This weekend i was a bot relaxed and happened to see a new muvee Blood Diamond..
Blood diamonds is about diamonds from conflict zones finding their way into the normal market and the fund inturn used to fuel civil wars n atrocities...............
Well how sad it is.........the muvee is picturised in 1999 Sierra Leone where there country is torn apart by a decade long civil war betn the the elected govt and the RUF founded by Foday Sankoh... The RUF was formed as result of brainwashing sessions held in Libiya by Col. Muammar Al Gadafi who tired to inculcat Pan Africanism very much like Gamel Abdel Nasser lead Pan Arabism.. but cant really equate the two.. Nasser was a pillar in NAM i guess...
So Gaddafi conducts a training session .. some crappy felons attend it, one of them Charles taylor bccomes a president of Liberia and he helps RUF with arms.. they start a civil war, control some diamond mines, use local popuation as forced labour to mine diamonds.
These diamonds are bought by smugglers n mercaneries..(much of whom included the ex South African apartheid army which fought in Angola civil war with rebels and after 1994 was disbanded after south africa closed apartheid. A chunk of that army became private armed forces, smuggling diamonds, supplying arms to all rebels n happily minting money.. the irony is sometimes these private army help the governments as well:-)
The mercanerires then smuggle the diamonds to liberia where they are certified as mined in liberia n exported from liberia.. thus it fothey find the way into the market...
Back in africa child soldeirs are used to kil people, they are drugged, indoctrinated and made to do all crappy stuff...........much like LTTE i guess.......
And ladies n gentlemen much like oil, the largest market for diamonds is none other than big bro america.......... ferkin hell.... the belgians french n UK sumbitches started ravaging africa for ivory n gold which still continues.... and De Beers is a clear player in all this. Its 2000 Millennium Star diamond of 200 carat (next biggest to Koh -i Noor) was a BLOOD DIAMOND mined in Zarie aka Congo aka Democratic republic of Congo-Khinshasa.. De Beer say that the muvee shud have a disclaimer that it was in teh past as it cud potentially damage their diamond market.
The muvee says how teh diamonds are locked up in vaults just to increase teh demand n price...
Man they are just worthless stones.. I remember clearly my maternal grand mum and paternal grandmum told me stories abt diamond.. Well India had all ferkin riches it had diamonds n oil n everything ..........a world within itself.....
They told me how certain diamonds had dosha or a defect and how they had a potential to destroy a family .. I thought it was bull crap.. but i see how these stones have damaged millions of lives across a continent... Well i beleive now that most of the things that elders have passed on is true..its just that we lost them and had an ambiguity before we were enslaved 200 yrs ago and lost faith in all our tradition............
So ladies n gentlemen as buddha said desire is teh cause of all miseries...
Dont shell too much money on diamonds and make sure that they are Kimberley process certified which came in to being after 2000... and know what even Indian army was part of a UN peace mission n sierra leone....it is all TRUE n not just a muvee...
The second hard hitting muvee after Syriana.....
The message is the wealth that nature gave to people is AFFECTING the normal life of those native people.. only a small number of them benefit from it whereas as the so called first n second world exploit them....
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
tagged by Heidi Kris (Sri)
1. Were you named after anyone?Mannargudi rajagopala Swami an incarnation of lord Vishnu 2. Do you wish on stars?Nopes
3. When did you last cry?2 months b4 when I had a tiff with mum.4. Do you like your handwriting?No
5. What is your favourite meat?Vegetarian
6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?Embarassing for me or others?7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?Yes I am the best
8.Are you a daredevil?No. 9. How do you release anger?use the hcoiceset of slang and abuse10. Where is your second home?I don’t have a proper first home11. Do you trust others easily?To an extent12. What was your favourite toy as a child?I dint like toys btw13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?Drawing
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?When needed yes15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?Nopes16.What do you look for in a guy?I am not a batty boy17. Would you bungee jump?Crap.18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?Yes19.what's your favourite ice cream?Plain Vanilla20. What are your favourite colours?Blue Go India Go21. What are your least favourite things?Sycophancy22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
1
23. Who do you miss most right now?Dad n Mum24. What are you listening to right now?
Nothin25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?Blue26. What is the weather like right now?Cold27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Mum28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?Sorry Cant say.29. Do you like the person who sent you this?Yes defly 30. How are you today?Not bad not gud31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?Caffe32. Favourite alcoholic drink?Just tasted wine so yeah it is wine33. Natural hair colour?Black.34. Eye colour?Brown35. Wear contacts?I did wear but they were uncomfy 36. Siblings? elder brother!37. Favourite month?Feb (my bday val day and dad’s bday follow & two of my very gud frnds are feb born)38.Favourite food?Amma panna thayir saadam.39. Favourite day of the year?Feb 13th 40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?yes
41. Scary movies or happy endings?No to both 42. Summer or winter?No to both 43. Holi or Diwali?No to both 44. Do you like your name?Hmm not very much
45. What book/magazine are you reading?Sleeping with the devil by Bob Baer.46. What's on your mouse pad?A calendar.47. What did you watch on TV last night?No TV here48. Favourite Smell?
Hmm nothing spl. 49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?Never got hooked to break up.. A loser in this ….50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?Answering stupid questions
Tag
???
1. Were you named after anyone?Mannargudi rajagopala Swami an incarnation of lord Vishnu 2. Do you wish on stars?Nopes
3. When did you last cry?2 months b4 when I had a tiff with mum.4. Do you like your handwriting?No
5. What is your favourite meat?Vegetarian
6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?Embarassing for me or others?7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?Yes I am the best
8.Are you a daredevil?No. 9. How do you release anger?use the hcoiceset of slang and abuse10. Where is your second home?I don’t have a proper first home11. Do you trust others easily?To an extent12. What was your favourite toy as a child?I dint like toys btw13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?Drawing
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?When needed yes15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?Nopes16.What do you look for in a guy?I am not a batty boy17. Would you bungee jump?Crap.18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?Yes19.what's your favourite ice cream?Plain Vanilla20. What are your favourite colours?Blue Go India Go21. What are your least favourite things?Sycophancy22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
1
23. Who do you miss most right now?Dad n Mum24. What are you listening to right now?
Nothin25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?Blue26. What is the weather like right now?Cold27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Mum28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?Sorry Cant say.29. Do you like the person who sent you this?Yes defly 30. How are you today?Not bad not gud31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?Caffe32. Favourite alcoholic drink?Just tasted wine so yeah it is wine33. Natural hair colour?Black.34. Eye colour?Brown35. Wear contacts?I did wear but they were uncomfy 36. Siblings? elder brother!37. Favourite month?Feb (my bday val day and dad’s bday follow & two of my very gud frnds are feb born)38.Favourite food?Amma panna thayir saadam.39. Favourite day of the year?Feb 13th 40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?yes
41. Scary movies or happy endings?No to both 42. Summer or winter?No to both 43. Holi or Diwali?No to both 44. Do you like your name?Hmm not very much
45. What book/magazine are you reading?Sleeping with the devil by Bob Baer.46. What's on your mouse pad?A calendar.47. What did you watch on TV last night?No TV here48. Favourite Smell?
Hmm nothing spl. 49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?Never got hooked to break up.. A loser in this ….50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?Answering stupid questions
Tag
???
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Guru-Disappoints
Well I got up pretty early today did some useful work. Then decided to check out the movie guru by Maniratnam. Little did I realise that this was the biggest mistake that I was ever gonna do . The muvee is inspired from the real life rags to riches story of Dhirubhai H Ambani , the boss of Reliance. The muvee was very un-maniratnam like
It tries to glorify the prince of polyester for all the controversies attached to him.
The muvee captures his Aden stay as an Istanbul stay and modifies things littlebit to prove that its indeed a fiction(Like iruvar n Nayagan. Iruvar being an inspiration of the life n career of ace politicians M G Ramachandran & Karunanidhi and Nayagan being the life history of Don Varadaraja Mudaliyar of Dharavi Mumbai)
As like Nayagan he tries to glorify the protagonist just to avoid trouble. But seriously this muvee lacked the solid Nayagan screenplay. It looked like disconnected bits of a documentary .. and the songs tho brilliant looked oddly out of place.. seriously the songs were just used as bits inn Yuva which helped the pace f the muvee…
God can anyone make a muvee without stripping malllika Sherawat. Mani you too…???
The muvee documents the Wadia-Ambani Feud, battle betn Ramnath Goenka and Ambani etc. The muvee has not captured Anil and Mukesh and also about the Pramod Mahajan nexus.
The jamnagar refinery is shown much ahead .
Aishwarya Rai does some justice to her role…
Finally the climax court scene gurubhai just blurts out some nonsense and he is let scot-free with just a meagre fine. Hmm and the end is that his conglomerate marches ahead.
But the sad story is nothing as such happened in real life and the conglomerate has infact split after a public spat.
The muvee seems to give the message that everything is valid in business and whatever scandal that was done in license permit era was valid.
I really feel that ethics still hold true and ethics should be maintained.
And as a muvee it was too long and disjointed.....
It tries to glorify the prince of polyester for all the controversies attached to him.
The muvee captures his Aden stay as an Istanbul stay and modifies things littlebit to prove that its indeed a fiction(Like iruvar n Nayagan. Iruvar being an inspiration of the life n career of ace politicians M G Ramachandran & Karunanidhi and Nayagan being the life history of Don Varadaraja Mudaliyar of Dharavi Mumbai)
As like Nayagan he tries to glorify the protagonist just to avoid trouble. But seriously this muvee lacked the solid Nayagan screenplay. It looked like disconnected bits of a documentary .. and the songs tho brilliant looked oddly out of place.. seriously the songs were just used as bits inn Yuva which helped the pace f the muvee…
God can anyone make a muvee without stripping malllika Sherawat. Mani you too…???
The muvee documents the Wadia-Ambani Feud, battle betn Ramnath Goenka and Ambani etc. The muvee has not captured Anil and Mukesh and also about the Pramod Mahajan nexus.
The jamnagar refinery is shown much ahead .
Aishwarya Rai does some justice to her role…
Finally the climax court scene gurubhai just blurts out some nonsense and he is let scot-free with just a meagre fine. Hmm and the end is that his conglomerate marches ahead.
But the sad story is nothing as such happened in real life and the conglomerate has infact split after a public spat.
The muvee seems to give the message that everything is valid in business and whatever scandal that was done in license permit era was valid.
I really feel that ethics still hold true and ethics should be maintained.
And as a muvee it was too long and disjointed.....
Sunday, January 07, 2007
ICE RINK
After a long time had been to the office on a sunday to finish off a lot of pending work.
Worked for 3-4 hours and then decided that there should be some fun so called up roomie and askd him whether he is interested in a ice skate session at the Canary Wharf Ice Rink...
He said yes and off we went.. Well I have never one any skating b4 so just wanted to try ...the rink was a medium sized one and when I wore the skating boots it was like tying 4 kg wt to the legs.. worst is i was not able to balance in that boot ............with grt difficulty reached the rink and tried to skate.......and had a great fall like humpty dumpty ....hell a lot painful.. then realised that i shud skate along the barricades holiding the handrails so that i can avoid damage to myself.. after hella lot of mini falls and slips completed one full circle and then decided to take rest ... it was a heavenly feeling when i took those heavy boots off..... then i realised tho i was not the one struggling the others were brave enuf to fall more than once and tried to skate in te centre.. my roomie was doing good as well.. but i didnt have the courage to get back as i had collided agains teh barricade many times and that hurt... also the one fall was still hurting moreover, my legs cudnt carry thse heavy boots....idhu thevaya?(kaiko panga lia baap) finally when i reached home i felt a bit releived... any how it was fun....
Worked for 3-4 hours and then decided that there should be some fun so called up roomie and askd him whether he is interested in a ice skate session at the Canary Wharf Ice Rink...
He said yes and off we went.. Well I have never one any skating b4 so just wanted to try ...the rink was a medium sized one and when I wore the skating boots it was like tying 4 kg wt to the legs.. worst is i was not able to balance in that boot ............with grt difficulty reached the rink and tried to skate.......and had a great fall like humpty dumpty ....hell a lot painful.. then realised that i shud skate along the barricades holiding the handrails so that i can avoid damage to myself.. after hella lot of mini falls and slips completed one full circle and then decided to take rest ... it was a heavenly feeling when i took those heavy boots off..... then i realised tho i was not the one struggling the others were brave enuf to fall more than once and tried to skate in te centre.. my roomie was doing good as well.. but i didnt have the courage to get back as i had collided agains teh barricade many times and that hurt... also the one fall was still hurting moreover, my legs cudnt carry thse heavy boots....idhu thevaya?(kaiko panga lia baap) finally when i reached home i felt a bit releived... any how it was fun....
Friday, January 05, 2007
JINXED!!!!
Well its a new year and this season in chennai is most known for carnatic music...
This month of margazhi though a not so auspicious month, but is a very special month in the hindu calendar....(rather sri vaishnava calendar) and at the end of margazhi is the bhogi vestival .. th eonly day chennai flights are delayed due to poor visibility(not fog gentleman n ladies its SMOG) i will write abt bhogi other time... bhogi is folowed by thai month and pongal festival...
I have seen some similarities betn margazhi and ramadan and thai and shawwal (margazhi being a month in the thamizh calendar and ramadan u know.. is a month the festival ramadan falls on the first day of nah- e shawwal)
leaving all that apart what i wanted to say here was..( huh kya yaar ghuma fira ke baat .. )
Jan in chennai is not only famous for the final leg of carnatic season or ponga; alone.. the gala event in Jan for ppl like me is the annual book fair of BPASI(Book Publishers and sellers Assocciation of south India ) This event used to take place at the Quaid E Milleth College grnds from 7th to 17th Jan every yr(Alas Quaid e is a gals college and gals wont be arnd during the fair ).. This yr due to to the need for BIGGER SPACE its movin to ponamalee high rd opposite to Pachaiyappas Mens collge (Yuck koi jagah nahi mili,... enna kodumai saravanan) and date is from 9th -21st Jan..
Hangon why am i sayin this...bcos i was a regular visitor to ths from 1998-2003 and dad used to sanction atleast 1000 bucks ( Beleive me it was a big amount for me .. that too when amma opposed on such a huge spend on a single day)..Dad ur a gem.....
When Mum said nee sambathichi selavazhichuko da ayiram ayirama.. varsavarsham yen appa kitta kekkara?(Bole toh khud ki kamayi se uda na hajaoron rupaye har saal bapu ki vaat kayko lagata hai?) i replied back.. amma velaiku ponda udana vara mudhal fair la min bill 10 aayiram ...( apun bola mayi kamai ke baad pehele wale fair me 10 hajar udayenga apan) amma said pakkalam enga orukkiyo( dekh le pata nahi kahan hoga)..
Well She was right after 2003 i missed all the book fairs 1 due to ma company 2 due to my mother and am gonna miss this one again thanks to ma company...
2004 i was just postedto pune so no hols for pongal or book fair.. and pune sucks when it comes to book fairs i have been to a few but hopeless...
2005 I ha dthis part time MBA thing going and thr was this exam for that so amma had come down to pune and she left only by march tho the xam was over by Jan 8th she wudnt let me got to Chennai for the book fair as she did not want to go thr early(cos that meant she had to come again to pune after 3 months as per appa's policy) i had to skip it
2006 I had exams again but amma also came in early as one of ma cusins was gettin married in feb andparents had to be in chennai so fair again missed..
Know what both these times my representative attended teh fair and gifted me books.. whos that rep? Dad of course ... who else wud waste money on me?
2007 - Grrr - i thought iw ud hit back to chennai by dec since my London term was supposed to get over november last ....i thought i wud not spend much time in chennai during dec and take a vacation in jan and enjo y fair powered by pounds.. alas my term gets extended and i am here...
amma had a comment to appa that andha payithiam phone pannum aana neenga poga koodadhu( woh yeda call karega pan aap fair nakko jaoo) yeah i did call and dad HAS a plan to go to the fair with a neighbour and his elder bro.. woow wewa periappa and the next door uncle will get nice books and sowill dad 3 musketeers as reps.....
hmm but kahin andar man mein yeh baat ai ki 2008 ko dekhenge..(2008 i will wait for ya lets see if i cud make it )
This month of margazhi though a not so auspicious month, but is a very special month in the hindu calendar....(rather sri vaishnava calendar) and at the end of margazhi is the bhogi vestival .. th eonly day chennai flights are delayed due to poor visibility(not fog gentleman n ladies its SMOG) i will write abt bhogi other time... bhogi is folowed by thai month and pongal festival...
I have seen some similarities betn margazhi and ramadan and thai and shawwal (margazhi being a month in the thamizh calendar and ramadan u know.. is a month the festival ramadan falls on the first day of nah- e shawwal)
leaving all that apart what i wanted to say here was..( huh kya yaar ghuma fira ke baat .. )
Jan in chennai is not only famous for the final leg of carnatic season or ponga; alone.. the gala event in Jan for ppl like me is the annual book fair of BPASI(Book Publishers and sellers Assocciation of south India ) This event used to take place at the Quaid E Milleth College grnds from 7th to 17th Jan every yr(Alas Quaid e is a gals college and gals wont be arnd during the fair ).. This yr due to to the need for BIGGER SPACE its movin to ponamalee high rd opposite to Pachaiyappas Mens collge (Yuck koi jagah nahi mili,... enna kodumai saravanan) and date is from 9th -21st Jan..
Hangon why am i sayin this...bcos i was a regular visitor to ths from 1998-2003 and dad used to sanction atleast 1000 bucks ( Beleive me it was a big amount for me .. that too when amma opposed on such a huge spend on a single day)..Dad ur a gem.....
When Mum said nee sambathichi selavazhichuko da ayiram ayirama.. varsavarsham yen appa kitta kekkara?(Bole toh khud ki kamayi se uda na hajaoron rupaye har saal bapu ki vaat kayko lagata hai?) i replied back.. amma velaiku ponda udana vara mudhal fair la min bill 10 aayiram ...( apun bola mayi kamai ke baad pehele wale fair me 10 hajar udayenga apan) amma said pakkalam enga orukkiyo( dekh le pata nahi kahan hoga)..
Well She was right after 2003 i missed all the book fairs 1 due to ma company 2 due to my mother and am gonna miss this one again thanks to ma company...
2004 i was just postedto pune so no hols for pongal or book fair.. and pune sucks when it comes to book fairs i have been to a few but hopeless...
2005 I ha dthis part time MBA thing going and thr was this exam for that so amma had come down to pune and she left only by march tho the xam was over by Jan 8th she wudnt let me got to Chennai for the book fair as she did not want to go thr early(cos that meant she had to come again to pune after 3 months as per appa's policy) i had to skip it
2006 I had exams again but amma also came in early as one of ma cusins was gettin married in feb andparents had to be in chennai so fair again missed..
Know what both these times my representative attended teh fair and gifted me books.. whos that rep? Dad of course ... who else wud waste money on me?
2007 - Grrr - i thought iw ud hit back to chennai by dec since my London term was supposed to get over november last ....i thought i wud not spend much time in chennai during dec and take a vacation in jan and enjo y fair powered by pounds.. alas my term gets extended and i am here...
amma had a comment to appa that andha payithiam phone pannum aana neenga poga koodadhu( woh yeda call karega pan aap fair nakko jaoo) yeah i did call and dad HAS a plan to go to the fair with a neighbour and his elder bro.. woow wewa periappa and the next door uncle will get nice books and sowill dad 3 musketeers as reps.....
hmm but kahin andar man mein yeh baat ai ki 2008 ko dekhenge..(2008 i will wait for ya lets see if i cud make it )
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