Once again the cricketing world hears news on Umpire Steve Bucknor. He has reported that he received threatening phone calls. If this is true, it is very bad for cricket. This is after all a game. Mr. Bucknor is currently umpiring the England South Africa series in SA. But today, South African police have released a report that there is no substance to his claim. Frankly, now, I really doubt this threat issue in first place. As per media reports Mr. Bucknor had a poor showing during the current test series. He had lots of confrontation with the South African captain.
In order to cover his irresponsible show man ship during the test series, Mr. Bucknor is now trying to gain sympathy by diverting the issue. I may be speculating, why? going by various incidents in the past, I am forced to agree to the media reports on Mr. Bucknor.
In my opinion, Steve Bucknor, without doubt is a terrible umpire, apart from his poor judgment of the game, he goes one step further and tries to push undue influence on the players. He is often caught behaving like a tyrant managing director. There are innumerable poor decisions given by him that affect the result of the game. Indians have gone through his ridiculous methods of shoddy umpiring.
Hope we all remember how he treated Patel, he might be a school kid , but he is playing for India. He is an international cricketer representing his country, That itself demands respect from Officials. Mr. Bucker over stepped and treated him like a school kid, Mr. Bucknor behaved like a school head master. There was no need to do that. He just wanted to show what he is all about. He got away from this.
Who can ever forget his cheap mockery of Rahul Dravid’s during the ball tampering issue? Considering the responsibility and job portfolio of Umpires, they are similar to judges in the court of law. Their main responsibility is to enforce the rules of the game. They are expected to maintain a decent decorum. We all still remember how Mr. Bucknor mimed to ridicule Dravid. Let me tell you Rahul Dravid is no banana player, he tops most cricketing rating today one of the icon of the game, he is known of his sportsmanship and calm heads down behavior during the game. He was insulted by Mr. Bucknor witnessed by the entire world, is it right for an umpire to behave in such a manner? ICC or BCCI did nothing about this till date. He got away.
In Australia, Mr. Bucknor gave the most ridicules LBW decision known to mankind. This time the victim was one Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. To me and most he is the best batsmen in the world today. Why Mr. Bucknor gave such a poor decision? If you think that decision was by mistake consider yourself as naive. I am sorry, No! Mr. Bucknor wanted to show the world that even the best batsman in the world is under his control. When someone is branded to be the best umpire in the world how can he miss such a no brainer decision? Like everyone watching the game Mr. B clearly knew it was a simply a ridicules decision.
Once again the world supported him by saying umpires are also human, hey! Let me tell you, when you cannot watch the ball from 22 yards I really don’t know a better place to watch the ball. Your sole job is to watch the ball period. I really don’t agree the weak claim that Mr. B did it by mistake; he did it to establish his power. He is guilty he knows it.
In the ongoing South Africa Vs England series, Bucknor started his drama to prove his authority, finally South African captain gave up to Mr. Bucknor, Yes! Smith did utter something to the umpire that was un-parliamentary; but ICC fails to note that all this incidents were fuelled by the sheer frustration of the fact that Mr.Bucknor had turned down three plumb LBW decisions against Graeme Thorpe. Two appeared to be definition decisions, meaning we can use them as specimens to explain what LBW is all about. Smith is very cool guy and plays genuine cricket. I think going by past records, Mr. Bucknor’s ego is the culprit again.
Who is going to account for this? How long the players and fans take these atrocious decisions and behavior of Steve Bucknor? Don’t they pay thousands of Rupees or Dollars or Rands to watch a genuine game, Why ICC is ignoring this poison ivy and letting it grow?
Today, ICC should not permit umpires like Steve Bucknor to steal the game for their self-centered causes. No one is indispensable, no one is bigger than the game, and hence it is high time to fire this guy mercilessly. It seems he was a soccer umpire, send him back there, cricket fans are too polite. He does not deserve politeness.
1/31/05
1/28/05
The 5 second Chat.
When Sun TV news rolls back after a break, the news readers speak or whisper something among them selves, I use to wonder what they would speak in that 5 second time. Today we have technology to over hear them, to my surprise they cover many topic in 5 seconds, using latest technology called Dish-DTOHTNR, I was able to find out what they were talking. See below.
1/27/05
Yesteday Evening after work.,
Yesterday, I went back home and was taken back, Sun TV pumped in special programs for Republic day. I stepped in at about 6.45pm [EST]. A quiz competition among school kids Wow! Sun TV and good programming was an oxymoron however since I had no other “removing” work [aka. kazatara vellai], I decided to watch TV.
There was Team A, Team B, Team C and so on until Team H. Seriously I have never seen a Quiz show with more than 4 teams. Here it was different, 8 teams with 3 members in each, more or less like a round examination hall. The quiz master must be thanking god, he was sitting; else he would need an auto to come back to his home base after every round. Each team was provided with a 15inch CRT monitor, while the quiz master was given a flat panel.
My wife told me that Quiz master was Abi’s Ex-husband. Oh! Now I see why Abi divorced him. Basically this guy could talk only from a script; he cannot talk directly of his head. A quiz master is often seen extempore; here it looked like he was waiting for a prompting voice to appear, which he would then simple repeat along with the prompter. Bayangara bore.
Sun TV continuing their love and affection towards cinema, opted to show movies clips in the quiz, poor kids expecting something more academic were seen blinking for most questions. Also there were some easy questions which the kids failed. Where was the salt Satyagraha held in Tamil Nadu?, most kids told “no idea”. The quick fire round was a mockery , but the most stupid round was the clue round, it seems this guy will give 3 clues for a question, points will reduce as the clue increases. But the poor kid had only once chance to answer. In First place kids needs to give an answer loud in order get evaluated, if it is wrong they can go for more clues. But they get only 1 chance to answer. Totally Bizarre! A very poor QUIZ show, I think it is better for Sun TV to stick to “kokarako gumango” themes. However I don’t want to take away anything from the kids, they did quite well and they took it very seriously.
But after this entire quiz blitz, came the movie, drum roll please…a movie called “Dud” oops Red, featuring Ajith and many other people who would not have seen the camera after this movie. I am tired of using the word “Crap”, is there any other word for this movie, yes “RED”. From today, we have new set of Positive, Comparative and Superlative in English, Crap – Craptaculor – RED. People, from now “Red the movie” shall be a Superlative adjective.
Ajith had a new look - shaved head and giant size Red “kungumam” it was more or less a Equator that ran across his fore head. Some in USA might confuse him with a Stop Sign. I felt only the “kodali” was missing; else his make up would work perfectly for a Parasuramer getup, Mr. Ram Anandji should make a note of it.Ajith’s pronunciation was quite comical. Hear him say the word “Lovely” next time. Anyways, when a 10 pound feather weight Sullan or Kullan can kick people 200 times heaver than him, why not Ajith? Like other top action hero’s Ajith makes sure he ridicules the law of aero dynamics, law of physics, chemistry, botany, history, geography, PT etc. Once he just bends a 20x10 dagger with his hand. I doubt if we could even do this with a hammer.
An Anecdote,in the classic MGR thriller Idyakkani?, MGR and Thenga Srini goes in foreigner disguise to the enemy hide out on a speed boat. They introduce themselves as Mr. Red and Mr. Black. Anyway, the movie reaches its height when Ajith gives an expansion to the word RED – Revolution, Education and Development. That’s it my Hitachi TV turned itself off and went into deep hibernation mode. I never saw the completion of the movie “RED”.
There was Team A, Team B, Team C and so on until Team H. Seriously I have never seen a Quiz show with more than 4 teams. Here it was different, 8 teams with 3 members in each, more or less like a round examination hall. The quiz master must be thanking god, he was sitting; else he would need an auto to come back to his home base after every round. Each team was provided with a 15inch CRT monitor, while the quiz master was given a flat panel.
My wife told me that Quiz master was Abi’s Ex-husband. Oh! Now I see why Abi divorced him. Basically this guy could talk only from a script; he cannot talk directly of his head. A quiz master is often seen extempore; here it looked like he was waiting for a prompting voice to appear, which he would then simple repeat along with the prompter. Bayangara bore.
Sun TV continuing their love and affection towards cinema, opted to show movies clips in the quiz, poor kids expecting something more academic were seen blinking for most questions. Also there were some easy questions which the kids failed. Where was the salt Satyagraha held in Tamil Nadu?, most kids told “no idea”. The quick fire round was a mockery , but the most stupid round was the clue round, it seems this guy will give 3 clues for a question, points will reduce as the clue increases. But the poor kid had only once chance to answer. In First place kids needs to give an answer loud in order get evaluated, if it is wrong they can go for more clues. But they get only 1 chance to answer. Totally Bizarre! A very poor QUIZ show, I think it is better for Sun TV to stick to “kokarako gumango” themes. However I don’t want to take away anything from the kids, they did quite well and they took it very seriously.
But after this entire quiz blitz, came the movie, drum roll please…a movie called “Dud” oops Red, featuring Ajith and many other people who would not have seen the camera after this movie. I am tired of using the word “Crap”, is there any other word for this movie, yes “RED”. From today, we have new set of Positive, Comparative and Superlative in English, Crap – Craptaculor – RED. People, from now “Red the movie” shall be a Superlative adjective.
Ajith had a new look - shaved head and giant size Red “kungumam” it was more or less a Equator that ran across his fore head. Some in USA might confuse him with a Stop Sign. I felt only the “kodali” was missing; else his make up would work perfectly for a Parasuramer getup, Mr. Ram Anandji should make a note of it.Ajith’s pronunciation was quite comical. Hear him say the word “Lovely” next time. Anyways, when a 10 pound feather weight Sullan or Kullan can kick people 200 times heaver than him, why not Ajith? Like other top action hero’s Ajith makes sure he ridicules the law of aero dynamics, law of physics, chemistry, botany, history, geography, PT etc. Once he just bends a 20x10 dagger with his hand. I doubt if we could even do this with a hammer.
An Anecdote,in the classic MGR thriller Idyakkani?, MGR and Thenga Srini goes in foreigner disguise to the enemy hide out on a speed boat. They introduce themselves as Mr. Red and Mr. Black. Anyway, the movie reaches its height when Ajith gives an expansion to the word RED – Revolution, Education and Development. That’s it my Hitachi TV turned itself off and went into deep hibernation mode. I never saw the completion of the movie “RED”.
1/26/05
New Tamil Song Release
Folks, my next Tamil song written by Udhaya and sung by Suren is available now for free down load in my website. Please feel free to download and please pass across this information to your friends and family.
This song was composed for prewritten lyrics. I have been bugging Udhaya for quite some time to write songs with a punk rock flavor. I call it CurryRock tm. I felt such musical emotions are very rare in Tamil light music world.
Udhaya at once answered my call and sent me the words at once. When I read the chorus lines for the first time, believe it or not, the tune started to appear right away in my head. Basically, anything you do with music, the words are the soul for inspiration. If the words are weak, it takes time to compose however if the words are powerful, the entire score seems to evolve automatically. Quickly every part fell into its place.
When I Audition someone apart from singing with proper pitch/key there is one more layer that I look for in every singer I audition. The singer should be able to convey the emotion in the words and in the score. I have come across singers who sing in perfect pitch. They focus so much to align their pitch however in this process they tend to miss the emotion completely, their singing ends up dry. Bottom line, I prefer working with singers with tons of emotions. Suren is one such singer in my neck of the woods, Baltimore MD.; he did a neat job in singing this track for me. I also chipped in high pitched backing vocals in few places.
Finally, when ever you cook something new you need a good taster standing next to you. Thanks to Sridhar Seetharaman [NJ] for sitting with me during serious composing sessions.
So with all this "hype" in mind, Please visit my website and download this song and please send me a feed back. Frankly, the feed back is the only thing that helps me boost my morale to compose more.
This song was composed for prewritten lyrics. I have been bugging Udhaya for quite some time to write songs with a punk rock flavor. I call it CurryRock tm. I felt such musical emotions are very rare in Tamil light music world.
Udhaya at once answered my call and sent me the words at once. When I read the chorus lines for the first time, believe it or not, the tune started to appear right away in my head. Basically, anything you do with music, the words are the soul for inspiration. If the words are weak, it takes time to compose however if the words are powerful, the entire score seems to evolve automatically. Quickly every part fell into its place.
When I Audition someone apart from singing with proper pitch/key there is one more layer that I look for in every singer I audition. The singer should be able to convey the emotion in the words and in the score. I have come across singers who sing in perfect pitch. They focus so much to align their pitch however in this process they tend to miss the emotion completely, their singing ends up dry. Bottom line, I prefer working with singers with tons of emotions. Suren is one such singer in my neck of the woods, Baltimore MD.; he did a neat job in singing this track for me. I also chipped in high pitched backing vocals in few places.
Finally, when ever you cook something new you need a good taster standing next to you. Thanks to Sridhar Seetharaman [NJ] for sitting with me during serious composing sessions.
So with all this "hype" in mind, Please visit my website and download this song and please send me a feed back. Frankly, the feed back is the only thing that helps me boost my morale to compose more.
1/25/05
It is after all a....
People, God sends us indirect messages in our life every day. But we tend to miss most of them, thanks to rapid commercialization by the manufacturing world. It is getting insane day by day. They are trying to exploit your daily needs. I see you are confused by now, you are thinking what the hell I am talking about; Ok, here it is, I am taking about shaving blades.
Life was very easy when we had standard razor blade with 2 opposite edges. A box full of it was less than a dollar. A simple holder will open and we place the blade on it. That’s it. This did the job quite well. These standard blades had additional uses, it can sharpen pencils, open sealed boxes, draw doodles on Electric trains, school rest rooms, this also created a well known slang to denote people like me, [SrikanthA avan sema “blade” machi].
This multipurpose work horse came with a very small price tag. An average adult in 80’s [not the T.Rajendar kind] spent something less than Rs 5.00 for their shaving razor. Life was simple for the consumer.
Soon, the blade-people wanted a performance review, only way to get a pay hike is increase their profits, the Razor manufactures planned on a major conspiracy to increase their profits. It worked and it is working for so many years now. What was this plan?
Eureka! One “Razologist” said hey why don’t we invent a single sided razor? So that people don’t get one side for free. And seeing humans becoming lazy to wash their old shaving blades, they added the disposable tag to it, meaning it came with a ready made handle, the blade was molded to the Handle. Bottom line, a multipurpose tool whose life time was about 1 week of shaving and 1 week for domestic tasks was cut short to 2 days, poor thing was thrown out for recycle in the name of hygiene.
As expected people fell for it, the single edged razor made some money, but very soon another Razo geek added the second edge that they took out from the previous and gave the world the twin razor shaving blade, the poor old razor was broken into 2 and placed one below another.
Yes, People fell for it again, most men, thinking that a super model would show up from some where in the elevator to touch and feel their 2x2 rectangle face went for it right away. The cost of this twin was triple to its predecessors.
But the “Bladiacs” [like Maniacs] thought this was not enough, there was scope to make more money, they came up with another rip off, this time the twins became triplets but to make it more effective they added fancy words like Titanium, Molybdenum Francium as its prefix. Most who shaved with this had no idea what elements have to do with shaving. They just know these fancy names came from their chemistry teacher’s periodic tables. Hence it must be something scientific. They flocked stores like Costco and Sam club which sold them in bulk and got the big giant size boxes and displayed them proudly. Mind it; “all the versions do exactly the same work”
I am really wondering why we need so much selection for a product that does the same work as its pervious versions, with a very high price tag. It is a clear rip off.
After all this rip off for so many years, as if this was not enough, yesterday, I saw a commercial, yes you guessed it, they introduced a razor with 4 titanium edges in them. What else to say, the Bladiacs” are attacking once again.
People! Do not fall for them this time, trust me if you cannot shave with twin or triplet, the foursome is not going to do anything, still if you feel you need this, hey! it is about time to get a lawnmower instead.
Life was very easy when we had standard razor blade with 2 opposite edges. A box full of it was less than a dollar. A simple holder will open and we place the blade on it. That’s it. This did the job quite well. These standard blades had additional uses, it can sharpen pencils, open sealed boxes, draw doodles on Electric trains, school rest rooms, this also created a well known slang to denote people like me, [SrikanthA avan sema “blade” machi].
This multipurpose work horse came with a very small price tag. An average adult in 80’s [not the T.Rajendar kind] spent something less than Rs 5.00 for their shaving razor. Life was simple for the consumer.
Soon, the blade-people wanted a performance review, only way to get a pay hike is increase their profits, the Razor manufactures planned on a major conspiracy to increase their profits. It worked and it is working for so many years now. What was this plan?
Eureka! One “Razologist” said hey why don’t we invent a single sided razor? So that people don’t get one side for free. And seeing humans becoming lazy to wash their old shaving blades, they added the disposable tag to it, meaning it came with a ready made handle, the blade was molded to the Handle. Bottom line, a multipurpose tool whose life time was about 1 week of shaving and 1 week for domestic tasks was cut short to 2 days, poor thing was thrown out for recycle in the name of hygiene.
As expected people fell for it, the single edged razor made some money, but very soon another Razo geek added the second edge that they took out from the previous and gave the world the twin razor shaving blade, the poor old razor was broken into 2 and placed one below another.
Yes, People fell for it again, most men, thinking that a super model would show up from some where in the elevator to touch and feel their 2x2 rectangle face went for it right away. The cost of this twin was triple to its predecessors.
But the “Bladiacs” [like Maniacs] thought this was not enough, there was scope to make more money, they came up with another rip off, this time the twins became triplets but to make it more effective they added fancy words like Titanium, Molybdenum Francium as its prefix. Most who shaved with this had no idea what elements have to do with shaving. They just know these fancy names came from their chemistry teacher’s periodic tables. Hence it must be something scientific. They flocked stores like Costco and Sam club which sold them in bulk and got the big giant size boxes and displayed them proudly. Mind it; “all the versions do exactly the same work”
I am really wondering why we need so much selection for a product that does the same work as its pervious versions, with a very high price tag. It is a clear rip off.
After all this rip off for so many years, as if this was not enough, yesterday, I saw a commercial, yes you guessed it, they introduced a razor with 4 titanium edges in them. What else to say, the Bladiacs” are attacking once again.
People! Do not fall for them this time, trust me if you cannot shave with twin or triplet, the foursome is not going to do anything, still if you feel you need this, hey! it is about time to get a lawnmower instead.
1/24/05
Couch Pumpkin Union - CPU.
During the weekend, the snow gods were very generous; we had about 8 inches of snow.
The entire community was out with their snow shovels and loud music from their car stereos, for the first time, I felt energized to clean our drive way. It took me about an hour to clear 20,000 tons of white powdery snow.
I had nothing to do during the weekend [I can blame the snow for this], I spent the whole weekend as a couch pumpkin watching “TV”. Watched “Rhythm”, Directed by Vasanth, a good movie with very nice screen play, acting and music. I also watched some ESPN shows. It was an eye opener, I realized I am not the only jobless guy around, there are plenty like me and bad part is they are being paid well and I am not. They were groups of experts grinding football 24x7. I thoroughly enjoyed all the shows.
On Sunday heart was broken, Steelers fans went into mourning, reason, Pittsburgh Steelers were beaten by the New England Patriots. Steeler’s rookie quarter back was contained well. After all 15/1 did not make any impact during the finals;
Tom Brady, the Washington Post says he is a very average quarter back, I say this, talent is one element, but everything in life is all about being at the right place at the right time. If these 3 elements come to together Success is guaranteed. Today Manning and Culpepper would be watching and wondering about this chemistry.
“The Bus” Jerome Bettis one among the top running backs in NFL, never made it to the super bowl; this might be his last season. His NFL ambitions might end similar to that of Chris Carter, without a super bowl ring. “Abundant Talent” accepted but “the right place and right time” went against him. Looking forward for Eagles vs. NE; I am slightly partial to the Eagles. However I don’t want to bet on either.
My website is back working, uploaded some of my last years composition. Other things will follow, after a long gap I completed my next single [in Tamil] written by Udhaya, [Vocals by Surendran] scheduled to be released soon.
The entire community was out with their snow shovels and loud music from their car stereos, for the first time, I felt energized to clean our drive way. It took me about an hour to clear 20,000 tons of white powdery snow.
I had nothing to do during the weekend [I can blame the snow for this], I spent the whole weekend as a couch pumpkin watching “TV”. Watched “Rhythm”, Directed by Vasanth, a good movie with very nice screen play, acting and music. I also watched some ESPN shows. It was an eye opener, I realized I am not the only jobless guy around, there are plenty like me and bad part is they are being paid well and I am not. They were groups of experts grinding football 24x7. I thoroughly enjoyed all the shows.
On Sunday heart was broken, Steelers fans went into mourning, reason, Pittsburgh Steelers were beaten by the New England Patriots. Steeler’s rookie quarter back was contained well. After all 15/1 did not make any impact during the finals;
Tom Brady, the Washington Post says he is a very average quarter back, I say this, talent is one element, but everything in life is all about being at the right place at the right time. If these 3 elements come to together Success is guaranteed. Today Manning and Culpepper would be watching and wondering about this chemistry.
“The Bus” Jerome Bettis one among the top running backs in NFL, never made it to the super bowl; this might be his last season. His NFL ambitions might end similar to that of Chris Carter, without a super bowl ring. “Abundant Talent” accepted but “the right place and right time” went against him. Looking forward for Eagles vs. NE; I am slightly partial to the Eagles. However I don’t want to bet on either.
My website is back working, uploaded some of my last years composition. Other things will follow, after a long gap I completed my next single [in Tamil] written by Udhaya, [Vocals by Surendran] scheduled to be released soon.
1/21/05
Movies I watched recently
Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi: Yet another Tamil Movie! It might have been interesting if the duration had been reduced to an hour and a half. However No, this movie nose dives at various places. The hero of this movie is Ravi , titled “Jayam” Ravi.
Someone must have told Ravi that acting means mere shouting in full throat and the elements like facial expression need not be used. Our hero simply shouts loud for every given emotion. The agony multiplies when praskash raj shows up. He talks quickly though it works in most movies, this movie it was mere comedy.
Nadiya , yes the same Nadiya who troubled teens during 80’s makes a come back [from London] as Ravi’s mother. She exits quickly as though her visa expired during the shoot. Vivek’s comedy was the only thing worth. Music by Srikanth Deva, No comments on the songs but the backgrounds music was mere sounds and effects. The sound engineer made sure he used all the 5.1 channels of DTS. The entire movie starts of similar to Rocky but becomes sentimental and ends as “Semakady”
Manmadan: I have become a great fan of Silambarasan. He has the talent. In fact, fantastic talent; Manmadan was kind of psycho subject, His acting was clean and powerful. The problem here once again was the script; it cannot be dragged for 3 hours. In spite of jothika, the script lost weight after the first half. However still I feel Silambarasan has the potential than other young heroes today. I wish he controls his passion for additional fittings like double earnings, bangles, bands etc. He just has to pick a good scripts and work with sane directors, I am sure he will be the next top star. I will keep watching out for his movies.
One thing I am seeing in all new movies, during olden day’s hero will meet the villain face to face.MGR/M.N.NAMBIYAR or SIVAJI/MNN or Rajini/Karate Mani or Kamal/Satyaraj . But in today's movies the combination is different,
It is mostly Vijay/Noika Ravi/Samsung Danush/Motorola, meaning, 50% of the dialogue are exchanged with villain via a cell phone. Why? Do they get more air time for free?
Yesterday DC was closed, weekend lots of snow and NFL plays off. :)
Have a good weekend,
Someone must have told Ravi that acting means mere shouting in full throat and the elements like facial expression need not be used. Our hero simply shouts loud for every given emotion. The agony multiplies when praskash raj shows up. He talks quickly though it works in most movies, this movie it was mere comedy.
Nadiya , yes the same Nadiya who troubled teens during 80’s makes a come back [from London] as Ravi’s mother. She exits quickly as though her visa expired during the shoot. Vivek’s comedy was the only thing worth. Music by Srikanth Deva, No comments on the songs but the backgrounds music was mere sounds and effects. The sound engineer made sure he used all the 5.1 channels of DTS. The entire movie starts of similar to Rocky but becomes sentimental and ends as “Semakady”
Manmadan: I have become a great fan of Silambarasan. He has the talent. In fact, fantastic talent; Manmadan was kind of psycho subject, His acting was clean and powerful. The problem here once again was the script; it cannot be dragged for 3 hours. In spite of jothika, the script lost weight after the first half. However still I feel Silambarasan has the potential than other young heroes today. I wish he controls his passion for additional fittings like double earnings, bangles, bands etc. He just has to pick a good scripts and work with sane directors, I am sure he will be the next top star. I will keep watching out for his movies.
One thing I am seeing in all new movies, during olden day’s hero will meet the villain face to face.MGR/M.N.NAMBIYAR or SIVAJI/MNN or Rajini/Karate Mani or Kamal/Satyaraj . But in today's movies the combination is different,
It is mostly Vijay/Noika Ravi/Samsung Danush/Motorola, meaning, 50% of the dialogue are exchanged with villain via a cell phone. Why? Do they get more air time for free?
Yesterday DC was closed, weekend lots of snow and NFL plays off. :)
Have a good weekend,
1/17/05
Back Online.
My Web site is back online. Thanks to everyone who emailed me enquiring about the web site. Finally after a month, I had the time to recover data from the backups. Few Audio files are yet to be uploaded, it takes time due to the restricted up stream bandwidth; this should be completed by this weekend.
NFL
Vikes lost to Eagles, Eagles were favored by lady luck at various moments of the game. However a win is a win. Vikes played very badly. Steelers managed to win whew! a close call. This time lady luck helped Pittsburgh to win, an over time field goal saved them. Tell me this, How can NY Jets miss two easy field goals? Is this what we call as Destiny?.
New England put a giant size lid on Manning and he was shut down. Thanks to their defense and the snowy conditions. I felt Tom Brady did not do much. A good defense would take him down for nothing. NE won because of their powerful defense.
Steelers Face NE next week, A very good game to watch; However the best team I saw in action was Atlanta Falcons. I feel this was the only team that won the game with offense during the weekend. "Mich Vick was too quick" for the Rams!. I think I will put my money on the Falcons.
NFL
Vikes lost to Eagles, Eagles were favored by lady luck at various moments of the game. However a win is a win. Vikes played very badly. Steelers managed to win whew! a close call. This time lady luck helped Pittsburgh to win, an over time field goal saved them. Tell me this, How can NY Jets miss two easy field goals? Is this what we call as Destiny?.
New England put a giant size lid on Manning and he was shut down. Thanks to their defense and the snowy conditions. I felt Tom Brady did not do much. A good defense would take him down for nothing. NE won because of their powerful defense.
Steelers Face NE next week, A very good game to watch; However the best team I saw in action was Atlanta Falcons. I feel this was the only team that won the game with offense during the weekend. "Mich Vick was too quick" for the Rams!. I think I will put my money on the Falcons.
1/14/05
Mac Mini
Following their great success on IPODS, Apple has come out with their brand new gizmo, “the Mac mini”. It seems Apple’s goal is to get more people to use Mac.
Seriously! Apple Mac has some phenomenal user interface and system stability. The price is the main culprit that drives away customers. Usually when you configure a serious Apple Mac with all the power components included the price range will be something that you can trade in a new BMW 5 series in exchange.
Today PCs are very cheap and affordable; hence getting PC people to the Mac world is kind of tough. Keeping this mind, Apple surprisingly has set a price tag of $499 for Mac mini.
I was shocked. I decided to check this out at once. There were many surprises. The best feature that matched the advertisement [“WYSIWYG”] was the size. The Mini Mac looked similar to a dot NET/C# book from Wrox publications. A petite 2-inch tall 6.5-inch square, reminded me of my favorite witty cartoon pal Mr. Square Pants. I was thrilled by the look and feel.My decision to cross over was round the corner, exactly like Apple had wanted.
But! There is always a catch [in this case caught and bowled]. This is a computer oops! A Mac that is being sold without the most essential peripherals of today’s computing world. The Mini Mac does not include a mouse, keyboard and the monitor. Pc world calls it a “Bare PC”. This so called tiny wonder comes with 256 MB ram, a slow hard drives often found on Notebooks, 32 MB of video memory and few standard ports. That’s it.
In short, it was a pizza base with little sauce painted on it. Toppings are not standard. The sticker price for this bare Mac was $499. However! You are welcome to choose your prefered toppings but that is going to increase the pizza oops Mac Mini’s price so much that you might end up going for a second mortgage. A decent Apple Mini configuration [as per today’s standard] will cost you in the range of $2000. For the same price, you can get a Windows Box with some real power from Dell. Yes! Windows box will not look cute! But who cares, of course I hear "Mac owners do”. The pity is they've been sold the emperors new clothes once again.
I also don’t understand the fuss over this price mark down in the Mac world. Frankly this so called mark down will do nothing to attract the PC people. How can Mac consider this mini minus the essentials components to be a cross over bridge?
Yes I hear Mac owners will claim about the stability, but being in the PC world for more than 14 years now, I will say multimedia power has improved on the other side also. These days all the major Multimedia software have Windows version. They work perfectly under windows.
Of course I cannot stop the Apple lovers to assume Apple Mini to be another “Wisdom Fruit” [Gana pazam] from its makers. All the adherent Apple Mac fans will be very happy about Mini Mac; they will continue their appreciation one more time for the brand new cloths for their emperor. I jokingly told the sale man I would have got this Mini Mac at least it they had kept a hidden compartment to store my lunch and snacks.I guess it was too much to ask, they don’t have even the computer essential how will they care for my daily essentials.
Wish you all a very happy Pongal.
Photos Copy Rights Apple Mac.2005
Seriously! Apple Mac has some phenomenal user interface and system stability. The price is the main culprit that drives away customers. Usually when you configure a serious Apple Mac with all the power components included the price range will be something that you can trade in a new BMW 5 series in exchange.
Today PCs are very cheap and affordable; hence getting PC people to the Mac world is kind of tough. Keeping this mind, Apple surprisingly has set a price tag of $499 for Mac mini.
I was shocked. I decided to check this out at once. There were many surprises. The best feature that matched the advertisement [“WYSIWYG”] was the size. The Mini Mac looked similar to a dot NET/C# book from Wrox publications. A petite 2-inch tall 6.5-inch square, reminded me of my favorite witty cartoon pal Mr. Square Pants. I was thrilled by the look and feel.My decision to cross over was round the corner, exactly like Apple had wanted.
But! There is always a catch [in this case caught and bowled]. This is a computer oops! A Mac that is being sold without the most essential peripherals of today’s computing world. The Mini Mac does not include a mouse, keyboard and the monitor. Pc world calls it a “Bare PC”. This so called tiny wonder comes with 256 MB ram, a slow hard drives often found on Notebooks, 32 MB of video memory and few standard ports. That’s it.
In short, it was a pizza base with little sauce painted on it. Toppings are not standard. The sticker price for this bare Mac was $499. However! You are welcome to choose your prefered toppings but that is going to increase the pizza oops Mac Mini’s price so much that you might end up going for a second mortgage. A decent Apple Mini configuration [as per today’s standard] will cost you in the range of $2000. For the same price, you can get a Windows Box with some real power from Dell. Yes! Windows box will not look cute! But who cares, of course I hear "Mac owners do”. The pity is they've been sold the emperors new clothes once again.
I also don’t understand the fuss over this price mark down in the Mac world. Frankly this so called mark down will do nothing to attract the PC people. How can Mac consider this mini minus the essentials components to be a cross over bridge?
Yes I hear Mac owners will claim about the stability, but being in the PC world for more than 14 years now, I will say multimedia power has improved on the other side also. These days all the major Multimedia software have Windows version. They work perfectly under windows.
Of course I cannot stop the Apple lovers to assume Apple Mini to be another “Wisdom Fruit” [Gana pazam] from its makers. All the adherent Apple Mac fans will be very happy about Mini Mac; they will continue their appreciation one more time for the brand new cloths for their emperor. I jokingly told the sale man I would have got this Mini Mac at least it they had kept a hidden compartment to store my lunch and snacks.I guess it was too much to ask, they don’t have even the computer essential how will they care for my daily essentials.
Wish you all a very happy Pongal.
Photos Copy Rights Apple Mac.2005
1/12/05
Bad Taste
For last few months I have been reading in many Indian news sites about something that makes me really uncomfortable. This outsourcing issue is being made more political everyday; there are groups here who behave in a crude and cheap manner to show their displeasure. Fellow Indians back home are simply forced to face this rude behavior. The most affected in this are the call centers folks.
These ridiculous acts are done by people who really don’t know about the root of the out sourcing issue. Most these days do it for the sake of gaining popularity. Of late radio shock jocks and DJ from various stations have joined this list. They are calling call centers in India, talk to these centers using cheap vulgar languages with racial twinge, the agony is these calls go live on air. They make fun of Indians and finally call it a prank.
Recently shock jock radio guys from Philly area had called a call center in India and used very dirty language insulting everyone around. These DJs request their listeners to call India everyday for 30 about Minutes and do the same. So that people back there get frustrated and starts screaming back. Our guys are now trained to handle insults, I don’t get this Instead I want Indian companies to set up office here and go after these public racial slanders in the name of prank.
Let me ask, why don’t these so called DJs and SJs call the John Welch’s of this country, do they have the guts to do the same to them instead. Bottom line here is, it is them who go for outsourcing to save money.
India is not junk yard where people wander around looking for American outsourcing. We cannot or do not tolerate insults in any form. The Indian community here in the US and back home are well educated, sincere and clearly talented people who mind their business. Indians here have already raised this issue to FCC and these shock jocks were suspended for a day.
However the idea to call India and insult the poor call center employee is totally absurd and childish, I will now quote what every media here says often “IT IS NOT-AMERICAN” to behave in this fashion. Where did so called Value go here? I really don’t know. In fact even the elite TV anchors like Lou Dobbs who clearly ridicule India, don’t have guts to ask the CEOs here, including the CEOs of his own parent company.
Anything today in world is bound towards rapid globalization. It is a pity that people are not prepared to accept the fact, this decision to go to India for outsourcing was not taken by India or Indians. It was a decision made by many US companies and its CFO/CEOs with a clear nod from the US Government. If at all you want to show your displeasure on outsourcing, please scream or nose cry to your CEOs and CFOs.
These ridiculous acts are done by people who really don’t know about the root of the out sourcing issue. Most these days do it for the sake of gaining popularity. Of late radio shock jocks and DJ from various stations have joined this list. They are calling call centers in India, talk to these centers using cheap vulgar languages with racial twinge, the agony is these calls go live on air. They make fun of Indians and finally call it a prank.
"It is an increasing trend," "It's not because we like it, or we want jobs to leave the U.S. The issue is that the demands on IT are growing, while the budgets continue to shrink. We really are asked to do more with less, and we just cannot fund it in the U.S."
Tsvi Gal, CIO at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group in New York.
Tsvi Gal, CIO at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group in New York.
Recently shock jock radio guys from Philly area had called a call center in India and used very dirty language insulting everyone around. These DJs request their listeners to call India everyday for 30 about Minutes and do the same. So that people back there get frustrated and starts screaming back. Our guys are now trained to handle insults, I don’t get this Instead I want Indian companies to set up office here and go after these public racial slanders in the name of prank.
Let me ask, why don’t these so called DJs and SJs call the John Welch’s of this country, do they have the guts to do the same to them instead. Bottom line here is, it is them who go for outsourcing to save money.
Outsourcing of jobs has become a sensitive issue, and President George W. Bush has largely avoided the subject in public appearances during the political campaign. Some of his economic advisers have said that exporting labor to low-cost countries will reduce business costs, boost companies' financial performance and thereby improve the U.S. economy.
MSNBC NEWS
MSNBC NEWS
India is not junk yard where people wander around looking for American outsourcing. We cannot or do not tolerate insults in any form. The Indian community here in the US and back home are well educated, sincere and clearly talented people who mind their business. Indians here have already raised this issue to FCC and these shock jocks were suspended for a day.
However the idea to call India and insult the poor call center employee is totally absurd and childish, I will now quote what every media here says often “IT IS NOT-AMERICAN” to behave in this fashion. Where did so called Value go here? I really don’t know. In fact even the elite TV anchors like Lou Dobbs who clearly ridicule India, don’t have guts to ask the CEOs here, including the CEOs of his own parent company.
Anything today in world is bound towards rapid globalization. It is a pity that people are not prepared to accept the fact, this decision to go to India for outsourcing was not taken by India or Indians. It was a decision made by many US companies and its CFO/CEOs with a clear nod from the US Government. If at all you want to show your displeasure on outsourcing, please scream or nose cry to your CEOs and CFOs.
ZIP IT
There is no use talking about the so called extra sense [“puguthaRivu”] if you don’t posses the basic Arivu [common sense.] Tamil script and dialogue writers should be more responsible and should not use this Tsunami to establish their “humor” skill set.
There is yet to be a crude joke that uses 9/11 incident till date in the US, this shows the respect the media and art world has for those innocent victims on that dread full day.
Already, the Tsunami disaster is being used for crude jokes on TV. I was watching the Pongal Special program trailer on Sun TV. The significant contribution came from the stereotyped “Pati Madandram” show in front of so called educated people. The esteemed speaker thinking that to be humor was busy comparing the Tsunami with something and laughed out loud. How a sane person can use such a tragedy for humor? I also had been over hearing references in few TV Serials.
It is hard to take when we see writers use a great tragedy to expose their humor. They fail to remember that there are families who are still wiping their tears for their loss.
How can talk shows do such an immoral act in the name of humor/entertainment? and get away? I have great respect for Mr. Solomon Papayya, I hope when the full show is telecast he forces the talk personality to ZIP IT.
There is yet to be a crude joke that uses 9/11 incident till date in the US, this shows the respect the media and art world has for those innocent victims on that dread full day.
Already, the Tsunami disaster is being used for crude jokes on TV. I was watching the Pongal Special program trailer on Sun TV. The significant contribution came from the stereotyped “Pati Madandram” show in front of so called educated people. The esteemed speaker thinking that to be humor was busy comparing the Tsunami with something and laughed out loud. How a sane person can use such a tragedy for humor? I also had been over hearing references in few TV Serials.
It is hard to take when we see writers use a great tragedy to expose their humor. They fail to remember that there are families who are still wiping their tears for their loss.
How can talk shows do such an immoral act in the name of humor/entertainment? and get away? I have great respect for Mr. Solomon Papayya, I hope when the full show is telecast he forces the talk personality to ZIP IT.
1/11/05
Fund Raiser by Guitar Prasanna
Last Friday [01/07/2005] evening Guitar Prasanna and his band were here in DC to play live for a Tsunami fund raiser concert organized by IIT Alumni Association Washington DC.
The Talented trio consists of Prasanna on his Magic Guitar, Mike Pope on Bass and Brain Delaney on the drums. They played original compositions of Prasanna, mostly from Prasanna’s latest album “Be the change”. Though the concert started about an hour late [thanks to the Friday night Beltway traffic], it was totally fusion blast.
The drummer was simply extra ordinary; it seems Prasanna met him just few days ago. He played as though he knew them for ages. It was amazing to hear Mike Pope [on Bass]. He was so fluent with Indian classical music. He complimented “The Prasanna power” with his graceful bass playing. Trio complimented each others talent very well.
In an Indian fusion concert often I see artists trying to prove their individual talents rather than focusing on the Concept - “Fusion”. But in this concert it was totally different, I could hear the Raga in its purity clearly blending with the various Jazz and Blues progressions. It was so wonderful to hear Raga "Dharmavathi", "Kapi", "Bhilahari" blend to various jazz standards at odd time signatures [5/4, 7/8,9/8]. Drum and the Bass punctuated the melody all through without over dose. They exposed their class during solo parts. Frankly I was able to feel the blend quite well.
Thanks to Prasanna, Mike and Brain for standing up in front to support a good cause. I had chat with Prasanna few days before the concert, he told me that his artists were so considerate to travel and stay at their own expenses. They wanted to keep the production cost as low as possible. In a very good gesture, all of them being accomplished composers and music producers had their CD displayed for sale and contributed all the sales revenue towards the fund.
He also mentioned that this trio would be touring India for similar fund raisers, starting of with a show in IIT Chennai in end of January. You can check GuitarPrasanna.com for further details. This program was organized by Aid India .org, Tamil Sangam of greater Washington Dc and other DC based charities.
Ps: I did take some pictures of the concert, I will update it soon.
The Talented trio consists of Prasanna on his Magic Guitar, Mike Pope on Bass and Brain Delaney on the drums. They played original compositions of Prasanna, mostly from Prasanna’s latest album “Be the change”. Though the concert started about an hour late [thanks to the Friday night Beltway traffic], it was totally fusion blast.
The drummer was simply extra ordinary; it seems Prasanna met him just few days ago. He played as though he knew them for ages. It was amazing to hear Mike Pope [on Bass]. He was so fluent with Indian classical music. He complimented “The Prasanna power” with his graceful bass playing. Trio complimented each others talent very well.
In an Indian fusion concert often I see artists trying to prove their individual talents rather than focusing on the Concept - “Fusion”. But in this concert it was totally different, I could hear the Raga in its purity clearly blending with the various Jazz and Blues progressions. It was so wonderful to hear Raga "Dharmavathi", "Kapi", "Bhilahari" blend to various jazz standards at odd time signatures [5/4, 7/8,9/8]. Drum and the Bass punctuated the melody all through without over dose. They exposed their class during solo parts. Frankly I was able to feel the blend quite well.
| Artist Websites |
| Guitar Prasanna Mike |
Thanks to Prasanna, Mike and Brain for standing up in front to support a good cause. I had chat with Prasanna few days before the concert, he told me that his artists were so considerate to travel and stay at their own expenses. They wanted to keep the production cost as low as possible. In a very good gesture, all of them being accomplished composers and music producers had their CD displayed for sale and contributed all the sales revenue towards the fund.
He also mentioned that this trio would be touring India for similar fund raisers, starting of with a show in IIT Chennai in end of January. You can check GuitarPrasanna.com for further details. This program was organized by Aid India .org, Tamil Sangam of greater Washington Dc and other DC based charities.
Ps: I did take some pictures of the concert, I will update it soon.
1/10/05
Desi 25 cents – [Quarters]
Vikings upset win over Green bay, Cheese got melted in spite of chilly temperature. The media was busy churning stories on Randy Moss’s unceremonious exit during the last week game against the Red skins in DC. The issue was 2 seconds left on the clock; red skins were ready to score a short field goal to win the game. Randy did not stay to shed tears with his team for the loss; he just walked back to the locker room.
Though this is not the first time he does this, the well paid Television experts had good curry to cook for rest of the week. Everyone was talking about this and were giving esteemed opinions for the Vikings and Randy Moss. They gave lot of sympathy for the coach and team for his behavior.
Vikings won their first play off game over Green bay. Green Bay never know till now what hit them. The star quarter back threw nothing but interceptions at regular intervals. Something called “Defense” came into existence for Vikings.
However the Randy Moss show did not end; he celebrated the victory in a un-sportsmanship like manner. You may goggle to see what he did. This does invite trouble. People were showing in display cards telling randy to walk out quoting the Redskins incident. Pumped up Moss misbehaved; He will be punished by the Mr. Clean and Co a.k.a NFL. After the game when asked about it Moss clearly told he shall deal with it. He has also apologized.
However, in the Fox anchor team, Terry Bradshaw was first to take him down and was using hard words on Moss. He is known to be a Vikings hater from long time now. With such a Hate record he gets a well cooked curry to rock hence he was having a ball trashing and advising Moss, In my opinion the Pot was busy calling names on the kettle.
With all due respects to Mr. Bradshaw’s foot ball achievements, everyone knows quite well about HIS tantrums during the 1 hour TV show. Looks like he has forgotten the free flirting he often does with the weather girls forgetting the fact many kids watch NFL. Where did the so called decency go then? Was it gone to Iceland on a skiing vacation?
Moss did take a cheap shot at the fans agreed I dont want to defend him, but at the same time when it comes to behavior or decency on Air, Brad Shaw is also a mere walking ego. He needs to go the dentists and clean himself first then talk about others.
Though this is not the first time he does this, the well paid Television experts had good curry to cook for rest of the week. Everyone was talking about this and were giving esteemed opinions for the Vikings and Randy Moss. They gave lot of sympathy for the coach and team for his behavior.
Vikings won their first play off game over Green bay. Green Bay never know till now what hit them. The star quarter back threw nothing but interceptions at regular intervals. Something called “Defense” came into existence for Vikings.
However the Randy Moss show did not end; he celebrated the victory in a un-sportsmanship like manner. You may goggle to see what he did. This does invite trouble. People were showing in display cards telling randy to walk out quoting the Redskins incident. Pumped up Moss misbehaved; He will be punished by the Mr. Clean and Co a.k.a NFL. After the game when asked about it Moss clearly told he shall deal with it. He has also apologized.
However, in the Fox anchor team, Terry Bradshaw was first to take him down and was using hard words on Moss. He is known to be a Vikings hater from long time now. With such a Hate record he gets a well cooked curry to rock hence he was having a ball trashing and advising Moss, In my opinion the Pot was busy calling names on the kettle.
With all due respects to Mr. Bradshaw’s foot ball achievements, everyone knows quite well about HIS tantrums during the 1 hour TV show. Looks like he has forgotten the free flirting he often does with the weather girls forgetting the fact many kids watch NFL. Where did the so called decency go then? Was it gone to Iceland on a skiing vacation?
Moss did take a cheap shot at the fans agreed I dont want to defend him, but at the same time when it comes to behavior or decency on Air, Brad Shaw is also a mere walking ego. He needs to go the dentists and clean himself first then talk about others.
A Late Review Shock
Few weeks ago I watched a great movie! [Drum roll please] “SHOCK” in 6.1 DTS.
The simple one line time saver review for this movie will be “please replace HO with an "U" and add S at the end”.
The man of the movie award goes to Mr. Thayagarajan[ the producer, the spender, the director, the decision maker, the screw-up party leader etc] When compared with his acting, the Star Wars fame R2D2 had better expressions than him. In fact R2D2 used to beep 2 different frequencies that simulated a speech like pattern. In Mr. Thyagu’s case he was so pathetic his voice and dialogue delivery was worse than a Chinese dubbing movie.
I read some where that he had challenged people to watch this movie alone, he would pay Rs 50,000. I thought I can get this money, however I am sure now I would never want to do it, not because of the horror story line etc in the movie, I felt the scariest part in the movie was him. It is too dreadful to Watch him and hear his dialogue delivery all alone. I really don’t know why there was no soul during the post production to pinpoint this meticulous crap. I would rename the movie as “Shocking Thyagu” [a.k.a “The Malai oor spade” part 3] instead.
There was a punk rock like dressed/face painted female who appears as the dead ghost. She haunts another one of its kind. The story is very simple. Prashanth, the newly married hero [to Meena] finds a new home which is haunted. The ghost makes appearances to Meena to take revenge on someone. Meena along with the audience becomes hysteric for rest of the movie. Prashanth seeks medical help [I wish he had taken his dad along]; the Doctors prognosis confirms a medical condition called “dual personality”. It does not help to resolve this problem. She is still haunted. Hence our hero follows the great advice of his house maid who has very bizarre set of mannerisms that is just to create a decoy. He seeks the help of a psychic/Medium. Our robot police guy with a weird accent and no expression investigates. After setting up few decoys, the real murder is someone from outside. the ghost talks and gets the truth out in front of entire movie cast. Finally, ABBAZ gets punished [don't dare to ask me where he came from]. The only good part in this movie is “Abbaz does not have any tongue twisting dialogues like ” machi” “mamu” “poda” etc. Tamil Language narrowly escapes unhurt.
That’s it I have no patience to write further about this ghostly crap.
Please do a good deed to your future generations. Get a white stone and engrave a note “DON’T WATCH THE CRAP CALLED SHOCK THE MOVIE” and put it some where in the attic of your house. This will make sure that your next 10-20 generations will never watch this movie even by mistake.
Yesterday I watched the Tsunami Benefit Cricket at the MCG. At the end of the day the money colleted stood some where near $15 million. It was good game to watch for a good cause. Dish network had also announced all the proceeds would go to the noble cause. Though ICC calls it to be an official one day I do not want to comment much about the game, every run scored earned $1000 and every six earned $50,000. Sehwag and Gilchrist made merry. So did Dravid and Pointing. Asian Eleven lost the game by 100+ runs.
On the follow-up on the interview, the person name was Guhan, he owns an online employment site in India. He made such reckless statements just to market about job openings in India. NRI investments today stands very high and Indian foreign exchange levels are quit high. With all this good things from NRIs, we are still painted with the black mark of being part of something called brain drain. If you see it in a positive way, at least people back home people accept that we have brains. Thanks.
The simple one line time saver review for this movie will be “please replace HO with an "U" and add S at the end”.
The man of the movie award goes to Mr. Thayagarajan[ the producer, the spender, the director, the decision maker, the screw-up party leader etc] When compared with his acting, the Star Wars fame R2D2 had better expressions than him. In fact R2D2 used to beep 2 different frequencies that simulated a speech like pattern. In Mr. Thyagu’s case he was so pathetic his voice and dialogue delivery was worse than a Chinese dubbing movie.
I read some where that he had challenged people to watch this movie alone, he would pay Rs 50,000. I thought I can get this money, however I am sure now I would never want to do it, not because of the horror story line etc in the movie, I felt the scariest part in the movie was him. It is too dreadful to Watch him and hear his dialogue delivery all alone. I really don’t know why there was no soul during the post production to pinpoint this meticulous crap. I would rename the movie as “Shocking Thyagu” [a.k.a “The Malai oor spade” part 3] instead.
There was a punk rock like dressed/face painted female who appears as the dead ghost. She haunts another one of its kind. The story is very simple. Prashanth, the newly married hero [to Meena] finds a new home which is haunted. The ghost makes appearances to Meena to take revenge on someone. Meena along with the audience becomes hysteric for rest of the movie. Prashanth seeks medical help [I wish he had taken his dad along]; the Doctors prognosis confirms a medical condition called “dual personality”. It does not help to resolve this problem. She is still haunted. Hence our hero follows the great advice of his house maid who has very bizarre set of mannerisms that is just to create a decoy. He seeks the help of a psychic/Medium. Our robot police guy with a weird accent and no expression investigates. After setting up few decoys, the real murder is someone from outside. the ghost talks and gets the truth out in front of entire movie cast. Finally, ABBAZ gets punished [don't dare to ask me where he came from]. The only good part in this movie is “Abbaz does not have any tongue twisting dialogues like ” machi” “mamu” “poda” etc. Tamil Language narrowly escapes unhurt.
That’s it I have no patience to write further about this ghostly crap.
Please do a good deed to your future generations. Get a white stone and engrave a note “DON’T WATCH THE CRAP CALLED SHOCK THE MOVIE” and put it some where in the attic of your house. This will make sure that your next 10-20 generations will never watch this movie even by mistake.
Yesterday I watched the Tsunami Benefit Cricket at the MCG. At the end of the day the money colleted stood some where near $15 million. It was good game to watch for a good cause. Dish network had also announced all the proceeds would go to the noble cause. Though ICC calls it to be an official one day I do not want to comment much about the game, every run scored earned $1000 and every six earned $50,000. Sehwag and Gilchrist made merry. So did Dravid and Pointing. Asian Eleven lost the game by 100+ runs.
On the follow-up on the interview, the person name was Guhan, he owns an online employment site in India. He made such reckless statements just to market about job openings in India. NRI investments today stands very high and Indian foreign exchange levels are quit high. With all this good things from NRIs, we are still painted with the black mark of being part of something called brain drain. If you see it in a positive way, at least people back home people accept that we have brains. Thanks.
1/5/05
Heard the Budweiser [aka. aRivu kozundhu].
Yesterday I had chance to watch a program called Sandhipoma on Sun TV anchored by Mr. Shahul Hameed. Usually his interviews are very interesting and his language is very pleasant to hear. Guests are often experts from various fields who clearly knew what they are talking about, a very interesting, simple and pleasant talk show.
But yesterday there was person whose name I missed as I tuned in little late. They were talking about IT in general. Hearing first few lines, I wanted to hear more. Soon I realized the person who was talking did not have any clue in what he is talking.
Yes, he was mere Budweiser [aRivu kozundhu].
First he opened up his can of worms on computer consultants going aboard to work. Slowly he started to justify people instead of going aboard and working can make same money and live much happier life in the home land itself. He mentioned that today IT is the hotcake in India hence people can stay here and work instead of going to London or New York. Oh yaw! Why India become a major outsourcing port of USA? First the cheap labor – the Dollar conversion then? Why everyone is forgetting the good will so many of our consultants created here. When it comes to our work force here we are very sincere and we implement projects on perfect schedule. Our knowledge in the subject is quite remarkable. Let me tell you, thousands of Indian consultants living here have proved and clearly created a base in the past 10 years. Quality of work, this is another main reason why US companies are going to India for outsourcing.
Forgetting all this Mr. Budweiser gave another dazzling statement, it seems Indians here in the US are struggling to survive after the dot com bubble and most of them today are living on food stamps, totally ludicrous. Who gets food stamps? Frankly I never know a fellow Desi who makes lower than 40k a year. Mr. BW did not have clue on what he was talking about. Here go to this link and check for yourself.
Click here.
Next pearl he dropped was about fellow Indians killed during 9/11. It seems when they died here, they were no soul here to take care of them. Indians here it seems suffered lot of emotional problems and they don’t have anyone here to empathize with them.
Now during this Tsunami, entire India has come to help every citizen that never happened during 9/11.? It seems this kind of support is never there for people working abroad. What a great comparison?
He also simply and very convenient forgot one factor. I can pin point many Indian relief and social service organization here that have collected and collecting funds to help our people back home during every calamity. There are many Indian consultants here who have pledged their monthly pay.
Today India’s foreign currency reserve is at very respectable level. Where did it come from? Simply NRI investments; the world we are living is something different, we are not wood. Dear Mr. Shaul Hameed Please don’t get such half boiled nuts to talk about NRI in your shows.
Mr. Hameed Why don’t you travel here and get Tamil folks here in your show. Many have made remarkable things for the language, culture, Art or Business? Or why not get some real Indian entrepreneurs operating here to discuss about it.
I like to close down with comments from last week Visu’s Aratai aragam which was about NRIs. “M.K. Gandhi, father of our nation was also an NRI”. He came to work for India after studying and working aboard. "Thiruvilaiyadal", when Lord Murga can go around the world to honor his parents for getting the Knowledge Mango [Gana Pazam], why can’t his devotees do the same for their parents? whats the problem?
Today, World is not small anymore, Indians cannot be ignored;. We got to take part in the world activities sitting at home we cannot do it; we are working for India from aboard. Period.
Please you need not appreciate us, at least please don’t insult our good intentions. Remember you are not giving your TV shows free for us. We are willing to paying even to watch your craptaculor TV channel. There are many more things that came out of this interview. It is high time to stop this NRI bashing. I really don’t know how Mr. Shaul hammed can let him continue to give absurd opinions clearly hurting the sentiments of thousands of Tamilans working hard here.
But yesterday there was person whose name I missed as I tuned in little late. They were talking about IT in general. Hearing first few lines, I wanted to hear more. Soon I realized the person who was talking did not have any clue in what he is talking.
Yes, he was mere Budweiser [aRivu kozundhu].
First he opened up his can of worms on computer consultants going aboard to work. Slowly he started to justify people instead of going aboard and working can make same money and live much happier life in the home land itself. He mentioned that today IT is the hotcake in India hence people can stay here and work instead of going to London or New York. Oh yaw! Why India become a major outsourcing port of USA? First the cheap labor – the Dollar conversion then? Why everyone is forgetting the good will so many of our consultants created here. When it comes to our work force here we are very sincere and we implement projects on perfect schedule. Our knowledge in the subject is quite remarkable. Let me tell you, thousands of Indian consultants living here have proved and clearly created a base in the past 10 years. Quality of work, this is another main reason why US companies are going to India for outsourcing.
Forgetting all this Mr. Budweiser gave another dazzling statement, it seems Indians here in the US are struggling to survive after the dot com bubble and most of them today are living on food stamps, totally ludicrous. Who gets food stamps? Frankly I never know a fellow Desi who makes lower than 40k a year. Mr. BW did not have clue on what he was talking about. Here go to this link and check for yourself.
Click here.
Next pearl he dropped was about fellow Indians killed during 9/11. It seems when they died here, they were no soul here to take care of them. Indians here it seems suffered lot of emotional problems and they don’t have anyone here to empathize with them.
Now during this Tsunami, entire India has come to help every citizen that never happened during 9/11.? It seems this kind of support is never there for people working abroad. What a great comparison?
He also simply and very convenient forgot one factor. I can pin point many Indian relief and social service organization here that have collected and collecting funds to help our people back home during every calamity. There are many Indian consultants here who have pledged their monthly pay.
Today India’s foreign currency reserve is at very respectable level. Where did it come from? Simply NRI investments; the world we are living is something different, we are not wood. Dear Mr. Shaul Hameed Please don’t get such half boiled nuts to talk about NRI in your shows.
Mr. Hameed Why don’t you travel here and get Tamil folks here in your show. Many have made remarkable things for the language, culture, Art or Business? Or why not get some real Indian entrepreneurs operating here to discuss about it.
I like to close down with comments from last week Visu’s Aratai aragam which was about NRIs. “M.K. Gandhi, father of our nation was also an NRI”. He came to work for India after studying and working aboard. "Thiruvilaiyadal", when Lord Murga can go around the world to honor his parents for getting the Knowledge Mango [Gana Pazam], why can’t his devotees do the same for their parents? whats the problem?
Today, World is not small anymore, Indians cannot be ignored;. We got to take part in the world activities sitting at home we cannot do it; we are working for India from aboard. Period.
Please you need not appreciate us, at least please don’t insult our good intentions. Remember you are not giving your TV shows free for us. We are willing to paying even to watch your craptaculor TV channel. There are many more things that came out of this interview. It is high time to stop this NRI bashing. I really don’t know how Mr. Shaul hammed can let him continue to give absurd opinions clearly hurting the sentiments of thousands of Tamilans working hard here.
1/4/05
Shun Nitpicks
Mata Amritanandamayi has pledged about $23 millions, which is much more than many European countries. Skeptics will come forward and ask questions from where she could get so much funds., simple answer “where there is will there is way” world is not dead yet. There are people who still contribute money.
Well known Tamil saying “siru thuLi” "peru veLam”
There are approximately 1,678,765 Indians in USA. Assuming 20% of them are skeptics or people who do not believe in any form spiritual Associations. The rest 80% is about 1,343,012, assume each contributes $10 per head [$10 is bare minimum hourly wage] , this itself now amounts to 13 million dollars, available right away from NRI in the USA. I think 23 million is very much possible, and it is possible only thru spiritual institutions.
Bottom line, the affected people need long term help, it does not really matter how and where it comes from, after all the funds are used for a very good cause. At this moment, we should shun nitpicks and look for methods to help the victims.
Ps: I noted something special in yesterdays date - 01/03/05
Well known Tamil saying “siru thuLi” "peru veLam”
There are approximately 1,678,765 Indians in USA. Assuming 20% of them are skeptics or people who do not believe in any form spiritual Associations. The rest 80% is about 1,343,012, assume each contributes $10 per head [$10 is bare minimum hourly wage] , this itself now amounts to 13 million dollars, available right away from NRI in the USA. I think 23 million is very much possible, and it is possible only thru spiritual institutions.
Bottom line, the affected people need long term help, it does not really matter how and where it comes from, after all the funds are used for a very good cause. At this moment, we should shun nitpicks and look for methods to help the victims.
Ps: I noted something special in yesterdays date - 01/03/05
1/3/05
Spiritual Refugee
As aid pours from the world, Life does not seem to settle down for many Tsunami Victims, many are facing mental trauma. It is estimated in Tamil Nadu alone at least 8000 or more will face some kind of psychological distress. Doctors are tying out various methods to console; many physiatrists are busy counseling the survivors. These are people who had witnessed their loved ones being taken down by nature.
Yes, there may be a Prozac pill that helps them but there is no medicine in the world that is going to calm them down for the rest of their life.
Thinking about this in the long run, an Alternative suggestion will be to seek refuge towards spiritual healing. The only viable non medical way that consoles people during this tragic shock.
People took silent processions, Candle light vigils while temples, churches, gurudwaras and other religious outfits offered various prayers for the lost life. It was a very good gesture from many who cancelled their New Year celebration. It is a pity that I come across intellect souls criticizing various religious and mass gestures.
Frankly there is nothing wrong in sharing the sad moment among the mass using a common stage, the religion is one such medium. In the first place, the basic idea of a religion or a belief was formed for this purpose only - Mass compassion and Group healing.
Today aid is pouring from various parts of the world. Every victim is being attended with empathy. There will be a phase where the real victims will be left alone to think for themselves. This will be the real tough time for them to face. In my opinion, during this phase it is the spiritual healing that is going to help them.
Spiritual refugee is the best method to heal from this natural disaster; it is easy to say than doing it, how ever this path beyond doubt has a better healing percentage. For the survivors, I pray to God to give them the strength to take this unthinkable loss and move on with their life.
Yes, there may be a Prozac pill that helps them but there is no medicine in the world that is going to calm them down for the rest of their life.
Thinking about this in the long run, an Alternative suggestion will be to seek refuge towards spiritual healing. The only viable non medical way that consoles people during this tragic shock.
People took silent processions, Candle light vigils while temples, churches, gurudwaras and other religious outfits offered various prayers for the lost life. It was a very good gesture from many who cancelled their New Year celebration. It is a pity that I come across intellect souls criticizing various religious and mass gestures.
Frankly there is nothing wrong in sharing the sad moment among the mass using a common stage, the religion is one such medium. In the first place, the basic idea of a religion or a belief was formed for this purpose only - Mass compassion and Group healing.
Today aid is pouring from various parts of the world. Every victim is being attended with empathy. There will be a phase where the real victims will be left alone to think for themselves. This will be the real tough time for them to face. In my opinion, during this phase it is the spiritual healing that is going to help them.
Spiritual refugee is the best method to heal from this natural disaster; it is easy to say than doing it, how ever this path beyond doubt has a better healing percentage. For the survivors, I pray to God to give them the strength to take this unthinkable loss and move on with their life.
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