Mood and movies...

2002...
First day matinee show for a Manirathnam movie music directed by ARR... An entire group from my college... It wouldn't be an exaggeration if I say we were the only ones in the balcony of Ambika theater in Madurai. Such a huge gang, packed cinema hall and brimming expectations... Whistles, problems with the theater guards, booing, scolding the poor operator and everything typical of a first day show at Madurai was on, even before the movie started; not to mention the 'We will rock you' beats that our guys generated with alternate taps of their legs followed by a clap... It'd be an understatement if I say we were in the mood to watch a movie... We were actually ecstatically waiting for entertainment. But all the excitement was gone, 20 minutes after the movie started. "Oh my God! We should've planned something else" was the response among most of us and that included me too. Quite naturally, the movie had a very poor response - a commercial flop and an award kid. I believe that everyone who has some idea about Tamil cinema would've guessed that the movie was 'Kannatthil Mutthamittal' starring Madhavan, Simran, Keerthana, Nandita Das, Prakashraj, Pasupathi and others.

Today, I saw the movie again in solitude... This time in a completely different mindset, fully prepared for a deep impact movie. At the end of the movie, Morgan Freeman's words from 'The Shawshank Redemption' echoed in my ears... "A young stupid kid who committed the terrible crime... I want to talk to him... Tell him the way things are!" I still couldn't believe I said this movie wasn't good enough! Nobody would've written a review for a movie released 6 years ago; but if I don't express what I feel now, I'm not sure if I'd be able to sleep peacefully tonight! More than anything else, the movie stressed one important point that is repeated in Management classes - "Pick the right man for the right job and your work would turn out excellently". Sujatha - Manirathnam - ARR - Vairamuthu - Ravi. K. Chandran... Needless to say that the movie will turn out good. The best of the best, I'd say, was Sujatha... Tamil cinema will miss you sir! "...aval vayittril ulagai sandhikka avasarappadum oru kuzhandhai" (she carries a kid that is in a hurry to see this world), "Kannatthai kanneer nanaikka, maarbai thaai paal nanaikka, pirandha udanae kuzhandhayai thurandhu, marandhu, pirindhu pao yenum kodumayai endha kaalakattatthilum gnyaayappaduttha mudiyaadhu" (With tear soaked cheeks and milk soaked breasts, the mother was forced to desert, forget and isolate her new born kid; and this atrocity cannot be justified under any circumstances), "eppaommaa sanda mudiyum (followed by a grave silence)" (when will the war end?") and all the grown ups there stand still unable to answer a kid's question; "ammaa vaammaa namma madras kku paoiralaam... Anga sanda illa... army illa... namma rendu paerum okkaandhu TV paakkalaam... cinema paakkalaam" (Come mother... Let's go to Chennai... There is no war and no army there. We can sit together and watch TV or a movie)... The paradox in the last dialog left me thinking about this genius... How many things has he covered in one shot... It was so typical of a 9 year old kid, it says how TN and Srilanka are worlds different in living standards when they are separated by less than 100 kms, it also says the ignorance and carelessness of a fellow human being towards the other. I was almost caught in tears partly because of the scene and mainly because of the brilliance of the writer. There are just so many dialogs crafted so artistically all through the movie and if I go on at this rate, I'd end up giving the transcript! :D The next place goes to the camera! The range of lenses, the way a shot is quickly converted from a tele to a wide angle, constant movements instead of conventional still frames, the bokeh in a lot of scenes... It was simply mind blowing. ARR deserves the special credit for Vellai pookkal song that soothes our hearts in every pressingly emotional scene, telling us the solution to all these problems. Mani... needless to say! I started watching the movie only as a critic and a learner; but the minor mistakes I found here and there were nothing when compared to the masterpiece he has delivered.

All in all, I feel sorry to have misjudged such a wonderful movie, the first time I saw it! Hats off to the team!!! At the same time, I understand the elements that need to be a part of the movie to make it watchable under all circumstances and moods. I'm not dumb enough to ask for Vadivelu comedy in this movie; but some wit throughout the movie would've helped and in fact that character could be used as a strong junction of myth and reality; as it was handled in 'Life is beautiful'. When the movie is too slow, too firm on its objective and too orthodox in its approach; only people who have the real time, patience and passion for such kind of movies enjoy it and the commoner misses the fun and the point. A lesson learned from someone's failure, often termed as history! :)

Even the great commit mistakes...

A long time since I made consecutive posts in a day... And perhaps this is the first time I'm posting two consecutive posts on diametrically opposite topics.

I was seeing Mouna Ragam earlier today... It's one of my favorite scripts and I couldn't recollect the entire movie sequence. This is not the news! Hold on... I've seen the movie a lot of times before and I don't remember when was the last time I saw the movie in full. Today, I wanted to see how Manirathnam has done his work in a movie that was directed during the early stages of his career. To my surprise, there were quite a few flaws throughout the movie. There were a lot of minor ones like lighting difference in a sequence and costumes; but what caught my eyes were two major ones - some scenes were out of sequence in the Mandram vandha thendralukkuu song and Revathy/Mohan pair walks out in the streets of Delhi; and at a later stage Revathi says they've never been out together. The worst mistake of the lot is the climax scene... Revathi would sit in a compartment that is in the middle of the train and when they get down, they will be in the last but one compartment. When they get down, an engine will be behind the train in the same track. And worst of all when the train moves off, the frame is narrowed to avoid showing that it's a goods train. But a shutter on one of the compartments gives it off... :D

All in all, I learned one good lesson... Even the legends today did make mistakes in their first few steps; and when constant efforts are put forth, perfection can be achieved. That's quite encouraging to me! :))

Mumbai attacks - time to wage a war?

First of all, my heart felt condolences for those who were killed or injured during the inhuman attacks carried out at Bombay.

Everyone who has been following Indian affairs for a while would be aware that terrorists trying to instill fear in Indians is nothing new and that these attempts have never been successful. But this time, the attacks have taken unusual dimensions including firing on the streets, setting hotels/luxury spots ablaze; and every act of terror that people would've seen only in action movies. Quite naturally, this has given way to a lot of discussions; and I felt that this topic deserved a second post.

I felt a bit annoyed to see this post in one of the blogs that I landed upon. I completely agree that the situation is grave and anyone who was on the venue of the demonic activity, would be upset to the core. But is leaving the country a solution? Isn't that called escapism? Our country is like our body... Just because some virus attacks it, we don't shed it or run away from it. If finance is your problem and you are really finding it hard to make some good money at home, you may explore the possibilities outside and plan to come back at a later point. But giving reasons like 'life if too busy' in my opinion is BS. If that's the case, one can always opt to settle down in a second tier city where life is peaceful and they get the space and style of life they need. When we fight for abstract things like community, language, religion, etc why don't we fight to eliminate the pressing problem of the locality? Running away from problems is never a solution! I hope and pray these people understand that...

Next is the attempt to attribute these attacks to 'Hindu terrorists'!! I was tempted to write a post on that one, but this post saved my time and words. Hats off to the author.

The last and the most important part that I wanted to talk about was about the motive of the attacks. As I said in the beginning of this post, this attack is completely different from what India has seen before. This could mean one of the two things...

1. The Indian Intelligence, Police, Government and all single security enforcement official are really, really dumb.

2. The scary alternative - the Government/intelligence planned it.

I'm pretty inclined towards taking up the second option as the more acceptable version because I don't believe that Indian security has become so bad that terrorists holding ultramodern rifles can wander on the streets as if they are in some Cuban Naxelite camp. Before you say WTF you mean the government planned it, let me explain why I feel so.

I believe that the strongly convincing videos in Youtube about the involvement of FBI/CIA/US Govt on the 9/11 attack would've got your attention. In case you are completely unfamiliar about this, please visit this site. I'm not dumb enough to say that India did this because US did that; but I had some points in my mind that got me into this suspicion and it's up to you to decide if that's worth considering or sheer crap!

1. The operation on the whole is highly sophisticated. We have never seen such an orchestrated terrorist attack involving ultramodern weapons in the history of Indian crimes.

2. Everyone seems to be surprised including the Intelligence. The incidents that happened before were carried out on a large scale with trivial hand made grenades; which sounds practical. But AK 47 in public and the intelligence being clueless?

3. India's recent stance with the US. I'm not sure if our intelligent Congress men are borrowing some wicked ideas from the US.

4. In the current state of affairs, congress has absolutely no scope to win the upcoming elections and a war on Pakistan could be a life line for them.

5. The opposition parties have not made any great issues out of this incident. Perhaps BJP doesn't want to stop a war against Pakistan?

6. Pakistan expresses its condolence as if this is the first terrorist attack on India.

7. Police cars being a part of the gun fire. Where did the terrorists get the chance to seize a Police car? They just ran out with their guns, shot a senior official and took the jeep?

8. The particular interest shown on the foreign nationals staying in the luxury hotels and the way it is projected as a matter of importance to the US and the UK too!

9. The ATS head who was shot, as reported by media was not targeted; but he was caught in some random firing! An expert not knowing how to hide from bullets?

10. The news was the cover story today in almost all leading news channels in the US; and at least to my knowledge they don't give so much importance to news completely unrelated to the US. And on top of it, US extends its 'Support' to all decisions taken by India.

I could go on stating my suspicions but I don't know how true these could be or even if I'm putting up a sane argument. But this is what I strongly feel at the heart of my hearts. Iff (mathematical notation) this is true, I feel it's a really bad political stunt from the Indian government. After all, we've been having problems for a quite long time; but we were always in a position to say 'Meraa Bharath Mahaan' with pride and complete spirits. Let's settle our issues between us and our enemy; and let us not allow the hypocrisy of the west to enter our veins. Jai Hind!

Mumbai blasts - Shame on the Government

Statement 1: India is the 3rd most popular foreign investment zone in the world.
Statement 2: On 26th November, a bunch of goons opened fire at public and pulled off granades. They showed particular interest in the cozy areas of Mumbai and their special interest was in threatening foreigners.
Statement 3: The Govt of Maharashtra and the Govt of India are on red alert about attacks on major cities

Logical inference: There has been a plot to spoil India's reputation; and the non-functional state and central Governments have let innocent public and foreigners suffer because of their ignorance and inefficiency. Hail Congress!

The part that disturbs me the most in such attacks is the victimisation of public. After all, what does a commoner has to do with political issues and why should s/he punished for no fault? At least in the future, let these dirty political games be played on a humanitarian basis.

My OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

Another 'About Me' post! This time it's about my OCD. It's not bad enough for you to say "Hey! Dont orry ya why are you cryiing?" in Vadivelu style or to visualize Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it gets". Perhaps it might be an exaggeration to even call it OCD, but nevertheless, this quality of mine is defintely worth mentioning.





I should say I have this tendency to get 'institutionalized' quite easily. From my food orders in restaurants till the wash basin I choose to wash my face in a restroom, there is always some level of predictability and pattern. The best of the lot is my choice of songs... If I land up in a song that is personally special to me, I keep repeating it in an infinite loop until I feel sleepy or the system heats up drastically! :) The latest in the list is "Uravugal thodarkadhai" from the movie "Aval appaditthaan" and interestingly I was lured to this all time favorite when I saw Vaaranam Aayiram... The film opens with this song and ever since then it has been repeated in my playlist and I believe that the count should've easily crossed 100 now. Same holds good with my fav movies too. Mozhi or Troy are the classic examples and I could narrate almost all dialogs in both these movies by-heart! :D I don't even complain about taking the same food everyday as long as I personally like the dish... Curd rice and pickles could do just fine with me for infinite days in a row! :) The final part and the weirdest of the lot is that I can stay alone in a 10X10 room all by myself without any human company... :) Food on time, a window to speculate and get lost in thoughts, a computer to browse the net and basic necessities... That's it. I'm all set!



I leave it upto you guys to call it OCD or not... But it's quite weird of me, don't you agree? :)

Vaarnam aayiram review and Abhiyum Naanum expectations...

Before you say, "Oh No! Not a movie review again...", let me tell you this... I'm not going to write a detailed review on Vaaranam Aayiram. I just wanted to tell a few things I felt when I was watching the movie. This one is definitely different from GVM's other movies... This one is more his life than a cinema. Everyone who loves his/her dad as a role model would understand the extent of emotions that would've gone behind making the movie; but if you want me to be the usual stern critic, I should accept that the movie has quite a few unwanted scenes and even the title Vaaranam Aayiram is a reflection of Gautam's fantasy of his dad's heroism. All in all, it was an emotional experience than a movie and as usual GVM has shown his trademark in the narration of love. Whether it is the scene where Surya massages Simran's legs after a short dance or the scene where Surya proposes to Sameera ("Naan idhu varaikkum ippidi nadandhukittadhilla... Yenakku ivlo guts irukkunnae yenakku ippao dhaan teriyum") or the initial sarcastic turndowns by Sameera ("Paiyyan enna padicchurukkaan nu kaeppaaru... Enga vaela paakkuraan nu kaeppaaru"); GVM has proven that he is an excellent story teller when it comes to romance. In the same way, he's also succeeded in showing the bonding between a role model dad and his son... But perhaps he got too involved personally, there were a lot of scenes in the movie which could've been avoided... For instance the whole Armed Forces sequence reflects GVM's personal ambition but it need not have been portrayed on the screen so vividly. Most of the army and the rescue scenes were diverting people from the story. And cinematic exaggerations were also a bit too much in the movie... Dad apologizing for using son's room, Surya going to US when there family just recovered from its economic crisis... A bit too much to take... Logical flaws, quite unusual of GVM, were also spotted here and there in the movie. Surya's sister's classmate is 2 yrs younger than him (which essentially means his sister too is) but in the beginning it is shown that Surya was a 6-7 yr old boy when his sis was born. In the same way, someone who is addicted too much to narcotics and struggling to recover, runs, fights, kills and what not! But beyond all these drawbacks, I'd definitely say it's worth a watch, especially if your dad is so special to you. It's more or less like Autograph... Some people got so involved and were flooding the theater with their tears. Some people (like me) were making fun of those who got too involved; though we enjoyed the movie. This one's pretty much like that but it's definitely worth seeing atleast once.

Coming to the next movie, Abhiyum naanum; I was seriously disappointed when I heard the audio track. Not a single song was too appealing as opposed to Mozhi where the songs were not just lovely but also had a very strong orientation to the theme... "Sollai kadandha pennin mouna koottukkul pala kodi kodi porul kudi irukkum", "Iyarkaiyin mozhigal purindhu vidil manidharin mozhigal thaevaiyillai... idhayatthin mozhigal purindhu vidil manidharkku mozhiyae thaevaiyillai", "Mounam ondrum oonam alla alla... Vaarthayellaam muzhumai alla alla", "Paesaa madandhayae vizhi paesum chitthiramae...", "Kannaal paesum pennae"... Every song in the movie portrayed a physically handicapped girl so respectfully and beautifully; and the trailer, the advertisements, the banners, the captions... Everything was picture perfect and even before I went to the movie a strange sense of 'falling in love' occupied my heart. Needless to say the movie is one of my all time favorites. But with the music track disappointing so badly, I wasn't too sure if Abhiyum Naanum would have the 'Radha Mohan spell'. But looking at the trailer and the press meet where Prakash raj, Radha Mohan (my personal favorites) and specifically Thalaivasal Vijay spoke about the film, I believe the movie would definitely be a treat to watch. Giving a master piece is delighting when everyone talks great about it; but it's a pain when we come up with our next efforts. I'm sure Radha Mohan would've realized it; and I hope and pray that the movie turns out to be the sensation of 2008-2009.

The end of IT era?

Following the trough in the US economy, the much sought after IT sector faced/faces a great blow in India. Many companies stopped promotions, started indirect firing, reduced the pay to benchers and indicated their economic vulnerability in a lot of ways; and this brought a few interesting questions to my mind. How stable is the IT industry? If $ falls tomorrow (after all they are all paper bills and carry no real significance), will the IT industry still survive? What will happen to the 'elite-society' of today?

Honestly, I feel if $ falls, it's surely going to take down IT with it. We all know there are projects outside US... Indian market itself is worth billions of dollars and all that crap. But US plays a very significant role in keeping the industry alive for two reasons - 1. As with any other commodities, they are THE consumers of IT services. There are other consumers too but relying on them for minting money isn't going to work because their volume of consumption put together, is not even 1/10th of US and 2. The profit margin is not going to be as high. The exchange rates might be better than USD but considering the volume of operations, it is going to yield only insignificant profits. Perhaps reason 2 is a derivative from reason 1. The industry will not obviously vanish; but maintaining the lion's share is out of question.

The worst nightmare for the Indian government would be the day this happens. Imagine thousands and thousands of educated jobless youngsters in the society. Perhaps 10% of them might be smart enough to switch fields or start their own business or do something that works to survive. But what about the rest? It reminds me of my high school days when I used to write civics exams where the most common question would be "What are the economic problems of India" and point #1 would be population and point #2 would be unemployment. We never gave upon #1 but #2 might take a new dimension if IT goes for a toss.

Pudhiya thatthuvam 100020: Kannaa vaazhkai oru vattam maadhiri... Innnaikki maela irukkuravan naalaikki keela iruppaan... Innaikki keela irukkuravan naalaikki maela iruppaan! :D

It's time to see the moon! :)

Every patriotic Indian would be extremely happy today as India's mission to reach the moon is a success and the tricolor flag now adorns the moon. It is a moment of pride to the Indian scientists and quite obviously another feather in the cap to the subcontinent.

Without a greatly organized Government, without the state-of-the-art infrastructure, without getting much help from other countries, India has crossed this milestone which in my view is a remarkable achievement. Let the success story continue and let the 'developing' crap come to an end bringing us to the dawn we have been expecting for years together. Jai Hind!

Economics

For a change, I'm not going to write a lot today. I saw this interesting video on world economics... I'd reserve my opinion for now and let you enjoy the speech...

What am I?

The good news is that there isn't much of philosophy about this post though the title tries to threaten you with a question on the word 'I'. In a week of joblessness or perhaps I should call it 'salarylessness', I've been more into movies than anything else. I got to watch some of the best movies I always wanted to watch and some other excellent movies that I accidentally landed upon. One of them has left me thinking for the past couple of days and even though I'm a movie freak and I keep recollecting good scenes (sometimes even have the dialogues by-heart); I never really 'think' after a movie especially if it is not a movie about facts, history or philosophy.

The movie's name is Rounders, more about the game of poker and how it is important to play the player than the cards. There are a lot of interesting scenes in the movie but one of them created an impact so to speak, in me. The crux of the scene is 'We can't run away from what we are. Our destiny chooses us'. Isn't that true?



Now with all the due respect for the authors, I've heard this "You can do it", "Nothing is impossible", "Follow your dreams", "Spot your talent" and all the BS being written to sell a big, fat book to you that doesn't change you a bit except lightening your wallet. But this time, the sentence was different. I mean, after all the rational analysis and logic, one could easily observe that everyone is naturally good at just one thing. Just one thing above everything else... It just happens beyond one's control and there is something with everyone that s/he does better than the (most) others. The fact is no matter how hard we work on things that we are reasonably pretty good at, it's not going to take us to heights. If there is something that could really take us to great heights, it is the purpose of our creation, the best part in us and what destiny chose us for. How many of us (including me) dare pursue it, is the question...

Ain't I different? :)

Every organism in this universe has its individuality, an identity, a characteristic and a trial to visualize the degree of uniqueness in this universe might be mind blowing. If you started saying "Oh no... Not philosophy again...", I got you! :) This is not about philosophy, nothing about the society, not even about movies... This is about something that I don't talk about quite often - me!

I usually hate talking about me partly because there isn't much to talk in the context and partly because expressing yourself completely in words is something beyond the imaginable. However today I couldn't resist talking about me for one reason - the way I've been spending my last week.

Virginia is a new place for me and fall here is as beautiful as any other north eastern state in the US. I've been here for almost a week now and the interesting part is it once again proved how much I love solitude... I joined a company last Monday and ever since then, I haven't even stepped out of my apartment... When I say stepped out, I literally mean it - not even cross the door steps. I've got a pretty comfortable room here with a broad window and it's kind of the master bedroom for this house and that makes it unnecessary for me to step out of the room except to cook and eat; and I just get out of my room when I cook and eat! I'd been clicking a few beautiful views but all of them are taken without leaving my room. My camera just peeks out of the window and that's all about it. There's a guy here who is supposed to be a care taker for this guest house and he works in the Virginia branch... Must be HR I don't even know what he is... He leaves at 9 and comes back at 8; and the last time I saw him was on Monday! I haven't called anyone in the whole week though I had received quite a few calls...

It's been just internet, internet and more internet... And the best part is... I love this! :) If someone asks the other guy, he might even say I need medical attention. :)) But again, this is what I am and this is what I love to be. Every organism in this universe has its individuality, an identity, a characteristic and a trial to visualize the degree of uniqueness in this universe might be mind blowing. Isn't it?

100 :)

Whether it's cricket or blog posts, hitting century is always an enjoyable experience. That way, I'm really excited to post the 100th entry in my blog; and though it took a bit longer than I expected, it still has been a good journey.

A few years back perhaps in 2004-2005, I used to question the purpose of blogging. I mean who would write down something and post it on the internet just so that someone might come and read it; and more than that why would someone want to let out his thoughts in an open channel with no benefits? Even today I have no answer to these questions but I've been doing that for almost a year now. In a way blogs, journals and diaries are like silent companions... They accept whatever you say and don't speak back to you. To counteract the silence, our mind starts speaking on their behalf. It has been an interesting experience so far and just when the artificial pace of life kept me from being as close to my friends as I used to be; this blog came in as an outlet through which I express the world I see, without any thoughts about the person who is listening to it, without any customizations, without any specifications. A free flowing waterfall that doesn't care about the objects it might hit; and all it knows is the course to the ocean. I really enjoy being so... :)

Where do u belong?

News news news! I'm back to philosophy... :) But I'll try to keep the dose minimal...

Recently I got a weird thought about the sense of 'belonging'. If you ask someone where s/he belongs, the usual response would be the place where they currently live in or the place where they have been living for the most part of their life. I have always believed that the place where I was born and brought up is where I belong to and in a way I'm one of the those who boast of their home towns... :) But my recent vacation to India (perhaps because I had a lot of time to think :D) did bring in a question into me... "Where do I belong?"

This might kind of sound stupid but I still feel it's an absolutely valid question. Let me give a brief background before I dwell deep into the hypothesis... About 5 years back when I was doing my final year of engineering at college (of course in my home town), the city seemed to be mine... I was so filled with the place and everything around me indicated that I belonged to that place right from my bikes' number plate to my address and the people around me. When I went home this time, I was really enjoying my time there... I mean spending time with parents and sis, having good food, enjoying the 'back home after long' treatment and all that... But the belonging with the city became a question mark. I have been to almost every street in the city (ok... a hyperbole here...) but I didn't know where to go... Mom was busy with her cooking/home management, dad with his business, sis with her studies... Almost every other friend of mine was in Chennai or Bangalore busy with his/her work... Just like the famous quote "Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink" - Madurai did have the same places we used to hangout but I was feeling out of place and the best part is... nobody is to be blamed. If this is the case with the place that nurtured me for over twenty years, I need not mention about Chennai or the US. Tampa again was a classic illustration of this... We kind of settled very well in the place, had a huge gang, loads of fun, lot of travel... But one fine day, our company was chucked out and all of a sudden the place seemed alien. So... coming back to the question, "Where do I really belong?"

The simple but tough to accept answer is - 'Nowhere'. Our priorites at any moment decide where we belong and life as I'd mentioned a lot of times before, is just a travel, a journey to a destination unknown. Love, relationships, commitments, religion, sense of belonging are all feelings that we develop so that we don't feel alienated or meaningless. Imagine a world where everyone realizes that s/he is actually an independent entity surrounded by myths... After all that is what all religions preach... Forget the bondage of relationships and just focus on the Lord Almighty. But the beauty in the preaching remains only as long as the human nature of attachment counterbalances it. If everyone starts believing and practicing it, the response would be "Yeah, I know... So what?" Reminds me of the dialog from the movie iRobot where the introductory slides say "...They are governed by the rules and the rules are meant to be broken". We are all reminded of the absolute truth by religions and our great ancestors; but if everyone starts taking that course to be out of bondage, world would come to a stand still and everyone would die of frustration. The message actually is... "Live as if the entire world is yours but keep in mind that nothing is actually yours!". That is the only way to live happily and in the process, make as many people happy as possible.

Srilanka...

"Munnai itta thee muppuratthile
Pinnai itta thee thennilangayilae
Annai itta thee adivayittrilae
Yaanum itta thee moozhga moozhgavae"

The pyre that I lit is in front... The flames that were started by a tail; are back south in Srilanka (an excrept from Ramayana)... The flame of separation lit by mother is glowing inside me... Let the flame I lit, engulf this body!

-- a famous Pattinatthar song that was plagiarized by Kamal/Vairamuthu for Alavandhan, speaks about the pain of a son cremating his mother, requesting the God of flames to engulf the body. Flames and SriLanka have been having such a close relationship that it hits the mind of a poet and fits into a metaphor on flames. For a long, long time; Srilanka has been in the clutches of war and it's been a seemingly never ending problem that has been on for quite a lot of time now, consuming hundreds or thousands of human lives.

"The Sinhala government is trying to crush us and refuse the rights to Tamizh people in Srilanka. We need to make sure that the Tamils are given their rights and India needs to interfere in this matter to speed up the process." -- LTTE, Tamizh politicians in Srilanka and majority politicians/press reporters/actors/etc in Tamil nadu.

"LTTE is a terrorist outfit trying to ruin the peace in Srilanka by exploiting innocent Tamils. India should help us crush them as a personal victim that lost a Prime minister in a bomb blast organized by the LTTE." -- Srilankan government, Sinhalese, a few politicians in TN.

"LTTE is exploiting us and I was forced to take a gun against the Srilankan army" -- a Tamizh boy in a video.




"It is an internal affair of Srilanka and India cannot really get into it" -- Indian Government.

"Several including two Indian engineers were killed as the LTTE bombed the Srilankan communication centers" -- News.

As Al Pacino says in "The Scent of a Woman", I'm not a judge or jury to really assess who is right and who is wrong here; or what is true and what is not. But the fact is that a lot of innocent people are dying day after day and beyond the layers of politics, international affairs, exploitation, misunderstanding and grudges; there is something called humanity that is supposed to rule every human's heart. Somehow I feel that it's been totally forgotten in this issue and unless humans replace the fabricators, soldiers and politicians involved; I don't think a solution would be possible!