Incongruous mumbo jumbo cavorting on a senseless path…
February 6, 2012 Leave a Comment
Before you look at the picture, here is something I posted in July – when G+ was introduced.
Now that it is a little over 6 months, guess this picture pretty much summarizes where Google + stands in terms how people view different social media platforms.
Ha..Ha..!
Social Media Explained
December 31, 2011 2 Comments
And this is exactly how I spent my last Friday of 2011..
Happy New Year folks!
December 13, 2011 2 Comments
By now, you could very well apply for an application to get ostracized from India or from the Indian community (if you live outside India), if you have not heard of this term – “Kolaveri”.
Of course, if you are from Tamil Nadu, you definitely know the crass usage of this phrase. Although the phrase on its own has a rather gory connotation to it, if my growing up in Tamil Nadu is a good meter, then I would say that the phrase is as innocuous as the phrase “Damn” or “Bullshit”. So let me get that out of the way for all you purists.
Now, why is there is a small minority of cocooned purists trying to rage against this viral phenomenon? I am not sure why. But it is easy to guess who they would be..Here are the 5 categories of people who I think will hate or in milder terms “dislike” a song like “Kolaveri Di”.
1) The “Ilayaraja-is-God-and-because-Rahman-has-won-Oscars-except-him-every-other-music-director-is-equal-to-Ilayaraja’s-Sandals’-dust” types
These are folks who were infatuated by Ilayaraja’s music of 70s and 80s. They just couldn’t / can’t and wouldn’t accept the fact that there can be other music directors who can even compose music to begin with. Took AR Rahman almost 15 years to get their nod (ok – you can compose but still you are a speck when compared to Ilayaraja).
2) The “Carnatic-music-is-the ultimate-form-of-music-and-every-other-genre-is-not-music-at-all” types
Needless to say, these folks can never accept anything else. It is not that, they have Carnatic music mastery either. They are the half-baked Carnatic music types who promptly bring out their hands and start tapping on their thighs to gesture an “Adi thalam” even when the song being played is a complicated “Misra Rupam” or something.
3) The “I-am-too-posh-for-these-local-slangs-and-broken-english-pronounced-in-Tamil-accent-and-local-looking-people-in-general” types
Funnily, these people can’t write one page of English prose without grammatical and syntactical errors. And yet, they prefer speaking in English which only they and their family member can appreciate. They think anyone who is local should be “cheap”. They consider anything that is local (including culture & language) can be cheap too. Nothing can please them. They shake their heads in displeasure when they see or hear someone use a swear word in Tamil but would happily drool over a redneck American throwing an F word 5 times in a sentence.
4) The “Lyrics-should-be-poetic-doesn’t-matter-what-kind-of-song-it-is-else-it-isn’t-worth-a-listen” types
No need to expand the above.They listen to the words first before they judge a song. Again it is not that they have poetic sensibilities to analyze a good poem (forget about writing one)..
5) The “Humor-is-limited-in-my-life-and-I-am-very-discrete-when-it-comes-to-it-as-I-can’t-see-humor-especially-when-so-many-other-people-see-humor-in-it” types
They just can’t see humor. Period. They have template humor. Yes, humor (or jokes) of only certain kind can bring a smile in their faces. Forget about “Kolaveri Di” bringing anything in their faces except tears.
If you don’t belong to any of the above 5 categories and yet dislike this song – I know who you are. (I won’t reveal your identity here because categorizing you would sound offensive).
Anyways, no offense to all those who don’t like this song. After all, appreciating art is individualistic. Yet, when I saw a trend online to rage against what is now a worldwide phenomenon made me write this post.
On a related note, here is a collection of all the most popular versions of Kolaveri that have come out. I am sure there are dozens more that I haven’t seen yet.
The Original:
The Female version:
The Nigam version:
The Gujarati version:
The Marathi version:
The R&B version(my favorite of all the adapted versions):
[This is my favorite because it has truly been enhanced and there is some originality in the new version]
The Punjabi version:
July 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
June 15, 2011 Leave a Comment
The day dawns just like any other day. Yet, this morning could be different. I should have known better. The inconvenience of sleeping late at night is felt only when the early morning alarm chimes or when the telephone blares a loud call when even the birds are trying to catch that last wink. I should have known better. I make a quick decision to go out and get an hour of tennis with a friend who, now in retrospect, I wish, had returned my call the previous night itself, thus not forcing me to make a last minute decision. I should have known better.
It takes exactly 10 minutes after I get home from tennis, to realize the gravity of the situation impending upon the roof above my head in the house. The general sunken mood, the eerily quiet kitchen area which normally is hustling and bustling at this time on a sunday, the inexplicably quiet ambience in my son’s room that is more deceiving than anything else and to top it all an irate better half, mopping like she wants to pound the wooden floor planks into chips or may be saw dust. I should have known better.
What happens in the next couple of hours can simply be summarized as ‘not a great morning for me’ for the simple reason that I put aside my weekend morning housecleaning tasks aside quite flippantly on the spur of the moment based on a phone call. This, needless to add has made a dent into all the planned activities of the morning, for which I am rightfully being blamed for at this moment, while I try to take refuge under an umbrella called inadvertent irresponsibility. On what is turning out to be this highly inauspicious Sunday morning, I am being told many times that I should have known better. Yes. Indeed. I should have known better. Notwithstanding the barrage of guilt volleys being thrown at me, looking back, what is amusing to my sane self now is how at that moment I was completely out of my real senses, trying to look through a veil which clearly is made of ego fibers. This veil ensured that my initial response to the urgency of the situation ranged from ‘I am not guilty’ to ‘You should have known better’. Yet, I know very well that I should have known better.
By the time, I reached out to my pocket dictionary (stored in my deep memory) to do a random memory access and retrieve what now seems like a worthless position to take, but would have come handy and been more powerful a few minutes ago, I have wasted more than 30 minutes. Finally I say, “I am sorry“. Too little, too late. It is pretty pointless to narrate how the rest of my sunday went even if I have to talk a bit or two about Mavs shutting the Heat down in game 6.
I should have known better. I should have said sorry the moment I realized I was at fault. Better if, I didn’t even answer that phone call.
Being Sorry. Easy to say. But difficult to really be. More difficult to say or be on time.
Every time a scandal involving an American politician breaks out, which more often than not takes its place in headlines only when it has got something to do with his philandering qualities (let me take the liberty of generalizing that all politicians who get caught in sexual scandals in the US are men), I am now used to seeing him take a defensive position first or stay incognito or quiet for a while before finally appearing in front of TV cameras to make a statement, either with his wife standing by his side (in spite of all the humiliation that has already been meted out to her) or with with his attorney, about how sorry he is to those people he has hurt.
I just want to tell him and people like him – “You should have known better!“.
You can read my other posts “On such things” here.
June 3, 2011 Leave a Comment
Today is World Donuts Day. In case you didn’t know. To commemorate this important day in our calendars, I decided to conduct a survey on the effects of Donuts on everyday America. To make my survey a little simpler, I came up with what I thought were the top 10 areas where Donuts have had major effects. So here are the results of this very important survey.
Happy Donuts Day!
(**Click to enlarge the picture**)
Donut Effects
June 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
It may be too early. It may be really too early. But I just couldn’t avoid feeling a bit dazed looking at the Republican Presidential hopefuls for 2012.
I am sure the Republican primaries and caucuses will be very interesting to watch as the final field of candidates starts its campaign and as candidates continue to drop out one by one before the convention.
In that context, I thought I would pick the most prominent hopefuls that are in the fray as of now (there may be 4-6 more hopefuls whom I have not included because they are not too prominent yet) and create a decision tree. And just to add some humor, I have tried to list the Top 3 things that come to one’s mind when they think of a particular candidate.
Suggestions to add more spice to this are welcome.
GOP2012
May 20, 2011 Leave a Comment
Yes. He Kahn. That’s what everyone thought. Everyone thought he Kahn get away with this easily. But looks like so many madams are coming out with maid up stories now, that it makes it absolutely impossible for the man who once thought he Kahn save the world with his economic development aids, now Kahn’t even save himself from getting ‘AIDS’.
This “Stos” Kahn guy is an epitome of hypocrisy. I don’t care if he is a Socialist. The moment his colors are faded, he looks like every other hypocritical, horny old rich guy. Firstly, his $3000/night suite that will get questioned. Then his attempt to get on a maid forcefully. I Kahn overlook his conscientious and libelous affairs because they are conscientious and I am not even going the moral road. If his wife Kahn, for whatever reason support and stand by him, it is none of our business to judge him morally. But this episode was a different matter altogether. One thing that certainly gives me some relief is the fact that a poor immigrant manhattan maid Kahn bring down a future President and Kahn hope to be served fair justice in this country. No matter what I feel about certain other policies of the land, this simple fact that justice is available for all makes me happy.
While staying with the maid theme, what’s up with the Governator? He sure Kahn be Bak. Right? And in what a shameful way! Another disgraceful end to a powerful man. Was he so self-indulgent that he failed to look through the situation and lived with the knowledge that your son is right there but you couldn’t do squat for 10+ years to publicly embrace him? And above all, to not share the situation with your wife when she stood by you during your difficult times?
Sure, he is Bak. Ha. Well.
While this blog post is published, Kahn gets a bail to move into an apartment even though he is indicted by a jury. While in other news, Kanimozhi doesn’t get a bail. The latter may have more to do with politics than any real justice. The fact is that if Kanimozhi deserved to go to jail, then there are so many other people that need to be sent in too. For those of you who want to argue that at least sending one crook in is better than nothing, I just say, if you really think this is going to change things, I am sorry, I don’t share the same optimism.
Kahn gets bail while Kani goes to Jail.
May 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
“You look your best..”, says the Dude. “What ‘s that scaffolding like stuff behind you?”.
“Oh..that’s Pippa”, responds the not so shy lass..”But, is my best good enough for your Grandma?”.
“I wouldn’t know. Would I? But she is at her blithely best right now. Just look at her!”..A mild pause. “I know Pippa. But what is she holding?”.
“Of course, I know she is stiff lipped and doesn’t slip. Rather annoying at times. I won’t learn to get used to her..”. Shrugs her shoulder. “That’s the Train.. My dear Arthur!”.
“Please not that name. Not in front of Elton John”, wipes a wry smile off his face. “Hope it isn’t going to be Rocket Man today. You look beautiful by the way”.
“Awww” blushes. “Did you have a haircut after the rehearsals?”
“I did”, blushes. “Why do you need the Train ?”
“I don’t. But I am supposed to need the train. Haven’t figured out why.” Takes a deep breath. “It is almost like your jacket. I can’t seem to find any useful embellishments there although there are plenty of them..”
“I..err..there is a reason for that you know”, whispers. “History and Tradition”.
“Can you stay quiet for 30 minutes? The Priest is ready”, whispers in a hurry.. “He is going to ask us to do the vows”.
“Who?” “What?”
“The vows”..through the corner of the eye..”Wedding vows”.
“Oh..!”, looking directly at the priest..”Do I have time to prepare my vows now and all I need is 5 minutes. I will give them to you”.
“Use my iPad. There is an app for Royal vows..You can punch in your inputs real quick and you can have your vows ready in under a minute”, says the Priest with a naughty smile. “By the way, I have a weakness for Hats. So, please make it fast”.
“Sure”.
And a few minutes later, the Dude and the Dudette or to be precise, the Duke and the Duchess were announced man & wife officially.
Royal this, Royal that and a Royal app
