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....

Party Leadership

In my last post, I just said that we should focus on improving ourselves and not succumb to :"Learn from X" syndrome...
Well I am actually trying to think on how can we do it by just observing others and not try to copy.

In the meantime, i was following the UK Labour Party Leadership election in which Ed Miliband pipped his much known sibling David..

Well David was UK secretary of State under Gordon Brown and a protege of Tony Blair.. He is the same man who went on poverty tourism with Rahul baba and had his foot in mouth when he offered an unsolicited advice on kashmir, which had drawn flak from all quarters and Brown had to refute it as the minister's personal opinion..

Well the election to party leadership in UK is an interesting one.. while the tories elect from MPs and the party members, Labour have an extended electoral college comprising of even trade unions as well..

As with other elections, every candidate is expected to set out policies and win votes... Seems interesting ...
In the UK the leader of the party is the leader of the government/opposition as well..

In the US of A, both the parties are run by National committees, the DNC and RNC respectively for the democrats and republicans...
The chairperson of the committee is the party head... and that person is responsible for the party alone... The government / opposition is run by senators/representatives and the head of the government is the president. The nomination for president is a separate race at the time of elections.. i would say that this is a bit complicated.. Well what else can you expect from US..

COming back to India, well talking about the two major parties.. lets take BJP first.. The BJP is a mixture of both US and UK as per my view.. The party president is elected for a fixed term of 3 years and the term is considered religiously.. Much like US the party president is responsible for party only and the government / opposition head is elected by the parliamentary party..
Much like labour party, the root organization (RSS) has a say in the party leadership.. I feel that this is a good system.. If only the BJP could win more hearts to form a government... The party seems more disciplined than any other in the country...

Another party which follows a set system is the commie group.. both CPI and CPM have politburos and religiously( or rather atheistically ;) ) elect general secretaries and so on...

Congress was a disciplined organization with a party leadership different from government before madam G.. but after madam G, the party leadership is the same as government or usually a puppet heads the party dancing to the tune of the dynasty... Off late the leadership has turned powerful after 2004.. and the government dances to the tune of the party now.. But there is no leadership contest .. only one person is nominated and elected unanimously without even alternate opinion.. well how democratic is that? People can predict who the next party president is going to be.. hmm

Same is the case with most regional parties... all being run as fiefdoms..

I dont want us to emulate anyone but atleast have some system in place and make the leadership selection more visible...

China China

I think we are badly obsessed with emulating China in whatever we do.
In Military, in industry, in conducting events so on and so forth...
But lets really give a thought for a second... Is china really that great and worth emulating? I have no doubt that China has grown tremendously and is a major power an hats off to her for the achievement. But that doesnt make me a fan of china..

Some of her policies make me nauseatic. The brutality in which lands were cleared and people oppressed to stage 2008 Beijing olympics is well known.. There were reports of how child gymnasts were trained under inhuman conditions to win medals. There were even reports of some malpractcies in other events as well.. Lets answer one question .. Does not conducting an olympics mean that a country is not great?

We tried to copy china by conducting CWG, planning for an Asiad bid and so on..
Though the intent was right in conducting an event, was it necessary to allot Rs 70K Crores?Did we at all think that the same money could be used elsewhere?

Did we monitor the progress throughout? Our media just kept mum for almost 4 years and suddenly started raking up the issue just 3 months prior the games.. Now after a whole lot of fuss suddenly everyone seems happy. Thats because everyone wants to make India happy just because they want Indian money.. What did we achieve as a country in trying to emulate china here? Loads of bad publicity and hell a lot of money that could have been channeled elsewhere..

Another of China's policies that I am not a fan of is the one child norm and the brutality in implementing that. Though one can argue about the stress that a huge population puts on a nation's resources, one cannot go on controlling births with a stick in a hand.. Lets not assume a statistical trend of growth, we should also think about the declining fertility rates before implementing a program like this.

Thank God we are not yet trying to follow China in this...
Another of China's biggest problems is that She's trying to be a US in this part of the globe or who knows she might want to see itself as the next US.. Hence all that plans to build bases in Lanka , trying to intimidate India, the main perceived rival... Lets not again emulate china in this aspect. In the pretext of trying to strengthen ourselves, lets not increase our defence budgets further...

Our biggest flaw as a nation is that we always ant to learn from others. Be its US, CHina or whoever. Why not we focus on things and make them better in our own way rather that "Learn From X" phenomenon?

I want India to be better but lets focus on the basics like agriculture, proper food distribution.. lets try to bridge the economic gap before we proclaim ourselves a superpower and show off our ability in many non essential things..

Jai Hind....

Latest on nivas

Finally the man had made it to the civil slervices, hes 45 on the all india merit list.... Way to go man.....

Hey Ram – Part 2

I was never a fan or an ardent critic of Rahul Gandhi. Till about a few hours ago I didn't really know much details about his education and so on. I happened to see his wikipedia page and browse some other links in the net just out of curiosity.

There has been a deluge of links, blogs videos which make claims and counter claims about his qualifications, original citizenship details etc. It is not obviously possible to discuss everything here. But yes, it is disturbing trend that more the number of hits to a video, the sooner it disappears with the website citing usage violation. Ignoring everything that his being said regarding credentials,I just could not help laughing at a certain video(The Video). Naah the video isn’t about someone making a ridiculous claim about him. The video has the congress general secretary speaking on the geographical size of Gujarat and then India. He says Gujarat is bigger than UK. Well we can excuse him for that faux pas as it might have just come in the moment. The next thing is just off the roof… He says India is bigger than the US and Europe put together.. Now this is the best that one can come up with. It would have been easier to accept had it come from some son of some politician. But from the Gandhi scion !!!!! That too he has been educated in the UK @Cambridge and seems has worked in Michael Porter’s firm. Such a gaffe from him… hey raam our PM in waiting is worse than George Bush…

Secular or Appeasing?

Well, I have always had a doubt when the media, some so called intellectuals, social workers all cry secularism and denounce fundamentalism… I have had a feeling that most of the times only the hindu right wingers are being targeted for being fundamentalist. In our country, we somehow ignore certain things if its done by certain people… I have a few instances to point out as to what I am coming at.

1) Instance No 1 IPS Officer testifies against Advani; Modi’s appearance at SIT

All the media was gung ho about the IPS officer testifying against Advani. What did she say? Did she say that she heard Advani ordered the demolition. NO she just said he was in an upbeat mood etc etc.

So She becomes a heroine and we now need to prove secular credentials…. Eh… some say the darkest day of India is Dec 6 1992.. Oh is it really…

For the starters, the worst riot that India has ever seen was at Delhi in 1984 which was supposedly orchestrated by some congressmen to avenge the death of Indira… well what the hell did all sikhs do to face such a wrath?.. And Rajiv’s comments on that riot, far from sympathizing actually hurt even more…  The quote attributed to him is “When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes”… Is this attitude any different from what Anju has testified about Advani?

Well I dont think so… then why are we behind just BJP & Advani folks?

Same goes with with social worker teesta setalvad.. who just believes that 2002 Gujrat was the first ever riot in this country and that Modi is equivalent to Hitler… Well go get a life lady. He has done fairly well in the last 8 years and the state has been not only peaceful but developing.. If you can ignore Rajiv’s comments and ignore the perpetrators of 1984 why go after modi alone… If he is guilty let the law punish him.. why a media trial?
And the parliament attacker Afzal Guru gets support from some human rights groups ... he is still not hanged... then why do u want a speedy justice for dec 6 and 2002 gujrat only

2) Recent drama in TN regarding a sleaze video of a Swami

Well here in the case of godmen we again apply different rules…

A channel close to the ruling party in TN showed the video on prime time and denounced the fake godmen, superstitions etc etc …

I have a question for them. If showing the truth was their only intention, it could have been done in a decent way.Couldn’t it?

And there is a case of a paedophile catholic priest which the Tamil media has ignored altogether? why this  oversight? Didn’t you guys find this news worth reporting at a large scale?

3) The phone nikah controversy involving shoaib malik

Well in this case, a leading newspaper in India has published an article that seem to say phone nikahs are not valid and so on and so forth (http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040766082200.htm)

BBC on the other hand has done a thorough research and has come up with a more concrete article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/8608878.stm)

Why are we so much defensive when it comes to a so called minority community and why are so so aggressive about taking on hindu fundamentalism? Why are we sol guilty about hinduism?

numero uno

India becomes no 1 team in tests ??? i dunno how can we become number one in tests without having ever won in Aus in recent times. SA beat Aus black and blue after we handed the arrogant ozs a perth trouncing.. but poor proteas hav just lost their crown to us... may be we stopped oz twice from a record 17th win may well make us the true numero uno.... we may not be world beaters but yeah we give a team a run for their money .....as dhoni said we may find it very very tough to hold on to numero uno.. As
he also said, lets just play good cricket and let the ratings take care of themselves.... foreign media have already started questioning how deserving india is for the numero uno spot? well guys get a break.. brown men also can be numero uno... anyways now that cricket is conquered, let us as well concentrate on gaining lost glory in hockey... Football is another area where we can be numero uno (!!!!!) beleive me it wont take 77 years as in case of cricket if we put the energy in right places.. We can aim for numero uno in 25 years atleast....

Dynasty globally

Yesterday I happened to read a feature in the BBC website about dynasties taking over in northern africa. Well Many of us may ask whats new about it. The article in BBC talks about Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and algeria. Consider Kuwait, saudi arabia, syria. The dynasties are everywhere. India, Philippines, Indonesia and some other far eastern countries have democratic dynasties... Why does all this happen?

Indifference of the people. In some cases like in oppressive regimes, any opposition is either silenced brutally or given economic privileges. In a democratic setup, the people themselves are so frustrated that they do not care about the credentials of their candidates... Well even in the UK and US to lobby for a post of governor or PM or President, a person needs to have sufficient clout in terms of men or money to win elections... Its known that hillary put up with bill's infidelity in return for his clout in the democratic party that gave her a realistic chance of running for president. In our own country, Rthe prince is back from foreign and is now staying in huts to feel the real india. In India's richest state Maharashtra, in the recently concluded assembly polls more than a dozen leader kids have been "elected" MLAs.
Even in the remotest states of North Eastern India dynasties have started growing.
America which wanted to bring democracy to Iraq has long been silent about Saudi ....

What really is democracy all about? is there any real democracy in existence where over 80% of people cast their franchise genuinely. I doubt so.

There wont be long before we go back to monarchy but in a different form....

its in the family

yesterday, due to some pressing need i happened to visit the office library. There, i chanced upon a copy of business today. The cover story of the latest issue has a profile of Noel Naval Tata, the half brother of Ratan N Tata. Noel has been running the group's retail arm Trent Ltd for over a decade now and yet a few have heard much about him in the media. Everytime i visit a Westside outlet, i am sure to find a surprise. I have taken many of my relatives/friends to westside outlets and they all have been impressed by it. More than the flashy big outlets, westside's subtle ambience has captured senses of many. In the last deacade, apart from westside we have seen Trent foray into books and music by acquiring a stake in landmark, partenring with Tesco for Star India Bazaar ( more importantly going slow on it after the retail bust during sub prime crisis where many retail biggies bit the dust), launching electronic retail chain of croma. One point to note here Ladies n Gentlemen is, Trent is 14th in terms of market cap in the tata group ( my company is the first ) . Trent is also not supposed to explicitly use the omnipresent TATA logo as they have to still reach a few goals as per the in-house business excellence model of the group to be able to use it. Until then all it can do is to just display "A TATA Enterprise" in its brands.The man has led the company ably as his elder bro did Nelco more than 2 decades ago. Yet the man hasnt had a stint in Tata Steel or Tata motors , the flagship companies of the group. Noel is the likely successor to the septuagenarian chairman who is set to retire soon and may become chairman emeritus like his mentor JRD. Iam awestruck by the steady growth of Trent that has lived up to the Tata values. I say this not just because I am a Tata employee. I hope the group gets to greater heights once Noel takes over the mantle. With a team of CEOs in their 40s Noel whos in his 50s will have a brighter chance for taking the group to new heights.

pseudo-moral

In India nothing creates controversy more than books that talk history...Nah this is not about the furore caused by Jaswant who was hailing Jinnah... Jinnah and secular.. well its true he was not at all a pious Muslim, his wife was called Ruttie petit ( yup a parsi).. but suddenly he found his religion and became the quaid e azam.. lets leave him apart for a while.. this is about Jinnah's arch rival for premiership, had India been not partitioned; the man in question is Pt Nehru.. a lot has been said , written and seen about his relationships et all... About 2 yrs before an oxford scholar named Alex von Tunzelmann reignited the flame with her book "Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire" . I have read that book and say that there is nothing extremely controversial.. It talks about Gandh, Nehru, Lord Mountbatten, Edwina, very less about Jinnah.. more importantly,it talks about the Nehru-Edwina link. The author has done her bit of research at the Royal Archives.. The book actually talks about the lives of Gandhi, Nehru and the mountbattens before narrating the events of 1947.. Well the Brits are never afraid of writing history and the lady has minced no words in mentioning that the marital link between Lord n Lady Mountbatten was an open marriage and that the Lord was openly bisexual... She has also clearly stated that the Nehru-Edwina link was more than platonic.. It seems some people here have taken their own sweet time to read the book.. after 26 months when some hollywood guy is tryin to film the book, people have come out shouting that this is defamatory to our beloved leader... Well whether or not Nehru had a relation ship with Edwina, the fact remains that he is the architect of modern India and is a statesman par excellence ( yes "IS" is what i use) .. thats how I see it...But with their new found popularity, the congress party doesnt want to take its chances.. It cried foul and a host of Nehru family/extended family members have said that the relationship was just platonic( IJ IT??)....
There has also been an attempt to influence the director to come out n say that he has shown nothing controversial in the movie.. well clear breach of creative freedom.. We are a secular bear all bunch.. aint it friends?.. Well as a matter of fact, the book there are some facts about Gandhiji, which some might feel offensive... But none from Gandhi's family has even made a whimper..
We as a nation are so much obsessed with hero worship that even a small criticism against our beloved leaders is a matter of pride for us....Whatever be the relationship reality is, the fact is Nehru is still a hero... Let us all realise that and not make a hue n cry...

taamil teryaadu

when i was in singara chennai this time, i happened to see many northie folks with this sentence 'taamil teryaadu'... i had a crude pleasure in talking to them in chennai slang and when they replied this i felt elated... i thought to myself wow .. 6 yrs ago in pune when i said marathi maith nahi and spoke in hindi, i usually got replies in chaste marathi ( thanks to tht i am able to understand a bit marathi now).. similarly these northy folks will soon learn claasical divine tamil.... vaazhga thamizh valarga thamizh :-)( Long live classical divine tamil)

bong connexion

after rocking mumbai delhi n kolkatta, Oh calcutta arrived in pune a while ago... well this is about the restaurant owned by Anjan Dutta a famous bong musician/actor....
I have been having a craving to have bong food for long and with Oh calcutta in the vicinity of my office i was getting mad daily... alas these guys dont have buffet on weekdays and i usually stay away from office areas on weekends.. but today i had some business there and that too around lunch... so my dream was about to be fulfilled...
the meal started with bread chops and alor dum... delicious... the main course was a divine treat of alor poshto, veg chorchori, phulkopi....what not..
the non veg selection included hilsa fish, murshidabad style biryani and lauki& chingri curry... alas i am a veggie :-)

then came the dessert... there was a usual selection of mousse n icecreams.. but i opted for payash n roshogulla....its been a good 5 hours since the meal but the aroma n flavour linger on...... Oh caclutta ekdum photaphoti....

team no 1

nopes this is not a title of a govinda david dhawan flick... MS Dhoni and his men have become the no 1 odi teamin the world.. ( they could lose the spot in 24 hrs if they lose today but who cares... weve been there no 1...)yippe.. a consistent performance over a yr... india rockzzz......

censor pangs

while i was on vacation, i caught up with this new hype in tammovie land.. kanthasamy the rooster super hero movie.. the movie was a pain. the best review is written here http://www.thehindu.com/fr/2009/08/28/stories/2009082850560200.htm Yet many tam magazines find something to cheer about this movie... theres no neutrality or common sense in any of the tam mags around...well i also happened to lay my hands on the DVD of a picture called "Iruvar" ... its a biopic with a bit of fiction freely thrown around. Its Mani's masterpiece and Ash's début movie.. It chronicles the friendship turned rivalry of Tamlands two powerhouses Muthuvel Karunanidhi and Mardur Gopalamenon Ramachandran.. well i dont want to say anything about both these movies.. i just have some queries to our censor guys... whats the criteria on whch u give a U or A or U/A and are they transparent... me thinks its as transparent as my company's policy on promotions...u never see a pattern being followed.. why i am saying this is, the movie kanthasaamy has a U certificate .. never know that a movie in which the heroine dances around in towels n bikinis can get a U.... and Iruvar has an A certificate... Goodness me.. Iruvar does not have any violence or sexually explicit sequences.. the only fault of it is, it deals with quite an inflammable topic.. it shud atleat have got an U/A if not a U...this is just a small piece.. if we see many such movies we'll see the inconsistency.. if such is the standards how can we trust these guys and letkids or adolescent folks ( more vulnerable) see some movies.. in today's worls movies and tv play a lot more role in shaping up cultural outlook and we cant totally ignore em..

PS: Why did i choose these two movies for comparision?.. well the director of kanthasaamy was an assistant to Mani and was ne of the important crew members of Iruvar..

back to roots

I happened to be in chennai at the time of the brahmotsavam of the Lakshmi Hayavadhana temple in Nanganallur... Yeah i know its not as famous as tirupathi or any other shrine.. but nonetheless it occupies a very special position in my heart.. its my ultimate palce of pilgrimage and prayer... i have been a devotee of lord hayavadhana ( the male counter part of saraswathi in education, work and arts) ever since my childhood.. Added to the devotion was the association of vedanta desikan to the lord...the temple is a very small one but i get a lot of inner peace when i visit there. I used to go this place almost daily when i was studying back in chennai.. in those days i was a very simple guy ( not that i am a pompous arse now) .. whenever i go back to chennai, i try to relive those days.. walking without a slipper, wearing the traditional outfits et all.. its just a different feeling all together..
The brahmotsavam went on very well and the link to view the photos is http://hayavadhana.co.nr ( not sure why they chose a site based in nauru..)
The highlight of this brahmotsavam was, whenever the lord was taken out in procession in a vahana, one of the committee members had made an arrangement in which a miniature version of the idol and vahana was kept decorated. This miniature version was taken out in procession by small kids... the priests made sure that they taught the kids about all the rituals patiently.. the kids were an enthusiaistic lot and listened keenly.. they way the followed the instructions was amazing.. the kids trying to wear veshtis and kepping it on their waists by means of all sorts of belts was a sight worth watching... amidst all these i did some soul searching... the funnier side is i ended up skipping most of the utsavam as i was sleeping or away to other temples or outside nanganallur... but whatever i could catch up with really took me closer to my roots .. i am glad that i took this vacation..

relief

Often people see me as an aggressive chap who gives a piece if his mind whenever possible....off late i had been trying to curb that instinct after many advised me not to be so outspoken.. it was a good advise too.. but there are sometimes and some places where one needs to show how capable he/she is in countering people who have no concern for others... Today I did that to a person, who was very close to me once but off late was carrying an attitude.. I tried to be as polite as possible in dealing with that person and even wanted to end things without any hostilities.. but certain limits were crossed and i felt that I was being estimated a weak person on the other side.. Hence I decided to give it all and poured out my not so good feelings with the choicest slang available to me...now i dont give a hoot as to what happens and i am glad that i did it... what a relief........

Jana Gana Mana

we celebrate the 63rd Independence day from the brits... Moment of great success. SOme doomsdaysayers will cry saying so many people are below poverty line etc.... But in spite of all short comings we are still a great country and the world cant function without us...At this proud moment, lets reflect on our national anthem.. which is a true essence of our culture... Some say that Gurudeb wrote that song in praise of George V for the 1911 Delhi Durbar. Even that that silly assumption, Gurudeb just stands out. He has written a song in highly sankritized bengali, which is easier for most people in the country to understand. There are still a bunch of fools hanging around who say sanskrit is the language of the aryans and they quote the aryan invasion theory, which in itself is doubtful.. lets leave em out..morons will be morons.

The song praises the adhinayak ( ruler supreme lord) of the mana ( mind) of jan gans ( larger public). It says that all over india from punjab, sindh, gujarat, maratha, vindhya, dravida, himalayas the name reverberates and seeks blessings...and ends with a victory call...

The song praises an ruler which is most likely God. It has been so brilliantly conceived that theres no particular God named...thus reflecting the tenet of secularism.. Gurudeb stands out as a supreme poet..

Jana Gana Mana is not just a song thats sung on government functions.. its a prayer that seeks the well being of our home land.... lets celebrate the spirit of Jana Gana Mana

kashmir again

last week kashmir was in the news for different reasons....
of course shopian is always there but some terrorists killed a 3 yr old and as omar abdullah rightly said, the separatists were silent on that... where's their conscience

but slowly we can be sure that kashmir is really now an integral part.... why this sudden realization?
following are the reasons

1) Sex Scandal... this unites India.. we had one in chandigarh, Tamil nadu, kerala, where not.. kashmir has also joined the bandwagon....

2) Assembly mic incident: well UP did thisin 1990s.. almost many other states too... kashmir is the last but yeh we welcome this... true parliamentary democracy has bloomed in kashmir....

3) Resignation drama : Almost every other CM has done it... Omar is the last again but not the least.. yeh Integration of kashmir is complete.......

dynasty again

Some time in the 1950s rajaji as CM of tamland had this scheme called kula kalvi. According to it students learnt their family profession in addition to the curriculum. Back then it was vehemently opposed by the dravidian parties as a symbol of brahminism. But the same party now is promoting the family .Anyways politics cinema are for sure dynastic industries. You need a strng surname for sure. Over the last week i was follwing telugu politics n cinema. Another starkid is being launchd in gult land. Tam n gult lands have a lot in common. People of both lands put their admiration and trust seriously. They support whom they admire to any extent and destroy people who betray them. More than the politicos, the stars know this and manipulate their brand value. The debut of tthe third gen akkineni star has been planned in such a way. As usual diff story grt direction rhetoric was thr. As usual the heroine dint knw telugu. Well tam and telugu heroines just thrive on dubbings. They also make it a point to spk a wors or two in the local lingo at a public function. Still we're fine with that. So another son has risen...

Back in tamland the 'trend' is towards realistic cinema. Super. We just look at the trend before making a tam muvee. Other things like story fall in place as we move along. Just for a while we thought tam movies got better but nay its just the trend of the season. They may go back after people get bored.

But bollywood is the best. We make any kind of muvee thr and sell it anywhee. If its a flop in india its an overseas hit. Atlest thats wht we say. But these days comedy's the thme thr. And starkids get launcd daily thr these days. What do the older stars do? Some get a doctorate, some meet hilary and talk abt education. Wow.

we say vanashrama dharma is gone. But thats what prevails. Atleast in politics n cinema all over india. 'unity in diversity' jai ho

he he

i had a hunch. i did tell that its unlikely for us to reachT20 semis... now its impossible....

People say dhoni was overconfident etc etc... the only fault of shoni is he isnt batting aggressively.. rest else is fine with him. we dint loose because sehwag wasnt there.. we lost because we have been playing for very long and needed a lot of rest... we arent as atheltic or strong by nature like aussies .. only they can afford such long outings.. if we want to keep winning we will have to take breaks... anyways we won the wc when we were written off. now we lost..lets focus on 2k11 WC.. we should win that... go dhoni go....