Tamilian goes global

On the eve of the release of the movie being touted as the greatest thing to happen in Hollywood in this decade, with special technology created wholly for its benefit, the people in the news are not James Cameron or any member of the Avatar special effects team, it is one man. But not any man, he is the one, the one with the greatest fan following in the current generation, the one whose movies are awaited with baited breath and huge expectations, Joseph Vijay.

And not just any news. The producers of Avatar had thrown the gauntlet by releasing their movie on December 18th, clashing with potential blockexploder Vettaikaran. Vijay has gracefully accepted the challenge and his movie is now being released worldwide too.

Going by current feel and vibes from the people around me, Avatar seems to be a little ahead in Coimbatore. So maybe it will win out tomorrow. But what would be a wonderful ending to this great fight?

Avatar runs amok in south India and becomes a huge hit here, but flops out in the U.S of A and Vettaikaran does the same but vice versa.

Gad! I'd go to America and see talaivar's movie then...

Mercenaries no more

English fast bowlers have a penchant for being in the news. First it was Freddie getting out of the national contract because of a clause against banjee jumping. Now Anderson and Broad have declared that they would not be part of IPL 2010. Well that should put the talk of cricketers becoming mercenaries on hold for sometime...

Thankyou Anderson and thankyou Stuart Broad (you have shown that you can contribute more to cricket than just being a bowler hit for six sixes in an over). I think though Broad may have been selfish in making this statement. Maybe he just doesn't want to face Yuvraj in a twenty twenty match...

For the full article on this great decision visit: http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/439349.html

Indians are not racists

After a really boring day at home the least one expects is to watch some decent programs on the tube. But all you get is Burkha Dutt. And not just any Burkha Dutt, this is the Burkha 'are Indians racist' Dutt. Booooring.

Well to settle this issue once and for all let me present a lucid and watertight argument on why Indians are not racist. Race is predominantly considered to be a cultural divide based on country of origin, color and other physical or external attributes. For further clarification you can refer this particular link: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/race.

Thus it can now be concluded with a certain degree of (for want of a word) certainty that we Indians belong to a single race. Since the whole talk is about discrimination based on race, it is impossible in India. There can be no racism between people belonging to the same race. So from this day onwards no one can call us racist.

But to give an interesting twist to the argument let me present to you the typical conversation in an Indian household looking for a groom:

Facing the computer, specifically a matrimony website, (where else but in India), are sitting two girls. They have just finished editing their profiles:

"Female, age 23 (oh! I am so old), height 5 4" (am I too tall?), weight 53 kg, complexion : fair, working with good salary, BA., M.B.A (Overqualified, never gonna get married). "

Some days later one girl gets a reply in her inbox. And she finds that she has as many as 16 applicants or should I say suitors. So she gets her friend home and they decide they will look over the profiles before they call her mom. Following are the reactions to the various suitors:

1. No, he is Tamilian. Nope! Tamilians are too talkative. They drink too. And I bet he is ugly.
2. Hell no! Not a golti (slang for Telugu people). They never bathe.
3. What a gujju!! ( gujarati) EWE the smell.
4.A mallu (malayali) never. All they do is smoke beedis and loll around..

The conversation goes on in a similar vein.. untill..

5. Look theres a photo in this profile. But it doesnt say where he is from, or what caste he belongs to. Who cares, He is FAIR. But we dont know if he is any good. Who cares he is FAIR. But, but.. Yeah I know he is FAIR.


So the real question that we must be asking ourselves is " Is Fair and Lovely the most successful branding and advertising exercise or is India the perfect ground for any fairness cream?"
Not 'Are Indians racist?' because we are not. You can call us casteist or colourist or regionist or linguist (sorry i don't know any other word for language based divides) but one thing we are not and thats racist.

P.S Generalizations are always misleading and incorrect so injured souls please forgive me. I am tamilian and I have found the above opinion of tamilians being drunkards and ugly on the inside useful in breaking a lot of bad dates and even worse fights.....

Typical Malayali phonetic spelling I guess..

Aha!!!

You know good service is so important... Ive heard of racial discrimination, sexual discriminaton, but age-wise discrimination???? This is too much..

Musings

* IITM Saarang at times, given you were at the right place at the right time and sometimes the wrong time, showed glimpses of paradise... 

*I happened to be so a couple of times and not only thoroughly enjoyed myself, but had an uplifting and once in a life time experience. Vox A capella was one, which for the illiterate(like me) means “A cappella (Italian or Latin "From the chapel/choir") music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way.” 

*Well without much ado, the event showcased some of the best college singing groups that included beauties from WCC, Mt.Carmel, Yethiraj and an all boys band which was an exception in this case performing jazz, blues, light music and songs like the lion king opening song (yes the one with the animal sounds, all intact) and “ In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Lion sleeps tonight...” And not just performing them but doing so with the ease, accomplishment and professionalism of seasoned musicians on tour and also combining it with the reckless abandon and intense enjoyment associated with amateur singers who sing just for the heck of it. That was Saarang'09 for me. Nothing else came even close.

*I just wanted to share this with you and send out a clarion call for all those uninitiated college goers, who think the world is all they see and what they see is boring; There is a whole new world out there, just waiting to expand your horizons. Go attend Saarang'10.

           Now to my musings; On my way back from Saarang I happened to notice something I had not in all those 4 mornings and 3 nights at IITM : true beauty. Seriously, please don't think that I am saying this to join the group of IIT haters; who do so because they are jealous; I totally am not on e of them. In all those wonderfully dressed or undressed (depends on how you look at it) girls I couldn't find beauty. Anyway to come back, my object of admiration (not attraction) was at the Central, on platform three wearing a pink chudi, looking pretty, but not exactly what you'd call head turning material. Which is the whole point; she wasn't head turning material, if you didn't understand the point. Here I was standing tired, not having slept the previous night, not in a state to appreciate beauty of any start, almost drifting off to sleep while still standing when I was startled from my semi-conscious state by an almighty cry. For the life of me, I was wide awake now, only to find that nobody was paying least attention to the sound. I turned to find that it was a small kid, playing with his mom, pulling at her bag and trying to run away with it. It was like watching the churning of the milky way (by the Gods, if you don't know) and was quiet interesting. But I looked up. I thank my stars, for that epiphany: that something more interesting was just a look up. I looked up to find the girl undergoing a silent transformation. It was like the pati's of cinemas saying “ You look like Goddess Maha-Lakshmi.” The ends of the previously morose, uninspiring lips which did not merit mention, were slowly curving upwards to form a smile filled with so much warmth that India's power problems could have been solved. The fact that the smile was shared by the eyes too, made it all the more enjoyable. The eyes now were full of sparkle and so expressive that I didn't need to see the kid to know what was happening any more. The face was now literally glowing and I now understood what people meant by true beauty. I was overcome by a strange emotion that wanted that moment to be frozen for eternity and that wanted me to just stand there and keep admiring her. Stranger was the fact that nobody noticed this either, not even the person next to her who seemed to be her father. Maybe it's the law of such things. I was struck by the innocence of that smile and the abandon of the emotions those eyes portrayed. Given a paper and pen a second Da Vinci would have been born. Or maybe a Shakespeare, or rather Lord Byron (who wrote better romantic poems??).. But neither happened. The train arrived...