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?

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..

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..

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.

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.

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..

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...

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..

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)

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..

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"..

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"...