It's upto our muslim brothers to answer...

I came across this shocking video in Google. I'm not a specialist in Arabic and I'm not an expert in Islam. So I don't have the knowledge required to really validate the content in this video. But if the content in this video is true, it'd be the hardest fact to digest! When man cannot be kind to another man, what purpose could a religion solve? I defer discussing it further but if someone could provide a response to the content in this video and validate if it's the translations are real, it'd be greatly helpful!

Does Islam preach these things?

Vellitthirai (Tamil) - Movie Review

Expectation is the root cause of disappointment and this movie is a typical example. Had it not been produced by Prakashraj under the 'Duet movies' banner; I would've greatly appreciated the movie. But after giving a masterpiece like Mozhi, Vellitthirai created great expectations and somehow couldn't make it up to the mark.

Vellitthirai is the story behind the silver screen, typically focusing on the number of youngsters who come to Chennai with the dream of being a part of the film industry and the changes that a person undergoes once madam luck knocks his door. It also touches upon the hero centered culture in movies which is the primary cause for purely commercial movies.

Prakashraj and prithviraj are as wonderful as usual and did perfect justice to their roles. Gopika doesn't play a huge part in the movie but the romance sequence between Prithvi and Gopika is cute and enjoyable. Needless to say that Bhaskar performed his role so naturally. The scenes where he insists on outdoor (abroad) shootings are just too hilarious. Some dialogs in the movie were outstanding. Examples - "Kodambakkatthula therama irukkuravan therama illaadhavan nu ellaam kedaiyaadhu... Vaaippu kedacchavan, vaaippu kedaikkaadhavan rendae paer dhaan!", "Oru ponna pidicchaa dhaan oru aambalayaala avala rasikka mudiyum". The only song that stays in my mind is "Uyirilae..." and the music (which was a great + in Mozhi) is not up to the mark in this movie. The biggest negative in the film at least in my opinion was the climax and the way Prithviraj completes the film that was interrupted by Prakashraj! Somehow it sounded a bit too childish. The director left his mark in a few places while making us yawn and yell at most other places.

In short Vellitthirai is a good attempt to show the life behind the scenes and to a great extent it succeeds in giving us the real picture too. But the slips in the movie were not expected in a movie produced under Duet movies banner.

Top 10 reasons to be a Hindu!

Beyond the layers of spirituality, philosophy and beliefs; man* is embedded with an inquisitive mind that questions everything that he sees and does and nothing but pure reason could convince it. In trivial things, we let it loose and with religion most of us control it in the fear of questioning God and being a sinner. I couldn’t accept this difference in perspective and I’ve revisited my beliefs, practices and religion quite often. Every time I think about it, Hinduism makes me feel proud, thankful and ecstatic; and this article is an attempt to identify the top 1o reasons to be happy about my spiritual self.

10: The Oldest Living Religion

Hinduism is the oldest living religion in the world and there is no start date for the religion. Ever since the day when man glimpsed at the sun with respect, Hinduism was born.

9: Liberty

Hinduism never compels you to do anything. No part of Hinduism mandates you to go to temples and there is nothing called a ‘Hindu Costume’. The religion underlines the fact that self actualization is the ultimate target for a man.

8: Feel free to ask questions

Unlike many other religions, Hinduism lets you question everything and sincere efforts are made to answer your question with the best reasoning possible. The Upanishads and Bhagavath Gita are classic examples of this quest for knowledge.

7: Vastness

Hinduism doesn’t have one holy book though ‘Bhagavath Gita’ is usually considered one. It is essentially a collection of so many sayings, wealth of knowledge and an ocean of facts presented under one name.

6: The way it spread

Hinduism does not believe in thrusting religion on others. Hinduism discourages conversion and it has never spread itself through conquests or forcible campaigns.

5: Contributions to the Human Society

Hinduism has provided innumerable contributions to the human society beyond the religious aspect. It has been the bed for countless discoveries, inventions, ideas and practises that helps an average man to be a better individual.

4: Civilization

Hinduism has never held itself to bad ideas; and concepts like animal sacrifice which came up in the minds of metamorphosed apes were slowly replaced by non-violent alternatives that beautifully retain the rituals intact except for the bloodshed. This level of civilization is hard to find in any other religion.

3: Science

Hinduism is filled with science and every single aspect of Hinduism has a scientific background to it. Even though “God’s will” could be used as an escapism to explain the complex realities, Hinduism never does that and even better the answers are packed neatly in the religious capsule. A classic example is the theory of evolution explained by ‘Dasavathara’ (the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu).

2: It’s not a religion but a way of life

Hinduism doesn’t refrain itself into a religious shell and instead it offers habits and best practices which are an integral part of life. From Yoga till the Ozone inhalation in Dhanur masa (the nineth month in the lunar calendar) there are so many ways in which a Hindu is made to follow best practices without even realizing he is.

1: I’m not a sinner, I’m God

‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I’m God) is the underlying principle of a beautiful concept called Advaita that says God and Man are not two different entities and God manifests Himself in the form of life in all of us. None could explain life or God and that makes them synonymous.

The second part is the concept of ‘sinner’. I do things good and bad, and the bad things I do make me a sinner, is the version presented by many religions in the world. Some religions even follow ‘union theory’ where the fear of being haunted by sins is used as the base to attract people to the religion. But Hinduism leaves its classic mark here too. The soul (Jeevathma) in you is the ‘real You’ and eradication of the traces that your mistakes can leave behind in it by awakening the intelligence in you, is the concept behind the Maha Gayathri Mantra. To me this phenomenon cannot be explained any better.

Should there be any incomplete pieces here that you’d like to know more on, please feel free to contact me.

|| ‘Sarvam Shivarpanamasthu’ ||

* The word Man is used in a non gender-specific way all through this article

Indians in US

With the number of Indians in US expanding year after year, different views have come in about outsourcing and non-immigrants. However, that is not the topic of my conversation. I wanted to talk more about the impact left in an average Indian by the American society and some extremes I've seen and experienced.

To a first time (Indian) traveler, US is bound to be different in a lot of ways. Right from the way you turn a switch on/off (trust me they are opposite in India and US) to the way people behave is totally different out here in the US. Inside a professional setup, people wear an artificial 'good person' mask and they act as per the protocol defined for a diplomatic professional. Any stranger would fake a smile and ask "how are you" as s/he crosses you and if you stop there to explain how you are doing, you are bound to get a strange look from the person who inquired about you. You are just supposed to say 'Good. Thank you' and keep walking. After all you have a protocol in place!

Does this mean Americans are hypocrites and Indians are the best in the world?! Not at all. There are so many things we have to learn from them. People (at least for the most part) respect other people. American bosses are generally more liberal and all they need is that the work needs to be done. They don't care when you turn up, whether you blog or Orkut at work as long as the tasks assigned to you are done. Most people are in perfect shape, no extra flesh (there are a few others in the other extreme too). I'd say at least 60% of Americans stay in perfect shape through regular exercises.

So what happens when our Ramus, Somus and Karthiks (Indianized version of Tom, Dick and Harry) are put into this atmosphere? Quite interestingly they absorb the bad things easily and find it hard to learn the good things. Indians settled in US make the worst bosses in the world with their meaningless tortures in the name of improvising productivity. Almost every Indian out here has a tummy with a few or more extra pounds. Indians also vacation like crazy and Niagara on any given day has less Caucasians than what we see in any famous Indian tourist spot. They try to become artificial in the process of 'adapting' to the environment and with the traditional conservative 'money saving' attitude Indian folks come up with a lot of bright and insane ideas to reduce their expenses. Sometimes this goes to the level of getting something for a tour, using it to the fullest, coming back from the tour and returning it saying they are not happy (shops here take the product back no questions asked as long as the item is not damaged). Then comes the worst part. As though they were finding it hard to control their desires, people start boozing, smoking, haunting strip clubs and you name it! IMHO whatever you are, has to be the same wherever you are and when you try to hide all your inner personalities and stay silent due to the social restrictions/culture then that is no way close to being truly traditional.

In total Indians in US are neither raw nor completely cooked. Due to this 'cat on the wall' approach they take, it's hard to sync in with these folks and somehow the Indian in me is not happy when he sees other Indians being senseless and unlovable.

P.S: As usual, this is a generalized version in my personal opinion and it doesn't mean that all Indians in the US are bad... I'm talking about the majority and summarizing my views!

I'm Kannan... Single... 30 yrs old!

Since I got into story telling mode in the previous post, I thought I could adopt the same for this post too considering the correlation it has to the current status of the Indian society.

Kannan is not so different from the other Indian youngsters. He is of average height, not so dark-not so fair complexion, loves cricket, spends a lot of time on Orkut and Gmail and he has a decent if not handsome appearance. However, there is one major difference. He is not into IT as most others are. He is a senior field engineer in a reputed firm at Ambatthur that manufactures spares for trucks and heavy vehicles. Until the time Kannan's parents came up with the idea of getting him married (In India, the parents decide bride/groom and incidentally the system works better than many others across the world), Kannan was a happy go lucky person who had a comfortable living with his 15K salary and lived life - king size. But then every happy story has a twist!

The first time he heard his dad conversing with the girl's parents was the first time he felt inferior in his life. The plan was that Kannan's parents would talk to the girl's parents just as a formality and then Kannan would meet the girl and talk to her. Courtesy - a popular matrimonial site that hosted Kannan's personality in his own words. Kannan took 3 full days to come up with the profile and the first few lines of the profile read "I'm Kannan, Single, 25 yrs old Mechanical Engineer working in a reputed firm. I'm a happy go lucky person with good sense of humor and I'm looking for a girl who is understanding, homely and cute".

When the profile had a response, Kannan was ecstatic and it was a usually unusual day where every guy has a kind of excitement about getting married and a virtual ball kept rolling in Kannan's stomach. His brain was thinking of ways he could start the conversation with the girl, the questions he could ask her and the topics that would be romantic while his hands were busy brushing his hair and his eyes scanning his mirror reflection a thousand times to ensure he's presentable. The hour finally came and Kannan's dad called up the girl's home.

Dad: Hello! May I talk to Mr. Karthikeyan please.
...
Dad: Hello sir! This is Rangarajan - Kannan's father. How are you doing sir?
...
Dad: I'm doing great by God's grace. So everything as per plan? Are we meeting at Kabhaleeshwarar temple at 10: 30?
...
Dad: But sir... You could've at least told us before!
...
Dad: Hmm...
...
Dad: That's ok sir! That's God's will. What else could we say... Thank You!

Kannan was confused by the conversation and suddenly all the excitement he had since morning was wading off. "What happened dad" he asked his father...

His father remained silent for a couple of moments and said "The bride's family doesn't want to proceed any further with this marriage proposal. They have a better profile - a software engineer settled in US, earning 200K per month in Indian value. Don't worry Kanna. You'll get a better girl".

Those words keep echoing in his ears all these years, every echo reducing the trust in those words and every rejection reducing the confidence in him. "After all 15K?, Mechaaanical Engineer?, Hasn't even been to US?, Was he a college drop out?" - different versions of the same story from different girls. Kannan is still unmarried, thinking about learning SAP and applying for a US H1 visa. The profile in his matrimonial site currently reads - "I'm Kannan, Single, 30 yrs old Mechanical Engineer working in a reputed firm... "

Performance-driven appraisal

If you are not a 'yet another nerd' working for a Software services company, you might not have heard the phrase 'Performance-driven' appraisal quite often! The definition of appraisal says "appraisal [n] - the classification of someone or something with respect to its worth". In this context, we are talking about a poor (based on his state and not his/her wallet) software engineer who is promised about being classified into 'buckets' purely based on his/her performance. The best 'bucket' gets you more money and a better chance to get promoted (at least as per the book) and vice versa. It's such an interesting concept in itself and when you are not the person in question, it's real fun to watch the whole thing. I thought of adopting a story-telling mode for this post to make it all the more lively...

Ramu (that's the default name in all Indian stories isn't it) is a brilliant environmental engineer who can talk fluently in English (importantly say his name correctly) and has a decent score in his exams (I said brilliant and this should be implicit). His college being one of the top 200 in the state that has 210 colleges, a great software company, let's call it tnazingoc visits the campus for recruiting freshers. Out of the 300 who attend the aptitude tests, 299 are short-listed for the interview round and quite obviously Ramu was one of them. Tnazingoc decides to have a short and sweet interview round considering the number of students attending and the time factor. Ramu's interview is scheduled at 3:51 PM and by the time he gets into the room it's 5:30 PM. The interviewer has a stern look and gave all symptoms of putting forth the toughest question that one could imagine. Finally the conversation starts -

Interviewer: "What is your name"...
Ramu: "Ramu sir"
I: Good! Could you tell us about yourself Ramu?
R: I'm Ramu... Environmental Engineer from Annai Arulmigu Anandavally college of Engineering with a CGPA of 8.993. I'm the only son of my parents and my hobbies are reading, playing cricket and watching movies.
I: Great! Thanks Mr. Ramu. It was nice speaking to you! Please wait outside. We'll get back to you.

One phrase that jeopardizes any interview candidate is "We'll get back to you!" - nothing is committed, no answer given! Ramu waits outside the placement hall with half of his nails gone and finally the company representative shows up and announces the list of candidates selected.

"Based on the stringent evaluation of the candidates, we are pleased to announce that 295 candidates have been selected by Tnazingoc. The names are... Raghu B.E. Mech, Ramu B.E Env Engg, Seetha B.E Instrumentation, ...". Ramu feels ecstatic about his achievement not knowing what is waiting for him...

After a lead time and a so called training he gets into the actual stadium - a huge building with high tech infrastructure and 1000s of employees generating constant waves of sound through their keyboards. Ramu gets introduced to his team leader Bharath and his project manager Ashok. Being quite brilliant Ramu manages to write some good programs within a short span. Appreciations all around make him feel as if he is God. Then comes the appraisal season. A lot of co-workers staying late, some getting certifications in technologies, some working hard to manage their work and other's work; and Ramu being a first-timer didn't realize that they are getting ready for appraisal. Finally, Ramu's appraisal meeting was scheduled and he walks into a conference room with a glass table, costly chairs and vibrant interior decor. Ashok and Bharath spoiled the beauty of the room by their presence but the lead and the manager had to be there for his meeting. The conversation starts...

Ashok: Hi Ramu! Wazzup?
Ramu: Pretty much the usual stuff Ashok. Working on a data model for the new project.
Ashok: Good! We are greatly impressed by your performance. Bharath in particular gave a wonderful feedback about you. He thinks you are a stellar performer. (Ramu gives a broad smile good enough for a dentist to treat him. Bharath keeps nodding all along whether Ashok's statement needs an acknowledgment or not) It's our pleasure to give you the second bucket for all your contributions.
R: (Thinks WTF) But Ashok... why second bucket? Why not first?
A: That is where it gets tricky Ramu. We have so many other experienced folks in the team who desperately need some recognition. Usually we give the third bucket to new comers but in your case you deserved a lot better rating and that's why we gave you a second bucket.
R: :(
A: Don't worry Ramu. You will surely get the first bucket and a promotion next time.
R: :) Thanks Ashok.

A year passed like a jiffy and Ramu's profile is really great now. He's done a lot in the past year and he's sure about getting positive results. A different room with the same faces and the discussion starts...

Ashok: Here comes the man... Please sit down Ramu.
Ramu: Thanks Ashok.
A: You've done a great job Ramu. I could see you spin around the entire bay. Getting a team member like you is not easy. But you know what... From an experienced (?!) candidate like you we expect a lot more.
R: What more could I do Ashok? I completed all my work on time, helped others and never delayed my deliveries.
A: I know. That is why you are given the second bucket. To get the first bucket, you need to think out of the box. Do things at the organization level... Handle trainings, Conduct interviews, Interact with the Center of Excellence teams... I didn't see any of them.
R: But Ashok, I hardly had time for all that.
A: This is where your time management skills come into play. You need to prioritize your work and come up with the most optimal path.
R: Am I at least getting a promotion this time?
A: I've nominated your name. Let's see. But I can't assure anything now. We are yet to get the complete list.
R: Thanks...

Should I even say that Ramu is still waiting for the first bucket and promotion?! :)

Girls...

Resuming blogging after a short break... Brain cells tire out thinking a lot of topics and weighing the advantages of one topic against the other! So they badly needed a break!

Coming to the topic, if there is a poll on the most discussed topic among guys then the topic 'girls' would sweep the polls... With girls the story is entirely different because you don't have just guys in the contest, you have gossip, cosmetics, dresses and a lot of other stuff that compete quite equally. Quite obviously we guys do discuss a lot about girls in a lot of different perspectives from physical appearance to character... So I thought of discussing things both good and bad that I observed in girls I saw and came across in my life...

Observation:

Guys never notice differences in their friend's appearance unless the difference is too obvious (like a very poor haircut that leaves the scalp like a partially mowed lawn). But with girls, it's not the case... Try walking to your friend who is a girl (the phrase girl friend avoided for obvious reasons) with a small stain on your shirt which is usually unnoticeable. Chances are that you would get caught within the first couple of minutes.

Care:

Guys try their best to be caring but come on... they are not designed for that! Girls often tend to care more than what you want them to and often that makes them question every 10-15 seconds about your wellness. If you are down with fever and you let your best friend who is a girl (quite funny to type) know, chances are that you'll end up answering the phone at least 20 times that day!

Childishness:

Almost everyone has some childishness in him/her. The famous quote "There is no point growing up if you cannot be a child at times" is an illustration of that fact. However, the proportion of girls I've observed to be childish is much higher than what I observed in guys!

Talking:

Even the most silent girl is highly talkative within her group. With guys a reserved guy is a reserved guy wherever he is but with girls, a reserved girl acts differently when she is with her friends and when she is in a larger gang.

Possessiveness:

I might be generalizing a bit too much here. But many girls are possessive about their friends and belongings! At least that is my observation.

Gossip:

A girl who stays at home knows much more than a guy who is hanging out most of the day!

Independently dependent:

Girls seem to depend on someone way too much either emotionally or personally but at the same time they easily switch preferences. Someone who was inevitable a couple of years back becomes a good friend today and a good contact tomorrow. At any point, a person who shows a lot of interest on her is always considered the best by a girl! Again, may be I'm generalizing... But that's something I observed out of my experiences.

Emotional handicap:

With the brain being locked in an emotional trap, girls usually end up taking decisions purely out of their heart which in most cases will not be correct. Ironically, even after realizing that they made a mistake, it is next to impossible for them to correct that.

Hypocrisy when it comes to guys:

Girls enjoy guys falling for them but many do not want to reveal that. A beautiful girl almost always confirms that the guys around her are interested in her through unnoticeable gestures. Guys however strong just start shaking at the sight of a beautiful girl staring at them and get caught. But a girl never reveals anything more than a smile at the corner of her lips... Gets hard for the guys to assess her pulse.

Quite too many factors listed. Some might sound offensive or too generalized but as I mentioned, it is just my view of the girls I've seen and been with. May be I'm wrong but my perspective stays until I find data to correct my wrong observations (if any) :)