Bale!Blog-ia!! - ___*பலே! ப்ளாகியா!!

2012-01-22T12:15:00.002-05:00

வாசகர் தர்மம்!

-அகிலா கார்த்திகேயன் (Appa's Kathai published in Dinamalar)

அன்று உற்சாகத்துடன் தான் எழுந்து கொண்டேன். வளர்மதி பதிப்பகத்தார் இன்று, என்னை வரச் சொல்லி கடிதம் போட்டிருந்தனர். அவர்கள் பதிப்பகத்தில் புத்தகமாக, என் சிறுகதைகள் வெளிவந்தால், அதை விட பெருமையில்லை. இவர்களின் அங்கீகாரம் அபூர்வமென்பதால், எக்காரணத்தைக் கொண்டும் இந்த வாய்ப்பை நழுவ விடக் கூடாதென்ற தீர்மானத்தில் இருந்தேன்.
சேலத்திலுள்ள வளர்மதி அலுவலகத்தில், 10:30 மணிக்கு இருக்க வேண்டுமென்றால், நான் இருக்கும் மேச்சேரியிலிருந்து, 8:00 மணிக்கு கிளம்பினால் தான் சரிப்படும். போகும் போது, பிள்ளையாருக்கு சதுர் தேங்காய் உடைத்து, வேண்டி கொண்டு போக வேண்டுமென நினைத்துக் கொண்டேன்.
குளிக்க தயாராகும் முன், காபிக்காக காத்திருந்த போது தான், மொபைல் போன் ஒலித்தது. இது போன்று, 6:00 மணிக்கு, காலை வேளைகளில் போன் ஒலித்தாலே, ஏதாவது அசம்பாவித செய்தியாகத்தான் இருக்கக் கூடும் என்று எதிர்பார்த்தபடி எடுத்தேன்; அப்படித்தான் அந்த செய்தி இருந்தது.
""அடடா... எப்பவாம்?'' என்று நான் பேசிவிட்டு மொபைல் போனை வைத்த போது, ""யார் இந்த காலை வேளையிலே,'' என்றபடி என் மனைவி காபியுடன் வந்து நின்றாள்.
""சங்கரன் சார் போயிட்டாராம். ஹார்ட் அட்டாக்காம். என் எழுத்துலக நண்பர், ராகவன் போன் பண்ணினார்,'' என்றேன்.
""அடப்பாவமே... ரொம்ப நல்ல மனுஷர்; அவர் வீடு ராசிபுரமாச்சே. காபி சாப்பிட்டுவிட்டு, சட்ன்னு கிளம்பி போயிட்டு வாங்க... எப்ப எடுப்பாங்களோ என்னவோ... போகும் போது வெறும் வயிறா போகாம, ஓட்டல்லே, ரெண்டு இட்லியாவது சாப்பிட்டுட்டு போங்க.''
என் மனைவி, சங்கரன் சார் விஷயத்தில் எனக்கு இயல்பாக வரவேண்டிய பரபரப்பை எதிர்பார்த்து சொல்லிக் கொண்டே போனாள்.
""ஊம்...'' என்று தயக்கமாக இழுத்தேன்.
""ஏன் தயங்கறீங்க,'' என்றாள் என்னை புரியாதவளாக.
""நல்ல மனுஷன்... வெல்விஷர்... போய்த் தான் ஆகணும். ஆனா, இன்னிக்குன்னு பார்த்து ரொம்ப நாளா காத்திருந்த வளர்மதி பதிப்பகத்தார் வரச் சொல்லி இருக்காங்களே... ஒண்ணு செய்யறேன்... இன்னிக்கு பதிப்பகம் போறதை தள்ளி போட முடியாது. இன்னும், 10 நாள் இருக்கே... நடுவிலே ஒரு நாள், நீயும் வேணும்னா வா... போய் விசாரிச்சுட்டு வந்துடலாம்,'' என்று, மென்று முழுங்கியபடி சொன்னேன்.
நான் செய்வது, அவளுக்கு ஒப்புதலாக இல்லை என்பதை, அவள் முகம் காட்டியது.
உண்மையில், என் மனைவி சொல்வது போல, பதறிட்டு ஓட வேண்டியவன் தான். சங்கரன் சார் அப்படி வேண்டப்பட்டவர். "கடவுளே... இந்த நிகழ்வு நாளைக்கு நேர்ந்திருக்கக் கூடாதா...' என்றெல்லாம் பேத்தலாக, மனம் தர்ம சங்கடத்தில் புலம்பியது.
குளித்து, டிபன் சாப்பிட்டு, வீட்டை விட்டு கிளம்பி, சேலத்திற்கு பஸ் ஏறி உட்காரும் இச்சமயம் வரை, சங்கரன் சார் விஷயத்தில் தவறு செய்கிறோமோ என்று உறுத்திக் கொண்டே தான் இருக்கிறது.
வார - மாத இதழ்களில், வாசகர் கடிதம் என்ற பகுதியை தவிர்க்காமல் படிப்பவர்களுக்கு, "அயனாவரம் சங்கரன்' என்ற பெயர் பரிச்சியமாகி இருக்கும். என் போன்ற எழுத்தாளர்களுக்கு தெரியாமலிருக்க வாய்ப்பே இல்லை. கதை, கவிதை, கட்டுரை, கார்ட்டூன் என்ற எதையும் கவனமாய் படித்து, கடிதம் எழுதுபவர் என்பது, விமர்சனம் செய்து எழுதும் அவருடைய நாலைந்து வரிகளில் தெளிவாகத் தெரியும்.
"பத்திரிகை தர்மம், படைப்பாளிகளின் தர்மம்ன்னு இருக்கிறது போல, வாசகர்களும் கடைபிடிக்க வேண்டிய தர்மம்ன்னு ஒண்ணு உண்டு. ஏதோ வெறுமனே படிச்சோம்... உள்ளுக்குள்ளே ரசிச்சோம்ன்னு இருக்கக் கூடாது. அதைப்பத்தி, நாலு வரி எழுதிப் போட்டு, அது வெளியாகி, அதை அந்த கதாசிரியரோ, கவிஞரோ படிக்கும் போது, அந்த வரிகள் எத்தனை சந்தோஷத்தைத் தரும்ன்னு அவங்களுக்குத்தான் தெரியும். அது, அவங்களுக்கு ஒரு உற்சாக டானிக் மாதிரி. மேலும் மேலும் எழுதணும்ன்னு தூண்டும். அந்த வகையிலே இப்படிப்பட்ட வாசகர் கடிதம் எழுதறது கூட, ஒரு இலக்கிய சேவைன்னு சொல்லலாமில்லையா!'
ஒரு நூல் வெளியீட்டு விழாவிற்கு போயிருந்த போது, நண்பர் ராகவன், எனக்கு சங்கரன் சாரை அறிமுகப்படுத்திய தருணத்தில், "வாசகர் தர்மம்' என்ற இந்த புது விளக்கத்தை, சங்கரன் சாரிடமிருந்து கேட்க நேர்ந்தது. இது, எத்தனை உண்மை என்பது எழுத்தாளர்கள் அனுபவத்தில் உணர்ந்திருப்பர். ஒரு படைப்பு வெளியாவதில், அவர்களுக்கு ஏற்படும் சந்தோஷத்திற்கு நிகரான மகிழ்ச்சியை, அடுத்த இதழ்களில் வாசக அன்பர்களின் கடிதங்களும் உண்டாக்குவது உண்மை தான்.
எடுத்த எடுப்பிலேயே, சங்கரன் சாரை எனக்கு பிடித்து போனதற்கு, இன்னொரு காரணமும் இருந்தது. என்னை ராகவன் அறிமுகப்படுத்திய உடனேயே, சங்கரன் சார், என்னைப் பற்றி அறிந்தவராக பேச ஆரம்பித்ததை நான் எதிர்பார்க்கவில்லை தான்.
"ஓகோ... சந்திரமோகன்கறது நீங்கதானா? உங்க கதையெல்லாம் படிச்சிருக்கேன். நாலைஞ்சு கதைக்கு வாசகர் கடிதமும் எழுதி, வெளியாகி இருக்கே' என்று கூறி, வியப்பில் ஆழ்த்தியவர். "பிப்ரவரி மாத, "தாழம் பூ' இதழ்லே உங்களோட, "தர்ம தரிசனம்' கதையிலே, கல்யாண ரிசப்ஷன் பத்தி, ரொம்ப ஜோரா விவரித்து எழுதியிருந்தீங்க...' என்று, ஒரேயடியாக அசர வைத்தார்.
இதுவரை, என்னை இப்படி யாரும் சட்டென்று அடையாளம் கண்டு கொண்டதாக காட்டியதை நான் அறியாததாலும், இப்படி, ஆயிரத்தில் ஒரு எழுத்தாளரான என் படைப்புகளையும் நுணுக்கமாக விமர்சிக்கும் அதிசயத்தாலும், சங்கரன் சார் என் இனிமையான நண்பராகி போனார்.
பார்க்கச் செக்கச் செவேலென்று, பூர்ணம் விஸ்வநாதன் சாயலில் இருப்பார். உள்துறை செயலகத்தில் உயர் பதவியிலிருந்து ஓய்வு பெற்ற பின், சென்னை அயனாவரத்திலிருந்து, ராசிபுரம் குடிவந்து, ஐந்து வருடங்களாகின்றன. இருந்தாலும், "அயனாவரம் சங்கரன்' என்ற பெயரில், வாசக கடிதங்கள் தொடர்ந்தன.
மூத்த பையனுக்கு சென்னையில் வேலை. பெண்ணை, சேலம் ஆடிட்டர் ரவிக்கு கொடுத்துள்ளார். மாப்பிள்ளை ரவியின் ஆன்மிக ஈடுபாட்டுக்கு ஒத்தாசையாக இருக்க, தன் இரண்டாவது மகன், ரமணனோடு சென்னையிலிருந்து தன் சொந்த ஊரான ராசிபுரம் வந்து விட்டார். ரெண்டு, மூன்று முறை அவருடைய ராசிபுரம் வீட்டிற்கு போயிருக்கிறேன். அவர் மனைவி செய்யும் நெய் தோசைக்கு நான் ரசிகன் என்ற அளவில், சங்கரன் குடும்பத்தோடு எனக்கு பரிச்சியம் இருந்தது.
தன் தள்ளாத வயதில், ஒரே ஒருமுறை என் வீட்டிற்கு வந்த சம்பவம் தான் இதில் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது. என் கதை, "வாரமலர் சிறுகதை' போட்டியில், இரண்டாம் பரிசு பெற்று வெளியான சமயம். என் புகைப்படத்தையும் போட்டு, ஒரு குறிப்பும் கண்டிருந்தது. பலராலும் படிக்கப்படும் வார இதழாக இருந்தும், சுற்று வட்டாரத்தில், என் கதையையும், என் போட்டோவையும் பார்த்து, ஒரு ஆசாமி கூட பாராட்டவோ, விசாரிக்கவோ இல்லை. எனக்கு அதில் ஏமாற்றமும், ஏக்கமும் இருந்தது.
அந்த சமயத்தில், ஐப்பசி மாத அடை மழையில், சங்கரன், ஒரு நாள் மாலை, ஆட்டோவில் தன் மகன் ரமணனுடன் வந்திறங்கினார். மேச்சேரி வரை இந்த கொட்டும் மழையில், எப்படி வந்தாரோ என்றிருந்தது. கையில் கொண்டு வந்த ஸ்வீட் பாக்கெட்டை கொடுத்து, ஒரு மாலையும் போட்டார்; எனக்கு திக்குமுக்காடி போனது.
"கதை ரொம்ப ஜோர்... வாழ்த்துக்கள்...' என்று, வாய் நிறைய பாராட்டினார்.
"நேரிலே போய்தான் வாழ்த்து சொல்லணும்ன்னு ஒரு வாரமா அப்பா துடிச்சிட்டே இருந்தார். இன்னிக்கு மேட்டூர்ல ஒரு பங்ஷன். அதனாலே வீட்டுக்கு வர முடிஞ்சது...' என்று ரமணன் சொன்ன போது, என்னுடன் சேர்ந்து என் மனைவியும், பெரியவரின் பண்பால் நெகிழ்ந்து போனாள்.
ஒரு படைப்பாளியின் எதிர்பார்ப்பை பூரணமாய் உணர்ந்த, ஒரு உயர்ந்த வாசகராய், அந்த பெரியவரை பார்த்தேன்.
சங்கரன் சாரைப் பற்றி அசை போட்டதில், இப்பேற்பட்ட பண்பாளரின் இறுதிச் சடங்கிற்கு போய், மரியாதை கூட செய்ய துடிக்காமல், வேறு எதற்கோ போய் கொண்டிருக்கிறோமே என்ற உறுத்தல் தீவிரமாகிப் போனது.
குழப்பமான மனநிலையோடு தான், வளர்மதி நிலையம் சென்று, சீப் எடிட்டருக்காக காத்திருந்தேன்.
அரை மணி நேரம் சென்றதும், ரிசப்ஷனிஸ்ட் கூப்பிட்டாள்... ""சார்... நீங்கதானே சந்திர மோகன். சாரி... இன்னிக்கு எடிட்டர் வர முடியாதாம். ஏதோ டெத்தாம்; ராசிபுரம் போயிருக்காராம். உங்களை வேற ஒரு நாள் வந்து பார்க்க சொல்லி, போன் பண்ணியிருக்கார்.''
எனக்கு சுரீர் என்றது. டெத், ராசிபுரம் என்ற விவரங்கள், அது, சங்கரன் சார் மறைவைத்தான் குறிப்பிட்டிருக்க வேண்டுமென்று நிச்சயமாகத் தெரிந்தது. இனி உறுத்தலுக்கு இடம் தராத வகையில், சங்கரன் சாரின் ஆத்மா வழிகாட்டி விட்டதாக எனக்கு தோன்றியது.
இப்போது பதறி அடித்துக் கொண்டு தான், ராசிபுரத்திற்கு பஸ்சை பிடிக்கப் பறந்தேன்; ஆனால், காலம் கடந்திருந்தது. நான் சங்கரன் சார் வீட்டை அடைந்த போது, எல்லாமே முடிந்து, வீட்டை கழுவிக் கொண்டிருந்தனர்.
"பக்கத்து கோவில்லே உற்சவம்ன்னு சீக்கிரம் எடுக்க சொல்லிட்டாங்களாம்...' யாரோ என்னைப் போல் தாமதமாக வந்தவர் சொல்லிக் கொண்டு போனது காதில் விழுந்தது.
ஈரத் தலையை துவட்டியபடி வந்த ரமணனை, எதிர்கொள்ளவே வெட்கமாயிருந்தது.
""அப்பா காரியம் முடிஞ்சுப் போச்சு சார்... உங்களுக்கு, "லேட்'டா தகவல் வந்ததோ? எல்லாரும் உங்களை எதிர்பார்த்தோம்; ஆனா, உடனே எடுக்க வேண்டியதா போச்சி. சாரி...'' என்றான்.
நான் மெல்ல தலை குனிந்தேன்.
"உங்களை எல்லாரும் எதிர்பார்த்தோம்...' என்று ரமணன் சொன்னது வித்தியாசமாகப்பட்டது. ஒரு நெருங்கிய உறவுக்காரர் விஷயத்தில் கூறப்படுவது போல், என்னிடம் ஏன் சொல்ல வேண்டும்... புரியாமல் யோசனை செய்தபடி நின்றேன். ரமணன் உள்ளே போய், ஒரு போஸ்ட் கார்டுடன் வந்தான். அதை என்னிடம் நீட்டினான். எனக்கொன்றும் புரியாமல் வாங்கிப் படித்தேன்.
ஆசிரியர் அவர்களுக்கு, சென்ற மாத, "தாரகை' இதழில், "வவ்வால் மனம்' என்ற சிறுகதையில், குமரேசனின் மன உறுத்தலை அப்படியே படம் பிடித்தாற்போல், சந்திர மோகன் எழுதிய நடை என்னை உருக்கி விட்டது. குமரேசன் என்ற கதாபாத்திரத்திடமே ஆறுதல் சொல்ல வேண்டுமென்று தோன்றுகிறது.
— அயனாவரம் சங்கரன்.
படித்ததும் நீர் முட்டியது.
""நேத்து சாயங்காலம் அப்பா இந்த வாசகர் கடிதத்தை எழுதி முடிச்சதும் தான் நெஞ்சுவலின்னு துடிச்சார். உடனே, காரை வரச் சொல்லி மருத்துவமனைக்கு கூட்டிட்டுப் போனோம். அந்த வலியோடவே, "இந்த லெட்டரை போஸ்ட் பண்ணாம இருந்துடாதே...'ன்னு போகும் போது, சொல்லிட்டே வந்தார். அப்புறம் பேச்சே இல்லே... 3:00 மணிக்கு மேல் உயிர் பிரிஞ்சு போச்சு,'' ரமணன் விவரித்த போது, அடக்க முடியாமல் என்னையும் மீறி அழுகை பீறிட்டு வந்தது.
""சாரோட ஞாபகார்த்தமா இந்த லெட்டரை போஸ்ட் பண்ணாம நானே வச்சுக்கிறேன்,'' என்று, ஈரத்தால் கலைந்திருந்த சங்கரன் சார் எழுத்தை பத்திரப்படுத்திக் கொண்டேன்.
***

அகிலா கார்த்திகேயன்

Originally published in Dinamalar on Jan 1, 2012

http://www.dinamalar.com/Supplementary_detail.asp?id=8509&ncat=2#comment

2011-08-17T23:36:00.005-04:00

From Gandhi ji to 2G!

Anna Hazarre was dragged into Tihar and was shown his cell by the mighty Delhi police.

He finds a man wandering around the cell with his cell phone “Hello, Helooo….seriya kekala, I can’t hear you…bloody cell phone towers”

He threw his phone in a corner and turned back to notice that he got a new cell mate. “Hello saaar. I am Raja, you must have seen me on TV lately. Who are you and what brings you to Tihar at this age?”

“ Lokpal brought me here”, said Anna calmly.

“ Who is Lokpal? I have a friend named Dhanabaal, but never heard of Lokpal. Is he a Tamilian as well? Let me Google that on my 2G iPhone”. Raja’s phone did not work, as usual. “Why don’t you tell that yourself, Saaar. BTW, I did not get your name”

“My name is Anna. I wanted the Government to pass the Lokpal bill to implement anti-corruption law in India. This way we can keep a check on the increasing corruption index in our country. I planned to fast till the government accepts to discuss the bill, but they feared a national outrage and did not allow me to sit in the park to fast with my fellow supporters. I am surprised that you have never heard about that, Raja”

“That is a fantastic idea, Anna. Wonder why people are against that bill. So this is the law which governs all the Government officers and peunes, yes? There needs to be a check on those people collecting Rs.50 and Rs.100 for their regular work. I fully support you, Anna ji”

“Yes, it does and also includes all the way up to the Prime Minister of our country”

“What?? Noooo. You mean Manmohan ji will also be under this law? Eih Buddhe, what are you talking about? Sonia ji supersedes any law in this country”

“No, son. That is the whole point of this bill. There needs to a supreme body governing our system. We need to at least start thinking about how to fix it. I am not expecting a change in the next year or two, but it is just the beginning. Every big change starts as a small movement, and I am confident that this bill will see the light someday. When I see thousands of young men and women on the streets showing their support, it just gives me hope to continue fighting for this cause at this age. Think about how far our country can grow if we get the corruption under control to a reasonable level. Just think about it son. At your age, I started a small reform in my village and slowly it grew into a model village for our country on how to be sustainable and leads our country in environmental conservation”

“Raja….He is brainwashing you. Don’t fall for it” screamed a voice from the next cell. Raja recognized and immediately responded back, “Don’t worry Kalmadi, I got this”.

“Anna, don’t play with my mind with your Gandhian ideologies. We as a country have moved far, far away from that type of thinking. Gandhiji is so 1940 s. It is 2G in this 21^st Century! Kalmadi, I need to shift my cell. Let me be your cell mate, bro. Let’s discuss about our prospects in future cabinets”

2010-09-28T00:05:00.005-04:00

Bhaktha Prahallathan

“Aandava…Please make it happen this time”, prayed Prahallathan standing outside Rajeshwari temple near his Vadapalani office. His elder sister is reaching her mid 30s and the ‘society’ was doing its share to make sure that he was reminded of this fact every other day. Devi was not getting any younger, and Prahallathan Varathachari Ramanujan, or PVR as he was fondly called, was losing patience as this is not clearing his way in getting married to his long time girl friend Kamala.

For him it absolutely had to happen this year. This was almost a make or break for him. He got another chance after the unsuccessful attempt a few years before.

PVR did everything that was possible in his reach to make it happen and in fact came very close in finalizing things three years before. As the other party was living near Kasi, and wanted to meet him in a public place, he took the trip to Kasi three years before with enormous hopes. To his bad luck, Kasi was flooded with devotees right from 4 AM and they diverted all the traffic leading to that place. All he got to see was the Abishekam of the Urchavar, as he stood outside and did his Prarthana. Moolavar was far from his reach! That alliance did not materialize.

He is not going to let others keep speaking about his ‘situation’ this time. He went to multiple astrologers to find out why things are not working out after all his efforts.

‘Kaazhiyoor Narayanan’ guaranteed that he will succeed in his attempts this weekend, if he performed the ‘raaghu kaala pooja’ for Surian and Chandiran.

‘Lucky Stone Lingeshwaran’ suggested that wearing Emerald on his right index finger would bring him good charm.

‘Vaasthu Varadharajan’ had his own doubts. Since this was no laughing matter that Prahallathan was dealing with, he compulsorily told that there should be a laughing Buddha kept at the entrance of his house for his efforts to succeed.

‘Praahellaetheen’ did everything he could. Yup, he did not miss to visit ‘Numerology 7Malai’ as well. ‘Subamuhurtham Soundarapaandi’ marked 4:00 AM to 4:30 AM as the best time to go out for this particular search.

Finally, the day Prahallathan was waiting for had arrived. He was up at 3 AM, took the customary oil bath, got blessings from his parents, said not to worry to his sister and got out of the house at 4:00 AM sharp. By the time he reached the venue, there were already 100 people ahead of him. He dodged the line and got into the top 10. He finally made it!!

Prahallathan couldn’t believe it actually happened this time. It was all like a Mayajaal to him. He finally got his tickets for the first day first show for his Thalaivar’s Enthiran – The Robot!

Three years before, his attempt at getting the tickets for Sivaji – The Boss was unsuccessful and he made up for that! Now he can watch both the Paalabishekam for the Urchavar cutout and also see the Aarthi for the Moolavar, when his thalaivar appears on the screen! He cannot wait for his ‘Robo’Valli in just a week!!

For Bhaktha Prahallathan, his Thalaivar was God and the theaters in Chennai [ (AVM)Rajeshwari, Devi, Kamala, Kasi, Prarthana, Suriyan, Chandiran and Mayajaal ] were the temples that screen them!

Inspired by Appa’s vaitherichal Idea :) His work is available HERE and HERE.

2010-09-21T19:15:00.005-04:00

Khatron Ke Kalmadi - Norman’s Fear Factor

“Bridge collapsed near Jawaharlal Nehru stadium…. Stray dogs found jumping on Athlete’s bed at the CWG village…CWG supervisor calls the situation un-healthy…” These were the headlines that Norman Smith, a Track Cyclist from New Zealand, could hear for the past 15 days in his local media detailing the preparations for the Common Wealth Games 2010, in Delhi. He was among the 20 member delegation who was supposed to start to Delhi in a week’s time.

Norman, who is from a suburban Auckland, was never too thrilled about his trip to India. Even though he badly needed a medal after his 4^th place finish in the previous games, he always had his concerns about the venue and the nation itself. With all the things that he was hearing, the last thing he wanted was to fall sick because of the village not meeting the cleanliness standards.

As the rest of the ‘white’ world, India just meant Taj Mahal for him, and nothing else! In his attempt to know more about the country, he started to do some research himself. Rest of the things about India didn’t please him either. He learned a bit about the culture, the people, the traffic, the weather and of course the Bollywood! Their team started watching some Bollywood movies and they couldn’t stop laughing at the drama that unveiled before them (Thank you, KJo!). Even though he awed at Aishwarya’s hawwtness, he mocked at the antics of Rajnikanth.

The situation in Delhi didn’t help either. With all the Breaking News in the Media about ‘Khatron Ke Kalmadi’ and the politics behind it, his comfort level with the venue was at its all time low.

The ‘Immigration mudhras’ at the T3 welcomed him into the country (of course, after the customary Tikka, garland and the handshake with Shera). He did not expect the airport to ooze with awesomeness. Rahman was singing ‘oh yaaro’ (the tweaked version) on every single speaker in the Airport. He always had nightmares about the traffic, thanks to YouTube. There came the surprise number 2! Two dedicated lanes for CWG traffic. He reached the CW village, a solid 25km ride, in 20 minutes. He checked in to his room with the view of Akshardham on the banks of Yamuna. The room itself was definitely not as fancy as promised, but at the same time was totally livable.

He started off with his daily practice runs and was confused/surprised by the salute that the 60 year old security guard, Tukaram, gave him for each entry and exit to his building. Even though Norman doubted Tukaram’s physical abilities to be appointed as a security guard, he admired his dedication and dutifulness in circling their building from midnight till dawn. In his mind, he seemed guarantee athlete’s security in spite of the trillion CCTVs and the Perimeter securities that have been installed. Tukaram wanted to do his job right, and Norman was fascinated with this dedication.

It was a daily practice run for Norman, and on his way back to his apartment he was surprised to see Tukaram not standing up as he usually does. Norman was curious and he tried to check out if everything was OK. The moment Norman put his hand on Tukaram, he instantly realized he could be running a fever of 104 or more. He tried to communicate with his gestures and tried to ask Tukaram to take the day off. All he could get back was a smile and a nod and eventually a salute after he tried standing up. Norman couldn’t leave him there. He took him to the local hospital and took care of the Rs.100 medicinal expenses. He was also kind enough to offer a ride to Tukaram to drop him at this place with the help from a CWG Volunteer. When the car came to a stop beside the pavement without a single building in sight. He curiously asked the volunteer as to why they stopped here, just to know that Tukaram was among the thousands of people who recently got forcefully moved from the nearby Netaji Nagar Slum – an intentional move by the game organizers wanting to remove the 'eyesore' near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Tukaram and his family now live out of a tent on the pavement (temporarily) and the nonstop rains in Delhi is not helping their condition either. Norman felt so bad about how the games were indirectly responsible for Tukaram’s present state and wondered about the irony of him being the security guard for the same games village. He didn’t see Tukaram for the next 10 days.

A week into the games, this was a big day for Norman. He fought his way to the final round and if at all he had any chances to win a medal, it was at this game. He heard someone knocking on his door at 7:30 in the morning. To his surprise, Tukaram was standing outside along with one of the game volunteers. Tukaram gave him the half of a broken coconut and a bunch of flowers and applied a horizontal stripe of holy ash on his forehead. All this was very confusing to Norman and he asked about it to the volunteer. What he heard moved him. Tukaram, after knowing Norman's progress in the games, had woken up at 5, took the trip to the famous Malai Mandir and offered special poojas for Norman and prayed for his gold medal. While Norman was listening to the volunteer, Tukaram placed his hands on Norman’s head, closed his eyes and blessed him. Norman knew that that gesture was real and from the heart.

Norman is now back on a flight to Auckland. He started looking beyond clumsy Indian politics, sensationalist media, mediocre infrastructure and the other things that he has been fed with so far. He realizes that not everything can be perfect in the event as huge as the Common Wealth Games and was satisfied that India could pull off the games with no major embarrassment. What touched him most was the sincere dedication, love and affection that he got from an ‘aam aadmi’ Tukaram who just lost his home because of this games. He realized that India is not about Kalmadi’s but it is about the dutiful aam aadmis who kept the games alive and made it a success!

Norman started watching the latest Rajnikanth movie on the plane while biting his shiny gold medal from CWG 2010!

2010-06-25T23:54:00.009-04:00

Kyunki, Lakshmi wants something too!

(Silver winner of Blogadda's What Women Want contest.! Thank you RG for the inspiration!)

“Lakshmi….I need some pickle for my curd rice. Can you get that from the Kitchen?” - requested Gopalan, with a mild voice. But Lakshmi was more worried about Tulsi’s life. She was worried if Tulsi could ever get married after the tragic demise of her boyfriend. She was choked in sorrow, and getting the pickle for Gopalan’s curd rice was least of her priorities.

She was immersed in the Tamil dubbed version of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. Gopalan has almost made this a habit of bugging Lakshmi for one thing or the other during this time. He thinks that she is damaging her brain cells by watching this soap.

In her defense ‘Kyunki’ was the only ‘her time’ she got in her busy day. She wakes up at 3 AM to make sure Mark, in Australia, gets all the help he wants to troubleshoot his new Windows 7 PC. Her younger son Sundar has to be in TCS by 4 AM, so that he can start trouble shooting (Sir, is your desktop plugged in? Yes sir, you have to plug it in first, and THEN press the power button. Oh it works? great. You are welcome, sir) computers in Australia. Sundar hates eating outside, and Lakshmi know this. She makes sure she packs him both breakfast and lunch. This pretty much eats up her time before the sunrise. Once the rest of the world wakes up she takes care of her ‘routine’, which includes a gazillion things in a systematic order. She almost eases through these and still allocates time to feed and assist Gopalan’s bed ridden mother. Even though she felt this responsibility has been forced into her, she never once showed her disapproval straight to his mother.

Gopalan gets it. He thought he had pretty good control over her likes, and made sure that he gets those to her before even she asks.

If Lakshmi is waking up at 3AM, he gets up at 2:30 to makes sure the water heater is on. If she is busy making Sundar’s lunch, he prepares her morning filter coffee. Every time she is helping his ailing mother, Gopalan is pretty vocal about how appreciative he is of all the effort she is putting into this. He patiently waits for hours (some time days) solving Sudoku outside Sareeworld, while Lakshmi takes her own time selecting the Sundari silk saree of her choice. Since Lakshmi thinks that Luknow is the awesomest place in the whole friggin world (Yes, her parents place), he makes it a point that they all went to Luknow at least twice a year in the name of vacation. He even got her an aquarium when Sundar was 4, and throwing everything that he got in hand. He took the responsibility of maintaining and feeding the fishes, and still does till date.

He analyzed himself on how he has done so far. Complementing her efforts – check. Sharing family work load – check. Provide emotional and moral support – check. Cater to her personal likes/dislikes – check. Respecting her personal space – check. Being a great husband overall – check. But this was all in his mind.

But what did Lakshmi REALLY want?

One full hour of uninterrupted ‘Kyunki Saas…’ goodness. Somehow Gopalan failed to understand this!

This post is my lame attempt for BlogAdda's contest - What Women Want!

Read more about 'this' on wikiHow

2009-01-29T20:51:00.002-05:00

Food in India

Click to enlarge. Thanks to This blogger for the image.

2009-01-29T18:55:00.006-05:00

ENTHIRAN - Latest Images

Here are some pretty cool images from the shooting spot.

I am going to add 'Enthiran' to the list of movies filmed in Machu Picchu Wiki.

Rajni, Aish and the villan Danny.

International Robotic Conference in India - Why do I see two Rajnis in this pic?

Again, I am confused about the two images on the mirror !?

2008-06-13T14:02:00.014-04:00

Dasavatharam, Sivaji and the Reality Check

Exactly after a year later Sivaji - The Boss, we now have Dasavatharam. Kamal and his producer Aaskar Ravi (Oh yeah..He is not Oscar anymore!) made sure that they did everything possible to promote the movie and tried really hard to hit the headlines atleast for the past one month, before the release. They even went to the extent of inviting Jackie Chan and Amitab Bachan (I have no idea why they did) for the Audio release function in Nehru Stadium. The controversies also added more interest among the movie buffs. Kamal also screened the movie to Karunanithi (Who has been involved in almost all the audio release and movie premiers recently - and yea, he does have a job of being the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) who supposedly was really impressed and congratulated his effort (I don't understand this - you screen a movie exclusively for a celebrity and what else will you expect out of them at the end of the show? It is like my friend and his wife inviting me for dinner and me saying the food was awesome, even though it sucked big time ;) )

Ok, enough said about how much was done to promote Dasavatharam. The question now is, have all the marketing thingy paid off for Dasavatharam? Has it created enough interest among people? Google Trends can help you with that. Trends has been here for about a year and half now. For those who want to learn how this works - go here to learn.

Basically, Google trends will plot the popularity of a subject based on Search Volume Index. In other words, you can easily say how many people were searching for a subject or how many times that subject was listed in google news for the past 4 years.

Let's compare how Dasavatharam and Sivaji faired among the internet users. The results displayed are world-wide statistics.

dasavatharam

1.00

sivaji

7.00

Clearly, on the day of its release in June 2007, Sivaji (The Red Graph) hits a peak among internet users. Also, the small graph below shows the number of news reference for that particular week. You may claim that lot of hits may have come from Sivaji - the name, rather than Sivaji - the movie. Wrong. The search increased just on the movie release date and it took almost a month the settle down. Also, as some of you might have heard already, Google also lists Top 100 searches every day. Now, these results are only from the US and not global. On June 14 2007 (the release date for sivaji), the search phrase 'sivaji review' comes in at number 69. It is just the people in the US searching for it. Even though it was a slow news day, it had to stand up against the US open, the tooth paste recall, the flag day etc., during that day, last year. I have not seen any other Indian movie doing that before. The cool thing about hot trends is that, it lets you go back up to 2 years and search for the top 100 hot trends for every day in those past years. Trends also lists the related news articles alongside the results. All the A, B, C s that you see on the red graph above corresponds to Sivaji - the movie news article that touched periodic peaks. A complete set of country wide, state wide, city wide results can be found here. Bottom line, Dasavatharam clearly did not create enough interest before or on its day of release. I am almost positive that a movie's verdict will be directly proportional to these results.

Another movie that came to my mind when I thought of crazy marketing is Om Shanti Om. SRK is undoubtedly the marketing guru, when it comes to his movies. He was literally on all the TV channels all the time before the movie hit the screens.

Lets take a look at how it compared with Sivaji.

sivaji

1.00

om shanti om

1.20

As it came out during November 2007, the curiosity among internet users gradually increased and peaked during its release date.

The one thing that we should notice in the above graphs is their pattern. It is really interesting to see how the two graphs have a pre-release short peak and touches the high point on the day of its release. Later, the hype (or the graph) gradually settles down in a month.

Going with these statistics, Dasavatharam will fail to make the cash registers ringing. Kamal might have to go back to the drawing board and work on getting this graph right for his next.

2008-02-21T16:35:00.007-05:00

Bollywood for Barack!

Check this cool video out. Watch out for PrabuDeva around 1:25!

2008-02-05T19:32:00.004-05:00

Super Star Sam Anderson

People - The Wait is over!! We have got a genuine all-rounder for Indian Film Industry. 'Thala' Sam Anderson is here!!

"God bless Mr.Sam Anderson. This vdo really changed my mood...the complex dance movements and the romantic smile n looks, cant forget this for decades......FIVE STARS" -- E! Online

"This is possibly India's Biggest Movie Ever Made---Has OSCARS written all over it!!" -- Chicago Sun Times

"The Dawn of a new era!!! From now there will be no Salman Khan, SRK or even AMIR Khan but our great SAM ANDERSON. This is just the beginning....watch out for more.." -- Hindustan Times

"Gumthalakadi Gummava Sam Anderson na summava???" -- Ananda Vikatan

2008-01-25T19:33:00.003-05:00

Michael Madhana Kama Rajan

It has been a looong two semesters for Michael, Madhan, Kameshwaran and Raj here in the ‘University of Sucks ass’, which was ranked 195 in the top 100 universities in the south east America. They were all set for taking a break and fly back to Chennai, their home town. Everyone knew Kameshwaran would nail it and the other guys were just hoping to be seated next to him during the finals. Bindhu, their 28 year old neighbor, was one of the ‘Sumaar looking’ females in the Desi apartment complex that MMKR lived in. Raj, was the lover boy among the four and had the best chance of scoring and Kameshwaran the least.

As a standard they all decided to take two check-in bags for their trip to Chennai. They would have never realized that each one of them would have to give away one whole suitcase for the greedy Bindhu – who would eventually trick them all. Bindhu, like a lioness, picked the perfect timing in attacking each of the cows in isolation. She would walk into MMKR’s apartment (They shared a 4 bedroom) when Kamehswaran was alone and would sweet talk him into taking a load of shit to be given to her father, mother, uncle, neighbor, local sub-inspector, watch man and her dog. A Bit Background on Bindhu – She has been out of Chennai for years together now, as getting A’s and B’s was not her thing. She had now switched 8 departments from Information technology to Indian tribal studies, but nothing worked out. She is hanging on to her student visa, and she knows that the INS would not be too happy to let her in once she steps out of the US main land. Back to our story, no other girl had talked more than 5 minutes straight to Kameshwaran, and he was way too happy to dedicate one whole suitcase and fill them up with Bindhu’s goods. The same thing would happen to Michael, Madhan and Raj and no one would know about each others situation. They were all packed with 8 check-in baggage, out of which, 4 now belongs to Bidhu! They all had a sense of pride and threw a sarcastic smile at each other. ‘What a bunch of loosers! When are they going to realize that I have outscored them in scoring Bindhu’ – is what everyone thought about the rest of the three before they departed. Bindhu called everyone privately on their cell phone and went through a check list to make sure they had everything that she gave.

It would be 3 days and 12 stops before they could finally reach Chennai (They were running on a student budget and $750 was all they could afford for that trip!) Bindhu had set a dead line for each one of them for delivery of their packages. They all landed midnight on a Sunday. The next day, Kameshwaran woke up around 5 AM, took a shower, did his sandhiya vandhanam, said to his parents that he has to meet a friend in Nungambakkam, filled up gas on his TVS 50 and was accelerating at an incredible speed of 50 km/hour to reach Bindhu’s house. At her house, the dog would not let him in and he stood there at the gate for 15 minutes, before her Mom would open the door for him. Her Mom grabbed the suitcase, which she knew was for her (and for the whole street, basically) and started going through the foreign crap. Kameshwaran had to caugh twice to get her attention, and then she would offer him a coffee. Her dad walked in and started asking how US was and how ‘people’ live there and stuff. Kameshwaran went crazy and thought ‘Guys..Are you not going to ask about how your daughter is even for once?’ Raj would go one step ahead and would even skip his Brother’s reception to deliver the goods to Bindhu’s house. Michael and Madhan followed the next day at 9 AM and 1 PM respectively. Bindhu was good in logistics planning, and was smart enough to distribute the FedEx delivery time across 2 days, so there would be no clash.

3 weeks over and they are in the flight back to their school. A small fight broke up between the four, as to who gets the isle seat. The one who gets it would get the chance to be closer to the hot air hostess, who for some reason would not stop walking back and fourth throughout the flight. Raj got the place, and Madhan was pissed and spilled the secret. “Go ahead and sit it the isle dude…but you were not the 'chosen one' by Bindhu..I win..sucker!”. All the three turned their attention to Madhan and went ‘What? What the hell are you talking about’? Madhan, with a sense of pride explained about how Bindhu met him in Private and ‘trusted’ him in delivering ‘Important’ stuff to her family. They were just devastated to hear about each one of their story and they would laugh at each other about how they were tricked by the lady, the entire flight back.

They landed in the airport and some of their seniors were ready to pick MMKR up. On their way back to school, one of their seniors said ‘You guys were lucky that you got to take only your personal stuff. Bindhu made us took a suitcase full of shit last year!’ This made MMKR realize that they were not the First Generation Loosers!!

2007-10-15T16:23:00.002-04:00

I found this post from Metro blogging - Chennai interesting and funny. I cannot take credit for this.

An interesting conversation
The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars."

Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."

Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money on construction. "

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present our case?"

Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and sometimes in bullock carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suit and announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say."

Hanuman: "I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."

Ram: "My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted without documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated. "

Hanuman: "Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth.

Hanuman: The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government records straight once for all."

Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth as long as Salman Khan is around."

Origional post here -

http://chennai.metblogs.com/archives/2007/10/a_bridge_too_far.phtml

2007-09-21T00:47:00.002-04:00

HEY RAM !!!

["...suddenly a man, who was later identified as Nathu Ram Godse took steps out of the crowd and fired three shots at Mahatmaji. Bullets hit him on the stomach and chest. The Mahatma fell down saying Ram-Ram..."]

– Nand Lal Mehta, in the First Information Report recorded on January 30, 1948, at 9.45 p.m.

2007-09-09T22:52:00.002-04:00

SAROJA SAMAAN NIKALO…..!!!!

‘Thanks for calling Dell, this is Sandy, how may I help you today?’ asked Saroja (who is now Sandy) from a Dell BPO in Bangalore. Saroja has been doing this job over a year now, and she is already done with the fake accents, racist comments, and all her wannabe western friends. She was all set to get married to Radakrishnan, a Silicon Valley engineer. Radakrishnan and Saroja have been talking over Skype for about a month now, after their engagement was over. Soraja has been reading all about the San Francisco bay area on wikipedia and has been reading ‘how to behave in America’ by Morgan (Muruganandam from Mannarkudi originally). One of her close friends Anita just moved to New York City and has been sharing her city experience with Saroja recently. She had told her about the view of her rented Condo on the 34th street, the various cuisines they try every weekend, about the central park and all about their city life in general. This is exactly what Saroja wanted too, and was all geared up for her bay area living.

Radakrishnan flew down to Chennai, they both hanged out in some hip places, got married, went to kuladeivam, said bi-bi to their family and they flew back all exited to start their new life. They arrived at the Oakland airport. Saroja stepped out and got the fresh American air and was all exited to see all those people that she thought she talked to in her job in India. For every white person that passed by, she would relate it to one of the conversation she had for a computer malfunction. So far so good for Saroja. ‘So what train should we take to get to the San Francisco downtown?’ asked the innocent Saroja. She did not know that Radakrishnan had taken an apartment in one of the sub-urban areas. It was kind of a last minute decision for him too. She was ok with that and they boarded the train. After an hour journey their station read ‘Fremont’. It was already 11 PM, and she did not have a chance to take a look at the neighborhood at that time. Saroja reached home, the apartment was nice, but definitely not a high rise, as she expected.

After some jet lagging, Saroja and Radakrishnan decided to take a trip around the neighborhood. Since they just moved in, they were yet to get their internet hooked up, so they were trying to see if there were any free wireless connections available. To Saroja’s surprise, she could see 10 available connections, and they read Ramu, Nandhini, Thirugyanam, Parthasarathi, Sivaji-TheBoss, Thala and so on. This was her first shock in the new country. She was expecting more on the lines of Lisa, Tommy, Timberlake etc., She enquired Rada, and he hinted that there was little Indian crowd in this apartment complex. She did not get the intensity of the statement then, but she was about to.

Before going around the place, Rada wanted to draw some money and they go into the Bank of America. Inside Saroja sees a bunch of Asian and Indian tellers, and a lady greeted them, and her name tag read ‘Prameela’. Saroja know how to greet from her BPO experience and she went ‘how is it going?’ Prameela replied, ‘namaste ji, mey apko kya madad kar sakta hoon?’ This was her second shock of her day. She kept talked in Hindi for about 10 mins, and then realized that Saroja and Rada don’t know a bit of Hindi. Then they continued with English and completed their transaction. This trend continued even in Target super center, where ‘Kalyani’ checked all her groceries out. They asked Kalyani about the restaurants nearby and she gave them a sheet containing all the restaurants. The sheet read Anjappar unavagam, Saravana Bhavan, Dosa place, Sri Krishna Bhavan, Udupi palace, Murugan Idly kadai, Komala vilas, Burrito place (err…she read it wrong) Barotta place and the list went on. They finally ended up in Barotta place and had a kothu borotta and iddiyappam paya. While they were having their food, along came a call from Anita (the New York girl…remember?). This was pretty much the hardest part of Saroja’s day thus far. She knew that she had do explain all the desi stuff here, as compared to Anita’s downtown experience. She quickly ended her conversation saying that she was a little busy at this time. Saroja’s experience so far was not even close to what she had expected or what she had read while she was in India. In fact, she had already met more Indian people here than she would have in Bangalore, in any given hour. Saroja, for a moment thought that Rada lied to her by calling this place America. She did not talk to him for the next 2 days, and their neighbor ‘Savithri’ had to come over to patch up things between the couple. She called up Anita, who has now lived in New York for about 6 months now. Anita, this time was all upset and was worried about her safety in the city, as there was a break-in in her neighbor’s condo. She complained how difficult it was to lead a life here without any Indian friends nearby. There was not a soul in her condo to share her Indian life style. One Saroja hung up the phone, she slowly realized that it was not that bad to live among our own people in a country far away.

While she was realizing these facts, a truck pulled up in front of their apartments. This was the movers that they have arranged for all Rada’s goods. A Sardar was driving the truck and she got out the truck with a receipt in his hand, which was made out for Saroja. He yelled, ‘Saroja…..Saman Nikaloo’. She was in all smiles and happily unloaded all her stuff inside!

2007-06-06T22:20:00.004-04:00

INDIA's ANSWER TO ELVIS!!

Me now being in Memphis, the hometown of Elvis, I was thinking why did India not have a counterpart...somebody who has that energy...that charm.....the class....the hair.....the moves....and yeah, who makes the chicks go craazzzzy!!!!

Well....WOLA!!!! my search ends right here.....ROCK N ROLL....man

Nene Elvisudu...Nene NTR udu (read like..Nane Ramudu...Nane Krishnudu!!)

2007-03-11T12:54:00.002-04:00

PORTLAND TO PALLAVARAM AND BACK

15 Boxes of Ferrero Roches, 2 Coby DVD players, 1 sony handycam and a digital camera, 3 ipod shuffles for 100 bucks on ebay, a foot massager, a blood pressure meter, Bose speakers and some Fossil watches……. Yes Pattabi was getting ready for a trip to Pallavaram.

Pattabi makes it a point to visit Chennai once a year, with his accumulated vacation balance, for three weeks. This time was special, as his brother Kittu was getting married. So it was 4 instead of the regular 3 weeks. It was also special, as he was carrying a 6 pack, this time on his abs. He started working out real hard this year, as there was a serious chance for him to get engaged during his brother’s wedding.

After a grueling flight from Portland to Pallavaram, Pattabi was greeted by his family and friends at the airport. There was definitely some signs of shock on his ‘Small’ size t-shirt, though he was very much a ‘medium’. He just had to show his arms and tight body, and that was the idea. It kinda went the other way, as it looked more like a blouse than a t-shirt. The Cab travel from Meenambakam to Pallavaram was always a thing to worry for Pattabi, obviously the traffic scared him to death.

Ah, finally home, he was a relaxed man. Happy to see his family and stuff. The next day was the suitcase opening day. This was always the hard day for Pattabi’s father, Rangabashyam, as he would hate his son spend money on stuff that he considers unnecessary. In the mean time Kittu was all exited to see what his brother had got for him for his marriage. Rangabashyam found it hard to accept new technology and products. The traditional ones seem to satisfy him more. When Pattabi gave him the Ipod, he said the old cassette walk man was better. When his son gave him the wrist pressure meter, he said the old one with mercury rising, gave him a more precise reading. He also liked his BSNL phone as compared to the cordless phone. Pattabi spent hours finding that stuff, but what he gets, ‘you could have got me something better’ comment. He was pissed and amazed at the same time. The next day went on distributing the candies to his relatives. Perripas gets two ferrero roceshes with one pack of Hershey’s and mamas gets M&Ms and Kit Kats….it was all decided by his parents.

Vaitheswaran kovil, Thirumanjeri, Yettu kuddi, Rameshwaram constituted his next 3 days. Pokkiri, Aalwar, Veerasami(!!), Guru took his next 2 days. He and his brother pretty much made friends in every shop in T nagar, given the number of times they visited each one of them for the wedding shopping. Most of the shop owners gave them the VIP passes, seeing the considerable amount of Pattabi’s Dollar earnings being spent on Indian cotton.

Even though Pattabi was very conscious about his health in India, he made sure that he did not make it public. He did not say Chennai was hot, he did not prefer mineral water over metro water, he did not demand cab over the metro buses, he did not prefer Life Style over Saravana Stores, his choice was Thiruvanmiyur Jayanthi and not the multiplexes, and definitely wanted to watch Veerasaami over V for Vendetta. Every one was pretty surprised on this behavior of Pattabi, who has spent more than 5 years in the states. The explanation from Pattabi’s side was simple. He really hated people who really had to do the exactly opposite stuff said above, when he was younger. And a strong advice from Rangabashyam, right from the age of 15 on being humble and more Society friendly helped him to make a choice. All his friends and relatives liked him over the other NRI s that they know. They would really appreciate his behavior when they got a chance. There were these other groups of people, who wanted him to act more NRI ish, and even went to the level of doubting if he really was one! Well nothing bothered Pattabi, he was who he was, and nothing could change him.

It was the week of marriage, and Pattabi took up a chunk of responsibilities and was happy working for his brothers wedding. It was big family re-union, after all, that is what marriages were all about. There were definitely some mama’s and mami’s, enquiring about the marital status of Pattabi, and started the initiatives. Even though Pattabi was a little proud inside, he kind of acted reluctant about these talks and stayed away from it.

Things went on well, and his brother is back in Pune for his project management activities in TCS. He even dragged his wife into the company. Rangabashyam and his wife Lalitha, now stay alone in their Tambaram house, chatting with their two sons over the internet. They constantly pressure Pattabi to come back to India, so that they can stay with him, as Pune was not their kind of place. For Rangabashyam, the change from Pallavaram to Pune was as hard as the change from Cassette walkman to Ipod, he just cannot do that.

For Pattabi, after the fist 2 weeks of home sickness, it was back to the normal life here in Portland. He is now seriously considering a job switchover which would make his transition from Portland to Pallavaram, easier!!!

2006-12-26T23:41:00.002-05:00

Sam, Pat, Kyle, Randy and

Miss Atlantic Slutty

Ranganathan was turning 25, and he and his friends decided to spend the night at the Atlantic City. So Randy, as he likes to call himself, and his friends pat (pattabiraman), sam (saminathan) and kyle (kylasaraman) started their road trip from upstate
new York down to the city of lights.

“I have been eying on the 52 inch HDTV for a long time now, and tonight I will win the money for it” started the optimistic pat, about his plans on the money that he was about to win. Each one had their prospective plans. Kyle wanted the 30 Gig video ipod and Sam wanted the full season on South park, and the frugal Randy wanted to save a bunch of money on his NRI account. Well, that killed about an hour on their drive, which had a couple left.

In no time The Taj Mahal, Caesars, Bally’s and Trump Plaza were smiling at them, with the spectacular lightning all around. It was really early for the guys to realize that it was a cruel trap. They decided to go to the Caesars, cause for some reason they think Taj Mahal always takes money and never gives a thing!!

Why are all the casinos filled with Chinese or the H1B Indians or the 86 + white females? Is there any special reason why these three breeds are attracted towards that place more than anybody else? Nyways…….As soon as they entered, every one picked the game they are good at( I never understood why someone had to be GOOD at anything that you GAMBLE at). It was poker for Pat, roulette was for Kyle, Blackjack for Sam and the Texas Tornado for Randy (for people who didn’t know, Texas Tornado is a popular 5 Cent slot game at Caesars)

Thirty minutes later, they met near the Sic Bo table….and this is how the conversation went
Randy : 75
Sam : 100
Pat : 85
Kyle : 140

They were exchanging the amount they lost in half hour. There are some moments were you are extremely pissed at yourself for loosing, that you start blaming the Casino for having some conspiracy to get all your money. You just want to grab the dealer by his shirt and slap him real hard, probably spit on his face……well….its just anger mixed with frustration, that made them think that way.

But the free Heineken came to their rescue, and it was served by Miss Atlantic Slutty. See, this is how they get you….they will get u high with the booze and the ladies. Kyle thought he should at least drink up for all the money that he lost so far……he was on his 4th rum and coke already.

All four of them went on to hit the Crabs table. For some reason, this is the only game that no Desi ever dares to play, for the obvious reason that this is hard to get!!!
These dudes did not want to be the stereotypical brown asses. So they wanted to try their luck on the Crabs. They just kept rolling and rolling, and had no idea whether there were winning or loosing…….there went the seven and they were informed that they lost. They had to walk away from the table helplessly.

Four of them were now tired and penniless. They had spent the last 5 hours and 550 dollars on trying to make their life better. While walking out of the gambling place, they felt that the hard earned (?!) money is something that is not worth gambling on…….no wait……..they see a sign near the Trump plaza….and it read “Awarded the luckiest casino for four straight ears—Bellagio, NV”. It was a perfect mouse trap for four people at distress.

All four of them had one thing to say
“Dude… Let’s hit Las Vegas next weekend and win all our money that we lost in this unlucky place”
Some people will never learn…..will they?

2006-11-21T18:13:00.002-05:00

A R Rahman Back to Basics

Did you have a chance to listen to 'GURU' soundtrack? If not you should give it a shot.

No complicated music and no loud sounds either. Its all good old melody, and its really great to hear Rahman keeping things simple, literally, in terms of the instruments he uses. He prob did that cause it is a period flick, but it definitely works...Big time.

He kinda started going back to basics with his "Munbe Vaa" from Sill(une)endru oru kaathal.

Barso Re, a very fine start of the soundtrack (remembers you of Revathi singing 'oh oh megam vanthatho' from Mouna Raagam).....I can already imagine 'thalaivi' Aish singing in the rain, prob imitating Revathi, given that its Mani whos behind the scenes on both of them.

The one that stands out is the 'Ay Hairathe' by Hariharan and Alka. Its like one of those 80's number from Illaiyaraja, where a song is majorly dominated by a soft tabla in the background. Everything really comes together in this melody. This starts with a intoxicating humming by Rahman himself. love it.

'Ek lo Ek muft' is also a worth a mention. Especially the 'Joiya Joiya' and the 'Emo Emo Emo le' humming. Totally gets you the very first time you hear, and has its rural touch. Most of all, it has drunk bappi lahri and Chitra(she really rocks in this song)

I never thought I would write a music review, but this one kinda dragged me in. Hearing it at least twice a day.

Rahman, where were you dude? missed ya.... and Welcome Back!!!!!

2006-11-06T18:40:00.002-05:00

TAMIL NADOOOOOO

An interesting video about "TAMIL", being one of the prominant searches in Google. The dude goes into analysis of what Tamil is, goes on to find tamilmatrimony.com and Indiaglitz.com
Look at his face after watching "Imsai Arasan 23 Pulikesi" trailor...sweet. Vazhka Vadivelu!! Enna thitu chinna pulla thanama irruku...Raaskal...

2006-10-30T16:12:00.002-05:00

LENINBABU M PAKKIRISAMI

It was a rainy day at the BWI airport, where Lenin's plane landed, surprisingly ontime from
London. Lenin was finally happy to be here after those slogging hours at Madras, accepting every
piece of shitty work that his onsite manager gives him. He was given a tearful sendoff by his
parents and a "vaitherichal" one from his colleagues, who were still struck with the offshore
assignments.

Lenin hails from lower middle class family, with his father working in the slum control division
and his mother managing the house. They could barely meet the family needs until he was out of
college, and it was breather when Lenin found himself a position with TCS, Madras. The solid 35k
per month, made their living a little better, and now they call themselves a middle middle class. They had now moved out of 'Kasimedu' and found their new home, in a relatively decent
'Kottivakkam'. Out of all three, this move particularly made Lenin's mom happy, as he would now stay away from his so called "friends". Doesn't make sense, does it?
His friends were 'Bottle subbu', 'Kuilthoppu kumar', 'villivakkam Gaja', 'weightu vijay' and 'Acid
anthony'.
I hear you saying...AAhhhh....Now it makes a lot of sense.

Lenin moving from Madras to Maryland was the next step in his career, when the 'Onsite Athirshtam'
struck him. He was already calculating and predicting the Income to savings on his flight.
According to Lenin's overdone savings plan, he should practically be a millionaire in a year. Well, unless he starves to death or stays on the sidewalk, that was not going to happen.
He was greeted by his future roommate, Mayilvahanam, outside the airport, and was taken to the
apartment in his 96 Toyota Corolla, with the CD singing "Theepidkka Theepidikka Mutham
Koduda....". Lenin was all smiles seeing spectacular (?!! in Baltimore?) roads and lush greens on
either side of the highway, with the fall colors clearly visible in the month of November. The
happiness continued, when he found his new apartment to be a 20 floor building, located right at
the heart of the city. The smiles got a speed bump, when he realized that the rent for that
apartment was 1450 per month, and heat and gas extra. This suddenly reduced his planned saving by 20,000 dollars(over the long time).

"enna kannu..poi senthutiya ma..Kuliru eppadi irruku....anga yaru kooda thangiirruka....soru
kadaikutha illa bread thaana? odambu paathuko pa..eppo pa inga vara mudiyum?" the usual telephonic conversation with his mother, kannathaal, continued again and again for the first week. She had nothing to ask but to make sure he got food...good food and good health. The usual Mothery stuff. His father, Pakkirisami, usually kept things short by saying "nalla irrupa...intha...amma kitta pesu". There are two kinds of parents. The first kind does not make his son being in US a big deal, as a plethora of their family branches live over there, and there is the other one, for whom their son would be the first in 5 generations. Pakkirisami's family was the second kind.

Lenin was slowly getting used to his new place and friends. He now manages his own team in the
offshore, and 'assigns' them work. He definitely had a very thick Indian accent and had to come
across several embarrassment and sarcastic smiles. It was a Saturday, and Lenin does not eat
meat on that day. He got the advice from one of his friends on how order this in their cafe.
This is how the final order ended up
"Can I get a Hamburger with NO Ham in it?" that's it Lebron (the big brother who is incharge of
the grill) laughed it out so loud, that the entire cafe joined the fun. Pretty awkward moment for
Lenin...but had to smile it off, and had to explain it to him again.

Five years have passed by. Now Lenin moved out separately, owns an 2007 Aura TL, has
girlfriend(s) (Latanya and Latisha from Bethesda, Maryland), smokes Marlboro ultra lights, owns a
three bedroom flat in Adyar, uses money transfer quite frequently and overall enjoys staying in
this country.

Everything has changed in LeninBabu M Pakkirisami's life, except ONE. When he rings up India, he still hears......"enna kannu..Kuliru eppadi irruku....anga yaru kooda thangiirruka....soru
saaptiya.. illa bread thaana? odambu paathuko pa....saliku kashayam vachi kudi pa....Epo pa inga
vara?" the voice of his innocent mother Kannathal.

2006-10-22T19:54:00.002-04:00

Thavakalai .. Is now the Break Dancing Indian Midget

This has already got around 81,000 hits and has various versions in you tube. Even tho some lame dudes curse him, the truth is most of them think this is really funny and they like it.

Watch it yo self.

YouTube - Breakdancing Indian Midget

2006-09-15T15:31:00.002-04:00

Nars-ayathartham
Life of Narasiman after Nichayathartham

Narsi was a perfect bachelor roommate anybody could ask for. He was smart, funny, talkative, drunkard and chick crazy. We always loved his company and was fun being around him. Our Fridays began at 6 in the evening and lasted until next day 7. He was the one who taught us how to get a chick at the dance floor(Be patient, look out for the drunk ugly chick, go dance with her whole night...Was his theory and it worked pretty well, every darn time).
Lets just stop right here about how cool Narsi was, cause that is not the point I am trying to make.

Narsi was 26, the youngest in his family and had no freaking commitments whatsoever. His brother was happily married and Narsi's parents started targeting their second lad for the holy matrimony.

So the 'Filtering' process began. By the way did I mention that he was working in California as a software ....(lets just say he was working)

There were two girls whom Narsi rejected, cause they were over qualified for him....And there were 45 other girls who rejected Narsi, cause for some reason they thought that the would not be the exact orthodox brahmin guy they were looking for(They could guess that some how).
He finally ends up on a doctor lady, who specializes on gums ( geez dude, its called a 'Dentist'). Things would not be the same anymore........
All of a sudden, he finds himself engaged. He is confused, happy, sad...Everything at the same time. He regrets his decision on getting married one day and enjoys it the other. He gets a laptop computer for the lady, installs skip, gets a new razr phone, charges his reliance card for 200 dollars...and makes sure that at any point, he has a source of communication with his would be better half.

And on the other side of the world, there is a girl sitting filled with all those dreams to coming to America, about her new life, about her higher studies here and what not. The first week conversation was perfect. They both felt that this was the best person that they can ever get in their life. Narsi has already changed his laptop wallpaper, cell phone wallpaper, screen saver to the Girl's picture. Things were different for his room mate and he felt Narsi was behaving wierd nowadays.

Narsi started talking for 8 hours straight, and the conversation would go something like this....."hmm....tell me....ya...I am eating....ah?...ya...sambar and rice....no...okra.....I am washing my plate now....w%395##9544(he was talking even while drinking water)....walking down the steps....hello.......hello.........hello........"The phone disconnects. Rings back."Ya....finished walking down the steps.......I don't remember how many steps I walked......no I did not count them.....ya.....what did you have for breakfast......."
and the freaking conversation continues every darn day.

His room mate openly asked this question. "Narsi, why do you have to explain every shitty thing that you do to the girl?? Don't you have any thing better to talk about?"
Narsi got pissed and replied.."You will not understand the feeling. you have to be in love". Dude, what the hell are you talking about? How can you love a female that you have not even met a single freaking time? But there was no point in continuing that conversation with Narsi, as it was so obvious that he had gone nuts after Nichayathartham.

There was no fun anymore in the house. Narsi, seldom comes out of his room and even if he does, he is on the phone with the future bride. He stopped hanging out on Friday nights and continued donating money to the Reliance brothers.
Narsi now plans to buy a house in a remote village in California, and would start mingling with the family people. He would also never introduce his wife to his friends as they have openly critiqued his selection.

We all know that life would never be the same again, and the Adventures of single Narsi would be missed.

2006-08-19T13:31:00.003-04:00

Veecharuva in a Vending Machine!

part two... comes out December 2007.... "monkeys on a plane" dont miss it... i wonder what the third part is going to be called Snails on a BusZombies on a PlaneZombies on a TrainZombies on a BusPretty much zombies on anything...

Nah, the cool thing about it being on a plane is that once you're in the air, it's a lot harder to get off. You can easily stop a train or a bus, but you can't stop a plane in mid-air. Pretty much the only other confined spaces you can't get out of once they're in action are boats and submarines.
Bears on a Submarine!
beavers on a hovercraft.S
nakes on a boat and ladies in the water"Snakes In The Rain", which is a romantic comedy, featuring an all snake cast.
monkeys on a plane
Drunks on a yacht
gays on a gondola
Pigs on a Yacht!P
enguins on a Spaceshuttle
killer dildos on a train
Hornets on a School
BusCats on an Ice Cream Truck.
Ironside on a wheelchair
Ants in my pants

Grandmas in the hot tub, Carrot top in a blimp, and watching Little Man with The Wayans brothers on a plane (in like a week when they start showing it on flights). ahhhhhh!
toothpaste, bottled water, make up, shampoo, and contact solution on a plane.

Goats on a Boat! It rhymes!Gophers on a Golf Cart
Mel Gibson on a Jihad
SHARKS ON A PLANE
monkeys on a plane - They did that movie already. It's called "Air Force One.
Broke Back Mountain dudes in your room
Snakes in a Gay Bar.
Gorillas in a pop corn machine

Special thanks: The dude who writes crazy reviews for these crazy films.

2006-08-15T19:54:00.002-04:00

CANCEL THE DAMN SERIES

What the hell is wrong with the cricket board and the three countries?? Why are they even evaluating the security situation?

"South Africa's national team will stay in Sri Lanka until Thursday pending an independent security review after a fatal bomb blast in Colombo."

"India practice amid tight security"

There was a bombing which killed 60 kids(?!), and the Srilankan government is anticipating a retaliation on the Srilankan public schools, hence declared a holiday for the next two weeks.

Who Exactly wants to watch Cricket at this point. Cancel the F**king Series you Idiots!!!!!

2006-07-05T21:53:00.002-04:00

Nayanthara Falls

"Cheppandi.cheppandi..cheppandi", "Pampisthanu", "ikkada ra", "betha falllsuu"...These were probably the most heard words at the NIAGARA at the present time. If you are there during a long weekend, then these would be the ONLY words that you will hear. There are occasional "machis and mamus" here and there, but by and large our telugu friendsuuu. Its probably the hugeness of the falls that's attracting us, and in turn generating huge revenue for the state. In other words "Pettha Fallsuu...Pethha laabam"
30 year old parents bringing their 2 year olds and their 65 year olds, and trying to manage both at the same time. Two years from now we may probably see people carrying tamarind and lemon rice in a huge stainless steel containers and having it in the background of the falls. Niagara is this close to becoming west side "Kutralam". The same venkata ramana and ravi are here too, but wearing jean and t shirt.
The parking lot was filled with Fords and GMCs rather than the usual Toyotas and Hondas, explaining the fact that most of us rent and not drive their own car, thus playing safe. The frustration could be seen on the faces of those 25+ year old single guys, looking at the newly wed couples easily out numbering the former. They vented out their frustration by passing comments on the new brides.
The few Americans that were present there were like "wat the hell is goinon?" but we, as usual, did not give a shit about what they think.
The state of New York is taking tremendous measures to increase the desi visitors, since its a matter of huge revenue.
The state has passed a bill for renaming the falls to please the south Indian crowd. From now on Niagara Falls would be officially called as Nayanthara Falls.

2006-06-13T18:27:00.001-04:00

Googlophobia

I just came out of boring sunday, looking at the computer and tv screens repeatedly for 9 hours. the next day when I was just looking at my search history in the Google toolbar drop-down, I was taken by surprise! Why did I ask all those to Google brother? It was shocking to see the variety of searchs that I did on that day. I am seriously scared now !

The following are the searches(In the same order) that I made on that day, and I swear, I did not make up any of the following.

acting school India
rip music from DVD
how to get hijack log
remove safetyuptodate
asdf
us maps
hips dont lie lyrics
xml add-in in excel2003
labcorb baltimore
lok pavithran
mor kuzhambu recipe
free us weekly subscription
usweekly
India hiv count
sierra wireless VOQ phone
tamil matrimony
jay chandrashekar
tech deals
Geisha
top jobs in us by location
vpn hack
so sick mp3 free download
google interview questions
data source websphere settings
db connection pool

What is your list?

2006-06-06T14:59:00.004-04:00

Orkut Ananthanarayanan

It was another day for Ananthu, his alarm waking every one in his building up- except him, his 2 minute shower, cereal bar on the go, vetti browsing at work, pretending to work when his manager passes by, flirting with his next cube hottie, asking too many questions during the team meetings, collecting $2 from his team members to play mega million, trying to ask all his technical questions to google, listening to his ipod on his way home…..nothing changed in his boring routine, until that evening, when his friend introduced him to Orkut community.

Ananthu started exploring the community slowly. Initially he was dumb-enough to scrap in his own scrap book, thinking that he was replying to his friend, and things like that-but slowly he learnt. Within a week, he was in a community-adding spree. There were all sort of community displayed on his profile—Adayar school, Madras college, Chicago college, captain vijayakanth, Rajni fans, Iyer, Iyengar, Vadagalai, Thenkalai, Echa Kalai (he joined this group accidentally), simran, nayanthara, Jennifer garner, Jlo, Beyonce, Indian Lesbians (this was no damn accident, he is just sick), SnoopDog, American singles, Python, Java, Southpark, opensource, Lok Pavithran, artificial intelligence, kalki, john Gresham, starbucks, manirathnam, peterjackson……..u name it and you will find it in his communities.

His friends were also increasing as fast as his community affiliations. He was 100% trusty and totally cool according to his so-called friends, whom he never met before. He had lotsa testimonials, most of them written by himself be signing on with a different id. He now knows to get all the information about a person by just looking at their community affiliations.

Ananthu still wakes up late, takes 2 min shower, rushes to his office, pretends when his manager walks by, but now he spends some quality time with Orkut at his work place.

2006-06-04T17:14:00.000-04:00

SHOCKsphere

2006-03-05T17:36:00.004-05:00

And the Oscar Goes To ..........
Udaintha Pinnadi -- The Origional Tamil BROKE BACK

In 1963, with work scarce in Thenkasi pattanam, two jobbing farmhands, Kandasami (Sarath) and Munnusami (Neppolian), are hired to tend sheep on a remote mountain. Over the next few months a bond develops between the two cow-pokes that develops into a sexual relationship. When the job ends, the attraction remains and although they meet and marry two women, the men convene a couple of times a year to revisit their experiences on Brokeback. Even though they shifted cities and live with a fake identity (They now call themselves Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist) , their love remains unchanged.

Before-In a remote Tamil Village

After-In a remote american village

2006-03-04T19:44:00.001-05:00

Korangu Seshtai

Bush tries his hand on Cricket. I sort of understand how difficult would be for the young dude standing behind him to control his laughter, after Bush making is trademark monkey face....

2006-03-03T12:36:00.002-05:00

Madisar and the City

I was going through one of the blogs and was taken away by the mention of Parupu usili curry and vendaya kuzambu. Just kind of reminded me that, no matter where we are and what we do, the fact that Who we are remains steady.

So here I am with a thought…..Madisar and the City!

Visalam mami: Yendi nethu intha Samantha panna kariyatha paathionno!
Gomathi mami: Yaaru Sex and the City Samantha va pathiya sollre?
V: Vera yaarapathidi nan unkitta pesa poren
G: nanum paathen…avalukunu vanthu pasanga maatraale!
V: irunthaalum oru pombaliku ivlo aangaram aagathudi ma.
G: Samantha oru New York Neelambari ndra!!! Athu irrukatum, nethiku Charlotte oda dressa paathiya….Enna azhaga irunthuthu illa!
V: pinna GUCCI azaga illama eppadi irrukum….naanum enga aathukarara ore oru GUCCI handbag vangi kodungo nu keetu keetu aluthu poiten….manuzhan asaiya maatendrar……..”GUCCI velaiya paathu , en MOOCHU ninnu POCHU” nu asatu comment vera! Intha manushana asaika mudiyathunu naanum vittuten.
G: Seri vidudi…namellam Gucci catalog pakarthoda niruthika vendiyathan.
V: Carie oda booku nethu publication ku approve aadithu paathiya
G: aama, avaloda boy friend ku pogavendiya chance athu. Ithu theriyama antha paithyam avantiye poi, peethindruku…….mukkavasi ava renduperum adutha vaaram break up aaiduvanu nenaikaren
V: avalumthan ethana aamblaya maathuvalo!!
G: nalu perukum boy friend e irruka koodathu…..appdi irunthalum break-up aaidanum….kalyaname aagakoodathu…….apdi aanalum annulment’o divorce’o aaidanum……..illena kathaila oru viruvirupe illama poidume. Single a irrukaravaraikum than sex and the ciry, kalyanam aaiduthuna, vex and the city.
V: nee vena paru, antha Carie ku avaloda high school boy friend than set aaga porathu
G: yaru, antha mental asylathla thanna thaane check-in panindathe….athuva….
V: Ennamo ma….namma vazha nenacha vazhkaiya ava naalu perum vazhra….hmmmmm
G: Samantha alavuku vendam……oru Miranda alavukkavathu nu kekaraiyakum…seri..seri…rumba perumoochu vidatha….unga aathukaarar ketuda porar…..appram Family Guy Peter Griffin mathiri melaiyum kezhaiyum kuthipaar, antha asatu sirpoodaJ

2006-01-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

I finally got my visa stamped in an exiting experience in Mex. Things went on well and I am happy abt it.

Will have to make some strong career decisions this year. Hope things go well.

2006-01-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

I watched Munich today, and I think I may not be the same guy who hates the Palestine and the Arab world blindly. There sure should be a reason for them to fight so hard--Why would they do it-- for what? This was not influenced by the film, but it sure urged me to read something on that region.

I just read about the birth of Israel around the 1940's after the WWII. I came to know with a surprise that, there was no place called Israel before that war. I now see that as a bunch of jews who came from everywhere around the globe and occupied some piece of land in middle-east. No wonder why Israel has all those whites and blonds surrounded by all the brown skinned Arab people.

I am confused. I think I should read a lot about it(a price for not attending the history classes during my high school)!!

Bale!Blog-ia!! - _*_*_*பலே! ப்ளாகியா!!

Bale!Blog-ia!! - ___*பலே! ப்ளாகியா!!