Ninaivugal...Thoughts

As for the customary weekend discussions, I was having the usual one with Chaitanya Emani and Pravin Dhake at one of our homes. This is the time when everything wavers from junk to something sensible and back to the junk world. So, we were talking about this new movie that was released in India. It is critically acclaimed in the west, east, north and south, except of course at the center, rather at the mainland, where the movie is filmed. Your guess is as good as mine, it is slum dog..errr..dash millionaire. Confusing, eh? Hindu Jan Jagriti Samiti , a name never heard of before, is fighting for the fundamental rights of the slum dwellers. Why? Because, dog is a bad word. Let us quote this guy verbatim, “We request that please change the name of the film to Slum dash Millionaire or Slum dash Crorepati . Dog is a bad word,” says a Corporator from Mumbai, Nicholas Almeida. So, Emani quipped, "What the hell is wrong with these guys man? Dog is a bad word. Coming from a cri...

I generally do not keep track of the music world, except, of course, when it involves ARR . It goes by default that his songs would have made their presence felt on my laptop, and gradually found their way on to my first generation ZUNE (Yes, I know, I am the only guy using this. Honestly, it is not bad even though it is, maybe, as bulky as a 1970 transistor) I am not a person to make New Year resolutions, but, since I am very contemplative, I thought about a few things. I was just thinking of all those people whom I idolize, and one of the names to hit me, even without thinking too much, had to be ARR. I just admire him for what he is. He has made it a point to talk only through his work, and his modesty, and humility are absolutely unquestionable. What, with that amount of talent, anybody else would have taken an ego ride around the world in 80 seconds! As I went back to his work from the early nineties, I decided that I should be building a collection of ARR's music from a...

I am not regular chatter in the online world; rather I hate chatting with people through a messenger service. I would rather give a call and talk to my friends. It is a one minute thing; whereas chatting is endless. But, just to beat the Monday blues, a quick login to my GMAIL account, and I found one of my undergraduate friends loitering around on what was his Monday evening, rather a late evening. In India, whether financial figures of companies are tampered or not, there is one thing that remains consistently constant - the humongous working hours in the IT sector. People stay on and on and on. It is like Alfred Lord Tennyson referring to the brook, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever In the IT industry, working hours go on forever. Anyway, I am least interested in talking about my friend's work habits. We had a brief conversation for maybe less than three minutes, but the after effects of the conversation lingered with me for the rest of the day. What ...

Hello Arun , how are you? When did you come back from US? I thought you still had six more months left, gushed forth a chirpy voice on the phone. Oh, I came back last night. I just had to take care of a few things here before I can return, I said, as passively as ever, compared to her oozing enthusiasm. OK, this is going to take you by surprise. I am getting engaged next month. Arvind and I have decided to get back, and I think, we have really understood each other well. Our marriage should take place in the next couple of months. That was a bolt from the blue. Generally, girls come out with this weird statement, "You know, I need to tell you something important?" This sentence is generally the crucial sentence to analyze what's coming next. It does not require an Einstein to figure out whether she wants to confess her love for him or wants to confess her love for somebody else to him. But this was something different. She had blurted out without the usual clu...