தமிழ் படம் திரை விமர்சனம் / tamil padam movie review

எனக்கு தெரிந்த வரை.என்னுடைய அணைத்து நண்பர்களுக்கும் "தமிழ் படம்" அடுத்து பார்க்க வேண்டிய படம் என்று குறித்து வைத்த படம் ... மிகுந்த எதிர்பார்ப்புகள் என்று சொல்ல முடியாவிட்டாலும் ஓரளவுக்கு சரா சரி எதிர்பார்ப்பை ஏற்படுத்தியது. இந்த முறை, பெங்களூர் கிருஷ்ணராஜபுரம் புஷ்பாஞ்சலி திரைஅரங்கில் பார்த்தேன். எனக்கு விவரம் தெரிந்து, அரங்கு நன்றாக மாறிவிட்டது, மாடி வகுப்பில் பார்ப்பது வீண் என்ற காலம் போய் இப்பொழுது நன்றாக புனரமைத்து விட்டார்கள்..


படம் ஆரம்பிக்கும் பொழுது எழுத்து போடும் பொழுதே எண்பதுகளில் வந்து கொண்டிருந்த முறைகளில், மற்றும் ஐம்பதுகளில் மற்றும் அறுபதுகளில் வந்த அட்டை முறையை காட்டுகின்றனர். மெலிதாக நமது எதிர்பார்ப்பை கூட்டுகிறது. கதை என்ற ஒன்று இருந்தால் தானே கோர்வை , ஓட்டை போன்ற பிரச்சனைகள் என்று இயக்குனர் நினைத்து விட்டார் என்று நினைக்கிறன். அதை மருந்துக்கும் தொட வில்லை. முழு மூச்சுடன் தற்கால தமிழ் படத்தின் அபத்தங்களை கிண்டலடிகின்றார் இயக்குனர். முதல் காட்சியிலேயே இளம் நடிகர்களின் மறைமுக முதல்வர் /ஆட்சி என்ற லட்சியங்களை சாடுகிறார். கதாநாயகர்களின் அறிமுக பாடல்கள், அறிவுக்கு எட்டாத ககதாநாயக வழிபாடு, பூமி அதிர செய்யும் சண்டை காட்சிகள், இம்மியளவும் சட்டை செய்யப்படாத திரைக்கதைகள், நரம்பு புடைப்பது முதல்கொண்டு ஒன்றையும் விட்டு வைக்கவில்லை.

இவ்வளவு இருந்தும் விஜய் தொலைகாட்சியில் லொள்ளு சபா பார்க்கும் உணர்வு படம் பார்க்கும் எவருக்கும் வரும். கதை திரைக்கதை என்று எதையும் எதிர்பார்க்காமல் படம் முழுதும், நகைச்சுவை நிரம்பி வழிகிறது. எனக்கு தெரிந்த வரையில் இந்த அளவிற்கு அரங்கமே அதிர்ந்து சிரித்து நான் பார்த்ததே இல்லை. அந்த மட்டில் இயக்குனர் அனைவரின் பாராட்டையும் பெறுகிறார். நேரடியாக பழைய படங்களின் காட்சி அமைப்புகளை சாடும் பொழுது சலிப்பு தட்டுகிறது. ( உ.: கஜினி, நாயகன்,ரன், தளபதி)கதை இல்லாமல அவ்வப்பொழுது படம் தள்ளாடுகிறது, பின் பாதியில் சினிமா பட்டி, தங்கச்சி பட்டி என்று இயக்குனர் பொறுமையை சோதிக்கிறார். சென்னை சிவா பாத்திரத்தில் கச்சிதமாக பொருந்துகிறார். திஷா பாண்டே வுக்கு வழக்கமான தமிழ் பட நாயகியின் முக்கியத்துவமே, பெரிதாக சோபிக்க சந்தர்பம் இல்லை,வயிறு குலுங்க சிரிக்க வைத்தாலும், பெரும்பாலான இடங்களில் படம் தள்ளாடுகிறது. வலுவான கதயமைப்பை கொண்டிருந்தால் நன்றாக இருந்திருக்கும்...

ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன் திரை விமர்சனம் / ayirathil oruvan movie review

மிகுந்த எதிர்பார்ப்புகளின் மத்தியில் வெளியான ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன் நேற்று மதுரை மாணிக்க விநாயகர் திரையரங்கில் பார்க்க நேர்ந்தது.. இயக்குனரின் நேர்த்தியான பாணியை எதிர்நோக்கியதற்கு மிஞ்சியது ஏமாற்றமே.

தமிழ் வரலாற்றில் புகழ் வாய்ந்த சோழர் குல வம்சத்தின் தேடலை மையமாக கொண்டு கதை பின்னப்பட்டுள்ளது. 13 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் கதை தொடங்குகிறது, கடைசி மன்னர் போரிடுவதும், ஒரு சோழ இளவரசர் மட்டும் கண் காணாத தேசத்திற்கு தப்புகிறார். பின்பு சமகால தொல்பொருள் ஆராய்ச்சியாளர்கள் தப்பிய சோழ இளவரசரின் பாதையை பின் பற்றி சோழ வம்சம் எஞ்சிஉள்ளதா என்று ஆராய முற்படுகின்றனர். கதை முழுக்க முழுக்க கற்பனையே என்று முதலிலேயே கூறபடுகிறது,

இரகசிய சோழ வரலாறை தேடி காணமல் போன தன் தந்தையை தேடி லாவண்யா (ஆண்ட்ரியா ) புதிய ஆராய்சி குழுவில் சேர்கிறார். அரசு சார்பாக குழுவை அனிதா( ரீமா) மற்றும் ரவி (அழகம் பெருமாள்) வழி நடத்துகின்றனர். இவரகளுக்கு எடுபிடி ஆளாக சென்னை துறைமுகத்தில் கார்த்தி மற்றும் அவரது சகாக்கள் சேர்கின்றனர். சென்னை துறைமுகத்தில் இருந்து இவரகளது பயணம் தொடங்குகிறது..

இவ்வளவு பலத்த பின் புலத்தை உடைய கதையை மிகவும் சுவாரசியமாய் நகர்த்துவார் இயக்குனர் என்று எதிர்பார்த்தால் , பெருத்த ஏமாற்றம். குழுவினரின் பயணம் அந்த கால அம்புலி மாமா புத்தகங்களில் வரும் மர்ம பேய்கள், பிசாசுகள் மற்றும் ஆதிவாசிகள் என்று உப்பு சப்பில்லாமல் நகர்கிறது. குழுவினர் தேடி போகும் கனவு நகரம் கிராபிக்ஸ் மூலம் உருவாக்கப் பட்டிருகிறது அவதார் பார்த்து விட்டு இதை பார்ப்பவர்களுக்கு பரிதாபத்தை வரவழைகும். ஆண்ட்ரியா ரீமா மற்றும் கார்த்தி யின் கூட்டணி முதல் பாதியில் வலு சேர்க்கிறது. கதையோடு ஒன்றி வரும் ஒரு சில நகைசுவைகள் அழகு சேர்க்கிறது. தனித்து நிற்பது கார்த்தியின் யதார்த்த நடிப்பே. கவர்ச்சி என்ற பேரில், இயக்குனர் ஆபாசத்தின் எல்லையைதொட்டிறிக்கிறார் . பல இடத்தில நெளியாமல் இருக்க முடியாது. சடாரென ஆயுதம் தாங்கிய ராணுவம், சரமாரியான துப்பாக்கி சூடு.என்று திரைகதையில் பெருத்த ஓட்டைகள்.

இரண்டாம் பாதியில் கார்த்தி மற்றும் லாவண்யா, அனிதா தப்பிய சோழ சாம்ராஜயத்தை அடைகின்றனர். 1000 வருடங்களாக சோழ சாம்ராஜ்யம் நடந்து வருகிறது. ஒரு நாள் தஞ்சை திரும்புவோம் என்ற நம்பிக்கையுடன் மக்கள் தங்கள் அரசனை நம்பி வாழ்கின்றனர். இந்த 21 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் இப்படியா என்று மனதில் ஒட்ட மறுக்கிறது திரைக்கதை சில இடங்களில் ரசிகர்களை குழப்பமடைய செய்கிறது. கதையில் திருப்பமாக அனிதா ( ரீமா) பாண்டிய இலவரசியகவும், தங்கள் குல தெய்வமான ஒரு சிலையை ( மீனாக்ஷி அம்மன் சிலையை ஒத்திருக்கிறது) மீட்க வந்துள்ளதாகவும் விவரிக்கிறார். திடீரென்று சோழர் கால தமிழ் பேசுகிறார். சோழ அரசரை ( பார்த்திபன்) தன் வசீகரத்தால் வீழ்த்தி ( முழு விரசம், மற்றும் முகம் சுளிக்க செய்யும் காட்சி அமைப்புகள் ) சிலையை மீட்கிறார். இதகிடையில் கார்த்தி சோழ இளவரசராக அறிவிக்கபடுகிறார் ( Gladiator படத்தின் சண்டைகாட்சி அப்பட்டமாக காப்பியடித்து..பரிதாபமாக தோற்கிறார் இயக்குனர்)

சோழ குலத்துக்கும் சமகால ராணுவத்துக்கும் போர் நடக்கிறது. கடைசியில் சோழ குளம் என்ன ஆனது என்பது முடிவு. போர் காட்சிகள் அபத்தம். கிளைமாக்ஸ் நெருங்க நெருங்க காது வலிக்கிறது . டயலாக் வராதா என்று மனம் ஏங்க ஆரம்பிகிறது. பிரகாஷின் இசையில் உம மேல ஆச தான் பாடு ஹம் பண்ண வைக்கிறது. கார்த்தியின் நடிப்பு மட்டும் படத்தில் தனித்து நிற்கிறது . படம் முடிந்து பின்னும் அலறல்சத்தம் மற்றும் சலிப்பு நிற்க மறுக்கிறது... :(

Predictions for Madurai general seat -2009 elections

Luckily I bit the bullet and took the tough decision to spend some time to do this dumb analysis for poll prediction for Madurai constituency. I took the numbers from last elections( both voters and percentage of votes shared by individual political parties). This time simple maths shows that AIADMK has th upper hand. I have added a rough 30000 additional voters from the last elections.

Since DMK government also is almost 3 years old and it is inherently plagued by the worsening power scenario, increase in price of house hold items, it has to have the anti-incumbency factor coming against it and with same assumptions little doubt for congress. The other factor I missed explicitly is the vote share of DMDK. Even going by the 8% split( for DMK or ADMK??) ADMK emerges as clear leader. Unless for large scale rigging by DMK goondas Madurai goes to AIADMK this time... Refer the charts...see ya...!!!
Votes polled by parties in 2004
(based on overall %age across TN)
Expected votes polled by individual parties
(considering +/- swings)
Predicted result
(DMDK factor excluded)

Indian Elections 2009

Usually It is number game in Tamil Nadu and this time for my part I tried looking into some basic docs from election commission of india and tried doing that. Most striking thing is that ADMK had the biggest poll percentage in the last two parliamentary elections. This is quite surprising for me at the moment. Inspite of the largest support base Jaya is managing to garner in Tamil Nadu it is Kalaingar who is calling the shots in centre for the last ten years. Hard to beleive but it indeed is a fact. DMK was one of the key ally in 1999-2004 NDA government and in 2004-09 UPA government. This can be attributed to nothing else but the explicit shrewedness of Dr.Kalaingar.



He is the one who can demand key portfolios of choice( plain english - which will fetch money ) in Ministry and still manages to be minority state government with mere 96 MLA's in Tamil Nadu. He is the one who can stab the back of his own grand children for his scions. He is the one who can be part of both BJP and INC which is literally North and south pole of Indian politics. The chart above shows the poll percentage of the major TN political parties in 2004 and 1999. It's written on the wall. Whatsoever the whether is, People stick to their party with a minimal swing and whoever is smart enough to be in right side gains point. The only catch here is how DMDK will affect this numbers??

I beleive TN voters are smart enough to have separate unrelated patterns for assembly and parliament. One of my good friend commented to vote for ADMK, since patroising DMDK will eventually help DMK. Will this holds good whole of TN? Will this be the line of thinking of the median voters? only results can tell.

Mean while I will work more on these numbers and try for a bunch of postings about the probable tally constituent wise. Let me see how it comes....

p.s: Number source ELection COmmission's statistics doc available in the site

Obama and India

It has become a very looong break infact. Partly to blame the "compile..verify..send" stuffs in office and numerous spread sheets to work with. Mean while a lot has happened, the usual " Israeli attack on yet another Arab groups (and this time it was Hamas), Tigers looks to be almost cornered ( will that be for good/bad deems a separate blog!! though) Obama's team hs come in, World is keep swirling towards an invisible, hapless the dark trench made by these greedy Americans and at last the cliamate change talks taking a back seat logically as well.

This seems to be a oppurtune moment to skim through the important things at stake for the Obama team and what's in it for India. Watching a bunch of Obama's speech one will be naturally attracted towrad's this guy and no wonder entire America whole-heartedly voted for this Afro-American whose very earlier generation did'nt even had voting rights. With the hard-fought race with Hillary for the Democratic nomination, a promising "Yes We can" morale-booster for the Americans especially when Russia is slowly gaining prominence with petro-dollars and a very,very aggressive and new "Middle Kingdom" competitor this guy has real burden in his sholders. And will he be able to repeat a lucky Franklin.DR is a million dollar question.

A whole lot of things are awaiting him. Two wars, a sick American banking system, especially worrisome Iranians, nuclear armed North korea. The most important will be the banking system. If he needs to continue at least short term "surge" before the promised "return of troop" in Irq and Afganisthan Obama has to have his economy spick and span and his top silicon valley execs should make money selling products world wide. And this time problems are manyfold, the automakers are lined up for federal money, sick banks are either beign closed or merged, investment banks are either downgraded or going bankrupt and well established folks like Citi and Bank of America are looking vulnerable. A normal american would not imagined this even in his wildest of dreams. Honestly I am unable to relate their economic crisis with the war but logically a cash-crunched Americans would find it difficult to sustain losing wars. And going through Thomas Friedman's columns it looks to be "fix the bank" will be Obama's first priority. With federal money flowing inside the banking system some senators have already started clamping down on firm's to hire local talent first instead of H1B hires, cap on executive salries and some formal strong messages from Oval office for the untimed wall street bonuses. And to have the very very successful capitalist model to sustain Obama and his economic team has to really work hard to get out of this logjam.

Being said that, worrisome note to ponder is India's external driven growth model which helped to sustain its 8% year on year GDP growth which dares our economist to compare ourself with China needs a real introspection. Although we managed to catch the "IT services" bus with our own big guys like TCS/Wipro and Infosys, these companies are pre-dominantly west-dependent and literally when America sneeze, IT majors will catch cold. Though this model is very very sucessful so far in bringing up India's reputation in world stage a long term plan of improving human developement index, minmal un-employement rates, rural-health care, very very strong farm subsidies, electricity and water and rural infrastructure our leader should start planning for a internally-driven growth model going forward. Our states (It is good for states to vie for Tata nano rather than some American corp ) instead of vieing each other to attract foreign firms should start spendign on school and higher education which forms the backbone of this frame-work, which makes us to compete with chinese and Isralis and Americans.

With all the above items it is naive to expect an unseen generosity from an another classic democrat US president ( all of Obama's new administration are old Clinton hands), and with Hillary as secretary of state in helm of affairs it would be no diffarent than any other democratic president at least for us who (Barack.H.Obama) cribs and claims to stand for all out measures(read support unproportionate military retaliations from Israel) for an out-dated short-range rockets fired from Palestine for the barrage of shells and arial attack from Israel. 

What went wrong -II

I am happy that these days I am getting a personal urge to blog more frequently and you would be surprised if you know my sole motivation. It is none other than present CM of TN Dr.Kalaingar. Beleive me he is in his late 80's and octagenarian and still managing to do scripts for a full-fledged tamil movie( forget about the theme and the motive it!!!) Amazement does'nt stops here if my vague inputs are true still he is making out editorials for the party mouth piece "Murasoli" in such a tenor that it challenges his one time aide and confidant Dayanithi for his life.. Inspite of his crooked mindset and eyewash politics he is practicing right now in TN. His energy and enthu needs a definite mention. No wonder he is out-performing Jaya,Ramadass,Vijayakanth and a bunch of congress leaders!!!



Coming to this post, these days a stream of thoughts is continually knocking soul out of me!! If you skim through my last post you will also be wondering about the sudden disappearance of the wealth,fame and glitter which attracted Europeans to our great land miles away. With the dawn of the earlier century when English men controlled half the world, one of the erstwhile English colony ironically formed English settlers themselves, which seceded long back gained prominence. in the early 1900s to be precise. The prominence become dominance and so on and so forth after the most famour little man and fat boy incidents which ended the WWII. Although recorded science inventions are mostly from Europe in 17th and 18th century, this country seized everything and the limelight with the invention of breaking the atom and the magic wand thereafter. Transistor came from this land in late 1950s, computer was mastered in this country, programming was
mastered in this country, modern day cinema trend is being decided in this country, Research process in all educational disciplines was and being mastered in this country. A country barely inhabited by Europeans in late 15th century, built from scrap and with the Hiroshima bombing dominating the world stage till date. Which everyone( I included) obessed with always.


Unite States of America, the name itself is today synonymous with prosperity for most of the world's middle class population and a land of oppurtunity for techies around the world. In retrospect Our land continued to fight with the Englismen till the 50s, fought in unknown places, fighting virtual opponents and died as humble subjects for an unaccepted king. Once a land of wealth, properity, oppurtunity and everything is now standing as a no compare for Western Europe and USA. I will try to give a more broad view for this issue in my next post...

What went wrong?

The most common comment I get from my very few blog readers is that all my blogs are either a frontline's copycat or having a heavy frontline influence. I won't deny per se to these accusation or comments for that matter, I would say frontline's reporting style and the content influence me a lot and forces me to write my very own limited perspective(might be!) through this blog. Being said that this blog is taking a slight detour from the trend and about our coutry's development.

When the last financial run was at it's peak and when India clocked a consistent 8 pointer growth rate year on year and china ticked a whooping 12% GDP this century was dubbed as asia's century. But the sad inlaid truth is world's oldest civilaisations (India and china) which was very advanced in culture,architechture,technology,governmental structure to which monuments stand this day as proof ranging from the chinese great wall to the gigantic and unimaginable Tanjore big temple made entirely of granite in souther india, has detoriated so much in the last 600-700 years that a very minimal opposite trend has been commented by the western world as a rise.


Infact if one goes back in his/her memory one would easily note to his surprise that it is eastern world which was prosperous, advanced and developed roughly 400/500 years back to which much of the Europeans especially Englishmen and Mongols flocked. Stories were abound about the golds,diamonds and prosperity which pulled the explorers first and then the traders. Sadly things has turned, When these civilisation mastered early technology ranging from papers,maths, sea exploration, medicine and the rest, some how both India as a nation went in a downward trend. from early 15th century.


I would not totally accept to the concept of modern science invention pioneered by Europeans as it would have been definitely mastered by the asian scientists but went unrecorded in most areas. I would put it as recorded inventions.Recorded inventions in science,biology,medicin,astrology and all other unmentioned fields started coming from Europeans ranging from gravity, to planet exploration. With the advent of industrial revolution in the European world things started going from Bad to worse for the asian world. And the age of discovery as mentioned by the europeans made it worst. All resources in the every part of the world were exploited in terms of business interesets by the European traders in much of south asia( present day India,Pakistan,Bangladesh,Srilanka,Burma) and South america, and africa. The most heart-rendering case is Indian soldiers fighting in unkown lands for the greed of Englishmen and other Europeans in WWI and WWII

Enlightened national Interest

There has been quite a number of articles on the print media( a.k.a frontline) about the illogical petroleum pricing. The very obvious thing which everyone can understand is the taxation. There is excise, cess and a couple of other melliflous tax terms Which adds to the basic cost for the crude. Added to this is the sales tax levied by the respective states.

Almost 70% of the country's crude is imported to meet demand and a minimal amount of crude is explored in house whose barrel cost is way below the present day trend of 130/140$ per barrel. Roughly the in house price comes to 50/60$ per barrel and due to the flawed "Import Pricing Parity" logic the local crude is pegged at the international price leaving windfall margins for the private explorers( read Reliance)!! And the burden being transferred to the common man leading to spiralling price rise! When there are certainly other options, our PM with an "enlightened national interest" increases the petrol/diesel price to unacceptable rates to cut the OMCs under-recoveries( note that it is under-recovery and not direct losses) A rough check of the IOC's balance sheet revealse that it is a successful corporate showing charts flaunting quartely upward trends!!

Hiding the essential fact of wekening USD President Bush comments saying crude prices are pushed due to increased demands from emerging economies(read india and china) and Manmohan tow-towing Bush lines. If all this browbeating is happening when the nuclear deal is under negotiation imagine when it is done and We are entangled with the uranium supply. sovereignity?? , Panchsheel?? Non-aligned stance?? Indigenous three-stage thorium powered nuclear program?? Foreign policy!!

Dude...My commitment to Bush is Important!!!

I am back

Months had gone since my last blog and I am left groping for some lame excuses. so many things had gone by with US presidential elections heating up, congress's recent debacles, rising intolerance, A new heir apparent for Bhal Thackarey's in Raj Thackery gestures towards north indians and on and on...

One of the important event which needs attention is Sujatha's demise who's writing style attracted me the most in his "katrathum Petrathum " columns in Vikatan. Volumes has been written on his worthiness to the tamil litreary world. It is more felt than said..No more scintillating columns, timing dialogues in Shankar's movies, no more science eye openers for much of the tamil world..

Tamil Nadu's political scene is poised for a three pronged race with Vijaykanth's DMDK gaining monmentum with thrust from both Kalaingar and Amma, Just in case VijayKanth become CM tomorrow,..A good lot of credit goes to these two big names. And somehow people are looking for a change, a paradigm shift in approach in captain.. Let's expect good deal from Captain.

Another thing which I would like to discuss here is the recent farm loan waiver worth Rs 60,000 crores in Budget. One thing which I come across is that the waiver is applicable for farmers with land holding less than or equal to 2 acres. critics point out that Most of the debt-ridden farmers mainly in Vidharbha having rain-irrigated fileds counts to more than 2 acres and still the waiver scheme excludes them. Although the announcement would have been a saving grace for the real end user,for God sake this should not be exploited.

And Next....

It's been really a long gap and working environment is taking it's toll and no escape for me. One more blatant truth comes to light. This time it is not from the west asian media or from the usual journalists. US National Intelligence Estimate which consolidates the inputs from federal agencies has categorically ruled that Iran is not pursuing any plans for nukes. George's Bush has been caught red-handed umpteenth time and US has to answer the ordeals and sufferings of innocent Iraqi's through the unsubstantiated waged upon it buy this neo-colonialistic US government.

A lot has been discussed and much furore was made when the Republicans lost the numbers in the congress and the democrats started soft-pedalling. What followed is the troop surge to Iraq!! Now Bush's show is coming to a close with 2008 presidential election process being kicked in by Feb.

Bush and his spin doctors inched really close and breached all the borders in forcing India to take pro-US stance in real critical world stage like IAEA by forcing to vote against Iran while more trusted US ally like Pakistan abstained from voting, forcing pro-active petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar to pack his bags, by forcing India to skip the delegation level meetings in the Iran-Pak-India gas pipeline and making Dr.Singh to make statements like "enlightened national intereset" and on and on and on...


The sad part which really bothers me is that a country of India's size and geo-political importance is being bullied by the neo-capitalist state and our own politicians being party of that....

RAM SETU

The initial furore over the Ramar setu has been settled down. And people started worrying about Rahul's out of form and Dhada's comeback. We really need to have a in deapth perspective for the project.

The sentiments of the people, makes the case still more complex as it is played down by the oppurtunist parties in general and BJP in particular. The same BJP which gave all the clearance is now crying foul of the entire project.




If we are going for a scientific perspective researcha and analysis has proved beyond doubt that Adam's bridge or Ram setu is a natural formation and there is no proof of human construction. But still a billion people's beleif is bigger than any scientific study and it has to be respected at any cost. The sad part is people who did'nt found any issues when in power are now finding that people's sentiments are affected and proclaiming to save Ram setu. The only understadasble plot is that BJP which ride the Rath yatra wave by kindling people's sentiments in late 90's and grew from nil to 160 MP's want's to do it again.


The whole issue would not have come up if for Swami filing a PIL. Only God knows what's there in Subramanya swami's mind and what's driving him. Questions like " was he an civil engineer" was totally uncalled for and condemnable. A senior politician who is repected across the political spectrum has to really think twice. And "Gold for weight" is equally ridiculous and barbaric. Paradoxically he is a Sadhu!

Why we should be more inclusive.?

I often come across question with blatant complaints about the much criticized reservation system, flawed secularism and others. This is really an appropriate time to ponder over the underlying facts in these criticized concepts and the actual logic which has to be practised in the true spirit.

If one goes through Praveen swami's terrorism related articles in Frontline not once butTime and again he writes about some notorious jehadi outfit leader vowing to disintegerate india and to unfurl the muslim flag in red fort. To this day that remain only as a news report and the magic thread of "unity in diversity" still holds us one nation.






The actual system of reservation and minority policies, which is most badly nick named as "Muslim appeasement" and pseudo secularism by the politicians has at least got one bottomline that has to be driven home. One of the strong ingredient of the magic thread which unites us all the indians is the inclusiveness of the hindu(this can be taken as modern day sindhu) soceity which welcomed khilji's,Moguls and even the english who eventually enslaved us. or more directly, the more inclusive the soceity is, the more the thread will become strong and the more united we become and that says everything.


The communal violences, religion based pogorms, caste based discrimination which are some of the malise which are uptill today haunting a normal right thinking Indian. The inclusive soceity about which we are talking will leave the fellow citizens with a psychological feeling that our personal breatherns(christians,muslims,jains...in the macro level) are well placed and this mental composure is all the stuff for which our founding fathers and experts devised the inclusive options like reservation for the underprivilaged and spcial minority programmes.

There are gory live examples not as a newspaper report but as fact finding committiees which is predominantly hinduisistic like srikrishna committee's cold blooded revealations like how police abetted 92 Mumbai riot and Rajinder Sachar's committee's findings which throws light on the poor economic conditions of the muslim population in general( please leave the bollywood khan's and Kalam..there are always exceptions).

sad thing is that for the sake of few self-centric,selfish and money minded politicians all the underlying theme of the plans as been blacked out and even the educated lot of the 21st century is left thinking that reservation and muslim appeasement policies of the government are the only thing which is haunting our country. How ironical? But every right thinking citizen either a muslim,hindu or christian should continuously strive and shape up him/herself towards an inclusive soceity for the posterity.

Nuclear impasse

The nuclear agreement has again opened a pandora's box, with the more trickier Hyde act which will obviously have some adverse effect on India's foreign policy in the due course. He very proof is the India's anti-Iran vote not once but twice in the IAEA meet overriding official
direction to abstain. Even in the negotiation stage if US managed to coerce India to this volt face
then once the deal comes through India will become a puppet in US hands.




True that India needs energy security but not at the cost of sovereignity,foreign policy and more of self respect. Once the deal comes through as pointed out by many specialist India would come automatically in the US camp and virtually it would become a check from US against the rising china and as a counter balance for SCO and the Russia in resurgence. Everything will be decided and dictated by US using one or the other like return of equipments, threat of second technoloy denial regime, Will-stop-your-reactor words and others.

It may be wise if we look into the point that our foreign policy decisions should be in pace with time while talking about Panch-sheel and the NAM concept, Our future posture as a super power in the making is all in the independent,powerful,self-discretionary foreigh policy decision and that will be at least 2 in the queue after military might for the super power status. We should drive our strategy in a balanced manner such that we end up having "get the energy security", "keep uncle sam happy", "independent decisions","keep development apace" all together at the same time..Indeed a tought job,..but for that only we have the well-educated,shrewd and independent babus in our buerocracy and watchful left friends in Delhi....

Part II

People will be surprised to know that comman people put their children for a paltry sum of Rs.600. that turns about USD 17 for employment. And we as people have to do something to wipe off child labour in the near future. If one look into the areas where children are deputed, one can make out quite a number of things. Beedi roll shops Cracker industry, Road side eateries, and Hotels predominantly employ children where no special skills are required and regular labour charge is very high. These petty margins drives people to employ children in their shops.

Another perspective is that this poor earning from children is enabling their wretched parents to make ends meet if not for lavish spend which enables one to correlate easily towards life condition of people and some serious root cause for chronic issues like child labour.

The worst form of the chil labour is bonded labour or servitude where children are bonded to the owners and have to toil for round the clock and served food minimally. WIth roughtly around 11 million children as child labours some thing need to be done seriously....

Plaguing the nation

Breaks can at times be refreshing, but occasionally breaks too can spoil the rythm. This time i was caught in the second one and bit lot more time to start. After a handful of soceity reflecting blogs...I too need a change and what I am planning is to work on theme based blogs rather. A new idea,new concept will always enables me to come up with new and unseen perceptions which would be thought provoking and insightful for the audience.

The nation still owes a lot to its subjects no matter how good it boast it's own performance no matter how miniscule it may be.. There are several, in fact many things which keeps plaguing our nation. Woemen empowerment, corruption, extremist threat both internal and external, poverty, agrarian crisis, infant mortality and to top it all the Child labour...


This series of blog will concentrate on the worst of all and it is the child labour. India stands high in the world arena mostly because of it's recent glare due to the high and encouraging IT exports and this can be directly attributed to the large chunk of working youth 90% of them all in their 20's. Even some media report claims that india equals the youth line up with that of china. To maintain the strategic lead we enjoy in this particular IT domain with that of our competing countries in general and china in particular we have to address a series of issues and surely child labour will be major one..

Island trouble

This is a subject which I have never touched before but going through repeated articles and the coverage it gets in the Media gives me a second thought. It's the issue of the rebels operating from the island nation..




And as a tamil the issue becomes more close and naturally it becomes a issue of greater importance. The general mis-conception about the tamil rebels is that it is a terrorist organisation. I don't have any special incident and chain of event which can be correlated and substantiated for the start of war in the early 80's. But at some point or other I have heard that tamils in the island nation has been stripped of basic rights and marginalised. Some bad points to note are something like tamils were not allowed to rise beyond certain ranks in armed forces,civil forces. and suffered untold miseries..







When the rebel mission was started, India's iron lady was in the seat of power and the rebels were trained and equipped by our own country. I never come across the stories and theories beyond this Indira's step..But this rebel group has grown into sizes which grabs bbc's prime space in it's website when it launched the first ever air attact..

If one start to think of the time and position which forces one to launch and run a rebel group in search of a separate statehood and to fight for it's sovereignity is only when the group is pushed to the brink..But the positions unwound differently with Rajiv taking a different stand by sending IPKF to tame the group which has been groomed by his own mother. I personally feel that the rebel group's greatest blunder ever was the assasination of Rajiv in 1991 and to add insult to the injury the rebel group leader's note that it was a painful incident.. Goes by the tamil proverb that says" pillayum killitu...thottilayum attura kathai..." I don't beleive the rebel group will ever gain India's confidence atleast in the near future..

In another dimension we need to look after the plight of the tamil breathern's in the east and the war torn decade..A very simple example is the students missing out academic calender in case of a war emergency...Simply put who ever speaks tamil will yearn for a quicker solution. for the island breatherns....

Plunder in Bengal

Nandigram has opened the Pandora's box with speculations coming out up to direct remarks from CPM that it won't go for replacing Budhadeb. This again raises the very basic questions regarding SEZ, that do we really need them? With heavy tax sops,numerous incentives and all these at our farmer's cost. With the CPM's politbureau howling for a development with human face and the state in west Bengal moving forward swiftly with no second thought for the planned SEZ. The state is already notorious for the special interest it showed on the Indonesia based salim group.

Here what the lefts in the state will cleverly argue that WB will the development cycle if it fails and says nay to the "FDI in state" optiona and missing the IT boom..True, but it should never lose the base line and that's what I fear is happening in WB currently. The lefts really had a dream run last two years with more direct communists in the parliament after the early years of independece and a emphatic victory in their bastion WB and tripura. I remember voting for Mohan from Madurai when he contested from the MK headed alliance in TN. Sure it's fact that people like Nallakannu,Mohan and other communists in the state are noted for their simplicity and staraight forwardness these incidents wreaking a havoc and sure will have some impact at least in the near future.


With singur not being settled out and pushed to the back burner and Nandigram in the news this year is especially bad for the communists, With wal-mart and other big ones are already drawing plans I feel Lefts should reframe their strategy..

Irony of Fate

Much has been written about the reservation, but it is very much unfortunate that the supreme court staying the 27% reservation for backward classes in the premiere central institutions. It's always like the downtrodden and voiceless keeps on crammed down out of their space and their voice strangled..The elite and privilaged who represents a very minimal percentage of the urban class got the coverage more than needed in the more voyeurisitic indian media which has slipped long back from the thumb rule of journalism that it has report news..Now days news and snippets are manufactured fakely to propel the urban centric TRP ratings and aiming costlier advertising slots..After all each and everyone knows well that news will not be happening round the clock, 24X7 or live.. A well to do educated, abundantly salaried knews nothing more than to swap through news channels as if looking for more news to match for more snacks he gobbles...Resulting in news being manufactured for the hungry urbanite resulting mentally obese audience always gaining self-pleasure in going through fallacies and analysing unnecessary details..




No wonder that these fluent english speakers and their obvious kids from AIIMS,CMC's,Jipmer's got more media coverage for whom manufacturing news becomes easy with better english speakers rather than the poor ruralite who will be provided with education in his mother tongue by the state, for whom simple uni-colour uniforms are unaffordable, for whom schools are never reached in Power air-conditioned high-end sedans, for whom a full tutor is a dream or mere luck if he gets one,for whom school is more a place revered for the un-balanced mid-day meal, with politicians more concerned with whether to add egg or not in the mid-day ration rather than a better improved infrastructure, for whom schools are either squeezed with his mates or classes usually going in tree shade, for whom basic sanitary needs in his school is always denied or unaccessible, for whom additional tutions is only imaginable and to top it all finishing the school will become an acheivement..




But for the elites school is always packed with programs with strong business motives of the promoters promising soft-skills, yoga, swimming and all related stuffs.. Where one register for high end coaching class right away from the day he joins class VII where he would be familiarizing himself with physics,chemistry and maths, and taking N mock tests, n+1 guides, N+N tutions and infinity guidance and still two solid years preparing only for the 3/6 hours entrace exams and still complains that he is being denied the right of equal oppurtunity...with thousands and thousands of inequalities being present in the way he learns, trains and tries and gets guidance for the admission...
And atlast the elite,privilaged,more straight forward urbanites starts pester the government and state that injustice has been meeted out to them... This is simply "Irony of Fate"

Oil Addiction

The "stay the course" stunt had enough of George with rumours spelling out like"either fix it immedietely" or expect a "repeat of vietnam" failure for the mighty,world #1,corporate centric United states. Much has been talked about the US elections which transferred the total power structure to the democrats after a long gap of eight years, and light hearted, 'so called' optimistic,poor fellows like me expected a road map of the US retreat.. Much fanfare was there for Nancy as the first woman speaker in the US congress and US media boasted of the Bipartisan approach.. what follwed is the usual US way..








To put in the way as exactly framed by Ijaz Ahamed is the "One more time.. and last" addicted syndrome of a usual gambler going for another and another and another approach all along his time seems plaguing US. All predictions went wrong !! Either it is Democrats or Republicans..Worldwide protest or No!! Always God will come and say like "George!! still are you not doing your role as a saviour???" Then George will wake up and announce proudly for a new road map and push in more troops..Democrats??Bipartisan approach?? Anti - war policy of Democrats...Bull shit...We as Americans have to save Iraq..God knows what is they are going to save..The oil addiction and the corporate-political tangle drives American mindset to pump in for more troops..
Iraq Oil fields


Miserable are reports from "Lancet" like 6 millions are dead in Iraq are really horrible!! Who knows?? George my push more troops and stabilise Iraq... With chenoy giving an unusual,unannounced visit to Pak. speaks volumes of Pakistan's dubious distinction as America's ally in the war against terror..And the hawks eye now turn to Iran..Thankfully India does not have Oil resources...God is still soft towards us !!!!!!

IT revolution

Since last decade, really India has got a new colour in the world arena, atleast in the urban level. Mood is upbeat..More IPO's...Sky rocketing sensex... up to the height of dubious "India shining" campaign ( voters really judged it exactly whether it is shining
really or not..) If not all, there were some visible changes which made each and every urban folk to feel proud. I will list out some outright examples. Dignitaries from the outside world ( read it " from west" ) after their short visit to Taj in Agra, never missed the next flight to Bangalore to visit the campus and love to hear the inspiring story of the IT. The list is studded with Big heads like former Japanese prime minister, Chinese president,Bill Gates and even Dutch royals.


Something can be marked and noted still more. Although chinese universities are faring well and competing with even the elite Ivy-league.. Hu did'nt missed to visit the prestigious IISc campus in Bangalore which says in itself how people atlest in the beurocratic level watches India's advancements. sure IT changed the face of India. with all this said one easy inference for any engineering grad is a how life would be without IT??




I myself personally had enviable dream of a career as a "Software engineer". Although this tag has lost its gloass today.. Everyone longed for it. Fortunately we had Azim and Narayanamurthy and Ramadurai with us who all pioneered the IT and ITES industry, today the industry entirely absolving a maximum number of undergrads irrespective of their engg. specialisation churned out by the colleges to its fold. It's direct logic. A great Indian IT dominance, happy " quarter conscious " corporates, happy IT proffesionals , Still happy shareholders and atleast a content government. True, each and every government woos IT cos. to set up shop in theri respective state. Some visible backdrop is the spiralling real estates. This would be unimaginable without IT.. What would have happened if we missed this IT revolution to some other english speaking countries... Unemployment would have reason..You and me will not be here writing and reading this.. No software exports...
Anyway India managed to get the bus this time...

THANKS IT