the amount you'll be paying, if you sell and buy the same quantity of gold. I would rather have the old one and feel happy for owning a property worth 40 gms * Rs. 820 = Rs. 32800.

Last but definitely not the least, I would like to appreciate my mother for her good presence of mind in many occasions. The shopkeeper had ten weighing machines in every counter for weighing the new gold, but when the old one was given for weighing, he went to a separate machine. These are subtle things I accept I would miss out and would like to learn from her. She was quick in asking the shopkeeper to weigh the new gold in the same machine. The shopkeeper was taken aback and refused to do it point blank. He said, if she didn't have faith in him, she could go and weigh it in any other shop. But she replied that if he really was true to his word, he wouldn't have hesitated to measure it. Of course, he could have adjusted the machine during all this argument. Finally when he measured the gold, it was found to be 10 mgms lesser and my mother accepted not to make an issue of it (it would have amounted to Rs. 80). But it was his audacity, to try and cheat his customers in every way he can, that angered me. The point of this blog is to make people take some good time before selecting the shop to buy gold the next time they want to (or if they really want to buy gold that bad). A better choice would be to ask someone coming from western countries, to purchase the gold and get the design of your choice made by a goldsmith here. For, in those countries, food is costlier than a gram of gold.

GRE one word a day: Inebriated

2007-08-05T18:30:00.000+05:00

Inebriated - in a drunken state. eg.
Express Retaliation:
Few weeks back, an Indian Express reporter was attacked by a P.M.K cousellor. The police hesitated to file a complaint. The issue died without publicity. Ten days back there was an article in the first page of the Express, reporting the political party arranging a meet of more than 1000 youth, who would take an oath all at once to "stop drinking liquor". Express had interviewed the owner of a local wine shop who confessed that the liquor sales that day was thrice the usual. Apparently, the youth took the oath in an inebriated state.

Code Book: Simon Singh

2007-08-04T17:33:00.000+05:00

When I got this book from my friend Samyuktha, I flipped through the pages and told her that it looked like some textbook. I could not have been more wrong. One can call it a textbook, in the sense that the book was very educative. It presents the history of cryptography and cryptanalysis and its impact on world history in the most interesting way. Reading the book, I was amazed at the power of the human brain, to have come up with such breakthrough ideas of encryption and encoding and to have broken them too!

The first breakthrough in the field of cryptography was when the Arabs invented the monoalphabetic substitution cipher. Want to what it does?

The polyalphabetic substitution cipher was considered the indestructible cipher till the 19th century, when Charles Babbage succesfully deciphered it. Want to know how?

When the Allies were fighting the First World War against Germany, America's President Woodrow Wilson didn't want to enter the war, believing that peaceful negotiations was what was necessary and not wasteful loss of lives. A small work of brilliant cryptanalysis by the British secret service agency was all that was needed for the Allies to destroy permanently, America's Age of Innocence. Want to know what made America enter the war?

The breaking of Germany's infamous Enigma cipher by Marian Rejewski and Alan Turing was instrumental in ending the Second World War earlier, by more than three years, than it would have taken otherwise. The probability of finding the correct initial settings of the Engima was 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000. To put this in context a persistent cryptanalyst who tries one setting every minute, would take longer than the age of the universe to guess the correct setting. Want to know how they broke it?

When the Rosetta Stone was excavated, the archaeologists had a crib (a hold), to even start translating the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, as the stone contained the same piece of text in three languages: Hieroglyphic, Greek and Cryptos. But when the tablets of Crete were discovered, containing unknown symbols, whose pronunciation, let alone the meaning could not be guessed, pure logical reasoning and ingenious assumptions helped unravel the mysteries of the language used 500 years before even the Greek civilisaion was supposed to have begun. Want to know how the language, named Linear B, was translated?

Alice wants to send a message to Bob, without Eve knowing the content of the message. She puts the message in the box and locks it with a padlock, keeping the key to herself. She sends the box to Bob, who locks it with his padlock and sends it back. Alice now removes her lock and sends it back. Now Bob can open the box without a problem as he has the key to his padlock. But will the same idea solve the problem of key-distribution while encrypting real-life messages. For, in real-life encryption techniques, the more accurate analogy would be if Bob puts Alices box inside his box and locks it with his key. Alice cannot remove her lock if she can't open Bob's lock. Could cryptography not depend on the order of encryption and not be too trivial(like the caeser's cipher), at the same time? Was this problem ever solved?

Why is there such a craze among mathematicians and computer programmers to find the largest prime number? What is the future of cryptography and cryptanalysis? What are quantum computers? What is quantum cryptography? To know the answer to all these interesting questions and more read the book.

I can now with confidence, say that I can start attempting to crack the now-seemingly-easy ciphers that I encounter in many competitions in my college, without having to resort to google or the internet. The book is a definite must-read.

Deathly Hallows: Holes in the Plot

2007-07-23T19:02:00.001+05:00

*Warning: Do not read this if you haven't yet read the book and don't want your surprises to be spoiled.

Though this is the last book in the series and all the details needed proper explanations by the end of this book, I felt she left many questions either unanswered, or vaguely explained or she provided scope for a lot more newer questions:

*What is inside the locked room in the Department of mysteries?

*How did Lily and James escape Voldemort thrice, as in the prophecy?

*What is Harry, Ron, Hermione and the others' professions after 19 years?

*Wouldn't Griphook have ensured that the sword wouldn't disappear due ancient enchantments when it is summoned by the Hat?

*What happens to the Dursleys?

*If the Elder wand ensures unarguably victory to its owner, how did Grindelwald lose to Dumbledore?

*If you answered that Grindelwald did not actually own the wand, he stole it from Gregorovitch, so the wand didn't recognise him as his owner, then even Dumbledore couldn't have become its owner. And neither Draco nor Harry. Technically, if you need to defeat or kill its previous owner to become its owner, then Voldemort who killed Gregorovitch is the true owner of the Elder Wand.

*How is it that there is no scope of Voldemort beating Harry with any wand? Harry did not win by his supreme magical abilities. Whatever dear Voldy tried on Harry seemed to backfire on himself, not just in this book, but ever since the first book when he couldn't even touch Harry. Dumbledore could have as well taken Harry and made him stand in front of Voldemort. He would cast Avada Kedavra seven times, each time killing his own horcrux and finally would kill himself leaving Harry with nothing more than a face full of lightning scars, which Madam Pomfrey would rub off with a No-Marks cream. It would have been easier if Voldemort had used Wingardium Leviosa to lift a huge boulder and landed that right on top of Harry's head to kill him. He wants Harry dead, he wants to finish the job himself and he wants to use only Avada Kedavra to do it. Talk about a dumb villain who doesn't learn from mistakes.

* Gaunt mentioned in sixth book that the Marvolo ring was from his ancestors which contained the Peverell Coat of Arms, who were supposedly the descendents of Salazar Slytherin. If Harry was the descendant of Ignotus Peverell, wouldn't that make him an Heir to Slytherin? So were Voldemort and Harry cousins or was he his uncle?

*It's highly absurd that with the entire Ministry under his control and all the Dementors serving him, he couldn't catch three young teenagers who had cast simple hiding spells around their tents, roaming from forest to forest, frequently appearing out in the public and casting spells in Muggle-inhabited area. Also three youngsters stealing from the Gringotts makes it wonder if that's the safest place in the world or would it be safer to keep your possessions on a table in the Leaky Cauldron with a signboard requesting everyone not to steal as God would be watching.

*If Harry could get into Voldemort's mind and guess his moves and locations, how much time would it have taken Voldy to do the same to catch Harry? Why didn't he use Legilimency even as much as he did in the fifth book?

* Ron speaking in Parseltongue? Wonder why he didn't make use of this stroke of ingenuity earlier. And great to know the Basilisk corpse is still lying around in the building waiting to be used.

*So Voldemort thinks he is the only one who knows about the Room of Requirement to hide his Tiara and no one else would even stumble upon it accidentally. Showing his exceptionally brilliant mind considering the fact that the whole of previous year Draco was using the same Room to repair the cabinet upon Voldemort's own plan. And leaving Carrow to guard the Ravenclaw common room with the Tiara lying in the Room of Requirement?

*And what was she doing when she wrote that King's Cross chapter? How abstract could that be? Was he dead? If he wasn't why was Dumbledore there? If he was imagining, how was Dumbledore explaining things about his past which he didn't know? Or was it the Matrix world?

The point of pointing out all these is that J.K.Rowling must write another book explaining these mistakes and making more mistakes in the process leaving way for the subsequent books.
Yours hopingly,
Ganesh.

Deathly Hallows: Things I liked

2007-07-23T18:06:00.000+05:00

A thousand and hundred bucks richer. Yay!!! But more than the fact that Snape was actually good (which was quite obvious), my theory about his feelings for Lily looked like she wrote the entire chapter with my blog as the reference. This book has certainly a lot to offer. With practically all the characters from the previous six books, and some usual characters showing unusual sides to them, the book had a mix of the expected and the unexpected. But as my friend put it, you'll definitely be surprised by certain revelations. Reading this book makes you realize how many clues Rowling had intentionally placed in her previous books, which went unnoticed by us till now. That's her magic. And that's what makes the readers want to read it more than once. She has craftily knotted all the loose strings that were hanging from the previous books and packaged the entire series as an independent entity. Bringing in the goblins, elves, centaurs, dragons, giants etc. she has tried to combine what all her previous books offered. Though the book started with a drag, the action started when you least expected it. Once the three leave the Wedding in a hurry there's no looking back and it's all explanations, revelations and realisations of what is in store for them and how they must prepare for the final showdown. I liked the fact that she told the readers all about Dumbledore's and Snape's pasts which was absolutely necessary since they were two of the few Central characters throughout the series. Kreacher's role in this book, explains a lot, not only about major plot details like how Voldemort had placed his locket in the cave, but also minor ones like how house-elves could apparate and disapparate inside Hogwarts. The Battle at Hogwarts was truly a fitting description of the Battle that is actually expected to take place for all the build-up given about the Dark Side and the Order Of the Phoenix. With a plethora of mythical creatures fighting both the sides, it created the defining atmosphere of a Global War of Good against Evil. When fans couldn't help wondering how Harry, who could not cast even a Cruciatus, would survive a Battle with the most dangerous Sorcerer of all time, she provides the ultimate solution in the form of the Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand and the Blood of Harry in Voldemort. The dramatic final encounter of the two with an abrupt end, made it feel like Rowling took you on a roller-coaster ride which ended right at the bottom of the highest fall. She has made sure no one else writes sequels to Harry Potter, with her epilogue set 19 years later. But it would have been a better epilogue if she had explained what the characters went on to become, rather than just how many kids they had.

LIFE IN THE 1500'S in Good Old England:

2007-07-15T18:46:00.000+05:00

An interesting forward that I would like to share and remember-
The next time you are washing your hands and
complain because the water temperature isn't just
how you like it, think about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the 1500's: These are
interesting. Most people got married in June,
because they took their yearly bath in May and still
smelled pretty good by June. However, they were
starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of
flowers to hide the body odour.Hence the custom
today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice
clean water, then all the other sons and men, then
the women and finally the children! Last of all the
babies. By then the water was so dirty you could
actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying,
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high,
with no wood underneath. It was the only place for
animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small
animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.When it
rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals
would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying
"It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into
the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom
where bugs and other droppings could mess up your
nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a
sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
That's how canopied beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something
other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor."

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery
in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh
(straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As
the winter wore on, they added more thresh until
when you opened the door it would all start slipping
outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance
way. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a
big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day
they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They
ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving
leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then
start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in
it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the
rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas
porridge in the pot nine
days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them
feel quite special. When visitors came over, they
would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign
of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon."
They would cut off a little toshare with guests and

would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food
with high acid content caused some of the lead to
leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning deaths.
This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered
poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got
the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the
middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The
combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out
for a couple of days.Someone walking along the road
would take them for dead (dead drunk) and prepare
them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days and the family would
gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if
they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a
"wake"

England is old and small and the local folks started
running out of places to bury people. So they would
dig up coffins and would take the bones to a
"bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening
these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to
have scratch marks on the inside and they realised
they had been burying people alive. So they would
tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it
through the coffin and up through the ground and tie
it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the
graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift")to listen
for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the
bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."And that's
the truth...

Harry Potter And the Order of the Phoenix- Review

2007-07-13T20:42:00.000+05:00

If there's one thing that can beat a never-before experience of watching a movie from the first row on the first day of its release by paying seventy rupees for a ten rupees ticket, it's reading the title "Harry Potter um Maya Kattalayum" in the CBFC certificate of the English movie I had supposedly paid for. We were half expecting Harry to be rescued in a thodapakuchi and fight the Death Eaters with his Mayamanthrangal. Thank god, the movie started with English dialogues. Obviously the book is better, as always with the Harry Potter series. But of all the other books this is the best screen adaptation of the book. Of course the first and the second movie did not require much adaptation, being very short and easier to script. Watching the first two was like reading the book. It's from the third that the director's had a real challenge. And only David Yates has come close to matching it. The third and fourth movies absolutely sucked.

Of course, it is difficult to picturise the entire book. I was not expecting to see Grawp or Arthur Weasley being bitten by the snake etc. And he could have definitely avoided the dragging conversations of Harry with Luna(with the thestrals) and Hermione(the one after the kissing scene). But there were many scenes I was really looking forward to, but didn't show up. Like the Magical Brethren fighting Voldemort in the end on Dumbledore's orders, Firenze entering the Main Hall when Trelawny gets sacked (what was the point of that scene without that wonderful climax), the Black Family tree (It was visible in the background of one scene, but wasn't explained- better that than the photograph that Sirius uselessly gave at the station). Even Dumbledore's escape was not satisfactorily portrayed. But the War at the Department of Mysteries had some stunning special effects and is really worth looking forward to. One thing that was irritating in the narration was the order of events. First it was all about the hearing, then it was all about Umbridge taking over as High Inquisitor and her villainous deeds, then it was continuously about Dumbledore's Army. Everything should have happened side by side.
Trelawny getting sacked was towards the end of the book and thestrals to be explained after Hagrid arrives.

The casting of Umbridge, Luna and Bellatrix couldn't have been better. They didn't act; they were the characters themselves. But since the movie came after the sixth book released, I expected some more importance to have been given to Ginny's looks. They should have anticipated the audience to look forward to her being stunning and fit for Harry to go out with. But she looks very ordinary, especially compared to Emma Watson.

When I was watching the movie, I came up with another theory. Not exactly theory. The prophecy was in row number 97. The Harry Potter series is from 1991 to 1997. Does the year '97 have any significant connection with the row number of the Prophecy? Like, that being the year when the prophecy gets fulfilled. Not sure if it has already been talked about in the fan sites. But I realised it today.

Note: Was it me or did Harry not have a scar in many scenes? (in Hog's Head, during the hearing, during DA classes, when he woke up from bad dreams etc.)

Goverment Killing itself?

2007-07-11T16:51:00.000+05:00

I came home today from college and was surprised to see my mother opening the door. "What are you doing here? Didn't you go to the office?", I asked. "I told you yesterday. BSNL employees on strike. No office today. You never listen to me", she replied. Then I asked her the details of the strike. BSNL wanted to expand its subscriber base. So new equipment was needed for the expansion. A tender was started a year back. The lowest bidder would supply the equipments. The tender took many months to complete and finally one company was chosen. Before the tender could be approved by the then Union Minister for Communication and Technology, he was replaced and a new minister came in his place. The new minister felt the lowest bid itself was expensive and has requested for a re-tender. Due to this delay, BSNL went down from No.2 to No.3 in its ranking of number of mobile customers. If there is a re-tender, the delay would cause a huge loss to the company, which would affect the employees. I was both happy and disturbed by the details of the strike. Happy because, the employees are striking for issues other than salary hikes and other perks and are actually concerned about the pathetic state of their organization. Disturbed because, the issue poses a very high threat not only to BSNL but any government organization. The attitude and policies of the government is the first and the only obstacle to the growth of Government and Government-aided organizations.

If any private company wants to declare a tender for the same reason, the CMD of the company would have a meeting with the representatives of the companies, the tender would be quoted within a week, there would be negotiations with the lowest bidder to reduce the price and the order would be placed within 15 to 20 days. When it comes to a government tender, the reasons for opening the tender must be analyzed by a team of executives and a 50 page report must be produced and signed by the concerned heads, which takes a month or two. Next, a detailed report of the required equipments and their descriptions must be written and sent to the participating companies. A half page advertisement in all the English newspapers containing all the details of the tender must be published. The companies are given another month to decide and quote their price in sealed envelopes. A date is fixed for opening the sealed covers and the Prices and Conditions of all the companies are thoroughly analyzed and documented by a team of professionals. The best company is selected. Their worldwide credibility and popularity is checked by another team. It is checked if they will be able to produce within the deadline with their resources. Then the company is called in again for negotiations. "You gave the same equipments for Rs. 3950 to MTNL. Now you are quoting Rs. 4150. Please reduce". "No sir, cost of labour has increased, raw materials price increased." "Ok.... give for Rs.4050." "Ok, sir." Now there is another rule in government organization that the entire tender must not be given to the same company, to avoid problems which you can guess. 50% is given to the lowest bidder, another 20% to the next lowest bidder after negotiations for the same price and so on. After all this toiling for 6 to 8 months, the tender goes to the concerned minister for approval, who has no knowledge of the past procedures, but is of course guided by his own qualified group of professionals. And if the private competitors somehow get a whiff of it, they will make their contribution to the problem. Reminds you of Adiseshan of Sivaji, right? "The cost is Rs. 4050, but last year MTNL finished the tender at Rs. 3950. We can't afford this. Start a new tender."

The worst part of all this, is that BSNL is not even a government organization. It has long been made a Public Sector. The approval of the Advisory board and CMD must be sufficient to close any tender, yet the Minister's opinion is being awaited. If a Public Sector gets the Navaratna status, this can happen. With small companies like BHEL etc. getting the status, it is a pathetic situation that one of the largest and the most profitable organization still not being able to make its own decision. The overflowing subscribers requesting for CellOne connections are being made to wait for days, not because there are not enough towers or bandwidth to accommodate traffic, but because there are not enough Sim cards being manufactured to keep up with the demand. And it's not like private companies where the company manufacturing the Sim card can be sacked and the tender given to a new company. There is no way, other than to keep begging them to supply on time. And God knows if that company is serving other interests. Next you know, the company that was donating 4000-5000 crores as profit to the Central Exchequer during yearly budgets and was compensating for the losses of Postal and Railway Departments, would be shown as running at loss due to competitors and would be slowly shut down in a phased manner.

Why should we vote for Taj Mahal?

2007-07-07T13:09:00.001+05:00

I get at least ten messages everyday asking for a vote for the Taj Mahal, to help make it into the seven wonders list. Starting from the Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Golconda fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Palaces of Rajasthan, Temples of Tamil Nadu, Ajanta Ellora caves to the Islands of Andaman Nicobar, waterfalls of Karnataka, hill stations of Kashmir and the East, riverbeds of the Ganges to the Himalayas, everything is ours to cherish and ours to feel proud of. Who are they to say if the Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders or not? And who actually started the campaign? The UNO being a recognized international body maintains a list of all the archaeological sites of the world. A list and not seven or eight. This campaign for the seven wonders was started by a private organization which profits from all the clicks it receives in its website, all the messages received through mobiles and all the phone calls made by the so called "true-patriots" wanting their country's landmark to appear in the list. This is just a form of Brand Promotion by the private organization and a media gimmick. And people might have been wondering for long as to why the Indian Government was not as much as lifting a finger to promote the Taj Mahal internationally." 'The New 7 Wonders of the World' campaign has been launched by the owner of a Swiss website. The whole campaign is a media hoax," says Surendra Sharma, president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society here. "How can the whole government machinery be used to hype a campaign launched by a private entrepreneur?"

Though it would do good in the interest of the Indian Tourism Industry, the government has abstained from actively supporting the cause by describing the campaign as 'economic exploitation of the sentiments of the Indian people.' No two monuments are alike and they should not be compared. It is an injustice to the status and dignity of the Taj Mahal. Without understanding this basic point, the way the Indian youth is campaigning for votes through the internet, orkut, cell phones etc., goes on to prove how carried away we are by the western influence unconsciously.

Was the Black Money really made White?

2007-07-07T12:19:00.000+05:00

Saw Sivaji once again yesterday with family. As good as the first time. Probably even better. A movie made wonderfully with the director's understanding of the logic that a commercial fast-paced movie needs no logic. But, how the basic plot of the story having such a huge loophole, went unnoticed by the audience is beyond the understanding of the audience. The movie deals with the hero snatching black money from the business and political big shots and turning them white through Hawala transaction. So, what really happens? The black money obtained here is given to the dealer at India. Rajni collects and equivalent amount of money to be turned white, from a white there. But what happens to the black money given here? It'll obviously continue to circulate only in India.

The money collected here is transferred to the dealer at another country not in cash but in kind. In other words, the Indian dealer pays in Indian currency, for the cargo bought from an Indian seller by the foreigner. Because the cargo exported from here is usually something illegal a large sum of money transferred from one country to another would be subjected to a series of questioning, as to the kind of cargo being exported etc. Hawala transactions are mainly done by compensating the rupees given here to be converted to dollars and the dollars given there to be converted to rupees. It provides the basic finance for goods like drugs, weapons etc. being transported across borders. So by funding for such activities, Sivaji actually promotes Hawala transactions and N lakh crore rupees is still circulating only in India as black money. Technically, the black money is not turned white.

I don't know if you followed me. But, think about it. People watching a movie which is fighting black money, by buying black tickets is another aspect to be introspected. All these arguments aside, a movie is for entertainment. The three hours that we pay to enjoy ourselves, must be worthwhile. A little exaggeration, larger-than-life hero, seeing our wishful thinkings being realized on screen, giving you a "Gosh, how would it be if it were true?" feeling is all that we want and that is definitely taken care of in this movie. A very "intelligent and mature" person will always be captious and carping about any movie (Yes... I'm preparing for GRE). He may like a movie, but he will definitely not enjoy it. We need to lower ourselves at some points and let ourselves enjoy every moment of life.

2007-07-03T15:59:00.000+05:00

"Guess who's the hero of Shankar's next movie..."
"Who"
"Dhanush!!!"
"What???"
"Pera kaetta odane chumma adhiruthilla!!! Just kidding..."

Cricket is Life

2007-07-03T10:02:00.000+05:00

This is not one of those blogs where one explains how important a role cricket plays in the life of an average Indian and how crazy he is about the sport. This is about an analogy drawn between the game of Cricket and a person's life that I happened to hear in a recent speech given by an eminent orator and it really interested me. I 'm putting it in writing for two reasons: First, I would like to share it with those who haven't yet heard it. Second, I would like to remember it when I come back to my blogs in the future.

If one observes the game of cricket closely, one is sure to notice the subtle similarities it holds with a person's life. Everyone in this world is striving to become successful, just like a batsman is trying to score well in his innings.

1. The bowler is delivering a ball to the batsman, who is trying to hit it with his bat and try to score runs. As simple as that. But why are there ten other people in the field trying to stop him from scoring. Whenever we try to become successful, there are at least ten people trying to stop you from doing it.

2. Forget about the ten people. Why are there ten thousand people watching you play? They shout if you hit a six, they shout if you hit a four and they shout if you become out. Whenever we try to do something in life, the society is full of people who really don't care if you succeed or fail but are always there to criticize or advice you for your every action. Just like a batsman ignores the crowd while playing, so should you in life.

3. It doesn't always need those ten people to get you out, in cricket. Sometimes, the partner with whom you are playing, runs to your side when you least expect it and in a panic you don't know what's happening and you get run out. Similarly, it doesn't always require your enemies to defeat you in life. Your close allies can also be responsible for your downfall. There are also those "Kudave irundhu kuzhi parikkaravanga."

4. Does the bowler deliver every ball to you with the intention of making you score? Definitely he is trying to get you out with every ball he bowls. We must succeed in our life by utilizing all the efforts that the world takes to bring you down. In other words, we must use the attempts to make us fail, as the stepping stones for our success.

5. Last but not the least, when the opposing team shouts "Howzaaaat?" and the whole crowd is on its foot shouting with maximum volume almost threatening the umpire to give an out. The umpire lifts two fingers and says "Not Out", everyone in the stadium shut their mouth and sit back. However strong is the voice of Adharma, a meek signal from Dharma is what prevails in the end. Everything else gets defeated at that very moment. There will always be moments in life when you "think" you are defeated unfairly, but always have hope on justice and yourself.

There are many such aspects where Cricket and life are alike. These are some that I remembered.

Select A Name and Villain for Ghajini remake!!!

2007-07-03T09:41:00.000+05:00

Check out Aamir Khan's blog about his views on doing a remake of Ghajini which he has written in ARR's studio. Aamir Khan has asked for your opinion on an appropriate title and your choice of villain for the movie. Well, actually don't bother... there are already more than 1000 comments and I doubt if he'll even have the time to go through them and take your opinion. But, you can have a look at his thoughts, his opinions and what made him go for the remake etc. And I 'm happy that he agrees with me on one aspect.... the last 30 mins of Ghajini was too commercial and didn't fit the stylishly shot, rest of the movie. It definitely has to be given more thought in the remake at least.

Snape Loved Lily???

2007-07-01T12:05:00.000+05:00

"Snape is definitely a good guy." Ya heard this... so what? It's quite obvious, isn't it? With six books continuously trying to make you mistake Snape for all the bad things happening to Harry and finally turning him into a near-hero status, it's not that easy to accept him as the bad guy with just one act - of killing Dumbledore. Dumbledore never feared death and was literally begging Malfoy to kill him till the Death-Eaters arrived and it doesn't make a bit of sense for him to ask Snape to leave him alone by saying "Please severus...". For all we know, it might have been Dumbledore's plan from first to get himself killed at the right moment, of course for something bigger and Snape could have hesitated at the end, so that Dumbledore was forcing him to kill him as quickly as possible. You can read all this here and thousands of other fan sites.

But what none of them could explain was the million dollar question "What made Dumbledore believe Snape, at first?" Here lies Rowling's skill at not letting the readers know too much too soon. With the little information we have on Snape history, there no way of answering that, with as much conviction as saying R.A.B is Regulus Black. From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork.

Snape Loved Lily

We know nothing of the feelings of Snape towards Lily Potter apart from that one memory where she tries to protect him from James. Of course, he insults her and calls her a mudblood. But what else do you expect when he is angry and vulnerable? Also, it is possible that that one act could have made him feel ashamed of himself later when he went to his room and could have planted the seeds of his feelings for her. Of course, these feelings were not reciprocated, as Lily later went on to love James. I'm saying Snape never had the courage to express his love for her. This is purely my guess, but it seems very logical as it answers many questions like:

1. Why Snape hated James to such an extent?
2. Why Snape hated Harry? (He resembled James and couldn't stand the fact that he was the product of Lily and James' love)
3. Why he felt sorry when he heard that it was actually Harry Potter that Voldemort tried to kill when he heard of the prophecy? ( Now this is the strongest clue for my theory. Snape didn't know whom the prophecy referred to initially. He went and told his master about it. When Voldy went to the Potters' residence he killed Lily before trying to kill Harry. This made Snape sorry for what he did. It hurt him badly. He never expected this to happen. Again it re-affirms the fact that Dumbledore keeps harping on: "Love is the greatest thing in this world". It made Snape think if what he was doing was right or wrong. He came and pleaded to Dumbledore telling him his innermost feelings for Lily. No amount of Occlumency would have hidden such deep, heart-felt regret. And Dumbledore is not one to be easily deceived of such things. He believed Snape and made him turn against Voldemort.)
4. What's so significant about Harry's green eyes that Rowling keeps telling she'll explain in every book? ( Snape in the final battle between Voldy and Harry, will be reminded of Lily when he sees Harry's eyes and help him or die protecting him or something like that.)
5. What are the two important things about Lily, that Rowling said will be revealed in the next book? (Well, this surely appears to be one of them)

These are some of the questions that will definitely be answered to an acceptable degree if my theory is true. Again, this is just my "theory". But definitely "my" theory. Hope it turns out to be true.

P.S. Let me put this in writing. I have a bet with my friend Rahul. He says Snape is bad and I say Snape is good. The bet is for a thousand rupees. This is just so that I don't forget to collect my money later.

Sivaji: Movie Review

2007-07-01T11:56:00.000+05:00

At a time when it is enough for the superstar to make a guest appearance in movies for it to run 800 days, comes this visual extravaganza by Shankar… something that a Rajni fan would literally die for. It is clearly not one of Shankar’s best stories, but given the tremendous amount of pressure of directing the Superstar and satisfying his fans, he has done a marvellous job. It is also clearly not one of Rajni’s best movies. I would still prefer his Basha, Padayappa etc. but they were of a different era altogether. When there was far less expectation from him. In fact, if Rajni had acted in Mudhalvan THAT would have been something out of the world. With the given script, Shankar has brought out ten times more than anyone can expect to get out of it. One small doubt… Why do they show black money to be possessed only by politicians, higher officials and businessmen and not by Cinema Actors and Actresses?

Rumors like the budget of the Sahara song being the entire budget of the movie Veyyil, are not hard to believe. The picturisation of the songs were one of the best ever in Indian Cinema and Vaji Vaji, Sahara and Athiradee make the movie worth watching again. If not for the songs, if not for the stunts (especially the car fight), if not for Rajni or Vivek, the movie is definitely worth watching for Shreya (…slurp). She’s one of India’s naturally beautiful actresses (unlike Asin who wears a ton of make-up) and definitely no other heroine would have suited better for the role (I mean songs). The money spent lavishly for the extravagant sets in the songs have been intelligently compensated for, in the heroine’s costumes. Generally when songs are picturised with foreign dancers, our heroine would be the worst in the group. But in Style song, Shreya makes India proud. Vivek does a wonderful job expressing no fear of acting with the Superstar. Usually when Vivek comes in all the scenes in a movie, the movie doesn’t do well in the Box Office. Sivaji will definitely break that curse. Shankar can never rest until he tries something new in all his movies. This time he has tried everything he can with Rajni, making him fair, shaving his head, made him dance, made him imitate other actors (too good), and even killed him in the story. The fair Rajni, though wasn’t better than the usual Superstar, was a different idea and worked out very well. But some people feel he looked like he was affected by leprosy.

One thing that Shankar has to be appreciated for, is that with Indian Cinema being ruled by Bollywood, he made the entire nation turn and take notice of our Cinema and actually made them feel jealous. Though I doubt if the movie would run for as many days as Chandramukhi, mainly because it has released in literally all the theatres in Tamil Nadu. When I went to Tirunalveli a few days back for a trip to Kutralam, all the small theatres in all the villages were running it with many shows not completely filling up. Usually Superhit movies release in fewer theatres so that people in remote places travel to see it even after many days.

It would be difficult for Rajni to act in any other movie after this, as no other director will be able to show him this young. Of course, maybe if you spend a sixty crore. This movie has definitely taken him to a different level. Rajni has proved once again with this movie that he will always be the reigning Badshah of Tamil Cinema forever. As for Shankar… Better luck next time.

Arguments with my brother Part 2: Vegetarianism

2007-06-24T10:07:00.000+05:00

Bro: Humans are more suited to be vegetarians!

Me: What makes you say that? (Seri kottu...)

Bro: The biological structure of a human being shows that humans are supposed to eat plants and vegetables. For example, the human saliva is basic which matches with that of herbivores, while that of carnivores is acidic. It makes it easier to digest meat.

Me: That doesn't make any difference. We produce acids in our stomach which is enough to digest that meat. What about the incisor teeth we have. Doesn't that help us to tear meat better? Doesn't that match with carnivores?

Bro: We have 4 incisors out of 32 teeth which is not a big ratio. Plus, incisors help to tear vegetarian food as well. In cows there is a forestomach which helps do this. This is substituted by the incisors. Also the eyes of humans are very calm and round in shape like those of herbivores. Carnivores have sharp piercing eyesight which helps them see far for hunting and many also see well in the dark.

Me: We don't need far eyesight for hunting because we have been given the brains to hunt them with tools and cook meat for better digestion.

Bro: Don't include the brain in this. We have been given the brain to stop and think if we should eat meat like the animals or make ourselves different from them by not hurting other organisms and lead a civilized life. The brain is for us to realize ourselves. I 'm talking about the human anatomy and what it is better suited for.

Me: Doesn't the fact that we are able to survive eating meat show that we can eat meat. My point is we are neither herbivores nor carnivores but omnivores.

Bro: That's a stupid argument. Anyone can survive eating anything. It's what we are more suited to eat that I 'm talking about. You give a lion in a zoo only grass and no meat. After a few days it ll start eating grass.

Me: No it won't! It would die after a few days. By evolution humans have the power to survive forever on any type of food.

Bro: Don't get me started on evolution. For all you know, it just a theory based on the 10% information that we have got. There is still 90% information that is yet to be discovered. Science is based on vague theories which can never be proved, like the big bang, evolution etc.

Me: No! Science is based on strong facts from which the theories have been put forward. There is a framework of proven facts like fossils collected, radio carbon dating etc., and the concept of evolution fits perfectly for the given data.

Bro: That's my point. Science has got a framework only. There is still much more left undiscovered. What if they find a human fossil tomorrow that dates back before the monkeys? Then they would have to throw away all the evolution theory and come up with a new one. Science has always been proved wrong in history. People would come up with some idea and they would get a contradicting evidence and everything would be rewritten.

Me: At least science has been proved wrong by science itself and nothing else. Are you telling me that humans just appeared on the earth? That they were created by God?

Bro: Yeah! At least that answers more questions than evolution does! About the purpose of life etc. The way God created our biology goes on to prove that humans were supposed to be herbivores.

Me: Now that's argument for argument's sake.

Bro: Look, forget about evolution. Let's talk with what we have now and not how we evolved. Take our intestine, for example. We have a very long intestine like herbivores. Meat spoils quick. Worms and bacteria grow quickly on dead meat. And with a long intestine which takes a long time for food to get excreted, the dead body of an animal in our digestive system doesn't support our eating meat. Carnivores excrete 9 kg for every 10 kg they eat and that too quicker than herbivores. They have smaller intestine.

Me: Again, we have brains to cook food, destroy the bacteria and make it suitable for our consumption. We have "evolved" from monkeys. Okay, forget that! We are scientifically closer to the monkeys in our biological structure. Monkeys eat both meat and vegetable. Monkeys are omnivores. So why can't you accept that? If you want biological proof, consider the limbs of herbivores. Cows, horses, goat, elephant etc., haven't got fingers or hands like us. They can't hunt food. They can't even hold things without opposable thumbs.

Bro: Exactly, whereas lions, tigers, eagles etc., have got claws with sharp nails... to kill and tear flesh. Another proof. We can't strike that hard or tear flesh with our bear hands.

Me: That's what I 'm saying. We are neither here nor there. We are halfway between the two. We are omnivores.

Bro: Look, I'm not going to accept what you say and you're not going to accept what I say. I've given you biological proofs. You've got the brain to think. With all the facts proving that we are closer to herbivores decide if you really want to eat meat that badly.
___________________________________________________
Disclaimer: The ideas and views expressed above are not my own. They were just to irritate my brother. I fully and strongly support vegetarianism.

Has Bollywood failed to recognise Rajnikanth as an Indian Superstar?

2007-06-14T12:10:00.000+05:00

This was the hour long debate in NDTV prime time from 8 to 9. You know... when thousands of Indian Airlines passengers were waiting for the flight service to resume from the strike, the news channels felt, how better to keep them entertained. This is the extent of the Rajni mania that's been sweeping the nation. Setting aside the debate of whether it deserved that much media attention with so many more pressing issues at stake, let's try to understand why it was given that much importance. One word. Money. In predominantly Hindi speaking nation, with Bollywood being recognized as India's mainstream cinema, they couldn't digest the fact that the highest paid actor(second highest Asian) in the nation was from the Tamil Cinema. They couldn't see what was so special in this man, except for the fact that he had 35000 registered fan clubs only in Tamil Nadu(68000 all over the world) while Big B had a mere 8 all over the country, his last movie Chandramukhi made 60 crores, while Big B' s Cheeni Kum made 6 crores, he demanded a minimum of 10 crores apart from profit shares, while Big B asked 3-5 crores, and that he acted in one film in two years while Big B acted in 6 films just this year. I mean, what's so special in him?

They tried to find this for many days ever since his Sivaji pay package was announced but couldn't come to a solid conclusion. So now, they've joined the fan club too, with the movie's release getting closer. Covering items like "Pal Abhisekams" to his posters and starting contests like "Why I am Rajni's greatest fan", the news channels have slowly started stooping to the range of Zoom TV, B4U etc. I don't know if I should say the channels have gone down or Rajni has gone up. But definitely as one of the speakers in the show put it, "The channels depended on him and he didn't depend on them." They were catering to the appeal of a large Indian mass who's tastes have gone down, I would want to say. But being one in that mass, I wouldn't say that.

Coming to the big question at the top, it is as absurd as asking, "Has the Hollywood failed to recognize Big B as a universal superstar." Their target audience is completely different. The audience's tastes, their expectations and their appeals differ. But one thing that's common to all those who've made it big, is that they've clearly identified their target audience. They have understood where they stand, how far they can reach the people and have properly tried to please their fans. There are lots of escalators reaching to the peak of one's life, taking you slowly to the top. If you suddenly jump from one escalator to another, you are bound to get hurt badly. What Rajni's life has taught us is... Better stay where you are and work hard to improve yourself. It doesn't matter if you start small. Believe in yourself. Stick to your conviction(who knew 30 years back that his style would be the only thing that brought him to this level? He
did!). And yeah, be god-fearing. That divine grace will definitely make a difference in your life.

Gora: Book Review

2007-06-07T21:42:00.001+05:00

This was the first time I started reading an Indian author(well if you don't count How Opal Mehta got drunk, got wild and got a life), that too one from before independence. And I feel that I have wasted these 20 years of my life, after reading this masterpiece of Rabindranath Tagore.

Such profound ideas, clarity in thought, poetic word formations!!! It is difficult not to lose oneself in it. What struck me first was the depiction of the pre-independence India, the life of people, their customs, traditions and their thoughts and the revolutionary changes that were going on in their minds. For if it is difficult to talk about inter-caste marriages nowadays it was impossible to even think about them in those days. No wonder Tagore was considered to be revolutionary! But one thing that was surprising was the level of intellectual and social maturity which was present in every character's speech. I was dumbstruck when I found out that Sucharita's age was only twelve or thirteen which came only towards the end. And I'm not sure if I can believe it. Were the teenagers of those days so developed in intelligence and maturity, were they so proficient in their understandings, that such a book that came in those days could actually portray the Calcutta of the 1910s? What is evident in the entire book is the author's immense knowledge of not only his religion, customs and rituals but also of his knowledge of all the societies existing in that period. For his arguments cannot be so powerful if they weren't something he had experienced personally and given years of thinking to. My favorite character in this book is without doubt Gora. Although deep in his heart he knows his religion to be posing unwanted and unimportant obstacles in the way of India's development, he never once tries to display contempt and shields his feelings with hair-splitting arguments as to why one must not revolt against them for the mere fact that whatever their ancestors were following for centuries could definitely do no harm. Till his realization in the end, Gora gives absolute and unwavering respect and submission to the Scriptures. His rigid opinions and his resolve in making his stand clear to the entire society with no fear of contempt and with the fullest dignity was admirable. The parts of the book where I was totally held in awe, were the speeches made by Gora. Be it for defending the caste system or idol worship or the destruction of Hinduism, Tagore has a wonderful gift of wording his arguments with perfect analogies, whichever side he takes, whether Paresh Babu's or Gora's or Binoy's. Paresh Babu's character was also intersting. For every argument in the book, I expected a particular retort, but the one given by the author himself was not only the most perfect way of putting it but also made me feel humiliated for the way I would have replied to them. And another factor that differentiates Tagore's style of writing from any other's is the way he lets the reader form an idea about the characters by their reactions to various situations, instead of giving an introduction to how they are as soon as they are introduced, which gives the reader very less scope for forming their own opinions on different persons. For example in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austin introduces the Bennets and Darceys by giving us a brief idea of their characters, which actually gives way for the reader’s prejudice. Strong character formations in this book ensured each one to be as individual and different from the other.

The concepts explained in this book are so pertinent to the Indian society, that it would be difficult for any foreigner to even get into the mindset of the characters and understand the actual difficulties that the characters face. Because when it comes to concepts like arranged marriage, idol worship, devotion to motherland, etc. it will be difficult for them to grasp their significance and they would feel as to why the characters are giving importance to familial bonds, promises, respect to society and so on. This makes it all the more important that we as Indians definitely read such books and keep alive our past, our heritage and our pride.

What should we ask God?

2007-06-07T14:44:00.000+05:00

There was a rich landlord in a particular village and he was in need of a good singer to entertain the crowd during his daughter's wedding. He asked a close friend of his who wasn't as rich but quite well to do, to arrange for a singer. This friend approached a man who was poor but a highly qualified singer with a great voice. He readily accepted the offer. On the day of the wedding, his performance was really good but the crowd concentrating on the bride and groom did not have much time to appreciate his singing. But the friend was listening to the singer with rapt attention, as it was he who had arranged the man and wanted no complaints against him. While leaving, the landlord called the singer into a room with his friend. He had two bags in his hand and said, " This bag on my right is the amount you had requested. This bag in my left is the amount my friend here asked me to give you. Which bag would you choose?"

The singer was in a real dilemma now. He wasn't entirely sure of his performance and felt that the friend might have found flaws in his singing and advised the landlord to pay him less. But he couldn't choose his amount for he might be offending the friend who had given him the chance to perform lest he might not recommend him for further performances. So he was staring at the two bags quietly. Seeing his predicament, the landlord asked the friend, " What my friend? What do you say? Which bag should I give him?" Now the friend was in a dilemma. But he replied, "For your status you can afford to give both." And thus the landlord trying to rescue both of them from the uncomfortable situation, gave the singer both the bags.While returning from the wedding, the friend asked the singer how much he had requested to which he replied Rs.500. The friend said that he had asked the landlord to pay him Rs.5000.

From this we see that, though the singer's performance was the same, the singer felt that it deserved Rs.500, the friend felt that it deserved Rs.5000 but the landlord didn't mind giving him Rs.5500. For the same dedication to a job, their expectations varied depending on their status. A poor man would be happy to get a small amount for a job which a rich man would expect a lot more for. Instead of asking for an amount beforehand, if the singer had asked the landlord to give him what he pleased, he would have definitely given him something more than Rs.500 at least to maintain his status.

Imagine God, sitting in His Abode, with all the wealth in the universe lying at his feet. Should we ask him, "Lord give me this, give me that" ? We must do good things and we must ask him "Lord give me what you think I deserve" and you will definitely get more than what you expected.

How Eskimos kill wolves

2007-06-07T14:34:00.000+05:00

Eskimos have a peculiar way of killing wolves for food. They coat the blade of a spear with blood and dip it in water to create a coat of ice over it. Then they insert the handle of the spear into ice or snow with its blade standing out. The wolves are attracted by the scent of the blood on the spear and they start licking the blade. The ice on the blade freezes their tongue so that they have no feeling even when the sharp blade makes their own tongues to bleed. They continue to lick the blade more vigorously because of the taste of their own blood, because of which they lose so much blood till they fall unconscious or die.

In the same way, man is driven into the temptations and addictions in this world. He yields to them and starts experiencing pleasure beyond his imagination till the very temptations numbs his sensibilities and his abilities to comprehend right and wrong and ultimately gets destroyed by them. Just food for thought....

Pirates Of the Caribbean: Movie Review

2007-06-07T11:41:00.000+05:00

The third part of the swash-buckling pirates saga, wasn't so swash-buckling after all. With not as many action sequences as the first two, it was more of a drama, with romances, deals made, deals broken and no scope for witty Jack Sparrow to display his usual knack for getting out of stuff. He had to do with some repartees which gave few laughs here and there. In the scenes where he talks to himself, he has proved with his acting skills, that he one actor in Hollywood to be reckoned. Can't wait for his next movie with Big B. Following the first installment which became an unexpected hit, the story began to take a complex turn with new characters and storyline in the second. The third movie was expected to answer those complexities and give a concrete ending. But it continued to make the story more abstract, bringing in the useless Calypso, pirates from all over the world etc. and took it to a point of no return, when finally it dawned on the script-writers that "Enough is Enough". After that it was the high-speed twisting turning story that made the first two a blockbuster and that was missing till that point in the third movie. That was enough to compensate for the first 2 hours of dull drama.

The end of the movie not only took us back in a cycle to the beginning of the first movie with Jack sparrow abandoned by his crew in Black Pearl, and left with nothing but a boat and a bottle of rum, but also has left scope for a sequel with all the main characters still alive and ready for the next adventure. There are however some points which weren't clear to me in this movie. Why was there so much hype for Calypso who proved to be as useless as a log on-board? Why did the commander not order his men to attack the ships in the end? What happened to the other 100 ships standing against the 9 pirate ships? What happened to Elizabeth's crew and ship with her being the king of pirates?

Eragon: Movie Review

2007-06-07T10:51:00.000+05:00

There are many movies based on books. In some, the movies are better than the books (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars etc.). In some, the books are better than the movies ( Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code etc.). Eragon belongs to the former. I read the book a year back and I didn't remember the story exactly, but what I' m sure I remembered was how much of a drag the book was. I couldn't get through its pages quickly even with the story going very very slow. It was a little predictable too, with the hero turning out to be the villain's son, the never-before-tried concept of "good against evil" etc. Christopher Paolini has tried something in the lines of J.R.R.Tolkein, inventing Elvish languages, drawing maps of the places in the appendices, but with a far simpler storyline than the Lord of the Rings, these looked like desperate attempts to make people appreciate his efforts.

So this simple storyline with scopes for some dramatic scenes was exactly what the director needed for expanding his creativity in the fields of visual effects and stunts. The best visual effect in the movie was the dragon Saphira, which was reproduced exactly as it was illustrated in the book, and Rachel Weisz 's voice suited her perfectly. The stunts performed on the dragons where astounding. The baby dragon was the cutest depiction of a dragon in any hollywood movie. The other thing that perfectly matched with the book's description was the Shade both in casting and make-up. The dragon-riding sequence and the final fight, were worth watching second time. Overall the movie was much better and fast-paced with graphics and screenplay than its paper twin and definitely worth a watch.

P.S. If there's anything I wish to be in my life after this, it's a Dragon-Rider. Imagine a pet, which loves u, can talk only to you, takes you on an air-ride whenever you want, helps you do magic, breathes fire on your enemies, fights for you and is literally ready to die to help you live. What more could a guy want?

Chilled out!!!

2007-05-28T14:56:00.000+05:00

Decided on Saturday and started on Sunday.... Surprisingly fast decision considering my mother too was involved. Imagine our desperation to get outta this frustrating chennai heat. Three days trip:

Day 1:

Travelled 300 km in NH46. Best highway I've seen in India. Exotic scenery, surrounded by mountains. Cool drizzle. All signs of assertion that we had made a good choice of getting out of chennai. Had lunch at Vellore. The rain become harder and by the time we reached Dharmapuri, we had witnessed half a dozen broken trees. Good night's sleep.

Day 2:

Got up early in the morning and started out to Hogenakkal Falls. Beautiful, must-see spot. I have been to quite a few falls before but this one defeats them all. Best season is may-july. Unlike other falls where you either just watch them or provision is made for you to take bath under them, this is probably the only place where you can actually take your sailboat under the falls and get drenched within your boat, as you are enjoying the pleasure of having a boat-ride. This place lies on the border of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and as you go on the boat you can see Karnataka on the other side. There is not one or two but more than 25 falls. The boatman took us under each of those falls directly. There was also a shore where you can have a nice swim in still water. Word of advice: Get on the boat in your bathing dress. Don't take your cellphone or purse or watch. Go on a weekday. Weekend crowd will be nearly ten thousand.The only negative is that the boatmen charge you a lot you wish you had never come there. But once you get on the boat forget about the amount and nearly 2 hours of healthy enjoyment is assured. Definitely a place to visit especially in the summer vacation.

We went to Salem from there and stayed there.

Day 3:

Got up early again and went to Skandagiri first. My mother can't help turning any trip to a pilgrimage. It was a miracle she stopped with just this one temple. It was more an ashram than a temple and was in the refurbishment stage. I can never for get the Kurukkal who spoke like TR. He gave a long speech about how to worship god and sounded as thought he thought we had no idea of what Hinduism was all about, as if we were high-class, night-club-going, half-western-idiots and he was bringing us back to our religion. He was saying things like, ' "Om Namah Sivayah, Om Namo Narayana" , chant this mantra every night before going to sleep.' Ok! If you say so....

Then we were off to Yercaud. 1500 m above MSL. Not so many things to see as in Ooty or Kodaikkanal but a cool place. Places to see there : Anna Park, Boating, Ladies Seat, Gents seat, Children's seat (view points), Shevaroyan Hill(highest point), Horticultural Park(Rose garden). There was an Amman temple in Shevaroyan hills which was inside a tunnel and we had to crawl to get in. And the tunnel seemed to continue behind the idol. Legend has it that the naturally formed tunnel travelled 450 km to Karnataka border. The man who was there said he had travelled up to 7 km into it and it seemed to continue beyond. Even if you don;t buy the 450 km part, a tunnel of 7 km is good enough. Wonder how you can verify if it goes 450 km.... Any ideas????

Nothing more to see in Yercaud. Back to Chennai the next day.

Our Luck:
*The day after we started from Dharmapuri, there were heavy rains which was in the news.
* The day before we went to Hogenakkal recorded the maximum no.of tourists.
*The day after we returned from there, the boatmen went on a strike against the local Police.
*The day after we had planned to go to Yercaud was the Flower show which was bound to increase the no.of tourists. (We got to see the flowers being arranged without much crowd)
*The day after we went to Yercaud the vehicles returning from there were made to come down a different route 30 kms longer.

Spiderman 3 - Movie Review

2007-05-11T19:22:00.000+05:00

The most enjoyable part of my trip to the temples, was the last part. I persuaded my father to stop at Mayajaal on return. Wednesday evening 6 o clock. Spiderman 3 ticket available. Yay!!!

The movie was simple superb. A great finish to the trilogy. Sam Raimi took extreme care not to leave out anything in this third part (I don't wanna call it the last part.... want some more). He brought in more issues than peter parker could handle. And made it look like there was no way out. But the good thing about this movie is, each issue came one after another. When Green Goblin died, Sandman came, when sandman died, black spidey came, Mary Jane left him, when black spidey died, venom came and so on. It was like more than one spiderman movie. And as always everything ended well. But the Bollywood-like climax, with Harry turning good and coming to the rescue and getting killed was a little old and expected. Wish Harry had lived. But as my brother pointed out... Anyone who cannot be paired had to be killed. And the same for anyone who will not forgive (venom). With sandman there was a scope for some moral ending and a chance to boast of a theme of forgiveness. As if Aunt May's periodic moral education classes were not enough. you feel like saying " Who wants that in a Superhero movie? We want action. " But Raimi sees to it that we don't get that feeling. With so many action scenes and no compromise on special effects, you are forced to excuse one or two scenes that tend to drag.
On the whole it was a visual treat and by far the best Spiderman movie ever made. If there was one thing that was totally missing in all the aspects of this movie it was compromise.

When Spiderman 2 released it created a record opening, which was broken later by Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. That is now broken by the latest Spiderman installment. Can't wait for this record to be broken by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End...

3 Days 9 temples!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-05-11T13:01:00.000+05:00

A visit to our family deity (Ukkadai mariyamman) was long overdue and what better time than when mine and my brother's holidays coincided. But my parents have a bad habit of including as many temples in one trip as is just enough for a normal person to become an atheist. This trip however was different. Somewhat like the last one and possibly even better. Because instead of going to the most famous temples that one ought to visit in one's lifetime (all of which have been covered by us already in less than one fifth of my lifetime), we visited the leftover not-so-famous places of Tamil Nadu. But I now have the feeling that these are the temples that ought to be visited by all. Not only were they powerful deities each carrying their own strong legends, but they were architecturally and spatially one of THE most marvelous temples, I have ever seen. And it pains me to see that they were far less "crowded" (famous would be a better word as I prefer a temple to be less crowded), than the small roadside temple near my house. They were uncared for, people looking after these temples didn't have three square meals a day, the temple premises were not maintained properly, no proper access roads or directions leading to them. How would they then have the money to perform the regular poojas, yagnas, abhishekams, alangarams and annadaanams? Remember that the money donated in Hundial is not even enough for buying the Karpooram, Vibhudhi, Kungumam, Poo etc(in the case of less visited temples). It was in this trip I learned that traditionally there were few acres of land in the name of the temple and they were given to be maintained by a local landlord, who had to see to it that the agricultural profits from those lands would go towards maintaining the temples. And the temple authorities would maintain those records. Nowadays, some temple lands have been sold without records, some being eaten up by those in-charge of maintaining it and some more not maintained properly. And to top it all, one-third of the "profits" of a Hindu temple go to the government by law which is not the case for any Mosque or Church, were the authorities have the "choice" of sharing their profits with the Govt. And no one is supposed to talk about such issues in this Secular country (supposedly populated by a Hindu majority). And I too don't want to get into the details.

Coming back to the temples... Here's the list of the temples I visited this trip. Hope you get a chance to visit them in your lifetime (yaam petra "inbam" peruga ivvayagame) -

1) Manakulavinayagar, Pondicherry - Any pilgrimage we go by car would start with this one, as the first major stop after Chennai is Podicherry. And it is auspicious to start with Vinayagar. Well maintained, nice temple. One thing that I love about Pondy is its well-planned roadways. All straight, cemented roads, no dead ends, every place leading to every other. Wish the French had taked over India instead of the British.

2) Kuthanoor Saraswathi - Goddess of knowledge. Privately maintained, clean. But bad access road and not much crowd. Shops outside sold pens. If we write with the pen blessed by the goddess, we'll do well in our exams. I bought a pen and I'm sure I'm gonna be a ten pointer this sem. So guys beware.

3) Thiruveezhimazhalai - Sivan temple. MUST SEE. Easily the best temple this trip. Huge tank (with WATER!!!!). HUGE temple. Sad that we were the only ones in the temple apart from the Kurukkal. So he was our guide too.(who would get such an opportunity?). The temple was a little more than 2000(!@#$%^&!!!!!!) years old. Legend goes that Vishnu asked the advice of Shiva when he lost his Sudarshana Chakra in his fight with Jaladhasura. Jaladasura, though he was an asura, had the habit of throwing a Vilva leaf on a Sivalingam and saying "Om Namah Sivaya" everyday. And this punya credit was the reason Vishnu lost his Chakra when he attacked him. So as a remedy he had to take the form of a Human and worship Shiva with one lakh lotus everyday. One day, one flower was less in the one lakh. So Vishnu removed his eye and placed it as the last flower. And that day he got his vimochana and his chakra back. This temple resembled Kailasha Darisanam, where the temple was constructed in the same way as His Abode in Kailash, on the day of his marriage with Parvathi. So this deity was also called Mapillai Swamy. The entance pillars were like the Mandapam of a Kalyanam and the pillars near them resembled the Vaazhamaram. This was THE FIRST temple where I saw Shiva idol(with Parvathi)in Human form (height of 15 feet approx.) apart from the Lingam (which is what is present in all other shiva temples, I had seen.) The inner Gopuram had the shape of a Ratha with Shiva seated and Indra riding the chariot resembling the Groom's arrival. The Pappaya tree in the temple was more than a hundred years old. And I'm not joking about the years here (both the tree and the temple) as they had been verified by three different chronologists and found true. This was the place were Thirugnanasambandhar had asked for food in a house during famine and was refused, as there was no food. And he had appealed to Lord Shiva who gave him gold coins and asked him to perform annadhana for the people there, till the famine was over. There were a dozen more stories about the temple. I'll stop with this. On the whole, it was a HUGE temple (I don't have any other word to describe its size), with walls like that of fortress on two sides as you go around the temple.

4) Oppiliappan - Vishnu temple. Place where sage Markandaya's daughter Aandal married Vishnu. Originally the name was Oppiliappan meaning One who cannot be compared (Oppilla). But by people's mispronunciation it became Uppiliappan, since when all offerings to the god were without salt and devotees of the God didn't include salt in their food. Supposedly, Aandal's offerings to the God were saltless. I'm reminded of Vivek's Pavadai Samiyar. The temple as such was well maintained and more visited. Dunno why Vishnu temples are better maintained than Shiva temples in our state, though the Shiva temples are architecturally superior. If the State Govt. declared the temples as Monuments, I believe the Archaeological Society of India which is under the Central Govt. would maintain such marvels, better than they are being maintained now.

5) Ukkadai Mariamman - Story goes that, my grandfather's grandfather's father came upon a Mariamman idol when he was digging his land. He built a temple for that and since then it became our family deity. 15 kms off Thanjavur.

6) Thirubuvanam - Sarabeshwarar. God with lion face, Shiva's body, one wing Kali, one wing Durga, claws of eagle, tail of elephant. When Vishnu took the narasimha avatar, his anger after killing Hiranyakashyap was uncontrollable. So shiva, kali and durga decided to take the form of Sarabeshwarar to pacify him. Sarabeshwarar caught hold of Narasimha and flew to space till he was cool again. Also the blood of the asura was prevented from falling on the earth. So, if any of you is being tortured by your boss or co-woker or teacher and you can't attack them directly. There's a Sarabeshwarar Gayathri Mantram, which if you chant daily, your torturer will fear you and treat you with more respect. This temple was also HUGE and architecturally excellent. The pillars were intricately carved and joined together without any adhesive. The Kurukkal was also expressing his amazement at the construction and said that they were reconstructing the Gopuram outside for Kumbabishekam and one stone in that structure costed 5 lakhs. They were using 20 such stones. Imagine how much it would have cost to construct the entire temple!!!

7) Thiruvidaimarudhur - Mahalingeswarar and Mohambal( name changed later to Mookambika due to mispronunciation). My grandmother's birthplace. Brahmahathi (Hathi- sin caused by a murder - Brahminicide) is found in the south wall (south torana vayil) with head disheveled and face immersed betwixt the knees. Varaguna Pandiya’s horse accidentally crushed a Brahmin and killed him. The sin followed wherever he went. The king came to this temple. The Brahmahathi could not enter and waited outside. The king went out by another entrance. The Brahmahathi is waiting outside still. The king was relieved of his melody. People inflicted with mental disorders go round the circumambulatory path and get redress. The king was so afraid that he ran as fast as he could to Thirubuvanam (1 km away) and the Shiva there relieved him of his nervousness. Anybody having any fear, nervous disorder etc. will be cured if they see the Lingam in Thirubuvanam.

8) Swamimalai - Murugan. Been there before. But this time we had the opportunity to see the abhishekam.

9) Seerkazhi - Sivan. Everytime we would see the Chidambaram temple. So this time we decided to see the Seerkazhi temple. Wonderful choice. It was the place where Thirugnanasambandhar drank the Gnanapaal from Parvathi. In this temple you can see Shiva in three forms. Creator - Brahmalingam at the ground floor. Protector - Shiva and Parvathi took human form when there was a huge flood in earth and came in a rowboat to protect the people. This was the second temple where I saw Shiva in Human form. Destroyer - When Vishnu took the Vamana avatar, he measured the three worlds taking superhuman form. His arrogance and ego became uncontrollable and the Gods didn't know how to control him. They asked Lord Shiva, who helped to destroy the Vamana avatar. He tore the him apart and wore his skin as dress. He came to be called Sattanadhar and resembled vamana avatar as he was wearing his skin as the dress. Wish more people would visit this temple.

As you see, each temple has its own stories and greatness. Indian Government should develop tourism in these places and capitalise on the only thing that makes this country so special - heritage. Some idiots spend thousands of dollars to visit a house which was once inhabited by Shakepeare. Why? Proper marketing. We can survive in this competitive world only if we learn how to market ourselves. Some countries with nothing in their lands attract thousands of tourists. When we have so much wealth where do we lack????

So many movies, So little days!!!

2007-05-03T14:12:00.000+05:00

List of movies I wouldn't like to miss during these holidays:

Hollywood:

Part 3's :

Spiderman 3
Ocean's Thirteen
POC- At World's End
Shrek 3
Bourne Ultimatum
Rush Hour 3

Others:
Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix
Fantastic Four- Rise fo the Silver Surfer

Kollywood:

Already released:
Unnalae Unnalae (check)
Naan Avan Illai
Paruthiveeran (ya yet to see)
Parattai Ennum Azhagu Sundaram
Chennai 600028

To be released:
Kreedam
Bhima

And Last but definitely definitely definitely not the least

SIVAJI

Supreme Court's High-handed behavior

2007-05-03T13:36:00.000+05:00

"CET is like KBC"... When I saw this headline a few days ago in a newspaper recently I was stumped for quite sometime. I couldn't get what he was trying to convey from that headline- comparing two totally unrelated things. Yeah, who doesn't know that. Only halfway through the article I understood the shocking truth that it was a comment passed by the supreme court."It's just choose the correct answers, with four options. Anybody can pass it by guessing the right answer and get away with it." Oh, really!!! Sounds like someone miserably failed in CET in his 12th. Why should the court degrade itself by passing such unwanted and unrelated comment? Who asked ITS opinion on what it thought about the CET? What knowledge of the entrance procedure does it have? Does it have any idea how the State Board Exams are the worst method of selection of students for entry into any professional college? Leave the credibility part of it aside. Recent behaviour of the supreme court toward any case that comes under its purview has been quite haughty and unprofessional.

Take the case of OBC quota. When it refused to remove the stay on the case it was cited quoting "When you have waited for 56 years, you can wait for one more year". As a supreme court it is not supposed to pass such idiotic comment(couldn't find a better word) . There is a more professional and ethical way of dealing a case, being the highest institution of justice in a nation. "Since not enough evidences have been presented from your side of the argument, for now we come to a conclusion that this case remains in favour of the other party." This is the most formal way and the only way in which the court should have reacted. As one great man once said "Opinions are like ***holes. Everyone has one." Who asked the judge's opinion? Looks like, nowadays, the supreme is trying increase its TRPs by getting more sensational. A stunt that is better left for CNN-IBN or Deccan Chronicle to try out. Even in the Cauvery water issue, when Karnataka Govt. 's lawyer is posing his arguments, the Judge was found remarking, "Stop. I 've personally been in Chennai and have witnessed the acute water shortage and hardships faced by the people. How can you refuse water to them?" His remark maybe right. But it is a remark that must have been made by the Tamil Nadu's lawyer. Not by a supposedly impartial judge. I feel its better the supreme court strictly minds its own business in the future instead of acting like the God Almighty.

Legislature Against Judiciary

2007-05-02T20:45:00.000+05:00

Doesn't the Court give judgement based on what is right in the eyes of justice? If there are not enough proofs to substantiate an argument then such an argument is baseless, waste of time and not worth discussing. Then isn't the Parliament's decission to override the judgement(or the mere possibility of such a thing), an attempt to cause harm to justice and against doing what is right? What's the meaning of elected representatives acting unjust or going against the court?

I asked this doubt to my father. He gave the other perspective to it. He said that the court gives judgement based on pre-written laws which were framed for the welfare of the nation and not based on actual "justice" as one might call it. Because what is justice for one may not be justie for another. And whenever the court is in doubt, it refers to these laws and acts accordingly. The legislature's job is to frame these laws. If the legislature passes the law that OBC quota must be implemented and if there was a case in the future against it, the court would refer to this law and would immediately close that case, in favour of OBC quota.

It was then that I actually understood the depth of the job given to the elected representatives. We give them the right to decide what's good for the general welfare of the nation, i.e. framing the laws. Another side to this is, "Are they actually elected by a majority of the people with our nation's elections based on simple majority? So can they decide what will be liked by a majority of our people?" But the fact that their decisions is sometimes even against the people that voted FOR them, this side of the story is needless to be debated. Now the real question is "what can we do when the laws that they frame are against the welfare of a majority of our population?" Practically, nothing. Well, we can agitate, protest, rebel, to show our opposition. This is possible only when there is a little courage, initiative, hope for betterment, no possibility of self destruction, at most a little possibility of hurting ourselves. And even if we do protest, there will be another group to protest against us in which case, either the dog that barks loudest gets the bait or the goverment ignores both and continues its initiative. So we come back to what an individual can do in such cases. Practically, nothing.

Well, if you hate the system, you can go against the system. Do not follow the rules. Follow your own rules. Do what you think is right. And this also has a high possibility of a bad failure. One thing I have learnt from all these experiences (And I would like to follow this). Stop grumbling and make your life miserable. Take life as it is. This is what is given to you. Your country IS like this. See what best you can do with what you have. Let them frame horrible laws. Turn them to your favour(Like getting a fake OBC certificate from Bihar Govt. Hospital) or make them insignificant(By performing so well that you get inspite of the quota). There is so much more happiness in this world. Stop worrying and live every moment as if it were gonna be your last.

Unnale Unnale - Movie Review

2007-05-02T19:47:00.000+05:00

I went to Unnale Unnale right after exams... you know- like love failures would immediately go to a bar to drown their sorrows. Anyway, the good thing is, it did the job. Now I m clear, fresh and ready................. to eat, sleep, eat,sleep for the next two months.

Before I go to the review... One small doubt... how is deepika related to jhansi? who is vaithi? how do they know one another? The movie was entertaining. The hero is handsome and tall. And is quite good at acting. Except for his extra effort to move his lips for the dialogues. And he has a great future if he learns tamil soon. Sodha was her usual self. And her role was just an extension of priyasakhi. The disgusted frustration and anger displaying character. Tanisha (or Tanuja dont remember) definitely needs to take acting classes from her sister (kajol btw) if at all it ll help, with her looks. In certain frames her nose seemed to come out of the screen. Jeeva did a good job in the first half but the second half was a drag till the climax. He didn't know how to drag the movie for another half. Cos' the story was very much guessable. With sadha and vinay' s love broken and a new girl in his life, there were only five ways to end it:
* sadha and vinay end up together, realising how they miss each other
* tanisha helps bring them together
* vinay realises tanisha's better and goes for her
* tanisha tries to make him love her and he can't forget sadha. So sadha realises his love for her and gets back to him
* sadha helps bring the other two together

There have been at least five films with each of the above possibilties. So while Jeeva was deciding on which one to go for, he continued the shooting with scenes like rugby matches and national geographic sessions of cow mating. Thank god there were no appa-against-kadhal bits. Love strories these days conveniently don't include the appa amma factor which might possibly add to the confusion. Hope real life was tat easy. Of the above possibilities, I would have preferred the third one, but as my friend pointed out it would be along the lines of vallavan!!! Dunno if tats wat Jeeva had in mind wen he chose the other climax.

And dunno wats with Jeeva and his Kadhal analogies. Kadhal oru murukku madhiri. Kadhal oru bubblegum madhiri. Kadhal oru toilet brush madhiri. Kadhal oru soap dabba madhiri. Soap lerndhu nora varum ana noralerndhu soap varadhu. Hope he tries something new. The film resembled Kal Ho Na Ho in many places. With the exotic background. And the rectangular marquees in many scenes. The will-make-you-love-in-a-week idea(though the original was far better...dunno wat tanisha was actively trying during that week... or maybe Jeeva had decided his climax and wanted to complete the story in those seven days).

The songs were brilliant. Great picturisation. And Harris known for copying from his own songs has set a record by composing a movie with all 6 songs with the same tune and beats. (They sound almost same with minor variations in instruments and tempo). But somehow all songs are superb.

On the whole it was an entertaining movie. I don't wanna get into the part about the girl-boy debates. Enough of that has been discussed in the movie. Wish all girls were like Deepika(tanisha). Guys would have no problem.Well actually, both would have no problem.

Back to the future!!!

2007-05-02T19:45:00.000+05:00

Exams for three weeks... So could not blog.... But now that its all over, i feel I'd rather have continued blogging. It would have made no difference...

Mozhi - Movie Review

2007-03-31T13:36:00.000+05:00

Director Radha Mohan's yet another "DECENT" venture is slowly turning out to be a hit. Maybe it's because it's Jothika's last movie. Or because she doesn't speak a word in this and her usual overacting has suited well for the character. But I must say, Jo has remarkably reduced her overacting in her recent films. Maybe she exhausted all of that in Chandramukhi. But kudos to Radha Mohan for providing movies suitable to be viewed by the entire family(together). In all his movies(two), he uses not more than ten characters totally and not more than 4 main characters. No vulgarity, no double entendres, not even a kuthu song. But his hits have proved that there are people waiting for more such movies. Why don't directors realise this and capitalise on this? Cos' such movies don't cost much to make and will surely get more money than they put in. At this point I should definitely appreciate producer Prakash Raj (or his luck). How does he manage to get such small budget movies with high returns and a good story?

After the movie(or even during the movie), I felt what a great life it would be to marry a deaf and dumb girl?
Eternal Silence....
Bliss...
(music: chorus - What a wonderful Life)...
There s a saying which goes-
"The first year of marriage the husband speaks and the wife listens
The second year, the wife speaks and the husband listens
From then on both of them speak and the neighbours listen"
There will not be such a condition with a deaf and dumb wife. And if she's as beautiful as Jo, what's there to complain. She ll be a good daughter-in-law. Your mom won't have the heart to complain anything about her to you. Even if she says anything your wife can't hear her to react in any way. There won't be any verbal fights noisy enough to wake your child. There ll be more love between you and your wife. She ll love you for loving her inspite of her problem. You ll love her more for because of her problem. One great mind (my brother) has said, "You like people for their goodness. You love them for their deficiencies." Whenever you're away from someone, what makes you miss them is not their good qualities but their bad ones. "He used to keep touching my hair which made me angry. Gosh how I miss him now." "She would always forget to put sugar in my coffee. Now I remember her whenever I don't get coffee. :-("...... Ya coming back to the advantages. You can have your privacy while speaking to each other in public. No one ll understand your language. People will start looking at you differently, as if you have done some wonderful deed. So many advantages. What's the only disadvantage? You need to learn sign language. Big deal. I'm ready.

Income Taxing!!!

2007-03-31T12:59:00.000+05:00

The latest Ad doing the rounds now is the Income Tax campaign. "Pay your taxes. Then only your family will be happy." Oooooh.... I 'm afraid. I mean come on.... The guy refuses to pay tax first. Then looks at his family photo and sees them glum and then accepts to pay the tax. What crap? I think the IT Advertising Managers should get some help from the Pulli Raja campaign managers. "Pulli Rajakku Raids varuma"... one month with that. Then two peolpe in a bar talking about how only Big B, Ash etc will be pardoned for not paying taxes and normal people like Pulli Raja will escape only if they pay their taxes properly. That would make a "better" campaign than the bullsit that they are trying now.

In another Ad, a lady stands before the India Gate and literally begs us to pay our taxes. "More than 99% of your tax goes to the development of education, health etc. in our country. So take part in India's development." Nice try! Just ten days back there was an article in the newspaper, which said that the officials in a General Hospital in UP "stumbled" across a room full of medicines stocked 4 years back. They were estimated to be more than one crore rupees. Then further investigation led to the revelation of the fact that certain officials in the GH involved in buying and distribution of the medicines to the patients, would order for the medicines from private companies and give it back to them and would buy the same from them again and so on. And in another article it said, in a jail in Bihar, the Jail officials were helping the criminals inside with facilities like mobile phones, televisions, better foods etc. During a sudden investigation of the jail by higher officials, a fight broke out between the police and the criminals inside, in which the jail officials fought for the criminals against the police. Seeing all these articles my father said, "Look at where our country's headed?" with a irritated look on his face. But I said, "A few days back too these things were happening. Just that we didn't know about it. Now our country's headed to a point where these things have started coming out to the public's notice. Feel proud."

Inspite of all these, IT(Income Tax) guys: Please don't expect people to change their attitude seeing that your Ads. It's pathetic. Or if that's what you want... you want people to feel sorry for you and pay their taxes. Maybe it's working.

Yay!!! India qualified for the super 16!!!

2007-03-25T21:27:00.000+05:00

"10th 12th standard pasangaloda future nalla irukkanum. Avanga examku olunga padikkanum. Adharkaagave naangal Super 8 roundkku poga povathillai", endru India cricket aniyin captain Rahul Dravid kodutha urukkamana paettiyai thodarndhu avargalin abaramana tholviyai kandu India makkal anaivarum avargalukkaaga sirandha murayil irudhi sadangugalai munne ninru nadathivaithanar.

Itharkidaye, Pakistan aniyin captainaana Inzamam idam, India coach Greg Chappell, "Ennapa ungal coach irandhu vittaarame", endru kettadharkku, "Aamam, avar manasthan", endru badhilalitha Inzamamai kandithu Chappell thodutha vazhakkil, "Eppidi Indian teamkku coacha irukkum ennidam Maanathai patri avar paesalam" endru kovathudan pongi ezhundhar Greg.

India muzhuvathum nadathiya karuththaaivil, Indiavin tholviyaal peridhum badhikka pattavargal kudumbathalaivigal endra thidikidum unmai theriyavandhullathu. Kanavargal tholaikatchiyil 24 mani neram cricket parthukondirukka, naangu varudarthirkku oru murai kidaikkum intha irandu maatha kanavan-illa-vidumuraiyil, yoga class, dance class, marudhani class, tanjore painting class mattrum palveru classgalil kasukoduthu serndhulla pengal, "Itharkku badhilaga oru pattu pudavaiye vangiruppen" endru pulambugirargal. "Afternoon boyfriend, evening husbandnu busy poikkitrukkara en vazhkayil, etho rendu maasam time kadachirukkennu samayal class aasaya serndha, andha aasai tendulkar wicketoda fasta parandh pochey..." endru kumurugirar Saroja.

Ithai patri Sivaraj ennum sidharidam kettatharku, "India valibargal ellorum miga thiramai vaindhavargal. Yendhan ippadi seeralindhupogirargal endru theriyavillai. Ilamaiyileye ellorukkum chance kidaikkavendum. Iruvathu vayathil aadamal, aruvathil aadi enna payan?" endru, single meaningil badhil sonnar. Vasthu nibunar Thiru. Pavadai Samiyar sonnathin padi, "India veerargal, vasthu padi wicketukku munbu nirpadhu thavaru. Avargal wicketukku pinnadi ninru adiyirundhale innum konjam neram angu irunthirukkakoodum" endru karuthu therivithar.

Bharatiya Janata Katchiyin MPyana Thiru.L.K.Advani India tholvikku maraindha munnal pradhamar, Indira Gandhi ye karanam endru kuttramchaata, eppadi endru kettadharku, "Avar than Bagladesh ai uruvakkinar. Andru athai seyyamal irundhirundhal, indru India tholvi adaindhirukkadhu" endru anal parakka badhilalithar.

Bermuda aniyin irettai tholviyai thodarndhu, annaattu makkal aniyin captainaana Irving Romaine ai, gouravamaaga padhavi irakkam seiyyacholli kettadharkku," En contract world cup varayilthan. Piragu naan en kula thozhillaana ganja virpanaikke sendru vidugiren. Ennai vittu vidungal" endru kathari azha, adutha captainaaga Leverock ai thernthedukka BCCI (Bermuda Cricket Council International) mudivu seithulla nilayil, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj mattrum palar, "Naangal Bermuda aniyil serndhu vidugirom. Engalukku engal naattu makkalidamirundhu padhugaappu thandhal podhum", endru kettadhai, BCCI maruthadhaaga angulla engalin special correspondent therivithar.

Tharpodhaya thagaval padi, India Pakistan anigal kilambiya vimaanam nilaithadumariyadhan karanathai kettatharkku, pilot alitha badhilin padi vimanathil ulla India Pakistan anigal jannal-orathu-seatukkaga sandai pottu kondirukkaargal endru theriyavandhulladhu. Athanal vidaiperuvadharkku munbu yella Indiargalidamum naangal kettukolvathu enna vendral, " Thayavu seidhu India anikku jannal-orathu-seat kidaikkumaaru kadavul idam prarthanai seiyungal."

Ippadikku,

Vidiya-Vidiya-Match-Paarthu-Seeralinthor Sangam

Secret of Failure

2007-03-22T19:04:00.000+05:00

Karthyek: You know what's the reason our project isn't working
Murali: What?
Karhtyek: We always keep criticising each other and try to put the blame on one another.
Me: Yeah da! Why don't you two stop doing that?

Hoo Ha India Haaya India

2007-03-22T18:39:00.000+05:00

It was proud to see Sehwag removing his helmet for a fifty after sixty matches of glory.(oh yeah... this was his first fifty in sixty matches) that too against a truly formidable adversary. He definitely deserves to be appreciated for managing to find the gaps especially with Leverock(my favourite bermuda player) covering the entire ground (for which he didnt have to move much).

The news item in NDTV "How much the Indian advertisers would lose if India doesn't qualify to the super 8?", left me wondering. Consider a 10 sec slot during a match. If it was India playing, the rate would be 8 to 10 lakhs as opposed to 1 or 2 lakhs for any other team. A match running for 6 hours with at least 30 slots per hour, would make 16 crores more per match if it was by India. Which gives 80 crores if India played at least 5 more matches. With promotion campaigns, cheering up, cricket based movies, albums, sms competitions, chance to have a date with cricketers, sms polls, guess games, bets the amount goes to hundreds of crores. India has THE LARGEST home audience for any product based ad to be targetted at. With Sri Lanka's determination to thwart us when we are in our "peak" and not play easy just so that we have a chance to go to the super 8, my advice to these advertisers would be "Please go and pay a part of this money to Sri Lankans or for that matter anyone playing against India in the future, asking them to...." (Well.... you get the idea).

Arguments With my Brother- Part 1: cse or ECE!!!

2007-03-17T21:52:00.000+05:00

March 3rd 10:00 pm-

Me: ECE is the most interesting subject in engineering! There s nothing more in CSE than just programming. First C, then C++, then JAVA, then COBOL, ALGOL, HTML, algorithms, operating systems.

Bro: What a load of crap? What do you know about CSE. There is no other subject in this world which has had so much impact on all other fields in this world like the computer. Just think.. just with those things you said you can do anything you want in this world. From medicine to satellite launching.

Me: But everything you said is electronics. Satellite has microprocessors, which are electronic chips!!! Not computer. In fact computer itself is made of electronic components. You must learn to give it its due credit.

Bro: In that case, electronics comes from silicon and germanium, so you must accept chemical engineering is your father and give that its due credit.

Me: Point well taken. But everything you do is confined to one box. It's applications are limited. Everything else in our house other than a computer is made of electronics. TV, Fridge, Radio, microwave, iPod, telephone. It has infinite applications.

Bro: But think, a computer confined to a just a box has soooo many applications by itself. You can watch movie, play games, listen to music. You can't go to the internet without a computer.

Me: No! You can watch movies in TV, CD player. Internet in mobile phoes. There's nothing without communication. A computer is of no use without the concepts of networking, which comes from communication. And it is electronic circuits which are required to control and master the communication systems, filters, receivers, modulators, demodulators, amplifiers.

Bro: But only the advent of computers has sped up the developments in any field. Today you are able to see the gentic structures, modify them to our requirements which was not possible few years back. Artificial Intelligence concept is possible only with computers and programming.

Me: But robotics is a branch of electronics. There s no robot with just a program. You need electronic circuits to process the output from the robots sensors.

Bro: There are such complex and interesting concepts in cse too. It is not as easy as you think.

Me: No way! Electronics has much more interesting concepts. How any signal can be thought of as sums of sines and cosines of various amplitudes, how this has simplified our mastery of signals and processing. Only a communication engineer as the eye to view em waves throughout the spectrum and not just the visible range. Every point in the world contains information about every other point. How are you able to pick up your mobile and listen to radiomirchi where ever you are?

Bro: Don't have the wrong idea that cse is just programming. There are concepts in it which can be applied in any field. Even I have studied your electronic circuits. Nothing great. There s so much development in the field of computers everyday. If you draw the graph of human development with tim, there s a small rise after industrial revolution, a bigger rise after electronics came, but a peak tending to infinity since the computers were invented.

Me: That was possible ony after the rise in electronics. There s no discontinuity I guess. I still say electronics is also a developing field. But most of its concepts have been developed and there is liitle left to develop for which one must dedicate his entire life and no one s prepared for that, especially since mastery of the existing concepts itself is difficult.

Bro: That's where you are basically wrong. Even computer science has VERY difficult concepts, even mechanical has, even civil has. Every department has its share of difficult concepts.

Me: A few years back, the toppers used to select cse. Now they select ECE and the next set of students select cse. They don't find it any more difficult than you did. My point is, anyone can study cse with ease (even in computer classes) as long as they don't feel bored.

Bro: What they teach in computer classes is job-oriented da. CS Engineering has much more to it.

Me: Please don't call it Engineering.

Bro: What? We are the architects of the Virtual world. This is the Digital Age and....

Me: Aaha. Digital... another concept well stolen from electronics.

Bro: Poda venna. Every field has its own set of courses which are enough to form a separate branch of engineering. And each is difficult in its own sense.

AND THE ARGUMENT WENT ON TILL 4th March 1:00 am.

Does God exist?

2007-03-17T20:08:00.000+05:00

I was travelling by bus from college one day when the lady near me asked if the bus would stop at the Thiruvanmiyur bus stand or at the Marundeeswarar temple. I said Marundeeswarar temple. After a few seconds, the man next to me asked, "Marundeeswarar a? Anga enna Easwarar Marundhu viththara?" I replied matter-of-factly, " Illa avar Marundhukkaana Easwarar" and turned away, ignoring him. I had very little idea that I had started a very useless discussion with a total stranger who had resolved to try and make me an atheist before I got down. He had little idea that I wouldn't let him do so. He went on and on about what bakwas this whole God thing is, people would do good if they didn't believe him, why this "God" helped some people and not others and the usual bits that atheist talk. I went on and on about God is a way of making people have some fear not to stray from their path of Dharma and following the ways of life dictated by a religion would not kill one and our ancestors were not fools and they must have had some meaning in their words and usual bits that believers talk. I tried maximum to avoid His Ignorance and when my stop had come and he felt he was gonna lose, he started shouting to me till I got down from the bus and it left.

All this aside, Does God Really exist? The great poet Kannadasan, in his book "Arthamulla Hindu Madham" has put forward a wonderful argument. He says, a man does not require any brain to be an atheist. Anyone can say anything doen't exists as long as it cannot be proved. You don't need sixth sense for that.He can blame all his failures on his actions. He can be carefree that no one is there to question him. He can say what happens, how it happens but not so much as why it happens the way it happens. At the most he ll blame it on nature and will not be able to explain this "nature". Where as a believer needs not only to have a thorough understanding of what he does and why he does it, but also enough arguments to convince an atheist as to why he does it. Of course, the philosophies of the religion don't expect you to convert an atheist into a believer. But in this age of westernisation and the so-called "scientific" thinking, you cannot survive if you cannot substantiate. A believer must understand why he applies the Thiruneer or kumkumam(to keep his mind calm cool and focussed. Wet ash is found to have those properties) , why he rotates the temple in clockwise and not anti-clockwise ( Most our temples have been built facing the east and when we rotate clockwise we go along the earth's magnetic field and not opposing it, which is good for our body) etc.

A man's failures can be attributed to his deeds 25% of the time and the rest to wat one can call fate. If a job-applicant misses the bus to an interview, it is not in his hands. If he starts blaming it on himself (Of course he could have started early which is his contribution of 25%), he will feel more miserable. Instead if he has something called fate on which he can blame it, and feel that God would show him another way and maybe all would turn out well in the end, it gives him a sort of confidence and courage to still face life. Fate may be a figment of one's imagination but if there's something good that one can gain from it, so what if it is? There is something called a 90-10 principle. A man's day is decided 10% by what happens to him and 90% on how he reacts to it. A daughter pours coffee accidentally on her father's shirt. He can either choose to shout at her or say "it's ok" and change his shirt and go on with his day. In the former case his day starts with a bad mood, then he goes to his office, feels guilty about shouting at his daughter, not responds properly to his boss, has a bad day in office, returns home, has a difficult time talking to his daughter... well you get the idea. And you know what ll happen if he does the latter. So what makes one react to things differently? They used to say "Vithi avan thalaila vilaydirkku." You would have noticed yourself, some people reacting differently to the same things at different times. I don't know how to explain that beyond a point.

Born as a human being, and bestowed with a sixth sense, why do we refuse to extend our thoughts a little and wonder if this God IS really true especially since more than half of the people believe there is one, in some form or the other and since all of us are not able to explain all the things happening around us, what if there IS some supernatural power beyond our comprehension. How much thought and research has an atheist put in to claim that there is no God. How much of religious literature do you think he would have read, and with how much of mental maturity to accept our ancestors line of thought, and then still claim he is not convinced. If there are such atheists, this is not for them. For I appreciate their strong opinion. Of course, even I haven't done all those. But at least I don't blindly refuse anything. I leave way for the possibilty and if I don't have the time to research, I accept what elders say since they have not had any problems believing what they did. IT DOES NOT REQUIRE ANY BRAIN TO SAY THAT GOD DOESN'T EXIST BECAUSE I CANNOT SEE HIM OR THAT HE DID NOT HELP ME IN MY LIFE. (For that is not his job).

Whatever said and done, there is one thing I would like to tell all atheists. Imagine there s a locked room with a treasure inside(or not. Just suppose there is). There is no way of opening the room and finding out if it IS there. I believe it is there, and you say it is not since you cannot prove it. Why don't we leave it at that? Why do you try so hard to make everyone say there s no treasure inside the room? How is the existence of the treasure going to affect our daily life? I feel saitisfied to believe that there is a treasure and I am right. What if some day, by some means, the door can be opened and the treasure DOES really exist. Of course if does not exist, I will start feeling bad only from that day onwards. Till then I would happily lead my life, thinking that if ANYTHING happens to me there s a room full of treasure to help me and hoping that there is definitley a way to open the door. It gives me some confidence and a sense of back-up and I m forced to exercise my brain and put my mind to "more" use (than the atheist) in trying to reach that treasure and prove that I m right instead of letting my mind rot on the otherwise useless pursuits of life. Because I m sure there is nothing in this world that would give me eternal happiness as the treasure would.

In Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams wonderfully lets God himself prove that he doesn't exist. It is a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly intricate as nature could have evolved by purely chance. The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man,"the Nature is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. The crux that one has to understand is, It is absurd to try and prove that He exists. For the basis of His existence is faith.

Return Of The Jedi

2007-03-17T20:02:00.000+05:00

Hi....... I ve finally decided to start spending "more" time on blogging from now. Fans who had been checking out the site everyday expecting new posts- Thank you for your support and sorry for the delay. Others- I ve got nothing to say to you because you don't exist.

2006-11-26T21:51:00.000+05:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.3
Mind:	7.9
Body:	8.4
Spirit:	7.1
Friends/Family:	5
Love:	0.8
Finance:	5.5
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Poems That I Like:

2006-05-15T17:35:00.000+05:00

Even This Shall Pass Away- Theodore Tilton

Once in Persia reigned a king,

Who upon his signet ring

Graved a maxim true and wise,

Which, if held before his eyes,

Gave him counsel at a glance

Fit for every change and chance.

Solemn words, and these are they;

“Even this shall pass away.”

Trains of camels through the sand

Brought him gems from Samarcand;

Fleets of galleys through the seas

Brought him pearls to match with these;

But he counted not his gain

Treasures of the mine or main;

“What is wealth?” the king would say;

“Even this shall pass away.”

‘Mid the revels of his court,

At the zenith of his sport,

When the palms of all his guests

Burned with clapping at his jests,

He, amid his figs and wine,

Cried, “O loving friends of mine;

Pleasures come, but not to stay;

‘Even this shall pass away.’ ”

Lady, fairest ever seen,

Was the bride he crowned his queen.

Pillowed on his marriage bed,

Softly to his soul he said:

“Though no bridegroom ever pressed

Fairer bosom to his breast,

Mortal flesh must come to clay-

Even this shall pass away.”

Fighting on a furious field,

Once a javelin pierced his shield;

Soldiers with a loud lament,

Bore him bleeding to his tent.

Groaning from his tortured side,

“Pain is hard to bear,” he cried;

“But with patience, day by day,

Even this shall pass away.”

Towering in the Public Square,

Twenty cubits in the air,

Rose his statue, carved in stone.

Then the king, disguised, unknown,

Stood before his sculptured name,

Musing meekly: “What is fame?

Fame is but a slow decay;

Even this shall pass away.”

Struck with palsy, sore and old,

Waiting at the Gates of Gold,

Said he with his dying breath,

“Life is done, but what is death?”

Then, in answer to the king,

Fell a sunbeam on his ring,

Showing by a heavenly ray,

“Even this shall pass away.”

TOP TEN PUNCH DIALOGUES

2006-05-09T21:25:00.000+05:00

Punch dialogues, contrary to popular opinion, are not something new and they have always there in movies, even in Hollywood ones, for that matter. For a punch dialogue to reach the masses and to remain in their consciousness, it is not required that the dialogue should get repeated often. Clark Gable’s ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ in ‘Gone with the wind’ has been one of the immortal lines ever. Which tells you that a dialogue just delivered once with telling effect is enough. And who can forget Marlon Brando’s ‘Make me an offer I can’t refuse’ in ‘Godfather’.

For a punch dialogue to enter the hall of fame, it should meet certain qualifications. One, it should be able to stand the test of time; another is that the dialogue should get so popular that it should unobtrusively become part of our everyday language.

Have a look at our collection of some of the best ‘punch’ dialogues ever to grace the Tamil silver screen!

1.‘Naan oru thadavai sonna nooru thadavai sonna madiri’ – If one were to name a dialogue as the ‘mother of all punch dialogues’, then this one. This immortal quote has been the subject of endless spoofs for over a decade and SMS jokes based on this, are doing the rounds even now. No one but Rajini could have pulled it off the way he did it in ‘Baasha’ and in fact, it would be right to say that the concept of punch dialogues for heroes started only after this gem of an evergreen dialogue!

2.‘Maapu, vechuttanya aappu!’ – ‘Neenga engiyo poittenga saar’ says an admiring ‘Yettu’ to his smirking boss Janagaraj in ‘Apoorva Sahodarargal’ and launched a thousand laughs across Tamil audiences across the world. But, the number two status has to go to Vadivelu who brought the theatre down with this antics with this one in Chandramukhi. And one never knew what happened to ‘Kovalu’ whose search he was on!

3.‘Mannippu, thamizhla enakku pidikkatha vaarthai!’ –Statistics and violence prone Professor Ramana takes up arms to protect the society against corrupt officials and with this classic quote, polishes off vermin, a la Eastwood style. The line has entered into every day language and has been parodied tirelessly, an indication of popularity of a dialogue. Some say that this was the movie that launched Vijayakanth, the politician. If Vijayakanth ever has a successful political career, this line then is likely to get an immortal status.

4. ‘Kadavulae, Kadavulae’- Rajini to Kushboo in Annamalai. Thanks to a comedy with a snake and this classic line.Also, this film incidentally was the first one that carried ‘Super Star’ Rajini in graphics in the opening credits.

5.‘Neenga nallavara kettavara?’ – The grand son of Varadaraja Naicker (Kamal Hassan) asks a seemingly innocent question in ‘Nayagan’, little knowing its deep philosophical implications. Naicker is stumped and says he does not know. Was the do-gooder criminal is a good guy or a bad one? Was this question was meant for the viewers?

6.‘Parattai, keduthuttiye parattai!’ – 16 Vayathinile is a watershed film in the Tamil film history for it irrevocably altered the course of movies made this side of Cooum. Bharathiraja came into his own, Ilayaraja the maestro gave the music lovers a taste of things to come and Rajini, Kamal and Sridevi showed they had arrived.
If Sappani ('Aathaa Aadu valathuchu...kozhi valathuchu...naay valakkala...') got the rave reviews and awards, it was Rajini (‘Idhu eppadi irukku’) who got the front benchers’ whistles. But, no one can forget this dialogue which continues to be in vogue and used in every day conversation even now. The Goundamani phenomenon was born with this movie and thanks to ‘Parattai’, he has gone on to give many kick-ass (?!) performances with the semi-trousered Senthil.

7. ‘Nee munthinda nokku, naan munthinda nekku’ – Prestige Padmanabhan Sivaji feels traumatized after his retirement from service and also by the neglect and indifference of his beloved children. He has only this one-liner to console his wife Padmini in ‘Vietnam Veedu’ and out comes the handkerchiefs to stifle the sobs and sniffs from the ladies section of the hall.

8. ‘Netrikann thirapinum kutram kutramae!’ – A P Nagarajan is not one to be outdone by an angry Shiva (Sivaji) who arrives at the durbar of the Pandian King to defend the ditty he ghostwrites for Dharumi and comes up with this classic one-liner in Thiruvilayadal. Has almost attained the status of a literary metaphor and probably has even inspired someone to start a magazine bearing that name.

9.‘Sabaash, sariyana potti!’ – P S Veerappa goes ballistic, watching the competition between the dancing sensations of those times, Padmini and Vyjayanti Mala, with this innocuous but popular line in ‘Vanchi Kottai Valiban’You hear this piece of dialogue even today whenever two beautiful females appear in public places and someone has said this dialogue is a “gentleman’s version of a wolf-whistle.”

10.‘Manandal Maha Devi. Illayael Marana Devi!’ – P S Veerappa, the evil scheming minister does not just stop with one of his trademark guffaws but also has the temerity to announce his liking for Savithri, the Princess Mahadevi and steals thunder from an upcoming handsome hero MGR with this punch line in Mahadevi.

Top Ten Election Moments:

2006-05-07T10:19:00.000+05:00

1. Sarath Kumar’s Bouquet for Sonia Gandhi ending up in the Dustbin behind the airport.

2. JJ’s campaign in Kanyakumari ending with the line “Please give your golden vote to Udayasuryan” left people bewildered for sometime until they realized that the ADMK candidate for Kanyakumari was Mr.Udayasuryan.

3. Accusations on Central Minister for Sun TV Mr.Dayanidhi Maran for threatening Tata Group of Companies received “No Comments” from the Tatas.

4. Cabtain Vijayakanth criticizing the other two parties for changing their manifestos and free stuffs everyday, while his manifesto to give every Tamil citizen a free “Pasumadu” remained unchanged since he declared his manifesto in February.

5. Kalaignar’s response to ADMK leader JJ’s proclamation that there were no religious riots in her period, “ Of course there will be less riots in her period! Riots are instigated only by the opposition! The fact that there were no riots in her period shows our respect for law and order! The fact that there were more riots in our period indicates who instigated them!!!”

6. DMK leaders celebrating because 126 out of 250 election poll surveys conducted by various newspapers and magazines assured the victory of the DMK alliance.

7. Kalaignar’s Kanamma receiving VERY LATE and free publicity in Jaya TV is being talked about more now than when it was released.

8. Jaya TV’s decision to start Makkal Arangam at 11:00 am Sunday challenging Arattai Arangam.

9. DMK’s menifestos to provide free colour tv and gas stove received overwhelming response among poor people who are yet to decide how they’re going to pay for the Gas Cylinder and Cable TV.

10. Kalaignar’s response to Election Commission’s objection for Sonia Gandhi’s use of more than 200 cars for campaigning while the allowed no. was 20, “ Who said so! Those were the audience’s cars!! Not ours….the road was narrow….so they had to follow behind us.”

Is God Man or Woman:

2006-05-05T17:22:00.000+05:00

Man: I feel God is definitely a woman. Cos’ only woman have the patience, skill and sensitivity, to create something so intricate and complex as nature….

Woman: You see that’s where you’re basically wrong…. If god were a woman, why would she have created man? Women don’t need men, it’s man who is in constant need of a woman….

Man: Oh yeah?? Then why does a woman need a father in childhood, a husband at adulthood and a son at old age, to constantly look after her? Don’t pretend women can live without men….

Woman: Ok, then if god were a woman, why would she be stupid enough to curse her own kind to suffer the labor pains…huh? Why couldn’t she have made men give birth to babies?

Man: The fact that women have the power to create a new life proves that god must be a woman! Hah!!

Woman: No way…. What about male chauvinism, female infanticide, women being kept prisoners inside the house, made to cook, wash clothes, clean vessels while you go out there and enjoy the world???

Man: Hey… we go out there, work, slog and sweat blood so that you can be happy inside the house without any kind of worldly worries, and we shelter you from the cruel and dangerous world out there and this is what we get??? Isn’t it a kind of silent but very cunning way of making us innocent men feel that we are actually keeping you prisoners while we enjoy life?? By constantly talking about male chauvinism, you are executing female chauvinism in this world… and you think we aren’t aware of that!!! God is definitely a wom….

Woman: That’s it!! I can’t stand talking to thickheaded creatures like you even for a minute…and you say god wanted you people to protect us for our lives! You know what…. If there were no men in this world there wouldn’t be anything else to protect us against…. And what about the fact that Adam was created before Eve, Huh?? If god were a woman as you say, why didn’t she create Eve first?

Man: Simple…because she wanted Adam to come here, clean the place and make preparations for you royal arrival!!! And we had to waste a rib for that…

Woman: And probably that’s when you guys lost your backbone…

Man: You know what?

Woman: What?
Man: You know what?

Woman: WHAT?

Man: I think I’ve had it… I accept… God is a MAN!!!!

Woman: Hah!! And what made you see that?

Man: Cos’ otherwise, it would have been GODDESS!!!

Diary of a Non-Obc Man

2006-04-24T15:13:00.000+05:00

An excerpt from Emcee's diary exactly 50 years from now

Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked about how so many of us had progressed from reserved seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls - he wanted equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party ended in a pitched caste battle.
1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM Board of Directors. Under the present rotating presidency system, a member of each caste is made the president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs for president, they had to choose me because I'm the only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope to restore the high standards at IIM - I overheard some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of Morons, the other day.
2) May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The selection committee lamented that it was gross discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe (the Stone Age tribe in the
Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket team. A squad has since been dispatched to the Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the national team. I hope he will improve their performance - they had an innings defeat against the Maldives recently. I would have played myself except for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota extracted my leg instead of my tooth.
3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has gone down the drain after job reservations were implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have become so popular.
4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able to win back the territory we lost ever since reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC general will turn the tide.
5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has a great future.

Political Mantras:(forward)

2006-04-18T12:16:00.000+05:00

Chanakya's Quotes :-message:

Chanakya's Quotes :-"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC 75 BC)"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody! It will destroy you."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only whenyou think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Whores don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"A man is great by deeds, not by birth."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)"Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth."

Kyon Rang Dena Hai Basanti:

2006-04-18T11:57:00.000+05:00

Green revolution, brown sugar, red-tapism, blue film, black money etc etc. Aren’t there enough colours in India? Is it humanly possible for us to single-handedly change the entire system? It maybe nice to romanticize such exaggerations and it’ll definitely be enjoyable to watch it in a movie. But it is utterly ridiculous to even comprehend executing them in real life. We are but a speck in the desert, a drop in the ocean. Our effect in this world is like dipping your hand in the ocean and removing it. Would there be any change in the ocean? Before we even start to think about changing the system, the system will change us. So why bother! Live your life to the fullest. By this I don’t mean you don’t care about the deteriorating society. We must think about our surroundings and raise our voice against any form of injustice in our country. But to ride a motorbike and shoot the defense minister when he is out for his morning walk is sheer stupidity. Then our fate will be like those of the heroes in Rang De Basanti. Don’t you feel they could have done a lot more by staying alive? Today death, tomorrow cremation, matter close. The bottom line is…you don’t have to change the system. If each one of us changes internally, then the system will automatically change. This was one of the ideas expressed in the movie that I fully agree with. Instead of complaining about bribery, why don’t we all stop giving bribes. But do we?? If we are caught without license or for over-speeding, how many of us will go up to the police station, file an FIR, pay the fine and continue our drive. Did you even know that this is the procedure? That’s because we get away by paying the traffic constable a “nominal fee.” We feel content that we have done our duty by paying the fine… but does it go to the government? The point is… the same literates and critics of the Corrupt Indian System would not mind getting out of the line when it comes to matters involving themselves.

As a movie, Rang De Basanti maybe touching and thought provoking. As a movie, its screenplay was excellent. The way he showed how the British ruled the Indians then and how politicians are ruling them nowadays. The way he compared the two. All that was really good. But when it comes to the corrective measures… why do all the filmmakers think the same way? Heroes taking the gun or joining the politics. I mean… is it practically possible. It’s childish and immature to talk about a common man even thinking of going to politics and changing the country. Is that the only solution? There seems to be a dearth of ideas and creativity. Yuva, Rang De Basanti, Nayak etc… Guys- please think different!!!

India Bachao Aandholan:

2006-04-18T11:53:00.000+05:00

The recent decision to raise the Narmada Dam received a great opposition from the Narmada Bachao Aandholan headed by the socialist Medha Patkar. Their request is simple- already when the dam was raised last time, thousands of tribals were at a threat of losing their homes if there was a flood. And the government has not yet provided rehabilitation for them. Without resolving their issue, Ms.Patkar feels it is unjust and inhuman to talk about raising the dam further. Seems fair doesn’t it??

If the dam is raised, Gujarat would be benefited, but the rehabilitation measures are to be taken up by the Madhya Pradesh Government because the affected tribals belong to MP. So Gujarat is pressing the central to move forward with the issue. Where is the feeling of nationalism among the states nowadays… the same was the case in the cauveri issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. When 7 different European countries are able share the Rhine River flowing through them, without any problem, then what is the difficulty in sharing cauveri water peacefully between the two states? It is unfair on the part of Karnataka government to utilize their geographical advantage. There maybe ego problems between the parties in position in the two states. But why should the common people suffer? Why isn’t the central government interfering in such issues and resolving them with a nationalistic view? When there is a dispute between two state governments shouldn’t the centre take the decisions? What else is the job of the central government?

Ms.Medha Patkar finally ended her 21-day fast today. During these days she was beaten up, jailed and tortured for attempting to commit suicide. Hello!! When was fasting for a cause considered suicide?? In that case more than half of our national leaders must have been jailed. While she was in jail, there was an exclusive coverage in NDTV about a model whose dress fell off on the ramp during the Lakme India Fashion Week!!! How very important for the development of our country!!! There should be more “big fights” and “We the people” on such issues. After all, who’ll want to hear about some cranky lady being tortured in jail for fighting to help the tribals who cannot by themselves fight for their rights??

In the middle of this Aamir Khan has joined hands with the Aandholan and expressed his support to them. When Headlines today interviewed Aamir about what he thought about the issue, he replied, “ I’m not fully aware of the situation but I support the Aandholan and their cause.” HA HA HA!!! Nice try Aamir! C’mon, we can see your political intentions. I mean…he doesn’t even know what the issue is, people!!! The question here is whether the Aandholan is going to benefit from him or whether he is going to benefit from the Aandholan, as rightly put by Arundhati Roy.

Though this apparently seems to be an open and shut case… I can’t see why the Indian Government isn’t seeing this issue from the tribals’ perspective. After all, Ms.Patkar and the other activists are not against the raising of the dam. They just want rehabilitation for the tribals and justice for all. If one has to fight so much to protect one’s own rights as a human, I don’t know where India is heading. Soon we will be forced to start India Bachao Aandholan!!!!

Should Fashion shows be conducted in India? - Mr. Positive:

2006-03-29T22:09:00.000+05:00

Why not? As cultured creatures with a sixth sense, the only sense that differentiates us from animals, we must develop our artistic and aesthetic mind and let it explore the seamless world of imagination and creativity. Fashion shows provide this opportunity to designers. Plus, why is it that the Fashion industry is being targeted for this issue? Even Bollywood has now become a stage for World Fashion with actresses flaunting their newest finds from Paris, Los Angeles etc. Are those portraying Indian cultures? Why aren’t there widespread protests to ban obscenity in Hindi Cinema, then? What about every other field where Indians emulate the West like the food industry? I mean…. we have our traditional foods. So let’s stop eating Pizzas, burgers and turn to idlis, rotis, and dosas everyday. The point is, Indian Fashion need not represent the actual India, but at least it decorates it in a neat package so that even the foreigners find it lookable. Slowly they’ll accept and respect our fashion sense. Once that happens we can establish our indigenous trends in the World arena and infuse those trends into the West. For all these to happen Indian Fashion weeks and fashion shows are absolutely necessary.

Should Fashion shows be conducted in India? - Mr. Negative:

2006-03-29T22:08:00.000+05:00

Definitely not! They hardly portray the Indian form of dressing. These “Indian Fashion Weeks” which are the window of the Indian culture to the western world, do not represent what one might call the traditional Bharatiya Nari. As one person rightly put it, it removes the ‘kapda’ factor in the ‘roti kapda aur makaan’. We hardly see any kapda. The idea of fashion shows in the west was that the westerners were so affluent that they bought their dresses only from their choice of designers and the designers had to catch a place in the hearts of people. So they conducted such shows to display their talents in designing different clothes. Where as in India, people never buy clothes seeing those models in the ramp. Does anybody watch the dress as much as they do the model? Such shows are not only unnecessary but also insult the rich Indian culture. The worst part is, more than half the designers who design the so-called India wears are not Indians nor have they been studying the various kinds of dresses that we wear. They create designs, which are neither indigenous nor innovative. Why should we ape the west in useless things and destroy our pride and dignity?

Why are software professionals paid more?

2006-03-29T22:07:00.000+05:00

It is a well-known fact that software job is one of THE highest paying jobs when it comes to getting employed right after college. But is it worth it? It’s like stuck between a rock and a hard place situation for them. They hate the job but are not able to come out of it because no other sector pays as much. The employees are not ready to even compromise on salary for other comforts like being closer to home or shifting to a less-established company for a higher post. Have some pride guys…. money isn’t everything!!!

The software life is one of the main reasons for decrease in interest for arts among today’s younger generation. They neither have time to learn arts nor do they have time to have some form of outside entertainment. Are the swimming pools, gaming rooms, gyms etc provided in software parks to make them easily accessible to their employees or are they to keep them prisoners from the outside world? This is the million-dollar question. The “area” that they work, or cubicle as they sophisticatedly put it, reminds one of the cells in prison, except here they don’t have to do hard physical labor. A pen stand on the desk, few sheets of paper lying haphazardly, picture of Asin or their loved ones stuck with board pin on the wall and a computer that runs for 24 hrs a day, six days a week (god knows what they do in it). This is what one might find in a characteristic cubicle. With everything that they need within a hands reach these people don’t have the need or the want to move from their seats. Lunch is also made available in the cafeteria. Even then, if they find a burger or a sandwich they feel thankful as they can be eaten without moving from their seats. They wash their hands with tissue paper and jump back into the cyber world. This is their life for six days in a week. And before they can imagine Sunday’s over and the bus is waiting for them the next morning to go back to their daily drill. The latest news is that the software companies are employing agencies to maintain their employees’ bank transactions like getting passbook entries, crediting cheques etc.

What on earth are these software professionals actually doing for such a long time in their computers??? We will see this later…

Should Birthdays be celebrated?

2006-03-26T19:12:00.000+05:00

I have always wondered why people celebrate birthdays. I mean…doesn’t it mean they are a year closer to their end. I gave it a lot of thought and couldn’t come up with a logical answer. Is it because they have survived a whole year since their previous birthday that they are celebrating? The only person for whom it may be a reason to celebrate is the mother. After all she was the one who had a greater job on that day than us. She can celebrate for her survival, her ordeal, her achievement. Our job… was just to be born.

It's not the fault of the student if he fails, because the year ONLY has 365' days.

Typical academic year for a student:

Sundays-52, Sundays in a year, you know Sundays are for rest. Days left 313.

2. Summer holidays-50 where weather is very hot and difficult to study. Days left 263.

8 hours daily sleep- 130 days GONE. Days left 141.

1 hour for daily playing- (good for health) means 15 days. Days left 126.

2 hours daily for food & other delicacies (chewing
properly & swallowing)-means 30days. Days left 96.

1 hour for talking (man is a social animal)-means 15 days. Days left 81.

Exam days- per year at least 35 days. Days left 46.

Quarterly, Half yearly and festival (holidays)-40 days. Balance 6 days.

9.For sickness- at least 3 days. Remaining days=3.

10.Movies and functions - at least 2 days. 1 day left.

11.That 1-day is your birthday.

So, my point is …even if we don’t study on that day and celebrate instead, what is our chance of passing? Surely… food for thought!!!

ENGLISH- AN AMAZING LANGUAGE:

2006-03-26T19:10:00.000+05:00

English is truly a wonderful language. In fact it is the only global language in actual sense. A very fluent spoken English requires the knowledge of not more than 800 words. This simplicity is often misjudged by many who think that the popularity of English is due to its easy grammar and plain vocabulary. This is but far from true. In fact English has the most complex vocabulary and a very intricate grammar. But we seldom have the need to use them. The following are some proverbs that you might have learnt in second standard, but slightly modified:

Exclusive dedication to necessitous course without interludes of hedonistic diversions renders Jack a hebetudinous fellow.
A revolving lithic conglomerate accumulates no congeries of small green biophitic dendrocerus plant.
Scintillate Scintillate asteroid minim.
It is fruitless to be lachrymose over precipitately departed lactile fluid.
Men who make their abode in virtuous edifices are prevented from catapulting perilous projectiles.
All the articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous

Want to know what they mean? Check it out:

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy
A rolling stone gathers no moss
Twinkle twinkle little star
It is useless to cry over spilt milk
Men in glass house must not throw stones
All that glitters is not gold

English is truly an amazing language.

India – a peculiar country:

2006-03-25T19:29:00.000+05:00

A member of parliament while in service must not hold a post in an office of profit. We have all studied in 8^th standard basic civics. Whether this rule is right or wrong, sensible or unnecessary is not what I want to stress upon. Recently, actress Jayapradha, a Rajya Sabha MP was dismissed because she was holding an honorary position in the Boolywood Actors Guild. There was a huge uproar from the Rajya Sabha MPs. There were allegations that Sonia Gandhi, Somnath Chatterjee etc. were all holding offices of profit. What would one normally expect to happen? If it were a country where law was given greater importance than the lawmakers, all those found guilty would be immediately dismissed. If it were a country, which was obviously corrupt to the core, there would be an immediate amendment in the law to remove this idiotic clause. These two are the only sensible options and I would have appreciated if India had taken either of the two decisions. But as I said, India is a peculiar country indeed. It was decided that MPs could hold certain offices while in power and the specifications about the types of offices acceptable would be brought about in the next amendment. Our beloved speaker Chatterjeeji gracefully accepted that since he was an accused party in this case, he would decline from presiding the parliament till this amendment is brought into effect by his proxy. What an open mind and a generous heart!!!

Move your houses, people!! – Plane’s going to land:

2006-03-25T19:23:00.000+05:00

Though the government’s decision to expand the Chennai Airport is commendable, the procurement of land from people living in Pammal and Pallavaram for this purpose is very unfair. People whose property is worth 20-30 lakhs will be given a meager amount set by the government as compensation, which would be something like 8 lakhs. And those affected people are the ones who can never dream of using the airport in their life. The fraction of population in Chennai using the airport is very small. If the government is really desperate to develop our nation, then there are lots of wastelands around our city, which they can very well convert into a modern airport. This was what the Japanese government did when they expanded the Tokyo airport. If the airport users feel it is too far, that is a one-time problem and not as severe as losing your property lawfully. In fact, a man sold his cultivable land to the government to expand the airport around the 80’s in return for a promised amount of 8 lakh rupees, but he is yet to receive around 5 lakhs of it. If a city, which has been around for 100 years, wants to develop, it is morally incorrect to demand its inhabitants to give up their property especially when so much of land is freely available. Shouldn’t the same rule, which applied to the proposal of demolishing QMC to build a Secretariat, apply here?

Some More One-Liners (Forward)

2006-03-17T15:35:00.000+05:00

I say no to drugs they just don't listen

A friend in need is a pest indeed.

Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.

Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.

When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train.

Born free taxed to death.

Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.

Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.

If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on your pants.

It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.

I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork.

A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.

The hardest part of skating is the ice.

My phone number is 17. We got one of the early ones.

The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot.
The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.

The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.

In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?

If you tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe, he'll believe you.
But if you tell him a park bench has just been painted, he has to touch it to be sure.

If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?

Beat the 5 O'clock rush, leave work at noon!

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

Hot glass looks same as cold glass. - Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers

Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.

The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker.

Someday is not a day of the week.

One-Liners(Forward)

2006-03-17T15:34:00.000+05:00

=====================================================

Regular naps prevent old age... especially if you take them while

driving.

=====================================================

Having one child makes you a parent; having two you are a referee.

=====================================================

I believe we should all pay our tax with a smile. I tried - but they

wanted cash =====================================================

Don't feel bad. A lot of people have no talent.

=====================================================

Don't marry the person you want to live with, marry the one you cannot

live without,,, but whatever you do, you'll regret it later.

=====================================================

You can't buy love . . . but you pay heavily for it.

=====================================================

True friends stab you in the front.

=====================================================

Forgiveness is giving up my right to hate you for hurting me.

=====================================================

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.

=====================================================

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get

tired.

=====================================================

Marriage is give and take. You'd better give it to her or she'll take

it anyway.

=====================================================

My wife and I always compromise. I admit I'm wrong and she agrees with

me.

=====================================================

Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others.

=====================================================

Ladies first. Pretty ladies sooner.

=====================================================

It doesn't matter how often a married man changes his job, he still ends

up with the same boss.

=====================================================

Real friends are the ones who survive transitions between address books.

=====================================================

Saving is the best thing. Especially when your parents have done it for

you.

=====================================================

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because

they have to say something.

=====================================================

They call our language the mother tongue because the father seldom gets

to speak.

=====================================================

Sagaai hui... Shadi Hui... Biwi ghar main aayi...

ghar SWARG ban gaya... aur main...SWARGWASI...

=====================================================

They say that when a man holds a woman's hand before marriage, it is

love; after marriage it is self-defense

=====================================================

Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right and the

other is husband !

=====================================================

Its difficult 2 understand GOD. He makes such beautiful things as

women..and then he turns them into Wives !?!!!?!

=====================================================

It takes thousand workers 2 build a castle Million soldiers 2 protect a

country BUT Just ONE woman 2 make a Happy HOME!

Let's Thank ......KAAMWALI

=====================================================

What is the difference between a woman and a magnet?

Magnets have a positive side!

=====================================================

Ladka: Janeman is dil mein aaja.

Ladki: Sandal nikalu kya?

Ladka: Pagli mandir thodi hi hai, aise hi aaja!!

=====================================================

It's funny when people discuss LOVE MARRIAGE vs ARRANGED.

It's like asking someone, if suicide is better or being murdered

=====================================================

A person who surrenders when he's WRONG, is HONEST.

A person who SURRENDERS when not SURE, is WISE..

A person who surrenders even if he's RIGHT, is a HUSBAND.!

=====================================================

2006-03-17T15:09:00.000+05:00

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT – Mr. Negative:

2006-03-17T14:09:00.000+05:00

Is capital punishment really necessary? Of course, it is definitely necessary in a land where one can get away with shooting a lady in front of fifty eyewitnesses who have absolutely no morality or guts to stand up against the accused, a land where a person is forced to bribe money to take the corpse of their brother “who had committed suicide because he could not pay back his loans”. These incidents prove the fact that even death comes with a price. What is the meaning in giving a life sentence and releasing the criminal on a national holiday, if you are sure that he will not correct himself and has a chance of committing further crimes? This is exactly what Lord Krishna says in the Gita. In fact, the latest concept of shooting local goons in the name of ENCOUNTER is an even better measure. Arresting and trying them in a court of law is nothing but sheer waste of time, waste of money, waste of energy, waste of resources, waste of everything. The next day, comes a call from an MP or an MLA and the gangster is escorted back to his bungalow in a police car. How utterly ridiculous!!! But first, the basic postulate of our Indian constitution that “an accused is innocent until proven guilty” must be changed to “ an accused is guilty until proven innocent” as in the Greek constitution. Giving a death sentence is like using a fungicide. These worms have the right to be killed. Criminals these days fear of nothing… not the law, not the police, not the people. Their only fear is their LIFE. And if that is assured for them…

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT –Mr. Positive:

2006-03-17T14:07:00.000+05:00

Is capital punishment really necessary? Of course not, it is definitely not necessary in a land which has won its independence under the leadership of a man who believed in “forgive and forget” and whose preaching of non-violence made people realize that killing cannot be a solution to evil. Evil has to be eradicated, it can never be killed. And the only way to eradicate it is through love and peace, not death. This is exactly what Jesus says in the Bible. If a criminal is sentenced to death, then what is the difference between the criminal and judge who gave the judgment to kill him? What is right in the eyes of the criminal may be wrong in the eyes of the law. Also, forgiving a criminal is the worst punishment he can get. Even suicide is a crime. When we do not have the right to take our own lives where do we have the right to take someone else’s. Giving a death sentence is like catching a wild animal from the forest and killing it just because there is a possibility that it might come to our house and kill us. And even for the animals there are organizations like the Blue Cross!!! No one in this world is a sinless person. Each of us has innate criminal qualities. So there is no point in punishing someone just because he was innocent enough to get caught doing the sin. Everyone in this world is god’s child. He created us and only he has the right to kill us. We cannot create our own rules for right or wrong and give death sentences

Can The English Language Survive???

2006-03-17T14:04:00.000+05:00

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
- George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that
one
word is 'to be prepared'."
- George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in
the
future."
- George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow."
- George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- George W. Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a
firm commitment
to Europe We are a part of Europe ."
- George W. Bush

"Public speaking is very easy."
- George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the
polls."
- George W. Bush
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur." -
George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
- George W. Bush

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our
children."
- George W. Bush

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities
in
our air and water that are doing it."
- George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- George W. Bush

Excerpts From Vijaykanth's movies

2006-03-11T17:27:00.001+05:00

Here are some excerpts from Vijaykaanth's
movies(Comments by my friends):-

*Gajendra*
the scene where captain is unconscious and taken to a
hospital in
madurai.. there are people coming over for him from
andhra n tamilnadu..
the doctor says to radharavi.."he is in a state of
highpolymer shock"

in narasimha film sumbdy describes him as jeans pant
potta singam!
I doubt ...jeans pant potta singama illa
asingama??!

Opening Scene in Ramana..captain will be typing
furiously on the
computer and camera will be focussed on captain's red
eyes from behind
the monitor..As the camera comes around and shows the
monitor screen,
thalaivar would be typing something on windows media
player:-) too good:-)

In thavasi
When Soundarya and her friend look at captain and
say.." romba smarta
irrukar ille " i am sure everyone felt..like uuuh!

Each and every scene in Narasimma is a beauty in
itself. Why take the
very first scene where he plugs earphones into his
dogs' ears and says
'Look', 'Run', 'Go'. And Raghuvaran shouting Kuttha
Baag Gaya. Or the
scene where he says "Narasimmaku bomb vekkaravan indha
ulagathlaye illa
da" and drives the car on two wheels.

*Narasimha*
The medical chap in the movie's interrogation scene
tries to drug Thalai
and extricate some information from him. but
apparently the drug has not
effect and his reaction is "MMy GOD. Ivana control
pannare sakthi
science ikku kedayathu......"

In Gajendra, this is the most fantastic scene which
has featured in
Ripley's believe it or not. Captain twirls his
moustache and then the
man opposite to him flies away.

the next scene he puts a cig in his mouth and waits
for it eb lifted
when the villain puns how he will light it without a
matchstick. Then
captian does the unexpected, he takes his knife dips
in in his bleeding
wound and keeps it in the cigarette, then comes the
ultimate punch dialogue:

"En ratthhathileyey neruppu irukku da!!"

Nasser asks to Thavasi:
"Thavasi, nee enna venumney kevala paduttharey"

Captain replies in an animated close up camera shot
with 'fire' in his eyes:
"Nee venamnu thaan kevala paduttharen"

ondraa rendaa..avaroda scenes list panna..
chk out our man's entry into Ripley's believe it or
not..
http://media.putfile.com/MOUSTACHE

*captainoda technical efficiency....*
in one of the films... he shows the motherboard of a
computer and says
"idhu vedichha ambadhu kilo metre close"
Hilllllllllllllllarious....... I bet there can be no
better comedian on
earth...

puyal adichu polachawan irukkaan,..
aana indha bhupathi adichu polachawan illa da,..
(woru wela wunmaiya irukkalaam,..)

*Narasimha(Simma Narasimmaa!!)*
gr8 dialogs include "satharana manisanuku current
vecha, avanuku thaan
saak adikum, aana intha narasimma ku current vecha,
antha current kae
saak adikum"!! and gaaptan dodges bullets, goli-soda
goli muzhingina
koralla raghuvaran sez "avanoda speedku innun
ulagathula lota
kandupidikala, abdul kalam anu gundoda athigamana
sakthi avanuku irukku,
asoka chakarathula kaanatha antha naalavathu singam"
he keepts ranting
utter nonsense like this for sometime!! dei, konjam
over'a illayada
ungalukae.

Isha gopikar will drown in the lake and wld look like
she is recovering
back to conciousness when saved by thalai...At tht
point of time thalai
will go and try to remove the excess water stuffed in
her lungs by using
his cute lil lips on isha's.....

The next scene wld be Isha lying at a hospital.

I am still trying to get the reason:

1. thalai took her to the hospital
or
2. because of thalai's efforts she was admitted to the
hospital as she
became unconscious again? Can someone clarify this...

I cant get over this scene from Narasimha - Isha falls
off a building
and thalai overtakes her in the air and catches her
from falling. At the
same time a truck with flowers rolls right by and they
fall into it -
(worst of all) - followed by a duet...THIS IS
HYSTERICAL

Hope u liked them

Collection of famous quotes by Navjot Singh Sidhu

2006-03-11T17:26:00.000+05:00

1. That ball went so high it could have got an air hostess down with it.
2. There is light at the end of the tunnel for India, but it's that of an incoming train which will run them over.
3. Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald.

4. This quote was made after Ganguly called Dravid for a run and midway sent him back and Dravid was run out in the third test against the West Indies at Barbados."Ganguly has thrown a drowning man both ends of the rope."
5. Sri Lankan score is running like an Indian taximeter.
6. Statistics are like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they hide.

7. Wickets are like wives - you never know which way they will turn!

8. He is like Indian three-wheeler, which will suck a lot of diesel but cannot go beyond 30!

9. The Indians are going to beat the Kiwis! Let me tell you, my friend that the Kiwi is the only bird in the whole world, which does not have wings!

10. As uncomfortable as a bum on a porcupine.

11. The ball whizzes past like a bumble -bee and the Indians are in the sea.

12. The Indians are finding the gaps like a pin a haystack.

13. The pitch is as dead as a dodo.

14. Deep Dasgupta is as confused as a child is in a topless bar!

15. The way Indian wickets are falling reminds of the cycle stand at Rajendra Talkies in Patiala one falls and everything else falls!

16. Indian team without Sachin is like giving Kiss without a Squeeze.

17. You cannot make Omelets without breaking the eggs.

18. Deep Dasgupta is not a Wicket Keeper, he is a goalkeeper. He must be given a free transfer to Manchester United.

19. He will fight a rattlesnake and give it the first two bites too.
20. One, who doesn't throw the dice, can never expect to score a six.

21. This quote was made after Eddie Nichols, the third umpire, ruled Shivnarine Chanderpaul 'NOT OUT' in the second test at Port of Spain T&T "Eddie Nichols is a man who cannot find his own buttocks with his two hands."
22. Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.

23. Nobody travels on the road to success without a puncture or two.

24. You got to choose between tightening your belt or losing your pants.
25. The cat with gloves catches no mice.

26. Age has been perfect fire extinguisher for flaming youth.

27. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.

28. He is like a one-legged man in a bum kicking competition.

29. The third umpires should be changed as often as nappies and for the same reason.
30. Kumble's bowling at the moment is flat as a Dosa.

Sivaji Punch Dialogues-2

2006-03-11T17:25:00.000+05:00

Dekhoji, naan thaan Shivaji

Kanna, naan pakka dhan software, erangunan mavane hardware....

Sachin adicha sixer indha Shivaji adicha stretcher

Naan nenacha athu nadantha mathiri, naan nadantha athu jeycha mathiri

Naan 1 centimetre dhooratthukk nallavannaa 20 kilometre distancekku kettavan

Kanna andha sivajikku nadikka mattum dhan theriyum,

indha sivajiku nadikkavum theriyum adikkavum theriyum

unaku Aandavan vekkaraan da date annaiku unaku Shivaji vekkaraan paar vettu

Kannaa, sirikaama PM aga iruntharu antha Narasimha Rao, aana sirichutte pattaiyai kilappurathu intha Shivaji Rao

Naan nallavanukku sami, Nayavanjaganukku tsunami

Kanna, vitukoduthavan ennaikum kettathillai, kettavan ennaikum vittukoduthathillai

Solli adikiravan veeran, sollama adikiravan kozhai, naan sollavum maaten

adikkavum maatan aana konnuduvan

Thappu pannatha manushane illai. Athey thappa thiruppi seyyaravan, manushane illai."

Nallavanukku naan DHARMAN Kettvanukku naan YEMa dharman da

Hi I'm Back

2006-03-11T17:15:00.000+05:00

Hi,

SO.....after a looooong time, I'm back to the blogging world. The second sem's been pretty tight and I had lots of other pre-occupations like our coll cults, tech symp...etc. that I completely forgot I had a blog site. It was when I saw my friend vijay's blog that i realised I must do something for mine(Thanks vijay for inspiring me).

Shouldn't we care more about our Country -2

2006-01-11T21:23:00.000+05:00

Do others worry more about our country than us?

There is a beautiful lake with a waterfall in the regions of Pachaimedu in Kerala which is the only source of water to about 10 villages surrounding the area. The Coca Cola (CC) company had bought the water source from the Kerala Government for a factory set up in that area.(Gee......I didn't know you could buy natural water sources). You know what happens next- The factory pumps up huge amounts of water. The villages do not have water even for drinking purposes. Plus CC sells its solid chemical waste to the farmers of these villages saying that they are fertilisers. The soil is totally, completely, utterly destroyed for cultivation purposes. Wow!! So next the villagers go to court. And guess who is arguing for the CC- the Kerala Govt. They lose in a single bench District Court and they go to a two bench High court and this goes on. Meanwhile the company continues using the water. This has been going on for seven years now.

The Unviersity of Michigan had entered into an agreement with Coca Cola for supplying coke to the university for some specific period(I'm not quite sure) in return for 14 million dollars. But now the students of the university have started boycotting the drink and the university was forced to cancel the contract. Their reason - the heartless and inhuman way in which Coca Cola dealt with the people of the villages in the Pachaimedu region in Kerala, India!!!

Hey wait.....isn't this our job???

Shouldn't we care more about our Country -1

2006-01-11T21:21:00.000+05:00

Do others worry more about our country than us?

The French government has been trying to find a place to dismantle its 40 year old defence ship which can cause incalculable damage to the environment because of the high amount of asbestos in the ship's parts. Having been refused by many countries like Italy and Spain, it has finally managed "to persuade" the Indian government to accept to do the job in return for a price. The ship is coming to Gujarat to be destroyed and in the process destroy Gujarat as well. Meanwhile, the people of France have filed a case in their court against their government's decision to send it to India. Their suggestion- it has to be scientifically destroyed so that the environment is not harmed. Burning asbestos can release deadly noxious gases which have been known to cause asbestosis and other diseases including cancer, apart from polluting the atmaosphere. They argued that a country's ship can only be destroyed in that country. But the case was closed in the pretext that it was only applicable for civilian ships and not defence ships. With no other option, the French decided to come to India and explain the dangers to the deciding committee.The innocent French thought that we weren't aware of the dangers and like they were the ones laying out the facts. They came at their own expense only to return back failing to convince the committee which comprised the Union Ministers including the Defence minister.

Meanwhile, There is a strong opposition by the Air Force authorities of India that the life of officers in the Air Force has not been depicted in the correct manner in Aamir Khan's latest movie. To resolve this issue it has been decided that the Union Defence minister will watch the movie and judge whether it can be shown in theatres all over the country!!!!!

Coming back to this issue, even the central environmental minister,who is a DMK minister, has not taken any action. In fact, he doesn't seem to care about it. But he has enough time to fight against the local government's "Desalination of seawater" plan, that there aren't any provisions to dump the effluents of the desalination plant and it would pollute the sea if it was let into it. Aw c'mon.....countries like Kuwait and the other middle eastern countries are doing just that to produce drinking water and they seem to be doing fine.

Around two years back, the same thing happened when Denmark sent one of its old ships to India to dismantle and there too Gujarat was chosen for the job. It created a huge damage to the surrounding areas. But what do the MPs care? Sitting at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi, they seem to be just making money out of this. Poor French.......thinking they could convince us into denying the proposal. The kick they got in their butts landed them straight back in France. "We know how to save ourselves. So would you please mind your own business. Thank you. Goodbye."

Fate of a good Indian.....Freedom of Expresshhhhhhh!!

2006-01-07T21:26:00.000+05:00

Please read this till the end.....

One day my father wanted to give me a drop to my school. We started from our house and wouldn't have gone more than three kilometers when we had a flat tyre. The place was quite deserted and we couldn't see any other vehicle in sight. Then out of nowhere a stranger going in a bike stopped by our car. When my father saw him he recognised him as an employee of BSNL (where my father worked). He was extremely nice and helpful. Since there was no auto nearby and it was getting late for my school, he offered to drop me in his bike. Inspite of telling him that it would be enough if he dropped me in a bus stand, he gave me a lift upto my school though it was quite far off from where he had to go. Later in the evening I learnt from my father that he was a Mr.Vinod.( a director or a DGM in BSNL...I dont remember).

In the recent events of privatising the telecommunication sector, the government has come up with policies,some of which have received strong oppositions from its employees, like allowing private companies to use BSNL offices to stock their supplies, forcing BSNL to share its already-laid underground cables with its own competitors and allowing the private companies to share the BSNL offices in villages(no prize for guessing how Airtel, Reliance etc. "persuaded" the concerned ministers to come up with these policies). One of these, is the proposal to permit 75% shares to be held by foreign investors. As long as things go well, no problem. But if there are defence problems or an economic crisis in our country these investors will not hesitate to withdraw their shares and ultimately communication in India will be badly affected at a time when it is most needed. There was an outrage among the employees who started protesting. During one of their lunch-hour demonstrations, the media interviewed them and Mr.Vinod had voiced his opinion over this matter. Unfortunately it was telecast in Jaya TV. The central ministers being allies of the opposition party, should have withdrawn this policy or could have at least taken this in the lighter sense and ignored it. But.....

The next day he was relieved from Chennai and transfered to Pagalpur, Bihar, one of the remotest villages in India which is known for its frequent terrorist attacks. Once a medical camp was organised there and people were offered free eye tests. People turned up in hundreds only to lose their eyesights and realise that they weren't doctors but quacks(people falsely claiming to have medical skills). Poor Mr.Vinod. Oh...I forgot to mention- he manages an orphanage in chennai which has around 40 children. He provides them food, shelter and education. And he is managing it with his own money!!!! Nice reward for such a nice man.

For such an ordinary citizen, if this is the punishment for expressing his views, imagine the plight of Kushboo and Hrithik Roshan.And people are talking about "Freedom Of Speech and Expression". It's like saying, "You are free to say anything you want, but you won't be alive after you finish ". What a load of bullshit!!!

Teecher Englis

2006-01-07T21:24:00.000+05:00

These are some of the well-known phrases used by a PT master(supposedly a teacher who can't speak proper English):

* Go and understand the tree
* Open the window. Let the atmosphere come in.
* Open the window. Let the air force come in.
* Cut an apple into two equal halves. Take the bigger half.
* I have two daughters. Both are girls.
* Form a straight circle.

They may have been to mock such teachers. But here are some real phrases that I have come across in my school and college:

My most favourite quotes are by a maths sir in my school.(One of my classmates, has written a book full of his quotes). Here are a few:

* I have produced many children over the years. (as doctors, engineers etc.)
* Tomorrow is a full half-day.
* Once many girls were crowding inside the Chemistry lab. When he entered he said,"Girls! What are you doing? Quickly remove"
( I think he meant "go out quickly")
* Stop talking! Don't you have any sensations?
(If you didn't get it, it's "Dont you have any sense?")

These are some by a computer science sir in our college:

* He had an operation in his shoulders and the bones were fixed using screws. When he was sitting in front of the computer and teaching, we were standing behind him. His exact words were, "Don't touch my nuts! I'm screwed!"
* Are you people going to your motherland for holidays.
(must have been Native place)
* The switch for the computer was below the table and some of us switched it off with our legs. He shouted, "Don't you people have any sense of humour!!" (It's "Don't you people have any sense")

Maybe we really didn't. That's why we didn't roll on the ground and laugh at his face. Such teachers should realise how tough it is for us students to control ourselves. This is one of the many difficulties in a student's life. Sigh!!!

Changes in my blog

2006-01-07T21:22:00.000+05:00

I have indicated which are the forwards and which are my own blogs based on my brother's request. Anyway...you would have been able to guess.

Thathuvams

2005-12-30T20:00:00.000+05:00

Train yenna thaan fasta ponnalum ,
Train oda kadaisee potti kadaiseeya thaan varum!

Bus poita bus stand angayae thaan irukum
aana cycle poita cycle stand koodavae poogum!

Cellula balance illana call panna mudiyathu….
Aaana….
Manushanukku call illana,
Balance panna mudiyathu….

Vaayala "naai"-nu solla mudiyum
Aaana….
Naayaala "Vaai"-nu solla mudiyuma??? Think !!!

Poison 10 naal aana payasam aaha mudiyaadhu
But, payasam 10 naal aana poison aahidum!

arisi kotina vaera arisi vangalam
pal kotina vaera pal vangalam aaana
thael kotina vaera thael vanga mudiyadhu....

FILES NA OKKANTHU PAARKANUM AANA
PILES NA PAARTHU OKKARANUM

Quarter Adichittu Kuppura padukkalaam! AANA
Aana kupura paduthuttu quarter adikka mudiyathu…!!

Naai Vaalai Aattalaam! AANA
Aana Vaal Naaya aatta mudiyathu!!

Trainkku ticket vaangi platformla ukkaaralaam! AANA
Aana platformku ticket vangi trainla ukkara mudiyathu!

Ulagam theriyamal valanthal avan Veguly AANA
Cricket theriyama valantha avan GANGULY

Cycle carrirer la Tiffen vachu eduthutu pogalam AANA
Tiffen carrier la Cycle vachu eduthutu poga
mudiyathu!!

1000 thaan irunthalum 1001 than perusu!!
Illegraya?????

Kaalvaai la kaal vaika mudiyum AANA
Vaaikaal la vaai vaika mudiuma???????
Optical glass-a fridgela vecha cooling glass agaadhu
Goli soda-va washing machinela vecha washing sodava agaadhu!!

Namma Evalodhan munnadi ponaalum busla modhalla okkarardhu bus
driverdhan!!

Paambu vandha padam edukkum
Aana padam edutha paambu varuma??

Running racela kaal evalavu vegama odinaalum,
Price kaikuthaan kedaikkum!!

Nee evalo periya swimmera irundhaalum,
Tumbler thannila neechal adikka mudiyaathu!!

Sodava fridgela vacha cooling soda aagum,
Athukkaaga atha washing machinela vacha washing soda aagumaa!!

Ghee roastla ghee irukkum,
Paper roastla paper irukkuma!!

Thaneera thanni nu sollalaam...Aana...
Paneera panni nu solla mudiyathu...

ULAGAM THERIYAMA VALARRAVAN VEGULY
CRICKET THERIYAMA VILAYADURAVAN GANGULY

Enna Dhan Karatela Black Belt Vanginalum
Sori Nai Torathina odi thaan Aaganum

Enna dhan meenukku neendha terinchalum
Adhala Meen kulambula neendha mudiyathu.

Quarter Adichittu Kuppura padukkalaam!
Aana kupura paduthuttu quarter adikka mudiyathu...!!

Vaazhkai Thaththuvam:
Nee evalo periya dancer aa irundhaalum
Un saavukku unnaala aada mudiyuma???

Today's Punch:
Panam Varum Pogum!
Padhavi Varum Pogum!
Kavalai Varum Pofum!
Kaadhal Varum Pogum!
Aana AIDS varum... pogathu!!!

Cycle carrierle tiffin vaikalaam, aana tiffin carrierle cycle vaika mudhiyumah ...."

Ticket Vangitu ulla poradu cinema theatre, ulae poitu ticket vanguradu operation theatre...........

Kaakka ennadhaan karuppa irundhaalum adhu podara muttai vellai!
Muttai ennadhaan vellaiya irundhaalum adhukulla irukka kaakka karuppudhaan!!

Chair udainja ukkara mudiyathu! Katttil udainjaa padukka mudiyathu!
Aana muttai udainjaa dhaan omelette poda mudiyum!!!!!!!!!

Cream biscuit la cream irukkum...ana
Naay biscuitla naay irukkadhu...

Busla nee yerinalum....................
Bus unn mela yerinalum..................... ..
Ticket vangaporathu nee thannn!!!!

Punch Dialogues for Sivaji

2005-12-17T21:30:00.001+05:00

Here are the possible punch dialogues for SIVAJI:

cell adicha ringu, sivaji adicha sangu!
kanna....
aalu rounda irundhaa podhathu..
aatathula all rounderaa irukkanum...
amaidhikku babaji adidhadikku sivaji!!
Thanneerai Killa Mudiyuma ?
Sivajiya vella mudiyuma?
Nanban urasuna thangam
Edhiri urasuna singam
Singatha konja mudiyathu ... Shivajiya minja mudiyathu ..

Ghajni Song REMIX (Forward)

2005-12-17T21:30:00.000+05:00

GAJINI SONG - SUTTUM VIZHI -Ultimate Remix ....just enjoy
>
>
>Vetti paya mavaley Vetti paya mavaley
>Vettiya nee oorai suthadhey!
>Sattai payyil dhambadi kaasukooda illama Koottam katti vambu pesadhey!
>Netru endhan kanavil, ottai thattai yendhiye Pichai ketka soppanam
>kandane! Nee vandhu Pichai ketka soppanam kandane!
>(Vetti paya mavaley)
>Thinnayil unnai kandane Rummyil unnai kandane Kallukkadai benchil unnai
>kandane!
>Somberigal kootam pottaal,
>Nee adhil thalaivan endru
>Indru dhaley naanum kandu kondane!
>Bladeugalil mokkai blade
>Unnidmdhan naan kandane - une vaarthai
>Bladeai kollum blade enbane!
>(Vetti paya mavaley)
>Marangothi paravai ondru Sevikkuley ponadhendru Udal mudhal uyir varai
>nondhane!
>Theeyindri thiriyumindri ennudal eriyumendru Une pechai kettunarndhu
>kondane!
>Mazhai azhaga? Veyyil azhaga?
>Neeyirundhaal yedhu azhagu? Nee ooril,
>Illavittaal rendum azhagu!
>(Vetti paya mavaley)

SAMMA PETER (Forward)

2005-12-17T21:29:00.000+05:00

The joke below is true, ABCD (American Born Confused Desi)
An Indian settled in US, who is neither here nor there is called
ABCD.
In other words "Na Ghar Ka Na Ghat Ka". The story below is of an
Indian
Kid settled in U.S with an American accent explaining the
significance
of Diwali to his other Indian American brother. Have fun reading it.

==========================================================
ABCD Diwali
==========================================================
Subject: ABCD Diwali!

A young second generation Indian in the US, explaining the
sigificance of
Diwali to his younger brother. This is how he would go about it.

So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked
him. But, like, his step-mom KaiKei, or something, was kind of a
bitch
and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was
Ram, to
some
national forest or something...since he was going, for like,
something like
more than 10 years or so..he decided to get his wife and his brother
Laxman
along..you know...so that they could all chill out together.

But DUDE, the forest was reeeeaaaall scary shit..really man..they had
monkeys and devils and shit like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked ass
with darts and bows and arrows...so it was fine.
But then some bad gangster boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his
babe(Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man,
and also
his brother, Lakshman, pissed..And you DON't piss this son-of-a-gun
cuz, he
just kicks Ass and like, all the Gods were with him..
So anyways, you don't mess with Gods. So, Ram, and his brother get
an army
of monkeys..dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn
monkeys..just go
along with me, ok..so, Ram, Laksh. and their monkeys whip this
gangsta's
ass in his own hood.

Anyways, by this time, their time's up in the forest...and
anyways...it
gets kind of boring, you know ...no TV or mall or shit like that.
So, they
decided to hitch a ride back home...and when the people realize
that,
like, our dude, his bro and the wife are back home...they
thought, well,you know,at least they deserve something nice... and
they
didn't have
any bars or clubs in those days...so they couldn't take him out
for a drink,so they, like, decided to smoke and shit...and since
they
also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also...so it was priitttty
cool...you know with all those fireworks.. really, they even had
some local
musicians
play along with the fireworks.. and you know, what, dude, that was
the
very first, I kid you not, that was the very first music-
synkronized
fireworks... you konw, like the 4th of July stuff,
but just, more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, THAT was
how, like,
this festival started. Cool!

"Diwali Rocks", maaannn!!
==========================

What has IIT done for India?

2005-12-17T21:26:00.000+05:00

I felt a strong connection with the author’s views as I was reading Five Point Someone. This is one book which any college student will be able to bond with and enjoy, mainly because it reflects the feelings that goes on in the minds of all those who hate the basic educational system of our country and are desperately trying to break out of it.

There is one thing that no one can object in this book. IIT being the best institution of our country has not contributed anything to India. It sucks into it the best brains of India (probably even the world), makes them excellent muggers and finally puts them in a neat package and sends them to the US of A or one of the world’s leading MNC’s. With the brightest minds of the country within one campus for more than 30 years, why has it not been able to bring out even one invention that has rocked the world and made the other countries turn to look at India? Why has it not been able to kindle the creativity and imagination of the students who deserve to be recognized?

A few years back, the students of IIT-M came up with an ingenious way of splitting the LASER beam in fibre optics transmission to accommodate many signals in one line. They took financial help from Denmark and finally came up with a breakthrough in telephone communication. But there was no industry back up for implementing it in our Country. The same students joined a US firm after their studies and gave them the idea. In the end US got patent for the invention. There was another group of students who came up with a way by which if the modem dials internet, the no. is recognized as a net no. and is directly connected to the ISP instead of using up the telephone connection causing congestions in lines. But the idea was later bought by a private ISP who sold it to a US company. They use our laboratory, our resources, get help from our professors and then…

The Malaysian government gives financial support for its students to go to Australian universities but with the condition that they must come back and serve their country after their studies. Here, the Singapore government gives financial aid to Indian students to get their higher education in NTU or NUS with the condition that they have to serve Singapore after their studies!!!! If you ask me…India must impose restrictions on IITians and NITians to go out of India. It may sound too harsh but think about it… India provides education to you for 21 years but in the end you give it all up to work as slaves to some foreign multinational in return for their peanut salary. Think of how much you can do for this country in return. India is our crippled, suffering, neglected mother crying out desperately for our attention…helpppppp!!!!!!!

MP Application Form (Forward)

2005-12-17T21:25:00.000+05:00

*********************************************************************
*******

Application Form To Be Filled For Contesting Indian
Elections

-------------------------------------------------------

1. Name of Candidate :
_______________________

2. Present Address

(i) Name of Jail :
_______________________

(ii) Cell Number :
_______________________

(If not in Jail, attach proof of illegally
occupied
residence)

3. Political Party :
_______________________
(List ONLY the Last Five parties in the Chronological

Order)

4. Sex : [ ]

A - Male

B - Female

C - Mayawathi

5. Nationality : [ ]

A - Italian

B - Indian

(if Indian attach attested copy of ration card, police
certificate, passport, birth-certificate, electricity
bill, phone bill and local goondas NOC. If Non-indian
just Check box A)

6. Reasons for leaving last party
(circle one or more)

A - Defected

B - Expelled

C - Bought out

D - None of above

E - All of above

7. Reasons for contesting elections
(circle one or more)

A - To make money

B - To escape court trial

C - To grossly misuse power

D - To serve the public

E - I have no clue

(if you choose "D,- attach Certificate of Sanity
from a Recogonised Government Psychiatrist)

8. How many years of public service
experience do you possess ?
[ ]

A - 1-2 yrs

B - 2-6yrs

C - 6-15yrs

D - 15+yrs

9. Give details of any criminal cases
pending against you

(Use as many Additional Sheets as
you want)

10. How many years have you spent in
Jail ? [ ]

(Do not confuse with question 8)

A 1-2 years

B 2-6 years

C 6-15 years

D 15+years

11. Are you involved in any financial
scams ? [ ]

A - Why not

B - Of Course

C - Definitely

D - I deny it all

E - see a foreign hand.

12. What is your Annual Corruption
Income ? [ ]
A 100-500 Crores

B 500-1000 Crores

C Overflow...

(Convert all your $ earning from
Hawala etc to Rupees)

14.Do you have any developmental plans
for the country in mind?
[ ]

A - No

B - No

C - No

D - No

15. Describe in space provided, your
achievements :

_______________

Thumb Impresssion of
candidate

*********************************************************************

5 reasons for carnatic music season to be in December

2005-12-17T21:21:00.000+05:00

I was wondering why they have the carnatic music season in December and I came up with the following reasons:

The cold weather helps them to sing aa-aa-aaaaaa-aaaa-aa easily with the shiver in their voice.
The sabhas don’t have to put on the AC as the weather is already cold.
The NRI’s have their Christmas and New Year holidays so they will also be able to attend and the sabhas get more collection.
If they sing earlier in the year, they may be blamed for the natural calamities of that year.
The caterers can serve the leftovers of the year outside the sabhas during the Katcheri.

If you can think of any other reasons please let me know.

India-Mr.Positive

2005-12-13T20:19:00.000+05:00

India – Mr. P

I was walking down the road that day, when I saw a man collecting the dung of cow from the pavement. I went over to him curiously and asked, “What may you be doing, young man?”. In the next five minutes, I heard the easiest solution to the world’s energy crisis from the dung collector. He said that the dung would be collected in a large tank and dried. The gas released would be used as gobar gas as fuel and for lighting purposes and the dried up dung would be used for cooking. No wonder India is stocking up its population of cows. In the future the US would come crawling to India when it’s reserve of crude oil runs out. And on top of it the ingenuity lies in Indians using bullock carts and saving the wasteful expenditure of fuel, which indirectly would go to the third world countries. Indeed, India is riding its journey to development on a bullock cart. Also these carts provide the easiest way of stress busting. While in the other countries blowing horns is declared unlawful, the Indians get their share of blaring horns as much as they want and when they come out after a good drive, their mind is calm, poised and refreshed. The Government too helps drivers by keeping the roads bad. Can you find this in any other country?

Wait…it gets better. The govt. also does not mind the other ways of stress busting of the Indians, for which punishments as high as castrations are given in other countries. This way the govt. also saves on the unwanted expenditures of building public restrooms instead encouraging growth of roadside trees, which have other advantages like providing shade for travelers. Apart from these, the Indians have found innumerable ways to use their pavement like roadside shops, parking bikes, providing shelter for the homeless, providing a place for stray dogs to raise their families(Animal rights and Protection) etc. This is what you call MAXIMUM UTILISATION OF RESOURCES (MUR). India has 16% of the world’s population, but only 2% of its land area. Wondering how they manage it. Yes…by MUR. That is incredible India.

India- Mr.Negative

2005-12-13T19:38:00.000+05:00

India – Mr. N

“How worse can it get?” I thought, as I was walking down the mucky Indian roads. Just then, I stepped on cow dung lying on the PAVEMENT. I turned to see if anyone was looking. Then I noticed the cow behind me. I frowned. It looked as if the cow smiled back mockingly thinking, “This is how”. With almost 80% of the cows in the world, India produces just over 10% of the milk. If you think the ANCIENT mode of transport- the bullock cart has become obsolete, think again. ‘Cause here’s a country which seems to be riding it’s journey to development on a bullock cart(Animal rights and Protection), blocking the Mercedes and ford which look piteous, blaring their horns and not being able to do anything. They shout with frustration but they get the coolest response, “ yeh car jaane wala road nahin hain saheb”. Rash driving, traffic congestions and bad roads make driving a horrifying experience. Can you find it in any other country?

I walked backwards, cursing the cow, and thinking, “It possibly can’t get any worse”, when I collided with a man relieving his “STRESS”. Great. Just great. This is another thing that identifies a trademark Indian. One must be extremely careful while walking on the INDIAN PAVEMENTS, if there is one, especially during rainy season coz’ you never know the difference, if you know what I mean. “Since the pavements are being used for more important things, why not walk on the road?” you may ask. True…but my chances of getting home alive would be 0.0001%. The trucks, three-wheelers and motorbikes make you feel like Simba caught in the stampede. No traffic rules, no respect for signals and no fear of the police, these are definitely some unique aspects one can find only in India. Growing traffic due to burgeoning population is horrible. Every six months it is adding an Australia to its population. Every 9 sec one person dies and every 2 sec a baby is born. Every 7^th baby born in the world is an Indian. Wondering how they manage it. That is intolerable India.

Matrimonial ads (Forward)

2005-12-13T19:37:00.000+05:00

This is extreme... Take a break in between!!!

Suggested Note - Try Ranking The Best

- Hello To Viewvers My Name is Sowmya , I am single i dont have male,
If any one whant to marrie to me u can visite to my home. I am not a good
education but i working all field in bangalroe.. if u like me u welcome to my
heart... when ever u whant to meet pls viset my resident or send u letter..
Thanks
yours Regards Sowmya ~*~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i want very simple boy. from brahmin educated family from orissa state
she
is also know about RAMAYAN, GEETA BHAGABATA, and other homework

(Homework?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wants a man who knows me better and can adjust with me forever. he may
never
create any difficulties in my life or his life by which the entire life
can
run smoothly. thank you

(The principle of running life smoothly was never so easy!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

he should be good looking and should have a service. he Shoulsd have
one
brother and one sister. he should be educated.

(ain't it unique !! 1 brother 1 sister criteria !)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am a happy-go-lucky kind of person. Enjoys every moments of life. I
love
to make friendship. Becauese friendship is a first step of love. I am
looking for my dreamboy who will love me more than i. Because i love
myself
a lot. If u think that is u then why to late come on ........
hold
my hand forever !!!

(The dilwale dulhaniya effect)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i am simple girl.I have lot ofproblemin mylife because ofmylucknow i
amlooking oneboyhe caremeandloveme lot lot lot

(I don't know why but this is one of my favorites)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My husband should be as 'Shiva' as in Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and as
Tanwerr as
in KSBKBT......

(Ok I haven't seen these soaps but I am sure she must be demanding too
much,
ain't he?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i want a boy with no drinks if he wants he can wear jeans in house but
while
steping out of house he should give recpect to our cast

(by not wearing his jeans? Wat the hell...)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HYE I AM A GOOD LOKING GIRL,WHO HAS THE CAPABILITY TO MAKE ANY BODY TO
LOUGH.I BELIEVE IN GOD AND ACCORDING TO ME FRIENDS ARE THE REAL
MESSENGER
OF
GOD. THE 3 THINGS I AM LOOKING FROM A BOY ,THEY ARE 1.THEY MUST BELIEVE
IN
GOD.2. THEY HAVE TO LIKE MY PROFFESION AND THEY SHOULD NOT GET BORED
WITH
ME WHEN I WILL TRY TO MAKE THEM LOUGH.

(all of us are loughing{laughing})
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
whatever he may be but he should feel that he is going to be someone
groom
and he must think of the future life if he is toolike this he would bde
called the man of the lamp

(I am clueless, I feel so lost. Can anyone tell me what this girl
wants)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i love my patner i marriage the patner ok i search my patner and i love
the
patner ok thik hai the patner has a graduate ok

(I am again clueless but I liked the use of "ok". The person is
suffering
from "Ok-syndrome")
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HI IAM VERY COOL NUATHER OK MY HOBBY IS SEE T.V AND NEWS OK I HAVE 1
CAR
AND
1 BONWL OK MY MOTHER ALSO GOOD OK MY FARUET WORLD IS OK

(the "ok syndrome" again)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
iam pranati my family histoy my two brother two sister and fater&mother
sister complity marred

(somebody please explain in comments section how to get married
'completely'?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

iam very simpel and hanest. i have three sister one brother and parent.
i
am doing postal sarvice and tailor master my original resdence at
kalahandi
diste naw iam staing at rayagada dist.

(actually what is this girl doing? Postal service or tailor.??)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my name is farhanbegum and i am unmarried. pleaes you marrige me pleaes
pleaes pleaes pleaes pleaes pleaes pleaes

(height of desperation! J )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Iwant one boy who love me or my mother. he love me heartly or he havea
frank
he's skin colour 'normal'not a black or not a whitey. IThink the main
think
is heart if your heart is beautiful then you are beautiful.
but
iam not a handsome girl or not a good looking. but my Mom say that Iam
a
good girl. My father already expired . iam ''AEKLAUTA''. THE CHOICE IS
YOUR.
bye bye.

(uttama purishinin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

iam kanandevi. i do owo businas.one sistar.he was marred.

(No comments)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I AM LITTLE FAIR INDIAN COLOUR. I DON'T HAVE ANY HABIT.

(maybe the poor guy meant BAD habits)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hello i am a good charactarised woman. i want to run my life happily.i
divorced my first husband.his charactor is not good'. i expect the good
minded and clean habits boy who may be in the same caste or other caste
accepted ...

(but credit cards not accepted..???)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my colour is black,but my heart is white.i like social service

(Zebra..???)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i'm looking out for who lives in bombay, boy simple who trust me lot
should
be roman catholic, LOVE ME ONLY.

(Now that criterion is a must, isn't it?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

to be married on jan-2005. working man perferable

(this girl has fixed the marriage date too! But she is yet to find a
bridegroom.
I wish her best of luck on behalf of all of us. I am sure she will get
one
soon.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i would like a beautyfull boy. and i do not want his any treasure.
because boy is the maharaja.

(Now he is going to be a lucky boy! Any takers?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ssc failed three times and worked with privated ltd company which not
paying
salary at present.

(Any takers again?)

Mngmnt vs. engnr (Forward)

2005-12-13T19:35:00.000+05:00

A man flying in a hot air balloon realizes he is lost. He reduces his
altitude and spots a man in a field down below. He lowers the balloon
further and shouts, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

The man below says, "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, about 30 feet
above this field."

"You must be an engineer," says the balloonist.

"I am. How did you know?"

"Everything you told me is technically correct, but it's of no use to
anyone."

The man below says, "You must be in management."

"I am. But how did you know?"

"You don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect
me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before
we met,
but now it's my fault."

It happens only in India-MN

2005-11-27T16:50:00.000+05:00

Hi,

My name is Mr. Negative (MN). I have traveled almost everywhere around the world. But the one country that disgusted me the most was India. Caught between its rich cultural heritage and a rapid wave of westernization, India is struggling hard to get itself an identity, during which process it is losing its current one. For thousands of years the Aryans, the Moguls, the Greek, the Dutch, the French, the British have all tried to destroy its strong tradition and plunder its artistic and intellectual sophistication. Having resisted them then, India is now voluntarily surrendering itself to the immoral and unethical western lifestyle. This does not show its development but a great immaturity and lack of trust in the beliefs and customs of its ancestors that had helped them survive for 5000 years.

India stands as the epitome for the saying “Everything has its own price”. Corruption seems to have infiltrated the minds of Indians in every walk of life. The Indians seem to be caught in an invisible net of dishonesty and bribe that they themselves have weaved. There is no other nation in the world that asks bribe for cremating a dead body from a family whose sole breadwinner had committed the suicide because he could not pay back his loans. It happens only in India. Disgusting India. Intolerable India.

It happens only in India- MP

2005-11-27T16:49:00.000+05:00

Hi,

My name is Mr. Positive (MP). I have traveled almost everywhere around the world. But the one country that fascinated me the most was India. With a rich cultural heritage and strong historic background, India stands high as an example for the west. For thousands of years the Aryans, the Greek, the Dutch, the Moguls, the French, the British have all looted and plundered her, but she merely resisted them. In her 5000 year history there is not one instance of India attacking another nation. This does not show weakness but a greater maturity and impartial love to fellow human beings. Although there were many conquerors that sucked out every drop of her blood, not one of them could conquer her spirit.

India stands as the epitome for the saying “Unity in diversity”. With their large diversities ranging from religion, caste to languages and customs, the Indians still appear to be bound together by an invisible thread of patriotism and brotherhood. There is no other nation in the world with people speaking more than 2000 different languages and yet seem to understand each other and work together for building their nation. It is as if, they are mind readers, communicating with telepathy. If there is one country that could be called a nation it is India- Enchanting, India. Incredible India.

The five toughest (Forward)

2005-11-27T16:43:00.000+05:00

The five toughest Female Questions are:

1. What are you thinking about?
2. Do you love me?
3. Do I look fat?
4. Do you think she is prettier than I?
5. What would you do if I died?

What makes these questions so difficult is that every one is
guaranteed to
explode into a major argument if the man answers incorrectly
(i.e.;tells the
truth). Therefore, as a public service, each question is analyzed
below,
along with possible responses.

Question # 1: What are you thinking about?

The proper answer to this, of course, is: "I'm sorry if I've been
pensive,
dear. I was just reflecting on what a warm, wonderful, thoughtful,
caring,
intelligent woman you are, and how lucky I am to have met you." This
response obviously bears no resemblance to the true answer, which
most
likely is one of the following:
a. Baseball.
b. Football.
c. How fat you are.
d. How much prettier she is than you.
e. How I would spend the insurance money if you died.

Perhaps the best response to this question was offered by Al Bundy,
who once
told Peg, "If I wanted you to know what I was thinking, I would be talking
to you! Al Rules!

Question # 2: Do you love me?

The proper response is: "YES!"
or, if you feel a more detailed answer is in
order, "Yes, dear."
* Inappropriate responses include:
a. I suppose so.
b. Would it make you feel better if I said yes?
c. That depends on what you mean by love.
d. Does it matter?
e. Who, me?

Question # 3: Do I look fat?

The correct answer is an emphatic: "Of course not!"
Among the incorrect answers are:
a. Compared to what?
b. I wouldn't call you fat, but you\'re not exactly thin.
c. A little extra weight looks good on you.
d. I've seen fatter.
e. Could you repeat the question? I was just thinking about how I
would
spend the insurance money if you died.

Question # 4: Do you think she's prettier than I?

Once again, the proper response is an emphatic:
"Of course not!"

Incorrect responses include:
a. Yes, but you have a better personality
b. Not prettier, but definitely thinner
c. Not as pretty as you when you were her age
d. Define pretty
e. Could you repeat the question? I was just thinking about how I
would
spend the insurance money if you died.

Question #5: What would you do if I died?

A definite no-win question. (The real answer, or course, is "Buy a
Corvette.") No matter how you answer this, be prepared for at least
an hour
of follow-up questions, usually along the these lines:
WOMAN: Would you get married again?
MAN: Definitely not!
WOMAN: Why not - don't you like being married?
MAN: Of course I do.
WOMAN: Then why wouldn't you remarry?
MAN: Okay, I'd get married again.
WOMAN: You would? (With a hurtful look on her face)
MAN: Yes, I would.
WOMAN: Would you sleep with her in our bed?
MAN: Where else would we sleep?
WOMAN: Would you put away my pictures, and replace them with
pictures of
her?
MAN: That would seem like the proper thing to do.

WOMAN: And would you let her use my golf clubs?
MAN: She can't use them; she's left-handed!

Telephone conversation(Forward)

2005-11-27T16:37:00.002+05:00

i LMAO ( laughed my head off ) while reading this...njoy
Telephone conversation between William Knott and Mr Watt :
.................................................. .......

"Who's calling?" was the answer to the telephone.
"Watt."
"What is your name, please?"
"Watt's my name."
"That's what I asked you. What's your name?"
"That's what I told you. Watt's my name."
A long pause, and then from Watt, "Is this James Brown?"
"No, this is Knott."
"Please tell me your name."
"Will Knott."
YOU LEFT THE TALKERS AT A POINT WHERE THEY WERE TOTALLY CONFUSED,READ
THE REST OF WHAT HAPPENED...
"Why not?"
"Huh? What do you mean why not?"
"Yeah! Why won't you tell me your name?"
"But I told you my name!"
"Didn't you say you will not?"
"Not not, knott, Will Knott!"
"That's what I mean."
"So you know my name."
"Of course not!"
"Good. So now, what is yours?"
"Watt. Yours?"
"Your name!"
"Watt's my name."
"How the hell do I know? I am asking you!"
"Look I have been very patient and I have told you my name and you
have
not even told me yours yet.."
"You have been patient, what about me?"
"I have told you my name so many times and it is u who have not told
me
yours yet."
"Of course not!"
"See, you even know my name!"
"Of course not!"
"Then why do you keep saying of course Knott?"
"Because I don't."
[Pause]
"What is your name?"
"See, you know my name!"
"Of course not!"
"Then why do you keep saying Watt is your name"
"To find out your name!"
"But you already know it!"
"What?"
"See, and you know mine!"
"Of course not!"
"Exactly!"
NOW THEY ARE AT A POINT WHERE BOTH THINK THE OTHER KNOWS THEIR NAME,
BUT THEY THEMSELVES DON'T KNOW THE OTHER'S NAME.
"Listen, listen, wait; if I asked you what your name is, what will be
your
answer?"
"Watt's my name."
"No, no, give me only one word."
"Watt"
"Your name!"
"Right!"
[Pause before it hits him]
"Oh, Wright!"
"Yeah!"
"So why didn't you say it before?"
"I told you so many times!"
"You never said Wright before"
"Of course I did."
"Ok I won't argue any more. Do you know my name?"
" do not."
"Well, there you go, now we know each other's name."
"I do not!"
"Good!"
[Pause before it hits him]
"Oh, Guud!"
"Good."
"No wonder, it took me so long, is that Dutch?"
"No, it's Knott!"
"Oh, okay. At least the names are clear now Guud."
"Yes Wright."

Changes

2005-11-27T16:35:00.000+05:00

Hi guys,

I have kept my site’s name as changes coz’ my name’s anagram is changes. (C.Ganesh). But you can call me cg. (As many of my friends already do).