Acting and Overacting

Though I want to write about a different subject here, i take a moment to congratulate the proteas for mauling the scumbag kangaroos!!!!
Ausssie thoo thoo.. and OZ supporters especially the self procalimed oz fanatics in India who like oz jus becos they win.. ARHHHHHHH THOOOO to u all.... ab aaya na oonth pahad ke neeche!!! people ask me why i keep spitting... well if in the Arab world, the highest form of insult is throwing shoes.. ( its an insult here too)... in tam land the highest form of insult is spitting.. shoes come nect to that :-)....

Ok now back to acting and over acting.. i was just comparing and wondering about the acting of a few indian greats....
startinh with raj kapoor indian films first superstar... well raj kapoor was a great story teller and a connoiseur in the technical aspects.. he was not a very verastile actor .. (Sorry Dad ).
Dilip Kumar was great as Devdas but thers a film called Gopi in which i feel that his acting is terrible... Dev saab was great in hum dono, but Jewel thief was overdone.....rajesh khanna did wonders in many muvees but his so called classic amer prem is awfully done .. the AEY PUSHPAA is irritating at times :-)... I felt shammi ji mostly overreacted expect for Prince....

Bachhan sab was great earlier on buthis later movies like kohraam in which he played dadabhai and Balbir sodhi is YUCK!!!! so is is lal badshaah .. even in the epic black in a scene where he transliterates bull shit in sign language the acting is over and above ... not to mention his role in bhothnath... yaaaawn!!!...i don wish to write abt dharam and sunny paji :)
SRK is a versatile actor but his roles in Anjaam, Ram janee and Duplicate are grotesque !!! i mean he just went cuckoo for no reason ... to top it his Dish TV ad is unbearable!!! plss dont be santhust i feel like banging his head with a hammer !!!!
Aamir is very perfect but his role in Ghulam was overdone.. especially after the success of rangila he just over did the tapori bit.. his later coke ads are also very weird....in mangal pandey only his looks were good that added to the miserabilty of the movie....
now over to tam heroes... the icon MGR was again like raj kapoor .. a technical expert, great story teller but not a very powerful actor...
The stalwart sivaji ganesan is known for overacting at times.. in Motor Sundaram pillai his role was very well executed but his roles in vietnam veedu and Gauravam were kind of comically horrible!!!!! these roles are spoofed quite often....
Rajni again was showcassed more on his styles than his acting.. he is a very good actor, if we see some of his earlier movies... but in ninaithale inikkum his role at times irritates a lot....then there was a muvee called pandian ( guess it was a disaster).. pandian is awful....
now over to the universal hero aka kamal ... he did a great job in some telugu movies and many of his movies are wonderful.... but hs roles in alavandhan, a coupel of characters in dasavatharam, his role in vikram, some aspects in varumaiyin niram sivappu, kakki sattai are all overdone...!!!
so what makes these greats overact.. if we observe closely, as one gets comfy with the type of role he.she plays, the tendancy to overact is more....some of the stalwarts who did a great job in mediocre roles too are Pran, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin shah, Nagesh, Shivakumar, ...

Siege ends

finally what went on in mumbai ends after 60 odd hours....now its time to introspect and decide what to do next. many say its intel failure and we shud ramp up intel... what do we mean by that? Many say home minister shud quit.. if he quits will all these stop?.. someof my colleagues even suggested that we should have an aoperation similar to operation wrath of god ( the plot for steven spielberg's Munich)... most voraciously the bolywood and mumbai high society people are yelling about internal security.. do they care? i can fot sure say that about 10-15 so called eminent people that i saw on TV yelling at politicians either do not vote or evade taxes or do not just care what goes arnd them... they might not even know who the person next door is... the irony is when teh terrorists landed in a koli wada ( fishermen's colony) some ladies were asking them who they are and whr they are from, later they informed police also.... can we expect something similar from the so called eminent high society filths?... we just consider our job done if we pay pur taxes.. but its also our job to take part in the election process and question people about their policies on all major areas... now we have RTI act as well.. we should demand asnwer regarding whats the overall plan now atleast at a high level to counter terror...
But this time around the IB did inform Maha police of a possible sea attack by lashkar in sep itself.. now why there was no action remains a mystery.. and whenevr we say anything to blame Intel , its safe cos no one from intel is gonna defend themselves... its just been over a decade we have been talking about intel before that they were virtually non existant... the failure ladies and gentlemen is not in intel ineptitude... its our failure to invest in HUMINT and over reliance on SIGINT... even the same problem has dogged CIA... HUMINT is human intelligence...so why are we not able to get folks... well one reason could be the nature of work and pay.. now with pay scales revised , we should see some people getting in... another factor is selection of appropriate people.. and training...earlier intel used to have local state police personnel on deputation... it was a lucrative deputation some years ago.. but now they are not getting enough ppl... we should go back to the ways as it was in the late 1940s early 50s and correct the basics... the use of technology should be enhanced... though intel is the defacto powerful poilce in the state and can even tap the phones of anyone w/o permission etc, they need to be given a bit of free hand in terms of anti-terror laws which enable the detention and questioning of suspects w/o charge.. why did we repeal POTA w/o a decent law to replace it??? is there a proper co-ordination betn the state poilce and intel as it once used to be?it seems the internal tension is also a bit to blame.. and do we have enough people in intel first? not sure .. there must be many vacancies when do we fill them train them? one of the biggest problem in India is be it any job the number of people wanting to work hard and rise through the ranks is very less.. everyone wants to get a sort of higher degree and become a manager... bet it finance or IT or police or whatsoever...the craze for quick buck is more than ever.. then why blame them alone? INTEL work ans system admin/support in IT are analogous .. they both are thankless jobs.. u are expected to be perfect all the time.. u wont be thanked for that but if something goes wrong u will be shafted....we should change our internal mindset if we are to become stronger as a nation... simply blaming polictians is not gonna get us anywhwre.. there was some sane politicans who supported teh national security act and by the grace of which we have NSG.. God has helped us .. so letus go ahead and build a stronger nation like this.. lets go out with a positive attitude... JAI HIND!!!!!

dastardly attack

What is going on in mumbai is an act of cowardice..... Best cops of mumbai have died and the city is under threat... Mumbai will rise back and make sure that the fuckers who are doing this get back a reply... but i cannot imagine that a few weeks ago i was in mumbai and was feeling very much at home....and i cant imagine whats hapening now.. some where there is a failure... i as a son of an ex intel officer cannot digest this ..... the media is spinning its own stories...as the police are fighting hard.. i really am not able to come to terms with the fact that many IPS officers have already laid down their lives... the very thought of this sends a chill on my spine and i am not able to sleep.. once we deal this, we should be in for tough anti terror laws and speedy punishments so that we show em that we are strong.. sea has been a threat and now its proved... the coast guard should be given more help to make sure that they patrol our waters more vigilantly... I am praying that this all comes to an end tonight very soon and we get into damage control,..... JAI HIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to pavilion

Its been 2 weeks since im back in pune… purpose being to heal my ruptured maxiliaty sinus….. at each sitting my doc asks” I hope u;ll be here for 2-3 months” and daily my client manager in Mumbai asks “ Hope u are getting better” .. suddenly so many ppl are asking so many questions.. the first real tasks was to stock and setup my kitchen … next one was to get a broadband connection .. boy its still tuff to get a broadband connection and it takes 12 days ..
India are rocking and piling the wooes on KP’s Enger land… sorry to see enger land loose so badly… but the aussies are crying badly after their mauling in India.. they are not magnanimous enough to accept that India is the only team to have troubled them so much over the last 10 yrs or so.. they just crib and call names at every player be it Indian or Lankan.. aussies suck… and to all hardcore aussie supporters here in India “SHAME ON YOU BUGGERS!!” J

In my time at Mumbai, I happened to read the sea of poppies as well as half of white tiger.. I cundt read the other half because I found it very boring.. not sure how it got the booker… on the other hadn sea of poppies in gripping.. it’s a heart moving narration of opium trade and dislocation of people to mareech dweep aka Mauritius………… the amount of research gone into the book itself has to fetch it an award.. lovely.. Amitav Ghosh has set a bar…. White tiger has brilliance but some how I found it highly negative … may be im too much Indian to accept the stereotypical portrayal of India as it is done by Mr Adiga….

I caught up with two tam movies… one of them raman thedia seethai is brilliant and the other much hyped Surya starrer varanam Aayiram is a dud.. It has an over dose of father son sentiments And romance.. and is boring, peppered with painfully long songs… somehow couldn’t enjoy the movie……… the main obstacle was the overdose of English dialogues and the slang used .. considering that a part is set in 70s -80s I am not sure if any father would have called his son Kiddo ( Perfect American slang).. especially in chennai where still Queen’s English is revered…. And many others reasons made me not enjoy the movie.. though yeah i like the base theme of father son relationship J

With a lot of assemnbly elections on, daily the Malegaon probe is being highlighted, the congress has got something to cheer about… hindu terror.. but this government has utterly failed to counter any form of terror… many people feel that the congress is blowing this trumpetto win votes… may be they have a point.. with Malegaon all over the place and Indian Mujahideen almost forgotten, NDTV featured a report on confessions and convictions of Mansoor Peerbhoy all of a sudden…

Suddenly i realize that im being hit by the crunch.. with Pakistan and Iceland gping broke, Japan in recession and india facing the heat, I dunno where to go he he…
Someone advised that I will go loony soon if I don’t take a vacation and suggested Goa or Gangtok as a destination.. I wud like to go to Guwahati, Shillong Aizawl.. but let me repair my sinus first …

Musings

so sep 6 has been a remarkable day for both the south asian neighbours india and pakistan...
india finally joins the NSG ending 34 yr of isolation... many feel its bad many feel its the biggest foreign policy ahievement since bangladesh..... well i am still confused, but i am sure that if we start getting the fuel, we can end our power shortages, take some time off and think of alternative source of power... and if it has a price tag to it so be it.... we will do nuke tests and see what they can do abt that... but for now , we need to end the power woes... sittting in mumbai, i really dont feel the pinch....but if yu go places like nagpur etc and further down in the villages you'll knw what power is... Gujarat is the only state in the country with no power shortage.. how did they do it... well we dont care its ruled by modi, america itself refuses visa for him we care only about secularism.. the communists, medha patkar , arundati roy etc will generate power for us......screw this liberal farcists.....i pray god that this deal helps us to fight our power woes in a better manner and may our industries and public benefit from this.......
I am not really thinking much about kashmir or orissa violence as its expected :-)....
During the recent bihar floods lalu announced that nitish fail kar gaya.. well F**k u lalu tum toh 15 saal tak fail hote rahe.. kuch ukhada nahi ab kya nasihath de rahe ho.... its a god sent opportunity that railways is doing well and u re reaping the credits else ur political career wud have been well over .......................
Coming back to N Deal... we will have to wait and watch what the future holds for us.....
Pakistan has got a new president....mr 10% percent will now get a lion's share in all the contracts :).. many claim that he lived in the shadow of Ms Bhutto and is a semi lunatic after his 11 yrs in jail... ah is it,, we are used to seeing lunatics governing countries... and we have seen the worst of bhutto so what can this guy do to harm pakistan or india... one must acknowledge his ability to bring himself through from a playboy zemindar kid to a dummy husband and then to a much sympathised widower to Musharaff's nemisis and now the most powerful man in all of pakistan.... what will sharif do now.. lets watch as i think he will end up in jail or go to saudi again :)... Obama says that Pakistan is using its aid against India, his mate Joey Bidden is pushing a vill to give 15 billion over a decade to pakistan..!!! Americans are for sure crazy... and they trying to say Russia is aggressive .. well if you guys can invade iraq for no reason except ur thirst for oil, Russia can show off some aggression while you are trying to set up missile shields in its backyard....Russia is still all powerful and US better shut its traps rather than start a cold war all over again ......i simply love Putin for the way he made his country stand up after the Yeltsin era debacles.... Putin could have amended the constitution and stayed on as president if he is a dictator as claimed by LIBERAL WESTERN MEDIA!!!! no he has other plans.. he chose to play a second fiddle to his one time protege.....In india almost 50 yrs ago, Rajaji becme a CM of Madras state after his stint as Guv General of India (president)... and how do you describe that ?? a hunger for power or a duty towards his party and state? why cant we see Putin is trying to get back the glory for Russia and he is flexing its muscles only when needed and not needlessly like US.....

This olympics has been a great one for the UK as well, for the first time in years they beat Aussies in the medal count and have their wn best count in the 1008 yr history.. wow way to go before you get the olympics to London.....I would definitely be thr in 2k12 to cheer you guys and see the newham stadium....!!!

disappeared

so here we are after a long gap again... why wass the gap... well life had a very interesting turn and i had to come to Mumbai leaving all my luxurious setup in pune alone... the first 3 weeks were gerat with me living in a serviced apartment in the 19th floor overlooking the worli seaface... beleive me i never crossed 12th flr before :) 19 was too much for me.....

then the trials and tribulations of local trains... man for this sole reason i rejected mumbai 5 yrs ago as a place of posting but as fate would have it i am getting pounded in the same trains daily that too in the ever crowded western line betn andheri n lower parel.... even had to pass through the epak time dadar crowd .. boy what an experience... you need not move, the crowd flow will take you like a river carries a log ...............
have been literally cut off from the net and friends and cousins are happy i guess without me around... but i ve literally had enough of this shifting and want to just tsay on in one place for atleast the next one yr....
Mumbai has let me shed of my increasing lethargy that pune has bequeathed me... i am feeling light after shedding extra 2 kilos and fighting to geta seat in a first class compartment is more funny than any other game.... i love mumbai just because they treat a sandwich with so reverence... its not just a snack as it is in other cities or its not just food as in the western countries... a sandwich is much holier that that.. it varies accoring to your need of a bite or a meal.... needless to say about wada pavs and pav bhajis......life is beautiful as the palate is satisfied with such divine preparations... i have been shuttling to pune so have not got time to roam abut.. on the other hand dad n mum are roaming freely.. to srirangam, kumbakonam, ahobilam where not.... one of ma cusins has just had a kid and the other is in the family way...
Srihari ( ma bros kid) has just celebrated his 1st anniversary on earth with a lot of gifts and is expecting one from chitappa.....

all this happened and i am still unable to fathom how 2 months flied and when will i get back to ma bastion.....

relegion spirituality et al

"Spiritual but not religious means not subscribing to something just because its professed in a religionor not stopping with a religion to explore the divine connection,to seek out the ideals of spirituality outside the limits of my religion.To be non - religious means to do something or to refrain from somethingnot because God will be angry with me for doing so.It is to choose to do somehting,because i like to do it.It is not to pray for favours but to identify a relationship with a supreme beinghigher than a master slave relationship.It is to question about God,analyse and to have the right to accept or reject.To do things that will be regarded as blasphemy by religion just because they dont conform to set practices.To interact with God outside religionTo engage with humanity and to love and care for humans outside religionand its guidelnes and rules.It is the freedom to choose.To take the responsibility to imbibe discipline to oneself and to strive to become a better human being within our limitations ,rather than dependng on a holy book for that."

This is a blog by a friend aand fellow netizen CVR
http://simplycvr.blogspot.com/2008/06/spiritual-but-not-religious.html
I know CVR for the past year and a half .... Like most friends these days we have me only in net and not in person.... CVR is a very serious person as far as penning his thoughts are concenrned.... His tamil blog is even better
http://cvrintamil.blogspot.com/
so do i agree with what CVR has said?

Yes and no

Yes cos spirituality is needed... and he has captured it fairly...

No.. Cos his post leads me to beleive that being relegious is out of fear....
no i dont buy that .. you can choose to follow a relegion or a set of ideals for yourself and yet appreciate those who follow something different...
how is that possible? by understanding a relegion thoroughly you can align yourself to a path ..
My granny (mum's mother) is a strict vaishnavaite... but she appreciates teh dediation andprinciples of all sects and even islam ... her hubby, my grand pa, was non relegious as long as he was in the service .. but after retirement he went deep into relegion and is now nearly a fundamentalist...(he he) .. same is teh case with some others...
But patti has set examples which is difficlt to follow.. how did she acheieve this... well she reads a lot .. her reading habit has made sure that she read teh original manuscripts and understtod her relegion.. the thing she wants for herself... same habit has ensured that she appreciates all...

So whats the conclusion.. naah im not making any this time....

Flawed masterpiece

Kamalhassan has come out with is latest mega venture dasavatharam
Apart from the facts that he does 10 roles and the controversy regarding govindaraja perumal and kulothunga chola, the film has nothing worthwhile…..

Comin to the story of Govindaraja perumal.

Lord Govindaraja (incarnation of lord vishnu) had his abode in chidambaram , also a vey famos shaivate centre. It is said that the King Kulothunga chola , a shaivate fanatic threw the lord in sea and the lord was somehow retrieved and ket at tirupati…

Many also say that to stop the shaivate vaishnavaite feud, the king established a township called raja mannargudi and built sri rajagopala swamy temle and asked all vaishanvaites to make it their centre and stop feuding at Chidambaram… The rajagopala swamy temple has inscriptions that speak of kulothunga’s contributions.

SO it is really hard to believe that such a king would have thrown the lord into sea.. it appears to be an exaggeration of facts by some aggrieved vaishnavites.. Kamal has managed to dramatize it with his own imagination.. the filming is excellent but his imagination seems naïve.. one really cant stomach the fatc that a priest wud have managed to fend of 10-1 men ofkings army single handedly . simply made a mock of history my including commercial aspects of heroism

Another fact to mention is Kamal has seen controversy a lot in hey ram and virumaandi… but this time he has attracted mneedless controversy as the historic ection of the film has no relevance to the plot . the relevance explained in the movie has no base…

The movie tries to address issues like biological warfare, illegal sand quarrying and castetism all in one go. Thus has cme up with a hotch potch of disconnected sequences.
The film is like a collage and does not keep the audience at the edge of he seats…

Movies like Hey Ram and Abe Sivam had a very strong storyline that strengthened Kamal’s efforts. But in daavatharam , though Kamal’s effort is brilliant the story makes it look ordinary…

Adding to the boredom is Kamal’s rhetoric of atheism and stereo typing brahminsim
His repeated tirades at the community gives the impression that he is feeling guilty about his origins….. And it also makes one assume that he is taking hindusim for granted ..
It is hard to imagine if he has the guts to showcase islam in such a manner J

Ah ah im just imagining here not criticizing him… My point is creative liberty should not be taken for granted and once should not cross hisher limits in the name of liberty
What on eath is mallika doin in this movie? And what abt jayaprada or that role of the sadar singer…
In the end it just seems that with the help of prosthetics and his acting abilities kamalhas triedto over come the thespian late VC Ganesan’s (Sivaji) marvelous attempt in Navarathri. Personally feeling Kamal has tried more versatile things than the late actor but in this attempt he has no done enough… Navratri scores over dasavatharam …
The vigour which Kamal wants to thrust his atheist views makes him no better than a fundamentalist doing his propaganda
Mr Kamal you have every freedom to chosse your belief but the way in which you thrust it and try to prove the people who think other wise as fools is not the way…

Underdogs!!

We all like supporting the winning team…. Do we really cheer for the losers or for that matter the underdogs? We do cheer for home country albeit its an underdog.. Viz. every Indian would cheer for India (except of course some morons who think they are aussie citizens and cheer for em no matter what). So most of us in India or for that matter any country that usually does not do that well in sports are used to bashing losers and cheering only winners… Take the case of EPL as an example, I have seen scores of my friends and acquaintances following EPL like crazy and cheering for clubs as if they were their home clubs.. Millions in India cheer for Arsenal or Chelsea or ManU or Liverpool…Rarely do I see a person cheering for a reading or tottenham hotspur or Bolton or West Ham for that matter… Reading and west ham are two teams that almost were relegated last year. During my stay in London, I lived closer to Boleyn, the home of West Ham united. Every Sunday when there was a home match scored f West Ham fans rush to cheer for their team with team jerseys and mufflers .. A guy won 2 million pounds in a lotto and shared some 70 K pounds with the club to build some infra at the Boleyn ground (Wow)….my client manager religiously cheered for Manchester city (another underdog) and used to say that I know they’ll ose against big names as they don’t have much money like a Chelsea or arsenal etc bt still I cheer for em… Now this sort of loyalty is amazing. With our own IPL in cricky starting, at first I felt that the Jaipur team is the underdog, I followed their games and found that they are doing pretty well, but alas sachin’s Mumbai is getting bludgeoned.. even Hyd has just won one match….and Bangalore is not doing too well either… especially they have a reputation of having a test team for T20 outings… so I have decided to cheer all the underdogs , especially Mumbai as they have not yet won a single match…. Now that makes me a follower of 7 out of the 8 teams… the only team I don’t like is the Punjab 11 as I am not a great fan of either yuvi , sangakkara or sreesanth … for that mater even Preity zinta is not gud enuf to cheer for…and as a kid o the road said today win or lose cheer for Sachin !!! Whoever wins IPL lets start cheering underdogs and adjust to our team getting defeated.. this will ensure that we will not seethe in anger the next time India gets knocked out from any big tournament in any sport…. After all Winning isn’t everything…

cop muvees

indian cop muvees were never close to reality barring a few attempts by actors like kamal hassan etc....
but off late a lot of cop muvees have come up with the story line ver realistic and the generes vaying from social to thrller....

the baap of all cop muvees is gangajal.... boy prakash jha shud definitely be admired for givng such a great muvee with minimal masala.. 2-3 hours of gripping story and powerful performances... this muvee is easily a family favourite for us.. dad simple loves it and we have watched it together some 5 times.....
theres one more muvee that i watched called seher.. another lovely muvee on how lucknow police took to mobile technology.. power packd performances from pankaj gupta and sarkeshwar aka arshad warsi.....then comes muvees like lokhadnwala .. a bit o masala buttill worth a watch..
kurudhippunal by kamalhassan can easily stand out as one of the best in class but many say its inspried from a govind nihalani muvee..
kakka kakka was excellent but again i felt it had some masala elements to it.. same s the case with vettayadu vilayaadhu...
recently i came across a muvee in tamil called anjadhe.. its a hard hitting muvee about cops.. so real and kind of dark.. two of the leads naren and prasanna have put on a very decent show... with such actors around thers a lot more tamil cinema will offer...
thers this unkonown chinese muve that i saw 2 days ago.. its abt a lady cop who joins a secret survelience unt and how she comes of age.. well the plot was so gripping that i cursed the TV guys when ads came up... it was an enjoyable time for 90 minutes... a muvee on a lady cop that too minus he hollywood action is something really great...
so what makes a gud cop muvee.. some nice plot... gud sequencing.. a bit of reality with creativity..
many a times songs are detrimental to such mmuvees but if the plot can overcome that disadvantage its okay.. anjaadhe has 3-4 songs but the pace overcomes em better than kakka kakka or vettaydu vilayaadu ( mind u songs of kakka and vettayadu are chart busters).. gangajal had only one song and it gelled pefectly.. seher has a couple i guess but kuruthippunal has none... there have been only handful f indian muvees without songs ... as music is one of he keys to a muvve's success here,,,,,thinkng of other genuine cop muvees, shool comes into my mind but its just too dark..
i wud still love to explore this area and see what else do we have...........

oh darling yeh hai india

at last some politican gets sense and tries to build a reservoir somewhere to end water woes, but this has snowballed into a bigger controversy between two states... as usual the main matter has been forgotten and people have gone for an all out war against two languages.... its easy to understand the kannada predicament now because, assembly elections are due anytime and ever one aspiring to enter vidhana soudha needs to be seen and heard in the print or e-media...
But i cant really understand tamil muvee stars.. they jst cant stop behaving like clowns ... they have started a hunger strike again .. oo ooo what do they plan to achieve? nothing many of tem just want to be seen in public some more what to kck start a career in politics and some just want to pass time... india just had enough from the maharashtra fiasco.... mr MK was speking a lot on that but he keeps mum now... my side of the story is whetver they do in bangalore should not be repeated n chennai... especially film stars need to be ept out of this.. those clowns did a lot of drama at the NLC some 5-6 years ago over cauvery issue, they should be stopped right on their tracks.... Regarding the water project, MK and his ally congress should have the balls to sort it out at the earliest... better wait for a month more and sort things once theres an electd govt in karnaaka in power....

i think winston churchill's prediction will come true if we keep figting along linguistic lines for long....Nuke superpower, IT powerhouse, asiangiant inline wih china etc etc will become pipe dreams if we let this continue....
But from the heart are we truly federal or just parochial....

we are not federal from deep inside our hearts... one best example can be the way people behave when they move outta hometown...
the best scenes were obsered by me some 5 years ago when we were getting posted after training...
the mere fact that we ha no chennai vacancy for a bunch o 200 tams was shattering...people said yes to hyderabad, bangalore and a strict nono to mumbai delhi or whatever.... one is obviously expected to go back to hs hometown... many a times i have been askd in professional circles as to when i plan to move back to chennai.. wen i say no not now it sends a message that i hate to be back there... well the fact is i am location agnostic wherevr be in india... i dunno who understands thsi but definitely my dad understands... thas why when he saw a news saying my company might start shop in north east... he was like cribbing to hs friends that oh no my eccentric son wudlove to travel thr..i cnt go thr at this old age.. (he travelled all over india in his youth)....
so what is the best way to improve federalism.. like the policy of central gvt make most of the gus to roam the country.. this way you will end up exploring your own country....

the fact here is most of us( especially s/w guys) are okay to g anywhere if it is OVERSEAS.. if given dollars we will happily spend lives even in hell holes.. ( china ?) but will definitely shy away from moving our home state or preferred location..
one of my colleagues said that hes the only child and has to be near his parents and went great lenghts to produce fake M/C to refuse an opportunity in delhi.. he came back to chennai and had been in europe for 3 long years... wnder how europe is nearer to chennai than delhi?..if the so called erudite s/w profs behave like this, how do u expect politicians and grassroot party workers, and the not so sophisticated people to get a federaistic mindset??

is india a federal union or just a loose confederation of states??
the founding fathers of the constitution were wise enugh to say that the only citizenship is the citizenship of the nation... but there are a great many who openly say that being a ta,kanndaiga, andrite, or mallu rather than an indian.... even most of those who say that i am an indian see it as mere words and tend to be parochial at heart... i truly ask myself now... AM I AN INDIAN? WHAT IS INDIA?

Nivas

It is said that when the english left India, they left behind two of the best gift to their former colony. The great Indian railways and the Indian Civil services. It is still a surprise that free india has added only 10-15% more to the area covered by railways since the British raj... the founding fathers of the constitution were wise enough to create a seperate entity called UPSC to look after the second gift of indian civil services. ICS is now IAS,IPS,IRS,IAAS, IFS blah blah ...what not... The point is most of us dot know about most of the services except of course IAS, IPS and IFS(Foreign service)... long long ago i had nursed an ambition to get into the civil services if my first ambition of being a doc (dont ask me why i became a s/w guy..i have o answers)... SO i was very much interested in becoming an IAAS person. Partly bcos i liked accounts and auditing and partly because until 3 years ago i wud not have been fulfilling the physical requirements for IAS and IFS.. IPS is still outta quesion for me ... though i wud have loved to be an IPS officer and thereby going to the central police forces.....with all these in the back burner, i chose he best wayto get money and ever thought of what to do next.. have been sort of aimless... in the meantime, i met my old classmate nivas.. he had quit his job to prepare for the xams .. this guy had put in a lot of effort to qualify for the prestigious services....
Nivas is a live wire... when i first met him in 1994, i did have initial apprehensions about him... then, 14 yrs ago, i had been just back from Guwahati and kanchipuram is definitely not the sort of place that would make u feel at home .... as usual i was shifting a school after three years... and unlike many KV brethren, i never had comfort with the syllabus as i had studied in a multitude of em.... The matriculation board syllabus was a bit ming boggling after the stint in assam, to top it there was always some pressure to get into the top ten list n the class, and each class had its own star who was pretty much a veteran in school... Initially , i didnt know much about this guy as he kept a low profile... and may be because i was an introvert, i dint speak to him.. i usually clung around a bunch of guys who were new like me... but after a few days, i happened to sit with hm.. then we became regular first benchers..... this guy used to taunt and tease everyone under the sun... he didnt even spare his cousin vijay who was our classmate too.. vijay was very a calm boy back then.. dunno how he is these days..... ok back to our hero...
Our hero was born just aweek after me.. 20th Feb 1982... we shared a good rapport but used to fight a lot... fighting was restricted to war of words only... i am never capable of a hand to hand fight and nivas too was frail back then...
Nivas had avery good handwrting and was very good at oration... not that he is not now :-)
he always puts in a huge anount of effort in anything he does... he stood fist in about 100 guys in the matric examintaion where the odds o him finishing first were not very great... thats cos there were many mammas boys in the school...
My mother was impressed with his docile nature once when he came to visit me when i was ill.. but that was just acting u see...

After 10th we had been pals thru mails (not email it was the written snail mail)... but suddenly that link too broke.... then there was no contact for a gud 6-7 years then suddenly i bumped into Vijay through orkut... he first question i ask vijay is wheres nivas... (Vijay must have cursed me under his breath as i didnt enquire too much about him...) I got hold of hs cell number and called him from london... Usually i never spent more than 5-10 minutes in calls while iwas in lndon and mostly i called only my parents.. my roomie harsha used to say that i make effective use of telecom resources... even harsha was taken aback when he saw that i was oncall for an hour with this guy....

Nivas had cleared prelims of civil servces with ease and was coolng his heels at home after the mains exams when i met him last.. boy he had put in a lot of weight and had a small bade babulike ponch.... why not hes gonna be running our country as he has made it to the PI round with 1800 odd other people... the goi communiqué says hat there are over 70 vacancies to be filled in with over 110 in IAS alone... so our man here might land anywhere into the babudom......

My dad calld me and said find out abt ur friend.. i nver saw him so excited for someone els's results.....

From the horse's mouth, the plan is to serve the country as a bureaucrat( this happens to be a word in good terms but spoilt these days ) for 10-15 years.. then apply for a VRS and start serving he nation through politics... way to go man..
I might join his party or be his campaign manager :P .....
Anyways all the best to this guy who can arguably be the best civil servant not because he is my friend but because he is a good hardworking intelligent person....
WAY TO GO NIVAS!!!!!

oz screwed

The Indians have dunnit.. oz is screwed :-).. yeow yeow...

Chakde India!!!

Ever since this movie came out in aug 2007 , India suddenly has stared doing well in sorts. In hockey they won the asia cup the win was no big deal but the manner was great.. they defeated one team 16- and some other team 21-1 the indians just kept pumping goals and none of them was an own goal he he.... cricket is sort of revived after a dull and deay 2-3 years capped by 1st round exit in world cup and some words by chappel acusing the indians justto save is arse, the coachelss team ( not ronen sen's head less chickens) did well in enger land, stun everyone by winning T20 world cup... but the performance in australia was the best.. after a dismal start at MCG, the first innings at SCG was promising.. but steve bcknor, and the obnoxiuos ferkin oz sumbitches played foul... no worries they were beaten black and blue and perth and couldt do india any harm at Adelaide... though they won T20 easily they were given a run for their money in all 4 league matches.. inspite of that matt hayden had the balls to say that india are afraid of losing.. mr matt ferkin hayden.. we are accustomed to losing.. but u sumbitches have just started losing and india beat u squarely in 2001, we came close to winning a series in 2k3 but thanks to parthiv patels missed cached steven shit waugh was able to retire gracefully, but ricky scum poniting.... we will not leave u... its a great achivemengt to go one up in he final... thanks a ton to my man sachin who has been at he receiving end .. you know sachin always rocks... befittingly harbhajan got the two pieces of shit matt and andy... well done bhajji.......

moving on to the feat of India colts... the inida u -19 won wc in 2000, smifinals in 2002,2004 and runners up in 2k6... they started 2k8 in style winning every match convincingly and having the opposition onthe mat ... but during their batting SA had them on the mat .. they stuck well and when rain stopped play they had 3 wickets in their kitty.............SA rocks in bowling and fielding but India matched them ball by ball in bowling and had stronger nerves to clinch the cup... well done lads... u get a handsome deal in IPL now......

Comin back to CB series well australia ke muh pe tho tho phir se.... even if india lose from here no worries India is the bst and as i previusly predicted oz will lose to every one and even scots and other minnows will royally ferk em... amen....

hiatus over

so its been 2 months since i bloged last..... for 1.5 months i was away to home (chennai).. well it was a vacation cum official trip... had a full blat with firnds one day.. then went on a plgrimage spree with parents... work was okay... while i was away pne froze and India had some bad experience in aussie... but managed o beat them squarely in perth.. and just tdy they bat em black n blue at the MCG.. with that India have won in all major venues in the last 4-5 years... wonderful... but things out here seem tough.. after he recent statements by Raj thackeray i plan to learn to speak marathi... if the situation demands , i might convert to the marathi statehood ;) n call me a marathi manoos rather than a tam.....actually a great debate is ongong regarding the spread of paochialness of Indian n Indians today... i can be a proud person today as we tams started it all.. be it the founding od separatist DMK ( first regional party in India) in 1949.. be it the anti hindi agitations of 1965... we led the pack,,, but as Karuna says, we never said anyone shud leave our land he he.......life is pretty boring these days ..future looks uncertain....o not feelin like writin anymore...