Blissful Ignorance and Powerful Knowledge

APARTHEID AGAIN ?

2008-07-26T00:40:00.001+05:30

When the South African cricket team was banned from playing cricket in the late 1960s, it had exposed the worst effect of racism to be practised in sport. The beauty of sport is that it cuts across all barriers--linguistic, regional, colour, caste. But in this case, even sport could not play the leveller in front of heavy racism in the form of Apartheid. Ever since the South African cricket team were granted the right to play international cricket in 1992, Protean racism had long become defunct as far as cricket was concerned and we now see a Dale Steyn rubbing shoulders with a Makhaya Ntini.

Cricket has had its fair share of racism with players resorting to racist abuses with one another on the field creating an ugly picture of the gentleman's game. But the administrators of the game have been wary enough not to let such incidents go overboard to the extent of damaging the spirit of the game.

The recent form of racism is being practised by an Indian. Now do not conjure up mental pictures of a Punjabi bowler abusing a Queensland allrounder by referring to the latter's most primitive ancestors for that issue has been resolved long back. This time it is Lalit Modi, the vice-president of the BCCI and the commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the helm. The issue here is IPL's Indian rival, the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).

The BCCI-ICL tussle began ever since Subash Chandra approached the latter for recognition of his league. He was given the cold shoulder but Subash went on to create the league and brought in players like Lara, Cairns, Harvey, Astle etc in its ranks. The BCCI tried every attempt possible to thwart it including bringing lesser known grounds and stadia under its control. But the ICL managed to get hold of the Panchkula stadium in Chandigarh. At this moment, the BCCI realised it had had enough and decided to take on the ICL by forming the IPL. At the end of a hugely successful IPL, most ICL players are left ruing over taking the hasty decision of not waiting a bit longer.

The BCCI recently issued a notice to Piyush Chawla and VVS Laxman to not play for their English counties as they had ICL players in their ranks. This move is described as nothing less than apartheid by Harsha Bhogle in his latest Indian Express column. It would not be a surprise if the BCCI declared, one day, that Kapil Dev never played for India, given the absurdity of such a move. If the BCCI is seriously thinking of grooming youngsters like Chawla, there cannot be a better method than allow them to take part in county competitions and thereby get a feel of the conditions in other countries.

In the past, the Indian cricket's administrators have issued warnings to selectors and players to refrain from commenting on the board's matters. The BCCI would do well to realise that by indulging in such prohibitory acts, it is the game which stands to lose out in the long run.

This has nothing to do with cricket leagues. Delhi cricketer Akash Chopra is authoring a book on the life of a typical Indian cricketer in which he attempts to portray the hurdles an Indian cricketer faces at the domestic level before he enters the international arena. He also attempts to dispel the popular public opinion of cricketers as pin-up boys. The book will be launched in October.

Wodehouse and Me

2008-07-21T11:00:00.001+05:30

Half a decade ago, when someone mentioned the term 'P G Wodehouse' to me, the then ignorant me conjured up visions of a paying-guest accommodation in the woods. A couple of years later, I came across PGW's books in the library but did not bother to flip through the first few pages to get a feel of the type of book it is. It was judging by the cover then. The graphic on the cover resembled a painting and I thought it was a book meant for kids and shunned that library shelf which contained the PGW books.

However after another couple of years, most of the people I met happened to be intellectual, knowledgable people. When intellectual, knowledgable people happen to be bibliophiles discussing the greatest books of the century there is 95% probability that PGW's books make their way into the discussions. However it was a college friend who told me how humorous the books were. Driven by curiosity and an urge for humour, given the fact that people like me have a poor sense of humour, or so, it seemed, I went to the library and picked a copy of "Right Ho, Jeeves". The moment I finished the book, I began to love it. The next time I borrowed three books in the Blandings Castle series. I had become a fan of Wodehouse.

The next time, I purchased "Big Money", a book that fits neither in the Jeeves series nor the Blandings Castle series but into that of other books. Goach, a PGW fan, had mentioned in one of his posts that all stories of PGW rock and so I had no hesitation in buying "Big Money". The worst part was that i could not complete it and I am still only halfway through it even after about one year of reading it.

In the meantime, during my frequent haunts at Odyssey and Landmark, I came across a few low-price editions of PGW, published by Jaico. The Gold Bat, The Pothunters, The Head of Kay's.. all unfamiliar titles that I remembered not seeing them in the list of titles in the first few pages of the PGW books published by Penguin. The back cover revealed that they were the school stories that PGW wrote early in his career. 65 rupees per book, 195 for three. That's less than the cost of one PGW book published by Penguin. Not to lose out on such a profitable bargain, I bought all the three.

Boys in boarding schools form the main characters in the school stories. The aforementioned three books have exactly the same plot-- the protagonist loses one or more of his very valuable properties and goes out in search for it. The part after he sets out in search of his property resembles a thriller novel with a suspense element interspersed with dark nights (what's suspense without dark). It is an all-boys story devoid of pretty girls and boy-meets-girl-and-romance-follows sequences. Cricket finds an important place in these stories revealing that PGW was interested in cricket in those days when cricket was in infancy. The list of books reveals that PGW has written a lot of similar school stories. In the meantime I found that my cousin has omnibuses of KPN and Rathi Meena....err...Jeeves and Blandings. Can't wait to lay my hands on them.

EK SE BADKAR EK

2008-07-09T11:56:00.000+05:30

Remember the 1996 Wills World Cup when Coca Cola was the official drinks sponsor ? At the same time, Pepsi declared it had nothing official about it and had cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja and Vinod Kambli endorsing it. I don't know if it was the beginning but we consumers have seen and still see a lot of such ad-wars between the two most famous beverage companies in the world.

While such ads are still in vogue, a new kind of 'war' has erupted between two FM radio channels, Radio Mirchi and Radio One. But in this case it is Radio One trying to establish itself over Mirchi. This is reflected in some of the programmes and ads of the former in Pune. One ad features a guy buying a vada pav for his girl and asking her for specifications. The girl starts by saying "Most important, mirchi nahin chahiye" !

Radio Mirchi has a programme dedicated for PJ's (English for mokkai) in which the presenter starts with "Come on baby, chill !" and goes on to tell his PJ in a slow flow of words. I don't know if this programme is a hit with the listeners but it had definitely caught on with Radio One which came out with a similar programme. Its presenter mimes his Mirchi counterpart, starting with "Come on baby, kill !" and proceeding to recite the joke in the same slow flow of words only to be interrupted by another presenter who supposedly slaps him and tells him to finish his joke quickly.

With competition in FM radio getting hotter, I expect to see, or rather, hear, more variety in programmes and more such gimmicks in the future.

CRUDE FACT

2008-07-01T13:10:00.002+05:30

CNN-IBN discovers that a cup of coffee is more expensive than crude oil in this WTF article in its website. The opening lines of the article read:

[[ There's nothing like coffee to kick start one's day, but a cup of coffee is more expensive than crude oil. That's because a cup of Barista Coffee costs Rs 57 so a barrel of it works out to Rs 22,230. That's almost four times the price of one barrel of crude oil . ]]

Which sane soul would kick start his day going to Barista, buy a coffee for as high as Rs. 57 and start his day on a high? The worst thing is that this article has been classified as a 'Must-Read'.

PRINT BLOOPER

2008-06-30T12:46:00.001+05:30

Some days ago, The Economic Times thought that Sydney belonged to Asia. Today, The Hindu's online edition thinks Vijayawada belongs to Tamil Nadu.

WTF

2008-06-27T17:01:00.000+05:30

Following the ouster of Zimbabwe from ICC, articles about the ICC's decision have been doing the rounds and this one takes the cake. Statement from a BCCI spokesperson:

"We have always supported Zimbabwe cricket and have nothing to do with the political situation there," a senior BCCI official told Cricinfo. "In fact, we are a bit surprised that the issue has been brought up once again since the ICC board had discussed this last year and decided clearly that politics and cricket can't be mixed. The BCCI believes that a country's politics and its cricket don't go together. There is no reason to change our stand now."

Politics and cricket don't go together? In that case, how come the country's agricultural minister is the president of the BCCI?

NERD

2008-06-25T12:03:00.000+05:30

My Nerd rank is 76!

BCCI--Board of Cash and Confusion of India

2008-06-23T12:01:00.000+05:30

The forthcoming cricket Champions League is presently embroiled in the controversy of whether to allow teams, featuring ICL players, to participate. The BCCI vice-president, Lalit Modi, made it clear that teams with ICL players would be disqualified. The top two league teams from India, South Africa, Australia and England are slated to participate and Modi's statement is bound to affect England the most, since 15 out of their 18 county teams feature ICL players. And the top two county teams would definitely not be from the exceptional three teams, it is believed.

The BCCI president stepped in, a couple of days ago, and unleashed his 'Pawar'-play. He stated that counties with ICL players would be allowed to play but added a caveat that the BCCI would form the core of the decision making. If this is the case,then England may, very well, be a non-participant since the only thing that England is worried about is ICL players in its county teams and the only decision the BCCI must take now is keep ICL players out.

The whole irony of this issue is that the competition will be held by the England Cricket Board (ECB) and that Cricket Australia (CA) will be framing the tournament rules and fixtures. And here we have a cash-rich cricket board wresting its muscle power, in the name of deciding its own rules, on the other three hapless, submissive cricket boards.

The only sensible thing the ECB can do is to boycott the tournament. But who would take such a drastic step when there are a million dollars at stake? The ECB is yet to arrive at a decision on this while the BCCI has already decided to invite Pakistani teams for the event in case the ECB refuses to comply with its demand of keeping away ICL players.

The other side, the ugly face, of cricket!

RAIN SONG

2008-06-19T23:27:00.000+05:30

I am planning to compose my version of the song 'Singin' in the Rain'. It will be made in two languages, English and Tamil. The former will be titled 'Singin' in the Lane' while the Tamil version will be called 'Sandhu-la sindhu paadarathu'. I am looking for lyricists and crooners. Those interested may drop in your contact details in the 'Comments' section.

FOOTBALL LOGIC

2008-06-17T12:47:00.000+05:30

Lucas Podolski thinks football is similar to chess except that there is no dice. This article goes on to say that footballers' statements don't make any sense.

GUPPY

2008-06-12T15:33:00.000+05:30

To combat the spread of post-flood diseases in Mumbai the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come up with a new step. Guppy fish! Fish that eat up mosquito larvae. Excerpt from a CNN IBN article:

The state has started a number of gappi fish production centres in various health centres and civil hospitals. Gappi fish can reduce the density of mosquitoes by eating mosquito larvae.

FIRST ANNIVERSARY

2008-06-11T14:11:00.000+05:30

It's been a year since I stepped into the corporate world.

AUSTRALASIA

2008-06-11T14:05:00.000+05:30

Economic Times feels Sydney is an Asian city. Excerpt from a news article that appeared in the June 10 edition of ET.

{The eight Asian cities which have been ranked in the top 25 centers of commerce, Tokyo, Singa pore, Seoul, Sydney, Hong Kong, Osaka, Taipei and Shanghai rank among the top 25 centers of commerce, confirming Asia’s prominent role in the global economy. }

It was about a survey conducted by Mastercard to identify the top 75 centres of commerce around the world.

Higher up

2008-05-23T17:02:00.000+05:30

Got this email in a mail chain that did the rounds during a system testing process. A test engineer sent this to his problem manager at the client's overseas office.

Hi ***,
The correct URL for *** is http://*** and not as mentioned in my previous mail. Apologise for the error.

Regards,
***

THE AFTER-EFFECT

2008-05-09T11:49:00.003+05:30

Vijay Mallya, the owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers team, dismissed Charu Sharma from his post of the team-CEO after the team lost five out of their seven matches in the ongoing Indian Premier League. To improve the state of affairs, Brijesh Patel, the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association was given the CEO's post and imagine what happened next :

The Royal Challengers extended their losing streak to six.

PROBLEMS (BAN)GALORE

2008-05-07T10:29:00.000+05:30

Potholed roads, traffic moving at snail's pace, clogged traffic intersections, high rate of crime; as if all this is not enough, more problems have begun to plague Bangalore, not the city but its IPL cricket team, the Royal Challengers. Latest in line is the ouster of its CEO, Charu Sharma. Apparently Vijay Mallya is not happy with the state of affairs with the BRC and feels that the chink is in the armour of the management and has shown the door to Sharma. Reading the full story reveals that the team management feels Charu cannot go out and bat and has appointed the Karnataka State Cricket Association(KSCA) president Brijesh Patel in his place. Now do they expect 55-year old Patel to go out to the centre and win matches for the Royal Challengers?

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, assistant editor of Cricinfo, feels that the problem is in the team and not in the management. The general feeling about the BRC is that it is full of Test players. But one cannot ignore the presence of T20-capable players either. Sample this:Cameron White, Virat Kohli, Mark Boucher, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan and of course, Ross Taylor. After the loss in the inaugural match against Kolkata, Dravid dropped Cameron White from the side. Chanderpaul has been used for only two matches so far. Dravid needs to do some wise thinking on his part, if he wants to avoid such costly mistakes in the second leg of the round-robin.

The current positions of the eight teams bears some connection with their names. The Royals are riding high with the Kings in tow. Delhi's daredevilry has resulted in the Super Kings to be relegated to the lowest position in the top 4. The Knightriders have not had a smooth ride after the first two games. The Chargers, so far, have been used by four teams to recharge their motivation levels. Like the developing country, India, the Mumbai team is still in the development phase. The Royal Challengers, in their games so far, begin well only to lose momentum later. A probable reason could be that they down a few glasses of raw Royal Challenge (i.e without mixing) before each match.

Oruvan Oruvan

2008-05-06T12:19:00.001+05:30

Tagged. Decided to take this up after the Vishful Thinker threw it open (the original source is this) To answer the questions, set your music player in the shuffle mode and press the 'next track' button for each question. Each new track is the answer to that question

If someone says “is this okay?” You say?
Thala Pola Varumaa---Attagasam(nice start to the playlist but not to this post)

What would best describe your personality?
Kaathadikkuthu kaathadikkuthu---Ninaivirukkum Varai(naan nadanthu vanthaale pori parakkum-nu solluvaanga.idhunaala thaan-nu nenakkiren)

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Dard-e-disco--Om Shanti Om(appadi oru ponna thaan thedikittu irukken)

How do you feel today?
Bum bum bole,masti mein dole---Taare Zameen Par(kudhichu velaiyaadanum pola thaan irukku,but office irukke)

What is your life’s purpose?
World Cup-a,jeikka porom---Chennai 600028(I expect a wildcard entry to the Chennai Super Kings,if not to the Indian cricket team)

What is your motto?
Aaja Mahiya--Fiza(no fizz in this answer)

What do your friends think of you?
Sooraj hua maddham--Kabhi Khushi,Kabhi Gham(I'm down,they think,but not out)

What do you think of your parents?
Kadhal,kasakkuthayya---Aan Baavam(no comments)

What do you think about very often?Beat it---Michael Jackson(sometimes,evanayaavathu adikkanum pola thonum)

What is 2+2?
Hare Rama,Hare Rama---Okkadu(the answer to the life,the universe and everything)

What do you think of your best friend?
New York nagaram---Sillunu Oru Kaathal(urangumpothu avanum urangindu iruppaan.yenna avan night shift-la work pannaraan)

What do you think of the person you like?
Kumbida pona deivam---Tirupachi(ava kurukka vandhu oru vaati chinna accident aayiruchu)

What is your life story?
Aararai kodi paergalil oruvan---Anbe Aaruyire(naan 6.5 kodi-la oruthan-nu solrathula enna thappu)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Veyilodu velayaadi---Veyil(veetla velayaadavey vazhi illa)

What do you think when you see the person you like?
Kallai mattum kandaal---Dasavatharam(idhaan timing)

What do your parents think of you?
Daud theme---Daud(odi odi ozhakkanum-nu solraanga pola)

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Ooru vittu ooru vandu---Karagaatakaaran(kalyaname vandiruchu,inime kadhal vandha enna,varaleynaa enna)

What will they play at your funeral?
Vanamunna uyaram kaatu---Manmadhan(naan anga thaan iruppen-nu kaatanumaam)

What is your hobby/interest?
Appudo,ippudo,eppudo---Bommarilu(appo,ippo,eppovum something 'do'thaan)

What is your biggest secret?
Chinna chinna rojapoovey---Poovizhi vaasalilae(naan paaka soft)

What do you think of your friends?
Indian thatha theme---Indian(kathiya thookittu enna kutha vara poraanga)

What should you post this as?
Oruvan Oruvan---Muthu(I'm the only one posting this)

The Chlormint incident

2008-05-05T14:00:00.002+05:30

While watching the Chennai vs Rajasthan IPL match yesterday, I came across a spectator who had probably found out the real reason for Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth and tried to make his discovery public. Fortunately cameras captured it and unfortunately it was on air for a mere 3 seconds only.

Sreesanth: Bhajji bhaiya, log Chlormint kyon khaate hein?

Harbhajan: Slap!

PURE CRICKET

2008-04-29T12:39:00.001+05:30

** A double century with this post after more than three years of blogging. Should have achieved this landmark about six months ago but better late than never.

** Mukul Kesavan, renowned writer who authored the book on cricket, "Men in White", (he contributes to a Cricinfo blog by the same name), is not happy with the Indian Premier League and goes to the extent of comparing it with trash in this article. Somwehere in the article he expresses his hatred for Twenty20 cricket stating that bowlers are cast as "extras" or in other words, are redundant.

** If Mukul had watched the inaugural match of the IPL between Bangalore and Kolkata, he may not have made such a statement. Or maybe he would have, given the fact that he hates T20. Any die-hard fan of cricket would acknowledge the Kolkata bowlers' efforts to bowl out the Royal Challengers for a paltry 82. But then, Mukul could challenge this by saying that the Bangalore team was full of Test players who are unsuited for T20. In that case, I would suggest him to watch the Kolkata vs Chennai IPL match in which bowlers of the Chennai team succeeded in their efforts to not give away too many runs to the Knightriders. While it is generally believed that T20 is a batsman's game, I am of the view that it has got something in it for the bowlers too. Any experienced, talented bowler will realise that he has only four overs to produce his best. Taking wickets may not be all that necessary but not conceding too many runs is. It gives him an opportunity to innovate, come up with new ways to fox the batsman and he can then apply these strategies to 50-over matches. I hear someone saying IPL + T20 = death of FOI(fifty over internationals) but I can ignore him/her for the ICC has already planned to conduct an FOI World Cup in 2011 and that too in the Indian subcontinent and I am sure it will be much better than FOI WC 2007 which turned out to be a dampener.

** Another piece of garbage in Mukul's IPL trash can is what he calls razzmatazz provided by Bollywood stars and cheerleaders. Fans like me find the entertainment from the cricketers more fascinating than that by Bollywood stars, one of whom has termed himself the 12th man of the Kolkata team. Somewhere near the end of the post, Mukul compares IPL with the EPL i.e cricket with football. He says that teams in the EPL have a century old legacy attached to them and since the IPL does not have one, it will fail because of narrow geographical base. He must realise that this is only the inaugural series and down the line we might have teams like Ahmedabad Avalanches, Madurai Machans, Cochin Kuttichaathaans etc. Whether the IPL will fail or not, we will know after this inaugural tournament and what comes after that. With one whole month of T20 action, it is too early to say.

** Meanwhile the Indian Cricket League(ICL) is charting out plans to have an all-England team on the lines of its all-Pakistani team, the Lahore Badshahs. There are plans to have South African, Australian and West Indian sides as well.

** The ICL has applied to the ICC seeking recognition. The IPL has requested the ICC to provide it a window i.e include it in the international cricketing calendar. Not to be done in by the success of its neighbour, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) plans to launch its own premier league. The ECB has collaborated with millionaire Allan Stanford, resulting in a Stanford-ECB T20 league. Cricket Australia (CA), who was a victim of the Kerry Packer circus of the late 1970s, is planning its own T20 league.

** Elsewhere in TamilNadu, the trailor and music of KamalHassan's upcoming movie 'Dasaavathaaram' are working wonders. Listening to the music resulted in Malcolm Speed quitting his post of ICC president and watching the trailor frustrated Harbhajan Singh so much that he slapped his Indian team mate Sreesanth and was slapped in return with a rest-of-IPL ban.

STATE OF THE NATION

2008-04-16T16:01:00.000+05:30

That the Indian economy, presidency and sports are all in disarray at the same time is best explained in today's homepage of http://www.ibnlive.com/ (see highlighted parts)

AIR BUS

2008-04-15T16:14:00.000+05:30

The Chennai-Pune Air Deccan flight, in the last 15 minutes of its journey before landing, resembles a typical state transport bus. Too much of vibration even in a clear sky. Now I know why they call it an airbus.

POLITICALLY QUALIFIED?

2008-04-05T11:17:00.000+05:30

Last night, CNN IBN's prime time show 'Face the Nation' featured the topic whether superstars like Rajinikanth should comment on matters that are essentially political without having formally entered active politics.

If IBN were to believe in the above, then Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose must indulge themselves in active politics before commenting on political issues.

MUSINGS

2008-04-03T20:34:00.000+05:30

The ICL Chennai Superstars team fails to get a hatrick of three straight series wins. After winning the inaugural ICL T20 and the ICL 50s tournaments, they failed to qualify for the finals after being defeated by the Hyderabad Heroes, yesterday. Chasing a score of 148, Superstars had managed to reach 136 in 19 overs with three wickets remaining. Justin Kemp of the Hyderabad Heroes bowled the last over and in the process, picked up two successive wickets of the first two balls. In came Shabbir Ahmed. It seemed, at that moment, that it was all over for the Superstars when Shabbir sprang a surprise by hitting a six taking the score to 142. All that was needed was one more sixer. But Kemp had other ideas and bowled a tighter delivery and all Shabbir Ahmed could manage was a quick single, almost running out Syed Mohammed, who was at the non-striker's end till then. 5 runs from 2 balls. Syed Mohammed was going strong with a strike rate of 141 and he was expected to hit the winning shot. But he messed up in the process, hitting to the wicketkeeper, trying to 'steal' a single and running himself out, thus signalling the end of the Superstars' campaign in the ICL Grand Championship 2008. Hyderabad Heroes will meet one of Kolkata Tigers and Lahore Badshahs in the finals while Chennai Superstars will vie for the third place with the loser among the latter two teams.
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Presently on, is the other semi-final between Kolkata Tigers and the so-far-undefeated Lahore Badshahs. The Badshahs have posted an imposing total of 182 and the Tigers have just begun their chase.
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The Cauvery issue is back. This time it is not over tribunal observations but over a drinking water supply project at the Hogenakkal area, that lies exactly between Karnataka and TamilNadu. Karnataka is not in favour of TamilNadu utilising the river's waters for supplying drinking water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. The state contends that the centre give permission to implement a similar project to supply drinking water to Bangalore City. TN argues that it will be utilising only that share of the water allotted to it.

There is the usual stuff happening...farmers from Mandya district blocking the Bangalore--Mysore highway, defacing, torching and deflating tyres of TN-bound buses, simmering tension at the border between the two states, regional Kannada parties (some of whom are Kannada chauvinists) protesting, autodrivers in Bangalore frowing at anyone who happens to speak in Tamil, Tamil movies lifted off theatres in Karnataka etc. Editorials in newspapers opine that the only way to solve this issue is by talks. But when talks have been going on for decades and no solution is in sight till date, how could one expect fresh rounds of talks to resolve the issue?

ALL BECAUSE OF A 70

2008-03-07T18:05:00.000+05:30

During my first few days in Bangalore,the usual statement I used to hear from friends,already settled here,was this-"Any place in Bangalore is free from traffic jams as long as it is not BTM Layout-Silkboard junction.However I was to discover in less than a week that every single arterial road in Bangalore chokes with traffic jams.

I happened to get caught in traffic at this infamous Silkboard signal this morning.It all started at Electronics City when I had just bought a 30-rupee daily pass and the conductor said he would give me the balance of 70 rupees later.Nearing Silkboard,I asked the conductor for the change but he showed me his bag displaying 100-rupee notes and with a grin,asked me "Aivathu rupay note illiyaa Sir?"(Do you have a fifty-rupee note,Sir?).I replied in the negative and he began searching his bag to try and dig out a fifty rupee note before the bus reached Silkboard bus stop.Unable to find any,he went around asking the other passengers if they had two fifty-rupee notes to be exchanged for a hundred.Noone had.By this time the bus was about to move ahead from Silkboard towards Banashankari.I pointed this out to the conductor who in turn asked me where I was going.I replied "K R Puram" and he said this in Kannada "I will somehow get the change before Jayanagar.If not don't worry.There are buses to K R Puram from Banashankari."So I had to wait and wait while the conductor went around asking every single passenger,even a confused school kid,if he/she had two fifty-rupee notes.After sometime I got the change but the bus had reached Banashankari.I got down and boarded a K R Puram-bound bus.

It was during this part of the journey that I encountered the worst ever traffic jam I had ever seen in my life.Everything was smooth till Jayadeva Hospital after which I saw,to my dismay,a long line up of vehicles till the next major junction,which incidentally happened to be Silkboard.The bus moved,but only an inch forward.Then engine off.Move one inch,engine off.Move one inch,engine off.This happened for about 35 minutes after which the bus managed to pass the Silkboard signal.I eventually turned up late at office and had to give a detailed explanation to my team leader.While the explanation process was on,my manager happened to pass by and he asked "Why late?" My team leader did the explanation for me and both of them began rendering advice on how important it is for a professional to be punctual and what I could do in future to avoid Bangalore traffic.

I had to apply for half-day's leave.But I did not mind that.I only want to send out this message to Indian banks:

Make 50-rupee notes available in ATMs

SHEKY'S CRICKET ZONE

2008-03-06T11:38:00.000+05:30

The Indian cricket team has finally won an ODI series after six years,defeating ODI world champions Australia. Most of the new players have proved themselves in their very first ODI tournament overseas. But there is a flip side to this.While Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar have been tipped to be the future spearheads,the selectors will now find it challenging to accommodate the likes of Zaheer Khan and R P Singh into the side. Going into a game with four pace bowlers cannot be considered a viable option due to the presence of Piyush Chawla,India's new full-time leg spinner after Anil Kumble. Given that he is able to turn the ball,it is important that he be given sufficient chances so that he can be groomed into someone like Kumble. The best thing the selectors could do is to create a pool of ten fast bowlers from which they could pick the best performers. This might help avoid creating a problem of plenty.

The Indian Cricket League,which was expected to meander in oblivion, while the IPL auction was going on,seems to be growing strong with players like Damien Martyn, Jason Gillespie and Mike Kasprowicz signing up for the T20 grand championship scheduled to begin on March 9. Edelweiss Capital has offered to sponsor Rs.20 crore for the ICL, resolving, to some extent, the problem of sponsorship.However it has to do something innovative, apart from signing in retired overseas players, to live up to its goal of changing the face of Indian cricket.

Two new teams have come up in the ICL. They are the Ahmedabad Rockets and Lahore Badshahs. The former will be captained by Damien Martyn while the latter by Inzamam-ul-Haq, who captained the ICL's Hyderabad Heroes in its last tournament. Hyderabad Heroes will in turn be led by Chris Harris. The first non-Indian team has been created supposedly because of the large number of Pakistani players signing up. However Shabbir Ahmed will continue to play for the Chennai Superstars.

Given the huge number of New Zealanders in the ICL, it would not be surprising if another non-Indian team, say "Wellington Wizards" or "Auckland Fighters" were formed. Picture this:Nathan Astle,Chris Cairns,Craig McMillan,Hamish Marshall,Shane Bond,Daryl Tuffey,Adam Parore,Chris Harris,Andre Adams--most of them phenomenal cricketers. The reason for switching to the ICL is because of the insufficient remuneration and the unstable contracts with the national side. This reminds one of the Australian team of the 1970s most of the players of which signed up with Kerry Packer for his World Series.

With the ICL Grand T20 on March 9 and the second edition of the IPL auction on March 11, there definitely is cricket happening everywhere.

BITTER TASTE OF MANAGEMENT

2008-02-13T11:15:00.000+05:30

Last week had been quite eventful for me. Considering that a 9-hour job in an IT MNC does not entitle one to have eventful weeks, I should say the last week was "one of the eventful" weeks in my life.

It all began on monday Feb 4 when my project manager came into my cabin and asked me if I was willing to go to Pune that very evening. He added that I had to go in place of a colleague who was down with chicken pox after eating what seemed like chicken 65 made out of a H5N1 affected chicken. I readily accepted the offer as there was not much I was doing in Bangalore. Train tickets were booked. I was to travel with three of my colleagues by the 9:50 pm Bangalore--Jodhpur express. The train reached Pune the next day at 7 pm after traversing through jungles in Karnataka and mountains in Maharashtra.

The four of us arrived at the company the next morning only to discover that the project-related programmes had begun on Monday itself. And we were expected to be present on Monday and our not doing so generated the first impressions on the client, who had come all the way from UK to facilitate a few presentations. People from the client's UK office made presentations none of which were worth understanding or listening to. The rest of the day passed off peacefully.

The next day, during a mock testing process, one of my teammates was asked to open a log file. The software which we used to do it was different from that used there and my teammate ended up saying he did not know how to open the file using the existing software but added that if Mr. Aattudhaadi (the design manager who had a goatee), who was administering the system, could open the file, he would be in a position to atleast explain the contents of the file. Mr. Aattu declined to do so and formed the impression that we did not know anything. After a couple more useless presentations, we called it a day.

Little did we know that Aattudhaadi would escalate the issue to the testing manager, the UK guy. That he had bothered to treat it as an "issue" surprised us. The actual testing was to begin on the following Monday and we tried telling Aattudhaadi and the UK guys that we would make ourselves aware of the technical aspects of the testing process. But communication was totally cut off. The UK bosses preferred not to speak to us directly. Instead, he communicated his views to a junior manager who in turn communicated it to us. The only direct thing he told us was "I don't want you guys in the testing team anymore". We came out of the building and spoke to our project manager who, after a 30-minute talk with his senior managers, concluded that the best possible option was to recall us and send four experienced people for a job that could be done by a kindergarten kid. We got tickets to Bangalore in the next available bus and returned on Sunday.

Clearly miscommunication was the problem. My project manager told us what was to be done there but not how it should be done. The testing manager expressed his disgust by not talking to us directly. The design manager did not give us a chance to speak, either, and formed a wrong impression about us. In addition, our senior project manager told us to refrain from sorting out issues ourselves and that any problems will be handled by him from Bangalore ! In that case, he should have come with us to Pune, we thought. But the damage was all done.

We returned to work on our projects which we had left midway before leaving to Pune wondering, at the same time, how the four highly experienced professionals, who were there in our place, leaving their tough and challenging work behind in Bangalore, were handling work meant for school kids.

THE FUTURE OF CRICKET

2008-01-15T15:34:00.000+05:30

Selectors in Cricket Australia(CA) have decided to anoint Michael Clarke as successor to Ricky Ponting. This move raised a number of eyebrows, including those of Adam Gilchrist, but CA says the decision was made with a vision for the future. Below is the video of Brad Hogg's wicket of New Zealander Gareth Hopkins in the recent Chappell-Hadlee series. Michael Clarke was clearly playing in the "right spirit of the game" similar to the way he played against India.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jdV70DiuEww

As the video shows, Hopkins is not happy. The way he kept turning to look behind on his way back to the pavilion says it all. He is not at all pleased.

Compare this with what happened in the recent Sydney test. Sourav Ganguly stood his ground confident that Clarke grounded his catch. What happened later is history. Michael Clarke's acceptance of having grounded the catch is what is playing in the right spirit of the game. He was definitely playing in the spirit of the game but in the wrong one.

Why didn't the Kiwis react like the Indians did? It's probably because the New Zealand media does not care a damn for cricket. While in India, come the cricket season and the whole of the Indian media is glued to it. There has been a lot of talk on technology replacing conventional umpiring. Experts have even opined that umpires are not needed on the field. But what I am trying to emphasise is how technology can be put to best use in cricket. If Daniel Vettori and his teammates, upon watching the replay many times, had demanded that the umpire recall the decision against Hopkins, Michael Clarke would have thought twice before saying 'Yes' to the question of whether he had taken Ganguly's catch cleanly.

Below is a video of Kumar Sangakkara's dismissal in the Brisbane test when Sri Lanka was chasing a target of 507. Sri Lanka seemed to getting closer to the target with Sangakkara leading the way when Rudi Koertzen played foul.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eTrGdJylv0A

The third umpire could play a stronger role in avoiding such false decisions in future. Irrespective of whether the dismissal is a clean one or not, the third umpire could check with the TV replays and if a decision is found to be false, he could ask the on-field umpires to change their decision. This is more or less similar to what Steve Waugh refers to as a "referral system" in which the third umpire is referred to for the fall of each wicket. This will in turn help cricket boards to know about the character of their players and also helps avoid making decisions like appointing a dishonest cricketer as the captain of his side.

IS THIS CRICKET?

2007-12-03T11:49:00.000+05:30

George Bernard Shaw's quote on cricket "22 fools are playing and 22000 fools are watching". Apparently it is the watchers who are made fools of by the innumerable advertisements. Advertisements have been vying for screen space with the match telecast. You start watching the match right from the start and after a certain point of time, you actually begin to wonder if what you are watching is really a cricket match.

Picture this--During the Twenty20 world cup match between India and England, everyone was watching with bated breath as to whether Yuvraj Singh, after 5 consecutive sixers, would pull off another one. He did so, successfully, and the next second, the ads came pouring in. This, after the ball had not even crossed the boundary. If such ads in the shortest version of cricket can be irritating enough, just imagine the situation in the case of Test matches.

Before the 2003 World Cup, Set Max went around advertising that every ball of every match would be telecast live and exclusive. However, it so happened during the India-England league match that when the match was switched to, after a string of ads, the batsmen had completed the first run and were scampering for the second. It took some time to figure out who was bowling that particular over.

Compare this with the New Zealand-South Africa one-dayer, that was telecast, yesterday, on Ten Sports. No clutter (of ads)! The problem is not with the channels but with the teams. Matches or series featuring India attract the greatest number of sponsors. With the BCCI's cash registers ringing, thanks to the sponsors, Indian cricket has never had it so good. A look around the stadium would present the true picture--Airtel's logo on the grass,Vodafone's logo on the boundary boards and Reliance's ad on the screen. Then Nokia advertising its 1200 and 1208 mobiles, Reliance flaunting its 999-rupee mobile and LG with its slim,silver mobile.
Reliance Mobile's catchphrase aptly sums up this situation--"Yeh India ka Cricket Hai"

MUSINGS

2007-10-31T16:59:00.000+05:30

I'm finally back in the blogosphere after almost a month and a half. Shortage of good topics, shortage of time to write and disabled access to some common web hotspots(read Orkut and Blogspot) were some of the reasons I could not blog as frequently as I used to.

** The actual training lasted for four and a half months from early June to late October. The people at the Education & Research department themselves were not sure about the exact duration of training and used the term "three or four months", during the induction programme.
** The training goes like this:lectures on a certain software concept happen for three to seven days depending upon the length of the course. Trainees had to slog during these three to seven days and on the day after these days, a test would be conducted. The test would last for about an hour or two after which lectures for the next module begin.

** The results of the tests would, in 75% of the cases, be disastrous. This was expected as the minimum score required for passing was set at 65%. Add negative marking to that and it only makes matters worse. To put it in simple terms it is equivalent to climbing a steep hill carrying a heavy boulder on your shoulder(pun unintended!). The gruelling process takes four and a half months at the end of which you finally get rid of that boulder.

** What makes, or tries to make, the training programme enjoyable is the plethora of recreational facilities in the campus. These facilities make the campus look more like a resort than like an industry. But the facilties are extraordinary.

** A new batch comprising of some 800 trainees joins every fortnight. The 800 get trained in the same manner as their preceding batches. After four and a half months, they get posted at various locations only to go on bench for a maximum of two months.

** Staying in Mysore, it is normally expected of one to visit the famous palace when time permits and during dussera. Unfortunately I did not do both. I'm not interested either.

** Autos in Mysore are of the same type as those in Chennai. I've seen people talking about the bad impression that Chennai's auto drivers create on first-time visitors to the city. One of these people also state that such things do not happen in any other part of India. For such people, I suggest travelling in a Mysore auto. If you happen to be a smart,good-looking youngster, the auto driver by default asks "Sir/Madam, Infosys-aa?" If your reply is in the affirmative, pat comes the response from the auto-driver "200 rupees!" Then comes a barrage of excuses to justify the huge amount--"Night time,sir!","12 kms,sir","LPG auto,sir!","Return savaari nahin milega, sir!" etc.

** Some auto drivers there do not even know the way to go to common places. It so happened that a friend of mine caught an auto to go to a place called K R Circle and finally ended up in K R S Dam!

** Talking about first impressions about cities, a similar incident occurred two weeks ago in Bangalore. It was 11 in the night and I came out of the Cantonment railway station looking for an auto to go to Malleshpalya. The driver demanded 200 rupees! A few days earlier I had travelled to Cantonment from Malleshpalya and had paid only 80 rupees. I was willing to pay 120 rupees which happens to be 1.5 times the metre fare. But the driver flatly declined. Other auto drivers nearby seemed to come to my aid but they were worser for they went on to support the first driver's stand of sticking to nothing less than 200 rupees. Only a few autos were present, then, and having no other alternative I travelled in this auto shelling out my hard-earned money. (People who rile about Chennai's autos are advised to take note of the above situation and if possible, experience it. In Bangalore)

** The Karnataka State Transport Corporation's Volvo buses seem to be favourites of almost everyone who is desirous of travelling in and out of Bangalore. I am no exception. The buses do rock big time but there are a few Volvos which can be hell. I happened to be in one such bus while going from Bangalore to Mysore. I happened to be in the rear-most seat (the least preferred seat in other buses). The moment the bus came out of the city traffic and was out into the highway, out came the smell of vehicle emission. It was coming from the engine and Volvos have their engines at the back. Throughout the 140-km journey I had to endure this noxious
smell that almost made me faint. Beware of such buses.

** It is hard for someone, who is new to Mysore, to locate a certain place. The people out here have a weird way of giving directions. They don't specify important landmarks. They just tell you to go left, right and then straight only to end up in the wrong place and again ask for directions upon which this second person gives new directions that take you to almost the other corner of the city. I had a hard time locating a certain hotel which happened to be in the road opposite to the palace. When I asked for directions, I was given only the directions but no landmarks. Call it answering to the point!

Disclaimer: This post is written with the intention of sharing my experiences in a city I was visiting for the first time. It is not meant to hurt the people of a particular state but if anyone wishes to disagree I'm ready for talks.

JUST AVERAGE

2007-09-15T21:32:00.000+05:30

What is common to writers Chetan Bhagat and Amitabha Bagchi? One--both of them are alumni of IIT Delhi. Two--both of them have written novels based on their college life. The latter of the two came up with his debut novel Above Average, earlier this year.

The theme of the book, as mentioned in the back cover, is about a boy named Arindam Chatterjee, dreaming of becoming a rock star while pursuing under-grad at IIT Delhi and how the rigors of the IIT life impede him from becoming one. I expected the book to be filled with instances of a young lad hooked to drums, cymbals and electric guitars. It was there, but only in the first half, or rather, the first quarter of the book.

The story opens in an IIT Study Circle where a few graduates are pondering over a complex theorem, dreaming of bagging a coveted seat in a premier institution. All of a sudden the story describes Arindam in his final year. Then suddenly, in his first year. After that it shows him in the USA as one who is pursuing Masters in Baltimore. The whole story lacks coherence.

The story seems more like a string of incidents from the author's college life. One chapter in the book runs to 100-odd pages but does justice to the title only for around 20 pages. Bagchi could have done better to make his Average novel more than Above Average.

TAG

2007-08-25T20:06:00.000+05:30

1.(a) Pick out a scar you have
Two on my left hand,three on my right and two on my right knee

(b)and explain how you got it?
I used to fall down often,while playing gully cricket

2.What does your phone look like?
Nokia 1110!Period.

3. What is on the walls of your bedroom?
Posters of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble

4. What is your current desktop picture?
A photo of friends, taken at the last get-together in college.

5. Do you believe in gay marriage?
No I don't.

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
Someone for company

7. What time were you born?
12:14 am

8. Are your parents still together?
Yes.

9. Last person who made you cry?
I make others cry.

10. What is you favorite perfume/cologne?
I'm allergic to perfumes.I prefer to use icy cool prickly heat powder.

11. What kind of hair/eye color do you like in the opposite sex?
Black/Brown hair,eyes..any colour

12. What are you listening to?
Eminem--Without Me.

13. Do you get scared of the dark?
Not at all

14. Do you like pain killers?
Haven't had any till date

15. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Not at all.

16. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Kashmiri apples and Nagpur oranges

17. Who was the last person you made mad?
Prakash,a friend of mine.When he was desperate for a smoke,I hid his matchbox.

18. Is anyone in love with you?
Maybe someone is,who knows.

I tag everyone in my blogroll.

A CRICKET JUNKIE CONFESSES

2007-08-11T16:50:00.000+05:30

Heard of the "Few Good Men"?For the uninitiated,I'm referring to the ESPNSTAR commentary team made up of Ian Chappell,Sunil Gavaskar,Ravi Shastri,Geoffery Boycott,Alan Wilkins and Harsha Bhogle.Add another to the list--Gautam Bhimani, the skinny fellow who does the job of pre-match/post-match/interim interviews.

Ever sat next to Sachin Tendulkar in a flight? Ever watched a match from atop floodlights? Ever captured the moments of a match from an adjacent high-rise building? Well, my (and many hardcore cricket freaks') answer to each of these questions is "No" but in the case of Gautam Bhimani,it's a matter of pride. He captures these and many such off-field moments in his book "Reverse Sweep".

Gautam resembles no more than a pencil, but he's got enough willpower to climb to the top of the world's tallest stadium-floodlight (@ the MCG,Melbourne) and capture the match from there. He has had the opportunity to cover a match from the high-rise building near the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka. He was the first to interview Anil Kumble after the latter played on, in the test against South Africa in 2001, the jaw injury notwithstanding.

The book has been structured in such a manner as to bring out highlights from all the cricketing nations. Surprisingly there's not a single chapter dedicated to India. However the book is interesting in that it carries plenty of photos (there is atleast one photo in every page). It also provides a few unknown facts about cricket stadiums. For instance, Basin Reserve in Wellington is actually a traffic island (roundtana) there. A must-read for diehard cricket buffs.

Tested Patience

2007-07-25T17:50:00.000+05:30

After living under the control of the Conditional Access System for the past four years, nothing makes me happier than getting to watch channels that came under the control of the CAS. Previews of "Star Cricket" did the rounds in ESPN and Star Sports and I was excited at the prospect of watching cricket matches throughout the day when resistance came in the form of a room-mate who watches regional (read Tamil) channels with utmost interest.

On the 5th day of the first test match between India and England, I went into my room hoping to catch some excitement from the match when I found this roomie watching a Ramarajan movie on KTV, cuddled up in bed with the remote under his blanket. I told him that the match was on in Star Cricket only to receive a response "This movie is thrilling. The climax will be on in a few minutes". "Few minutes" turned into one hour during which I was desperately hoping the movie would end.

The moment after it came to an end, I tried to lay my hand on the remote when the roomie switched to Vijay TV to watch "Kanaa kaanum kaalangal". In the meantime I was getting messages from friends saying the match was becoming interesting as India was losing wickets. I told this to my roomie, who replied that he was a regular watcher of the serial and that he never missed even a single episode. I had to wait for another half an hour.

After half an hour I got hold of the remote only to find that the match was over and that it had ended in a draw. This was it. I decided to unleash my fury at my roomie but I had to restrain myself as he was senior to me. Call it testing times!

NEW STATE

2007-06-27T22:09:00.000+05:30

When I received the letter of joining from a reputed IT company in which I'm placed, I was thrilled at the prospect of being in a world-class training centre in Mysore. Not without reason for the letter came out in the midst of rumours that went around saying that the training would be at the new facility at Mahindra City and not at Mysore. Thankfully it turned out to be Mysore and being part of a totally different culture, one that I was not acquainted with, was something I was looking forward to.

On the way to Mysore I discovered the reason why nine out of ten persons claim that Bangalore is an over-hyped city.

Mandya and Srirangapatna were sufficient testimony to why Karnataka needs lesser Kaveri water than TamilNadu.

Upon reaching the campus I was greeted by Telugu voices on all sides. There seemed to be a huge influx of students from Andhra Pradesh, most of them possessing an Einstein-like brain but talking, what they call, Butler English or Queen's English.

Language is not at all a problem given the proximity of Mysore to TamilNadu but when it comes to dealing with auto drivers the situation is entirely different. Just a few Tamil words from my mouth and I find the auto driver frowning at me.

Food turned out to be the biggest problem for one who's accustomed to idli, dosa and filter coffee. While every attention has been paid to ensure maximum comfort and ambience to employees, the food aspect has been ignored largely. For thirty rupees you get a plate of what is called the Meals but sans Sambar and Rasam.

It would be a few more months before I can return to regular blogging. Till then, Adios.

TALE OF TWO MOVIES

2007-06-09T15:17:00.000+05:30

When the viva voce session of my final year project came to an end on May 10th, I realised I had successfully completed four years of college when it suddenly struck me, then, that I had not watched a single movie for two whole months. It was project reviews, assessment tests and semester exams that kept me occupied. I decided to break the jinx and decided to go for a movie when I realised I did not have company. But it so happened that there was nothing else worthy of being called a leisure activity and so I decided to go alone for a movie. It was "Unnale unnale" at Sathyam cineplex.

A horrible movie. Most of my friends who saw the movie termed it as nice but somehow I did not like it. The characters did not appeal to me. The entire movie had a paranoid heroine, possessive about her boyfriend, getting pissed off each time her boyfriend spoke to some other girl. A waste of 80 rupees, I thought, at the end of the movie.

Some days later, I watched Chennai 600028, in my hometown at Nagercoil. An amazing movie, contrastingly different from UU. What appealed to me, the most, was the characters with whom I could associate myself with. In fact, some of the characters resembled some of my close friends. A wonderful movie at a rate that is half the price of the ticket at Sathyam--it cost me just Rs.39 (25 rupees ticket + 10 rupees popcorn + 4 rupees to and fro bus fare).

All this "exhilarating movie-watching experience" in a multiplex would be useless if the movie sucks big time.

DOUBLESPEAK

2007-05-25T19:43:00.000+05:30

The entry of the private sector into retail meant small shops had to lose business. A trite paradigm that has been doing the rounds ever since Walmart announced its plans to tap the Indian market. Political parties like the Pattali Makkal Katchi had been crying foul and demanding that the government not permit the private players. Members of the PMK had been protesting in front of RelianceFresh outlets in several parts of Chennai. It seemed to have little impact on the state government and Reliance and only goes to prove that the PMK's act is nothing but a mere eyewash.

It should be mentioned that the acts of the PMK are mere publicity stunts. How else could one explain their turning a blind eye to the mushrooming of the Pazhamudhir Nilayams and Pazhamudhir Cholais in the city? Two Pazhamudhir shops in Thiruvanmiyur have thrown a small vendor out of business. The two outlets located themselves strategically on either side of the small shop. During the past six months the small shop, which had, for long, been a favourite of the residents of that locality, began witnessing a drop in number of customers. Now the shop is no more but Annachi (as how the owner of the shop is known) is not giving up. He says he has shifted his shop to Tambaram and hopes to start his business on a new note.

The Pazhamudhirs in Thiruvanmiyur may satisfy their customers but are a nuisance for passing by motorists. Most of the customers to these shops come in cars and park right in front of the shop causing build up of traffic on one side of the road. Pazhamudhir Cholai is located near the Adyar Depot traffic signal and at times, when the signal is green, cars block the path of motorists and by the time the motorists could cross the signal, it turns red, resulting in another agonising 70-minute wait. The opposite side of this shop is where the Adyar Depot bus stop is situated and it doubles as parking space. It so happened, once, that a bus driver shouted angrily at a car driver who had stopped his car shamelessly in the middle of the road and the store personnel came to the support of the car driver. One of the personnel tried to slap the bus driver but in vain. Instead he rammed hard on the body of the bus. Following this incident bus drivers tend to be cautious when passing that way. I learnt from one of the drivers that the staff at Pazhamudhir Cholai were offering a hefty amount to the traffic policemen every month. Call it high-handedness!

STORY OF THE SILK

2007-05-20T23:29:00.000+05:30

Kanchipuram, as the whole world knows, is syonymous with silk. The town is a major hub for export of silk to all parts of the country and overseas. The industry generates revenues to the tune of millions of dollars every year by way of exports. But how many of us know the real inputs that go into making the colourful silk sarees? This remained a mystery until BBC World exposed the truth in its programme, "Our World".

The truth is that the industry employs thousands of bonded labourers who are victims of heavy drudgery. The programme showed labourers working in unhealthy and hazardous conditions that take a heavy toll on their health. Subject to the same fate are numerous child labourers. In addition, it was found that most silk looms were being operated in the backyard of houses without government licences.

The objective of the programme was to bring the problem of bonded labour to the notice of the Government. The programme's anchor chose one Ashok Kumar, a ten year old boy, who was weaving in one of the looms. The anchor met the Kanchipuram collector, Pradeep Yadav, and explained the problem to him. The collector, denied witnessing instances of bonded labour and assured, perfunctorily, that he would deal with an iron hand, those who violated the law. But what the collector did not know was that violation of the law was happening just a few metres from his office.

As a means of proving the existence of bonded labour, the anchor called three officers in the collectorate to accompany him to the "mill". They did so, but half heartedly and with indifference. When they arrived at the place where Ashok was put up, they beat a hasty retreat without even bothering to look around the street they were in, which had garbage piled up at one corner and a drain overflowing. Problems right in front of their eyes.

Having met with failure in his efforts, the anchor decided to break protocols and took Ashok straight to the collector who was busy in a meeting. The collector had no choice except to direct his subordinates to take necessary action which included funds from the goverment for education and a healthy living. In addition Ashok's employer was prosecuted and his mill shut down. Now Ashok leads a happy life, free from the physical and mental traumas of sitting for nearly 8 hours a day doing nothing but weave silk and earn a meagre Rs.25 everyday.

The best thing about the programme is the impact it has had on the government. The Kanchipuram collectorate is now aware of the reality surrounding them. An eye opener of a programme, it was way different from Indian news channels in its style of reporting that included more of content and fewer ads. I expect more and more such issues to be brought to light in the coming weeks.

CWC 2007--MUSINGS

2007-04-30T22:17:00.000+05:30

** That Australia would be the champions once again, came to light after the first semi-final which saw South Africa putting up a no-show. Phrases like "May the best team win!" are justified, after all.

** Ricky Ponting's bold display of confidence before every match was one of the highlights of the tournament. But he stuck to his statements, in the end, and this prevented his attitude from being termed over-confidence or cautious optimism.

** Glenn Mcgrath walked away with the Player of the Tournament award and this made his exit from cricket, one of pride and not one of ignominy.

** Ricky Ponting proved that he was the most efficient captain in the tournament. He ensured that Mcgrath played every single match of the last tournament of the latter's career. Contrast this with Rahul Dravid who kept Anil Kumble out for his team's very first match of the tournament!

** The cricketing world will see no more of The Pigeon. All good things must come to an end!
** Stephen Fleming will be missed. Whether he is retiring on grounds of his team's exit from the World Cup or of a long tenure, is not known. Taking over from Lee Germon in 1996, Fleming saw the Kiwis rise to new levels. This included making it to the semi-finals in the 1999 and the 2007 world cups. Very recently he saw his team chasing gargantuan totals against the mighty Aussies and coming out successfully.
** Brian Lara--a legend. One of the greatest batsmen the world has ever seen. Too bad he had to end his career on an unsuccessful note.

** Telecast by Sony was, to say the least, worse! Hope to get better coverage in the next edition.

WORLD CUP POST--1st ONE

2007-04-06T00:01:00.000+05:30

The World Cup is not over yet. The Super Eights are still in progress with eight top TEAMS battling against one another. I highlight the word 'Teams' because they are real Teams and because they display the characteristics of teamwork viz leadership, motivation and collective effort. Looking back at India's World Cup debacle, I wonder if there was any teamwork involved.

My friend, Vinay, quotes two instances of teams playing cricket as a SPORT. The first one, the opening match West Indies vs Pakistan. Vinay quotes:

"West Indies playing Pakistan.. the cup needed something special and all eyes were on Brian Charles Lara.. the man walks out to bat... and gets out soon for some thirty odd runs.. nothin spectacular for Lara's standards... but in the course of that rather brief innings.. Lara faces Kaneria.. Kaneria bowling over the wicket, pitches a whizzing leg spinner outside Lara's off stump...the ball is furiously turning into Lara.. the backlift is high as always..the feet start to dance... and before one can bat an eyelid, the man has moved to outside his leg stump and his bat, in perfect symbiotic relationship to his feet, has come down at the most appropriate instance to late cut the ball past Akmal and the short third man for a boundary.. the cut..perhaps the most unkindest of them all for Kaneria.. but one of the finest to this big fan watching a few thousand miles away."

The next one, Dwayne Leverock's catch of Robin Uthappa

"120 kg weighing Dwayne Leverock flying in the air, pulling off the catch...jumping to his feet (quicker than Dada) and running towards square leg..then stopping cos Malachi Jones, the bowler, had already run there to celebrate...then turning towards long off and running there blowing kisses to the stands.. Only Uthapa was out for crying out loud..not Sachin... dont think they cared... super moment..pure joy of playing the game for the love of it..not for the commercials...not for the fame.. just for the love of cricket."

I like to add on to the above two cases with England's match against Sri Lanka yesterday. England may have lost the match but the way they played deserves mention, particularly the partnership between Pietersen and Bell. England had already lost Ed Joyce and Michael Vaughan by the time Pietersen came in. With the asking rate standing at almost 6 runs an over Pietersen and Bell did the right thing by rotating the strike by taking singles and capitalising on the few loose balls that came their way. Probably the right thing to do against a stiff asking rate and experienced bowlers like Vaas, Muralitharan and Jayasuriya.

India could have easily won the match against Sri Lanka if it had applied the right strategies. Ajit Agarkar at the crease with Rahul Dravid. Rotation of strike would have done the trick. What was the use of going for the lofted shot? In sharp contrast was the 2004 Champion's Trophy final featuring West Indies and England. West Indies chasing a target of 218 was reeling at 147/8 with Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw at the crease. The two had a duty to reverse the damage done, so far in the innings and they did it. About India's performance in the WC, period. Post mortem does not help unless it's a murder mystery investigation!

The reactions of the fans in India have been awful, to say the least. Apart from burning effigies and posters of players and the coach, clones, or rather look alikes, of Tendulkar and Sehwag have been humiliated. These poor guys have been receiving the brickbats. Interestingly these very same clones used to be honoured each time Indian won. How stupid!

Now for the question of Chappell's replacement. The BCCI vice president has said that the coach would be selected based on aggression and not on the basis of nationality. A few names in line:

Dave Whatmore : Coach of Sri Lanka during 1996. Orchestrated the World Cup triumph in 1996. Considered one of the most successful coaches of Sri Lanka. However his coaching record with Bangladesh doesnt present a rosy picture.

Geoff Marsh : This Australian was the man behind Australia's 1999 World Cup triumph. Went on to coach Zimbabwe later but track record against Zimbabwe was unimpressive.

My take--Steve Waugh, John Buchannan

The World Cup is not over yet. More Super 8 matches to go. Given the present scenario, it seems obvious that Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will go through to the semis. The fourth team--well, it's a battle of sorts among West Indies, England and Sri Lanka. May the best team win.

WISECRACKS

2007-03-30T23:52:00.000+05:30

One of my friends, Tamilselvan, never uses the word "photo" but prefers to use "still".

Tamilselvan : Hey Nishant, did you notice the Erode-bandh still in today's Dinakaran?

Nishant : Yeah da. The city appeared still, without any activity!

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Conversation, the first time I met Tamilselvan

Me : Machi, which place are you from?

Tamil : Gobi, da

Me : 65 or Manchurian?

Tamil : Ayyoo....ayyayo...Jeyanth, save me da.

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There's this guy in the Civil Engineering department who is well known for telling lies. His name happens to be Sathyaseelan!

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THINGS I HATE ABOUT MY COLLEGE

2007-03-26T14:13:00.000+05:30

Each time I get a tag, I keep saying to myself "No more tags". But since famous bloggers like Mathematician come up with interesting topics for tags, I'm tempted to take it.

This time it's "Ten things I hate about my college". Here goes:

1) The ban on cellphones which we proudly violate (at our own risk). I hate it more when I hear reports about how five boys were caught by the VC at the gate, carrying cellphones, at 11:30 in the night.

2) The grey TATA Safari and a Rewa patrol vehicle that do "rounds" inside the campus. Worst is when some arbitrary students are caught and questioned for possessing cellphone.

3) The unergonomic timetable which has been designed in such a way all subjects are handled in two-hour sessions.I call it unergonomic as it puts students to sleep within 10 mins of start of the class

4) The professors who epitomise punctuality by being just in time for their respective classes thereby ensuring that two-hour classes last exactly or greater than 120 minutes.

5) The rules, one of which says "Two wheelers are not allowed inside the campus". It's not the rule that irks me but the dumb estate officer who has made it a point to seal all prospective entry points and paths (even shrubbed pathways) with thorny branches.

6) The disadvantage back-benchers are always at-- giving in to the professors' lullabies no matter how hard they try to stay awake by just scribbling something in their notepads.

7) The associate warden of the hostels who repeatedly issues warnings, after some trivial incident that involves the theft of "vital" items like ball point pens, to day scholars about entering hostel blocks. And we flout them at our own risk

8) The ground whose cricket pitches are never empty thanks to TNCA league matches

9) The staff parking lot which is meant for parking of staff members' vehicles.Unfortunately it remains mostly empty since most staff members come to college by bus.

10) The canteen--it's not the food that I hate but the queues at the cash counter.

I tag everyone who reads this post (except Mathematician and Chaos Master who've already taken it)

AN ERGONOMICAL RIDE

2007-03-24T20:47:00.000+05:30

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation in Chennai has finally given some thought to improving passenger safety and comfort. After the launch of premium luxury bus services Blue Line and Yellow Line, two months ago, the city witnessed the launch of two more services viz. Orange Line and White Line.

The names have absolutely no relation to the colour of the buses (one doesnt notice a yellow line but a bus yellow in colour) but it must be mentioned that there is greater leg space for passengers. These buses are also equipped with automatic doors that open and close when operated by a switch in the driver's control panel. The fares suggest that these buses are definitely not meant for the lower middle class common man for whom even an increase of 50 paise in the bus fares would mean parting with a day's income. The minimum fare is Rs. 5 and the maximum, Rs. 10.

The Orange Line and Yellow Line services are just replacements of Limited Stop Services (L.S.S) in some routes but with enhanced comfort. At present Orange Line services ply on routes 6D (Thiruvanmiyur to Toll Gate), 579 (Broadway to Padappai) and 562 (Ambattur Estate to Periyapalayam). White Lines ply on routes 21G (Broadway to Tambaram), 588 (Adyar to Thiruporur) and PP21 (HighCourt to Guduvanchery) [In case I missed any route, do tell me].

Today I took a casual ride in a 6D Orange Line from Tiruvanmiyur to Broadway. Definitely the cynosure of all pedestrians' and motorists' eyes (the bus, not me). On the way back I caught a route 521 (Broadway to Thiruporur) Blue Line. Not bad, I should say. The buses have been built by private body building companies in Karur. This sourcing to expedite the launch of new services. The transport minister said, during the launch of the Orange Line, that 1000 new buses would be added to the existing fleet of 2773, by the end of this year.

The buses may not be as catchy as the Volvo city buses that run in Bengaluru, but they are definitely a welcome break for the average middle class Chennaiite who has been subjected to rickety buses in the past but whose life depends entirely (and even partly) on them.

PUBLICITY STUNT?

2007-03-22T20:10:00.000+05:30

Respected activists of People for Ethical Treatment to Animals,

What's the point in protesting against Kentucky Fried Chicken's foray into Chennai? Where were you when Chennai witnessed the opening of Chic King, Prime Roaster, Marrybrown, the Ponnusamys, Anjappars and Arasappars? For your information, Anjappar has got a special dish called Rabbit-65 in its menu. Before you demand the exit of KFC, make sure the above mentioned restaurants are closed.

Disclaimer: The author not the brand ambassador of KFC and the views expressed are personal.

FLASHBACK

2007-03-14T21:28:00.000+05:30

Post inspired by this blog post by Ramya

Things that you've left behind that you wish you didn't...

... cricket in the apartment compound at Chennai

... cricket in the terrace at Coimbatore

... my bicycle

... weekends at Trivandrum beach with dad

... round trips in the double decker bus in Trivandrum

... journey in a packed 29C bus

... journeys in private city buses in Coimbatore

... the private buses in Coimbatore which race against one another putting pedestrians at risk

... travel by the metre gauge electric train each time I visit Chennai (this was before 1995)

... never leave Madras without a visit to Marina Beach (before 1995)

... New Year parties in my apartment in Coimbatore

... wake up late in the night and study for boards

... Karuppasamy's mathematics tuition at Coimbatore

... play TRUMP with WWF (world wrestling federation, not world wildlife federation) cards

... fight with sister for a seat by the window in the train (she gets the upper hand all the time)

... college hostel block 3, where ten guys sleep in a room meant for only four, during the 2nd year

... late night birthday parties in the hostel (there are very few these days)

... throwing rotten eggs and tomatoes on the birthday babies

... Ooty tour in March 2005

... Munnar tour in September 2005

... Wayanad tour in March 2007

Lastly,

... my Nokia 1112 mobile phone, which was washed away in the Arabian Sea at Kozhikode, yesterday

Now what do you have to say?

LOGICAL THINKING

2007-02-28T14:53:00.000+05:30

Finding a space to park in a city, where the growth of the vehicle population is inversely proportional to the width of the road, can be frustrating. Occasionally you find spaces when looking from a distance but eventually it turns out that that space is the front yard of an apartment whose gate greets you with a number of steel boards all reading "No parking in front of the gate".

I have always wondered what to do when confronted with such signs. The gate clearly says "No parking in front of....". The most logical, optimal, well worked out, practical, pragmatic, and apt long-term solution for this would be to PARK BEHIND THE GATE. Hope the owners of the house/apartment will not object.

Paradox

2007-02-22T10:42:00.000+05:30

I was reading last week's issue of India Today (Feb 19th edition) when I came across the special marketing feature, "IMPACT". For the uninitiated, IMPACT is an exclusive space in the magazine, where you can market your company, product, service etc.

There is no greater epitome of irony than IMPACT. Before the incident of Nithari killings came to public light, IMPACT carried a feature on the "Glorious Rule of the Samajwadi Party in U.P". To make things better, there was a photo of Amitabh Bachchan with the S.P symbol in the background.

In the Feb 19th edition, it was about the changing face of New Delhi. There was a mention of the various developmental schemes executed by the Sheila Dixit government and how Delhi was slated to become the "model city" of India by 2008. Now check out this week's(Feb 26) issue. There's an article on the Delhi Master Plan 2021 that throws light on the schemes that have been planned for the future. It says that the current issues need to be addressed first, before actually executing the steps of the Master Plan.

One problem that citizens of Delhi face is that of frequent power cuts. In summer, the situation only worsens for the electricity board shuts down power for more than 8 hours during the day time. Clearly there's a huge gap between the demand and supply. The article states that little has been done to rectify this situation while the IMPACT feature says that Delhi is geared up to meet the demand-supply gap with an additional capacity of 3000MW(??). The problem of water supply also found a place in the article. In the IMPACT feature, it was stated that Delhi would be receiving surplus water from nearby dams in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The reality is that the water level in such dams is insufficient to meet the needs of the people of those states.

When reading the IMPACT feature, do not get carried away by the facts and figures. A closer look would reveal that only the positives will be highlighted (after all it's a marketing feature). You would very soon notice a contrasting article in a subsequent issue.

2007-02-13T20:17:00.000+05:30

The cat's out of the bag, finally. The team for the forthcoming cricket World Cup has been chosen. As always, the team has evoked mixed reactions.

As expected, the erstwhile pillars of the Indian team, Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble are in. Not to forget Ganguly who has been rightly rewarded for his successful stint in the series against South Africa. The four are established professional cricketers and have a few more years of cricket left in them that it is absurd to say that McGrath and Warne have set a fitting precedent to "ageing" cricketers like Tendulkar and Dravid.

The selection committee had second thoughts about including Sehwag but thanks to Dravid, he is in. Tendulkar was caught in a similar situation before WC 2003 when he was not at his best in the Test series against New Zealand. But did he not go out and prove his worth in the World Cup?

Dinesh Karthik, who had been sidelined on numerous occasions before, rightly deserves a place. Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf, Harbhajan and Pathan--better equipped to handle pressures than Rudra Pratap Singh or V.R.V Singh. The case of Dhoni must also be mentioned as he has been regaining his lost form.

Now should Yuvraj Singh really be there? Chappell had been lobbying for him occasionally and therefore his inclusion comes as no surprise. Maybe Ramesh Powar would have been a better choice. Same case with Robin Uthappa. With only a few matches of experience behind him, this World Cup would be a testing track for him and it would be a surprise if he adapts himself to the conditions in West Indies.

Angry fans burnt effigies of Chappell and Vengsarkar in Uttar Pradesh because Mohammed Kaif was not included. Tough luck that the selectors chose to ignore him. Maybe he should have been sent to the domestic team to prove his worth by performing better to please the selectors.

Madan Lal and Kapil Dev suggest that Ganguly is a better captain but speculations will not work. 26 more days to go.

TEN THINGS THAT DEFINE ME

2007-02-02T11:06:00.000+05:30

I'm back after taking a short break in Pune. I open my blog after almost a week to find a tag from Bengaluru's most hardcore fan of Sachin Tendulkar err... A. R. Rahman. The theme this time is to state 10 things that define me. Here goes:

1. My PJs

2. My ability to remember incidents

3. My rash, but controlled, driving skills.

4. My smile

5. My tendency to help people

6. My tendency to socialise with anyone (with exceptions like the fairer sex)

7. My character

8. My attitude

9. My sense of humour

10. My smile

Anyone can take this tag. For once, I'm not quoting any specific names in order to not get screwed by those whose names don't feature in the list.

I am....

2007-01-25T23:39:00.000+05:30

..taking a break

What People Don't Say about me

2007-01-15T15:20:00.000+05:30

The last time I got a tag was during the recently concluded tech fest of my college, when the organisers handed me a tag with the word "Admin" printed on it. WA, the queen of the blogosphere is the epicentre of this five-things-that-people-dont-know-about-you tag. The princesses (read girls) of the blogosphere experienced the shocks before this tag reached me via F2F. Here goes:

I can add, subtract, multiply and divide two three digit numbers with ease and give the result within milliseconds, without the aid of computing devices. Sounds like I'm bragging but my friends would vouch for this.

Having lived in Chennai for six years, I have complete knowledge of bus route numbers, bus registration numbers, depot numbers (eg. ADH 620), colour of buses, which route a bus previously ran on etc.

All my friends dont hesitate to lend me their bikes if I ask them but when they ask me, I ask them a number of questions like where to, how long, where else will you be going,etc. Fortunately this has not stopped my friends from lending their bikes to me and vice versa.

When approaching an intersection, if the signal is green and I am hundred metres away from it, I keep muttering to myself "I can make it". This infuses some power into me forcing me to rev up to 60kmph. On most occasions I have beaten the signal before it could turn red.

I need no telephone indexes or diaries or contact lists. I can easily remember 10-digit cellphone numbers.

I'm extending this to Chikuado, Sarvesh, Ejaz Ahmed, Rohit and Revs.

EVENT MANAGEMENT

2007-01-11T23:08:00.000+05:30

I am satisfied. So are all the 250 odd organisers of Kurukshetra. The fest's turned out to be a grand success in its debut itself. And nothing testifies this better than the feedback by the 5000 odd participants who turned up. The next step is to lay the foundation for the next year's version. And I have a bigger role to play there.

FAREWELL

2007-01-10T21:53:00.000+05:30

The year 2007 will see the departure of four daring cricketers viz. Damien Martyn, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer. The four have been humble enough to announce retirement from test cricket, to pave the way for the next generation of cricketers like Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin etc. If you thought the Aussie team will be lacking in killer instinct after the foursome's departure, think again. Australia only grew in strength after batsmen like Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh retired from the scene.

Test cricket's all set for more explosives ahead.

MOVIE MAKER

2007-01-08T20:50:00.000+05:30

At last I've made my first movie. A mega budget movie made with only a one-rupee coin. An action flick. Screening any time, any where. Kudos to my team.

TWENTY ONE

2006-12-28T21:39:00.000+05:30

The world has already witnessed a disastrous day in Dec 26 in the form of killer waves but little does one know that the succeeding day i.e Dec 27 had also been tragic. In fact two tragedies had occurred that day. The first one happened in 1965 when a heavy weight Salman Khan was born with a naked torso that nearly made the nurse in the hospital, where he was born, collapse to death. The next tragedy occurred 20 years later when a lad called Chandrasekhar was born. He later condensed his name to Sekhar probably because he hated moons. He began creating mayhem around when he asked his professor 98 or XP when he was told to open the windows. Till then he has been popular with his PJs. He went on to become a genius moulded out of 0% perspiration, 0% effort and 100% flattery. He just turned 21 and he now realises that it is fun.

POKIRI Music Review

2006-12-23T20:10:00.000+05:30

Nine songs, including a theme music, make up the music bouquet of Prabhu Deva's directorial debut, Pokiri.

The intro song sounds a bit different from the typical ones, tuned to suit the taste of Vijay (and his fans). "Aadungadaa enna suthi, naan ayyanaaru vettu kathi." Suggests that there might be some shades of Tirupaachi in this movie. Not to forget the lyrics which have the usual words of violence--"Adiyum odhaiyum kalandhu vechu, vidiya vidiya virundhu vecha pokkiri pongal." And I thought Pongal is celebrated with sugarcane.

The song that easily captures the listener is "Dole dole thaan." But the Telugu version (with some Hindi lyrics) sounds much better, specially if you have listened to that first and then the tamil one.

The other songs would qualify in the range of OK, average and below average. The rest you find out.

ANOTHER MEET

2006-12-23T19:18:00.000+05:30

After a seemingly long gap, it's time for yet another meeting of cyber-journalists. The venue is Elliots Beach in Besant Nagar, near the police booth. For further details check out the blog experts' (Gapp, Kausik, Mathematician and Maaveeran) sites. Any queries relating to dotqueens and pretty young things may be posted to them.

RANDOM MUSINGS

2006-12-16T20:31:00.000+05:30

As the heated battle between the Trinamool Congress and the Left continues in West Bengal, over the allottment of land to Tata Motors for the production of the Rs.1 lakh car, one wonders if it is right on the part of Tata to acquire agricultural land for setting up a manufacturing facility. The business conglomerate, which, in a way, revolutionised industrialisation in India, claims that the farmers will not be affected and due compensation will be given.

This on one hand, the Left Front government in West Bengal is resisting threats of hunger-strikes by opposition parties. Chief Minister Buddhababu is bent on allotting Singur and only Singur to Tata. Laxmi Mittal, on his tour to India, signed an agreement with Arjun Munda, the Jharkand CM, for setting up a steel plant in the state. But he later backed out, due to delays in land acquisition and later went on to sign an agreement for a steel plant in Orissa. Cannot the Tatas take a cue or two from Mittal and look for land elsewhere? Ravi Kant, the MD of Tata Motors, says that establishment of the plant will be the first step towards industrialisation of West Bengal. Way to go, but now that Singur is going out of reach, the best alternative is to look for land elsewhere in West Bengal. This way industrialisation of West Bengal will get a headstart, and at the same time, Singur will not be affected.
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Went to Trichy for the second time in the last one month. Small city, good roads, excellent (and comfortable too) public transport, lesser traffic signals. More peaceful. News is that it's going to be part of the booming infotech revolution. One could only hope that the city does not lose its sheen because of the establishment of IT parks and development centres.
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A newly discovered fact : Oddanchatram, near Palani, in Dindigul district, is considered the vegetable bowl of the state. All vegetables are grown around the town and exported to Chennai, Madurai, Tuticorin, Coimbatore and almost all districts of the state and to even Kerala. Almost 45% of the vegetable supply to Kerala is from Oddanchatram.
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The worst part of travelling in small cities like Trichy is the extensive use of air horns by government and private buses inside the city. Just walk around any of the narrow roads and you would soon be confronted by the shrill blare of a deafening sound that is nothing but the horn of the private bus coming from behind. The worst part is that these horns are used in full vicinity of the traffic policemen who turn a deaf ear to it. This situation applies to even towns like Coimbatore, Salem, Karur, Tirunelveli, etc where a good number of private buses serve to meet the public transportation needs of that town.
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Now for the advantages of air horns. Or rather, the sole but significant advantage of air horns, which is, to signal to the vehicle in front to give way. Public interest litigations were filed, years ago, in the High Court by various NGOs to ban the use of air horns. A law was subsequently passed, but that applied to buses alone. Now the law seems have faded into oblivion. MTC buses zip through traffic blaring horns at full pitch. Violation of the law, you might think, but you could reach a far away place at a distance of say 10 kms in a record time of 30 minutes.
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This is for the unassuming motorists who are subjected to the shrill blare from behind. What do you do in such circumstances? Simple, make way but make sure you don't run into the bus stop on the left.
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While the preparations for Kurukshetra 2007 are a test to my management skills, I just noticed that the fest could make me blind for Kurukshetra is the anagram of Kurut Sekhar.

CAPTIOUS

2006-12-07T21:51:00.000+05:30

Why was the geology professor not satisfied with the oceanographer's thesis on "Underwater seafloor exploration?"

Because he found a lot of faults.

Aesthetically

2006-12-04T20:01:00.000+05:30

Sagaro,in yesterday's issue of The Economic Times,said in an article on blogging that a blog with well-designed aesthetics attracts more visitors.Kiruba,too,held the same opinion.It is because of this that I've revamped my blog template.The grey background looks more pleasing to the eye than the blue in the older version.However I'm forced to do away with Haloscan commenting.Looking forward to a better future in blogging.

FINDING MY FEET

2006-11-24T10:26:00.000+05:30

Picture this:You are an engineering student.A month before the end semester exams,you sit down with your notes and textbooks to study assiduously with the hope of getting only Ss and As in all the subjects which leads to a GPA of 9+.Just five minutes into the notes is all you need to take your mind off them and go online.Just when you switch on the PC,you hear a meow in the distance.You hear it again.And again,and again until it turns into a loud roar that paralyses you for the next few months.

The last two months were devoted entirely towards preparation for CAT(which ultimately turned out to be a kitten).Neither was my presence in the blogosphere frequent nor was my absence felt.In the end,blogosphere breathed easy,salaries at IIMs' summer placements touched astronomical figures and Australia won the Champions Trophy 2006.

CAT is a wonderful exam.Not because it lays the foundation for a career in management but because of the structure of the test,the type of questions and the amount of reasoning one puts to use.My preparation for this wonderful exam has not been a smooth journey.Now and then,potholes, in the form of college subjects,emerged.Given the nature of a subject like Advanced Manufacturing Systems,one is forced to revert to "Manufacturing Technology for dummies" for better understanding of the former.

Only four papers in a semester is no reason to be relieved.A look at the syllabus clearly proves that the portions to be learnt over 2 years has been squeezed into a semester.A typical case is that of Advanced Manufacturing Systems.(For the uninitiated,I'm a student of Industrial Engineering). This subject can be understood only if you are aware of the fact that probabilities lie between 0 and 1.It's all about drawing network diagrams,compiling a 4 x 4, or at times 10 x 10 matrix and then determining what are known as steady state probabilities.On many occasions these probabilities have come out to 367.87 or even -0.75.The probability of clearing this subject is as low as 0.00000000023%(yes.it's percentage).It's considered equivalent to Optical Communication which is an equally dreaded paper in the ECE department.

The absence of a correlation between the syllabus and industry practices is visible in a subject called Total Productive Maintenance,a subject that talks about industrial maintenance practices.This is what you think,upon seeing the name of the subject.But the fact is that 50% of the syllabus is devoted to the study of reliability.One could find the phrase "Pillars of TPM" written on the pillars of any manufacturing facility.The subject could have been devoted to teaching the so-called pillars of TPM,rather than dwell on reliabilities.There is portion on Just-in-Time(JIT) systems but this has been dealt with from a philosophical perspective rather than from a pragmatic one.At the end of the semester,it makes you say 'Shit'.

Computer Simulation was thought of as an interesting subject as it had to do with a lot of analytical reasoning.I was looking forward to this to complement my CAT preparation.This subject talks about simulating day to day activities,for instance queueing models(!!!???).Using a set of predefined commands,one has to determine how many transactions were made in a given period of time,how many entries waited in the queue and for how long,how many arrived the night before to reserve a place in the queue...Except for a few probability data that hampers the thinking process,an exciting subject overall.

The only saving grace for the past semester has been Total Quality Management,for the plain reason that one could write reams and reams of stories.And every story would begin with "Top Management Commitment" and conclude with "Therefore TQM is the recommended solution."The case studies and a highly proficient professor made it a lively subject.

There are tasks lined up for the vacation,the most important of them being the groundwork for the Technical Fest,Kurukshetra'07.I've managed to swim my way through a semester that was believed to be insipid,but for my pals from the ECE department who helped me discover myself,during the many afternoons I spent in their hostel block.No wonder they are called Enigmatic Coolers of Engineering.

BATTLE IT OUT

2006-11-02T20:51:00.000+05:30

Finally it's arrived.A dream that began three years ago has finally come true after a number of roadblocks.I'm talking about "KURUKSHETRA",the technical festival of College of Engineering,Guindy,that is to be held in 2007,early in the month of January.

There are prizes worth about Rs.9 lakhs,to be taken away.This would bear testimony to the magnitude of the fest.About 7000 students from all over the country are expected to take part.And the events are open to corporates also.

Events lined up for the fest include quizzes like Business Quiz,Lonewolf main quiz,sports quiz and Math quiz.Apart from this there are other events like Rocketry,Robotics,Gamindrome,AeroModelling,Innovate,Contraption,Informals and an exhaustive list,details of which you can find HERE.

Apart from these,there will be guest lectures by eminent personalities like Dayanithi Maran ,Union Minister for Communications and IT and Lakshmi Narayanan,CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions.

The "battlefield" would be the hallowed grounds of Anna University.The fest being the first of its kind in the institution,questions have been raised about whether the fest would be successful.Says Praseed,one of the heads of CEG Technical Forum(which is the student body conducting the fest), "Most technical fests,such as those in NITs, have had successful debuts.We expect the same in our case too."

Check out the website for further information.For queries, contact

InfoDesk@Kurukshetra.org.in
InfoDesk@CEGTechForum.com

CRICKET LABORATORY

2006-10-26T15:07:00.000+05:30

A different kind of practical session is going on in the "laboratory" of the Indian cricket team.And like other practicals that happen in schools every year,this too is in the form of experiments.And it has gone a bit too far that I hope I would not be too late before the Indian cricket team finds itself searching for its feet before World Cup'07.

Are these experiments doing the team any good?Picture this:When seamers likeAjit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan,L Balaji and Ashish Nehra had to be sidelined due to injury,two years ago,young blood in the form of Munaf Patel,R.P.Singh and V.R.V Singh came to the fore,of course,not to forget Irfan Pathan.Now the situation has bloomed into one wherein the latter category is exceeding expectations(of the BCCI selection committee) and the former,still battling it out in domestic cricket to regain their rightful places in the team.It would interesting to see the type of decision strategy the selection committee will apply before the world cup.One only hopes that it wouldnt lead to DEGENERACY.

Things dont look good on the batting front too.The now common experiment of Pathan batting at No.3 just seems a bit weird.It looks weirder,still,after the experiment continues even after Pathan's inability to stay at the crease for not more than 10 seconds.

Another cricketer who has failed to meet expectations is Dhoni.Of late he seems to be more keen on endorsements than cricket.His statistics in the last 8 matches present a sorry picture:an average of 18.00 with a high score 43.His poor show in the recent Champions Trophy match against England only supplements the notion of his being in poor form.Dhoni walked in to the centre when his team was at 98 after 16 overs.The target was not too high at 126.This meant 28 to win from 34 overs.Just when one expected the "explosive" batsman to wrap things up within 3 overs,the match carried on,and on,and on till the 30th over.To top it all,it was Yuvraj singh who was partnering Dhoni at the centre.Given the huge time gap between the 16th over and close of play,one could have endured a movie like Sillunu Oru Kaathal.

With the Champions Trophy match between India and West Indies on,with two wickets already down,it remains to be seen if the "explosive" batsmen live up to expectations.If they don't chuck them and give Ganguly his due(but such things happen only in blogs)

YET ANOTHER TAG

2006-10-16T20:29:00.000+05:30

A new tag.This time it's from the karaoke gal. The objective of this tag is to bring out the 6 weirdest things about myself.

1)I hate the taste of mango fruits but I relish drinks like Frooti.

2)Whenever I borrow a friend's bike and if the fuel indicator points to the red zone(which in technical terms is called "reserve")I go for a refill immediately.But I dont do that in my bike.I wait till the fuel tank almost completely runs out of fuel.

3)Whenever a vehicle overtakes me the first thing my eyes catch is the number plate.This is true even if the person driving the vehicle is a PYG(pretty young girl.PYT's a general acronym)

4)The first thing that I do after boarding a bus is get a ticket.Finding a place to sit comes next.On most occasions,it so happens that I hurriedly buy a ticket,find a seat in the front only to find the conductor walking to the front to issue tickets.

5)Walking into the college canteen with the plan of eating a sumptuous full-meal.But then looking at the length of queue at the counter,I change my mind and buy a plate of chappati instead.

6)If there's anything else weird in me,that I can think of,it's my hairstyle.No matter how much care I accord to it using the best available coconut oil,some ayurvedic oils,oils that bring down the heat from the head etc.the rate of fall is always higher than the rate of growth.

I'm not tagging anybody specific.This is to avoid the wrath of those whose names I dont mention here.Therefore it's open to anyone who has the guts to take it at his/her own risk.

WORK,WORK EVERYWHERE

2006-10-14T12:17:00.000+05:30

10th Std--There were too many subjects-12,to be precise.All had to be studied within a span of 12 months.Hence life was hectic even in 10th Std.

12th Std--The number of subjects came down to 6 but these had to be studied within 6 months.Therefore life was hectic in +2.

College--The number of subjects drastically came down to atmost 7 per semester.But again,no space to breathe for these 7 subjects had to be studied within 4.5 months(a timespan,better known as a semester).

Final year is no different.Only 4 theory papers to contend with and if you there's enough room for more air,you are wrong.These 4 papers coupled with CAT preparations,Techfest groundwork etc are enough to put your brain into a state of dormancy that you run out of topics to blog about.Sometimes people like this fellow uses his blog as a biography wherein one is reminded of Vedam Jaishankar's book on Rahul Dravid.

Having run out of good topics to blog about,I'm taking a temporary break from blogging.Till then enlighten yourself by reading my older posts.If those suck,then infuse some life into Sarvesh's blog.

CRICKET FEVER

2006-10-08T15:25:00.000+05:30

Rain played spoilsport to cricket for the 729396 th time in Chennai on Oct 4 on the occasion of the Challenger Trophy final between India Red and India Blue.Harish and I rode all the way from Guindy to Chepauk only to find a long queue outside the 'B' stand,which happens to be the least expensive of all the stands at MAC.Not wanting to wait in long queues for a ticket costing Rs.75/-,we bought tickets in "black",paying an additional Rs.25.We were joined,later,by Aanand,Guru,Muthu,Kathir,Maravan,Prathap,J V and Prabu.

It was a fantastic crowd(atleast in the B stand) and the good weather seemed to complement it.Sachin was welcomed with a huge roar only to be dismissed by Zaheer Khan for a duck.Then there were entertaining innings from Sehwag,Dravid and Yuvraj till 5 pm when it began pouring.Then came the covers.

It was then announced at around 6:45pm that the pitch would be inspected at 6:50.The two umpires walked all the way from the pavilion to the pitch only to be confronted by a second shower.At last it became clear that the match would not resume.All that we could manage in the end was a photo session.

TUNE IN,CHENNAI

2006-09-27T13:45:00.000+05:30

All India Radio had ,for long,been basking in monopoly with 107.1 Rainbow FM,in the city of Chennai,until in 2003 a new wave swept over.Radio Mirchi(98.3 FM) and Suryan FM(105.8 initially and now 93.5 FM)pitched in and the city was suddenly tuned in to the two.But this was only the beginning of the private FM revolution in Chennai,while in Mumbai,about half a dozen private FM stations were on air by 2003.

Three years later,the private FM revolution seems to be scaling its peak in Chennai for three new FM stations have come up.Radio City(105.8 FM),Big FM(92.7 FM) and Hello FM(106.4 FM,one which Vijay Krishna refers to by a different name in this post of his). About 50% of the radio buffs are expected to switch to these new stations.Suchitra's voice will no longer be the suprabatham in most households.

One thing to note is that the content and the type of presentation in these new radio channels is almost the same.We could switch to community-radio channels like Anna FM(90.4 MHz) or MOP FM(91.2 MHz) but the two are available only for a radius of 5kms(or is it 0.5kms) from the respective stations.For better results hook on to Sun Music.Still better,send some dumb marqueeing SMS like "Thala Ajith Vaazhga","Aazhwar Ajit superstar" etc.

TRUE FACT

2006-09-19T19:56:00.000+05:30

The headline accompanying this pic read "Munaf Patel has made rapid strides",in today's edition of The Hindu.But it should not be forgotten that he has been making rapid strides,right from the day he began playing for the country,for he's a fast bowler.

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

2006-09-12T23:14:00.000+05:30

One of the many quality improvement techniques given by Japan to the world is KAIZEN.KAI means change and ZEN means good.But the two coupled together mean "Change for the Better."

KAIZEN cannot be applied blatantly.Rather it consists of making small improvements in processes.Each of these small changes in turn contribute to a bigger change.This concept is very popular in manufacturing industries like TVS but it can be applied anywhere,even to your study room.

The Japanese have been rigorously applying this technique in their industries.Small,marginal improvements are made to processes,operations,equipment,plant etc over a period of time and after a certain instant,the process by way of these changes produces an innovation.US industries on the other hand tend to ignore the concept of minute improvements and instead tend to surge to innovation.Indian industries stand between these two.

Each improvement corrects deviations but new deviations and errors creep in with each improvement.Hence the next kaizen would normally involve eliminating such defects.Therefore,KAIZEN is a continuous improvement process.

Each post right from post no.1 has had a number of major defects.Sorting and rectifying them was an onerous task initially,but later with the passage of time the number of nonconformities came down but never touched zero.On some occasions,the number of nonconformities touched a peak depending upon the number of hits per day,number of comments and the number of anonymous people who advertised "Great deals" for my family.Still the journey continued and touched 150 milestones which in other words can be called 150 posts.

No great achievement,this.I still have a long way to go before I can establish myself as a blogger.The KAIZEN journey continues.

GIZMOS BY THE BEACH

2006-09-03T00:13:00.000+05:30

Burma Bazaar.The place has a deep-rooted history in the legacy of Chennai city.The place was once called and still referred to,by many,as First Line Beach.The name Burma Bazaar came into being when Burma Paruppusatti,who was one of the many voyagers who accompanied Vasco-da-gama on his journeys,landed in the southern coast of India and thought that he had landed in Burma.

Paruppusatti unloaded all the goods,he had in his ship and along with the local people like All-in-all Alukkuraj,Chellakutti,Varadhukutti,Kandasamy Mavan and Munnsaamy mavan,set up a market for trading his stuff,that included a wide variety of goods ranging from 10-day old idlis to one-month old vadais and a host of other food items that lasted for a record period of more than a year,without being infested by pests.

Electronic goods-trading began in the late 20th century when Pager Charles set up shop close to Paruppusatti's shops.Legend has it that Pager Charles sold toy mobile phones and pagers in the Beach-Tambaram local trains.With the money gained over the years,he set up a shop that initially sold toy i-Pods along with pagers but later went on to sell real stuff.During the same period,Paruppusatti expanded his business and captured new markets that included beaches,Kotwalchavadi, Koyambedu,BSE,NSE,NASDAQ etc.

Today the place stands testimony to the most peculiar brands of gadgets,traded.Brands sold here range from Mookia to Motor-odala.A highlight of this is the variants of the various brands.With an amount of Rs.7500,one can buy not only N70 but also N70 express,N70PP,N70 cut service and N70 L.S.S.Yet to be launched is N70 Deluxe but this has made its presence in Burma Bazaar.

Also worth mentioning are the peculiar offers that the shops make from time to time.A section of the shopkeepers offer the Motta-thala variant, that incidentally happens to be a Motor-odala model,endorsed by ultimate star Ajith.There are offers for housewives too such as one packet of L.G Kootu perungaayam free with every L.G Mobile phone.

The quality of after-purchase service deserves a mention.One particular customer complained of the presence of a cockroach in his cell phone and took it to Mookia priority dealer to get it repaired.He spent approximately Rs.1000 on it but that did not solve the problem.He then took it to Varadu Kutty Phone Aaspathiri where he got the device rectified for a mere Rs.200.

Simpy put,a unique shopping experience.

PROBABLY.......

2006-08-29T21:44:00.000+05:30

Q.What can be said about the Binomial Distribution representing the number of students who failed in a particular class?

A.The probability of success is failure and probability of failure is success.

HUNT,PLAY

2006-08-26T09:49:00.000+05:30

The title's the literal translation for "Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu".The movie rocks big time.Check it out.

A TAG--YET AGAIN

2006-08-22T13:39:00.000+05:30

Owing to (un)popular demand from Chennai's best blogger and to a host of other reasons most of which are political, I'm forced to delete the previous post. In place,is a tag from the greatest fan(atic) of A.R.Rahman.

I'm thinking about:the babe who stared at me
I said (say):"Machan ,everything will turn out fine"
I wish: there were no programming languages like C
I hear: with my ears
I wonder: why C language is more obscure than GRE
I am:the successor to N.R.Narayanamurthy(in my dreams)
I dance(d): in the university hostel
I sing: in the bathroom
I cry: "foul" while playing soccer
I'm always: in a hurry
I make with my hands: paper rockets
I write: posts in blogspot and scraps in orkut
I get confused: often
I need: a loan of one lakh rupees.

And this tag goes to
Freak,
Poison Ivy,
Harsha Bhogle fan,
App(u) master,
Rustic and
Chennai's best blogger.

TENSION,FRENZY AND....

2006-08-12T19:00:00.000+05:30

Scene at Sathyam Cineplex.The atmosphere was like any other day.There was the usual crowd movement.Everything seemed fine until the manager received a call after which he put on a tense face.

Elsewhere in Egmore,the police commissioner's office was buzzing with activity.Commissioner Aaruchaamy and Assistant Commissioner Anbuchelvan where giving some kind of instructions to men dressed in blue.

"We can't barge in.The audience will get tensed.Whatever we do,we must not disturb the audience",said Aaruchaamy.

"Yes.We must first look into those places where there are no crowds.",Anbuchelvan was heard saying.

"Let's go."Said the commissioner and off sped,some Mahindra jeeps,some Willys jeeps,Some Toyota SUVs,some blue coloured buses and some Bullet bikes.

Scene shifts to Sathyam.The manager watched with tension-filled eyes,the sight of the crowds coming in and going out."When's the squad coming?",he wondered to himself as he set off a little prayer.

Inside the theatre,a man was seen holding a peculiar object.He was moving the object over cool-drink dispensers,popcorn packets,refrigerators,compressors etc.The same was happening everywhere.

After a few minutes a crowd began to come out of Sathyam screen.Two men,each holding that peculiar object went in and came out after 10 minutes."All Clear",said the two to the asst.commissioner.

After five minutes,a crowd came out of Santham after watching KANK.The same two men with the peculiar object went in after the last person in the crowd came out muttering to himself "Karan Johar's given a skunk this time."Once again,the same two men came out and said "All clear."

This process was repeated in the other four screens too within a gap of 45 minutes.In the meantime,some sniffer dogs had arrived.They were about to go into the multiplex,when Harish,who had for long been watching the entire goings-on with utmost curiosity,asked them "What is this for?".

Pat came the reply from one of the officers "We will surely defuse it before it explodes."

"Defuse what?",asked Harish.

"RDX."

SCARY MATH

2006-08-06T21:09:00.000+05:30

Mathematics has never been so weird.All was fine till the year 2001 when yours truly completed 10th std with his mind reeling with numbers of all sorts.Enter 11th standard and then disaster struck.

This post does not intend to hurt the sentiments of people like Srinivasa Ramanujan or Rene Descartes or Pythagoras or Vampire(who has incidentally discovered a mathematical proof for a hypothetical statement "All women are beautiful").Rather this is just a vent to the author's horrifying experiences with his once-favourite subject.

Mathematics in 11th standard assumed a dimension of obscurity since this was when concepts like calculus and the letter e were introduced.Any engineering student would readily describe Algebra as an interconnection between alphabets and numbers but none can give an exact,accurate definition of the term calculus.Unfortunately these are the kind of questions that are asked in interviews that succeed competitive exams,chiefly because the interviewer himself does not know the answer.

Differential calculus was initially thought to be deferential calculus but it shattered all hopes to become defamatory calculus.The word "between" which must follow differentiate,was literally absent.Instead there were two d's separated by a line,one above the line and another below.One would be tempted to cancel off the two d's and then be left with y and x or y and t etc.Later this concept went on to form the crux of most engineering subjects(which explains why most engineers are dumb).

Integral calculus was different.It was supposed to be the integral part of higher secondary mathematics but students tend to think otherwise.Things would seem rather absurd when one sees a set of variables written inside an umbrella that looks like an f without the horizontal line in it.Engineering aspirants would have heaved a sigh of relief after the day of their mathematics board exam,to have gotten rid of abstruse stuff,only to discover later that Integral Calculus was out to haunt them throughout their engineering career.This explains the lopsided success rate in mathematics in engineering colleges(including CEG) and probably this is why most engineers are dumb.

The letter 'e'.Now noone could unravel the mystery behind the use of this letter.Somewhere in some remote corner of some remote page in the 11th standard mathematics textbook is a phrase that says that 'e' represents a number between 2 and 3.It looked absolutely weird,then.Complementing this absurdity were a number of journals in which mathematicians experimented with this letter.My question is whether anyone has bothered to find out the origin of the use of the letter 'e' in mathematics.Can 'f' be used to represent a number between 3 and 4?The online resources that carry information on such stuff are as obscure as a C program and therefore we common men are forced to live with it.

Next comes the most (in)famous alphabet "pi".There has been a constantly raging debate on the number of digits after the decimal point,that this term contains.Certain mathematicians have spent 99.9993792% of their lifetime trying to discover the number of digits after the decimal.Thankfully we engineers are exempted of attempting such weird things and forced to be content with 2.

Long live mathematics!

PLAGUED

2006-08-01T19:39:00.000+05:30

The problem of accomodation has become a serious issue in big cities,given the rising land prices and the mushrooming of software firms.The latter is the foremost reason why most house-owners rent out a house for an amount as high as 5000 rupees per month,an amount that would not be commensurate with the size of the house,in most places.

The same problem has struck CEG.Two new branches have been introduced in the college without prior consideration for the lack of infrastructure in campus.Classes for the freshers have begun but some first years are yet to be accomodated in the hostels available.When asked for an explanation,the VC coolly remarked on the orientation day "Some of you sleep in the verandahs.In our college days,we used to live a hard life.Why can't you?",asked the VC looking at a boy sitting in the front row.The poor boy could do nothing except give a half-hearted nod.

Currently the proposal has been to accomodate 6 people in a single room.Normally there will be only 4.However this proposal has been welcomed by the parents and students alike(what else could they do).

Then the VC recently made a mention of the overwhelming placement scenario in the campus.He cited a reason for this as "Reduction in the use of mobile phones."Surely he is very much obsessed with banning cellphones that he cites them as a reason wherever and whenever possible,even if the Agni missile crashes into CEG campus.But a reality check presents a different picture.It's only that companies coming for recruitment come in with a plan of increased headcount.Students continued to use cellphones even while preparing for their respective D-days.

Alaphia once wrote about the Fading glory of Anna University,given the imposition of stringent regulations and after NDTV jumped into the fray to discuss why Chennai was "conservative".The present reality is that students continue to use cellphones,but with an element of caution.After all,rules are framed to be broken.

FIASCO

2006-07-27T12:27:00.000+05:30

What can be said about the latest "Itchguard" commercial,that's become a hit among viewers for its creative theme?

Its creator scratched his head hard to come up with it.

Generally Ridiculous Exam finally turned out to be a big disaster.

MECH RULES

2006-07-15T23:41:00.000+05:30

It's Mechanical Engineering all the way in campus.Most of the key posts are being held by guys from the mechanical engineering department.Students Union president,Rotaract Club president,Technical Forum head,Hostel mess representatives(both vegetarian mess and NV mess).Will have to wait and see if they remain mechanical throughout the year.

BOMBAY DREAMS

2006-07-13T14:05:00.000+05:30

Sunrise,burning heat,
Nothing is as crowded as a Bombay street.
Change that to "Bombay train".

Contradictions,city of extremes,
Everything is possible in Bombay Dreams
Even bomb blasts,but not in dreams but in reality.

10 minutes---the time frame within which 7 blasts took place
12 hours---The time it took for Mumbai to limp back to normal.
Forever---The time for which the spirit of Mumbai and its citizens would be portrayed.The Reader's Digest survey would now get a good drubbing.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS

2006-07-07T23:59:00.000+05:30

Now this is not going to be a review or spoof of the movie "Pudupettai".Instead this post is about the Students Union elections that were held today.The contenders for the post of President,Vice President and Cultural Secretary from each of the two "camps" had been decided by the end of our third year itself and efforts were on in full swing right from the month of February itself.Such efforts had finally culminated with what is called a narrow victory for M.S.V's gang.

The procedure for selection of the President takes place as follows:Two eligible candidates would be picked by the students themselves,on the basis of overall reputation in campus and a host of other factos, during the start of the third year.These two students would then form gangs for themselves.The representatives of the 42 classes,14 from each of the three batches(2nd,3rd and 4th years),would vote for one of the two candidates.Thus campaigning would involve interacting with as many reps as possible from the 42.By the start of the final year,each of the two camps would have a good number of students in their gangs.But not everyone gets into the gangs.Some would stay neutral, but still watch the happenings and later blog about them.

This time it was M.S.V(short for M.S Vigneshwaran)of mechanical engg pitted against Praveen of ECE.M.S.V was the hot favourite.The preparatory work for this day had started from february itself.Everything was fine till wednesday when the Dean suddenly announced that only toppers of each class are eligible to be the class-representatives.This forced a sudden modification of strategies and it suddenly seemed that all the efforts, that had been invested during the past 4 months just to draw in 25 of the 42 people to M.S.V's side,seemed to go waste.However M.S.V and co. were quick to chart a new strategy in a single day and got 24 of the reps in M.S.V's favour.The final result--M.S.V had won.The victory was predictable since M.S's comrades managed to draw 10 second year reps and 10 final year reps to his side.

Though I preferred not to take sides,I still favoured M.S.V. for if he won,he would be the first guy from mechanical occupying the throne of union president.The post had belonged to ECE and CSE guys only,during the past three years.Also he becomes the first day-ski(short for day scholar) student to occupy the post.

The best points about the campaign were that the first year reps were given a huge treat at Ascendas(I too was there,but my role was only that of a bike-lender) to lure them into M.S.V's camp.And gang members would be subjected to occasional parties like this in the near future.The worst part is that guys who used to be good,thick friends during the first and second years had to part ways and it pained me greatly to see a Madurai lad,who in the melee of his merry-making after the results were announced,smirking at a guy who had helped him clear arrears,just because he belonged to the opposite camp.Such disparities do occur and one cannot expect more from a Government college.

The Zeitgeist has a wonderful write-up on this topic.He wrote it a year ago and it makes worthy reading even today.My point is that such groupisms and rival gangs do not justify the concept of "Students Union".It should be a union of the students,for the students and by the students.There should be total involvement in the union's activities.This would go a long way in raising the standards of the students and that of the institution too.[Sagaro,your idea of AU being ripped apart will not work for another 10 years.No matter what incident,however ugly it might be,happens in the campus,no matter what rules the VC imposes on us however stringent,ridiculous and stupid they may be,no matter how much the visual media and bloggers like you try to expose the weaker side of the institution,MoUs still happen,placements still happen and there has been no impedance to students aspiring to go abroad for further studies.If you still want to rip it apart,wait for 10 years.Till then your efforts will be of no avail]

Yamaha R(o)X 135

2006-07-03T00:24:00.000+05:30

After a gap of nearly four to five years,I got a chance to drive the good old,ever-stylish Yamaha RX 135 today.I thought the bike would be too short for me,given my height but I was wrong.It fitted my structure perfectly.Riding was not a problem either.Zooming at 50 kmph,along Sardar Patel Road,zipping past cars,with the drivers frowing each time I overtook one,it was truly an occasion when I "felt like god."

THEREFORE MUMBAI IS THE RUDEST

2006-06-26T23:05:00.000+05:30

I wouldnt be doing justice to Blogsville if I dont mention a word or two about the bloggers' meet that happened on June 24 at Ascendas High court err.....Food court at Taramani.About 25 people attended and it was total fun.However owing to long term memory loss,I dont have the details.Still check out these(the blogs and the respective owners too):King,GAPP,Hamdamn,Dryad,Princess ,Freak and Rustic Mystic.The others,sorry if I havent mentioned your names.You are at liberty to sue me in Dilbert Zone(that is better known as Comments section).Sequel to the meet,female bloggers' blogs have been registering hits of more than 100 per day and some male bloggers have seen a dip in hits.
--------------------------------------------------------
An international edition of Reader's Digest has rated Mumbai as one of the rudest cities of the world.Now this comes as a shock to most Indians but many others seem to agree with the survey as it has come about at a time when electric trains keep getting crowded,the stock market keeps crashing every single day,the metro rail project has been inaugurated,when Rahul Mahajan got convicted for drug abuse and when this blogger moved to Mumbai.

One thing is for sure,the surveyor,or the representative from the consulting firm that carried out the survey,must be a multi-linguistic person.It so happened that a girl had brought her pet dog,Randy,for a walk along Marine Drive and Randy could not stand a billboard that carried a picture of a shirt-less Salman Khan.It released itself from the girl's hands and scurried away and then the girl ran behind her dog shouting "My Randy,My Randy".The surveyor turned up at that opportune moment.And thus Mumbai became the rudest city in the world.

Another incident happened when the surveyor was travelling in an electric train and a co-passenger happened to be talking to someone over his cellphone.Unfortunately the signal was lost when the train crossed a signal and he had to shout "Hotha,hotha..." at the top of his voice for the person at the other end to hear properly.The surveyor happened to hear him and thus Mumbai became the rudest city in the world.

This surveyor then happened to visit the Gateway of India with a friend from Andhra.At that moment a guy from Jharkhand, who had a face that resembled Arjun Munda and hairstyle that resembled M.S.Dhoni's,stood on the parapet wall facing the sea.A patrol policeman then motioned to the guy "Hey Jharkhandi,Hatt.Hey Jharkhandi,hey Jharkhandi."The surveyor's friend happened to be standing close to the Jharkhand guy and thought that the policeman wanted HER to move away from that place.She had mistaken Jharkhandi for Jeragandi and reported this to the surveyor.Thus Mumbai became the rudest city in the world.

The surveyor was even more appalled to find an old man calling his grandson "Visuru,visuru",on a hot summer day.And it was a few moments before that the surveyor had watched the movie "Thenali"and she mistook the term Visuru.Old people dont have sense in this city,the surveyor thought and thus Mumbai became the rudest city in the world.

In another incident,a poor lad from Tamilnadu was taken away by the police on account of eve teasing when he muttered something to a girl at a bus-stop and when the girl asked him to repeat it,he said "chumma".These guys dont have any decency,the girl said to the surveyor and thus Mumbai became the rudest city in the world.

One blogger highlights all good about Mumbai and another tries his level best to bring out some virtual incidents to justify the survey.Finally Mumbai is not such a bad place after all.

9-CAR,40 WINKS

2006-06-23T23:54:00.000+05:30

"A man once boarded a Chennai-bound bus at Madurai and told his co-passenger to wake him up at Srirangam and fell asleep.The other passenger had to endure 3 hours,staying awake till Srirangam and once the bus touched Srirangam,he woke his sleeping partner.The other passenger awoke,shouted at the top of his voice "Sriranganaathaaaaaaaaaa" and went back to sleep.The other passenger was obviously annoyed."

A similar incident happened to me this evening.I boarded a Chennai Central-bound suburban train at Avadi station(I'm not going to annoy you further by writing about why I went to such a distant place in the suburbs.Just read on).I got into a half-empty coach and headed straight to what seemed like an unoccupied seat,only to find it occupied by a middle aged man lying down comfortably having all three seats in the row to himself.I sat opposite to him and he asked me suddenly "Sir,enga poreenga?(Sir,Where are you going?)". "Central ",I replied."Appo Basin Bridge-la ezhuppunga enna.(In that case wake me up at Basin Bridge").I agreed to do so.

The EMU train rambled along.Annanur,Tirumullavoyal,Ambattur.....suddenly the man woke with a start."Sir enna station sir?(Sir,which station,sir?)". "Ambattur",I replied and assured him that I would wake him at Basin Bridge.

The train went on.Pattaravakkam,Korattur,Villivakkam.....damn!The man had woken up again.He hurriedly put on his slippers and asked me "Basin Bridge-aa,sir?" in the same tone as he had asked in Ambattur.I said no and he told me to wake him up at Basin Bridge once again and went off to sleep.

In all probability,the man would next wake up at Perambur and ask the same question.Thankfully he didnt budge at Perambur Loco works,at Perambur Carriage works and at Perambur too,but he suddenly woke up on the way to Vyasarpadi.This was expected for the Chennai-Mangalore West Coast Express was moving in the neighbouring line towards Central and a shrill whistle from its engine had completely revived this guy from his seemingly deep slumber.As if he was sleeping for the past eight hours he stretched his body in an effort to activate his muscles.

He went over to the door,with slippers not in his feet but in his hands and hung in there till Basin Bridge,where he finally got down.The rest is history.The train chugged lazily into Central,I got down,boarded a so-called deluxe bus, that seemed to be "one cut" above the rest,to reach home.

P.S:In case you are wondering what the first part of the title means,it's the technical term used for the electric trains in Chennai.The trains here are called 9-CAR rakes,6-car rakes etc depending upon the number of coaches(which are not cars) they have.Hope you would have had a satisfying journey from Avadi to Chennai Central.

FLASH NEWS

2006-06-18T00:12:00.000+05:30

A three-year long struggle has finally ended with me getting into India's most respected company.

KICK OFF

2006-06-10T00:18:00.000+05:30

Germany's begun the FIFA WC on a high note by scoring 4 goals against Costa Rica,the highlight of the match being the fourth goal scored by Frings.While the entire nation expected chennai city to wallow in oblivion,the cable tv service providers have been kind enough to air the matches in Free-to-Air band.

Plenty of action for a month.And I've to face some real action next week.Try guessing what it is.Winners will get two 10-rupee tickets to the movie Pudupettai at Sathyam cineplex.

2006-06-05T23:30:00.000+05:30

After more than a month of vacationing in their respective hometowns,most of the hostellers returned to the city,with the aim of preparing for the forthcoming campus recruitments.The cupboard in Sudhersan's room refused to open with the lock not budging to the key.While he termed it "interlock" i called it 'wardrobe malfunction'.

HOUSE HUNTING

2006-06-03T00:24:00.000+05:30

Searching for a low cost house in a huge city can be tiresome.And particularly if the search is for a house that can accomodate 3 to 5 bachelors,it gets even gruelling for by the time you arrive at a house that meets your specifications you would just have time to write your will and die.

It so happened that one friend of mine had asked me to find a house in adyar with the following specifications:24 hrs water supply(which is a paradox as far as chennai is concerned),must be close to adyar bus terminus,rent shud be 3500 or less.

We first started with Gandhi Nagar.To our dismay the entire locality consisted of apartments,apartments and only apartments,all constructed by big names like Land Marvel,Alacrity,Ceebros,Ramaniyam etc.The price of a two bedroom flat lies anywhere between 3o lakhs and 4o lakhs.They would be rented out for Rs.12000 per month,that is way too high an amount for four or five bachelor students to meet.

Our next stop was kasturba nagar.Things were worse there.Rs.5000 rent for a single bedroom flat!We rambled around the locality for another one hour and decided to continue our search,the next day.

What causes such prices to spiral to inaccessible heights?The grassroot to this problem is that of the land(as pointed out by Property Plus).As more and more constructions spring up,availability of empty land becomes a rarity,and thus the demand for land goes up.As this is a case of supply less than demand,prices naturally have to rise.

The problem of brokers is equally troublesome.A broker hikes his fee in accordance with the spiralling prices.There was this broker who demanded 400 rupees plus first month's advance as commission.This is a new pricing strategy and we told the broker that it was way too high,to which he replied "Kaalam maari pochu,sir."(times have changed). Given the rate at which times are changing,these brokers might soon start charging planning commission,knowledge commission etc.

The search is still on.Hopefully we might end up renting a house in North Chennai,near the seashore for a paltry rent of 500 rupees per month.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS

2006-05-29T23:44:00.000+05:30

Blood and gore.These three words would aptly signify the movie Pudhupettai.And it has been manifested to a large extent in the movie.It is the story of two gangs,one belonging to the ruling political party and the other to the opposition.The movie starts with Danush sitting inside a cell narrating how he started as a meek schoolboy and then how he went on to become a gangster.

The tagline below the title reads "Survival of the fittest".But I myself cant believe that I have survived after watching the movie(considering the fact that I have gained a few extra pounds lately).I would recommend this to anyone who wants to take revenge on someone else.The song "Oru Naalil" did not feature in the movie and this was a big disappointment.

Overall an O.K movie.Consider yourself lucky if you endure three hours of bloodshed and emerge alive.

GIFT FROM NATURE

2006-05-26T17:31:00.000+05:30

Rains are generally not dreaded in a city like chennai for the sole reason that it brings down the mercury.It can also set some things right as in what happened to my bike today.My bike's horn had been acting in a rather peculiar manner.It blows only at low speeds and refuses to budge at 40 or 60 kmph.But after getting drenched in the overnight rain(in the process of which some water seeped into the engine cylinder),the horn seemed to blow at any speed.Nature does have its own benefits.

EXERCISE IN FUTILITY

2006-05-23T18:54:00.000+05:30

BULLS HIT
These two words struck me the first thing in the morning when I picked up my copy of The Economic Slimes from my doorstep.It is normally believed that to ensure a joyous,buoyant day ahead,begin the day on a happy note.As it was the opposite case here,it goes without saying that my day turned out to be rather bad.

Topping the agenda for today was a trip to Hyundai car plant at Irungattukottai,to apply for a 2 week internship.After waiting in the visitors' room for about half an hour,a lady from the HR department spoke to me over the phone.She said that to undergo internship I must have some referrals,which I did not have,unfortunately.I was sent back and when I reached home in the afternoon after a tiresome 3 hour journey by three buses,I realised that all this was an exercise in futility.
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After reading mafiadon's notification about the arrival of this book,I set off to Odyssey to buy it.Another attempt at story telling by an IIT student,after Five Point Someone(which has become a best seller).The difference between this and FPS is that while the latter was written by a graduate,the former's by a final year student.It costs just 100 bucks,so check it out.

PROJECT BLUES

2006-05-20T21:54:00.000+05:30

The previous semester had been sort of hectic what with weekends snatched away and the total duration of the semester slashed to 3 months.Even amidst all this we were supposed to do a project which was specified as "mandatory" according to the university syllabus that's as screwed up as Harris Jayaraj's background music.

Overnight stays in the hostel ruled the roost and this meant compromising on sleep.As true engineering students,we never had the habit of completing work ahead of schedule.If the review's scheduled for the next day,start composing the report that night itself.Thus one could witness groups of four to five people cuddled up in a room meant for only one person.Sometimes hunger would strike at the stroke of midnight and we had to satisfy it by going out to the tea shop near IIT and drinking hot tea in the middle of the night.

The next ordeal was taking printouts of the report.This would happen an hour before the review starts.Star Xerox at saidapet was the ideal alternative to the always-crowded xerox centres inside the campus,where customer service is a mere myth.

One group had been so complacent till the day of the review that they were at their wits end to finish the report.With some help from other guys,they managed to successfully clear the review.This group tackled the orals in a different meaning.One question put forward was "Why did you choose Lean manufacturing as your project title?and why did you do it at ICF??"Pat came a "creative" response from one guy,"Sir,Lalu Prasad yadav has planned to increase the production capacity of ICF.He quoted that in the recent budget.By doing this project we will be indirectly helping Lalu Yadav achieve this goal."Such response can be considered provocative to a lecturer who expects no-nonsense stuff and in the end the group found itself struggling to find it feet after it was awarded a mere 70%.This was during the first review.

The above group went through an ordeal in preparing the final report.At the DTP centre,one of the guys in the group was so desperate to take the prints that he did not bother to include page numbers,which were supposed to be necessary.He coolly said "That's not a problem.We'll write them with pen" for which he got a drubbing from his fellow projectmate who then added page numbers.Just when they thought everything was fine,they realised they had forgotten to include the Abstract in Tamil.The same guy suggested "It's OK.We'll get some other group's tamil abstract and photocopy it.The lecturer is a golti and he wont find out."Again he received the same drubbing.Then the certificate from the company.They had to spend about a week before they could finally get the certificate signed by their co-ordinator in ICF.In the meantime they made frequent trips to the lecturer's room to ask for permission to extend the due date of submission.After a lot of coaxing,the request was acceded to.

Overall it was an exciting endeavour and the project work was a fascinating thing.One gets to learn life's most important lessons when one procrastinates till the due date and finally sits overnight to complete the work,sacrificing sleep,food,drinks etc.

COOL BLUE

2006-05-17T23:34:00.000+05:30

That's the name of a bland drink that I tasted two years ago in Fruit Shop,that is more of ice cubes than liquid.But I had no option other than like it for name's sake as it was a special friend who was buying me that drink.

I've got tired of that old template and so gone in for a template change.Regular visitors might term this as a sudden desperate move,but it's only the content that matters and not the appearance.Kindly bear with me till I come up with a good post.

This firefox template is only to show that I'm a man of fire as how other people(read college friends) put it(though I have other opinions).My attempts at trying to be modest to the lowest extreme possible dont seem to be working.

In this attempt,I'm forced to compromise on the comments for the previous posts.This happened because I just didnt know where to fit the comment block of the template code.Blame it on poor programming skills.

PLAYING WITH NAMES

2006-05-15T22:08:00.000+05:30

Year 1996.DMK makes a clean sweep in the Tamilnadu assembly elections.Karunanithi becomes chief minister.Removes the name Jayalalitha from everywhere.Jayalalitha Film City renamed MGR Film city.J J Nagar near Anna Nagar renamed Mogappair(whose roads were,for long, under repair). J Jayalalitha Transport Corporation(a partner to the then existing Tiruvalluvar Transport corporation) renamed Rajiv Gandhi Transport corporation.

Year 2001.The ADMK triumphs the assembly elections.Mogappair(the roads were still under repair) becomes J J Nagar again.RGTC's name stands changed as State Express Transport Corporation famously known to many as Waste Express Transport Corporation.Kalaignar Karunanithi Nagar,which is better known as K K Nagar,is renamed as K K Nagar,with no expansions for the K's.

Year 2006.K K Nagar renamed Kalaignar Nagar(noticed on a 12G bus).

Even before the election results were announced one particular bus carried the name Mogappair.This might be because the mechanics who serviced the bus belong to the DMK union.Observations and inferences apart,it remains to be seen whether the people of TamilNadu would be put to stressful activities such as modifying a part of their addresses because of these name changing exercises.

PRODUCTIVE

2006-05-14T12:54:00.000+05:30

Manufacturing industries strive to improve productivity by reducing the amount of scrap generated,as too much of scrap lowers productivity.

The above principle applies to Orkut too.

GYAN IN A TRAIN

2006-05-10T21:28:00.000+05:30

The "gyan" in the title,in other words,refers to height of irritation.I was caught in a predicament in which I couldnt figure out,till the end,whether to voice my view or not.

I was travelling to tambaram,sitting in an electric train.A middle aged man boarded the train at st.thomas mount and sat near me.The next moment he opened his mouth and didnt shut it till Tambaram,talking nonsense nonstop.He started with Karunanithi and Jayalalitha, suffixing each name with a famous word in tamil that starts with 'O'.Karunanithi Jayalalitha ---ivanga rendu perum ozhinjaa thaan indha tamizhnaadu uruppadum (TN can prosper only if Jaya and karunanithi exit the scene).

This fellow asked the question "What good have you done in your life?" to his co-passengers including me.As expected most of us were speechless.It was not because we havent done anything useful but because we were in no mood to answer his question.I was put off by the smell of beer coming from his mouth.

While that fellow kept mouthing DMK ,ADMK ,Vaiko etc,we remained mum.It is dangerous to use such terms in public but that fellow didnt seem to care.I was hoping that he would stop but all of a sudden Tambaram station never seemed to show up.

What I'm trying to emphasise here is that never discuss serious politics, in public,to the extent that others are all ears to it.It might me dangerous.

SUPERMARKET LAW

2006-05-08T21:10:00.000+05:30

While shopping for perfumes in a supermarket,pick the can that is at the far end in the rack,for the ones in the front are tampered,in the sense,they are always short of the specified quantity.These are used as odour-testing bottles .

CONSERVATISM

2006-05-07T00:19:00.000+05:30

I was watching the special discussion programme "Battle for TamilNadu" in CNN IBN.The issue discussed was "What hampers tamilnadu from becoming India's no.1 state?"One sub-topic that was discussed was "Is Chennai conservative?"

Now this question has bothered many a Chennaiite who really cares for the city,who really loves the city.Now how exactly would you define the term "conservative".The Oxford lexcion says "not averse to rapid changes".If this definition is anything to go by,then the term "changes" has to be analysed.What changes has Chennai faced?

As far as I know during the period from 1995 to 1998,when I first set foot in this city,there was not a single day when the mercury crossed 40 degrees.But now the sun's blazing away at 44 degrees.This is one change that the city has witnessed but it is up to the people to acclimatize.

The population has been constantly increasing.More industries have mushroomed.To keep pace with the changes,flyovers have been built,roads widened,national highways through the city improved and grade separators are coming up.

The above are only a few cases to illustrate the progress that chennai has made.I'd be grateful if you readers quote many more instances in the comment box.

From a personal viewpoint I have come across many people quoting weird reasons why the city is conservative.One cousin of mine in Bengaluru says "The heat's terrible in Chennai".So what?Your immune system is equipped to resist temperatures upto 50 degrees.Why can't you endure 43 degrees.70 lakh people in the city endure the heat.They havent died of it.

Another guy whom I met about a year ago on a return trip from the "garden city" of Bengaluru remarked,"There are no good shopping malls in Chennai".From his accent I could easily make out that he was a north Indian who was accustomed to shopping in the malls of the Northern Capital Region.

A girl,whom I met online,quoted a news article she had read which threw light of the hostility of south Indians towards north Indians.It quoted an instance of how a Marwari family searched for a house in north Chennai only to be driven out by a group of youngsters who sang "Enga area ulla varaathey...."The linguistic bias is the root cause of this.

Other claims for conservatism that I witnessed in newspapers and by word of mouth include bad roads,non-cosmopolitan nature,absence of famous people etc.

Contrary to all this,I feel that Chennai's making steady progress in its bid to establish itself a top city in India.And I have this to say to those who still feel,the city is conservative:If we are conservative,it means you are blind.

FATE OF THE YATRA

2006-05-03T23:14:00.000+05:30

Any superstitious fellow would agree with me if I say that when L.K.Advani took off on his Bharat Suraksha Yatra,the sensex touched 11000 points,Dr.Rajkumar passed away after which infosys recorded 38% rise in profits and then Pramod Mahajan got shot after which Satyam and Ashok Leyland registered profits and finally Pramod Mahajan passed away.He may not have been a bigshot in the BJP like Advani or Vengaaya Naidu or Watchboy but still he made his presence felt when he was the Information & Broadcasting minister.May his soul rest in peace.

POLL MUSINGS

2006-04-30T22:41:00.000+05:30

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.

MISPLACED LYRIC

2006-04-27T22:57:00.000+05:30

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.

M.R.T.S

2006-04-27T11:31:00.000+05:30

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.