The Ladies..

I don't know the exact reason why but I prefer reading blogs by the opposite sex. Maybe it's because they write from a different perspective and are able to express their emotions better.Gorgeous is an old hand at blogging and right from the first post she has been bang on target.All her posts without exception are of a high standard and her descriptive prowess have to be read to be believed.Sheetal writes with a bubbly enthusiasm that I hope stays with her....he he.She reminds me a lot of my younger days and engages in disapearing acts and writes superficially,just like moi .I strongly believe she takes inspiration from me. ;)No venturing into the deep waters of emotional turmoil or auto psychoanalysis for us!!But I suspect she's more honest and of course nowhere near as devious as me.My latest female addiction is Speed whose writing is similar to G's and of course just as popular.Both are brutally honest and write things I could never have the courage to divulge even if Im clothed in anonymity.Those might be the ingredients after all, brutal honesty and no beating around the bush, that makes all these ladies delighting to read!

To the eidolon in the Zen....

With the onset of monsoons, comes the play of light and rain.The sky one moment dark,cold and brooding,the next moment ablaze with light! And the rain always gentle after that initial torrent has wiped the city clean of its dirt.

This morning,was such a glorious day and my car was bang in the busy intersection waiting to turn right.Typical Indian road scene...lots of hooting, horning, swearing.Cars were slowly coming from the opposite direction while a traffic policeman was doing what he can.I was the first in my lane and having the luxury of watching the full chaos in the junction, watching with detachment the cars ambling along.

A white Zen was coming towards me and there was a very pretty gal inside.Her car had the red cross sticker,so she must be a doc?! She had bobbed hair and looked even more beautiful coming closer.Wait a minute ,do I know her? I kept looking (not staring;) ) at her trying to figure out .She was looking back at me the whole time and suddenly the hint of a smile flickered across her lips.And finally when she passed me we were incredibly smiling at each other,together.


Of course the entire episode lasted hardly five seconds,but by Lucifer, to imagine this happening in a city full of dead people with necrotic minds.Well even if we were to assume that smiling at guys in cars at intersections was her favourite fetish ,I still think it's incredible.Short,sweet and highly uplifting...wish all relationships were like this!!

Her face,amazingly, I cannot recollect any more but her gesture, for whatever reason,still leaves me uncomfortably happy....

From the Diary....

The mind didn't register the face at first because it was wholly unexpected.When he came into the room later and asked for introductions, she might have felt a pang though she tried to hide it.Her name brought back the memories.She had changed a lot.Her face had become more angular and bony but the beauty was still there undiminished.The eyes had lost none of their beauty.Her long hair was tied tightly in a bun.It was a privilege to look at the face of a beautiful woman without a trace of make up or waxing, threading and what not...a woman in all her natural splendour...

He was always a master at hiding his emotions and engaging in small talk.Why did people meet under circumstances like this,he often wondered?Where one can't make a move,where one is bound tight by circumstances.

On their first meeting the attraction was spontaneous and mutual, though not a word was said on the matter.He had always scorned at movies where lovers were separated by "fate".The belief in the will of man, for him, was total. Yet here he was, afraid of even taking a step.
Does love need to be expressed for fulfillment? Does the culmination of love lie in sex and marriage ? Or does it lie in just the gaze and smile of the loved one?

She was immensely shy around him and laughed in a self conscious sort of way he found highly amusing.He had forgotten that she was as tall as him.In the end, he decided not to spoil the moment by asking for something as banal as a phone number.


Note :Some portions of this material above may have been plagiarized.Many thanks to the original authors!!

Kazaa v/s Winmx & some Cool Goose..

This site is a mess...Blogger selling out to the Google guys was unpardonable.The new Blogger version is being tested which means the following things can happen,rather happened to me:
1) The links become ulta, despite configuring correctly.
2)The blog description does some censoring on its own with the result that half the time what i write is not what I see.
3)Then there's the queer problem of the image link.When the cursed cursor moves over the image nothing!! But move it to the left or right ahh there's the hand!!
4)Last but not the least the site keeps disapearing for long hours.The template goes blank once in a while too to help matters.

The best part of the whole process is that u can't complain to anyone unless u happen to use Blogger Pro...yep ,if u didnt pay for it ,u don't complain seems to be Pyra Lab's motto.So any of you seriously thinking about giving blogging try stay well clear of Blogeer!

Kazaa created history some time back as the most downloaded program in cyberspace with a cool 240 million downloads.Last week they created history of another sort by releasing their latest version 2.5 . I have seen some pretty dissastisfied customers over the years but nothing compares to this.A deluge of reviews lambasting Kazaa made it the most bad reviews ever received by an established program after an update.The few good words seem to be put in by the Company PROs,coz they are precisely that ...mostly one liners!
More and more people are using kaazalite and I decided to check out if the hype lived up to the expectations.It didn't ...as far as mp3s and video files were concerned.Zilch!!Maybe they were talking about porno stuff.Anyway it came nowhere close to winmx regarding availablity and download speed of files. Maybe this has a lot to do with the fact that most users of Audiogalaxy shifted to winmx following the former's untimely demise.

One of the most well guarded secrets in Indian mp3 sharing is out...Coolgoose has started removing from its data base scores of Hindi mp3s and some Malayalam songs too because of "copyright violation".This site has,unarguably,the best collection of malayalam mp3s out there.Users can upload their songs to the server,and hence a huge collection of filmi and album songs have come up...Ahh the generous spirit of the ever giving mallu ;-)..There are songs in all the Indian languages too but mallu mp3s rulez!!Anyway people get ur mp3s before they shut this site down which from the look of it is not going to be that far off .

Al Pacino in The Godfather II

That's how I looked after a visit to the barber(we don't use that word much ,do we?) I decided to be brave this time around .So out went all those long black hairs strategically placed over the forehead to act as cover for my rapidly receding hairline.I had to sooth my ruffled ego after this "summer crew cut" ,so an oil head massage it was.Is there anything more divine in this world than having your head knocked around by an expert masseur ?! After the customary massage and shampoo, the guy began acting strange.After drying my hair ,he comes back with some more oil and presses my hair with it...What's he afraid of,that my hair will blow off when the hair dryer comes? The result was that even after the hair dryer had done its job(drying the hair,not blowing it off,mind you) my hair looked anything but dry. Yep, it was Michael Corleone's sleek oily hairdo which was staring back at me.Now only if the rest of my facial anatomy resembled anything like him !!

End-piece :For all those people interested in P2P software like Kaaza,winmx,imesh,etc this should prove interesting reading.The war with the RIAA(ex Ag users should be familiar with the term!!) is entering a new decisive phase indeed.
The monsoons are finally here and it's a huge relief.Everything's beautiful, fresh again...The past month was a horror trip for me personally.I lost out on a lot but then surprisingly am back on track.Or so it seems.Have been traveling all over the place and my travels took me to Chennai too.Its only when you travel outside Kerala that you're aware of the beauty that you leave behind.Chennai or Madras is so unchanged.Its dry,the place stinks,its hot and you wonder why people bother living in a place where they have to depend on mineral water everyday for basically everything.But I was deploring life in Trivandrum when I left Munnar !! Man, am I a whiner or what!!

The only high point in the Chennai trip was meeting Veena.There was that surprising lack of tension that meeting an online pal for the first time evokes(at least in me!).Yeah she was tense for maybe a minute ,but then it was like we had known each other for years.And awfully sweet of her to come meet me considering she had fever and was pretty weak.I asked her about Madras and she actually likes living there.Maybe just a matter getting used to the conditions.She has a slightly upturned nose and small mouth ,beautiful to watch while she's talking.She talks damn fast too,half the time she had to repeat stuff for me.

The skies have turned a menacing dark grey here..its incredible how quickly the sunlight vanishes and the light just fades away.Monsoons are incredibly beautiful !There's this wedding party or something I might have to go tonight.If there's one thing I hate more than marriages,its got to be newly weds.Man, are they obliviously arrogant about the rest of the world or what? Hate that smugness...Wouldn't have minded if they were in that state for ever ,but its temporary as we all know and till that period God help all those who cross their path.

This blog has become a fortnightly affair .I am rather destabilized now (mentally),not a good excuse for not writing,but still....there's no knowing where im headed next....

la premiere fois

It is always strange how you react to something you've always lusted for a long time when you finally get it.So here she was finally in his arms and it really had an ethereal quality about it.Surprisingly he felt no fireworks, no magic that the writers promised,but just a feeling he had always felt that this was all natural.But she enjoyed it immensely though with trepidation and much reservation.She was doing something she had sworn not to do....she almost felt like she had cheated on her love though they were estranged now.But she still loved the other person,he could see.They had lusted for each other and this act he felt was the natural culmination .

She was very apprehensive and was literally panting with fright when he switched off the lights and held her close.Though it was the first time for both of them, he felt strangely confident.A woman is always a wonder and sex,as an act, to him was always sacred.He was filled with awe at the reactions he could produce in her .She was really beautiful naked, under the table lamp glow.He still could not categorize his feelings for her.What started as pure lust had developed shades of love in it.She repeatedly swept her hair away when he tried to bury his face in it."You'll become attached to me" she whispered and he just smiled.He placed his ear under her breast and lay for a long time hearing the gentle thumping of  her heart.

He liked it that she was innocent in a sexual way.He didn't think there were any more naive women out there.He was very playful with her but he had a feeling she was holding back.They quickly learned to kiss and she was a hungry learner.She had a very sensitive body and it was a pleasure making love to it.The next morning she ran her hands through his hair and held his hand,while he was still half asleep.The gesture had a dream like quality to him but still he sighed.When he finally woke, she had gone.

one of my first attempts at telling a story :) - Pan,Jan 2010
Never thought I would be adding to my Wicked Blogs section soon but fate had other plans.There are seven very wicked people already out there and the reason I have detested from adding more is because of lack of time.I take nearly an hour to go through all these blogs but it helps now that most of these chaps have slowed down their blogging speed frequency.The latest entry demanded himself to be placed there mainly coz his site's easy on the eye while mine's not.A love for Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield may have clinched the deal for him.

Well since I have started on the subject I'll go into it in some detail.The "Wicked Blogs" section contains blogs of people whom I love to read.Period.I don't think you'll find me listed in their blogs in a prominent place,if at all I'm there ;), coz it doesn't work that way for me.My modus operandi is to just link people I like without asking their permission.Pretty rude I guess,but that's the devil for u ;).So all those wicked blogs are here without their owner's free will.

There are a huge number of blogs out there I can't relate to but that don't mean they are bad,they are just outside my tiny sphere of comprehension.Usually I land on my site, check the messages and head straight for the wicked blogs section by just clicking away...saves time and energy.

Im finding it hard to blog these days though it was unimaginable that it would come to this when I started blogging.I was just so happy to let off steam and let the "world" know what I thought.Plus there was the thrill of learning HTML,rather trying to learn HTML...Coincidence or not Rediff introduced blogs within 24 hours of me going on air.

I hate to live upto expectations and keep up appearances and funnily that seems to be what Im doing now..Im seriously thinking of going into exile like Meenuji but of a much longer duration but the only thing preventing me from doing this is the feeling that I may snap out of this phase any moment.That's the first thing one checks on waking up..Am I in the mood today? Well I guess this explanation looks good enough for an anticipatory bail for any of my future misdemeanors.
I am anti etiquette by nature but my behaviour over the last "few" days calls for some protocol .So a big sorry to all my handful of regular leaders, for my pushing off ,rather sinking without notice."Work" makes u do that...The Freek should know.But again ,truth to tell, was not exactly in the mood or right frame of mind...blame it on Munnar(beginning to think that the effect's permanent) ;) Anyway thanks for all the messages by all ye folks.Well I received my first private message in the bargain .Thanks for the thought...You know who u r ;)..Btw just had the feeling after reading the stuff by "a reader" that it was the freek impersonating.That guy will do desperate things by God!!Of course considering my mental state has not entirely stabilised ,it's most likely my imagination :)Ok now to post proper:

"Its been three years and it was an unexpected meeting.She had put on weight and incredibly seemed much more fairer.Though the meeting took place not exactly under auspicious circumstances ,it was good to meet someone you were sure of not seeing again.She had flown in from US but didnt look jet lagged.Her husband was a jolly fellow and did not seem to mind as we caught up with old times (gossip).


The gorgeous N,she told me, was a shadow of her former self !! N was our classmate for five years and we shared a fondness for indolence.We were both most happy when we were doing nothing.She married a neurosurgeon and shifted to US.She was a stunning woman by any standards and more importantly had someone living upstairs too.Ok I had a small crush on her, a very minor one ;) But she was not really "my type".Guess the feeling was mutual.Anyways,always hate to see a beautiful creation of God go waste.


Heck theres no time like the fun we had in college.Hostel life, trips with a 10 minute notice,flirting with girls,groupisms,politics...Our hostel was 24 hrs accessible ...anybody could go and come as they please.We relived all that and her hubby agreed with us that theres no time like college time."

-Condenced excerpts from "People who crossed the Devil's path"
Corporate lesson: 1
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her
shower when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds of arguing over
which one should go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up,
quickly wraps herself up in a towel and runs downstairs. When she
opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she
says a word, Bob says,"I'll give you 800 dollars to drop that towel
that you have on." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her
towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands
her 800 dollars and leaves. Confused, but excited about her good
fortune, the woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs
to disclose to her husband. When she gets back to the bathroom, her
husband asks from the shower "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door
neighbour," she replies. "Great," the husband says, "did he say
anything about the 800 dollars he Owes me?



Moral of the story :
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and exposure on
time with your stakeholders, you may be in a position to prevent
avoidable exposure!


Corporate lesson: 2

A priest was driving along and saw a nun on the side of the road; he
topped and offered her a lift, which she accepted. She got in and
crossed her legs, forcing her gown to open and reveal a lovely leg.
The priest had a look and nearly had an accident. After controlling
the car, he stealth fully slid his hand up her leg. The nun looked at
him and immediately said, "Father, remember psalm 129?" The priest was
flustered and apologized profusely. He forced himself to remove his
hand. However, he was unable to remove his eyes from her leg.
Further on while changing gear, he let his hand slide up her leg
again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember psalm 129?" Once
again the priest apologized. "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak."
Arriving at the convent, the nun got out gave him a meaningful
glance and went on  her way. On his arrival at the church, the
priest rushed to retrieve a bible and looked up psalm 129. It said, "Go
forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Always be well informed in your job, or you might miss a great
opportunity!
Hi everybody, For all those people wondering whether my Munnar trip was a total fabrication here's proof,complete with wicked descriptions...
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The author of this blog has been institutionalised in the B.D.C (Blog Deaddiction Centre).He is prohibited from blogging unless his condition improves dramatically (very unlikely) or he runs away whichever happens first.As he is still allowed to read and maybe post comments in the zonkboard and backblog if his conditions permits, don't post any comments that will lure him back to blogging.Expecting sincere cooperation from all the regualrs and the irregualars to this site.He has been shifted from his residence to an unknown(i.e to u) location with limited net connectivity.I will be personally monitoring his situation and his activities.

Regards,
Dr.Noblog Back.
I am going high tech here....just kidding.But today's post has a lot to do with that :technology.Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance said something about people using gadgets and yet hating them subconsciuosly in a way to loath taking care of them.Same goes for computers.We use it to do so many things but never take the time to maintain it in good working condition.Today's topic is then about what infects almost every computer connected to the net:spyware.

I first came across the term in the dying days of Audiogalaxy in cnet's download section.I was shocked to learn that that great mp3 sharing program came bundled with lots of spyware that one had no choice to exclude.So I went for the best and most popular spyware destroyer in the market..Ad-aware.Now yesterday I came across a program that made Ad-aware look like a toy in comparison.

Spybot,as with all good things in life is free and realtively new in the market(released March 21st) but it's already immensely poplular.Its not difficult to see why.It discovered stuff in my computer undetected by Ad-Aware and whats more increased my system resources from 60-80%!! Personally I dont have much against spyware but the thing is they suck your system power and bandwidth and makes the computer literally crawl.What makes Spybot unique is that you can block the servers of many of the programs from accessing your computer.And it has lots of settings in its advanced mode covering everything there's to cover.A word of caution though ,if you're a newbie in the world of spyware and can't imagine what or where registry keys are , I suggest you start with Ad-aware first.It's simple and direct and found 120(yep!!) malicious components on the first run.

Spy Sweeper is good too but its free to try whatever that means ;) They have regular updates ,like Spybot, which Ad- aware now sorely lacks.Spy sweeper found stuff missed by Ad-aware and its very simple and basic.Once you get the hang of these two you will be confident to have a go at Spybot.What's good and maybe bad about Spybot is that it's a one man show by a German dude,Patrick.Thoough its free now,I guess its a matter of time before someone buys him out,though he vehemently denies he will ever make the program paid.

When I first used Spybot ,it got stuck when it got to 2957 of 5835 of C2.lop. I ran the scan for 8-10 times with the same result."Insanity is doing the same thing again again and expecting different results".Anyway I visited Patrick's website and had a dekho at the FAQs, as a last resort...wow my prob was listed.Very surprised coz some users in cnet had complained about the same prob .Obviously they had just whined and failed to check.Wonder if they were mallus?

Before anyone gets excited and go on a deleting spree with Spybot ,a word of caution.This is a very powerful program and can wreck havoc on your system if used injudiciously.Be very very careful ,otherwise your system will be screwed for life.Don't believe me??Read these user opinions. As with any product ,first let me suggest you just observe it...meaning before you get down to any serious deleting and killing files and cookies just "look around" and get a feel of it.And read the help file/faq though it may not make sense at first.Oh ,one more thing, as lot of users pointed out in cnet, pop up windows are almost non existent now,even on sites where they used to come.And if any spyware tries to load ,I get a warning and a choice what to do with the buster.

Well ,so far so good.If anything major(like reboot,blue screen of death,etc) happens I will keep you guys posted :)
Conversation b/n Ponting and Ganguly

Ponting : Mere paas Lee hai,
Mcgrath hai,
Martyn hai,
Gilchrist hai
aur cup bhi hai,
Tumhare paas kya hai?

Ganguly : Hamare paas sehwag ki maa hai.

Courtesy dialogue in deewar between Amitabh and Shashi Kapoor.
Courtsey also due to Reliance.
Had the oppurtunity to go through my diary a couple of days back...The first entry reads Feb 2001 and the latest one on Munnar and the diary is not even one fourth over.I write in my diary only in periods of intense emotion but there are some entries which dispute this fact...

Went to bangalore for the weekend.Brr...train arrived at 4:30a.m ....it was freezing.Went to her home from the station.An unforgettable two days for more than one reason.At the end of it all one hopes to have emerged saner...or has one?

Life can seem to be topsy turvy when one looks back.Arrogance can become calculated aloofness in hindsight.But let there be no doubt about it,the girl in the train charmed me no end.One cannot call it friendship or dare call it infatuation. Acquaintance fails to explore the depth of the situation.Ah, Ruskin Bond's poem comes to the mind.

Enough for me you are beautiful,
Beauty posessed diminishes

Better a dream of love
Than love's dream broken

Better a look exchanged
Than love's word spoken

Enough for me that you walk past
A firefly flashing in the dark
J was in town again,this time for TOEFL and ofcourse Shetty joined us for lunch.The question was where to go.It's pretty difficult to pinpoint a decent place to dine(or lunch) in Trivandrum.We settled for Rangoli ,which never disappointed.We arrived at 1:30 ,hoping for the AC to cool us off..but the AC was not working and there just seemed one waiter who was also acting as the man taking orders.Maybe hes the cook too , J suggested.Very funny!!So we pushed off from there to Residency Tower for the 195/- buffet.Never had been to the place and must admit the food and the atmosphere was excellent.


On the way there, we jumped a traffic light and were told to park by a very angry policeman.No doubt ,if u were standing in the sun that long and had to deal with fools who kept jumping lights and pedestrians who kept crossing when they were not supposed to, you wouled be angry .A second policeman came up...
"Pattathu poyi oru petty adakkanam,ariyallo?"(You have to go to Pattom police atation and pay a petty fine.You know that ofcourse.).
Dear old Shetty(new to town) heard it as petty(in malayalam means box).He thought that the policeman was asking for a favour like to have his box dropped in Pattom(quite far from where we stood).Why the impudence of the rascal!!
"Athonnum pattathilla" fumes Shetty.(That can't be done).The policeman was taken aback at this, just as I was.A look of suspicion came to his eyes.Maybe we were some big shots?He asked our professions and ofcourse then things went easy.Shetty was in the Gov. service and that helped too.He let us off with a warning but we parted with smiles.


There is a ceremony of sorts going on in Mr Gorgeous's aka Nobody's place.It all originated from a not too kind coment on why we blog and why people read us.My reason for blogging was mainly to give vent to my frustrations and to improve my writing skills(what little is left)..The trip to Munnar has certainly soothed my nerves though I don't expect the effects to last long.One of the reasons maybe that I'm hard put to blog these days..But of course there are my regular blogs to read and that itself takes around an hour.. :)



Saw Dil Chahta Hai again( fifth time?) and man, its a superb movie ,a real work of art!!

The First Time Part 2


The morning was crisp and cold with the freshness of mountains in the air.Walking along the road with little or no traffic and only the sounds of nature was a rare privilege.The sound of my shoes on the ground seemed almost blasphemous.



BSNL has network coverage in Munnar,the only cell phone company to do so.But on hindsight,I'm glad I left it behind.With the exception of a small Sansui TV in the I.B ,I'm cut off from the "civilized world".



I met the D.F.O in the morning .I owed her a visit anyway.Without her helping hand,I wouldn't be here.I told her how much I was enjoying myself and the stay.I told her about the location of the I.B and how it fitted my plans to a T.She recommended me going to Marayoor , famous for its sandalwood forest.



The drive to Marayoor is inarguably the most beautiful drives in the world.Forests,tea plantations,majestic mountains,waterfalls,the smell of tea,by God it's divine.There are buses and jeeps plying regularly .I took the jeep for the view and for that sense of adventure (not much though) you get while travelling with total strangers.I was wedged in between the driver and the gear of the jeep.There were 4 persons in the front seat excluding the driver.The driver sits with half his ass hanging out in the mountain air but mercifully with both his legs inside.The person sitting next to him(poor me) will have one leg between the driver and the gear.But incidentally it wasn't that uncomfortable.But for the weakhearted pleasure loving folk, I suggest a private vehicle ;)



The people in the forest office were very accomodating and they sent a forest guard with me for trekking.Saw this prehistoric painting on top of a rock shaped like a serpent's head.Below those faint paintings was written in bold blue "priya I love you" and many such declarations from our cultured love sick countrymen.Then there was an unexplored cave...very spooky, dark and unbearably hot..



It was good fast trekking and I was exhausted when we finally reached the top.The view was great and the breeze was cool and steady.There were sandalwood trees all around and many more cut by poachers.It's incredible what man will do for money. Madhu,my guide, was an affable chap .He spoke of his hardships while we went to his village and had tea in his shop.There is a children's park which has a huge banyan tree standing majestically in the middle.But the park is in disuse and the place looks shabby and abandoned.



Back in Munnar , had a very interesting conversation with a forest guard who lamented the changing climate and the increase in pollution.There were "illegeal couples" in the inner posh resorts,he deplored.The people here are very friendly and theres the city antagonism missing here in relationships.



The night air is cool and calm.The sky is lit up with stars and one can make out all the constellations with absolute ease.There are no visitors here in the I.B except me and it's unbelievably quiet and peaceful.Just the sounds of the night and the cook preparing dinner in the kitchen.


-Sanitised,harmless excerpts from The Devil's Diary.

The First Time

The trip went well ,maybe too well...Old as I am, this was my first trip absolutely alone and that too for a long period in a "strange" land.There is something in our culture that rebels against the lone man..I guess it's there in every society of the world.The man who is alone thinks and acts differently and so even the mere sight of someone alone ,independent strikes fear in our hearts.The most often questions I were asked were of course "Where are you from?" and "Who is with you?" followed by looks ranging from amazement to contempt to loathing .I don't really feel like blogging today so I will just put in some excerpts from a diary I maintained on my trip....



The bus journey was tolerable considering the standard of K.S.R.T.C.Reached Munnar at around six in the morning.Took an auto to Devikulam where my accommodation was arranged.Despite wearing a sweater the cold wind chilled me to the bone and my mandibles worked over time through out the journey.The mountains and the tea plantations were covered by a thin mist and the clouds seemed to be all around me.The drive was breath taking.



After breakfast, walked the way back to Munnar and also went exploring some side roads leading to the Tata Tea Managers Bungalow ,build by the Britishers around 80 -100 years back.The cook cum helper in the I.B was surprised I walked all the way to Munnar.He could recollect only once when he had done so and that was in school when there was a torrential downpour and no buses plied.He he ,he hasn't seen anything of me yet...



The silent presence of nature is profound in and around the IB. A narrow recently tarred road,hugged by the forest on both sides, leads away from the main road to the IB.Even along the main road that silent presence of the forest is there, broken once in a while by a bus or jeep.It's such a pleasure to walk aimlessly like this.To look at the trees ,the enormous bee hives hanging down,and all those sparrows,doves...I had forgotten what it was to be with myself...
When it rains,it pours.That's what's happening in Trivandrum and strangely enough in my life...a temp job,friends materialising out of the blue..H came down from Manipal and straightaway a get together of all the chaps were arranged.So S, P,H and yours truly went to the only decent place in Trivandrum and that is the kadalpallam in Valiyathura.Its a bridge which extends a good 150 metres into the sea.Not many people around and families are averse to coming here ,mainly coz the place is frequented by fishing folk.The breeze and the view are terrific..At the farthest end ,this bridge ,a good 50 years old, is around 20 feet deep.It's undobtedly one of the best kept secrets in Trivandrum and I sincerely hope it stays that way...There were lots of clouds and the sunset was breathtaking .The sky was awash with colourful splendour.


Looks like my prayers have been answered at last...Its vacation time for me folks ,albeit a tiny one...mostly just for the weekend,but if I like the place I just might stay for a week. Will tell u about this place when and if i return in one piece ;-)

Bus Jumping more fun than bungee...

I did something today after nearly a decade,purely out of necessity.It happened in this fashion.I was walking briskly towards the bus stop when I heard the dreaded "ting ting" and saw my regular bus starting to pull away.As luck would have it, I was at the other side of the road.The heat had become intolerable again and I was in no mood to wait for the next bus.I quickly crossed the road ,started running along with the bus and in quick time was in, safe and sound.This however does not give a true description of what actually happened.



Bus jumping is an art form practiced by the youth here since the eighties.The first step in this is of course that you have to be eighteen or at least look that age.Nowadays I see even school kids practicing this art with much fervour so I take it that the age limit has been relaxed.The second step is to travel on the steps.Ahh,this is a very delicate matter and calls for astute observation and impeccable timing.One should get in the bus so that one cannot move farther in because of the crowd but at the same time one should not hang out on the first step.A couple of rides in this fashion and then one can practice getting down before the bus completely stops.At first of course ,one jumps down just a second before the bus stops.Again one has to take into account the speed of the bus,vehicles,pedestrians,cows,etc before the jump.The next step is the real hanging where four ,five even eight men will be hanging out with just some part of their body in the bus.The highest level of this is the "kunjuviral adavu",roughly translated as "small finger move" where believe it or not,the commuter travels with just the small finger of one of his legs inside the bus.



Now to bus jumping proper.I will take today's case as an example.I ran full speed alongside the bus .Once the door was reached(well lets call it an opening ,there's no door as such) the right hand has to get hold one of the iron rods on either side for climbing in.Simultaneously, I had to judge the height of the bus steps from the ground and the speed of the bus.Yes the height is important coz some buses may be missing a few steps.Today I couldn't get hold of the rod in time(the position was different) and so got on board the bus a couple of seconds late...nothing wrong with that except you land in the bus panting and people tend to gawk at you as if you were a madman.(which they do anyways)



Of course its been quite a while and my fitness is not that great these days.I've had only one scary experience ,and that was when, years ago, I tried to board a bus which didn't stop at the bus stop.I ran furiously with it ,got hold of the horizontal railings at the window and...vacuum...I couldn't find the damned foot board to place my legs.So there I was suspended in mid air clinging to the rusty bars of a bus gaining speed all the time, a la Indiana Jones.After an eternity my leaden feet found ground and I stumbled abroad.I tell you each and every face in that bus(except the driver) was looking at me as if i was....yes, a madman.Luckily the conductor didn't say anything .Just ticked and handed me my ticket..Well that sums up one of my innumerable wild rides...
There was a sudden downpour yesterday evening for close to an hour.Phew!! The heat was getting way too much.As always when it rains ,I felt less restless and more peaceful.Yep, Im on my best behaviour during the monsoons.Maybe there's some truth to the saying that the weather has a large part in making us whiny,callous and indifferent.Yeah, next time you blow your top blame it on the heat!! I am all for a study to determine whether the levels of corruption,frustration and indifference in this country goes down during the monsoons.

Yesudas was in town for a carnatic recital and you bet I went.Earlier there was this attitude of "next time" whenever a show like this came but somehow these days I'm grabbing things like these at the first opportunity.It was in the very spacious and antique University Senate Hall. Its a funny thing about Trivandrum that whatever little good is there in this city is courtsey of the erstwhile royal family and that period.The show was superb but the heat was a dampener for everyone including the musicians.

In domestic matters, the kittens are all over the place.They have two cats feeding them and they never seem to get enough.They run around the place(super fast!) ,climb on sofas, shred plants, catch and tear apart coackroaches and in general make a pretty fine mess.But all three chaps are very lovable and supremly innocent.You look into their eyes and you melt.They have a couple of strange moves...one of them is the "reverse gear" ,as I call it.When you approach them they walk back rapidly in a straight line!! Then there is the "crouching tiger", where in they hide in a corner and once you reach that spot they jump out scaring themselves more than us!! Well I guess its not much fun when you describe it, but they are really adorable to watch.
Went to an astounding blog from Manoj's home page...I mean his was impressive enough but then he has the computer as a way of his life and the poor bloke studied in an IIT.So we'll forgive him . But this is a Dream. . . I always knew it and I have said this much before but the true "significance" of my HTML et al illeteracy hit me like a tornado after visiting this site.enough...let the site speak for itself..
P.S: I was tempted to take my blog down immediately after the visit, so beware all ya bloggers ...but not to worry ,the shock will wear off after sometime!!
I was going to write one huge essay but luckily I came across what I wanted to express here

My first memory of her is that of a girl with pigtails and running nose.A distant relative of mine , she is eight years younger than me.She had come to my house last year .She had grown into a pretty young girl.How time flies!!

Now she has been engaged to some Dubai chap.I learned about this a month back.How time flies!!

Yesterday she has run away from her house with one of her classmates(err male ofcourse)...lol...How indeed time flies!!

Hartal and Bandhs

India can proudly claim to be one of the most environment friendly countries on the planet.We have this habit of emptying roads of all the vehicles once in a while.Today it was the turn of Kerala.The political parties are ofcourse behind such a noble venture.It's obvious you just can't ask people not to ply the roads and not to go for work.There has to be a reason.So the opposition communists here have declared a "hartal" because police clashed with tribals in the jungles of Kerala err..about a month or so ago.Well actually ,that is not the real reason of course.These dear lovable politician folks care so much about the polluted environment.The air definitely needed some cleaning up and "hartal" it had to be.Now you folks in the west can learn something from us regarding this "hartal" business.

First a little history.These hartals were called "bandhs" first and were effectively used as a weapon against the British by Gandhiji.Basically shops,offices,schools etc are closed. Lately the ever busy body courts here banned "bandhs" because of some cock and bull story of infringement of fundamental rights.Lately ,due to the moral degradation of the people, they have to be forced to close shops.They have the impunity especially , folks with two wheelers, to go about as if nothing's happened.I ventured out today coz I had to go for work.Saw a couple of cars with "examination" posted on the glass.As if the blokes who will do the stone throwing are going to pause and read.Oh I forgot,there was this little uncomfortable business of an examination (nationwide boards C.B.S.E,I.C.S.E).The Govt made a big issue out of it asking the opposition to withdraw the hartal.What nonsense!!

Now all you westerners, you have no idea how the youth of this country look upto the politicians here.One of my friends said the other day :"All politicians are bastards,but the Indian ones are shameless bastards"...tch tch ..he's an exception folks.I mean just imagining what all personal sacrifices they undertake for the country,I'm....sorry, I'm too emotional to continue on this subject..*wipes tears and blows nose into hanky*


Oh yesterday some student activists torched two government cars after they were "lathicharged"..Lathi means cane ,and a very thick stout one too..These poor fellas went for a march to the Govt Secretariat ..They were prevented mid way through by the police.Some stones were pelted on the police,naturally.Just for that they beat the students black and blue..Ouch that hurts..I should know Ive got one when I was a student of The Govt Arts College here.The SFI(student organisation of the communist party) used to round up us students and force us to march shouting slogans against the Govt.In one of these excursions,I got in an intimate relation with the lathi...Lathi in malayalam also means one who talks too much about nothing.At the risk of being called that ,I am stopping for the time being.
"The Prince shall have one foot tied. Fearsome to his enemies, He shall make his soil rebound. Having joined battle with the people of Africa. Moon shining, the little great one lead off. The stone in the tree, the proud nation restored."
- Nostradamus

Meaning :
"The Prince (Prince of Kolkata) will be out of form before the World Cup. But he will come back to form. He will play among the people of the African continent and the little one (Sachin) will lead India to victory under the shining of the Moon (Day and Night where India will chase to win).And then proud India will rejoice in winning the World Cup(stone in the tree).."

Courtsey: Saravana Sundar
Let me indulge myself. This post will not be of any interest to the majority but since there's nothing else of interest to write , I might as well do it.This is about my relationship with music which started a looong time back.The first image is me perched on top of the washing stone(a cement square structure with a stone embedded in the center used for washing clothes) and "singing" at the top of my voice at the impressionable age of four or five.We were at that time living in a colony where the houses were virtually jammed together in a row,seven or eight of them. Day after day, at around seven I used to get up and start hollering the same songs till eight.Yep ,there was no stopping me.My parents and the meighbours tried all forms of "therapy" but I was pretty stubborn even then.Till the age of nine I was just into mallu songs.I am still a hard core fan of old malayalam film songs.

The year was 1988 and "BAD" was making waves.I had a chance to surf the Michael Jackson mania and this was my first true introduction to pop music.As the years rolled by The Bee Gees, Queen,Madonna,Richard Marx,MLTR,Belinda Carlisle,Jim Reeves,Cliff Richard and innumerable others filled my heart.Big fan of HIndi songs mostly old and upto DTPH.I very rarely listen to the new ones.

I have had the "goosebump effect " twice.It's when you listen to a song for the first time and suddenly you know that youve heard this one before, that you are going to hear it again and it reminds of you time beyond here.And needless to say ,you get goosebumps.Only two songs in this category so far..one is "manasu pole paayum nadi" from "Mazhayettum mumbe" and "Nee kaatru njan Maram" a Tamil song.The feling is instantaneous , as soon as you hear the first line , you know that this is "it".The first song I heard in a movie theater and the second on the computer.lol...I know it doesnt make much sense and i wonder whether this gels with the rest of the post but since what i write hardly ever makes much sense ,lets leave it at that.

The mp3 fixation started with the need to hear a few good songs.I still used to buy cassetes at that time but found that they were mysteriously inflicted with fungus soon after.I mean ,My dad's Jim Reeves casette ,while 30 years old, has no probs.So either the new technology is not up to the mark or these companies are doing it on purpose.Yeah ,in business,no conspiracy theory is as far fetched as it sounds.So starting off as an innocent 128 kbps downloader ,I became a 192 kbps fan and now a 320 kbps fanatic.There sure is a huge difference in clarity .A week back with the help of a good friend, I burned all those Gigabytes for posterity.Believe it or not, I recently came across a blog whose author claimed the existence of an aluminium eating godawful fungus.He had photos to prove the same, showing effects of the fungus on his cd. :-(

"All good things start free and then.." This is my quote for the www.You must have heard that Google bought blogspot.There was this big fuss about increased server speed ,efficiency blah ,blah. But this looks good , a double barelled ad the top of blogspot devouring "The Mallu Devil".At first I thought my eyes had finally crashed, making me see double on the screen .Nice work chaps, when do i get to see the pop up windows?

Those who are still awake and reading , let me .share with you something I enjoyed.Its about Mandira Bedi's performance In Sony Max during this world cup.I haven't seen this "performance" yet so I really don't know if it's biased, but some of her supposed comments had me in splits.If the link is not on, lemme know.

This post dedicated to the ever "young and gorgeous" G.Lets hope she stays around blogging for ever !!
Kerala's Day of shame


There is a picture in the paper featuring the two kids in relation to the above story but its not there in the website..Its gut wrenching not because they are hideous or different but because they are like any other kids.Unfortunately I don't have a scanner,but I think it should be there in all the Kerala editions of The Hindu.This story proves the point that there is only so much you can do with education and awareness.AIDS related ads are screaming day in day out of the tv and radios here,what is the use? But in one way its hardly surprising .In southern Kerala you'll find the most selfish stubborn ,rude conservative people on the planet.Nothing will go into their thick skulls.Heres the press report of the story.






Sorry about the pic quality, this was all I could manage.This is NOT the photo I had in mind but guess it will do.

Image courtsey:Mathrubhumi


On the war front, Australian high school students made a strong "Books not Bombs "statement . In USA actors who have dared to go public against the war are feeling the heat
Met a nice bloke yesterday online at WinMX..yes he's Australian..I don't know about you, but Australia to me always conjured up images of fierce ,no bullshit taking ,abusive six feet plus homo sapiens..blame it on the beer ads.I was unsuccessfully(anything new?) trying to download a couple of mp3s from him.Considering the fact that I belong to the T.B.C( Technologically Backward Class), he was extremely polite and patient with me.We discussed a bit of cricket and the weather too.These mp3 sites are where I have met a majority of my online friends.

It all started with Audiogalaxy(R.I.P) over a year ago.One had to download an Audiogalaxy satellite,go to the home page and then search and queue up the songs that one wanted.As simple as that.There were groups for every artist and music subdivision you could think of. Once you are in a group you could send a song to all the members of the group or any particular person. Met a hell lot of different personalities there and my music education had well and truly begun.Every member had his own home page where he could list whatever he felt like listing.People were listed by countries and you could contact peeps online at the same time by IM.

"If something is too good to be true ,it usually is"...sob...Ag followed the way of napster leaving me with a broken heart and 12 GB of mp3s.But Ag was certainly not an angel.Recently after installing and running Ad-Aware I found my computer to be a spy mine with the evil Gator having a free run.Despite that, Ag was the best .Winmx is spyware free ,that way its good.But for a truly unique music learning experience Ag was the king.
One of the benefits of the unemployed status is the huge amount of time on my hands.So I started what any self respecting purposeful individual would do in my circumstances.Go back to the classics !! Just bought The Complete Illustraated Sherlock Holmes brought out by Roopa with all the original drawings that appeared when Conan Doyle's works were published serially in The Strand.I am half way through "Sign of four" ...The sleuth injecting cocaine (the first scene) and having a blast amused me...it was expunged from all the versions I had read when I was younger..What's the big deal I wonder?All geniuses have their eccentricities and viles,for what is a genius without them ?

The talk of war is all over the place.For Christ's sake I saw a demonstartion even in Trivandrum the other day.Left me secretly pleased .John Brady Kiesling, a member of Bush's Foreign Service Corps and Political Counselor to the American embassy in Greece stepped down earlier this week in protest against the US policy on Iraq.Didn't see this bit of news in any of the papers here.Here's his letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.This clearly shows people are protesting and acting too at that, but the media is preferring to ignore them.All war is bad and I don't think the protest is just about Iraq.Hopefully its a message against war everywhere.The protests have been massive and universal across the world.The Pictures tell the stories themselves.It might take acouple of minutes to load the page so pls be patient folks.If all the pictures don't show up on the first try, refreshing the page will do the trick.



Letter link courtesy:Meenuji


Let today be a links day...On the day of the biggest match in the world cup what better way to start off than with 2 articles on cricket:
1.The Global Reality Show.
2.Riding the Brandwagon.

Chanced upon the website of author Anita Nair by chance.I have been a fan of her ever since I read her humor pieces in Man's World ,a "male" magazine which had more women contributors than male.Never got around to reading any of her novels though.Her site is tastefully done and pretty easy to navigate though I doubt if its been updated lately..The Man's World articles are all there as far as I can make out, under the Humor section.Lots of things to read here and you won't be dissapointed.

The Indian knot

Finally did a couple of very important things that were supposed to be done just two months back.Can you imagine that?!This procrastination business is getting worse daily.The unemployed status further compounds the problem instead of easing it out.There's nothing else to do but that which is staring at you for a god-awful two months and yet...It's one of the unexplained mysteries of my life...

Why do people in India make a big issue out of caste?Higher,Lower..It's so evident among the adults but decreasing in intensity among the younger generation.There was this Christian girl who fell in love with a low caste Hindu boy and then married someone else under family pressure.Her mother said"Anyone else it was ok, but a harijan?!"

The West looks at the Indian model of marriages in awe.. all these arranged marriages and stuff...even in the dotcom era its hardly different,people fall in love after checking out the surnames as in real life.Marriages here were never about love.It has everything to do with prestige,coming together of two familes,business ties,etc.Where else in the world will u list your degrees ,income ,visa status,ancestral property,bank balance,etc.Nobody asks themselves whether they want to get married at all.It has to be there right along with the board exams, an indisputable impending unavoidable part of life.The ultimate test of manliness is ofcourse fathering a child within the first year of marriage.

Whats the real purpose of this institution as old as whoring ? Convenience? Dependence? Financial stability? Emotional cover?I am yet to see a marriage having the same intensity right through the end.If we look to recreate the magic in romance and continue it into marriage with the same intensity ,I don't think its ever worked with anyone.And boy, dowry is big business in India.One of my friends got a crore, that is one followed by six zeros!! just like that! Coz he had the prefix Dr attached to his name.

Meenuji ,flattered you included me in the list of writers...I consider myself more a pretender than a real writer...it has a lot to do with inspiration ,I have to be inspired and pumped up to write(which hasn't happend for well over two years ;-) )...a true writer ,i read somewhere, doesn't sit around waiting for inspiration. He just writes.

Anita Desai & erotica

Anita Desai has intrigued me ever since I read Village by the Sea , a delightfully charming little novel.You can really see that village come alive before your eyes .It demands to be read again.Despite critical acclaim ,I couldn't appreciate much what the big deal was about Fasting, Feasting.The book I'm reading now,falls into a style she seems to be enjoying doing of late. Diamond Dust is a collection of short stories and almost all of them without exception dissapoint.As usual , she's a master at description but the stories are just sitting around waiting for a solid plot or conclusion.Apart from the stories Winterscape,The Artisit's Life and The Rooftop Dwellers ,the rest are just mediocre.Almost as if that the descriptive style is almost an obsession with her .It leaves with you the vague uncomfortableness of having had half a measure of a good dinner.Winterscape,though, is almost perfect.

There's this site where they send a novel to ur mail box daily ,piece by piece so as to speak ,and which can roughly be read in five minutes or so.I picked up Shakespeare's sonnets and Lady Chatterley's Lover .I had read the latter years before mainly to check out what the fuss had all been about.This time, reading it properly for the first time, I realized I had missed out on a lot earlier.Sample this:

it's no good! It's no good trying to get rid of your
own aloneness. You've got to stick to it all your life.
Only at times, at times, the gap will be filled in. At
times! But you have to wait for the times. Accept
your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And
then accept the times when the gap is filled in, when
they come. But they've got to come. You can't force
them.


I have noticed it with certain writers that hidden in erotica is usually profound philosophy and because its clothed in erotica it doesn't seem that hard to digest ;-) A good example is Marco Vassi.But he's in a different league altogether...sublimally powerful stuff ..Especially Mind Blower and Countours of Darkness...err I haven't read any other titles,very hard to come by here ,I feel.
S and me were just idling around when I suggested we go for Red Dragon.So off we went to The New Theatre ,the oldest and largest of its kind in Trivandrum.The man at the drinks counter seemed really reluctant to sell us stuff, guess he's grossly underpaid and is taking it out on his employers.During my pre degree days in The Government Arts College ,this theatre screened only soft core pornography.Now they seem to be out of their bad times .There was the usual crowd for a good English movie on the fifth day...around 20 (well its usually one fifith that number but since this movie had an A certificate ...

I had read the book earlier and the movie is a close adaptation.Very slick and fast paced .The novel, I've felt was better than Silence of the Lambs.For the uninitiated, Red Dragon is the first part of the trilogy which consists of Silence of the Lambs(SOL) and Hannibal in that order.But SOL was filmed first ,then Hannibal and finally Red Dragon.Soon found out the reason for the A certificate.Ralph Fiennes runs around in the state he was born in for close to five minutes..So if u like to watch male butts and privates , don't miss this !

Watching the movie I was awed by the professionalism of Hollywood.You couldn't say of a single actor that he/she acted badly.They were all superb.Contrast this with the hamming we have to suffer from SRK and co...Sheesh..come on how many ACTORS are there in India except for an Amir Khan or Amitabh? Not many I'm afraid...Oh , New theatre now features R.B.E(Real Body Experience).When the heroine screams ,the audience screams with her.At least S did.I asked him Why.He pointed to a peruchazhy(huge rat) scrambling away..seems the rat fancied a bite of pop corn from Shetty..It made a few more appearances all impeccably timed to the horrors on the screen!! That's genetic engineering technology for you !
As I was checking back into the hotel after the interview, I had a vision.This happened as I was waiting for the lift.I didn't even see her walk from anywhere.She was blond,blue eyes(with specs) , thrityish and a body to hug for...She smiled and I smiled back weakly .In the lift when she said "fourth floor" my heart went" DOOM DHUM DOOOM DHHHHUM"..Yeah loud and clear...What luck,She was staying on the same floor opposite my room and she was travelling alone in India.We chatted endlessly outside my room ,then I invited her in.She was the same profession as mine and we took our very professional discussions to its passionate logical conclusion....in the bed..

I made a terrible mistake .This happened more than a month back when I first started blogging.In the heat or passion of the moment, I idiotically promised to uphold the truth on this site.Guess that has just gone for a huge and mighty six :)
Back by popular request ;)

It all started quite innocently enough when I laughed like a maniac on February 17th 11:00pm..Nothing strange there, for I was immersed in the final chapters of Mostly Harmless ..Douglas Adams does that to me,pity my neighbours. However,what happened next was very strange..As if on cue, the power went off .To cut a long story short, the repairmen came the very next day and repaired whatever it was to be prepared,or so I thought.The power was back ,only problem was that things looked a bit westernised.yeah ,they gave us 110V...no fridge,no TV,no computer..back to prehistoric times.

Immediately I started showing withdrawal symptoms from all three.Hanging around the computer room, constanly checking on the "ice status" in the fridge,being very restless and fidgety....Finally day before yesterday, I had enough with the dim lit bulbs and the smelly fridge and went off for an interview in Cochin.I had two objectives...first to preserve my sanity and next if I felt really horribly good ,maybe go for the interview.Now from here on its a tale of orgasms.Those with a weak heart and easily excitablre mind please don't proceed.No please don't misunderstand me....Im not a man of many orgasms...but the conditions were so good that....

i shelled out a fortune for an AC double room in a star hotel in Cochin(don't jump to conclusions there were no single rooms available) ...Orgasm no1: while sinking down into the bed and exhaling and inhaling the cool air...
no.2 Soaking myself in the bathtub for about uhm 2 hours??Now that's multi orgasmic and probably the only thing more pleasurable than having a woman in bed with you.Thing is you can't cry for pleasure (yeah ,really brawl) when ur with a woman but in the tub you are the boss.

Did I tell u people that I am cable starved?yeah no cable tv at home...so saw Philadelphia again and got senti again.That one day in the hotel rejuvenated my mind and body...More on my other orgasmic details later :)

P.S: This post is dedicated to the millions of my fans( mostly female ;) ) who spent agonising days worrying about my absence...love and kisses to you all :)
"In all the din of the manufactured excitement and fabricated expectations, amid all the yagnas and poojas for the team's victory, we seem to have ignored one very important aspect. Which is that two teams play cricket. Usually only one team wins, and usually it is the better one. Yesterday we were not.

But the corporates, with no greater aim than to sell more motorcycles, more mobile phones, more tyres, more televisions, more 'chyawanprash', and more cola have hammered a very subversive idea into our gullible skulls.

That only India is there to win, and that the other 13 teams are there only to help them do that.

When that doesn't happen, as it didn't on Saturday and as it doubtless won't again in the future, the neo-literates of cricket, who don't know which side of a bat to hold, act as if the end of the world is nigh.

Relax, guys. This is cricket. And this is the essence of sport. If you haven't caught it, you should be watching WWF.We are a nation of coasters, the type who cruise along. We show so little bravery when a girl is getting raped in our train compartment. We take so few risks that people spend their entire careers at one table in the same office. We show very little nerve when our neighbour of many decades is being burnt and killed. We show very little spine to stand up to corruption, skullduggery and injustice and all those things for which we have justly become so notorious. That doesn't bother us.

Out on the green, though, we want our cricketers to show the bravery, spine and nerve we lack, to take the risks we ourselves wouldn't in our dreams.

If you think that is bad, what is worse is our expectations of victory at all costs and at all times. We don't expect our Prime Minister and his team to deliver 8 per cent growth each year without fail. We don't expect our bureaucrats and police to end ineptitude, inefficiency and corruption at close of working hours this year. We don't expect our courts to clear their backlogs next year. We don't expect our BJP-led government to provide food, clothing, medicine and housing to all by the time its tenure ends.

Somehow, we are willing to pardon them that. But, somehow, we aren't that accommodating about our cricket team. Why?"

Excerpts from an article in Rediff




Joke of the week:Hindi commentary for the world cup on DD National live from the Delhi studios!! Non stop riot with all the mishaps u can think of when commenting a game on the screen.

Dazzling Damsel of the week: Navya Nair..Her TV interview yesterday was a blast...unpretentious easy going girl with lots of humor and an irresistble laugh...Totally at ease with everything around her... Verly Adorable ...hmm..this suspiciously sounds like an ad for a matrimonial column.

Despair of the week: Living it out in Trivandrum.

Quote of the week:"A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's.She changes it more often." Oliver Herford
You'll never guess who was the first to visit this site on Valentine's day.."The Pentagon, Washington, D.C., United States" .How romantic,huh?I have several theories on this,but one thing is for sure..Valentine's day couldn't have started on a better note..I don't mean to be disrespectful to anybody but mainly, people come upon this blog either through other blogs,links,web rings etc and then ...AHEM...via search engines...msn ,mamma,kaaza..The search engines are many but the search query is always one:mallu girls.I don't know how this tragedy of epic proportions has come about but I feel sorry for these dudes for ending up on my site when they are clearly out for a night of pleasure and perversion.Even if you add movies,sexy and any other provoking search words still my site figures in there.Now what I am asking is...Why did the pentagon come to my site and if so in what way,eh? ;-)

There are some advantages to being in Trivandrum after all.I challenge any of you reading this to suggest a more unromantic,conservative place.So probably only here you'll find cards like "Happy valentines day Mummy" and all that crap..People are so desperate that its ok even if it's their moms..So no excitement about Valentines day palpable at all..

Seriously ,but ,there's a drawback...you become one of "them"... I have been here for six months and I am half a Trivandrumite...the pessimism,the indifference,the corruption..you don't even realise it.Maybe it's worse in metros like Bombay ,Delhi but I can't stand it...But the best part is you never realise all this unless you leave this place for sometime as it happened with me.As i famously like to say,it has all the bad points of a metro but none of the goodies to offer.It doesnt get duller in the world than good ol Trivandrum folks...Sigh
This post is for G who cracked me up with her "What is this?" comment on my "10th grade"post.She must have thought it was my diary entries or something more weirder but I guess the reference to prom and stuff makes that pretty unlikely,huh?It all started when I chanced upon g's hubby's blog and zonked him.Suddenly I was completly disoriented and I conked out soon after I shut down the computer.No it wasn't reading G's hubby's blog that brought this dizziness spell on as I had thought earlier.Just fever,sore throat,raking coughs and a whole lot of unmentionable disgusting symptoms.So im taking it easy here,but couldnt bear to see my blog without an entry.Is this an obsession or what? I just copied and pasted two articles(jokes?) I found on the net for the two days I was feeeling really blue...so couldnt bother with a lot of typing and explaining....feel slightly better today...Whoa, spoke too soon...feeling dizzy again,so before I swoon and crash myself on the keyboard,I'll take leave...cant really say when Ill be back :)...Take care people..
I was happy. My girlfriend and me were dating for over
a year, and so we decided to get married. My parents
helped us in every way, my friends encouraged me, and
my girlfriend? She was a dream!

There was only one thing bothering me, quite much
indeed, and that was my mother-in-law to be. She was a
career woman, smart, but most of all beautiful and
sexy, who sometimes flirted with me, which made me feel
uncomfortable.

One day she called me and asked me to come over to
check the wedding invitations. So I went. She was
alone, and when I arrived, she whispered to me, that
soon I was to be married, and she had feelings and
desires for me that she couldn't overcome. So before I
got married and commited my life to her daughter, she
wanted to make love to me just once ...

What could I say? I was in total shock, and couldn't
say a word.

So, she said, I'll go to the bedroom, and if you are
up for it, just come and get me. I just watched her
delicious behind as she went up the stairs.

I stood there for a moment, and then turned around and
went to the front door... I opened it, and stepped out
of the house. Her husband was standing outside, and
with tears in his eyes, hugged me and said, we are
very happy and pleased, you have passed our little
test. We couldn't have asked for a better man for our
daughter.

Welcome to the family.



Lesson learnt:- Always keep your condoms in your
car.
10th grade

As I sat there in English class, I stared at the girl next to me. She
was my so called "best friend". I stared at her long, silky hair, and wished she was mine. But she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it. After class, she walked up to me and asked me for the notes she had missed the day before and I handed them to her. She said "thanks" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I wanted to tell her, I want her to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love her but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why.

11th grade

The phone rang. On the other end, it was her. She was in tears, mumbling on and on about how her love had broke her heart. She asked me to come over because she didn't want to be alone, so I did. As I sat next to her on the sofa, I stared at her soft eyes, wishing she was mine. After 2 hours, one Drew Barrymore movie, and three bags of chips, she decided to go to sleep. She
looked at me, said "thanks" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love her but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why.

Senior year

The day before prom she walked to my locker. "My date is sick" she said; he's not going to go well, I didn't have a date, and in 7th grade, we made a promise that if neither of us had dates, we would go together just as "best friends". So we did. Prom night, after everything was over, I was standing at her front door step! I stared at her as she smiled at me and stared at me with her crystal eyes. I want her to be mine, but she isn't think of me like that, and I know it. Then she said "I had the best time, thanks!" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love her but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why.

Graduation Day

A day passed, then a week, then a month. Before I could blink, it was graduation day. I watched as her perfect body floated like an angel up on stage to get her diploma. I wanted her to be mine, but she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it. Before everyone
went home, she came to me in her smock and hat, and cried as I hugged her. Then she lifted her head from my shoulder and said, "you're my best friend, thanks" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love her but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why.

A Few Years Later

Now I sit in the pews of the church. That girl is getting married now. I watched her say "I do" and drive off to her new life, married to another man. I wanted her to be mine, but she didn`t see me like that, and I knew it. But before she drove away, she came to me and said "you came!". She said "thanks" and kissed me on the cheek. I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love her but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why.

Funeral

Years passed, I looked down at the coffin of a girl who used to be my "best friend". At the service, they read a diary entry she had wrote in her high school years. This is what it read:
"I stare at him wishing he was mine, but he doesn't notice me like that, and I know it. I want to tell him, I want him to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love him but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why. I wish he would tell me he loved me! "

I wish I did too... I thought to my self, and I cried.


Courtsey:desibox
I am not particularly inclined to reading crime novels but there is one notable excetion...Mario Puzo's The Godfather .I have lost count of the number of times I've read it,and seen the triology on screen. Mario Puzo breathed his last while working on the screenplay of the fourth film.But Random House, the publishers of the novel intend to continue the leagcy after the author's death.The second part of the epic saga of the Corleone family is being written by Mark Winegardner and is due in 2004.
Whoa!! I have been accepted into The Indian Bloggers ring .....took two weeks(or more?!).They really took their time and especially the way my blog was going(esthetically and material wise), it must have been real close.. ;)

Went to the only business ***** hotel in Trivandrum yesterday...The Muthoot Plaza .Have been there lots of times but this time went to see a friend of a friend.Hmm, complicated ,I know.He has a top job there and we had a good time.Nice ambience and very posh.The bar was flooded with foreigners.Airplane crew from 3 airlines ,everybody having a good time.Lots of business magnates around too and some people not recognisable but nevertheless appearing or pretending to be important.

There has always been a feline presence in my life...reminds me of "Rain God" in Douglas Adam's So long and Thanks for all the fish which I am reading now.lol.... I am really not a cat lover.But i respect them .They have a majesty reminding me of their wild cousins ,the tigers.There are three tiny kittens in the house now..One is grey with large white patches in between.Another is yellow and white.The third one is black with small whitish patches showing here and there.They are usually interwined like a ball of thread and their movements are slow and unsure .They always stick to each other, for warmth I presueme , so its more or like one animal with three heads and tails !!Its heartbreaking when they look at you.They just opened their eyes and the world stops when they stare at you.As the girls in my class used to say "chochweet".....

When the mother cat arrives they will be usually sound asleep.Once she starts licking them , they instinctively know it's her and start making these high pitched "keey keey" noises with their little tails sticking straight up and run and scramble around .The excitement and confusion is beautiful to watch.The mother is pretty sensitive and very alert.You sit quietly for a long time watching her feed the kids and she watches you right back.It takes some time before she trusts you enough to go to sleep while feeding her kittens.Once some kids(guests) made a big fuss over the kittens when the mother was around.She moved the kittens from that place the very next day.Anyway I don't touch or hold the kittens,an intrusion into their world I feel.It's sad though that most of the kittens never survive.Either the dog or the tomcat gets them.The tomcat kills off it's own kittens to bring the female into heat i'm told ,though i dont know if this is true.

There are three things I can't resist... nature, women and books.So blew away an appreciable amount on a Book exhibition in the VJT Hall...impressive by Trivandrum standards.Saw the snap of a very young Madhavikutty on the cover of Ente Kadha (My story)...What a pretty woman..
Thanks G, for letting me know about backBlog, though I doubt it will be much use here.Despite the ridiculous ease of registering and usage, I still managed to screw up.It took me 3 hours *wipes sweat off brow* to get the comments section going !! It's got to be a world record.Not really my fault.I am a certified "technically challenged" person.Well the root of all the trouble was ' ...Yeah that tiny straight line up there between the "l" and the "s" in "The mallu devil's musings"..sheesh so i had to change my blogname...Anyway as somebody kindly pointed out, i don't muse much on this blog ....as of now.

I have got a bad habit of going on and on about things I relish.Check out my review on Nandanam.But Ill keep it short and sweet this time coz there's no use me telling you about it.You've got to go and see for yourself.I don't know if everybody else feel this way but the women bloggers write far better than us men folks methinks.This lady in particular, writes like a dream and with brutal honesty too.It just blows you away.You know you are on to something special when you read the title of her blog "Married to a long haired freak".She's definitely my temptation of the month...hmmm ...that sounds too carnalistic, so Ill change it to lure...*evil grin*...I like to think I discovered her , a sort of godfather , so I've decided to promote her to the hilt....lol.Go read her people ,you'll love her !!
Looks like it's tough time for NASA first their space shuttle crashes and now their website is defaced.This looks like an anti war message, with plenty of bad grammar, from Trippin smurfs , a hacker group.Check it out !!
Read a disturbing article on the Columbia disaster in The Hindu,don't really know how much of it is true,but even if it's 50% fact ,it's shocking.I thought this type of stuff only happened in India and the third world.The gist of the article is that manned flights to space and the experiments they conduct are unnecessary and only serve a political purpose.Have a dekho at it...
Saw "Nammal" a couple of days back... a better than average campus flick with stellar performances from Suhasini and Balachandra Menon.A bit over on the melodrama I thought but bearable nevertheless.The newcomers, Sidharth Bharatan (son of late Bharatan and KPAC Lalitha) and Jishnu (son of actor Raghavan) and Renuka Menon are good.Renuka was the best ,I thought ,though she had nothing much to do. Suhasini puts in an effortless performance and by God , she's still one of the most beautiful women in the industry.The chap who came as Noolunda was hilarious.Bhavana was great as Parimalam.

Fell in love with the song "sukhamanee nilaavu"...the choreography and cinematography rocked too..."Ente Ammaya onnukaanan" has Kaithapram at his best.."Rakhashasi " is good to hear too...

Scenes to check out for:Shivan reading Sathyanathan's (Balachandra Menon) letter...Sathyan confronting Shyam about the letter...For a better more comprehensive review click here


On more filmi news,Nandanam has swept the Films Critics awards, a prelude to the State Awards winning seven including best pic, director and actress :)
Was amazed to see the February cover of National Geographic ...a must see !!!

A girl turned 18 yesterday and became one of the richest women on the planet...not that she's poor now...:)

Went to Coorg last week...just for the weekend...It's a 3hr journey from Thalassery in Kerala to Virajpet(Coorg's capital).The roads are horrible but the cool fresh mountain air makes up for it.Virajpet is a small noisy town surrounded by mountains and coffee plantations.Coorg is known famously for two things ,its coffee and women.Just had a glimpse of both ;).The place is blessed with natural beauty and you can find many quiet places if you are willing to explore.Time has no meaning here.So does the internet.Just a single internet cafe as far as I could see in the town and that too exorbitantly priced .A vehicle (a jeep preferably) is a must.Kannada is the language but everyone knowns Malayalam as well.The central town square is straight out of a Ruskin Bond novel with goats & cows having a free hand in everything.The coffee in the hotels are garden fresh and needless to say tastes divine.14 km from Virajpet is "Orange County ", a luxurious and expensive resort with all modern amenities.But you can just visit the place during the day as well without spending a paisa. Came back with my batteries fully recharged....
Ahh ...something constructive finally happening in my beloved state Kerala :)

"Marriage is bliss.Ignorance is bliss.Therefore..." -Anonymous. (Courtsey : S.Upendran,The Hindu)
A very busy week it was...Last sunday went for GandharvaSandhya (Kairali Yesudas) awards at Kanakakkunnu palace...Went for the show a good 3 hours before the opening...on reaching there,found out that unlike previous years you had to get a free pass.It was a bolt from the blue ,never was mentioned in the papers.Think Kairali,who was sponsoring the event, was to blame??So there i was stranded and the security was tight and strict as the Governor was coming.The program was supposed to start at six...Suddenly at 5:00 comes the announcement that no more people will be allowed in,even those with passes, as it was full to capacity !! People were going back gloomy and the police drove away the reluctant ones.I waited at a nearby bustop..."To wait and not be tired by waiting..."

At seven the program came on in a giant screen fitted outside...The awards ceremony was over...And Asha Bhosle had left suddenly ...no one knew if she would be back...At that precise time the heavens opened.The open air theatre ,Nisdhagandhi, at which the program was held ,was doused with a light but steadly drizzle.The families and the less sturdy started coming out and FINALLY the police opened the gates and we moved in...people all excied running ,pushing ...After standing for four hours,had to continue that effort with one foot...the place was jam packed.Sigh!!No problem the minute Yesudas started singing one forgot everything else.
Manna Dey was super, i thought.But the crowd got restless after hearing the old unfamiliar old Hindi numbers .Some oof them scoffed at the old man with the harmonium, who is a living legend.They clapped middl eway through a song and some people even had the teremity to howl and jeer.All a grim pointer to what is really wrong with this country.Intolerance.Let's not even start discussing Gujarat.None of the papers mentioned this rougish behaviour.Manna Dey refused to come on stage again ,even though it was announced a memento was to be presented to him.Don't blame him at all !!

On the way back through the lush kanakunnu palace with a beautiful moon above me I thought about the royal family and whether we blundered in choosing democracy...
There is a cardinal sin in any profession; more so in journalism and that is to pass your frustrations on to your writing, making it one whole. Smitha Sadanandan of “The Hindu” penned a film review on Nandanam on January 10, 2003.

This woman has been seriously wronged either by one of the film’s people (maybe one of them refused her an interview?) or she has a personal problem in her life and is taking the frustration out in her writng. Understandable, since she usually writes dull boring articles on Resident associations and filler articles in The Metro page. But this is not about her writing skills at all. This just goes on to show what a person, even if he/she is a journalist can do to mar a film’s prospect simply because he/she has no clue how to go about it.

There will be differences of opinion sure. A film that I love may seem pathetic to you. But there’s something called courtesy, which ladies and gentlemen is still around. A basic unwritten law in reviewing suspense films is not to divulge the ending even if you think the film was directed by an eleven year old. Smithaji has divulged the ending in Nandanam, which is a very very vital part of the movie. Not exactly a suspense thriller this movie but the ending is crucial. The funny thing is that even on then net (read uninhibited freedom) not a single reviewer, and there were plenty of amateurs, divulged the ending. Why are you a sadist, Smithaji? Ever read any review for “The sixth Sense”? Ever read anything that suggested what was going on in the movie and a detailed explanation of the last scene even by a critic who ridiculed the movie?

She claims that “Nakhakshthangal”, that poetic MT-Hariharan picture inspired director Ranjith.Both have the Guruvayoor temple as the background and a dusky village beauty as the main characters and of course some out of the world songs. Apart from that these two movies are as different as chalk and cheese. Lady, you CANNOT pass accusations and not support it, ok? Another cardinal principle of responsible journalism.

She also says with authority that “Nandanam” has employed a not-so-new-formula to rake in the bucks. Just a one liner will suffice for this. “All the stories have been told, it’s the way you tell them that counts”.

Smithaji really takes her movies very seriously. She rues the fact that “logic goes for a royalspin” and something about maids falling in love with well off dudes. I can’t comment on the latter coz she’s dissecting the movie’s ending and I don’t want to repeat her mistakes. But the best, the very best is reserved for Navya Nair. “Navya Nair is convincing as Balamani, but the Manju Warrier fixation is evident.” When I read that, I was reminded of a press conference by a dude in Trivandrum claiming that all earthquakes and train crashes in India were perpetuated by Pakistan using laser technology. Baba, you are just let speechless at such statements.
I can guess what has happened here, though. After Anand Parthasarathy left Trivandrum, the post for film reviewer has been left wide open. Smithaji desperately wants to impress her bosses. The irony of all this is that I went to see Nandanam solely coz of an earlier article in The Hindu commenting on a Different well made movie. That was after the premier of the movie, I presume. Another very funny thing, Nandanam has been almost universally acclaimed by critics. The majority of the people who saw the film too had good words for it too.Some people ,like me, attach a lot of importance to critic’s view .We usually decide to see or skip a movie based on what he/she has to say.I learned an important lesson here.Better to trust and go with a critic or fined who has similar tastes to you than blindly following what any Tom,Dick and Smitha has said on the matter.
Whoa , ever had that feeling on reading something that YES!! this is what I wanted to say right down to the last dot.Check what Lekshmi Nairhas penned down....I couldn't have done it better....an ode to my beautiful city Trivandrum and its people...
NANDANAM



A confession to start off with… I very rarely watch new Malayalam movies, so kindly take that into consideration while reading this review. My shrink says that this is my body’s way of coping following an irreversible psychological trauma after watching a flick titled “Mr.Butler”. Yep, that was the time folks that I knew that something was going on around me and I was not being let into the secret. The audience was laughing mad at Dileep & co's antics and double meaning dialogues and all I could do was squirm in my seat. Hell, by the time that movie was over, I had sworn off new mallu movies for good. I am not an art film lover. Just a good movie lover. I can see “In Harihar Nagar” and “Nadodikattu” a 100 times and still laugh. I can see “Onnu muthal poojyam vare”,”Unnikale oru katha parayam” and still cry. Hey I am not biased towards Moahanlal, ok? :) I don’t demand too much from movies, either it should be entertaining or should make you think or do both, which is rare. I had that rare opportunity recently while watching Nandanam.


There was an article in “The Hindu” which commented that Nandanam was different and good. Now if “The Hindu” says something is good, it usually turns out to be great!! Those guys are real miserly with their praises. Anyway so here I was in an “A.C” theatre in the capital of God’s own country. Sree Vishakh it was, and if the theatre is Sree Visakh, you can bet your life there won’t be any aircon. Only a handful of theatres Kalabhavan, New (same management as Visakh!!), Kripa, etc put their coolers on for that matter.


Right from frame one, the movie had me hooked. The story is set in an old Nair tharavadu and centers on the love between the maid of the house with the dude of the house, who incidentally is going to the US of A in short time. The city lad had just come down to be with his grand mom before heading West.Balamani(affectinately called Bala by Manu), the maid falls in love with Manu, our hero at first sight. So what’s new, u ask? Titanic reversed?? Well, as we all know, all the stories have been told but it’s the way it’s told that counts. So it is with Nandanam.Ranjith, the director of Devasuram, Ravanaprabhu fame really surprised me with the sensitive handling of the plot. And for once in a mallu movie the casting is impeccable, right down to the house servants. I can’t imagine anyone else other than Prithviraj and Navya playing the leads.


This film is about simplicity. Simple story, Simple sets, straightforward characters, no dishum dishum, no rape, no handicapped dudes (Thank God!!), etc. And it’s immensely difficult to critique a film when it’s simple and not pretensious. The director talks straight from the heart with minimum commercial compulsions. Any wonder then that the film was in the cans since Vishu with no distributors willing to touch it? I am not going into the plot coz knowing the story in any degree kills this film. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed it immensely being totally ignorant of the plot when i went to see it.


Prithviraj, son of yesteryear “dialogue veeran” Sukumaran ,fits the role of Manu like a T.His dad would have been proud of him. This guy has talent and spunk. He’s a natural. Although the role doesn’t demand much from him, he perfoms well within the limitations of his role.


Nandanam begins and ends with Navya Nair. I haven’t seen any of her previous films but she blew me away with this one. You can’t but fall in love with Bala..She emotes beautifully and looks absolutely fabulous as a village belle. Check out her mannerisms and how shy she’s around Manu in the beginning of their relationship and you’ll know.Yep Bala is a member of the now nearly extinct group of mallu girls immortalised by the song "Sundari,nin thumbu keety itta churulmudiyil..." from Salini ente koottukkari.Yep this dasmel brings out the protective fatherly nature in any full blooded mallu guy..lol. I was surprised that Ranjith took the risk of shooting a woman (girl) oriented film. I’m more amazed by the fact that he got it to work too.


Kaviyoor Ponnamma plays her role to perfection, nothing less to be expected from a veteran. Revathi, a permanent Ranjith fixture, still looks and acts wow. Hmm, this woman ages like wine. Unni, played by newcomer Aravind, dazzled. His first screen shot was received with howls from the audience, maybe coz of his unconventional looks and physique? Anyway, within a short time he had them eating out of his hand. Talented chap!!The movie's got loads of "natural" humour too with Innocent and Jagathy leading the way.However the one scene involving Kalabhavan mani was a bit over the top.The casting (no of characters) is huge but not cumbersome.


The songs are a class in itself. Raveendran conjures up soul stirring music, and this is the best I’ve heard in years coming from a mallu movie. All the songs without exception are great. Yesudas shows who’s the boss rendering “gopikey” and “sreelavasantham” with that consummate ease of his. Sreekumar renders a fast peppy number in “Manasil midhuna”. The duet by Jayachandran and Sujatha “Aarum” is the most popular song so far. For trivia buffs, Yesudas makes a screen appearance after 25 years. Watch out for Chitra’s “Kaarmukil Varnante”, my pick in the album.


Is this a perfect movie,then? Well to me, the last song by Chitra was great but the picturisation left something to be desired what with the entire family trooping in. You’ll know when you see the movie, he he... Apart from that I can’t think of anything major to squabble about. Nandanam is one movie you can take your grand mom along with, knowing you won’t live to regret it..



So is it going to be a hit? Well my personal pessimistic opinion is NO. Frankly, I feel, Nandanam is too good for the Mallu public now. Heck, if this movie was released in the 70s or 80s it would have been a tornado. But judging by the current tastes of the malayali, Nandanam will be lucky to get its money back. A big thank you for Siddique, the producer for making it possible to see this film at last.


Well all good things don’t come to an end folks…Latest I heard was that the Tamil and Telugu rights for remaking the movie has been sold even before the movie’s release in Malayalam! First time something like this happening in Malayalam film industry, I’m told. Anyway ppl, if you want something meaningful and different to watch ,give Nandanam a dekho…
As an introduction to any unwilling , unsuspecting soul who has manifested here , this page was created purely out of need.MY NEED.Living in India , there are still certain limitations to what you can say…Sure, you can say anything but you don’t get heard , yes even on the net.So here I'll pour all my venom and praise and will never have to beg anybody to see myself in print…hehe….

It all started with “The Hindu” , where I came upon an article in which a female(Smitha Sadanandan,if I remember correctly) was bitching about a thing, I thought, she had no right bitching about .Well I should have just written to the paper ,right? "The Hindu" might be the most liberal paper championing minorities and all that stuff, but they don’t tolerate their readers much.Even if you email them they have to have your full snail mail address and all that crap.And they NEVER print or even read articles strongly in opposition to what is in the paper.Yeah, a sort of condenscending know all attitude.The only minus point for the paper, but a sad one.They like to be politically correct and yep u can’t name names and slander even if what youre saying is just truth.Oh yes that’s another thing about my site here…Ahem....TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.

Well that which “The Hindu” started , they had a solution for me today.They just told me about weblogs and the rest as they say is history….More on Smitha Sadanandan and her patrionising paper later..