Viswajith's explanation as funny as it sounded, did get me thinking more about whywhy  Rahul Gandhi felt the need to talk to US diplomat about Hindu terrorists.  It seems to be of the few surprising incidents where he has shown true political acumen. Congress identity has always been that of Minority favoritism. And their  only valid opposition is BJP whose vote bank is the hindu. By equating RSS with SIMI(one of those pakistani org. that also routinely sets the bombs in india), he wants to trouble that support system.

Politically speaking, I think this is the very mentality of congress that lead to BJP's growth. When Rajiv Gandhi in a Act ironically named Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act quoting wiki here, "denied even utterly destitute Muslim divorcees the right to alimony from their former husbands".

Now three points.
1. These so called appeasement/protection/quotas seem to be more detrimental to the very section of people they are supposed to favor. As far fetched as it sounds  the politicians are very well aware of this and are doing this precisely for this purpose. After all who would want to kill the Golden hen. I wouldnt have said this few years ago with all my naivety then. But the politicians are this shrewd.
2. This is the very practise that has lead to an opposition party for congress. For a long time, there wasnt a single party that could compete with congress's vote bank. BJP was the first one. Corruption as prevalent as it is, doesnt seem to be an election issue at teh centre - makes sense because every party is corrupt(Communist party is less corrupt but they are too useless for anything). Doesnt congress see through this? Now in a state like Gujarat, I remember congress toeing the pro-hindutva line.

3. At what cost, does he want to do it? As the article here points out, "His comment to Mr. Roemer directly undercut one of New Delhi's main foreign policy objectives—to get the international community to take the threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups more seriously." - taking this opportunity to instead spread a false report for his party's political benefit is literally a crime.

With all the bull Digvijay singh has been spreading, it wouldnt be a surprise if congress says mumbai terror attack was actually by RSS in the name of LeT to spread hatred against Islam. Where it hurts and disturbs the most is, LeT would still be at large free to conduct more terror acts.

***
Here is also a recent post from Dilip that triggered the discussion back in my head today.
I appreciate Dilip for sensitizing people about the impact of riots. but I found this article of his filled with as much absurdity as the usual pseudo-secular armchair analysts. He seems to be supporting Rahul's words without saying exactly so.

***
If I have to add my own terrorism that I fear the most(just like every one is adding), it has to be corruption which is why I hate congress.

After a month and half of occupying the malls and celebrating the biggest day of the year with family,  the Janta were back at the mall today - family oda! The roads near the mall were jam packed with parking lot traffic. Where do they get the energy, money and what do they still have to buy? Are they exchanging the gifts for something else?

I think the religion of this country is consumerism!

Man Madan Ambu

Having grown up watching movies mostly on 'Thiruttu' cassettes and never on theater, movie watching in a theatre still brings its own experience.

Like how everyone's laughter sounds so weird in a cinema hall as we watch a comedy movie till you catch the fag end of your own laughter. "Do I really laugh like that?" - I should never do that again.. But the next scene comes and you catch yourself doing the same and so do the rest.

It is an 'ok' movie. The last 20 minutes are hilarious aka crazy mohan style. The first half has some fair bit of emotion which I didn't care for.

Sangeetha was a revelation to me. Next time, she appears her usual annoying self on a TV show, I might be little more forgiving. She was good, completely joined the party.

Years ago my then room mate said, "Kamal is known to do this. Look, how he had given the annoying mean part to 'choclatey' Madhavan  and took the good role for himself."  The accusation would be still valid for this one as well.

Devi Sri Prasad's music didn't sound great during audio release but totally rocks the movie.

The very same roommate had said then. " Kamal doesn't like to work with Rahman because Rahman wouldn't let him sing"!!

I still do think it is 8 months or however long it took for Kamal to make the movie down the drain. Not because movie isn't good it is good. But because he should be making great movies (they most prob. will flop - but should box office matter at this stage?) that he is so capable of, giving us something that would top off Virumandi.  This guy is at the peak of his career(in terms of the peak before the slide) and there is not of time to waste around.

Neela vaanam... so reminded me off Vetri Vizha's Poongatru and Ambika song in vikram -  apart from the actress who appears for one song in the past and dies at the end of it, even the locales are the same.

KS Ravikumar had said in one of the interviews that the whole story in Neela vaanam was actually from Yaavarum kelir. That explains the amount of montages for the song - it is a full fledged story in the period of a song!

" Vaiyame kovilaya" - appeals to me taken out of context from the song, just as a phrase!

Aww.. at the claps that accompany on spotting star names, on their fast appearance. I even clapped for Trisha's name on screen just to be in the spirit. After all, this is Tamil culture and when it comes to culture no point going half way.

Just after Trisha has confessed to her past which is all melodramatic, in the very next scene, we see her smiling coyly, getting into a romantic zone! - seriously?

Why was this movie made? Kamal wanted to go on a cruise and Stalin must have loads of money (you know  where it came from).

I paid 15$ to udayanidhi stalin's production - this apart from the millions of tax money his family has already swindled. Is he the kaliyuga Thirupathi? Are we all paying back the poorva janmathu kadan(Previous birth loan - in short karma)?

I hope I really hope I never put up a christmas tree in my life. I just dont feel like it and have never felt like it and hope that continues.

I dont have any other statement to add to that. Not like we already have too many festivals without going in for one more and blah... blah..

I am waiting for the malls to be released tommorow after having been seized all the way from the nearby highway exits for more than a month.

I also wish these people have more than just two festivals. May be they should make two arbitary ones - festivus 1 and festivus 2. It is a human rights situation that needs to be rectified, surely a society of 300 million people in one of the most prosperous countries deserve that.

I also also hope that there is a little more reference to the man whose birthday is (apparently that isnt completely right) because of whom people celebrate the day. After all as the grass carvings atop a mountain on 680 reads "Jesus is the reason for the season". If I hadnt watched enough of Doordarshan shows, I might think people are just celebrating santa claus.May be they really are doing just that.

The last point troubled me a lot, in the midst of all the marathon santa claus movies, I missed the Jesus biography movie - I mean isnt that part of christmas.

Wonder why non-christians who celebrate christmas dont really care about eid/some such Islamic festival. May be al qaeda would be happy then. That just would balance out things.

Writing isn't about what you write as much as it is about how you write it. Unfortunate truth this one!

 Third time in a row where I go to work during the year end ghost week.  I knew I was covering up for 'n' number of people but past two years were a breeze so thought this one would be too. Two crucial issues came up today on top of my own work. I am not going to go all why god why me? Being caught 1/3 times doesnt demand that. but it deserves a crib post:)

Pity me, dear readers, pity me. 

***
I want to see 'Band Bajaa Baraat'. With a free ticket in hand and was planning to catch up this weekend except they have taken it off theaters.  Instead there is 'No Problem' and ' Tees Maar khan' - free a kudatha phenoyl kudiakalaam - but watch these two movies?!!!

Such is life dear readers. Such is life.

The girl with the book

She stands with the book, never worrying whether it is the line for rows 1-36 or 39-52. Never lifting the eyes off the book as the rest push and try to get themselves ahead - the sight of the girl with the book in the airport.  I like the image.

I wouldnt go as far as to say I like that person for all you know she would have entered Chetan Bhagat in the favorite author column of her face book page.  I just like the picture of some one standing in chaotic environment yet so immersed in the book.

I can identify with that.

With the girl who read a book as she was hiking up stanford dish. Some one might butt in to say it is bad for eyes but let us ignore them.

Let us instead extend our support to the teenage girl who brings her fiction to the dining table amidst the glaring looks of her parents and the words of atleast one parent, " Entha gavanam padipla erukalame".

Because as I said I might not care for their reading choices but I love that spirit:)

Rahul Gandhi #epicfail

Acc. to latest wikileaks, Rahul Gandhi is said to consider the radicalized hindu groups a bigger threat than LeT(- the pakistani based terror organization responsible for the majority of the terrorist actions against India including nov'26 mumbai attacks) . 

One can only imagine Lashkar-e-Taiba a.k.a LeT laughing. Infact, I would think some of them would even take offense  What more should they do to prove? They have held  India's commerical captial under siege for 4 days with just 10-25 people apart from numerous other bomb blasts across the country. At the end of it all, they get compared to radicalized Hindu groups? who go around parks and annoy young lovers and in return get pink chaddis?

Honestly, I think LeT would be offended and rightfully so.

***

 Policy-wise as well this doesnt make sense. Congress relies on Muslim vote banks and regularly does what appears outwardly favourable(& like every other appeasement act - blatantly harmful to the particular community in long run like Shah bano case) actions. But this particular piece of information wasnt going to be published - so the muslims of India werent going to be aware of it so why make such a rubbish claim without any political benefits? 

***

I only vaguely remember this Malini Parthasarathy(think she is the one who once wrote since all the non-BJP parties together had more seats than BJP, BJP shouldnt come to power, even though BJP and its alliance formed a majority in the house!) and never thought I would ever agree with her, but she summed up Rahul gandhi neatly. 

" Rahul's remark only reveals his own ignorance and need not be taken seriously." 

Infact, this seems to be the uniform response to Rahul across the board - from BJP to visiting UK/US diplomats.

This after he has spent a good decade on Indian politics. Scary, right? especially because, none of us can prevent Rahul Gandhi from becoming a PM. 

As empty as that head he might be, Rahul is such a pretty boy, no? I guess the famous blonde theory works both the ways.

This is perhaps what they call a double edged sword? While South Indian actors and their fanatic fans is a known phenomena across the Indian media, this article on Vikatan this week gives a little more of ground reality. Rajini fans have appealed to Rajini to join politics once and for all and if he is going to support any political party he should do so only under the agreement that each of the Rajini district fan association gets a seat. In short, Rajin's fans expect Political favor in return for their fandom!

1. Is Rajini literally running away from meeting his fans? Because obv. he doesnt want to join politics in fear of losing his wealth and here his fans are hoping to see four kasus(nallu paisa!)  in the name of Rajini.

2. As some one commented on the article, is being Rajini fan a qualification for becoming an MLA/MP - but does politics require one anyway?

3. It is extremely clear that these fans are looking at politics only as a personal growth opportunity financially which is.... puh..  dont know why it even shocks me.

   I have been reading about this phenomenon for sometime ... Vijay another actor who is known for his mass following has had successive flops(he ha.. success and flop!). He has been making some noises about joining politics and is constantly in the news for meeting different party leaders from Rahul Gandhi to Jayalalitha!

So, the same fans who put them on a pedestal are the ones who are pushing them to the pit of politics for their personal benefit?:)

Brahmastiram?

"The PM initially made an attempt to point former telecom minister....However, subsequent correspondence between the two reveals that Raja informed the PM in detail about his spectrum allocation policy, which he subsequently implemented without any resistance from the PM."

" ....while the SC is dependent on facts presented by lawyers, the JPC can source information from a variety of sources, including experts, lawyers and the media. ... "

 "..From the Congress point of view, a JPC even with Congress chairmanship is an uncontrollable beast, as it will also include members from the AIDMK, BJP and Left parties, who will diligently persevere to expose Raja’s wrong doings." 

Source: Why Congress is resisting a JPC probe into 2G scam

Insert here - the most repeated shakespeare quote on Indian TV/movies about Name

I seem to have entered a new phase in my life. A phase where names have become irrelevant. Couple of months ago, I went to a golu without knowing the name of the hostess(I did know one name in that household of 3 - that should count right? I missed the exact moment when she uttered her name during the invitation phone call), before that I bumped into an ex-colleague(I think) and spoke for 5 mins without knowing his name. I think he didn't know my name either.

I added some one else in linked in because he seem to have worked in the exact division in the previous company at the same time period and his name rings a bell not the face. (Advice to younglings, add all the colleagues to linked in on the last day of the job).

The thing is, I know for a fact I am so much better in remembering people. I have freaked out friends in the past by exactly recalling why they missed a particular event when they didnt have an iota of clue. So I know if I struggle with remembering others would only be worse.

Few months ago, at work.

"John said.. John said that."

"Who is John?"

" He says he knows you"

"Oh, if he says it must be true".

Senility hits you hard, just didnt expect it to hit me this early!

About the movies watched

Va Quarter cutting

It works fine as a comedy but obviously the movie has lot more which doesnt work as well.

I liked the movie but just the not to the extent I liked the previous one - Oram Po.

People had said(online) that the jokes were mokkai  - disagree totally. I LOLed, pa!

I also remember reading SPB Charan's acting wasnt good which is quite bizarre because after John Vijay he is the one who hits the note exactly for his role. Not that others were bad though Lekha just barely makes it there. Shiva was ok - he isnt a deadpan actor but he is no Prakash raj either. For John Vijay, if I hadnt caught him on some game show in his real avatar on vijay TV just last week, I wouldn't have realized the extent of his performance. He was too good. oh.. and didnt realize he was the guy in oram poo as well!

But something doesn't elevate it to the next level. May be it could be more bizarre in terms of the look of the film with wierd camera angles to give us the extra emphasis on the strangeness of the situation.  Or it is just Shiva's not so great performance. I didnt really care if he got his 'qwarter' the way I cared for Nick and Norah's fluffy concert or for Harold and Kumar's white castle.

Endhiran

-finally, yes it was watched:)

- and take it Golt film and Indi padams - tamil film did it.

- not a huge fan of this genre. I dont go wow on Hollywood films which have 100x more cgi than this movie.

You know because HW had always had these movies and they do it largescale that I never thought of what it took to get there. When I saw it in tamil movie(a first ever) though, I could appreciate the effort much better.

- One might even have to think of forgiving Shankar for his graphics in previous films that too poor ones for the sake of it like the totally unnecessary timeslice in boys, the ugly graphics in gentleman, Mudhalvan and so on. After all the guy was learning the ropes then that lead to Endhiran now.

- Has shankar never met an interesting, intelligent, strong woman in his life?

Singam

Yes, you read it right -Singam. I watch Masala movies in  fast forward mode mostly. This was no different. Besides, I had also liked one of the previous ventures of the director's Saami. It was another thing that when I tried watching "ayya' from the same guy. An unintentional comedy that one. And the guy went on overkill with that "Aduku mozhi" dialogue. If Surya headed to bathroom  the director felt need for him spout a 5 min recourse in "thuya" Tamil on it. 

Surya is what stood out in this idiotic movie. The guy was sincere for godsake. Loved his acting here.

My name is khan
There are certain things that people do at that that height stuck inside a plane without internet access one would never do otherwise - like watch singam. Even then I couldnt get myself to watch MNIK - if you think otherwise convince. I couldnt even get myself to select it ondemand.

I hate it when people recommend saying it has no item song and such. The presence/absence of one is an insignificant detail to me.

PS: seriously, you dont say this isn't the usual tamil film with fight/dance/masala - A village hard hitting love story with random looking people, with some twist and most importantly a sad ending - preferably some one going crazy at climax - is what goes for usual in Tamil cinema I think based on Vijay TV trailers. In hindi, it is the bad bad version of hollywood romcom.

Winter vacation

To all those travel bees,
Tell me some good places within US/outside(no, not all the way upto india) to travel  during Dec/Jan!

Exclamation marks should substitute full stop

Got the groove back to work today, finally! After a good 10 days! Part of it was due to what I call the ghost week@work -  most people are on vacation during thanksgiving and Christmas to new year week. I always work go to work during these weeks.

Most of it was the vacation hangover which brings me to the question of this post,, the whole idea that vacation makes you work better.  The boss told me that exact sentence before I left. I know I was all raring to go rather come back and work when I left, having just successfully completed  what I had to before heading for vacation. Couldn't stop myself from checking emails the first few days. When I came back I felt like Bin laden in a feminist rally or George Bush jr in a IEEE conference!

It took 10 days to feel like the sheep in a  herd - which is how it should be:)

Point is, I am one of those single gear people - you put me on work mode - work work I go - you put me on vacation mode - it is all vacation after that, just don't ask me to switch gears.

I dont think I have watched Barkha relay news much or seen her talk show. But I have read consistent criticism against her for quite sometime now. Every single time I read something against her I will recall that I havent personally seen her work to make my own judgement. Today while debating whether to watch Barkha dutt discussion with external editor' on NDTV or not, I stumbled on this blog and that is when it hit me, why I never watch anything related to her - " with people saying she interrupts her interlocutors and doesn’t give them enough of a chance to speak." - this constant cutting off - now quite common across the indian media is what put me off as well. Makes the debate pointless plus there is a huge temptation to call her and discipline her like your teachers did when you ill-manneredly interrupted some one talking.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not too surprised by the tapes and dont think it is a huge issue but I am absolutely disappointed at the way she and NDTV handled the issue. She quoted on twitter an article which talks about how the privacy has been violated and I went all, are they serious? they discuss nation's cabinet formation - a rogue person getting a ministry- whats personal about it? (Ratan tata does have a right though).

Even previously when Barkha was on fire for her 26/11 inhuman and insensitive reporting, I noticed NDTV routinely filtered out any of my comment which wasnt so favourable to Barkha and comments in support of her were getting straight through. If you happened to look at that comment's page, you would wonder if any one was at all irritated with her reporting - way to go for a news channel, right?