Change

It’s been a real while since I scribbled here. So, I’ve decided to scribble more frequently henceforth! So here goes! It’s been nearly 3 months since I moved to Bangalore for work. I didn’t have much expectations about corporate life, and living up to that belief, corporate life isn’t much. You just have to act as if you are a very decent and ethical person! An act which so many people manage to put on with an uncanny ease!
I have always believed that being myself is the best way to live life. And I sure believe that this new life, has not changed me a bit. Of course the money factor is there, but I am talking bout the inner self.
The common man always seems to live for others. They bother more about what others may think about him/her, rather than bother about their mental comfort. Just hearing rock music, which doesn’t impress you at all, and putting on an awesome American accent won’t make one a so-called “Corporate”! You may impress people, but you wont impress yourself!
But people always ponder upon the phrase “Change is the only thing which is constant in this world”. I have nothing against this. Without change, the world will never manage to survive. But change must be towards the good. Change must be true. It must not be an act, -an illusion, a mirage!

The First Impression!

Something Interesting I found whilst I was doing my usual purposeless web surfing! Solomon Asch is a psychologist who pioneered the study of impression formation. He conducted an experiment where a bunch of people were divided in 2 groups. Both the groups were asked one question.

Group A is asked:

John is envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious and intelligent. In general, how emotional do you think John is? (Circle your answer.)

Not emotional ~ 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9 ~ Very emotional

Group B is asked:

Mike is intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn and envious. In general, how emotional do you think Mike is? (Circle your answer.)

Not emotional ~ 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9 ~ Very emotional

The Results:

Folks in group A marked John as a very emotional person. Most rated him as 7 or 8.

Folks in group B marked Mike as a not so emotional person. Most rated him as 3 or 4.

The Twist (if you haven’t found out already)

John and Mike - both were described using the same 6 characteristics! The only difference is that the order of the characteristics was reversed. The first characteristic for John is envious and the last one is intelligent. Where as the first characteristic for Mike is intelligent and the last is envious.

Because envious is an emotionally loaded characteristic, most people marked John as being emotional. And because intelligent is not emotionally loaded, most people marked Mike as not being emotional.

So, Always , the FIRST impression is the best impression! Nothing serious bout this post. Found it worthy of posting. Don't accuse me of plagiarism! I have given you the bibliography!! :)

Is this the end of an Era or the beginning of a legacy?

The above sight is one of a kind in the world. -The LTTE cemetery. The world will never again see an organisation so badacious, insurgent and stalwart like the LTTE. The SriLankans are rejoicing their moment of freedom, but as a responsible Tamil, I would like to analyse the Lankan scenario right from the beginning.
Let's get a bit of history first. The dimunitive island, at the base of India was under kingdomatic rule for many years, mainly by the Sinha rulers, Cheras, Cholas, Pallavas, etc.,. The advent of Tamils into Lanka grew prominence when the Britishers decided to infiltrate the island because of its rich tea, cinnamon,rubber,sugar and coffee plantations. Thus Lanka happened to have a considerable number of Tamil inhabitants.
But within a few years of the British departure in February 1948, Sinhalese politicians were banging the drum of ethnic chauvinism. Sinhala became the island's official language and discriminatory laws affecting entry to university and the civil service alienated moderate Tamils. Their were denied education as well as basic amenities. Velupillai Prabakaran was one of the very many, who were affected by these inhuman acts. He was a revolutionary right from his school days.Unable to rein in his activistic nature, he started the LTTE in 1974, with the primary motive as the creation of a separate Tamil State in the north and east of Sri Lanka.
Prabhakaran was one of the best leaders the world has ever witnessed. A single leader commanding the entire organisation for a period of over 30 years is truly amazing. I was reading bout his leadership on a Tamil daily, and every line kept amazing me. His word had so much respect amongst his commandos. A single nod from the leader, and the entire 'black tigers' (the suicide bombing wing of the LTTE) were ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Before the Iraq war, LTTE had the most suicide bombing incidents recorded in entire world history.
Their modus operandi was one of the best planned. Mr.Prabhakaran was believed to have operated from Madras(now Chennai). It was here that he designed the famous LTTE crest, a roaring Tiger atop two crossed rifles and a halo of bullets set against a blood-red background. The Tiger was the cherished symbol of the Cholas.
The discipline in the LTTE camp was nonpareil. There were strict implications on the use of tobacco and alcohol. They were completely banned from their camps. All LTTE commandos were supposed to wear a cyanide vial on their necks, to use in case of capture. Celibacy was strictly practised. Prabhakaran was also a devotee of Hollywood. He watched action movies for inspiration, often using them as a training tool in Tiger camps. And he cited the Legendary Clint Eastwood as his favourite.
The Tamils were made sure to get the best of education in many foreign countries. The LTTE had members in many foreign countries including Netherlands and the UK. The foreign Tamils were the believed to be the primary source of finance for the community. An Anti-government group, to have its own ground force, Air force and navy is fascinating for many. The LTTE credits the formation of the Air Tigers air-wing to Vythialingam Sornalingam, a graduate in Aeronautical Engineering from a reputed university in India!. The LTTE's brain power was well planned out, and was unmatchable.
One of the main reasons the LTTE was branded as a major terrorist organisation in India was the Rajiv gandhi killing in 1992. Though the killing of a country's former Prime Minister can never be justified, the reason for this outrageous and infuriating act was the sudden decision of the Indian Government's IPKF to turn to attacking the LTTE when the purpose of its formation was to protect the Tamils. In an LTTE press conference, Prabhakaran said that the incident was 'tragic'.
Form the procurement of weapons, to the maintenance of secrecy and hierarchy, the LTTE almost benchmarked the standards for even a national Army. They had once run a mini-government in Kilinocchi making it as their de-facto capital, with Prabhakaran as the chief.
There are numerous disputes concerning the death of the leader. The primary reasons for doubt being his possession of an ID card, and the government's claim that he was killed when he was trying to escape in an ambulance. Prabhakaran, being such a devoted and nationalistic leader, would never have committed such a cowardly act. He refused to leave Lanka, though he had numerous opportunities for it, in times when the Lankan army surged into their territory. Aware such a daring personality, does not deter the Lankan government's mockery of his death, calling it as an escape.
Whatever might be, let's pray in unison for the well-being of the Tamils in Lanka. Our solidarity in supporting their cause, would be their only source of happiness and consolation in this dreadful phase of time. "We have sowed the seed of an ideal, we grow it by irrigating with the blood of our martyrs. This seed will grow up into a luxurious tree and make our martyr’s dreams a reality." - Velupillai Prabhakan (November 26, 1954 – May 18, 2009) RIP.

De'mock'racy

I hope all of you reading this post have excised their precious vote in the recently concluded parliamentary election. Ever since childhood, I was always deeply interested and enthralled by politics. I used to know all the cabinet and state ministers by heart. My ignorant phase of life!.
As i gained more of the so called "sixth" sense, i slowly lost the interest. In school, I remember studying that India, United States, United Kingdom, were all democracies. Truly, democracy is the best form of government i know of. But, Is the Indian Democracy a well devised system? I have serious doubts while ruminating upon the same.
If we look at the democracies of the UK and US, it is evident that they are very efficient and lucid systems. They have only two political parties, The Democrats and The Republicans.There's very little confusion in the people's minds. When I went to vote this year, I saw a long long list of candidates, with symbols ranging from Cricket Bats to Aeroplanes!. People are not sure of whom to vote, even after entering the polling booth. Every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to own a party in India. But we have to digest the fact that there is no way to minimise the parties in India. :(
In the United States, the Presidential debates are a very decisive factor by which the people decide their vote. Also, the people elect the President directly, unlike the Indian system, where the elected candidates determine the Prime Minister. Our system lacks clarity. People lack clarity. They rarely vote for the candidate. They always vote for the party. For example, even in my constituency, though there were several candidates hailing from here, the person elected was a total stranger to the place. "GOK" the way the electorals think in India.
The Indian politician is a "one of a kind" type. Just moments before i started to write this blog, Mr. Ramadoss was complaining on TV that the EVM's were responsible for his Party's dismal performance in the elections this year. I'll try to quote some of his lines. Translated in English of course. 'The EVM's work with microprocessors and microcontrollers. They can be programmed to work in the way the programmer wishes to. It is possible to record all votes for the same DMK candidate. With a Nation-wide conspiracy, Congress and DMK have managed to cheat in the elections and come to power." Since we can do nothing about our democratic system, let's enjoy lighter moments like these! :)

Midnight Post!

Welcome to the little but wonderful followers of my Blog. It's crossed midnight i guess. I was watching the video of "Jai Ho" some time back, and there came the spark for my next post. :). I basically love movies. I watch atleast a couple of them everyday. I have a contrastive taste in my likings- when people enjoyed the action sequences in "The Matrix", i spent my time watching snail-paced movies like"Driving Miss Daisy'.
I have seen numerous such movies, including awesome ones like"The Green Mile", "Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump",etc etc., It was in that time frame that I acquired a great inclination towards the Academy, as in the "Academy" award, or "Oscar" as it is commonly known. Right from "The Godfather", till "No Country for Old Men" , almost all the "Best Picture" winners were truly "Oscar" material.
But the reason why "Slumdog Millionaire", won so many accolades, including the biggest award in world cinema, still remains a big mystery to me. Competing against "Oscar" material movies like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Frost/Nixon", Slumdog managed to sweep the Oscars. A good movie critic wouldn't regard Slumdog as even a worthy nomination.
Then why the hype? Why the awards. Again comes the dreaded word. -Westernization. For some reason or the other, the westerners seem to love it, when the so called "Third world" countries are shown in such poor light. The same reason why movies like "Blood Diamond" and "Cida de Deus"(City of God) were hyped. Movies with such themes, for many westerners, is a ‘feel good entertainment movie’ .
Now coming to the celebrations. The common Indian lacks self-thinking totally. A British movie showcasing the Slums of India is celebrated so much in our country. We can never witness all these insane happenings elsewhere. We Indians, lack Pride. Celebrate Rahman, Celebrate Resul Pookutty. Don't celebrate Slumdog.
Even the movie title- Slum Dog?? Are people living in the slums Dogs? Instead of hating Danny Boyle, we seem to love him. The Big B was the first to get furious at this. But he backed off, fearing any consequences. Alarming!. Don't we have a Freedom of Speech?
The respect I had for the Oscars is long gone now. As kamal Haasan always says, It's an American Award given for their films". -True- A "cheap", "useless" American award.