Tuesday, March 30, 2010

What a generation

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1950's, 60's,70's & 80s

First, we survived being born to mothers who had no full time maids/cooked food/cleaned the house while they carried us.


They took aspirin, ate cheese , sweet dishes and didn't get tested for diabetes.


Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.




We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .




As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.






Riding in the back of a local bus/train was a special treat.




We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.






We would spend hours on the terrace under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about the UV effect which never ever effect us.




We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.




We ate pastries, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......




WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!




We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.




No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.




We would spend hours reparing our out dated bicycle and scooter out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .




We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms........! .WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!




We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no

lawsuits from these accidents.




We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.




We were never given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

we made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.



We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!




Cricket League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!




The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!




This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!




The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.




We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned




HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL!




And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!




You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.




and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.




Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

read and share

A speech we should all read & share


This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD. I must request all my friends, especially those who are in touch with me to read this speech and imbibe its spirit in the fullest sense of the term.



"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.


People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.


Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true.


You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?


Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.


Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted.. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.


It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.



I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face.


Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived"

Disorder in the American Courts

These are from a book called 'Disorder in the American Courts' and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS : Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney Can I get a new attorney?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_____________________________________


ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 pm.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
_____________________________________


ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Tamil Padam movie review

Tamil Padam movie review

Mock-umental effort,

a laugh riot indeed



R Muthukumar
Trinity Mirror newspaper, Chennai, Feb 15,2010



What is it that you like in a good film, well let us start from films... the story, camera work, super script that keeps you riveted to your seat, afraid to go out during interval break, for the fear of missing the first scenes ... yeah true we all would love to see such a movie...

But do such films get released, and when that happens are we informed of that! How can one miss with such a colossal mass media hanging over us as a Domicile’s sword.

But every promise from the media cannot be taken at it’s face value.

So if a advertisement says, how can we say what is or where is the story. if we knew, then we would have shared it with you! And that bold statement needs bolder counter reaction to stand in the queue or open your PC to book it online.

Still, seeing a movie with out a story, original dialogues, even songs...

Oo Maga Seeya... what a song... all lifted straight from classical Tamil hits... including Dhoolaku dhool dappi fame and the words lifted is dhool dappi... it so well blends into the most romantic of all the love tunes ... is it what we can call perfection!

Cho, SVe Sekar, Vivek all gave such wonderful spoofs on Tamil songs and sequences in the past now a entire unit has given a fantastic buffet... if this film fails to get Oscar Award well well it is not a big loss for Tamil Film industry... as still I have some doubts about the language part of this film... have to watch it again to ensure that... so let me put it this way... South Indian Film industry will not cry over such spilt milk really.

Nor Oscar committee will have to work hard to reject this movie from Oscar list... on the count that this is not a original, but a parody or a mockery of other movies. We can suggest a mocumentary, yes pronounced... not ‘mokku’, mocu as in docu.

Under mocumentary category, well this movie can claim the list of entrants for this years Oscar...

Shiva the hero of this film will not cry over his mentor friend Venkat Prabhu ditching him for the sake of Soundarya Rajini’s Goa holiday.

Our boy has teamed up with some jolly good first time director Amudhan and have come out topping in this brilliant mocumentary. Mocking at Rajini, Kamal is not a simple thing indeed, as they are all mock masters and proved that in many movies earlier.

Add to that, mockery of top of our list fantastic films like Mozhi too!

Even director Shankar would have been biting his tongue for not making a cast as this movie did for his Boys... Siddarth, Bharat all are fine but youngish, vulgarish lot is now so damn different... when seen in Venniradai Moorthy, M. S. Bhaskar, V Manobala.

Heroine, well what to say about her. Have you heard of this SMS, in case you knew just skip to the next para. it says if a Hero rides it is Hero Honda, but if a heroine rides that will not be Heroine Honda... how true.

If only she could act, then maybe this director would have ditched her. That way newcomer Disha Pandey is not a Jothika, Simran, Sneha indeed! Director Amudhan knew that from the intro scene... well, well, Disha Pandey is Disha Pandey what else can we say.

She will also not be a contender for this years Oscar acting award. that is for sure. Mischief to the maximum happens and this petite beauty refuses to smile or react, that really helps the Oscar committee throw her out of the list in a matter of seconds to move on to the next nominee... the one and only Paravai Muniamma.

Paravai Muniamma will be in demand for kodumakara Mamiyaar maybe... but truly villainous anti heroinism will not be her forte... so Oscar committee is not that much taxed...

Story screen play all must be credited to so many other film makers indeed... so what is the bottom line, you really want to know... just spent a riotous two- hour fifteen minutes watching this movie.

The spoof not only stops with acting but also with the songs and credit goes to music director Kannan for a stupendous effort. Nirav Shah has once again been brilliant in handling the camera. All said and done it needs guts and a fresh mind to experiment and kudos to producer Dayanithi Alagiri and director C S Amudhan for the same.

On show at Sathyam and other theatres in our vicinity





Box



*The film is the 'first-ever' full-length spoof on Tamil movies.

*The promos of the film gave enough indication about

the content.

*The film moves at a brisk and interesting pace with sequences we are very comfortable with... Nattaamai style, the family reunion song and unbelievable fight

sequences... all are there


*Nirav Shah's cinematography is eye catching

Sunday, February 21, 2010

choices

. Drinking is our biggest enemy- Jawaharlal Nehru

We should learn to love our enemies- Mahatma Gandhi

Now, whom to follow and which one to choose?

----------------------------------------

All desirable things in life are illegal, banned, expensive or married to someone else!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Even this will fail ... (to make my gurus laugh)

Why do students fails in exams...?
It's not the fault of the student if he fails, because the year ONLY has 365 days.


Typical academic year for a student


1. Sundays-52 Sundays in a year, you know Sundays are for rest.
Days left 313.

2. Summer holidays-50 where weather is very hot and difficult to study.
Days left 263.

3. 8 hours daily sleep- 130 days GONE..
Days left 141.

4. 1 hour for daily playing- (good for health) means 15 days.
Days left 126.

5. 2 hours daily for food & other delicacies (chewing properly & swallowing)-means 30days.
Days left 96.

6. 1 hour for talking (man is a social animal)-means 15 days
Days left 81.

7. Exam days- per year at least 35 days.
Days left 46.

8. Quarterly, Half yearly and festival (holidays) -40 days.
Balance 6 days.

9. For sickness- at least 3 days.
Remaining days=3.



10. Movies and functions- at least 2 days.
1 day left.

11. That 1 day is your birthday.
How can you study on your b'day??????

Balance = 0

"How can a student pass?????"

Friday, January 1, 2010

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did'



When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better




'Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you'

May all these give you the inner peace and serene mind to enjoy all that
2010 has to offer ...
Happy New Year
(Advance April Fool Day's wishes too for all those
who want it early)
May prosperity and peace prevail forever in all
your endeavours GOOD LUCK