Friday, July 31, 2009

To whomsoever it may concern

Its not Vada, its Vadai.
Its not Dosa, its Dosai. The 'D' really pronounced as in 'D' of "Dhun".

What are people eating these i's for?

Its not macha, its machan. Pronouncing the 'n' with the subtlety it requires is an art form, learn it.


Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sonia Gandhi != Annie Besant

I really cringe when people make this Annie Besant and Sonia Gandhi comparison. We accepted Annie Besant so why not Sonia Gandhi. Do I have to really spell it out? The major difference between them?

A Person moves to a country drawn by its culture, rich philosophy it offers. Starts fighting for their right of self-rule when the natives hadnt started it.

Another one falls in love and gets married into the first family of the world's largest democracy(yes, d-y-n-a-s-t-y before d-e-m-o-c-r-a-c-y ). Inspite of this doesnt become a citizen for 16 years till the husband becomes a people's representative clearly spelling out that it was necessity than act of volition. Then joins political party just before her son's entry into politics. Has never really shown any Political acumen or for that matter any sort of acumen.

To compare both is stupidity.

If there are some of you who are cooing, "oh but they both moved for love, one love for country and another for the man". That is stupidity too.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Oh my Country, thy image

A year or so ago, I read Kite runner. Like every other person who had read the book, I loved it. Particularly liked the way the Khalid painted his country without selling out to the typical western audience. I told myself this is how an Indian author should write about India. Real scenario, real problems.

On finishing the book, I did what any respectable internetaholic would do. Googled* the author's name, reached his website, read his interviews. And there I found him explaining how Afghans actually hated the way the country was painted in the book. That things werent as gloomy there and so on. They thought he had sold out to the west.

So Children, what do you learn from this episode?




*(blogger doesn't recognize that as a verb, wth)

Monday, July 27, 2009

Achumundu Achumundu

At the end of the movie, a bunch of newspaper clippings are shown which ends up bringing forth the issue much more than movie ever did. Infact, nothing ever happens in the movie. A friend wondered if the director couldnt come up with a story/plot to last more than 10 minutes because he was a short-film maker. We discussed alternate climaxes to make it worth atleast an episode in TV series(half an hr).

Atleast the portrayal of a desi life in USA is accurate. When Sneha asks the overtly friendy Indian woman she bumps into in a grocery shop if she belongs to Amway, it brings a smile. Sneha's overt suspicion at everything unusual at her house or surrounding annoyed me but apparently that isnt unusual for people living in suburbs. It is quite scary, I am told to live in suburbs.

But the main issue that the director wanted to focus on, atleast as I gathered from the newspaper snips might not get its due. By making the villian, a caucasian, people who dont know about this already arent going to understand it can happen in their homes, to their children, by someone much closer to them.

Monsoon wedding portrayed this much better in a lot more relatable scenario to the Indian audience. Ironically, Monsoon wedding was made and shown primarily for non-Indian audience. Non-Indian audience will add this as one more to the list of horrible things that happens in all the Indian homes, look at all the Indians they meet with a little more pity.Tamils watching AA would discuss about the horror that can happen in USA.

Both these movies, by setting the scenario in an alien country has lost the true impact they could have had. Not as much a loss to the north american/western audience who are adequately exposed to this issue but for us it is.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Dream Job

I am a fraud engineer, you know. The one who would like to shake her head against six sigma model* and draw comfort at chaos theory**. My true passion would have been in one of those government offices, behind the wire mesh counters, as hordes of people wait in line for my attention, i shall take a sip of the coffee that the peon just delivered in a stainless davara tumbler, turn to pakathu seat pankajam and ask her, "aparumm, enna achu?". :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Nange Paaon Chaand Aayegaa

Pon maalai pozhuthu

"Pot adichutu padran", my brother mentioned. He could be right, I dont recall much of the movie. Vaguely remember it as story about 3 guys and a girl . No, it is not the Bhagyaraj movie that gave us famous "ek gaon mein ek kisan raguthatha".

But this song has been cheering me up from the time I was born. Starting from the initial guitar note, the camera capturing sun glistening in the background, Vairumuthu's lyrics referring to the sky as the bodhi tree, the lilt in SPB's singing, texture of his voice and more than anything, illayaraja's music just makes it divine.




Carrying in the same spirit, not in the same league ofcourse, here is another.


"Shaam Ko Khidikee Se Choree Choree Nange Paaon Chaand Aayegaa" - need I say more?
So how is your friday, folks?

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Red alert America

Remember the seinfeld episode where Kramer gets to be a Santa, he says something to the kid and the kid screams, he is a commie, he is a commie.

It puzzles me, this knee jerk reaction of the country to communism. As if its a despicable thing. How can a country that accepts the different races, cultures, a country that is open to all sorts of idealogies, all sorts of wierd religions, can act as if this is the one evil one needs to oppose. Hard for me to comprehend growing up in a socialist country.

I am not even a supporter of communism, the way it suppresses individual identity, it doesn't even work. has never worked. Enough people have said about it. Equal opportunities, yes, equally bad opportunity, no. But the intention of equal opportunity isnt bad in itself, isnt it?

Was it the cold war?

When O'Reily was interviewing Obama, O'Reily the fox sneaked in the phrase, "redistribution of wealth". No said OBama immediately. There again the knee jerk reaction.

My opposition to commnuism is it doesnt work. The way I see it, the knee jerk reaction seems to be more from the perspective of the loss of wealth of the rich. As if the people are screaming, " oh my god, are you going to take away all this wealth from all these rich people". It isnt fair, I agree, but it isnt the end of the world. We are always struggling with different ideologies, hoping for a perfect world. One of it happened to be communism, it didn't work and a lot of other things we have tried. So why is communism an anathema to america?

Monday, July 20, 2009

Really, we are a wild bunch

" Join us for Wild Wednesday
................................................
..........................................................
Enjoy music and free icecream
(while supplies last)"

- a notice found, where else, at the office. Can I get transferred to Steve Carrel's office at a higher salary, please?

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Guilt

it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out. guilt will be my undoing. quite a few times guilt over a perceived wrong doing. often it turns out the perceived receiver didnt even bother to remember the incident. but i live with the wierd feeling in my stomach. trying at every available opportunity after the incident to make amends for my perceived mistakes. atleast i am extra nice then. friends have tried telling me that the world doesnt revolve around my words. good or bad:) A, a friend used to say that is my mainstay emotion. guilt, he would laugh over it.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Watch out, the Competition starts in the womb?

'A' took a deep look at my face for few seconds and suddenly just like that he burst out a smile. He was five months old then. I had gone to his house for a navarathiri visit. Just as I was sinking in this moment with him, came a voice.

"Has he started making pa, na sounds , yet? ", asked another guest at the house.
(what a five month old baby does that?)

"No", answered my friend, A's mom.

"Oh, my Nithya has already started doing it. She is a month older than him. But she had already started saying pa a month ago."

"This one doesnt appear to say anything yet."

"Even my elder daughter had started saying few letters by 5 months. I think girls start so early."

oh man, isnt it bit early and quite ugly to start comparison now. A five month old baby for god's sake. He crawls around fine, is sitting on my lap right now. I have seen my share of babies with loads of cousins, nephews and nieces around to say this child was just doing fine. The whole life is ahead for this sort of competition. On the other hand, arent educated masses like us sitting in US with our Master degrees not believe in this sort of competition any more. I know, S and K(A's parents) dont want him to be in any sort of desi stereotypes of doctor, engineer. They really hope he is into sports one day, so knock out lady, his parents arent into the race.


Friday, July 10, 2009

Mouna Raagam - Title visuals

Have these visuals in the title song ever puzzled you with respect to the movie? It isnt hard to guess these are the childhood pictures of one of most adored,loved and celebrated tamil actress Revathi(who was totally worth all the that, btw).

A mix of Back ground music used in the film plays along as the title credits roll on. Illayaraja's bgm was undisputably one of the four stars of the movie, the other three being Maniratnam, Revathi and Karthik. Mike Mohan without the Mike comes somewhere in the movie but doesnt make the cut though is immensely tolerable for once.

But the music isnt what puzzles me, it is the pictures. Mani is known for his screen aesthetics but doesnt use them for the sake of it. So, they couldnt have been there just because they were better than black background or were they?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Dialogue

Tried killing several times, but didnt work!
- me, at Work in an email reply. needless to say I was talking about processes.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Article 377 and landmark judgement

Indian society is hardly fair and free, but for the most part, the laws and constitution are. That is one bit of nice thing about India. This portion of article 377 that criminalises homosexuality stands against that bit of sanity. Treat people equally atleast in Paper, give them rights atleast in Paper. I hope atleast the gets corrected. Atleast one step.

Also, ever since the issue of gay rights and case against article 377 started in India, I have been curious about the reaction of the hindu extreme group. Islam and Christainity have specific instances in their respective books that condemn homosexuality. Hinduism has 1000 books probably, but I dont think any of them condemns homosexuality, if anything it is the reverse is what I hear.

So, if Hindu groups are condemning it, arent they just aping the religious conservatives of the rest of the world, even though it is the belief of completely different religion(their supposed enemies)? or did they suddenly wake up to the notion of diverse religions and tolerance to their beliefs? Just shows how brainless the fundamentalists are, I suppose.

Ps: honestly, before reading some of the blogs written by gay indians, I wouldnt have understood their plight or gave it a thought. my previous post on this

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

rang ranga pani peke

" Rang ranga pani peke, Seedhi sadhi ladki bhigad gayi",* goes a line in this current favorite of mine. It has been playing non-stop in my car. The song has a peppy tune. And yeah, insane lyrics. Series of line found somewhere in the middle of the song goes
"tareef teri karna hai,
tujhe khone se ab darna hai,
haan, bul gaya ab tujpe din me
chaar dafa marna hai"
- in one shot, a mockery of most hindi songs we know. I love that.

The minute of visuals i have watched has Deepika padukone showing some expression on the face. This is akin to my high school friend getting a 1/50 in one of the tests at the IIT coaching center. The Prof. told her that she might feel she has improved infinitely considering her previous her score was 0 but sadly that isnt true . That is exactly what I would say for Deepika as well.



*Pardon my indi, it comes some where after english, tamil, telugu for me.