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Friday, December 29, 2006

Metro

This is an interesting news item which has happened very near to my residence. There are too many things that has happened in favour of the security guard. The person who used the ATM forgot to log out of the ATM which obviously means he forgot to take his ATM card back. Here in UK the moment you request cash the first thing that comes out of the machine is your card and then the cash. So there is no way you can leave your card inside the ATM unless you do it wantedly.

There was also a news in Hindu yesterday about Metro rail coming to chennai. There have been talks going on for more than ten years on this but nothing has happened. Delhi on the other hand is implementing Metros as if they are toy trains. In chennai we are still waiting for the MRTS to become fully operational. Unless all different types of transport augment each other introducing various transorts will not be a success. Any european city has bus stops right outside the metro stations and all the metro lines will cross each other at some station enabling people to switch metros, buses, regualar trains and trams easily but in chennai bus stop will be a km from the station. I dont see any interlinking between the existing tambaram-beach section, MRTS and the Central-Arakonam section which makes us think twice before using the public transport. Having a common ticket is another important factor for the success of the public transport. Let us hope all the above will become a reality before the next generation takes over.

Mamta has ended her fast. She is against the Tata factory coming in WB. When people always welcome industries she is against it. I dont know the reason behind her decision. Hope she has just cause behind all these tamasha.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

101

Those who are wondering about the title of this post please keep wondering.

After a long time sun has come out here but dont know how long it will last.

As per DMK govt latest rule Mayajaal tickets should cost 15 Rs. I dont know what will be the basis for bringing out certain rules. Sometimes it does look like we live under some dictatorship. People play a role only until rulers are elected afterwards they dictate rules. Instead of thinking how to improve cine industry if they spend time thinking how to improve the state it will add lot more value.

A kid has been found murdered in chennai. The kid who was playing outside his house went missing and the parents received a call asking for ransom but now they have found the kids body. Here in UK there was a series of murders few days ago and police was looking for the serial killer. Now a guy has been chargesheeted for the murders. It makes us shiver to think about the kind of people roaming around us.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Gilli

Except for Kadhaluku Mariyadhai I am not a big fan of Vijay Films and Kadhaluku Mariyadhai is the only film of Vijay which I have watched fully (from begining to end). After lot of deliberations I bought DVD of Gilli expecting a different movie from the usual run off the mill Vijay movies. This was based on feedback from many people.

The movie started off with a mindless fight, mindless punch dialogues and few scenes in the name of comedy. The whole thread for the movie doesnt make sense. This movie could have been done without the Vijay character. A psycho in love with a girl deeply who will do anything for the girl. They could have killed the psycho guy in the end and could have shown the title cards.

They didnt do that unnecassarily they introduce a character who tries to save the girl from the psycho. Then the movie doesnt move at all. The story stops there the hero saves the girl from the psycho and story remains there for next 1.5 hrs and finally the psycho fights with hero and hero wins both the fight and heroine.

It was hard for me to believe that this movie created records of sort.

I liked Dharani's Dhool - the violence in that movie made some sense but in Gilli everything is mindless and logicless.

Vijay looks ok when he is angry and falls flat at all other emotions. Trisha is just there in the movie. Prakash Raj is the saving grace but his character has been reduced to that of Komali.

I am still wondering what made this movie click.

Christmas

Atlast this years christmas is over. Here the prelude to christmas started in November. The tempo slowy builds up and reaches the crescendo on the day before christmas. Yes it lives only until the day before christmas (atleast for us). On the day of christmas the whole city wears a deserted look and no trains, no buses and add to it the fantastic london weather.

When we look at things from a braoder persective nothing makes sense. I am currently reading a book called Survivors. This is not a commercial book. This is a book written in christian perspective and more specifically based on the Revelation chapter in the Bible. For those who are not familiar with Revelation - this chapter in the Bible is the last chapter and talks about the doomsday.

This book questions the basic concept on which the entire world is running ie Money. If we look at the world we see if there is no concept of Money the world will come to a grinding halt. I just thought what would have happened if money was replaced with free service. A farmer will grwo food for others and in return a mason will build a house for him free of cost. An electrician will provide electricity free of cost to farmer. A cabbie or bus driver will move people across free of cost and you can imagine all free services. Now without money would man have invented cab, bus, electricity? Will we be having all that we have now? Would the world have been as it is now? Definitely not but we cannot comment on something which we have not done. Its a route which we didnt take..

I will stop here.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Platitude

Two unknown people with totally different interests, totally different background are put together you can see them laugh for worst jokes. They will be laughing for a non-witty remark by the other person. The other person also has to laugh for this persons non-witty remark and this will go in a cyclical loop until one of them turning away showing a sudden interest in the uninteresting work.

When you happen to sit besides them the talk between those two people will drive to the mouth of madness.

100 GODs cannot save you from their rambam.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Observing

I remember watching a movie few years back which talked about observation as an interstng time pass. In that movie the heroine of the movie will take the hero to her favorite spot. Her favorite spot is along a highway. On the side of the highway there will be high rise and she will say to the hero that here most favorite time pass is to sit there and watch those vehicles in the highway and think about who those people were, where are they hurrying.

In chennai whenever I used to wake up during nights, I would sometimes hear the horn of vehicles hurrying in the GST road. The sound of the vehicle will come from very far away. Slowly the sound will increase and then it will fade away.

When the whole world is asleep there is someone who is driving huge 900 wheel truck in an emtpy road. The world is not dead, there is someone who is active thinking about this I will doze off.

Another interesting observation is of those people who travel by suburban trains. During evening I used to go to the mottai maadi and observe the trains which are going towards Tambaram. I will see all tired face returning back to face the worries at home. I will see ladies standing near the entrance and poking their faces out to face the embracing wind. Though the compartments are empty people want to enjoy the joy of the wind in their face ignoring the danger.

Where are these people going? What do they do for living? Where will they get down? Are they happy? For sometime I will forget about my exam the next day, the book in my hands.

Once I come out of those thoughts I will feel like someone who went on hours of journey. I will stare a the book in hand. Life has to go on..

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Hospital

There are few buildings which breath thier own life during midnights. For an observer who observes it from far they seem to emanate a life of their own. One such building is Hospital. Hospitals during night come to life of their own. Though a Hospital is different from other buildings during day time too but the difference gets lost in the euqally busy activities sorrounding it but as the day comes to an end and night takes over it will be the only building with a heartbeat of its own.

Hospitals in remote places trigger a lot of imaginations inside our mind. With those nurses walking here and there making tak tak noise with their shoes with mystery written all over their faces, with the faint smell of dettol mixed with Phenyl touching our nose, with wide variety of people loitering around, with wide variety of automobiles coming in and going out it presents a very unique picture.

Whenever I go past an hospital and stare at those windows I see people sitting in their beds in a world of their own. Its a very sad world, people with different problems. My mind starts to wander of thinking about what will be their problem, where will they be from?

During nights if we observe an hospital we see dimly lit windows, occasionaly moving figures in white clothes, occasional coughing its a world of its own. It's world of pain. As most of us dont understand our body its a mysterious world to many of us.

Above all the mystery around the hospital is increased by its Mortuary.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Delirious

When the three entered into her room they saw her staring out the window.
He recognised her immediatley and ran over to her and hugged her.
She was shocked to see him.
"Honey where were you what happened I remember only the accident" she cried
"I missed you sweetheart. Honey I am sorry for all I did. I do love you. I was an idiot not to express it"
The trouble inside her heart was gone she hugged him tighter happily.
She vanished from his grip.
All he remembered after she vanished was her happy smiling face.
The other two said "We told you it is not peculiar to see people vanish into thin air. We dont know what the hell is happening"
Though he was sad that she was not with him, he was happy that his mission was accomplished.
***
They came inside the room again.
"We found a girl few months ago and she landed up here as you did, that is out of thin air. Though it is not unusual for us to hear of people appearing out of thin air and people vanishing into this air it sometimes makes us wonder what the hell is going on"
He became excited.
"I want to see her. Take me to her"
The two of them took him to meet her
***
They came out of the room.
"Could it be that he is looking for the girl we found few months ago?" asked one of them.
"That is exactly what I am thinking"
"Let us take him to her"
***
"Where are you from?"
"California"
"Your address?"
He said.
"We verified that address but we dont have that address in our list"
"What place is this?"
"This is Olamo"
"Where is it?"
"Olamo is in America"
"Am I dreaming? What is happening to me. I just tried to kill myself but these bunch of jokers are saying I am in Olamo." his mind screamed.
"Could it be, could it be I am there in the inbetween zone?"
"Whats that wound on your head? Who caused it?"
"I caused it. I tried to kill myself"
"Why did you try to kill yourself?"
"I wanted to meet my wife"
"Where is your wife?"
"That is what I have to find"
"You are confusing us"
"I am as confused as you are."
The people who questioned him left the room.
***
"When was the last time we had someone like this guy?"
"We had someone few months back who didnt have one hand. Do you remember?"
"Yeah I remember. It was gory. I remember the girl we found recently"
"This place has become very unusual. People appear from thin air and people disappear into thin air"
"They keep talking about some story about someone beating them up or commiting suicide"
"I think they speak the truth, we can see that they bleed to death"
"I think most of them are just insane and hurt themselves because none of the details they say are verifiable"
"Well may be there exists another universe and these people are just aliens"
"Oh come on dont tell me you believe in aliens"
They walked away with their echoing laugh.
***
They found him lying in a pool of water that had formed due to the after noon rain. His face was covered with blood. They called for an ambulance.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying in a room which resembled a hospital. He tried to move but the pain in his head was unbearable.
The two people who admitted him at the hospital approached him.
"What happened to you? What is your name? Where are you from?"
He stared at them blankly.
***
He put the nozzle inside his mouth.
The talk he had with his friend disturbed him a lot. His friend had said the only way to find out is to go there ourselves. Another hint he got from his friend was that souls with troubled mind are the ones which get lost.
"You dont have the right to take your life. It's a sin. Don't commit it" his mind screamed.
"I can't live in this world where she is not there. I have to meet her and convey my love to her and take her to her final destination" the other side of his mind screamed.
The gun smelled of grease but he didnt find any traces of grease outside but thats not important now.
His finger landed on the trigger.
***
They found her body mangled between the crumpled steel structure which was once a car.
"Oh my God ! I dont think she will be alive"
"She is dead" the doctor confirmed.
He got the news when he was in a meeting.
Everything was over in the next three days.
After few months he was going through her things one by one. He came to her diary. He opened it and started going through it. All the pages were filled with her beautiful handwriting. The content of those made him cry. It said that she has been feeling lonely because he was concentrating more on work. She felt neglected. She was searching for the lost love. She concluded that the the love is lost for ever. She thought she will never get him back again. She lost him to his work. She was depressed.
He never thought she was feeling that way.
"God, I loved her. Yes I have failed in expressing it to her. I wish I conveyed that to her properly. Now its too late"
He conveyed his feelings to his friend. His friend who had been there for him in all difficult situations listened.
Few days later they were in a bar.
"I have some news for you."
He looked at his friend quizzically.
"Promise me you wouldnt get angry"
He kept staring at him.
"Your wife is not there"
"My wife is not where?"
"She is not there" his friend pointed a finger upwards.
"What the ?" he didnt complete the sentence
"Well, I was just trying to help you. I wanted to convey to her that you loved her very much"
"So what did you do?"
"I tried to talk to some people"
"You mean dead people"
"Yes. Dont be mad at me. I wanted to make her realize that you loved her"
"You shouldnt talk to dead people its not right to disturb them. It is a sin"
"Now listen, The importan thing now is your wife is not there"
"What do you mean not there?"
"She is not up there"
"You mean upper world"
"Yeah you can call it upper world or heaven or hell whatever but the important thing now is she is not there"
"If she is not there and we know that she is dead and not here then where is she? I dont believe in this"
"Trust me. I know what I am talking. Though souls get lost very rarely they say there has been times when people took sometime after they die to reach the final place. They dont know what those lost souls do in the time gap. There are cases like people who died years ago have not reached their final destination still"
He stared at his friends face dumbstruck.
His friend continued "This happens to people who die with something bothering their mind"
"So you are saying my wife is wandering somewhere in between this earth and heaven"
"Yes you can say so. I can communicate to people who have reached their final destination but nobody knows where the lost souls go or do. The only way to find out is to go to that lost world ourselves but we dont know how to go there. We can only pray that she reaches her final destination soon"
PS : Those who are wondering what the hell is this story about - this is based on an assumption that there exists another world inbetween final destination and earth. That world is functioning as a normal world. The souls which have inhabited that world for long time has converted that world to resemble our world as close as possible. They think that they are living in earth.

Monday, December 18, 2006

The Fog

I recently read a novel 'The Fog' by James Herbert. I bought this book because the plot was interesting. The plot said an earthquake occurs in a village in England and a mysterious Fog escapes out and pandemonium is the result in England.

When I started reading the book I found it over cliched. From the way the characters think and act to the whole plot and the aftermath of the Fog everything was so cliched that you just have to read the beginng para and the last para of each chapter. The story is so predictable as the colour of your hair.

Well it seems the book was written in 1970's so I give the benefit of doubt to the authors favour and conclude may be during his time this book would have been an absolute page tuner but for this age it is too boring.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Claustrophobia - 2

This post is in continuation to the previous post.

Situation 2 - The other situation which I think could be highly claustrophobic is drowning. Sea or Ocean has always fascinated me. There were times when I used to sit and just stare at the vast active water body spread before me. As heights gives us a feeling to jump so does Ocean or for that matter any deep water body. They generate a strange feeling within ourselves. They invite us into their deep secrets. Try standing at the door of a compartment when a train is crossing a river. It will be very hard to resist the temptaiton to jump into the inviting water.

Now coming back to Claustrophobia, this could be experienced by people who cant swim better than those who can swim but when you are in the middle of pacific both are same.

However shallow it may be but the experience of drowning is mind numbing and highly claustrophobic.

Though I have not experienced a complete drowning there were times when I had been out of control in water. Once we from school went on an excursion to Golden Beach. The moment we saw the sea and the waves we all ran towards it and started playing. As always some over enthu guy invented an over enthu game of pushing people down unexpectedly. I became a victim to the prank and was pushed down when a big wave was sweeping me off the feet. I dont know how long I was there under the water but it felt like eternity. Lungs gasping for water inhaling seawater through nose. Hands looking for some support and not finding any. That is the ultimate moment of Claustrophobia. Though you are not inside a confined environment as described in the previous post you experience the feeling of crampedness. It just needs a second to trigger that feeling. The moment you come out oh what a relief.

Next time when you are playing in water be careful that you dont over indulge.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Claustrophobia - 1

I came across this word very late in my life as per some people's standards. I came across this word somewhere around when I was doing +2 or 1st year in college from then on I have had lot of situations to remember this word.

What could be more claustrophobic? Many will have many situations as example to say that they will feel claustrophobic in some X situation. When thinking in broad terms I could think of two situations just the thought of which could generate this feeling inside us. Let me elaborate on those.

Situation 1 - For those who have watched the movie Vanished or Kill Bill will be familiar with this situation. Yes, the thought of being put inside a coffin alive and buried will generate this feeling abundantly. Think that you are being laid inside the coffin and they are closing the top. They start hammering the nails into place. You can feel the whole coffin vibrating around you. Now its totally dark inside and already you have started to feel suffocated. When they hammered the nail few wood scraps fell on ur eyelids and are now causing an itch. You try to bring your hand to remove it but you cant lift it to your face. You can just move it to such an extent you can scratch your crotch. You shake your head and clear the wood scrap of your eyelid and open your eyes wide. Its totally dark inside and you can feel that they are lifting the coffin and lowering it into the pit. The coffin lands with a thud at the bottom of the pit dug exclusiely for you. You hear the sand being put on top of the coffin. You feel pain in your back and it slowly moves to your neck. You sense that something is crawling inside your pants through your foot. By sheer instinct you try to lift you leg but your knee hits the top of the coffin causes you more pain and the thing on your foot makes its way to your thigh. Now you dont hear anything outside. They must have completed filling sand. You suddenly feel the whole weight of the sand above the coffin coming crashing on you. You feel sick to your stomach. You throw up and most of it lands on your face. You cant wipe it. Your eyes starts to burn. You can't open your eyes. You keep them shut. The thing on your thigh is now at your crotch. It stings you.

You have now used up all the oxygen. You now inhale the air which has no oxygen in it. Your lungs scream for oxygen.

You cry, You scream.

Nobody hears. You are there all alone.

Claustrophobia to continue ...

Monday, December 11, 2006

Truman Show

Sometimes our life seems to be like the Truman show. We see the same thing daily. We live the same routine day by day.

For me when I start walking towards my bus stop in the morning I walk past a used car dealer showroom. I see the same two people wiping off the water off the cars. I see the bus 203 either waiting in the signal of at the busstop before the signal. I see the same woman crossing the road along with me. I notice the same two kids who wait for bus no 216 with their mother. I notice the same bunch of teenagers, studying in the near by school, cross the signal. Believe me or not this is the sight I witness from Monday to Friday. It hasnt changed at all.

The moment I get get down at my stop and start walking towards my office I notice the same people walking past me. I see the same old man staring out from a window. I see the same person walking towards a shop smoking. Except for a minutes lag most of them follow the same routine.

Evenings the same thing happens.

When I was in school I had to travel to my school by train from Palavanthangal station. I used to see the same people boarding my compartment day after day. After few days we become so familiar we can easily identify if someone is missing. From the beggar to the person who sells suppota or pala sulai, everyone becomes so familiar. The same station bookshop with people staring at the magazines hanging.

Now from other persons perspective they should be feeling the same about me. I am just another routine in their life.

All we need is just one day for each stage in our life to feel how it will be then we get used to it. The same routine repeats day after day. If a man goes through 10 stages in life then the number of days he actually lives equals to just 10 days.

Only people who take step to break the monotony see something different but again they come back and merge into the same monotonous life.

I can already feel I have gone past many of those phases of life I might still have just few more phases of life where my routine will change.

Then how do you think man can copes up with this monotony? He fantasises. Yes fantasies keep us going. Man always lives in a dream world. For example the moment he enters into the toilet he goes into a different world of his own. His own world where he is The King and he makes his own rules. In that world Aishwarya Roys and Charliez Therons begs for his attention.Fantasies keeps him alive. A man without job dreams of getting the best of the job.

The student dreams of getting into the best institute. Man dreams of beautiful girls, girls dream of handsome men where no one rejects the other. The life he lives in his fantasies is equalent to thousands of days. He lives in two parallel worlds. Sometimes he feels the real world is a fantasy sometimes he feels the fantasy world is fantasy.

For those who read this blog regularly that has become a habit and monotonous act. For me writing this blog has become a monotonous act.

Life just goes on and on.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Plus Two

It looks like the TN Govt has passed a bill to abolish the Common Enterance Test to the Engineering and Medical Colleges. The reason they give is that the students from rural areas does not have all the facilities of the city students to get coached for the Enterance Exam.

Interestingly it is mentioned in Hindu that former chief minister MGR brought in CET in 1984 for the reason that it will benefit rural students.

To digress a little here, the whole Education system which I have witnessed and undergone is not the way how it should be done.

In our society, the means people use to make their children get educated is to keep saying "Padi.. Padii...", "Vilayadinathu pothum Padi...", "TV paathathu pothum Padi..", "intha coaching class po..", "antha coaching class po..", "padiiiiiiiiiii", "tution poneya...".

The way many children consider/considered(including me) the whole concept of education is it is something which we can achieve only by reading whats given in the text book and ganga or popular guide. The whole concept of education is nothing but question and answers. They are just tuned to jot down the answer once they see a question. They do it not based on the knowledge they gained they do it on an impulse such as Pattern matching. The questions themselves appear as an object with specific pattern and they are tuned to respond to those patterns with some other pattern which they think is the answer. The moment the pattern changes ie you word the question differently, they get confused and they cant find the matching pattern.

The whole goal of education is lost in the process of getting marks. Till now I will not agree that a student who scored 100 is better than one who scored 50 (though there are exceptions).

Objective questions were meant to somewhat eliminate this pattern matching exercise but our guys have made this also into a pattern matching execise by coaching students to such an extent they will know for one question what are the four answers that shoud be given as choices and the right answer as well. This they achieve by conducting coaching classes. They ram thousands of questions into the students heads. Parents are proud to send their children to coaching centers which starts this ramming process early and which will ram more questions and make the students a more efficient machine. I myself went to a coaching class though not a famous one.

Now our loveable government finds that city students have lot of means to become a machine which the rural students lack so let us remove the CET process. I feel instead of removing CET the government should have taken steps to make the whole process efficient.

How can it be done? The change should start from the root. Yes it will be a time consuming exercise. So the government feels abolishing this CET is a easy shortcut. This bill wont achieve what it is meant to achieve instead will create more incompetent people.

Rich students have the option to attend plus two coaching classes which the poor students can't afford. Will the government abholish the plus two public exams?

Another news that is doing rounds is that the government is planning to decrease the pass mark for plus two subjects. Currently you need to score 40 out of 150 and the government is planning to reduce it to 30 out of 150 which is 20%. So if you get 20% you clear the exam. Apart from these there are also plans to remove many lessons from the syllabus.

An open book exam will be a lot better than to remove the entire exam.

We should really appreciate our government for these initiatives. Kudos.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Old Serials

Andha gaalathula DDla vandha sila serials a inge ninaivu koorugiren (Remembering some serials of 1980's and 1990's in DD). All these were telecasted before DD - 2 was born

Vanna Kolangal & Nam Kudumbam - SVe Shekar
Dinesh Ganesh - Delhi Ganesh and Kathadi Ramamurthy - Mondays
Ellam Inbamayam - Kathadi Ramamurthy - Thursdays
Oru Manithanin Kathai - Raghuvaran - Wednesdays (not sure) (the song ithu oru manithanin kathai was a hit. this was produced by AVM)
Amlu - Baby Shalini - Mondays
Adade Manohar - Manohar - (kuranga pedika poi pilayara aana pine nalapadi pugalnthanga) - Monday or Thursday
Giant Robot - Saturdays before Hindi movie
Spider man, He-man - Sundays
Barbapapa - this was a very old cartoon show - Sundays
Disneys Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck - Sundays
Irayil Sneham - Nizhalgal Ravi - This was not my favorite - Wednesdays or Thursdays
Anbulla Amma - Manorama & Meena (meena was introduced in this) - Sundays nenaikiren

Ungalku vera ethavathu nyabagam iruka?

Piragu Sandhipom

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Cocktail - 1

At the time of writing this post India is at no 7 position in 15th Asian Games in Doha. India has won 2 - Golds, 5 - Silver and 3 - Bronze. One Gold in Billiards by Pankaj Arjan and another Gold in Chess by Humpy.

China is in first position with 60 golds Japan follows with 17 golds. I dont want to complain on our performance.
**
If you go to any school and look at the bottom of any desk you will defintly find atleast one bubble gum stuck under most of them. Now take a walk in any high street in UK and observer the roads. You will see someone has been sowing bubble gums. the whole street is strewn with bubble gums.
**
India successfuly lost all 4 matches they played against south africa. VVS Laxman who was brought in for the last match to save us some respect scored a duck.
**
There is not a single horror movie without the following dialogues

"Let's get the hell out of here"
&
"What the hell is going on?"
**
Ajith to remake Rajini's Billa. I dont understand why someone would remake. The remakes might invite interest for the first few days of release but I dont think the interest will sustain. Not to belittle Ajiths efforts tt will be like another Lollu Sabha.
**
Given below is a picture from the movie "The Grudge"

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Pick of Week - 1

Movie of the Week

I like war movies. You will find all kind of emotions in war movies. Each movie will end with feeling that the wars fought in the past are not worth it. So many lives lost for the sake of land. One such movie I watched recently is We Were Soldiers. This movie was a little different from other war movies I had seen.

This movie starts off at a training camp where the soldiers are being trained by Mel Gibson. Then the soldiers are sent to Vietnam where already a bloody war is underway. It follows this platoon closely and narrates the two days they spend in the battle ground. It also shows how the Vietnam side fights the Americans.

Apart from the battleground scenes the situations how telegrams are sent to the families of the soldiers who lost their life in the battle are captured naturaly.

The most beautiful scene in the movie is the scene where Mel Gibson spends the night before leaving for battle, with his family. The scene with no dialogue but with just a heart beat kind of background captures the feeling of the soldier very well.

Song of the week

Few years back I used to collect all my favorite songs either in form of cassette, CDs or mp3,s. Then slowly the habit died and I stopped listening to songs. In those days when I used to collect songs, Hindi songs always occupied a special place.

This weeks song is one such song "Bahut Pyaar karte hein, tumko sanam" from the movie Sajaan. Last night I listened to the song and it still had the same effect which it used to have years back. It is an amazing track. Both versions the SPB and the girls version both are great.

Monday, December 04, 2006

State of Fear

After a long time I got an oppurtunity to read a Michael Crichton book. I became a fan of Crichton after his famous Jurassick Park. I enjoyed his book Prey, Andromda strain, The Lost world, Eaters of the Dead, Rising sun, Congo, Sphere. I didnt like Timeline.

This book State of Fear was involved in controversies for the subject that was used. This book talks about Global warming. As a fiction the book failed to generate interest as the other books I mentioned above. I have a feeling when writing this book Crichton was thinking about making this into a motion picture so the book looks more like a screenplay than a novel.

The book has a very thin plot but goes all aroung the world. The characters are very shallow. For a book of 600 pages we expect some interesting characters which the book fails to create.

As a book which makes us think, this book does succeed. As always Crichton puts across points with references which points out that Global warming is not such a threat as it is claimed today. I did learn lot of interesting facts from this book. Crichton takes a hard stand against people who talk for global warming and are not willing to change their mindset. One example is a chatacter in the book who believes strongly in Global warming is eaten alive by Cannibals. This is a judgement given by Crichton and he accepts that in the appendix.

This book if made into a motion picture wont recover its costs. None of the scenes depicted by Crichton makes us sit on the seat edge. There is absolutely no suspense in scenes where Crichton expects us to be surprised.

Except for the quotes and arguments Crichton gives in this book, this book is not good in entertainment.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Sainikudu

Here is excerpts from the reviews of the most hyped telugu movie Sainikudu

Rediff - Mahesh Babu can't save Sainikudu
Sify - Disappointing
Andhracafe - Gunashekar played football with his script

The amount of hype this movie received was overwhelming. The same media which went ga ga over this movie is now tearing it apart.

Now the big question is what will happen to Sivaji?

Cricket

Our guys have pulled in Ganguly and Laxman back into the team :-). At this rate one day we will have Pataudi, Gavaskar and Kapildev back in the team.
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Navjot Singh Sidhu has been convicted for a murder. Check out here
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Desecration of Ambedkar statue has caused a major uproar in Maharashtra. If you see in the past desecration of many statues had led to many chaos in our country. I dont think the guys who desecrate do it because they disagree with the ideologies of the person who they are descrating. They do it just for the heck of it. The do it just to irritate the other side. In tamil just to verupu etharathuku. And to a large extent they succeed in doing so. The targets gets irritated to such an extent they damage public property.

If they remain mute spectators to such acts of desecration then people will think we dont give respect to the person so they go on a rampage. By going on rampage only people who was not even in the picture gets affected and not the guys who desecrated. So whats the point?

There was a similar incident in Chennai recently when a statue was shifted.

In India anything can be politicised.

People react vehemently for issues which doesnt need such reaction and they react passively when a strong reaction is expected.

Check out this news item.

A Simple Plan and Just Mercy