Qualified(?) Opinion

ஒரு கனவில் அரைகுறையாகக் கண்டது :

மாமி : "ஸ்ரீராமா! ஜோசியத்த பத்தி உன்னோட அபிப்ப்ராயாத சொல்லு"

நான் : "என்ன கேள்வி மாமி இது?"

மாமி : "என்னடா நார்மல் கேள்விதானே!"

நான் : "சரி. எனக்கு ஜோசியத்த பத்தி என்ன தெரியும் னு கொஞ்சம் சொல்லுங்கோளேன் "

மாமி : "எனக்கு பெருசா ஒண்ணும் தெரியாது. ஏதோ பத்திரிக்கைல படிச்சதுதான்."

நான் : "நான் அதக் கேக்கல. 'எனக்கு' ஜோசியத்த பத்தி என்ன தெரியும் னு உங்களுக்கு தெரியுமோ அத கொஞ்சம் சொல்லுங்கோ னு கேட்டேன்"

மாமி : "அது எப்படிடா எனக்கு தெரியும்? இப்படி அர்த்தாம் இல்லாத கேள்வியா கேக்கார!"

நான் : "ஒருத்தனுக்கு ஒரு விஷயத்த பத்தி தெரியுமா? தெரியாதா? தெரியும்னா எவ்வளவு தெரியும்? அபிப்பிராயம் சொல்லர அளவுக்கு தெரியுமா? னு எல்லாம் தெரிஞ்சுக்காம அபிப்பிராயம் கேக்கறது அர்த்தமான கேள்வியா?"

நக்கீரா!

ஒரு விஷயத்தை மறுப்பதர்க்கு பிரத்யக்க்ஷ ப்ரமாணம் எத்தனை பலவீனமானது என்பதர்க்கு ஒரு எடுத்துக்காட்டு :

சோ அவர்களின் ஜட்ஜ்மென்ட் ரிசர்வ்ட் நாடகத்தில் ஒரு வசன பரிமாற்றம்

சமூகசேவகி : "அந்த பைய்யன் இந்த குற்றத்த செய்யலைனு உங்க வக்கீல் எப்படி சார் நிச்சயமா சொல்றாறு? அவருக்கு எப்படி சார் தெரியும்?"

குமாஸ்தா : "அவன்தான் இந்த குற்றத்த செய்தான்னு நீங்க எப்படி நிச்சயமா சொல்றீங்க?"

சமூகசேவகி : "அவன் அந்த ரூம்லேர்ந்து வெளில வரும்போது நான் பார்த்தேனே!"

குமாஸ்தா : "எங்க வக்கீல் பார்க்கலையே!"

அல்லவா / அல்லோமா ?

ஒரு மேடை பேச்சாளர் உணர்ச்சிப்போங்க முழங்கிக்கொண்டிருந்தார்

நாம் தமிழர் அல்லவா ?!

இதைக்கேட்ட அன்பர் ஒருவர் அடியேனது சட்டையை பிடித்து " 'அல்லவா' ங்கறது அஃறிணை சொல் இல்ல ?"; "அட விடுங்க, அவரே இப்பத்தான் பொருந்தப் பேசறாரு!" :P

Society and the Two Houses

Happened to read this today and it brought me a remembrance of a question raised in a not-so-intellectual forum, which goes like this :

Is Hindi the national language of India? if or if not, can some one quote relevant section of Indian Penal Code to back their claim?

The one who raised the question had definitely passed high-school and perhaps, was on the verge of securing a bachelors degree, if not he already had one. With the state of knowledge on the 'State' of an average person, identified as an educated, it wouldn't be fair to expect public support to a Judicial activist.

But, it has been, in history, a consistent mistake by those who (atleast think that they)belong to the Upper house of the parliamentary democracy, to expect the general public to be aligned with their lines of rationalism. So said, as a rule of thumb, there has always been some amongst the members of the upper house, who have a large public support, and vice-versa, and they are those who bring an apparent togetherness to democracy.

So, instead of the unparalleled(?) gathering of the urban youth, the IAC managed to achieve and thereby pulling media support to paralyse just the head (I should just say Hat), had they directed a mission 'Bombard with RTI', filing hundereds of RTI petitions in each office, right from a Village Panchayat to the Collectorate to the Secratariat, they could have paralysed the entire State of India without the help of the media. It is not a very unreasonable ask, for there have been buyers for a mockery of a missed call campaign, and facebook activism, there would definitely have been at least a 100, for every pincode all over India, for this. As Sri Navamani Murugan (former IAS) said, even with 10 Cabinet dissolutions in as many years, the state can continue to function efficiently, IF the administration stays unaffected.

If you can gather just 100 people, with the cost of buying 100 candles, you can very well strip your local EB fellow and choke him to get your local transformer put to order.

There is a Upper house in everybody.

Learning 101

Knowledge is gained by knowing something; Wisdom, by arriving at a conclusion after analysing what is already known, using your rationale or listening to the views of others. Most people, I find, these days try doing the second part first, and think that the conclusion they have arrived to, indeed, is knowledge.

Had people been taught to follow the line above, there would have been far less "andhar-baltis" on this IAC issue :P

28,000

Yesterday, there was all that ruckus in twitter about Rs.28,000. 10 grams of spot Gold touched that price and all the 'non-Indian' Indians, who have scorn for the 'Indian' Indian sentiment for gold were in some hurry to show a mockery of shock or surprise in every possible social media.

I was waiting to talk to my mom, who always wished one of her sons was a daughter (don't try guessing which one :P), to ask her if she still wished so :-). And when I spoke, she responded with a marked smugness "wouldn't I already have saved enough in gold already? Even at not having a daughter, the DIL's are due to get 10 sovereigns and a diamond ear-stud each, at the wedding" !

Next Nobel laureate in economics must be for the one who writes the best thesis on Indian middle-class-housewives idea of economics :D

When the 31st tooth causes pain

It has been a couple of years, since I learnt to keep it to self, untill it becomes absolutely neccessary to open the mouth. By that, I have managed to save myself from the un-productive and often counter-productive arguements that I used to run into.

There was one arguement that I raised, three years back I suppose, when a person made a claim that Hindi was the mutated, simplified and modernised version of Sanskrit. I got real serious into explaining how Hindi fundamentally was different from Sanskrit, be it in the deviation in grammar, pronunciation and etymology (vyAkaraNa, swara and niruktam), and how it was far away from any original Indian language, only enjoying borrowed vocabulary from Sanskrit with nothing alike in structure. I even managed to elaborate through three examples. When I got in return, this:

"You are giving examples with proper-nouns, and a proper-noun can be pronunced or spelt anyway we want to",

I was seriously taken aback. In my knowledge and understanding from the elementary level, the freedom to pronunce or spell a proper-noun was an allowance given in the grammar of English language. Since when did that become a Universal Fact ?, I wondered. I gave the above reply and withdrew myself from the scene, there. But it took me back years, quite a number of years that is.

I believe it was my 3rd class in school, and in the exam hall, I was seated next to a girl from the 1st std class. I had finished my exam well within time (as always!), and was peeping into that girl's paper. It was her Science exam, and I suppose she had a question about 'Food and clothing habits of Earlyman', and she was answering it ".... when Tom spilt milk from the Bess's bottle, Bess was very sad. She started crying ....."**.

I got really disturbed with that, and hissed to her

"nee ezhudardhu english!" and she replied "naan mattum enna tamizh'na sonnen?"

I didn't realise then, that I will live one day to see that some people just grow old and not up!

**There was a short story in English Prose on Tom and Bess, in which Tom spills Bess's milk and apologises and shares with her, milk from his bottle. It was a lesson to teach to say sorry and share your belongings with friends. :P

Definitions - 2

A Fact is an opinion which is 'generally' believed to be 'widely' agreed with.

An Opinion is a fact that is found to be amidst conflict 'most of the time'.

Conclusion: We all can have our own opinion on facts!

Inference: You Fail - I Fail. Together, as collective failures, we can achieve World Peace.

Verdict: Welcome to Post-Modern Intellegentia !!

#People-capable-of-driving-even-me-nuts
#virtuouso-stupid

Gounder's Counter - 1

பொம்பளைங்க காதலத்தான் நம்பிவிடாதே.. நம்பிவிடாதே..

நம்பியதால் நொந்து மனம் வெம்பிவிடாதே.. வெம்பிவிடாதே..

....

....

பெண்ணுக்கு தாஜ்மகால் கட்டிவெச்சான்டா

எவளாச்சும் ஒரு செங்கல் நட்டுவெச்சாளா?

Gounder's Counter: அடேய் டபரா தலையா! தாஜ்மகால் கட்டர அளவுக்கு அவுங்க வொர்த்து! ஒரு செங்கலுக்காச்சும் நீ வொர்த்தா? இதெல்லாம் யோசிக்கர்து இல்லையாப்பா?

[Note: Inspired from Rukmini Sandesam... yea, this is one neecha upamAnam, but still... ;-) ]

Definitions - 1

Education : is the one that entitles a person to own a house within a 3 mile radius of Mylapore, and that empowers him to read the morning newspaper regularly and utter the phrase "This country will never prosper" before sipping his morning filter coffee (without even having the courtesy to pour it into his mouth)

10 Things about being braught up as a South-Madras Middle-Class kid

1)

You get to have an extended childhood, upto early 17. Till then, you have the privilege to get slapped for your mischieves in front of about a half a dozen till about 14 and behind closed doors after that, at home and school (not sure of the closed-doors thing with the later ;-) )

2)

You tend to get more possessive of your paatti than any other person in your life; being envious of a cousin with whom she had to stay for a while. You also strike a deal with your friends to borrow their granny for an afternoon tale when your's is away, with a promise that your Paatti will have a fresh new tale to tell them too, when she is back.

3)

A Cold war that has picked up, for your group chose to live with a cricket bat and bruises in elbows and knees, while the other half took a comb to groom their Barbie dolls and their little Ponies, does get a temperory patch up during Navaratri, when they shed a little of their ego to light up your girl-child-less home with their colourful presence. Not to deny your part of shedding the ego in the tolerance you show towards the "thaenja-record" singing of 'vara veeNA' and 'rAravENu gOpApAlA' :P

4)

I remember, most of my daily wear that I put on to go to play, had buttons stitched in 4 different coloured threads; also the shorts with some mending, for not that we can't afford or take more care on looks, but for it was decided to be enough. These things change at 17! And quite a drastic change will that be.

5)

The apartment/street association meetings will be so acrimonious that women and children are generally forbidden from being in the vicinity. Nevertheless, such animosity which ought to have warranted no eye-to-eye greetings amongst our Dad's, will all subside for their children play together. We were the peace-ambassadors unaware :-)

6)

We make challenges about being the first to burst on the Deepavali morning. It started off with a 5am Redfort, then to 4:45 Redfort Giant, then to a 150 wala at 4:15 and finally to a bullet bomb at 4. I am an unbeaten(able) champ you see! B-)

Poor Appa!, had to get up 15mins ahead of my (challenged)schedule and get the cracker ready with the thread pinched and agarbathi light, to wake the VIP up to go royally escorted to win the challenge :P

7)

You can't help but to live with the build-up around, when you reach that stage in life, the stage of being in 10th grade (Matriculation or Secondary School). You would be forced to buy the story that you will end up feeling guilty of not actually feeling the pressure. I just couldn't resist, and went out to play the evening before my Mathematics-II exam. I still wonder, how many of the households saw me as a maverick then, lest they would know I scored a 97+ in that exam ;-)

8)

Once you complete school, even before you reveal the results to your neighbours, you will be surprised to see that a person, whom you had thought had no connection with you, knows exactly what you have scored and would have a list of suggestions to make, on what you should do further!. But Beware! Beware of all the 40+ people. Society will have a planned Tsunami attack on you. If you manage to escape the wave, you will actually have a life. You have one example... in Me!

9)

When I said extended childhood, one need not panic. Your teen typically starts at 17 and goes on till 24: So nothing is lost. You can get the signs of your Teen-age when you dare to give up your street cricket for watching a live telecast on TV :P. You will have occassional rumours and news about incidents of romance and romantic pursuits and more of that what has gone wrong, but you seldom feel the pressure of remaining single, for your close associates, who still are associates, have all been losers as you are :D

10)

Elders talk a lot to you, especially in your Teens (17-24 in this case, for a reminder). They think, it is their responsibility to transfer their wisdom to you, by all the talking they do. Listen to them. Atleast I did! When you reflect on what they told a few years later, you would have learnt a lot from them, not from what they thought had taught, but from what they Inspired!

God Save Them! :-)

Perhaps the most shared video among the Tamil Speaking, yesterday

Borrowing words(not exact) from Sreekrishnan, 'Master! oru coffee: extra strong with double decoction; and hanh!... sugar konjam kammi'

Thank Goodness, I am saved!

[Note: 'Goodness' is not a name of any person. (I know! that was a bad/sad one :P)]

Where is your Eye-Dee Card?

A couple of weeks ago, my mom had the company of ONGC'aathu maami to go to some function at BSNL Aunty's, when she got to know that the boy in SBI'aahm got his US-visa rejected twice already. I was zapped!; and went about thinking who am I? - The Bank of Baroda'aathu periya payyan?.

People, especially middle-class ones, give rather too much importance to their ID cards. I have heard quite a few saying 'their daughter is happily(?) married to a software professional'. Well, to my knowledge, say TCS employs about 1.2 lakh lot, and assuming atleast 70% of male population in it; hasn't their Son-in-law got an identity beyond that?

In the case of my family and quite a number of them in our locality for that matter, were originally from the city (most likely South Madras), and moved to the sub-urbs for the dreams of the Heads of the respective families to live in an independant house. We all settled in slowly and got acquainted to each other. At first we were known by the name of the organisation the HOF worked for. About a half of them had retired before moving in and a half of the rest now have now retired from service in the 6years that has passed, but the original tag stays on. Wonder why? Did I mention South Madras?... Well, then, none of them would have had more than 5 good things to tell about their workplace, but still would retain the name, but for, it is not they themselves who identify themselves with it, rather the identity is imposed by their neighbours on them.

This tagging goes further, to matrimony. If one looks at the modern day wedding-cards, traditional phrases like "ubhaya kucalObari", "wedding arranged for by elders with Bagawat Sankalpam and/or acharya katAksham" all have gone into fineprint. Only the list of degrees earned by the Groom and Bride, and if the institute happens to be some top-tier(?) one, gets bold fonts, position in the firm they work, etc, find prominence. It does not stop with theirs, for the Sambandis also get a chance to throw their weight all over the place, while lest one has been observent of a "SriRamajayam" or a "SrimathE Ramanujaya Namah:" that has gone missing.

Also, I happened to hear an interesting proposition to my friend's mom : "I heard your daughter works for Microsoft, my son is with IBM; I was wondering......" :P What next? ID-cards have matched ahead of their Horoscopes ?

Coming back to what am I called as... happened to know that the main road vendors(the natives btw) refer to me as "despite-being-US-return-dothi-clad-boy-who-sports-naamam-allthetime". Honoured indeed! So, the need for tinkering is only for the invading South-Madras-Middle-Class and not the locality, then.