Deepam gets some ink

Deepam is an initiative by people involved in teaching underprivileged kids who are away from normal stream of education. This initiative got some ink in TOI. Click HERE, choose education section on left side and select page-36. Look at right hand side with heading “Bright Idea”.

If you are keen to pass on your knowledge for better tomorrow. Subscribe to deepam via www.deepam.in

Bhagyada lakshmi baramma

Composed by Purandara das set in Madhayamavati, Bhagyada lakshmi barama is a famous Carnatic kriti. Listen to Hindustani style sung by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. Have also added Sudha Rajunathan rendition too.

Descartes and Me

This liner is printed on my new-T. Good that Descartes died long time back :-).

Faith and Science

Experts from recent argument between Justice R V Raveendran and Justice Sorabjee on Ram-Sethu issue.

Sorabjee: "It is a long-established tradition in the country to worship the structure, which is believed to have been built by Lord Rama."
Raveendran: "Hindus worship the Earth, Ganga, the Gobardhan mountain and trees, (but) that does not mean that people do not do anything with them."
Sorabjee replied: "There is no need to look for any historical or scientific evidences whether Lord Rama made it or not, but that it is the faith of millions of people in this country."

Source Deccan-Herald

It has become a common thing to prove some faith scientifically by believers and disprove scientifically by non-believers. Big-bang itself a theory yet. So why see any faith from purview of science ?

Kodai Fly Baba Tourney Pics

Click HERE for few pics of Kodai fly baba tourney. This tourney could probably be first Ultimate tournament in India. We had 4 cities (Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kodai) participating. Kodai team won Ultimate's ultimate. Though I could not get many games to play, the whole trip was fun and learning. Believe more snaps in the offing.

Look at the ground, it’s simply gorgeous. It looks more like Chepauk stadium at Chennai. BTW, these snaps were shot by LTF (Learning To Fly) team. This team have some amazing Ultimate players.

IPL...

Check out this video: Day after marathon. It's worth it.

Flying Siddhar at Thiruvannamalai

I am not sure about the credibility of this video but my friend told about this incident some time in Feb. Though i could not believe even now but cannot rule as non-sense. See for yourself and decide.

Pack your bags

April 10 2008 is a black day for hardworking, intelligent, focused class irrespective if you are FC or BC. Though the SC judgment has taken a middle part by introducing a fancy term called "creamy layer", will the implementation be an easy affair? As usual the creamy layer definition would be doctored, adultered and favor creamy idiots. I wonder, why should there be policy if it is virtually impossible to implement.

Where does India go from year? Personally, I feel pack your bags and leave India otherwise you are not giving fair chance to your future generations. Already in TN there is virtually no seat available for FC's looking to study MBBS. Now that reservation in IIT's and IIM's, FC's can forget studying in these institutes. What abt quality? Who cares?

Private institutes like BITS, XLRI, ISB etc would gain prominence. One would probably see spurt is good private institutes catering to hardworking, intelligent and focused class. But can poor study here? Only a decently earning family can think of these institutes. Education would become a thing of rich.

I am afraid more elections India or its states face, more sops like free colour TV, reservations, waiver of loans en all. Living in India is becoming dangerous, so pack up!!

Recipe for a Marathoner

Got this fwd from Runners forum. Cool one for Tee as well

1 part Athlete
1 part Dedication
2 parts Sheer Will
2 parts Heart
Add a dash of Insanity (or 2)

Combine all ingredients and
Shake for 26.2 miles!

Repeat as often as necessary!

Hyderabad International Airport has theme song.

I never knew there would be a theme song for buildings, railway station, theatres, beaches or airports. Apparently, Hyd’s newly build airport has one. Interesting part is that ARR has composed this theme song. List to this



I wonder why IPL has not roped ARR yet. Have they?

Arumbaagi Mutthhaayi Poovaay...

I have huge collection of IR's songs on my IPOD nano. This collection is my best companion during long runs. Best part is, get to hear those songs i have never heard before and with lot more involvement.

"Arumbaagi Mutthhaayi Poovaay" one such song i have never heard before but fell in love the moment i heard them. Sung by Thyagarajan and Susheela, "Arumbaagi..." Starts with beautiful flute piece, carried on by violin. Who can use flute and violin combo better than IR. Though the raga is Charukesi, has folk flair to it. Not sure who is the lyricist but he is not worth knowning here.

Listen to this song by clicking HERE

Another Charukesi from IR's list is "aadal kalaiyE" from film "Shri Ragavendra" sung by KJ. Keep a tab on the lyrics.

Yoga to be made compulsory in TN

Atheist M Karunanidhi always dabbles with religion in some way, either supporting indirectly or going vehemently against Hinduism making tons of news. Of-late he seem to have mellowed down towards Hinduism otherwise how can one explain him sharing dias with Sai baba and Jaggi vasudev or not showing much interest in Kanchi Sankarachariyar's case ?

The latest goggly is making "Yoga" compulsory in TN schools. I am not debating if this idea is right but fluxed by the fact that Karunanidhi and TN govt going gaga over Yoga which is a complete USP of Hinduism. I wonder why DK, PMK or CPI is not protesting against this order.

One of reasons given by Education minister Thangam Thennarasu for making yoga compulsory is "Chief Minister M Karunanidhi himself is a regular practitioner of yoga and that is a secret of his good health". I learnt that Karuna learns yoga from "Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandram" run by Iyengars.

Don’t be surprised if Carnatic music is made compulsory. Music academy is just stone’s thrown away from Karunas house. He may like these soothing swaras as he gets older or who knows he probably has acquired a taste for this type of music giving up couple of mugs of beer.

Another Patent gets submitted

Another Patent gets submitted to US patent office. This one is on MPLS Traffic Engineering. This idea is fairly simple and straightforward. There are times where complicated solutions for tough problems never gets patented but simple one like this gets approved. Anyway that is how things are.

Click HERE for the URL.

Running for "fit mind"

Running helps to relieve depression
Running helps to reduce mood swings
Running is the best therapy
Running gives new goals, a sense of purpose and boosts self-esteem

What other reasons do you need to run ?. Start running.

Here is the article from BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7240545.stm

Joined F-10

Joined Force10networks, after good one month break. Away from this rat-race doing nothing coupled with running, swimming and eating is lot refreshing :-).

Sidhu on Ganguly's omission for ODI's

"I challenge Mr Vengsarkar to an open debate. If he can convince me on why he dropped Ganguly then I will leave NDTV for a lifetime, otherwise he has to quit. You can't drop because you don't like somebody's face. Otherwise bring in Hema Malini," said Sidhu.

What can you say...

A big step backward !!

I am appalled to hear about the reservations in private sectors in UP. I don't politically understand either as Mayawati win was majorly due to Tagores who are part of upper caste community. Though this reservation announced is for private sector firms executing projects for the state government, I believe, this is going to have big ramifications. Probably the first step towards reservations in Private sectors.

States like TN would soon follow. Infact there is a possibility of these govt going a step forward where would force reservations on private firms, if they were to setup up a centre in their state.

Will we be happy if US or Euro slap a reservation or tax high for all outsourced job ?

See HERE for news

Interesting...

Have a look at both these videos. First one is on how tricks appear to us as audience and second is possibly how these magicians and his team practice. Performing these require good precision and tons of practice.

Nano a.k.a 'Despite Mamta'

Ratan Tata dream of getting a low cost car has come true. All the apprehensions about the power, mileage, safety en all has put to rest as these parameters are comparable to Maruti 800 at much lower rate. Right from the housewife’s to auto-richawallas to top business tycoons are talking about Nano. The reason being, Nano is competitor for bike, auto and car segment. Not only people of India are talking about it but people from western world are cognizant of such a cheap car, as cheap as $2500.

What would effect of Nano to India market. Will Auto, bikes cease to exist? What about parking space, traffic jams or pollution issue? Is it similar to cell-phone revolution started by Reliance? Well, to answer all these we need to wait and watch.

Cartoon below was from "The Hindu" dated 10 Jan 2008.

P.S: If you believe Nano would be hit then sell whatever car/bike you hold now. If Nano is decent hit, I am sure it would pull rates of others.

Is racism to do with culture ?

OZ's 16 straight victory under Ponting at Sydney is marred by controversies for all to see. What is Racism all about? I am not sure if Bajji called Symonds a Monkey but definitely the culture difference is what has surfaced. Look at this, In India it is fine to take on someone by calling Monkey/Donkey/Dog but despicable to use abusive words like F****r or B*****d but it appears that Aussies are fine with these abusive words but don't tolerate calling them Monkeys or Donkeys.

Is Racism more to do with culture?

Running Festival - ECR Run 5

This is 5th ECR run for the group and 3rd for me. I decided to do a half in below 2hrs to 30 mins without any stoppages, glad could complete half in 2 hrs and 15 mins. A dip at cold sea at MGM resort was soothing after the run and finally breakfast made the day.

"Chennai Runners" now has a new blog, click HERE for more info. Don't miss snaps on the FLICKR.

TVS Live Narada Gana Saba: 2007

M'Jay in action

He is my cousin's son. About 2 months old

Ultimate Frisbee Finals Pics

Click HERE for few more CUF Finals pics