BYE BYE 2006

Bye Bye 2006,Here Iam going to list few Subramani Awards for 2006.

BEST SOMERSAULTS OF 2006:

Scientists have already proved that humans have evolved from monkey. But our politicians are taking extra efforts to prove the same to us by their action. Their somersaults on their policies are much more frequent than the somersaults of monkeys. Here is my three best somersaults performed in Tamil nadu politics in 2006.

a) Sarath Kumar: "Supreme Star" said in April that when he dies only DMK flag will be on his corpse, only to join ADMK a month later. If that is not enough his wife, Radhika Sarath Kumar was expelled from the party, and her reply was that she never joined the party. Sarath Kumar also resigned from the party, and now he is thinking about starting a new party, how ,many more somersaults will he do in 2007, only God will know.

b) Vaiko: Starting the year with a vow of removing the "Fascist" Jayalalitha regime, he aliened with "anbu sogothiri" (lovable sister) Jayalalitha and at the end of the year he is doing all that is possible to save his party from being split.

c) Kalignar Karunanithi ( Satellite city): Honourable Tamil nadu CM said in assembly that he has considered all possible issues and said Satellite city is the best possible solution to save Chennai. Very next day he cancelled his plan after some fierce opposition from the Pattali Makkal Katchi.

INDIAN POLITICIANS BEST ENEMY OF 2006:
Indian politicians never join hands. If congress supports some thing then BJP will oppose it, and if Congress and BJP support some thing then Communists will oppose it. The only person whom all the parties opposed unitedly was the Indian cricket team coach Greg Chappel. Hence he receives this award.

BEST COMEDY OF 2006:

After all the things that happened in Chennai during Mayor election, including Booth capturing, Voters being threatened, Election Officers attacked, Rowdies being released in Bail, the Election Commissioner of Tamil Nadu said barring few incidents the election was peaceful. Journalists some how managed to control their laughter, but i was not able to when I saw that statement in news, hence it gets the best comedy of the year.

SAD NEWS:

I wanted to end the year 2006 with a happy news, but unfortunately I have to end it with a bad news. The bad news is that From the next year 2007, I will write blogs more frequently.

BYE BYE 2006, WELCOME 2007

KING MAKER

Im writing a blog after a long time since I was bit busy with my exams.

So I decided to start my blog after this break, by writing about a great personality. He is also my Favorite politician and one of the best Cheif minister Tamil nadu ever had. He is none other than Tamil Nadu's former Cheif Minister Kamarajar.

I will just tell few instances of his life which would be a great lesson to all the politicians today.

Once the Congress leaders approached him before the elections and asked his permission to shoot a video flim potraying the Government's achievements. He asked how much it will cost. They said it may cost few lakhs. He immediately replied that if he had so much money he would rather build few more schools than waste them on video. He also added that serving people is Government's duty and they should not advertise doing that. In todays world, where the politicians give marks to themself, every politician should know about these things.

The another important thing is that he never interferred in the workings of IAS officers even when it affected his own party men. He always believed that Officials should be allowed to do their work if the Government needs to function properly. There are so many other things that I could say, I will do that in the future posts.

As of now, we can only hope that we will get more politicians like him at least in the future.

FEW CLARIFICATIONS

After reading the comments to my last post, I felt that need to write a post clarifying my views more clearly on the reservation issue.

1. I'M NOT AGAINST RESERVATION TO DALITS OR ANY OTHER OPPRESSED CLASS: I don't want the reservation to be revoked completely to the oppressed class for the following reasons.

a. Dalits were being oppressed for 1000s of years.
b. Even today Dalits are facing many problems in rural areas, like they are being denied to participate in temple festivals, they are not allowed to come into houses of so-called upper caste Hindus, they have separate glasses in tea shops and worse still, in certain Government schools, the dalit children are being forced to sit separately from the rest of the class.

2. I DON'T THINK RESERVATION BASED ON ECONOMY IS POSSIBLE IN INDIA:

Many have aired their opinion that reservation could be based on economy. But I don't think its completely feasible in Our country, where only 2% of the population pays the income tax. Therefore we will not be able to assess the economy level of the next 98% properly. Moreover even the 2% who pay the tax very few pay it properly ( Mostly workers in Govt, Public sectors and Private enterprises, who have no other option any way) So reservation based on economy,although would be a ideal scenario for reservation, is not realistic enough to be achieved in India at least for now.

EG. Sonia Ganhi, has filed in her election application that she doesn't own a car and only has around Rs.10,000 in cash. Hence if reservation is based on economy, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka, and their children and the children of many politicians, who according to their election application are very poor will get the reservation benefits, whereas most of the middle class people will not get any benefit.

3. WHAT DID I ACTUALLY TRIED TO CONVEY IN MY LAST POST?
I tried to stress that, if the really deserving and poor dalits living in rural areas have to get the complete benefits of reservation, then the creamy layer among the oppressed class needs to be removed out of reservation.

I will once again give a much simpler example to remove any doubts in your mind.

Assume in 1980 there were 5 dalits, A, B, C, D, E. All of them took the Medical entrance examination. Assume reservation for dalits is 20%, i.e one in every five. So only one among this five could get a seat based on reservation, and A got based on his higher mark among the other five, and become a successful doctor, where as the other 4 B,C,D,E remained in their villages and were poor.

Now all of them had 1 children namely A1, B1, C1, D1, E1. Logically A1 would have studied in best possible school and best possible coaching institute, whereas the others would have managed to study only in Local Government schools. Now again these five students take medical entrance examination and only one of them could get it based on reservation. 99% A1 will get it because of reasons so obvious to us. Thus poor Dalits will continue to remain poor. So by taking creamy layer out of reservation, I suggest A1 could be taken out of reservation, and he could compete with other students in Normal seats, and could still become a Doctor, if he has enough talent. On the other this would facilitate one of the four, B1, C1, D1,E1, to become a doctor, thus one more dalit family will become improved.

SOME THOUGHTS ON RESERVATION

Last week, as I was just browsing through the channels, I listened to one of the most honest confession ever made by a Indian politician, in my recent memory. The person was Naqvi, one of the few Muslim leaders in BJP. He was speaking about terrorism.He said,

" When our Founding fathers of Constitution included Reservation, they also wanted a definite time period for it to come to end. But today, no party has the braveness to talk about that period, including my party."

________________


On this note lets move on to the recent Supreme Court Judgment on the Creamy Layer. In Tamilnadu, Dalit leaders like Mr. Thol. Thirumavallavan, leader of Dalit Panthers Of India, is protesting against the Supreme Court Judgement. I'm quite sure that these sort of protests would be going on now in all parts of the country.

I will now give you an illustration.

In the heart of the city, there was a big Hospital. The cardiologist who was working there is a Dalit, who got to such a post through reservation. He has gone abroad five times, his family has dinner at five star hotel every week end and is only son attends the best school in the city. He also attended all the coaching classes possible by the best of the institution in the city. In the medical entrance examination he scored 90.25%.

Around 200 km away from the city is a young coolie, who is a dalit. He is a registered member of Dalit Panthers Of India. His meagre income is not guaranteed every day, and many a nights his family has to go to sleep without a supper. His only son ( he has five daughters) studies in a Local Government school that has no teachers for many subjects. Since he has to take care of cattle in the evening he doesn't attend any tuition's. Still he some how manages to study hard and always come first in the class and at the end of it ,manages to get 90.24% in the Medical Entrance Examination.

Medical counselling is going on and there is only one seat left, that too in the SC Quota. One of these two students can only get. We say by taking the creamy layer out of reservation that student from village should get reservation. The so called Dalit leaders say that Creamy layer should not be removed and the Doctor's son should get the seat. Its time for you to think who is really wanting the Dalit to improve, and who want the Dalit to remain as they are now, so that they can use them as a Vote bank for years to come, never having to worry about the Time frame that our founding fathers of Constitution said about.

TERRORISM

HAPPY DIWALI

Diwali is said to be a festival of lights. Purana's say we celebrate Diwali , as per the wishes of Narakasura, a ASURA (evil person) who was killed by the Lord Vishnu. Thus Diwali symbolises the death or destruction of every thing evil in this world. This need not necessarily mean the death of evil person, but it also may be the death of evil thoughts, practices and so on.


One of the most prominent evil prevalent in today's society is the TERRORISM. As we are celebrating the festival of lights, its time we think of millions of our brothers and sisters, all over the world, be it in Kashmir, Mumbai, London, New York or Iraq, who have been pushed into darkness because of this evil. As we celebrate Diwali, by bursting crackers, eating mouth- watering sweets and watching special movies in Televisions, let each of us spare a moment to think about those unfortunate victims of this omnipresent evil. I, on my part would like to remember them by recalling a poem I wrote when I was studying in the twelfth. Three and a half years has passed since I wrote that poem, but the effects of terrorism has been in fact more prominent now then three years ago.

TERRORISM

Terrorism: It fills the World with terror
And People mind with horror;
Say the word Terrorist: People will run with fear,
Women and Children will shed tear.
Terrorists may say various reasons
To justify their act in all Seasons,
Either in the name of a Religion,
Or to get freedom for a region,
But the result is the death of Innocent Man,
Who don't know, why they are shot with gun.
Oh! God, We are like petals,
Please save us from the gun made of metals,
Teach these Terrorists about peace,
Otherwise they will tear this world into piece.

Hope at least by next Diwali there won't be too many houses in darkness mourning their beloved ones who have lost their life to this evil TERRORISM

DREAM CAME TRUE

They say the happiness woman experience just after giving birth to a baby child can't be expressed in words and its so special that one has to only undergo it to appreciate it. I think the same can be said about seeing ones story being published for the first time. It gives such a great happiness that cant be put into words. I'm in such happiness today.

My 100 word short story, or rather than calling it as short story, it could be called as a coffee break story, titled "Cricket", has been published in a famous Tamil magazine "Ananda Vigadan", dated 22.10.06, on page no 131.( Its available in shops now) . Although this story is definitely not by best, nevertheless it will occupy a special space in my heart as this is the first time my story has been in print. Its really a honor for me that my writings has came in the same issue that also has the writings of leading writers like Sujatha.

So my dream has came true, I feel I have to spend some time to thank all those who played a major role in it directly or indirectly.

1) MY grand ma Jagadhambal: Most of us grow up listening to the bed time stories of Grand ma and I'm no exception, but then my grand ma was a very good story teller and most of the time she narrated her own stories. When she said those stories she said only the happy moments of her life, that when I'm young i thought her life has always been happy, only to realize later from others she suffered so much in life and she has been careful enough to say only the positive things to my young mind. This positive thinking of her has always inspired me a lot. She can read English news papers and every day she read Tamil news papers and she also helped me read Tamil books early in my life

2)My parents: They are so special, they never forced me to read any books, but whenever I needed any books they always brought and gave me. MY house will resemble a mini library an I always thank them for incorporating this good habit of reading into me. They let me read whatever book I want to read. And without them I would not have been what I am.

3) My sister, D.Jagadeeswari: She always asks me a lot of queries, and just 2 answer her queries I have read so many books. She has a distinct knack of encouraging me and we share such a special bond in spite of our 8 yr difference ( She is studying in 8Th). Iam really thankful to God that He sent me such a good sister.

4) All my uncles, aunts, cousins and nieces ( including my dead uncles) : My relatives have always been a source o strength to me. They have motivated me all along, they have enjoyed my success as though they succeeded and they have helped me over come difficulties, and what not.

5) MY Friends: They are my first audience and they are my first critics too. They constantly encourage me and I would have been lazy to send this story through post, if not for their constant motivation.

6) My teachers: MY teachers right from my primary days till today in my college I have to thank each and every one of them as they played a major role in shaping me.

7) All those famous writers : who inspired me by their writings.

8) All the people who I have came across in some point of life directly or indirectly:
They might not know me but then actually, they also could have been the inspiration for my story .

Finally thank you every one for reading this long post and sharing my happiness.
I strongly believe OUR HAPPINESS WILL DOUBLE ITSELF IF WE SHARE IT WITH OTHERS

DEATH

It was on 24th of july 2001, around 1.15am.

I was in a sort of semi sleep, lying in the bed. I was pondering over what happened few hours ago, at 10pm to be accurate.

At 10pm I had a severe leg pain, the reason for which was the march past I did that morning. I always hated march pasts, but that day I was forced to do it by my physics and Road safety Patrol Sir. ( I was in Eleventh then) Just then My grand mother came to my rescue. She always loved me so much and I spent most of my child hood with her rather than my mother. She massagged my legs and I felt so comfortable that I slept, only to wake up at 1.15am.

I just decided to get some water and got up, only to notice that my Grandma was calling me with a sort of discomfort. She said to me slowly that her chest is paining. I was in for a bit of surprise. The reason being, she never says any of her ailments or pains to me or for that matter to my father. She always bears the pain by herself and does all the works as though every thing is fine. ( Inspite of numerous requests from my father to stop doing kitchen works, she always cooked us delecious dishes, the previous day she had prepared a delecious fish curry) So then, when she requested me to wake up my father, I was baffled.

I, nevertheless, went and woke up my father and explained to him. When my father, along with my mother rushed to the room, she was in a worse situation. She was not able to speak and with great difficulty I controlled my tears. I suspected from my limited biology knowledge that I had, that she was suffering from a massive heart attack. After taking some tablet, she some how was able to speak. The first thing she said was " Please take the children to the other room. They may be afraid." (She was referring to me and my younger sister)

My father had got a taxi to take her to hospital. She was about to get in to the taxi, just then she called my mother and said, "Please every one stop bothering about me. Its nothing. Sugumar (my nick name)has a leg pain. Take care of him. In worrying about me, dont leave his legs unattended." So here is Grandma asking my mother not to worry about her serious heart attack and comparing it to nothing, while requesting her to take care of my simple leg pain as though it was a serious problem. This clearly shows how much love and affection she had for me.

She returned from the hospital the same day, but this time lying STILL INSIDE THE ICE BOX.

BIODIVERSITY IN YELAGIRI

I recently had a chance to go to yelagiri, a small and non commercialized hill station, few kilometres away from Jolarpettai and Vanniambadi, and among many things that I saw there, one thing that amazed me more was the sheer variety in the Indian biodiversity. As I was visiting the place I become more and more convinced that Subjects like "Bio Diversity" that I study as a elective now in my college, shouldn't be taught inside the four walls of the class room, but rather outside them.

I got a chance to eat a variety of fruits there, some of those fruits we never even heard of in places like Chennai, and some of those fruits like guava, of which we have only eaten the hybrid varieties here. The natural taste of those fruits refuses to go away from my tongue, and I only pray to God that these fruits don't become extinct, so that even our children and grand children could get a chance to taste them.

But then is praying to God alone enough to save these fruits from being extinct. Is it not our responsibility to do something towards it. We Humans are very late entrants into this earth. There are lots and lots of species that had been living in this world for a long long time. When British invade India and treat us Indians, who were living here for a long time, as slaves we don't feel good. But is it not the same attitude that we are showing to our fellow species.

Hold On. I'm not supporting those few so called intellectuals who always fight against any development project in the name of protecting bio diversity just for the sake of publicity. I am also not asking you to open up a seed bank or a gene bank and protect those species. But then I will just say thoughts that occurred in my brain on how to go about it, and ill share it with you. You could add up if you have some more interesting comments,

a) I am not going to ask you not to use two wheelers and cars because they create pollution, but rather request you to avoid them when possible. When you want to go to shop in the next street or visit a friend few streets away, you could do well to travel by foot. By doing this you will also end up getting a good exercise.

b) Plant few plants in your garden, and if your house lacks space, do it in pots in tour terrace. Gardening is one of the healthy hobbies, green leaves surrounding your house will create a good ambiance and will also supply you with some great flowers from time to time which can be given to impress your girl friend.

c) Theme parks are not the only places where we can enjoy. There are so many places in India where we can marvel at the nature. Visit them as and when the time and your pocket permits.

d) Even if you cant do all those things you could at least mail this blog to various people so that more and more Indians will become aware of this important issue.

Cinema! Cinema! Cinema!

In India, there are neither any discussions, nor magazines, nor television channels without having to do something with cinema. Although personally I don't watch cinema much, I want to go with the proverb "Be a Roman, while in Rome". So here is my first post about cinema.

Although I wanted to write about cinema, I didn't know what to write about. So I was just flipping through the channels, hoping that I will get some idea. Just then I watched a flash news in NDTV 24 X 7 , my favorite channel, that "A famous South Indian Actress Padmini died". So here I am writing my first post about cinema but unfortunately has to start it with a sad news. As soon as I heard of the news, the first thing that flashed across my mind was the film " Tillana Mohanambal", it was one of my favorite movie. Especially the song " Namlam thana" where Padmini dances to the tunes of Sivaji, will always remain etched in my memory.

Talking about the films I was watching one of my another favorite film "Ethir Neechal", starring Nagesh, the other day, when the cable service was distrupted. With the distruption of cable service being so frequent in our area, I feel it will not be long before we turn to Dish net services.

The last time when I went to a theatre was to watch the movie Gajini, along with my aunt's family. Recently my friends have been saying that " veetaiyadu villayadu" is good to watch and I should watch it. Hope I could get some time to watch it but for me books will always remain a first lover. I don't know why, but I was always more fascinated by the letters than by the films. So "Vettaiyadu Villayadu" can wait for some more time as I am ready to go to my book shelf, to explore yet another book.

PS: Our Honourable President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul kalam has not watched a single movie in the past 50 Yrs..

Yet another person with difference

Once Our Honourable President Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam , speaking abt medias role said that Indian media always gives importance to negative issues. The reason media gives for that was people are intrested only in such issues. Even as I was reading a variety of blogs just to educate myself about writing blog, a girl has written about the various headlines in recent news papers and has said that they are more like entertainments, which ought to be read after a tired days at office. They are nothing else other than that. But our President was once referring to a incident in Israel, where when he visited the headlines of all news papers were about a farmer's innovative technique and not about a bombing that killed hundreds ofpersons the day before. So taking our Presidents advice as a example, I also decided to write about positive quality of some personality i like in every alternate post. I had already written about Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam in my previous posts, and this blog is going to be about Kanimozhi, the daughter of tamil nadu Cheif minister, Dr. Kalingar.

The idea of writting this blog actually occured to me as i was watching "coffee with Anu" a vijay TV Show. In fact now a days i feel programs of Vijay TV are better than that of Sun Tvprograms . Ok Let me deal about this things in some other blog, but let me now say something about Kanimozhi. Although i dont like her father much ( not personally but i dont like some of his policies), i like her for the following reasons:

• Her simplicity
• Her frankness and uprightness in discussing various issues
• Her boldness
• Her Honesty
• Her decision to not to rest on the laurels of her father but to work hard and create aname for herself in the society

In the Vijay Tv show i was referring too, one person said that DMK badly needs her to gather Female votes. I am absolutely sure she will not get an oppurtunity to read this blog, but my humble request ( Dont we who dont know even what is the weight of a cricket bat, give advice to Sachin on how to bat while watching matches, so what is wrong in myself requsting Kanimozhi, even though she may not even know that a soul called Subramani exist in this world) is that she should not limit herself to DMK. And she should not enter a politics just to become yet another vote gatherer. She definetly has more ability than that. Talking in the same show she said that she doesnt want to enter politics because she may have to make certain compromises. Therefore, i feel that if she really wants to enter politics, she should not end up as some vote gatherer, rather she should enter it with a bang and create a sort of revolution which removes the sort of compromises to be made if a person wants to enter the politics. But to expect her to enter just to get few more votes for DMK, is nothing short of foolishness. Our country badly needs a politician like her with a firm view on all issues. On the other hand, if she feels politics is not her cup of tea, she could do well to continue doing what she does best: Creating a awareness about the various problems in our counrty through her poems and articles.

Lets wait and see what she decides to do in the future

HUMAN BRAIN AND HOW IT WORKS TO REDUCE THE TAX

You must have read many functions of brain. It helps us to read, write, walk, take, make love, sleep, bla bla and bla. Infact it is the brain that differentiates Humans from the other animals. Take away all the weapons that the Humans created with the help of the brain, Humans would not even be able to fight against a small cat. Whether it is eye sight, hearing capacity, muscular power, in all the aspects we score lower than our animal counterparts. But only this small organ that lies in the top of our body makes us the Supreme power we are now.

It is the brain that made Mahatma Gandhi, the great person he is. It is the same brain that made Nadhuram Ghotse kill Gandhi. It is the same brain that made Osama Bin Laden kill thousands of people and it is the same brain that made Mother Teresa sacrifice her life for the slum dwelling people of Kolkatta.

Ok , I don't wanna bore you. The fact his how we use the brain that distinguishes us from others. But what makes me wonder is how the brain performs exceedingly well for the common public, when it comes to evading tax. The same people who feel that their brain has stopped functioning when their son studying in sixth standard approaches them and asks them to help him to solve his algebra problem, do some great marvelous work with their brain when it comes to evading the income tax.

Ill give you an example to justify my comment. In a foreign country, a woman bought a car. In that country, tax for car is 40%, whereas the tax for the vehicle that carries dead bodies is 20% . She registered the car as the vehicle that carries dead bodies and paid only 20% of the tax. When the authorities enquired about it she replied that she uses it only for carrying the dead bodies. She added that she uses the vehicle to carry dead hens ( chickens) from market to home and its enough for her to pay 20% tax legally.


I could think of so many other ways by which people make use of their brains to avoid tax. But the point is that if they start putting at least 20% of that effort in helping their country, the world will be a prosperous place to live. Its time every one thinks about and reflect what one of my favorite leader Abraham Lincon has said:

" Don't ask what the country did for you, Say what you did for your country".

Person with a difference

India as a country, seems to have always placed teachers in the pedestal. Famous Tamil verse places teachers just next to mother and father. We are not actually sure how much the students really respected the teachers, but at least going by what the epics try to convey, the teachers were kept in such greatness that Ekalayva was ready to sacrifice even his thumb for Dhronocharya, who actually even refused to teach him. (Was Ekalyva the first and the only person so far to learn archery thro correspondence course! Don't be surprised if SRM starts offering one soon)

I think I am deviating away from what I actually wanted to convey through this blog. Today very few youngsters respect teachers and very few want to become a teacher. Teachers are given nick names , made fun of, and all those sort of things. But then there is one person who is showing us the right ways. He is none other than our honorable President Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam.

He had recently come to Tamil Nadu for attending in various functions. His schedule was tightly packed. He had to move from one college to another giving lectures and interacting with students and also had to attend so many functions that practically he had no time to rest. Inspite of his busy schedule, he infact found time to do two things that was not originally in his schedule, that surprised every one:-

1) He decided to visit the grave of his lecturers in a very dark night, he asked his car driver to focus the head light on the name of his lecturer written there, and stood in reverence for some time.

2) He also spent time with one of his old lecturer, who is 98 years old.

How many of us have visited our school teachers after we have passed out of our school. Don't we feel ashamed to sat that we are too busy to do it. Are we too busy than our President. Definitely not. So why don't we learn from our President.

( Our president also says that he will return to teaching once his presidential term is over. He is so passionate about teaching and shaping thae young minds of the country. In this context, even the lecturers and teachers have to learn a great deal from him)

Jai Hind and Long Live Our honorable President.

HAJ SUBSIDY

India is said to be a secular country. Our constitution says that the Government should not show any partiality towards any one particular religion. It also says that Government should not interfere in any of the customs, traditions of any religion as long as it does not affect the citizens of our country.

But then our politicians are just breaking this essential rule just for the sake of votes. Yes, im talking about the Haj subsidy. After all the talks about equality of religion, Our Government sponsors Muslims to go to their pilgrimage, whereas it doesn't give a paisa to a poor Hindu to go to Kasi or Rameswaram, neither it gives a paisa to a poor Christian family to visit their Holy place.

Talking about it, Islam strictly prohibits any person from getting help from any one in order to make the holy pilgrimage. Islam says you either go their spending your own money or else don't go. Our so called secular Government, which should not do something against the customs of any religion, unless it proves counter productive to the country itself, is giving subsidy to people going to Haj, thereby breaking Islamic tradition and Law for no reason.

Infact, no Muslim country in the world gives a single paisa, even to their poorest of their citizens for the sake of Haj pilgrimage. Why India alone acts differently. Wat else could be the answer? Just as college students get attracted by a four letter word called " love" , Our politicians also get attracted by a four letter word called "vote". With assembly elections in Uttar pradesh to be held shortly, don't be surprised if most of the Haj pilgrims this year are from Uttar pradesh

Hail Indias secularism

NOTE: I don't abhor Muslims. I have so many good Muslim friends. In fact every day while going to college as I pass through a mosque near my house, I look at it with a same rereverence that I look at a temple. I believe in Abdul Kalam, Our honorable Presidents words, who said" I have no doubt that the prayers said at a temple and a mosque reach the same GOD".