Jaga Vetti Thoughts

2010-06-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Raavanan - My 2 Cents

It it so sad that I have not posted anything on my wall since my last review of AO and current post is also about a movie. I think my blog needs flavor. I swear, after this post, I am staying away from movie review (or ranting in my case) for a while.

A lot has happened in my life since my last post, but in the movie world hyped-movie-crapping-out has remained the same. As one of my buddies would comment, so sad.

I had to see Raavanan, just for the hype created and for all the negative reviews I read about it. Succinctly, the movie is about exploring the concept "There is a good side within a bad man, and a bad side within a good man". This concept has been explored from the perspective of the lead lady character. For this purpose, Maniratnam has used Raamayanam as the backdrop. A brave and bold experiment in deed. However, it fails magnificently in not expressing the thought process through screen play.

While the director has put in enough thought about the locales, I fear the same cannot be said for character definition and narration . Veera (aka Raavanan) character is given lots of screen presence in the movie. We get to see the trials and tribulations he goes through with good and evil, but the same cannot be said for Dev (aka Ram's) character. While it was shown that Dev is a cop and he was part of a botched up plan to finish off Veera that ends up in Veera's sister getting raped, it is never known whether he was part of the group of people who raped that girl. Without any proper scenes, the director has tried to bring out the point that Dev has the bad side too. Plus, as the movie progresses we get to see that Raagini (aka Sita) emotionally/romantically inclines towards Veera (even though she was married to Dev), but such a transformation lacked conviction. Why does she change her mind? What has Dev done which is bad and makes him pale in comparison to Veera?

Additionally, the movie also has lots of characters that are wasted and every effort is made to make the movie similar to Raamayana. Characters of Forest Guard (aka Hanuman) and Vanilla (aka Surpanaka) are built and wasted. If you read through Vaalmiki's Sundara Kaandam, you get to see how Vaalmiki has used each and every character to build the case for the anxious Sita, idiotic Raavana and righteous Raama. Mani, being a great director he is, has lacked conviction in this movie. If you want a successful similar effort, read Shashi Tharoor's "A Great Indian Novel" and I am told Raajneeti, for adaptation of Mahabharatha, a similar epic.

Ufff, another great movie that went south without even a limp. Now, I am looking forward to Endhiran and see if Shankar has done justice to Sujatha's "En Eniya Iyandhira". When "En Eniya Iyandhira" was published in Anandha Vikatan and was dramatized by a series in DD, it was out of the world. It was pioneering in Tamil Sci-Fi and rocked in depicting human emotions through an inanimate Robot. Given the handicap that Shankar has now with Sujatha not being alive, I hope he would have used his protege`s like Era Murukan to bring out a taut screen play and a good adaptation of the novel.

2010-01-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

Aayirathil Oruvan

That is it for me. I am not going to see movies of most of the established Tam directors, that too in theater. The one time I decide to see a Tam movie in theater here in US, spending $12 bucks, has turned out to a thought process altering event for me. Bloody POS.

What was Selvaraghavan thinking when he took this movie? Dai, unaku masaatchiye ellaya da? How the f$%^ you can take this movie, go on the air stating that this movie is of the class of Hollywood movies and Tam audience have to uplift their viewing standards to enjoy his movie? Bloody narcissist. All the movies you have copied from (read Mummy, Lord of the Rings, King Kong) all had a story and a good production value to complement that. Your movie does not have any of the said things. You relied totally on gory scenes, unnecessary usage of archaic Tamil and perverted scenes to roll through the movie. Coming to perverted scenes like (women squirting blood from her boobs, group of women cleaning the King using their nude body), please understand that those are written in old stories to bring a theatrical and poetic touch. You just had your brain in your arse to not understand that. Selva, as my friend Arun stated in his blog, you are perverted to the core and trying really hard to masquerade it. Every great director/artist including Vinci, Picasso, KB, Balakumaran, Saytajit Ray had some perversion thoughts, but they kept that in the periphery, than you. Please dont go around saying you have uplifted the quality of Tamil cinema. Please go and see movies of Sasikumar or the director who took Renigunta. You are not even close to their efforts. IMHO.

2009-07-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

Kite Runner

In my short term memory, I have never had a week of nothing to do. Once I got that, I grabbed it with open hands. Planned and went for a trip in that week. But still had couple of days left. Seeing my wife's adulation of the book Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I decided to give it a read. Before starting my PhD program, I used to sit with a book in a corner of a room and read the book till I felt hungry or the book got done, whichever happened first. I took the opportunity of reading a book in the 2 days left in my vacation and decided to give Kite Runner a try. I would like to say that it was one of the best fiction novel I have ever read. The book was full of staid sorrow, 'gham', which I normally do not like to read. But Kite Runner, which was full of 'gham', kept pulling me deep into the book and never let me out of its grip. It might be because I related to the context of the book or of the deep empathy the book evokes from the reader, but the book is just phenomenal. The author revels in creating 'gham' through the book without actually writing about it much. The book dishes out in open sight ironical twist of life, i.e. we as human always get a chance to correct things when it happens the first time but we always end up seeking for a second chance to correct it, which either never happens or happens too late to be of any use. For some reason, the book provides what Hosseini calls as a 'cathartic experience'. Thanks to the author kindling the fire to read books back in me again. Lots of the classics referred in the book (like stories of Rostam or the Mullah Mohammed stories) were my child hood favorite and I plan to read through it again.

2009-06-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Things I Would Like to Do More Often

Life after moving to Austin has more or less changed for the better. Work has been fine. Weekdays have been great. The weekends have been wonderful. Have a good bunch of friends here to hang with. Volley ball group is picking up too. But I still feel bad in a corner of my heart that I am not able to spend much time on. Few of those are:
- Take 10 mins in the morning to do some stretching and basic Yoga
- Read more books. I used to be a voracious reader. But now my pace of reading has slowed down. I guess, I need to take my eyes off the Internet when I am at home and read books during that time.
- Bike more. Got a nice Schwinn Hybrid. In the last 3 weeks, have biked 2 times. Goal is to bike atleast twice a week. Cycling provides such a good break from walking.
- Lift weights. I hate this "chore". I dont want to be a hunk. But still lifting weights once a week is good for the muscle. But I just do not get any pleasure doing it within four walls. Grrr...

2009-02-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

Best Album and Best Song of ARR (My Opinion)

Slumdog was awesome. But I always think the best album he has ever created was Thiruda Thiruda. It has a eclectic mix of songs. From the slow melodious one from Shakul Hameed (without any instruments) to folksy veerpandiya kotayile to westernic Chandralekha to the crescendo Thee Thee.

Everytime I listen to Thee Thee, I get to hear one more track which I have not heard before. Gosh, there are that many layers in that song that you will lose count of it. I always wished that what would have been the outcome of the song if the current bunch of talent singers from ARR stable lik Tanvi Shah or Chinmayee would have sung that song.

Jai Ho ARR!

2009-02-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

Maanbhumigu (H'ble) Padma Shris in India

I think like a month back I read in Indian newsites that the Govt of India has announced the Padma awardees for year 2008, and the list tops more than 100 folks. Gosh, there used to be a time when the Govt will be very hesitant to give more than a handful per year and nowadays they are giving in 100s. As a matter of fact, I remember couple of years when the Govt did not announce any Padma awardees for few years. If Padma awardees, which are supposed to be given to citizens who involved themself to the most highest service of society, is given like kothaval chavadi vegetables then there is something grieviously wrong with Indian Govt. I would like to kindly request Indian Govt to provide the reason behind giving Padma Shri to folks like Aishwarya Rai, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh. WTF have they done to society? Aishwarya has dolled her way to stardom, have we ever heard of a single thing she has done for upliftment of the million folks who pray her as the MOST BEAUTIFUL LADY IN THE WORLD. Yuvraj and Harbhajan, other than throwing tantrums and slapping his fellow teammates, WTF have they done to deserve Padma awards? If Aishwarya has excelled in her field, then give her a National Award or a Dada Saheb Phalke award and not a Padma. If Govt thinks that Yuvi and Harbhajan have excelled in Cricket, please give them Khel Ratna or Arjuna awards. Should we remind them the purpose of such awards.
Govt of India, please, for Petes' sake, don't bastardize an award meant to garner respect from common man.

pssst..
A concerned Indian Citizen

2009-01-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Movies I Caught up With

Wall-E,
Chronicles of Narnia,
Pineapple Express,
Subramaniapuram,
Saroja,
A Wednesday,
Bommalattam

Out of all these movies, I would rate Wall-E and A Wednesday as my pick. Wall-E was a jaw dropping animation extravaganza. Loved every bit of it. A Wednesday was a beautiful thriller. After eons, I have seen a worthwhile movie from so called, THE BOLLYWOOD. Arguments put forth by the protagonist in the movie are very worthy and most of it really kindles some thought process among the viewers. Kudos to the director for giving a sensible movie.

Worst of the lot was Bommalattam. What the crap was Bharathiraja thinking, when he conceived the movie? I guess he thought all the viewers who would see his movies are mango idiots. Shucks. Waste of 3 hours in my life.

Remaining movies were all very good time pass. :)

2009-01-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday/Sundays After Buying a House

Between the last blogpost and now, lots of things have happened, including buying a house, moving to a new city, moving to a totally different practice in work. But the one thing which has pretty much dictated the way I have been managing my time is the House. Gosh, house is like a black hole. Time just disappears in the time warp, which House is. For the first few months, it was all about arranging furniture in rooms. Once that got done, it was all about garden. Now with winter, gardening is out of picture. But there are zillion other things to fix inside the house. I am currently re-staining all the cabinet doors. Did it once, but failed to sand it between coats. That screwed up the stain. Now have to tear down the existing coats of stain, sand it and stain it again. If I am in town, I tend to do some of these work during week days. With me travelling during weekdays for work, week ends have become one-hell-of-a home project time. For quite a while, when one of my friends called me over the weekend, I was invariably in Home Depot or Wal-Mart buying or returning home furnishing stuff. Hope this kind of ends soon. So that I can push on to other pursuits of mine. :D

2008-06-21T18:34:00.001-07:00

Time Machine - Part 2

Thanks to my wife, I got stung by this urge to purge out my memories of annual summer holidays back in school days.

After finishing morning chores and locking up the house, 9 out of 10 times my bicycle automatically pedals itself to my grandparents house. In that house kids of all ages and sizes gather, including those from my own family to the street kids. Most of the time before lunch is spent on chit chatting and plotting the side to be picked for evening cricket match. The time Mr. Sun starts burning my top head my stomach will start pinching for lunch. Even though it was my grandparents house, my parents made it a point to push me to either take lunch in lunchbox or come home and eat. Either way, after heavy lunch its time to rest and hit the sack for an afternoon siesta. After few hours of deep sleep, I for sure would be awakened either by some nice nice bhakshanams coming out of patti's kitchen or my stomach hinting for some more food. Bhakshanams ranged from normal vadams to exotic murruku. Tiffin was always top notch. It was either moor koozh or dosai or adai or uppuma. Some days when patti does not have the mood to cook, there is always pazhaya sadham. Cooked nicely the day before and soaking cooly in chill water, the rice will be ready to be combined with nice mooor. To go with pazhaya sadham will be either mavadu or fresh fresh mangai broken in half delicately using doors. After taking care of the small tummy, hit the streets to start cricket matches. Such was the frenzy that we even had a doctor living in our street come and play with us. For allowing him to play with us, he reciprocated by paying for the window glasses and septic tank pipes which we broke routinely. Playing normally went all the way till the cows came home or till patti/thatha started yelling at top pitch saying "better go home and wash before appa reaches home. Its already late". That last call from thatha was duly obliged to reach home before parents come back from work. :)

2008-06-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

Time Machine - Part 1

Just a while back, I was reading one of leading Tamil writers, Era Murugan's blog - http://vembanattukkaayal.blogspot.com/ (btw, he happens to be my dad's relative too. Have not met him though :( ). One of his last posts titled "Sivgangaiyil oru chinna payyan" insitigated me to write my memoirs about my school life. Given that I do not have much to do over this week, writing this blog seems to be the apt thing to do.

My memories of my school life is predominantly characterized by a structure. Early morning - homework (which was replaced by tuition from 7th grade), 7 am - getting ready to school, 8 am - Walking to school, 8:05 to 8:50 am playing some random games in school, 9am - 4pm school time, 4-4:30 pm some time to play, 4:30pm head back home, 4:50-5:45 some eating 6 - run for either Hindi tuition or mridangam class.

God only know where did i have that enthu to learn mridangam or hindi, and how did i learn when my parents did not have any inkling whatsoever about what I learnt. Nowadays, I see parents totting behind their kids for whatever they do and take a keen interest in what their kids do. For sure my parents were off beat then. Well, thats a different story for a different time. All through my schooling life, my parents were busy with their office work. Both left for work around 8 am and were back only after 7:00pm. Which means that they were busy through the morning prepping for their work and busy late in the evenings getting their strain off. Leaving, yours truly either with grand parents (till 6th grade) and then off to himself. By the mighty grace of some celestial bodies or due to lack of that much porruki influence in the area i grew, I turned ok. Now, whenever i try to remember of things during my childhood days, my parents rarely come into the picture. It is either dad's side grand pa, or mom's side grand pa/grand mom, or teachers, or friends.

School teachers have always been fun, that too when the teachers live nearby your house (as they were in SRDFVV, Chromepet) and the teachers' kids study with you. Few of indelible teachers are follows:
- Rama: Maths taught by her has been the best thing happened in my life. She taught without actually feeling that learning that stuff would be tough. She encouraged students to challenge her. Some of the students, including me, went to tuition and learnt many different ways of solving a single problem. Rama ma'am always appreciated when we challenged her with new solutions. To top it off, I have hardly heard her raise her voice. Pretty sweet eh!
- Rajalakshmi: When I think of Tamil, I think of Rajalakshmi ma'am. Whatever fervor i have for this archaic language, i owe it to her. The way she taught those numerous thirukural's that we have to memorize was awesome.
- Mangalam ji: As pointed out by the name, she was the school hindi teacher. Tall lean lady, who never missed a minute to use her cane.
- Sethubhai: A great history teacher. While i dont remember the history she taught, i sure do remember her antics of hitting at students. The way she would twist our ears, say erumai madu and give a wack at our back. OOOOO.. sends chills even now. The best thing is that, this teacher is now related to my friend's wife.

In addition to these teachers, there were always some characters who seem to live past the definition of TIME. Like the ayah, who I remember right from my kinder garden days. Last year I saw her near the school. Or the attendant, who made copies of the exam papers as well as ringing the school bell.

Some other activities which remains in my memory are the weekly monday routine of doing Yoga at 3:00 pm. Almost the whole school lined up in front of auditorium, doing yoga postures for instructions from that shorty Sir. The worst idea of this lot is making us do Yoga in hot sun, wearing spotless white dress in red sand. The next activity i remember is an annual activity that the school called cultural day. It started as a single day activity, then ballooned to 3 day activity with expensive tickets. It went to a level that even the students have to get tickets to see those plays. The best thing happened for us, for that teachers were busy for the best part of 3 months prepping for those 3 days. And if you are in the play, an additional incentive to not be worried about studies. Talking about plays, one big envy for me in my school days was not being part of the school band team. They had lots of fun (or seem to) during the Arts class. Playing the thalapathi tune. Had they known the james bond tune or the Austin powers tune, they would have played that too.

Just a walk down the school road is enough to rekindle these memories. The last time I was in India, I just had time to quickly drive past the school. The rush of memories it gave was enough to put a smile on my face for a while.

2008-05-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Scary Dreams

Kutti thookam or afternoon siesta or looong snoring REM sleep, some dreams hop back in again and again to scare the bejeezus outta me.
- Snakes: As like any normal human, i am also have a sense of respect and fear for snakes. But that cannot be the only explanation for snakes in my dream. I often get this dream of snakes in a big field and I have to meander through those. The settings change every time. Last night, it was in a bus stand, the other day it was in my grand parent's house in Madras.
- Thatha in his funeral procession: I loved my thatha a lot and he has been dead for more than half a decade now. I miss him too. I was not able to be there when he died nor attend his funeral. Probably that might be the reason behind this dream of mine. Anyways, it scares.

And for some reason, all my scary dreams happen between 4:30 am and 7:00 am. Any thoughts why?

2008-05-19T13:13:00.001-07:00

Niceties and Critiquing

Through out the day, I have been torn in this torturous routine of reviewing others work. You find the work really boring, but have to review it. You would find the work crappy, but still have to review it. The worst part is if you are a very nice person (like me. hehehehe) to start with it becomes hard to be harsh in your critic of the work. If you are blunt, it becomes painless to review the work. Plus, if the work has nothing much other than crap, it becomes one hell of a work to put together your thoughts for the review. It does not stop to just say what is wrong, but we have to also say how to improve it. The crappy the paper is, the longer time it would take and more nicer you have to be. Huh!!!

2008-02-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tranquility

Some take a ride to deep sea to feel tranquility. Others listen to music to feel that. Still others hike up mountains to experience that. For me, taking a ride through country roads in a cold but clear night, with nothing but the headlights and the starry skies gives a sense of clarity which nothing else could match.. Last night, while driving from Houston to Austin, I consciously took country road for 1 hour instead of freeway. Man, I should tell you. After the ride, I experienced such a level of tranquility which I for long been yearning for. A best song which came to my mind during the ride was the oldie "Amaithiyana nadhiyinile oodam". Pure heaven!

2007-12-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

Money - Makes or Breaks anything

The allure of Tamil saying "Panam pathum seyyum" will never fade with time. Time and again I have seen that only when money drains out people step out of their ego and venture out to others. For everyone money seems to be important and be the spinning point. Parents think that as soon as their son gets a job, he should take the whole financial responsibility on earth. Sister thinks that bro is working, so lets milk him. Wife thinks that everyone from husband's family is trying to rob my husband, so I should protect him by actually constantly fighting with him at the drop of someone asking for money. Why dont the parents think for a while that their son might have a brain and can also have a life on his own? Why dont sisters think that they can interact with their siblings not just for money for else? Why dont wives understand that husband will indeed protect her interests, but can never see his parents on streets in the same way?

These things make me really feel envious of those orphans and think of what would the world will really be without MONEY?

2006-12-07T12:41:00.001-08:00

Online Reporting - Bzzzzzzzzzzzz

Time and again, I have been seeing lots of screw-ups of top rated news agencies in their online edition. Some of the most common screw-ups are link not being updated and you end-up being taken to a totally unrelated page; worst case link not all being connected to the page; having the wrong picture and so on. Some of them who I see it do often are Rediff.com, and Timesofindia.com. Hindu, which is one of THE MOST reputed news agency in India also seem to care less when they come to their online edition. When they have high standards for their paper editions, I do not understand why they should be giving a step motherly treatment for their online editions. I dont think these news agencies would dare to do these kind of mistakes in their hard-copy editions. Do they think online readers or idiots, or are they so naive not to think that Online is the fastest way to reach readers??
Well anyways, have a taste of this latest goof-up from The Hindu. The caption says "Vellore Canal Water diverted to a private farm near Kuniamathur" and the picture is of poor spastic children having a walk in the park.. I would have atleast let that go if they had atleast the correct caption for the pic. In this case, the caption does not even match the picture and states "LLEGAL TAPPING: The pipe laid to divert water from Vellalore Canal to a farm near the city. - Photo: M. Periasamy"... Gosh.. God save these people!!

2006-11-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Enna Plan??

I was reading through today's Hindu (11/8/2006 edition) and stumbled upon this article (http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/08/stories/2006110814470500.htm) in Chennai section, from where the above picture is from. As the article goes, KPN travels in Chennai has come up with this "innovative" concept of having berths in bus and currently they have surpassed that by having couple of "coupes" (akin to the first class coupes in Indian Railways).
The first thing which stuck me was endha manga madayan (mango idiot) came up with this idea. Then, how come the RTO issued safety certificate for the vehicle and last, why this has been given the publicity by Hindu..
Well the berths have been put in place only in the routes which ply night service, and is intended to let people have a sound sleep, I guess they also are forgetting that by doing so, they may send the passengers to SLEEP- ONCE FOR ALL (aka Sangu)..what is the safety in traveling in bus without a seat belt or facing the traffic? that too with Indian roads, where vehicles come from front, side and even in the direction the buses are heading towards..
If KPN is trying to replicate the Indian Railways model of having berth coaches like the one in III tier AC or the AC coupe, dont they have to think that trains have dedicated tracks for each direction and only rarely they have some sort of collision from any other vehicle (which is obviously not the case in roads??)...
I dont know what KPN is trying and why RTO's are napping?? Kaaalam kali kaalam machi.. Kali muthi pochono...

2006-10-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Is the World Rationale?

Uffff... It has been very very hectic 4 months for me.. Did not have a bit of time to do anything other than my damn thesis and manage the damn politics..but did manage a trip to Acapulco-Mexico, feigning to be going there for a conference..Even there was swamped by the never ending queue of people with whom I have to put up a smiling face and say HI HI HI..but one good thing out of the 4 month hiatus from blogging.. came across a bunch of neat things to write about..

Coming back to the post...
You stand in a line for movie tickets.. Somebody comes in, chats with the guy standing in front of you and cuts in the line..When you get to the counter, the clerk says that the guy before you got the last ticket left... How would you feel?
In your work place, you are assigned to do a certain set of tasks.. You do everything to the T.. Your boss says he is totally satisfied.. but somebody in your department who is close to the CEO comes in and says your work is crap and tries to flex his power... How would you feel?
Well, if you would asked me 4 months back. I would have told you that I did my part, I expect that I should get the right outcome i deserve for it.. But now, I will say, I did my part and I should expect the outcome which politics in the environment I am in decides; and thus the world is not always rational..
This is what happened to me..i have a 5 member committee for my thesis, chaired by my advisor (who happens to be a desi)..my advisor is one of the 4 senior faculty members in my department.. one of my committee members is also a senior faculty member in the department..another one of my committee is the DUDE in my area of research..so whatever I have been doing has been thoroughly verified by 5 people, well can i add knowledgeable people..now comes the tough part.. there is one senior faculty in the department who is the chair of the dept.. even though he is not in my committee and technically doesnt have a say in what I should do, pokes his nose every now and then and gives me a tough time with his idiotic questions.. all the while we take that for stride, try to refine my writing to clarify my thought process.. so comes the day where my committee decides I am ready to propose my thesis and tell the same to the world..as soon as the word was out, the senior faculty who is the chair jumps in says that he wants my thesis to be changed to reflect his comments....after again discussing with him, i finally figured out that he doesnt believe in the area of research I work in and thus tries to fit my research into what he likes to be seen..all this for somebody who does not have a say in my work..but wants to do it just bcos he has the power..finally, i decide that enough is enough..told my advisor that nothing could be done now to changemy thesis.. informed this idiotic prof's behavior to concerned people and have started to proceed..for sure he has given tension to me.. but for sure he has also made an enemy out of the nicest person on earth (my advisor) and has questioned the academic ability of 5 reputed people in the field..power - a vicious thing, which should always be equated with responsibility, but none does..

2006-05-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

TV venumo TV, Color TV venumo TV

The spate of TN politics is getting worser and worser day by day. In the time when Dr. Kalam wants India to be corruption free by 2015, TN politics thrive by seeding things to revive corruption. What message does TN politicians wants to convey to ordinary citizens by bribing them for their votes? God of freebies, Karunanidhi says that giving color TVs people lays foundation to improve their knowledge level. Knowledge level about what? About Sun TV serials? Atleast AIADMK was smart in their move to give computer to 12th standard students. Atleast that makes some sense, and could have a role to improve the tech penetration in the country.
Now, with DMK having taken the mantle in Red Fort, lets take a shot at their point behind freebies offered by them. First issue, how are they going to fund these millions of TVs? According to Dhayanidhi Maran, the telecommunication minister of India, DMK would get TVs at a reduced price from China for 1000 rupees a piece and fund the whole project by diverting money from Excise control taxes levied by the previous AIADMK government. Second, whats the meaning by reading between the lines? I believe that there is a always a business piece behind these political moves. What can DMK get out of giving free color TV's to everyone? Other than political mileage? Who is the largest TV channel in the state - SUN Tv. Which cable network has the largest coverage - Sumangali network, owned by SUN Tv. Who are all these SUN TV people? Maran folks, who are family brethren of Karunanidhi, own SUN TV. The freebie move by Sun TV is a business masterstroke. Just by giving free TVs, all they have done is improve the TV penetration in the state and thus paved way for SUN TV to get penetrated more, meaning more bottom line for SUN TV. Namma ooru makkal sema solid.. They are soo naive to understand these kind of business deals, all they think is free TV at hand and there goes the vote..
Havent other candidates in other states like Kerala and Bengal have won their elections without any freebies?
Can't these fools in DMK think that the money spent on these stupid freebies can be spent to improve the state government's exchequer? Cant they use for some more better infrastructure in the state? Going by what is happening in West Bengal, it seems Mr. Budhha is going strongly by the China way by being capitalistic but getting things done using the strong hand of communalist. Already lots of companies are queing up for West Bengal, the latest being TATA Motors confirming of their plans to build their ambitious 1 Lakh car plant in the state. If TN politicians doesnt mend their ways, they would be soon giving up their status as one of the fastest growing state in the country. Already I read in a news article that Hyndai folks have stated their displeasure of the lack of support from the state government. If states want to contribute to the federal government plan to have a annual GDP of 9%, freebie era has to go...
by What a pity

2006-03-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

What Would Your Answer be to James Lipton Questions

Mood: Sleepy
Song: Gum Parani_Bose.mp3

Just for fun, wanted to do some soul searching (pun intended) and answer the famous
questions asked by James Lipton in Inside Actors Studio

What is your favorite word? Great

What is your least favorite word? Aiyoooo

What turns you on? Melodious Illayaraja songs

What turns you off? A moody / cunning / egoistic person

What sound do you love? Children laughing

What sound do you hate? Cellphone Chatter inbetween Films

What is your favorite curse word? Adingu

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? Doctor

What profession would you not like to participate in? Lawyer

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Vaa raaja... Aadinadhu podhum... Enimelavadhu adangi eru...

2006-03-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Religion (s)

Mood: Calm, relaxed
Song: Kaatrinile_varum_geetham.mp3

What an wonderful afternoon this has been! It has been always a pleasure to house sit my Prof's house, which sits on top of a small hillock, surronded on all sides by lush green trees.. The climate outside, cant beat it man. Perfect for Spring..Wish I lived in a place like Colorado, I would have went for some outdoor activities..

With this perfect ambience, I am thinking why not ponder over an interesting piece on good vs evil..I am sure everyone of us would agree that God symbolises good, but what about evil? It would be interesting to check out how each one of the religions out there perceive evil as.
- Judaism, Christianity: Both of these religions belive in single God and in messengers from God coming time and again to lead human to right path. What about evil? As far as Christianity goes, it portrays evil in the form of Devil.. Devil is considered in Bible as the brother of God, who for his wrongdoings was kicked out of heaven, and thus has been renegated to hell. So anything anti-Godly is characterized as Devil..In easy terms,the concept of Good and Evil is bipolar in Chistianity.. So you can either do good, be loved by God or do bad and loved by Devil.
- Islam: Islam, the religion brought to the humans by Prophet Mohammed in 620 A.D. again believies in single God and in messengers from him. As with Christianity, Islam also is bipolar in conceptualizing Good vs Evil and whose responsible for what. All that is good is characterized by Allah and all that is bad is relegated to Shaitan.
- Hinduism: What about Hinduism and its cohorts of Hinduism based religions like Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism? Hinduism takes a continum approach to the good vs bad problem. Yes, hinduism does have a personification of bad in the name of Maya, but believes that it is only God who is the ruler of all the things including Maya.. If you do good or bad, you are still being protected by God and it is you, who would pay for your bad deeds..In my opinion, unlike Christianity or Islam, Hinduism based religions are very flexible and pardoning in its conceptualization of Good vs Bad..Hinduism believes that only God is instrumental in the good or bad deeds of human..
Well, I am always bedazzled by Theology. When we talk about religion, all we think about is Spirituality and we put a spiritual pardah on whatever happens/happened in it. Is that what it is? Has religion evolved or existed till now just bcos of Godly intervention? Religion, like other things about human, is mostly developed into the form as we know today by our forefathers. If you ask any good theologists, they would tell you about the origin of christianity and how it is different today. Religion, is part of the society and the society builds it/destroys it. If not, what would be the reason for demise of religions like Zorastrianism which is much much older than Judaism / Christianity? Religion like history is written by winners. Can anyone not accept the fact that vision that if the Roman King (whose name i am not able to recollect), accepted Christianity as the official religion of Rome, Church wouldnt have got any power and thus Christianity wouldnt have any incentive to have survived. The same logic applies to Islam.. If not for the Mughals, Mongols and Sultans of Ottaman Empire Islam would have confined itself to the remote areas of Mecca and Medina..
Among the existing religions of today Hinduism is the oldest and thus the most flexible one. it would be interesting to see how the relatively younger religions develop into. Already in its 2000 years of existence we can see Christianity split into numerous factions like Mormons, Prebeterians, Protestants, Catholics and so on. Could we be able to put a time series curve for these religions and hypothetically discuss its path?

2006-02-23T23:56:00.000-08:00

Arranged Marriage in India

Guys, first sorry for not been bloggin frequently. I have been busy with my Thesis. Struggling thro the work.. adhan.. my bloggin frequency has now come to 1 blog her month.. worst rate..
Anyways, i am taking a break in between my thesis work and thought would pen down my thoughts on one of the facets of Indian Family Scene - arranged marriage..If u take 100 parents, 80 of them would say that they are happy if their children went for an arranged marriage..good point, as in arranged marriage u involve both sides parents and it is always better to keep the family happy in the longer run..but the good point stops there..for the past couple of months, I have been on and off involved with searching a groom for my Sis-in-law. The scene i am seeing is very disheartening and doesnt potray any advancement in the society. Some of my idhaya visumbhalgal (my dear blog friend Ammu, i am borrowing ur catch phrase) are as below:
- Jadagam matching: 9 out 10 groom's parents ask for Jadagam matching. Worst is even if the bride's family doesnt want to match, the groom's family force them to do it. I still dont get how these well educated groom (also include their parents) can still etch themself in unscientific factless thing like Jadagam. How can 8 squares in that jadagam tell your fate? If that is the case we dont need to do any effort at all. Well for starters, the jadagam is built upon ancient astronomy. Ancient astronomy is well adept in predicting star and planets path. But wait, the rider is they didnt have telescopes. So they traced the path of stars, planets they saw. They havent included pluto or the 2 moons of saturns which were recently discovered or other planetary objects like Haley's comet. If astronomy as a science is still evolving, how can we depend on calculations which havent been updated till now. The second, if u look at the development of civilization, science by itself is a hard sell. Our forefathers were adpet in mixing science with religion and thus making it attractive for the followers to learn. Astrology is a mix of undeveloped science and religion. It is high time, our generation makkal get over this malice of the society. What would these idiots say, if they marry a girl based on full jadagam match and still turn sour??
- Dowry: "maami, enga veetula ella naatupennum vaira thodu potu dhan vandhu eruka? nenga vaira thodu poduvela?" "30 soverign poduvengala?". I am hearing these things from 6/10 groom family. Arent these makkal educated? First they could be jailed for just asking. Second, it is inhumane to treat matching of mind like matching of animals. At the lowest level, this whole process is a panda maatru murai. But atleast we can do it humanely.
- Male chauvinism: time and again i see that when the bride rejects the guy, the groom's family give a frown. bull shit.. if the guy can reject, so can the girl. Next, even before the whole process can start chauvinism starts. 8/10 times, the groom's family expect to see the girl's photo/profile and all, before even giving a copy of the groom's photo....
For my part, I keep discussing these issues with my friends in the hope that atleast they reflect the knowledge which they have imbibed upon. Lets hope that this unbecoming practice sees the end of its life with this generation..

2006-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

Caste, Religion in the IT savy India

When Indian bureaucrats make their tours in other countries, they proudly say that India is a secular state, bears with all religions and people treats every religion the same. But is that the truth happening in India?? If i remember right it has been more than 50 years since Periyar led the protest for a group of temple to enter a temple in Vaikkom, Kerala. The latest incident to show how entrenched religious stupidity is in India, ironicall comes from Kerala too- from Guruvayur. Just 15 days back, Srilankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and his wife visited India and as a part of their trip they planned to visit the famed Guruvayur temple. It seems the temple board made a big fuss about the religion of the visiting dignitaries. Guruvayur Devasom has made it clear that they are stepping from the rules of the temple to allow non-Hindus into the temple. (if you guys have been to that temple, they would have a board hanging outside that NON-HINDUs NOT ALLOWED). They seem to have said that if Mrs. Rajapakse was a not a buddhist, they have to perform purification ceremony to purify the sanctum santorum. It seems that the Srilankan President had to call the Cheif Minister of Kerala and clarify that his wife is a buddhist.
Well, what age are we in?? I am surprised that there are still people who keep doing this kind of stuff and the government keeps mum.. If India lives by what it portrays (being secular), then dont they have to enforce that within the compound of a temple everyone is the same (irrespective of religion)?
I shall quote one more incident in this regard. In the last month, my sister had the chance to take her 2 American friends to our singara Chennai. It seems her friends wanted to see our Kapali temple, see its architecture and get a feel for what is done in the temple. You know what happened? The priest in the Kapali sannadhi told my sister not to bring the 2 foreigners inside the temple? Well, as far as i know the temples come under the Tamilnadu Hindu Endowment Board, which doesnt have any line in its charter about foreigners and temple entry. For a fact I have seen lots of foreigners inside Kanchipuram Kamakshi temple (which comes under the same board). It is good to do things to nurture your tradition, but what good will that be if you dont let outsiders see it and appreciate it?
When would our makkal practice what is their in the books or the government enforce what it bradishes to the outside world? To end with, I quote Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi's lines which has been often sung but as things seem not yet been thought about and rectified.

"Sadhi pirivugal solli - adhil
Thanzlvendrum melendrum solvar.
Needhi pirivugla seyvar - angu
nithamum sandaigal seyvar

sadhi kodumaigal vendam - anbhu
thannil sezhitidum vayyam
adhara vutringu vazhvom - thozhil
ayiram manbhura seyvom"

2006-01-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

Varuthu Varuthu Velagu Velagu - BCCI the Bully

First big apology for not posting for long time.. all the blame on my advisor for tying me up with work work work..enniki i made my mind to post something..so here it goes..
All the cricket afficandos might have noticed that BCCI in the last 2 weeks have moved from mere permanent member of BCCI to THE MEMBER of BCCI. First came the election of Sharad Pawar into the chief post in BCCI.. then i suspected something big is surely gonna happen in near future.. the first inkling of that came in when BCCI clinched a massive sponsorship deal from Nike sending the Indian cricket team the top brand in the world. Then to put a full stop to all the yearly quarrells among the TV channels for who should get what type of broadcast, BCCI said it would reisuue all the tenders for broadcast right for this year and would produce the broadcast from next year.. well edhu ellam okay na, next comes the master stroke.. BCCI said ICC champions trophy is not its cuppa tea and cant particpate in it..to make matters worse it roped in Cricket Australia, Pakistan Cricket Board and England and Wales Cricket Board to have regular series..well for all these, ICC has been relegated to a muted spectator and have sent the customary letter to BCCI sec Niranjan Shah..may be in the next few years it wouldnt be surprising if they move ICC to India.. ICC is privy to the fact that South Asia (mostly India) generates 75% of all its revenues and they really cant morachufy them..
its pity to see ICC being treated like how UN is treated by US..but one thing is for sure, if things go this way, Indian cricket fans are sure to be treated royally with some awesome matches between big teams like Aussie, England, Pakistan in a regular interval..
well, in a different beat..what is the plan with Pakistan board officials with respect to preparing picthes..2 test matches and close to 2000 plus runs and no results yet.. either Pakistan is afraid to lose a match or they are tacktufully pushing results to the last test in Karachi.....if Pakistan goes on like this, no country would be interested in playing there..

2005-12-26T17:03:00.000-08:00

What Transpired in 2005

Get done with Course work - Check
Start work on dissertation - Check
Get a nice sports car - Check
Get cool IPOD - Check
Get cool Motorola Razr Phone - Check

Well, those are the highlights of my 2005.. hehehe..

Note: Workout agadha vishayam ellam mention panna koodadhu.. adhu ellam New Year goals..appadiyum sollikalam..tappe ella..

2005-12-20T22:42:00.000-08:00

Parents/Petror/Amma-appa/Thai-thandhai/Mata-Pita

Amma, School le teacher titinanga..Appadiya chellam, nalaiku nan vandhu kekaren.
Appa, pudhu schooluku pudhu bag venum.Kandipa da kanna. Nalaiku market poi vangi kodukaren.
Amma, math kastama eruku, tuition poganum.Un friends ellam endha tuitionuku poranga? Nalaiku ketu sollu, anga serthu vidaren.
Appa, mechanical vendam, computer science padikanum.Appadiya pa. Nalaiku vandhu college le pesaren. Kavalai padadhe. Eppadiyavadhu pesi mudichudalam.
Amma, night studyku poitu varen.Seri da kanna.. Rombha neram pesindu erukadhenga, seekirama toongunga.
Appa, college lab fees kattanum, panam venum.Evalavu pa venum? Rendu naal kodu ready pannaren.
Appa, mela padikalam nu eruken.Nalladhu pa. Nalla padi. Vera edha pathiyum kavalai padadhe.
Amma, veetula neraya sandai varuthe?Dai, appadi dhan da erukum. Ava chinna ponnu. Namma veetuku vandhu eruka ella, ne dhan poruthu poganum.
Appa, ungaluku edhavadhu venuma? vangi anuparen/tharenEngaluku unga anbhu mattume podhum pa. Enga kadamai ellam mudichutu unga koodave vandhudarom. Vera edhuvum vendam.
I guess, most of us would have come across these typical comments. I was seeing Cheran's "Thavamai Thavamirundhu". I dont have any way to express the portrayal of parents by Raj kiran/Saranya. I felt that as a great tribute for the selfless middle class parents out there. For them the only thing their children can do, is remember their sacrifices, bear with them and cherish them in their old age.

2005-12-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

Things We Are Asked Not To Do

Not to do things

I am sure that we have been told numerously by our parents, grandparents and all perisus, dont do this, do that and just do like this.But we ask why, they would turn blank. Over the course of years, I have tried to make sense of some of these DONT DO LIKE THIS, JUST DO LIKE THIS (of course some really intelligent people I knew also helped along with). I have put forth a list of my take of these DONT DO's and the reason behind it.
1. Pillayar suzhi: We have been told repeatedly that pillayar suzhi is something realted to pillayar and doing it bestows success in writing that piece. But is that so? What does pillayar suzhi consist of? A small circle, a small curve, a horizontal line and a dot. Now think about it. Before the generation of paper usage, people used papyrus and stylus was used to write on it (actually slowly carve it). So the first thing the writers tested for is the whether the papyrus was worth to be carved i.e. soft enough but not too britle so that it would break. The basic movements in writing were circle, curve, dot and lines. Pillayar suzhi (or the series of movements) helped the writers sample the papyrus.
2. Vibuthi - What does applying vibuthi has to do with religion? Actually zilch, nada, zip. Vibuthi, traditionally would be made of slowly burnt cow dung. Once you Mix it with a little bit of water and applying it over the body, it dries due to our body heat. While drying, the ash hardens up and sucks the water in the pores of the skin. Thus clearing our skin of the black head and the white heads, making the skin glow. But people never would do things when they are told about medicinal properties. So how to make it happen, just say it has got something to do with religion and slap religious sanctitty to do it, people would then do it forever.
3. Dont cut nails in the evening: What does cutting nails got to do with evening? Before electricity age, our households were lit up just either a hurricane light or a agal vilaku (which for obvious reasons dont provide that much of velicham). So if someone cut their nails in the evening time, that too when it is not well lit, there is every possibility of the nails getting mixed up with food.
4. Wearing thali and metti: What does wearing thali and metti got to do with longevity of husband? Crap, married ladies werent even supposed to wear metti, men are supposed to wear it. our elders devised metti and thali as symbols of marriage. We have to remember that men were supposed to walk with their held high and women normally go about their business with a slight amount of shyness (thus looking at the ground). So how can men and women identify whom among the people they met are married and who are all unmarried? For the sake of this, married women were asked to wear thalis and married men wear mettis. Thus men (who walk with their head held high) could see thali in their point of sight and identify that who are married and who are not. The same applies for women too.
5. Parisheshanam (Iyer aathu guys would have heard this): The concept of parisheshanam is to take a spoon of water pour it around the food plate in a circular motion and end it up pouring the rest of water on the side of the plate. Well the build up to it would be parisheshanam mandiram. Again to understand this we need to put ourselves in time machine and go back to pre-electricity days and no dining table. Our forefathers sat on the floor and had their food, where by the way ants and insects thrived. So before our forefathers had their food, by circling the food with water it creates a circle of fire to fend off the insects from the food. The final drops of water would be used to just wash the hands.

Well my quest to decipher the DONT DOs or DO THESE LIKE THIS continues.

2005-11-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

Culture Shock

I am sure that Indian students who have gone abraod for studies have been briefed enough about this topic, and am sure both the students and professionals who have settled abroad have felt this when they returned to India after a long time..well, here are my 2 cents worth of culture shock incidents (limiting myself to India -USA - India)

As soon as you land in USA
- Driving on the right side of the road (obvious)
- Electric Switches (work the other way around)
- Shower curtains have to be put inside the bath tub
- If you are in small cities, every one annoyingly saying Hello, Hi, Wassup, How you doing?
- If you are in big cities, Indians staring at you like you are invading their territory
- People saying thanks, excuse me, bless you every now and then
- A wierd look when a guy puts his arm around another guy
- A wierd look when 2 people stand close to each other
- Concept of returning things to stores within 30 days and get the full money back
- The wierd rule of having J silent in some words like Jalapino and X silent in some words like Mexico
- Utter confusion of replacing Z in words where normally we tend to use S
- Using double negatives in sentences ex. I aint saying nothing
- Getting used to the wierd concept of paying even for incoming calls in Cell phones and night time free minutes

As soon as you return back to India
- Thanking bus conductor for giving you a ticket or a change of 50 paise and getting the wierd look
- Saying Hi for the policeman in the airport and getting a royal stare back
- When travelling in public transport, having the wierd feeling that people are all over you
- Why the heck people in India have to work more than 40 hrs a week, but paid only for 40 hrs?
- Arguing with a maligai kadai kaaran to return a alugina thengai and then fret abt customer service in the States
- Looking for calories on the back of every food article purchased in super market (as if we were born and bought up in that)

Well, the list would go on.. so guys please add on..

2005-11-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

Black Friday

What a week... First had my Laptop crash due to spyware, then got wickedly burnt by Dell (who asked me to pay for helping me format the system), and then had a marathon shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. When i was doing my Masters, I never cared about shopping on the day after thanksgiving day..But i did jump on to the wagon soon after i started my PhD..may be bcos of boredom on the long holidays or due to the sheer need to see the crowd.. The first year, I cared less to wake up at 4 am. But the last 2 times, I religiously woke up at 4 am and made sure I was in Bestbuy at 4:30 am. If you thought, I stand there wanting to buy every Goddamn thing there, u r mistaken. I, for some reason, like the energy of the crowd there. You see people of all ages, some with coffee in their hands and some still droolling from the last sleep, but all with a kid like look for shopping.. Last time, i ended up picking a bunch of empty CDs and this year I got myself a 120Gig Hard Drive (I have been feeling stupid of not backing up my 4 years of PhD work in school and my prized possession of Mp3s)..After Bestbuy, we (me and my other half) drove to an Outlet mall and just dropped in every shop we can think of..After 4 hrs, we were dead tired and got 4 T-shirts as the momento of the torment..
Well, I thought I would post some neat stuff about the Black friday day. First about the name "Black Friday". Before you think of any sinister stuff, retiailers use this day to move from Loss (red marking) to profit (black) in their balance sheets, thus giving the name Black Friday..Most importantly, black friday is all about retailers gimmick. You would never see a good brand on sale that day. You would get to see brands which are slogging to get off the shelf or brands which want to make a mark in the market. The brands which sell their stuff, with a reduced pricing, also makes money. Most of the consumers would be fooled to be happy with MAIL IN REBATE. Mail in rebate works always in favor of the brand and not us (consumers).. Have you ever thought that what is reason behind someone saying that a product is worth 100$, but after mail in rebate the price would be 40$? Well, first the manufacturing price for that product would be well below 40$. Secondly, it takes 6-8 weeks for the brands to process your mail in rebate and then send you the check. But till the time (you encash the mail-in-rebate check), the money is in the brand's account - an instant cash pool, without paying any interest)..Next comes the tax part. When you get the product, you pay for 100$ and tax for it, and not the tax for 40$. So the city and state also gets a cut on this...Man, as i tell my wife, America always finds ways and means to prove it as a Capitalist society and ways to milk the common man..
The last thing is, the products we think are being sold cheaply would be sold at the same price a week or 1 month down the lane. A bummer...Having said these stuff, who cares?? Its all about having fun and treating yourself/others..
I shall post a picture of the crowd...

2005-11-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

One more fan for Ipod

Just got hold of Ipod shuffle...Have heard awesome things about Ipod, but nothin beats a first hand experience.."Just awesome" would summarize my feeling..The first song I heard was the Title song by Rehman from Aa Aaah..It was befitting the glamor of Ipod..Sound clarity is crystal clear and feels like as if listening through Bose headsets..

2005-10-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

Gods Can Never Be Mortal

Gosh..Sachin, the man who has the power to stop millions of people in India for a moment (the others being the Indian Babus and Bollywood fantasy heroes), just eclipsed from his iconic status to a God status. Ever since his debut under Krish Srikanth in Pakistan 15 years back, Sachin has slowly shown the class batsman he is. He pulled, hooked, swept, drove and danced down the wicket for every bowler in contemporary cricket. Till 2003 he reigned in the status as the most feared batsman in the world. Till then, neither the critics nor the fan once reduced him from a prodigy status. But for the next 2 years he struggled in every single series, giving enough for the the romour mills. Critics said Sachin has lost his touch, started fearing the bowlers and doesnt step up to the plate. It all felt as if "All good things come to an end". Man o man, Sachin proved everyone wrong the last week. He came back from a long hiatus of 6 months and made his comeback look like he has just been playing all along. The drives and hooks, that we thought has disappeared for good from his quiver, resurfaced. The shots were not only used deligently, but also used in a manner which resurfaced the Sachin in late 90's. He showed the world what his class his and what he always was "fearless, shrewd and classy customer". Comebacks are for mortal. For Gods like Sachin, who was were out of form dont need a long comeback road. Did Tiger Woods need a comeback trail last year (2004)? I dont think Sir Don Bradman saw himself in Tendlya during the 1996 world cup, without a reason.

(Picture courtesy: Cricinfo.com)

2005-09-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

Creativity and Indian Film Makers

A while back I was browsing through some of the Indian movie websites. In a country with creative directors such as Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Jahnu Barua, and to some extent Cheran, K. Balachander; there are also worthless directors who just disrepute the whole concept of moviemaking. To illustrate, take a look at the movies which came out in recent times (I am limiting myself to Hindi and Tamil). Directors seem love to churn movies of the "Masala" genre with the beaten down love stories. No originality in those. But there pops out good movies in between. Movies like Black, Parineeta, and Paheli are top of the house in terms of production value, story and story telling..But are these stories really original...Nope, not even close..Black takes it soul from the story of Jane Eyre, Paheli and Parineeta from old movies..I can atleast give the directors credit for their effort in giving a good story.. But what about directors like Murugadoss in Tamil and Apoorva Lakhia in Hindi.. The former just released his movie by named "Gajini", a story of a millionarie turned killer who has lost his short-term memory and uses tatoos/polaroid pics to keep track.. Tamil movie magazines are full of rave for the director for having a novel story.. Novel story, my foot...for all those naive souls, the movie is totally based on a Hollywood flick called "Momento". The same with Apporva Lakhia, whose new movie by named "Ek Ajnabee" is a total copy of last year's Denziel Washigton hit "Man on Fire"..These guys are just a prick for the Indian movie industry and the reason why they dont come up with any good films or ones with Novel ideas. Till they get rid of these copycats, who cant think, our national film selectors for Oscar nomination wont have much work on their plate..

2005-09-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Travesty of a Doctoral Student

Doctoral studies... Man o Man, the last 3 years has been a life defining experience for me and it is still not done (I have another 2 more years to go)...When I stepped into the program, my pea sized brain did tell me to perceive Doctoral studies as an exteneded Masters program. I thought all I need to do is get done with 15 courses and do a Thesis, and viola I would a tag in front of my name. As semesters and stats courses progressed, one thing stared at me straight was "my studpidity", that Doctoral studies is a different league game..When i told my advisor in my Masters program that I am going to join a PhD program, he spent hours and hours trying to tell me pitt falls to avoid in a Doctoral program.. I now wish, i should have given much more thought then rather than steaming off in my own fantasy land..One of the first problems I had during my initial PhD days, was the need to confront my self image. I am person who hate to gossip around, dont like to talk about my life with people whom i dont know and most of all a sharp shooter.. Gosh, the first semester for me was a disaster.. I was plastered by all sorts of names.. I was called a Loner, bcos i worked from sun set to sun rise.. I was called most unsociable person, bcos i dont gossip..and most importantly my colleagues started pulling my personal life for anything and everything they wanted to talk abt me.. I also had to fight with the ghost of being brought up in a British format schooling system, where Profs were thought as Guru's, with a respect and with a decorum of what should be spoken with them and what shouldnt be...It all ended up one final day, when a kind hearted Prof came up to me and told me what was happening at the back of me..It took a couple of weeks to strategize my attack plan... First thing, i did was try to rekindle the conversation I had with my ex-advisor and follow what he asked me to do, i.e. never step in the politics in the department but always make none steps on you..I took a couple of more weeks to get a name for me in the classes, then started taking care of my colleagues..Man, when I was in India, I thought Westerners were all well mannered. But i was wrong, human mind never changes irrespective of whether he is from Aminjikarai or Atlanta..Instead of changing my belief about how to get work done, just because other people dont like me, I made sure that the way I do is viewed as a cult and taking pride in doing it. Over the last 2 years, I just didnt give a chance for people to speak about me..Still I am considered as unsocial by those poor souls, who cant understand that I believe not going on debt by eating out everyday and also want to keep a healthy life..To top it off, getting any thing done in my department, no matter it is about getting funded for a conference or decide on research topic for a project, you have to take care of a multi-functional regression. Earlier, when i used to see my friends working their ass off in the industry, i used to think that I am missing people managenebt skills which my friends are getting every day. Now, i know that I am getting even more than what my friends are getting..I no more complain about it...
Being a Doctoral student has surely showed me what little in the world and in our life, that we can control.. and the best way to take care of life is fret about things you can control and take "ONE DAY AT A TIME"..

2005-08-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

EGO

Ego. What the heck is that? We tend to see that in our daily life. Most of us have daily confrontations with Ego, in terms of our own self ego, ego of our bosses, ego of managers, ego of restaurant waiter, ego of our professors and so on.
Thesaurus lists the following definitions for Ego:

"The self, especially, as distinct from the world and the other selves"
"An exagerrated sense of self importance".
"Appropriate pride in oneself, self-esteem".

On a philosophical note, Sri Ramakrishna comments on Ego as "You cannot conceive, think of perceive God, otherwise than as a person, so long as you are a person with Ego of your own". In the same vein, Sai Baba define Ego as "Edging God Out".

All the above definitions underline "Self", which keeps popping up as self importance and self esteem. According to anthropology and sociology research Ego plays a very important role in defining who we are. Ego identifies the central character of every human being; what he relates himself to, what he thinks he knows best, what he thinks he can do best and so on. But it is Ego which acts as one of the major resource wrecking havoc in the society. See around yourself and think of the last time you had a problem with your boss, your mom/dad, your neighbor, your teacher, the restaurant waiter who suggested something for you etc. Everytime somebody passes a comment on you, it is your Ego which gets directly punctured. The comment spears into the authority on which you are built upon and which you have advertised to others. Once the initial blow has been inflicted upon your Ego, our brain would kick in the survival training part, which has been pre-programmed as a by product of our evolution process. We go into a defensive mode, trying to confront the person who has ridiculed the basic identity of who we are. Thus, forcing us to retailiate and starting a tirade of passing comment on the opposite person. After that the problem takes the road deep south.

How can be tackle our Ego? Well, we need Ego but we should also control it. We need to defend our Ego if we know that it is correct ethically, morally and factually. Well, as a starting point thats what our parents and books we read in our childhood has taught us. In Sangam Tamil literature, there is a quote that Pulavar Nakeerar didnt budge from his stand that Lord Shiva was had factual mistake in his poem and stood by it. He seem to have passed on a comment on Shiva saying "NetriKan thirapinum Kutram Kutrame", hearing which Lord Shiva burnt him. Lord Shiva then resurrected Nakeeran and appreciated him for being strong even in front of the Lord. But does that work in our practical life?

For the last 6 months I had an interesting experience of playing with my Prof's Super Ego. For a stupid reason (of the department not designing the course correctly), I had to re-take a course (under a new prof), even after me getting an A during the first time. The new Prof came from a different background, had different understanding of research methods used in my field (Information Systems) and most of all had no idea of what my field is about. Here I am in the class, where 4 students are from IS and one from management. Even before the course had begun, the prof had been strongly instructed by the IS department on what to teach and what not to teach. Before going any further, I should also let you guys know that we are talking about a full Prof and whose terrible stint as a teacher was well known to all the departments. Still, she was asked to teach to students. Why? people in the IS dept thought it was not their duty to teach that course. Other smart departments like Finance and Accounting instructed their students not to even think of taking that course. Anyways, the course was supposed to teach the students an overview of Quantitative and Qualitative methodology. In the first class, the prof comes with a syllabus which has 95% of classes devoted to Quantiative methodology and 5% to qualitative methodology. And here I am, who have taken mutiple classes on the subject and wanted to learn qualitative more. Anyways, I tried to keep quiet in the class, hoping she would teach qualitative methodology. She never completes any of the material and through the whole semester is stuck up with Surveys. Then comes up with the term paper. When 4 others in the class chose a quantitative paper, i chose a qualitative approach with a noble cause of learning it from the semester. I seldom realized that the prof neither knew it or was ready to accept she didnt know. Comes the end of semester, I am given a C. The reason, I didnt understand the methdology. Who comments on it? A prof who expected Stats in qualitative paper, expected hypotheses in Exploratory study? But who to question her. Having bought up with values, and to stand up to it; I was caught up inbetween throwing my values out of the window or stick by it, keep a C and retake the class. My fellow colleagues did ask me to do the unthinkable "Kneel down and suck it up...". I just kept on collecting reseach to prove that I am right and she was wrong; proved it and finally got a B. Well, what was my fault in this whole process? Stuck with the truth or challenging a Professor that she was wrong and deliberately screwing my grade? When I tell this to my advisor, he said "Welcome to real world" and learn to live up to it. Gosh, if thats the case why did my mom teach me Bharathiyar's "Nimirdha nanadai, Ner konda parvai, Nilathil yarkum anchadha nerigalum"? May be this is what I should expect, if i had to stick up to truth, i.e. path full of challenges. Huh ! I again remember Bharathiar's song for this "Nallothor veenai seyvom. Adhai nalam keda puludhiyil erindhu vetom. Solladi Sivasakthi, endha sudar migum arivudan ennai padaithai"...

2005-07-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

Off it goes.......

(Courtesy: NASA)

Well.. Well.. Well..NASA after a looooong and costly investigation of the failed Columbia mission, successfully launched Space Shuttle Discovery and it has also successfully docked with the International Space Station. For the past two days, it has been fun to watch NASA Live TV where the action is shown live right from the chatter talk between the Shuttle crew members and Ground Control, and some knowledgable commentary by NASA PR people. It is literally awesome to see earth from the perimter of the Space Shuttle. Good job NASA for the great images..
Well, after all the ravings lets start the ranting. The mission is not without its grey area. In contrast to NASA's overconfidence on the external fuel tank's insulation, a chunk of insulation did fall off. This has severly dented NASA's confidence with the safety of the tank and so the safety of the Shuttle crew, thus ground the future (foreseeable) missions to a screeching halt. It is highly surprising that even after NASA knew that it wont be able to completly correct foam shaving problem from the external fuel tank, all it did was to just patch up the faults in the foam coating design and not totally re-design the entire fuel tank. Its easy to say that it all boils down to dollars, as the tank is reused and it is cheap to just refine what we have than redo from scratch. But if NASA doesnt fix the foam problem, it is highly unlikely that the Shuttle program would continuue or would be used to its fullest extent before retiring it in 2010.
Coming to the next point, has the Shuttle program lived upto its expectation in the last 25 years. If one compares the overhyped Shuttle with clanky Russian Soyuz, it would be crystal clear that Soyuz has a better safety record and much cheap mode of transport between earth and space station. If that is the case, why NASA still sticks with its risky Shuttle design? First EGO, that Americans always design a better product.. Its bullshit.. Even a first year Mechanical Engineering student would say that during renentry path the lesser the amount of space area exposed to heat, the better chance of shielding from it and returning to earth safely. Soyuz fits as a glove to do the job of shuttling the astronauts and supplies back and forth and safely bring them back home.. It is clunky, small but due to its compact nature has less area to be shielded from renentry burning. While, the US shuttle are beautiful to see and has large space, but it is one of the most complex thing ever built by human being and most flimsiest. Most people dont know that the tiles used in space shuttle are so flimsy that it cant even land back on earth when it is drizzling.
The ISS program is being boasted as a joint collabration program involving a dozen countries. For the success of the program and for the advancement of science, let hope that NASA put some logical thinking and be rational in whatever it does.

2005-07-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Statesmen in India - Do they need a quick visit to an eye Doctor?

Well. I should first thank my friend Sowmya for instigating to start blogging again and it was also great to read her painstakingly written blog on Saivaite saints. Bravo !!
As I was thinking about a topic to blog on, two prominent things came on to my mind. The first one on issues about occupation and profession. I am saving on to that for now, as I think I still have to read some more papers to have a indepth understanding of the concept. The second one that flashed across is about China and India.
In the last 1 year every news paper, journal article or magazine article seems to be incomplete without allotting a single column on the topic of India vs China. For example, in the latest Forbes magazine article on Oil prices projects India and China to be the reason behind the increase in Oil Prices. "The bullish case for oil stems from a growing world economy - you know, china and India - that will ensure increasing demand and stock propelling earningss". It seems true on the base level to say that both India and China have been growing tremendously. For true, they have been growing at 7-8% for the last decade. But the issue which most of us seem to forget that it is an unreasonable comparison being made between them. Even though, the growth rate is comparable, are we talking about comparable economies. No we arent. Take for instance, China has forex reserves to the amount of 750 Billion US dollars and India just 110 Billion US dollars. In order to have a 8% growth like China, India has to grow at a rate of 20% per annum , which is impossible and unthinkable. But how come 2 countries which were comparable in 60's have become totally incomparable in the span of 40 years. I would say the majority of burden lies on the lack of visionaries in India. Unlike China, whose premier has the foresight to see his country in long term, India has been plagued by more of short term rusted politicians than visionaries. Even though India greatly benefitted from visionaries like MS. Swaminathan and Vallabhai Patel in 50's and 60's; it came to a screeching halt then. We lost steam and locked ourself in cucoon for the next 40 years. It had to take a luminary like Manmohan to kick start in 1991 and a global disaster like dot com bust to take the Manmohan initiative to the next level. But if we think that India is in a perfect position to take on China now, I would suggest you to think 20,000 times before it. Right now everyone in India thinks India is doing great because of the BPO boom and all. But the ITES sector just contributes in single digit percentage to Indian GDP. Whereas Chinas GDP is fuelled by wide rage of sectors right from IT, ITES, manufacturing and all. On the onset of the 21st century I think the Indian think tanks have realized the old adage "Dont book all your eggs in a single basket". It is visible from the heavy dis-investment work going on in India and the opening up of markets right from Aviation to retail sector. But does it suffice to just open the sector. Once, again the lack of foresighted visionaries handicaps India here. Whats the use of have aviation pact with countries and having mushrooming low-budget carriers without having proper infrastructure. I think all Bangloreans would endorse to the state of Bangalore International Airport. It still is in the drawing board 2 years after being awarded the contract. It is shame to know that the Airport Authority of India is just now thinking of having an automatic baggage handling facility for 10 top airports. What about other airports in India like Trichy or Madurai or Pune? It would be worthwhile to look at developed nations and how they did it. USA invested lots of money in airport and roads in the 50's and 60's parallely when it the respective sector booming and things were done at rapid pace. In India, the word rapid sticks only with the paper and doesnt go anywhere.
The other glaring example for the lack of foresightedness of Indian leaders is WTO-Cloth export cap. When the developed nations took the cap off in Jan 2005, do you know who benefitted the most? Bingo China. Just for numbers sake, look at this. Their increase in export to USA (in any segment of clothing - underwear, swimsuit, sweaters) rose to 200-400%. This happened within the first quarter of 2005. In the same time, exports from other countries like India rose in very modest numbers. Why this dispartity? Do you think that dumping of clothing from China happened overnight? We all would remember the late Murasoli Maran and his acts in WTO 2002, when he inked the export cap pact. All the nations had approximately 3 years for the D-Day i.e., Jan 2005. But who won? Only China, who used the time wisely to improve the infrastructure and create redundant manufacturing, yarns, shipping facilities and just switched it ON in Jan 2005. Whereas, in India, it seems we started taking note of the banishment of export cap only from Jan 2005 and started building the infrastructure. I was totally apalled by a news article in Hindu (dated 21st July 2005), which quoted an industrialist in Tirupur (manchester of India) being happy about the bank approving his 1 crore loan to buy a new spinning machine in addition to the new one he bought a couple of months back.
Well, the two examples I quoted are a drop in an ocean. What we need in India is someone who can think in the long term and who can lead India without red tape.
Chal..... thats it for today..shall rejoin in the next edition with my thought on Youth in India.

2005-05-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Here you go people. I am back again with a bang (after a l0oooooo0000ooooong lull of 1 year)...
Hope you guys have listened to Anniyan songs by Harris Jayaraj.. Here is my take on the songs..
1. Iyengaru veettu -- Starts with a great opening of classic keerthana "Jagatha nandha...", changes the beat and still sticks with the raaga(but have to bear with the lyrics.. ouch.. awful to the extent)...The song also has the right mix of classical instruments like mridangam, gatam with keyboard..
2. Kadhan Yanai ---- Crap song and has lots of uncanny resemlence with one of the 12 B song
3. Andan Kakka --- A classic Shankar song.. I can see Shankar more in this song that that of Harris Jayaraj.. I am sure that this Song would be of the Genre like that of "Uppu Karuvadu" of Mudhalavan fame
4. Stranger in black --- Another song which sounds more like one of Harris's previous hit "thoodhu varuma" in Kaaka Kaaka..
5. Kannum Kannum - I still dont get the reason why Harris relies on his 12 B chord than anything. Hear for "Oooooh".. It gets on my nerves to hear that repeatedly without thinking of "Seriya Thavara" in 12B.
6. Kumari - A great rendition by Shankar Mahadevan and overall a good song too.. For a change in the whole album (other than Iyengaru veetu), Harris has thought to mix carnatic strings (look out of Mandolin note) along with Keyboard...but alas to the middle of the song (after the first stanza), Harris uses the Sax note from "Mutham Mutham" from 12B...

I totally wish Shankar should have stuck with ARR than his student...Harris has a long way to go...He totally lacks in confidence and relies on digitally mixing his already hit notes...