Hyperbole

We are a nation of hyperboles.. we react strongly to everything... we were asking the greatest cricketer ever to call it quits just because he couldn't score 100th 100.. now that he scored 99 tons didn't matter to us... Now that he has scored many say go for more against minnows... Bangladesh showed that they are no pushovers by defeating us.. still we are angry that we lost... When India as minnows can show fight and turn a giant killer by defeating WI 29 yrs ago, why don't we think that some other minnow can't defeat us.. thats the glorious uncertainty of cricket... Some ppl blame Sachin again for this loss saying his slow batting cost us the match..does it mean that our bowlers will defend totals above 300 only? what sort of bowlers are they then? we can't cover up our failure by just blaming one person.. he will continue to do his duty... We hailed MS dDoni when he won world cup.. he could never be wrong.. just two white washes abroad and is he still a man with midas touch.... does it mean he should go? if he goes then who's next viral kohli? are we sure he's mature enough to lead... Yes we win the world cup but we can't just keep winning.. what matters most is the fight we put up.. we did not show any fight in the 2 white washes and we have every right to be angry about it.. but the fact is this too shall pass.. We came from the darkest hours of Mohd. Azharuddin captaincy where he and nayan mongia took wickets while batting..we saw azhar deliberately getting out by giving catch practices...Azhar's team lost just about every other match in a dubious manner we still cheered.. Then came Ganguly who gave us some fighting spirit and backed the right youngsters.. We then saw the forgettable dravid captaincy where we were knocked out by Banglas in Wc first round... We bounced back the very next year with a WC win under dhoni.. so what willa few losses do to us.. we will win as long as there is talent..And by God there is talent in India.. Jai Hind...

rashtrapathi mahoday/mahodaya???

who's going to be president? Well the congress does not have the majority in the electoral college and hence cannot push any sycophant!!! no other opposition has that majority too.. so as per indian secular traditions, it will be a dalit or muslim or some other minority .. Like last time when it tried to project a maharshtrian and broke the Shiv Sena's vote from NDA, the congress might try to do something similar .. There was a similar situation in circa 2002... NDA in power, wanted to push its candidate but could not muster the support in electoral college... it chose Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.... whom everyone supported not because he was muslim minority or a tamilian but because he served the nation with merit... And I still respect AB Vajpayee for that.. there was no winner or loser at that time.. the nation won... Kalam gave a tough time to both DNA & later on the UPA... made some sense to the largely ceremonial post... Can the ruling class show some Classy act this time and elect someone untainted and out of the political spectrum.. and yes please don't make the caste or religion or both as criteria.. and may be the right choice for president could very well earn the govt brownie points... This is another issue that I'm keen about

political situation..

Just wondering about the current political situation, whether mid term polls or not, what happens to a third fourth fifth front etc... I have a firm belief that the third front of regional parties will never work at the central government.. It will be a harakiri.. We need to main national parties, ably supported by the regional ones... Currently, Congress and BJP play the roles of 2 contenders.. it might change if any one of the regional parties honestly attempt to play a constructive role instead of the gimmick of third front and make a difference to the people... Congress was needed after independence and some of its ways were fine during the first 10-20 years of the country ... But the main problem is it has not been quick on its toes and continued with Nehruvian policies for long until a survival threat loomed which opened the country to liberalization ... It just does not nurture a national leadership beyond one family.. all other leaders are reduced to mere sycophants .. Its brand of secularism is questionable as it tries to over appease minorities to win over votes.. and even after winning does not do much to improve their social status.. It was also responsible for one of the worst riots in the country (1984) .. That makes it no different from the BJP.. With all these, its has not done much during the send term of the current govt.. ppl voted for ups even after some shortcomings in UPA 1. That faith has not been kept.. On the other hand, BJP with many of its shortcomings has been better in delivering good governance in many of the states it rules ( some are bad but the % of good is more ) Currently, in Goa, it has won such a huge mandate so definitely its not anti minority... As a party, if you look at BJP it has more discipline than many other parties.. it does not look up to one family, the party president keeps changing.. The current set of national leaders seem more prepared in their debates in parliament.. So i guess the next time an election happens, BJP does deserve a chance and to make it happen, it should balance the coalition with the correct regional partners...

Not even 5 senses

There are people who work in their area of expertise and produce watchable movies.. there are people who explore areas unexplored hitherto and deliver different movies that may or may not be commercially viable... Usually Kamalhassan falls into this category... there are people who want to show off that their area is different and end up making a horrible cocktail of different theme and commercial masala.. its like mixing chinese food and chettinad spices.. & am Arivu is one such product. Utterly deplorable and a colossal disappointment.. In summary, the attempt is not that novel... both elements of the plot, indian influence in martial arts and epidemic virus have been dealt separately in two movies, Indian & Dasavatharam The vocally marketed element and the reason for the movie's hype is that it tells the tale of Bodhidharma.. Sadly, Bodhidharma is used only in the first half an hour to set the context and after that all we see is constant references to him by the characters ... Even the first 30 minutes sounds like a documentary ... Very superficial research. Tamil movies Vamsam, & Adukalam have much better research element than the overhyped 7th Sense... Google and Wikipedia also play a prominent role in the movie The screenplay and the style of narration is overly simple, the plot has very predictable twists and turns. Especially the way the chinese have been depicted is comically ridiculous. The director wants to make a world class movie dedicated to world tamils.. however with songs inserted forcefully in the flow, the movie turns out to be a third class one. Who on earth would believe that hypnotism is such child's play? the villain hypnotizes people at will :-) Taling of acting, I feel Shruti Hassan has the same expectations that northies have from Abhishek... Only difference is Abhishek is an good actor who is unlucky.. Shruti has inherited a lot of talents from her father but acting is definitely not on that list. The sad part is her tamil diction is not worthy of the Hassan surname... Surya flexes his muscles a lot, tires to act sensibly but somehow i feel that by choosing this movie he has given hope to Vijay .... The villain bloke is good but sad to see his talents wasted like this.. The sequences where the health officials responds to a reported epidemic is a gross insult to our medic folks... The climax fight somehow reminds of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle... Not only that, the main element that the talent of an ancient hero lies in some nondescript circus artist seems also inspired from Chow's shoaling soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.. In the name of telling the glory of past tamils, the director tends to give way to jingoistic feelings.. We feel Raj thackeray is bad.. I have a genuine question, what about these people, who in the name of glorifying tamil and tamil fervor end up making heroes out of criminals.. There is a dialogue which says in a neighboring country one tamilian was hunted down by 9 countries with obvious references to LTTE & V Prabhakaran. The director who also happens to be a dialogue writer should be ashamed of such thoughts... LTTE was by all means a terrorist organisation which used child soldiers, trafficked drugs, arms etc. Moreover Prabhakaran had the audacity to dismiss Rajiv's killing as a "Tragic Incident". Supporting such people is dangerous. Though the Sinhalese treatment of tamils is bad, there are ways and means to protest against that. And taking of tamil valor and bravery, LTTE is not definitely an example. This is the main curse of India.. still no unity. Someone kills our leader and we still support them in the name of language... In the end, the director gives a pompous message .. He says teach tradition not the name of religion or God but in the name of science.. WHy sir,... if we have a realization of what a tradition means whats wrong in revering it? you people think you are rationalists, very intelligent and revering certain things hurts your ego is it? The true realization of our own self leads to spiritual well being.. This is what the Indian traditions reveal... I need ample doses of aspirin to recover from this and will catch up with Vijay flick to reverse the effects :-)

AArakshan

Two state governments in India have banned the mentioned movie.. Reason they perceive it as anti Dalit and anti reservation based on 3 scenes.. Now I am not surprised.. Politicians and brains are far apart. in a full length movie they can't tolerate just 3 scenes .. not more than 30-40 minutes footage.... Countless movies like dabang which are full crap gets approved by these so called governments...

Aarakashan is a nice movie.. the first half is very realistic.. second half is filmy.. but aren't we all a bit filmy..
we all have a hope.. As summarized by the movie Om Shanti Om.. hamari filmon ki tarah hamari zindagi mein bhi end tak sab theek ho jata hay.. nahi to wo The end nahi hay.. picture abhie baki hay mere dost....

Bofors, near bankruptcy... then reforms and towering growth.. now 2g land grabbing from farmers.. still we have a hope... Aarakshan summarizes this hope...

when would reservation loose its sheen.. when u have competition in the real sense... there is whole step process to active that.. in the interim lets go on with what we have.. not target any one.. after all .. the three scenes in the movie just depicts various states of mind and frustration..
The movie invictus is a great one.. why because.. in order to rebuild a nation, Mandela wanted to forgive centuries of discrimination against his people and treated ex tormentors with respect as fellow country men.. diet MKG (Bapu ) tell the same?
lets all forgive these petty squabbles.. Aarakshan represents that reconciliation and path to the future...

I love this filmy second half and I still hope India will grow above all these...
After all we were knocked out of 2007 WC champions in 2011.. now we are getting battered in england.. so its we know they will win next time.. hope.. hope is everything... We hope anna hazard can change things.. HOPE zindabad... Jai hind...

Let the supreme court place some sense in the madness and let this movie been seen every one....

History repeats itself

This adage cannot be more relevant to the neeraj grover murder case than anything else.
Naval officer Jerome murdering TV guy Neeraj as he was involved with his fiance maria.
In 1959 an exactly similar incident happend. Naval officer Nanavati murdered Prem Ahuja as he had relnship with Sylvia, the wife of nanavati.
However, the similarities end thr. Nanavati, officially surrendered to navy provost police and then to the mumbai (bombay then) police. A jury trial acquitted him considering wht he did was socially right in 1959. The govt took offence, abolished trial by jury once for all and retried nanavati handing him a jail term.
2008 and 2011 are diff from 59. Jerome does not surrender. He and Maria cut the body to pieces and burn. After getting trapped Maria says she just was acting under pressure and confesses.
Jerome said he was angry n the killing was not premeditated hence not murder.
Court agrees ... If the killing was not premeditated why the heck did he hack the body to pieces postkilling? Is that not murder? And Maria is free....

God save our judicial system

My Take on Samacheer Kalvi

The samacheer kalvi has kicked off an interesting debate.. last DMK govt wanted to standardize the different streams of education in the state under one umbrella. As usual a lot of pros and cons r there.. Tamil nadu is probably one of the weirdest states in India as it has so many different streams.. As such in India,we have CBSE & ICSE at an all India level.. Add to that the Cambridge IGSE of the hi fi public schools.. each state ahs its own state board.. In TN ladies & gentlemen, we have TN State board, Matric, Anglo Indian & OSLC.. Fortunately after 10th its just the one single state board.. TN is known for its cram carzy pattern and add to this this crazy combination of syllabi its hell for parents and students.. A such in TN, state board syllabus was considered ( may be still) a touch inferior.. Matric & Anglo Indian were considered tougher and even on par with CBSe at one time.. I had studied in Matric board from my 8th until 10th and it was crazy.. 11 subjects and total of 1100 marks... i did find Matric decent enuf as i could clear one level of NTSE during my 10th grade.. But as always its debatable.. As far as i have experienced CBSE is the best syllabus .. ICSE is crazy and IGSE is not that great.. We should aim to standardize and roll up all state syllabi to CBSE and do away with individual state boards.. we can localize the second language to the state concerned.. This will be useful as we prepare our students for higher education...this enables easy monitoring and updates to syllabus as per changing needs.. now a days an update to syllabus is like hell...

JJ is hell bent on reversing the trend started under last govt.. lets give politics a break and ensure that we bringin some standardization in education..
Samacheer Kalvi will ensure that private schools cant swindle more in the name of syllabus..

Gurubhyo namah

Matha pitha guru deivam.... Guru or teacher is given such a high position in indian mythology...
A minister says IIT teachers are not world class and IITs are world famous just because of the students.. Oh why so jst bcos the dumb min was an IITian ... If the students are so brilliant then why kota and hyd r booming wth iit classes... Before blaming the quality  of research  did the govt do the right type of funding? Has the min himself done anything to improve the situation ? How many of the world class students have not gone  behind money in developed countries... The reason given by them is thr r no adequate funding or facility for research in india... has the govt done anything? A lot of netizens even supported the min... Fortunately the HRD min was sensible enuf to bash his colleague's immature comment. Now the min in question has backtracked. If he was so right why did he eat his own words... Our teachers deserve some respect.. We need not praise them always but lets not criticize them either for no reason.. That too not by such generic statements in public...

Bihar Polls

Two phases of bihar polls over and most people predict a second term for Nitish Kumar...

Some facts that i found interesting...

The quitest assembly elections it seems media have not covered the usual stuff like "in the campaign trail wit so n so" etc..
Lalu has run out of steam and all his so called charm is not to be seen
The brother in laws have deserted him
Rabri is contesting from two seats as there is a real chance that she might lose from the one tome bastion Raghopur
Polling percentage over 50 pc inspite of naxal boycott plan... Alas Metro citizens will talk a lot but only 36 pc vote...

Only thing that still stands put is the 4 phase month long festival.... I think we can conduct the same in 15 days as well...

Raktha charitra.....

We have a habit in India... All so called educated people will give Bihar as example for something bad....criminals in politics,bihar;bad transport, bihar; violence, bihar; etc etc... But many people hardly realise that there are far worse places than bihar. But we dont quote them because those places are in so called developed states...let me quote some examples...the state election commissioner of TN remarked during one of the by-elections in a Madurai constituency that conducting elections in bihar is easy than conducting one in Madurai due to the level of irregularities and violence....but Chennai overshadows whatever that happens elsewhere in the state..
Similar is the story of Andhra... Cyberabad aka Hyderabad overshadows the violent power struggle that happen in the once naxal dominated hinterland of Rayalaseema.... Andhra is often referred to as Vishala Andhra and has three sectors, telengana that comprises of the erstwhile nizam territory, Rayalaseema and coastal andhra... Rayalaseema is said to be a Reddy landlord dominated area. Most people rarely know that the violence that region has seen is far greater than what the media reports show as happening in bihar UP...
RGV has come with a gory story from the rayalaseema land... Before saying that tjis movie is too violent let us make a note that the director has attempted to show a two decade story in 2 hours and all the dedcade long violence has to be compressed:-)
the movie tells the meteroic rise and the eventual fall of Paritala Ravindra, a naxalite turned politician. The story is straigjt from the masala potboilers of yesteryear Tamil and Telugu films that south indians are used too.. A lower rung mass leaderr is murdered by all mighty political rivals. The eldest son seeks revenge and is killed too, then rises the younger son who avenges the deaths of father and brother, then goes on to become the saviour for many, eventually teaming up with a matinee icon turned political boss and reaching the upper echelons of power.... The movie has portrayed the rise in part one and the eventual death would be portrayed in the yet to be released se ond version...
Part 1 is excellent in terms of narration... The lead actors vovek oberoi who portrays paritala ravi, shatrugan sinha who portrays NTR garu and the main villain Abhimanyu Singh have thrown in stellar performances... The only dampener is that a whole bunch of decent actors have been reduced to nondescript cameo roles....the background score though loud adds a lot of power to the storyline... One of the main features is the dialogue... There are very few of them and all of them are very powerful... The movie shows the real democracy as it happens....
The movie showcases the hyper emotions that are common place in south india and at times rare to see in the north....
I would say that the movie would look even better in Telugu..... Overall one of the best from RGV.... 4 stars out of 5 from me....