Random Walk

Unfair Deaths in Mahabharata

2011-11-15T13:32:00.003+05:30

While watching Troy over the weekend, based on the Greek Epic 'Iliad', I was thinking about some commanalities between the story of Troy and Mahabharata. One aspect was regarding the unfair and conniving plots to cause the death of the enemy. Though it was clearly mentioned about the rules of war in Mahabhaarata, there were several unfair deaths in the Kurukshetra war. The rules were violated by both Pandavas and Kauravas, more so by Pandavas during the war, reflecting that there is nothing fair in the gory battlefields.

Bhishma:
The way Bhishma was killed is unfair due to the following reasons:
i) Yudhishtra asked Bhishma himself how he could be killed. When Bhishma reveals that he wouldn’t attack Sikhandi, a hermaphrodite, Yudhishthira conveys the message to Arjuna and Sikhandi begins to injure Bhishma.
ii) He was attacked by Sikhandi, Arjuna, Yudhishthira, Abhimanyu, Virata, Drupada, Nakula, Sahadeva and several others simultaneously.
iii) Arjuna attacked him from the back of Sikhandi, using him as a cover.
Violation:
One warrior should not be attacked by many at once.

Abhimanyu:
Abhimanyu breaks the ‘chakra vyooga’ of the Kauravas and enters its core, where he meets all the bigwigs of Kaurava army – Jayadratha, Drona, Duryodhana, Kripacharya, and Asvatthama. Unfazed, he attacks them one by one and is attacked by all at once. Still he could not be brought under control, which irritates the Kaurava warriors. They deprive him of all his war weapons and his chariot and ultimately the son of Duhsasana hits Abhimanyu’s head with a club, resulting in his fall.

Violations:
i) Considered by most as the most cruel violation of the epic code of fighting, a chariot-warrior should not attack one standing on ground.
ii) One should not be attacked by many at once.

Bhurisrava:
When Bhurisrava attacks and drags a completely exhausted Satyaki, Arjuna intervenes and cuts one arm of Bhurisrava. Later, Satyaki decapitates the one-handed Bhurisrava, who had decided to fast unto death and had devoted himself to yoga.

Violations:
i) One should not attack a warrior engaged with someone else.
ii) One should not attack someone who is hurt, non-combatant or not intended to fight. Bhurisrava was all three of them when Satyaki cut his head.

Jayadratha:
To avenge the death of Abhimanyu, Arjuna vows to kill Jayadratha by the next day, failing which he would enter into fire. The kaurava army shields Jayadratha very well, and when the sun is just about to set, Krishna creates darkness by shrouding the sun. When the Kaurava army, Jayadratha included, eagerly await Arjuna’s suicide, Arjuna suddenly chops off the head of Jayadratha. Krishna then removes the darkness and makes it appear as if Jayadratha was killed during the daytime.

Violation:
i) A warrior should not use ‘Maya’ (trickery) against his enemy.
ii) A warrior should not attack a spectator. Though Jayadratha was a Kshatriya, he was merely a spectator to a non-war incident when he was killed.

Drona:
Like in the case of Bhishma, Yudhishtra asks Drona how he could be killed, to which the latter answers that, only if he gives up his arms after hearing some shocking news. Krishna asks Bhima to kill an elephant named after ‘Ashwathama’ and rejoices that ‘Ashwathama’ is killed. When Drona asks Yudhishtra for the validity of the news, the latter says that ‘Ashwathama has been killed’ and dubiously ‘the elephant of this name has been slaughtered’. Believing Yudhishtra, Drona gets shocked, drops his weapons and devotes himself to yoga. Dhristadyumna attacks Drona and cuts his head off.

Violation:
A warrior should not attack someone who is distracted, non-combatant or not intended to fight.
Duhshasana:
Bhima had taken the vow of drinking the blood of Duhsasana. During the fight between them, Bhima attacks him with a club and Duhsasana falls on the ground. Bhima then abuses and kills him. He chops of an arm, tears open his chest and drinks the blood.

Violation:
A warrior should not attack the fallen/exhausted/hurt foe.

Karna:
Being severely injured by Arjuna, Karna fell unconscious. Arjuna, upon insistence of Krishna, continues to attack Karna. When Karna is engaged in lifting up the sinking wheel of his chariot, Arjuna constantly attacks him and ultimately chops his head off.

Violation:
i) Similar to the case of Abhimanyu, a chariot-warrior should not attack one standing on ground.
ii) A warrior should not attack the fallen/exhausted/hurt/emaciated foe.

Duryodhana:
On the 18th day of the war, Duryodhana finds himself all alone against a vast Pandava army. He flees away from the battlefield and hides in Dvaipayana lake. Pandavas find his location and challenge Duryodhana for a fight. Duryodhana and Bhima start club-fighting, in which Duryodhana appears to be getting the better of Bhima. Seeing this, Krishna tells Arjuna to signal his thighs to Bhima. Bhima hits Duryodhana under his belt, fractures his thigh, and fells the latter, before killing him.

Violation:
According to the rules of club-fighting, hitting below one’s belt is considered to be strictly illegal.

Drushtadyumna and the sons of Draupadi:
Annoyed by the way Bhima unjustly killed Duryodhana, Ashvatthama is highly angry and wants to take revenge. He, accompanied by Kritavarma and Kripacharya, enters the Pandavas’ camp at night and slaughters the thousands of sleeping occupants of the camp, including Drushtadyumna and the sons of Draupadi.

Violation:
Arguably the most heinous violation of all, which prohibits killing a sleeping enemy, that too at night.

What is baffling is that, in most of the violations performed by Pandavas, the ideas originated from Krishna, who is considered to be the reincarnation of Vishnu. Probably that was his best way of telling that the means justified the end.

Recent fav ads

2011-09-26T02:06:00.000+05:30

Indian TV ads are getting one or more of: quite naughty, innovative, bold, youth-centric, and cute. These are the recent ads that would fall in such categories:
Her expressions and reactions are funny. The bg song is good too.

Got glued to it, from the first time I saw it. Nice catchy music.

A very romantic ad. Ideal-looking couple.

Another ad that targets rich and young. Very symbolic for the present generation.

As Jessie says to Anu in VTV its for "Always on facebook" ppl. Nice, simple and innovative stage concept.

India just Gantt do it !

2011-09-16T15:47:00.001+05:30

Today, the nightmarish England tour is coming to an end for this humiliated Indian team. Not a single international win yet in over 2 months of the tour! Several postmortems have already been carried out, both in the mainstream media and on the internet. IPL has been blamed as the main reason by most people. Here, let me share my thoughts of the last ~ 5 months:

* First of all, starting a cricket extravaganza within a week of a long World Cup is utter crap. Probably the organizers of IPL didn't expect India to go all the way into the finals, and win it too. While plannnig, it was imperative to give atleast 2 weeks time for both the fans and the players to recuperate.

* The IPL was one week too long. With 10 teams playing, it would have been very easy to squeeze in 2 games in nearly all the days, except Mondays. The ad revenues would have suffered due to less eyeballs, but that is no excuse.

* The current injury-list of Indian team mostly has players who were either over-worked or under-prepared. Both required good body-management skills. I believe that India certainly has 20 players who can play in any of the 3 formats. The key is to identify those 20 and nurture them well throughout the year. They have to be given a strict training schedule, so that we dont see bloated cricketers on match day. I think Indian team management badly failed to do that.

* BCCI's calendar-management is utterly crazy, to put it mildly. Just a cursory look at all the teams' calendar for the next 9 years will tell you that Indian team's schedule is the tightest. You would hardly see empty spaces in them, and even if they are, they are in Indian summer, meaning the highly gruelling IPL is gonna fill all those spaces.

* I have made my own FTP for Indian team for the duration 2011-2015 and put it along with the current FTP from ICC's website. Mine covers India's series with every team, both home and away (except a tour to Pak, which I have no idea when will happen). Look at it in the form of Gantt chart below. The top ones are ICC's FTP and the bottom ones are mine.

* A glance at the top and bottom would reveal more white spaces at the bottom than the top. In addition, other striking differences are: (1) Mine has space even for Bangladesh's maider tour to India; (2) I have a slot for the quadrennial Asia cup; (3) No two events are spaced less than a week apart (there are, on average, 4 such events per year in the present calendar of ICC's ftp).

* Yearwise comparisons are:
Year                                       ICC's FTP                                                      My FTP
                          # free weeks                # engagements               # free weeks              # engagements
2011                             4                                  9                                  18                                  7
2012                             7                                  8                                  11                                  7
2013                            10                                 9                                  16                                  7
2014                             4                                  9                                  12                                  8
2015                             6                                  8                                  12                                  7

* Our cricketers need atleast 10 weeks of cricket-free week to have life of their own, and also to take care of themselves, to be physically strong and mentally fresh to play for India. If only BCCI allows them that huge luxury instead of killing the golden geese..

New faces

2011-09-01T10:20:00.001+05:30

I've been reasonably active in fb only for the past year or so. As usual, I have added quite a few people who were my acquintances in the past 15+ years. I had formed a certain views about their personality, based on the limited time I had interacted with them. But, some of their fb activities have been quite a revelation to me. It is like, they are quite different people with interests that I had never associated with them before. It reminded me that, just like time, fb is also a learning facilitator. Never judge a cover by the book, never make opinions abt a person without digging deep :)
On that note, some interesting research articles: Here and here.

Name check

2011-08-10T13:45:00.005+05:30

Just a quick and random search in facebook revealed the presence of dozens of people with these names:

Duryodhan
Dushasan
Brutus
Ravanan
Shaguni & Shakuni (Most are women !!)
Judas Iscariot
Kumbakarna
Mogambo

Just saying ! :-)

Pristine !!

2011-08-07T21:47:00.004+05:30

A beautiful person doesn't need any jewels.

A beautiful voice doesn't need any music.
A beautiful art doesn't need any explanation.

Overrated post

2011-08-05T08:59:00.003+05:30

I heard from one of my senior colleagues "Hair is overrated". Most of u can guess the obvious reason why he said that. I have heard/read a few others:
"Facebook is overrated", "iPhone is overrated"I guess one can prepare to hear similar ones like
"Height is overrated"
"Leanness is overrated"
"Figure is overrated"
"Talent is overrated"
"Hard work is overrated"
"Cricket is overrated"
"Love is overrated"

Any overrated remark you have heard?

Tea break

2011-08-01T13:55:00.005+05:30

During my PhD and postdoc days, tea breaks meant taking a fresh air (literally) out of the chemicals-filled labs to go to tea kiosks which were 5-10 mins away. I wasnt a tea or coffee drinker, so I just used to go for a company (and tea(m) spirit). Some profs wernt big fans of that idea, as tea kiosk became secondary residentials for some students. It was also a hot gossip-mongering spot. While some thought it to be detrimental to the group dynamics, some exactly wanted that, i.e., groupism, and some others thought it would help in better group harmony by allowing people space and time to vent out their -ve feelings about other group members to their friends and get a relief.

In my company, tea and coffee are served right at the workstations, obviously because the company doesnt want man-hours to be lost in the whole process. Their funda: u want tea, u will get tea. In fact, I (and my PhD supervisor) suggested this idea in IISc itself. Some opine that the whole purpose of tea is to take a break from the workstations and so, by bringing the tea to the desk, the use of the tea is gone.

Now, I wonder what made Ian Bell get himself run out y'day. Was it his quest for tea, or the break?

Unique days

2011-07-31T12:35:00.003+05:30

Recently I read that July 22 (22/7) and March 14 (3.14, American-style of writing a day) are 'pi-lovers' day. Interesting! As a sequel to my recent post on days and mathematical rarities,and the old one on numbing numbers, some other unique days:
October 1 & January 10: (01.10 & 10.01) Shortest palindrome.
December 21: (21.12 or 12.21). Only non-zero palindrome
July 24: 24/7. Workaholics' day
01:12:35 AM on 8/13/21 (Aug 13, 2021, again American-style) For Fibonacci fans.
01/12: (Either Dec 1 or Jan 12), an off-shoot of the date above.
Aug 24: Can also be written as Au 24 (not A 24, as April also starts with 'A'). Day for 'ultra-pure' (like unadulterated gold) people. [Au is the symbol for Gold]

If you find any other day uniquely interesting (not like september 2011, the whole month being 9/11), pl do comment.

Meet Flexy Stu

2011-07-29T14:19:00.004+05:30

whose name deserved to be floating on the water (I call it "தண்ணீரில் ஓர் கவிதை" - thaNNeeril Or kavithai). Flexy Stu is the choreographer of VTV's songs. The salient part of his dance movements was that, it was stylish and simple (or looked simple, thanks to the dancers) while appearing new for Tamil cinema. Especially for Hosanna and Omana Penney, it was simply brilliant! Hats off to you, Stu !! Wish to see more of your contribution in Tamil movies.

Rare months? NOT!

2011-07-15T10:42:00.003+05:30

(Pic Courtesy: walyou.com)
From being amusing and funny, it has gone down to downright irritating to read and receive via e-mail and SMS, news that a particular month is rarely unique. An example is this month itself - July 2011 having an once-in-823-years-occurrence of 5 each Fri, Sat & Sundays. How more absurd can it get? A little application of school maths would have prevented the gossip mongers from making a fool of themselves.

There are 7 months in a year that have 31 days. After subtracting 4x7=28 days, u get 3 days which get repeated for the 5th time. Now, for any combination of Fri, Sat & Sun or Sat, Sun & Mon, the first day in the sequence also has to be the first day of the month. The probability that any of the 7 days of the week is the first day of any month is 1/7. Usually, one particular date on the next year falls on the next day. That is bcos, every 'normal' year has 365 days, which is 52 weeks PLUS one day. Some of you would have noticed that if your birthday was on Sat this year, it would be on Sun the next year, if there is no 'Feb 29' in between. In that case, it is 52 weeks + 2 days.

So, for any particular month, one can say that, usually once in 7 years, most of the Sun-Sat w'd be the first days of the month. But not all days, because of the leap year problem. Whenever that month appears for the first time after any Feb 29, the days get pushed by 2. In any case, here are the facts: Of the 7 months having 31 days, only 2 will have the same day pattern from 1st to 31st: Jan & Oct in a normal year, and Jan & July in a leap year. It means that there are 6 different patterns out of the possible 7. It also implies that, the occurrences of 3 Fri, Sat & Sun or Sat, Sun & Mon are very common. Also, leap year or not, every one of these 7 months w'd have gone through a particular Sun-Sat pattern atleast once in a decade.

On the other hand, 11th of Nov this year will be a unique occurrence, which happens once in 100 years. 11-11-11 wont be possible until 2111.

Gujarat running at full capacity

2011-06-30T13:33:00.005+05:30

The stepney creates 2 extra seats!! Some things about India are the same wherever you live.

The Crocin Headache

2011-06-29T13:14:00.007+05:30

Crocin is a very common medicine that would surely find a place in the medicine box and travel kits of most Indian middle+ class families. It is available in almost all medical shops and in many stationary stores even, without any physician's prescription. I had studied in my UG that it is the brand name for paracetomol, which is a common name for N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanamide, or N-acetyl-4-aminophenol. The latter name is the reason why it is sold over-the-counter in US pharmacies under the name 'Tylenol'. I was under the impression that 'crocin' signifies nothing other than the above chemical.

Until today. I learnt that there is actually a chemical called 'crocin' and it is what gives the orange color to 'saffron' (குங்குமப்பூ or kungumappoo). Its wiki entry is here. It is a 'carotenoid', meaning it is structurally similar to the chemical that gives orange color to carrot, viz., beta-carotene. It also has some medicinal properties, which are very different to those of the paracetemol drug. The chemical structure of the two drugs are (left-paracetemol; right-crocin):

Usually there is a sense to the way drugs are named. But, IMHO, it is a blatant mistake to sell one chemical with the same name of another known chemical. Those who consume saffron regularly, try telling ur mom or someone who cares for you that you are nowadays taking crocin twice a week, without making them to freak out.

Taylor-made for a CEO

2011-06-21T15:16:00.001+05:30

(Pic adapted from Cricinfo)

From the pose, the office with lappy attached to an external LED screen (and a cam), Ross looks more like the CEO of a company than the captain of a cricket team !! Strange is the way New Zealand cricket works.

Book reading 301

2011-06-20T11:24:00.002+05:30

(Pic adapted from Cartoon Stock)

I feel that a great fiction must keep the reader so engrossed that one should get no clue about the ending of the book - both 'how' and 'when' it ends. As you are holding the book and reading it, you know that you are approaching the end, because on the right side of the book, the pages are going to exhaust. Imagine, on the other hand, the publisher keeps some unspecified number of dummy pages. Either you know about it, or you don't. That can work in 2 ways as one can see. Unless you are too curious like some people that you WANT to know how many pages are left, you will be kept in suspense as to where you are in the fiction - towards the end, or somewhere in the mdidle. I think that is the right way how a work of fiction should be.

The same thing can be applied for a movie too. It can be a 1 1/2 hr movie like most Hollywood products, or the 3 hour epics like the LOTR trilogy. Either way, not knowing the actual duration of the movie and not peeking into the watch, one can truly enjoy this other form of fiction, though the screenplay usually revs up quite a bit as moves towards climax.

Now, as I am talking abt movies in the context of books, let me also talk on the suspense in movies adapted from books. When Suhasini remarked in her movie review that it was so easy to guess who the culprit was in 'Angels & Demons', I was like 'Come on, you can't, unless you have read the book'. But, when I think about it, if you are reasonably good at movies, you can! When you see someone like Ewan McGregor in a role, you immediately sense that his role is damn important. And with Tom Hanks as the protagonist, it extrapolates itself to Ewan as the antagonist. Such a revelation could be averted by either making the entire cast from famous stars, or by giving that role to someone unknown. He could be a new, talented Hollywood actor (hard, as he c'd have made it big in some other media), or an established actor from European countries.

Such a revelation of importance can be camouflaged in books, as it provides the liberty of hiding the face and character while introducing the character. Still, usually the authors would give an elaborate physical description of that character, but as (and if) they do so to several other characters too, the importance of the suspense character isnt explicitly revealed.

Now, back to the length of the books in the e-format. There are a few ways to keep the reader from guessing where one is at the story: One, split the story into several chapters, and no info is given on the # of chapters. So, when you see the scroll bar, it is just for that chapter; Second, no scroll bar at all while reading it on the screen; third, like in print versions, have a number of dummy pages. No issues to the additional costs of dummy pages incurred in the printed version here.

நினைவுகள்

2011-06-16T09:18:00.003+05:30

முன்பு
நினைவுகளை அசைபோட
கண்ணை மூடி பின்னோக்கிப் பயணம்
மேகம் போல மனத்திரையில்
நின்று ருசிக்க முடியாமல்
தெளிவாய் ரசிக்க முடியாமல்
வெண்புகை போலே மறையும்

இன்று
நினைவுகளை அசைபோட
கண்ணாடித் திரையில் பின்னோக்கிப் பயணம்
இணையத்தின் மேகங்கள் கண்ணெதிரில்
நின்று ஆற அமர ருசிக்க வைத்து
மறந்தவையும் மூலையில் தட்டி எழுப்பி
ஏக்கத்தை உண்டாக்கி மறைகிறதே

நானா இதெல்லாம் செய்தேன்
நீயா இதெல்லாம் சொன்னாய்
எங்கு சேர்த்தது காலம் நம்மை
அந்த நாட்கள் மீண்டும் வாராதா
நாம் கண்ட கனா இன்றே நனவாகாதா

Munbu
ninaivugalai asaipOda
kaNNAI moodi pinnOkkip payaNam
megam pOla manaththiraiyil
ninRu rusikka mudiyaamal
thelivai rasikka mudiyaamal
veNpugai poley maraiyum

Indru

Ninaivugalai asaipOda
kaNNAdith thiraiyil pinnOkkip payaNam
iNaiyaththin megangal kaNNethiril
ninRu aara amara rusikka vaithu
maranthavaiyum moolaiyil thatti yezhuppi
Ekkathai uNdaakki maRakiRathE

NAna ithellaam seithEn
neeya ithellaam sonnAi
engu sErththadhu kaalam nammai
andha naatkaL meendum vArAthA
nAm kaNda kanA inRE nanavAkAthA

Incompetently Rude & Callously Terrible Corporation

2011-06-15T10:11:00.003+05:30

Yes, that is IRCTC for u. Over the past few months I have been trying to book a lot of train tickets online. It mostly involves travel between Mumbai n Gujarat. Most often than not, it is impossible to tickets for the journey from Mumbai. Sometimes, the other route too. The waitlisted numbers go into hundreds. So I gotta rely on ‘tatkal’ to book tickets. That is one experience worth writing a book on. Ya, this post is full of complaints but I gotta do it, when we talk about the ‘largest service sector in the World operating in the World’s IT-hub’.
First, one has to login a few minutes before 8 am and just keep wandering around the website until 8. Why? For logging into the site even at 7.59, one must be damn lucky bcos it takes forever. If u r trying for a busy train or during vacation time, everything w'd be pretty much over by the time u login. Why keep wandering there after logging in well before 8? Bcos if u r idle for like 2 mins, the rude system w'd throw u out with a lovely message 'Session expire'. Duh!
Just like any pc/video game, there are several levels u can get stuck into. The most notorious of all is when u click on a particular class of travel. To kill boredom, u r recommended counting how many dozens of times the waiting cycle rotates before it shows u the availability. If u think u can browse any other website in the meanwhile, beware of the bandwidth share it w'd take, thus further increasing ur chance of getting another cooling message 'Service Unavailable'. Ya rite.. Service !!
U r also advised to open a couple more of different browsers and access the IRCTC site at the same time. I know I talked any bandwidth stealing n all just a while ago but more browser windows is a must back-up plan when one or more of the sessions fail. The different levels of online booking r like the diff dream levels talked in 'Inception'. Deeper u go, more w'd be the danger u have to beware of. If not u will be forever trapped in the limbo n it will be impossible to come out unscathed.
So often it happens that u w'd be so near yet so far. Also keep multiple payment options like netbanking, credit card n debit card available bcos there is no guarantee that an option available on a given day will be available any other day. The most frustrating is when u go from ‘10 available seats’ to ‘WL 10’ by the time u enter the passenger details.
Also, the site doesn’t allow any right clicking to copy any long number/name. Some cynic must have designed/authorized a very autocratic website saying ‘why s’d someone right-click? Let them type down everything!”.
Also, some train timings r so odd that it's not uncommon to se some unassuming passengers get stranded. I witnessed once when I was travelling from Mumbai to Gujarat on Vadodara exp. It leaves Mumbai CST at 11.40 pm and reaches borivali, a suburb of Mumbai in the north at 12.04 am, picks up passengers from north Mumbai n leaves at 12.07 am. So when I got into Vadodara exp from borivali, someone was already getting ready to sleep in my berth, which is not an unusual sight. When I told him that its my berth, he said it is his. Initially I thot I had goofed up the booking somehow. So much for my self-confidence! When I checked the date n time, it was indeed a correct ticket. I asked him to show his and his ticket showed the previous day as sate of boarding. Indeed the previous day had ended just 10 mins ago and that is the day he wanted to leave Mumbai. But he or his agent chose a wrong time at the cusp of the day. If the railways had advanced the departure by just 8 mins, it w'd have left Borivali too on the same day and such a confusion like above c'd have been averted.
An exhausting experience each time u plan ur travel via IRCTC. Any talk of India and shining is truly valid only when we get to book tickets in Indian railways within a reasonable time w'out seeing the WLxx, atleast for 3rd a/c and above.

Time correction

2011-06-14T10:12:00.005+05:30

When India won the World Cup recently, one number we often saw was '28'. Yes, different forms of it, like "28 years of wait", "After 28 years", "28 years of pain, hope and disappointment", etc etc. Subtract 1983-the last time India won the cup from 2011-this year and you get that number 28. Now suppose India had the won the last World Cup held in 2007 (ok, I said 'suppose', so dont laugh). Would we have still done a similar subtraction (2011-2007) and said 'After 4 years of wait, we won'? When (and if) India wins against West Indies in the tests next month, we wont say "we won after 5 long years in WI" because the last time we toured WI in 2006, we won!

The same thing holds for several others too. When England won the Ashes in 2005, it was 'For the first time in 18 years Eng won'. I understand where such calculations come from. When the time gap between two events is very long, one simply takes the time difference between the two events. But, in case of sports wins, for example, ideally it must start from the year of the 'first failure after the last win'. In that way, India won the world cup after '24 years of wait', as India failed to retain the cup in 1987. 24 vs 28 years might not be a big difference, but I find this as an example where one has to look beyond what one is repeatedly told, to get the real truth.

Focus on New Words

2011-06-12T13:43:00.007+05:30

This being a post on lyrics, my hearty congrats to Vairamuthu for winning his nth National award for Thenmerku ParuvakAtru!

Though it has been 4 years since I wrote this post comparing Tamil & Hindi lyricists, whenever I hear a recent hit Hindi song, I try to understand its meaning and find that, more often than not, it has some good lyrics, but new/hard words are quite uncommon. For someone like me who is still on the learning curve of Hindi, I can still make out the meaning of most of the words. For example, the beautiful song "Pee Loon" of last year has some lines

"Sham Ko Milu Jo Main Tujhe,
To Bura Subha Na Jane
Kiyun Kuch Maan Jalati hai Yeh,
Har Lamha Har Ghari Har Pahir,
Bhi Teri Yadon Se Tadpa Ke.
Mujhko Jalati Hai Yeh"

Some lovely lines they are, but quite understandable even for a layman. Nothing wrong in it. Just a comment, not a judgment.

Sometime ago, I was listening to 'Ennamo edho' from "Ko". I must say, it was an 'active listening' without any parallel processing going on. So, I heard these lines carefully for the first time:
"EdhO kuviyamillA kuviyamillA oru kAtchi pezhai"
"ஏதோ குவியமில்லா குவியமில்லா ஒரு காட்சிப்பேழை"

Kuviyam!! Wow. How many decades since I heard that word!! In optics, studying about lenses. For non-tamilians, Kuviyam=focus, pezhai=display/portrait and the above line roughly translates into
"Some focusless view of display".

Lyrics by Jr. Vairamuthu, who writes as if the late Sujatha has ventured into penning the songs.
Considering the profession of the protagonist (photographer), the lines nicely fit to him. Rather than being quite generic for any longing hero in the lyrics, such personal touches would make the songs special.

Update: I am too late blogging about these lines! In addition to a few blog entries, you can also hear it from the horse's mouth. Watch/read Karky's interview here, in which he says "A photographer’s confusion can best be described in his own work jargon as ‘kuviyamila’ or ‘out of focus’. Kaatchi Pezhai describes a display unit such as a TV monitor or a PC monitor. The photographer sees his entire world in the display unit in which nothing seems to be in focus and he questions the reason for this in the song."

Chop the food

2011-06-05T20:56:00.006+05:30

The most common western food at the mercy of desi merchants..

At Marina Beach, Chennai. Shot early August, 2010.

Coz of standing on the beach's sand? Is he angry on Meena? Or is he trying to give us a clue on how his product would be?

At a restaurant in Gujarat, shot a couple of months ago.

Women in Mahabharata

2011-06-02T11:55:00.004+05:30

(Photo courtesy: R-10.80 @ flickr)

A few years ago, I did a small research on the role and portrayal of women in Mahabharata. Now, looking back at this one, I realized that there are glimpses of some of these women in our modern society too. I am sure you too would have come across some of the attributes in your life. Anyway, here it comes..

Like Ramayana, Mahabhaarata too is dominated by male characters. The women provide only supporting roles, and from the various verses, it is possible to know how the women were treated.

Freedom of the women: It appears that women were allowed to be independent, and more so in the ancient times before Mahabhaarata. In a statement to Kunti, Pandu says “there were no restrictions on women in ancient times. They were independent. Their discarding their husbands was not considered irreligious. This practice, favorable to women is the eternal DHARMA, which is still respected by the sages”. Also, Soorya says to Kunti that all females are free, which is the natural course of the world.

Maidens: The issues regarding women’s freedom, pre-marital sex and the concept of virginity are discussed while dealing with maidens in Mahabhaarata. Perhaps the most important maiden in Mahabhaarata is Kunti. She pays a heavy price for testing the mantra invoking the sun (Soorya) and eventually bears his child. Soorya threatens Kunti that he would curse her, her father and the Brahmin who gave her the mantra if she doesn’t gratify him. From her reply, it is clear that she considers maidenhood an important virtue. Soorya’s response to Kunti that a virgin is, by nature, free in the world and that it is natural that all the men and women should be bound by no restraints, suggests that maidens were allowed to be sexually free in the male-dominated society. Similarly Satyavati had to oblige to Parashara’s desires for the fear of suffering from the rishi’s curse. Both Satyavati and Kunti are deemed virgins by Parashara and Soorya respectively after the affair.

When Arjuna wins the contest in the Swayamvara, Draupadi placed the garland around his neck, hoping to become just his wife. Vyasa doesn’t record her reaction when she learns that she would be the wife of all five brothers. Her decision hardly mattered, since it was her father, brother, Kunti and the Pandavas who decided how she would live her married life. Here again, the concept of Swayamvara was based on a man’s skill in succeeding a challenge, rather than the maiden’s choice.

Wives: The law says that a woman should be with one man throughout her life and her connection with another man is unlawful. According to a story narrated by Pandu to Kunti, a wife getting to sleep with another man who loathes her, albeit her discontent, was a sanctioned practice, which was changed only later, by a Brahmin. Thus, it is clear that the men created, broke, twisted and recreated the rules regarding the sanctity of a wife.

There are a few cases of wives acting according to their will as well. Ganga leaves her husband when he questions her and thus breaking his promise. Satyavati gets what she wants from the king, her husband, though through her father; after his death, she feels responsible for the future of the kingdom. On the other hand, Ambika and Ambalika let others decide as to whom they marry and how they become mothers.

Gandhari, the wife of Dhrtarashtra, was known for her loyalty to her husband. She decides to deprive herself of eyesight to experience the handicap of her husband. She participates in the decisions relating to the kingdom. He never lives away from her husband.

Kunti, at Pandu’s suggestion to be impregnated by a Brahmin for progeny, refuses it steadfast, calling it an ‘unrighteous act’, which she does eventually though. Even at that moment, she doesn’t tell him of her earlier affair with Soorya. Though she remarks that death is a blessing to women without husbands, she chooses to live for several years after Pandu’s death. Madri, the other wife of Pandu, feels responsible for his death and decides to end her life.

Arguably, the most important character of wife in Mahabhaarata is Draupadi. She marries the five Pandavas, which is considered ‘immoral’ practice according to her own father. Probably her choice was never going to be considered; so she decides to obey the words of Arjuna who is her first husband. It is further exemplified by the act of Yudhishthira who places her as a wager during the game of dice. We see the wife being considered as just another property by the Pandavas in the process, a valuable one though, considering that she is the ultimate bet placed by them. When she is stripped by Duchathana, the Pandavas merely act as spectators, bound to the law that the loser has no say on the treatment on a lost bet, but forgetting the vow they made during the wedding that the wife should be protected at any cost. She is abducted by Jayadratha during their exile but (fortunately) is accepted by husbands without any test to prove her chastity.

Mothers: Some fortunate mothers left an ever-lasting impression on their children. Some of the children were called as ‘Son of their mother’, e.g., Bhishma as ‘Gangaputra’, Krishna as ‘Devaki putra’, Karna as ‘Radheya’ (after his adopted mother Radha) and Arjuna as ‘Partha’ (after his mother Kunti’s another name Prithaa). Ganga is shown to be kind to Bhishma and is credited for raising Bhishma to be the best character. Similarly, Kunti raises her sons who honor every word; they commit even what is considered immoral just to obey her unintentional command. She abandons Karna due to the fear of being branded immoral; and she shows her selfishness in requesting Karna to spare her other sons’ lives.

Gandhari is portrayed as a jealous mother. Upon learning about Yudhishtra’s birth, she becomes impatient and breaks the lump of flesh she has given birth to. She tries to be impartial towards the Pandavas but always envies their achievements. She loves her son to the extent of tolerating and sometimes supporting his meanness.

Widows: Satyavati gains power in her widowhood. Kunti is respected all the more by her children. Kandhari and Madri end their lives after the death of their husbands, Pandu and Dhritarashtra respectively.

Revisiting an old post on 'olding' people

2011-05-30T17:15:00.002+05:30

Last week was Karan Johar's birthday. So what? A few media noises could be heard about him still being single. Made me revisit a post I wrote over 4 years, or, 50 months ago. Among the 5 that I listed, only ONE got married, that too in just last year. Among the other 4, you can find that most of their contemporaries are getting married one by one, but no sign of any news for these free four.

Rahul Gandhi: On a single-minded mission to revive Congress in UP, he seems to have forgotten everything else.

Karan Johar: ahem, so the rumors are true, after all?

Yuvi: No 'special person' yet to tie the knot?

Simbhu: His market in both cine industry and in matrimonial cycles would have gone up after VTV. Any Jessie waiting for the wedding of Sim's sis Ilakkiya first?

Rahul Sharma

2011-05-19T12:08:00.008+05:30

When I first had a look at Rahul Sharma, due to some reason, I didnt like him. I wished he fails, so that Pune Warriors don't select him for subsequent matches, so that I don't have to see him again. But he kept taking wickets (3rd highest in this IPL) at a great economy rate (best in this season). Then, I started to analyze what I dont like in him. It was partly his lower-lip beard, and partly something in his eyes.

And, today I read an article about him, and especially his eye condition called Bell's palsy. Some of you might have heard about Wasim Akram's diabetes and how he has to get insulin injection daily. Now this Rahul lad has to apply eye drops on his eye almost after every delivery! How testing can that be!! Despite trying to be non-prejudicial about looks, this was a classic case of my mild judgment on one's personality/attitude going wrong due to a medical condition. Learnt my lesson, and will support him one last time today for this IPL. I sincerely hope he does well in domestic cricket, and becomes a serious contender for national selection along with the ever-impressive Ashwin.

I'm back!!

2011-05-17T07:39:00.005+05:30

Let me make it an official statement: I am back! And hopefully I will be slowly back to my best days of blogging. The last couple of years of hibernation had less to do with any lack of new ideas but more with change in personal life, and my general laziness.

I'm back to India, and slowly settling into a new job in Gujarat, a state I never thought I would go to for a job. But then, life has its own surprises. So, this post is about Gujaratis. The first thing I realized when I moved here was that Gujarat is a 'dry' state. Prohibition in 'real' effect. No kalla charayam (illegal liquor), no deaths caused thereof, and generally a state that is far different to what the media loves to portray, post-Feb 2002. It is going places, literally, and is among the fastest growing states in the entire country for almost a decade now.

Gujjus love food, and milk, and sweets, and ice-cream, and generally veg food. On my very first day here, my colleague showed Gujaratis going for a 'family-walk' post-dinner and said "They are health-conscious; many go for a walk with the entire family, and then they eat an ice-cream before bed". Bah! Talk about instant hardwork-reward system!! Nevertheless, probably the parivar (family) that walks together, stays together.

For several years, I firmly believe that alcohol does a lot of bad things to human health; and you wont see many studies linking that to several of 'western' diseases, because almost everyone in the West drinks. Thats probably a reason why I think that we Indians, despite the poverty, low standards of living, malnutrition, and pollution still have a reasonable average lifetime, and we commonly find octogenarians+ among middle-class+ populations nowadays. So, I thought that Gujarat, where drinking is prohibited (one has to get license for special occasions), would have a generally higher lifetime.

But, nature has a way of averaging one effect with another. Gujaratis also love paan.. so you can see saffron-red spats all over the state. So disgusting but so much part of their life. The stuff in pan isnt really all that good for health. Without going into details such as how it first starts affecting oral health begining with staining teeth, weakening the gum, and slowly spreading its way into the body, I conclude saying that, though generally quite good these Gujjus are, they would do far better if they get rid of the paan somehow. Something for the concerned to chew upon!

Great pieces of BGM

2010-12-09T16:38:00.003+05:30

Listen to the following treasures I plucked with some difficulty. Hope you can guess what these are. If so, write to me which bit comes when and where. Next, based on bloggers'request, I will post more lovely music files which would give more clues about the source, for those who cant figure out what these musical bits are, &/or if you want to hear all the treasures. Enjoy listening!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

Book Reading 101

2010-11-16T16:40:00.007+05:30

Recently, I got the chance to read a couple of International bestsellers - Tipping Point and Freakonomics. Reading them made me think: what makes a great book in the non-fiction category? First, it has gotta have a universal appeal - by talking about things that are quite interesting to the global readers. Second, it has to blend several social science studies and try to make some sense out of various such studies.

US is a land where research of all sorts is done. If a social science prof or a grad student wonders why someone takes a longer time to urinate in a crowded (but not housefull) loo, they would go about studying it by attaching a sensor which monitors the average time taken by a person to finish the job when a) there is no one using the neighboring loos, b) when one of the neighboring loos is being used, and c) when both loos are used. Then, they would also interview people coming out of the bathroom, to rate their anxiety levels, anger, shyness, indifference, the efficiency of their hand-wash post-loo, their mood change before and after loo and so on. Then they would conclude that it is better for people to wait until the loos are freed, rather than go to crowded loos, so that they can be more happier, more hygienic and more cheerful. And publish the paper.

Now, some guy wanting to write a book would look at the paper and think, 'hmm.. it is such a common problem, which men experience every day. How can I include it in my book to shed some new light on the psychological, sociological or anthropological perspectives of a totally unrelated aspect? With all due respect to social scientists, if he does so, such a book would suck. But, u get my point, right?. Thats how some minds work.

Sometimes, I have had difficulty in appreciating some topics in the Bestsellers, which would be totally irrelevant in my point of view. So, for example, when Dan Brown went ga-ga over the Papal elections (Angels&Demons), and how it is the most important election in several decades in any part of the world, I thought "come on, man. When the last pope died, I just heard the news and went on doing my job. Hardly paid interest to who became the next Pope. I am sure most Catholics in the West too would have viewed the proceedings in a tertiary way (with job, family, entertainment etc. being more important to the head of the religious sub-sect). The same can be said about the Holy Grail 'Da Vinci Code'. Both are great books, I agree, not to me because of the hype on the religious aspects but on the beautiful use of science, maths, symbols and history to his story (no pun intended).

So, I will read bestsellers in the future keeping in mind the narrow sampling that various social scientific studies looked into, and remember that Western social scientists are hardly interested in cross-cultural implications. I enjoy reading them, because I love social sciences such as psych and socio. I am someone who finds several of mundane things qutie exciting. So, I will move on, reading American bestsellers, and widening my knowledge and understanding of people. Now, please dont correlate my last two sentences.

Dream o' dream

2010-08-17T22:40:00.003+05:30

After watching 'Inception', I was reminded of my little experiment with dream. The Psych department in my building had a research study done on dreams, for which they asked volunteers to contribute an interpretation of their dream. For fun, I wrote the following. Does anything sound familiar to you? ;)

Dreams are believed to have encoded messages. One’s desire, past experience or future event encompasses some of the coded message.

I recorded my dream at 2.30 am. In my dream I am in a strange village in the morning. I take a boat to a nearby place and reach there by sunset. I see a family dancing near the village lake. The lake has some happy dolphins, which jump and play merrily. I am very confused, I do not know why I am there. As time passes, the family goes its own way. I am all alone in the village. I try shouting for help, but my voice is not coming out.

I used phenomenological method to interpret the dream; I wrote all the feelings, thoughts and associations about the content of the dream as the dream was being recounted. The dream made me confused, scared, and anxious. The dream reminded me of my current situation. I am undecided of my future after the expiry of my work permit at end of this year. The new village is probably symbolized by the future pathway, with the villagers resembling some unknown people whom I am yet to meet in the future. They are settled in their life, therefore their dancing and singing symbolizes that they are happy. Towards the end of my dream, I was all alone, which shows that I’m helpless and didn’t seek out for help from the villagers when they we there. This is a direct analogy with my current situation that I have not sought out for suggestions from my friends on future career prospects.

I can relate to the feelings of being confused, scared and anxious in my present situation; confused of what I should do, scared of not getting what I wanted, and anxious to ask for help. The fear, anxious, and confusion component in my dream remind me of my emotions and feelings from my waking life.

Aaromale translation

2010-07-31T22:03:00.005+05:30

After listening to the songs of Ravanan and Enthiran, my earlier belief that 'Vinnai thaandi varuvaayaa' is a truly special musical by AR Rahman only got stronger. Listening to VTV's songs brought back nostalgic memories of 90's when Rahman's albums had all the songs competing with one another to be the top song of the album.

Thamarai had done a wonderful job with the lyrics of VTV's songs, but the most unique song is 'Aaromale' which was like something never heard before. Wonderfully sung by Alfons, I didnt have a clue on what the song meant. Thanks to a blogger 'wersp', I got the lyrics, which I found were wonderful. I think they warrant a subtitle in the movie. Such lovely lyrics going largely unnoticed is nearly a crime.. Also I observed that, when I read the lyrics, much of it is understandable.

Mamalayeri varum thennal
(A breeze which blows in through the mountains)

Pudhu manavaalan thennal
(The breeze, which is [decked up] like a bridegroom)

Palli medayae thottu thalodi kurushil thozhudhu varumbol
(When it arrives after worshipping the Holy cross at the altar)
Varavelpinu malayalakara manasammadham choriyum
(This land of Kerala will grant permission for a warm welcome)

Aaromale.....
(O, beloved!)

Swasthi Swasthi sumuhurtham
(This is a very auspicious occasion)

Sumangali bhava, manavatti
(O bride, may you be blessed with a long wedded life!)

Shyama rathri than aranmanaiyil
(In the inner sanctum of the dark night)
Maari nilkayo tharakame
(Oh star, why are u keeping away?)

Pulari manjilay kathiroliyai
(Like a ray of light in the morning mist)

Akayae nilkayo penmaname
(Are you standing afar, my lady?)

Chanju nikkuma chillayil nee, chila chilambiyo poonkuyile..
(On the bough that is bent, O cuckoo bird, did u sing sweetly?)

Manchiragile marayoliyae thediyathiyo poorangal
(Did the festivities come in search of the everlasting flame in the eastern lamp?)

Kadalinae karayodiniyum paadan snehamundo?
(Does the sea still possess the love to serenade the shore?)

Mezhuguthirigalai urugavidinyum pralayam manasil undo?
(Is there still love in the heart, to be melted like wax?)

Aaromale
(Oh, beloved!!)

Of Beliefs and Explanations

2010-07-18T16:10:00.002+05:30

Recently when I visited my relative's house, they had lost a bathroom due to a vaastu reason. Without going into the details, an attached bathroom in one of the rooms was apparently a bad sign, hampering a good event from happening in the family, so went away the comfort of an extra bathroom. When discussing about this to my mom, I said that I can never fathom such a correlation between a house's architecture and a future event. I also told her that, because of things like this, I am made to be very skeptical to believe whatever they say, and added that I wish even she had explained me things in a logical way, instead of attaching a story to correct some mistakes that we kids used to make. Let me give a few examples. You can also add what your parents and grandparents told you.

* No cutting nails after sunset. It means 'dharithiram' (extreme bad luck) for the family.

My explanation: In earlier days, without electricity and the modern nailcutters, it is a highly risky thing to cut nails in dark conditions. So, comes the 'dharithiram' explanation.

* No combing hair (for ladies) after sunset. 'Moodhevi' will enter the house.

My explanation: The same as above. Difficult to search for stray hair fallen during the combing process, so chance of it lying in the house and entering into food plates is high.

* Shouldn't eat just after sunset. That being the time of Narasimhavatham, it is an inauspicious time.

My explanation: It is too early time for dinner, bcos in India usually sun sets at about 6-6:30 pm. An untimely dinner then would mess up the metabolism.

* Lock the backdoor of the house before switching the light on. If not, 'Lakshmi' who enters the house from the front gate would exit via the backdoor.

My explanation: Insects and other small animals living at the back of the house might get attracted to the light in the house and enter. So, better to close the door.

* Don't leave any rice specs on the floor after eating. When the woman of the house cleans the eating place with her bare hands, the left-out rice specs would become thorns and injure her hand.

My explanation: Cooked rice is sticky and it has the tendency to break and get smeared onto the floor while cleaning with hands, dirtying the place. So better not to leave it.

* No eating with hands outstretched and supported by the floor. All the energy of the food would go to the ground via the hand-earth connection.

My explanation: Stretching any muscle of the body makes blood to flow to it. Doing so while eating, when the body requires max. blood to be supplied to the digestive organs would not be advisable. Also, keeping it stretched for long time and unstretching later would make the blood flow back into the arteries, causing an unwantedly painful sensation.

The effect of such stories is that, the rebellion inside some of us makes us to question every religious thing passed on from the elders. That was surely a reason why I am an agnostic now. Having said all that, when I was taking my plate after my lunch and cleaning the place, I saw a speck of rice. While my rational (and lazy) mind said to leave it, as mom would anyway clean-wipe the place, my hand reached for the speck, not to 'hurt' my mom's fingers.

Pakistan cricket = Fun

2010-01-31T19:09:00.003+05:30

As I was watching the auction for IPL-3, I couldnt help a smile when none of the Paki players were sold, esp. Afridi. Ever since then, the events that have unfolded on both sides of the border have added more fun to what happened at the auction. Come on Pakis, u want to be recognized by 'Indian' Premier League for your World T20 championship? That, after you have hardly won anything worth since then? Look at you, you lost one-day series to SL, NZ and now Aus, that too a horrific-for-you-fun-for-us 0-5!

To cap it all, the most recent Paki cap, Afridi wanted to imprint his teeth cap on a cricket ball, that too during a telecast which uses highly advanced technology as hot-spot !!! This, during a one-day match in which he was made the captain for the first time in his 13+ years in limited overs cricket! Sure it was fun for me, coz, that was the first time I was witnessing ball-tampering LIVE on TV.. What the hell were u thinking boom boom? Wanted to get busted? What a way to bite it.. it looked disgusting!

Also, it is time for Shah Rukh Khan to realize that he has bitten more than he can chew. While aiming for the Paki audience for his forthcoming 'My Name is Khan', he has clearly run into the danger of losing a substantial amount of local Maharashtra audience. What made you act so stupidly (again), Mr. Khan? Did the Kolkata Ridership got to you? You were trying for the Nobel Peace prize 2010? Where were you before and during the auction?

The tour of Aus turned nightmarish for Pak on the 4th morning of Sydney test. I had great fun and satisfaction seeing Mohamed Yousuf Youhanna and Kamrat Teether Akmal getting roasted for their goof-ups. It was a nice payback, I thought. Two instances made me hate MoYo. One is, his winning the first match of 1999-00 triangular series in Aus against us by one wicket.. in the last ball of the match. That day, you broke the hearts of mine and the captain, Sachin, you idiot! And the next is the six he hit off Thiru Kumaran in an Asia cup match in Sharjah, 2000 to get his hundred in the last ball of the innings. Similarly, Kamran Akmal.. he prevented us from winning the test in Mohali, 2005 (I match of the tour) and in the next year, he broke our hearts again after Irfan's hat-trick in the first over of the test at Karachi. Revenge time for u both, may you rot in a hole now on!! Hopefully your career is doomed and may I never see you again!

'A Modest Propoal' by Jonathan Swift

2009-10-02T08:23:00.005+05:30

After Kafka, it was time to read another European's masterpiece. A main reason to read it was that the extended title of the essay was the inspiration for the movie Borat's extended title, both of which were damn funny. Jonathan Swift uses satire to arguably the highest extent possible to prove his point in 'A Modest Proposal'. His proposal seems quite shocking at the first instance and upon reading further, one can realize that he intentionally uses that dark humor to deliver a strong message. His proposal: Sell the impoverished children of Irish parents, esp. those of single mothers, to rich gentlemen and ladies as food.

His tone at the beginning of the essay came across as being sarcastic, notably evident where he talks of beggars having 3, 4 or 6 children. His leaving out the intermittent number 5 is, I feel, intentional, to show a typically large number of children. His sincere concern for the poor of Ireland is what has made him to write this pamphlet and we can sense it in several places. For example, his use of the word “melancholy” to describe the state of female beggars gives testimony to that. In several places, his anger can be felt too. Swift writes that “I grant this food will be somewhat dear and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children”. We can also find the angry tone when he describes the economy-minded England, the extreme rich and the beggars of Ireland.

I was perplexed by the usage of the word “dam”. Though its archaic meaning is ‘A mother’, it has often been used to denote the female parent of household animals. The very idea of this disturbing correlation apart, Swift’s usage of that word to denote a mother, in the same sentence where he uses the word “mother” is indicative of something meaningful. Either he agrees with the gentlemen who had no trouble correlating a human mother to a domestic animal one; or the author is satirically suggesting that the human mother was indeed treated that way. His usage of the word “dropped”, in “dropped from its dam” is also non-traditional. Since the childbirth is considered to be a delicate process, the birth of a child being called a ‘drop’ sounds, to me, quite rude and insensitive.

Swift’s use of strong words in his discussion of unmarried mothers contributes to his angry tone. This tone suggests his anger he has on the unmarried mothers, which is reflected in the usage of words such as “horrid practice”, “murdering”, and “bastard children”. He considers it immoral and shameful for women to conceive without being married. Though a man is also certainly responsible for such a pregnancy, the absence of preventive measures those days meant that it was hard to control the pregnancy and the woman had to bear the brunt of it by being a subject of shame both before and after childbirth. If the thoughts of a reformist writer were this harsh towards such women, one can understand how the society must have treated those women.

Swift uses unconventional ways to describe the state of poverty in Ireland. By saying that only thirty thousand couples out of two hundred thousand are capable of maintaining their children, Swift means that about 85% of the country’s population is in dire straits. His usage of the word “only” in “There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born” is again quite satirical, since he describes a huge number of one hundred and twenty thousand as if it is minuscule. By saying “we neither build houses (I mean in the country)”, he means that the countryside is in so pathetic a state that new houses are seldom built there, but that is not the case with cities. This suggests the urban-rural divide that was the norm of 19^th century Ireland. Also, his mention of the age six as the time the children start stealing is disturbing. While the thought that a child at that age is unknowingly criminal enough to carry out such an act, his satirical tone saying that even younger children are getting into that act is reflective of the deteriorating situation in several parts of the country.

The author uses mostly long sentences, most of which are easily understandable during the first reading while a few of them required revisits. Since he describes several events of the early 18^th century Ireland, several passages appeared to be strange and confusing. For example, the phrases “or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.”, “this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago”, and “Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo” equire a prior knowledge of Irish history, without which it is not possible to understand the overtone, given his satire-filled rhetoric. His usage of Shakespearean English in a couple of places, “increaseth” and “hath” and certain other words, such as, “cloaths” and “glympse” was unexpected.

Having observed satire in a few movies and in stand-up comedies, it was a unique experience to read a famous writer’s work with a large quantity of satire in it. It made me realize that there are more than one ways to drive home any message. It requires a natural sense of humor by the writer, and the clever play with words to make even a dour message sound funny and memorable.

Turban Trouble

2009-08-23T13:18:00.006+05:30

Last year, The Vancouver Sun published an article about a research study regarding the unintentional prejudice shown by white Caucasian subjects on targets dressed in Islamic outfits in a computer game. The essence of the article is that, due to strong negative stereotyping by the media, people have created prejudice and hatred on Muslims and tend to associate the latter to terrorists.

Researchers from University of New South Wales in Australia conducted a study involving 59 students in which the students were asked to shoot the armed targets – men or women – on the monitor. The targets were manipulated graphically to be with or without a turban or a hijab, and also holding guns or other inoculate objects such as a coffee mug or a bottle of drink. They pre-conditioned the students to be in happy, neutral or angry moods.

It was found that the students showed a ‘shooter bias’ for the targets wearing a turban or a hijab. The students shot the targets appearing to be Muslims even if they were carrying a coffee mug or coke. This confirmed that Muslim appearance is indeed associated with a negative stereotype. This being the case among Australian students who haven’t faced the Islamic terrorism in their territory at all, the authors expect that such a ‘turban effect’ would be much stronger in countries such as the USA and Britain. Nevertheless, the strong prejudice against the Muslims can be felt which the authors claim is due to the media coverage.

Interestingly, the angry people shot more at everybody whereas the happy people shot selectively more at Muslim-appearing targets. Also, men were shot at more than women targets. These results also suggest that men are generally viewed as more threatening/dangerous. A leader of Muslim community in Montreal is quoted saying that “these studies confirm our biggest fear that there is discrimination and prejudice in our society”.

Now, on the Shah Rukh incident, I see no issue at all. Those who cry foul at the US officials are the same who ask angry questions at Indian government whenever there is a terror attack in India. If US also had acted 'semi-secular' like India, for the sake of votes, or in order 'not to hurt the sentiments of minorities', then there would have been several more attacks similar to 9/11. When a terrorist keeps SRK as one of his names, it does get entered into major databases. What if that terrorist tries to enter with the name of SRK? Just for the namesake, is he expected to be given a red carpet welcome?

SRK's face has been changing quite a bit in the past 2 years or so, due to the combination of various factors such as aging, 6-pack tries, IPL fiasco, Asperger, and god knows what else. How hard would it be for a terrorist from Pakistan (many of them are good-looking, mind it) to undergo prosthetic surgery resembling SRK and try to use it as a cover? And, why the heck are the airport officials supposed to know who SRK is? Salman Khan killed a few roadside dwellers while driving drunk and there has been no action against him. In US, OJ case not withstanding, all are equal when it comes to law enforcement. It is so funny and ironic that people like Karan Johar and Farah Khan who often visit US strongly condemned this incident. They should know better. All in the name of hype, blunt support, blind solidairity, stupid friendship, and attention-seeking.

(Pic adapted from urantiansojourn.com)

Tamil Cine Quiz - 8 (With ANSWERS)

2009-06-19T14:46:00.006+05:30

A short one this time.. As usual, the comments are moderated until a certain number of correct answers are received.

1. There is a unique similarity between a song each from Kaathirukka Neramillai, Rang De Basanti and Varanam Ayiram. Though it can be argued that the similarity extends to a song in Silambattam, the genre of the latter song is different, thus making it miss the similarity of t he first three songs. What is the 'relationship' between the first three songs?

Clue: Look at the bolded word. The first ever Ilayaraja song can also be added to the songs mentioned above.

Ans: The songs are: Yeh machi machi (Kathirukka neramillai), Hey saala (RDB) and Machi machi (Varanam ayiram). The Silambattam song is 'Machan machan'. Now you know what I meant by the 'relationship'.. ;)

2. What puts legendary singers SPB, Chitra, Swarnalatha, Unni Krishnan, Vasundhara Das and Shankar Mahadevan in one team?

Clue: The similarity is in achievement and in association.

Answer: All the above singers won the national awards for their singing in AR Rahman movies.

3. What are the similarities among a song each from the movies Rendu, Bheema and Marudhamalai?

Clue: If you were watching one particular TV show at 9:05 PM on the July 6th, you can guess the answer.

Answer: The songs are: "Mobilaa.." (Rendu), "Enadhuyirey.." (Bheema) and 'Marudhamalai maamaniye' (Marudhamalai). These were sung by the finalists of Airtel Super Singer-1 (2006), viz., Maya, Nikhil Mathew and Anita, respectively.

4. What is uniquely common among the AR Rahman albums Uzhavan, Duet and Indian?

Clue: Think about association and a legend.

Answer: These are the only three movies for which the legend KJ Yesudoss sang under AR Rahman's music.

'The Metamorphosis' by Kafka

2009-05-28T06:31:00.005+05:30

I have heard about Franz Kafka's short stories, so thought of getting a glimpse of his work by reading his famous short story 'The Metamorphosis'. After I finished reading it, I couldn't really appreciate the greatness of the story except to say that it was a very interesting, thought-provoking story of a salesman, Gregory Samsa oneday waking up and finding himself metamorphosed into an insect and how it changes the life of people around him. Nevertheless, it made me to think deeply. Let me share them with you.

In ‘metamorphosis’, Kafka has shown several traits of the society in various places. The fact that Gregory doesn’t even realize his metamorphosis but is worried about his job, his manager and family reveals that in the modern society, most of us keep running towards our goals without having the time to stop and analyze what we are doing. Those of us don’t lead an ‘optimized’ life, i.e., a life in which most, if not all of the important things are optimized to the best. We accept mediocrity and simply want to move forward. Gregory’s plans to get up, even in his bug state, and think of catching a train to report to work is suggestive of the unrelenting pressure that he is under.

His brief mention of the manager and his colleagues tells us about the environment in the working place that one experiences. Highly demanding managers, colleagues who won’t hesitate to backstab if necessary, and an uncertain/unstable job situation are the things that can be seen in the modern corporate society as well. The intense competition at the inter-company and intra-company levels has made this place into a dog-eat-dog world.

For most of the readers from the US, the concept of an adult son staying with and working for reasonably fit parents would appear very strange; but that is the culture in most of South and South-East Asian countries even now. Sons who are married with children still continue to live with their parents. One can also see families in which all the sons live with their respective wives and children in the same house with their parents. In most of such families, the father, or if he is not alive, the mother is like the ‘head’ of the family.

Also, in the US, one can’t usually see an educated and fit female not interested in working or who doesn’t make an earning. On the other hand, in Southern Asia, it is common to see women with even master’s degree not working at all any time in their life. After the marriage, the decision of whether or not a girl works usually comes from her husband and/or her in-laws. Before marriage, her parents decide whether she needs to work or not. Since the education in most of South Asia is government-sponsored, the government’s investment on the girl’s education goes merely as waste. All this means that, a potential and large workforce remains dormant simply because of a combination of laziness, domination and controlling tendency. This trend is seen in many under-developed nations of the world, and I believe that the absence of such an attitude is a very important reason for the success of all the developed nations. In Kafka’s story, these inconsistencies are described quite well.

On one hand, the family wants to be free from its debts; but they hardly join hands together for such an important cause. They have entrusted such a job on the shoulders of their son. Moreover, their son is not even happy with the job he is doing. Even though they are aware of that, they do nothing to help him quit such a job and opt for something he likes. They could have helped his cause by earning some money from their part too. They continue to live in a large house which they don’t have to at all. Reading about such a family in great details first gave me a feeling that Kafka must have experienced a similar situation . Upon reading his biography, in which Kafka was reported to have a sad life with an imposing father, I could agree with others who also believe ‘The Metamorphosis’ to be autobiographical.

I felt that the final act of the family members getting fed up with Gregory and ‘let him go’ is very similar to Terri Schiavo case that stirred quite a bit of debate three years ago. When a family member becomes too ill to live but is somehow managing to merely exist due to life support system, what should the family do? Should they continue to allow him or her suffer in a situation that is far from normal living, or should they just allow them to die and put an end to the agony? This is a question for which there is no clear answer. Similar to the way the Kafka family was hoping for a miracle to happen to bring their metamorphosed family member to normalcy, several other families keep their comatose loved ones in life support hoping that a modern medical advancement would somehow provide a new lease of life to them.

In ‘The Metamorphosis’, many socially relevant themes are dealt quite nicely. It makes one question and analyze the concepts of love, care, career, family and compromise. Its global appeal and the applicability to several issues that the modern society faces help it become a timeless classic. Despite the act of Gregory’s metamorphosis not sounding believable, its underlying themes make this story an unforgettable read.

May Madness (Updates at the end of the post)

2009-05-03T00:08:00.003+05:30

A cricket post after a long long time, since May promises to be a cricketing month. I absolutely love this year's IPL so far. Quite a bit of twists and turns, plus plenty of drama in the past couple of weeks already.

The perennial problems for most cricket fans are to choose a favorite team, and also to decide whom to support in a clash between two other teams. For example, my hometown is Chennai; I have spent the last 8 years before coming to US in Bangalore; and, my favorite cricketer, Sachin, plays for Mumbai. So, among the 8 teams, I needed to form an hierarchy of sorts, which is the following. What is yours?

#1: Mumbai Indians - Sachin's

#2: Chennai Super Kings - My hometown team

#3: Royal Challengers Bangalore - Team from my favorite Indian city

#4: Rajasthan Royals - For Warney!

_______________________________________________

#5: Deccan Chargers - For Gilly & Gibbs

#6: Delhi Daredevils

#7: Kings XI Punjab

#8: Kolkata Knight Riders

I am very happy that my least favorite team is loitering at the bottom of the points table. From the time of the 'multiple captaincy theory', I love every controversy that has erupted there. Saurav 'Huge attitude' Ganguly was removed from the captaincy - quite good news; 'Fake IPL player' - Superb fun; 'Kolkata' removal from the team's name - WOW!! And, now, the news of Shah Rukh trying to sell off the team - Good for him!

It is amazing how Deccan chargers - a team every team had fun rolling over last year, has now made a complete turn-around while the current champions Rajasthan Royals ~~are~~ were struggling at 7th place, while the runners-up Chennai ~~are~~ at 6. The first two days of the month have already produced some great nail-biter climaxes. A total anti-thesis to last year when there was gulf between the table-leaders and the strugglers. One look at the points table says that except the miserable Kolkata, all the other 7 teams are within 2 1 points of each other. This, with the tournament at the half-way stage, is a perfect scenario for a thrilling second half in a fortnight.

Also, when everyone who could wield a bat made merry in the first edition, mostly those who have a good technique are able to score in the current one. In fact, the 'Man of the match' winners for the first 8 matches were all proper and proven test players. Also, looking at the success of retired veterans like Kumble, Gilchrist and Hayden, there is definitely a scope for experienced and talented cricketers in the mad world of 20-20.

~~Tomorrow's~~ Today's matches: Punjab vs Kolkata - I expect Punjab to roll over Kolkata, which should push Punjab from 6th to 2nd position; Mumbai vs Bangalore - Though Mumbai is the team that I would love to see winning (catapulting it to the top rank), a win by Bangalore would take them to the third place and pull down Mumbai to fifth.

Update: Though it was unpleasant to see Mumbai losing a match, Bangalore's win has truly opened up the table. Four teams with 8 points and 3 with 7! And, to maintain the balance, I am routing for Chennai to win tomorrow's match against Deccan chargers, thus leaping from 5th to 1st spot.

What is the use of handbags?

2009-04-26T04:46:00.004+05:30

Why are our female cine-stars always seen in functions, with the cellfone on their hands? They seem to have taken the term 'handset' too seriously.

Not ones to be left behind, the male versions are often seen using the cellfones.

Go, Jo!

2009-04-18T10:32:00.006+05:30

, This Jo isn’t the one what most of you think to be. I am talking about one Mrs. Joania, a mid-thirties mom and a full-time employee, who is on a terrific journey that is leading to better and more better places with every passing week. The name of the journey is ‘weight-loss’. When she started it last December, she was 258 pounds (117 kgs) and she weighs now (as of Mid-April) 214 pounds (97 kgs) – a difference of 20 kgs in 4 months. The best part of her journey is that she decided to blog about it, with pictures. So, there are a lot of ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures to compare the weight loss, which is similar to what one can see in ads for weight loss supplements. Only that this time we know for sure this person is doing it by the best possible way – a judicial combination of hard exercise and proper diet. No magic pills, no crash diet, no surgery and no slogging.

She blogs her weight every Wednesday and posts her pictures every weekend. So there are at least a couple of reasons to visit her blog every week, to check the gradual decrement of weight and shrinking of the girth. I strongly recommend everyone who wants to lose weight to visit her blog. One common de-motivating factor that most people face is a plateau often encountered over a considerable time. She has faced it too (look at mid-Feb), but that hasn’t deterred her journey at all. She works out 6 days a week mostly with the help of a trainer. She has set several small rewards along her journey to motivate herself, which is a suggestion most fitness Gurus give.

Some tips to Women for losing weight:

* Weight loss journey begins at home. Eat healthy and resist your temptation for that extra piece of sweet or the fried item.

* Do NOT compare ur pattern of weight loss with that of other men around you. It is usually easier for men to lose weight than for women.

* Mix various workout regimes such as cardio, aerobics, and weight lifting. And, about the last one, dont worry that you will start looking muscular like men. You dont secrete several hormones that men do, esp. Testosterone, the muscle-building hormone.

* Weight lifting will certainly help grow your muscles, and it has several advantages: a) Any weight lifting activity help burn calories upto 36 hours after the workout; b) Mere presence of muscles will help burn calories; c) Muscles strengthen your body, by supporting ur bones, and ligaments better; d) Muscles help you get a toned-look for the entire body. Suppose you do only cardio and aerobics, your body will lose fat and muscles, which isnt the best way of weight loss. You will see your body look 'loose' due to that, rather than 'firm' which will happen only with muscle build-up.

Joania is already getting famous, with mentions of her in some magazines, and a recent TV ad as well. I expect her to appear on Oprah’s show after she attains her target – 157 pounds, which is a good 46 kgs lighter than her weight in December. With the kind of progress that she is making, I guess she will be there by the year-end. Keep going, Jo! Your success story will surely inspire thousands, if not millions of people to take up the same journey as yours.

P.S.: This reward system surely will work wonders. Our brain has the reward zones which get activated when some tasks are achieved. I blogged about a reward system that some of my desperate friends used almost 3 years ago. Whatever works!! Rewards apart, exercising is recommended by physicians to everyone. In the last few months, I have come across a few blogger buddies who have witnessed critical health issues even before the age of 45 and gone on to weight loss regimes after the warnings. So, like my car mechanic says, "you pay less now, or you pay more later".

An Inspired Philosophical Song

2009-04-12T06:06:00.005+05:30

Below is a translated philosophical song whose original version , I am sure, all of you would have heard. FYI, I didn't do the translation. Read it, guess the original tamil song and post it in the comments section. As with all the quizzes, I will moderate the comments for a few days.

Revealed this city its trueness

Universe unraveled itself

Birth of the practicality in me

Understanding the numbers in people

Oh! My Sweetheart!

Nourished the disguised snake of cunningness

To get stung by the bitterness of life

Void is the relation of brotherhood

For its self inflicting performances

And meticulous calculations of time

For the love designed by the money

Vain are those blood dropped

To get outcaste

Hurt by the horns of mistakes

Scorpions’ sting my wounded soul

Oh! My Sweetheart!

Past step towards present Philosopher

Disembarked the evil from the river of sins

And dance with my naked naive ness

Rainbow of strung affinity disappear

Heavy heart filled with kinship

Inside are those ferocious animals to eat

The tainted money

And there goes the brave cow

To be chopped into the pieces of practicality

Oh! My Sweetheart!

Ayan Review: Surya's Aegan

2009-04-03T19:55:00.001+05:30

Of late, Tamil cinema and expectations are not going along well together. I went into this movie mostly for the director KV Anand and the script-writers SuBa, who had earlier combined together to give a good thriller in Kanaa Kandaen. With Ayan, though, KV Anand succumbs to the second-movie syndrome. So, except a fine cinematography, we get bad screenplay, no story, unimaginative choreography, and some insipid performances.

Deva (Surya) is studying M.Sc. computer science while at the same time working with Das (Prabhu) as a smuggler, who smuggles to and from sub-Saharan Africa and Malaysia. Kamalesh (Akashdeep Saigal) wants to become the #1 smuggler and would go to any extent to achieve his goal. Deva and his friend Chitti's (Jagan) sister Yamuna (Tamanna) fall in love, but Kamalesh's plans threaten the lives of Deva and those around him.

In his recent interviews, Surya was seen yapping about a 'different story that has never been told in Tamil cinema'. No such story is found to be seen anywhere in the movie, even after the end credits start rolling. The main story has liberal borrowings from 'Kuruvi', several of 80's smugglers' movies of Kamal and Rajni, and even from Hollywood movies such as Blood diamond. There is a scene in the movie wherein a Tamil director is shown visiting DVD stores seeking story plots from Hollywood for his next movie. Probably KV Anand self-satirically says that the character is based on himself.

It could have been far better, though. There are several twists in the movie which could have progressed well to break the typical formula of Tamil movies. One such twist arrives at the Intermission, which, if cleverly executed, could have surprised us ala the Hindi movie 'Khakee'. The second half has too many of such twists, but by then we know where the director is taking us - a risk-free zone, so those twists don't amuse us much. Another downside of the second half is the huge increase in the irritability quotients of the female characters. Tamanna and Renuka were so annoying.

The development of love between the lead pair is quite lame. One can see Surya re-enacting his 'SOK' and 'Varanam Ayiram' lover-boy roles here again. His body language and dialog delivery are so predictable nowadays. Time for a change, dude! Tamanna, after a promising role in 'Kalloori', has joined a huge list of talented glamor dolls of Tamil cinema. Prabhu offers nothing new, except half the screen space. Having watched quite a bit of Akashdeep as Ansh Gujral in Star TV's "Kyunki saas bhi..", I know that he is quite capable of a more menacing villainy than what we see in this film.

There are some interesting chase and fight sequences, which have been inspired from the last two 007 movies. In an attempt to prolong the suspense of some scenes by using reverse shots, the director and editor have missed out providing suitable links between some scenes, which make the scenes jump so abruptly. The song sequences are also introduced out of nowhere, and hence they don't gel with the story well. The two songs that I loved to hear the most - "Vizhi moodi" and "Anbe anbe" had very poor pre-song scenes, which took away the effectiveness of the songs. While the dance steps in the former songs were cute, the less said about the latter, the better.

Overall, it is a movie worth watching once, if you go with zero expectations. Otherwise, being a Sun TV production, you can soon watch it in small screen "Ulaga tholaikaatchigaLil mudhal muraiyaaga"...

Yavarum Nalam Arundhati, but Let the Right One In

2009-03-26T02:01:00.001+05:30

My spring break became a week of horror - only in the movies genre, albeit unplanned. Alphabetically,

Arundhati: It is a dubbed movie from telugu with the same name.

Story: Arundhati (Anushka), hailing from a royal family, is about to get married. In her village is waiting Pasupathi (Sonu Sood) who is hell-bent on disrupting her wedding. The interesting details include who Pasupathi is, what his grudge on Arundhati is due to, and what his intentions are.

Presentation: The entire movie is a surprise package. It is not just a heroine-based movie with the female protagonist's name as the title; it is a strong heroine-centered movie, in which the hero is used ala pickle. It has a powerful villain, though. Secondly, we get to see Anushka, who usually stars as a sweet, bubbly but doll-like actress in an intense, multi-faceted, and charming role. Next, the all-important flashback, which is often so important in a horror movie, is split into many parts and appears at different times, which means that the mystery is never fully unfolded.

Coming from the director whose resume includes Amman, arguably the first Indian movie with successful use of CGI in its story, the graphics in Arundhati too (by Rahul Nambiar) is superb. For once, I had the feeling that graphics had totally merged with the cinematography in an Indian film. The camera work by one Senthil Kumar is top-notch - be it showing the colorful palaces, the grandeur, or the dark forces. With minimal songs and drama, Arundhati is an edge-of-the-seat thriller/horror movie. It is a must-watch - a visual treat.

Let the Right One In: It is a swedish movie dubbed into English. A childhood friend of mine had a sweet-looking brother, who would ask everyone to lift him. When they do, he would bite their cheeks and run away. Imagine that such a sweet-looking girl, instead of biting the cheeks, bites your neck and starts sucking blood!

Story: Oskar is a quiet 12-year old boy living with his mom in an apartment. He is bullied by some of his classmates but, having no friend, he cant share it with any one. He is befriended by a girl, Eli, who has just moved to his neighboring house with her father. Soon, Oskar realizes that Eli is no ordinary girl.

Presentation: It is a very unique movie in that the source of horror doesn't wear any additional make-up at all, but still there is an element of fear everytime we look at her (similar to 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'). The focus of the movie is not on the horror part but on the friendship between Oskar and Eli. The creepiest scene of the movie was the one involving a dozen or so cats and a woman. Apart from that, the visuals are more pleasing to the eyes than horrific. It has a chilling climax, befitting to the genre of the movie.

Yavarum Nalam: It has been reviewed quite a bit in the blogosphere; so all I have to say is, it was good, without the trademark cheap stuff the desi horror directors resort to, for scaring us. And, it was genuinely scaring too. The real hero of the movie was P.C. Sriram, whose camerawork is the one that elevates the movie with a clever storyline from a goosebump-inducing one to a real horror movie.

Zen and the art of reviewing movies

2009-02-26T23:39:00.001+05:30

Last year, when I was reading the book 'Thinking about movies', the phrase 'There is nothing called a bad movie' caught my attention and stayed for a long time. Most of us are aware that movie-making is a tedious process that involves the working of hundreds of hands and minds over a period of several months to years. I have also heard that 'one must watch a movie shooting' to understand how difficult it is, so that one will a) think twice before branding a movie rubbish, b) watch it only in theaters, in considerate of the hundreds of families that rely on the film business, c) learn to look at the movie in a perspective different than that of a layman.

Having said all that, does it mean that just because a movie has been made, it should deserve our unanimous acclaim? Obviously NO! Over 80% movies end up as flops, which is a verdict by the people who have seen that it is not recommended. A layman's movie review will be through word-of-mouth, which is very powerful in this age of superconnectivity between the people. When the movie is reviewed in the media, though, the review itself is open to debates and discussions.

As a side-track, lemme just say my two cents about blog-reviewing: In the blogs, it is a tricky thing. If a blogger rubbishes a movie and someone refutes it, the blogger, IMHO, has to provide a 'suitable' explanation. Now, how 'suitable' the response is, depends on the personality and mood of the blogger in question. Some reviewers are arrogant - they simply say 'this is my blog, I can write whatever I wish, you agree to what I say or if not just shut your mouth and leave'. I would say that, if it is the prerogative of the blogger on his post, the same can be said about an open 'Comments' section. Of course the blogger has the right to moderate/edit/delete the comments, but they cant question a commenter 'how dare you oppose my review?'

Another etiquette about reviewing is to do so without any spoilers, or to put a warning note if any spoiler is present. Sometimes it is unavoidable to discuss an aspect of the movie without the mention of an important scene. Also, a good review is one which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a movie quite explicitly. Watching different genres of movies made in different parts of the world and at different periods, and analyzing the movies would help the reviewing a lot. Moreover, it is better to have an idea of the intelligence level of the director white sitting to watch a movie or to review one. That would prevent one from over-analyzing it or missing the director's touch. Much of my thoughts arose during the discussion in the previous post. ;)

Now, when a person as experienced as Suhasini chooses to review a film, that review itself deserves a review. An example is from her last week's review of Naan kadavul. I honestly dont know if she reads the blogs, including this, but I found a lot of specific terms that were discussed here in my post and the comments thereof. After praising the movie like there is no end, she said that the movie is not without its flaws, but pointing out at the flaws would prevent the good film-makers from creating 'such good' movies in the future. That remark took me by surprise totally. I felt that she was better off not mentioning about the presence of flaws rather than simply mentioning and not explaining what they are.

My philosophy is very simple: While watching it, I see if I like the movie or not. If the movie in its entirety or in parts doesnt appeal to me, I put it down in words as to why I didn't like it. Like every human, I am biased towards certain people. That bias might make me to watch it in the first place, or to interpret some things in a particular way. Whatever it be, I welcome any criticism for my review. Only I dont want it to be vague like someone in the previous review commented, but to be more specific to the details.

He's Done it!

2009-02-23T09:35:00.003+05:30

OscAR Rahman!!

Naan KadavuL - Give a miss

2009-02-07T07:47:00.006+05:30

This is the first Bala movie that I watched in theater. With or without expectations, this movie sucks. I felt like I was watching a movie on the physically handicapped who are exploited and forced into begging. Arya's role in the movie is just a tad more than a guest one. The story appears disjointed, with the story of the suffering handicapped people and Arya's segment connected only by a bare thread of the location.

After witnessing the depressing story of the 'begging industry of India' in 'Slumdog Millionaire', we get to watch it much more elaborately in this movie. I felt that it was definitely overdone, with Bala's famous liking for morbidity going way too far. Beyond a point, their sufferings made me feel sick. The scene involving 'the man with the scary face' could have been handled quite differently. The closing minutes of the movie have some badly edited scenes and the climax appears to be rushed. The only positive aspects of the movie are the performances by Arya and Pooja.

The climatic one-to-one fight between the protagonist and the antagonist appeared to be very amateurish and cinematic to me. The latter knows the fate of the three people who went to attack the former, but still he goes against Arya bare-handed and single-handedly. Pooja's migration from the hill cave to a church and then to the hands of the villain is not explained; especially the last one could have been avoided, saving a lot of pain. The climax was quite undigestible since it reflected the pessimistic mindset of the director.

The technical aspects of the movie are quite good. Music is OK. The long scene in the police station involving look-alikes of MGR, Sivaji and Rajni was quite unnecessary, what with an overdose of such artists in various TV programs, except for a few seconds of an unhappening twist that is to follow. I found one aspect very ironic. Jeyamohan, who is the dialog-writer for this movie, had strongly condemned Sivaji's style of acting in his blog exactly a year ago. In the police station, someone tells the Sivaji-lookalike that he wishes that Sivaji had taught what acting is, to the contemporary actors. Jeyamohan has even removed that attacking post from his blog.

Back to the movie - the only thing that connects this movie with Bala's earlier ones is that he portrays (again) a dark side of the society. Whereas the previous ones had some humanity in them, here it is all dark and violent. True, the guy and his assistant who are in charge of the temple beggars have some soft corner for them. Other than that, it is hard to explain why Arya is shown attacking some people in Varanasi and why he is angry in the movie all the time. And, Arya appears to be too muscular and fleshy for someone who hardly eats any food and is shown surviving only on Ganja.

You might like it if you are a hardcore Bala fan.

Race of Inequality

2009-01-28T18:40:00.003+05:30

Heard about 'Inequality of races' but the above picture would be one of the opposite.. :) Once the race starts, would the homo sapien run in the opposite direction?

Tamil Cine Quiz - 7

2009-01-17T02:48:00.006+05:30

This quiz again based only on Tamil songs.

1) This famous singer has acted in a number of movies too. In one movie (A) in which he acted as the hero's father, he rendered his voice to the hero in a song B. Interestingly, in a song (C) in which he appears along with the hero, the female singer is his real-life daughter. Who is the famous singer, what is the movie A and what are the songs B and C?

2) In a movie (D) for which the music director and the producer were the same as that for movie A, he acted as the heroine's father. In that movie, he rendered voice to the two guys who are in love with the heroine in a song E. What are the movie D and the song E?

3) Another movie (F) - same music director + producer combo and the singer this time acted as the hero's father. He appears in a song (G) along with the hero, and renders his voice for the hero but his part in the song is rendered by a singer from the North (H). What are the movie F and song G and who was the singer H, who to the best of my knowledge, is the only singer to have rendered his voice to the famous singer?

4) In a movie (I) released in the same year as the movie D (with the same music director), the hero of movie A appeared on a double role. There was a duet in the film involving both the roles of the hero and the two heroines, for which the credit was given to only one pair of male and female singers. In real, another pair of male and female singers had sung the song from the second charanam (stanza) onwards. Who are the four (two male and two female) singers who rendered their voices for the song?

5) In cricket, we have seen one bowler completing the over of another bowler if he is injured in the middle of an over and is unable to bowl. In a movie released in 2005, there is a superb duet, which is meant for the hero and heroine in the movie. In fact, disappointingly, that song wasn't picutirized at all. In that song, just after the second charanam begins, one female playback singer abruptly takes over from the other in the middle of a line and goes on to complete the song. What are the movie, and the song and who are the two female playback singers? (Clues: The producer of the movie has been producing movies for over 20 years and his son debuted as director in 2008. The hero of the 2005 movie is the son of a famous multi-faceted actor-director and his performance in the movie was so unlike him. The villain in the movie acted as the villain in a famous tamil movie released in the same year and in a recent hindi movie with the same name).

P.S.: Comments are moderated considering the top-secret nature of this quiz.

Kanavey vaazhva?

2009-01-05T21:40:00.013+05:30

I wrote about not being able to find a suitable equivalent of ‘missing’ in tamil. Now that a word ‘mizhakkiren’ has been coined, I used it for a kavithai. :)

உன்னை ரசிக்கிறேன் - மனதில்

உன்னுடம் சிரிக்கிறேன் - நினைவில்

உன்னைக் கொஞ்சுகிறேன் - இதயத்தில்

குழந்தையாய் மாறுகிறேன் - கையினில்

உனக்கோர் ஆசை முத்தம் - கன்னத்தில்

இதழின் மென்மையை உணர்கிறேன் - காற்றோடு

இதமாய் அணைத்துக்கொள்கிறேன் - நெஞ்சோடு

மிதமான வெப்பம் - மனதோடு

சுகமான ஸ்பரிசம் - உடலோடு

உன் தாக்கத்தைக் காண்கிறேன் - என்னோடு

நீ என்னுடன் வாழும் ஒவ்வொரு கணத்தையும்

நினைவிலேயே கண்டு ரசிக்கிறேன்

உணர்விலேயே கண்டு உருகுகிறேன்

கண்ணைத் திறந்து தேடுகிறேன்

அருகில் நீயில்லை மிழக்கிறேன்

கையோடு கை கோர்த்து

கண்ணோடு கண் கலந்து

ஊனோடு ஊனும்

உயிரோடு உயிரும்

சிரிப்போடு சிரிப்பும்

உதட்டோடு உதடும்

நினைவோடு நினைவும்

இரண்டறக் கலந்து

ஒன்றாக கூடும் வாழ்வு

கனவே வாழ்வா?

In Thanglish:

Unnai rasikkiren - manathil
unnudan sirikkiren - ninaivil
unnai konjukiren - idhayathil
kuzhnadhaiyai marugiren - kaiyinil
unakkor aasai mutham – kannathil

idhazhin menmaiyai unarkiren - kaatrodu
idhamai anaithukolgiren - nenjodu
midhamana veppam - manathodu
sugamana sparism - udalodu
un thaakkathai kaangiren – ennodu

nee ennudan vaazhum ovvoru kaNathaiyum
ninaivileye kandu rasikkiren
uNarvileye kandu urugukiren
kannai thirandhu thedukiren
arugil neeyillai mizhakkiren

kaiyodu kai serthu
kannodu kan kalandhu
oonodu oonum
uyirodu uyirum
sirippodu sirippum
udhattodu udhadum
ninaivodu ninaivum
irandara kalandhu
ondraaga koodum vaazhvu
kanavey vazhva?

HNY! How r u?

2009-01-03T04:40:00.006+05:30

Happy new year to you all !! :) In the new year, something to tickle your ribs.. I talked to a few celebrities yesterday and asked how they were. This is the reply I got from them:

Aishwarya: Hmmm.. u know, the Indian tradition has always made me a good person.. so I am good

AR Rahman: yellam iraivan ... (YAWN)

P.C. Sriram: naan nethu nalla irundhen.. night temp check ellam pannenn.. ippo nalla irukkenn..

Vijay: simply “Hmmmm...”

Director Seeman: Azhagu Tamil-il "Neenga eppadi irukkireergal" nu kekkruadhai vittuttu ippadi aangilathule kekkureengale... gnayama? Ange ilankaiyil en thambigaLum thangaigaLum avadhi-p-pattukkondirukkumbodhu naan eppadi nandraga irukka mudiyum?

Goundamani: Dho paruda kekka vandhuttaan.. naan eppadi irundha unakkennada naaye?

Senthil: ANNey...nan nalla irrukenne..

Kamal: Naan nalla irukkennudhaan ninaikkiren.. aana naan nalla illennu yaaravadhu ninaicha avanga ninaikkiraangannu naan kavalaippatta naan nalla irukka mudiyathu

Surya: Naan idhai solliyE Aganum.. nallarukkEn..

Vijaya T Rajender: Muslims-ku allah irukkaru.. Kadaiyile kalla irukkudhu.. bottle fulla irukkudhu.. naan nalla irukken.. en varisu Simbhu-vum Silambaattam aadi nallaa irukkan

Loud mouthed Idiot Santhanam: dei.. pannadai.. nee eppadi irukkennu nana kettanada.. pinne enda viLakkeNNai mAdhiri enkitte kekkura?

Sivakumar: Amma.. naan rommmmba nalla irukkemmmaaaa..

Gaptun: Tamilnaattule 2,37,339 kudumbanga innaikku kaalaiyile kudikka kanji illama irukkanga.. 1,78,536 peru oru vElai soru kooda illama irukkanga.. 8,73,983 peru velai illama irukkanga.. idhai kettuttu naan eppadi nalla irukkamudiyum? Enn, neengalum nalla irukka mudiyuma? *Aanghh*

Suhasini: Naan ponnu-ngirathaale naan nalla irukkeno illaiyO-nnu doubt-le neenga ippadi oru kelvi kekkureenga.. adhunale enakku unga kElvi pidikkale...

Shreya: Naan nalla irukkudhu

Grand master GS Pradeep: Naan nalla irukkanga

Rajni: ennai vaazha vaitha dheivangalaana Tamil makkal ungaloda dhayavaley naan romba nalla irukken...

Vairamuthu: Kaalaiyil ezhum sooriyanai keLungal; kaalgaLai nanaikkum alaigaLai keLungal; kathiravanai maraikkum malaiyai keLungal.. avai sollum.. naan nandraga irukkiren endru..

December Movies

2008-12-30T04:14:00.013+05:30

Managed to watch a lot of movies in the holiday season.. This is the collection of the short reviews.

* Ghajini

A few things were better whereas a few others were worse than the tamil version. First, the worse ones: I felt that Surya had done a better job than Aamir in the first half. Harris' music was also far superior to AR Rahman's. Among the +ve differences, the climax, which was the sore point in the tamil version, has been cleverly modified. The utterly-irritating XY-machi Nayanthara is replaced by Jiah Khan. Aamir Khan's body is more toned than Ghajini Surya's. There are thankfully only two full-length songs, so the pace of the movie isn't impeded by unnecessary songs. Overall, this is surely watchable whether or not one has watched the tamil original.

* The curious case of Benjamin Button

Based on an interesting imagination, the story unfolds as the protagonist is born old and gets gradually younger as he ages. So, we get some unique situations in which a person is mentally young but physically old and the situation gets reversed at his old age. The story largely revolves around Benjamin's (Brad Pitt) love on Cate Blanchett. The climax is an unforgettable experience. The highlight of the movie to me was the make-up of the main characters. It was so real. The 2-minute segment where we hear from Benjamin's voice, a superb portrayal of the butterfly effect. The movie is quite long and draggy at times; but the fine performance of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett makes us glued to the proceedings. Definitely recommended.

*BommalAttam

After watching Bharathiraja's previous product in the form of the disasterous 'KaNgaLAl kaidhu sei', I had absolutely no expectations on this at all. But, it was pleasantly surprising to see him come up with a terrific thriller. As is the case with the best thriller movies, the climax has some unexpected twists which the director gradually builds en route. Nana Patekar's performance is good but we tend to see 'Nizhalgal' Ravi in him due to the strong influence of the dubbing artist. Arjun too delivers a subdued and apt performance. So one can say that Bharathiraja has redeemed himself with Bommalattam. Two thumbs up.

*Milk

During a time when the rights of homosexuals are constantly challenged, this movie throws light on the story of the first openly-gay elected official in the U.S. It is quite apt that it is based in the culturally diverse San Francisco. As the movie unfolds, one gets to see not only the political struggle of the protagonist, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn in an Oscar-worthy performance) but the emotions involed in his personal life as well. Though we know the end from a scene few minutes into the movie, the proceedings make it interesting. One lateral thought: I felt that the title is somewhat suitable to the sexual orientation. Milk is an emulsion of water and lipids, each of which is clear and transparent but when mixed, they lead to a smudgy liquid.

* Abhiyum naanum

An ultra-simple movie which is almost like a documentary of Prakash Raj's life. Radha Mohan's liking for super feel-good movies continues with this movie as well. I felt it to be a OK movie with a linear story and minimal twists. So we get ideal father, ideal mom, ideal daughter, ideal-appearing sikh family, etc. Prakash Raj's acting in the second half was irritatingly over-the-top. After listening to 'Siru siru' song, I had a particular opinion about the story, though the possibility of the song being shot in a similar way as one of the 'Kanda naal mudhal' songs didn't fail to pass my mind. Thus, the second half almost looks like parts of 'Hum aapke hain kaun'. So, my verdict is, this movie is only for the sentimentally inclined ones.

* Valkyrie

I went to see this movie expecting it to be a war-story. On the contrary, it is a story of a real event that happened a year before the end of world war 2. The story is on an attempt by some good-willed anti-Nazi German soldiers on the life on Adolf Hitler. Some good performances but nothing great to rave about.

*SilambAttam

I didnt like anything in this movie except for the songs, in which Simbhu tries some extravagant dance steps. The double entendre and perverted scenes are too much. Crass. All the so-called comedy segments being targetted towards the Brahmins are disgusting. I dont know if the film industry can afford to show any other community in such a demeaning manner and get away with it. A silly story, a meaningless first half, and juvenile violence are all indigestible. Give it a miss, unless you are a mass-masala lover.

Indian Arranged Marriages

2008-12-23T10:43:00.000+05:30

Some of the Indian movies that I watched recently , viz., Rab ne bana di jodi, Poo and Mounam pesiyathey, had one thought-provoking thing in common - they had at least one scene where the parent(s) decide about the wedding of a main character. Indian parents, traditionally, have been considering the marriage of their son/daughter as their main responsibility. So, it is not surprising that the mere mention of 'love' meets with resistance - sometimes strong and sometimes weak, depending on how 'different' the lover is, in terms of religion, caste, social status, family background, and appearance. This post is not to support or oppose arranged marriage, but my analysis from a sociological point of view.

Why is arranged marriage the #1 preferred option by the parents? They strongly believe that, due to age and hence experience, they are in a better position to find a suitable match for their son/daughter. The 'horoscope matching' is an important part, since the religious belief that marriages are made in heaven and hence several mismatches between the boy and girl in horoscopes usually means a disagreement from the Gods on their marriage the moment they were born. Marriages are considered to be the union of not just two people, but two small sub-divisions of their caste. Thus, it is a chance for 10-15 families from each side to create a bond between themselves. So, the first thing the parents look for is 'a good family'.

A good family usually means reasonably well-off financially, with preferably educated parents and without any huge 'blemishes' by the members. From this moment on, I am going to start giving examples of the cases that I know of. While trying to get their mid-30's daughter married, the parents found a 'good boy' but the problem was that his father had two wives. Though the boy and girl liked each other from their first meeting and were well-matched in terms of their educational qualifications, the girl's parents were worried as to 'what if the son also gets inspired by his dad and chooses to follow him'. Later, after trying several other alliances in vain, they agreed to accept the boy, but keeping their fingers crossed and half-heartedly. There is a sociological theory called 'Broken windows theory' which says that if one social norm is violated in a place, it is more likely that the same norm and/or other norms would be violated in the same place. The girl's parents must be thinking along the same lines. The boy's grandfather was monogamous, but his dad choose bigamy. So, who was the inspiration for his father? Were they worried that, if the boy tries to pair with another girl after the marriage, his parents would have no moral responsibility to advise him against it?

There is a belief among the Iyers that a girl wedded to a Malayali iyer family would be taken care very well by her in-laws, because they would treat her as good as their own daughter. On the contrary, a non-malayali iyer family would hesitate to accept a girl from a malayali iyer family due to the belief that the girl would have been nicely pampered at their parents home and so would not be obedient to her in-laws. I know of someone who was married to such a malayali family because the boy's parents treated them well during the first visit and the boy is earning well. She had no choice but to agree for the marriage, and, during their communication before marriage, she didnt like several of his qualties, which were of importance to her. So, she entered into wedlock in dissatisfaction and with no choice left. Soon, she gave birth to a son, and hence, according to her family and the society, she is 'happily married with a son'. On the contrary, though the in-laws treat her well, her husband is indifferent to her feelings in almost every sense, and hence she is largely very unhappy with him ever since they got married. Who would believe if she tells that she is unhappy in her marriage?

As I mentioned before, while all lovers meet with resistance from their parents, the resistance is unimaginable when it is out of religion. A girl loved a muslim and the parents and relatives were totally against it. She was hastily married to someone from their own caste, but she was quite adament with her love, so they got divorced within a year of the marriage. She then married her lover, and they lived happily. Her family accepted her only conditionally; she wasnt allowed to attend any of their family functions which included the weddings of her 3 brothers. In another case, a tamil iyer guy who came to study in the US met an American girl, who had converted herself to Buddhism a few years ago. They fell in love, and when he told about it to his parents, they were ultra-dramatic and vicious, until the wedding. Though his mom has sort of accepted her fully, his dad insult her even now. She being a buddhist helped in some extent to get his parents' approval. She is living happily too.

Now, his parents were looking for a boy for his sister. They found a 'good family', 'nice boy', well-educated and good job. As it happens sometimes, he was found out to be even some distant relative, and so got the daughter married to the guy. But, they turned out to be total freaks, and she left him within 3 months. His parents turned nasty and evil against her parents because they were all fake. The buddhist lady blames her sis-in-law for her stupidity in going for such a marriage, because she feels that Indians get education only on what they study, but not on their lives. Also, she calls the Indian parents with such a mindset as hypocrites, since they have the tendency to emotionally blackmail their children whom they claim to love so much. According to her, the Indian parents give unthinkable backlash when the kids dont want their help. Since parents' love should never be in question, their huge interference in the choice of spouse for their children is totally against Hindu teachings.

When we Indians discuss about our marriage process to most westerners, they get shocked at the concept of 'arranged marriages' and ask questions like "how would u know if he wont beat u, how can you love someone whom you hardly know, what if you two are too different in personality that you clash for everything". I strongly feel that there is a huge amount of luck in the arranged marriages, which means we leave the match-making to God. In order to make the arranged marriages to work better, I have a small suggestion, after taking a cue from the movie 'Raman thediya Seethai'.

In the movie, Cheran goes to see a girl and when her parents make them talk to each other in private, he tells her that he doesnt want either of them to decide now. He suggests that they should talk to each other for awhile before conveying their decision to the parents. That is one idea which immediately appealed to me. In the various steps of approval from the boy and girl, usually the two most important steps are seeing each other's foto and talking for a few minutes when he comes to her house with his family comes to see her. How can that be enough to arrive at the right decision? An open-minded time period of atleast a few weeks is required for the boy and girl to understand about the other person to some extent. True, the chance of faking some qualities and hiding some is there, but hey, one has to take this chance for life.

One last example: A guy who is getting arranged-marriage with a girl is finding some differences with her already. She is very good, very sweet and loving towards him but he feels that her love is suffocating him. He says that he says 'I love u' to her just for the sake of it, without any true feelings. She sings for him songs in the phone but he feels that she is not a good singer and she makes mistakes in her 'sruthi' (He has learnt music). He is already showing a forced-love through fone, though she is not demanding. I feel sorry for that girl, and wish that this fella changes for good after the wedding. Imagine how it will be for her to hear from him in one angry moment that all the 'I love u's that he uttered were all fake!

This post is already quite long and I have more to write.. may be in the replies to appropriate comments. The communication between the pair in the arranged marriage system has changed in the last few years thanks to technological advances. So, unlike earlier times when the couple learn about each other's likings, wishes, and other details after the marriage, they do so now by talking in cellfone/fone, skype/yahoo and also getting to meet in person a few times. Ideally, the parents should ask their children if it is OK to choose a spouse for him/her. And, when they stumple upon someone whom they think is a good match, they should give time and space to the kids to make the ultimate decision. In short, the marriages should change from being 'family-centric' to 'couple-centric'.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

2008-12-18T10:35:00.000+05:30

Lemme try to review it the way Suhasini would do.. ;)

The director of this film, Aditya Chopra, rewrote the trend in Hindi films in 1995 with his blockbuster 'DDLJ' which is still running in Mumbai. He brought life back to a precariously placed Yash Raj films which is continuing to make 3-4 films a year. DDLJ was the first among a series of films with an NRI as the protagonist. Aditya followed DDLJ with 'Mohabbatein' 5 years later. Romance was the backbone for that movie too, but it wasnt even half as good as DDLJ. While the movie had good songs and an impressive star-cast, its story was very weak, and its scope pathetic. He took a long hiatus from directing movies and now is back with his favorite hero and a newcomer Anushka Sharma as the heroine.

The story first. Surinder (a geeky SRK with shirt, pant and specs), who works for 'Punjab Power' in Amritsar gets to marry Taani (Anushka) whose fiance dies on their wedding day due to an accident. Taani is very unhappy with the marriage and hence they both live separately in the same house. Taani joins a dance class and prepares for a competition. The introverted Suri wants to somehow win her love and undergoes a total change in his make-over, personality and everything, which make him totally opposite to what defines Suri. When Taani meets him in the dance class, she is unable to identify him as her husband. Afraid that he might not get a chance to spend time with her, he introduces himself as Raj to her and reverts back to his normal appearance at home.

Taani and Raj are assigned as dance partners. She slowly starts to like the vivacious Raj. He starts flirting with her, which meets with her resistance at first. Gradually, as they have to spend time together practicing their dance, she begins to like him. Her behavior is bittersweet to Raj, since he knows that she likes not her husband but the bubbly Raj. He goes to the extent of proposing to her and she agrees to elope with him. The movie ends with the events surrounding the final of the dance competition.

Rab ne.. walks on the edge of a sharp knife for the most part, without trying to compromise on the Indian culture and values. Though the climax is somewhat predictable, I wanted to see the way the events lead to it. After already having starred in a controversial movie like KANK, it is a risk for Shahrukh to enact a similar role. Can't say that his role comes out unscathed. His Raj character crosses the limit in 'testing' Taani by alluring and wooing her. Her anger in the climax is ridiculous, to say the least and is stereotypical of an Indian woman.

The movie suffers from huge lack of logic, which is its next major problem. First is the inability of Taani to distinguish between Suri and Raj, especially since they are the only two people with whom she interacts in Amritsar. Suri's total change in character resembles a multiple-personality disorder, only that in his case, both the personalities are very much aware of each other. Suri's reasoning for creating and sustaining Raj character is very weak, especially since he doesn't do anything to express his abundant love to Taani. 'Seeing God' in a loved one is all too much. This kind of story would have been apt for the era of previous generation only.

'Dance pe chance' has some nice lyrics and good dance; 'Phir milenge' is interesting, but the novelty in OSO's 'Om Shanti om' is missing. Shahrukh's body language is funny and entertaining in places. Anushka is just little more than a pretty doll. Her costumes - both the traditional Punjabi and dance suits are the only ones which add color to the movie. Overall, the movie is a yawn-fest most of the time; better luck, Shahrukh for the next 'My name is Khan'.

SabAsh.. SariyAna POtti!

2008-12-11T11:00:00.000+05:30

In the middle of getting continuously frustrated with a-nice-but-being-spoilt-by-partial-judges-show 'Airtel Super Singer 2008', something good happened this week. This is the week of 'Unplugged' songs, and the acoustic musician who came to accompany the contestants was one Mr. Stephen Devassy. Oh boy, wasnt he fabulous.. For tamil cinema viewers who haven't heard of him, just remember the piano bit before the second charanam in 'Kaatrin mozhi' - the one where Prithviraj, Prakashraj and Swarnamalya dance on a zebra crossing as if playing the keyboard.. that bit was played by none other than Stephen.

You can google and get loads of impressive info on this 27-year old; I was totally taken aback by his talent on this week's show. And then I came to know that he has already been an integral part of a similar talent-hunt show in the Malayalam channel 'Amrita', called Superstar Global, searching about which I came across this singer Roopa Revathi, who would put the super singer contestants into shame. Watch especially for this video below wherein she sang 'SingAra vElanE' song, with Stephen playing the piano, in front of S. Janaki, no less.

I became a huge fan of Stephen, the major reason for which is the performance below. No wonder he is the best Asian student ever at the famous London Trinity college of music.

I have noticed in the recent months that the new talent in Kerala is amazing. Considering the legends like Balamurali Krishna, KJY, Janaki,Chitra, Sujatha and Jency, I should have known sooner. I first saw some shows of Idea star singer,the first Malayalam singer-hunt show which is currently running in Asianet. Several of the contestants sing tamil songs, that too very well, with near-perfect diction. Looking at this kind of abundant talent in TN and Kerala, I wonder how there can be a place for someone like Madhusree in Tamil cine music.

Poo

2008-12-06T01:48:00.006+05:30

There have been quite a few complalints about the absence of heroine-centric movies in Tamil. In fact, thinking quite deeply about it, even the people like KB who have been known and famous for the female-centric stories have rarely shown a movie with the heroine in the limelight. Nandhini in Manathil Urudhi Vendum is the one that comes to the mind, while analyzing the last 20 or so years of Tamil cinema. In other movies, the role of the female(s) is considerably higher than the average movies but still such movies have been either hero-centric, or, the woman is shown to be at the mercy of the man/dependent. A separate post is required for the detailed analysis, but, in the context of Poo, it is a brilliantly made movie with the heroine as the central character.

Story: To prevent any kind of spoiler, this is what I can say: mMaari (Parvathi), who is happily married, visits her native village for a festival. There, she wants to meet her cousin Thangarasu (Srikanth) whom she knows since their childhood. From a mix of flashback and the real-time events, we get to see their lives through the eyes of Maari.

While doing some googling on this movie, I came to know that Poo is based on a novel. That explains the freshness of the story and the way it plays with the emotions. It is a slow-paced movie but I never had a minute of boredom. With the limited knowledge that we know about the main characters in the first few minutes of the movie, it always keeps us engrossed on what is going to happen next. That means that the screenplay is a successful one. The dialogues too are simple and realistic. Almost every character, including the tea shop owner, who initially appeared to be an unnecessary insert resembling Vadivelu in several scenes, has a role play later.

The movie is a tribute to humanity and the social concepts of friendship, relationship and love. It has to be seen to be experienced. Parvathi as Maari has simply lived that character; she reminded me of Shobha of the previous generation. I hope we can get to see her more in meaningful roles. Srikanth plays his role well. The girl who appears as Maari's friend is a good find too. Other characters help bring the Rajapalayam feel to the movie. 3 songs (Aavarampoo, Maaman, and Dheena) are three lovely melodies; choo choo maari is cute when it comes first and haunting during the second time; and Sivakasi rathiye is an interesting folk number involving two unique people.

In some scenes, I was totally in awe of the writer/director's story-telling power: when a weight falls on Maari's feet, when she tries to remember and recall a phone number, when Maari momentarily meets her lamb, the penultimate scene involving hands, and the 'silence' in the ultimate scene are those which have stayed in the mind. After watching the entire movie, I watched the first 10 minutes of the movie again, which made me view them in a totally new light. Therein lies the beauty of her feelings. At times, we wonder if she is eccentric or obsessed on a character. Her last conversation with her friend in the flashback sequence brilliantly shows her real heart.

I strongly recommend Poo. IMHO, this is better than 'Subramaniapuram' and so is my candidate for the best movie of the year. One random thought before I finish: what is it with the simplest of the titles? 4 years ago, a movie was released with a title that was a part of the title of several dozens of movies before that, and it was a ground-breaking movie, set in the similar background of Madurai. I am talking about 'Kaadhal', which was, coincidentally released in the last weeks of 2004. Now, with 'Poo', the similarities are so striking, and I hope that 'Poo' too becomes a commercial hit.

Designer Babies

2008-12-03T11:57:00.003+05:30

The term 'Designer babies' has been largely used by the popular media (mostly in a derisive way) to define the babies who are genetically tailored in the zygotic phase in order to eliminate the risk of known genetically transmitted diseases and to increase the capacity for certain skills/straits when the child grows up. The U.S. populace is divided over the concept because of the conservative belief of 'playing the God' and socio-ethical issues. My stand on this issue is a policy-based support for the genetically-bettered babies.

Firstly, it is the responsibility of the parents to do the best for their children. One moral/bioethical question that is being asked about designing babies is that it is like violating the rights of a human being and fiddling with his/her rights without permission. I consider that, from the moment a man and woman decide to have a baby, they are interfering with the right of another human being, which is of course not present. By choosing a partner of their own liking, by eating food of their choice during pregnancy, by consuming medicines that would keep the baby free of certain infectious diseases, by choosing a medical facility based on their liking for the pregnancy treatment and child delivery, and by opting for natural or caesarian method for delivery, the parents decide what is best for their child. The society accepts all of that, even though many of such practices have been constantly evolving over the past several decades.

I presume there will be some opponents to this concept, as there are for other controversial concepts such as abortion. It is important for one to be able to defend their decision to the opponents who might very well be relatives, coworkers and/or friends. My defense would be along the following lines: The society doesn’t question if a bankrupt or extremely poor couple decides to conceive a child; no squabbles if a jailbird wants to become a parent; also, the society allows the parents of a newborn or a young child to separate upon divorce; it even permits homosexuals to adopt a child. The future of the child or the consent of the child is never considered, because for the society, the parents are those who become more important than the tender mind of the child.

If one argues that, by genetically doctoring a child, we are tinkering with the child’s freedom of life, I would say that so do all the cases mentioned above. Can we argue that, since a mother and father are required for the conception of a child, the child deserves to have both of them together at home, until he/she reaches a certain age? Can the society ban divorce of parented couple unless the child consents? Can the child sue the divorced or poor or homosexual parents for not providing him/her an ideal and peaceful environment at home? After all, the children didn’t plead the parents to give birth to/adopt them, did they? Under the terms ‘parental responsibility’, ‘parental freedom’ and ‘reproductive/biological urge’, we allow the parents to choose what they want.

Similarly, in a competitive society, the responsibility to give birth a fittest possible child also comes under the responsibility of the parents. Granted, it is a game that can be played only by rich people; I wouldn’t know how much it would be possible for me to be able to spend for the genetic design of my child, but I would do my best to ensure that there is a somewhat level-playing field for my child. In that regard, I would like my child to be born without any physical and mental disabilities and with good intelligence. As long as the purpose of altering the natural genetics of a child is for the child’s betterment, I would support it and go for it. Other attributes such as gender, height, and other physical attributes are the qualities which are governed by me and my partner so I wouldn’t want that to be altered at all. Beauty and physical attributes are left out of the ‘betterment’ criterion, because I consider that beauty lies in the eyes of a beholder, and, what appears to be a positive attribute for one person need not be so for another. So, I would let nature take its own course in deciding those features for my child.

Another concern raised by the opponents of this concept is, they feel that it would take away the excitement of watching children grow to their individual personality, and that it would negate the disease-fighting and adapting tendency of a person if he/she is largely disease-free. I correlate such resistances to the voices raised by the so-called ‘purist lovers’ of sports when technology was brought in to sort-out some on-field decisions, the verdict of which depended only on the referee/umpire’s decision. A famous English cricketer, WG Grace once mentioned to an umpire who had just given a bad decision, “People have come to see me bat, not to see you umpire”. Common sense prevailed, several sports have assimilated technology, and the quality of the sports has become better since then. Similarly, every caring parent will want the best possible life for their children; seeing the children struggle against a disease which could have been prevented, or not being able to excel in life because of limited intelligence would be akin to child abuse.

Such advancements would mean that the level and intensity of competition among the members of the future generation will be quite difficult from what we see in our times. Youngsters and adults, devoid of worries about major acquired diseases and armed with better intelligence will constantly be thriving to excel one another. That doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. One such scientist endowed with super-intelligence might invent a drug for HIV; another physician might invent quick and complete cure for brain tumor; a nanotechnologist might design cheap and highly efficient solar cells or motor vehicles which would save our planet from burning of fossil fuels.

Also, intellectuals along the same league as Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Alva Edison, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Sigmund Freud, Richard Feynman, Leonardo Da Vinci, Beethoven, and Isaac Newton may be born. The possibilities are endless. Is it something to be worried? Such people have made the world a better place to live, so why can’t we have more of them in the future? It doesn’t mean that we can expect all these and more such breakthroughs happen by default or in a jiffy. The emphasis would still be on good education, parental care, responsible upbringing, inculcation of moral values and respect for fellow humans.

There might be some developments such as extra-fast athleticism, super-durable sportsmen, and extra-strong anti-social elements. In addition, there is a possibility that, those who cannot afford to have the genetically modified babies will continue to produce the ‘normal’ ones, leading to a divided society based on some new factor. But these are some of the issues that the politicians and sociologists need to consider and work about. American history suggests that, when the cars were introduced for the first time, only the rich could afford it initially; but the society as a whole started working very hard with a goal-driven desire to own a car. This led to the industrial revolution and the U.S. has never looked back since then. Such a phenomenon is highly likely to recur, since the stakes are quite high this time around. And America being a free society is always more welcoming to new developments in science and technology than dwell over the negative repercussions.

I think it is human nature to be circumspect when an extraordinary breakthrough is just around the corner. It is more so the case with conservatives and those who place religion above everything else. The numerous medical advancements that the genetic engineering promises must allow its opponents to let the scientists do their job under the watchful eyes of the Government and eminent scholars.

Song of the month - Mundhinam

2008-11-26T01:15:00.003+05:30

Another quick and unjustifiably crude translation of a recent song which has captivated my heart.
M: ஹாய் மாலினி!
I'm கிருஷ்ணன்.
நான் இதை சொல்லியே ஆகணும்;
நீ அவ்ளோ அழகு!
எவனும் இவ்ளோ அழகா ஒரு ......
இவ்ளோ அழகைப் பார்த்திருக்க மாட்டாங்க
and I am in love with you....

After introducing himself, he says that no one would have seen such a beautiful.... (pause and a chuckle) such a beauty. What a way to say that she is the most beautiful (not just woman, but in the) whole world. Considering that this is their first meeting, that is a very powerful statement (albeit praising her external beauty) to flatter her.

முன்தினம் பார்த்தேனே பார்த்ததும் தோற்றேனே
சல்லடைக் கண்ணாக நெஞ்சமும் புண்ணானதே
I saw you yesterday and as soon as I saw, I lost (to you).
My heart was wounded like the eyes of a sieve.

Traditionally, the sight of a woman is compared to the arrow; so, it is as if so many of such arrows attacked his heart and wounded him, that his heart has thousands of such tiny holes.

இத்தனை நாளாக உன்னை நான் பாராமல்
எங்குதான் போனேனோ நாட்களும் வீணானதே

All these days, without seeing you
where (the hell) did I go? Oh, all (my) days have been a waste..

When a person meets someone and falls in love, he/she wishes that they spent all their goneby days with that person. It is not only the happiness of the present, and a dream for the future, but a frustration for the past too.

வானத்தில் நீ வெண்ணிலா ஏக்கத்தில் நான் தேய்வதா
இப்போழ்தே என்னோடு வந்தாலென்ன
ஊர் பார்க்க ஒன்றாக சென்றாலென்ன

(முன்தினம்)

You are like a moon on the sky; I wane due to longing (for you)
What if you come with me now?
What if we go out, with the world watching (or what if we go sight-seeing)?

Yeah, the last line can be taken in both the ways. The first one is about the Hindu tradition of going on a procession after the marriage, so that the neighborhood can see who has got married. The latter is about the wish of a person to roam around the world with his lover.

துலாத்தட்டில் உன்னை வைத்து
நிகர் செய்யப் பொன்னை வைத்தால்
துலாபாரம் தோற்காதோ பேரழகே?

After placing you on a weighing balance,
if gold is placed to equalize with you,
wont the balance lose, my beauty?

He is not talking about the shape of his girl (pun unintended); he compares the beauty of her with the beauty of gold. He says that she is so beautiful that, a balance designed to weigh human-like fairly large objects will still be too small to accomodate the enormous gold required to compensate for her beauty. Considering the density differences between gold and human, this is a huge claim indeed.. ;), and his girl is such a beauty.

F: முகம் பார்த்துப் பேசும் உன்னை
முதல் காதல் சிந்தும் கண்ணை
அணைக்காமல் போவேனோ ஆருயிரே

How will I not hug you, who looks at my face and talks
and from whose eyes the first love is oozing out?

Women respect and like men who look at their face and talk, bcos a large chunk of the men have been notorious in that aspect. Also, the girl's instant appeal with someone who is giving his heart for the first time to a woman is given importance. Also, this is the first response of the woman after hearing what the man has said. She just reciprocates to his feelins saying that she likes to hug him.

M: ஓ... நிழல் போல விடாமல் உன்னைத் தொடர்வேனடி
புகை போலப் படாமல் பட்டு நகர்வேனடி
வினா நூறு கனாவும் நூறு.. விடை சொல்லடி

I will follow you like (your) shadow; I will touch you delicately and move away from you as how the smoke does. (I have) hundreds of questions, and hundreds of dreams; pl. give (me) an answer.

The desperation of the hero is very much evident from these lines. He is already dreaming of her and a life with her. All he wants is the answer.. Of course he wants 'yes' to be that answer. One can compare this Q&A to the western culture of the woman answering the man 'yes' when he proposes, and during the wedding when she says 'yes, I do!'.

(முன்தினம்)

F: கடல் நீலம் மங்கும் நேரம்

அலை வந்து தீண்டும் தூரம்

மனம் சென்று மூழ்காதோ ஈரத்திலே

When the blueness of the sea dims,
the waves touch the far end (of the shore).
Wont the heart immerse (itself) in the wetness (of love)?

M:தலை சாய்க்கத் தோளும் தந்தாய்
விரல் கோர்த்துப் பக்கம் வந்தாய்
இதழ் மட்டும் இன்னும் ஏன் தூரத்திலே

You gave (me your) shoulder (for me) to put (my) head on..
You came near me holding my hands..
why are your lips still far away?

F:பகல் நேரம் கனாக்கள் கண்டேன் உறங்காமலே
உயிர் ரெண்டு உராயக் கண்டேன் நெருங்காமலே
உனை அன்றி எனக்கு ஏது எதிர்காலமே

I had day-dreams without sleeping
I saw two souls frictioning (against each other), without coming closeby
What is my future without you?
Only in the ultimate line of the charanam, she opens out her heart and gives the real answer that he wants to hear. By saying that there is no future for her without him, all the ambiguities of dating and courting relationship are removed and the love now reaches the mutually agreed state.

(முன்தினம்)

Six is Sexy

2008-11-20T23:53:00.018+05:30

Two movies released in this November (Varanam Ayiram) and last november (Om Shanti Om) had one thing in common, in addition to a famous song featuring the name Shanti. The hearthrob hero sports a six-pack abs, creating a 'six-pack sensation' among a lot of young guys in North and South India, unlike what nobody has managed to do so before.

In Bollywood, Sanjay Dutt was the first to own a super-muscular body and later Salman followed; but, due to their frequent removal of shirt, their achievement was in fact ridiculed. Then, Hrithik happened. His biceps and pecs were a craze that time, and he had a disproportionate body shape, with stick-like legs and no hips. John Abraham managed to defeat Hrithik for possessing the perfect body. Saif Ali Khan started bulking up, and even the chocolate-hero Aamir Khan had a superb body in Lagaan, but devoid of the six-pack abs.

The major transition happened with all the leading stars suddenly getting carried away by the abs wave. Shah Rukh always contended that he never used to work out but still maintains a good body. His friend Farah Khan is a clever lady. She knew what women want. So, she made Shah Rukh hit the gym and develop the six-pack, and re-invented his sex-symbol image in 'Dard-e-disco' song. And, according to the latest news, Aamir too has been working very hard in sculpting his whole body for creating a overall well-toned structure.

Tamil heroes were understandably quite slow to catch up on the physique. Kamal, Satyaraj, and Arjun were the only ones with a decent body shape till last decade. The young heroes of this generation aren't quite bad in this sense. Gautam, after winning the women's hearts by creating a beautiful love angle to a cop's story in KK, went one step ahead and asked Surya to develop the six-pack. I must say it has worked; the female crowd in the movie hall here on the first day was substantially higher than usual. Their whistles, comments and gasps upon seeing a dashing Surya were suggestive of the arrival of the new trend.

Due to all the big names in Bollywood and the aspiring stars from Kollywood (Surya, Vishal, et al.) focussing on something which was totally neglected so far, it is obvious that the number of gym-going desi guys will increase. It is bcos, for the first time, they see their significant other admiring a star for the unconventional reasons apart from handsomeness, style or acting skills. The pressure is definitely on, which, I think is a very good thing. Similar to the ways the guys expected the girls to look beautiful and slim like the actresses (Namitha is an exception ;)), the guys are forced to shed the pot-belly, waist-tire and double-chin in order to look appealingly good to their significant other.

Creating a six-pack is the ultimate challenge for any gym-goer. The reasons are two-fold: to burn off all the adamant fat on the belly and to build the abs muscles. All of us have the abdominal muscles which form the 6-pack; only, they are very small, and are hidden underneath the years-old fat. The body likes to store fat at the abdomen region, since that is closest to the digestive track and also a lot of vital organs in the region need to be protected in the absence of a major skeletal shield. So, there are three major steps towards 6-pack: burn off nearly all the fat, so that there is nothing to hide the muscles; strengthen all the muscles above the abdomen, which will lead to more mass and hence more pressure on the abs muscles to support the body above; do the specific work-outs like crunches for attacking the abs muscles.

Each of the above 3 processes is extremely hard and requires an extremely important mix of diet, work-out, and rest. Yours truly's gym visits will substantially release before the release of heroes such as Hrithik, Vikram and Surya; it is almost like a project with a deadline. Only, the deadline will come and go and new deadlines will be formed, without much effort. Even with a waist size of 30, it is very hard for me to make even the top two of the 6-pack visible for a few days. Nevertheless, I view it as an interesting hide-and-seek game between oneself and the body, in the 'fat vs muscl'e competition.

In the very first episode of the Vijay TV show "Kutram: Nadandhadhu enna?", there was the mention of extreme diet, steriod-usage for muscle buildup and injury due to overworking. Hope the young generation is aware of that, during their quest in bodybuilding. Considering the population of Taminadu of over 6 crores in which men at the young adult age group form a minimum of 3 million, only about 0.01% (~300) would be having a good 6-pack... here is wishing that % to substantially increase in the coming years ! :)

Varanam Ayiram

2008-11-15T23:49:00.010+05:30

Story: Life of Surya (Surya), with his dad Krishnan’s (Surya) influence in each phase of his life.

I liked: The performances of all, mostly. Initially, Surya’s falling in love with Meghna (Sameera Reddy) is a little too mushy-mushy; but I think the emotional and romantic males can correlate to Surya’s feelings, and his ways of showing his love. The picturization of most songs was superb, except my fav ‘Nenjukkul’.

‘Mundhinam’ was superbly done, except for Simran’s appearance. The props used for the song gave the required retro feeling. In ‘Yethi yethi’, Surya appearing in some avatar’s of Kamal’s old movies was good and believable, considering the teenagers’ wish to emulate their icon.

I totally disliked:

Most of the dialog. Though sometimes one can convey a lot by simple phrases like ‘I am in love with u’, or ‘I miss(ed) you’ and like, when it is shown in a movie, we expect a different touch to it when it is repeated. Gautham managed to show the difference in Kamal’s love with the two women in VV quite well, but in 'Vaaranam Ayiram', except for Surya’s exuberance, it lacks the novelty. There is a distinct Mani Ratnam touch in the dialog, which is not wrong by itself; but overdoing it makes us to feel like excommunicating Gautham.

This movie shows us that something we take for granted, like the good dialog, can explicitly show its absence, thus spoiling the script. First of all, the family communicating mostly in English, considering the family’s background, is definitely odd. The only word that sticks to our memory when we come out of the movie is ‘Daddy’; I heard a comment from a nearby woman saying her hubby that she is gonna ban her son from calling him ‘daddy’. Such was the irritation it creates, unfortunately. If it wasn't for tax exemption, Gautham would have surely named the movie 'Daddy'. ;) Gautham’s down-to-earth dialogues in ‘Kakha kakha’ were appreciated that time, since they were fresh; but now, that style is stale; we don’t want extravagant poetical/cinematic dialogues but not of the kind conversed in this movie.

Screenplay. Many times we feel that the movie is simply stagnating; especially Gautham’s ploy of showing Surya’s family and Krishnan’s death at the beginning of the movie badly backfires, since we can easily predict much of the movie. Also, the military scenes appear to be totally unnecessary and don’t blend with the overall mood of the movie. Though Gautham wanted to show an ideal dad through Krishnan, the latter’s approach and solutions to Surya’s problems seem somewhat too simple, and so they don’t get our appreciation. True, in several families, the dad doesn’t show much emotions and love towards his children and Krishnan is quite caring; but, unlike in ‘Thavamai Thavamirundhu’, his character development with his children is not shown, if that was what was supposed to be the crust of the movie. So, it oscillates between Surya’s love and his dad; so, when he dies, we don’t feel for him.

Direction. This is a classic case of talented actors showing superb performances not gelling to a memorable movie due to the lack of the glue which the direction provides. The director has paid great attention to peripheral issues like the appearance of Surya at different stages, Krishnan and Malini (Simran) in 60’s, film-making in different parts of the world, and song picturization; but has miserably failed to weave them all in a beautiful fabric of his 3 departments – screenplay, dialog and direction. If he wants to show a real urban middle-class family, in which of such family is the elder brother happily married with children, when his sister is not married?

His numerous inspirations. Previously, he seemed to copy from his own KK when he made VV and PKMC, but in this movie, lots of scenes remind us of other famous movies. I remembered Lakshya (the story of a confused young man finding his passion in military), Autograph (love failure leading to substance abuse and the dad’s advise to channel the anger into something positive), Life is beautiful (he camouflages a gory situation as a game to a child), and Thavamai Thavamirundhu (mother and an ill father being happy with their son and D-I-L, and the son’s wish to make his dad retire from work and enjoy life).

Gautham likes to show his characters to be the creamy layer. We heard Maya of KK say ‘MSc Maths, from IIT Madras’ evoking laughter in the theater, and now it is ‘Comp Sci from REC Trichy and 99% score, plus MS from Berkeley’. If Surya’s efforts to find Meghna were lame, his zeroing-in on Prithviraj during the child abduction in a city like Delhi, that too within days, is too much stretching of imagination.

Initially when I heard the rumors that it would be a remake of ‘Forrest Gump’, I didn’t like the idea; but now I feel that it would have been far better if it was a remake.

Why blog?

2008-11-02T21:13:00.005+05:30

In the post on the 'Demography of Bloggers', someone had asked why people open out their minds to total strangers. It is a very interesting question, and it gave me a chance to open up to you all a little more about what I think about blogging. There are hundreds of articles that have talked about the advantages of blogging; here, I am writing about my personal view and what I have learnt from my fellow blogger friends.

First, plz read a recent article on how blogging is good for one's health. :)

I usually get a lot of thoughts and opinion about the things that have interested me, but couldnt always find the right friends with whom to share them all. After coming to US, the interaction with fellow like-minded Indians reduced even more drastically. Within less than a year of landing here, I came across blogging, and it immediately appealed to me, since it provided my own platform to pen my views, and have a discussion going. Also, from my childhood, I have always liked to write (and talk) a lot too.. ;)

When someone starts blogging, he/she knows few or hardly any friends who also blog. By commenting in others' blogs, and also receiving comments in one's posts, people slowly open up their mind on various topics. As I mentioned in the earlier post, some prefer to be anonymous, simply because they dont know what to expect in this new and unclear world; there is no way to judge a person purely from his/her posts; and so on. Still, most open out their minds to the strangers, because with some, they find better connectivity than with fellow bloggers than with their spouses/siblings/parents/friends. Also, when one can't share some issues with the people surrounding them, they tend to look out for doing so with somebody; through blogs, they find some people with whom they can share, and that makes them feel better.

I have heard some comparisons between blogging and online chatting in chat rooms. Though the commonality between them is in the introduction to strangers in the cyberspace, blogging is far more reliable, for, it helps understand the stranger in a better way, from his/her postings and responses to comments, and also from the comments in others' blogs. As I wrote in the previous post, reading someone's posts for a considerable time (which would vary, depending on if and how that person is circumventing from his/her original personality in the posts and comments) would help map the personality of someone to a considerable extent.

This bring to the important question of whether bloggers reveal their true traits, or hide it to deceive others. This arises due to the presence of such characters in the internet chat rooms, where even the gender of the person can be doubted unless a verbal communication is setup. So far, I havent felt such a deception in the blogworld. Well, everyone has secrets, and a considerable chunk of the population has another side that is hardly known even to the spouse; so, in that same scale, certain characteristics of the bloggers, due to self-imposed constraints or whatever, may not be known.

Thus, having deciphered the personality map of some bloggers, people decide about how much of their mind to share with a particular blogger. I have written some stories on "Blogger Love", which, I felt, and still feel, would be more meaningful and sensible than 'Chatroom love'. I am not suggesting or recommending anything, but such is the power of the blogging that I have felt so far, which has made me to remark so. Blogs are almost like mirrors, reflecting one's personality. It is because I believe that 'one can fool someone for sometime, but not all the time'. Add one more famous saying 'Man is a social animal', and it will become clear that, when a new vista of social interaction arrives, it is embraced quite cheerfully, thus helping further shrink the world.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T21:53:00.009+05:30

On the occasion of Halloween, my mind went to tamil horror movies. That is one genre which attacted me to theaters when before my teens but I w'd end up 'watching' them either with one-eye between fingers or with closed eyes. Here is the list of such movies on this special occasion:
1) Yaar:
The movie was a hit, making the director add the movie's name before his name as 'Yaar' Kannan. It was a well-crafted movie, with a decent star cast of Arjun, Nalini, Jaishankar, Senthil, 'NizhalgaL' Ravi, (I think his was the first name the horror moviemaker would pen when deciding the star cast.. One can see him in pretty much all the movies... He would have just missed being called 'Pei' Ravi, ;) )among others. Even the comedy segment, involving was Senthil was quite freaky, especially the demise of Prof. Senthil. One unforgettable scene which scared the hell out of me is where Jayachitra encounters her 'different' son, thinking of which I still get the hair at the back of the neck raising.
2) 13-aam number veedu:
There is the same spookiness in this movie too, with lots of boorish moments. It followed the same trend of people in a house dying one after the other.

3) My dear Lisa:
It has the classical horror motive of revenge behind it. Some of the modus operandi for murder is inspired from 'Evil dead'.

4) Idhudhan arambam:
Produced and directed by 'Raj Bharath' of early 80's movie 'Uchakkattam', this involved a lot of scary scenes, but this was a movie with a twist in the end.

5) Jenma natchathiram:
Heavily inspired from 'The Oman', this movie, produed by 'ThakkAli' Srinivasan had a child as the '666' evil. The climax was quite heart-breaking and made me think about what would have happened after the movie ended.

6) Vaa Arugil Vaa:
Actually a nice movie. It had a decent storyline, heart-wrenching senti scenes, good suspense-building moments, and an entertaining second half. The horrifying figure was inspired the 'Chucky' character, but the Tamil version was quite cute. This movie, along with 'Yaar' and 'Idhudhan arambam' is one of the only three Tamil horror movies that I have watched twice.
7) Uruvam:
A movie with 'Mike' Mohan as the main character, but a unique one.. His voice and hairstyle were horrible; and the horror-inducing scenes were quite creepy. For those of us who associate Mike Mohan with soft, romantic roles, and singing in front of mikes, this movie is undigestible.

8) Shock:
Remake of Hindi 'Bhoot', this film scared only in parts. The most scariest creature was the hair-chewing, eye-rolling Kalairaani, who for your kind information, was not possessed. It was quite different from the usual horror movies in the sense that it is based in an urban setting, a Chennai apartment.
9) Sivi:
A recent one; again based in an urban setting of college, library and normal city house. Despite having the advantage of using good technology, it wasnt that different in the fear-inducing scenes. It has got some twists too; the last scene/frame of the movie is quite shocking.

BTW, one doubt: Why do Indian women close their mouths with their hands when they scream? ;)

Missing

2008-10-26T22:45:00.010+05:30

While listening to "I miss u miss u da" song, I suddenly wondered how to say that in Tamil. Missing = 'Tholaindhu pOdhal', but what about missing someone? How about 'unnai migavum izhakkirEn?'; but it is more like, "I lose u". Then it occured to me that it is a sin to deprive Tamil of such a wonderful part of love. Missing-ey Tamil-le missing? ;) That made me to coin a new word for that; upon thinking for some time, I chose 'mizhathal' for missing. hehe.. romba simple Mi(ss) + (I)zhathal = Mizhathal. :)

I miss you = Naan unnai mizhakkirEn

I am missing u = Naan unnai mizhandhukondirukkrEn

I will miss u so much = Naan unnai migavum mizhappEn

I missed you a lot = Naan unnai adhigam mizhandhEn.

Planning to use it when writing mini kavithai's.. If you too liked it, use it and spread it.. illenna, any suggestions?

BTW, A Very Happy Deepavali Wishes to All of You!!!!! :-)

Revisit of some old posts

2008-10-19T10:43:00.005+05:30

1) Starting from the oldest, I had written this post 3 years ago about harvesting of human power in gym. From one comment that I got last year, I was happy to know that the idea is getting implemented by some gyms in Hong Kong.

2) I had this list of my favorite top 10 villains in Tamil cinema. Some good ones were missed, as some readers had mentioned and as I Had acknowledged. Check out this recent list by Behindwoods and watch out for overlaps.

3) I like most reality shows involving talent-hunt, be it dance, music, singing or humor. I had posted about one of my fav shows - Nach Baliye, the Season 2 of which was just over when I wrote the post. This Friday, the Season 4 has kick-started. Season 2 was a huge success, with good judges and cute couples. Season 3 was a forgettable one, though I havent watched most of the episodes. It even ended controversially, with court cases and allegations of favoritism/bias. Season 4 looks very promising, with great judges - Farah Khan, Arjun Rampal and Karishma Kapoor (South ex-heroines must have a look at her.. Looks like time has stopped moving forward in her life alone.. she looks almost the same as in 'Dil To Pagal Hai' or 'Fiza'). Among the participants, Jaspal Bhatti is a surprise choice... Hope he caters well to the Bhangra audience. Thee are a few known and newfaces from soap operas, but at least 6 couples look promising. Let it rock!!

4) Another important addition to 'Science in song lyrics' post: "Moongil kAdugalE" from Samurai. I came across this song only recently, and when I heard that it is Vikram's fav song, I can understand. Superbly sung by Hariharsn and brilliantly penned by Vairamthu, the following lines have some wonderful references to scientific events, linking them with philosophy and humanity..
In the second stanza, he goes:
"Uppu kadalOram mEgam uRpathi AnAlum
upputhaNNeerai mEgam oru pOdhum sindhAdhu
i.e., Even though clouds originate from salty sea, it never rains salt water)

Malaiyil veezhndhAlum sooriyan marithu povathilllai
nilavukku oLiootti thannai neettithukkolgirathu"
(Though the sun disappears behind the hill, it doesnt die; it enlightens the moon and extends its longevity)

Then, he says
"Jananam maraNam aRiyA vaNNam nAnum mazhaithuLi AvEnO"
(Will I become like rain which has no birth or death?)

The first part beautifully talks about the natural process of distillation. For the question of why salt doesnt evaporate alongwith water is bcos the vapor pressure of salt is very low. Thus, the evaporation of water from sea separates pure water from saline sea.

In the second part, the process of reflection of sunlight by moon is poetically described. Vairamuthu says that it elongates the life of sun.

In the last part, the fundamental chemical theory about conservation of molecular structure upon physical changes is narrated. Water, or any chemical for that matter, can neither be created nor be destroyed due to the physical processes that take place around or with them. For that, chemistry is required. Vairamuthu compares that law to the hero's wish of living forever without a knowledge about life or death. If his wis was granted, he would be like 'Hancock'.

5) In an earlier quiz, I had asked about the uniqueness of Harris Jeyaraj. Now, what is unique about our Gaptun Vijayakanth, Surya and Vikram, which separates them from others such as Sivaji, Rajni, Kamal, Satyaraj, Karthik, Prabhu, Vijay, Ajith, Sarathkumar and 'Mike' Mohan? Since I havent enabled comment moderation, you might find the answers from others' comments.

PS: Oru sudden doubt.. I have some friends who were raised by their grandmothers. As there are so many songs praising mother in Tamil cinema, why is there not a single song praising her in a senti way? (Pl. ignore "Paatti sollai thattAdhey").

Before Sunset

2008-10-13T06:29:00.005+05:30

I wanted to publish this post on the 10th itself, when I felt soooo romantic. This movie is set in the most romantic city of the world, Paris.. and I wished I knew French, to fully understand all the dialogue. May be I will learn it in the future and watch the movie umpteenth time... ;)

Please note: A few spoilers about this move and its prequel, 'Before Sunrise' will be found in this review. Both the movies are availabe in youtube.. Before sunrise - in 10 parts. Before sunset is available in 8 parts. I strongly recommend the romantic lovers among you to watch these 2 movie. Definitely worth 3 hours of your life.

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are two of my all-time favorite movies and certainly the most favorite pair in the ‘Sequel’ category. In this post, I focus mainly on ‘Before Sunset’ and describe what a great sequel it is – not only in terms of the story or other technical aspects but in the aspects that make it an excellent pair with its prequel.

The way the first part ended was rather ambiguous (open-ended). As the male protagonist Jesse (Ethan Hawke) reveals in the sequel, it is totally left to the reader to imagine what really happened after the climax. A romantic would think that the he and Celine (Julie Delpy, in an awe-inspiring performance), the girl he met and spent a day in Vienna, met again and a cynic would think they didn’t. Now, the time for the imagination is over and the viewer is going to know the answer, but it wouldn’t come soon. So, during the course of the movie, the viewer has to read between the lines and try to guess the answer correctly. Thus, from being a romantic or cynic, the viewer has to change to being an observer or a wild-guesser.

In the book-meeting scene, he talks of the idea for his next story, where he remembers his ex-girlfriend when his daughter is dancing to the tunes of a song he listened with his ex-girlfriend. This was indicative of the director giving us clues about his life. His first book was based on his real-life incident of meeting his ex-girlfriend; moreover, the very first dialogue in the movie begins with one of the journalists asking the writer if the story is autobiographic, to which he answers that every writer’s work is inspired from his/her life experiences, and being the writer of a romantic story, his too is real. These two events suggest us that he probably has an offspring, probably a daughter and that he still thinks often about his ex-girlfriend. He further says that he wanted to be a great lover, an adventurer and an explorer of the world; but instead he was depressed despite having a great job and a beautiful wife.

When Celine comes to meet him at the bookstore, we see that he is quite surprised seeing her, and within minutes of their conversation it is apparent that they couldn’t meet again as they planned, in Vienna. Now, the next question arises about their individual lives. Her bare fingers reveal that she is single, but his situation is left to guess. When asked how long it took to write the novel, he says 3-4 years, which is the first major clue given by the director that it has indeed been at least 4 years since their earlier meeting. He further remarks that his life nosedived after Dec 16, 1995, when he was waiting for her in Vienna in vain and his life turned miserable. Though he says that he only joked, one can sense that the director is giving hints about his troubled marriage.

Their conversation is quite different from the one they had during their first meet. While much of it was about what youngsters would be thinking and talking about, such as, partners, childhood memories, and career goals, now their conversation revolves around more serious and global issues such as global warming, politics of the modern world, and environmental pollution. This difference also suggests of their increased maturity over the years, hinting us that they have got quite older and wiser.

Unlike in the first movie where there was quite a bit of physical interaction between them after the first few hours, such as holding hands together and kissing, we don’t see any such thing here, despite them meeting after a few years. This also suggests of some barrier between them, which we don’t know is because of the awkwardness of the situation or due to something else. We get the answer a little later.

While talking at the café, he talks of his problems getting deeper and deeper, but when she asks him what his problems are, he sighs and says he doesn’t have any problems and that, at that moment, he is very happy being there. From the conversations, it becomes clear that both have been thinking about each other and we also get the feeling that they have indeed been searching the other within their limits. Then, when he reveals the exact time that passed between the meetings, it is quite shocking. Now, the viewer is made to guess about what would have happened in each of their life in that period, and most importantly, if both of them are still single and available for each other.

Later when they talk about the details of their past meet, Celine behaves as if she has forgotten much of the way they spent their first day together in Vienna. It comes as a shock to him, because he says that he remembers that night much more than he remembers his entire living years. Considering that, and the fact that it was only he who showed up at Vienna for the elusive reunion, it arises a doubt about whether she cherishes their first meet as much as he does. When he asks her if it was a bitter experience and hence she wanted to forget it, she says no. As the conversation evolves, and when she is shown to remember even their zodiacs after all these years, it slowly becomes apparent that he really meant something to her.

During all this time, it is clear that we are observing every conversation between them and every place there go. By this, I mean that the editing has been such that we witness everything they do. Thus, there is no scope to guess whether or not they have talked about their lives in the intermittant time. But I felt that there is a nice catch. Being an author of a bestselling author, it is most probable that his short biography is there at the back-cover of his book, making her aware of his marital and social status (which is usually briefly mentioned in the biography). But he has no clue about her life, neither are we aware of her feelings about what she has learnt about him. The director makes us wait for the story to unfold.

When she eventually asks him about his family, we know about his marital status and also that she is aware of that. When she later reveals that she is not yet married and that she is unable to maintain a long-term relationship with anyone because of his memories, we understand how strongly she has been in love with him, after spending just a few hours with him the first time around. The difference between the release of the two movies is actually the same what director has decided to use as the break. I think it is a smart ploy, because both Jesse and Celine have aged quite considerably and the director needed to just show their older faces to make us realize that it is indeed a long time since the prequel.

The reason for me mentioning their first interaction which is shown in just a few frames at the beginning of the movie is that, someone who watches this movie without having watched its prequel will definitely be tempted to find out how their first meet would have been. That doesn’t mean that it is a prerequisite to have watched Before Sunrise for watching this movie. Before Sunset is a great movie by itself, perhaps better in the lead roles’ performances than the prequel, especially during the emotional outburst shown beautifully in a long shot during their limo journey. There, each of them loves to console the emotionally charged other by trying to touch their hair, but they restrain doing so, probably because of the realization that his marital status prevents such a contact.It is such a wonderful scene, and is easily the best in the movie.

The director decides to end Before Sunset too open-ended, with a clever dialog in which Celine tells Jesse that he is going to miss the plane, for which he replies “I know”. The movie ends right after that, and the director re-invokes the romantic vs cynic argument in us. I concluded that Jesse would deliberately miss the flight to stay with her for awhile before divorcing his wife, thus ending the unhappy marriage and unite with Celine. I loved both the movies because of the terrific conversations the pair had in both the versions, around which they gradually share their life and express their love. In short, I would say that Before Sunset is a perfect sequel to Before Sunrise in every sense. Listen to a beautiful waltz that Celine wrote for Jesse..

KannE KalaimAne - Song of the Month

2008-10-03T04:30:00.008+05:30

Last year, some blogger had requested for a translation of 'Kanne kalaimAne' from 'Moondram Pirai' after reading my analysis of the title of the movie. Superband soulful rendition by KJY, very melodious music of IR and great but simple lyrics by Kannadasan make it one of the best melodies ever in Tamil film music. That made me twitter 14 months ago about the concept of the 'Song of the Month'. I had planned to include the songs which I never discussed in my blog. Only now, in the death anniversary month of the great lyricist Kannadasan, I got a chance to write about his last song, which has been in three of my lists so far. Better late than never, so here we go:

Pallavi:

கண்ணே கலைமானே கன்னி மயிலெனக் கண்டேன் உனை நானே 0.1

அந்தி பகல் உனை நான் பார்க்கிறேன் ஆண்டவனை இதைத்தான் கேட்கிறேன் 0.2

ஆரிராரோ ...

(கண்ணே)

kannae kalaimaanae kanni mayilena-k-kandaen unai naanae

andhi pagal unai naan paarkkiraena andavanai idhaiththaan kaetkiraen

aariraaro ...

Most of you know the context in which this song appears in the movie. The hero has fallen love with the mentally retarded heroine whom he is sheltering, without knowing anything about her history.

0.1: Kannae and kalaimaane are the common ways of chweetly calling one's love.. Kan is eye and kalaimaan is one kind of deer, and mayil is peacock. He pretty much praises her.

0.2: I see you in dawn (andhi) and noon (pagal); I wish/ask for just this from the God (andavan).

Charanam 1:

ஊமை என்றால் ஒரு வகை அமைதி 1.1

ஏழை என்றால் ஆதிலொரு அமைதி 1.2

நீயோ கிளிப்பேடு பண் பாடும் ஆனந்தக் குயில் பேடு 1.3

ஏனோ தெய்வம் சதி செய்தது பேதை போல விதி செய்தது 1.4

oomai enraal oru vagai amaidhi

aezhai enraal adhil oru amaidhi

neeyo kilippaedu pan paadum aanandak kuyil paedu

aeno dheyvam sadhi seydhadhu paedhai poala vidhi seydhadhu

1.1: It is becalming if you are dumb (oomai)

1.2: It is becalming if you are poor (ezhai)

1.3: (But) you are a female parrot (kilippaedu), a happy female Nightingale (kuyil paedu) who sings songs (pan paadum)

1.4: Don't know why but the God created a conspiracy (sadhi); fate (vidhi) made you mentally unstable (paedhai).

Charanam 2:

காதல் கொண்டேன் கனவினை வளர்த்தேன் 2.1

கண்மணி உனை நான் கருத்தினில் நிறைத்தேன் 2.2

உனக்கே உயிரானேன் எந்நாளும் எனை நீ மறவாதே 2.3

நீ இல்லாமல் எது நிம்மதி நீதான் என்றும் என் சந்நிதி 2.4

kaadhal kondaen kanavinai valarththaen

kanmani unai naan karuththinnil niraiththaen

unakkae uyiraanaen ennaalum enai nee maravaadhae

neeyillaamal edhu nimmadhi needhaanae en sannidhi

2.1: I am in love with you; I planted (valarthaen) dreams (kanavinai).

2.2: (Kanmani: Pupil of the eye) Oh dear, I have filled (niraithaen) you in my thoughts (karuthinil).

2.3: I have become your soul (uyiraanen); Never ever forget me (maravaadhae)

2.4: What is peace (nimmadhi) without you (neeyillaamal)? You are forever (endrum) like my (holy) sanctum sanctorum (sannidhi).

I know that the sweetness of the song is lost in translation. And also my translation can be improved.. consider it as a maiden n crude effort.

Anniyanai Vidathu Karuppu

2008-09-20T23:27:00.004+05:30

Warning: Some spoilers of the movie 'Anniyan' and the TV serial 'Marma Desam: VidAthu karuppu' will be found.

During the time when Anniyan was released, I was very thrilled with the concept and the fact that it was a vigilante movie by Shankar further fuelled my interest on the movie, which culminated in a string of posts in May-June 2005. After watching the movie too, I was very impressed by it. Logistics and the irritating 'Remo' apart, it was quite a nice portrayal of multiple-personality disorder (MPD) or split personality. Add to that some fine acting by Vikram, it was a movie I never got bored of watching any number of times.

Then I happened to watch 'VidAthu karuppu' on a website recently. It was totally awesome. It was such a different tele-serial that I felt like I was watching a very long and superb movie. This is easily the best tele-serial I have ever watched. So many visitors of the website were anxiously waiting for the posting of each episode. The suspense was too much to take. It has nearly ended, and, towards the end came the shocking revelation of the split personality of a main character which was the 'Karuppu'. It was then that the 'Anniyan' connection became clear.

A few bloggers have compared Anniyan with Vidathu Karuppu, but none of the famous movie reviewers nor the professional reviewers pointed the 'inspiration' for Shankar. Let me point them all:

1) The 'normal' personality is a scary goose.

2) The normal one has witnessed some gory deaths and societal injustice in the childhood, which becomes the seed for the eventual growth of a new personality.

3) An elderly female character in the family talks about punishment by God, of the people who do wrong, which goes into the thinking process leading to the split personality.

4) The girl whom the normal one loves, likes him as a harmless friend, but doesnt love him since she views him to be boring and cowardly.

5) The girl is the one who first becomes aware of the dual/multiple personality of the main character.

6) The persons who are killed by the split personality are those whom the normal guy has seen doing wrong.

7) A confusion/defeat for the split personality is suggested/shown to cause the disappearance of that personality.

8) The imporant parts of the MPD, which is the transition from one personality to the other, the accompanying confusion, and the timing of revelation of the second personality, are not discussed.

9) In the climax, rapid switching between the personalities were acted well by characters in both the serial and TV. So, the famous MGR-Sivaji-Kamal-Rajni scene of Vikram is a heavy inspiration from the serial.

10) Both the second personalities have a voice rougher than and different from the original voice.

From these points, it must be clear how ground-breaking the serial was, which was telecast over 9 years ago. The director, Naga is a film institute student, and is the cinematographer for the serial too. So, he has superbly captured the beauty of the village, and the mystery of the nights with clever camera angles. Each role has been brilliantly played by everyone, with Chetan winning the award with an unforgettable performance. Devadarshini delivers a strong female performance, but her character is shown to be clever, independent and, unlike in movies, unsubmissive. Even the supporting cast is not naive at all. Care has gone into the sculpting of each character and the story line, which proceeds in two parallel timelines - past and present. Not to forget the subtle, but brilliant and natural performance by the little boy, Logesh. Where is he now?

While the tele-serial proceeds with both the supernatural, and hence scientifically unexplainable events and the MPD, Shankar simply chose only MPD. Vidaathu Karuppu has touched upon several fine aspects of love and society which are: Friendship, feminism, caste differences, commanality among religions, village way of life, thieves as a part of social structure, the rich people who indirectly steal from commoners and hence are more dangerous, mythical beliefs, revenge, punishment, confusion arising from clash of beliefs, and control through religion.

The recent news about Shankar producing a big budget movie to be directed by Naga is interesting. Not having credited or even mentioend Naga for the inspiration, it appears to be Shankar's attempt towards salvation to remove his guilt. Having said that, can't wait to watch 'Anthapurathu Veedu'.

Quoting dance master Sridhar, "Indha mAdhiri serial edungappA.. edhavadhu sollanumnu thonudhA?".

Demography of bloggers

2008-09-13T00:32:00.004+05:30

Blogging has become another important social networking tool in the past few years. Through blogrolling, commenting etc. we keep in touch with fellow bloggers of similar interests and/or nationaliry. I have heard from some of my friends that it is quite difficult to know a person through his/her blogs. I always used to tell that, one can hide certain personality traits for sometime, but over a long period of time and several dozens of posts, they would eventually be revealed. In that sense, this is my attempt to categorize the bloggers.

* Happy-go-lucky:

Starting with a positive point, these bloggers, who are mostly unmarried, write about everything they like and what they are happy about. When one reads such a blog, it will look as if the world is one big happy sphere with nothing but positive energy vibrating through it. They have the uncanny ability to see the good in everything around them. Its good to visit such blogs once a while.

* Dual personality:

And then there are some who write so sweet posts which totally apply to one and all, and we form one sort of impression about them. In the very next post, we see a nasty attack on some celebrity and they totally defend what they write. When someone strongly protests their writings, they go to the usual offending mode of "This is my opinion, and I can write whatever I think in my blog.. who asked you to come and see me?" kind of things. IMHO, blogs are open to public and are of course criticizable. These bloggers are highly temperamental and moody too. People who comment regularly in such blogs are also scared to write anything -ve about that person. Even if they write a simple but -ve comment like "I think you are wrong" they put a smiley in the end. I laugh at those smileys, which, to me, look like white flags saying, "Hey I am your friend.. dont shoot me!!".

* Deer in the disguise of a tiger:

These are the bloggers who show a very brave, smart and 'I-know-all' face in the blog. They are introvert &/or shy &/or scared in real life that they lead a pseudo life in the blog world. They get exposed when they are seen in real, or when they appear in some media. Just a few minutes ago I saw a tiger stripping itself to show the bunny inside. It was so hilarious. My whole impression on him has changed dramatically that I tend to see his writings in a totally new light.

*Harmless citizens

They simply mind their business. They have their small world of family, movies, music, books and things around these, about which they blog. Sometimes I imagine them sitting in front of their desktop when the kids are playing around them, and the wife is calling from kitchen saying that the dinner is ready. They hardly get angry, and I dont know how to show my anger to them if they write something I strongly disagree. Thats bcos if someone scolds them in the comments, they still reply with a smile, and they dont hide their biased view.

*Intellectuals

You cant just visit these blogs any time of the day. It is advisable to visit them only when you are at your alert best, bcoz their writings make you think a lot and you need to break your head. In order to fully understand their personality, several months are required. They cant simply write an XYZ post... their standard of intelligence has to be seen in every post. I wonder how they will be at their home.

* Anonymous

They love writing, and enjoy sharing their thoughts with others. They want to write so much but they have some restrictions. They can't afford to reveal their identity, due to some hesitation or shyness or fear. Their sp0use doesnt like their blogging activity, and hence there is some conflict. They keep a pseudoname and write carefully so that no hint about them is known. Very hard to see comments from people who personally know them.

If you think about some other category, feel free to comment. And, yeah, have a good weekend!! :)

Taste of India to American Audience (And an Important P.S.)

2008-08-24T03:32:00.009+05:30

Many of you might have heard the recent news about an actor of Indian origin, Shelley Malil, who has been arrested for having stabbed his girlfriend in Los Angeles. Having got very few Indian actors to represent us in the American entertainment media, we could have certainly be better off without the Malil incident. Who else is out there? Let us see..

a) Manoj Night Shyamalan:

He doesnt need any introduction. Shot to huge fame after 'Sixth Sense', he was hailed as the next Spielberg, only to gradually disappoint after his first three movies. His last three movies released since 2004 have got mixed reactions from both the critics and the audience. His recent product 'The Happening' has been branded the worst Shyamalan movie so far. Though creepy and all, I came out of the movie hall disappointed. Hope he slowly gets back to his Sixth sense days..

b) Kal Penn:

Kalpen Modi, who changed his name to Kal Penn to suit the American audience, is gradually getting recognition and famous. He is the Kumar of the 'Harold and Kumar' series of movies. His performance as Gogol in Mira Nair's 'Namesake' has been widely appreciated. He is among the rare breed of Indian Americans who have got both artistic talent and academic excellence. He also stars as a doctor in the famous TV series 'House'.

c) Sendhil Ramamurthy:

I came to know about him from one of my students.. it was awkward. I saw 'Heroes', a famous TV series, in which he was the young Geneticist. He looks rugged and handsome. He has a mild Indian accent which is good to hear. While his role in 'Heroes' is quite big, he has appeared in other famous TV shows such as 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Num3ers'. Quite nice to have a Tamil representative in this list.

Though there are others like Mira Nair, Gurinder Chadha, and Shakhar Kapur who direct movies, they are not known among the audience in US because they dont appear on screen. Few other actors such as Ajay Naidu (Office space, pi, and The Guru), Naveen Andrews (Bride&Prejudice, Kama Sutra, Lost and Provoked), Sanjaya Malakar (of American Idol) and of course Aishwarya Rai have tried to make some impression among the American audiene with mixed success. Hope someone raises above the average mark and makes a big impression in Hollywood or American TV.

A Very Very Important P.S.: Happy Birthday to Xander Vijaykanth:

Tamil Nadu's only hope, Puratchi Kalaignar Gaptun Visayakanthukku jora oru salaam podunga!!

Chiru for Chief minister? (And Kuselan Mini-Review)

2008-07-30T19:31:00.006+05:30

I haven't been following Andhra politics for sometime now, but still this news came as a huge surprise to me. Chiranjeevi and politics? Well, he was the megastar of Andhra after NTR so he is definitely aspiring to test his luck. With the state assembly elections around the corner in a few months, the announcement come along the lines of what Vijaykanth did three years ago. I watched Chiru's recent 'Tagore' and it had failure written all over its face and was duly rejected by the audience. Isn't it a sign for him to tread his path carefully? Hmmm... we never know what Andhrites think, when it comes to politics. Let's wait and watch..

Kuselan Mini-Review:

Not having watched Baba, Kuselan is the most boring Rajni movie since Pandian.

Rajni - Savior of the movie. Injects at least some life into an otherwise irritating story.

Pasupathy - Looks disinterested in the proceedings throughout. Is funny when he tries to dance with his family.

Nayanthara - Total waste, except for a couple of songs and some front-benchers. Among the entire cast (excl. Rajni) of double-chinners, pot-bellyholders and no-neckers, she is somewhat of a relief.

Meena - Tries to act as an 'ideal wife' which she just barely manages to pull off.

Vadivelu - Crass comedy, generously sprinkled with double entendres. Managed to show his true talent in the scene where he gets to meet Rajni.

Supporting cast: The less said about them, the better. The nuns of the school were shockingly silly; the gang of Livingston & co., were insipid, fellow shop-owners and neighbors of Pasupathy would have failed even a single episode of TV soap opera.

Music: One song sounds like 'Uruguthey', one like 'Veyilodu'.. Easily the worst album of GV Prakash.

Picturization: Horrible. Especially the song where the village praises Pasupathy. Dolphins and exotic waterfalls in a song were so hilarious.

Story & Screenplay: None. The main plot goes around and around and around until even the most patient of us scream "padathai mudingayya".

Dialogues: Amateurish. When Meena refuses the neighbour's food, and when Pasupathy refuses to meet Rajni, the dialogues sound deja-vu.

Cinematography: Zooming on the distorted mouths, faces and bodies of the fringe actors will not win you any awards.

Direction: P Vasu is back to his 'full form'. When a big deal is made out of a seamingly worthless issue, it is the worst possible plot one can get. I havent watched the Mallu original, but I doubt it must have been butchered by Vasu.

Attitude problems: Firstly, the film is not named after Pasupathy's character, as everyone thought. Rajni, in his final speech, makes it clear that he is 'Kuselan' (and there is a 'Krishna' twist to Pasupathy's role to justify that). So, this film is, after all, on Rajni. Secondly, when Sundarrajan asks some sensible questions to Rajni, I was truly surprised. The subsequent sommersault of Sundarrajan and Rajni's reactions to his questions, I thought, reflected Rajni's attitude on all of us who have and raise such questions.

Microsoft Windows - Name and Logo Analysis

2008-06-19T22:59:00.011+05:30

Rediff had a feature today on the "Success story called Microsoft". Microsoft windows and its logo being the two things which we see/use almost everyday, and using it for the past 13 years, made me analyze the name and logo of the famous product. Idhai padichittu "enna, room pottu yosicheengalA"nnu ellam kEkkakoodathu.. Edho, ennoda ninaivalaigaL:

Microsoft's operating system, Windows, is the leader in the world's personal computer market. Contrary to the uniqueness of the name of the company, its most important product has bored a very simple and common name. Unlike its rivals which chose unconventional and hi-tech names for their operating systems (for instance, Unix and Mac OS), Microsoft chose a simplistic name for its product, probably to compensate for the fairly technical name of the company, unlike its rivals which had simple names (for example, Sun, Apple).

Similar to the way windows in homes are used for viewing the outside world, the operating system enables access to the vast space of the cyberworld. Turning the computer on is virtually like opening a window to see the world. Moreover, the operation of a computer is invariably accompanied by bright light of the monitor, comparable to opening windows at home letting sunlight, or brightness in. Windows protect the home from the attacks of bugs, and other harmful insects, and keeping that name for a product indicates protection of the computer from possible outside attack. Thus, there cannot arguably be a better word to symbolically describe the product than ‘Windows’.

Just as the name, the logo for Windows is a four panel window, with a different color for each panel. The earliest versions (3.x series) had a normal, simple window that seems to have either flown from the left or wavered or gradually disintegrated into smaller pieces. The panels were uniformly filled with the different colors. Windows 95’s boot logo, logo which appears when the computer starts, showed a colorful and unambiguously wavering window, usually at the backdrop of a blue sky with scattered clouds. The wavering/flying window was a welcome change from the placid one used for the earlier version. The moving image firmly helped the consumers remember and retain the rectangular colorful panel as the logo of windows in their mind.

When the version XP was introduced at the dawn of the new century, it didn’t have the black frame of the window and the tailing dots. It was undoubtedly more elegant without the negative shade of the dark frame. Moreover, the colors were lighter, fluorescent, and this time, the wavering is exemplified by the curvy panels and the lines of lighter hue running straight down the panels. That they are off the ground is shown by the grey shadows beneath the panels. The most recent version, Windows Vista, is very similar to its previous one, except for a circle of brightness, centered at the point where all the four panels meet. This makes a graded color contrast diagonally across the panels. This contrast further adds to the beauty of the logo. It creates an illusion as though there is Sun right behind the window and its brightness has seeped into the window panels.

The choice of colors for the four panels is interesting. They are red, green, blue and yellow. The first three colors are called the primary colors of vision. Mixing them in various proportions produces all the colors of the world. They, along with yellow, constitute what are called ‘opponent colors’, according to the Theory of Colors. The intricacies of the theory are beyond the scope of this essay, but, in essence, the theory says that these are the four colors that the human eye would be able to differentiate to the fullest extent. Interestingly, the cyclic order in which these colors are stacked in a rectangle is the same way they appear on the Windows logo. The various cells responsible for vision in the eye process red-green and blue-yellow differences. By pairing exactly the same set of colors, Microsoft has made the logo look aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The text accompanying the icon has also undergone considerable change. The earliest version had Microsoft and Windows written with the same type and size of font. It was essential, since the product was new and it had to be properly introduced and familiarized to the consumers. Once the people became aware of the company Microsoft and the logo, the size of Microsoft in the logo gradually decreased. Nearly all of the targeted audience would have certainly come across the logo either as a user or an owner of the product. Thus, for the latest ‘Windows Vista’, it was necessary to add the company’s name at all – the case of a product proudly speaking on behalf of its developers.

Windows is unarguably the most purchased product of any kind in the history of mankind. The success of such phenomenal scale was possible by a combination of factors, such as simplicity of the software, its user-friendliness, smart advertising tactics, and constant upgrading for improvisation. Not surprisingly, all these qualities can be said of the logo as well.

Dasavathaaram

2008-06-13T18:04:00.007+05:30

The most eagerly awaited movie of recent times is here at last. With Kamal donning 10 unique roles, and several of their identities having been kept secretly, the major curiosity was about how Kamal is going to surprise us on the screen. Also, there was this big question of the justification of all the 10 roles. Kamal has done a splendid job as an actor most of the time, and as a script writer, not that much. I would say that I wasnt enthralled about everything after the movie; it has its share of high moments and a few low ones as well.
The movie begins with Govind (Kamal 1) sharing the dais with Karunanidhi, Manmohan Singh and George Bush (Kamal 2) in Chennai and delivering an intense, though visually distracted speech on bioterrorism and saving the earth, and makes a reference to the 12th century, when Saiva-Vaishnava conflict was at its peak in South India. Rangaraja Nambi (Kamal 3) attempts to stop Kulothunga Cholan-II (Nepoleon) from removing the deity of Lord Vishnu from the famous Govindaswamy temple of Chidambaram. He also refuses to convert to Saivism. Both these acts anger Nepoleon, who orders Kamal to be tied to the deity and dumped into the Bay of Bengal.

Back to the 21st century, in Philadelphia, Govind is a biotechnologist, specialized in virology. He works in a private company which expertises in biological weapons. Govind and his colleagues have just invented a deadly airborne virus which attracts some bad elements to the company for a lucrative deal with some high authorities. Kamal finds about it just in time and takes away the capsule in which the virus is stored and fleds. The bad elements employ Christian Fletcher (Kamal 4), a former CIA agent to retrieve the capsule from Govind. Then begins the cat-and-mouse game, which brings all the players to Tamil Nadu. The other six characters of Kamal intersect this deadly game, which proceeds with a lot of blood spills before culminating in a gargantuan climax involving Tsunami.

The first half of the movie has one of the most fast-paced screenplays in Tamil films. Too many things happen so quickly that even the songs dont have the usual decelerating effect. The characters are well-etched and the story takes us through 12th century Chidambaram, modern Philadelphia and Washington DC, Japan and India. The second half drags in comparison to that and reduces the slickness of the movie. Asin's character is a huge letdown since she is downright irritating after the melodious and sweet 'Mukunda' song. She is the weaklink in the movie, and in the end, one cant but feel that her character could be done away with. The 'romance' between Kamal and Asin is the worst I have seen in any Kamal movies.

The role of Rangarajan Nambi is the most intense among all, though Balram Naidu role as the RAW officer wins the best of 10 avtars. He is so hilarious, with some very funny lines and body language. Fletcher comes next best, whereas the 'lighthouse' Khalifa is the least impressive, followed by the Japanese guy. Also, on the Avtar Singh show, the big question is, how come a Punjabi singer gets such a rousing reception and crowd in Chennai? Amazing how Kamal could appear very tall and quite short (the 'paatti' role). After the initial excitement of seeing Kamal in different roles fades away, we get engrossed in the proceedings of the movie, treating as though the various roles are played by different actors.

Though the story is quite weak, there are some intelligent and brilliant scenes throughout the movie, which challenge our grey matter. My favorite scenes are: the appearance of hawk when Rangarajan Nambi is tortured, a butterfly flying in some scenes (Butterfly effect), Bush's question ("What is NaCl?") and the next few seconds, a scientist's remark on NaCl ("I cant explain you more than NaCl for this stuff in Tamil"), his stand on faith ("I am not saying that God is not there, but I'm saying that it would be good if God is there"). Also, there is a lot of thinking process that has gone into naming and characterizing the Indian roles. e.g., 'Boovaraghan' is a dark-skinned (probably pork-eating) Dalit activist whose quest is to save the land (sand); 'Avtar' Singh is a singer who gets a new avtar (lease of life) after narrowly escaping from the jaws of death. And the shorter-statured 'paatti' steps onto people's shoulders before committing an act that would save the state.

The songs, as I mentioned earlier, dont have much impact on the movie, so Himesh Reshammiya's efforts appear to neither strengthen nor weaken the script. Technically it is superb, though the camera appears to move too fast in many scenes, leading to blurred images. Also, the link between the events of the 12th century and the current time is hard to see, which makes the initial episode stand aloof. (Though one can say that 'religious conflict' is the common factor, it subtly portrayed).

Dasavathaaram is a visual treat, and is breathtaking in several scenes. Had the story been little solid, it would have done full justice to all the hype and the money spent.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

2008-05-24T00:39:00.004+05:30

Indiana Jones series has been one of the top 10 best Hollywood series of all times, what with two legendary film-makers - George Lucas and Steven Spielberg joining hands together. I had watched and enjoyed the first three movies in this series, and so when I came to know that, after nearly twenty years Indy is back, I had mixed feelings, bcos I didnt like Harrison Ford's movies of the past decade and I was doubtful about his having necessary energy to carry a movie entirely on his shoulders. Now, after watching, I can tell that old is indeed gold..

For an Indy movie, you dont need a super-strong story; and you invariably know the ending as well (pretty much like our masala movies) .. so the challenge for the director is to show the events in an interesting fashion, with intelligent screenplay, some twists here and there and with quite a bit of help from graphics. Spielberg mostly succeeds in the latest version too.. but he liberally borrows ideas from movies that have been released in the interim period, making us feel a sense of deja vu. For ex, several scenes remind us of some classy shots from Jackie Chan's 'Operation condor', 'Mummy returns', and a few James Bond movies.

The movie has its nice moments too.. the scenes involving insects and reptiles are hair-raising, as usual.. and the ride in Amazon river is amazing. The climax is a little disappointing and made me wonder why recently Spielberg and alien-centric climaxes dont go well at all. For many people, this might be their first Indy movie on-screen (like my case), many oldies might feel this to be their last, so just for the sake of it, I am sure that there will be a good audience to see Indy on silver screen.

Tamil Cine Quiz - 6

2008-05-18T02:37:00.008+05:30

Another music quiz.. The first is quite easy whereas the next two are somewhat hard, I think.. As usual, comment moderation is in place; and more clues might be revealed depending on the response..

1) What is common among the following pairs of songs? (a) "Janani, Janani" (Thai Moohambikai) and "Idhu kAdhalA" (Thulluvatho Ilamai); (b) "KAdhal sadugudu" (Alaipayuthey) and "Pon mAlai" (NizhalgaL); (c) "Solladi" (KAdhalil vizhundhEn) and "Hello mister" (Iruvar); and (d) "Engirundho" (En jeevan pAduthu) and "Shenbagame" (Enva ooru pAttukkAran)?

2) What is common among these three movies - Priya, Dhool and Kuruvi? (Plz remember it is a music quiz). One song in each of these movies has a common thread connecting it to the other two. To the best of my knowledge, that is a very unique thread. It has something to do with preludes... the songs are a duet, a solo and sort of a duet respectively for the 3 movies mentioned above.

3) Recently we get to hear a lot of remix songs. Surprisingly, AR Rahman, in one of his earliest movies (among his earliest 3) re-mixed a song penned by Vairamuthu and composed by MS Viswanathan. The original version was so-so and not very popular (it was repeatedly played in DD only), but the remade version turned out to be a great hit. Which song is it?

Stem Cell Controversy-A primer

2008-05-08T02:56:00.004+05:30

Some of you might be familiar with controversy involving 'Stem cell research'. Human stem cells are derived from humans and have the capability to differentiate into different types of cells (such as blood and organs). There are two kinds of stem cells – human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and adult stem cells. The former ones are derived by destruction of an early stage embryo whereas the latter ones are derived from a tissue sample obtained from an adult. Both these types have generated controversy – the former due to the ethical and religious belief that it is wrong to destroy a human embryo, albeit with the permission of the parents, and the latter due to the fear of human cloning. The interplay between religion, ethics, legal issues, commercial interests and Government policies have made the stem cell research a very controversial topic recently.

In order to understand the controversy on stem cell research, it is important to acquire some knowledge on its fundamentals. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are derived from blastocyst, which is the inner mass of an early cell embryo. A few days after fertilization (typically 4 to 5 days), the embryos reach the blastocyst stage and at this time they consist of about 50-100 cells. These cells would be able to differentiate into about 220 different types of cells that are found in an adult body. Hence, they have excellent capacity for self-renewal, making them attractive in degenerative medicine and post-injury tissue replacement technique. The controversy arises from the fact that while extracting out the embryonic inner mass, the embryos get destroyed, and the religious groups consider it akin to ending a human life.

The proponents of life argue that destroying an embryo is against human dignity and that one life is sacrificed for the sake of another. There are ethical and religious protests on the use and destruction of human embryo for stem cell research. This has led to the ban for stem cell research in some Western countries and some of the states of the U.S.A. In most of the Western countries in which Christianity is the primary religion, the hESC research does not get Government funding. Private funded research is allowed in most cases. This arises an inconvenient question as to, if the hESC research is deemed unethical and anti-religious in the first place, why show vague double standards in allowing private funding while stopping Government funding, as opposed to totally ban such research.

Are these embryos equivalent to a ‘person’? Various religious groups consider different timeframes about when ensoulment takes place. Some have revised the timeframe (usually to an earlier time) after scientific discoveries started to reveal the exact chronological events of human embryonic growth. Pro-life activists argue that an embryo has to be considered as a human immediately after conception and bring ethical questions about destroying that embryo, on the similar line of argument that they use while opposing abortion.

We can classify the people of this planet into three broad categories – traditional Christians, post-Christians and followers of Eastern religions, the tolerance to and acceptance of stem cell research increasing from left to right. Whereas the first category resists the creation and destruction of human embryos because they consider an embryo to be a child, the last category doesn’t object and in fact supports stem cell research due to their religious beliefs that concern reincarnation and karma. Due to this divide, some scientists are heading east, and, if the scientists in the eastern countries succeed in curing some diseases or cloning the children via stem cell research, the desperate people will also head to such countries to avail the facilities.

A more elaborate look at the voices and concerns of people of different religion and beliefs shows that the opinion of the world is certainly divided in the issue of stem cell research. Several non-Catholic Christian groups don’t mind hESC research with the consent of the mother. The religious argument against hESC research would be much stronger if all religions agreed. The problem is difficult and emotions run high. Religions are attempting to reconcile the overlapping rights of three parties: the mother, an embryo and the patient. The answer is certainly not an easy one.

Though the scientific progress in this Government-funded area of research has been promising for the cure of aforementioned diseases, it has also received its share of resistance, mainly due to the fear that man should not play God and use the adult stem cells for human cloning. Though several U.S. states and Western countries have banned human cloning, some of the Eastern countries haven’t. And that again, along the lines of hESC research policy, divides the world. The use of human cloning as a cure for certain emotional matters, such as, loss of a child or donation of bone marrow for transplant, plus the deep inner urge by the scientists to solve the ultimate challenge of nature – creation of a human – all have caused a substantial private funding in human cloning research.

Rather than think that the humans try to outsmart God by entering into his realm of creation and destruction, the people should think that it is God who is gradually revealing the nuances of his powers to humans. Such a thought would drive away the ‘Man vs God’ argument and reinforce ‘Man aided by God’ faith. After all, one can argue that, if God wants to keep his utmost secrets to himself, why can he not hide it from the humans for ever? Such a philosophical/theological thought aside, the numerous medical advancements that the stem cell research promises must allow its opponents and Government to let the scientists do their job under the watchful eyes. After all, a life saved is a life created.

Kuruvi

2008-05-03T18:04:00.003+05:30

Sometimes I tend to place too much hope on a director that I neglect all the ominous signs coming out from various quarters. First was Skanda's comment in Balaji's post; the second was the interview of Gautam Menon that Vijay wants his movies to have the masala elements of his legendary flims Sivakasi and Thiruppachi. I think Perarasu is probably the worst thing to have happened to Vijay and going to Tollywood, to Dharani; both these seem to have rubbed on a reliable director like Dharani too, which makes us wonder whether it is indeed he who gave us Dhil, Dhool and Gilli.

I got the feeling of watching a 80's telugu-dubbed movie; remember the stories where a goon or a landlord enslaves an entire village, tortures and kills them? (Maaveeran, anyone?) Kuruvi is shockingly similar to those violent-n-loud movies. The director is badly inspired from Hollywood movies like The Mask of Zorro and Blood Diamond. Worst, the second half happens in Andhra, so we have a Ghaddar-like villain, a loud MLA who shoots at the drop of the hat, his brother who is always shouting and another stereotyped villain can get away with atrocities in cities of the caliber of Kuala Lumpur and Chennai.

Kuruvi is carried almost entirely by Vivek in the first half, and once the action shifts to Andhra, it becomes brainless, totally predictable and sickening. Trisha is to the movie what the Andhra spicy pickle is to curd rice. Vijay has unnecessarily thinned down, having lost some muscle too, but looking younger. Suman is wasted even more than in Sivaji. Vijay starts the movie this time with a car race (engEyO idikkuthey..) Some of the songs are nice to listen to, but not so creatively picturized. The action scenes are as usual contrived, liberally copied from Matrix and superhero movies.

If at all you want to watch, do so only until 'Intermission'. By naming the movie after a cute little bird, the film crew have grossly insulted it.

Tamil Cine Quiz - 5

2008-04-29T02:38:00.008+05:30

After over 6 months, time for another quiz now.. This is more of a music quiz.. As usual, the comments are moderated (sorry for the glitch of y'day which hid all the comments), and more clues will be given depending on the response.

1) One criterion separates Harris Jayaraj from Ilayaraja, AR Rahman, MS Viswanathan, Yuvan, Imman, Bharadwaj, Deva, Devi Sriprasad, Gangai Amaran and Vijay Antony. What is it? (Apart from his working with Gautham Vasudeva Menon, plz.. :) )
PS Clue: Add Vidyasagar, T. Rajender, SP Balasubramaniam, Maragathamani (aka Keeravani/ MM Kreem), Karthik Raja and Shankar Mahadevan to the latter list.

2) SPB and Hariharan are two of the all-time greatest singers of our time. It would be a treat to listen both the legends singing in the same song. I think it has happened only once, but not for a Tamil song. AR Rahman was the music director who made them come together for a Hindi song. In fact, a famous female singer Chitra has also rendered her voice for this fabulous song about which I havent read anything in the blogosphere so far. What is the song and which movie is it from?

3) This is about friendship in music. It is also about their loyalty to a music director. Two famous actors A and B have had a very different relationship with a music director C. Over a period of 15 years (say, from X-15 to X), I can think of at least 40 movies which each of A and B have acted in which C was the music director and most of them are superhits. In fact, for 10 years from (X-10) to X, C was the music director for all of A's movies. After the year 'X', B wouldnt have worked together for 15 years with C, though A has done 4 movies in this period with C. Who are A, B and C? Try to answer the year 'X' as well, if u can.

Kadavul and Nepali

2008-04-22T22:01:00.004+05:30

1) Arai EN 305-il kadavuL:

I went to this movie with a lot of expectations, both on its director and the producer. The signs of what is coming became apparent in the first few minutes of the movie. I tried to laugh at the 'jokes' but couldn't; then I thought that the director, who made us laugh heartily at '23-Am Pulikesi' has been trying some genuine jokes but I am too lame to understand it, so laughed at a few others, only to stop and think 'It wasn't funny enough to elicit a laughter'. It took a while to realize that the director is suffering from his 'second-movie-blues'.

The most absurd concept in the movie is God's 'G-box' which looks like an external memory disk and which gets powered from normal 220-volt electricity. God becomes useless without it, and any man who possesses it becomes God (Alauddinum arpudha vilakkum and Mr. India, remember?) There is constant preaching all over the movie which certainly becomes too unbearable as the movie progresses. It is like 'Bruce Almighty meets Munnabhai of 2006 and both go insane' kinda movie.

Santhanam, universally acclaimed as the 'loud-mouthed idiot' gets the hero chance probably because the director saw that he has slimmed down. Ganja Karuppu proves that he would be unbearable in any movie if he occupies more than 15 minutes of screen space. Prakash Raj is certainly no NTR; his wig is horrible. It looks like even Gods can have 'bad hair days'. The support cast, including the heroines, is less than inspiring. If there is one thing funny in the movie, it is the songs. Listen to 'Kaadhal sei', and if possible, watch it.. Alongside 'Ennai konjam mAtri' and 'Arjunaru villu', you might want to have this song playing in your car for a cheerful ride.

The lesson from this one and from 'Indralokathil...' is, if a human visits the land of Gods, or the other way around, it would be a disaster.

2) Nepali:

We get to see three Bharath's - first, a Nepali one who is killing people; second, a software engineer who is in love with Meera, and third, a prisoner isolated in a cell who is constantly taking attempts to kill himself. The story moves along in three different lines well into the second half before converging into a single axis. At one point I doubted if the director was telling three stories in one movie, and if the three characters will get to meet each other. The director has cleverly woven the screenplay to keep the story moving forward and keeping us guessing.

Initially, the romantic segment between Bharath and Meera seems to be a spoiler of what is turning out to be a good thriller and it appears to be a little too long. Trimming that part would have made the movie shorter and crisper. That aside, there aren't too many complaints from me. I would have expected a better thinktank and clever discussion among the police officers who are trying to solve the murder cases. In one scene Bharath tells Meera "neenga nadikka try panreenga.." I felt like telling the same to Bharath. But, I must add that he gets his act together gradually and delivers a powerful performance.

Another interesting aspect that keeps us engrossed in the proceedings is the presence of quite a few loose ends which are waiting to be tied. Since they get tied only just before the climax and the climax itself is quite well-conceived, it gives a feeling of having watched a fast-paced movie. There aren't too many songs and the songs are reasonably good. Overall, it is a movie worth watching.

Male melodies

2008-04-16T20:21:00.006+05:30

When I wrote on female melodies, I wanted to write no my favorite solos of male singers as well. The number is really a huge one.. so I have listed the best songs by each male singer that I cherish listening to most..

1) Hariharan: 'Oru poyyAvadhu sol' from Jodi

I got a chance to listen to it first time only when I watched the movie a couple of years ago. I had seen the female version of the song on TV but wasnt greatly influenced by it. But, Hariharan's version is simply superb. Apart from one minor blip when he pronounces 'kallukkum' instead of 'kaLLukkum', it is a near perfect song. AR Rahman has used Hindustani music to good effect, knowing that Hariharan's voice would blend well with it.

2) SPB: 'En kAdhalE' from Duet

Among his thousands of solo songs, it was quite difficult to pick one, but the above number is indeed a very special one; a superb blend of SPB's soothing voice and Kadri Gopalnath's sax make the song an evergreen melody.

3) KJ Yesudas: 'AarArirAro' from Ram

Listen to this song and you wont believe that the voice is that of a 65 year old. After early 90's, Tamil cinema has under-utilized his voice; this one song is a solid proof for that. In addition to his unique metallic voice, one can feel his longing for motherly love in the song. Hats off to the legend, and to Yuvan for choosing KJY to sing this fantastic lullaby.

4) Shankar Mahadevan: 'Manasu rendum pArkka' from KAdhal koNdEn

The uniqueness of this song is in the passion and obsession the boy has on the girl, which is superbly brought out by Shankar Mahadevan. His voice modulations gel nicely with Yuvan's music and this tricky number manges to rise much above its level thanks to Shankar's great rendition.

5) Karthik: 'Oru ooril' from KAkha kAkha

I haven't listened to any other song which is fully dedicated to praising a girl's beauty as graciously as this one. Karthik simply mesmerizes with his exuberant voice.

6) Srinivas: 'Muzhu mathi' from JodhA Akbar

I dont know how many of you have managed to listen to the Tamil version of this great album by AR Rahman. If not, please do it now.. Srinivas's nice voice does full justice to the ever-reliable Rahman-~~Vairamuthu~~ Na.Muthukumar combo. What a song!! This song alone deserves a full post. (Thanks to Anand of Stony Brook for exposing me to this song).

I have chosen only these six singers because they have consistently delivered over a very long period. Among others, the solo songs that I love are: KAtrin mozhi (Mozhi) by Balaram, KAdhal vandhAl (Iyarkai) by Tippu, Pul vezhi (Aasai) by Unni Krishnan and 'NadhiyE' (Rhythm) by Unni Menon.

Sagunam

2008-04-09T10:36:00.001+05:30

A totally fictitious story..

He was behind the wheel driving with she beside him and it was rapidly getting dark. Over ahead on the road he saw that black animal crossing the road quickly and at that precise moment he knew what it was. His feet voluntarily pressed the breaks and she, having seen that species said, "Che.. paazha pOna poonai.. adhuvum pisAsu mAdhiri karuppA.. car-ai divert panni direction maathittu polaanga".. They were on a suburban road and in front of the only side-road to his left was a "No left turn" signal.

He tried to convince her saying that unlike dogs, which like to run alongside roads, cats always like to cross the road, probably bcos it is in their genes, and so educated and rational people like them shouldnt believe in such myths but she was not to budge. With the spot where the cat crossed approaching fast and sensing that there was no other vehicle in sight, he decided to take the illegal left turn and quickly managed to do it. Within seconds he saw bright red and blue lights flashing on his rearview mirror - a hidden cop car has caught him. As he pulled his vehicle over and waited for the cop to ask for his license and subsequently hand him the ticket, she said "See.. IppovAvadhu nambureengaLA, poonai cross panna kandippA edhAchum kettadhu nadakkumnu".

American Anjappar

2008-03-25T20:03:00.004+05:30

Only after I started blogging did I hear about the famous restaurant chain 'Anjappar', which is special for 'Chettinad' food. So, when I saw an ad for the first Anjappar in US opening at NJ, I decided to visit, which I managed to do last week. I donno what is it with South Indian restaurants here, they are too small and incredibly crowded during the weekends. There was space for only 50 people. This causes quite a considerable waiting time here, which was 1 hour on Sunday afternoon.

* Ordered a 'Gobi 65' and 'Chettinad veg thaali', to get an idea of the taste of several dishes at once. Gobi 65 was not like the sauced 'Gobi manchurian' for which I was a huge fan in India; it was more like Gobi pakoda but it was ok.

* The thaali had one chappathi, rice, potato curry, one gravy curry, sambar, rice, appalam and payasam. My expectation level on the taste was quite low - it has to be better than what I manage to cook, and it was, so no complaints. But it hardly contrasted with what is served at Saravana Bhavan, so I assume that the difference is in the tasty non-veg dishes of Anjappar.

* When I focussed on the non-veg eaters, I overheard that all the biriyanis (for which Anjappar is famous far) were exhausted an hour earlier; and that the quality of chicken was not at all good.

* The steward said that even though they cook twice the amount of the 'famous dishes' during the weekends, they run out of them by 2 PM. That made me wonder why they cant make thrice the amount. Anyway, their timings are 11-4 for lunch and 5-10 for dinner, so any excess dish from the afternoon can certainly be served during the dinner.

I have seen that several new restaurants keep appearing in the area and they all manage to pull the crowds, reminding me of Bangalore's restaurants. If only they keep the price moderate and provide sufficient space...

Rest in Peace, Raghuvaran!

2008-03-19T21:47:00.002+05:30

The last few months have been pretty bad for Tamil cine industry.. After Jeeva, Pandian and recently writer Sujatha, one of the most versatile actors of our time, Raghuvaran, has passed away. More than 20 years ago, I have heard high about him during my school days when one of my friends raved his performance in 'Oru mNidhanin kadhai', a teleserial in DD. My first sighting of him was in 'Samsaaram adhu minsaram', in which he effortlessly played the grayish role of a money-minded son. After that, he mostly acted as villain in Rajini's movies like 'Oor kaavalan', 'Manithan' and 'Shiva'. He was deadly as Bhavani in super-hit 'Udhayam'. A turning point in his career was KS Ravikumar's debut 'Puriyadha pudhir' in which his famous 'I know' dialogue firmly established him as a psychotic deadly villain.

But, IMHO, his best performance so far was as a calm, loving father and a tender, caring husband in 'Anjali'. Though the kids stole all the fame, his role was a stellar one, and, as usual, Maniratnam was very good in extracting the best from his protagonist. Later, he did some unforgettable roles like the ones in Kadhalan, Baasha, Aahaa and Mudhalvan. In the last few years, he started doing character-roles in movies like Roja Koottam, Thirumalai, Run, and recently, Sivaji.

One thing that was known about him for the past 2 decades is his addiction to alcohol and some disturbances that it caused to his professional commiotment. He married actress Rohini and that seemed to change him for good. Apparently, the hope was short-lived; he returned back to his addiction, and that caused their divorce. Recently, his movie appearances have dwindled due to his problems. It is sadly ironic that, his life turned out to be similar to the role he played as an alcoholic in 'Oru manidhanin kadhai'. He will surely be missed. May his soul rest in peace.

A Printing Laptop, anyone?

2008-03-09T00:31:00.001+05:30

In the times when we see fusion of different technologies into one instrument, we still have computing and printing done with different machines. How about a laptop which also manages to print a few pages, when there is absolute necessity and you don’t have to run around finding a printer? Hmmm..it may not be the ideal time to advocate a new technology which is likely to make laptops thicker and heavier, when Macbook Air is creating sensations; but the take-home lesson from Macbook Air is, it is possible to make the heart of the laptops extremely thin. Imagine blending with it printing facility, one is likely to have a laptop which is not thicker and heavier than what most of us use anyway. Lemme explain you how..

When one can take fotos and print immediately using Polaroid camera technology, which is around for a long time, why is it not possible to merge printing into laptops? It need not be cumbersome like common printers – 6 to 10 pages of A4 papers are enough to be stored at any time in a laptop, just for some emergency. Without the necessity of any tray, a motion detector will sense a paper being fed and store them inside. Rest is easy. How about it? For starters, it is OK to start with a black-ink printing facility; after further improvement in technology, a full-color printing is possible. If and when such a facility is marketed in the future, remember where you read it first.. :)

How things have changed

2008-02-18T20:32:00.006+05:30

in just the last 15 years, which can be equated to half-a-generation. The reason for this post is to compare then and now, and wonder what is more to come in the next 15 years..

1) TV:

Back then we had only DD; as many of you have written, one had life's curious and exciting moments such as knowing what is the Sunday movie on a Wednesday, seeing some dramas unfold in cheap and dumb indoor sets, and predicting the songs of a 'theme-based' Olium OLiyum. And the only cricket matches one can see LIVE would be those involving India.

Now, we all know how many varieties of TV channels we have got. In the past few months, I have seen a surge in the number of websites which offer LIVE TV programs, of several channels, including Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam. If you missed a program due to some reasons, no need to worry.. the websites keep many such programs (most TV shows and serials) to be viewed later. Thus, there is virtual 'Oliyum oLiyum' of almost all of one's favorite songs, just by a click of the mouse, available all the time. Even cricket matches can be watched LIVE and one can catch up on the match highlights anytime in many websites (including youtube).

2) Movies:

New movies are available to be viewed max. a week or 10 days after its release. Legal and moral issues apart, good movies do get watched in theaters and manage to create records. Even the list of old movies available for watching is continuously growing. This is true for Tamil, Hindi and Hollywood movies. It is a virtual library of uncountable movies.

3) Music

Those were the days there were only a few singers to who consistently appeared in hit Tamil albums - SPB, Mano, Yesudoss, Chitra and Janaki. Nowadays, it is pretty hard to spot less than 6 or 7 singers in any hit album.. Also, the rendering of voice by Hindi singers for Tamil songs created news; now, it would be a news if there is none of Udit Narayan, Shreya, Madhusree, Adnan Sami, or Diva girls in any hit album. New singers are heard much more often nowadays. This adds variety to listening experience. FM channels, downloadable songs, online radio channels and music-in-cellfones have gradually made music more readily accessible.

4) Communication:

Gone are the old days when one had to rely upon public telephone booths and home telephones to make phone calls. Now, your friend/relative is always accessible, thanks to mobile phones. I have seen the kind of information exchange that takes place nowadays; it has helped to virtually shrink the globe into a really small place. The importance of letters has tremendously reduced. Also, via the internet, it is possible to make new friends who share common interests. Blogging is one good example; it gives nearly free-access to information/idea exchange. In addition, the recent surge in technology has benefited scientific community, for searching, accessing, and analyzing information. Products such as GPS have made travelling a fun-filled and enjoying activity.

15 years from now, what are we gonna be having, that we can hardly perceive now? One way to look at it is interms of cost reduction; hi-fi products that are too expensive to be affordable now will become cheap; the other is a vast number of gadgets that are yet to be discovered. I hear that wireless technology will be the king of the next decade. Let us see how it impacts our lives.. I am looking forward to motion-detected collision preventer for cars.

While we fortunate ones are leading a high life, if one stops and thinks about almost half the population of our country, their life has hardly ever changed in the past 15 years. And it is most likely to be so during the next 15 years as well.. :(

PS: Came across a very funny video with hilarious lyrics. Now, that is my 'Current favorite video'. The voice and accent of the singer, the animation, the expressions of the dancer, and the dance are all so funny. I had a hearty laugh.. Watch and enjoy.. :)

Indian vs American Elections

2008-01-29T22:49:00.002+05:30

This month I got interested in the American politics, thanks to the race for Presidential nomination going on full speed. I learnt quite a bit about elections in America and this post compares American Presidential elections with the Indian Parliamentary elections in various angles.

1) Parties at the centre

India has got a huge number of parties in various states and they all have the potential to send their member to the Parliament. Even though the major parties are now only two (Congress and BJP), the regional parties have been a vital cog in the ruling party's coalition for the past 20 years.

US has got only two parties of any significance (Democrats and Republicans) - bipartisanship. For a little over 100 years, the rivalry is between only these two. Even though there are a few major 'third parties', their vote share is so low (<> 200 years, has stabilized itself with two major parties, whereas India, a 60-year democratic country, has got atleast 15 parties which have got a considerable number of seats in the Parliament.

2) Distribution of power at the centre

India's Parliament has two houses - Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The members for the former are elected by the citizens while those for the latter are elected by the legislative members of the states. Both the houses have to pass a bill for it to become an act. Lok Sabha members (Total:552; max. 5 years per term) are selected together when the Parliamentary elections are held whereas the 1/3 Rajya Sabha members (Total: 250; max. 6 years per term) are selected every two years.

The US's Congress has two houses as well - Senate and the House. The members of Senate (Senators; 2 per each state, totalling 100) are elected similar to the way Rajya Sabha members are elected. The senators have a tenure of 6 years per term. The members of the House (Representatives; total: 435) are elected every two years. Here too, both the houses have to pass a bill for it to become an act.

3) Who gets to rule?

In India, a prominent leader of a major party is usually projected as a prime-ministerial candidate; but there are examples where the PM was chosen out of blue. For ex., no one expected PV Narasimha Rao (in '92) and Manmohan Singh (in 2004) to become the PM, even when the polls were on. Also, during the life of a single parliament, it is possible to change a PM (Chandrasekhar replaed VP Singh in 1991 and IK Gujral, in 1997, replaced HD Deve Gowda who himself replaed Vajpayee in 1996). Since the PM is elected by the support of a majority in the Lok Sabha, the ruling party enjoys its power in one house, at least. A loss in majority means the PM has to step down, and if no other candidate enjoys a majority, the parliament is dissolved and fresh election is held.

In the US, the Presidential candidate and his running-made, the Vice-Presidential candidate, are chosen before the election, from each party. In the event of the President's demise or resignation, the vice-president becomes the President automatically. Thus, US Presidential elections are held once in every 4 years (the leap year, to be exact). This is the norm for over 200 years. And, it is always held on the tuesday after the first monday of November.

4) Candidate selection

In India, as we saw above, the PM is chosen AFTER the elections, by the members of Lok Sabha. He/she need not be a Lok Sabha member to become the PM. Need not be the member of any house, but has to, within 6 months of swearing-in. Thus, it is possible for someone to become the PM without ever facing the voting public. Usually other potential Prime-ministerial candidates are the influential leaders of the major parties. But, hypothetically, one can become a PM even if he/she doesnt belong to any party until that day.

In the US, the candidates are chosen mostly by the citizens and the voting usually happens in the first 3-4 months of the year (that is what is going on now in US, including today, when the people of Florida are casting their vote for who they want to be on the Presidential nomination race). These elections for intra-party contests are called Primaries. In some states, the members of the given party vote and choose a candidate in what is known as a 'caucus'. After the primaries and caucuses are over, each party holds a national convention in which the delegates chosen from the primaries and caucuses meet and elect the eventual Presidential candidate. Thus, the whole process is highly democratic and the people know well in advance who their leader is going to be. A President who has already been elected twice can not compete as a candidate the third time.

5) Power of the parties

In India, the politics is all about the parties and its leadership. We can call it party-centric. Every candidate, for the state legislative assembly, and the Parliament (both houses) are decided by the parties. So it is important for any aspiring politician to be in good terms with the party leadership. After the election, if an elected member switches to another party, he stands to lose his elected position unless he is part of a converting group comprising at least one third of the total members of that party in that particluar assembly or the Parliament. In the state assembly and in the parliament, a party member has to vote on a bill based on what the party's whip orders. The member has can't disagree with the party's stand on that issue. Thus, the motions are brought in by only one party, and its opposition party usually tends to oppose it.

American politics has, since '60's, become candidate-centric. Since even the candidates for Senatorial and House elections are chosen by party members and public, any influential person can become a candidate as long as he/she manges win the required number of delegates' votes. Also, the elected member can switch party without any problem. Also, in the Congress (both the federal and state), a member can vote on a bill based on his/her opinion. Due to that, one can often see a Democratic member and a Republican member joining hands together and bringing a bill for vote in the Congress.

6) Influence of Religion

Religion has started playing an important part in Indian politics over the last 2 decades. BJP is a party run by Hindus and its policies are the most conservative among the major parties. Congress claims to be a secular party and thus tries to stand the middle ground, appealing to all the religions. The communists form the left wing.

The Republican party in US is known for being conservative and the Democrats are labelled 'liberal'. There is no religious fanaticism like the one seen in India sometimes, but the parties take different stand on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research.

There are some other minor differences as well but I will stop here. Overall, I like the high level of democracy in American elections and the '2-term maximum' for the Presidents, which allows other leaders to aim for the position. Moreover, since the Presidents are directly elected by the public, there is no room for horse-trading or attempts to split the party.

P.S.: Some of you asked me to write more on other aspects that I mentioned in the 'comments' section. Here we go..

* Electoral votes:

This is something unique to US elections. It is an extrapolation of 'Winner takes all' concept. Each state is alloted a certain number of 'electoral votes' based on its population. A candidate who gets the largest number of votes in that state wins all the electoral votes of that state. This makes the candidates to focus much of their campaign on the larger states. Thus, a candidate might win the 'popular' vote (i.e., winner of the largest number of votes throughout the US) but might still lose the election to his rival, if the rival manages to win the 'big' states even with a small difference of votes. (cf. Bush vs Al Gore in 2000). Among the 50 states of the US, just 11 of them carry the required half of the electoral college, i.e., by winning in just these 11 states, a candidate can become the president even if he loses all the remaining 39 states.

This is different in India. Even though the ruling party might not have any seats in many states, it still has to garner the support of one more than half of the total number of MP's.

* Campaign finance:

It plays a large part in the US politics. Unlike in India where much of the campaign fund is used at the grassroot level (e.g., posters, meetings, travel, party workers and newspaper ads), in US, it is spent for advertising in the media. The last few years have seen a great change in the fund collection - internet has played a huge role for candidates such as McCain and Democratic party head Gov Howard Dean. According to US laws, every donor and the amount donated have to be openly disclosed. There is a limit on how much someone can contribute to a candidate in a 1-year period. Also, in case of the candidate having exhausted all the private donations, it is possible for him/her to get public-funding (the candidates are quite skeptical about getting it, for the fear of the revelation of large expenditure of campaign finance).

In India, the Election commission has defined a maximum amount that a candidate can spend for his/her constituency; but it doesnt restrict the party spending. Thus, aspiring parties collect their campaign money from their resources and spend as they wish.

*Incumbent advantage:

In the US, it helps to be in power. Most of the incumbent Presidents, Senators and congressmen are re-elected, since the public prefer them to untried new faces. Since there is a restriction on the number of re-election bids for the Presidents and the Senators, one also gets the 'open competition' in which no incumbent is in contest. The incumbents sometimes do get defeated too (e.g., George HW Bush, in 1992) but that is rare.

In India, the most common term heard during the elections is the 'Anti-incumbency factor', which makes it very hard for the rulers to be re-elected. In states such as Kerala, it is a given that the incumbents would lose - it has been the case for over 30 years. The large section of the population toiling in poverty choses to vent its anger on the incumbents.

RIP, Pandian!

2008-01-11T23:01:00.000+05:30

After director Jeeva last year, another premature death in tamil cine industry. Pandian, the first village-hero of tamil cinema b4 Ramarajan came along, passed away yesterday. Pandian was an invent of Bharathiraja along with Revathi in the super-hit MaNvAsanai. Despite belonging to Madurai, Pandian was unusually fair-looking, which was one of the strongest reasons for his capturing Bharathiraja's attention. After his early successes in movies such as Pudhumai Penn, Mudhal vasantham and Aan PAvam, he went on a movie-signing spree, and most of those movies flopped.

He then resorted to secondary roles in movies like Guru Sishyan and Oor Kavalan, before his mentor gave him a fresh lease of life with a cameo role in Kizhakku Seemaiyile. Unfortunately, he couldn't make good use of it, and slowly faded into oblivion. The last I saw him was in Citizen. He would have made a good comedian, and I especially like one movie of his - Sathaan sollai thattAdhey. I think Pandiyan is the first Madurai-based actor to make some kind of impression in tamil cinema. May his soul rest in peace!

Taare Zameen Par

2007-12-23T02:50:00.000+05:30

My interest in movies revolving around children first started when I watched Anjali, my all time favorite. After a huge gap, a movie on a defective child plus direction by Aamir Khan really made me to go to the first show itself. My expectations for the movie rose as the main character's name was credited before anyone else, including Aamir.

Ishaan is an inattentive child, lagging from his fellow classmates in studies. He also engages in fights. The initial few symptoms made me to wonder if he's having Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). As time goes by, his problems become severe and he bunks class to prevent being punished by his teache. His parents fearthat he wouldn't be a studious person like his elder brother and send him to a boarding school. The movie which was revolving primarily ard Ishaan, now onwards takes a shift. Here after, it is about how Aamir Khan (art teacher) recongnizes the disorder in Ishaan, Dyslexia, and helps him to overcome it, and in the climax eventually the child succeeds.

The movie doesn't engross you as good as the story promises. The second half is way too lengthy, with Aamir Khan uttering several monologues to bring forth his opinions about non-understanding and demanding parents. He burdens the movie with himself, and cries too much to test our eye glands, unsuccessfully. The moment we realize that Aamir Khan is after Ishaan, we know how it is gonna end, exactly. Too much predictability takes away any further attachment we can have in seeing the success of Ishaan.

The kid acting as Ishaan was terrific. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy do a fantastic job with some slow numbers in the first half. Nothing much to say about the supporting cast, including Aamir.The argument Aamir has that the dyslexic kids do have the rights to study alongside 'normal' kids holds little water after we see what a specially trained and well-aware Aamir can do. Also, instead of addressing the larger problem of undue pressure on children in the present times, the attention in the second half is only on dyslexic kids. Sure, it is not to be taken lightly, with 10-15% of population reported to have it, but I am not sure if it is them (and their parents & teachers) whom Aamir wanted to target this movie for.

With Aamir Khan touted to act in next Mani Ratnam's movie, I wish he had sought an advice or two from the master director on how to take a movie based on a child. Nevertheless, Aamir needs to be applauded for his good intentions.

Science in song lyrics

2007-12-13T01:32:00.000+05:30

Some songs have the knack of stimulating some interesting scientific thoughts when I hear them.. It so happens that most of the time the lyrics remind me of the scientific content.. A few such lines from songs, retrieved by a quick recollection:

1) நிலவில் பொருள்கள் எடையிழக்கும்

நீரிலும் பொருள் எடையிழக்கும்

'Nilavil porulgal edaiyizhakkum

neerilum porul edaiyizhakkum' (Ratchagan)

This song easily gets the top spot for such a beautiful comparison for love. Things lose their weights in moon and in water. Gravity explains the loss in moon and the viscosity, in water. When Vairamuthu compares these apparent sense of weight loss with feeling light when in love, it is more apt, in another sense too: one says 'I fell in love'.. when you 'fall', your body feels lighter, doesnt it?

2) அழகிய நிலவில் ஆக்சிஜன் நிரப்பி....

'Azhagiya nilavil oxygen nirappi' (Jeans)

Though trivial, it reiterates a couple of facts: one- there is no oxygen in moon, and two- humans need oxygen to survive.

3) தாமரை மேலே நீர்த்துளி போல்....

'ThAmarai mElE neerthuLi pOl' (Mouna RAgam)

Though it has been used for comparison since ancient times, in the modern times scientists are trying to mimic the lotus for coatings of some applications. Water doesnt wet lotus (flower and leaves) because of surface tension, which arises from its unique surface chemistry due to water-repellant chemicals.

4) வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சி உடம்பில் ஓவியங்கள் அதிசயம்

'Vannathupoochi udambil OviyangaL adhisayam' (Jeans)

Again, man has been wondering about the beauty of butterflies. The exotic colors in the wings of butterflies arise due to an optical effect called 'thin film interference'. Amazing that there are no dyes which give the various colors to butterflies.

5) உலகம் திரியும் காற்றுக்கு உருவம் தீட்டமுடியாது.

'Ulagam thiriyum kAtrukku uruvam theetta mudiyAdhu' (Mozhi)

It is simply explained by the fluidic nature of air.. Air, a fluid, doesn't have a shape by itself and it takes up the shape of the container it is in..

6) வெண்ணிலவே வெள்ளி வெள்ளி நிலாவே

போகுமிடமெல்லாமே கூடக்கூட வந்தாய்..

'VennilavE veLLi veLLi nilAvE

pogumidam ellAmE koodakooda vandhAi' (Vettaiyadu vilayadu)

That is simply because the distance between earth and moon is so large that any distance that a man covers by whatver means is too small to make a difference to the relative position of the moon. This creates an illusion as if moon is moving alongwith you.

7) நீலநிறம் வானுக்கும் கடலுக்கும் நீலநிறம்

'Neela niRam vAnukkum kadalukkum neelaniRam' (En aNNan)

Sky appears blue because of Raman scattering.. Sea appears blue bcos it simply reflects the sky. To say that they are blue, bcos the girl's eyes are blue is, well, poetic freedom..

All these lyrics talk of 'correct' scientific events. The reason for this post is a recent song which has the lines

மேற்கு திசையை நோக்கி நடந்தால்

இரவு கொஞ்சம் சீக்கிரம் வருமா..

'MERku dhisaiyai nOkki nadandhAl

iravu konjam seekkiram varumA' (ATM)

Nice ones.. The lyricist's inclination is clear.. but he is going in the wrong direction.. Since earth rotates eastwards, one has to walk in that direction for the night to approach faster.

Indian vs US Undergraduate Education

2007-11-27T22:54:00.000+05:30

Over the past few months, I have got quite a bit of exposure to the undergraduates here. Interacting with them has inevitably led me to compare the system of UG education in India and in the US.

1) Courses:

There is a great deal of flexibility in the kind of courses that a student here has to take to complete the degree. There are only a few 'core courses' that every major student HAS to take. Most universities require 120 credits for the degree, of which only about 20-30 come under the 'core' criteria. This is in total contrast to the requirements in India, where a student has to take and clear all the courses specified by the college/university. That is the case with the arts colleges, and I think it is the same with the Engg. colleges as well. If I am not wrong, pl. do correct me.

2) Diversity:

The language courses here are much more useful than the mindless 'memorize-and-spit' stuff an arts college student in India has to take. There are a couple of courses in 'Academic writing' or 'Analytical writing' which greatly enhance one's language and writing skills. Also, the educational curricula are quite diverse in most universities, which means the students HAVE to take at least one course each in areas such as US history, European history, Fine arts, philosophy, maths, physics/chemistry/biology, and psychology/sociology. This widens the student's perspectives in several disciplines.

3) Class selection:

So, the student here chooses the subject based on: a) the general liking of the course; b) the teaching/grading skills of the professor from ratemyprofessor.com; c) time-conflict with other courses; and d) interestingly, most want to avoid classes on monday/friday, so that they can have a long holiday. Also, the students who commute long distance, like to have most classes on the same day itself.

Moreover, if a student is very good, he/she would be allowed to take more courses in a semester. Many students make use of the summer courses (which most dont do - they take time off from studies during summer) and even the 3-week Winter courses and it is possible for one to finish a 4-year program in just 2 years.

4) Quality at the entry level:

I was shocked to know that most students get their first introduction to mainstream chemistry, physics and biology when they enter the degree program. I was told that, during school education, they are mostly taught as to how to attend the classes, how to take notes, etc. In essence, the things that we learn in class 11 in India are taught in the beginning of the UG program here.

5) Concept of 'class':

The concept of a batch hardly exists. It is highly possible that two students who join a given major in the same year may never be in a single class together throughout the entire UG program. The strength of some of the classes is humongous, with some having even 400+ students. Sometimes, there would be several sessions of the same subject offered in the same semester.

Because of the huge number of the students admitted to a major in the same year, the busy schedule of the professors (teaching + research), and the work that the students do to earn their tuition fees/living, each student attends only about 15-18 hours per week of classes. In India, it is 25 hours a week, mostly. That gives more time for a given course to be taught, without too much rushing. Here, the profs with improper planning would end up short of their syllabus or hurrying up.

6) Grading:

All colleges and universities work the way 'autonomous' institutions in India work. It is upto the instructor how he/she wishes to handle the tests. So, there are cases like (i) frequent quizzes/tests followed by a cumulative final, similar to the Indian system, (ii) only short quizzes/tests, with a final being just another short test (non-cumulative), and (iii) grading based only on presentations/papers submitted. The questions could all be multiple-choiced, or descriptive. There is no guarantee that the grading system of a professor in one semester would continue to the next sem. If the whole class performs poorly, usually there is a 'curving', which means a few marks would be added to all the grades.

Unlike in India, where 35% is a passing mark, one can fail here even if he/she scores 60%. Also, most papers would require one to answer all the questions.. so the spoilling system of 'choice' in India, where one student can skip a chapter fully and still score 100%, is not possible here. Because of the tough grading, IMHO, the student has to learn more here than in India to pass or get high grades. Due to the letter system of grading, someone who has got 100% answers right might be considered equal to one with 91% answers - both get an A.

7) Professional degrees:

While a BA/BSc student inIndia takes about 30 courses towards a 3-year degree, one here takes about 40 for a 4-year degree. Similar to the way a BE/BTech student in India spends 4 years for the degree, an engg. degree in US too requires about 140 credits. Unlike in India where a student can join a medical/dental/pharmacy/law college after class 12, in US, one has to complete the UG degree, or some form of pre-medical or pre-dental program to enter such specialized schools. That is bcos of relatively low quality of class-12 education.

8) Attendance:

In India, all instructors take the attendance; so if someone misses a lot of classes, he/she could be debarred from taking the final exams. Here, there are some who would not take attendance for even a single class.. thus, by simply studying the prescribed book at home, and getting the notes from the friends, a student can get an A. On the other extreme, there are some who would reduce the grade point to the next lower letter grade, for a student who has been absent for just 4 classes.

9) Class timings:

Unlike the fixed 10AM-4 PM or whatever fixed timing in Indian colleges/universities, here there are some classes which start at 8 AM, and some which go on till 10 PM.

10) Choice of university:

The students choose the university based on (i) its national ranking, (ii) presence in the same state (to save tuition fees), (iii) the quality of the particular program in the university and (iv) the performance of the university's football/basketball teams, though not necessarily in the same order.

Considering all these things, I was wondering which one is better - Indian or American system. Though in India one gets good opportunities to do well, not many grab them. Moreover, the Indian system encourages 'mugging up' bcos many times one has to reproduce the answers verbatim. In US, many courses make one to think a lot, do quite a bit of reading outside the books, and enhance writing, presentation skills, non-linear/abstract thinking.

Deepavali movies - Back to the Past

2007-11-13T05:19:00.000+05:30

Watching two supernaturally inspired movies in less than 24 hours is what Deepavali had to offer. Both the movies are a little too late.. one by 20 years and the other by 30 years.

1) Azhagiya Tamil Magan (ATM):
After watching this, I will have to think a thousand times "Do I HAVE to go to ATM to withdraw money?" It is like post-traumatic disorder, recalling the trauma upon hearing something connected to it. Probably I should have known what to expect of a Vijay movie when I sat to watch the film, but still Vijay and his directors have the uncanny ability of testing the patience of the 'patientest' people. When you have some of the scenes resembling 'Durga' and forcing you to recollect its mundane details, you know you are watching a wrong movie at a wrong time.

This movie makes other movies in which we questioned the logic, such as 'Sivaji', as blemishless classics. The first half was atleast palatable..The climax scene is as cliched as it can get.. (am not talking about Namitha appearing in a properly-worn-saree). As Vijay says, my consolation was "ethanaiyo kuppaigalai parthuttenn.. Idhai parthu porukka mudiyadha?" Vijay's dance, 'Pon magal vandhaal' remix, and two more songs helped somewhat to bear the torture (the insertion of the last song is among the most atrocious in recent times).

2) Om Shanti Om:

Shah Rukh and Farah Khan had earlier combined to give a 'lotsa-holes-but-still-light-hearted' "Main Hoon Na", where Farah had showed her liking for old Hindi songs by incorporating them in the scenes where Shah Rukh meets Sushmita Sen. One would wish that she is through with showing off her love for old movies. In OSO, she fills half the movie with the old wine. Next what - a period film, may be? Pray to god using the title mantra...

The story is thinner than the heroine's (Deepika Padukone) waist. And it is older than the careers of most of the actors who dance for the much-hyped '51 special appearances' title song. The chemistry between the lead pair is as strong as between water and oil. The predictability is as much as an India-Australia one-day match. The choreography, expected to be top-notch, is as good as what the early-eliminating contestants of a dance competition would come up with.

The only pluses of the movie are its peppy music, a younger-looking-and-hot Shah Rukh and the freshness of Deepika. Shah Rukh continues his speaking-telugu-thinking-to-be-tamil act of KBC here too, with mixed success. Some of the other lighter moments make use of liberal digging at the Bollywood, its functioning and its personalities.

Farah educates us with some hair-rising facts of the 'other world': the ghosts too apparently need visas, so they cant fly abroad to take revenge on the villain.. they patiently wait till he comes back to the same city, same building, same room. A kid born at the same time when someone dies closeby will have the same features as the dead man, though there is no blood relation. Reincarnation, you see.. There is even a dialog in the movie in which someone suspects if a movie based on reincarnation will be accepted by Indian audience. I wish she attempted the story with some other lead actor to put her test to practice.