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Sunday, April 30, 2006
My blog does not have a specific theme and thus the posts are about almost anything that exists or happens in this big,bad world.Elections is one theme that I did not touch upon despite this being the poll season in Tamil Nadu.And this blogger draws an interesting,indirect comparison between the polls and a circus in this post.

This seems to be the season of freebies.The DMK's trying to ensure that every damn god-forsaken thing in this earth is offered free.2 Kg rice @ Rs.3.50/kg,colour television,gas stove,2 acres of land....what next??
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2 acres of land to every farmer.Should it not be "every farmer in a DMK constituency?Will the DMK ever bother to lend land to a farmer in Andipatti?

One question I would like to ask is will the 2 acres of land be productively utilised?Assume that a farmer in Trichy district gets this piece of land as promised.How will this farmer carry out irrigation in this land when there is no(or little) water in the Cauvery river?Farmers in the districts bordering Cauvery such as Erode,Salem,Namakkal,Tanjavur and the delta regions,who receive the land,would be caught in this predicament if the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal continues to play tricks.
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When asked for her opinion on who would sweep through the coming polls,my aunt remarked "Karunanithi has greater supporters than Jayalalitha."This surprised me since the reality is that the latter has got more supporters who are fan(atic)s of MGR.And most fan(atic)s of MGR are those of Rajinikanth too.And Rajini commands the greatest fan following in the state.It thus works out to the solution that JJ has more supporters than MK.

What then made my aunt differ with me?The telecasts on TV.Sun TV while reporting campaigns quotes figures of 3 lakh,4 lakh,5.5 lakh etc..people coming to listen to Karunanithi or Dayanithi Maran or Ramdoss.Jaya TV on the other hand keeps it simple with "huge crowds".
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There is this party called All India Forward Bloc(a new party on the block),which,in order not to be pushed backward in the polls(thus becoming Backward Bloc) and to stay forever in the limelight,is quoting threats by AIADMK as a medium of diverting the vote bank from AIADMK.But why is it using sun tv to do that?
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Coming to the problem of voter id cards,it seems like the government will take generations and aeons and decades and centuries before it computerises the process of including name in electoral rolls, issuing voter id cards etc.
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The electoral rolls have been put up in the website of the Tamilnadu government but unfortunately the whole thing is in tamil.The search for my name was a gruelling one.

Being a resident of South Madras,the most likely constituency had to be Saidapet or Mylapore in all probability.A tiresome two-hour search under the two yielded no response.Only after searching in Kanchipuram district under Tambaram constituency did I find my locality listed and this lasted about an hour.Tambaram,pallavaram,anakaputhur,selaiyur,chitlapakkam,perumbakkam,medavakkam,perungudi etc etc and finally it appeared....Tiruvanmiyur.
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Campaigning in my constituency is actively in favour of the AIADMK alliance.Every single day,a run-down,topless Willys jeep belonging to 1932,passes by with a lady shouting "Bambaram chinnathukku vaakalippeer"(Vote for the symbol,Top).While this happens 5 times in one day the campaigner for DMK goes around in a Scorpio SUV followed by two Qualis SUVs and led by 10 motorbikes,all out to disturb the residents of a peaceful siesta in a hot summer afternoon.
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The election is poised to be an interesting one with many twists and turns.Watch out for the fun.
Property of Sheks @ 10:41 pm   0 comments
MISPLACED LYRIC
Thursday, April 27, 2006
There's this song called "Krishna Krishna" in the movie "Dum Dum Dum".A verse in the song goes as such:

"Kalluriyil ethanaiyo kanni mayil thaan,
Katti kondaa vaazhkkai oru central jail thaan".

This is very much true for you would be accused of polygamy.
Property of Sheks @ 10:57 pm   0 comments
M.R.T.S

























Mass Rapid Transit System---goes the actual definition.But given the present state of this system this could be redefined as Most Rejected Train Service.This is justified by the lack of crowds in the stations between Beach and Tiruvanmiyur.

For the fourth time I travelled in this, what the locals call,flying train(parakkum rayil).This one's an amazing transport system that takes just 10 minutes to travel from parrys to mylapore,while a trip to tiruvanmiyur takes 20 minutes.However this transit system hasnt got the response it is supposed to generate.

There is a constant demand for more trains to tiruvanmiyur.The Minister of State for Railways,R.Velu,during his frequent trips to Chennai,keeps announcing more trains but that exists only in paper.Even thenga mandayan (read Laloo yadav)talks of extension of the MRTS line to St.thomas mount budget after budget but once the budget is presented,he gets back to watching music videos like Crazy Frog,in the process of which he forgets budget proposals.

In all,a trip by the MRTS train can be exciting provided you endure the pleasant smell of coovum river and Buckingham Canal,on the way.
Property of Sheks @ 11:31 am   0 comments
ABRIDGED
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Owing to space constraints,MTC buses normally carry a condensed name of important landmarks on the route boards.For example,Vivekanandar Illam is spelt V.Illam,Vallalar nagar as Va nagar,Valluvar Kottam as Va Kottam,Aminjikarai as A Karai and even Anna Nagar as A Nagar.Wonder what the condensed name of Saaraaya Kadai(assuming there's a landmark that is virtually existent) would be:

Saa Kadai!
Property of Sheks @ 12:28 am   0 comments
NO PARKING
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Perhaps the most important problem that Indian cities are faced with,is that of vehicle parking spaces.Take the case of T.Nagar in Chennai.This is easily the city's shopping hub which does not have a proper space to park vehicles.There are swanky,multistoreyed buildings in a one-foot wide street(read Ranganathan street) and in Panagal Park but these building don't have provision for customers to park their vehicles.Where does the problem lie?Who is the root cause of the problem?Read on:

It so happened that a particular family came shopping in T.nagar in their newly purchased car.The search for a parking spot was on,while the car was being manoeuvred towards Panagal park.Tough luck forced him to move further looking for any empty space that is available.The car moved further and further and finally,much to the driver's relief,an open space capable of holding nearly 200 cars,came into sight.But it was only after parking that the driver discovered that he was not in T.nagar but in a remotely interior out-of-bounds village near a town called Tambaram.This must be enough evidence to prove that parking spaces are unavailable in any area in the city.

The problem lies with the Real Estate developers.These people lay their hands on any available vacant,poromboke land available and construct apartments or malls.As luck would have it,these constructions come up on a road that is barely one-foot wide.And the construction stays right close to the road leaving absolutely little space on the sides of the road,which would be of some use when the road is to be widened.And the same developers,during Real Estate booms(that happen each time the sensex shoots up or when Advani goes out for a yatra)remark that the government has to provide wider roads.Now how on earth can u expect the government to widen roads when you havent provided any space for widening?

Whose fault is it anyway?
**First the usual scapegoat,the government:The government officials in the metropolitan development authority must be foolish enough to approve a commercial construction that is devoid of a parking lot.A case is that of a shop called Pazhamudir Cholai in Besant nagar road.The shop attracts about 1000 customers per day,most of whom come by cars.The lack of parking space forces many cars to be stranded on the roads and this subsequently causes buses to slow down near the turning from adyar bus depot.How on earth was this shop given approval to run business in such a small space?Blame it on red-tapism.

**The construction itself:Or rather,the owner of the construction.The guy who set up Pazhamudhir Cholai wouldnt have done so without envisaging this many number of customers.It is his duty to see that he provides necessary and sufficient parking spaces for his customers.A pazhamudhir-cholai-type shop requires space about half the size of a cricket ground.But such vast spaces are virtually absent within a city.A classic case of foolishness,lack of proper lateral thinking is that of Saravana Stores.This fellow's leaving no space untouched in T.nagar and one day t.nagar may be renamed as Saravana nagar.

**The customers:I too fall under this category.I have done my bit to damage the city's roads by owning a bike myself and it would be gross injustice if i exclude myself from this category.But it should be noted that a bike doesn't occupy as much space as a car does.One way out is to park the bike @ a particular location and then walk,provided the location's at a walkable distance from the place where you park.You cant park your bike at Tambaram and walk all the way to T.nagar.The same cannot be applied to cars.You can fit a bike in a small 2-inch slot between two other bikes,but is that possible in case of cars?Car owners must first examine if there is parking space available.If there is,then take your car with you.Else,travel by bus.Surely you're not going to lose your prestige by travelling in a bus.

With the finance minister cutting down duties for cars,the number of cars in bound to increase in the near future.In such circumstances,the city would become more choked.vacant lands would disappear within a city.This would force developers to look for land in the suburbs.Soon those suburbs would give way to Malls and multiplexes.Then no agricultural land would be left.Meanwhile the common man keeps complaining about the lack of infrastructure and keeps suggesting that "We want good roads.","We want wider roads" etc.

Disclaimer:The character used the in the story above is a fictitious one and has no resemblance to any living or dead person or ghosts.
Property of Sheks @ 5:47 pm   0 comments
C(RAP)
Friday, April 21, 2006
As quoted in my previous post(which is only a scroll away),programming in C(rappy) language has been quite an ordeal for me.I've been studying C for three terms,the first time in my XIth std,then in my second semester of college and very recently in my sixth semester.But till date,I havent been able to make head or tail out of it.

Murphy's law of obsolescence states that it is not easy to master any programming language and by the time you become an expert at it,the programming language would be outdated and no longer in use.Exceptions to this law are bloggers such as this,who once wrote 105 lines of a C code just to display golden terms like "Mannaangatti","Soonaa paanaa" etc,that marquee across the screen.As for me,it's time I stopped Murphy from playing with my life.

Computer Applications Lab.The very mention of this name conjured up images of MiniTAB,CRAFT,Matlab,CORELAP or any other industrial engineering software that exists,only to discover later that the subject had to do with application of C(rap) to operations research concepts like Linear programming,Transportation model,Inventory model,Queueing model,role model etc.

Preparing for such exams can be tiresome.The most trying part is that of learning the program code of 150 lines of which there are 100 'for' loops and 40 flower brackets.Typing the code is not very demanding but compiling is.Spending 1.5 hours typing 150 lines and then pressing Alt+F9 only to find 52 errors,is quite frustrating.

While landmarks are being made in the world of software,it puzzles me as to why most software is modelled on C.And why is C still a Command Line Interface language?Why don't researchers convert it to a GUI?Calling this language user-friendly is like announcing freebies in Tamilnadu before elections.

Perhaps the most deciding,yet cruel part is is that of the output.This is what nullifies the 1.5 hours of typing and the 1 hour of compiling,you had been doing so far.However in most occasions,it is easier to get away without actually showing an output.

In all,sitting through a practical exam,working on a language like C,is worse than watching a movie by Perarasu or enduring the pre-election gimmicks in TamilNadu.

PS:--Another post below!
Property of Sheks @ 11:31 am   0 comments
MUTANT TAG
I've been tagged by a die-hard fan of Sachin Tendulkar err...A.R.Rahman. The title of the tag:What kinda power(s) would you choose, if you could undergo bad-ass mutations? You can mention a maximum of 3 powers you'd like. And try to be imaginative... We don't want another Nightcrawler or Mystique! Tag 4 more people.

1.Power to read the minds of women.

2.Power to endure nonsensical stuff like editing a C program or watching a Perarasu movie.

3.Power to bowl (girls) like M.S.Dhoni.

And this tag goes to Neha,Dryad,Sagittarian and Vani

Property of Sheks @ 11:12 am   0 comments
GOVINDA GOVINDA
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
This post is not going to be about a famous actor who calls himself Zero No.1,but the title is what you would be forced to utter specially after you watch a movie like "Tirupati".

And nothing better than watching it with two other guys in a grade-B,no-frills theatre in tiruvanmiyur for a mere rate of 50 rupees.

This one is way different from Perarasu's other two flicks in that a different hero has been used this time and this one's not as fast-paced as Sivakaasi.However it's worth a watch given the sufficient dose of humour in the film.

**The first thing that makes you laugh is Ajith's hairdo.And then his dialogues in the later part of the movie.

**You can't help laughing at the sight of Perarasu himself performing a stunt in one of the initial scenes and then walking off with the theme music frm "Annamalai" playing in the background.

**Thala Ajith wears a bright yellow bell-bottom trouser in the second song of the movie.This is probably to lend an Andhra-touch to this tamil Tirupati.

**Sadaa,the heroine,too lends a comical touch with the overdose of laxmanrekha(read make-up) and tomato sauce(read lipstick).

**As in the case of the other Perarasu flicks,in this too,the villains lend themselves to comedy.A typical case is that of Saidai Saanakyan played by Livingston.

**M.S.Bhaskar and Ganja Karuppu do justice to their roles as the main comedians.

**A highlight is the number of hospitals that feature in the movie.A closer observation would reveal that all the hospitals had the same location,a famous engineering college off Old Mahabalipuram Road.

**Whatever's happened to Bharadwaj?Is it his music that's at fault or the lyrics by comedian Perarasu?

**Again,SUVs,(Tata Sumo again)dominate the climax.For a change,the hero uses a Scorpio.

For more like this,go and watch the movie.In short,the movie hasnt lived upto the hype it generated thanks to Perarasu.It's definitely not a must-watch,but check it out anyway.Punch dialogues from the movie

**Tirupati erangi poga maataan.Eri thaan povaan.
**Tirupati onnu kathukuttaan......
**Unakku pathu thala irukkalaam daa.Aanaa naan orey thala!
Property of Sheks @ 11:41 am   0 comments
TRIPLICANE SAMBHAR
Sunday, April 16, 2006
After seeing off his dad at Central in the evening,he paid a visit to his special friend and then headed off to marina beach with a gang of ten guys at around six o clock,bearing the still-not-died-down heat of chennai and streaks of sweat trickling all over his body on getting into the bus.The first thing he did on getting down at Anna square was experience the whiff of fresh sea breeze.He then walked almost a mile to Ratna Cafe on Triplicane "high road",for dinner.

The place simply rocks.Sambhar idlis or rather sambhar is the special offering there.It doesnt matter how many idlis are in your plate,the waiter ensures that there's sufficient quantity of sambhar in the plate for you to gulp(without the main dish).The price too's modest.However you need to take care not to get distracted by the girls from Sowcarpet who come to dine there in the evenings. otherwise the place is worth a check-out.There's a branch at T.nagar too.

In his gang,one guy gulped only idlis while one made sure he didnt have even a morsel of idli and stuck to poori.However the most interesting one in the crowd was Nataraj who passed on the idlis to the others and ate(or rather,drank)only sambhar.

To get to RC make sure you dont go in a 2W or car,as finding a parking space in the "high road" is quite an ordeal.The best bet would be to walk from presidency college grounds or from pycrofts road bus stop or (traffic) jam bazaar.
Property of Sheks @ 10:21 pm   0 comments
INDIA WHINING
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
The issue of reservations in IITs and IIMs has created ruckus in the country,on expected lines.The matter is yet to be approved by the cabinet and the bill is still waiting to get into the parliament.Meanwhile the communist parties have used this as a vote-generating mechanism in Bengal by welcoming the move of Arjun Singh.Yeah.Arjun Singh,the same guy who,in 2004,assured complete autonomy for the IIMs.

Two socio-conscious bloggers have written a lengthy thought-provoking posts on the issue.Read them here and here.

A final word:Mr.Arjun Singh,you've got better things to do than sleep through assembly sessions.
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There seems to be no end to BJP's list of yatras.Rath yatra in 1990,Bharat Uday yatra in 2004 and now Bharat Suraksha yatra.And it is L.K.Advani every time.This time it's Rajnath Singh who's accompanying him.And have anyone of you readers checked out the two's routes?While Advani's touring most of western India where the batons of power belong to the BJP,Rajnath's route seems to be perilous.His journey starts in Bhubaneswar and he travels along naxalite infested regions of Bihar and Jharkhand.

What good are these yatras to the people?And what exactly is the objective of these yatras?If such nonsense persists I'm going to go on a Suraksha yatra of my own(provided that doesn't prompt other bloggers to take up suraksha yatras against me).
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And the latest:Kannada actor Rajkumar passes away in Bengaluru.He's to karnataka what SivajiGanesan is to Tamilnadu and N.T.Rama Rao is to Andhra Pradesh."May his soul rest in peace!"I wonder if his soul would ever rest given the violence that has erupted in other districts of Karnataka.Come on,kannadigas.He's only an actor.He's died because of ill-health and not because of attempted murder.You don't have to damage public and private property to voice your protests.And your protests have no reason at all.His soul's not going to rest in peace if you continue with such violence.
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Property of Sheks @ 9:33 pm   0 comments
SWEET TOOTH
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Candyman has named its 50 paise butterscotch candy as "Licks". Wonder what it would name its range of stick ice-creams if it were to produce any!

"Sucks"
Property of Sheks @ 10:29 pm   0 comments
IN PURSUIT
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Chasing a girl-driving-a-two-wheeler can never be easy.The chances of catching up with her(specially if you are seeing her after a long time and want to have a word or two with her)are inversely proportional to the number of vehicles that suddenly appear from the bylanes.And chances of the girl stopping because of a car going across,are again inversely related to the number of cars that cross.
Property of Sheks @ 1:01 pm   0 comments
STATE OF A CITY
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Seems like the debate on Bangalore never seems to come to a conclusion.The million-dollar question of all news channels seems to be "Has Bangalore lost its glory?"After NDTV it was the turn of CNN-IBN to come up with a discussion featuring eminent personalities from Bangalore.Today's episode of "State of Bangalore" featured Anil Kumble,Ramchandra Guha,Ramesh Ramanathan,U R Ananthamurthy and the CM Kumaraswamy with Rajdeep Sardesai as the moderator.

"Infrastructure" was the buzzword of this one-hour talk show.Time and again this word kept popping out from the mouths of most of the speakers(except Kumble,who held the view that Bangalore is a nice place because he was wearing a jacket in the month of april itself).The session was also touched up with a lot of polls which,as usual,showed unjustifiable percentage figures.

Now my question is "Why Bangalore only?"Other cities in the country too face problems.It's worth discussing the condition of all Indian cities rather than only one.At the same time,special focus on one particular city helps identify problems in that city to a greater extent than a general discussion.For instance,"designing rapid transit systems" would apply to Bangalore or Hyderabad but not to the top four metros.Rather,extending suburban train systems would explicitly apply to Chennai and Mumbai.

The amount of investments flowing into a city,the city's contribution to the country's GDP etc are no appropriate means to measure a city's potential.The final verdict is that no Indian city is perfect and discussion sessions like this would be of some benefit to bring out the problems in the city.We can have State of Mumbai,State of Delhi etc every month.Of course any layperson would immediately respond Maharashtra,Delhi,etc to such questions but indha mathiri nakkala bathil solravangala Praveen blog-kko illa Magix blog-kko illa Neha blog-kko anuppi vechiruvaen.

The programme is telecast on Saturday and Sunday nights on CNN-IBN.
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Yet another journey comes to an end.I've completed 3 years of college.And time's moved so fast that it seems to me as if I joined college only yesterday.With the semester exam starting this monday,I'm waiting to bear the brunt of procrastination.I'm yet to learn from past mistakes.God save me!Any prayer sessions,magix?
Property of Sheks @ 12:26 am   0 comments

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Name: Sheks
Home: Madras, TamilNadu, India
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