My Sins against the Gender stereotypes:Tag

Cee Kay tagged me!

This is an interesting tag - originated at IndianHomeMaker's. Following are the rules:

Please list at least ten things you have ever wanted or done which your gender is not supposed to.

The tag is called ‘My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes’. And you must tag twelve blogging friends or else you will be cursed to wear blue clothes pants if you are a woman and pink shirts if you are a man – for next twelve years.

Boy! How do I manage to always land in such trouble? Doesn't matter, it delights me to think that I have an opportunity to take down 12 more with me .. laugh now at my expense friends laugh .... but I'll get my share eventually.. har har har..


But the stereotypes thing is posing a problem!! lets see how this goes
1. I never had girl/lady friends till I got married! My wife refused /refuses to believe me. "Not even a Crush?" she asked ... the answer is same.. 'Nope'. Of course the rider is that if you don't count gaping at all girls as Crush :)
2. If you didn't see this one coming in the earlier sentence here it is.. I have quite a few lady friends now that am married. I say so, coz for some reason, I believe ladies seem to find it safer to talk to me after they gain the "KNOWLEDGE" that am married and have kids :) I asked myself why it is so.. the best answer I came up with is the same as what Chandler Bing got from his gang of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I perhaps have a 'quality' that makes me look threatening to women! Of course that is until they realize that I'm settled in life. Don't ask me to berate this any further.
3. I don't consume Alcohol . Nuff said
4. I don't smoke. Don't know if this is a stereotype though. Not every guy smokes
5. I like to cook! and I like to experiment a little too! My best ever concoction is Ginger Rasam.. made it up myself. Don't know if one exists 'officially'.
6. I prefer living in India (chennai to be precise.. ) to living in US and came back for the same reason
7. I'm scared of lizards!
8. I cried after watching TZP.I remember pulling over the car near Mylapore on the way back from Satyam Cinemas , crying my heart out and then resuming home.. There it is i've said it
9. According to my wife we get into fights often. In our world fights are when she shouts and I listen apologetically.
10.I thought Pratibha Patil was a hot young lady until she took oath. (no thats not true, I made that one up to make it ten.. What? this is disqualified? alright, bring out the firing squad.. )
11. Ok ok.. here is a lame one.. i hate shopping for clothes. Even if its for me..
12. I don't like to comb/style my hair.I wear it really short.... why? Its hair.. !!! didn't you read that.


Here is the best part!! tagging others... rubbing my hands in glee.. alright who goes first? its the missus..
1. Caramelhill
2. Lavanya
3. Aparna
4. Vidya
5. Hema

Alright I don't have 7 more friends to tag okay. Fine go ahead and decide that am a loser.. don't care.. guess what you can't tag me back and tag the ones i've tagged.. so all the best ha ha ha ha ha hah a ha ha ha.. .ha ha ha h a fading into silence....

Its about my Sibling citizens : Srilankans

Long long ago in our neighboring country was founded an organization that like many of its times vowed to fight for the cause of Tamils to rise and question the atrocities committed by a government on its own people. People who ran hither tither turned around and united under these movements to fight back. As time passed, one movement that called itself the tiger of all movements killed its own brethren and became the king of the hill.
As years turned decades, governments changed and the world changed. The world lines relatively blurred and economies merged and the world unified more than ever before. On the sidelines, terrorism became a common menace. Soon there were different flavours, jihadists, talibans, maoists and many others, all of them said they fought for the cause of their people.
Battles became wars and rivers turned red and cities became ruins and people became just living creatures. More blood was shed than the cause that started the whole war and more was lost than achieved in the process. The very people whose cause was being fought by these organizations started running away from them. Maimed, deprived of living, education, hygiene, they wanted no part in the war, they just wanted to be left alone, their newer generations did not even understand why they were living in constant fear.They were not alone, having tried its best to draw a truce, the world grew tired of it as well.
Finally, it had to end one way or the other and it did. Now , the world is all eyes on the government to see how it rehabilitates its citizens and gives them the much needed support. How will this happen, I wonder. The answer lies in the world history, we often underestimate the resilience and capability of human beings. A brief look at our own history tells us that there were millions and millions of people that were killed, maimed, raped and kidnapped in a war that we called partition. Many lost their families and wealth and were reduced to paupers in a stroke that rooted them out of their homes and transplanted them to the streets of cold Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal. Millions of them were farmers and knew nothing else. Deprived off their land, they couldn't farm! The government tried its best to give them land to farm and houses to live. It was far from adequate. People were given meager allotments. This is history, today, one hears that these very people are one of the most patriotic, successful, daring and prosperous people of this country. How did they achieve it? Pure hard work and perseverance. They tilled the soil whether it was cultivable or not and they went about in a bull headed manner and just achieved it despite years of droughts that followed Independence. Thankfully the British did not scream at Nehru saying he was not doing enough. They just did not care if the country went to the dogs.
It shows us that there is nothing time cannot heal and there is nothing that can stop a man from succeeding when it comes to survival , however bleak the situation might seem.

What I wish for the people of my community in my neighbouring country is the same, let there be peace, let the wounds heal, let there be quiet, let them have a new beginning that has been denied to them for so long by the war. Let the lines of division blur, let them live together as one nation, let them give another shot at building trust among their own people, let them rebuild their homes, let them get a chance to educate their children, let them produce a thousand Muthaiah Muralitharans, let them have a chance to prosper and enjoy life the way it should be, let them spend quiet evenings with their grand children, let there be happiness in the air that has been bereft of even a child's smile for decades.
As a brother nation, let us support the cause of unification, let us not be the cause for wounds to remain unhealed, Let us stop drawing afresh the lines of division, let us try and erase them,let us help them rebuild the nation Let us stop spreading the poison of vengeance, let us spread love and not hatred. I love my country and I'm proud that am an Indian and a Tamil. Let us also give them a chance to redeem their pride as a Srilankan and a Tamil too

According to me this blogathon should have been preponed.

Sue has started a red marker blogathon that goes like this. Follow the chain.
In short this is about common mistakes in spoken/written language that irks you. Well, to begin with, I myself make so many of them and am not even a light year close to perfect. Did I mention that am not a saint either? I do notice and pinpoint mistakes in language when others make them.
Phew, I got it off my chest! Now, let me get to the rant.
Prepone
About ten years or so back and until recently, I used to be really annoyed with the Indian antonym of the English word 'Postpone'. We Indians  used the word 'Prepone' to indicate an advancement of an event to an earlier schedule than initially announced.
The function has been preponed.
I used to gleefully correct people that there exists no such word 'Prepone'. Alas, my pleasure was short lived. One fine morning, I was reading the newspapers that carried a column on newly added words to the English language dictionary. To my utter dismay and horror, the Englishmen had given in and legitimized the word 'prepone' giving it legitimacy and place in the dictionary. I was so angry that day. How dare someone deprieve me off my right to ridicule? :). I would have been one of the few miffed folks in the world to read this news.
I still cannot bring myself around to use that horrible sounding word. Talk about prejudice :)

According to me
The other one is a recent usage amongst even educated folks. 'According to me' is the usage. A friend was giving her opinion on the pricing of a piece of real estate and she went.. 'According to me , this is is overpriced'. For a second, I was left thinking that she was referring to a Chinese friend named 'Mei'. I realized then that she was referring to herself. I then told her to just simply put it as 'The is overpriced is my (humble) opinion' or even simpler. "I think this is overpriced." How difficult is that?

Smileys
Here is another thing I wish to legitimize in English. Smileys! :) :D >:-0 without these smileys. The other day I wrote to a client a reminder to send me a document that he owed me.
The exact words I wrote was 'Hi X, This is a follow up to my earlier email on the subject. I'm writing to just remind you that I need this document by ... date. Could you please ensure that I have it before the said date to help me continue my work'.
I thought this was polite enough for a reminder.However it was not meant to be. The client had complained to my VP that I was being rude. This was a client I have known for more than a few years! I was quite taken aback. After reading my note to the gentleman a dozen times, I concluded that my tonality has been misinterpreted by the client(he was probably having a bad day!) and it had nothing to do with what I had written. So I made a small correction to my email to present here
'Hi X, This is a follow up to my earlier email on the subject. I'm writing to just remind you that I need this document by ... date. Could you please ensure that I have it before the said date to help me continue my work :)'

That would have helped my client a lot in realizing that I was not being rude/stern with him and I was just doing business as usual. One can argue that my mail should have been sprinkled with how are yous and take cares to make it look nice. One can also argue that my client has a problem. There would be no end to this.
The sticking point would still be that such things are bound to happen. I realized that I preferred using smileys in place of unnecessary 'how are yous and hope you are doing alrights.' in a business note. I however realize that smileys may not entirely professional either and hence this rant.

Green Revolution in Indian IT Industry needs pragmatic solutions

We have been long receiving email after email in espousing the virtues of going green and reducing carbon emissions. The email spoke about how travel is the prime contributor for carbon emissions. The email advises us to
i. Carpool - Imagine all the money one can save on petrol
ii. Cycle to work Apparently its good for your heart!
iii. Walk down. Smell the roses on the way!

Setting aside my reaction to this email and coming to the response, I believe that the email cannot be far from what is practical in an Indian IT context. The list above suits an European or an American office better.
Let me list down the obvious to state why the above list will not work in most Indian IT organizations
Car pooling
Yes, with the ever rising car population in India, this seems like a logical step. However the only fly in the ointment is that no Indian IT house works by the clock. This is not by choice, this is more by necessity.Each team works on different clocks and each individual's work hours are driven by the vagaries of their own work load, pull of the duties at home and what not. Given the state of affairs and without getting to the worn out 'Get your work life balance in order moron routine', we can safely state that the probability is very low that two or more workers who live in the same route would be able to synchronize the time they leave for home from work.
Its almost always a problem with returning home than arriving at work. I will go out on a limb and state that its almost feasible to expect pooling to work and next to impossible to pool on the way back for the above reason.
Given this fact, how does one expect to return home when the owner of the car is long gone. Its unfair for the entire pool to expect to stay back when one guy is held up. Doing so only works against the  cause of pooling. The next time around you will promptly see people dropping off the pool. "Oh, never mind, I will use my car to work today' and before you know it, the pool is no longer one! I say this from experience.

Instead, if the corporate or the government introduce an efficient mass transport system that services key areas of the city and its suburbs or even the nearest railway station, it would be immensely feasible for the entire workforce to use the facility to hop to work and back! Located at MRC nagar, i would be immensely happy if my office operates a bus service that picks up and drops people from the nearest MRTS station and Mandaveli! I would just catch the next available train to Tiruvanmiyur and then a share auto home for less than twenty  rupees per day which works out to be good value and not to mention savings.

Cycling to work and walking to work: I only have this to say. Have you tried this in Chennai and to work? I had a colleague almost 10 years back who used to cycle to work out of necessity and not choice. Problem? He stank of sweat all day. Majority of Indian IT houses that operate in the city do not have bath facilities in their buildings even if one wishes to cycle to work and wash up before starting. Given the hot Chennai weather, this is not going to work either.
I do not wish to be a naysayer for Green initiatives, my annoyance here is to do with the feasibility of the initiatives.

Hey Ram-

Its a movie review that I log ten years after the movie was released. It was year 2000 when this movie was released and I was then living in the US. I remember being all excited about the much hyped up movie. The glitzy star cast was making it even more juicy.
We made reservations and undertook a 160 mile journey to New Jersey from Connecticut just to watch the movie. When the credits rolled at the end of the movie, I was left with a sense of emptiness. I had no reactions to the movie. I realized that I did not entirely grasp the inner workings of Saket Ram, the protagonist.
I told myself, "Ha it is your problem, you cannot understand Hindi well and the movie used many languages as well scenes seamlessly jumping from Hindi to english to tamil, Bengali and Marathi at times"
I ended up watching the film twice more, once in tamil and again in VHS with sub titles. Well, i was astounded and shocked that I still could not grasp it. Upon checking with some good friends, I realized I wasn't the only one.. Phew! I was almost convinced that I had lost a bit of my neural cabbage that sits between my ears.
Fast forward Ten years. Year 2010. By now I have read India after Gandhi, by Ramachandra Guha and am half way into 'A Bend in the Ganges. a novel by Manohar Malgaonkar' and many other art films and serious films later, I believed that I should try watching this movie again and I did thanks to a friend who lent me his video.
Boy, I loved the film now. I would perhaps rate this second only to Anbe Sivam which ranks as the best ever Indian film I've watched.
I will not bother giving the complete story here, but rather would like to appreciate the many aspects of the film. Kamalahassan has a death grip on the screenplay. Frame after frame, characters come to life and their many layered nature comes to the fore.
Like all Kamal's films, this one also has Kamal all the way. He performs and performs like a veteran. From the ever vacillating Saket Ram, the average joe who wants to break away from the traditional Tam Brahm life to the raging lunatic who wants to do anything to avenge his Aparna to the mature husband who embraces the young and timid Mythili. Kamal is completely in his element through and through. It is gut wrenching watching him walk senselessly through the rooms of his Calcutta residence trying to come to grips with reality of Aparna's murder. Limping and walking aimlessly room after room while Thiru's awesome camera perched outside the balcony helps the viewer watch him go from room after room, limping with a hurt leg.
The eye for detail is astounding through the movie. For instance, in a scene where Kamal is driving through Calcutta as he returns home to Aparna, he is surrounded by mobs who throw tomatoes at his car and he manages to drive through. Later in a different scene, when the car drives up the porch of his home, one can see dried tomato stains on the window glass. Its a small thing, but it shows that the unit cared for this detail.
Another instance where Kamal is led through a hospital by a doctor who shows the damage the violence has caused to the society, Kamal sees a small girl with her feet amputated. She cries and she cries 'Ammii.. Ammii.. ' you almost feel the pain and she cries like a child who has cried long and hard and cannot stop herself. This, again is a small detail, but it is astounding that Kamal thought it fit to give attention to the way the child cried. Amazing! 
Again, the star studded cast provide a terrific punch to all the supporting cast through the movie. With the exception of the legendary Hema Malini (who for a dancer still cannot emote!), the entire cast of Saket Ram's tam brahm household pack a punch and is utterly realistic in the language, behaviour and extremely witty in a way only a Tam Brahm household can be.  This family single handedly provide a comic relief to what otherwise would have been an extremely serious movie. Kamal and his casting director needs a standing ovation just for this.
Kamal's prowess in weaving his characters also need a standing ovation. If Aparna was a temperamental, sensual, fiercely independent within the house and yet afraid of the society, Mythili is a study in contrast. The well read, strong minded and yet an obedient girl who will not dare counter her elder's words. Vasundhra shines thanks to the weighty script and dialouges seamlessly jumping between the many shades of Mythili. One moment a timid wife, the next, a strong and opinionated Gandhian who will not be coerced into accepting what her husband believes to be the bane of the country and the next, a young adolescent. who asks her husband of sometime, "Can I hug you?". You also feel sorry for her innocence in waiting to be accepted by Ram as his wife even after they are married.
Atul Kulkarni's, Abhyankar is a strong willed and hard minded Hindutva who will not hesitate to cleanse the nation of its muslim stains as he puts it. At the same time, Shah Rukh's excellent Ahmad Khan espouses Gandhian ideology like a level headed Muslim. In the midst of stereotype Muslim terrorists, Ahmad Khan's mussalman is a kind who often do not get enough screen space in Indian cinema. . Kudos to Kamal for doing something different. However, Shah Rukh Khan's acting ten years back was nothing to write home about. He has scaled many heights since then in the last decade, but somehow his Ahmad Khan does not strike a chord with me. Ahmad Khan's Nafisa from Ambur, however leaves a punch even if she got only 2 minutes of dialogues in the entire film. During the final stages of the film, Ahmad Khan is injured and police take him away in a stretcher to a hospital. A worried Nafisa comes out asking Ram "where is Ahmad." . Kamal is distraught with all the violence that he had unintentionally initiated and is unable to speak coherently and he simply points in the direction of the stretcher. She then proceeds to ask him to tell her that Ahmad is fine and Kamal mumbles something. Nafisa, as each millisecond passes, expecting a 'yes, he is alright' from Ram,  is terrified and confused by his strange reaction and is getting worked up and tries to elicit a proper response from him and implores him to talk louder.. "Aanh?".... "Aanh?" she goes rising in pitch and fear. This scene happens perhaps for five seconds in the film. Yet, it stands out for its natural portrayal of characters of the terrified wife and a distraught Ram who is sick of the violence.
There are even many moments in the film when much is said without dialogues. When Ram meets Lalvani on a roadside after the riots and when he has joined the Hindutva brigade, they embrace each other crying when they find out that both have lost their entire family in the riots, the Maharaja and Abhyankar seated in the car watching them exchange glances that spark fury as though to say.. "Look what this Mahatma has given the commom man of this country. He has given only misery and poverty. This is why we must finish him off".  Again, this shows how much the film was ahead of its times in a filmdom known for its punch dialogues and elaborate explanations for even the inane of intentions.
If there is something Kamal needs to work on, it is with moderating the protagonist's sexual appetite in his movies. Almost all of Kamal's protagonists feature a stereotype of insatiable hunger for sex. Well, even if Kamal claims otherwise, his frames speak out aloud.
Illayaraja's score is power packed and Kamal did the right thing in roping in the veteran replacing
 L.Subramaniam though for different reasons. The background music adds flavour to the movie without makings its presence felt aloud.  The piano intro of 'Nee Partha' by Asha Bhonsle would forever be etched in everyone's memories for its strong and yet simple notes. The point when the Violins and the base guitar join the piano tunes, one is transfixed in the heavenly sound the three instruments produce. This tune will join the ranks of Nayagan's Thenpaandi cheemayilae intro as one of his best ever.
The crisp editing of Renu Saluja keeps the overly long movie (3 hours and 20 minutes) tight and gives shape to the director's Hey Ram!
I can go on and on.But it would only be just to say that this film was way ahead of its times and assumed an intelligent audience to get into the inner workings of Saket Ram and that proved to be a tough nut for many audience like me. But, boy, am glad I watched it again and this will join my list of best films i've ever watched.

Where to buy Camera Accessories and Equipment in Chennai

When I wanted to buy camera accessories such as tripods, flashes, strobes, off camera flashes, hot shoe adapter, cold shoe adapter, super clamp, umbrella, diffusers and all such hobbyist or professional studio equipment, I called all high profile camera stores and could not find any of them even stocking decent camera equipment for hobbyist. All they had were P&S and DSLRs, Memory cards, cases etc.,
I tried Camera Citi, Shetala and all such high profile stores. Finally through a gentleman in Flickr, I found out that there exists an area in Chennai that is the Ritchie street for Cameras.
There is a whole plaza full of them at
 Fazl Complex 
Wallajah Road.
 Chennai
 
I was referred to INDIA PHOTO HOUSE in this complex.

How to get there
From Beach Road (Marina)
From Chepauk Stadium proceed straight towards Mount road
 This complex opposite to the new TN Assembly  building on Wallajah Road Itself (DONT GO TO MOUNT ROAD)
This complex is a couple of stores next to Radio warehouse.


From Mount Road.
Take the right next to Shanti Theater / VGP before the secretariat to enter Wallajah Road
Proceed down Wallajah Road to take the first available U-Turn.
Proceed back towards Mount Road find out Radiowarehouse. This building is a couple of stores next to Radio warehouse and opposite to the new TN Assembly complex. Remember this is on Wallajah Road NOT MOUNT ROAD.

I'm writing this hoping that search engines would catch this and some hapless person searching like me would come across this.

Finally, a note of thanks to Mr.Pradeep whose lead made me check this place out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/epradeep/

Why does it still rain in India?

Alright, this is nothing about rain.
The last few weeks I've been scouting Adyar area shops for a set of Sanyo Eneloop batteries. These are the best alternative to Alkaline Duracells in the rechargeable world. Unfortunately, I could not find any.
So, I tried to give ebay.in a shot and to my surprise I found a few sellers selling those. However, I needed four batteries to power my strobe /Flash unit and so I ordered a charger and a set of four batteries from an online vendor.
The vendor had listed the charger to ship free and a fifty rupee charge for shipping the battery. Fair enough I thought and coughed up the money.
The seller was prompt and shipped it out within two hours of my ordering it and I received it the third day! I received a tiny surprise when I opened the shipment!
Tucked deep inside and wrapped in a sheet of paper was fifty rupees! The seller had bundled the charger and the batteries together and had refunded my fifty rupees shipping charge!
Well, as logical as it may sound, I was quite taken aback at the honesty of this vendor! The honesty of this vendor came as quite a shock and surprise having gotten used to all vendors always asking more for their wares! Here is a vendor who is honest to his profession!
May he prosper! His name is basco4u and he sells in ebay!

Does this answer the question?

India after Gandhi : Ramachandra Guha

This book is a must read for anyone interested in India's progress since its freedom. As the author points out, Indian educational system and a vast majority of historians have dedicated an enormous quantum of effort in documenting the centuries that run up to the 15th of August 1947.
After this, India attained its freedom and then time stood still! literally! if one were to go by historians!
Fortunately, the ilk of Ramachandra Guha have taken it upon themselves to remedy the situation and boy they do a fantastic job.

The book begins with a India attaining its Independence and Nehru's famous "Tryst with destiny" and covers every decade until the late 2000s. The book itself has been narrated in a wavy manner where the reader is constantly transported through the several years of a decade as the author picks a topic, say the Naga struggle and narrates the turn of events that happened over the years since its beginning and final culmination of the struggle.
The book is full of names, anecdotes and quotes from various authors with genuine references that we can re-read this book several times over and still feel charmed about the country that we call India!

The generation of youngsters today remember stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru only for his philandering ways and blame him for the mistakes he made. This book enlightens us of all the good he did along with his faults. It makes one appreciate the man that was Nehru better. This is just one example, the book covers many such great men and women who paved way for what India is today.
The book covers the formative years of the Constitution and how it was hotly debated and how Dr.B.R.Ambedkar who was an employee with the  British government went on to became a mass leader that became the face of the lower caste of this country.
The book talks about all the British officials who stood by India through one crisis after the other that dogged India through the century! The book talks about all the naysayers who wrote thesis after thesis writing off the very concept of India pooh pooing the will of the masses as being too immature to hold such a vast country together.
We see through the author's eyes, India's integrity being tested in each decade by different forces within and without and how India has stood testament to the word 'Democracy'.
We see how our great leaders achieved great things and made even greater mistakes such as Rajiv Gandhi in his capitulation of the Shah Banno case or forcing the reopening of Babri Masjid for Hindu prayers.
We see Nehru, refusing to believe that his country was under fire, like Nero and his daughter on the other hand forced the war on East Pakistan to end the menace on the eastern front.
Overall, the reader becomes prouder for what this country stands for and realizes what pains our forefathers have gone through to give us the life we live today.
I will recommend this book to every Indian. As with any history book, there will be another author who would contest some of this book's writings, as Mr. Guha would agree, if this book brings out more such historians, then this Author's mission is deemed complete

Rediscovering yourself

What happened to all those hobbies that used to keep you charged all the time? Where have they gone?
My hobbies have always been seasonal. Not in the traditional sense of weather based hobby, but rather each of my hobbies would have its seasons.
There would be some months, I would be glued to one book after the other.
There would be some weeks I would spend watching movies back to back with no let up
There would be some fortnights when I would pick up my camera and go for a stroll in the beach looking for shots.
or
There would be simply years when I would just keep racing Need for speed on the comp!
I miss them now, for I don't any of these nowadays. So much so that I've come to believe that am not the same person I was since I don't do any of the stuff I loved.
It is not that I chose not to do things, there simply lacked time for me to give them due seasons of their own.
So, what has changed then? I've been married and had kids over the last ten years. Thats what happened.

Its not a bad thing by itself. I'm having a wonderful time with my wife and children. But, my hobbies have suffered and I yearn for them nowadays. Which is a good thing if you consider that I still do yearn for them and I have not become one grumpy old man! at least not yet in my opinion! :)
So, slowly, step by step, am trying to allocate incremental amount of time to my hobbies. Finding spaces where I could get to read a book over a month what I would have otherwise finished in a span of days.
Pickup my camera and shoot around the house and the sky!
Waiting for an appropriate window to get myself a PS3 to frag away to glory!

Viva life!

My Name is Khan and am not a terrorist.

I must say that My Name is Khan is perhaps one of the best films I have learned from till date. I make this vague statement because the movie lends itself very much to Bollywoodish and specifically Karan Johar's soap and shampoo treatment very much. But, underneath the soapy texture lies a very beautiful story that has been woven with such dexterity that am inclined to give a standing ovation to the story writer Shibani Bathija. 
First look at the message
Most international terrorists today maybe muslims. But all muslims are not terrorists. Its a message that MUST go out to the world today. A world that has been spooked into jumping out its own body at the mere sight of a stereotype Mussalman. The story has a very very simple message. The protagonist wants to tell the U.S. president that his name is khan and he is not a terrorist.
Why the U.S. President?
The leading lady undergoning personal trauma just for bearing the surname khan beseeches the protagonist as to how they expect to live a life that makes them sinners and terrorists just for carrying that surname. He tries to tell her that he will tell anyone that he is not a terrorist. She challenges him as to how many will he go and explain this. Will he tell the president and thereby to the whole country? she cries out trying to drive into him the futility of the exercise and that it is doomed from the start.

The second portion of the message is that relegion is just a by stander in the whole thing. Relegion is not tainting people. It is the other way around. This message is conveyed so beautifully in a non-cliched manner by the protagonists mother when the protagonist himself is too young to understand the incidents happening around him. The message she conveys, there are only two types of people in the world. Good and Bad and relegion does not make them so. How true.  Later in the movie, this is proven by a whole bunch of people who almost get brainwashed into jihad by a radical is swung back into their senses by the protagonist.

The most important message that this movie spreads is that 'Love begets love'. Throughout the movie, the protagonist due to his nature, goes about spreading innocent love wherever he treads. People cannot help but reciprocate his love. This am not talking about emotional ladies. Even customs officials and random police officers and normally people of brawn mellow down and give him a pat on the back and almost seem to redeem him of the social stigma attached to him name! and yet he wants the same from no less than the president of america. Boy does he get it?

Shibani again aces the whole plot by making the protagonist an 100% innocent, childlike, lovable and poker faced protagonist who occasionally guffaws like a 4 year old and makes the whole audience laugh with him. All of the above messages coming from anyone one else would have been so so so so cliched and would not have made the audience amenable to the message as Rizvan Khan does.


The movie (though not pioneering) also has set made minnows of major bollywood plots such as inter religion  love, divorce and other such things that otherwise would  have hijacked a whole bollywood plot! Perhaps several decades of films have revolved purely around the topics of love and inter religion marriage. Thankfully Karan and Shibani have deftly delegated this to the sidelines as though to convey a message that such topics are not going to get full movie length slots any longer.

Finally, songs have been used lightly in stark contrast with traditional Karan Johar films where music does the heavy lifting and is intense part of the back ground score. My ears still ring from Lataji's "Kabhie Kushie.. Kabhi..ghaammmmmmmm" every five minutes in the K3G backgorund score.

Coming back to My Name is Khan, This one picture has so eloquently conveyed several lovely messages of love, tolerance and good will like no other Indian movie till date has. This would not have been possible but for a brilliant execution by the team comprising of Karan Johar, Ravi.K.Chandran, Kajol and Shah Rukh.
The two lead characters pretty much carry the weight of the complete film on their shoulders with Kajol getting lesser screen time albeit. She does an amazing job nevertheless. Its difficult to not fall in love with her Mandira and not to cry with the mother in Mandira. This actress has an amazing range of emotions and she challenges Shah Rukh to raise the bar in acting! Pity that we do not get to see much of this actress on screen these days.
Ravi.K.Chandran is the man who has wielded the lens and he makes his presence felt at several places and yet he quietly slips to the background when he should not be around and yet for the discerning viewer we can feel that he has been there. Scenes involving Kajol at her emotional best uses excellent use of closeups, not too tight and yet sufficient allowing her emotions to fill the frame and reach the audience and soak them in. His shots have a very nice range and this film has allowed him to exploit his strengths very well!
Music, by Shankar Ehsaan and loy is I must say salt of this movie. It adds taste to the film though by itself is nothing to write home about.
Overall, this movie, though served in a traditional bollywood style is packs a powerful punch and is perhaps one of the best written and executed. I will even go so far as to say that I will perhaps nominate this for Indian entry to Oscars unless something else comes along.

Fuel for thought

For quite sometime we have been seeing advertisements that say that 'In another 40 years, there would be no fuel left"
I would be 75 by then! Hopefully??? alive????? to witness the last drop of today's life line drying up?????? (Why would you even  want to be around when this happens?)
The effects of the drying up resources would be foreboding its arrival much before the actual 40 years elapse. The prices of fossil fuels would likely to have reached such insane levels that they are probably not even available through common outlets! Hopefully by then the world would have shifted to alternative sources of energy.
By energy I don't just mean transportation, I mean pretty much everything that we use from electricity  to cooking gas. Going by present day technologies, nuclear and solar energies are perhaps the only ones that have promise. If there is a some remarkable invention that promises to harness more solar energy than the ones available today and if this technology is mass produced we will see a sea of revolution in our power reliance. We will hopefully see solar panels on all rooftops be it at homes or vehicles or even a phone booth!
Nuclear reactors would have advanced to such an extent that robots are used extensively where humans tread today facing the risk of irradiating themselves. The reactors themselves would have advanced to such an extent that we use fusion reactors instead of the fission ones today, thereby multiplying several times the energy harnessed.
The discovery of higgs boson would somehow have helped scientists understand black holes better and perhaps (this is looking remote) have embarked on a road to simulate blackholes in controlled environments without allowing it to get out of control much like simulating tornadoes in a lab today! The new millenium will look towards this promising source of energy much like we look upon nuclear energy today!
Energy efficiencies would have also improved greatly by the next twenty years. All countries would have ensured that light sources are reduced to solitary units with piped light supplies to all rooms much like centralised airconditioning works today! This would greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions improving efficiencies!
Cooking is an area that will continue to rely on electricity and heat based stoves. Even if alternative forms such as microwaves are invented, cooking methods evolved over thousands of years based on heat generating stoves cannot adapt that fast and will continue to primarily rely on classic stoves with perhaps inventive heat generation techniques!
What will happen to vehicular transport? At the pace we are evolving only battery driven vehicles are going to rule the roads in another twenty years! I cannot imagine where all the electricity for charging the vehicles is going to come from? Pace of nuclear technology evolution is not keeping pace with the potential demand of electricity in another twenty or so years.
hmm.. will this happen or not? Lets see in another twenty years. Hopefully blogger is around for me to check what the heck was I thinking twenty years prior (that is this date)

Hypocrisy to the core.

Is it even possible for someone to be never a hypocrite? At all, not once in their adult life? I'd like to be and I find many a times when my conscience strong arms my own arm and untwirls my clenched fists to point at myself and tell me that
'You are a bloody hypocrite'.

Take for instance, road rage. I have been driving for about twenty years now and I thought I had matured as a driver and learned to take with equanimity situations where I would otherwise feel terribly wronged by the other driver.
Normally, I find myself even telling my dad to calm down when he would set out with his "rascal" from the safety of the largely soundproof airconditioned car! I would beseech him with a 'Whats the use?" he is not going to change because you yelled at him. Let it be."
Today, much to my shame, I found another driver pointing his finger at me and cursing me for what I strongly believe was his mistake (he tried to pass me on the left and got caught in a tight situation when I had to swerve left to give way to an oncoming vehicle). My valve blew and I was seeing red .
I immediately tried to give him a chase to yell at him and did not get to move more than 100 yards before the traffic stopped me. Suddenly I was enveloped by a whole bunch of people who started screaming at me for driving like a lunatic :( and my mood swung 360 degrees from anger to shame! I apologized instantly and they moved off cursing me :(
I'm still feeling ashamed at my own behavior! Why did I behave the way I did? My reaction was not even commiserate with the incident of the biker yelling at me! At the end only I was left with a bruised pride, broken principle, depression.
I realized that the crowd was just in shouting me down for rash driving. I would have yelled at myself and cursed myself worser had I been in the crowd watching myself drive down the way I did.
Though I never even got to shift beyond the first gear! I merely accelerated loudly to 20kph! venting my flash of anger on the accelerator pedal, its still an act that reeks of hypocrisy!
In a flash, I was brought down to earth and I felt ashamed at myself. I lost a bit of my own self respect.
I realize with humility, I have not still conquered the road rage and I still have some way to go. I accept this judgment and will work on it.

Part 2- Instant Karma!
Hot on the heels of what happened this morning, I proceeded to work with shame and depression attacking me from all sides. As we were trawling in the traffic, I heard a loud bump and realized that someone had rammed into me from behind.
I got off the vehicle and saw that a Santro had bumped into my back. I looked at the driver of the car who was inside and was wearing a bemused look on his face. He opened his vehicle and asked me
"what?"
"You ran into my car"
"Did you reverse?" he asked me
".....what?"

"you would have reversed thats why you bumped into me"
am too stunned to even react! I start laughing

".. how will i reverse when the traffic is moving forward?
" move move.. take your vehicle. you'd have reversed thats why you rammed into me"

"Sir, the least you can do is admit that you ran into me by mistake and say a sorry, instead you are making such wild goose accusations and trying to wiggle out of the situation. Is it fair?"

"....... Ok, sorry,.... "
" thanks.. " and we move on.
He waves sorry again as he passes me now. I'm sure he would have regretted his behaviour and said sorry.
Now that coming from me hot on the heels of lunacy just twenty minutes earlier, surprised me.
Well, I got rammed into the back as sort of instant punishment for my stupidity earlier in the day. That's what I'd say instant karma, delivered!

Action Item: work on the anger further!

Someone Tagged me!

Lavanya, one tough job you gave me. Phew... here goes

ah.. one more thing. I did not play by the rules . I changed/added questions more than the rules permitted :)

1. What is your current obsession?
Gadgets, Photograhy, reading, music,gaming the degree of obsession keeps changing by the season.

2. What are you wearing today?
As though men have a thousand choices to wear to work - Shirt,Tie,Trousers,Shoes. and everything else under it :P

3. You are on your deathbed and you want to judge your life. How would you.
Have you been a good son, a good husband, a good father, good brother, and an honest human being.

4. What’s the last thing you bought?
ahem.. got excited by a 325 bucks car vacuum cleaner in IndiaVarta.com and brought it. Worked thrice and died. Serves me right!

5. What are you listening to right now?
Dekha ek khwab maine silsile hue - Silsila (in my car right now)

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?
Tough question. How will I do justice to this question? Lavanya is a very kind person for having tagged my blog. I will need to know her better to be fair to answer this.

7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
India, Kodaikanal

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?
If this is about dress, then its always Veshti!

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Any river bank where the water is softly gurgling down cobblestones, with me sitting on a big rock with my feet in water with tiny fish nibbling my toes!
Nothing but the sound of gurgling water enveloping you except for the rare sound of a bird calling out its partner surrounded by tall trees with bright sunlight poring through gaps in the ferns making the water sparkle in places, doing nothing but just revelling in the marvellous nature and losing myself!

10. Which language do you want to learn?
Hindi! :( I studied it and yet do not know it much to my shame. a few significant relatives of mine are Maharashtrians and Punjabis (What a desi family eh?)
It would make me get to know them better :)

11. What’s your favourite quote?
Courage in your mind, prayer on your lips, horizon in sight, march ahead, success is yours!

12. Who do you want to meet right now?
I'd like to meet my wife and talk to her! Its been 4 good years since we spent quality time talking (nothing happened, just that we had children since then)

13. What is your favourite colour?
Sky Blue. Always

14. Give us 3 styling tips that work for you.
Style? well, almost mottai thalai summer crop. A kurta pyjama/Sherwani or Formals with Tie!

15. What is your dream job?
A job where I have manager who is also my guru, a team that I can keep happy, look back each year and tell myself that I have accomplished something this year.
I'm in one right now (pst...am a frog in a well)

16. What’s your favorite magazine?
Autocar, Engadget.com, autoblog.net cannot live without these

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
A valentine gift for my dear wife.

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?
Men wearing bermudas, sitting cross legged.

19. Is exercise a part of your daily routine? If so, what kind of exercise is it?
Jog 2 kms daily

20. What kind of haircut do you prefer?
Summer crop (always)

21. What are you going to do after this?
Go home to my wife and kids!

22. What are your favourite movies?
God father 1,2 LoTr-1,2,3, Green Mile

23. What inspires you?
A good photograph, stirring music, a good story (I guess art inspires me)

24. What do your friends call you most commonly?
cv

25. Would you prefer coffee or tea?
Depends on the time of the day. First thing in the morning its always Coffee! After that only tea!

26. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
Stay quiet.. and either kick my own butt out of it or some one always picks me up :) am lucky ain't i?

27. What makes you go wild?
When someone automatically makes you accountable for the task that you once helped them with! You hate to help again and you hate yourself for thinking like that.


28. Which other blogs do you love visiting?
There is a whole bunch. Check my profile.

29. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?
Ice cream . Period,

30. How many tabs are turned on in ur browser right now?
15 :)

31. Favorite Season?
Dec-Feb in Chennai

32. If I come to your house now, what would u cook for me?
If my dear wife would let me, then I'd cook mm.... some spicy ginger rasam and beans! Sorry Lavanya, I cannot throw up something fancy myself!

33. What is the right way to avoid people who purposefully hurt you?
Ignore them!

34. What are you afraid of the most?
losing my credibility! I like to be fair 100% but am afraid I wont be!

35. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
when will I ever lose that flab?

36. What brings a smile on your face instantly??
My son's toothless grin! My daughter's innocent face when she is asleep (oh she is a terror when she is awake.)


38. What would you do if you were made PM of India for one day?
Introduce eligibility criteria to be a minister. Make sure all ministerial nominations are approved by a panel of the respective Industry's top bureaucrats and experts!
Make it a criminal offence to make statements such as Maharashtra is only for Marathis or Tamil Nadu is only for tamils. Don't even think prez has these powers

39. What is that one thing that keeps you going.
Truthfulness and fear of losing trust placed in me!

40. Whats one thing that you used to love that you left
Hanging out with friends. I got married !

41. What would be your reaction, if you come to know that today is the last day of your life
Panic and fear for my Children's future! A fervent prayer to god to take care of them and give them good education and courage to face life!

42. What are your hobbies?
Photography, cars, gadgets, Reading, music, blogging


43. What do you hate about yourself?
I try to be politically correct most of the times. Wish I could go bindaas, speaking my mind with a care a damn attitude.
Rules for those who are tagged:

Respond and rework – answer these questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own, and add one more question to the list. Then tag others :)

I tag
http://advaithandyukta.blogspot.com/
http://caramelhill.blogspot.com/
http://www.blogger.com/home
http://my2centstoo.blogspot.com/
http://petalsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/

Will the next Indo Pak war trigger WW 3?

Recent visit by the US Defense secretary Robert Gates has given some signs that are alarming to say the least.
He has repeatedly stated to the press that 'India cannot be expected to show restraint in face of yet another attack similar to that of 26/11'.
This single statement is actually thought provoking. It could be construed as
i. US agreeing to Indian viewpoint on pressuring Pakistan to act on 26/11 perpetrators and the terrorists on their soil in general.
ii. Or like journalists suggest, is the US pressing Pakistan to act on Af-Pak border using India as a threat?
iii. Or is the US playing it smart and setting up ground for India to attack Pakistan on its behalf?

If the US is losing its hope on Pakistan's ability to reign in the terrorists, why is it going around giving away twelve drones to the PAF?
It is not like the US is having great success in either IRAQ or Afghanistan with the mightiest and technologically the most advanced fighting forces in the world, for it to comment on Pakistan, a third world country that's barely standing on its feet with its own problems.
As for US just using India as a threat to force Pakistan to act, Pakistanis could be temperamental, but they are no fools. Cunning as a fox, they will not hesitate run into China's wide open arms should US play tough. Bad news US. I, personally think that may not work that well.

Even if the Indian policy makers decide to wage a war on Pakistan when god forbid another terrorist strike happens, with US's tacit approval, it would only spell disaster. China will be quick to blame US for encouraging India and start providing arms to Pakistan free. Worse, it might start exerting pressure on eastern borders to distract India. If the NATO countries rally behind India, it won't be long before Iran, North Korea , Venezuela and a few vocally anti american countries to join the fray to support China's hands! What could taste better than the joining the world's emerging super power in challenging the might of the ageing super power? A golden opportunity for forging a super alliance and changing the axis of world powers. A perfect recipe for WW3.

In all of it, the losers are India and Pakistan.

I hate Corporate Rewards

I hate corporate rewards. Phew! I finally got it off my chest! Its pointless at best. I just do not see the need for an awards ritual where an employee is awarded for 'good performance' and other such half a dozen categories in an organization that is mid sized.
The perceived benefits of rewards are
i. Employee motivation
ii. Recognition


Personally, a reward is the last thing I need to motivate myself. What is needed is faith and belief of the customer and encouragement from your manager and sound support of your team that stands by you every step.
An award is not going to compensate for any of the above.

Recognition
An employee is recognized as a star performer through appraisals that directly result in promotions and other monetary benefits. Nothing is more satisfactory than this. A quiet appraisal of performance with positive inputs to improvement go longer than a piece of plastic or metal donning my shelf. Recognition by senior management is another myth. These rewards ceremonies are conducted each quarter or even each month that its become pointless to reward the same person each time for the best performance. Eventually the system becomes a round robin and everyone knows that this is just a placebo and just don't care anymore.
Senior management recognizing the employee by virtue of having won an award from their own hands is also a bit far fetched. When it comes to business, word of mouth and trust plays a far more significant role than, again, the number of plastics that I have won!

Truly star performers do not seek nor do they benefit from limelight.
EDIT: Pursuant to this post, I received a call from a relative that he won an all India award for excellence in performance and he was one of the three to have won the award! Well, thats awesome! Thats recognition and it gets all the ticks in my above checklist. However, compare this with typical IT projects where each team of 5 or 50 gets to award a person for excellence every quarter or month!! Now the latter is what I hate!

Dream of a teacher!

Most of my dreams are unrealistic and have illogical stories and concepts in them! Take for instance yesterday. I dreamed of being invited to my high school by none other than my most favourite teacher in my life! Ms.Padmini Iyer!
She taught me Chemistry in my Elevent and Twelfth years! I'm totally awestruck at the mere thought of her and that's how much I love her teaching! So, I was called for by Ms.Padmini Iyer in my dreams and I dropped everything to visit her in school!
So, I venture into my school after what Eighteen Years and find her teaching a bunch of kids something. She sees me come in and immediately throws a question at me
"How do you prepare HCl" I'm taken aback. I realize that she is asking me about Hydrochloric acid and am thinking 'nobody prepares HCl. One just buys it from a drug store" . But obviously that cannot be the right answer and am instantly that I do not know the answer and I stutter!
Just then as though luck would have it an office attender appears and tell her that the Princi wants to see her and off she goes!
I heave a sigh of relief and turn around. The whole class is staring at me and all eyes seem to say "So, you do not know how to prepare HCl" . I try smiling away and I realize I start sweating. All my happiness and elation of meeting my favourite teacher remains but I shudder to fail her command!
My heart starts to beat faster and I wake up suddenly and the dream comes to an end. I have some water and go off to bed again! Now, what do I read from it? Why her and why all of a sudden?
Should I meet her? Is it like puranic times when gods appear in dreams and tell them things? Well she is god for me! No one else has stirred so much passion in learning than she has in me.

Oh my god! I lost my gmail password!

I had a few hair raising moments when It appeared that I had lost my gmail password. I panicked because it refused to log me in how much ever times i tried! For some reason it kept asking me to fill in the captcha and the password!
I was terrified to think that my password has been compromised! I had only one email account and thats pretty much is my registered email for most of my critical internet systems. I shudder to think of being locked out of my gmail account!
It has enough emails in it that someone could have me all figured out and wipe my existence from the net altogether! All sorts of such crazy thoughts were creeping me out!
Finally I realized after five minutes that gmail never said that my password was wrong! It just kept prompting me to enter the captcha! I realized this and then it was straight to my inbox!
Phew! What a scary thought! I realized today that I must get myself a secondary account! Perhaps make my wife's main email account my secondary account!

Instant Karma

There are times when I believe that gods have done an exemplary job creating this universe full of wonderful things that are overwhelmingly beautiful! and then there are many times, I think god got it completely screwed up when he failed to introduce 'Instant karma' along with the other laws of nature.
When we read about gross atrocities being committed by individuals, governments and dictators against innocent, my blood boils. Why does not god strike the perpetrators down with a bolt from the sky?
Alright, at least make them fall into a pit and bury themselves alive!
Time and again we watch in stupefied silence as pedophiles and mass murderers go about their crimes with gay abandon for years and years undetected until when someone uncovers them.
Why cannot these guys find their crime hitting them right back? One does not expect miracles, it can be a natural phenomenon. You commit a murder and walk out only to be hit by a bus and drop dead! Ta da, that's a natural way of bumping off a murderer!
The bus driver is not to be mistaken here. Let the law enforcement agencies spend their energies in ensuring that the bus driver did not commit any crime. Ironically, law enforcement agencies then would not have any murder to solve! For world will be on 'Autopunish' mode! They just have to log the facts and close the case!
Thievery shall be 'auto-punished' with temporary amnesia or even better, they trip, fall and break their leg on their getaway!
Law enforcement can be restricted to traffic policing , crowd control and other regulatory jobs! God can perhaps leave alone civil cases to humans? Its up to you god to decide! Like suing your neighbor because their dog pooped on your un-mowed lawn!
Imagine the amount of money the world will be saved! All those high security prisons that can be converted to schools!
Viva Instant Karma!
God, pls consider this as a change request if you have not earmarked this for your next edition of the world! Pls try to do better than a new sticker job.