கதையல்ல, நிஜம்!

- நன்றி இட்லிவடை / தினமணி

Chicken or Egg?

The incredible has happened!

The spat between the DMK's first family and Maran's family has opened up lot of If's and But's. To me, from what I have observed since Murasoli Maran days, it's basically a Chicken or Egg story. Both sides were complimenting each other well enough to create an impression that the SUN Group was the unofficial bandwagon of the DMK. On the other hand, It is indeed difficult to say that the SUN Group could have emerged as such a large media house in India without MK's political backing.

Following Murasoli Maran's death in late 2003, Dayanidhi Maran, with absolutely no prior political experience was fielded by the DMK from Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai in the following central elections in 2004 May and eventually made the Central Minister of the plum portfolio, IT & Telecommunications. What SUN TV managed out of the ministry is a different ball game. Just a blog post cannot detail the nitty-gritty's of it and I ain't Dr.J.Jayalalitha to dig to the history and geography of the subject and have it on top of my head ;-)

In-turn to thank grandpa, the Maran brothers let use of their SUN Group as extensive as possible for him to return to power during the 2006 state elections. DMK led alliance crushed the AIADMK alliance and made it to the power. With DMK in power in the State and virtually controlling the Centre, DMK's point man was identified as Dayanidhi Maran and he was seen shoulder to shoulder, sometimes like a walking stick for MK. I could hardly remember of any ocassion with MK involved not having Dayanidhi besides him. There have been instances when MK.Stalin was missing at time ;-) This definitely irked Stalin and Big Brother, MK. Azhagiri and definitely many others within DMK who were waiting for the right opportunity. The burning of Dinakaran office in Madurai was what probably everyone against the Maran's were waiting for. I shoudl say that all of them have used the opportunity very well to outst Maran's and create a sense of uncertainity for the SUN Group which is planning to venture into Aviation, publish English tabloid with Media baron Rupert Murdoch and what not?

With all the history behind us, it would only be interesting if the family feud will settle (I wish not!) or will create more surpises.

Copy Cat

I should really say that Sun TV is becoming a copy cat or probably running out of ideas as once blogged by Kaps. First it was the poaching of the Kalakka Povadhu Yaaru from Vijay TV and it was also rumoured that the comedy show Lollu Sabha was also targetted. While Lollu Sabha team did not succumb, it later ran into troubled waters, thanks to the Sun TV's creativity in finding ways to tone down the show's originality, etc.

Latest in the list is the copy of the Airtel Super Singer show on Vijay TV (again!). As always, they have gone a step ahead and roped in Rahman to judge the finals of their show, Ooh La La La. While the Vijay TV's show is the hunt for an individual event, Sun TV's one is for a band. Big deal? Huh!

I am sure there would be plans, probably already drafted, to copy out the other interesting shows like Neeya Naana, Koffee with Anu and Jillunu Oru Jodi which feature on Vijay TV.

Who can forget the curtailing of the Vijay News (no prizes for guess which channel instrumentalized it), which probably was the only unbiased news channel with superior quality amongst the others sometime back?

Posted on 6th May >> I just realized that the Koffee with Anu is also copied, hosted by my all time favorite actress Gowthami as "Anbudan" on Sun TV and BTW, my wife disagreed that the Ooh La La La is not a copy of the Super Singer...I hate my wife ;-)

Bon Appétit

Having had the thai sizzler a day before our wedding anniversary, we decided to go in for the mexican sizzler the next day. This one again is from the Tarla Dala website.

It's the usual story, my wife made it, me di a bit of helping, infact my 3 years old darling daughter chipped in her bit by watching TV throughout the preparation of the sizzler, not disturbing us ;-)

The food was awesome, a fitting brunch for our 6 year old relationship.

Burp!

My wife and me have always enjoyed eating various cuisines of vegetarian food and equally enjoy it when it comes to cooking. While I have not contributed much to the cooking bit, 'coz she does it best herself, we decided to do Thai Sizzler, a recipe for which she pulled out from Tarla Dalal's website. While usually the recipe on the website and the actual outcome do not match closely, the Thai Sizzler was awesome. I have a feeling that the Thai Sizzler my wife made would have been better than the one Tarla Dalal would have really made ;-)

The sizzler had much of Thai ingredients and also some Chinese flavor. Coconut curry, Red Curry Paste, Soya Sauce, Corn, Herb Rice, Baby Corn, Broccoli, Carrots and much more. While we decided to have it as a 'brunch', when we made it at 10:30 in the morning, being very hungry, we finished it much ahead of the plans ;-)

Oh BTW, we (okay, my wife) decided to make the Thai Sizzler for our 6th wedding anniversary (April 29th), could not wait till the next day, so made it and had it a day ahead of our anniversary and...slurp....burp!


I love my wife!

Kids Kampong - Pasir Ris

Saturday was okay, infact did nothing much and was home doing the usual household chores (hope my wife does'nt read this post), some shopping with my wife and kid in the evening.

Sunday started as early as 8 AM for us as we had planned to take our kid to the Kids Kampong at Pasir Ris with a few other freinds and their kids. We started around 10:30 am and reached the Kampong around 11 am. The kampong had various activities like fishing, fish feeding (both for kids), an aquarium, koi farm and a pet department store (was as big as a decently sized NTUC, whoa!)

The fishing bit was fun. We were provided with a fishing net, bucket with water, some fish feed, coupons for ice cream and water for the kids. At $11 per kid, it was indeed worth the price. However, all this did not impress my my three year old daughter who was terrified after having caught a fish. It was them my wife and me doing the fishing bit. I must say that the fishing bit was very exhaustive. Infact i was passing a comment to my wife that I seem to exert myself more at the fishing than a complete week at work! LOL. We managed to catch some fishes and gave it off to our friends for them coz we were not too sure of a place to grow them.

After the fishing it was the feeding bit. The fishes were big with mouth as big as they'd probably eat a kebab or a spring roll ;-) The fish feed however never seemed to turn them away. While my kid and me stayed away from the feeding bit, worried if it would bite us, my wife was bold enough (as usual) to try her hand in feeding the fishes and even touching them (horrified aftert she touched the fishes is a different story). We later has some food and moved onto the aquarium, the koi farm and the pet department store in quick succession to escape from the scorching sun.

Back home at 1:30 pm. Phew...

for a good cause...

British Broadcasting Corporation, widely known as BBC, is planning to put up One Million Hours of the its past online, free of charge. It is understood that Radio and TV material of shows that have never been repeated will also be up in the air and will be available to be watched, listened and downloaded.The process of transferring the content to web has already begun.

 

Read the full article here 

Indians are the fastest

In a freak (?) sex survey conducted by Durex, the Condom makers, it was revealed that the Indians are the fastest in the act at 13 minutes, quicker than the global average of 18 minutes! The study also reveals that Indian on an average have sex 130 times a year, again a lot more than the global average of 103 times a year.

I only wish and request all the Indians out there to have protected sex to contain the growth rate than overtake China and make it to the headlines :-(

Read the full article here

தமிழ்ப் புத்தாண்டு நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

இவ் வலைப்பதிவு வாசகர்களுக்கு எனது இனிய தமிழ்ப் புத்தாண்டு நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்!

Customer Service - Couldn't be any better

My Canon A95 digital camera ran into some funny problem early this year and I was contemplating if I need to go in for a new one. To shell out 400-500 SGD for a basic digital camera was something I was not too convinced about. The DSLR models were 1100 upwards!


2 years since I bought the camera, and being out of warranty, I first settled to send the camera for service, get a quote and then decide on going in for a new one. Before sending it for service, not to be fooled, I did a bit of google (I've no clue where my life would head without Google) based on the symptoms and came across Canon's website which admitted defect in the CCD's supplied by Sony for several models. I was overjoyed to find mine in the list and the symptoms matching theirs and the best part, no warranty or proof of purchase required!


Immediately I set off to their Service Centre at Keppel Bay and gave the camera for service. While I was told that it would take 2 weeks for them to respond, if it is indeed the CCD problem, the same being fixed and delivered home, free of cost but if it is due to something else, then they'd revert with a quote. This actually sent butterflies again in my stomach. I came back to office with a confused mind and 3 days after I had sent in my camera for service, the same has been fixed and delivered home this morning!


I should say their customer service has exceeded my expectations though I was a bit disappointed after knowing that if the CCD problem could not be have been fixed, my camera would have been replaced with an equivalent current model! Joke's apart, hope this post of mine can help the needy one's who face similar problems.


Curse the lord!!!

பாடலாசிரியருக்கு ஜெ!

சிவாஜி படத்தில் சூப்பர்ஸ்டார் ரஜினியின் அறிமுக பாடலை எழுதிய நா.முத்துக்குமாருக்கு ஒரு ஜெ! குறிப்பாக, கீழ் உள்ள வரிகளுக்கு;

காவிரி ஆறும் கை குத்தல் அரிசியும்
மறந்து போகுமா..?

ஓ..தாவணிப் பெண்களும் தூதுவிடும் கண்களும்
தொலைந்து போகுமா..?

உன்மையிலேயே இப்பாடல் வரிகள் சுவையானதா அல்ல அவை தமிழிலில் இருப்பதால் சுவையானதா என்பதை சாலமன் பாப்பையாவை வைத்துதான் பட்டி மன்றம் நடத்த வேண்டும் போல...

வாழ்க தமிழ்!

How China could trigger a Dollar decline?

Well, 'am neither an subject expert in forex matters nor an economist but bumped into an article in MoneyWeek while I was getting to understand Carry Trade (?)

An excerpt from the article;

"China does not have to sell any of its existing dollar reserves to precipitate a decline in the dollar - all it has to do is stop accumulating dollars. The current US trade deficit with that country alone is running over $20 billion per month, and that is not an insignificant amount. If China stopped accumulating foreign reserves, those dollars would be sold into the foreign exchange markets and I expect that when that happens, the dollar will fall."

Read the entire article here.

Broadband Speed Test

When I took up my broadband connection, I always wanted to ensure I got the speed that was advertised by the ISP and did quite a bit of google and came across a lot of sites. However, none of them were user friendly or interactive or comprehensive until I bumped into Speedtest.net

A very user friendly website, with exhaustive details like past results, country average, continental averages, etc. FYI, the site was revamped a few weeks ago. I personally felt the old one was good (is there anyone who likes a change???) but the revamped site has a lot of details, so I could probably live with the change ;-)


Oh, BTW, snapshot my connection below

We 4 ours 1

Don't run your imagination wild after reading the title of the post. This post is not about any freak population control methods for India, which I doubt may work in any case. The title is the USP for the Car Pool community formed in India's Technology Capital, Bangalore.

In a gallant attempt to ease the chaotic traffic scene in Bangalore, a couple of IT guys decided to kick start a free service, Commute Easy, the Car Pool community which already has about 3000 registered users.

According to their official website, the concept, which now is reality and infact spreading its wings to Pune, aims at;

• Decongesting traffic in Bangalore
• Lower travel costs and stress levels
• Bring about a reduction in pollution levels
• Broaden social network

What I find here missing (though implied in a different context) is the definite reduction in the consumption of fuel, spiralling prices of which has already lead to an all round increase in the price of commodities, essentials and what not?

So go ahead, breathe easy and commute faster!

Check out Commute Easy's official blog for updates and happenings.

Sivaji

I've been listening to Sivaji songs last couple of days and thought it definitely deserves a post.

The songs are fantastic! That's probably the least a Rajini fan like me can comment on the numbers. I'll have to probably start a seperate blog to detail on the songs so just the snippets here.

While Shanker - Rahman combination is proven for more than a decade, it would be extremely interesting to watch how Shanker has handled Superstar onscreen. The trio combination of Superstar, Rahman and Shankar is definite to storm the theatres.

There are 7 songs in the movie and are very "peppy", as quoted by one of my colleagues during lunch today.

Rajini's intro song, "Sooriyano Chandirano" sung by SPB simply rocks! The lyrics, beautifully written by Na.Muthukumar could not have been sung by anyone better than SPB. While it is not the usual thathuva (philosophical) song that feature's in every Rajini movie, this intro song is probably the best among recent Rajini movies.

Valee's done yet another "Mukkala Mukabula", "Telephone Manipol" with "Athiradikaaran..." in this movie. Sung by Rahman himself, the song has powerful percussion which is also believed to feature Rajini as he did in his olden days. It still amazes me as to how Valee, at his age can come up with such peppy, funky numbers.

A melody number (the only one in the movie!), "Sahaana Saaral" has two versions, one sung by Udit Narayan and the other by Vijay Yesudas. The pathos version sung by Vijay is awesome, probably because 'am not a great fan of Udit Narayan or maybe the song by itself was good. I can already visualize the song to be brilliantly picturized.

I ran out of my imagination trying to visualize the "Oru Koodai Sunlight" song. A peppy, funky, whatever you call it song, probably would potray the best of Rajini styles over the years. Alas, Style = Rajini!

The other two numbers, "Vaaji vaaji" and "Vaada Vaada" also deserve praise.

எஸ்கேப்

வெட்டு ஒன்னு துண்டு ரெண்டு என இருந்தவர், போதுமடா சாமி என எஸ்கேப் ஆக உள்ளார். தனது ராஜினாமா கடிதத்தை சாப்பல் இந்திய கிரிக்கெட் வாரியத்துக்கு அணுப்பியுள்ளர். ராஜினாமவுக்கு குடும்ப மற்றும் சொந்த காரனங்களே எனக் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளர் எனத் தெரிகிறது.

ஒரு வேளை, இனிமேலும் பயிர்ச்சியாளராக நீடித்தால் பாகிஸ்தான் பயிர்ச்சியாளரக இருந்த பாப் உல்மர் கதி தனக்கு நேர்ந்திடுமோ என்று கூட அஞ்சியிருக்கலாம்.

அவரை விட்டுத்தள்ளும், வந்த நாள் முதல் சௌரவ், கும்ப்ளே இப்போ சச்சின் என அடுக்கடுக்காக பிரச்சனைகள் மற்றும் சர்ச்சைகள்...

இவையெல்லம் பார்க்கும்போது வடிவேலுவின் "டேய் மாப்புள்ள ப்ரிய்யா இருக்கியாடா, ஒருத்தன் சிக்கியிருக்கன்..." தான் எனக்கு ஞயாபகம் வருகிறது

Exploring Vegetarianism

My wife and me strictly follow vegetarian diet, which eventually had also influenced my darling 3 year old daughter. However, I was curious to know her version of the reason for her not eating meat and asked her about it one day...

Her spontaneous reply was "coz we are all hindu's!"

While my immediate reaction was to laugh out loud, carry her in my arms and pour her with kisses in adortaion of her innocence, I then clarified her that being vegetarians, we refrain from eating meat.

However, I simply could not get out of my head if the answer I gave her was complete. Her accidental correlation between hinduism and vegetarianism indeed bothered me. I just wanted to do a bit of a google on this and bumped into the Bhagavad Gita, the holiest Hindu scripture. It read;

"He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is -- immortal in the field of mortality -- he sees the truth. And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others. Then he goes, indeed, to the highest path" - Bhagavad Geeta 13.27-28

Furthermore, Thirukkural, one of the greatest tamil literature by Thiruvalluvar has an adhikaram (chapter) comprising of 10 kurals on "The renunciation of the flesh". One of it goes like this;

படைகொண்டார் நெஞ்சம்போல் நன்றூக்காது ஒன்றன்
உடல்சுவை உன்டார் மனம்

English translation: "Goodness is never one with the minds of these two: one who wields a weapon and one who feasts on a creature's flesh"

I just realised that my 3 year old daughter is indeed true on her supposition that hindu's are vegetarians!

Chandra's Checkmate?

In a move to save the desperate situation of Indian cricket (and ofcourse make money!), Subhash Chandra's Zee Telefilms has formed the Indian Cricket League, a cricket league parallel, to the BCCI. And what chandra had to tell on his new move?

"It troubles me that the country with more than a billion cricket fans and a million cricket enthusiasts fares so poorly at the international stage. A new approach must be taken for the sport to grow and prosper in the years ahead," Chandra said.

The games are believed to be of Twenty20 format, with 6 teams to start with. Each team will have 4 International players, 2 Indian players and 8 promising talents. Whether the games and prize money will be of any importance to the International and Indian players (seniors) but the visibility out of these games will be of utmost importance to the promising talents to make into the bigger leage!

Read the full story here.

இது தேவையா?

75 ஆன்டுகளுக்கு முன் எடுகக்பட்ட பழமையன கனக்கெடுப்பை உறுதியானதாகக் கருத முடியது எனக் கூரி, உயர் கல்வி நிறுவனங்களில் பிற்படுத்தபட்டோருக்கு 27 சதவீதம் இடஒதுக்கீடு சட்டதுக்கு இடைக்காலத் தடை விதித்த உச்ச நீதிமன்றத் தீர்ப்பை எதிர்த்து தமிழ் நாட்டில் ஆளுங் கூட்டனி மற்றும் எதிர்க் கட்சிகள் இனைந்து (அடடா, என்ன ஆச்சிர்யம்?) சென்ற சனிக்கிழமை (மார்ச் 31ஆம் தேதி) மாநிலம் தழுவிய பொது வேலை நிறுத்தம் மற்றும் கடை அடைப்புக்கு உத்தரவு பிறபிக்கப்பட்டு நிறைவேற்றப்படது.

இது ஒரு பக்கம் இருக்க, இன்னும் 10 வருடத்தில் இந்தியா ஒரு மாபெரும் வல்லரசு நாடாக உருவகும் என நாம் மார் தட்டி கொள்கிறோம். இது என்ன கொடுமையா இல்ல காமடியா?

தமிழ் வாழ்க!

வனக்கம்!

இது எனது முதல் தமிழ் வலைப்பதிவு...இன்றுதான் தமிழில் வலைப்பதிவு எழுதுவது எப்படி என்பதை அறிந்து கொன்டேன்...இதுதான் ஆரம்பம்!