Why is the west cozying up to Modi?

Whenever any foreign dignitary comes to India they meet the Prime Minister, President and they also make it a point to meet the Opposition leaders. I am sure we had seen leaders meet Sonia Gandhi during the NDA rule and then LK Advani or now Sushma Swaraj/Arun Jaitley during the UPA regime.

Secondly the main purpose of the embassies in different countries is to not just give visas but to understand what is happening in those countries and report back to the head quarters. This is to ensure that they are not blind sighted when a change happens.

Till recently, for the west Modi was just a CM of a state in India. He was ruling Gujarat when the 2002 riots happened. They didn't want to be seen supporting him.

Now he is projecting himself as the next PM candidate even though is party is not willing to say so(at least till date). The UPA is definitely on the way out, which is what all opinion polls also say. The west wants to ensure that they don't have a PM who they don't know about or who they are seen as against. India is an important nation and west cannot afford to have an PM who they openly oppose.

Now a days the governments means business and to win contracts you need to have good relationship.

That is the reason why we see British calling him to UK or the Australians calling him. It is not that they have new found love for Modi.

The TV reporters who are questioning the British MPs or Australians should understand this basic fact before bungling the interview as Nidhi Razdan did in NDTV.

Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer - A Movie Review

Watched the movie Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer(AKS) yesterday. The theatre was not even 25% filled, and this was the first weekend. The director has had a 50-50% success at the box office so far. His first movie Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was a run away hit. Who can forget that parotta comedy?

Story is about the teenage or I should say college love and the larger impact that it leaves the next generation. The hero loves the heroine in college but she treats him more as a friend. He threatens to commit suicide and she relents. They go on an outing and she gets pregnant. The parents get involved and they agree initially to get them married but there are some conditions laid out. The girls parents don't agree and in the interim the lovers decide that they don't want to get married.  And then the climax scene leaves a huge lump in your throat. There is a baby that is born and the girls parents leave the kid at an orphanage and after a couple of years try to get the heroine married of to another guy and the hero is shown flirting with another girl. Cut to show the baby who is without any footwear picking up a ball in hot sun and running and stops and cries because he couldn't bear the heat of the sand.

In terms of performances - The hero(Ramesh) unless he is related to the producer or director, not sure how he got this role. Cannot emote. Heroine(Manisha) in her second outing after Vazhakku en has done a decent job.  In terms of support cast the heroines mother played by Tulasi has done a very good job. All other parents including the much acclaimed Poornima Bhagyaraj and Jayaprakash don't have much to do. The heroines friend Jenny (not sure who the actor is) has done a very good job. She continuously opposes the relationship. Arjun (Kadhalil sodhapuvadhu eppadi fame) also does a very good job as a friend of both the hero and heroine.

Songs are good and have been a hit.

There are some scenes which are good, like where an uncle of the hero comes and wishes him on becoming an uncle and Arjun says seekaram appa kuda ayiduvan sir. Also the scene where the heroine before they fall in love advising the hero that once you get a bike any girl will fall in love and the next scene we have the hero asking his parents for a bike.

On the whole the movie is short and runs less than 2 hours and it doesn't bore you. To me personally except for a few laughs here and there and climax scene, there was not much in this movie. Much more was expected from the director (who I personally feel has not lived up to the high standards he set for himself with his first two films - Vennila kabadi kuzhu and Azhagar samiyin kudhirai).

Why can't we have proper guidelines and selection criteria for awards?

OK, the title might be generic and many would have faced this question in their lives. However, I specifically wanted to talk about the sports awards (Arjuna & Khel Ratna Awards) that are awarded every year.

Last year Rahul Dravid did not win the Khel Ratna. Guess the reason - Ravi Shastri who was the lone Cricket representative in the selection panel did not show up for the meeting. Wow, that's a great reason. Is this how much importance the awards are given?

Every year there are some sportspersons who feel left out and complain about it. We had Krishna Poonia complaining that she missed out on the Khel Ratna and some others like Manoj Kumar (boxer) who complaining about him not being considered for Arjuna awards. There were also complaints that the selection of Sodhi being biased.

Why is it that we cannot have a defined criteria for selection of awards? Why cannot it be made more transparent?

When our nation has very little to celebrate as sports success outside cricket, why cannot we recognize deserving sportsmen/women?

I really wish to see a day when once the awards are announced, every one congratulates the winners and the story ends there. People who don't get the awards will get disappointed, but if we make the selection process transparent & objective everyone will be able to accept the decision made.

The Athletics World Championships - Our Dismal show continues

Anju Bobby George was the only Indian to have won a medal at the world championships. She won the bronze at the 2003 Championships in the long jump event. India sent a 15 member contingent for the World championships which is currently being held in Moscow with a hope of adding to that single medal.

Only event in 2012 Olympics (both men and women) in which we had progressed to the finals was Discuss. Vikas Gowda and Krishna Poonia both progressed to the finals but failed to finish in the medals. In the world championships we had only Vikas Gowda representing us with Krishna being injured. Vikas progressed to the finals but finished only 7th. He has been consistently finishing around that level in the Olympics/world championships. The leading throwers throw have their best performance of over 70 metres and Vikas's best is only 66m. I don't think there is more to expect from him beyond this level.

Sudha Singh the 2010 Asian Games Gold Medalists finished a lowly 23rd in a field of 29 in 3000m steeple chase event.

Walking seems to be one area where we are having more participants. We had totally 6 participants including a woman. We had 3 men participating in the 20km walk and 2 in 50km walk. The promising KT Irfan who finished 10th in the 20km race at the London Olympics was in the chasing pack till he was disqualified after 13 kms of the walk. He was placed 8th at the end of 13kms. The other two contestants Gurmeet Singh and Chandan Singh finished 33rd and 34th out of the 53 finishes.

The only thing that we expect from our athletes (who are still not at the level of winning medals) is to bring their A game to such prestigious events. We want them to meet or beat their personal bests. That's all we expect. And so far only Khushbir Kaur has beaten the national record by a whole 3 minutes (it's the different story that she finished 39th in the field of 57 finishes and was 7 minutes away from the winner).

In the 50km race we had Basant Bahadur Rana finishing 33rd and Sandeep Kumar disqualified after 30kms.

Renjith Maheswary failed to qualify for the finals of the triple jump, at least he had registered the jumps in the world championships while he failed to register even a single jump at the London Olympics. He had the same length as the last qualifier for the finals with a distance of 16.63m, he didn't qualify as the other persons best jump was in his first attempt and Renjith's was in his second attempt.

The last event that I had personally some hope of qualifying to the finals was the 4*400 relay and just came to know that we had finished 16th in a field of 17.

With this our participation in the 2013 World Championships comes to an end. Our wait for our second World championship medal continues.

Auto fare rationalization in Chennai

I have stayed for a few days in Bangalore and Hyderabad and one thing that really strikes me is the autos. Every auto I had taken charge by the metre and give back even 1 rupee change. Even if you travel in the night, they just charge the 25% premium which is also fixed.

I am sure anyone who had used Chennai autos will definitely have had bad experiences. I have been shouted at by an auto driver for giving 50 rupees for a 3 kilo meter ride. Nowadays around 15 rupees per kilo meter has become a norm.

Last time the fare was fixed was in 2007 and every auto driver rejected the fare. We were back to heckling. The charge fixed was 14 minimum and 6 for additional kilometer.

Supreme court in its ruling last December had asked the TN government to rationalize the fares by May. Nothing happened till May and again they gave the government 2 more months to fix the fares. Nothing happened and on July 22nd Government asked for 4 more weeks to fix the fares and also to ensure GPS enabled meters.

In the interim private players like Namma Auto have started their services. Namma auto gives you a receipt and they charge a minimum of 25 and 10 for every additional km. They claim that they are making a good profit. There are stories that these auto drivers are beaten up by normal auto drivers. This used to happen when the call taxis started.

The government finally took time to listen to everyone last weekend. The auto unions are asking for 30 rs minimum and 15 for every additional km.

The petrol prices have gone up nearly 50% in the period from 2007 to now. I don't think a 15 rupees per kilometer fare is acceptable to all. Even with inflation of around 10% per year we are looking at an increase to around 11 rupees per kilometer.

Summary

Having lived in Chennai for 37 years and seen what happens usually. The government will fix a fare which is lesser than what the auto unions ask and they will use that excuse to not use meters again.

I wish I see a day when the auto drivers in Chennai do not fleece and don't ask any questions or bargain when they start the ride. Maybe with more propagation of the private players we will get to see such a day.

Skull Cap - Symbolism or there is more to it?

It has almost been 2 years since Narendra Modi refused to wear the skull cap which was offered in a Sadhbhavana fast. Even today it has been quoted as a sign that he is not secular because he refused to wear the skull cap.

Shivraj Singh Chauhan another BJP CM, who is consciously positioning himself as an alternative PM candidate without saying so explicitly, wore a skull cap last week. There were quotes from people asking Modi to learn from Shivraj Chauhan. Does Shivraj Singh Chauhan become secular because he wore a skull cap? 

I strongly oppose Modi's views on many things but is wearing the skull cap or not the only criteria to identify whether someone is secular or not?

There are religions which propose nirvana, should people attain nirvana to prove that they are secular?

Summary

Every religion should co-exist and I don't think someone has to do what others do to show that he/she is secular.

Secularism means that I don't discriminate anyone based on caste/religion  and definitely not that I do what other religion does.

Where is Thalaivaa?

Available in the pirated CD stores around Chennai.. That's the sad state of affairs for this latest Vijay starrer which was supposed to released for Ramzan over last weekend.

Alas, we don't have a release and the poor movie going public have been subjected to 555.. Not that I am a fan of Vijay's movies but I would have watched that movie than watching Bharath with his steroid induced 6 packs. Or there is SRK and his mocking of Tamil language in the latest movie, a definite NO.

Oppressed Students Revolutionary Force, a completely unknown entity has sent threats to theatres against the release of the movie. Claiming that they were representing the SRM college whose owners were the distributors of this movie. If you have a axe to grind with the SRM College owners then go protest outside their colleges. Why in theatres?

What was a police doing when such threats come to theatres? I don't think that's the only reason for the film not getting released. When a politician gets an threat don't we increase their security? Like what the CM mentioned during the Vishwaroopam episode, don't we have enough cops to provide security for all theaters?

Then there were talks about movie not getting entertainment tax waiver, which was cited as the reason for the delay. This is the most bizarre thing that government is controlling in this state. What business does some bureaucrats have in deciding whether a movie gets an entertainment tax waiver or not? Earlier some great movies like Gandhi got entertainment tax waiver to get more general public watch the movies. The tickets were cheaper for those movies which had tax waiver. Then it was changed to all movies with Tamil titles will get tax waiver by the DMK regime. This was done to enable spread of the language. Now this has been changed to only movies with Tamil titles, U certificate and which really spread Tamil culture will get tax waiver. Our bureaucrats decide whether a movie spreads Tamil culture. Don't we have better usage of the official machinery than this?

Vijay released a statement that the movie has nothing to do with politics. Why did he do that? Did someone say that the movie has been stalled because it is a way of him expressing his intentions to get into politics or about his policies? Everyone in the state knows that he and his father think that he can be the next CM, why would anyone want to stop a movie because of that?

Jayalalitha, the CM had consciously decided to not meet Vijay and his father to show that she has nothing to do with this. Has she really done that?

Now there is also a case filed by grandson of SS Kandasamy, who claims that his father and grand father are shown in bad light in this movie.

Summary

The cops should have found out who really is behind the threat, the so called Oppressed students revolutionary force. And ensure that they are put in place. No one should get away with issuing bomb threats.

I might agree with Jayalalitha's approach of not getting involved directly, but she should ensure that the police are not keeping quiet.

This is not the first time this is happening in the recent past. We should ensure that this does not become a practice.

I personally believe this is real abuse of power. Don't really know who is abusing.

Movie a movie, and I am sure like most Vijay movies this will also bomb. Why give it unnecessary publicity?

On a lighter note : Maybe the movie heard the Thalaivaa song from Chennai Express and got offended and decided not to release :)