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!!

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...

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..

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

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...

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?

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..

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"

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..