** Indians & Oscars **

I have never watched the Academy awards ceremony before - but, this time (2009), I was glued to TV to watch AR Rahman win two Oscar awards. It was really a proud moment. Indians winning awards in international arena is always a great feeling that leaves you proud and happy. AR Rahman, Resul Pookutty and Gulzaar made us proud with their award winning performances. Having said that, I do feel that AR Rahman has given even greater and memorable scores than what he has scored for the Slumdog Millionaire; but all those happened to be in Indian (language) movies and hence he missed out on getting Oscars. Right?

** Anarchy **

What should have been nipped in the bud is now grown up into a huge monstrous and poisonous tree. When one or two people were shouting on pitch of their voice, the Govt kept silent and infact encouraged them for cheap political benefits. The Govts inaction has encouraged a lot more to jump into the fray. I am talking about the voice raised over the support of LTTE (in the disguise of supporting Sri Lankan Tamils). The State, Tamil nadu has become a lawless state. The State Govt is totally ineptitude in solving the issue and the Central Govt is a silent and mute spectator in this case. LTTE is a poisonous organisation, to which we have already lost one of our prominent leader, Rajiv Gandhi. The DMK Govt was ruling the state when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE in Tamil Nadu and again, the same DMK Govt is in power when once again the LTTE has roped in a lot of politicians to voice their support for the organisation. Karunanidhi has no time for the State and is content in solving his own domestic problems centered around his sons and daughters. The creaming on the cake was the High Court incident where lawyers and police faught a pitched battle on the Sri Lankan issue. Without getting into who is right and who was wrong - what do you call a set of people who pelt stones on police, burn down police vehicles and who burn down a police station ??? Well, in Tamil Nadu, you have the right to call them as "Lawyers". Surprisingly, the police folks are being widely criticised for resorting tough action. How do you handle hooliganism?? By Ahimsa??

Crores and crores of rupees were swindled in the Telecom deal by a DMK Minister. The Central Govt (read Congress) does nothing !! LTTE has started spreading its wings in Tamil Nadu once again and the Central Govt remains a mute spectator. These are just two incidents which highlights the total inefficiency of the Central Govt (Congress). Not to talk about the worst possible way the Govt handled so many other issues - starting from the Amarnath land row to the soft glove treatment of terrorists. Today DMK and Congress have become two pillars that wholly support corruption, nepotism and inefficiency. To save India and hence corrupt ridden states like TN, both these Govt should go. We have no other alternative.

Feedbacks on my Poems

Gowri, please go through a posting that you had made during our first month of blogging (Sep 2007)

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Suchoo,Your poem "Nich-Salanam" was really good. Phrasing the words and even above that, your flow of thoughts were astonishing. You are gifted. Ensure that you are saving and preserve all the poems that you write. We may have to publish it one day !!(..... typing the following after having spoken to you on tele.......)Yep, I am getting this poem posted to my office id, to check what others feel about this poem.-Gowri..

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Not sure if you had any feedbacks. Some times people do not bother to give feedbacks when they are timid natured and dont intend to hurt the poets !!

Well, as you know, now I have a collection of around 35 poems ...weeding out 2 dozen of them which are sub optimal / too personalised that "others" cannot appreciate it, I still have a dozen poems that I feel proud about.

Before this pride turns into head weight (tending to walk briskly like Bharathiyaar, huh ??), I wish to take feedbacks of some free lancers. I already gave a sample (5, I guess) to Bhanu Attimber but do not have the guts to "ask" for feedbacks...(you see, relationship is more important than feedbacks).

When I come home for my next vacation, will send you a ppt containing the best 12 ones putting them in some logical order / making a proper index and hyperlinking them together). May be you should get some feedbacks. Note, still I would like to have feedbacks only from some simple people AND honestly feel bit scary about approaching "poets - the real thing !!"

So, my chennai to do list is going up by one more...Hmmm.....!!

Suchoo

"Kuppai" posting !!

Dear Gowri
As I have been doing on several days in the past, I locked the main door of my house carrying a big polythene cover filled up with......kuppai. On the way to reach the main road, I pass through a big deserted ground where I have noticed that there are few piled up trash in some specific spots. Unable to find a dust bin any where closer to my residence, after some thoughts, I had followed the clue during my first week of stay I too safely kept my Kuppai Cover along with the other ones. (Mind you, in my earlier temporary accomodation, I used to dutifully walk towards the big dust bin - very similar to our Neel Metal at chennai - and put my wastes into it on the way to office).
Well, I did not have an iota of doubt about this (a well set process which is working fine needs no further clarifications, right ??) until today morning when a lady who watched me from a distance said to me some thing. I could not hear her properly and went bit closer to her (who was actually having a stroll with her big dog) to understand what she is telling about.....Following is the conversation that we had in the morning...Seeing my looks (!! that is, I was in uniform appa !!), she started off in English but later settled to Taminglish seeing that I am too fluent & arrogant for her......!! Well ....go on...
Me : What Madam ?
She : Seeing you others are also going to put their kuppai in this ground ?
Me : (with a smile) Please tell me Madam where is a dust bin. I will pick it from ground and put it there
She : You should have asked your neighbours before you dumped it here !
Me : Ok Madam, it is a mistake from my side. Now I am requesting you to let me know the location of the dust bin. I am new to this place and I started putting my kuppai here only after searching out for a dust bin all over.
She : Will you put your kuppai any where you want to ? See how the common place is becoming ugly and untidy...
Me : I dont say that....But seeing the earlier day kuppai bags are cleared I thought this is an arrangement that you people have here. Even at Madras, we have such understandings with the corporation in locations where dust bins are not provided. Please tell me where I should put the kuppai
She : (pointing out a Ditch similar to our Koovam - which is just 2 minutes walk from that place on the way to main road) Put it there....!!
Me : Pardon me, Do you mean this is your dust bin ?
She : Yes
Me : Sorry, I had mistaken the whole point....You were mainly concerned because I am leaving the place around your home ugly....So we can dump this ditch and make it more and more uglier.....?? Well, I can do it right now. (I pick up the bag and walk towards the Koovam and throw it inside)
She : (Nods her head back from a distance as I confirm from the ditch that I have "done")
Who knows, may be she will bring her hubby tomorrow to face a Ruffian from chennai....!!

Well, now this may seem to be a very simple and ordinary incident but when Governments report that they spend crores (and spend just in Lakhs) on massive clean up projects when things go life threatening....., I am amused at one more simple thing becoming big in course of time.
Now there are flurry of questions that I have in mind but the main ones that I wish to ask aloud is......."What is the right thing to be done ?". Even going by the organized efforts of collecting waste by agency in our cities, are we really having a convincing waste disposal system after collecting all the garbage.....What is the best way to dispose the waste under our practical conditions ? Is the "thidakkazhivu" and kazhivu melaanmai working really effective ? To rephrase the question, does the government has the technology to seperate thidak kazhivu from other kazhivu to do the needful ?
{Getting reminded, some time back, couple of my colleagues come from Europe whom I took to Tambaram home....On the way, they noticed huge smoke coming from the garbage burning at Pallikkaranai Marsh. I clarified them (without much expressions in my face) that we used to burn the garbage to have space for the next day's inflow....and introduced it as a "centralised garbage dumping ground for southern cheenai". Did not have an answer to their simple question - "will this not create air pollution ?".....}
Suchoo

Signing off the First month at CBE

Dear Gowri
Normally occupation / employment is referred to as many different ways by sullen and demoralised folk – "Kuppai Kottarathu", "Vayithu Pozhaippu", "Thalai ezhuthu" & so on. I am quite empathetic about such descriptions which come out of boredom , monotony, helplessness and frustrations at work. For that matter, me too had my spells of all negative feelings at work not too long ago! My dreams on early retirement from working is not because I am multi-skilled and I am raring to go (People say at the time of retirement, huh ? "will be doing things closer to heart that I always wanted to do !!"; On the contrary, it is an attempt to escape from the current reality which is not too overwhelming.

Well, with lot of pride as well as humility, I am glad to make this posting at the end of the first month at the new location of my office.
Yes !! I arrived here on 6th Jan and this month had been one of the most eventful and blissful period that I can recall from my recent memory.

First things first, there was absolutely no depression spell as I was fully engaged for most of the days including week ends….and the things that I miss physically (Computer, my favourite spots at Chennai, Hotel HSB to name a few….Sorry, forgot my dear family !!) do not matter enough to brude about – considering the positive things that I am enjoying here.
Being alone and doing all the household works does not bore / tire me too much (at least until now) and I am enjoying the fun of getting organized one by one. For that matter, I never had any miseries of a stranger in a new city (Not sure when my poem "Anniyam" is going to be released, Hmm…..No time for dreaming yaar !!).
All things like reaching my temporary house, finding a new house, shifting and arranging the home, getting used to various routes, shopping, getting introduced to neighbours and new acquaintances, planning the week ends and Chennai visits…….!! Well in the same breath, let me also confess that I had been in a cocoon for so long time that to get bored or monotonous with this phase of life is going to take some more time.
I do have an interesting phase at office where I have the privilege to be involved and take a closer look of things taking shape in the final stages of the fit outs of the building and participating in some of the activities with lot of coordination and follow ups with Chennai. Since I am aware that this phase is too temporary, before the place gets filled up with the Transferred employees, enjoying every single day becomes lot more colourful.
Last but not the least, for a while Magic Man Baba disappeared from my life who seem to gently tap into my day to day routine quite frequently making his presence felt too often. There was a phase (from Sep to Dec) when I did not get reminded about him as much as the earlier 6 months as I was undergoing a huge depression spell and with mind getting lighter and heart free from any negative feelings, he reaches me once a while, reminding that he too travelled along with me when I reached this city. (Did I tell you, I visited a big Baba temple here twice so far – Even reaching the temple was itself so smooth and interesting which I can define as a "miracle"….Well, perhaps you are making faces on my weird imaginations !!)

Well, the above points account for the "pride" element, but I also stated "humility" that I feel in the earlier part of this posting, huh ?

Well, I had to stay close to 16 hours in a day at Appolo, Chennai doing virtually nothing, it did not disturb me much…. I lost my purse here with quite a heavy amount, I did not get bothered much more than making a posting out of it…..My time management skills are put to extreme tests during my Chennai visit, I take it in my stride….I am at times getting reminded of the un-writtten poem and a one pager that is half way through for my office friends, I am not perturbed much….!! Beginning to understand the "circle of concern" and "circle of influence" in much better way these days and learning the art of eating in bite size chunks….!! While I am a bit intense on getting my "to do" list reduced and keep it in manageable size, I also enjoy the whole process of self management these days – without feeling any pressure within.

Going back to the first sentence of this mail, my next posting is on "kuppai kottarathu"…..which was a small incident that happened today morning. As usual, the small incident triggered some big thoughts and kept me busy while I walked down briskly from the main road to our office (once the teams come from Chennai, we will have a pick up and drop – until then I am "enjoying" the public bus journey and the 1.5 KM walk to office from Main Road. Don’t want to take the mobike daily to office)
Stay tuned to the next posting on "kuppai" !!
Suchoo