Don't press the panic button

After the 5 years of bull run and boom in the economy India's GDP stood at 5.3% for this current year. Switch on any Business Channel you get a feeling that doom day is quite nearer than expected. One day you get a feeling that Indian economy is insulated from the global meltdown the other day same channel speaks about that there is no way Indian Economy can remain insular to meltdown because our economy is a part of globalised economy. Remember, since our independence our country registered only3.5% to 4% economic growth no panic button was pressed then ( thankfully, there was no business channel then) why this bombardment on chicken-hear ted Indians who is already prone to cardiac arrests.

Hands On Hands off Reiki works!

This system was almost forgotten until japanese master Dr. Mikao Usui rediscovered it in the early 20th century. This method was followed by Indian yogis.

The Human Body has 7 chakras they are otherwise known as energy centres. Each chakra is associated with endocrine gland.

In reiki, it is not the energy of the practitioner which is transmitting it is actually the universal energy which beams out of the reiki healer hand.

The teatment can be given in person or through distant healing. This system is useful in curing all diseases.No diagnosis is required the universal energy locates the problem and rectifies it .

India's first Sepoy mutiny 1806

With the news coming from neighboring Bangaladesh that a Sepoy mutiny is underway between para military forces and the army over the poor conditions and inequality in recognizing the services rendered by the Bangaladesh Rifles . My thinking goes back to 19th century about first INDIA'S WAR ON INDEPENDENCE. As historians would say the date 1857. However, the first Sepoy mutiny took place in 1806 in vellore. Many would disagree because we have been told by school and college curriculum that mutiny took place in 1857.

THE FACTS: After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799,his family members were jailed in vellore prison.The East India Company passed a dress code on serving Indian Sepoy s which hurt ed their religious sentiments (like removal of earrings, forbidding to apply tilaks, removal of beards). In 1806, under the guise of one of the tipu's daughters marriage the soldiers entered the garrison and massacred the British officers .

CAUSE OF FAILURE: The victorious soldiers failed to bolt the fort gates properly.The action of the soldiers infuriated the British command which sent a huge battalion to crush the rebellion in that battle the British killed the entire rebels.Soon after the crushing the tipu's family was transferred to Calcutta.Interestingly, no family member of the Tipu sultan were anyway involved in the uprising.
COMMEMORATION: In 2006, The Indian postal service brought out a stamp in memory of the first Sepoy mutiny against British rule.

A beautiful scene from Anbe Sivam

One of the masterpieces from Kamal Hasan . In this particular scene,the heroine of the film (kiran) had snubbed the hero and his group just prior to this scene. The hero was considered as a gate crasher to the party.Once the hero talent got exposed ,as other visitors poured in to congratulate the hero, the heroine felt isolation in her own party.Her initial reaction was feeling jealous( many of us do not give due respect to others either we overrate ourselves or underrate others )immediately that feeling got cooled down . A kind of reverence building up towards the hero (superb performance) and she finally expressed sorry for her action.Slowly and steadily, this reverence turned into love in the later scenes.

Shivrathri: Arise Awake

Shivratri is celebrated in the month of maagha (13th night and 14th day) . On this day, All shiva temples are kept opened through the night. The lord shiva is worshiped with bael leaves and anointment(abhisekham) is performed to shivlingam. The devotees follow fasting and night-long vigil.

Adi sankara says " punarapi jananum punarapi maranum jadame shayanam" We all caught in the web of births and deaths in order to get released from this cycle we should pray to the almighty .
Through indolent mind one cannot achieve the salvation . We have to arise from the slumber of illusion and always sharpen our consciousness . That is why on shivratri night devotees keep night-long vigil.

In the name of keeping vigil , some of them watch movies or play card games they just fulfill the letter of shivratri but not the spirit of the occasion. While fasting and keeping vigil the devotee is expected to observe smarana bhakti (focusing on lord). Every month we celebrate shivratri but this one is special because it is called mahashivratri.

Sell your pangs for recognition

Along with slum dog millionaire the documentary film Smile pinky won Oscar for best documentary Oscar award. The film is about a small girl with cleft lip living in a small village in Uttar Pradesh.
The film is woven around the girl tribulations as she is isolated by the villagers. Ultimately, she gets cured after a surgery. Again,this film is directed by an american.

Underline message is that "You Indians cannot portray the India the way we wanted to see. Leave it to us we will portray it to our taste".

For those aspiring future technicians who yearn for international recognition make films on those problems which are plaguing our system . Even this would not be sufficient make sure you should have one or two westerners in your unit that would give minimum guarantee in fetching an international award.

How you "FACE" it?

At a valedictory function a spiritual guru was delivering an important message to his disciples. He was explaining about how they should maintain their body language while addressing a gathering. He said " for example if you were talking on the topic of heaven you should bring heaven(ness) to your face by exuding confidence, emitting postive energy, the radiance from your face should pervade the surrounding from where you are lecturing". Suddenly a crooked student raised a question " Suppose if I were to talk on hell?. For which the guru's answer was "just show your face that is enough".

Its all how you package it

Had the film Gandhi been produced by an Indian producer the film would not have crossed the Indian shores. Thankfully, it was produced by a Britisher, Sir Richard Attenborough . He made the film with an eye on international audience not just being country-specific. To qualify in Oscars one has to know the nuances of the hollywood taste.

There was a widespread critisicm about Indian films not making it to Oscars. Inspite of being the largest film producing industry in the world .Though many Indian movies had featured in best foreign films category in the past , however, they didn't win any award . The critics said that they were not convinced with the songs interspersing the films. To them, film making is a seperate genre. Music is seperate.

The people who criticised the songs in indian movies, have themselves accepted it in a big way. The culmination point was the film slum dog millionaire winning 8 Oscars. (The theme is indian , the crew is indian, the music scored by an indian except the director is a British. )

With A R Rahman winning 2 Ocars (he is the first Indian to have won 2 Oscar awards) let us hope the west will turn towards Indian film industry for more projects in the future. Let our musicians get more chance to work with Hollywood .

Species (1995)

Charles Darwin 200nd birthday was celebrated last week. His concept of evolution is still regarded as the "base" book for the study of evolution. The humans consider themselves as the ''last product" of the god??? creation. In the name of genome project , human tinkering with natural science creates chaos which really affects the mankind.

The film species(1995) speaks about human involvement in creating a race which is otherwise known as "superhuman". Enough studies have shown that once the genie comes out of a bottle it will be a difficult task to "bottle" it again. A new specie is created between a human DNA and a sample DNA from the space. The new hybrid grows rapidly . A new "woman" is created out of this experiment which goes out of the laboratory and creates a lot of trouble to track it down.

The blond played by Natasha Henstridge whose main task it to watch any activity of human with a curiosity. As she watches children around her . A desire is created to multiply the "race" on earth. In order to accomplish the task she is on a mission to find out disease -free Man because she is very choosy in selecting her partner and she doesn't want a race with diseases .

A team is formed to curb her . Interestingly, she came into contact with
one of the members of the crack down team. As soon as her "mission" got over she kills her partner with whom she had relationship and multiples her race. Fortunately, every baby gets killed ???by the crack down team and they saved the human race from the extinction.

I was impressed by the Forest Whitaker role. Each time he came close to the blond the team miss her by a whisker. Ultimately, his ESP came in handy to track down her.

Madras nalla madras: Saidapet

A suburban locality of Chennai(then Madras) . It connects the northern part of the city to the southern part of the city. The place is named after syed shah , a high level official of the Arcot Nawab's court. The then saidapet included kotturpuram andNandanam. This place has distinctive places like Karuneeswarar temple, Marmalong Bridge(Maraimalai adigal bridge) 100 year old teachers training school. The locality is dominated by weavers community. Its vegetable market, is quite popular among the locals, situated on the Bazaar Road. Once upon a time , saidapet was known as "mosquito breeder" of Chennai south because of many cattle owners settled in and around that area. Though Guindy, another locality of chennai, remain a gateway to the city saidapet offers the best bus connectivity to the other parts of the city. This place comes under the chennai(south) Lok Sabha constituency. The present chief Minister of Tamil Nadu , M.Karunanidhi once contested and won from this constituency as a legislative member of the State assembly.

Saidapet, remained an important stop for the passengers coming into the city. However, this has changed in the recent years after the mofusil bus stand transferred to koyambedu. This place is well connected by buses, rail etc. The urbanisation has not left this locality many skyscrapers have come up . In the olden days, this locality resembled the semi-rural background all those old buildings are giving its way to apartments.

Nothing is recession proof

The first edition of the IPL was a huge success. The second edition of the IPL is already facing sponsors crunch . With major sponsors already re-considering in associating with the game. The on going recession has not left the sports too. with major sponsors disassociating from the sponsorship this edition of IPL would turn out to be a damp squib. ICL,its rival league has already shelved its plans of hosting this edition citing non availability of the Pakistani players. The real reason is that nobody isinterested in spending during the slow down period. If this edition of IPL fizzles out, no problem , there is another IPL will take care of Indian public hunger for entertainment. The another IPL is "INDIAN POLITICAL LEAGUE". This IPL would definitely feed the mass in this summer.

Health quotient not in vogue

Exactly a month ago, Ba rack Obama sworn in as the president of the United States of America around the same time the leader of the world's largest democracy was hospitalized for heart surgery.------yes! Prime Minister Manmohan Singh .

In the west, people are curious about the health status of the candidate they choose. They want an agile, athlete, robust personality to lead the country. That's why when the republican candidate John McCain chose Sarah Palin as a running mate to offset the image of being old. Eventually, the running mate became a counter productive one. On Obama side, he was considered to be a naive person in running the country's affairs. In order to bring in the experience to his camp he chose Joe Bi den as his running mate. Joe Biden has over 30 years of experience at US Congress and held various positions at foreign relation committees.

President Obama is a fitness freak who plays basket ball at free times. His shirtless pose at Honolulu's beach became a big hit before elections.The doctor says the exercise body can mitigate the effects of long working hours, fatigue. Many past presidents were also fitness freaks .It is a PR exercise by the candidates to look chic before the voters. The frail image doesn't translate into votes.

Now, take the case of India we have politicians over the age of 70 visiting hospitals have become habitual affairs for them. The leaders seem to give a scant regard for health quotient. The elections are around the corner. The Indian mass going to witness whirlwind tours, massive rallies, street corner meetings of our politicians in the days to come. Almost 40-50% of the electorate are less than 35 years of age. Many of them are first timers and very eager to exercise their franchise.

The Obama campaign made our politicians re-position their strategies. The opposition leader, L.K.Advani, has started websites to attract the young voters. Even the leaders like Lalu Prasad without shedding his rustic image goes hi-tech by visiting various management schools.

How these strategies would help them nobody knows. To lead a country looking biologically younger does not guarantee the efficient running of the affairs. Within a few days of assuming office President Obama admitted his folly in appointing tax evaders in his administration. Experience matters.

Ardh Satya(1983): Half Truth

For Govind Nihalani this was the second venture after '' Aakrosh". Till this movie, the indian film industry never had a seperate audience for documentaries.If it was a documentary film it has to be shown at the film festival that was the norm prevailing before this film hit the boxoffice. This film became a path-breaking one or a trend setter in bringing out more system-bashing stuff in the later years to come. This movie, in the year it was released , had to fight against the big banners of the bollywood films like coolie, betaab, Hero,to find its space, and to make its presence in the box office.
The plot of the story was very simple. A straightforward cop was unable to cope with the realities . As a result, he became isolated. Unlike in other films, as in every masala film, in this one heroine(Smitha Patel) was not used for running around the bushes or rain- drenching sequences. In fact, she almost played the role of a harbinger of hero's conscience. A brilliant performance.Though the Hero of the movie, Om Puri, was willing to adjust with the realities ,but , after a certain point, it became unbearable. An inspector-turned-alholoic character played by Shafi Inamdar brought out the qualities of the person who just spoke against the " system". This one happened to be the first film for Sadashiv Amarapurkar he won an award for best supporting actor by the filmfare

EK PALDE MEIN NAPUNSAKTA
EK PALDE MEIN PAURUUSH
AUR THEEK TAARASU KE KAANTE PAR
ARDH SATYA

this poem exactly depicted the trails and tribulations that Hero getting experienced to the real system. The hero has to do jugglery between realities and conscience.This film won several national awards . WORTH WATCHING even after almost two and a half decades.

idly is idly what is in the name?

Idly is the favorite food of south India. Almost in all four states of south India you find idly . The exact date and origin of idly cannot be traced . Some Tamil scriptures have mentioned about the food item that is similar to the idly. The present day idly is made out of rice and dehusked lentil batter which is allowed to ferment .Then the fermented batter is filled In a mould specially made for idly-filling. In early days , kadai was used, the idly-mould used to be placed inside the kadai. Allow the "idly appartus" to be steamed for 20 minutes then allow it to cool for another 10 minutes then open the "lid " of the "apparatus" you get steamy idlies ready. Nowadays, idly cooker replaces the kadai format. Even microwave Owens accommodates idly cooking.

BEST SIDE DISHES : At home, idly is combined with milagai podi(special red chilli cum coconut powder) add a little dash of sesame oil over the idly then add chilli powder nothing can come near to it. In some cases, curd with chilli powder is added to feel like having a curd rice.
If you take idly-sambhar in restaurants, idly -sambhar is the ideal pair( GEMINI ganesan got the nickname of ''sambhaar'' because in one of his films he drank several cups of sambhaar for two idlis ). In selecting the right sambhaar I always advice murungakkai vengaya sambhaar(Drum stick cum onion sambhaar) .
HOW TO EAT: On my recent visit to Bangalore, I saw the people using forks and knives to eat idlis. Remember, idly is a south Indian food so one has to use the hand otherwise you will not get the real taste of the idly. In another instance, a north Indian takes one morsel in one hand, drinks sambhaar with other hand making the situation funny . Atleast, he can be forgiven because of his demographic limitation of food etiquette. (what is worst that the people of southern states use forks to eat dosas, pesarratu the very scene is pathetic) Hence, my advice is to enjoy idly-eating order two idlis then order four to five cups of sambhaar Mix idlis with sambhaar , in the process, the idlis ''figure'' should get disfigured .never mind ask for more sambhaar use your five fingers take one morsel after another aaha...aahaa.. beshbesh....rombo nalla irrukku....
NOTE : At the end,Don't fail to pay the hotel bill after enjoying idlis.

what do you want a namasthe or a handshake

When you meet a stranger or any acquaintance we generally salute them (of course, at our place). In India, namasthe is the general form of saluting the guests. While offering namasthe we bring our both hands together which ultimately identifies with "jyothi swarup" (supreme being or brahmam). we convey a message to our guests that there is no difference between you and me. What is dwelling inside me is also dwelling inside you(meaning jiv atma). Another interesting way of interpreting namasthe is that joined hand signifies unblossommed lotus bud by offering namasthe we expect a friendship to be bloomed between us. The flower lotus plays an important role in our culture.We are both part of the same universal power. This creates a trust between two individuals. (How could I harm myself).And these are spiritual interpretations of the namasthe. The medical science says that the human hand carry dirt, bacterias since, we follow the dictum" adhithi devo bhava" so we keep our bacterias with ourselves we don't want our germs and bacterias to be transmitted to our guests. LET YOUR BACTERIAS BE WITH YOU . That is the message we send it to our guests.

When Indian civilization was flourishing the western countries were leading a barbaric life. There was a lot of infighting between one tribe and another. There was no trust . The act of extending one's right hand is to gain the confidence and trust of the other.In other words, he shows to the others that he has no weapon in his hand . (Significantly, when the right hand was extended the left hand was hidden behind this really showed that how people of that of the era had led a paranoid life).

Now, tell me what do u want a namasthe or a handshake?

Infrastructure holds the key

For any emerging economy, Infrastructure is very vital. The country cannot have redundant roads, airports, ports and poor power structure. As Indian economy presented 8-9% growth in the last 5 years.The country received a massive FDI's at every level. But, major problems of this country remains the same. Indian Economy expects a major investments in infrastructure sector. The country had witnessed a huge inflow of tourists the existing airports were unable to cope with the traffic .The robust scenario in the export import sector buoyed up the flurry of activities in our ports . The condition of our ports are not in a position to handle them. This would pose problems for us in the long run. With the red tap ism plays the spoilsport the infrastructure ought to wait for a longer period for the clearance.

With the onset of the recession,there will be a further delay in execution of the projects and this sector would bound to remain a laggard. If turning a blind eye to this sector one would witness a mismatch between economic growth and development in the years to come. That is truly not a good news for any country.

5 years on , lalu on right track

When Lalu Prasad became the railway minister of the UPA government he was considered as a misfit carrying the baggage of being tainted in the fodder scam. The Indian Railway was not in good shape. With 91% of its earnings went for pensions and salaries. There was no scope of any development. The chamathkar of lalu made the railway a cash cow with earnings shot up to 50,000 crores .
While presenting the first budget lalu touched the chord of common man like introduction of kulhar cups, khadi blankets etc.
He has the distinction of not raising the train fares for the last 5 years. In fact, he had brought down the train fares considerably. This is the rarest phenomenon of Indian railways. The passenger sector remain untouched, introduced Garib raths commercialization of railway lands brought in huge revenue to the ailing railways.

The freight trtaffic shot up thanks to the booming economy. His adversaries accused him of playing pork barrel politics with earmarking all major projects to Bihar. This practice was there even before lalu became the railway minister. With his performance as a successful railway minister he rose to the level of a management guru. His success story of Indian Railway became a case study for management trainees When an question was posed to him how he made a turnaround in the railways's fortune?"the cow must be milch ed fully ,otherwise, it would fall sick" was his reply .

Time-Pass

SCENE ONE:
Lady: Darling, will you shower the same love after the marriage?
Man: It's all depend on your husband 's move.

SCENE TWO:
Lady: How long we will meet secretively like this?
Man: Till we both find suitable alliances.

Celebrating valentine day is not against our culture. During Sangam period, the tamil culture had a provision called kamun viz ha (festival dedicated to cupid god) people of that era celebrated it with gaiety. There was no ab noxious activity going on like this . How many affairs would end up in marriages? Not even a single.They both come together to "explore" one against the another once the "exploration" got over lady or man would say "jo huva hai so huva bhool jhao".

The Lord of all ''SINS''

TO love a girl is a sin.
TO marry a loved one is a greater sin.
TO live with that married one for years together is "THE LORD OF ALL SINS".


There is a saying for a successful marriage

1.SELECT four
2.CHOOSE three
3. LOVE two
4. MARRY one.
Even after marriage you COULD establish a contact with the second lover of the stage 3. provided how well your spouse accommodates it.

Tips for going steady with a girl:
1. Always play innocent .
2. NEVER allow your emotions to occupy you.
3.Don't ever "disclose" your net worth to your girl friend. There is a chance of avoiding you.
4. Always play on her "weakness".
5.Make her to pay your hotel bills, fuel bills .
6.Expect an unexpected one if you come across a prettier stuff don't give a second chance to migrate.
7. Always target a girl with a younger sister who knows idiotic father -in-law would hand over the second one as "extra".
8. Don't ever give any suggestions because it could be a ploy to study you psychologically.
9. NEVER allow a third party in your affair. Beware of predators.
10. Avoid any family members of the girl as they could dissuade or destroy you. In some cases, the family members may pretend as if they antagonise the love affair. After all, it is their strategy to "dump" the "stuff" on you. In such case, better walk out of such "stuff".

Disclaimer. The views expressed in this blog are purely imaginative. The followers should take extra caution the actual experience may vary from individual to individual. The writer is noway answerable.

Life is full of attractions and repulsions

The magnetic theory seems to be found in every creature on this earth. We yearn for something to accomplish that THING we give our best but, once the expected THING is accomplished we don't seem to enjoy as we enjoyed during the period of yearning. For example, in the story Mahabharatha pandavas were deprived of their kingdom. In order to regain the kingdom, they faced several hardships . Once, the war got over they didn't enjoy it thoroughly because their pro genies were lost in the battle. In addition, their skills which existed before the war were not found in them. Arjuna was unable to lift Gandibha(Bow), Bhima uanble to lift gadha(mace) all pandavas had lost their acumen once the war got over. Their skills came to their rescue when they were in distress . After the war, cause of their worry was no longer existed hence, their skills too, waned away. Sri Aurobindo says '' the whole of universe is based on attractions and repulsions '' no material accomplishment could give a complete satisfaction''. On accomplishment of one thing another one props up likewise the life goes on there is no point in fretting over what has happened.
Money is essential to live in this planet . However, money alone cannot provide solace. If anyone thinks otherwise, they will have to wander like Daniel Craig in ''quantum of solace''. In the film ''The war of the roses'' the couple spoil t the 18 years of their marriage over a tiff that who would own the HOUSE after the divorce. These days the relationships are built with mortars, bank balance, investments etc. These would not last long of course, for a time being these relationships would give a comfort ultimately, they would wash away like the houses being hit by the tsunami waves. We all know that money is essential but how much is sufficient nobody knows ...............................................

This day that year...........

On February 9, 1959 Martin Luther king junior II visited India . He considered his visit to India as a pilgrimage because he wanted to learn the Gandhian principles. After the Montgomery bus incident , blacks found their leader in Martin Luther King II . He got attracted to the ahimsa (non-violence) and he was very much interested in knowing about India and Gandhi's satyagraha. During his visit to India, he travel led to Delhi and Bombay and he witnessed the poverty condition prevailing in the cities and wondered ,yet, the country was peaceful. He saw the unity in diversity. He equated the India's caste problems with that of blacks discrimination in the US. After visiting Sabarmati ashram, he practised Gandhian philosophy at his own home which created problems . Unfortunately , he fell to the bullets of an assassin like his mentor, Gandhi.

There is no doubt , ahimsa is the supreme thing but that alone would not solve the today's problems. Here, I am not advocating eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. In today's scenario, it is our enemy who decides that which weapon should we use against him. There are some historians who disputed the claims that Gandhi got the independence. Look at the countries which got independence after India's independence how may of them followed the Gandhian philosophies? When Gandhi was able to convince the British to get independence why he failed in his attempt to prevent the partition . The British were generous had Germany's Hitler or Russia's s Stalin been in power the freedom struggle would have been crushed with iron fist. Moreover , the second world war had ravaged the Britishers . The British were unable to manage their empire as their administration machinery was in disarray. Slowly and steadily , their grip over the colonies got weakened and all these things attributed to India's independence.

We can study Gandhian philosophy at schools and colleges but not for real life.

Puthiya paravai

I really do not know that how many times I had watched this movie. Every time I feel like I am watching it for the first time. The acting of shivaji ganesan remain incomparable. The plot of the story : The hero committed an uxoricide without any pre-planned motive. To his knowledge, the matter got closed. After sometime, a girl came across his life he got enticed by her beauty and she reciprocated his proposal as they almost reached the stage of marrying each other. As in every crime thriller , an unexpected twist happened----"arrival of murdered wife coming alive". He knew that the "arrived"lady was not his wife
because he disposed her dead body soon after killing her . To add his misery " new" comers entered the house under the guise of wife's relative. He played every trick to get rid of them . But nothing fructified. On the one hand, he had to pacify her "lover" on the other hand, unable to digest with the arrival of a new intruder into his life. He was totally confused as his agony grew day by day. Then came a situation, where he had to spill the beans. Before making confession, he was shocked that the police department had used decoys to push him hard to make confession because they had no evidence to arrest the murderer,as they relied on his own confession to open the case. Every character surrounding him was police in mufti clothes. The heroine too, was used as a decoy. He was unable to believe the reason why "love"was used as a weapon in the process of investigation.

The film has some evergreen music numbers rendered by M.S.Viswanathan like "paartha naabagum illaiyo" , chittu kuruvi muttham koduthu", "unnai onru ketpayan" , " enge nimmadhi"are still remembred as classic tunes. Both the heroines, saroja devi and sowcar janaki, were glamourous. above all, shivaji's histrionics speak volumes. The story is based on the Hollywood film chasing a crooked shadow.

Ranganathan street: this street never sleeps

The companies are presenting losses in their financial statements, Issuing pink slips, seeking bail out packages, undertaking fab trimming process are the headlines hitting the newspapers, But, nothing seems to have hit this street so far,so good. Here, the business seems to be as usual . In chennai, the then administration followed the practice of naming the street after the first occupant. Actually, the real name of the street was Rangaswamy Iyengar Street, in those days , streets of chennai ended with caste names.Later on, the administration thought otherwise of getting away from caste names. (Interestingly, there is a road in neighbhoring west mambalam named arya gowda road the administration couldn't remove the caste name "arya" represents a race(as per british taught history books in reality, arya means addressing a person with reverence, gowda represents a caste name hence, the road is continued to be referred in its original name). Initially, there was no much commercial activities after the 90's , a slew of commercialization enveloped the area. Earlier, the people used to go to b roadway( northern end of the city) for shopping. The things had changed after 1990 one could see a lot of jeweleries in and around T.Nagar , (Usman Road became the zaveri bazaar of chennai)

Ranganathan street vegetable market is the second biggest vegatable market in the city after the koyambedu. In fact, the vegetable prices are cheaper than other parts of the city however, one has to compromise on quantity. There is a ''technique'' to shop around the market. Never go for shopping in the evening hours always shop after 9.30 p.m. because you can offset the deficiency on quantity. This market not only caters to the population around T.nagar and West Mambalam but also the floating population which usually comes from far flung suburbs of the city.

Mambalam Railway station earns the highest revenue by way of issuing travelling tickets in the beach-tambaram sector.This street establishments have made an impact on people by way of associating themselves with many TV programmes as a result, shoppers from neighbhouring state visit here for shopping. For any new comer to the city, his/her visit would be incomplete without a visit to this street.

IPL fever II has started

In India, nothing unites the people like the game cricket. When the British left India only two things had been bequeathed to the future generations of India. 1. English 2.cricket. Both are Backfiring the Britishers. When the one dayers were introduced the purists cried fowl over the dilution of test cricket----which they considered as the purest form of cricket. Then came, Kerry Packer version of the game-----day/night game. Who could forget the famous tag line "big boys play at night" on players shirt. Actually, that was the stage set for the commercialization of cricket. Till such time, people were watching the game without any "spice" being added to it. After a period of almost 30 years even this version was found to be a little drab. Then came, the 20/20 game ironically, this too, was invented in ENGLAND the land which gave the test cricket.

The advent of IPL has revolutionized the way of entertainment among the indian mass. The first edition of IPL was a runaway hit. The TRP's of several channels nosedived as every household was glued tomatches in the evening. What really clicked the IPL was mixture of bollywood and cricket. The "two" most happening things of India. The association of glamour with the sport made the ad world to watch the proceedings closely. The human trafficking is prohibited. who said so? In IPL , the foreign players are auctioned(a la gladiator style) The first edition of the IPL did generate controversiers like match-fixing , doping charges etc. No longer the cricket is seen as a sport it is more like a entertainment many blokbusters had been post poned because IPL kept the crowd away from cinemahouses. Another significant thing, timing of launch of IPL i.e. summer holidays for the kids so the organisers had encashed the circustances available to them..

The season two has just begun. This time players from pakistan will be missing the event . Another interesting feature is players from England would take part in the event. Kevin petersen, former Englend captain could become the second highest paid player after the indian captain, M.S.Dhoni. He is assured of a minimum fee of $1.35 m.

The bollywood association has become thicker and thicker . This time, shilpa shetty bought 12% stake in Rajasthan royals (the winners of the first edition) This time you would see a lot of hot and cold winds blowing in the Indan summer.

The power of japa yagna

To perform various yagnas one should need the assistance of various factors.External factors plays vital role in conducting them. Not everyone will be in a position to perform certain yagnas. Certain yagnas requires severe rituals.

Japa yagna is very simple per Se. It does not require any outside help. It is between you and your mind. It is easier said than done. The most difficult part of any man's life is mind control. It just vacillate like monkey from one branch to another. In japa yagna, the saadhak recite the istha deivata's name. one could do japas with or without the help of rosary( each rosary contains 108 beads excluding meru bead. The meru bead is located in the middle of the rosary atop the bead a knot is tied while finishing one round of japas the saadhak should not cross the meru bead he should start the next round of japas by anti-clockwise.) The significance of 108 beads are : As per Hindu mythology we have12 raashis(zodiacs) and navagrahas (nine planets) when a saadhak does the japa for one round he is doing it for all raashis and entering each planet's house. In case, there are any malefic influences of a particular planet in one's horoscope that gets neutralised through japas. Even in bhagawad gita, Lord Krishna says"maharsinam bhrgur aham
giram asmy ekam aksharam
yajnanam japa-yajno ’smi
sthavaranam himalayah

among the maharishis he is bhrighu, Among the vibrations he is "om" the monosyallble (this was the sound pervaded when big bang tookplace)of the yagnas he is japayagna , of the mountains he is himalayas

The japa is not confined to hinduism . As a matter of fact people of all faiths practice it.

It takes the rough with smooth

In those days,Owning a car was seen as a status symbol. Moreover, in the days of license raj, it was very difficult to own a car at one's wish. So many legal formalities had to be furnished. But, the situation has changed after the liberalisation. Many foreign manufacturers have set up their plants in India as a result,many variants are dotting the Indian roads.

Just imagine the situation of 1950's when there were only 2 or 3 manufacturers. One among them was THE GREAT AMBASSADOR which still going great guns in spite of the trendy cars that hit the market every year.

The ambassador is the symbol of Indian Bureaucracy. All our MLA's ,MP's, MINISTERS, GOVERNORS, use the ambassador cars.

This car was introduced in1957 based on the license from Morris Oxford , London. This car is ideal for Indian conditions no matter what the road conditions are Even the engineers from GM were amazed at the "success"of this car for several decades. The plant was originally commissioned at port orkha Gujarat, later shifted to uttapara, West Bengal.(The shifting of nano project was seen as a sweet revenge of Gujarat government to the West Bengal Government) This car is manufactured by the Hindustan Motors. The company had manufactured contessa, trekker and pusphak but the only one ambassador remain the darling of the Indian mass.

Of course, the market for amby(as it is fondly called) is dwindling the company has pruned its monthly production. In the western region,particularly mumbai, one could see premier padmimi as taxis but in the city of joy it is the amby used as taxis. The company and the taxi union have an understanding for the extension of financial assistance to the taxi drivers.

In sum, one could say what ferrari is to italy likewise, our amby is to india in the automobile sector.

Upma comes in Handy

In the deep south, if a visitor comes to a hotel at the closing hours. The hotel owners don't turn them away but, instead they continue their conversation to prolong their stay inside the hotel. While they continue their conversation on one side, prepartion will be underway on the other. The preparation is none other than UPMA. This is an ideal food item which could be used as a stop-gap arrangement .Don't panic on seeing many visitors to your home upma is there to rescue .The upma is actually not an indegenous product of Tamil Nadu. The upma entered the state during the maratha rule of Tanjore. There are various types of upmas are available nowadays. like rava upma, ragi upma, wheat upma, semia(vermicilli upma) upma , rice upma etc. the upma has various names in the south indian languages . It is called upittu in kannada, upeet in marathi upma in telugu, malayalam and tamil . In konkani, it is called as rolam. Since, this kind of food item is widely found in south of vindhayas it is a part of south indian cuisine.

Sun shines at Indian tennis

In the end of 2008, somdev dewarman reached the finals of Chennai open beating bigwigs of the tennis circuit. The year 2009 have not belied the hopes of Indian tennis fans. YES! Hesh-sania pair won the mixes double championship at the Australian open tennis. The first indian woman ever to win a grand slam. Another intersting thing happened to indian tennis was yuki bhambri won the junior title at australian open. He became the fourth Indian to win grand slam title.Previous winners were Ramanathan krishnan, Ramesh krishnan and Leander Paes. At the junior circuit, this title came after almost 19 years after Leander paes won the junior wimbeldon title in 1990.

Every then and now, Indian Players made their presence felt in the major tournaments.It is always known fact that Indians rules the tennis in the Asian region. The matter of concern is it should not be treated as a flash in the pan consistency is very important.If further impetus is given to this game we could be a world beater one day. Now, its up to the system to decide what needs to be done to reach the highest point of the game. JAI HO! Indian Tennis