Responding To A Terrorist Attack

How would a country respond when hit by terror attack? In a short period of time I have seen two countries responding in totally opposite ways.

First my beloved India, I have always said, we Indians are just a bunch of pussies. I think no other country in the world would have had this many attacks on its land, and do nothing about it. It was because Mumbai victims included Americans, Brits and Jews and more importantly the rich it made a big story. All those attacks on the poor and common people, Mumbai train blast, Delhi Market blast never came out like this. Seriously, who gives a shit about them. eh! The response of Indian govt. is the good old 'diplomacy', it has been more then a month and the govt changed stance as usual. The latest, "Pakistan can try the culprits in their country", so its like Osama bin laden being tried in Afganistan. If you didn't notice there was another attack in Assam after Mumbai. What a bunch of douchbags.

Second Israel, ruthlessly bombing on Gaza giving the only excuse that Hamas members are hiding there. Their response is that just attack indiscriminately when you are attacked without any respect for human life, in this case one third are children. The recent UN building attack is outrageous. My only question to Israel, Are you behaving like you suffered the holocaust? I don't want to end this blog without a comment about Hamas. If the Israelis are blood thirsty, Hamas are complete morons. They are fighting a war which cannot be won, they are only seeing innocent civilians being killed. To make things worse they do not want truce.

Cash Cab On Discovery Channel

There is this show called Ca$h Cab on Discovery which I fell in love with immediately. It is a reality show happens on a cab in the NYC downtown. People get into the cab only to know that they are a possible participants of this TV show. Of course, some are screened and edited to make the show interesting.

The rule is simple three wrong answers, you will be kicked out. If you reached the destination and you didn't hit three strikes you get the money. But you also have a choice of a bonus video question where you can bet all the money you won to go for a double.

A R Rahman - The Golden Globe Award Winner

I'm speechless. Ma man finally did it. ARR got the Golden Globe award. Unbelievable but well deserved.

Ilayaraaja And Tamil Poetic Skill

I was listening to Naan Kadavul songs for a while. I am not going to comment on the songs here. No words left to describe this music savant anymore. Many Tamils who are in the late twenties and thirties have grown up listening only his music. Most of us do not recognize this poetic skills. I have always admired his deep literary skills. His composition for Thiruvasagam is a very good example, he matched the music with the flow of the poem. 

The recent song in the movie Naan Kadavul, "Pitchaipaathiram" was a song written and composed by Raaja for his spiritual guru Sri Ramana Maharishi. One who have heard that song won't go without appreciating the lyrics. Given the subject of the movie I think it is a wise move to add this song. He nicely rewritten two lines of the original lyrics..

அருள் நிறையும் அருணையே

ரமணன் எனும் கருணையே

to 

அருள் விழியால் நோக்குவாய்

மலர் பதத்தால் தாங்குவை

Another notable line

பொருளுக்கு அலைகின்ற பொருளற்ற வாழ்க்கை துரத்துதே

Thanks for the everlasting joy Raaja!

Oru Kaatril Lyrics Typed In Google Indic Transliteration

The Google Indic Tranliteration has made few nice additions to it, now its very easy to type in Tamil (or Hindi, Telugu..). They fixed the earlier flaws and it works great now. All you would have to do is to type the English equivalent of the Tamil word 'as is', Ex: ஒரு can be typed as 'oru'. The intersting part is that it pops suggestion when you type (as shown below). There are many editors like this but I think this is one is solid.

ஒரு காற்றில் அலையும் சிறகு
எந்த நேரம் ஓய்வு தேடும்
கண்ணில்லாது காணும் கனவு
எதை தேடி எங்கு போகும்

எங்கெங்கும் இன்பம் இருந்தும்
உன் பங்கு போனதெங்கே
எது ஏன் என்று
பதில் யார் சொல்வார்

யார்க்கும் போல் ஒரு அன்னை தந்தை
உனக்கும் இருந்ததுண்டு
யாருக்கும் போல் ஒரு தேகம் தாகம்
உனக்கும் வளர்ந்தது இங்கு

யார்க்கும் போலே விழிகள் இருந்தும்
உலகமோ இருளில்
ஒளியை போலே ஓர் துணை
இருந்து சென்ற துன்பம் யார்க்கும் உண்டோ?

வீதி என்றொரு வீடும் உண்டு
உனக்கது சொந்தம் இங்கு
வானம் என்றொரு கூரை உண்டு
விழிகளும் அறியாது

வேலி எல்லாம் சொலைகாக
வந்ததோர் காவல்
கண்கள் கொண்ட தெய்வம்
காவலை கொண்டு சென்றதேனோ?

One version of this song was sung by Shreya Ghosal. I can confidently say that only in Raaja's music most singers pronounce the letter 'ழ' correctly.

Songs As Part Of The Movies

There is no dreath of talent in the Indian movie industry. I want to confine my blog to Tamil Movies here. 

I've always wondered why they are making movies of same old 'shtyle'. Time have changed and people appreciate good movies. The commercial inclination of making movies is very much understandable. But most of them are not successful today, even with top heroes. To address the subject, with an audience who are used to 1 intro song, 1 item number, 3 duet songs in movies, it is difficult for good directors to make movies 'out of the box'. 

I think Bala is one of the director who is using the songs mostly as a background music. Starting from Sethu, Nandha and Pithamagan only very few songs are used for lipsynching and they fit well with the movie. Classic songs like 'Munpaniya' from Nandha, 'Ilangartru' from Pithamagan are used as background music. I think these are healthy development not to mention Bala's movies itself. With the upcoming movie 'Naan Kadavul', I wish he continues the trend. Though songs have been the lifeline of most movies' success, I would like to see them become irrelevent to the movies (not removed necessarily).