Ananthoo's updates

When all trees have been cut down, when all animals have been hunted, when all waters are polluted, when all air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. - Cree Prophecy

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Oh la laa..

Hey..it has been great weather here @ Blore..reminding me of those good old days when Blore used to be a solid 10 degrees less than Chennai..last 2 days has been on the lower side of 20s..its coool..so typical of the pensioners paradise that Blore was for long..and I lived up to that..in the last 3 days I hardly got out of my bed. Only the dire necessities like food and export of the same disturbed me..else I was on the bed reading or lying on the sofa and watching TV.. still am tired of that too and so I leave to madras tonit!

Such lazing time gave me time to read fiction after long..I finished Da vinci code..I was impressed (hey, why did not u ppl who read that b4 press me to read that??)..I found that style of mixing myth with fiction and the blending with some facts (forgotten or intriguing ones!) too good an idea! More interesting to me was his attempt to a prequel – Angels n demons (we have had so many sequels, this was another gr8 idea) and he intelligently sows that in to this book (where Langdon thinks of vetra, Florence and some other occasions – really sooper attempt). Iam really impressed with his intelligence..

On cricket: Its time we magnanimously bettered WI cricket and that’s what we did. Helping Lara and WI and reviving cricket, otherwise nothing to talk of the way our guys played this ODI series! Else where KP fella is blooming dangerously and the brits are already equating him to Lara and Tendul..ha..haa.. a good recipe for his down fall:-)

Football: Am eagerly waiting for the WC @ germany..I wud have loved to be there in person, but….Still watching soccer of football is fun, as I have been doing for all the WCs since mexico,86! Though every one tips Brazil, I always like to cheer a lesser known team to just increase the interest and thrill..for a change try cheering Argentina (infact I rate them better than Brazil this time, they have already won over Brazil 3 times in the recent past) or England or Holland and follow them, that cud give u a diff experience!! I shall root for Argentina as always..(do u remember that Ortega guy in the last WC? IMHO he was the best play maker of the last WC) and don’t forget to cheer Swiss too this time..they are a dark horse to move to 2nd round, watch out..

Thursday, May 25, 2006

thai la..ladies la..

so to a lighter sub from the reservations..
thai trip was fine (any free lunch is welcome;-))
i was surprised at the sexy roads, excellent hiways and it really looked like a country doing well..but had a doubt to which i shall come later. Pattaya was a small nice town with people everywhere and nothing but ladies and associated shows..as my friend rana had mentioned in is blogs there are massages and massages and i add ladies and ladiessss..every bypasser and bystander approaches u asking if u need ladies and if u r a bit hesitant they immly switch to boys??
oops ihave heard/seen countries thriving on tourism..here nothing but sextourism..man..a few of us were standing outside our hotel planning to go to the swimming pool and waiting for the rest to join..a young female goes past, well dressed, zipping on a bike..some eyes obviously followed her and immly she takes an U turn and comes by and asks "ladies??" on my vehement disapproval she kids me "ur wives inside?? he hee.."..so no voyeurs too..u r solicited immly..if soliciting were illegal there the whole country had to be a make shift prison..that gave me the doubt what else do they do to have such a good GDP and to have a developed feeling..i just did not manage to see any one else in any other profession other than soliciting..(ok except the few airport employees..a slight doubt there - was this their part time?)
otherwise they have well maintained touristic spots..neat lanes, nice pedestrians and hell of thru night awake streets like the walkers street...well organised para gliding (right on the sea) and under sea water walking..hey..i took these 2 and it was a great experience..
Bangkok too had its share of shows, massages, soliciting and again shows, massa....No..I did not take massages for i was sure that culminates in to something else too..as for the shows - no.i shall not pen it here..hey my uncle reads this blog and may be he translates it to my aunt and mom (who the hell gave him the url, pl stand up)
then there is the shopping..oops so much to shop..so little to pay...so many malls..
can i end this without mentioning their accent..(that is if they speak english. The guy from our tour operator who came had 0 eng vocab..we had to mime and dance our way thru from the airport on)..if u call a taxi and ask Y ARCHI u reach the hotel where we stayed..if u pronounce it as white orchid - good luck to u.no R, no t, no half the alphabets..and their sing song pattern (no comes as nnnnnnniiiiiiiioooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww) adds to our agony..but very nice smiling lots..on the whole fun on that front too..

note: topically- absolutely no 'reservations';-)

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

fotos..

so here are the promised fotos..see them and decide if I shud regret the last post's title! are they some terrorists or something to be meted out such treatment by the police..and like some of the fwd mails why dont we try implementing the reservation in cricket as a 1st step and then to other sports and finally in to all our lives? (like only 70 ms boundary for OBCs, 65 mts for scs etc and then 4 obcs, 2 scs etc in each team..only 'reserved pilots and docs for the politicians and there wards)..here here..dont think Iam against reservations..NO.am just pissed at the politician's motive and idea to use it only for votes..if it is really implemented with right intention and the really deserving benefits, its a great tool..then, as in all, it shud be started from primary education and then in to under grads..then on they are as much on the level playing field..but...









Monday, May 22, 2006

Bastards...

on the reservation issue dug up by the atrocious arjun singh much has been said..we all know its the creamy section of these obcs, sc, sts etc that benefit and not the really deserving. so it is only all the big laloos, paswans and others who eat this and they also get the vote banks associated with this noise. what a shame the deserving ones of the reservation do not even get to know of the politics behind and are they are just pawns being used.
This link here (thanks natraj for the link) is a good view of all those I saw on the reservation noises..

Meanwhile I saw lotsa doctors striking on this issue (tho I did not get why only docs all over are striking!). I saw a clipping on NDTV and IBN they were battered like hell. oh! these police bastards were on a nasty rage. Why I beg? after all some docs are protesting for something they think affects them. Its their view, u have another, so what? does that mean just bcos u being on the ruling party lets u let the police loose on students? they are not some gangsters or the regular rioters or anti social elements..
and so u thought the rang de basanti scenes were so dramatic and unrealistic? were u also one like me questioning that scene where the police were battering guys in full media glare.and here these fellas prove us wrong. oh man, really felt so bad..students were being hit like mad and there the rotten vegetable called arjun singh is counting his to-come-votes.

what a shame and not much sound on this. If someone has the pics of those nasty cops and are willing to take action (or at least hit them anon) - hey,count me..iam game.. and btw what happene to all those human rights and lefts..oh i get it..these docs are no vote banks!

note: I just came back today from thai and almost spent the whole day sleeping..so updates later, meanwhile I had typed and thought had uploaded a post before leaving -on reservation etc..but somehow it goy lost..as always u cant be spared..so here it is..
note2: I shall update some fotos of the police actions 2moro (yeah, got to go and sleep again)

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

more blore and thai..

As I mentioned in my prev post, it was hot y'day. As I was stating it to my friends here, a couple of them mentioned that it was indeed too hot and so will rain the night. How true! It did blast in the evening and blore is back to pleasant..so its really one up over madras weather wise..

meanwhile we were discussing weather (yeah, jobless ad all that) and I said thailand shud be similar to blore and guys vehemently disapproved that and so we guys are setting off to thailand (bangkok and pataya)2moro to check if the weather is the same!!

ok..ok.I made that up..but seriously am off..my dear friends, the same Blore telecom dealers with whom I went to yercaud, are going to thailand for 4 days. I cling on to the extra ticket that they had! Nice to have such good friends! But they say only travel, lodging and breakfast are taken care of and I need to buy my own dinner:-(
any of u know of some one who can give me free dinner there at bangkok or pataya..pl rush with ur info:-)

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Benthakallooru..

oh yeah..thats banglore's orig name..waiting for vattals to change to that soon;-)
so am here again escaping madras's heat..or so i thought y'day when it was cool and pleasant after 3 days of heavy rains..today its back to - normal, can I say..still ok..
the average age of blore is reducing by the day..so the sight(for the eyes) is cooler these days..(or did I miss out in those busy days?)

hey..I did travel by the Volvo bus from JP nagar..cool..
all u olteners: better than ur 3. The AC works and so straight away a point scored..more below:
1/ local songs played inside.ok so what if its kannada, still something is better than nothing
2/there is a conductor. so a human interface - to buy tickets, to tell me when my stop comes inspite of the mike announcement and to answer any querries about the bus. (when I asked him how they manouver on the 2 meters speedbreakers ofblore,he said the driver can increase the height and ase me to please go there and ask the driver to show..he was all proud)
3/ less crowd than in 3!!

sooo cool, eh?

Saturday, May 13, 2006

some thoughts..

I though we shall not have politrix, elections for some time to come..but no, we shall not be spared of that..bcos our MSM will not be covering these..

While our MSM is full of eulogy for sonia's achievement..see some forgotten stats..the total votes polled has actually come down from last time by some 4%, which means voter apathy. Compare that to Mr.N.Rangasamy of pondicherry (another cong person)..he has got 90% of the votes polled. U wanna know whats the % of votes polled in his constituency? only 90% gmen! startling stats ,eh? that talks of voter involvement and a statement of satisfactory performance. Thats not all, he is that rare breed like the Kamarajs jps and bhaves..a simple and straightforward person to the core..during his last regime as the CM of pondy he wud wake up, perform the morning chores for his aged mother and then take his bike and go to his 'regular tea shop for years'and have his tea and read the newspaper "free" there itself (sparing himself anf govt the newpaper cost;-) and he moves around the city only on his bike and uses the givt car only when he goes to the CM office and on a few occassions. He still lives in the same rural area he was brought up and he has been a performer too. Unfortunately our media does not make enof noise of such guys..
and inspite of being such a great personality managed to win in these days..so some hopes,eh?

Vijaykanth's victory at Virudachalam shud be rated as the best performance in the whole state. Mind u that is PMK/vanniyars fort and Ramadoss and his son did not leave any stone unturned. They took it as a personal challenge and covered every house in this constituency and also deliberately fielded 2 other independents in the name of Vijaykanth. ADMK for its satisfaction fielded one vijakanth as independent on its behalf. So V'chalam had 4 vijaykanths on the candidate list to confuse the folks in that rural constituency. Add to that he was awarded the symbol only 2 weeks before the election. I admire his resolve and strength..and if he continues he has a future for sure..

elsewhere in TN JJ decides not to attend the assembly..a golden tradition followed by the 2 dravidians that they shall attend to the house activities only if they are on the 'chair'..so much for all their talks of breathing for ur sakes folks and dying to serve u..when will end this shameless display by the two dravidian parties? hmm...

Now to another very interesting thing I noticed. hey, I need to patent this..so u guys stop people from sounding it off as their own idea till then;-)
I just scratched my memory for the names of all the CMs of TN till date..of all those I knew I found a great similarity. They all had this 2 in 1 type of names. i.e their names cud be split like jaya+lalitha, karuna+nidhi, anna+durai, rama+chandran, bhaktha+vatchalam, kaman+rajan,rama+samy, Raja+goplachari..oops almost all after independence fall in this category. So what u cry? hey..now think of stalin..he hee..he loses..doesn't he? and do u also see that Daya+nidhi qualifies? ohooo..i see some nice days ahead..(meanwhile did u watch that stalin was rarely on sun tv during the campaigns? also was never there during the 1st press conference of MK after the election victory! and u do know who was prominently there!!)

Thursday, May 11, 2006

So its decided..kudos LP..

Its DMK+ and for the 1st time in TN politrix heading for a coalition..the perennial optimism in me says that cud be the first step towards the end of the Dravidian parties..I still think JJ gave it away when she started getting jittery for the freebies of MK and so gave his manifesto/freebies credibility.
DMDK – of vijaykanth's has had a good run. Ya only he won but he has scored 10k to 35k in all constituencies..so a good beginning..infact his candidates have screwed up the party for many of the potential winners in many constituencies..plus 10% allover TN is not a joke and for sure he is to stay..
About ADMK – it will take a long time to get their reaction. The media were seen running everywhere and one group stationed outside ammas house the whole day, no avail. The dravidian parties never learnt to be graceful in their defeats..

And back home it was all not without so much fun folks..in the morning as soon as the counting started (unlike those days within an hour u get the complete trend these days with EVMs) the 2 TVs – sun and Jaya freaked out in the numbers.each showed a crazily high number in their favour and opposite for the other. Then we had to tune to NDTV or IBN to get the clear picture..and till noon this game continued in Jaya and slowly they turned the scaled around towards the evening..Tamaasu – TN politix always..

Finally my fav LP : HEY THEY DID A FANTASTIC JOB! Yes..Iam happy…as I told u before (ok ok many times) its just a start and they have done very well here..They have managed the deposit in some places and are generally in the top 4! Great achievement I wud say and they just have to march ahead and may be with some confidence behind.
If u doubt see below:
Rajamany K / 11665 / 5.38 (name / votes polled / %)
Santhanagopalam / 9436 / 6.4
Arvind / 6323 / 4.14
Ishrael Mahesh / 2459 / 2.23
Prema. K / 6473 / 1.06
Elanthirumaran / 669 / 1.0
Vanchinarayanan P / 300 / 0.29

Rajamany in Annanagar (winner - Arcot Veerasami )came 3rd beating DMDK, BJPs old hand Dr.Hande
Santhanagoplan in Mylapore ( winner - S.V.Sekar ) came 3rd in mylapore beating famous chandralekha, America narayanan, et al
Arvind was 4th at T.Nagar (winner kalairajan of ADMK) just missed the deposit.
Elanthirumaran was pitted against MK and came 5th.

So some hope folks..IMHO this is a commendable show..Thanks to all those who lent an ear to me and to the kind bloggers who spread this like Rajeev and Mukund. Guys so it works. All those SMSes, mail fwds, bloggers punches and all that..plus the unbeatable word of mouth.
I sincerely wish LP all success in the future.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Don’t miss!!!

In one of the blogs that I visit often, I saw some video clips..man! U shud never miss them . See here!!
That cud be one of a lifetime chance..visit and enjoy them and don’t blame me later if youtube takes it off;-) Thanks adaengappa prabhu..that made my day..
Caution: Just don’t see them in ur office. NO its not porn u gmen, u will fall laughing and may be ur office might not have enof space for u to roll..
{Atleast now the shakthiman (& aaryaman) fans will accept there is a sooper star and sooper fighter, way better than them..}

Repoll!!

Hey..there was repoll in some 18 booths in TN today..
One such place that had polled 85plus % was also in this repoll list, bcos the EC felt that was too high a % to happen. In a protest against such a decision everybody out there, well almost every one but one, boycotted this repoll. So I am eager to know what the EC’s reaction to this will be:-)
thamaasu..TN elections are...

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

SMS:-)

Out of the many SMSes that were floating arnd during the election..i liked this one (ok, apart from the serious ones on LP)
It is addressed to ‘the’ woman by a man..May 8thkku apuram naam yaarum velai seyya vendam. Yenna Amma kudukara ilavasa arisi vaangi Mk thara 2 acre landla ilavasa gas aduppu vaichu kanji kaatchi kudichittu free cable connectionoda ilavasama kodullum color Tvla Vijaykanth, sarathkumar,simran padam paathu pozhaichikalam.orey thamaasu thaan.
(trans: There’s no need for any of us to work after may 8th, bcos we can pick up the free rice of JJ cook gruel on MK’s free gas stove in the 2 acre free land given by DMK and settle happily watching the movies of vijaykanth,sarath, simran thru the free cable network on the free color TV. – ridiculing the free mania of the TN politicos)
**
One more crisp & funny one was "Elect Vijaykanth! Save Tamil Cinema!"

Monday, May 08, 2006

Did it!

So I did it! Operated this electronic machine for the first time!
I did not read a manual, did not refer any doc, did not get any tips but operated it on my own..I had to..so I did it..Iam one in 4.3 crores!!
Yeah this voting machine..The previous times I voted I had to chappa kuthify..last time I cud have but “some one special” decided the last 25 houses in my area were not fit to vote! Just bcos they did not have that last page of the doc they shud have had they decided we cant..
But this time I ensured I had my foto voter identity (though not even my mom can identify me from that) still I voted. So I did my duty, now I can sit back watching my matches/serials/movies and expect things to be the same or worse in the next 5 years..hey, good fun that, eh?
U wud not dare to ask me whom I voted..if u still ask me, I wud redirect (or link) u to my earlier posts and get some more “hits” ;-)

Sundry 1: As I voted and started coming out of the booth I saw my pop being ‘questioned’ by a cop and seeing that a couple more walked in to ‘check out’ what it is! Hey but it turned out to be a proof of ‘small world’..yeah that cop identified my pop and called my pop by his name..he happened to be the neighbour of my pop in that miniscule village my pop was born brought up..small world, eh?

Sundry 2: I seriously think the elections in India (and esp TN) shud be rated among the 8 if not 7 wonders of the world..come to think of such a huge exercise without many untoward incidents..man 2 lathi wielding police manning that booth..phew..TN is really a peaceland..

Sundry 3: oof..these TV guys..cant some one stop them?? Esp these 24 hour news channels run short of stuff so badly that they cling on to any shit and screw our happiness ( x 24 hours that is)..the latest is this Buddhia thingy..as it is the human rights and lefts make such issue of this run.whats laughable is they are making all this noise after the run, where in if they were serious about all this they shud have acted and stopped the run..but we are talking of the human right n left actvists..so where is the logic coming here??

Sundry 4: while I am on a bad mood on the media in general and esp on TVs..I wish all this opinion polls (do u also think polls is a word not to be there?) and exit polls really crash and enof eggs are splashed on their faces..how I wish a la2001 happens..

Saturday, May 06, 2006

hope..though a bit far..

Yes..its LP once again..yeah just before the elections here day after..
all u guys, pl go ahead - press all the people in ur know and ofcourse ur parents/kith/kin to go and vote for AXE..for LP..for sure..

There was a meeting of LokParitranites yesterday at Maangollai, Mylapore.
It was slated for 6PM. I was there 10 mins before and saw quite a few enthusiastic youngsters with LP T shirts moving around in great zeal and distributing pamphlets. More heartening was to see good no. of young ladies too. That’s a nice sign – a good participation for a right cause from the other gender too!
A few minutes past 6 the meeting started. There was a decent crowd – my guesstimate is arnd 500..of which 80% were young. (ok..a 20% wud be partitranites themselves which is ok). It was nice to see some old people too to be sitting on the neatly arranged chairs and waiting and participating in the meeting.
I overheard an autowala saying – such guys shud come out and do good sir..its nice to see and the other guy responding “ ennada etho vande mataram, thamiza thamiza naalai namnadey, jana gana ellam paduthennu vanthu paathen..” (trans: I came here hearing patriotic songs and am impressed)..The Mylapore candidate – Santhanagoplan was casually interacting with people (incl the above said auto driver) and moving arnd freely with a perpetual smile. Nice to see such a pleasant candidate (hey..is that not a first negative in todays politics;-))
Then all the 'Lions' paraded to the stage and started talking one after another. All youngsters spoke well but nothing extraordinary to attract more crowd. (no, my intention is not to criticize them. Hey..after all they came out and spoke!) I liked the lady (Amudha?) who spoke second with a good flow of tamil and sounding like a seasoned politico (though she was offering her speech from prepared text) and it was good to note she pronounced Tamizh like tamizh with all the Zhas (ழ) and LLas (ள) coming out well.(another outstanding feature eh?)
I was also impressed with the good reception and heavy applause that the National pres - Tanmay got from the crowd.
I wud have liked reiterating the fact that sum of the salary package of the people on the stage is a huge amount and that these people have chosen to forego that fat package for the country/community/society. But, hey, that’s the fact. These guys have kicked their lucrative jobs, kush life, safe cosy houses and are toiling on the streets for a cause. (and here we had someone in this blog – ofcourse an anonymous pulling a fast one asking if they were on a 3 month hols. So LP knows what they have in stock!)
Most of them sounded very confident! Yeah, I know the intention in participating in any challenge is to win and of course confidence is a good thing. But over confi??
Most of them spoke of clean governance, no corruption, serving the constituency to the best, no freebies etc..
But did they all know that this is just their first step and irrespective of the result they need to march ahead and quite lots to be done in the near future..
All in all a nice experience and a slight emergence of light (read hope) at a distance..

Thursday, May 04, 2006

tibits

Blore was no escaping the heat..even Blore scored a century couple of days back (ya..100 deg Farenheit against a 108 in madras!)..so no great solace..and I sighed some 100 times thinking of the good old days, just some 12 years back when we used to go out for a happy walk at noon in peak summer without any hassle..so the good old blore is gone..hopefully all this IT thingy will get shifted else where and spare this city of more – people, traffic, pollution, heat and what not..hmm..

Its sad that Pramod Mahajan died..I used to like his Instant presence of minded one liners and killers..his extempore speeches were a rage I have heard, but what I know of his oratory skills is from what I got to see on TV (talk shows etc)..there used to be some very good funny and witty ones he used to throw so regularly..sample: while some cong minister blah blahed on his achievements, next came Mahajan and started “ sometimes as ministers we are forced to marry pregnant brides and have to take credit for other’s deeds” (got it? The prev govt obviously was BJP’s;-)) sometimes thought provoking too..

Another very sad incident was the killing of Suryanarayana, the Indian Engineer from AP. Very bad and sad..This is 2nd at Afghan in the recent times (remember one Kutty a jawan, couple of months ago?) and I hope our Govt does something concrete beyond committees, reviews, studying the situation etc. Its bad that Indians are targeted in many places now (in the mid east - more a pak influence than other reasons)..if we don’t react sanely we shall see more of such situations. one right move and we could close these nonsensical fallouts. Classic example to note here is: There was one hijacking incident of Israel air (way back in 1989 if I am right) and they said then that it shall be the only one to happen. Till date that is so, bcos they took some sane and strong decisions with some spine!

Finally in all this heat, the election heat is not as much as the earlier years..IMHO that’s a good sign, but the vote percentage should not be below 50 if we have to show we are a responsible lot..in this context I found a good observation by the Vijaykanth’s party – they claim if the voter % increases so will their share and they put forward a clear number too!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

(no more) a sticky..

Though Iam to regular blogging (below), dont forget this and this post..I wish we make some dent in to the political arena..hence wishing all new visitors here to got these 2 posts before graz(c)ing the other areas here;-)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

small moves..set the ball rolling..

yeah, Its LP again..(let's)pl do ur best..
Few of my friends have questioned the usefulness and practicality of lokparitran!

Firstly I don't think their idea wud be to rule the state. I guess they are only testing the water. My op is, we know all the other parties, all these big fishes who drink our blood like water..now why not just try the new guys..

Trying vijaykanth (for a new entrant)can be better, for he has realistic chances than LP..I accept.But my gut feeling is he can only be another xMK!

But we are just talking of a few constituencies. Take Mylapore for eg. We have S.V.Sekar and Napolean – cine figures and absolutely no other credentials. SVSekar can get some sympathy votes bcos he has no back bone! His guru was arrested by his leader and he shut his gob. Some body who did not react for an atrocity on his guru will not bat an eyelid for a suffering u or me..or about his constituency..he is just going to take care of his rear end! Napolean the other candidate - less said better..

In such a scenario lets vote and encourage these new chappies. Let the bigger fight be what it is and so let the bigger electorate decide on one of the evils..let us lesser mortals play this smaller game with not much to lose..

Just bcos they are well educated or some of them are IITians or some are foreign returned does not mean they will work wonders. But they seem genuine. For sure none of us have heard any wrong news about them or their involvement in any wrong doing.. Amidst so many of us who talk so many things and crack ideas to 'improve' India at the drop of a hat but stay away from even a basic duty like casting our vote, here we have a set of guys who have shunned their careers (lucrative Iam sure) and taking a plunge in to this dirty political stream.. Dont u think it takes courage to quit a fat package and plunge in to politics? Dont u think it needs committment esp social committement to give up fat purses and pursue this?

Just winning their deposits can be positive statement. When most of us thought this system can never be changed, politics will always be a nonsense pool and so on, here these guys took a daring positive step.

I just happen to appreciate that gesture and wish some of us and more of us in our know caste (or waste as some of u may call) votes in their favour.

Since its just a few constituencies we are talking of this will not even hit the balance in the real scenario (bigger fight of xDMKs)..

Pl don't quote laloos and subramanya swamys as examples for educated. Have a heart. Don't insult these LP guys so loosely n easily.

do we let our cynicism cloud our logic and faint hope? after all hope is a good thing (remember Shawshanks Redemption?)

Finally lets just make small moves..lets help them win their deposit back and set the ball rolling..