Tamil New Year Dispute

January 1st is the only globally accepted New Year, all those other new years are symbolic they don't matter in day to day life. You do not record an event based on your local cultural date, do you? These so called pro-Tamils do not follow Tamil calendar to record an event, when that is the case the issue of a Tamil New Year is highly symbolic. A muslim brother would have his own religious calendar, but on Chithirai 1st, he would greet with his fellow Tamilian "Puthandu Vazthukkal" though it is really a New Year based on Hindu Panchangam. The reason is, it is symbolic doesn't have any real life significance.

Any reasonable person would not care to know, debate on those naradha's non-sense stories and 60 children crap and a scientific explanation why Jan 14 should be celebrated. If that is so scientific why don't you abandon the Jan 1? No one gives a damn about it. Why don't they use Tamil Metric system, Tamil Numbers, stop using any thing non-Tamil. It is not possible, because it is not practical, we are living in an interdependent society.

Creating a New Year for all Tamil irrespective of their religious affiliation is good and secular. But who said April 14 was not being celebrated by non-hindus. Today we as Indians are severely suffering from regionalistic politics, this move only make it more worse.

Now even if J. Jayalalitha would change it back to the original April 14th, I doubt how many non-hindus would accept. It would only be seen as a move by an angry hindu to preserve hindu values not Tamil tradition. The rift is made.

To me the original Tamil New Year (April 14) is just a symbol of Tamil tradition. Again it is highly symbolic, like the yellow towel on M. Karunanidhi's shoulder. I do not see that necessarily as a Hindu New Year when it is being celebrated by people of every religion. When it is like that it is good to keep it untouched, because you would be creating a new issue out of it. Now it is explained by the so called "Tamil Scholars" that it is not a Tamil New Year, so people of other religion and a part of Hindus would celeberate Jan 14 as Tamil New Year and a part of Hindus would celebrate Apr 14. I would be celebrating Apr 14 all alone, this time labeled as a Hindu. Thanks for the disintegration Mr. Karunanidhi.

My point of this issue, when no one remembers a day other than April 14 as Tamil New Year for centuries, why create an issue out of it. This whole issue even if they have facts to back up, it is irrelevant and unnecessary to the current society (when real problems are left unattended).
This only creates a rift in the society and further damages the weak secular fabric. I personally feel this just created or satisfied the fake sense of pride to anybody who wants to boast their Tamil ethnicity.

Don't Mess With Jon

"The Daily Show" has been one of my most favorite shows in the last 3 years. It just feeds for my love for satire. There were few criticisms about the show over the years that it has liberal bias. May be, but I think the point is whether it insults your common sense or not. I have been waiting to see how the show has to change when a Democrat becomes the President. It only got better, I can already see how Obama getting targeted. Simply! I think this is the best political and comedy show you can watch on TV without hurting your brain.

Recently I was all excited, even in this economy, after getting laid off and sitting at home. This time it was about CNBC and how senseless and maligned that the information has turned into. The point Jon was trying to make as I understand, is that when you are a business TV channel and having all pundits serve your network, you have a sense of responsibility that you don't oversell or downplay the reality. You don't become a cheerleader to all those white collar criminal CEO's. The episode which ran with a series of clips on one show would explain that. Yesterday, finally Jon made his point by using one of Via Com's TV character Dora The Explorer when she said, "Doesn't Jim Cramer understand that it is not about the individual mistakes he has made, it is about the false sense of urgency he's made, that helped to hyper inflate the bubbly". Nailed it. Classy Jon!

Jon Stewart is not an average comedian who makes sex and racial jokes. He is one God damn satirical comedian, shrewd and sharp critic of Politics and Media. When Jim Cramer brushed him aside as "A comedian, A comedian..!!" on Today's show, he was not aware what he is doing for himself. Poor guy! Besides we got one of the best episode yesterday.

I am looking forward for the Thursdays episode where Jim Cramer agreed to come on The Daily Show.

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.