Happy Republic Day !!!

Happy Republic Day to all of you. Though I am still worried about the country's regard towards 26/11, Ruchika case and thousand such problems we can definitely be proud about the declaration of the Padma Bhushan awards..especially to the greatest legend ever, Mr. Illaiyaraja, most admired human being, Mr. A.R.Rahman and the one I consider a perfectionist, Mr. Aamir Khan. It's absolutely great to hear such a good news on the eve of the Republic Day! Let India keep producing such Khans and Rahmans :) and wishing Mother India a great year of environmental peace and tolerant humanity.

The above pic was sent by Dad through some forwarded mail. I found it very attractive and not too loud! Have uploaded few more .. check them out HERE.

Stagnant growth

Fatwa against Vande Mataram? As if India is such a peaceful country that we need to actually sit down and think of giving birth to issues long forgotten to ruin the peace! I wish it were so...How many ever preachings and even practices and campaigns and wotnot cannot change the mindset of the religious thinker. The thing we can cry about and boast about is unfortunately the same thing : our culture. I think what I loved the most about Chak De apart from the script, direction and SRK is the dialogue which was enacted with so much of depth. The face that we need to start thinking from the point of few of India as a Nation and not as a Country of many States. Competition is healthy only when we compete with ourselves and not with other castes.


I don't want to get into politics yakking about how different politicians favour their States or religion. It's much beyond all that if you are looking for upgrading from a 3rd world country tag. Vande being unislamic or not is far away from the fact that we all belong to one Nation. How many wake calls can we give? Or perhaps it's the ignorance of a jobless man. There are a hundred million issues to be sorted out and assessed and we again end up wasting ample time upon issues which have no scope to extinguish. There should be an awareness among the men to educate their women and to give provide equality. Instead, decades after we have the anthem we have communities who find this way more important than sorting out the real issues. If this is a call for a bigger Pak then they are foolish enough to try it at this stage. Open your eyes and look around at all the injustice being done from Bribery to serial rapes and superstitions and we'll be surprised to see that what we are trying to debate on is absolutely worthless. We hardly recall the Anthem on a regular basis so it's high time we put a stop and start progressing in ascending manner .

A Peck on the cheek to Mr. Tharoor for telling all young Keralites when he had been to the Inaugural function of the gurukulam named for Ezhuthachan - " to know the world u must know English, to know Delhi u must know Hindi, & to know yourselves u must know Malayalam"

Lot's in a name !

A pretty funny one from the Reader's Digest, May edition:

A New Zealand couple have named their son "Superman." 4Real. Actually, reported the London Telegraph, 4Real was their first choice, but the Govt. registry nixed the name coz it included a digit. Meanwhile a Chinese couple clashed with their Govt. when they tried to give their newborn this moniker: @. Some celebs have followed suit, and their's nary a Jane in the bunch.

Audio Science (son of actress Shannyn Sossamon)

Bluebell Madonna (daughter of Spice girl Geri Halliwell)

Daisy Boo (daughter of chef Jamie Oliver)

Pilot Inspektor (son of actor Jason Lee)

Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily (daughter of TV host Paula Yates)

God'lss Love stone (daughter of singer Lil' Mo)

Jermajesty (son of singer Jermaine Jackson)

What is the world getting into????

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Another humor @ Work : When hiring new staff at her public library, my daughter always asks applicants what sort of supervision they'd be most comfortable with.
One genius answered "I've always thought Superman's X-ray vision would be cool."

From one joke to another Buhahahaha till next post :D

The Know-it-all-author

The IPL has attracted so many eyeballs over the past few weeks that the ladies have even decided to take a break honce upon a time. With SRK taking up the cadgels for the Pom pom girls, Maharastra is not too happy with it. They apparently claim that watching their exposed figures jumping up all the time doesn't give 'shobha' to our culture. One thing , camera for sure need to be placed at another angle. A very purpose effort of the cameramen have lead to this debate ,for the way they capture the movements are even more obscene than the tiny clothes the girls adorn. Anyways as they are never blamed for whatever reasons , there is absolutely no point in banning the girls from doing their job. If it's the fear of opening a world of pain for your child's eye then you might as well stop watching Sania play, Dhoom 2, Fear Factor, Roadies . Infact they should put a ban over Sidney Sheldon's books and for your own good, just sit at home and stare at each other. Coz whatever you wanna do ..be it going to night clubs, or a mall, or the beach, or the slums, or even watching cricket could currupt your mind in a zillion ways. It would be awesome to have a book named 'The World Of Pain -100000000000 ways of corrupting your mind'. Oh.. it would be great coz then we could read and understand what could harm us right? Oh-uh.. but we have a problem.. who are we going to ask to write? A Cricketer?..who has good experience in their link-ups with the glamour world... or actors? ..who have got into so many controversies that it would be a good chance for them to count the times? No-no maybe we should ask one of the ministers to write. After all they are the one who talked big like 'Womanhood is of sole importance in India.. and how can we tolerate such obscene stuff on woman? It's a shame for us and the women' and blah blah.. so since they have 'acheived' the 33% legislatures for us women .. who could be better than them? Keep pondering guys.. and do suggest me your 'wanted author' and to add on spice.. also write the reasons for choosing him/her. TIA

Tourist horror

Scarlett's case has been pretty appalling. And it feels bad to have a fifteen year old teen get strangled into a web of awful incidents. Everyday with new people starring in the news headlines, including the latest entry of her Indian boyfriend, Julio Lobo, spectators have got a new dekho for timepass. And for Fiona ,it's a bundle of problems lined up which will take a helluva time to deal with. Recently , I have been seeing a lot of tourist promotion ads of Goa, after the negative limelight it has attained. Scarlett wouldn't have even thought that her thrilling holiday would turn into a nightmare, especially when she had a big family to take care of her. All this makes me a little suttle when I think about what life has kept for us in the near future. And also makes me thing about how safe are girls in the future. That does freak me.

RIP sire

Man made fate

The planets ,the stars, the revolving earth and so on contribute in some way ,the patterns of our growth in life. They say , Lord Brahma, the creator draws the fate line for a living thing ,once written can never be changed. There are many who read 'Today's Horoscope' regularly to see their future ,perhaps succinctly, in the present itself. Some work ,some are just utter rubbish. Let me tell you ..I used to subscribe for this magazine which was issued on weekly basis only for it's horoscope. And trust me ...it has always worked. Being a hindu its is a natural thing for my parents to look into my horoscope once in a while to see if I will rule a kingdom or if I will land up cornered at the streets. My friend and I were discussing on this sensitive issue and he was telling me that if astrology was considered a major priority in life ,shouldn't we have to look into our own parent's and sibling's horoscope as to see if we can get along with them. And mind you what if the stars don't match? or what if the zodiac sign seems to be totally rebellious to each other? ...that should probably commence a divorce system within the family. Then maybe the lawyers would be having a great time looking at their 'money line' grow wierdly long in their horoscope. Aah! funny are life and it's ways.

So many marriages are bond on the basis of the horoscope system. Some make records and some form a part of the failures. If the newly married bride brings in a casket of happiness , everyone has the time only to praise and rejoice over the lucky bride. Whereas on the other side if she is reponsible for the boy's failure in everything he does then *whoa* the horoscope is forgotten to be blamed and instead the girl gets the inevitable tag. When asked to an astrologer about how the other religions manage successfull marriages without the star check and everything. He said ..'ya that is a question shot at us frequently.. all we have to say is .. the planets will do their job'.

Job?

And the horoscope topic has become more than ever important in the history of media after the much spoken about wedding of the year: Abhi-Ash wedding, where she is a 'manglik' which was supposedly considered a reason for Abhishek's could-be-death and fall in career.And after getting Ash married to three trees and gifting the diety anklets made of gold and wotnot , it was accepted as a wedding that should work for ever.Whether it is true or not ,if things were so easy , we should probably find solutions to fight death. Or maybe poverty, literacy, unemployment, scarcity of water and phew! the list goes on....More than blindly believing in horoscopes ,we should believe in ourselves. Our planets move according to our minds. It's the working of a subconscious mind. If we are positive inside ,we tend to work positively and that reflects in our attitude and work.I am not anyone to comment on the power of astrology. But one thing is for sure, we won't gain anything by being a pessimist. You should dominate your fate line. Dream your lives and live your dreams. If you are clear on what is your happiness then all you need to do is put in some sincere hardwork without any ill feelings about your plans and ofcourse the prayers that will never go unanswered. And see what magic it does. And anytime you get demotivated.. stick a picture of yourself on the wall and smash it with a stress ball until you are convinced of killing that coward within you. Wishing all of you a wake up call to your new fate line, i.e. creating one yourself, I am signing off for the mean while. Ciao!

Power Puff gals!

Though women haven't got their 33% of the legislatures, there has been a growth somewhere else. Have you noticed about the reality shows? The trophies were always taken away by the male contestants. Infact female counterparts were hardly seen in the final three. And in one reality show , in the wild card episode we had the judges, especially the female one shouting her lungs out on how important it is for a woman to win and that they can sing as good as men and everything but fail to win due to lack of support through the sms. And obviously that contest was won by a male contestant. But now I see a small visible change. I'll explain through examples:
In the Amritha Superstars 2007-2008, Roopa ,so far is adjudged the best by the panel.And even through sms she is the public's favourite.
In the Amritha Superdancers the finalists were four girls. And obviously a girl won the show.
In the Lil' champs telecasted in ZEE Tv, the winner of that show is Anamika again a girl. Her counterparts were two boys.

We also have movies like Chak De! showing that strength is not the only thing required to win everything and that it's the strength of the mind and the will power.Today women can accomplish just anything.Well it's good to see women talent grooming up.There was a lot of debates on a female voice put to comparison with that of a male.But things have proved wrong.. and have reached a point where the men will have to be more carefull competing the women.And yes! it feels good to be a woman.

I am not boasting now , but my life in Oman was just way too perfect apart from the fact that it was monotonous.I had no problems with strikes or the pollution or the absence of streetlights or power cuts or even the dealing of public garbage.Traffic is controllable cos of the traffic signals.I have probably experienced a power cut twice in my life, once when there was some work going on near my place and second when cyclone Gonu had affected the whole of the Sultanate.A year back when I was moving out of Oman for pursuing my degree, a lot of people had warned me about the frequent strikes that take place in Kerala. I was initially happy about the whole idea of no classes and all due to this , but later on began to realise it's drawbacks.Absence of class led to incomplete portion which again led to inclusion of the whole portion for the models. And I really know how hard it is to learn 20 chapters of which only 8 were taught.

I have always been proud of being a Keralite despite all the mocking people do about the locals accent, English in particular. Kerala would be the only state which has got beauty with brains. If India had a beauty pageant between states it is indubitable that Kerala will win. And musically , if I wouldn't be a Keralite I wouldn't be able to handle all the languages with ease. And c'mon there has not even been one non-Keralite who has been able to pronounce malayalam with the right accent.

Strikes have been an 'in' thing in Kerala. And what is worse are the reasons they hold a strike for. It's absolutely hilarious to see the party members hold a fast for getting their thing done. And not to forget the fast goes on till they don't get their will granted i.e. in other words the fast remains forever, though it is actually broken on the very first few hours of the fast.All of them sit together in peace, many of the ladies discussing about the sarees they have adorned and many of the men discussing about what to have for tea. If strikes are going to remain for a few more generations then probably we must make that a tourist attraction spot. India, or atleast Kerala would mint money that way.It's is completely disheartening to see young students taking action politically. They way students get beaten up is definately a sight not to be witnessed. Every time I hear or witness such incidents I keep wondering what must be going through their parents.


As of now preparing for a ghazal concert on the 24th at the Lulu International Convention Centre, Trissur.It will actually be a mix of filmy ghazals and will also include few bhajans.All are invited.It's an one and a half hour's show commencing at 10a.m. I will upload the audios and videos that I will get of the concert.

Jodha Akbar is one good epic I got to watch. It's not dragging , to the point and for all those who said that very less was shown on Akbar's fight sequences and ruling, it's actually a romantic movie which speaks more about the love of Jodha and Akbar which went unnoticed. And the previews never said that the movie had something to do with his ruling and achievements though a lil of that too was shown. Excellent cameras, awesome costumes.. and the best part of all - it's music. Once again kudos to Rahmanji for making yet another memorable record.Well about acting skills.. Hrithik an Ash have done a fair job.

I was just so sure about something crazy happening on the Valentines.I have seen people desperate for fame , but not as desperate as Rakhi Sawant and Abhishek! She slapped him or whatever and he apparently thanked the Headlines Today for patching them back!! And the news channels are even more jobless to telecast it all on television. How low can they fall ? And ofcourse not it isn't a matter of sour grapes but of 'lathon ke bhoot baaton se nahi mante'..or in Javed Jafferey's words - The ghost of the kicks don't listen to the talks :) Ciao

Voice of humanity

It is being very hard to survive is this world without fear. However optimistic we are at heart, our self esteem is deteriorating due do lack of humanity. What man has made of man ! I am being forced to repeat a lot of revealed truths yet again for the sake of a lot of people who have not yet responded to the voice of humanity. Touching the feet of elders ,giving a share of your first earning to your elders ,informing your elders when you have migrated to a new place to ensure safe landing...where have all that culture gone? People have forgotten to say an 'excuse me' , a 'sorry' , leave alone a thank you.Infact in the mornings when I walk up to college with full of positive thoughts...I , most of the times, hear a lot from the watchman who speaks with peevish displeasure for not walking properly or for not getting the ID card. These are just mannerisms. The Kidney kingpin , Dr. Arun Kumar, it is shame to have such Indian professionals as a part of our country. The whole racket has been flashing in every news channel and newspaper and has provoked every mind to start pondering about where we are heading.There was another article about a few children who went browsing over the net for finding out ways to cut off oxygen supply so as in to get "high".Ofcourse one kid did die while trying out this which has appallingly destroyed his family and friends and those who are still worried about humanity. For many of you, the word humanity would sound alien and for many of you ..a very far off thing. People still manage to throw wrappers and other wastes in the open without any guilt.I don't see any stalwarts in the making . Nor in the present , nor in the future. Not unless we don't change our attitude. Shashi Tharoor had once spoken about an incident that took place when he was studying in Delhi.His mother had asked her 'sweeper woman' to wash the steps of the building they stayed in. The lady would have obviously benefitted by receiving an extra pay for the job offered. But instead she shot back saying ' why should I madam? The building doesn't belong to you .'

Another problem is that the citizens of India have always behaved with a mindset of being a statesperson. A Bihari, a Keralite ,a Tamilian , a Maharashtrian ,an Assamese ,etc. They don't want to represent India or rather they are just comfortable representing their own state. I've never seen that co-operation , that spirit when each Indian proudly says 'Mera Bharat Mahan' on August 15th anywhere else. Yet there exists a competition among states on who has invested more on the celebrations.Even in reality shows , participants represent their states and in the final stages , it's more like which state can vote more. Even when the participants beg for votes, they particularly name the state they represent so as in to gain an extra vote! Has anyone in the history of reality show claimed to represent India ? The only time I've seen such a thing happening is when they win the competition and ofcourse are 'forced' to walk around saying 'I am the best' and 'Thanks to India for voting me'.We had a finalist who apparently started begging for votes outside a 'thattukada' saying that it's ONLY the votes than can make her win.Hope the viewers don't misjudge the true talent. Like Tagore has always said - Humanity is just like the sun, it can only be clouded , never extinguished. I am signing off with hopes of waking up to a beautiful morning which should be showing me that lil ray of hope to see India emerge as the one and only.

Identify the true stars

The recent declaration of the awards have created a lot of hype about not giving a Bharat Ratna to any 'deserving' person. I am not clear about what are the qualities required to receive that one. And I still feel there are a lot of people who haven't been ackowledged as yet. And c'mon awards are not everything.Infact people who don't receive an award still inspire us and have made history. I'll keep this post succinct and let the carigature do the talking.

Keshav:Persons without a Bharat Ratna or a Nobel still inspire us.

Source: The Hindu Times

Yesterday night I got a call from my friend. He asked me if I had read the newspaper. On receiving a no he said there was a small piece written about an accident that had taken place yesterday morning. The guys who died were his close classmates. He had even been to the mortuary only to be horrified at seeing those distorted faces.The two guys had got drunk and were having fun driving at 1:30 in the morning. And as fate decides, they were hit by a truck.There were two more following them in a bike who also happened to witness the accident. The driver died on the spot..and the second guy died soon due to excessive brain damage. Both were bright students of the NIT ,Calicut.Infact one had even landed up with a placement which offered him Rs. 1000000 annually.I was at Ccd when I heard the news and that got me pretty upset. After paying the bill I got to witness another minor accident and then later on another one right at the junction. What made it worse was that the movie I went to watch after all this happened to commence with an accident scene. That kept me pondering for a while.Quite a messy day but it's high time that the youth should start realising the importance of how dangerous it is to drink and drive and driving whilst using the cell phone. So many posters, documentaries, awareness programmes have been done on this.But in vain.Nothing is precious than your life.Don't push yourself onto being a vegetable.

Post Cyclone Gonu

Post cyclone Gonu , or maybe I should give you an outline on this.June 6th , 2007 came a cyclone of class 5 (predicted to be of class one-the worst , but the force pulled down as it neared the Arabian coast).The area I stayed in was near the coastal plains.It did affect my area drastically but not cos of the cyclone but cos of a dam which was left open to avoid damages to the near by areas.

The post cyclone effects were visible the very next day itself.To witness people bathing in dirt water that too in a foreign country is definately a sight. Infact my area , Ghubra, had actually become a temporary tourist destination!To have people clicking photographs of the broken road opposite my house, and the path where we used to go for our evening walks was something that will always remain etched in my mind.People were adapting to days without food, water, electricity and for some even without a shelter.I remember that when I and my dad had gone to Lulu to get few stuff for home people were literally getting physical for a bottle of water.One case got that worse that they had to pull in cops to deal with it and eventually started '2 bottles per person' rule.

Life came back to normal , atleast for me , as for me college had begun.Getting used to an autonomous life I had already forgotten about the past.And last week when I landed in Oman for my X'mas leave , there were major changes.Almost 90% of the damages are mended or replaced.Then we had people discussing that if such a thing had taken place in India we would not be able to see it repaired atleast in 20 years. I don't know about India , but the Ministry of Oman has done an incredible job! With monarchy ruling the nation, the orders given by the Sultan are always obeyed.Maybe if Oman had a democratic Government the cyclone damages would have probably not been cleared so fast as you know a proposal has to be passed and the members need to approve of it and etc. Well like I have always said all's well that end's well.

Profile view of the same Mc D!


P.S. Snapshots updated (My pics/photo blog)