birthday treats :)

was at a birthday lunch today, and remembered those good old days while at college. back then, it was a custom for the birthday boy/girl to host the party or treat their friends in a restaurant. and when the friend circle is huge, like mine, the pressure is enormous. I used to live in a monthly budget of Rs. 400 (thats all my dad gave me) and out of that Rs. 330 went for the petrol. and the remaining is what I had for the whole month to eat out, watch movies etc. :)

to raise capital, I used to do the classic Indian thing, fall at the feet of relatives to seek blessings on my birthday........ and as expected they would dole out a Rs. 50 note. Ippadiye kaaalatha oattinen, even during my final yr :)

here its totally different, the birthday boy/girl is treated. while its a relief to avoid that huge bill, I still like the former :)

Ramayanam

for many of us Rama is God, and for others he is just a mythical figure. the former is as hard to prove as to disprove the latter. well I don't need any proofs, its just a beleif and I like it that way.
Valmiki Ramyanam doesn't glorify Rama as a God. Instead it just presents a plain and straight portrayal of Rama as an ordinary king. its more like a contemporary account on Rama. thats the beauty of it.
Kamba Ramayanam, an epic in tamil written by the great poet Kambar, does glorify the divinity of Lord Rama. one can actually find a good deal of difference between the Valmiki and Kambar version of the same story.

Both these epics offers us a lot. you don't need to even believe the actual story, just read to enjoy it, and ofcourse learn too :) particularly Kamba Ramayanam, its something guys. tamil at its best, thats all I can say about it.
fortunately, dhool.com is having a series on the same and they are posting verses with meanings too. read and enjoy :)

a clever deal

and so finally the Bush administration has decided to sell its famed F-16 fighter jets to India, and Pakistan as well. and the claim is that there won't be any change in the balance of power. well yeah, what else when you decide to sell them to foes rather than to friends. Its been a while since Pakistan had forgotten what its GDP is and the meaning of 'development' as well. they are gonna buy these F-16's like crazy. expect Musharaff to sell even his military uniform to Al Qaeda or Taliban to pitch in money for this buy :)

unfortunately India has to match as well. Nice deal for the US.

Idha thaan solluvaanga "Ooru Rendu patta Koothadikku Sandosham" innu.

its about time

I was really glad to see that JetBlue is gonna offer services out of the Burbank airport. JetBlue is a low cost airline, and Burbank airport is very close from my place. technically LA airport isn't that far, but with the ever increasing LA traffic, its atleast a 3 hr drive from my place.

news is that JetBlue would be offering a $99 one way trip to NY from Burbank. thats really cheap, compared to what American and Delta charges. its high time these major airlines take a leaf out of the business model of low-cost airlines like southwest and jetblue. even after slashing prices a bit, these major airlines are still struggling. some of them are on the verge of bankruptcy. instead of selecting a good route and cutting on the unnecessary management, these airlines simply took out the meal service, put forth a useless customer service (sometimes irritating too). and reduced the prices only a bit, just to claim that they are competitive. well, time to rethink guys.

In India, Air Deccan is doing the good work :)

no more statements..........

I don't know under what moment I wrote this, but after that post, its been raining like crazy over here. Over the past two months we had enough rain and is soon going to shatter a century old record. we even surpassed seattle this season!

I have decided not to make any statements on mother nature in the future :)

What a Disgrace

Narendra Modi has been denied a diplomatic visa to enter the US. This is a disgrace to the whole nation and the BJP is single-handedly responsible for this. whether US is right or wrong, I don't care. All I can care for is the people of Gujarat... who still live in a state of fear. trust me guys, communal riots is the worst thing that can happen. We had some major bomb blasts in coimbatore, my hometown, in 1998, and I witnessed all hell break loose.

why do these people keep figting all the time? violence can never be a long-term solution. it only spreads to the future generations. Aren't we the proud children of the great Mahatma? I know its difficult to live like him, but we can atleast stop fighting, if not love each other.

and a big disaster is waiting to happen in the Israel - Palestine region. My friend says that according to bible, the world will come to an end when God's people (Jews) leave the holy land (Israel). And I replied, "You don't need bible for that, common sense is enough".

we keep hitting back in revenge, nobody has a count of these attacks. we don't know who started it first, all I say is please stop now, the world will atleast remember the ones who stopped it.

global warming

Its actually quite scary to read all these reports on global warming. Here is one about the Himalayan glaciers. Most of the world's glaciers are melting more rapidly than ever and they pose a severe environmental problem in the near future. While its heartening to know that the Kyoto pact has come into effect, we are still not sure about its future as the world's major polluter, the US, has not joined it. while we all talk about the Iraq aggression, this just flew under the radar. In my opinion this is a bigger issue.

Also there was interesting an article on Wired as to how the market on the greenhouse gases can turn into a multi billion dollar industry within the next decade. well it sounds optimistic, but when some nations aren't participating and some others are allowed more relative Kyoto credit allocation, how long will it take for these polluting companies to disobey the treaty? Only time will answer.

On the lighter side, during the california governor recall election in 2003, an ex porn star ran for the governor's post as well (that was a unique election in which every tom, dick, and harry for the post :) ). Her solution to global warming "Dress Less" :) But Hollywood's captain, Arnold Schwarzenegger said "asta la vista, baby" and became california's governor :)

a good trend

as we all know, the Hindu marriage comprises of various rituals over a day or a 5 day period, depending on how religious the families are. I've been to a lot of weddings and I guess its the same with most of you as well. but how much do we know about the process itself? not everything but atleast the major ones like Saptapadhi, or Kaasi Yaatra, or Vratham etc.

gone are the days where everyone used to perform some ritual or the other and hence can understand the process in general. these days most of us need a manual or a website to understand anything :)

and I'm really glad to see that a few people have taken note of this and started issuing a small writeup on some of the important procedures, during their wedding. Infact one of our bloggers, Ranga aka The Last Blogger, had it on his invitation itself with some nice illustrations. I saw a similar one, with a detailed explanation, last month. It was very nice!

try this

you might have known about this, if not give it a try. Its basically 20 questions and freaks you out with its precision.

blogger is getting slower and slower, and for the past 2 days I'm unable to post or view any comments :( I hope this doesn't turn out like orkut.

and its friday again :)

a classic and a classic in making :)

I don't know what's wrong with Chandramukhi songs. I liked all of them at the first run itself :)
I had very high expectations too, but I also visualized Rajini in his usual attire and style while listening to the songs....that made a huge difference :)

speaking of Rajini, I watched Aarilirundhu Arubathu Varai last saturday. I wanted to watch a really sad and depressing movie (just for a change) and opted for this one. I've watched AAV a few yrs back, but still wanted to go for it........no disappointment, it kept me occupied for a good 3 hrs.

there are only a handful of movies in which all the actors would have done a splendid job. this is one among them. particulary Rajini, its one of his best and I doubt if anyone else could have given a similar performance (not even Kamal). be it the anger when he finds that his siblings aren't recognizing his hard work, or the frustration when he isn't able to muster all the resources to meet his ends, or the joy and relief when his brother informs him about his placement, or the emotional breakdown when he realizes that nothing is really working for him ---- this is one hell of a performance form our superstar. he has taken acting to new highs in this movie, and thats an understatement!

also the movie has 2 deep messages --
a. carry on with one's responsibilities without bowing down to any kind of pressure, and
b. treat both imposters, success and failure just the same

it takes a long time to acquire these qualities, so till then watch aarilirundhu arubathu varai :)

a scam called insurance

this whole auto insurance thing looks like a scam to me. I don't know on what basis they change our premium amount. we pay upfront so that we can get coverage when something happens. then why does the insurance company increase the premium amount after an accident? because we claimed? but we have already paid. and now we also pay for the costs incurred by the insurance company.
If the claim is immediatley after a new policy, then charging some amount is definitely justified. but the curve isn't that linear, its rather a constant one (which again is linear, but in a totally different way) :) No matter what, you get charged. and keep paying for the next 5 years, as their database remembers you for a long time :) and not only that, it even informs its cousins (read rival insurance companies) about your conduct :)
and they rely on some exotic surveys to come up with the numbers. here is an example: farmers insurance offers a 15% discount if you have a masters degree :) I really want to know how these surveys are carried out.

all this happened to some friends of mine. they had no other way out but pay more.

aha aha aha..... aha aha aha

its friday and on top of it I'd be eating in Saravana Bhavan in a few hrs from now :)
authentic south-indian food is something that is very rare to get in the US. there are some amazing punjabi and gujarathi restaurants, but I'm really surprised when it comes to south-indian food. all these udupi palaces, woodlands, and annapurnas are good for nothing. they don't even have the proper sambhar. any day I can cook better than these guys.

thankfully there is Saravana Bhavan (yes it is a branch of the real Madras Saravana Bhavan) in the bay area. everytime I go to the bay area, I never miss the Saravana Bhavan experience :) I hope they open one in the LA area soon :)

this only reminds me of the famous S.V.Ranga Rao song "Kalyana Samayal Saadam...........aha aha aha" :)

I'm jealous

I was at toysRus the other day to buy a tri-cycle for my 1.5 yr old nephew. Oh my God, there were zillions of models that my head started spinning immediately :) I never thought buying a simple toy would be this tough. I still haven't made up my mind, would be going again :)

not just tri-cycles, any toy has a rack full of models to choose from. and in most cases, it was the first time I even knew such toys exist :) today's kids are really fortunate......wish I was born now :)

still I play with all the toys my nephew has, whenever I visit him. for some reason he is always possessive about his toys :)

electronic anklets

I was shocked to hear about this pilot project of the dept. of homeland security, on the national public radio today morning. this project mandates some immigrants who have applied for permanent residency to wear electronic anklets, apparentlyt to track them. today's morning documentary featured a middle aged man who is working as an asst. manager in a big restaurant (I forgot his name and city). he owns a house, pays all his dues and taxes promptly. due to some mix-up in his permanent residency application, he found himself as one of the 1700 individuals selected for the initial trials, and is now forced to wear this anklet. and on top of it, he *has* to be in his home from 6 pm till 6 am every single day, for monitoring purposes. No Exceptions at all. and he should also appear in a local security office, called behavioural monitoring office, periodically. all this inspite of him being a legal immigrant!

I understand that monitoring immigrants is a need today, especially after 9/11. but to make someone wear an electronic anklet is a bit far-fetched. I hope the dept. of homeland security reconsiders its plan and come up with better and lesser invasive techniques.

tidbits

i'm actually finding dinamalar to be less biased. I love most of their articles, especially "tea kada bench" - an everyday analysis of politics in tamilnadu. its hilarious too, afterall its our politicians who are under the cross-fire :)

they also have a great weekly magazine - varamalar. in the latest issue, the section 'Anthumani Pa.Ke.Pa' has a good description of our nation's budget process. it was a pretty interesting read.

and ofcourse I can't wait to read varamalar's weekly cinema updates - 'thunukku moottai' :) its probably the one-stop place for all tamil cinema gossips :) of late they have been successful in covering some portions of telugu movie industry as well :)

another not-so-good place for tamil cinema is www.tamilcinema.com . I said not-so-good because this is what they had to say about Ajith for his performance as a college student (yeah, way to go man) in Ji -- "Azhage, un peyar Ajith ah" - koduma da saami :)