Through to IIMB... but do I wanna do the PGP?

Like I mentioned two years ago (that I will get into an IIM in 2010) and about one month back (that God wanted me to), I got into an IIM this year. Yea, Bangalore at that. Kinda freaks me out actually that the Nitrodamus in me was fully functional way back in 2008 with extremely accurate predictions.

But do I really want to go there?

FAQs to follow. ie. Questions frequently being asked by others (urm...not just others) given my current 'dilemma'.

"How many times do people get a chance to study at IIM-B?"

I know. But looks like I should give them 15L and two years of my time to get myself confined to a single campus. Should it not be the other way around? Even if it's with some of the greatest minds of the country? I have my doubts.

"Why did you try this in the first place?"

Now that I think of it, probably because of my hate towards IT. Probably not.

I do want to start my own company sometime, though. I like reading stuff related to that, and I guess there is no better place to learn about that..but paying back 15L is going to throw this out of balance, I suspect. I can as well use it to start one now, but heck which bank's gonna give even 1L to me to start my own publishing house or NGO? And take it lightly when it goes down the drain?

"You're gonna be so good at a lot of things after 2 years. The best in the country. You'll be working on so many assignments and presentations every day for two years that things you think you can never carry off now will be a cakewalk after two years."

I don't want to be the best in anything at all. Not even the best writer of Brindavan street 4th cross.

I don't want to conquer nature. I just want to enjoy being a part of this world. You know, laze around and stuff.

"You can't earn that way"

That's why you don't see me doing it.

"You can go back to this job after two years of IIMB if you like it so much."

Why should I leave it in the first place? And go back to it with a huge loan on my shoulder?

"IIMB. Some of the best lectures in the country. From some of the best brains..."

Very interesting, but worth two years and the hard work?

"Do you want to get married at all? This is your only chance!"

Much as I know that the IIM tag is probably my last chance of impressing any girl in this century, I don't think I really want to marry anyone. Yikes, I said it out loud, didn't I?

"What about your dream NGO? You need hell a lot of money to eradicate illiteracy in this country, dude!"

I know, but is this the way? at least one of the ways? How can I be sure?

"Sports Management, Politics... You could as well change the face of Indian football! Is that not another of your dreams?" 

Yea, but all the hard-work people are 'proud' of actually puts me off. I just want to write stories, you know.

"You're not the greatest writer"

I know.

"Anyway, looking at the profiles of people coming in with you, you will lose that laziness of yours just to keep pace with them, I think. Is that not a good enough reason?"

No. No. Nooo. Laziness is all that's kept me alive through all the rat races. I refuse to cooperate.

"Then you'll end up getting the last rank"

Who cares?

"You might not get a job then."

Oh.

"Remember this is at your Bangalore?"

Don't tempt me now. This is an unwanted question irrelevant to the current situation.

"Ooooo. Bangalore. The only IIM you've always respected."

That's probably because of the quizzes and the campus.

"Bangalore... The only 'city' with such a good climate."

Ha. Will somehow take a loan and buy a farmhouse in Coonoor or Calicut soon. Beat that.

"Bangalooooore... Family... Friends..."

Ok. I give in.

"Hey, you're supposed to resist."

Come on, you know that I really don't care about anything. Thinking about this exhausts me.

"What if you can't pay the loan back later?"

I'll try to pay the poor blokes back. If I can't, let them arrest me. Who really cares?

"Do you want to do it, then?"

Even if the whole thing is just a hyped up Gold-quest-like business done legally by the Govt to put people like me in a lotta debt, Yes.

"...but why?"

I have to do something in life, I guess. Evalavo panitom. Idha pana matoma?

-The End-

I love you too

Trees swaying slightly wildly,

This is a little stronger than a breeze but

A breeze at heart nevertheless. 

Drops of rain fall on me at times,

A very mild form of drizzle.

Or is it a strong rain distorted by a stronger wind?

There's the sweet smell of earth, intoxicating me

I just want to walk with you, nature.

The heat around me subsides at an astonishing rate,

As the cool winds gently touch my face.

I relish the two drops of rain in my mouth

And my eyes drink and revel in this natural splendour.

Ah, I can define heaven right now.

This is it.

If this is how Earth shows its love

To us tiny humans living on it,

I would be a fool to miss it.

I love you too, my dear planet.

I love you so much.

THE SONG OF LIFE

A big sorry in advance. This one is going to be a raw post.
Musicians who visit this should tell me in private if the terms note,piece,song and symphony are used correctly in the post.
But then, this post only goes out to say one thing.
I don't give a damn.

THE SONG OF LIFE


My life is but a musical piece,
It neither has these perfect notes,
Nor does it aim to have.


My life is but a musical piece
You can hear it if you want to,
But you can't change my song.


My life is but this unknown song
I love it, I live it
Care to dance along?


My life is but this unknown song
long and short, happy and sad, 
whose next note I don't know.


The world works as a symphony
Even Mozarts changed and played along


I don't waste my time thus. 
I prefer to be my own.


My life but is an unknown piece 
of pure music, of raw music.


My life is indeed a musical piece,
And therein lies my peace.


Can you hear it?

March 21, 2010

So, I was going back home from work early on the above mentioned date (that would be around 10 30 PM) since I had a flight to catch first thing in the morning. Flight? yes. To Bangalore. To attend IIMB interview on the 24th.  Yes, you heard it right... and yes, woo hoo.

So, I was going back home in a cab from Bandra to Borivali singing along with the "Uff, teri adaa" the driver had switched on. Little did I know what was in store for me at Andheri.

A couple on an old scooter thought they could cut a Mumbai Taxi at the base of the flyover. The one at Andheri (which flyover? the main one. No, the other one. Wait. Forget it. They all look the same to me...) The funny part was that they tried that out. The fun ended right about there. The Taxi, as one would expect, travels at a much higher speed than a twenty five year old Scooter model and this one, to add to its misery, was accelerating as it needed to climb the flyover. There was the scooter trying to move from its right to its left, but unfortunately ended up smack in the middle for the taxi to run over. The Taxi applied the extremely sudden brake, as I would call it, and averted that disaster. There was a Scorpio (I think) right behind the taxi whose driver had no idea what was going on.

BANG.

The taxi was near hurling itself towards the side wall of the flyover as the scooter couple watched in horror. The Scorpio which tried at the very last moment to move away, had hit one half of the taxi and had hence turned by 90 degrees and was moving in reverse towards the divider.

Are you asking where I was when this happened?

There was a second taxi right behind the Scorpio and I was occupying the front seat in that. Our driver was driving just as fast as the Scorpio and was so horror struck that he didn't step on the brakes. Our car missed the reversing Scorpio by inches. It was like going through a ring of fire, only infinitely more dangerous.

Inches... Even God wants me to live and study at IIMB, I think.

The question is: Will the evaluators want the same?

My day - march 16, 2010

The beginning was bad enough when I woke up thinking it was 7 in the morning.

It was 10. 30.

I didn't have a deadline at work (which would have been the case if I had been in my old job) but I had a courier to send to IIM Indore that should reach them within another 32 hours (came to know later that they extended it later). I found the number for BlueDart and called them up. 'No service to that pincode. No way' was the reply. 

Why wouldn't they have the damn IIM in a city?

A roommate, who was at work, told me about the DTDC shop at 10 minutes walking distance. 'Cool', I thought to myself. Can start a bit late... So, I completed that article I was writing...and oh, by the way, I don't work at IBM anymore. I work for www.holdingwilley.com . 

I started from home at around 12 30. My work for the day was between 4 PM and midnight. I thought it would be another beautiful day, and I couldn't have been more wrong, at least about that half of it.

It all started with the holiday for DTDC. How the hell was I going to send this application, then?

Me: "Post office nearby?"

vendor guy nearby: "First right, last left, end"

Nice. 

Walked past a residential colony and several dogs and finally got to the post office, which was, at one corner of a remote residential area. The time was a little over 1 PM.

The Post master (I guess) told me Speed Post doesn't cover that area and it'd go as a registered post from Indore City. 'It might take a couple of days, he said. I'd have gone to Indore personally had the institute not extended the date by 3 days. I laughed at myself gave him the docs to send.

PM: "Cover mein dhalo" (put it in a cover)

Me: "Ji. cover dhijiye..." (Give me one)

PM: "cover nahin hai. main road shop kuch se karidho" (Get it from some shop)

...and here I was, thinking that a post office would sell postal covers. Apparently, they didn't.

As I was leaving to get a cover, he motioned to the clock 

"time 1.15 hai. 1.30 thak hee ye counter open hai"

FML.

A wrong turn and three stationery shops later, I got one cover that did not look like a moi-panam cover. Filled up the details and reached the post office around 13 hours, 32 minutes, 40 secs. Yes, the counter was closed. After an argument, they accepted the post, probably because they couldn't bring themselves to listen to my Hindi.

I was so drained and hungry then, but I didn't want to eat. I was happy that the ordeal was over.

Yoda: "Fool, He was." (star wars stuff, if you don't get it)

I went to the railway station and while stepping down from the over-bridge on to my platform, phatak.

'Somebody had dropped something, poor fellow', I thought to myself. Yes, it was me.

My mobile phone wasn't in my hands anymore. It had fallen from that overbridge and I could see half of it down there on the platform. 

Yes. What ay day.

It took me two whole minutes to FIND all the pieces. Put everything together and tried to switch it on. Worked. Oh yea. \m/ I am a telecom Engineer. Hence proved. Broken, but works. (like KXIP)

Reached work at around three, ready to tear anything apart. A stupid day. That's all it was.

...

11 PM.

Balaji and Kemp ran through KKR. I was running around the room.

Stupid day? What Stupid day? I was happily dancing around the room at work. At least one colleague would have thought I was tipsy...though everyone knew I don't drink. 

Four words. "Balaji for BCCI prez!"
What a dive to stop that boundary! He is the Thala! 

managed to get a ride in a new-model Honda City that offered to drop me at Borivali. Oh yea. The new one. Reached Borivali (from Bandra) in around 12 to 15 minutes. 

U: "How far is that?"

Me: "30 km perhaps"

U: "How long does it take everyday to do that?"

Me: "80 to 120 minutes"

U: "Your best time before this?"

Me: "45 minutes"

U: " "

Me: "By train"

U: " "

Me: "Oh yeah"

It was great to travel at that speed. It was like taking revenge on the traffic that slowed me down on the other days. I was dancing to 'No more Lies' as I reached home to write this down.

U:" "

Nitrodamus: "oh, Cut the Crap!"

Sure.

-The End-

Hope against Hope

In my dream early this morning, in perhaps my best dream ever,
I was her every thought. I was her every thought.

I know it isn't possible in reality; she's in love with someone else...
No, no. Cruelly in love with the death of my soul without her own knowledge.

I have no hope. There is no hope,
but aren't these early morning dreams supposed to come true?

-
Aswin

Who am I?

The wall, once a pure shade of white,
Has slightly lost its colour with time. Or is it my eyes?

I feel out of sorts today,
as I wake up and see that I am alone.
The King of my own world,
The ruler of one.

I walk to the toothbrush,
O yes, I always start my day this way.
My steps aren't very coherent today, I see.
I don't care why.

As my face drowns in a handful of water,
A distant consciousness laughs at me.
Someone's having fun.

I pull myself back into this world,
I see myself now in the mirror in front of me.
Oh yes, there's a mirror in front of me.

This is not the tee I was wearing when I went to sleep.

Huh? This is not even mine.

Wait... This isn't even me.

-
Aswin

Religion. Finally...

NOTE: This post is not complete.

There are two topics running in my right now. One is the hopeless moronism that is Sachin-bashing, acknowledging which by itself makes me feel bad. The other topic is Religion.

Religion is a topic I've been carefully avoided in my blog all this while. I think it's time for the world to see my point of view after twenty-three plus years of keeping it to myself, but why in the world have I been trying to avoid it?

It creates divides. There, I said it. Sad but true. As far as I've seen and known, it has only created divides among the people, while the primary aim of any religion would and should be uniting people. A lot of Hindus still don't trust Muslims after all these years, while a lot of Muslims hate Hindus for some reason. Why is this so? Is the deed of one Muslim or Hindu enough to blame a religion? Why should anyone see anyone else as a person belonging to a particular religion anyway? Why not as an individual who has his own thoughts, feelings and whatever!

For every one person who understands Religion, there are a million who misunderstand it - Aswin, Year 2010 AD

I've been to oh so many temples, so many churches and a solitary mosque. They all say the same thing. All religions have at their heart Peace and Love. For it is that people are after when they turn to God.  The sad part is that, over the years, religions have been modified to suit our wants, needs and greeds. Working towards destroying/depopularising other religions, spreading hatred for other religions, claiming that followers of one religion / caste are superior to any other... my fellow humans, shame on you. Hinduism, which I follow at times, is beautiful. It is no more a religion than it is a way of living. It teaches you so much about life that you wonder if even one of all those right-wing religious fundamentalists who spread the message of hate have read even ONE line in the Vedas. Even hearsay, for that matter.

My request to all the seven readers of this blog (and the occasional random visitor from facebook or google search) is to understand religion. No, no. I am not saying 'Understand your religion'. Understand Religion. Any religion. All religion. It doesn't matter. You will find peace, love and happiness at the other end, even if you find that there is no such thing as Religion. You will find that every human is praying to the same God and you will learn to respect others for who they are (or at least have pity at their insecurity if you are an athiest). Learn to see the good in each of the religions, and the evil in them. The truth in them, and the lies that were added later. The movie 'Man from Earth' is a good example of what I am trying to say.

I don't give a damn if you're a Christian, Hindu, Muslim or from any of the many beautiful religions around the globe. If you're looking for peace and love for all humanity, you're my friend and I am your fan.

PS: Sorry if I'd hurt anyone in the process.Like I said, this is the topic that is most misunderstood in this world.

Answers for sample Cross kothu

Nobody seems to want to know the answers to the Bilingual cross kothu but here goes.

TREE and THEE are both valid answers for 4 Across.

If anyone reads this at all, let me know if you liked it.

Sigh.

How is you?

- A post by Nitrodamus, the 16th Century pre-incarnation of Aswin

Shame on the English world! I write this post in English, so that many of you can read this and understand what you have done to the language I once fought for against my own countrymen. In case you wonder where I am from, you haven't read many of Aswin's previous posts, have you? I wouldn't blame you, some of them are sick anyway. I am from this beautiful country we call France. I am a native speaker of the most beautiful language in the world, Francais. Some of you know it as French, and a few others as 'Frenchie'. I assure you, whoever came up with an idea to name undergarments 'Frenchie' must be from an old English royal lineage who wanted to wipe out Francais from this world. Aswin reminds me that is similar to the story of a recent movie, Aayirathil oruvan.

Francais is among the most beautiful of languages, but not among the most practical of them. English, on the other hand, along with Aswin's Thamizh, feature among the most practical of languages. 'How?', you may ask. To seal the argument with one statement, well, these are few languages that don't assign genders to things that cannot mingle or reproduce on their own. Fairly practical? I don't see any point in thinking that a house is feminine. Except a few jokes, of course.

The purpose of this post, going back to the first line ('Shame on the English world'), is how people nowadays follow the language religiously and not practically, taking away the entire charm! If you love English, you might know the difference between the statements 'How is you' and 'How are you'. No, the first one is not wrong! That is how you should address one person in front of you, of course when he's not the Emperor. Not 'How are you'! It is most impractical to do so. By reading or hearing a query or a statement, at least in the present tense, one should be able to guess how many people that statement is addressed to. 'How are you' and other uses of the contemporary 'you' give us nothing!

Think about it. Did you even ask your teacher why this is so? Or did you just accept what was thrown at you?

Ah, the shame.

Bilingual crossword - Crosskothu

Well, I tried something new (yes?).

All clues will be in one language while the answers will be in another. Here, the languages are Thamizh and english respectively, and hence called a cross-kothu.

Planning to do a full series soon :) Well, get cracking!

(click on pic for bigger view)

Goa - Movie Review - It's awesome!

First day : night show  : Fame @ Forum value mall.

Staying true to my earlier promise, here I am, reviewing Goa. Venkat Prabhu, on the other hand, stayed true to his 'holiday' promise and gives us the laugh riot, Goa. To begin with, Goa is not totally unpredictable, logically perfect or incredibly funny throughout. It comes close to being the third, though. 

The movie rolls on from start to end without any sense of purpose. It has a weak storyline, some songs (the rural ones) that alone would have bombed the movie even if it had been released back in 1975 and some sloppy editing at times. In spite of all this and more, the movie manages to keep you glued to the screen through out. It's a holiday after all, leave your thinking cap behind to enjoy the fun ride!

In case you are misled by a few negative points, let me put it straight : 'I loved the movie'.

*Watch the movie before reading this if you can! and oh, not one to watch with your parents or kids, I'd say.*

The story begins in Pannaipuram, a remote village near Theni where Jai (Vinayakam), Premgi (saamikannu, the child of God) and Vaibhav (ramarajan, awesome 'naagrithinna' moments :D) are rebuked by the Panchayat for trying to leave the village during the amman koil festival time. They are barred from talking to each other, and they run off to Madurai. Jai and Vaibhav ask Premgi to bring as much money as possible from the temple hundi as they'll be away for at least ten days and Premgi takes all the deity's jewels.No way to get back to the village now! Jai's friend in Madurai, Azhagarsamy, marries a foreigner he met at Goa and plans to settle in London, which pushes the three heroes to keep the same as an aim in life. Thus the journey begins...

Just as they are about to quit after getting beaten up in Goa, they meet Jack in the beaches of Goa who offers them discounted stay at his resort as they are from TN. There, the three get mesmerised by the parties and liquor and parties and dope, while Jai is also mesmerized by Piaa (who wouldn't?) and Vaibhav, by Sneha. Premgi is also in love, with Melanie (again, who wouldn't?), whom he met at Azhagarsamy's wedding and who is also in Goa, as fate would have it. How Vaibhav escapes from Sneha and how the rest of them end up with their pair forms the rest the movie.

All the actors did their roles neatly. This is Jai's funniest role so far. Never thought I'd like his role the best with so many other more-talented-at-comedy actors, but yes, his English was the highlight of the movie. Vaibhav almost steals the show in the last few scenes with his long kept secret coming out ('build up paniye vaazhnduten da'). Premgi is at his best, as usual. Special mention should go out to Sampath. Once you see the movie, you'll know that his role can't be more of a contrast from his role in Saroja. Music turns out to be one of the weaker parts of Goa. I liked just the theme song when I heard the album first. If you'd built any expectations around it, you are in for a disappointment. 'Idhu varai...' (sung by Ajeesh and Andrea) on the other hand turns out to be the best song of the movie, what with Piaa rendering it. She does enough to remain in the audience's mind long after the movie is over. Speaking for myself, I could have watched 'idu varai' for 150 minutes straight! I've been hearing only that song since morning and... *floats into a dream* Where was I? Yea, even Premgi agrees we should miss the other songs.

Melanie is an awesome find. Looks gorgeous and does her job very well. Hollywood material. If not yet, soon! Ravi comes in urm.. ten roles, perhaps? I, for one, was misled many times into thinking that the same guy is everywhere, while actually he was playing different roles, or so I believe. This could have been avoided. Were they short of actors? And the song for the opening credits was another set piece that was totally unnecessary. People walking into movie halls ten minutes after the show begins wouldn't miss a thing. Showing the funnier side of villages through that song would have been more VenkatPrabhu-ish. The village sequences were very elaborate that things were moving very slowly in the beginning. In the second half, the reconcilation scene between Jack and Danny should have been either emotional or funny...but it turned out to be neither. Simbu's guest appearence was a pleasant surprise...and oh, how the girls would fall that easily for the three heroes is one question you shouldn't ask yourself during the movie.

Forget Saroja, forget logic, sit back and laugh through the movie. 'Six pack coming soon', the photos at Jack&Danny's and Azhagar's places, 'Saamikannu kannu Saami kannu kuthufied. coming soon, coming soon.', 'Yea, they are my country', the totally awesomely awesome fight sequence for Premgi, 'You are the very beautiful, I disturbed. I am very beautiful. You disturbed?','sardarji, kya bolte ko kuch ne ko goa ka kitna ka time?' and many more ROFL moments made my day.

Thanks to the team behind the movie, I had a great holiday! ...and so will all its other viewers.


Box office predictions:
This movie is capable of earning much more than Aayirathil Oruvan. Hope it solves producer Soundarya rajinikanth's (seo, seo ;) ) financial woes that have been in the news lately. verdict: Hit to Super Hit.

PS: I don't remember all the parts from the movie exactly. There were too many good scenes in the movie that I am bound to miss highlighting a lot of them. Readers (if any), do share your favourite scene from this movie. Each one will have one!

A belated eulogy

Why did you have to leave so soon?

You stood by me as a brother,
though you didn't gain anything but my respect from it.
You taught me like a teacher,
holding my hand strongly and leading me from the dark.

You didn't know where I came from.
You didn't care.
 I'll never know why you had to leave
Leaving us all to grieve.


You smiled more when we were happy.
You took great pains to make us that.
There's nothing I want more than your coming back,
There's no wealth I can treasure more.

Thank you for being such a great friend, Guru.
You loved me more than I could ever love anyone.
Hope heaven's good enough for you.

Take care.

PS: If you've lost someone you never wanted to let go for life, you'd probably understand all the unsaid words.

Indian Premier League 3 - Lalit Modi and the Pakistani advertisement

All the rumour mills say the same thing. "Lalit Modi's brilliant masterstroke of threatening the franchises not to hire Pakistani players paid off. It's all the ad he needs." Could this be true, we wondered?

At first, we met a furious Afridi. "I am the man", he told us a while ago, "I single-handedly lifted the 20-20 world cup for Pakistan and these guys are insulting me and my nation!" When he asked us if 'single-handedly' was a single word, we realised he was paid for every word he said, by someone. Any guesses?

We caught up with the Chairman, Lalit Modi, at his sprawling mansion in Karachi to see if all these rumours of Ignore-Pakistan being a big advertisement held any water. "Nonsense", he dismissed it in one word, "Even the current Australian team had no takers, did you know? Now you'd say they protested against the Australian govt for the alleged racist attacks?" While we gave it a thought, he followed it up with a quieter, "My! How did I miss this one?"

Then we met this author's ex girlfriend and Punjab franchise's owner Preity at her house, to ask her the most intriguing question of the lot, "Why Kaif?" She asked the reporters to send her love to this author before saying with a smile,"We have a funny guy in our team who drops catches, irritates us to no extent and manages to get slapped by members of the opposing team before our boys could get their hands on him. Kaif is a good fielder, they say. So we plan to keep him around Appam so that he can catch every ball Appam drops." An intelligent reporter retorted, "Why wouldn't you just drop (from the team) the guy who drops catches?" Preity's reply was instant. "Where's the fun, then? Moreover, Lalitji pays us big time for every game he plays."

In another related incident, Sohail Tanvir came to our office and demanded that his interview be taken. We started with, "Well, you, along with Kamran Akmal, let Rajasthan Royals rot in hell last season. If you weren't political, you should have probably given up your citizenship for the game. Why didn't you? Weren't the Royals cheated then? They were pathetic, we say. Did they claim any compensation from you?" He said a forty 'erm...'s but is yet to answer us.


- The Fakking news team

Note: Every line in this post that precedes this line is obviously fictional. On a serious note, if there was even the slightest possibility that a player may not be able to participate in the tournament, I wouldn't pick him. Accusing a govt for this is utter idiocy. I am not sure if any Government would rather hatch a conspiracy in a sports tournament cum fashion parade, when it has poverty, terrorism, economic depressions and an Hon minister of state for external affairs to deal with. Ridiculous, yes? Boy, reality's funnier than fake news.

The Great three

Why was this blog named 'thegreatthree'?

To be honest, I forgot why. It was a long time back, and I remember I tried 'thegreatone' first which wasn't available.

Urm, maybe this is why I settled for three.

Aayirathil Oruvan ( 2010 ) - Film review

Aayirathil Oruvan is a near three hour journey that shows us what we've lost / gained in the last eight centuries. An original script woven around a lost Chola legacy, this film easily manages to keep the viewers glued to their seats for most of its running time. Director Selvaraghavan unravels the story at a perfect pace through the first half, while things get a little slow at times in the second.

*Spoilers ahead, heaps of them*

Aayirathil Oruvan is an extremely audacious attempt by the Producer and the Director to mix commercial cinema with the artistic. It wouldn't have been daring, had it not been this brutal; because in that case, it would have been a runaway blockbuster. The story begins in 1279 AD with a prophecy, that a man will come, eight centuries later, to relieve the troubles of a civilization cut off from the rest of the world. Cut back to present day, archaeologist Prathap Pothan gets lost in his search for the lost kingdom near Ming hua island close to Vietnam. An expedition is arranged by a Union minister to go there and see what is going on. Initially, you might wonder why he should allot so much of time and money for this. Anyway, Reema Sen heads the expedition which also includes Azhagamperumal, few armymen under him, archaeologist Andrea and a band of coolies under Karthi, the MGR fan. While the story is as serious and magical as it can get with all the traps put in place by the Cholas (well, almost all) like cannibals, warriors, jellyfish, a million snakes etc, Karthi plays a very vital role keeping things believeable to an extent with all his antics, like "Paatha vudanaye mudivu paniten, ungala than kalyanam panippen nu..." and "Onnu pesave matengudu. Onnu over ah pesudu." that has the theatre in splits.

The real story unravels in the second half, when Karthi, Andrea and Reema reach the lost village only to discover that the civilization is not destroyed yet. The last of the Cholas live in dark caves under their king, Parthiban.It is most unusual to see Parthiban portray such a serious role, sticking to the original script, and he pulls it off brilliantly. This is where we are shown that Reema Sen is actually a Pandiya royal who is here to retrieve the statue of their goddess. What she didn't expect was the existence of Cholas under such circumstances. How she betrays the Cholas and tries to lead them to their doom and why Karthi is one in a thousand (ada, Ayirathil Oruvan) forms the rest of the story. Don't take the 'A' certificate lightly and walk in with your family / children. You will regret it. There is too much of open eroticism, blood and violence of all forms.Hope Selvaraghavan realizes that brutality is not an essential part of movie making when he makes the Second part of the movie.



Everyone (technician to actor) excels in the battle scene and Karthi shines in the gladiator-ish scene. That was awesome inspite of below average CGI. Coming to think of it, the graphics were all a little weak and meek throughout the film with a camel, in graphics, last seen near Super Mario, being the height of it. Graphics were from a lost generation too. Sigh. The songs did not fit in perfectly; only the Cholan ecstasy and 'Un mela aasa thaan' were picturized well. 'Oh Eesa' was a let-down.

The director not only shows us how brilliant movies can get through Aayiratil Oruvan, but also shows us how psychologically screwed up they can get with a 'depicting reality' tag. People were squirming uneasily in their seats for the last fifteen to twenty minutes. Almost hated that part of the movie. The Indian Army is shown in such a poor light, which could and should have been avoided. Reema Sen gets a role of her lifetime and Andrea just had to look cute (bigger role in the second part, maybe?).

If you're over eighteen and you don't throw up on extremely brutal exploitation of women, free flowing blood and loads of decapitations, you should probably give this one a try for Reema, Karthi, Parthiban and the Producer.

Vinnai thaandi varuvaaya - Music review :)

"Best thamizh album ever" says another review. I strongly disagree. There are so many ARR albums that are better, at least yet. These songs do grow on you.

Aaoromale:
Good. Growing on me. But seriously, if you are alcoholic, you are in for a great (positive) surprise. It's range and highs and lows are just so intoxicating. One negative is that you don't understand a thing, save a few words in between. Malayalam + Sanskrit. Great on headphones; not so great on speakers, if you have elders at home :) Will this song be on my top ten at least for a while? Yes! Will this remain a Rahman-trademark for years to come? Not so much, me thinks. Alphonse, the singer, has an amazing range, doesn't he?

Anbil Avan:
Easily the best of the lot to me (as of now). Amazing flow, the likes of which I don't hear everyday. It has two names written all over it. Rahman, of course and Thamarai. Typical lyrics which everyone can understand, with shades of brilliance, like "Nee vaanavil aaga, aval vannam yezhaga, andha vaanam veedaaga maaradho, maaradho..." and some average stuff like "Bhoomi vaanam kaatru.. theeyai neeraai maatru..". What's the relation between these lines except for the fact that they rhyme? And Devan thinks it's 'neerai', while I have a feeling it was intended to be 'neeraai'. The lyrics could not have been any better at places but SURE could have been better at some other places. The thing is that the music makes up for any such negativity. I wonder if Devan & Chinmayi danced while singing this? All this song needs is a great video to topple every other song that competes for the No.1 spot on the charts.

Hosanna:
Clearly the favourite of many. All I have been wondering about this song is how ARR fit all of it in 5 minutes and 30 seconds. A perfect song and a near perfect match of lyrics and the music. Vijay Prakash and Blaaze have added to its beauty. You can be sure this one will be ARR's signature song of the album, remembered for a long long time to come, though not as the best song ever, to answer some people who believe it will be.


Kannukkul Kannai:
Not sure why no one mentioned this as their favorite song. This has lyrics that go with the music perfectly ('un nanbanillai' need not have been repeated twice. something else could have been used there. No other negatives. Strictly speaking, it's difficult to come up with lyrics for this song), some decent-paced amazing music, enough to move your head left and right as you listen to it on your earphones. If it has a great video (which you can safely expect from Gautham Menon), this will be a chartbuster for sure.


Mannipaaya:
It will not be anyone's favorite, but a good one nevertheless. It is a giant by 'industry standards' (:P), but a dwarf in front of its siblings nevertheless. The BGM in this song is near-magical, and the song and the words just kinda aid it.

Omana pennae:
Initially, I didn't know if it was 'omana' or 'oh mana'. :) Good to listen to. Nothing great about this coming from ARR. From another music director, it might be among his best. In ARR's stable, this is among his average stuff.

Vinnai thaandi varuvayaa:
I think a majority of the songs in this movie would just run in the background. This is number 1 on that doubt list. I think this is another average song, but a lot of people I know say this is their favorite from the movie. No idea why/how.

I can't wait to watch the movie. Never thought I'd so expect a Silambarasan movie, but here I am. Everyone's talking about the complete awesomeness of Trisha's and Simbu's looks. Add to it Gautham Vasudev Menon. Sigh. If not for any of the above, I'd watch it at least to see how all these songs fit in. Why does no other album from any other music director generate this enthusiasm in me?

Add your review in the comments section.

---
Disclaimer:

I am not qualified to criticize the experts behind the effort that went into making this album. This is just a layman's point of view, about what I like and dislike :)
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What should we show fellow humans - Apathy or Sympathy?

Surely we say Sympathy?? But we just SAY it. Where is the action?? The most recent and blatant example of our apathetic attitude is the hacking to death of a Sub-Inspector in public in Southern Thamizhnadu. There is all this hype and hoopla around it because two ministers didn't help the dying officer. What the heck were the thirty plus people around him doing? How cruel can a videographer be to cover the last minutes of a man when he could have helped? Surely he went in a four wheeler to take all his equipments? Surely at least one of the so many people in the ministerial convoy could have come forward? vehicles galore, none coming forward to help. Try all of them in court. They deserve punishment. The ministers only showed us what the rest of us are filled with.

You go to a post office, police station, meet a minister, MLA or any govt official. Chances are that they will act rude to you. You may wonder, "They are here to serve us!" Look at this video of the hacked SI. Do you think that we, as a society, deserve great officials? Heck no. I'd help that man on the road even if he was the cruelest person on earth. That's a man pleading for help, dammit! Just imagine, if the public had saved his life, what kind of a dedicated citizen we would have had in SI Mr.Vetrivel. It could have even brought about a paramount change in the way policemen see the public. Heck, as a society, our soul is filled with apathy and selfishness and we know it.

If you had read this post of mine, you'd know how pissed off I was at the people who refused to help a bunch of us when we decided to help during an accident.

No, you don't need to give alms to every beggar you see (in fact, you shouldn't. Begging is a crime.) You don't need to help every helpless homeless child you see on the street (but it's a good thing to do though). You don't have to pick every garbage on the street and put it in the nearest dustbin. You don't have to vote if you don't see anyone worthy. You don't have to stop taking / giving bribes. But puhleeeez, a dying person needs help. Wherever, whenever you see people in grave danger, remember, there is always a way to help them out.  You might think it will spoil your vehicle, mood, festive spirit, ruin your official meeting, daily routine bla bla bla, and you might even end up in the police station for something you were not even involved in. All that gives you a bad feeling, yes. But the good feeling you get out of helping that person in whatever way you did, outweighs almost every other feeling on earth. Believe it or not, that day(same link as above :D), I was feeling on top of the universe. I even wondered if that is how a mom would feel on giving birth to a child. Seriously, I may not be that much of a social being or a hero or anything close to that, but I know I am a human being...especially when it matters.

SI Vetrivel should not have become a policeman. May his soul rest in peace. Nobody who sees this event will ever have the desire to serve the people who would, ironically, only watch them die.

Shame. Better die than to live selfishly like this.

PS: The event also shows us how well the Mafia are protected to even hack a policeman to death, but that is another story.

Avatar 3D - case filed?

Rumours galore that a case has been filed against James Cameron's Avatar in Chennai High court, by veteran South Indian actor Nasser. Our imaginary news crew hounded the actor's place to know more about this issue, and guess what we found? It wasn't just a rumour! "Is it because of the name?", we asked. Nasser had released a movie under a similar name, "Avathaaram" in 1995 with himself as the lead. "Name? Are you kidding me? This is a god damn remake and I wasn't even credited, leave alone paid!", he said. One of our reporters who saw the movie today told him there was not even one matching scene. "That is their masterstroke, but I saw through it!", he said. Looking at our bewildered faces, he explained, "They changed every scene in the movie just to stop me from filing a case. Heck, they even changed the music, but ho ho ho, they don't know what's coming at them." Our follow up question, "Does that not make it a ...er... different movie?" went unanswered.

There is another issue related to Avatar in Chennai High Court. Our Special reporter Sreevatsan reports that James Cameron is trying to create a religious divide through this movie and a case has been filed in this regard. "If you look at Jake closely, you will notice a 'naamam' on his forehead.originating from his nose", he explains."Jake is actually an Iyengar, probably with original name Jayakrishna Sudhindra Iyengar. James Cameron shortened it to Jake to get worldwide acceptance". While the South Indian Iyengars association are happy with the portrayal of a world changer as an Iyengar, secularists are angry with this. "We will all boycott the movie to show our protest in addition to filing this case.", a person who did not want to be named told us.

Avatar is a 3D movie released worldwide by James Cameron and Jon Landau. While our editorial team found it was a decent entertainer with nothing out of the ordinary (3D, was it? What was the difference apart from falling flakes and some plants closer to you than in 2D?), we find it surprising that people in Chennai have slapped two cases against the movie in such a short time. Is this becoming a trend? We asked one of the imaginary lawyers at the Chennai High Court. "You see people need cases to survive in this industry, just like you need clients in your IT. What's service industry if you have nothing to do? Competition boss, Competition." "Why shouldn't lawyers follow IT in other areas, like freeing up defect backlogs for instance? There are so many cases pending in the courts for years!", we asked. "What do we do if the case closes? You guys keep extending your dates with the client. Why shouldn't we?" Since the lawyers were bent only on comparing themselves to IT field rather than answering our queries, we decided not to proceed on that front.

More news on this info will find its way to this blog as and when we create ...oops... get to know it.

- Fakking news 24x7


(Message from the team: Extra k to differentiate ourselves from Faking news and for no other particular reason. We even fake fake, tee hee. (No reaction) Te he. (Still no reaction) He?)


Note: Everything mentioned in this post is totally fictitious. I know there are so many references to real life persons, but try taking things in a lighter sense plz. Not my intention to hurt anyone.

My top seven Timepass games on the internet - 2009 :)

This is a strange list. This will not include your Call of Duty, nor will it be about FIFA 09. This list is about the games I got introduced to and played in 2009 on the internet.

Note: The list does not include Farmville simply because I didn't use that app.

7. Stick cricket at stickcricket.com
The flash game just got better. Not sure how long the site has been in existence, but I loved the feel of stick cricket / stick tennis and enjoyed every minute of it this year. Very avid fans can register on the site and unlock some exclusive features. It didn't impress me enough to do that, though.

There are several modes of play on the site. The biggest timepass is the world domination which includes twenty over slog to beat sixteen teams from Bermuda to India. Next to that, we have the T2 tournament, where you strive to meet 2-over targets to lift the cup. We have this site at Position 7.

6. Kings of chaos ( kingsofchaos.com )
This is by far one of the coolest MMORPG games on the internet. Most people cannot understand how you can play a game with only textboxes and buttons on the screen. All I can say is, try it out. Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs or the Undead...which one will you be?

5. Gravity Master 
Law of Gravity couldn't be taught in a better way. Learnt more about shapes, lines and physics in general from this game. Completed this game in a little over two hours but played this about ten times this year and referred this to all my friends.

Say hello to scientific gaming! :)

4. Mafia wars
This facebook/myspace app was the advanced version of kings of chaos. Winner of 2009 Webby awards, this game, along with Farmville/Yoville/Poker, has firmly established Zynga as a leader / pioneer in the industry of sorts.

Well, I was addicted enough to this to reach Level 158 in this. Got bored of it finally in December and it's just there now. I don't play this anymore.

3. Galacticos Football on Facebook
I've been on this for twelve days now and I think this is enough of a genius to get to number three. This game answers all my longterm queries on how to create a simple yet effective Football Manager game. It will get boring in a matter of days though, but till then, kick on.

Questions arise on how Maxi Rodriguez could possibly be called the worst Striker and on some other decisions taken by the dev team, but heck, who cares?

2. Chesscube (chesscube.com)

Probably the best site to play chess online. Nothing more, nothing less. The Checkmate post will tell you how much I'm loving it! A facebook app is also coming up. Things are getting a lot more interesting in 2010.

I hereby announce that the 2009 Aswin's award for the best 'free' online game goes to Chess Cube! But wait, there's still position one, no?

1. The Battle for Wesnoth from wesnoth.org
 The best thing about Linux is that most of the games on it are free! Battle for Wesnoth is one of the coolest turn based strategy games in recent gaming history. Playing it online with or against fellow humans is a dream-come-true for people like me. This is the best PC game that I played in 2009. Elven brethren, Dwarves of the mountains, Humans of Wesnoth, Orcs of everywhere and the Undead make turn based games a lot cooler than before. The last game I played in this genre that got any close was Pericles (a demo) that dates back to 1999, me thinks. If there's a downside to this game, well, it needs Linux and you have to install this game while the rest of the games in this list are all playable online. Hence, BoW does not get the award for this year, though it does rank at the very top in the poll conducted among 23 year old Software engineers.

The king of all free games

Whew, Here's 2010 and I wish I spend some more time without my PC / TP on weekends. :)

Antigonish

"Antigonish" is a poem by American educator and poet Hughes Mearns, used in the neat thriller, Identity. The first four lines of Antigonish haunted me for days. Came across these lines again yesterday in a blog and couldn't resist putting them here.


Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away...


Yea, I know. Awesome's the word.

Check mate

I will always be proud of this win :)

The book that might not be published

I watched Fulham beat ManU three goals to zero and ran around the room in delight at the six point lead Chelsea can now have if they don't do anything silly against the Hammers. The bigger lead it is now, the more points we can afford to give away during the African Cup of nations. Chelsea without Essien or Drogba...*Shudders*

Wait a minute. That was for the other blog.

This is about one of the 'book-things' I write which no lab-rat-reader seems to understand. "The first two chapters were very funny, dude. After that, ...er... I didn't get most of what's written. It was kind of sad and exhaustive. Maybe you should lighten it up a little. That's where the stage is set for a thriller, right?"

Normal feedback, no?
No.

The first two chapters were not supposed to be funny. The rest of them were.


Sigh.
( Locks himself in room and thinks about his future as an author. *Shudders* )

Arsenal - Chelsea : Clash of the titans.

Live text and updates here.

Oh... My... God !

I will begin by defining the word "Nitro-damn" - Any saying from the legendary Nitrodamus that wishes harm upon anyone else's feelings. I came across a few such nitrodamns which I intend to share with you in the near future.

So, I really got bored watching movies during this vacation that I started a poll. "Which FRIENDS character do I resemble the most?" with a single intention. To blog. I had just recently concluded my first ever viewing of all ten seasons of the series in order and loved it. So, came up with this poll just to see what people would say so that I can write about it. Ash de Notre-dames (the above mentioned Nitrodamus, if you are part of the majority who didn't read this) mentioned something about a funny-dumb-poll in his book "Prophecies? Do you care?" (Available in black market for a hundred bucks!) I am not sure if he was referring to this poll or the voting they might do before giving the Nobel Peace Prize, but I have my theories.

I believed that the outcome would be so heroically Joey that I could start this post with "How you doin'?"
It didn't turn out that way, though. Without much ado, the results!

Character  Votes  Percentage
---------    -----   ----------
Chandler    22.5      80.35%
Ross          2.5         8.93%
Gunther     1             3.57%
Mike         1             3.57%
Joey          1             3.57%


To begin with, most 'Chandler' voters confirmed that their choice was based only on the asocialness of his character and 'the way he speaks' (Note: Nothing else). Some went great lengths to assure me that they chose Chandler only because the question was framed in such a way that they had to choose the closest character, however far that may be. The sadder part is that I've hardly spoken to the only person who voted ~Joey~ (a super senior of mine from college).

Two votes were not counted in this exercise. One voted for a 'feebee' because it was the only character he knew. :) The other vote was for Cassius, whoever that may be! (Yes, that was Poochi's vote). One interesting observation is that the two girls who participated in this survey accounted for 1.5 votes for Ross and the other Ross vote was from a guy who talks to girls twenty seven hours in a day, and hence subject to taking girly decisions. Interesting, no? Girls believe I am the geek who can't flirt. Got to admit, I should have known I had that coming.


Anyway, Looking forward to Monica! :)


PS: Chandler's supposed to want to be like Joey, no?

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

Dan Brown comes up with a winner, for once. Much as I have not liked the Da Vinci Code because whatever Dan Brown's own thoughts there with Robert Langdon and Sophie made up a near pathetic storyline, I tend to agree that his style and importance to HIS original work (rather than an account of researched history) has improved vastly in the Lost Symbol.

Before you get any ideas, let me tell you that this is not a book that-you-don't-put-down-till-it's-over. I didn't do it in one read. Heck, even TV serials proved more interesting sometime in the middle. I only say that this is much better than the rest of his books; Angels & Demons included. If those could manage to sell themselves, this baby sure can!

This look into the world of Masons from a third person's point of view works wonders at times. If only Dan Brown had realised that there was no need for him to create a build-up before coming up with a Scientist's name, the book would have been much better. Considering there are references to so many scientists, there is no point in explaining all their achievements, stories behind them and their link to the Masons before giving out their name. This was not only so stupid that I skipped most of it, but also irritating. Though it is easier to make a twelve hour event more dramatic and interesting compared to tales of whole lives, the book drags on at times.


Still, the book manages to retain its 'Utterly predictable' tag. (Spoiler ahead, duh !) Except for the fact that Inmate 37 is Zachary, there is nothing else you can't predict twenty pages earlier. Even in that case, it doesn't make any damn difference, except to aid a ridiculous part of the story.

What I like about this book is the part about 'One True God' and yeah, the last word (not Lost. Last). Hope; good messages by any religious / non-religious standards. This would make one great movie! It was a good account of History, many parts of which I didn't know and my introduction to Noetic Sciences. I'll start reading up on that for sure.

Overall, if you have any expectations at all from this book, you'll only end up thinking it's not entirely a waste of your time. If you haven't read or heard anything about Freemasonry before, you might even end up loving this.

Of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid...

Many people I talk to have an automatic assumption that my favorite Indian batsman ever is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Through this post, I say, 'No'.

If you'd see this blog, apart from that post on IPL, I have mentioned Cricket in only two other posts. Dravid-1 and Dravid-2. That will say it all.

Players like Sachin have become great because of a natural cricketing talent. No doubt he is among the greatest batsman in the history of the game, what with the drives and flicks in which the ball miraculously gains speed on its way to the boundary and a million other shots and records. The blistering 175, which under anyone else's name would be his personal best, was just another century in Sachin's cupboard.

Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh have been great too. They are amazingly stylish players who can wreck any bowling combination on their day; like a Kraken set on a merchant ship. Oh, I forgot. I am not writing this to talk about them. ( Just a special mention for Dada ) :P

Dravid, on the other hand, is where he is because of the passion and hardwork he puts in to his game. He's definitely not as much of a natural talent as the others are, but the hard work he put in to create the Wall that has been totally impenetrable over the years shows his passion, attitude and dedication. 'I want to play Cricket for life. I want to be the best in that.' is an attitude not many people in the side have. He is probably the only Indian cricketer who has had no problems with the short deliveries (any deliveries for that matter). :) In fact, very few people around the world have gone about their dream with a determination Rahul has shown. All of Jammy's shots are well practiced, right out of the textbook, with insane amounts of hard work behind them.



I've always had this feeling that Cricket fans in India have never been as supportive of Rahul as they've been about Sachin or Sourav, despite the fact that he has had greater successes at more crucial times for India. "He is too slow. Not at all the guy for ODI cricket.", "He is getting old and very slow. New faces like Yuvraj should get into the test side instead." "Useless player. Mattaya potu savadipaan". You sure must have heard statements like these from the same people who are currently cheering him for his amazing 177 that saved us from yet another collapse. Nobody questioned the decisions to drop Dravid from the Indian squad repeatedly. Remember the Bengal outcry for Ganguly? Sachin, despite poor performances at times, could never be treated like Dravid. That'll be the end of the Selectors' selecting days.

The cycle
Dravid misses out on a few innings.
He's dropped with a belief that the rest can pull India through.
We start collapsing slowly and steadily.
Selectors have no other option. They get him back.
He delivers.
History repeats itself.

I can't say he won us more matches than anyone else in his generation. That is probably not true. But he has definitely saved us from many more humiliating defeats than anyone else I know.

Every time I see him play, I get a feeling that in life, you don't have to do what you are naturally fit for. There will always be obstacles, like that Mervyn Dillon delivery in a Windies tour. Should that stop him from going on to hit an amazing century? No! If you want to be something, keep that as a goal; plan it and put in the effort. There's no way you will fail.

Rahul Sharad Dravid. He will always remain my personal favourite.

(Pic: Linked to wikipedia)

PS: Added this amazing article about RS Dravid.

The Man from Earth (2007)

This movie explores the possibility of a man who could live forever, and is very cleverly put forward. The writer should be commended for the research he undertook in coming up with this.

A goodbye party for Professor John Oldman turns into a discussion that explores the possibility of a man who could live for 14000 years. John Oldman, played by David Lee Smith (who, by the way, looks exactly like Robert de Niro), claims he is over 14k years old. He puts forward his case to a gathering, which has a biologist, historians, a student of history (played by a very beautiful Alexis Thorpe - who resembles Emma Watson, only more good looking), a very devout christian woman and a psychologist. It is fun to see that despite their best efforts, no one is able to disprove his case.

Whether he really is the man from the past (who is also Jesus Christ) or just a plain liar is revealed near the end of the movie. Though no scientific queries are answered in the movie, it sure raises a lot of questions. A refreshingly good watch.

2012 - Worst movie to be classified under Science fiction

This post resonates the feeling of movie-goers worldwide.

One of the movies many looked forward to, 2012 did not just tell us about the disasters predicted by the Mayans. It was a disaster all by itself, big time! I do not know why they had to waste some of the best special effects in Hollywood on a movie so flimsy.

Right from the word go, this was a totally unbelievable movie. I am not talking about the 2012 prophecy. I am talking about the luck some characters in the movie have, especially John Cusack, as he dodges earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and any other catastrophe-in-waiting with equal ease, putting Harry Potter and James Bond to shame.

15 minutes or so into the movie, as L.A caves in to a mammoth earthquake, John Cusack is always one second ahead of the caving earth till he comes to a falling flyover. The whole bridge collapses and he is able to drive under it, escaping by a millionth of a second. Seems no one else in the whole of LA can match his driving skills. Again, the person from whom John gets a plane conveniently dies, allowing John to fly out of LA with his family, taking off from the last stretch of land in the whole city, the runway. Oh, did I mention the collapsing building into which John crashes his car through the window, drives through the office floor, flies through the window and lands on the other side of the building unscathed? With someone so talented, we don't need Superman.

I won't go into further details, but I'll just say it gets even worse from there. At the end of the movie, I felt so bad that even the brilliant special effects didn't convince me it wasn't a complete waste of time.

The gang I went with was the only source of entertainment that evening.

Lifting Music

Music directors from the Tamil Film Industry have always been respected around the world.

Musicians around the world, from Hungary to USA, have wondered at the Maestro's ability to breathe music. People adore AR Rahman for his unparallelled talent. There may have been instances where even these two greats have been accused of lifting music from somewhere else, but we can never be sure they did it. Personally, I think that it must have been a damn coincidence, because they don't need to do that. Anything off the top of their head would top the charts.

However, it is in the same industry that there are music directors who lift most of their songs from other languages (mostly English) and at times, even old Tamil songs. The worst part is, some of them are celebrated as great music directors. How can 'All Rise' with Tamil lyrics in Unnale Unnale be allowed to top the charts? heck I could even hear 'I rest my case' as such in the tamil version. Hearing such songs from someone as respected as Harris Jeyaraj, I wonder if the title song of the film, which, incidentally, is among my favorites, is also a rip-off of some other song. Whatever, I could only thank him for bringing that song to me which I may not have heard otherwise. Devi Sri Prasad is another music director I am thankful to. The question is, do such songs deserve the 'Song of the year' award?!

Now, what prompted this post??

So I've always liked Karthik Raja's music a lot. This morning, I heard 'Listen with your Heart' from Pocahontas (check it out, a part of it is on Youtube) and understood where he got his best ever song from.

Sigh.

Siragugal ’09 – an inter children’s home Talent Carnival - posted on behalf of Bhumi

This is the press release for the event, Please pass it on to your friends in the media.



14 November 2009
Siragugal ’09 – an inter children’s home Talent Carnival

Bhumi is a non-profit organisation with the primary objective of providing supplementary education to children from orphanages, slums and rural community centres. Young, energetic volunteers with the will to change today and the vision to change tomorrow teach English, Maths, Science and Computer Science for two hours every weekend.

This November, Bhumi is organising an inter children’s homes cultural and science exhibition, Siragugal ’09. This annual fest for children is a platform to exhibit their talents, compete against their peers, help them gain from the exposure, and thus doing a world of good to their confidence and holistic development.

875 children from 30 children’s home spread across Chennai and its areas like Avadi, Villivakkam, Chengalpattu, Nungambakkam, Gumudipoondi, Redhills, Mugalivakkam, Vyasarpadi, Kancheepuram will be participating in this Talent Carnival. An array of competitive activities has been structured for various age groups to ensure complete participation. These include Dance (Solo / Group), Song (Solo / Group), Pot Painting, Mimicry – Monoact, Soap Carving, Rangoli, Drawing – Painting, Adaptunes, Elocution, Skit, Essay and Poetry.

The event is not only supported by Outreach (the Corporate Social Responsibility wing of Cognizant Technological Solutions) and Sneham (the Corporate Social Responsibility wing of Infosys) over the last week hundreds of employees of leading Multi-National Companies like Cognizant, HCL, TCS, Emerson, Orchid Pharmaceuticals, Lyca tech., L&T have pooled in with small contributions helping raise Rs. 1 lakh for the event.

In order to manage the activities and the event effectively, volunteers from Outreach, Sneham, Chinmaya Organization of Rural Development (CORD), M.O.P Vaishnav college for women, Guindy Engineering, The Indian Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR) will be working with Bhumians on the day of the Carnival.

Date: Nov 15, 2009
Place: Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kilpauk (Chennai)
Inauguration: 8:30 AM

Ms. Archana Raghuram, Senior Manager, Cognizant Outreach will light the lamp and inaugurate Siraguga’09. Playback singers Ms. Kalpana and Mr. Mukesh will be the guests of honour.

Valedictory: 4:30 PM

Our chief guest ‘Food King’ Mr. Sarath Babu will address the children.

The event is also supported by State Bank of India, Food King, SS Music, Velammal’s PUPA.


For more information please contact us @ 98942-09741 / 98408-68441 or
Email us @ Siragugal@bhumichennai.org .
Webpage: http://bhumichennai.org/siragugal


Vande Mataram!

Dr Prahalathan KK

9894209741

http://prahalathan.blogspot.com
http://BhumiChennai.org

Heaven or Hell?

We were both old and close to ninety five;
To this world, it was time to bid goodbye.
We went up, until the heavenly gate
Where He waited for us; Him, the Great.

'You go to heaven', He told me
'and you, Hell', that was to her.
'but why?' I asked. Couldn't let that be.
Be it God or whoever!

He wouldn't answer me for one whole minute;
Then a smile flashed across His face.
'That she will know', He said coolly,
'When she reaches Hell's red gate.'

'Then, I'll go with her', I declared,
'To argue for her cause.
She deserves Heaven more than me!'
I finished without a pause.

'You can't cross back to heaven then!'
He asked me to dare.
'You will be in Hell forever,
If she's destined to be there!'

'I know she deserves it,
More than You or me or Peace.
If I am stuck, let me be.
Heaven is where she is.'

He stared at me in feigned surprise,
'You know it's all for the best.'
Then, he said, 'Open the heavenly gate!'
Ha! I had passed my test.

Travel - ling - er

Rocket Launch. This is not about Diwali rockets. Real rocket launched by a group of PG students at USC, including a junior (only with respect to year of passing out) from my college. An October sky repeat, I'd say.

There is also this MS guy who usually updates his status with a line he heard from his lecturers that day, very good ones at that. These make you want to take up higher studies.

There is the guy who goes all over USA and sends pics of places you instantly fall in love with. Wish I was there.

There is this fellow who goes all to all hill stations in India in the pretext of work.

There are the fellows who take a car to watch a match at Camp Nou.

There are guys who live so close to Fulham Road they claim that they can hear the sound of the crowd from Stamford Bridge. True or not, their plan did the trick.

Oh, I almost forgot. There is this Ivan who is vehemently refusing his Finland citizenship, much to all our anger.

I want to travel.

Not during weekends. No, I think the negativities in going back to Bangalore to work on Monday outweigh any joy I am going to get there. I want to go some place for three months and another place from there for the next three months. Or something like that.

I want to explore for ever. I am as interested in Harappa as an archeologist can ever be. I want to be an historian in Scotland. I want to research on Mahabalipuram, Hampi and Adichanallur. I want to be a Chelsea fan in Stamford bridge and an Arsenal fan at Emirates; a Bayern fan at Allianz and a Milan fan at San Siro. I want to do all these, and write about them. I want to write for a movie. I want to publish novels.

I want to do much more!

Sigh. Back to work.

South Waziristan

An old couple live in Kurram agency in the FATA region of Pakistan. Their four sons are in cities from which they cannot even go and visit them because of the blockade put in place by the Taliban. Some people in Pakistan believe that the army is putting off its South Waziristan move because it doesn't think it can come up trumps.

So the BBC says.

Taliban has a good number of Mahsuds, but then, a larger number of them are in the Pakistani army. It may be difficult for USA to distinguish between civilians and militants and terminate the militants, but the Pakistani army and air force should know better. It should find a way to go on the offensive. Years of planning have gone by, and looks like there are years ahead too. These militants have killed more Pakistanis than any one else, and I suppose, are in no mood to change the trend. Why wait then?

Had I been anywhere in an authoritative capacity in my India, I would have pledged support to destroying militancy in South Waziristan at least for the children there who are cut off from true education and the rest of Pakistan. I won't mind if Pakistan takes it or rejects it. Its pride may stand in the way, but had I been a Pakistani, I'll prefer India's help in that region to USA's any day.

IF you haven't seen pictures of the Kurram valley before, I strongly suggest that you do. It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth and it's sad that such a wonder should be surrounded by terrorism.

Left and Write

I want to sit still, stay put, do what I love,
and not miss anything.
I want to know what more, than the peace I have (now),
that success alone can bring.

I want to know what's on; every,everywhere,
and all that lies within.
I just want to live and to do what I like...
Tell me, is that much of a sin?

Money is the root cause of all evil
Rats run after it in a race.
If you look at it hard, that is The Devil
that pushes us into that (meaningless) maze.

You don't get a girl, you don't get accepted,
unless you jump in and run the race.
We've grown so irrational...indifferent,
and It's time we saved our face.

I want to sit down and I want to write out
My whole freakin entire life.
I want to relish every minute for one whole hour
Don't take me away from my wife. :P

Yea, I want to just keep writing, whateva's for me;
A success or a failure...
If I ever do stop writing, stop living to live better,
that's when I'd have failed ya.


PS: This post may be grammatically wrong with rhymes that don't actually rhyme, or
maybe the number of syllables in a line go awry once in a while. Well, that was intentional... because, like that old Lifebuoy ad goes,

I - don't - care.

To do an MBA or not to do?

That's the question.

Whoever visits this page and is a frnd of mine, gimme ur opinion of me thru a mail and yea, answer the question too.

Love is only once, they say

Don't know how long I can go on like this,
aimlessly, without focus.
I lost life when I lost you,
Now temme what is there for me to do?

You know, I tried to fall in love again once;
Ha, like I could. I did not know that then.
Every time there when things weren't fun,
I yearned for you; Now I hear, 'Ah! These men'.

Would think of you often and how it'd be with you.
How could I be in 'love' with any one else then?
It dawned upon me brightly when you left forever,
I couldn't be complete with out you, Hon.

That was when I knew how much I missed you,
A huge gap in me, but I guess twas a li'l too late.
I quit all my ideas of falling in love with someone else
And went into my shell for ever, Alone will be my state.

You may never know if I even liked you
Though that's on the wall for all to see.
So now, You are happy with another dude,
I'll stay at a distance. I'll let you be.

I can fall in love all over again,
but I realise...only with the same gorgeous face.
No other person in the world can match your
Elegance, fashion, tradition or grace.

Years may pass on, time does fly
I'll flow aimlessly like the river.
Angels may come and angels may go,
but you'll live on in my heart forever!

- Me

PS: you'd want to look at the tags. :)
PS 2: I write all these stuff. But I can't understand this one thing. How can you love someone so selflessly, especially when that person does not think the same way, or worse, does not know you exist?

To blog? What to blog?! - That's the question

In the early 16th century, Ash de Notre-dames (de notredames - of our women, as it translates from French), commonly called Nitro-damus in astrological circles because of his aggressive nature, had predicted the rise of a great new warrior in early 21st century with reinvented beliefs from the spiritual centre of the world who will finally separate good from evil and let evil burn and rot.

...and He will save all from the turmoils people face today. This can be clearly seen from the lines in his book, "Prophecies? Do you care?" (translated title) given below for your own interpretations.

"Thou shalt see at the dawn of the twenty first thousand from christ
the rise of the warrior from the globe's spiritual gravity.
He shalt say this alone is good
and shove evil down evil's throat."

A confirmation that this author is the person Nitrodamus refers to can be seen from the one word "YaY!" at the bottom of the four-line prediction.

Screw blogs and bloggers. I have nothing to write about! You'll see more of Nitrodamus if this goes on like this.

Self - confessions : Pudhiya thathuvam 439

I don't know why God sent me here,
but I know he sent you to stop me from becoming a frikkin' villain.
That you did. I didn't become the villain.
Ha, but I didn't become anything else either.

The Technical Me

at http://aixos.blogspot.com

Life is a game. Play it.

Life is a game.

Is it, really? Is that how people look at life? Have you noticed that if there's anything in this world people don't think of as a game, that's Life and how they lead it?

Funny world.

One of the best ever!

Source: http://www.marcellosendos.ch/comics/ch/index.html

Happy Go Lucky

I am happy go lucky
Come what may
I am happy go lucky
I just leggo, leggo.

When the big dogs bark
Or when things get dark,
I am happy go lucky
So I leggo, leggo.

When I stare at defeat
and it kicks me off my seat,
Still happy go lucky
I just leggo, leggo.

When I feel like a dork,
Like a Nemo amidst Sharks,
I think I am happy go lucky
Coz I let it go, leggo.

When it broke my feet,
And I looked like dog meat,
I was happy go lucky
I let it go dude.

When they squished my heart
And cut me in parts,
Not so happy or lucky!
I still leggo, leggo.

Even if they twist me like a rope,
I'll smile like the pope.
Coz I am happy go lucky
and I still have my hope. :)

Prof M.Ramachandran

As his students, we thank our Professor's family for letting him go ahead with his passion for ECE, at odd times on many occasions. I remember how he used to say he read some book on ECE over night at that age (in 2006). I remember his first intro to our class in my second year very clearly.

"You see, I talk about various other things in class for 30 minutes, 35 minutes.. Only ten minutes, fifteen minutes I will teach from the syllabus.. I may not complete the whole syllabus at the end of the semester. Usually I don't. Now you may not know, but in the future you will realise.. many students have come back after working for so long and told me, these extra things I share with them in class.. They have actually been more useful...What I tell you will never be in any text book..."

He may not be the best teacher in the world, but he certainly created that love for the subject in so many of his students, which is all a teacher can do.

Thank you sir.

Aswin S
2003 - 2007

I am back

naan thuli thuliyaai meelgiren...
nee tholaidhooram sella sella...
un idhaya eerppu mella kuraiya,
naan meendum naanaagiren.


நான் துளித் துளியாய் மீள்கிறேன்...
நீ தொலைதூரம் செல்ல செல்ல...
உன் இதய ஈர்ப்பு மெல்ல குறைய,
நான் மீண்டும் நானாகிறேன்.


I am back.



---------

PS:
To those who don't understand Thamizh (Tamil, as you know it):

I am rejuvenating, drop by drop,
As you move farther from me,
As your gravitational pull on me slowly reduces,
I am turning into myself...again.

A day without phonecalls

I didn't attend 42 calls today or so my phone claims.
Worse, I don't even plan to check who called. :)

I should actually feel heavy, since a few calls might have been important (even from office maybe). But I don't. Fact is, I feel so good that I plan to switch my mobile off one day per week (So, I can concentrate on some thing other than "who's calling this time?!").

Did some work, a lot of blog reading, a lot of planning ahead and yea, watched a cool movie.

My contact with the external world shrinks everyday. Guess I am closing down my windows. My parents get this feeling that I don't talk much these days. I think that's because they're used to the motor-mouth I can be.

Here's to Solitude!
It's so much more painless.

Tech giants unite against Google - BBC News

..The author said she is not surprised by the reaction to the "settlment".

...Most authors work for so little and start from the point of we are doing this for the "love it".

This is not an extract from a blog. This is BBC News, last updated at 09:31 GMT, Friday, 21 August 2009.

Do we expect this from an organisation like BBC? No.

Do you know who you really are?

If you think that question’s silly or meaningless, I am sure you do not know yourself very well. Do you speak your mind, or do you say what is expected of you? Does your social behavior truly reflect your character? Let’s not mistake personality for character, ok?

Why do we express?

We begin expressing ourselves first as a baby, crying to get attention. That is the truest and purest form of expression, reflecting our innermost desires... reflecting what we need. As children, we say what we want to say, we do what we want to do. We resent when we are forced. We are true to others. There is no hidden agenda.

As we grow older, there are external influences, like acceptance, for instance. We try to fit in with the rest of the world, and do what is expected of us. We do things because people around us do them and have done so in the past successfully. We do and say stuff to impress others, not to express ourselves…funny but true.

The world is a comedy to those who think…and a tragedy to those who feel.
-Horace Walpole

From my personal experiences which, by the way, aren’t really comprehensive, I agree with what’s quoted above. I have continued to shift between two personalities since the first of days that I can recollect. I have never ceased to amaze myself everyday, as to how I am able to manage my selves.

To that quote up there, I wish to add some more.

Those who feel will feel the darkest depths of pain at times,
But then, those who think can never be completely happy.

The side of me that thinks, the side of me that has been successful in all its endeavours, is the one that has never found peace or happiness. Success, despite the fact that it intoxicates you to a cool high, is NOT happiness. It is usually a means to get there, but most people lose track of their path on the way. The side of me that feels, I admit, has been a bigger loser than anyone else I know (yea, look at this weblog for example), but has also been the most peaceful, content and balanced side of mine. That side reflects who I truly am.

You should not do something because you are good at doing it or because it will fetch you fame and success. You should do something because you like doing it or it gives you the balance. Most of the successful people we know, almost 99% in my opinion, are people who think. The rest of them (the 1%) are, of course, the greatest people who ever lived…those that were successful and content at the same time. Hmmm, I agree, most of the ‘failures’ and ‘misfits’ in this world are those who feel and refuse to think. Nobody wants you to be this way, but that is what you are.

By now, you might have realised that I am not the greatest of writers you know. I have not done justice to the concept or even myself with the words I have chosen, but if you do get something out of this, whoa! Great!

What you feel is who you truly are. The day you realise this, the day you break free of that illusion of society, the day you learn to defy rules and ignore the frowns and discouraging words from the world at large, the day you realise who you really are…accepting your faults as part of you and accepting others’ faults as part of who they are…that day, my friend, shall be your Independence day.

Crying in the rain

Some say Charlie chaplin said,
"Cry in the rain coz others can't know".
I have been having it in the head,
since I got problems of my own.

I see crime and injustice
and I'm powerless to stop them all...
no one understands till the problem's his.
True in my case, this is my call.

I will fight them, the honest way
I will fight them, through the years.
I will improve, day by day
Till I end all undeserving tears.

All my other thoughts have gone down the drains,
I have decided to do or die trying.
but today, like Charlie, I cry in the rains,
what if someone gets to see me crying?

- An amateur attempt by "Poruthadhu podhum" endru mudiveduthor sangam.

You don't realize the gravity of every issue until you face it. Every human being has to rise to stop all the individual problems faced by so many innocents all over the world.

I have decided to, have you?

TNEA ADMISSIONS 2009

Hello people!

This is a small initiative from our side to rank the colleges in the
state to make it easier for students to pick theirs this year. We wish
all the TNEA rank holders all the best.

Ranking basis:

The rank of the last person who could get that course in that college
in the Open category. This is a more realistic pattern when we look at
what seats we may get this year rather than getting into a long
discussion on placements and faculty. People have done their research,
talked to people they know and looked up the infrastructure last year
to take their seats. All we need to do is use that data. All those
websites out there contain data. We give you information.

If you are worrying about what college to choose for your son,
daughter, nephew, niece, grand daughter, grandson, cousin or for
yourself, you are at the right place!

1. Electronics and Communication
2. Electrical and Electronics
3. Computerscience
4. Information Technology
5. Aeronautical
6. Electronics and Instrumentation
7. Mechanical
8. Civil
9. Automobile
10. Chemical

If you need any other specific info, do leave a comment and let us know...of course, we are working on updates.

Vamanan - Yedho seigirai lyrics

I couldn't find a flawless one on the internet. So, I decided to put it up for the benefit of all fans of the Youngest Raja! I hope I got it right. If any part of this is wrong, do let me know through the comments.

Awesome song!

Yedho Seigirai, ennai yedho seigiraai…
Ennai ennidam nee arimugam seigiraai…
Yedho Seigirai, ennai yedho seigiraai…
Ennai ennidam nee arimugam seigiraai…

Unnodu pesinaal ul-nenjil minnal thondrude…
Kanaadi paarkayil en kangal unnai kaatudhe..
Penne idhu kanava nejama unnai ketkindren!

Anbe… indha nimidam nenjukul inikiradhe..
Adadaa… indha nerukkam mayakamai irukiradhe..
Unnaal, indha ulagam yaavume pudhidaai therigiradhe..

--

Penne endhan gadigaaram endhan pechai kekavillai,
Unnai kanda nodiyodu nindradhadi, odavillai !
Idhuvarai yaaridamum en manadhu sayavillai,
Enna oru mayam seidhaai, ennidathil naanumillai !

Enna idhu, Enna idhu, en nizhalai kaanavillai…
Undhan pinbu vandhadadi , innum adhu thirumbavillai.
Enge endru keten, un kaaladi kaatudhadi!

Anbe… indha nimidam nenjukul inikiradhe..
Adadaa… indha nerukkam mayakamai irukiradhe..
Unnaal, indha ulagam yaavume pudhidaai therigiradhe..

--

Kadhal nenjam pesikolla vaarthai edum thevayillai
Manadhil ulla aasai solla mounam pola mozhi illai…
Idhuvarai en uyirai ipadi naan vaazhndadillai,
Putham pudhu thotramidhu, vereduvum thondravillai.

Netru varai vaanilayil endha oru matramillai,
Indru endhan vaasalodu kandukonden vaanavillai.
Orey oru naalil muzhu vaazhkai vaazhndene!

Anbe… indha nimidam nenjukul inikiradhe..
Adadaa… indha nerukkam mayakamai irukiradhe..
Unnaal, indha ulagam yaavume pudhidaai therigiradhe…

--
Yedho Seigirai, ennai yedho seigiraai…
Ennai ennidam nee arimugam seigiraai…
Yedho Seigirai, ennai yedho seigiraai…
Ennai ennidam nee arimugam seigiraai…