Chandru narrates

The Tragedy about the Tragedy

2012-02-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Cinema, fiction are very different from our real life. Real life has a lot of irrational things. But fiction, cinema are technically rational, these mediums present the ‘edit’ version of real life.
2 characters meet and they speak about a point and they speak so that the reader/ viewer understand sthe context. This can never happen in real life.
Take this example
“Do you really have to go?”, asks the mother
“Yes amma. This is educational tour and we are going to Udhagamandalam to study the tribes life”, replied the daughter
Do you see how crystal clear the dialogue is? But can you be sure that this is how the incidents happen in real life? The woman and her daughter would’ve spoken the same things, but it would have been lengthy exchange and could’ve happened over a period of week. But for the sake of Fiction/ cinema the creator has given the distilled information.
Now there is this craze in Tamil Cinema to take a rustic story with a tragic end. But what is tragic in this tragic cinema is the tragedy is irrational!
Take for example ‘Vennila Kabadikulu’, the movie goes for a smooth finish, but the director decides that he needs a tragedy. Nothing works like tragedy, the sympathetic wave of the crowd is extremely important.
So the hero dies accidently. Yes! Accident happens in real life too! Life is so irrational that suddenly a person dies in an accident. But in cinema you cannot do it. You should be as rational as possible.
It’s ok if a character dies of an accident and then the story can be how the people around come terms of what happened. The story can provide space for how rationally the characters react. But abruptly ending a story with a tragedy is a ‘tragedy’ of creativity.
In ‘Valmiki’ the hero is a thief and he finally turns a new leaf and all of a sudden someone snatches the gold chain from the heroine and she gets cut in her neck and she dies. Come on! Be creative, it’s easy to make people cry but it’s difficult to make the tragedy rational. And it’s the duty of the creator to make it rational.

Mirza Raja - Blurb

2012-02-12T04:19:00.000-08:00

“We are not slaves of Mughals, to not to care for the empire during time of distress. We are very much part of the glorious Mughal empire. We are partners, stakeholders”

The life of a Rajput Commander of the Mughal Empire.

This story I wrote recently can be called 'narrative non-fiction'.
I tried my best to be faithful to history.
I was intrigued by this Rajput Commander, who witnessed and co-created some of the important events in his time period.
He was eclipsed by some prominent historical figures, I just had a glimpse of him and thought how big role he might've played and did my research which confirmed my intution.

If you want to read this story drop a mail and i will send it across to you.

Don’t fool you readers

2012-02-04T22:25:00.001-08:00

I’d seen soaps where in an important event happens. I mean I know when I see that event that it cannot happen. Soap proceeds very slowly why should there be an important breakthrough now and guess what.
An actor wakes up from his sleep, forehead sprinkled with sweat, he gets relaxed that it was just a dream. But you viewer may not get relaxed! This is just cheating the viewer.
The viewer/ reader should be pleasantly surprised but should not get irritated or fooled. If the creator takes care of the above rule the world will be a better place.
In Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, there is the last song where the Hero and Heroine gets married in America. I’ve no issues with it being a dream song, but the hero’s crew members were present in that song, making it feel like a real life event. This is really a let down!
I recently read “The Runaway Jury” a brilliant thriller, but if you look back after reading the whole novel. The girl need not have contacted the Plaintiff lawyer., she contacted the lawyer just to distract us.
I’m given up on thrillers because they try to fool you, there is nothing wrong in not revealing a secret, but distracting you with a non-event is silly.
Why can’t the creators (directors of movie, serial, writers) be more conscious and try entertaining the readers

The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction - Review

2012-01-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Recently read this book from a lending library
I remembered pulp fiction Tamil novels were very famous during 80s and 90s.
I thought they would've died by now, what with the advent of regional TV channels and Internet.
Also its no longer fashion to read a Tamil book.
Even I myself seldom read Tamil.
So here I'm a tamilian reading a translated work of Tamil pulp fiction.

What i noticed about the story is the narration is very abstract, the authors don't describe each character well. If there is more than 4 characters you don't know which one the author is referring too. You will not be able to connect.
Also the stories are like draft, there is this carelessness of the author, he has to complete this work by today, this story is just 1 of his thousand stories. This will be published in a magazine and may be never republished later.

The stories reminded me my own stories, it made me realize that my narration is also as poor as these stories, at the same time i knew that some day under the sun, if those stories were published and are now part of an anthology. My stories can definitely see the light.

Here are some stories which are
excellent
Ripples
The Rich Woman
Dim Lights, Blazing Hearts
Sweetheart, Please Die
GLory Be to the Love that Kills!

Okish
The Rainbow
FLR

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Hospital for Profit

2011-11-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

I have been to Fortis Malar and also Apollo and noticed the buzz of activities, the processes followed, world class infrastructure, foreign country patients, cutting edge technology, high skilled doctors and the cash ringing offices.
What a beautiful growth story! Fortis and Apollo are trying to make an organized health care sector. They not only focus on multi-specialty hospitals, but also are having a chain of clinics as well. People coming to these hospitals are surely going to increase, what with raising income level, sedentary and stressful life leading to chronic diseases and a booming health insurance.
So are Hospital stocks looking like stable, defensive stocks?
Well almost! Let’s have a closer look. You have a heart disease, do you go to Apollo/ Fortis. For me which hospital is not important? I want the best doctor. Who is the best doctor? You choose a doctor because he is recommended by your physician/friend/relatives. If the doctor visits a Hospital then you go there. You don’t go to a Hospital because it’s a good brand. The brand of Hospital is not really as important as the doctor’s brand.
A doctor will have to pay more % of his income to a branded hospital than an unbranded one. Usually a good doctor with decent money in his pocket will open his own clinic and ppl throng to those clinics.
Hospital really make the mark in in-patient services like surgery, monitoring of patients and using of cutting edge technology for treatments, which cannot be provided by a doctor in a small clinic. Here a good corporation can ensure quality process, reliable service.
Hospitals can charge any amount of money and the patient cannot bargain and Hospitals can generate profit, but it just doesn’t make sense. Hospitals (just like education institutes) are for serving people. They should really be a Not For Profit organization. In some fields, charity and service mentality should be the focus, Hospital is one such field.
Fortis and Apollo are improving standards of the Hospitals in India and those professionalism is really necessary in this unorganized sector. These companies will sustain and generate enormous amount of profit.
But there is this eternal dilemma, if I go in as an investor I want them to make all possible tests for the patient, let him undergo a big surgery, let him be put in a monitoring unit for 3 days. Should I entertain a patient who is seeing a Physician or a patient with rare disease, let me go to the second one he will give me high margin. But the patient in me always wonders, are they doing this test because its best for me, or is it best for the shareholder!
What should be the agenda for these hospitals, to increase the revenue 3 folds in 5 years! Hospitals should really pray that their income should reduce, that they should close some of their hospitals (meaning Healthy nation)
‘Hospital for Profit’ is an oxymoron.

FMCG - no Pharma - Yes

2011-10-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

FMCG, Pharma are both defensive stocks. But I frown at FMCG stocks and prefer Pharma for the following reasons:

1. FMCG has easily duplicatable products. All biscuit manufacturer have cream, marie, butter buiscuits and also take for eg huge player like HUL, which has several soaps. If Liril’s share is increased, it might be eating the Pears

2. Heavy.. very heavy Adv cost in FMCG and brutal price wars

3. People need new products or improved products every week

4. In Pharma the doctor chooses the best product and ppl don’t mind paying price

5. In Pharma even though we’ve generics, Doctor knows whats the best and they choose the leader

6. Unlike FMCG in Pharma there are fewer ppl who decide what to buy, its easy for the Pharma companies to sell to them

Change in my Investment Style

2011-10-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Initially I was investing in bulk per month say 5k/month in a single share – now I’ve changed it to 1k per week – different shares every week
I was initially worried about the loss, I was like if I invest in a share @100 and now it’s is 80, I’ve to invest in a lot more, so that I can average my money. That’s a dead trap, now I’m comfortable looking at the loss and if I believe that the fundamental is still fine I still don’t worry about keeping my loss low. If I find the share interesting I still buy only once a week that too only for 1k, so even if I’m wrong my loss is not substantial.
If the fundamental of the company changesor of the loss is huge – then I book my loss
I’m reasonably good in booking loss, but have not yet booked gains. I believe in staying long term (many many years and exiting only when I need money or if the fundamental changes)
I’ve to work on exit criteria. Should I make 10% stop loss a rule? I’m worried about unnecessary selling and again buying the same share, it will increase my transaction cost. My philosophy is don’t try to manage short term. A good stock even if I bought in 52 week high will still be a good appreciation after 5 years

PSU Stocks

2011-09-24T03:41:00.002-07:00

Long long ago I used to travel in my company bus and I had a companion and we would speak about shares and mutual funds, at that time I was not into shares.
He once said, “Sundaram has launched PSU find”
I replied, “But how can anyone buy a PSU, it’s Govt company and they cannot really work only for profit”
He replied, “PSUs have good cash flow, stable business and many are monopoly”
Then why should Govt sell it, Govt was initially planning to sell sick units but now they are selling just about everything.
There are many star performing PSUs with Navratna, maha ratna status, but its still a govt company and it will have bureaucracy and they will not be as nimble as pvt company.
Govt is still a major stakeholder and they will be taking decisions based on what is good for nation, lets say the profit is low, they will not restructure the organization, they will not lay off. Lets say 1 of the vertical is a losing business, they might not shut it down. Govt will be worrying about communist and vote banks.
But, PSUs are still giving dividend, yes they are, but its may be because of the pending FPOs
Its good to buy Govt bonds, but not PSUs.

Disturbing Dialogue

2011-08-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

In one of my previous projects, I was working on a proposal. I was not very much interested in working on that proposal, I already had a project in hand and I was asked to do something extra.
As things progressed, there was a delivery pressure on that proposal and there was this news going around that we may need to work over the weekend to complete that. I never liked the idea of working in a weekend that too for a proposal which I was not passionate about. I was like, “that’s not my main responsibility, why should I stretch for this?”
That Friday I met my manager and said, “I’d completed this and this and the proposal is in good shape.. blah.. blah.. tell me if I’ve to come over the weekend?”
“You tell me”, he said
I looked at him baffled.
He smiled and said, “You are working on this proposal and you know how much needs to be completed. If I want I can ask you to come over the weekend, but there is no glory in me doing that. You decide”
I silently walked back to my cubicle.

This particular dialogue was the most disturbing I ever heard. This incident never changed me, but as I look back this is the reminder on what I was lacking.

What’s the difference between ownership and just doing your work, caring and just trying to be politically correct?

What would you do?

“What! Your father is in hospital!! Don’t hesitate to call me if you need something”

Or

Do you just show up?

The Dance of Fire - Blurb

2011-07-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Young man moved across the mountain ranges with sheer determination. He was on the move for many days, he knew that he was moving in mountains which were never visited by men, except may be for the Maker of Fire. He wanted the knowledge; he wanted to know how to make the fire. This single skill, this single technique would decide the survival of his clan.

Wrote this story recently. Please drop me a mail if you are interested in reading this story.

The Book of Eli - Review

2011-02-12T07:59:00.001-08:00

Saw this movie some time back on Sony Pix.
The movie that you enjoy or for that matter anything in life is when you watch something without any expectation and then you are pleasantly surprised.
ppl recommending a movie is good, and you see it you like and you are happy, but what is really good is that you bounce on something and you like it.
This movie is very cool, there are a number of post-apocalyptic movies in hollywood which are standing out like I am Legend, The Postman ..
What is important in a fantasy is that it should be realistic. ppl should feel it, they know that its not possible but what if it is?
So the movie which wins the heart is not the one with lot of actions and graphics, but the one with characters ppl can identify. A theme where ppl may be curious to know what they would have done.
So here is a story of Eli who walks towards West to deliver a book and he comes across a town controlled by Carnegie. Carnegie is looking for a book which he hopes will make him control the people. Maybe thats the book which Eli has.
The interesting thing here in this post-apocalyptic theme is ppl who are born after the apocalypse are illiterates!
Is Eli superhuman? No says Carnegie. But it doesn't seems to be the case. May be he is protected by the book.
Eli leaves the town and a girl follows him and they are in turn followed by Carnegie and his men (Carnegie already wounded in leg by the bullet fired by Eli in a previous fight)
The movie touches on themes of belief, being grateful
As a person who loves reading I got glued to the theme of young people being illitrate and old are literate and if the dwindling old population doesn't do something then the written words will be lost.

Thoughts

2011-02-04T19:52:00.001-08:00

Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it absolutely marvelous that whatever man has created has its origin in the mind? Call it idea, vision, imagination, intuition, dream, fantasy or curiosity. It is in the mind and lets generalize and name it ‘Thought’.
The company you are working on, the commutation you took to reach office, the machine in which you are reading it …all started off as a thought.
Man has this thought in mind, but that is not enough for him, he wants to see it in the physical reality. If man got contended with what he saw in his mind’s eye, there would’ve been no civilization, no modernization; man would’ve been just an animal, which spends considerable time of its life in thoughts. This urge to create the thought in physical reality, makes our life interesting.
Isn’t this physical reality just a collection of thoughts? Agreed that there are many things in our lives which are not created by man, like stars, plants, animals, may be these things could also be thoughts coming from some source which we don’t know. Lets not worry about those non-man made things, what matters is there are still many things which are in our ‘circle of influence’ which were created by men and it means that it has its origin in thoughts.
If what I am experiencing now is a bundle of thoughts, not all my own. I want to take an active part in this experience, I want to experience something which currently in physical reality is not in sight. If I could dream about it, visualize and develop the desire to experience it in physical reality then it should be possible to create that experience.
If the experience desired is individual , that is changing my ‘state’ in the physical reality then it could be experienced fairly quickly. If I want my thoughts to affect the physical reality considerably then the thought has to attract similar thoughts. A single thought by a man looks very tiny, but if that thought can spark similar thoughts among men it can create an ‘avalanche of resonance’. It can create magic.
Whatever may be the scale of experience which we desire to experience in the physical reality. If we can focus and nurture the thought, telling ourselves that ‘its possible’, so that the thought can overcome counter thoughts in our mind. Then we have better chance of creating the experience in physical reality.

I Choose to Believe

2010-12-06T03:59:00.000-08:00

What we call reality is actually our perceived reality. We have physical filters like our vision is sensitive to a range of wavelength and our ears can hear from 20-20kHs. We perceive the reality with our physical and mental filters. The mental filters are called belief.
Belief is so powerful, once we have a belief in place, whatever happens out there. We have our own explanation. Everything looks so logical with our belief in place.
Some common belief systems
1. Everything is happening for a purpose. There are no accidents
2. We are writing our exams. God gives marks
3. Life is to enjoy
4. Everything is random
I don’t want any belief system. I want to see the world as it is. I need no filter
Well, it can be a worthy pursuit, to see as it is. But we humans with so many physical filters, can we see as it is mentally? May be our brains are tuned to work with filters. If we throw all the filters out how will it behave?
If you really want to experience ‘no belief’, then try, “I belief in no belief” (it’s the other way of saying ‘everything is random’)
Even if we fully comprehend the reality, will it be really exciting? What if the reality is just a collection of the total thoughts and belief systems in the universe, then it will be noisy.
When you are talking with your friend near a traffic signal don’t you tune yourself out of the noises so that you can focus on what you really want to hear?
Why can’t belief be a tool to tune in to what we really want to experience?
I see no harm in putting a pleasing ‘green’ filter over my perceived reality. It soothes me and it doesn’t distort the perceived reality.
I choose to believe, in belief.
• I believe that I am worthy of receiving all the abundance, beauty and love of life
• I believe that good things happen to me
• If life throws a challenge, its not to test me and not to correct me. The challenges are for making life more interesting. Challenges are pathways to new exciting experiences.
• I feel extremely grateful for all the wonderful things in life

Two Flower Sellers

2010-12-05T06:38:00.001-08:00

The king was crossing a small village when he saw a temple nearby. The king decided to visit the temple and offer his prayers. The chariot stopped near the temple and the king got down and saw two flower sellers outside the temple.
The king approached the first flower seller and said that he needed the full basket of flowers and asked him how much did it cost.
The flower seller said, “Your Highness! It costs 100 bucks”. The flower actually costs 10 bucks but the flower seller decided to take advantage of the situation. The flower seller thought that the king may never know the actual costs of any commodity. For the king 100 would be a meager amount and he wouldn’t think twice to pay that money.
The king took the basket of flowers and said he would pay after offering his prayers. The king then approached the second flower seller and asked the same questions.
The second flower seller immediately gave the basket of flowers.
The king asked, “How much does it cost?”
The second flower seller replied, “King! It’s a high privilege that these flowers are of use to you. I feel very happy to be of service to you. I need nothing.”
The king went inside the temple and offered his prayers and then came out paid the first flower seller 100 bucks and returned back to his palace.
The king narrated the incident to his minister and said, “I like the second flower seller very much. I want to give him 10 acres of land, please be ready with the necessary paper work”

My Investment Style

2010-11-05T20:24:00.001-07:00

• Invest in stocks for long term. When to exit? When you need the money or when the company is not performing.
• You cannot time it rite, try but never wait for the ideal time. Ideal time doesn’t exist. Good enough is always good enough, some of your good enough picks may turn out to be good timed picks in the future. Din’t understand financials, leave it. If you believe in the company’s growth story stick to it.
• The company should be a Indian growth story, shouldn’t be a MNC Subsidiary, shouldn’t be PSU (I don’t care about Navaratna, Maharathna. Govt companies may have lot of slackness and bureaucracy and corruption). The company should be Ethical .
• Shouldn’t be in a cut throat market, like FMCG, Telecom
• If you believe in a sector but can’t identity the companies or if that sector is having cut throat market then invest in a sector MF
• Never invest in a sector or company if you don’t understand them. Energy is a good sector with large good stocks, you don’t understand then leave it. There are many many good sectors and many more good stocks to pick up.
• Shouldn’t be easily duplicated by competitors, egs of easily duplicated FMCG, Telecom, Bank
• Good brand image, less need for advt. Conditions equaling monopoly
• Shouldn’t have flamboyant CEOs (what happens if this CEO goes, how good will be the other CEO, we are investing for a long time rite?). Shouldn’t be first generation entrepreneurs.
• Never invest in IPO
• You cannot invest and forget, have a stop loss I have currently set to 10% trailing stop loss. I also monitor a stop loss of my avg price, so if I newly buy a share, I focus more on the stop loss and if it is been some time then in trailing stop loss. When the stock goes low you've 2 options, buy them or sell you stocks. If you buy you create a fresh stop loss from the avg prize. But you shouldn't keep on buying. You should get out of anchor, if you are proven wrong by the stock market time and again.

Well ofcourse there will be exceptions to these rule, because what is fun in sticking to your principles :)

The Gift - Review

2010-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

I saw The Gift in Sony Pix today. The story is about a Psychic Reader Annie, a window with 3 kids. The School principal’s fiancé goes missing and the Principal and the missing girl’s father contacts Annie. Annie dint get any vision during the reading but later gets a vision of the girl’s body being present in Donnie’s pond. There is already a history of hatred between Donnie and Annie. The police find the girl’s body in Donnie’s the pond and the trial begins. Donnie already had an affair with the girl and all the evidences are against him and he is found guilty.
Slowly Annie gets new vision, she starts believing that Donnie dint kill the girl, then the story reaches to a good climax. There is also a side track story of a guy with an unstable mind Buddy , who hates his father.
One of the best scenes in the movie is the interrogation of Annie by the defense lawyer. Annie was beautifully played by Cate Blanchett and Keanu Reeves as Donnie looked convincing, Giovanni Ribisi as Buddy makes his mark in all his scenes, especially, he wanting to talk to Annie the day before her interrogation and what he does to his father that night.
What is interesting about the movie is the portrayal of the Psychic Reader, she doesn’t always get the full picture, her visions are based on the context. She cannot read effectively if the person is skeptic. Also the honesty of Annie’s character shines.
The Gift is one of the best movie about a Psychic reader, the psychic elements are very subtly handled, giving the movie a more realistic appeal.

The Matchbox Value

2010-06-03T02:07:00.000-07:00

Ramesh said, “I’ve this movie running in my mind. It just runs again and again and it depresses me!”
“What kind of movie is this?”, asked the Psychologist
“Its an incident that happened in the past, an embarrassing moment”
‘Negative Self talk’, the psychologist scribbled in a piece of paper.
The Psychologist smiled, “Run that movie for me”
“I was walking around with my plates in hand, it’s a party hosted by my company. I suddenly slipped and fell into a heap of used plates, my clothes got soiled, I hear laughter, I decide to not to see anyone. I slowly.. carefully got up .. and…. my foot slipped again and I fell for the second time... this time onto the adjoining lawn. A group of ladies standing nearby burst into laughter and others joined the fun.
“People thought that I was drunk and from then on time and again I am accused of being drunk and out of control. Even in office people just wait for me to fumble and then mock at me.”
The Psychologist was still scribbling something in his paper, he looked at Ramesh empathetically
Ramesh exclaimed, “I am actually a teetotaller!”
The Psychologist asked, “When this incident happened?”
“Many years ago!”
“Do people still mock at you?”
“No no that teasing died after some months and many of my colleagues have moved on. But another problem came..”
“The movie!”
“Yes! It just keeps on playing and my embarrassment, my fear that it might happen again just increases each time its played. Please tell me, what should I do in this condition?”, asked Ramesh
“Lets say that I ask you to buy me a Matchbox from the nearby shopkeeper and he sells it for Rs 10. What would you do?”
“I will not buy. The Matchbox is much cheaper. I will look out for shops which sells the Matchbox for the correct price”, replied Ramesh
The Psychologist laughed, “We are good in determining the value for even mundane things like Matchbox, but when it comes to real incident, are we really rational enough to give it the correct value”
Ramesh’s eyes became wide open and his jaws dropped. The Psychologist continued, “If anybody taunts or hurts you…any incident happens to you, just ask yourself how much value you are going to give it, how long are you going to brood over it. Once decided give it only that much. When the negative self talk runs again just remember that its not worth it. You are overpaying for a matchbox!”
From that day on Ramesh started carrying a matchbox. Whenever he felt the negative self talk movie running in his head, he took the matchbox from his pocket and gave it a stern look. Sometimes in an air of excitement, he would burn a matchstick. He calls it, “The Matchstick Value”

Fragile Things - Review

2010-05-22T02:43:00.000-07:00

Just finished reading “Fragile Things” by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman’s narration is different and it takes some time to get used to it. His usual focus is on Vampiers, Ghosts and the stories have a lot of adult contents.
If you are reading “Fragile Things” and have decided to put it down then here is my favorite which I think should definitely read :
1. October in the Chair
2. Bitter Grounds
3. Other People
4. Good Boys Deserve Favors
5. How Do you Think It feels
6. Feeders and Eaters
7. Goliath
8. Sunbird
9. The Monarch of the Glen

Mobile Caller Tunes

2010-04-29T08:15:00.001-07:00

I once read somewhere that the Mobile Caller Tunes is becoming the #1 market for Digital music. I’ve a very rudimentary mobile phone that serves my purpose. I’m not against smart phones with camera and apps they serve the purpose.
What makes me feel pity to all those innumerable ppl who use caller tunes and different incoming tunes for different callers.
First lets focus on Caller Tunes:
Whenever ppl call you, they will here your caller tunes, you’ll pay a little money offcourse. This is a very beautiful concept for the college goers, but its depressing to see ppl using this technique even if they are in office.
You call a colleague to discuss some important project issue and you hear the caller tune, it just disturbs your focus. Imagine what will happen when the boss calls and hears the tune, he will say to himself, “not very professional guy”
Next lets come to Ringtones, its considered another million dollar business. Whenever some one calls you, you can create a separate ring tone for them.
So if its your Boss, you can put, “Valvae Mayam” etc
The basic idea is that you will be ready when you hear the tone. The fact is you will be ready when you see the number/contact name. And another disturbing fact is your colleagues will know who is calling you!
Why are many ppl not thinking about privacy? Why are they not thinking about the inconvenience to others by their ring tones? Why can’t they make their life simple? Why complicate life?
Once you are into setting ringtones/caller tunes you’ve to change the songs every month to let ppl know that you are trendy. Just an other unnecessary waste of time and money.

Why focus the Flaw?

2010-04-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

I love stamps, they are a thing of beauty. The Miniature sheets are much more beautiful and could be literally framed in the walls. I’ve been collecting Indian Stamps, b’coz, its easy to collect since I’m an Indian (living in India) and want to know more about India.
What I find very strange as I browse through sites dedicated to Indian Stamps, the focus is more towards finding defect in a stamp! These collectors take all the pains to identify a defect and say, “Hey! I found this flaw. I’ve these flaw stamps. Wanna buy?”
Why these ppl are focusing on defects and why they want to keep the price of a defect piece more than a correct piece!
I dono if I will trade my stamps but if at all I do I will say, “I’ve this beautiful stamps and they are absolutely perfect. Do you want them?”

Trump: Think Like a Billionaire - Review

2010-04-04T01:17:00.004-07:00

I heard this Audio book. This is not a "How to" book, its like a Journal.. not a very interesting journal.
Donald Trump is a very confident guy, but too much confidence is not really good. He dint spent much time for this book, he just gave his daily Journal as publication.
This book gives insights of the typical day of Donald Trump, how he interacts with his employees and contractors. How well he takes care of his estates and buildings.
Also gives more details about The Apprentice, talking in detail about the Apprentice is a waste of time. How will ppl reading the book in another 20 years will feel about the Apprentice. They will not know and will not care about the Apprentice program.
All these things could've been placed as articles in a magazine, but any book should strive to be timeless. This book failed in that regard.
My verdict.. not worth your time.

I am a collector

2010-04-04T01:10:00.000-07:00

I know it …I know it all these years of living that I’m a collector. .i love collecting. It started with bus tickets train tickets then I settled to stamp collecting during my school days. At that time I dint know about Indian commemorative stamps, so I used to go to book stores and buy only foreign stamps. I loved the colors and arts in stamps, I had no thematic collection(even now I dint have any thematic collection, I collect whatever I like). After some years the stamp collecting season got lost and so I left it.
Also I saw the proliferations of telecommunication, with emails, chat, web cam and very cheap calling rates there was a severe decline in snail mails. Couple of years ago I went for a Japan stamp exhibition in Chennai where I came across a Philately President in Chennai, who gave me some details of the Philatelic wing of Indian Post. Then I went to the Anna Salai Head Post Office and was the Commemorative stamps, they were all very beautiful and informative. I immediately subscribed for the mailing services. Also I fell in love with Miniature Sheets.
I believe this is a good investment of my time and money. Philately.. here I come!

Flipkart

2009-09-26T04:23:00.001-07:00

How beautiful it will be if India has an online bookstore like Amazon. When you live in a suburbs of Chennai and it's a pain to commute to place where good bookstore is present. There are basically 2 mindsets when you visit a bookstore.

You know what you want to buy
You just want to browse around with an open mind and find a book

If you are in #1 category then how good it will be if you've an online bookstore! It should be ok even if we spent some rupees extra, if it saves our time and energy. There are a number of big chain of bootstores who've online presence like Landmark, there is a Hindu's online bookstore. There are also a few exclusive online bookstores, but none impressed me. Finally I bumped into Flipkart and I am pleasantly surprised. The search was good, almost all the books I was looking for was in there! They had a small discount and they ship it within 3 days…..no shipping charge. These ppl have no offline bookstore, read here their interview

When I browsed for reviews on Flipkart I found many positive and some negative reviews, but the best thing is most of the ppl who gave negative review said that they are happy now since Flipkart ppl had corrected the issue! This is really good, we cannot be perfect but if someone says something is wrong then if you are able to correct it, you are bound to succeed. I ordered a couple of books and it was in my doorstep in exactly 3 days!

I am very happy that I've discovered Flipkart.

Impress your Girlfriend .. not here!

2009-09-26T03:28:00.001-07:00

I am kind of guy who wants to see a film fresh, without even seeing review! So I got disappointed a couple of times by ppl who are trying to impress their girlfriends in the theater. For these ppl impressing the girls simply means tell her what's going to happen in the next scene! First you are just irritating your girlfriend, you are not even stopping after her repeated plea to stop your nonsense.

Leave your girlfriend, she had chosen to hangout with you so let her suffer, what crime did I and all the ppl in the next 2 rows committed?

First I don't know what really is the manliness of that silly act. Is it true that girls wants boys to always play prank on them… irritate them… tease them?

I see these kinds of stuffs in movies and real life. In real life I dono many of the ppl who do this stuff, but the few ppl I know personally are living so incongruent with true love. If you really love your girl and you brought her to a film then you should just let her enjoy the movie. You shouldn't even say, "This is a good scene!"

Eventhough the focus in this article is about the irritating guys who come to the theater, you can expand this to so much area of your life. Do you know the guy who does this kind of stuff? Are you that guy? Why should you impress someone? Is it b'coz you are not really impressed with yourself?

Unnai Pol Oruvan

2009-09-26T02:43:00.001-07:00

This is a remake of A Wednesday, I dint watch A Wednesday, so went to watch this film with no prejudice! Also I watch this film not b'coz it's a remake I watched it for Kamal Hassan and Mohanlal. Sometimes you need stars, if not for them who would've seen this offbeat film!

Intelligence! Intelligence everywhere in this story. Intelligence…. That's something that you don't usually see in a tamil film. But these kinds of films are not good for repeated viewing. I may not enjoy the film if I watch the second time.. I might not have enjoyed it if I watched the original. Also terrorism is still very alien to a tamilian(even the film points out this alienation), it makes you remember that it's a remake.

When I saw Lakshmi I thought she might've a solid role but I got disappointed. Mohanlal's character was confusing, why he called the Chief Secretary of TN for help and then at every drop of hat tried to tell her that he is the lame goat! In many scenes, Lakshmi's dialogue looked innocent, but Mohanlal's interpretation of what she said will make you realize how prejudice he was.

The 2 policemen especially Ganesh Venkataraman as Arif Khan, look very convincing. After a long time we are seeing sincere Policemen in films, sincere but not stereotyped as you see in mass police story movies. How many of us yell at our parents, spouse when we are stressed out in office. We all have to learn a thing or two about compartmentalization of life from the other policeman.

In a movie how many costumes ppl change, the hero and heroine change dozens of dress for a song, here its just same dress for the entire movie (just 2 hours), b'coz the movie is about the story in a day! The movie should've been made in a shoestring budget. It's a home production, so Kamal and Shruti Hasan's salary could've been discounted. No song no big action so should not have cost much.

Regarding Shruthi Hasan's music most of the songs were not in the movie, just heard a couple of songs in youtube. The music and the BGM is not really standing out, but its also not amateur. I believe perfecting an art needs practice and if you are given a big platform and support and if you are conscious enough you will create a great art!. Sachin was not bright when he started.

Lastly, we should thank Kamal for his courage to make this different film! What's not important is whether you made a different film, but can you bring in ppl who are so used to mass movies to watch your movie. Kamal could do it with his star power!

Medea and Its Double

2009-09-20T02:02:00.001-07:00

I had an idea of what a Theater Drama is. Had seen soom S.Ve.Shekar, Crazy Mohan, Y.G Mahendran Dramas. Also many of the dramas of Podhigai in the 90s are technically 'stage drama kind'.

So when you ask me what is Theater. The answer is it's a stage drama, where they open and cloe the screen every 5 minutes and whenever the screen is down you will either hear a film song or a totally out of sync Harmonium sound. Also the stage background shows different locations, like Bus Stop, Temple, House etc.

An example a lady walking and we've a Temple background. An oldman was also walking in the opposite direction.

The Old man asks, "Ennamma Koil Poitu varaya?

Wow What a brilliant Dialogue!

She says Yes and then this old man continues, "Pavam Neeum Ennathan Saiva! Appa Uthavakara, Thambiyo Kudikaran, rendu Thankachiya Kara Sekanam. Hmm.. antha Perumalthan unna Kappathanam"

And then the old man walks away, you may ask why he uttered these words.. that's the introduction man! Can the director afford to take 5 scenes to give you full background or can he have an artificial dialogue to give you the crux?

So this is what I presume a drama should be. But everything changed when I saw Medea and Its Double

No Screen uping and downing, it was a drama with music and a little bit of acrobatics.

I saw it from the Balcony, so was not able to see the Surtitles. Its good that I dint see the Surtitles. It helped me to see the play with no distractions.

The Play started with some ppl coming out and lighting some candles in the pond and sitting on each side. Then all the lights were dimmed and the stage was lighted only by the candles and there was pin drop silence (as though we were watching a Meditation)

I was like, "C'mon! I've paid Rs 200, start the play!"

The Play started slowly, like a prayer song, which then slowly transformed to a kind of fun song and then the actors played games, they were acting as kids. All these things should've lasted about 15 minutes and I think that's the best moments of the play.

The story is similar to our Kannagi Story.

The thing about this particular play is it shows Medea and her double, 2 personalities one a loving mother and other a lady who wants revenge.

This is a play with minimum stage prop. It has beautiful songs and powerful live music!

Theater play is a kind of abstract platform for story telling.Medea and Its Double is an example of how best to use the stage platform!

Courtallam

2009-09-19T02:18:00.001-07:00

Happened to visit Courtallam previous week. Long long ago had spent 3 days in Courtallam, but this time went for just a half day visit.

If you are planning to spent a day in Courtallam, include Shenbagadevi Falls, which is little far away from the main falls, you've to hike inside a reserved forest, not a strenuous one. This reserved forest is open to public just for the sake of ppl visiting Shenbagadevi Temple. So we've free access to this falls thanks to Shenbagadevi! It's the best falls, its like a big cylinder of water coming and hitting you. Also you can chill out in the pond created by this falls. Shenbagadevi is a really beautiful fall!!

They say that Thenaruvi (Honey Fall) can be reached if you could hike a little more. But you are not allowed. It seems that around 80s a bridge towards Honey Falls was broken and it was never repaired.

If you speak with some locals, they will say that they had visited Honey Falls in their childhood. I think Honey Falls will be much better than the Shenbagadevi and it seems nature has decided to preserve it from Humans!

How to reach Courtallam?

In Thirunelveli there are 2 bus Stands, if you want to go long distance you've to go to new bus stand, the old bus stand is near the Thirunelveli Junction. For going to Courtallam you've first catch a bus to Tenkasi. The Tenkasi bus starts at new bus stand, but also passes through the old bus stand. From Tenkasi you can catch the bus going to Senkottai and get down at Courtallam.

Pichavaram

2009-09-19T01:47:00.001-07:00

Happened to visit Pichavaram a couple of weeks ago, during my trip to Kumbakonam.

Catch a bus to Chidambaram from Kumbakonam, if you want you can bundle this trip with Vaitheeswaran and Chidambaram temples.

You will have bus once an hour to Pichavaram from Chidambaram Bus Stand. Pichavaram is the last stop.

Karparakshambigai

2009-09-19T01:29:00.001-07:00

Visited Karparakshambigai temple couple of weeks ago during my trip to Kumbakonam.

If you are traveling from Kumbakonam and would like to travel in the cheapest mode possible then take a bus to Pabanasam. From Pananasam take an auto to the bridge. Just say Karparakshambigai or Thirukarugavur, they will charge 40 Rs. Actually a main bridge used by vehicles is damaged and is being repaired, so you've another bridge used by pedestrians. Cross the bridge and you have to get another auto Rs 20 to reach the temple

Also one more thing, if you want to go to Kumbakonam by bus and dint find any bis then try for any bus that goes through Mayiladuthurai. Kumbakonam is just an hour drive from here.

Eeram

2009-09-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

Happened to watch this film. Many new faces and an interesting start but at the time of intermission you know what is in store and finally when the story reveals the motive for the crime, you feel disappointed. The thing about the thriller is anybody can try it but can they glue the viewers till the end? Can the director show the viewer why something happens, which convinces the viewer or can he settle to shows scenes where everything fits in by weird coincidence. The beauty for any story is its natural flow. It seems the director started with a concept and tried to skew the story to fit in the concept. So many things looks out of place.

Why is it that the heroine is almost always a Brahmin girl and when you just look at the face of the heroine's father you know that a Cliché is just waiting to happen. The story is about ppl trying to do a character assassination of heroine and how the heroine gets justice finally. But why should the lady next door die? Did she commit such a stupendous crime?

Anyway its still a better effort, the film was different from other films and films like this should be encouraged.

A Doctor's War Memoir

2009-06-05T22:38:00.001-07:00

In 1962 when India was waging war with China I was one of the doctors who were sent to the warfront. During the last leg of our journey to the battlefield in the truck, we group of doctors bid goodbye as one by one got down from the truck to their camps. We knew that we were seeing some ppl for the last time!
During the initial days of war, we had at least 2 doctors in a camp and our hospital was a make shift tent. Nepali Sherpa will bring us the injured soldiers in a stretcher and we give the soldiers first aids and other medical services as best as we could. Initial days were very tensed, We’ve to keep this man alive! We’ve to treat him as best we could so that he is battle fit soon! But you know whatever may be the situation, how stressful it is. You get used to it as time progresses. It becomes your routine. I initially came here b’coz I believed that I could make a difference, but as months go by I was just ‘in motion’ The amount of empathy that you’ve in your heart will be washed by the bloods you see and you remain dry in heart. You will be unmoved.
As you know in the Indo-Sino war India never had an upper hand, so the army slowly retreated and so did we the doctors. My fellow doctor died during a bomb explosion. During the next few weeks I was in many situations where I’ve to do a lot of mathematics. Should I save 3 mortally wounded soldiers or 7 soldiers with less severe wounds? Many a times I had to take the mortally wounded patients off the bed and place them in the sand and treat the other patients. Anyways the probability of a severely wounded patient surviving in that condition was minimal.
The days of tent had long gone away. Now my clinic was a shade of a tree. I would patiently wait for the Sherpas to come with the patients in stretchers and I would nurse the soldiers as best I could with the available resources. These Sherpas were paid some money by the military, they had to go to the warfront and collect the injured soldiers. We had just 4 Sherpas and they work in a pair. We knew that the Sherpas were dodging us. Sometimes they come once in the morning and only come back again late in the evening. But we had to ignore it, they are not part of the military and we’d many big problems to worry about. Sometimes I myself go to the warfront and with some help from the army men bring back the injured to the shades.
One day the 2 Sherpas came with an injured soldier’s body and placed the stretcher near me and started walking away from the warfront! As they walked they looked at me and giggled. This was too much! I don’t care if they cheat me in the back, but now they are just running away from the battlefield in front of my eyes. I shouted, “Come Back!” They dint! I got agitated. Its not patriotism, when you are in a battlefield where your country is beaten black and blue, and you just retreat and retreat and retreat you will not be patriotic. Its not about somebody stopping you from doing your job effectively. When you are seeing blood and blood and blood for such a long time and the number of soldiers surviving after treatment getting less, you will not be anxious about doing your job. But I felt let down. It’s been long time I showed any emotions. I got dehydrated in my heart, but now this small act of cheating triggered a lot of anguish in me. I took out my pistol, yes the army gave me one. I shouted, “Stop else I shoot you”. The Sherpas continued walking; they might’ve thought that a doctor can never kill anyone. I aimed at one of the Sherpa and pulled the trigger! What are you thinking? I did something wrong? May be I’d overreacted; you see I was not in a normal mental condition. Fortunately or unfortunately, that Sherpa got wounded in his left hand. I shouted, “Now come back I will save you!” The Sherpas looked at me with bewilderment. It was very strange that the wounded Sherpa was not screaming, may be he was dumb folded by the shock. They now started running away from me. I dono whether that guy survived.
As our battalion retreated and I went to many camps I realized that many doctors died! I was the one of the few doctors who were still surviving! I worked round the clock as the Indian army tumbled. One day when I was going to warfront for collecting the injured ones ..Yes I continued to go to the warfront every day I was literally summoning death but it was very elusive. I at least want to get hurt so I had a legal reason to get out of this mess. Ok lemme comeback to what I was narrating…. I treated a Chinese soldier! Just a first aid. He was crying with pain I gave a pain killer and did some bandages and said, “Now go to your place”. He dint understand my language but understood that he was not a prisoner and he could go back. Why I did that? I dono you see I see a patient as a patient that’s all. So you are thinking whether this is the same guy who allegedly killed a Sherpa for just cheating him. You see humans are irrational a prey for emotions.
Soon after that little act of sympathy the war ended and we returned home. Looking back to the many incidents that happened in those months in frontline. I was proud of what I did. If I can rewind back my life then if possible I would not have gone to the warfront. But if I did go then I would’ve done the same exact things. I would’ve stopped treating mortally wounded soldiers so I can treat more soldiers, I would’ve killed that Sherpa I would’ve treated that Chinese Soldier.

The Driving Test

2009-05-30T02:43:00.001-07:00

One Desi guy in US went for a Driving Test. When he was taking the road test, he reached a road junction and the signal was showing red, so he stopped the car. A few minutes later the signal turned green but this Desi was lost in thoughts and dint notice it. The Lady inspector who was sitting beside him asked, “When are you planning to go?”
He nonchalantly replied, “When my Visa expires”

Creator

2009-05-30T02:31:00.000-07:00

“Hi! I came to know that you’ve created a planet that’s sustaining for a long time”
“Yes! Its called Earth”
“I’ve been trying to produce a planet with living creatures and I tried 4-5 Proof of Concepts but everything failed. Its great to meet someone who has done a living organisms planet which is surviving for a long time. I’m planning to work on another Proof of Concept and this time want it to be stable. So I thought of interviewing you to get a better idea”
“Everything starts with a Proof of Concept. Initially Earth was also a Proof of Concept. I’m pleasantly surprised that its now stable and can be called a project”
“Can you explain me the concept used in Earth?”
“Every living organism needs to consume energy to do its activities. The Energy in Earth can be obtained by combinations of light, minerals, water and air. We’ve a group of species called plants which do the job of creating and storing the energy in a palatable format..”
“..and then the other organisms consume this energy and also form the secondary source of palatable energy”
“Yes”
“Its very easy to create this energy cycle. Lets talk about the consciousness of these living organism. Lets talk about the organism which has the highest conscious abilities”
“They are called Humans”
“What separates these species from the rest of the species?”
“This species can think, reason, imagine, visualize etc”
“How much are they creative? Do they analyze who created me? Why am I here?”
“Some humans think about this.. but you see I have created a lot of illusions. Also they had complicated their own life. They are very busy with their day to day mundane things so they have no time to research for the important questions”
“They perish rite?”
“Yes they perish. Its called death”
“So everyone is aware that they will perish. Do they kind of analyze where we come from, why we die, are we illusions”
“Everyone knows that they will die. But they act as though they live forever”
“Why?”
“Illusion”
“So they think that they are real”
“Yes. Just like we think that we are real”
“Aren’t we real?”
"You know the answer”
“I would like to hear it from you”
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.
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“Ok understood. You’ll not answer questions which are not pertaining to your project. Tell me how they think of you”
“They call me God. Many humans have many different versions of God. But I just don’t care. I’m looking for humans, who can appreciate this earth project or humans who are curious to know me. But unfortunately the majority of them don’t do either of this”
“B’coz of the illusion”
“Yes you can say so”
“How does this illusion work?”
“Ok look I just killed 300,000 humans. This is totally irrational. But these humans call it Tsunami! They rationalized an irrational thing!! Look here I kill this guy…..see they are saying that he died of a disease”
“So whatever we do irrationally gets converted as rational”
“Its not converted its their perspective. Its in their mind”
“So this earth, do they co-create”
“Yes they do. Every organism co-creates. I delegated a lot of creation to the organisms and it gives me beautiful complex creation!”
“..but they are not aware of that b’coz of illusion?”
“No.. we can’t say like that at least humans in some deep level know they are creating. At least in a subtle level”
“like?”
“Like they reproduce and create an offspring. They construct some physical structures, they dream..”
“Dream?”
“Dream is a state of consciousness where you imagine things. You create your own world”
“So its not co-creating. Its just pure creation”
“Yes they create an illusion. The illusion is such that if you create a dream and also present in the dream and something is happening around you and you feel as though you are in there for real. This is called creating an illusion and getting lost in it”
“Very interesting! I think this species of high consciousness.. humans are very intricately developed. Tel me more about this dream state”
“For eg this human is dreaming about you and me discussing about earth”
“Wow…. Wait!! Are we seeing this human dreaming about us. Or are we just existing in his dream?”
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“Pls tell me!!!!”

The Royal Astrologer

2009-05-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

The King came to the Royal Astrologer and said, “Sir! The Queen is pregnant. Can you please tell me whether it will be a boy or girl?”

The Astrologer closed his eyes and murmured some mantras and then he looked at the king and said, “Oh King! I have the answer to your question”

The Astrologer grabbed a palm leaf and scribbled something and then tied the palm leaf and placed it in a small iron box and closed it. The Astrologer said, “Even though I know the answer the time is not ripe to tell it to you. O King! Pls come back later”

The King gave some gifts to the Astrologer and bid him goodbye. The King came back a few months later, the astrologer rolled some dice and looked very agitated. He looked at the King and said, “Your highness! I very well know whether we are going to have a prince or princess, and I know how anxious you are. But unfortunately the time is still not ripe for you to hear it”

The King went back disappointed. Few months later the Queen gave birth to a beautiful princess. The King was overjoyed with happiness, but all these months the King was getting increasingly agitated about the Royal Astrologer. The King thought, “Is this astrologer trying to trick me? Does this guy really know astrology?”

The King went back to the astrologer and said, “O Learned Astrologer! I’m now a father of a princess”

The Royal Astrologer nodded and said, “O King! Pls go to the room in the left side. In the middle of the room you will see a small iron box. Pls open it and read what is written on the palm leaf”

The King went to the room and opened the iron box and untied the palm leaf. ‘Girl’ was written in that leaf. The king came back to the astrologer and bowed before him and said, “O Learned One! Pls forgive me for doubting you; you’ve proved to this country how great your astrology is! I understand that you should’ve a compelling reason to abstain from telling me whether the country will be blessed with a Prince or Princess. Pls accept my gifts”

After the king left one of the Royal Astrologer’s disciples came towards the astrologer and bowed before him and said, “Master! Pls teach us the technique that you used to find out whether the King’s child is a boy or girl”

The Royal Astrologer said, “Go to the room in the right side and read what is written on the palm leaf inside the Iron Box”

Beef Curry

2009-03-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

8 - year old Bob looked sternly towards his father Brian. His father was bringing the 'Beef Curry' for dinner from the kitchen.
Bob asked thumping his fists over the table, "Why do you make Beef Curry every week?"
Brian smiled as he placed the Curry in the dining table and said, "You know the answer"
Bob replied, "B'coz you like it.. ."
Brian started serving the Curry. Bob asked, "Dad! Why you like it?"
Brian said, "We mostly like a particular color.. a particular food b'coz we have an emotional attachment to it"
Bob looked at Brian attentively.
Brian said, "During my childhood my family was never well off financially"
Bob nodded. Brian continued, "When I was your age, I was usually alone in the apartment, Mom usually worked extra time so that we would have at least one proper meal a day. There were endless nights when I couldn’t sleep out of sheer hunger, so I learned to drink several glasses of tap water in an effort to fool my stomach into thinking it was full just so I could get a couple hours of sleep. There were endless days when I was so hungry that I couldn’t concentrate in school, envying my friends and classmates, wishing with all my heart and soul that I could trade lives with them just for one day to see how life would be like in their shoes.
"But 1 day things became worse, it got so bad that there wasn’t anything to eat over the weekend except some potatoes with spuds growing out of them. Food was minimal during the week. I lied on the floor, crying my eyes out, my tears soaking through the carpet and shouted out loud the words - 'I’m so hungry!', hoping that by some miracle, God would hear my cries of hunger and provide me with food to nourish my weak body like he did with manna for the Israelites. When nothing manifested, I cried even harder onto the carpet.
"Several minutes later, I heard a knock on my door. I obviously didn’t want to answer it, but the person kept on knocking and wouldn’t go away. I opened the door just a crack to see who it was. It was my friend John. He lived one floor beneath me.
"He invited me to his apartment for no apparent reason. I didn’t really have anything else going for me, but I didn’t want him to see that I was crying, so after some failed attempts to dissuade him in order to buy some time while I wiped the tears off my face, I accepted his out of the blue invitation and followed him. It was strange because I was pretty sure he knew something was wrong with me, and he would usually ask what was wrong, but he didn’t this time. No words were spoken between us as we climbed down the stairs to his apartment. I followed him one floor down to his apartment and when I went inside, a delicious aroma in the air pierced my stomach like a sharp spear."
Bob said, "It was the smell of curry!!"
Brian smiled, "Yes! There on the dinner table, was a steaming plate of curry on white rice, with chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, and peas embedded in it. John’s mother gestured to me to sit down and to eat. She poured a can of grape soda into a yellow plastic cup and placed it beside the plate. I couldn’t help myself. I started wolfing down the curry as if I were in a speed eating competition. I couldn’t get enough of it. The plate emptied quickly and she was quick to refill it and I wolfed it down once more despite the burning sensation of hot food in my mouth."
Brian looked at Bob and said, "Words cannot describe how great that curry and grape soda tasted that day and words cannot express the enormous gratitude I had for John and his mother at that moment in time."
Bob asked, "Dad! Did God answer your prayers? Or did John and his mom simply hear your cries of hunger through their ceiling of the apartment"
Brian thought for a moment and said, "I think it was a little bit of both... And to this day, this experience is the sole reason why I absolutely love Beef Curry so much. I absolutely love it. I can’t get enough of it. I associate this Curry with hope in the darkest of hours; of human kindness and goodness."

Naan Kadavul - Review

2009-03-11T01:30:00.000-07:00

I got very curious.. I just wanted to see the film. May be it was b'coz of my trip to Varnasi .. may be it was b'coz of my interests to know about Aghories. I got spellbound by the trailer. So I went to the theater and saw the film.
The story is about an Aghori and a beggar. Both their lives are narrated parallely and a couple of times their lives intersects. Illayaraja's music was scintillating! I just cannot imagine how this movie will be without "Om Sivoham". But I got disappointed when I realized Bala dint picturise 'Kannil Parvai' and 'Amma Un Pillai'. They were both very good songs.. my worry is not about the utilization of these songs in the film..its about reachability of these songs. How many ppl knew about this song now? How many ppl would've heard these songs if they were pictured!
Arya is an Aghori who was taken back to his home town(Malaikottai) by his father. But Arya shows no bondage to his family. He leads his Aghori life in the village. Actually in a couple of days he leaves home and lives with some monks in a rundown temple. Thandavan has a pool of beggars. Thandavan assigns some ppl to take care of the beggars. Taking care means managing the beggars and bringing back their money to Thandavan. Murugan is one of those 'managers', one day Murugan notices Puja, who is a blind beggar and takes her with him.
One of the best things about this film is showcasing of the plight of beggars. Beggars have no home and they live in inhospitable condition, but even then they have this home concept. Whenever they are displaced from one group to another they cry they feel home sick. Bala has done a good job in showcasing the various facets of these ppl life. He would've taken a lot of pain in selecting different physically and mentally challenged ppl for this film. There was this scene were a guy comes to Thandavan with a lot of physically and mentally challenged ppl. Thandavan looks at each person and finally says, "So I've no job now. Since these ppl are already handicapped I need not 'make' them handicapped"
Murugan knows that whatever he is doing is wrong and feels terribly guilt. He goes to the temple everyday and prays to 'Mangadu Samy'.
"Mangadu Samy' is a seer who has no limbs but this Samy never opens his eyes never also speaks. Also in one scene Murugan comes back to his den in a drunk state and apologizes to Puja for separating her from her group and then explain to every beggars about how he loves them and how he hates his job.
How is it that Arya just wakes up and beats bad men. The only explanation could be that Aghories intuitively knows who is bad and who is good by just seeing at ppl! Police remanding Arya for 1 week time is just a waste of time. Nothing significantly happens. Also towards the end the flow of the film was very abrupt. We see Puja in a Christian missionary and then in the next scene we see her back in Thandavan's place. How she went to the Christian missionary, how she came back.. also what happened to Murugan were never explained.
For any character to have a lasting impression we should empathize with that character. Unfortunately Arya's character has nothing to be emphatic about. Initial couple of scenes we may be shell-shocked seeing Arya but then it becomes a routine and we loose interest in that character. But Puja's character has some depth and we can empathize. Actually all the beggars characters were well etched. Example: the girl who has a soft corner to Murugan and her eventual fate!
In the final scene Pooja comes to Arya (her makeup looks very good) and says that she had given up on all the religions and all the Gods. She had finally come to him hoping that he could solve her problem, he could end her miseries and give her salvation. Arya helps her using Bala's own unique way!
Acting from both Arya and Pooja are just average. But credit must be given to Puja who had the courage to pledge 2 years of her acting career to a film, considering a female actor has a very short acting career.
The greatest issue with this film is all the scenes look good but they just don't make a complete film. Its like a collage whose bits doesn't show a coherent picture. Anyways its a different film which is worth watching.

The Lunatic

2009-03-06T00:38:00.000-08:00

He walked towards me and said, "You are not lunatic"
I showed him some funny faces. He shook his head. I know that he was not convinced, I made some noise and jumped a couple of times. He gently smiled and said, "I'm watching you for the past 1 week. I know very well that you are not lunatic. Don't worry I will not inform anyone. Even I'm not lunatic. I just need a company in this mad place. I'm happy to see a sane person here"
I nodded. The noise made by a couple of inmates were deafening our ears. We decided to go to the remote corner of our garden.
He asked me as we walked in the garden, "So why are you here?"
I said, "I killed my business partner.. not really a murder. We'd some difference in profit sharing and were having a heated conversation. I just pushed him and he fell down."
He asked, "Did he fell onto some sharp object or something..?"
I said, "No. He just fell from the 10th floor"
He nodded and said, "So you are faking it to escape prison"
"Yep that's the best way, my lawyer advised", I said.
We then sat in a bench. I asked, "So what crime you committed"
He said coldly, "No crime.. its all b'coz of those god worshippers"
I stared at him, he looked at me and said, "No I'm not an atheist. I worship God and that exactly brought me here".
I got a little curious. He continued, "If you just see how we worship. It looks very archaic. You know why they show aarthi".
He dint wait for my reply. He said, "B'coz during olden days there were no electricity. So it will be very dark inside the temple. Aarthi was to make the God visible."
I nodded, he continued, "Why do we wave God with hand fan"
I said, "B'coz in olden days there were no fans and AC"
His eyes became bright, he exclaimed, "Exactly! Do you know why we carry the idol in a chariot..b'coz in olden days King is supreme.. and Kings were carried in chariot. We dono who God is so we give Him the highest human status"
I said, "Now we don't have kings"
"Yes", he said, "So we need to change this worship. We need to make something that can give some sense to ppl"
There were a couple of minutes of silence. We both were in deep contemplation.
Finally he broke the silence. He said, "In this world, truth has no value. Whatever is the thing which is followed by more ppl.. 'popular belief' can be the right word..is considered truth. Heard of the story of a man who said earth is round but he was ridiculed as mad man... why? b'coz the popular belief at that time was 'earth is flat'"
I asked, "So what you did?"
He said, "I changed the system. I changed the ritual of worship and those ppl labeled me as mad man"
"What exactly you did?"
He stood up, his eyes wide open, he said, "I changed everything. Instead of doing Milk and Honey abhishegam I bathed God with soap. Instead of decorating His head with a throne I gave Him cooling glass. I gave Him Pizza, Pasta. This worship was something which I can easily identify with.. which makes a lot of sense..Why are you looking at me like that.. I'm not Lunatic!"

The Multiplication Factor

2009-03-02T00:56:00.000-08:00

During one TV Interview the interviewer asked Music Director Ramesh Vinayagam, "I heard that you are a perfectionist. You will make sure that the singer has sung the song correctly."
Ramesh Vinayagam replied, "Its not about being perfectionist. Its about the fear of 'The multiplication factor'"
The interviewer asked, "What's that?"
The Music Director replied, "See.. I just sung a song during this interview. I know that in some places I dint sing correctly. This interview will be broad-casted and lets say 1000 ppl are watching it.. then the mistake done by me is seen by 1000 ppl. That is my mistake got multiplied"
The Interviewer nodded.
Ramesh Vinayagam continued, "What I'm trying to make sure is whether the singer has sung the song correctly without changing the raagam and thaalam. B'coz just imagine how much time it will be multiplied. Lets say we've a film song in which the singer has not sung according to the meter.. lets say they release 5000 CDs. Also they broadcast in the TVs and Radios 10 times a week and they will also run shows in theaters. Also there will be stage singers who will sing the song as it is.....The mistake will be multiplied a million fold. This is what I'm trying to avoid."

The Conductor's Conscience

2009-02-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

A beautiful college girl entered the bus and stood near a seat, the bus was a little crowded. The Conductor came near her, she showed a 50 rupee note and said, "2 Tambaram Ticket".
The Conductor sternly asked, "change?"
She shook her head, the conductor's face turned red and he shouted, "How do you expect me to give you change for 50 Rupees! Do you've any sense!"
The driver turned back for a second and the whole crowd looked at them and the girl's eyes became moist with tears.
The Conductor continued, "You college girls have all the time to make up and do fashion stuffs but don't have a couple of ten rupee note?"
Couple of guys who were near giggled, the girl hung her head down in embarrassment. The conductor said taking away the 50 rupee note, "Here take this change", he gave back 4 10 rs note and 2 tickets and proceeded to the next passenger. He looked back at the girl and murmured, "These ppl are coming just to irritate me!"
45 mins later the bus was going towards Guduwancheri and the bus was almost empty and the Conductor came near the Driver and sat in a seat near him.
The Driver said without taking his eyes off the road, "You picked on her rite?"
The Conductor asked, "What?"
"That college girl"
"She dint give me the change so I shouted back at her"
"You picked on her"
"What do you mean?", the conductor asked, "Do you mean to say that I deliberately.."
The Driver nodded, he was still seeing the road.
The Conductor asked, "How could you.."
"She looked beautiful and you wanted to embarrass her. Just to make you feel good"
The Conductor remained silent, his face red with anger he wanted to tear the driver to pieces, but he was just waiting for the right words to show his offense.
The Driver said, "Yesterday morning a girl came and showed you a 100 rupee note and asked for a single ticket and you gave it to her without telling a single word"
The Conductor said, "Yep.. I was in a good mood at that time."
"Its not about mood", the driver quipped, "I know how she looked. She looked very ordinary, so you identified her as someone as you, but this girl looks beautiful so you thought that she is superior. And you want to crush her.. so that ppl will know .. that you are great. You embarrassed her b'coz you had inferiority complex"
"You are building castles in air", chuckled the conductor, "You can write stories"
The Driver laughed, the conductor thought that the Driver will do a reply, but the Driver immediately changed his topic.
The Next Day, at almost the same time that girl entered the bus and she nervously looked around and saw the Conductor and immediately buried her face in her friend's shoulder.
The Conductor came near the girl and looked at the men sitting in the ladies seats and said, "Ladies Seat!".
The men stood up and gave way to the 2 college girls. The Conductor took the rupee note from her friend and gave back the change and ticket and looked at the Driver, who was watching this scene through the rear view mirror. The Driver looked at the mirror and smiled, the conductor smiled back.

Am I having another one?

2009-02-19T00:28:00.000-08:00

Richard woke up in the morning feeling grumpy. Richard thought, "Another working day! Have to submit the proposal today else the manager would tear me off. Appraisal around the corner! Got to go to office before the traffic picks up! Life Sucks!!". He sheepishly moved around doing his morning chores. His wife asked him to check if their 7 year old daughter, Jessica had woken up.
Richard went to Jessica's bedroom and saw her sleeping and he woke her up. Jessica smiled as she woke up and asked, "Dad! Am I having another one?"
Richard dint get it, he looked curiously at her. Jessica exclaimed, "Yes! I'm having another one! I will be having more fun today", she kissed her father and jumped out of her bed.
Richard smiled and murmured, "Yes! I'm having another one as well!"

A Tribute to Randy Pausch

2009-02-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

If you’ve a massive heart attack, you know that you may not live long. But you dono whether you will die in a month or will you go on for another 5 years.
But there are deceases where doctors give you a date!!
Pancreatic Cancer is one of them.
Randy Pausch was a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer on August, 2006 and on August, 2007 he was given a date by his Doctors. He died on July 25, 2008.
He gave a couple of lectures after knowing that he would die soon, one was ‘Last Lecture’ that made him an accidental celebrity! Let’s take some time and try to absorb his Lesson’s Learnt and Philosophies. Ppl say that when a person is dying he will say the truth, the guy who died was a highly qualified Professor and we should definitely have something to learn from his life.
In “Time Management” – Lecture in University of Virginia on November, 27, 2007:
He said (on Doctors giving him a date), “I like the way they say, 'you've 3-6 mnths of good health left’, optimism in the way they say it. Its like going to Disney world and asking, 'When will it close' and they say, 'its open till 8 P.M'”
He noted that if a student comes to his office and asks, “I dono whether I spending $60K for this course was a correct decision?”, then he will just throw the student out of his office, but he says that if the same student comes and asks, “I dono whether I spending my 2 years in this University was a correct decision?”, then he will speak with the student for hours, b’coz that was the right question.
Randy observes that we all have finite time, money can be earned but Time which we spent cannot be brought back. He ends the lecture by saying, “Time is all we've and you may find one day you've less than you think”
In “Last Lecture - Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” - Carnegie Mellon University – September 18, 2007:
Before speaking, Randy received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it," some in the audience shouted back, "You did!"
He knew everybody will be shocked seeing his upbeat mood. He said, “I’m not in self-denial”
He added, “We can't change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand”
One of his advice, “you might've to wait for a long time but sometimes even years but ppl will show their good face, just keep on waiting. Nobody is all evil everybody has a good side.”
He believes in enjoying what you do or putting it the other way doing what you enjoy, he said, “Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it (the game of life)”
On Road blocks (Brick Walls) that stops us from achieving the Goals, he said, “Brick walls let us show our determination, how badly we want it (the goal). They are there to separate us from ppl who do not want to achieve it”
What was very romantic was he saying that yesterday was his wife’s birthday and bringing a cake to the stage and asking his wife to blow the candle!
What shall I say about his wife’s reaction, I can see joy and grief in her face and she was laughing and crying at the same time!!
He ends his session by asking, “Have you figured out the head fake?”
Then he said, “Its not about achieving your childhood dreams it’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life well the Karma will take care of itself…. the dreams will come to you.”
Convocation Address - Carnegie Mellon University – May 18, 2008:
Randy was in the 9th month after the Doctors gave him the date, so he was living more than expected (3 months extra).
He noted, “We don’t beat the Grim Reaper by living longer. The Reaper will come to all of us. We beat the Reaper by living well and fully.”
He said on regrets when looking at life from his death bed, “it is not the thing we did which we regret in our deathbed it’s the things that we did not.
I've done many stupid things and had many embarrassments but that dint bothers me now.”
He ended his talk by talking about Passion and Love, “you'll need to find your passion, I've learned that you will not find the passion in things and money. When you use things and money as a metric you will always find ppl who've more of them. Passion is something which should come from inside. Whatever the work you do the Passion will be grounded in ppl and what they think of you when your time comes. I had waited for 39 years for my marriage, b’coz it took me that much time to find someone where her happiness is more important than mine. I hope you find that kind of passion and that kind of love“
In Time Magazine Interview:
He was asked whether he thinks that he was a messenger sent to earth for delivering the message of hope.
He said, “Gosh!! I've never really thought about that. I attribute to bad luck (cancer) and nothing else. If I had the choice I give it all back(celebrity status) if I can give cancer along with it. I know that I'm doing the best use of my bad situation but I would not have been in bad situation in first place.”
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R.I.P

Note: Originally written a week after Randy Paush's death

Surprise

2009-02-10T00:43:00.000-08:00

She heard the calling bell, she looked at the clock and it was showing 4:15. She knew that it would be her son. She was a little worried a minute ago, because her son would usually return home from school at 3:50. She opened the door and saw both her son and her husband. She looked at her husband and exclaimed, "You are very early today!!".
Her husband smiled gently, but she could see something very different in his face. His face showed pain! She asked, "What's wrong?". Her son went inside the house and sat on the sofa and placed his school bag in his lap and he bend over his bag and stared at the floor. She looked at her son and asked, "Why are you looking very gloomy? What's wrong?". Her son dint answer, he kept on staring at the floor.
Her husband walked a couple steps in and looked at her and said, "I very well know that today is your birthday". She blushed; she also knew that he cannot forget her birthday.
He continued, "I thought I could give you a surprise". She raised her eyebrows.
He said, "You were asking me for a cycle. I thought I could buy you a scooty"
She smiled and looked at her husband affectionately. He continued, "So I put a couple of hours permission today and I thought of buying the Scooty in the showroom which was opposite to our son's school"
She immediately rushed to the window and peeped outside, she was neither able to see his bike nor a scooty. She asked, "Where is it?"
Her husband replied, "I wanted to make your birthday memorable. I know I made this birthday memorable.. but not in the way I wanted"
She exclaimed, "What happened? Why are you looking sad? Why is he staring at the floor? What happened?"
He said, "I was on my way to the showroom. I was just 5 mins away I took the turn to the school road when a lorry which was coming in wrong direction hit me!"
She exclaimed, "What happened!! You look alright..Did the Bike got any damage"
He remained silent. She said, "I'm happy that you are ok. I want nothing.. tell me what happened.. why are you looking sad...."
Her son replied without taking his eyes off the floor, "Dad died!!"
She wanted to rebuke her son for talking rubbish but she was not able to speak, she felt heaviness in her heart, tears were rolling down from her eyes, she don't know why!
She looked back at her husband, and saw in his face the pain.. the pain of bidding farewell to loved ones. He smiled and disappeared.

Varnasi - Travelogue

2009-02-09T01:25:00.000-08:00

Cow shits all around, narrow streets, dirt unhygienic all around that's Varnasi.
Its an Old City which has very huge buildings. Buildings very narrow and tall and seems to be unapproved.
The streets are a maze, it will take a couple of days to really understand the route to your hotel. But after that the fun begins, you seem to have unlocked the matrix and wherever you go.. you know how to explore and how to come back safely. You see shiva lingas everywhere in varnasi. Not to mention the teas served in mud cups and also the jalebis served in the road side.
The Ganges:
They have this Ghats which it seems are some 100 in number. A Ghat is nothing but a set of staircase leading to Ganga and all streets have a Ghat.
The most famous are Harischandra Ghat and Ganga Ghat which is where the corpse pyres are burnt!! I heard they burn some 400 corpse per day.
If you are in the street you will see many corpse taken away every hour and they cover the corpse with a beautiful shawl.
In Ganges bank you see everything.. corpse pyre, ppl bathing, Children playing cricket in the ghats, boats with the travellers, Some ppl performing rituals, Buffallo bathing ..
I was in Varnasi during Muharram time and Varnasi has a high Muslim population. The Muslims constructed a structure with wood and some decorative clothes.. it looked like a tomb. They took a procession of that structure in all the streets finally they came to a Ghat and took a boat and dumped that structure in Ganga.
There I saw Her!! Saw Ganga embracing everything.... right from the Muslim's tomb model structure to buffaloes excrete to ashes from human pyre and also the small boat with a diya offered as prayers from Hindu. She embraces all!! and She is the epitome of patience!!
Clapping Hand:
In one of the Ghats I saw one guy clapping his hands left hand over right.. I thought this was some kind of prayer. Then I heard some more claps when I was walking in the street.. I thought someone was calling me ...and then I realize this clapping was to powder a material which they will put in their mouth. These ppl always have paan in their mouth!! I think everyone will die of throat cancer!!
Temples:
The Vishwananthar and Annapoorni temple had a lot of security.. mobile, camera and pen were not allowed. You will be physically checked at least a couple of times (in addition to passing through the scanning gate) before going inside the temple. I later came to know there was couple of blasts in Varnasi in recent years.
The Vishwanathar temple has a Saptharishi Pooja and you can get a ticket for 50Rs. If you ever go to Varnasi get a ticket and watch this pooja which happens at 7 P.M everyday. A very interesting ritual. 7 ppl first do abishega and decorations to Shiva linga and they sing a song in between , this song I can compare only to the scenes in Mongol, in that movie the soldiers after every victory gleefully hum with their jarring voice.
My parents say that it was Sama Veda which these ppl were uttering. Towards the end of the ritual there was a Deepa Arthi were the 7 ppl move arthi to the linga and ring their bells, the ringing of the bells were well supported by a percussion instrument and they sang a song.. should be Sama Veda. It was a scintillating experience. If you are in Varnasi don't miss this Saptharishi Pooja.
After visiting Vishwanathar and Annapoorni we were taken to a small temple, they said it was Vishalakshi temple. I just can't believe it. Such a small temple!! A far cry from Madurai Meenakshi and Kanchi Kamakshi temple...but what to do as the saying goes, "Moorthy siridheninum Keerthi Perithu".
Varnasi temples art seems to be very rudimentary.. the Ganesha and Hanuman idols in the temple were usually done in a red stone and they seemed out of shape. In other temples the Idol is just a brass mask!
The Rickshawala:
Cycle Rickshaw is still the main mode of transport and they don't have motors in it. Runs just by human power. On Makarsankranti I decided to go to BHU (Banaras Hindu University) Birla temple. I was told by my hotel caretaker that it would cost Rs 15 for 1 way trip to the Birla Temple. I went to the Rickshaw stand and they said Rs30 I bargained for Rs20 and sat on the rickshaw and then I realized.. the Birla temple was more than 4 km. It took about 15 mins to reach the destination. I knew Rs20 is not the correct amount but my ego prevented me from giving the rickshawala extra amount. In Chennai auto driver will start murmuring during the last mile usually to get more money but this guy dint!! Finally I got down from the Riskshaw and gave him 20 Rs and I looked at his face and I see contentedness.. peace in it. He took the money and made a namaste and told something in Hindi which I infer to be, "Have a good day".
BHU:
I roamed around BHU for sometime and I saw Art everywhere. There were some students in Birla temple who were practicing some songs may be some event is coming up. Some more ppl doing a skit. I came out of the temple and walked around BHU campus and saw 1 person sculpting a statue another girl having a big chart were she is drawing a picture. Art.. art everywhere
The Kite Runners:
Children were flying Kites all the time, but it peaked on Makarsankranti. Do these children have any other option other than Kite..no. With narrow roads and tall buildings, this seems to be the only sport to pursue. I gleefully saw the Kite festival scene from the kite runner little did I realize the inconvenience. When I walked in the street my slippers were usually pulled by the kite thread and also the threads kept falling from sky all over the streets.
Some more places:
If you are in Varnasi try visiting Sarnath, the place where Buddha started his teaching. Also Choli Amman, Kalabayravar (the place where you get Kasi Kayiru). Also take some time to roam around the Ghats and if you are there in the evening have a look at Ganga Arthi.
The Tail Piece:
Remember you can never get Bangalore Thakkali in Bangalore. I went to a big sweet stall in Varnasi and asked for 'Kasi Halwa'. The merchant replied, "We don't sell Kasi Halwa". I pointed to a sweet which looked like Kasi Halwa and asked what it was. He replied, "Karachi Halwa"

Shivaji – The Real Boss

2009-02-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

One day in the court of Chhatrapati Shivaji a messenger came in and said, “Your Majesty! We’ve a war booty as a present for you from one of our Marathi Commanders”
Shivaji said, “Show me that”
Four people carried a big box and placed it near the centre of the Court and one guy opened the box.
From the box came out a very beautiful young Muslim lady!!!
Shivaji stood up from his throne and came near the lady and said, “I’m completely mesmerized by your beauty!!”
The lady knows about the fate of women who are in the loosing side of the battle. But she does not know about Shivaji!!
Shivaji continued, “I see Mother Kali in you!! Please tell me who you are?”
The lady said, “I’m the daughter-in-law of the ex-ruler of Kalyan. Your army annexed Kalyan 2 days ago!”
Shivaji turned towards the messenger and thundered, “How dare you call a woman as a War Booty!!! And how dare you to say this in front of me!!!!”
The Messenger droop his head in shame.
Shivaji continued, “Tell your commander that I severely condemn his act!!!”
Shivaji then turned back to the lady and spoke softy,” I apologize for the inconvenience caused by my fellow men. Oh Mother!! Please tell me what I can do for you”
The Lady asked with tears in her eyes, “Can I please go back to my home?”
Shivaji said, “Of course!! My army will protect you in your journey to your home!”
Back home when ppl ask the lady about Shivaji, she always says, “Shivaji……he is the real boss!!”

Face

2009-02-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

Almost two years ago, I accompanied my mother to a clinic.
We went inside the clinic and reserved our name with the nurse and sat in the reception area.
The Clinic was pretty crowded with patients, there were some 25 chairs and almost 20 were occupied.
After some 5 minutes of our arrival a young girl in her late teens came in and occupied one seat. She seemed to be an Anglo-Indian, she seemed to be kind of any normal girl in her age, but something was fishy!!! I dono what it was…..but I know something was wrong with this young girl!!!
She was having a bag in her right shoulder, she took the bag in her hand and opened it and scanned all the ppl in the reception area. There was a kind of naughtiness when she saw all the ppl.
There was a table near her chair, she took each items from her bag and placed it in the table. All the items were snacks!
Then in came her grandmother rushing towards the girl, grandma said, “No you should not take everything. You can take only one at the time”
“No Grandma!!”, the girl cried as a 3 year old!!!
Then I noticed her face once again and understood!!!!!
Her face was so different from other ppl’s face….she was mentally retarded!!!
I cannot imagine how charming she might look if she was a normal girl!!!!
I think this is what they call “Face is the index of mind”
Can you just look at yourself in a mirror right now?
Can you see how beautiful you are?
Just imagine how your face will look if you are mentally challenged!!
So it seems beautiful face is just a reflection of beautiful mind!!!
OK back to the event, this girl was speaking fluent English. Whenever the nurse called the name of a patient, she echoed the same name and then she would laugh out loud.
The Nurse called my mother’s name “Sita”
The girl echoed “Sita…. Go inside”
My mother and I started walking towards the Doctor’s room and we’ve to cross the girl. I always have a great amount of fear towards mentally challenged ppl. So I took the longest de-tour!!
My mother followed the correct path and she was about to cross the girl. The girl suddenly snatched my mother’s hand and said, “I’m the doctor”
The girl looked at my mother’s hand for some seconds and said, “You are ok. You can go”
We both went into the Doctor’s room…… my heart started beating normally only after coming out of the clinic.
I asked my mother, “Why you went close to her? What would’ve happened if she did something?”
She said, “Poor girl! Why should we apathy her!”
Looking back the incident now, it seems that my mother was able to connect to the girl and I was not able to!!!
That’s the reason the girl snatched my mother’s hand!! She was able to feel the connection!!!!!
It was really foolish on my part to fear mentally retarded ppl!!!
I cannot forget the face of the girl I saw in the clinic!!!
I personally think that she was a divine angel!! She came to the clinic just to bless my Mother (“You are ok. You can go”)
Oh girl!! I apologize for being apathetic towards you! I’m sorry I was not able to understand you!!

We need an outlet

2009-02-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

One of the basic issues with Indian Culture is submissiveness. We neither show our happiness nor our anger, sadness etc. We keep these things to ourselves and become more depressed.
Today morning we had a chat in our car about Women’s Parliamentary Reservation Bill.
One girl said that it was tried in the assembly but failed and another guy said it dint. He asked her whether she had proof for it. He is a kind of guy who needs proof for every information, b’coz as Senthil says in Boys ‘Information is Wealth’.
He also doesn’t believe in scolding Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha b’coz we don’t have solution, we are not jumping into politics we are not supporting new people coming to politics and hence we don’t have rights to talk about it.
Nothing wrong with his attitude but it seems he is punishing himself too much.
Then once we reached the office the girl emailed her proof and this is what I replied:

Kaasa panama….
Everybody is free to share their views.
I want everybody to open their mouth and shout on top of each other, b’coz this is going to be the outlet for them.
Eneme daily bayangaramana controversial topic eduthuntu kathalam.
Who really cares whether one is right or wrong we all need an outlet that’s all and I hope we don’t have ego within us.
So ethavathu thappa sonnalum thodachunu poyinde irukala.
Daily Carla silenta varathuku ethu saiyalam.
What you say?

We all need an outlet we cannot shout at our colleague, our friends and relatives directly. We are not free to laugh, cry or exhibit anger, only a 3 year old child can do it…. not us.
So we keep things to ourselves, why can’t we go ahead and shout at some public notaries?
Or speak up some controversial topic which never had a solution like “Gents are Superior to Ladies”
Just do this experiment with ppl close to you and make sure you don’t have any ego issue with them. Just have some heated conversation about some stupid topic and then forget it after sometime.
Tell me how you feel……. do you feel light, rejuvenated?
You should be b’coz you got an outlet to pull off your emotions.
Many ppl will say go for exercise… pray to god .. do some gardening .. etc
Yes they are good outlet but is it really possible to do that everyday?
How many people jog everyday?
There is nothing wrong in doing this above stupid exercise, we will shout at karunanidhi Jayalalitha etc etc
We will continue to vote for them nothing really will change but the end of day you will be very lite.
The only thing to consider is you have the right people with you for this experiment.
You may consider doing this experiment alone in a bed room but your room mate may call Mental Hospital ;)
So just be beware :D
Osho once said in a book that people in a country are generally active and happy when there is a war, this is b’coz they have an outlet they can finally show off their anger. They read the newspaper daily and shout on top of their voices for sometime and go ahead dong their job, but they will feel lite.
In my previous project we’d a small third party vendor in France .
One day some developers from our project went to France to meet them. This company is a small team of 14 people and their office was very innovative.
In one place they had the “boxing bag”.
One guy asked why they had this here, the French developer replied "everyday after the conference call I will be here hitting you people here" :)
Also when they have a bug which they don’t know how to solve they go over to the boxing bag and spent some good time :) and then come back!!
I had totally cut down myself from news from India and for that matter any news at all.
I’m just thinking of going back and reading some news so that I can shout at some of them :)

Note: Originally return during my stay in US

Crime and Punishment - Review

2009-01-29T03:57:00.000-08:00

We all believe that we are not ordinary. We’re unique. We’ve something special in us.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a story about a guy who thinks that he is extraordinary…

This is a Russian Novel published on 1866 and recommended by one of my reader.

This novel was not a easy read b’coz it was more than a century old and it was a translated one. When you read a Novel, it should be impossible for you to keep it down. You usually read many many chunks of pages at a stretch and you just cannot keep the book down. But I dint face that issue at all!! In fact many a times I thought of just stop reading the book! May be I am not tuned to reading Novel.

Crime and Punishment is about Raskolnikoff, a college drop out who saw an old money lender lady as a weed in the society. He thought, “What would Napolean do if he was in my shoes… He would’ve killed her”. He believed that the world consists of a large chunk of ordinary men and a few extraordinary men. These extraordinary men can change the face of the world. These extraordinary men are here to break laws if it is good for the community. Remember Nayagan dialogue, “Naalu Beruku Nallathu Senja Ethuvum Thappila”. So Raskolnikoff thought why can’t I kill this money lender and take her money and change the world for good! He kills her but as they say crime is followed by guilt and he cannot live peacefully. There is always a suspicion that police may capture him and he behaves crazily. I initially thought that I was missing something.. I thought why should this guy behave so foolishly may be its some Russian culture which I dint understand.. but later I realize that when you are overcome by guilt you mess up things. Also is it guilt or is it revelation to Raskolnikoff that he is just an ordinary guy?

Anyway the book actually turns very interesting in the last chapters with many nail biting events.

Some of the scenes in the Novel which are worth mentioning

Pulcheria's(Raskolnikoff ‘smother) mail to Raskolnikoff and then his own interpretation of the mail.
Marneladoff's narration of his life in the bar
Razumikhin.. Raskolnikoff’s friend who has a very sharp intellect
Svidrigailoff's talking about apparition and also his character, especially his interview with Donia.
Conversation between Loushin and Lebeziatnikoff followed by the drama that unfolded in Catherine Ivano's house.
Also the climax was very crisp.
Not to forget the murder of the money lender and the incidents immediately afterwards.
Also the intelligent detective Porfiry Petrovich’s character, especially his meetings with Roskolnikoff.
But what is unique is the narration in various parts where the author talks in past tense and then looks a little forward and narrates that as well.

Like:

"He was in full possession of his intellect; he felt neither giddy nor dazed, but his hands continued to shake. Later on, he recollected that he had been very prudent, very attentive, that he had taken every care not to soil himself"

It was like showing an incident and zooming out and saying that this was what this guy felt about this incident after x days.

We read classic novels from other countries to know their culture rite?

So after reading this novel my observations are

Russian culture is so very similar to our culture at least during the 19th century (I felt the same after seeing The Kite Runner. I was like, “ Afghan culture is so similar to our culture”)
They drink Tea
The Family bonding is very strong
A 50 year old guy can marry a 16 year girl that too immediately after his wife’s death (used to be the case in India in 19th Century as well!)
The Epilogue makes you breathe easy it shows how ppls life pans out but it was a let down. The pace of the epilogue was very ordinary and the theme very different that it seemed totally disconnected from the rest of the novel.

Allahabad - Travelogue

2009-01-22T00:40:00.001-08:00

I got down at Allahabad from the Ganga – Cauvery Express @ 4:20 A.M. My Brother and I were accompanying my parents on a pilgrimage. We were taken to ‘Siva Madam’, a Madam constructed by Singeri ppl. Madam’s have common Rest rooms and bathroom and the Siva Madam looked very unclean. When you are in Allahabad you have a feeling that the city is 20-30 years behind times.. With monkeys roaming everywhere and narrow and unhygienic roads. The tea stall opens only @ 6:30. The place near Siva Madam looked like a village …… it’s indeed village.

There was this small shop a kind of canteen. My Brother and I went to this shop initially for tea. Tea was just 3 Rs!!! Later we went there for having our breakfast. We asked for Poori. There was this old lady, who wears a spectacle and her hairs were still black in color. When we asked for Poori, she gave us this, ‘varum ana varathu’ look. She slowly mixed some powders and made a dough. She was taking her own time. There seems to be no sense of urgency in this village. It took some 20 minutes to make the Poori. We ordered for 2 plates of Poori. We soon realized that a plate of Poori here means 10 Pooris. We asked her to stop Poori making when she was making Poori number 17. She asked with a puzzled look, “Kya yeh kafi hai?”, We said , “Yes”. But she insisted to have one more Poori. The Poori costed 18 Rs. 18 Rs for 18 Pooris!!

When we were taking some pictures around the Siva Madam, there were few children playing near by. They ran to us and said, “Photo Kicho”, and we did. They struck very stylish poses and after each photo they would come near and see our camera and break into a dance. Such an innocence ..such a bubbling of energy .. I’ve never seen in my life.

Triveni Sangam.. What a sight to watch Ganga coming and embracing Yamuna (these ppl call Jamuna). This boatman knows that we dono Hindi but still talks to us non-stop in Hindi. He is trying to be a guide and was telling us how privileged we were to come to Triveni Sangam. He says that all the boatmen don’t talk about the significance of this place but he had taken upon himself the duty to speak about it.

In all Share Autos you see advt of IIT JEE Coaching. This place looked so backward and not many Engg Colleges but is still bustling with IIT Coaching classes. No wonder North Indians always have upper hand in securing into IIT.

My Bag

2009-01-19T01:48:00.000-08:00

Raghu was sight seeing Toronto with his colleagues on a Sunday. They were walking in a park in the evening when one of Raghu’s colleagues, Sekar started to move his hands animatedly. They all stopped and looked at Sekar. Sekar’s eyes became wide open and he murmured something.

Raghu asked, “What’s the problem?”

Sekar exclaimed as he placed his hands over his head, “Gone!! All gone. I lost my bag. It had everything in it.. my camera.. my passport. We’ve been roaming Toronto all day.. I don’t know where I lost.. How am I to find it.”

All colleagues laughed at Sekar. Sekar shouted, “You ppl making fun of me!! You never know what I’m undergoing now!!”

Raghu smiled and said, “What is it… in your back?”

Sekar placed his hand over his back and felt his bag!! He was actually carrying his bag all day long but he forgot about it. Now Sekar was feeling very relieved and he quickly opened his bag and checked his passport and camera. He then sat in a chair in the park and smiled and said, “Now I’m happy!!”

Raghu came near Sekar and said, “You were carrying this bag all along. You cried b’coz you lost and now you are happy since you got it back. But it was always with you.”

Sekar took a couple of deep breathes and stood up and the group started walking to their hotels.

After thinking for sometime Sekar said, “Isn’t it very easy to make a person happy. .. You rob him of an object and he grieves and you give it back to him and he will be very happy. He would not have been happy if that object was with his always, but a delta.. just a change… a moment of loss followed by a moment of finding makes him happy.”

Raghu quipped, “So you are saying that in order to make a man happy, you’ve to make him sad first.”

“Exactly!”, exclaimed Sekar, “This Sad and happiness is kind of a sine wave. You need the dip of sadness and the altitude between the sadness and happiness to get the euphoria.”