Random Thoughts

என்ன வேண்டும்?

2011-12-08T03:35:00.001+08:00

Sometimes books and poems make more sense when you read them again. This one by Vairamuthu. Thought it is worth sharing. If only we had all this in life.

வண்ணங்கள் தெரியாத பார்வை வேண்டும்

வயதுக்கு சரியான வாழ்க்கை வேண்டும்

கண்ணீரில் சுகம் காணும் ஞானம் வேண்டும்

காமத்தை கடந்தேறும் யோகம் வேண்டும்

சொன்னபடி கேட்கின்ற உள்ளம் வேண்டும்

சொன்னால்தான் சாகின்ற தேகம் வேண்டும்

நன்மைகளை சுரண்டாத நட்பு வேண்டும்

நாளைக்கு கலங்காத செல்வம் வேண்டும்

வேகாத உணவுண்ண பழக வேண்டும்

வெறுந்தரையில் படுத்தாலும் உறக்கம் வேண்டும்

தெய்வத்தை தேடாத ஞானம் வேண்டும்

தெய்வங்கள் நாம் என்று தெளிய வேண்டும்

மெய் இந்த வாழ்வென்று நம்ப வேண்டும்

மேகம் போல் பொழிந்துவிட்டு கலைய வேண்டும்

Book review

2010-03-21T03:28:00.010+08:00

Read some really good books recently.

1. Undercover Economist:

A very good book. It is more of an extension to Freakanomics (One of my favorite books). It talks more in detail about an economists views on day to day life, like traffic in the roads or medical care or insurance for example. It does have a chapter on How China is going to be the future of the world. It seems like these days, you cannot finish a single newspaper without stories about China's rise to power.

I liked his views on reducing traffic in the road. Singapore is exactly following his idea. The whole ERP grantry thing is exactly what is being suggested in the book. (ERP was desinged before the book was released. This goes to say Singapore is run by smart people)

Also I liked his views on medicare. Singapore implemented his idea long before the book was released. As I said, a very good book. If you have interest in economics, i would strongly suggest this.

2. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri:

One of my favorite authors. She is definitely an amazing writer. I have read interpreter of maladies and Namesake by her. So decided to read this and absolutely loved it. If you are a foreigner reading this blogpost, do read this book to understand Indians living abroad. It is a collection of short stories just like Interpreter of Maladies.

Hema and Kaushik was my favorite of all the short stories. I rarely read novels. (I prefer watching them in movies) But i actually can read this book again.

3. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho:

I know this is a famous book that has already crossed like 20 editions. It has been translated into 67 languages. Sold 65 million copies. But i read this only now. And really liked it. As people say, it is truly a modern classic. If i were to gift someone a book, i would definitely choose this. Anyone who reads this book will find it useful in their life. This is like "Who moved my Cheese".

4. Tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell:

Another good book i read recently. People say this is better than Outliers. But i kinda liked Outliers more than this one. But still it is worth reading. A very interesting idea. I wanna read Blink next.

5. The White Tiger:

It is a famous book, but few of my friends didnt like it. But i found the book interesting. It has a wierd sense of humour. The author writes about his life to Wen Jiaboa. So the entire book is in a letter format. He explains the wierd caste system and so many other things to the chinese premier. The story ends with the author murdering his boss. The whole book is the reasoning for why he did it. Pretty interesting book.

Kindle 2

2010-03-08T00:43:00.003+08:00

Kindle 2

I recently bought the Kindle 2. I have been waiting for a long time to buy this. Sure, if i had waited a bit longer, could have gotten a more advanced and better performing device. But I got a good deal and so couldnt pass it on. I did so much research on all the ebook readers available in the market, before i decided to buy the Kindle. At the end of my research i actually wanted the Nook. But as i said, i got a good deal on this Kindle.

E-ink:

It is such an amazing technology. It looks exactly like paper. There is no back-light involved. And hence less strain on your eyes. No glare whatsoever. So amazing to read using the device even in sunlight. If you ask me, the entire amount we pay for ebook readers is basically for this technology. The Kindle or the Nook doesnt really have a spectacular processor or any other expensive parts in it. The price you pay for the device is simply for the e-ink. Check out some videos and you will know what i am talking about. I have shown the device to so many people. Friends, colleagues, etc. And every single one seem to react the same way when they look at the screen. "Is that a screen? It looks like paper" is the response i get all the time. So money worth spending on this.

But the biggest minus is the refresh rate. It is pathetic. If you understand how the technology works you might not feel so bad. But for someone who is looking at it for the first time, the refresh rate is such a big annoying thing. The entire screen turns black and then you get to see your new page. Actually the refresh rate is better in Kindle compared to other devices in the market. It is actual hydrocarbons that are behind this e-ink technology. That is the reason.

Free 3G:

This is an excellent add-on in Kindle. Not available in any other device right now. You get free 3G (Surprisingly not wifi. Just 3G. Ya i know. That is wierd). It doesnt work in Singapore though. But it works even in India. So Kindle is an amazing device if you travel .

Pdf support:

They recently added pdf support to Kindle. But the device shrinks the entire a4 pdf into a 6" screen. Hence the readability is poor. You can convert the pdf to any kindle recognised formats and it works fine for pdfs with mostly text. If you want to read pdfs with images or charts in it, forget Kindle (or Nook for that matter). I would suggest wait for a better device or just buy the damn ipad.

Battery life:

Now that is a good selling point. A single charge lasts for more than a week. If you find that strange, read up on e-ink. The technology uses battery power only to refresh the page, and hence when you are reading, it is not consuming power at all.

Calibre:

This is an amazing piece of software. If you use ebook readers, you need this software. It is open source and free to download. Simply put, it is the iTunes of ebooks. You can select your ebook reader when you configure the software and whenever you add a book, it will automatically convert the book to your format and when you connect your device to the computer, it will automatically synchronize everything. The best part about this software is, you can specify your RSS feeds and it will convert them into ereader format. So schedule a download for all NYT business articles at 8 am in the morning and connect your device to get today's NYT in your device. I have been using this for over 2 months now and trust me when i say this. Calibre is amazing.

Nook vs Kindle:

Nook is more open. It recognises all kinds of formats compared to Kindle. It runs based on Android. People keep telling me the bottom color screen with touch capability is an impressive thing. But i find it to be extremely annoying. Nook has wifi in it. And it looks a bit more cooler. But as i said, i got a good deal in this Kindle.

Kindle is not a bad device either. It has text to speech which is absolutely useless, if you ask me. It has global 3g support which is pretty impressive. It is just a matter of time before they bring 3g support to Singapore. Then it is an amazing device.

Kindle Vs iPad:

It is pretty difficult to explain this. First of all, i have a decent laptop and buying the iPad doesnt make sense. In my view, you need a device like ipad when you have a desktop, which doesnt offer much mobility. But when you have a laptop, i am pretty comfortable in watching movies or browsing in it. My laptop allows me to run background tasks. Dont get me wrong here. I am not comparing a tablet computer to a laptop. I am just discussing the usability. So when i wanted to buy a kindle, my main aim was to read books and newspapers in it. That is it. Nothing more. Nothing less. And i think if you are this kind of person, go ahead and buy the ebook reader. If you want more than books and newspapers in a device, then ebook reader is simply not your device. To me, it doesnt make sense when someone complains that they cant watch video in Kindle. Frankly it is not made for watching videos. It is made for reading and it does an excellent job at it.

Sure, iPad is not what we all thought it would be. But it is only a matter of time before we see loads of other competitors coming up with similar, probably better devices. 100,000 apps in a computer is not a big selling point according to me. I dont need an app for Citibank in my tablet computer. I might as well go to their website to make a funds transfer. The main reason apps became a hit is because the browser in the phones are too crappy and slow to do anything. So people came up with ideas for apps and it is a huge hit in phones. When it comes to computers, please dont say apps are a big plus point. They are useless. But iPad is a tremendous hit. They sold 300,000 devices on the first day alone. By now they would have sold a million devices. By few measures it is selling faster than the iPhone. (FYI, there are close to 18 million iPhones in the market right now)

I realized the true potential of Kindle during my recent trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sure, the free 3g doesnt work in the three countries. But i had few good books in the device and it was so useful in all our long bus journeys.

Book Reviews

2009-11-21T05:21:00.007+08:00

'2 states' by Chetan Bhagat:

Obviously the book is not as good as the first one. But i feel it is better than Chetan Bhagat's second one, "One night at a call center" (It was crap!). You have to give full marks for his sarcasm and good narrative style. The story is a bit boring. I mean, we have seen million movies with the same story. That is exactly why this novel by Chetan Bhagat can never become a movie, unlike his previous novels.

He has made some really bold observations about Tamils and Chennai. Sadly most of them is true. Inspite of being a Tamilian, I kind of enjoyed the mockery. Not too bad. It was actually only 95 INR, which is pretty cheap and I finished the book in 3 days. So no complaints.

'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell:

Brilliant book. When I first heard about the concept of the book, I immediately decided I should read the book. It is an analysis on why some people in the world are way too successful than others. What apart from talent, distinguishes success? Why some smart people can never reach the top? How much can the cultural legacy of your ancestors affect your success? The book is an answer to all these questions. A must read for people who love non-fiction.

Thesanthiri by S.Ramakrishnan:

I love S.Ramakrishnan's writing. It is more natural and it makes you ask questions. His writing takes you back to the beautiful days of your life. I have read Thunai Eluthu. I wanted to read Kathavilasam next. But my mom highly recommended Thesanthiri. She is an avid reader of Tamil books. So I bought this one. And it is a very good book, if you like travel writers and memoirs.

There are so many places, within India which are completely forgotten by people. This is a compilation of his experience when he travelled to these places. There is a part about pudukkottai and a place called "Nartha malai" in pudukkottai. I have lived in pudukkottai for about 7 years now and I had no idea about this place. It made me feel, how much I have missed in life in the last 21 years, given the fact I am an Indian. Reading the book, I swore to myself, one day I will take a month long trip from Kanya kumari to Kashmir.

The book is not just about the different experiences but also about the good people he meets along the way and interesting realizations about life. I simply loved the book. And have decided to read all of S.Ramakrishnan's work. (After I finish all of Malcolm Gladwell's books).

Summer movie review

2009-08-20T03:56:00.007+08:00

1. UP:

Another great Pixar movie. Really liked the movie. The movie was released in the US months ago. But i waited until i can watch it on theatre. Didnt want to watch in my laptop. I dont understand why all Pixar movies are released late in Singapore. Anyways, the movie is not as good as Wall E or Finding Nemo. For pixar standards, not so great. But definitely 8 out of 10.

I liked the first 10 minutes of the movie. Without a single dialogue, that part was good. I also liked the speaking dog idea.

One more thing, there is no point in watching the movie in 3d. Wasted 5 bucks there.

2. GI JOE:

Please dont watch the movie. It is really bad. I hated every part of it. But that could be because i am not a great GI Joe fan. My friends and colleagues were surprised to learn that. They kept repeatedly asking if i have never played with a GI Joe action figure, when i was a kid. To be honest, nope. I have never played with a GI Joe. When i was a kid, i had so many toy cars around me and i always made up a story of how a convoy of cars go before and after my car. (Remember Basha movie?)

Anyways, the movie was a mixture of Iron man, spiderman, Superman, Terminator, Transformers, and even Star wars. But the car chase scene in Paris was good.

3. The Hangover:

It is a really surprise movie. I was once watching the preview of this movie in golden village few months back. And said to a friend sitting next to me, that this movie is going to be a big flop. I mean, we have seen loads of movies like this. And that too, the trailer was not so fantastic. But the movie was good. Really funny.

4. Harry potter:

The movie was really good. The special effects was also good. I like harry potter movies. But I dont read the book. There is a problem in reading harry potter books now. I shall give an example to explain why. It was before the 5th movie was released. I wanted to read the book before watching the movie. So i decided to go to a store nearby and bought the book. (I was in Chennai then). I started reading the book and i didnt understand anything. Then I said to myself, i will start reading from the first book, so that i shall understand what is being said in the 5th book. So wat did i do? I bought the first two books. I start reading the Philosepher's stone and it is damn boring. All i see are Daniel Radcliffe and Emma watson. Really difficult to picturize the book and it is quite bouring too. I mean, i have seen the movie. So you see my dilemma? The information shown in the movie is too minimal. So for people like me, we gotta wait until the next movie is being released.

5. Ice Age 3:

Was pure fun. Loved the movie. Wish i had seen it in 3D. Would have been amazing.

Looking forward to - District 9(directed by Peter Jackson), Still walking (a very different plot), Jennifers body(no reason, but Megan Fox)

Book Review: Three cups of Tea

2009-08-15T14:15:00.010+08:00

This is a very inspiring book. Everyone should read it.

I really liked the book. It is a real life story of how Greg Mortenson, transformed the lives of so many thousand people in Pakistan. It is really amazing to read how much trouble the guy has endured to build a school in Pakistan and how he has built so many schools and enlightened so many lives after that incident. Mind you, he has spent more than a decade in a country, that is on top of the "Dangerous places on Earth" list and a country, where people like him (Americans) are generally disliked.

We all know, people are generally scared of Muslims in the western world. In their eyes, all muslims are terrorists. Recently the Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan was detained in the Newark airport, just because his last name was Khan. But it plainly is a very normal name in the muslim world. Pretty much 60% of all muslims i know have some sort of Khan in their name.

Along with Greg's troubles and pains in building schools in Pakistan, the book also touches few important events, like the 911. Greg Mortenson was actually there in Pakistan during the incident. And as he recalls in the book, one villager came running by and said to him in urdu, "I am really sorry. Some one has bombed a village named New York. You should leave Pakistan immediately" Imagine how much trouble Greg should have had to raise money for his foundation, after the 911 attacks.

I personally feel, American government can give few millions to him rather than giving billions to the Pakistani government. It will be spent more wisely.

As argued in the book, proper education alone will eradicate terrorism. Education about the world and education about Islam itself is necessary in that part of the world. The main reason for all this trouble is that few people completely mis-interpret Islam and use the strong belief that Muslims have in their religion for selfish needs.

I recall a recent article I read in New York times. Americans use the Drone missiles to just bomb the hell out of every inch of Swat valley in Pakistan and that is not going to control terrorism. It might eradicate few important terrorists. But normal citizens of Pakistan are angry. This anger itself will give rise to new Al-qaedas and LeTs. As Amartya Sen once said, the only way to develop a country is to educate the girls. Read the book and you will certainly agree with him.

Few useful links:

1. http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

2. http://www.gregmortenson.com/

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia_Institute

5. http://twitter.com/gregmortenson

6. http://gregmortenson.blogspot.com/

NUS life

2009-07-19T17:25:00.006+08:00

I am a graduate now. It does feel good.

I discovered something interesting today. I started using my current google id, 4 years ago. And it became my primary contact id. Which means, my google account has the complete details of my NUS life. The mails, chats with my friends, etc, etc. I took some time today to go back and read through the chats and mails. It was really funny. I can see the difference between me 4 years ago and the me, today. It is surprising really how much 4 years can change you completely.

NUS life did change me a lot, both in good and bad ways. I became more aware of things around me. I was this innocent school kid, who didnt know anything. My parents gave so much importance to studying that they never taught me how to socialize with people. Adding to that the inferiority complex of coming from a village and lacking good english language skills, my first year in NUS was hell. But good thing was I wouldnt have faced my deepest fears, if i had chosen to study in Anna university instead. In that way, NUS was a great idea.

Looking back, third year of Engineering was very busy, with internships and attachments. Fourth year was the best year of my university life. Got a bunch of good friends during this year and my decision to stay off-campus was the best decision during my NUS life. Inspite of FYP, it was the most fun-filled year.

But NUS life has made me more cynical. I completely and honestly believe that people around me are selfish and cunning. These days, i never trust anyone. Thinking about it, me being a cynical person is not bad after all. Maybe NUS did prepare me for the future.

Most people in my batch accepted the NUS offer because of interest. But i accepted the offer only because of compulsion from my parents. During the first two years of my university life, i truly regretted my decision to come to NUS. But i completely changed my opinion during the last two years. The amount of oppurtunities provided to me by NUS was staggering, thousand times better than any Indian universities. There is a question of how much opportunities i made use of. But the fact still remains, NUS is easily far better than any Indian university. I gotta admit, I could have done so much more in NUS, if i had the maturity that i have now. Thinking about this, maybe, schooling when you are 3 years old is not a great idea. Maybe you should wait until you are 5 to start schooling.

I have few regrets though. I should have gone to Germany for the student exchange programme. I should have gone to NewYork for the Harvard conference. I should have stayed in PGP atleast for a semester. I should have spent more time in pudukkottai during the vacations, which i utterly wasted doing some pointless courses in chennai. I should have completed the Technoprenuership minor, which i dropped after doing one module. Shoudlnt have judged the minor based on one bad experience. If i had a time machine and i were able to go back and redo my entire university again, the first thing I would change is, i wouldnt have attended even one 'orientation' session.

And one very important realization after 4 complete years. Never ever take a module in NUS, which people say is easy. Always do the modules which you like.

ஒரு வானம் இரு சிறகு

2009-07-16T23:23:00.004+08:00

Recently read this collection of tamil poems by Mu.Metha, titled, ஒரு வானம் இரு சிறகு. Not an amazing classic. But a pretty good read. It is a very small collection. I was able to complete it in one night. Anyways, some good poems from that collection.

சூரிய சந்திரர்

சும்மா இருக்கையில்

விளக்குக்கு கேட்குதாம் விளம்பரம்

.....

பதவிக்காக வலை விரிக்கப்பட்டது

பதவியும் வலையாய் விரிக்கப்பட்டது

கண் விளித்தால் இந்தியாவை காணவில்லை

......

கூடி கூடி பேசிக்கொண்டு இருகிறார்கள்

எபோது பிரிந்து போகலாம் என்று

.....

இங்கு யாருக்கும் முகமூடி தேவை இல்லை

எவனிடமாவது முகமிருந்தால் சொல்லுங்களேன்!

.....

இந்த மனிதர்கள்

முகவரிகளை

பத்திரப்படுத்தி விட்டு

முகங்களை

மறந்து போவர்கள் !

I personally liked the last two poems in the book. One about Barathiyar and the other about the cinemas.

Indian Foreign policy

2009-06-23T02:11:00.001+08:00

Recently read this interesting article in the Reuters blog. It got me thinking about the challenges that Indian government is gonna be facing in the years to come. We need a strong foreign policy. It is time, we move on from free TVs to how to tackle china. I strongly believe, that India should take a leading role in the world. Afterall, we are one of the worlds fastest developing country. Unlike china, the growth of India is completely internal. We dont have a bunch of smart technocratic geniuses working in our capital for the betterment of the country. (Maybe we can hope to see that in the next 5 years)

We badly need a foreign policy(I dont think we have one, except for a policy towards Pakistan. On a side note, i recently read, the Pakistan government has 64 nukes pointed directly at India) Pakistan is completely unstable now. No doubts there. They have a nuclear weapons programme that gets constant support from the people and the government. I dont think Pakistan people and the politicians get the idea that India is lot bigger now to worry only about Pakistan.

Last few weeks, we have been getting Time Magazine in our home. Though you can read all the articles for free online, nothing beats reading the real magazine itself. On average, you can see 2 articles in every issue of Time about Pakistan. People in the west are really scared about Pakistan and most importantly about its nukes. US is already in too much trouble. Add to that the Pakistan nuke problem, Iran's Ahmadinejad and N.Korea's Kim Jong-il. The press is going crazy.

My worry is this. Pakistan is getting so much support in terms of money, weapons and technology from the US for the time being. I dont wanna comment on the imminent threat that might post to the Indian stability. But I feel that the Indian government shuould be ready to tackle the military nightmare this advancement can pose in the later years. Indian army is one of the biggest in the world, with respect to manpower. But not in terms of technology. We are still far behind. The number of nukes, air-craft carriers, submarines we have can be counted. That is not a good thing.

In every possible aspect, India should focus on how the future is going to be. I mean the future 10-20 years down the line. We are not a small under-developed third world nation anymore. With the US, Europe in shambles, it is time, we and other BRIC nations take responsibility in the global stage.

It seems like China is already ready to do that. Their relations with many countries are constantly improving. China is funding billions to other nations, including countries in Africa and srilanka. They are constantly voicing their opinions against the Americans. Chinese premier recently called on to create a new currency that will replace the green back. Do you know what will happen, if that was made possible? With people dumping the US dollar, the dollar exchange rate will go down and the US government wont be able to afford anything, let alone the bailouts.

And one more strategic thing is that, the Americans are getting more dependent on China and its exports. Add this to the fact that Pakistan is also getting close to the americans. Given this scenario, there is a very high probability that India could be left out.

The new congress government should ensure this doesnt happen. They have enough smart people in the cabinet and hopefully they should realize what India should become in the future and act accordingly.

Project Madurai

2009-06-18T00:42:00.006+08:00

For people who dont know about Project Madurai, here is the wiki page that gives all the information. Click here to go to their home page. In short, it is a project aimed at using the power of internet to spread the greatest language in the world, Tamil. (I am a Tamilian, what do you expect?) Greatness of Tamil cant be discribed in few paragraphs. Tamil manuscripts were recently discovered in Egypt and the inscriptions date back to 1st century BC. One of the oldest languages in the world is under threat. UNESCO lists Tamil as one of the few languages that could vanish in 50 years(source - Ananda vikatan).

People gotta understand. Noone is forcing you to abandon English. Learn English, learn chinese, but not at the expense of Tamil. I recall a recent argument in Neeya Naana, where there were few tamilians who were born and brought up in Tamil Nadu, who sincerely felt, learning tamil was a waste of time. I was seriously upset, that there are people who find their own culture and language to be inferior. If you dont respect yourself and your culture, how will a third person respect you?

The project was started and supported by the Tamilians living abroad, not the people in Tamil Nadu who call themselves தமிழ் தாயின் புதல்வன். If you check the list of people who have contributed for the project, there are loads of people from the US, UK, etc. I also saw few professors from NUS including Dr. Ulrike Niklas, and prof Thinnappan, from the faculty of arts. And ya, Dr. Ulrike Niklas is not from Tamil Nadu. I am really impressed.

All the so called Sons of tamilnadu, please re think your strategy to save our mother tongue. Naming lousy tamil movies in Tamil is not going to spread Tamil.

Check out the list of the books that are available in pdf format. It ranges from agananooru, purananooru up until Jeyakanthan sirukathaigal. Only one thing is missing. If someone would take time in explaining the old tamil poems, it would be really helpful for people like me, who want to learn, but find the sangathamil and senthamil really difficult to understand.

thirukural

Congress Govt

2009-06-09T04:33:00.002+08:00

India is the world's biggest democracy. The monumental 1 month long election itself is fascinating. Somehow the Congress government managed to win with a majority. I should say they deserve the victory. We have been through a very rouch ride, with the food crisis, economic crisis, Mumbai terror attack and numerous other small terrorist plots, etc etc etc. But India is in a far better shape than any other country.GDP growth is less, but we are not going to face a recession. Our banking system is pretty stable, thanks to RBI.

I am actually glad, that the congress government is being elected with a full majority. There are no communists around to stop every possible growth. Without them in the picture, it is actually a good chance for Congress to come back and do something good for the country.

These are the people who are completely responsible for India's growth today. They opened up India for foreign investments. They demolished the License Raj. Hopefully Mr.Singh's team should do a decent job in the next 5 years. I read an interesting article today in the India Today magazine. You can read it here. It is about what needs to be done in the next 5 years.

Because we all know this term is going to be even more crucial for the congress government. They have to make an impact and make way for Rahul Gandhi to take over next time. When you look at him, Rahul is just an exact photocopy of Rajiv Gandhi. And that similarity alone is enough to make him the next PM. And it seems like he made a big impact in the UP elections this time. Remember, no party has ever captured power and formed a government in the central without winning UP. Even after breaking UP into 3 states, UP is still a big deal in India. Sadly, it is one of the most under-developed state too. One of the many reasons why the US presidential system wont work in India.

Coming back to the point, this congress government is filled with great and smart people. First of all, our PM, Mr.Singh. One of the most respected politicians in India. Easily the most honest man in Delhi. It is an added plus that he is a finance genius. I personally admire Sonia Gandhi. First of all, she could have peacefully lived in Italy. But she chose to come to a chaotic country, India and lead a political party that was in a very bad shape. Second of all, she passed the PM post to Manmohan singh twice. Say whatever reason you want. When Mayawati wants to be a PM, what wrong can possibly arise from Sonia being the PM. But she didnt. That requires lots of courage and wisdom. That is a great political move, which won her respect among people and even the opposition, who have not made a single comment about her being a Italian born woman, during the last election.

And then, P.Chidambaram. Another brilliant politician. The one and only Harvard educated politician in India. You should see the way he handled the shoe-throwing incident. A very composed and smart person. Am glad he is the home minister. We need some changes with respect to our attitude towards Pakistan.

Shasi Tharoor. Have you seen his speeches? (lots available in youtube) He is another damn smart politician in the current Indian government. I was hoping he would be given the External affairs ministry. But sadly SM Krisha got the portfolio. But it is ok. Shasi Tharoor has been given the minister of state role for the external affairs ministry. Hopefully in the next term, he should become the cabinet minister. That would be awesome.

Another disappointment with respect to portfoli allocation is Dayanithi Maran. He is obviously good at IT. But he was not given that portfolio, instead Raja got it. Really sad. I think it is our honourable CM who should have interferred and made sure that Maran didnt get IT. But lets hope Maran can make a big difference in the textile industry.

I dont trust Pranab Mukerjee as the Finance minister. But lets wait for the first interim budget. Another disappointment was Kamal Nath. I thought he will get the commerce ministry. He did a great job last time.

Anyways, lets hope the current cabinet can make an impact for years to come. Here is a great speech by Shashi Tharoor, in New York while releasing his book, "The elephant, the tiger and the cellphone".

Shasi tharoor on the growth of cell phones in India. (below)

Book Review: Planet Google by Randall Stross

2009-06-06T00:37:00.012+08:00

I have always admired Google, as a company. The growth of the company is staggering and that is not a surprise. Their business model is completely different. Unlike Microsoft, they will give you everything for free, but they will continue innovating. Surprisingly this business model is working perfectly for them. Microsoft has been trying to catch up with the Google search, but they are not even close. Their new search engine, sorry decision engine, Bing sux big time. A friend of mine had this status message few days ago, "Bing - But It's Not Google". So true. One important lesson that we need to take from companies like Yahoo is that, in Silicon valley, if you dont innovate and change according to the market, you will vanish. It seems like google has learnt that lesson. They have effectively moved onto the mobile market now, while constantly changing and innovating their existing services. I always read something new in Gmail labs or addition of new features in Google docs or introduction of completely new products. Quite often i get new and cool mobile apps from google as well, for my G1.

The above book by Randall stross is good. It gives a first hand report of how google emerged from a small dorm room to a world dominating company. The narrative style is very good. And this is not another book about statistics. the thing i like about the book is, the author has given a detailed analysis and its implications. So it doesnt feel like reading a history book. It seems like the author was present in every meeting that google ever conducted. It gives first hand report of why and how Google created an empire around its search business. It feels more like a novel. A rags-to-riches-story, that we all love.

Reading the book, i learnt how the google founders made use of every oppurtunity they got. Main reason for the success of google is, they were right-place-at-right-time. After the dot comm bubble, they literally paid pennies to buy huge data centres. When every other competitor of Google had invested millions and millions on Super computers to do the search, google on the other hand used the power of thousands of personal desktop computers. This, according to the author was a bold move by the Google founders which paid huge rewards later, both with respect to cost and technology.

The author recalls one incident during the intial days of Google. This happened many years ago. Marissa Mayer was a new employee (She was employee number 20 in Google, by then a unknown startup). When the company was still in very beginning stage, they didnt have enough programmers or computers. They struck a deal with Netscape, which agreed to divert every one of the five search requests it got from its user, which was so minimal in number compared to the number google is handling right now. But what happened was, the google servers couldnt manage the load and they went up in flames. Sergey brin and Larry page were devasted. After few mins, noone could find the founders. Marissa Mayer went searching for the founders and she found one of the founder in the nearby coffee shop, sitting in a corner. She asked him, why he was sitting there alone. And he said, "I am hiding". Marissa Mayer recently recalled in an interview, that she said to herself that the company would go bust in 2 months. But who knew then, that Google will become a multi-billion dollar empire.

If there is something that i learnt about Google from this book, it is their planning and dedication to quality and innovation. I shall give a small example. Google is offering a free service called, Goog-411. This service apparantly involves so much money and time. But Google did provide this service for free. When it was released 2 years ago, there were few critics who said, this is waste of time. But do you know why Google released this free service? It is to collect voice samples from people. During the last few years, the number of people in the US, who used this service increased in exponential terms. They collected so many millions voice samples, which was fed into an algorithm which used these voice samples to perfectly convert people's voice into text. This algorithm that google has is ten times effective as any other voice recognition system. Do you know what google is planning to do with these voice samples? To index audio content and Google Voice, which is their new service for mobile phones. Read up on Google voice. It is just stunning. Critics say, Google voice will completely change the way we use telephones and mobile phones.

But there could be potential problems with one company controlling all the information in the world. Google's motto is "Dont be evil". But for how long can they be not-evil? Recently in China, Google had two options.
1. To allow any search request irrespective of pro-communist party or anti-communist party. As a result they will be banned by the Chinese government and loose revenue.
2. They had another option to accept the terms of the chinese government and block loads of anti-communist party webpages. By this they can earn loads of money.
If Google should stick by its motto, they should have taken option number 1. But they didnt. Things like this make people wonder what Google is becoming.

Currently, they know all my mails. With the Google search, they know what i am interested in. With my android phone, all my contacts and their phone numbers are all saved in google servers. All my SMSes are stored in Google servers. With google voice, they can also know who i talk to and what i talk about. They know which stocks i am interested in thru Google Finance. they know my family and friends thru picasa and orkut. they know what i am doing today or two weeks down the line thru Google calendar. They know my current location using Google latitude. They also know what videos and news content i like. So literally Google knows everything about me. This is a serious privacy concern.

I recall an interview i read recently, where the VP for search in Google said, they have only indexed 5% of the world's information. Their ultimate aim is to make Google so ubiquitous that you can go to google.com and type, "What shirt should i wear today?" or "Which job should i take?" and Google will give you an answer. Google has created a brand value which is based completely on trust. So I sincerely trust Google and same goes for so many million people who use Google services everyday. Lets all hope, Google sticks by its motto, "Dont be evil".

LTTE, Prabakaran and our honourable CM

2009-04-23T01:10:00.000+08:00

The war in Srilanka is about to end i guess. The LTTE are confined to a 17 sq km area. The Srilankan army is better than ever with superb weapons. With constant victories, their spirits are high. In spite of all the international pressure, the Srilankan government is not going to stop the war. This is going to kill lots of people, but atleast the srilankan government can stop the 25 odd years of uprising against the government.

I am not going to speak for or against the LTTE. Maybe LTTE is a "freedom outfit", as they claim. Or maybe, LTTE is a terrorist organization. I dont know much about it and i dont want to talk about it. Internet can teach you only few things

I am just surprised at the amount of support that LTTE is getting in Tamilnadu and among Tamil people. To some extent, i can understand, that Tamils in Tamilnadu favor Tamils in Srilanka. But i dont understand why the politicians love the LTTE outfit and prabakaran in general.

Vaiko, the founder of MDMK, says there will be a blood bath in the streets of TamilNadu, if Prabakaran was killed in the war. Ramadoss, the PMK cheif publicly issues LTTE video and audio CDs containing LTTE message in a rally held in the state capital. The Chief minister of a state, smartest and the most senior politician in Tamilnadu goes to NDTV and says Prabakaran is his friend and LTTE is not a terrorist outfit. And that he will be sad if Prabakaran was killed in the war. I just dont get it. Unless proven otherwise, LTTE is a banned organization in India and the leader, Prabakaran is the most wanted criminal, according to the Indian government. Why would a CM go on national television and say Prabakaran is his friend? Is it just the votes? If it just the votes, do the Tamil people in TamilNadu really care too much about LTTE? If so, i believe it is not right. Probably there is some sympathy for the numerous Tamils who are stuck in the warzone. But not LTTE. And what is Ms.Sonia Gandhi doing? A senior politician in her coalition is talking about a terrorist outfit and publicly declaring Prabakaran as his friend. And that Prabakaran happens to be the guy, who assassinated her husband. Why is she not saying anything? Is it all just votes and money that matter to these politicians? Dont even get me started on the coalitions in India.

I dont know what the srilankans did to the Tamils in Srilanka 25 years ago. I dont know why LTTE has been resisting the Srilankan government and has been asking for Tamil ealam. But i know one thing. They assasinated Rajiv Gandhi. In a very rare press meet, when asked about the Rajiv Gandhi incident, Prabakaran said, "athu oru thunbiyal Sambavam". He didnt deny it. He rather said, it is a saddening issue. They killed Rajiv Gandhi. One man who could have saved India from the tough times we were facing 15 years ago. They killed our country's Prime Minister. And it is completely wrong to go on national telivision and say Prabakaran is a freedom fighter and not a terrorist. And that too a senior politican like M.Karunanidhi shouldnt have said it. This is completely misleading the people. he can now use his words in smart ways and explain what he "really meant", but the fact still remains, Karunanidhi went on the National television and said a terrorist outfit leader is his friend. What a shame !

உலகம்

2009-04-08T20:50:00.005+08:00

After all the FYP stunts, i now have some time to breathe. To honestly admit, i am now wondering what i usually do, if i am not working for my FYP. To finish the damn fyp, i still have two more grueling and painful presentations, which i can foresee, is going to suck the life out of me. Life goes on.

Anyways, i wanted to share a good tamil peom that i read recently. Well, i have read it before. But sometimes, reading the same thing again can give you a completely new perspective. The following peom titled, "உலகம்", was written by Vairamuthu. The following is just one part of the poem. To read the complete poem, you gotta buy the book.

எளிய தோற்றமே இயல்பென இருந்தேன்
வடுக பட்டி வழியுது என்றது
அழகாய் நானும் ஆடைகள் கொண்டேன்
கழுதைக்கு எதற்கு கண்மை என்றது

மேடையில் கால்மேல் காலிட்டு அமர்ந்தேன்
படித்த திமிர்தான் பணிவில்லை என்றது
மூத்தவர் வந்ததும் முதலில் எழுந்தேன்
கவிஞன் நல்ல காக்கா என்றது

மற்றவர் சூழ்ச்சியால் மண்ணில் விழுந்தேன்
புத்தி கொளுத்தவன் புதைந்தான் என்றது
மூச்சு பிடித்து முட்டி முளைத்தேன்
தந்திரக்காரன் தள்ளி நில் என்றது

பகையை கண்டு பய்ய நகர்ந்தேன்
பயந்துவிட்டான் பாவம் என்றது
மோதி மிதித்து முகத்தில் உமிழ்ந்தேன்
விளங்கி விட்டதா மிருகம் என்றது

விருதுகள் கழுத்தில் வீழக் கண்டேன்
குருட்டு அதிர்ஷ்டம் கூடிய தென்றது
மீண்டும் மீண்டும் விருதுகள் கண்டேன்
தில்லியில் யாரையோ தெரியும் என்றது

உலகின் வாய்தனை தைப்பது கடினம்

உந்தன் செவிகளை மூடுதல் சுலபம்

I leave the meaning of the poem to the reader.

KenKen

2009-03-20T17:52:00.004+08:00

This is my new passion. For people who hav no idea, check here.

I always loved Sudoku. It is super fun. When i was in my 11th standard, i discovered sudoku. It is still interesting, but I was constantly looking for something else to replace sudoku and i found one. It is called KenKen.

New York Times crossword puzzle editor, Will shortz, introduced this puzzle in New York Times last month. He is the same guy who introduced sudoku to the world. I recently read an article in Time, titled, "Is KenKen the next Sudoku?" Then tried one 4x4 puzzle and really loved it.

Actually 4x4 is really really easy. 5x5 is also pretty easy. 6x6 can be quite tedious. Initially it took a bit longer to solve the 6x6 puzzle. But after a while, it is also manageable. I want to try the 9x9 puzzle. It is called the "Einstein puzzle". But before that, i gotta get used to other easy ones.

It adds a bit of maths to the traditional sudoku. So people who love puzzles, try this one. Warning - It is really addictive.

Pakistan

2009-03-10T22:48:00.002+08:00

While stumbling today, i found this website. It has 40 good photos from various cities in Pakistan. Have a look at the country that we (Indians) dont know and for some unknown reason hate the most. You will come to understand that not all of Pakistan is filled with terrorists and there are people struggling for everyday life, like people in India do. I cant help thinking, We(Pakistan and India) are not so different after all.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/scenes_from_pakistan.html

Google Android

2009-03-07T10:57:00.008+08:00

First of all, i just have to say, i am so suprised, that few of my friends in India have no idea about the Gphone. This goes to say about the marketing power of Apple. So, for their reference, here are few links that might help understanding this post better.

1. Android OS - http://www.android.com , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android

2. G1 - HTC Dream - http://www.htc.com/www/product/dream/overview.html

Anyways, now to the real post.

I recently bought the HTC dream (Gphone, T mobile G1) from the Singtel shop. It is amazingly responsive and i love the phone already.

I had a sony Ericson k700i for the last 3.5 years and badly wanted to update the phone. Initially wanted to buy the Apple iphone, but it is way to expensive for me to afford. And quite frankly there are too many iPhones already. Whereever i see, there is an iPhone. To accept the fact, nowadays iPhone is making me sick.

For people who dont know, Linux is a brilliant OS. I have been using Linux in the past semester and really loved it. The stability and reliability is way too awesome. You gotta use linux to see it. And i learnt that the Android OS is a linux based platform. Started doing a bit of research and understood the power of Android. Then decided to buy this phone. The following is the analysis i did before i decided to buy the Gphone.

iPhone:

Plus:

1. looks - Amazing looks. No other words necessary

2. Apps - iPhone came to the market first, and so obviously there are tonnes of good apps available.

3. Usability - Brand Apple. That says it all. when people say, "It just works", yes it does work like magic.

Minus:

1. pretty wide and very slim - difficult to hold while making phone calls.

2. No full qwerty key board and the soft keyboard sucks big time.

3. No multi tasking.

4. No background tasks allowed.

5. No copy and paste.

6. Basically no flexibility, exactly like Mac.

Android:

Plus:

1. Google Android - Complete linux based OS. The OS is too good, they are even considering to run that in the computer. It is that powerful and customizable.

2. The OS was built from the basic linux kernel. A bottom-up approach. So it has all that u need and it is amazingly fast.

3. Multi tasking - Press and hold the home button for two seconds and you will get a similar pop-up like u get when u hold Alt+Tab in your computer

4. User interface - Quite comparable to that of the iPhone and it is about to get a lot better

5. Apps - It is an open platform, unlike Apple. So the opportunities are limitless. There is already an exponential growth in the Android Market and they have also allowed payable apps. So watchout Apple. In one year, Android Market will overtake the Apple App store.

Minus:

1. Nothing really. Even if there is any, Google will release an update and you are done. GPhone initially didnt have the soft keyboard. But they released a Cupcake update and voila, the new android has the soft keyboard as well. And even though HTC dream was released before this update hit the markets, you can just go to your phone settings and click update and that is it. Google wont charge you for any updates, now or in the future. This is the power of Open source. Actually this should be a plus.

HTC dream - Hardware:

Plus:

1. Full qwerty key board - Makes mails and chats whole lot easier.

2. Rollar ball - There is a small rollar ball, actually an idea stolen from the Blackberry. But it is amazing. It is just so easy to use.

3. the phone is not as wide as the iphone. So a lot easier to handle.

4. I like that new mechanism while opening the keyboard. There is a subtle twist.

Minus:

1. The design - For gods sake, who the hell designed the hardware in HTC? Why did they add that "Leno Chin"? Compared to the iPhone this doesnt even stand a chance. See this video to understand why they did this horrible design.

2. Because of this design, it is quite difficult to simply slide in your pant pocket.

3. Not so slim as an iphone.

I can write a seperate blog post about the Android OS. It is marvellous. check out this playlist in Youtube to get a quick idea of the OS. And also this one, to know more about the features in Android.

Book Review: Interpreter of Maladies

2009-03-01T09:41:00.004+08:00

I recently read this book, Interpreter of maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri. I think most people know her by her book, Namesake, which is also a successful Hollywood movie, by the same name.

This is her first novel and she won a Pulitzer prize for this one. She is one of the very few authors to win, Pulitzer for their first book. A friend of mine suggested the book and I started reading it reluctantly. I usually dont like Novels. I jus dont have the patience to read a 300 page novel. but this one was different. It was compilation of 9 short stories.

It is worth reading this book. Most of the stories are about normal people. People like you and me and things we face in our everyday life. The author is really good in explaining intricate things about day to day life in a completely new way. Most of her novels are about Indians living abroad and the challenges they face, in adjusting themselves to a completely new culture. I faced lots of issues, when i first came to Singapore. I was able to relate to many things, said in the book.

My favorite short stories among the nine are, A temporary matter, Interpreter of Maladies, Sexy, Third and final continent.

Should have been the 13th Oscar

2009-02-23T13:31:00.002+08:00

My previous post on Slumdog Millionaire .

ARR IS GOD.

Inspite of so much work, i woke up early and watched the Oscar presentation ceremony. And it was worth the time. ARR won 2 oscars. Not one, TWO. It is indeed a happy day for all the ARR fans and indians in general. To hear Tamil in the Kodak Theatre, is just amazing feeling. Thanks ARR for that. ARR already enjoys a God-like status in India. This is just going to elevate his status. (And thank god, atleast during this ceremony, they didnt pronounce his name wrong. In golden globe, it was Ruhman, in tonight show it was A.J.Raman. Even though the hot latino women who presented the award stressed the 'h' in Rahman, it was not so bad)

The music for the movie was indeed good. No doubts there. The jai ho song was good as well. But i kinda liked O..Saya better. But lets face it, this is not ARR's best work. According to AR Rahman standards, this is just a normal movie. Compared to his many other previous movies, Slumdog doesnt even deserve to be mentioned. I have listed few movies (not in any particular order) which i feel are far better than Slumdog. (considering only ARR's work)

1. Kannathil Muthamittal
2. Roja
3. Bombay
4. Rangeela
5. Iruvar
6. Dil se
7. Alaipayuthey
8. Lagaan
9. Ayutha ezuthu
10. Rang de Basanthi
11. Guru

Every one of the above movies are better than Slumdog, music wise. What i am trying to say is, ARR is a truly deserving musician. And this Oscar recognition is quite late. And if Slumdog can get him 2 oscars, then he should have won oscars for all the above mentioned movies. Let all of us be proud of AR Rahman. I am especially proud, as i am from the same state as he is. To hear Tamil in the Oscar presentation is ceremony is a treat to all tamilians.

But there were also things, that i felt could have been better. I think ARR was not prepared for two oscars. It was quite obvious in the second acceptance speech. He swiftly, walked form the stage, even the Spot light cant keep up with his speed. And also, why should they arrange for that lousy Indian dance, before the presentation?

Well, anyways, It is a brilliant day for all Indians and for all Tamilians. And again, ARR IS GOD.

Salaam Bombay

2009-02-09T03:56:00.032+08:00

After watching Slumdog millionaire, i thought i had a good picture about the true life in Bombay. But i am so wrong. A friend suggested this movie, Salaam Bombay. It is a really good movie.

It is a true depiction of a life of children in slums in Bombay. I will try to give a quick idea about the movie, with just few key words. Poverty, unemployment, red light area, a crooked pimp who trick young women into prostitution, a prostitute, her daughter, and a young boy, who just wants to make 500 Rs, before he can go home to his village. Add all this and you get a really tragic, true story, and that is Salaam bombay.

Wonderfully made movie. It got Oscar nomination. And 90% of the actors in the movie are from real slums and red light areas. That anonymity adds a bit of reality to the movie. I think that is a big plus. When you see the hero, you get the feeling about what the movie is really about. And just for the record, if Slumdog can get an oscar nomication, this movie should have won an Oscar.

A really tragic movie. I just felt really bad after seeing the movie. It disturbed me so much, i couldnt sleep thinking about this. There are so many people struggling in life and I cant do anything about it. Why is that? When you face questions like this, you always end up questioning the existence of God. If god does exist, why should people suffer like this? Why cant he just forgive and save them all? The whole god theory is just useless. Life is just probability. Nothing more. Nothing less.

If you are able to read this post, count yourself lucky. See the movie and you will know what i mean.

Obama - The unknown commodity

2009-01-22T18:52:00.000+08:00

Kashmir has remained one of the main problems that the Indian democracy is facing next to, poverty, corruption and bureaucracy. We all know what the basic issue is. Pakistan is claiming Kashmir. (In fact, the 'K' in 'Pakistan' represents Kashmir) But India says Kashmir belongs to India. And the problem still is going on. It seems like it will never end. We have already fought 3 full fledged wars and have faced numerous insurgencies. The Kashmir state is still consuming biggest chunk of Indian defense budget. Numerous soldiers have lost their life, both in India and Pakistan. People in Kashmir are constantly living under fear. If there were a peaceful period in Kashmir, it was during Musharaff rule in Pakistan. That is the only time, India had a decent oppurtunity to conduct talks about the Kashmir problem.

What exactly is the solution then? There is no peaceful solution. If Kashmir is merely a political issue, it can be sourted out. But it has become a nationalist issue. It is far from a normal border dispute. It has become Indians Vs Pakistanis. The general population itself is angry over this issue. Pakistani people are determined that Kashmir should be in Pakistan. Same goes to Indians as well. Many people have suggested that the LOC should be peacefully agreed as the international border between Pakistan and India. But i dont think that is gonna happen.

India is a diverse nation. Actually, to call india a diverse nation, is an under-statement. India is too diverse. India is so fragmented with respect to any cultural issue that you can possibly imagine. The regional politics in India is getting stronger, which in one way good, because it is a good signal that the Democray is more mature now. But also, is a bad signal, as there is not a central unification factor in India. This diversity is a crucial player in deciding who is gonna get Kashmir. If India is willing to give up Kashmir, it can create numerous violences around the country. Trust me, Kashmir is a liability for India. But giving up Kashmir can have serious repurcussions.

Enough said about India. Do you think Pakistan will give up Kashmir to India? Nope. Not gonna happen. So what is the solution then? I have no idea. My prediction is, the Kashmir problem will go on for years without a solution. Kashmir can be given more regional autonomy in the Indian constitution like the Kashmiri people want. But that is not completely feasible too.

But am afraid the US is gonna interfere in the Kashmir problem, which will undoubtedly be skewed towards Pakistan and which will seriously disturb the India-America relationship. India has always denied any support - nope intrusion is the right word - from foreigners when it comes to Kashmir issue. But am afraid, Obama is gonna push for a resolution for this problem, which will create tensions. As many analysts point out, India-Pakistan problem is the first reason for a rise in Islamic terrorism in the region. Above all, Obama had Afghanistan and 'killing Osama' as his cheif Campaign promises. To do that, he definitely needs Pakistan. If pakistan should cooperate and help the American troops, Kashmir issue should be solved or atleast American experts think so. There is a wide spread speculation that Obama will introduce a special position in his cabinet, a rather powerful one. It will be called the "South Asian envoy". People are speculating that the position will have extra ordinary powers and someone very knowledgeable will be appointed soon. In that case, trust me, that person will concentrate on Kashmir. In that case, as i said, Kashmir will once again become a major issue. According to Obama, Kashmir is part of the problem, rather than the part of a solution for the American resolve in Afghanistan.

And at the same time, there are also predictions that the US will continue to be an ally for india. If you think about it, they need India to have a check on China, which is slowly emerging as a powerful nation, which has already started demanding US for many things. Usually it the other way round.

I read a related article in Reuters today. you can read it here. And you can read another interesting article here, about Indo-US relationships and foreign policy challenges for both India and US. The Indian govt and its top diplomats are calling Obama "the unknown commodity". Rightly so. Lets wait and see. The first 100 days of the president are very crucial.

Phd comic strip - Abstract

2009-01-21T04:05:00.002+08:00

See the following phd comic. For some reason, it reminds me of my Final Year Project. Pretty funny. And honestly, i am going to use this for my forthcoming report.

இனிய பொங்கல் திருநாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

2009-01-14T02:44:00.007+08:00

I initially wanted to write this entire post in Tamil, in order to remind everyone, that it is indeed தமிழர் திருநாள். But i am seriously lagging behind in my Final Year Project. And so, i cant afford to waste time in blogging in Tamil. Let me proceed in English.

Something about Pongal, that makes me miss home. For many people, it is always the Diwali, when they miss home and crackers and stuff. But i dont care about diwali. In our house, we never really made a big deal about diwali. I hated crackers.

But in our house, Pongal is a big deal. Even when we were in Salem, we used to travel 10 hrs to reach our village, கீழ்ச்சீவல்பட்டி.(The place is just 40 mins drive from my current place, pudukkottai) It is a small, but lively village. We have few farms there and a really big house, which i think should be more than 100 years old. Our house extends from one street to the other. It is not a big surprise really. Most of Chettinad houses are that big

Our house in our village

If you wanna see the real pongal, come to our village. People in big cities cook pongal in rice cooker, and eat it while watching lousy Sun TV. Real pongal celebration is in the village. Have you ever watched a ஜல்லிக்கட்டு? That too, the அழகாபுரி ஜல்லிக்கட்டு is quite famous. அழகாபுரி is very close to my village. The scorching sun, the crowded land and the air filled with dust, adds something to the environment and your mind, that i cannot express in words.

For every pongal, we will get Sugarcane, Rice, Groundnuts,etc, form our own farm. We go to the temple in the morning and then to the lovely green farm in the afternoon, fresh tender coconuts in the evening. That is probably the day i would spend happily, without even thinking about TV. Man, i miss India so much.

Here I am in Singapore. It is 4 am in the morning and I am sitting in PGP study room(a residence in NUS), pretending to work for my project, thinking about my village and home. It is not always fun to live in a foreign country.

Anyways, Happy pongal everyone !

Windows 7

2009-01-12T18:19:00.002+08:00

My desktop with Windows 7 OS

Finally after a series of bad Operating systems, Microsoft has come up with a pretty decent OS. (Check out the videos here)

I am currently using the Beta version of the Windows 7 OS and i gotta say, it is pretty damn good. I dont have a problem accepting that, inspite of the fact, that i am not a big fan of Microsoft products. (I mean, honestly, is there a bad Browser than IE and a bad media player than Windows Media player?)

My laptop has outdated hardware. Very bad configuration. 60 GB hard disk and a 512 mb ram. The OS calculated a performance score and said my PC score is 1.9, which is basically the lowest possible hardware. (The highest will be 8). Windows XP in my PC was painfully slow. So just tried out the new Windows 7. Even in my pc, with such poor hardware, it is faster than the usual XP. The bootup time is jus 45 secs in total. I am really surprised. In just 45 secs, you can access all your applications.

There are lots of good features in the OS, that will really make it easier for everyone to use the computers. My personal favorites are "Action center", "Dynamic Taskbar", and the "Aero shake effects". They have adopted few methods from other OS like the "Synaptic Package manager" from Linux and the "Dock" from Apple. But still, you gotta admire the speed. I mean, Microsoft, good or bad, still has the biggest market share. I would say, this is the only time, when they have realized the responsibility and have understood what people want, rather than forcing everyone to use a crappy piece of software. This is what Vista was supposed to be. I read somewhere that the new version, is a very optimized version of Vista. I would say, this is the only time, when Microsoft product "Just works". Well, Windows 7 is still in Beta stage. Basic assumption is, it will be a lot better when the full version is released. So it should be the best windows ever, as the critics say.

Anyways, after years of suffering humiliation in the form of ads by Apple, Microsoft has a good chance to rebuild the image with the new OS. It will be available in the markets sometime next year.

Book Review: The Post American World

2008-12-30T20:07:00.006+08:00

I recently read the book, "Post American world" by Fareed Zakaria. It is a very good book. This one goes into my list of books, that i should buy soon.

There is a famous saying, "The sun never sets in the British Empire". The Britain was a great empire. When the queens birthday came, there were celebrations in all parts of the world. It is really amazing, how a small country, was able to control the entire world for so many years. But now, that mighty British Empire is no more. America and Russia took over as the worlds most powerful countries after the world war. But, after the end of cold war, America is literally the uncontested leader, far above than any of its competitor in any field possible - military, politics, economy, technology, research to name a few.

The main question raised in the book is, "If such a mighty British Empire can fall, what can possibly happen to the US in the next few decades?" There are striking differences between the British Empire in 1900 compared to the US now, but there are few similarities too. Rise of China and India are often compared to the rise of the US and Germany in 1900. Can the rise of China and India bring down America? There are two separate chapters focusing on the rise of India and China, not just because they are the two fastest growing countries in the world. But also because they paint a good picture of the foreign policy difficulties that the US is about to face in the future.

I have read a book, "The world is flat", by Thomas Friedman. I should say both these books go hand in hand. They both talk about the impact of globalization on the world economy and politics. But this book, also talks about the policy issues from the US point of view and also the rest. Also discusses the plus and minus of the current US policies and explains in detail, what needs to be done, in order to regain the momentum and give life to the fading American Dream.

And when it comes to india, the book deals about the current challenges that we are facing, and the relationship between India and the US. Did you notice the recent state elections? The central issues in the country, including Terrorism, didnt take the centre stage, rather more local issues ruled the elections, one main reason why Congress was able to win. The author have talked about this "local" politics taking a big leap in the country and have compared it to the US during 1920.

Well, anyways, it is really a good book. Give it a read, and you wont regret.

Slumdog Millionaire

2008-12-28T05:03:00.005+08:00

One of the best movie this year. No doubt there. The movie is just full of life. I just cant believe that this was directed by an English guy.

The movie opens with a question.

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million Rupees. How did he do that?

A. He cheated
B. He's lucky
C. He is a genius
D. It is written

And the movie travels towards answering the question and along the way, picturises, the best and the worst of India. It touches the core problems in India, the poverty, Hindu-Muslim riots, Beggars, Red light areas, and many more. It also touches some really beautiful part about India as well.

The movie has already won critical acclaims. Right from the New York times, to the Time magazine, everyone have already praised the movie so much, for its reality and the story telling. (already one of the top 100 movies in IMDB) All said and done, i would like to see the movie from an Indian point of view. It is a great movie about India. It explains in detail, how big a hell, life in India can be.

At last, we have to wait for an English director to direct a "Indian" movie, when every movie maker in India is trying to desperately imitate Hollywood. AR Rahman said in his recent interview with Reuters, that the Director, Danny Boyle, literally lived in Mumbai for two odd years, in order to learn about Mumbai to make this movie. The songs and the Back ground score is brilliant. AR Rahman is god. No more words needed to say about him. I really hope he wins the Golden Globe and also lets hope he has a shot at Oscar.

There is one really good scene in the movie. The hero, as a kid, is a travel guide. And one time, he is with some Americans and some thieves steal the foreigner's stuff, while they were outside the car. And when they come back and find out, even the tires from the car was stolen, the car driver, Indian, starts beating up the kid accusing him for stealing everything. The Americans try to stop the driver and the bleeding kid says to them, "You wanted to see Real India, here it is" The Americans say, "Here is a bit of real America son" and generously give him some money. I think, it brings out the true India. Helpless, cruel, tough.

But i think it has it flaws too. The movie is mainly made for audiences around the globe. So all the dialogues are in English and I think that steals a bit of reality from the movie. Even though, i don't fully understand Hindi, i would love to see the movie in complete Hindi.

Do see the movie.

TIME - Person of the year 2008

2008-12-17T22:11:00.001+08:00

It is BARACK OBAMA . I am not surprised at all. In fact, no one should be surprised to learn this.

Apart from Obama, you can also find, Hillary, McCain, Palin, Henry Paulson and other prominent personalities. Surprisingly, Bush is listed as one of the "People who mattered". Actually, he did. In a negative way.

America's war on Terror - Lessons to be learnt

2008-12-15T16:42:00.001+08:00

I read two really good articles today. One in "The Hindu" about the lessons to be learnt from the US War on Terror. You can read it here.

"As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions. The deaths from all causes — violent and non-violent — are over and above the estimated 143,000 deaths per year that occurred from all causes prior to the March 2003 invasion. Iraq’s overall mortality rate more than doubled from 5.5 deaths per 1,000 persons before the war began to 13.3 per 1,000 persons by late 2006"

And other article, in Wall Street Journal, about the Indian Democracy. You can read it here. This article talks a bit about the recent elections in India and about the status of the Indian politics in general.

"The electorate's ability to look through the fog of terror, set emotions aside and focus on basic quality of life matters is a sign of the maturation of Indian democracy."

Proud to be an Indian

2008-11-21T22:54:00.005+08:00

Really Inspiring !

Obama - The next president of the US

2008-11-06T10:34:00.008+08:00

I am really glad, that Obama was elected the next president of the US. chuck all the effects, Bradley, Urkel, everything. He smashed all the records and has become the first African American president.

Like many people, i have been following the US elections right from the beginning. Initially, Obama said "change" and all other competitors even in the Democratic party laughed. In spite of all the silly and desperate campaign efforts from the McCain group, he has made history.

If you think about it, Obama's story can be made into a movie and it is a sure block buster. He is like a Hero now. If this indeed was a movie, then by this time, credits will be rolling. But it is not. And it seems like Obama understands that already. Do you know, Obama already has a 50-chapter transition booklet, with details on how, when and who he should appoint for which position? Just brilliant. Bill Clinton started the planning only after he got elected and reached a decision only 4 days before his inauguration.

As all the newspapers pointed out, it is indeed a success for Democracy. With a record turn out like this, newspapers are claiming that it looks like America is just re-inventing herself. The US behaves as if it is a newly formed Democratic country, as if people were given a right to vote just yesterday. Americans have proved that they are a lot more tolerant about race than any other country in the world. Imagine, if the Bradley effect did work and if Obama lost the election, it is a big scar for the country, that boasts its Democracy and Free Markets.

Now, what can I expect from a Obama era? It is weird and at the same time astonishing, how every single person in the world is asking this same question. This is a testimon of the American influence on the World, which is both good and bad, as i have always assumed. Anyways, in India, there is already a suspision that he will crush the Outsourcing industry. In my opinion, there is a slight possibility for that happening. He promised to give tax cuts for corporates, who employ more people in the US. Given the fact that the Corporate tax in the US is so high, and the forthcoming recession and the unemplyment rate in the US, there is a slight possibility of that happening. But again, it can be argued that all the above said reasons can work in favor of India as well. We gotta wait and see.

What about Finance industry? I am really worried about the answer to this question. The american president has enourmous power to bring about change in anything. And in general, the Democrats have always, always argued for more regulation. Therefore, we can expect to see more oversight and strict regulations for the American Banks. This can be a big blow to the Investment Banking industry, given the fact that the industry has been thriving because of less regulation and more risk-taking. All this will change. But to what extent? We gotta wait and see.

Obama said during the victory speech, "Change has come to America". I dont know how change can come, if he is going to appoint everyone in his team from Clinton era. Every president in the US, said he wanted to change the way business is done in Washington, but noone ever achieved it. (Even Bush said, he wanted change, during his 2000 election campaign). But lets hope, atleast Obama will bring about the Change we expect.

US Presidential Elections - III

2008-11-02T22:23:00.003+08:00

After two long years, the race for the White house, is about to end this Tuesday. The race was so close. It was really tough. Even today you cannot be sure about who is going to win. It looks like Obama has a good chance. But anything can happen.

This week "Time" magazine had a good article about the leadership style of the two candidates and also, about the various problems that they might face in this presidency. I think it makes perfect sense. There are just too many things that the next president should fix. There is a huge Economic Crisis, Energy crisis, Unemployment, Housing crisis, Health care, possible Recession, Problems in Iraq, fragile Afghanistan, decaying Pakistan, Rise of China, newly refreshed ambitions of Russia, Climate crisis, Problems with Iran, Terrorism in the country itself.

Am just a normal university student, who occasionally happen to check the news. Even I can list down 14 critical issues that the next US president has to address. Then imagine the real trouble he is in.

Over the years, the world has developed a certain dependency towards US. We all tried to follow their Free Market Capitalism and Democracy and unknowingly became too dependent on US. The problems that the US president has to address just becomes too much when you add in this "Dependency" factor. Whether you like it or not, every decision, he is gonna make is gonna affect the world, not just the US. And that is the sad reality. We are in a once-in-a-century crisis right now, because the current administration for some reason, refused to acknowledge this fact.

You can read the 6-page article here and it will give a pretty good idea of how the next 4 years can be. Anyways, am eagerly waiting for the results of the US elections.

Obama informercial

2008-11-01T14:38:00.004+08:00

Check this one. I found in Time website. Prolly shd hav been the effect of Obama buying primetime for an infomercial. If you havnt seen it yet, you can see the infomercial here. I think Obama has too much money to spent and is not quite sure, what he can do with it, with elections coming to an end. "Spend this many millions in this many days". lol.

Spoofing Sarah !

2008-10-29T16:45:00.004+08:00

"Katie, I would like to use one of my life lines"

This is hilarious. I read something in Time website today, titled, "Shamelessly Spoofing Sarah". See the videos and have fun !

I dunno how many ppl saw the Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric, where she said, she has foreign policy credentials, just because she can see Russia from Alaska. I bet, even Vladimir Putin would have laughed hysterically when he read about this. For some reason, when i saw the interview, i remembered the Miss Teen USA video.

After seeing the videos, i thought about President Bush. I mean, how is she different from Bush? Have you seen the "Sovereignty" video, where President Bush, tries to explain what tribal sovereignty is? lol.

I was actually feeling bad, that Bush is leaving, because with Bush it was too much fun. But i think we have Sarah Palin now. Atleast for this, Sarah should win.

US presidential Elections - II

2008-10-23T18:41:00.004+08:00

Have you seen the "Google Docs rox" video in youtube? I kind of like the "commoncraft" series. I dunno how many people know about this. But check the following video, titled, "Electing a US president in plain English".

The US system is so complex. The first time i was introduced to the US politics, it was through the module "Introduction to Political science" in my second year. Until then, i had no clue about their presidential system. We often read about this in "Civics" (Last few pages of "History" book, where they vaguely introduce rights, duties, blah, blah) in school. But who cares about Civics, when you get enough choice in "History" portion. (That is the plus side of studying in State board syllabus)

As i was saying, the US system is quite complex. But this video makes it so simple. I wish i had seen this video when i was doing that political science module. (Not that, it would have helped my grade. Just that it would have made me go to classes)

Why Obama is winning

2008-10-23T12:17:00.002+08:00

I read an article in Time website today, about the Obama's journey in the last two years. Was really interesting. You can read it here.

"He is undoubtedly as ego-driven as everyone else seeking the highest office — perhaps more so, given his race, his name and his lack of experience. But he has not been childishly egomaniacal, in contrast to our recent baby-boomer Presidents — or petulant, in contrast to his opponent. He does not seem needy. He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision."

Is it really the end of America and Capitalism?

2008-10-21T12:39:00.003+08:00

Is the current crisis, the beginning of the end?

America has always been the sign of Democracy and Capitalism. (or Anglo-Saxon capitalism, as the Europeans like to call it). No denying that. My opinion is, Democracy is the best form of government, in spite of all the trouble that comes as one package. And capitalism is the best way to increase the prosperity and also is the best ideology for nation-building.

A serious question is being raised these days. Is the current crisis, the end of American dominance in the Finance ground? The American government is planning to buy stake in all the big banks. They have publicly announced that this is a short term decision and the government will not interfere in the banks activities. But many Europeans have already started saying that the American system has failed. Is it really the end of capitalism? I hope not.

But what exactly is about to happen? If indeed America fails miserably, what will happen next? Read this article in Wall Street Journal, titled, "The dangers of Diminished America". I think every line makes sense in this article. The failure of America will indeed create a power vacuum. And given the current situation, where the world rogue countries are either afraid of America or dependent on America, this could prove disastrous. The Democrats in America are already talking about ending the war in Iraq, abruptly. They are already talking about cutting foreign funding. They are going to concentrate more in Nation building. Considering the current situation, where Recession in the US in unavoidable, i think this can create real trouble for the next president. Lets hope Obama can lead the nation, as he led his campaign in the last two years, which is the best example of how a campaign should be run. McCain campaign was chaotic. Not in line with the Democrat, as pointed out by Colin Powell.

But the serious question remain, What is his stance going to be? Is he going to pull out the country from the world and create a "Financially induced Isolation" or he is going to keep the country as the focal point for the world and pay the huge price tag? We are not sure.

I have a friend, and we constantly argue about this. His view point is that capitalism has failed; Deregulation and Decentralization has failed. My point is, yes, it has failed to some extent. But the question to be asked is, "What alternative do we have?" And i truly believe Capitalism and Democracy is the best way for prosperity and we are not going to achieve that in a world where America fails, and a place where there is no one else to take up the leading role.

Also, read this interesting article in Newsweek magazine titled, "There is a silver lining", by Fareed Zakaria. And also, another article in Newsweek, by Francis Fukuyama, titled, "The End of America Inc"

Anyways, lets hope for the best and wait until January 2009.

Power of Oil !

2008-10-14T12:06:00.001+08:00

Check the following link. I found it using stumble upon. Btw, if you havnt started stumbling yet, now is the time. Great tool to kill time.

http://www.dubai-architecture.info/DUB-GAL1.htm

Varanam Ayiram - Songs

2008-09-27T16:58:00.002+08:00

Just heard the songs of VA. Really liked it.

Well, it is Harris. So in few more days, we can expect to see people uploading videos in youtube, showing with proof that he "adopted" the songs from some english or spanish song. But lets give it up. The songs are really good. A good mix of fast and melodious numbers. I liked 5 songs out of the 7. "Adiye Kolluthey", "Yethi Yethi", "Nejukkul peithidum" are the three most played songs according to my winamp playlist.

Really looking forward to the release of the movie. They say it is like Forrest Gump, which is one of my fav movies of all time. So should definitely see the movie.

Black Monday !

2008-09-15T16:22:00.005+08:00

Lehman Brothers office in Wall Street

This is a famous term in the Wall Street. Every traders nightmare is this. And that is about to happen. The monday that initiated the "Great Depression" in 1930 is called the Black Monday. Can today, the history repeat itself? What will happen if this monday indeed becomes the beginning of the biggest depression that we have ever seen? Or will the take over of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, smoothen the crisis? What is in store for the Asian Markets?

There are so many unanswered questions and we shall get the troublesome answers in few more hours, when the NYSE and DowJones start the trading.

Lehman Brothers, one of the worlds most successful Investment Bank is about to file for bankruptcy. Lehman was one of the highly paying, cool investment banks. But today, it is filing for bankruptcy. No one has a clue as to what will happen to all the 25000 employees in Lehman. All their stock options evaporated in days. The stock price of Lehman was once worth 85USD, but on friday it was 3USD. Almost a 95% drop in stock price within a matter of few months. The CEO's stock options were worth almost a billion one year ago. but now, his stock options are worth 36 million. The worse is yet to come. If lehman indeed file for bankruptcy, the stock price will fall way below than this. There are so many companies that have invested in Lehman Brothers stock and bonds and Lehman will drag them all to mud.

Next is Merrill Lynch (ML). One of the oldest and most famous Investment Bank in Wall street. The company was worth almost 150 billion a year ago. But now, they have been acquired by Bank of America for 50Billion. But i would say, this is a good move by ML, as they can prevent themselves from becoming another Lehman.

If you had followed the events that happened in the last weekend, it was like a thriller novel. All the emergency meetings and the billion dollar funds and rescue attempts...Lehman and ML were two of the four pillars of Wall Street and American Banking system in general. They have collapsed and brought to their knees by this Subprime mortgage crisis. “My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, and these are the most extraordinary events I’ve ever seen,” said Peter G.Peterson, co-founder of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group who was head of Lehman in the 1970s and a secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration. (During the Interview with the New york Times)

This leaves Singapore in a very bad state, as Singapore is one of the Financial hubs, where ML and Lehman are pretty strong. What will happen to the employees here? what will happen to students like me, who are just now starting to look for a job? Singapore is pretty much a manufacturing hub. If it is not Finance industry, Singapore will face serious problems.

This problem can continue to European Markets. I recently read an article in nytimes, that said the house prices in UK are suddenly falling in a rapid rate. If you can remember, this is exactly how the US credit crisis started. If the problem continues, it will result in the downfall of the European banks that have been pretty sterile to the credit crisis so far. Lets hope that doesnt happen.

Indian software companies could face various problems. They might loose a lotta money in this crisis. When the foreign companies fear about their future, the first spending they will cut is IT.

What is the fate of US Economy? What is most likely to happen? These are two important questions. Well, the answer lies in todays stock market. If the stock market reacts very very badly to the problems in ML and Lehman, then that is the beginning of the disaster. Because you see, failure in investor confidence will seriously affect the stock prices. If all the investors think their holding is risky, they might try to sell it off. If every single investor is plannin to do that, then we are doomed. The virus will then spread to all the other sectors, with falling stock prices and job cuts. And further increase in inflation and spiralling loss in consumer product manufacturing companies.

All the financial ministers have already started pleading the markets not to panic. There can be no panic in Japan, because the exchange is closed for a public holiday. But no one is sure how the other stock markets will react to this. This might as well change the way we see Banks and Investment banks for the next few years. There is so much at stake here.

Rare ARR Interview

2008-09-02T16:04:00.004+08:00

I dont know how many people have seen this interview. I think, this was taken roughly one year after the film Roja.

One small question, can I vote for Barack Obama?

2008-08-29T22:39:00.008+08:00

Funny cartoon i found in Time Magazine

The entire world is talking about him. Let me just say this. If i had a vote in the US, i am gonna vote for this guy. I have no relation whatsoever, i dont live in the same country as he is and pretty much dont like the country and its policies, but i can swear it, if i had a vote, i will most certainly vote for him.

I pretty much spent the last 5 hours watching various debates that i missed to see and also the speeches in the Democratic National Convention by various Democratic Party Speakers, including Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and of course Barack Obama. And also watched all the TV ads by John McCain.

As Bill Clinton said, "the heat in this election is so high, that i think it even contributed for the Global Warming". I am really looking forward to all the presidential debates. Past few weeks, John McCain have been hitting hard on Barack Obama on his various policies and his lack of experience. But this DNC looks like a twist. It shows that Barack Obama is ready to take on McCain and his complaints about Obama. That is a great start.

See this fairly lengthy article in International Herald Tribune about the speech of Barack Obama and what the future holds for the Democratic Party. The Speech by Barack Obama was just brilliant. "An Economy that honors dignity" is a dream. Which is currently a dream in all the countries around the world. The first part of a 5 part video is here. Watch the first and you will certainly watch all the 5. But i recommend the last part and so i have embedded the video here.
'

And also the speech by Bill Clinton, was amazing. "We have to show the power of our example, rather than the example of our power". At one point in time, Bill Clinton said something good about Obama and the crowd started chanting, "Yes, we can. Yes, we can"(Obama's party slogan). He immediately stopped them and said, "Yes, you can. But first, you gotta elect him". Great timing. I have pretty much watched all the videos of his speeches in youtube. He is most certainly one of the greatest American presidents( just for one min here, forget Monica Lewinsky). The first part of the three part video of his speech is here.

If you wanna check out various policies of Barack Obama, visit his Scribd page. If you dont know what Scribd is, it is the youtube of documents. Anyways, i also saw few ads by John McCain team and all the recent ones show Hillary Clinton saying something bad about Obama. Are you confused why people in the same party say bad things about each other? If yes, then welcome to American Politics. Hillary started lots of issues to beat Obama to win the Democratic nomination, and sadly the Republicans are using that against Obama now. See the video below and you can see why Obama didn't select Clinton as his Vice President. This should hurt anyone's feelings. Hillary said it once and McCain is now using it against Obama. It is definitely a little bit funny.
'

Biggest minus for Obama is his lack of experience and lets hope Joe Biden helps him with that. Biggest minus for McCain is his association with Bush and his policies.

Bush and McCain.
(This picture makes me laugh every single time. Sorry cant help it)

Before the debates, there is one other thing that i am really really looking forward to. I am waiting to see Bush and McCain in the same stage, in the forthcoming Republican national convention. Gotta wait and see what President Bush is gonna say about McCain. And what McCain is gonna say about Bush.

Is America helping Afghanistan?

2008-08-28T11:49:00.004+08:00

"If there is no law, and the government does not listen to people's complaints, then it is better to go back to the Taliban era. At least then we had justice." - Sister of a 11 year old child who have been raped in Afghanistan.

I am not a huge fan of American policies. During the past 7 years after 9/11 attacks, America literally stopped investing in herself and started attacking all the other countries. They have spent a trillion dollar in both the wars. And what have they achieved? Nothing. They have ruined the development within their country and also ruined the lives of various other countries, including Afghanistan or Iraq. I am not saying, the Afghans and Iraqis had a prosperous living before America entered their life. But at least they had a secure life. When America created a political vacuum in both the countries by removing Taliban and Saddam, the vacuum was filled by bad people. And that is the reason for this political failure. Read this article in "Time" Magazine, about child rape in Afghanistan and i am sure everyone will share my opinion.

American might be a world superpower, they might have the world's best army, navy, etc, etc, buts lets face it, they dont have the resources, to restore order in a country. They can march in and remove the Talibans and Saddam in a week, but they just cant restore order in a country. That is a tremendous task and America has failed in both these countries. They have to realize the entire world economy is swirling around theirs and should become more responsible. The lack of this realization is the reason why people are even talking about the emergence of another Super power.

The Civil Engineers society of America have calculated that the American government has to spend one trillion more dollars in the next 5 years to update the infrsturcture in America. Because there are nearly 10000 bridges in the US, that needs some kind of patch work to be done or all the bridges will become unusable in 10 years. Now, can you see the where the trillion dollars went? The tallest and attractive buildings are not in the US anymore. Can you see why the government was not able to upgrade the technology and infrastucteure in the country? They were concentrating completely in wars and the affected people are not just Americans. I hope atleast the next president will realize this.

Reflections on Olympics 2008

2008-08-24T14:08:00.004+08:00

Today the Beijing Olympics officially comes to an end. This was a good Olympics. With 40 billion dollar budget, this is the most costliest Olympics. I read somewhere that the Chinese government has already did break even on the spending for the Olympics games. That is just brilliant.

I went to Beijing during the last year december, as a part of an "Exchange" program between Peking University and NUS. It was a good experience. I was the only non-chinese guy. I din understand a single word of Chinese. And the Chinese din understand a single word of English. It was a good experience.

" I WAS THERE "

(Can you see the "Birds nest" and the "The National Aquatics Center" in the background ?)

In all the meetings with the professors from Peking university and from the meetings with few beijing based companies, (Lenovo, Sohu, Aigo, etc) one thing was clear to me. The ambitions of the country was high. They had huge hopes for Olympics and they were looking to expliot all the opportunities to take their companies global. If you can remember, Olympics in Japan paved way for all the Japanese companies to go global and that is why their economy became strong. The chinese were also looking to do that. That was the first thing in Agenda.

The dominance of Chinese in this olympics is discussed a lot. Check this article, in the Washinton Post. The article titled "The Real China threat" addresses their dominance and what it means to the rest of the world and how their policies contradict that of the United States. Talkin about the dominance, read this article in Newsweek magazine, about "The post-American World". Pretty interesting.

One take-home point is, this olympics is seen as the beginning of the end of America and beginning of another era of Chinese Dominance in the world history. Lets see.

This olympics was good olympics for India too. We won 3 medals. Read this article in Newyork times, that made my blood boil. They call india as the "mysteriously nonathletic nation". That is kinda demeaning. But i hate to agree, that is the truth. Cricket is not a athletic game. You need more stamina to play soccer or Tennis compared to Cricket. (One thing that makes me laugh is, Beach volleyball is in Olympics, but not Cricket. Sorry Cricket fans)

The opening ceremony was just brilliant. If you missed it, see these photo galleries in "Time" website. Pretty good collection of pictures.

But few really bad things happened in this Olympics. First the lip-sync. say whatever you want, nationalism, Olympic spirit, but that issue doesn't look good in the eyes of the world. Similarly the fake fireworks issue. It just shows their desperation to make the opening ceremony into a big hit. Above all is the Gymnastics issue. I don't know if anyone can prove it, or if it is true, but that really gave a bad impression to China. It raises a question as to whether china won all the gold in the same way. Obviously that is not the case, but i cant help asking that question.

Anyhow, today is the olympics closing ceremony. Am eagarly waiting to see that live in Channel 5.

4 oranges for 100 billion...4 oranges for 100 billion...

2008-07-22T03:17:00.003+08:00

People in India are always complaining. Always whining about something. But look at Zimbabwe, inflation is only 2.2 million percent and people dont call for a Trust vote. Communists should see and learn from this fantastically stable south African nation.

Read the "Economic Times" article here.

Zimbabwe dollar

"Boom-De-Yada Boom-De-yada"

2008-07-20T03:06:00.005+08:00

I saw this really good ad by "Discovery Channel" in GV Max the other day, when i went to watch "The Dark Knight". Check this out. Really awesome. The song got stuck in my head and i was singing it all day. Well, if i were given the job of editing this ad, i would have added one more line after "The World is just Awesome" and it would say, "Mend your ways, or it is no more". Pay attention to "Boom-De-Yada" said by Stephen Hawkings computer.

The Dark Knight

2008-07-19T19:28:00.008+08:00

I am a huge fan of batman. All the other super heroes are not as good as batman. Lets face it, Spiderman is just some mutant combination. Superman is some extra terrestrial living being. Batman is the real hero. (Believe it or not, i have 8 GB worth of Batman episodes in my PC. Ya, it does sound childish, but i don't care.)

I have always loved the batman series. If you consider all the villains faced by comic superheroes, the villains that Batman face are far more creepy and dangerous (If you watch Spiderman series, you can recall that all the villains that spidey face are from other planets or some mutant lizards or some lousy sand man) On the other hand, see the villains that batman face. Joker for example. There is no better villain than this character. Purely psychotic with a criminal master mind. Best villain ever.

I went to the movie, "The Dark Knight" today. Imagine the following scenario. The movie is over. People are just sitting in the theater silently watching the credits roll. Spellbound. Totally stunned by the movie. That is how powerful this one is. Of all the movies, that Nolan has directed, I would say, this is five times as good as "Batman begins". Three times as good as Prestige" and two times as good as "Memento"

Fantastic screenplay. Honestly, a superhero movie cannot get better than this. Nolan has lived up to the title name. The movie is completely dark. The mere darkness adds a thrill to the movie. The special effects are fantastic. That too, to watch in GV Max is a great experience. If Bourne Ultimatum can get two Oscar for sound effects, then this movie should definitely get one for the Back Ground score alone.

Above all, the performance by Heath Ledger as Joker is just marvelous. He should get an Oscar for this. I wish he was alive to act as Joker in forth coming movies. His death is a real loss. (And only now i feel it. Damn !) The way they ended the movie gives me a clue that there is surely going to be a third part to this and Joker will be atleast one of the villains in the third part, even though he might not be the only villain. If that happens, the guy who is going to act as Joker got big shoes to fill in. The expectations will obviously be higher in the next part.

This is just not the same superhero movie that you watch in every summer. This one is a lot more than that. They have really put in so much thought into the screenplay and characterization.

Really imagine a world where a masked guy just comes in the night and kills bad guys. This will trigger a bit of heroism and will lead to series of "Copy Cat" issues and this has been clearly portrayed in this movie. Also the inner thought process of Batman has been made clear in this one. The Batman character is getting an uplift by directors like Christopher Nolan. Now Batman is getting a lot more gadgets like Bond, something different when compared to normal comics. These kind of evolutionary changes are attempted in this movie.

Overall, fantastic performance. Wonderfully made. One advice though. Please watch in theaters. Dont just watch it in your laptop and say "Ya. Ok. The movie was good. But i really cant understand what the fuss is all about" (Most of my friends said this after watching 300 in a 14" laptop screen)

Read "Time" Magazine review here.

Kuselan songs

2008-07-09T03:02:00.011+08:00

Kuselan

Kuselan – Superstar’s next movie. It is a remake of “Katha parayum pol”. It is a block buster movie in Kerala with Mr. Mammotty as lead actor. I really like Mammotty a lot. He is a very good actor. A sensible actor. But anyways, this post is about Superstar Rajnikanth.

Rajnikanth is one of the most recognized people in Tamil Nadu. One of the very few people respected by even the notorious Indian newspapers. Sincere and hard working person, as widely said in the film industry. People always say that he is too old to sing duet with some young heroine. But I don’t think so. Cinema is a business. Trying to make it into an art is a tough job that only people like KamalHaasan try to do. But at the end of the day, Cinema is all about business. And that is not a bad thing. If you think it that way, then no matter how old the product is, as long as it has a selling point, then there is no reason why the business world should not use it.

Rajni has some kinda magic. I dont know what he does. But people go crazy when they see him on screen. I saw the movie Sivaji (first day) in chennai Albert theatre. Oh my God. You have no idea. I would compare Rajni's karizma to Barack Obama.

If you take into account all the prosperous years for the Tamil Movie industry, Rajnikanth would have made a movie in that year. I am not implying that Rajni makes Tamil Filmdom into a success. I am just implying that there is a positive correlation. When Rajni is starring in a movie, he really does give a lotta confidence to the Tamil industry.

Kuselan Songs are out. I heard the songs. Songs are good. No complaints. GV Prakash has done a good job. I think I have heard few tunes before, but let’s give it up. Good work by this young music director. That guy is younger than me. But he is the music director for Rajnikanth movie. It is really an achievement.

But one thing I hate about the songs is the Lyrics. It is pure praise of Rajni. Every song somehow implies that he is THE star. You know, Rajni movies always have these kinds of lyrics. But this movie seems to be an over-dosage. If you think about it, director Shankar also used similar strategies in Sivaji. But he used in a very subtle way. But Kuselan is a bit too much. In this movie, Rajni acts as himself. Maybe that can explain why they were bold enough to use lyrics like this. Hear the “Cinema cinema” song sung by Shankar Mahadevan…Really really too much. Also the "Om zaarare" song. I presume, while writing this song the song writers forgot all the tamil words. So used all Rajni's previous movies to help them complete the song. I really pity the writers. I really hate the lyrics, but if u see my winamp playlist and iTunes playlist, these two songs top the list in "Most played items". Following lyrics from "Cinema" song.

அண்ணன் தொட்டா விரல் தான் பட்டா
தவிடு கூட தங்கம் ஆகும்
அண்ணன் நடிச்ச படத்த போட்ட
வருஷம் பூர வசூல் ஆகும்
superstarum சூரியனும் தான்
உலகம் சுற்றி ஒளிர்வது உண்டு
இந்த பெருமை அண்ணனை தவிர
இங்கே எந்த மனிதருகுண்டு தமிழா !

This verse reminds me of Election season. I dont know about Chennai. But in places like pudukkottai, before elections lotta funny things happen. The politicians will hire some lady who will sing in a man's voice. Then they will take a hit song, and change the verse of the song, prasing the political party head. And they will sing in open jeep. It was like the most fun i have had hearing a song. Kuselan is kinda same. (Sorry Rajni fans)

they obviously got carried away by the success in Sivaji. If this movie fails miserably in Tamilnadu, then Rajni is in for a big time embarassment. (For people who say, "Are you crazy? how will rajni movie become a flop?", i would like to remind BABA)

To me, Rajni doesnt look like a guy, who will force the directors to add these kind of lyrics into the movie. (One other Tamil Actor, forces all his directors to add these kind of lyrics, etc in the movies. You know who that actor is) I think Rajni is surrounded by opportunistic people. By all this means, these people are seeking his blessing to succeed in the film industry. Really sad.

In general, lyrics could have been better. But no complaints about music. I am a bit worried about the movie. I read the story of the original Kerala movie. It was really moving. (I am searching for the original movie. Gotta see that one before seeing Kuselan) But I am worried that Rajni’s fan following will force him to change the story, which will just replace the true story with lousy Heroism. Frankly the songs have not proved me wrong. July 25th is the release it seems. Lets wait and see.

KamalHaasan in Dasavatharam - 2

2008-06-22T21:41:00.010+08:00

My previous post KamalHaasan in Dasavatharam - 1

Dear Mr. kamal,

How many times should we make it clear to you? We have said it directly (by not watching Anbesivam) and indirectly (by making Thirupachi a big hit), that we, tamilians, hate good, thought provoking and intelligent movies. Why cant you take the hint? I am seriously disappointed. Next time, just make a movie, like thirupachi. All bullshit and no storyline. That is when you can make your movie a hit. That is when tamil people will acknowledge that you are a star. Please dont over think and give us some good movie like Dasavatharam. We plainly hate good movies. And tell the truth, did you honestly believe we, tamilians, will get the concept behind "chaos theory" ?

Yours truly,
Tamil Nadu.

--------
Dasavatharam Review:

Easily the best movie this summer. First of all, i was right. 10 different roles is just a selling point. It is a desperate measure inserted in the movie to make it more interesting. And frankly few make-ups were pathetic. Gotta agree that. But the amount of hardwork gone into every part of the movie is just fantastic. Kamal just steals the show. Fantastic performance.

The best part about the movie is the Screenplay. Amazing screenplay. This guy is a genius. It is really hard to write a screenplay for such a story line. Kamal has used the chaos theory perfectly in the screenplay. There is a bit of everything in the movie. There is a bit of god belief, Atheism, Communialism, politics, etc, etc. There are no loose ends. The screenplay is just that perfect.

Background music could have been better. Make-ups could have been better. They could have avoided the scene in which Mr. Karunanidhi praise kamal for saving the world. Asin's character "Andal" behaves like a small kid. That could have been better. But so far this movie is the best with respect to special effects in Tamil Cinema. (Maybe "Robot" will take this spot in the future. But gotta wait and see).

I thought only English movies are going to be better this summer and franly i thought Dasavatharam cannot be that great. But i am so wrong. This movie is better than "Indiana Jones and the crystal skull".

Hats off Mr. Kamal, for the good screenplay and good storyline with lots of messages.

-------
Anada Vikatan has given Dasavatharam 43 upon 100:

How can they give "Dasavatharam" 43 out of 100, while giving "Santhosh Subramaniam" 44 ? I used to like this magazine a lot. But now, i think it is getting worse. And i feel bad for it.

I Hate Facebook !!

2008-06-21T14:27:00.009+08:00

Facebook is actually a very good tool. I should not deny that. Few predict that Facebook will become an Online Operating System in few years. People have already started creating applications for Facebook and it is actually a module in NUS. Google is chasing facebook in all ways possible. Their Orkut business is not doing that great. So they introduced the "Google Friend Connect" to remove Facebook from the picture. But to me it seems they are not going to be successful in that venture as well.

Inspite of all the craze, i hate facebook. There are few reasons though.

1. Facebook wont allow me to use S Sathappan as my name. It forces me to use my full name.

2. Even if i enter my full name (Sathappan Sathappan), it says, "Repetition not allowed". (Facebook has strict rules about the name that you use for your profile. I think they are trying to make it professional.) So if you check my facebook account, my name is "Sathappan Sathapan"

My profile

Book Review - Freakonomics

2008-06-20T22:06:00.007+08:00

This is a very famous book. Most people would have already read it. So if i write a review, it makes no sense. But the book is really good. As always, it is "New York Times" Best seller.

One thing i really like about this book is the way the author has related irrelevant things and finally made a beautiful sense out of it. Do you think there is a relation between Abortion and Crime Rates? There is a stunning relation. Read the book and you will find out how.

Of all the chapters, my favorite is the chapter about Drug lords, crime rates, etc. It is all explained in a economist point of view. Definitely worth a read.

Reliance Petroleum Limited

2008-06-17T17:29:00.009+08:00

There was an article about Mukesh Ambani in the International Herald Tribune. The title is "A tycoon for the new India, loyal to the old"

There is no need for introduction to Mr. Ambani. He is the richest person in India. As said in the article (and I agree), he is the most famous and powerful private citizen of India.

I really admire the Ambanis. Espesially Dirubhai Ambani. If you look at all the other rich folks in India, including TATA, Birla, etc, etc, all these guys were rich for over five to six generations. They had close ties with the British. Ratan Tata didnt create the Empire. But Ambani has created an empire from nothing. He is richer than all these guys. Ambani story is a really inspirational story. U can ask me, how Mukesh is different from Kumaramangalam Birla. He is different because he was there when his father suffered. He was with his father, even when Dirubhai Ambani was a normal textile business owner in a 10x10 room. That is what makes him different. That is the source for his passion and entrepreneurial spirit.

In the recent Shareholders meet, Mukesh Ambani proudly proclaimed the completion of his mammoth project. Here are few facts.

1. Refinery location - Jamnagar

2. Construction contractor - Bechtel Corporation, America. (Bechtel employed thousands and thousands of engineers to complete the project. Apparently Mukesh Ambani had said to Bechtel that he is not bothered about the cost but bothered only about the schedule. The project engineers worked day and night to complete the project on time. )

3. Refinery stats - World's biggest refinery, with the daily capacity of 1.2 million barrels. The next biggest refinery in US can't produce even half of this one. The refinery is constructed keeping the future in mind. It is widely said that in 20 years, it is impossible to get "pure crude" and so the purification process will take lots of time and resources. Most refineries in the world are not capable of doing that. But this reliance refinery is capable of refining even the worst kind of crude. That is the specialty. In 20 years, there is a fairly good chance that India might become the petro-chemical hub of the world. They have leased 3 oil wells in Gulf and that is going to add a lot more revenue to RPL.

Reliance is planning to construct two more Cracker Units and they are planning to venture into Downstream business in collaboration with Dow Chemicals. If everything goes according to plans, no one can stop Mukesh Ambani. But there is an eminent threat for the refinery. It is close to Pakistan border. He is spending millions and millions of dollars on this. But why construct such a big refinery near Pakistan border? That is one thing i cant understand. Only time has to answer that. But he will break even in two to three years.

This is not the only successful area where Mukesh has invested. We all know about "Reliance Fresh". He is also planning to start a luxury cab service in Mumbai by 2009. I recall an "Economic Times" article that said, in 2015, Mukesh will be running a private government. That day is not too far.

Yahoo is now Damaged Goods !

2008-06-16T23:42:00.003+08:00

I read this really good article in "New York Times" today. Thought it was very apt, given the current problems in Yahoo. I just have to add one more thing. This Yahoo story is an important lesson all the giants in Internet business like Google, Facebook, etc should learn. Remember, Yahoo was worth 100 Billions once. It was once the coolest company, like Google is today. www.yahoo.com was widely regarded as the "world's most visited website". Not anymore.

This is how bad the US stock Market reacted for the
Yahoo-Google Deal

Inflation in India

2008-06-14T17:31:00.008+08:00

Inflation in india is 8.75%, highest in the past 8 years.

Inflation is a normal issue in any country. Developing or developed doesn't matter, inflation cannot be completely eradicated and should not be. There should be certain amount of inflation in the country for a very safe economic situation. Lets not forget the fact that many African countries face deflation. Even inflation can be tackled, but deflation, is a real mess.

Inflation in India has been in the rise during the last couple of months. If you had constantly followed, the rise in inflation was set by rising oil price (right now, oil price is flirting with 130$ per barrel) and food prices around the world, weak US dollar, recession fears in US, many many more. Everything is interlinked. That is the biggest of all the problems. Until normalcy sets in every aspect, Inflation cannot be controlled. But rest assured, this is a temperory state. It will definitely change. But will take time.

As our Finance minister said in his book 'View from the outside', "Inflation will not affect the rich people. It will only affect the savings of the middle class people. But poor people will face the worst side of it. That is why inflation is a serious issue in India."

The government has been doing a lot to control it. They have literally stopped exports of all food products, hoping to control the food prices in the domestic market, but fueling the global food price. (Starving the neighbor for the entire country's good is still a bad thing, but that is a complete different issue). One very bold decision by our Finance minister is forbidding the Futures trading. It has already created tensions in the Indian stock market. But i think that is a necessity now. "Futures trading" is a big concept, but to be short, it has power to increase the price of anything. (Ya, anything, from oil to steel). And we all saw what this can do to Oil price.

Finance minister P.Chidambaram & RBI Director Y.V.Reddy

They have increased the CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio). They hav increased the Repo Rate. They are doing every thing possible. Lets also not forget the fact that the indian economy is expected to grow more in this year, inspite of all the crisis.

The reason i write this is because i went to Mustafa centre twice in the past 2 weeks looking for rice. For your information, Indian Rice is not available in Singapore right now. Same is the case in many foreign countries, as India stopped exports. There was a huge line waiting for some good ponni rice. Also, the price of 1 Kg ponni rice was 1$ few months ago. But it is around 3$ today, that too you will get it only if you are patient enough to wait for 2 hours. Well, i just cant wait for two hours. So instead i bought some Lily fragrant Chinese rice. Ya, you heard it right. When you cook, the rice will smell like Lily. It should be fun !!

The Energy Crisis

2008-06-11T00:01:00.010+08:00

The Oil Price in India has been increased yet again, by 5 Rs per liter for petrol and by 3 Rs for Diesel and 50 Rs for LPG

Global Oil price increase. Pay attention to the last graph

3 days ago, the price of oil increased 11 USD in one single day. This is the highest one day rise in the history. Many reasons are attributed to this. But I would say speculation is the most deadly reason. Maybe the Indian finance minister also felt this way, so he cancelled all the "Futures Trading" in the Indian stock Market. But the speculation trading is still going on in New York and London stock markets. Whatever the reason is being said, the main reason for the increase in oil price is the Supply-Demand Mismatch. The OPEC cartel refused to increase the production because they did learn the lesson a decade ago. When they increased the production, the oil price came down so bad, that they had to face some heavy losses. So the cartel is refusing to increase the production and they are exactly doing what any smart businessman will do. Can’t blame them really. The biggest problem is the world's dependence on oil.

Many people just don’t get the fact that Oil industry just doesn’t affect the Petrol, Diesel and LPG price. It is a major factor. Every industry right from the electronics, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc, etc, etc...Use one or the other by-product of the Oil industry. Ethylene is one of the thousand useful by-products we get while refining crude oil. See how much it is useful in the modern world, as said in Wikipedia.

“Approximately 80% of ethylene used in the United States and Europe is used to create ethylene oxide, ethylene dichloride, and polyethylene. In smaller quantities, ethylene is used as an anesthetic agent (in an 85% ethylene/15% oxygen ratio), to hasten fruit ripening, as well as a welding gas. Polyethylenes of various density and melt flow account for more than 50% of world ethylene demand. The primary use of polyethylene is in film applications for packaging, carrier bags and trash liners. Other applications include injection moulding, pipe extrusion, wire and cable sheathing and insulation, as well as extrusion coating of paper and cardboard.

Ethylene derivatives include: ethylene oxide, styrene monomer (via ethyl benzene) and linear higher olefins. Ethylene oxide is a key raw material in the production of surfactants and detergents. It is also used to manufacture ethylene glycols, which are in turn used in soft drinks and food packaging and textiles, and to make ethylene oxide glycol ether solvents. Styrene monomer is used principally in polystyrene for packaging and insulation, as well as in styrene butadiene rubber for tires and footwear. Linear higher olefins are used as base materials for the manufacture of detergents, plasticisers, synthetic lubricants and additives, but also as co-monomers in the production of polyethylenes”.

Next time, when you buy a room freshener, or a perfume or any pharmaceuticals products or any manufactured product for that matter, check the ingredients. You will find one or other Crude oil byproducts in it.

Well, there is an alternative. We can switch to Natural resources. For example, we can use Natural rubber instead of synthetic rubber for making tyres. That is what Goodyear tyres does. (Btw, synthetic rubber also relies mainly on Crude oil.) But wait a second, that is not going to be possible in the long run. Do you know the reason? Yup that is right. Natural resources are also depleting. What choice do you have now, but to pay the price?

When oil price goes up, the Oil companies around the world will increase the price of the finished product to save them from loss (In India, oil companies will increase price only when they totally run out of money, to even buy basic crude, but the Communist party will oppose for that too. There are only two explanations. The Communists just don’t get the basic economy right, or they are targeting only the ballot boxes) When the oil companies raise the price of the oil, they also increase the price of all the other by-products. This will affect the entire Consumer Price Index of a country, pushing the prices too high and resulting in burgeoning crisis of inflation. (Btw, the inflation in India is 8.34% and for christ sake, don’t blame the congress led UPA government for this. This is the world phenomenon. If the prices in US doesn’t go up, that doesn’t mean, our government is doing something wrong. The reason is the companies in US are bearing the loss and they are not transferring the price increase to the people. So the inflation is low in US. But this wont last long)

Well, the Indian government can actually bear the difference in oil price and do us all a big favor. But that will be a disaster. If all the countries around the world do that, then the consumers won’t feel the pinch of the crisis. They will not curb their usage and so the global demand will keep on increasing. (That is what is happening in China. As the government is bearing the difference, the price of oil is so damn low, and the people are not reducing the usage. Which increases the demand in China and eventually Oil Price goes up in the world market. Something similar is happening in India as well, but not to the extent of China. Remember, no where in the world you will get Kerosene for 9 Rs. That is why the world nations are asking India and China to cut subsidies)

If the demand keep on increasing and the Oil price goes up in the World Market, the only people in the world who will be happy are the OPEC countries. So I honestly believe price increase is the only way out and it is inevitable. In fact, it is a necessity right now. There is a thin line here. Even if the government is rich enough to bear the price, price should be increased. I would certainly advocate for that.

But the current decision will have huge repercussions in the economy. First and foremost, the stock market will plunge (That already did happen). Next the consumer price index will go up. (That is about to happen) The price hike will be transferred from the manufacturer to the retailer to the consumer. And IT WILL AFFECT EVERY LIVING SOUL. And that is just something we have to live with. One and only way out is to find alternative resource to replace Oil in at least one tenth of its commercial usage. That is all we can possibly do in the next 20 years. Let’s not get our hopes high in completely replacing Oil. It is almost impossible in the next 20 years.

Book Review - I am America (and so can you!) by Stephen Colbert

2008-05-29T23:32:00.003+08:00

I know about the show “The Colbert Report”. It is a big Hit in US. But I never thought of watching it. I thought it was one other late late late shows. But after reading this book, I am gonna start watching the show. This book is freaking hilarious. It is pure mockery. Nothing but mockery. It is filled with really really offensive jokes. After the introduction, this book has a “How to read this book” page. Just read that page and you will get the feel of the book. I basically love sarcasm. (My fav character in F.R.I.E.N.D.S is Chandler Bing). This book is filled with sarcasm.

One of the many interesting things are the comments. You can find comments in the margins for the contents in the main page. It is actually distracting but I liked it. Very lively comments. When he talks about some personality, he uses their real name and the comment on the margin says “Names have not been changed. If carl cant handle it maybe he should find another church basement to dribble in. No one drives my lane without paying the toll". I bet you will laugh out loud. Every comment on the margin is similar to this. Lively and funny.

There is one other chapter on old people. In one place, he was discussing some serious issue and he added a quote there. Reading the quote i was really moved. When i looked the margin for his comments, this is what i saw "I made this quote up".

There is a chapter about sports. The name of the chapter when he begins talking about sports is “Sports”. But 2 pages down the line, he will “sell” the chapter to highest bidder (like most sports teams in US, which are owned by corporates and rich individuals. BTW, are you thinking about IPL now?) And after that, the chapter will be called “Chevron, the gas with Techron”. And 2 pages from that, he changes the name to "Kraft, creamy italian dressing". Every chapter is like this. There is some creative idea to make you laugh.

There is this chapter on immigrants and Higher education. Both these chapters are my fav in the entire book. In the higher education chapter he talks about resumes. According to the author, universities teach students nothing but to lie in resumes. This is how he says it. “One day in college you are bored in your class and make out with the Danish Exchange student next to you. And when you apply for a company, you tell in your resume that you carried out, ‘an independent research in a foreign tongue’.

And also in the higher education chapter, there is a page where he takes some modules from a typical university and gives his one line comments. Awesome. Just awesome. Few module names and Colbert’s comments in braces.

1. Introduction to Islam. (If you take this module, then the terrorists have won)

2. Woman on woman: literature of liberation (It is not what you think)

3. Introduction to Metaphysics (Nothing here you cant pickup by eating the wrong mushroom in a camping trip)

4. Ethnic stereotypes and the humor of cruelty (The professor will tell some hilarious jokes and you are not allowed to laugh)

5. Dance for Men (Go ahead. Break your mother's heart)

6. Carrer is poetry (Just move back in with your parents. Now)

There are many many more funny stuff in the book. But I do disagree in lots of his ideas, especially about old people, god belief, etc, etc. And also there are few things that make you frown. But the book is definitely worth reading. And I think I might buy this book. I almost forgot to mention, this is a New York Times Best seller.

Warning - if you hate sarcasm or if you get easily offended by sexual or racist jokes, then don’t ever read this book. This is not for the faint hearted.

KamalHaasan in Dasavatharam - 1

2008-05-29T23:12:00.004+08:00

Easily one of the most expected movies this year. And the grand Audio release just increased the expectation levels.

Before going any further, i have to say, i am one of the Die-Hard fans of Kamal. He is one of the best actors in Tamil cinema. Actually one of the Best in Indian cinema. During his long career, he has done some pretty amazing acting. His knowledge in this field is vast than anyone else. He is a good singer. Very good director. Above all, he is one of the best screenplay writers. You name any department in film industry, from production till editing, KamalHaasan is quite comparable to one of the best in that field. One of the very very few poeple in Tamil Industry who have good taste and quality in their mind when they make movies. Lets leave personal life here. This is completely cinema.

Dasavatharam is quite promising. But to be honest, i expected a lot more from Kamal. First of all, i dont understand, why he should act in 10 different roles? My point is, if the 10 roles are not connected to one another, then there is no point why same actor has to do that. If you need someone to act as the President of America, find a suitable guy. Why go the unnecessary extra trouble of doing expensive make-up for that? If you dont want to stop there, why not go ahead and act all the characters in the movie and with special effects, you can still make a movie. Kamal can act as the lead lady of the movie, he can act as the villains. In todays technology anything is possible. Why not do that? i really dont see anyone asking this same question. Maybe, the answer is obvious, but i am missing to see it. If you think that is the reason, let me know. I will be glad to know the reason. It seems to me, 10 roles is something that they desperately introduce in the movie so that they can get an attractive number. i gotta wait and see the movie before saying anything else.

I strongly beleive that, if the story doesnt demand the same guy to do different roles, Kamal should not do it. Just because he is capable of handling different modulations, doesnt mean he should convert the movie into some guessing game. But the movie comes with a commercial banner. In that way, it is a good idea. But for Kamal this is not good enough.

The moment i heard about Kamal doing 10 roles, i figured the movie is going to be like "The man from Earth".(It is a great movie. I strongly recommend. this is the tagline for this movie, "What if Jesus is alive?"). the movie is basically about a guy who has never died. He lived through all the centuries and he changed his appearance according to the century he lived in. That is the story of the movie. I thought Dasvatharam is going to be something like this. But the story line is quite disappointing to me, personally. Kamal is one of the few people in Tamil industry, who is contantly following new trends. He has always adopted new ideas and technologies from the Hollywood.

The songs are quite ok. But not that great. But lets face it, most of Kamal's movie songs are not a big hit. (Talking about songs, can you name me one movie that Vijay has acted and it is a failure with respect to songs? Somehow, all his movie songs are good)

Anyhow, i am really lookign forward to the release of this movie. Lets see.

Global Warming

2008-05-10T22:21:00.006+08:00

Recent Time Magazine cover
Special Green Issue

This is one of the biggest problems we are facing right now. This is not a rumor anymore. This is not a Myth. Robots taking over the world, is far in the future, if that happens. But Global warming is current issue. And this cannot be more real than it is now.

In just a few years time, Global warming is seriously going to affect the entire ecosystem. All the hugely populated coastal areas and the low lying lands will experience rise in sea level and constant floods. Global warming will result in melting of the Glaciers, which will also result in flood in the initial stage. But after 30 years, there will be huge scarcity for fresh drinking water. Predictions are that, 1 Billion people wont get drinking water by 2030. And this prediction is for Asia alone. Most of the fresh water rivers in Asia have their source in some glacier. Imagine India without Ganges. If water resources deplete, that is a death sentence. Science can help only a little in these extreme situations.

Effect of Global Warming in Arctic

Sea temperature will increase and marine life will be affected. Lots of agriculture products will become impossible to harvest. There will be a acute shortage for food. Lack of good drinking water will result in lots of diseases and other illness among living species. It is scary isn't it? It is about to get a lot worse. All this will happen in 2030 or sooner. Not too far, if we continue our current life style.

But we live our life as if we have another spare world, where we can shift if this one is totally destroyed. But nowadays, the awareness is comparatively high. If you still dont know about "Earth hour", then i am absolutely right in saying that we are so careless. "Earth hour" is a recent initiative, where people voluntarily switch off all the electrical appliances including Lights, PCs, etc, etc for 60 minutes. Most people don't understand the reason behind this. "Earth hour" is not to save the power during that 60 minutes. But it is just to give people a feel of how life will be in 50 years.

But i personally don't think this will help change anything drastically. Not many of us really care about all this. But there is a way. You know, in our house, we don't waste power. For example, we don't switch on fans, when it is not necessary. Frankly the reason is not to save the world. But to save money. (In middle class families every penny counts)

What is the lesson learnt? Global warming can be tackled only if we convert that into an economic issue. How do you think Singapore is so clean? Do you think it is because all the citizens are so good and considerate that they don't wanna pollute their country? Totally wrong. It is because of the heavy Fines. That is the most practical way to address Global warming. When you do this, there will be few other problems like double-digit rise in inflation, etc. But that is a lot smaller problem compared to Global Warming.

I firmly believe, when it becomes an economic issue, everybody will try to "save the earth". How can you convert it to an economic issue? Increase the oil price. Force everyone to reduce green house emissions. Give rebates to people who help in preventing Global warming, like Tax rebates, etc. That is the most practical way to address this issue. If you don't believe me, read this article in todays New York Times. Due to the increase in oil price (btw, today's Oil price is 126.04 USD per barrel, highest ever) there is a considerate increase in percentage of people using Mass Rapid Transits in US.

You cannot ask people to reduce the usage of oil for the world's sake. But when you double oil price, then everything will be fine. This might sound like a very scary idea, but trust me, better now than later. I am not totally wrong, am I ?

இளைஞர் இலக்கியம்

2008-04-22T23:54:00.003+08:00

By Pavendar Bharathidasan

ஊரில் தமிழன் மார்பை தட்டி
பாரில் தமிழன் நானே என்னும்
சீரை தந்த தமிழே வாழ்க !
ஓரா உலகின் ஒளியே வாழ்க !

(prolly would have studied this in school. But then, i was just studying for marks. So didnt really understand any real stuff. Can you blame me?)

This book is a classic. My Tamil teacher used to quote this book all the time. These days i am really starting to like my mother tongue. This book is another step closer to understanding the glory of our past.

தொல் உலகுக்குள் அல்லல் அருப்பதென்
தோள் தோள் தோள் !
வல்லவன் என்னை வெல்ல நினைப்பவன்
தூள் தூள் தூள் !

Pavendar's book has both the classic and also revolutionary lines like the ones above. see the below one. This is my favorite in the entire book.

தமிழ்ப் பெண்ணே தமிழ்ப் பெண்ணே
தமிழை ஏன் படித்தாய் ?
தமிழ் "படித்தேன்" அதை உண்ணத்தான்
தமிழ் படித்தேன் நான்.

If you cant understand the above verse, please don't call yourself a Tamil. To me, English is just the language of communication. It can never ever replace your mother tongue. I certainly do want to learn English. But that is just another language. It cant replace Tamil. Be proud to be a Tamilian.

oil price - 113.79$ per barrel !!

2008-04-13T11:30:00.007+08:00

This is today's(16 th April 2008) price. Comparing the price in the past 5 decades, this is the highest price. Even during the Gulf war, the price was not this high. The bad news, as said by my colleagues in WP, is "This is just the beginning." (It actually sounds like a tag line of some scary Hollywood flick).

There is a famous saying in our industry, "For every barrel of oil found, the demand increases by two". This is 100% true. If you ask me, it is quite less. From my end, it seems like the demand increases by three.

The oil price in the international market is based on basic Supply-Demand principles. The Kyoto protocol didn't create any kind of effect in US and the number of cars continue increasing. President Bush completely ignored the protocol but the US keep on stressing India and China to "decrease obsession" towards cars. (To me, it is totally unfair. But that is a whole different issue.) The point is, the consumption of Oil is increasing rapidly. Never before in history, oil wells have been exploited this much. As the demand increases, price gotta go high. That is the rule.

But this is not the only reason. There are many reasons, like tension in Arab countries, plummeting US dollar and Stock Markets. One other main reason is, during the previous down-cycle of the industry, no one took the initiative for the next up-cycle. So the oil companies are not able to tackle the demand.

What does this mean? It means that, the problem is a lot bigger than what we know. It means, the oil price will keep on increasing for years to come and there is nothing we can do about it. We just have to live with it, until the dependence on oil is reduced considerably. Tough times ahead of us for sure. There is one good thing though, Engineers in our sector, will have high demand for the next 30 years at least. (ya, i know i am being totally selfish here)

Recession in US ('?' or '.', am not sure..lets wait until june)

2008-04-12T17:21:00.014+08:00

Recession is a tough concept to define. But one pretty simple way to identify the recession is negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters. Most people, even the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, think Recession is on the way...

Well, this is really a bad news. but i cant understand one thing, how come people in America, all the Wall Street analysts, who are supposedly smart, missed to foresee the housing bubble? So this goes to say, nothing is completely foolproof.

A little background on Subprime crisis. In US, banks lend people money based on a very complex algorithm, that calculates every citizens "credit score". It takes into account, the number of previous defaults, your credit card transactions, house you live in, the car you drive, etc,etc and finally give a "Credit Score". Above 700, then you are in the Prime Market. You wont have any problem gettin a loan. But the tricky part is when you are below 700. That is the Sub-prime market. Basically a market with many defaulters, people who dont repay the loan properly. You might think, why in the world, do the banks lend money to people who they know are not going to repay the loan. That is where the Wall Street Analysts come in.

(Of course, we dont have any such complex system in India. SEBI and Satyam computers keep track of all the defaulters. The simpler the better, dont you think? )

When you lend money to someone, who you know is not going to repay properly and when the person also knows that and he is desperate for money, the banks have a leverage. They can charge him high interests. Really HIGH interest rate. In these kind of loans, the risk is high, but the returns are also high. Basic Risk analysis principle. Well, that is clear enough, why the banks lost billions and billions of money in this crisis. But how come Investment banks lost money?

The banks and mortgage companies issued "Mortgage backed Securities", as a measure to "distribute" the risk and eventually reduce the risk in their part. So basically all the companies which had invested in these securities lost all the money. Bear Sterns is a company that specialized in such securities. That is why the company went bankrupt. The crisis is not over. We are not even half-way thru it. The worst is yet to come.

Most banks are writing down their profits, which affects the Stock Market heavily. This it not the big problem. The biggest problem is that, people loose confidence. When they loose confidence in the system, they stop spending. When people stop spending money, the retailers stop stocking the products, the manufacturers stop producing the products. Can you see the negative cycle here ? This will lead to economic depression, which usually follows a recession.

This is seriously going to affect everything. There is a famous saying, "When America sneezes, we catch a cold". I am telling you, this is so true. When America sneezed, even pudukkottai (my hometown, soon going to be erased from the map of Tamilnadu, on the grounds of "practically non-existent" principles) caught a cold.

We cannot hope to avoid the crisis. We can only hope to get past this crisis atleast by 2009.

Movies this summer !!

2008-04-12T02:07:00.002+08:00

I am really looking forward to this summer for the release of lots of interesting movies.
My ranking for the movies, based on how interesting and promising they sound to me

1. Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale. And of course the Joker, one of the scariest villains of all times.
2. Mummy 3 - Mummy 1 and 2 were one of my favorite movies back then.
3. Wall - E - Just see the three trailers in "Apple Trailers" page and you will know why this is an interesting movie.
4. Hancock - I like Will Smith acting. And the trailer seems really cool. Looks like a pretty different plot.
5. Indiana Jones - Stephen Spielberg. This magic name is the reason.

Book Review: Imperial Life in the Emerald city

2008-04-12T01:07:00.005+08:00

"Imperial Life in the Emerald city" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

This book is the Newyork times best seller for two consecutive years. Also selected as one of the ten best books in the year of publishing. Needless to say more. And one more interesting fact, (which I learnt only after completing the book) is, this book is going to be a movie by name "Green Zone" with Matt Damon as hero and Paul Green Grass as director. Basically Bourne Legacy team. Then imagine the impact of the book.

Perfect screenplay for a movie. This books perfectly tells you, how the Americans were singing and dancing in the "pubs" created by Halliburton in the Green zone, while Baghdad was looted and torn apart. It perfectly paints the picture as to, how pathetically American Foreign Policy failed in Iraq. After reading the book, I agree that this is the worst failure for America with respect to Foreign policy, next comes Vietnam and then comes Cuba.

This tells the plight of the Iraq people and also, the carelessness of American Diplomats. When Timothy M.Carney, the then Minister of Industry in Iraq, under Paul Bremer, requested for information about the ministry that he was supposed to rebuilt, Washington sent him, a 3 page report, typed by an intern in White House. Remember, Ministry of industry in Iraq has 23 different sectors under its command. There were companies ranging from leather factories to battery manufacturing units. While Iraq was prosperous and when Saddam was "good", (which is basically the time before Iran war and Kuwait war, which btw put Iraq into a huge debt), Iraq actually exported its Vegetable Oil and Soap to India. Apparently these soaps were of number one quality and it was very famous in North India. During this Golden Period, Iraq's health care and Education systems was on par with Western World. Tap water was drinkable. You got Prada and Gucci in departmental store for damn cheap prices. Well, wat can you say ?

Now, Baghdad is torn apart by Al-Sadr Militia Group and many other such groups. There are 240,000 American troops in Iraq and the current government has already started withdrawing troops from Iraq, without full-filling any of their promises. The new Presidential hopefuls are all well prepared to withdraw troops immediately after they rise to power. Which means, Iraq will be looted more, more people will be killed and that kind of crime wouldn't have happened even if Saddam was alive. When Saddam was in power, even though he is a murderer and a culprit, one gallon of petrol was less than a nickel; School ran safely; there were no terrorist groups; army was very powerful; (this army will eventually be dismantled by Paul Bremer and will convert into the now Militia Groups, protesting against America. Greatest mistake he ever committed in his term as Iraq' Viceroy); people had drinking water and Electricity; People obeyed the laws; Police and Intelligence were efficient. But now, look at Iraq. Not many of us follow the news and killings in Iraq, because it is just like another Sri-Lanka. Everyday, someone dies. It is sad, but eventually we all get used to this. "Hmm, 20 ppl died in Iraq, ok then. What else is new today?" is our attitude. This is not our fault.

Another Huge Failure for American Foreign Policy... !! Who cares, In this modern world, with so much information and technology available, America will invade one other country in the near future. That will also be a huge debacle. Then they will ruin the country and make the lives of people even harder than it already is and no one will ask any questions !!

My next target, "Assassins Gate", a book about Saddam and post-war Iraq. Where assassins gate refers to the gate to the Saddam's Republic palace. Title is pretty good isnt it?

Vairamuthu - The Genius

2008-03-21T22:24:00.004+08:00

என்றன் படத்தை இமைக்காமல் பார்தணைத்து
தென்றல் விழிக்குள்ளே தேங்கிவரும் - அன்பொழுக
என்னத்தான் வேண்டும் இனிஎன்பால்; நானவளை
எண்ணத்தான் வேண்டும் இனி.

Can you appreciate the beauty in the above verse ? We all know vairamuthu and how great poet he is in tamil. But we all see him only as a song writer for movies. But we miss the great poet in him. The lucrative Cinema, hides his real talents. He is one of those writers who cannot be confined to just movies.

I recently completed the book, வைரமுத்து கவிதைகள், a compilation of his poems , in 910 pages(of course i skipped poems that are very vague and skipped poems, that i really cannot understand). Worth all the time. I am pretty sure, that i am going to read it again. there is another poem, in which he talks about "kannagi". His views are very different. If you get a chance read it to appreciate it. The title is, கருப்பு நிலா. I cannot give that poem here, because it is really lengthy. But here is another sample, (about baby)

மோக் நாடக முடிவுரை சொல்லி
வேகமாய் வந்து விழுந்த சதைத்திரை
-----
இருளின் நிழலில் இருவிழி மூடி
இருவர் நடத்திய இன்ப வழக்கின்
விளக்கம் சொல்ல வெடித்த சாட்சி
பிளக்க கூடா வெண்ணிலா துண்டு
-----
தடுக்க கூடிய தவறு இருந்தாலும்
படுக்கை வகுப்பில் பருவம் நடத்திய
காமக் கணக்கில் கடைசி மிச்சம்
சாமக் கவிதையின் சரித்திரப் பக்கம்
-------
(And the following is my favorite in the same poem)
-------
விந்தை தின்று உயிர் விளைந்ததே அதுதான்
விந்தை மாபெரும் விந்தை மண்ணில்
விழுந்ததும் குழந்தை வேதனை பாடி
அழுவதும் முனகி அசைவதும் ஏனோ ?
மரணக் கணக்கில் மற்றும் ஓர் பெயரைக்
குறித்துக்கொள் என கூறத்தானோ ?

Amazing rite? and the following about water scarcity in india

உயிரை பிதுக்கும் கூட்டம் அவளை
ஒதுக்கி தள்ளுது வீதியிலே
மயங்கி விழுந்த மயிலின் முகத்தில்
நீர்த்துளி தெளிக்க நாதி இல்லை
மங்கை சுமந்த தங்க மண்குடம்
மண்ணில் சிதறி தெறிக்கிறது
கங்கை காவிரி இணைப்பு திட்டம்
கையெழுத்தில் தான் இருக்கிறது

There are many other great poems in his book. If you have interest in Tamil, no, தமிழ், read the book.

Book Review: The Life and times of the thunderbolt kid.

2008-03-21T21:23:00.006+08:00

This is one of pretty good books, i read in recent days. I loved it. This book explains to you, how America was in the 50s. According to author, (and i accept, after reading the book), the best time to live in this world is US in the 50s.

I always regretted one thing about me. I almost forgot my childhood. I really cannot recall a significant thing in my childhood life. But this book, really reminded me of all the things i did in schooldays. If you wanna know how America became America, read this book.

One warning though, If you a kind of person, who don't like to laugh in public or who finds it a bit embarrassing, don't read this book in public. I was laughing so hard, passengers in the bus started to look at me differently. It was all worth it.

Book Review: View from the outside

2008-03-08T22:37:00.005+08:00

A view from the outside - By P.Chidambaram (FM of india)

This is another Good book i recently read. I recommend this to anyone with interest in politics and economics. It is surely worth your time.

Our FM proves it to you by this book, that he is not just another politician. He is not one of those for sure. He proves to you what a Harvard degree can do to a politician. After reading this book, you will wish that all politicians have foresight and wisdom like this man. I did.

This book is a compilation of the articles that he wrote in the "Indian Express", when BJP was in power and when congress was an opposition party. He is not afraid of commenting Congress party, when they make mistakes. He is not reluctant in congratulating the BJP when they do something good. Even though he is in Congress, he praises the good deeds by Vajpayee.

This book is an enlightenment, if you have no idea about what is going on in Indian politics and in the Indian form of government. A very good book.

But one thing is hard for me to digest. The author explains the various forms of bad governance in India. True, i agree all that he is saying. But i wonder, why nothing has changed even when they are in power?

Well, that is the beauty of Indian politics, isn't it?

Book Review: River out of Eden !!

2008-03-08T22:03:00.004+08:00

"And the river flew out of Eden to water the earth !!"

It is an amazing book by Richard Dawkins. His narrative style in this book is pretty damn good. This is basically a book about evolution. Anyone at the brink of being an atheist, will become one, after reading this. Anyone who doesn't believe that God really created all this, will enjoy this book.

I was fascinated by his explanation on how a human eye evolved from normal skin. Everything that he says, is not just his assumption or his view, but proven scientific fact. But many people might not find it to be true. I would say, the reason is, we are tamed to think and believe in such a way. This book questions that very basic way of our understanding. So how can you expect everyone to accept it?

He explains where and how the early Adam and Eve lives. He concludes that the early Eve lived in Africa. This Eve that he mentions is not the one in Bible. But his imagination of the first Homosapien. He mathematically explains to you the years that took for the homosapiens to evolve from a single celled organism.

One other fascinating theory put forth in his book is about Mitochondria. We all know, it is a part of the cell. (I still remember this, "Mitochondria is the Powerhouse of the Cell". Because this is one of the very important fill-in-the-blank questions in our stupid state boars syllabus.) Well, coming back to the point, the author explains to you how a mitochondria resembles and works like a Bacteria. He then explains how a human being evolved from a bacteria, which he assumes to be a mitochondria itself. You gotta read it to realize it. Amazing !!

If you like fascination, and evolution, read it !! I strongly recommend.

But to tell where i stand with respect to God belief, i personally don't think God created everything, or he is watching everyone of us from the above. I personally don't think we are all made for a reason. We human beings are the tiny little part that balances a very long and old equation. That is it. We are just one of the various probabilistic possibilities that could happen after big bang.

But i choose to believe in God. I choose to believe in Heaven and Hell. At least the fear of heaven and hell gives people a bit hope and it regulates life. What i hate is the baseless murders in the name of God. Probably i should recommend this book to the Muslim jehadis and the Hindu RSS.

Singapore MRT system

2008-02-17T00:57:00.007+08:00

After the project meeting, i was returning to my room, and on my way saw the thrid circle lane coming up in our campus. I mean the new MRT coming in Singapore, which will be fully operational in 2010. Well, if these people say 2010, then 2010 it is. Not like india.

Also i learnt that before 2016, 100 more MRTs are coming up in singapore. For someone who doesnt know singapore well, when all these 100 more MRTs are constructed, you will be able to see the next MRT from the current one. That is how small the country is and how much more MRT stations they are going to add. It is quite astonishing.

I compare this with chennai, which is almost equal in size as in singapore. But 3 times the population of singapore. Chennai roughly has 20 stations, with a very low number of people using the MRTS everyday. I can see how far we still lag behind singapore. I can only worry about it. Nothing can be done.

Apprantly the government here wants to reduce the number of cars and encourage the poeple to use the MRT instead of cars. Nice move, i should say. Very nice indeed. Instead of cars just clogging the streets, they can reduce the traffic; they can reduce the number of accidents; they can reduce the amount of petrol used and eventually reduce the dependence of the country on oil; they can reduce inflation as people will be saving a lot more than normal, etc,etc,etc..... Above all, what makes me happy the most is, they will reduce the green house gas emission in singapore. All the countries should learn from this small, but smart country.

Way to go !!

NIU Massacre

2008-02-17T00:28:00.003+08:00

Just wanted to reflect my thoughts after learning about the tragic NIU incident.

Why so many massacres in schools? Why in US alone? Is it because the youth in US are really stressed out? Is it because they dont have a filter for their stress?

Or is it a global phenomeno in every school, which we are not sure yet, as the "Guns for your safelty" culture is not widespread as it is in US?

Something has to be done. Life is not supposed to be this hard. It is not supposed to be this complex. But why is it so ? Did we humans make it into a complex filth, by our ideas and systems?

We humans, assume materialistic things are important. We define success and failure. We define winner and loser. Are we stringent in our definition? If so, can it be changed? i sincerely doubt it. People who are "successful" are successful because all others define success that way. As we define it, that is where the problem starts.

I would say, the Gun culture in US is the biggest problem why innocent people are killed for one persons wishes. May be the guy wanted to tell the world something that he thought will be powerful if he did it this way. Two things they can do, restrict the usage of guns or make the world a better place to live. The second one is far away from reality. So temporarily, they can do the first one.

First of all,

2008-02-16T18:38:00.001+08:00

Before i tried to write a blog, i tried to find any reason, why i should write one. I was worried if i will be able to maintain it. Am writing the blog now, but it doesnt mean i am truly convinced that i will be able to maintain it, but i am truly convinced that i should try.

After some time, When i read all my blog entries, i should get a different feeling, good or bad, doesnt matter. I should be able to recall the thoughts. May be possibly change my ideas and views.

That is my end expectation.