Mumbai bleeds, Government sleeps

I am filled with rage and helplessness over the events of the last 3 days in Mumbai. The fact is that India is vulnerable and Indians are insecure. The authorities ordained to protect the country have failed miserably and the country's defense and intelligence have collapsed. Watching the Taj Mahal hotel burn for two days has felt like living through Mumbai's own 9/11, for the Taj is not merely a five-star hotel, it is a symbol of the city's identity, an iconic link between its rich past and bustling present.

Indian Mujahideen, Deccan Mujahideen, Students Islamic Movement in India, Sadhus and Sadhvis - the list goes on, but irrespective of the instigators, the frequency and the flawless execution of these attacks have all but underlined the fact that India, known for its hospitality, is a welcome abode for terrorists. They can strike at will.

While I am appalled at the ineptitude of the government to take drastic measures despite 8 terror attacks in 3 months, the fact that newspaper reports are able to give more information than Shivraj Patil, the Home Minister, is rediculous. The Home ministry, in its current state is a far cry from the one that Lal Krishna Advani managed and it is time to fire Shivraj Patil.

It only took one 9/11 for the US to revamp its internal security and while traveling has been a hassle since, the US is far more secure than in 2001. I am not sure how many attacks it would take for the government to take a tough stand on terrorism. It is time to think out side of vote banks and politics and provide a solution that prevents such attacks rather than reacts to them.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter if the color of terror is saffron or green, it needs to be wiped out.

Saroja - Scissors Nikalo

The decision to watch my first Tamil movie since Dasavatharam on a freezing Chicago night over hot bajjis turned out to be a good one until ...the bajjis got over.

Venkat Prabhu who gave us a simple, yet entertaining film, Chennai 28, has tried a different genre for his next offering. But having made the decision to dabble with a thriller in Saroja, he should gone all out at it and not confined himself to the rules of Tamil cinema - comedy and songs. If you take out the songs that act as brakes and a climax that promises to take you to Tokyo but lands you in Thoothukudi, the ride is not bad.

The plot is a cocktail of movies like Dil Chahta Hai, Easy Rider, Little Miss Sunshine and Home Alone and spans one day in the lives of four laymen visibly heading towards their thirties, Ajay (Shiva), Ganesh (Premji) and the Babu Brothers (Charan and Vaibhav), who have planned to see a cricket match in Hyderabad. They set out on their bizarre vehicle on to the Hyderabad highway with booze in hand, songs on lips and friendship in their hearts. The group comes to a scene of accident and is forced to go through a different route. Thanks to the chutzpah of the lead, they take a wrong turn and so does the story.

There is also a parallel thread involving troubled businessman Viswanathan (Prakashraj) whose daughter, Saroja, the nocturnal titular character, gets kidnapped and he solicits the help of police officer Ravichandran (Jayaram) to save her. As events go from bad to worse, the story threads knot and the four friends try to save their skin and return home alive, in the process meeting the hostage Saroja (Vega).

The screenplay is racy to an extent and Premji's comic sense lightens various tense moments in the movie - different, yet effective. Close friends addressing each other as "sir" was initially confusing and might even set off a trend, replacing meaningful words like "machi" and "machan" in the collegiate's lexicon. Cinematography, background music and lighting (or the lack thereof) contribute heavily to the mood of the movie and the director keeps the audience guessing the next direction the movie would veer into. Unfortunately, the climax doesn't quite live up to the built up suspense and the movie fizzles out. Jayaram is loud and his overacting kills the twist in the tale, which was a tad too trivial. The songs are a huge dampener and are out of place in a supposed road thriller.

Overall it is a good attempt at a different cup of tea albeit diluted with excess sugar and unnecessary spices (read myriad songs and unnecessary scenes).

Verdict: Overpaid Editor
Score: 2.5/5

Kapitalism

When Obama made his now famous quote - "Let's spread the wealth", he was branded a communist by the McCain campaign. Later that night McCain voted in favor of a 750 billion relief package, as part of which the government bought significant equity in ailing banks. You might dismiss the development as a drastic measure that is needed in drastic times, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the the world's most prominent practitioner of capitalism has steered away from the very essence of free market ideologies, whether or not it openly acknowledges it.

The debate between free market vs. state control has been raging since the times of Adam Smith and wars have been fought on it. But one look at the two countries involved in the Cold War, conveys a paradigm shift in their market beliefs. While communism collapsed in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Russia has since become the cradle of capitalistic debauchery, the US has opened the iron curtain to communism, if not openly embracing it. In fact, the current economic crisis has been so devastating that once-cherished assumptions about the superiority of the U.S. economic model are now in doubt. Talks are also underway regarding a 25 billion relief package for the Big 3.

Call it industrial policy, or use the euphemism of "public-private partnership." But as America emerges from the rubble of the credit bubble and soberly confronts the task of building a strong, sustainable economy, the new credo will likely be "whatever works." The lawmakers of the country have slowly realized that this is not the time for ideologies, but desperate decisions, but subconsciously they also have to accept that no perfect theory can be practical. The middle ground, which America often refuses to take, is often the right answer. As the saying goes - it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mice.

Blastphemy

Following the recent string of blasts in India, starting with Bangalore and ending (hopefully) with New Delhi, has been a harrowing experience. The fact that my dad lives in New Delhi, has only compounded the anxiety factor.

But it got me to thinking...When did it all start? What was the trigger? Why do these blasts keep reminding us with frequent morbidity that differences exist in our society and the way some people deal with them is by killing people. Killing people doesn't necessarily kill the problem or the differences, does it?

It is interesting to note the most prominent terrorist attacks (I am loosely grouping riots and terrorists acts into one) since 1990 have all been religiously motivated - the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Mumbai serial blasts, Gujarat riots, Parliament bombing, Coimbatore blasts and now the latest ones. They also seem to alternate between the two prominent religions in the country, each trying to take vengeance for the earlier act of cowardice by the other. As these acts of tit-for-tat, an eye-for an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth continue into perpetuity, the country will soon be blind, toothless and eventually dead.

Following this trail of terrorist acts, I cannot but point at the demolition of Babri Masjid as the seminal moment in terrorism in India. It is hard to trace any other act of violence before or after (including the Sikh riots in 1984 and the riots following the partition in 1947) that has influenced the thinking of the nation, more so that of a few select people, more than Babri Masjid did.

A thoughtless act of destroying a place of worship that was allegedly usurped by a ruler belonging to another religion 300 years ago, has sown the seeds for almost two decades of bloodshed. What led to it? Religion? Communalism? Simmering feelings of hatred that simply boiled over in a momentary lapse of reason? Politics? It is hard to point the finger at one reason. But the unavoidable yet common thread that connects all potential factors mentioned above seems to be...God.

So, what if there was no God? Well, is there God, in the first place? The second is a profound question that has been the point of contention between theists and atheists for ages, which I am not willing to answer.

But the first question is easy to answer. Without god will there be religion? No. Without religion will there be religious animosity? No. Would there have been the Crusades? No. Would there have been the Holocaust? No. Would there be Jihad? No. Would there have been the Gujarat genocide? No. Would there have been the Babri Masjid Demolition? No. Would there have been 9/11, 12/6, 12/13 and 3/12? Never.

Why then, do we need God? Irrespective of his existence, if the most devastating acts of terrorism/genocide in our country, and the world in general, could have been avoided without him, wouldn't the world be a much better and safer place to live in without God? Aren't we better off without the notion of this all-powerful, omnipresent and omnipotent concept that seems to have gotten a few of us obsessed enough to kill. Aren't we better off seeing the God in fellow men and women than in the few names that we address him by? Aren't we better off following our conscience regarding the rights and wrongs of life than the preachings of the so-called messiahs? Aren't we better off without God?

Yes.

My Olympic Moments: Phelps, Bindra and Vince Vaughn's Olympic bid

If watching Michael Phelps push the limits of human endurance over the last 5 days was the standout performance of this Olympics (so far, at least), Abhinav Bindra's gold medal was the cherry on top for me. As with most cakes, I am guessing there will only be one cherry for the Indians this time (or for some time to come).

While Phelps becoming the most celebrated Olympian of all time, surpassing the likes of Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, was only a matter of time, Bindra's gold medal was a matter of "high time" for a nation of more than a billion people. For Indians who have often been embarrassed to see countries like Suriname and Zimbabwe win gold medals at the Olympics while India continued to falter at the biggest athletic stage, it is redemption of sorts. Shooting seems have become India's flagship sport during the last 6 years or so when the country has clearly fallen off the podium in Hockey. But what has surprised me is that we no longer have good track and field athletes (what happened to the good old Keralites who kept us in the hunt during the 80's? Have they all started driving their Santros to work).

Bindra's win in the Indian Olympics context is something to be cherished but it is at the same time a testament to individual achievement and not to India's sports system. Unlike China, which seems to have found a method to scout and groom Olympic champions through state-run programs, India seems to be content letting millions of dollars flow into Cricket while other sports die a slow and political death. If half the amount spent on the IPL had been spent on training talented sportsmen for the Olympics, our medals tally over the last few editions would have looked better than the beginning of the Fibonacci series.

To end on a lighter note, I was surprised to find that Baseball, a game hardly played in 5 countries, is an Olympic sport. What's next on the agenda - Dodgeball? Get ready Vince Vaughn!

Favre is a Jet

Never could I imagine Brett Favre in anything other than green and gold. So I am still pinching myself.

As Favre led the Packers to the NFC championship game last year, where they lost to the Giants in overtime, his final pass was intercepted, setting up New York's winning field goal. That pick, a blemish on an otherwise brilliant season, may have haunted him and driven Favre back onto the field.

So as Favre goes from the wilderness of Northern Wisconsin to buzz of the Big Apple to join New York coach Eric Mangini, who is a year younger than his new QB, the land of Lombardi has lost its biggest attraction. It will be left to see if the Midwesterners will still take on the wind chill and drive hours to watch the cheeseheads play.

The Jets are hoping Favre can bring them some of the magic he created at Lambeau Field, a place where the sight of him dropping back into the pocket on a frozen Sunday and rocketing a ball downfield is as etched in Packers lore as legendary coach Vince Lombardi walking the sidelines.

As always time will tell if Favre should have preserved his legacy and stayed in his ranch in Mississippi or risked it all for one final tryst with glory.

Randy Pausch dies

On July 25, 2008, Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and a pioneer in the field of Virtual Reality and Human-Computer Interaction, died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia, having moved there so that his wife and children would be near family after his death.

Late last year, doctors had told him he had just months to live, but he didn't want to dwell on dying. Instead, the Professor decided to give a humorous and life-affirming final lecture to 400 students and colleagues (well, thats what they all thought), now infamously known as "The Last Lecture". For anyone whining and griping about life and how unfair it is, the lecture is an eye opener; for everyone else, it is a moving and inspirational speech.

P.s: Thanks Madhu for fwding the video to me.

Singh is King - UPA wins Trust Vote

Amidst claims of horse-trading the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh delivered an arousing speech and won the trust vote that would help move the nuclear deal forward.

Finally an end to the farcical drama staged by the Left.

Favorite Cricket Commentator: Cricinfo Poll Results

Cricinfo (now part of ESPN) released the results of the "favorite cricket commentator" poll today.

Results:

1. "Favorite commentator": 1. Harsha Bhogle 2. Ravi Shastri 3. Richie Benaud
2. "Most Entertaining": 1. Tony Greig 2. Geoff Boycott 3. David Lloyd
3. "Most Unbiased": 1. Richie Benaud 2. Harsha Bhogle 3. Ravi Shastri
4. "Most Insightful": 1. Ian Chappell 2. Richie Benaud 3. Harsha Bhogle

As with any poll/survey, the sample population, mostly Indians, seems to have heavily influenced the results. This is evident from the fact that Bhogle was most people's favorite commentator and someone like Tony Cozier, who has less exposure to Indian audiences failed to even get a mention. Harsha is by far the best Indian commentator, light years ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and it is good to see him recognized for this services.

It is however not surprising to see the Channel 9 team score heavily in this poll since it is by far the best commentating team in the history of cricket broadcasting.

Led by the impeccable Richie Benaud, the almost tyrannical Commentary Team Captain and the father of television cricket commentating, with a penchant for "cream, bone, white, off-white, ivory or beige" jackets and the uncanny knack of conveying more through less, the team has the perfect mix of analysts and entertainers that every commentary team should poseess.

Tony Grieg is the master entertainer whose high decibel screams and thick bass voice adds value to any cricketing action while Bill Lawry, Tony's nemesis and keen pigeon fancier, is a man with an unusually large nose (as a result of a childhood bout with "proboscitis"), has a tendency to declare all batsmen out regardless of the actual result and an abiding and one-eyed love of the state of Victoria, Merv Hughes, leg-spinner Shane Warne and Australia (which he pronounces "Straya"). Ian Chappell is quite the calming influence on this team and provides the most insightful analysis on a game situation like no one else. One of the best captains ever, Ian often speaks ahead of the game and remains my favorite commentator.

While additions like Mark Taylor and Ian Healy (the worst commentator ever, along with Ranjith Fernando) have diluted the quality a bit, the fab four have been holding their ground since the inception of the team in 1980.

iRritated fans of iPhone

Rants from an iRritated iPhone user, iNline with reports of all the glitches that went with the iPhone 3G launch.:

"Last year, iStood in a long line but iGot my iPhone for a premium price. iTalked the talk and iWalked the walk listening to iTunes all the time and iFound iLoved my iPhone. Then iFound out that the prices were slashed by $200. iSulked and found solace in the fact that iWas one of the first users of the one of the greatest iNnovations of this decade. Today with the new software, my iPhone is idead. iWish Steve Jobs would suffer the misery that iHave for more than five hours trying to figure out what why my iPhone is not working. iHave loaded and reloaded the iTunes software, repaired, looked for help and now off to the dreaded AT&T store to get help because the only phone call iCan make is to 911, iCan't even call AT&T for help."

iPhone 3G Reviews

Except for the CNET review, which went online on July 11th, most newspaper reviews beat the phone to the market. Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg jumped the gun, publishing his online review of Apple’s new iPhone 3G on Tuesday night. Then, about an hour later, the New York Times responded in kind, posting their own review, by David Pogue and America’s third national paper, USA Today, followed suit, posting a review by Edward C. Baig.

So Apple (AAPL) fans eager to hear if the new iPhone is worth buying got their answer well before they decided whether or not to stand in line.

Once again, Steve Jobs has tightly controlled the initial wave of critical commentary by handing out advanced copies to his favorite reviewers — two of whom make a nice living publishing books about Apple products (Pogue writes “Missing Manuals” and Baig writes “For Dummies” books).

But if he sought to curry special favor — or control the timing — Jobs was only partly successful. Although Baig’s review is quite enthusiastic (”two thumbs up”), Mossberg’s and Pogue’s are what is known in the theater as mixed positive.

The money quotes:

Mossberg: “If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

Pogue: “So the iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade. It more than keeps pace with advancing technology, and new buyers will generally be delighted….But it’s not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens. Indeed, the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone. That twist may come as a refreshing surprise to planned-obsolescence conspiracy theorists — and everyone who stood in line last year.”

Baig: “Extra, extra: iPhone 3G: The Sequel, is worth the wait….It’s cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business. Apple’s blockbuster smartphone already had nifty features such as visual voicemail, a splendid built-in video iPod and the best mobile Web browser I’ve ever used. With GPS newly added to the mix, this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones.”

At Least the G-8 Well

OK, fine. There was a hiccup or two at the G-8 Summit. And, sure, they didn't reach a perfect state of accord regarding global climate change. But they tried. And there was one thing that everyone could agree on: the utter tastiness of the meal they enjoyed during a discussion of the global food crisis.

Iran's Missile Test Photos Photoshopped

Yesterday Iran tested what is apparently a medium range Shahab-3 ballistic missile. The fear (or the fear they hoped to induce) is that they can now strike Israel. It's all part of the saber rattling going on between our hawkish leaders and theirs.

But the pictures of the test that Iran's state Sepah News provided to Agence France-Presse have clearly been doctored with Photoshop (or maybe open-source Gimp software; ha!). Apparently the point of the manipulation was to cover up a %25 failure rate in this test (one missile hasn't fired in the unaltered photo).


The manipulated shots made it on to the front page of the L.A. Times (among other papers) before the tampering was noticed. Sepah News later provided what appears to be an unaltered shot with no explanation.

As one commenter at the NYTimes says "I know that these missiles are part of a threat to wipe Israel off the map, but now they've proved that they have the Photoshop capabilities to do it.” We wouldn't say their Photoshop skills are quite that far along yet.

Hug your way out of your troubles with Mata Amritanandamayi

While the Pope plans to participate in a televised and thus bound-to-be-ballyhooed Bible-reading marathon come October 5th, an Indian guru named Mata Amritanandamayi has reached out to her followers with a more hands-on approach.

Amritanandamayi, or Amma (Mother) to devotees, has been spreading her gospel of hugs since her teenage years in a India. On the first 2 days of her 3-day New York hugathon, she hugged 8,000 total strangers—some waiting up to 7 hours for the free embrace. After the undoubtedly awesome and experienced hug (estimates are she's at 27 million!), you even receive a Hershey’s kiss and a few flower petals. We think it's a beautiful idea: to nourish the soul through a touch wrapped in love.

Surrounded by a small army of like-minded volunteers, Amma offered her own serene, why-worry take: “If you ask a river, ‘How do you flow?’ it can only say, ‘I just flow.’ So likewise, I just flow.”

Rafa pulls off a Role-Reversal at Wimbledon

Greatest Wimbledon final ever? Greatest players ever to play in a final? Greatest tennis tussle? Yes, arguably Yes and Yes . I could go on with adjectives that describe the 2008 Men's final at Wimbledon but if I were to use one word it was - sublime. Hardly have I seen two men throw winners at each other with the frequency of an electromagnetic wave for as long as they played (4 hr 48 mins to be precise). If the tennis elevated you to stratospheric heights, the glowing praise that the players showered on each other after the game only brought you back to moisture laden earth. The pair played out a semi-classic last year, but this one clearly made it to the top of the list.

There were three reasons Nadal won. Statistically, break-point conversion was where the game was decided - Nadal converted 4 out of his 13, while Federer managed only 1 out of 13. It merely highlights the fact that the winner handled the pressure much better and served exceptionally well on big points.

Secondly, Nadal's ability, as Safin had described earlier, "to run like a rabbit and hit winners from everywhere" ensured that Federer not only had to play extra shots to stay in the points, but also lost those points from seemingly winning positions. The number of times Nadal creamed winners from way out of the sidelines and from unbalanced positions was a sight to behold.

Thirdly, the main difference between last year and this was that Nadal truly believed he could defeat Federer at Wimbledon, a belief that was at an embryonic stage a year ago.

If Federer hadn't fought back to level the game from being 2 sets down and take it as far it ended up going, he wouldn't have been Federer. But for all his skill and effort he could only end up second best today. Nadal managed to pull off the near impossible, winning the French and Wimbledon in the same year (after Borg in 1980). To think that the only players in the modern era to win both the titles in their careers have been Laver, Borg and Agassi, puts this win into better historic perspective. Going by this year's form Nadal is clearly the better player and he has proved that his game is surface independent; the fact that he did so at 23 only opens up the world for him.

Federer has had a tough year, and this loss only puts the years he dominated into better perspective. Nadal has definitely caught up and Djokovic is not far behind, despite his slip on grass. All this means is that Men's tennis is set to enter the best 3-4 years of triangular rivalry seen since the days of Borg, McEnroe and Connors or Lendl, Becker and Edberg .

I hope the rivalry lives up to the expectations, but for these two players, exceeding expectations is like getting up from bed - just business-as-usual.

Dasavatharam and Dasavatharam: An analogy

Below is a very meticulously thought out analogy between Kamal's Dasavatharam and Lord Vishnu's Dasavatharam formulated by my friend Yagna. Very well done indeed.

The 10 avatars described in movie Dasavatharam

1 Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P. Vasu's.. sounds familiar???

2 Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3 Mathsya avatar - Rangaraja nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?

4 Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

5 Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

6 Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for ax] and kills everyone around. I have to check out if he really kills 21 people though.

7 Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

8 Rama avatar - Avatar Singh Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

9 Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

10 Koorma avatar - George Bush This is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom…
May be Kamal also indicates that.

Dasavatharam: Movie Review - When more is better

Awesome! That was my reaction when the movie ended amidst sounds of "Ulaga Nayagane" and snippets of the make-up magic that went behind the scenes to develop this magnum opus. Finally a Tamil movie that connects chaos theory/intelligent design with bio-warfare, sand-poaching, Tsunami and god. Tough job, but in the end the screenplay and direction ensure that the movie comes out trumps!

I am a great fan of Kamalhassan and I am also his greatest critic when he ruins some of his best movie concepts with his over enthusiastic ego (e.g., Anbe Sivam). But I must say that I was blown out of my mind with Dasavatharam.

The movie starts off in the 12th century, highlighting the conflict between saivites and vaishnavites under the rule of Kulothunga Cholan and it caught me by surprise that religious persecution had reached such heights during the perceived golden rule of the Cholas, perhaps a gentle reminder that history is written by the victor and not the vanquished. The first 20 minutes take the audience to dizzying heights of grandiose and kick start the story, albeit with aroused curiosity and confusion in the minds of the audience.

The movie then moves to the state-of-the-art biological sciences labs in the US where a virus and its side effects are graphically demonstrated. Needless to say, the virus falls into the hand of the bad-boys and what follows next is a classic chase story that takes the viewer from the streets of Washington DC to the agraharams of Chidambaram, touching Japan on its way and finally culminating in the beaches of Chennai with the Tsunami of 2004.

Along the way we encounter a multitude of Kamals (10, to state the obvious), some of which are exceptionally portrayed and will linger in our memories for eternity. The one who casts a lasting impression on us is Indian RAW agent Balram Naidu who is outright brilliant with his Telugu accented Tamil and comic timing and is on par with the Palakkad brahmin from Michael Madana Kama Rajan. Next is Chris Fletcher , a former CIA agent who chases Govind, the scientist Kamal who is trying to chase down the virus. Fletcher's accent and body language blows you away and he reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator movies with his shades, jacket, Harley and robot-like assassin mannerisms. Poovaragan, as a social activist stands out with his Nellai Tamil and exemplary body language, while the Japanese kung fu exponent comes close in this avatar race with terrific make-up. Kamal as President Bush is funny and authetic with his accent and IQ level I won't be surprised if Kamal has spawned a million Bushisms in India. My favorite dialogue is when Bush is briefed by his scientific aide on the effects of the virus and Bush says - "Don't explain if it is complicated!". The rest, apart from an aptly named Sardar, Avtaar singh, fail to make an impression but the movie compensates for it with crisp dialogues that are funny and intelligent and amazing action sequences that are on par with Asian/Hollywood movies.

Himesh Reshammiya's songs are good (especially since I listened to them after I saw the movie) and are expertly placed in the screenplay to carry the story forward. Kallai mattum and Mukunda stand out while O Sanam fits in well with the screenplay. Asin as the brahmin girl is effective, albeit irritating at times. Overall, credit must go to K.S. Ravikumar and Kamal for spinning a yarn that connects historical events, interspersing them with enjoyable scenes, songs, dialogues and stunts and for keeping the pace up, with distractions like Mallika Sherawat kept to the minimum. Watching the movie with my PhD-in-Biological-Sciences wife only confirmed that the research in the movie was fool-proof. (Spoiler Alert! - it was indeed a master-stroke to let the Tsunami produce the salt required to neutralize the virus).

There is a strong under-current of philosophy with the classic atheism vs. theism conflict reminiscent of Anbe Sivam, but Kamal does a good job of leaving it to the viewer to make up his mind by presenting two characters on either side of the fence. He also leaves the religious persecution bit to interpretation:

1. Man disposes against the will of nature, and nature restores equilibrium

2. Religious persecution existed in the 12th century (not to mention the crusades and the holocaust) and continues to haunt us today in the form of jihad, hindutva and the pseudo war on terror

Verdict: 8/10 overall - While the film deserves perfect Das (10) for make-up, dialogues, stunts and effort, some of the avatharams could have been better thought out. Truly international film from a truly international actor.

BMW Gina - the future car

This was on Wired, and it's already been made popular on Digg, but it's amazing so I am blogging about it.

BMW's new concept car, the GINA Light Visionary Model, has a body made from futuristic fabric, rather than metal. We don't know what happens in the event of a crash or a fire, but we do know that it looks totally revolutionary. And at one point in the video, the car seems to be alive.



You might also take a look at this piece on MIT architecture lecturer Sheila Kennedy, who's creating designs for flexible photovoltaic materials, which could lead to the construction of soft, solar-powered houses.

Apple unveils the new 3G iPhone: "twice as fast at half the price"

The wait is finally over. For all us Apple fans, who have been waiting for a cheaper yet faster version of the iPhone that is 3G compatible, the word is finally out.

Apple(R) today introduced the new iPhone 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built
with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.

iPhone 3G will also be available in more than 70 countries on July 11. Having waiting for 2 months since my contract expired so that I can lay my hands on this coveted piece of gadgetry, I am just thrilled.

"Just one year after launching the iPhone, we're launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year."

iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds.

Amazon Kindle: The future of book reading

With everything going "e" and "m", it was only a matter of time before the Gutenbergian document migrated to the electronic world. The recently released Amazon Kindle is one of many devices (Sony Reader is another one) that are trying to iPodify the ancient habit of book reading and from the reviews in CNET it looks like it does succeed.

But as with music, it is again, only a matter of time before it gets bundled with cell phones just like the iPod got bundled with the iPhone.

At launch the Kindle was priced at $399 but as of May 27, 2008 it now retails for $359.

Obama vs. Clinton

Hillary Clinton's quest to secure the presidential nomination has been an historic one. Despite a flawed campaign strategy, an inadequate (though massive) amount of funding, and some arguably sexist treatment from the media, she pressed on. On June 3, the night that Senator Barack Obama secured the nomination, she spoke to her supporters.





Her supporters exhibit some remarkable conviction. If she isn't on the ballot this November, will they really abstain from voting? Will they vote against the Democratic party on principle? We'll find out in five months.

Gas Price: $8/gallon

Chris Pummer of MarketWatch offers eight reasons why paying $8 for gasoline would actually do us a world of good. Seriously.

To program or kill is the question

Came across this interesting quiz that highlights the thin line that separates the "most wanted geeks" from the "most wanted".

Happy Memorial Day

Nice and poignant image that captures the essence of war.

Guns 'N Roses

Max Motors, a car dealership in Butler, Missouri, is offering a free handgun with every car purchase. The more disturbing fact is that sales have quadrupled thanks to the promotion. Owner Mark Muller "recommends a Kel-Tec .380 pistol, which he describes as 'a nice little handgun that fits in your pocket'."

Muller explains: "We did it because of Barack Obama. He said all those people in the Midwest, you've got to have compassion for them because they're clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns."

Now that's one innovative way to increase the crime rate and the school shootings in this country.

Performance Enhancement in Sports (and Life)

Progress is the essence of life. Improvement is the key to progress. Motivation is the driving force behind improvement. But what motivates people? Success? Power? Money? All of the above? None of the above?

Regardless, (I almost typed irregardless) people are always looking for improvement and enhancement - a way to age gracefully, perform better and longer, and, vanquish that all time undefeated opponent known as aging. We do that by Botoxing our wrinkles, lifting our faces, reconstructing our noses, tucking our tummies, augmenting our breasts and taking a little pill, whose name rhymes with the the most famous waterfall in the world, to make sure we're ready when, you know, the right time presents itself.

Yet, when athletes take performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), they are vilified. Many a great athlete has fallen from the pedestal of greatness to the doldrums of darkness with a single confessional press conference or a single report that revealed it all. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Martina Hingis, Diego Maradona, Ben Johnson, Shoaib Akhtar - the list is as long as the Nile. Even average-Joes like myself take protein and vitamin supplements to maintain a balanced diet and control an ever expanding belly. The culture of personal physical enhancement has pushed the use of steroids and PEDs everywhere -- from Hollywood to the music industry to your next-door neighbor who wants to fight nature.Then, why the preferential scrutiny of athletes?

Athletic achievement is made to be measured and is available for instant analysis when performances improve, even incrementally. Athletes stand on pedestals, and pedestals are made to be toppled. A kind of moral ceiling hangs over sports, as degraded as that ceiling might've become in the 3,000 years since a bunch of Greeks began throwing javelins and racing chariots. Play by the rules. Play fair. Level playing field.

But what's happened is that many athletes have given performance enhancement a different meaning and a few of them have come, or have been forced out, of the closet to the extent that it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between excellent natural athleticism and drugs induced enhancement. Are the superstars of world sport truly great ones, or is it merely a matter of time before they fall from grace.

The truth is, sports do not define the culture -- they reflect it. Society's image of the ideal body is shaped largely by forces outside the chalked lines. And the belief that life can be improved, even extended, by drugs comes not from sports but from the burgeoning field known as medicine.

Sports bodies will soon have to decide whether to open the gates to PEDs and create a level playing field or continue to sweep things under the rug and play by the current rules. Either way, improvement and progress will continue to drive performance and life - natural or not.

Virtually Reality

One of the buzz terms in the 80's was "virtual reality", where a user interacted with computer simulated environments to experience the surreal, an experience so immaculately developed that it was infinitesimally close to reality. People could land on Mars and Mercury, scale Mt. Everest on the treadmill, save the world from aliens and even rescue beautiful princesses from tyrants and marry them! (Yes, I am talking about Prince of Persia). The .com boom in the 90's saw the emergence of Amazon and eBay that opened up virtual malls and window shopping was soon replaced by browsing on deals2buy.com or xpbargains.com. The last 5 years the web has seen yet another development that could have a much more seminal impact than any of the phenomenons discussed above - "virtual communities". MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Orkut and the like, have changed the way people interact with each other, something that was not tampered with since the big bang theory (or the days of Adam and Eve, depending on your perspective).

Virtual Communities are slowly becoming the primary way people interact with each other, be it chat rooms in Yahoo, IMs in Google or scraps in Orkut . Members of these communities create Avatars (yet another Sanskrit word sneaking into the English lexicon after Yoga and Karma), which are essentially virtual clones of the users, and interact with other avatars. Blogs are in the process of replacing newspapers as the dominant source of information exchange, so much so that newspaper sites share the same technology as blogs and news reporters are increasingly indistinguishable from bloggers. Even job search and career changes are done through professional networks via LinkedIn or Doostang. Wikipedia has become the go-to site for information on anything, from Paris Hilton to the Hilton in Paris, replacing the big fat volumes that used to adorn our bookshelves.

So, what is news? What is opinion? How do we filter the facts from the subjective analyses? Who are our friends - the profiles and avatars that exist in Orkut and MySpace or the homosapiens that reside in realms of reality. What happened to god old fashioned meet-and-greet or phone-chats. In short, what is real? What is virtual? Have we tampered so much with 0's and 1's that all there exists is virtual reality?

Money for nothing and checks for free!

"Money for nothing and chicks for free" - crooned Mark Knopfler in 1985, to express his views on the music industry. With a single syllable change, it applies to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the newly conceived 20/20 cricket league set up in a franchise structure like the soccer leagues in Europe or the sports leagues in the US.

While the IPL might turn out to be the most defining development to happen to cricket since the Packer saga in 1978, and might take the salaries of players to be on par with those of soccer stars and NFL superstars, yet, when players like Manoj Tiwary, whom I saw in a recent game in Australia and wondered how he even got selected, and Ishant sharma, who despite being the star of the Australian tour was a virtual unknown a couple of months ago, fetched $675,000 and almost $1 MM respectively, the deal seems to have more holes than a sieve.

True that when business tycoons like Vijay Mallya, Ness Wadia, and Mukesh Ambani are rubbing wallets with Bollywoood stars like Preity Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan, there are bound to be excesses. After all, isn't this the marriage between the two biggest passions of a billion Indians - Cricket and Bollywood?.

Let's take a look behind all the glitter and analyze if there is gold.

First and foremost factor in the success of a venture is the product, in this case 20/20 cricket. There is no doubt that it is exciting and probably the best suited version to really bring people to the stadiums and have fun after a hard day's work. But beyond an exciting and serendipitously successful World Cup, there isn't a proof that the version is worth the millions of $$ in bets that are being placed - huge risk with uncertain return - an investment that would make me look like Ford betting on the Edsel.

Secondly, the HR, in this case cricketers, are an impressive lot - established players and upcoming ones with its share of have-beens; overall some of the best players in the World are on display.

Thirdly, the cost of hiring these cricketers - a mind boggling $633 MM - is where the logic behind all this looks as thin as soup in a college mess. Given that the people and the companies involved in the league are some of the biggest in the country and are proven winners this is definitely not a joke. One look at the salaries and more importantly the $$/hour, which is astronomical, it reveals the lack of common sense. E.g., M.S. Dhoni is expected to earn $1500/hour, which according to The Economic Times was higher than what Mukesh Ambani, ironically one of the team owners, earns. Then there are other operating costs that need to be taken into account like those of marketing, support staff, travel etc., that will ultimately make the figure fatter than the priest at my wedding.

I am a great believer in creating a market before creating a product and more importantly earning a few cents before betting millions. The IPL fails on both counts.

Hopefully the IPL will not suffer the same fate as that of the Indian stock market in April 1992, when blinded bullishness brought about the fall of many a millionaire, and Lalit Modi, the brain behind the IPL, will do better than Harshad Mehta.

Get Paid to get Interviewed - NotchUp!

I got an invitation from a friend of mine last week to join yet another exclusive, membership-by-invite-only, networking site called NotchUp. Having been an active member of LinkedIn, a successful and widely accepted business networking site, for the past 3 years I can vouch that it is very impressive when it comes to professional networking, job postings, referrals and forum discussions and I found it to be very useful when I was looking to change jobs last year. I have since gotten invites for similar sites like Doostang, Plaxo etc, but I am of the firm belief that when it comes to email addresses, credit cards, networking sites and girlfriends (or wives!), two is one too many to maintain!

NotchUp has a slightly unique selling point in that it is trying to replace pricey headhunters by actually paying people hundreds of dollars to interview. They are in a lot of ways the eBay of business networking, which seems to be the way entrepreneurs are going these days - adapt the successful eBay business model to various industries. Start-ups like Prosper are good examples of using an eBay-style P2P auction platform in financial credit services, rather successfully so far.

NotchUp is free to join, and you can even estimate how much you should ask for an interview with their calculator. For the type of professionals that they are targeting, I would actually say the price is about right. Since they seem to be different than the run of the mill networking site, I decided to sign up just to see how the model works.

From this article at NetworkWorld:

You say you wouldn’t interview with Company X if they paid you?

A startup called NotchUp is betting that’s a bluff.

Debuting this morning at Network World’s DEMO 08 in Palm Desert, Calif., NotchUp founders Jim Ambras and Rob Ellis tell me that 15,000 people a day are signing up for their new eBay-like employment service - based solely on word of mouth. The founders are convinced employers will pay hundreds of dollars directly to people they would like to interview — especially those not actively in the job market — because it will bring them better candidates faster.

So how does it work?

To get started, simply register, create a profile (which is similar to an online resume), and set an interview price. Your interview price is the price at which you’ll talk to prospective employers. Once you’ve created your profile, companies will search it and make you paid offers to interview if you have the skills and experience they’re looking for. Accept the offers you’re interested in, go to the interviews, and we’ll collect the money and transfer it to you.

Personally I feel, It’d be cool if this company merged with LinkedIn since this is complementary to what LinkedIn offers and it would definitely reduce the number of site memberships I have to maintain.

Hollywood's Dollies

The popular perception is that that Bollywood/Kollywood (I am just going to call it Indiewood to refer to our neck of the woods) is the only place where the same actor donned multiple roles, sometimes as flimsy as playing brothers (with and without mustache) or playing father and son (ala all Sarath Kumar movies). Though multiple roles in Hollywood may not be as regular as in Indiewood, Hollywood is definitely not immune to it.

Peter Sellers' 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (one of my all-time favorite movies), Mike Myers' 4 in Austin Powers movies and Eddie Murphy's uncountable roles in Nutty Professor spring to mind immediately. I was curious to find out if Hollywood was more prone to "cloning" than what meets the eye and below is a complete list that resulted out of a little digging. If not anything, it is worth a nice bite of trivia or an ice-breaker for that SuperBowl party this weekend.

• Rolf Leslie - 27 parts in the life story of Queen Victoria, Sixty Years a Queen (1913).
• Lupino Lane - 24 parts in Only Me (1929).
• Joseph Henabery - 14 characters in the Birth of a Nation (1915).
• Robert Hirsch - 12 roles in No Questions on Saturday (1964).
• Michael Ripper - 9 parts in What a Crazy World (1963).
• Sir Alec Guinness - 8 roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
• Eddie Murphy - 8 characters in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) and 7 characters in The Nutty Professor (1996).
• Jerry Lewis - 7 characters in The Family Jewels (1965).
• Peter Sellers - 6 roles in Let's Go Crazy (1951), 6 roles in Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974) and 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove (1964) and more.
• Scott Mosier 5 roles in Clerks
• Vincent Perrera 5 roles in Clerks
• Mike Myers - 4 roles in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
• Terry Thomas - 3 parts in Arabella (1969).
• Red Skelton - 3 characters in Watch the Birdy (1930).
• Meg Ryan - 3 roles in "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990)

It is noteworthy that Kamal Hassan's perfect 10 in Dasavatharam or Sivaji Ganesan's near-perfect 9 in Navarathri, though not at the top of the list are definitely in the top 5.

Super - Size it!

Downgrades are not good. It is true for all things including bonuses, stock values and airline seats and the only ones that have made me happy, until last week at least, are tax cuts. But when I fit snugly into "medium" sized sweaters for the first time in my life (after I became large, that is) it was one those "Aha!" moments, that I could have captured and framed for eternity in my living room; more so, since I have achieved this by running 100 miles per month (5 miles/day) for the last 3 months and not by liposuction as I had originally intended to do so!

I have always felt that the clothing companies should do to apparel, what Starbucks has done to coffee cups. The official Starbucks sizing scheme mixes pretentious use of Italian, and lies. The correlation goes roughly like this:

• "Tall", which in the context of a drink seems synonymous with "large",
• "Grande", which of course is Italian for "big", and
• "Venti", which means "twenty," the number of ounces.

They all mean - "a large cup of coffee".

Small, medium and large, in the context of clothes, on the other hand, are synonymous with "undernourished for an adult", "on the verge of obesity" and "obese", respectively. Other superlative extrapolations on either side, paradoxically, are not so superlative and only make things worse. In other words, no size is good.

One of my most embarrassing moments while shopping has always been when the girl at the showroom asks "What size are you, Sir?" and I reply "I am Large". Now, that just doesn't sound right. Also, why should a CSR be privy to the facts only my wife and doc know - that I am lazy, have lived in Wisconsin, and have a BMI of over 30?

So, here are my suggestions for clothes sizes:

• "Zippy", which means active or energetic
  
• "Zappy", which also means active or energetic, and
  
• "Zesty"; well, they all mean the same.

Now that's what I call super-sizing, a pretentious mix of English, and lies. More importantly, it makes anyone associated with these adjectives feel like they are on top of the world! Thats more than a good reason to go on a shopping spree.

Rajnikanth - Entertainer of the year 2007

"I am back", ala Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator II. It is finally nice to get back to blogging after a busy holiday season, travel, work, GMAT etc.

Came across this piece of news about Rajinikanth winning the NDTV Entertainer of the Year 2007 award from Dr. Manmohan Singh. Terrific speech in typical Rajni style, spiced up with questions from Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar. I loved his answer when cryptically asked "Is there anything Rajni kant do?"; he had the humor to respond with silence, which only he could have gotten away with it. Excellent viewing.

More importantly, it is the first time that a national level populist award (I am discounting National Awards since it is more to do with politics than anything else), usually the birthright of Bollywood, has been given to Kollywood. Nice trend indeed.