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 ?

Atlantic City, NJ

I went to Atlantic City last weekend. One of my friend booked ticket on James River Bus Lines, a local tour operator. The bus started at 6.00 am on Saturday morning and reached Atlantic City around 1.00 pm, an hour late, thanks to super heavy traffic. Huh.

Anyway, the bus ticket was $45 and they gave $27 coupon to play in Bally’s Casino.
So technically, the ticket cost me only $18. Damn cheap :)

I had lunch at Pickles, with few of my friends. Had Philly Chicken Cheesesteak. Then went for the boardwalk and spent some amazing time on the beach. WAW. So many girls in bikinis and some topless, on a perfect sunny day afternoon….what else can you ask more ;)
hmmm….may be a beer :)


mmmmm.....what's going on here...

Anyway, then I later went to the casino and played the slot machines, which is the only one I know how to play in casino. I used the $27 coupon. I won around $20 but kept on playing and finally I ended up losing all that money. Then I used another $15 from my pocket and lost them too. Then I realized Mr. Luck and I are not good friends and quit playing in casino.

Meanwhile Saravanan also joined driving all way from Wilmington, Delaware. We then hanged out on the boardwalk for the rest of the day before we finally decided it was time to get some dinner. We went to ‘Country Kitchen’ and had our dinner.
It was almost 10.00 pm and I had to leave to the bus as it was scheduled to start at 10.30 pm.

I was little exhausted and I guess I slept well on the bus during our return trip. We reached Richmond on Sunday morning around 5.00 am.
The return ride was little bumpy. Old bus. I realized that the buses in India were excellent. Far superior in quality and comfort than this bus.

Anyway, but I did enjoy my whole trip otherwise. It was fun.

Trip pictures are being developed in my lab. Will post it when it's ready.

An email letter to the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and President Dr Abdul Kalam

Dear Mr. Prime Minister/Mr. President,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for all that you have done to our Great India, so far.

I’ll keep this email short and simple as I do not want to take much of your precious time.

I’m aware of the fact that many government schools in Tamilnadu, have ‘Sathunavu Thittam’ (free meal), introduced by the late Chief Minister MGR, where kids are given free meal everyday during lunch hour.

I was wondering if it will be a good idea, to provide children with Multivitamin tablets or Nutrition supplements everyday they come to the school.

I’m not sure if the meal given in the ‘Sathunavu Thittam’ is a complete meal. Multivitamin tablets or Nutrition supplements though may not take care of the hunger, at least it is guaranteed to provide our children with the daily minimum necessary nutrition. And I guess mass production of this Multivitamin tablets or Nutrition supplements will ensure that the costs of these are very low.

Probably it would be ideal to provide our children with a meal and Multivitamin tablets or Nutrition supplements.

I’m not sure if this has already been implemented or not. If so, please ignore this email.

Thanks for doing an excellent job.

Jai Hind,
Vimal Natarajan

23 million men may not get wives in 2011!

"Not many will react if you told them that the 1981-91 census showed that there were one crore 37 lakh more boys than girls in India. However, tell them that if the trend continued, 23 million men would not get their life partners in 2011 and you would have a lot of eyebrows being raised."

http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/19ncw.htm

"You reap what you sow."
"தன் வினை தன்னை சுடும்."
"To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
"Karma."
"Time for us girls to Kick Ass."

What the hell am I talking about?

Well...when the demand for girls go high in 2012 (Whaaaaaaaat 2012? So this is what is going to happen in 2012...eh...when the Mayan Calendar ends)

oh.k...when the demand for girls go high in 2012 they will start asking dowry from the guys.

hmmm....If I have lots of baby girls...then I can retire comfortably...hmmm....

think about this, seriously, I will....

Latest addition to UNESCO’s World Heritage List

Latest additions : http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/134

Indian Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List: http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/in

I have a way to see the referers of my blog. And once in a while, when I get bored, I go and check that out.

One of the referers was a URL, from the search results of Google.

Man, look at the search keyword.

I think by far this is the most funniest search keyword I've come across.

Funniest search keyword

My blog is listed 8th I guess.

Muslim charity claims Taj Mahal

"An Indian Muslim organization has declared that it owns the world's most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal.

The Sunni Waqf Board says it owns over 100,000 properties in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the spectacular marble mausoleum is located.

It says since the Taj Mahal houses several Muslim graves it falls under its jurisdiction."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4348663.stm

eh....mmm...all the land in India (including graves), falls under the jurisdiction of the Indian government.
So by their(Sunni Waqf Board) own logic, the Taj Mahal falls back under the jurisdiction of the Indian government.

So what is the problem here???

Do you know that pilots of fighter planes and long range bombers wear diapers?

This is in case they need to 'relieve' in flight.

Women pilots and most men pilots use diapers and few men pilots use urinal-type bag.

"Not sure about pilots but if its raining then it isn't necessary to stop a motorcycle to urinate."
-Anonymous

Read the title of this article in Times Of India.

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/quickies/1167134.cms

And people talk about me using the word Kick Ass. huh.

I was first to report Aish becoming fat. Then the news later came in Times Of India.
Now this one. Iam wondering if Times of India is copying content ideas from my blog.

hmm.. Wondering Iam....
copyright my work I will.

Disclaimer : Iam not responsible if you are totally pissed off when you open the above link and have no pop-up blocker in your browser.

Oopsie

I got a call today evening from the insurance company of the Honda Accord guy. She told me that the guy had canceled his insurance this May. She said she will contact his agent and see if he has a new insurance with someone else or not and let me know.
If he doesn't have insurance, she said I can claim the damages from my insurance company and my insurance guys will go after that Honda Accord guy and even sue him if necessary :-O

I just got off the phone talking to the father of the lady who was involved in the accident. He told that her neck was bothering little bit yesterday and also her ankles. So she was in hospital for a day and returned home last night. He told that she is feeling better now, just a little sore neck. Iam glad that she is ok. Thank God.

Other than the Saturday accident that I had, this weekend was a normal weekend.

Manjunath, who was supposed to come to Richmond this weekend, couldn't come at the last minute as he was unable to rendezvous with his brother-in-law at Baltimore on Saturday. So I just ended up going to some local clubs to do some Page 3 stuff.

Since almost every software company is doing good these days, I too decided to join the rat race. I registered a software company in the name KASC.
KASC literally stands for Kick Ass Software Corporation. The slogan of my company will be 'We Kick Ass'.

Then I cooked Sri Lankan fish curry and chicken curry on Sunday. Then...Oh my God, I got to do my Laundry. C'ya guys later.

How it feels to be 'kicked' from behind? It hurts.

Somebody kicked my ass on Saturday, sorta !
Well, actually it was my car's.

I was waiting on Three Chopt Road merge ramp to get onto N Parham road on a beautiful sunny Saturday noon (around 1230pm).



Suddenly I had a big shock, I knew immediately someone hit my car from behind.
I parked my car right there on the road and got down to see what happened.
A 2002 Mercury Mountaineer had hit me from behind.

This is the same SUV that I've been talking about where Jill Wagner comes in the TV Ad.

Then when my eyes went to the rear bumper of my car, I noticed few minor damages. I had few scratches and a little chip.
The Mountaineer too didn't have much damage on its front. The damages were actually less than what I anticipated based on the shock I had.

Then I walked around and saw and realized that I only had a secondary impact.

What actually happened was a Honda Accord had come fast and hit the rear of the Mercury Mountaineer and the Mountaineer had reacted to it and hit my car.

The reason I believe that the Accord had come fast was because of the damage to the Accord. It was very bad.
The airbags were deployed, and the windshield had cracked because of that and engine hood of the car had crumpled. There is no way all that could have happened, in my opinion, unless the driver had been driving fast.

That driver was a guy around 30s.He had some sore scratches on his face, due to the impact of the airbag.

But the lady in the Mountaineer, she was injured the most. She had a strange feeling around her throat. She said that she felt like someone is squeezing her throat and the back of the throat felt like was pushing at the front.

The Accord guy called 911. 911 is the emergency number here in US. You can call that number for virtually any kind of emergency. Road accidents, Fire accidents, Medical emergency, robbery, theft, almost everything.

This is one of the things that I admire in this country. After calling 911 within 3 minutes we had a Fire truck at the spot. The next minute a rescue squad ambulance was at the spot. Then they all helped the lady to lay her on a stretcher and took her to the hospital of her choice in the ambulance. The cops were on the scene on the 7th minute.

Anyone remember the scene from Anniyan movie, where a guy was left to die on the streets of Chennai?

Even though many in India may not like what Iam going to say now, well... lets be honest, that's the truth.

Seeing such things, sometimes I wonder if the value of life in India, in many occasions, is less than the value of life here in America.

Whenever someone says India is becoming more westernized...I feel sad. Being westernized is not just copying their Friday nights and Saturday nights. It's not all about the way you dress or talk. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong in copying , but what you copy makes the difference. Instead of following good things, we only follow the not-so-necessary things. Or in other words, Page 3 kinda things.

There are so many good things that India can learn from the west and be westernized in that sense, not just Page 3 stuff.

Anyway, the cop helped all 3 of us to exchange our car/driver/insurance information. The lady's father had arrived at the scene by that time. The lady had earlier called her father.

I came home and reported the accident to my insurance company. I took my car to my dealer and Matt who is my dealer told that Monday he will give the contact details of a person who does touch-up work.

I hope I can get all the repair charges from the insurance company.
Anyway, now my Bimmer is not new any more and it's not perfect any more.

I will have to call the lady's family on Monday and check how she is doing.
I hope she is ok. Car's can be bought and sold.But life. Thank God. Hope she is not injured much and recovers fast.

What happened in Virginia Beach?

Though no outsider knows what exactly happened at Virginia Beach, some documents which were earlier declared 'Classified' have been released for the public.
These documents does not tell the story completely.

Unconfirmed reports say that the other highly classified documents will never be made public due to their highly sensitive content.

Released documents

More protests over Ayodhya attack

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has criticised the protests, saying they were being used to score "cheap political points".

Opposition leader LK Advani has said people had a right to "express their anger over the attack".

Advani has clearly proven this time that he is an opportunistic.

I agree with our PM Manmohan Singh.

I don't know if Advani has Alzheimer's or not.
Did he forget that one of the country's worst terrorist attack, attack on our parliament happened when BJP was in power?

At that time, I think Sonia Gandhi and the whole nation stood by and supported the government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4655639.stm

My white water rafting trip pictures

At last I managed to configure 'Gallery' software in my server.
I have uploaded the pictures of my White Water Rafting trip here.

http://www.planetvimal.com/gallery

I think it's super slow.

Iam sorry for that folks. I'll talk to the server guys and see why it's slow.

White Water Rafting at New River , WV

WAW. What A Weekend.

What a long weekend!
This was one of the best adventurous weekends I had so far.

I went White Water Rafting in West Virginia (WV) on the New River Gorge.
It all started on Thursday when I decided to change plans from relaxing at the Nags Head beach to rafting. Saravanan, was cool with the change of plans.

I decided to book a cabin this time, as I love staying in the woods. A welcoming break from the hustle bustle city crowd.

I booked my cabin at Rifrafters Campground

This was so cheap. Only $15 per person, per night. The cabin pictured in the website is the same cabin where we stayed. More pictures in trip album.

I also reserved a trip with ACE Adventure Center.
I decided to do the Lower New River Whitewater rafting.

Saravanan drove all the way from Delaware on Friday evening and reached home around midnight. We then started the next day afternoon to Fayetteville, West Virginia. It was almost 4 hours drive from Richmond, VA.


Our Cabin in the Woods

We checked-in our cabin that evening and started out to see the New River Gorge Bridge, which is the largest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere. It was just 2 miles from our cabin.

We went to the bridge, took lots of pictures. We also went hiking near the bridge. Got some super awesome pictures from the top of the mountain.


New River Gorge


New River Gorge Bridge


New River Gorge and the Bridge


Rafters

Then we drove all the way down to the river and spend some time there. The drive through the gorge was adventurous.

Then we came to our cabin and settled for the night.

The next day we got up early and went to ACE to start our adventure.
The rafting trip was 16 miles with around 30+ rapids.
2 of them were Class V rapids. The remaining 70% of them were Class IV and the rest Class III and Class II. Class VI rapids are the most dangerous, Class V following it.
Very few have survived a fall in Class VI rapids.
It’s that dangerous.

It was a full day trip. The trip started at 1030.
Our guide was a super awesome girl called Erin. She was really good and funny.
Morning we came across few Class II, III and IV rapids.
We did all rapids perfectly. There were 7 including Erin, in our raft. One Chinese guy called Peter kept falling off the raft so often. Wherever there was a chance of falling, he fell in the river.
He was very funny.

After a while there was a huge rock, besides the river. It was like 20-25 feet high. People were allowed to jump from the rock into the river. I was so nervous at first attempt. Standing at the cliff and looking down the river, I backed off.
On my next attempt, I just took a deep breath and jumped. This time I only looked down at the river after jumping. Even though I’m not a good swimmer, I had a PFD. So I did a pretty good job after I jumped into the river. I surfaced and was enjoying my swim in the river. That was amazing experience.

Then after some time, we were allowed to swim at a different place where the river was little calm. Then we banked on the river to have lunch. Lunch was some sandwich, got by ACE.

After lunch we started the second part of our journey. This segment had 2 Class V rapids and lots of Class IV rapids. We managed to get through all of them. Peter, as usual kept falling in the rapids. We also did surfing in the rapid holes.

Man , surfing was one hell of a wild adventure. Tons of water pouring over us and the raft and the raft tossing and turning in all directions, sometimes about to flip-over, WOW, white water rafting kicks ass dude.
Even though the surf lasts only few seconds, those few seconds can be very wild. Trust me.

Then it was like almost 6 in the evening. Our adventurous white water rafting came to an end. We all deflated the raft and boarded the bus to base camp. It was so good to taste some refreshing beer on the bus.

Then later at the base camp, we went to the bar with Erin. I bought her a drink and was hanging out for a while in the bar. It was lot of fun. Erin was very funny and very excited, even though she had done this so many times. Then after a long day I called it a night and drove back to the cabin for some good sleep.

The next day we got up and packed our stuff and started our journey back to Richmond.

Overall, it was a wild adventurous weekend. Lots of fun.
Gonna do it again

Men are promiscuous - Yana Gupta

Yana Gupta on men, movies and more...

Happy To Be An Item Bomb : I enjoy the item girl tag and am not hankering after full-fledged roles. In fact in place of doing roles like that of Madhuri's in 'Devdas' or Rani Mukherji's in 'Black' I would prefer doing the roles of smart, tough women like Jennifer Garner in 'Alien' and Angelina Jolie in 'Tomb Raider'.

If You Have Seen One, You Have Seen 'Em All : There is one word which describes all men - promiscuous. All they care about is looks. I see so many of them going out with beautiful women who are shallow and driven by self interest. Well, to each his own.

At Home In India : I have travelled all over the world but feel at home only in India. You cannot compare India with any other country in the world.

http://people.indiatimes.com/tabloid/1157513.cms

For all those non-stick cookware lovers...

The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a cautious approach to a scientific panel's conclusion that a chemical used by DuPont Co. to make the nonstick substance Teflon is a likely human carcinogen.

CNN Article

My earlier blog

A slap in the face of Hurriyat

"I admire your talk on the essence of universal human values, but this is not what is needed in Kashmir. You please tell India to remove its 10 lakh security forces and peace in real sense will return to the lives of the people in Kashmir."

--Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani

"Now the people and nations need more of interdependence rather than independence to live peacefully."

--Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/30sri.htm

War of the Worlds

Last night I went to the movie 'War of the Worlds' . The movie was based on the original works of the great H.G. Wells (1898). This was like 107 years ago. WAW.

I have the seen the older version of the same movie, 'The War of the Worlds (1953)' .

Spielberg's version actually doesn't revolve around the aliens. This movie actually revolves around Tom Cruise, a 'not so successful in married life' guy, and a father of 2 kids. The story is actually about how such a father tries to protect his kids, amidst a situation where aliens go on a total annihilation spree.

The best scene of the movie was the probe of the alien craft , snooping in the basement of a house. That scene was thrilling, in fact it was thrilling in the old version too. In my opinion ,that scene is the highlight of the movie.

I like the way, the movie ended. I am not going to reveal that as it will be the ultimate spoiler :-)

But the way the movie started and ended, it was excellent.

Whew.
This weekend turned out to be a damn expensive weekend. It pretty much fucked up my bank balance.

It all started with me deciding to buy a DVD Recorder. So many good programs airs late night and I was missing most of them. Most of the programs are super awesome programs like South Park, Reno 911, Crank Yankers and the likes.

My uncle got a Panasonic DVD Recorder and inspired me to get one too. But I wanted to buy a DVD Recorder with a Hard Disk. Without a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), the maximum you can record on a DVD(4.7 GB) is 8 hours (low quality) or 1.5 hours (DVD movie quality).
I was zeroing in on a Panasonic with a HDD, but my friend Michael Morse suggested to get a Toshiba RD-XS34, with 160 GB HDD and TV Guide support.

After doing some research I found out that, that particular model was the near perfect one for my requirements. I say near perfect because, a perfect one would have also carried a VHS player with VHS to DVD dubbing feature.
But , hey it's ok...we don't live in a perfect world ;)

I also decided to re-wire my entertainment system completely.
Till today, I was using RCA composite video cables, and stereo jack cables.

For video, I would have preferred to take the component video route, but as my TV doesn't support component video, I had to settle for S-Video.

I went to circuit city and bought the following:

(1) Monster Video® 2/Interlink® 250 A/V Connection Kit (S-Video)
(2) Monster Video® 2 High Resolution S-Video Cable
(3) Monster Satellite® Fiber Optic Audio/S-Video Hookup Kit

For video, I connected the 3 S-Video cables between, the DISH Satellite Receiver and DVD Recorder, DVD Recorder and my BOSE 3-2-1 DVD Home Entertainment System & between Bose 3-2-1 and my Sharp TV.

For audio, I junked the old RCA A/V stereo cables and used the Monster Interlink 250 A/V cable between my DISH Satellite Receiver and DVD Recorder. I also replaced the RCA A/V Stereo cables connecting my DVD Recorder with BOSE 3-2-1 with Monster Interlink Lightspeed 100 Fiber Optic cable.

This completed the re-wiring of my home entertainment system.

When I turned on the systems, WAW...everything worked perfect and the quality of the video and audio was super awesome.

The whole process took me about 15 minutes.

I recorded some clippings from Sun TV to my HDD and viewed it later. The playback quality was as good as the original. No loss of quality.

When I went to circuit city, I also ended up buying 3 more DVDs for my DVD library.

I got the following DVDs.

(1) Not Another Teen Movie
(2) Once Upon a Time in the West
(3) Titanic

Even though this whole operation was a successful one, it cost me a lot.
When HDTV(High-Definition Television) and BD(Blu-Ray Disk) comes out sometime next year, I may have to get ready to re-wire everything. I better start saving some money.

Today evening I decided to just watch a movie and relax. I went to 'Batman Begins'

This movies was a real good one. This movie shows how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.

Iam glad I saw this movie.

Is Pakistan, part of India ?

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accused Pakistan of violating travel agreements during a recent visit to Pakistan by Kashmiri separatists.

India had issued passports to the separatist leaders but reports say they were permitted by Pakistan to travel across the country without visas or the use of their Indian passports.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4114746.stm

If the separatist leaders have Indian passport, and they traveled to Pakistan without a Pakistan visa or without the use of their Indian passports, does it not make Pakistan, part of India?

Cool. Not only Kashmir, we now have Pakistan also as part of India :-)

Jill Wagner is the Mercury Montego , Mountaineer TV commercial girl

Remember...

I'm genius !

I just came up with this thought.

Lot of things happened this weekend. I had booked tickets for Anniyan, which was playing at Falls Church, Northern Virginia. Saravanan also drove down from Delaware to Richmond Friday night. Saturday, Saravanan, Prabakar and I drove to Falls Church to see the movie. We went like 2 hours early to get some good seats. To our surprise we found that nobody was there in the theater. So we went and had some lunch and went to the theater. We managed to get good seats. The theater became full house later and in fact some of them were sitting down reminding the 'Tharai tickets' back home. haha.
Anniyan Review (with no spoilers)

After the movie we went to Starbucks and had some coffee and drove back to Richmond the same evening.
Later ...{censored}

On Sunday, we didn't do much. We rented two movies, 'Meet the Fockers' and 'In Good Company'.

Hello Tamilnadu

Entrance Exams
It looks like Tamilnadu government has passed a new law that there will be no more entrance exams for medical and engineering. A lot of students were pissed off and have filed a case against the state government.

Interesting!

I wonder why the government passed such a law. Does anyone have any insights or insiders information?

I was watching Sun TV news and one of the students was saying...

"I did not score good marks first time so I was preparing for the entrance exams for the last 2 years and now I have a cutoff around 192 and this new law will bar me from getting admission in a good college"

If this guy did not score good marks the first time and spent 2 years preparing for entrance exams alone, is it fair that this guy is treated same as another guy who scored more or less same cutoff marks in his first attempt?

On the other hand, it is a good thing to give another chance to someone who failed in their first attempt and want to succeed.

When did life get so complicated?

This was another relaxing weekend for me. Did some groceries at Ellwood Thompson’s, a local health food store. I never do my groceries at the Wal-Mart.

Even though the idea of Wal-Mart is cool, having almost everything under one roof, I do not like their expansion strategy. Wherever a Wal-Mart opens, it becomes very tough for the local small guys running their stores. Most of them go out of business. If every place has a Wal-Mart and if we always do shop at Wal-Mart only, well it sucks. We will never get a complete taste of the local culture and tradition.

Imagine this. What if Wal-Mart opens at 10 different locations in Chennai, India and kicks, just say, Saravana stores and Nilgiris and the likes out of business?
When someone from US, visits Chennai as a tourist and if he ends up shopping at Wal-Mart, eeww, doesn’t make much sense to me.

The only good thing about Wal-Mart is that they are open 24 hours (that too I found not all locations). In case of an emergency, it’s ok to go ahead and buy there.

The only thing I do when I go to Wal-Mart is watch some super awesome ‘gummus’.
Yeah…Wal-Mart kicks ass.

Ok…coming back to my weekend…
I watched ‘Conan – The Barbarian’ on Sun TV Sunday afternoon (Tamil dubbing).
Then I did my weekly laundry.

It was 630pm. I realized that I had time to catch some movie on theater. I checked out the timings for 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith'. There was one show at 655pm. I booked my ticket in Fandango and took a quick shower and went to the theater. I found out that the whole computer system of Regal Cinemas was down. No ticket purchase or pickups. Then I had to stand in a long queue for a manual ticket pickup. When I got my turn the movie had already started. So I requested a ticket for ‘Madagascar’ which was about to start.
The guy said ok and we were cool. Customer service in US kicks ass.

The movie was hilarious. I enjoyed it. The graphics and animation was good too. I guess they might come up with a sequel too.

On my way back, I picked up some Fried Chicken from KFC.
Then I saw ‘Athu Mattum Ragasiyam’, a suspense thriller in Sun TV.

Science and Religion - Part II

Response to the comments posted by my friend on my previous blog.

NOTE : When I say religion, I don't mean any specific religion. So in that sense, I mean spiritual. So think of religion and spirituality as same while reading.

What source and destination are you talking about?

I thought your cut and paste itself had the answer for your question.
TRUTH.
People call it by different names, Truth, God, Enlightenment.
And your question is exactly like what I had mentioned, how a pro-science only person would ask the question.

Now, you will ask what is God, or Truth or enlightenment.

In Tamil there is a saying 'Kandavar Vindilar Vindavar Kandilar'.
It means, those who have seen it has not explained it and those who have explained it has not seen it.

Now you might ask what the heck does that mean.

Let me try to explain with examples.
You go and ask a person if he loves his parents. He will say yes. Ask him how much he loves his parents and if he can prove his love towards his parents.
I don't think he will be able to tell or explain how much he loves his parents.
I don't think he will be able to prove that the love exists.
He would most likely say "I can't talk about it, you will have to experience it for yourself"

Ask a person who just went to a cemetery on a moonless night and saw a ghost like figure or a person who just survived a catastrophe, how scary it was. I don't think he would be able to explain it to you. Even if he explains , probably you won't understand. You will have to experience it yourself.

There are so many things in this world, just like that. Things that can't be said and explained. They have to be experienced.

"Are you implying religion is not in its infancy and is mature and found answers for everything?"

Yes.
The answers are always there. You just have to find it. Some people try to find it through religion some try to find it through science and some both ways.

"Oh. So looks like you have solved the classic debate between creationists and evolutionists. I think this is a fleeting statement and oversimplifying things."

Probably you did not read carefully what I said.
I said "Is that African ancestor Adam & Eve?"
I basically asked a question, did not make a statement.
Iam not asserting that mankind started only 60,000 years ago. If that is the case, Ramayana is supposed to have happened in Treta Yuga, millions of years ago. How do you fit that in here?
Iam just trying to keep my mind open, and see the truth. I don't have a narrow mind and shut down avenues.

In my opinion, one can live happy fruitful life without bothering about the WHYs, but its pretty hard to survive without knowing the HOWs.

If your car stops on highway, do you ask 'Why the heck did my car stop in the middle of highway?' or 'How the heck did my car stop in the middle of highway"
Honestly I think you will not even bother to ask how did your car stop. You will ask why it stopped and examine why it stopped and try to fix it.

Next time when something does not work in your lab, observe yourself and see what question you ask first. It will be 'Why is it not working?'

As for as I can see, science doesn't even try to answer the WHYs and religion doesn't bother with the HOWs.

When a space shuttle blows up scientists don't watch the video and see 'How the shuttle blew?'
Instead they ask "why that happened ?"
So saying that science doesn't even try to answer the WHYs is a very generic statement.Or in your words content free empty statement.

Saying that religion doesn't bother with the HOWs shows lack of understanding of the scriptures.
Bhagavad Gita for instance not only talks about the Supreme but also talks about HOW you can reach or realize the Supreme.
The Bhagavata Purana's description of the cosmology is a sophisticated system, with multiple levels of meaning that encode at least four different astronomical, geographical, and spiritual world models.Many of these were written by ancient scientists. They did not separate science and religion. It's all interconnected.

So religion talks about both WHYs and HOWs.

You are saying that "science doesn't even try to answer the WHYs "

So science doesn't have all the answers. Because it does not even try to find out the answers to some of the questions? (WHYs)
So in that sense isn't science having a narrow mind and shutting down things not trying to find out answers? So is science complete?

Religion inspires science.

Empty statement. Doesn't further any point.

Do you know how many Hollywood movies were inspired by eastern religions?
Star Wars. You definitely must have heard about that movie. One of the best science fiction movies ever made.
The concept of Force is noting but what has been described as Prana (India), Qi (Chinese) or Ki (Japanese).
Do you know how many scientific inventions were inspired by such science fiction movies?
Do you know how many researches on the activity or functioning of brain were inspired by the transcendental state or enlightened state of meditators, mostly Buddhist monks?
Dr Satwant Pasricha, additional professor at the Department of Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, has researched over two decades 500 cases of reincarnation. (BOOK : Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India)
Reincarnation definitely came from eastern religions.

These are just few examples.

Imagine this.
What if I say "What if Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution was inspired by our own Dasavatharam" ?
Think about it.

Science and Religion

Even today, many believe that science and religion are against each other. They argue science is based on facts and religion is based on faith and you cannot mix fact and faith...blah…blah…blah.

I feel that those people are either ignorant on this matter or lack the intuition to see the Truth.

I believe that science and religion are not against each other.

This is my take on this subject.

1. Anyone who believes that science and religion are at odds...don't know much about what they are talking. It's just a perception that they are at odds. It's not the truth.

2. Science and Religion are two different paths to the same destination. TRUTH. Religion is like..."there is a source, it's also the destination. You came from source...and these are the different ways to go back to the source (or destination)". Whereas science is like..."what is the source...is there a source...what is the destination...is there a destination...how did we come from source...how we can go to destination".

3. Religion inspires science.

4. Science is at its infancy. It makes mistakes. It corrects them. It makes mistakes again. It corrects them again. This goes on.

5. DNA studies (science) say that all humans descended from an African ancestor who lived only 60,000 years ago. Is that African ancestor Adam & Eve?(Religion). This is a classic example of my Point (2). Science and Religion tries to take humanity to same place, in different ways.

Is it science or religion that has made our lives better?

It depends.

If you are talking about the physical body, or anything to do with materialistic world, then YES, science has made our lives better.

But if you are talking about the spiritual, or anything to do with spiritualistic world, then religion has made our lives better.

Has science done anything for spirituality?
So far not much. Most of them indirect. In future this might change. The closer the two paths (science and religion) are to the source, the more they will converge.

In my opinion, we should have an open mind and not say religion is crap or science is crap.

A person should fall under only one of the 3 categories.

1. Spiritual,

2. Scientific,

3. One who believes that both are different paths to the same.

One of my friends is so pro-science. He says all things said in religion are more or less crap, as there is no proof. He asks has anyone seen God. Yet, he goes to temple & prays to God. When asked, he says not to mix faith and fact.

Holy Crap.

What in the world is that supposed to mean???

Jesus said "One can serve only one master".

I said earlier that science hasn’t done much for spirituality and that even whatever it has done has been indirect.

But looks like this is going to change soon. Or is it?

Scientology

I have been hearing this word for quite few months now.
Thanks to Tom Cruise, who has converted to Scientology and trying to talk to his super awesome fiancée Katie Holmes to adopt Scientology.

What is this Scientology? I decided to check it out myself.

After spending about half a day in their website I understood the following:

1. Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals, originally established as a secular philosophy in 1952 by author L. Ron Hubbard, then re-characterized by him in 1953 as an "applied religious philosophy".

2. Scientology is defined as a controversial belief system developed by L. Ron Hubbard, based on a person being an immortal spiritual being whose survival depends on him/herself and his/her attainment of brotherhood with others and the universe .

3. Scientology literally means ‘knowing how to know’ .

4. It sounds more abstract initially and more like a religion for the elite few.

For more, I think it would be better for you to get it straight from the horse's mouth.

It took some time for me to comprehend what they were trying to say. But I think that’s because Iam neither intelligent nor one among the elites.

Honestly I think it is old wine in new bottle.
Scientology is nothing but the knowledge from our age old Hindu philosophies, Vedic literatures, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavada Purana, Bhavishya Purana and all such works, presented in a modern way to a modern world, applying scientific principles wherever possible.

Have a look at this: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/80/story_8057_1.html

So is Scientology the way to go?
Maybe.

Maybe not.

I don’t know as of now.

It looks promising.
But I know almost nothing about it. Have to research and understand more about it.

When I Google for Scientology I see a lot of Anti-Scientology websites too.

In my opinion, if Scientology is trying to bridge the gap between science and religion, and trying to say that both are 2 different ways to the same Truth, and if science can be applied to religious philosophies and if it makes the world a better place to live, then that’s the way to go.
That will be cool.

But if it turns out to be another evil cult…

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge

Bhagavad-gita Chapter 4, Verse 7 & 8

Anniyan songs

I have been listening to Anniyan songs lately. Almost all the songs are super good.
Not sure which song will have Yana Gupta. Will have to watch the trailer in Sun TV carefully.

The funniest song which I like is 'Oh Sukumari'. It's a damn good teaser

Wad di 'ell iz gowin on ?

If Advani is ‘most wanted’ in Pakistan, for involving in a conspiracy to do away the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and an FIR to that effect still existed, why was Advani not arrested when he went to Pakistan?

http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/07advpak8.htm

Did he praise the country's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, because he was not arrested when he went to Pakistan or to prevent an arrest?

Mercury Montego girl in TV commercial

Has anyone see the recent Mercury Montego TV commercial girl?

She looks so hot and mesmerizing. Iam trying to find her name and few pictures. So far the only name that I have come across is Jill Wagner. Not sure if it's her. She is also now featuring in a second commercial, Mercury Mountaineer.

UPDATE : Yes, It's Jill Wagner.

Another Spin-Off from Vimal Incorporation. hehehe.

http://etymology-linguistics.blogspot.com/

A new blog from the labs of Vimal

BHOPAL NEEDS YOU NOW

WAKE UP WORLD:
BHOPAL NEEDS YOU NOW!!!!!

Police beat women who asked politicians to obey Indian Supreme Court order

List of injured includes 3 year old child, with pictures http://www.bhopal.net/neend-injuries.html


Join in on the fax action: Act now and send a free fax to Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh here:
http://ga4.org/campaign/_bhopalwater

Give the politicians a real "Wake Up!" call, and ask them

a) to obey the Supreme Court's order of May 2004 http://www.bhopal.net/SC-order-May2004.html
b) to condemn the police brutality and take action against those responsible; and
c) to drop trumped up charges against peaceful demonstrators

Their home numbers are given here http://www.bhopal.net/neendudao.html, together with a useful clock showing the current time in Bhopal. Please make good use of it.

Pictures from the Neend Udao protest and the brutal repression by the police are at http://www.bhopal.net/neendpictures.html.

Background

Toxic chemicals abandoned at its factory by Union Carbide have poisoned the drinking water of 20,000 people. In May 2004 the Indian Supreme Court ordered local politicians to provide the communities with clean, safe drinking water. The politicians ignored the order.

On Tuesday 17 May, 300 people, overwhelmingly women, many with children and babies in arms, went to government offices to protest. They banged spoons on tin plates in a "Wake Up" (in Hindi "Neend Udao") protest. The politicians' response was to send in the riot police.

Pictures of police kicking and punching women and children have shocked the world. Amnesty International has expressed concern and asked the Bhopal authorities to bring those accused of violence to book.


The survivors of Bhopal have suffered enough. We need the help of every decent person whose sense of justice is as outraged as that of the women who dared to raise their voices against the politicial bullies.

/Disclaimer:/ The "Wake Up!" call is an independent Bhopal.Net initiative to support the "Neend Udao" protest. Pissed-off sleep-deprived politicians should note that the people in Bhopal have not asked us to do it. We are doing it because it seems right and proper. Bhopal.Net is a project of the UK Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, which is a member of the ICJB. If you are a politician who has been woken up by a phone call from a supporter on the far side of the world, you may complain to editor_at_bhopal dot net.
*
_______________________________________________
Bhopal mailing list
Bhopal@aidindia.org
http://lists.aidindia.org/mailman/listinfo/bhopal

Anniyan - Shankar, Vikram, Yana Gupta, Sada

My friend Vijay, who is also my class/lab mate during my college days, came to Richmond last week, to visit Virginia Beach. The first day when he came to my home, he wanted to see Sun TV. So we switched on Sun and we saw the trailer of Shankar/Viram’s ‘Anniyan’. We both were really excited about this movie. We had lots of expectations.

After seeing the trailer, we both were like “What the heck was that???”




Yeah, we saw some scenes in the trailer, which were like…”Whaaaaaat!!!”

Vikram was doing some unbelievable ‘Matrix’ kinda stuff.

Hmm. Hope the movie turns out to be a good one and not a blooper.

Going by the title and stills, I think it looks like Vikram is acting in dual role or he is a split personality (Batman, Spiderman, Superman). An innocent guy and a ‘Robin Hood’ kind guy.



But didn’t Shankar already do a movie like that with Arjun. Remember Gentleman?

"HE WHO COMES FROM HELL
IS NOT AFRAID OF HOT ASHES"


Looks like the movie will be kinda violent with lots of

Whatever...Yana Gupta is there

Iam seeing 'The Yana Gupta'. Oops... sorry, the movie.

Photo courtesy : IndiaGlitz

Is this only me or...

Is this only me or...

I think Vijay's younger brother Vikranth (Karka Kasadara) looks like a hybrid of Vijay and Ajith.

My Miss Universe 2005 predictions

It Sucks.

Note To Self : Dood, Don't even think of buying lottery.

Virginia Beach Trip Memorial Day Weekend

What happens in Virginia Beach, stays in Virginia beach.

hehe. Borrowed it from Las Vegas.

Maybe I should come up with something original, for Virginia Beach.
Something like...

"What happened in Virginia Beach is none of your business"

Holy Moly

(Photo courtesy : TimesofIndia.com)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1122438.cms

Disclaimer : Iam not responsible if you are totally pissed off when you open the above link and have no pop-up blocker in your browser.

Miss Universe 2005

Ok...

This is what I think...

Chances of Amrita winning Miss Universe 2005 : 50%
Chances of Evangelia winning Miss Universe 2005 : 50%
Chances of Amrita & Evangelia finishing top 3 in Miss Universe 2005 : 100%



Miss Greece Evangelia Aravani


Miss India Amrita Thapar

BMW ranked 3rd best car

J.D. Power and Associates ranked BMW 3rd , behind Lexus and Jaguar, in its IQS.

http://www.jdpower.com/pdf/2005069.pdf

Kidnap to marry

Want to marry a girl?
But don’t have one!

Like a girl and want to marry her?

Well…kidnap her and marry her.

Whaaaaaaaaaat ???

Bride kidnapping is common here. In fact it’s part of their ancient tradition.

Where the heck is this place?

Here.

lest we forget !

Veerappan (Oct, 2004)... Kanchi Seer Sankaracharya (Nov, 2004)...

Yeah...What the heck !

We haven't even solved Coimbatore Bomb Blast (Feb, 1998).

Whew!
One more weekend just passed.
Is time really running fast universally or is it just me !!!

I managed to watch ‘Star Wars Episode III –Revenge of the Sith’ on first day of release.
Waw. What a crowd in the theater. !

I went an hour early and was like behind 300 people in the queue. Some people were sitting in the queue and having supper.
As usual I did something unique to me. Stupid.
Yeah. I booked the tickets in Fandango a week early, and when I went to the theater I saw this long queue and went and stood in the line. Then after 30 minutes I realized all these guys had the tickets in the hand, and I am yet to pick my ticket from the ticket machine inside the theater. Then I realized these other guys had either purchased the tickets directly or picked the tickets from the ticket machine inside the theater. Then I went inside the theater and picked the tickets, and had to go all the way back in the queue.
Damn the first come first serve policy.
I wish it was like in India, where you have seat numbering system, and your ticket has the seat number in it. The earlier you buy the ticket the better seats you can get.

Anyway.
Since doing stupid things is not new to me, no big deal. :)

About the movie …well…George Lucas is a genius.

Rest of my weekend was very busy, cleaning my apartment. Few of my friends are coming down for long weekend and we are planning to go to Virginia Beach. I booked a hotel there for 2 nights. I hope the weather stays good so that we can have lots of outdoorsy fun. Let’s pray to God and hope no Tsunami comes.

Interesting changes in cricket rules

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/quickies/1115543.cms

The proposed changes particularly pertain to fielding restrictions and the use of substitutes.

Also read this.

http://vimaln.blogspot.com/2005/02/icc-proposes-changes-in-odi-format.html

Yet another day

I made chapati's tonight for dinner. Looks like I pretty much mastered the art of making good chapati. YAY! It came out soft and very good. Of course I did customize and added a secret ingredient to it, the idea which I borrowed from one Indian restaurant here.

I saw a new comedy serial in Sun TV called 'Alli Raajiyam'. This was the first episode. It was pretty hilarious, I thought. Now I know how to waste another 30 minutes every Monday :)

During the commercial break I saw this commercial in Sun TV for Saravana Selvarathnam Textiles. I was wondering who the beautiful model was, dancing with few other bunch of girls. She looked very pretty and cute.
If someone can tell me who it is...well..all I can say is...

"May the Force be with you"

First imageries of India's CARTOSAT-1

http://isro.org/pressrelease/May13_2005.htm

India's space research organization, ISRO, released the first imageries of the indigeniously built and launched satellite CARTOSAT-1. The digital terrain model is super awesome.

This weekend was a bit relaxing. I finished watching 'Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones'. Now Iam all set to watch the final episode, 'Star Wars Episode III -Revenge of the Sith'.I will have to book my tickets in advance as it will be tough to get one on first day. Iam all excited about it.

I also have started to read a book 'The Genesis Race: Our Extraterrestrial DNA and the True Origins of the Species'.
The book is an introspection on the fact that for millennia the development of humanity showed a consistent pattern. But, then suddenly, around 5000 b.c., great civilizations sprang up around the globe. Men turned from animal hunters to agriculturalists, for food. The book says that Creation myths of these civilizations tell of gods who came to Earth, teaching the arts of civilized life.

I guess I have finished 3 chapters. So far it has been interesting. I wouldn't say it is an excellent book. But nevertheless, I always manage to learn something even out of nothing. So I guess, I will pick some interesting things from here too, even if the book turns out to be a disappointment.

I just finished watching the suspense thriller 'Athu Mattum Ragasiyam' in Sun TV. I usually don't watch Sun TV serials as they are mostly soap operas, always some woman sitting and crying in the corner of a room. But this is a suspense thriller and it has been very interesting so far. The story is about some mysterious events unfolding in a village called 'Pannak Kaadu'. I remember the days when I used to watch another suspense thriller, 'Vidaathu Karuppu', also village based. That was a good one. I hope this one will keep me thrilled.

Pentagon to list bases targeted for closing

The United States government spent around US$300 billion in 2 years on Iraq.
Now in order to save a mere $50 billion in a period of over 20 years, they are planning to close down military bases inside the country.

hmmm.
I do not understand the logic at all. I thought Department of Defense ought to be spending more on defense than offense.

Also, how many jobs are going to be lost!
huh. I wish there were other ways to save money

CNN

May the Force be with you!

I watched 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' last night. The more I see 'Star Wars', the more I realize how much the concept of the movie has derived from ancient Indian scriptures.

'May the Force be with you!'

In my opinion The Force, is nothing but what ancient Hindu scriptures call as 'Prana' , or energy.

(Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back) The Jedi, Obi Wan Kenobi teaches Luke about The Force:

Ben: "The force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things it surrounds us and binds the galaxy together."

The Dark Side of The Force - This may be interpreted as 'Maya', or 'The Illusion' as described in ancient Indian scriptures. This ‘Maya’ is the barrier between the Truth and the people. The barrier stopping the people from realizing their true nature.

There are so many other scenes & dialogues where you can draw a parallel between them and ancient Hindu scriptures.

I hope that you all may be aware that the concept of the movie 'The Matrix' was derived from ancient Indian scriptures, particularly Upanishads.

'asato ma sad gamaya,
tamaso ma jyotir gamaya,
mrityor ma amritam gamaya'

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.3.28)

Translates to ...

'From the unreal, lead me to the real
From darkness, lead me to the light
From death, lead me to immortality'

Matrix is nothing but, what ancient Hindu scriptures describe as 'Maya' or 'Illusion'.

So in my opinion, Hollywood has taken the noble work of helping people realize the Truth, by having subtle messages in movies.

Globalization: Good or Bad – A cultural perspective

All the time when you come across a debate on globalization, you might have noticed that it’s almost always on the financial perspective - How small businesses go belly-up, how ‘wal-mart’ization kills many small industries etc.

I had this interesting thought, today morning.

How globalization impacts the culture and tradition.

Recently a friend of mine requested me to take a visiting gentleman, who was on a business trip to Richmond, on a sight-seeing tour of Richmond. He was from New Delhi.

During one of our conversations I was asking him about New Delhi and the life style there. He mentioned that there was not much difference between New Delhi and Richmond. He said New Delhi had almost everything that Richmond has. McDonalds, Pizza Huts, Burger Kings, Starbucks, dance floors etc. He added that he did not feel any difference being in Richmond, as compared to New Delhi.

Welcome to globalization!

No difference between New Delhi and a US city!

Is that a good sign or not?

Coming from India, I can say that the road side or beach side ‘Idli-Dosa centers’, or the ‘Pani puri-Bhel puri carts’ are unique to India. I guess, I can include the ‘Dhabas’ and ‘Bakeries’ and ‘Tea kadai (shops)’ too.

With McDonalds, and Starbucks and Walmarts entering India, what will it be like, just say, in 10 years?

Imagine, the fast food chains, McDonalds and Burger Kings offering ‘Pani puri’ and ‘Bhel puri’ in their menu.
Imagine, the pizza chains, Pizza Huts and Dominos offering ‘Idlis’ and ‘Dosas’ in their menu.
Imagine, walmart selling anything from ‘paper plates’ to ‘plasma TVs’.
Imagine, Starbucks replacing ‘Bakeries’ and ‘Tea kadai’.
Imagine, JC Pennys and Hechts replacing our apparel stores.

Of course, we all know the financial impact of this on the families running the business.

But what about the cultural aspects?

We will not be having our traditional ‘Dhabas’ and ‘Idli-Dosa centers’ and the likes!

If Indian cities offer the same as in US, what makes us unique?

How many tourists will want to visit India?

Will our next generation will even remember, that once upon a time, we had ‘Dhabas’ and ‘Pani puri - Bhel puri carts’?

Are we losing our identity in the name of Westernization and Globalization?

Critical flaws found in Firefox

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4532127.stm

"The Mozilla Foundation has said it is "working aggressively" to fix two flaws in its open source Firefox browser.

Mozilla has responded by changing its update service and says people should temporarily turn off JavaScript code. "

What the heck?


hmmm...Iam wondering what the anti-IE and pro-Firefox guys would say now !

A good friend of mine, Jennifer Rajesh, started her own blog.
http://rajeshvar.blogspot.com/

Unlike my blog, which is full of useless & nonsense information, I believe this blog will be quite useful.

She & her husband Rajesh, who is also a friend of mine and a formula 1 freak like me, is the one whom I visited in Milan, Italy. When I asked what she wanted from US, she was so funny , she said 'Idly rice'.

So like in Tamil movies, where when families from village visit their family in cities, used to take rice and vegetables, I took rice from US. That was so funny.

YAY
I finished Dan Brown's 'Digital Fortress'. This completes Phase I of my novel reading project :)
Yes, conquering all 4 Dan Brown's novels, until the next one comes out, I can relax a little bit.

Also, May 19 is the DATE.
Star Wars , final episode, 'Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith' is in theaters May 19.
Just as a warm up for that, I saw Star Wars Episodes, IV, V & VI over the weekend.
These are digitally mastered DVDs. They were awesome. George Lucas is a Genius.

I need to see the other 2 episodes, Star Wars Episodes I & II before the final one comes out.

I also saw 2 other movies over the weekend.
'Kingdom of Heaven' as usually was First Day show. Man, seeing movies on the first day is a unique experience. The movie was a very good one. It was fair in the sense that it did not show the Christians as the good guys and Muslims as bad guys. Instead, the screenplay was fair and balanced.

The other movie that I saw was 'King Arthur' . This was another good movie, not as good as 'Kingdom of Heaven', but was good. I liked it. Also, it had one of my favorite actress Keira Knightley.

She was very funny when she told in an interview that in order to be fit for this action movie, she had such a strict diet regime and she worked out so much, that her breast just disappeared. hahaha. If you see this picture, you will know what Iam talking about. Don worry folks, this is not a nude picture :)

India's Satellite Launch successful

YAY.

India successfully launched it's two new satellites today.
India now has the world's first high-resolution along-track stereo imaging satellite, in CARTOSAT-1.
This is an awesome achievement to be proud of.
Jai Hind.

India's latest satellite launch - CARTOSAT & HAMSAT

Last night Sun TV news was reporting on India's latest satellite launch , scheduled for May 5, 2005.



In its ninth flight, ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C6, will launch India's remote sensing satellite, the 1,560 kg CARTOSAT-1, along with a 42.5 kg piggyback satellite, HAMSAT, in a 618 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

I remember the days when I used to watch the launches live in Doordarshan. Yes, Doordarshan, the state owned television, had the launch covered live. I was all amazed looking at the launch and the telemetry. I even remember not going to school and college on such days and watching the launches.

I now wish I had Doordarshan in US. Or at least, if ISRO can stream the launch live in Internet, that would be cool.

Anyway, I hope the launch goes successful.

Jai Hind.

Aishwarya Rai and Vivek Oberoi marriage response

Remember, my earlier post regarding Aishwarya Rai and Vivek Oberoi's marriage?

Now here comes their rebuttal.

http://us.rediff.com/movies/2005/may/02vivek.htm

Celebrities, react the same way when news about their private life come to public.This reminds me of a Hollywood movie,'Paparazzi', I saw few months back.

I guess it's kinda tough to maintain a private life, when someone is very famous. Whatever they do, people will talk about it.

I think the best way to handle such situations is just to be cool and say ...

"Really? That's interesting. I didn't know about that. Looks like you seem to know more about me than myself. Anyway, thanks for letting me know."

and then just move on.

The weekend has been relaxing so far.
I finished Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons'. It was a real thriller. I liked it as much as I liked his 'The Da Vinci Code'.
Iam now reading 'Digital Fortress'
This is the 4th novel of Dan Brown's that Iam reading. This novel has also started in a similar fashion as other Dan Brown's novels, in that a guy is killed in the first chapter. All Dan Brown's novel starts with a person being killed :)

I also saw 2 movies over the weekend. The first one was 'XXX 2'. I didn't like the movie. It was like a video game. I did not have much expectations when I went to the movie as I knew this is just a Hollywood masala movie. But it was little bit below my expectations even then. Then the second movie I saw was 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. I felt it was a boring movie. But I slept at 3am the night before and I was so damn tired, I dozed of half a dozen times during the movie. So honestly I can't speak much about the movie. The only thing that kept me awake was the heroine of the movie Zooey Deschanel. She is cute. The depressed Robot in the movie was funny.

I made Sri Lankan fish curry on Sunday, recipe of my Chithi. It was damn good. I can confidently say I have now mastered the art of making Sri Lankan Fish curry. YAY !

Aishwarya Rai to marry Vivek Oberoi ?

Last night in Sun TV News they said that Vivek Oberoi,in an interview to a private television, announced that he is going to get married to Aishwarya Rai.
He added that they both are in love since 2003.

Today, I thought that would be the headlines in websites, but to my surprise, NO.

Is that news true?

hmmm...Aishwarya Rai is becoming like a Dan Brown novel. It's a suspense thriller :)

Air India - Boeing deal

Air India recently announced its intention to purchase five 777-200LR, 10 777-300ER, and 20 787-8 airplanes, with options to buy three additional 777-200LR Worldliners, five 777-300ERs, and seven 787-8 Dreamliners at a later date.

Boeing had a heavy competition from Airbus. I decided to check out Boeing's new 787s.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/7e7/photos.html

It looks cool. The seats...hmmm...doesn't look comfortable, but Boeing tells this gives increased comfort for passengers. Let's hope so.

According to Boeing, the 777-200LR will enable Air India to provide ultra-long range, nonstop flights between any airports in India and the United States(Delhi-New York ,Mumbai – San Francisco).

WAW. That's interesting. Will save a lot of time for people like me.

The 777-300ER will be replacing the airline’s current fleet of 747-200 airplanes

My only issue is ...hmmm...looks like they removed 2 engines

Boeing says the engine efficiency has been improved and changed the design to reduce drag and airplane weight.

Science - To believe or not to believe?

Tonight I saw the DVD of a controversial documentary "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Moon".

It was an interesting documentary alleging NASA's moon landing as a hoax.

Do I believe it?
I do not believe man landed on moon in 1969. I have great respect for NASA, I admire and appreciate many of their works, and I wish I am wrong about this moon landing hoax. I will be one happy person, if man indeed had landed on moon in 1969.

But, if its true that NASA staged moon landing and all that happened in 1969 was a hoax, I pity all the HYPOCRITES in the world who believe science is everything and there is no God. They do not believe in God, as they haven't seen God, and some even don't believe in Hindu scriptures, and yet they go to temple and pray to God !

Doesn't make any sense to me :-)

If its proved that NASA moon landing was a hoax, I do not know how the hypocrites will react as they believe whatever the scientific community says. If science is proved wrong this time, it definitely isn't the first time.

Folks,

Don't forget to read my Super Awesome 'Origin of Life' theory.
Origin Of Life

Skava - Mobile gaming

Hey this is my classmate.

Hindu Article

About me, hmm...looking at my picture, looks like I still have to grow up, a lot.

Wire-Fu

Recently I have been seeing a lot of Indian movies, using a technique called Wire-Fu in action sequences. Basically Wire-Fu is a cinematic technique in which actors perform kung-fu moves while suspended by wires and pulleys that make them appear to fly, run up walls, and so on.

Remember 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'Matrix'?

It made a lot of sense for a movie like 'Matrix', or 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' to use such techniques for stunts. But even normal action Tamil movies have employed that technique. It is so pathetic. It looks so artificial. It's just like trying to show-off.

Even Rajnikanth uses Wire-Fu in fight scenes in his latest movie 'Chandramukhi'. I was not impressed.

As usual, this weekend was also very relaxing. I finished Dan Brown's 'Deception Point'. The plot was ok. It started very well, fantastic in fact. But somewhere in between it became like an ordinary novel, very Hollywoody, and in the end it was just ok. I have now started to read another novel of Dan Brown's . 'Angels and Demons'. This one has also started damn good. Let me see how it goes. I feel that Iam learning a lot from Dan Brown's novels.

Then Saturday Saravanan and I went to 'The Interpreter'. The movie was an average one. Not very exciting and not very boring. Just ok. Nicole Kidman, WAW, she is so beautiful. Can't believe she is 38.

Sunday morning I went to the movie 'Chandramukhi' (review). Then later that day stayed at home and continued 'Angels and Demons'

Earth Day

Today is earth day.

"Also in Japan, I heard the story of a hummingbird from a professor I met. When the forest where the hummingbird lived went up in flames, the other animals ran out to save themselves. But the hummingbird stayed, flying to and from a nearby river with drops of water in its beak to pour on the fire.
From a distance, the other animals laughed and mocked it. "What do you think you are doing?" they shouted. "This fire is overwhelming. You can't do anything."
Finally, the hummingbird turned to them and said, "I'm doing what I can."
-Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner

"I'm doing what I can."

How humble, but very powerful, these words are !

"In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations"
- Iroquois

Seventh Generation Products
I'm not endorsing any product.
Iam doing what I can.

On tuesday night I saw the program 'Death of a Princess' on PBS. It was perhaps the most controversial film in the history of public television -- the story of a young Saudi princess who was publicly executed for committing adultery. It was very touching.

Also I have started to read Dan Brown's 'Deception Point'. This seems to be another very intriguing novel from the author of 'The Da Vinci Code'

Richmond Indians

Last weekend was relaxing. One of my friend had a housewarming party. So went to the party on Saturday evening and had nice time. It was fun. Lots of delicious food. Then saw the final one day cricket match between India and Pakistan. What a pathetic display by Indian cricket team. Losing a match without putting up any fight or resistance...well...it's not a new thing for Indian cricket team.

Then on Sunday I saw the movie 'Sahara'. Penelope Cruz is so hot even at 31. I love the way she speaks English. It's so cute.

Also I completed phase 1 of my project 'Richmond Indians'.
This is at http://richmond.planetvimal.com

THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT

The National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Spencer Wells, and the Waitt Family Foundation have launched the Genographic Project, a five-year effort to understand the human journey—where we came from and how we got to where we live today. This unprecedented effort will map humanity's genetic journey through the ages.

http://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/

My friend Pat and I are planning to buy the kit and be part of this project.

This is an excellent presentation.

http://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html

Google in Tamil

http://www.google.com/intl/ta/

Some of the tamil translations, links are funny.

For instance...When you click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button's equivalent in Tamil, you get

"Adhirshtam En PakkamTM" amukkaan thanaagavey ungal theyduthalin mudal inaya pakkathirkku kondusellum.

(ORIGIN : The "I'm Feeling LuckyTM" button automatically takes you to the first web page returned for your query.)

Button is called 'amukkaan' in Tamil. hahaha. Hilarious.

Anyway...let me click the 'Sign Out' amukkaan and get back to work.

Why India lost the third test match against Pakistan?

"I have to score runs whether I am captain or not.. that's the first and foremost thing. Captaincy is not on my mind." - Saurav Ganguly

(After losing the third and final test against Pakistan at Bangalore)

OK, now we know, why India lost the match. We did not have a captain. There was no one to captain the team.

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1064779.cms

Pakistan kicks ass

What the hell happened on the last day of the test match?

Did the two cricket boards, BCCI and PCB, fix the match, the historic test series finale and Inzamam's 100th test?

Or did we just lack the guts to chase and win?

This Gautam Gambhir guy really screwed the day for us by getting Veeru Sehwag run out and the rest of the guys, reaaaaally sucked.

Dude, our cricketers suck ass.

Thanks to Balaji for making sure we lost this match, because we did not deserve to even draw this match. Pakistan deserved to win.

Coolest MP3 / Digital Music player

Do you know the coolest MP3 / Digital Music player?

You say, iPOD !
Nay.

In my opinion, it's THUMP.
Yep. It's Super Awesome.

Whaaaaat??? THUMP??? Why is it cool ?

Check it out.
http://www1.oakley.com/thump/

My Nissan Maxima for sale

Iam planning to sell my car Nissan Maxima.
Details here at http://nissan.planetvimal.com

NASA on Swades

This is what NASA says about Swades.

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), is an actual NASA mission, currently scheduled to launch in 2007.

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/shuttle/f-swades.html
Goddard News June 2004
Spaceport News May 2004

I want to see cricket: Musharraf

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf says he would love to see some of the India-Pakistan cricket series - but only if invited.

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

"I don't believe in going anywhere without an invitation." - Musharraf

Disclaimer : Crossing LOC occassionally and going to India without an invitation is an exempt. Other risk factors include engaging in terrorist activities while peace negotiations are going on, inciting communal violence, supporting infiltrators and floating counterfeit currency.

India Today

The weekend so far has been relaxing. Went for an aroma therapy massage.
It was very relaxing.
Also I saw 2 Hindi movies. I usually don't see any Hindi movie unless it's a really good one or it's a Hrithik Roshan movie. I rented the DVDs of 2 movies, Page 3 and Swades.

These 2 movies, in my opinion, really portray the present India. I don't believe in coincidences. So for anyone, who doesn't know about India and who wants to know what present day India is like, should see these 2 movies.
The movies picture the 2 entirely different worlds in our country.
Page 3 is all about the rich high society plastic life people and their parties and get-togethers.

Swades is all about the poor farmers and villagers and their struggle in their day to day life.

I was particularly impressed with the screen writing of Swades. I thought it was very realistic and I really couldn't find any loopholes. Later when I mentioned this to Dixita, she said the movie was based on a real life story. So it all makes sense.
Shahrukh's acting was good. Different from his stereotype roles. Gayathri Joshi looks very beautiful and glamorous. She resembles and reminds me of one of my friend from college. This is her first movie and she has appeared in numerous TV Ads in the past.


One more thing I liked in this movie is the scene where Gita(Gayathri) challenges Shahrukh to name the five rivers in India, new state and number of lions in Asoka pillar. It's funny when people in India call NRIs as Non Returning Indians(Swades) and Non Reliable Indians(Page 3) and accuse NRIs of not knowing about what's going on India.
I just can't buy that argument. We people here don't ignore what's happening back home. Sometimes I feel that people here in US know more about what's happening in India than the people living there. Thanks to Internet and Satellite TVs.

Now come on...you have to understand that we are in US and all we do at work here is browse :)
Do you still believe we don't know what's happening back home?

German driving license

You think getting a driver's license in US is tough?
Well...think of Germany.

How Germany can drive you crazy

Tired of same Google?

Want to have some fun with google?

http://www.google.com.sa

Start typing in the search box. You will notice it behaving differently :)

Conflict of Interest

Hugo Chavez arrives in New Delhi
India and Iran in gas export deal

This really puts US in the spotlight.
US really doesn't like Iran and Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president who was overthrown in a US-backed military coup in 2002. Now both India and china, the two fastest growing economies in the world, are getting close to both Iran and Venezuela. With India and China investing billions in both the countries, they sure would not like to see any one messing with the affairs of those two countries. I guess the US would now have to tone down the rhetoric.

Was the Taj Mahal a Vedic Temple? - The Photographic Evidence

Many of us know about Taj Mahal.

Well...we have seen the pictures of Taj Mahal and heard a lot about it. But, do we really know about it?

What is the Taj Mahal?

Here's what Stephen Knapp tells us about Taj Mahal.

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/