Nov 30, 2005

A bloody encounter


As a Brahmin, I was obviously told from the childhood about why we dont and should not eat non-veg.. but, an incident that happened in my mid-teen forever buried any second opinion about it. It is a gory incident, those who are faint-hearted need not please go to the last paragraph.

On a sunday afternoon, I had to wait for the 'Aavin milk' in a booth, opposite of which there was a non-veg restaurant. The cook came out with a hen (chicken is smaller version of hen, right? So, I call the big hen a hen). He held its neck and then came a 'cluck' sound.. He broke the neck of the hen and twisted it nearly 180 degree. Paavam, andha kozhi 'viluk viluk' nu udambai vettikkitte oru 5 minutes tharaiyile kidandhadhu.. appuram asaivey ilai.. I thought she died.. then, he beheaded the hen with his bare hands and the hen's fits restarted.. blood came gushing out, a few drops spilled on his vest too.. He collected all the blood in a vessel and after a few minutes, the kozhi was really dead.

He took a knife and peeled the skin off.. rathamum sadhaiyuma andha kozhi red-a therinjudhu.. ulley cut panni adhoda ovvoru uruppa eduthu sutham pannann.. kidney-yai cut panni ange irundha excreta- ellam eduthu veliye erinju clean pannan.. A lively, cute hen became a few pounds of meat in a small vessel within minutes.. Adhai parthadhum I really felt giddy. I sat down on a bench to steady myself and vowed to never ever think about eating any sort of meat.



That particular incident made me feel that man is a merciless animal.. I dont know how many of non-veg eaters would have seen their eventual meal being taken life away like the above incident, but I am pretty sure more than half would have. Eppadi oru uyirai kolla manasu varudhu ungalukku? Eppadi oru uyir poradhai parthu adhaiye samaichu saappida mudiyudhu ungalukku? Afterall, taste-kkaagava? Taste-kkaga enna venalum seiveengala? Proteins? Vegetarian dishes-le, milk-le evvalo proteins irukkey.. Ennadhaan vai kiliya humanity, human rights pathi pesunalum unless you stop eating non-veg, I would laugh at someone who talks of such things.

Nov 29, 2005

Watching cricket with Prem Panicker (A small update as P.S.)


Prem Panicker, arguably India's best cricket-writer, started his own blog a week after I started mine.. Ever since, I have been following his blog; he has a unique style of writing and is helped by his having played cricket and working as a cricket journalist for Rediff. During the Pakistan's tour of India earlier this year, he wrote ball-by-ball commentary and his insights into the game, which made it a wonderful experience.

His blog is extremely famous, as you can see from the site meter.. half-a-million hits in six months.. He first covered the Natwest series in England and the Ashes; he would get up at wee hours in the morning to follow most of the matches played in England (he stays in NY). Then started India's season with the one-day tournament in Srilanka.. He would stay all night, writing posts and replying to the comments and questions.. The first match of the tournament - Irfan Pathan, who was off color the previous series vs Pakistan comes to bowl.. Within a couple of deliveries, Prem was quick to note that his bowling action was different this time and he is likely to bowl as good as he did when he debuted. And, it did happen and continues to be true..

Unfortunately, that was one tournament where India's performance was pretty bad; so, many guys who followed the game from ball one, got irritated and started fighting in the blog, swearing at one other, the players and even Prem.. Then, he resorted to 'Bloggers only' for commenting and some sanctity was restored, because everyone as a registered blogger is trackable and hence be complained to google in case of abuse.

Then, a spammer attacked him; Prem was disabled from commenting from his own blog.. After trying a few IM'ings with the loyal bloggers, he decided that whenever he is 'blocked', he would just write the highlights as separate posts.. Since most of the matches took place off the working hours of PST, his friends in google couldnt track who the spammer is and where he is from. A few weeks ago, the spammer came out calling himself 'achinb'.. He would block Prem, and openly leave comments that he has done his job.. Prem, and all of us, could only watch.

In the meanwhile, he added more contributors to his blog, such as Verma (Worma), Ruchir Joshi and Toney who were regular followers/cricket enthusiasts/good writers. Whenever any significant cricket news props up, one of them would put a post, thus making Prem's blog as a one-stop site for all things cricket. They still run the blog whenever Prem is away/sick/busy.

The exploitation of the bug in blogger, which allows anyone to post on anyone's name happened there too.. (Tamil bloggers would remember what happened in Chinmayi's and Narayanan Venkitu's blogs a few weeks ago). Despite the 'bloggers only can comment' option, many guys faked Prem's name and started commenting as him.. Luckily, they could not do anything about 'posts'..

Recently, the Saurav Ganguly spat hit his blog too.. Like the rest of Indians, the bloggers were also discreetly polarized as Pro- or Anti-Ganguly.. There was huge hue and cry when he was dropped from the squad.. but, things were OK as long as India was winning. The series win against Srilanka shut the mouths of Pro-Ganguly guys and they were literally waiting for an opportunity.. Still, they would whine whenever Sachin, Sehwag or Dravid (who are potential 'competitors' to Ganguly) failed.

India lost a couple of matches to South Africa.. esp. the Kolkata game was pretty bad. As most of you know, there were widespread agitations (which included politicians and some Bong cine stars); the Indian team was given such security, which made one wonder whether they are playing in India or in Pakistan.. There was constant jeering/booing at the Indian cricketers even inside the stadium.. Those fielding near the boundary were constantly abused.. The pitch was uncharacteristically green, which was the Cricket Association of Bengal's unique way of protesting Ganguly's exclusion and India lost the match badly.. Eden Gardens reclaimed its notorious infamous reputation of the 'Worst, over-aggressive and volatile crowd'..

In Prem's blog too, tempers were flying high.. people started abusing one other and almost everyone was angry.. Pro-Ganguly guys were happy that India is losing but still angry for what happened to Ganguly, and Anti-Ganguly guys were angry that India is losing unjustifiably, due to the politics and emotions related to one man. The bloggers' families were brought into discussion (u know what I mean) and Prem was soo sick of all those that he wrote a post that he would delete his blog in 24 hours.. After the requests and suggestions from his loyal fans, he decided to disable 'comments' options for his posts..

During today's game, he just wrote the posts based on his views for every 10-over period and anything that he felt interesting.. But, I missed the 'comments' part, which would happen during the game.. Hard to believe.. but there would be 10 guys commenting at the same moment.. The comments would run into thousands.. the positive commentary was soo good, I never enjoyed cricket more.. Now, due to some crooks, who despite being educated behaved like rowdies, the fun of watching cricket is reduced.. Hope the advances in blogging help revive the comments thing with some 'censoring' method...

P.S.: For the first time, I had put up a vote machine in my blog and some of you voted in it.. I was obviously the first to vote in it, predicting a 4-1 win for India.. 5 out of 9 voted for India's winning 3:2 while 2, for SA's 3:2 win.. that is a good 7 out of 9.. Anything could have happened in Chennai, so most of you were correct.. :-) Plz. vote in the next poll too..

Nov 27, 2005

Kumudam Cine Digest

This week's issue of Kumudam online was almost full of cinema stuff.. What is happening to it??? I read a few articles/interviews which made some 'interesting' news:

Ravi K. Chandran

The interviewer obviously goes overboard saying that the big bollywood Khans get his dates first before asking the story.. When asked whether the Indian cinematography has become in par with International standards, he says a disappointing NO.. the reason? We have to use bright lightings; hardly use natural lighting.. Reason for that? Bad movie halls, having poor projection facilities.

IMHO, except in multiplexes and in a countable movie halls in metros, most of the movie halls are poor in this aspect. The situation in B and C centers is even worse.. I am talking about stray light which dulls the picture and reduces the brightness and contrast. His suggestion is, the big heroes should declare that they would not allow their movies to be screened at such sub-par movie halls. I dont think that will ever happen.

Another thing he touches upon is the cinematographers-turning to-directors. Ram had a post on this a few months ago. Ravi says that, many directors, especially freshers, tend to be a lot dependent on their cinematographers, virtually making them accidental ghost-directors. So, the cinematographers think "Why not direct a movie ourselves?". Ravi uses the word 'Kuruttu dhairiyam' for them.

This bit was surprising and interesting. Especially since quite a lot of such conversions have taken place in the recent times. He also mentions that directors like Maniratnam, Shankar and Bala would take total care of direction, leaving a well defined role for the cinematographers.

SJ Suryah
mm.. He has been writing quite a lot in Kumudam nowadays.. According to him, 'Ah Aah' was pretty much what happened in his personal life.. So, we have another of director's own story, after Selvaraghavan's '7G..'. Interesting thing is, he says that his girlfriend was a film personality. mmm.. now I know. She is that famous Punjabi cutie... damn!! He reveals that, one scene in the movie, in which he leaves a long-awaited candle-lit dinner after a call from his boss indeed happened. When I saw that scene, I thought only a total-idiot can goof up like that.. no wonder.

Bharadwaj
The interviewer asks him "For the song 'ovvoru pookkalumey' that you have composed, the singer Chitra and the lyricist Pa.Vijay won the awards but not u.. why?" (What a dumb question...) Bharadwaj's answer is even more shocking.. He says "What did u find great in Chitra's voice? Isnt it not the same thing you are hearing for 20 years? If you read Pa.Vijay's lyrics without music, would u get any feeling? After planning so much and serving the song in the 'Sindhubhairavi' raaga, it is indeed very sad that they didnt give the award to me but to Vijay and Chitra. Both of them know that I created that song."

I can understand his feelings.. but this was not something I expected from him. IMHO, this is total arrogance. After the Cheran-Bharadwaj fallout despite Autographs's success, I read news citing Bharadwaj as the main reason for that. When Unni Krishnan, Swarnalatha and Vairamuthu won the awards for the songs in Kadhalan and Pavithra, composed by AR Rahman in 1994, he didnt mention anything remotely close to what Bharadwaj is whining now. And, in this interview, he is putting himself along the same lines of Ilayaraja and AR Rahman.. One big-headed guy, he seems to me..

And then director Perarasu proudly claims to be behind the thawing of the relation between Vijay and Ajit.

And, CM Jayalalitha kaiyale thaali koduthu Sivakumar's daughter (Surya's sis) kazhuthule maappillai thaali kattinaaram.. yaar yaarellam thaali eduthu kodukkuradhunnu vivasthaiye illaiya..

Vere velaiilley.. pongayya... neengalum unga cinema-vum..

Nov 26, 2005

Thanksgiving shopping

Has been a hectic day.. Got up at 6, instead of the planned 5. Saw Indian team struggling against SA.. Went for early morning shopping.. nothing much to buy this time... Bought Sony Home Theater (online). Will drive now to Ocala to pick it up.


Then, a 512 MB MP3 player for Geeta

and a 512 MB USB drive, both in good deal.


Wishlist:


Bose Home theater


and

a 32" LCD HDTV.

Nov 24, 2005

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy



I LOVE THEIR MUSIC.. true example of 'Secular India'.. Most of you know of Shankar - Shankar Mahadevan; ever since his 'Breathless' and 'Varaaga nadhi karai oram', he has fast climbed up the ladder of pinnacle and glory as one of the best singers of our country. I love his voice... Bubbly, full of emotions, naughty and peppy. Now, about the other two of the trio..

Ehsaan - Ehsaan Noorani, the Guitarist. Born and bred at Mumbai; Studied at The Musicians Institute (Hollywood). Has his own blues band. Was into advertising in late 80's.. Famous ads: 'Give me red', Cadbury's Perk. Worked as a freelance under Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji.

Loy - Loy Mendonsa, the Pianist. Worked under Ranjit Barot.

Shankar Mahadevan is a software engineer; plays Veena since the age of 5; gave his first solo performance when just 11; is a member of 'Mynta', an Indo-Swedish constellation which is a jugalbandhi between Indian classical and European music.

Ehsaan and Loy worked together for several jingles; the trio's first joint venture was for Pepsi ads in early 90's.

They have some truly unforgettable albums in Hindi.. My favorites are
Mission Kashmir: Bumbro, (Lovely dance), Rind Posh mal (terrific picturization), Chupke se and Soche ke (sweet melodies).
Dil Chahta Hai: All songs.. this movie's songs took Hindi music by storm; best among them is Kaise hai (superbly sung by our Srinivas).
Kal Ho Naa Ho: Again, all... you would have seen this in my 'Hot music' for a long time.. I still love listening to the songs.. esp. the title song and 'Pretty woman'.
Armaan: Mere zindagi mein aaye..
Bunty aur Babli (this one rocks.. I strongly recommend this new movie) Everyday I sing "Dhadak dhadak".. :-)

Unfortunately, Tamil directors havent used them, surely depriving us of what could have been some wonderful albums. Probably they were afraid after 'Aalavandhan'. Even that had some good numbers.

What I like about their music is their unique use of less-known instruments from different parts of the world. This, added to their blend of Indo-'Rest-of-the-world' music, gives us some new sounds and tunes in their songs. They share a mutual respect from one another, which is very important for their success so far. And Shankar would be one full-time and busy music composer who would have sung more for other music directors than under the 'SEL' combo. He, and my favorite Hariharan are two of the modern-day singers I always enjoy listening to.

Info on this triplet can be found here, and here .

Jeevanamsam to Husband

In the past week or so, I came across two divorce cases in Orissa and in some North Indian state, and in both cases, there was one peculiar thing in common - Wife being asked to pay remuneration (jeevanamsam) to husband.

I am unable to find the links, but in the first case, the wife works in the bank; the husband in a factory. The factory declared bankruptcy and for a year or so, the hubby is getting only Rs. 1000 per month, while the wife earns Rs. 15K. I dont know who applied for divorce but the husband asked for compensation citing his low salary and the court has ordered the wife to pay him Rs. 1000 or something per month.

In the second case, the guy was jobless but lied and married the girl. After few months, she came to know the truth and applied for divorce. Citing his 'jobless situation', he asked blah blah.. u know.. The interesting thing is, after all this, the wife wants to get back to him. In both cases, the judge(s) declared that marital laws are common for both genders, so whoever is earning handsome, should compensate the other.. What b*$&%#*it!!

Now, my fundas.. I am not an MCP or such, but I believe that it is a guy's responsibility to earn money and run his family, whether he is married or not. Unless handicapped, I dont see any reason why a man cant earn enough to be a breadwinner for his family. It has been only in this generation that we are seeing women being allowed to come up, in par with men; considering that they have already reached equal status would send wrong signals. The problem with the court cases is that, citing these judgements, many more cases would be decided in the future.

I donno who primarily applied for divorce in both cases, but still.. If I were the judge, I would have asked the guy to pull his socks up and work bloody hard and earn his own food and shelter.

Happy Thanksgiving holidays to all you friends from US !!

Nov 23, 2005

Bambara Kannaley

I know, it should have been 'Pambara kannaley' but the title indeed starts with 'B'.

Story:
Good boy meets good girl and falls in love (this is like love at zeroth sight). A naughty girl loves the good boy. To complete the rectangle, a bad boy likes the good girl and their wedding is fixed. The good girl doesnt like the bad boy since she knows he is bad; the good guy comes to her rescue and tries a few tricks to stop the marriage. This the first hour of story. If you have watched enough Tamil cinema, you can guess what would happen later, and of course, the climax as well. Oh yeah, this movie is supposed to be a romantic comedy.

Performance:
Srikanth carries the film through with his high-energy action. After Joot, he has given up his 'chocolate hero' image (some even called him 'thoongumoonji'). All his dialogues are in aarohanam (high pitch); yes, even when he speaks of his love. I really liked his role. Aarti Agarwal should better stay with Tollywood.. it is probably 3 years too late to enter Kollywood.. She acts OK but she should realize that she doesnt look cute anymore.. Looks like she would give tough competition to Namitha, who has gone one step higher in this movie compared to 'Chanakya'. Vikramaditya, in a grey role, does a good job except in scenes where he looks lost.

Sore points:
The director seems to have been inspired by SJ Suryah.. so now you know what I am talking about.. Lots of dialogues/scenes aimed at front-benchers (I mean genuine FBs, not the ones who go front bench in a desparate attempt to see the movie). The tricks played by the good guy and the bad guy are not inspiring enough.. The so-called comedy track by Vadivelu, 'Ganja' karuppu and others is irritating. Music by Srikanth-Deva has nothing worth to write about.

Verdict:
Worth watching once.

Nov 22, 2005

Tagged - 12:50

Got tagged again.. this time by Smyta.. who achieved the height of vetti by tagging herself. After her vethilai-paakku invitation, here I go:

10 favorites:

Favorite Season: Spring
Favorite Sport : Cricket
Favorite Time: Dawn
Favorite Month: April
Favorite Actor: Kamal Haasan
Favorite Actress: Asin (as of now)
Favorite Icecream: Butter Scotch
Favorite Food: Brinjal curry/Bartha
Favorite Drink: Strawberry milkshake
Favorite Place: Bangalore

9 currents:

Current Feeling: Happy
Current O/S: Windows XP 2002
Current Windows open: Microsoft Outlook, Browsering Target weekly Ad and Rediff
Current Drink: Orange juice
Current Time: 5:20 PM
Current Mobile(s) used: Motorola V188
Current show on TV: TV only for watching rented movies.
Current Thought: Which place to choose next?
Current Cloth: Lee Blue jeans and a collared T-shirt

8 Firsts:

First nick: Madikkol (#3)
First kiss: My granny, may be?
First crush: The girl who would study in front of me in library, 'D', when I was 20.
First computer: Gateway AMD Athlon 512 MB RAM, 60 GB HDD, widescreen, 1.22 GHz beauty.
First vehicle I drove: Kinetic Honda - when I was 16.
First job: Post-doc fellow, if you can consider this as a 'job'
First movie I watched on Pulse Global's Print: What is it? (this is not a movie name.. I DONNO what is PGP).
First pet: No pet yet
First shave (men)/Hairstyle (women): When I was 19..

7 lasts:

Last chai (tea): Though I dont drink tea, I got a chance to drink 'Deja Brew' tea with honey, spices, etc.. mm.. not bad
Last movie: Bambara Kannaley
Last time I drove: This afternoon
Last time shaved (men) / Beauty parlor visit (women): Day-before-y'day
Last website visited: google
Last software installed: PP Live (to watch online TV channels free)
Last pill I had: Some cold tablet, may be 6-7 months ago

6 Have you evers:

Have you ever broken the law: If crossing red is, yes.
Have you ever been drunk: No drinks
Have you ever climbed a tree: Yes. One of my fav. things in childhood.. and fallen from ~20 feet too
Have you ever kissed someone you didnt know: NO
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: No.
Have you ever broken anyone's heart: Hope not.

5 Things:

Things you can hear right now: Wind flowing across trees, a magnetic pellet stirring.
Things on your computer table: Files, Mineral water, calculators, 1 CD, 1 goggle and 2 notebooks.
Things on your bed: Quilt, pillows.
Things you ate today: Apple, Orange juice, Krishna Lunch (Rice, Dal, Halwa, Beans and Lemonade).
Things in mind: To post this quickly, to go home, to check my polymer's condition.

4 places you have been today:

Gym
Department
Home

3 people you can tell anything to:

Geeta
Amma
Appa

2 choices

Black or white: White
Hot or cold: Hot

1 thing you want to do before you die:

Already discussed in my 7X7 tag post.

It took me over 50 min. to type out this blog. So, I will better not tag anyone.



hehehehehe... avlo easy-ya ellarum thappichura mudiyuma? So, with great pleasure, I tag Balaji, Ram, Deepak, Vis, Aparna, Kalai (venam, adhu danger), and especially Vatsan.

Nov 20, 2005

Blogger's Love: Part 2 - Appendix

So, they get married and everyone is happy.. A few months after the marriage:

He: Time ponathey theriyale illey.. nethudhan meet panni lunch sappitta madhiri irukkku
She: mm.. amam..
He: Naan unkitte romba naala onnu sollanum-nu irundhenn
She: Enna?
He: Unnoda blogger friend-ai kalyanam pannippennu nee eppovavadhu ninaichirukkiya?
She: mmm.. konjam kashtamana kelvidhan
He: Enn?
She: Oru thadavai oru 'anon' madaiyan appadi oru kelvi kettan.. unakku gnabagam irukka?
He thinks 'madaiyana'?
She: Enna, bathilaiye kaanom?
He: Uh? mm.. mm.. gnabagam irukku..
She: Aana enakku theriyum... andha 'anon' ennoda oru blog friend-a dhaan irukkanum..
(Rajdhani starts running in his stomach)
He: Sari.. oru velai adhu naana irundha?
She: Irundha enna?
He: Enakku unnmeley bayangarama love irundhu adhunaley naan namma marriage-ai fix panniyirundha??
She: Enna solre?
He explains her everything..
She: You are choooo sweet... enn meley ivlo love vachirundhu enpa munnadiye sollaley?

Nov 19, 2005

Blogger Love: Part 2


From her blog, he knew where she studied and when she graduated; he contacted a Private detective agency in Chennai, passed on her college info and her foto, and asked them to give him her parents' address. Within few days, he got it. He called up his brother in Chennai and somehow managed to get the contact number of the marriage broker. He talked to him, explained him the situation and asked him to help fix the alliance. He lured the broker to pay double the commission money..

The broker went to the girl's house in the pretext that someone had told him they have a daughter to be married. He gave them our friend's info and some other 'soplangi cases' too. He praised our friend, saying he is also working in US, good family, blah blah.. He got her 'jaathagam' and quickly got it matched. Porutham besh besh.. and that was conveyed to both the homes. Our friend was constantly calling the broker and he was very happy to hear that one major hurdle got cleared. The parents then met and decided that they will ask their children's opinion.

One morning, our friend woke up and gets this e-mail from his parents. He knew that she would have got it too. The parents had provided both with the phone number of the other person. And he calls her up one fine day: (He is X and she Y)

She: Hello...
He: Hi.. this is X.. Is it Y?
She: Yeah.. speaking
He: Hi.. uhm.. I got your foto and number
She: What?
He: umm.. hahn.. my parents had sent it; they said you should have received mine too..
She: Oh.. you are talking about that case?
He: *DUH* case-a?
She: I mean, some alliance.. yeah yeah I got it too..
He: I thought I will give you a call and talk to you about it..
She: Do you know Tamil?
He: Yeah, of course, sure.. why?
She: Tamil-leye pesalamey..
He: yeah sure.. mm.. pesalamey..
She: So, neenga 'XYZ' city-le work panreengala?
He: aamam.. neenga '... blah blah..
they talk about where they work, their education, life, future plan, etc.. and our friend is getting very nervous now..

They decide to meet someplace.. She asks him to come and meet for a lunch on Saturday, in a restaurant..
Each minute passes as if it is a month and, then came the saturday.. he dresses up his best and goes to the meet-point.

They share a warm hand-shake and start to talk again..
She: Enakku idhudhan first time indha madhiri meet panradhu
He: hehehe.. enakkumdhan..
She: Unnai idhukku munnale engeyo partha madhiri irukku..
He: hehehe.. ennoda muga vettu appadi..
She: ?!??!

He knows her food interests, and he orders exactly those items..
She: Wow.. these are my favorites too..
He: Really? Enna porutham ille... I mean, coincidence..
She: mm... unnoda hobbies enna?
He: books padippen, movies, cricket aduvenn..etc.. , appuram, blogging pannuvenn..
(Tells himself 'YEHH'.. solliyachu)
She: enna sonne, blogging-a?
He: amam..
She: Really??? Naanumdhan.. Un address enna?
He: abcd...blogspot.com
She: What?
He: Enn? enna achu?
She: Neeyaa 'athu'?
He: 'Athu'va? enn?
She: Hey, enna surprise.. naandhan 'jklm' Y..
He: (Shows lots of surprise) Reallllly??
She: Ennaley nambavey mudiyaley.. poyum poyum unnoda alliance-aiya enga veetlerndhu anuppichanga?
He: (aiyayyo enna idhu) enn Y? Appadi sollitte.. World romba chinnadhu, ille?
She: appadi edhuvum illey.. Hey, needhan ennoda foto-vai blog-le parthirukke ille? unakku koodava ennai adaiyalam theiryale?
He: hehehe.. . enakku kooda doubt vandhuchu.. but nee naerla romba azhaga irukke.. so sariya kandupidikka mudiyale..
She: Nijama?
He: Nijama enakku un profile foto gnabagam varaley..
She: adhu illey.. naan nijama naerla innum azhaga irukkena? (oru dhideer vetkam on her face..) :-)

Story 2 - Blogger Love: Part 1

First part of the story.. full story is ready.. it would be too long to publish at once. So split into two. Since this is my first fictional story, no great twists in it; in line with my previous post. The second part would follow a little later.. the fun part of splitting into two is to give you friends a chance to see how you would end it.

He was getting bugged up with proposals from his folks. He was not sure he would be satisfied with an arranged marriage. He had a few wishes on how his wife should be - modern, outgoing, broad-minded, sensible, with sense of humor, intelligent, caring, and charming. He wanted someone equal to him. He is a comp. engineer, working in the US of A. He is an active blogger.

He came across the blogsites of a lot of Indian girls - some of them from India, some from abroad, some married, some unmarried, some in love, some in single. He liked the blogs of a handful of girls and would visit often. They would reciprocate too. Within a few months, he had set up a 'family' of bloggers involving guys and girls, most of whom he has never met/talked to. He liked the blog of one girl in particular. She seemed to be 'THE ONE' he was looking forward to. From her posts, he could make out her intelligence, and other qualities mentioned in the first para. One day she displayed her foto and his liking became complete. And then there was a tag post (7 X7); he liked her answers.

They were good friends. He didnt want to propose to her and end up with the possibility of losing her forever. She was single and lived in a city a few hundred miles away from his place. He wanted to know the maximum about her, so on a weekend, he sat down, read all posts and comments, including the ones she wrote before they became buddies. He was convinced of her. Just wanted to know whether anyone has entered her life. He was worried about that because he didnt want to look like a fool falling in love with and proposing to someone who is already engaged. She had mentioned in a post that she would be watching a new tamil movie that saturday.

He drove to her plaec and was anxiously waiting for her near the movie hall. She came with two of her friends. She looked more beautiful in real than in the foto. He was bowled over by her. Their eyes met and she too seemed to look at him a big longer than usual. He stood behind them in the line and bought the tickets. She was full of life, with a smile always on her lips. She looked true to the image he created based on her posts and comments. He sat on the next row so that he can be near her. The movie ended. With mixed feelings, he came out, had one final look at her and sat in his car. He had made up his mind. A few days later, she posted a Q&A tag. He covered himself as an anon and asked her "what would be your reaction if one of the blogger friends proposes to you?". Her answer was she was not into love marriage, so she would politely say no.

Nov 18, 2005

Modifiable endings

Rediff has asked its readers to write on "Which film's ending they would change". I thought it would rightly serve as a sequel to my earlier post. When I wrote that, I was thinking 'why only on heroines.. why not heroes too?'. Rediff's question is in a broader sense, so here I go..

Even as a child, after watching a movie, I would think about it for a while. How much time I think would depend on whether it is a good movie or a bad one and how it affected me. Like in my post on the best titles, I realize that, Rajini's movies would not qualify for this list since their climax is always predictable and always ending on a happy note. When was the last time he died, '85-Raghavendra? (Balaji and others, can i expect some brickbats? :D )

IMHO, a movie's climax IS important, but not to such an extent that a tragic climax would leave a much greater impact on the audience. If the rest of the movie is crap, who cares about the climax? So, in addition to the previous post where certain deaths could have been avoided (by me.. :-) ) in movies, here are a few more:


* Moondram pirai - My modified climax would be: Kamal, after all his crying, rolling on the road crying, monkey-acting, etc., sits on a bench and thinks.. He realizes that she is going to Chennai, since he brought her from there (pl. correct me if I am wrong). He calls for a friend's car (hehehehe.. what for Silk Smitha was there?) or a taxi and goes to Chennai Egmore station and waits for her. She comes out, and goes with her mom to their home. Now, Kamal knows her address and he does all he can (bring evidences from Ooty, talking 'normally' to Sridevi and her parents, etc.) and makes her realize all that he had done.


* Uyire - mm.. she was a terrorist; involved in a huge conspiracy; ok.. but she didnt do anything, right? Poor Shahrukh was already molested by the Police. Could he not have changed her mind, thus avoiding an assassination? She could have even become an approver and brought all her aides into justice. Instead of terrorism triumphing over love, why not the other way around?


* Sethu - A good movie, already in somber mood thanks to Bala's morbid touch. My climax would be in the asylum: Sethu sees her walking out of the asylum after seeing him lying on the floor. With the mayhem around him and too much noise, she cant hear him calling her. Then, all of a sudden, the shouting of the people stops (c'd be the effect of some saamiyar coming, or a similar miracle by which he got cure). He calls her with all his love and she sees him. The saamiyar realizes that Sethu is cured and sends him with her.

* Kurudhi Punal: Another Kamal movie.. Irresistible. One of the unforgettable climaxes ever; but, if Kamal dies, all 'Dhanush' can do is to become the leader of the terrorist group and know about their activities. Whom would he report to? Would he make just anonymous calls to the police departments about the immediate future activities of the terrorists? My climax: Kamal shouts to Dhanush "shoot me, Boy.. shoot me". Dhanush says "Sir, I now know pretty much about the terrorist movements, and their functioning. I dont want to lose you and thus my only contact and true identity. Pick up the gun, let us shoot the guys here and I will join the police dept. to work under you. By killing the guys over here, it would be send a rude shock to the terrorist network and dilute the activities for quite a while here.. We can arrest the terrorist leaders who would be meeting next week in North India, since I know everything about the place and time. Let us train 2 or 3 new 'informers' and send as spies into the gang, similar to the way you sent us; now, having stayed in, I can train them better". Thus, they kill all the terrorists in that location and take away 2 or 3 bodies, so the terrorists would have no clue who the actual 'Dhanush' was.

Nov 17, 2005

Kannum Kannum

Another mid-week audio blog.

this is an audio post - click to play

Thitturadha irundhalum OK-nnalum thayangama nermaiya comment pannunga..

PS: Idhu ennoda 100th post. :-)

Nov 15, 2005

A shocking news from across the border

Just came across this news from Mid-day. It says Hindu girls from Sindh District of Pakistan are increasingly forced to convert to Islam and get married to Muslims.. Some bits from the article:
An alarming trend — that of Muslims kidnapping Pakistani Hindu girls and forcing them to convert to Islam — in Pakistan’s Sindh province is forcing the worried resident Hindu community to marry off their daughters as soon as they are of marriageable age or to migrate to India, Canada or other nations.
“Kidnapping Hindu girls like this has become a normal practice. The girls are then forced to sign stamp papers stating that they’ve become Muslims,” says Laljee Menghwar.
I was thinking that only the politicians, religious extremists and terrorists are messing up with India-Pak relationship and the minority in our countries. Public outrageousness is atrocious, to say the least.

Another news from UK's Telegraph - now an attack on churches.

As a result, christians held an open-air mass .

Cricket followers would have known about the ex-Christian Yousuf Youhana's conversion to Islam and his name-change to Mohammed Yousuf. Though he said that it was his wish to do so and denied any pressure on him, cricket writers of Pak did mention about the disadvantage of being a minority cricketer in Pakistan. For no reason, he was earlier stripped off his vice-captaincy. Now it seems he is back in contention for that job and also for the captaincy of Pak team after Inzamam.

I wonder what would happen to the other minority in the team, Danish Kaneria.

Nov 13, 2005

Waste management


(Pic adopoted from Global Development Research Center)

This post is a sequel to my previous post on safety in the laboratory. In India, the awareness on waste management can be described in one word - pathetic. Only in high-profile multi-national industries, there is a proper safety system in place. In a nation where anyone who provides employment is more than welcome, this is the trade-off we get. A few points in this sensitive issue:

* Bhopal gas leak - There are/were many more chemical industries in developed nations than in India... Any disaster of this magnitude elsewhere?

* Even in reputed research institutions like IISc, the waste-management was in an appalling state until a few years ago.. The reason? Proper waste disposal was expensive. As a result, bio wastes were dumped on roadside and toxic stinking chemicals would be just drained into the sink and into the soil of the campus. Now, the chemistry departments pay a sum to a waste-picker who takes care of everywaste, thanks mainly to the efforts of my research supervisor.

* In all metros, the junk near the slums has gone out of hand. Chennai's 'Koovam' river's (!??) smell (?!??) is notoriously infamous. Ganga river is spoilt half the way. This is all due to the negligence of a simple fact that, you cant just dump all the waste (domestic and industrial) into any moving water or a open space near where you live.

* In Tiruppur, the textile-center of South India, the underground water is so badly spoilt that people living in the region are affected by unique, hard-to-recover, expensive-to-cure diseases. That was mainly due to the dyeing industry. A few years ago, there was a huge hue and cry on the possible carcinogenic effect of hair dyes and even shampoos. While much of that was unfounded, the fact that the dyes are bad for health is a bitter truth.

* There was a deadlock between the industries, government and the public on this issue about Tiruppur chemical wastes. After a strict supreme court verdict, the industries' negligence was made aware to the public and there was a situation in which the industries might be closed if they dont put their waste refinement into place. It was politicized and the state government has agreed to help setup a water refinery which would purify all the waste water from industries. Certainly a welcome step, though late, but God knows when it would be implemented.

* One thing is for sure - we (industries, government, public, scientists and officials) are notoriously negligent of the danger of this important issue. We are directly and indirectly playing with the lives of our future generation.

Nov 11, 2005

Eevu irakkame illaiya?

I was watching Ghajini again a few days ago, after being so disappointed with Asin's miniscule roles in totally hero-oriented Majaa and Sivakasi. During the scene leading to her murder, I couldnt help but wish that somehow she is saved, despite having watched the movie already.. And, when it happened, "Cha.. enna director andha Murugadoss? Ippadiya oru lovely heroine-a kolluvaru?". So, next time I watch the movie, I would stop before the scene where Asin comes to the refugees' camp.. :-)

Then I thought of movies in which the director, without any mercy, would kill the heroine and make us wish that somehow it didnt happen.. here are a few of them..

* Mella thirandhadhu kadhavu - Amala was soo fresh and cute.. Though most of her scenes were behind 'purdah', one unforgettable scene was when she would meet Mohan when he is searching her home... And during the superb "thedum kann paarvai" song, which I have seen numerous times, I always wish she sees the warning board.


* Guna - Roshini was just awesome.. Beautiful and great performance too..

Just when she understands Kamal's love and after the terrific "Kanmani anbodu.." song, tragedy strikes..

* Varusham 16 - One of the best performances by Kushboo.. Kushboo was thin, so adorable and their romance was quite nice. The problem here was, unlike the other two movies I mentioned, the villain here was shown as quite a meek character and there was no strong threat to their love. So, when she is shot, I was stunned and all the good things that so far happened in the movie were forgotten..

* Kaakha Kaakha - Jo's best till date... She was sooo gorgeous and lovely.. The pair looked just realistic and like made-for-each other..

Why did it have to happen to her? Why couldnt she be saved? Enna police-pa?

In all the movies that I mentioned, the tragedy is preceded by some great songs.. Apart from the ones that I mentioned, in Varusham 16 it was "Gangaikkari mannanadi" and in KK "ondra iranda". (though there was one more song in between, 'ondra..' was the last time the hero and heroine met..).

Have a good long weekend, my friends!! Dont cry watching these movies.. Better stop the movie you know when. :-)

Word verification?


Ippadi ellam word verification-la vandha enna panradhu?

Nov 9, 2005

Foreign-returned

Came across this e-mail forward long ago. Had a good laugh at it first, then realized
"Hey, I am also supposedly in the 'wrong' side". Now, I am trying to defend all those NRI's, esp. from US..
The 'accusations' are in white and my response in yellow.

Top 21 things an Indian does after returning to India from "US".

21.Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.
Reminds of Madhavan from Anbe Sivam? Dabbunna cardu, maamu.. Yaaru kanda.. cash kodutha kevalama parthalum paappango.. India munnerittu irukupa..

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always speaks of health conscious.

mm... enga kashtam engalukku.. Kandadhai saptu valvu pudungiduchunna azhuvuradhu yaru?


19. Sprays deo such so that he doesn't need to take bath.
Idhai IRI's panradhillaiya?

18. Sneezes and says 'Excuse me'.
mm.. Even if I sneeze when I am alone I say so.. adhellam manners-pa... nee thummuna saamy unnai aaseervadhikkattum-nu solluvomla..

17. Says "Hey" instead of "Hi". Says "Yogurt" instead says "Curds". Says "Cab" instead of "Taxi". Says
"Candy" instead of "Chocolate". Says "Cookie" instead of "Biscuit". Says "Free Way" instead of "Highway".
Says "got to go" instead of "Have to go". Says "Oh" instead of "Zero", (for 704, says Seven Oh Four
Instead of Seven Zero Four)
Adhellam pazhakka dhosham.. Lift-ai koodathan Elevator-nu solluvom.. If you are in Rome, you have to be a Roman, no?

16. Doesn't forget to crib about air pollution. Keeps cribbing everytime he steps out.
Enna panradhu? Appadi keduthu vachirukkom namma... Kinathu thavalaiya irundha appadithan theriyum.. Konjam
pollution-ai control-le vaingappa..


15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo Meters), and counts in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)
Inge vandhappo naanga patta avadhi engalukkuthaaney theriyum..

14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as far as possible (but deep down the heart multiplies by 43).
heheheh... adhellam NRIconomics..

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a milk pocket.
Paal kudikkira ellarum Dhoni madhiri irukka mudiyuma.. konjam gavanikkama vutta appuram David Boon madhiri agavendiyadhudhan.. 0% fat kanna..

12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed), repeats "Zee" several times, if the other person unable to
get, then says X, Y Zee(but never says Zed)
Zee TV, Zee TV-nnu onnu irukkey.. adhu endha naatulengo?

11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching traditional DD/MM/YYYY, says "Oh! British Style!!!!"
Appadi panna too much.. I still write in my personal notes using 'British style'.

10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian Road Conditions.
Pinne.. IST=Indian Stretchable Time-nu ayiduchey.. Our railway minister says our trains are on time 99.8%.. do u agree? I think he is converting six sigma to stretchable sigma.. :-)
Roads? Idhai velinattule irundhu vandhu naanga fun pannanuma? Medavakkam high road-le travel panni ennoda backbone poye pochu...

9. Even after 2 months, complaints about "Jet Lag".
Appadi pannaa thookka maathirai koduthu padukka vainga... "Toooo much" category..

8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.
Again valvu problem... Namma kashtam nammalukku...

7. Tries to drink "Diet Coke", instead of Normal Coke.
Edhai kudicha enna, Coke-na coke-dhaaney.. Neenga ulloor goli soda-vukku badhila coke kudikkalam... naanga coke-ku badhila diet coke kudikka koodatha? Idhu enna gnayam?

6. Tries to complain about any thing in India as if he is experiencing it for the first time.
Heard of Mullah's "Camel in a tent" story? Nalla vishayathai sonna adhu thappa theriyudhu.. mm..

5. Pronounces "schedule" as "skejule", and "module" as "mojule".
Again, Rome-Roman thing.. namma accent-ai vachu inge Americans-ai paada paduthunadhu yarukku theriyum?

4. Looks speciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.
Coke, pepsi-leye insecticides, germs ellam irukku... Dhaba food-na kekkanuma? joot..

Few more important

3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the stickers of Airways by which he traveled back to India,
even after 4 months of arrival.
Adhu sari.. Chennai to Bangalore Jet airways travel pannaley adhai neenga kazhatta maattenga.. naanga edhukku velai menakettu stickers ellam kizhikkanum? Enna, vayitherichala? Adhoda, andha stickers-ellam romba strong-ana glue kannu.. kashtappattu cut pannanum.. yaarukku time irukku? enn, kannai uruthudha?

2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in India, tries to roll the bag on Indian Roads.
Pazhakka dhosham.. Luggage adura aattathule kaiyile thookktitu nadappanga.. vere vazhi?

Ultimate one

1. Tries to begin conversation with "In US ...." or "When I was in US..."

When I talk to anyone returning from India, the conversation starts with "In India.." or "When I was in India...".. We miss India, dudes..


Check out the blogs of the Indians living in US... Atleast one post would be on how much they miss India.. And those who are just about to leave to India, one can see how happy he/she gets on visiting our country.. And the enthu while coming back will be far less.. unless there is a family waiting here or something. Contrary to what Indians think, we miss India more than we would miss US if and when we are in India.

Nov 7, 2005

Love is in the air !!

Last weekend, we had our usual monthly pot-luck. The hosts organized an interesting game, which is similar to "Jodi porutham". It was fun.. there were 6 couples. First, the host couple conducted it for the 5 couples and then one couple conducted it again with fresh set of questions for the other 5 couples.

The questions that were asked were like favorite movie, best friend, fav. dish, pastime, the thing each of us hate to do, fav. actor/actress, pastime, fav. color, fav. place to visit, etc. Surprised that not many got most of them right (especially the second round, which had some tricky questions and where some couples were really off-resonance).

A few points to ponder (or take-home message):

* It is not necessary that those who are long-married know the best about each other. The couple who fared the worst, were in love for 6 years before getting married 7-8 years ago. When the host commented 'you have least love between you', our poor friend had to say 'I used to love her once upon a time !!!'.. Dont know what he exactly meant.

* One should not take the spouse for granted. Getting to know his/her small wishes is always important and it helps iron out so many minor problems that could arise.

* Identifying and knowing what the spouse likes/dislikes the most is not enough.. making sure that he/she gets what he/she likes and gets the least of what he/she dislikes will help.

* Many husbands don't do the house-hold jobs to help the wife.. and they think the wife enjoys doing that. (one said his wife's favorite place to visit is the veg. supermarket and her favorite pastime was cooking.. obviously both were terribly wrong.. His wife's expression when she heard this was "What?????").



PS: Happy Birthday to Kamalhaasan, my favorite filmstar!! (But among WORSHT in relevance to the current post).

Nov 3, 2005

Congrats, Team India !!

India has thrashed Srilanka in all the first four matches of the 7-match Videocon cup series and thus won the cup.. They played very well in all the matches and deserved to be the winners. Both the teams were in full strength and factors such as toss, weather and playing conditions played minimal role to the fortunes of both teams.


My Heartfelt Congrats to them and wish they win the series 7-0 !!
Some points to ponder:
* After 3 1/2 years, India has won a one-day series at home. The last one was vs Zim, early 2002; they lost to WI in 2002 and Pak early this year.
* Batting first or second doesnt make any difference to this team; 3 of 4 victories came while chasing.
* Pretty much everyone has contributed to the victories though stand-out batsmen were Dhoni, Dravid and Sachin while bowlers were Agarkar, Irfan and Harbhajan.
* The body language of Indian players is soo different and positive.. I am hopeful of brighter time ahead for this team.
* All the batsmen are shot-makers (with 80+ strike rate), which ensures that never run-rate drops alarmingly; this ensures constant pressure on the Lankan bowlers.
* Thanks to the four consecutive victories, India and Srilanka have equal share of victories in the Ind v SL matches for the past 10 years.
* If one looks closely in terms of domination of one team over the other in the last 11 years, this is how it is:
India - '94, '95, '98, '99, '02, '03;
Srilanka - '96, '97, 2000, '01, '04.
If we win atleast 2 of the remaining matches, then this year would go to us; if not, I would give it to Srilanka, since they defeated in a triangular series in July.

Nov 2, 2005

Happy Birthday, Shahrukh!!

Hope you all had a good Deepawali.. :-)



Today is Shah Rukh "King" Khan's Birthday!! (40th). Wish him many many happy returns of the day!!

He is undoubtedly Hindi cinema's biggest super-star after Amitabh. The first Shah Rukh movie that I saw was "Pardes" in '97, and I liked him in that movie. I have faint memories of having watched him in 'Circus', a TV serial of early 90's. My wife is his BIG fan of Shahrukh, so we have watched most of his movies.

He is good as an actor, dances extremely well, looks dashing, is full of energy and has been lucky to be associated with some big names early in his career.
Some of my favorite movies of his are
Baazigar (Energy)
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (For his dancing and spontaneous acting)
Yes Boss (Good sense of humor)
Pardes (Style, dance and romance)
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Youthful exuberance) and
Kal Ho Naa Ho (His comic timing and romance).
Wish you a very happy Birthday, Shahrukh!!

Nov 1, 2005

Happy Deepavali !!



Deepavali means
Biggest festival
Excitement (counting days)
Holidays
New dresses
Lotsa fireworks (shopping and bursting)
Gangasnanam
Great food
Special programs on TV
Blessings from elders.


Now, replace 'means' by 'meant'.. yeah.. that is how Deepavali was celebrated year-after-year until a few years ago by me.. I am sure most of you in India still enjoy all these.. *SIGH*.... Luckily no 'project meetings' atleast tomorrow.. So let me hope to have some fun..

Happy Diwali Wishes to all of you, my friends !!