VKpedia

Every flourishing system has a (more) flourishing black market.

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Filed under: Miscellaneous

When I first came to know of the Communist Party’s decision to expel the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party, my first reaction was one of shock and sadness. I even criticized the CPI-M of displaying intolerance and a lack of civility.

But then, why would anyone want to criticize the CPI-M of such things?

Lack of respect and civility are inherent characteristics of thugs masquerading as intellectuals. To mock at people for their natural shortcomings does not become of a, well, whatever.

In fact, I greatly welcome the CPI-M’s decision, for it reiterates their inferiority.

When someone asked me a few years ago what I thought of the Nobel Committee not honoring Mahatma Gandhi with the Peace Prize, I wondered what honor it would have brought the great man. To be honest, if the Committee had conferred Gandhiji with the Prize, it would have done the Prize, and not the statesman-saint, an honor. The Committee might have acted out of their own sense of inferiority, I thought.

Similarly, by expelling Mr. Chatterjee from the Party, the Chinese Poodles of India (Malicious) speaks of their realization that the party is not one for dignified people, and that only unabashed boot-lickers can claim membership to the league.

I might have quoted this line from Cho Ramaswany many times on this blog, but it is imperative that I repeat it here. “If the Left has a future in India, India has no future left.“

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Filed under: Politics

Another of those old poems struck me this morning. I think this is from a collection of poems called “Naanmani kadigai”, and I first read this poem when in class 7. Without intending to be boastful, I really am amazed at how many (useless) things I can remember so many years later. I do not recall the meaning fully, but I have attempted one anyway.

நாற்றம் உரைக்கும் மலருண்மை; கூறிய
மாற்றம் உரைக்கும் வினைநலம் - தூக்கின்
அகம் பொதிந்த தீமை மனமுரைக்கும்; முன்னம்
முகம் போல முன்னுரைப்பது இல்

It translates to “You can divine a flower by its scent. . When faced with an unsure situation, always follow your inner voice; and there is no better judge of a person’s internal feelings than his / her face.”

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Filed under: Tamil

… is like Pokkiri, except it is much better, because it is done right.

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Filed under: Movies, Tamil

“The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

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Rafael Nadal finally managed to beat Roger Federer on center court to win the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.

To me though, Federer lost this final six months before, when after losing to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the 2008 Australian Open, he commented, “I have somehow created this monster that I have to win every Grand Slam I take part in.” That indicates, in whatever little way, the lack of appetite in the champion. And in a matchup between equals, Nadal had just that bit extra that saw him past the line.

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try {
    writeSunCertifiedJavaProgrammerExam();
}
finally {
   clearExam();
}

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Filed under: Personal

I am of the opinion that an actor, however much talented he might be, must be an egomaniac if he makes a movie just to beat an existing record for the maximum number of on-screen roles. But then, most actors are egomaniacs. In fact, most people are egotists, so there isn’t anything wrong in a popular actor being an egomaniac.

A friend of mine called me on Friday asking me if I had listened to “Kallai mattum kandaal” song from Dasavathaaram. I had listened to only one song from that movie, and it was downright abysmal, so I had not taken a chance with the other songs. However, he insisted that I listen to this song, and that there was a particular set of lines that he found impressive.

When I listened to the song, I immediately figured which lines would have impressed my friend. The lines are:

Rajalakshmi naayagan Srinivasan dhaan

Srinivasan saei indha Vishnu dhaasan dhaan

Naattil undu aayiram raaja raajar dhaan

Raajanukku raajan indha Rangarajan dhaan

This translates to “Rajalakshmi’s husband is Srinivasan. Srinivasan’s son is this follower of Vishnu. There may be thousands of kings around. But I, Rangarajan, am king of kings.”

I knew that Kamal Hassan’s parents are Rajalakshmi and Srinivasan. However, I wanted to check for the names of the lyricist Vaali’s parents, specifically if his mother’s name was Rajalakshmi too. It is Ponnammaal, but Vaali’s father is also Srinivasan. Vaali, of course, is the lyricist’s psuedonym. His given name is Rangarajan. (Ref: Wikipedia pages for Kamal & Vaali)

The lines quoted here therefore can be taken in different ways. The most straightforward (and probably intended) meaning is such that the first two lines refer to Kamal Hassan the person, and the next two refer to Vaali.

Passionate supporters of Kamal Hassan, who have already racked their brains to come up with a thousand theories to explain the movie, will say that in the movie, Rangaraja Nambi’s parents are Rajalakshmi and Srinivasan. So there is nothing egotistic about the lyrics, and that all four lines are about Rangaraja Nambi.

Be that as it may, I am reminded of an interview the lyricist Vairamuthu once gave on TV. It was a show about Rajnikanth, and many film personalities were praising the superstar, as being modest, humble etc.

Vairamuthu said, in his usual peter Tamil, “Rajnikanth is a very modest person. When I was penning the lyrics for the song Kikku eruthey for the movie Padayappa, I wrote a line that read

jeevan irukkum mattum, vaazhkai namakku mattum, idhu dhaan Rajni chiththar paattu

(Live your life fully, and waste not a second; this is Saint Rajni’s advice)

“When Rajnikanth looked at this, he said that he did not want his name to appear in the song, as it would sound ostentatious. So I was forced to change it to gnana chiththar paattu (the advice of a wise saint). It is a anachronism in today’s world where while people with very modest achievements, if any at all, crave for their name to appear everywhere, a person like Rajni, who has achieved so much, does not want his name to appear in a song, in a line which, after all mirrors his philosophy.”

I know the two examples are not like-for-like comparisons, but you decide.

P.S.: Personally, I feel the line would have sounded awful if it was Rajni chiththar paattu. So I thank Rajnikanth for getting it changed.

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Filed under: Movies

It was from a friend’s status message on Google Talk (”Chennaiyil oru bhookamba kaalam”) that I came to know that Chennai had felt the aftershocks of an earthquake that rocked the Andamans. Was glad to know that there was no damage reported to either life or property.

This is the fouth reported earthquake to hit Chennai in the last 7 years. (And during the 18-year period before that, I don’t think there was any.) And this is the fourth Chennai earthquake that I have missed. Of course, earthquakes are no fun, and I pray to God that I just keep this record going (and also, that there be no earthquakes at all!).

And though I have missed them all, here are my earthquake stories.

The first time I remember an earthquake struck Chennai was on January 26, 2001. It was a Saturday (and Republic Day as well), and that morning, my parents and I were visiting the famous Lakshmi Narasimha Swami Temple in Sholingur, about 100 kilometres from Chennai. You might recall that this was the same earthquake that devastated Gujarat - Bhuj, Anjaar etc.

The second time it happened was on September 25, 2001. The reason I remember the date well was because it was a Tuesday, and just two Tuesdays earlier, 9/11 had happened. (I think something happened on Tuesday September 18 as well, but I cannot recall what it was.) When the earthquake occurred, sometime between 8:30 PM and 9 PM, I was on my bike heading home from college. It was a minor quake, so I knew nothing about it. When I entered my street, I found that all my neighbours were on the street, standing just outside their compound walls.

You can picture the scene, it was as if the entire street was waiting to catch a glimpse of some VIP’s cavalcade. My first reaction was, and I am promise I’m not making this up, “Wow, have I won the Nobel Prize or something?” Remember, the houses were all intact; the people were outside chatting; it was dark, so I couldn’t make out their reactions, but they were all looking at me rather incredulously. I slowed down my bike a bit, and my next thought was that of the old Coca Cola ad for the Olympics - something to do with cyclists, and it ends with “Coca Cola salutes Olympics fans everywhere”. So I was trying to imagine myself as that gold medal-winning cyclist.

Well, all my hallucinations burst as soon as I made out that my mom and dad were on the street themselves. And then, much to my disappointment, the news was broken to me that the promised Nobel Prize wasn’t going to be mine.

The third occasion was the most tragic. It happened on the morning of December 26, 2004, which triggered the fatal Boxing Day tsunami that left almost 150000 people dead, and lots more shattered. The aftershocks were felt early in the morning, at around 6:30 to 7 AM. It being a Sunday, I was fast asleep (oh well, as if…!), so I did not feel a thing. My mom did recount later that she had felt something at that time, but had discarded it as a non-event.

The funniest part of that morning came before the news of the tsunami had broken. The folks at Sun TV were recording the 8 AM news broadcast about an hour earlier, and the newscaster, while reading the news, paused momentarily, and said, “Edho shake aaguthu… Shake aagara maadhiri irukku… Hey, illa, edho shake aaguthu…“, and then rushed away from the news desk. (“Something is shaking… I feel some shake… Hey, really, something is shaking…“)

The guy is actually a familiar face on Sun TV; I forget his name, some Rathnam, possibly. As this was just a recorded bulletin, they shot it again before 8, and it did not appear in the news. It was however broadcast an hour later when the first news story about the Marina being inundated was broken. It was funny, but the events of the morning left everyone feeling wretched. It did evoke some debate the next day at work whether the footage was for real or was stage-managed by Sun!

There was another interesting coincidence. The Friday before the tsunami, I found that there was a discussion on my company’s general bulletin board (relating to Poompuhar, I think), and someone had mentioned Dhanushkodi, the coastal town near Rameshwaram that was lost (submerged in sea) in the 1960s. Another person, hailing from Calcutta, had replied asking what Dhanushkodi was. I sent him a reply letting him know whatever I knew about Dhanushkodi (which, in fact, wasn’t much.) He replied back to me, and his message read thus: “Vijay, thanks for the reply. It seems as if the seas near Chennai are interested in gobbling up the land.” Less than 48 hours later, the Boxing Day tsunami happened.

Those are my earthquake stories; or rather how I missed them, or maybe, how they missed me. I reiterate, earthquakes are no fun, and I am thankful not to have had the misfortune of enduring one. The intention behind this post is not to sound unsympathetic or condescending to those who have been involved in one, directly or indirectly.

If you have an interesting earthquake-related incident, do share.

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Filed under: Chennai, Personal

Ever since I used a Kindle a couple of months ago, I have been meaning to write a post about it. But as with such “meaning to write” topics, this one never took off.

Seth Godin, marketing guru, has a fabulous post about the Kindle, and analyzes the product from different perspectives. A highly recommended read.

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Filed under: Blogging