Mysorean

Moved!

2006-11-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

On the day when it all started, I didn't even know what a 'blog' meant.

Today after 200 posts, 16000+ hits and 1300 comments later, I have decided to move on. To my own domain called www.mysorean.com

Hope to see you all there. And if you could update your blogrolls with the new blog link, then it will be nice! :)

A review | Don

2006-10-31T04:05:00.000-08:00

Well, almost a good movie!

Farhan Akhtar tries an Indian James Bond but why did he have to choose a script of an old Indian blockbuster for this purpose? Maybe he consulted his father Mr. Javed Akhtar to write such a script and he said why not pick up one from my old tried and tested ones! And in 2006, you are treated to a film that is based (well, almost!) on a script written in the late 1970’s.
“Don 2006” is stylish and is twisted and convoluted beyond the recognition of the 1978 Don. Any resemblances to the original should be considered purely coincidental in fact. That’s the way in which Farhan Akhtar has adapted the script. Any comparisons to the original will only make you feel worse having watched Don 2006.

So, let’s steer out of comparison mode but not totally. The story, atleast the major part, is based on the Don 1978. Don is caught by police (DCP) and replaced with a look-alike “Vijay” to infiltrate the group and pass on information to the police. Then in a rare turn of events, the DCP dies and Vijay is left alone to fight it out all alone. So far so good and even Don 2006 sticks to this. Well, almost!

Farhan Akhtar brings in his intellect here. He hasn’t considered the Don 1978 script to be sacrosanct. He has made massive changes to make it interesting. And succeeds to an extent too. But then, it raises so many questions in your mind that when you are out of the theater you are busy debating certain things with everyone around you that you are not exactly thinking whether the movie was good or not. Now, I don’t think that’s the way one would want to end this movie after so much of effort to make it more interesting.

The Kareena cameo is not choreographed well enough. Farah Khan can do good work to party songs and dance numbers. She is not your person to do “seduction” numbers. I mean Kareena danced like she wanted to make Don dance with her and not sleep with her! The Farah Khan ability comes out very well in the “Khaike pan banaraswala” song combined with Shah Rukh Khan’s energy, the song is a pleasure to watch. (Utterly out-of-situation, but as Farhan Akhtar says, “Don would be incomplete without the song” and I agree)

The movie could have been shot better. The blurry look doesn’t help the slick image that Farhan wants. Paris (the action sequence to introduce Don was shot here. Why? You ask? Because Don is an international criminal!) was shown in such a hazy light that I was rubbing my eyes to believe what I had seen! If you want the movie to look slick then please hire a good cinematographer. A Ravi K Chandran or a Santosh Sivan would have done very well. Who is Mr. Mohanan? All people with names ending with “N” don’t make good cinematographers! (P.C. Sriram for example) The worst piece of cinematography I have seen is of that sequence on the Petronas Towers.

The editing, the scenes jump from one to another. Especially the scene involving DCP, Don and Roma where revelations are made and suddenly next scene is Don is in the school. Looks like a rearrangement of scenes in the hindsight. It is definitely a very amateurish attempt to cover up the twists and turns. At many other places too, the movie jumps. Not at all a good sign of editing a movie. If I had to rate editing alone, I would have given it zero stars.

The direction, considering the potential of Farhan Akhtar, could have been better definitely. Personally, I didn’t like the way he had characterized “Don”. Don is a womanizer (that tilted head with winged hands caricature of the ballet rehearsal at Paris was enough to establish that) and he drools over girls dressed in bikinis. He is a courier boy who goes to deliver his own stuff to seal business deals. He is a criminal wanted by the Interpol and only 5 cops including two old cops are on this search. The police have no photo of the enemy (Vardhan) of Singhania (Don’s boss) but have a shot of Don with which he could have entered a modeling contest (Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai tho Vardhan ko Don bhi nahi pakad nahi paaya! Ab uske bare main socho!) Finally, Don is a small-time arms dealer who grew big because of the disintegration of Russia. Why is this required at all?! If he could have worked on his characterization a bit more, such stupid things wouldn’t have been necessary to convince us of the gravity of the situation. Anyways, Farhan Akhtar fails completely in characterizing Don – his main character, but succeeds in keeping us glued to the seats till the eternally long movie ends. (Is there some rule that all SRK movies need to extend beyond three hours or something like that?)

The music of the movie is a highlight that keeps us interested. Mainly because the songs are recycled from the past and made to suit today’s sound. But I have a problem with the title song. Shaan’s voice sounds too hollow to be a Don’s voice. A voice with slightly more gruffiness in it would have done the job better. Maybe Shankar Mahadevan himself should have moderated his voice around a little bit and sung. Naresh Iyer would have been a great choice for this song. The background music is catchy. Giving the movie a James Bond feel is the background music.
The stunts and the special effects department could have done better in the Air drop sequence or for that matter the Petronas towers sequence. Both of them fall flat. Like “Lakshya”s war sequences most of the stunts here fall flat. First, because there is not a strong enough concept behind it and second it is shot badly. Very badly. An out-of-context thought here: What was the white villain doing in the prison and the aeroplane? Why was he required? To tell us that Don is an international criminal? Why couldn’t Farhan Akhtar move away from the clichés (that usually surround a Salim-Javed script) and give us a convincing version of the original? Well he tried. And it worked. Well, Almost!

Shah Rukh Khan does his part. After “Swades”, he has tried a non-mushy mushy movie for which we should nominate this film to the Oscars. There is no trembling voice here. No smiles and teary hand-waves showing ‘tatas’. Probably, not having seen him in such a role for a long long time I thought he was about to change into the Karan Johar wardrobe any moment. No slow motion running. (He would be dead in that case! LOL!) Good pair of coolers he wears. Makes quite a style statement by wearing his tie inside. The only person who could have carried all this off was Govinda. Sad to see SRK substituting for Govinda. But no, credit where it is due. SRK isn’t as irritating as he is in his other movies. And so he has done his part.

Let me not talk about other performances as I would tend to disclose the plot in that case. Let me just say that Bomman Irani is not wasted while Om Puri is given nothing short of shit. Priyanka Chopra is pleasant. Kareena tries in vain to be sexy and dies in the process. Arjun Rampal limps his way for a fight scene with SRK. The cast is irrelevant in Don. Well, almost!

Rating: ***

Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!

India: Injured before the war

2006-10-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

The injury list before our match against Australia:

I am not much bothered about Ajit Agarkar, good riddens in fact! But I want both Munaf and Yuvraj to get back into the squad. Neither Kaif nor D. Mongia is a good enough replacement for this talented young chap.

Sreesanth is replacing Agarkar. That's a great move. But do we really have place for this Kerala fast bowler? Depends on the pitch. Based on my 11, we will have to go with Powar if the pitch assists spinners or with Sreesanth otherwise. In any case, I feel Sreesanth is a good prospect for India. A potential spearhead of our pace attack. With Pathan repeatedly biting the dust, he would be the ideal partner to Munaf with the new ball.
-------------------------------------

Pakistan, as expected, did play to their lowest potential. Makhaya Ntini bowled amazingly well at the beginning though at the end he was predictable with his deliveries pitching outside the off stump and coming into the batsman at chest height. Umar Gul showed Ntini what was wrong.

I didn't understand a word of what Younis Khan spoke at the post-match awards function. Why couldn't they speak in urdu/ hindi? I mean it was Rameez Raja who was compering, it would have been nice to know what Younis thought of his batsmen. Beats me! English needn't be the de facto standard.
------------------------------------

Today's match: Eng-WI.

I would love it if England thrashed WI. Considering the present form, it looks highly likely that the vice-versa will happen.

Already WI is 75/1 (16th over). A good total of around 250+ will give them the much-needed batting practice ahead of their semi-final with New Zealand at Mohali.
------------------------------------

The Indian squad to South Africa will be announced at Mohali after the Ind-Aus match on October 30th (Cricinfo is carrying an error in their headline). Good chance for the youngsters to prove themselves and come up trumps. An additional carrot to perform well apart from the fact that they will sail into the semis if they can beat Australia. My pick would be this:

Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
Anil Kumble (Please pick him. He needs some match practice before the WC '07)
Virendra Sehwag
Yuvraj Singh
Suresh Raina
Dinesh Mongia
Mohammed Kaif
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Dinesh Karthick (He has proved himself in the domestic matches)
Harbhajan Singh
Irfan Pathan
Munaf Patel
Sreesanth
V.R.V. Singh
Zaheer Khan

Champions Trophy | India Vs. themsleves

2006-10-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

"India were defeated by West Indies but not disgraced", to quote my favourite Mr. Sidhu. We didn't lose the match when we scored only 223. We didn't lose the match when Raina dropped Gayle. We didn't lose the match when R.P.Singh misfielded what should have been a single. We didn't lose the match when Lara hit his solitary boundary. We were in with a chance when it was 6 needed off 6. And it was all on one man - Mr. Agarkar. Why on earth would anyone bowl a ball short and wide on the offside without having a sweeper in place? Stupid. This man bowled as if he had no match experience at all.

Anyways, it would be very stupid on my part to blame this man alone for this defeat. I should in fact blame WI for bringing me to blame my bowler of the last over of the innings, whereas this match should have been over within 40 overs itself! If we take Bhajji out of the equation, then I guess we would have seen that happen. If Dravid had instead persisted with Irfan Pathan to complete his spell, we would have seen the match end within 35 overs itself! Our new (or is he old now?) #3 batsman and #1 bowler failed on both accounts in this match. To me, this was the crucial link that led to the failure of the chain.

With Pathan being persisted at #3 by the coach and captain, the point to be noted is that: we understand you have your reasons behind doing it, but then it is not yielding the desired results. It is not that he has performed exceedingly well and India has continued to lose because of other technical reasons. His average at #3 is 24.93 [Source: Yesterday's extraaa innings programme (number of "a"s correct?)] and for a #3 batsman that's quite embarassing. He has been given 11 chances at that position with maybe two or three fifties. Not really worth the effort. Please get back to using him as a trump card, not as a regular step.

Thinking of it from another perspective, that of Chappell-Dravid combine, I guess they are thinking of the "sacrifice"-trap that is used in chess. "Sacrifice"-trap means to sacrifice a piece of yours to open up the defence of the opposition and then attack with all your force. With due regards to the experience of the duo I think that kind of moves should be restricted to board games and mind games like chess. Please don't sacrifice an excellent bowler and a decent batsmen like this. A rethink is suggested.

There have been fingers raised at Sehwag. But that's the way this idiot plays. And I think he was going good against the Windies when one came back sharply and kept a little low. It's not the kind of delivery you expect the only-Indian-batsman-to-have-a-triple-hundred-to-his-name to get out to, but then he is going through a bad patch and I strongly feel we need to persist with him. 18 months since he scored a hundred is fine. In fact, we don't need him to score a hundred. If he can score a quickfire 40-50, we are off to a flier and the stage is set for the likes of Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina and Pathan to come in and consolidate a 300+ total.

My team against Australia would be this:

V. Sehwag
S. Tendulkar
Yuvraj Singh
R. Dravid
D. Mongia
S. Raina
M.S. Dhoni
I. Pathan
R. Powar
Harbhajan Singh
Munaf Patel

(The fifth bowler can be shared among Sehwag, Tendulkar, Yuvraj and Mongia)

I have dropped Agarkar. You could drop Pathan as well and keep Agarkar. But the Aussies would really cream Agarkar. Especially Ponting (who is due for a big score) loves Agarkar's juicy half volleys bowled at a pace that is really not life-threatening. And Pathan can atleast swing a bit. So, that's a gamble. I would have loved to have Anil Kumble against the Windies as well as Australia.

Needless to say that our batting needs to get its act together. Hoping (as ever!) for a Sharjah-repeat by Sachin Tendulkar against the Aussies.

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

Coming to today's match of Pakistan Vs South Africa. The quarterfinal of the other group.

Betting on Pakistan would be stupidity. They are so mercurial in their temperament, that I had rather call mercury as being Pakistanial! Their performance against SL was as professional as unprofessional it was against NZ. If they can keep their batting steady against the SA bowling, then I guess they will score an easy victory. But their batting is what will decide who will win or lose. If you ask me, I don't want the South Africans to win. I just don't like the arrogance of that team despite being a distant second to Australia in everything. If they think that chasing 434 is enough for lifetime arrogance, then they are wrong.

Pakistan should go with their medium-pacers and spinners spearheading the attack. The SA'ns are good at playing fast bowling. Unfortunately they have no spinners worth talking about in their squad. And with a depleted fast bowling attack, they have no other option but to rely on medium pacers like Abdul(r?) Razzaq to do the job. Shoaib Mallik with his off-spin could be useful too.

This will be another match with scores in the range of 200 - 250, but unless you have the steely resolve of Windies to give the spectators' their money's worth, you should see SA coasting along easily.

My bet? Heart says Pakistan. Brain says South Africa. Let's see.

About Champions and Narcissists

2006-10-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

So far...
Yet another dismaying performance from England. After all the talk about Ashes and the build-up to it, they caved in so meekly that you were left wondering if it was an Australia-Zimbabwe match. Now after the NZ-SL and Eng-Aus matches, the average of the teams batting first has come down to 190. Must be an all-time low for a tournament on the Indian sub-continent. It must be something to do with the pitch. These teams cannot continuously take the average down.

Tomorrow's match...
SA-SL. It's a quarter final for SL. If they lose they will find themselves on an early flight to Colombo while If they win, then they will have to wait for the Pak-NZ match on 25th and Pak-SA match on 27th and hope that Pak beats both NZ & SA. Instead of getting into more confusion let me just say the group is still open.

For the SA-SL match, I am backing the Sri Lankans yet again. Motera is a pitch that is traditionally known to take some pace in the beginning and spin later on. If that happens and SL win the toss and elect to bowl, then they are set for a victory. Handling Murali on the turning track with a dew-covered ball is going to be impossible for the inept SA batting line-up. Anyway, as Sidhu says If "ifs" and "buts" were "pots" and "pans" then there would be no tinkers! (If anyone knows what it means, do let me know. I used it because it sounded good! But I know that it talks something against this compulsive use of if's and but's to predict one's own desire as the most practical outcome!)

And yesterday...
I watched this tamil movie called "Vallavan" which has Silambharasan acting and directing the flick. For the first time in my part-time career as a film critic I have come across someone who is more narcissistic than Kamal Hassan. Now, I don't want all of you to pounce on me and say it is good to be a little narcissistic that's when you can do great work. Well, I totally agree to that and for that I will quote every Kamal Hassan movie as proof (except maybe "Alavandan").

Now coming to Narcissism gone haywire, welcome to the world of self-acclaimed Little Super Star Simbhu. He is mad. Crazy. Demented. He has just shot this movie to imitate Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan and prove to himself that he is a divine combination of both of these. Also to take dirty below-the-belt potshots at S.J.Surya. [I am now shaking my head thinking of how Mr. S.J.Surya will now react to these!] "Vallavan" has been made so that Simbhu may kiss and fondle his 'supposedly' real-life sweetheart Nayanthara (who is stunningly beautiful after losing that extra flab around her waist!). I don't think she even allows this guy with an oversized head near him otherwise! Why was sweet-faced Sandhya needed? And why was Reema Sen made to look like a tramp even in a school dress? I pity producer Mr. Thenappan for investing on Simbhu and totally support him if he hasn't paid Simbhu 40% of his fees. This movie will not run beyond the first 4 days and there is a possibility that Simbhu's house maybe stoned after this!

Even scenes with potential are spoilt in the name of some non-existent style. For eg., the scene where Simbhu walks upto some guy (who looks like he has fallen off from some RGV Factory's movie set) and advises him on how love should be treated and induced in a girl by love but not threatened. One thing I didn't understand amidst the hundreds of screwed up things in the movie is: Why do the sidekicks always make this puking sound while being pulled around by the rope after being hit by our Little Super Star (my foot! little super star!)?!! I am actually surprised he didn't name it "Simbhuvan"!

To top it all...
I watched this movie in a drive-in theatre in Chennai.

For starters, this guy doesn't seem to have a cap on the capacity. He will allow as many cars as possible. And they will park themselves wherever they find it comfortable. There is nobody guiding these cars and I guess he never stops issuing the tickets.
The canteen is of no use. He has bhel-puri, cutlet, paneer roll and veg roll. Period.
I agree that as a theatre you have no control over lights that are lighting up the background behind the screen, but please switch off those lights (Ladies Toilet lights, canteen lights, etc.) or atleast find some way of covering it up so that it doesn't disrupt the cinema-viewers experience.
Can you please strictly check the cars of those coming into the theater for alcoholic drinks? The car next to us was having beer and smoking away to glory. It (Beer can smell awful and the smoke made it claustrophobic) made our experience much worse than Simbhu intended to.
The sound system is pathetic. The Auto Drivers' Stand next to my house hired better speakers for their Ayudha Puja celebrations. The frequency of sounds generated by your speakers would have been better intercepted by owls and bats! Save us, we are human beings!

Sathyam Cinema wins hands down on all accounts!

Champions Trophy | Batsmen need to turn it on

2006-10-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

Champions' Trophy has turned out to be an absolute cracker of a tournament. Australia were the hot favourites and South Africa were close second. India and Sri Lanka were considered to be the next in line considering their familiarity with the conditions. Pakistan, New Zealand, England and West Indies were given the least chances in that order!

England alone has stood upto the honour reluctantly though! Every other top favourite has failed. South Africa, as always, are bad losers. They have begun complaining about the pitch after they failed to negotiate the off-spin of one Mr. Patel - a third rung spinner of the New Zealand side. The gap between the bat and pad was like as if I could have driven my pulsar through it. Why don't they learn to gracefully accept that they lost to a good team? Useless buggers.

I am digressing. This Champions Trophy is interestingly poised. With everyone in with a chance of making it to the semi-finals. It would have been really boring if Australia had a winning streak and they beat some flash-in-the-pan finalist. As of today, Australia - theoretically - has the second least chances of making it to the next stage. But we know the Aussie mindset. They will rock back like no one else can.

Pakistan has a cricket board without a chairman. The same fate awaited their captaincy too. Two of their main bowlers went home for 'doping' (a largely unheard of event in cricket and only the Great Shane Warne has done it once before the World Cup). The present captain had once refused to take up captaincy. They were literally down in the dumps. But then, nobody (not one cricket observer) wrote them off. Pakistan is know to rise like a Phoenix and they did it. Stopping the Sri Lankan lions in the midst of their winning streak!

And on the other side, there was this West Indian team whose fortunes seem to be linked to the BSE Sensex. Just a couple of days back they were playing the qualifiers to qualify for the tournament. And a couple of months back they had beaten the World's #2 ODI team India 4-1 in a 5 match series at home. A day before they were all our for a total score of 80 or something, their lowest ever against Sri Lanka. And here they beat Australia with ease! [I have a feeling Australia will drop Micheal Clarke for their next match against traditional rivals England. His run-out of Gilchrist was the turning point for me]

How much more unpreditable can this game get? As an ardent cricket follower, I love this kind of tournaments where everyone is doing their best and even the best is challenged at the job they do the best. It didn't start off with so much promise though.

Today's match of NZ v/s SL is going to be damn interesting. It would be even more interesting if SL can pull it off against NZ. If SL loses this match, they are (more or less) out of the tournament. So, it's a do-or-die for them. The Sri Lankans are good players of spin. All these Patels and Vettoris (I know I cannot write him off like that, but then I feel he cannot battle the left-handers dominated batting line-up) cannot shake the steady line-up from Jayasuriya to Sangakkara. I would drop Tharanga for this match. Yes, I know he has two hundreds (against Bangladesh and even worse Zimbabwe) and is in good nick. But if you saw the way in which Edwards got him first ball and Abdur Razzaq's harmless delivery which he edged. He is not the kind of player you want to go with against quality teams. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh is fine. But Sri Lanka please don't give away your first wicket quickly again. My money is on SL for today!

Another interesting aspect of the tournament has been that, all the games played so far have been low scoring and slow. Generally, you expect high-scoring and quick games on the sub-continent pitches. Just have a look at these scores of teams batting first (I have ignored the qualifying part):
1. England: 125
2. New Zealand: 195
3. Sri Lanka: 253
4. West Indies: 234

The Average score of the team batting first in Champion's trophy is: 202.

And that's shocking to say the least. You expect the average to hover somewhere in the range of 250 - 275. And what we have now is a good 50 runs below.

Come on batsmen! Turn it on! Don't whine like the South Africans about the pitch. Learn from Flemming (89), Morton (90*), Lara (71) and Gilchrist (92)!

UPA - Blog Star

2006-10-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

Recently a compeition was announced by UPA, Hyderabad. I found the announcement on Kiruba's blog. I entered my blog link there and then forgot about it.

Today there was a mail in my inbox informing me that I was a winner. You can also check out this link to see the announcement!

I am now a "UPA - Blog Star"!

Thanks UPA! And thanks Kiruba for letting me know about the competition!

I am supposed to put up a logo on my site saying that I won this competition. It will be up in a short while! I am also going to get a certificate and a trophy!

THE BEST...

2006-10-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

[via email from Sandhya]

...HEADLINES OF 2005 -2006
(Note that these are ACTUAL headlines)

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
[No, really?]

Crack Found on Governor's Daughter
[Imagine that!]

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
[Now that's taking things a bit far!]

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
[What a guy!]

Miners Refuse to Work after Death
[No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-sos!]

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
[See if that works any better than a fair trial!]

War Dims Hope for Peace
[I can see where it might have that effect!]

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
[You think?!]

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
[Who would have thought!]

Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; PoliceSuspect Homicide
[They may be on to something!]

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
[You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?!]

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
[Weren't they fat enough?!]

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
[That's what he gets for eating those beans!]

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
[They taste like chicken?]

Local High School Dropouts cut in Half
[Chainsaw Massacre all over again!]

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
[Boy, are they tall!]

And the winner is....

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
[Did I read that sign right?]

'Jeevan' se bhari, teri aankhen, yeh tag kiya hai maine sirf tere liye...tere liye! :)

2006-10-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Jeevan dedicated this tag to me. I accept it humbly. Here it is.

1. Are you happy / satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?
# I am happy with my blog. Satisfied? Well no. I don't think I will ever be satisfied with it. I am always finding some area for improvement somewhere. Sometimes, I am not happy with the content, sometimes it's the look. Recently I changed the template of my blog because I just wanted a change.

2. Does your family know about your blog?
# Yes. My wife rarely reads it. But whenever I tell her that I have written something about Surya or some such personality she really likes, she makes it a point to read.
My father, mother and brother regularly read it. And sometimes I do get some brickbats from them. For posts like this one, I even got phone calls saying what the $#&*%^ are you writing?
My Father-In-Law keeps in touch with this space sporadically and we discuss a few of my posts too.

3. Do u feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?
# No. Never. In fact I keep marketing my blog wherever I go! ;)

4. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?
# Yes. Definitely.

5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?
# I do open blogs of those who comment on my blog. I think that's the barest minimum I can do for those who comment on my blog. If I find myself reading their blogs then I too leave a comment telling them what I felt.
I rarely search for blogs on a random basis. I have done that once or twice in the past but don't generally find the time for it. Instead I would like to read the archives of the known bloggers so that I can know more about them.

6. What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?
# Frankly, not much! In fact, when I started blogging I didn't have a sitemeter/ hit counter on my blog. Then I began copying a few other bloggers and thought that it was a basic element on a blog. Though now I have a completely different outlook about it, I don't want to take it off. Call me lazy if you want! ;)

7. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
# Sometimes I do. But don't really think about it much. If they have put up their pictures it's fine. Otherwise I don't really bother. I have come to have certain ideas about certain bloggers and the way they post or comment. But that's it. Nothing pictorially gets formed in my mind. I guess my mind is also as lazy as I am! ;)

8. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?
# Well, I don't know if there is a real benefit for blogging, but I think there is definitely a benefit that we bloggers derive out of blogging. Sometimes it may be tanglibe sometimes it may be intangible. Can't really put a finger on that.

9. Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?
# Mostly yes. Except for stray events like BlogCamp, nothing really happens that connects the bloggers to the real world.

10. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?
# I like and desire to have constructive criticism. I keep asking people to give me critical feedback about my blog. Sometimes there is criticism that gets personal and I don't really react to such stuff but I do make a mental note of it that such & such a person is capable of making personal attacks. But that's it.
Many a time, I have criticised a lot of bloggers and they have responded too. We have had discussions and arguments too. But never has anything ended in bad taste, because rarely did we lose perspective of the issue.
Sometimes, I lose my cool and get personal. But I do apologize. I don't like people who don't apologize for their mistakes.
There was one person called "Aatma" who used to comment regularly on my blog sometime back. His comments used to really make me think and I used to take his feedback seriously. I don't know where he is today, I hope he comes back and takes his unspoken reserved place as my partner in an endeavour to blog better. Oh yeah Aatma, wish you a very very happy married life mate!

11. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them
# I would like to read a few political blogs to know what stuff they write. As of now, I have no opinion because I don't know of any such blogs.

12. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
# Arrested?!?! That's news to me! The worst I heard was a blogger was forced to resign his job for cricticising some management institute. That really shocked me! Is it wrong to have an opinion and put it up on your blog? What else are blogs for?

13. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?
# Nope. Never thought about it. Let me think now: It's an avenue of expression for me. After I am gone, I don't think i will want it to be there. In any case, no one will have the password to it na, so it will become dormant. And once it's dormant in this blogsphere, it will die it's own death.

14. What do you like to hear? What’s the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?
# I like to listen to A R Rahman's music. There are so many songs that I would like to link through my blog that it's tough to pick one. Since I have to do it, it would be this song:
"Dil Se re..." sung and composed by A R Rahman (from Dil Se...)

Now it's my turn to dedicate this tag to three more people:
1. Pavan (Because I love his sense of humour and sarcasm)
2. Shastri (Because he has stopped blogging for a long time and I hope he gets back to it with this tag!)
3. Vijay (Because his posts are so interesting, I would like to know his thoughts on these questions)

A R Rahman begins another era

2006-10-12T04:01:00.000-07:00

This article had to be on my blog. For two reasons: One, I love A R Rahman and Two, about Shah Rukh Khan the less said the better!

Considering that most filmmakers would give an arm and a leg to work with A R Rahman, it’s something of a shocker to know that King Khan has replaced him with
Vishal-Shekhar (Bluffmaster!, Dus) for his upcoming project. The film in question is Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om, which is being produced by SRK’s banner, Red Chillies Entertainment.

SRK had a problem

The grapevine goes that the deal was scrapped for two reasons. Firstly, Shah Rukh didn’t like the tunes that Rahman had composed. Secondly, Rahman demanded a huge amount as his fee, which Farah refused to pay.

When contacted, Rahman says that he is indeed out of Om Shanti Om, but denies that SRK had problems with his compositions (they’ve earlier worked together in Dil Se and Swades). “The truth is that we had some problems over contractual obligations. That is why I am not doing the film,” he says.

Rahman adds that he wanted the publishing rights of the music to rest with the producer, the lyricist and the composer. But Farah and Shah Rukh flatly refused.

“Actually, Shah Rukh had a problem. He could not come to terms with what I wanted. We were trying to sort this out since the last two to three months, but it just didn’t happen. SRK is a big star and maybe he doesn’t need anybody. I wish it had materialised so that more composers can get their dues in India. Someone has to start this here and I am pressing for it.”

Aamir understood

On the other hand, Rahman has succeeded in getting a share of the publishing rights for Aamir Khan’s next film, directed by Abbas Tyrewalla. “I met Aamir and he understood what I wanted in an instant. It could be because Tyrewalla’s film is a small budget venture, unlike Farah’s, which is a biggie,” Rahman says.

And what of the 2 crore that he demanded as his fee? Rahman says, “I don’t do just the music in the songs, I also provide the background score. So I charge accordingly. But I guess it’s okay. Farah and I went our own ways this time, but we did tell each other that we’d work together some other time.”

‘We love Rahman’

For his part, Vishal Dadlani is glad to be a part of the project. “It’s true that Shekhar and I are doing Om Shanti Om now. We’ve known Farah for nearly two years and have done a lot of work together. She called us ten days back, and we were very happy to do it for her. We got so charged after listening to the story that we’re already ready with four songs,” he says.

The duo is also aware that Rahman was doing the film before them. “We knew that, but didn’t get into the details of what transpired between them. To tell you the truth, we are in this industry because of Rahman. He’s a great inspiration. If we were to make a film tomorrow, we would sign A R Rahman to compose the music.”

Interestingly, quite a few eyebrows were raised when Farah chose Rahman over Anu Malik for Om Shanti Om, considering his music played a big role in the success of Main Hoon Na. Our well-informed sources tell us that before assigning Om Shanti Om to Rahman, Farah had indeed thought of Anu but later changed her mind.

We wonder if the soundtracks of Zindaggi Rocks or Umrao Jaan might have had something to do with that?

Irrespective of this article I knew that A R Rahman is out of Om Shanti Om. I don't know what the problem was though. Though I might not particularly like SRK, I have come to know him as a professional going about doing his job while the media creates all these images. Maybe the money that would come from the music rights was the only biggest chunk that they thought it could produce! (Sorry, couldn't resist that one!)

On a serious note, kudos to A R Rahman for standing up and asking for his rights. This act of his stands to benefit the entire community of music directors. We are with you A R Rahman. And we love you as always!

HR Policy | Effective FY2007

2006-10-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

[Via email from Sandhya]

Dress Code
It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary. If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci HOOCHI bag, we assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise. If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise. If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days
We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If You are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Annual Leave Days
Each employee will receive 104 Annual Leave days a year. They are Called Saturday and Sunday.

Toilet Use
Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a Strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offence, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the chronic offenders category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sanctioned under the company's mental health policy.

Lunch Break
Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so That they can look healthy. Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure. Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations,
aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation and inputs should be directed elsewhere.

Regards,
The Management
"It Can Only Get Better!"

The Bath Day

2006-10-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to desperately start the day today with cricket. So, I had everything planned. I had mailed the captain of my team that I would be playing today's 6.30AM match. At 6.16AM I woke up. My captain had sent mails saying he didn't want his players to come later than 6:29:59 AM. By the time I found my pyjamas (cricket wala), T-shirt and shoes (did I tell you the last time I used them? I found a cozy family of spiders and their little web there. But not to worry I wore my socks (and they were washed yesterday (and I won't start another stream of nested brackets because I will get confused though my readers are intelligent I know))) and arrived at the ground at 6.50AM.

My captain on seeing me with his eyes fixed on my paunch, "Well, err... ahem... we waited Adi. We waited for a long time"

Uh-oh, what does that mean? You have dropped me for coming late?

My captain continued, " We waited waited and finally called up a few people to come in and play. But don't worry we can fit you into the 14"

What??! What??! What??! I mean 'What??!!'

I just said, "Ok".

Ali was sitting next to my captain, "No probs Adi. No probs. No probs. No probs. Hey Rahul (my captain), enna da, only 5 of us are here. We can surely include him too. I don't think we'll ve a problem. No probs Adi"

No probs yeah! No play, no probs!

I was just loitering around the pitch where a few people were generally fighting with the bat and a few with the ball and pretending to practice for the match. Our team players slowly started trickling in. And in five minutes, we were on. The match had started.

Someone from the bowling (opposition team, we had supposedly won the toss that I missed being a witness to by virtue of my punctual nature) team shouted "Leg umpire yaar da? Leg umpire? "

Since I was feeling uncomfortable that I will be dropped and might have to sit with my team with a long face, I ran to be the leg umpire. Also, in our side of the country, leg umpires get to bat as soon as there is a fallen wicket!

Match began. After first over, we were 0 for 2. The bowler didn't seem very penetrative or anything, but both my team batsmen were clean bowled and made the bowler look like Mohammed Asif (the Pak bowler who gets Tendulkar everytime and is right now nursing some injury and is out of the Champions trophy). My captain still didn't call for me. For the uninitiated (which means everyone!), I am more of a batsman than of a bowler because I don't like rotating my arms like mad!

Second over up, we were 3 for 5. This bowler who looks like a bonsai version of Adnan Sami (Ok, that means he is still huge, anyways let's continue with my nonsense and oh yeah if you don't know who he is then that simply means you are heavily outdated with your information system on Bollywood) and bowls slower than Venkatapathy Raju (he was chosen as a National Selector from the South Zone and was talking about reviving spin bowling in India. Kumble and Harbhajan are probably the best ever that India has produced. What's he talking about anyway?). But here it was the pitch that was telling us that "You have stamped me enough number of times, now see what I do to your batsmen". One guy was bowled off a ball that just never got up after bouncing and another guy was caught unaware by a ball that pitched at the same spot as the fomer but rose like a Brett Lee perfume ball and hit his bat and flew high into the air where even an airhostess would have caught it (Ok. Where's Sidhu btw? Not to be seen on any news channel. Did he murder another guy now for not giving him enough lassi?)

Still no call from my captain. I was doing my job and wanted to walk off the field saying that Rahul forfeited the match by not making his star batsman turn up on his field. Ok, I know I am going by the recent happenings, but then I haven't had a hair-cut in a long time! For those of you wondering where that came from, refer my previous posts. Good way of increasing your "Hits" counter, right?! ;)

After the third over, we were still something for 5. That was because Ali had taken guard and was seriously guarding the stumps with all he had. He even got hit on his hamstring muscle (Go find out where that muscle is which most of our cricketers seem to be pulling! VVS Laxman recently pulled it and with that pulled out all chances of his getting back into the ODI team). Ali could have taken guard leaving the bat with me if you ask me. But he hit two beautiful shots worth million dollars. If only he could play like that more often. Oh my, that means I don't get to bat if he continues to play like that.

During the fourth over, there was a ball that rose from the pitch as if it was one of those balls from the Sony Mobile phone ad and hit Ali's bat which was close to 2 feet above his head (I don't know why he took the bat there for that delivery, whereas he could have just stood as he was doing for all the previous deliveries and he would have survived) and flew to the first slip (the one who stands next to the wicket keeper (the one wearing all those funky gear and sitting like you would see people sitting on a railway track early in the mornings) and is positioned like he is catching the droppings from a cow). They caught the dropping err... ball and appealed. I mean what were they appealing for?! He was out! He should have walked (Like Tendulkar who walks even when he is not out). I didn't signal anything because I was sleeping through the proceedings. And was having a sheepish grin on my face when they all came towards me with frantic appeals. Ali was walking. Ok, he is Tendulkar. Leave me alone. My captain was at the other end, he just shouted at Ali saying, "No ball ra athu. Adi it is a noball da" Then the opposition procession proceeded towards Rahul. Rahul said, "Leg umpire sollittrikkan paarunga" By then, I woke up and said, "It's a noball" Something told me that it was going to be my turn to bat next and hence I should rule this as an okay ball and get going with my batting dreams. Yes, I am a devil. Main batting ke liye kuch bhi kar sakta hun!

The opposition captain who was the fielder in the first slip who had taken the catch knew that it was a no-ball, but he kept on insisting. He was showing both his hands near his chest holding an imaginary bat indicating that the ball was chest-high and was not high enough to be deemed a noball. After a little argument, Ali said, "Sari da. Vidunga da. Noball ille da" and walked off the pitch.

Then Rahul said, "Adi come in. We have 16 more overs to bat. Bat slowly and steadily. Just stand there and runs will come"

Why do you need a batsman as worthy as I am for the task then, I thought!

I defended my first delivery of the innings beautifully. I never spotted the ball. Did the ball go through the off-side or the leg-side? I had no clue. By the time I came out of the yogic pose I had landed into attempting to defend the ball (I had decided at 6.50AM that I was going to defend the first ball I faced today) the keeper had thrown the ball to the bowler and he was back at the beginning of his run-up for his final delivery of the over. By the way, do you know the Golden Rule in cricket? Last ball of every over, if you are on strike, take a single or three-runs. So that you get to face the first ball of the next over too. Ab dekho bhai, itna to exercise karna padega. Muft main batting koi nahin deta is duniya main!

As the bowler ran into the bowl the significant delivery I was in two minds whether to run or to hit and in the dilemma, I missed (Did I hear someone say as usual?) the ball. Thankfully the aim of the bowler was slightly bad. He missed the stumps by a few centimetres. I wanted to go and hug him for having allowed to me to stay on.

Next over, first ball, my captain - Rahul - took a brisk single. Please note: He was brisk. It was a big risk for me. I tried hard to run. Succeeded by the grace of the fielder who was also probably wondering whether we will make enough runs for him to get to bat when his turn comes. So, wanting to bat, he allowed me to reach the crease safely.

This was my third delivery of the day and I was supposed to be seeing the ball better. And I can tell you that I didn't know whether the ball was green or yellow or brown in colour because I am colour blind. Please don't read it as a reason that I am giving for whatever happened the next ball. I am really colour blind, ask my wife if you want. She will happily vouch for it! Anywas, the ball was delivered and I played my most stylish defense shot ever and the ball actually touched the bat. That sound of timber hitting the ball is so sweet. Hey wait! Did I hear another sound similar to this one?! But I didn't hit the ball twice, so what was that? Huh? Why are the keeper and bowler rejoicing? Why is my captain calling out to Krishna to come in?

The commentary on TV (where it would be telecasted) would have been somewhat like this, "Another day in the glowing career of Cracker Ducker Adi. Another brilliant three-ball innings. He doesn't waste much time at the crease. Gets going the moment he comes. Fortunate for his team that he didn't stay for long at the crease. They will field for a much shorter time now"

We were bundled out for 21. The opposition team made 22 runs by the time I could take my position at long-off (where I actually held onto a catch, but it was from the adjoining pitch. There are generally multiple matches happening on the same ground).

After the match I ran home as I was getting late for office. Yes, we work on Saturdays. And any of you asks me that again, I will ... I don't know what I will do! So, you better not put me into such thinking positions!

My wife, "Adi, so you are back. Take bath carefully today atleast. Apply shampoo to your hair and some soap to your body please. Don't come out within 5 minutes like every other day! Okay?!"

Me says, "Ok" while shaving.

Then I go and take the bath of the year because it's my bath day today err... birthday!

Same problem

2006-10-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

(Photo Courtesy: E-paper of The Hindu)

This review has a striking similarity with mine! I take it as a compliment that my review was on the same lines as this one. Thanks Mr. Sudhish Kamath! ;)

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

(Photo Courtesy: E-paper of The Hindu)

Well, yet another problem. Looks like the government has something else against the corridor. Not enough windows (of opportunity to make money) I guess!

A review | Dor

2006-10-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad Blues (Part I, it was only one part when it was released) was a classic as far as I am concerned. It epitomizes the quintessential Hyderabadi life. And I still remember the catchphrase "Dil pe mat le yaar, haath main le". Any Hyderabadi worth his salt will go ROFL (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) throughout the movie. Nagesh Kukunoor had arrived. With his first movie itself he made a statement, "I can make a good movie" that buffs like me classified as classic.

Then came Rockford. A story of a young boy in a boarding school. Though it was cooked a bit raw, it was a good movie to watch. Had excellent music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy who were still finding a place in the industry then. The song "Yaaron" is particularly memorable. The movie was good and Nagesh was very much on the radar of those who were on the lookout for good movie makers.

With Bollywood Calling, Nagesh got his first taste of dealing with big actors like Om Puri. Om Puri as the typical Indian film producer (and director as and when required!) was so good that his dialogues became stuff that legends are made of. "Humbility?!" is one such example! The male ego domination in the film industry was brought out very well by bringing in a terminally-ill actor from the UK and making him act as second fiddle to the superstar in a hindi film. It was clear that with this movie, big names were willing to bet on Nagesh. But it was unclear how he would achieve anything close to a commercial hit.

3 Deewarein was a story that caught everyone's fascination and also won Nagesh a filmfare award. Juhi Chawla, who was on a break from acting, made an exception to this film because it was scripted so well. Jackie Shroff and Naseeruddin Shah, with their immense screen presence and acting abilities, also joined the bandwagon. After doing minute roles in the last few movies, Nagesh took up the role of the third prisoner convicted for murdering his wife in cold blood. Jackie Shroff was also in jail for the same reason. While Naseeruddin Shah was in for a bank robbery. Juhi poses as a documentary-maker and unravels the unseen mystery. A story par excellence. A director par brillance. With 3 Deewarein, Nagesh made heads turn.

Even the showman Subash Ghai turned his entire self and invited Nagesh to make a movie for him. And "Iqbal" turned out to be the best-ever movie of a fantasy story. A deaf and dumb boy makes it to the Indian cricket team. Naseeruddin Shah, yet again, reigns supreme. Also, a pair of young talent was discovered in the form of Shreyas Talpade who plays the main protagonist and Shweta Prasad who plays the sister of the main protagonist. The interaction between Shweta and Naseer is one of the most entertaining parts of the movie. The movie is a sixer! Nagesh Kukunoor made movies of rare value.

There was a forgettable "Hyderabad Blues 2" released sometime before "Iqbal". Neither was it as tightly-woven as the prequel nor as hillarious. It was the only film that Nagesh made, that didn't quite do well by his standards of the 'small film' genre.

Nagesh made good films of rare value and made heads turn, but his films were always slotted in the 'small film' genre. Nagesh had carefully walked the line between commercial (& big) and sensible (& small) films. His films got the commercial success, recognition and reviews of big films while they contained the sensibilities, story and script of small films. He is in a class of his own. His movies make the claps and whistles go off involuntarily at the same time provoking thought on the kind of world we are in. A rare ability to have in this country where emotions and melodrama rule the roost. Nagesh brings in subtlety without losing out on the emotions. He cuts out the melodrama while retaining the impact he wants to create. Sometimes, he has more impact than any other film-maker.

"Dor" sees Nagesh breaking a few moulds. The mould of city-bred scripts barring "Iqbal". He treads new geographies and builds on emotions of love and friendship. The setting that he brings in "Dor" is wonderful. The story as always is simple but with intricate relationships and emotions with the subtlety that we have now come to identify as Nagesh's trademark. No big stars, no smashing of mirrors and dancing to trendy songs wearing costly costumes. He delivers like only he can. The brilliant juxtaposition of the two contrasting stories with corresponding backgrounds makes for rivetting cinema.

Aamir Khan and Shankar Singh leave for Saudi Arabia from Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan (respectively) leaving behind their wives Zeenat (Gul Panag) and Meera Singh (Ayesha Thakia) respectively. After around six months, news arrives that Shankar Singh is killed and Aamir Khan has been convicted for his murder as he was the only one at the site of the death. And will be hanged to death at Saudi. The only way that Aamir Khan can be saved from this is: Getting a "maafinaama" (Letter of forgiveness) from the wife of the slain saying that she forgives the muderer of her husband. And the only thing that the MEA official (who comes to convey the news to Zeenat) knows about the family of Shankar Singh is that they live in Rajasthan. Determined to free her husband from the jaws of death, she sets out on a (wild goose search-like) search to look for Shankar Singh's wife. The only thing she has with her is a photo of Shankar Singh and her husband together in their apartment in Saudi. Will Zeenat be able to find Meera? Will Meera sign on the "maafinama" if found? Will it be quick enough to save Aamir Khan? Watch this rare emotional masterpiece from Nagesh Kukunoor to find out.

Nagesh has reached new heights with this movie. Handling emotions with such subtlety that only he can, he has carefully crafted a lovely tale. Taking the green Himachal Pradesh as the metaphorical background for the principled, confident and strong Zeenat (Gul Panag) while chosing the barren Rajasthan as the setting for the sober, subdued and suppressed Meera (Ayesha Thakia) is in itself a brilliant choice. But the beauty of both the regions is brought out brilliantly through the camerawork (Sudeep Chatterjee of "Iqbal" fame). Of course, there are a few loopholes which is very unlike Nagesh, but those loopholes are what I would consider as 'cinematic liberty'. Why should the MEA officer come to Zeenat's house whereas it was Meera who had lost her husband? And how would the MEA not know the address of someone who has a passport good enough to transport him abroad? With this movie, I have come to rank Nagesh Kukunoor alongside the best ever movie-makers in India. Hats off to you Sir!

Ayesha Thakia as Meera, the widow, essays the role of a young widow suppressed by the hopelessly traditional agnivamshi Rajputs who are almost Sati-supporters. They are just one level above the Sati-supporters. As long as her husband is earning money abroad and sending it back home, she is treated well. The minute her husband is dead, she is made the cause. This is probably Ayesha's first noticeable movie after an okie-dokie "Socha Na Tha" and that Abbas-Mustan's super-car flick. And she also did "Home Delivery" (Poor girl! Must be licking her wounds now!) Her acting prowess is what is shown in the movie and everything else is kept under cover (literally!). The innocence of the young widow is brought out very well by Ayesha. The new-found independence by interacting with Zeenat and the dance to "Kajra Re". The involuntary 'lip-sync'ing to the dialogues of the movies she loves watching. (By the way, which theatre in the world still screens "Hero"? huh? That Jackie-shroff debut one!) The intensity in her eyes when Zeenat tells her about the truth. She is amazing all the way.

Gul Panag would have been named the surprise package of the movie if not for another performer about whom I will reserve my comments so that I can write at the end. She comes across as a good actor. Gul Panag gets into the skin of the character very well. Her search is what the movie is all about. This role would have done a Smita Patil or a Shabana Azmi proud.

The surprise package is Shreyas Talpade and his hillarious takes on almost every actor of Bollywood. He comes in as the "beharoopia" (now, what's that in English? I don't know) who entertains people and also tricks them while making money out of it either by stealing or by way of reward. He helps Zeenat through to Meera and is the crucial link in the movie. And what an amazing talent he has got! Shreyas Talpade is the discovery of this year. It was unfortunate that his debut role was of a deaf and dumb guy. And when he was given the opportunity to speak, he showed us what mettle he is made of. An actor of rare calibre. In fact, when he speaks first, I almost thought somebody dubbed for him because I was still under the "Iqbal" effect!

Overall, a must-watch movie. Can watch with family and friends and anyone else you would want to treat to a good time. This is turning out to be a great year for Hindi cinema. Rang De Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai and now Dor. All Oscar winners - if only the Americans knew what Hindi cinema was all about!

My Rating: ****

Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!

Royal city in transition

2006-10-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today's The Hindu supplement "Magazine" carries an article on the changing face of Mysore. With the IT boom slowly touching Mysore, the negatives that it brings with it are what is most scary for a city like Mysore. Sometimes, it's the space that you find in Mysore that makes you love it. And sometimes it's the warmth of the place.

In the article, the author refers to Bangalore and writes:

"The new money power of IT professionals in Silicon Valley has benefited
landlords who charge astronomical rents for cramped premises in sought-after
localities. It has also impacted lifestyles, pushing the demand for luxury goods
and services to unprecedented heights. The effect on the cultural and social
values of this one-time pensioners' paradise has been devastating. Now it is IT
that is driving the real estate boom in Mysore"

This is what scares me. I have noticed the per sq. ft. prices rising astronomically. It has almost doubled. It is visible. The charm of Mysore lies in students getting free accommodation in homes to complete their studies and having that gratitude forever in their hearts. If not free, they don't fleece you atleast like they do in Bangalore atleast. I studied in Mysore not very long ago and I don't remember spending more than Rs. 2000/- per month for everything including rent, food, books and travel. I lived a good life mind you! And the Ajji with whom I stayed during my graduation came for my wedding, blessed me and went back very happily. I owe whatever I am today to her also after my parents. If you take away such Ajjis houses and build apartment complexes or malls in those places, then many budding engineers/ students will lose a place to stay and cherish forever.

That doesn't mean I am against development. And I quote from the article again which rightly takes into account fears of sentimental idiots like me:

"...Fortunately, with the Heritage tag, help has been forthcoming from the
Centre. Mysore is one of the nine cities awaiting the implementation of the
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Also a cause for cheer is the
Urban Development Ministry's proposal to build a 2,000-acre IT township in
Mysore."

Now, that's something to cheer about. I really hope that they implement that IT township and keep the IT boom insulated from the 'heritage' city. I hope the IT boom doesn't blast my city away!

And the article ends with a pondering note. Will it or will it not kind of a thing. The last statement leaves me with nothing to say! Well said June Gaur!

"...the question now being asked here is will development and a higher rate
of growth mean a better quality of life for all or will it result in bizarre
income disparities and a deteriorating quality of life? In these times of
transition, Mysore looks forward to a future where openness to change is matched
by a rooted continuity."

Leg anna leg!

2006-09-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

I was telling somebody how much luck I bring to everyone. And I consider everyone who studied alongwith me in the same batch as I did to be really blessed. And if you were in the same states at the same time as I was then oh my! you are as elite as I am! Our fundamentals are very strong. Why? Because we studied the same thing over and over again. Check it out:

1992:
When I was in my 7th standard in AP, it was the public exam and I was all serious about it. That's when it all started. My fundamentals really becoming strong you see! The exams got canceled because papers leaked. And I had to study all over again!

Three years, weak in fundamentals phase went on. Then God became kind.

1995:
10th standard, AP, yet again paper leaked. Fundamentals that much more stronger now!

After I passed out of my school, the school itself closed down! Whew! That was close! And in the meanwhile, the school in which I studied till my 3rd standard also closed down. Well, if you thought that was some track record, then read ahead.

Two years later, another fundamentals revision class.

1997:
Intermediate II year (XII Std) AP, after we wrote our first two exams, we went to the examination center as usual on the "Mathematics/ Biology" day. Some newspaper, I don't remember which one, it doesn't exist today, had printed the entire paper on its first page. (I was about to type homepage! LOL!) There you go. I would have got 100% in all those subjects!

Same year:
IIT JEE papers leaked. For the first time in the history of IITs, the exam was canceled and rescheduled. I would have got through the first time you know! You are reading a blog of a could-ve-been IITian.

EAMCET, AP, paper format was changed that year. For the only time in its history as well as future. Never again have they introduced that stupid analytical type of paper!

CET, Karnataka, counselling sessions got scheduled and canceled and confusion prevailed before they allowed us to pick an engg seat.

Oh and yeah! My Intermediate college closed down after that!

Somehow scraped through all this. Made it to some college of engineering where thankfully the processes were more stable and even if the paper leaked (no proof of that) we never came to know(sad though!).

By the time we were about to have our campus placements, the IT boom was supposed to be at its peak. So, we had the best placements ever. With the highest salary ever and all that! But by the time we were about to finish our engg and join those companies, the bubble burst! And we also received the highest number of offer-revoking letters ever! A few companies ceased to exist! Anyway, that can be termed a coincidence if you want. My leg cannot have that reach!

By the time we finished our engg, it was September 11, 2001. And Osama thought it was the right time to strike US. Does he also belong to my batch? Well, terrorising thought! So, let me leave it at that.

I joined my first company Intelligroup in Hyderabad and there were strong rumours that Wipro was going to take over the company but before the rumours could subside I shifted to CMC. Now CMC doesn't exist anymore. It's taken over by TCS.

I joined Oracle after that. And for the first time in the history of the organization they laid off people on a global level. Think about the the customer for whom I write software. UWB. It's being taken over by IDBI now!

Oh! I forgot this one. I decided to write Subject GRE in 2002. And had applied for it and booked a date. Again a never before never again thing happened. Afterall, my leg na. It was cancelled. No reasons given. Money was refunded.

The college from which I did my engineering was affiliated to Osmania Unversity all these days. Now OU itself will not be there. It's going to be made an IIT.

Then, I started blogging enthusiastically and had posted three posts in a week when the Governement of India blocked blogs itself.

And now, I am going to write an exam in the month of December. Do you know why I don't believe in the words "All the best" now? Leg anna leg! I know.

Rubaroo Roshni!

2006-09-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

We sent Paheli to the oscars last year ahead of a few classics like Black, Swades, Hazaaron khwahishen aisi and I showed my dissappointment here.

Keeping with the trend I thought they had pick Krrish, since the other two (Lage Raho Munnabhai and Rang De Basanti) were very good for the panel to decide.

Wisdom prevails. Rang De Basanti is picked. I wouldn't have a problem with Lage Raho either but then RDB is also a good pick. Let's hope it wins us an Oscar.

I am not getting into the argument as to why we should crave for recognition from the western world and all that. All I am saying is that, since we have sent an entry to the oscars, I am hoping it will win. Period.

Clarification | Devanahalli airport

2006-09-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Mr. K. Sriram, Chairman, Builders Association of India, Mysore Centre, replies to my post via email:

"Your point on Devanahalli airport is well taken, but it is not as far as you are making it out to be. As a regular visitor to the site I would say that it takes 1 hour to get there from downtown bangalore at most times and may be 1.5 hours in peak hours.

The 6 lane highway is at an advanced stage of completion and this should reduce travel time further when completed. NICE is a private company which is laying a beautiful peripheral road from the Tumkur road to Hosur road cutting across the Magadi road, Mysore road, Kanakapura road etc. And wants to link uptill Devanahalli and also lay a monorail on its median. And believe me it will be ready well before the airport.

NICE is also building an elevated link to the (Bangalore) city center from Mysore road so you can possibly get to Devanahalli in 45 mins max from any corner in Bangalore. The scenario from the current airport is no better as it is. It takes us 2 full hours to get to Mysore road at peak hours and we believe we can be in Devanahalli in 45 mins from Mysore road if the NICE road is completed."

Thank you Sir for your clarification. That brings hope to us that the city is in safe hands.

Links:
Builders Association of India, Mysore
Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited

BangaloreMetblogs.com | Devanahalli Airport at Bangalore

2006-09-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

The new Bangalore airport that has been proposed at Devanahalli is far away from every inhabited place in Bangalore. It becomes just too far for someone just taking a regional flight of one hour. And the flight timing for most of the cities from Bangalore will be well within a couple of hours. It is plain impractical to locate the airport at such a God-forsaken place. Imagine the time taken to travel to the airport in your city being equal to the time taken to travel from one city to another!

So, what could we do? Since already millions of dollars have been invested into this can we find some way of making this a win-win for everyone involved? Is it possible? Of course, it is going to be the most developed and high-tech airport the country has ever seen and all that. So, can we also make it accessible please?

Please click here to continue reading the post (It will take you to the metblogs site)

Cricket, CFTRI and Mysore

2006-09-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

You give me these three things and I will not trouble anyone for the rest of my life! ;) Anyway, getting on with what I want to put up today cutting out the nonsense.

Picked this one up from here. We (the original author of this write-up and I) are from the same school. The Get-together of which I missed and wrote about that here. Anyway, let's get to this one now.

I was in 7th standard when I was selected to my high school’s cricket team. Naturally enough, it was the happiest day of my life. A moment of quintessential bombaat to be sure.
The news of my selection was delivered by my school’s PT master—and I know I can’t (shouldn’t, rather) use his real name so I’ll just call him UR.
UR, up to that point, wasn’t exactly my favourite person in the world. He verbally abused us every chance he got especially during Saturday mid-morning drills. To
wit:
* “Lo kothi, ninnanna yaaro yelnay claas-ige paas maadidhu? Leftoo andre yedagaalu kanole, idiot!”
* Or the ever popular rhetorical question: “Nimmappa amma yaak school-ige kalustharo ninna? Sumne manelidhu katte kaayakke laayak neenu.”
This was pretty standard stuff as I’m sure you’ll agree.
Anyway, the first day of cricket practice was a Wednesday. We got done with classes at 3:30 pm. My classmate (who was also selected) and I pedaled over to the cricket ground a short distance away.
The rest of the team, i.e. the chaps from 9th and 10th standards, showed up a half-hour late. We were told to help carry the mat onto the field. In short, we were cricket coolies.
The stumps were pitched. The practice batting and bowling orders were announced. We were not present in either one. So I assumed I was part of the unannounced fielding order and stood at point because no one was standing there. I was asked, sorry, told, to go and do byes keeping.
It dawned on me that the seniors of this team had had no creative input in UR’s decision to select us lowly 7th standard guys. And they didn’t think much of the
idea.
My classmate and I (he was doing byes keeping on the leg side) exchanged looks. The looks said, “I hope no one from our class stops by to watch cricket practice today.”
After all our seniors had batted, bowled and humiliated us it was almost time to wrap up. And that’s when UR showed up. “Yenappa, yellaroo battingoo bowlingoo maadidhraa?” The captain (bastard!) said “Yes sir. Yellardoo practice aaithoo.”
And then UR did something he wasn’t supposed to. He looked at me and my classmate and asked, “Yenraiyaa, yengithu practicoo ivathu?”
I blurted out, “Namige batting siglillaa sir.”
And right there, at that moment, my chances of ever playing for the school team while I was still in 7th standard thudded softly into the grass.
UR took charge. “Neenu pad maadkolaiya. Naan practice kodistheeni. Lo baddimaklaa”—this to the rest of the team—“banro svalpa bowlingoo fieldingoo maadrappa ivribbarge!”
So, having only played tennis ball cricket up to that point, I put on pads for the first time in my life. They were too big for me. When I walked, the top of the pads slammed into my stomach.
The old style belt and buckle pinched my ankes, calves and at the back of the knees. Still in the process of padding up, I picked up this plastic cup that I knew, in theory, to be the (then euphemistically called) abdomen guard. It had no straps
whatsoever. So I did a little bit of 3D mental manipulation to figure out how I
was supposed to rig this contraption so it would protect my, you know,
abdomen.
Out of my own sense of modesty I’ll omit the rest of the details. Suffice it to say however, that after I’d put on the abdomen guard, the only way I could walk was with my legs spread wide – like a Dasara Kesari pailvaan approaching his next victim at the beginning of his kusthi match.
I walked up to the stumps. Legs spread wide (for aforementioned reasons), I took my stance. UR had ambled up to point to get a closer look at his two new junior players.
My other classmate, in the process of padding up behind slips, was holding an
abdomen guard with the same quizzical expression on his face that I had a few minutes ago.
One of my seniors ambled up and bowled one short on the off. All I saw was a whistling flash of red. Mustering all the strength I could—“MADAGOO!” yelled UR from point—I heaved the bat and swung.
Missed completely. Got turned around because of the momentum of the bat. Ended up, facing square leg (and what seemed like) a lifetime of embarrassment.
UR delivered the coup de grace, “Neen hodioyoshtralli, naan canteeng hogi cawpee kudkond bandhbidbodhu kanaiya.”
And that was when, for the rest of my life, I fell in love with cricket. Thumba
thanksoo, UR.
The UR he is talking about is Uncle Ranga, our PE (Physical Education)
instructor. And yeah, we used to call our teachers as uncles and aunties
then. He used to be our cricket coach and I have played under him both as player and captain of our school team. And he's the best you can have. And when Mr. Alfred Satish Jones says thanks he echoes the voice of every single student who has passed out of CFTRI school under UR! You
are Uncle Ranga, You really are THE BEST!

Waist stuff

2006-09-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

I quit having milk products (mainly coffee and tea). Don't ask me why. I just did. That I find letting go off curd (yoghurt?) to be extremely difficult is another story altogether. Now, whenever I go to someone's house you must see the way they react. And in India, the degree of hospitality that I show to my guests is directly proportional to the amount of food I successfully stuff them with. It so happens that coffee and tea are common beverages to go with the "hospitality". Nobody leaves without having either of the above.

(Yes, it's as if you are almost at gunpoint!
You will take coffee or tea?
No nothing thanks. I am fine.

Ok. So coffee is it?
No seriously. I am fine. Thanks.

How many spoons sugar?
Aaargh! Even salt must be okay with me!)

Recently I went to someone's house and added them to the list of the jaw-droppers-after-hearing-my-giving-up-milk-products. As soon as I told them that I don't have coffee or tea their jaw dropped and their eyes widened with a how come you are alive? kind of a look. I give them that sheepish smile as if they had caught me while I just murdered somebody and was looking around to hide the weapon!

What's so wrong in giving up milk products? I get to have good fresh fruit juices instead. That helps me in controlling my size so that I can still manage to squeeze into doors made for the size of average Indians.

That brings me to the burning issue of my increasing waistline. It's burning because everyone thinks I am getting more cumbersome by the day. A recent conversation with my tata went this way.

My tata: "Exercise madta idya?" "Are you exercising?"
Me: "Madbeku. Maditini" "I need to. I will"
Me to Me: Oh no not again! This conversation happens everytime I meet him! And I still make those promises like Gen. Musharraf makes on fighting terrorism.

MT: "Madbekappa exercise. Illa andre nodu ee naduve heart problems barta ide chikka chikka avarige. Aa Mr. X gottallva ninge? Avanige 35 kooda aagilla vayyasu, aagle heart attack anthe. Doctors helidru avanige avana weight inda ne avanige aagirodhu antha. So neenu nodko"

"You must exercise. Otherwise, nowadays young people are being affected by heart problems. You know that Mr. X? He was hardly 35 years of age and has had an heart attack already. Doctors told him to reduce weight. You should also take care"

Me: "Hun Tata. Madtini" "Yes Grandfather. Will do"
Me to Me: Atleast this time bugger start doing something once you are in chennai. Don't keep promising like this to him.

MT: "Nanu S ge yavaglu heltane irtini. Avanu enu madalla. Nodu ivaga henge iddane antha!" "I always used to tell S to exercise and control his weight. He never did anything. Look at him now!"
Me: "Hun tata. Madtini" "Yes Grandfather. Will do"
Me to Me: Okay. From tomorrow I should start exercising. I will get up at 6AM and do some jogging and stretching for atleast 40 minutes.

They are all not entirely wrong you know. They include my mother and every well-wisher of mine. My body today resembles someone like Bomman Irani. Ok to be more precise, the top portion (waist and above, don't get ideas!) resembles Bomman Irani's top portion and the legs portion resembles Rambha (I mean that thin! you know!)

Next day morning 6AM. My mobile alarm is almost ready to stand up and crush me to death. No wonder my mobile looks like Amrish Puri to me! Till 6.45AM I am successfully snoozing the alarm when my wife gets up and starts her booting up process to go to office. After she gets up you need no alarm. You are so alarmed at the sounds she can produce once she is awake, you are automatically awake and up on your feet.

One joke to end the random post:
One particular day at office, my colleagues were having tears in their eyes and the sounds in the office were not particularly sad. So, I was looking around as to what was happening. Then one of them managed to explain the joke to me. Somebody had written physiotherapeutist as physio-the-rapist. I was like, "duh?!". I had to laugh.

Absentee reporting from Class of '95

2006-09-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

I missed it. I missed it. I missed it.

:( :( :(

Well, as usual I bunked it. I was notorious for bunking since my schooldays itself! But this time I wasn't playing TT or volunteering for some event, I was sitting at home! (Since, I might cry if I continue typing this, I shall stop here and allow you people to relish the moment! Maja maadi...)

But there are photos that have been sent to me by my classmate Sutejas. We are from the batch of 1995. And from the photos I gather that my batch is the #2 going by number of people attended! Great going guys! (Jayanth, please don't correct me if I am wrong! heh heh!)
Jayanth was the main organiser of the get-together. He is from the batch of 1996.

How much I would have liked to be a part of this get-together! But then, there's always a next time, right? Right Jayanth?! ;) Say yes! You have no other option!

Blame Sutejas for the quality of photos!

Check it out here.

Links:
My School blog
My School yahoogroups homepage
My batch googlegroups homepage
My school-gang yahoogroups homepage

Sometimes life can be like this - Final Part

2006-09-13T02:03:00.000-07:00

Continued from Part I

UPDATED with English Translation of the Kannada sentences

As I sat there with my tea being only two sips poorer, the talkative boy approached me. This was his third round within a span of twenty minutes to clear my table. Generally people finished their tea within that much time I guess. I had noticed him come and retreat with various plates and containers from other tables over his previous rounds, but didn't have the presence of mind that the kid would love to finish with this table too.

He approached me with a sympathetic look and asked, "Aa tea thannige agogiratte. Bere tankodla? Bisi ne beku antha helidri allva adakke kelde aste. Kopa madkobedi." in what was a clear reference to our first conversation where I was rude to him.

"The tea would have gone cold. Shall I get you another one? Now, don't shout at me for this, I just asked because you were particular about having your tea hot"

I looked at him and the tea in front of me. I didn't remember whether I had sipped the tea or not, but my burnt lips did signify that I had. I appreciated his customer-centric attitude despite my apathy towards him and said, "Aadre nanu kudididdini kanappa idarinda. Adu henge bere thankodtiya?

"I have already tasted the tea. Will you replace it even then?"

"Enu parvagilla sir. Neevu yaavdo gnangadalli iddeera. Tea kudiyodu marethogiddeera. Nimma kashta nimmge. Atleast olle tea ondu tankodtini bidi. Adarinda nimma kashta enu kammi agalla aadre olle tea kotte antha nange santosha agutte."

"No issues Sir. You seem to be lost in a world of your own and have forgotten to have the tea. You have your problems. Atleast I can get you some good tea to drink. Even though it doesn't heal your pain, it would make me a happier man because I would have given you some good tea to drink."

I just broke down. I guess I was waiting to break down. It had been a long time since anybody had actually bothered about me and my life. I wanted to hug that guy and thank him for his concern. But he didn't quite look at me once he knew that I was in tears and had covered my face between the table and my arms. He quietly picked up the glass and walked off. I could hear the clipty-clopty sound of his hawai chappals fade away from my curled-up presence.

I came from the "Men don't cry" school of thought. But here I was totally helpless. I found myself crying uncontrollably. I cried for my father, my brother, my mother and also myself. I just cried it all out. I didn't know why it was happening and I couldn't control it. I guess I cried for about half an hour or so with my arms curled around my head which was resting on the table.

I didn't realize the kid was back with my tea. He had carefully waited for me to show my head again and approached my table. He avoided eye contact, probably for the fear of making me cry again, and just left the tea on the table and went away. I was too overwhelmed with my own crying that I didn't want to begin talking to him. The tea was piping hot and I liked my tea to be hot.

As I resumed sipping the new tea, I noticed a dog stroll down the aisle separating the dhabha and the highway. The burnt lip hurt but the tea tasted better. It was a masala tea and I had not specified that to the boy. The dog had a belt around its neck. And that seemed strange to me. Just then the talkative kid ran behing the dog and attempted to direct it away from the highway. His timing was perfect because a truck loaded with more than what it could handle zoomed past the dhabha at a speed of 80kmph that would have run over the dog easily. For truck drivers, dogs are more of a liability than a beautiful form of life.

The kid caught the dog by its belt and dragged it into the dhabha. The dog blissfully unaware of what had just happened was happily wagging its tail and trying to lick the kid's face. It was a cross breed-German Shepherd almost the height of the kid. The kid walked upto my table noticing that the glass was empty. The dog was close on his heels. And I loved dogs.

As he picked up the glass, he asked,"Tea chennagitta?" "Was the tea good?"
I replied, "hun". "Yeah"

The dog was near my legs smelling my footwear. I was rubbing its neck and body. Dogs have this ability to make you forget sadness by making you shower affection on them. The kid started shouting at the dog asking it to get away from my feet.

I said, "Irli bidu. Nange naayigalu andre ista. Enu idara hesaru?" "Its ok. I like dogs. What's his name?"
"Shaaroo", he replied.

Interesting name I thought. "Chennagide hesaru. Enu hangandre?" "Nice name. What does it mean?"
"Nange Shaarookaan andre sakkat ista. Adakke avana hesare ittbitte." "I like Shaarookaan a lot. So, I adopted his name for my dog."

I almost burst out laughing. It was amazing how life could make u cry one second and laugh the next. I hated SRK!

"Sari. Elli siktu ninge ee nayi?". "Ok. Where did you get hold of this dog?" It was a cross-German shepherd and one of the costly breed of dogs.

"Eno gottilla sir, bahala dinagalinda nanna jote ne ide aste. Ee dhabha serakke munche nanu city nalli footpath mele idde. Ondu divasa nanu oota madbekadre nanna oota kitthkondu horatuhoytu. Avattu nange bahala hasivu aagittu, adakke nanu adanna attiskondu hogi nalakku vadde. Aste sir. Avattinda nananna bittilla idu. Estondu divasa nange oota tankottide bere. Nanu shaaaroo na bidalla."
"I don't know sir. A few days before getting into this dhabha I was on the footpath. And one particular day, this dog came running and snatched my meal for the day and ran away . I was so hungry that I ran behind this dog and beat the hell out of it. After that it hasn't left me. What's more is that many days it has found food for me when I was hungry. I will never leave sharoo"

The dog had started licking my hands now. And it liked playing with me. Dogs and I got along very well.

"Dhabha serbekaadre nimma ejamaanaru enu anlillva naayi bagge?" "Didn't the dhabha owner object to your dog coming alongwith you here?"
"Avaru helidru naayi togondu baa bekadre aadre adakke ootakke ella neene nodkobeku aste" "Yeah, he said that I would have to take care of the dog's hunger et al"

"Aadru nanu oppikonde. Shaaroo illde irakke agalla nange. Nange oota illde hodru sari adakke oota haktini. Yake andre adu yavattu nanna jote bidalla. Nange enu aagde iro hange nodkota irutte", he continued with his eyes getting moist, "Bidi, nimmge yake ee kathe ella. Nanu hogtini. Ondu tea mooru rupayi. Nanu nimmanna kelde ne masala tea tande adakke ondu rupayi extra sir. Neevu beda andre eradu rupayi kodi parvagilla."

"I immediately agreed. I can't live without Shaaroo. Even if I don't have enough to eat, I make sure he is fed because he will never leave me alone and go. Moreover he takes care of me too", he continued with his eyes getting moist, "Well, why should I bother you with all these stories. I ll leave now. One tea costs three rupees. And because I got masala tea which is one rupee more without asking you, you might chose not to pay me that one rupee."

He motioned the dog to come towards him and the dog happily followed him wagging his tail.

"Sari sari togo ittko. Bahala matadtiya kano neenu", I handed over a ten-rupee note, "Change ittko neene. Shaaroo ge enadru tinnisu."
"Okay. okay. Take this and keep the change", I handed over a ten-rupee note, "Get something for Shaaroo too"

"Bahala taanks sir"
"Many thanks sir"

"Lo nimma appa amma ella ello?", I asked as he turned to take leave.
"Hey, what about your parents?", I asked as he turned to take leave.

"Yaarige gottu sir. Yavattu nodilla avarna", he shouted as he approached the counter dancing and almost running. He was singing "Mitwaa....!"
"Who knows sir. I have never seen them", he shouted as he approached the counter dancing and almost running.

That was it. I got up and drove back home. I reached home at around 4AM, early in the morning. The door was wide open and I walked in. And none of them at home had slept. Nobody said a word. I didn't speak to anyone either. I went into the room where my father was lying down with his eyes open staring at the ceiling. I settled onto the carpet made of plastic straw (called "chaape" in kannada) next to him and joined him in staring at the ceiling.

My dad spoke, "Bandyeno? Baa pa baa."
My dad spoke, "So, you have come?"

Tears started running down my eyes. I replied, "I am sorry appa. I am sorry"

Sometimes life can be like this - Part I

2006-09-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

I flinched as the tea was hotter than expected. Since it was a particularly cold night I had ordered for tea and told the talkative boy to make it hot.

"Sir, enu beku?"
"Ondu tea"

"Bere enu bedva? Roti, dal, paneer butter masala?"
It was natural for someone to order those since it was dinner time. But I wasn't in the mood to eat.
"Ondu tea togondu baa. Saaku."

"Sari sir. Nimma ista. Hasivu aagtirabahudu antha kelde aste!", he shrugged.
"Lo, jaasti matadbeda. Tea togondu ba. Bisi aagi irli!", I motioned a dismissal with my hands to this young talkative boy. I ain't generally rude to the waiters, but then he was talking too much. Who was he to bother about my hunger?

I forgot completely about the order and was immersed in my own world. I hadn't even noticed the boy spilling tea on the table while he almost stabbed the table with the glass. I am generally very meticulous about keeping the table clean and all that. Even at Dhabhas I am no different. But today was a different story altogether. I had taken a sip from the tea glass without even knowing what I had done.

I shook my head vigourously. The burnt lip (or was it my tongue that was burnt?) had got me back to the present. My eyes were filled with tears. They weren't from the sadness that was within me, but from the tea that I had just had. Oooh... it was just too hot! I didn't know if I had done the right thing by just fleeing the scene. But it had become just too much.

The latest incident was my father having two heart-attacks within a space of a day. The second attack was accompanied by a cardiac arrest and they had to revive him through "shock" techniques. "Hoge bittidneno?". My dad's words reverberated through my mind and my body shuddered at the thought of losing him in these circumstances. I closed my eyes tight as if to close myself from reality and took another sip of tea from the glass. It was tasteless or I don't remember because I didn't bother about it. And I was here, leaving him all alone to handle the situation at home.

My elder brother suffered a kidney-breakdown at a very early stage in his life. My father donated one kidney of his to him because the doctors felt that it would have better chances of acceptance with the body. For a couple of years after the transplant, my brother was normal. Then the problem began. Frequent attacks of fever and cold and cough. Increasing impurity levels in the blood, my brother's body had begun to oppose the new kidney. Going to the hospital daily was a routine. The indication of hopelessness the doctor's eyes gave away were cleverly shrouded by the words that he spoke.

"Worry madkobedi Sir. Enu agalla. Idella usual post-transplant conditions. Neevu enu worry madkobedi"
"Doctor, namma kynalli adashtu madteevi naavu. Neevu heli enu madbeku antha"

"Neevu enu madteera sir. Ella aa devara kynalli ide. Naavu namma kynalli agiddu madtane iddivi"
"Nimmanne nambidivi Doctor"

This conversation used to repeat itself in my dreams also. At times, I would get up from my bed only to see my brother writhing in pain. I used to wonder, "What is God doing? Does he exist at all?". Sometimes, I would get angry with the doctors. Why can't they do something? What's their problem? But then I know, being an engineer, that solving a problem requires not only knowledge but some amount of divine intervention too. My brother didn't have it on his side. God had supposedly forgotten about the existence of this creature that he had created but also forgot to support him when it was necessary.

This hospital-doctor-dream-wakeup-see brother in pain had become a daily event in our lives. My mother, suffering from acute arthritis, would do her best to serve us and keep us in good spirits. But poor thing, she couldn't walk around much too with the joints pain. So, gradually I took over the cooking and cleaning department too. I didn't want my mother to strain her limbs to the extent that she would have to just lie down for an hour waiting for the pain to subside. Getting up early, cooking, cleaning and hospital and again cleaning, cooking and sleeping were what made my day.

I was a successul engineer. Studied at one of the top 3 colleges of Karnataka and did well too. Was offered a campus placement after my 6th semester at one of the leading IT companies at that time. And as if God was out to prove that He didn't exist, the offer was revoked by the time I finished my engineering. It came as a blow but that also meant that I could help at home. Take over from mom and help dad in curing brother.

For two years after my graduation, I worked as an intern under one of the professors at India's leading Science Research Institute. That gave me ample freedom to manage everything I had to do in a day and also work at the night and learn. I was preparing for my PG entrance exam. Being an engineer to do a PG was my dream. Finally, when the results came out and the call letters were sent - I was through to one of the the world's best Engineering Institute (say WBEI)! Man! That was my dream.. and i was there!

As luck would have it, the WBEI refused to give me a degree because my project hadn't come out to their expectation. And they ran the risk of losing the funding for the project. So, they had to blacklist me and not confer any degree on me. The project was a work by a team of three of us, and one of them committed suicide as soon as he was told this news. I don't remember developing suicidal tendencies but for the first time ever, I didn't brand my late friend a "coward"!

I went back home after this happened. I didn't believe in dreams anymore. And God? Ha ha! Tell me about it! Then, this series of heart-attacks happened. Now the daily routine meant visiting a hospital but a different one - a cardio speciality. My brother had taken the secondary role. He didn't demand attention, not that he ever used to. But we now had to deal with my father who was getting increasingly worried about the finances for my brother's treatment.

Whenever I thought I could chip in to help my father, I would realise that I was a mere B.E.(Bachelor of Engineering) and nothing else to the corporate world. I was worse than a fresher because they would consider me as a person incapable of acquiring a degree. All the years after my B.E. degree would be ignored by the corporate world as they have done. The on-campus offer from the world's best consulting company wouldn't hold any water anywhere without the Master's degree from WBEI. So, I realised that I was not being much of a help anyway.

Not being of much help and having to daily go through this routine again made me go sick. Then, my father came back home from the hospital with a doctor's recommendation that he should undergo a bypass surgery because the blockage was quite high in the blood vessels leading to his heart. I had just had enough of everything.

After lunch, I just took my bike and started out on a drive and arrived at this dhabha a good 200 kms away from my home. I haven't told them anything. I didn't know what they are thinking about my sudden disappearance from the scene. I had left my mobile also at home so that my friends cannot contact me. I just wanted to be alone. I didn't know how to handle this situation. Will I ever come out of this? What to do? Should I flee completely or get back to help my dad handle the situation? What should I do?

To be continued...

Simi and...

2006-09-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

...her Rendezvous with Chan!

Missed the exclusive rendezvous with the global icon and legend Jackie Chan on Sunday? Only indya.com brings you the complete conversation between the king of action and queen of words!

The show began with Simi saying, "I've come here to meet Hong Kong's one-man film industry. He's made over a 100 movies… He speaks a language I don't understand and yet he's no stranger to me, coz we belong to this family called 'Cinema'. He was named Chan Kong-Sang, which means, "born in Hong Kong" but the world knows him as the legend called JACKIE CHAN!"

It's a pleasure to meet you
It's an honour

You know something, when I was coming here.. Back home I was telling everybody I am going to Hong Kong to interview Jackie Chan, the reaction was always the same… "Jackie Chan???!!! "Big Smile! Woww! Everybody was so happy and they all said Say Hi to J for me, give him my love!
Just last year I was in India. Before that I really know of so many fans. That really really surprised me! Really thank you! I'm not Indian.. I'm Chinese but there are so many fans and so many people that support me! Thank you! Thank you (Joins hands, does a namaste and bows his head)

Tell me Jackie, you have a face and a name that is known everywhere in the world. Is there any country you have been to, where you have not been mobbed?
At the moment… None!

Everywhere … Everybody knows you…
What really surprised me.. Especially Morocco... in the midst of no where .. almost 10 hours.. mountains… We stopped the car for location scouts and the people… Ah.. Jackie Chan… Haaa.. Why???? In the middle of no where.. mountains.. only few houses … How can anybody know me? That's really surprising. Then.. Africa.. Even the Zulu.. They go.. Jackie Chan!!!

You are today one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Perhaps in the whole world I know that this kind of stardom does not happen by chance. What is that deep driving desire that has brought you here?
When I was becoming a star I need fame. I want money. I want everything... I want the whole world to recognize me… Wherever I go. When I say Jackie Chan.. They should not say Jackie Who??? They imagine Bruce Lee. Even though they know Jackie Chan. They go. "Oh!!!! Bruce Lee!" One day I want everyone to know who is Jackie Chan!

When you were around six years old, your father went to Australia to work at the American embassy so they left you in a boarding school. The Chinese Oprah School. Now Jackie, the world over everybody knows that boarding schools are very tough but the Chinese…
More tough!!! Don't tell me! Now even young children, even my son tells me that boarding schools are tough! No! No school was tougher than our school! The government they don't care about these kind of schools. That's why Red Cross used to come every month to give me a tooth spray, t-shirts, shoes… Everything! The school was 3000 sq ft. We eat here, sleep here, we training here, do everything here. You know children. 4-5 years old.. We pee on the floor.. When we eat, we drop the rice, everything on the floor… When we walk on the carpet… It's like sticky… Dirty. It used to stink.

You said that you got very little treat but plenty of punishment.
Yes! If you do something wrong! You get beaten… All over! One day I bring the nuts! I dropped the nuts behind the refrigerator. I moved the refrigerator... I catch the nuts.. The teacher twisted my ear and said.. What are you doing? It's about time you get some… Bring me to the chair and put me down, and bam bam bam! I was crying! First time in the school.. One weeks later .. I just turned around… And I wanted to go away. Where would I go? My father was not there! Everytime I saw my teacher I would start shaking! Then I know… Wow! That's my jail!

So they taught you martial arts… Acrobats
Singing, dancing, everything

What about school? Reading, writing?
Yeah! We do have that but that time for us was sleeping time! You can imagine.. You get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, punch kicking until 1 o'clock.

And you had to do a thousand kicks?
A thousand kicks is ok. First you kick high, later you kick low.. But to stop is most painful. When you do this (punches in mid air) and then stop (hand still in the air)

Under these harsh circumstances, Chan's extraordinary strength, agility and fearlessness were forged!
You have to listen to orders like its an army! You have to eat slow... You cannot make a sound. Even if one person made a sound, the teacher would ask all to stop. Then he would ask all to stop. Then he would take a round and then ask all to start eating again. When teacher finish... we have to finish.

My dream is on… Becoming a stunt coordinator. That's why I'm learning hard to learning a camera angle, camera movement and luckily becoming a small star after Bruce Lee died. Just small star. At that time there was so many Bruce chair, Bruce table… Everybody... In my poster… Second! BRUCE LEE… Jackie Chan... Starring!

Jackie it was always real action?
Yes!

Real danger?
Yes!

And real injury?
Real action… Real injury!… Stupid?!?!?

Stupid? (smiles) How many broken bones did stardom cost you?
Too many! Cannot count… All over! I haven't counted the operations. At that time I used to think that was the only way to make a movie.

That time with success your stunts got more and more dangerous. A jump from the sixteenth floor, you thought.. "No! It's too predictable… Lets make it 21! Why! Mm... Lets hang from a flying helicopter" (Laughs!! )

Why was that necessary?
I wanted to be on the top! At that time everybody learned from Bruce Lee. After my success… Everybody learned from Jackie Chan.

Why didn't you use computer graphics?
I don't know how to do computer graphics? I don't have the knowledge in my head! I felt that's the only way to make a movie. Before I don't know.. But now I know. Put the camera. Don't move. I do the hit then I go. Second shot, get the car… Stop here… Then combine together. Boom! Same thing! It's more dangerous… The audience do "Wow!!!" and that time… Everybody was scared… I might kill myself…

So many times… Nearly you killed yourself. Why?
That's the only way I know how to make movie. I jump once ok! Director would say, 'Ok good shot!' Every time there was just one shot… When we're doing a stunt.. There's no second take!!

Well no insurance company is ready to insure you!
No! Blacklist!

Blacklist!
Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan's stunt team- Blacklist!

So you pay for everyone's treatment?
I pay!

Yourself?
Yeah! You hurt in my movie? I'll take care of you my whole life. That's my promise.

Tell me Jackie, which would you say is the most difficult stunt you have done, which you were terrified of?
Actually… Every stunt I'm terrified.

Every stunt?
Look… Am an ordinary man! Am not superman! Really! I just... I just… Shows enough... I'm scared. I have to do it. There are so many people watching it… For the movie... For myself… for the fans… For the world. Ok I do it. Baboom Baboom (feeling his heart) BAM!!! Luckily nothing major happened! Boom! Ok Lucky... Broken Arm! Really scared… Even today!

Tell me Jackie. Is Hollywood the ultimate goal for an actor?
I think… Yes! Coz it's the biggest market in the world. Hollywood is the place to be. No matter your Indian, Chinese... The whole world... Sometimes I ask myself why? Why Hollywood? Why Oscar? You have your own Oscar... We have our own.. Nobody cares! But why Oscar.. Everybody cares… It's Hollywood.. Everybody wants to get into Hollywood… Even myself. I tried to get into Hollywood. So difficult.

They didn't understand you. You didn't understand them.
In the beginning. My English they just don't understand. They make my action, they make my kick, they make my punch so slow. They say.. No Jackie.. Your too fast. Then the dialogue coach.. Get rid of the gum.. Dialogue coach taught me how to speak English They don't care the action .. they care about my English. They want me to speak perfect English. Even now I cannot speak perfect English.

You had a bit of a love-hate relationship. You loved Hollywood and you hated Hollywood.
Yes! After I tried to stay American for two years I realized I'm not the biggest star. There are so many big stars. I speak no English. Nobody likes Jackie Chan movies. They like John Wings, They like Bruce Lee, they like Clint Eastwood. They didn't like my action.

Did you become a bit of a playboy?
Not I becoming a playboy, it's the girl who made me become a playboy... Not I am after them... They after me... Really I don't care about love... I care about movie... I care about fun... So this way... Are you my girl friend? They come... You can feel it... You can tell… Go out for dinner... Ya Come... Then I met another one, another one... They call me... Of course I also need a girl friend... But there are so many… Which one's the best... I don't know… I don't have the chance to know them... I don't want to know them... I am too selfish... When I have dinner with all my stunt team, all my group... I remember this very famous singer

Teresa Teng?
(Pause for a while)… How can you know that? She asked me, "Can I have dinner with you one day?" I said, we have dinner everyday. She said, "No, I mean just you and me" .. OK , OK… She arranged the dinner in a French restaurant. They gave me the menu... I did not know how to read. Then she said what do you want... Steak? Ya, steak… Then the people asked me how would you like the steak? I said, What? What are you saying? Medium or rare... No, well done is not good... I said well done… I want well done. What ever she said I am opposite. I just tell you never do it again.

You separated?
At that time, I am young. I was too selfish... I don't know the meaning of love... If I know, If I am not selfish, if I know the meaning of love... I am might get married to Teresa Teng... How good she is… So sweet... So beautiful... We are not fit… She is so ady... I am like a jerk... I think because of ten years in my martial art school.

Then in 1981, you decided to get married? Why at that stage did you want to get married?
She had the baby. Then, I said, Wow you have my baby .. that's my responsibility. Then, because when we go out the first day... The newspaper - 'Jackie has new girlfriend'. Two crore sue… In Japan... After sue… My company said you cannot say anymore... You have to hide. .. Which is hiding... It's not the issue of the baby... I have to go away.

To Los Angeles
She went to Los Angeles... Not because of American citizen... No... no... we are hiding from the paparazzi… That's all... She is hiding... The baby comes out... What can I do? Can we marry? I don't want to marry… I am a bad boy… Then, ok… She said, "I don't want the baby having no father." Ok, then I sign a paper. Today I get married... Next day the baby comes out … Then, Bye bye… Then I go back... Come back to Hong Kong... the movie continues... I don't care anymore… That's me... But, all these years I am learning ... Yes, I am wrong ... I did something wrong ... But now I am good father .

But in the world of Jackie Chan, what room is there for family, love… For marriage.
The family is already there… Even my wife, my son they want something, do something they don't call me... They call the manager, they call the assistant... So never care about family... So I am still concentrating on business... Today, if I quit… Boom... Bye bye everything…

Jackie, I want to ask you, with whom in your life you have the deepest emotional connection...
I don't know… I think there are two or three people... One of course is my manager... May be one more I can't think about who she is or he is...

Have you seen any Bollywood movies?
Yes

Which ones have you seen?
I can't remember, I just know, Indian movies always singing... 3 hours - 4 hours. What are they doing? What are they speaking? Why dancing again? Why singing? But today, the dancing compared to 30 years ago, the movement, the technology, wow and choreograph the dancing, it's just amazing …

What do you think about the stunts?
I think a lot of things are learnt from us.

Oh sure…
Ya, But now, everybody learns from everybody.

Why don't you make a film in Bollywood?
I will, I want to... For so many years… Just the script

Forbes magazine has named you among the biggest charity givers in the world, celebrity charity givers in the world along with Oprah, Anjelina Jolie and Sunny Bono. I want to ask you for a boy who grew up hungry and who made his fortune literally by breaking his bones. How easy is it for you to give charity?
Pretty easy right now... I am learning… When I am doing charity I am learning how to do it… When I first got a million... I am the king… I am the king of the world. That time I bought diamond watches, sports car, everything. But after I learnt so many things from so many people... Now, come back... I was so poor when I was a child... So many people helped me… People sent me food... Who are they... I don't know... Now I have to return to the society. So I started a foundation in Hong Kong. Last year, I built 11 schools in China, this year I will build another two schools. I will continue to do all things... Not for fame... Now I am really doing it from the heart.

The Hong Kong entertainment community calls him Diego (Big Brother)

Jackie you have had many blessing its like you know the fortunes of a million people have all been handed over to you? What you count as your biggest blessing?
I think... When you do a lot of things… Everybody knows Jackie Chan. That's what God wants me to do - Charity.

Jackie... You have conquered many worlds... You have lived many lives... What's left now to prove to the world... Or to yourself..
Now, I just do what I want... I tell my manager next week I am free... I want to go somewhere to do some charity… Makes me happy... When I go to sleep I do something good for the world, or for my family, for myself then I can sleep very tight.

Your 52, do the years ahead frighten you .. does old age frighten you…
Before yes, but now, not anymore. I am very lucky! Jackie Chan is really a miracle... Sometimes I look into the mirror and say why me? I think I will be happy… I didn't miss anything... If 10 years ago… 20 years ago… You ask me... No, I don't want to die… Not now... I have to so many things to do.

Do you feel you could have done more in your life?
Yes… If I can done more charity... I would make less movie... If I would make more movies... I would do less charity.

Could you have loved more in your life?
I am learning… Still learning ... Still learning…

Jackie…. Thank You for a memorable rendezvous... I've loved every bit…
I don't think this was an interview... Just like a conversation... I speak everything truth… You made me very comfortable…

Links:
This story

"Silly"ana oru kadhai!

2006-09-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

No! I take back my words! It is not a gender-changed remake of HDDCS! I don't want to insult HDDCS. Not that HDDCS was a classic, but "Silly"ana oru kadhai oops sorry "Sillunu Oru Kadhal" is not even anywhere near it. HDDCS and Silly (Short for "Sillunu Oru Kadhal") have only one thing in common - legendary music. Period.

Not only was my evening ruined, I ruined it for my in-laws too. Is there any provision under the Indian judiciary to sue the film-makers for attempt to mass extreme mental torture? "Silly" will be first movie to go into that list whenever they make the provision. When the movie ends, there is a slide "Written and Directed by Krishna" as if he has made "Titanic" or something. Bugger Krishna, you better stay indoors for a good amount of time, atleast till Kollywood has a hit and forgets this divine offering of yours!

The story: Surya(Gowtham) marries Jyothika(imaginatively named Kundali) in a village. They move to Mumbai after marriage. And we are 6 years fast forward into the future where Gowtham is a chief mechanic at the Maruti Suzuki plant while Kundali works in a jazzy office with well-done-up-interiors and females running around everywhere. They have a daughter, Ishu, who is 5 years old - that cute kid who is the brand ambassador for all the silk shops in Pondy Bazaar. Gowtham daily drops the kid at school, Kundali at office and head to Gurgaon Haryana and back in his Maruti Swift! Shocked? Check this out, Maruti Suzuki's only manufacturing plant is in Gurgaon!

Well, if I continue with my nit-picking in the movie, then this review can never end. So, I will let them pass. Let me get on with the story. Kundali reads Gowtham's diary (bad manners?!) to take the story further. Gowtham was in love with a girl called Ishwarya aka Ishu (Bhoomika) during his engineering days (@ PSB Engineering College, Coimbatore. Probably PSG Tech, the original, didn't need a product placement ala Maruti since they are already a force to reckon with in the Country!). Ishu was the daughter of an MP - docile and studious while Gowtham was the typical LLB (Lord of Last Bench) at college playing football, driving fancy bikes and drinking beer like water (or was it water itself?!). The way and the context in which she discloses her love for him is so out-of-place and out-of-imagination that I wanted to literally go and shout carefully chosen expletives at the director. Then, what happens? Even that kid Ishu will tell you. Big Ishu and Gowtham get married at the registered office and right there, Big Ishu's bigger father comes and you have a fight scene where Gowtham is beaten till he is almost dead.

But guess what? The healthcare services in Coimbatore are so good that within days there are no scars on Gowtham's face where he was beaten with a hockey stick or something similar(that I remember this much is a credit to me!). Just when Gowtham was about to recover and charge to search for Ishu, his chitappa (uncle) falls from the staircase. Probably he had also had enough of the movie. So, he decided to take a fatal fall. But before dying he takes a promise from Gowtham (like all good characters) that he will live a noble life ever after with that girl called "Kundali" from the village.

If you haven't smashed your monitor to pieces, I shall dare to continue. Maybe I need to call for insurance. Thinking of insurance, I can suggest a new product to the insurance companies. They can insure movie-goers like us against bad movies like these. But yeah, there's every probability they might go bankrupt if one person like Krishna decides to take them on!

Anyways story is story. I have suffered for 3 hours plus commuting time also, please share my suffering like good friends! After reading all this from the diary, Kundali lands up in Coimbatore in search of Big Ishu. She arranges for Big Ishu to come to Mumbai to spend a "Day" with Gowtham. You know why? In that diary Gowtham would have written, "Even if I had spent a day of my life with you, I would have had the pleasure of having lived for ages. But that was not to be."

Now what happens in that day? How does Krishna The Great manage to waste your time completely? I forgot the name of the producer, but very soon we will hear of someone going underground unable to bear the wrath of audience and I will know who is the producer. This producer hasn't paid anyone except Krishna. A R Rahman would anyway deliver. Money or otherwise!

Surya and Jo wanted to give their audience a memorable movie before they enter into wedlock the day after tomorrow. Well, they have achieved their objective. This movie is memorable in more ways than one.

Memorable way #1: The guy sitting in the row in front of me, at one point during the movie, shouted, "I could have rather thrown this Rs. 100/- down the drain!". The sheer hopelessness of the situation was evident in his voice.

Memorable way #2: Another guy, at a considerably important scene in the movie, "Vaaak Thooooo!!". I don't think he only spat anger out!

Memorable way #3: Two intelligent people, 15 minutes before the ending, walked out of the theatre so that they could take their vehicles away easily out of the theatre. I did have a brotherly feeling toward them!

Finally, since my wife fervently pleaded with me that I shouldn't give a single star rating on my blog for a "Surya" movie, I am going to rate it mathematically. Paapi pet ka sawaal hai yar, samjha karo!

My rating: ***** - **** (That's 5 stars minus 4 stars)

Today's evening plan

2006-09-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

Me and my in-laws have booked to go to satyam theatre for First day first show of "Sillunu oru kadhal". If I am to go by what The Hindu says here, then I am doomed! It seems to be a gender-changed remake of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

Surprisingly, The Hindu contradicts itself.
1. The movie review has this to say about the music:
"Except the title song there is nothing great about the work of A.R.Rahman..."

2. Whereas in one of the write-ups on the music as soon as the album was released it said this:
"A.R. Rahman has made a fantastic comeback with the music of this movie..."

Anyways, let me decide for myself about the movie. I shall surely let you know tomorrow as to what I felt about it.

The inspiring rags-to-riches tale of Sarathbabu

2006-09-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

When 27-year old Sarathbabu graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he created quite a stir by refusing a job that offered him a huge salary. He preferred to start his own enterprise -- Foodking Catering Service -- in Ahmedabad.
He was inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, to educate him and his siblings. It was a dream come true, when Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy lit the traditional lamp and inaugurated Sarathbabu's enterprise.

Sarathbabu was in Chennai, his hometown, a few days ago, to explore the possibility of starting a Foodking unit in the city and also to distribute the Ullas Trust Scholarships instituted by the IT firm Polaris to 2,000 poor students in corporation schools.

In this interview with rediff.com, Sarathbabu describes his rise from a Chennai slum to his journey to the nation's premier management institute to becoming a successful entrepreneur. This is his story, in his own words.

Childhood in a slum
I was born and brought up in a slum in Madipakkam in Chennai. I have two elder sisters and two younger brothers and my mother was the sole breadwinner of the family. It was really tough for her to bring up five kids on her meagre salary.

As she had studied till the tenth standard, she got a job under the mid-day meal scheme of the Tamil Nadu government in a school at a salary of Rs 30 a month. She made just one rupee a day for six people.

So, she sold idlis in the mornings. She would then work for the mid-day meal at the school during daytime. In the evenings, she taught at the adult education programme of the Indian government.

She, thus, did three different jobs to bring us up and educate us. Although she didn't say explicitly that we should study well, we knew she was struggling hard to send us to school. I was determined that her hard work should not go in vain.

I was a topper throughout my school days. In the mornings, we went out to sell idlis because people in slums did not come out of their homes to buy idlis. For kids living in a slum, idlis for breakfast is something very special.

My mother was not aware of institutions like the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, or the Indian Institutes of Technology. She only wanted to educate us so that we got a good job. I didn't know what I wanted to do at that time because in my friend-circle, nobody talked about higher education or preparing for the IIT-JEE.

When you constantly worry about the next square meal, you do not dream of becoming a doctor or an engineer. The only thing that was on my mind was to get a good job because my mother was struggling a lot.

I got very good marks in the 10th standard exam. It was the most critical moment of my life. Till the 10th, there was no special fee but for the 11th and the 12th, the fees were Rs 2,000-3,000.

I did book-binding work during the summer vacation and accumulated money for my school fees. When I got plenty of work, I employed 20 other children and all of us did the work together. That was my first real job as an entrepreneur. Once I saw the opportunity, I continued with the work.

Life at BITS, Pilani
A classmate of mine told me about BITS, Pilani. He was confident that I would get admission, as I was the topper. He also told me that on completion (of studies at Pilani), I will definitely get a job.

When I got the admission, I had mixed feelings. On one hand I was excited that for the first time I was going out of Chennai, but there was also a sense of uncertainty.

The fees alone were around Rs 28,000, and I had to get around Rs 42,000. It was huge, huge money for us. And there was no one to help us. Just my mother and sisters. One of my sisters -- they were all married by then -- pawned her jewellery and that's how I paid for the first semester.

My mother then found out about an Indian government scholarship scheme. She sent me the application forms, I applied for the scholarship, and I was successful. So, after the first semester, it was the scholarship that helped me through.

It also helped me to pay my debt (to the sister who had pawned her jewellery). I then borrowed money from my other sister and repaid her when the next scholarship came.

The scholarship, however, covered only the tuition fees. What about the hostel fees and food? Even small things like a washing soap or a toothbrush or a tube of toothpaste was a burden. So, I borrowed more at high rates of interest. The debt grew to a substantial amount by the time I reached the fourth year.

First year at BITS, Pilani
To put it mildly, I was absolutely shocked. Till then, I had moved only with students from poor families. At Pilani, all the students were from the upper class or upper middle class families. Their lifestyle was totally different from mine. The topics they discussed were alien to me. They would talk about the good times they had in school.

On the other hand, my school years were a big struggle. There was this communication problem also as I was not conversant in English then.

I just kept quiet and observed them. I concentrated only on my studies because back home so many people had sacrificed for me. And, it took a really long time -- till the end of the first year -- to make friends.

The second year
I became a little more confident and started opening up. I had worked really hard for the engineering exhibition during the first year. I did a lot of labour-intensive work like welding and cutting, though my subject was chemical engineering. My seniors appreciated me.

In my second year also, I worked really hard for the engineering exhibition. This time, my juniors appreciated me, and they became my close friends, so close that they would be at my beck and call.

In the third year, when there was an election for the post of the co-ordinator for the exhibition, my juniors wanted me to contest. Thanks to their efforts I was unanimously elected. That was my first experience of being in the limelight. It was also quite an experience to handle around 100 students.

Seeing my work, slowly my batch mates also came to the fold. All of them said I lead the team very well.

They also told me that I could be a good manager and asked me to do MBA. That was the first time I heard about something called MBA. I asked them about the best institution in India. They said, the Indian Institutes of Management. Then, I decided if I was going to study MBA, it should be at one of the IIMs, and nowhere else.

Inspiration to be an entrepreneur
It was while preparing for the Common Admission Test that I read in the papers that 30 per cent of India's population does not get two meals a day. I know how it feels to be hungry. What should be done to help them, I wondered.

I also read about Infosys and Narayana Murthy, Reliance and Ambani. Reliance employed 20,000-25,000 people at that time, and Infosys, around 15,000. When a single entrepreneur like Ambani employed 25,000 people, he was supporting the family, of four or five, of each employee. So he was taking care of 100,000 people indirectly. I felt I, too, should become an entrepreneur.

But, my mother was waiting for her engineer son to get a job, pay all the debts, build a pucca house and take care of her. And here I was dreaming about starting my own enterprise. I decided to go for a campus interview, and got a job with Polaris. I also sat for CAT but I failed to clear it in my first attempt.

I worked for 30 months at Polaris. By then, I could pay off all the debts but I hadn't built a proper house for my mother. But I decided to pursue my dream. When I took CAT for the third time, I cleared it and got calls from all the six IIMs. I got admission at IIM, Ahmedabad.

Life at IIM, Ahmedabad
My college helped me get a scholarship for the two years that I was at IIM. Unlike in BITS, I was more confident and life at IIM was fantastic. I took up a lot of responsibilities in the college. I was in the mess committee in the first year and in the second year; I was elected the mess secretary.

Becoming an entrepreneur
By the end of the second year, there were many lucrative job offers coming our way, but in my mind I was determined to start something on my own. But back home, I didn't have a house. It was a difficult decision to say 'no' to offers that gave you Rs 800,000 a year. But I was clear in my mind even while I knew the hard realities back home.

Yes, my mother had been an entrepreneur, and subconsciously, she must have inspired me. My inspirations were also (Dhirubhai) Ambani and Narayana Murthy. I knew I was not aiming at something unachievable. I got the courage from them to start my own enterprise.

Nobody at my institute discouraged me. In fact, at least 30-40 students at the IIM wanted to be entrepreneurs. And we used to discuss about ideas all the time. My last option was to take up a job.

Foodking Catering Services Pvt Ltd
My mother is my first inspiration to start a food business. Remember I started my life selling idlis in my slum. Then of course, my experience as the mess secretary at IIM-A was the second inspiration. I must have handled at least a thousand complaints and a thousand suggestions at that time. Every time I solved a problem, they thanked me.

I also felt there is a good opportunity in the food business. If you notice, a lot of people who work in the food business come from the weaker sections of the society.

My friends helped me with registering the company with a capital of Rs 100,000. Because of the IIM brand and also because of the media attention, I could take a loan from the bank without any problem.

I set up an office and employed three persons. The first order was from a software company in Ahmedabad. They wanted us to supply tea, coffee and snacks. We transported the items in an auto.

When I got the order from IIM, Ahmedabad, I took a loan of Rs 11 lakhs (Rs 1.1 million) and started a kitchen. So, my initial capital was Rs 11.75 lakhs (Rs 1.17 million).
Three months have passed, and now we have forty employees and four clients -- IIM Ahmedabad, Darpana Academy, Gujarat Energy Research Management Institute and System Plus.

In the first month of our operation, we earned around Rs 35,000. Now, the turnover is around Rs 250,000. The Chennai operations will start in another three months' time.

Ambition
I want to employ as many people as I can, and improve their quality of life. In the first year, I want to employ around 200-500 people. In the next five years, I hope to increase it by 15,000. I am sure it is possible.

I want to cover all the major cities in India, and later, I want to go around the world too.
I have seen people from all walks of life -- from the slums to the elite in the country. That is why luxuries like a car or a bungalow do not matter to me. Even money doesn't matter to me. I feel bad if I have to have food in a five star hotel. I feel guilty.

Personally, I have no ambition but I want to give a house and a car to my mother.

Appreciation
I did not expect this kind of exposure by the media for my venture or appreciation from people like my director at the IIM or Narayana Murthy. I was just doing what I wanted to do. But the exposure really helped me get orders, finance, everything.

The best compliments I received were from Narayana Murthy and my director at IIM, Ahmedabad. When I told him (IIM-A director) about my decision to start a company, he hugged me and wished me luck. They have seen life, they have seen thousands and thousands of students and if they say it is a good decision, I am sure it is a good decision.

Reservation
Reservation should be a mix of all criteria. If you take a caste that comes under reservation, 80 per cent of the people will be poor and 20 per cent rich, the creamy layer. For the general category, it will be the other way around.

I feel equal weightage should be given for the economic background. A study has to be done on what is the purpose of reservation and what it has done to the needy. It should be more effective and efficient. In my case, I would not have demanded for reservation. I accepted it because the society felt I belonged to the deprived class and needed a helping hand.

Today, the opportunities are grabbed by a few. They should be ashamed of their ability if they avail reservation even after becoming an IAS officer or something like that. They are putting a burden on the society and denying a chance to the really needy.

I feel reservation is enough for one generation. For example, if the child's father is educated, he will be able to guide the child properly.

Take my case, I didn't have any system that would make me aware of the IITs and the IIMs. But I will be able to guide my children properly because I am well educated. I got the benefits of reservation but I will never avail of it for my children. I cannot even think of demanding reservation for the next generation.

Stories like these inspire me. I share the same thought process too. Of improving the quality of life through successful entrepreneurship. But I have been taking shelter with many safe steps in life. When my time comes, I shall join Sarathbabu in making this country a better country. Thanks to Rediff.com for carrying this story.

Links:
This story
Another such inspirational story on rediff

A review | Lage Raho Munnabhai

2006-09-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

The core team [Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Bomman Irani and Jimmy Shergill] and concept [Hardhitting and throught-provoking messages through sentimental but class comedy!] of "Lage Raho Munnabhai" is the same as its prequel "Munnabhai. M.B.B.S". But, this sequel stands on its own as another legend in Indian cinema.

Making a classic first-up might be easy a la "DCH" by Farhan Akhtar and following it up with a good but not as classy "Lakshya" is easier and doing a remake of an already established hit "Don" is the easiest. Even RGV is following the same pattern with "Shiva 2006". It would have been very easy for Hirani and team to follow the same pattern and ensure a box office hit. But they have really done it the right way. "Sachchayi ke raaste pe chale hain"! And the output is really commendable. No not commendable, outstanding.

Munnabhai and Sirkeet (it's actually circuit, but in mumbaiya you know...) are busy going about their bhaigiri business. No baggage from the prequel of doctors is ever brought in here. In fact you don't even expect it. You are just so busy cracking up in laughter and stamping the floor with your feet in roaring laughter to the wit of Sirkeet and the put-on innocence of Munnabhai that you are totally into the movie by the time the first act is done. It is adequately known that they work for Lakhbir Singh aka Lucky (Bomman Irani) and help the builder build an infrastructure empire while Munnabhai is head-over-heels in love with a Radio Jockey called "Jhanavi".

Then, Munnabhai poses as Professor Murali Prasad Sharma and cracks a quiz on Mahatma Gandhi that has "Meet Jhanavi in her studio" as a prize. The cracking of the quiz is as hillarious an act as are the "sambhodit" & "vinambra" ones. Munnabhai is subsequently invited home by Jhanavi to preach the old men in her house on "Gandhiji". Now, Munnabhai is in yet another predicament. A kind of predicament that is very familiar to the audience by now. And just when you are expectingthe old wine of "Munnabhai. M.B.B.S" to be served from the new bottle, the movie takes you by surprise and throws you into a roller-coaster ride of emotions, mostly funny though. And the tearful moments brought a tear to my eye. And when the movie ended I found the audience doing a move in sync of wiping tears that have settled at the corner of their eyes waiting to slide down their cheeks. I wanted to clap after the movie was over, but I didn't. Next time, I will. Yes, the movie is worth watching twice!

The hard-hitting messages in the movie is the hero. The humour is the heroine. And the way that they have hit a unique chemistry or chemical locha [lol!] is where the credit goes to the director. Everyone else is just a character unlike typical hindi cinema where stars take over. I still remember Jeh dot Asthana from "Munnabhai. M.B.B.S". Now, I will remember the love-to-be-photographed model Lucky Singh! The character makes you laugh here, not the stars, and that's why the emotions are so genuine.

Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have written a story that's 'brave' in plain words! To weave humour and emotion into it means you have so much of confidence on your dialogue writers [Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi] that they will carry it with aplomb. And man, have they succeeded?! I still laugh when I recollect a few scenes like "Please send a get well soon card to Lucky Singh, woh bahut bhimaar hai". And the scene just before interval when Munnabhai says "Apun sorry hai re", I cried then and I can feel the goosebumps while typing this!

Rajkumar Hirani is a director I am now going to nominate as the most worthy successor to hrishi da. Well, he is just been nominated. Not yet there. Two movies of his are classics and worthy of buying original DVDs and preserving for a lifetime. If he can come up with another one at this level, then he might be well up there. Great show Sir! Your style of movie-making is brilliant and the messages you sent across in both of them are not miss-able. We get the point. And very well too! Thanks!

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, thanks to you we now have another school of films coming up. The school of sensible and wholesome entertainment. Please keep at it with these genre of movies and I am sure we will not remember you as a great showman but as a superb producer. I also hope you regain your touch of movie-making and give us more movies like "Parinda".

Shantanu Moitra's music is another highlight of the movie. After "Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi", "Parineeta" and "Yahaan", this is his fourth movie. And he does a classy job yet again. As classy as the movie itself. My pick is the "pal pal" song. Amazing! And this movie creates another niche in music also. The songs are not typical "pallavi-charanam" kind of arrangement. They have conversations embedded in them and that takes the flavour of the movie forward. Shantanu Moitra's job was more difficult in that aspect and he comes on tops in that too.

The chemistry between Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Dutt is what makes the movie click. It's astonishing how they continue to find that wavelength and make us laugh and cry at will. Here like a good sequel, the great bonding between Munna and Sirkeet is established. The total acceptance of Munna by Sirkeet is a potrait painted very well. And when they tell you what's right and what's not, you are found nodding your head in total agreement!

Jhanavi played by the effervescent Vidya Balan endears you to her. You begin to love the way she says, "Good Moooooooorning Mumbai" as much as Munna loves it. You are in love with her when Munna is and you are watiing to see when she falls out of it just because Munna lied to her on being a professor. She is lovable and cute. Sweet and fresh. Vidya Balan continues from "Parineeta". My nomination for the successor to Madhuri Dixit's throne.

Bomman Irani is at his customary best playing the idiosyncratic sardar. Though he plays the bad guy; the comic touch provided to the character through his mannerisms and obsessions are such a great addition to the character that your heart goes out to him at the end. The sound of signing a deal, the poses to take photographs, the conversations with munna and sirkeet are all something that only Bomman Irani can carry off. My nomination for the successor to the long vacant Great Utpal Dutt's throne.

Jimmy Shergill, Saurabh Shukla, Khulbhushan Kharbanda and Diya Mirza play small roles with significant impact on the movie. Everyone is noticed. Everyone has an impact.

Overall, a movie that's in the league of eternal, superlative comedy. I would also go ahead and stick my neck out saying it is in the league of "Golmaal" and "Chupke chupke". Go and watch it on the big screen. If you miss it, I can promise you that you cannot spend those two and a half hours in a better way. And the message that you get from the movie, you will carry it for a lifetime. A promise. "Bole toh mamu mat ban, jaake dekh ke aa aur bata tere dimaag main kya chemical locha hua bhidu!"

My Rating: *****

Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!

Links:
Official website
Official Blog
IMDB for Lage Raho Munnabhai(2006)

Relationship, communication and mind-states

2006-09-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Have been reading a lot around the blogsphere regarding relationships and how we should handle them as well as ourselves in these relationships.

People have various ways of looking at relationships. Some people like categorizing relationships on basis of blood and otherwise meaning: family and friends. Some say relationships are strong or weak; close or far; "childhood friends" or "hi-bye friends"; so on and so forth. Categorizing makes for easy handling of this vast in-depth subject. And in most circumstances, the best way of handling it is through categorizing them relevantly.

A relationship is an equation between two people. The equation gets formed when the two start communicating. It can be through any mode of communication. Even just meeting of eyes is sometimes the beginning of a relationship. But then, no communication no relationship. Sometimes communication might happen, yet there might be no relationship. I don't think such a situation is possible at all. Once I have communicated, I might not be thinking about it, but there is a relationship that has been initiated. I might not be aware of it.

As a person we are playing different roles. No, not the kinds shown by Aamir Khan in the toyota ad! With my wife, I am playing the husband's role. With my younger brother, I am playing the elder brother's role. And many others. Not that I am playing them consciously, it's just that it happens. But there are states of mind that I get into while communicating in each role. These mind-states maybe different for each role. But they might not be unique.

Now, when I am in these mind-states the other person is also in these mind states only. I know I am talking on a very vague level, but let me say that there are 4 mind states (It can be 100 also). M1 to M4. Both the persons A & B are communicating from one of these mind-states. Say A is from M1 and B is in M3. If A & B know the mind-states that each other are communicating from, then fine. Otherwise, is where the problem arises from.

And to understand which Mind-state the other person is operating from, constant communication is necessary. Since every person is changing his mind-states constantly, it is necessary to understand the pattern of change also. Once we understand all these then the relationship will be a smooth one. For this, communication is a core necessity. Remember, no communication no relationship!

And yeah the way to solve the problems in relationships is to identify the mind-states properly and responding appropriately. That should put an end to all problems!

Wow Adi is so brilliant! Some stupid theory I have, I keep raving and ranting about it. I know this is very similar to the parent, child, adult egos of the 'transactional analysis' theory, probably this is my way of understanding that theory. I just wrote it and realised that it is very similar to the original TA theory. It's the same "I'm okay, You' re okay" theory.

Well, though I will be laughed at for trying to copy some well-known theory, let me state that I typed it as it came to my mind. And even though I found that it can be accused of plagiarism, I am going ahead with posting it. That's because if even one person who reads this article, develops an interest in the TA theory then I would have emerged victorious.

40 minutes of pure divine music...

2006-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: You are not about to read a review. You are about to read an article praising the music of "Sillunu Oru Kadhal" and praising its creator Mr. A R Rahman. If you want an objective review, this aint the place for it. Thanks. You may continue reading now.

"Kummi Adi"
"Ammi mithichaachi..." begins the song with a deep, husky and rustic voice. This generally announces the waking up of the great Aditya to the residents of his colony [pun unintended]. As I go about brushing my teeth to the wonderful orchestra of these sounds. The instruments aren't exactly giving a village-kind-of-feel, but they make for wonderful listening.

"Munbe Va"
A beautiful prelude has been composed to a divine song. Shreya Ghosal's voice is something that you would want to record and play into your ears every minute of your existence. Pristine and clear. Innocent and sensuous. Melodious to the last note. Naresh Iyer anchors the song down to earth. Otherwise I am just flying around with my Mach3!

"Mazaa Mazaa"
Sensuous, tantalising, exciting and leaves you with those feelings. Shreya Ghosal yet again! I will say nothing else. She reigns supreme. SPB Charan is growing up to sound like his father. Looks like we have another wonderful singer with the blessing of A R Rahman. I am generally inside the bathroom when this one is playing.

"Machakari"
"Minnal padi, thendral padi.." [Lightning half, soft and sweet breeze half in tamil!] in Vasundhara Das' voice starts the song but drags it into such a beautiful tune and then Shankar Mahadevan catches on with "La la la, la la la..." and the song literally bursts out! A chartbuster. The energy in the song [is definitely more than the combined mass of singers and square of the speed of light!] will make you want to sing around with an imaginary mic bending your back backwards! Ahem.. you know where I am now, don't you?!

"New York nagaram"
The humming that begins the song intertwined with the guitar is out-of-this-world! As soon as that plays, I am in "pause" mode. Only my ears and imagination are working. Having seen "KANK" recently, I know how NY nagaram looks. The soulful voice of the master just engulfs me into the song. I am lost in NY. The pick of the album.

"Maricham"
Carolissa, Mohammed Aslam and Krishna (?) take us through a journey of high pitches with various twists and turns. This song somewhat gives me the time to get ready and have a bite. Maybe I will catch on to this one over some more time. Like "Varugirai" from "Anbe Aaruyire".

"Jillendru Oru Kadhal"
The title song of the movie with the earlier title - JoK [They changed it to "sillunu oru kadhal" for tax exemption from TN govt!]. Rock and Roll and Jazz all make me wear my shoes and polish them till the leather comes off! I am also singing along with the Tanvi, so I rarely hear her voice. I try hard not to notice my wife's threatening looks since we would get late to office. But I can't break away from this brilliant song.

Take a bow A R Rahman. You brighten my every morning. So what if I am late to office on some days?! That's fine with me!

Click here to listen and download the songs for a paltry $0.99 (if you are in US) or Rs. 12 (India) per song.

This is the official website of the movie slated to release sometime this month!

I have written this review almost a month after it has released because of one reason. A R Rahman's music grows on you. We need to give it time to get into our comfort zone. And once it's there it becomes a part of our lives. Atleast I am in affected by this syndrome, and am happy to be afflicted with this disease! Hail Rahmania!

Zindagi kaisi hai paheli..

2006-08-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hrishikesh Mukherjee died on 27th August 2006. A void in the film industry that cannot be filled has been created. If I call him one of the all-time best directors, I will not be wrong. Though the movies he made during 'my' time were largely innane and thoroughly out-of-sync with sensibilities of today, his earlier movies are some of the best that Indian cinema has ever seen.

Hrishi da, as he was popularly known, started his career as an assistant to the great Bimal Roy in "Do Bigha Zameen" in 1953. His first movie as director was "Musafir" in 1957 which was a multi-starrer of sorts for its time including Dilip Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Nirupa Roy and Nasir Hussain. Hrishi da was also a Story writer and an editor at various points in his career.

Hrishi da's friendship with Raj Kapoor is stuff that legends are made up of now. Interestingly enough, Hrishi da himself turned into a legend by claiming that "Anand" - arguably, the best Hindi movie - was a depiction of the friendship between Raj Kapoor and him. To strengthen the myth further, 'babumoshai' was the name with which Raj kapoor used to call him. In my opinion, "Anand" is the best hindi movie I have ever seen. (The title of a famous song from this movie has been used as the title of this tribute)

Those who were in their schooldays and college days during the 1960's and 1970's remember Hrishi da with great reverence. In those days, Rajesh Khanna was the star. To make him wear short and bland-coloured kurtas and play a terminally ill young man is against every conceivable popular formula. But Hrishi da was known to be a director who went by the strength of his story and screenplay.

"Anari", "Anupama", "Satyakam", & "Abhimaan" were few of his early classics that established his worth as a director of rare value. These movies (Abhiman for sure!) have attained cult status after their repeated telecasts on television.

Hrishi da went on to establish that he was the only director who could make and handle movies of any genre. He is considered to be the king of "clean comedies" and that is because of the movies like: "Bawarchi" (this movie was the inspiration behind the David Dhawan-Govinda "Hero No. 1"), "Chupke chupke" (unfortunately, this movie cannot be remade by anyone!), "Golmaal" (they have only used the name in the recent days, the class is incomparable) and "Khubsoorat" (Rekha's inimitable performance) to name a few.

Hrishi da would handle the most complex relationships with ease and elan. He didn't require elaborate setting and millions of dollars to make a movie look good and a hit. He relied on basics to make a movie succeed. Basics like good story and better screenplay with the best direction! Music always conveyed the emotions of the character in his movies.

Hrishi da was undoubtedly the master of the medium. He has worked with every star of every age over the past 50 plus years. From Dilip Kumar to Rajesh Khanna to Amitabh Bachchan to Dharmendra to Anil Kapoor. Everyone will vouch for his mastery over the medium. Hrishi da will be missed sorely by movie fans across the globe. Whoever has watched even a single movie of his will feel a tinge of sadness atleast on knowing of his passing away.

Hrishi da will continue to live in our hearts forever through the classics that he has left behind for us. Thanks Hrishi da.

Links:
Filmography

Cricket needs a 'Hair Cut'

2006-08-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

Hair is Crazy
I guess this is ample proof that Darrell Hair is crazy! Offering to quit for USD 500,000. Wonder what the Aus PM John Howard, Steve Waugh and Shane Warne will have to say now. They are nowhere to be heard now!

Woolmer is not entirely straight
Woolmer is supposed to have taught his players how to tamper with the ball. Though Woolmer denies it, as he should. The South African team is accused of having tampered with the ball during the 1997 India's tour of SA. The then match refree Jarman has brought up this issue now saying he changed the ball and didn't make a big issue out of it. And there is a striking similarity with whatever has happened with Pakistan out here. Also, Pakistan doesn't exactly boast of a ethical cricketing history!

What's up with Malcolm Speed?
If I write an email to you, will you go to the press about it? I mean, what's Mr. Speed upto? He is turning Hair's moment of weakness into Hair's personality trait. Now the problem is that Hair isn't known to have great personality traits. So, we have flaws all around. Mr. Speed has been unethical in exposing personal e-mails to the world.

This is getting messier by the day!

|| ಗೌರಿ ಗಣೇಶ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು ||

2006-08-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

I am going home for the weekend. To have those wonderful dishes that my mother would have made. Man, I relish those things so much. My mother is the world's greatest cook! :)

On the menu:

ಕಡುಬುಗಳು
ಹೋಳಿಗೆಗಳು - ಅದರ ಜೊತೆ ತುಪ್ಪ ಮತ್ತು ಹಾಲು!
ಹುರ್ಣದ ಕಟ್ಟು ಸಾರು
ಪುಳಿಯೊಗ್ರೆ
ಆಂಬೊಡೆಗಳು
etc.!! ;)

ಸರಿ ಸರಿ ಹಸಿವು ಶುರು ಆಯಿತು ನನಿಗೆ! ನಾನು ಹೊರಟೆ!

ಪ್ರತಿ ಒಬ್ಬರಿಗು ಗೌರಿ ಗಣೇಶ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಹಾರ್ಧಿಕ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು!

Wish each and everyone a very happy Gowri and Ganesha Festival! May the festival bring in lots of happiness into your lives!

Viky on Mysore

2006-08-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

This was a comment in an article on Mysore by Viky. Everytime I read it, my eyes turn moist. Any true Mysorean will see what I mean.

Thanks Viky and Anu for allowing me to post this here!

Mysore cannot be experienced in holidays or weekends. Like a creeper
growing and encircling the staff, you have to live, and grow with Mysore to
experience it. You have to be with the ajjis who have seen you from the time you
were soooo small, where the maid who works in your house is your family maid,
your ajji had "recruited" her mother.

When you go on an evening walk, and the poojari of the Ram mandir, stops
and chats with you, and moves on saying there is a pooja at 5 next morning,
that's Mysore for you. When you walk a little ahead and the librarian says he
has the latest copy of "Kasturi" or "Mayura", that's Mysore for you. When the
milkman sees you on a walk, and delivers an extra half litre without being
asked, that's Mysore for you.

Mysore is when you board a bus at the bus-stand and conductor-uncle gives
you a ticket without asking. Mysore is when you collect little red 'gulganji'
seeds on your way back home from KukkarahaLLi lake. Mysore is when you come by the Tippu express, and you find someone going in your direction to drop you off.

Mysore is when elephants are marched in from the forests for Dussehra.
Mysore is when you wait for your copy of "Star of Mysore". Mysore is when the
English movies are only at Rajkamal. Or Sterling. Mysore is when you look for
your KEB uncle to book tickets at Woodlands. Mysore is when there are student
body elections in Sarada-Vilas. Mysore is the eternal SJCE-NIE feud. Mysore is
when Jayciana is. Mysore is when you got your project report bound at
Venkateshwara Binders in Saraswatipuram.

Mysore is having grape juice at RTO circle. Mysore is buying vegetables at
Agrahara. Mysore is buying plantain leaves in NanjumaLige, savoring the aroma of
the agarbatti factory behind. Mysore is eating ice-creams at Penguin. Mysore is
eating dosa at Mylari Hotel. Mysore is having biriyani early in the morning,
near Philo's church. Mysore is drinking sugarcane juice near kukkarahaLLI lake.
Mysore is munching corn-on-the-cob in the palace foreground.

Mysore is when I grew up in Mysore. My Mysore.Mysore before GRS, before the
underbridge in front of Saraswatipuram Fire Brigade, before Infosys, before
Ring-Road. Those who grew up in that Mysore, will relate to me more than those
who came to Mysore, for a three-month stint in Infy. Than those, who think
Mysore is a good place to invest. Than those, who think chilling out in Mysore
is just CCD or Pizza Corner. Oh, How they misunderstand my pretty home !!!

Attention please, Gentlemen at play!

2006-08-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

What happened?
In the 56th over of the ball's life, the ball was replaced and the Pakistan team were penalised 5 runs (those runs were added to England's score) for suspected ball tampering. Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Pakistan team's captain, led the team into the pavilion at tea and didn't return to the ground for twenty minutes post-tea. The tea and snacks were too good I guess! The umpires (Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove) walked upto the Pakistani pavilion and asked Inzy he was going to continue playing or not. Inzy answered the question with a question. "Why did you replace the ball?". Hair is supposed to have said, "We are not here to answer the question". The umpires walked back to the field and took the bails off as they do when a test match ends and awarded the test match to England as it was deemed that Pakistan had forfeited the match.

Where is the problem?
Legally, the mistake is entirely Pakistan's. They didn't get back to the field within the twenty minutes stipulated in the rule book. The umpires have followed the rule book to the tee. And they cannot be wronged by any authority in cricket going by the book.

Now what?
Pakistan will not play in any game officiated by Darrell Hair. Inzamam might be banned for eight matches under the charges of bringing the game to disrepute. PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) is asking the BCCI (Board for Control of Cricket in India) to support it's claim when the ICC (International Cricket Council) asks for its opinion. BCCI has chosen to side with the ICC in this regard.

My take
Darrell Hair has been in the news for all wrong reasons. He takes himself too seriously. The rule book is written that way because it has to be complete in every sense. That doesn't mean you go about implementing everything that it has to say. The game has to be played in a certain spirit and if it is being played so then carry on with it. Don't bloody interrupt it! Spoilsport!

Inzy, boss, you could have taken it up after the game was won. Come on yar. Jeet rahe the aap. You were winning. By losing the series 2-1 you would have won lot of respect that have lost now. The winning of this test would have resulted in a lot of good things. Yeh aapne theek nahi kiya. You didn't do the right thing.

Sudhu's take
I pity those spectators who spent money on the tickets to watch a cricket match. They were given a raw deal by being shown a diplomatic and political match. Even after 2 hours of waiting, there was an announcement saying that it was the end of play. No mention of end of Day's play or end of the match. There are 4 ICC officials for every match - 2 umpires on field, a 3rd umpire and a Match Referee. But none of them were interested in sorting out this issue. What a pity.

Sudhakar's take
It's all about Cricket .. Team A starts batting first and when the Team A is all-out, Team B comes to bat and they wait for Team A players to take the field but none of Team A turns up just becoz their batting was over ..This is precisely the same reason ,why the toss-winning captain prefer batting first . This always happens in my village.

Darrell Hair's take
"People who know me and the sort of person I am know I would not take action unless I really thought it was necessary," Hair said. "I stand by what I have done, but if anything comes out at the inquiry that proves me incorrect I would accept that too. The process would have been followed."

Inzamam's take
Writing in his column for Jang, a Pakistan-based daily, he also stated that this was the biggest disappointment in his career. "If anything we want the ICC to declare the Oval test result as null and void," he wrote. "The Pakistan Board is already trying to convince the ICC to do this. I am hugely disappointed and hurt by the slur cast on our team by Hair. I never thought my last test in England would end this way."

Bob Woolmer's take
"The ball-tampering charge is the sticking-point," Woolmer told ITV News. "There's probably room for reason here. We have no truck at all with the England cricket board and players, but we have been accused of cheating [by the umpires], and that is the worst thing you can do to this Pakistan cricket team.

"If Inzamam is penalised and penalised heavily, which he could well be, then I cannot guarantee that my side will definitely play. I would think the one-day series may well be in serious jeopardy. It would be difficult for the players to play on if we are labelled cheats."

Steve Waugh's take
Hair could be "stubborn and a bit hard-nosed" no team could expect to get away with not turning up on the ground, as Pakistan did in protest over a ball-tampering penalty by Hair in the fourth Test at The Oval.

"I definitely agree with that (Pakistan forfeiting) - if they don't go back on the field the Test is over," Waugh said.

"That's quite simple. (India's) Sunil Gavaskar tried that one on the umpires in Australia (in 1981). No-one is bigger than the game.

"The laws are there for a reason."

Waugh said it would be interesting to see whether a camera has unearthed proof of the ball tampering but said Hair would not have made such a serious charge without some.

"He is not going to say it for no reason. He would know the storm it would create. He has been through the Murali incident so he knows the ramifications of doing it. He would not have done it lightly."

Waugh said Hair "tended to do things his way" as an umpire but "he stands by what he believes so you can't ask for much more from an umpire."

Shane Warne's take
I don’t think Darrell Hair is a racist. I think that he tries to do the best job that he can, like any other umpire. He goes by the letter of the law and does what he thinks umpires ought to do. It is unfortunate that he has been involved in a couple of controversies in his time, but labelling him racist is unfair.

If the umpires have a problem, there are clear channels to go through and it looks as though they did it by the book. It seems amazing that the problems could not have been resolved by talking. To end a game with a team refusing to take the field seems bizarre — especially, I’d guess, to spectators.

Imran Khan's take
His (Darrell Hair's) conduct always smacks of arrogance, and his tendency to douse fire with gasoline makes him harmful to the game. An umpire is the custodian of the game, but when he only guards the game's rules and not its spirit, cricket is the greatest sufferer.

Peter Roebuck's take
He could have tried to find some evidence to support his suspicions. Not a bit of it. Instead, he applied the letter of the law, thereby risking the ruination of a fine match. Just what the world needs right now. Another abrasive Australian.

Nor can Inzamam escape censure. He was responsible for the conduct of his side. It is written in the laws of the game. Captains must rise above the heat of the moment, must take into account the crowd, the match and the requirements of hospitality and sportsmanship. The show must go on. Pakistan had every right to take offence, had every right to make a protest.

Happy 368th Madras Day | My first experience with Chennai

2006-08-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

"T. Nagar, Kotturpuram, Ashok Nagar, KK Nagar", shouted the driver's assistant indicating to the passengers of the Madurai-Chennai TN State transport bus about the nearby areas.

I was catching up on a rare nap that had descended upon me after various positions of legs and back and hands were tried. The decibel level of the assistant was quite high and that woke me up with a startle. One of my friends, Karthikeyan, at the university hostel in Madurai, a native of chennai, had told me that T. Nagar is a place where there were plenty of lodges and economy hotels. I was looking at economy hotels because I had a mere Rs. 400/- with me. So, on hearing "T.Nagar" I jumped from my seat, picked up my proud Wildcraft bag perched on the luggage area in the attic of the bus sandwiched between a sack of greens and a Mylapore Coffee Powder cloth bag.

The bus just started moving when I felt the roads of Chennai with my bata leather chappal covered feet. It was supposed to be winter and only those born and brought up in Chennai could feel the cold. For a native Mysorean who took bath in hot water even if it were heat of 36 degree celsius, Chennai was the ultimate challenge. The blue jeans which was last washed during the rains at Madurai was beginning to feel the adverse conditions. It started sticking to my legs and made it an ordeal to walk through. Thankfully my University T-shirt was of the woven cotton material that banians are made of.

Why did I come to Chennai? Why should I have listened to her?

With the college bag hung on the right-side of my shoulder making a wierd clinking metallic sound of coins shuffling around, I walked through the road which was a curious mix of one-way traffic and both-ways traffic after a distance and one-way again after a few metres. Stranger than the road was the looks I got from receptionists at hotels along the road when I asked them for accommodation for a night for below Rs. 400/-. None of the hotels had a single room facility, only double rooms and they were all Rs. 750/- at the minimum. I didn't want an AC, though I was having second thoughts about that, but there was very little that I could do about it considering my monetary position.

I am going to ask her to reimburse this for me. What does she think of me?

After almost a walk of about one kilometre and almost 5 enquiries, I hit upon what looked like a big old mansion. It was converted into something called "Nathans Lodge". Though the building looked like it would collapse if there was an earthquake in Indonesia, it was almost fully occupied. The person at the reception looked at me from top to bottom and gauged the situation. "Do you have any rooms available?"
"Yes. Single or double?"

"Single"
"Yes. AC or Non-AC?"

"What are your tariff rates?"
"AC single room costs Rs. 350/-. Non-AC costs Rs. 250/-"
Wow! Rs. 250/- is within my budget and that also means I save some money for my dinner and breakfast!

"The Non-AC single room is okay with me"
"Good. Pay the advance of Rs. 500/- now"

"What for Rs. 500/-?"
"Sir (with great difficulty he uttered that word) advance is generally paid for the double the number of days one stays here"

"But I don't have so much money with me. I have only Rs. 400/-"
""I need Rs. 500/-"

Just then I remembered the Rs. 137/- I had collected from that small orange box in the hostel into which I used to put all the change. And since I didn't smoke, the change generally grew over time and required something special to be done to clear it off. I was carrying it along with me as emergency fund and this sure was an emergency! The sound of the bag reminded me of it.

"Is it okay if I pay the rest in coins?"
"Yeah", said the receptionist with a look clearly showing that he thought I was a modern beggar or something!

"Then I will need to check into my room and then pay you. Because it's all in a plastic cover. I ll ve to count it and pay you. For now, please accept these Rs. 400/- that I have"
"Ok. No problem. But I ll give you the receipt only after you pay me the remaining Rs. 100/-"

Dei thambi!", the receptionist called out to the helper to guide me to my room.
A puny guy in an all-white uniform and a Nehru cap came up to us and gave me a strange look. He collected the room keys from the receptionist and started walking expecting me to follow his tracks. I did so.

Even though he turned the key open of the Link-brand lock, the door wouldn't open. The latch was stuck. After some little muscular tiff with it, the puny guy opened the door with a victorious smile. Halfway through reciprocating his hardfought victory, my smile faded as I surveyed the room.

The walls though painted looked like they were washed with water too. The wet stains on the wall meant that the water pipes in the building were leaking since there were never any signs of rain in this part of the country. There was a bed with what-was-once-white bedspread, a table without a chair but with a bottle of water on it, a telephone and a dust bin. The washroom was of Indian style with a 3'x3' space for bathing with a tap running cold water (Puny told me hot water taps were there only in the AC rooms. Quite sensible I thought. In this weather nobody else would even think of hot water. No! Not even a Mysorean!) accompanied by a bucket, mug and a small medimix soap.

The puny guy had heard the entire conversation with the receptionist, so he didn't linger around for long in the room. By the time I had finished my survey he had dissappeared. After I closed the door behind him, I changed into my usual pyjamas and settled down on the bed to count the coins in the plastic cover. There were 15 Rs. 5/- coins, 21 Rs. 2/- coins, 13 Re. 1/- coins and 14 50ps coins. I somehow managed to make up Rs. 100/- through coins and gave it to the receptionist. He accepted it without any expression on his face and gave me the receipt. He had not even kept it ready by then. Probably he was unsure if I was going to cough up 100 bucks. Thankfully, there was no one around when I was giving that money.

I made a phone call at 11.30PM and spoke for approximately 45 minutes
in kannada. We were about to do something that the whole world would later see with a different eye.

I was in Chennai unknown to everyone else. I wasn't supposed to divulge where I was to anyone. If only I knew! I was supposed to be at Egmore the next day morning that was all I knew. After finishing the letter, I slept. The journey had sapped me enough.

Got up early at 6.00AM and bathed and got ready by 7.00AM. Packed my bags, wore the same jeans and t-shirt combination and trudged along to the reception. There was a different person at the reception counter. Seeing the receipt, he returned Rs. 250 in notes. I was very happy that from a beggar I had become a somewhat respectable idiot. And the bag had stopped making those metallic sounds!

I got into the bus from the T.Nagar bus stand and was there at the Marriage Registration Office at 9.15AM. I was hungry but it all dissappeared on seeing her. She was there dressed resplendently in a white silk saree with a beautiful blue border. Her sister was standing next to her with the garlands.

Are we really going to do this? Is this all real or is it a dream? What will her parents say who have known me from childhood? My parents would understand but what about them? We have been schoolmates and neighbours and our parents know each others' families very well. What will happen after this? Am I doing the right thing? Will the marriage work?

We went into the registration office. The officer was used to such clandestine stuff.

He asked, "Do your parents know?"
She said, "What do you think?", looking straight into his eyes.
The officer didn't speak to her again.

I had always admired her for her straightforwardness and practical thinking
ability. She was very practical and knew what is to be done in situations. But
it still surprised me that she would have said yes to something like this
that would hurt her parents the most. Especially her father who had a
heart attack once already.

The officer asked me to sign on the dotted line meant for me. I did.

And they went away married. I hoped and prayed that they lived happily in the future. I loved her still. Is it wrong? Is it right? I didn't know. I don't know.

Bangalore | Metblogs.com

2006-08-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

There is a service hosted by a group of professionals called metblogs. It is a service where bloggers belonging to a certain city can get together and begin blogging about anything related to their city.

I checked out if Mysore was on their rolls. Then I realised Mysore was Mysore because it was not on the radar of such things. Next I checked on Hyderabad. Even that was not on. They weren't accepting applications for blogging on Chennai's metblogs as there were already enough active bloggers.

Bangalore was my next stop. They were accepting applications to join the team of bloggers already doing their job. And my application was accepted. And here I am with my first post on NRN retiring. Check it out!

Beta service | Blogger.com

2006-08-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

Just stumbled upon a new service by Blogger.com in beta. Existing blog owners can convert to the beta service provided they satisfy certain conditions. You are anyway free to create a new blog under that beta service. So, go ahead, splash around and have fun!

It is an amazing confluence of Google Pages and Blogger.com. Includes:

Tags! Can help us categorize at last!
No publishing required! Changes are reflected automatically on your homepage
Drag and drop to create a template of your choice
Comprehensive dashboard service
And many more...

Google's vision is clear. They want your internet experience to be totally on "Google" services. Hence this amazing merging of their brilliant individual services.

Oh and yeah, my second sentence doesn't mean that those conditions will last forever. Google is working on them and they will include all of us on the new service by default in a phased manner.

When Google says "New and Improved", they bloody well mean it!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: (Dated: 21st Aug, 2006) Thanks to Hardu who migrated her blog to the new service recommended by me here by just taking my word for it. It seems she was told that she cannot get back to her old settings anymore. So, please make the move keeping this in mind. All the best Hardu!

Family, ties and I | An introspection

2006-08-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder what a family is all about. The definition keeps changing whenever we look at it.

As a kid, family meant appa, amma and ani - my kid brother. I used to find their restrictions a bit imposing and probably intrusive at times, but then I had no-one else who would feed me! Ani - my kid brother and I used to fight a lot when we were young. I was a deadly, insensitive, insensible, immature and jealous elder brother. I didn't know why families existed. I thought God had given everyone these individual boxes with 4 people each (because my family had 4 members) into which they went after school and playing cricket. And if by some stroke of luck, they had an element called 'Amma' thrown in then every kid goes home and studies!

As I grew up, family meant to be an unit together with which we face the world. Whenever I slap my friend at school, bite a fleshy arm of a well-to-do benchmate or break the wind-shield of an ambassador car, I have someone to shield me from directly getting spanked. Or in some cases, bear the financial implications. A strange definition. But I never thought beyond this. I guess I was very much living life as it came by the moment.

Then when it was the emotional growth point, I turned into this person who rarely exposed his inner self to anyone else. That was because there was not much off inner depth to this person. I always spoke my mind. Was short tempered. So my mind used to get lot of publicity. And as a result drew a lot of flak. And not necessarily everything was sugar-quoted. So, there was a dual personality brewing one who was hurt and another who was inflicting hurt. My family accepted me the way I was. My parents dealt with me the way you need to be dealt with. My brother has his own world, but we still used to fight. I forgot mention that I was extremely immature. Family then meant a place where I get to inflict hurt, because I don't get them back there. Whereas whenever I did it with the world it came back hundred times bigger.

At such a stage, friends came into my life. Though my equation with them was restricted to sharing the same physical space and interests and all that, unknowingly I had developed a very deep bond with them. Realisation of their value came in when I was leaving school. From then on, I realised that I needed to value my friends when I was with them. Some level of maturity was reached I guess.

Then I left home to pursue my studies. Met friends who are now an extension of my family. And when I was away from home, I learnt a lot of things about Family and I. How selfishly I have lived my life so far. But I was ignorant then. The problem was I was also so arrogant that I never listened to anyone trying to drill some sense into that mind of mine! My arrogance, temper, ignorance and many other undesirable traits came into my circle of awareness. I stopped treating my family like a financial support institution but never broke the ice to take it any further.

Slowly, as I continued to pursue higher studies supported by my family, I began to realise the significant role that they played in helping me be as I am. For whatever I am today if I give the credit to them I dont know if they will take it. But who else can be eligible even for a nomination is anybody's guess!

I don't have the habit of emotionally opening up to my family though many people feel that "What else is a family for?". I would like to say that to each person - 'family' has a different meaning. Some people find that if they go back home and speak a lot and spend a lot of time laughing and confiding with their amma or appa they have a very close-knit family. I don't find reason to believe that. Confiding with my appa can never happen. My amma and I cannot talk for more than 3 minutes without entering into a fight (For eg. "What did you've for dinner yesterday?"; "I had Pav Bhaji outside"; "Why do you eat outside so much? Your health doesn't accept it and you know it"; "I felt like having so I had"; "Do whatever you want!") And I don't find the need to be close to them.

But yeah, I don't know about their side of the story. The way that I have been brought up and I have seen my parents, we are not the typical family. That's the way we have been. That's the way my father and his parents (my grandparents) have lived. I don't know if this is the best way to live life or what. I don't think there are any "Best Practices" for this. This is the way we are.

On a slight tangent, why do we see family fights? Probably reason #1 is: Property or Money. However you want to call it. What happens to my definition of a family that's fighting? Where do all this 'closeness' factors disappear? What happens to children who are witness to such fights? These fights could be between children only. Seldom do we witness parents fighting between themselves. As brothers and sisters, when something else as poisonous as property, money, etc. takes prominence to the relationship the relationship dies a slow death. And watching it die, can be the most heart-wrenching experience for everyone involved.

I might have fought with my brother over cricket scores while playing in our compound, over dishes that my mom needs to cook, over chocolates that were gifted to him by our uncle, over icecreams, over studies, carrom, chess, etc. whatever. But I vow today that I will not let any of the relationships in my family die because of fights over money. I don't know why and what made me take this vow, but then I guess it's a good one to make. And there's never a bad time to make a good vow.

Sillunu Oru Kadhal | Review

2006-08-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

Another one from Blogical Conclusion. Thought of writing one myself. But when your mind has been expressed so beautifully by someone else, you don't need to waste energy writing the whole thing out. So here it is.

SILLUNU ORU KADHAL
The New Sunday Express - August 13, 2006

IF you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Cole Porter wrote for Tamil movies, here it is – the title track from Sillunu Oru Kadhal, sung by Tanvi. Paravaigal seyyudhe, pattampoochi seyyudhe... kadhal, she goes, and you only have to translate this to get the mood of Birds do it, bees do it, the opening lines of Porter’s Let’s do it (let’s fall in love), which was immortalised by Ella Fitzgerald in her songbook dedicated to the composer. AR Rahman’s arrangements, though, don’t evoke the dreamy languor of that oldie. Instead, he sets these words to spunky, sprightly, bite-sized bebop riffs; the result comes across as a brassier version of his own Vennila (Iruvar) routed through Dizzy Gillespie’s Oh-Sho-Be-Do-Be. How this number will play in Athipatti I do not know, but it’s fantastic to have Rahman back at his playful best – especially in Tamil cinema, especially when it appeared that he was stashing away the good stuff for the biggies of Bollywood.

The experimentation, the refusal to stick to a winning (or safe) formula is evident even in the not-so-great numbers. The steamy Maja Maja – sung by the dependably-wonderful Shreya Ghoshal along with SPB Charan (who sounds remarkably like his father) – kicks off with guttural clicks, and as Ghoshal croons the opening stanza, Charan oh-so-casually joins her for a line and takes leave just as offhandedly. The dance-ready Machakari (Shankar Mahadevan, Vasundhara Das) has the strangest interludes, one with ghostly vocal harmonising and another full of poppish, faux-African chanting. And Maaricham (Carolisa, Mohammad Aslam, Krishna) is Chandralekha (Thiruda Thiruda) updated to the techno-trance era, where someone – for some reason – begins chanting the name Gautam to the accompaniment of Enigma-like, new-agey music. After this, it’s almost a relief to listen to Ammi Mithichachu (Sirgazhi Sivachidambaram, Swarnalatha, Naresh Iyer, Theni Kunjaramma, Vignesh), a conventional – but catchy – folk tune that’s handed down like a baton from one singer to the next as it races to an explosive finish.

The eminently rewind-worthy Munbe Vaa (Shreya Ghoshal, Naresh Iyer) is a heady love duet whose prelude sets off bubbles of synth-sounds and strings that float through the number, playing tag with the voices. And New York Nagaram has got to be one of the most stylish, least sentimental boy-misses-girl ballads ever. Vaali’s evocative lyrics – vaan ingey, neelam angey, he writes, likening a lonelyheart to a sky that’s lost its blueness – are so casually tossed off by Rahman, they made me imagine the composer with his hands dug deep into the pockets of his jeans, ambling around a snowed-in Big Apple with a broken heart. And the sadness is contagious. Things come together with such a satisfying click – from the masterful use of the female backup singers to the soulful sax interludes – you can’t help looking back at Rahman’s recent Tamil soundtracks and feel a twinge that it’s been so long since he crafted for us such a beauty.

KANK | A balanced review

2006-08-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

A very fine review of "KANK". This is a more balanced one than my playful SMS review bashing up the movie. Thought I should put it up here. Picked this one up from Blogical Conclusions. A blog I regularly follow for reviews.

HEART DIRECTOR
The New Sunday Express - August 13, 2006
Karan Johar’s latest is too long, too weepy, but it’s nonetheless the meatiest romantic melodrama in a while.

KARAN JOHAR’S plots can typically be summed up with a one-liner question: Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with X? Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with Kajol (in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai)? Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with his estranged family (in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham)? And so, as Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna – or KANK, as it’s come to be known – began to unfold, and I saw that its one-line plot is whether Shah Rukh Khan (playing Dev) will get together with Rani Mukerji (as Maya), I thought this was going to be just another milking of the same, old formula. I expected a few surprises, sure, for Johar is nothing if not an expert at spinning fresh variations on familiar clichés – that’s why those who don’t care for clichés don’t care for Johar’s cinema – but what I didn’t expect is Bollywood’s most mature, most messy romance since the younger Sridevi set eyes on father-figure Anil Kapoor in Lamhe.

The messiness is due to the fact that Dev and Maya are both married – to fashion-magazine-editor Ria (Preity Zinta) and PR guy Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan) respectively – and the maturity is because their spouses aren’t Ranjeet and Bindu clones who drink and smoke and sleep around. It’s quite the opposite, really – Ria loves Dev, and Rishi loves Maya. But like in all marriages, problems crop up, and that’s when Dev and Maya begin a tentative friendship, only to realise they may actually be made for each other. And here’s the kicker: they’re made for each other because they’re the losers in their respective marriages. They’re the cowards, the ones with the hang-ups, the ones who’d rather wallow and seethe inside than take a step to set things right outside. Even when they start seeing each other, they do it so bloodlessly, it comes as no surprise when Maya gives Dev a kiss and immediately wipes the traces of lipstick off his cheek. They barely seem capable of acknowledging this relationship to themselves, let alone others.

When was the last time you saw a big, commercial, name-heavy Hindi movie where the hero and the heroine are portrayed as less charismatic, less fun, more whiny and weepy than the supporting characters (in this case, the people they are married to)? I can’t remember – and that’s just one of the ways KANK messes with your expectations of whom to identify with, whom to root for. Maya has a monster chip on her shoulder about being childless, and that’s probably why she treats Rishi like a child – cleaning up after him, chiding him for not being serious, and possibly being more than a little envious about the carefree way he goes through life. Dev too has the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was once a star soccer player, but after an accident, he’s reduced to being a soccer coach for a little league team, and he resents that Ria is more successful than he is. As opposed to these mopey sad-sacks, Rishi and Ria are so full of positive energy, so accepting of life as it comes, you like them far more than you do Dev and Maya. Yes, you feel sorry that the latter have their problems, but you wish they’d get over them and get on with their lives – the way grownups do.

Then again, it’s true that losers deserve love too, even if it’s not the kind of love that’s terribly exciting to watch unfold before your eyes. KANK is a very, very long movie – Johar really needs to get himself a more ruthless editor; he’s never content to let a moment pass without lingering on it after the mood is long gone, nor is he happy with dialogue when he can instead have declarations lasting long after they’ve made their point – and yet the length, after a while, began to feel somewhat right. Dev and Maya aren’t the kind who’d make tough decisions easily; it would seem that they would take a very long time to overcome their insecurities and their doubts and their wishy-washiness and take the positive step (for them) of breaking up their marriages, if they can bring themselves to do that at all. And I must tell you, for something that begins with such broad humour – some of it downright atrocious; some of it cannily reflective of how laughably pathetic Dev and Maya are – KANK so darkens in tone towards the end and becomes so gloomily unpredictable, I wasn’t quite sure if Dev and Maya would ever end up together. This is a mainstream movie, and mainstream movie convention demands that the hero and heroine ride off (or fly off or sail off or take a train) into the sunset. But mainstream movie convention also demands that people don’t walk out of marriages to loving spouses to pursue selfish affairs of the heart, and that our top stars don’t risk audience alienation. Maya is played by our current Heroine No. 1 – the adorable Babli, for crying out loud! – so you wonder if the writers will fiddle around with her image by making her leave Rishi. She may not want to sleep with him anymore, but she still loves him (and, more importantly, he’s besotted with her) – so will we be able to take her side if she decides to hurt him? After all, it isn’t that he’s wrong for her so much as he isn’t right for her.

What’s more startling is what they do with our Hero No. 1. Shah Rukh has always been the hero most in touch with his feminine side – the word for that these days, I think, is metrosexual – but he goes a step further in KANK and gives us a man who is borderline emasculated. Dev is filled with insecurity and resentment and petty jealousy (mostly towards Ria), and there’s nothing he can do about it – at least till he meets Maya. The way I saw it, he’s the classic Indian MCP who can’t handle a hard-nosed career woman like Ria; he needs a soft, sensitive, sari-clad homemaker like Maya to make him feel like a man again. Even Maya’s profession is non-threatening; she teaches little kids at a school. In contrast, Ria doesn’t have the time to attend her own kid’s soccer match; like overworked fathers usually do, she bribes the child with a PlayStation to say she’s sorry. But KANK, remarkably, doesn’t brand her a bitch. We actually sympathise with her when she observes, in one of the film’s many pointed bits of dialogue, “Main Arjun ki maa nahin ban saki kyonki mujhe uska baap banna pada.” (She couldn’t be a mother to her child because she had to become the father.) Yet, under that necessary armour of steel, Ria is a woman. When Dev and Maya finally admit to their spouses that they are in love, Rishi flies into a rage and begins to break things around the house, while Ria remains calm and collected. Rishi wants to know if Maya enjoyed sleeping with Dev, but Ria asks Dev if he’s in love with Maya; the man is more concerned with the sexual aspect of the betrayal while Ria, all woman, tries to come to grips with the emotional implications.

With all this, it’s no surprise that Preity (looking quite spectacular) and Abhishek come off far better – even in their abbreviated parts – than Shah Rukh and Rani, who really aren’t asked to do anything here that they haven’t done earlier (and better). Bachchan Jr., in particular, is the great jolt of energy the movie sorely needs every once in a while. (Bachchan Sr. is there too, in a charming little role as a naughty old man who’s the film’s conscience.) Abhishek brings the house down in a couple of song sequences that are dazzlingly put together – especially the sixties’-themed Rock N Roll Soniye, where he boogies with women costumed in billowing Marilyn Monroe skirts (you know, like in The Seven Year Itch) and figure-hugging Mumtaz saris (you know, like in Brahmchari’s Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche). Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s best number – Mitwa – is also nicely used to underline the growing friendship between Dev and Maya, but the title track is somewhat wasted. When it begins, everything around Maya and Dev turns blue, which we’ve just learnt is her favourite colour. It’s as if, having finally accepted her love for Dev, the world around her has become more to her liking – and then Johar kills the conceit by colour-coding the rest of the segments of the song in red and green and so on.

That overkill may be the undoing of Karan Johar, and I really wish he’d stop self-referencing. (K3G’s Bole choodiyan is played by a brass band for a wedding baraat, and a hospital sequence is straight out of Kal Ho Naa Ho, right down to the various visitors dropping in one by one to have farewell conversations with the patient.) But you can’t deny that he’s one of the very few young directors who’s interested in – and who knows his way around – old-fashioned, Bollywood storytelling, where the emphasis is on emotion rather than reason, where the point of a scene isn’t in drawing out truth or detailing reality but in the sensual experience of the moment: foreplay, climax, afterplay (or, if you will, buildup, detonation, cool-down). He knows that he has a dark story to tell, so he loads his first half with corny comedy, making us like his characters before we have reason to dislike them. He values the power of precisely-shaped words conveying the beating heart of an emotion with sledgehammer impact. He realises that part of the reason we’re here is to see five-star stars getting the five-star treatment, so there’s not a scene, not a shot that shows his actors as anyone remotely resembling us. Yet, the way Johar tells his story isn’t old-fashioned at all; he uses spruced-up movie trickery as well as anyone else. When Rishi calls Maya to apologise for yelling at her, she’s on the phone with her lover Dev, so Rishi leaves a voice message; Johar uses a split screen to simultaneously show both of them making their respective calls, and we simultaneously see one who’s in the process of mending this marriage, the other in the process of breaking it. Who’d have guessed that our prime purveyor of candy-coloured entertainment had it in him to process these shades of grey!

A transformed Manmohan | The Hindu quotes...

2006-08-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Hindu has a story today on the transformation of Dr. Manmohan Singh. Completely agree with the story! Click here to know my thoughts on the speech.

A transformed Manmohan
Harish Khare

Controlled aggression, a game plan and application of technique At the outset he positioned himself in the Mahatma corner, quoting Gandhi's abiding injunction to wipe every tear from every eye, and declared himself a legatee of the Jawaharlal Nehru vision

NEW DELHI: Manmohan Singh has been Member of Parliament since 1991 but he had never been applauded as an exciting parliamentarian. And perhaps never before did he display as emotionally combative a streak as he did on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha in the debate on the controversial nuclear deal.

Before dealing with the doubts and questions about the India-United
States Civilian Nuclear Agreement, the Prime Minister almost stumped the House with a kind of personal testimonial. Rather than conforming to his reputation as a shy and reticent person, and as a humdrum speaker, the Prime Minister spoke as a man who felt that his reputation and pride were being questioned.

It was a Virender Sehwag kind of performance — controlled aggression, a game plan and an application of sound technique. At the outset, he positioned himself in the Mahatma corner, quoting Gandhi's abiding injunction to wipe every tear from every eye, and declared himself a legatee of the Jawaharlal Nehru vision.

To those who questioned his professional competence to deal with so
complicated an issue as the nuclear world, he asserted, "I have some experience" of dealing with economics and technology of nuclear business. He reminded the House that as member (finance) of the Atomic Energy Commission he has had worked with the distinguished nuclear professionals like H.N. Sethna and P.K. Iyengar.

And then, a bit of working philosophy. Status quo is always comfortable, but the challenge lies in breaking out of familiar terrain, and to cope
imaginatively and confidently with "uncertainty." He talked of all the names and epithets that were hurled in his direction when he induced the post-1991 paradigm shift in the economy. He was no stranger to the name-calling game; he seemed to be telling his critics but told the House that he felt he stood vindicated by history of last 15 years.

Recalls TTK's observation
Dr. Singh recalled the insightful observation of T.T. Krishnamachari of "tigers on the prowl" in New Delhi and added, somewhat challengingly, that he had nothing to fear from the new tigers, scenting blood.

In an unusual personal touch, the Prime Minister reminded everyone that he was born in a poor family and had the blood of freedom fighters in his veins. He conceded that while he was a latecomer to the world of politics, he belonged to a party that had a proud heritage of having brought freedom to the country.

As the Congress benches repeatedly applauded him, Dr. Singh promised that he would do his best to promote and protect "the vital interests of the country." In an unusually emotional pitch, Dr. Singh told the parliamentarians that he was in the "service of India" and was committed to "the last ounce of my blood" to work for freeing millions of Indians who suffer "day in and day out."

Unexpected
This sentimental preface was totally unexpected. It galvanised the Congress benches who were till that moment somewhat sceptical of the Prime Minister's parliamentary skills to respond to the critics' daylong assault.

In a way, Dr. Singh won the day even before he came down to the specifics of the nuclear deal. At the end of his 70-minute performance, the Congress MPs were left wondering the transformation that overtook the Prime Minister

'New' Clear Deal | Dr. Manmohan Singh - The Indian PM

2006-08-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Our Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh gave his reply to the queries raised by the opposition and the Left on the nuclear deal with the US in the Rajya Sabha. It was not a reply, it was more of a speech. The speech had all the ingredients that a seasoned political speech writer would include. In fact, till I heard the speech I didn't realise the immense significance of this Nuclear Deal in the Indian Democracy. But what came out of the speech was something totally different for me - it was the emergence of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the shrewd politician.

The PM played all the cards he had in this speech. He started off by thanking all the members for raising queries so that the issues would come up for debate and get clarified too. He elaborated on the types of queries and answered them brilliantly. To read meaningful exceprts of the speech please click here. What stood out for me are the following statements:

I did not seek Prime Ministership, it came to me and I have carried out my duties faithfully and will continue to do so. Infact, if you ask me, choosing Dr. Manmohan Singh for PM was the most sensible decision made by Sonia Gandhi. And after this speech, my opinion only got strengthened.
I am the son of a Freedom Fighter who left his job to fight for the independence of this country. So, there is the blood of a freedom fighter that runs in me. I got those goosebumps on hearing those words. Even the PM choked on saying these words and paused to have a glass of water.
I made it clear to Mr. Bush that the intervention in Iraq was a mistake. This statement told me that Dr. Singh is not a weak and spineless man. He has it in him to speak on behalf of the country whatever be his political pressures.
When I introduced reforms during 1972-73, I was labeled a pawn in the hands of the US. Looking back, I wonder how India would have handled the Great Asian crisis . He was now taking the entire issue on his head. His capabilities are well known and from here on the entire house just listened. They were sold already.
I was the Finance Secretary for the Atomic Energy Commission and I know what are the costs involved in the deals that we are involved in. He understands the domain of Nuclear Energy.
There are risks involved in such deals. And I am willing to take such risks for the sake of the development of the country. He knew what he was doing.
I will serve the country to the last ounce of my blood and nobody can take that right away from me. I didn't care about the speech anymore. I was deeply impressed by this man who is leading my country.

I am sold to the Nuclear Deal!

You can watch the video of the speech here.

And if you want to know more about our PM. Click here.

Regional language blogging | www.baraha.com

2006-08-17T04:09:00.000-07:00

Found this new tool to blog in various languages. Shastri referred me to this website. I can blog in any language I want. Let me give you a sample.

My name is Aditya - English

ನನ್ನ ಹೆಸರು ಆದಿತ್ಯ - Kannada

నా పెరు ఆదిత్య - Telugu

मम नामः आदित्य - Sanskrit

मेरा नाम आदित्य है। - Hindi

என் பெயிர் ஆதித்ய - Tamil

Feeling really nice to have used such a tool. And if you have difficulty reading the above kannada sentence then you will have to go here to sort it out. About other languages, I am afraid I have no idea!

Co-existence of science and God

2006-08-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

An interesting article that discusses the co-existence of science and God in today's world.

Is God Necessary?
C.S.RAMAKRISHNAN

Sri C.S. Ramakrishnan is a long-standing and close devotee and a former editor of The Vedanta Kesari.

Voltaire, whose massive scholarship and keen intellect are beyond question, used to say that if God did not exist it will be necessary to invent him. He felt that many things in life and the world cannot be rationally and consistently explained without assuming the presence of God. No doubt, at the time of Voltaire science had not developed as it has subsequently. Today's science is an Aladdin's lamp enables us to perform phenomena, which would have been termed miracles. All manner of indescribable phenomena can be attributed to modern science. So most scientists do not share Voltaire's views.

It will be interesting to see what a reputed scientist like Eric Cornell, the Nobel laureate in Physics in the year 2001, has to say in this regard. He gave a very insightful lecture while getting inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Eric Cornell explained his view by accounting for a familiar pheno menon, the blue sky. He offers two types of solution. The first answer of scientific insight is the Raleigh's law of scattering of light. Light consists of a series of coloured rays starting from red and ending in blue. The rays in the red region are long waves whereas those in the blue region are short. When the light is flowing from the sun to the earth, the rays undergo scattering. The red rays get scattered more readily than the blue ones. Therefore by the time the rays reach the earth only blue rays are left, i.e. the source appears to be blue. The sky therefore is blue. This was the discovery made by Lord Raleigh on which subsequent developments in optics took place.

But Cornell indicates a second solution. May be God wanted the sky to be blue. You cannot question why he wanted like that. The Nobel laureate points out that Raleigh's law of scattering explains `how' blueness came but not why. Science always explains the `how' of things and not the `why' of things. While how is scientifically explained, the why finds explanation only in religion.

Eric Cornell suggests that in a scientific class only scientific questions can be raised. For a religious answer we have to be in a religious class. He suggests that we should not confuse by asking a scientific question in a religious class and a religious question in a scientific class. Not that the two solutions are opposed to each other but each has to be applied in a separate dimension. Suppose we are talking to a friend in English we have to follow the rules of English grammar but if the talk is in Tamil it is the Tamil grammar that has to be applied. Both the grammar rules are valid and not opposed to each other. Again, suppose you have the dream of a tiger chasing you. In the dream the chase is real. But once you wake up, the dream-tiger disappears. In the wakeful state we cannot ask where the tiger has gone, though it is the same mind which is witnessing both. The Ultimate Reality is one; it may manifest itself scientifically or religiously. In what way we wish to perceive the reality, the choice is ours.

Courtesy: Website of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India.

Ramakrishna Ashram | Discourse on kathopanishads Part IV

2006-08-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

Continued from Part III

Extending the from the types of "sukhas" quoted in the Gita, to the types quoted in the "Kathopanishads". There are three types of "Ananda"s.

Vishayananda: Vishaya (Poisonous things) + ananda (Happiness) = Happiness that we find in doing mundane tasks referred to as poisonous things.

Bhajanananda: Bhajan (hymns sung in the praise of God) + ananda (Happiness) = Happiness that is derived from singing hymns in the praise of God.

Brahmananda: Brahman (The Lord) + ananda (Happiness) = A state of Happiness where one is united with one's own Divine Self. It is in this state of "Brahmanandam" that Ultimate Happiness lies.

For a person to perceive an object there needs to be sunlight (or light). And there is a limitation to our sensory perceptions since there are physical limits. The limitations vary from species to species. Human eye, for example, cannot see clearly beyond a few metres whereas the eagle's eye can see clearly upto several kilometres. The human eye can not perceive things in the dark whereas the cat/ owl can. Our eyes are not built that way. Physical dimensions of our sensory perception have limitations. And there is another added limitation without which we cannot perceive at all - "The Mind". Our mind can influence our perceptions completely.

Coming back to the first part of the sloka that's being understood it means that in the state where the sun does not shine and a person cannot perceive an object but preceives the "Ultimate Happiness" is this state of "Brahmanandam". Where the sun, moon, stars or even flashes of lightning are not present, only those minds "Antahakarana", that are free from all internal blemishes can perceive the Ultimate Happiness.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once said, "Pure mind and pure Atman is one and the same".
He was responding to a question from a devotee who spoke thus, "How can I perceive something that's transcedental through this mind?".
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa replied, "This mind keeps hovering around everywhere. mind when completely still is no longer 'Mind'. Our mind depends on our daily habits. The highest reality is something that has never been defined. It cannot be defined. If it can be confined to any 'naama-roopa' [Names and forms] then it is not the highest reality."

During the ritual of "Mangalarthi" in the Ramakrishna Ashram Temple we all sing "Namo nama prabhuvakyamanaateetha".
It can be broken into "Namo Nama Prabhu Vakya Mana Ateetha".
Which means "I bow to you (Namo) O Lord (Prabhu) who are beyond(Ateetha) names (Nama), sentences (vakya) and mind(Mana)".
These are the highest lines of praise that can possibly be. A Britisher on hearing these was lamenting how it took him hours to explain or make some one understand the deeper meaning of these words. Whereas in the Hindu way of life, it is a daily part of our lives. We sing them everyday. "Bhaja Govindam" that represents the highest truth that the Vedanta has to offer is sung with a simple arrangement of tabla and a harmonium.

All this means that the Hindu way of life was designed to achieve the "Bhajanandam" mentioned in the Kathopanishads. Through that we just had to take the next step that is towards "Brahmanandam". Sometimes during the stages of "Bhajanandam" the highest reality dawns on us but it goes off at a tangent because our minds are not fully prepared to receive it. All other realities/ forms of light that we come across are borrowed realities/ forms of light. This consciousness that we are trying to understand is the basis of and for Life.

Sometimes we see a star in the night sky. We also notice that it wasn't there yesterday. So, we give it a name and celebrate its deiscovery. But it's also possible that the star might not exist at all in reality. The star might have been present millions of years back and it's light might have been visible to us today. And our sensory perceptions only allow us to perceive, understand and believe it in a way that it's present even today. Hence, senses do not give us access to the Highest Reality.

Everything that we see is Brahman. Why we do not see Brahman is the subject of spirituality.

Swami Vivekananda was once asked, "Why do you make us believe that God is not visible to everyone? Why do you hypnotize us into believing that we are all ignorant?"
For which Swami Vivekananda replied, "I am in fact dehypnotizing you. I am creating an awareness in you that there is a world outside what we can perceive through our senses."

Spiritual Life is to know that which is beyond ouselves and begins with reforming ourselves. Spiritual Life is about cultivating an attitude of Divinity and through that bringing a change to oneself.

Ramakrishna Ashram | Discourse on kathopanishads Part III

2006-08-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

This discourse was given on Sunday, August 13, 2006. In this article I have tried to include my learnings or my questions wherever possible.

How is the highest reality to be perceived? Knowing the ultimate reality is not similar to knowing something through your senses. It is something that is much beyond. And knowing it will give you "Paramam Sukham" unlike happiness from sensory perceptions. For example: A man sees an apple tree. He is happy because he perceives apple to be a good thing. But when a man sees a posionous tree, his happiness doesn't exist. Like this, happiness derived out of sensory perceptions are short-lived and temporary.

"Paramam Sukham" is the peace that surpasses all happiness. Let us first try to understand what "sukha" is all about? In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 18, Lord Krishna is discussing about the various kinds of sukhas.

The first one is of the lowest kind "Tamasika". It is born of delusion, sleep, laziness and miscomprehension. People who live in unhygenic conditions and are happy about it are examples of such kind.

Probably, people like me who sleep at any given chance are also of this
kind!

Let us take the example of the Lord himself, who once took the form of a pig (Varaha avtaara) and began deriving so much of happiness in that form that he forgot to come back to his original form. Lord Krishna had to remind him to come back to his original state.

The second one is of the mediocre kind "Rajasika sukha". Happiness emerging out of an element of restlessness and lot of activity. Any type of "sukha" that is aimed to satisfying our greed, anger, vendetta or some such emotional extremity. This kind of happiness "sukha" is characterized by the taste of nectar at first and poison towards the end.

The third one and the highest kind "Satwika sukha". This sukha is characterized by poison at first, but nectar at the end. Something that begins as a very difficult job but slowly we attain pleasure in it because of something that we discover in it that is more than the sensory pleasure. When we discover something more than the senses can sense then that kind of happiness is "satwika sukha".

A fitting example of "satwika sukha" would be that of chewing the amla fruit. it gives a distinct bitter taste at first, but if you are able to bear with it then there is the sukha of the sweet taste that it leaves in the mouth towards the end.

Another example is that of a student studying for his exams. There are so many things to distract him from his studies. A film on the television or a film magazine or something that will give him immediate pleasure are all more attractive to him than studying for his exams. He doesn't understand that if he studies well now, he will be able to derive more happiness later in his life. If he bears with the poison of hardwork now, he will be able to enjoy the nectar of the results later on.

A person who understands this basic premise of postponing immediate happiness is a mature person. He has understood the principle of "satwika sukha". It is a thought requiring utmost maturity in a person. A person who doesn't understand this becomes a source of unhappiness for everyone around him. A person who doesn't understand this gets into bad habits and other escapist activities qutoing immediate pleasure. These are the people who become anti-social elements.

KANK | SMS Review

2006-08-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

[Semantics adjusted to blog language]

A1 and B1 are married and so are A2 and B2. A1 sleeps with B2 and they tell A2 and B1. The marriages are over. A1 and B2 marry.

Direction
Karan Johar trying to make a 'Silsila'. He is no Yash Chopra. He better stick to his stupid movie making style and leave the substance stream alone.

Music
'Mitwa' and the title song apart, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy fail to impress. Background music restricted to stretching sitar strings and crying violins.

Editing
Movie length 3 hours 20 mins!

Acting
Big B is the best

Rating
*

Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!

Mysore | The reality

2006-08-11T03:38:00.000-07:00

As expected, The Hindu quotes the truth. Here it is:

"Work on doubling the broad-gauge railway line between Bangalore and Mysore will
be taken up soon and the State Government has earmarked Rs. 25 crore as its
contribution to the project..."

And we were talking about bullet trains.

Testing Flash blogging

2006-08-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

Flash Slideshow

ToI is blabbering | Update

2006-08-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Viky. I realised that ToI was not always wrong. Here is an update:

There is a Refresh Bangalore project going on, where ToI is requesting readers to contribute their dream for Bangalore. The article above, also quoted by Viky and the ones Shastri wrote about, are a reflection of the author's dream for Bangalore in 2025.

PS: Viky is also a Mysorean! Yay!

Mysore | ToI is blabbering

2006-08-10T03:45:00.000-07:00

Quoting an article in the Times of India on 9th August 2006:

Vayu Express, the bullet train between Bengaluru and Mysooru, has been
speeded up. This means that the travel time between these two cities will now be
reduced by 5 minutes. This is a major step forward for India's only bullet
train.

Introduced last August at a speed of 300 kph, it enabled you to reach the
City of Palaces from the state capital in 28 minutes...

I never had a high opinion about this newspaper. This is yet another instance of the depth to which journalism at ToI has plummetted.

Thank God I live in Chennai and subscribe to The Hindu at home. Every now and then to assure myself that I am reading the best possible newspaper I pick up the newly-launched Deccan Chronicle. [Hyderabad's #1 English Daily Newspaper a few years back. Now I don't know]

What I also don't know is whether to believe this or not. ToI on Mysore again:

It was the first city in the country to go Wi-Fi, now it is all set to be
the first to put electric buses on its roads.
...Electric buses (also known as trolley-buses) are vehicles that are
powered by electricity from two overhead wires. These buses draw power using two
trolley poles (like the electric trains) and run on pneumatic
tyres...
Click here for the full version of the article.
God save ToI!

Rules of the game

2006-08-10T02:10:00.000-07:00

[Via email from suchetha]

In the world of romance, one single rule applies to the men:
Make the woman happy. Do something she likes, and you get points. Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted. You don't get any points for doing something she expects. Sorry, that's the way the game is played. Here is a guide to the point system:

SIMPLE DUTIES

You make the bed (+1)

You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillow (0)

You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets (-1)

You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) In the rain (+8) But return with Beer (-5)

You check out a suspicious noise at night (0)

You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing (0)

You check out a suspicious noise and it is something (+5)

You pummel it with iron rod (+10)

It's her pet (-10)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS

You stay by her side the entire party (0)

You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with a college buddy(-2)

Named Rita (-4)

Rita is a dancer (-6)

Rita is single and is really beautiful (-80)

HER BIRTHDAY

You forget her birthday (-50000)

You take her out to dinner (0)

You take her out to dinner and it's not a sports bar (+1)

Okay, it's a sports bar (-2)

And it's all-you-can-eat night (-3)

It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted

the colours of your favourite team (-10)

A NIGHT OUT

You take her to a movie (+2)

You take her to a movie she likes (+4)

You take her to a movie you hate (+6)

You take her to a movie you like (-2)

It's called 'DeathCop' (-3)

You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)

YOUR PHYSIQUE

You develop a noticeable potbelly (-15)

You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)

You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy Hawaian shirts (-30)

You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-8000)

ENJOY THE 'BIG' QUESTION

She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) [Yes, you LOSE points no matter WHAT]

You hesitate in responding (-10)

You reply, "Where?" (-35)

Any other response (-20)

COMMUNICATION

When she wants to talk about a problem , you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression (0)

You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)

You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV (+500)

She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep (-10000)

Ritualistic Nonsense!

2006-08-08T05:02:00.000-07:00

My wife was supposed to do some puja today and the poor thing has no idea how to go about doing one. It's the first time ever that she is conducting a puja on her own. I belong to the category of "What puja? Why Puja?".

She came out of the Puja room, after completing the puja, and exclaimed, "Oh Adi, I forgot to break the coconut!"

I broke into peals of laughter. Almost fell off the chair I was sitting on. If some elder had been in the house I can imagine what they would have made of my wife!

Why force rituals on people? Why does she have to do it without knowing what she is doing but knowing that she HAS to do it?

Ramakrishna Ashram | Discourse on kathopanishads Part II

2006-08-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Continued from Part I

Achieving Divinity is:

To recognize the Eternal amidst the ephemeral
And to recognize that force or power that gives the fruit of actions
effortlessly alongwith grace.

This power to achieve Divinity is recognized by "Dheera". Eternal peace is for those who recognize the underlying Unity.

"Dheera" is a very familiar word to one who is familiar with Sanskrit Holy scriptures. "Dhee" means higher intellect.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has an interesting similie to distinguish higher intellect from intellect. An intellect which is used for simple things like calculating profit and making money is like "thin curd". Chchaas in hindi, Majjige in Kannada, Majjiga in Telugu and Mor in Tamil. An intellect that is focused on achieving God is like "thick curd". Dahi in Hindi, Mosaru in Kannada, Perugu in Telugu and Thayir in Tamil.

"Dhee" appears in the Gayatri Mantra also. "..Dheeyo yonaha prachodaya aath".

Somebody once asked a learned monk, "What is the immediate benefit
of living a morally upright life?"
The monk answered, "It sharpens and brightens the intellect. Thus making
it ready to achieve Divinity".

To achieve the higher intellect we could start living a morally upright life.

"Dheera" is a person who has turned his attention within to make the discovery of inner Reality. "Dheera" is one who is a "viveki" (One with the power of discrimination).

The Mind is an interesting thing if you can call it one. It has the ultimate power of discrimination. But that power is dependant on the atmosphere in which the Mind is. Outside that atmosphere the mind might not be able to attain the same level or power of discrimination.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to give a simple example to illustrate this: A sail boat in ordinary condition can be easily directed with the help of changing the direction of sails. But when the wind is blowing heavily, it is tough to control the direction of the boat.

Similarly the wind of Senses hijacks the "Buddhi" to somewhere else. Senses are the means to identifying the external world. Once the senses become our Master, we become their slave. Senses are like Horses tied to a chariot controlled by a charioteer called "Buddhi". If the horses begin driving the Chariot then the charioteer should start controlling. But usually, it doesn't happen. The horses go where they want, the charioteer just follows.

Wherever the "Buddhi" dominates the power of will is seen. It is the "Buddhi" - the Power of discrimination to be cultivated to attain the higher intellect. The greater the Self-Control, the Greater the Buddhi.

People are generally heard saying, "Kathopanishad says God is everywhere, then why cannot we see God?" In simple words, not everybody can see God. We are not competent "Yogyata" to see God. We need to develop the competence to see God. When a person has developed that "Dhee" - intellect and courage - only then can he make the search of Shashwatha Shantihi - Eternal Peace.

In their ignorance people make the sin of considering, the changing as the Unchanging, impure as the Pure, Source of unhappiness as happiness and loss of Eternal Reality is mistaken to be Eternal Reality (meaning that Body is considered to be The Aatma) .

The Original Sin is to consider the Body as the Aatma. After this sin happens, everything else just follows. Once a person is into this Sin, he gets only ephemeral happiness.

Camels have this desire for thorny plants for food. Whenever they eat those plants they are happy that they are eating what they wanted. But those thorns prick their mouth and they start bleeding. This is ephemeral happiness.

He, who has the ability to discriminate the Eternal from the ephemeral, destructible from the indestructible and is able to find Nitya amidst Anitya is the one will experience Shashwatha Shantihi eternal peace and not the others.

Ramakrishna Ashram | Discourse on kathopanishads Part I

2006-08-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

After a long time I attended the discourse at Ramakrishna Ashram on Kathopanishads by Swami Atmashraddhananda. Here is a write-up of whatever I understood there. Swamiji started off with reading out the sloka and then started explaining it in his inimitable style of raising questions and answering them.

Those who have not known the (nitya in sanskrit)Reality of eternal truth will never find peace - eternal happiness in other words. As long as we think that Reality and we are something different we will never see it. Reality is inside us, rather reality is us and we are reality. This Reality is permanent, it has no beginning and has no end. Hence it is the ONE. Eternal peace is for those who see the Reality and not for those who discriminate.

Spirituality is a quest for the Reality. It begins with the question "Is there something Real in this world?" and finding the answer is the end of the journey. Let's take the learning curve of a child for example. He begins with an understanding of the moving and the non-moving. A cat moves and a table doesn't. Pleasurable and not-pleasurable is the next stage. Here he does not think whether it is beneficial or not, it is all about pleasure. Next stage is Good or Bad. And so on there are various stages. But very few people can come up with the question of Real or Unreal.

More often than not, when a person undergoes a very strong experience is when he comes to this question of Real and Unreal. For others it is just between pleasant and unpleasant. For others it is all matter(that which can be sensed through our senses). But as per our Upanishads and other Holy writings of the Hindu Religion and according to the Lord Yama, it is Nitya from which everything has come. All material is a form of thought. The Upanishad thought varies from the mechanistic thought in this manner about Nitya.

He, who has the ability to discriminate the Eternal from the ephemeral, destructible from the indestructible and is able to find Nitya amidst Anitya is the one will experience Shashwatha Shantihi eternal peace.

A small story to better understand eternity and the ephemeraless. The Lord of Rightenousness Yama wanted to teach the Pandavas a lesson. While under exile, the Pandavas wandering in the forests felt thirsty and so they rested under a tree. Yudhishthira instructed Nakula and Sahadeva to find if there was any water source nearby.

Nakula and Sahadeva climbed to the top of trees and surveyed the surrounding. They couldn't find any water per se but they saw a certain kind of trees that grew only near water sources. This also points to the knowledge of flora and fauna that the people of those times had. They inform Yudhishtira about the same and they proceed towards the spot to find a lake.

In the meantime, Lord Yama has taken the form of a stork and is standing nearby the lake. Sahadeva proceeds to get water for all of them. Then the stork speaks. Ok, let's just assume that they understood each other's language if you find a stork speaking to be so illogical. It is an altogether different topic that we don't understand a fellow human being's language itself! A stronger indication of the harmonious living between the flora and fauna and the human beings.

The stork says, "I will ask you a few questions. After you answer them
successfully, you may take water from here and go".

But Sahadeva is in such a thirsty state and also seeing his family members state he just ignores the stork and bends down to collect water. As soon as he comes in contact with the water, he falls down dead! The same fate befalls Nakula, Bheema and Arjuna.

After waiting for an inordinately long time, Yudhishtira himself makes it to the lake and encounters the stork. Immediately he realises that it's not an ordinary stork. And he pauses to take the quiz voluntered by the stork. This quiz is the famous "Yaksha Prashna" that we have come to know of. One question in that quiz was related to eternity and ephemralness.

The Stork (in-the-form-of-Lord Yama) asked, "What is the latest
wonder?"
Yudhishthira answers, "People die daily around us yet no one believes that
he is going to die"

Later on, Lord Yama shows his true form to Yudhishtira after being pleased with his answers. And also brings all his brothers back to life.

The point here is that, we are Eternal (Nitya). But this Body is not. We realize that we are eternal but restrict the understanding to our body-mind consciousness and hence we are fearful. When we approach Divinty we become fearless. Identification with Anitya is why we never see the Eternal Truth.

Continued in Part - II.

Welcome

2006-08-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is thefirst document that I am creating online on http://www.zohowriter.com/.

I saved ittoo.

I can share the document across e-mail addresses and also controlwhat the other person does. (Read Only/ Read & Write)
Catch is that the person to whom I have shared the doc withcan only edit it after registering with zohowriter.com
I can also publish this onto my blog I am told.. Let me try. Itsays "Problem in posting to blog.

" Don't know what happened!
I can also make this public and allow others to give theircomments! Similar to a blog!

Poll | Template

2006-08-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Please rate this template over the past one on these parameters:

Does this template look more pleasant than the one before? Please give me something more than a simple Yes/ No. This is concerned with the overall look n feel while Question #3 is specific to the text presented.
Is this version easily "navigatable"(yeah i know there's no such word, but I know you get it!)?
Do you think the content presented looks better in this format? (Yes/No should do. Any more feedback than that is also appreciated)

Thanks for your time and valuable feedback!

If you like this template, please go to http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com and get one for yourself!

Review | Yun hota to kya hota

2006-08-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

"Yun Hota to Kya Hota" is the directorial debut of the legendary actor Naseeruddin Shah. I don't know if it's out of respect for this person or if it's the effect of the script, but the cast that he has managed for this movie is in itself something that's not been seen before!

Paresh Rawal, Bomman Irani (wasted in a miniscule role), Irfan Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ayesha Thakia, Ratna Pathak Shah & Suhasini Mulay. Each one is a rare talent in the field of Indian cinema. To have agreed to play a role that is 1/8th of the movie is in itself an achievement. The performances were outstanding to say the least.

YHTKH is a story revolving around four love stories that take birth in India and end in the US.

Konkona & Jimmy are a newly married couple where Jimmy has to leave for the US on the day next to his marriage reception.

Irfan Khan is in love with this Ballet Dancer(Suhasini Mulay) and he has to go to the US to take refuge from a murder (of Bomman Irani) in which he is falsely implicated.

Paresh Rawal meets his ex-flame (Ratna Pathak Shah) who is presently married to a drunkard and agrees to arranging to take her daughter to the US.

There's this lower-middle-class, brilliant guy who has finished his studies but for some strange reason refuses to go to the US. His close friends like Ayesha Thakia and others (including a brilliant performance from a Mirinda-hairstyled guy) somehow want to send him to the US.

How does all this end? How do the love stories culminate? Watch YHTKH to find out!

The direction may not be exemplary. But it's definitely not bad either. There are many instances where he has indirectly referred to the final plot. And it's the climax that takes you completely off-guard! I liked the way the characters take up different spots in the climax. Though the execution could have been better, what is delivered is good. Mr. Naseeruddin Shah, you have the skills, only thing is that you need to hone them as you have done with your acting!

Screenplay is what holds the film together. Introduction of the characters is a good idea. And from then on the film carries on in the same mode. Never is there any confusion or lack of clarity regarding the storyline. In my opinion, the screenplay is very simple. For a story of this kind, the screenplay could have been much much better. There was enough scope for innovation, but unfortunately it's not made use of. The style is very traditional, could have been a bit more adventurous.

Editing also like the screenplay is quite safe. No risks taken. Simple delivery. Hence you can't fault anything out here. The camerawork was good & innovative at certain points. But beyond that again, standard shots. Nothing much for any new cinematography artiste to learn. Music doesn't quite make you stand up and dance. The background music is also good.

Overall, a movie you wouldn't want to miss if you are a hindi movie buff. For other's it isn't a must see. The film will fail in the B and C centers. But might rake in considerable moolah in the multiplex market. The window to make money exists till Karan Johar's "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" hits the theatres on August 11th. After that it's going to be KANK everywhere!

My rating: ***

Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!

18 Principles of a Spiritual Life | Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

2006-08-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is both visionary and practical. At the dawn of the new millennium, he calls for a return to the timeless values common to all religious traditions as a means to resolving conflict in the world today. He recognizes that this begins with individuals who embody those values in their own lives. In guiding people around the globe to finding this life for themselves, Sri Sri offers the eighteen principles of the spiritual path.

When attention is given to the spiritual aspect of one’s life, it brings responsibility, a sense of belongingness, and compassion and caring for the whole of humanity. Spirit upholds and sustains life. It makes you strong and solid. It breaks down the narrow boundaries of cast, creed, religion and nationality and gives you an awareness of life present everywhere. It is only through this awareness, this uplifting of consciousness, that wars can be eliminated and human rights restored in the world today.

How can these things be achieved? What are the main principles of a spiritual life?

Confidence
The first principle of the spiritual path is to have confidence in yourself. Without confidence, achievement does not come. Doubt is what opposes confidence. Once you eliminate the negative, you will see that the positive has already happened. When doubt clears, confidence is there. So to gain confidence, you must understand what doubt is.

If you observe the nature of doubt, it is always about something positive. You never doubt what is negative. You know this from your experience. You doubt someone’s honesty, but you never doubt dishonesty. You doubt the goodness of other people, but you never doubt their bad qualities. If someone says, “I love you very much,” you say, “Really?” But if someone says, “I hate you,” you never say, “Do you really?”

Understand your doubt as questioning the positive and having confidence in the negative, and know that if you are having doubt, there must be something good present. Approached in this way, doubt gives you a means to move ahead. I am not telling you to drop your doubt. Doubt as much as you can! Give it your 100%. That will help you through it. Once you cross this barrier of doubt, then further progress comes.

Stop Blaming Others and Yourself
The next principle is to stop blaming others and yourself. The spiritual journey is a journey to the Self, and when you are engaged in blaming yourself, you will not want to approach the Self. You will not be attracted to that. Without this movement toward the Self, toward spirit, you have a journey toward matter. The joy you get from matter is tiring. The joy you get from spirit is uplifting.

You will find negative qualities within yourself, but you don’t need to blame yourself for them. Whenever you blame yourself, you are bound to blame the other, because self-blame cannot stand for too long. You will find reason to escape from it by hooking it onto someone else. This causes hatred to arise. And whenever you blame someone else, you are preparing again to blame yourself. There is so much blame being given today that it is dampening the consciousness of the whole world.

Praise Other and Yourself
The third principle is praise yourself and praise others. Praising others goes a step beyond not blaming others. Praising kindles spirit and the presence of spirit is uplifting to yourself, to the other, and the entire environment. In praising yourself or another, a space is created within you that is filled with joy.

If you can praise yourself, you won’t need praise from others. Often we think that praising ourself is ego, but, in fact, ego cannot praise itself. Rather it hopes for praise from others. And understand that all praise goes to the Divine anyway. If you say you have beautiful eyes, who made them? Every praise goes to the Divine, the Maker.

The act of offering praise expands consciousness. Something inside you opens up. Blaming shrinks consciousness. Since the spiritual dimension is an expansion of consciousness, of the mind, we do not want to counter that by blaming. Sincerely offer praise to someone and see how you feel.

Sincerity
Sincerity is the fourth principle. In all things, be sincere. Do not fool yourself and do not try to fool anyone else. You are not on the spiritual path for anyone else’s sake. Spiritual seeking without sincerity is empty. It brings no benefits. With sincerity, it brings peace, happiness and joy you can find in no other way on this planet.

Responsibility
The fifth principle of the spiritual path is responsibility. The spiritual path is not escape from responsibility, but taking responsibility. However much responsibility you have taken for your life, by that much you are on the path. If you think it is difficult to manage what has been given to you to do, more will be given! People mistakenly think that being spiritual is an escape from hard work. No. The spiritual path is marked by effective and dynamic activity.

Let Go of the Past
The sixth principle of spiritual life is the ability to let go of the past. See the entire past as a dream. Then you come to the present moment. You will find it is not necessary to make an effort to be in the present. The moment you let go of the past, your mind comes to the present on its own.

In the present moment, spirit is kindled—even a little spark is made into a glow. When you cling to the past, the spark is covered with ashes. Be in the present and blow away the ashes of the past.

Acceptance
You need to know how to create a harmonious environment around you. You may think that your environment creates you, but in truth, you create your environment. See that what is, is. The acceptance of what is has two aspects. The first is the acceptance of the present moment as inevitable. It has happened as it happened. If you want it to be different, it can only become different in the next moment. Only when you accept what is and become calm, can you effectively change anything.

The second aspect is to accept other people as they are. Whatever behavior they are exhibiting, see that it is the best that they have to offer in that moment. Be analytical. Look for possible explanations for their actions. And simultaneously take responsibility for your own. In this way, acceptance becomes dynamic and your environment becomes harmonious.

Confirmation of Your Own Death
The eighth principle of spiritual life is confirmation of death, the understanding that you are going to die one day. Because there is something deep within us that does not die, we may not fully comprehend the fact of our own death. The confirmation of death can bring you to the present moment. It can take you out of all the small temptations that keep you away from the present. Once you know that you are going to die, then the future will not haunt you.

Impermanence of Life
The ninth principle is the impermanence of all that exists right now—the impermanence of situations, circumstances, emotions and people around you. Knowing that all this is impermanent raises the level of spirit. You can act with more energy, enthusiasm and vigor. We think that if we recognize that everything is impermanent, it will bring down our enthusiasm and lead us to a state of apathy. No. The correct understanding of impermanence kindles spirit. Whenever spirit is kindled, you feel uplifted. Enthusiasm and dynamism are present.

Trust
Trust the supreme and infinite Intelligence which has formed this entire creation, from the
cosmic display to the interplay of genes and atoms and molecules. Just in the arrangement of electrons, something becomes a flower and something else becomes a stone, something is gold and something else is charcoal.

See that there is a basic substratum, an underlying intelligence, a unity, in this entire creation. And see that it is lively. We don’t see the universe as a living thing. We see only matter everywhere; in our eyes only objects appear. We know there is a magnetic field in creation, but we often see it as a dead field. Pure consciousness, that which is the basis of mind, that of which you are a part and everyone else is a part, is such a field and it is alive. Understanding, accepting and trusting the Intelligence which creates and sustains all things is the tenth principle of spiritual life.

Unity in Creation
When the human mind is stressed and tense, it judges, discriminates, loves this, doesn’t love that, makes boundaries. And in so doing, it removes itself from existence. This removal of existence from the flow of existence is called separation, but it is only apparent. Separation from existence is not possible. If a portion of a circle is removed, there is no longer a circle. See that you are part of existence, a fragment of the expression of the supreme Intelligence, the unifying force which underlies all of creation, all that is. This is the eleventh principle.

Your Nature is Love and Peace
When you understand the unity in creation, you don’t have to make an effort to love others. Love is your nature. Love is what there is. Nothing other than love exists. See that love is not an action that you do, not a moral obligation that you must carry out. See that you exist in love and everything else exists in love.

And know that peace is also your nature. At any moment, in any place, you can just sit and let go, knowing inside you there is a pure clear space, vast and deep. That inner space is what you are. When you feel this, you are in touch with your spiritual dimension.

“I have come from peace, I am in peace, I’ll go back to peace. Peace is my origin and my goal. I am peace, I am space, I am love” This inner affirmation or experience makes you a seeker. Knowing that your nature is love and peace is the twelfth principle.

Balance
The thirteenth principle of spiritual life is finding a balance between activity and rest—between enjoying your world and coming back to your self, and finding a balance between silence and speech. If you kept silent all your life, never uttering a word, you would not necessarily be living the spiritual life. You have been given speech. You have been given talents and abilities. Make right use of these things you have been given and balance that with meditation, the self-referral aspect of your consciousness.

Self Enquiry
Self-enquiry is the next principle of spiritual life. Start with awareness of the feeling of your own body —your own skin, the feeling of your skin under your garments, and under the skin your muscles and nerves and then bones. Do not be insensitive to life, like an animal who only eats, drinks and sleeps. Observe every sensation. Have the keenest awareness. In knowing your own body, you will come to know spirit—that which is different from the body.

Dispassion and Maturity
Keen awareness comes with maturity, or you could say, with dispassion. Maturity and dispassion come together. You cannot be mature and not be dispassionate also. Dispassion is often wrongly understood to be a flat, dull state of mind or a negative mood. It has the connotation of being aloof and disinterested. This is not true. In dispassion, you are aware; you are intimate with yourself. In maturity there is no fevershness. In maturity there is royalty, there is freedom, there is understanding, there is mystery. This is the fifteenth principle of spiritual life, gaining dispassion and living maturely.

Appreciation of Beauty
The sixteenth principle of spiritual life is to acknowledge the beauty in creation, the beauty in every person, the beauty within you, and to know this beauty in the nature of spirit. The mind runs after beauty, appreciates beauty, but there is a difference between appreciating beauty and wanting to possess it. In wanting to possess beauty, we lose our dispassion.

Know it is spirit that is beautiful. Wherever you perceive beauty, spirit is there. If someone is beautiful, it is because of the spirit in them. A dead body is never beautiful. Attributing beauty to spirit and differentiating that from matter takes you a long way on the spiritual path.

Worshipfulness and Honor
The appreciation of beauty brings worshipfulness. You worship beauty, you adore it. Adoring and worshiping everything in creation as a reflection of the Creator is the next principle of spiritual life.

And honor everything. Honoring is more than an emotional response. It is an attitude. It indicates a balanced understanding of life. When respect and love are both present, that brings honor. When there is honor, the mind is one hundred percent present and a sense of sacredness comes. Love and respect bring honor and honor brings sacredness. You cannot feel for something and not feel its sacredness. Sacredness brings alertness in the consciousness. Awareness comes.

Life is Imperishable
The final principle of spiritual life is knowing that life is imperishable. This is totally contradictory to the principle of knowing that life is impermanent, that everything is perishable. Now we say that life is imperishable; nothing can happen to it. Truth is always contradictory.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization, and is the inspiration behind numerous charitable organizations focused on service and the promotion of human values. In 1982, Sri Sri began to teach Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful breathing technique that eliminates stress and brings one completely into the present moment. Today this program is taught in over 142 countries around the world as part of the Art of Living Course. More information is available at www.artofliving.org.

$100 Laptop | Rubbished by HRD

2006-07-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Quoting an article from the ToI dated 25 July 2006:

"...According to the project plan, the Central government is supposed to foot the entire bill, which is $100 per laptop for one million pieces. The project was floated by MIT.

Complete with technical problems pointed out by IIT, Madras, pedagogical suspicions raised by NCERT and first-hand experience of a senior HRD official who found that the laptops have not even crossed the prototype stage, Banerjee had said that OLPC "may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child"...."

They are talking about the Nicholas Negroponte's $100 Laptop. Probably he hasn't done whatever is required by the Government. Otherwise, would Rs. 450 crore ever be wasted by getting into newsprint?

Another interesting part of the article is the last paragraph which says:

"...The HRD official also said that an OLPC-like project has already been started by an Indian company which has supplied 50,000 laptops to South Africa at a price of $200. "Indian companies are not lagging behind. They may need more encouragement," he said."

This Indian company must be either Novatium or Encore Software. Whoever it is, if the HRD official is truthful then let's hope this is the first success for Indian Hardware Industry. Beating Negroponte's well-publicised (probably over-hyped too!) $100 Laptop venture is not easy.

Life goes on

2006-07-18T02:40:00.000-07:00

On 11th July I was roaming the streets of Chennai visiting various showrooms to look for a good home theatre system. As I was entering a particular Sony World, I saw ten TV's showing what looked like a Mumbai's local train. It was ripped apart into two halves like a coconut in front of our temples on auspisious days.

I was shocked. My first reaction was, "How is Sam?". Sam is my friend who stays in Mumbai. When I tried contacting him I realised that all the cellphone networks were jammed. So, I just called his home. Thankfully, Sam had the presence of mind to call his parents and tell them that he was safe. Ok so Sam was safe.

After evaluating Sony's surprisingly inferior HT systems, I went home. I wanted to inform myself fully of the situation at Mumbai. Switched on the TV and every channel worth its salt was beaming the pictures of the blasts. It was bad. Really bad. The death toll increased gradually from 30+ to 100+ and by the time I went to sleep it was close to 200. Over 700 were injured. Hospitals were overcrowded with patients as well as anxious people looking for their dear ones. The scene was bad. And the only thing I could do was sit and watch!

If I was in Mumbai I would have definitely stepped forward and done my bit. As a human being I think it's my duty to help fellow beings in times of such adversity. I would have donated blood. Maybe even helped the injured get to the hospital or some such useful thing that would give me a feeling of 'yeah-i-have-been-a-good-human-being'. I wouldn't expect people to pat my back for having done such things. And if they do, I would rather pull them into the relief work and carry on doing the work.

In such a scenario, I don't understand what great qualities or the so-branded "Mumbai's spirit" the TV Channels are talking about. It was human instinct. An instinct to help each other during trying times. The instinct had to overcome the fear of 'what-if-there's-another-blast-and-something-happens-to-me'. This is where we need to credit the Mumbaikars - for having come out in large numbers (community, religion, etc. notwithstanding!) at that moment overcoming the fear and helping each other. The courage to believe in your instinct and not get scared. Beyond that I wouldn't hype the happenings of the aftermath of the blasts.

People are talking about how everyone was back at their offices from the next day. And how the trains were full and all that. I have just one thought, "Do the people of Mumbai really have any other option?". No employer is going to announce a day's off because there were blasts. If anyone would have done that it would be a gross insult to the brand - "Mumbai's spirit"! People essentially need to be back at their offices the next day. And how do you go? Well, Local train. There's not much on offer anyway. So, the trains are full.

Mumbai has a spirit. So does any other city. Chennai responded swiftly to the "Tsunami" - a word that was not present in anybody's vocabulary till that day. The relief aid that was collected was unprecedented. The sheer scale of the tragedy didn't allow normal life to go on for those affected. But for those who weren't affected, life went on.

Spirit or no spirit. Life goes on.

How wierd am I and How about you?

2006-07-12T03:43:00.000-07:00

Got tagged by Shastri.

Five Wierd things about me:

Avoid piracy: Buy only authentic CDs and books. I am against piracy even if it means I am a poorer man!
Indecisive: I cannot make a decision about high-value purchases (> Rs. 5,000/-). I look for recommendations desperately. If something is recommended by a person I respect, then you can be rest assured I will buy it.
Obsessive Compulsive Eating disorder: Even if I need to go on a diet to save my life, I will not avoid eating my favourite food if it's within an arm's distance. I take decisions on vacation destinations based on the quality of food available there!
One coffee per day: Staying in the heartland of filter coffee, I have only one cup of coffee per day. Final objective is to refrain from having all milk products. It's called being a vegan or something!
Laziness personified: I can sleep for hours together without any reason. I always look for some place to stretch my legs and close my eyes and am off Zzz...

Five people I would like to do this tag:

Worldspace | There is so much to hear

2006-07-12T02:26:00.000-07:00

40+ Channels of pure music. No advertisements and other useless stuff. And to top it all, they have my favourite person as their brand ambassador!

16th June | Wedding Invite

2006-06-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

16th June | My Wedding with Kirthana

2006-06-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

How do you invite someone to your marriage? The problem is that it's the first time you are getting married. And learning how to invite is not going to help you in anyway because you are not going to repeat the act! So, finally I decided that the objective of sending out an invite is to make sure that most of the people who read the invite come to the wedding and bless the couple. I know I think a lot and waste a lot of time. So, let's get on with it!

See, it's my marriage on 16th June 2006 at Chennai with Ms. Kirthana. And that's what the whole noise is about. It is at Raghavendra Mandapam in Kodambakkam. Yeah, the owner's name (owner of the mandapam) is Rajinikanth and yes that's the Superstar! So, if you come, you might meet him! ;) And in case you also want to bless us on the muhurtham, then that's between 8AM and 9.30AM.

And since we don't know if Superstar will stay back till the evening, we have invited Ganesh, Kumaresh & party - the violin brothers for the reception party. I hope people come to listen to their music atleast. And if you want to wish us then that's from 6.30PM onwards on the same day. You are invited. Gifts, though, are being accepted from much before the point this mail is being sent to eternity! ;)

It would be really nice if you could make it to my wedding, bless and wish us on an eventful day in our lives. Also, all these days I would call a wedding as a free meal and turn up at every friend's/ relative's wedding. I promise to provide good quality food in my wedding. Afterall, I also need to eat nah! I don't want to sound like one of those boards in the hotels of Chennai, "We use only mineral water in all our products". Good food and Adi are always at the same place! ;)

For all of those in Bangalore, you can experience authentic Mulaknadu food at the lunch we are hosting on Saturday, 8th July 2006, 12 Noon at Hande Hall, 10th main, 4th block, Jayanagar. You can bless us in Bangalore too. You are invited.

Will look forward to meeting you at my wedding. Chennai or Bangalore or even better - both places! Please do grace the occasion and bless us. Thanks.

Love,
Adi.

Important Dates:

16th June 2006, Raghavendra Mandapam, Kodambakkam, Chennai.

Muhurtham - 8.00AM to 9.30AM
Reception - 6.30PM onwards

8th July 2006, Hande Hall, 10th main, 4th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore.

Lunch: 12 Noon

I hope I have done a good job of inviting. Now, to see how many actually make it.

Fanaa| Good story spoilt by bad direction

2006-05-30T02:11:00.000-07:00

"Fanaa" is Kunal Kohli's third directorial venture. His first one "Mujhse Dosti Karoge" was a flop. If I was his producer I would have dropped him. But Aditya Chopra ka kya jaata hai.. uske baap ka paisa hai! So, second one "Hum Tum" was made. Critically acclaimed and well-handled. It had good performances from Saif and Rani. Aditya's baap's paisa came back and Aditya decided to bet it again on Kunal Kohli. Beats me!

It also beats me why Kunal chose to drop Rani in "Fanaa" after having her in his first two films. Rani played a similar but more challenging role in "Black". Aamir Khan and Rani make a very good pair. So, why was Rani dropped?

With Kajol, Aamir, Kunal, Aditya Chopra, Yash Chopra, Ravi. K. Chandran and Jatin-Lalit (after a long time, but also their last foray together) expectations are sky high. After good publicity through the teasers and trailors, the expectations became almost un"pen"able.

Blind-girl sets out to Delhi to perform on January 26th in front of the President of India at the Red Fort. I need to make a point here about her parents. They ham crazily. Rishi Kapoor sobers down towards the second half, and thankfully Kiron Kher disappears. Anybody knows why she was killed? I will tell you. She was getting back to her "Devdas" hamming mode, so she was shunted out!

Blind-girl meets die-hard-romantic-travel-guide who speaks less in normal words but only keeps reeling out eloquent urdu sher-o-shaayari. Blind-girl falls in love with this shaayar. Shaayar also falls in love. This shaayar is her shehzaada according to her haming-mom. Shaayar doesn't want to admit his love with Blind-girl, but ends up carrying her from a train to a hospital to cure her of her blindness. Actually they were supposed to get married and they suddenly end up in the hospital. And you are like, "Hey, who's the editor of this movie?"

Hammers assemble in the hospital around their daughter. Shaayar is missing. Blind-girl regains her eyesight. Blind-girl is no longer blind-girl! And shaayar is no longer shaayar! He is dead and was identified by the not-blind-girl. And you are no longer able to take the crap!

But then wait there's a twist. Shaayar is the mastermind behind the IKF (Assume whatever full-form you want). He is bigger than the CIA, KGB or the Mosad or even all of these put together. He has the ability to single-handedly destroy the entire Nation of India. A dangerous terrorist. So, blind girl is now normal-girl and shaayar is now terrorist.

Terrorist considers himself to be a soldier in the fight for the freedom of Kashmir. There is a comical "Anti-terrorist bureau" where Tabu does the role of Mrs. Tyagi and there is one other fellow who dons the role of the head of the anti-terrorist bureau. Now this fellow was the villain in "Ghulam", and that's my last recall of this guy. The casting director fails miserably in his job. Casting Aamir & Kajol is an easy job, but what about the rest?!

One word more about Mrs. Tyagi. From where does she arrive at those marvellous decisions? She should be at the Mind-Reading and Astrology cell instead of this place. Characterisation apart from the lead pair is not well thought out. No-one looks convincing. And what was Vrijesh Hirjee doing? Apart from Aamir and Kajol, there is no attention paid to anyone else.

Just like the movie, my review also seems to digress at the smallest available opportunity. Let me continue with the story.

The dangerous terrorist now carries on with his mission while the then-blind-now-normal-girl thinks her shaayar is dead and continues her life. What happens in the end? An end, which never comes. You keep waiting for it, but then you come across songs, antaksharis-with-strangers, and many other digressive measures taken to just stretch the climax. I was not very happy waiting for the end to come. But once it ended, I was very happy! Happy that the movie ended.

Kajol, before the rise of Rani, was considered the best of the present lot of actresses. But now, it's tough to choose between Rani and Kajol. Especially after "Black". Kajol comes back with a super performance. If she continues being choosy and picks the best scripts, which she is in a position to do, she is bound to get back to where she belongs. The number one actress in India.

Aamir Khan seems to essay any role he wants whenever he wants. Coming back after a powerful role in "Rang De Basanti", Aamir demonstrates again why he is the country's top actor. Take a bow Aamir.

Jatin-Lalit might as well split and take rest or take rest even together. Except for "Chaand Sifaarish" nothing else seemed to work! Salim-Sulaiman are turning out to carve their own niche in the world of background music. The "Subaanallah" piece is particularly haunting!

Ravi. K. Chandran makes the movie look slick and extremely good. His close-up shots of Aamir and Kajol are amazing. And the camerawork during the title credits is eye-catching. The helicopter shots and the sweeping shots over the snow-ranges are all works of art.

Kunal Kohli must learn how to hire an editor and work towards a better and tighter screenplay idea. I will not say that the direction was bad, but there's nothing to write home about either. A director who needs good scripts to run the show. But then, who doesn't? I don't rate him highly. You can't call a good story, bad editing, horrible screenplay and unforgivable casting as good direction.

Apart from Aamir and Kajol, there's nothing in the movie. Story keeps you a little interested till the end. Whereas everything else tries to throw you out of the theatre.

My rating: ***

Legend:
* Stay at home
** If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
*** Can watch on a pirated DVD!
**** Go, watch it on the big screen!
***** Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!

Munich – A review from a movie watcher of the ‘Steven Spielberg era

2006-05-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

Review has been written by a friend of mine - Mr. Damodharan. A senior of mine from B-School. He can be contacted at damodharanu@yahoo.com

Every time the world gets bored of pop corn flicks like War of the worlds, Minority Report, Artificial Intelligence Steven Spielberg comes up with his trademark flick that leaves his imprint strongly. Be it Saving Private Ryan or Jurassic Park or Schindler's List.

This time it is 'Munich'. I would say its one of the toughest in the director's career and perhaps the most anguished. One of those Hollywood fictions that seems to stupefy those who miss the nuance in the words "inspired by real events."

Based on the controversial book 'Vengeance' by George Jonas, the movie is based on the real life incident of the aftermath of murder of eleven Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist group 'Black September' at the Munich Olympics. It portrays both sides without leaning to either of them.

The movie kick starts with a scene where Palestinians enter the dormitory of the athletes in the Olympiad at Munich. They take both the Israeli athletes and the coaches as hostages. A catastrophic showdown emerges shortly after that in which all the Israelis get killed. The movie then traverses back to the house of the Israeli Prime minister Golda Meir where 'Avner' a former Mossad agent who is coerced to take up the task of tracking and hunting the men behind the terrorist attacks are present along with others. The task will mean that Avner will have assistance in terms of man power and money but if being caught, Israel would deny their very existence itself.

Avner leaves Jerusalem and his wife and travels to Europe. There, he meets his team members, Steve (Daniel Craig), Carl (Ciaran Hinds), Hans (Hanns Zischler) and Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz). A team comprising a bomb expert, work the books, a man good with guns, and a cleaner to wipe the loose ends as the team progresses in executing the task. They find out that 'Black September’, a group of Eleven people has planned the attack. All eleven of them are in Europe and hence Avner & his team has to stay as long as it takes in Europe and kill all of them. Avner has no idea where to start. He goes to Frankfurt to meet an old friend 'Louis' who knows someone who knows someone etc which leads to the first amongst the eleven getting killed. Avner gets going with Louis, (Mathieu Amalric). Louis is expensive though consistent and provides the information for Avner's hit squad. Avner's team starts leaving a trail of corpses In the end his team accomplish the task clinically though they are also targeted by the PLOs. Only Avner survives till the end.

The movie then revolves around Avner's character - the emotions, the paranoia, the emotional stress he undergoes during the executions. He along with his team really face conflict within themselves as the executions kill bystanders and innocent people who just come their way. The movie has lot of dialogues difficult to pay attention to though they are powerful. Spielberg brings out the ‘Israel-Palestine’ issue like ‘opening a bottle of colored liquid and spills in on the floor'. Leaves it there. A different touch Spielberg has given to the movie. He does not attempt to give any solution instead throws light on the issue from different angles trying to making the issue clearer"

Avner leaves Jerusalem and his wife and travels to Europe. There, he meets his team members, Steve (Daniel Craig), Carl (Ciaran Hinds), Hans (Hanns Zischler) and Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz). A team comprising a bomb expert, work the books, a man good with guns,
and a cleaner to wipe the loose ends as the team progresses in executing the task. They find out that 'Black September’, a group of Eleven people has planned the attack. All eleven of them are in Europe and hence Avner & his team has to stay as long as it takes in Europe and kill all of them. Avner has no idea where to start. He goes to Frankfurt to meet an old friend 'Louis' who knows someone who knows someone etc which leads to the first amongst the eleven getting killed. Avner gets going with Louis, (Mathieu Amalric). Louis is expensive though consistent and provides the information for Avner's hit squad. Avner's team starts leaving a trail of corpses In the end his team accomplish the task clinically though they are also targeted by the PLOs. Only Avner survives till the end.

The movie then revolves around Avner's character - the emotions, the paranoia, the emotional stress he undergoes during the executions. He along with his team really face conflict within themselves as the executions kill bystanders and innocent people who just come their way.
The movie has lot of dialogues difficult to pay attention to though they are powerful. Spielberg brings out the ‘Israel-Palestine’ issue like ‘opening a bottle of colored liquid and spills in on the floor'. Leaves it there. A different touch Spielberg has given to the movie. He does not attempt to give any solution instead throws light on the issue from different angles trying to making the issue clearer.

In one of his interviews, I remember Steven Spielberg mention "I guess as I grow older, I just feel more responsibility for telling the stories that have some kind of larger meaning…as I get older, I feel the burden of responsibility that comes along with such a powerful tool. I certainly have made movies by popular demand. There is a distinction between moviemaking and filmmaking. I want to do both." I believe, though direction is tight, the movie is a bit slow. The intelligent audience would have to decide whether the responses from Israelis are 'counter-terrorism' or 'retaliation'. Spielberg also hammers down an emotional punch down our throat by making Guri Weinberg act in the movie. Guri Weinberg plays Moshe Weinberg the Israeli wrestling referrer and former wrestling champion who died in the massacre. Spielberg is too unwilling and seldom cringes to exercise his ideological sureties in his movies"

Steven Spielberg has a team of the best in the world. 73 year old Michael Kahn as editor, 50 year old Janus Kamunski, 70 year old John Williams. They almost produce 'perfections' every time. In the next generations to come, people who get trained in film production institutes should have syllabus covering works from this team. To begin with, 'Direction'. The movie is too powerful with Spielberg trying to balance between tragedy and revenge, ethics and politics, diplomacy and emotion.

Camerawork is geometric. Be it the verdant France or the bleached outskirts of Israel. Its presented beautifully. Scenes where the hand held cameras are used to capture the events to make it more realistic are breathtaking. Looks so simple yet gargantuan. The killings are carried out in various European capitals -Rome, Paris, Cyprus, Beirut and Athens. The camera takes the users back to the European capitals of the 1970s. In the climax where a discussion happens between two guys, the camera is pulled back and in the back ground we see the twin towers in the backdrop. Sometimes such elegant shots also show the truthfulness behind the theme the movie carries.

Editing is strong. To say it is strong it was felt. It would be beyond considerable sense to comment on Michael Kahn's editing.

Munich is his best I would say until his next movie comes.

Screenplay is by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump). Tough job though the length of the movie is really a backdraw. To maintain the importance of the theme, the screenplay looks stretched a little too far.

‘Music’. John Williams should remember 2005 for a long time. He had 4 releases – ‘War of the worlds’, ‘Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith’, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and ‘Munich’. Munich would be remembered for its uniqueness. 'A Prayer for peace' would not only stand to embrace the history of the tragedy that happened in 1972 but would stand to honour the mourning for the members of the Israeli team. The piano piece during the end credits will be one of this bests.

Screenplay is by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump). Tough job though the length of the movie is really a backdraw. To maintain the importance of the theme, the screenplay looks stretched a little too far.

However being a Steven Spielberg fan I feel that he can make an epic in no time with his resources. It appears to me that the movie had to be rushed to get it released before Oscars. Well people make mistakes. Even extraordinary people. Even Spielberg. Spielberg does one with the length of the movie.

Though Munich is not the best of the movies ever made. It may not be the best of the 'boringly reliable' Steven Spielberg. Yet it would be a significant movie in the list of movies every made. Quite unparralleled. Just because of the theme of the movie and how it thrives to stick to it.

Dedicated to Sutejas

2006-05-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

The perfect friend.. Since 1988.

No that's not the year when Sutejas was born. That was the year when we met. And we have been friends ever since.

18 years we have known each other. And I must say he's the ideal friend, ideal son, ideal brother and ideal boyfriend. Am sure whichever girl accepts his proposal will also get the privilege of being with the ideal husband.

A mature guy with a stable head on his shoulders. His knees are moody though! Has a good circle of friends and is very dedicated to them. Will do anything for them.

Both of us share a common love towards our first love Mysore. He can read and understand the vedas and our ancient scriptures owing to his knowledge of out language sanskrit. A great believer in Hinduism and India. I share the same thoughts with him.

Has the guts to say "No" when he wants to. Peaceful and stable. Fun-loving and emotionally mature. I am proud to have a friend like him. His parents call me as their "mane huduga". And I love them too!

It's Hot Machi!

2006-05-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

DMK wins. AIADMK loses. People do rallies on Gemini Flyover. Dance and sing. It's red and black all over chennai. The two leaves have gone.

So, now you can expect Colour TV's and Set-Top-Boxes into the houses of people in Tamil Nadu. With DMK taking over, rowdyism is expected to grow. But not at the cost of development I hope.

Media is slowly deteriorating to its worst-ever. Jaya TV (AIADMK's mouthpiece, obvious from the name right?)continued to give wrong reports of the election even when it was established that AIADMK had lost it! Sun TV was going gaga over its victory; what with its owner's brother Mr. Dayanidhi Maran occupying the space below the left-arm of 82-year old Mr. M. Karunanidhi - who becomes the chief minister for the fifth time. The CNN-IBN and The Hindu were quite satisfied with the fact that their exit poll was proved correct. Probably for the first time ever some opinion poll was proved correct on TN elections!

Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV, characteristically was pulling the mikes away from the speakers halfway at his post-elections show on TN. And his act of being spontaneous generally backfires. There are so many "aaa.."s and "mmm..."s in his speech that you will go to sleep. And he never does his homework for any programme. Sports a beard similar to Prannoy Roy and thinks he is better than Prannoy Roy! Something like Sehwag thinking he is Tendulkar!

SunTV, well, I don't know when these fellows will improve their presentation. The winners list was displayed like it was an invitation for a funeral! Blue background (that Doordarshan blue) with white font. And it was being read out by the newsreader. You can't get worse than this!

We now have an 82-year old CM for TN. I guess this will be his farewell term. Or else he might create a record for being the oldest CM of a state in India! Anyway's let's hope for the best in Tamil Nadu! All the best to DMK for making TN better!

PS: The title of this post refers to the best FM Radio Station in Chennai. Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM. It's hot machi!

Meeting the one who made us complete!

2006-05-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

November 17, 1997
Mysore

First day at college. A huge crowd had gathered in front of the notice board. The crowd was mostly us, first years! I don't exactly remember if anyone looked particularly tense or what, but we were making one hell of a noise! It was already 9AM and the classes were supposed to start at 9AM. And I was atleast twenty people away from the notice board. Some bright idiot had placed the board on the floor in such a way that it rested on the wall and the floor. So, everyone was bending down to see the board. Studiously if I ever wanted to do anything; all I could do was an instant survey (technically called a snap poll!) of the various brands of college bags in Mysore!

When I went to the time-table I realised people were first supposed to find out into which section they were put into. And then according to your section you need to look at the next board for the time-table. I was told Engineering was hardwork. Now I understood why. We complicated the most simple of things just like that!

By the time I figured out my co-ordinates it was 9.45AM. I was supposed to go to some room no. 207 or something. The class that was going on was Engineering Mechanics by KCM (koLi Manja!). I had no idea which floor that damned room was in. The officials at the office were least bothered about me. Who else do I ask? Seniors? duh...!!

207 was the first room at the end of the staircase on the first floor. As soon as I arrived outside the classroom, I heard some heavily accented english and a few complex equations. As I approached the classroom I could see a group of people standing behind the classroom from the corner of my right eye. Sensing that they must also have lost the race in reading the time-table I approached them.

One guy with big eyes and big ears was beaming from one end of his prominent ear to the other. I casually walked up to him. And when I walk casually, the swagger can be worse than Atal Bihari Vajpayee's!

This big eyes and ears guy asked me, "E Section aa?" [Do you beloong to the E Section?]

I said, "Hun, haudu. Neenu?" [Yeah. E section. What about you?]

He answered panning his hands across all the present people, "Hun. Naavellaru E Section ee!" [Yeah. All of us belong to "E" Section]

I tried putting on the mask of the sincere student and asked him, " Horagade nintiddre enu use? Banni olagade bidakke permission kelana." [What's the use of standing outside? Let's go and request to be permitted inside.]

The entire group was now looking at me with a what-an-extrasmart-guy question in their eyes! The grin which was ever-present turned into a guffaw! I knew I had asked the wrong question!

Pointing to a sweet-looking guy with a cute smile, big-eyes n ears said, "Avanu iddannalla? Avanu hoda olagade 'excuse me' anbittu. Sakkat aagi byiskondu banda horagade" [Do you see that guy? He went inside the class saying 'excuse me'. He got scolded (by the professor) and turned him out.]

I gave the cute-smile-guy a sheepish smile and shut myself up for the rest of the time I spent with that gang. But since shutting up was never easy, I carried on a harmless discussion about CET Ranks, branches, counseling, colleges, origin, localite and non-localite, etc etc with big-ears. I understood that the entire gang of guys had done their Pre-University course together and hence they knew each other very well.

At 10Am, KCM walked out. We walked in. I found Sam sitting alone on the third bench. I walked upto him straight and occupied the place next to him. Now, there was place enough for one more only. Yeah, we were and still are fat! I spoke to Sam and explained why I didn't attend the class. Hey! Wait a minute! The first class of my engineering course and I had bunked!! Wow! I was so proud of myself! Sam was rather disconnected with my idea of pride! Ha! Never mind! Great brains were never understood during their time!

Just then walked in the last occupant of the bench. He was dark, wide (but not fat, and that was then, now he is fat!) and wore spectacles. Sam waved to him and gestured to come and grace us with his esteemed presence. [The effect of composing wedding invites!] K walked in with all his style with a bright smile on his face.

As soon as Sam said, "Hi". I heard K's reply "Hi!" and almost fainted! It was as if he was saying hi to someone zipping on a motorcycle with a walkman in his ears across the Manantody Road [The road overlooking the college]!! Man, was he loud?!

Sam said, "K meet adi. Ade nanna jagadalli KSS Hostel ge baro avanu idda nodu. Ivane avanu! " [K meet Adi. He was the one who was supposed to come in my place to KSS Hostel] Oh! so they were hostelmates!

K shouted and at the same time extended his right hand, "Oh hauda. Nice meeting you ma. Enu ninna full hesaru?" [Oh, is it? Nice meeting you ma. What's your full name?]

I shook his hand and said, "Aditya. Aditya Nataraja" [I always say that in the 'Bond. James Bond' style!]

I repeated K's full name which was Krishnaprasad and asked him if I could call him "KP". He shouted in reply, but I understood that he had agreed!

KP and Sam were hostelmates during first year at the KSS Hostel. After which, KP separated out of the hostel and stayed with his uncle and aunt at Chikkahardanahalli 2nd stage, Sriramapura. [He always insisted on telling his full address to anyone who asked him, "Where do you stay?"] It is an area right behind the Ashokapuram Railway Station. KP used to have a cycle (Canon Barrel Blue colour) on which he would frequent me and Shastri wherever we stayed. Though he used to sweat profusely after the Tour De France kind of journeys, his inspiration never went down even for a while. As someone has said, "Success is 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration" [Or was it the other way round?!]

KP graduated from NIE (Mechanical Engineering) in 2001. He has been with the corporate world ever since. He has worked with companies like Festo & ESMA (Abu Dhabi). Presently works in Webex as a Sales Manager handling Bangalore region.

KP, Sam, Sha and I formed a relationship. If I call it "Friendship" it sounds too flimsy. But I realise that I cannot give this any name. And I believe that if you have a relationship that you cannot confine to the boundary of a name, then it's a relationship of the highest order. And that's what the four of us share. We are proud of what we have with us. And intend to keep it with us forever.

The four of us have given each other strength during trying times. We have given ourselves direction when we were lost. We gave each other a mouthful when we began flying too high. We can say "Very Good" and "Very Bad" with the same intensity and be sure that it will be received with the same intensity. Yeah sometimes we end up breaking our bones, but then if you got the point, then that's it! Whatever we are today is because of what we were during those years from 1997 to 2001. We know it and live by it!

Meeting NS

2006-05-01T02:13:00.000-07:00

November 1997
Mysore

Tomorrow was going to be the first day of engineering. A dream I had seen since passing out of my tenth standard. Doing my graduation at Mysore with all my friends. Coincidentally, most of my friends had found their way to NIE Vivek, Goddi, Raj, Harsha and Sutti. Rohith was in the nearby SJCE. It was the college I had chosen in my first round of counseling.

I was sitting in my hostel room and matching dreams with reality watching the beautiful network of cobwebs woven by the extra-active spiders on the roof. Then walked in NS. We started speaking on some topic, and both of us felt claustrophobic.

What else do you expect?

It was a 10' x 13' room with walls that were last painted when the Wodeyars were ruling Mysore. The walls, probably, were built much before that. It is said that Tipu Sultan supervised the construction! Four of us were supposed to live in that monument of a room. Till I came in, my roomie was the only one to have been staying there. And he was what we called, "Doctorate in Engineering". It was his fifth year at engineering! Anyway, more about him later.

NS and I stepped out of the room into the corridor. The corridor of this monument overlooked the road to our college. Manantody road. The hostel was just off the road. Nobody would even notice the hostel unless someone they knew stayed in the hostel. From the outside it looked like a neglected Government project of lined up houses for the slum-dwellers. Not that it was a palace from inside, but still!!

NS said, "Ninge bere yaava hostel siglillva?" [Didn't you find any other hostel?]
I answered, "Sikktu. KSS hostel nalli sikkittu. But alli nange munche inda 6 jana iro room kottru. Nanu hogididdre 7th man aagtidde!" [Yeah, I was offered accommodation in a room where 6 people were already staying as the 7th man!]

NS said, "Sari bidu. Olledu aytu. Illige bandyalla" [Good in a way. You ended up here.]
I said, "Haudu" [Yeah]

NS asked, "Estu ittu ninna CET rank?" [What was your CET rank?]
I said, "2930, nindu?" [2930, what was yours?]

NS said, "1068" [It was around that number! I don't remember properly!]
I exclaimed, "Enu?! NIE Mech enakke togonde?" [What?! And you landed up in NIE Mech?]

NS said, "Hun. Nange mech ee bekittu. NIE gintha na Mech bekaadre. E&C, CS ella madakke ista illa nange. Adanna elladru kalibahudu" [Yeah. I wanted Mech only. And NIE is the best in Mech. I didn't want to take up E&C and CS]
I said, "Nandu ade idea iddiddu. But NIE mech sikkidu punya ne anko" [Even I belong to the same school of thought. But getting NIE Mech was a matter of pure luck!]

NS said, "Illa. Hangenu illa kano. Ninna rank ge general aagi sigutte NIE Mech. Olle rank ee nindu. [Nothing like luck. You had a good rank. You got the seat you deserved]
I said, "Nanganthu counseling time nalli full tension. Bari onde seat ulidittu nanu togonda mele" [I was very tense during my counseling. After my chance, only one seat was left]

NS said, "Nanu togondaaga, ade second seat. Naanu first inda second seat togonde. Neenu last inda second seat togondidya! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" [I picked the second seat from the top and you picked the second seat from the bottom! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!]

I joined in the laughter.

By the time we ended laughing we had settled ourselves comfortably on the bench under the Neem tree within the hostel compound. The weather during November in Mysore is just amazing. The birds migrating from Ranganathittu to their winter capitals. The "V" shape that they formed against the backdrop of the clear blue sky gave me a metaphor to think about. V stood for victory and the sky for the amount of potential we had to achieve the victory. Also, at times it gave me the feeling that our playground is like the sky. Unbounded & limitless but you will encounter clouds as you come down on your value system if you are blinded by that "V" for Victory.

Mysore gave me unlimited metaphors to life with its easy-going nature. The town would be called sleepy by those who had lived in the so-called big (and hence considered as better) cities. If you were not materialistic in nature, then Mysore is a place you would have loved during those times!

On the bench, I couldn't resist sharing these metaphors with NS. Instantly he agreed! He started sharing how much he loved Mysore. And I was agreeing to each and everything he had to say. It was like he would say something and I would build on it. And later, we would build on it. We enjoyed the conversation immensely.

It was like we were finding our wavelength. And it was being so easy. We felt like we were destined to meet each other this way at this time. Also, both of us were feeling homesick. It was the first time we were away from home. I remember both of us taking an oath that we would stay together throughout engineering. We had struck an emotional bond!

NS is what he signs at his office. Called "Harsha" by family and "Shastri" by friends. Narasimha Shastri and I went on to endure the hostel during the first year. Later on, we moved into a room at Kuvempunagar during the second year. And stayed as PGs at Jayanagar during our pre-final and final years.

Shastri graduated from NIE (Mechanical Engineering) in 2001. Got through Mico Bosch on campus and stayed with them till 2002. Secured an MS in CFD from NUS, Singapore and flew back to India. Has been working for GE JFWTC, Bangalore, as a scientist ever since. He insists on being called a technologist. Has his own blog too.

Shastri tied the knot this year in February to a very cute, sweet and strong-willed girl who goes by the name "Shrivalli". Shrivalli is an M.Sc graduate from Karnataka University and was with I.I.Sc as a Research Associate. She also has a paper published to her credit while at I.I.Sc. A girl with a clear determination to do her Ph.D in Glass Transition, Shrivalli and Shastri are colleagues at GE JFWTC presently! And it was all arranged!

What is Success in Life?

2006-05-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

Success in Life

There was a talk on "What is Success in Life?" by Swami Dayananda Saraswathi yesterday at K.L.N. Prasad Auditorium, Hyderabad. I will try to articulate the 40-minute speech here. The learned and well-versed Swamiji laced his speech with characteristic humour and made it sound quite down-to-earth. Though I felt he could have avoided unnecessary swipes at other religions, as my uncle said after the speech, "Somebody needs to protect Hinduism too". Maybe it's true. I am thinking.

The Chief Guest of the evening, Hon'ble Justice L. Narasimha Reddy tried interpreting the topic in his way and gave his ideas on it. He said, "Success is something that is achieved on meeting Goals. An individual fixes a goal before starting out and at the end if he has achieved whatever he had set for himself, then success is achieved." Fair enough we thought. We applauded.

Then Swamiji began.

What is Success? You have a desire. You achieve it. If the means of achieving that desire are within the confines of Dharma, then it is a success. That's all. That's why you need people like hon'ble Justice! [Pointing to the chief guest of the day!Audience is impressed. Laughter all around. Appluase follows!]

In life, we play multiple roles. A father, an employee, a son, etc. There are homes in which "Father is coming" is announced as if some ghost is coming. And as if on cue, the children rush into their rooms hiding from their father. Everybody is running to take shelter somewhere. The only person to come out is 'the dog' of the house! Ah! What a success! [Audience is in splits! Applause follows!] In some cases, even the dog runs for shelter! [More laughter, more applause!] With the tail in between its legs! [Laughter! Applause!]

There are some religions where it is preached, "Don't have any desires. Be desire-less. The state of desireless-ness is happiness. Between the fulfilment of one desire and the beginning of another desire is defined as happiness."

Don't have any desires is like saying,"You are having an headache? Cut off your head!". Ha! Ha! Ha!

Now you laughed. What desire did you fulfill you tell me?! You were happy, you laughed. Sometimes, happiness can also be achieved by not fulfilling any desire.

Have desires. It is healthy to have desires. If you have desire you will experience failure. You will learn how to come out of it. You will grow as a person. But make sure the means to achieve your desire is within the confines of Dharma.

We, human beings, have two things to do. We have to survive, and take care of ourselves to follow Dharma. Because there are predators all around. Be careful. They are waiting to prey on you.

But we have one more thing to do. "Make-up". If we don't have hair, we do some farming on our head to help hair growth. If we have some hair left, then we need to comb it from one side to another. If we have to hear a swamiji speak we need to comb our hair, put on a good dress and come. So, that means we have three things to do. Survive, take care and make-up! [Audience is almost on the floor laughing!]

What is Dharma you might ask. The Dharma being referred to here is Samanya Dharma. Lord Krishna has said, "I manifest myself in the form of desire in you. I am desire". But before that he says, "I manifest myself in you as Samanya Dharma".

What is Samanya Dharma? In order to have a desire you need to examine if it falls under the confines of Samanya Dharma. It is something like the "Law of Gravitation" that a baby monkey knows. Have you ever seen a Mother monkey tell it's baby monkey, "See, you will need to hold on to me tightly. Otherwise gravitation will pull you down and you will fall". Have you ever seen a baby monkey ask, "What is gravitation?"!

Similar to the knowledge of gravitation to a monkey, is the Samanya Dharma to a Hindu. Why is it called "Samanya"? Because it is "Samana" to all. "Samana" means common to all. It exists in everybody. In Hinduism, ends does not justify means. Never. The means have to be as righteous as the end being achieved.

Finally, success is following Dharma to achieve a desire.
[Applause! Applause! Applause!]

Inspired by a colour!

2006-04-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

Rang De Basanti

When your tagline says, "A generation awakens", it means serious business. A great dream and a very high aim for yourself. This "sms generation" for whom anything beyond four lines is a lecture, you are presenting a two hour forty minute dawdle. I am surprised that it's been accepted so well. But since perfection is an illusion, I still hear people say, "Yeah, nice movie. But then what's the point? Should we take up arms in response to whatever's happening?". This write-up is for people with this attitude towards the movie.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra says it loud and clear in the website and as well as in the movie (Aamir says it on AIR), "Zindagi jeene ke do tareekhe hote hain. Ek, jo ho raha hai, usse hone do, bardaasht karo. Doosra, jo ho raha hai usse badalne ki khoshish karo". "There are two ways of living life. One, accept (in fact he says tolerate, but acceptance is a better virtue) whatever's happening and live. Two, accept the responsibility to change whatever's happening and do it." RDB is a movie about the second type - responsibility.

So, what happens in the movie? The five boys take up arms, kill the Defense Minister and get killed themselves. So isn't the answer obvious? Take up arms and kill the Minister! But you know that nobody will publicly acknowledge that it's a possible step. So, people begin thinking this way and shirk their responsibility. It's unfortunate that people think this way and spoil the spirit of the movie itself. It's these people, who actually are of the first kind (accept that life is like this and continue to live) but think that they are of the second kind (responsible to change whatever's happening) who speak like this. They are caught in a tremendous identity crisis.

Ok. I agree you can't decide what kind of a person you are. Atleast respect the sensibilities of people behind the movie: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Director/Producer, Screenplay), Ronnie Screwwaala (Producer), Kamlesh Paandey (Screenplay and Story), Aamir Khan (Actor) and others. Do you think they would make a movie to inspire youngsters to take up arms? Call it "Rang De Basanti", and spend Rs. 30 crores to just incite violence in the country? What a joke it would be!

Since we are not able to be strong, we also say is the system really screwed up? We try to cover up for our lack of knowledge. Some of our esteemed NRI's who stay abroad start thinking publicly about how the system needn't be victimised by films like these. It's happening for heaven's sake! Why would over 200 MiG planes crash over the last 15 years? Think! Damnit think!

I have dealt with the Government during my early days in my job. I know what a dirty game it is. I refused to be a part of such stuff and resigned. But I know that it's still happening. Despite knowing I am unable to do anything about it. It's my money, it's our money that goes waste that way. And people ask, why is the gap between poor and rich getting wider?

Like Madhavan's character, Flight Lieutenant Ajay Rathod says, "Is desh ko badal sakte hain. Police main bharthi ho jaao, military join karo, IAS bano, politics main utaro aur badalo is desh ko. Lekin hum nahi karenge. Pata hai kyon? Apni ghar ki safai main apne haat koun gande kare."

Yeah maybe he stops with Police, military, IAS and politics. But the essence of the message is that, "Have you ever tried to do anything? Sitting and cribbing is so easy to do. Go out there and do something first". And that's the awakening that is intended to be brought about through the movie. And what's the interpretation? The movie suggests that the answer to all the problems is violence. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Finally, "Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota. Usse perfect banana padta hai" [No country is perfect. You need to make it perfect!]

You, Me, Us! We can do it!

Mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara!

2006-04-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Rang De Basanti

thodisi dhuul meri dharti ki mere watan ki - 2
thodisi Khushbuu baurai se mast pavan ki
thodisi dhondhane waali dhak-dhak dhak-dhak dhak-dhak saansein
jin mein ho junoon junoon voh boonde laal lahuu ki
yeh sab tuu mila mila le phir rang tuu khila khila le - 2
aur mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe tuu rang de basanti
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti - 9
oh mohe rang de basanti basanti rang de basanti - 2

Take some soil from the land of my country,  
And a little scent of its sweet air,  
And a little breath of ours,  
In which there is the passion of our blood, 
Add everything and enjoy the colour that blossoms,
Colour me with the colour of patriotism my friend! 

sapnen rang de, apne rang de
khushiyaan rang de, gam bhi rang de
naslen rang de, faslein rang de
rang de dhadkan, rang de sargam
aur mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe tuu rang de basanti
(thodisi dhuul meri dharti ki mere watan ki - 2
thodisi Khushbuu baurai se mast pavan ki
thodisi dhondhane waali dhak-dhak dhak-dhak dhak-dhak saansein
jin mein ho junoon junoon voh boonde laal lahuu ki
yeh sab tuu mila mila le phir rang tuu khila khila le - 2
aur mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe tuu rang de basanti)

Colour your dreams, colour your people, 
Colour your happiness, colour your sadness too,  
Colour generations, colour the crops,  
Colour the heartbeats, colour the melody,   
And colour me with that colour of patriotism my friend!
Colour me with that colour of patriotism!  

dheemi aanch pe tuu zara ishq chadha
thode jharne laa, thodi nadi mila
thode saagar laa, thodi gaagar laa
thoda chhidak chhidak, thoda hila hila
phir ek rang tu khila khila
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe tuu rang de basanti

Place love on a simmering flame, 
Get a few streams and add rivers, 
Get some seas and oceans,  
Sprinkle a little, stir a little, 
You will find one colour that blossoms, 
Colour me with that colour of patriotism my friend! 
Colour me with that colour of patriotism my friend!  

basti rang de, hasti rang de
hans hans rang de, nas nas rang de
bachpan rang de, joban rang de
ab der na kar sachmuch rang de
rang rez mere sab kuchh rang de
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe tuu rang de basanti

Colour your streets, colour your hands, 
Colour your smiles, colour your veins, 
Colour your childhood, colour your youth,  
Don't wait anymore colour me fully, 
Colour everything, 
Colour me with the colour of patriotism my friend!  
Colour me with the colour of patriotism! 

thodisi dhuul meri dharti ki mere vatan ki - 2
thodisi KHushbuu baurai se mast pavan ki
thodisi dhondne waali dhak-dhak dhak-dhak dhak-dhak saansein
jin mein ho junoon junoon voh boonde laal lahuu ki
yeh sab tuu mila mila le phir rang tuu khila khila le - 2
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti - 9
mohe rang de basanti basanti rang de basanti - 4
rang de rang de rang de basanti
(ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
ding ding ding ding ding) - 3
mohe rang de basanti basanti rang de basanti basanti
mohe rang de basanti rang de basanti rang de basanti

Take some soil from the land of my country,  
And a little scent of its sweet air,  
And a little breath of ours,  
In which there is the passion of our blood,  
Add everything and enjoy the colour that blossoms,
Colour me with the colour of patriotism my friend!

My Apologies to Mr. Prasoon Joshi for not bringing out the true spirit of the song.
I wanted it to reach out to a wider audience. That's all!
I get inspired everytime I listen to this song!

And Mr. A R Rahman, you never cease to amaze me Sir! Take a bow!

Thank you for such a great song!

Meeting S - Part II

2006-04-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

September 1997
Bangalore

Same place. SJM Samudaya Bhavana. Second round of counseling. Counseling in this part of the country meant seat-selection. Second round meant that if there were any students who chose medical seats and dropped their engineering seats or vice-versa [very rare phenomenon – this vice-versa!] they get a chance to review their choice and pick a better seat if available.

We bump into S and his father again. S was more candid this time.
I said, “Hi”
S replied, “Hi”

I asked, “So elligadru shift maado idea idya ninge? Athava NIE Mech khushi na?” [Are you planning to shift anywhere else? Or are you happy with NIE-Mech?]
S answered, “Nammappa helta iddare E&C togo antha. BMS nalli ide. Aadre nange ista illa. Nanu Mysore ge barbeku antha iddini”[My father is asking me to take up E&C that is available in BMS. But I don’t want to. I want to come to Mysore only]

I asked, ”GMR quota nalli BMS E&C sikkta idya?!” [Is BMS E&C available under GMR quota?!]
S, “Hun ide” [Yeah]

S asked me, noticing my fixed look on the electronic display board, “Neenu enadru change goskara nodta idya?” [Are you looking to shift out?]
I answered, “NIE Mech nalli 5 seat mikkide. Inna 100 jana counseling aagbeku. Adenadru iddre nanu baro thanka, nanu adanne togoteeni. Illa andre JCE – IP ne saaku nange” [The board is showing that there are 5 seats left in NIE Mech. There are 100 people to go. If there is a seat remaining till my chance then I will shift in there. Otherwise, I am happy with whatever I have]

“So nanna jote ne barthiya?” [So, you will be joining me?]
“Nodana. Luck hengidyo gottillvalla!” [Let’s see. You never know when luck deserts you!]

As we finished the conversation, S moved towards the counseling table. And since we were 34 ranks away, I had no idea what happened to him. Whether he chose BMS E&C or stayed with his selection.

When it was my chance, there were exactly 3 seats left in NIE Mech. And surprisingly I ended up at the same smiling guy’s table!
I just shouted, “NIE Mech” on reaching the table lest anybody grabbed my seat!
He comforted me by saying, “Neevu seat togoLo tanka bere yaarigu access iralla sir. KutkoLi”. [Till you choose your seat, others cannot choose from the seat matrix sir. Please be seated.]
That’s when I realized my father was still standing!
So I cooled down. Did I really? I don’t think so. I didn’t believe that smiling guy. This time the smile wasn’t there. But it still haunted me!

“NIE Mech”, I repeated showing my receipt of fees paid for SJCE IP.
“Good choice Sir” he said looking at my father.

My father was also happy. One of our relatives was a lecturer in this college and several of our acquaintances had studied in this prestigious institution. This confirmation from the smiling guy only strengthened our belief in the choice that we had made.

The look on my face was of absolute relief! To be among the last ones in this race is really a pressure cooker situation. And somewhere while doing my homework for engineering colleges in Karnataka, I had told my aunt, “Nange yako anista ide that I will get into NIE, Mechanical antha”. [My sixth sense tells me that I will get into NIE Mechanical!] And that was a good six months before today!

Before we could get up and leave, the smiling guy said, ”Neevu first round nalli SJCE IP select maDidaagle ankonDe nimmge ee round nalli NIE Mech sigutte antha. Sikktu. Congrats sir!” [When you selected SJCE IP in the first round itself I guessed that you will get NIE Mech in the second round. Congratulations for getting it Sir!]

And that was the reason for his smile! “Thanks” we replied. And came to the foyer again.

S was there with his father. I approached them with a wide grin on my face. I had this victorious feeling that I had earned my seat in the General Merit Category!

I walked upto them and said, “Nange NIE Mech sikktu” [I got NIE Mech!]
S’s father, “Congratulations kanappa! Neenu ivanu ottige irabahudu hangaadre!” [Congratulations my son! You and my son can be together!]

I couldn’t resist the temptation of asking, “BMS E&C togollilva?” [Didn’t you pick BMS E&C?]
S, “Illa, Togollilla” [No, I didn’t take it.]

I asked without any sign of remorse in my voice, “Nijavagilu open aagi itta BMS E&C?” [Was BMS E&C really available?]
S, “Hun, ittu”

If you haven’t changed your option in the second round, you wouldn’t be loitering around in the foyer. So, what were they upto here? And as usual, I asked them the same.

“Illi enu madta idya hangaadre?” [Then what are you doing here?]
I had no sophistication about myself then. And never did I attempt to get better!
“Nanu general merit ge shift aagbitte. NIE Mech ee aadre” [I shifted from Rural quota to General merit keeping NIE Mech constant]

“Sari bidu. Olledu. NIE nalle sigana hangaadre. Bye” [Ok then. Let’s meet at NIE]
“Bye”

The next step in the procedure was that: You need to go to the concerned college, submit the receipt and get your seat confirmed. Also, if necessary make your booking for the college hostel in case you are a non-localite and needed accommodation.

My father and I went to Mysore by bus. Though we preferred a train journey, we didn’t want to risk missing the working hours of NIE. We wanted to finish the formalities and return the next day to Hyderabad.

We are at NIE Mysore. And guess whom we meet there? Yes! Brilliant answer! S and his father again! This time S and I took the lead in completing the formalities. As it involved just going to the office and submitting our documents and saying “Hi” “Hello” to them and coming. Also, additionally by then S & I had realized that we needed accommodation. So, we had to approach the Manager of the Hostel too.

By then S had told me that he was a very influential person. He knew the secretary of NIE Management committee who was in fact in-charge of assigning hostel accommodation. The clerk at the office told us that we needed to talk to the secretary itself. And also added a footnote of information saying, “As far as I know, hostel accommodation is not available”. And that’s when S told me about his high-level contacts.

We came out of the office and by then our fathers were having a conversation. My father was telling S’s father, “Sankethi hostel antha yavdo idyalla, alli try madtivi. Nodana sigutta antha.” [There is a hostel called Sankethi hostel, we’ll try our luck there]
S’s father, “Sari sir hangaadre. Bandillvanthe secretary sahibru. Avaranna bheTi aagi horadteevi” [Okay Sir. The secretary has not yet come. We will meet him and then make our move] and he continued, “Aditya, all the best mari. Namma hudugannu nodko chennagi. Ibbaru ottige iri. Guide maadappa namma huduganna swalpa” [Aditya, all the best to you son. Take care of my son also. Both of you be together. Please guide my son also]
I answered, “Uncle, naanenu guide madodu. Nange enu gottilla. Ibbaru ottige anthu irthivi uncle. Hogbittu barteevi. Bye S” [Uncle, What do I know to guide him? But we shall be together for sure. We will take your leave. Bye S.]
S answered, “Bye”, with a smile on his face.
The fathers shook hands and the sons exchanged smiles bidding farewell to each other.

Little did we know that this farewell was going to be the beginning of a friendship that would blossom into one of the best ever relationships. S (Sameer alias Sam) and I stayed (almost!) & studied together at Mysore. As if to prove uncle (Sam’s father) right, we stayed together during engineering and even much after.

Sam graduated from NIE (Mechanical Engineering) in 2001. Worked with I.I.Sc. for two years as a research associate. Topped in GATE 2003 (Vulgar percentile he got: 99 point something! I almost disowned him after his results!). He is presently pursuing M.Tech in Aerospace structures from IIT Bombay.

Meeting S - Part I

2006-04-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

June 1997
Bangalore

It was that time in a student’s career when he is about to choose a college where he believes a platform for his future will be set. Sitting inside the SJM Samudaya Bhavana where the CET counseling used to take place then, I was thinking of what lies ahead for me. One thing I knew for sure is that I was going to be in Mysore. The question was: NIE or SJCE?

Having secured a rank of 2930, I was well poised for a seat in NIE. I could choose from Mech/ EEE/ IP or Civil. My dodappa [father’s elder brother!] had told me that EEE involved lot of head-breaking studies and that Civil was not a branch with great opportunities. The infrastructure boom was not even on the horizon then. So that only left Mech and IP as the two branches for me to pick from. But there was one problem – you won’t be able to get into Software Industry from these branches. Of course, the boom went on to surprise us!

It was the first round of counseling. My father had come with me. We were sitting on seats which were in a 2 + 2 fashion like in a hitech bus. One student and his escort on each pair of seats. It was my father & me on one pair and next to me was S’s father & S on the adjacent pair of seats. This was the arrangement:

My father-Me-S’s father-S

S’s father: “Enappa ninna hesaru?” [What’s your name?]
Me: “Aditya, Sir”
(S’s position: Looking away from the conversation)

S’s father: “Localite aa neenu?” [Are you a localite of Karnataka?]
Me: “Hun Sir” [Yes Sir]
(S’s position: Looking away from the conversation)
My father and I talk to each other in telugu. Hence the question. But since I was talking to so many other people around in Kannada, he started the conversation with me in Kannada. And I love Kannada!

S’s father: “Elli college odiddu?” [Which college did you study in?]
Me: “Hyderabad nalli”
(S’s position: Looking away from the conversation)

S’s father: “Hyderabad nalli odiddre localite henge aagtiya?” [How can you be a localite if you did your college in Hyderabad?]
Me: “Nanu seven years Karnataka nalli odiddini. Plus ondu public exam kooda bardiddini. 4th to 10th standard. Hangaagi nanu localite! [I have studied in Karnataka for seven years and also written a public exam. So, as per rules am a localite of Karnataka]
(S’s position: Looking away from the conversation)

S’s father: “Estu ninna rank?” [What is your rank?]
Me: “2930”
(S’s position: Looking at me with great interest and anxiety as if I was going to tell a secret that would expose his position! After my answer, he was back to his ‘looking away’ position.)

S’s father: “Enu togolona antha idya?” [What are you planning to choose?]
Me: “Branch yavdadru parvagilla, Mysore beku aste nange!” [Whatever the branch be, I want to go to Mysore!]
(S’s position: Looking away from the conversation)

S’s father: “Adeno CS togondre, E&C togondre ella bright future ide antharallappa?! [They say that if you choose CS or E&C branches you will have a bright future, is it true?]
Me: Adella gottilla nange. Yaava branch togondru opportunities naave create madkobeku allva?! So yaava branch togondre enu heli?! [I cannot comment on that. Whichever branch you choose you need to create opportunities. So, how does it make a difference which branch you choose?]
(S’s position: Looking away from the conversation)

S was actually looking at the Electronic board displaying the rank numbers being called for counseling. It had reached 2890. His rank was 2896. So he was tense. They went off after sometime, and I turned my attention back to the big electronic display board.

The person with 2929 rank was choosing a seat. The seat availability board read:

GMU quota (GMU: General Merit Urban)
NIE, Mysore
Mech - 00
EEE - 04
IP - 23
Civil - 27

SJCE, Mysore
Mech - 00

EEE - 06
IP - 18
Civil - 25

I had made my choice. As soon as I went to the desk, I said “SJCE – IP”. The person at the counter gave me a strange smile, which I was not able to interpret. I was not in a mood to interpret actually.

Then we walked upto the foyer (fees-paying counter in fact) of the CET cell. I was happy that I had got my Mysore seat. My father had no problems since I had what I wanted. But that smile was haunting me. What did he mean? Why was that smile necessary?

Near the foyer we bumped into S and his father again. I asked him what he had picked.
He said, “NIE – Mechanical”
I said, “Congratulations!”

I started thinking. As long as I remembered there was no seat available in GMU quota. So immediately without any hesitation, I asked him how it was possible?

He said, ”GMR Quota. General Merit Rural.”
I said, “Oh ok”

And just turned (as rudely as possible) and walked away from the scene. I hated reservations right from the beginning of my education.

(I used to always wonder why I should pay Rs.450/- as fees where some other people could get away by paying only Re. 1! I had a friend during my schooldays. He belonged to the SC/ST category. He was also the son of the District Commissioner of Mysore. He could bloody well pay the entire fees. But he would pay only Re. 1/-. With due regards to his father, I think he could have risen to that level by making use of the benefits arising out of the reservation policy itself. Which very well means that the policy has achieved its objective and can be withdrawn henceforth. But then what are we mulling today? 49.5% reservation in IITs and IIMs?Reservation for SC/ST in private sector?! I support Lok Paritran!)

KSS Get-together!

2006-04-24T05:34:00.000-07:00

1997-2001 was the period when this hostel was our hang-out. Mornings would dawn at 10AM because the mess would close for breakfast by then! Then if college forced something important enough into our time-table then we would vaguely stroll in there and be back by lunch time so that our afternoon siesta didn't get affected.

Then started the actual day with a long two to three hour session of cricket. Technical, non-technical, sankethi, non-sankethi, etc what not! We had our own political boundaries! And lived religiously played fanatically by them! Then after the cricket and the sledging and a wash, the TT table would be the next place to attack!

After the sports-time would be a walk down to Anusha Bakery in pursuit of our indigenously designed snacks. Bun-Samosa by Sammu was a stunning recipe I tell you! Though largely inspired by Vada-pav, this item had its own fan following! Recommended combination: Bun-Samosa with Limejuice.

Generally, there would be some evening outing on the agenda. If nothing, then definitely a walk till Ballal circle for the sumptuous chat items on the roadside! Well, we didn't have as many bikes as there might be now! The walk in the serene roads of Jayanagar and Krishnamurthypuram is worth a million dollars. I am sure all of you in Bangalore will give me an unconditional vote on this topic! Trees on both sides of the road, topics varying from philosophy to pornography and sports to spirituality and technical to take-anything, we grew from graduates to professionals ready to take on the corporate world.

Dinner at the mess. We always had a sad word for the "Bhatru". But still had nowhere to go! After dinner started the movie shows. Each computer worth its salt would run a movie and depending on your ability to stay up throughout the night, you could watch as many as you wanted. But the movie shows wouldn't begin before the customary visit to "Corner" for the night-coffee! Anyways before you knew you would be asleep in some room or the other watching some movie or the other. So, the first thing that you do in the morning at the hostel is: Get-up and go to your room!

On April 23rd 2006, Sunday, at Ramee Guestline Hotel, Bangalore, those days were relived. 2001, 2003, 2004 & 2005 were the batches represented. 2001 batch won the High Enthusiasm Award by turning up in large numbers. As anyone would expect, the day went of in sports, food and sports!

Shastri, KP and I accorded Narendra’s red-colour well-formatted mail more seriousness than it deserved. We added the usual KSS Hostel FoS of 1hr to every timeline mentioned and arrived in front of the resort at 11AM. Here are a few excerpts of the conversation we had with the organizers.

At 10.00AM (We were at Koramangala)
Adi: Hello
Nari: Hello
Adi: Ello idya?
Nari: Lo Sheshadripuram serakke innondu 5 mins agatte. Vishnu manege hogta iddivi.

At 11.00AM (Outside the resort)
Adi: Hello
Vishnu’s phone (His sister/mother I guess): Hello

Adi: Vishnu iddana?
V: Snana madta iddane (!!)

Adi: Idu resort bagge confirmation bekittu
V: Neevu Narendra na? Vishnu helidda Narendra phone madtane antha. Adakke phone ettakke helidda.

[Please note: It’s 1 hr since my conversation with Nari, and he hasn’t reached Vishnu’s house which was apparently 5 mins away. Yarappa Manager ivaga?!]

Adi: Illa nanna hesaru Aditya antha. Vishnu snana aadmele phone madakke heli.
V: Sari helthini.

Adi: Thanks.
V: Ok. Bye.
Adi: Bye.

Finally Lodde and his little cousin Amit arrived. Amit studying in his 9th standard resembled Lodde a bit. So, we thought Lodde has got his najayaaz aulaad along!

Energized by the fact that somebody finally came, we went into the tennis court and started with the first sport for the day: Tennis. KP developed special styles of serves where in you hit the ball out of the resort by imitating Roger Federer. Federer would have been amazed by the shots Lodde was playing. Lodde was hitting the ball into the stands directly. You know like the ones they play after winning the match?! I was the only one serving properly!

As we progressed into the game, we were joined by Siddartha (2005), Sireesha (2005), Ananda (2005), Ashwatha (2001), Ravishankar (2004), Vishnudatta (2001) & Narendra (2003). Tennis was getting very western for us. One ball, two rackets was not enough for all of us.

While people strolled onto the life-size chess board, Ashwatha used his intelligence and got stumps, bat and ball for a game of KSS’s favourite sport: Cricket.

We settled into two teams of 6 each and started a 10-over 2-innings test match. Lodde and I captaining the two sides. Lodde won the toss and elected to bat. His decision was supported by some good display by his team. At the end of the 8th over they were 39-4.

Ragundandan and Ramaprasad (2001) came in at this time. So, as is the hostel’s custom – none should miss a game – Raghu joined the batting team and Rama joined us strengthening the bowling. Finally Lodde’s team ended the innings at 42 of the allotted 10 overs. (Special mention must be made of Raghu here. As he came into bat, he asked for an explanation of the rules. A detailed speech was given to him by both: his side players and the opposition side. This held up play for approximately 5 mins in the hot sun at 12.30PM. The very next ball Raghu launched it into an area which was designated as “OUT” area. But he managed to stand his ground and said “Trials kanrappa”!)

My team fell like ninepins with me scoring a royal duck. We managed to get to double figures because of a couple of welcome boundaries by Siddartha. We folded up at 17. Lodde’s team had the option of enforcing a follow-on. But they didn’t. After a hectic session of fielding they went back to bat. We restricted them to a paltry 21 runs with some ferocious bowling by KP and team.

Set a target of 46 runs, it was a foregone conclusion that unless we produced a miracle we were never in contention for the title. Our openers – Ashwatha and Rama set a superb platform by scoring 12-1 off 2 overs. A mini collapse meant that we reached 19-3 (3 overs) with Siddartha and I batting. We held fort with some sensible batting. And steadied the boat to an extent.

We came to a stage where we needed 10 runs off 4 overs. It was 2 runs required off 2 overs. Vishnudatta came on to bowl. He bowled a slow full toss which Siddartha did a “Well-left” only to find the ball land on his leg stump from around his legs! We had only one wicket in hand, 2 runs to go and ten balls to go. KP was not in the best of forms. Psychologically he had attained the “Navella uncle galu aagbittiddivamma state”. So he was like the Mohd. Kaif of our side. Retained so that he can hit form at the right time!

KP takes strike. Vishnu with the ball. Instantly the memories of our cricket tournament at the hostel came running back to me. Anyways, concentration was the key to winning this title. So, back to Resort grounds. Vishnu bowls one down the leg side to reduce the burden on KP’s woeful form! The next ball KP plays it down the leg side and that was it we had won! Yay!

It was 1.45PM and all of us were damn hungry. So, immediately made a dash to the Dining room. During the course of the lunch it was announced that Vishnu was getting married in November and Mine was in June! Raghunandan announced referral bonus to anyone who referred an Iyengari girl to him. (Overheard: Bonus is subject to the girl staying with him for more than 6 months!)

We also saw famous playback singers Srinivas, Sujatha and Karthik. They were having dinner with us in the same resort. But we were more interested in the starters, rumali rotis and the chat items! After quite an elaborate lunch, we were all ready for the next course. That was Swimming pool for some, Badminton for some and TT for the rest.

After a really exhausting day but nevertheless exciting and exhilarating, Shastri, KP and I had to leave as I had a bus to catch the same day back to Hyderabad. So, at 4.00PM reluctantly as ever we pulled our exhausted limbs to the parking lot but not before exchanging our contact numbers.

Throughout the drive back home, it was the same feeling as having played an evening of cricket at KSS Hostel Jayanagar and going to Anand Bakery. I sincerely hope that such meets are conducted often. Kudos to Narendra for having thought of this. Heartfelt thanks to Vishnu for getting the right resort at the right price. Really wonderful time I had and am sure everyone vouches for it! And thanks to all those 15 people who made it! Next time, let’s make it bigger and better! Jai Hind!

Photos taken by Narendra and Shastri (On Narendra's Nikon D70) have been uploaded on flickr. You can click on the "badge" hosted on the right side of this blog below "My Profile" to take you through a visual tour of the event described in words above! Thanks Nari!

My father in the news

2006-04-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

An article in the Business Standard quotes my father regarding the financial results of Infotech Enterprises Limited.

Infotech Enterprises will be spending Rs 34 crore on plant and machinery and Rs
30 crore on development of the facility. According to S Nataraja, vice-president (finance and accounts), Infotech Enterprises, the expansion will be financed primarily by internal
accruals and partly by debt.

Growth

2006-04-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

So, we have lived according to what the society has said so far. I guess that is clear. We studied school from 1st to 12th std. Then did some kind of a under-graduation and so on and so forth. Why? Well, because everyone was doing it we also did it. Anyway, let's not get caught with that question. Let's ask some other, different, questions this time round.

When I was in my 1st std I was a person A. When I was in my 2nd std I had become a person B. The difference between A & B might not be much. But think of this: the difference between the person I was when I was in my tenth standard and the person I was during my undergraduation was immense. Where was this difference? In Character? In Personality? In Emotional maturity? In Intelligence? Or in a combination of all these and much more?

Let's call this "difference" as "growth" as it is commonly named by the society. This growth is definitely a positive aspect of our lives. By moving from following one rule set by the society to the other rule, my growth has also happened. This growth to an extent has happened by limiting myself to the rules of the society. Is it possible that the growth can be more in case I followed some rules set on my own?

Whatever is the quantum of growth, by following the society's rules, the performance of this growth is measured with money. Where does this growth take us finally? I die a wealthy man? A very wealthy man? Ok, forget the money aspect, will a die as a man having many good relationships? Will I be remembered as a very nice man at heart? [Come to think of it, who isn't a nice man at heart?!] So what is this growth we are all attaining? Every day, every moment, we are growing. So, what are we growing towards?

If I consider the yardsticks with which society measures my growth then I will always be unhappy. There will always be something that's lacking. And I will be running behind whatever's lacking. Finally, when I am gone, I neither wouldn't have touched the finish line of the race [because something is always lacking] nor would I be a happy man. What's the use?!

Welcome the Kamuthian!

2006-04-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

"A chemical engineer by Academics, A management graduate by Specialisation , An analyst by profession, An expat by the host" screams his blog.

What Mysore is to me, Kamuthi is to him. Hence his blog is named: Kamuthian. You want to know more about Kamuthi and this young man? Please visit his blog: http://kamuthian.blogspot.com

Please welcome Mageshram, my classmate, room-mate and good friend to the blogsphere! All the best Magesh! Keep blogging!

Contemplation

2006-04-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days, I have been wondering what we are doing out here?

When I was young and just had learnt to speak, people would ask me what I wanted to be after I grew up. I don't remember what I used to answer. But am sure they expected - Engineer, Doctor, Lawyer, etc. I still see the same questions being asked and the same answers expected. One of my younger cousins who was very impressed with all the bedtime stories answered, "Lord Vishnu". Quite understandably it was met with laughter.

Come to think of it, whatever your answer might be, you are always running behind something. Let me change the subject to "Me" because otherwise it might seem very rude! Few years back, I was running behind the X std marks. Then it was the XI and XII marks! [AP has public exams for both the years!] Sometime later, it was engineering percentage. Then MBA ogpa! And all for what? Money! It is all about money honey!

Picture this, I am told respectability is what we are looking for by gathering all this. Very good. Then let me go and stay in a hut and do social work. Respect me for my simplicity, possible? No, I don't have money. Respect is there, but err... ahem... excuse me!

Respectability comes from where? Society. Who or what is this society? Congregation of people looking out for mutual respect. More the money, more the respect! Will these people come to help you when you are in trouble? Sorry, that's your problem and we don't interfere in others' problems. So, what use is this society of? Practically nothing. But every second of your existence you are concerned of what is spoken about you by the society! Respectability you see!

Finally, all the functions in your houses that take place, what are you trying to achieve? If it's a wedding, then it should be grand, na?! Why? Why not a simple wedding in a temple in front of your beloved Gods and close relatives? Nobody ever gives a thought to such things. You do it because the society expects it. And also because your relative/ neighbour did it like that and he/she doesn't earn even half as much as you do! So, there we go! Society. Status. Respect.

No, we are not doing it because someone did it. We are doing it to the level we can. Level? What's that? An euphemism for status. Looking out for a certificate from the society. Are we doing it okay with our level or not?

Whether I become a lawyer, doctor, engineer, manager or a whatever, I am always asking this question from the society and expecting a satisfactory answer. Not that I want to be like that. The problem is that I have been taught to live that way. Everybody around me lives that way so that should be right! Everybody = Society!

Unfortunately, Life has been defined in this way. Money is the root cause. Well, I don't deny you need money to survive [again unfortunately it is the crudest form of barter system!], but then excessive preoccupation with money, status, respect leads to doom! And you are becoming all those things [Doc, engr, etc] in life because you want that money. Right?

Why can't we "Just Be"?
Okay, I may be or may not be Lord Vishnu, I don't know.

Back

2006-04-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

and Forth!

It's been a while since I blogged anything at all. A few sporadic comments here and there and that was it. Everytime I read someone's mail or chat, or spoke to anyone, one question was for sure: "Adi, what happened? No updates on your blog off late?".

Lot of things happened from my last blogpost to today. Let's take it one at a time. Changed jobs, shifted base from Chennai to Hyderabad, got engaged, changing jobs again, shifting base again back to Chennai! [I don't blame you if you lost count of my movement back and forth!]

Yes, from the month of May I ll be back in Chennai. Will get married in the month of June. June 16th to be precise. So from then on it will be a case of Naya ghar, nayi gaadi (?), nayi biwi! ;)

Till then, let me do some decent blogging then. Yes, am back! :)

Intel's 10K PC

2006-01-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

An article in the Economic Times talks about a 10k PC that Intel will launch sometime later this year.

Traditionally, low-priced PCs have not succeeded in India, as the cost of distribution and promotion doesn’t leave enough for the distributors who control the trade. Indian PC makers who launched sub-Rs 10,000 PCs with much media fanfare have stopped promoting or even supplying them to their distributors. The margins on these PCs are too small to receive adequate attention from PC makers or their distributors, and volumes are not high due to a lack of promotion

It's Intel's turn now! Get into low cost computers, increase volumes, achieve economies of scale, lower costs, higher profits. Rural Markets, ha!

For my diamond

2006-01-08T21:17:00.000-08:00

[Via Sowpar]

Long times ago, in Egypt lived a famous mystical person name Zun-Nun. A young man came to visit him and asked "Teacher, I do not understand why people like you dress in such a way and very simple, isn't in this era was necessary to dress neatly, not only for performance but also for other reasons?

The mystical only smiled and took his ring from one of his fingers, and said "Young friend, I will answer your question, but first do one thing for me, take this ring and go to the market across this street, can you sell this for one chip of gold?

Having looked at Zun-Nun's dirty ring, the young man became doubtful. "One chip of gold, I am not sure this ring could be sold at that price."

"Try first, young man, who knows you did it." The Young man went to the market quickly. He offered the ring to the textile, vegetable, meat, fish traders, and the others. The fact was that no body was willing to pay for a chip of Gold. He went back to Zun-Nun residence and reported "Teacher, no body was brave to offer more than one chip of silver."

With a wise smile Zun-Nun said, "Now go to the Gold Shop at the back of this street. Show this to the owner or to the gold trader. Don't give your price just listen how much he will pay for this ring."

The Young man went to the shop mentioned and returned with a different expression from his face. He then reported "Teacher, the traders in the market really do not know the value of this ring, the gold trader offer this ring for one thousand of gold, And the value of this ring was one thousands times from what the traders in the market offer.

Zun-Nun just smiled subtly and spoke softly, "That was the answer of your questions my friend, "Someone cannot be valued only from his dress "The traders in the market" give value like that. But not for "The gold trader".

Even in our lives, there is Gold everywhere. We don't assume the "Gold Trader"s role frequently. We assume the "What-if-he/she-is-not-gold?" role. It is our ability to identify Gold around us that is limited. Gold is everywhere. Gold or Diamond is the same to me!

I know a person who is very cute, sweet and genuine. She knows the amount of Gold (She calls them diamonds) she is surrounded by. It is amazing that she recognizes the people around her. Many people live their lives without knowing the treasure that's everywhere. This post is for you my cute little diamond.

BLACK makes it to TIME Top 10

2006-01-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

TIME Magazine rates BLACK as the 5th best movie to be made in the year 2005. Of course, Richard Corliss is a standard supporter of Indian cinema, but still...

Click here to read my review of BLACK. This was written on the day it was released!

And India sends "Paheli" to Oscars!

Happy Birthday A R Rahman!

2006-01-06T02:29:00.000-08:00

Dear A R Rahman,

Wish you a very very Happy Birthday!
May God Bless you with peace and happiness!

Love,
Adi.

Want to see God?

2006-01-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

Quoting my dear friend Arjuna, on the strength of desire to see God. He quotes an incident involving Sri Ramakrishna Paramahmsa.

Once when Ramakrishna Paramahansa was standing in a river along with a disciple. The disciple told that he wanted to see God immediately. Ramakrishna then pushed the head of the disciple inside the river. The disciple could not hold it for long. But Ramakrishna did not relax his grip. But finally, the disciple gave a mighty push and emerged out of water. He asked why Ramakirshna did that to him. Ramakrishna then told that, if he had a desire to see God equal to that of him to emerge from water he had before, then God would immediately come before him.

Seeking the Divine is the goal of life. Reaching the Divine is the realization of life.

Happy New Year 2006

2006-01-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

Hosa Varushada hardhika shubhashayagalu!
Kottha samvatsaram shubhakankshulu!
Iniya Putthandu Vaazhthukal!
Naye saal ki haardik shubhkaamanaayen!

Wish you a very very happy and prosperous new year! :)

Never Let Me Go: A Book Review

2005-12-30T01:23:00.000-08:00

Book: "Never Let Me Go"
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Reviewer: Anuradha [My friend]

Set in England, Never Let Me Go is about clones who are raised with the specific objective of becoming organ donors.

The book is in a first person narrative style and starts with a boarding school environment. While right at the beginning you are given to understand that this is no ordinary boarding school for ordinary children, the real `speciality' of these children unfolds only towards the end. Over the pages the reader is given some glimpses of the underlying theme, but the absolute revelation is reserved for the last few pages of the book.

While dealing with this basic theme of cloning and organ donorship, the author does explore some interesting areas in the lives of the protagonists - are they supposed to feel or not? what is the `limit' to their feeling, given that they all know they have a limited purpose of life and survival? Are they or aren't they really human? and so on....

The moral debate related to cloning and organ donation is briefly touched upon in the final pages and provides a lot of room for thought.

I found the concept of the book interesting, thought provoking and extremely disturbing. The universe that Ishiguro paints is quite inhuman, though you don't really understand the reason till you have finished. Contrary to his earlier books like Remains of the Day, Artist of the Floating World or When We were Orphans, Never Let Me Go lacks pace. It was sometimes quite difficult to keep turning the pages. But once you get to the stage of discovering the real theme of the book, it picks up speed.

Perhaps it is the theme, but Ishiguro's writing style in Never Let Me Go seems bleakly precise and lacks the humour, anger or cynicism of his earlier books. The style seems almost as inhuman as the theme.

Though I was expecting something more in keeping with his style and hoped for a book more like Remains of the Day, I am unable to say I am disappointed with this book. It is exactly the reverse. Somehow Ishiguro has managed to convey the fragility of what we define as `human'. It is an interesting but disturbing question, especially when you do relate to some of the moral debates raised in the book.

The author has refused to be drawn into any moralising about scientific advancement nor does he resort to theology. This is purely a book which explores what is really human and thereby lies it beauty and ugliness.

This is perhaps not what I can personally define as a favourite or a lovely book, but it is definitely a very interesting book and would be on my list of recommended reading.

Chennai Trip

2005-12-29T01:31:00.000-08:00

Ravi, Sutti, Shastri and Kp had come down to Chennai on one of the previous weekends. We had great fun! :)

We rented a car [Self-driven Hyundai Santro] and went to Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry. It was fun unlimited! :) As you can see from the photos given. [See the sidebar flickr badge and click on it]

More on this as I get some time for myself. Till then, you can give me your feedback on the photos! :)

Break away

2005-12-28T03:52:00.000-08:00

[An email fwd via Naveen]

As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

I saw a trainer near by and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

"Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free."

I was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?