ExpertDabbler

(Periya) HE - Oorai emathura vetti UI designer

(Chinna) he - HE’s buddy and a big time nerd.

(Chinna) he pings (Periya) HE in msn.

HE has 25 browser windows open and is sincerely reading a he-she post by ferrari..

(adhai vidava velai mukiyam?Never!!)

His msn pops up. The message reads ‘he has sent you a nudge’

HE: sollu da

he: freeya?

HE: illada koncham busy!

he: http://www.devx.com/!@#$%/$%^&*/&*$.htm.. padichu paaru sema interesting. Ajax pathi eludhirukaan

HE:
(Eludittu pogattum! podaaanga ivan thollai thaangalai….) koncham neram kalichu padikaren da. ippo koncham velai irukku…

after sometime

HE is now busily reading sify.com movie review for ‘pachakudhira’ with bated breath.

he: adai padichiya?

HE: edai? me reading pachakudirai review now

he: rombo mukiyam!! naaye. unnai ellam thiruthave mudiyadhu. ekkedo kettu ozhinju po.

HE: (not even reading the message) Sure. will do that…

he: WTF?

No response.

After sometime he sends another article.
HE is now reading DUBUKKU.blogspot.com

he: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/!@#$/%^&*/^&*.htm

HE: ennadhu da ?

he: padi. sema hilarious..

HE: (my a$$. Andava indha NERD friends kitte irundhu ennai kaapathu. padikara vayasile padikama ippo ellathayum padichu en uyirai vaangaraunga)

Sure da.

———-XXX————

Well, such conversations are commonplace in real life scenario for me atleast.

Anyway in spite of my known phobia to anything too tech related, i did enjoy this post in joel spolsky’s site.

Non-techies i hope you too can enjoy this. Indha IT industry ‘Framework’ nu oru varthaiaya vechuttu ipdi ellam paisa pannudhu nu parkalaam…

I , for long logged in to blogger and went to “edit posts” section by clicking “New Posts” icon and then edit posts link there.

Never did it struck me that clicking on the blog title in the dashboard takes one straight to the “edit posts” section.

Is it just me or there are many like me?

Ok. So why should i mention this?
Well bcos it carries the template and layout designed by yours truly:)

Eons back, i’d mentioned in this blog that am interested in doing blog templates for free and am looking for guinea pigs err.. genuine blog buddies to try it out:))
As it happened, chakra was my mudhal bonee in this regard.

Working in wordpress was a challenege in the sense, it took me somewile to get a hang of plethora of php files that come as part of the package.

I would n’t say this is the best css code or the most accessible whatever, but yeah there is always a first time and there is always a mudhal customer
click here to have a glimpse of the site and let me know your feedback…

the reason i am putting here is kaari thupparadha irundha ingey thuppunga pa…

“Instead of leading a disciplined life, you lead a busy life.” This sentence rang a bell inside me. I think this is true in my case.

Anyway let me tell my readers who wrote this. This is from an article by Jim Collins. For those who confuse this name with Phil Collins, its better you visit his site.

He is better known as the author of that great book “Good to Great”

I am a big fan of Jim Collins. The reason being that unlike most management gurus, this guy can talk sense:)

Now seriously, the best thing about him is that whatever he speaks is applicable and relevant even from an individual perspective as from a Corporate CEO perspective.

Coming to this sentence, this was written in the context of “Stop Doing List”
In this day and age I find a truckload of things occupying my attention.
I am sure I am not alone. Some bloggers have already blogged about this aspect.
Any city dweller will realize that he has that much more things to do than, say the guy in smaller towns. There are just too many things which demands our time and attention.

While this overload is good in the sense that it keeps us busy and our mind occupied, it is also true that sometimes we get carried away by the daily chores and habits and miss out on some meaningful things we should be doing in this limited span of time called our life.

In usability, there is a rule called “7 plus or minus 2” rule. It is suggested to apply this rule while coming up with menus in interfaces
But anyway, the point here is, it’s important to stick to a core set of activities and pursue it with more seriousness than dilute one’s concentration.

I think it was Vishveswaraya who said “If we buy what we do not need, We will need what we cannot buy”. If we think about it, we will realize that if we are conservative with money matters, we should be even ore conservative and careful while spending one’s time.

Hence it’s important to prepare a stop doing list and concentrate on a select few meaningful activities.

I am sure Jim comes out with this philosophy much more beautifully and clearly than me, check it out here.

When we talk about Mahabharatha, a one-liner would always say its about the battle of Dharma and Adharma. The Pandavas are projected to be synonymous with all the positive virtues of mankind. One the other hand, Duriyodhana and his coterie is supposed to be the very embodiments of lust,jealousy and greed.

This simplification may be true in the events that precede the Kurukshetra War. But in the War, it is the Kauravas who follow the ethics by and large, with the exception of the killing of Abhimanyu. It is the Kauravas who seem to have some principles even while fighting the enemies.

The Pandavas on the other hand follow the time tested principle of ‘All is fair in love and war’ ably guided by the cunning Krishna.

Let’s look at the instances.

Bhishma clearly says that he cannot kill the Pandavas even before the war starts.

Karna makes a promise to Kunti that he will try to attack and kill only Arjuna but will spare all other Pandava brothers and he keeps that promise even when he gets a chance to kill Bheema.

On the other hand, the Pandavas attacked Bhishma with Sigandi, a girl by birth in front, knowing very well Bhishma will not wage war with Sikhandi.
That is how Bhishma goes down. Is that war ethic?

Let us also see the killing of Dronacharya.

The Pandavas find Dhronacharya too hot to handle in the warfield. Thus they employ devious psychological tactics.

Bhima lifted his iron mace and brought it down on the head of a huge elephant called Aswatthama and it fell dead. After killing the elephant Aswatthama, Bhimasena went near the division commanded by Drona and roared so that all might hear.

“I have killed Aswathama!” Bhimasena who, until then, had never done or even contemplated an ignoble act, was, as he uttered these words, greatly ashamed.

They knocked against his very heart, but could they be true? Drona heard these words as he was in the act of discharging a Brahmastra. “Yudhishthira, is it true my son has been slain?” Dronacharya asked addressing Dharmaputra.

The acharya thought that Yudhishthira would not utter an untruth, even for the kingship of the three worlds.

And Yudhishthira himself stood trembling in horror of what he was about to do, but within him also was the desire to win. “Let it be my sin,” he said to himself and hardened his heart, and said aloud: “Yes, it is true that Aswatthama has been killed.”

But, as he was saying it, he felt again the disgrace of it and added in a low and tremulous voice, “Aswatthama, the elephant” words which were however drowned in the din and were not heard by Drona.

Mahabharatha also has an instance of sledging like cricketers. Bhimasena loudly spoke indicting Drona in harsh words as follows

“You brahmanas, abandoning the legitimate functions of your varna and taking to the Kshatriya profession of arms, have brought ruin to princes. If you brahmanas had not gone astray from the duties belonging to you by birth, the princes would not have been led to this destruction. You teach that non-killing is the highest dharma and that the brahmana is the supporter and nourisher of that dharma. Yet, you have rejected that wisdom which is yours by birth, and shamelessly undertaken the profession of killing. It was our misfortune that you descended to this sinful life.”

These words and the news of his son’s death cause immeasurable pain to Drona. He relinquishes all his weapons and is soon in a trance.

At this moment Dhrishtadyumna climbed in to the chariot and cuts off the old warrior’s head.

Now, that was some fair play wasn’t it?

We can also say the same about the killing of Karna and Duryodhana.
It was not exactly ethical to attack someone who is busy lifting his chariot which gets stuck in the mud.

Similarly, Bheema had no business to smash Duryodhana’s thighs as part of accepted Kadha war practices. Krishna subtly prompts him to do that citing Bheema’s oath when Panchali was humiliated.

So I think Vyasa wants to imply subtly that when you enter a war, a few ethical blemishes here and there are inevitable. But maybe it’s just me. Each person can interpret it in his own way.

But the fact remains that the practices of Pandavas to win the war was anything but ethical.

I started reading Rajaji’s Mahabharatha during my trip to Chidambaram. I could manage only about 100 odd pages during that train journey and the hotel stay.
I continued to read as and when time permitted during the weekends.

Finally, I managed to complete the epic today! Very satisfying and thought provoking in my opinion.

The beauty of Mahabharatha is its contemporary feel in spite of being thousands of years old. For instance, we have been reading with awe and fear about the suicide squads mounted by various terrorist outfits throughout the world.

My first exposure to this concept was on May 21, 1991 when Rajiv Gandhi was killed in Sriperumbudur. Then came 9/11 which will remain unforgettable for the generations to come.

But it’s interesting to see that this concept as such is finding a place even in Mahabharatha.

Duryodhana wants to capture Yudhishtra alive. Dronacharya says that is impossible so long as Arjuna is near Yudhishtra. So they decide Arjuna should be drawn into a battle with someone else so that time lapse can be used to attack and capture alive!

Please read the excerpts for more…

77. The Twelfth Day
The chief of the Trigartadesa who heard Drona say this talked it over with his brothers, and they made a plan. They resolved to take the samsaptaka oath and challenge Arjuna to battle and draw him away from Yudhishthira’s side.

Accordingly, together with a large force, they gathered, and sat before the fire, dressed in matted grass, and went through funeral gifts and ceremonies for themselves as if already dead, and took their oath: “Not till we have killed Dhananjaya will we turn back. If we flee in fear from battle, may we be punished as for deadly sin!”

Having adjured themselves thus before the sacred fire, they marched south for that was the direction of Death, and shouted “O Arjuna!” challenging him to battle.

It was a great suicide squad organized to achieve what Drona had pointed out to be essential.

Readers interested in reading the translation of Rajaji’s classic can click here.

This version by Rajaji is also known for its simplicity. I chose this because I was not very confident of finishing any deep scholarly versions. Planning to read Cho’s version sometime in the future.

There are a few more observations I want to share with. Maybe will do that in the days to come now and then.

RS’s accident post made me write this.

There is a dialoue in Nayagan when Velu Naicker, on being warned, would say to the Police Commissioner,

“Sir, naan 4 vayasileye sethirukka vendiyavan”.

The beauty of this dialogue is that i think each and everyone of us would’ve seen a situation where we’ve had a providential escape.

Flash back…

2001. One April evening. I was done with my “3D studio max” session in the multimedia course i’d joined and was proceeding towards Race course road for an evening walk.

I see to it i never drive rash at any point of time. Fast maybe sometimes. But rash driving has never been my cup of tea.

On that fateful evening, I was not even slow. I was super slow. I took left from Mettupalayam Road and entered the Baba Complex Road (where i saw Pattiyal last sunday). The Baba Complex Road connects the Mettupalayam Road and Krishnaswamy Mudaliar Road(aka Brooke Bond road).

While its perfectly ok to travel from Mettupalayam road end to Brooke Bond road, the other way is possible only to a certain extent. After a small junction it’s one-way.

I was behind one auto when suddenly, a Suzuki Shogun shot into my view from the opposite(the banned one-way direction) at around 60kmph and rammed straight into me.

Those were pre-helmet days for me.

The next instant, i was flying like those stuntmen in movies.

The first part to hit the ground was my head. Everything was numb for a few minutes.
I realized i was fully alive and conscious.

Later, i found the guys who rammed into me were

a. drunk,
b. had no licence, and
c. were coming in one-way.

My bike went straight into an open drainage gut nearby. The front fork portion was completely messed up.

I dragged myself up, and took those guys walked to the nearby hospital. Luckily neither of them were seriously hurt either.

The guys on realising their follies and the situation they were in, started begging me before the treatment. Their parents were in the hospital in no time. They looked like poor people. They had borrowed some other fellow’s bike and were in the process of distributing their sister’s wedding invitation.

I knew any police action wud’ve had them in real trouble. But i could not bear the thought of their mothers pleading me.

I did not press for any charges, paid for my bike expenses(3000 bucks) and returned home with a dressing on my head that night.

This incident, after the “career began with a bang” part disturbed my mother totally. All this were happening a few months after my dad’s death so her agony was understandable.

But as i look back now, what really puzzles me is how i got away without any serious head injury that day. It’s a mystery to me till date.

Nothing can explain that. Strong believers in God would say,”God alone saved you”.

But i don’t know.

Why should God save only me and not all those who suffer from so many grave ilnesses at atrociously young ages. They too plead him everyday.
On the other hand, there are plenty of 90 year olds who still manage to live, though there is no one to look after them.

I know a few elderly people who openly tell they r waiting for Yama to arrive and take them with him. But live they do nevertheless.

Some questions are best answered with silence!

Folks, check this out by Indian Voter.

I think her write-up on Jaya’s rule in TN is exemplary. I wish i had the skill, patience and memory to recap like this.

Note:
This would also let people understand that blindly supporting JJ because some people (like me for instance) hate MK more need not necessarily augur well for Tamil Nadu.

Amma na summava? Koncham risk dhaan!! No matter who votes for her will still have a few sleepless nights now and then.

But I still stand by what I said about her handling the Law and order situation.
She is the best when it comes to taking decisions boldy.

Adhu nalladhavum irukkum kettadhavum irukkum…

I used to be an admirer of MK sometime back. Two things changed all that.

1. His family, and
2. SUN TV (which is a sub-set of 1).

I was really amused to read the poll promises by the parties, especially the DMK led alliance.

Free distribution of land, Color televisions, what not.

But somehow more than all these promises it would’ve been more sensible and appropriate if the DMK leader MK had promised to go to the assembly and speak for the people of Chepauk who keep voting him
Actually more than the television, i expected “welfare” schemes like (dont ask me for whose welfare) life time subscription of “New Dinakaran” to the entire population of Tamil Nadu at a concessional rate
Some of the bloggers like shyamk have come out openly in favor of JJ. He had very neatly highlighted issues like stable government, industrial climate and tsunami disaster handling.

Save for Tsunami relief and to some extent the recent flood relief i am not convinced in other arguments put in JJ’s favor.

The bottomline is, the issues which matter to an educated, professionally qualified IT professional is of absolutely no concern to the average kuppan, subban in the interiors of Tamil Nadu.

Also, anyone who has interacted with a few govt. employees will tell that they are not exactly amused by JJ’s handling of their strike. But it looks like even the most ardent supporter of Amma has missed to realise JJ’s contribution in one particular sphere where JJ has made a mark which would be very difficult to emulate.

Terrorism and Law and Order.

Forget her petulance. Forgive her ruthlessness in handling the Govt. employees strike and her somersault later due to the failure in the parlimentary elections.
Ignore her stance in the Kanchi Seer issue which has more twists and turns than a Dan Brown novel. Overlook the sheer disdain she reserves for anyone else in her party.

But i think she deserves credit for ensuring that there is no major caste violence in all these 5 years in any part of Tamil Nadu.

I would also like to thank her for the measures taken to ensure Coimbatore is back to normal after the 1998 bomb blasts.

I don’t want to call it a review because I am not sure if it’s one. Let me just call it as my thoughts on the movie.

Before I go to the movie, I have a word or two about the theatre. I saw this movie in Baba Complex, Coimbatore on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The theatre was a big let down. Till very recently I think Baba Complex was one of the better maintained theatres in Coimbatore. The toilet(the yardstick I have for measuring the maintenance of the theatre) was horrible. I should thank my stars if I don’t get urinary tract infection.

Coming to the movie, I think it’s appropriate to start with the good points of the movie.

Screenplay:
Ah! After quite sometime we got to see a tamil movie with a neat taut screenplay. Mind you there is nothing too novel about the underlying story. We have seen enough stories like this. But anyone who wants to learn screenplay writing can take a leaf or two from Vishnuvardhan among the new directors.

Just consider this. Vishnu has to establish that Selva, played by Bharath is a ruthless, cool killer in about as short a screen time as possible with maximum effect. And this is how he goes about it.

Bharath has a look at a photograph of a guy.
Freezes it in his mind.
Burns the photo.

At the Hotel.
Outside the Hotel Room.
He presses the calling bell.

The guy in the photograph is inside the room and opens the door.

“Yaaru nee? Enna venum?”

Bharath comes close to him. Stab! Then a few more thursts. It’s all over.
Bharath drags the guy inside the room. Closes the door. Takes out the knife. Wipes the blood stain in the knife on the guy’s shirt. Goes to the bathroom. Cleans the remaining blood from the knife. Cleans the wash basin. Wipes the basin with a tissue. Flushes the tissue.

All this is done without the least fuss as if it’s a mundane household chore.

Comes back into the room. Switches on the TV. Flips the channel and tries channel surfing.

Scene over.

All this in screen takes like 5 minutes! But what a way to establish the nature of the character in minimal time! Impressive!

If we think long and hard we would realize that this is what a director and a screenplay writer is supposed to do. But tamil cinema is so bereft of quality writers that we have to hail Vishnuvardhan for his crisp screenplay. He has seen to it that every little detail in the movie adds in some way to move the story.

Bharath’s acting:

Top class. His range is evident in the way he coyly looks at his love interest and the cold bloodedness when he goes about on a murder spree. His expression on seeing his best buddy dead is touching and realistic. A perfect example of underplayed acting.

Yuvan:
Looks like yuvan is coming of age as a music director. The songs add to the mood of the situations quite well. I don’t want to get into the reusable part though. The bottom line is his music for the songs and the BGM is certainly an asset to the movie. Even if he reuses, he knows what to re-use where. Atleast he is a professional.

Quite a few scenes stay in mind a bit longer than others.

For example, the scene where the couples meet in a restaurant.

And another pick is when Bharat and Arya begin practice with their handgun.

I particularly remember one dialogue by Haneefa drawing an anology of buying a fridge for buying the gun.

“Orey vidhyasam. Adhu kulirum idhu sudum”
Now coming to the minuses.

One major drawback of pattiyal is the shallow characterization. To my mind all the characters are one-dimensional.

It almost goes like this.

Heros 1 and 2 : Killers

Heroines 1 and 2: Their main job is to fall in love with Heroes respectively.

Bharath and Pooja have a duet in exactly 5 screen minutes after they see each other.
Arya and Padmapriya are always bickering and suddenly there is an item number and they are in bed.
I know all this is a given in tamil cinema and Pattiyal is nothing more than a quick kollywood flick but such shallow characters means there is no way we can ponder about characters and relate to their psyche. It’s actually scenes which expose the various shades of human emotions that take a mani ratnam movie to a different level.
And that’s precisely what is sorely lacking in Pattiyal. I felt it was a bit too fast for my taste.

Also the climax fight with the villain had so much gore and blood than was necessary. It was inconsistent with Bharath’s characterization. Maybe the director wanted to convey that Bharath takes revenge on his friend’s behalf but did not go well with me.

On the whole Pattiyal is decent cinema but nothing great. It’s way better than the likes of Gajini IMHO.

Comparing Vishnuvardhan to Maniratnam is totally uncalled for to say the least.

It also laid to rest speculations about similiarities between Pattiyal and Pudhupettai. To my mind, Selvaraghavan would never make a movie like Pattiyal.
His style, from whatever I’ve seen in 7g and KK, is completely different from Vishnuvardhan. So even if both shoot the same story it will still be as different as black and white. I’m convinced about that. Let’s wait and see.