what a shame!

hmm..pretty bad my presence here has been..the last few months the no of posts have been pathetic..
yes, i have been extremely busy..I know and know that u all understand..but i just cant type any 'dog ate my home work' type reason for not blogging..
since Pune happened in september that is! oh man! its going to be tuff to get them all up here soon..also for me who refers back to my blogs (who else u thought is seeing this as often?) like a personal diary..
meanwhile had a great trip across the tribal belt in MP and rajasthan in jhabua, dungarpur, udaipur areas..beautiful and educating it was!

and BTW remember jagan??..there are many such guys out there.. JP who was instrumental in documenting and also gathering them all once a year (called the confluence of thoughts!- ennangalin sangamam!) has identified many such jagans.. see here for all such people and projects..JP called a big confluence of 600 such minds last sunday..i was privileged to be a part..i was also a special invitee to spend a day with 50 of their core team and dist coordinators the previous day..it was such a nice time with all these stars who are real ground level workers and heroes..so went my sat & sunday..the next 2 days we from ASHA had organised a round table on Farmers income and other issues involving farmer leaders from all the 4 southern states..organised at Chennai I had to play the host and ahem office boy..so much work to do, u know..

and then one gets a day off to catch up mails, calls,family etc and goes on farm visit moro..then 2 days locally with family for pongal and then off to sewagram. wardha for a week..

so here i go with some promises to make amends soon..
till then be good..

Chidambaram is the father of black money, says Ram Jethmalani

see this!

This and that..

Hectic days..many hospital days in the last weeks (grand mother, father for cataract, such like - nothing serious) travel, planning for the soon-to-happen long travel..
All this means blogging takes the first beating..infact my mail access itself has been way low in last weeks..so apologies, inconvenienced regretted and all that!

Meanwhile lots of interesting things (many shameful ones included) happened around..
Worst of it all was the IMA getting in to a controversy bcos of endorsing a wrong product. As it is Indian Medical Assn is the only assn in the world to endorse commercial products. And to add more sham to this shame, they have endorsed wrongly! Misleading ordinary folks.
sample here.
They also got bashed up recently for the complain endorsement too apart from this Tropicana and Quacker oats!!
I also want some one to knock the *dash* off the dental assn which keeps endorsing colgate and other carcinogenic pastes..yeah, while on this, avoid any paste that foams up. It aint good at all.

Restore is organizing a community meet program on the 19th sep 2010. More info on the website. if you are in Chennai kindly RSVP and do attend it.

Amidst all this, W & me went to Point return and spent 3 days out there. As always its fun being there and working there infuses so much energy. Else where I had mentioned "Each time it grows on us, in all sense..as a project, as an idea, as a farm and as a rocking oxygen supplier/ body-mind revitaliser.." In the recent past, arrival of Sri & K had increased the fun factor there and now the new addition of Siddarth is a plesant bonus. if you are an IIT / IIM alumni then go settle at Point return;-)
seriously whats with these fellas? The 2 of the 1st 3 settlers out there are IIT, IIM fellas..

Finally, am joining the Kisan Swaraj yatra – a bus tour of 20 states, 12500 kms in 3 months..thats from Oct2nd..am really excited..much of my time these days goes with planning for that trip! Will come back with more stories and loads of experience..i cant wait..can u?

time pass

see this!
Pressing issue this;-) press isn't leaving me! I don't think many of u can identify W & me there in that photo in today's Hindu- metro!
btw that was happenstance..during one of restore's earth connection trips! we only intended being in that farm and didn't intend being on the Hindu foto:-)
and for some fun to start this week: Garden humour (flicked from a comment in Chennai central)
BTW blog star Thennavan has a posted a nice piece on us and iam grateful and thankful as ever for such mentions. yes, serioulsy I value mentions from such friends and blogsters than MSM.

tibits

This slumdog mania is too much..one thing is the oscar hype the other is our media jumping up so much..we shud note that this is a Brit movie and the ha hoo created is also by the brit media (like they always do for any brit movie- rarely produced and even rarely makes it to the nominations).
While we can be happy for the recognition given to Pookutty or Rahman is fine but nothing to go overboard. But did you folks watch pookuttys acceptance speech? It was very good. Natural and pointed. he even spoke of 'aum', music of silence and indianness in music etc. He also appreciated his team in a very modest way and spoke so well.

But for all those who feel let down by Rahman and feel he has had better outings in our movies shud note that this is a Hollywood and so will and shud be to their tastes. If we find a lagaan or Roja music better its bcos of our tastes. the oscar is by an for the western world. So it can only be considered if it suits their taste. Pl note that they adjudge best music only from the nominated pictures. There could be movies that had better or fantastic music but never made to the nominations. So comparisons and resentments are wrong.

**
Pl note that smile pinky has been pushed behind in all this slumdog noise. Thats a better news and an achievement compared to this SM. Its a documentary and can have an impact on many lives (of poor people affected by )cleft lips. Hope Govts and other NGOs in this sector reacts and clean up cleft lips like in most western countries.

**
The Madras high court never ceases to keep us all occupied..so they pulled another stunt and now there is so much of noise on the police assault. In this din their political maneuvers, unwanted srilankan issues, hitting & injuring Subramania swamy in the court room, beating up a police officer, their regular bandhs and riot-like-moves, hardly differentiating them from political parties is being hidden. I was too happy to watch the police retaliation - not that its right but just that such an unruly crowd requires and understands only such retaliation. If they think they are above law and keep playing like this, where shall the already close-to-defunct law machinery feature?
Now they are talking like saints and posing to be goodie guys.
anyways, lets wait for some other issue to cover this up.
**

The season!

Madras Music Season is so special IMHO. In my expatriate days too I used to try and travel back home during dec/jan for 3 reasons: music season, jan 14th Thuglak readers address by CHO and the weather will be the best in Madras then.
Now, I find the season becoming bigger & popular each year, which is a good thing. In the last 3 years I have seen a remarkable increase in the no of events, performers and rasikas. I did mention here how it was like going to a theatre for some of the popular artists’ concerts. This year too, last Sunday, W & me were left stranded for tickets to Aruna sairam’s concert at Narada Gana Sabha. I was only happy bcos am impressed with this surge in interest -how ever much it cud be a fad and ‘been there done that’ feel, it’s a good thing to have.
Its another matter that I caught up with aruna sairam’s performance in the next days. If u were to attend only 2 concerts this season, I would recommend Aruna & O.S.Arun. Although I wud venture to see how the newbies like sikkil Gurucharan and Charulatha mani perform.
And to name the best canteens – I didn’t venture out much to canteens (2 fasting days came up) and so an update from me at the end of next week shud be good. Till now music academy and Nungambakkam culturals (Kannada sabha) are at the top.

Hatrick

Since this happened, I have fasted 3 times and successfully! The last of this trio was spent doing my regular chores- went thru 3 govt offices (that includes waiting, waiting and waiting and finally being pushed to ‘next week’ or some such deflection tactics), visiting friends, restore bazaar activities, travel back to my home that is 30 kms from the city. All this with reasonable ease!
One other interesting fall out was that atleast 3 of my friends mailed to ask some doubts reg this and they also attempted fasting! That’s a great impact in my diary:-) btw i drink one or 2 chai and close to 1 litre of water during the fasting. I seriously dunno if I can do without this.
One of the great writers of tamil, Balakumaran, with whom I used to interact closely during my college days had this to say one day – ‘an average student that Iam, got the opportunity of reading some great books of JK, Ayn Rand, thija, sujata et al and changed. Even if 4 people read me and change for good in their life, my goal is achieved’. That was modesty, I know. But so much for good influence!
Thanks for attempting to fast folks! Thats really interesting n fun and to know u all had it in mind before and this blog triggered the serious try.. even if u thought- after all if he can do, why cant I- it could be a very logical reason:-) anywhich way am elated.
Now, go and fast regularly. It is helping, really!

My first Fasting!

Yeah Fasting! I fasted and that too for 36+ hours! The last I ate was 2nd Dec dinner and broke the fast at 10am on 4th Dec. Ofcourse there were two nights in between, discounting them too it’s a personal feat. Considering the fact that normally I cannot think of fasting in between meals.

Why fast at all?
Fasting for me was associated with Gandhi and freedom struggle days. Later on a different variety of fast was thrown on us by the politicians. (that they pulled a ‘fast’ one is well known). So I hardly used to react to fasts. Even when my devout muslim friends used to fast during Ramadhan, I used to wonder how they could do that at all and I used to feel odd to munch some choc or even talk of food in their presence. Recently when I was sharing some short eats during our restore bazaar, a couple of my friends casually told they were fasting on behalf of the Bhopal victims and believe me that was jolt!
Finally during our visit to Navadarshanam, I had more insight in to this. A few of the residents of ND never eat dinner. Many of them casually suggest ‘fasting’ as a remedy for any problem. I did see it, as one of the unwell residents went of fast one full day to be up and running the next day. I was told - Fasts help our body to digest and expel unwanted stuff like toxins and other fats hitherto not digested completely but have been residing undesiredly. It also helps clean our system.
So it has been on my mind in the recent past and also the fact that my grand father always used to say ‘ laganam parama aushadham’ (fasting is the best medicine- but we used to pooh pooh & laugh it out then, but now is time to recall and listen isn’t?)
But my doubts that I can hardly do without food (or most importantly snacks)for a few hours was haunting me. So I just decided to try and Try I did, successfully.
I just suddenly decided I shall fast, even prompting W to admonish such unannounced stunts. (hmm..I struggled so much to make a zucchini salad and some org veggie rice and here u pull a fast, hmm…bla, bla)
After the first 2 hours it was casual. All it needs is just a mind to try. Its not that I had to be on bed or stranded in my room. I went to drop and pickup my nephew from school and carried out all normal chores at home. I didn’t venture out though.
I felt absolutely light and fine the next day. Only after dropping my nephew at school, I had my brunch – to break the fast.
Its so nice a feeling, I right away recommend and also hope to repeat regularly myself!
Now go fast, fast!

overheard:-)

If a man spoke in a forest and no woman heard him, is he still wrong?

Tibits

Many events/ happenings and no time..so to our good old snippets..
The oil crisis deepens..all of madras petrol bunks are over crowded, police intervenes to control and traffic snarls everywhere..in the last 3 days that is..the good side of it is lots of car pooling, avoiding travel, commuting by public transport, etc happened! So that’s prolly a good justice delivered..on the other hand I want the fuel prices to be increased for 2 reasons: 1- to avoid the govt subsidy and use that funds in really good areas of concern for the real poor. 2- so that people will start to think twice before commuting and the pooling, sharing, austere measures etc will surface.
Euro cup was just about ok, so no big mention here inspite of it being (co)held in swiss..the 2 best teams – Holland and portugal left half way..so not much left to relish..with the listless Germany making to finals. But full credit to germans, inspite of their dull game, most of us were expecting the unexpected even in the dying moments! They are really famous for such last minute reversals, aren’t they?
The legendary maneckshaw died:-( A great leader who took us to the one of rarest, decisive and memorable victories was ignored not only by the govt but also the whole political fraternity. Not a single MP or politico of mention attended his funeral. I don’t really know the political compulsions or reasons behind, but felt bad n sad. RIP!
Finally the most impressive calls (of the recent pranks) from the politrixians comes from her highness mayavati. She calls the bluff atlast! She says the N-pact is anti muslim..oh, where do they manufacture all these idea(l) s from? What does that deserve? Oscar or Nobel?? Order that fast guys..before she qualifies for more..
Some interesting farm visits and nicer developments in the organic movement called restore too! But lack of time pushes such a write up once more.

Follow the market

Bottom line first: every body follows the market!
Just check out who all were here recently. Jackie Chan, Jeffery Archer, just about every body whose is somebody is here! Did u wonder why this influx of celebrities? Simple, Market. That’s why the bond was eyeing aiswarya rai then and many Hollywood stars wink here too often these days.
It’s the 1 billion pair of eyes that they all eye! Ok, you shall come back saying some 30% is BPL and do u think that’s a market. You are free to offset even another 40 % . Even then the remaining 30% is biiiiig..when the pager (remember those small bleeping nonsense that was considered a technological revolution a decade and half back?) was introduced in India the penetration in US was >50% and in a year from then India had 1-2% penetration and was way above US in numbers sold!
That’s the market they are all eyeing. So you will see Archers selling books, Chans movies, Channels soaps, FIFA soccer, politicians their countries and while we will be lying and watching all this glory and imagining what a country we have become. Meanwhile China wud have laid roads (literally) and taken the real cake.

howzzat?

-Rajanikanth makes onions cry
-Rajanikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
-Ghosts are actually created when Rajanikanth kills people faster than Death can process them.
-Rajanikanth can build a snowman..... out of rain.
-Rajanikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
-Rajanikanth can drown a fish.
-When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on, he turns the dark off.
-When Rajanikanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough to get in between Rajanikanth and Rajanikanth.
-Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajanikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
-The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth. He is the end of all things.
-Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
-Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.
-A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Rajanikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
-Rajanikanth's calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajanikanth.
-If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Rajanikanth?" It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."
-Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
-Once a cobra bit Rajanikanth' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
-When Rajanikanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live.
-Rajanikanth can kill two stones with one bird.
-Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
-Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajanikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
-There is no such thing as global warming. Rajanikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
-Rajanikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
-Rajanikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life… unless it gets in his way.
-It takes Rajanikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
-Rajanikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"
-In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajanikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
-Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajanikanth.
-Rajanikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajanikanth only recognizes the element of surprise.
-Rajanikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.
-With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajanikanth is beginning to worry about his drinking habit.
-The square root of Rajanikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajanikanth, the result is death.
-When you say "no one's perfect", Rajanikanth takes this as a personal insult.

xcusi

Those of you who had shades of jealousy about my retired life, smile please..am sure I have bitten more than I can chew..man! loaded with so many things to do..am swaggering like the sumo giants with loads of tasks weighing me down..'to do' task list only growing by the day:-(
Those of u who thought I wud be shouting “thangamani ensoyyyy”, no !am going to disappoint big time..
Those of u cussing me for not socialising, not attending some personal appointments or functions just peep in to last few days or my plans for the next days..
2 days in tiruvannamalai, one day to a couple of farms at singaperumal koil, 2 days at Madurai (ofcourse Dhan is the reason)
Next days? 1 day at Kadambai, next at vikravandi then 2 days to Blore, 2 days at Dharmavaram (Timbaktu collective) and 2 days at point return -to build cobs there! howzzat?
so folks, pl bear with such slow blogging!

Qwik Round up

The event publicised in prev post went on well, overwhelming response, putting doubts in our mind as to ‘did we over do’ and get more crowd than we cud manage..in a way, problem of plenty is always sweet;-) as the Swiss Rail CEO once said famously!
The way forward is to now have the shop space and take the ideals n concept of restore as far and wide as possible..so here we move on, with loads of optimism, host of volunteers, tons of good wishe(r)s..those of u interested in whats happening there can check here (http://restore.org.in/) where we wud update regularly..
Elsewhere in cricket, money is pouring in the IPL arena and nobody knows what they are up to..but what caught my eyes was Dhoni not meeting with his obligation with Mysore sandal..Shame shame! For all the money he commands today, prolly he regrets having signed a contract for a pittance (i.e 80 lakhs) in his early days and so is ducking from that..so what happens to the integrity, honesty and sheer fulfilling obligation? Shame on him..atleast hope the ad world learns and play cautious with these money mavericks called cricketers..as I type this I hear they have auctioned Ishant (a novice few matches wonder) for close to 1 million$..
madness! when will they learn?? Esp betting on a young pace bolwer in India is like betting on me to operate your appendix..hmm…
Few weeks back we had to paint my sisters house and so thought its better to outsource it to the paint companies (most of them have a home solutions wing and promise to do the whole – shifting, covering all imp items and painting followed by cleaning as a contract. So we thought that was a good idea nd so signed up with asian paints..oh mi god..what a shoddy work they did and how much of our time they swallowed and what follow ups we had to do...all the talk of professionalism and going thru a corporate was all that - bovine excreta! So folks, if u have to, just hire a few local painters, buy them the stuff and explain them clearly upfront and chances are u wud have got a good job done..this professionalism, contract, neat job etc is all still a long way away here..

To my busy retired life, am as busy as ever with more things to do..apart from activities for restore, visits to various organic farms is still on, involving in interesting projects like SWM for CMC (remember?)and others on behalf of Exnora, help spread organic products awareness etc are all on..
water bodies?? No, the politrix is beating my optimism there..more on that later..

In the meanwhile..

Lots happened since I was here..lack of connectivity, laziness, time all added to the absence..hope am excused another time;-)
Modi was here at madras and I heard him too..in the inimitable yearly meeting of Cho..Modi was there as a special guest in the Thuglak’s yearly jaunt and am happy I heard him..he was matter-of-factly and precise in his stats and achievements..after all one CM means his words and can proudly pronounced them there and rightly received a standing ovation from the elite and nice thuglak readers..
The highlight was CHO’s introduction of Modi..when he had to call Modi to the mike, he said “ I invite the ‘Merchant of Death’ to the mike” and followed by a stunning silence he contd “ yes! The merchant of death to corruption, The merchant of death to nepotism, The merchant of death to to inefficient governance, The merchant of death to to apathy, The merchant of death to pseudo secularism…”
And so stole the show inspite of the glamour value of his guests always..

Then India played to their bill and drew the last test..so the records wud forget all sydney show and call it a series lost.,..and the Bhajji issue is being quietly buried..I find it funny that they are gonna argue he said ‘teri maa ki..’ and not monkey..and actually he shall be pardoned..funny isn’t? anyway since it’s the aussies who are at the receiving end, most are ignoring the veracity of the issue..didnt we used to say cat one time, elephant one time in our college?

I met some interesting folks in the meanwhile and that shall come up in a diff post soon..

Much more happened too: like mushy boys woes continues, yearly Davos sound bytes, Republic day parade and associated bharat ratna noises, sonia’s sudden absence from media galore, sehwag’s return (to form), North India reeling under cold (aaah, effects of screwing our ecology?) Obama giving stiff fight to Hillary and lots..

And in the meanwhile what happened to all those better mortals who used to pen comments here??

sorry guys..

I have been very uncourteous and not replied(sms or mails) regarding the wishes for a new year..
I really dont feel up to it to reply those 'once a year' industry and definetly not with additional roaming costs;-0

I did spell that last year here and someone pulled up some funny slurs on me for that, but I insist still my view is that..Its just an industry (like archies etc for valentines and other dog day, boat day etc..) working overdrive..prolly 'partied' is the key word..may be its the booze industry or others..
but its simply another day..may be its different for thats one day I like to keep off my phone!

Has Microsoft diversified?

And that too in to the ever promising XXX businesses?
Man, why (how) else will they compromise my id for all those 'enlargement' and 'buy Viagra now' mails?
Come to think of how they will be talking at the end of the day! “hey, I bummed 2 millions today” “phew, its tiring, I did 28 spams in a minute” “when will this evolve, I wish I cud hurt folks, really than just online”..
It’s a pain to receive such mails, that too in loads..I know Bhatia made 100$ bcos of me (each of our ids fetched him that on that sale to MS amounting to those millions!) and now dunno how much I enabled MS!

Ok MS enjoy all those $ till am broke and ask for it

cricket and other funny things..

cricket these days is hotting up, bcos of activities outside the ground that is! first it was ICL under Kapil and now the BCCI tries to emulate ICL and brings its own version of T20..ha haa..laughable..do they know to conduct themselves and be professional? why attempt these stuff? They already make a mess of things in the present affairs.but thats their right to give us all full entertainment..so sit back and enjoy..as for T20 itself, with the world cup now on, its hardly being watched here..so much for its popularity..add to that such comical ending as that of the Ind-pak match! India won 3-0!! yes, a cricket scoreline that is very much!
The other news catcher in cricket was Dravid's resignation. IMHO that was pending from the world cup debacle itself. Then the spineless way he led Ind in the 3rd test in England and all these days of lacklustre captaincy with out an ounce of imagination or innovation..that bland captaincy needed an end soon and prolly was forced on him behind the scenes..good for him, good for us..very rarely such win-win situations evolved in Indian cricket!

Now to something more funnier! Pak politix!! come on, dont fall off laughing just at the thought..please read:-) man absolute mavericks..theres no end to fun there, what with mushy boy, old man shariff and loud mouth Benazir..they really compete heavily for the top post, of comedy that is..and now with one or the other reason stopping mushy and sharif (oh! how he wud have felt on the quickest round trip from saudi to pak ever)are introducing their wives in to the arena! a la laloo..so what if its an orthodox muslim nation, sharia in effect and all that? so no end to fun there..and when they all get bored they cross the border and freak out at kashmir and we will still be watching..anyway lets all have fun watching these never say die comedians..what all they spin..

next is, sethu bridge (ramar bridge), ASIs stupid MK like arguments, cong backtracking, bjp lost in this whole scene and MKs various retards that beg for brain transplant, jairam ramesh's dig at ambika, ambikas trick on manmohan..oh! that bridge is really lonnnng..but one thing, there r 2 families who in TN who will laugh all the way to the bank in this episode! (clue: both have 2 wives, officially that is)

and BTW what ever happened to the comments? give me some oxygen gents n ladies!

Parted wisdom…

Oh a tooth is missing, I mean in the title! Just parted with my wisdom tooth and so like most of u will have an interesting dental story to narrate..which I lacked till now..
For all those who were jealous of my wisdom, be informed am one less..have parted with my wisdom…tooth that is..so level playing field, eh??
It all started when I accompanied my pain er pain with pain che..wife with a tooth pain for one of her routine dental visits and here, I am one tooth less and that too- wisdom. One sure shot way of my association with wisdom..sigh..sigh..
Just bcos it was a young lady doc, I strutted out an O (open mouth)and said proudly, I have never went to a dentist and am fine..she sneaked in and one look- told me, there is a slight decay, there is a wisdom..yeah wisdom and me closely associated yet again, for one last time! And that too its growing in some vague angle (defying all gravity and other sciences) and they make u believe it..she gave me the same gas they are taught in 8th semester- u can either do it now or later when the pain increases inordinately and then it shall be an emergency..’its ur choice’ and that smile that is taught much earlier,in 8th standard? U buy it immly and so the next thing u do is fix up an appointment with surgeon..
For once 2 days went off in pain and my wify was so happy I hardly spoke for 2 days..so u know who connived on the level playing field now??

And as the pain subsides we are off to Madurai to visit some interesting projects of Dhan, a great NGO..so off to MDU: Dear sir, as Iam suffering from tooth pain and travel please grant me leave for 3 days;-)

Update: BTW did you note the update on full video for the prev post here

aiyoooo

ohmigod..got to run..
I wanted to upload a nice ppt that I had received sometime back..and so went 5 hours from morning today and still I couldnt!
lessons:
1. nothing that says its free is actually free online
2. u learn point 1 after spending a few 'free' hours
3. dont think some googling can get u where ever u want, NO! u cant even upload a ppt on to this blog. so much for on'es confidence.
4. sh*T..if i keep typing my lessons learnt here, i might miss my bus!

oh yeah:-) am leaving for cumbam/Theni for 4 days..have fun and lemme try too..till i come back no posts..and believe me that part shall have greener pastures for sure..

PS: any of u who know to upload a ppt to the blog (after or b4 conversion of ppt to flash, pl send me the details...one temple for u on the roadside of theni-cumbam road)