Watching The Watcher - Part II

Thalaivi Arundhati Roy speaks to the infamous S Anand of Outlook (of Kamal+ Rajni+Brahmin+TF-bashing fame)

There was one article in today's Hindu too, where she says 'Indian media is presenting a rosy picture' about Kashmir.

What do you get when mastery of language, beauty of expression, power of prose, the incisiveness of insight, and the urgency of action come together? Arundhati Roy!

Analyze this,

SA: But both Gen Musharraf and Manmohan Singh want to be Bushies.

AR: We have two begums competing for the attention of Sheikh Bush. Both of them are fighting for attention and are jealous of each other.

this,

SA: But experts say the nuclear deal with the US puts India in a ‘win-win’ situation.

AR: If a swordfish signs a deal with a crocodile, can it be a win-win deal? Right now, it’s strategically important for the US to allow us to believe our own publicity about being a superpower. India is not a superpower.It’s just super-poor.

and this:

SA: Any positive thoughts to end this dark conversation?

AR: Let me share a sweet little thing. I saw a news report about two Adivasi girls getting married to each other. And the whole village was saying: if that’s what they want, it’s fine. They had this ceremony, with all the rituals and customs, and they let them get married. That’s a moment of magic. It reveals their level of modernity, of their sophistication.Of their beauty.

Foot The Pan

There will not be a single person in India (educated in India) who hasn't come across the "F" syndrome or the even rare "F/P" syndrome. I'm fortunate enough to have seen it in school, college and my work-places. The common "F" syndrome is nothing but the replacement of "P" with "F" while pronouncing words usually starting with "P" and sometimes in words that have "P" anywhere within. Examples would be "flug" for plug, "fleet" for pleet, "get uf" for get up and so on. The converse of this is the "P" syndrome where the opposite happens. i.e, "Jyothi Boshu ees peet only por drinking fefsi and eating pish pry" and so on. This is extensively used by the people of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, U.P and even in the rest of the country.
Rarely do both the phenomenons manifest in the same person. Blessed are those who come across such persons. Quality entertainment at no expense and the best part is you won't even be called a sadist*.
Recently one of my team-mates was narrating her experiences with her schoolteacher who had the "F/P" syndrome. It was the first day for our ma'am and she found on entering the class that the fan was switched off. As the noise turned into murmurs and finally into silence, the teacher shouted "Foot the pan!". Imagine the plight of the students - remember, they still didn't know about the teacher's syndrome and it took them a good 2 minutes to figure out what the ma'am wanted [ignore the wrong usage of the sentence "Foot the pan"]. I can think of many rib-tickling tales from my own experiences but they follow the same drift.
The surprising part is it feels good to do it ourselves, pronouncing words as though you had the syndrome yourself. I once instructed my deeply-engrossed-and-concentrating team mate who was working on a piece of code to "cofy" [a chunk of code] and without realizing what i meant and without batting an eye-lid he replied back "Not now, Bala, we'll have it later...".

Q: Don't the sufferers listen to other "normal" people speaking? Or is it a genetic problem? Surely, they must've heard the word PANT being pronounced a thousand times. How could they possibly still say "FANT"? Questions, and no answers.....

To end, how about trying to ask a sufferer to read this
"Poetry is the powerful flow of spontaneous feelings"



*Well, you might, actually. There is a thin line between being called a sadist and not being called one, when you have fun at the expense of the sufferers. If the "fun-haver" is me, its not sadistic, otherwise it is. Simple!

Is It The Beginning Of The End?

Is it the beginning of the end of the Aussies' reign and supremacy in cricket? Sadly, that seems to be the case now. To me, its heartbreaking. Shane Warne, Bret Lee and Clarke (to a little extent) seem to be the only ones to get some runs. Whats more its Warne and Lee who chip in with the wickets too, in the absence of "Pigeon".
Whether McGrath is fit for the last test or not, the OZ batting has to click, otherwise the Ashes is as good as gone for them. Even in this test, had they set a target of at least 200, the match would have been theirs. Warne took them close, gave them a chance but it wasn't enough.
Let's see, the OZs never give up, and as their fan, neither do i...
"Pigeon", fly back to The Oval and redeem our lost glory!

oru nAL oru Nightmare

"Criminals are not born, they are made", my friend Chezhiyan used to say this, refering to his antics in Sathyabama Engineering College. Those were trivial offenses, harmless in every way. I was very close to committing a grave offense, the retribution for which would have been dire. I'm talking about homicide here.
I watched "oru nAL oru kanavu" on Saturday night. I was late by about 5 minutes. I dragged along 6 of my friends who were rather reluctant to watch the movie. Something was going on in the screen but neither i nor my friends knew what exactly was happening. One thing was clear, though. I couldn't bear to watch a SINGLE FRAME in the movie. Had i known Srikanth would torment Tamil Nadu like this when he was my junior in school, i would have committed my first homicide then. By 10:30, some 30 minutes into the movie, i SMS-ed a poll "Those who want to leave right now raise your hands" to my friends seated besides me. Three hands went up and we three musketeers just bolted out of the theatre, leaving the other guys angry and confused because i had brought them to the movie in the first place! (hee hee, i couldn't help it...:) )
Generally i'm a Gandhi-respecting non-violent human being but just like in the famous quote cited above, Faazil did sow the seeds of homicidal thinking in my mind. Faazil, i'll give you one last chance. Please stop making movies - the only ones you make are family-senti-love types set in Kerala. Please.........

P.S: The Sonia Agarwal/Selvaraghavan murders would be a twin strike. Am thinking of an ingenious stealth-operation

Travails Of A Drunken Driver

"Today is a good day", I thought when i finished my chunk of work ahead of schedule yesterday. "Really good, mmm", i thought when the demo went off well. And later when i ran into someone VERY special @ The Green Park hotel last night, i thought "Fuck! Too good to be true". After a few beers , i was hungry and looking forward to dinner at home. I seldom ride my bike after i drink but yesterday was an exception, since Green Park is pretty close to home. As luck would have it, i took a road which i never usually take on my way back home and there the fun started. And how! A PC stopped me and after the usual "where's ur house" routine he acually let me go and just as i was about to start my bike, he asked "Thanni saaptirukeengala? Oodhunga..."
After about an hour, i was sitting in K.K Nagar police station, being the object of ridicule of all the cops there. That i was still wearing my company badge at the time i was caught didn't help. "Computer la vela paakaraaru... neraya sambalam(!)..... indha madhiri aalunga dhaan sir murder, rape(!) ellam panraanunga... pana thimiru". Dei, enda pesa matteenga, i wondered....
On the way to the hospital in the police van along with two other "DD" offenders, they picked up harmless boys returning from work @ tea shops just to meet their "targets". At the hospital (for getting the "drunk" certificate), i did the mistake of making strange and funny faces at the PC, who's back was towards me. This triggered off a bout of laughter from a sloshed fellow offendor and this irked the PC more!
After pleading till 2AM i had to give up and they told me to pay the fine in the morning and take my bike. Well, i went in the morning, and afternoon, and i will be going again soon, and hopefully i'll take my bike then.
Evalavu moi ezhudanum nu theriyale....

Auto, i salute thee!

Perfect Loop

'nuff said!

Puratchi Kalaignarin Pirandha NaaL

Woke up late as usual and had a look outside my balcony and saw a group of people gathered before Captain's house. My mom told me it was his birthday. When i walked over to the crowd and asked if they had seen Captain sir, one of them replied that he had come out and gone in the morning itself (my morning is noon for others). He thought i was from the press and asked if he would get to see the snaps. He asked, "Sarath Kumar veetla ippadi thaan ungala madhiri decent-a oru aalu photo eduthuttu odittaan. Neenga indha oora veli oora?"

Too bad i couldn't get Captain himself....

10avathAram

"Sivajiye 9 vedathila thaan nadichirukkaaru. Namma thalaivar thaan 10 vedathula nadikkum ore thanmaana chingam" exclaimed Baasha, the head waiter at Amma bar, T.Nagar.
Nenjula beer-a vaatha madhiri irundhathu. Let's hope 10avatharam comes out well.
Today's MetroPlus in The Hindu carries this article on thalaivar and his next movie. Good to know that VV shooting is OFFICIALLY underway (if it's in The Hindu it's official!).
Kamal*10 (yankee accent to boot!)+KSR+Crazy Mohan+ARR+Sujatha > Rajni + AVM + Shankar + X + X

The Inventor of Synthesizer

We can't listen to contemporary music today which has not been touched by synthesizers. Obviously, i don't know much about the subject, but this might help.
Today's edition of The Hindu has an article on Robert Moog, the inventor of synths, who died yesterday.
According to the article, The Moog allowed musicians to generate sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly, has been a presence in popular music since Walter — now Wendy — Carlos's groundbreaking, Switched-On Bach was released in 1968 using only the new instrument. Bach on synth in 1968? - That's interesting!
My God-band Pink Floyd, during their "progressive rock" days (Dark Side Of The Moon), made the EMS VCS3 popular, according to the wikipedia link mentioned above. No wonder they could produce any kind of sound one can imagine. That said, the coherence in their songs would be intact. Today's techocrappy DJ's and rock-puppies like Linkin Park are a far cry from their likes.
Well, for a person who can't even played a keyboard, talking about synthesizers is tooooooooo much :) .........................And so i shall stop here!

Mangal Pandey - The Rising

Where history meets proud folklore, there legends are born

"Thana nana thana nana .......
Sab ne suna re!
Damka bole dum dum
Jaago jaago ab tum...."

Thus starts (and ends) the movie with the imposing presence of an elephant and ARR's rousing "mangal mangal" song to boot. In a way, The Rising is lifted by A.R Rahman, with his songs which you tend to like more when you watch them in the film, and the background score, which is very decent, with hardly any score seeming out of place, unlike some of ARR's RR scores in the past. The makers don't claim 100% adherence to historical facts and have taken the liberty to change certain "events".
The movie starts with the postponment of Mangal Pandey's hanging thanks to the hangman running away. The flashback starts with the rueful Gordon, played by Toby Stevens, lamenting that all this (Mangal's present plight) is because of him.
An important thread in this movie is the friendship between Toby and Aamir - they wrestle each other, drink bhaang and play pranks and "talk". Toby's Hindi is surprisingly good (look who's judging!) but i kind of lost it whenever some of the Brits had to mouth anything in anger. Running in parallel with this personal bonhomie, we see the ugly face of colonial imperialism, of which The East India company was a mere tool. An Indian maid breast-feeding a Brit 'memsaab's' baby, being unable to feed her own baby in the end, the 'poppy' trade and the war against china in the pretext of business, the apartheid existing long before the term was coined are all beautifully showed either visually or in the words of Toby Stevens or Om Puri (the narrator). I whistled when Toby Steven explains the British opium policy and exclaims "And we call it free trade!" - how true even today. All the proponents of free trade and capitalistic imperialism, EAT SHIT!
A good film makes the viewer think, and a great film makes the viewer think AND feel, and i think The Rising is more of the former.
The film shows Mangal Pandey practising untouchability, but the words uttered by an injured Mangal to Gordon in his bed puts everything in context

I thought i was an untouchable after i bit the cartridge, but the truth is we Indians are all untouchables for the British. This struggle is not about the animal fat in the cartridges, it is a struggle for freedom. India is awake, and there is nothing you or i can do to stop them...

Toby and Aamir come up with good performances but in my mind, i couldn't help thinking about thalaivar Kamal Haasan and wondering about Marudhanayagam. How i wish IT were here and now!
Ameesha had nothing much to do, even Geoffrey Boycott's granny could have played that role, well, ok his mom.....
Rani's performance was apt as a naach girl.
There are no long and extravagant war scenes. And whoever said this film was too melodramatic for the Western Audience must have had 8 large rums. Haven't they seen Braveheart? That, was melodrama, and Mangal Pandey certainly did not have any overdose of that. Most of the scenes were rather crisp, and even the few battle scenes shown didn't have the melodramatic sympathy-evoking super slow-mo stuff. That maybe the film's advantage or disadvantage, depending on how you look at it.
I didn't find any special need for that "item" song (again i go back to Hey Ram, where even the item song was seamlessly gelled to the story). Again, a potential Janetesque disaster (averted) for the "items" concerned. ARR's music was also slightly out of place in that song, i felt.
The movie ends with film division type clippings of India's subsequent attainment of freedom. Even before this started, the couple (actually 2 girls and a guy) indulging in some chair shaking activity and yapping in hushed mushie-tone, felt they'd disturbed the audience enough, stood up and walked, totally oblivious to whatever transpired on the screen for 3 hours. Probably they had expected cricket matches, trendy designer clothes and rectangular love stories.

Its a good film, no doubt, call me incorrigible or whatever, but i couldn't help thinking about thalaivar's Hey Ram and Marudh. Some guys have all the luck!

Ponniyin Selvan

Why did they name this movie "Ponniyin Selvan"? Am i missing something obvious? Well, never mind...
Let's cut the crap and get straight to the point(s)...
Mistake 1: Producer A.M "Despotic" Rathnam. This leads to Mistake 2
Mistake 2: Ravi Krishna. This kid CAN'T act, period (And somebody dub for him please, for fuck's sake!)
Mistake 3: Vidhyasagar. What the hell is VS trying to do lifting Beethoven's piece (Moonlight Sonata?) and using it as his theme???
Mistake 4: Maybe because of Mistake 1, the director Radha Mohan (is he the one who made Azhagiya Theeye?) felt it necessary to 'compromise', including dream fights and breast popping item numbers.

The movie starts with a "dream" song which makes the number starring Captain Vijaykanth dancing with white models look sophisticated and hip in comparison. Our hero is a man with one side of his face disfigured after an accident in his childhood. The film is about his challenges to raise/save enough money be able to afford a plastic surgery to correct the "problem". The theme looks decent enough on the face of it. Radha Mohan could have carried it off better than he has done here but sadly he makes too many compromises for comfort.
Gopika as Ravi Krishna and his mother Revathi's long time friend looks totally deglamourized (was she ever glamourous?), which is good, actually. Revathi and Prakash Raj (Ravi's colleague) come out with apt performances. Prakash Raj's characterization as a single, drinking, brothel-going but compassionate human being is interesting without the typical Victorian morality baggage common in the TF industry. I remember seeing a trailor of a Malayalam art film starring Nedumudi Venu and the movie is about a mole in his face being cut when he is shaving. The movie is about how he comes to terms with his "face-cut".
The Kadavul-Paadhi-Mirugam-Paadhi guy and the guy who was a "friend" in Azhagiya Theeye come as Ravi's friends. They don't have the impact the "friends" had in AT. The "jokes" seem contrived and lack spontaneity. Another AT character figures in this movie as Ravi's Onyx colleague, "Porkai Pandiyan" is the character's name in the film. He is impressive but sounds pedantic at times.
Ravi takes up a part-time job in a Pizza joint as a delivery boy and a "kids' entertainer". The director's idea of 'compromise' is evident in the scenes involving the joint. He quits this job to take up another part-time stint with Onyx, cleaning up the streets of Chennai in the night. As this is stressful, it takes a toll on his health and family. The story (and the ending) is very much predictable.
Why are people obsessed with item numbers? Are the members in the "snip-snip" panel in the censor board watching? Personally, i'm against censorship, but to pass the item song in this movie without any cut (BTW, which language is this song sung in? It is set to Kaapi raagam), after removing the fantastic "Yelae nee..." song in Mumbai Xpress smacks of double-standards and sheer ineptitude. The "items" in the song looked like running the risk of doing a "Janet Jackson" act anytime in the song.
Anyother actor, even Dhanush would have done a better job than our Ravi. The Tamil audience sure have a way of embracing mediocrity when they see it. When Ravi asks "Ennamma... poriya maa?" in his typical nasal tone, the whole theatre erupted in mock laughter. Here is one hero who mouths happy, angry and sad dialogues in the same single way!
Wish directors like Radha Mohan back their scripts and don't go in for the so-called 'compromises' or bow into producers' pressures.

Copy Paste Perils

This is from a mail i received from a colleague...

Just follow these steps here:-

1) Copy any text (CTRL + C ) or Right clicking the mouse and copy option

2) Click the Link:

http://www.friendlycanadian.com/applications/clipboard.htm

3) You will be able to see the text you copied on the Screen.

NOTE: If you are using to save PASSWORDS / Cr. Card#s / IMP

Info in clip-board Read carefully...

Do not keep sensitive data in the clipboard while surfing the

web. It is a single line code to extract the text stored in the

clipboard to steal your sensitive information.

Kannugala, ushaara irundhukkonga...

The Bicycle Thief

A movie can be the simplest to watch and at the same time show and evoke the most basic and primal emotions and urges in man. That's what The Bicycle Thief did.
There's not a single frame which is unwanted. There are certain places where the director tricks you into thinking of a certain conclusion only to prove you wrong. A group of priests praising the rain gods contrasted against our man's infuriation trying to find his stolen bicycle, the irony of people coming to play a game of football in cycles while our man's livelihood hinges on his lost bicycle, the momentary shifting of priorities when our man discovers that the drowning child is not his son, are memorable moments in this movie.
Like most classics, the best is saved for the last..........

The Ninth Coming

THE NEWS is out. It will be AVM Productions for Rajni's next movie (Sivaji?), and more importantly Shankar will be the director. In all probability, ARR will be the MD.
200 days guaranteed, unless one of them goofs up big time.
Super star avargale, please no more "opening song-fight-whoosh' sounds-punch dialogues" please... u've done enough of that stuff to last for eternity. And Shankar, for a change, how about letting the story carry the film instead of riding piggy-back on obscene sets and cheap techocrap?????

Let the information flow.............................

Watching The Watcher - Part I

CMP stands for Container Managed Persistence for me, Common Minimum Programme for the UPA, and Conveniently Missed Points for the people.
I came across this site when i was in Mumbai and its been more than a year since i visited that site. I should say its a find of sorts, with data to back up the claims made in the articles.
Worth reading......

The UPA Government's Economic Policies (whole story)

Some excerpts......

The comparison is stark: The UPA Government trumpets the additional Rs 120 billion toward the whole range of basic human needs as a great boon to the people; whereas it hands over an additional Rs 110 billion to foreign arms manufacturers casually, without comment, and not a single parliamentary party, the CPI and CPI(M) included, dares to raise an objection

Continuing the policy of semi-starvation

The urgency of these measures is underlined by the starvation deaths taking place in many parts of the country. For example, according to a study by the family welfare and tribal welfare ministries, 1,020 children in five tribal districts of Maharashtra died of malnutrition in April-May 2004; and 9,000 children in the state's tribal districts died between April 2003 and June 2004. (Indeed, a Government-commissioned study conducted by Drs Abhay and Rani Bang claims that there is massive under-reporting of child mortality in Maharashtra: the study puts the annual figure for deaths of children from all causes at 227,000.) It is likely that systematic studies in several other states would reveal a similarly grave situation.

However, there is no measure in the Budget to remedy this situation. Instead, the allocation for the food subsidy is kept at last year's level. The NDA government introduced the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, which is meant to provide only the "poorest of the poor" with foodgrains at Rs 2/kg. The coverage of this dwarf scheme has been slightly increased, from 15 million families to 20 million families. In fact, the NDA's Interim Budget of February 2004 had already taken this step. At any rate, the additional coverage is so meagre that it is of little importance.

Reassuring foreign capital
What is the justification for the Government's decision to increase the limits on levels of foreign investment in the insurance, telecom and civil aviation sectors (from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in insurance, from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in telecom, and from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in civil aviation)? Chidambaram's claim is that "There is an urgent need for infusing huge amounts of capital in these sectors", and that foreign investment will "add a competitive edge". First, it is particularly laughable today to cite the scarcity of capital as a reason for inviting foreign investment. Indian public sector banks have been flush with funds for several years, and have been unable to find industries that want to borrow for investment. The deputy governor of the RBI pointed out recently that the RBI had absorbed Rs 100,000 crore (Rs one trillion) of idle resources from the banks. Instead the banks have been using the funds for speculation in the capital markets, or have been lending to well-heeled consumers to buy houses or cars.

Here's the bestest......

Gains for speculative capital
The stock market boom had no benefit for the economy as a whole, since hectic trading merely redistributes wealth among the players in the market. If the boom had led to companies issuing fresh shares, and thereby funding fresh industrial investment, that would have been a benefit; but that did not happen, and there was only a handful of such issues, raising a negligible sum.

In brief, the prosperity of the share market was neither the outcome of a booming real economy, nor did it benefit the real economy. And the 'success' of the giant disinvestments carried out by the Government via the share market was merely the looting of public assets. Hence the concern which the powerful print and electronic media whip up for the 'health of the stock markets' is merely their concern for the prosperity of speculators, domestic and foreign

Most importantly, the tax on long-term capital gains in share trading has been scrapped altogether, and that on short-term capital gains has been reduced to 10 per cent. This is a stunning tax give-away. Wages above Rs one lakh are taxed at the rate of 20 and 30 per cent; but speculative income is taxed at a much lower rate!³

The media and various political parties did not mention this grand largesse. Instead the media focused on Chidambaram's proposal for a new securities turnover tax (STT), which was portrayed as a death-blow to the share market. The STT was a small tax to be levied on the buying of shares, at the rate of 0.15 per cent of the value of the shares. Thus a person who bought shares for, say, Rs 100,000, would have to pay Rs 150 as transaction tax. Evidently, for a person who bought shares in order to hold on to them, in anticipation of dividends or long-term capital gains, this would be a negligible amount. However, a certain class of speculators buy and sell continuously without taking delivery of the shares. Typically, if a speculator anticipates that the price of a share will rise, he buys it at the present price; but before he has obtained delivery of the share itself, the price has risen, and he sells it again at the higher price. The difference between his buying and selling prices is his profit. Similarly, if he anticipates the price of a share will fall, he sells it even if he does not own any shares of that company. When the price falls, he buys the share; the difference between his selling price and his buying price is his profit. Innumerable trades of this type take place every day among brokers. Obviously, some actual deliveries have to take place to square up the positions of different brokers at the end of the day, but deliveries make up the lesser part — perhaps 30 per cent — of the total trades.

Now, if each such trade were taxed, those engaging in hectic speculation would pay the overwhelming bulk of the tax. Of course, the rate proposed by Chidambaram was so low that it would not curb speculation, but merely earn a little money for the Government. However, an orchestrated uproar against the tax began immediately among share traders and the media, and within two weeks Chidambaram drastically revised his proposal. The tax would now be paid at 0.15 percent only on actual physical deliveries, and would be shared by the buyer and seller. In the case of trades where delivery was not carried out, the rate of tax would be one-tenth of that, ie 0.015 percent. The revenue loss on account of this change is put variously at between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 40 and 60 billion).

The share market and the media greeted this with hurrahs. And in the entire drama, the giveaway on capital gains tax was effectively covered up.

pUnal mAtru padalam aka Avani Avattam

Being a person venturing into agnostic territory, i must admit that i did change my "cross-belt", officially known as the sacred belt. This time it was not at Padma Seshadri, K.K Nagar, did it at home.
Actually, my mom literally forced me to do it (i was told i wouldn't be served a nanoparticle of vadai, payasam, sundal, rasa vaangi, thayir saadham and muttai kose) unless i change my cross-belt. Thalaivar dialogues like "Anbe Sivam", "Mansaatchi dhaan kadavul" didn't help.

Generally we men, i suspect, look for a wife who is a remastered version of mom. I say this even at the risk of taking a sweeping and simplistic view. Like unity in diversity, we'd like to find our partner in life's crimes to be as much like mom as possible, at the same time showing completely contemporary and different shades of personality.
What about the expectations from the other side? That ain't our problem!

" human being totally disconnected from humanity and reality"

Mr. Bush walked into the room and said, "Who we'll honorin' today?" "His mouth kept moving," recalled Specialist Casey's mother Cindy, "but there was nothing in his eyes or anything else about him that showed me he really cared or had any real compassion at all. This is a human being totally disconnected from humanity and reality. His eyes were empty, hollow shells."

Read on....

Fuck The CAS

Why the fuck do sports-lovers in chennai have to suffer because of a mucked up system aka The CAS (set-top boxes on top of the idiot boxes) started by the fascists and continued by the ruling appeasers?
I've missed all the ashes matches till date and this happens to be the best series in recent years.
And i can't watch my mates jumping taking swipes from giant trees because we don't get Discovery, Nat Geo or Animal Planet here. The solution is to go for the next best alternative. I make strange faces before my bathroom mirror and get entertained and informed at the same time. I've started trying to make the navarasas or nine expressions, thereby mimicking or simulating the entire evolutionary process as envisaged by Darwin. If you don't see the connection between the navarasas and evolution, a reading of Charles Darwin's works might ot might not help!

So for now, its either "Indiya tholaikkaatchiyil mudanmurayaaga thiraikku vandhu sila naatkale odiya putham pudhiya thirai padam" or "Ungalukku kalyanam aiducha?" And without waiting for the answer comes the next question "Endha paattu venum ungalukku?"
The News channels come as a respite usually, though i can't stand watching Srinivasan Jain stuttering and stammering for more than a nanosecond. He must have connections at high places because anybody who can't speak more than 2-3 words without pausing isn't fit to be an anchor, even by Sun TV's abysmal standards, let alone NDTV's. There's a guy called Jujhar Singh who has a sub-woofer fixed to his mouth. Another French-bearded bloke engages in conversation with faceless viewers instead of reading out the news. Zakka Jacob is probably the best apart from Tracy (surprisingly hot for a Chink).....

I shall get CAS, after all. who said the customer is king????

Goa via Bangalore

Arrived in Bangalore..... to start to Goa late in the afternoon for a gruelling journey by bus :(
Two down due to official reasons, seven remaining.....

Some news i've been reading lately has been troubling me and infuriating me to no end..... pogrom against Sikhs/Muslims, the culprits and the state machinery getting away scot free, breeding terrorism in the name of fighting it.....a principled party (relatively speaking) being rediculed with/by all and sundry..... It takes all sort of happenings to make this world the bitter-sweet-blissful-fucked up place it is.......

Will be back......

Does age matter?

I've always thought that there are a lot of things which, if you don't learn in your childhood or latest by your teens, will be too difficult to learn when you're an adult. Music is one of them.
We do see exceptions like our own Ilaiyaan, but then all drop-outs aren't Bill Gates, right?
I'd been to one of my friend's place last night and i saw a Yamaha PSR keyboard lying there. I knew his sister was into music and asked him if it was hers. Na, it was his dad's. He's been learning it for some 8 months now!
A tinge of hope, i did feel.......
Life is for the real "doers" and not mere "contemplators" like me.
Make that transition, my dear self :)

Priya Sucky

OK, i feel free to borrow, nay steal the "sucky" word from another blog.....
Karthik (my namesake), nandri hai......

Maddy doing a movie after quite a while and not wanting to get a ticket for "Daas" in black, i and my friend Mouli decided to watch Priya S......
A cursory look will suffice.....

1. Sada is "yucky". The hair streaking and the costumes didn't help at all. And you get to see more of her navel than what you saw in Anniyan! Be warned.
2. Maddy is natural. However, there's a complete flip-flop happeneing between Sakhi, the bachelor and Sakhi the husband. The "Remo" type changes into your typical pasamulla magan-annan-kanavan rolled into one....
3. Can somebody please tell Bharadwaj that he can sing/hum to his heart's content in his loo (thought it was him singing for a song and in some BGM pieces), but doing it in films is three much! Also, please tell him that he has done enough reggae-flavored numbers to last his entire career.....
4. I wasn't counting, but based on extensive guess-work, the word "Pogo" was uttered 27 times in the movie.
5. After the movie, i had a severe bought of laughter induced stomach punnus, thanks to my friend who indulged in near-perfect mimmicry of cricket commentators in every serious scene in the movie. If the movie had run for 5 minutes more, i have no doubt that we would have been removed by the theatre people!
6. Surprisingly, the theatre (Udhayam) was almost full for a weekday night show.

Maddy, you can do better.... Sandhippom, Thambi

Fighting the HO

The best ways to beat it:

1. Have a shot or two - Beating it at its own game. Not practical on working days
2. Have lime-salt-soda - Doesn't work always
3. Sleep it off - P'bably the best method
4. Just live with it coz there's no cure - Last resort

I followed none of the above today (technically that's exactly what point 4 means, though) and man, good that there ain't no conf-calls or work to do today. All the more reason to indulge in the bull shit that some people prefer to call "blogging". Intend to leave for home and take a look at my Shogun which is being made "as good as new", if my mechanic is to be believed. Maybe diversion does the trick.

BTW, hope its clear that i'm talking about HANG-OVER.............

Sun and Sand

Almost everything is set for the Goa trip this long weekend, except perhaps mother nature herself.
Peak monsoon season is not the ideal time to venture out to the sun and sand, but since all my Bangalore ex-roomies are on the verge of losing their bachelorhood, we decided to say "to hell with the rains and landslides" and partake in the hedonistic pleasures of life before disaster (read marriage) strikes my friends' lives.
There's another triviality to look into - the wallet factor. I peer into my wallet and i see nothing but emptiness inside and all i can do is sit on my ass, hoping that currency falls down from the sky. Dry as a bone :(
These are the times when i start believing in miracles and i'm sure there's one lurking in the corner.
Hence it is with a lot of assumptions that this trip is getting into shape - like i have no problems in getting 2 days leave and there's a benevolent soul who finds his/her purse too heavy with currency and decides to jettison the excess baggage.
Even as i type, one of our "crew" has copped out of the trip, citing official reasons. Obstacles, so many of 'em......

Which incidentally leads to the rhetorical question "Why does every trip begin with an empty purse, bad planning, worse implementation and a reduced crew-size?"