Fanatics, Mobs and Riots!

What do I say and where do I start? Rajkumar’s death has sparked huge riots all over the city of Bangalore. 3 buses till now have been reduced to ashes, one theatre has been stoned, a hotel torched, one of the TATA showrooms have been torched as well. 6 policeman injured, one person has lost is life (reportedly due to stone pelting in the Kanteveera Stadium).

Two days state mourning had been declared and an un-declared bandh as well. No schools, colleges, public/private companies will open. My office declared a holiday with compensation on the next Saturday. So, the sun rose at 11am for us. And as usual we hit the TV sets to find the latest news about the procession. To our dismay none of the channels other than Udaya and some NEWS channels were telecasted! A compulsory mourning had been enforced on all people without their consent. So, confined to these channels we saw what and how the proceedings of the funeral are going on. It was mob everywhere, angry fans beating the police and setting buses on fire, destroying ‘our’ property all the way. Why buses? The last time, where a bus was set on fire with people (girls) in Tamil Nadu, the whole of the state erupted! Pathetic work in the name of Fanatics. Shameful act.

“We want to know what really happened!”
Arrey! Watch the news and you’ll get to know what happened, he died of cardiac arrest!

“The govt. is to be blamed for his death”
Balls! No answers!

“Look what the govt. is doing. They are still keeping his body on the road.”
Sir! Look around, it is us who are blocking the procession. Side akkappa!

Finally I realized that once a public’s ‘favourite’ figure; you are at public’s disposal. Even at your death, the public decides what has to be done to you! “No family indulgence please!”

Yes, it is a great loss for the state. Legendary actor – priceless contribution for Karnataka and Kannada, but is this the way you all pay tribute and last respects?

Ennamo pongappa!

Politics shouldn't be played this way. Can the IITs pull it? Let's wait and watch!

Thespian Actor

Compared with John Wayne, Dr. Rajkumar has acted in over 200 films (Stats might be wrong, tolerance!) is now dead. He was 77. Rajkumar who was born in a village in Erode became one of Karnataka’s gems! I never had a see his movie, but today I came across some of his best clips (telecasted in the TV quoting it that way; showed almost all the movies in 2 days), one of which was a scene that was a total rip from a Thamizh movie Thiruvilayadal, acted by one of the greatest legend and GOD of acting – Shivaji Ganesan!

Shivaji, perfected the art of acting. The song Paatum Nane bavamum nane is the best (well, there’s Thillana Moganambal as well) where he plays the instruments Flute, Veena and Mrudangam. The way it was played, it was as though he played them for real. That’s acting, where you do not know how to tell fake from real! Beautifully done. Rajkumar did the same thing (as quoted above) and I do not have words for them! Another instance was when Rajkumar played the Shenai and an actress dances for it and finally falls, which Rajkumar doesn’t realize as he’s totally immersed in the kalai. Shivaji in Thillana Moganambal played the Nadhaswaram and he played it. Yes, you cannot tell it apart! You can never compare them!

When it comes to acting none can beat Shivaji. Man! Veera Pandiya Kattabomman, Raja Raja Chozhan and Karnan and the list goes on! See them and you’ll know what I’m trying to say.

Times Of India released an information in a small column which had high values, it had the payment some of the Bollywood actors receives for their part in the movie

Shah Rukh Khan – 12 crores (Cannot digest it!)
Aamir Khan – 7 crores
Mallika Sherawat – 80lacs to 1crore (For stripping?)

Shivaji would have only got anywhere around 25K to 1lac (could be exaggerated!).
Enna koduma Saravanan ithy?!

Oh! I forgot to mention about the riots that happened following the announcement of Dr. Rajkumar's death – One Police Qualis, One Ambassador, Two Mini Lorries were burnt, few cars and bikes were broken down. This never occurred unless the person is a politician! I do not know whether it happened for MGR or Shivaji! What if Shivaji was in place of Rajkumar? I think they would have burned down the whole state!

Fanatics… Hmmm…!

One thing must be appreciated, being a stalwart and not entering a politics is great thing. Not giving vents to temptations? But my idea is that if you are popular and there are masses following and respecting you, it is best you do a return favour by entering politics, it is not a bad option. If I were him/Rajni/Big B, I would have stepped in and showed the way!

He was a good man! [Rajni's style]

At last all these people are there to entertain us! God bless them!

Horrendous form

If Ganguly’s treatment was to be taste of what bad form and poor performance will lead to then two other Indian players need to be treated with the same style. Virendra Sehwag and Mohammad Kaif. Two batsman of amazing caliber! Past performance can never be taken as testimonials for them to hang on, then Ganguly should be the Indian captain as long as India plays cricket!

If the quote for Sachin “He can take the game away from the opponents!” is valid then the same can be quoted for these two STARS “They can take game away from India!”

Well played Gentlemen! If anyone is to be blamed it is the selectors… Such poor stuffs! Pathetic!

And today we lost the game to England. With 8 games won on the trot, we couldn’t continue to break the record set by the Aussies! Yeah, accepted the fact that we had won 15 games chasing and set a record but why couldn’t we break the other one? Was it the Rotation policy? Partly, but not fully, two players are still continuing play without a break as the general belief is that they might improve atleast in the next game – one more chance please! Sehwag today quoted that he and Kaif might be rested and given a break for the next game against the English, so that they can revive and play as they had played (Guys! Dravid never needed one!!!)! I would rather say they might be dropped rather being rested, let them play the county and Ranjis and then prove that they are worthy for the selection!

But all went wrong and these two are still being retained for the last one dayer. Dravid has brought back himself and Dinesh Karthik instead of Dhoni, which is understandable.

What is going to happen? Andavanukku than velicham!!!

Paartha Muthal Naale?!

A few days back, a friend of mine called from UK to inform us that one of our friends has become DAD, i.e. his wife got conceived! Hearing it we were in splits!

“Nothing amusing about it”, is what you all will say, well the fact is that they got married two and a half months back! And the title of this post has nothing to do with the information I’d provided… One more information: It was a love marriage. Won’t their Mom and Dad feel bad? Or rather won’t THE FRIEND feel a little embarrassed? Though, I seem to be proud that (sarcasm) our friend has become dad at the age of 23, I cannot announce this, with the same pride, to my parents! Can I? I would feel embarrassed; my wicked smile will surely let it out. IO!

What is it about Love and Marriages? Is it all about S3X or for something that ‘seems’ to be eternal?

I and my friends had a discussion on a topic that is debatable at anytime – What are marriages? And why do you marry?

The final agreement came on this statement “As long as you have a company to live with till end, marriage is not necessary, it is only love, interest and the enthu that bonds people for sometime or for eternity!”

Talking about love, I’m reminded of another conversation about the right age to love – At school we believe it is too premature and think that “…well nothing happens but hallucination.” At college level “our aim is to get a job and settle” is what we are advised. It was padips all the way… When this is over the next stage is when we are settled in a job and then start noticing that we are called mamas and uncle. Standing straight and looking down to see (perverts) our legs, but something obstructs that view – we have a huge paunch – pot belly is what the local lingo says (thoppai thoppai thoppai…)! Then standing before the mirror we also notice (having a comb in our hand) that there is a huge porampokku land (Waste land – vazhukkai - Sottai) on our head – Balding (leave me out of this – I have a big foot ball field, none gets a chance to stand near me)! At this stage we can say ‘Ellam mudinju pochu’. After this we all will never look at a girl the way we used to. And when it comes to marriage (at this point, you’ll decide that arranged marriages are the best! One such incident is that when one of my friend’s dad was approached with such a question from our friend, his dad said “Son, do not have high hopes. I cannot marry you someone who is better and good looking than you. It would be a sacrifice!”)… So, when it comes to marriages it is very much like a sacrifice – Innocent girl getting fooled or what Cyrus quotes in ‘Being Cyrus’ when Farokh Sethna marries Tina. And I’m not up for such a disaster in anyone’s life!

This post is not for Madhavans, Aamir Khans, and John Abrahams! It is for someone who suffers very much like Vadivelu (where he never gets married and Parthibhan tortures him in his dreams…)

Kalyanam than Kattikittu odi polama? IO! Police-u! Escape!

Swimming, a Software engineer’s perspective! (Certified ‘A’ Stuff! Read through, if you really like to…)

After a long wait (almost 23yrs), we decided that it is time to learn the art of mastering ‘Walk on Water’. For me it was so, but for my friend (let’s call him Shortso…) it was more than that, he had to show that while on treats-given-by-others at a resort, he too can swim (even though two feet is deep for him!), or to do a soft song such as ‘Pen onru kandaen, pen angu illai…’!

• The Kick-off for the same occurred yesterday (By this time next week we would have a Mile Stone Party for successfully completing one week!!!). There were almost 30 of us (all freshers).
• Induction was given to all people on what it is all about and how we should approach as a team by obligeing our Team Lead (instructor).
• It was a huge team and thus was divided to three parts, each having their TLs.
• The whole stretch of the project (pool) varied, depth wise, from 4feet to 16feet.
• All the worried were advised not to as none will ever lose their life (Important of the whole training).
  

We had been waiting for this moment for a long time. The new swim trunks that were bought and never worn before (Liar! It was worn once to check the feel of it. WOW! Feels like heaven… Raymonds?! No no no… The feel was similar to our school days, when we would buy the new uniform, shoes, bag, pencil box and other stuffs and we would do a rehearsal of going-to-school-act by dressing up; arranging the pencils, eraser, sharpener, and ruler in our pencil box; neatly juxtaposing the books in our bag…). The idea of swimming made me think of perfect tutorials to master it – Google – Teach Yourself Swimming in 21 days, Swimming and beyond, O Reilly’s Series on Swimming, Strokes and Strokes++ and Finally, Swimming for Dummies!

Just like any other subject we were thought and made to practice the basics – blobbing and floating. Blobbing, hmmm… that term was impressed in my mind when I was 5yrs old (First swimming coaching. I had to discontinue it due to epilepsy!), I do not know whether the word is correct or not! Blobbing is at art of holding breathe under water or releasing them properly?

That went sooth, next came the art of keep-your-body-afloat, which too went OK. Next was lean-against-the-wall-with-one-leg-down-and-the-other-ready-to-give-you
-a-thrust-forward tutorial. I tried, but could not get enough momentum, which ultimately put me into imagination of Crazy-Frog. He gets a thrust because of the Forward Acceleration Ricochet-less Technique in simple terms F.A.R.T!

Next one was a variation of the above (No! Not the F.A.R.T!!!), this time we shouldn’t lean on wall but should reach the wall from a distance. Well, everyone could have used Crazy-Frog technique, but restricted themselves as they might embed themselves on to the wall due to excessive thrust generated, a side effect of that days ‘Dum Alu Biriyani’! This meant only a gentle push using legs. Our friend, Shortso, entertained us with his outstanding ability to frantically move both, his legs and hands and desperately trying to make an effort to stay put the same place where he had started (Sadly, he realized it only after lifting his head from water, but I noticed a guy who was standing next to him all the time suddenly disappearing, catching his groin? Man down! F1 F1 F1).

Allotted one hour duration came to an end and we left pool, warming it. I leave it to you to think on the number of ways of how you can make a pool of water warm! No nasty thoughts!

Finally ending with this ancient saying (Some great saint!)...

Namma thanni-la irunthalum, thanni
namma ulla irunthalum, thalladrathu namma than!