Suuuuuuuuuuuuper series

“Moral policing” seems to be the recent hot topic among Tamil bloggers. Enough has already been said wonderfully by a lot of them. So, let me write something about cricket.

Next week, some of the greatest players of the world would be under one roof, playing with enormous pride and passion, for the eagerly awaited ICC super-series. For my non-cricketing readers, it is the face-off between the best team in the world (now Australia) and another team of bests (called ICC XI, comprising outstanding cricketers across the world). Three one-dayers would be followed by a 6-day test, which would hopefully be enough to force a result, rain gods willing. Sachin is not playing, so that’s already a big disappointment for me.

The point of contention is the team selected for the ICC XI. To think of it, I saw three ways of choosing the members of the side to take on Australia. One – by picking the players according to the players’ rankings. Second – by picking those players who have excelled in Australia. Third – by selecting from the teams that have really managed to trouble Australia in the recent past and even beat them.

The first method would bring all the superstars into the game, which is pretty much the case for the current team selected. The second method would bring a select band of players who raise their games to the highest level when playing against the champions in their own backyard, but may not have done so against lesser teams. The third method, though similar to second, would bring in the players who ‘know’ what it takes and how it is to defeat the champions.

14 for the ODI’s and 13 for the tests have been selected, with Pollock being the captain for the former while Smith is the captain for the latter. My team (from the picked squad) would be, in the batting order:

ODI’s: Shahid Afridi, Chris Gayle, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Jack Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara, Shaun Pollock, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib Akhtar. Super-sub: Daniel Vettori. (Left out: Sehwag and Ntini).

Tests: Virender Sehwag, Graeme Smith, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Jack Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock, Steve Harmison, Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan. (Leftout: Vettori and Inzamam).

Dream-team, you would say? I felt so too, initially, but I don’t agree with the selection of one or two players. First, on the captaincy. Both the captains are South Africans, and have had only moderate successes, especially against Australia and in the recent past. So, ideally, I would have liked to have Michael Vaughan as the captain for the test team. It creates huge competition for the middle order and opens a vacant spot in the opening.. So, Graeme Smith and Jack Kallis go, making way for Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan. Instead of four South-Africans, you would have four Poms, which makes sense, since they were the only team in the recent past to defeat Aus. (which satisfies the ‘third method’ I discussed earlier).

And, may be VVS Laxman for Jack Kallis? VVS is the second most-feared batsman by Australia and he has done very well against Aus as well as in the epic series in 2001 (which satisfy both the ‘second’ and ‘third’ method). Hope Murali doesn’t get booed by the Australian crowd and is allowed to play his best natural game. But, considering the thing he has with the crowd and also that he hasn’t played quite a while in Australia, wouldn’t it have been more apt to have chosen Anil Kumble in his place? That would have satisfied, again, the second and third method of selection.

Last, I would have preferred the fast and furious Shane Bond in place of military medium-paced Shaun Pollock in both the test and one-day teams. He is one unique character, the Aus haven’t seen him quite a while, and he almost won an important match for his team in his last encounter with the Aussies.

One cool idea

I thought of writing a post on the supposedly most private 6-page e-mail read by over a million (atleast) in full, but, it is very depressing to look at it from a personal perspective. So, I would rather write something else.

Once I visited 3M, Bangalore and it was quite an inspiring visit. I listened a lot on ‘ideas’ and how with apparently simple ideas some nobodies became millionaires. I thought, whether or not monetary, I can keep thinking of some ideas just for the kick of it. One such post was the “gym-workout”. Now, another ‘cool’ idea..

This is about the ice cubes that we often use. Their use? To cool drinks. If you want them to make the drinks cool fast, they should melt fast. If you want them to just keep floating around, you can make them melt slow. I am more interested in the first category, which would be useful for hot countries like India, where you want some rapid way to chill. I haven’t seen any other shaped ice cubes, and haven’t googled to find any such thing. This idea is atleast 6 years old.

Now, little bit about the science of melting. (If you don’t want to hear some science funda, plz. jump to the next para.) More the surface area of the solid ice, faster it would dissolve. So, for a given volume (and hence the weight) of ice, a spherical form has the lowest surface area. Next comes a cube, followed by rectangle, triangle, oval-shape, etc. If you make the surface very irregular, like a flat disk with lots of protrusions (imagine Vicks keech keech.. animated bacteria) but if it is too rough like that, it would tear the mouth.. So, ideally, you would like to have something optimum.

What stuck me as a simple design for fast melting was a smooth more-wavy pea-pod shaped blocks, or simply, even a simple oval shaped one. Apart from these, I can think of quite a few designs which would be quite interesting:

Heart – (Dialogue vudalam: Indha heart drinks-le karaiyara madhiri ennoda heart unnai parthadhum karaiyudhu)

Lips – (Drinks mele float pannittu irundha parka eppadi irukkum)

For the kids, fun to have some simple shapes which they love, such as a fish, boat and teddy.

All it requires is a suitable plastic mould of the desired shape.. must be a jujubi with the current technology.

Ah Aah

SJ Surya has got the reputation as a good screenplay writer, similar to the lines of K Bhagyaraj, whom he tries to emulate in double-meaning dialogues and some controversial scenes as well. He managed to overcome his shortcomings in his previous three movies, but in this one, he falls terribly short in almost all the fronts.

Story? Is revealed by Surya himself right at the beginning of the movie and in the trailer. One has to really wonder his wisdom, since he doesn’t have a nice screenplay to back such a wafer-thin, really old story. Shiva (Surya) and Madhu (Nila) are lovers living together. Shiva is a journalist working hard to try and maintain a good living. When Madhu decides to run a restaurant with her friend’s brother to ease the pressure off Shiva, he doesn’t like it and thanks to a series of splats, they separate. The rest of the movie is on how their thoughts, clad in a blue costume, unite the lovers.

It’s a big surprise how the two, who are as different as chalk and cheese (literally) can fall in love and even ‘exist’ together. The chemistry between them is awful and from the beginning, there is more repulsive force we feel than any attraction. The reason for the couples’ separation is sooo silly and vulgar. The post-separation part also disappoints, with nothing ‘new’ in the proceedings.

We heard the dialogue from Prakash Raj in Anniyan “MGR pathirukkenn…..”. It suits for Surya’s performance in Ah Aah too, but in a totally opposite way. He overacts as all four of them, and many others too. He is unbearable at most scenes. His hairstyle is horrible. Nila just looks good in some scenes. All she has is some resemblance to Simran in some angles. Nothing more than a glamour doll. So many irritating characters sprinkled along the movie add to the agony. All of Surya’s colleagues having something to influence his life, thoughts and provide some turning points is total lack of imagination.

Song picturizations have been a huge let down. This would be one movie AR Rehman would repent for having composed some good numbers. Camera work with ‘blue’ being the predominant color in the second half pains the eye at times. Choreography by Brinda is less than imaginative.


Surya would have probably thought that ‘New’ was his success story. He didn’t realize that it was Simran’s show. He cant afford to take the audiences for granted with this kind of no-brainer. Recommendations: To Surya – Better work behind camera; To janta – Stay away from this movie.

Graded C-. +ve: Music. –ves: Plenty.

Whats there in a name?

My name is quite a complicated one.. unless you are from Tamilnadu or may be, Kerala, it is hard to pronounce my name correctly. My nickname is Raju and I asked my father one day why I cant keep that name for school. He said that, according to the Brahmin tradition, it should be a God’s name, and since we are Vaishnavites, it has to be one of Vishnu’s. In school, my friends started calling me “Padhu”, which became “Pathu” (ten)! Cant expect anything better from a small town like Rameswaram, you see..

Other names I used to be called with love by friends are “Kokku” and even “Nindraseer Nedumaran” (thanks to my height).

Moved to Madurai when I was 12. In the school where I studied 8th, one friend got the name “ottagam” for me.. Where is ottagam found? Thus, the name became “Paalaivanam”. Didn’t like it one bit, sounded very dry.. but I didn’t have much choice for the few months. In the subsequent school, mostly I was “padhu”. I indeed used to write with a “bhan” ending but the data entry operator of my SSLC took away the ‘h’, so I had to sacrifice it.. (Name in Class 10 certificate is the most important, u seee.. ) never got it back.. For the first time, had another guy in my class with the name “Ananthapadmanabhan”.. Luckily no confusion.

Then to college. “Padhu” or “Padma” for few months (since ours was a Boys’ college). Then got this name “sithappa”, which stuck throughout.. That is a name given to some unique person in the college, I was told.. (Remember the ‘sithappa’ in Azhagiya Theeye). I was fun-loving, studious, jack-of-all kinda person so may be that’s the reason I got it.

Didn’t realize the seriousness of the problem with my original name until I moved out of the state when I came to IISc, Bangalore. All those who came across my name on my first days in IISc gave a broad smile. I didn’t know why. I roamed around the campus and found a bungalow where someone with exactly my name lived. (First I thought, what, have they allocated this bungalow to me, rather than the host? Cha cha.. cant be.. ) Fortunately or otherwise, the director of the institute had exactly my name (without ‘h’) !! And he was a biochemist ( I was in the physical chemistry then). Some letters of mine used to go to him (one even my train ticket, which I got a few hours before the office closed on the day of my travel). And some of his ‘general’ letters used to come to me. Whenever I saw him face-to-face, I would think “is he gonna ask me something about our similarity?” I don’t know whether he still knows about me.

He was called ‘GP’ by one and all in the campus, so my first-day friend, whose father was a faculty there so he knew the significance of my name, immediately christened me as ‘GP’. Thanks to him, for simplifying the perennial problem, but also little bit complicating it. Ever since, I am ‘GP’ to all the people and stuck to it. Once when I sent a telegram to my research supervisor about extension of my leave, he later said he wondered “Why the director has to apologize to me for coming late by two days?”. LOL….

Realized the ‘real’ situation when I visited Europe for a conference few years back. The people in the travel committee, etc. had to chop/kill and chew my name as they wished. They said “u have some uncomfortable extra syllables all along ur name” !! There I met my current research advisor and he started calling me “Padma”. Some Indians who heard so gave a ‘top-to-bottom’ look at me !!

Then came to US last year and while saved myself by telling everyone in the department to call me as “GP”, it became hard with so many people with whom contacts had to be made by phone/person. After the initial nervous moments due to not having a surname, which made my last name and first name get swapped, I decided to tell those people to call me “Guru” (which is exactly how my father is called by his relatives and friends). Not bad, since the Americans are familiar with that name and also they would be calling me as Guru.. (hehehe). It got to such a level that, when there was a visitor to our group, I introduced myself to her as “Guru” and my boss was surprised.. He was like “what did u say? What was it?”. :-)

Whatever it is, somehow I am bored of the name GP. Every restroom has got the handwipe paper from Georgia-Pacific, with an emblem ‘GP’, so sick of it!! I miss the name Raju so much, so decided to request all you blogger friends to address me as RAJU from now on. That’s the take-home message after reading such a long post. Thanks in advance!!

What have you (un)done, Dada?

vs

Indian cricket is undergoing through one of the worst crisis of the recent times, the worst since the match-fixing times, to be precise. Saurav Ganguly, after scoring his first international hundred in over 20 months, remarked that he was asked to step down as captain and player just before the first test, which means precisely a week before this post is going public. Though he didn’t name, it is/was obvious that Greg Chappel, the coach was the one he was pointing finger at, since he is the only one who has considerable power in the team on tour. That has overshadowed the significance of the series and all the focus now is on what would happen in our team’s management.

Different stories are making rounds, but what seems to be consistent is that it is Ganguly who asked Greg about his ‘honest opinion’ as a elder brother on the team’s composition and what Ganguly’s immediate future is. Greg apparently said that he would include both Yuvraj and Kaif in the team ahead of Ganguly and that Ganguly needs to work on his batting before claiming a legitimate place in the team. It was a private conversation between the two, and then Ganguly stormed out of the room, met Dravid and team manager and complained them on Greg’s remarks. Worst was, on the third day, he chose to mention that in the press conference.

I am not going to discuss on the quality of his hundred. All my applauses to him for that knock, however dour it was, against arguably the weakest bowling he would have faced in his entire test career. What angers me is his mentality over the entire situation. Not withstanding the polarization of the public on whether one is pro- or anti-Ganguly, he has now extended it even in his team. What if he had got our before reaching double digit in the usual customary way of fishing outside the offstump or an ugly ducking of a legside bouncer? And what if runs dry up again?

It is no secret that he is a short-tempered person and tends to get quite emotional a lot. He has had a very good cricketing period from ’96 till 2000. Those were the four-and-half years when he formed the backbone of Indian batting and deservedly awarded the captaincy. No one could question his presence in the team and his batting did all the talking. After that, time and again, his form suffered in both forms of cricket and he always faced those uncomfortable questions from the media, ex-cricketers and public. His defense was “I have had few knocks of 30-40 runs, just I need to convert one of those into a big hundred” and “I am one innings away from being my best again”. Sadly, those were as unglamorous as his jumping around in the crease. Apart from the match-saving and series-defining century against Aus at Gabba in 2003, there was never any hint to deny that the best days of Ganguly are long over.

The current episode shows the arrogance of Ganguly that he truly deserves to be the captain of the team, no matter how the stats show otherwise. He gets terribly angry on whoever questions him and he has the mentality of “I don’t have to answer/prove anyone anymore”. The big downslide of this is that it doesn’t allow him to overcome his shortcomings and score runs, because he thinks he would then be yielding to the pressure and demands of others. He should realize that he is no Mike Brearley, so doesn’t deserve to be a non-performing captain. Also that, even bigger stalwarts like Sachin, Ponting and Hayden have recently been questioned and they have answered it the best way: by letting the bat to the talking.

IMO, the team is like a family and the management is like its elders, husband-and-wife, to be precise. The hubby-wife spat should never be done in front of the kids or other elders in the family, simply because it disrupts the harmony of the family. It has to be sorted out among themselves – period. Worst is the scenario when the family knows of the fight and then one of hubby/wife decides to make it all public and force the family members to take sides. Washing dirty linen in public is something we definitely didn’t expect from someone as expectedly professional and responsible as our captain.

Whatever happened, all I wish/pray is that the problem gets sorted out soon and we focus on real important issues like the fitness, skills, opposition, performance and such.

Oru Kallooriyin Kathai

(Pic adopted from ChennaiOnline)

Another of campus tabloid to be added to the long list of recent movies. The debutant director, Nanda Periasamy had said this is a very refreshing story and 'romba vithyaasamana kadhai'. Wish it was a positive difference he had in mind.

Chandru (Jaivarma) is going to Cuddalore to meet his college classmates after five long years. Satya (Arya), their best friend who had originally suggested for such a meeting before five years is eagerly awaited. His father brings him, albeit in a state where all he is nothing, literally, but a emotionless, vegetable-like, almost brain-dead survivor. The doctor (Charuhaasan) takes him to a hypnotic state when he reveals about his love interest, Jothi (Sonia Agarwal), his collagemate. He was about to propose his one-sided love to her five years ago during the freshers' welcome but he couldn't. Doctor suggests that, in order for Satya to become normal, he has to propose to Jothi as he had planned. So, the friends try to rebuild their college of 5 years back and help Satya complete his unfulfilled wish.

Surely an interesting story, though the attempts of the friends in cleverly fooling Satya and manipulating his world resembles that of Ed Harris in 'The Truman Show'. The first half is outlined above and it has some interesting and touching moments. It is OK, but, it nosedives badly in the second half, hurting logics, sentiments and the climax is cliched. The interaction among the friends is shown in only one or two scenes. While it is plus for not going overboard, it is a minus because the overboard act of their friends for such an arduous effort in time-reversal of an entire college for a month.

Several loopholes are visibly see - how about the life outside the campus? And, what about the present students who are finishing up their year (since that one month is set before farewell time)? Even if one tends to neglect these and tries to enjoy the proceedings, the situations where Jothi realizes Satya's love on her, appear ridiculous, forced and too melodramatic. All these things bring down the second half of the movie terribly badly.

Arya looks good, handsome and has chances to emote reasonably well. But none too impressive compared with her previous movie, Ullam Ketkumae. He appears to be sleep-walking for most part. Sonia appears less interested and she better keep an eye on diet. Support cast of the friends like Jaivarma are OK. IMO, the best scenes of the movie are when the friends are together. They bring back memories of the college days. The big question that haunts is, if they are such thick friends, why the hell they had no contact whatseover among themselves so far? Not even one knew about Satya's plight, especially since 'that event' happened at the farewell day?

Yuvan's music is a huge positive, though, as usual, he fare better in melodious songs than in the college group songs. "Kaadhal enbathu" and "kanngal kalangida" are top-class and i hear them atleast 4-5 times everyday. The movie is neat, without any item number or masala stuff. If you keep your brain in the closet and watch it only with heart, you will like it.

B- grade for this movie. +ves: Arya, Yuvan. -ves: Climax, patchy screenplay.

Ondra Renda….. Ezhu ! (Seven)

I have been tagged, by Deepak and Mitr.. Thanks to them. One of the tough posts to write, since it required quite a lot of thinking.. sometimes this kind of thought process helps putting a mirror in front and analyze one self. The thing is, I have been continuously changing over the last 10 years or so and the evolution is likely to continue longer. These seven different seven things are closest to me right now.

7 things I am planning to do before death:

That sounds too ‘negative’. I would much rather say ‘wish to do sometime in the next 30 years’.

1) To get a clear-cut answer on whether or not there is god. (I am more towards pro-God, but hovering around)
2) To appear on screen in a good diro’s movie.
3) Bungee jumping
4) Make an autograph book “Nobel Laureates” and fill it up
5) To get rid of all the extra fat and maintain that way till …
6) To do ‘nerukku nerr’ with Miss. JJ
7) Work at different levels – as a high school teacher, college lecturer, a prof., manager – all for short time to get a feel of the job.

7 things that I can do:

1) Make friends easily
2) Work 2 days non-stop
3) Sit idle 2-days non-stop
4) Samaiyal
5) Converse on almost all topics.
6) Be cool at most adverse situations
7) Be a total freak at times

7 things that I can’t do:

1) Muskafy people
2) Be satisfied with a mediocre life
3) Understand quantum mechanics
4) Swear
5) Kill somebody
6) Laugh aloud for jokes or situations unless they are too good
7) Wear fluorescent dresses

7 things that attract me in opposite sex:

1) Smile and laughter
2) Dressing sense
3) Hair
4) Eyes
5) Voice
6) Height
7) A good sense of humor

7 things that I say most:

1) Hey
2) Whassup
3) Cool
4) Awesome
5) Have a good one
6) It happens
7) I wish….


7 celebrities I want to meet:

1) Sachin Tendulkar
2) Kamal Haasan
3) AR Rahman
4) Ilayaraja
5) Dr. Manmohan Singh
6) Hariharan
7) Shankar

7 people I would like to take this quiz to:

1) Aparna
2) Balaji
3) Ram C.
4) Narayanan Venkittu
5) Ramkumar
6) Venky
7) Some other G. Padmanaban, if there is any.

Manam kollai pOchu..

(Pictures adopted from ayngaran.com)

Sometimes, certain movies and their music are missed by me and I get to know how good they are much later. One such movie in the recent time is 'Five Star'. I listened to its songs for the first time only in the last year sometime and since I listened to it while working, one song that I immediately liked was 'Thiru thiruda'. That tune was coming to my mind lot of times and I had forgotten where I listened that. One day, while searching for it carefully in raaga, i found it. Downloaded and started lstening it. That made me watch the movie also. Again watched the movie while at work on a weekend. Didn’t like much the other ‘peppy’ tunes but liked the movie very much. It was neat, different and refreshing.

The main attraction in that movie to me was Kanika. She was damn good and had a terrific screen presence. A solid and meaty role and she carried it very well for a newcomer. I became a big fan of her, but poor girl didn’t have many tamil movies.

Autograph-le parthappave manam paripochu.. ‘Ethiree’-leyum super. Sema homely look. Brahmin ponnu role-na Kanika-vai kooppidalamnu solra alavukku appadi oru baandham. Enna, rumba jollu vidurena.. kandukkatheenga.

Indha weekend I again saw Five Star. This time I liked the movie even more. Kanikavaiyum innum pidichi pochu. அதோட இன்னும் ரெண்டு பாட்டு அப்படியே என்னை சொக்கிடுச்சு. (athooda innum reNdu paattu appadiyee ennai sokkiduchchu). I will explain all what I enjoyed. யான் பெற்ற இன்பம் பெறுக இந்த ப்லாக் உலகம்... (yaan peRRa inbam peRuka inththa blog ulakam.)

First the song "Rayile Rayile..".. What a song.. awesome lyrics. Vairamuthu is famous for all sorts of comparisions, now, in this song, he compares a train to himself.. unbelievable.. I will provide u with the most impressive of the lines:

ரயிலே ரயிலே ஒரு நிமிஷம்..
ரதியைப் பார்க்க நிற்பாயா
பார்த்தால் நீ... நீ...
என்போல் தடம் புரள்வாய்..

(rayiley rayiley oru nimisham..rathiyaip paarkka niRpaayaa paarththaal nee nee en pOl thadam puraLvaay.. )

rail derail agura oru negative matter-ai evlo karpanaiyoda solliyirukkaru.. oru penn than manathukkul erpaduththum konthalippai ippadi solraar..

விரைவு ரயிலொன்று எதிரினில் வருகையில்
உன்னோடு விபத்து
ஓ அழகுப் புயலென்று எதிரினில் இருக்கையில்
என்னோடு விபத்து

(viraivu rayilonRu ethirinil varukaiyil unnOdu vibathu
oh azhagu puyalenRu ethirinil irukkaiyil ennOdu vibathu)

Train accident enna satharanamna santhoshapadugira vishayama? Aana, UnniKrishnan indha varigalai padumbodhu enna santhosham.. azhagana vibathu.. Fast express-ai puyalukkum puyalai oru pennukkum uvamaipaduthi enna vilayattu..

ஏ ரயிலே உன் மேலே
நான் தோள் சாயும் தோழன்
எனக்கு நீ எனக்கு
ஒரு பெண் பார்த்து சொல்வாயா

(Ey rayilee un mElE naan thOL saayum thoozhan
enakku nee enakku oru peN paarththu solvaayaa)

jannal mEle thOl saithu ellarum thoonguvaanga.. adhanaale train oru friend-aam.. enna kusumbu parunga.. adhukkaga train ivarukku penn paarkkanumaam.. andha train-ledhaan avarukku pidicha pennai parthadhaale friend help panna madhiri aachu..

நீயும்தான் செல்வாய்
மலைகளின் குகையிலே
நானும்தான் செல்வேன்
இமைகளின் குகையிலே..

(neeyumthaan selvaay malaigaLin gugaiyilE
naanumthaan selvEn imaikaLin gugaiyilee..)

Idhu heights. Imaigal valaindhu irukkiradhu gugai-yoda valaivu madhiri.. imaiyoda gugai kann.. andha kann vazhiya penn manasukku poganumaam.. enna route parunga.. short cut-a long route-a?

சிவப்பு நிறமது வழியினில் தெரிந்ததும்
நிற்பாயே நீயும்
ஓ.. இவளின் இதழ் நிறம் பார்த்ததும்
என் இதயம் நிற்காத பாவம்..

(sivappu niRamathu vazhiyinil therinththadhum
niRpaayE niiyum
Oh.. ivaLin idhazh niRam paarththathum en idhayam
niRkaatha paavam.. )

salaam, vaadhyaare.. ungalai adichukka aal ille.. Train red color parthu ninna nallathu.. idhazh parthu heart ninnuttaa appuram yaaru paaduva?

BTW, this song was picturized beeeeautifully.. Prasanna and Kanika in exotic Europe..
Kanika-voda saree, pavadai-thavani, dance, Prasanna-voda smile, weird pyjama, cute dance ellam.. marakka mudiyatha paattu... innum kannukkulleye irukku..

The other song is 'Engirundhu Vanthaayadaa'.. Nice blend of Tamil classical and Punjabi music. Nice dance again.. the eye-catcher being of course Kanika. Lovely voice by Sathana Bala. The lines that I enjoyed:

வானவில்லாய் ஆணும்
வண்ணம் ஏழாய் பெண்ணும்
இருந்தால் இன்னும்
வானின் அழகு கூடும்

சுட்டு விரலாய் நீயும்
கட்டை விரலாய் நானும்
எழுதும் எதுவும்
கவிதையாக மாறும்

(vaanavillAi ANum vaNNam Ezhaai peNNum irunththaal innum vaanin azhagu koodum
suttu viralaai neeyum kattai viralaai naanum ezhuthum ethuvum kavithaiyaaka maaRum)

vaanavil-le irundhu color-ai pirikka mudiyuma? Color illama vaanavil unda? Appadi irukkanum husband and wife.. Enna arumai..

Suttu viralo kattai viralo illame kavithai ezhutha mudiyuma? rendum serndhal dhaane kavithai.

ஒருவர் வாழும் உலகில்
மௌனம்தானே பேச்சு
மொழிகள் எதுக்கு
இருவர் இணையும்போது..

(oruvar vaazhum ulagil maunamthaanE pEchchu
mozhikaL ethukku iruvar iNaiyumpOthu.. )

Idhaivida arumaiyaa language no-bar pathi solla mudiyumaa...

Link: http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/movie/T0000438.html

Crashhhhh !! (Update: NOT YET!!!!!) :-)

Suddenly this afternoon, my laptop crashed. :-( No visible symptoms before it did that.. When I called up gateway and mentioned to them the error message during reboot, I heard that it could be a harddrive crash. When I asked the possible causes, I was told a) virus or b) long time running without turning off or c) turning on and off many times a day could have caused it. It showed some minor problems last month, may be I should have taken note seriously.

First time something like this has happened to any computer that I have worked so far. So I used to think "crash? nay, wont happen to me..". That didnt luckily prevent me from having anti-virus stuff and backing up my data. This crash would take a couple of good days off me when I need to load all the programs and stuff.

Any suggestions from you people how to keep the laptops safe? I am going to turn it off every night (I stopped doing it for the last 7-8 months). mm.. so, this takes me to my pre-laptop days. I have to be used to it for the next week or so. Let me see how it goes.

Update (Sep 8, 2:30 PM): No, that CANT happen to me.. it didnt !! One of the biggest mysteries in the recent time. I tried my luck again in the afternoon, and got the error message. Frustrated and all hope lost, immediately took it to my IT shop . One bloke, Matt Glover turned it on and IT STARTED WORKING !!! Seems like he has some magic hand! So, I am happy, very happy now. Thanks to all you people with your suggestions. I will implement it from today itself and hope to keep it alive as much as I can..

A few positives to come out in the last 24 hours of drama:

a) Always back up, back up. I was doing it every month. Now I would do every weekend.
b) I will get a spare hard drive from Gateway anyway, since I called them up yesterday itself.
c) I was thinking a lot about how I would organize my files in the new hard drive and had a plan. I would implement it anyway with this one, come saturday.
d) Some good suggestions from you guys and from other friends here.

September Maatham...

(Pic adopted from Frankfurt University)

This is september 2005.. (Ok guys, i am a bit late.. by 2 days, to be precise.. but, this is my first post this month.. so bear it). September 05 is really special.. Not because our Gapdon is gonna 'found' his new party, which will shake-up our TN politics before shaking the Indian politics, thus giving sleepless nights to all our leaders, in TN and elsewhere. Not because India will probably win its first 'away-from-subcontinent' victory in Zimbabwe after 19 long years, in another 20 days or less. Not because Ashes will belong to England after 18 years.

In september 05 (1905), a then-little-known German reported to the scientific world something that would eventually turn out to be the 'Invention of the century'... Yes, it was exactly 100 years ago that Einstein came up with his 'special' theory of relativity and his famous E=mc2. Discover magazine, a few months ago, released a 'special' version exclusively for the centennial year of Einstein's discoveries. Before the theory of relativity and the mass-energy equation, in March 1905, he commnicated about the 'photoelectric effect' which talks about 'quanta' or bundles of light energy. 2 months later, he discovered the 'Brownian motion' in liquids, which causes the suspended particles on a liquid to carry out a 'random jittering dance'.

Thus, he made 1905 be etched in the history of revolutionary physics forever.. People are still wondering how, within a period of 6 months, he came up with three different, literally 'earth-shaking' inventions, which covered from the tiniest (sub-atomic particles) to the largest (universe, galaxy, and beyond), from a non-academic position (he was working in a Swiss patent office in 1905). Truly amazing.. and he was all of 26 years then!! Those three inventions, as Discover pointed out in one if its articles, has its applications in every human's daily life, from the time he/she wakes up in the morning till he/she goes to bed.

Have a very good long weekend (for those in US) and a normal 2-day weekend (elsewhere), guys!!

Congratulations, sir !!

The first thing I came to know in the morning is the big news that my Ph.D. supervisor, Prof. S. Ramakrishnan (RK, as he is fondly called) is the recipient of this year's S.S. Bhatnagar award in chemistry. Whoo.. that is one news we all were waiting to hear for the last two years. Bhatnagar award is given by CSIR for outstanding scientists in specific branches of science and engineering. It is a coveted award and RK truly deserved it.

IMHO, he is an amazing person and great scientist.. All the chemistry that I practice now, was learnt from him.. My post-doc guide, Prof. Reynolds said once that "RK, in my opinion, is the best polymer chemist in India". How true he is.. Among the things that I learnt from his was his quest for perfectness.. Hard to practice but he did and does. The students trained by him all try to ape him, and we are happy and proud in doing so. He is so humble (he would have got many more awards if he wasnt) and honest. This has been a good month for him, after winning the "Department of Energy award Outstanding Research Investigator award" just a fortnight ago..

Oh boy, I wish I was there to share these fine moments.. :-)