Thoughts of a Rambler

It even tells me what email i will receive “tomorrow”!

The first time i saw this, i found it to be weird. Then, i realised that this happens when the outlook server clock is not perfectly sync’ed with the clock on my laptop. When the above scenario happened, the time on my laptop was 11.58 pm. When it turned 12:01 on my laptop, the headings became more reasonable. Yet, you should appreciate Microsoft developers to have even accommodated the future!

written by Rajaram S

A view of Petronas towers from Micasa Hotel (the place i was staying in Kuala Lumpur)

written by Rajaram S

Nowadays, it is football fever everywhere. Any mall you go, any shop you visit, even the small road-side kiosks have football related promotions. But, I just don’t understand the craze for such a stupid game. The game of football is a dumb as it can get. You have a ball and there are 22 men running around trying to kick the other guys and sometimes by mistake, end up kicking the ball. There is no art in the game. You get the ball, you kick it. Ok, you have to kick it in a particular direction, but how difficult is that?

The name “football” is itself so ordinary. Yes, the game is about kicking the ball with your foot, but can’t you guys come up with a more innovative name. Look around for examples. Would you ever be able to guess what the games of “cricket” or “golf” are about? Imagine, how boring it would be if they were called “batball” or “puttballhole”? Well, “puttballhole” wouldn’t be as popular as golf is, that is for sure!

Football is too strenuous a game to be played by everyone. Compare it with cricket. In cricket, you just have to stand in one corner of the ground and pray that the ball never reaches you. Whereas in football, you have to keep running even if the ball is half a kilometer away from you. Cricket is also a stupid game, but it is played by 22 and watched by 22000. But in the case of football, it is played by 22 and watched by 22 million! Imagine the loss of man-hours (person-hours, to be politically correct) because of this.

The game of football has infiltrated (more than terrorists from across the border) so much into our mainstream that even ascetics are not able to avoid it and concentrate on delivering speeches and hoodwinking the masses

Football is also such an unfair game. Imagine the state of a midfielder who brings the ball all the way from the middle to somewhere near the goal and then the “forward” who was until then trying to fix up a date with the pretty girl in the crowd, pushes the ball into the goal and gets all the glory! Such players are also given the so-called “golden boot” award. They should rather be given the boot and kicked out of the team.

And there are the football hooligans. Football hooliganism has become so popular that it is nowdays recognized as a profession in UK where there are football hooligans clubs with practicing hooligans as members. This is probably the only sport which has a fan following of hooligans. Have you ever heard of hooliganism in sports like Billiards, Chess or Carrom Board? Imagine a situation where a fight breaks out in any of the matches in the world cup in South Africa and the football hooligans start breaking the walls and fences around the stadium. Who knows, in South Africa, that wall could be shared with the wildlife reserve next door and wild animals could be released into the city because of this.

America has always wanted to do something different. So, when they saw football, they changed it and invented American football. This is the probably the only good side-effect of the game of football. Scientists from all over the world go to all the superbowl games to watch American football, as they believe that they could solve the mystery surrounding the missing link between apes and humans by watching the American football players in action.

So, my dear footballers, take your balls and go somewhere else!

written by Rajaram S

These pothole formations are supposed to be the biggest in Asia. They can be seen near the village of Nighoj around 80 kms away from Pune. For more photos and information, visit my Pune blog.

written by Rajaram S

For more photos and details, go over to my Pune blog.

written by Rajaram S

The course was available when i needed it:
- Much too late
- Somewhat late
- A little late
- Much too early
- Somewhat early
- A little early
- Just in time

written by Rajaram S

2003 – Thailand

2010 – Indonesia

written by Rajaram S

The outside-world impression of Jakarta would be that of a trouble-prone, poor city struggling to cope up with poverty and terrorism. After having visited Jakarta twice in the last one month, i realised that this image is not exactly true. Yes, the poverty is very much visible in the streets off the main roads and the fear of terrorist attacks looms large, but Jakarta is not what you expect from a muslim country.

It is vibrant, open and the nightlife is comparable, if not better than India! The people are extremely courteous and welcoming and the city makes you want to return! The business centre in Jakarta resembles any american downtown with skyscrapers and starbucks wherever you look. There are dozens of malls around the city. Taman Angrek is supposed to be the biggest mall in Asia. The good thing is that you have all kinds of malls, ranging from the super pricey ones (with 2000 USD Louis Vitton Handbags) to the bargain shops.

The first 2 photos are taken from the 39th floor of one of the business towers in Jakarta.

written by Rajaram S

To hell with the new state! I am really pissed off with the decision to form the new state. As a proud Tamilian, i am hurt by this decision of the congress government.

Until now, Tamil Nadu held the monopoly over “gaana pattu” and “dappan kuthu”  songs. But that is threatened now with the formation of a new state – Telangana – whose revenue model has been conceived on the production of telugu gaana songs. Many, including the famed Burkha Dutt of NDTV, believe that there are political motivations behind the split of Andhra Pradesh. Little do they understand the sentiments of the common man and his needs.

There are multiple implications of this proposed split of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and Andhra/2 Pradesh

• The telugu gaana industry will start making more money than the Andhra fake certificate industry. There are multiple implications of this
  • The number of graduates/post-graduates/certificate holders from Andhra will drastically reduce and thus open up opportunities for Marathis, thus pleasing HIM , thus reducing riots in maharashtra, thus leading to a reduction in burnt vehicles, thus leading to a reduction in insurance claims, thus making more profits for the insurance cartel, which is not good!
  • The number people with high percentage of marks in their graduation going to the US of A for higher studies will reduce, which will lead to a reduction of staff available for work in Andhra restaurants in California, thus leading to the closure of many such restaurants, thus leading to more people flocking to Punjabi restaurants, thus leading to more people eating Aloo Parathas, thus leading to more south indians startingto resemble the big punjabis (post marriage), which is not good.
• DJs in clubs will start belting out more telugu gaana hits than tamil folk songs and bhangra songs. Don’t ever have a doubt about the popularity of gaana songs. Even my daughter, Akshara, prefers gaana and kuthu songs over ghazals. She has even mastered the vijaykanth dance mode of sit/stand/put your hands on the head routine!
• YS Jagan Reddy, the son of late chief minister of Andhra pradesh, YS Rajsekhara Reddy, will stand to lose over 1500 crores. The logic is that YS jagan Reddy made 3000 crores  allegedly by devious means.  Now, if Telangana splits, the new politicians in telangana would obviously ask for a share of the loot as they would lose out on the kitty of 1500 crores that they can make.

Now, how do we patriotic tamilians address this serious issue?

• Pass a bill immediately in the Tamil Nadu assembly to get the word “gaana” patented such that only original tamil kuthu songs can be associated with the word “gaana”. At the same time, a memo should be sent to the centre and HIM in maharashtra clarifying that this word “gaana” has nothing to do with the Hindi word “gaana”. This has to be done before a press release is done about the patent lest Tamilians start getting beaten up by bollywood gangs.
• Arrange for a secret deal with Hyderabad and outsource the production of Biryanis to Chennai. This would infuriate the telangana politicians as one of their main reasons for asking Hyderabad was for its biryani. If the biryani were outsourced to Chennai, telanga would lose their interest in Hyderabad and thus it would reduce their access to studios capable of producing gaana songs in hyderabad.

if you can think of other ideas to help the tamil cause, do add them in the comments!

written by Rajaram S

I was at the Chalkewadi wind farms over the weekend to see the huge windmills. We stopped on the way to take some photographs of the beautiful scenery around. There was no soul as far as the eyes could see (or so i thought). So, i stepped out of the car and was enjoying the nature when….

Moral of the story: Look before you pose!

written by Rajaram S