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.