dreamz unltd......

Sk-ism

2007-04-07T16:41:00.000+05:30

Launching the Sk-ism blog.

kavitha, kavitha..

2007-04-02T20:06:00.000+05:30

... from my kirukkalgal...

yaarukkaaga, ithu yaarukkaga?

2007-03-31T18:45:00.000+05:30

Today, Tamil Nadu "celebrated" State sponsored bandh (ironical that of all parties, "tamil breathing" dravidian parties, using a hindi word). To what end? Just to prove to themselves and to the Center, of the "power" that the ruling party wields.

All because Supreme Court has stayed the case against bill for Reservation for OBC. The court has stayed the case asking for the validity of the data used, which was based on the Census of 1931. And the judgment is not yet out, it is pretty far off in time. However, with reservation being a "sure fire" ammunition for elections, all the parties are vying with each other to get their own share of the pie - the claim to be the beacons of "social justice and equity". After all, caste politics pays rich dividends.

Is the bandh right in any way? Would getting thousands of train passengers stranded outside the borders of TN achieve social justice? Indians take pride in resorting to bandh/dharnas/fast etc, all in the name of practising the "Gandhigiri". What Gandhi did through his bandhs had a reason: by stalling economic activity, which is essentially detrimental to the interests of the British, he tried to attract attention. It was essentially a weak minority (in terms of power) trying to make its powerful "masters" hear its voice. But, now, what does the ruling party wants to achieve by calling for a bandh, discomforting so many of its own people? Why stall all the activity when it has so much power to do a lot for education of the unfortunate lot, which it never seems to really care to think about? Whose attention does it want to attract? Is it like a third standard school teacher who terrifies her class into silence just to "show off" to the Principal? Probably, with every party going for the kill, the "telecom operator" wanted to differentiate his party from the rest by being "louder and clearer". After all, action speaks a lot louder than words.

The apparent reason for this is to call the people of the state to "unanimously voice their support for social justice". All for 27% reservation in higher-education for the OBC and other unfortunate sections of the society. But not many seems to care about providing primary education to them.

Sensationalism is the mantra: be it selling a "cheap" newspaper or weekly, by throwing in a lof freebies that are got through arm-twisting, or capturing the state, through shameless promises of "free" TVs. Probably the highlights (esp the promised TVs) of the manifesto for the last election were "inspired" by the success of "puthusu kanna puthusu". Kottainaalum kumkumamnaalum gameplan onnu thaan.

The government spent crores of tax payer's money on distributing "free" TVs (romba theva naattukku!!! how else can you increase scv cable revenues? and more than anything, what better way to keep the stupidity quotient of tamilians on the high levels than the idiot box itself?). Why can't it spent a portion of that money on providing primary education to the unfortunate sections? That already a lot of the money spent on education goes to the "loyal" party people is another issue anyway. Recently, government shcools in TN were provided with scrap in the name of desks and benches, from the furniture godowns of close aides of the "commander".

What these unfortunate sections need is not just "muttai" and "sathunavu". The opportunity cost of sending a child to school is pretty high i.e. the loss to the family by sending one of its child to school and not to a mechanic shop or a hotel is high. Going/not going to work can mean whether they do/don't get to eat today while education bears economic fruits a lot later. Unless, this opportunity cost is paid, bringing those unfortunate kids to school is almost impossible. Probably something like school vouchers can be a solution like Milton Friedman said. While school vouchers are essentially like prepaid cards to buy education for your kids, what we need here is essentially payment to study - come to school, get paid. Though it sounds like scholarships, the essential difference is that the payment to the student is over and above the education expenses, which is again met by the government. Again, administering school vouchers wouldn't be easy, given how "safe" stocks in our ration shops are. But, is there any other way to bring those unfortunate kids to take up the "reserved" seats? All that we would end up doing with this reservation is to make the kids of the so-called creamy layer in the OBC even lazier.

The problem is how to increase the pie rather than just fighting mindlessly over the existing insufficient one.

poguthe... poguthe...

2007-03-28T14:28:00.000+05:30

Is love real?

The author of this blog is too intelligent to fall for a positive answer. Yeah, many of you might read 'intelligence' as the manifestation of the 'sour grapes syndrome'. But, believe me, that is not the case here.

Love is just a thought. If you think you are in love, you are. They say love is a beautiful feeling that just happens. Really?

First, feeling or emotion is a just a manifestation of a mishmash of innumerous thoughts, most of which we never know existed. Anything other than the involuntary physiological activities has to have an origin in the brain. Plain and simple. But if it is all about thoughts, how does one have that beautiful feeling of “butterflies in the stomach” on seeing the loved one(s)? Hormones. Just like a surge of adrenaline readies you to fight or flee in the face of danger.

Second, the notion of chance i.e. “it just happens” is the biggest farce. Well, probably it might be true in the case of irreparable idiocy or an abnormally strong memory, which holds dusty archives of “pona jenmathu” experiences. Probably they forgot to add a few words i.e. “it just happens for a reason (or rather multiple reasons, many forgotten)”.

There is a very commonly used, yet seldom understood animal called “unconditional love”. BS. You say the love a mom has for her daughter is unconditional? Think again. It is “unconditional” as far as the daughter behaves. As long as she meets her mom’s expectations. Let her marry a guy against the mom’s wishes and then you will see how “unconditional” the love was. The existence of love is contingent upon the extent to which the expectations are met. Love is about managing expectations. Unmet expectations lead to undesirable consequences, which leads to pain. Yeah, something like what the Buddha said about the root cause of human suffering.

I say, love isn’t, lust is. Love is just an excuse to do or not to do something. It is a concept of convenience that has to be economically viable, emotionally satiable and politically stable. That is asking for too much, huh? Like the Impossible Trinity or economic trilemma? How about friendship? Is it not unconditional? I think most of you are not stupid enough to ask this question in the first place. Anyway, for the others, the answer is no.

So what if love is predicated upon meeting expectations? Is it not that stuff that makes life worth living? I have my own doubts. That said, I have been and will be stupid enough throughout my life to fall in love. And intelligent enough to come out of it, when I had to, with lesser scars. ;)

I am reminded of the lines from my fav comic book hero, Lucky Luke.

"I''m a poor lonesome cowboy, and a long way from home..."

Tail piece:

Actually, what made me write this is the irresponsiveness of a few of my online/offline friends. He/she might have had his/her own reasons to not to respond to me. But the pain is real. A "F*ck off. Don’t ever talk to me again" is much better than a refusal and slow withdrawal. At least, it helps me reset my thought engine immediately and go on.

Oh, what a f*ck!!!

2007-03-23T07:27:00.001+05:30

I just love Osho. Check this out and you will know why. Then, you too start loving him too. ;)

Vela mela vela...

2007-03-15T17:48:00.000+05:30

Whom do you think uses his (saripaa samathuvavaathigala, his/her) brain more? The one who keeps his eyes glued to the monitor and his fingers to the keyboard, burning his ‘seat’ off? The one who sees to that the coffee machines keep working harder than himself? The one who goes home once in a while just to make sure that his family doesn’t forget him, and he, his family and address? Or is it the lively one who rarely warms his seat and keeps spreading light of his love and wisdom across cabins, irrespective of the high walls in between?

Did you say – the one who warms his seat the most uses the brain the most? Well, if you say, hotter the seat is, better the brain, you are terribly wrong. May be, he uses his bum more than he uses his brain. Just doing what you are told is not as hard as it seems. You know what you got to do and how to do what you got to do. But, just think about the minority that is left to create work for itself. Imagine how hard the brains of those elite few have to work to keep them occupied. Now, you will realize whose brain works harder.

Okay, a little christening exercise now. In desi Dilbertesque ishtyle, we’ll call the hard-workers, seat-warmers, and the other intelligent minority, heart-warmers. I think I don’t have to discuss about seat-warmers, as I am sure most of you would be one of them and know much more about them than me. So, now that you realize that your bum is burning, before you rush off to cool it down, read through the rest of the post to know what it takes to be a heart -warmer.

You might have heard such comments on heart-warmers more often than not. “The company pays you to keep you from working. Your pay is to insure against the disaster – your work.” – trying to imply “You are good for nothing and your work sucks”, but essentially thinking “You must be too smart to be like this”. This is just a collective whine from the dumb masses which make up the seat-warming community.

But, the truth is management values the heart-warmers more than the other species. Not everybody can be made a heart-warmer. You need exceptional creativity to be one. Kudutha velaiya seirathu kashtam illa, kudukkatha velaya seirathu thaan kashtam. Plain and simple.

So the next time, you ask heart-warmers “Enna innikkum vettiyaa?”, just realize how DUMB you are to be a seat-warmer and more than anything, the management very well knows that.

Remember the old advert for polio eradication featuring Rajnikanth that used to be aired in the mid-80s, especially during the Sunday night movies?

“Maan maathiri thullittu pora intha kulanthaiya paarunga. Intha kuzhanthaiyaiyum paarunga. Intha nelama unga kulanthaiku varaama irukka polio drops podunga”

Need I say more on this?

Your seat/heart warming capacity is heavily dependent on what your parents told you about work and how naïve you were to believe all of that.

Work is worship? Then what is God? Idleness. Of course, you all very well know that God created the world in six days and on the seventh day, He rested. Do you get it?

Be Idle, Be God.

My first podcast...

2007-03-02T14:34:00.000+05:30

The Original Sin

2007-02-24T17:06:00.000+05:30

Warning
This post talks about religion and sex. Just ask yourself whether you can utter the word "sex" without any hesitation. If you can't, then this post is not for you. Please be warned.

I am proud for having born a Hindu and i m not jingoistic about it. Neither do i belong to the saffron brigade. Just like the longstanding question on whether there was ever a country called India as we know it now, I doubt whether there was really anything that was called Hinduism. What we now call Hinduism is how the West sees it. What could have happened was that after putting faiths like Jainism and Buddhism, which had a recorded history, into neat little boxes, as the western logic always requires, the historians would have just scooped up the leftovers and made up a medley and decided to call it Hinduism, after Hindustan, which was after the Indus.

So what is there to be proud about a religion that is made of such "left-overs"? What makes my heart swell when I think i am born a Hindu? It is just that Hinduism is much much deeper and multifaceted than any other religion on this whole wide world. Though I don't believe that Hinduism is a single religion, I just wonder at the co-existence (i know i cannot call it "peaceful", for bloody duels between various faiths is written all over our history) of so many beliefs like vaishnava, shaiva and what not in our country.

Whatever it was, India as a nation was certainly more liberal than it is today in its past. How else can you build a Khajuraho or write a KamaSutra? Down south, there is something called Kokkoka Saasthram, along the lines of KS. Cut and pan to today. Motha ulagathukkum vazhi kaatura maathiri namma oor aalu ezhuthuna oru great reference/handbook-a naamalae padikarathukkulla 1008 problem. But what to do, thirst for knowledge is so high. So, namma pasanga oor ellaam suthi epdiyaavathu unofficial versions vaangiduvaanga. Aanaa, supply economics wreaks a havoc. With so many knowledge-seekers, the demand-supply situation is heavily imbalanced. And with information asymmetry, there is no way to compare the products and prices and more often than not, you end up paying atrociously high prices. However, technology, especially internet, is a great enabler for knowledge sharing!!! Ennadaa ivan, ivlo kevalamaanavana irukkane nu yosikkireengala? If a guy says he hasn't done all this, know that he is lying through his teeth. If you really think he can't be lying, then run as fast and far as you can and call Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones, ya the MIB team, and tell them you have a unearthly specimen.

So why this regressive thinking? One major reason could be, as Suresh pointed out, the fact that we were under British for over a century and that they followed a religion that cast sex as sin.

So why do I say so much about sex? Why do i say Hinduism is better than other monotheist religions like Christianity or Islam? It is because of their sexist attitude, the roots of which run deep into the basic understanding of sex. Sexual energy is the only energy available to man (woman). Before hitting out at me, just take a little time to think. The basic idea of culture/religion is to move man above his natural instincts to survive and mate (probably mating is also part of the instinct to survive through progeny). What after the basic instinct? BI 2 nu ratham varra maathiri kadikkaatheenga.

Let's revise a basic law from high school science class - Law of conservation of energy. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but can be transformed into another form. Anything fluid, be it water, electric current or sex energy, flows through the path of least resistance. The change is not possible by adding more resistance to the path. Resistance is temporary. Energy being active creates it own paths, which can be even more damaging. Transformation of the energy is the only solution. The question is how to bring about the redirection of the energy. How to create new paths for the energy to flow? Art, dance, song. Don't ask me what religion did the cave man follow when he danced around his woman or not? He could very well have danced and sung beautifully. It is just that religion provides a framework within which these can be performed.

Hinduism is the only religion, as far as i know, which celebrates sex while others condemn it in all ways, with little effect. In fact, the lingha form of Shiva, one of the important amd most popular Hindu gods, represents the male-female union. Just compare this with the approaches of other religions. All of them try to enslave man through the chains of guilt. By declaring the very core instinct of man as sin, they just make sure that there is no way to escape. And the preachers immediately get to sit on the "moral" high throne, from where they can look down and point fingers at the wretched souls who wallow in guilt they just created so craftily. Just think how Eve has been condemned all through for the original sin and thereby causing all the misery. As if Adam is perfect. Avanukku avlo arivu irunthaa Eve kitta "athu forbidden fruit. ennaala atha eduthu thara mudiyathu." nu solla vendiyathu thaane. And just think how we, who worshipped that very human union, have become "conservative" about it?

I don't mean that everything was perfect with Hinduism in the past. It never was and surely it would never be. Neither do i advocate mindless indulgence. In fact, i have no answer if you ask me: why such a liberal society, as i claim it to be, didn't come up with a steam engine. But, i am sure of one thing: sex is a basic instinct that will be present for ever. It cannot be won over by fighting; it has to be transformed. And Hinduism had much better understanding of man than any other religion.

Romba naal munnadi kavitha ezhutharaennu kirukkunathula irunthu rendu vari ippo solren. It would be very apt here.

Yethaiyum kadappathu kai koodum - athan
Vithaiyaai nirpathu kanda pin

Is Coke God?

2007-02-19T21:36:00.000+05:30

Note:
Ennada ivan aah-ooh na Suresh illa Usha blog pathi solraan? Sonthamaa yosikkave maattana nu yosikkatheenga. I just happened to start writing this post on reading the following quote on Suresh's blog and after the "Is there a God?" debate on Neeyaa-Naanaa program on Vijay TV (it was yucky anyway)

"If atheism is a religion, not collecting stamps is a hobby"

There is a major blunder in this apparently "brilliant" statement. Aama ivar periya nakkeerar parambara, sorkuttram, porutkuttram kandupichu solla vandhuttaru...!!! Anyway, religion is a state; hobby is an activity. Atheism is a state that is a negation of another state. Mind you, i din't say negative state: i said it is negation of another state. Nonetheless, both are states. It is a belief, either in the presence or absence of God. On the other hand, collecting stamps is a activity... (kandupuduchuttaruppa columbusu!!!), the absence of an activity doesn't lead to another activity. Just think about it.

Is there a God? Yes, if you believe it and No, if you don't. Well, that might seem too dumb, so uncharacteristic of the author of this blog. But, this requires some deep thought. I don't want to go into the tricky part of defining what is god. Throughout history, man has defined God as all that is unexplainable. Such complex issues are best left to theologians.

Let's focus on an even more important and practical question. Why do we need God? Religion is a tool to integrate oneself. To create an individual: to form the whole from pieces. As ironical as it may sound, I believe that was the purpose. After all, manitha manam oru kurangu. The mind is the most fluid of all things on earth and religion, being the tool used to integrate it, should have a certain structure, call it rigidity if you will. This necessitates rituals and symbols, which are more powerful than words, to create a sense of purpose. Just like the Coke bottle or the Mac golden arches or the Starbucks logo. Man cannot live without symbols, be it in the pitch dark caves of the stone age or in a sprawling penthouse in present day Manhattan.

Symbols are powerful and very personal. And therefore, often liable to be misinterpreted by others and sometimes even by those who use it. So is God just a symbol like the Coke bottle? Much more than that; religious symbols too convey a meaning but something that is much more deeper and valuable than these dumb logos. But, it is when these rituals lose their spirit or bhava and and symbols, their meaning, they become blind-faiths that so-called atheists, "the defenders of rationality", go on to ridicule ad nauseam. Every symbol has a deep meaning, it is us who have lost the keys to the rich secrets of these symbols.

I just hate these so-called atheists for the "superior intellect" that they assume they have just based on the "virtue" of 'denying God'. At best, almost all of these are pseudo-intellectuals who try to make themselves popular by being against something even more popular. You are bad, that makes me better. You dont know logic as we see it, that means we are from MIT. That's sickening reasoning, 'comrades'!!! Intha sabaiyil paattu ezhuthi per vaangum pulavargalum irukkiraargal, kuttram kandu pidithae per vaangum pulavargalum irukkirargal!!

And certainly there are some tools in religion that have outlived their utility and need to be repaired. Some are broken and need to be replaced. But, to claim intellectual superiority just based on denial of other's beliefs is too childish. I know this is the most cliched expression but i have to use it. All religions lead to God, just like all rivers flow into the ocean. Aanaa, problem enna na namma aalungalla pala per nadhikkaraila ukkaanthuttu ithula kulichaa thaan gnanam porakkumnu katha pesittae sethu poyidaraanga. Kadasivaraikkum yaarume nadhila yerangi kulikkarathae illa.

Osho used to say: There are two kinds of religion - one is the religion of the heart and another is the religion of the mind. Today, our hearts are dry and our minds are clouded. So we could follow neither the heart nor the mind. That explains the confusion.

Next: Hinduism - Answer for everything

Valentine's day special!!!!

2007-02-13T15:52:00.000+05:30

Valentine's day a munnittu namma blog-la oru VIP guestoda interview.... Vazhakkamaa ellaa thinathukkum, be it, Independence day, Republic Day, Diwali, Pongal.. ellaathukkum ella channel-layum ethavathu marketae illaatha oru actor/actress interview thaan irukkum. This highly esteemed blog and its even more highly respected author, in line with their tradition of thinking different and intelligent, bring you, the most-intelligent souls on Mother Earth, a totally different experience for this fateful day!!!

Sari, program-ukku polaamaa? neenga ivlo neram kashtappattu yosichu vecha list-la irukkavanga yaarum illa. As we told, you this blog is Different!!! antha VIP vera yaarum illa... the balloon seller on the street...

Vaanga vaanga, vanakkam!!!
Interview-va Konjam seekiram mudichutteengannaa naan kelambuven. Time is wealthunga. Seekkiram ponaa 4 balloon serthu vithuduven. Apdiyae, innum neraya theru mudichuttu... beachukku poganum...

Unga business-a valathukka enna enna puthusaa seireenga?
Actuallaa paatheengannaa national level-la oru in-the-film promos thodarnthu pannittu irukkom. Enga promo la Shah Rukh la irunthu Jeyam Ravi varaikkum use pannirukkom.

Wow!! Shah Rukh Khan balloon vithaaraa? Nambavae mudiyalayae? Konjam puriyara maathiri sollreengalaa?
Athu illeenga. Main Hoon Na padathula paatheengannaa "Gori... Gori...", athaanga antha party song, athula paatheenganna fullaa white and red balloon use panni setting pottruppanga. Atha paathu Prabhu Deva-vum Nuvvosthanante Nenodhantanaa (happaa saami, padathukku peru vekkaaranga paaru... 7 mile neelathukku!!!) la athae maathiri pannaru. Aprom, Jeyam Raviyum avanga annan Remake Raja-vum Something Something padathulayum balloon-a use pannaanga.

Wow!! great!! Ellaa kadailayum thaan balloon kedaikuthu, avanga avangalae vaangi oothikka maattaangala? Appo unga business adi padaathaa?
illeenga athukku chancea illeenga.

Athu yepdi avlo sure-aa solreenga? Ethana padathula lover-oda moochu kathu irukkunnu hero kadaisi varaikkum antha balloon-a bathiramaa vechuruppaar?
Naan business nallaa pogum nu solrathukku kaaranam intha kaalathu pasangaloda intelligence thaanga kaaranam. Munna maathiri illa pasanga, neraya per MBA padichuttu thelivaayittanga. At least oru vishayathulayavathu, avanga padicha diversification principle-a apply pannraanga. Munna maathiri orey ponnukku mattum balloon kudukkarathu illa. Periya portfolio-vae vechurukkaanga. So engaloda regular customer segment la irunthu nalla demand irukkum. In fact, we expect the number and size of such portfolios to grow manifold. We further plan to promote this with "Hearts Highness", a popular crush contest wherein we ask "how many hearts do you have?" at the end of the day and the boy/gal with the highest number of hearts, i mean heart-shaped balloons, win exciting prizes including a year's supply of balloons!!!

Aamaa, entha maathiri balloonukku neraya demand irukkum?
Heart shape la irukka balloonukku thaanga yegappatta giraakki. Athuvum red colorla irunthaa thaan vaanguvaanga. Vera colorla irunthaa vaanga maattanga.

Sari, athu yen eppovum heart shapela balloon vikkireenga? Brain shape la vikka koodaathaa?
Athaavathu, kandippa irukkunnu therinja onna kudukkalaam. Neraya perukku irukkaa, illiyaa nu theriyaatha onna epdi gift-aa kudukkarathu... Brain shape balloon kudukkarathula neraya problem... The receiver might say "Why are you giving me brains? Don't you think I have one?" or (s)he might ask "unakku thaan yerkanave athu illaennu theriyum, aprom yenga irunthu itha pudicha? enakku venaam, neeyae vechukko. unakku thaan romba useful-laa irukkum..."

Exactly!! Vera enna enna plan vechurukkeenga...unga business-a improve panna?
Enga product positioning-a konjam maathi neraya different target segments-ku cater pannra maathiri promotion pannalaamnu irukkom.

Epdi? Can you please explain?
Of course, you know who the biggest target customer segment is - the easy-to-fool young softies and their "equally intelligent" relatives in ITES sectors.

We also try to target the loners with a philosophical bent with the mantra "kaayamae ithu poiyadaa, verum kaatradaitha paiyyadaa". Balloon exemplifies this important truth.

Ya, quite true. So how about people without gf/bf-s? How do you plan to cater ot their needs?
Some of what i am going to say now, i mean the positioning content, won't be suitable for children. [So the "good" people among the readers of this blog are advised to exercise their discretion and skip this answer and move on to the next question. Aprom vanthu enna paathu "ivlo kettavanaa nee?" apdinnu kekkaatheenga. Athaan sonnam la adutha questionukku pongannu... All this is the balloon seller's views.]

Of course, we plan to sell more to the winners, by highlighting the dual-purpose utility of our special balloons. For the losers, who have no gf/bf-s, we have the "Yeh dil do more" range of products. Made from imported wear and tear resistant rubber. Available in "exciting" forms. We believe this product range is going to be a rage among the Indian majority - i mean, the intelligent people who understand that a relationship with the opposite gender is essentially economic-loss making proposal and look out for smarter means to the end. And more than that, unlike the heart-shaped balloons which are seasonally driven, we expect the "Yeh dil do more" range to a be a major stable revenue source, for we see strong demand all through the year. So you will see a lot of innovation happening here on the material technology front and design forms in the coming years.

Just one more question. You seem to know a lot of marketing stuff? How come?
Well I am a marketing prof in a MBA institute. Money i get from selling balloons is much more than what i get for a year. And more over, I get free workforce: i meant the "intelligent" people who spend lakhs and lakhs, apart from their energy for preparing for the entrance exams, to get into MBA courses, especially marketing disciplines. I just design this as part of the on-the-field experience for the marketing "studs" among my students. Btw, however hard i try, finance guys are too intelligent!!!

Ok, thanks for your valuable time, Mr.Prof!!!

Coffee machinum, Kadavulin thoothargalum...

2007-02-11T22:31:00.000+05:30

Neenga kudichathulayae kevalamaanaa coffee ethu? I bet it is the coffee you get served in the office, that is, if you have the luxury of getting it served at your desk. Office coffeeya kudichuttu neenga patta kodumaiya pathi anniyan.com la ezhuthi podunga. Avar Garuda Puraanathuppadi neethi vazhunguvaar!!!

1 cup paal la 1/2 cup thanni kalanthaa thappaa?
"athu epdinga thappaagum?"

Athae 1 cup paal la 1 cup thanni kalanthaa thappaa?
"athu epdeenga overflow aayidaathungala?"

Dei p********u, ithellaam nallaa kelu. naan ketta kelvikku bathil solludaa.
"aamaanga, thappu maathiri thaan theriyuthunga!"

Ippo, athae 1 cup paal la 1 flask thanni kalantha thappaa?
"aamaanga, romba periya thapputhaanga"

Appo, inimel daily nee potta coffeela 4 cup neeyae kudikkanum.
"ithukku poi ivlo periya thandanaingalaa?"

Dei venna, naan enna naattaamaiyaada, theerpa maathunnu solra. Naan anniyanda.... anniyanda.. anniyanda... [ellaam Vijaykanth padathula varra maathiri moonu moonu thadava sollanumaadaa ungalukku..!!]

(And Anniyan moves off with the grand background score, which apparently was a "inspiration" from the "Passion of Christ" bgm.)

Next comes the coffee from the vending machine in office.

Athu ennamo therila... enna marmamo therila, irukka ellaa officelayum coffee machinea manushanga yaarume (sometimes sunlight and air kooda) poga mudiyaatha eduthula thaan vechuruppaanga. Probably, i think it is part of the corporate etiquette.

Coffee machine ku poittu varrathae etho haunted house la horror ride poittu varra maathiri thaan irukkum!!! You would never know what all creatures you can find in that innocent looking coffee machine!!! Darwin's job would have been a lot easier if he had had access to a coffee machine in the present day offices: after all, where else can you find creatures from all the evolutionary stages that too all in one place? You name it, it has got it! I wouldn't be surprised if i find a T-rex in there tommorrow.

Aanaa, athula paarunga, ethu epdi irunthaalum, namma aalunga romba thairiyasaalinga. Namma aalungalukku ethayum thaangum idhayam, and athukkum mela, sorry keezha, ethayum thaangum vayiru! Veetula amma pottu tharra nalla coffeeya kudikka maattanga. Officela, kandathum kudiyirukkura kaapi machinela irunthu thaan 4-5 cup coffee styleaa kudippaanga. Ippo thaan yen namma aalunga officela coffee yum coke/pepsiyum maathi maathi kudikkaraangannu velanguthu... Coffeela irukka pest-a sari katta Coke la irukka pesticide! Despite the low grades i got in my marketing papers in my MBA, now I know why Coke sells Georgia Coffee machines too! And what better way to create demand for your supply!!! I would call this important phenomenon, product symbiosis (btw, i know it's not a complement!), the exact opposite of product cannibalization!!! I think Mr Kotler would include this valuable insight in his next book on marketing!!!

Ennada ivan title ku sambanthamae illaama Perarasu maathiri punch dialogue-aa pesittu irukkaanae? Tamil padam maathiri kadaisi varaikkum kathaikkae vara maattano nu bayappadaatheenga. Katha konjam chinnathu... athaan. Konjam extra comedy track ellaam serkka vendiyathaayiduchu. Now, kathaikku varuvom.

Ever wondered which is the most misunderstood poor creature in the world? Now don't tell me you don't have time for all such silly things. After all, you have had so much time to count how many times Jade abused our sweet siren Shilpa in Celebrity Big Brother? Ok, now for the answer. Cockroaches. No it isn't a typo. Cockroaches ellaam kadavulin thoothargal. Not many of you recognize that cockroaches are the most important of the Saviours of mankind that GOD has ever sent to us. Epdinnu kekkureengala?

Have you noticed that almost invariably you come across at least one cockroach, if not more, when you try to get a coffee from the vending machine in the office? Yen nu eppavaavathu yosichurukkeengala? They try to convey the message from God, which we seldom understand.

"Intha coffee ellaam unga nimmathiyaana thookkatha kedukka nadakkara periya sathi! All this is a part of a global scheme to extract more from employees by depriving them of their right to sleep."

Being the dumbest ever creation of God, (wo)man never listens to this warning from God. Some cockroaches that love you the most just drown themselves in the coffee just to save you for the day!!! Not even your boyfriend would do that for you!!!

To listen to the message from God, go nowhere. Go to to that vending machine in the most dreadful corner of your office. So, the next time you see those loving beings, say a whole hearted thanks as loudly as you can. Your colleagues might look at you like "how come you weren't wearing leaves and feathers?"

But, don't worry about those ignoramuses, let them drink the coffee, work harder and burn themselves, while you sleep at your desk all the way to God!!!

Udumalaipettaiyil irunthu Saravanan...

2007-02-08T22:12:00.000+05:30

This is going to be so uncharacteristic of my previous posts. It is going to be longer than usual and almost all of it is in tamil. The tone of this post is highly inspired/influenced by Usha and Suresh. So warn pannalaennu pinnaala sollaathinga. Unakkulla ipdi oru anniyaanaa/ virumaandiyaa nu kekkureengala? Ellaarukkulayum oru kozhandhai as well as oru kuttisaathan irukkum. Ithu SK vin kuttisathaan neram.

Receptions attend panrathula irukka kashta nashtangala pathi ungalukku naan solli theriya vendiyathu illa. Figures. Fun. Food. (not necessarily in the same order!!!) Athulayum paarunga friends receptionukku porathula neraya plus irukku. Orey kallula ombothu maanga adikkalaam! Enna da ivan odd numberaa solraanaennu thappu thappaa nenaikkareengala? How long do we keep sayin orey kallula rendu maanga... oru learning curve effect ellaam kanakkula eduthukka venaamaa... varushakkanakkaa train panni rendu mattum thaanaa.... n more over this is even more rhythmic. ;)

Aanaa, sonthakkaranga weddingku porathula yegappatta lollu: onnaa... rendaa... eduthu solla. First and foremost, namma freedom totally gone. Namma Michel Adam oda FTv ya thookkam kettu vidiya vidiya paathu paathu kashtappattu valathukkitta international fashion knowledge ellaam demo panna mudiyaathu! Deejentaa i mean decentaa dress pannittu poganum, yennaa adutha surukku kayiru namakkaaga kooda irukkalaam. So thappikkanumnaa paratta thalaiyoda oru rangeaa ponaa thaan mudiyum. Aanaa amma kitta yaaru thittu vaangarathu? "Yenda ipdi en maanatha vaangara. Innikkaavathu thalaikku konjam enna pottu seevi, konjam decentaa dress panna koodaathaa?"

Ithukketha maathiri sonthakkara paiyyan evanaavathu oruthan apdiyae etho MNC interviewku pora rangela vandhuruppaan. (Namma thaan interviewukkae kooda decentaa ponathaa history geography ethuvum kedayaathae!! After all, losing one's Individual identity is more dangerous than death nu Gita la Krishnar sonnathaa thalaivar Osho sollirukkaar!!)

"Avana paaru, evlo nallaa dress pannittu vandhurukkaan. Un moonjiya poi kannaadila paaru. Intha latchanathula naan epdi unakku nee kekkara maathiri azhagaana ponnaa paakkarathu. Intha kaalathu ponnungalukku ellaam konjam kozhuppu jaasthi. (ok ok this s MY valuable insight!) Nalla velai la irunthaa mattum poraathu, paakkarathukum nallaa azhagaa Hritik maathiri irukkanum." Hrithik maathiri irunthaa Naan yen ipdi oru moonjiya kattren... naanum apdiyae oru Rani Mukherjee, Deepika Padukone nu poga maattenaa. Grrrr. Namma udane diplomaticaa "Ennoda nalla Manasa mattum paakkura ponnaa paarunga.. pothum" Athu epdi manasa paakkarathunnu enakkum theriyaathu. Unga yaarukkavathu therinjurunthaa sollunga. Punniyamaa pogum!!!

Innum neraya comedy nadakkum. Oru sila per apdiyae sales agents kanakkaa tie katti (intha vegaatha veyyila... ennaangadaa dei!!) shoe ellaam pottuttu vandhu scene poduvaanunga. Innum sila per oru padi mela poi coat-suitngara per la yetho onna maattikittu yetho Bill Gates maathiri moonjiya vechuttu suthuvaanunga. Athuvum intha maapla veettu la irukka pasanga irukkanungalae avanunga lollu thaan jaasthiyaa irukkum. Chinna chinna pasanga ellaam kooda coata maattittu koduma pannuvaanunga. Ponnunga dress kekkavae venaam. Namma konjam nostalgic feelings la engeyaavathu pavada dhaavani kannula thattu padumaannu paathaa onnum irukkathu. Ellaam kannaadi, jimki, mani, muthu nu keela kedakkara ellaa thundu thukkadaakkala vechu thechcha "fancy" chudidhaar pottuttu ramp walk panni alahu kaattuvaanga.

Aprom, almost ellaarum therinjavangalaa iruppaanga, i mean at least appa amma ku therinjavanga. Oru oramaa othungi nimmathiyaa namakku pudichavangala oru kalai paarvaiyoda paakka kooda mudiyaathu. Aalaalukku maathi maathi "ennappa epdi irukka, enga vela seira..." nu kettu kodaivaanga. Ellaathukkum vazhinjukkitte bathil sollanum. Ellaam aduthu antha appaavi paiyyana maatti vidurathukku thaan. "Sandhosamaa irukkaennaa sollu, aduthu varra nalla muhoorthamaa paathu orey podaa bali potruvom..."

Ithu kooda paravayilla, "Evlo sambaarikkara?" nu innum investigation vera. Haiyo kadavulae, ponnunga kitta vayasa (aamaam periya thangamala ragasiyam... paathaalae theriyum ara kelavi aayachunnu!!!) kekka koodathunnu solra maathiri oru paiyyan kitta salarya thayavu senju kekkaatheenga!!! Ithukku bayanthe neraya per weddings attend panrathae illa. Itha vida koduma ennannaa, salarya kettuttu "Nee padicha padippukku ivlo kammiya thaanaa kedaikkuthu. Enga annan paiyyan unna vida sumaaraa thaan padichaan, aanaa innikku singapore la irukkaan. Nalla salary. Neeyum yen angallaam try panna koodaathu. Venumnaa sollu, naan avan kitta pesi vela ethavathu irukkaannu try panna solren." nu Free Career Counseling vera!!

Innum konja methaavinga apdiyae e-n-g-l-i-s-h (athaanga broken english nu solluvaangalae!!) la pesi kolluvaanga. Etho MBA padichuttengarathukkaaga nammalum athae e-n-g-l-i-s-h la naalu vartha pesittu essaagarathukkulla uyir poidum. Athuvum, ethaavathu central govt employeesaa irunthutta avlo thaan... tholanjom. "In 1978, i think, appo ellaam nee poranthurukka kooda maatta nu nenakkiraen..."

[Ayya, obviously,enga appa amma kalyaname athukkapuram thaan nadanthuthu!!! Btw, ungalukku konjam sumaaraa oru ponnu irukkumae, Chennaila engineering padikkuthae, atha yen koootittu varala, naanum engg padichurukken... ethaavathu doubt, books venumnaa contact panna sollunga.."] ellaam mindla odum, vaaya thoranthu solla mudiyaathu: namma thaan romba mariyathai therinja paiyyanaache!!

Sari paravaayilla da Saravana, vaazhkainaa ipdi naalum irukkum. Athukkunnu nambikkai ilakka koodathu, nambikkai thaan vaazhkai nnu namma manasa thettittu ponaa, Vithi superaa sadugudu vilayaadum. All coz of time and place of birth!!

"Yenga... unga rangekku etho oru eeyamo, pithalaiyo, poosunatho, poosaathatho, athu maathiri irukkarathungala paakka koodathungalaa? Apdi paathaa unga maanathukku yethaavathu izhukku vandhudungalaa?" nu Koundamani kekkara maathiri yetho onnunaalum paravayillannu othukkarathukku namma Royal taste and thanmaanam vittu kudukkaathu. Namma apdiyae Mani Ratnam heroine maathiri illa theduvom.

"Naan epdi irunthaalum paravavilayilla, nee nallaa irukkanum" nu solrathukku artham ithu thaan!!! ;)

Aanaa, 7 1/2 thaan namma koodavae poranthathaachae!!! Dates vaangara rangela (naan heroine callsheet rangeukku sollala... i mean pericham pazham) kooda onnum irukkaathu. Muyarichi udayaar igalchi adayaar... aduthathula paathukkalaam nu seermigu Chennai ku thirumba vendiyathu thaan!

Intha kedu ketta pozhappa pathi ivlo ezhuthittu irukkiyae, unakku vela vetti illiyaa? nu kekkara methaavinga, Stop. One nimit! Ithayum ukkaanthu padikkireengalae ungala vidavaa naan vettiyaa irukken? Sollunga....

Lies, sweet lies...

2007-02-04T17:31:00.000+05:30

Lie is beautiful.

If it is not, what else can be? Right?

The most beautiful things in life are lies. It has to be that way. Always an "unheard song is sweeter". Anything that comes into the realm of reality loses its beauty. So if you find something to be beautiful, it has to be a lie. ;)

Man is made to lie. Reality is so dumb, dry and boring that you don't need brains to do anything with it. It is lies that require to be nourished by your creative juices. In fact, reality is a myth. Reality is a lie that is conceived badly and constructed imperfectly.

If you want to be human, you have no other choice but to lie. Any doubts? Consider this. The only stuff that separates man from his predecssors in the evolutionary spiral is creativity. Or should I call it a maze and not a spiral, which implies a progress/hierarchy, considering that we tend to shuttle between different cells/stages and most often, find ourselves totally lost and in places that we wouldn't want to be. Now, if you ever want to be creative , you got to lie. After all, creativity is essentially lying to yourself and of course to others that this is not IT. The essence of creativity is challenging reality. It is about thinking beyond. So, it is essential to lie if you want to be human.

If somebody finds that you were bluffing: don't panic and run like a fool to switch your faith to truth. Just know that all that is needed is that your lies got to get better and necessarily bigger.

For instance, if a girl asks you to stop lying when you tell her she is beautiful, don't do just that. All that she wants is a much bigger lie that brings a burp. So, for starters, you can say she is better than aish and then move on to serve her a multi-course meal depending on your creativity. Or another lie that works better: more than wanting to know what you think about her beauty, i think she would be happier to hear you say that aish is uglier than her. Although both mean essentially the same, the second one has a much stronger emotional appeal. ;)

You can get the help of so many philosophical bestsellers for improving your skills of creating the alternatives to truth or if you have enough money and don't know what to do with it, do an MBA. You will learn how to lie not only with words but also with numbers.

As Indians, we are a bunch that always has been fascinated by our own ability to stick to the truth. This has far deeper implications than you can possibly imagine. You haven't had even a glimpse of it even in your wildest dreams. Let me explain. As a nation, we have always been in the search, which is destined to be futile, for the "ultimate, beautiful, pristine truth". For that "beautiful truth" is a well-conceived and perfectly perpetuated lie . Such perfect lies are more dangerous than any dictators the world has seen. The damage they do is insidious and lasts for generations together. Lies are like fully loaded guns, your life rests on which side of it you are. For long, we have locked up our creativity in the name of honesty and we have been at the receiving end of bigger and bigger lies, which is why we were fooled by a bunch of pigtail sporting liars from far across. Even now, the scene hasn't changed much and most of us stay at the same receiving end. It is high time we unleashed our creativity and started telling bigger and bigger lies. All said, creative people in the west keep weaving bigger and better lies that always win.

Of course, i know, in the long run, truth alone triumphs. But, in the long run, everybody would be dead, as Keynes says.

Tail piece:
If you find this to be a beautiful piece of prose, you are absolutely right: very very rarely truth is beautiful and THIS is one such instance. Better believe that and intensify your lying process.
On the other hand, if you think it is ugly, then you are abnormal: you do have a knack of understanding the truth on the face of it for as i said nothing except lies can be beautiful.

Naadham en jeevanae... 2

2007-01-30T22:45:00.000+05:30

After a much heavy philosophical topic, i am back to my prayer. I am painfully aware of the fact that this post bears a ever higher risk of stating the most obvious. So once again, let me say this post is not going to add anything to whatever you might already know. After all, every prayer does the same: repeating the omnipotency of God that everybody supposes to be knowing, but in varying colours. Now that i have established my music credentials in the previous post on IR, let us get straight to the point.

No composer, i think, would have so much to his credit.

In recognition of the futility of this whole exercise of translating my love in to words, i think i would better wind up with just a few more observations. Probably they might help you enjoy more the next time you happen to hear IR.

Leave alone the subjective issues of quality. Just look at the mere volume of the creative output of the maestro. They say about Bill Gates' wealth: if you stack dollar bills, equal to Bill's net worth, one over another, it would reach the moon (well, i don't personally vouch for the veracity of this story!!!). Likewise, if one were to play illayaraja's songs back-to-back without repeating any of them, I think it would last for a lifetime... (ahem! now you math geeks out there, don't take out your calculators...) And the success rate in terms of song recall (hehehe like the 'brand recall' as the ad guys use) is simply amazing, given this huge a volume.

Spice

The variety of IR's output, in terms of the emotions and music styles, is just mind boggling. He can make you laugh your heart out, prance around with joy or get down on your knees and cry: all with a single violin. He can make you feel lustful with a flute and with the same piece of bamboo, take you to the God, whom you would not get to this easy. He can arouse you with a 'urumi' melam and put you off a classic composition on the veena. I seriously doubt whether any one else would be able to create the romance of a "Valayiosai" (Sathya) or a Vaa vaa anbe (Agni Natchatram).

And apparently, there seems to be a notion of Carnatic-Western fusion being a new idea. The so-called Indian-Western fusion has so much jarring pieces of sounds from different styles that all you see is a coarse mix of chalk and cheese. Just listen to the interludes of IR and you will see, how IR makes exactly that chalk seem so natural a part of cheese. Just listen to Oru siriya paravai, apparently 'just another' IR song from a flop flick 'Antha oru nimidam', IR takes you on a wild, winding safari through the music scapes of carnatic, western classical, pop, and what not. If this is for just another song, what can i say about Kadhal Oviyam (Alagial Oyvathillai), Nizhalgal songs, Kan Malargalin Alaipithal (Thaipongal) and many others. My memory is so utterly inadequate to recall each of the song i enjoyed.

A few pointers that might be of help:

Listen to the way IR blends, swaps layers of male and female voice one over the other at the same time. E.g. the evergreen "Poomalaiyae" from Pagalnilavu
Listen to IR's guitar compositions especially the way he uses bass guitar. For instance, "Vaanengum thanga" from Moondrampirai (i'm sure not many of you would have heard about this song)
Focus on the way IR blends pucca western classical notes with our folk music and lyrics. E.g. Listen to the classic violin prelude in "Pothi vecha" from Man Vasanai
Any IR+SPB+SJ combo is a feast in itself.

Mind you, all this doesn't require any musical knowledge, whatsoever. Just a pair of listening ears is more than enough. The cheapest ticket you can ever get to heaven.

BGM Badsha

One in a million chance for anyone else to beat IR on BGMs. I seriously doubt whether even Hollywood or any other filmdom would have had so much spice in their back ground scores. So many films wouldn't have been what they were without IR's bgm. Take Aanpaavam, not exactly a musical film. But still I am crazily in love with the bgm from Aanpaavam. And i dont think there is a need to comment on the pathetic bgms that we hear these days. And of course, when you can't expect really great bgms every time even with the great ARR, you know who the biggest culprit is by now. Harris. No prizes for guessing.

There seems to be no IR vaarisu as such in tamil films, ellaarum deva vaarisungala irukkaanga. There is a ever bigger dogfight nowadays as to who gets to the latest hip hop hits faster than anybody else. And the crown undoubtedly goes to Harris. Though AR Rahman and Yuvan also lift some songs, they do come up with some scintillating original scores once in a while. But i am completely clueless as to why Harris Jeyaraj, the most undeserving among them, is so successful. "Suttum vizhi sudare - Ghajini. ok, bearable. Partha muthal naale - Vettaiyadu Vilayadu.... sari polachu poguthu... ithu pathaathunnu athayae vidaama... unakkul naane - Pachaikili Muthucharam layum athu yenda yerkanvae setha paamba thiruppi thiruppi intha saavadi adikkireenga..." But, there is no point in blaming him alone, it all because of the tamil fraternity which has undergone mass STM loss like Ghajini, ironically the beginning of this episode.

All said, enlightenment is not something that can be shared. After all, how can one explain the inexplicable? Of mystics, they say "Those who speak, don't know, those who know, don't speak." I think it is high time i stopped doing the talking.

kadalai kasakkuthayya...

2007-01-30T06:51:00.000+05:30

Enna ithu vara vara post title ellaam tamil layae vekkireengalaennu neraya peru kekkaraanga. Padathukku tamil la per vecha incentive tharra maathiri blog postukkum tamil per vechaa tax incentive tharuvaangalonnu oru chinna nappasa thaan. What actually happened was i came to like the titles used in Sara's blog (the only part of his posts that i can really understand), but I was really finding it difficult to think of titles like those. Then i stumbled upon usha's blog and got inspired to name my posts in tamil. Tamil vaazhga!!!

I reckon this is going to be the most informative post i have ever written. Before we begin...

Important Disclaimer
By kadalai, the author hereby refers to the widely prevalent practice of conversing with the opposite gender for humanly impossible long hours, with absolutely no transfer of knowledge, whatsoever. The title of this post and its content thereof is by no means a guarantee that the author intends to reduce the intensity or completely stop the concerned practice in the foreseeable future. The author wishes to thank one and all for providing him with such a deep understanding of the above-mentioned process.

Kadalai is more of an art, that too a very delicate and the hardest-to-master one at that.

A sack of peanuts and frying pan is sufficient, but certainly not enough. More often than not, guys (not gender specific) tend to overdo it. Sometimes, you fry it so shallow that it is disappointingly tasteless; sometimes, it gets fried deeper than it ought to be and then leaves a very bad, bitter taste that lingers so long in your mouth that you need even more fresh peanuts to flush it down.To get it perfectly fried, you need not only an expert chef's culinary knowledge and skills but also the perseverance and detachment of a Tibetan monk.

Kadalai has much in common with meditation than anything else. Both have the same goal: losing oneself. Or realizing oneself, whichever way you want to put it. This need sits right up there - on the top of the top of the pyramid of needs proposed by Abraham Maslow. I am sure i don't have to submit proof for this; many of you would already have lost yourselves several times in such manner or if you are at the lower rungs of the needs pyramid and not so much interested in self-realization, you would have at least witnessed many of your friends deep in such team meditation.

Unlike your acads, which sharpen your concentration, kadalai increases your awareness. It is very important to understand the basic difference between concentration and awareness. Concentration is inherently one-dimensional. It focuses all your energy on a single thing at a given time, leaving you at a disadvantage. On the other hand, awareness is multi-dimensional or no-dimensional, as you want to see it. It acknowledges and embraces the existence in its totality. Awareness conserves your energy and applies it only when it is really necessary. Thus, kadalai helps you stay alert, energetic and make the most of your miserable lives by increasing your awareness levels.

Come to think of it, kadalai is more efficient than meditation on many counts. While meditation consciously sweats towards reaching the realization goal, with kadalai, the process just happens in a jiffy and so effortlessly.

Well, i know it is not as easy as i make it out to be. A lot depends on the IQ (the lower, the better; as you very well know two wise people can't be friends), GQ (Absolutely needs to be high on this scale, need i emphasize more?) and EQ (better be low to keep you both together and sail through the hardships of the kadalai process) of the partner(s) you have. But, the heartening fact is that with kadalai, you have more than enough operational freedom: if one conks out, you have the ample freedom to resume with another asap. And the best part is, with the ownership and commitment being so low, it doesn't leave you feeling any worse.

And the goodies just doesn't end there. Exactly as it happens as you go deeper and deeper into meditation, with kadalai too, you realize the meaninglessness/ meaningfulness of life. It might be a bit confusing here. How can the same thing lead to totally opposite ends i.e. meaninglessness/ meaningfulness of life? Let us try to understand it. It might help to draw a parallel here with something we have assumed to have known all along. Shaiva and vaishnava philosophies. While a shaivaite goes on denying existence (why do you think then he wears ash on his forehead and his deity Shiva is depicted to be living in the burial ground?), a vaishnavaite revels in festivities (think of all the beauty you see at Vishnu temples and the tasty dishes that you get there) all through his life. It is similar to the cliched half empty/half full, optimistic/pessimistic views. Despite the popular theory that the negative, pessimistic view is inferior to the positive, optimistic view, both are right. When you say it is half full, you essentially imply that it is half empty. Only difference is the focus or the point of reference. Just like that, both shaivaite and vaishnavaite reach the same ends but take different approaches. In a similar vein, with kadalai, no matter what, whichever conclusion you get to at the end, you are absolutely right.

Fine. Enough for today. Time to meditate!!!

Note
IQ: Intelligence Quotient; GQ: Glamour Quotient; EQ: Emotional Quotient

Naadham en jeevanae... 1

2007-01-23T22:15:00.000+05:30

Nowadays, i m getting too religious. And the religion is Illayaraja.

I think that should give you at least a faint idea about how utterly biased this post is going to be!!! ;) In a way, this is just another hymn on the Raja. Of course, this post is not going to add anything. In fact, I still wonder if i have anything to add. It is just that I wanted to reflect on my rediscovery of Illayaraja. And what a discovery it has been!!!

Before i get too prayerful, let us get some facts straight.

My knowledge of music is zilch. In fact, only now I am trying hard to learn to distinguish between different instrument sounds. And I don't really intend to learn any music.

As any average 25 something tamilian, I too grew up listening to IR right from my nenavu therinja days. And as happens to folks coming from other parts of Tamilnadu to Chennai, once i was in Chennai for my B.E., i too was very much into listening engileesu songs, partly out of my curiosity and partly out of necessity. After all, one's music tastes is more a matter of life/death than just personal choice: apparently you got to know at least a couple of lines from popular english songs or not even a single gal would bother to have a second look at you.

And just like any self-respecting guy, brought up on the heavy dosage of 101 Sure Ways to Get a Girl, tried and time-tested by each and every hero in tamil-film history, I too set up on the Mission Mr.Peter. Ethana padathula paathurukkom: Paattu paadi paalum karappanga, appdiyae ponaa poguthunnu micha timela sidela nikkara figarayum madipaanga. So, armed with such deep knowledge of the female psyche, there I was among the many poor souls who spent more time listening to the incorrigible english songs more than to our lecturers. That those lectures were even more mysterious is another issue anyway. Boys la varra Bob Gaali (played by Barath) maathiri oru koottame suthittu irunthuthu. I am quite positive that you can find such souls on any planet, any time.

Inspite of all that I told till now, my music tastes were quite exotic, at least it appeared so to me at that point of the time. I have had my own share of rock to heavy metal, carnatic: Sudha Ragunathan, Bombay Jayashree, world music: from Peter Gabriel to Yungchen Lhama, instrumental: Yanni, Joe Satriani, Kenny G and Indian maestros like Zakir and AmjadAli Khan, pop: MJ, Dr Alban and all those bands of boys and gals, Enigma, Snap etc. Ok ok avlo thaan niruthitten... ippo kooda ithellaam sollalaenna epdi!!! ;)

So, ippo naan enna solla varraennaa... "Yaamarindha mozhigalile tamil mozhi pol inidhavathu engum kaanom" nu Bharathi sonna mathiri, "Yaamarintha isaiyinile ilayarasa pol inidhavadhu engum kaanom". Ithukku thaan avlo buildup.

One might argue all this craze for IR is just classical conditioning, just like the famous case of Pavlov's dog. "You hear so much of IR's music that you associate parts of it with events in your life. It is this associative process that makes you identify yourself with IR's music and therefore love it." Some Freud disciples among you might say "The root of your love for Illayaraja is in your disturbed ;) childhood" and try deconstruction. "It is a process of slow hypnotism: the more you listen to it, the deeper it gets into your subconsciousness. Your love grows from that subconscious association."

Though all this and a bit of nostalgia might play a part, the reason is much more than just a rusted memory playing back the notes heard long ago. It is not out of a dark, hidden pit of subconsciousness that my love for IR grows, but it springs out of complete awareness and bliss.

Like Krishna says in Gita: all you need to get to God is to remember, one fine evening, I started remembering. And finally, I ARRIVED, as the mystics say, and I found that my long and tiring journey had ended exactly where I started - Illayaraja, the treasure in my own backyard that I had forgotten and lost in my vain search for The MUSIC outside.

Once I reached home, I find no need now to look outside. By saying this, I m not trying to belittle the skills of the so many musicians that i have come to really enjoy all along the way. It is just that now i am indifferent to others. Now, I have IR, nothing else matters.

If nothing else feels like coming home, then listening to IR is coming home for me. Now, tell me where your home is?

P.S.
Naadham innum olikkum.... ;)

salangai oli...

2007-01-21T21:52:00.000+05:30

Just the other day, thanks to my fever, I was at home bunking office and I happened to watch Salangai Oli by K Viswanath. A great film, mind you it was dubbed in tamil from telugu (well i am not really sure about this), with exceptional performances by Jayapradha, Kamal Hassan and even his torn shoes. It is one of those movies that unfailingly make my eyes moist at least once before it ends. Most often (as with most of the audience I am sure), it is the scene where Jayapradha gives the national dance festival invitation to Kamal. Or the scene in which Kamal meets his dying mother. Or it might be even one of those scenes where drunkard old Kamal talks to Sarathbabu or his wife.

The immense strength of the film’s emotion comes from Illayaraja. Who else can possibly do that, if not the Raja? K Viswanath’s direction is just brilliant all through. And gosh!!! Jayapradha looks so divine. No wonder Satyajit Ray adorned her so much.

By mere coincidence, on the same day, I happened to read a review of Cinema Paradiso in an old issue of Anantha Vikatan. It is supposedly one of the greatest movies ever made on this earth. Is our own Salangai Oli any less? A Big NO is my answer.

If the western dickheads and those that are born in India who ape them don’t think so, I would give ‘em the middle finger! You might call me an emotional idiot. May be I am. May be not. I jus don’t give a damn! And most of the Indian “elite” that I have met just shove aside Indian films such as this as “tear jerkers” in the likes of Karan Johar (without him no discussion of Indian cinema would be complete, right? At least that’s what the national news channels make me think. Whether Karan Johar makes good films or not is another issue anyway.)

What is realism in films? Most often, we, the elite, tend to consider Hollywood as the god-sent standard with a totally unjustified reverence... So if you underplay like they do there, we have no qualms accepting you as a good actor. (i think this deserves another lengthy post!!!)

Most often, these “elite” friends of mine say they feel like fools when watching films like Salangai Oli. These films make you cry, so what? It is probably the unconscious resistance to show one’s “weakness”, if a heart (kind or otherwise) that identifies itself with a third person be it on screen or off screen, can ever be called a “weakness”.

Or it might be even our fear of emotions, either ours or others’. Probably it is a symptom of the fact that we are losing our skills to deal with emotions. And this argument seems to have a high chance of being true. With so many of us getting educated and becoming intelligent?!, we are capable of confronting violence or answering many intriguing puzzles of nature, but not our own emotions.

We have become so impervious to emotive stimuli (forgive my technical language!) that today we have to have blood spattering gruesomely on our faces to stir our animal instincts and make us understand that the actor is under pain. In the name of reality, all that we are doing is to provide sadistic pleasures and satisfy the bloody animal within.

It seems we are losing our understanding of the subtle language of emotions.

Matrix... Unloaded

2006-11-06T13:28:00.000+05:30

I have always wanted to write something about Matrix. One of my all-time favs. Not often we come across such a cult movie. I think the first part is the best of all and i think most of you would agree. This post does not have much to do with the film per se. But it takes on from the theme of Matrix... Are you in control or not? Determinism or free will?

With so many of its dialogues, especially those between Neo and Morpheus, borrowed from hundreds of years of zen tradition, it might seem to talk all about Order and unbreakable rules. In my opinion, the whole movie is about the triumph of a few souls with free will over a decaying deterministic system. And there are some who don't think so. Enough, now, lets get down to business...

You take the blue pill, the story ends, you close this page and believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.... Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more....

The question is quite simple: do you do what you want to do? If you do what you want to, is the very act of choosing true or is it just an illusion? Are you just having an illusion of choice - choosing only what is already determined?

Life is what we experience. Remember the words of that German scientist with a weird hair-do. Everything is relative. What we feel depends a lot on what we are. Essentially, we choose, most often unconsciously, what we feel. And then choose what we do about what we feel - the action we choose in reaction to our perception of the stimuli. More often than not, we make the choices out of either laziness or just fear. Mind you, Newton's famous third law is only for things with lesser intelligence. (and the pity is that many in the human race too are among them!!!) It fails when it comes to describing human reaction - which almost never is equal and opposite. So life is all about the sequence of choices we make from moment to moment. And the question is whether we make these choices or somebody else makes them?

A deterministic system essentially implies a lot of rules and relationships set by a central body and many restrictive assumptions that go with it. To restrict the paths available to an individual in a system, first of all, all the possible paths have to be mapped and then somebody got to devise a mechanism to make the individual take only those predetermined sequence of choices. If you think the whole process of choice is an illusion, just try to calculate the number of alternative paths available to any individual in the system at a given moment. The choices are limited only by the imagination of the individual. And given that it changes from moment to moment, even the calculation of the number of alternative paths is beyond our arithmetic. And leave alone manipulating the individual to take a predetermined path, just mapping all these paths is not within the reach of man or all the computing power he has created till now. So a deterministic system essentially requires a super being who sits somewhere high above (it also could be a bunch of funny looking aliens floating in a planet with some unpronounceable name, thousands of light years from our dear mother earth) with the ability to put the thoughts that we think we have into our brains and plays with our lives just for his own fun. Sounds too complex to be true, huh?

Is it then just free will? I think a lot of confusion has been due to the lexical grandeur of the very word "free will". Free will is not about infinite choices or getting your way all through. It does not imply omnipotency. But it is about the control of your choices. It is just the ability to choose. It is just enough if there is atleast one alternative. Mind you, it takes a lot of intelligence AND courage to be 'free will'ed: Intelligence - to create the choices and expand the possibilities (if you dont create your own, somebody else is going to force theirs on you) and Courage - to make the choice and stick to it.

You think your choices are too limited. Think again. The problem is not much about the absence of choices as it is about the ignorance of choices.

On the face of it, there are three choices before you when you finished reading this post (probobality of which is quite low): hate me, like me or just be indifferent and forget the whole episode (which has quite high probability given that you had the patience to read on till the end). Thats it? NO, there are too many possibilities in the continuum between these choices. I will just list a few.

You might want to discuss more of this with me and mail/meet me
You might just wonder at my genius and start a fan club for me
You might even become my disciple and leave your estate to me so that I never have to work anymore and can start an ashram to make a "Better World"
Or probably, you might dislike me and start a "I hate SK" community in Orkut
Or even worse, you might just kill me

Extreme choices you might say. Do you really think there needs to be a reason for every choice in the sequence. You are free to choose whatever you want. You might just go on and create so much love for me that you can leave your estate to me. Or in a similar vein, you can create so much hate towards me that you can kill me without any guilt. But the most easy choice available is to forget it. That is again for the laziest of us.

Again, free will is not about results. The results of our choices are very much dependent on the characterisitics of the system in which we exercise our choices. And the choice we make now need not be dependent on the results of our past choices. An intellect is always limited just as his tools of existence are. But, throughout his life, he tries creating new tools and sharpening his old ones: to expand his choices. Meanwhile, the lazy go on and on in predetermined patterns as they have nothing else to choose from. Freewill is for the thinker while fate is for the lazy. That helps us understand the stories about vastly different reactions of people put to similar conditions.

To control man is easy. Just dont let him create choices, make him lazy and dont let him think. And to think we are not in control is absolute laziness to think and cowardice to choose. Only fools resign themselves to fate out of fear or laziness. Those who choose are condemned to be free.

Now it is your turn to choose: determinism or free will. Quite ironical, huh?

I'm trying to free your mind, Neo, but I can only show you the door, you're the one that has to walk through it.

Tailpiece:
No amount of such intellectual masturbation and the online exhibition of it is going to help anyone reach anywhere. At least, it will help us to realize the futility of talking about life instead of just going ahead and living it.

oh GOD, what art thou?!

2006-09-15T15:02:00.000+05:30

After a couple of movie reviews, I am back to my pet topic. what is life and who is God? This time around, I am going to make use of two busy, insightful years that I spent at one of the premier B schools of Tamilnadu getting intensively and extensively trained as a manager. And instead of making any use of the little shreds of common sense that I have, I would go on beating around the bush and come up with a four-by-four matrix to capture the definition of the Almighty Himself! And state just what you already know, with the expertise that you can find only in a management consultant, and successfully refrain from making you any wiser than you are right now! God help us all!!! ;)

Note: in this post, from now on, 'he' refers to the entity that has the potential to be God.

Before we begin on this great quest, we need decide on two coordinates that we would employ in the creation of the trap. To do that, we got to identify what he can do and why he does that. More often than not, we worry about what he can do. And tend to look over why he does what he does. Mind you, both these coordinates represent a continuum of two qualities - Ability and Intent: from the ability to do nothing (which I think cannot be clearly defined as the true zero as we have on kelvin scale) to everything and from utter selfishness to total absence of self whatsoever. Now, it is child's play. God is the one with ability to do everything for the betterment of everyone. Now you can go on and do the exercise of defining the Devil. If you feel this matrix is too simple, it is because of the genius who made it possible.

The root of problems with God, as we know it, is the personification of God. For me, God is the not the creator, He is the very process of creation, which can never cease. The problem is more lexical than ideological, for Gods of almost all our religions are qualitatively very similar. If we were to believe what we have been taught, they are there, with their omnipotent skills, to praise you for the good you do and reprimand you for your bads. More like a kindergarten teacher!

It is us who have 'accepted' God as "the one who created the world one fine day and then rested", which has been propagated over centuries for the convenience of a chosen few. That way, they can go on with their lives without really bothering about Him as well as us. In a rather convoluted way, this has helped us too. By banishing God to some place high and far away, we have given ourselves the comfort of thinking about Him only when we choose to. Can God be a thing of the past and the distant? God is always the present. For me, God is more of a quality rather than a person. Being God is being above Self.

All beautiful things are essentially simple. But can we keep our God simple? G O K!!!

Note:

My purpose would be defeated if you feel any wiser after reading this.

Heil My Führer!

2006-09-14T15:10:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Pure Cinema by Satyam Cinemas, I was able to watch Der Untergang (The Downfall) directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, at Six Degrees, on a big screen with superb sound effects. But the announcement made just before the movie began really tested my patience. The voice of that female making the announcement made it sound even worse. "Those of you seen using your cellphones or heard having loud conversations during the movie would be asked by the management to leave the hall. Your tickets won't be refunded". I was expecting her to go on and ask us all to keep our fingers on our lips. Thank god!!! She didn't. And guess what, they repeated the announcement right after the interval too!!! Just in case any STML (Short Term Memory Loss) guys all of a sudden remembered their history lessons and decided to watch the downfall of Der Führer!

Unlike my previous reviews, I won't be able to rip apart this movie, for

1. those movies were of the kind that had no need for a really intelligent mind either from the audience or the creator

2. I severely lack the knowledge of WW II history (wonder how i passed out of my school!). All that I remember are some exaggerated stories from the comics that I read during my school days. One was about Himmler being a look-alike of Hitler and that there were even more Hitler look-alikes used to fool the Allies. Another was about the Allied Forces finding the art treasures supposedly hidden away by Himmler. And of course, I have even heard about a compilation of Hitler's romantic missives to many of his love interests across the country.

The whole movie revolves around the emotions of Hitler himself and those around him, as they get ready to face the end of their lives with the impending annihilation of Berlin by the Soviets. And with that, the ultimate downfall of the Third Reich. Faced with inevitable defeat and death, Hitler goes from heights of completely unjustified optimism in one moment to suicidal depression the next moment. Meanwhile, his ladylove, Eva Braun, tries to keep the spirits up by partying and dancing amidst the music of artillery explosions. And some Hitler loyalists, including the narrator, Traudl Junge, Hitler's personal secretary, decide to stay and die with Der Führer. And, Alexandra Maria Lara, who plays Traudl Junge, looks like an angel amidst all that dust, blood and death.

There is no dearth of emotions throughout the film from unflinching belief in Der Führer that the SS troops have to the betrayal by Himmler, the most trusted aide of Hitler. Ironically, in the end, I could not help feeling a strange kind of belonging with Der Führer, whom I know to have sanctioned the death of about 62 million people, including his own countrymen.

The film superbly brings out the human side of Der Führer and at times, leaves one wondering whether this man could really have done what we have heard he did.

"Hitlerae! neenga nallavaraa?... kettavaraa??"

Sappunu oru kadhal!

2006-09-13T14:20:00.000+05:30

I watched SOK (sillunu oru kadhal), the day it got released, of course too expectant for a cool romance after so much of bloodletting by dada and gangster heroes in recent tamil films. The whole movie was way too dry, no jillu at all, in fact hot after the intermission, Damn it! they switched off the ac at Sangam (Probably they didn't see the need for ac when they were showing such a jill movie).

The film started on a promising note with Jo and her friends, who are totally against arranged marriage, planning to fall in love. I expected some interesting tussle between Jo and Surya, who get forcibly married to each other. But the director decides to play God and ignores my wishes; cut from the marriage scene to Mumbai, 6 years later, we see Jo and Surya along with their cute daughter happily whistling to each other busily right in the morning when the neighbours are tensely fighting on their way to their offices. How else on earth can you make the dumb audience understand that Jo and Surya are a happy family! On the way back home from office, in the metro, a gal just droools over Surya with Jo listening nearby. No comments. The director has had the good intentions of showing a happy family, but he overdoes it. Being the genius that I am, I devised a plan to deal with the boredom; I started counting the number of times Surya calls Jo as jillu. God! all the 18 years of my education proved to be of no help and I lost the count. Probably that explains the reason behind the title of the film - Jillunu oru kadhal, later changed to sillunu oru kadhal, thanks to tax cuts for tamil names (i think it is high time we had reservation and incentives for people with proper tamil names!) and a quick economic thinking.

Enakku oru unmai therinjaaganum saami... which girl in her right senses would do what Jo did in the film after reading Surya's diary? For just one sentence which was uttered by Surya in intense pain from the loss of his beloved? Isn't the six years of marriage supposed to have made Surya more mature? Is it like Mudhalvan and Azhagi repackaged?

With a good looking Surya and Bhoomika, we expect their love life in college to be really interesting. Something Mani Ratnam ishtyle. Never mind... that man is God. All that we get after so much promise of something like Kartik's performance in Mouna Ragam and Varusham 16 is just a beer drinking, rowdy Surya, whom Bhoomika falls for, when she had no reason to do so. Given the volume of beer that Surya gulps down in the movie, he is sure to lose quite a few moms and grandmas from his fanbase. Most often, you feel like you are watching the puppy love of a couple of school kids in their infatuation. In fact, school kids might kill me for saying that, as they woo their targets in much more style these days.

Krishna could have saved some time spent on choosing the wardrobe and spent it wisely on pepping up the movie with some interesting scenes. Santanam was the only relief. Especially, the "kaalaila antha tea kadaila vada saaptaen machi, paruppu ozhunga vegave illa" was too good.
Another one:
Surya: " enna vaandhi eduthuttanaa?"
Santanam: "illa ATM la irunthu panam edutha"

Vadivelu's comedy, if it can be called that, was too drab and did not even bring a smile. Contrastingly, the theatre was roaring with laughter towards the end when Jo wakes up from her nightmare - imagining Surya and a ravishing Bhoomika hitting the bed.

Some good music from ARR and a brilliant cinematography by RD Rajasekar would make sure that the songs especially Munbe vaa and New York nagaram very well become part of our lives for next few months. However, my personal favs are the jazzy title song and maja maja.

In the end, all that matters is money, no matter what jobless people like me who go and watch the film on the first day, feel and say. SOK is gonna see 100 days for sure!!! Wedding gift to Surya and Jo from the loving people of tamil fraternity!!!

Life is meaning less.

2006-08-30T16:57:00.001+05:30

Will you kill yourself for doing something that you have always wanted to do? No? Meet the man who did exactly that. Vincent Van Gogh, the artist I love the most. The man had never known success in his life. Never were his works really admired till his death.

In 1890, after painting ‘Wheat field with crows’, which is arguably the most intense of his paintings, Van Gogh shot himself, supposedly claiming that this work was his best and he can’t better himself again. He was a deeply depressed man through out his life and the argument over what his illness was still continues, even after more than 100 years after his death. That makes me think: if such a ‘mad’ man can create something so intense and so timeless, why have not we had another artist of such intensity from millions of ‘normal’ people born after him? Some say the intensity probably was because of his ‘madness’. F*** ‘em all!! To say that is just unthinkably foolish denial of the genius and passion of one of the greatest artists the world has ever produced. Then what does separate such men from us – the mere mortals?

Why do we often feel depressed in spite of all the material wealth that we have surrounded us with? Why we are so poorer in our souls in spite of the riches we have acquired? Why do we often desperately try to search for the ‘meaning’ of our lives? Are we getting our priorities wrong?

Passion. Probably that is the one important factor that sets them apart. Most of us die without ever finding something that fires us. Something that we would happily give our lives for. And then we complain about the grayness of life.

More often than not, we do things in anticipation of rewards (monetary as well as otherwise) from the outside. A double-digit hike in the salary. A small appreciative smile from the boss. A big hug from a friend. How often have we done something for making just ourselves and not anybody else happy? (I can see some sinister smiles from you perverts out there. But guys, I am talking about happiness, not pleasure – though for many, it might mean the same)

I bet you can experience such pristine happiness only when you create something. It might be building a complex, path-breaking rocket technology. Or seemingly mundane task of preparing a sambhar. So if it is not what we create, then what is that which really matters? The very act of creation. The emphasis is more on the journey itself rather than the final destination. Now comes the moment of truth. The judgment I am going to give (I know it is stupid to pass such a quick judgment on such a huge question that has plagued man’s mind since he started having one. But I have the right to be, since this is my blog!) is the most clichéd and the most easily overlooked: Enjoy every moment. Change the way you feel about what you do. Voilà! You would say “I am the happiest man in the world.” Just like Suryah in the movie, SOK (previously JOK).

Okay. It is not as easy as I portray it to be. But, that is not a reason strong enough to keep us from starting.

The meaning of life is what we give to it.

Tailpiece:
One of my aims (in fact, the only one in my life) is to learn oil painting and recreate one of Van Gogh’s masterpieces, preferably Cafe Terrace at Night or Wheat Field with Crows. I am sure I am going to fail terribly. But as I said, what we go through is more important than where we end up.

Vettaiyadu Vilayadu... a Big Joke

2006-08-28T14:59:00.000+05:30

I remember a dialogue, from one of thalaivar’s movie, I guess – “dhrogathilayae periya dhrogam enna theriyumaa? Nambikkai dhrogam”. VV has done exactly that.

I bet you would have never seen Kamal Hasan so uncomfortable in any role. He would sure have been better off without this movie in his career. He has so much difficulty carrying his weight around in this movie. Literally. I have no problem with a fat hero as long as he is comfortable with his figure on the screen. But, in VV, unlike in PKS, Kamal is clearly not happy with his figure and he tries desperately to mask that. And meets with only failure. It really aches to see such a good actor deliver so pathetic a performance. Just think of the kind of cop he played in Kurudhippunal, Soorasamharam etc.

Gautam seems to be a one-film wonder. (I wouldn’t dare call Minnale his movie; it totally belonged to Vivek and Harris Jeyaraj. Even Reema was not that hot, I swear!) I sincerely hope Gautam proves me wrong. If he was hoping to compensate the lack of gripping screenplay (if there is any) with lot of gory violence, he is terribly mistaken. Some of the scenes remind of his previous slick cop movie – Kaaka Kaaka. The comparison, as inevitable as it is, brings out the insipidity of the plot. As a generic rule, thrillers would have a number of suspects at the beginning, from which the detective hero would wade through a lot of clues and unexpected twists and turns to finally nab the psycho before he kills the skimpily clad heroine. Nowadays, the heroine herself finishes off the villain, especially if the director believes in gender equality and more than anything, wants to cut down the bill. After all, who wants to have a highly paid hero when the heroine herself can do the simple job of killing the villain at the end while simultaneously adding quintessential GQ and SFX (special effects… through her high-pitched squeals) to the film?

Unlike typical psycho thrillers, which play up the fear factor, VV, being a whodunit mystery type, could have had some moments of intelligence and interesting dialogues (not exactly the type of comments that Kamal makes towards the climax, about the sexual interests of the villains, even though that was exactly what was on my mind). Again the villain, played by Daniel Balaji, pales in comparison with Pandya, again from KK, played by Jeevan. Someone please ask the director fraternity to give their villains, a nice hair cut and reduce the volume when they talk. Again why did the director have to lend his own voice, at least it sounded more like Pandya's, to the other villain? Budget probably.

And of course, Prakashraj, such a great and stylish actor, has been totally wasted. The director could very well have pitted Kamal against Prakashraj, playing a suave psychotic gentleman (oxymoron?) along the lines of Dr Hannibal Lecter. (Just before the intermission, one could see the poster of Hannibal staring at you from the walls of the villains’ room – that is called attention to detail… Grow up Gautam!!) That would have made an awesome plot and could have provided scope for intense encounters between these great actors, just like those between Kamal and Naaser in Kurudhipunal.

I don’t know whether Gautam’s creativity has touched a new low. He did not even think of new names and uses the same names from Kaaka Kaaka – Maya, Ilamaran etc. He knows for sure that those names are very well etched in the memories of any Tamil moviegoer worth his salt. And gosh!! Why the hell did he have to use his own house address in Gandhi Street, Kaanagam, as Kamal’s address in the movie?

I hoped Gautam would have given some life to the mediocre songs, which should have given Harris much less trouble, given that he had so many tunes to chose from his own recent hits like Ghajini. Partha muthal naalae, the song with Kamalini Mukherjhee, seems to be the bottom of the list in terms of visualization, given that one invariably is made to compare it with “Ennai konjam” from KK. At least, “vennilave” has a moment of hilarious relief when the director himself joins the street dancers in the background.

Gautam could have better used his DVD library membership and watched a few racy, Hollywood psycho thrillers before making the movie. Or even better, his own film, Kaaka Kaaka (sure he must have a copy of it at home!)

The whole film seems to be a big compromise (nobody seems to have an idea of why they started the film), given the track record of the brilliant technicians it had – Ravi Varman, the award winning cinematographer behind Anniyan and Five Star, and Antony, the editor behind Kaaka Kaaka, Manmathan and many other box-office hits. The quality of cinematography is so “good” that it instills a lot of confidence in any first-time photographer. Most of time, the screen is occupied by the bloated faces of Kamal (with that never before, hopefully never again ‘totally lost’ looks!) and Jo.

At the theatre, I was fantasizing that somebody would wake me up and tell me that I had had a bad dream and VV is yet to be released.

They say there is nothing worse than the death of hope. (I think this is from Shawshank Redemption). VV has not dealt a death blow, but sure has cast a serious doubt on the big Brand – Kamal Hasan.

Talk Less and Talk Sense!!!

2006-04-28T15:40:00.000+05:30

Actions speak louder than words. True. But most of the time, we are blind (deaf?) to them. Even if noticed, they finally settle down as mere sound bytes - thoughts, if you insist, inside our petty brains. How do we form the words that we let reside in our brains or let out through our never resting pouts?

Often they are from the periphery of our consciousness. Arrows without the energy of sense (logic or emotion) that never reach their assumed targets. These blind darts cause more wilderness as they hit everything but their targets.

Blame the brain for our communication voids. Yes. It processes information, not that we have too much of it or its higher cousin, knowledge, at such a rapid pace that our poor vocal strings can’t match. In a wasteful attempt to run along, our faculty for speech puts the words out as they come along, often making us sound stupid. A slower brain and a mouth that can match its pace will do us more good than the faster ones. In fact, slower brain and hyperactive vocal cords form a dangerous combination.

So? Let’s talk less. If possible, talk sense. For aspirants: if you can, think less.

Why we read Philosophy....?

2006-04-11T14:32:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered why do we read philosophy? Why a dumb book like The Alchemist/The Monk who sold his Ferrari, which tells nothing more than god is there to help you (but not in so few words), is so much hyped up? Why so many trite books on positive thinking are bestsellers? Why there is still so many clashing ideologies and resultant confusion even after so many millennia of human existence and exploration of the Truth?

One of the basic premises of psychology is that mind dislikes uncertainty and tries to satisfy itself through a self-made explanation of the situation at hand. If you cannot make it up for yourself, then borrow. The very essence of philosophy is to explain things in terms of what we know - with our limited and confusing vocabulary and experiences. That the end result is even more confusing is not surprising.

If you tell me that all these people are searching for The Truth, I am sorry. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A passable answer could be that they are trying to escape from reality as they see it.

Believe me. Philosophy won’t help in your escape regardless of whoever/whatever/how much ever you read, for the simple fact that all of these philosophers are trying to explain their experiences and thereby satisfy their own minds. And incidentally satisfying their wallets as well. I know the following statement is so trite, but I need to use it here. Each individual is unique. This calls for unique philosophical volumes for each individual. But if we were to have such volumes, one would be dead by the time one counted them. How then do we make use of the existing theories instead of adding to the confusion?

A rational approach to learning requires the student to have at least a basic idea of what he wants – what he aims to achieve through the study. An identifiable, definite goal is to make you more sensitive to what happens. To equip yourself with skills and knowledge so that you can decide what life means to you and what to do with it. After all, the meaning of life is what you give to it. Improve your observational skills by focusing on your physiological and psychological health. This helps you in becoming more receptive, free of the limitations of logic. After all, it is your happiness and not logical precision that you are after.

A recurring theme across eastern philosophical literature is that enlightenment is instantaneous. Bhagavad Gita, arguably the best piece of philosophy on the whole earth, says enlightenment is remembrance. It is like tuning into your favorite channel on your radio. The song is already there in the air. All you got to do is to switch to the correct frequency. Tuning your antenna into the Existence. This is where, I think, the western philosophy gets straitjacketed by its over-emphasis on logic. Instead of improving the sensitivity/receptivity of the student, it focuses on squeezing reality into tested and established patterns.

I would like to digress a bit (as if I already haven’t) to try to interpret the concept of nirvana/Buddha/bliss. Nirvana is a state of mind (I would rather not use ‘absence of mind’ as many Buddhists say for the simple reason that mind may still function as a faculty even after enlightenment). It is a state of mind that brings out the best in you. From this springs your attitude or bhavana (for the want of a better word), which determines how you feel about what happens to you, and ultimately your happiness. It is like carrying your climate wherever you go.

Regardless of whether you like the concept of determinism (if that sounds too heavy, use fate) or free will or a compromise of the two as The Alchemist puts it, it is your experience that matters the most. If you feel good, go ahead and use it. Don’t worry about its authenticity and popularity. As long as you get cured, does it matter whether what you had is a placebo or a regular pill?

Morality of capitalism!!

2006-03-28T15:31:00.000+05:30

’’If you feed a hungry man with a fish, you feed him for that day; instead, teach him fishing and you will feed him for the rest of his life.’’

This assumes willingness on the man’s part to learn fishing. Have you ever wondered what would a hungry man who has neither the skill nor the intention to acquire it do? And if the world is swarming with such men and you are one of the few who can and do fish, can you imagine your plight? Can you be sure of getting your catch home safely without being plundered or begged off? What would you feel for such parasites, be they beggars or looters? What would your moral disposition be? Compassion? Hatred? Indifference?

If you can’t see the enormity of what you are facing, read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Atlas Shrugged is breathtaking in its scope and suspense, for it is about the murder - not of a body but of the soul of Man. Miss Ayn’s intellect cuts through the heavy mists of mystic confusion to expose the schemes and tools of Evil, or call them second-handers, if you will, who feed on the Creation and eventually, the Creator himself.

This masterpiece, originally titled as The Strike, reveals how the most important forces of human life - Money and Sex, have been used by the Second-handers, over the history of mankind, to keep the Creators in chains so that they can go on without ever bothering to produce. John Galt, the protagonist of AS, carefully drains the world of its productive energy by pulling out the Creators from the world into the Atlantis, a place where each lives for one’s own sake and never asks another to live for the sake of others. And for the first time in history, the Motor of the world stops, leaving the world to rot.

In a language that has a lucidity and profundity rarely found elsewhere, Ayn puts forth, with convincing arguments, the virtues of Selfishness as against the vices of Charity. However the rhetorical denigration of compassion and other similar human qualities that Ayn makes throughout the novel might get on your nerves. Not surprisingly, one finds no good mothers or family members or any heart-warming relationships in Ayn’s works. But that cannot be a worthy reason to miss this great book.

One of the reviews in MouthShut warned readers against the righteousness that they might get after reading Atlas Shrugged. I believe the righteousness of Reason is far less malevolent than the righteousness of religion or righteousness of renunciation. If the value of any idea is in its applicability, Ayn’s philosophical ideas are more valuable than most of the trite philosophy dished out today.

Brought up in a nation, which goes on living, denying existence, trying to lose its faces if not souls, with the hope of rewards far beyond in time, space and every other conceivable dimension, I find various scenes of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead being enacted almost everywhere with the help of many Atlases who never care to shrug . One can see Peter Keatings and James Taggarts all around if one cares to wake up. And if we dare, we can find variants of them within ourselves too.

Read it. And you will begin to see. And would feel ignorance was bliss.

I chose not to be blissful.

Ironically, I am reminded of the verses from Gita, which could very well have been said by Roark or Galt.

Of lordly elephants I am Airâvata, of the wielders of weapons I am Râma, of the flowing rivers I am the Ganges, of the Pandavas I am Arjuna. I am the highest possibility of everything.