Choosing a baby name - Easier said than done

Maho Arnaha Saraswati Pra Chetayati Ketuna Dhiyo Vishwa Vi Rajati.
Asmantsu Tatra Chodyendra Raye Rabhsthavaha TuVidyumna Yashsthavaha

What do the above lines mean to you?
If you are a follower of/believer in the vedas, you would recognise the above as lines from rig veda and would start on trying the understand the meaning conveyed by the lines. If you are a quizzer, you would look at these lines as a probable source of esoteric questions which you as the quiz master would only ever know. But, if you are an expecting parent, then these lines would be a treasure trove of possible unpronounceable names which you would carefully note down in your "Big book of names for my baby"!
This is where Confuso-Kiddo-Name-o-graphy, the art of getting confused by writing down too many baby names, comes into the picture. Recently, my friends had a kid and when we visited them in the hospital, i saw a fat book lying beside the bed. On picking it up and looking inside (i didn't see the cover), i saw lot of strange words and their meanings. I was wondering as to why she was reading Rosenblum's word-list for GRE. Then, on seeing the cover , i realised that it was not the rosenblum book, but a book on Hindu baby names written by "I-shall-unlock-all-the-cages-in-zoos" Menaka Gandhi.
The book was in fact, more confusing that a GRE word list. I guess what Menaka would have done is to copy over the english transliterations of all the holy writings of Hinduism into Excel, then sorted them and then added a random meaning to each one of them. Well, a normal person wouldn't anyway know what a name such as "Caksusa" really meant. He would just go by what is written in the book. It must be the easiest book she must have ever written!
Sometimes, being born an Indian has many disadvantages - for the parents. They have the unfortunate task of naming the child according to zillions of naming conventions. Imagine if the child is Cypriot, they have just few names like Andreas, Christos, Nicos and the feminine forms of them. So, it is pretty easy to choose amongst them. Parents who are a bit religious and want to do things the traditional way would rely upon numerology, the baby's horoscope, vaastu (the location where the baby was delivered and the direction the mom was facing when delivering the baby) , vedic mathematics and few other dozen rules. After doing all the above calculations, if they end up with a restriction that the name should start with the letter "Q" or "X", they immediately turn modern and name the child Pinky, Rocky, Sweety etc.
Americans have it easier still. They can name their children bush, gate, forest or based on practically any word taken from a regular dictionary. Take the case of Tiger Woods. Earl and Kutilda, tiger woods' parents were going for a walk in the remote forests of Vietnam. Kutilda was heavily pregnant at that time. When they went around a corner, Earl suddenly saw what he thought was a tiger and yelled out "There is a tiger in the woods". Kutilda went into a shock and delivered a healthy baby. Considering it a good sign, they named the child "Tiger Woods".
Back to our case - We Indians have to consider a lot of things other than the above mentioned factors in naming a child.

• In today's global village, we have to even consider how americans would react to the name. What if the name was "Manish Bhatt". Americans would be talking about Manish's butt whenever they refer to him. We can't even name our kids with our favourites like Raghunathan Ramakrishnan or Somasundaram Pattabbiraman, as americans find it difficult to pronounce anything more than 2 syllables.
• We also have to think about the possible nicknames that could arise from the name when your kid goes to college. If there are many possible nicknames, rest assured that the one with the most vulgar meaning will be the one with which your child is christened in college.
  
• You also have to attend french classes, german classes and classes of few other popular languages to check if the name you have thought of doesn't have any unintended meanings in these languages.

After all this confusion, many parents give up and name their kid some shit, i mean Samchit!

Technorati Tags: baby names naming a child hindu names

The ordeal of eating at Hotel Saravana Bhavan

Hotel Saravana Bhavan started in Chennai in the year 1981 (almost as old as me!) with the K.K.Nagar branch. We moved to K.K.Nagar in the year 1990 and from the first time i tasted the famous Saravana Bhavan sambhar, there was no looking back. I was addicted to it.
Back then, when there was no concept of pocket money/allowance, it was hard work trying to "collect" enough money for a visit to the hotel. There was a tacit understanding with my mom that any "unattended" coin with a value of <= 1 rupee could be claimed by me as mine. There were other sources of income too. I would always immediately respond to anyone's call for help in recovering coins which would have fallen behind tables/shelves. I would attempt (or rather attempt to attempt) to recover those coins, but ensure that i make back-breaking groans and moans when i do so. This would immediately prompt my mom to say "It's ok. Leave it if you cannot reach it" and the coin would be forgotten. But the location would be promptly stored in my mind and when the time/need arrived, i would go over and, with the slightest of ease, recover the valuable 50 paise. So, once i had collected 7 rupees (the price of a sada dosa back then), I would run over to Saravana Bhavan and enjoy a sada dosa with the three types of Chutney, the sambhar and the Molaga Podi. Pure Bliss!
But, when my brother started growing older, there was competition for the stray coins. My mom, realising the rising inflation along with the competition from my brother, increased the threshold of coins defined as "stray" to 2 rupees! So, from then on, the only hotel i swore by, the only hotel which i considered worth visiting has always been Saravana Bhavan.
So, it is no surprise that i look forward to this whenever i visit Chennai. I was in Chennai last week and had been to Saravana Bhavan. Then began the ordeal!
It was around 7 in the evening and the place was full of people. So, it was tough to find a place. I had to wait a few minutes to find one empty seat on a table of four. But, considering the humidity in Chennai in summer, this place was a wrong choice as it was far away from the reach of the ceiling fans. So, i didn't place my order and was on the lookout for a better table. To my luck, a place on the other side of the room (just below a fan) was vacated. So, i jumped up and walked across the room. But, it looked like i was not the only one with this idea. Another guy, who was unfortunately nearer, occupied this seat before i could go over. Disappointed, i turned back to go to my place. But, even this was gone now as it was forcible occupied by the family on the next table who decided to give a separate chair to a child not even tall enough to reach the table. No wonder there is so much competition in India for everything! So, i was back on the waiting list. Luckily, all this action was seen by a waiter who was kind enough to come over and volunteer to find a good place for me. True to his words, he found a good seat - right under the fan. After thanking him a lot, i sat down to enjoy a good meal.
Now, i had to order stuff. In the past, when i had been on month long home leaves, i usually start ordering based on the serial number on the menu and go one by one. But this time, I was in India for just a week and it was already the 4th day into this week. So, this concept would not work. I had to go for plan B which was to either choose according to my likes or according to availability. If i were to go based on my liking, it had to be one of the dosas accompanied by the sambar. What i meant by "availability" is the probability of getting that particular item back in Cyprus. Yes, we do get Dosas in the Keralam restaurant in Cyprus, but i have to drive a 100 kms and pay a humongous 14 dollars for a single masala dosa, but theoretically, dosas are available and so they are out of consideration. Then, it had to be the famous Parotta kurma. So, i ordered it. You can never have only one dish in saravana bhavan. So, for the next item, i chose the 14 idli sambhar dish. Nowadays, you might have to request for a magnifying dish as an accessory to see the "mini" idlis. The main course was done. A dinner at Saravana Bhavan is always finished with the famous "Masala Milk", yellow in colour with the "paal edu" (that which many hate to have in their glass of milk, but which i love!) floating on top.
So, after having ordered for the Masala Milk, i went over to the wash basin. When i returned, the inevitable happened. My seat was gone, taken over by the next saravana bhavan enthusiast. Now, do i just leave and hope that my bill will be paid by this guy? But, i havent had my glass of masala milk!! There is no way I am going to leave without it. So, not knowing what to do, i slowly wander near by hitherto seat. The friendly waiter comes into the picture again, smiles and offers another seat and even brings over my water glass to my new seat.
One hour and three seat changes later, i finish my dinner. Yes, it was an ordeal, but it was worth every bit.

Introducing Drahul Dravid

Yes, it is official now. Rahul Sharad Dravid, the ace Indian cricketer has officially changed his name to Drahul Dravid. Drahul called a media conference yesterday and announced this to the world. A few days back, Rahul Dravid and his family had gone to their native temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh for this name-changing ceremony.

Rahul was very emotional about this ceremony and he wanted to attend the function in his Indian cricket wear. As seen in the picture above, the moment the priest confirmed that the name had been changed, Drahul burst into tears. Few of his Indian cricket team colleagues (who wanted to remain unnamed) also attended the ceremony. When asked on why he started crying after this ceremony, Drahul said that the thing that worried him the most was the expense that his fans have to go through to purchase posters of him with the new name. Drahul also said that once the IPL was finished, Drahul would personally add the D to all his posters owned by his fans, as he felt that he would anyway have nothing else to do after the IPL finishes.

Drahul also said that numerological or astrological reasons were not behind this name change. He said that he had to change the name to indicate clearly his style of cricket. He didn't want his name to be just because selectors thought that he could play an aggressive style of cricket. Drahul also said that he had always learnt batting as an art form where the face of the bat should point towards the pitch such that the ball, on hitting the bat, falls within the pitch (and within half a metre of the batsman) and rolls to a stop within a metre. (Given below is a photo where Rahul Dravid was expressing his frustration because of Sachin Tendulkar's inability to understand this concept)

He said that this talent was limited to very few cricketers around the world and this is the talent required to produce a draw in test cricket. So, by changing his name from Rahul to Drahul, he was clearly communicating that he should be included in the squad only if the required result was a draw. He also added that his dad had recognised this talent in him the moment he was born and hence put Dravid as his last name. But the world had failed to see the draw in dravid and that is why he had to change his first name to drahul to double-emphasize. Drahul felt that this name change would bring about a change in his image.

Technorati Tags: rahul dravid IPL Bangalore royal challengers

India's very own dumb blondes

Okay, they are not blonde, but they do represent what "dumb blondes" are supposed to be famous for - their dumbness. Yesterday's episode of "Kya Aap Panchvi pass sey tez hai" was a special episode with stars from TV soaps making their appearance on the show and wining money for charity.
Sarah Khan(Sadhna) and Parul Chauhan (Ragini) of “Sapna Babul Ka….Bidaai” were on first and right from the start, they seemed to be perfect candidates to fail a 5th class exam. Usually on the show, insets are shown about the educational achievements of the participants to embarrass them further if they don't answer a question. But, this was not the case for these two. Maybe, the producers knew that even after "preparing" them for the show, they would make a fool of themselves, that he decided not to embarrass them further. Or, they became models at such an early age that they didn't have time to complete class 5. How else would you explain the following responses:
Question 1 - Find the number of common nouns beginning with the letter "B" in the following sentence: In Bombay, I met Billoo with a basket in a blue bus.
So, the stars (the two girls) start thinking aloud. Parul says, "Basket and bus must be the two common nouns". But, the smarter Sara says, "What about Bombay, it is a common place, so it must be a common noun"!!!!
The producers then realised that their questions would prove too tough for this pair, but it was too late. Maybe they should have put Timbuktoo instead of Bombay, then Sara would have said, "Timbuktoo is not such a common place, so it cannot be a common noun"

Question 2 - Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon. Which country does he belong to?
Parul is quite confident and she says "America". Shah Rukh, who is aware of their dumbness, wants to take them for a ride and says, "That is the name of the continent. I am looking for the name of the country". Immediately, the smart Sara says, "New York?". Shah Rukh then realises that any further discussion would embarrass the entire TV fraternity, so he accepts America and closes the question.

Question 3 - Which is the only mammal which can fly like a bird?
Parul, who has until now been overshadowed in being dumb by Sara, decides to take matter into her own hands and confidently says, "Kangaroo". Shah Rukh, desperately containing his laughter, goes to the center of the stage and imitates the movement of a Kangaroo and asks, "Are you sure that a Kangaroo flies like a bird?".

The producers by then had decided that they had had enough of this smart duo and decided to end their round and call on the next group. Now, i realise why TV soaps are so slow and prolong each and every scene. It is not the intention of the director, but it is the adaptability of the TV stars that is the problem. They seem to be so dumb that it takes them forever to understand and show an expression and the director has no other choice, but to capture the entire thing on camera!

Technorati Tags: kya aap paanchvi pass sey tez hai shah rukh khan are you smarter than a 5th grader quiz star plus

The new mumbai Indians cheerleader costume

An exclusive sneak peek at the new costume that the cheerleaders would wear at the Mumbai indians - deccan chargers match today in Mumbai. These costumes were designed by the famous gay (oops, guy) Karan Johar.

Technorati Tags: cheerleader costume ipl cricket

Are these games still played?

The post "Games we forgot" on hawkeye was one of those posts that you back to your childhood days and bring back fond memories. There are a lot of games mentioned in his post and i remembered having played many of those. If you can't recollect any of the games mentioned below, check out his post.
Kings: I remember having played this game event until the end of high school. It is a fast paced game and i was good at it, as it required the person inside the circle (or whatever field) to be pretty athletic in avoiding the ball. Of course, I have had embarrassing moments in school when, out of over-enthusiasm, i do too many acrobatic stunts and end up with my pants torn in all the wrong places!
Chains: This game was very popular in my apartment, but only when the girls were also present. Contrary to other games in the same category, there was a great demand to become the catcher, because the catcher would first "choose" the girl who he wants to hold hands with, make her out and enjoy the rest of the game holding her hands!
French Cricket: This was played when we didn't have the required strength to play a proper game of cricket. A good cricket player would have lot of fun in this kind of game, as it was almost impossible to get a good cricket player in this form of the game. The others, pity them, as they would be spending the entire time running to all parts of the "open" field, as there was rarely a n"end" to the field.
Hide n' seek (Kannam M/Poochi): This was a standard game, but we used to play it on our terrace. Thinking of the places i used to hide in gives me the jitters now, as our terrace was the fourth floor and i used to climb on top of the tanks and even down the water pipes by the side of the building to the sunshades on the windows of the third floor flats.
Hand Tennis: The usual rules of tennis, except that the racquet is replaced by the palm. Our moms used to be the water-moms. The water was not for drinking, but for cooling the reddened palms.
Chalk Cricket: We used to play this at school, where a ruler replaced a bat and a chalk replaced a ball. The chalk (usually 1/2 a chalk) was placed vertically on the table (serving as a pitch) and it had to be flicked towards the batsman (which constitutes a delivery). We even had different scores based on which girl you managed to hit, ranging from +6 (the highest) to -2(the lowest). Few of the girls also knew this scoring system and we have had many an argument for the validity of the rating.
Unfortunately, the games which people (from the South) usually recollect are Goli (marbles) and Gilli-Danda, both of my which i have never played! I am sure that there are many more that i have played and forgotten and i hope that some blog post comes along the way which refreshes my memory.

Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings XI at Mohali

Way to go Chennai Super Kings. Dhoni and his men couldn't expect a better start to the tournament. Though this defeat wasn't as convincing as the way King Khan's Knight riders smashed the Bangalore Royal Challengers, it was good enough to get the players into the groove for the rest of the tournament.
Mike Hussey showed the way for the Chennai Super Kings with a brilliant hundred. When the Punjab Kings were chasing and Kumar Snagakkara and James Hopes were having a partnership, things looked to be pretty even between the sides. But once hopes was dismissed, it was pretty easy for the Super Kings.
Great start Chennai Super Kings, keep it up. Vijay and Nayanthara will be proud of you! On the other hand, someone should teach Preity Zinta hot to cheer in cricket. The moves Preity Zinta were making would fit better in a boxing ring and not in a cricket stadium and it looked so artificial!

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket chennai super kings punjab kings XI mohali chandigarh cricket

Kolkata Knight riders beat Bangalore Royal Challenge in the first IPL t20 match

badly, very badly, in fact miserably! But, what can they do? Poor Vijay Mallya. When he purchased the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier league, I guess that he wouldn't have had an idea that his iconic player in the twenty 20 matches, the player for whom he would have to pay the highest money, would have been Rahul Dravid, of all the cricketers!
Yes, Rahul Dravid is a good cricketer, but this is 20-20, not the bend-forward-show-the-full-face-front-foot-defence game! Even i wouldn't have Rahul Dravid in my team for the Galli cricket 6 over matches! When the Bangalore team went in to bat today at the Chinnaswamy stadium, I almost fell off my sofa seeing Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walk out. What are the two test players doing in a wham-bham-thank-you-maam kind of game?
But Vijay Mallya, you have something to rejoice. There are lot of Bangloreans going to get drunk today with the sadness over this miserable loss and you can hope that they buy your liquor! You can also hope that Shah Rukh Khan and his Kolkata Knight riders will purchase your liquor in the party tonight.
I am obviously a supporter of Chennai Super Kings and i hope that the combined power of Dhoni, Muralidharan, Mathew Hayden and Fleming would be enough to crush the other teams.
Long live IPL, Long live Chennai Super Kings!

Technorati Tags: IPL indian premier league bangalore royal challenge Kolkata knight riders chennai super kings Vijay Mallya Shah Rukh khan

Indian Premier Cricket League - IPL player auctions today

The auctions for the players to play in the different teams of the Indian Premier Legue (IPL) will be done today. It is expected to start at 11 am today (Feb 20). The auction is under the observation of many international auctioneers also, as it has an interesting format with various limitations.

• There are a total of 77 players to be auctioned off.
• Each owner has to spend a minimum of 3.3 Million USD and a maximum of 5 million USD on his/her team. This maximum cap is what that makes this auction interesting. You have to get into a lot of permutations and combinations to compose your team, much like playing fantasy cricket online.
• bids up to $100,000 – in increments of $5,000, bids from $100,000 to $250,000 – in increments of $10,000, bids from $250,000 to $500,000 – in increments of $25,000, after this, no set increments.
• Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj will not be auctioned as they are icon players for their respective areas.
• Each squad must have a minimum of 16 players per squad. This will include a maximum of 8 currently available foreign players per squad. Each team can have a maximum of 4 foreign players in the playing XI for each match.
• The squad will also have to consist of a minimum 4 under 22 players from that area.

I shall keep updating as soon as the news come out!

The teams so far:

Anil Kumble	Bangalore	USD 500000
Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	USD 900000
Zaheer Khan	Bangalore	USD 450000
MS Dhoni	Chennai	USD 1,500,000
Muttiah Muralitharan	Chennai	USD 600,000
Jacob Oram	Chennai	USD 675000
Matthew Hayden	Chennai	USD 375000
Stephen Fleming	Chennai	USD 350000
Daniel Vettori	Delhi	USD 625000
Chris Gayle	Delhi	USD 800000
Shoaib Malik	Delhi	USD 500000
Mohammad Asif	Delhi	USD 650000
Adam Gilchrist	Hyderabad	USD 700,000
Andrew Symonds	Hyderabad	USD 1,300,000
Herschelle Gibbs	Hyderabad	USD 575000
Shahid Afridi	Hyderabad	USD 675000
Shane Warne	Jaipur	USD 450,000
Grame Smith	Jaipur	USD 455000
Younis Khan	Jaipur	USD 225000
Shoaib Akhtar	Kolkata	USD 425,000
Brendon McCullim	Kolkata	USD 700000
Ricky Ponting	Kolkata	USD 400000
Mahela Jayawardene	Mohali	USD 475,000
Kumar Sangakkara	Mohali	USD 750000
Brett Lee	Mohali	USD 900000
Sreesanth	Mohali	USD 625000
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mumbai	USD 975000
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	USD 850000

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket ICL player auction

Hindu is a religion; Hindi is a language

Oh! westerner, please understand this. We don't speak Hindu, neither are Indians Hindis. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India, but that doesn't make us Hindis. A majority of Indians are Hindus (acc to the latest census) , but that doesn't mean that we speak Hindu. We also don't speak Indian, by the way!
I understand the situation that you are in, with the people of Spain speaking Spanish, people of Germany speaking German , the English speaking English and so on. But, we don't ever ask you "Do you speak Christian?", do we?
I am an Indian first and everything follows after. The religion i follow is Hinduism and you know what, i don't speak Hindi! Not all Hindus speak Hindi. Similarly, not all Hindi speaking people are Hindus!
I am sure that you must now be in the exact situation you were in, before reading this post. But, the main idea was to convey the message that Hindu is a religion and Hindi is a language. Don't mix these up.
But, why this post suddenly ? I have recently become a big fan of the Jeopardy Quiz Show shown on MBC 4 every morning. Yeah, this is not the same season as in the US but a rerun of old seasons, nevertheless, the topics are interesting and the questions, smart. One of the questions today morning was

Hindi faithful make regular pilgrimages to & bathe in this 1,560-mile river of Northern India.

The answer to the above was obvious. "What is the Ganges?" But the point is, it is not the Hindi faithful who go there, but the Hindu faithful. How can such a reputed quiz show ask a question like this? But its ok, they are pardoned. They set thousands of questions, so one mistake can be ignored.

Technorati Tags: jeopardy quiz show hindu religion india hindi language india

All you wanted to know about South Indian Weddings

or to be more precise, a tamil wedding ceremony. Head over to Krishashok who took time off from doing jalsa and showing jilpa (not to be confused with Shilpa) to write an excellent article on Tamil Weddings. A must read!

Did harbhajan say maaki or monkey to Andrew Symonds?

Now the issue is whether Harbhajan Singh said maaki (in Hindi) or monkey (in English) to Andrew Symonds. To the casual reader, this issue might see very trivial and not worth the exposure it is getting. But, there is lot more to it than is visible on the surface.

Harbhajan had indeed referred to Symonds as a monkey, but he wasn't aware that this would be considered racist. So, his team of lawyers along with BCCI had decided to take the approach that Harbhajan had in fact referred to Symonds as a white monkey and not a black monkey, but the Indians didn't know how the australian legal team would twist the case to a racism abuse. So, for the past two days they were investigating alternatives for their defense.

This somehow leaked to the media and they started talking about it on television. One person who was watching this felt that he could help the Indian team in this situation. He was Javed Akhtar, the noted bollywood lyricist and scriptwriter. He felt that he could help because he was so much into writing rap crap in english for bollywood movies, that he could definitely could come up with some alibi in English for Harbhajan.

So, Javed Akhtar started searching for homonyms for monkey in English. The only one he could come up with was mucky. But mucky meant dirty and australians would consider this more offensive than monkey as they were known for maintaining cleanliness by covering all the dirt on their faces with sun-screen lotion.

Then, out of the blue, an idea struck him. Why not look for a homonym in hindi? It was much easier to form words out of the given syllables. So, the first word he got was makki, meaning a fly. But, he didn't want to use this, as he wanted to bring the australians down to earth and not on cloud nine like a fly. Javed was frustrated and the team working with him started swearing at Harbhajan, as he was the one responsible for all this mess.

Like all hindi speaking people, Javed started referring to all the relatives of Harbhajan as he started swearing. The moment he said "Saala Uske Maa Ki" , a BCCI member jumped up from his chair and shouted "Eureka, monkey mil gaya". Then, Javed realised what he had said and jumped up in joy.

Thus, the indian defense panel decided to use "Maa Ki" as an alibi. And the rest is history...Harbhajan was not charged with racism as swearing at one's mother or any other relative, in Australia was all in a day's work for their citizens.

QED.

Technorati Tags: harbhajan singh andrew symonds ricky ponting australian monkeys racism symonds monkey maanki maaki

Oh, you Australian Monkeys!

If Harbhajan Singh had called Andrew Symonds a monkey, was he being racist? This actually depends on which monkey he was referring to, when he was referring to Symonds as a monkey. Was he referring to the White Faced monkey or the Black Spider monkey? We may never know. One thing is sure. He wasn't definitely referring to Hanuman.

So, why does it matter which monkey he was referring to. When i think about this, I get doubts as to what racism actually means.

A standard definition of racism:

• The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
• Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

I am confused! So, if race is the main concern behind racism, why does calling an australian a monkey amount to racism? Race is often equated to colour and looks, as different races do look different from each other. So, if you say to a black person: "You blacks don't deserve any better" or if you say to a white person "You whites have got no brains", then this is racism, at least from my understanding of racism, because you are insulting a black based on his black colour and similarly for the whites.

So, if calling a australian a monkey is racism, does that mean australians have more in common with monkeys than rest of the human beings. So, referring to them as monkeys would be insulting them because of this unfortunate similarity (as seen below). So, it actually didn't matter whether Harbhajan was referring to either of the monkeys above, just calling him a monkey was enough. Case closed.

Not exactly. I am still confused. In fact, most of the Indians are confused. Indians are used to complaining against racism whichever part of the world they go. Indians are stuck between the so called whites and the blacks. Being white is considered superior in Europe and other western countries and being black is superior in Africa and other parts of the world, but where does that put us? We don't fit anywhere. In ayia napa here in Cyprus (supposedly the clubbing capital of the world), whites are welcomed for their cash and blacks are welcomed for their party-atmosphere creating capabilities, but we indians are considered good for computer-related jobs only. But,we have one advantage that the whites and blacks don't have. We can be racially discriminated against in the lands of both the whites and the blacks!

In my opinion, Indians are the most racist in the world. We practice racism on a day-to-day basis, the most prominent being the north india-south india divide. okay, the east indians also complain, but that is more of a geographical racsim, so we shall leave them aside. North Indians are fair and south indians are dark, so ? Actually, the only people who can "practice" such racism in India are the Kashmiris! They are fair! Everyone else in india is dark compared to them. When i joined BITS Pilani, there were many girls from Kashmir in my batch. They would have been the perfect candidates for "Fair and lovely" not the pyts from bollywood.

I started off with Australian monkeys and went on a totally different track to kashmiri beauties. I am confused!

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Tata Nano and Hamara Bajaj Lite - The 1 Lakh small car

Okay, the bajaj one is more than 1 lakh, but it is targeting the same segment as the Tato Nano/Jeh. So, i guess that it is okay to bring them together.

Tata and Bajaj are making it easier for the common man to purchase a car now. When a bike costs 50,000 Rupees, who wouldn't like to go for a cosier option by paying another 50,000 rupees. This move by Tata and Bajaj has lot of implications:

• The Indian cities would now definitely feature of every edition of "The Amazing Race", "The crazy Race" or whatever new series the american channels can think of. Even now, it is fashionable for people to show a segment where a foreigner is shown driving on the Indian roads. Now with the Tata Nanos and Bajaj Lites replacing all the motorcycles, more mayhem is assured on our roads which translates into more dollars from all the foreign tv shows coming to India.
• It is said that 1 in every 5 mile of the highways in USA was built straight so that it could be used as a landing strip in times of war. The Indian government was very impressed by this concept that they "customised" it a bit and implemented here. On the Indian roads, 1 in every 5 km is pot-hole free so that people can use that part to stand on when the other sections gets filled up with water during excessive rains. The other 4 kms were designed so to stop any advancing armies which don't have the capabilities to negotiate such obstructions.
• With respect to the last sentence of the previous point, Pakistan and China have already placed orders for thousands of Tata Nanos and Bajaj Lites, which are cheap options for their armies to use when invading our country as these vehicles are built for Indian roads.
• Demand for land of a particular type has sky-rocketed after these announcements. No one even wants a petrol bunk to be allotted to them now. All of them are now crazy after allocation of parking lots, as soon, every tom, dick and harry in India will be driving around in small cars.

So, the small cars are not only stirring the Indian media, but the media of other countries are also getting interested. Tata and Bajaj, a good move!

Technorati Tags: tata nano Hamara bajaj lite small car 1 lakh car india india

Chakde India - The India Quiz Finals

If you haven't yet checked out the prelims questions of Chakde India Quiz, then you can do so at this link.

Posted below are the questions from the final. You can send in your answers to rajaram.sethuraman@gmail.com or if you have come here from a post on a quizzing forum, you can reply to my email on that forum.

1. The name of which Indian deity has made its way into the English language and has come to mean “a massive inexorable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path”? Ans: Juggernaut from Lord Jagannath
2. At which popular religious destination in India can you find Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula? Ans: Rishikesh
3. Which character in Hindu mythology got his name from his pot shaped head? Ans: Ghatotkacha
4. Which Indian musical instrument's name when translated into English means Royal Flute? Ans: Shehnai
5. What was the new lifeline introduced in Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) 2 apart from the three which were already present? Ans: Flip the question
6. Who along with Batukeshwar Dutt was arrested in 1929 for throwing bombs in the Central Assembly at New Delhi? Ans: Bhagat Singh
7. Of what’s English translation is this the first line. “Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny” Ans: Jana Gana Mana
8. On March 16,2005, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were found not guilty on all counts by a Canadian court. What crime were they accused of? Ans: Air India Kanishka Bombing
9. On 14th January every year, during the Makar Sankranti, what international festival is held at Ahmedabad? Ans: International Kite Festival
10. Oh, Creator of the universe! We meditate upon thy supreme splendor. May thy radiant power illuminate our intellects, destroy our sins, and guide us in the right direction." What is the significance of the above prayer? Ans: Gayatri Mantra
11. Identify the character. Ans: Shikari Shambu



12. Her mother's name is Bonnie Pandya, a Slovenian American. She is the second person of Slovenian descent to be sent to space. She apparently likes Samosas! Who? Ans: Sunita Williams
13. Originally introduced from India, it is the word for an open portico or light roofed gallery extending along the front of a dwelling or other building, and erected chiefly as a protection or shelter from the sun or rain. What word? Ans: Verandah
14. What started initially in 1984 between Esplanade and Bhavanipur, now covers a distance of 16.84 kilometers for Dumdum in the north to TollyGanj in the south? Ans: Kolkata Metro
15. Which famous jewel's name means "mountain of light"? Ans: Kohinoor
16. Kiron Kher had an unique credit in the titles of "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge". For what? Ans: Credit for title-writing, as she suggested the title. “Title Suggested By”
17. What is full form of T.T.E as in the guy who checks the tickets on our trains. Ans: Travelling Ticket Examiner
18. In August 1990, in a test match between India and England at Manchester, Sachin won the man of the match award. He was presented the award by X. The next day, the Manchester Police issued a warning notice to X and also said that they would not consider this as a serious offense just because of the situation this time. What was the warning issued? Ans: A bottle was champagne was given as the man of the match award and sachin was a minor then. It is legally forbidden to give alcohol to a minor.
19. Jermaine Jackson, Dirk Benedict, Ian Watkins, Danielle Lloyd, Jack Tweed, Cleo Rocos, Jo O'Meara, Jade Goody, Carole Malone, Leo Sayer Day, Jackiey Budden, Ken Russell Day, Donny Tourette and? Ans: Shilpa Shetty (Big Brother Celebrity Series)
20. What does the W/L sign seen on Indian Railway tracks indicate? Ans: Whistle For level Crossing
    
21. Connect Pavo cristatus, Panthera Tigris, Mangifera indica and Nelumba nucifera. Ans: All are National Symbols. Peacock, Tiger, Mango and Lotus
22. Complete the list: Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Brihadeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, Arunachaleshwara Temple in Tiruvannamalai, Golden Temple in Amritsar, Bahubali Gommateshwara Statue in Shravanabelagola, Mahabalipuram near Chennai, Lotus Temple in New Delhi, Ranakpur Jain Temple and _________. Ans: Taj Mahal. The list of all Indian monuments which appeared in the original list of the new seven wonders
23. What is the planet Rahu responsible for, according to Hindy Mythology? Ans: Responsible for causing Solar eclipses
24. Identify the product for which this print ad was prepared. Ans: Fevicol



25. This message from the Mumbai Police was put on something and placed randomly on the roads of Mumbai. What was it placed on? Ans: 1 Rupee coin





26. There are 5 of these labs at different locations. The largest lab consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring various parameters. Each is a fixed and 'focused' tool. The largest instrument here is 90 feet high and has its shadow carefully plotted. Its face is angled at 27 degrees, the latitude of Jaipur. The Accuracy of the largest instrument measuring time is about two seconds. Ans: Jantar Mantar
27. The proposed name for this institution was ‘Imperial university’ which was not selected. The Maharaja of Mysore laid the foundation stone in 1911. How do we know it today? Ans: Indian Institute of Science
28. When asked 'Why are you so sure that the first man, Adam, was an Indian?', he replied 'Who else will stand beside a naked woman and eat an apple?'. Who? Ans : Osho
29. In the Ramayana, Vishwamitra takes Rama and lakshmana with him to slay the demoness Tataka. During the course of the Journey, they often slept on the banks of Sarayu river. Vishvamitra did something to wake Rama up every morning before dawn so that he can do his rites. What did he do? Ans: He composed and sang the Suprabadam
30. According to the legends the Gods & Goddesses pleaded with Lord Brahma to create another 'Veda' which would be simpler for the common man to understand. Lord Brahma created the 'Panchamaveda', an essence of the four other vedas. It is believed he has taken 'Pathya'(words) from the 'Rigveda', 'Abhinaya' (gesture) from 'Samaveda' & 'Rasa'(sentiment & emotional element) from the 'Atharvaveda'. After creating this he gave it to Sage Bharatha & asked him to popularise this on Earth. What did this lead to? Ans: Bharatnatyam
31. What was carried in a third class compartment numbered 2949 to Triveni, Allahabad on February 12, 1948? Ans: Ashes of Gandhi
32. The members of the Muduvar tribe, which inhabits the mountain ranges around Valparai (Tamil Nadu) and Munnar (Kerala) in the Western Ghats, have a unique method for calculating their ages. What is it? Ans: They calculate their age with the blossoming of the Kurinji flower, which blooms only once every 12 years
33. Bulgar, Gansu, Taklamakan Desert, Kashgar, Kokand, Karakum Desert, Merv. Which music band? Ans: Silk Route
34. Who is missing? Ans: Zakir Hussain