Rajnikanth the Phenomenon

Once again here is unique personality by name Shivaji Rao Gaekwad famously known as Rajnikanth - The Badshah of Movie World.

How else can one explain the reason behind enormity of the success of his latest movie Sivaji - The Boss as well as his previous film Chandramukhi's successful 804 day run (everyone understands how it ran - not all days would have been full house)?

This man who started a simpleton who was not educated enough and roamed around in and around Bangalore and finally managed to become a Bus Conductor in BTS (the bangalore metro transportation system). During all this there was a fire burning inside this individual who had some unique blessed and cultivated tricks and style of his own with which he used to entertain his friends and co-workers.

We all know how he managed to join the Film Institute in Madras now Chennai with his friends' support and encouragement and how he was spotted by the legendary tamil movie director K Balachander from the now famous Adyar Film Institute.

It is indeed credit to that single individual how he has successfully cultivated a humungous fan following cutting across the wide spectrum of the society, from a highly educated professional to a simple housewife, to flower vendor, to daily wage laborer, to auto drivers, to transportation employees etc. It was there for the whole world (literally across the world) to see when his latest movie opened.

Though the movie was panned across the board for lack of any cohesive logic and only style and gloss, one thing was accepted by every single reviewer universally that this movie is worth watchable only for a single individual called RAJNIKANTH and his now famous style. It was also acknowledged that age has caught up with him and his reflexes, speed and famous baritone has subsided quite a lot but still no other person worth his salt could have carried off this movie on their shoulders and made it a such a huge unbelievable world wide hit.

Yet this person remains completely down to earth, humble and simple. With every success he has found a new way to find a philosophical answer to his success. Despite any lack of education he has cultivated an ability to study the scriptures and philosphy which has transformed him as an individual which is there for the whole world to see. People can really see what I mean (significant change) if they check out his career and what all he had gone through from being termed as a jinxed freak, to a finger wonder, to a crazy mad soul, to a womanizer, to a drug addict and boozer etc.

Success does change people completely but sometimes it takes them to the path of self destruction when the same success goes to their head. On the other hand if a person manages to be untouched by the money, power, fame that the success bring with it and remains completely down to earth, it does wonders. In Rajnikanth's case he still remains the same Shivaji for his BTS driver and conductor colleagues. He still enjoys every small thing he used to every year for a certain period of time with all of them, like having food at their favorite joints in bangalore, watching movies though Rajni goes around incognito with them, sleeping on the floor etc.

He is a recipe to follow to become successful, powerful and still remain simple and humble.

Cheers to the Superstar
Venkat

Politics making a joke of presidential election

What a sorry state of affairs we are witnessing in our country's (India) presidential elections scheduled for next month.

I cannot fathom the fact that the so called elected representatives in our polity are playing bitter partisan politics when they can use this opportunity to chart a new course.

Almost every party member worth its salt who is involved in this process knows very well that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (our current president) is one of the best candidates to be given a second term. Even if their argument were that they want someone new so that everyone gets a chance, then there are a host of intellectuals and capable souls who can perform the Presidential duties (though it is very limited in India) with clear conscience without any political agenda.

It is a sad state of affairs that in every spectrum of life be it, education, sports, business, personal life of some people, in India we are witnessing corrupt politcal maneuvers. On one hand we are moving forward as an economy and country yet time and again we have these corrupt poltical games played to the detriment of our development as a nation which should be a powerful nation purely on its own heritage, culture and ability of its individuals.

My 2 cents
Venkat

Establishing a Counter in hope that people will start paying a visit to my blog

Zune

I had attended a Microsoft ArcReady Event on May 22nd 2007. It was a interesting to see Microsoft concentrating on Design and trying to make it into big Paradigm thing. Yet there were a few cool products in the EXPRESSION series from Microsoft which were interesting.

The big thing about this event for me was that in the lunch session held in the afternoon which was a Microsoft Arc Council discussion. After this discussion there were some giveaways like it is usual in similar Microsoft Events. I had the luck of winning a 30GB Chocolate Brown Zune Player.

It took almost 24 hours for this Zune to be charged the first time. It was kind of frustrating until I did some search on the Internet before I finally understood that. Once it was charged, I had all the songs and pictures from my collection transferred into the Zune. It is cool and sound quality is excellent.

My next thing that I am looking for is how to play music from Zune in a wireless mode through my Car/Van sound system.

I will update that adventure once I am finished till then have a nice life ahead.

Zune

I had attended a Microsoft ArcReady Event on May 22nd 2007. It was a interesting to see MS concentrating on Design and trying to make it into big Paradigm thing.

Frappr Post

Vedika's First Birthday

We celebrated Vedika Ayushhomam on 18th April 2007 wednesday since it was her first Nakshatra Birthday on that day.

I picked up Ramaswamy Bhattar Sastrigal Mama from the temple and Chithra from her house and brought him home and we performed it in our Great Room.

We did the Vinayakar Pooja, Navagraha Pooja, Mruthunjaya Pooja followed by Ganapathy Homam, Navagraha Homam, Ayush Homam, Mruthunjaya Homam, Nakshathra Homam for Vedika, Appa and Ramesh.

Chithra helped Vidya to prepare the Sakkara Pongal Prasadam and then became the official cinematographer and photographer for the function.

We had bought a new Sony W90 digital camera in which the pictures were snapped. I have put the pictures in a web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/vidyavenkats.

You all can enjoy the pictures and send in your comments.

Cheers

Vedika in Appa's lap happy

vvvv

V.R.Iyer's Concept of Cash to Trash

V.R.Iyer's Concept of Cash to Trash Continued

The Smiling Vedika - She is 44 days old today

PUDHUPETTAI & FANAAH

From the review provided by http://sify.com/movies/tamil/review.php?id=14213747&ctid=5&cid=2429 it seems another of the overhyped under performing movie. Hope they recover their investments for the hard work.

It is time these directors plan out everything and implement the plan rather taking ages to complete a movie.

If you cannot for sure ensure the money and dates and equipments and the performer's availabilty what is the use.

Come on guys group up.

On the other hand the review provided for FANAAH by http://www.indiafm.com/movies/review/12456/index.html seems to increase one's interest to watch the movie.

Let us see how these two movies perform from the week 3 which is the kind of indicator for long term success/failure

Reservation

Instead of Reserving seats for the sections of populations a few politicians think about. Why not provide free education for population with special grants from government as well as contributions from private sector. Govt. could give some tax breaks or other perks to the private sector to support this initiative. This way everyone could be encouraged to get educated and the individuals will have an opportunity to strut their stuff in a competitive world.Education is a prime thing for any individual in the long haul. I read in one of the interviews given by Dr P M Bhargava, Member, Knowledge Commission in rediff http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/may/23inter1.htm?q=np&file=.htm where he mentions that Government gets almost Rs. 6000 crores from the educational cess it imposes on tax paying sections of the populations.This clearly shows there is no dearth of money to start the initiative, this way we could probably open more educational institutions and also generate jobs as well.Anybody Listening out there?

my tamil blog is one year old..

This is the first blog i made in my tamil blog site.. http://neyvelivichu.blogspot.com. now celebrating my anniversary with a english blog.

save tamil .. first create the environment

The point is not refusing what the leaders say.. I too believe that tamil needs to be guarded.. preserved.. but making it a classical language or erasing the english names will not change..

when they had the power to enact rules.. did they bring some rules to make everybody study in tamil medium schools till 5th or 8th..At the end of the day, if i study in tamil medium school, can i do my MBBS (can i first of all qulaify with that many marks studying in tamil? are there people to teach me?)or BE? (just go back and check it out.. In this years 12th results, who is the person who got first mark among tamil medium students.. who cares...)

So what are we fighting at.. we dont have the infrastructure to teach in tamil and survive in tamil.. we can only write stories and film songs in tamil now.. if i study in tamil medium, i can only become a peon (ok agreed.. a clerk) in a government office.. (i am not teasing anybody.. but telling matter of factly).. or i should become a lawyer or politician.. (or the better profession god man..).

we always quote japan korea and china germany for using their mother tongue.. there you can do anything in their language.. they need not learn english or other language to survive..here i have to.. When i left chennai, 17 years back to bhopal for a job in P&G, i dont know a single syllable in Hindi..(we used to call it a kuthirai karan(horse rider's) language.. hai hai nnu sollaranga nnu).. I could not get food.. the shop keepers used to say , tell me the name of the thing u want.. no this , that buziness..)..

we have discussions if we should translate the speech of the governer into tamil or not.. how many of our ministers speak in tamil in the parliament.. none of the hindi belt politicians speak in angrazee including Atal bihari.

Our leader is saying that he let his Nephew become minister becoz he speak hindi.. that is the basic culture we have.. we dont want tamil except for writing and talking in political meetings.I too agree that "epporul yaar yaar vaai ketpinum". But here all that people say are loaded..This ultimately expects every body to fight so that the other person can grow.. the irony is his party office should have been the first target to erase english. he should have cleaned his names.. turn towards our own houses.. are we willing to put our children in a tamil medium school or college..what is the big purpose served in these protests.. and supporting the leaders who lead these protests..

We always keep ourselves in isolation to survive.. that is not the right thing.. we should equip ourselves to fight and then win.. its the same story of two lines.. and erasing the bigger line to show the smaller line as big. How long can we do that..we are worried about getting the credit.. who did this..

today the leaders say i did not say anything for srilankan tamils..its you who did that.. vazhga tamizh patru.. tamizhan endru sollada talai kunindu nillada.. I remember my fellow students who died in 1983 in tiruchi when the bus driver drove over them when we were protesting the death of tamils in srilanka..

Now its a pride to say, its not me who supported the tamils.. (what they did not say openly is "we wanted all of them to die.. so that nobody can dismiss my govt quoting my regime encouraged their movement in the state")let the personal agendas rule this country and let tamil die a natural death..

(sorry if i have hurt anybody.. unless we remove the entire amma ayya culture and bring in a selfless leader we are going nowhere..this is my personal pain as i see lots of my people study only english and my friends children asked me if i write poetry in tamil and said can you please translate that for me as i cannot read tamil.. They dont live in america or Mumbai.. they are in Kumbakonam..)

Let our governments go ahead and pass a legislation that all the schools including kendriya vidyalaya or CBSE based schools or madarasas should teach everything in tamil till 8th standard. Then i will accept these guys have something for tamil.. Ramadas wants to showoff that he is the next karunanidhi.. and does whatever karunanidhi did in 1964 against hindi so that he can become CM in 2010 like Vijayakant doing things that MGR did .. history may repeat again..

vishy

Namakaranam

Today we performed the Punyavachanam and Namakaranam ceremony for my second daughter. She was born on the 27th April 2006 at 5.25 AM at Louisville, KY. She weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces and was 19.5 inches tall. She had quite a bit of hair on her head. She came out through a C-section.

She is officially known as Vedika and has several given names, Lakshmi, Lalitha Parameswari, Akhilandeswari, Sai Lakshmi and VedaVarshini. Her Star is Ashwini.

The whole event went off smoothly starting from me picking up the priest from the temple and then performing the rites at home to my dropping him back at the temple and off to work.

Vaibhavi my elder one, skipped pre-school to participate in this joyous occasion. Vedika was a picture of happiness and she kept looking around wide eyed at what the priest and her father were performing.

Since I started this blog recently after Vedika's birth, let me also introduce you to my elder daughter whose official name is Vaibhavi and given name is Shyamala, Vandana. She was born on 8th August 2001 at 8.57 PM She weighed 6 pounds 9ounces and was about 19 inches long. She came out through normal delivery.

Vaibhavi is now 4 years and 9 months old, she goes to preschool and is a chatterbox. We have her maternal grandparents here whom she refers to Bombey Thatha and Jai Patti. She all the time busy with her Thatha converting plastic bottles and cans into beautiful gods or any shape and form she desires.

She has also taken to Tennis like fish taking to water and has been making impressive progress, imagine she is hitting excellent baseline shots across the net. She is a sprightly bubbly girl full of energy and smile always according to her school teachers and friends.

I will continue about this later.....

Caribbean Calypso

Dravid and his team are on their way to the West Indies islands for yet another overseas series and if they cannot perform decently and win the series there this time, I don't think they deserve their test ranking.

Hopefully these guys will put up inspired performances and replicate their one-day form as Greg Chappell had encouraged them to do.

What is wrong with these Sri Lankans they are going through one of their worst phases getting beaten to pulp by almost every one. I guess they will all run into great form around World Cup and might be the dark horse.

Saw a news item that Ganguly is going to play county cricket again. Good Luck Dada.... Like Farookh Engineer said in his recent rediff interview, the only way if you can ever possibly come back if at all it happens is by forcing the selectors with some brilliant unbelievable performances. otherwise it is adios amigo....

Change Ushers in Old timers

So the spectacle of Elections in Tamil Nadu and other states have come to an end finally. Due to lack of options people opted for the DMK front. Rediff and Sify have some interesting anecdotes about the reasons for the loss of AIADMK as wells some insight about MK if you don't know any by now. Also in rediff they have also provided information on how the freebies schemes will be implemented and where the money will come in for these schemes.

Congress at the Center is in for a rough ride what with the kind of victories the left front achieved in Kerala and West Bengal. hopefully things will move in the better direction going forward.

did anybody take note of the fact that petrol is going to cost Rs 60/- a litre and gas cylinder is going to cost almost Rs 450/-. what will an average lay man do with a free gas stove when he has to minimum shell out this huge an amount to have a cylinder which might last depending on typical usage for say about a month. Well if you ask MK he might say we are educating the masses with free TVs and feeding them with Rs 2/- a kg of rice (by the way how is this possible, I would certainly think it might take more than Rs 2/- to cultivate and harvest a kg of rice) with a free gas stove. How in the world do they cook? can they eat raw rice? ..........

And it will continue..... Keep you postings coming.....

So Vijayakanth did make an impact with his debut performance in eating up the votes broadly across the various party lines. Would be interesting to watch how he performs from now on in his new role, it is not a movie any more for him.

Iranian President's Letter to American President

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_documents/ahmadinejad0509.pdf
Well it is all about one upmanship it seems. Some points