TN, Reservations and Da Vinci Code
My previous post was strongly pro-Chennai (as my blog title anyway suggests) and by default, I root for Chennai and Thamizhnaadu but I never fail to criticize the state or its government when warranted and people who have read
my post on moral policing last year are aware of that.
Let us take two current issues - Reservations and the screening of the Da Vinci Code movie. While there were protests all over the nation on the move by the Central government regarding reservations, there was hardly any of that sort happening in TN, mainly because this state set the trend in increasing quotas to the "backward classes". If a section of people have been historically disadvantaged socially (and consequently economically), then by all means use reservations as a tool to help them but what has been the reality in this state?
The "
creamy layer" has managed to corner all or most of the benefits thus depriving the really needy and defeating the "spirit" of the reservations policy. Now even if there is a vested interest by many groups in the state to prevent "economic" backwardness from being used as the
sole criterion for reservations, how much would it take for a government that is
really sincere in helping the
truly underprivileged to get the benefits of reservations by including
both social backwardness
AND economic backwardness as the basis for deciding quotas? In other words, a candidate has to fulfil
both criteria in order to claim benefits under reservations. Would this not really be why the founding fathers of this country introduced reservations many decades back?
Let us take the next issue - the screening of the Da Vinci Code movie. When the highest courts of the land have refused to interfere in the screening of this movie and when other countries with Christian majority populations have screened it, what is the TN government trying to achieve by banning the screening of the movie? They are only encouraging clandestine distribution of the movie thru other channels since people's appetite to see it would be whetted more due to the ban. If the government is bothered about religious sensibilities being offended because of this movie, have TN governments in the past applied this law uniformly to also ban movies that criticized or ridiculed the majority religion? India is perhaps the only country where the majority religion gets no sympathy due to the vote-bank politics of minority appeasement that is practised unashamedly by almost all the parties save for the BJP (of which I am neither a supporter nor an opposer).
The larger issue here is that if the state has the power to decide
arbitrarily what can and cannot be allowed when it comes to public consumption of news, information, ideas, artistic output etc., then there is really no freedom of expression in India as guaranteed by the Constitution. Let us make an amendment to the Constitution to say "freedom of expression in India is a highly regulated right, subject to the whims and fancies of whatever government is currently in power" :-).
Continue to ignore Chennai at your own peril
Excuse me HCL Info,
are you doing your homework properly?
What's up with these companies leaving out the capital of the second largest IT exports state?
The iPod would be launched in a phased manner. The first phase would cover cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, he said.
I am simply amazed at how conveniently these IT companies can continue to overlook one of the four metropolises of India but can include Hyderabad and Pune as though these are better performers in IT. Have they checked their facts? Or is it because of a concentration of Chennai-ignorant North and "West" Indian executives at the helm of affairs at such companies? Seriously, Chennai needs to shed its "let out work speak for itself" attitude and start painting a larger-than-life picture of itself which is how these other so-called "IT destinations" have managed to capture mind-space. What is the
real pecking order of IT cities in India?
1. Bangalore
2. Chennai
3. Mumbai
4. Hyderabad
5. Delhi
6. Pune
When will the
inherently anti-Chennai or
basically Chennai-ignorant folks wake up to this
reality?
Rating airports for user-friendliness
During this trip to Chennai, I passed thru two airports for the first time - London Gatwick and Dubai. During my previous trips, I had transited London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Amsterdam etc. and my main grouse in each one of those had been in the use of their public phones to call home. Not only was there a language issue in understanding the instructions for the last three (even to navigate to the English menu in them), even after figuring out what to do, some of them did not work with credit cards even though they stated that they accepted CCs and London Heathrow was no better either with BT (British Telecom) not offering international dialing in all their credit-card accepting terminals and in a way forcing people towards buying calling cards (or converting some money to Euros).
This time while changing planes at Dubai, I found that although most of their phones were
supposedly credit-card accepting ones, none really did and the friendly information desk attendant said that they don't accept CCs and that one has to buy their calling cards that start at nearly $7 equivalent in their currency. I did not expect this from the international airport of a city that is ever attracting tourists and is on to bigger things in terms of expansion. Also, proper signage is something most of these European airports should learn from those in American cities. I was in fact acting as the guide (while waiting for my brother's family to join me at Gatwick) for many people who were looking lost while trying to figure out where to take their connecting flights. Gatwick could do a lot better in terms of telling people what the difference is between their north and south terminals and how to go from one to the other.
I have seen online comparison reviews of airports but I don't recall any of them discussing such issues as telephones and signage. Perhaps they rated other things as restrooms and accessibility and while those are equally important, I am sure people are a lot more concerned about calling a near and dear one than in finding out if the airport can qualify for the "cleanest toilets" award. Perhaps this is where bloggers can pitch in and give their ratings on airports on certain important parameters so that others may know ahead of their trip. I have already told you what Gatwick and Dubai need to fix.
Chennai senthamizh kaettaen innaaLe
Sorgamae endraalum, adhu nammoora pola varumaa?
:-)
A.R.Rahman da jawab nahin
Mitti ki jo khushboo, tu kaise bhoolaayega
Tu chaahe kahin jaaye, tu laut ke aayega
Nayi nayi raahon mein, dabi dabi aahon mein
Khoye khoye dilse tere, koyi ye kahega
Ye jo des hai tera, swades hai tera, tujhe hai pukaara
Ye woh bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahin sakta
(Hmm...hmm...hmm...hmm...hmm...)
Tujhse zindagi, hai ye keh rahi
Sab toh paa liya, ab hai kya kami
Yun toh saare sukh hai barse
Par door tu hai apne gharse
Aa laut chal tu ab diwaane
Jahaan koyi toh tujhe apna maane
Awaaz de tujhe bulaane, wahi des
Ye jo des hai tera, swades hai tera, tujhe hai pukaara
Ye woh bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahin sakta
(Hmm...hmm...hmm...hmm...hmm...)
Ye pal hai wahi, jis mein hai chhupi
Koyi ek sadi, saari zindagi
Tu na poochh raaste mein kaahe
Aaye hain is tarha do raahein
Tu hi toh hai raah jo sujhaaye
Tu hi toh hai ab jo ye bataaye
Chaahe toh kis disha mein jaaye wahi des
Ye jo des hai tera, swades hai tera, tujhe hai pukaara
Ye woh bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahin sakta
Hmm...hmm...hmm...
Yeh Jo Des Hai TeraThamizhAkkam (
nandRi Adaengappa Prabhu)
Song: Unthen Desathin Kural (Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera)Singer: AR RahmanLyric: VaaliUnthen desathin kural
Thozlai thurathil atho,
Seviyil Vilathaa......
Sontha Vizhudhum ennai vaa yendru azlaikuthadha thamizhaa......
Antha natkalai nenai,
Avai ningguma unnai,
Nizlal poal varathaa......
Ayal naadhu yenthal veedhu alla vidhuthiyadha thamizhaa.
Vaanam yenggum paranthalum,
Paravai yennam than kuthil,
Ulagam yengum vaalthalum,
Thamilan yennum thai natthil
Santharpanggal vaithalum- anggu
Selvamaram kaithalum,
Ulmanathil kuval - unthan
Sevigalil vilathaa......
Undhan Desaththin......
Gangai unnai alaikirathu,
Yemunai unnai alaikirathu,
Emayam unnai alaikirathu - pazla
Samayam unnau alaikirathu
Kanna muchi attam alaika - chinna
Pattham poochi kuttham alaikirathu,
Thennanth thooppu thuravugal alaika - kattik
kaatha uravugal allaika,
Neethan thinna nizla choru unnai alaikaa......
Undhan Desaththin......
Paal poal ulla vennilavu,
Paarthal siru karai irukku,
Malar poal ulla thai mannil,
Maarantha sila vazli irukki,
Kannir thudaika vendum unthal kaigal,
Athil selikka vendum un-maigal,
Intha Desam uyarathum un-naley,
Makkal kutham varathum un-pinnaley,
Anbu thai unnai alaikirathu , thamizhaa............
Undhan Desaththin......
ChennaiCentral - a sex blog?
Continuing my series of having fun at the expense of visitors who use "exotic" search terms and land on my site by chance, I found today that I was running neck and neck with a popular
ahem blog for this
particular search.
Yabba! (
Rajini in Kodi Parakkudhu)
:-)
Blogswara goes live!
I feel that it is a great honor to be a part of this wonderful and talented team of musicians! Also perhaps this is the first "virtual" music group ever, with hardly anybody meeting anyone else in the troupe in person (except for a few of us in the same location).
Blogswara rocks!
Reservations
I support reservations because without them, it would be virtually impossible for many "type B" folks like me to get into unreserved compartments in trains if all such seats were thrown open to
M-e-RIT (a.k.a, "Might is RIghT" in this context :-)).
I oppose reservations because with them ("Space Reserved for X"), people who are just using entitlement due to "majority" (in shares held, numerical value of salaries drawn and hefty bonuses paid) like Chairmen, MDs and other executive staff get to park their cars closest to the buildings at many IT and MNC company campuses, leaving us rank and file IT worker bees to slog it out with heavy laptops in tow from the farthest corners of the massive parking lots :-).
And, THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, sums up the ambivalence of our people when it comes to such controversial topics :-).
How in the world...
...did I end up among the top 20 Indian blogs
here? :-)
If you are lazy enough to do such things as click the link above, here is a snapshot of what I am talking about.
Well, I am making a
show of modesty here as you can see thru easily :-) since CC faithfuls know that I had
suo-moto "tom-tommed" something like this in a
previous post (with my prediction of not
really being among the top 6 purely based on blogrolling but more like being among the top 20 based on blog search engine rankings).
I wasn't even checking these things in Blogstreet India until I saw over the course of last week that many people had visited CC from the Blogstreet India Top 100 list. That is when I checked the site and found that I had indeed moved dramatically from a ranking of around 126 or so to 18 (it may be of historical interest to know that when I started blogging, CC was ranked somewhere near 600 out of a universe of about 1800+ Indian blogs and so this is some improvement perhaps ;-)).
Kaps had written a post in late November of last year on how he thought Blogstreet India's rankings were not all that accurate since the rankings then included both "non-existent and unrelated blogs" and how new services may emerge (there is of course one such site now, that does the rankings on a weekly basis). But looking at the current rankings, I feel that Blogstreet India have cleaned up their act since the rankings now, in my opinion, are the most accurate ever (at least for the top 50 or so) and this totem pole can even be intuitively constructed, given the popularity of the top blogs (and bloggers) in the list.
I owe this ascent (to the top 1% of Indian blogs) to all of you and want to take a bow and say "thank you", "thanku" and "danks ba".
:-)
Never Eat Alone
I guess this advice applies to me more than anybody else since at work I do eat only at my desk, alone (well, your blogs keep me company at that time :-)). But, you must be wondering what the hell am I talking about.
"
Never Eat Alone" is the name of a book and the author happens to be someone called
Keith Ferrazzi. If you don't know him, that's fine since I too did not know about him until yesterday when serendipity surfing landed me on his
site. This guy, who is the son of a steelworker and a cleaning lady went to Harvard Business School and found himself in the company of blue-blooded, pedigreed high-achievers, most of whom were from the upper crust of society and were very different from him, both in background and in their approach to the course at HBS.
As he himself admits, he never felt competent at number-crunching and thus felt very awkward to be in the same class as his peers. But a realization dawned on him that his batchmates were not working
with each other but
against one anothe
r in a show of rugged individualism and a "
winner takes all" attitude. He felt that the one thing that they were not aware of in business was that it was run by humans in spite of all the facts, numbers and data that they seemed to be so immersed in.
He knew that his strength would be in cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with people and when he finally graduated from Harvard, he had two offers on hand - Deloitte and McKinsey.
He accepted the Deloitte job on one condition: that he could dine with the firm's CEO, Pat Loconto, three times a year. Deloitte agreed, and Loconto became a valuable mentor. Thus, he ended up becoming the youngest partner ever in Deloitte's consulting history and also sat on its executive committee.
While he dislikes the word "networking", what Ferrazzi tries to convey thru the book is that you have to be able to form meaningful relationships with people who are in a position to help you for which you need to come across as trustworthy and genuinely interested in them.
The gist of his life philosophy is that your success in life is not dependent so much on what you know as it is on who you know. People who have expanded their circle of friends thru blogging and other means, both online and offline would probably attest to that :-).
LP - Losers' Party?
(
This post is based on a news item in Deccan Chronicle to which PK had linked and with inputs from Vatsan also).
I must credit
Adaengappa Prabhu (who also broke the news to me on the factional split within Lok Paritran) with the above word play :-) and it looks like my note on the previous post on what I wanted to write about LP is no more relevant. I believe that "where there are two Indians, there will be four kinds of politics" :-) and if there are too many Indians in a particular setting, especially political, then one can extrapolate this politics among them to the n-th degree.
Here we had the promise of something that was deemed revolutionary and had people who rallied behind the idea, giving up their quality time that they would have otherwise spent with their friends and family or would have utilized it in some other manner and now we have the spectacle that this party has made of itself with this news of a splinter group breaking away airing their vitriol in public. I am not trying to blame anyone here and the break-away faction may have had its own justification for doing so, but I am looking at the larger picture.
And the picture is - do "national" level parties work any more in India? I can say the resounding answer is NO. Other than the historical legacy that the Congress has been able to encash repeatedly and the ideological dogma that the Communist parties have been able to sell for long, no national party has been able to penetrate into all the regions in India - look at how the BJP is yet to open its account in Kerala or even for that matter in Thamizhnaadu to the level it would have liked. This idea of a "national level leadership" that can work the remote control on its spread-out tentacles is no more workable nor desirable.
It failed in Thamizhnaadu since 1967 and it also failed in Andhra when NTR launched his TDP that appealed to regional sentiments strongly. Voters have to identify with the leaders they are going to elect as their representatives and it does not help matters if the "local" leaders have to look up for guidance or for broad policy announcements from the "central leadership". In LP's case, while the Mylapore candidate is also the chief advisor for the party, yet he could not have avoided the tag of being just one of the Thamizhnaadu representatives of a national party that the voters have never heard about.
Also, I hold on to the view that you cannot have a name for a party that does not resonate the same way everywhere (akin to a marketing decision on branding a product that translates well across geographies). Lok Paritran does not easily come to the lips of an ordinary Tamilian and while the number of votes polled for LP in this election could look like a shot in the arm, for the long haul, this name would not have worked, at least in Thamizhnaadu. The other thing is to use the
KISS principle in enunciating an ideology which they never did, leaving many confused as to what they were offering that was going to make an "immediate impact" in the minds of the voters. If LP wants to be taken seriously, they need to fix a lot of the above mentioned flaws.
Now you may be wondering "is this all that comes to pass for educated and intelligent people trying to enter politics?" and my answer is "No, don't be disappointed. Whether or not LP as a party succeeds, it has indeed shown the way for others with similar profiles to venture into politics and to learn from LP's missteps." After all, we do have as an example a company that is careful not to be dangerously adventurous (and thus avoids taking all the arrows that a brave, but often-times-foolish pioneer unfortunately does) and is yet the most successful company due to this savviness. Its NASDAQ symbol is MSFT :-).
Posts of interest
A round-up of some posts that you may find interesting:
Santhanagopalan of LP explains his political views (I am going to write a post on LP and what they need to do to establish themselves, sometime this week).
Deepak's
humorous take on the aftermath of the TN Elections.
Ganesh on his favorite animator and director.
Krithika
links to an IT quiz. Take it if you are of the quizzing kind.
Anand
reviews Mission Impossible : 3.
A whole lot of
Thamizh cinema reviews by Balaji.
Prabu Karthik on the
bourgeois mentality.
Ganesh Venkittu's
Thamizh poetry is simply amazing.
Robbie has an interesting post on the "
battle of the sexes".
Adaengappa Prabhu
links to another blogger's Thamizh post on autism.
Mother's Day Music
On the eve of Mother's Day (which I think, along with Father's Day should be a daily observance going by Indian culture and tradition), I am presenting a song by my mom. I have also sung one of the popular numbers from Thamizh cinema on motherhood but that is for purposes of
dhrishti pottu only :-). So, here is my mom singing "
vaNNa mugham vaLarpiraiyO, kaNNirendum thAmaraiyO..." (the same song that was sung as a lullaby to both my brother and I as babies, by our parents)
.Here is mine. I have two versions. The first one below was the later version and I feel my voice was better (by that I mean not as bad) on this one than the one below it. The problem is that, although both are not the best recordings, there is a lot more audio disturbance on this one, especially in the first stanza, but since I am not pitching myself to be the next Indian Idol :-), I am presenting the recording as is. (
The volume may have to be adjusted since there is a difference in the levels between the music and my voice due to the way the karaoke is).
The one below does not have the same "
kara karappu" in the recording as the above but as I said I prefer the version above to this one. But having decided to torture you all with my voice, why not double the enjoyment? :-)
Thanks to Anand Prabhu for sending the karaoke for this one. He has also sung the same song.
Poseidon (2006) - releasing today
There ARE such things as
Rogue Waves lurking in the oceans of the world. While conventional wave theory scientists used to debunk as myth, mariners' nightmarish accounts of the "Three Sisters" (provided they lived to tell their tale) owing to their theoretical beliefs in maximum wave lengths and heights, increasingly satellite imagery and the use of ocean buoys have proved that such freak waves which are walls of water that can even exceed 100 feet in height are much more frequent than originally thought.
This was the basis of the 1972 movie "
The Poseidon Adventure" which kickstarted a wave of disaster movies in Hollywood (another example of those times being the 1974 movie "
The Towering Inferno", both of which I enjoyed watching). Mid-ocean waves are unpredictable and rogue ones can appear even when weather conditions are perfect and clear. As recently as last year, there were a couple of incidents reported about cruise ships being hit by
70 feet and
95 feet waves.
Since "The Poseidon Adventure" was a box-office success and there had been a string of such successful sink-ship movies (Titanic, Perfect Storm etc.), German director Wolfgang Petersen who specializes in such disaster genre, has given shape to the remake of the 1972 movie which is releasing today. You can catch more of the "Poseidon" at its
official website. Here is the trailer from YouTube.
(
Requires Flash to view and do keep your speakers ON)
I think there is no greater adrenaline rush than standing on the deck of a ship and watching a 100 feet high wall of water about to come crashing down on you. If you don't want to
really be in the thick of such action, there is one way to experience that rush
safely.
Watch the movie on IMAX :-).
From Russia With Love
(Source: Behindwoods.com)
I tell you, this guy is having a ball these days. Prayer: God, please let me be born (at least) a Vadivelu in my next birth :-).
Updates on the Election Results: Head over to IdlyVadai and IBN.
Cricketing Greats of a bygone era
In India, cricket is religion. That is fairly well-known but today's discussions of the game will obviously center around only the Tendulkars, Dravids, Sehwags and Dhonis, but ask these men and they will tell you that they are but standing on the shoulders of giants - of people who have been the stars during their heydays. People like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Kapil Dev, Syed Kirmani, Mohinder Amarnath etc. and in an even earlier era, "Googly" Chandrasekhar, E.A.S. Prasanna, S. Venkatraghavan and Bishen Singh Bedi.
I had watched cricket ever since DD started telecasting matches ("
enakku ninaivu therinja naaL lerndu" :-)) and so I have had the good fortune of watching all of the above stars in action. Each had an inimitable style and put their stamp of individuality on the game and it was a real pleasure to watch them take on their opposition with gusto, whether it was the way Kris Srikkanth decimated Malcolm Marshall's bowling in a particular test match or how Sandeep Patil made mincemeat of Mudassar Nasser in an one-dayer. I used to like Viswanath more than Gavaskar and one of my school buddies was terribly against Gavaskar since he held the opinion that Gavaskar was dominating the game and not allowing other batsmen to flourish but somehow I felt that he was too biased against Gavaskar.
Vishy definitely had class in his stroke-play and he was the master of the square-cut and even more so, the late-cut. Unfortunately, ill-luck dogged him and he could not continue in the team as much as the "
Little Master" did, but I still remember his spectacular 222 at Chennai's Chepauk stadium with Yashpal Sharma providing stability as his partner and having a great innings himself. Both Gavaskar and Vishy (who are brothers-in-law) are among the finest batsmen ever produced not just in India, but the world too.
Gavaskar needs no introduction. Those who want to know not only the cricketer but the man himself ought to read his book "Sunny Days". Gavaskar had seen the best of bowlers (and the worst of them too). His copy-book batting technique was a pleasure to watch and his classic manner of shuffling his legs just as the bowler was about to complete his bowling action was a treat in itself (I don't know how many of you have watched this particular way of Gavaskar's foot movement at the crease and I have never seen anyone do it in such an artistic manner). Until Tendulkar came to supplant him, India at one point believed that there could never be another legend like Gavaskar in the team. Such is the man's reputation which preceded him.
Kapil Dev was the definition of an all-rounder that India could lay a proud claim to and under his stewardship, India also won their first World Cup. Srikkanth was as irreverent to any opposite team bowler's fearsome reputation as it could get and he could just throw away caution to the winds even when he was nearing a 50 or a 100 and thus would never make it on many occasions. He gave new meaning to the term "unconventional" and even inspired the normally cautious Gavaskar to swing his bat out more often in reckless abandon on certain occasions.
While I did cover only Indian players above, there is one Pakistani player whose bowling action I admire. No points for guessing the right answer - the dashing and debonair
Imran Khan. Watch
this clip and
this one to see pure poetry in motion. Imran was to Pakistan what Kapil Dev or Gavaskar were to India - a larger-than-life cricketing icon who inspired legions of youngsters to swing bats and arms in neighborhood streets and alleys in an effort to ape them and develop an unbridled love for this game bordering on insanity. Cricket indeed arouses passion in the sub-continent, so much that if G.B. Shaw were alive today and mouthed his view on the game, he would have been bashed into pulp by the frenzied fans.
Do you want to know what he said? (although technically he was not correct with the number)
"
Cricket is a game where eleven fools play and eleven thousand fools watch".
:-)
Real Estate, Real Estate, Real Estate
The people in this profession would say "
Location, Location, Location" but I would say "
Money, Money, Money". It is no wonder that land has value - in fact this fancy value of something that is just under 30% of the total area of the third rock from the Sun. While population grows at an astronomical level, available "hospitable" land is actually shrinking which gives rise to the increasing price of such an "asset" given the limited supply in the face of insatiable demand. Donald Trump made his fortune from it and so can anyone who recognizes the inherent nature of this game.
Consider two booms - one in US that has had a historically high run over the course of the previous decade and one in India where it is currently happening as we speak. People have fought over land, have died for it, have been killed for it, have an emotional connection to it, attach sentimental value to it and so on. Why do people chase land as though there was no tomorrow? While the inherent territorial instinct works in people as well as it does in animals, the fact is that it is easy to increase the money supply by printing more bills, but next to impossible to increase what is essentially a finite resource and thus a bidding war ensues where too much money chases too scarce a most wanted item in the shopping list of almost all people.
Humans do require
roti, kapada aur makaan - food, clothing and shelter for basic living (BJP may say
bijli, sadak aur pani or electricity, roads and water :-)) , but all the three have to once again come from land or use it in some way.
The coming water wars, as predicted by some futurologists is more about land than it is about water since this will be about whose portion of the land contains access to that dwindling supply of fresh water, much needed to sustain life. Land itself is indeed a silent witness to the atrocities that humans commit against each other in its name.
Leaving philosophical musings aside, speculation in prime pieces of property is driving the real estate market in both the countries and while the boom is starting to reverse in some markets in the US, it is going on strongly in India, in anticipation of India's ascent to the top league of developed countries on the strength of its booming economy. Many investors - individual and institutional have taken big bets on Indian realty given the reality :-) of its attractive returns. If you too want to join the bandwagon, now is the time before the wave peaks as it eventually does. Although not as cheap any more as it used to be a couple of years back, there are indications of enough steam left in the economy for this boom in land prices to continue a little further ahead.
But that is only if you want to follow herd mentality. If you are philosophical about it and think that after all, this is one more kind of
Maya or illusion (like a mirage in the desert), then you are not alone and do have poets to keep company with -
MaNNin meedhu manidhanukkaasai, manidhan meedhu maNNukkaasai, maNN dhaan kadaisiyil jayikkiradhu idhai manam dhaan uNara marukkiradhu (humans like to consume land, the land likes to consume humans and the land ultimately prevails but the mind refuses to acknowledge this) :-).
Dear Thamizhnaadu,
Today is the day you are going to decide your fate for the next five years (
thalaiezhuththai nirnayam pannakkoodiya naaL). I hope you decide well. I have always wondered why is it that as an employee someone is subject to an
annual performance review process (with its implicit threat of being fired for a poor-show) whereas an elected politician is basically allowed a free run (and reign) for five years, unhindered and with absolutely no recourse to the people if they wanted to roll-back their previous decision to select him/her to represent them. Something is basically wrong with this system. We need to overhaul the laws that determine how this country/state/district is run. But how can you expect changes when the very people you elect are the ones responsible for framing the said laws?
So, law-making should strictly be a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach. This is a necessary change not just for India but for the entire world where even so-called liberal, free-market countries have this "old-boys network" way of doing things, be it legislating (with an army of "lobbyists" behind them to trade money for favors) or appointing board members/CEOs of public-money companies (with their attendant astronomical compensation packages).
Ever heard of even a peon being appointed without him/her having some basic qualifications and/or experience? In your use of daily services, you expect the person offering the service to know his/her job well, be it the cobbler who repairs your shoes or the driver of your public transport. It is so unfortunate that when it comes to politics, the only qualification is being some kind of a history-sheeter with dollops of rowdyism to prepare someone for the "
rough and tumble" of the profession.
Of course, there are also the atypical politicians and they are like islands of excellence in the otherwise murky sea of politics. But they are not significant enough to change the image of politics as the last resort of the scoundrel and as a haven for personal enrichment at the expense of the people. Hopefully, this state of affairs will not continue forever and the winds of change will blow, ushering in a new order that serves the citizenry better.
Until then, the only thing we can hold on to is hope.
Sincerely,
Thamizhan/Thennavan.
"Agni Natchathiram"
Around this time of the year, every year, the species known as the Chennaivasi will bravely brace for a heat wave known as "
Kathiri Veyyil". This soaring and searing hot temperature can even melt metals and so one can imagine the plight of soft-fleshed humans. In spite of this acid test of mother nature, the locals will go about their daily routine as though this was (to quote their
Thalaivar), "
jujube" :-).
Old-timers and die-hard Madrasis will balk at replenishing their lost body fluids with some dark substance known as cola and will instead prefer
iLaneer (tender coconut water),
nonGu, water-melons and cucumbers. The young (and the young-at-heart) crowd will consume a truly indigenous drink called "
Goli Soda" or its more popular sweet version - the "
Panneer Soda" that opens with a pop and will thus be transported to heaven in that momentary bliss.
It is no wonder then that this "
Agni Natchathiram" defines Chennai like none does and is also a gripe for new-comers to the city. In fact in one of the earlier Thamizh movies (in the days of black and white cinema) starring many comedians like Nagesh and Thengai Srinivasan, Thengai will say that he prefers Bangalore since "
adhu kulu kulunnu irukku" and will add this punch line "
Madras heat, I hate" :-).
So, when a famous director like Mani Ratnam chose this expression for a
movie title, it was guaranteed to be a box-office success. This movie arrived in the theatres during the summer of
1988 and it is a special one for me since a) I went with a big gang of classmates and saw the movie in Pondicherry and b) It was the first Mani Ratnam movie that I saw
in a theater.
While the movie itself had all the characteristics of a typical Kollywood film, yet the directorial touch in many of the scenes was evident. Combined with breathtaking songs and beautiful picturization, I would say this movie broke new ground in Thamizh cinema. The purpose of this post is to highlight the songs, all of which were great hits because they assembled the essential elements perfectly together - excellent lyrics by Vaali, creatively refreshing music by Ilaiyaraja and amazing rendition by the singers, S. Janaki, K.S. Chithra and K.J. Yesudas.
It will not be an exaggeration to say that anyone who listens to these songs will want to listen to them more than once (at least some of them, based on individual preferences). The beats in Ninnukori Varnam, the soft melody with the sounds of water in Oru Poonga Vanam, the foot-tapping rhythm in Roja Poo Aadivandhadhu, the inimitable style of Raja's own voice in Raja Rajadhi Rajan Indha Raja, the fantastic carnatic-based Thoongaadha VizhigaL and the romantic Vaa Vaa Anbe Anbe are to be enjoyed, preferably with stereo speakers.
So, presenting before you the six gems of "
Agni Natchathiram". Audio experience at its best (
all the songs open in a new browser window).
Ninnukori VarnamOru Poonga VanamRaja Rajadhi RajanRoja Poo AadivandhadhuThoongaadha VizhigaLVaa Vaa Anbe AnbeSomeone had written on their website that some of the best scenes in the movie were the clashes between Prabhu and Karthik (there is one particular scene where they cross each other and their shoulders graze each other's and this was also repeated in a comedy scene involving Koundamani and Sendhil in another movie), but I had a question. How can Prab(h)u and Karthik clash with each other? Ever heard of the
same person (physically) clashing with himself? ;-)
India - a banana republic?
Ok, no need for anyone to
go bananas over the title :-) since there is a little humor in the background about that question, which I will mention at the end of this post. I was pleasantly surprised to know that
"India is the world's largest banana grower, with an annual production of 16.8 million tonnes, or over 20 percent of total world output of 72.6 million tonnes in 2005 of the world's most exported fruit and fourth most important food commodity after rice, wheat and maize in terms of production value" (from Rediff).At the same time I was also pained to know from that article that "
over exploitation and the loss of forests as a result of encroachment and logging, slash-and-burn cultivation and urbanisation, are causing a rapid loss of wild banana species that have existed in India for thousands of years" and "
due to ecosystem destruction, it is probable that many valuable gene sources have now been lost. This could cause serious problems because bananas, particularly commercial varieties, have a narrow genetic pool and are highly vulnerable to pests and diseases".
I have always maintained that India is home to such rich bio-diversity that many species of flora and fauna that are found in other parts of the world must have somehow been transplanted from India by travelers (and invaders) who sent many of its goodies back to their homeland and it is proved true in this article that talks about Alexander introducing bananas to the world after tasting the fruit in India. It is so unfortunate that in such a country there is lobbying going on for introducing more of
GM (Genetically Modified) crops, without much thought going into whether they are really required in the first place.
Anyway, the humor I was referring to in the first para dates back to the days when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. The joke that went around that time was that
India IS a banana republic.
Do you want to know why?
It seems Rajiv Gandhi used to address political rallies with the constant message to the people that
"humhe yeh banana hai ya woh banana hai" (for those of you who are Hindi-challenged, the sentence translates to "we need to become this or become that" and was used in the context of economic development) :-).
In the face of adversity, are you a coffee bean?
A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. About twenty minutes later, he turned off the burners. He took the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs and coffee," she replied. He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard- boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. She humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"
He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength? Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you become hardened and stiff? Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart? Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor as it reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.
If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and make things better around you. How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? :-)
(
sourced from)
Anyone remember this?
DON'T QUIT
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As each one of us sometime or the other learns
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out
And he learned too late when the night came down
How close he was to winning the golden crown
Don't give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with yet another blow
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems afar
So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit
It's only when things seem to go wrong that
YOU MUSN'T QUIT!
:-)
So you have a web-based email account?
Let's see what you are likely to have - at the most a Hotmail, a Yahoo or a Gmail. Well, there is no fun in those even though they offer a couple of gig of mailbox space. After all they are too easy to give out to people since they may at best look like
yourname(or)
somefancyname@hotmail/yahoo/gmail.com. If you want to really inflict mortal wounds on your friends and family by asking them to remember or repeat your email address, (even though it offers only a paltry 25MB of free space) the place to get a mailbox is
this.
Now,
whatchamacallit this domain name thingy?
:-)
Keerthi has a poll running on the TN election. If you can find a minute, head over
there and cast your vote. Even though it may not be a scientific poll, it can be some kind of a barometer of popular blogger/blog-reader opinion on the likely outcome.
ETHANOL - the really, really BIG thing now
This post concerns each one of you if you have ever heard the word "petrol" ("gas" in America). It is no surprise that everyone is feeling the pinch at the pump these days. We all know that the world runs on Gasoline and thus the price of oil literally holds the global economy to ransom, but unfortunately that is in the hands of an
oligarchy called
OPEC (move over
desi blogger libertarians, this is the real
Cartel :-)).
So, the top most item on the agenda of the US government currently is finding a suitable and a viable alternative to the traditional US dependence on oil. It also goes by the name of "
Energy Security" since the regions from where the oil has traditionally come are themselves hotbeds of terrorism, unstable or hostile governments and generally undependable when it comes to predictable production levels or prices. This is where two buzzwords come into the picture -
Brazil and
Ethanol.
Perhaps no other country in the world has harnessed the full power of Ethanol as a fuel than Brazil which has almost achieved full Energy Independence.
Also as a result, they have become 80% independent from foreign oil. Most new cars sold in Brazil are flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol, gasoline, or any blend of the two (source: Wikipedia).
So, who are interested in this new-found interest in "going green" with Ethanol? How about billionaires like Bill Gates and
Vinod Khosla? I guess some of you are now sitting up and paying more attention to this post now (in the manner of "follow the money" :-)). Cascade Investment, the private investment arm of Bill Gates has taken a 25.5% stake (for $84 Million) in pure-play Ethanol maker
Pacific Ethanol.
Here is Vinod Khosla making a presentation at Google HQ (with an introduction by one of the Google co-founders). It is fairly long (more than an hour in length) and somewhat technical, so I don't expect anyone to listen in on this fully (although I did, since it is highly fascinating to know that we are on the cusp of a major energy revolution here).
If the above embedded Google Video does not work, you can listen to the presentation
here. In the not-so-distant future, we may all be driving to a different station for filling up the fuel in our cars, two-wheelers and other vehicles. Not a "gas" station (or "petrol bunk") to fill up our "gas" tank (or "petrol tank"), but rather an Ethanol pump that will fill our fuel tanks with an environment- friendly substitute for Gasoline. Environmental damage, global warming etc. are touchy topics that get heated exchanges going on both sides of the debate. Let's look forward to doing our bit to clearing the air on this (both literally and metaphorically) :-).
