Kannadasan the best ?

I always used to feel Thamarai is the best poet to bring out a lady's love feel. but a rude shock on hearing "Ayirathil oruvan" song, "unnai naan santhithen"...particularly the second stanza goes like this...

Ennathal Unnai Thodarnthen,
Oru Kodi Pol Nenjil Padarnthen,
Sollathan Andru Thudithen,
Vantha Naanathal Athai Maraithen,
Mannava Unnai Naan Maalaiyittal Magizhven!!

Hopefully this should have been written by kannadasan...Tell me, who is better :)

Excellent Tamil verses!!

Two excellent stanzas, one read somewhere regarding Lord Shiva and other from a famous MGR song...translation provided...

Thillayile nadanam puriyum nathan enbaar! (They say you are the god who dances in Chidambaram)
Thikku ettilum jaalam seiyum vedham enbaar! (They say you do wonders in all eight directions)
Illatha idam illai enru uraipar! (They say there is no place without you (omnipresent))
Ithu athuvo, athu ithuvo endru thigaipaar!!(They feel if This is That or That is This...all refers to Lord Shiva)

Excellent verses on Lord Shiva, read somewhere sometimes back.

Other one is from famous song : "Kan pona pokile kaal pogalama"

Thiruntha ullangal irunthenna labam (Whats the use of souls which never correct themselves while living)
Varunthatha uruvangal piranthenna labam (souls which never feel sad for their bad deeds, whats the use of them being born in world)
Irunthalum marainthalum per solla vendum (whether a person lives or dies, his name should remain in the society)
Ivar pola yaar endru oor solla vendum (What a great unmatched personality was he, should be the comment in his town, where he lived)


Hopefully MGR has lived, atleast worthy of the last verse !!!

Have Breakfast or be breakfast!

A pretty nice forward from my colleague, Ms Sowmya Kamath...


I know it looks a long article, but once you start reading it, you will complete it till end!

Have Breakfast or .. be a breakfast..

Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?

Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.

Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.

Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).

Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.

Nokia admits that in the smartphone bus Apple's iPhone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?

The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question ֲ– "who is my competitor?"

Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."

In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?"

The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.

In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!).

So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no.

Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!

India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.

Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.

One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!

On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary!

The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast ֲ…orֲ…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.

ֲ—Dr. Y. L. R. Moorthi is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is an M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post graduate in management from IIM, Bangalore

Manager!

A nice forward from my colleague Rama...

One young academically brilliant person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score.

The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "none".

The director asked, " Was it your father who paid for your school fees?" The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.

The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

The director asked, " Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.

The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: "Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, "I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

The Director asked, "Please tell me your feelings."

The youth said,
Number 1, I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today.
Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.
Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship.

The director said, " This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously.

A child,who has been over-protected & habitually given whatever he / she wanted, would develop "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He / she would be ignorant of even his / her own parents' efforts. When he / she starts work, he / she assumes that every person must listen to him / her, and when he / she becomes a manager, he / she would never know the sufferings of his / her employees and would always blame others for his / her failures. For this kind of people, who may be excellent academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel any sense of achievement no matter what they do.
He / she will always be insecure, will be dishonest, will grumble, be jealous of others' achievements, be full of hatred and keep fighting for more. He / she will always want power and freedom, but not the responsibility that comes with it. He / she will refuse to take responsibility for any action of his / her. He / she will take credit for all the good things that happen and blame others for things that don't. This attitude pervades extensively, both in his / her professional and personal lives. Such kids also encourage relationships with only 'yes' men. That others can also be right, is beyond their acknowledgment.

If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead? Think about it.

You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, roam around in a car, wear branded clothes & watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, painting the fence, washing clothes, cleaning vessels, carrying groceries, buying vegetables, please let them also experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich they or their parents are, one day their hair will also grow gray, same as the mother of that young person.

The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the efforts of others, learns to be honest & sincere, experiences difficulties, assumes responsibility for his actions and learns the ability to work along with others, to get things done.

Endhiran - Review!

SRK: There is no story for me to act in this film...

When I saw this in a news paper, I too thought the film will be dumped ultimately. Overhyped, terrible budget, too long period of creation...I was sure that this will be a replica of BABA for Rajini. And there were lot of loop holes in the movie, though it was fictious:

1) Rajini adjusting Jaw screw in the Robo to get his voice :)
2) Rajini and Ash running from Kalabhavan Mani in muttukadu, when the car was just 50m away from them, in the opposite direction
3) Unnecessary intrusion of Kilimanjaro song after this sequence...I though felt songs were included for Ash to dance and repay her salary, but for which she didn't do anything big in this movie.
4) Rajini entering a pass-code to remove the "Red-chip" from Chitti, though Bora had kept it inside in climax. Who gave him the passcode?
5) Ash is still a medico but Rajini is a middle-aged prof...How did they love each other?
6) Chitti catching a mosquito simply because Ash told him so and the following Mosquito mode scene...who gave Shankar such an irritating and stupid idea? There are thousand things a lover can do for a girl, rather than catching mosquito...
7) Above all, a judgement pronounced and changed in 2 mins, in which Indian court will it ever occur Mr.Shankar? Its well know fact that even if we wait 60 years for a judgement, a single PIL can drag it for another decade or so, before both the parties die and the judgement is actually delivered.

Hell lot more...but is that Enthiran? NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

There was a comparison myself and my friend were discussing 10 days before the movie released...What if Kamal had acted instead of Rajini?

1) Robo will always talk through synthesizer.
2) Kamal will actually walk like Robo through out the movie.
3) Every scene would be logical, and
4) Above all, with a whopping budget, he would have bettered Hollywood movies, but would we people understand his class? He is living in a different era himself!

If Rajini acts,
1) First scene Robo will walk like a Robo
2) Second scene, Robo will start walking like Rajini
3) Third scene onwards, it will walk and talk like Rajini... :)

But we were really surprised to see exactly the same sequence on the screen :) No question of anyone leaving the theater without understanding a single scene...

Rajini as Chitti is excellent on screen, but Vashi overtakes him as a Noble professor...No heroism reserved for him, even when his girl-friend is dragged by hand and his Robo is rejected by AIRD. No heroic dialogues, no hand action mannerisms & no sand-swirling scenes like chandramukhi. He has lived like a professor, calm and gracious. Above all no opening song for a Master Blaster hero like him, simply "Awesome".

Comedy, action, screen-filling, its Chitti who does that all. From running on a train horizontally to save Ash & kicking on a person's cheek, simply because he is going to spit paan, let it be keanu reeves's matrix kick, Ash's exam preparation, labour ward performance, and anything and everything, he is superb.

Breaking the entire floor in Bora's lab, when he starts looking our for Ash,
"Enna yaaralayam azhlikka mudiyathu" and a boisterous laughter reminding Alex Pandian in a virtual call, what more can you expect out of Rajini? looking younger as chitti and falling in love with Ash, he is really very nice to see.

Second half, though depicted very lengthy in all reviews, made me sit at the corner of the chair. The quality of graphics in the movie, God, I was longing for a tamil movie of this graphics standard for long time. Shankar stands tall above all his illogical sequences listed above. The very fundamental of a Robo acting with feelings are depicted excellently...Kudos to the entire team. Not only that, every plan Vashi makes and Chitti breaks, awesome...may it be a sphere / needle / snake shape whichever the Robos take, graphics are crystal clear.

Dialogues are well written...may it be "mudiyum vashi, ithukku per thaan thiyagam" or Rajini carelessly saying "Robbo" after cutting down a Robo's leg, thinking it to be Vashi, theater thunders up with whistles.

May be I forgot some interesting stuff too...At the end of movie, I could feel Rajini's magic gripping me too. To quote the fact, this is the first ever Rajini movie I have watched on Screen in a theater :)

When I came out of the theater, I could still hear "I am Robo: Speed - 1 Tera Hertz : Memory - 1 Zeta byte".

BOSS's MASS RULES!

Bank Passbook

This is a good forward from my bro sometime back. Got to look it today.

Priya married Hitesh this day. At the end of the wedding party,

Priya's mother gave her a newly opened bank saving passbook.

With Rs.1000 deposit amount.

Mother: Priya, take this passbook. Keep it as a record of your marriage life.

When there's something happy and memorable happened in your new life, put some money in.

Write down what it's about next to the line.

The more memorable the event is, the more money you can put in.

I've done the first one for you today.

Do the others with Hitesh.

When you look back after years, you can know how much happiness you've had.'

Priya shared this with Hitesh when getting home.

They both thought it was a great idea and were anxious to know when the second deposit can be made.

This was what they did after certain time:

- 7 Feb: Rs.100, first birthday celebration for Hitesh after marriage

- 1 Mar: Rs.300, salary raise for Priya

- 20 Mar: Rs.200, vacation trip to Bali

- 15 Apr: Rs.2000, Priya got pregnant

- 1 Jun: Rs.1000, Hitesh got promoted

.... and so on...

However, after years, they started fighting and arguing for trivial things.

They didn't talk much.

They regretted that they had married the most nasty people in the world.... no more love...

Kind of typical nowadays, huh?

One day Priya talked to her Mother:

'Mom, we can't stand it anymore. We agree to divorce.

I can't imagine how I decided to marry this guy!!!'

Mother: 'Sure, girl, that's no big deal.

Just do whatever you want if you really can't stand it.

But before that, do one thing first.

Remember the saving passbook I gave you on your wedding day?

Take out all money and spend it first.

You shouldn't keep any record of such a poor marriage.'

Priya thought it was true.

So she went to the bank, waiting at the queue and planning to cancel the account.

While she was waiting, she took a look at the passbook record.

She looked, and looked, and looked.

Then the memory of all the previous joy and happiness just came up her mind.

Her eyes were then filled with tears.

She left and went home.

When she was home, she handed the passbook to Hitesh, asked him to spend the money before getting divorce.

The next day, Hitesh gave the passbook back to Priya.

She found a new deposit of Rs.5000. And a line next to the record:

'This is the day I notice how much I've loved you thru out all these years.

How much happiness you've brought me.'

They hugged and cried, putting the passbook back to the safe.

Do you know how much money they had saved when they retired?

I did not ask.

I believe the money did not matter any more after they had gone thru all the good years in their life.


"When you fall, in any way, Don't see the place where you fell, Instead see the place from where you slipped.
Life is about correcting mistakes."

Eight years old....but....

So lovely to hear this demolition telephonic call recorded from Dublin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ae69K0M9HE&feature=player_embedded

(Pl copy paste this link in browser and view this...)

My thoughts went to what did I know about telephones when I was 8 yrs old :) It was 1990 and till then we resided in Vadapalani, Chennai. To call my grandfather in Thanjavur, my father used to take us to nearby Post office, book a trunk call and wait for half an hour, before operator called us, saying there was a line. We went to Karur on transfer in may 1990 and then some facility called STD got introduced. I still remember my father explaining what were STD codes and individual numbers and I was so fascinated to see this sort of connection, since I need not wait in post offices :)

Two decades, world is turning upside down.

Marriage Blues!

Not a usual travel from home to office this weekend. There was a slight drizzle in the air and the time was around 11 pm at night when I ran and caught my via Hosur route bus to Bangalore. As usual I dug into my window seat and unusually there was a young couple in my previous row. Seemed to be from very orthodox family. Should have had a very heated argument for long time, many eyes were noting them.

The couple on the other hand were at full swing. He was repeatedly asking tell me what happened between you both and the only reply from her was nothing significant. Bus started, but still I could hear loud voices of offense and defense, I thought it was not good to overhear conversation. I couldn't help myself as the voices were loud and clear.

Slowly I began to realize that he was questioning about her pre-marital affair, and was shell shocked to hear her responses. I couldn't remember the film, but the same dialogue came from her, "It all just happened. We were talking together for some months, felt and discussed why shouldn't we marry each other, my mother and his father objected. Being fond of our families, we decided not to carry our interests forward." Really awesome english, from both of them, and the guy told, "I was happy that you graduated from BITS, Pilani. But why didn't you tell this to me before marriage?". Conversations were running riot, clock stuck 12 AM, we were crossing Sriperambudhur, while I dozed off. I could hear some faint voices before I completely slept.

Weather suddenly changed, I began to sweat. Woke up and saw was in Krishnagiri Bus stand and time was 4 AM. But the fight was still ON. Angrily the husband said, "Don't lie I saw your photo in his laptop. I pleaded with him for 45 mins, before I convinced him to delete it from the hard drive.". The lady who was in complete denial till that, put down her head and said "Yes. Sorry!". I didn't know the context of photo, but for that he told, "It has taken me 5 hours to get a word of truth from you. How much are you trusting me in our 11 months married life? Promise me on the kid in your womb."

I was really shattered on this, considering their caste and the words they spoke, unwilling to see this rage for more time, I slept off.

It was around 6 AM, when I got down in Bommanahalli signal and went to my apartment. Through out the way, I was trying to recollect if I had ever seen either of them, but in vain. That's the exact reason why I am penning it down.

Was really sorry for the fate of upcoming kid. Broader sense, none of my business to listen / bother about some couple whom I have never met. But one thing is for sure...S/w companies, their culture, educational strength...these are spoiling families in India.

"Aanum pennum samam"..."Aangal illamal nammalal vaazha mudiyatha"...some slogans I have listened to in so called Female liberation meets and TV shows...I should say one thing...whenever the lady spoke / fought with her husband, they was no emotion of guilt in her voice. It was as if she felt nothing wrong about even hiding it from her husband of this day.

What will poor males do, when they are literally cheated in this sort....start a liberation front? :)

Appreciate what U have - Warren Buffet

In a long time, best forward today from my brother, sakthi. Have seen people cribbing on what they don't have or even more, what their friends have or got :) Here is one good phrase from Buffet.

For those who don't know who he is, a boy who bought shares from a company when he was 11, simply out of money he earned by delivering morning news papers!Today he is world's third richest! over to him...

Ppl may not listen to me :(, but still they can listen to Buffet!

Mannipaya!

Simbhu - chi....Trisha - thoooo....i will not watch movies where they act separately itself...do we need to go to this movie where they act together...was my question to a special person when I was asked to take to Vinnay Thandi Varuvaya movie...

After postponing for a week's time, ultimately I went on repeated requests (???).

was really irritated with the movie. Simbhu occupying one half of the screen talks for long time and trisha on the other half talks after that...very few characters on screen...in between the camera man's tamil was also so irritating to watch, but for a few timing jokes. Gautam menon could have selected a proper tamil speaking camera man for this role :) really boring...Above all, hero was 22 and heroine was 23...koduma da saami...two oldies on screen with so young characters to portray. "matured characters", was the comment from my special guest :)

Amidst all this, one thing really stole my heart....shreya ghoshal's melancholic voice starting "Kadalinil meenaga irunthaval naan..."

magical lyrics started and flew down heavily :)..."oru naal sirithen....maru naal veruthen"...I was really so attracted, that I thought what gift God has given to Shreya in her voice...

"Kanne thadumari nadanthen...noolil aadum mazhayagi ponen" started a shrill voice in an unique high pitch, mind told me Rahman!

what an awesome song...really worthy for entire money spent that day...listening Rahman and Shreya was great, that too with the splendid locations, which were really a treat to eyes.

"Anaivarum urangidum iravenum neram....enakathu thalayanai nanaithidum neram"
...cha kavitha kavitha...

After "nenjukkul peidhidum maamazhai" in VA, Thamarai has rocked again...

mannipaya! felt this song will be my favorite for some time now :)

3 Idiots!

Once again I was heading to B'lore from Chennai yesterday night...It was almost 11.15pm and there was very less movement on streets. I boarded a share auto from near my home, and there were 3 people in backseat who offered to get down in the near by bus stop. In the bus stop, they told a hotel 100 yards away to the driver and after a couple of changes,finally told a wine shop's name near by to drop.

When the auto stopped, two people got down and the third one was still inside. He told, I am going home and my kids will be waiting for me. At this, one of the two standing down got offended and told, "no anna, without you we are not going". The third person repeated the same, but this time with a lesser voice. The same argument continued for some 5 mins, after which, the person standing outside, literally dragged this person out of the auto and told "pay this driver anna, we will go to your home in one hour"...The person opened his purse and I came to knew the reason for all these happenings...He had close to 3k and these people wanted to enjoy in his favor.

The auto left, amidst huge laugh from the driver, narrating the scene to a new passenger...

Two unmarried idiots spoiling one married idiot, who doesn't have guts to resist.....

3 IDIOTS!

Oxymorons!

A mail forward from my friend Amitav!

An oxymoron is usually defined as a phrase in which two words of contradictory meaning are brought together:-

1) Clearly misunderstood
2) Exact Estimate
3) Small Crowd
4) Act Naturally
5) Found Missing
6) Fully Empty
7) Pretty ugly
8) Seriously funny
9) Only choice
10) Original copies
And the Mother of all......
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11) Happily Married :)