Monday, October 30, 2006 

Newyork Nagaram

This song " New York Nagaram Urangum Neeram..." from the movie Silunu Oru Kadhal (A Cool Love) has capitivated me so much than most songs that hit the screen in the last two years.I have become a extreme devout to this divine melody that I set this song as my caller tune and would call my mobile from my land number when I feel like hearing it.

After a long time, A.R Rahman's mellifluous voice has ascended to crown this heart throbbing melody.Rahman's voice is a genre of his own.I fell a prey to voice after he sang the romanatic harmony "Iru pookal kilai melae " in the movie "Uyire".

The editing and photography is exemplary as it perfectly personifies the theme of the song.The frames are shown in scrambles which gradually collates to gratify his memory about his love.It a neat melancholy blended with subtle emotions and nostalgic happiness.I can not stop admiring Surya and Jothika who have glorified the subtle feeling factor which had crosshatched the tune.

Its out of authentic selfishess that i am posting this video in my blog,I have even tried my hand in the translation although the image is moderately legible.

Rahaman Rocks !!!










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6:32 am | |

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 

What is Normal?

I had an interesting insight during the course of a conversation. I was talking to a colleague of mine who had returned from onsite. We were discussing about his experiences in London as he had low comfortable levels with Anglo food (of course even I can't accustom to other cusines on a regular basis).I inquired about a fellow colleague who is currently in London and his acquaintance with discos and pubs.

He said that the person goes to pubs but doesn't drink. I quipped "What ?, He doesn't drink , is it?”For a while I thought that the concerned person had relinquished drinking, how nice. I was interrupted “He drinks only beer" .I was taken back, I asked "When did they classify drinking beer not to be apart of boozing?”. I was at least confident that the chemical laboratories would accede that most of the beers contains 5% alcohol. He said “drinking beer is no more a part of boozing by the current standards”. I needed no consensus.

I started relating this incident to similar norms which changed as we moved across various timelines. It took long time to scientifically substantiate that gulping egg would not create hindrance to the tag of vegetarians who could not resist eggs. People now accept it a norm to breach signals even if red greeted them, they don't understand that accidents don't happen every day and when it happens a life may be lost. It's like, we have started to accept that half nudes are no more extreme taboo in current bollywood films.

It’s more like fashion or music, what is accepted by most people becomes the norm or common experience then. It is a vicious circle, we seek change as we strive for it, change creates change as we observe and experience it. Change which becomes the norm, generally reflects the tone of the society which has its own boundaries defined by ideologies.

There are norms which change and stare a full circle. There are changes which can neither be revoked nor be neglected. Just like the way nuclear families are more a way of life now while erst while Indian society believed in joint family system. It is how families are bound to be in the current context. There are changes which die out as time passes, people may absorb it initially as it surfaces but it loses its charm as time moves.

Fine, it is accepted that the society defines norms at various stages although the norm is fluid by itself. What is right or wrong now need not apply to other timelines as the context changes. Fashion or Music does not make a big impact in the societal setup. There are certain dangerous norms which fragment the harmony in the society.

The ancient Indian society had a disgusting norm in the name of caste (I would want to explore in depth on this in a later post).Everybody was assigned a social status based on their birth and the society defined their occupational role as well. It later showed it ugly face in the name of social discrimination within humans.

Now there is another popular trend which is catching up, people have changed the norms to evaluate people. It is a blatant truth, the modern society evaluates fellow humans by salary packs, asset backings, bank balance, profession, designation, social infleuence, power and character may find a place somewhere.

As a person who needs to be recognized by the society, it’s now a norm that the person needs to earn hefty packages and pay EMI's for all the investments (flats, cars, electronic goods & fashion accessories) to earn a better social status. Don’t even think of investing in people or character, it would become a norm to refer to them in novels as we go forward.

I don't know how better we are than the people who created the caste system. We endlessly create norms in the name of caste, ethnicity, religion, belief, money, lifestyle, intellect, qualification or any tool we want to discriminate people.

Society finds a norm now and then; it is certainly a way of life. Music or fashion as a norm doesn't really disrupt the society. Think what would happen if people accept money as the major norm of life. If this creates so much havoc, think of the other norms which have been created in the society and impact of creating them as well.

As i leave the post, think about this
who decides what is norm and why ?

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11:32 am | |

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 

Deception & Dissonance

There are certain characters that bug me a lot and I can't stop pondering about them. At times I deliberately ignore their provocations as i got to understand that, they are just the reflection of the experiences, which the society gave it to them. As life moves ahead, we come across a fraction of people with absolute mental corruption and I can vouch that there is such a kind of shaded person in everyone of us, although the frequency, intensity and duration differs. Everybody undergoes positive and negative emotions but as we gain experience, we mature and the proportion skews towards the positive side for most of the people who want to make their life a better one.

I have observed a peculiar person for sometime now, imbibed with the natural pros and cons of the human mind. The person has a peculiar habit, the person speaks gregariously when the person is with him and you won't believe he can do an equally good job back talking with authentic derogation when the other person is not around. The fact that the person points out the other side of the person does not disgust me; it is the duality of the character that bugs me. I can agree that not every person has the time to share his views in person about the first person; I can’t really take the fact that people can show deceptive emotions to people who interact with them very personally.

I really pity the plight of such a kind of person who morphs every now and then. The person would have to emote positive emotions when it is really not the person's real feeling. There is this element of constant dissonance which disturbs the mind, as the conscious never fails to ponder on the deception. Now the person can never be true to himself or to the other person. The consequence is that the person creates a turmoil in his interpersonal relationships as everybody gets to know of this deceptive emotion sooner or later.

The consequence is that the person understands this sooner or later and changes himself. The other consequence is bad, the duality persists and the person starts to defend the interpersonal turbulences attributing it to the "negatives" in the other person. He tries to substantiate his stand and it becomes a way of life. The person fails to accept the faults in him and it is really dangerous to do that. It brings a very defensive attitude and person builds a rigid wall pointing fingers at others rather than accepting that every human has faults including him.

Any person with self esteem would not agree to share his time with them leave alone formal or mandatory relationships. What is the way out? What if the somebody points this out to the concerned person? There some chances that person realizes it. The other option is bad, what if the person still swears that everybody else is wrong and stands by his virtue. Feedback only affects an open mind and we can only hope that the person changes to make their life a better one at least.

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12:35 am | |

Saturday, October 21, 2006 

Expecting too much?

Yesterday, I wanted to pay my Airtel DSL bill which was already five days past due. I initially searched for an option to pay it online and the web page flashed

"As a part of our continuous effort to enhance our services we are upgrading this site so Registration will be not available for Broadband and Telephone Services/DSL. Kindly call up our Call Centre (121) for any support"

It reminded me as how the message remained static although the calendar has moved by two months now. I murmured to myself as to what kind of customer service is this which does not allow me to pay online. Do they expect the customer to go all the way to their showroom and pay it? Fine, now that it’s already late I decided to pay it in a showroom.

I searched for a nearby Airtel payment centre and they had some obscure street name in T.Nagar. I grumbled again "Can't they have a map or at least link the place to Wikimap ?".I don't whether I was asking for too much, I felt it to be a definitive need to help the customer out.

I was already in an auto seeking the place. I was in for a surprise, the bill counter was completely devoid of people, and the only point of contention was that nobody was there to collect the bill. I inquired, the representative replied "The card payment system isn't working and you can pay cash there” pointing at a long que.I grunted again "What holy crap, What if I didn't have cash. Won’t they have a back up system or Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?”I stood in the queue for another 15 minutes till the collector lended his hand to collect my bill. She asked "DSL sir?”I said "Yes”. She said "We only collect mobile bills here and you need to pay the DSL bills in the center which is in the parallel street".

I almost lost my temper and didn't speak out. I blurted within me "What holy crap %#$%#$, the representative could have at least told me before I stood in the queue or at least they could have had a notice banner stating..".

The avalanche of grunting continued, the security in the other centre greeted me "Sir, the shop is closed and the bill collection is over" and it was equally acknowledged by the representative. This was it, I had reached the limit. I peaked with disdain “I have been roaming around this place for at least an hour now, what kind of customer service is this ...blah ... blah...”.The representative looked at the billing person, I payed the bill.I thanked the representative who offered a good smile to me.

As I left the showroom, I condemned my own act to show my temper to a person who can't come back at me, what a cowardly act. I found some respite contemplating the fact that the business world has evolved now, everybody is focusing on customer service levels and even setting standards of 6 sigma. I was happy that I had fought like a responsible customer for my own rights.

I even thought as to how the world was about a decade ago, we had to wait in a long queue for at least an hour to pay our bills. Customer service was like a taboo to the public sector. Now things have remarkably changed, people show courteousness to the customer and there are people to help you 24 x 7.

We always seek new limits as we move, we would not even compromise the erratum in the existing system which is far more superior in the erstwhile system which would have been experienced. The human mind can never be satiated... "Dil Mange More !!!". Now is it fair to contempt the existing system? What incase the latter system is better than the former system? Now, was I expecting too much in the name of progression?

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12:15 am | |

Monday, October 16, 2006 

Women & Clothing

It has been a long pending topic on my blog and it took a debate in Vijay TV to provoke me to write this post in my blog. The views expressed have been amassed from the show with the infusion of my views as well. The subject of discussion was as to whether there needs to be a dress code for women in our society? If you ask me, I'll vote nudity for both the sex.Now that it isn't possible atleast in the near future, I shall deliberate on the concept of women & clothes in this post.

Women and Men are inseparable from the society and so is process of getting attracted to each other. Of many things that attract males to the opposite gender, clothes would obviously find a rampant place in the list. There is a proverb in Tamil that goes likes this "Aal Pathi Aadai Pathi" which means Clothes and Men are two halves, it emphasises that clothes are as important as the mental personality.

Now the whole issue arises when clothes are halved, I don't know whether women gossip when a male adorns revealing clothing, I'll tell you this, it’s like the topic for the town hall / small hall for the male society. We males obviously comment on how attractive or seductive a dress is on women when it really attracts the pupil.

There was an argument in the show that women should resort to the ancient Tamil clothes of sari and forbade their current clad collection of Jeans/Salwa_Kameez/ Skirts/ Nigh ties/ Shirts/ Pants and like everything under the sun except the saree.The reason quoted was that women look attractive in those apparels and it provokes the male gender to indulge in sexual harassment.

I felt like an extreme female chauvinist, what bullshit? Why would you want to do it to them, are they like slaves to society that we can puppet them to perfection to undercover the vulnerability present in a faction of the male community?. It's high time males change their attitude to look at women with a human attitude rather than look to poach them with animal instinct. The small faction with such urge would commit harassment even if a woman is wrapped like an Egyptian mummy.

Okay, I was at least convinced that we can't change the attitude of those desperate dudes by changing the dress code for women. What about the major chunk of the male community? I can vouch for something, a compressed jean and T-Shirt is more attractive than a churidhar, at least personally I find a sari to be an equally attractive apparel.

There are people who argue that a sari presents a conservative look and does not garner the attraction of male community. I tell you one thing; the only distinction is that nobody notices the skewness in the costume back at home.
The society has changed by leaps and bounds; women are now part of the working community. It is really comfortable for them to wear churidhar/jeans/pants in the current working environment instead of consciously maneouring the sari now and then. It’s really unfair to wrap them in such clothes in a hot and humid climate like India.

I was really taken back by some of the revelations by a psychologist who was in the show

The Sari in the current form was just persuaded by the conservative Englishmen into the system. Whatever hosiery that accompanies the sari now never existed in the system. To those entire traditionalist, Do you want to still persist with the argument that sari in that form would have been less attractive compared to whatever modern dress women wear now?. The logic was fine as well, it suited the climatic conditions and for people who think they were locked up in home, they played an equal part in the agrarian society.

Men are biologically designed such that, there is a tendency for men to be more sexually active than women due to the secretion of an hormone called testosterone. On an average, the adult male body produces about twenty times the amount of testosterone than an adult female's body does. This explains the fact why men talk & write more about sex than women.

There was an interesting observation as well; Men tend to recollect the visual factors about women while women recollect the feeling factors about men. If somebody needs to be held responsible for it, we need to pull the God damn architect to the court.

There is also another interesting observation, Men & Women wore similar dresses in traditional cultures.For example both the genders of Scottish wore a kind of skirt, the North Indians wore Khurthas and People wrapped a Dhoti kind of clothing in South India. Culture gave equal importance to both the genders by allowing them to embrace similar kind of clothing. Now men wear Pants and Shirts andI feel it would be fair to allow women to adorn them as well.

I certainly feel that all this huss and fuss about clothing would go away in a few years. I still remember the days when women wearing a churidhar were looked oddly by even fellow women in the eighties and now it’s a norm. I feel that the same kind of transition is happening with women wearing Pants and Jeans. There is always a stiff resistance to change and eventually comfort would take guard.

I won't say that revealing clothes or transparent clothing don't disrupt me. I feel there is a point where conscious women draw a line. They do understand the limit to which they can give the freedom to the other gender to admire their beauty. Its high time men understand the difference between admiring beauty and trying to abduct it.

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11:32 am | |

Thursday, October 12, 2006 

12 reasons why people leave a comment in a blog

I borrowed some inspiration to write this post from a random blog which had a post named as to why people don't leave a comment in a blog.

  1. The reader has been a fan of the blogger and never fails to acknowledge the interesting thoughts posted in the blog which are of a rare breed.
  2. Can't stop admitting the fact that the reader had the same thought latent in his mind and is all pumped to share his views as well.
  3. Being a fellow blogger himself, could not seek a better revenge by counter arguing for stealing the idea of the post before he could post it.
  4. The post was based on such a common sensual theme that everybody could share their views as well.
  5. The reader could not bear the weird crap in the post; he had no better way to express his agony than to launch a semantic assault in the comment section.
  6. The blog belongs to an influential blogger and it was equally important to comment in his blog regularly so that people visiting his blog get to notice the reader's blog as well.
  7. The reader is absolutely jobless that he had the patience to read the tiresome druggy post and get the intellectual stimuli to comment on them as well.
  8. The blogger had ventured in to blogging recently and is a close chum of the reader. The only way the reader could confirm that he hit the blog is to leave a comment.
  9. The reader is of an intriguing type and is genuinely interested in any thought which is being posted in the blogging community.
  10. It was the best way to increase the visitors to one's blog and expect an equivalent gesture from the fellow blogger.
  11. The reader could not stop expressing the joy (anguish) after he reached the blog through a goggle keyword "kamasutra" and only to find that he did (not) get what he expected.
  12. It is the best way to say how to felt about the post


After you read the post don't forget to leave a comment about commenting in a blog .I personally like people commenting in my blog, It gives a authentic feedback as to what the readers get to think and feel about the post !!!!

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10:55 am | |

Monday, October 09, 2006 

Inventing God


I can’t resist rambling about God; it’s one of my favorite topics.

Being addicted to statistics, I understand that the sole purpose of an experiment is to infer the results to scrutinize a hypothesis. Let me put a valiant and omnipresent hypothesis

Ho:(Null Hypothesis)
God is fair and unbiased

Let me take the example of students writing examinations. Having been a student myself, this is what happens when we have gone through a tough examination. We always try to blame on the toughness of the question paper rather than taking onus for not preparing well.

I know people who spent time to track the question paper leaks, study only particular topics based on previous year question papers, imitate the answer sheet of the student before him, string the textbooks in their body instead of preparing for the examination which is more relevant.

I have even tried to bribe god with offerings, if he gives him me an easy question paper which contains questions which could be answered by the level of preparation. I feel that luck is an illusionary payoff for the underestimation of the system or the lack of the ability to appreciate chance.

Lets take the scenario of different students

A) Student is well prepared and seeks the help of God
B) Student is under prepared and seeks the help of God
c) Student is well prepared and doesn't seek the help of God
D) Student is under prepared and doesn't seek the help of God

Suppose all the students write the exam and God helps out the person who is under prepared/help seeker. Suppose the candidate scores more than the person who is under prepared and doesn't seek the help of God. If that happens there is no doubt that God is being unfair and biased, I guess we agree that he is not that.

God is unconditional as per our null hypotheisis. It is the same case, if God tries to help the well prepared/help seeker. Now, if God tries to be merciful and helps the under prepared student, he would become biased w.r.t other creation which he created as well. There is a negative incentive to prepare now.

Now, why do we need to seek the help of god when he would be unbiased? .I’ll take the help of the student who is under prepared and seeks the help of God. The students feel that there is more probability that he would end up in low scores, if the examination turns out to be far harder than his level of preparation. There is a tendency to unaccept the negative potential inherent in the outcomes. That is crudely call fear for you.

In my view, fear is the state, which is right there when we don't understand the consequences of our actions. Unacceptabilty of the consequences is just the extension of it. May be, if the under prepared can accept that he would score low; he would better start preparing for exam rather than seeking the help of God.

I am not completely going to discard the process of seeking help from God, I'll tell you from my personal experience that it always helps to bask with the confidence that there is somebody to help us out when we are uncertain about the consequences. Don’t ask me to relate this to the life's trinity; thoughts/words/actions. I shall not be provoked to say that life's trinity have their consequences and there is a tendency to be unaware/unaccept the consequences.

There is another precarious hypothesis, which I was forced to think as an extension.
Ho
Does God exists and is responsible for what happens around us!!

I'll tell you the preliminary results, there is God and the scope of the definition only varies. May be, I was stranded with my limited field of outcomes.That is what makes the concept of God more interesting.




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7:48 am | |

Friday, October 06, 2006 

Inspired by Jackal

Last Saturday was interesting, not that i was thinking seriously about how can to quick fix all the problems persistent in this world. I was induced into investigative cognizance by this novel called "The Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth.A great story with intense thrill and infallible logic, portraying an attempt to commit homicide of the French president, by an anonymous contract assassin coded "Jackal".

Deeply convoluted in my novel stint with the Jackal, the mobile suddenly waked up and the male voice at the other end identified himself to Sriram.He was in town and wanted to know if we could catch by twilight in Spencers Plaza, which is the common hangout mall for people in Chennai. There were couple of others including Bilesh, Chandru, Dhilip & Sandeep who were expected to sway the lengths, breaths and heights of the plaza on a buzzing weekend. It was long since we meet, at least (24*7) hours had separated us from the last confluence at Rajasekar's Wedding reception, which culminated the avalanche of bondages that happened last season.

I peeped in to the mirror to adorn my freaky hairstyle, which i accept, would compete with an equally admirable porcupine contour for a nominee in the best "horry hairy" category. I had an healthy colossal of beard which took some inspiration from teddy bears. I decided to be socially acceptable this time, not that people would have a hokky pokky look at me if the status quo persisted, I just didn't want them to spare their "valuable time" intriguing my charm. I went to the saloon and salvaged some pride for Tom Cruise.

My new LG polyphonic mobile glimmered again, I heard the same male voice, which plugged into my mobile last time. Sriram apprised me; he was on his way to Spencers and would reach the gates in another 20 min. It was quite a walk able distance from my home and i expected to reach there by 10 min started after around 15 minim traversed linear and perpendicular roads that lead to Spencers, enroute i glanced at the Crowd waiting outside Sathyam Cine Mutliplex, Man, i knew it was only a preface to the Visual Carnival which i was expecting that evening.

I reached the facade of spencers phase-I and seeked the help of my mobile to ask Sriram about his whereabouts. Surprise, Surprise my mobile had been switched off and i thought i had mistakenly switched in it off. I tired giving power and it announced "Low charge and Iam switching it off". Tit for Tat, I had starved it out of power last night and it gave me a good lesson to my memory and negligence.

Boy, what do i do now?. I don't have his mobile number, Infact i can only recollect my mobile number in the entire phonebook. I sweared, how technology has infused memory handicap to me and this sad state of communication isolation. I had to go back to my home and get my mobile charge; I was not willing to do that. I got some inspiration from Jackal and wanted to be investigative, deductive and solve things when i am caught up in nomad’s land.

I thought I'll wait for another 10 min in the corridor and i had to take a call which entrance and opted for the phase one, I did this because that is where we had met about 6 months back.15 min raced, I could see no signs of Sriram or others. I decided to give a try as to whether they were waiting at the other entrance and the same result. Onething for sure they must have reached Spencers by now and got through the Phase-II entrance or everybody reached before me, entered through the Phase-I entrance and are in the mall now.

I decided to go in, now the question popped in, where do i search them in this entire huge landscape, which would have higher densities of moving population on a weekend. I had to short list a couple of common places where i can find them now and i decided to sequence it in the following order; Food world (G-Floor,P-I), Music world(Irst Floor,P-I), Landmark (P-II) and then the food court in P-III.Why this sequence ?, they were geometrically logical and all were places where we generally hang around.

Now this was not enough, i must have an idea about the five some appearances because you never know which direction they would be oriented and there is no way all the five can walk together.Sriram is lean, tall and usually wears T-shirts with lighter colors and they are usually striped, Chandru also is moderately tall and has more flesh and usually adorns plain colors, Bilesh is little short, has more flesh and mostly wears a Jean and T-Shirt, Sandeep can be identified by his scattered hairstyle from any nook or corner and he usually has the Jean combo,Dhilip is tall with a graded hair color and usually unpredictable with apparels. Everybody has a unique walking style and i need look at them as well.

I started walking towards the short listed spaces, swiveling my head all around looking out for the fivesome.I was looking for those familiar walks and colors. I was observing colors for a change, I could see people in lucid white, virile green, Marmalade orange, stringed purple, authentic black, classical yellow, stubborn gray, conventional blue and even neo pink.

I could see clusters of people entangled in various proximities and spatial tolerances. Some were breaking distance barriers and some occupying the entire lane spaces. There were jubilant juveniles in their adolescence glancing their counterparts, twined men and women who were immune to the biosphere, children in the custody of parents and self obsessed creatures as well. Simply could not resist appreciating the diversity dispersed in this topology.

I had reached the exit of Landmark by now, although I wanted myself to be amused by the "up to 60% sale”. I have not found them yet, I didn't want to loose hope, I walked rapidly to station myself in the escalator that lead to the food court. I had a quick ramble inside the food court and especially the Pizza space. I peregrinated the hallway gendering into Mittai shop, Fruit shop and Arun Ice-Cream,the result remained the same although i meandered the entire plaza once again.

I thought where any hoodoo had struck me, I could not believe my luck, and I am not going to give this up. I stood by the escalator and gave a full visual circle for a final time. I decided to be thrive on intellect rather starve on luck.

An idea struck me, I franticly searched for an Internet browsing centre. I had hope revived, I wanted to see the contact list of BIM which Arun sends us every month which had the latest contact numbers. I asked the guard about the near bouts of a browsing centre, he couldn't recognize it, I tried Internet, this keyword worked, and he pointed north.

I reached the browsing centre, logged into my mail, got the contact numbers of both Chandru and Sriram to be absolutely safe. I went back to the guard, thanked him and spelled phone booth this time. He pointed south this time, i hurried and dialed him, I said "sara pesuraendaaa".He quipped **&^*^%$ ennghada irukka ^&%^&%.He asked me to come to the exit of landmark, the same place where i inquired the guard.I went there and was welcomed by his trademark language.

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12:35 am | |

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 

Not again !!!

2:15 am | |

Sunday, October 01, 2006 

Trying to define

Testimony unchallenged
Eyes

Incentive to be happy
Smile

The most lethal weapon
Words

Abundant and Unwarranted
Advice

Chance to be yourself
Love

Takes you as you are
Friend

Never play with this
Trust

Man's greatest enemy
"I"

Defining the undefined
God

Undeniable
Change

Universal solvent
Care

Action's Climax
Substantiate

Unescapable
Memory

Reason for Existence
Purpose

Greatest Boon
Humor

Invention that changed this century
Communication

We'll fight for this next
Water

Designer's greatest invention (stealing it from my friend)
Women Jeans

Foolishness defined
Trying to define

I tried defining what was in the top of my mind and you can always give yours.

2:52 am | |

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