This mystery has been baffling me for a long time, I decided to create a new blog on this.

http://naadi-jothidam.blogspot.com/

Kushboo summoned in case relating to rape, murder of child

http://news.webindia123.com/

"The case against Kushboo pertained to suppression of facts with regard to the alleged molestation and killing of the girl in a five star hotel last year.

The incident allegedly occurred during a party in a five-star hotel and the parents and hotel management had hushed up the issue.

It came to light when Kushboo reportedly mentioned the incident in an interview last year, saying that it still haunted her."

Allright, now Kushboo has had seen a crime against a girl and did not report it.
So much for 'Women Empowerment'!

'Survival of the fittest'.

I think it's actually 'Survival of the smartest'

weekend-2 movies-priyasaki, oru naal oru kanavu
visit downtown christmas lighting
relaxing

And it continues...

http://o3.indiatimes.com/amjadkmaruf

India and development

This is my first blog on India, after visiting it after two and a half years.

My first take, whoever said India is developed or developing fast, Iam gonna kick him.

India is nowhere near a developed nation and still not a developing nation. India is more like a under-developed country.

Iam not bashing India, but Iam just talking ground reality here.

Just because every Tom, Dick and Harry has a cell phone, doesn't make a country a developed/developing country.
Just because a few individuals in a couple of sectors(read IT & BPO) make lot of money, doesn't make a country a developed/developing country.

The above 2 are the major things that has happened in India. Maybe a few restaurants here and there.

These things don't make a country developed.

Then what does?

Only when the society and the infrastructure is developed, a country can be called developed.

I did not see the above in India, or should I say at least in Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Mettur and Podanur(basically the places I visited).

I went to Melmaruvathur temple from Chennai. It's a toll road. That road (I heard that it goes just few kilometers after Melmaruvathur) is really awesome. It's almost as good as any good highway in Europe and US. What was amazing was, I saw women folks cleaning the highway sweeping the dirt in many places. This is really a good sight. One, it gives employment opportunities to many, particularly women, and two, the highways are clean.
Whoever visualized, conceptualized and executed this project, "Thanks. Excellent job".

But the road after that, huh.
I couldn't get a train ticket and I ended up travelling in KPN bus from Chennai to Coimbatore. Oh what a nightmare ride. The roads were so pathetic. Many places it looked like a 'Otthai adi paathai'. Full of pot holes and bumps. It took me 2 days to recover from the neck, shoulder and back pain.

The bus got flat tire twice. I was late to coimbatore by 4 hours.
The second flat tire, those guys didn't have a spare and we had to take the bus to a tire shop and got the tire fixed.

Almost all the places were very dirty, with garbage scattered all over the places. I believe this is one more reason why the rain waters did not drain properly, as the drainage were all clogged with garbage. Had it been clean, the waters must have drained fast.

Again, Iam not bashing India that its dirty. All Iam saying is, if we want to becomed a developed nation, these are the things that we have to be fixing.

Tourists from other parts of the world love to visit India. One of the major complains that they have is the lack of clean surroundings.

Every individual has to be part of this. What's the point when a software engineer, making 2 lakhs a month and driving a Ford, dumps garbage in streets and public places?

Traffic and following road signs and stop lights....ya...our cities will ask "Are you kidding?"
Need not say more.

I think people are making more money, their standard of living has improved but they seem to be selfish. The attitude seems to be "I don't care" when it comes to doing something back to the society.

With the population exploding due to rapid urbanization, until unless the people also become responsible and follow rules and regulations, the government really can't do much.

Until unless we get the attitude that this is the place where we live, and we have to take care of it, it's going to be tough.

Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's split

At last, after much speculation, its official. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey split.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/zwecker/cst-ftr-split25.html

I used to watch their reality show 'Newlyweds'. They looked like a perfect couple.
hmm. I also like Jessica Simpson very much.


"Many believe the collapse of the couple's marriage can be blamed on the fact that Simpson's career has far outshone Lachey's since they tied the knot. Her star turn in "The Dukes of Hazzard" film this summer (plus rumors that she may be the next "Bond Girl") -- along with successful endorsement deals like her "Dessert" beauty line -- made Simpson a reported $35 million in the past year."

Is this what happens when wives do better than husbands? I wonder.

The only good thing out of this whole thing is ...yahoooooooo...Jessica is single again. hehe.

Oh Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar

vs Sri Lanka

93(96)
67(69)
2(3)
11(19)
19(30)
39(48)

vs South Africa

2(9)
2(22)
2(15)

This is looking little bit ugly.


I can only think of 2 possible things.

1. Either Sachin is extremely confused as to his role in the team.

He seems to be confused whether he should attack and rip apart the opposition or just play a supporting role to the other batsman. Having observed sachin for a very long time right from his career start, I have come to the conclusion that sachin cannot play defensive or supportive role. His nature is to attack and that's what he is best at and that's what he should also be doing.(Much like what Viru is doing now). Whenever he starts to play defensively, 9 out of 10 times, he fails.

2. Or he just doesn't have the fitness/reflex as he used to.

Or sachin wants to play like how he used to, but doesn't have the quick reflex that he possessed or he is still injured or his injury has restricted him a little bit. If that is the case, then if his injury is very bad he should just call it quits or if his injury is not that bad he should come in as a middle order batsman, I would say he should come in, like in the 30+ over time period.

many pretty actress who missed their hallowed showcasing in Isles

shiva shiva
abachaaram abachaaram

my thoughts have become noble. hehe

brahmacharyam brahmacharyam brahmacharyam
girls are evil girls are evil girls are evil
let the force be with me

bihar elections

as my knowledge on this is nil, i refrain from making any comments
(who cares about bihar)

stupid suhasini

i was right in the middle of action when it happened. yes, i was in chennai and this news was all over the media. i think suhasini is stupid. when kushboo herself apologized and wanted to close the chapter, why the heck would suhasini want to issue such a statement?

i think she was pissed of that kushboo, an ex-actress(like herself) and who married a director(like herself) was getting too much media attention and was jealous of it. duh!

i think the protestors had a valid point when they asked who elected suhasini to be the 'representative' of tamilnadu.

but what i thought equally stupid was, a ban on maniratnam movies.

i think she might have been shocked to see that nobody except few women who call themselves as 'murpokku sindhanai pengal' supported her.

sania claimed that she never spoke in support of pre-marital sex.

Back to Richmond

I'm back to Richmond after a 3 week vaca in India.

Thanks Echo, for you are the only one who thought I was MIA.

வணக்கம் தமிழகம்!

இனிய தீபாவளி நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

Perfect Storm? Chennai, Tamilnadu

Wad di 'ell iz gowin on ? Rain, flood in Chennai and Tamilnadu. Satellite picture

Chennai, bulls eye?



I haven't seen a hurricane or cyclone or a storm formation so perfect as this one in India. This is current, look at timestamp.

For more recent you can hit
Weather.com

Did we eat Beef?

I landed up in this article, about how ancient Hindus ate Beef.

As I was going through the article, I also came across the following para.

"Over a period of time mainly after the emergence of Buddhism or rather as an accompaniment of the Brahminical attack on Buddhism, the practices started being looked on with different emphasis. The threat posed by Buddhism to the Brahminical value system was too severe. In response to low castes slipping away from the grip of Brahminism, the battle was taken up at all the levels. At philosophical level Sankara reasserted the supremacy of Brahminical values, at political level King Pushyamitra Shung ensured the physical attack on Buddhist monks, at the level of symbols King Shashank got the Bodhi tree (where Gautama the Buddha got Enlightenment) destroyed."

This ringed a bell in my head. This sounded more like the author in one of my earlier post

India - The True India
India - The India Today
India - The Question

in September 2005.

The authors are different. But what they say concur.

This just reiterates the facts mentioned by Phulgenda Sinha, the author of the book "The Gita As It Was - Rediscovering the Original Bhagavadgita".

Aravind Samy today

I read somewhere that he is the CEO of a big BPO.

I always thought he was more interested in business than movies. Iam sure he made millions more in business than in movies.
Cool.

hmmm...what did I do this weekend.

It was a cloudy saturday.
Took some pictures of Saravanan's new acura and ourselves.

WAW. We took some 130 pictures in like 5 minutes. After a long editing process, here are some of them which survived.

http://planetvimal.com/gallery/

Went to Indian Food Festival at Richmond Convention Center.
It was lot of food, and very little cultural activities :)

"It's fall here in USA"

Anyone wants to take a guess on who my all time favorite in Hollywood is?
I've given a 'Da Vinci Code' clue ;)

Update 1: As nobody has broken my code, Iam providing another clue.

The Rajini Factor

Chandramukhi crosses 200th day.

The pressure is now on Kamal Hassan. His Mumbai Express bombed. And he hasn't given a huge success in recent times.
Will 'Vettayadu Vilayadu' be his answer?
We will know.

Also in the Chandramukhi function the producer Ramkumar mentioned that the movie is going to be released in Tokyo, Japan in the International Film Festival on October 23 and 28 as a special show.

Also when Rajni was speaking at the function he mentioned that Aishwarya Rai was considered for the role of Neelambari in Padayappa and also for a role in Baba(The role was later modified to fit Manisha).
But looks like Rajni is trying to get Aish in his new movie 'Sivaji', directed by Shankar.

Also, not that Iam tooting my own horn, but my blog has successfully crossed 1 year :)

In other news...
I did some shopping this weekend at Need Supply Co and Nordstrom.

I ended up buying a pair of Jeans, a pair of shirt and a pair of shoes.
The financial damage has been estimated to be around US$800.00

Shopping at this rate, I think I will end up filing for Bankruptcy :(

Reema Sen

After a long thought process, I have come to the conclusion that Reema Sen is and will be my all time favorite.

Do not even try to think why, You will never get an answer, at least from me.

Day 48

Today is my 48th day as a vegetarian.

When I started this, I didn't have any time in my mind. I thought I will take it easy. But somewhere in between, I decided I should be a vegetarian for at least 48 days.

You might ask why 48 days.

When I was young I remember reading that in our Tamil tradition, 48 days counts as a mandalam. It's just a time period. I did not know the significance of 48 days at that time.

Few days ago, I was curious about this 48 days mandalam, described in our Tamil/Sanskrit literatures.

What I found was quite amazing.

Apparently it is something to do with our internal body(biology) clock. In west, they call it as Biorhythm.

History of Biorhythms

The clock starts from the time you were born.
You can find your state of clock at any time by using Biorhythm calculator. Here is one such calculator.

Now I have decided to go 53 days at least.
After that, I don't know.

May be I will start to eat meat.
May be not.

Keira Knightley's Domino

My favorite actress, Keira Knightley's movie Domino is releasing this week. Gotta watch it on first day.

"Bond, James Bond"

Meet the new Bond.
Daniel Craig.

Martin Campbell will direct CASINO ROYALE, the 21st film in the 007 franchise.

"Shaken, not Stirred"

45th day as a Vegetarian.

Kashmiris slam tardy aid response

"With only a trickle of aid reaching Indian earthquake victims, angry Kashmiris were blocking roads and demanding relief."

CNN

I thought this rescue and relief operation will be a significant event in the history of J&K. Whichever government(India or Pakistan) does the most for the affected people in J&K and PoK respectively, will look good in the eyes of the kashmiris.
This might even change the mindset of the common kashmiri. It is imperative that Indian government does everything possible to help the victims, even if it means going 'out of the way', literally.

Any mishap here can end in a bad PR and can be very detrimental.

Quake: Militants suspend violence

In the wake of the killer quake, the Jehad Council, an amalgam of 14 militant outfits based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, has announced temporary suspension of its operations in the ravaged areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

Salahuddin asked all the constituents of the council to direct the militant cadres across the state to halt their operations in the affected areas and extend possible relief to the victims

http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/oct/10quake15.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

...and once the victims recover, to resume their militant activity killing the same victims.

This weekend is long weekend for me.
Monday is holiday, Columbus Day.
So far this has been...hmmm...what can I say, a very lazy weekend.

Saturday did some shopping in Nordstrom, at the Short Pump mall. I was shopping for some Jeans and Shirts.

I rented and watched 3 Tamil movies.

Aiyar IPS (one of the worst movies mankind has ever produced)
Maayavi (was ok, a different movie little bit)
Englishkaaran (a pretty descent movie, different story)

Will have to watch another movie Chatrapathi.

Then it was like 3am when I went to bed. And slept almost the whole day on Sunday. Wokeup at around 4 pm on Sunday afternoon.

I was watching Sunday Samayal in Sun TV. I noticed that the commercial for Sakthi Masala has changed.
Usually Kushboo will come in that commercial, and today I saw a different girl.
Well...I guess everyone knows why this change was made.

Kushboo has got herself into a bad PR situation.

I don't know what else will change from now. Remove her from mega serials ? I don't know.

Khushboo's sex comment takes political tones

A remark on pre-marital sex and virginity by South Indian actress Khushboo has set off a major controversy. Now, the issue seems to have taken political colors with a Dalit party tacitly backing protests against her.

http://us.rediff.com/movies/2005/oct/06khush.htm?q=mp&file=.htm

Ok...this is where it gets dirty.
What was a simple social issue, is now storming into a political issue.


Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N Ram said that whether or not one agreed with Khushboo, 'the intelligent and experienced actress' 'forward-looking' views needed to be respected.

Crap.

For everyone's sake, 'forward-looking' is not about losing virginity before marriage. It's about how to develop the one earth and world we have and make it a better place to live.

How tough is it to get that into the head?

The beleagured actress has virtually been left to fend for herself by the South Indian Film Artistes Association (SIFAA).


Since almost all the film artists are in one political party or the other, or having their own party, eh...you can understand that they are just trying to save their own ass.

I feel sorry for Kushboo. Once a social issue becomes a political issue...eh...you are pretty much f**ked up.

The Kushboo story

I wrote this comment in my friend's blog (Echo). It was a nice little story, so I decided to present it here again, in its original form.

Let me tell you something.
Mr. Host invites Mr. Guest to his house warming party.
Guest, buys a nice little painting, which he thinks will go good in Host’s bedroom.
Guest, goes to Host’s home and gives the painting.
Host appreciates it and he starts nailing the wall in living room, to hang this painting.

The guest sees this.
He will say one of the following three things:

1. "No man with a sense for art will hang this picture in living room."
2. "Don’t hang the picture here, hang it in your bedroom."
3. "If I were you, I would hang this picture in the bedroom."

Let’s analyze the above.
(1) is basically insulting the Host. You are literally saying either that Host doesn’t have sense for art, or he is an idiot. Definitely NOT polite and NOT respectful.
(2) is like you go to another persons house, and tell him what he should do in his own house. Definitely NOT polite and NOT respectful.
(3) Is like saying, if it was my house and if it was my painting I would hang it in my bedroom, but hey it’s your house and your painting, you can do whatever you want with it. Definitely polite and respectful.

Things might have changed in India now, but I would say, most of the people in India would have said (2).
Here in US, almost everyone would have said (3).

So does that mean people in US are more civilized than people in India?

If kushboo had said:
“I don’t mind having pre-marital sex” and
“If I were an educated man, I would not expect my wife to be virgin”
(similar to (3))

then that is polite, civilized and respectful.

But Kushboo said:
“No educated man could expect his wife to be virgin”
(similar to (1))
That’s like saying, educated men who expect his wife to be virgin is stupid, or uneducated men doesn’t know anything and he is ignorant.

If an educated girl, who moves in upper class society, behaves this way, what can you expect from poor uneducated people?

This is my opinion.
And that’s just me. Everyone need not be like me :)

So we will agree to disagree and move on to next debate ;)

NOTE : Seriously... Iam running out of stuff to blog :)

Will evolution be able to explain this?

Rebirth: Girl tracks old parents

http://vimaln.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_vimaln_archive.html

Who are we?

Evolution vs Intelligent Design vs Creationism

Evolution is the process by which populations of organisms acquire and pass on novel traits from generation to generation, affecting the overall makeup of the population and even leading to the emergence of new species.

Intelligent Design (or ID) is the controversial assertion that certain features of the universe and of living things exhibit the characteristics of a product resulting from an intelligent cause or agent, not an unguided process such as natural selection.

Creationism or creation theology is the belief that humans, life, the Earth, and the universe were created by a supreme being or deity's supernatural intervention. The intervention may be seen either as an act of creation from nothing (ex nihilo) or the emergence of order from preexisting chaos.

How did we come into existence?

Did we evolve, learning and adapting to the forces of nature?

Are we the products of an experiment by superior intelligent beings, who designed us and make changes to us and other species making us learn and adapt to the forces of nature?

Were we created by God, as said by all religions?

Shibuki - Platinum is the new Gold

Platinum Guild International commissioned a superlatively beautiful platinum necklace to follow in the footsteps of last year's sensation "Aqua". Featuring 158 gms of platinum and 5.52 carats of diamonds, the "Shibuki" (meaning Splash in Japanese) is the second jewel commissioned by PGI to take its inspiration from water - the very substance of life.

Created by Yuka Kobayashi of the Kuwayama Corporation in Japan, the delicate strands of platinum rise up to represent water gushing out of the ocean. The use of diamonds adds to the feel of fluidity, reflecting in the light to look like brilliant droplets of water. This truly unique piece has been specially designed thus to convey platinum's values of purity, rarity and eternity.

Designer Yuka Kobayashi said, "It is very exciting to be involved in the platinum Aqua collection. The splashes shining from the reflected light of the sun were expressed by setting diamonds amongst the platinum to create a sense of different textures,"

This one of a kind piece, is worth US$100,000.

Paheli selected for Oscar

"Amol Palekar's Paheli has just been selected as India's official entry for the 2006 Oscars.

The other films considered for the nomination were Mangal Pandey, Veer-Zaara, Iqbal, Swades, Parineeta, Page 3, Black, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Sachein (Tamil), Anniyan (Telugu), Uttarayan (Marathi), Achuvante Anna (Malayalam), Graham (Telugu), and Kadal (Tamil)."

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2005/sep/26paheli.htm

Sachein ???

What the f**k?
Who shortlisted these movies? Where the hell did Sachein come from ?
Oh you intelligent guys!

No wonder our movies have never won an oscar.

I just noticed that in the last few weeks my hair is falling at an alarming rate. At this rate, in few months, I guess I will be having the hair style of Andre Agassi :)

Looking back I came up with three reasons.

1. I stopped eating meat (sudden cutback in protein)
2. Changed shampoo and conditioner
3. Reduced taking a multivitamin to one third

I think No 1 is the main reason. But Iam not sure.

I talked to my personal beautician about this and she suggested the following.

1. Drink karuvapalai juice
2. Eat goose berry (Nelli kai)
3. Eat a lot of keerai
4. Use the white of an egg bfore u shampoo ur hairdoes good for your hair
5. Eat dates

I wish all the above was mixed and made into a tablet :)

Sivaji - How is it?

Love Is Real Medicine

A good article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9466931/site/newsweek/

"In modern times, no educated man should expect Tamil songs to be in Tamil" - Vimal Natarajan 2005 A.D.

Note: eh...for those who want to protest, you are advised to come after 6.00 pm or during weekends....or....you will just be shouting at an empty house.

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher marries

"Actors Demi Moore 42, and Ashton Kutcher 27, have married, capping their celebrated two-year-long older-woman, younger-man relationship."

CNN Article

Just last week Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney split, after a short four month married life. In fact they will have their four-month-old marriage annulled.

Let's see how long Demi and Ashton go.

I bet they won't last for 1 year.
Anyone wants to bet against me?

Here's your moment of Zen

"Initial claims of the al-Qaeda raid later proved unimpressive. The captured fighters, described as important figures and foreigners, turned out to be Afghans.

The army could not even tell us if they were Taleban and did not produce them for us to see.

And the al-Qaeda base that had been destroyed turned out to be the compound of a madrassa or religious school that has been raided several times. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Kushboo temples demolished

Activists from political parties have demolished Kushboo Temples... some of them as old as 15 years.

Long time supporters KMK (Kushboo Makkal Katchi) and KJP(Kushboo Janatha Party) have vowed to build the temples again at the disputed site.

On other news, Saravana Bhavan has stopped serving 'Kushboo Idlis' from today.
They said they will now be offering 'Jothika Idlis' and 'Simran Idlis',...the thin version.
The representatives of Annapoorna could not be contacted at this time.

Woman can indulge in pre-marital sex: Kushboo

"The actor is now caught in the eye of a storm for reportedly stating that women could indulge in pre-marital sex provided safe measures were followed to prevent pregnancy.

Later, she justified her statement by saying that no educated man could expect his partner to be a virgin.

Some political parties like the PMK, BJP and the Dalit Panthers of India have taken umbrage over the statement that they see as promoting licentious relations.

Significantly, the main political parties - AIADMK, DMK and Congress - have remained mum on the issue."

mmmm...that's because half the men politicians in AIADMK, DMK and Congress are uneducated and the rest ...eh...don't have to feel guilty now.

www.newindpress.com

"No educated man could expect his partner to be a virgin" - Tamil actress Kushboo 2005

Moooooooom...Daaaaaad...Why did you send me to school?

I got a lot of calls and email from dear ones asking about Hurricane Rita. Fortunately, Virginia was spared. Thanks for all those.

It was second time that a second hurricane devastated the gulf within a span of 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, my aunt,uncle and their kids who were living in Houston was asked to evacuate. They were seriously plyboarding their windows, and sticking duct tapes to the glass windows so that they won't shatter. But after seeing the plight of other evacuvees who were stuck in Highway I-45 , they decided that they will stay back home.

In the end it turned out to be a wise decision. As the hurricane was downgraded from Category 5 to Category 3 when it made landfall, the impact on Houston and surrounding areas was very minimal. Unfortunately the levees broke again in New Orleans flooding them again.

I also saw the movie Sishya, starring Karthik and Roshini. It was an old movie. I thought Roshini looked beautiful. I liked her the most among all 3 sisters, Nagma, Jothika including.

I also rented a tamil DVD after a long time. I saw 'Ullam Ketkumay'.
It love story. hmmm...

After coming to US and seeing the culture here...well...one can see the difference when it comes to love.
The way the love is proposed is so different in India and US.

Its surprising that guys in India are still the same. Hesitating to say their love to the girl and giving love letters and cards. It all looks so funny to see now.

But the love itself seems to be the same across the world.
When it comes to relationship, while the guy usually looks at the beauty of the girl, the girl actually looks at so many different things.

The movie itself was good I thought, except for some sentimental dialogues and scenes.

Greg Chappell, Sourav Ganguly and BCCI

Alright.
We now have the text of email that Greg Chappell mailed to BCCI...which by the way, now stands for Board of Cricket Controversy in India.

We are now waiting for a rebuttal from Sourav Ganguly.

I, have always admired the captaincy of Sourav. I believe that he was one of the best captains India ever had. He was aggressive and confident. He knew what he was doing.

But watching him and the events unfolding around him last 2 weeks, I guess Chappell is right when he says Sourav is mentally not fit to lead the team.

One can easily come to the conclusion by watching what Sourav has been doing and talking last 2 weeks.

He really looks like he has lost the confidence in himself and his decisions. The way he handled this whole issue was also immature.

After all this, I think it is time for him to step down from captaincy, or if he doesn't want to do that, move on.

I am not sure if Rahul is a good replacement as a captain, as his records as a captain doesn't seem to impress that much.
But saying that, there is also an allegation that Harbhajan Singh, was asked to underperform under Rahul's captaincy.
Now that is very interesting. We don't know if its true and if so, who else was asked to underperform under Rahul's captaincy.
If that is true, then no wonder India did not perform well under Rahul's captaincy. Poor Rahul.

If true, then its only fair to give Rahul another chance.

IAEA resolution against Iran : Where does India stand ?

Something very interesting happened over the weekend.

I hope you all must have read the proposed India-Iran natural gas pipeline project through Pakistan.

India was about to go ahead with this project ignoring US interests. This, in fact, after the increased India-US relationships since the Bush administration. Bush also had agreed to give co-operation in nuclear energy technologies, including help with the construction of nuclear plants.
Even after that, India was in favor of the Iran gas pipeline project, which had 'disappointed' US. Condoleeza Rice, when she came to India talked about it. When Manmohan visited US, Bush talked about it.
India had insisted that it needs energy to sustain the current growth rate and said it is going ahead with Iran pipeline project.

But now, an IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) resolution drafted by European Union's 3 biggest powers - France, Britain and Germany, and backed by US was adopted by IAEA.

The resolution requires Iran to be reported to the security council over a failure to convince the agency that its nuclear program was entirely peaceful.

22 votes was passed in favor of the resolution, 12(including Russia, China and South Africa) abstained and 1(Venezuela) voted against it.

Now comes the interesting part.
India, which had opposed the resolution, voted in favor of it this weekend.
This has surprised many.
Analysts speculate that India voted in favor, due to US pressure and not to jeopardize the relation with US.
India disagrees that their decision is in no way connected to the nuclear deal with US.

Iran officials say they will review the decisions taken by India and South Korea.

The next few days will be interesting to watch on this issue.

Pakistan on the other hand abstained from voting.

Countries who voted in favor of the resolution:
United States, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Argentina, Belgium, Ghana, Ecuador, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia, Japan, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, and India

Countries who abstained from voting:
Pakistan, Algeria, Yemen, Brazil, China, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Vietnam

Countries who voted against:
Venezuela

The above 35 countries are the IAEA board members for 2004-2005.

I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you

These words are my own.
From my Heart.

This is how guys get screwed

"The former mistress of convicted murderer Scott Peterson is back in the spotlight after a DNA test showed that her first child was not fathered by the man who was paying child support."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/21/amber.frey.ap/index.html

"Frey's attorney, Gloria Allred, said Wednesday that her client never intended to deceive Flores.

"Amber, in good faith, always believed that Mr. Flores was her child's father," Allred said."

Yeah...Right!

What the heck is gowin on?

Well....you can find it out yourself from here.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

Buoy's, which are floating sensors in the middle of ocean, measure sea conditions round the clock.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=42001

This is one such buoy in Gulf Coast, currently under the influence of Hurricane Rita. Look at the wave height. 34 feet !

And see the wave height graph.

Today was best of both the worlds. Busy yet Relaxed.
I was very busy at work. Our production date is nearing and we have to wrap development by this week. So I had to work out few minor issues. It was interesting as I got most of it done according to the plan. Hope it continues tomorrow the same way.

Varun is one of my good friends here. Very cool guy. Later in the evening, Varun and I decided to get together for dinner at 'Tara Thai'. This is a relatively new Thai Restaurant. Their food is awesome. It's the best Thai food in Richmond , I would say. As I am a vegetarian, I had to order Vegetable Fried Rice. Usually whenever Saravanan and I go there, we order Chicken Fried Rice. Fortunately, the Vegetable version turned out better than the Chicken. Both Varun and I had it very spicy. It was good to have it with the 'Singha'.

This weekend I went to the movie 'March of the Penguins' . I have one word to describe the movie. 'Very Beautiful'. Yeah, I know what you are saying. It's two words. I know. But I think it deserves it. It's a story of love and survival fighting the most powerful force, Mother Nature.

The movie is so funny, right from the beginning, where the male penguins walk like 70 miles to have sex. OK, I shouldn't say sex. But walk 70 miles to find a partner and have courtship. Then the struggles they go through fighting against nature, and having chicks and finally it is so cute when the chicks are on their own.

I think this movie is a must see.

Then Sunday, after long time, I went to Sudarshan Kriya, Art of Living.
I introduced Dixita to this Art of Living and she is now more involved and regular than me. It's kinda little embarassing for me there..,but you know...it happens. Later in the evening Dixita and I watched 'Finding Neverland'. It was a good movie too.

Yesterday was also my 21st day as a vegetarian. Iam amazed how I can be a vegetarian for such a long time and still not miss meat.

Distorting history : Impossible?

One of my readers, after reading my Trilogy on India (I, II, III), argued that it cannot be true.
He was arguing based on a fact, everything that happened few hundred years before 800 A.D. was well documented. It’s so recent in history was his point.

Well…this is the fact.

When something is documented, it means, something is written down or printed somewhere.

The world’s first printing press was invented in 1454, by Johannes Gutenberg. Of course 1454 A.D.

Going back in history, we find that the Chinese actually experimented with printing technology in 1040, but only to discard it later.

Going further back in history, before the movable type printers were invented, we learn that the Chinese used wooden blocks to print Buddhist writings by hand, on scrolls, in the 9th Century. While there are no surviving examples of the Chinese printing presses of the 11th Century, the oldest surviving printed book on record is the Buddhist Diamond-Sutra of 868 AD.

So, before that period, it’s very clear that the only way to document was writing down by hand.

When scriptures were written down by hand, it is highly likely that only 1 or 2 copies were written down. Only several years later, copies would have been made, or rather written down by hand again, until the invention of printing press or rather until the introduction of printing press in ancient India.

Taking the above into consideration, I believe that one cannot rule out the fact that while making the copies, writing them by hand, one can easily interpolate.

So arguing based on the fact that anything happened before 800 A.D. is well documented is really not a strong point to rebut.

Also, in my opinion, history can be easily distorted; even today, in a world which is connected by telephone, television, radio, media, Internet etc.

Considering how our ancestors communicated 1200 years ago, hey, you must be kidding if you think it’s impossible to distort history.

This weekend I saw lot of movies. Dixita and I went to a movie 'Red Eye'. It was an ok movie. Not bad, in my opinion.

Then after the movie she wanted to go to this Japanese Restaurant 'Osaka Sushi'.

Since both of us were vegetarians, and as she had been there before I let her to decide what to order. She ordered Tofu Teriyaki and she recommended Vegetable Tempura for me.
Then we also ordered a Japanese Drink called 'Hot Sake', which is a wine made of rice.

The Tofu Teriyaki was really awesome, I liked it better than Vegetable Tempura. Vegetable Tempura was more like our 'Bajji & Bonda'. It's basically vegetables, spinach, battered and deep fried. One of the vegetable was actually banana. I remember when I went to Kerala I had something exactly similar. I think it was a banana battered and deep fried and the taste was almost exactly the same.

The sake was really good. As it was little hot/warm I guess it will make a good drink for Richmond's winter evenings.

I saw many movies that I had recorded in my DVD recorder. All of them Western movies. I saw 'Billy the Kid', 'The Magnificent Seven', '3:10 to Yuma' and 'Nevada Smith'. I would say all were good, but Nevada Smith was my favorite, followed by Magnificent seven and 3:10 to yuma.

I also watched the movie 'Oruvan' in Sun TV. Pooja Bhatra is very pretty. She has class. I always liked her. She is tall too.

I then cooked some potato fry and Bengan Bartha, an eggplant dish.
Preethi, if you are reading this, you are invited to my home to have some eggplant ;)

For those who don't know what eggplant is, it's nothing but brinjal. In America, brinjal is called as eggplant.

Saturday was very good as I had my massage and reiki. My masseuse, Jill, is a blonde with beautiful green eyes. She is a very sweet person. She talks a lot unlike other masseuse. She is more towards eastern philosophy. She talks about chi, yin and yang, prana, spices etc. She explains everything she does. It was my first reiki session with her. I felt so good during and after that session.

I tried White Iced Tea from Ellwood Thompson. White Tea is supposed to be very good for health, packed with antioxidants. I liked it very much. Have to buy some more. The actual reason why I tried it in first place is different :)

Iam waiting to watch Adhu Mattum Ragasiyam in Sun TV. That serial has grabbed my attention a lot. Very good story, screenplay and direction.

Aaahhh Preethi, no more questions ok.

Seven things you plan to do before you die!!

1. Get Lost in an Island with the 'special' someone
2. Fly a fighter aircraft
3. Live in a submarine
4. Work in a Cargo Ship
5. Make movies
6. Become a political leader
7. Realize the Truth

Seven things you can do!!

1. Talk
2. Bold
3. Smile
4. Cook
5. Make someone laugh
6. Love
7. **** ****

Seven things you can't do!!!

1. Lie
2. Not talk
3. Not wink
4. Not smile
5. Not plan
6. Come up with the 7th point
7.

Seven things that attract you to the opposite sex!!

1. Blonde Hair
2. Brunette
3. Green Eyes
4. Smile
5. Funny
6. Innocence
7. ****** Preethi, do you remember how you described Keerthi Reddy when I showed you that picture ;)

Seven things you say most!!!

1. Howz it goin?
2. Hi there
3. Kick Ass
4. Super Awesome
5. Sweet
6. Cool
7. Alrighty
8. What the f**k was that? (Where the hell did this 8th point come from?)

Seven celebrity crushes!!!

1. Gillian Anderson
2. Kirsten Dunst
3. Natalie Portman
4. Kate Winslet
5. Reese Witherspoon
6. Nadhiya
7. Reema Sen
7. G - Can't say, only Initial, sorry ;)
7. S - Can't say, only Initial, sorry ;)



One person who asked me to take this quiz..

1. Preethi

Water crisis looms as Himalayan glaciers melt

Scientists say the 40 percent of humanity living in South Asia and China could well be living with little drinking water within 50 years as global warming melts Himalayan glaciers, the region's main water source.

Tulsi Maya, a farmer on the outskirts of Kathmandu, has never heard of global warming or its impact on the rivers in the Himalayan kingdom, but she does know that the flow of water has gone down.

"Maybe God is unkind and sends less water in the river. The flow of water is decreasing every year," she said standing by her grandson, Milan Dangol, who weeds the crop.

CNN Article Today (Sep 9, 2005)

This is exactly what my previous blogs were talking about.
Though the farmer today is in India-Nepal border, I guess it speaks for the thought-pattern generally.

"God is unkind"

We blame God for our suffering. We believe Man cannot change or solve this problem.

It's good to see things are changing(ISRO scientists) at last.

India - The True India

I don’t believe in coincidences.
I believe that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes we find the reason immediately, sometimes after few hours, few days or months. In fact, I have seen the reason after several years. Maybe it all involves Karma.

I was a big fan of Bhagavad Gita. I have 3 books, translations by different people, on Bhagavad Gita. I have also downloaded, bookmarked several sites in Internet translation by different people. I’ve read all these in bits and pieces. But never was I able to complete the whole of any version.
I always used to wonder why!

I used to convince myself that maybe it’s too long and I have to split it into several sessions but was never able to do so.

Maybe I just found an answer for that too.

Bhagavad Gita.
The sound you hear when you say the above, is by itself so powerful.

The Bible of the Hindus.

The Truth is…
The Bhagavad Gita that we have now is NOT the original Bhagavad Gita.
In fact the original, written by Sage Vyasa, was called simply ‘Gita’.


That was the shocking revelation that I had recently.

The present day Bhagavad Gita has 700 verses.
The original Gita has 84 verses.
Yes, you heard it right.
Just 84 verses.

So what happened?

Around 800 A.D. , the original Gita was interpolated and ended up having 700 verses. The name was changed from Gita to Bhagavad Gita. The concept of one single Almighty God, or Supreme, Bhagavan, was introduced to Indian society.

Till then, before 800 A.D., Indians believed in God. But they believed in polytheism. They were also nature worshippers. They worshipped earth, stone, trees, rain, wind, fire, sun, moon etc.

One of my friend mentioned that evidence suggested that the civilizations in Harappa and Mohenjadaro worshipped Gods in idol form. Yes, that’s right. What happened in 800 A.D. was something unique.
One God, One Supreme Being, was introduced to India. This idea was mainly borrowed from Christianity and Islam.

The Mahabharata that we have now is also not the original.
The original epic had only 8,800 verses and its name was 'Jaya' (Victory). It was expanded to 24,000 verses and its name was changed to Jaya Bharata and then to Bharatetihas. At a much later time, the epic was expanded to 100,000 verses and got its present name, Mahabharata.

Upanishads suffered the same fate.

India before 800 A.D. according to the author, the Real India was this.

“India prior to 800 A.D. produced philosophers and writers who accepted Man as the Supreme Being. They talked abut two main entities: Purusha (Man) and Prakriti (Nature). Change in these two entities occurs due to the ever-present and everlasting work of three Gunas-Rajas, Tamas, and Sattva. Ignorance, lack of proper knowledge and improper action cause dukha (sorrow or unhappiness). Man can liberate himself from dukha and attain sukha (happiness) by acquiring proper knowledge, mastering certain teachings, following certain practices, and by working according to the Samkhya-yoga theory of action.”

India was never conquered before 800 A.D.
Yes, there were some incursions at the border. Persian and Greek invaders came to India. But they were only able to conquer the borders. They were never able to make inroads into India and conquer it. They never crossed Sind, in present day Pakistan.

All this changed after 800 A.D.

The author adds…

“The story of how Brahmans helped the invading Arabs in their conquest of Sind is a treacherous history. We get a very vivid account of the Arabs' incursions and their subsequent conquest of Sind through a book entitles Chachnamah, written by Ali Kufi (of Kufah, Syria) in 1216 A.D. The book was first translated into Persian from Arabic, and was translated into English by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg in 1900.

According to Chachnamah, Buddhism was the dominant religion in Sind during the seventh century A.D. There were Buddhist temples and monasteries located all over Sind. The Buddhists and Brahmans lived in amity. The various principalities and their rulers were under the king of Sind, Rai Sahira, a Kshatriya. This kingdom fell into the hands of his chief, Chach, who ruled for many years. After the death of Chach, his son, Dahar (Dahir) became king. It was during his reign that the Arabs conquered Sind.

The Arabs began invading portions of Sind during the 640s. According to the Chachnamah, during the reign of Caliph Umar (634-643) "an army of Islam was first sent out to different parts of Hind and Sind, to carry on religious war there." But every attack of the Arabs was thwarted, their forces destroyed, and the leader killed. Their condition changed abruptly, however, when they began receiving support from the Brahmans. The Brahmans had always occupied the high administrative posts before and after Chach. They began helping the Arabs by acting as their informers, by preaching a philosophy of surrender; by predicting victory of Islam and defeat of the local ruler; and by working as an advance-party of the invading Arabs. Let me give an example of how a Brahman's support to Arabs at Debal (a small principality in Sind) provided them with their victory in Sind.

The Arabs had invaded Debal in 711 A.D. under the command of Muhammad Kasim (also called Muhammed Ibin Qasim). They had fought for eight days without making any gains. Since Debal was a fortified city, the Arabs had encamped nearby and were waging war from their camps, without success.

In the heart of the city of Debal, there was a Buddhist temple with a high dome. On that dome, there was a high pole from which a huge flag was hoisted. This flag worked as a talisman (symbol). It meant that as long as the flag continued to be displayed, the people would be victorious. Inspired by this flag, the people and the army fought bravely, and for eight days the Arabs were held in check. On the ninth day of the battle, while the Arab army was besieging Debal, a surprising event happened.

"All of a sudden, then, a Brahmin (Brahman) came forth from the garrison, and cried for mercy. He said, "May the just governor live long!" We have learnt from our science of the stars that the country of Sind will be conquered by the army of Islam, and the infidels will be put to flight. But be it known to you that the standard of the idol-house (temple) ,yonder, is a talisman. As long as that standard of that temple stands in its place, it is impossible for the fort to be taken by you. You must, therefore, try your best to blow off the dome of this temple, and break its flag-staff into pieces. Then only your success will be complete."

After hearing the secret of the temple, the commander of the Arab army, Muhammad Kasim, called his engineer, Jaubat Salmi, and offered him a reward for devising a means of blowing off the dome of the temple. The next day, the Arabs destroyed the dome and the flag of the temple. The fall of the flag meant the fall of the Debalese people.

After the dome was demolished, the Arab army entered the temple and the fort without a fight. The people surrendered, the idol in the temple was removed, and a mosque was established. The Arabs had won their first victory, and they now knew who their collaborators would be. As a result, when Muhammad Kasim marched from one place to another, he had easy victories. And finally, he was able to conquer all of Sind.

Though the Islamic invaders had been trying to expand their rule to other parts of India, they were vigorously resisted by rulers outside Sind. It took them about 200 years to finally expand into other parts of India. It took them another 300 years to capture the whole of northern and western India and a part of South India. The invaders, no doubt impressed by the strength of the resistance, looked to Indian culture and philosophy as the likely source of this strength. This power to resist sprang from the tradition of rational philosophy, which had taught Indians to act and fight for their rights. Unless a change was brought about which would weaken their resistance, Islamic faith and power could not subdue and defeat the Indians.”

Why did all this happen?
Why were the scriptures distorted?

According to the author, these happened for 2 reasons mainly.

The Brahmans wanted to maintain supremacy over the other castes and also have a major hold in the social and political front.
So they modified the scriptures, glorifying the caste system, increasing its rigidity in practice in the society.

They also wanted a concept of one single Almighty, one Supreme Being, to fight or resist the spread of other monotheistic religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam. So Brahman, the Supreme Being was introduced. The concept of Heaven and Hell was also introduced.
Inaction was glorified. From Man being the Supreme Being, God became the Supreme Being. Man could only do what fate could dictate. This world was described as a place of suffering. Man’s only objective in life was just to be liberated from the cycles of birth and death and reach God in heaven.

So did they suceed in their effort?
Yes, sure they did.
The caste system is still followed in many parts of India rigidly.
The spread of Christianity and Islam was resisted successfully.

We saved our God, but we lost ourself.

This all happened after 800 A.D. .
The author points how Shankaracharya’s Advaita philosophy fueled this monotheistic phenomenon in the society.
India entered the Dark Age at that time.
For the next 1000 years, India was constantly under the attack/rule of foreigners. Indians did not have the attitude to fight the occupation.

The original teachings of Kapila, Patanjali, Buddha, Mahavira etc were distorted.

Our thought-pattern changed from philosophic and scientific one, towards more religious.

The True India was lost.

***

This concludes my Trilogy on India.

I have intentionally left out many facts which I learned from the book. It would definitely be not fair on my part, to say everything in the blog, when all the hard work of extensive research was put by the author.

I will be doing researches on a lot of things mentioned above.

I would strongly recommend my readers to read this book.
This may change your life, or it may not.
You may believe its contents or you may not.
But you sure will have lots of questions.
You sure will want to search for the facts yourself.

In my opinion, ‘The search for Truth begins with search for facts’.

The book :

The Gita As It Was - Rediscovering the Original Bhagavadgita
Phulgenda Sinha
ISBN : 0-8126-9024-9
ISBN : 0-8126-9025-7 (paperback)

Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi never believed in the originality of the present day Bhagavad Gita. Swami Vivekananda was in search of the original Gita (2 original copies are said to be in existence today, in Bali and Sri Lanka). Vivekananda was never able to find the original in his lifetime.

So what is the original Gita?
This is the original Gita.
(Translation by Phulgenda Sinha)

Where does this leave me?
I myself have critiqued many, who don’t believe in God but go to temple to pray.
Iam afraid I might become the one whom I feared.

Have I become the very thing that I dreaded the most?
Have I fallen on the dark side?
Am I Anakin Skywalker?
Or have I become Darth Vader?

India - The India Today

I came across a book recently.

The book's preface had the following text from the author.

"...there is something basically wrong with the thinking and action of the Indian people."

The author adds...

"I pondered some of the basic facts and problems related to India. Its people are no less intelligent, strong, and healthy than those of other nations. Its climate and natural resources are ideal for national growth and prosperity. The country has the basic technological knowledge for industrial and agricultural excellence. But having all these, why does India remain an impoverished country in which millions cannot eat well, cannot afford shelter, and cannot get adequate education and health services?"

The book that I read was the result of the above question from the author. Since my question was also exactly the same, I was very interested in this book.

The answer the author found was shocking to me.

The concept of a single God as Almighty and Supreme was introduced to India in 800 A.D.
Not Man but God was held to be Supreme.
Man could do only what was predestined by God. There was Heaven and Hell. Man possessed a soul which did not die but was reincarnated according to past and present deeds. The Brahmans were superior to all castes and the word Brahman was synonymous with Brahma and all the divinities.
Christianity and Islam did not borrow concepts and teachings from Hinduism. It was the other way around.
India went through a dramatic change in 800 A.D.
India entered the Dark Ages.

According to the author...

"As is the level of thought in a nation, so is the level of its progress. The rate of progress is the same as is prevalence of thought. This holds true for a nation, a society, a community, a group, or a single individual. Where the level of thought does not rise, the society, the nation or the entity does not prosper."

According to the author...

"The national thought pattern of India can be summarized in the following words:

Work without caring for the results.
Act, but do not look for the fruits of action.
Desires cause dukha(sorrow); therefore, do not have them.
You get only what fate dictates.
Material wealth is inferior; spiritual life is superior.
You should strive to achieve unity with God for a happy life, to go to heaven, and to be reincarnated.
Man is predestined and cannot do anything unless it is willed by God.
Sorrow, pain, and misery can be removed only by God, not by human effort."

Looking at India now, with the above things in mind, you see that even today, in many places in India, this holds very true.

Lets take one example.
Sorrow, pain, and misery can be removed only by God, not by human effort.

If something like a Tsunami that stuck the nation on December 2004, had had happened few hundred years ago, where the communication between the different parts of the world was nowhere near where it is now, what would the people have thought?
They would have thought that the Gods are angry and the Gods sent waves and they would have done some poojas and rituals to calm down the angry Gods.
There is no way that people would have really tried to investigate and find out why such a thing happened.
There is no way they would have connected the earthquake which happened hundreds of miles away to a Tsunami. In fact they would have thought Gods were angry with Indonesia too!

Would India have behaved the same before 800 A.D.?
Probably not. The thought pattern of India was different before 800 A.D.

These are the few things that happened after 800 A.D.
Religion merged with politics. There was no separation of the church and the state.
The caste system was made more rigid and discriminatory.
Philosophical and practical teachings were completely distorted.
The pragmatic qualities of Yoga were completely replaced by religious, spiritual, and mystical preoccupations.

No foreign power was able to conquer India before 800 A.D.

So what happened around 800 A.D.?
What influenced the thought pattern of India eventually changing it?

The Indians derived this thought-pattern from scriptures and teachings based on those scriptures.
And the most important of them all, which influenced the people, is the scripture what we now call 'The Bhagavad Gita'.

India - The Question

Have I become the very thing that I dreaded the most?
Have I fallen on the dark side?
Am I Anakin Skywalker?
Or have I become Darth Vader?

It all begun with a question pondering me for so many years now.

Why does a nation like India, which is tens of thousands of years old and having civilizations for thousands of years at least(in the recorded history), is way behind its western counterparts when it comes to development in the society?

Let's just take an example.
Bullock/Horse carts and Cars.

India had carts for thousands of years. From the beginning till today, how many improvements have we made to those carts?
Honestly, I can think of none. We never improvised. We never strived for excellency. The people wanted to travel from one place to another. They wanted to transport goods. They built a cart. It took them to the places they wanted to go. People were happy, they were satisfied. Period. End of development.
Anyone traveled in a cart today will know how rough the ride is.
Why is that no one even thought of simple improvements like putting a layer of rubber, a tire like layer over the wooden wheels, to make the ride little bit more comfortable?
Only recently we can see few, very few carts, that too in cities, carts having tires, (probably borrowed from some other discarded motor vehicle) instead of wheels.

Take the west. They had carts too. Mainly horse driven.
Carts became wagons. Wagons became sophisticated. People could travel for months in wagons. They could live & sleep in wagons. They could increase the 'horse power' of wagons, literally, by adding more horses.

Later carts became cars.

India, with thousands of years of civilization, did not invent cars. The west, with few hundred years of civilization behind it, achieved it.

Even in cars, how many improvements, enhancements, developments have we seen here in India?
How many modifications have been made to improve an Ambassador or a Maruthi 800 over several decades?

Take the west. Every year there is a modification, an improvement over the previous year. Every 4-5 years there is a major modification , improvement over the old model making the car only better and safer every time, excelling in performance.

Why?

When I asked this question to myself, the only answer that I got was, well...the people in India were satisfied with that they had. They lived with it.
But I could never understand why?
Why were the people satisfied with what they had?
Why were they content with that they had?
Why did they not improve, enhance, excel what they were doing?

I found the answer to this question recently.

In the following days I will be posting a very important blog.
This has changed my life completely. This has changed my way of looking at lot of things with a completely different view.
I'm sure many of my readers life might be changed completely. If not, at least it will make them ask some very serious questions and rethink their entire life.
If nothing actually changes in their life, then probably they either knew the Truth, or they will be back.

So watch this column for the next couple of days.
As a note of caution, it's not for the faint-hearted or close-minded people.
So I strongly recommend those people to stay away.

Get ready for the most astonishing ride of your life. Buckle up Virginia.

"கடலுக்கு காதல் வந்தால் கரையேறி வந்தால் போதும்
கவிதைக்கு காதல் வந்தால் தாங்காதம்மா"

I ... I don't know why I sang that. I guess Iam just excited.mmmmmmm.

Today is my fourth day as a vegetarian.
Was a busy and interesting day at work. I programmed a very complex and intriguing business requirement which I discovered during my analysis of the requirements.

What else...
I went to gym and had a neat workout.
Came home and took a shower and made some lentils(paruppu) for tomorrow lunch.
Tomorrow the maid service is going to come to my house to do the monthly maintenance.
This weekend is a long weekend for me. Monday is a holiday(Labor Day). Labor day also marks official summer end in US. I don't have any plans for this long weekend. I guess I will just relax at home, go for a massage, and watch some movies.

Tomorrow is India Vs Zimbabwe at 330am. Haven't decided if I should get up early and watch it. Looking at the past performance (if I can say so) of Indian cricket team....ewwww...maybe it's not that good idea to wake up so early.

Today is my third day as a vegetarian, or maybe I should say ovo-lacto-vegetarian.
I didn'g go to gym tonight. I decided to stay at home and relax. I just made some egg masala curry for lunch tomorrow. hmmm maybe after sometime I should cut egg also and become lacto-vegetarian. Let me see what happens.

Today one good movie 'The Constant Gardener' starring one of my favorite actress 'Rachel Weisz' opened.Probably I will see the movie this weekend. Oh yes, coming weekend is a long weekend for me.

Why Indian cricket team loses?

The following are the comments I posed on my friend VJ's blog few weeks ago.

TimesofIndia reports something similar to that today.


COMMENT 1:
The reason for India's failure is...

In India, when someone gives an exceptional performance one time, then the media/public make them Demi-Gods. Endorsements pour in millions. People start thinking that this person is the 'Chosen One'.

This hero worshipping is very very bad. We have this in sports, movies, politics etc.

As long as we have this, there won't be any team work in India(sports, movies, politics) etc.

You all know so many cricketers who fell into this.So I won't go into that details.

Others include, Narain Karthikeyan, Sania Mirza, Kunja Rani, Abbas, Arvind samy, madhavan etc etc.

It's not that Narain doesn't want to win. He has the second worst car Jordan, just ahead Minardi. A Jordan is not going to kick the ass of a Ferrari or McLaren Mercedez. PERIOD.

It's like racing a BMW and a Maruthi 800. Maruthi 800 will not win such a race.Common sense. Duh !

Sania Mirza, she just won once, and she got like few millions in endorsements and she was in the media/magazine/public limelight and this ended up putting her in the spotlight :)

The only way Indian cricket team will be successful consistently is if they play as a team, and there is no hero worshipping. See the Aussies. There is not one hero there. All are average, and collectively as a team, they kick ass.

Recently Indian team has too many heroes. This results in ego clashes. this is also bad.

First, Chappel should send this message across strongly. If someone is not performing, be it Viru, Sachin, or Rahul or Sourav, drop (not sack) them for 1 match. and say to press openly, they were dropped as they din't perform. Don't give some super stupid silly execuses like injured, pulled a muscle and all such crappy reasons.

Second, strategy is key. Sending batsmen in a specific order is a super stupid strategy. Send batsmen in according to the situation. Dont send Rahul before first 15 overs. He is best for 15-40 overs. Don't send Kaif before 15 or after 45 overs. Pair him up with Rahul at 15-45 where they can work the ball and take singles. Don't send Yuvraj at 15-45. He shud be before 15 or after 40/45. He hits the ball.

I have lots of such super awesome strategies.

If BCCI is willing to hire me,I can reveal all.

COMMENT 2:
It's nothing to do with Sourav. People who bash Sourav, neither know what they are talking about nor they haven't watched Indian cricket for the last 3-4 years.

In addition to what I suggested the following also needs to be implemented.

1. Instead of giving huge salaries, give a low basic salary and give huge performace incentives. You win a mathc you get somuch bonus (all players). You win finals you get even more bonus.

2. From the time a player debuts in Indian cricket team, for 24 months he should not be in any commercials/endorsements. He can only sign for commercials/endorsements after proving himself for 24 months.

Thats what I would do if I was managing BCCI.

Vimal Natarajan

This is me and this is my blog.

31 August (3108) = Blog Day

The concept behind it is this... :
With a bit of l33tifying, you can read "3108" as "Blog", so 31/08 is officially declared "Blog Day"



(Thanks to Preethi. Dammit I hate to thank her, but if I don't, she is gonna sue me with copyright violation)

What am I?

Today was my second day as a vegetarian.
I had made some Rajma Curry last night and had it today for lunch with basmati rice. It was very tasty.
I am also planning on skipping heavy dinners. Tonight I just had 'SPITU-TEIN' , a soy protein shake.

I also checked my pin-mails and found lots of coupons which I usually trash. Of all day, today I decided to check them out and dammit, every page I turn had coupons for burgers, and sandwiches, and chicken, and fish and beef and hot dogs and ....huh...

Over the weekend I had been to one of my favorite restaurant 'Outback Steakhouse'. It's an Australian restaurant(check out their menu). I love the 'Bloomin Onion' & 'Kookaburra Wings'. They make excellent grilled fish too. But the best one is their Lamb Chops. It's so juicy and tasty. As I couldn't finish all 4 chops, I had them packed home 'To Go'. I found that lamb chops today in my refrigerator and after a looong thought process I had to throw it away.

Converting to vegetarian is not an easy thing. For all those folks who is considering to convert to vegetarian, here's a piece of advice from me "Don't".

Fruitarian : Eats only fruits and non-processed vegetarian food
Vegetarian/Vegan : Fruitarian + Eats processed vegetarian food
Lacto-Vegetarian : Vegitarian + Eats dairy products like milk, yogurt (not yoghurt)
Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarian: Lacto-Vegetarian + Eats eggs

Apparently , right now actually Iam not a vegetarian. Iam a 'Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarian' (Ewww I don't like the name itself)

Following is the list of vegetarian celebrities.

Tobey Maguire(Spider-Man)
Joaquin Phoenix
Alicia Silverstone(mmmmmm :-))
Richard Gere
Shania Twain
David Duchovny(Fox Mulder, The X-Files)
Pamela Anderson(What the !@#$)
Gwyneth Paltrow
Josh Hartnett
Kim Basinger
Natalie Portman(mmm....Princess Padme Amidala, Star Wars)
Clint Eastwood(Kick Ass)
Orlando Bloom
Martina Navratilova
Princess Diana
Brad Pitt(Whaaaaaaaat???)
Chelsea Clinton
Lisa Kudrow(Phoebe, Friends)
Sir Issac Newton
Mahatma Gandhi
George Bernard Shaw
Mark Twain
H.G. Wells
Leonardo Da Vinci
Charles Darwin
Thomas Edison
Pythagorus
Socrates
Vimal

Lastnight Dixita, Abhishek, and a friend of theirs and I went to Byrd theater to see 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'.

I thought the movie will be an ok action movie.But to my disappointment it turned out to be stupid action movie. In the end, the movie reminded me of another movie 'Desperado'.

We had earlier decided to go to a restaurant for dinner after the movie. But one person in the group(no name) broke the deal. Now Iam also going to break a deal that I had made earlier with that person.

Yesterday was also my first day as a vegetarian. Now I don't know if milk, yogurt, and egg are considered vegetarian. But I will consider them as vegetarian until unless I feel otherwise.

Bond Kills India

http://imsports.rediff.com/score/in_match1098.html


FACT : This is Ganguly second run as a captain.
Bond says "You only Live Twice".

FACT : Venugopal clean bowled on a yorker, first ball.
Bond says "Live And Let Die"

FACT : Bond takes six wickets
Bond says "License To Kill"

FACT : India plays New Zealand again on September 2
Bond says "Tomorrow Never Dies" so "Die Another Day"

FACT : India is losing everywhere
Bond says "The World Is Not Enough"

FACT : India's scorecard looks pathetic
Bond Says "For Your Eyes Only"

FACT : What Bond thinks about bowling to India
Bond Says "A View To A Kill"

Finally Bond says to Indian Cricketers "Diamonds Are Forever"

Taiku

புன்னகை இருக்க
'பொன்' நகை எதற்க்கு, பெண்ணே !


For beginners : What is Taiku?

Taiku, like Haiku, is one of the most important modes of Tamil Poetry. It's origins can be traced back to as early as 21st century. Legend says that after a long and tiring day at work, Vimal, a Super Awesome guy, decided to take a break and do something different. While in deep meditation he found Taiku.

Saturday. Always a nice to have day.

Today I went to the post office and mailed my broken Sidekick phone to TMobile. Also I went to the local TMobile store to return the loaner phone that they gave me.

Then for lunch, I had mutton curry and rice which I made last evening. It was so delicious.

Then Dixita called me and asked if I wanted to go to the new hindi movie 'Parineeta'. I had heard that this movie was a big hit. So I said ok and we went to the movie in Byrd Theater, Cary town.

We had some time to kill before the movie started, so we went to some local stores and was checking them out. We also went to a chocolate store nearby and tried some dark chocolates. These are chocolates with real cocoa. It tasted little bitter, but that did not stop me from eating it :-)

The theater was not crowded. Probably around 30-40 people.
Nevertheless, the movie was good. We both liked it. The heroine Vidya Balan was very pretty and homely. This was a good love story , based on a book.

Then after the movie we did our grocery at Ellwood Thompson. It was a very relaxing day.

Here's your moment of Zen

Anna University, In Tamilnadu has enforced new regulations in campus.

1. Students cannot wear T-Shirts
2. Students cannot wear Jeans
3. During cultural events, students cannot dance for movie songs

hmmmm...did we not celebrate our 59th Independence Day, 2 days ago....hmmmm...Freedom...

Rising gas prices & Water & Starbucks coffee

I see a lot of people complaining about rising gas prices here in US ($2.50 per gallon).

You see... I don't understand it :)

The average price of bottled water per gallon is around $4.
Yes. Water is expensive than gas. Can you believe it!

And people spend $5 for a cup of coffee in Starbucks.

And yet they complain about the rise in gas price !

Rahul Dravid says ..."Sri Lanka is the number two side in the world in one-day form so they have been winning consistently which we have been not been doing over the last 14 to 16 months. When you get yourself in the position to win sometimes you just need that extra bit of confidence to win."


...mmmmm...which by the way we only have during our TV commercials...and when we drink Boost. "Where's my Boost, Mommyyyyyy, where's my Boost?"


"One keeps hearing that this Indian team needs more time to turn around the corner. They would surely not be able to do so if the legs and spirits are as tardy as that of the present lot."-Arjuna Ranatunga

Here's your moment of Zen.

"We have not won many finals. It is just a question of going back and working on it, getting ourselves in good position, getting ourselves in more finals and trying to win them. We have to learn from and get better at."

-Rahul Dravid after losing the finals to Sri Lanka (as well as the preliminary matches) in Indian Oil Cup 2005

Code Breakers III

அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஐ ஒ ஓ ஔ

Pick the odd man out.

ஓம் & Brain

I came across this particular question which put me in deep thinking.
A devotee of Adhiparasakthi, Melmaruvathur, ADVAITH, had asked this question in their forum.

He asked if anyone else noticed the resemblance between the Tamil Om Symbol and the image of brain.
I see a lot of resemblance.

I wonder if there is any connection.

Skeptics may argue that the picture of brain we see is sideways and not front. But hey, why do we always see it in sideways, and not front. Because I guess it represents all the important parts of the brain. When you google for brain, and go to images, this is what you see.

கவிதை

This weekend I read a கவிதை in Ananda Vikatan.

This is one damn good one. It's so very sexy and hot.
I believe it's a song in an upcoming movie.

யாம் பெற்ற இன்பம் பெறுக இவ் வையகம்

Code Breakers II

Did Saravanan invent a new language?
Looks like that.

This is the text of the email that he sent me today.

Dai Vimal,

Enna nadka tha ....
Enjoy panriya .....
Varkiya allya pola namala athan mala ....


ehh...I think it rougly translates to

டெய் விமல்,

என்ன நடக்குது ....
என்ஞாய் பன்ரியா .....
வாழ்க்கயே அலை போல நாமெல்லம் அதன் மேல ....

Do you think he will be pissed off at me after reading this blog...

no....he can't read Tamil.

உதவும் கரங்கல்

Well...Shit happens.

Creation or Are we a genetic experiment in a large scale. hehe.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
-Genesis 1:26-27

He, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his own body, first with a thought created the waters, and placed his seed in them.
That (seed) became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to the sun; in that (egg) he himself was born as Brahman, the progenitor of the whole world.
-Laws of Manu 1:8-9

Scientists in South Korea have produced the first dog clone.Snuppy, whose name stands for Seoul National University puppy, was made from a cell taken from the ear of a three-year-old male Afghan hound.
Scientists took the genetic material from the ear cell and placed it into an empty egg cell. This egg was then stimulated to start dividing and develop into an embryo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4742453.stm

Am I seeing a parallel here. I wonder !!!

52nd South Filmfare awards Function 2004 - 2005

Kiran Rathod ...remember the Tamil actress...she has become so lean, probably some diet inspired by her western counterparts, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie.

Sri Kanth ... A telugu actor was speaking in Tamil when asked how he felt when he got the award.

Few tamil actors and actress ...speaking in English when asked what they feel about the awards.

Reka from bollywood...looked beautiful, with lots of makeup, even though she is old.

Ramya ...(Tamil movie Giri, Kuththu)was dressed funnily for her dance sequences.

Rahasya ...(sirichu sirichu vantha seena thana) received good cheers from the crowd for her dance.

Jo ...(thika) was thanked by Surya when he got the best actor award for Perazhagan.

Keerti Reddy ...(Best supporting actress telugu) I've seen her in person at Bangalore airport.

Go here for a detailed list of the award recipients

http://www.filmchamber.com/tmpl.asp?it=nwjul24a#1

Code Breakers

I was reading an article in BBC website. It was a debate on whether Pluto should be considered a planet or not.
In the comments section, I saw some weird comments.
Initially, I got suspicious, wondering if this was some sort of code-word used by some miscreants!
Because most of the comments were from UK and you know, taking into account the recent events happening there I got kinda suspicious.

Then within few seconds, I realized, yes, that is a code, and successfully broke the code, but it was nothing like what I had imagined. Thank God.

You guys, wanna try. Its actually very very easy. You should be able to identify and break the code within few seconds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4737647.stm

Monsoon rain in and around Mumbai

"Heavy monsoon rain in and around India's financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), is estimated to have caused damage worth 30bn rupees ($690m)."

For those who would like to do something about it...http://aidindia.org/FloodRelief/

West Africa food crisis - Niger, Mali and Mauritania.

"Severe drought, together with an invasion of locusts, have devastated crops and plunged huge parts of West Africa into crisis, particularly Niger, Mali and Mauritania.

In Niger alone, more than three million people are facing starvation - 800,000 of them are children. Drought is also beginning to affect huge areas of Southern Africa as well."

For those who would like to do something...Oxfam

Gallery urges visitors to strip

"A prestigious Vienna art gallery has encouraged art-lovers to strip off, letting naked or scantily-clad visitors in for free."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

What...When...Why...How...Dammit.
When I went to Vienna there was no offer like this.

The advantages of living in a big city & being a celebrity

Denise Richards.
Probably you all know this Bond girl.

Denise,34,the ex of Charlie Sheen, just delivered a baby. And she , waw, you must look at her latest pictures. She has lost all the extra weight that she gained during pregnancy and looks so beautiful. The secret of her is this diet from Fresh Dining. These guys deliver fresh, organic if you want, food daily at your door steps. This service is only available in Los Angeles, I guess. Very healthy food too. But it comes at a huge price. That's like $50 a day. $1500 a month. Kick ass.

This weekend was a needed break for me. I didn't do anything on this weekend.
I had ordered the Indian Oil Cup Cricket matches featuring India, Sri Lanka and West Indies. This was not broadcast on satellite. So I had to order on the Internet. It cost me $80 bucks. Which was basically a rip-off for the quality of broadcast. Even though it was ok and better than last time I ordered over the Internet, it was no way near the satellite quality. Every now and then it loses the stream and attempts to reconnect. And in-between it starts to buffer. So it was not really interesting to watch it.
Internet has a loooooong way to go when it comes to streaming media.

On Saturday I went for my massage and later did my groceries. Also returned my Panasonic DVD recorder at Circuit City. I love this 'try and if you don't want return' policy in US. It's so customer-friendly. Iam not sure if in India you can do this now.
It's cool.

On Sunday I again saw the match little bit. It was another boring match to be honest.
You can read about both matches on my friend VJs blog.

Then on Sunday afternoon I made 'Chettinadu Chicken Curry'. Well, now I can proclaim myself as a super awesome cook. I rock when it comes to cooking.

Then I sat down to watch 52nd Filmfare awards for South Indian Movies.
It's still going on. hehehe. DVD recorder kicks ass. I can record and watch at my comfort.

Right now watching 'Adhu Mattum Ragasiyam' on Sun TV. This series has been so well directed and it's so interesting. Iam a big fan of it now. Every now and then I wonder why I didn't get into the movie industry. hmmm...something to think about.

Natural Disasters & India & The Mystery of 26

January 26, 2001 - Bhuj earthquake (Loss of lives : Thousands)
December 26, 2004 - Indian Ocean Tsunami (Loss of lives : Hundreds of Thousands)
July 26, 2005 - Heaviest rainfall in Mumbai (Loss of lives : Hundreds)

Where is Bollywood?

At least now the people should stop God worshipping the Bollywood heroes and start doing something for the development of Mumbai.




CNN.com Pictures

So where is Bollywood?
Well....they must be relaxing at home until the water recedes completely and the Mumbai mess is cleaned up.
Iam sure after that they will have a 'fund raising concert'.

Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie : A Love Triangle

Well… we all know what the problem is.
Brad Pitt,42, wants to have babies but Jennifer Aniston,36, has other plans.

Jennifer feels that she still has lots of time to settle down and raise kids.
She believes that she can make it big in Hollywood and she wants to focus on her career.
Whereas Brad, he has seen the heights of Hollywood and he thinks its time to settle down and raise a family also.

Bang Bang.
We have a conflict of interest.

Now, Angelina Jolie,30, enters the scene. Angelina is fond of kids. She in fact has adopted kids. She also does lots of charity work. She is also a good will ambassador for the UN.

Brad and Angie got the sparks going between them on the sets of Mr and Mrs Smith (Which by the way I still haven’t seen. Dammit).

I wonder what will happen to this love triangle.

Sometimes, I think Brad and Jennifer should separate as they both have their own interests which conflict.

And Brad and Angie have common interests at least when it comes to kids.

Sometimes, I think that Brad and Jennifer should work things out between them. But that means one has to compromise or sacrifice or adjust or whatever you call that thing. But then, one of them will be either unhappy or living for the other.

I donno.

What’s best in a married life?

Should one give up their own interests and ambitions(in a conflict-of-interest situation) and live for the partner or just go ahead and do what they actually want to do in life?

I think east falls into the former category and west falls into the later.

Dude, Where’s my Beer ?

I have started to wonder what's going on with my life these days.
Life has become so fast and busy for me in the last few months. It's like as if I don't have enough time. I feel that I need more than 24 hours a day. I don't know if it's true that time is really running fast. I've been doing some research on this particular phenomenon called 'Schumann Resonance' and this is what I came across.

"Time is actually speeding up (or collapsing). For thousands of years the Schumann Resonance or pulse (heartbeat) of Earth has been 7.83 cycles per second, The military have used this as a very reliable reference. However, since 1980 this resonance has been slowly rising. It is now over 12 cycles per second! This means there is the equivalent of less than 16 hours per day instead of the old 24 hours. Another interpretation is - we, or rather Consciousness have been down this same road seven times before over the last 16 billion years. Each of these cycles of Creation runs 20 times faster than the last one. The same amount of Creation is paced 20 times tighter. This is why time seems to be going so fast. It is not "time" but Creation itself that is accelerating."

Is the above true or is it just that Iam managing my time badly and having an illusion that time is running fast!!! I wonder.

Everything is so fast today. Right from the time I wake up in the morning till I get ready to work, have breakfast, reach office, work, lunch, work, drive back home, gym, dinner, TV, everything seems to be happening so fast.

There is actually no time to sit and really turn myself inwards-
Shut down the outside world distractions and meditate and look inwards.

When our ancestors and some enlightened souls say, "Know yourself, you will know the world" what exactly do they mean. How many of us have even tried to know ourselves. Who are we? Why are we here? What are we doing here? What are we supposed to do here?

Has anyone else felt the same or is it just me?
What the hell is gowin on?

Yeah...what the heck. Its like 112°F outside.
Dude, Where's my Beer ?