Wednesday, May 31, 2006
If it is an erection, then it must be a 'cock up'
Every once in a while a news article comes up that...
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Comedy
A link and a plug
First the plug: Tamil film afficionados might have heard of Crazy Mohan's latest film offing - ஜெர்ரி (Jerry). Go watch it. It is worth it. Definitely not Michael Madhana Kama Rajan, but has some wonderful comic moments. The movie might suffer a little by way of the inability of the lead actor to... act! But, I say again, it is certainly worth a watch. The brothers Mohan and Balaji definitely deserve accolades for their work. Kanthan, the director too has done a decent job.
Now the link: The Goon Show on BBC 7.
Enjoy some quality comedy!
Pichavaram and Poompuhar
More at Flickr 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Friday, May 26, 2006
Nabokov on Kafka
Of course, no matter how keenly, how admirably, a story, a piece of music, a picture is discussed and analyzed, there will be minds that remain blank and spines that remain unkindled. "To take upon us the mystery of things"—what King Lear so wistfully says for himself and for Cordelia—this is also my suggestion for everyone who takes art seriously.
Please read on here
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Soft Paternalism?
Why is, or is it not an oxymoron?
This is discussed in the second section of BBC Radio 3's Art's Talk podcast for this week.
This download available till the 30th of May
The original program on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves (22 May 2006)
Dons and Dragons
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
And other such crelluous creations are vergatiously verbated here
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Just when I want to move on, they pull me right back in
I know, I'm wasting my efforts on this. I even promised myself that it was stupid continuing to discus the reservation issue, considering how vitiated and illogical the debates have become.
But there are few things that are more irritating than what I read today at Desipundit
For fuck's sake!
And here is what I wrote in response
-r.p.c-
Testpost
You see, I are testing modified template, but it 'sa giving great much pain in cranium!
Update: So is it?
Monday, May 22, 2006
Epigraphy
In case you are interested in the dark art, you might find a couple of pictures taken in Madurai to be useful.
A nice panoramic picture
I don't want to be very silly with this, but t'wouldn't harm 'nyone if I let you guess before you click through?
And don't mind the shoddy image quality. Was in a hurry to get it done with.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Does not qualify as a puke
But comes mighty close. Of all the stick I've got, this is my personal favourite!
Thanks CC
Thursday, May 18, 2006
John Stuart Mills
I found the BBC In Our Time broadcast so much more lucid than the wikipedia article
Download (available till next Thursday)
After that get to the archive page and look for the May 18th (2006) programme.
Economic benefits of blogging
Includes free coffee for the entire family. Following CC's post, we walked into the place and told the manager about it. He was so pleased that he refused to charge for some really good coffee we drank.
It is the season to holiday
Quite simply because people have time off from school/work and not because it the best time of the year to travel to the Tamil heartland.
Chidambaram, Pichavaram, Poompuhar, Thanjavur, Karaikudi, Rameshwaram, Kanyakumari, Thirunelveli, Madurai, Kallanai, and back home.
Photographs hopefully courtesy old school Nikon and Kodak (hadn't used the bloody camera for two years)
One does learn quite a bit travelling with two small school-going cousins and their extensive Tamil film music collection.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
முதல் கையெழுத்து
1. I don't care about rice or poor brides or television. Just get rid of Tasmac!
2. Also from this (via) we know that we also want some proper debauched entertaintment... we are all bloody desperate and sex starved. So get ridda the PMK as well.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Conspiracy Theory
Or How I learnt to think illogically wild and love writing about it
All sensitive people (usu. men) know that after the end of any (or a particular) hectic activity, one begins to feel a little depressed. To beat that depression one needs to distract the mind and indulge in creative activities. To beat Tamil Nadu's post-election blues here is some distraction.
We all know, and it has been made evidently clear that Jayalalithaa has ambitions of central power. Quite a few of us are aware of the really funny guilty-by-association thingy Jaya TV's been airing about Karunanidhi's last film Kannamma and his alleged favour to Rajiv Gandhi assassination plot convict Nalini's family. If this is a conscious attempt to create a bit of a noise (and nothing more) in the centre, then Amma might just succeed, considering the dimwitted sycophants that populate Delhi. Add to this the Maran controversy with the Tatas. Congress-DMK relations might just be a little strained (not necessarily broken). While Amma does not have any MPs in Parliament to give thought to actually engineering a realignment in the centre, she might certainly like to muddy the waters. Karunanidhi has already been saying a few things about depending on the Centre to carry out his freebie schemes.
OK leaving that alone, there is the issue of the Left doing well in state elections. Added to that the (maybe unrelated) foreign policy development of a possible settlement in Nepal, the left might be seriously look at staking claim to more power in Delhi. They might even exploit the situation if there is serious internal differences in the Congress Party on the reservation issue. The DMK would not be averse to going the third front way in the centre.
This is where it gets interesting: Jaya is very unlikely to go along with a left-supported third front at the centre. She has no ideological issues in joining hands with the Congress, but she cannot hope to get any power for herself with the congress grooming the Gandhi family heirs to take over.
Let's leave that like that for now.
If you believe the exit polls, The DMK combine could win in TN; but significantly, the Congress and Left at the state level might have some gains, while the PMK should fare pretty poorly. If Jaya does succeed in breaking the Congress and the DMK, look at it this way—would she be able to make it to power in TN in a (hold your breath) alliance with the Congress? This is where we need to think a little, she would certainly not like to head a govt which has Congress MLAs as ministers. O Pannneerselvam fits the bill. If she does not go with the Congress, she might just sit it out and let the DMK run an inefficient minority government with the Left in TN.
I have always contended that Sonia is very very clever. She might then start sending out feelers to Amma even showing her the possibility of power at the state level, and therefore help with central election, by touting an ADMK Congress alliance in TN. Jaya in all probability might not go for it, but at the same time not say no, just to increasing her value at the central level.
Now the speculation is getting too off hand. Deep breath.
OK. The BJP is very headless (with even Mahajan gone). If testing waters with the Congress does not work, Jaya actually has better chances at the centre with the BJP. The NDA is very weak compared to the Congress, but with the third front mostly eating into the Congress votes at the central level, the NDA might even come back? That is where Jaya can actually do something (for herself). As such a scenario would be a few (maybe many) months from now, a possible weak DMK minority government at the State level (no Congress, but with Left support) would mean a swing in favour of the ADMK (the Congress would be finished for good at the State level then with neither Dravidian party beside it).
If Jayalalithaa can spearhead a good national level alliance in helping revive the NDA, then could Amma become PM???
I know it is a little too much, but hey, no more post-election blues now.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Blame it on the Bulgarians
