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.

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.

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.

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...

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!

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

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. :)

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

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. :)

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.

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?

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!!!

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!

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?

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?