The Myth of Charity

I don't believe in philanthropy, I simply don't. To prove my point,Let's begin at the beginning.

Why do humans act ?....
To understand this let us first consider how they act. It gives a profound insight into why they act. Human actions fall into two categories :

1. Involuntary.
2. Voluntary.

Involuntary actions relate to those which are not products of "thought", and include breathing, hunger - therefore a desire for food, sleeping, sexual urges , self preservation etc . So any action that is involuntary is by definition - a selfish act and works towards basic survival.

The second action(and more importantly it's hypocrisy) is what makes life pretty interesting. All actions that we arrive upon after atleast one bit of thought happen to fall into this category. To use a technique that a man I respect used, let me ask this - if the action is a product of a 'thought', to whom did that thought arise?.

Stop that line of thought so that you are still in my league. So let's see where Philanthropy stands. It is an action - which is a product of thought. The thought arises in your self. The primary objective of the self is preserving itself - pretty obvious, but hardly understood. So as a consequence, any thought that arises from the self is selfish(by definition), and consequently the action cannot be anything different either.

But the same self also wants to indulge in delusions of grandeur about itself so that the futility and hallowness of itself are not visible. And thus came up this concept of "Philanthropy". Stripping down philanthropy to its basics, it is ego boosting at it very best - just as any other of our actions are(varying in scale). People basically do it with ... "See, I made a difference" feeling, or what is infinitely worse, a patronizing attitude.

In times of disaster it might graduate into a more raw form. The Tsunami Relief is a classic case. What people are trying to do by involving themselves in the various relief Organizations is this

1. The prospect of an imminent disaster they are personally involved now seems real.
2. They want to feel safe in their illusion that the collective psyche of humanity will come to their rescue in such an event, just as they doing are now.

Pretty stupid, if you ask me.

Tsunami and Stupidity.

As soon as the shock and panic ceased the more predictable reactions - crying foul at government inefficiency or ranting at some apathy, have taken precedence.

The degrees are varying - depending on the geographical location, political affiliation, economic status etc etc. Examples here and here.

In my opinion - what such tragedies bring to people is nothing but brief moments of grief that they want enjoy(/feel)vicariously - just like watching a really touching movie. They want to demostrate they are really compassionate and all. They also want to think that by such behavior of theirs, they are gathering numbers which might comfort their illusion of 'compassionate humanism'- which in their opinion would help them if they are at the receiving end one day.

My suggestion - go have sex.

Compassion eh?

....

Blockbuster list continued.....

1. Anthing else
2. Elephant man
3. Rashomon
4. Very bad things
5. Dead-man walking
6. What about Bob?
7. Planes, trains and automobiles
8. K-Pax
9. Negotiator
10. Sleepers
11. R<>omance
12. Breaking the waves
    

To those going to Block Buster, this would be our queue......(add as you please)

1. North by NorthWest
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
3. Unforgiven (1992)
4. The Apartment (1960)
5. Natural Born Killers (1994)
6. Rear Window (1954)
7. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
8. The Third Man (1949)
9. Blade Runner (1982)
10. The Big Chill
11. Wise Blood
12. Ordinary People
.........

Timeless times of India

Times of India - on Tsunami affecting tourists in Thailand.

Top 5 Tamil movies......

Top 5 tamil movies in all respects... story,cinematography, actors and direction.......

1. Villivakkam beauty
2. Mamanarin Kamavery
3. Kanigal Jagiradhai
4. Driving school
5. Banupriya hits

The deluge

Watch it here (Waves hit hotel..requires real player)

Lazy :
Tsunami, what?....I initally thought they had just a named the tremor attack like naming tornados in the US. I was completely wrong.

Aftermath.

.

A Laugh Riot

Listen to a "discussion" on the two Nation theory and it's validity - here.

ROTFL!!

Kannathil Muthamittal - A Review.

Kannathil Muthamittal(reads 'A peck in the Cheek ?' when translated), is a powerful line from a poem by a dude you might recognize - Subramanya Bharathi.

Very few Tamil movies(in fact no other to my limited knowledge), have a story that does not have a "hero" - and this is an exception. One of Tamil 'Cinema's' finest ever - it's brilliant portrayal of confused emotions of a 9 year old are just breath taking.

The movie opens in Sri-Lanka where a newly wed couple look into their uncertain future with war tearing their dreams apart. The narration is then taken over by a chirpy 9 year old in Madras who has a typical childhood in the 'Upper Middle Class' family in T.Nagar or K.K.Nagar or any other such residential areas in the city. On her 9th birthday she is told - quite literally, that she was adopted. Narrated in a matter of factly manner to a totally innocent child, it breaks the heart of the viewer.

From then on the emotions shown by the child and the reaction of the family form the second 'third' of the movie. Some might find the actions of 'Amudha' a bit unexplained - but I think that is exactly how a 9 year old would react, quite inexplicably. She jumps on to a suburban train and goes to Perambur for nothing. After frantic efforts, her foster parents reclaim her and in the process worry the viewer with theirs', the father then narrates to his foster child the story of her adoption. The mature relationship between Thiru and Indra and their marriage and adoption of the child - Amudha have been portrayed quite realistically. The final part of the movie deals with the search for the biological mother in war torn Sri Lanka. And ends with a moving meeting between the biological mother, the child and the foster parents.

The cinematography, as in all Mani Ratnam movies, is brilliant. The way in which present day warfare has been shown is a first in Tamil/Indian movie history. The performances of Simran, Madhavan and Keerthana are some of the best ever in Indian movie history. Character validation is Mani's forte - and I must say he has simply excelled again. Be it the stubborn acts and left out feeling that a child gets when she discovers she is 'adopted',or the anxiety that the mother has in making sure the child still acts and behaves normal and most of all - the need to reaffirm love for each other in the family , Mani has touched the hearts of the viewer. If a tear or two does not escape your eye when Amudha meets her real mother finally - you must already be dead.

The dialogues as Sujatha often does - are short and to the point. The editing is slick and back ground score apt. But the use 'song' sequences in this movie - especially the 'Oru Theivam Thantha Poove' seems to stem the narration and the flow of the movie. This movie would be a fine example why Indian movies should get out of their - 'must have a song' mentality.

Overall on a scale of 10, this gets an 8.

Ole in disguise?

Some godman in trichy:

What we've seen in Chennai today is just the second warning about earthquakes. The damage now is minimal. No one wants people to suffer. But if we don't mend our ways and heed Nature's call, mankind is in grave danger.Sea waves will rise up to 3 km and destroy all villages and towns within a radius of 25 km from the sea.The world itself will come to an end in its present form in 2010.The storm will divide south India into two islands. As for Chennai, Chromepet will be the seaside. A path will be made from Poonamallee to touch what is left of Chennai. That is why Jalakandeswara temple is situated in Vellore. When Vadalur becomes Cuddalore due to the rage of the sea, Vadalur Ramalinga Swamigal will once again start a very big Dharma Sala. Waters of the Ganga and the Cauvery will unite but the surging floods will inundate many villages, destroying human habitat. Sheets of rain falling to the ground will be as thick as the trunk of elephants. All man-made dreams and reservoirs will burst, drowning many villages. Many countries in the coastal areas will go into the sea.

"People will go into the mountains to live. Only one-fourth of the existing population will survive. Salt will not be available and will be costlier than gold. So, heed my words. Start stocking salt. Petrol below the seawaters will float on the surface. The entire sea surface will catch fire. There will be no sea commerce.

"Metallic roads will break up and erode. Cars and vehicles cannot be driven. There will be no buyers of cars even at the price of Rs 100. Satellites propelled from the earth into space will fall back on the earth, one by one. There will be no value for property.

While politics and politicking will not exist, priests and administrators of temples will not plunder temple wealth. There will be no electricity for 16 years. There will be no cinema or movies. But people will flock to religious discourses to listen to the stories in the scriptures.

Not just Chennai. Salem and Dharmapuri would also be destroyed.

I don't wish to scare the people at a time of distress now. But it is better for me to repeat what I have said earlier as it would be better to prepare ourselves and minimise the suffering. People should return to the path of righteousness and spirituality. People should give up exploitation of resources along the coastal areas. Forests should be safeguarded. Killing animals and eating seafood should be avoided.Dharma, dharma and dharma. That's the only thing that will save them from harm. Regular group prayers should be conducted for world peace. Annadhaanam, giving away clothes to the poor, helping sages in their divine duties, have to be done... The gurus will emerge and help save the people.People laugh when I tell them about tidal waves, earthquakes and the disasters that await us. If Westerners talk about the danger due to global warming, it is accepted. Today, I received many telephone calls saying that that they had earlier not believed me. They admitted today that I was on the right track. Time will tell that I was right.

ROTFL

Folks,
I haven't seen the movie yet - but Ananda Vikatan's prose in reviewing the movie 'Kaadhal' is so elegant that it makes me want to watch the movie just for the beauty of the sentences used.

Read it, if you understand/Read Tamil.

Tamil Politicians and Lack of Finesse

The Centre will certainly help. The state government should act quickly and send a report to the Centre. But I don't think this government is capable of managing relief or rehabilitation.

Dayanithi Maran after visiting the Tsunami affected parts of Tamil Nadu.

Revised quantified scale for ranking movies

The need for a unified quantitative scale for rating movies has risen, with posts on Top Tamil movies.

Though there exist myraid criteria for rating movies, here are 9 qualitative aspects I consider vital in ranking Tamil movies. Evaluating the merit of a movie on basis of each aspect would involve annuling the impact the aspect considered had on the movie as a whole. For instance, consider the aspect "Dialogues" for a particular movie, say, Kuruthipunal (with dialogues being its forte). The movie wouldn't have had the same impact in the absence of those dialogues. Thus it is excellent for "dialogues".A scale to quantify these aspects is also provided.
Qualitative aspects

1. Individual performances: This is a typical Indian tendancy and explains the deifying of individuals appearing on silver-screen.This involves considering the impact of an on-screen performer in a movie. The success of a Tamil movie, comercially and otherwise, is heavily reliant on individual performances/brilliances. Such performances have saved some grace for many a otherwise horrible movies. Eg: Madhavan in Naladamayanthi

2. Technical aspects

a. Cinematography: This is nothing but motion picture photography and does have a pronounced impact on the rankings. Eg: Lesa-Lesa (crap w/o its cinematography)

b. Editing: Though there exists numerous interpretations (involving splicing/cuts), we shall stick to the basic definition of editing - providing continuous, coherent and seamless storytelling. Its pertinence is emphasized in period movies Eg: Hey ram/Iruvar

c. Art Direction/Mise-en-scene: Loosely, this is dictated by the look and the feel of the movie. Set-creation too would be a subset of this. Eg: Virumandi

d. Music: Background scores and songs Eg:Hey!Ram

3. Direction: Tamil cinema can generally be classified as "actor-movies" (Rajinikant, Vikram, Vijay) or director-movies (Shankar, Mani-ranthnam). This aspect involves reviewing the successful employment of directorial touches/trademarks and questioning their relevance. Overall, it amounts to determining the impact/role of the director in the movie. Eg: Iruvar,Mundram Pirai

4. Appeal : Personal or mass, its your take. This takes care the "gut" aspect too.

5.Dialogues : When the medium of communication (in most cases) is Tamil,the impact of dialogues has to be considered. This doesn't mean employing literary Tamil- it involves questioning the pertinence of the dialogues and other factors such as lingo/dialect.

6.Contribution to Tamil cine industry: This is a true/false question and contributions could range from blooding promising talent to the movie being a step in the forward direction.

7. Screenplay: When one tries to delve into the finer aspects, the obvious slips - did happen to me, for the importance of screenplay in Tamil movies can never be exaggerated.


To quantify these aspects, I recommend a discrete scale ranging from -2 through zero to +2. Negative ratings are essential for a few shortcomings/patchy areas can have an impact on the end-product - for in movie making unlike math, the whole is not the sum of the parts constituting it. One such movie is Alavandhan, which would score heavily in most of the aspects and would outweigh a moderate performer, when a positive discrete scale is used.

For Aspects 1-5, the quantitative scale is:

• -2 : Horrible/intolerable
• -1: Bad
• 0: OK
• +1: Fair/ Merits outnumber demertis
• +2: Excellent/Qualifies for classic
  

For aspect 6, a binary scale is used:

• 0 : NO notable contribution
• 1: otherwise
  

Thus the maximum ovreall score would be +19 and the least would be -18.

top tamil movies

Here are my favourites...

Artistic merit:

1. devar magan
2. mounaragam
3. hey ram
4. 16 vayadhinile
5. mullum malarum
6. veedu
7. andha naal
8. iruvar
9. kannathil muthamittal
10. sethu

Guilty Pleasure:

1. devar magan
2. guna
3. mounaragam
4. thillu mullu
5. johny
6. michael madana kama rajan
7. mudhal mariyadhai
8. aboorva sagodharargal
9. edhir neechal
10. bama vijayam

He who gives himself up to the Self that is God is the most excellent devotee. Giving one's self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self. Whatever burdens are thrown on God, He bears them. Since the supreme power of God makes all things move, why should we, without submitting ourselves to it, constantly worry ourselves with thoughts as to what should be done and how, and what should not be done and how not? We know that the train carries all loads, so after getting on it why should we carry our small luggage on our head to our discomfort, instead of putting it down in the train and feeling at ease?

Ramana is simply brilliant. The idea of "God" can be viewed either literally or figuratively - depending on where you stand. This I think is a real test for a philosophy, for it should make sense to both the believer and the non believer alike.

As an agnostic individual, I am still impressed - infact spellbound by the way in which he proves that every thought is futile and needs no attention.

My All Time Top 10 Tamil Movies

10.Baashaa
9. Oomai Vizhigal
8. Poovey Poochooda Vaa
7. Singara Velan
6. Karagaattakkaaran
5. Mahanadi
4. Thevar Magan
3. Kurudippunal
2. Guna
1. Hey Ram!

Peter Roebuck picks his team of the year - here.

Homecoming and all that.

This guy happens to be a friend of mine. And as he attempts to eloquently put it, he is going back home for good.

This is a good starting point for me to ramble on the Desi behavior. I have a few friends', none more than this one, with an urge to go back home. They want to go home for one of the following reasons

1. They want to "Give something back" - I have no clue what it means.
2. They want to make a difference - by being a model citizen back home.
3. They want to start a people's movement that aims to achieve something.
4. Their parent's told them to come back.
5. Practical reasons.

The fifth reason, I can understand. But the previous four just beat me down numb. If I were to go to a place with an attitude of "See I have come here to help this society and all you people", that is classic condescension which will simply result is stroking of one's own ego for a while before getting "boring".

If an individual thinks he is going to serve a society, that to me is the most persverse and hypocritical one can get. It negates the very idea of creation. The brilliance of Adi Shankara lies exactly here - he understood how futile it was to teach people.

As always, the parameters of creation have to be understood and never taught. Myabe am wrong now - but from what I understand, I know enough to not make another entity - be it an individual or society or anything other than myself the reason for my decision.

very very funny

phdcomics

S.A.Aiyer explains his journey away from Pink here.

Soicialist's across the world have this argument : Free Trade favors the rich and powerful. It is a an idea straight out of the jungle were the rich bleed the poor to death by using a treaty for destroying local industry.

Let us take India as an example, and let me try to prove why Swami is right and those to his left are pathetic sophist's whom even an OleRam can't tolerate. In 1991 Yechury and his commie thugs scoffed at the idea of an Indian firm standing in the midst of global competition. So entrenched was the notion of Indian inferiority and foreign superiority that the very thought of Indian companies taking over global ones was regarded as science fiction. That is not something that is restricted to just the Leftists. Even my parent's would intrinsically assume such things in our dinner table conversations. Even more pathetic would be grandfather's theory - He would actually say

"We Brahmin's should not enter buisness. It is not for us. We do not have what it takes' to negotiate"

Removing the caste equation and using Indian there was probably a national sentiment back in 70's and 80's.


Today India has a GDP growth for last year at 8%. Add to this, the Gini Coefficient has literally remained a constant - and we have it's value is less than that of China and U.S.A.. Let me quote Swami

In 2000, Tata Tea took over a global company twice its size, Tetley Tea, the second biggest tea company in the world. This was a leveraged buyout.

That is, global financiers provided the funds to enable an Indian minnow to take over a global whale. Far from being a force of neo-colonialism, global finance is now helping smaller Indian companies to acquire much larger global ones.

Next, Essel Packaging , owned by Subhash Chandra, took over Propack of Switzerland to form Essel Propack. The merger created the biggest producer in the world of laminated tubes, and an Indian MNC became global number one.

Am not one of those Desis' indulging in delusions of grandeur about my motherland. I know how pathetic most things are in India, but they are better than they used to be. This improvement has been made possible because of the lack of policy and absence central planning. Not otherwise.

Leaving a comment replying/retorting to something Nilu has written on a blog comes with a predictable outcome. You'll have a blog written abt you with random words like "moron, stupidity,idiotic" etc. Nilu never fails to disappoint! If u don't know what I mean, here's one : Nilu's recent rant. Either there will be another post about me, or the typical over-acting-thinking-he's-awesome behaviour will follow. I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointed again.

Classic Commie.

Leftists' across the world have a perverse means : When they know the audience they are trying to convince is smart enough, they will migrate and choose an audience that will listen - instead of trying to win with folks who would disagree. Praful Bidwai does exactly that here in Jang, a Pakistani newspaper. He probably knows quite well, a publication in the major newspapers in India would only mean a tearing of his arguments into a million.

You can browse for hours and read every article that he has written over the years:here. If you manage to find a single article that
a)acknowledges freedom of the individual
b)acknowledges the U.S.A. has been even half a decent success, leave alone being the most powerful nation on the face of this planet
c)talks about wealth creation as the answer to poverty
I will quit NOW.

His arguments for the EGA (Employment Guarantee Act, which basically guarantees 100 days of employment to every Indian in rural parts) are

So even a person who is willing to perform unskilled manual labor, much like a draught animal, cannot find work. Millions are forced into chronic poverty for no fault of theirs. Society has failed to redress this unacceptably unjust waste of valuable human potential. It is duty-bound to provide employment to the poor.

So his argument is this : If an individual cannot find work - it is the fault of the society. I would actually agree with him if he were to blame the insane restrictions that an entity called government imposes, but no - he accuses the structural deficiencies of the society conspiring against the poor and depriving them of work. Though am tempted to actually reason out his stupid argument - I resist.

All I will do is state these facts :

1.Since 1991, poverty in India has fallen from 60% to 37% - the steepest fall ever in Independent India's history.
2.The GDP rate of growth has been highest in the recent decade.
3.India has retained a relatively constant value of Gini Coefficient - a parameter of the distribution of wealth.

What these three facts together mean is that more wealth has been created, and roughly distributed in the same manner as they were before. So his argument of the poor suffering the brunt of liberalisation does not hold statistically. The EGA has been rightly made fun off - here in TOI. For all it's incorrigible stupidities, TOI still has India's finest columnist - Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar
on it's payroll.

The inefficiency of the governments' in India across each state is the only defence that people have in the wake of such meaningless populism of the leftists.

Amazingly Awesome Cauliflower.

I am a compulsive cauliflower buyer. When I wander into the store, pushing my cart, I have to impulsively reach out and grab two cauliflower heads like a Pavlovian dog. In fact, the last time my girlfriend had a birthday, I sent her a bouquet of cauliflower, especially because it was selling for 79 cents a pound. I think if the whole vegetable section were a kingdom, then cauliflower is its King. By the way, I don't touch a broccoli with a ten foot pole, (a la George Bush) even if it is juxtaposed near the cauli lot. When special people are invited for dinner, some gracious hosts might butcher a goat or a chicken, but I kill my cauliflowers and make a mouth-watering subji out of it. Here is the recipe:

(1) Carefully hand-pluck the delicate florets from a cauliflower. You can include some part of the stem, but not the thick crusty base. The pieces should be bite size. Put them in a microwave oven at 'high' between fifteen to twenty minutes.

(2) On a saucepan, heat enough oil, crackle cumin seeds and shallow fry the already cooked cauliflower with a teaspoon of chili powder, half a teaspoon of turmeric, one teaspoon of coriander powder and salt.

(3) Don't keep turning it around and break the florets. Gennnnnnnnntly turn the cauliflower around once in a while. Let it get burnt slightly. After ten to twenty minutes a very delicious subji is ready !

I have a theory : The extent of stupidity of a Moron is directly proportional to the number of exclamation marks one uses. A case in point : The Stranger(Look at any title of his)

review of 7/G

"7/G Rainbow Colony" is one of the best tamil movies of 2004. Selvaraghavan, who has written and directed it, has done a highly commendable effort.

The story takes place in a middle class housing colony. Our protagonist Kadhir (Ravikrishna), is a below average student. He falls in love with this girl, Anitha (Sonia Agarwal), who arrives one day to live in the same colony. The relationship between the two is the story.

The most important aspect of this movie is its realism. The dialogues and the situations are down to earth. Such a story is possible.

The dialogues are very well written. There is originality in the words spoken by the crude but essentially ok guy, the refined and sensible girl, the caring parent etc.

Selvaraghavan is subtle. There is a scene in which Kadhir, Anitha and Manorama are going in a car. In the beginning, Manorama says she doesnt like Kadhir. As time passes, Manorama and Kadhir are sleeping on each others shoulder and Anitha looks on. This is the way it was between Kadhir and Anitha too. This sums up the way people warm up to Kadhir.

The movie doesnt have much of a story. That compromises the quality of the screen play too. It sags at times. To fill time, the first half is about the acitivities of Kadhir and his friends. It may be seen as crass by some people but it is honest.

The movie has excellent music (songs and bgm) by Yuvan Shankar Raja. Ravikrishna has a good debut in this movie. Sonia Agarwal shows much potential. The rest of the cast too, have performed creditably.

The movie sure leaves an emotional impact. If Selvaraghavan shows equal finesse in other genres, he has an interesting journey ahead of him.

Prejudice - Pride or Otherwise.

There are infinite number of ways in which a group of people aligned on some wired basis will accuse another group of blatant domination, prejudice and worse - Holocaust. If you want a taste of such accusations this will help. It is a Dalit website, which accuses all Brahmins in India of such devious conspiracies that Mel Gibson might want to make a sequel. Read it when you find time - it's freaking hilarious.

Anyways, the topic here is : Is Prejudice wrong?, should it be illegal?

Let us assume I start a restaurant, and am going to employ a few people. Being who I am I would naturally prefer Tamil speaking employees over Hindi speaking 'Gaboors'. Yes, am blatantly prejudiced. But can I show economic reasons for my prejudice ? : YES!....and here is how.

Being a South Indian, my restaurant will most likely have a south Indian menu, which in turn would attract a large south Indian population, who in turn - not unlike myself might get totally put off by a 'Gaboor' serving them. Their displeasure means I lose business.

But these economic reasons apart - if I choose to be blindly prejudiced, say I own a software firm, and I still hire only Tamils' - am I not entitled to it?, as am risking only my money and my interests' and not the taxpyers?. Can the government impose such
laws?..are they not against the fundamental right to freedom?

Where is 7-G... review?

Blue Velvet

Here is a good review.

Blue Velvet (1986) is screenwriter and maverick director David Lynch's artistically bizarre cult film. It is an original look at sex, violence, crime and power under the peaceful exterior of small-town Americana in the mid-80s. Beneath the familiar, peaceful, 'American-dream' cleanliness of the daytime scenes lurks sleaziness, prostitution, unrestrained violence, and perversity - powerful and potentially-dangerous sexual forces that may be unleashed if not contained. A controversial film often criticized for its depiction of aberrant sexual behavior, the surrealistic, psychosexual film was a throwback to art films, 50s B-movies and teenage romances, film noir, and the mystery-suspense genre.

Although highly ridiculed and disdained when released as an extreme, dark, vulgar and disgusting film, it also won critical praise - Best Film of 1986, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) and Best Achievement in Cinematography (Frederick Elmes) by the National Society of Film Critics. It also received a sole nomination for Best Director from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The plot line of the nightmarish film, a combination of Marquis De Sade sexual fetishism and a Hardy Boys mystery story, is fairly sketchy. An innocent, small-town college student (MacLachlan) in a sleepy town discovers a severed ear, and then finds himself embroiled on the dark side of town (beyond the white picket fence). He witnesses, first as a voyeur, a sexually-depraved, blackmailing relationship between a monstrous, loathsome, nitrous-oxide sniffing kidnapper (Dennis Hopper) and an abused/brutalized mother and fragile nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini). In some ways, the two male leads represent the two dichotomous sides of life (e.g., light/dark, normalcy/aberration, attraction/repulsion, innocence/experience, perversion/love, virtue/base desires, etc.) that struggle for dominance. After the hideous crime of violated innocence is revealed, the vision of the innocent girl-next-door (Laura Dern) is restored - the "Blinding Light of Love."

Recycled Trash

This was one of my first post's, about two years ago. This was made after a conversation with a friend of mine..

I should probably not be making this post. But I am ignorant, and that gives me the license to err. Probably I can also take solace from the fact that there is no fuzzy arithmetic when it comes to the ultimate. People either know their self or they don’t .I guess there is no state of "semi-ultimate"(pretty oxymoronic huh!).If someone takes the "pain of pride" in describing himself as a nobody, and sees another’s attempt at saying "I am sacred to myself, because I haven’t come out of myself" as an intellectual pursuit(or an attempt at anything naively intellectual by an idiot),it pretty much beats me.I only am interested in getting a reasonable shot at the truth , and in clearing away(or clouding it further, as the case may be) the occultation and mystification in which those people in the 'holy business' have shrouded the whole thing.


My argument was and is, "great men are not great", at least to me.


When I have not attained the state of "Nothingness”, every thing around me is just 1,which is me.....(wow the ultimate truth seems to be a classical binary problem, with states being True positive and illusionary positive....hehe I enjoyed that).Every damn thing that is defined to be sacred on this Earth is sacred because its' defined relative to the self. Motherhood is sacred, when its' my mom, patriotism is sacred when it comes to my country, and so on. Actually these are convenient ways of expressing our ego. Proof of this fact is the "American Patriotism”. Because the country is perceived successful, its citizens associate themselves with it more than it is done in most other countries, hence the average American idiot is more patriotic than the Indian idiot. So it makes little sense to extend the idea of respect to the "sacred people”. When I call them 'sacred' from my "present state" its' hypocrisy which, though I don’t detest, is not a great way to set the ground rules. I SIMPLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND and believe utterances such as "I like the particular guru ",because of the same reasons that I do believe in liking my mom, my country, my wife (if there will be one such day)............



So my conclusion is this: when a person is still in the "world" as all of us are, nothing in this world matters because of its relative definition, and when a person does get liberated nothing should(by definition?)


So after all they don’t matter either way.......be it your mother, physics, sex or your sacred guru!

TKT ain't no Fight Club!

What purpose does TKT serve? I'm questioning the very motive behind the creation of such a powerful, yet often misused tool such as this blog! The minds that write in this space let themselves be consumed by trivial things. Of course I'm very much a part of this, but I'm trying to change. Realization is the first step towards enlightenment! Henceforth, I am refraining from making any posts on any one person or group, with the sole intention of bringing about disgrace. TKT was created to be something that would be fun to be a part of, not as a tool to insult and disgrace others.
I'm no harbringer of Sanity, but let me quote a favorite line of mine. " Never hate your enemy, it affects your judgement!" I'm asking all members of TKT to refrain from posting messages/comments filled with hatred. I'm sure there will be some repugnant comments questioning the sanity of the post and myself. I'm waiting for it!

Lazy..celebrating literature, fine arts and life

Blogging - to me, regardless of what the lexicons say, till recently, meant an emotional let-out of those whining,cynical individuals, fraught with social angst. With this being the general trend, a seemingly deviant case has to be regarded as an exception. But- when the impact of that exception is as overwhelming as LAZY's is, the generalization ought to be altered.

Lazy or Chennai blogger (as he calls himself), has succeeded in achieving what commercial websites like Sulekha, chennaionline or even HIndu's metro section meant to - providing a feel of home for those away from home. Lazy's blog brews with aroma of filter coffee and masala dosai, that I always leave it sated with flavor of home. Hope other bloggers draw a leaf out of Lazy's blog as he sure does celebrate life - the essence of our stint on this planet.

Rule no 10 of TKT

You have the right grant and not deny admin status to other members of TKT.

Somebody has done this today and would be guilty of breaching the Code of conduct of TKT, in future

No place for vengeance!

I don't know if others would agree with me on this.. but TKT shouldn't be a place for malice, revenge, hatred and all the other shit. whatever said here should be only for jovial purposes and there shouldn't be a post with the intention of causing harm to another one, be it a member of TKT or someone else.

Venki - A Character Analysis.

I have known this fucking loser for quite a while now - actually more than half my life. It really does amaze me how he actually manages to continue existence given his totally disfunctional(if at all existent) thought process. In the last 10 years he has never once indulged in a conversation - all he can do is preach. Hell yeah - PREACH!.Let me say this to him first......
"Look at your own screwed up self, you son of a bitch - then you would even stop breathing, leave alone talking or preaching or the worst of all habits of yours : assuming a moral high ground".

So to continue the analysis, let me use a third person to make it sound general ;)....

This person suffers from a serious personal attention debt. I think this probably accounts for the majority of such fucked up son's of bitches.

They are socially disabled and crave the contact of another human being in some way - a case in point - Swetha Ganapathi. A feeling of zero self-worth leads this moron to reach to the void for validation of their lives. What such losers look for in the guinea pig (like Swetha) is a passive listener who won't say - "Shut the Fuck Up". They tell her about their day, they tell her about something they did, all in the hopes that she'll provide them with the sort of approval their Daddy never gave them. They would listen to Swetha's silence and assume that nothing is better than someone saying something bad about what they've done and, like a fourteen-year-old with a Hustler, masturbate their self-esteem to the rhythm of her nods.

These people honestly believe that their 'listeners' actually care what they think about the various topics they rant about. They believe that their opinions matter in the grand scheme of things. They are typically idealists who believe that one-person-can-make-a-difference bullshit applies to them personally or that they are somehow more enlightened than the rest of us schmucks. They tend to be rather self-involved or often highly opinionated about one particular subject area (politics, music, etc.) and feel that their random meanderings on the subject are justified by their profound and unique insight into it.

Truth is, nobody really fucking cares what these people think. Such Chronic Reverse Voyeurs probably need sex worse than normal people need oxygen. These people should be shot on sight and all their genetic material vaporized...fucking losers.

Its Trisha now

After Kareena its Trisha's turn to take issues to court - Issue : a file that kept us busy for hours.

Movie watching is one of the few things I enjoy more than admiring myself. And discussing movies is something I enjoy more than the movies themselves. I guess the reason why I enjoy a movie is because of it's ability to explore the human psyche - in a sense I enjoy living vicariously during the experience, and wondering about the purpose of the lives of the characters. I love it when I keep thinking how each dialogue at that particular point in time is a combination of both impulse and deep thought. Director's and Script writers' have the best job's in my opinion.

As an extension - I also believe the magnitude of difference(or the lack of it, to be precise) between reality in the society and the it's movies is a true indicatior of it's stature. That would also explain as to why I hate a lot of things that are Indian and hold that society is such contempt.

A typical Tamil movie, which would be a mindless "entertainer", reeks of such a spineless society. Each time Vikram or Trisha fight or dance or indulge in rhetoric, I feel like puking. But at least the Tamil industry would have a saving grace once in a while - like a Kannathil Muthamittal. The yardstick of the difference in magnitude between the pathetic Hindi movies and their even more pathetic society keeps growing inspite of the best efforts of those morons' to ape the song/dance/melodrama routine into real life. Quite a tribute to the abyss they live in!

Any movie in my favorite list and others' would have this glaring difference - the viewer in a good movie will not feel like he is "watching" a movie during the experience, while a stupid Hindi movie will keep telling you in infinite ways that reality is in no way related to what's going on, and that you are "watching" a movie.

The reason I actually rambled on this is because Karthik said he hated "7G Rainbow Colony". Though it had a lot of flaws in almost all areas of technical Cinematography, it still measures well with it's peers. The story was real - I can believe what a pathetic loser that protagonist was. I meet such guys everyday of my life. The number of "cinematic" moments were way less than an average Tamil Movie, where the viewer is made to expect a funny scene when a "comedian" appears. The outline of the movie and the ways of 'Kathir' were no doubt gross by any standards, but to refuse to accept that reality of grossness is hypocrisy.

Trip to Florida

With Christmas and New Year round the corner, its time to plan for a great road trip.Ibelieve that the best hang out place at this time of the year is Florida.So ,how about planning sometime around next weekend.
Anybody game???

The myth called patriotism in the Anthem

"Thou are the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India's destiny.

The name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujurat and Maratha. Of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal.

It Echoes in the hills of Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.

They pray for your blessing and sing thy praise. The salvation of all people is thy hand, thou dispenser of India's destiny. Victory, Victory, Victory to thee"

This was sung in the Calcutta session of the INC in 1911 addressing King George on his visit to India and incidentally is the Indian National Anthem. Not honoring this song amounts to disrespecting the nation and can have one apprehended after a third of a century.

The national song "Vandhe Mataram" is seemingly more relevant and I (for obvious reasons) vouch for it. Other strong contenders are "Tamizha Tamizha" (again obvious for patriotism in India is no different from allegiance to one's ethinicity), "Ram Ram" or even "Gilli..." that would make more sense than the one stated above.

News Photography

A brother calling up someone on his sister's suicide.

Morality at Source.

Let me quote one of the few men I agree with (in parts!) - Ramana

When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: 'To whom do they arise?' It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, "To whom has this thought arisen?". The answer that would emerge would be "To me". Thereupon if one inquires "Who am I?", the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source.

So Hari, let me ask you - To whom does the thought of moral uprightness occur?

Hari in Disguise

I have always wondered if Tom Friedman was actually Hari Prasad in disguise. His column today strengthens my theory, really really well.

Hari and his ideological clones seem to make up this world.

Hari Prasad and Morality - 1.

One of my fundamental disagreements with Swami Vivekananda is with this statement of his

If you seek only bodily comforts, where is the difference between men and animals? Think yourselves a little higher than that

Almost all of mankind actually believes this in some form or the other - that their purpose on this Earth is somehow well defined and more important than every other 'lower' species. Looked at from a totally removed perspective, this idea seems even more stupid than the insane columns in The Dawn defending Islam. What is this idea of higher and lower species?....if there does actually exist such a distinction - what are the criteria?...who gets to decide what the criteria is/are?

Because we/I are/am part human kind, the criterion cannot be on our terms - and a fundamental yardstick would be survival. So can we say...."The Species that can cause destruction of the other, is the higher of the two species". If we were to do that, every virus/germ for which an anti-dote has not been found yet, is higher up the ladder. HIV should rank over humans.

To stop my rambling, my point: We are not created for any grander purpose than the ants that are there or the flies that are hovering around us or the mosquitoes that are sucking our blood.We are no more purposeful or meaningful than any other thing on this planet.The 'Natural State' is acausal; it just happens.


So with that introduction, what am trying to prove is :A 'moral man' is a frightened man- chicken hearted man; that is why he practices morality and sits in judgment over others.The human organism is not interested in Hari's wonderful ideas--peace, bliss, beatitude or any such thing. Its only interest is survival.

However I can understand why Hari and millions of other mortals walking this Earth indulge in such self comforting sophistry. It's the fear of emptiness, fear of the unknown, fear of everything that we think is beyond our grasp. It is fear that makes Hari and every other human believe that they are living and that they will be dead.What we do not want is the fear to come to an end. That is why we have invented all these new minds, new sciences,new talks, therapies, choiceless awareness and various other gimmicks. Fear is the very thing that we do not want to be free from. If the fear comes to an end, you and I will drop dead.

Mystery unravelled

Doctor's prescription and the luckiest man

The doc's prescription for those assuming intellect over others and indulging in a highly contrived Se7en's "Kevin Spacey" like rant, i.e. those fraught with trite wanting to puke on the supposedly banal individuals and those propounding a dirty mix of agnosticism, asceticism, nihilism and existentialist principles is as follows:

- 6 reality pills and a forced look at the mirror everyday


And with sudersh having left for good, I have become the luckiest man on this planet - "For Ole moved into my room"

Licking Ass 'The Hindu' way

The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : We enjoy strong internal democracy: CPI(M) leader

Can you beleive 'The Hindu' is actually running a centre page article on the internal democracy of the Communist Party of India?.....what's next - an article on how dialectical materialism would lead to free markets??

Humor - Islamic Style.

Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and Peter Sellers together cannot make up even half of 1% of the rolling on the floor laughter that Islam, Qurran and it's followers offer us.

Each individual entity - namely Islam in itself or The Qurran by itself or those fanatic moron's by themselves are funny enough - but when they join hands like in the above article, it simply is out of this Universe.

The premise of the author is this : Islam through the Qurran recognized women's right to inheritance(and a few other such crap) 1200 years ago - long before Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism ever thought of "feminism". To prove a point he goes on to list the discriminatory practices/laws in those societies. He goes on and actually writes the following...

The element of tender care for women is reflected in 2:223 where it says, "Your wives are as a tilth unto you..." You have only to ask a farmer how he cherishes, cares for, and covets his tilth, to capture the exquisite beauty of the simile. Reciprocal respect is enjoined in 2:187, where spouses are called each other's "garment." There is no concept of the woman worshipping the husband.

Although one of the steps to discipline wives, "on whose part one fears disloyalty and ill-conduct," permits "beating." (4:34), all commentators, including Imam Shafei, are unanimous in holding that "beating" should be deprecated and if at all resorted to, should be nominal, without any element of cruelty. Besides there must be no "nagging" if the wife corrects herself.

S.G. Jilanee, May I ask you this : Ever heard of using a singular for "wife"??, ever wondered why even "beating" of animals is outlawed in most 'civil' societies?. You or your religion or your society of 15 C do not have to prove anything to anyone - society's do not owe explanations to one another. If you want to actually write something that is boring but also happens to be 'academic' and correct - a course in History of Religions might help. But I strongly recommend you stay off University Campuses which might hinder the gift of natural flow of Gibberish that you posses.

Finally, let me say this.......You are free to practice your fucked up prejudices, but just a small suggestion - "Keep your explanations flowing, they seem to be more pleasurable than sex with a Blonde stranger"

Kareena Kapoor to sue Mid-Day.

I'll fight for my dignity: Kareena

When the headline screams such, you and I may assume - Kareena was probably made to masturbate in public and drown in her own urine when doing so. Or still worse, maybe her genitals were cut (quite a task for the female version eh!) and then thrust up her ass - all in public. But alas, none such news worthy stuff happened and all that apparently did or did not happen was a Public Kissing.

Seriously, Kareena did you even read your own statement twice?, are you actually going to sue a newspaper for publishing photographs of a "kiss"???.....I guess you are actually wondering if this makes a really good Bollywood script - let me tell you - "Forget It"

Complying by TKT 4th rule

Over a casual conversation, pratap has said that he was referring to me. If he is, then it just validates my point! and for the record, i don't give a rat's ass to others!

The Kaleej Times (TKT) Rules

TKT 1st RULE: You always talk about TKT.

TKT 2nd RULE: You ALWAYS talk about TKT.

TKT 3rd RULE: You always write about someone and if he/she says "stop" or breaks down, you dont

TKT 4th RULE: Atleast a kaleej/olegem at a time

TKT 5th RULE: one post at a time.

TKT 6th RULE: No sweat, no shit- its all fun

TKT 7th RULE: Posts will go on as long as you intend

TKT 8th RULE: If this is your first time in TKT, you HAVE to post and prove your mettle

TKT 9th RULE: TKT is no FIGHT CLUB!

Putinocracy

Nicholas Kristof is one of my favorite columnist's. Part of it of course, stems from the fact that I come from a land where Rajdeep Sardesai and his pseudo "Hand's On" kinda contrasts well with Kristof's actual "Hands On". Be it his report from Tiananmen Square or from Darfur, his presence really does inspire true journalistic desire in laymen. Unlike those in my sister or Karthiks' who are fed on glorified, sensational and stupid reporting of the million television channels in India.

Anyways, the point of this post is his recent column from Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe. His remark,

In effect, Mr. Putin has steered Russia from a dictatorship of the left to a dictatorship of the right (Chinese leaders have done much the same thing). Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet, Park Chung Hee and Putin all emerged in societies suffering from economic and political chaos. All consolidated power in part because they established order and made the trains - or planes - run on time

is so apt. I remember my parent's in the quasi/semi/pseudo socialistic India of late eighties remarking "We need a military Rule to teach these thugs a lesson" in dinner conversations.

Though that was more an expression of angst than a genuine desire, the perception for convenience at the expense of individual freedom is a typical middle class syndrome across the third world(which now includes Russia and Eastern Europe). The reason why Indira Gandhi is still popular in parts of India or why Putin was reelected have their roots in the collective psyche of a society that craves for order irrespective of the nature of "order".

As he rightly points out, this order when it establishes economic growth - results in people using their relative economic comforts as a buffer and seeking a lack of political order - Democracy.

Fascinating and Vicious.


P.S : You would need to sign in to access those articles. It's free in case you already haven't.

Annie Hall (1977)

Annie Hall (1977)

Alvy's mother: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything.
Doctor: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's mother: Tell Dr. Flicker. (To the doctor) It's something he read.
Doctor: Something he read, huh?
Alvy: The universe is expanding...Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.
Alvy's mother: What is that your business? (To the doctor) He stopped doing his homework.
Alvy: What's the point?
Alvy's mother: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding.
Doctor: It won't be expanding for billions of years, yet Alvy. And we've got to try to enjoy ourselves while we're here, huh, huh? Ha, ha, ha. (He gives an artificial laugh before taking another drag on his cigarette)

Woody Allen really did make other moron's stand up and take notice of how beautiful even a Romantic Comedy can be. It really was a mild exaggeration of my own life and almost everybody else's that I actually associated myslef with Alvy.


For Alvy, life is relentlessly fearful and filled with paranoia - he must vigilantly combat all real (and imagined) fears with his intelligence and rationality or the lack of it. He knows the craziness of himself and the world around, but simply cannot find a way to deal with it on a permanent basis. How much of Nilu ;).......

Know thyself!!

Oh...there is this guy in Clemson who keeps worrying about every other person in this world.The funny thing about him is that he doesn't know how stupid he is. I think you all know who I am talking about.

Moral : See YOUR FACE in the mirror before seeing others.Know thyself!!

Here we go! (yet again!)

The thought of being a part of a group such as kaleej times is somethin that makes me wanna puke! I'm sure that if there are ppl like suppini, pratap in the group, the topic invariably wud be focussed on some stupid fucked up rant that they think of and add my name as the author of it! Oh well, let's see the capabilities of these (in)human minds at work!

Principia Peoplica - 1

Earth Shattering Facts 1 & 2
1. People (like it or not)lead lives.
2. Life (is understood to be) defined by people.

Like the Laws of Newton or the tenets of Advaita or the speed of light, the above facts seem to be the most easily stated and almost never understood ideas. Just as easy as it is to state the above, so is this euphemism for those facts: " Everyone is but a product of their circumstances".

To stop my rambling incoherence and the associated dumbfuckery in which I often seem to get lost , my point is that regardless of what people do and what they think - they are all so irritatingly similar that they annoyingly dictate at least parts of our lives. Ironic that we are people ourselves huh!??.

That bloody vicious cycle is exactly what am trying to deal with here.

My personal idea of life is this : Aimless wander till we drop dead. To substantiate, let me concentrate on the very profession of the majority readership here. Engineering by definition is a way of making "Life" easier (Am using 'easier' and not better, for obvious reasons). But if as an individual I cannot fathom in my own remotest dreams as to what the holy hell the very purpose of my life is - regardless of what I do, why should I ever bother about somebody else's and worse - make it "easier" ?

In the ultimate analysis everything seems futile : An academic achievement, Sexual gratification, Affection towards Progeny, Faith etc. These are standards which appear to have been set by chicken hearted individuals who feared the brutality of the emptiness of life befalling them. I refuse to be cowed down by their stupidity and hope to prove to readers here in the next few posts : why we should/must die.

See you soon ;)