Singapore Marathon.. Anyone from Chennai ?

The registration for Singapore Marathon 2005 is now open. Register before Aug 31 and avail a 50% disount and pay only SGD 35.

I am looking forward to this event and hope this one will be better organized and managed than the Chennai / Bangalore Marathons.

Any one joining the party from Chennai ? drop a note..

Skype Out is Great.. Check it out

I have been using Skype for a while and find it very useful to call my friends and colleagues anywhere in the world as long as they are Skype users. Just this week, I experimented with SkypeOut and find it an excellent tool, particularly during my frequent international travel.

I was in Singapore this week and had to participate in several international conference calls. Generally, I would use my calling card to get on to these calls, but this time I used SkypeOut and found it very useful and extremely economical. In fact, my calls to US toll free numbers were free.. Yes free.. Can anyone beat that ?

So what is SkypeOut? Simply put, its the ability to make calls to any phone number from your PC through the Skype software. As Skype puts it, where you call to matters and not where you call from. So, my calls from Singapore to US cost me less than USD 0.03 cents a minute.

Skype also has something called SkypeIn in beta. This assigns a phone number (from many countries) to your PC so that people can call you from the 'regular phones'. But I haven't played with it yet.

For those uninitiated in to Skype.. Check it out.. Very useful tool.. to call next door or across the continent. Its by far the best VOIP SoftPhone I have used.

Movie Review - Anniyan

This is old news by now.. but got to see the movie only last weekend.. so here comes my belated review of Anniyan.

This being Shankar's movie after the much tarnished Boys, received lot of publicity. From the looks of it, Anniyan seems to have rescued Shankar. Even after six weeks, this movie is running to packed houses in Chennai.

Overall, I liked the movie and its message. Anniyan highlights the desire of the silent middle class which is the at the receiving end of most of the infringements committed by the lot of folks without really thinking about it. However, Shankar could have easily reduced running time 30+ minutes by focussing on the core message and cutting out romance part. Remo and Sada parts are in the movie only to fit in to the mould of stero typical Tamil Movie.

Direction (Shankar): Good.. Shankar has done a decent job of keeping the audience with him through this long movie.
Story (Shankar): Good.. but was not sharp
Dialogue (Sujatha): Very Good.. but was bordering vulger in a few places
Art (Sabu Cyril): Very Good.. particularly for the song sequences
Music (Harris Jeyaraj): First Shankar movie for Harris. He has delivered solid music and hit songs.
Stunt (Peter Hein): Visually stunning..but weren't crisp.

Over all Grade: B+

(ps: As we got out of the movie, we silently endured many of the infringements Anniyan took offense to in the movie : 1) Chaotic parking lot 2) Pushy & overbearing auto drivers 3)one of the many innovative uses of the side walks - open air urinals)

Chennai Bloggers Meet

Thanks to Kiruba Shankar, we had bloggers meet in Chennai over the weekend. There were over 20+ bloggers who met in the quiet environs of Madras Boat Club. This was first of a kind meeting for me and found it interesting and useful.

We started out in the lawns of the boat club but had to quickly move indoors as the rain god decided to join our meeting. This did not dampen the bloggers who went on to munch and chat well after the rain god exiting the scene.

Royal Enfield (RE) sponsored our get together and paid for our munchies. RE also offered to sponsor our future outdoor activities like bike treks to near by picnic spots by giving us few brand new bullets to ride to the picnic spot (an offer too good to refuse ???).

What stuck me most was that majority of the bloggers were in their 20s and just out of college.(Needless to say I was in the minority) In fact a couple were still in school.

May be we can meet in once a quarter...

மெட்ராஸ் பாஷை

என்னாமே இத்த பாத்தியா?

I was mildly surprized to find மெட்ராஸ் பாஷை making it to Wiki.

This wiki gives a good background on this unique lingo prelevant in Chennai. I call myself a 'true' madrasi yet I didn't know a few (lot) things like:

• மெட்ராஸ் பாஷை having Urdu influence
• சாவுக்கு கிராக்கி மருவி சாவுகிராக்கி ஆனது....
  

Heard in the office today..
நீ give giveன்னே நான் giveட்டேன்

BTW: This wiki page could use your help.. It is listed under 'clean up' section and is looking for folks to polish it up a little..

(My friend Krishnan Ramachandran alerted me to this wiki..)

Reservation for the unreserved ?

Read a telling article about reservations (affirmative action) in The Hindu today. Tamil Nadu has started the process admitting students to its 12 medical colleges by sending out call letters. Of the 1186 available seats under the single window system, 818 have been reserved for various backward communities and the rest 368 have been made available for open competition. A look at the call letter distribution reveals the remarkable progress made by the backward communities. By the time admissions are over, they would have garnered more than 85% of the seats available under 'open competition'. Less than 40 students from the so called fforward communities will get in to medical colleges this year in Tamil Nadu.

So, of the 1186 available seats, 1146 (96.6%) would go to the reserved communities and a mere 40 (3.4%) to the forward communities. In this scenario, Does reservation make any sense ? For whom ?

It would be a worthwhile attempt to further analyze as to who is really getting these coveted medical seats.

• Is it the deserving backward class kids or the creamy layer of the society ? What's the family income ? What's the educational level of the parents ? etc.,
  
• Where do they come from ? (City / Rural)
• Which school ? (Private / Public)
  
• What's the gender ratio ? (Boy /Girl)
  

Here are my questions:
================

1. Does India need reservations ? How long ? In what form ?
2. Who should be eligible for it ?
   

IMO, Affirmative action/s are still required, but require major re-calibration.

• Employ filters: Proper filtering mechanisms should be instituted such that only the deserving get the benefits. For starters, I do not consider Dr. Ramadass / Dr. Anbumani Ramadass et. al as backward even though they might officially belong to a backward community. (MGR tried instituting financial criteria but failed)
  
• Catch them early: Concerted efforts should be made to nurture deserving kids from the early stages of schooling. Efforts should be made to get them into private schools through grants and scholarships. This will prepare them for competition later.
• Spread the wealth: In the current scenario, the creamy layer repeatedly garners benefits multiple times for generations. By limiting availment, benefits will reach the deserving in a much broader scale.
  

International travel made easy

International travel made easy - Just a little

International travel out of Chennai Airport just got a little easier starting this month with one less ‘stamp’ to obtain on the boarding pass. These stamps are very important part of the Airport security process in India. I have been sent back a few times to get the ‘missing stamps’ in my boarding pass. This can be really annoying and even more so, if you are traveling with kids and ‘extra’ baggage.

Earlier, after obtaining the boarding pass, travelers must obtain 3 stamps at 1) immigration 2) Customs & 3) Security counters. Obtaining each of them meant long, unruly lines at each counter, which is particularly annoying for the frequent travelers.

Now, international travelers need to obtain only two stamps 1) immigration 2) security. I have never understood the need for the intermediary customs stamping process and glad to see it go.

If the customs departmnet can do away with the mandatory screening of all incoming bags (both checked and hand carry), it will save invaluable time for the arriving passengers.

அக்ணிப்பூக்கள்

2004 Kumbakonam Fire

Exactly a year ago, this day over 90 kids aged 4-10 went to their school only to be locked in and burnt alive. Since then, several other bigger incidents have pushed this one to the back burner. However, few corrective actions did take place:

1. The School where the accident occurred has been closed
2. Kids who escaped the fire have been accommodated in other schools
3. Affected families received compensation
4. Schools can no longer have 'thatched' roof class rooms in the State
5. Another commission was instituted to probe the accident and the findings have just been given to the State Government.
6. Several celebrities promised assistance and few delivered
7. Few people connected with the school were arrested (and released?) but no one has been charged yet. In other words, justice has NOT been yet and there is no closure for the affected families.

We visited the school last December, on a rainy night. That place was enveloped in an eerie silence. We said our silent prayers and returned with a heavy heart. Except for a huge billboard with the pictures of the perished children, there was no sign of any memorial. I hope the city builds a fitting memorial for the perished children by this time next year.

'4' means die ?

4 means die (in Cantonese) ?

I was in Kula Lumpur (KL) recently and noticed that there was no 4^th floor optoin in several elevators. The numbers ran like this: 2, 3, 3A, 5.. I asked around and was told that the number 4 is unpopular amongst Chinese because in Cantonese four means die. So, the buildings that are owned by Chinese generally avoid number 4.

I was told by my Chinese friend that, in Cantonese

• Four means die
• Fourteen means Sure die
• Twenty Four means Easy die
• Thirty Four means Live & die
• Forty Four means Die die
• Fifty Four means No die

This brought back the memory of a similar scenario in US. In the old IBM office building in Columbus, OH was there was no 13^th floor. It simply ran 11, 12, 14, 15..

Now, what's the unlucky / unpopular number amongst Indians? Is it Number 8?

Thumhari Amrita

Thumhari Amrita

I saw a very different theatrical play in Hindi, Thumhari Amrita by Shabna Azmi & co yesterday. Even with my limited Hindi, I liked this novel play for its simplicity and powerful delivery.

In this play, there were only two characters on stage who just sat and read letters they exchanged over period of 35 years. The exchange of letters starts when they were very young and continues as their life takes them in different paths. It’s a love story that ends in a tragedy due to their life turns..

As I was sitting through this play, I was wondering

1. Has there been a play like this in Tamil?
2. How about a play like this in Tamil penned by Sujatha and enacted by Suhasini & Parthiban? (Here comes the dare to dream part.. How about me, yeah ME in place of Parthiban ?)

Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking Sastrigal - Conducting an Upanayanam and talking on the Mobile

Thiruvasagam Oratorio

I bought a legal copy of the much awaited Thiruvasagam in Symphony (TiS) over the weekend and have listened to it twice so far. I must confess that, it is going to take several more (listening) to appreciate this novel attempt by Ilaiyaraaja.

There was lot of buzz around the release of this album. The album itself was released in a high profile ceremony in Chennai attended by the bigwigs of media and the political machinary. That was preceded by the several smaller functions hosted as a curtain raiser to the big event. Both English and Vernacular media gave good coverage of the launch.

It took Ilaiyaraaja & Tamil Maiyam (a not-for-profit organization founded by father Rev. Jegat Gasper Raj to promote research of Tamil Society and Culture) over 3 years to raise funds (about INR 14 million) to bring this album out. Future endeavors like this depend on the financial viability of this one.

Ilaiyaraaja would rather call this as oratorio than a symphony. I looked up what oratorio and it means a long, dramatic musical composition, usually on a religious theme, consisting of arias, recitatives, choruses, etc. sung to orchestral accompaniment but without stage action, scenery, or costumes.

My exposure to Thiruvasagam is very limited. I have only heard “Namashiva Vazhga Nathan Thal Vazha” a few times sung in the traditional way. In his album, Ilaiyaraaja takes about 20 versus from Thiruvasagam renders them in a totally different wayl. It is going to take me a while before the music sinks in.

Regardless, it’s a worthwhile attempt and I applaud Ilaiyaraaja for coming out with this album which according to him is his ‘life’s work’.