H N Y

Curtains down for 2006, all said and done, 2006 was a very busy year in my calendar. More than anything my music album H1BEES was the talk of the town and received very good press and ravings reports all round during first quarter of this year. I was interviewed in various press including BBC, NPR, Baltimore Times and other international media outlets. 2006 was a great to remember and cherish rest of my life.Besides, this year I was busy working on my next music album titled pAdal. Here is the news – the album is complete and the candidate is officially gone for duplication.

Folks, H1BEEES iNc, and Executive Producers Shankar Nagarajan & Srivatsa Srinivasan joins me proudly in announcing “PADAL By Srikanth Devarajan” is scheduled to be released in USA, Canada and Europe on Jan 26th 2007.

The Album has 10 tracks ranging from youthful songs, romantic songs, humorous songs. We believe that this album has a great mix of style and substance and will go very well with listeners.This CD also includes a track sung by Playback singer Karthik [Chennai]. Album also features various talents in USA. I sincerely enjoyed and enjoying every production moments. Everyone working with me in this album have put forth their best efforts and have worked meticulously to make this production a success.

Here is a summary from the title card.

PADAL BY SRIKANTH DEVARAJAN
1. 18 Vayadhu – Alisha, Maha & Harini , - Lyrics: Sriram & Srikanth
2. Kadal Ache – Karthick [India], Lyrics: Sriram & Srikanth -
Backing Vocals: Cornelio, Miguel
3. C.H.E.N.N.A.I - Siddharth & Alisha, Lyrics : Srikanth –
Backing Vocals: Harini, Sridhar, Ganesh, Shankar,Srikanth
4. pal maNakkudhu – Siddharth, Backing Vocals: Suresh, Sridhar
5. Nila Charal – Vocals: Kumar & Harini, Lyrics: Priya,(Jathi: Santhanam )
6. Vellaiku pogamAten – Vocals: Suresh, Lyrics: Srikanth,
Backing Vocals: Sridhar, Shankar
7. Serial Killer : Vocals: Chennthil, Babu, Lyrics:Arun Vaidyanathan
8. Love Girl - Vocals: Vidyu, Lyrics: Priya & Srikanth
9. Nadodi - Vocals: Siddharth & Vidyu, Lyrics: Udhaya.
10. Instrumental – Flute- Raman , Piano/Keyboards: Srikanth

Music Composed and Produced by
SRIKANTH DEVARAJAN, USA

Performance Credits:
Guitar: Suresh & Rick, Flute: Raman, Mirudangam: Gopinath,Ghatam: Giridhar, Handsonic & Darbuka :Srikanth, Tapatai/Drum: Karthick,
Keyboards & Programming: Srikanth

Sound Engineers: Srikanth & Bharath
Studio: Studio1234, USA & Sai Presto
CD Design: NiTPix

Executive Producers:
Shankar Nagarajan, Srikanth Devarajan, Srivatsa Srinivasan
All Rights Reserved Srikanth Devarajan, © 2007.

With this note,
I wish you and your family a very happy NEW YEAR!. Thanks for your sustained encouragement.
- Srikanth

DNA "CULTURE"

During Past week, Green Peace enthusiasts had some good news. Taco Bell, the leading Mexican food chain due to contamination stopped serving items on their menu. Experts say there was a considerable reduction in the red, blue, orange, black and green house gases. However today Taco Bell announced that they have resumed full services, which in turn shall increases global warming warming and the arctic meltdown will soon be a reality. But You know What? this is nothing when compared with what Tamilians Today are dealing with?, A much bigger problem in hand, an outbreak called "CDE" - Culture Degrading Epidemic. Today, the Tamil DNA [Dravidian- Non-Aryan] culture has touched its lowest level.

Experts from the Department of EnE [Entertainment in installments] were busy analyzing “a turning point” in a Tamil Soap called Malaragal. The prognosis was that the Story line in the Tamil Soap “Malargal” has taken our DNA [Dravidian- Non-Aryan] “culture” to a new low level.

In general, the DNA [I meant the real chromosome material] of these Tamil serials are well knitted around adultery, infidelity, treachery, betrayal - technically called as "Gilma" & "Jalsa". In general the core is always - women degrades another women to the maximum extent known and unknown to the women and the man kinds,Men for their part have "n" number of affairs and walk around produly as though it is their birth right and tradition. The "Captives" aka the TV Viewers seem to enjoy this sadistic portrayal of such culture.

When you dissect the anatomy or the frame work of a serial production crew from the long stretch LIIIIIIIIMMMMMOOOOOOO title card that rolls every day , we would bump into a job portfolio called Creative Head. I guess the job description for this office or this person is to come up with various methods to insult women and family values . They formulate various Teleplay mechanisms to ensure Sadism, Sinisterism and others isms are properly in place. I guess our Soap directors , creative head and other esteemed writers Think through/using body parts which the general public would use it to Sit. [Be my guest to add “H” to it] . Frankly, only such process would generate these ridiculous material. God save us from these Morons who create such rotten scripts in the name of creativity. Such elements are walking [நடமாடும்] disgrace to real and genuine creativity.

Today , the DNA [Dravidian- Non-Aryan] "culture" found in Tamil Nadu TVs is such that topics like adultery, infidelity are justified acts of grown up men and women. The go further, the make sure they show physical violence as graphical as possible. At times it is so disgusting it resembles an extremist propaganda video. Moreover in general everyone in the family hates or has sinister plans over the other, then why the F###.. call it a Family? Bottom line today, The so called family values that we Tamils boast about has taken a nose dive and the so called boastful DRAVIDIAN–NON-ARYAN [DNA] “culture” is dancing naked via these sitcoms.

Presumptions:

Zero and Four +one rain saved game. Why India cricket team time and time again fails abroad? At home, Players like Viru slam and tarnish any kind of bowling attack but on tour they have no clue about their technique. I guess, the measures and standards we set at home are misleading , and hence our players are clueless aboard where evaluation measures seems superior.

During my child hood days in Chennai [70s] - I had this view - LIC building in Chennai was the tallest building known to mankind. Then when I went Bombay I realized there are much taller buildings, years later when I stood on the Sears Towers, Chicago, I realized the meaning of sky scrapper. My point is, life is governed by presumptions. Sometimes, decisions made are based on presumption rather than on the facts.

We worship our cricketers based on presumptions rather than on the facts. Cricket pitches in India have given a false image about/to our players, the BCCI has created a scenario which is - in order to get more people applauding [get more Test and one day centers] , give them a LIC building to climb[Flat tracks], it is easy to climb and make merry. But as soon as they land elsewhere [say Manhattan] they have tough time climbing bigger mountains and face the real chin & shoulder music. Their training is just to climb LIC building, they are not used climbing higher altitudes - result - they are clueless.

BCCI functioning for the betterment of Indian cricket is just another presumption.

Let us see the Major Test Centers in Australia - Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney. Has this changed? Right from the day I was born this has been a fact to me. Australia or any other team visiting have always played in these test centers. I say, why can’t we codify such standards in India? Our board of control for Cricket fixes test centers based on what criteria? Does anyone knows this? Do they have guide lines? I am sure some board member will give me a PDF document. But who codified it – no clue. We have more Test and one day centers than public telephone booths.

My point is we have the most number of cricketing centers when compared to other countries. Yes! BCCI can claim this to be a feature and say India is big country etc. Given such a diversity, BCCI should be organized in order to maintain international standards. Today Software and other products made in India are ISO or CMM etc, certified which ensures international quality. But why an organization like BCCI that has access to enormous fund aren’t enforcing any kind of standards? BCCI office bearers have presumed that they are management gurus.

Our EX-Cricketers in BCCI and other honorary elements in BCCI are self proclaimed Management executives. It is not that we don’t have management staff in India to run the show but the slipshod attitude of BCCI does not permit such changes to bring in the real people. The presumption is BCCI are well organized bunch of people, result Instead of ball parks we have car parks that makes an average batsmen look like a master blaster. I agree every city wants to hosts an international game but at whose cost, - Indian cricket?

Unless and until BCCI is managed by professionals, and starts prompting genuine cricket, our cricketing history and our beloved cricketers regardless of their ability would look like jokers abroad, and as a free supplement - they would serve as walking bunnies for critics.

Appa "SAW"Me

Like most recent Tamil movies this one also had an English title during the Pooja phase. The tax rebate bait yadayada… rename it in Tamil. There is a rumor that director’s First choice was “Appasamy”, but fearing a law suit from the real estate giant, but finally got it translated – Appasamy in English became Varalaru in Tamil. Why Varalaru? You may check with the real Thagapansamy.

The entire plot was given away right at the title card, Ajith in triple role!, so we know for sure there are 3 data types of Ajith’s in the screen play. And it was matter of few reels before we guess one of type would be Mr. Bad guy.

Exploring “Ajith the Youth”. Youth hero package in Tamil movies consists of a smart ass hero and 8 to 10 worthless non-comical friends. Hero’s friends must be 2 or 3 uncle ages more than the hero. The same package is deployed here.
Next Roll [film roll] , Ajith is the dad for our Youth Ajith. Dad[a] Ajith runs his business empire. Like many computer consultants, he also works for “cha” from home. He runs his billion dollar business empire from an age old 21 inch Trinitron computer monitor and a PC/XT-8088 . Just like the screen play, Dad Ajith is also handicapped. He moves around on a motorized wheel chair reminding Austin powers, at this point Knowing K.S.Ravikumar’s adaptation technology I was seriously expecting 3rd Ajith to be “mini me” .

Youth Ajith [YA] goes to a village [why? He had a free southern railway train pass -ada ponga sir] he meets Asin, falls in love with her [then A.R. Rahman goes to work and records a nice song at 1.00am]. Dad[a] Ajith sees the YA’s love syndrome, helps him out. using his God Father sorry Varalau capabilities sends a G[od]-Mail to someone, the wedding is fixed.

JUST days before the dumdumdumdum, Ajith drinks too much and misbehaves at Asin’s place, there is a split but our Youth Ajith never remembers the incident. You guessed it, Hysterical post-traumatic Gajini Cerebral Anniyan Lacunar amnesia should be the reason. Hence dad takes his son to a physiatrist, where along with the son, director K.S. Ravikumar is also diagnosed with HPTGCALA syndrome.

The script in 2 paragraphs. The plot is our Youth Ajith is a “place holder”, the content of a place holder is changed by the second bad Ajith to tarnishes image of GF and GS [God father and God Son]. Why? Same old Twin crap. Best comedy was when the second villain Ajith using the identity withdraws cash from ATM? does ATM give money by just seeing the face?

Our Dad Ajith was a Classical Dancer with a Hormone Imbalance. He gets thrown out from his own wedding by the girl who does not like his hormone imbalances…...,skip 3 chapters, the second twin misunderstands about his dad, like the audience he is also mentally traumatized, he sets off to settle accounts with his dad family. And Dad Ajith is not really handicapped, he is just sits there to avoid walking like an Egyptian. At the end of the movie when rest of the credits rolls, they show how the second twin replaced the first in various places.

Finally,
Ajith is a talented actor, example Dancer Ajith’s walking style reminded me Sivaji Ganesan’s stylish walk in Puthiya paravai. K.S.Ravikumar is a nice director and added plus point Rahman’s Music, still without a proper logical screen play – the whole effort goes to the junk yard. My 2 cents, if the point of view or the movie perspective is changed to the villain Ajith, without giving any importance to the smart ass Hero or Classical Dancer or Lover etc, this can be an interesting screen play.

Good day.

என்ன கொடும SIR இது

Over the long weekend I managed to watch some of best made Tamil movies in past 20 to 30 decades. I do not have words to appreciate the creativity sparks found these movies. My long weekend Movie watching spree, opened with a movie called Dharmapuri, staring the one and only Captain!. hero and Savior of 20,21 and rest of the centuries planet earth would be spinning for.

Chapter 2, Captain’s Entry . Let us roll, a leader thug and his gang keeps shooting people, just like in a real war, and as usual no one dares to go near him or tries to stop him. The ground is well set for our captain to walk in for the toss. As expected he tosses 11 or 15 junior thugs and steps directly into fray, our senior thug using a 200000mm shot gun fires directly at our captain. Using the state of Combuter graphics, the bullet ride from the gun is shown in about 200 camera angles known to mankind and 1200 angles unknown to any kind. Bullet strikes our cabtain, a direct impact on his chest, Oh! My god what will happen?,- our Cabtain just took a 200000mm slug directly on his chest, but! Wait it not yet over, like the Perth wicket the bullet bounces off, it starts to travel in the reverse direction, once again the 200 + rest of angles and finally the slug directly lands on thug, “kabamkubeem” , thug evaporates in thin air.
Following this achievement , our Cabtain with his trade mark smile pulls out a round thingy from his chest region , the round thingy saved his life. At first glance it looked like a Punjabi Pappad, or may be the famous Rotti from Vaishnava college canteen ? Or the pesal Dosa kallu that was reported stolen by Saravanabhavan? Wait no , People, here is it, the newly designed aluminum [Bra] Lingerie for men. Technically an aluminum plate often found in jail wards or in the hands of self pitied money and food requesters, [ பிச்சைகாரன technically அலம்பல் விட்டேன்] , it also had twin straps, specially designed to hold the thingy around captain’s thingy. The late breaking news is that Tommy Hilfiger is now traveling to Chennai to make a deal with our cabtain.

Chapter 1, there are 2 brothers which some crazy name, perichali and kotan or some crap. They are the sons of the village bad guy viz, Manivannan, who is the cousin of the village dad - noble gentle man, you guessed it, Vijay Kumar, they ………what the hell. People, I take the liberty to change the title – hence forth this movie would be called as KARMAPURI. [கர்மப்புரி...]

More to go…

Convenient Excuses

Indian MPs forgetting their responsibilities decided to waste considerable time discussing Indian cricket. I am no big Chappell fan, but I feel matter concerning Indian cricket is too small for elected officials to waste their time on, eventually MPs will call for a sack. Whatever Chappell told about MPs to the team was an internal communication, might be a word of support that was speculated by the press. The whole world knows how our MPs function and what they discuss at the circular office. There is a reason why our Indian parliament was designed to look like Zero from space. MPs discover another Convenient Excuse to avoid their day to day job.

After the Durban Debacle, and Cape Town confusion, Dravid gets injured and is out of all one day games. Though injury is an painful thing to deal, it is a blessing in disguise for Dravid, it will be a good break for him. In my opinion, getting in Laxman or Gangully will not change the course to a great extent. Bottom line remains that, Bowlers need to perform better. Dravid captaincy was not up to the mark, while Batsmen, Bowlers and fielding struggled [What more is left?].. After the match at Cape of Good hope, most have started to feel that India cricket has No Hope.

Kaif and his pathetic batting technique, he plays like genuine Indian tail ender of 1970. I agree he is great fielder and nice person - What Ever! but there is no point in having him if he cannot bat. I think batting and bowling skills are to superior to fielding by an inch or two, the greatest of the greatest fielder gets value only if he shines with the bat or the ball. Kaif’s convenient agile fielder excuse cannot be taken into consideration anymore. We cannot afford it. Frankly the way Dinesh Karthick fielded and batted seems a very good alternate to Kaif. Today Junior players in the team suffer the insecurity syndrome. A promising Raina was the first victim. I hope youngster are nurtured properly. Other than Dravid, Dhoni and Sachin no other batsmen is confident about their technique., because they have no clue about the batting position they would be playing. Over experimentation has burnt these youngsters. When a bowler is pushed up to bat at number 3, it does bring down the confidence of designated batsmen. Also Irfan losses his focus on bowling , which is his main portfolio. IT IS HIGHT TIME to play “the Agarkar Benefit match” and send him home with a yellow garland. For all betterment, Sreesanth should be groomed.

Sachin factor, though India lost games in spite of good and decent scores from Sachin in recent past, unless and until he does something more, he will have to shoulder the pain with Dravid. The median set by the little master is very high, he has no other choice other than to maintain the standard. At the same time, Sachin plays or not other members in the India team should not use him for a Convenient Excuse.

Viru, when will we see runs from him? Stale Statements like Bowlers getting terrified , bowlers will never get comfortable when Viru is around etc should be put to a rest. Viru has been using this Convenient Excuse for years now. Wasim Akram’s recent interview was filled with advices for Indian team. Akram says Sachin should bat like Lara. [Whatever it is?], according to Akram, Sachin has to start playing it out and not get into a shell. I agree partially with him.

Indian Public, showing their anger by burning photos etc of Dravid etc, seems childish and ridiculous. There is not point in politicizing everything . I am just wondering where did the “passion of the MP and their men” vanish during Olympics?, or during the continues decline of our famous Sania Mania? I feel Indian cricket is way ahead than most sports in India. Today we are in a recession. Like any other Indian sport, I also see this, - Cricket is also a sport. Outcome is bound to be a great winner or a pathetic loser, I prefer to get on with it. Honestly, I see something positive here [Really?], Almost every weakness the team has been underlined and highlighted, all this has been identified well ahead of the World Cup and though short we do have the time to tighten the screws. l still remember the West Indies whacking before 1983 Prudential cup, the course seems similar. This would be my Convenient Excuse to support my cricket team. Honestly, I would still bet my money on Team India for the world cup.

Good day.

Weekend

Saw movies over the weekend. 1st, it was Emden’s Son for Tax Rebate sake it is now called En Mangan, The general feeling I had watching this movie was – a TV serial on 35mm film. I was reminded of the 60s era where camera would be placed in a spot and the cast would just act around it. The camera man must have had an easy time, he just screwed the camera to a tripod and took off to another shoot.
So called story goes like this, Nasser, Born on September 22 of some year after 1914, is a whacko Dad, he treats his son Bharath like ……t . He never cares about kids academics etc, however Bharath is a top ranking kid,. In Tamil movies usually Murali plays such self-pitying roles for a change Bharath covers for him. The reason given for such bad treatments by Mr. Emden was EmdenJi, had a ruthless and unforgiving past. Thank god there was no flash back, Vadivelu does his part well and can be called as the lifer save mint for the movie while Bharath, Gopika and all others were like the last 5 items of Saravana Special Lunch. Added just for statistical purpose.

Another point to note, even if you give a free coupon to Mr. Bhiravar for a Fresh water Spa treatment, Mr. Biravar ends up with the same old dinner schedule, Directors Gopi’s uncontrollable urge and Fetish for funeral rituals continues on the celluloid too, about 2000 feet of film were royally exposed to show this in detail, as if this not enough, a medical condition of a poor old sick man was used for a comical act by small screen comedians. I found it disgusting to watch people celebrating for someone death in the name of comedy. This was environment in which our hero and our heroine meet after 2000 years. The same old ill fated medically unfit mama and athai magal match making. Gopi dude! you seem to be funny guy, however that part of this part of movie was sponsored by Royal Cheapness. In spite of big named cast, decent music, the output seemed like a TV serial.
Next movie I saw had a 4 line script. To save producers money, I think 4 power point slide show would have done the needful.

Slide one: Once upon a time there was village girl, she marries a Car mechanic and settles in Bombay.

Slide two: She finds his past and he was already married to someone, the other girl vanishes to Australia.

Side three: Jo talks to her and gets her to live one day with her husband, his lifelong dream it seems. The End. [I am not even able to make it to 4 lines]

Slide Four: Credits.
For such a weak script we have a Suriya, a Jothika, and my man A.R.Rahman scoring music, the director is one lucky dude. Just add an E to the name, the movie was a JOKE.

Finally, 2 things, Hope you have seen the PC and MAC comparison commercial. Just to evaluate the self proclaimed potentials of Mac I went ahead and got an Apple Mac Power book G4. I started to evaluate from a common PC user perspective [Windows XP]. My goal is to do all the task I do in PC/XP and seamlessly migrate my working environment to Mac. After all the Mac ad claims they offer better services than the PC environment. The first thing I tried to do is install a Voice Chat client, but do you know you cannot do voice chat using Yahoo or Google or Msn , Mac OS don’t have free chat client that support the 3 popular voice chats. There is more, NSV streams [Null soft streams] are popular these days, however owning a Mac you cannot watch NSV streams. However Mac can turn the blame on Nullsoft but Voice chat is major, Yahoo and Msn services work on Mac for regular chats, for voice ..dude – you have go to the pc.

And Wow! India saved a game. Thank God.

Tuesday Talk

Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported that a spectator had shouted: "Give us a wave Monty. You can't speak English you stupid Indian, I'll have to say it in Indian. What are you doing playing in the English side, you're not English!...."
One more Racial slur from the colorful Australian crowd.

Here is a note on Australia’s history. The mainland Australia has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by the natives. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and by European explorers and merchants starting in the seventeenth century, the eastern half of the mainland was claimed by the British in 1770 and officially settled through penal transportation [underline this] as the colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. What is this Penal transportation?, it was the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony, such as in Australia, typically from countries such as the United Kingdom (including Ireland).

So my dear moronic spectator Dude, like you checked Panesar ‘s origin, we checked your origin and you know what - we found that it really stinks more than a skunk’s 1 & 2 & 3.

Just yesterday South African Captain Smith warned Panesar about the ”color” music [like Chin music] that he would face in Australia. I do not agree to the argument that it is just an handful of rowdy fans yadayada…it seems there are strict laws in Australia against such behaviors, it does look like the law does not seem to work! I am sure because this is not first time, South Africans, Sri Lankans have gone through racial crowd behaviors. When Indian toured Australia Indian fans had to face racial slurs from a section of Australian crowd , Indians were called Coolies by these esteemed “Racial rowdies” of Australia.

What else you can expect, after all they managed to push the top BCCI official from the dais in the name of celebration and got away by saying I am “Soorry”. I wonder how the Aussie media react if an Indians does this to an Australian? . Remember Gangully’s famous T-Shrit strip celebration that got thrashings from all corners. Apologies apart, the “bad boys” “bad boys” image is being well maintained by Ponting’s men and now the crowd also joins the funs and the free ride.

A very interesting point to note is - English team now has something totally new to deal with – A spokesman for the England team has said "We have come out here to play the game with dignity, and we expect the Australian fans will show the sportsmanship they are renowned for and hope they will respect the players both on and off the field." Whatever!...Cricket Australia should be ashamed.

Do you know the comedy, team India’s formal wardrobe did not travel with them! , it seems the administrators had told the players not to get any formal cloths as it would be provided by the Sponsors , however the world richest sporting body failed to get organized, players were left to be in their informal cloths., Thank god they carried informal cloths. Cricinfo quotes,. “It was one that should have been avoided by the world's richest cricket board which is already under fire for getting things spot-on when it comes to marketing and commercial aspects but failing to make the grade when it comes to other things. Attempts to contact both Niranjan Shah, the board's honorary board secretary and Prof Shetty late on Monday evening failed. “ BCCI’s Pathetic legacy continues.

To conclude, I was browsing Google news, saw these headlines..Huh!.
Chappell says “Dravid is not my puppet, he runs the show”, he also added that Kumble up for the cup. The word “Cup” is defined differently around collage circles.
"Dravid defends batsmen" - , Why anything Dravid does is related to "Defense".?

Good day.

All Set!

Team India , unofficial ambassadors of Orec XL vacuum cleaners in India, why Orec XL? because just like Orec XL, Team India is also fitted with professional quality suction capabilities. As if this was not enough, teams suction power was enhanced yesterday. Ajith Agarkar has been declared fit once again.

Team India is all set to tour South Africa, a country with wonderful natural landscape and wild life parks , it should be a great paid excursion. With such a poor performance record for past year, any performance regardless of good or bad, can be blindly termed as an improvement.

Another news – it seems Viru is all set to face South African pace, of course, such a mind set is needed for 1st 20 balls of the inning. Kapil “the Advice” Dev has asked Sehwag to introspect deep to identify the problems in his batting. Kapil who underwent an cataract operation managed also to contradict himself by saying “Sehwag has been playing at this level for the last six-seven years and I don’t think he has anything to prove to anyone”. The best thing for Dravid and his men is that they are underdogs right till the World cup, I wish this brews some synergy in the team.

Suggestions for the tour.
1. Never show something that is white and round with a seam, aka Cricket Ball to R.P. Singh.
2. Borrow a matrix module from Keanu Reeves, pump it into Agarkar which will make him believe that all other bowlers struggle - he would bowl well at once.
3. Similar program be tried on Sachin to recollect his batting potential.
4. Dravid should not rename himself to DRAWvid.
5. Someone tell Viru that is there is lot in the game after first 5 overs.
6. BCCI using their money clout should reduce the pitch by ½ , this “can” enable our bowlers to bowl perfect length.
7. When India bats, remove leg and the off stumps , if possible the middle stump too.
8. In order to Save donkey drops and to heal the world –we start from over number 22, with 150 for no loss on board.
9. Kaif should never be made to stand anywhere near the bat while fielding.
Finally,
10. Make sure our million dollar coach Chappell sits somewhere far away from the South African bench, because his experimentation mess is such that, he would send someone from the south African bench. This can result in Alfonso Thomas coming in one down for India.

Have a Good Weekend!

Monday!

A busy weekend, managed to watch few NFL games. Ben “the Clueless” Berger and his Pittsburg Steelers were totally out of sync, nothing went right them. While the Red Skins managed to win, thanks to “Terrell Tantrums”.

If you still care, Australia won the Champions trophy [duh!] , West Indies played like India aka Pathetic, the opening pair gave a good start, but the rest wanted to rehears their Ramp walk moves for the ICC fashion show. Australia heads home to trash the English, Hyped Ashes starts later this month.

Sachin has stated that India will come good in South Africa, he has also spoke for the players on product endorsements. It seems players go to commercials shoots only after the game commitment are met, Ist it? How come they model well for Commercials but suck right royally in the games? Commercials or not - there is no commitment. Unless and until team India plays to their potential, these commercial shoots will be considered as a distraction. The Irony is Sachin said this in a product promotion.

“Argue Against Success”, One thing I like when I am in Sachin’s topic, Sachin in last 10 games he played has scored more than 500 runs, while the average score by other members for the last 10 games they played was not more than 150. Dravid, Viru et all have not been playing well for quite some time now, however, still there is a call for people to drop Sachin, which is kind of funny to me.

Finally, ICC members voted to get rid of Darrel Hair – 7-3 , the 3 being England, Australia and NZ. Using Eastman Color! They voted YES to retain Hair in the panel. I feel Chris Broad would also be a good candidate to kicked out from ICC Match referee panel.

பாடல் - Music Album Updates,

Good news is that - we are nearing its completion, and the schedule is in the right direction, In about 6 to 8 weeks it should be on sale. It takes about a month to get the CDs designed and duplicated. I am trying my best to push it with the Manufacturer . The album has 8 tracks, which includes a track sung by playback singer Karthick [Chennai], besides I have used various Desi talents., and I will be introducing new voices and instrumentalists to the arena. Another highlight to note is - album is being mixed on the latest Protools HD System and other latest cool sound engineering tools. You can expect more news on this by end of this month. We clearly enjoyed and enjoying every production movements for past 8 months. Everyone working with me in this album have put forth their best efforts , with this hype, I invite to you to download the latest trailer, you can download it here.
பாடல் (c) 2006-07 Studio1234, USA. Release

Speed this is the Limit!

“Speed said money power alone could not make India a formidable force in world cricket.”
What does he mean by the above statement?

That was the most ridiculous and irresponsible statement from a ICC chief. Game patronage is different from playing the game, 75% of Indians are great supporters and patrons to the game of Cricket. Dear Mr. Speed - do not ridicule our patronage.

Let us take England, there are many office bearers in ICC who are English. What in the world English team has done better? They neither have money power nor they are so called “cricketing force”?

Check his link….http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/about/management.htmlI don’t intend to paint my article with colors, but the above link warrants it.

In order to be a formidable force in Cricket, Indians have to pour in currency and also make sure they win all the tournaments, go figure it out How?. When did Cricket started to generate money? After the so called world cup aka prudential cup moved out of England.
Why money started to flow from India? Very Simple Answer - because Indians loves the game of Cricket. THERE IS NOTHING TO ARGUE HERE. Our population which was often ridiculed by the west is our strength today, it is called human capital. If every Indian contributes $1, it is 1 Billion, considerable chunk of fund to organize a World cup. Once again THERE IS NOTHING TO ARGUE HERE.

Mr. Speed, thinking that he is trashing BCCI is actually striking the touchy side of Indians. A typical Indian loves this sport, he does not care if his or her team plays. Even when India was kicked out of tournament, there was considerable crowd watching Australia and New Zealand today, how many times we have seen vacant seats in Australia or England when the home team is not involved?
Moreover, according to Mr. Modi, ICC now has to face a full BCCI committee, in the past they just had a single “YES” man to deal with, though Modi did not name anyone, I think he is refereeing to Jagmohan Dalmia.

Speed another faster one was - “India last won a [ICC] cricketing event in 1983” – dude, this is what I am saying, in spite of not wining, Indian public has been a good follower for this game and the business model has been generating fund to ICC office bearers to travel 1st class and stay in 6 stars hotels.

Speed needs to apologize to the Indian public for insulting and Ridiculing our continues patronage to the game of cricket. Mr. Speed , Adhere to the speed limit.

Good day!

We Stink!

I am disgusted over India’s performance in Champions Trophy and this multiplied after their pathetic performance against Australia. I am trying to find what is wrong with this team. Consistently, Dravid has been losing games for quite some time now, Gangully at least made sure we showed up in the finals. Today I see that there is nothing called accountability for Dravid or the Indian Team or the Coach or the selectors. There are various reports on the internet that says Greg Chappell will end his contract with BCCI [or be kicked out!?] after the world cup. It seems he is undergoing a lot of problem on his personal side. What so ever! I don’t really care, I think he is not a great coach and will never be one, why wait until the world cup? I am sure nothing will change if the coach is fired right this minute.

Just rewinding more of my frustration, I am still trying to figure out the game plan Rahul Dravid and our beloved million dollar babe coach engaged against the West Indies, . Ramesh Powar was at his best against England, however for some reason he gets dropped, as if this blunder was not enough, he is replaced by a semi-professional bowler popular known for Donkey drops . 1st will any moron tinker with the team that just won a match that too when the bowling department was responsible for the victory? My usual note: - Agarkar was as usual pathetic. I am just wondering what is the reason Selectors, the coach and the captain got in RP.singh instead of Powar?

The way the team played against Australia was sincerely sickening, Kaif in forward short leg position, I have nose cried about this along with many other arm chair experts for past n number of years. Kaif is not the right person to stand in that position, he jumps just before the ball is bowled and hence he is too slow to react, he has dropped a bag full of crucial catches standing in the position. But once again he was made stand in the position , who decides? What is the problem here with Dravid? And these players selected for their fielding drop catches and get about 20 runs per game, at this point I think VVS who was dropped for poor fielding seems better to me. After this loss, Dravid mentioned they lost because – Bowlers lacked experience. What a Bull? Combined games these 3 bowler have played is around 100. If they cannot learn from 100 games , I feel they will never learn. These bowlers were trying to bounce out the Australians. The game plan was kind of a joke.
VB Chandrasekhar made some noise in the press, according to him Tamil Nadu’s Badrinath is a better player than Suresh Raina, and he should be selected in place of him, I am wondering why he failed to make the same noise when he was the selector? Seriously his claims will never count with the title “Former” Selector. He did nothing when he had some power.

Currently the Indian team is in the ICU. Our players should have some pride and passion to improve, however the free flow of remuneration writes off the responsibility and accountability from the players. Who cares, they get paid regardless of winning or losing games and more over an added bonus for showing their esteemed faces in commercials. Passion for the game called Cricket takes the third spot.

Indian Cricket Stinks.

Good Lord!

For past week, my DSL Band width was similar to Boycott and Sunil Gavaskar both on nerves 90s playing for a draw, yes!, I am trying to define the height of slowness. I waited for 2 days, usually Verizon fixes it automatically, however it did not happen. I decided it was time call Verizon DSL support. I searched the bill that was close to an un-ruled 40 pages sugarcane composition notebook, you know what!, there was no support number on the bill . I called the regular billing number, which was closed. I then searched the telephone directory and finally called Verizon DSL support. Has anyone Called Verizon support recently? , Good Lord! The most irritating experience a human being could face.

7:45:00pm : A Vocodar voice says veriZon [ரொம்ப தேவை], then a sweet lady voice greets you , this is followed by her counterpart in “Para Espanola”.

7:45:20 pm : the voice says “I see that you are calling from xxx.xxx.xxx. phone number. The voice asks us to pick an item from the main menu. “We need to say it”, there were no number options. The main menu - “Billing Questions”, “set dosai”, “2 idlly 1 vada”, “IdiAppan paya”, “if you are vegetarian then say Thayier sadam”, “ if you are fat drink skim Milk” and finally “Technical support”. Using my hereditary Desi accent I say “technical suppert”, Sorry…I could not understand you – the menu options are “Billing Questions”, “set dosai” ,“2 idly 1 vada – Might be sold out by now”, “idiappam paya ”…etc, I swallow my tongue in order to get my “peter accent”, whew! This time it understood me. [120/90]. Then I heard the voice say “I am going to check your line”, and after a lot of minutes, it told me my connection was good. Yes! until now I was lying that my connection was slow. [140/110] .

7:50:01 as if the above was not enough, the stupid voice then gave a ridiculous suggestion. If you have problems with your DSL connection [Duh!] Please go to our website where you will find support material. Damn, MY DSL IS DOWN - the reason I am talking to this lousy robot is I CANNOT BROWSE THE INTERNET. How in the freaking world I can go online now and look for help? Maybe, they can add , “Please use your neighbors connection to check our website.” Adding insult to injury, it then lectures about the website, its URL, URI, their internal JDBC connection string, their programming methodology and every other detail that you hate to hear from anyone.

7:58, After all this nonsense, the voice announces outages in various location, most of them were on Planet mars, technically about 5 lights years away from my location and then innocently the voice queried to me – Do you really want to speak to an customer support Agent? I say @#@#$!!@!@#$ YES.

8:02, finally the robot transfers me to a Verizon Service center located either in India or some other eastern country.

8:06 A real female voice greets me enquires vital security information, they want to make sure it is me, I am forced to give details like கோம்பூர் ராமபத்திராச்சாரியரின் பேரனும், கோம்பூர் தேவராஜநின் புத்திரனும்மான SRIKANTH, Bharadwaja gotHram, utharada natchatiram etc., just to make sure its me.

8:10: Agent throws some pathetic technical questions at me: What is your modem model, Are you using the cable we gave you? Are you using a router, now let us shutdown everything and restart, I tell her I did this exercise about 10 times already. I am a network expert, there is fault in your line. But still she wanted me to do it, every electronic equipment and appliances in my house was refreshed.

8:23: After a complete reboot, nothing worked, she then told me that she is going to transfer to level 2 support.

8:25 to 9:00 – a stale big band music with a fretless bass and brass keeps looping on and one….

9:01 @##$##@%^&^$$ - It automatically hung up on me. [200/200]

9:05 Like Ambulimama satRum manam thaLaRatha Vikaramathithiyan, I called again, I did all the steps, finally got thru to the human agent and screamed at her what happened, she threw in multiple freebie apologies, and asked to me reboot, restart and do the same thing. Finally at around 10:00pm they told me they will be sending someone to check the lines today.

Ps: numbers in the [] are my blood pressure readings.

Game day - Champions Trophy - India vs. England

Indians won! their first game of the tournament, frankly I was surprised by Indian fielding and bowling performances. [Mr. Barry Richards did you watch it Sir?] In fact even Viru was making few diving efforts to save runs, such incidents denote that there was some real effort put to improve the fielding department. Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel bowled a clinical line, a consistent line with right length was the secret of success. They never tried fancy experiments, same goes to the spinners too. Power was able to fox the English players more than Harbajan. Harbajan took a very good catch in the deep, while Dravid and Sachin had a “ball” standing in slips. They never missed anything that passed by them, like a hungry frog they leaped on to catches + few insects that flew by them. Indians gave only 5 extras, this is a clear indication for discipline in the bowling department. While the entire bowling office and the fielding was shining with colors, Ajith “Ayopavam” Agarkar was pathetic as usual. I was worried that he would give away the game, But for first time in history, Dravid ‘s thought process was in sync with many arm chair [including yours sincerely!] cricket experts., Ajith Agarkar was never shown the ball again. I feel it is high time to brew someone like Sreesanth to take over from Agarkar.

England performance was very close to the word “poor”. Basic problem they faced was, none read the pitch correctly, Indians due to their home town advantage came close in guessing the nature of the wicket. The ball began to turn with uneven bounce at regular intervals. Top order English batsmen other than Kevin Peterson, none had the technique to face the Desi Ankle Music [opposite to chin music]. English captain ensured Omelets for next day breakfast.

Indian batting started off like the big bang theory, Viru was restored to the opening slot with Sachin. Both the openers blasted off well, Sachin and Viru played some juicy shots, however Viru donated this wicket , he chased a “wide goose” and was caught well in the slips, if Viru had stayed for next 30 minutes, the match would have been over well before supper time. In spite of this wide goose chase batting, I feel Viru has to open with Sachin. , this pair should not be tinkered,. Also India needs a proper #3 player. Irfan should be used sparingly at number 3. #3 is reserved to a “full time” batsmen, someone like Yuvraj or Suresh Raina should come up the order. For England Harmison was not in his usual place., he did not get it right. He bowled very badly till the supper break.

The (dis?)organizers had planned on a fire work display after the game, however someone who had too much coffee, triggered off the fireworks during the game. There was fireworks going on in the background after India lost Pathan. Dravid walked with blasting sound effects. The fireworks seemed to have distracted the newly arrived batsmen Dravid., he was out caught in the slips . Organizers need to ensure such things don’t happen in future. Soon India lost Sachin to a ball that kept low.
Raina walked and contributed on behalf of the Indian contingent for the Omelet breakfast. Soon Dhoni and Yuvraj got the game back on track for an Indian victory, Dhoni wanted to finish the game off quickly hence he tried to show off a little but was out caught, a stupid move by the youngster. Yuvraj and Harbajan then won the game for India. Rameeze Raja announced Munaf Patel as man of the match.

Finally, Sachin scored 35, but more that he reached a lot of mile stones during this game. Today we have people celebrating for 25th day of a movie, I think Sachin achievements should be at least appreciated should not be covered for the words like playing for the team etc. Do you know Sachin has scored more than 6000 runs in day and night games alone., 6000 is carrier score for many players. Well, who cares if you celebrate or not, but I will - I now call upon my good friend Balaji to do the needful and say ……………………..

ICC v BCCI

The ICC and BCCI cold war is now on center stage. Mr. Modi V.P, BCCI made it clear to the media that ICC was trying to dominate its members, he also hinted that some members of ICC are still living in the period of colonization.

ICC should gets this clearly. For past “n” number of years, attitude of ICC officials has cultivated similar opinions in the mind of many cricket loving Indians. Time and time we have seen ICC being biased and, players from South Asia were punished or treated to a greater degree than say, someone from Australia or England. Take the recent one , Ricky Pointing was let go freely without a match suspension for his unruly behavior with the umpire. Asian players have had match suspensions for such behaviors in past. Having been through heavy handed treatments often by match ICC referees, it is natural for a country to have such a frame of mind against ICC. This feeling doubles when you realize that India brings in about 80% of the revenue for ICC to function.

Latest controversy, according to Mr. Modi, ICC is playing unfair and is holding out on the media rights for the 2011 World Cup by saying that the BCCI can bid for the rights only if ICC Development International, its marketing arm, repeals its decision to restrict the bidding only to broadcasters. "It looks as if the MPA was framed only to tie our hands behind our backs, and then ask us to host the 2011 World Cup. Modi further adds , the cynics and sadists could not believe that India could organize the World Cup. We not only hosted one but two World Cups successfully within eight years. That saw the dismantling of other vestiges of the Raj. but there are certain pockets that still seem to suffer from the colonial hangover.", The ICC must remember this, if ICC wants to triple its rights fee to a staggering $1.5 billion, hey considerable percentage of that money has to come from India. As Mr. Modi puts it rightly it is time to have chief executive Afro-Asia, someone who understands the problems of a majority of ICC members and doesn't heed just the affluent alone.

I am finally kind of happy that someone from BCCI had the guts to take such a stance with ICC. India needs more power in ICC, the reason is very simple - Indian board's media rights has leapfrogged from $40 million to $612 million and this is projected to hit the billion-dollar mark in the next four years.In the reply to Mr. Modi statement, Mr. Malcolm Speed has hit out India and suggested to use right channels to take up this issue. We might see more “speed tickets” during India England tie.

As if this was not enough Barry Big Mouth Richards on Thursday launched a sarcastic campaign against India, saying BCCI had transformed the game for commercial interests by their sheer money power. He says that Cricket is now played for money. Only few at the top posts in ICC or BCCI have been involved with high level of cricket. 1st What is this high level he is talking about? And is there international sport that is not played for money? Cricket is a professional sport. Money making is part of it.

Have a Good week end!

Our Golu pics.

My wife and my daughter were busy for past few days setting up the Golu, this is our 3rd Golu in DC. In a busy work schedule, Dasara festival is an important social event, through which we get to invite and meet people from our Indian community. Last but not the least, every evening gobbling the protein filled Sundal adds a special flavor to this festival.

Monday!

I have always speculated in my Blog about Dravid's captaincy, our Coach and the lack of a proper game plan. Ravi Sastri has echoed similar opinions. I am not surprised here at all. Sastri in an interview has told that Chappel is controlling the show while Dravid has absolutely no power or control in the management. If this is true, our great Indian team has reached new low level. Congratulations . We can now feel why Chemistry failed to work for Gangu and Greg Chappel.

Indian team's batting management was totally below par in the recent tri series. Even at the school level, when tail enders play with a well set in-form batsman, the standing order is that - in-form player maintains the majority of the strike. If the in-form player does not follow this golden rule, it is the responsibility of the captain to send the message across.

Other day, for some reason the tail enders were not protected. Unwanted singles were taken and Tail enders were exposed to high voltage. No message was sent to Dinesh Mongia or the tail enders. Very poor batting management by Dravid. Brett Lee just needed few minutes to wipe the Indian @#$@#$ out. What was the coach and the captain doing? These are basics of cricket. As if this was not enough, Agarkar played the most irresponsible stroke known to man kind and our predecessor - the monkey kind. Is Agarkar really playing for India?

Coming to Dhoni, he was caught of a no ball, fine! - mistake of the umpire, still Dhoni played a very poor stroke. I dont blame him here, because his batting position changes like Nasdaq quotes. I think our Coach Gregy boy uses a "lot" mechanism to pick the batting order. Do you know that Dhoni has scored more runs at number 3 position. Who in the hell changes the batting order at random? , There is no reason for Dravid to open the innings, The batting order should be Sehwag, Sachin and Dhoni, followed by Dravid, Raina and the rest. Once again, Dravid and the million dollar coach should account for their pathetic display. Since our great worthless coach is not an Indian, he really does not care about Indian public sentiments. Call me crude, I felt he was happy to see Australia win.

Pointing was seen animated and of course! misbehaving with the umpire when during Sachin recall drama. Umpire was well within his rights to recall. What Ponting did was a clear Dissent. However ICC , has cleared Ponting from Dissent. Match referee none other than Chris the Broad Minded B..D cleared him. The fact stands good - ICC is partial to some countries. Thats all for Cricket for now.

Watched a great Tamil movie called "Thimiru" , honestly why do they make such films and waste money?. Throwing money into a river is considered a better usage. There is a great song in this movie - I want all the Tamil pundits to listen to it - Jil endru oru kathal is definitely Sentamz when compared to it, the first 4 lines in the pallavi comes with 20 million mistakes , while the singer uses freely keyless entries and exists through out the track. Gowdamani style sonna IOOODA SAMI.

ps: Golu is is full swing, I will upload some pictures tomorrow.

The Saving Private "Rain"

I happened to catch India Australia one day in KL. Mr. Rain saved India. Last time India and Australia met was in Netherlands, the match was right royally washed out. BCCI trying to sell cricket - it reminds me the lines "kotum mazai kAlam uppu vika ponen". I like to meet the idiots who meticulously schedule cricket matches during rain.It is high to have a weather department in ICC.

Indian bowling seems to have improved when compared to the last game. Previous game, I will not call the bowling as "Pathetic" why? because that word would be a compliment then. I have no words to describe the bowling effort in previous game. Just like the bowlers themselves, I am yet figure out the Indian bowling schema our million dollar coach has devised. Best plan would be start from over number 15. Mr. Big Ricky Mouth Ponting AKA preacher who preaches to the world about on field behavior, misbehaved with the umpire and was sternly warned by his management. He was fined some match fee, I need to say this, if it had been an Indian player such incidents get him match suspensions.

Coming back to this game, bowling seems to have improved a little. Harbajan bowled quite well to keep the Aussies down. Sachin started of little shaky, Mcgrath hit him on the helmet once, Sachin lifted him over Long on , wonderful match was on cards, however Mr. Varuna played the Grinch and destroyed concentration, under such drastically changing conditions even players like Dravid had to do something out of fashion, with an asking rate of around 7 runs per over Dravid had to charge and played a loose shot on the off and was caught in covers, this is where the popular Indian fashion parade began. Queenslander Johnson pinned Indians with some fantastic bowling. Kapil mentioned that Australia needed only about 5 to 7 more overs to wipe India out. By the way Irfan and Yuvarj made a short trip to the center, their game count increased by 1. Local says KL is known for night time rains. and it is always bright during the day time. Why not play during day time?

Filtered idiots who created such a D/N schedule has to take some responsibility here.

Good weekend.

Monday!

The hyped American tennis star was beaten by the Real Pong. Fedderrerrrrrr, often I wonder if Federer is really from our planet. people - it is like this, if he wins it is no longer a news . We will have wait for him to loose, which might be a bigger news than his winning spree. He is simply amazing to watch.The coverage also attracted me more this year to follow tennis. Finals was on CBS HD/DD5.1,. Tennis is one sport which will exploit Dolby 5.1 sound, the sounds spectrum was panned perfectly. Sound was really directional on all 5.1 speakers.

NFL season started, that means cold weather is round is the corner. Steelers won their first game without Big Ben. Red skins are playing today against Vikings. Red skins look pathetic than ever this year, with Clinton Portis injured...It can be the brutal Pong Vs the skins.
God : Srikanth who would you like to be born as in your next birth?
Srikanth: Brett Favre!
God : What? - Why?
Srikanth: In spite of pathetic performance for last 3 weeks and whole of last season, ESPN and other football experts keep raving about his greatness.
God: is it ? Let me be born as him first, your wish is as of now is on hold.
News:Brett Favre was shutdown yesterday and all the 4 quaters he played for the Bears.

Sun TV movie of the day "Mayi", I have no strength to comment about this movie.I always note this in Tamil movies, first 45 minutes in spent on introducing the main characters and their greatness via other side characters in the movie. I think from next time just a close caption will do the needful. movies can be cut short by 45 minutes.

Music Director - S.A.Rajkumar. When it comes to S.A.Rajkumar and his music "process", He is a "single threaded application". He runs the whole show with Single Thread [STA]. He manages to reuse same thread every where without wasting O/S resources, this is amazing - I think Microsoft has to take a note of his unique transaction ability.

Finally,
What do think of the apple MAC ad? in my opinion, if was good the first time, but over and over again it makes you think more about PC than the MAC,. latest claim is it seems MAC has a magnetic electric cable that will not come out even when people trip over it.

Dear MAC dude, even in a home setup , no one will use the PC wiring system for high jump practice purpose. and say, if my MAC cable is lost, I have to take another mortgage to get a new cable, while for a PC I can get it radio shack, in fact IKEA has buy one and get next ten free.

This advertisement helps PC more than MAC, because it makes people to think about it. I would like their advertisement to talk positives of Mac [If any] rather than childish comparisons. PC is house hold name, - quality and stability is not the reason for this, real reason is, Dell sells a PC for 299 while Mac is still a BMW of home computing.

Good day.

ICC and colonial work ethics

I was reading an article by Michel Holding on Cricinfo. In a nut shell the article summed up that there is a colonial work ethics built around ICC. I have to agree with Michel Holding. Ricky Ponting recently gave an interview that he would prefer best umpires for the [self proclaimed] world’s best cricket clash – Ashes. Ya! 6 out 10 times Ashes seems one sided to me. Ricky “the wanting” Ponting went on to name best umpires around the world, notably many were "Australians" including our friend who wanted half million dollars to walk away from the case he orchestrated.

In my opinion, I see a hidden Ponting agenda here. ICC does not permit local umpires and Ponting wants Australian umpires to stand in games involving Australia. Ok! I am just speculating, but tell me this; will "ICC" tolerate similar statements made by a player from India or Pakistan? I am sure ICC will reply rudely stating "it is ICC’s responsibility to nominate umpires hence others just shut the @#$@# up". But ICC officials ignored the brave "demand" from Ponting. It went unnoticed. If Ponting makes such demands it is treated as "command", but if a Dravid or Inzi makes such statements it is called undue or excessive or uncalled for, more over ICC will collect fines to buy a new water cooler. People, don’t you see the colonial attitude built around ICC? Just like Mr. Holding says, we have to live with it, and as I mentioned last week in my Blog, our cricket boards has to shred their submissive attitude until then ICC will not respect our opinions.

Ravi “the Slowchana” Shastri joins the bandwagon. I am quoting from PTI and the article at DNA India - Given the way the drama unfolded, I would have refused to carry on unless umpire Darrell Hair told me who the bowler was who had tampered with the ball. In my [Sastri’s] opinion, what happened is a travesty of the game. Going by the book is one thing, looking at the bigger picture and spirit of the game quite another. That is where umpire Darrell Hair's approach was flawed. He not only had to believe, but also had to show that the game was paramount bigger than the players, Inzamam-ul-Haq and himself. I'm afraid the big Aussie made a hash of it with his stand-offish approach. In this day and age when technology is available at the click of a mouse, I see no reason why Hair did not use it to his advantage. In fact, had he referred that matter to the third umpire or the match referee, the issue could have been settled within minutes for all that was needed was for somebody to check if any footage of ball-tampering was available. It was apparent that without any proof, Hair was skating on thin ice. Thereafter, his ego and stubborn personality took over, complicating the matter to a degree from where it became extremely difficult to come back. I like to know Navjot Siddhu’s take on this episode.

Mr. Darrel Hair apologized for the email he sent to ICC, "I wish to apologize for an ill-advised but entirely confidential e-mail that gave people opportunity to question my motives. Of course, world will talk about the motives, here is a person who yapped about principles yada yada yada suddenly nose dived asking for ½ million to get away from the case, dude, it does create a "fish" aroma. Also get this, Cricket is bigger than some umpire and his "personal" crusade

Moday Musings

Vinayaka Chadhurthi weekend on Sun TV; the non-believers had their customary special movie treat titled “English காரன் ” [it should be Ka”run” instead]. The moral of the story “Encourage your kith and kin to do things they like to do". I think Mr. Satyaraj did the needful to his son Sibiraj. [சரி சரி what else to do, "படிப்புவரல" -that will be an all together another discussion.] Based on the moral I think a 30 minute "வணக்கம் தமிழகம்" with Satyaraj as special guest would be a cost saver mint for the producer. And most of all, the movie insulted athletes around the world – it was a sheer “comical” [I swear] to watch Namitha run along with athletes. The good old Siva Kumar’s thriller “Ladder Steps” [அதான் sir ஏணிப்படிகள்] script could have been reused instead.

People!, listen to this crap - Namitha is a "village" girl born to a male chauvinistic "conservative" dad and a boxed snake [பொட்டிப்பாம்பு]tight lipped mom. But Namitha the village girl is allowed to wear a narrow “pepe” jeans and a juicy Gucci T-shirt. Due to “other" noticeable distractions with a great difficulty திருவாளர் பொது ஜனம் accepted Namitha as an athlete.
ஏங்க “Satyam sir” கொஞ்சமாவது logic வேண்டமா?. When there are producers to spend on such craps, there are also “good” directors struggling to find money to produce genuine movies. Yes I am taking about VAV. vettai Adu ViLaIyAdu.

Looks like கரார் Kamal’s cheque was cleared for payment. Vetaiadu Villayadu was released finally yesterday. Director Gautham spoke about his movie on Sun TV. I think Director Gautham top most Tamil directors who can communicate their production efforts. He never minces words or statements, yesterday in the promotion program, his expressive eyes spoke million words on the whole effort. Their experience on flying over NYC was an interesting one to hear. I just like to know this, it is that hard to make a Tamil movie in New York, when there are tons of Hindi movies shot in Manhattan area, why our guys seems to struggle? All about funding I suppose. We are busy spending on movies like “English Karan” which serves no purpose [Breaking News: die hard Namitha fans are protesting against his statement.]. I hope VAV movie does not disappoint, though Hj’s songs have already done the needful, I believe a movie is not a just million dollar music video. More than Kamal, Prakashraj or Jothika, I trust Gautam’s ability - he is a director from a different generation. He told about the first song in the movie – it seems that it was not need for the story however being Kamal fan, he cannot let go the opportunity to shoot a “kamal song”. He also made a request and asked people to stay in the theater until the last frame rolled down. Hope VAV is Wow – [WOW=Wetai OAdu Wilaiyadu in Rajinee style]

I might have to wait for the DVD. My home theater is better equipped than Desi theaters in DC area. Knowing Gautam’s and Harry’s mixing ability, I not wasting my money on Desi Theater and its customary sound system. I also prefer an Aiyangaran DVD, why I am saying this because off late in many Desi video stores I see Tamil movies from a DVD company called “Sruthilayam” from Canada. There are simply the worst DVD manufactures known to man kind. The sound quality is pathetic; some times you get camera prints dumped on a DVD which creates a doubt about their legality. Yo! “Sruthilayam” Dude - Dolby Digital or DTS is not spreading the same channel to all the 5 channels. Why can’t our Tamil community get organized in providing legal channels for Tamil movie distribution on DVD around the world?

Good weekend.

Hum for the day

Do you want guess the cost of a voluntary hair “cut” - it is about $500,000. It seems Mr. Grumpy the courageous Hair negotiated with ICC for a $500,000 payout. Meaning, he would quit and walk out of the ordeal [orchestrated by him] if ICC pays him for the loss that he is going to suffer in next 5 years.

This is kind of getting muddy, why should Mr. Hair worry about the money that he is going to make in next 5 years? Has ICC already committed to him? If Hair believes that Inzi and company are guilty why in the world he should fear job security? What happened to his over blown so called “Determination” “strong mind” “strength “ etc - Only Hair loving folks in Down under has to clarify.

ICC has already booked Inzi on 2 counts hearing is pending while they were busy negotiating terms with Mr. Hair. There were rumors yesterday on press that there is slight confusion in the Pakistani dressing room. Things are getting muddy day by day. May be this is first time we see a version of Dirty Hairy without client East wood in it. –Hum for the day “HaIriHaIri om HaIriHaIri om”

Have a great weekend.

False Hair

The ICC refused a request from Pakistan to stop umpire Darrell Hair from standing in future matches involving their team. ICC Chief executive Malcolm Speed threw “a faster one”, he stated that "It remains the role of the ICC and not our members to appoint umpires. Here is my doubt, for whose benefit ICC is for ? Ok! May be for betterment of Cricket, how will cricket become better - When the cricket playing nations play it better, in order to make this happen, the playing nation has be provided with better cricketing conditions.

Time and time Mr. Hair has had problem with various teams, let me discard all my racial rummies, still you cannot deny the fact that Umpire Hair has had problems with Pakistan and various other teams in the past. Hence when a permanent ICC member makes a request, ICC should consider it. Bottom line “collection of permanent members” = ICC. Assume if countries like India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan who generate a lot of cricketing funds shut down to form say Asian Half boiled Cricketing council, jokes apart such move can drain ICC funds. Seriously no other place in the world Cricket can be sold better than the subcontinent. Mr. Speed should slow down before displaying his powers. ICC is simply nothing without the subcontinent market.

Moving on, Players from Down under gave their tube of supporting gel [or Jell] to Hair -, why would not they support their favorite umpire. How many time Hair has rescued them from crisis.

“aleikekeeeeereckuere” – tape Rewind sound -

Adelaide, January 1992 - Australia beat India by 38 runs.
Just peruse through old articles during that time, you will know that the game was "marred... by controversy LBW decisions - Indians got about 8 bad LBW decision , while two of their own appeals were rejected". Who did this? Answer: Mr. Hair

1993 Adelide - Peter Kirsten [SA] was blessed by a series of LBW decisions from Hair, desperate Kristen gave and spoke to umpire, ICC put up a new water cooler using this incident. - Who did this? Answer: Mr. Hair

Next the ill famed MCG Boxing Day Test - 1995 – Murali was no balled by Hair – Lieutenant General Hair No balled Murali for chucking while umpire [Steve Dunn] at other end had no problems with Murali’s action. I remember watching this game on Star TV [Channel 9] when I was in Chennai. Steve Dunn pointed out later that the rules stated that any suspect action should be reported to the match referee rather being called immediately, and that it was governing body the ICC not the umpires who should rule a bowler's action legitimate or not. Mr. Malcolm Speed Sir - do you get this, when governing body is the ICC - not the umpires, how can you let Hair do such things in mid field time and time again? Was hair punished for this act? No – when all powerful cricket governors of ICC gave clean chit to Murali –Mr. Hair in his autobiography called Murali's bowling action as "diabolical" – meaning extremely cruel.

I feel with such wretched and diabolical record to his credits I think Mr. Hair has no qualification be an international umpire. I feel he is a misfit for cricket because time and time again whenever he officiates he has acted in a high-handed manner. The cricketing elite’ often utter “no one is bigger than the game itself” – Yah! This damn golden word applies to the umpires too. It’s high time - Fire the Big “Wig” aka Mr. False Hair.

Good day.

The “Hair” matter gains momentum;

I don’t know if you would agree with me on this I feel there is a clear cut disparity on how ICC views a degree of offence. Seriously it does look like players from countries like Australia, England [yes! my man Mr. Ricky the loquacious Ponting and his team] are let go easily while similar breaches from other cricket playing nations say India , Sri Lanka or Pakistan are treated as thought they are criminal offenses. Match referees like Chris board are notorious for nepotism. I can quote many such incidents. Instead of calling ICC racial body etc, I would say ICC often plays the favoritism game. They suffer from superiority complex syndrome. More over I also feel this “soup complex” was born out of problems that infests the country cricket boards. For example our Indian cricket board, a worthless pack that never supports the players’ opinion as the Australian Board would support it player’s opinion. Board members in order to retain their “post” they side with ICC forgetting the sport and the players.

When Cricket Australia makes a statement supporting its player, it is very authentic and unanimous – a single voice opinion. However this would never happen in Indian cricket scenario. If at all the board comes forward to say something supporting the player, an Ex-board member, [Mr Leele for example] would call the press and give his esteemed opinion trashing the team, for which the board members would reply…etc. This chat will go on and one, in due course the creditability on a genuine opinion raised by the board supporting the player is lost deep in the hole. Unless and until there is clear cut unity within the boards, ICC will favor and side towards cricket boards that are more organized.

Coming to this Hair raising issue of Ball tampering, Inzi has stated in an interview that their stance on the forfeited test is matter of honor. I wish Pakistani board continues to support his opinion.

Moving on, let us check the credit history – without doubt Inzi is a very calm person when compared to say for example Mr. Ricky the loquacious Ponting, where he and his team mates gets pardoned for various sport misbehaviors. Inzi hardly raises his voices with the umpires Inzi in the past has accepted the rules of the game may be he was in a grumble mode for first hour of the incident. But he did settle quickly respecting the game. While time and time Mr. Hair has had problems with various teams, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan in particular. Apart from goofing up on decisions, Hair’s haughty tone is known to every cricket following person around the world. When you compare the level of arrogance between Inzi and Hair, Duh! Even a child would know that Mr. Hair is light years ahead.

Secondly Inzaman is a captain of a national side, he is holding a highly respected portfolio; it does demand a respect from the umpire automatically. Umpires like Hair or my favorite Steve “the AH” Buckner cares a damn for such portfolios.
Such umpires feel that they can do anything to establish their authority. They don’t hesitate to treat the players as though they are bunch of animals.

What if Pakistan cricket board had told to ICC that they will not play if Hair or Bucky is standing in the middle. There would be no problem here. Period, I am sure ICC will take this matter seriously if more boards start objecting to crazy umpires like Hair. But boards never cared to support its players.

Also Tell me this, How can the umpire ask the batsmen to pick the ball? So what next the non striker will pick the next bowler to bowl? Press Reports suggest that no one has seen the so called “tampered ball”. If Mr. Hair’s claim is truthful why not ICC display the ball to the press? There are about 25-26 camera in the ground, and I am really surprised that there no pictures supporting Hair’s accusations. Seriously TV camera men are so efficient they capture such incidents better than their game coverage. I am sure one of the 26 would have captured it clearly. We still remember how poor Dravid was made to pay for doging something with the ball. Hope you remember Umpire Buckner’s mime act describing the incedent. On a cricket - TV camera is always watching you.

More over there is rumor saying the whole episode was triggered by English side. English coach had some suspicion on this and reported to the umpire, Hair who is closely associated with yadayada - did the needful. However English coach has denied this allegation.

[Like horlicks,]Inzi has been around for ages now, in my opinion he is very nice and clam slow natured person. I read this interview on CricInfo and I feel that his claims are genuine. There is a foul play and Mr. Hair , ICC has to answer this.
Will Hair do the same thing if it had been Australia v.s England? Don’t tell me those teams don’t do such things, the first case of ball tampering in India was by the visiting English team – John lever was caught using Vaseline from his forehead. Indian Umpire/Bedi found it. He was caught red handed, so when it comes to Cheating, every country has its own set of bad elements. Just blaming Pakistan here cannot be accepted.

It is another controversy for Mr. Hair; I think it is better send him home; there are better umpires in this world. Having said this, ICC to safe their ass have asked Ranjan Madugulle to take care of the proceedings, and he is another known cymbal [Jalra] for the ICC. Hence! The case it put to rest, I am sure Mr. Hair will be the world cup elite panel.


Finally, Chennai Day is being celebrated from today…, I am from Chennai and I dearly miss Chennai. My contribution to Chennai - my song - 80s in Chennai --
Happy Chennai day!

Monday Musings

What is the problem with Umpire Darrell Hair? He was in a controversial “love” tangle with Murali couple of years ago; Hair ruled that Muralitharan was a chucker; however ICC using its “most” modern facilities cleared Murali from this ordeal. Still Murali faced humiliation from the Aussie public. But for the myopic treatment, Mr. Darrell “the” Hair [what a convenient last name] was let go free. Ball Tampering is a serious offense, having said this I would also say it is a very hard case to prove such incidents. How can you prove the ball has been tampered? Event CSI Miami sleuths cannot help! Secondly the Cry Babies XI aka Pakistan team should not have walked out simply dishonoring the game of cricket. There is a process in place called “protesting’ - will it work or not, that is a different issue. If you feel what the Umpire did was incorrect, I would say what Pakistan team did is also incorrect. Both the parties insulted the spirit in the game and forgot about spectators who have paid money. It was comical to see the veteran Mr. Imran “the political” Khan blast out the umpire, the Cookubara company, the pitch, English weather etc…– let me tell you I have not forgotten the confession of his team mates in the past – “ball tampering using soda bottle lids”. I wish ICC investigates the ordeal properly [hahaha], if Hair is proved wrong once again - ICC needs to fire him at once and Pakistan team should get an open apology from him in public. What if the ball had been tampered? Was Pakistan right in forfeiting the games? They have to account for this too. Cricketing law should take its course.

Yesterday Sapthaswargal came to back to its grooves. All girls show again, most of them sang very well. My best singer vote goes to “Shruthi”, it seems she has been learning music for only 4 years, wow! for such a voice she must be in play back already. When it comes to singing, apart from perfect technical accuracy, it is all about conveying expressions. She had a voice & expressions that was similar to Bombay Jayashree. I had some spare time in the evening hence I continued with the Aug 15th specials via DVR, One program I should commend SunTV for was Actor Suriya going to a village of army families. Amazing stories and the program was apt for the day. “Suriya” is shining better day by day. Waiting for “sil” or “jill” or what ever is kAdal :)

Yesterday KTV was showing a movie called Manithan – Ebba, I remember cutting classes and going to this movie on the first day. Seriously KTV has been showing well made craps like Manithan, Nanum-oru-Thozilalai. The music director for Manithan was one Mr. Chandra Bose. I caught him on Sun TV late night serial during channel surfing. He had a dada getup in ujjala white and white, he was busy torturing a female and the script, it looks like he has an alternative career now – good thing is the torturing factor still remains intact.

Finally, “The Try” cricket series in Sri Lanka finally closed. , I saved some hard earned money by not subscribing.

Good day,

#350

Munchings...

Sun TV specials, The preset lineup of course included the usual interview with our Snake + Akka, experts believe that her SunTV appearance is much more than her appearance on [pirated] Tamil DVDs. Seriously I am wondering when the “joke” called “pati mandram” would stop? TGS [Tangaladasami] .[Customary] Interview with A.R.Rahman, V for Vazisal Sarathay made sure he asked superficial questions that had no real answers. How do you feel being among Icons like Sachin? Enna questionYa idhu? I have one thing here to say [seri seri - jAlrathane - adi machi adi] , Some words from Rahman were totally inspirational. [ya! Thala enna sonnalaum adu enaku veda vAku]. Over all the Independence Day programming on Sun TV gave a clear picture on perils of too much “freedom”. Thanks to the DVR technology, just like what I would do before quarterly exams - skipped most portions.

As expected, Cricket was washed out due to rain and other political events in Sri Lanka. Currently the news is BCCI/ICC/SCB/TNCC/DMK is planning for an in-door book cricket tournament. Our great Coach Chapel is busy deciding the opening pair for the game. The game did not start on time again - reason - the book was missing so was Viru, it is rumored that Viru was napping using the book as pillow. Earlier in the day Kaif was caught red handed for tearing all pages divisible by 10. He later said he did it to save a duck’s life. Dravid was not available for comment as he had to gone to the near by stationary store to buy some fevicol.

People, do you know that the solar system planet count has been just increased from 9 to 12. Wow! "Gujjal!" time for Raj TV / Vijay TV and other TV "Josiyam" experts. [Gujjal=Hallelujah!]

They now have 3 more entities to mix and match. As per Vijay TV’s Josiyam program, from today your personal finances are controlled by the planet called “Chatru”, derived from the 10th planet on Solar System called “Charon”. Charon was formerly owned by Pluto [not the Disney dog, I meant the real planet that fetched us 2 marks in 8th Standard 1 word Q&A]. Charon the Stone was finally granted independence on Aug 15th 2006; it is now officially the 10th rock from sun. Can you guess the planet after mars? It is not Jupiter, it is Ceres. Ceres was promoted from Asteroid to planet. Josiyam experts say Ceres controls agriculture. Paddy seeds will be sown based on its position. I hope the 12th planet “2003-ub313” helps promoting my music.

Tell me this, what is the big fuss in adding new planets to the solar system that cannot be seen with your naked or nude or stripped eye? May be the only persons benefited would be Josiyam experts and of course the REMAX Realtor.

Good day!

My Next Music Album

Download Audio trailer

Monday!

The Tri Series in Sri Lanka might be washed out. This is not a laughing matter, when so much money is spent on these games, why not ICC get hold of someone who knows the local geography and weather?.

Thank you God for keeping ICC under control [ICC=Internal Cricket Cravings]. I have not signed up anything yet to watch it live. More over games are scheduled on “busy week days” [starting at 5.00am EST.] I wish the honorary cricket planners, schedule game over the weekends, - most of the fans watching are not “honorary” workers. On second thoughts I think there is no point in watching Dravid Tortoise hunt game plan planned by our coach who flip-flops more than popular democrats here.

Our popular coach cried out loud to the press that Sachin cannot throw the ball etc, later flip flopped to cover up the whole “olaral” ceremony by saying deep throw, short throw etc. Sachin did play in the practice games without any problems. Having been certified by the team physiotherapist and a bunch of responsible doctors, there was no need for the coach to make silly statements. He is not a “doctor” and secondly it was really childish, just assume that there was some truth to this claim, he should have raised this to the board directly but instead he leaks it out to the press, which can help the opponents. This is the “n” goof up incident for the Aussie coach in the press. Talking about “Aussie” Mr. Dean “the bigmouthed” Jones was penalized for passing comments on a South African player. I wish commentators get this clearly - in most pay-per-view channels there are no commercials breaks, I have also heard lots of comments during live broadcasts. At least broadcasters can install a big red light sign saying “ON AIR”, So that the commentators can keep all their sarcastic orifices shut when the light is on.

Had a glimpse of SunTV “sapthaswarangal” yesterday – it was professionally awful. When someone forces their agenda in the name of art - quality suffers. Sun TV for about a month now is trying badly to push their management’s agenda in programming. Yesterday participants were asked to sing songs from popular Kannagi story - “silapathigaram”. There was huge Kannagi statue in the back drop. First and fore most, seriously none of the participants could sing [or wink wink pronounce Tamil properly]. The so called compositions lacked musical values, I wish someone could have composed them in a better fashion; it was a pathetic display of literature.

Finally Sun TV is busy advertising their August 15th special program line up, and the announcer says "cherish our freedom and independence", agreed very patriotic , however when he makes this announcement – on the screen - Ariya was seen busy holding his "dash" ….. And singing for a copied rap flick – Damn, can’t they choose a better decent "spot" to place this "patriotic" voice over message.

Good Day,

Ps: Aratai aragam is now taken over by Mr.Solomon Papayya and the well known speaker Mr. Raja, they are funny and knowledgeable people, still after watching it for 10mins I felt the has been diluted [with an agenda] and has lost all its seriousness. It sounded like another “patti mandram” that required a lorry load of Laughing gas to get a smile.

Only A.R.Rahman!

"jil enu oru kAthal" – A great track with Broadway style Big band Jazz– in my opinion – “Zimply Superbbu!” Rahman has produced an honest track keeping the genre intact till the final bar.

ARRangement - [simple walking] Bass, Drums, Rhodes, Brass section, muted trumpets, tap dancing thumps and Finger snaps. Concentrate on each instrument separately and see how they complement each other with the vocals. The Recording is crystal clear you get a fantastic separation.

Vocalist - Tanvi is amazing”. Her expressions are of top quality and the most important – “picture perfect pitching”. I highlight this because movie tracks today have various “keyless” entry and exit points. Just listen to Tanvi’s vocal tone variation for the line Jil enu oru kathal – this is quite amazing and the female Jazz scats are very authentic. I just do not know what special Rahman does to get such fantastic vocals on the track. Only Rahman!

Tanvi’s slightly accented Tamil pronunciation - honestly I liked it, and there are no serious “pronunciation” issues to complain, she pronounces hard Tamil sounds quite well. You cannot find fault here - having said that - in software development we often say “there is always one more bug” in music appreciation - there is always one more “nitpick” - who knows – by dropping few drops of castor oil in the ears “pundits” will identify faults like “pronunciation for the word “seiyuthe” is irritating” - I would leave those nitpicks to “Tamil pundits”. Bottom line here is - I understood it and I have a great track to play in my car Stereo during office rush hour traffic. “The energy in the song inspires me and creates a greater level of enthusiasm to be creative in life”.

Ps: Next track that caught my attention at once was “New York Nagaram” I will write a detailed review on every song once I come out “Jil en oru kathal” joram– Man! Rahman Rocks.

Something interesting

Remote production - I have been doing [remote] production for about 8 years now. Right from inception of my site in Mp3.com till now, the process is kind of similar. My crew is often spread around the globe and I user various communication methods to communicate and get the work done. There is a lot co-ordination and management involved in this process.

Today I am really happy to see many Bloggers take similar path in music production. Working on such remote productions requires proper co ordination. In order achieve efficiency a Music producer or a composer needs to be organized, he or she needs to communicate their requirement clearly to their peers or crew. For example if my good friend Udhaya writes a song for me, I need to communicate my requirements clearly to him. For such communications, we used emails, conference calls through which I will explain the structure of the song etc, Other than email and chat-windows there is no proper tool to facilitate such remote production tasks.

What if , a software tool using which composers can create a track, package it with time coded markers and description and export this as a bundle to the lyric writers, who then using the same tool opens it and gets its instructions, then writes the song and sends it back to the composer as another package? Sounds interesting to you?

Folks, having understood this production nightmare for about a decade now, I went on to develop a software program to facilitate such production tasks. I developed this software using dot NET V2.0 and the Free C# Visual Studio Express from Microsoft.com.
Let me explain program modal and the work flow:
Production - a production is a collection of audio and video bundles.
An Audio bundle consists of an audio file [mp3 or wav or windows media], a time code file and a lyric file. A video bundle – a video file [wmv or mpg], Time code instruction file and a director comments file. User opens a production. Once the production is activated, using the project explorer window [check the screen shots] users can load audio or video packages. Using the work bench windows composers can create markers and its related instructions can be entered. A Marker is a time code in “hh:mm:ss” format. The entire production can be compressed as single file and can be mailed to the lyric writer or programmer etc, who can open it and read the instruction using the same tool. There is simple rich text editor is provided to write lyrics and notes. I have not tested this completely; I think I have addressed all the requirements based on my experience, but there is no such thing as complete software hence if anyone has any ideas to incorporate let me know. I can try to add it.
If you need this tool let me know I will upload this tool some time over the weekend.

New song Release - Lehrom pe

Lehrom Pe, my second Hindi track after H1bees,

I take great pleasure in introducing 2 more talented personalities. Vocalist: Raghu - A versatile vocalist based out of the New England region, Raghu has a wide range and we are working on more tracks. Lyricists Ajay - based out of UK, very talented writer. and finally, thanks to Bharath, he has worked on additional drum programming and audio mixing.
Please download the song from my website. http://www.srikanthd.com

Since I am running short of time I had to cut short the Blog, Please check back again for more.

- Thanks.

Weekend story..

Over the weekend stopped by SunTV; Sun TV serial [killers] artists displayed their other cinematic talents in form for Record dance. I could not take it at all, especially when veteran actor Siva Kumar displayed his “dabba” capacity, he listed about 100 flowers and verbally dropped them all in the golden feet of his “Talai”– however he missed the main flower that would have worked better “kathula poo”. The Pathetic Villy from oxymoronic “Soga Anadam” was seen dancing in all almost all the record dances. Thank god for “change the damn channel button” in the remote control.

I also saw a movie, “Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu” - Bharath, Mallika Kapoor, Arun Kumar, the funny guy Bhaskar. Frankly I got this DVD to squeeze some juice for my Blog, but you know what, I was disappointment.

Director Vijay Milton must be a very funny guy. His direction and screen play was fresh and visible in every frame. Each frame was filled wit and humor. The movie had lots of fresh ideas like very nice introduction and mostly perfectly timed funny dialogues. Mallika Kapoor was very impressive and competed well with talented Bharath. – Usage of Vividh bharathi’s “ungal viruppom” theme music is worth a mention.

I laughed loud; it was really different from the usual [pathetic] Tamil movies that spend about 3000 feet of film roll for just character introductions. The story line and its twist carried the movie well, Director had to cook this meal for 3hrs hence he did lost his grounds in middle. Like the usage of animation was fun but in my opinion it was an over kill. All said and done, Director Vijay Melton came back quite well to end the finish the movie. The conclusion was crisp, short and sweet.

The sound tracks - in fact the music was “sagikable”, at times impressive too, but when it came to singing ability of Yuvan Shankar I am surprised who in the world told Yuvan that he can sing. Dude get straight - you cannot sing, please don’t even try. It is horrible to hear, as your voice and pitching is no where near basics of any kind of singing. A song is to be sung in one key in a particular harmony but often he tries to sing [“nosing”] in all the 8 keys per harmony/progression. Is Tamil Nadu short of “good” vocalists?

I wish more movies are made in this fashion; I would reduce the time to just 2 hours max. If you spot and laugh for witty humor I recommend that you should watch this movie with your family – Yes. It is family movie too - Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu, better name would be (a - b)2 [= a2 - 2ab + b2]

Finally, As you know I have been working with Mr. [Altanta] Ganesh, Veteran Tamil movie and Stage artist, in his cross over English feature film - “Dance to My Tunes…” for which I did the music scoring recently, The crew has come with a Trailer for promotional purposes, I have obtained permission to upload it in my website and Blog, I will upload this in a day - since the file size it too big I am trying to getting it down to a quick one minute cut using windows media format, best viewed in 320x270 screen; If time permits I will also upload the sound track that I composed for the trailer as a separate download.

Good day.

Wednesday Talk

When I browsed through the Google news, one major headline topped the charts. If you think it is about the war in Middle East, you are wrong my friend, or may be the change of regime in Cuba, No you are wrong again. It the story of Mel "the Full" Gibson, the popular macho Hollywood star was arrested on DUI charges, that is one side of the issue, the other side is during the arrest Mr. Gibson taunted racial remarks on a particular community. After a full "Alcohol drain" MelJi realized that this issue would grow against his movie career, at once he changed his name to "Gel Gibson"; He apologized to the community and expressed his willingness to talk to the community leaders in order to obtain a free “Saba Vimochanam” coupon. Few years ago when Mr. "Dull" Gibson released his dull movie Passion of the Christ, there were similar nose cry in the press. However in due course of time, it subsided down as Hollywood has better news like Britney becomes pregnant, get ready in about 2 weeks the same news would take over Mel DUI drive. This one and half “aNa” news was discussed to full extent on TV, Radio and other popular media outlets, popular Blogs and less popular Blog [Yes, Mine].

Example of manipulating news, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1838782.cmsSo what did you feel, is this about the popular cricketer?

While browsing through Times of India , I saw this news, “Cher's charity clear out”, yes some of her old body parts that she replaced over the years are on sale now, like “Build the Bear” , you can build you own Cher.


Finally, Team India on the final day of pre tour camp, went through military training in Parachute Regimental Centre. Chappell says it was fun filled training, we need to ask Viru and I hope the training camp slowed down his growing circumference. It seems Players underwent a lot of activities, not only aimed at improving their physical strength, but also concentration. Kind of a joke, were they playing international cricket without physical strength and concentration till date? What ever, the way Sri Lankans are playing today, I don’t mind to send a real army regiment to defend. Dravid and the coach have lot of stakes in this series; it is not enough if Dravid scores runs, as a captain he has to win games & series. One good thing for him is Master blaster Sachin is back in the team, another experience shoulder, or to put it crudely, - the blame is easily transferable.