50 years of Dravidian politics

Trivia : Which is the first democratically elected communitst Government ?

If you said … The EMS government in Kerala , 1957 , … WRONG.

We had British Guiana , 1953 , under Dr. Cheddi Jagan and even before it … San Marino, 1948 …. I used to take pride that I come from the place which had the first democratically elected Commie Government … now the myth is busted and my pride lowered.


However .. it’s the 50th year of the first democratically elected Communist Government in the Country. – Look back 50 years into the past – and you see EMS and the communist government – How ironic … in Gods own country the cimmunists prevail !

50 years of Thalaivar .

Another southern state which has come to limelight is TamilNadu with the DMK supreme K Karunanidhi completing his 50 years in the state Assembly … As always … this too doesn’t go without a controversy . The AIADMK head J Jayalalithaa has appealed to the president not to accept the invitation for the state-sponsored-celebration of the supremo’s 50 years in the state assembly saying “he has actually served only 38 years” … Now the President is in a dilemma .. to come or not to come ?
For the AIADMK it’s a direct question … Mr.President , Do you want a second term ?

My 'sweet' Jesus

Catholic pressure groups have come to picture yet again . This time in NY, to ban the exhibition of Cosimo Cavallaro's 6 foot chocolate statue (90.7kg , 485460 Calories ) of Jesus on the crucifix. ( no crucifix though )

Another similar incident on covering up of human anatomy - The US DoJ spends 8,000 to cover the semi-nude 'Spirit of justice' statue .

What ever happened to freedom of expression ??

Three Unfaithful Wives

Three unfaithful wives of mine
Always cuddle me when Iam on wine
Know not where they stay
Not near, but not so far away .

Every morning they love me endlessly
Stays through the whole evening with glee
But every night they disapper
Until In the morning, their knock I hear

Let me tell you who they are ...
One is pain, that leaves the scar
The other Jealosy, the one who feigns
And the third, Anger, the one who reigns.

Hoo Haa India !!

"The Indian team eats cricket , breathes cricket, talks cricket .. smells cricket ... they do 'every thing cricket' .. except play cricket."
- From an sms joke

Now that India is out of the Cricket World Cuppa, its time to relax and read better things in the news papers , see lesser of Mandira Bedi's skin and no more jingoistic ads featuring Indian team as tigers and other ferocious wild animals . ( Some ads even remotely resemble a scene from Gladiator .. the only difference is in real life ..they get busted )

Criket star look alikes all over India are having a tough time ... Is this a cricket crazy mob .. or an irrational outburst of "sportsman spirit" ?

I never thought loosing a game could cause an economic meltdown of sorts especially where cricket, bollywood and political chaos go hand in hand. ( sometimes out of hand ) . 600 crore loss in ad revenue, 30 crore loss for the travel industry and change in strategy shift for the electronics industry (now a lower target, and lesser number of TV sets to be sold ) .. Nobody knows how much money has gone into making the numerous "world cup specific ads' - Nike being the eye candy of all . ( Dont forget the stupid Loy-Shankar composed song -Mind and body, heart and soul - for Visa - What a tragic melody it turned out to be ! apt and sarcastic )

A group inAhmedabad has even gone to the extent of 'boycotting' anything thats endorsed by the indian cricket team ... that mean saying no to everything from Visa/Master card , to toothpastes , washing powders, lots of cola and even some wall paints !

Team India needs us more than ever . Now that sponsors will shun them .. its only us who can give them moral support and courage ( to come back and live in India )

Orkut - Whom did you meet today ?

Anybody who has been addicted to orkut can vouch - its something you will hate - sooner or later - but always will come back to .
For a socially deprived you, orkut gives your enough opportunities to feel good . Hundreds of random people to meet , and many more lost-and-found friends from your kindergarten.

A strong social statement, orkut style, makes you feel better .. atleast with those weird lines you write .. the weirder .. the better. ( Afterall ... thats the easiest way you stand out of the crowd )
I had my string of social experiments on orkut - and I found that mostly people trust one other - even if they have never ever met or even knew of their existence. Neverthless, orkut remains one of the fastest growing social networking too ... ( though hi5 and yahoo 360 have been around too .. Japan has its own orkut - mixi, which has gone public with share value doubling on its IPO day ! .. and lets not forget our very own fropper with its really vague ads on TV that makes me think that the world is the internet. )

Incessant 'thankings' to orkut ( and google) for bringing back old colly memories of my schooldays . - and not letting me get away from my old friends whom I still owe money. I hate orkut ... like everyone else ... but thats the first thing I do when Iam on the net .

Hey Raam

More "disturbing" progress towards the global village-ification . This time it comes with a religious touch ... from none other than the sadhu who taught us the fast disappearing art of levitation - Mahesh Yogi .. Read it and see it ;)

Best e-governed state !

Goa tops as the best e-Governend state in India in a recent survery conducted by IDC for Dataquest . Karnataka and Delhi follows ...

Few years ago .. one of my friend's sister (an IAS officer) , on her Discover India tour had been to Bihar to find the maturity of eGovernance in that state . Disappointed she was when she found there was no sign of even governance ... let alone eGovernance . !

I have a prejudice againt Bihar and was surprised not to have found it in the bottom list !!! ( UP "turned out" to be the worst ) ..

Freewrite #112 - The Lure

She lured him to the world's oldest trick ... . He was hungry for it. And she had the perfect recipe. It was inevitable ..There was no room for anything else . It was so plain simple.
At the end of it ..he said to himself ... "One hell of a woman".
The beginning.

Everybody Falls

Winding roads leading to dizzying heights
Addicted to success and effortless victories
Havent you too like everyone else around
Believed in the immortal you ?

Guiltless pleasure
Limitless love
Life seemed to be your slave
Trapped in a stalemate between destiny and real

Narrow lines of fortune
Twist like worms in warm puddle ..
Wriggle out from your hands into the darkness of the uncertain
Changing fate and future for good ..

Never Did you dream ..when everything seemed so easy
that life would take a dirty highland road turn
Didnt you know Dear ...
Everybody falls .. Everybody.

What makes Mumbai different ?

I was in Pune for some of my "official" purposes and then decided I would drop down(??) to Mumbai as I had never been there before . ( I now wear an invisible tag around my neck saying - I have visited all Indian Metros .. Cochin Included ;-) )

I decided I would travel on the much hyped Pune-Mumbai Express way ( on a Tata Sumo ) .. from where I started it was 144 kms to Mumbai . I timed my journey ..it took only ( ONLY in bold and underlined ) an hour and 45 minutes. that was around 90-100 km/hr on an average .. So the top speed should have hit 150-180 more than once ! Luckily for me ... I was tired and was resting my head on the passenger next to me , dozing but for the occasional G-force due to the twist and turns . I witnessed an almost fatal accident , 2 non fatal ones , few accident hit spots and a bunch of people who cared little about what they just saw !

With over 1.3 crore people - converts to 13 million - if there is one raw commodity thats cheaply available - its life ! Mumbai is easily the most populous city in India with Bangalore coming third with less than half of Mumbai's population - now you get the picture ... If not .. taste this ...
The railway terminal at Churchgate ( one of the busiest terminals in Mumbai ) has 1,500 people coming In /out per MINUTE at its peak hours. If you still dont get the picture .. the canvas is out there .

Few things you should not miss doing in Mumbai

1) travel by the local train
2) get down at CST and walk to Gateway of India.
3) Dine/Lunch/ Beer (verb) at Cafe Mondigar
4) Have vada-pav and cutting chai at some local roadside tea shop
5) buy pirated dvd from some crowded ghali near the train stations
6) drive through the marine drive in a taxi
7) walk down Dalal Street ( for the one who dont have a Phd in economics .. thats where the Bombay Stock Exchange is )
8) watch the Dabba-wallahs having their lunch
and in the night ..
9) spend an hour in a 'dance bar' with a beer worth Rs.250/- and table surrounded by neatly dressed lipstick laden, ever-ready, barely-legal teens with tonnes of makeup.

With all its crime rate and fast life ... Mumbai still remains the mother of all cities .. it makes Bangalore look like .... just an artificial, temporary settlement ! .

Meri Pyari Mumbai .

I confess ...

After more than a quarter century on this planet ... I realized with much pain ... and agony ..

1) ... that I cannot handle things under pressure. ( I used to think otherwise ... and I had taught myself to get used to such situations. If I havent learnt it after these long years .. the chances are ... I wont ever .)

2) .. that planning works. ( May it does not work wonders ..but it is far better to plan and act if you have the opportunity to do so. )

3) .... that money does matter. ( Its another thing that money is not everything ... but yeah think about satisfaction in life , work ethics, travel, ascetic life , meaning of life, idealism, et al .. when you have enough money for the rest of your life )

4) .... that you need to draw a line somewhere . ( Life is learning ... but then you just cant lead a life making mistakes, learning lessons from them and not implementing them for the rest of your life )

5) ... that practice does work miracles . There is nothing wrong with working hard ... It is NOT a sign of intellectual incompetence in case you cannot get it right the first or the second time ( Forget the outliers )

6) ..that it is okay to make a mistake AGAIN ! ( I thought that you need to always learn from your FRIST mistake .. and never ever 'commit' the mistake again ... commit is a word I should learn to disassociate with failure.. somehow it sounds so hard and unjust a word ) ( Read point #5 again ) Does a juggler always gets it the first time when he tries an additional ball ?

more lessons to be added later.....
( as and when I realize I havent written it down ... )

- added on June 12 2007 -
7) Its only imperfection that complains about the imperfect. The more perfect you are, the more tolerant you are towards the imperfections of others.

Four piece chicken - To go

Starting Notes
1) I donot like the chicken in KFC.

2) I prefer Pepsi to Coke.

3) KFC serves only Pepsi.

When was the last time you did something for the first time ?Like for example ... eating a four piece KFC Original recipe with half a litre Coke ? I never thought I would ever do that. But today was different. I had to do things that I have never done before .. Today was the beginning of everything new.
My resignation process has started moving in one direction and I will be stripped of all my entitlements. They would even take away the liberal joy of being called an employee of the company !
But just when everything was getting depressingly moody ... I had the news and the fantastic stroke of good fortune of having a better job. I call it fortune because its unlike any other forms of feeling of getting into a new job.My first ever shift to a new company ... and Iam already liking the feeling of joining the company. Now that the dark clouds have passed over I decided there was nothing to feel depressed about or ... for that matter there was nothing to think too much about.

Just 24 hours ago I was in my all time low ... Iam definitely having an emotional roller coster ride ... and let me confess Iam enjoying the ride right now . There is nothing like having a feeling of joy when you really really really crave for it . ( UNDERLINED AND BOLD )
I called up everyone whom I knew ... near dear and anyone close to being near or dear. I just let everyone know that I was happy ... And all the while I thought it was juvenile to be thinking like this ... I was suddenly reduced to an 8 year old girl who got a new bright colored skirt on a day which was definitely not her birthday ! ( the birthday would have spoiled her emotions ..considering the anticipation factor. )
I was reduced to a intellectually less fortunate kid who had just won a medal in the special olympics. I was reduced to an amateur pilot who just landed safely after his first ever flight. I was reduced to a devotee who could get a glipse of her Guruji for the first time. I was reduced to everyone and everything .... and my emotional floodgates just opened to everyone i talked to ... ( NO .. I didnt cry though :) )I compared myself to Cuba Gooding Jr in Jerry MgGuire ... I had that moment of I-love-everybody feeling. I have never ever been depressed and overjoyed in such a short span. Somehow I felt life coming back ... I was turning blue ... now I have regained my color .. and finally when I walked down ITPL ... for one last time with that emotion of having been cast out of an evil spirit .... I saw the writing on a bright red background. - KFC - hot and crispy. Of all the scores of times i passed in front of it ... I have never been lured ... but today I did get in ... totally oblivious to the surroundings ...I knew .. I should be doing something I have never done before and said ... "I would like to have a four piece chicken.. original recipe ... and could you please put some salsa along with it ... To Go"

TOEFL iBT

Please allow me to shamelessly talk on something not worth its time ...
But somehow in a period of loosing streaks .... this came in as a welcome change. And talking about it does really boost my morale.

Flashback ..
I decided to experiment with the iBT, though I was pretty comfortable with the CBT and the iBT speaking section was a new thing to worry about.
So except for the speaking section, I thought I was comfortable ! ... And yeah it turned out to be exactly what I thought would be.

112/120 sounds like a good score to me ;) ( Didnt I tell you I was in the mood for some blatant self promotion ... )
One down ... more to go ...

Failure !

We have a tendency to think that failure of our actions is a faliure of ourselves.

- A friend whom I met on orkut

Shame and Mask

A man whose sense of shame has some profundity encounters his destinies and delicate decisions, too, on paths which few ever reach and of whose mere existence his closest intimates must not know: his mortal danger is concealed from their eyes, and so is his regained sureness of life. Such a concealed man who instinctively needs speech for silence and for burial in silence and who is inexhaustible in his evasion of communication, wants and sees to it that a mask of him roams in his place through the hearts and heads of his friends. And supposing he did not want it, he would still realize some day that in spite of that a mask of him is there - and that this is well. Every profound spirit needs a mask: even more, around every profound spirit a mask is growing continually, owing to the constantly false, namely shallow , interpretation of every word, every step, every sign of life he gives.

- Nietzsche, "Beyond Good And Evil", section 40

Munna Bye !

No doubt, Lage Raho Munna Bhai was a real break from the mundane mush-mush pyar-ishq-mohabbat Hindi movie genre. But I certainly had reservations on the way it has portrayed the Mahatma . No better time to think about it, than now.

Today is October the 2nd ..This day, 137 years ago, someone was born in Gujarat, who would, for ever, change the way we look at resistance movements. ( this also being the 100th year of the revolutionary Satyagraha movement ) Albert Einstein would later say about this man ...
"Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
The Hindu Sunday Review yesterday rightly had an article on the way the latest Munna Bhai flick 'uses' the Mahatma as a novel story line - a break away from the usual formula.
It should have stopped there ! The media, religiously followed its instincts, portraying in a heroic way, the great effort done by the director (Raj Kumar Hirani) to spread the Gandhi ideals .

A very bad message - the Mahatma would not be claimed as unreasonable - he was politically savvy - You need to know whom you are fighting . You cannot use the principles of non-violence and civil disobedience against an irrational enemy - ( these links would be a perfect read . http://www.spectacle.org/995/gandhi.html and http://www.spectacle.org/995/scorp.html )

"If Gandhi were to take up the Dandi yatra against the Nazis, he would have barely made it one mile " - Since Gandhi knew that the British were very respectful of the political system and their own judiciary - non-violence seemed to be a very radical idea through with you can attain what you wanted from the British.

The way this is portrayed in the movie is pathetic - it would be senselessly stupid to compare Gandhis non-violence with that of Sanjay Dutt showing the left cheek to the watchman in front of Boman Irani's mansion ( towards the end of the movie ) .
Here is interesting the dilemma - Gandhi could be reliably trusted to never resort to violence even if his methodology of non-violence failed. He could be taken as very honorable and reliable. MunnaBhai is unreliable, unpredictable and unreasonable. As expected and wanted by the audience , MunnaBhai whacks down the watchman after he has shown the second cheek.

With great power comes the need for great composure to restrain it ! - the movie fails to portray that . Gandhi was powerful - very very powerful. He could have easily channelised his mass ppeal to expedite the process of attaining freedom - if he had taken the masses to violent actions - but that would mean the essential breakaway from his own principles.

The movie's stand on consmption of liquor is also not devoid of questioning - how could a iam-drunk-all-the-time goon take up portions of Gandhian philosophy to achieve his needs ? It would be unreasonable to assume that even though knowing about Gandhi was not his primary objective, ultimately the ghost of Gandhi transformed MunnaBhai to a perfect Gandhian. ( compared to the beautiful manner RDB shows DJ ( Aamir Khan) and his friends being transformed into modern day Bhagat Singhs ) But MunnaBhai does not go away without any social implications - a public screening of the movie on October 2nd !! http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/009200610010321.htm

Needless to say, we essentially live in a period of induced jingoism and irrational nationalism - fueled by the tension across the border and the subtle religious equilibrium. We need to rethink - if movies like L.O.C , Border and their likes ( inablility to recall more names ) should ever be screened.

To leave you with a thought, ...
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
- the Mahatma
.

Bumble Bee

"You are more afraid of something you cannot see ..than the things you can see."

Enter the story of Bumble Bee ! Somehow I need to make up my mind.
To be or to bumble bee !

Things I hate about my office

Last few days and all my animosity towards my company is culminating into one point - trying to find justifications on my decision to quit ! The following one might be trivial but very important in terms of keeping employees happy !

a) They have blocked almost all the sites - even Scott Adam's. - humour not allowed
b) Anything to have the keyword -'mail' has been blocked . - mailing not allowed



c) Any thing that has 'hot' or any variants of fornication in its URL - obvious - no porn in office !
d) The other categories being - sports , chat , matrimony, job sites ... the list has just begun.

I couldnt help twist my eyebrows in disbelief when some one told me that his favorite site on the java browser - hot java was blocked ... so was http://www.hotscripts.com/JavaScript/index.html ( The firewall should have intelligently filtered it as some sites that show semi nude lady with the name Java ! .. maybe even worse ! who knows ... as long as the firewall blocks it ... we are safe .. office morality is keep intact ! Thanks to all the cheap firewalls ! )

That 80s cartoon show

"Dance your cares away,
worries for another day,
let the music play,
down at Fraggle Rock."

As a child DoorDarshan ( DD ) was my only window to the outside world ... Urban indian middle class, especially in Cochin,Kerala, couldnt ask for more .. well .. they didnt need more. The TV costantly fed me with very interesting and captivating mega serials ... ( compared to today's mega .. MEGA looks like a larger than life one ... to be attributed to those 13 episode serials ) ...
Star Trek, Spiderman, Ek-Do-Theen-Char, UGC, Yeh-Jo-Hei-Zindagi,Mr.Yogi, MungeriLal Ke Haseen Sapney - These were all my favorites ... and yeah I used to watch 'HeMan and the masters of the universe' too.

But of all .... the one that really captured my imagination and attention was Fraggle Rock... the world of imaginary human like beings and their life in a worry free world - or rather a world in which worry was not the determinant of the way life should be lived !
I wondered where did all these beings disapper .. the only place I find them these days is on the net !

A perfect Sunday ....

What more could you ask for ... what more could you want on a sunday ... feel lazy .. relax ... stretch on a bean bag ... read The Hindu Literary Review.. sip on hot creamy coffee with low sugar... bit by bit by bit .. You are unconsciously aware of the presence of the coffee mug next to you ... You know there is still a little more coffee left in it .. but you dont let it bother you much .. you are engrossed in the literature ... you can feel the fluid running through your veins .. slowly entering your foggy sleepy brain ... you can feel the caffeine working on you .... but you are too lazy ... you cant even feel the bean bag behind you .. you are taken away into a world of lethargy and comfort ... that forbidden pleasure of loathing ... not letting anything worry you .. not even the time ... not even the sound of the waking day ... the outside seems so disconnected ... you dont even know if it is morning or evening ... the pleasant sunshine has been fading ...you feel you are absorbed into a comfortable surrounding where you wanted to be for a long time ... as if slowly sinking into a giant pillow made of white feathers ... as if entrapped into a heap of fresh morning snow ... but letting yourself seep into it ... and then slowly you grope your hands around you ... searching for something as if in the dark ... and pick the mug and bring it to your lips .... its no longer warm .. its cold and watery ... you know you have been there for a long time .. you try to get back to your reading ....you can still feel the masculine stench of coffee lingering in your mouth .. the taste of expensive coffee... and little did you know that you had slowly slipped into a perfect mid morning nap, on your bean bag .. with the sunday review newspaper outstretched on your chest, a coffee mug beside like a blanket barely covering you ... little did you know .... that this was the perfect sunday morning you always wanted..