When should we listen to our one and only maestro?
I’d say anytime all your life.
But listening to our musical god while lying down in bed, just before sleep, in total darkness, is a spiritual experience!
He communicates at a totally different level. Sheer bliss!
If’ there’s anything scarier than the prospect of turning on an autorickshaw-meter in Chennai, it’s got to be Chikunguniya for now. Till a few weeks back, if someone did not report for work on a Monday, I used to envy them. Not anymore. Today the chances are, the person is yet another victim to Chikunguniya. The sheer intensity of the spread would put any Robin Cook imagined epidemic to shame.
I think we just have to thank our stars that we are after all dealing with a disease which is temporarily crippling and all but does not kill normally at least. I wonder if the concerned bureaucrats and ministers are acting with any seriousness at all to curb the epidemic. I’m shit scared whenever a mosquito bites me.
Well, if a mosquito bite can be sharp, the agony of working for non-profits is indescribable. Every once in a while, I get this itch to do some work where I can learn something new and which also gives a feeling of accomplishment. So here I take up for an opportunity to build a website, for free, for an institute in Andhra.
That the project, a simple static website, took so long baffles me less when I realize the decision to build a website has been deliberated 3 years back, the content was written 2 years back, the content was delivered to the coordinator a year back and it was sent to me this year.
To be honest, I took my own time to finish the work. But atleast i stuck to my agreed upon deadlines. But what I cannot comprehend is the fact that even the stake holder acts not very differently from a clerk in a tahshildar’s office who has been denied his share of the bribe. In India, if you do something for free, it simply means the work does not have value, period. The only saving grace of the endeavour was the coordinator Venkat sunkara, who was efficient. That he gave me a very good feedback was heartening too:)
Talking about feedback and reviews makes me think about SoK. I mean, no other movie in the recent times has managed such a dramatic fall from the hype and hoopla on release eve to bad word-of-mouth in a matter of days as this one. Some one said it was pathetic, and going by the story outline and other reviews, pathetic almost sounds like a compliment!
Suriya could do well without movies like this. Couple of similiar fated movies and he would have all the time in the world to sit and romance around with Jo at home!
Director Krishna joins a select band of directors who have the capacity to hearltessly murder ARR’s beautiful compositions. Guys like these should be red-carded from directing a movie for a year, I say!
Balaji sir’s post here made me nostalgic. It brought me memories of my adolescence - days spent cycling between home and school. Betweeen Ponnaiarajapuram and Sungam with pit stops at Subramaniam road, Lokmanya street, TV Swamy road and Kattoor ( the rest of the vanara padai’s stayed there 
The distance was about 9 km one way. Actually during the 10th and 12th, we also used to go to maths tuition and that was another 2 kms from school. No wonder I looked trim and fit those days All in all, it was so much fun when I look back now.
But with due respects to balaji sir, making me nostalgic is quite different from agreeing to his point of view.
I guess even during those days my dad felt I’m missing out on certain things which he experienced during his childhood. Me and dad used to talk quite a lot. And he would go on and on about the days he walked to school and returned. About the time he spent swimming in wells. He always said that I am much less active physically than he was during his childhood – my daily 20 km cycle journey notwithstanding. It’s definitely true but that’s only part of the story.
I mean, it’s not my fault we hardly had any wells in our neighborhood during my adolescence. And that the few remaining wells either went dry or were closed. Not to mention that bicycle became much more affordable too. My dad walked to school and back because he could not afford a cycle. It’s not like he had a choice.
My dad’s was the era of huge wells with water.
Mine was the era of borewells and motors.
And for a child who is growing up in Chennai now, it’s the era of lorry water.
On the other hand, I always felt my dad missed out on computers and the internet. I am sure he would’ve loved it and utilized it so much better than myself. He was a self-taught person in so many ways. He was definitely more inquisitive than me today.
And I’m sure even my dad was not equipped to face the psychological assaults and politics and in general the stress that I face in my professional life when he was my age.
I also feel the sheer array of choices the youth of this day have also makes them more responsible in making decisions than the previous generation.
It’s just that times change. It’s like comparing Gary sobers and Sachin Tendulkar. Different eras. Different challenges.
And none signifies this better than the changes that has happened in the way people communicate.
I don’t think my son or daughter would even believe if I say that people always conveyed important messages not through e-mails but through something called telegrams and they traveled some distance and paid for it too!. But it would be ridiculous if someone says ‘You now what, we used to travel 5 kms to send a telegram. It’s so good for one’s health! Nowadays you don’t have fun at all. You just sit in front of the pc and write mails!’
That would be heights!
My son or daughter would find my life too romantic and I’m sure I’m going to find their childhood too robotic. But these are just honest perceptions one has about the loved ones in the prev/next generations.
It’s just that times are different. And so are the demands and expectations and ideas of fun.
During our school days, we used to take part in inter school culturals.
Ads-up was a recurring feature in almost all the competitions.
The key to Ads up is to come up with a provcative and laughable ad concept.
Most of my school buddies are past masters in creativity so i never had a chance to show my skills there.
Here is one sarcastic ad concept:)
There is a vast lush greenery.
Sachin, the perennial brand ambassadar for a famous soft drink, is shown as a farmer in protection gear who is spraying pesticides in the fields.
But the poochis do not respond at all. They just grow unabated.
Sachin is tired, wipes out the sweat from his forehead.
A small kid comes nearby with a bottle of the same soft drink.
Suddenly he pours the drink over a highly infested plant.
Voila! all the poochis die instantly!
Yeh Dil Maange More!!
The Pondy to Chennai PRTC bus was cruising at 80km/hr in ECR at 10 in the night. Inside the bus, Venkat was feeling a bit tense. He has not done this before. Maybe he will do this in future if he gets away with it. But what if he is caught?
He had hidden a dozen fresh bacardi bottles in his bag. Liquor is dead cheap in Pondy.Venkat could not resist the temptation knowing fully well it’s illegal to smuggle liquor.
To venkat’s dismay, the bus stopped at the border check post. A constable entered the bus to check. Venkat decided to close his eyes and pretend sleeping.
The constable was merely scanning the baggages in general with his eyes but stopped near venkat as if by instinct.
“Hello?” elundhiru pa!Bag open pannu”
He was shaking venkat now. Venkat had no option but to open his eyes and the bag. His worst fears were coming true. He had yielded to the temptation and now put himself in misery. When he opened, it was all too obvious for the constable.
“Un peru enna? Enga porey? Un Mobile number kudu!
“Venkat. Thiruvanmiyur sir. 9840X-XXXXX”
It was only at that point did Venkat see that the constable had a bag in his right hand. The constable opened his bag and it had a few liquor bottles as well.
“Innaiku naanum madras vara vendiyadhu…Mudiyaadhu pola iruku…
Indha, idhayum ulla vei. Thiruvanmiyur bus stand la Muthukrishnan nu oru PC nipaaru. avaru kitta idha bathirama serthudhu enna?? Avaru mobile Number note panniko 9**** *****. Un mobile number en kitte irukku. avar kitte phone panni sollidaren”
Venkat was speechless. The constable got down from the bus and shouted “Polaam, right”
Post-1991, much has been said about economic reforms and its impact on the economic landscape of our country. Countless hours as been spent debating the need and the effectiveness of such reforms in our country. But what concerns me is there is hardly any murmur in the need for reforming one of the 3 pillars (along with executive and legislative) that forms the very core of India’s existence. The pillar which the common man views as the last resort when every other avenue fails – our judicial system.
March 12, 1993
The city of Mumbai experiences one of the worst terror attacks in Indian soil outside Kashmir.
Sep 04, 2006
We are still awaiting a verdict from our esteemed courts.
A cursory look at the number of pending cases in our courts is not for the faint-hearted.
Supreme Court – 19,806 (all based on 1998 estimates, I pray and hope that this has gone down now)
High Courts - 2.65 million
Subordinate courts, the courts kuppans and subbans go seeking justice - 20 million.
I am not exactly looking for reasons here. Our learned lawyers and judges can come up with reasons aplenty. They have the acumen to still justify the vacation they take during summers - some cases pending for decades notwithstanding.
So how does this affect the common man? What are the consequences? Let me get into Flashback mode here.
During the early seventies, in a sleepy little town in south tamil nadu, a trader comes to a well-to-do jewelry shop owner looking for a house for rent. The jewelry shop owner decides to let one of his 800sq.ft house for a monthly rent of 35 Rs.
Five years roll by.
The jewelry shop owner falls sick. His business goes down. He wants to increase the rent for his out house from 35 to 50. The trader simply refuses. What’s more, he also refuses to vacate the house. Moreover he goes to court with his own set of accusations about the rent being exorbitant and all. The court grants a stay and orders that even the 35 bucks rent that he paid should henceforth be paid to the court till the case is settled.
The trader continued to pay 35 bucks for more than a decade, thanks to the court stay he had managed. But times had changed so much that the same house would have easily fetched 500 -600 rupees as rent then.
The jewelry owner dies.
His sons take over the reins. But still they could not do much regarding this letout house. They had tried all legal methods to vacate this trader.
They were even ready to pay him something. The trader simply said this house was very lucky for him and that he would not vacate.
So when did the case got settled eventually? Any guesses? One? two? Five? Ten?
It stretched even beyond. It was late 80s and the trader still managed to pay 35 bucks to the court. At last one of the sons, after innumerable court visits and vakil meetings spoiling his work, decided enough was enough with being law abiding and all. He befriended the assistant of a local goon (the local goon is a minister in the present DMK government) and paid him a few thousand bucks to handle this issue.
The sons got back their house in a matter of weeks.
The well-to do jewelry shop owner is none other than my late maternal grandfather. His sons, obviously, my uncles one of whom continues to stay in that very house today.
Now what kind of picture does it paint? If justice cannot be delivered quickly, what’s the point in justice at all?? It’s an irony that these same courts go about preaching and laying down guidelines for all sections of the society in all walks of life. So much for Judicial activism!!And all I, as a common man is asking for is an active judiciary which simply does its job efficiently.
The rich and the wealthy always have access to the best lawyers, special leave petitions and all. It’s the poor and the law-abiding that suffer the most at the hands of the courts and the lawyers.
What is really sickening is, there is hardly any talk or public debate on the need for and the urgency of reforms in this sphere. It looks like people have resigned to the sordid state of affairs. Six decades have gone since independence and we have not even started debating on the need for a change in the way things are being handled by courts and lawyers.
Unless our judiciary and the legal system in general reinvents itself, India will forever be a third-world country where lawlessness and chaos reign supreme.