In the name of modernity- a Shameful act

When Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunctioned during the superbowl half-time show in US, the entire USA denounced the act and FCC sprung to action to stop these kind of indecent behavior to be broadcast live on TV in prime time. While in India, where tradition is talked up so high, has been flouted handily by none other than the TV run by people with power! Today they showed a full-featured sexual video in the name of news during prime time. These kind of act should be punished. The network should be fined heavily so they can't operate again in this fashion. However as they are close to power and in the fight to remain relevant as the entire entertainment industry is used in promoting the TV owned by the Chief minister.

When I was in College, there was a huge cry when Discovery channel showed the sexual life of Elephants during an hour documentary on the life of elephants. They objected only to animals, its not objectionable to show humans' activity in prime time. The government banned smoking scenes in movies. They showed this on TV because they were not smoking, they were indulging in lude behavior.

Shame on the these folks who run the TV and people who are in power in Tamil nadu. People in that state don't care as they care only about money.

Copenhagen for India

Todays reports on the business section mentioned, there is a 61% growth in car sales in this quarter! Even with that, the number of people who can afford/ buy a car is miniscule. With 6 million plus people in chennai alone, with so many people using alternative forms of commuting, there are no roads with proper pavement to support people who walk and people who could use the bi-cycle.

On the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit, I think there has to be a policy level directive for new road layouts. All plans for roads should have plans for a pavement and a bi-cycle path. This will not only be beneficial to the common man (80% of the public) but also will aim at improving our green initiative and saving the planet.

UN body on climate, should build this into the mandatory statute for all countries. Countries should be able to trade such saved Carbon, making it an economic incentive for them to invest in these projects.

Technologically upgraded; Morally degraded

Wherever you turn there is growth in buildings whether it is on a lake or a regular land. People are a buying binge. Growth is unplanned to the full extent from buildings to roads. People have every technolgoically advanced gizmos that you can think of. You name it, its available in the market here in Chennai and definitely on use in households. They don't think twice to spend on anything. People only think about how to and what to buy. They care neither about how they could use it nor about how you get it? They are ready to go to any extent to make money - however illegal it could be. They don't think twice about taking money from politicians (not just for votes) but now it is institutionalized. When there is a drought or heavy rains, the govt. dolls out money to the public to take care of them during such a calamity. This is distributed not by officials but by politicians (counsillors, panchayat board members etc), a gross mis-use of power. Even people who are wealthy enough get this money. Even the even-minded folks say they take the money otherwise, the person distributing will take the money themselves. So why not me? They don't want to question this process!

Even the recently build flyovers and roads are bumpy (few of them are good too). This is my experience in Chennai. This need not be the case with other towns and cities in Tamil Nadu. However, Chennai is the political capital and normally is a bell-weather for other towns and cities. They may not be as bad as chennai but might be there in a few years time.

Sahasra-namam

Recently, attended a discource titled "Lalitha Sahasranamam - A vendantic perspective" by Shri. Swami Tattvavidananda, a desciple of Pujya Shri. Dayananda Saraswathi Swami.
The interesting thing in all these Sahasranamams (1000 names or lord / Godess) is that these names belong to the three categories. 1. Mythology (has a story behind), 2. Rituals , 3. Philosophical.
Some names are given to the lord as he took those mythological forms, some for the rituals being performed to make him / her happy and the last is the vedantic or philosophical manifestation of the lord. I recite vishnu sahasranamam, but never thought in terms of these.

Naming Roads after Actors

Read a recent news item that the TN govt. is planning to name roads after the leading actors Kamal & Rajini. Kamal is a great actor and Rajini is a great human being. However, looking back, doesn't TN have any other person to name the road after? Its not be-littling them, but what examples are we setting to the next generation? Can you name ONE person in the recent past that the govt. named the streets after? Don't we have Dr. M.S Swaminathan? Don't we have Dr.Abdul Kalam? Don't we have Mr. Sujatha - the writer & Scientist? The pathetic state of TN is if you want to be great, then you have to become an actor. Is this what we want our kids to become? The cine industry is having an exorbitant say in the govt. in TN while no other industry / section of the society has such an influence.

Some recent events and my thoughts

This time, I want to write what my mind went through when I read recent events...
First is the outpour in BJP regarding the book written by Mr. Jaswanth Singh. Whatever he wrote, may be correct or may be wrong but there are certain thing that is better remain unsaid. We all know that RSS and their idelogues (folks in BJP) are so pained by the partition of India and till today they don't agree to it. This was quite evident when a reporter in Pakistan shouted"Pakistan is not complete without Kashmir", Vajpayee retorted saying "India is not complete without Pakistan" during the now infamous Lahore Bus trip. Whether one agrees or not, it is a fact and you need to base your policies on the reality and not on what you would like the situation to be. How long one can mourn the dead. BJP and the leadership rather than beat Jaswanth Singh, should have taken this approach saying "India is not complete without Pakistan" and may be whatever Jaswant says is correct and these are all hypothetical situations. I would say the BJP leadership didn't react in the correct way.
Having said that, there are two reasons for the downward trend facing BJP.
1. Vajpayee did NOT unequivocally come in support of Advani. He should have and in my opinion he has did great injustice to the party. He should openly campaigned for Advani during last election.
2. There are no more second rung leaders to Advani in the same way how Advani served Vajpayee. This is a reality and Advani should have realized this and run the party based on this fact.

The second aspect, that troubled me was the current management of Subiksha losing control of the organization. This was serving as a classical example for a home grown business from an IIT / IIM person. It is sad to see this blowing a death knell to it.

The third is the wonderful game of tennis in the finals of US open. Wow! Del Potro showed off all the qualities of a naive but a hard charging new bee. Federer was showed off that how a champion would play. However, I could see that his game was not the same as he was missing his serves and making unforced errors. We have to wait and see whether Del Potro is a raising star or a one-time anomaly. Good Luck to both as I love tennis.

Achamundu Achamundu

After a long time, I saw a Tamil movie. It was very good, all the actors involved didn't overact or screw up, a solid story line and no unneccesary jokers, songs, fight etc. Above all, everyone in this generation IT field could easily relate to the family in the story. I felt like seeing another "Kuruthip punal". Folks like Kamal, KB, Cheran, Manirathnam should pay attention and give this team a good support in the future.

Cash for Clunkers - Useless for consumers

The recent US govt. policy on offering upto 4500 for old cars to induce consumers to buy new fuel efficient cars, is infact useless to the consumers. Couple of months ago, whatever cars that were being sold for 27K are now being sold for 32k. In reality, its the dealers who get this money. Consumers, in fact should have just stayed away from the dealers . They didn't and the dealers took advantage of it. It has definitely increased the economic activity and again the consumers are the losers!

An interesting perspective

My 2 -1/2 year old son is momy's pet. We can say n-number of reasons why he is mom's boy (she spends more time with him, does whatever his needs are etc.). However, in general son's turn out to be Mom's pet and girls turn out to be Dady's pet. The main reason behind this is, one doesn't call it a bluff on the human being of opposite sex. Dad knows the ins & outs of a boy and he can easily visualize himself as that kid, so he doesn't really buy into the sons' tantrums. Whilst the mom though she understands this, she can't call it a bluff and plays into him. The son thinks, Mom doesn't know and happy that he tricked her into believing him. The fact is she knows whats' happening but somehow is unwilling to play it straight while she has no qualms playing it straight to her daughter. To hide this fact the Mom would come up with umpteen reasons saying its a girl and she would be marrying into another family etc. But all these explanations are vail over the fact that she knows the bluff and calls it a bluff when it comes to girls. This vice versa between Daddys and girls.