Imperialism Re-defined

I use to question myself on some of the changes that we see in the current world
In a history book if you read the first few chapters you come across ,Ashoka the Great,Gupta's ,Chengiz Khan,The great Moghuls,Vijayanagar empire,Pandiyas,etc. One thing that was common among these kings is capturing new regions and expanding their territories. Each one of the kings were lauded for their quest for expansion of their countries. Although the good things they did we will read one of the core aspect that will be praised was their war skills and ability to rule larger part of India
All these were till 17th Century AD
In the same history book we will read the critics of World war 1,II,Hitler,America,British ,Japans ,Korea's,Iran's,Israel's quest for expansion. Now Bush is being criticized for his IRAQ/AFGAN acts

I understand this argument may look absurd,but some how it keeps hitting my mind often. Though we can claim we are becoming a flat world now..more expansion on trade than war,etc I do not feel to be convinced.

One thing that convinces me is majority people in the world have started realizing that WAR is of no use and if you need to grow you have to have a different strategy

We may not be alive ,lets see how the kids read history books 100 years from now...we never knew Hitler,Saddam would also get into the category of Ashoka,Chengiz Khan,etc

Elam - Will any one understand the true cause

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/24/sri.lanka.india/art.lanka.afp.gi.jpg
The Sri lankan Govt /Army as well as those in India who does not know what humanity would be enjoying the happenings in and around Mullaithevu now.
If these people claim that LTTE is using civilians as shields in fighting the war but proceeded with the advancement in catching them is further brutal
Will Pranab (Who is not even able to speak proper English and does not want to assist the tamils in any cause) or the rest in Delhi would do the same if some terrorists keep some has hostages in a mosque and keep fighting ?
I'm not supporting LTTE here but we know they are bad elements ,to flush them if you make the general public also suffer is some thing that seems to be idiotic.
The people lost their lives,homes,familirs and were running like beggars in their own country
For those who say/think Tamils are minorities/aliens in Srilanka should either go back and read history. Northern Srilanka is almost a region where tamils ruled and the History dats back to 1500 Years and even beyond .

Raja Pakshae & Co were original migrants from Orissa/costal India into Srilanka. If a country cannot treat his civilians equally and discriminate in all aspects then it is obvious that the community gets agitated and raise its voice. May be what LTTE's approach would seem to be voilent and wrong but the reason for which they are trying to do is justifiable.

Sri lanka failed in all aspects to understand and full fill the needs of its civilians and if it wants to kee its own people in dark today they might be facing challenges from LTTE or a similar movement till it gets resolved. May be they will be able to succeed if they eradicate the entire Tamil community there.

It is very ashamed to know India's stand here. We should have snapped all diplomatic ties with Srilanka and forced them to take proper steps in fixing this situation rather than allowing them to go as they like and send use less emmisionaries later for name sake

Mr Karunanadhi again failed here totally. His administration was a total flop wit him not able to manage his family as well as take proper decisions at appropriate times

Satyam - In between Elections

Satyams bidding process and the next steps are really taking a lot of time. This is in fact going to be a greater concern especially for the employees there. The delay would make the clients do their consolidation and give them avenues to move to new vendors or part with one of the existing vendors. This will further detioriate the situation
For resources in Onsite it should not be a problem as they would be rebadging to their to the vendor,the issue is for the offshore resources whose positions are in stake

With the election coming in and Cong would not want to pull Raju & folks to the court drama as it would affect its morale especially for YSR,I feel there won't be any concerente steps taken in this front atleast until June '09 and the Raju's may stil be enjoying and playing chess in a first class Jail

Tribute to Mr Dharumi

I know when I write this it is pretty late but still I wanted to write on one of the greatest film personalities of Tamil Cinema. The one and Only "Nagesh".
When I was a student/Kid we did not had "Kamadi Thirai" or Naguachuavai Neram" . Even a tape recorder was very rare in our houses but still every one will use to mimic Nagesh's "Dharumi","Chellapa " or " Madhu Vandhuirrukaen".. One of the rare kind of personalities who was liked by the people of TamilNadu from 1960's till he passed away.
Almost most of the famous personalities had a political background to influence them but this man was independent of politics (barring the differences he had in 70's with MGR) and has made an impact in the industry to a greater extent.
Hope his works would be recogonized by the Govt's and preserve them for the future generations to follow

Cheap business tactics

Satyam's case has put forward how mean minded our business men are. The way by which other competetiors try to capitilise this situation and earn business is dis heartening. One statement by Narayanamorthy on ET "We cannot touch such a tainted company" is kind of disappointing. It is agreed that the management has done mistakes and they need to be punished but on the flip side no one is caring about the 50k employees and their fate.
When I see all other business gaints are keeping quiet it gives a suspicious thought that whether this issue is only with Satyam or else where also ? Was Raju doing it under the confidence that any way this is quiet common in India as all we know cheating Govt/breaking rules are quiet common for the richest sect of people.
One thing that is not clear is how can a company run like this for months . One or two months is understandable. The investigation should reveal lots of news and I guess with such indidents and the current economic crisis IT will no longer be the most preferred career for many

Satyam's Saga

Every one now on the business world should be talking about the Satyam' story. On top of it Media would be projecting its own story on this matter with lots of new stories and exclusive interviews.
Government has also now told that this issue need to be tackled by the corporate and Govt will not interfere in this matter

The only factor that is worrying is the company is not small ,has 50000+ employees. The employee morale and confidence need to be brought in ,else it will be a total disaster. It is hard to ask for a bailout either for the wrong deeds of the management. But finally the working class is suffering. May be this has thrown lots of questions and changes are expected on the employee safety when they were put into a fix like this by the top management

Lets wait and watch for few more days on how this goes

Channel 9 at its best

I just wanted to write about the channel which we have loved for so long right from our school days the Channel 9 of Australia which has been instrumental and frontrunner in broadcasting cricket series in Australia. I have been watching this sports channel right from the Benson and Hedges cup of 1985 where Ravi Shastri won the Man of the Series award till the recent ongoing Aus Vs SA series.
One of the good things the sports channel has been doing is to use the technology and the amount of effort it puts in making the game of cricket so interesting. Also one has to understand that the matches start at 5 AM IST (if it is a Day match) when our minds are clear

It was a different move to have 3 commentators doing the commentary instead of the traditional 2. On top of this the quality of cricket matched played,in this current year South Africans are playing tremendous cricket and the best quality of coverage and commentary makes you sit and watch Test Cricket with the same patience that you have for T20 or One day internationals

We have quiet a few criticisms of the commentary being too much Australian supportive/one sided/etc but neverthless it is awsome to watch a Test match or a one day Match in this channel.
Also we have to credit the Australian Board of having this tie up for so long and not making it as a dusty one like what we have in India.
Though we have a quiet a good India vs Englad Series Neo Sports coverage was way below expectations and standards compare to these channels. BCCI should look into these aspects and see if some improvements can be brought down there

Vote Bank Politics

We are seeing one of the worst politicians in the Indian History in the name of AR Antulay.
I'm not sure what he is trying to say but what ever he has did has shown how much narrow minded we are and these politicians are only there to grab votes and earn money. It is high time the people understand these ,do not get tied on religious or linguistics barriers and get rid of these un ethical and morale less people
When the whole country is shocked on the Mumbai incident ,this minister is questioning the deaths of some nobel people as a conspiracy. In fact those brave men should be rewarded more than what they deserve for.
The congress party is totally useless which has a accidental PM,Videshi Leader and the rest only look for Votes and nothing else.
Lets hope that the people come out of the barriers and teach lessons to all these politicians who do the job as a business ,they have forgotten that they need to do Service not do business

Shoe Spree

The recent incident on US president George W Bush in IRAQ has shown one thing that the world is in freedom of speech and Expression to its maximum extent
For Bush/America this may not be a big issue to worry about but the kind of media attention this issue us getting outside is too much than expected
One thing we should understand is the definition of Freedom of Speech or Expression should not be mis understood and people do what ever they want or like.
Even the Indian Media is not criticizing it rather expressing it as shame on the act of journilists.
Media holds higher responsibilites when the show some news as the impact could be both positive as well as negative.

I'm sure every person has a agony on some thing or the other but there is some way to express your agony and not do what ever u like

I guess future pressmeets does not mandate for Bare foot Journalists going forward

Pink Slips Fear

This is being talked propagated more in recent times due to the current economic crisis across the globe. This is more affecting India because Indian Companies are more dependent on US/European economies for their growth. As all we know the more time we are Idle (Un billed/productive) we will be fearing the chances of firing.

Consulting/billing mode of business is not new to India but in recent times the volume has increased. Since a major portions of the Engineering students opt for IT companies which expects each of them to earn revenues for every day they are in the company puts us into lots of questions
So far every thing was good and no one thought about the flip side and were happy with heavy salaries/Onsite trips/heavy week end spendings.
But when we are into crisis many who have not had a proper plan will be running into issues. Though the impact for India can be seen only on Metros and not much on rural/Semi urban areas ,the repurcussion could be more.
I'm typing this on the election counting day in US and as every one expected Obama may win and based on his first few months of economic reforms they situation may improve.His first aim would be to bring up the economy and his Outsourcing thougts may be put back on the priority list which could help our Indian companies to breath better.

Lets hope the nexy Fisical Year helps to bring the economy back ,else our Indian economy/Itcompanies will have to show a poor 4th quarter results.
For the public/in group gatherings the finance min/Prime min can say we are fine and the same can be propagated by the CEO's/CFO's that there won't be pink slips but in reality this may not be possible and this outcome is going to be a key parameter in our 2009 General Elections

Vote Bank Politics

One of the ugly political scenes we are seeing these days in the name of Religion/Linguistics
Ugly faces were shown thirough Raj Thackery & co and the Sangh Parivar is behaving in an erratic way on the Melagoan case

When Police is investigating the Melagoan case and charge sheeting some one ,any individual has the right to defend himself but the way by which Thackery & folks are defending Sadhive seems no difference than Cong/the rest did for Afzal Guru.
Why don't none of the political party come out of the vote bank politics.


The cong is a opportunists ,BJP's colours came out on their useless stand on Nuke Deal and Left is asusual only to criticize. All regional who have a presence in the parliment are predimonently mean minded.
We do not have a Gandhi now or a perosn who can control this country ,it is the country men who need to understand this and act responsibily so that these anti social elements do not take the control

Being Orthodox

Cricket is a Orthodox game. Every one accepts. But I guess this is the only game in the modern era where the game is controlled by umpires than the rules and Technology.
Tennis(Wimbledon) allows the player to question the decisions,NBA does it and so are the other games. But Cricket still follows the same old tradition,obeys Umpires decisions and blames the technology that it is not fool proof.

No matter how India played in this Sydney cricket Match,had the decisions have been proper and as per rules it would have been a different story. In Star cricket it is atleast a consolation to see the Australian commentators expressing their displeasure.

When you see NFL/NBA there will be a team of referee teams with a good amount of technology helping them. The dubious decisions are debated and resolved upon. Though we may not see 100% correct decisions there,possibility of reducing the errors is high

I've already told on the act of umpiers in a most foolish way during the world cup finals,the same is repeating here. If cricket is going like this,I'm pretty sure that it will loose its passion and cannot proliferate into many countries..

ICC need to look into this and see how it can address the gap.

Gujarat - Back Again

Almost all political analysts would have written their views on the recent mandate in Gujarat.
This poll reflected the Exit poll results. BJP is enjoying Modi's Victory and Congress is finding it difficult to face the media to explain the loss

One should think that Congress loss is not a big factor but on the other side if Modi had lost ,we could say that would have been the down fall of BJP . If BJP could not win in Gujarat then It cannot win any where. Gujarat is the only state where there is not much scope for regional parties and the fight is between Congress Vs BJP.

Modi has silenced all his critics . With very little support from Media and other forms he was able to register the victory.

With the 2009 National Elections coming in it will be interesting to see how Congress plays its cards now . Any how all congress leaders will have a big break and will have to think on the strategy

We were able to see the benefits of two party system in this election. Whether it is BJP or Congress we would have seen a absolute majority for one of these which is good for the development of the state..

I guess this victory would take Modi as a role model Chief minister and the way by which he has lead Gujarat should be studied and followed by the rest

Few are criticising that Modi was autocratic and National leaders could not control him. But to me BJP top leadership did a good job here by not interfering much. Good leaders will create more to follow them and that is what BJP has done..

New York Deserted

I was first frustrated to see my most favourite City Haunted and Empty. But thanks to the graphics /camera I could see all the important locations of NY in short time.

The movie started with the medicine cure for Virus and set some expectations that it is of a Science fiction and Medical Outbreak movie.

The story predimonently revolves around Will Smith and he has made sure that people don't get bored seeing at him. The story is based Richard Matheson's novel so not much to deviate from the base story.Cinematography is good and so are the dialogues. The scene where Smith spells out "Shrek" dialogues was nice to see and the effort to record every single action he does is really creative

The film carries a sick screen play and easily predictable story line. Though this is a Science Fiction where we cannot question on the logics the twists/turns in the story could have been better. The film seems to be of Horror category than thriller.

Will Smith has some good fan base in chennai and this movie should have some good viewership in chennai because majority of the viewer ship still loves action movies and movies of this genere. The climax many audience could not understand since most would have expected a action packed end to the story rather it ended as it was in the book with the fix for the virus found.

In short this movie can satisfy only those who wish to see this kinds of Genere's and for the rest it is a boring 100 mins

Living in Water - Alapuzha

I had been to Alapuzha(Kerala) for 3 days and it has been one of the memorable experiences I have had so far. More than spending time on touring a place I got a different experience on seeing a very different lifestyle of people.

I visited Alapuzha and stayed in a village called Pulimkunnu about 18 kms from Alapuzha town. The resort I stayed was very nice. It is called a village resort,so it had basic features of our Indian villages like Power cuts,lack of telephones. But other than this this is a very good village atmosphere set in. You do not have much options to eat but what ever served was very nice.

The Kerala style of cooking though not much different other than using coconut products was nice to have.

The best part of the trip is the one day stay at the house boat. I have heard of couples staying at house botats in Kumarakom and bachelors partying at house boats at Alapuzha before but what I experienced was a entirely different one. The house boat started from Pulimkunnu and went for about 40 kms on the backwaters full into the villages. I was thrilled to see kilometer boards kept on the water for the destinations .

The life style of people in the villages I could see was entirely different from what I have seen before. Many tourist places these days are crowded and people also change their life style accordingly. There is not much nativity seen in many places . But these villages I saw live in water and spend their life in boat travel.

There are no big trucks,traffic roads and pollution.Most of the villagers user boats for commutation and for crossing the banks cars/two wheelers use the boat . Fish is the staple food here and god has given it in plenty to the people here.

School children commute by boats to schools,Government runs boats like they run metro buses. Though the life of people living close to the banks is a concern during heavy rains ,people does not seem to bother about it.

One of the different way of Irrigation I saw (Though I'm not a strong agriculturist),on either sides of the backwater the paddy fields are flooded with water during rainy days and once the monsoon season is over(June-Sep) the water from these paddy fields are pumped into the backwaters,paddy is cultivated and then harvested by February and then again by June they start filling water. The rain water harvesting is done traditionally here but they do not call it by that technical name

I would say this is one of the must see places . If you are a nature lover and love to read/experience different life styles of people Alapuzha is a nice place to go. If Anthony Bourdain has not visited here before,I would recommend him to do so.

The Boss - Review

By this time most of the Tamil youths would have seen Sivaji and many websites would have given their review. So lets not discuss about the story now. We will see the positives and Negatives of this movie.

Full credits to shankar for making a movie specifically for Rajinikanth. The whole of the movie is nothing but Rajinikanth. We have not seen this Rajini Style in long time. In the previous hits Rajini either came in Young/Old roles(Padiyappa) or he was doing Urban/Rural hero based stories (Muthu/Arunachalam).

Art director Thotta Dharini has done a amazing job and Shankar has picturised the songs so beautifully. If Sivaji songs are alone sold as Music Videos it would generate good business. May be AVM can think of doing this

Though the story line is very thin and screen play not too effective ,it is Rajini who keeps the momentum going on and keeps the audience happy. Vivek has supported well.

Shankar in all his movies has taken some social cause and this time it is black money. We believe that AVM and the production team has paid to all the people who worked for Sivaji in White money. One thing to accept is all developed nations have a better way to track the business and money transactions and India has failed to do so far.

From the revenue point of view AVM has done a good job in releasing the film in maximum locations to make profits in the first few weeks. This movie may not run weeks like Chandramukhi but it should get the profits well ahead

Shankar has come down in his ideas for screen play .Anniyan itself reflected it and this further proves it. He has to seriously put his efforts here else he can be over run easily

Some times stories make a film successful,some times Music makes a film success full,but for Sivaji 'Rajini' has made the film successful. Hats of to Rajini for giving such a entertainer.

Pathetic Display

It has been said said for the past 6 weeks regarding this Cricket World Cup 2007. Lets not waste time by criticizing Indian players and their performances. But when you seriously this world cup was a total disaster in terms of entertainment. Lets ignore the argument of a length tournament. Sports if it is played with total spirit and produces entertainment people will not question the time period of the tournament. All they want is entertainment.

None of the matches were interesting baring one or two that too on the preliminary stages . The Super 8's where totally One sided and Semi's and finals followed the same story...
We can ignore this at least but when we see the last few minutes Bad light saga by the ICC referee/Umpires it was so pathetic. We at least are in the Eastern Time Zone. I really pity those cricket lovers from Asia who must have been awake the whole night to see this finals. One of the most Idiotic decisions taken that day. The total communication failure among the officials reg the D/L system,Rules on bad light created a havoc. Even a normal person could have taken a proper decision that day which was totally screwed by the Umpires and ICC Referee.

With cricket loosing its fame in non subcontinent countries ,the teams not playing well and if the event organization is getting screwed we are seeing a very BRIGHT FUTURE for THIS GAME

Whome to blame

Last one week it has been a overwhelming news regarding the Virginia Tech Slaughter. Almost all news channels allocated most of their air time to cover this incident. Every one no matter whom it is who had contacts with the victims as well as the shooter were interviewed

Leaving all things behind if we have to see what thought would have made a normal human being do such a devastating thing ?
Killing people is not some thing a rare event. In war people kill each other. Terrorist kill common people without any kind of mercy. Of course War/Terrorism have some predefined definition for the killings.Whether they are right or Wrong that's different argument but the motive/background is known . But for this incident will a person who is a loner/mentally affected plan so well to execute a Mass Murder ?

I personally would say the parents should play a vital role in shaping a person. We can blame lots of parameters such as Gun laws,Lack of communication among Medical institutes/Police ,college authorities,etc. But none of these has a direct control on this person than those who are close to that guy. I'm not sure whether his medical records were shared with his parents. More over this country has laws of not sharing those things once a person becomes a major.
One main difference in the culture of West and of countries like India is a person is under parents control at least until he/she gets married. One gets moulded/gets to a better shape when he is surrounded by good people around him who care for him .
So a persons brought up in his younger age shapes him better. So Parents ..Pls do take care of your kids and put more effort in shaping them.

A thougtt

I was just seeing 'Gandhi' film few days back and reading his Experiments with truth book. In our younger days we have been told Gandhi as a great man,nobel,wise,etc in our books,etc. But when you read the whole story about him we kind of come to know great this person is. He seems to be a different person when you see him as a politician.

This man has kind of controlled whole of India in 1920's when the communication system was very very less compared to what it is now. Be it be British revolt or Hindu-Muslim clash the efforts he took and people loving him was too good to see. This person was beyond religious/caste/diversity barrier. Every Person from Kanyaumari to the extreme north (could be Pakistan now) liked him

The reason for me telling this is with the growing political trend we do not have a charismatic leader whom people love. Of late the President(Mr Kalam) is kind of liked by all and kids/youngsters consider him as role model. But he has nothing to say in politics.

Of course countries that practice democracy for a longer period than India like US have matured in the political arena. More than Individuals it is the policy/practices the parties follow make people align them selves towards them (Conservative,Left,Liberal,Socialist)

Even though in India we have our parties aligning themselves towards some of these still they do not stick on to it or follow it strictly. One good thing we have achieved is we are into this setup only for 60 years with the biggest diversities existing within the culture.


Having said this there is no point in blaming politicians/politics .Or we cannot expect a Mahatma now .One of the way to stream line/improve is to have educated people involving themselves in Politics.The parties won't chnage suddenly. Only the people running them should change it .So more civilized people and democracy within the party will help streamlining them

World Cup - So far

The worldcup is half way through. More than the tension/excitement on the matches media and public have already had lots of entertainment in various happenings.
India's exit from he world cup, and the related team/coach changes with new initiatives by BCCI ,Pakistan's poor performance and Woomer's death adding to this , Bangladesh's stunning performance against South Africa and West indies dismissal performance.

For a cricket lover barring two matches of Srilanka none of the matches proved exciting or nail biting. With Srilanka defeating Newzeland,the Semi final spots are kind of closed for England and Westindies. Aussies are still the favourites and I'm backing Srilanka to win this world cup...