I am jus gonna spit out some very commonly observed attributes of today's blogs in the name of Blogics...No offense intended to anyone and sincerely hope the effort doesnt incite the very passionate bloggers :)

So,let me start with somethin I noticed very easily - the female bloggers' 'Naming funda'!

If you carefully think about the 10 or 15 female written blogs that you visit,it wouldn't be too hard to notice this characteristic common to around 80% of them.
The girls strict adhere to this unsaid trait of having some description as their blog titles.No one would dare to just have their name as the titles!Very rarely would you see a priya.blogdrive.com or a asha.rediffblogs.com,instead it would always be something like

'beautiful_roses.blogspot.com'
'preciously_me.blogspot.com'
'my_sinungalgal.blogspot.com'
'crocodile-tears.rediffblogs.com'
'snailwalk.blogspot.com'
'bangalore_kathrika.blogspot.com'

I wonder whats the reason behind such a nomenclature!When it comes to the guys' blogs,its mostly a badri123.blogspot or a www.kiruka.com or a karthikblogs.blogspot - something of that sort which clearly spells out loud and clear the blogger's name!
Few things that make irk me upon seeing these female blog ids
-The lengthy blog ids complicating the whole blog address!
-The stupid underscores and hyphenated blog ids which make sure you go to some junk website almost every time,you try to type them on the address bar!
-No immediate identity revelation from the blog address making it hard to remember the blog.
-Many times we remember the blogs but end up forgetting the blog ids.

So there ends Blogic-1
Shall be back with Blogic-2 soon :)
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

I'd been to a team building!? activity last week with my colleagues on Friday.The so called team building event was a trip on a boat with ~65 people from my company,fortunate enough to spend almost the whole day on the Austin Lake Travis on the boat and then later in the water.

The boat ride lasted around 20 minutes,as it came to a stop in some kind of a feature which seemed like a small island!Suddenly,everyone changed into their swimming trunks and joyfully disrobed themselves off of their T-shirts/Hawaian shirts!As I stood their gaping at all this like a kid watching some animals in a zoo,there was much more excitement in store!The ladies,whom I'd seen only in the meetings and corridors quite decently dressed,suddenly emerged in the skimpiest of all dresses(read as bikinis) and everyone started jumping into the water with thier floaties!
I looked around me and suddenly I found myself to be the only fully dressed guy on the boat(ofcourse there were a few typical desi females in their chudidhars and dhupattas!!).

Duh!What was I thinking that morning when I wore my jean and T-shirt to this event!The next half an hr,I played the role of the pathetic beer-filler guy for the floating junta,eventually helping myself to a series of jokes-all at my own expense!
And then,I decided after around an hour of serious deliberation that it was time to venture into the water.The decision was quite easily arrived at but there were a million questions left to be answered...
1)I don't know swimming at all..or am I like to the dog or the horse which doesnt know if it knows swimming or not and magically starts swimming when the moment arrives?
2)Would I be able to remove my T-shirt in front of all these people and expose it?
'It' being the strangest of all things - the 'Poonal',which I was worried might make people think that I was from one of those Indian tribes - the native ones!
3)How comfortable or uncomfortable would it feel to be in water in one's jean and the time after that,when the drenched pant would feel soggy and irritating the whole time till I reach my house!
4)There were those orange coloured life-jackets which were not touched by anyone and would my act of wrapping it around myself magically go unnoticed?

Damn,I finally took the plunge and successfully stayed afloat like everyone else,until in the 15th second of my float, the bloody orange life vest exposed itself on to the top,trying to stay bouyant!
The crowd erupted into laughter and I eventually became famous for not knowing swimming,for not have ever been in any water body,for not to have removed my T-shirt and for having dived in with my jean on!

There I was..floating like a dead fish in water,yet feeling like a fish out of water!It was fun though explaining how unnatural it was to go near water in India and how my dad always tells this in the weekly fone call -'Kondhae..Don't go near water or fire unnecessarily'!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

-Now, Sun Lab shines on SASTRA campus.

Question is if SASTRA indeed has changed or if this is yet another act of showing off?Not long ago,there was this whole propaganda about 'International Mathematics conference';celebration of the Math's genius Ramanujam's birthday etc etc.
A smirk emerged automatically and I was taken back to those 4 years in Shanmugha which in no way seemed anywhere near to being competent with the U.S Univs.I am pretty sure things havent changed that drastically,especially with those freshly graduated engineering students donning the role of lecturers!

- No reservations towards implementing even 100% reservation

I can imagine these scenarios..
1)Ambi and Nallathambi finishing 12th from the same school,with Ambi's dad being the temple priest trying too hard to make ends meet,whereas nallathambi's dad is a Police constable,who got his job being a schduled tribe person!Now Ambi and nallathambi score 295/300 and Ambi stands no chance of even going near the Medical college!
Who needs reservation and how many years should this existing stupity prevail?
On a totally different note,doctors in TN in a few years would be full of these reserved category people and if these people were given special consideration based on their lower marks to gain entry into medicine,then it needs to be acknowledged that their performance as a doctor also would suck to an equivalent degree!
May be the Govt would give them special consideration of 69% success cut off for curing patients! Eeks..That sounds scary!

-Grandson asks for a seat in Medical college as his grandfather was a freedom fighter!

Yeah..Okay..Let your grandfather be even Mahatma Gandhi,but why the fcuk do you think you need a reservation in a medical college?That really didn't make sense!

- Entrance exam for management seats?

So,they have this exam in August??Is it for this academic year or the next?I am pretty sure the bulk of the junta,in a state of panic,would have already joined the deemed univs such as the SASTRAs or the AMRUTAs under the so-called merit seat,which has a 1 lac fee associated with it and yet surprisingly calls itself a merit seat!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

I promise...this shall be my last post about Ilayaraja/Thiruvasagam/symphony!

"Apparently, just being a musical genius is not enough." is one of the lines from S.Anand's write up on Ilayaraja and his recent thiruvasagam in symphony music effort that has featured in the Outlook Magazine.
Tandav Tenor is the title of the article and as usual S.Anand tries to rake up a controversy by delving into the origins of Ilayaraja and questioning the motive behind this effort!

Going by the previous articles from S.Anand,I am pretty sure he is going to be torched again by the readers of this article,in the same way he had been lynched for his anti-Kamal/Rajni article.
But for some reason,it does seem to make sense!If only the hysteric masses shed their over-zealous,baseless adulation and think a little rationally,these articles from S.Anand might seem interesting and are worth pondering!

Kaps has an interesting analysis on the sales of CDs/Cassettes of 'TIS'!It again goes back to Navin's point about the hype that was created about 'Breaking Even' and prominent personalities trying to paint a picture as if the whole crew behind this effort were in dire straits,having invested a whole lot of money and expecting just to break even from the sales!It seems to be a neat,nice prank played on the name of religion!
I don't mean to say that the songs need to be available for illegal download or pirated versions need to start creeping in asap,but the only gripe is the way it was portrayed and projected by the advertisers of the musical!The bottomline is..."This is yet another commercially motivated venture,ably masked by wonderful music and passionate speeches from the participants in the musical effort and the successful campaigns"

I would be glad if it goes to the improvement of Tamil and other efforts of charity and development that some of the comments in my earlier blogs spoke about at length!

What I found most stupid and ridiculous was some of the online music download websites like Mohankumars.com and many others portraying a 'good boy' image and banning members from downloading/sharing the music.That didn't make sense at all!
I feel this is a practice of double standards in the name of God!Nobody questions about downloading A.R.Rahman's music or any other new movie music release.Does that mean to say they don't deserve the same respect that Ilayaraja gets for TIS?

On an unrelated note,I was surprised to find that none of Ilayaraja's diehard fans had taken time to update about his "thiruvasagam in symphony" effort in the wikipedia page on Ilayaraja.


-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

They'd known each other since 20 years,from the time her family had moved into his aprtment complex.
Times had changed to such an extent that their street had got renamed 3 times,there city was changed from being Madras to Chennai ,back to Madras!
The Government had changed from being a DMK to an AIDMK to captain kanth's regime.

When it came to the decision regarding his marraige and her marraige,it din't take quite long for their parents to zero down on each other's family,going by the proximity both they and their son and daughter shared since childhood!
What came as a shock was..when they heard this conversation..

She:daii..cmon its getting too far now..I cant hide it anymore..nor can I try to act smart and act as if I don't notice whats going on between us!

He: what?? puryara maari sollaen!I can't understand a single sentence u spoke now!Actually thats typical of your way of speaking,assuming that the other person is also on the same page as yours!

She:Ok,the thing is..I overheard my parents talking about speaking with your folks about our marriage.

He:Why should your parents speak to my parents for your marraige and my marraige?

She : :0..you are kidding right?

He:Okay..I get it now..But..listen..
Have you ever gone through the experience of a question paper leak and knowing all the answers for the questions to come in the exam the next day?

She:deii..what is this..pls be serious!

He: I have a point to make!
It is one of the worst and boring experiences to simply be prepared for whats in store and go through that gruelling and irritating phase of exam where I know all the answers!
Instead I would always like to have an element of suspense,something that has the capability to bring out something new out of me and something that can surprise me!
Ofcourse,I might get lesser marks in the exam but then I like it that way.
In my opinion,Lifes a similar challenge and I don't wanna have a boring phase after marraige when I know all the answers to the myriad questions of matrimony!

She: :O :O..so?

He: So???hehehe..makku makku makku..
Just because we are so close since childhood,it doesnt mean we HAVE and are DESTINED to become man and wife!

She: hmm..Nalla vela..Hope you don't secretly exchange your question paper with the guy next to you! :p

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Everytime I hear some of my friends talk about the rising Gas prices..Now wait a minute..thats not even a gas..Oh..okay..what they are referring to is Gasoline..okay..now getting back to where I started..
So,when I hear these whinings about fuel prices,it really doesnt make enough sense and its because Ive seen some of them travel 5 miles extra to get to the Gas station in order to save 1 cent/gallon!
Unless it is a long distance car driver covering 50 miles each way daily,I really don't know why people need to bother about the 1 or 2 cents saving!Instead they could very easily plan on cutting short the unnecessary objectiveless car drives they undertake every weekend!
The wierd fact is that this Gas price issue seems to be an integral part of the daily TV news,the common man's chitchat and even the presidential campaign in the U.S!!
Anyways,found this piece of advice interesting!These make much more sense than driving 5 or 10 miles away to buy gas cheaper by 1 cent.
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

2 things..

- I observed that suddenly there was a spurt of emails in our family yahoogroup showering genuine praises on a departed soul,which was a second cousin to my dad's side.It felt good to see that everybody recollected only pleasant memories of the oct0genarian.The benevolence,the funny nature,the respect that he commanded - everything was being elaborated in the emails,with utmost sincerity.
But it struck me that this person had lived 87 years and I had never got the opportunity to hear all this about him till now,but suddenly he is dead and now all his goodness is being unearthed as hes been earthed - What an irony!This is not to say that what is being spoken abt is false or anything,its just ironical that the ultimate tribute a person gets is only upon his passing away,depriving him of the opportunity to realise what a great person he was when he lived!

-I was reminded of my own grandfather and it struck me that it has been so many years since I even looked at one of his photographs.I tried to dig into some own photo albums and was finally able to chance upon 1 dilapidated photograph,where the great person continued to live,despite his demise 20 years ago,with his majestic stance and beaming smile!
Hes not an Edison or a Newton to leave an indelible mark on life to remind his existence almost every passing minute,but he does continue to live in the minds of his dozen offsprings and scores of grandsons and grand-daughter's memories!
Coming to think of it,I am not an Edison or Newton either and I think very many years later,if my grandson wanted to unearth some stuff about to me,all hes got to do is search for my name in 'Google'!Thanks to blogging and the million other internet related places that I visit,I am pretty sure,it wouldn't be a problem to trace me!
I'm mortal but in a way immortal too!

Finally,heres a tribute to Thaatha and Paati,the great people who everyone in the family,now desperately yearns to talk about and relive the wonderful times some of the fortunate ones were endowed to spend with them...



-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Me and my nephew Keshav!He is such a cute kid!:)

Posted by rajesh |

I was bewildered to see the blog world's attention to the recent release of 'Thiruvasagam' in symphony!Quite baffling was the praises being showered on the maestro that it kind of sounded as if Ilayaraja had written the whole thing himself!Nobody spoke of the original writer of the verses and gave credits to his mind-boggling work!
Hence,I have come up with an attempt to bring to light the creator of Thiruvasagam - Manikkavasagar!

Here is everything you wanted to know about Manikkavasagar and Thiruvasagam:

1)The story of Manikkavasagar !

Did you know that the real name of Manikkavasagar was Vadhavoorar

2)Thiruvasakam is available in tamil in pdf format as 2 parts on the web.
Part 1
Part 2

3)The English translation is available here and here

4)Interesting story from an article written in 1980:
"How Man got the groove in his back?"

5)Listened to Ilayaraja's composition of Manikavasagar's Thiruvasagam in symphony!It was wonderful indeed!Was reminded of the soft music from the movie 'Avathaaram'!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

1 more long weekend whizzed past,but this time it didn't seem as boring as the earlier ones.

-At the last minute,I made a surprisingly wild decision to buy a ticket somewhere and leave the city and I am glad it worked out just fine!
Was quite amazed to find a deal,rather a steal,when I was able to buy to and fro flight tickets on saturday afternoon to go to Tulsa Oklahoma.along with 2 day car rental for just 175$!!
It all is possible/happens only in America!!
Used the last minute deals option for 'car+flight' from travelocity!Thats a website that deserves to be bookmarked for the future!

-Keerai molaguutal and vendakka pachadi at the hands of Periamma was just in itself was worth the trip!! As the food rolled on through the throat,it was a heavenly feeling!
Then the adai with vellam was another attraction of the trip,follwed by the rasam and stuffed capsicum!
These shall remain in my memory akin to the joy rides in the theme parks that people remember after every trip!

-'America Sudhandhira Dhinam' sirappu nigazhchi!!! Wow..Vijay TV was blaring for the whole 2 days celebrating America's Independence!That was really really odd!
So,whats next?
'Maartin luuuther kingu' naaal sirappu patti mandram??

-Whyz it that every time that I go into check-in at the airport,I am flagged for additional checking/screening.They call it 'randomly selected by the computer',but I feature always in the computer's random selection!

-Since when did my makkal start treating me like an adult and start asking confusing questions like 'What is your preference/qualities you want in the girl that you want to marry?'
I always presumed that those questions were all out of syllabus!They could have atleast put it in a multiple choice format!Really had a tuough time coming up with those 1 liner answers,which am sure won't deserve any attention/marks!!

-Raapi

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Navin has a wonderful view on the current release event of 'Thiruvasagam in Symphony' and had requested my views on the same.I left a comment on his blog,but am not sure if it went through.
Anyways I am reproducing it over here..

Gimmicks man..GIMMICKS!!
I bet they are gonna make a killing out of this!So,if Ilayaraja make 100crores out of this,will he donate the 99 crores that he made more than the so-called break-even number?
ts jus another way of adept marketing and hype creation phenomenon with the use of publicly respected personalities to add fervour to the already well advertised piece of work!
This is not to say that the music is crap or anything.
Let the music be the elixir of life,I dont really care!But then having in the commerical aspect of the venture in the background and professing ethical standards to the junta is really a crime!

Long live the P2P phenomenon and long live MP3s and lastly long live the Ilayarajas and Sujathas too..If not for them we wouldn't have anything to listen to or blog about!
Awaiting the day when it gets online!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |