Wham Bham and I'm HAPPY

Latest super-hit Tamil movies

2008-07-03T04:13:00.005+05:30

I had the chance to watch 'Dasavataram' (Kamal Hassan's latest flick). I did watch Rajnikanth's 'Sivaji' too but will get to that later. What is it that they want out of their movies? When the rest of the world is out to materialise ideas that have never been thought of, here we are with movies that are trying to squeeze the very same lemon that has been drying up since the last century. People deserve better!

Both these movies must have spent the maximum share of the budget on the make-up. The poor make-up artist had to make one stuffed Kamal look like a karate champ, an ex-CIA trapeze artist, an old woman etc. In Sivaji, the guy must've had a real tough time in trying to make an almost sexagenarian look like a 25 year old champion fighter, dancer, lover, comedian and what not! Normally, people will not come to watch these kind of movies. Put Rajni or Kamal, and there you go! From towns to villages to cities to overseas releases, the movie is watched even in Japan!! Eat noodles and watch Rajni in action, where there is a cracking sound in every finger movement and every hair strand has the strength to push back about twenty goons. Well, people worship these film stars and so their movies will run. Whatever one has to say, in the end a movie is a movie...all for entertainment. And if people are getting entertained then the objective is definitely achieved.

But before I end this note there is one more thing that I would like to share: There is a song 'Universal Hero' at about the end of the movie Dasavataram. I had to ask my friend about it and there is an entire concept behind it. Believe it or not there are titles given to film actors in Tamil cinema (only to those who stick along for more than a couple of years). Here is a sample list:
Rajnikanth - Superstar
Simbhu - Little Superstar
Ajith - Ultimate Star
Prashanth - Top Star
Surya - Sweet Star

Here comes more...they have a whole army out there:

Vishal - Revolutionary Commander
Vijay - Young General
Vijaykanth - Captain

and finally we have
Kamal Hassan - Universal Hero!!

~ THE END ~

Punctuation and the Apostrophe'

2007-06-19T22:45:00.000+05:30

I can recall a funny (rather silly) incident from school days. What happened during the class is worth a mention.
You know these grammar classes have all these sentence correction exercises. The teacher had given us few sentences to correct with the subject and predicate kind of mix-up. Most of us were quite sure of what was to be done 'coz the discussion before attempting this was all about similar kind of 'common' errors. Somewhere near the end was this sentence. Please take a look:
This is Tommy's, my cousin's letter, congratulating me on winning the prize.
Now, should I give you time to correct this??

Well, the answer is : This is my cousin Tommy's letter, congratulating me on winning the prize.
All of a sudden RK had a doubt. See, most of us would care to interrupt only if we were getting the question wrong. Obviously RK had goofed it up. Here is what the discussion went like...

RK: Maam, this question has no errors.
Teacher: No. The answer I gave fits best.
RK: Why don't you consider this sentence: This is Tommy, my cousin. We need not rewrite it as : This is my cousin Tommy.
Teacher: When we have the apostrophe indicating possession we need to rewrite it such that there is no doubt.
RK: But...
Teacher: Okay, take a look at this sentence : This is my cousin Tommy's letter. All fine? Now, if you have to make a reference to something else which belongs to Tommy but you wish to indicate your relationship to Tommy as well then the use of two apostrophes is not correct. Thus, This is Tommy's, my cousin's letter, .....is not correctly framed. You will have to rewrite it sensibly.
RK: What if no sense can be drawn out of the sentence.
Teacher: What do you mean?

By this time all of us knew that the class was as good as over. None knew what RK had to gain out of this useless argument. Come what may, a teacher of English never modifies his/her answer 'coz its all there, written and maintained for ages. But what's the harm in having a little fun!!

RK: Consider this sentence: This is Tommy, my cousin's dog.
The class was in splits. Tommy was a poor little cousin writing letters to his brother/sister congratulating him on his success and now RK transforms him into a dog!
RK: And even this one: This is my cousin Tommy's dog. Isn't there a difference between the sentences?
Teacher: (Smiling) Well RK, we have been talking of inanimate objects here and you cannot mess it up like this. Do you intend to say this: This is Tommy's, my cousin's dog, congratulating me on winning the prize. Where on earth can this sentence make any sense to you?
RK: That's exactly the point I wanted to make. When we face sentences without any sense, we can get really confused.
Teacher: (Undisturbed) Teachers are not that bad. We do frame decent enough questions. Now shall we move on to the next question?
RK: But ma'am, what if we do face a question of this kind? (Now he was obviously having a little bit of fun) Shall we correct it like this : This is my cousin Tommy's dog. Or, shall we leave it as the original sentence : This is Tommy, my cousin's dog ? Tommy sounds more like a dog's name so I guess there is a little sense and this is what we should look for.
Teacher: (Definitely annoyed) RK, when there is nothing to correct in a sentence like that, we better not see them in any exam. We teachers are not here to have fun during exams but to test your application skills. You seem to be deviating from the point and the class' time is getting wasted. No more discussion please.

A few more questions and then the class ended.
This was one such incident. There have been weird discussions with nonsensical statements and arguments. Being in a all boys' school is real fun most times. Some teachers are bent on taking classes on sex education during their courses. Would like to share some of them later.

Lufthansa

2007-06-18T21:09:00.000+05:30

Just a general observation. This is debatable though but I am sure that most people would agree with my point of view.
The title is Lufthansa 'coz thats one international airline I have travelled by. This observation is regarding drinks which are served during the flight. During my flight from Delhi to Munich the flight was, but of course, full of Indians. The attendants had some schedule for serving food and drinks and by all means it looked quite satisfactory. They did go up and down with drinks, fruit juices and other beverages. But this was done just once. Mind you, the flight took off from Delhi at 9:15 AM and everyone was wide awake. Nothing odd till now, but here starts the interesting part.

The very same day I boarded the flight from Munich to Montreal. Needless to say, the flight was full of Europeans and Canadians. The on-flight service was, as usual, quite good but the frequency of the attendants walking with drinks and beverages was quite high. After very short intervals people would either call for some drink or the attendant would bring her trolly. Well, now this made me wonder.

There can be 3 conclusions: Firstly, Indians when offered free stuff will never feel satisfied and try to make the most of the opportunity. There will be every attempt to carry home so much of a sample product that it lasts for about a year....not just for oneself, but for the entire family! This is a common mentality and I guess this could dissuade the flight attendants from serving much of the expensive liquor. Secondly, I believe that Indians are not so much into alcohol as the Europeans or for that matter the Americans. And yes of course there were some kids and elderly people on the Delhi-Munich flight. Lastly, this observation of mine is very specific and no strong conclusion can actually be drawn. Not a very impressive way to end a dialogue, but I am trying to play it safe...

The Cosmic Saga

2006-08-24T20:08:00.000+05:30

Back after a loooooong break.
One wouldn't call it a break coz nothing actually existed to take leave from!
But then, the important part is...I've started blogging again. Clueless of when it can stop again etc etc...well, lets just wait and watch.

Change of location: in Namma Bengaluru now.
Bangalore is a city which has a lot to offer. But the strangest part is: whenever someone wants to meet you, you are called to a shopping mall. Absolutely uninterested in making any purchases, still junta throngs to Garuda, Bangalore Central, Forum and the likes. My guess is, all that these malls can gain is the Rs.10 parking fees!! God knows how much business it is but on any day you can spot over 5000 bikes and 100 cars parked in the multistoried parking arena. Did you realise we were digressing?? Lets get to the Cosmic Saga.

Working with a startup in the garden city of India. CMOS IC Design is what we do here. Analog, Mixed-Signal and RF IC is our specialization. Did you spot COSMIC anywhere by now? CMOS IC = COSM IC. Now that was simple, wasn't it? Life's good here at Cosmic Circuits Private Limited. That was an understatement! Its AAWWEESSOOMMEE here. Just given the opportunity to do all that I ever wanted to do. Benig a part of the every evolving technology in the modern world gives me a special feeling. Independance with a lot of money in the bank and a house all for myself, I'm sure, adds to the effect and makes me love every moment of my life here. The most respectable fact here is that learning and deliverance is given maximum importance while everything else takes a backseat. Teamwork takes a positive lunge here. Although the luxuries of a large organisation are not present, I feel that this informal gathering is what I will look forward to ever in my life.

This is the beginning of the Cosmic Saga...

And I finally did IT!

2006-02-14T10:51:00.000+05:30

Creating a blogspot is an art in itself...
If you are one of the very first people to use the site, creating a username etc wont be tough but when you are about the millionth user....GOD! Gimme patience! Took me about about an hour of personal effort and then another hour of discussion with friends and then finally I made it!
Tried my favorites at first: bugsbunny, asterix, wonderboy...
then got down to some desperate attempts: killme, deadman, chutiya...What still beats me is: How the heck did someone decide to go even with these lousy usernames? Maybe he tried these in a manner similar to mine, found them available, thanked God and moved on.
Username: indianand. I typed indian+anand. Observed that there are too many pairs of "an". Reduced one and got to "indianand". Wouldn't say its well done, but when you are frustrated, any hint of success seems heavenly.
I thought I'd done it but then I was lead to a page where I had to decide on the URL. At this moment I wanted to close down IE, but my cousin was asking me for the link over Yahoo! Messenger. How much I detested typing combos and getting rejects!
Some funny ones were: gspot.blogspot.com, spotblog.blogspot.com, butterflyhunter.blogspot.com. The last one tempted me to change "butterfly" to something hilarious. Tried jackass.blogspot.com. It was already taken. I struck gold on jhakass.blogspot.com.
I returned to my hostel, quite satisfied that the job was done. Spread the word around that my 'fresh new blog' was @ jhakass.blogspot.com. Never realised that 'jhakaas' is spelt with a double 'a' and not with a double 's'. Friends could never get to my site! Sounded painful. I sat to rectify this and again started the series of stupid hit-and-trial attempts. With a change I included a hiphen (-) in the URL and Bingo!...Some crazy combo had to work and what could better describe a crazy bouncing life than 'crazy-bounces'
Now, crazy-bounces.blogspot.com is mine!
This is all about IT... & I finally did IT.