The Comeback but not with a bang!

Clearly I am running out of ideas of what to write. It is very true that one's thinking diminishes with age. Yes!!! I am aging and the very thing to prove it is: I have got married 3 months back to this day and that very thought makes me go Yikessss!!!!!

Well guess I need sometime to get back into the groove until then sit back and enjoy this picture.

PS: My last post was about very own Indian Chuck Norris and this also has something to with him. Does this not qualify to explain how big a fan I am?

PPS: Only I can call him Indian Chuck Norris and if anyone else have to call him so, you will have to bear the brunt of my anger (this is more of a Statutory Warning).

Thalaivar, his larger than life image and the heavy propaganda!!

He is the Demigod of the Indian film industry and in South India, his name needs no special mention.  In India there is and there can be only one Super Star and yes he is-Rajnikanth our very own thalaivar.  I am still surprised that this blogs spell check does not recognize the name Rajnikanth and pointed it as a spelling mistake.  It is that time of the year when director Shankar comes with his magnum opus Endhiran/Robo/Robot starring Super Star Rajnikanth and ex-Miss World Aishwarya Rai and the crowd is going haywire.  As If tickets being sold out for the entire first week and the exorbitant prices of the tickets for the movie weren't enough, some crazy thalaivar fans in Mumbai are going to do shower a life-size poster of his with 100-200 liters of milk.  This is insane and I am pretty sure even Rajnikanth himself would not agree to this.  If we take a moment and think about the countless people who hardly have a meal to eat in India, we definitely would refrain ourselves from this nefarious act. But do we? Well, Hello No!!

Now, this is just one incident which has caught the attention of the media.  But there are several incidents where we consider the stars be it Movie stars, politicians or sports as next only to God and waste tons of money just to show our insanity filled affection towards them.  I would rather spend the money/milk (in the above case) to those people who barely have a meal to fill their stomach instead of letting it go into gutters.  Since these stars have such soaring popularity among the masses, I think they should come out in public and make an appeal to their fans to donate the money to some noble cause.  It might probably work given the charisma they have among the audience.  Leave apart stars.  How about the milk abhiskeham we do to please Gods?  I understand we have our own beliefs but for one minute, just sit down, relax and give it a thought.  Will God not be happy if you feed the milk to some hungry, orphaned kid on the street rather than wasting it over an idol of his?  Just a little thought folks and I am pretty sure you can be part of the change that you bring to the nation.

Well, putting a brake to the serious thoughts, there was a funny email forward that I received and wanted to share it with everyone.

"Rajinikanth was bragging to Jayalalitha one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."
Tired of his boasting, Jayalalitha called his bluff, "OK, Rajini how about Tom Cruise?" "Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it" Rajini said.
So Rajini and Jayalalitha fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise shouts "Thalaiva! Great to see you! You and your friend come right in and join me for lunch!". Although impressed, Jayalalitha is still skeptical.
After they leave Cruise's house, she tells Rajini that she thinks Rajini knowing Cruise was just lucky. "No, no, just name anyone else" Rajini says. "President Bush", Jayalalitha quickly retorts. "Yes", Rajini says, "I know him, let's fly out to Washington". And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Rajini on the tour and motions him, saying, "Rajini, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up". Well, Jayalalitha is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced.
After they leave the White House grounds, she expresses his doubts to Rajini who again implores her to name anyone else. "The Pope", Jayalalitha replies. "Sure!" says Rajini, "My folks are from Poland and I've known the Pope a long time". So off they fly to Rome.
Rajini and Jayalalitha are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Rajini says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope." And he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican.
Sure enough, half an hour later Rajini emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But by the time Rajini returns, he finds that Jayalalitha had a Heart Attack and is surrounded by paramedics.
Working his way to Jayalalitha's side, Rajini asks her, "What happened?"
Jayalalitha looks up and says, "I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man next to me said who's that on the balcony with Rajini?""

"Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself"- Oprah Winfrey.

The Director's Cut

A director's role for the success of a movie need no mention.  However wonderfully the artistes play their role to perfection, it is only when the story is good and the taking is good, does the movie becomes a success.

One of the director's whom I admire is Ram Gopal Varma.  This guy has given some of the best movies and also some of the most infamously famous duds of the decade.  I admire this guy not only for his direction, aesthetic sense towards movies but also for his blatant truth and outspokenness. Good or bad, if there is one person whom I would want to emulate it would be RGV.  For someone who has been so blatantly rude to most of his colleagues in the movie industry, he is still being regarded high.  For those who follow him on twitter, you must be very well knowing the way he takes a dig at Karan Johar.

Well, now to those who are not aware of RGV's latest movie, it is Katha, Screenplay, darshakathvam-Appal Raju.  It is his straight telugu movie after a long hiatus.  The movie stars one of the happening telugu comedian Sunil.  There is this one song which people have been updating in their social networking sites and in this song he ridicules most of the directors in telugu film industry and their working style.  Of course he never escapes a chance of self dethronement.  Yes!! He does humiliate himself too and all this done in a subtle way.  What is surprising is that RGV invites most of the directors whom he has taken a dig in this song to this movie's opening ceremony.  No wonder he loves to be hated.

The To-Do List

The to-do lists are quite common in everyone's lives. While some like to do things impromptu some make a list and plan things accordingly.  I've been used to this "to-do list" from when I was a kid. My grandfather always used to have this "to-do" list when he used to make these n-trips a week to Secunderabad and I used to admire him for his perfection. Well, hell-no. I never used to think it was good. For me it was insanely insane. "To-do " list?? Jeez go get a life folks.

However, when gmail introduced the tasks option, I became insane too, making a "to-do" list.  Not because  I wanted to be a perfectionist or because I thought it was super-cool or something but because of my amnesia solely attributed to my ignorance.  Now now enough of this humbug.  Why did I start about this "to-do" list?  I did because it had something to do with a post written on the white board hanging in our meeting room.  Friday mornings are no fun especially when you have this weekly status meeting to let your boss know what you do. Grrrr!!!! I hate those meetings.  The "to-do" list on the board was way too hilarious and 'A' who had recently joined our group became a victim of some brutally  hilarious onslaught.  People who sat beside her cubicle started pulling her leg and making fun of the "to-do" lists she makes.  One of them was "Eat when you are hungry"!!  I guess she needs someone inception. Someone to implant ideas into her head rather than this "to-do" list.

Anyways, I know that this post comes nowhere close to making sense but I wanted to post this picture which I found it a little bit geeky too.  To all those saaaftwaare engineers, does this not represent to some 'C' programming?

An emotional band

Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu festival which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters.  It is celebrated on the full moon of the Sharvaana Masam.  This festival marks the tying of a rakhi on the wrist of the brother by the sister (not necessarily blood relations).

Being the only child, I never had someone tying a rakhi to me.  As a kid, I always used to feel bad when my friends came to school with rakhi on their wrists and I used to go back home pestering my mom as to why I did not have a sister.  Unable to bear my tantrums, my parents also posted a rakhi on my cousin's name when I was in 3rd grade only to see a glowing smile on my face.  But as I grew up, I began to cherish my loneliness and no longer craved for people or attention.

As they say 'Change is the only constant'  and this change found it's destiny several years later in Uncle Sam's humble abode in Connecticut. As I opened my mail box, I as usual found some bunch of junk mails lying but among them was this mail from my best friend Soumya Rampally.  I did not even have the slightest clue that Rakhi was fast approaching this year and when I opened the mail, I was pleasantly surprised to have received Rakhi from Soumya.

Thanks Soumya!! You have been the most wonderful and the best sister I could have ever asked for. I wish we could meet personally on this day if not for the miles apart that we stay :)

Religious Trauma?

A picture of an Indian Goddess-Yes!! An Indian Goddess. I do not want to get religion into picture. I am not an atheist and neither am I a staunch believer but this picture hurts.  India is a country which is multi-cultured, multi-religious and we worship so many Gods (right from Gods with elephant heads to people hanging on from a cross sign) but we never resort to such lame promotional methods.  We give due respect and that's it-period.

A shoe store in Balboa Island, Irvine which depicts the picture of an Indian Goddess Lakshmi whose head has been replaced by some blonde female with slippers in each of her hand.  Care to ignore the plight?

Musings and Rantings about My Own Private India

Joel Stein's recent article My Own Private India has caused a huge uproar amongst my fellow Indians and also most of the NRI's who have been a part of Uncle Sam's country for quite a few decades.  The article already did get its deserved share of rantings from all corners of the world. I am no different from all those who have been critical of the article but at the same time this article did raise a few questions in my wacky brain.

Born and brought up in a country where you have scores of religions, quite a few dozens of castes and sub-castes and infinitely many more languages, life in the US of A was totally a different league for me.  I am pretty sure it must have been for most of the first timers here.   I was so much fascinated by this country's warmth and broad mindedness though I did often miss the extra warmth of my Mother India.  More importantly this country by far taught all the fellow country men to be united (ohh!! Yeah Indians too. No way I am deliberately taking a dig at my fellow country folks).

Let us for sometime be honest guys.  How many times do we fight amongst ourselves back home?  Pretty sure many of you must be well aware of the recent Telangana issue that has been rocking the state of Andhra Pradesh.  Also not to forget Y. S. Jagan, son of the deceased Chief Minister YSR who has been keeping the current Government and the Chief Minister Mr. Rosaiah on their toes and not to forget the terrible nightmares that the Government is getting because of Jagan's Odarpu Yathra.

We fight amongst ourselves based on castes and also sub-castes. Some of these have even influenced the present day youth so much that they make friendship only based on the caste and totally alienate people from the other castes.  Yes, this is quite true and can be very much visible to the naked eyes if you look at a few engineering colleges and medical colleges in Vijayawada and Vizag.  Not to forget that the Telugu people are called "gultis" by the Tamil folks and the Tamil folks called "arravam" by the Telugu folks.  Are we being ignorant or doesn't anyone know how the North Indians and South Indian wait for an opportunity to pick up on each other?  I was one of those guys who was taunted as "idly-sambhar" quite a few times because I was from the southern part of India.  All these finally stopped when I retorted back making fun of their region and language too which obviously was quite bad on my part. Yes!! For the fact I am being a hypocrite but all that was not in control.  Are we no less racists when compared to Stein or the Aussies or the Brits?

Ok!! Enough beating around the bush.  All this was just meant to be an eye-opener but honestly I am not in support of Stein's stale humorous article.  Eye-opener??  Yes.  The only time I see Indians uniting amongst them is when a third party comments on Indians as whole and not just one region.  When we ourselves pick on at every instance of our lives, why get angry when someone else has called us "dot-heads"?  Why can't we all be united at all times and not only at instances when a third person instigates us?  Is that difficult or is it quite a herculean task?

It is going to be a herculean task until we change our attitudes and way of thinking.  We need to believe that there is no religion above humanity and the feeling of oneness. No person or no country is perfect. So why rant about each other? Why make a fuss out of nothing?  Doesn't every individual want some peace in his life?

Responses from Deepa Iyer and Kal Penn on Stein's article which might cool you guys down a bit but I don't think you would want to read Sagarika Ghose's article to raise your tempers again.  Honestly speaking, I totally concur with Sagarika's views as she was being utmost practical and to the core.

PS: You must visit Edison in NJ to see how Indianized it is.  No wonder Stein was pissed off.