Skip a step!

This one is a total poppy-cock, but one needs to give it its due credit, for, it does clarify one thing; And that is "Why GVM chose to make NNN right in between VTV and NEPV!" :P

Lettuce

One vegetable that has managed to influence the entire world, single-handed, into believing that rabbit food and vegetarian food in the West are one and the same!

00 Status Reinstated

So, I did watch Skyfall, that too on IMAX, which has evidently made someone to count to Dec 21. It was a good watch, albeit some buttering the back to mark the 50th anniversary of James Bond on screen, and a fitting tribute it was, to mark the quinquagenary bringing in some retro accessories and music.

For someone who has watched all the 22 Bond movies leading up to the film, Skyfall offers quite a number of eye-brow raisers, annoyance and rare smiles. Let me make it clear, I am no fan of James Bond nor Ian Fleming's style. I must admint, I have never read Ian Fleming nor Alaister MacLean, but, simply from the screenwriting and movies, I favour MacLean's lead characters, plotline, thrills and idea of entertainment, much better.

Staying with Bond series, it was unfortunate that it was Dr. No which was filmed first and not Casino Royale, the first assignment of Bond as a 00 agent. Dr. No portrayed Bond as a suave, go-lucky and cold-blooded operative, which was played to perfection by a then lesser known Connery, who went on to become a huge success as James Bond which forced the producers to bring him back from retirement into Thunderball after a notably eccentric performance by Lazenby in his only Bond film OHMSS. However the fans of Fleming's original novels were supposed to have loved the rather rebellious portrayal of Bond in OHMSS, but were critical of Lazenby's acting prowess, especially with the surprising romantic plot in the film and the only 2nd occasion where James Bond is to be seen in tears (according to the books).

It was in the era of Timothy Dalton, the man who took James Bond rather too seriously, that, a serious and darker side of the character was shown on  a consistent basis as opposed to Moore's often fantastic light-humour and at times mock-worthy sequences. Quoting Steven Jay Rubin :

"Unlike Moore, who always seems to be in command, Dalton's Bond sometimes looks like a candidate for the psychiatrist's couch – a burned-out killer who may have just enough energy left for one final mission. That was Fleming's Bond – a man who drank to diminish the poison in his system, the poison of a violent world with impossible demands.... [H]is is the suffering Bond."

It is for this reason, as a follower of this series, I would have wished to see this re-invention of 007 with Casino Royale had come in the Dalton Era, especially when they have run out of original Fleming's adversaries - SPECTRE, Cold War, Rogue Spies and residues of SPECTRE, after Bond kills Blofeld, that they were forced into ridiculous and fantastic fronts with Moore's last few movies. Dalton Era also coincided with the end of Cold war, which also was reflected in Living Daylights, and a Casino Royale would have marked a new SPECTRE, and they could have picked up a fresh series with a redefined and spectacular new adversary.

In the big picture, Skyfall was disappointing for me, for they chose to divert their agenda to M as the only pivot in the plot, ignoring the new dimensions of the "yet to be named" organisation that Bond had uncovered while tailing Dominic Greene. Also disappointing was the "Die Hard" like plotline and sequences that were unfitting to a spy movie, but was credible, given that M and a personal revenge against her were the principal to the line. In fact, Silva brought remembrance of Simon from Die Hard with a Vengeance; So did the London Tube! :P

Silva happens to be a rare combative villain in the series, after Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (The Best Bond movie, in my opinion) and Janus (rogue 006 in GoldenEye), more like Janus. This combative villain is refreshing to see, amidst the routine arm-chair based masterminds aided by heartless operatives ever since Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

On the whole, the movie had a spectacular opening sequence that would rival Casino Royale, Die Another Day or The World is Not Enough, an ordinary narrative on how Bond comes back to M with a start-stop like screenplay and a notable seriousness shown by Bond to get fit and back into service, which otherwise has been a resigning attitude in most of the earlier installments and finally, a rather sentimental exchange with M. Bond cries for the third time on screen, and for the second time since new promotion as a 00.

Some strange things about this installment are the ones surrounding M. In all the earlier 22 movies, M is never known to make a public appearance, but in this she gets out of her car mid way!. Also, M's real name is seldom revealed and nor his/her residence is made known. If I remember right, it is shown for the first time in Casino Royale when Bond breaks into her house which stuns her and even in that, the apartment is shown to be some kind of "unaccounted" space in the core of a building, without windows or doors, while in Skyfall, she is shown to "enter" her house through a "door"!

In the end, Mallory comes in as M, more like Bernard Lee as the first on-screen M in Dr. No, Eve Moneypenny assumes the secretary desk and our good old foam cushioned door takes office while the hat stand is still missing :D , I only wish they do a Dr. No again, next time around.


Note: A female character who was an important figure, in a sentimental angle, in the hero's life, dying in his lap marking a turning point in the hero's personal and professional life is a 'heard of' line from somewhere. Where ? - Clue : An epic of a fiction NOT in english ;-)

Shallow Integration

I was in 8th class, when our Physical Sciences teacher resigned and we had the Department Head Mrs. Radhalakshmi substituting in her place for the last term of the year (Jan-March). I remember, it was a chapter on Carbon, in chemistry. The teacher had been through a couple of hours on the introductory part of the chapter and decided to have that chapter assigned as a seminar (for self-reading). Students were divided into groups and were given a sub-topic (not more than a page long, in the book). We had "Sugar Charcoal", while a friend of mine had the introduction to my section on the types of charcoals.

Now, that we were expected to do something more than mere reading of the material at hand, I tried to prepare sugar charcoal by heating up a cup full of sugar on the stove top, lest I had realised that charcoal is made out of dehydrating sugar in the absence of oxygen!, I ended up making a molasses out of it (ofcourse after having ridiculed amma's warning that only molasses comes out of heating sugar crystals and nothing else). I then picked up an old medicine bottle, half filled it with sugar and went to the chemistry lab asking for a conc. sulphuric acid, to pour it in to dehydrate. We were laughed at and sent back. I finally had to end up with a paper cutting of a retort set up and marked the retort content as sugar + acid and blotched up my turn, but my friend who went in earlier in the hour with the "Types of charcoal", is the real matter of interest here.

He is known to be a real smart fellow, and a kind of a teachers' pet for his hyper behaviour and for being the smallest one in the class. He read out some 3-4 lines of introduction from his notes and took three pieces of some strange dark things & a spoon full of powder in a paper wrap, and laid them down as "1) Wood Charcoal, 2) Animal Charcoal, 3) Sugar Charcoal and 4) Powder Charcoal (not sure about this last one)". I was stunned! As and when I was trying to stand up (from the first bench) to have look at the teachers desk to see how sugar charcoal looks, a loud voice came from the last row -
"டேய் ஸ்ரீனிவாசா, நாலு துண்டு அடுப்பு கரிய கொண்டுவந்து டேபிள்ல வெச்சுட்டு இத Wood charcoal, Animal charcoal னு அளக்கரிய?". The whole class burst into laughter but there wasn't much to blush about, as all of us had a giggle about how smart he could get and the hour went on.

Coming to the state of affairs today, in the public discourse, if at all there is any - be it a (entertainment) TV debate, a TV Chat show, middle-class movies of the 80's, how often you have gotten vexed with the shallow talk that people make without having made the slightest of efforts to understand the defining identity of individuality or a group or a community and assuming the unexplained, seldom critiqued, hollow terminologies, of which they have no knowledge other than the assumption that everyone is happy to ascribe the same sense to the word which they themselves haven't made real sense to their own satisfaction in the first place?

Srini tried to sell the story by placing four pieces of cooking coal as four different types of charcoal, while the so-called Intelligentsia is trying to put four pieces, of which they have no clue about, together, and thrust it on to the public discourse with an envelope identity of their choice. I would prefer calling Srini's as some integration while the later is only a shallow integration.

Arjunan Saakshi

2nd movie by the Passenger fame Ranjith Sankar is a Prithiviraj starrer - Arjunan Saakshi.

I believe Passenger was a 'Cricket's Solomon's Throw' for the director, but Arjunan Saakshi doesn't fare far behind. But for one or two compromises for a star like Prithiviraj, the director has done full justice to the script and the central theme. The most catchy part was the Courtroom climax, where the protagonist sums up his promised statement in private to the Judicial bench.

.... loosely translated to english

Given are the documents indicating the consent to withdrawal of all the legal blockades against the Metro-Rail Project made out by these four accused. This Project must see light, Your Honour; Not just for they were the dreams of Late Feroze Muppan, it must be accomplished for each of us individuals.

Not by my personal genius that I have been able to bring the guilty to light. Not out of incapacity, the Police and the enforcemenet system were unable to establish the truth, their hands are rather tied! I am not Arjunan; I am a poor victim of a mistaken identity who got entangled into this; but Arjunan is somewhere amongst us, yet he is unable to find courage to come out and expose the truth in day light. His fear is your failure, since you are the creators of Arjunan and his likes. When people like Freoze Muppan are eliminated from among us, when an average citizen is denied justice, people like Arjunan keep propping up.

Where is Aabaavanan ?

There was one ambitious filmmaker who came up with a brilliant Oomai Vizhigal, a very good Inaindha Kaigal and a good Karuppu Roja over a span of 10 years. Aabaavanan! Looks like he scripted and produced the first two while also directing the third. All three were off-beat in genre for the respective eras in tamil cinema. Now, he seems to have met with his creative end after the television disaster 'Sambaa', while there still are some unspoken links with Ayngran Intl. in the lines of film-making.

Looking back in time, in 1986, when Tamil cinema had entered the trap of compromising production values and planning movies with the star value as the only marketing front, Oomai Vizhigal should have come as a big surprise. One must admit that these kind of dark-thrillers were almost run in the mill in Malayalam cinema after K.G. Geroge's Yavanika(1982), and Aabaavanan's handling of the screenplay was very unprofessional, clearly reflecting the lack of experience of the team. Nevertheless, credit must be given towards production of such a plotline with limited star value and an upcoming actor like Vijayakanth choosing to play a grey-haired veteran cop while still seeing an upward path in his film career.

One big blotch to be marked is the visible lack of details, while losing the plot to very unimportant romantic fronts, that too three of them. Despite this, one can never fail to appreciate how the film is carried on by three veteran artists, who had very less connection with mainstream cinema at that time, if at all any, a less known Karthik and a practically unknown Arun Pandiyan, and how they managed to see some commercial success out of it. Had this been handled by a creative director of that time like Pratap Pothan or Balu Mahendra, it could have seen light with a tight screenplay while at the same time save a thought for it could have turned disastrous in the hands of Perarasu's of 80's.

While one may argue that Inaindha Kaigal came at the same time as Vetri Vizha and Soorasamharam and was very much with the trend, the plot line was far too ambitious when compared against any action flick of that era. The plot line involved espionage, organised crime, Military corruption, court-martial, prison break, border tension, and above all, the only cinema which dared to explore Indo-Chinese border tension after 1964. Ofcourse, quite a few action sequences were plain lift-off from many Bond movies, but the interval block of "Inaindha Kaigal" and the prison break scene with a flying trapeze were defining moments in Tamil Cinema history. Again, it was a victim of vintage unprofessionalism in screenplay and dialogues, but I would pin hopes on reviving such a plot-line in the form of a remake, for it has too good a scope and deserves a slick production, more so as a trilingual (Tamil-Telugu-Malayalam) high-budget attempt.

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

3(?) Versions

There are three versions to a story : Your, Mine and the truth

is probably the most contrived line of thought I have come across in life.

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

srIjayanti nirNayam

It is a privilege to share a really useful posting on srIjayanti nirNayam by NS Parthasarathy Bhattachar of Triplicane.

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Sriramajayam

All sampradayas are correct in their view. So, one should follow any one of these which is in his ancestors' way. Janmashtami is on sunday. Smarthas north indians and almost all south indians perform Srijayanthi on sunday. Main Criteria is ashtami should prevail during midnight. So, as on sunday at midnight ashtami is there so janmashtami is on sunday. at Mathura and through out India Janmashtami (Srikrishna's birth day) is on sunday.

Regarding Srivaishnava culture, there are three types All are correct in their way.

1. Srivaikhansasrijayanthi:- There are two vachanams in sasthra. 

 a. one is Ashtami should prevail during midnight and srivaikhanasa sampradayam favours ashtami vyapthi as janmashtami.

b. and srivaikhanasas' second is If sapthami is there during early morning or prevails through out the day b4 evening, night or midnight and if ashtami comes b4 evening, night or 12 midnight and 12 midnight enters with ashtami, then that day is not favoured as that day has sapthami vedhai dhosham. so, if we perform on monday thats also correct acc. to srivaikhanasasastras.

c. but as sampradaya favours ashtami in midnight (thithipradhanyam) sunday is more apt.

At tirumala and other vaikhanasa shrines and vaikhanasa households, this year srijayanthi is on sunday 21.08.11 night.

2. Munithrayasrijayanthi:- If sapthami is there during early morning or prevails through out the day b4 evening, night or midnight and if ashtami comes b4 evening, night or 12 midnight and 12 midnight enters with ashtami, then that day is not favoured as that day has sapthami vedhai dhosham. so, this munitraya sampradaya is also correct. we cannot underestimate this. This is also to be hailed.

Munithrayasrijayanthi is on 22.8.11 monday.

3. Pancharathrasrijayanthi:- If Kruthika is there during early morning or prevails through out the day b4 evening, night or midnight and if Rohini comes b4 evening, night or 12 midnight and 12 midnight enters with Rohini, then that day is not favoured as that day has Kruthika vedhai dhosham. so, this Pancharathra sampradaya is correct in their view.(Nakshathrapradhanyam) This is also to be hailed. At srirangam and other Pancharathra shrines, Srijayanthi is followed on tuesday 23.8.11 this year acc. to above lines.

Comments / suggestions / questions are welcome.

-- 

SriVaikhanasaBhagawatSastraBhaskara,  

 SriVaikhanasaAgamaRathnakara, 

SriVaikhanasaSevaRathnam, 

  SriVaikhanasaKulapati

N.S.Parthasarathy Bhattacharyar

Vice president, South Indian Vaikhanasa Archakas' Association

Secretary, SriVaikhanasa Archaka Seva Sangam

Archakar, SriParthasarathySwamyTemple, Thiruvallikeni

PradhanaAdhyapaka, SriVaikhanasa Bhagawat Sasthra Patasala

Editor, 'Srivaikhanasam' Monthly magazine.


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Added later: A more general and elaborate reading on the comparison between mannAr swAmi's and maNapAkkam kidAmbi tOzhappar's jayanti nirNayam
SriJayanthi-Janmasthami


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Note: These details are for those who fast(atleast attempt at fasting) in the day-time and bathe in the evening and perform SriJayanthi araadhanam in the night (vrashaba lagnam), following it with their respective practise of taking pAraNai.

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

On What Avani-Avittam is and is NOT!

It has been a while since I had to only 'e-live' in India, and all these years I get to see greetings like "Happy Avani Avittam". But this backdates even further, during my days in India where I get to see neighbours and relatives asking "Poonal maathiyaacha?". Don't take me wrong, but it is really depressing to be in know of facts when all around you prefer being shallow about it.

A brahmachari is not just an unwed boy with upaveetham (poonal i.e., post upanayanam). He is (assumed to be) a learner of the specific shAkai of vEdam prescribed for his gOtram; TaitrIya-shAkai of krsnayajurvEdam in my case. His vEdArambam is on his upanayanam day for the first year, and from the subsequent years, the adyayanam (learning) period starts on Pournami day of Kataka mAsam and ends on Ammavasai of Makara mAsam. There are days of Ammavasai, grahanam and some other miscelleneous occassions when the adyayanam is prohibited, within the learning period.

But in the quest to finish his quota for the year, the boy may jump the limits and continue learning a bit further than the stipulated end-date, and there may be a few lapses in-between. Before starting his term the following year, he is expected to perform upAkarma, when he chants a mantra a good number of times as a prAyaschittam for the above lapses. To perform the prAyaschitta japam, he needs to change his upaveetham, mounji and deerskin.

[During the anadyayana period (Makara Ammavasai till Kataka Pournami), the boy is expected to devote himself to learning of the vEdAngAs : sikshA, vyAkaranam, niruktam, chandas, jyotisham and kalpam]

In the sankalpam for upAkarma, the main sankalpam will be to the adyAyOtsar~jana akaraNa prAyaschitta japam and adyAyOpakarma (starting a new term), for which, the changing of upaveetham (with mounji, etc.) is an angam, an angam for which is shaving and bathing. Since the changing of upaveetham on this day has a special karma attached to it, one may choose to mark the day with it. But in general sense, asking a brahmin male, whether he has changed(see note: 4) his upaveetham, is only as good as asking if he has bathed!

To Girls : If you really have the guts, greet your male relatives and friends who have had upanayanam done : "may your Sandyavandanam be in routine without lapses for the next year". Let's see how many would actually pick up the habit, to save themselves from this (otherwise) embarrassing greet, the next year :-)

Note:

1) Performing daily sandyavandanam is a part and essential requirement of the daily learning in the adayayana and anadyayana period. Even lapses in performance of sandayavandanam is covered in the upAkarma.

2) For one who has finished learning, it becomes a duty to recite atleast one full prasna, from the learned shAkai, everyday as brahma-yagnam without fail. Due to time constriants, the (required)one full prasna may get reduced to one sUktam or one mantram, which still are accounted as lapses that are to be compensated (begged pardon for), for such sins not to hinder one's further quests in vaidIka-karma.

3) The point 1 & 2 extends to gruhastAs.

4) Upaveetham can be changed at will, any day, depending on the need. It needs to be changed everytime one has sarvAnga shave on the face and head from a barber. Also, changing may be of need if there is a special karma like homam or srAddam is performed by the kartA.

Aani Anusham

ஸ்ரீமந் நாதமுனிகள் திருவாக்கு : "குளப்படியில் மழை பெய்தால் குருவி குடித்துப்போம். வீராணத்தில் மழை பெய்தால் நாடெல்லாம் விளையும்."

லௌகீகத்தில் இருப்போருள், பொன்னியின் செல்வன் வாசித்தோருக்கு பொருள் விளங்கும் :-)

அடியேனுக்கு சென்ற வருடம் ஆனி அனுஷத் திருநாளன்று திருமயிலையில் உற்சவத்தை சேவிக்க இருந்த கொடுப்பினை இந்த வருடம் ஏற்படவில்லை :(

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

Speed!

Quite a few times I have heard scholars quoting HH Mukkur Azhagiasingar's funny remark about standards of speed "Vaayu vEgam!, manO vEgam!, sandyAvandana vEgam!.." (ofcourse. in ascending order :D). Fortunately, American ads for drugs(medicinal ;0)) and investment, have a "disclaimer" that a hired specialist reads out at an unbelievable pace, beats the sandyAvandana vEgam handsomely! :P

Now when the disclaimer vEgam has claimed its status atop, I happened to see an advertisement (Indian - Tamil) from Sundaram-Mutual, where the disclaimer is read (not-verbatim) 'Mutual fund investements are subject to market risks' at a hearable pace. Such is the sincerity of the TVS family in upholding HH's doctrine, keeping sandyAvandanam atop! ;-)

#TVS - Where the word Ethics still has the meaning what is supposed to mean

PS : Author will be grateful to someone, who'd post a video clip of that ad. here.

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... ;-) ]