Musings of a confused Mind

It's time to act.....

2010-08-23T08:04:00.000+05:30

It has been a long afternoon today, an afternoon where I have been trying to distract myself from the fact that I need to leave my sister's place at Boston. Whenever time nears for departure during a visit to someone in my family or a friend, I get a kind of void feeling inside me, a sort of desperation to avoid that moment. So anxious I am that almost every time I tend to get an acidity in my stomach and today is no different. It's surprising that I don't get this feeling when I am away from people.

Maybe that's the reason that most of my life changing decisions are made during travel away from my loved ones, a time when I become too emotional and start thinking too deeply. And yeah today I am again thinking after a long time.

People who are accustomed to me, know that I am a social animal. For the past one and half years over here in America I have been missing my family and friends. Though I say to
myself that I am making some money and I need to be here for some more time, I am not sure whether there will be a time when I feel it's enough. My needs are ever increasing, I aspired to have a computer in my second year of college, now even after having a good phone, computer, camera,etc my lists is ever growing.

I believe it's time that I chart a plan firmly return to India for friends and family are more important than money and gadgets. Hoping that this doesn't turn out to be yet another decision which was never implemented.

Final Year CIT Students seriously injured in an accident - Help needed

2010-03-30T09:13:00.003+05:30

Two final year IT students Pragadeeshwaran and Pradeep met with an accident yesterday. An Innova driven by a drunken driver crashed into them.

Seems Pradeep is almost brain dead and has very low chances of Survival. Pragadeeshwaran has had multiple fractures and is requiring a major operation at Ganga hospital. The surgery costs nearly 10 lakhs. They are in need of financial assistance.

Kindly use any one of the following bank accounts for donation and please do send a note to citpcs@gmail.com id with the amount you have sent.

SBI - 30585222934 - V.Mahesh,kochin.

ICICI BANK - 613601011109 - S.Sumithra,
Tirupattur , vellore dt.
INDIAN BANK- 711877100 - N.Sathish Kumar, Peelamedu, Coimbatore.

For queries please contact, Nithyanandhan- 9047367005 Suresh-9884279587

Latest Update

Pradeep has passed away. Lets try to pool in whatever possible and help the other guy.

Bhramaram - A beautiful movie

2010-03-08T11:49:00.005+05:30

Badri has always been a connoissuer of Malayalam cinema. And as usual today he suggested me watching Bharmaram, starring Mohanlal. Mohanlal is one of the most versatile actors I have come across. Mohanlal has got the uncanny ability to come under the skin of the character and this movie illustrated it once more.

For the past 150 minutes Bharmaram made me stick in a single place and watch it. (Believe me, many a time I watch a movie in phases). I am of the firm opinion that a good movie, "Must make one think". That doesn't mean I don't like entertainers but movies are a very powerful medium and if used, rightly can bring about a change in the lives of people.

Bharamaram is a damn good movie. Blessy, the director, doesn't just keep you glued to your place, he also succeeds in implanting a few seeds of thought in your mind. Though I was able to guess the plot to some extent during the halfway marks, the screenplay was riveting and there were a few surprises at the end. As usual Mohanlal has fitted into the poignant character of Sivakutty with ease. Though the story was a tard slippery in a place or two, they can be termed as minor glitches. The way of story telling is realistic, intriguing and emotional. At the end of film you might wonder why our media doesn't showcase films of these sort. (Maybe I am not noticing).

The most immediate thing which came to my mind after seeing the movie was Papillon. Though Papillon doesn't have any thing in similar with Bharamaram, the reason for which the Papillon came to my mind was that in both places the main character was a person who was wrongly convicted. I have only read Papillon, never even thought of seeing the movie, for the book was so engrossing and didn't want to commit the mistake of watching something which wrecks the book. The Count of Monte Cristo also came to my mind, however it was a movie which was unrealistic and fantasized.

Thought of going to sleep but Sivankutty and Lakshmi kept on coming to my mind and made me write this. Going to sleep with restless thoughts about the thousands of people who were accused, convicted and punished for no harm of theirs. There is a saying in Tamil, "கண்ணால் காண்பதும் பொய்; காதால் கேட்பதும் பொய்; தீர விசாரிப்பதே மெய்", never miss to follow that.

If you are a movie enthusiast or somebody who wants to see a good movie don't miss Bhramaram.

(PS: Youtube has got the entire movie with subtitles.)

Every moment of Life is beautiful, live to the fullest.

2010-02-04T07:26:00.000+05:30

I get amused whenever I see people who try to save every paisa they earn and end up missing the moments they live in. I am amazed by their belief and confidence that sacrificing this moment would make things better for the future. And in most cases those things generally turn out to be pretty materialistic and even worse when they arrive at that futuristic point, they would have turned their attention to something even more futuristic and missing the moment again.

Though I have come across many of that sort, I got totally pissed off last week when one of my friends avoided eating out just because it is costly. The costly dinner came out to $12 per head which amounts not even to 0.33 % of his monthly income. Of course he knew that it would be coming around that range only. This act of alone didn't force me to write this post, but a series of quite silly acts. For instance, he didn't want to travel 3 extra miles in the car for getting fresh vegetables, worse he consoled himself that a week old (believe even more) dry Spinach was fresh indeed. There are many more and I don't want to waste my time prodding into everyone of them deeply.

I am not against the habit of saving, it is a quality which all of us must develop. I believe we, Indians, are masters in the act of savings. These days, maybe I am seeing it now only, I see lot of people trying to hoard every single rupee the earn. They don't mind missing out beautiful places, events, parties, even good food, in short to be miserable in all aspects of life just for the sake of saving.

That made me wonder what the hell are they saving for? Because most people of these sort, I have come across, don't come from poor families but from families which have a decent standard of living and some wealth. When you dig a bit deeper, you could see Indians save for 3 important things,

1. Buying a house. Perfectly right, Home sweet home. Having one's own home will give a sense of satisfaction, especially when you live in it. But is everybody buying a home which is affordable?

Not quite so, they invest in a house in a busy or posh area of the city which will make both husband and wife pursue on their jobs under all circumstances for repaying the loan. As a result they fail to spend quality time among themselves and their kids, worse in many cases they don't even understand their kids. When at last they settle, life would have passed along and in some instances there are some irreparable damage in the families.

And one thing which I constantly hear when discussing this topic is that this is the best form of investment and security.

I haven't seen many who sell their homes when in times of need, I have seen only homes bequeathed from parents to Children.

2. Buying and hoarding gold saying it's the best form of security. Passing it from generation to generation and also continue the process of removing credit from the system and keeping it safe in bank lockers. This is worser than the first one because in the first one you at least get something tangible but this one is something absurd.

3. Marriages - The amount of money people invest in marriages is something which is so big these days. In most of the cases the entire family of the bride will be nervous, tensed and anxious that the marriage should go smoothly, in the process missing out to enjoy the occasion. The occasion for which the bride's parents should have started saving from the day the girl was born. Isn't it absurd that you spend all your life saving for an occasion and not able to enjoy it when it comes. Do we really need such big marriages? Can't we make them simpler and more happier? For these days, the photographer has made marriages a kind of civic ceremony, a place which is meant for shaking hands and giving pose to the photo with an smile which turns out to be artificial on many occasions.

On a lighter note, I would like to have my marriage where people come, sit down and chat among themselves about whatever they want. Whereas me and my better part will move across the entire hall meet up with people, have a lively chat and move on. Would it be better?

These 3 things I won't say aren't worth spending the way we are doing right now.

In Tamil, we have a saying, "நாய் பெற்ற தெங்கம்பழம் போல" literally translated becomes, "Just like a coconut in the hands of a dog.". What it actually means is that a Dog cannot eat a Coconut but it simply won't accept it, instead it will keep on rolling the coconut and carry with it to everywhere it goes. Neither the coconut nor the dog's time end up being useful.

Makkale there are many beautiful things out there which are not worth sacrificing for these three. Do go and chill out at times.

Then forget it....

2010-02-03T12:10:00.003+05:30

This Strip of Calvin precisely reflects my attitude right now.

Some Useful Chrome Extensions

2010-01-31T12:13:00.001+05:30

I have started loving Chrome pretty much and it has been my preferred browser for a few months. The most important thing which made me switch to Chrome was the space it provided, though you can disable toolbars in Firefox, Chrome seemed to be more spacious due to the Google mantra of keep it simple. I rarely have my bookmarks toolbar turned since the most frequent sites I visit are there on the Open Tab itself. Though Chrome still crashes then and there, it has become a lot less frequent these days. With the add ons , sorry extensions, slowly making their way, life has become quite easy with Chrome.

1. Application - It took a while for me to realize that you can have a page as an application shortcut which has the page sans the address bar, thereby giving you more space. Though it's just like a bookmark having a shortcut on the desktop, it gives a feel that it's an app of it's own.

Check out this video to know how to create one.

GMAIL, igoogle, Google reader and, from last week, Feedly sit as an application on my desktop. And placing the icon in system32 folder makes life easier for people like me who prefer to use the Win+R.

2. Feedly - Feedly is a front end for your Google reader. Though I started using Google reader more than 2 years ago I was never consistent. One of the primary reason is the reading interface which though simple is not a pleasant experience. Seems these folks also felt the same and instead of sitting like a lazy brat like me, they came out with this beautiful front end. Just install the add on for Chrome here and login using your Google account and see the difference.

You can link your twitter account also and view tweets, but I don't prefer this.

3.Chromed Bird - Though I have always felt the power and usefulness of twitter I never twitted or followed others twitters regularly. I found it a pain to go to twitter and see the tweets or tweet on my on. However after I installed Chromed Bird tweeting has become quite simple and easier.

You can tweet from any page you want without moving out and moreover it has an URL shortener which is even cool(I use http://bit.ly/). Also you can check the tweets of other people from any page. Check it out if you are a twitter or want to use twitter.

4. GMAIL Checker - This is places a gmail icon on the right of the address bar and lets you know the number of unread mails in the inbox. Clicking on it will open Gmail in a new tab. No more typing gmail.com to see any new mails have come. The add on is here. There is another extension called One Number, which does the same for Gmail, Reader, Voice and Wave. Since I am not using the Voice and Wave, I prefer this.

5. Send From Gmail - In case you want to forward any page to anyone this one is good. It opens a Gmail Compose in a new window(not a tab) with the Subject as the Page's title and the link of the subject in the body. Pretty neat and simple. Can be found here.

6. Delicious - I have been using Delicious quite extensively these days. (Please don't ask when I will be reusing the bookmarks, will help for sure one day. For example took all these links from Delicious only.) Earlier I used a tweak which had a link in the bookmark bar, but at last they have come out with an add-on which is neat and simple and works cool. It's over here.

In case you use Facebook you can try Beautify Facebook which adds some Gloss for facebook. Discovered this a couple of days back and not sure how it works, but worth trying.

Trying Tweet deck for the couple of days, seems good. Yet to explore it fully.

Do let me know in case you also have found some cool extensions for Chrome.

What happened to our Values?

2010-01-15T09:21:00.005+05:30

Anybody who watched, Vetri lying hapless on the road with a group of people around him who dared not to act to save the life of a fellow human must have been annoyed and would have gushed with anger. For those who didn't are inhuman.

I was frustrated and could not even understand why at least one in the crowd could grab any of the numerous vehicles standing around and take the inspector to a nearby hospital. Why the heck should they wait for the ambulance to come and pick him up? Wasn't that insane? Is a human life less valuable compared to the interiors of the vehicle? Numerous questions arise.

Certainly I would want the heads of the Ministers, Collector who were at the scene. Though I do agree that the cameraman must also be questioned, I don't questioning him taking the video. For it had created not just a stir but made us sit back and think about the values of the society.

The incident evoked sharp criticism from everybody who can think and Sreevats suggested enacting a law, as in Germany, to punish those who do not help people in danger and distress.

Though creating a law can improve things, personally I feel enacting the law won't bring a sea of change. However it's better than keeping idle and forgetting this barbaric incident with time. How the law will be implemented is indeed a matter of speculation since the people who were at the place of the incident were law makers, custodian of the law and people of fourth estate who have the work of making sure the former are acting properly.

I think this incident makes us to stop form the fast paced day to day life and think about where the values in our society is heading. Vetri during his dire minutes was not alone, but there were couple of ministers, a collector, numerous policeman and a number of common man, of course everybody out there is a common man. What gives great pain is that none of the common man acted immediately and brings us to the question of the values existing today.

This may be the land in which Akbar, Ashoka, Vivekanda and numerous other man of great sanity, noble minds once walked upon. It seems we have just stuck their names in our history books and missed the good values they followed. This one case has embraced us just because of the fact that it was videotaped, certainly in a country of billion people more barbaric acts must and are taking place which never come to our notice. People like Vetri, Ruchika, Manjunath are exceptions and come to our notice evoking our emotions and slowly forgotten with time.

During my College days at 5h, we constantly used to discuss this topic extensively about where we as a society are heading towards. And one thing which I used to state and would love to reiterate over here is that, if we want to make a change we need to change the way the moral education is imparted at schools. I don't have the personal experience in other parts of India, but I can state with strongly that Moral Science has been a forgotten subject in the schools of Tamil Nadu.

It is a subject I would say which requires utmost importance, the art which when practiced properly can impart good values and virtues to the children who turn out to be the common man who witnessed the incident at Tirunelveli. So how do we go about doing the change is a different question. Just blabbering here in blog won't move things forward.

I will stop my rant for now and think about what I can do from my part to develop responsible citizens which is the want of the hour. This kind of death shouldn't occur for any human being alive.

What do you think about internet penetration in India?

2010-01-13T11:57:00.003+05:30

Was just reading something on Google blog when I hit upon the World bank data search in Google. Just thought of seeing internet penetration in India compared to some countries.

See for yourselves, how India fared.

Sudden fame is a bad thing indeed - Precisely said sir

2009-12-23T23:37:00.003+05:30

Venkatraman Radhakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year, is at Chennai and gave a guest lecture for Department of Crystallography, Madras University.

And he has reason to ask this question,

“Last year, the lecture was held in [an auditorium] with a capacity for just 300 people, and half the seats were empty,” said a bemused Dr. Ramakrishnan, facing a jam-packed audience of 3,000 at the university’s Centenary Auditorium. “What has changed? I am still the same person doing the same science. Why are people so impressed when some academy in Sweden gives an award?,” he asked.

But Sir, we Indians never look into the quality of the work what matters to us is fame and television. We will honor the victims of 26 / 11, but cannot give a damn about the deaths of people in Communal clashes / police autocracies, forgot the people who were killed by naxals, people who are dying due to poverty and so on. The reason these things are not shown on TV.

Love transcends humanity

2009-12-16T07:49:00.002+05:30

When my friend Amith sent this video, tagging it as worth watching, I was extremely curious as he generally sends good videos only.

On watching it, I was moved to tears.

The last words were extremely touching,

"Love knows no limits and true Friendshipslast a lifetime. Get back in touch with someone today".

How could this be a Security Lapse?

2009-12-09T21:35:00.003+05:30

Today the IAF chopper carrying India's President Prathiba Patil hit the Hanger's wall in Bhuvaneshwar International Airport. On reading the article the first and foremost question is won't the helipad and the hanger be well seperated, if so how did the Chopper go near the hanger wall. I googled it out and found am right.

Hence, I believe there are two possibilites for the accident to happen,

1. The pilot had some concentration lapse and didn't notice it, maybe he was tired after the visits to Konark and Puri for the president to get Darshan.

2. Or some extremely intelligent official citing security reasons might have insisted to land near the hanger.

Either way I can't understand why Econmic Times has mentioned it as a security lapse and some officials also accepted the same.

On a different note, I always get furious on seeing Government officials visiting Places of Worship on Taxpayers money. Just imagine the cost of using a 16 Sitter M17 helicopter, the security setup and the inconvenince to the public. I couldn't control my laugh on reading the servitor's comment, “She prayed for the well wing of the people of the country”.

Why blog?

2009-12-09T08:41:00.007+05:30

On 6th of December, I was driving back from Jersey City to Delaware, I realized that on this very day 17 years ago Babri Masjid which was just a centre of controversy, to become a scar on the face of India. My first thought was to check Google news, as soon as I get home, to make sure there was no bomb blast or a heinous act like that. The barbaric act of Dec 6 has caused irreparable damage to the Secularism of India, widened the Hindu - Musilm divide and has made more people become religious fanatics. It might take decades, might be even centuries for India to shed off the scars and move on.

The scar would have not been this deepr had the Government acted sensibly, instead it choose to be a mute specator and every Indian Citizen is paying for it. To this day nobody have been indicted for the carnage which happened in Ayodhya, doubt whether it would ever happen. After all it took 17 years for Justice Liberhan to submit his detailed report to the Government. Worse still only an unofficial leak prompted the Government, which was skeptical, to release the report.

I was actually thinking of writing a detailed post on the Liberhan Commission, howeversome Vidial work, my friends birthday bumps and plans for India return kept me occupied a bit. However there were some questions lingering in the corner of my mind like, why do I need to write it. What is the effect of writing it? Is it going to change anything? and a lot more.
These days, I often get questions like this, though it dissuades me from writing at times, it does gives me some different perspective and also help me in brooding over the topic a little deeper.

Hence I don't try to restrain it, doing so would be .

Ok, lets come to the questions? Why blog?

The primary urge for blogging is not just for others to read, it's actually a vent in this busy world when we are not able to share our thoughts with anybody. I don't care whether it creates a profound impact on people, it's just that writing a blog takes some weight of your mind and you can move on thinking about various other issues.

One more reason is that only when I decided to write over an issue I start thinking about it deeply, try to find out the facts, perspectives, reasons, etc. It is indeed a bad practice, for this should happen irrespective of what I am going to do, ofcourse I am not Mr.Perfect however I would like to mend my ways.

Blogs also serve us a way to communicate with people who can understand what you think and the people like that cannot you generally live with. I do have lot of friends but not everybody see things from their own planes and is rare to find a person in your plane. You can always talk, discuss and argue with people having different perspectives, but talking with a person in a different plane is rarely productive.

Also I am just a spectator in this world and rarely do things which can do good to people. Though I don't have the guts to go out and play, I atleast don't want to be a mute spectator. The most important duty of the spectator is to cheer around, shout and support his team which would effectively improve the performance of the team. That's why in all major sports, teams carve to play at home, for the effect which spectators can bring in you might be the difference in winning and losing. This is one place which doesn't make me a mute spectator.

To conclude blogging is something which brings better things out of me and I am sorry for you if you are reading this post, my rants will continue. :)

Love for Words

2009-11-13T09:58:00.005+05:30

I am one among the thousands from Tamil Nadu who is neither fluent in my mother tongue Tamil or the tongue which gives me work, English. We can say that it is insanity as well as a boon that we were introduced to the language of English right from our Kindergarden, a language which is still as alien to me as it was when I read "Tiger Tiger burning bright", the first poem whose meaning I could comprehend a bit when I read it for the first time. Coming back to the topic, it was good that we were taught English in Tamil during our Kinder Garden which is the best way initially, teaching a new tongue through a known tongue, but bad that it was the same way we were taught over our entire schooling.

The main problem in dealing with English among of us is the dogma imbibed deep within us which proclaims, "English is one of the toughest things to learn and is complex". When this mindset is set in each and every child right from their infancy, it is no wonder that we struggle to learn the basics lest alone think about mastering the language. I cannot see when we can remember the lyrics of hundreds of songs still vividly though it has been years since we heard them, why cannot we remember words and grammar provided we have the passion for it.

I can say with confidence and shame that I cannot express / write what I feel using either English or Tamil alone. Vocabulary is something extremely important for expressing yourself in any language and if I look back and recollect the new words I have learnt after 5th standard has been extremely low. Though I have thought about this on number of occasions since College I have never taken sincere, sustained efforts. I need to thank my Appa for the decent grammar he has taught which had made me survive with a very mediocre vocabulary.
I appreciated the beauty of Tami for the first time when I was in College asked me whether I have ever paid attention to the lyrics of இளைய நிலா பொழிகிறதே.

These two verses in that song made me go on a high, which I believe I would have reached with a snort. (I have never taken a snort :-( ).

"வரும் வழியில் பனி மழையில்
பருவ நிலா தினம் நனையும்
முகிலெடுத்து முகம் துடைத்து
விடியும் வரை நடை பழகும்"

"முகிலினங்கள் அலைகிறதே
முகவரிகள் தொலைந்தனவோ
முகவரிகள் தவறியதால்
அழுதிடுமோ அது மழையோ"

I don't want to translate this to English and make these beautiful lyrics awful. These words made me realize that I have been living in a different world altogether, a world which was too machine like. These lines are something which I would say symbolize creativity, the feeling which has the power to move the world and is moving the world. From there on I started reading more and more especially Tamil which I have neglected for years. I started not just loving, but discovering more thoughts, perspectives in books. This was how my love for Tamil began, a tard too late, which took about 17 years after my birth. And it is no exaggeration that this discovery has turned my life upside down, I am indebted to Kani for his question.

English was something which I loved in School, think I can attribute a variety of reasons for why I loved the language. One of the primary reasons is that I was fascinated by the language right from the day my Amma made me showed a piece of Calvin and Hobbs in the Sunday edition of The Hindu during my secondary school. My fascination to English is akin to that of my fascination towards Wine.

As am sipping some Red wine and writing this blog, I laugh at myself about the delusions I had regarding wine. I believed wine as concentrate of the grape juice, like the Grape juice which Amma used to make, until I first tasted Golconda, the most common wine you get in India, at Thiruvanmayur. My first glass (actually not glass, but the usual plastic disposable cup) was a bitter experience, I didn't like the sour taste of it and moreover it crashed all the dreams I had about wine. However after coming to Delaware I slowly started appreciating the beauty of wine and do take it regularly. I realized slowly that wine is not just made from grapes alone but from variety of berries and fruits just like English which is not for elite alone.

It was in the Palani hostel I winked for the first time on the beauty of English. It was one of those golden days when we were putting vetti mokkai at Room 212 (Think the room number is right), Peter (aka Vivek) explained the beauty of the word Laconic, a word which got it's name from the place called Laconia of ancient Greece. The legend mentioned in Norman Lewis's Word Power made easy (Never completed beyond 3 chapters in that) says an army camped on the outskirts of Laconia and sent out a messenger to the King of Laconia asking him to surrender. The messenger came to the court room and said, "If we capture you, we will destroy the city, kill all the men, will take your children, women, etc". The King of Laconia replied with a typical wit of a Spartan, "What if". And from then on Laconic was used to symbolize short and crisp language with wits. This word hit a spark in me and wherever I come across a new word I try to identify the origin of the word which has become a favorite past time of mine.

So why do we need to care about these words be it any language? Language has been one of the most beautiful inventions of mankind, just imagine a world without language. Certainly it wont be a world of void but without it we would not have progressed so much. It is the tool with which we convey and obtain our feelings, need, knowledge across centuries and millenia, things upon which the entire world moves on. Had it not been for lanugage human civilisation would take countless more millenia to reach the stage we are in.

I know that I cannot neither do I have the desire to be fluent in English like what .Higgins in My Fair Lady or like Kamal Hassan in Tamil, but I believe before I breath my last I can say proudly that I made every effort to learn and appreciate the beauty of Tamil and English.

And finally the thing which triggered this post was the explanation regarding the Orgin of the Word Sincere by Professor Langdon in Dan Brown's lost symbol.

Sin-cere - Since the days of Michelangelo, sculptors had been hiding the flaws in their work by smearing hot wax into the cracks and then dabbing the wax with stone dust. The method was considered cheating, and therefore, any sculpture “without wax”—literally sine cera—was considered a “sincere” piece of art. The phrase stuck. To this day we still sign our letters “sincerely” as a promise that we have written “without wax” and that our words are true.

I am an avid fan of Dan Brown not just because of his plots but the details which is giving in his books regarding language and arts, I am thinking of writing a separate post regarding Dan Brown in near future.

And the rant ends here for now

PS: You may ask, "Why the hell you are typing this blog in English". Two reasons, I do blog in Tamil once in a blue moon, I am still poor in typing and spelling. Hoping to blog in a frequency in Tamil also.

Happiness, what is it? Does it do good always?

2009-10-30T06:28:00.004+05:30

Disclaimer: If you do want to think please don't read this post. It might be boring, read it at your own risk.

Last Sunday, I was talking to Gautham, a person whom I can talk freely about what is in my mind to some extent. It has been some time since we spoke to each other, as usual we had the usual gossip about our friends and other things for a while and then somehow went on to to muse about happiness.

Though it may see odd and you might think what the hell is there to discuss about happiness, it was an interesting one to me. After a long time Gautham made me put the thinking cap on, thanks Gautham.

So what is happiness? Is it a feeling? a state? Does it have a benchmark?

Happiness is a feeling which our mind yearns about, a state which each one of us will be happy to go into. Can we say for sure what will make us happy 1 year now?

Yeah maybe to some extent, but how accurate it will be? I had a dream that one day I should have a laptop of my own, an ultra modern one, and here I am having one. Though I am happy, I am not as happy as I thought I would be before I got it. for most of us, perhaps in many aspects of life, our mind wavers like this once it reaches in pre-defined goal. This yearning has indeed led to the advancement in technology and the progress we have made from the Classical age to the industrialized age we are in.

However this property of mind has left millions of people without a peace of mind, with jealously, with frustration and even in some cases hatred.

If I were asked to define happiness, I would define it as, "Happiness is a state of mind which a human wants to achieve, however once the state is reached, the standard for it is changed to a different state from the one we achieved just now."

One more question which came to my mind was whether happiness is directly proportional to the increase in civilization of mind, an improved society. I believe it is not always, because happiness is a state of mind which we covert to and a state which we desire because of the impact of the society and society's impact may not be the positive way always. However if we humans are happy, calm and serene we can think about the problems facing us and set out to solve them. So happiness is indeed positive to some extent.

And do we enjoy the state of happiness alone, don't we enjoy the challenges that we face, the depressions we have? I have sometimes enjoyed the ride, passionately and relentlessly worked on to come out of the difficult situations. Though I wasn't successful always I had worked hard and didn't feel dejected because everything is not under our control, or any other power, in this world filled with randomness.

In a nutshell, though my mind earns for happiness, I believe the Pursuit of happiness is a more interesting and satisfying after we have completed a stage of the journey. However it is a never ending journey, a journey which we all pursue till our last breath. And those who know their destination, plan the journey in stages and work hard for it will be satisfied and might do wonders to the society in many instances.

Though they may not reach their destination, those will be satisfied like the fox in this story.

The Naxal question

2009-10-29T08:58:00.003+05:30

Our Prime Minster Mr.Manmohan Singh has stated Naxalism as “the greatest internal security threat to our country". And he also stated that, "“We are ready to talk with any group whether in Jammu and Kashmir or in naxal areas provided they shed the path of violence.”

Certainly some encouraging words in a perspective considering the recent increase in the Naxal insurgency. The attacks, ranging across Central India spanning from Jharkand & Bihar in West to Maharastra in the east, have increased both in number and violence.

Initially I was still not able to understand the sudden increase in number of attacks, is it because they are getting more funds, organized training from some where? And also why suddenly our Government is so much focused on eliminating these people when there even bigger problems and matters to negotiate.

Then it dawned on me that Central government was forced to act against these people who are a hindrance to the mining which is going to be carried out in Central India, for which contracts worth millions have been signed. Hence, if these people are there they won't be able to freely ravage the forest lands, for the land belongs to these people.

One needs to travel across decades to know the real intensity of the problem. The word Naxal has coined when in 1967, 20 years after India's independnce, a group of youth from the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal, frustrated by their poverty, impressed by Mao's ideals, staged attacks over the local lords and tried to seize control of the lands and secure it for the poor. With time many Naxal groups sprang into action and never at any point of history they was good coordination between the different groups.

To these people Independent India meant nothing, as the existence of Indian state had no effect on them, which continues to this day. They have not been given education, health coverage, bare them all they don't even have roads even to this day. Hence their question is, why should I give back my land to the Indian state, the land which is the means to my survival, the land which is God to me, which has not done anything to me so far, which doesn't seem to do any good in the future also.

Isn't their question valid? Their means are certainly questionable, they are lot of innocent people who have suffered a lot due to their acts, there is no denying it. They need to be rooted out for the existence of the Indian State.

However had the Government have functioned properly we would have avoided this bad situation, does the Prime Minister or the Home Minister accept publicly that, "Indian State is responsible for the sufferings the people of Central India are in."

Sometimes I ask myself this question, what exactly is this Indian state? It doesn't care for the people or their problems, all it cares about is that it must have a clean chit in the world.

I believe it's time we jump in to make sure that the Indian State functions as it needs to be. I will try to think of and discuss in coming weeks regarding what can be done from our side to make sure the State functions as it needs to be.

We need to avoid these mishaps

2009-10-24T02:49:00.003+05:30

Though these days I am slowly becoming numb to the accidents, natural disasters, political comodies happening in India, I have not reduced my addcition of going to Google News once in an hour or so. Being Friday and no mood to work after 5, I opened the portal and the first headline was "Mumbai accident: Two dead, 12 injured".

On reading the details of the accident, I couldn't resist my anger, especially when I came to know that the action was pending on the bridge since 2002. Worse still "Onlookers said that the girder broke because it was placed on wooden planks, which had detoriated over the years due to water seepage", more here.

This is yet another thing which could have been avoided had better sense prevailed among the concerned. It seems a local train rammed into a water bridge which had collapsed into the tracks. The frustrating part is that the bridge has been in fragile condition for a long time, however, proper repairing couldn't was not carried out. Thane Municipal corporation and the Central railway division are blaming each other for the mishap.

Had not been the alertness of R.Ramachandran, the Engine driver who spotted the wreckage on the tracks and braked quickly, the damage would have been more. The worst thing is that noble man is no more.

I believe our country keeps running through the sincerity of thousands like Ramachandran. Let's hope his family is taken care of.

Not sure whether they had changed the Thane - Mumbai track since 1853.

No more watching Cricket

2009-09-15T07:49:00.005+05:30

I still remember those days at Nungambakkam, Chennai when I used to get up early in the morning along with my Grandfather and my cousin to watch the Cricket World Cup held at Australia in 1992. For the past 17 years Cricket has been an integral part of my life, just like a typical Indian kid one of the activities for which I have spent a major portion of my life time is cricket. I have been so mad and passionate about the game in my life so far, I have faked stomach aches as early my III standard to watch Sachin play, cut my classes to see Dravid forge a beautiful century in Australia, sacrificied a lot of things to watch and play the game.

The moment I open my web browser,my hand involuntarily will type www.cricinfo.com, though I am not a great player of the game I was a kind of nerd in cricket.

Then why suddenly stop watching the game which has been so close to my life?

The thing which made me take this decision was India teams act of playing in Sri Lanka, a land which a genocide has just taken place. I was disgusted to see that Indian team choose to play over there at this situation, it's money which counts and not anything else.

A few of my friends considered me stupid and told me that the decision is not in the hand of cricketers, I do agree that. But if they had refused on moral grounds, a lot of people would have sat up and noticed the carnage which goes on. And all the more there was one tamil player in the who didn't expressed anything about what's going on there.

I don't know why people never think in these lines, why are they not sensible.

Some do question me that I am overflowing with emotions just because I am a tamil, for those I would like to strongly state that I am a human. I have spent lot of slepless nights thinking about the plight suffered by thehardships faced by people in Kandhar, Darfur, Gaza, North West Frontier province, Eelam, North Eastern India, Kashmir, Gujarat, etc.

I am more attached to Eelam because I have seen many who have been affected by the problem. Also if I can act with proper determination and sensibility I bring a change to their lives. Though I have to admit with guilt that I have not done it properly so far.

Thats why decided against watching cricket and do something useful during those times. Sometimes it is tempting to watch it, but so far I have been able to restrain myself. I have not visited Cricinfo's website once I came to India is going to Lanka, however watched a few portions of Lanka Vs England match when they were watching it in my room. But certainly determined to stop watching cricket.

When we ramble about change, these people are working hard for it.

2009-08-22T23:24:00.005+05:30

I am one among the thousands who ramble about the evils and ills which are dragging down our country. Whenver something bad happens, we feel bad about it in our minds, some discuss it with friends and some scrabble something somewhere.

We say that in our country change is not possible. We feel that whatever we set out to do will encounter a blockade somewhere by a politician or a bureaucrat or the police or the local rowdies. We do cite many examples of persons who had tried and failed, but rarely we see people who make a good try. In more simple words, we try to shift the blame to some one.

The IT boom has indeed bought some changes, people have started to earn more at a very young age. And among them there are some who can really see the ills of the society and a few of them tend to act towards it. Thats why I believe you can see the sudden spurt in the number of Non Profit Organizations working towards the betterment of education, Bhumi, Anavi, Nanmai, Saaral, Disha, Vidial to name a few. There are many more orgainzations and each of them is trying to something from their side towards the betterment of the society.

The question which constantly arises in my mind is, "Are these organizations enough to bring a substantial change in the society?"

My answer is a strict no, the reason are,

The rate at which these engines work certainly cannot keep in pace with the factors which detoriate the society.
A government can easily collapse an organization like this in a matter of days.
Education, the area which almost every organization concentrates, is one of the the pancea and not the only one.

We certainly need more organizations which jump into the political arena and fight for the injustice, evils and make sure our society head towards in the right direction. The bitter truthis these kind of organizations are very hard to find. People hesitate to enter this avenue mainly due to fear, fear of their career getting derailed, fear of something happen to themselves or their family, fear of financial insecurity and a lot more. Thogu some fears are true, some of the fears are imaginery, hypothetical. We need accept the facts humans are selfish brats.

Lot of us would love to do something of this sort but are not doing them. We may not jump into the arena, but we can atleast recognize and support people who do it, correct?

I consider myself lucky for getting in touch with such a set of people. On 8th February, 2008, I attended, Thesathirku Thool Kodu an initiative by Shanti Ashram at Coimbatore organized every year with an objective to Gather people & Organizations who are inclined towards the betterment of our society. In that meet I meet Sundharmoorthy na from Vavipalayam, near Coimbatore. Sundar na was representing Sidhanai Sirpigal, an organization which he co-founded, which had bought about significant changes in Vavipalayam. (Google it and you can see the difference they have made, BW had an article a long time back).

Nandhakumar na, representing Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam (Dr.M.S.Udhayamoorthy's organization), was one more intresting person I met there . Nandha na working in a software company had resigned his job to do research and work for the improvement of the Panchyat raj improvisation. Seeing a person who was just a few years older than me who had given up his job to pursue something which a lot of us hesitiate to dream about was something which gave me goose bumps.

Both Nandha na & Sundhar na were active at Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam, operating from the North Avenue road, Thiruvanmayur. I was infuriated by the fact that I haven't noticed it despite walking on the road several times. From June, till I came here to Delaware in Jan, I used to visit them consistently and be in touch with them regarding the happenings they are doing.

To eloborate a bit about MSI, they were an orgnization who were working towards bringing about social and political awarness to the people. They are doing a monthly magazine titled "Nambu Thambi, Nammal Mudiyum" and working different avenues like Panchyat Raj, Education, improving the Governmental activities, agriculture, Prohibition, Corruption. At MSI, I came in touch with Senthil na, Siva Ilango na, Prabhakar na, Mohan na and a lot of more other people. (Think I can devote a post to each and everyone of them).

Their commitment towards bringing a change was something which awesturck me and the results they produced were also good. They were a pretty determined lot and were working hard. I had a chance to take part in some of their discussions and found them to be very productive.

Last month, they formed a political political party called Makkal Sakthi and contested in the Bargur by election. Ilango na contested the elections and came third.

I got a mail from Senthil na, regarding the vote details.

Vote details and analysis:

DMK - 89481

DMDK - 30378

Makkal Sakthi Katchi - 1985

CPI - 1640

BJP - 1482

OTHER INDEPENDENTS IN BARGUR:
- RAJESH - 3482
( THIS IS A DMK SPONSORED CANDIDATE, WHO FOUGHT IN BASKET(KOODAI) SYMBOL WHICH IS LOOKING LIKE DMDK'S DRUM SYMBOL..HE WAS SPONSORED TO SPLIT THE VOTES OF DMDK.. OFCOURSE, THE CANDIDATE IS DMK CANDIDATE'S OWN SISTER'S SON!!!.SO THE VOTES HE GOT IS NOT REAL VOTES.. THOSE ARE VOTES THAT SUPPOSE TO GOTO TO DMDK!!!..Read about this symbol confusion @ http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2009/07/15/tn-dmdk-candidate-files-case-against-basket-symbol.html)

- MAHESWARI ( KONGU YOUTH PARTY ) - 946
- PADMARAJAN - 852
- SAKTHIVEL - 694

THE RESULT SHOWS THAT

- PEOPLE ARE READY TO ACCEPT AND VOTE FOR NEW PARTY TOO, IF WE APPROACH THEM PROPERLY.. OUR DOOR TO DOOR CAMPAIGN WORKED WELL.

- ELECTION COST IS NOT A BIG DEAL. OUR TOTAL CAMPAIGN EXPENSE IS LESS THAN Rs.50,000 only. With this itself we were able to do a decent campaign.

As soon as the party launch press meet is over, we came to Bargur. So, not able to communicate effectively to all our email network. Sorry about that. As soon we return to Chennai, we will update our website and will call for a meeting to brief you about our policies and strategy. ( At present you can download the pdf version of our policy doc @http://www.makkalsakthi.net )

CHANGING 'VOTE BANK POLITICS' INTO ' POLICY BASED DEVELOPMENT POLITICS' IS A VERY BIG TASK... WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN AND SUPPORT THIS INITIATIVE.

I am really happy and proud about the way the are heading. Wishing them all the best.

Hats off to you all.

PS: For hardliners who say that Lok Paritran was not supported by people, change will not happen overnight, it will take some years. Their intentions was good, but the apporach was fatally wrong.

Don't blame the girls alone......

2009-08-16T01:14:00.008+05:30

This is just another blabbering of mine, but think it's worth a moment to think about it.

Yesterday night was a typical bachelor's Friday for me. In the evening I played tennis for a decent amount of time, the first time in my life I served an ace, phew it is real. (After that came a game in which I had just 3 double faults). One set of friends wanted to go to Kaminey,

though I was a bit enticed to see Priyanka Chopra on the big screen, I decided not to go due to variety of reasons, budlight lime being one among them. We made some Rava Kichadi for the night and had some Breadsticks and buffalo wings from Domino's.

As it happens in the life of any bachelor, after a drink and nothing to do on a Friday night, a topic came in for vetti pongal. Sometimes these topics are of very great intellectual quality, which normally doesn't strike our mind, or things which we don't gave a damn about due to the various entertainments available around us. I love to be in discussions like this which give me an opportunity to realize how I think, what's my attitude, etc. (Provided you don't booze too much, if you do so, then it's a different story altogether).

Let me came to the topic, recently back in my company they banned wearing Casuals on Friday. The topic stated with the discussion of why did they ban the casual attire (to be read as Business casual, that's what they call so)? My friend told that one of the primary reasons is because of certain section of the girls wearing pretty indecent attire. It is certainly one of the reasons, I have seen certain girls whose costume will take your mind for a wild ride. But that doesn't rule out the boys who do wear a round neck T-Shirt with a glaring design, a jean with n number of pockets and sometimes which is torn at some places. Wearing what they like is an individual's right but when you are representing an organization there are some lines which should not be crossed, this was the reason why the Business Casuals were banned.

The argument from my friends perspective was that it was because of the Girls the Casuals were banned. My side of argument was though it was one of the primary reasons, I couldn't place the blame on them. I am articulating my argument as below,

"Every male or female (in most cases) tries not to be a common person. They want to stand out from the crowd in one way or another. Out of these some section want to attract the opposite sex, a section which will have a smile maybe not on their lips but in their hearts to see members of the opposite sex turn around and say a Phew at them. And many try to make faces turn by dressing beautifully, the problem comes when we are defining "dressing beautifully". A pretty good Churidar, or a decent top and a jean can project a girl beautiful for sure, but not everybody thinks like that. Some tend to think that dressing more sexily will make heads turn around. As everybody knows a Man's mind more easily sways and he will turn for sure.

Men don't (need) dress like that, it is not common to see men wear sleeveless tops or a top which shows their hip. The reason is a woman's mind doesn't get swayed like that, their definition of good looks is different from a man's mind. Hence men don't dress like that, had it been a case where women start liking a man showing his hip, you would see the streets swarm with guys dressed like that.

So my take is don't blame the girls alone.

PS:

1. For me beauty is something which is not determined by external looks.

2. Time to have another budlight lime, don't know I love it pretty much.

I believe the best way to fight draught is inspire people

2009-08-04T18:49:00.002+05:30

You know during tough times it is always tough to do things which we do normally. It is even tougher to do things which are bit harder. Uttar Pradesh has been affected by a draught and people facing tough times. However you can't leave stones unturned because of a draught, actually you need to work more to overcome the situation. So how to make people work hard during this, Mayawati has come with an innovative plan which costs Rs.656 crores. Check it out, hats off Maya.

14 Years in Prison for a joke - isn't it absurd?

2009-07-24T22:16:00.003+05:30

You would land up 14 years of imprisonment if you pass text a joke on Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

Is Pakistan a democracy? don't know. But reading this news made me laugh my heart out.

No more Chest Pain please, its time we get a change.

2009-07-22T00:33:00.004+05:30

I am trying to recollect the first instance of a Politician getting a Chest Pain immediately he / she got arrested due to some wrong deed of him / her. (Believe female politicians are also not exempt).

The rampant abuse of this option I believe started in mid-90s.Or maybe I started noticing them in mid-90s, as it was the age where I started to think a little. I believe we need to applaud them for the fact that they never even seem to hesitate to act like that, even though it is a clumsy, silly act which can be clearly seen by everyone. Even when I used to cut my school / college I used to think of more creative ideas, despite that I used to get caught occasionally. Whenever somebody notices my clumsy lie, I used to be ashamed of myself and never again used that again.

But these guys don't give a damn about that. Whenever they get arrested, they complain about a chest pain and get admitted to the hospital.

The case of TDP legislator T V Rama Rao, reported in Times of India, is one of the clumsiest I have ever seen. He was arrested for harassing a girl in a Nursing institute run by him. And as usual he complained of chest pain and was taken to the hospital.

The doctor, who examined him after the tests, said his condition is stable adding "he has no heart problems."

Don't know whether he has been moved to a jail or he is still ensoying at the hospital.

Whatever be the case, Guys no more chest pain please, its time we get a change.. As a responsible citizen who elected you, we need at least this privilege.

PS: I have a doubt since TDP's rival Congress is in power, the doctor mentioned like this.

Happy to share this Joyous moment.......

2009-07-15T06:44:00.004+05:30

There are some days in which you feel truly joyful, a sense of satisfaction prevails in your mood and you will be looking forward to do some good things in life. This is one of those days. Want to ask me what makes me so elated? Certainly I have not found my girl, if I had I would screaming at the top of my voice and would have been busy talking instead of blabbering something in this weird blog of mine.

Just now I wrote a post summarizing the success of 4 persons, who had worked hard to get a job and got transformed from a beacon of hope to a person who leads from front for their families. The thing which makes it special is that Vidial had the opportunity to support them to a decent extent in their journey. And thing which makes it more satisfying is that I was extremely close with one of those persons, Suresh for the past 3 years. I had a tab on the remaining 3 persons to some extent. I am extremely happy for these 4 people.

I would also thank Vidial, a group which I accidentally stumbled into, which gave me this opportunity.

Do read more about it in this blog post of Vidial.

Hindu and N.Ram are blatant liars

2009-07-11T03:35:00.003+05:30

As I grew up, like many of the kids in South India, I was taught that 'The Hindu' is one of the best newspapers in the land. Whatever it reports were supposed to be correct and I lived with the same opinion till a few years ago. I even used to revere it.

Till my final year in college, it never caught my mind that it was just passing news, just like a RSS feed aggregator. I was not able to see any series which were exploring socio-political, economic and other active issues in depth.I don't know why never did it occur to me that Hindu never concentrated on Active Issues of the society.

Apart from the Indo - US Nuclear deal covered in detail by Siddarth Varadarajan, I feel no other matter (One more which comes below) was pursued seriously as by it. There aresome good journalists like Sai Nath, V.R.Krishna Iyer, but I believe neither of them are bound to Hindu alone.

I lost my respect for Hindu after seeing the way it is covering the Tamil Eelam issue. It has always painted a rosy picture of the Sinhalese. One blatant example how partial Hindu is can be seen in the below article,

http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/04/stories/2009070457542000.htm

When the entire world is concerned about what is happening in the Concentration camps,

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6676792.ece

the way Ram has written is a violation of the basic principles of journalism.

There are lot of peoples who have been questioning the condition of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The autocracies of the Rajapakshe and his Government were blatantly bought into light after the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga, a person who was not afraid in expressing his views against the Government's action against the innocent people. Do read Lasantha's editorial, that throws light on the scheme of things in Sri Lanka, which was published after his demise. Lasantha knew that he would be murdered sooner or latter for his anti government stance, hence he wrote the editorial in advance and asked it to be published after his death.

I am proud and happy to see people like Lasantha, who are the embodiment of journalism. I don't know how people like N.Ram have the heart to do such false propaganda. To my knowledge Hindu has never published anything which says Tami people where killed or were hurt by the Sri Lankan Army. Is it not comical to say that in an operation of such a vast magnitude, an operation which was carried out mercilessly didn't hurt any Tamil?

I don't hesitate to call N.Ram a b*******. A interesting bit of News, Sri Lankan government awarded Ram, the Sri Lankan Ratna, the highest civilian in honor that is conferred by Sri Lanka in 2005.

Certainly we are living in an Orwellian world.

2009-06-26T23:14:00.002+05:30

Lot of times I used to ask myself this question. Are we living in a world which just gives the impression of being rational? Where was this rational when Africa and Asia were colonized, their natural wealth ravaged, their resources replenished and their people harassed, murdered, basic rights crushed. Didn't it all happen until 50 years back the impact of World War II made colonization a burden

Though I despise war not just it is violent, but the damage it leaves, the trauma it gives to lot the soldiers, people who were involved in the war for no reason of their own, that too in a war which is of no direct or indirect consequence to them. I would certainly tell that in the past 1 century more than 75% of the wars which we have seen are because of the selfishness, foolishness and cleverness of the people sitting on the top. George Orwell had precisely explained this in 1984. I would recommend everybody should read the book, one of those which change the way you see the world.

I am blabbering something else than coming to the point of this post. The recent happenings in Iran and the way Western Governments and Media has handled it reminds me of the Iran in 1953. At that time also we had precisely the same situation which we are now in.

Iran was headed by Mohammed Mosaddeq, a person who was democratically elected as the Prime Minister of the Iran. The crisis began in 1951 when Mosaddeq decided to nationalize the Oil resources of Iran. This came as a severe jolt to the British Government as it had the exclusive control over the Oil Industry. A war against was on Cards which was averted because of Truman's didn't budge. It is quite comical indeed to see a country not able to decide what to do with its national resources. Don’t know what does Sovereignty mean?

Luckily Truman didn't budge or else we would have seen another war, which history would have recorded as a War against the acts of the evil Prime Minister Mohammed , a tyrant paying no heed to the welfare of people. The two decades after the World War II were full of covert operations of the Two Blocs (especially C.I.A. & K.G.B.) in overthrowing the Governments which didn't agree with them either ideologically or economically. I believe Iran was the first stone on either side to fall for a covert operation.

When Eisenhower came to power in 1953, one of his first action, was to authorize C.I.A. to proceed with Operation Ajax, an operation whose goal was to overthrow Mosaddeq and install in a favorable government for the block led by USA. CIA trained, funded and armed SAVAK, the Iranian intelligence wing of Mohammed Reza Pahlevi. After the coup, Pahlevi was installed as the head of the Government and was in power till Iranian revolution in 1979.

A coup which removed a democratically elected Government by a dictator, the democracy western world is shouting about now.

After all this things do you want me to still believe that U.S. and U.K. are shouting for democracy in Iran? Absolutely not. There must be some motive behind this, don't know what exactly it is. Oil is a primary reason; one more reason is that Iran was planning to start a trading exchange for Oil, that too in Euros.

Everywhere I see the news that Iran Opposition is complaining about alleged misappropriations in the election. But if they are able to blog continuously, give photos of police beating the youth, why can't they give some solid proof of the alleged fraud in elections.

There might be something wrong in Iran and they way certain things are happening in Iran are not pretty good, especially woman rights and an individuals freedom. But certainly something of the magnitude which press and the governments are describing is not happening. Whatever maybe wrong with the internal politics of Iran, certainly they are not killing innocent civilians in their own or some other country for a threat whose odds are more than one in a million.

Why can't the western Media criticize Israel’s activities in West Bank and Gaza Strip? A country called Palestine which existed before 1947 is no more. All its inhabitants are subjected to ills which I believe nobody should ever get again.

Why didn't they talk a bit when Sri Lankan government crushed the rights of Tamils, and did Genocide? Not even a single gruesome picture came in the mainstream media during the past one year.

Certainly we are living in an Orwellian world.

Google now crawl flash files too

2009-06-22T09:33:00.001+05:30

Read in Google's blog that it's search engine can now crawl flash files and index the external sources which a swf file might use. I would be really happy to know how it really happens, need to spend some time on it.

Saina - First Indian woman to win a Super series

2009-06-22T09:09:00.003+05:30

Saina Nehwal beat Lin Wang(W.No: 3) of China to win the Indonesian open title at Jakarta on Sunday, June 22nd. It is the first victory for an Indian woman in a super series.

Saina is currently ranked 8th in the world and it is nice to see this 19 year old making constant stride. Lets hope time is not far when this 19 year old goes on to become the world number 1. It has to be noted that Saina's performance has been consistent, her World no: 8 ranking is a standing proof of the same.

See all articles related to Saina's victory here.

Isn't this queer?

2009-05-28T03:53:00.002+05:30

I noticed this report in IBN-LIVE's web page.

Vinita Devi has requested the Post Mortem report of her husband Gajendar Singh, a NSG Commando, who was killed in the operations during the Mumbai terror attacks last year.

This comment by Vinita Devi took me aback, "I never got any post-mortem report of his death but it would be consoling if I had one. I have the desire to see it. What i know (the cause of his death) is what was reported in the media. I will ask the NSG in this regard".

It is pretty amusing to see the fact that the kin of a miltary person who died on duty didn't get any official report regardind the death.

Yet another illustration of our media's responsibility.

2009-05-28T03:42:00.004+05:30

I was just browsing through NDTV's site now. I noticed that the bomb blasts in Lahore has got a higher precedence than the Cyclone in West Bengal.

Worst Still, in case of CNN-IBN Deccan Chargers arrival was considered more important.

Don't know where this is going to end.

The primary aim of modern warfare

2009-05-23T01:49:00.004+05:30

I am currently reading George Orwell's 1984. As I am reading I have two thoughts about Orwell

1. He had a mind which could conceive what would happen in future.
2. Or the world has not changed pretty much, except for technologies, since his time.

I believe the second statement is more true. I will put in a detailed review of the blog sometime sooner. For the moment, I couldn't resist putting this quote,

"The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. Ever since the end of the nineteenth century, the problem of what to do with the surplus of consumption goods has been latent in industrial society."

Sainath on the f******* Indian Media

2009-04-11T04:27:00.007+05:30

During my college days, I slowly understood that mainstream Indian media, both print and television, never even show interest in addressing the vital issues which needed to be addressed for the development of our country and our civilisation(I believe, we still have some).

Media is one of the most important tools to make people think and our media certainly failed in this. All that grasped headlines and attention of the media were topics which are of little value when looked in a macro perspective, a cine artist's private life gains more attention than the the sucide of our farmers. Rarely they do give attention but in the most stupid way possible just as it happened during our Mumbai terror attacks, when each planned operation of our commandos were explained and analysed so that the terrorists can easily counterplan.

Had the issues like Poverty, Narmadha Valley, unrest in North Eastern states, the Naxal movement, Indian government's role in Sri Lanka and a lot more gained proper attention and scrutiny, lot of lives would have been saved and lot of people would have lived happily.

All over the world, Media is the one of the best way of making sure that our rulers turn their attention towards what really mattered and required action. It is no denying the fact threat Neoliberalism has slowly gobbled Media also.

Sainath, clearly points that out here.

Change must come from within.................

2008-11-28T13:49:00.003+05:30

26th of November was yet another day which was of no use to myself or this world. As the day was drawing near the end, I was trying to do something useful for the day by attempting to read Stephen Hawking's "A Briefer history of Time". My room mate was surfing the TV when he saw the militant attacks at Mumbai coming as flash news, though he got excited, I dismissed it as another series of bomb blasts which our country had learned to live with and tried to bury myself in the book. As the clock ticked towards midnight we could figure out that this is not a bomb blast but an extremely well planned operation which is going to cause a major outrage in the world. We went to sleep around 1.00 clock still unsure of what was exactly unfolding in Mumbai.

In the morning when we switched our TV sets we saw that it had been a sleepless night for thousands of people. The whole world was watching as terror unfolded its clutches across the Mumbai, there was little anybody can do. The army was pressed into action and even their seasoned NSG commandos were finding it tough to flush the militants and save the hostages, it has been almost 48 hours since everything began but still the battle to save people is going on.

Yesterday (Nov 27th), it was raining cats and dogs here at Chennai, our house at Velacherry had had more odds of going under water. The previous night we had a small warning with the water reaching our veranda and bathroom at the back. The fear of water flooding into our house and the terrible situation in Mumbai had me in an awful state of mind and I decided to take the day off. I was alternating between Times now and NDTV to track what is happening in Mumbai till 11, but I got pissed off with some of their predictions and decided to watch a movie instead. These days our media houses are all about reporting and TRP ratings, it is really rare to see good journalism, seems with quantity has traded for quality.

I was browsing through my room mate Pannai's collection of movies and picked Batman Begins to watch, the recent admiration of Christopher Nolan's Dark Night made me to watch the movie though I had watched it earlier. I found myself enjoying the movie which I didn't when I saw it almost about two years ago, seems laziness and prejudice has slowly crept inside me in every walk of life. As I was going through the movie I felt what Bruce Wayne had felt in Batman, the grudge against the people who are responsible for the chaos prevalent in our society. I wished there would be a person for our country, the world to save it just like Batman did it for Gotham, though it was not pragmatic, I slept off with such a dream.

The situation was still pale at Mumbai when I woke up, but it was turning worse in my room with water slowly starting to seep in through the back door. Myself and my room mate had an intuition that this was going to worsen, hence we just shoved all the things lying around (usually too many in a bachelors room) into shelves and prepared a backpack to go somewhere. The waters level rose at alarming rate and as we left more the level was more than a feet. Wishing the situation would turn around quickly I left for my uncle's house at Beasant Nagar.

The travel was horrendous with my share auto severing along the breadth of road which had sank under water without a trace. The journey from Velacherry to Thiruvanmayur under normal circumstances takes about 20 minutes, but it was not a normal day. When we had finished three quarters of the distance, the auto came to a virtual stand still just before the Taramani junction. I waited for about 10 minutes inside the auto and thought trotting on the foot was a better alternative to reach quickly. As I came to the T junction of Velachery road and Perungidi link road there was a deadlock which any Operating system teacher would have pretty much liked to use as an example. A section of traffic was trying to take a right towards SRP tools, whereas the traffic from SRP had blocked the entire road. Worse still there was another set of vehicles trying to take a right towards the Perungudi road.

And all the vehicle drives were not just hoping but working hard to clear the traffic with persistent honking of their horns which amused me a lot. Though vice (we will discuss later what is the vice) has spread across the length and breadth of our country there are many persons who have not been still attacked by the same, maybe our population is too huge even for a vice or disease to spread. 3 persons unaffected by these vices were trying to do something for the traffic, buoyed by their spirit I also jumped in to lend my effort as far as possible. And after a struggle for about 15 minutes we were able to regulate it a bit. The worst part was we had to persuade, plead, shout at people to ease the traffice, everybody sounded that it is urgent for them to reach home and to them it didn't matter what happened to others.

In other words everybody was trying to follow Adam Smith's philosophy of "In a group best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself". Little did they realize that what John Nash had corrected it as "In a group best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself and the group". (Courtesy: A beautiful mind).

After half an hour of effort, I realized it is time to leave or else it will be too late to reach my uncle's house. As I walked my way to the next bus stop more than a kilometre away I was thinking about the vices which has engulfed our society. The first and foremost one is materialism, which has spread its tentacles across the length and the breadth of our society. Everybody wants to become rich, build homes, buy ornaments, cars, etc. There is nothing wrong in being materialistic but the way in which we attain materialistic is extremely vital in determining the health of a nation. I think our understanding of God is also one of the reasons why we are like this blaming everything on God and asking him for a solution instead of trying to find out one.

Call it fate or irony the fact is, the land in which Gandhi was born, people no longer have regard for the philosophy of means and ends which he adhered till his death. If we had indeed followed that principle of Gandhi, this country would have been a better place to live. Still it is not late, we could see a turn around in the lives of each and everyone of us, but it will take some time to see the effect. Alas, the present day Indian lives in an era of instant coffee and soap operas where he has become devoid of something called patience.

I believe the second most important thing which is proving to be a nemesis is patience. We are not even patient enough to wait for a traffic jam to clear, instead we just jump over the yellow line and take the wrong side of the road to reach our destination which ultimately will create a deadlock or an accident and in fact worsens the problem for everyone of us. It is not just traffic, we do it everywhere in every phase of our life from paying our bills in a shop counter to taking coffee in our offices, wherever it is possible.

The third reason is lack of social responsibility. The definition of Social responsibility has got narrowed down, by corporate India, to the helping of orphans, old age homes and destitute children. There is also another definition of Social Responsibility used by our media, it is about people coming out to help during natural catastrophes, terrorism etc. Do these things alone constitute Social Responsibility? I believe the above said acts are due to empathy and constitute only a part of Social Responsibility.

During the past two days I noticed lot of people blaming the Government for its inability to tackle terror, inadequacy to tackle floods. The only question I would like to ask each one of them is, "Who is the government?". If you are blaming the government it means you are blaming yourself not someone else.

The problems faced by our country is not due to the politicians or the administration, it due to each and everyone of us. We cannot become a developed country unless each one of us change, unless each one of us bring in control the demons in us.

I have come across many people who talk about the problems in our system and are ready to work for the change, but they want to see the change immediately. Change in a country with such a big population will not come quickly, it might take years, even centuries. For that to occur we must start now, lets strive our best to leave this world a better place for the generations to come.

For that the Change must come from within.................

Is bailout really neccessary, no I don't think so.

2008-10-18T23:40:00.004+05:30

Few days back, I wrote a post stressing the need for bailout. I came across an article which which pointed out that how the bail out is going to make life worse for the common man me explain how it is going to be worse.

Say Mr.X has taken a loan of $200,000 from a mortgage firm for buying a house. The mortgage company in order securitize the loan, converts the it a bond and sells the bond in the open market. The bond is bought by an investment bank or a mutual fund or a pension fund since it offers good returns. In order to securitize their investment, the entity which bought the bond insures it with an Insurer. when Mr.X defaults, then it sets off a chain reaction which affects all those involved in the chain of events, i.e. the mortgage company, investment bank & insurance company.

The guys with with fat pay checks in Wall street never cared about the fact that this vicious chain may crash. All that mattered to them were profits, never the means to achieve it. Wall street being the brainchild of capitalism came up with a master plan to save their skin from this economic breakdown. The US government $700 billion bailout save only the financial companies from bankruptcy and leaves Mr.X in total disarray.

The bailout has put a double burden on the common man, first $700 billion has been made raised from the tax payers money which includes Mr.X's contribution also. We need to remember Mr.X has been shown door from his house has he has defaulted his payments. His house would be auctioned off now and say it is sold for $50,000. Mr.X still has a liability of $150,000 to his mortgage company. In other words he needs to pay for the house he doesn't have and also he has to pay for preventing the financial institutions from crashing, the very same institutions which has left him in lurch. These guys do have a lot of brains.

Had this bailout not happened the entire world economy would have collapsed and a new world system might have been formed. Of course we would have faced many problems, but I sincerely believe it might have cut off the wings of Capitalistic Imperialism. The bankers have made sure that this didn't happen and Capitalism continues to thrive so that they can reap it's benefits.

Friedman points to Gandhian ways for recovery

2008-10-16T23:46:00.002+05:30

Today in New York Times, Friedman has written a nice article, Why How Matters, in which he points out that it is not the goal alone which matters, but also how we achieve the it.

Gandhi had always argued same, it is called the Means and the Ends concept. i.e. it is not enough that we must have a very high goal, but the means we employ to achieve the goal is equally important. Though I am not a great fan of Gandhi, I greatly admire him for this particular trait. I believe at this hour when one of the biggest ever economy crisis of post World war II era is slowly catapulting, this concept of integrity is very important to improve not just the economy but the living standard of the entire world.

Bailout is neccessary

2008-10-15T19:07:00.002+05:30

I came upon this article by Scott A.Kjar . Though his argument theoretically seem correct, I believe the bail out is necessary without which lot of banks would collapse and the one to be most affected would be the common man. The bailout might be helping the banks whose policies were managed by the greedy and dumb guys, who failed to foresee the catastrophe, but I don't find this reason to be strong enough for people who had invested in these institutions also to suffer.

The increasing liberation policies and complex instruments make the functioning of banks and economics incomprehensible to an ordinary man and is really tough to expect him to analyze this situations beforehand, when seasoned economists themselves have been left confused. The bailout in turn must be followed by stricter regulations of the market and trail of those responsible.

Be a bit slow, Mr. Chidambaram

2008-10-04T11:56:00.004+05:30

Prakash Karat has lambasted P.C for his aggressive stance to deregulate India's financial market.,d despite the fact that the entire world economy is plunging into crisis. At a time when economists all over the world agree that there must be a rethink on the current strategies, worldover it is really worrying to see some of the bills that are being discussed in Indian parliament. The most sensitive one is the Pension Regulatory Development Authority (PRDA) bill which seeks to allow the pension funds in capital markets. With the entire financial world running on speculation, I think it is not a good idea to allow pension funds to invest in financial markets, especially derivatives, futures and stocks.

I believe a detailed discussion must take place before any action is taken, let's hope Chidambaram doesn't act in haste. One thing which worries me a lot is the fact that BJP are also neo-liberal and this could prove a boon for P.C. It is upto each and everyone of us (Indians) to make sure that we follow the progress of Pension Regulatory Development Authority Bill, Banking Regulation Amendment Bill and the Insurance Amendment Bill.

This was how A.I.G. went down

2008-10-03T19:20:00.005+05:30

I came across an article in NY times by Morgenson regarding how the insurance giant A.I.G went down.

The article gives an immaculate picture of how Joseph J. Cassano and his 376 member AIG financial group, stationed at London, bought about the demise of the parent company via Collateral Debt Obligations(CDO).

I am still unsure whether the $85 billion bail out by Fed is enough to sustain AIG, because with the number of home mortage defaulters increasing, the CDO liablity of AIG to its clients is bound to increase.

From latter part of the 20th century, the way economy is running has become incomprehensible to a common man. I believe if we want to improve this world, knowing economy is one of the most important things. Time to buckle up and do some reading.

NSG's approval, a step foward

2008-09-11T22:22:00.003+05:30

The past few months have been a roller coaster ride for Manmohan singh and his cabinet collegaues. Manmohan Singh's persistence towards signing the nuclear deal had almost robbed him of his prime ministerial post. His hard work has paid off with the unconditional waiver by Nuclear Suppliers Group at Vienna on 6th of September.

Nulear Suppliers Group (NSG) has agreed to waive the restrictions for the supply of Nuclear fuel, reprocessing for India without any restrictions on our Nuclear Arms programs. Any ban or revoking of fuel supply, reprocessing techniques, in case of India restarting Nuclear arms programme, be based on the consensus of 45 member NSG. Consensus is highly unlikely since India can bank on some nations like Russia, France for help.

The unconditional waiver by NSG is certainly a significant achievement for India as a nation. Let's not forgot the fact that NSG formed as a response to the Nuclear tests conducted by India, at Pokhran, in 1974. Also one of the primary motives of Warsaw plenary of NSG in 1992 in adopting the full safeguards agreement was to deprive India of nuclear fuel. The diplomacy and negotitations carried by Foreign Secretary Shiva Sankar Menon, Chairman of Atomic energy commission Anil Kakodkar and his team has been comendable.

NSG waiver doesn't no mean that we are going to have a cake walk, instead it is actually a path treaded with lot of landmines like Berman.

What irks me is the blatant criticism from all quarters that the waiver surrenders India's sovereignty. For those who pose a question like that, please answer the below questions,

1. Did the atom bombs possessed by us in any way deter the Terrorists attacked Indian parliament on December 11, 2001. We didn't even retaliate by destorying the terrorist camps in POK and the fact which has to remembered was that BJP was in power then.

2. Has our nuclear arsenal made China to withdraw from the Indian territories occupied during the 1963 Indo-China war? Or has it made China recognize Nagaland as a state of India?

3. Has our nuclear arsenal helped to solve the internal problems like Maoists, ULFA & Naxals? (I will not criticize these groups, will discuss about them in a separate post).

4. Or has the principles of left made West Bengal one of the prosperous states in India? I am not against the principles of a socialism, I am indeed one of the most ardent socialists. The fact is I believe the CPI(M) is not a proper representatives of the socialists.

One thing which the so called communists tend to forget is that the NSG waiver is an absolute neccessity to procure fuel from any country, including Russia.

In our country millions of people are living without proper food, water and shelter. At this time, do we really need to test more nuclear devices and announce to world that we are a nuclear power house? Just ask yourself..

Girl who slapped the entire mankind on face

2008-07-28T20:09:00.000+05:30

Severn Suzuki, at the age of nine, along with a group of children founded the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), which was dedicated to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. In 1992, at the age of 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and gave this speech which is a Slap in the face for the entire mankind. Simply superb, it is not enough that we watch it, but we must think about it also.

The transcript of her speech is below,

Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation.

We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference:
Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.

Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.

I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.

I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.

I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it.

I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going exinct every day -- vanishing forever.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?

All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you!

You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.

You don't know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream.

You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct.

And you can't bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.

If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians - but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody's child.

I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil -- borders and governments will never change that.

I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.

In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.

In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.

In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter -- we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.

Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: "I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection."

If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?

I can't stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.

I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:

not to fight with others,

to work things out,

to respect others,

to clean up our mess,

not to hurt other creatures

to share - not be greedy.

Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?

Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're doing this for -- we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everyting's going to be alright" , "we're doing the best we can" and "it's not the end of the world".

But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says "You are what you do, not what you say."

Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening

Rs.200 can change the life of this guy....

2008-02-21T20:24:00.005+05:30

Last week, I met a boy named Soundrapandian in a village called Elanthugudi, near Mayiladuthurai. My friend’s dad who is a school headmaster bought Soundrapandian to my notice.

Soundrapandian finished his MCA with First Class in 2005. So, what is so special about him? He might have passed the exams, but still has got many difficulties which need to be addressed. This guy is crippled with Polio to an extent where he cannot walk even with crutches. Worse still is his parents who were taking care of him are no more. He was under the care of his elder brother who also passed a few years ago. He has got a younger brother who also is crippled with Polio. Though his younger brother can walk, he cannot climb stairs, not even board a bus. Being the eldest son in the family, Soundrapandian needs to look after his younger brother, his brother’s wife and children.

So, what to do? He had enrolled himself in Tamil Nadu Government’s employment exchange which gave recommendations to some IT companies for enrollment. But multinational companies rejected citing they don’t need work force at the moment (Good joke indeed).

During his college years Soundrapandian worked part time in a computer center called Tamil Nadu Software College in Mayiladuthurai. After completing his MCA, he had worked full time also. But now, there is no one to take him to the institute, which is ready to offer a job at a decent salary.

So, what can we do?

A tricycle for the disabled costs Rs.3, 800 (Three thousand eight hundred rupees), if 19 of us can shell out Rs.200 each, we can get him a tricycle. You see this amount which is not very large can change the life of the family. If you are willing to contribute Rs.200, kindly please mail me at sathishmayil@gmail.com

Click here to view his certificates

Do remember the Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Though i am in a NGO I cannot help via it, since it serves only education.

Please don’t forward this mail and make it a mail chain.

Media is a tool to dispense information, but it has ..........

2007-12-30T10:58:00.000+05:30

I wrote this post at Human All Too Human Blog. Gautam helped me in editing this blog. Do leave your comments at Human All Too Human and not here.

Yesterday, I had been to a meeting with some friends regarding the challenges facing the IT industry, the story shifted to the traits of media in India.

Lets take a typical example of what they are doing now. When Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to jail, all the tv channels ran a live coverage of his movement from Arthur Road jail in Mumbai to the Yerwada Jail in Pune. In the same state, Maharashtra that is, where thousands of people who are committing suicide, they did mind covering this. The hot discussion was whether Dutt will celebrate his Diwali incarcerated or free?

Worse still, Times Now conducted a SMS poll on whether Sanjay Dutt should be acquitted or not? Crazy indeed. I don't understand why there is a court then? Some ran a story asking whether Sanjay deserves prison after imparting Gandhijiri to the people after Munnabhai. Isn't it completely insane? For the sake of TRP, they are just telling whatever they want. Times of India ran an article whose purpose I am yet to understand.

Whenever a natural calamity or accident happens, TV channels race to show the debris and injured. They believe showing people dripping with blood is an excellent coverage which precisely isn't. Never do they make an analysis of why it happened. Constructive journalism has almost vanished off in Indian Media.

In the events of 2007 listed by CNN IBN, one of the events was Bipasha Basu kissing Ronaldo, Sanjay dutt getting sentenced and lot of other crap. It seems the development of high-speed interceptor missile, Advanced Air Defence by our DRDO is a lesser achievement compared with Bipasha kissing Ronaldo. There is not a single event which shows the challenges faced by India. They seem to show all is well, which is were the purpose of Media fails.

These days they are even influencing the decisions by the court by conducting sms polls on what the people think and putting pressure on the judiciary itself. Why do these people give an opinion provided they don't know the facts about the case.

It doesn't end there, the stories which deserve a mention, issues which require attention are never mentioned. For a state to be successful, media must be rational, it must act as a tool to dispense information not as an entity to influence decisions.

Lets thank our teachers........

2007-12-17T23:14:00.000+05:30

Everybody knows the social problems facing India. Today I was talking to my friend regarding the same during lunchtime. We were trying to get deeper into the problem to find out what actually is responsible for the mayhem that we are seeing around.

One of the things that usually crops up during these kinds of discussions is politics. Though politics is a major factor, there is another thing that is more critical. It is the education everybody receives. If, each and everyone learn good ideas, ability to think and self-reasoning, this world will become a very beautiful place to live in.

Thus teachers play a very important role in a society. There are a lot of teachers who inspire students and probably every one of us must have certainly come across one. A good teacher isn’t a one who teaches a great deal of things, he (or she) is a one who makes us believe that we can scale new peaks, invent things, makes us realize the potential in us. In short a good teacher is a one who ignites the spark in our minds.

Though the quality of teaching is slowly and steadily facing a downhill in India, the primary reason for decline is mainly it is a non-lucrative job. These days, persons who aren’t able to find a proper job become teachers. With time, the breed of good teachers is slowly ebbing out.

What can we do?

Do we need to forgo our careers and take teaching? Anyone will call it absurd. It is going to be very difficult to give up this cozy life we are enjoying. So, what can be done?

We should at least encourage, compliment the teachers who are doing a good job. Just think about the best teacher whom you have come across in your life. While you are well enough to read this article in a computer, odds are high that he/she might be leading a pretty normal, some even struggling for the same.

Remember we fume at not given a proper bucket in appraisal after six months of hard work, we abuse our team leaders saying that they have not thanked us for the work we have done.

Have we ever thanked our teachers who are responsible for the lives we are leading now?

I haven't, I don’t think a lot would have. Let us do one thing for this New Year. We will find out the address of our favorite teachers and send out a New Year card thanking him / her.

Just imagine the happiness in their faces when they see the card. I bet many will cherish it and it will motivate them more to wield more responsible citizens. This might be a little thing, but I believe little things like these can change the society.

Sending cards is not only a way of thanking them, but also making them feel that are responsible for the society’s well being.

Quarter-life Crisis

2007-12-12T20:40:00.000+05:30

My friend had just sent this, really good, made me think, oho I am not alone. Also is of the same genre post.

They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now. You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere but that they are as confused as you.You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life.

You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try to cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person.

You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender! What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it.

We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

Musings of a Confused Mind

2007-10-02T20:03:00.000+05:30

When I first started this blog, I had called it 'My views.' After a long time only it stuck to my mind that everybody express their views only in their blogs, hence having a title "My views" is as good as not having a name. After understanding that I changed it to the Rene Descartes's quote "I Think Therefore I am". Though I knew that it is just a statement of what I am and doesn't give a glimpse of what I am going to write, my mind which doesn't have much of creativity couldn't think of another appropriate name for my blog.

If I tell that "Today evening when I was driving in the pleasant, cool road of IIT, Chennai the words 'Musings of a Confused Mind' stuck my mind", I myself would laugh at it. Because I know my limits.

Actually one of my friends who knows me quite well had sent a long mail regarding the state of India in response to my previous post. Its subject was title "Musings of a Confused Mind". On reading the subject, I was confused, because I didn't know that there existed a word called Musing. Then as usual I Googoled and found out the meaning of Musing. As I was thinking about his mail today evening I felt that, those words are apt for my Blog.

I am really confused and cannot understand this world. I cannot understand why the world has become so much materialistic. I am confused why nobody cares about others in this world. I am really confused why people don't even have basic ethics. I don't understand why many youngsters don't understand there a lot of things beyond Money and Sex in this world. A lot more can be asked.

I generally try to figure out why everything is happening, the reason is "Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life" just as Neo says in Matrix.

Anyway I would like to thank Gautam (he was the one who sent that mail) for giving me this title. Also I would like to apologize to him for not asking permission to use this title. Gauthi, hope you don't mind this.

Believe the musings will continue..............

It is really beautiful

2007-10-01T12:58:00.000+05:30

I happened to see the trailer of Saawariya. Though I don't know Hindi, I enjoyed it. The camera, lighting, costume, music seem to be good. Lets hope the film would be a good one. Ravi.K.Chandran has proved that why he is a leading cinematographer in this country.

There are thousands, other than orphans and old aged who need help in this country

2007-09-30T22:41:00.001+05:30

One day, last week, I got down from my Office bus and was walking along the Valluvar Kottam High Road, to buy some stationaries. While I was walking along, a few feet in front of me, a cyclist fell down in the midst of road. The way he fell almost everybody, including myself, in that place easily figured that he was drunk. Though I hesitated a few seconds whether to help him or not, my inner sense told that he must be helped first, and luckily it prevailed.

I took his cycle from the road, parked it on the sidelines, and that guy silently followed me. Meanwhile my mind had made up that I should not talk to him as he was drunk. Hence, I just started walking without a look. He called back saying thanks, which promoted to advise him not to drink and drive. (I believe a majority of Indians enjoy giving advice and I am no exception).

On hearing me, he started blabbering some thing. I thought to myself, "If this kind of stuff had happened to some of my friends, I wouldhave sat down with them and heard their story. Poor guy, lets hear what he says for some time." (The reason is many Indians drink mainly because they are sad, though there is no logical reason behind that.) So, why not patiently hear what this man has to say.

He said many things, (I feel they are not necessary to be mentioned here) which I don't know are true or not. I listened to him for about four minutes, after that I remembered my routines, hence gave him some consoling words and left. (Had it been one of my dear friends, maybe I would have talked longer. I am selfish indeed).

His life would have been different had he got a friend who would have corrected him. Majority, almost 99% of the people in this world are what they are, because of the environment around them.

I am no exception, I am writing a blog titled "I Think Therefore I am" not just because I knew Rene Descarates right from my birth. It is because my bringing up, friends acquaintances made me to think about Western Philosophy a bit.

It is really sad that, these days youngsters don't know what Marx said? Or what Bertrand Russell said? Or what J.Krishanmurthy said? Or what our Periyar said?

You may ask the question, why I need to know these guys If I am getting my food and I am living happily without knowing them.

The reason you must know these things, or at least have social awareness is because you are reading this in a computer just because 1 USD = 40 INR. Other wise we would have been in some town or village toiling hard for getting at least single meal a day. And the irony is majority of Indians are still experiencing it. Just because we are reading this sittting somewhere in an expensive laptop or a cosy office chair or an internet cafe doesn't mean that we have developed a lot. And what is happening to millions of Indians, humans might happen even to you some day, if the Dollar crashes. Beware that anything is possible in this capitalistic and materialistic word.

If people like us who are educated don't do things, it will be difficult to change things in this country.

I am not asking to discuss the Communist Manifesto or Dravidian Principles with your friends. I am not asking you to donate some hefty amounts to a NGO. But you can do small small things by not drinking a coke and drink a fruit juice. It will make a difference to an agriculturalist living somewhere.

I am not asking you to not go to onsite remain in India and be a swadeshi, bla, bla, etc. But you can donate 1% (or a fixed amount of say Rs.1,000) of your annual income to some organization in India which does some social service. It will certainly make a difference in the life of many.

I must thank that guy whom I met that day, he reminded me that there are thousands of persons other than orphans, old age people who need attention in this country.

Arise, Awake and lets stop not till the goal is reached.

BJP, please act sensibily

2007-09-27T20:37:00.000+05:30

The Ramar sethu issue has been the food on which Indian news channels are feasting upon in the past few days. The most comical thing about the issue is that the party which initiated the study regarding this project itself is vehemently opposing this project.

Do they think that every one in this country is foolish enough not to see this truth. BJP are making themselves a comedy act these days. First their blind opposition to 123 deal with US was really annoying. At no point they were prepared to discuss regarding the deal in Parliament nor they agreed to an all party meet, instead they just stalled the the entire proceedings of the Legislature.

They need to act as a more sensible opposition instead of just trying to make news.

Regarding the Sethu Project, a more detailed study needs to be done regarding the ecological damage. Otherwise the project can be executed.

They have just won a World Cup

2007-09-26T17:15:00.000+05:30

The winning of the inaugural ICC World Twenty Twenty championships has sparked celeberations across the entire country. A victory like this not only invokes celebration, it lifts the entire spirit of the nation. You can see the spark in the stride of a milkman doing his work in the wee hours, the delight in the persons assorting the newspapers in the early hours, the eagerness of the kids to go to school for discussing the beautiful moments, every where around us we can feel it.

Certainly these kind of triumphs lift the entire nation, but the question is whether BCCI & politicians are giving it too much of a hype. The bounties being announced for the players bemuses me.

Does Yuvraj deserve two crores and a porsche car when the domestic cricketers have not got their salaries and the coaches have earned only pennies when compared to the players.

If the Indian team needs to do consistently then, the domestic cricket must be strengthened. New pitches must be laid, academies must be created in every state, stadiums and ground staff must be properly maintained. It is not just the players alone who must reap the benefiets, the entire cricketing fratenirty must live.

If a player plays (just in squad, no need to play) an entire season, he will earn a minimum of 50 lakhs as match fee alone. Apart from that sponsorship deals, prize money for tournaments, etc. So, there is no need to worry about these players, instead attention must be shown on the relentless coaches and passionate grounds men who toil hard to create players.

Maybe BCCI can announce prize money for players, since it is making huge profit in the recent years, but I can't understand the logic in which the state governments are announcing prize money when a lot of more things require immediate attention in this country.

We need to realize that we have just won a world cup, lot of people in this country are still struggling for a single meal a day.

Manmohan, atleast reprimand Anbumani

2007-08-30T17:21:00.000+05:30

At last Anbumani Ramadoss has agreed to sign the degree certificates for AIIMS students after Delhi High court stepped in.

I still cannot understand the logic behind which Anbumani had threatened the suspending the doctors if they fail to come back to work. Years and years of handwork of the doctors were stopped just because of the prestige problem for Anbumani.

I think the correct way of showing that everybody si equal before law is by removing him from the Union Cabinet. This will not be done by this boneless government. Hence, at least give a public reprimand to him.

Sen , should he be recalled?

2007-08-21T18:19:00.000+05:30

Some fuel was added to the already flaming nuclear deal fire by Ronen Sen's interview to Rediff Abroad. Sen was quoted in Rediff Abroad as "It has been approved here (in Washington, DC) by the President, and there (in New Delhi) it's been approved by the Indian cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?"

Though he has given out a statement today that he was quoted Out of Context, the remarks by Rediif Abroad's editor Afiz Haniffa seem to contradict his statement. Haniffa has categorically stated that these comments were given by Sen when he was contacted.

The Remarks undermine the legislature, most important part part of any democracy.
Sen must be called for an inquiry before a parliamentary committee. If the Sen's comments are true, then he must be recalled immediately.

It is really amazing to find that the protest against Sen have ebbed out slowly. In India just like the media, the politicians also keep on shifting their focus daily?

If you have 10 lakhs, you can rape a girl

2007-07-24T18:15:00.000+05:30

Seems ridiculous isn't it?

But this what High Court has decided on a case.

A man committed a rape and he was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a trial court . He was acquitted by the High court after he proposed to pay Rupees 7 lakh as compensation.

It is absurd t0 see this judgment.

The person is Mansoor Ali Khan, a Tamil actor.

For more details read this article.

Don't where this country is heading towards. A rapist must be punished at any cost.

This case seems like bribing the judiciary straight away.

The judge should have secured that 7 lakhs for the girl and sentenced him to prison also.

I am back..........

2007-07-05T23:01:00.000+05:30

I had dreamed of blogging on a daily basis when i wrote my last blog, but now it has been almost 13 months (to be exact 478 days) since i wrote my last post.

It is quite easy to visualize things, but thats not how things are actually are.

One of the main reasons is the work i have been doing. It has been really hectic out there at office, for some time i even forgot that i have a family and many friends.

Sometime back only, i realized "work is just a part of life, not life".

Then didn't have a proper net connection back at home. If you ask, when did you move into this house? The answer is 3 months, i have become bloody lazy over the past one year because of working in this damned IT industry. Maybe we can talk about IT some time latter.

Signing off now, hoping to put posts more frequently from now on.

Should I be really proud of this government?

2006-05-14T19:09:00.000+05:30

When dawn arrives on the 22nd of this month, it would mark the end of two years in power for this Manmohan Singh led government. So, I thought let's sit back and see what has happened in this two years of his tenure.

I will never call this government, a congress government. Congress may be the the political party with the maximum number of MPs (145, 15 more than BJP) but I really don't understand how the Congress at times brags that Sonia has been given the people's mandate. It has got a representaion of just above one fourth in Lok Sabha.

One of the note worthy achievements of this Manmohan led government is our relationship with US. What an achievement it has been, though we had to pay a little for it like our ties with Russia, our prestige, etc. These things doesn't matter when we compare it with the cordial friendship of the Super power. Great job Manmohan ji.

Many may have forgotten the efficient way in which our honurable home minister Sivaraj patil handled the killing of Thangjam Manorama in Manipur by 17 Assam rifles. It was an event which must have made any Indian proud, if you had forgotten it, just read this.

The best of it has been voting against Iran at IAEA. It was the first time in our history, we were voting against a fellow Non-aligned Movement (NAM) country. I believe Nehru would have savored the occassion.

And now the the reservation issue and the way medical students have been handled in the most efficeint way by the delhi police.

And lets not forget the ever increasing petrol prices since they have come into power.

Manmohan Singh's government is worser than a puppet government, because for a puppet there will be only one person controlling it, but here quite a lot. Manmohan may be highly educated or qualified but he is worse when comes to leadership qualities.

Shivraj V. Patil, Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad, P. Chidambaram, S. Jaipal Reddy in this list, if you find a single person who has got good leadership qualities, please do tell me, I will be the most happiest man on this earth.

In the end of two years of UPA rule, please don't forward the mail "Do you know whose resume is this? " which was doing rounds some time back.

Just ask yourself, Should I be really proud of this government?

Sit back and think a moment about it

2006-04-16T23:05:00.000+05:30

"But you see," said Roark quietly. 'I have, let's say sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I have chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I'm only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards – and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one." - The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand, 1943

You will realise the meaning of this quote by the end of this blog, I believe, If not mail me.

Tonight at around 9 o Clock, I was surfing through the TV channels to idle away some time. When I was surfing, I happened to see Nasser's (For those who don't know Nasser, he is a Tamil artist, acts, writes and directs films, tele-films, drams, a superb creator) face in Vijay TV. Being a fan of Nasser, I decided to watch the drama believing that it will not be yet another idiotic sentimental Tamil drama which is a common site these days. My belief was not dashed, what I saw in the next forty of minutes of the drama, made me not only to take a walk through my Adayar neighborhood and but revisit the days right from my childhood.

The story of the drama titled Manam (Mind in English, hope I got it correct, I am not a great translator) was this,

"There is a boy, aged around 12, from an upper middle class family. He is quite passionate about football (like me, but I never fancied a career in it), he enjoys playing and watching the sport and hopes to make a career out of it. He is taking tuitions from one of his school teacher, whose husband turns out to be Nasser. He tells Nasser about his passion. Nasser encourages that boy, makes him believe that he will go on to become a great player and would don India team colors some day.

The boy's inclination towards football impacts his studies a bit. He his exam scores take a dip. His father and mother, just like any other South Indian parents don't like this. They ask him to abandon football and look into studies which alone they say will give him a good future. The boy argues, begs but of no avail. He withdraws from his school team due to his father's wishes, but clandestinely plays football then and there.

On the eve of an important match for his school, a player in the team gets injured and the coach asks whether he will able to play that match. The boy pleads with his father to allow him play that match alone, but his father doesn't budge. He is confused, he would love to play for his team but his father won't allow it. Finally he decides to play without his parents knowledge, but his parents somehow sniff something is wrong. On the day of the match, they lock him in the house and go out. He desperately tries to come out.

Finding no alternative to come out of the house, the poor kid jumps out from his apartment in the first floor (I believe, not sure) into a lawn. As they say, fate has its own piece of irony, he fractures his spine and his lower part of the body becomes immobile."

After that how Nasser inspires him to lead his life is a different story.

When I saw this drama, I just traveled back to my school days. I have seen a Volleyball player, a Violinist, a football player, a dancer who all would have gone to build a great career, now working or studying unrelated to what they would have loved to do.

I also wondering, how many of us are doing the job we were doing without love?

Studying well, doing a B.E. or M.B.A and getting salary in thousands don't mean that a person will be happy, why people don't realise this?

I have seen many who are earning thousands, but still leading a restless life.

I will not assure you that a person if he or she pursues the career will go on to become a legend in his domain, but he will enjoy his life. For those who love only money and lavishes, I don't have an answer.

I would like to tell a small story, my friend Kani told when I went to Bangalore last week.

Hope everyone knows the Fox and the sour grapes story, here it is retold,

"Once in a forest a young Fox saw a vine yard. Hanging high were bunches of grapes which would appeal to everyone, the Fox was no exception. On seeing those grapes hanging beautiful all over, its mouth watered. It tried to jump and have a taste of those grapes. After a number of repeated attempts, it still could not make it. It gave up and went off, saying that the grapes are sour.

On the way, it met an old Fox, the old Fox asked "Where are you coming from?"

The Fox answered, "I saw a vine yard with a lot of juicy grapes. I tried to eat some, and then I realized the grapes are sour and hence I started off".

The old Fox said, " You young fool, don't say that the grapes are sour, say that you are lazy, hopeless and you didn't try your best. The grapes are really tasty, go and try it if you want to see it for yourselves".

The young fox was pumped up, it wanted to prove it can but above that, it wanted to taste the grapes.

So, it went back, tried, tried, went on trying for days, months and years. Almost half its life span had gone, when it did it.

The news spread around the forest like fire. Everybody was amazed about how the fox jumped and plucked the grapes which were so high. Newspapers, media persons, photographers, animals thronged to catch a glimpse of the fox.

One media person asked, "Hi Mr. you have did it at last, congratulations. I have a small question for you, how were the grapes? "

The fox without expression said, "The Grapes were really sour".

The media person asked, "Then, why are you so happy?"

The fox smiled and said, "The grapes were sour indeed, that is a different issue. For all these years, I had just one notion to taste those grapes, I kept on trying and trying. I enjoyed each and every moment of the challenge, and I am satisfied over it. I don't care how the grapes taste. I am happy that I tried my best. I can't worry about an issue which I don't have control."

That is life, if a person does what he likes, he will enjoy the defeats and victories equally. To him, competing will bring pleasure than anything else.

The person cannot become a person like Sachin Tendulkar, Pete Sampras, Napolean and a Senna who all have natural talents. He can become a Rahul Dravid, Andre Agassi, Martin Luther King, Damon Hill who all become great through hard work, dedication, passion for their careers.

It may be too late for persons of our generation to restart our careers (I reckon, it still can be done), at least lets allow the future generation to have the career they like.

I love writing blogs, but there is no point in expecting my kid to write a blog when he doesn't even like to read one.

You might have wished to become a doctor or some other, but it doesn't mean your Kid also must like doing it. They will have their own liking, let them do that.

If I marry(Certainly don't know who she isas of now) and if I have a child, I will allow my kid to become a cricketer or a footballer or a pianist or a cartoonist or an actor or a model or a writer or an orator, anything my kid would wish to do. I don't care whether my kid will become a legend, I don't want it. I want my kid to be happy, thats it.

I and my wife will be happy if my kid is happy.

Every child loves to do something, remember even you did it.

At least allow your child to do what they love.

The day everyone in this country do what they love, I will call that day, India has become a developed nation.

Only you and I can do it, sit back and think a moment about it

Do you know, What God is thinking now?

2006-04-11T23:41:00.000+05:30

He will be thinking about how M.Karunanidhi, D.M.K party president will fufill his electoral promises, if he comes to power.

Have you heard the recent electoral promises of M.Karunanidhi, President of D.M.K. for the upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

For those who have not heard about that, here are they

We will provide

Quality rice at two rupees per kilo

FREE colour TV for all households that do not have one

FREE gas stoves to poor women

MATERNITY assistance of 1,000 rupees for three months before delivery and three months after delivery

WAIVER of all co-operative loans to small and marginal farmers

FREE power to weavers

TWO acres of land for each poor farmer

THREE hundred rupees per month to every unemployed person.

If DMK after coming to power tries to implement even 50 per cent of its promises the State will coffers be empty in a jiffy.

Giving rice at Rs. 2 alone will add a deficit of 3000 crores to the state budget. How are they going to manage it?

Then giving TV to all households without one is another absurd promises I believe. The manifesto states like this "Provision of colour TV sets to every family for women's recreation and general knowledge". How providing Television sets will improvknowledgege?

It is just a stunt to expand the penetration of the party's cable channel Sun TV.

The list doesn't end there, another most glaring fact is providing two acres of land to poor farmers. Where will Karunanidhi get lands for so many people?

At no point in the manifesto there is a mention of how the finances are going to be handled.

Does Karunanidhi think we are idiots?

I am not saying Jayalalitha is a one of the honest persons on this world. I am also not campaigning against D.M.K., just venting out my thoughts. Please do sit back and think about it.

A good comedy by the Central Government

2006-04-11T23:12:00.000+05:30

The Indian government has RS. 40 crores on the Bollywood stars for an eleven-minute show at closing ceremony of recently concluded Commonwealth games in Melbourne.
My friend Subramoni, bought to my notice this blog.

It is a quite interesting piece.

Really a good joke to see the Indian Government spend for bollywood stars instead of sports persons for sports.

Sadly, no incentive or cash bonus has been announced for the medal winning sports persons in the commonwealth games. The 40 crores spent here could have been used as cash bonus for the athletes.

BCCI is doing something good

2006-04-11T13:26:00.000+05:30

In yesterday's The Hindu , the following article regarding BCCI's plan to boost other sports appeared.

It was quite heartening to see BCCI trying to help sports persons from games other than cricket. With the money they are making, it is economically viable. What it needs for a thing like this to be done is a bigger heart and BCCI have shown they have one.

Let us see how far it reaches out.

Irrespective of how this is going to materialize, BCCI must be lauded for this gesture.

This doesn't happen often...

2006-04-11T09:09:00.000+05:30

After the Australian received ICC trophy for the best Test team and ODI team of the year, barely any would have dreamt in the wildest of wildest dreams that the Aussies will be trying to avoid follow on against one of the minnows of Cricket in two days. But that's what has happened in Australia's 1st test against Bangladesh.

Call it a miracle or anything, the Bangladeshi's are giving Aussies a run for their money.

Electing to bat, Bangladesh made a mammoth 427 in their first innings. World's highest wicket taker, Shane Warne got clobbered around for 112 runs in 20 overs that too without a wicket.

The funnier part was that Australia went into the match with five bowlers Lee, Clark, Gillespie, Warne and Macgill. Still they were unable to prevent Bangladesh from posting a big total at an healthy run rate of 3.46.

When it was the Aussies turn to bat, everybody expected there might be a world record score since the pitch seemed to be a batting beauty. But what awaited was even worse, half the team was inside the dressing room with the score at 79. Shane Warne departed at 93, then Gilchrist and Brett Lee salvaged some pride with a stand of 52.

Aussies need another 83 runs to make Bangladesh bat again, let us see what happens today.

The fact that the man who has been instrumental for this turnaround is another Australian Dav Whatmore tells the tale about Australia's hold over cricket nowadays. He has made an impact with every team he goes, first he bought World Cup glory with Sri Lanka and now inspiring the Bangladeshi's. Hope the so called minnows turn into a reasonable figure in World Cricket and make the world of cricket more interesting.

The issue is more complicated than you think

2006-04-07T22:21:00.000+05:30

I had a very good comment from Divya Achyutam regarding my piece about Medha Patkar.
And this was the comment.

" What exactly did you do to claim that you are with Medha??? Reading about her in the newspaper and and writing a blog is not being with her. What can you do today to help her stance? What can anyone do to help her stance? Is her stance on the Narmada issue right? After all, rising the dam height would only provide electricity to 3 states. Yes it would displace a lot of economically deprived people, but you are talking about three states on the other hand!!! "

Divya, at present I just can write and make many people aware about her. That was one of my intentions. I can't go all the way to Delhi and sit with her during the fast, I would like to do, but at present not able to do it.

Then raising the dam's height would provide electricity to three states, I agree. But at what cost?
At the cost of ruining the lives of thousands.

Instead the government can control the illegal electrical tapping that is happening all over India. Also lot of power is going wasted due to inefficient transmission and poor networks, do it first.

Power can also be produced from conventional resources like wind and sun from Rajasthan. Right now that source has not been tapped to full extent. Currently only private investors are investing more in Rajasthan wind mill projects.

What Medha and others are fighting for is proper land reallocation for the people. Where will the people go? They are poor helpless tribals. Had there been some Rajputs there, would the political heavyweights allowed it?

Supreme court itself has said only after proper rehabilitation, the level should be raised, not just providing money.

India has over 4,000 large dams. Three-quarters of India's dams are in the three states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and most are for irrigation.

Some facts about dams in India

Pros and cons

Indian food production rose from 50 to 200 million tonnes 1950-1997; two-thirds of increase from irrigation.
Data does not make clear what proportion of the increase was contributed by large dams: estimated 10%; Government claims 30%.
Before 1978 all dams built without an environmental impact assessment (EIA). EIA became statutory only in 1994.
Estimates of those displaced by large dams in India in the last 50 years vary from 21 to 56 million people.
40% of those displaced are adivasis (tribal people), Less than 50% of people displaced by large projects are rehabilitated.
Construction occurs under the Official Secrets Act; access is denied, information is withheld, participation is non-existent.
The costs of dams are systematically underestimated and their benefits are inflated.
Accepted cost-benefit ratio for large dams is not met in 8 out of 10 cases.
Heavy silting shortens the life of many dams.

There have been 17 cases of earthquake tremor induced by large reservoirs in India.

Only the first point is a pro, but that too has been rendered useless by poor farming methods and careless storage of food grains by the government. The government can fine tune these things and then increase the height of the dam.

These are just political acts to include it in the list of achievments of the Governmnet.

I got these facts here.

I actually don't know who this Divya is, but a heartfelt thanks for her, since here comments made me to give some more facts and the depth of the issue.

I also feel happy that somebody who I don't know has commented about my blog. I have no qualms or anything against Divya. Divya if you are not satisfied with the details, do mail me. I am also eager to know who you are?

Sorry Viera, luck seems to desert you

2006-04-06T23:23:00.000+05:30

Arsenal have knocked out Juventus from Champions league quaterfinal.

Had it be an year ago, Patrick Viera would have been the most happiest man on earth after that victory.
Now, the truth will be bitter for Viera. He left Arsenal in search of European glory, only to see his new club Juventus go down at the hands of his former club.

This year Champions league is all about Arsenal and Villarreal I believe. Just like Liverpool last year, Arsenal are having a poor run at English league but going great in Europe. They have defeated Real Madrid and Juventus to reach the semi-finals.Arsenal just like any other English club rely on a faster game with the likes of Ljungberg, Fabregas, Reyes, Pires and not to forget one of the best finishers in Henry.

I think they can clear the next hurdle against Villarreal but you can't discount the Argentine Juan Roman Riquelme, surely one of the most creative players around. Yellow Submarines own their fairy tale run to him.

Will they go on to win the championship just like Liverpool did last year?

It will be tough, certainly not unlikely considering their form and this is sport which throws a surprise when you least expect it. Arsenal will be facing the winner of AC-Milan - Barcelona encounter. I believe Wenger would love to face Milan instead of Barcelona, since Barca play more attacking football.

As a fan, I would like to see arsenal play Barca, for the 50th Champions League crown, on May 17th at State de France, Paris. Would love to see the Catalan attack test the Arsenal defense which has maintained eight straight clean sheets.

Before that happens, I have to get a Set up box in my chennai home to watch it.

Changing my blog name

2006-04-06T23:08:00.000+05:30

I changed my blog's name to My Thoughts from My Views.
The reason is am not getting enough time to sit down and write my views in detail. Hence, thought of writing down then and there about what I think generally in a brief manner.
Hoping to write posts more frequently, lets us see. Only time will tell.

We are with you, Medha

2006-04-05T19:47:00.000+05:30

It has been eight days since Medha Patkar began fasting demanding for immediate suspension of increasing Sardar Sarovar Dam's height by the Government.

On Tuesday, when Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz met Medha and told that he will visit the Dam's site and look into the issue, she didn't budge. Promises and assurances are not new to her, even we know it, won't she?

The project planning to increase the height of the dam from 110 to 121 meters, if completed will displace 320,000 villagers and submerge more than 37,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land.

With the kind of corruption in the country, hardly few of the displaced people will get proper reallocation and compensation.

Patkar has been fighting against this since the inception of the idea in 1985. The way Medha Patkar has carried on this struggle despite all odds is inspiring. Patkar's never ceasing efforts made World Bank rethink and review the support it was giving to the project. When World Bank found out that the project was not planned properly, the final installment of the $450 million was cancelled.

This is one of the many victories for Medha.

Through these years, she has never resorted to violent activities though she was at the receiving end many times. Irrespective of whether Medha is able to stop the government from constructing the dam or not,

She is the triumph of democracy.

Let's hope that she wins the battle and also recovers her health.

Doctors have said that the, next 48 hours are crucial to her health, lets pray that she will be well.
Along with Medha two others Jamsing Nargave and Bhagwatibai Jatpuria are also taking fast, lets pray for them also.

Good Luck, no sorry I will not say so, luck has never been her way. It's hard work, grit, determination which has bought her so far.

All the best, Medha. We are with you.

Axing of Ganguly, is it right?

2006-02-23T23:23:00.000+05:30

The Men in blue have stuck excellent form in the One day format.

Just imagine if Ganguly walks out to open the innings with Sachin at this moment, Dravid coming at No.3 and Shewag coming at No.4 which he also prefers because the ball would have gone a bit old. Shewag will also have a nice time clobbering the spinners around the park. With Yuvaraj and Raina coming at 5 and 6, the batting looks quite impressive. Then we have the versatile Pathan and swashbuckling man from Jharkhand, both having the ability to bat at any position, the team will be unstoppable. When it comes to tests, Dada has not been a major force even at his prime and hence I would take Yuvaraj or Raina and groom them for future as the three musketeers Dravid, Sachin and Laxman will retire at almost the same time, 3 or 4 years from now. This is what my heart loves to do.

The question is does my brain also say Ganguly must be selected?

The answer is a clear no.

Ganguly is better than Sachin in offside, he is the most aggressive captain India had ever had. He changed the face of Indian cricket. I agree with all these.

I am not saying Ganguly must be out of the game because he is out of form. It is because he didn’t have fitness and didn’t care to improve it. He began to think as a captain, he is entitled for an automatic selection into the team irrespective of his form and fitness.

He thought that he is bigger than the game.

Be it be Sir Don Bradman, Vivan Richards, Courtney Walsh, Sachin Tendulkar, Imran Khan, anybody, anybody,

Nobody is ever greater than game.

Ganguly thought the otherwise, that’s why I want him out.

It might have been due to the rapport he had with Jagamohan Dalmiya which made him believe that he will be in the team at any cost or the adulation Indian media and public gave to him which may have gone to his head and bought him down.

I am also a die hard fan of Ganguly; I would love to watch Dada coming down the track to loft a spinner into the stands, play a cover drive which pierces a packed off-side field.
But, still he should not be there in the team; this must serve a lesson to him, a lesson to all, a lesson that nobody is greater than the game.

For those who pity that talent of Ganguly is being wasted, let me remind you of one thing. Ganguly may have backed many young players, but he backed some to a very large extent despite their poor form for a prolonged period. Few players also become over confident and complacent since their place in team was assured as long as Dada was at helm, that complacency in them led to the Indian cricket team’s downfall. Also many a talent like Hemang Badani, Wasim Jaffer was wasted because for a simple reason that Dada didn’t like them, so don’t feel sorry for the prince of Calcutta. He is reaping the fruits of his own labor.

The story of Ganguly reminds me of Julius Caesar.

Clemenceau recalled, not because it's toxic, but for prestige

2006-02-19T23:54:00.000+05:30

The decommissioned French war ship Clemenceau has been recalled by the French president Jacques Chirac, four day prior to his visit to India.

If you think, it is because Chirac realized that the ship is laden with toxic asbestos, or it is because India's supreme court has ruled that the ship should not enter India as it is toxic or it is the fruit of the hard work carried out by Greenpeace and other human right, environmental and health NGOs against Clemenceau, it means you have been fooled.

The reason for the withdrawal of the ship is that, Jacques Chirac wants to avoid embarrassment when his visit to India starts today.

Don't joke that Chirac came to know about the toxic materials just now. The same French government only, which has recalled the ship now, had cleared the ship for dismantling in the ship breaking yards at Alang, India few months back.

How does it suddenly come to know that it's laden with toxic, that too just four days before the French president's visit to India?

The hasty decision clearly shows that this was done to avoid embarrassment for Chirac during his visit to India.

The irony is that nowadays the D-3 (Disgusting 3 - U.S.A, England and France, as I call it), never cares about other world countries. The D-3 doesn't seem to know that if a bullet pierces a man's heart he will die, regardless of whether he is a citizen or not of the D-3. They don't seem to know that usage of nuclear weapon by Israel or any other nation will cause damage beyond the wildest of the wild dreams of a normal man. They don't seem to know that wherever a ship having asbestos is dismantled, it might cause cancer. To them the World means U.S.A., England and France.

At this juncture, I want to make a mention about the hard work done by Greenpeace for bringing into notice about Clemenceau and it's campaign against Clemenceau dismantling at Gujarat. Without it, the ship would have been dismantled without a ruffle at the ship breaking yards of Gujarat.

Hats off Greenpeace, We are proud of you.

The West is barbaric

2006-02-07T23:54:00.000+05:30

In the past few months a controversy has started needlessly due to a mindless act of a single newspaper and the way it is steaming, I believe this will have immense effect on the stability of the world.
The controversy started when the Norwegian paper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in its editorial. The cartoons showcase Prophet as a terrorist and are quite offensive. They mean to say that Muslims are barbaric.
"By this publication they have strongly proclaimed to the world, that not the Muslims but instead they are barbaric."
Adding fuel to the fire, many publications all over Europe and North America have republished those cartoons, saying this we are publishing it in support of free press. Come on, due to the autocracies committed by Bush, if I publish a flag of US with the word bastards in it, (I am just citing an example, I will never insult the US for the act of a single bastard, the whole country cannot be blamed for it.)

Will the West keep mum, leaving it as an act of free press?

Will it not cause outrage?

Will the European Union, NATO and UN all keep mum?

For you, West, your flag, your country is dear.

For Muslims their god, their rituals are more important.

How the hell can you all play with the beliefs of millions in this world? What right do you have to do so, is this free press? Portray Osama, Al Zarqawi, etc as a terrorist. Why prophet? Do any of the people in West know what Prophet has said?
I feel quite amused when I hear the West call the Muslims as uncivilized persons.
Come on; have you, the West ever acted in a civilized manner?
Whenever something is said about Jews, even against their autocracies, West labels it as anti-Semitism. The world knows what unjust treatment was met to the people of Palestine. Just rewind back to the French prisons in nineteenth century, if you find it difficult to go back you can see what's happening today in Abu Gharib and Guantanamo bay, surely civilized acts. Don't forget that Hitler was born in Europe only. Numerous examples can be quote, the question is can we account every single man in the west for those happenings. The answer is a firm no.

We cannot all those persons who have not had a direct hand over it and a lot would have resented those acts of injustice.
Similarly, due to the behavior of certain Muslims, we can't blame Islam and Prophet.

West needs to get civilized more.

PS: If you want to see those cartoons, go here.

Abolishment of TNPCEE exams, augurs well for the downfall of professional education in Tamil Nadu.

2006-01-25T06:31:00.000+05:30

The quality of professional education in Tamil Nadu has been witnessing a rapid downfall in Tamil Nadu during the last few years, the reason quite obvious, the incessant growth of Engineering colleges. The number of colleges has catapulted itself to somewhere around 220 mark compared to about 30 colleges about 7 or 8 years ago. The Professors and Lecturers strength is not enough to cater the sudden spurt of so many colleges all over the state (Source: The Hindu Business Line). The result numerous students just passing out from college have taken the post of lecturers in many colleges. This has lead to degradation in quality of the engineers coming out.

When all were pondering how to tackle this situation, Tamil Nadu Government has come up with a decision which further worsens the situation. The announcement of abolition of TNPCEE exam. it certainly spells doom for professional education. For those who ask how this will affect the quality of education is affected, I will ask a simple question.

In a book which has about 300 pages, is it difficult to score centum after studying it for about one and half years?

(These days, students start studying twelfth portions during eleventh standard itself)

The person who has good memory power can easily score a centum, its about mugging the book, no need that he/she must have understood the subject. TNPCEE served as an ideal filter to separate students who have understood the subject, have analytical and reasoning skills from those who haven't. By abolishing the entrance exams, the quality of student who enters an engineering college will be lowered, resulting in poorer engineers coming out.

The Government’s reasoning that students from rural areas are not able to get coaching for entrance compared to the students in urban areas is a lament reason. If we dig a bit deeper into the entrance coaching that is taking place in most areas, Government school teachers are actively taking part in them. If government wants to provide a good solution for the trouble, they can ask the government school teachers to coach the rural students, is it not possible? (I agree that Teachers-parents association is doing this work, but not highly productive, extra measures can be taken). After all teachers do get salary for month of April and May, so why not ask them to do the job. Will they not raise cries if salary is not given for those two months and then why not ask them to work? No this regime will not do it, because it fears losing votes in the next election from the teacher’s community.

One interesting fact is that, only this Jayalalitha regime during its previous tenure introduced this single window council, thereby making the entrance more effective. In fact this abolishment of exams is with a political motive to silence Dr.Ramadoss, PMK leader who was making a fuss about these exams some time ago. It is quite bad to see politics intervening education, really it augurs well for the downfall of quality education in Tamil Nadu.

First good snap using my camera

2006-01-19T23:40:00.000+05:30

Last week, I had gone home for pongal with my friend Jeeva. We reached our home town, Mayiladuthurai at 5.35 in the morning. When we got down at the bus stand, my friend bought to my attention a bus which was standing there. I got a pic of it here.

For those who don't know Tamil, the bill on top says, 'Sticking of posters is unlawful, those who do stick will have an imprisonment of one year along with a fine of Rs.5000'. Below that, they have pasted a poster regarding a cricket tournament to be held as part of Pongal celebrations.

Love marriage – does it determine whether a person chooses a career he or she loves?

2006-01-12T17:23:00.000+05:30

The question may be a bit odd, but I believe so. Perspective varies from person to person, hence before discussing about the question, I will tell my perspective of a love marriage.

Love nowadays which films, magazines portray and which many people believe is infatuation. In fact, Love is something more, it is felt by hearts, a state of selflessness for somebody who is nobody to you. It is about a boy and girl first getting close together understanding each other. With time they realize that it could be great for their life if they become life partners, the reason obvious. They understand and complement each other, which is essential for a happy life. It does not necessarily mean that both of them have similar thinking and similar tastes. It also does not that a good friendship between a boy and a girl would end up in a marriage. But if it happens, it would be really great.

In case of a love marriage a person can pursue a career of interest, because the person will be supported by his love. A person will be allowed to do so by his partner, as his love knows that only this could give him satisfaction and happiness in life. It is not the same in case of an arranged marriage, as both will have various dreams and aspirations in life. A compromise has to be reached which leads to the sacrifice of career, in most cases. A person may be happy, but will he be contended if he is not allowed to pursue the career of interest?

The answer is hard to be accepted, but it is no.

Though many other factors determine the career, I believe this one is the most important one.

What do you say?

Remember Narayana Moorthy may not have carved himself a place in history if he had an arranged marriage. He was able to venture into a new business only because of the backing of his wife.

This is true both in the case of a man or a woman.

Hats off, Sania

2005-09-06T10:13:00.000+05:30

Sania Mirza has become the darling of India after her superb display at U.S. Open. She had made the world notice her, not just for bright coloured T-shirts and ear studs but for her game.

A friend of mine innocently asked, "Hey, she has just gone into the fourth round, is it that big?"

I was really a bit astonished when he asked it.

Remember she hails from India, where the government, corporate and people believe Sports means Cricket and vice-versa. No one cared about her till she won the Wimbledon junior title despite of her good performance in ITF circuit before that itself. At least they are following from the start of this year, lets be happy about it.

No Indian women has ever won a second round in a Grand slam till Sania did it in Australian open earlier this year and now has bettered the record now. She is not a bolt out of the blue, her progress has been steady since she turned pro.

The press has been giving her a lot of limelight (She deserves it), but scrutinizing her choice of clothing, behavior, etc is quite bad. We have got a superb talent slowly flowering as a genius, let's back her up. The coolest part is Sania doesn't seem to allow these to get into her head while she is on the court. This gives us the hope and belief that she will climb up the ladder in rankings.

Hats off, Sania for what you have done.

929, 784, 984, 704, 456,304, 613, 735, 312, and 1874 – What is this?

2005-07-28T15:44:00.000+05:30

Looks like the runs Sachin Tendulkar has scored every year in ODI's, if you believe so, don't get bewildered when you know the truth. It is actually the number of civilian deaths in Iraqi cities of Kabala, Najaf, Nasiriyah, Basra, Hilla, Baqouba, Kirkuk, Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah. I have not mentioned the biggest toll of 11,264 at the Capital city of Baghdad.
Is this what they call War against terror, when it is actually creating terror in the minds of people?

For those who feel that London bomings are an act of terrorism, what do you say about the above mentioned death toll? If the killing of 55 people in London can be termed as terrorism, what do you say about the things happening in Iraq?
Is the U.S and British terrorists? Or the people who strike out due to anguish?

If you say, hey man you don't have a humanitarian side, violence for violence is bad, don’t be a sadist, etc, I request you to think for a minute about,
a.) The Iraqis who have no place like G8, G4, NATO, etc to tell their plight, no world leader to condemn the acts of the U.S and British in Iraq.
b.) Where can they go and tell the injustice met to them when the United Nations itself has become a passive observer to the autocratic acts of U.S. and British?
d.) Do they give respect to human rights at Guantanamo bay and Abu Gharib?
Considering the situation, do you expect the Iraqi’s and Muslims all over the world to adopt a peaceful mean to solve the problem?

"When a person slaps you on face, show the other side", those days are gone man,this is a world there is no place for ethics and moral values.

These kinds of bombings are the aftermath of their own acts of United States and British.
Till the Capitalistic greed’s of the major powers cease to exit, there will be bombings, attacks on innocent civilians will continue as it is the only means, by which the opressed can show their frustration for the injustice met to them.

I am not justifying the acts of the so called terrorists, am just asking you to see from their perspective for a few moments.

Can India become a developed nation?

2005-03-26T20:08:00.000+05:30

We have at the helm of our Country a renowned personality, a decent writer, a intriguing scientist in the form of Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, who says India is going to be a developed country by 2020, the question is
Can we realy become a developed nation?
What are the challenges facing us now ?

The first and foremost challenge facing us right now is that we are not paying proper attention to the backbone of our country, i.e. agriculture. One who is vulnerable in his strength can succumb to injuries more easily than a weaker person who is strong in his strength, this is the case that's happening in our country presently. We need another Green revolution to restore our glory from small nations like Cuba which has overtaken India as world's largest sugercane and coffee producer and Bangladesh which produces more jute than us, we the world's biggest democracy are sitting back and watching others outwitting us.

The second challenge is the lack of foresight among the youth, we can't blame them for this instead we have to blame the improper moral and awareness education imparted in schools. Youth in India don't pursue a career in which they are strong at instead they just go by the trend, eventhough it may not suit their style and skill. Some good examples being the B.Com crush of the eighties and the B.E. crush now in this decade.

The third one being those loyal and truthful ones who after years of study in India want a change and go to foreign countries to earn money, commenting about the poor conditions back home, in which they learned their basics.

The last but the most important of all is the educated and learned persons not taking to politics reasoning its filthy, I just want to ask a question to all who say politics is a drain, it's filthy, if everybody goes on saying like that, then who is going to clean the drain? You educated persons, who know that a drain that too polluted is harmful, don't even bother about cleaning it, then you must be ready to live with that stinking smell of it. These days even people who take to civil services is also decreasing at an alarming rate, what to do?

Don't call me pessimistic or anti NRI, am just staying the truth, at times truth hurts, but it is still truth. It's not my intention that India shouldn't become a developed country, but am pained to see that its going to be a tough road ahead, unless otherwise a dramatic change comes around.

This being my first post, I have become a bit diplomatic and philosophical, from next time and all this will not be the case, also the blog will not be long. It will be short, crisp and sweet.
Bye, bye for today.