Perfect Perceptions

Rules not meant to be broken

2008-12-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

Rules not meant to be broken ( Read on the net..)

1. Give back
2. Play nice
3. Define your special sauce
4. Don't waste people's time
5. Brag (but don't believe your own hype)
6. LOVE WHAT YOU DO AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE
7. Have a personal slogan
8. Have a plan and alter it as work and life evolve
9. Be relevant and stay relevant
10. Create and use a support system
11. Stay in the loop
12. COOL IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT
13. Follow up
14. Offer service with a smile
15. Be a superhero, super-doer (if not, a rock star!)
16. Find a nemesis
17. Stay on people's radars
18. One for you, one for me
19. Pay attention and be consistent
20. Be genuinely enthusiastic
21. TRUST YOUR GUT
22. Do the right thing
23. Say THANK YOU!

A nation of Billion spectators and a total of 20 Olympic medals altogether!

2008-08-26T23:18:00.000-07:00

India

at 2008 Beijing Olympics

Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	0	2	3

Just browsing around the internet, I have read plenty of columns and analysis about India's participation and performance at 2008 Beijing Olympics, just presenting some of them for your thoughts..

In the Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_at_the_Olympics

India is credited for first participating at the Olympic Games in 1900, with a lone athlete (Norman Pritchard) winning two medals in athletics. The nation first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920, and has participated in every Summer Games since then. India has also competed at several Winter Olympic Games since 1964.

Indian athletes have won a total of 20 medals, mostly in field hockey. The men's field hockey team was dominant in Olympic competition, winning eleven medals in twelve Olympiads between 1928 and 1980, including six successive gold medals from 1928–1956.

in Hindu http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/27/stories/2008082755601100.htm

First: building a sporting culture in the country. Each of us has to play a role in this, you included. When was the last time you played a game, or swam or cycled or ran? Last year? In college? In school? We are a cricket crazy nation but 99 per cent of us are spectators that too, television viewers — but we are the first to shout at Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dhoni on the screen, telling them what they should do.

What should the government do? Make sports/physical education a compulsory subject up to class 10; encourage schools to provide exposure to the sports pyramid in a structured manner to the students; delineate a sports and fitness policy and execute it relentlessly;

in Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JH08Df03.html

Well, the auguries don't look too good. For one, a nation of a billion-plus people - the world's most populous democracy - has dispatched a small squad of 57 athletes (and 42 officials) to the Games. In other words, with a total of 28 sports and 302 events to compete in, only a meager 57 Indians athletes are qualified participants.

Contrast this with the United States, which marches into Beijing with a powerhouse contingent of 596 athletes. China has 639 and even tiny Estonia has 47 representatives. In terms of the total Olympic medal tallied, India ranks even behind Nigeria, a country whose economy is one-twentieth of its size.

About half the money from India's outlay will be channeled towards administrative expenses and the salaries of officials and bureaucrats. In other words, much of it will be gobbled up in administrative expense rather than the crucial training of athletes

Many feel that the first step for India would be to loosen the tight control of politicians, bureaucrats and administrators over the country's numerous sports associations - at the Athens Games in 2004, 227 officials accompanied 75 athletes.

and If some of you want some consolation, you can read this in Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/25/india.olympicgames2008

"The Chinese have built their success strategically by concentrating on diving, gymnastics and table tennis. We need to do the same in shooting, weightlifting and boxing. It's entirely possible to win more medals. Many more."

and Some wrote like this,
Well we had a Bronze in 2000, and we had a Silver in 2004, now we have 1 Gold and 2 Bronzes in 2008, doesn't it look like progress?

Is that true?

Dasavatharam - review.

2008-06-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Dasavatharam review:

This review is my personal opinion of the movie. Have made an attempt as how Dr. Kamal Hassan would have conceived the movie. There could be flaws in my interpretation, but have made a sincere attempt to be honest and had to watch the “full” movie second time to get clear understanding of the movie.

Prelude:

The movie is based on ‘Chaos Theory’ and the screenplay has been adopted just to prove it. Ironically, Mr. Hassan has used Lord Vishnu’s ten avataram to prove ‘his belief’ about Chaos Theory, that’s the gist of the movie.

Recently, I have started admiring him more as a official/unofficial director(Hey Ram, Virumandi and Alavandhan) than as an actor and this movie is just another example. This movie has lot of flaws, which I am sure he would have very easily avoided on his own, but could not. The reason, I guess, is just the opposite of what people commonly believe. It is a common belief that he interferes with his director’s work but this film clearly shows that the director and producer have interfered in Mr. Hassan’s script, if not it would have clearly catered at least one set of audience. The director and producer, must have insisted Mr. Hassan to spice up the script by adding few commercial ingredients. The end product is “neither for the class nor for the mass audience”. A lot of stuff seen in the movie have put Vijay/Rajinikanth movies to shame. Example, Patti running over people’s shoulder to put the veil under the statue, the bullet getting rid of Avatar Singh’s cancer tissue, Christian Fletcher jumping down without any tools from the fifth-sixth floor of a building, Govind Ramaswamy jumping from a high bridge without knowing what is going to happen next, only to find him cushioned on a vegetable lorry, over use of Asin in the second half etc etc., Such things could have been VERY EASILY avoided. Quite naturally, the producer must have been scared about the commercial success of the movie and hence the director/producer’s influence is clearly seen in such scenes.

Regarding make-ups, a lot of hard work and effort has gone into it, from that aspect he has done at great job even at his age. However, the end product reminded me of the fancy dress competition that we used to have in my school, nothing more than that.

In my opinion, if Mr. Hassan was bold, he on his own should have produced this movie and should have made it like the Lord of the Rings. This movie had quality contents that could have been filmed for a minimum of 8-10 hours. I am sure it would have been a class movie if it was done that way.

Review:

As said earlier, the movie is about Kamal Hassan’s belief in “chaos theory “and “butterfly effect”, according to this theory what it means is

“systems whose state evolves with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory.

According to this concept, the happenings of a system(here world) are highly sensitive to the initial conditions, that is the reason he goes back to the 12 th century, where the heavy statue of Lord Vishnu falling on to the sea bed has a small effect on the tectonic plates, slowly causing a chain reaction, which later develops into a Tsunami after 800 years. He also intelligently uses the Nambi character from the same 12 th century as the fore-father of Govind Ramaswamy’s character to tell the story. Excellent story telling technique.

Secondly, a lot of people criticize the use of ten characters, he surely has a valid reason to it and has done it very neatly and each character has a meaning to the chaos theory. If Bush had called the plane back to US, the story would not have progressed, had the Japanese character not been there Christian Fletcher would not have been killed, had Patti not dropped the veil into the statue it would have gotten into the hands of the villain, with Kaifullah, Govind character would not have escaped, without Vincent Boovaragan, Andal(Asin) and the statue(which had the veil) would not have been saved, a lot like these, and the list goes on and on. All these things happen in a unpredictable chaotic manner and had a effect on the final happening, in short chaos theory.

Kamal Hassan has VERY NEATLY attached(he could have done it more effectively) each of the ten characters to the ten avatarams of Lord Vishnu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_Avataras

1. Shingen Narahashi – Narasimha avataram – Not just the name and the makeup, also the characterization. In Narsimha avataram, Lord Vishnu was a guru and he was neither a man nor an animal and had to kill Hiranyakasipu without any weapons and hence the martial arts thing and the weird makeup.

2. Vincent Boovaragan – Krishna avataram -Was a Dalit, Saves Andal(Asin) from the Sand quarry villan while her cloth is being stripped and gets killed by a steal rod poked on his leg. Exactly similar to what Krishna was and how he died, Krishna died of an arrow being hit in his leg and saved Draupathi while her dress was stripped and he too was suppose to be a Dalit.

3. Kalifulla Khan - Vamana Avatar – This is the avataram where he takes the vishwaroopam and hence this character.

4. Christian Fletche - Parasuram Avataram – Referred as Rama with the Axe – Christian Fletcher has an iron axe in his hand. This is one avataram where Lord Vishnu gets into killing spree and kills and kills 21 generations, and so does Christian Fletcher her, he gets into a killing spree.

5. Krishnaveni Paati – Varaha Avatar – Her makeup was very horrible, plus if you look closely, the character’s makeup resembles like a pig, mouth protruding and also she plays that character of a pig in the Mukundha song……

6. Rangaraja Nambi - Masya Avatar – This character was tied to the statue and thrown into the sea, loosely depicted character of Masya Avatar.

7. Balaram Naidu – Balaram Avatar – The name and action clearly imply this avatar and he was fair skinned as compared to his brother Krishna and hence the makeup looks pretty close to Vincent Boovaragan.

8. Avatar Singh – Rama Avatar – Who believes in love and one man/one woman theory, and hence he was willing to sacrifice his voice for his wife….

9. Koorma Avatar – Probably Bush –for being slow to act, the character even says funnily, “if it is complicated then don’t say”.

10. Govind Ramasamy – Kalki Avatar – Who is yet to appear and is suppose to appear to the current world.

He has clearly weaved a very good script, with an excellent storyline and clearly interlinked it at each stage to chaos theory with the help of the above ten characters. He did not make an ordinary rags to riches or love story that we see today, he has given a very brave attempt.

To make it class movie he should have cut all the commercial contents and made each of the character elaborate, and made it a 10 hour movie, but will people accept it ???

If no, he is not running a charity, he too is running a business, from that aspect he has done an excellent job.

I might or might not agree to his concept of chaos theory, keeping that aside, he surely is a RARE and TRUE genius in Indian cinema a class apart. We should be proud of unearthing such a treasure, we should encourage him and people like him for their on screen activities if we need to take Indian cinema to the next level.

Rotten American Banking System (let me coin a name and call it “RABS syndrome”)

2008-04-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

Rotten American Banking System (let me coin a name and call it “RABS syndrome”):

I have tried to present this article in pure but simple English that way it benefits anyone who reads it. This is an attempt to lay a picture of how rotten the American Banking system is and mainly how dysfunctional its governing bodies are. This mismanagement will have a significant adverse impact on the financial stability of this beautiful country and essentially the rest of the world. When will it happen ? no person/organization can predict but the current practice cannot sustain. RABS, I can say is the mother of all financial problems this county has faced and will face for the foreseeable future, the mortgage crisis is just a drop of water when compared to this RABS ocean.

My trading knowledge in derivatives segment (option trading) has helped me understand this mess. I accidentally started this research when I first read about the Countrywide-Bank of America merger, the deeper I got into this the scarier it became. Again, this is just my understanding of what I saw, I am neither an economist nor a Finance guy, this gives me a 'comfort' that I could be wrong (considering the implications of RABS based on my findings, will be more than happy to be wrong).

Let me put forth a few definitions before I can start using these terms in the article

Comptroller – A comptroller or controller is a person who supervises accounting and financial reporting within an organization (wiki definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptroller )

Derivatives – A Financial instrument/contract, whose value is, derived from the value of something else (usually an underlying asset), will try to explain more about this later in the article. Some common examples of derivatives are: Option trading(Calls and Puts), Futures, Commodity Contracts and Interest Rate contracts, see wiki definition of derivatives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_%28finance%29

The US treasury/Government/Fed is the Comptroller of all US National banks – called as the Office of the Comptroller of the currency('OCC'), they have an official website, see the proud statement at the top which says "Ensuring Safe and Sound National Banking System for all Americans" (please visit this site before you read the rest of this article, even if it is just a click to read their statement, it is fine: http://www.occ.treas.gov/index.htm )

They give a 'Quarterly Report' on the Bank's Derivative activities ( http://www.occ.treas.gov/deriv/deriv.htm ). They have all their reports since the fourth quarter of 1995 published for everyone to see for free, I guess it should be because of the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA).

Getting back to the derivatives, the biggest advantages of derivatives trading is: Leverage. If you have traded options, you know what it means. For people who are new derivatives trading, let me very briefly explain what options are(for others please skip the following para).

There are two types of options: Call Option(you buy them when you anticipate that the underlying asset will appreciate) and Put Option(you buy them when you anticipate that the underlying asset will depreciate). Every option has an expiry date, which means your anticipation is tied not only to price movement but also price movement within certain period of time. Then there is a the price which is called Strike price, the price that you think is appropriate for your strategy. Let me try to explain with a small example: Say you anticipate Gold to close above $1000 by June 2008 and assume today(April 03 2008) it is trading around $900. You would buy a call option(say for $10) at for a strike price of $1000 that expires in the month of June and if the price of gold goes to $1050 before the expiry of the option, you gain $40. This is because you paid a premium of $10 for that option and that premium means anything above $1000 is yours to keep , now you are suppose to get $50 because the asset has appreciated to $1050 but you have paid a premium of $10, so your net profit is $40. The more the asset appreciates the more the gain you make. Now what happens if the asset falls down below $1000, all you loose is your premium – the $10. This is exactly how options trading can give you leverage. The following link however gives a very good introduction of what they are and how they function (http://www.investopedia.com/university/options/ ).

In here, with respect to the banking system a derivative or options is a “financial contract” between various financial/banking institutions. The contract usually has an underlying asset, the asset can be anything in this world, it can be peanuts (literally), it can be oil, it can be stocks, it can be mortgage backed securities, it can be anything, except you and me(might change soon !!). These contracts move based on the price movement of the underlying assets. What US investment banks (for various reasons they do not have the same restrictions that of the consumer banks have) do is control these assets by owning a fraction of them in the form of options, they do this just for their own leverage/profit. The Fed has to go by the terms dictated by them, if not these investment banks will fail and so will the economy and Bear Stearns is just one of them. I have made a decent attempt in the rest of the article to explain how it works and what is bound to happen.

Let us now discuss based on the latest report of 'OCC' (The third quarter 2007 report) – mind you this is an official government report, so it is not prepared by just you or me or any third party organization - http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2007-137a.pdf

Read the whole report at your leisure, if you need quick info navigate to the 21 st page of the report you will see a very scary reading. The table says that the top 25 National banks put together just own around 4% of their assets that they trade. Plus they are NOT trading in Millions or Billions, they are trading in Trillions, yes trillions. In simple terms the top 25 national banks have a total asset of 6 Trillion dollars while they trade around 172 TRILLION dollars ! Remember the US GDP is around 12 Trillion. These banks are trading around 14 times worth of the US GDP ! and it is reported by OCC. Isn’t it atrocious ???? Plus if you narrow down it to the top three banks (JP Morgan + Citi + Bank of America) they trade around 157 Trillion – around 91 % of the top 25 banks but they own around 3.7 Trillion of assets. Look at how much these people are leveraged….

What happens when these underlying asset change in value(on the negative side) say by 2-5%, the hit that these banks take is unimaginable, they will not have the money to pay the loss that they will incur. That will eventually cause them bankruptcy, exactly what happened with Bear and Stearns. So the Fed has to go in the direction of where these banks have placed their bets, the economy cannot survive if these banks do not survive. The fed will even be willing to dump the dollar for these banks to survive(like it is doing now by lowering the interest rates).

Do you want to make any guess what these banks have been trading or what have they placed their money on ?

85% of these bets (I am sorry options) as per the above OCC report is on the “direction of the interest rates” !!! THE FED HAS TO(IT HAS NO CHOICE) TO CHANGE THE INTEREST RATE WHERE THESE BIG BULLIES HAVE PLACED THEIR BETS. If not they will fail. If they fail(like Bear Stearns did) the FED has to rescue, Alan Greenspan did it for Long Term Capital in the late 98( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management ), today Bernanke did it to Bear Stearns in 2008. Remember these are peanut companies that deal around 200-500 Billion(is 500 B small, of course relatively). Imagine what would happen if the giants like JP Morgan, who trade around 92 Trillions fail ???? Who can bail them out ????? What happens to the economy of this beautiful country ???

As a small scale investor, the best thing is to diversify your holdings to different types of assets: Gold, Oil, Swiss Francs, Euro and any other tangible asset that you can…..in short run for the cover.

In the meantime, this country is a very wonderful and blessed country, it has gone through a lot of hardships and fought through it bravely and has come out of it successfully, that is my only hope !!!

What is in a Religion ?

2007-12-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

Some of our thoughts are 'confirming', we are 'extremely' sure about our beliefs, this extremity rejects suggestions and makes us insist that our beliefs are pure facts – the core concept of fundamentalism. This is vehemently followed by the fundamentalists of 'both the extreme', both, one group which CONFIRMS with 'extreme surety' that 'Religion is the ONLY way to go' and the other group which CONFIRMS with 'extreme surety' that 'Religion is the cause for all the problems in this world'.

In lot of ways, both these people follow the same path (extremism/fundamentalism) except that they are marching in the opposite direction towards a different goal. People who belong to both these categories fight against others to protect their 'belief' about religion (whatever it is, for or against). Human emotions are weak and can be easily manipulated and this could slowly pull the normal people to one of the extremes. The world will then be a war zone where the majority of the people are fighting just for their beliefs. I personally have a very 'little' sympathy over the second fundamentalist group just because they were created due to the persistence of the first fundamentalist group (who say that religion is the only way to go), but can never support their thoughts of fundamentalism.

Fortunately, a majority of the people believe that truth lies "somewhere in between", which is "Religion has to be used JUST to make people more disciplined and more human and has to be a tool used for peaceful purposes alone", this is again my belief that majority of the people belong to this group (I can be completely wrong), there is no statistical proof to this belief of mine, the reason I make this statement is because the world still exists.

However, the 'strong' argument of the people who belong to the second group is that 'When religion is still causing so many problems, when it is enforced on us at birth, why have it, and will the world not be a better place without it ?' Which might sound valid, 'To tell you the TRUTH', let us take a deep breath and answer the following question "TRULY", I mean "TRULY TRULY", putting aside our egos and the fear of my beliefs being wrong.

Will the world be completely safe after eradicating religion ?

The natural answer from the second group of fundamentalists would be 'the world will be a much much better place than NOW', there is no way to prove this, because a set(let me not quantify this set with lot or less) of people are still following religion for peaceful purposes alone, religion has enforced discipline in them. But, for argument purposes "I still take the point that the world will be a better place as answer whole heartedly". "Assuming" that eradicating religion has made this world a better place, I have a series of questions, is religion the only thing that is causing problem of 'this magnitude' ?

NO, there are lot of other things that have been causing problems of this magnitude, Land Borders, Money, Color/Race, language, even Freeways etc., Eradicating each one of them might make this world better place than NOW, will we then be completely safe ??? The answer is no, we still will have a lot of problems. We are humans, it is our nature to seek pleasure and displeasure in every aspect of life

How do we know which is the greatest problem humans are facing(say among religion, land borders, money, color/race and language and Freeway) and what do we start eradicating first and why ? There is no answer to this and there is no practical solution either……. There are people who believe that our Land borders have created a lot of problems, as a result, our Nationality was forced on us at birth, like it or not we have to live with it, can we change our nationality as "World" ?. A freeway too was designed to take people from one place to another but it too has created a lot of deaths in the form of accidents, can we eradicate freeways ??? Then why blame religion alone ??? Should we start to VEHEMENTLY eradicate or implement everything that 'we' 'EXTREMELY BELIEVE' as a problem/solution ????? If so who defines that we, who is correct ? who is wrong ?

BTW, we never tried to answer the questions what if our assumptions are wrong, the fundamentalists on the other side too will CONFIRM that their beliefs are facts and will enforce that Religion is the only way to go. They surely will have ample proof to justify their beliefs. Both these teams will not even get into answering the point 'what happens if their assumption is wrong', they will refuse to even think from that angle !!

Since both the fundamentalist group claim that what they say is fact and by the virtue that they are exactly opposite, one thing that is obvious is that one of them is wrong, for sure, or "possibly" both !

The point is, for the fundamentalists on either 'extreme', Human life is all about victory (for them) and defeat (for their opponents) in implementing their beliefs, they are least prepared to travel to find the truth. 'To tell you the TRUTH', Human life is all about living alive or being dead, as simple as that. If only the people at both the extremes try to start analyzing from that angle, they would agree that 'the truth lies somewhere in between these extremes'. They will stop complaining/acting (could even be killing) against each other 'even though it is compelling to do that'. There are a lot of things that could be done peacefully to improve humanity, that is probably a better solution…………..

Bottom Line: Every concept designed by us as humans has lot of potholes and disadvantages(for the fundamentalists who oppose a human concept), we also should understand that none of the concept is perfect(for the fundamentalists who enforce a particular concept as the only way to go). We should learn to look at the bigger picture and live with it and not try enforce it in "EITHER" way !!

The truth lies somewhere in between……..

California Fire

2007-10-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

California Fire

Mother Nature is on a rampage, it is surely a sad but very humbling experience. A lot of lessons can be learnt from this, each chapter of her lesson is very intense and extreme and significantly those lessons are endless. It is quite depressing to see her being so relentless, unfortunately we will soon but conveniently ignore those lessons learnt when life returns to ‘normalcy’.

She chased away many people from their shelter, they had to run for their life to find a safe shelter. I was looking at the people at Qualcomm stadium, a lot of people were living in substandard living style as compared to where they were before. They do not have the comfort of their million dollar home, they do not have the A/C or Heater that they had before, their credit cards cannot buy them the food that they need, their next day is still uncertain BUT they all are united, they are still cheerful, they are helping each other, they are very happy. “Do humans need adversity of such a magnitude to bring the humanness in them ? We become adverse to humanness when things are normal” It is really pathetic that we are in such a state, unfortunately lessons learnt like these will be lost in a few days or weeks from now. Most of the people in there will soon become the self-centered person they once were when things become ‘normal’. “We forget about others when comfort STRIKES us, we only feel for others when tragedy STRIKES”. If only we can think about others when we are comfortable, how good this whole world would be ?

The similarity between the earth and today’s Qualcomm stadium ends just in its shape ! The rest of the ‘normal’ world is just negated to the Qualcomm stadium with respect to thoughts and actions. Once the fire is stopped, the stadium will be opened to this world and the humanness in the stadium will be gone !

If only, humans learn to be so kind, united and helpful during happier times, this world would be a bigger Qualcomm stadium. We have become so much immune to this thought that we strongly believe that it is not possible, ‘me, myself and I’ plays a major role and we tend to forget the lessons learnt until we have one more catastrophe of this magnitude.

Lesson Learnt: Let us persistently be humans ‘even’ during ‘normal’ times !

To Tell you the TRUTH

2007-10-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

To Tell you the TRUTH, I read the following quotes about TRUTH from the internet.

Abraham Lincoln: How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

Rabindranath Tagore: We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.

Noam Chomsky: It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.

Friedrich Nietzsche: And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

Max Planck: It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.

Mark Twain: Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said.

George Bernard Shaw: New opinions often appear first as jokes and fancies, then as blasphemies and treason, then as questions open to discussion, and finally as established truths.

Isaac Asimov: [W]hen people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

Marcus Aurelius: If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Galileo: All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

Buddha: Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased]

You can read more by visiting here: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_truth.html

Humans are social animal

2007-10-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

Humans are social animals

I do this because I think it is correct…… Why should I bother about what others say…… How can one person change the whole society?
Well, we have heard so many arguments like these from many quarters just to justify our own actions. This is just an attempt to dissect such thoughts and check its validity.

By closely examining all the living beings on earth, human beings naturally lack all the physical features/strengths that most of the other animals possess. We do not have natural furs to protect us from the cold, or huge jaws to tear apart our food, man cannot even walk bare footed in all climatic conditions, he cannot naturally stay alive in adverse weather conditions. This has made humans biologically capitalistic, meaning, they must invest their time and efforts in tools and techniques to increase productivity and most importantly survive. A fish can be caught using hand but we consider it ineffective, we can plant our food without tools but not effectively. Humans need to invest their time on the creation of tools(capital) hoping for a much better productivity in future. Looking at it in a different perspective, he has to depend(and of course contribute), on whatever or whomsoever, to get all the basic necessities for his well being, he has to depend on others to overcome his weakness. To put it simply, humans are designed to depend. This also creates a very strong need to co-exist, to a much higher level than other species. He is physically the weakest animal (the way nature has created him) on the planet yet he has made himself the most powerful by forming a SOCIETY!

This concept of society is not that matured amongst other species. Some species exist in groups in the form of herds but no where close to the human society where the interdependence is the way of living. One makes the food while the other makes shelter while some other makes the clothing and they all ‘trade’ based on the need. This can happen as long as humans co-exist as and the chain is maintained, there is no single individual who cannot go beyond this setup.

The social setup has evolved so much and it has been proven over thousands and thousands of years that humans do live in society, but this also has created an adverse effect. THIS LENGHTY PROOF OF THE SOCIETY’S EXISTENCE HAS MADE US BELIEVE THAT IT WILL EXIST NO MATTER WHAT AND IRONICALLY WE HAVE TAKEN THE EXISTENCE OF OUR SOCIETY AS GRANTED !

Humans have stopped realizing that human society is a chain, we no longer concur that we need to co-exist, we no longer realize that we need to contribute back to the society, we no longer realize that we do have a social responsibility. Humans are social animal, if you remove the society part from him, Humans are animals. We simply cannot survive like an animal, we are biologically too weak for it, we will perish faster than any other creature on this earth.

If we agree to this school of thought, let us all check our day to day actions with respect to the society, if we feel that we are doing something that will cause a harm to it, let us stop it, if not immediately (probably, because, we are used to doing it) let us device a ‘realistic’ plan and time frame in getting those thoughts and actions out of our mind and body. As a first step, let us all read the first three sentences of this article and answer those honestly……….

Let us put the society above us, just for our own survival !

Life Saving tip

2007-08-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

I came across a very useful information on heart attack.
Most of us are aware of the procedures to save others
when they are having heart attack by giving CPR.

What to do if we get heart attack and no one is there
to save us?
Read the article provided as presentation by
Journal of General Hospital Rochester.

Click here to view the presentation

Hope it helps!

Vanji.

Financial Stability, are we REALLY marching towards it ?

2007-08-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

Neither my grandmother nor any of my friend's grandmother worked, but my mother and some of my friend's mother worked and now my wife and all of my friends and their wife work, by work I mean contributing to the labour force by paying tax. In US, according to the census bureau, the number of female workers that participated in labor force(paying taxes) in 1970 was around 40% and today it is around 57% and increase of over 42%. During the same period the stats shows a different picture for men which is 75% and 70 respectively a small decrease in percentage ( http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat2.pdf, look under the job section of this link http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/009383.html).

Today, according to the census bureau, women earn around 0.77 cents for every 1.00 dollar a man earns.

Time has changed, things tend to change and so do people's attitude, the point here is not to discuss what is correct and what is wrong, it is about the real purpose behind the working of both people from the same family. The first motive behind this attitude is to achieve 'Financial Stability', in the process we might forego a lot of compromises, which has to be dealt in a separate discussion(and not within the scope of this discussion). When a family earns 1.77 cents in place of $1.00, obviously they are contributing to the rise of inflation by spending more for multiple reasons(if they have kids, they need to be put in school, generally tend to eat out a lot, buy more dresses to work, need to have two cars, need to pump in more fuel etc.,). This has been one of the main causes contributing to a 'higher and rapid' Inflation rise. To counter inflation and to have a decent social life two people working from the same family is no more a luxury, it is more of a mandatory requirement, increasing the percentage of people contributing to higher inflation. A perfect catch 22 situation. This situation is going to remain for a foreseeable future in time. Even though I personally like to, I am not here to say that only one person(could be male or female) from a family has to work(people will either call it socialistic or male chauvinistic thought). For all the hard-work put in as a family, the idea behind this piece of writing is to help people TRULY achieve this dream of 'Financial Stability'.

Government numbers officially say that the inflation rate based on the CPI(Consumer Price Index) is 3% annually. People who have published these numbers are educated and are very knowledgeable but still I am at loss in understanding this number (candidly admit my ignorance). For instance gas price in '98 costed around $0.75 per gallon, today it costs around $3.15 for the same. In the same period, milk used to cost around $1.25-$1.5 per gallon, today it costs around $3.25 for the same, median property prices have been rising at 7% per annum(on an average), the income level the same way, the spending level the same way. Going by the govt numbers of the inflation, prices should double in 24 years(by compounding 3% per annum) but most of the commodities that I can think of has more than doubled in less than 10 years ! Still, let me not dispute those numbers because I whole heartedly agree that they see the whole picture, which obviously is not available to me.

Going by the official inflation numbers, today's money will be worth half of it in 24 years, meaning, one needs to have 'minimum' twice the amount of money what they have today to maintain the same life style at a future date. Now getting back to the question of 'Financial Stability', will we be able to achieve it in the current scenario ? Does two people working from the same family help the cause ? Will that alone take care of achieving the goal? Are we doing the right thing, Do we have a plan? Is it achievable? Let me try to suggest a few tips, that might TRULY help achieve this goal.

Hard cash invested in bank appreciates based on interest rates that we get. Let us optimistically say that banks pay 5% on average as interest, which is again taxable(you loose around 30% of the interest earnings which amounts to 1 - 1.5% of the interest in taxes) making your net gain in the range of 3.5 – 4 %(provided you get 5% consistently). This growth rate is exactly negated by the official inflation numbers!! Investing in high yielding CDs ALONE is not a good solution, even though it is considered safe. The key word to financial stability or financial freedom is DIVERSIFICATION. It is a common belief that large amount of money is needed to diversify, it is absolutely a myth. How large is large, well there is no answer to this question. Each person MUST diversify to their own capacity. Let me consider the working middle class group as my target audience and lay down my solution:

First and foremost, estimate the sum of all your monthly expenses, observe whether is it is realistic over a period of time (say six months). Hike one month's expense by say ten percent. Based on this amount, never hold hard cash in excess of what is required to run your family for four months. You are eroding your hard earned money, if you hold cash more than this. The rest of the money could be made to work better as follows:

1. Precious metals(mainly Gold): It has always been a great source of investment. Statistically it has outgrown the interest rates that banks give(based on 50 years of historical data, considering gold alone). It has disadvantages too, the main being fluctuation, metals tend to fluctuate based on supply demand and various global economic factors, still they have proven a better investment in longer run. It is a very good idea to hold 7-10% of your savings in this category(not more than that). There are various ways to invest in this: Gold Bullion(hard gold), Gold Certificates, Metal Funds, Precious Metal IRA are few of them.

2. Mutual Funds: A very excellent source for diversification. This too has its own risks but if the correct funds are chosen the benefits clearly outweigh the risks by multiple times. The amount of money invested in this depends on various factors, age certainly being one of the main factors. People should slowly reduce their holdings in mutual funds as they approach retirement(one bad year can wipe out most of the hard earned returns, which you cannot afford as you approach retirement). A person between 30-35 years of age should comfortably invest a good percent(personally I would say around 50%) of their savings into MFs. This does not include their IRA or retirement savings. A lot of free tools are available in the market which helps even an ordinary investor help choose good mutual funds.

3. ETF: Exchange Traded funds, this is a very good source of investment on 'anything anywhere'. It could be petroleum, gold, SP Index, Chinese Stock Market etc., This is slightly different from MFs. They are hybrid of Stocks and MFs(stability like MFs and price fluctuations like Stocks). Morning star has a very good ETF screener utility(they have started it new, owing its recent popularity - http://screen.morningstar.com/ETFScreener/Selector.html?lpos=MStarTools ). It is one of the best sources for diversification. This can be done with any stock broker.

4. Diversified Currency Funds and CDs: The last decade has been very harsh on dollar(rightly so) and looks like the trend will continue. The same could happen to any currency. A good way would be to invest in a diversified currency CD ( www.everbank.com is one bank that provides this with FDIC insurance, however, the minimum investment here is 10K). The risks exist here too but are less compared to the first three investment options and the same with return. If the right mix of CD is chosen (can be done with little research) the returns will surely beat the ordinary CD. Alternately you could do this by investing in 'Hard Currency' mutual funds(their investment minimums' are typically lower than this option, in the range of 2.5K)

5. Last but not the least: If you are reading this article, you must be in a much better position than many other financially underprivileged people. Philanthropic activities (Charity), is surely an investment, one should try and give away at least a very small percentage of money to this cause. It is surely a diversified savings, morally, for our future generations to follow and live upon!!

Hope this article helps…….

Benefits of regular physical activity/Exercise

2007-08-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just read this article about the benefits of exercise on mayoclinic newsletter.

Here is what mentioned in Wikipedia about Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is an internationally renowned medical practice based in
Rochester, Minnesota, USA. Mayo Clinic was ranked the best hospital
in the U.S. in 2006, and the second best hospital in the U.S. by
U.S. News & World Report in 2007[1] and is consistently ranked by
other sources as one of thebest hospitals in the United States.

One of the area that we all need to put our attention is Point 2 on the article.

2. Exercise combats chronic diseases.
Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent osteoporosis?
Regular exercise might be the ticket.
Regular exercise can help you prevent — or manage — high blood pressure.
Your cholesterol will benefit, too. Regular exercise boosts high-density
lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol while decreasing
low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad," cholesterol.
This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly by lowering
the buildup of plaques in your arteries.
And there's more. Regular exercise can help you prevent type 2 diabetes,
osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.

What we need is atleast 30mins to 1 hour of regular physical activity
for atleast 3 days a week; 5 days would be really good!
It could be a cardio or weights or Yoga or even a brisk Walk!
See if we could bring it as part of our regular day-to-day routine!

Considering the responsibilities that we have
we sure need to show some discipline for our life right?

I am trying to follow this for the last 3-4 years,
but yet to get a pass mark on this! STILL WORKING ON THIS JOURNEY!

Mozhi - an analysis / review

2007-07-11T17:25:00.001-07:00

Rajaparvai was a film about a person who has no connection with visuals while Mozhi is about a person who has no connection with sounds. The titles of these beautiful movies are NOT ironical, the reasoning behind the first title was that in the sight(paarvai) of a king(Raja) no one is seen as a special person and that he treats all his citizens the same and does not see any individuals in them. The protagonist of the story is portrayed as a man with King’s sight and hence the name. The concept here in Mozhi is a bit different which is discussed later but the director conveys yet another theme(apart from the main theme of the story) that language is not made of sounds or words, it is ‘just’ a medium that conveys feelings, however this is not the main theme of the story. This is well said by the hero of the movie Archana, ‘some do not understand Hindi, some French while I do not understand Sound but i SPEAK a language which not many can speak, which is silence’. For most part the resemblance between these two class movies ends there. The story of Mozhi pays a lot of emphasis on the attitude of looking at things optimistically, it does that by portraying the concept that even dumb people can ‘SPEAK’ a language, .

This movie comes from the director of “Ponniyinselvan” and “Azhagiyae theeyae”, I felt that Ponniyinselvan was a masterpiece and now with “Mozhi”, I guess I should say that I eagerly look forward to his future movies too.

The screenplay of this movie(spare a few movies) is alien to Indian movies, except for a few minor glitches this movie undoubtedly is an epic in many ways. Deserves more than a few Oscars !

The gist of the movie is that every single human being has problem and each of us should learn to overcome it by looking at it with a different perspective, if not, at least learn to live with it in a mature way. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. The problems that the characters face in the movie could have been easily portrayed soberly but the director has excelled in portraying it in a comical way, in a lighter way. He has carefully designed three characters that basically are full form of dejection, one has to accept that the very first thing that you notice when you get to know any of these three characters is their sadness more than anything. Such are the traits of these three characters but he still casually mixes them with ‘ordinary’ people right from their introduction, without making any distinction from the rest and he does that throughout the movie. The characters are the deaf and dumb Archana, her friend a young widow Sheela and the mentally challenged Professor. The movie poses a valid question that if people like Archana can speak, if people like Sheela can re-marry and if the professor can lead a normal life, what are the rest of the people complaining about? The main reasoning behind naming the movie as Mozhi should have been the strong will behind the dumb girl’s character to stick to her optimistic thought that she too can speak a Mozhi.

The story is practically optimistic with lot of finer points. In ‘addition’ to the story, the finer points that really attracted me are

The so called Hero(Karthik) meets a very young deaf and dumb girl outside a shop, the girl sells flowers, he is moved by her and immediately buys all those flowers from her. The punch that the director delivers is after this, the hero then gives the small girl a single yellow flower from what he bought from her. A great scene, one of the scenes I enjoyed the most, it could not have been constructed in a better way than this. He could have given away some money to that girl or bought all the flowers and give back everything to the girl or just could have bought all the flowers. The director chose not to do any of those, the hero just gives one flower back to the girl. You only give flowers to people whom you genuinely love, the director did not want to turn that scene into a sympathy scene. He has carefully shown the character’s nature of genuine affection.

The other scene happens twice in the movie, one time in a song when Archana cuts some vegetables and the other time while she lays on her grandma’s lap. Both the times the director shows that deaf people too can enjoy and remember music. He does that intelligently, again optimistically by choosing their other sense(feeling), this surely is a third dimensional thought.

Another great incident happens towards the climax, after the heated discussion between Karthik and Archana. He convinces her that she is the one who has been denying herself all the good that she deservers and pleads her to change that thought of her and walks off. She realizes how ignorant she has been and she tells herself to come out of her own boundary, the director communicates this to the audience very subtly but yet in a powerful way by doing three things, for the first time, she makes noise in the movie, secondly, she opens her fist(as a sign to indicate that her mind has opened) thirdly her grandma smiles. What more can a director do ??

Such details can be captured only by veteran directors.

Let me conclude my thoughts here and going in the lines of the movie(just optimism) let me not spoil the taste by mentioning the minor glitches.

A movie everyone should watch and worth collecting !!

Whats up with US Economy

2007-07-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

Economics and economic theories are Greek and Latin to me, ‘BUT’, I do have some financial reasoning capacity, I guess ? My reasoning could be fully wrong or partially correct or may be I am missing a bigger picture that others tend to see.

Economic theories are strongly based on sustainable supply and demand, my reasoning takes the same basis too. I came across an interesting piece of fact, which made me think more, looking at today’s jump in the market, I was just trying to find more info on DOWJONES from wikipedia, I saw something really interesting which still absorbs my rational thinking capacity. It was the graph of DOW’s progression (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DJIA_historical_graph.svg ), simply incredible.

The index took nearly 100 years (since its inception in 1896) to climb the first 5000 points(it reached it in 1998), and it took ‘only’ three and half years to put up the next 5000 points(in the end of 2002) !! After corrections it went down to 8000 in the beginning of 2003 and now it has taken less than five years to add another 5500 points !!!! Today it stands very tall at 13500+. Looking at it differently, it took DOW 110 years(roughly) to get to 13500 points out of which 8500 points were achieved in less than 10 years(1998 – 2007) and remember in this 10 year period the country has also gone through recession. What could be the real reason ? Was it “Undervalued” during those 100 years or was it “Unsustainable Irrational Inflation” in those 10 years. I would go with the later answer for the following reasons.

1. User Consumer Debt and Credit growth is faster than the GDP growth, read between the lines, it is says the state of inflation. Irresponsible lending practices and fake equities have largely contributed to ‘Asset Inflation’, which have translated into huge gains in the DOW.

2. The Trade deficit (total amount of exports minus the total amount imports made in a year) for the year 2006 alone is around 850B(0.85 Trillion) . The total trade deficit and debts are close to 4 times that of the GDP. Someone within the country has to pay this !!

3. Between 1995 and 2000 the GDP grew from 2% p.a towards 4.8% p.a at the same time the savings rate dropped from 4% to 2%. Between 2002 and 2006 Q4 the GDP grew from a 0.35% p.a towards 3.00 % p.a growth rate. The savings rate during that period dropped from 2.8% to a negative -1.2% . ( 4.00% change).
People can argue that the savings money fuelled all this growth and hence the depreciation in savings rate. But this argument cannot justify the trade deficit’s growth.

4. The dollar used to be 67%(two-thirds) of the reserve currency till a couple of year ago. Countries have started diversifying it and no one knows what the current stats are. The evidence is clearly seen in diminishing dollar value.

5. 100 years of data is more complete than a 10 year period.

The bottom line is, this economy is in more danger with the threats of INFLATION THAN RECESSION. The country could still go into recession, if it does, the main reason will be a burst due to unsustainable inflation rather than lack of growth. Justifying the fact that inflation needs an immediate check.

Just try putting these into one basket and the result is unthinkable, many at times I might sound bearish and might seem to possess those traits in me, but facts are always more bearish than being bullish ! Well, I am not trying to comment myself before others do, it is just a self analysis, after all.

Doubts of a little Camel!

2007-02-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

Pictures speak million words!! ( so that the mouth can be shut and the
mind can really work!)

The Moral of the Story, is what you'll be thinking at this moment!
Have a good thinking!!

Bye for now.
Nambi.

Harmonizing the mind

2007-02-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Harmonizing the mind

Preface:-
I was debating whether I should title my previous post as Treating the Mind or Balancing the mind. I later decided to name it that way. My reasoning was that it first needs some kind of treatment to function normally, only once done, the balancing part would make some sense. Having passed that huddle, again, I was confronted with the same problem while naming this post, should I title it the way it is now or should I title it ‘Controlling the Mind’. My mind was strongly inclined towards the later, however, my heart(conscience) voted for the current one, after a long thought process, my mind was convinced that controlling was a strong word whereas the word Harmony or Balance had more human touch to it and it seeded to my heart’s thought. This one seemed relatively a simple issue for the mind, so it decided to listen to the heart. When the mind faces with tougher decisions/situations than this one, what has it to do then ? How could it listen to the heart when it has very pressing reason to overcome the heart even though the mind is wrong ? What do we as humans do to convince the brain to listen to the heart ? This sounds more like “kadavul paadhi mirugam paadhi kalandhu seydha kalavai naan….. Mirugam kondru, mirugam kondru Kadavul valarka parkindren Aanal, kadavul kondru, unavai thindru mirugam mattum valarkirathe, Nandhakumara” great thought. Seems to me like an anti-corollary of Barathi’s ‘Nalladhore veenai’, but precisely depicting today’s world.

Thoughts:
Uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element is one of classic examples where human mind has failed to balance itself. In 1789, Uranium was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth. This element’s radioactive nature was uncovered in 1896 by Antoine Henri Becquerel. Further research by Enrico Fermi confirmed that it can be efficiently used as a fuel in the nuclear power industry AND further researches revealed that it can be used as the fissile material in the nuclear weapon field. The world has never been more dangerous since then.

The main use of uranium has to have been as a fuel to nuclear power plants which provide electricity to the civilians. The constructive mind found out that one Kilogram of Uranium if fissioned properly can produce 20 trillion jules of energy, energy equivalent to that of 1500 TONNES of coal’s produce !

A proud and destructive mind could not resist sitting idle with its constructive achievements, went on a step further and used approximately just 600 milligrams of uranium and exploded it to a power equivalent of 13 Kilotons of TNT, killing an estimated 1,40,000 people instantaneously in Hiroshima.

Had the mind seeded to the thought of its sacred partner, the heart, such a destructive discovery would not have happened at the first place, let alone using it. The mind was able to justify its actions citing various reasons, even though at the bottom the heart constantly kept telling that it was wrong.

Now that we have many such live examples of the destructive human mind and its consequences, we as humans, more blessed than any other living beings on this earth, need to start listening to the heart more carefully and vigilantly and more important, constantly.

The initiative has to start from EACH one of us, the world then becomes a better place atleast by one person. Better than saying how can one single person change the way the whole world functions ? I am sure there are lot of more methods and practices than what is to follow, these are just few examples that this mind can think of, a lot more can be added, feel free to do so….

a. To keep chewing positive thoughts
b. Meditation
c. Reading a lot of peaceful scripts(books, magazine, articles etc)
d. Listening to soothing Music
e. Interacting with lot of kids
f. Helping the needy people
g. Most important: Forgiving

Postscript: The above steps are just a few thoughts and sure there are a lot more ways on top of this. However, one needs to practice to forgive, that surely will make this world a much safer place and a place where humans can live, how they have been designed to.

Observation: Today’s demanding world is a challenging place to follow the above, yet, with a strong will and perseverance, it is still possible. To look at it positively (according to the very first suggestion), a whole bunch of people are still forgiving, a proof of it: The world still exists.....

Nail in the Fence

2007-02-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

Very informative moral story

Make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence.

(Most importantly the last sentence.)

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.

His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.

The fence will never be the same.

When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.

It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there."

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels,
indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear,
they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us."

Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your heart.

A letter to Tavleen Singh for her article in Indian Express.

2007-01-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

I just want to share my letter that I sent to one of the Indian Express's editor Tavleen Singh in response to one of her articles.

Madam,

I read your article published in Indian express( http://www.indianexpress.com/story/21943.html ), I posted my comments on the site, wanted to personally send it to you as well, I would love to hear back from you to know what made you write such a terror provoking article ?? Please stop writing such derogatory articles that eventually will endanger human species !!

This was my exact comment posted for the article.

"
Let me first talk about the solution that the author suggests even before addressing about what she conceives as the problem is. The solution that the author gives in her last but one para is:

"If we want to win the global war on terrorism we have to begin by acknowledging that 'Islamofascism' is as evil an ideology as Nazism once was and those of us who are its victims must fight back with everything we have."

This leaves a lot of things to the reader to interpret, people such as this should be banned from writing and it is disgusting that such a leading Indian newspaper encourages such people to write.

She is spreading terrorism against people 'perceived' as terrorist(Islamists). She EMPHASISES AGAINST negotiation 'throughout' her article, she wants 'victims' to Fighting back with everything they have !!!!!!! The exact same Ideology(which the author curses as evil) "SOME" Islamists started doing centuries ago which has resulted in today's world, they felt victimized at that time and did what they felt was correct, to fight back with everything that they had. If this continues, In another 100-200 years we would see a world where the same TERRORISM will still exist except that today's victimized people will be called tomorrow's terrorists and someone else will keep writing such articles to fight against them. People like these are sure a threat to HUMANITY, all they want to do is to "PRESERVE THEIR OWN PERSONAL INTEREST". Some innocent and emotionally motivated people end up supporting them. Precisely what the US is is doing today in Iraq and other countries, What puzzles me is that the author herself agrees that it was a mistake on the part of America to stage a war on Iraq but however she thinks the same nation must have done the same thing against Afghanistan, so selfish, power falling into the hands of such people end up making the whole world a war zone !

Getting back to her problem, There is no denial of the fact that a lot of terrorism is attached to Islamism, WHICH IS BAD AND IT SHOULD NOT CONTINUE. People/governments/politicians, should put aside their EGO and try to solve the real problem(not meaning to say that their argument of root-cause is being supported). TRULY OPEN MINDED NEGOTIATION IS THE ONLY WAY, a really really really really really(I am sorry) BUT REALLY REALLY open minded solution WILL work and has to work, the world is just full of EGO.

IT IS A SAD ARTICLE A VERY SAD ONE INDEED.

IF YOU THINK MY ANSWER MADE SOME SENSE I WOULD BE REAL HAPPY TO HAVE BENEFITED FROM READING IT.

VIOLENCE CAN NEVER KILL VIOLENCE, EVEN IF IT DOES WHAT KILLED VIOLENCE AND MORE IMPORTANTLY LOOK WHAT TRIUMPHED ?????

"
Regards
Karthick

The gift of Magi!

2007-01-17T21:47:00.000-08:00

"The gift of Magi", a wonderful story by O.Henry, an American
Author & Journalist.

in short form, Jim and Della were husband and wife, they were poor;
As they were approching Christmas, they both were feeling so much
to buy a Christmas gift for each other; since they were very poor,
they could not afford to pay money for the gift; after deep thinking,
each of them decided to buy something as a surprise for the other,
and they bought their gifts;

They bought their gifts in a very clever way; at the end of the day,
Della was awaiting for Jim with the newly bought beautiful Platinum
watch-strap for his watch-dial, as Jim approached the house,
by the look of Jim, Della got terrified.

It didn't go well for them with the gifts, Della sold her hair to buy the
Watch chain for Jim; at the same time, Jim sold his Watch dial to
buy a perfect tortoise-shell made combs for Della!

In modern world we would call it as a CATCH-22 situation.

BTW, O.Henry was a specialist twist-endings story writer!

Thanks Vanji for telling me the story!

Bye for now.
Nambi.

Ilayaraaja's Top 20 songs.

2007-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

This is just my small tribute to the Music Maestro. I become ecstatic when I listen to his song and listening to his songs surely ranks as one of the best pleasures of my life. This is just a small gratitude from my side to the maestro for having entertained me this long…and it still never ceases.

I initially wanted to list his five best songs, I could not fit in all my likings within 5 and later FINALLY decided to put it into 10 songs but still could not stop it. I kept on compiling it and finally had to cut out many songs with a great difficulty and arrive at this list of 20 songs. These are just my likings and I am sure everyone will have a similar list, considering that Ilayaraja has scored music for more than 5000 songs. Recently, I heard someone say 'Ilayaraja sumaar 5000 paatu mela music panni irukaaru adhula kitta thatta oru 5000 paatu aavadhu nalla irukkum', true tribute to the maestro a complete genius !!!

My Top 20 from Ilayaraaja(brief, for people who want to read it fast, it follows with explanation for people who would like know why I chose these, just for the first five songs):

1. Idhu oru pon Maalai pozhudhu - Nizhalgal
2. Andhi Mazhai - Rajapaarvai
3. Innum Ennai Enna Seyya Pogirai - Singaaravelan
4. Ilaya Nila Pozhigiradhu - Payanangal Mudivathillai
5. Aasai nooru vagai - Adutha Vaarisu
6. Sundari kannal oru sedhi - Dhalapathi
7. Raja Raja Cholan naan - Rettai vaal Kuruvi
8. Sorgamae endralum - Namma ooru paatukaaran
9. Kannae Kalai Maanae - Moondram Pirai
10. Nee Oru Kaadhal Sangeetham - Nayagan
11. Poo Malayae Thozl Searavaa - Pagal Nilavu
12. Senthalam Poovil – Mullum Malarum
13. Ilankaathu Veesudhae - Pitha Magan
14. Meenkodi Theril – Karumbu Vil
15. PoonKadhave Thaal Thiravaai - Nizhalgal
16. Varudhu Varudhu Ilam kaatru - Bramha
17. Kaatril endhan Geetham – Jhonny
18. Meetadha Oru Veenai - Punthotam
19. Maalayil yaaro manadhodu – Shathriyan
20. Mandram Vandha thendral – Mouna Raagam

Details of the first 5 songs of my taste:-

Idhu oru pon Maalai pozhudhu - Nizhalgal - This clearly comes ahead of the rest of the songs by miles. This song is just like the picture of monolisa, can be heard as a philosophical, melancholy, inspiring or jolly song. This song suits to all moods, it totally depends on the person receiving it. The lyric complements the music very well and SPB surely adds the extra dimension. I must have heard this song n number of times and every time it seems to be very fresh, out of the box. I am sure it must have given Raaja immense satisfaction for having composed this song. I would be proud if it is proved that I have heard this song many times than any other person. This is the best song ever to be composed on this earth and the only complete song.

Andhi Mazhai - Rajapaarvai – A class act, a masterpiece, a composition that is flawless, a difficult song to reproduce with the same effect. Beautiful melody, the mixing of the background male voice in charanam is pure magic. Powerful song having a strong flavor that has a pleasant after taste that everyone would love to have. The best backdrop to hear this song would be a house located on a hilltop on a cloudy evening surrounded with a lush green trees and slight drizzle and to have some hot snacks in hand, peeping thru the window with this song playing in the background. One would love to hear this song even when not hearing it.

Innum Ennai Enna Seyya Pogirai - Singaaravelan – Nice prelude, builds a great deal of anticipation before the song begins and the song continues with the same vigor till the end. The song has a very contrasting tempo, the instrument is rhythm based while the vocal is melody based, great combination and very unique. This contrasting style adds to the beauty of the song. I cannot think of another song with such a contrasting style. Nice composition, scintillating one. SPB and Raja again have proved what a class act they are.

Aasai Nooru Vagai – Adhutha Vaarisu – A marvel, IR must have been in exemplary mood while scoring the music for this song. Mesmerizing Prelude, the best Prelude I have heard, excellent composition. I can bet anyone who hears this song(with or without distractions) will automatically tap his leg without his/her knowledge. Malaysia Vasudevan has done a great job, even with his limitations. An evergreen Rap/Pop song that will stay in mind for ever. I would rate it ‘much much much’ higher than the popular Hindi songs of same era(“Dhum are Dhum” –Hare Raama Hare Krishna and “lela uh lela”- Qurubani).

Ilaya Nila Pozhigiradhu - Payanangal Mudivathillai – A song that showcases the geniuses of the maestro’s Guitar prowess to the entire world. A song that made Mohan as Mike Mohan. Those were the days when Hindi entertainment industry was looked upon as a the leader, this song was borrowed from Tamil to Hindi. SPB has sung it with his magical voice, the lyrics too is excellent. A great song that suits for all moods, alleviates all sorrows and sucks your attention into the song.

TREATING THE MIND

2006-12-26T17:21:00.000-08:00

Preface:-
Not exactly a sequel but in many ways it is just the same subject as the previous one(POWER OF THE MIND). This deals with some possible solutions that we 'can' adapt. These practices help the power of mind to stay focused on the constructive path alone and help it when any derailing thoughts/actions sneak in. The solution is nonfigurative, abstract and conceptual. To give an example, it is exactly like taste, it is truly experienced when felt than said. It is simple to answer that a candy tastes sweet but the answer to the real question how does sweet taste ?, can only be experienced. This article is just one of those tastes where experience alone gives the exact feeling. All views and thoughts expressed in this article are solely individualistic perceptions of yours truly, they are not accompanied by factual evidence (especially the subject being conceptual). If evidence alone will validate/invalidate this thought it has to be first practiced, either to prove it or disprove it, in either case the journey has to first begin.

Contents:-
Science('proxy of the human brain') is the savior and science is the evil. Today's busy world has placed its wholesome trust on it more comfortably and any one who trusts it more than the other is tagged as a modern man. Not even the meanest of the arguments are questioned when the word 'scientific' is prefixed to it. While mankind is its father, the irony is that knowingly or unknowingly (read it ignorantly) a lot of care is taken to see that science surpasses human capabilities. Today's science is not just in medicine alone, it has penetrated irreversibly deep into minute details of each aspect like food, shelter and clothing, the three basic needs of every single man. It has become crucial and very vital part of day to day life, it can even breathe for the man! Through the ages human mind has been working so hard to elevate this proxy to a new level. Just to reiterate, science is not just the savior ALONE.

Let us take a deep breath and have a practical glance at ALL the major harm and benefits that we have around, each and every thing involves science. Doing the pluses and minuses and arriving to a conclusion to ignore science completely from the human equation and going back to stone-age might sound like a foolish option. How do we live with it then, how to strike the right balance? Not an easy solution to find, well, not very difficult either.

Seasons take turn, so do the days with nights, Mother Nature is constantly teaching us a graceful lesson or two here. The lesson about taking turns, continuously. As humans we really can prosper if we start practicing this faithfully. Yes, this damm brain needs to take turn with the mighty HEART. The whole of today's world is increasingly and conveniently ignoring the latter's call. The power of the mind is becoming its greed. Its ego is so high that it has ceased responding heart's call EVERY SINGLE time. The result what we see is the modern chaotic world. Had the mind let the heart play its appropriate role, we all would be living in a different world today. Worlds with no place for the jealous, the theft, the killings the wars and all evils but just peace, peace and peace alone. Every human has the sivasakthi in him(his mind), he has to keep asking his mind to give the GUTS that is required to use the heart in Today’s world. The more and more we start using the heart the arivu becomes sudar migum arivu ! This maanilam will be nonviolent, it is better late than never.

Postscript:-
Specifically wanted to separate it from the previous post even though these two are addressing the same subject, the reason being that this one is more of a practical(it would not say solution) interpretation whereas the previous one deals with an attempt to visualize what the Mahakavi would have gone through.

Observation:-
It is quite easy to say that the mind needs to take turn with the heart. The mind will surely face a tough time in deciding as when to act on its own and when to transfer the control to its counterpart, the heart. Undoubtedly a tough choice to make in the modern world, wait for the next posting, just kidding…..

POWER OF THE MIND

2006-12-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

Nalladhor veenai seydhae,
adhai nalam keda puzhudhiyil erivadhundo ?
solladi sivasakthi ennai sudarmigum arivudan padaithuvittaay
vallamai thaaraayo, indhamaanilam payanura vaazhvadharkae

Preface:
In my modest opinion, this is simply the best from the Mahakavi, no parallels even from his own work. I am pleased, more to say elated, to share my thoughts, judgment, feeling, opinion call it whatever, on this masterpiece. I am clearly struggling to sequence the thoughts that flow in my mind the 'moment' I think about these few lines. I can only imagine what would have gone through his mind. Such is the density of the thought provoking contents, which he has effectively packed into these very few lines. Even if the whole of my thoughts are conveyed very accurately, it still might not do justice to such a crisp and bottomless work, kudos to that great athmaa.

Thoughts and Interpretations:
The human mind is INTENSE and very VERSATILE to add complexity consider another indispensable external factor TIME. A permutation and combination of the variants of each of the above aspect makes the mind boundless and unrestricted. Each person is just a snapshot of the various probabilities that arise as a result of the above factors. This aspect exactly makes up what we aptly call an 'individual', this is what the Mahakavi refers to as 'ennai'. These lines are NOT about him(alone), here by saying ennai he means the entire humans. All humanly actions that have happened in the past, that are happening now and that are assured to happen in future can just be summed up as – 'the power of mind'. The thoughts that arise from this tiny mind is simple yet very complex, vivid yet dull, generous yet stingy, cunning yet frank and what not. He respects this mind a lot, he praises it for working towards peace and harmony, now a question suddenly arises why is this peace and harmony required ? The answer he gets pushes him to dejection, he finds it is required against the misdoings of the same mind. He is then amused at the analysis of human mind, he is excited, he is puzzled, he even regrets a lot for possessing this power. His mind goes through a lot of turmoil, his rational thoughts could not find the answers. He asks the supreme power that he believes in, a lingering question, why we alone as humans are given this power and what are we suppose to do with it ? The pace of his mind could not wait for divine answer, that HE NEEDS, he is grounded back to reality. He does not care how or what, he just needs human prosperity and NOW. He hurriedly turns back and pleads to his only source and requests for constructive and resolute mental strength for the whole of humankind to co-exist in peace and harmony.

Postscript:
This is just my attempt to conceive as what would have gone through Mahakavi’s mind just before composing ‘Nalladhor Veenai’ …….

Observation:
Will the world not be more 'humanly' (does this word resemble something to those of you reading this ????) had this been truly realized by each mind ? Only in an ideal world where human mind don’t exist can achieve this. So what can we do in this not so ideal world ? wait for the next posting, just kidding...........

Proud to be a Warne fan!

2006-12-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

Proud to be a Warne fan!

I read the news about the retirement of 'Shane Warne' from the
Test matches after the Ashes! ( yeah, it's not official yet!)

Amazing Australian(s)!
making right calls at right time!
no wonder the team is always in a better shape, ahead of others!!

I always thought that they set the playing standards,
I believe this is also part of that one!!
Rather than playing for fun (personal fun, personal records)
better to quit and get the SALUTEs of the world!!

Hope he will get his "700"th wicket on his next Ashes match!!!

Ian Chappel is one among the first to praise him for his decision!
Glad that he didn't want Warne to stay for another 5-10 years
so that he can get 10000 wickets!!!

Proud of Warne's Cricket spirit!!!!

Happy if Indians could start thinking & following in this line!!!

Bye for now.
Nambi.B

PS: I am a cricket fan and not an analyst by any standards!!!

First posting!

2006-12-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

This would be a team-blog posting! I am one of the contributor!!

Expecting our STAR writer Karthick to publish his next posting anytime!!!

and some more of them to participate!

What to talk in this blog:-
1) any day-do-day events that catches our eyes/ears
2) philosophical perfections
3) any topic that doesn't hurt others
4) any questions that we may want to raise any day of the time!
&
definetely no personal pin-pointers!!!

More to come,
bye for now.

Nambi.B.