WELCOME TO INDIA

India is now hard trying to sell its brand in the world. From the land of tigers and snakes , now the world is seeing India as a country of great hope, as a country that has innumerable software engineers and has country that is fast changing the dynamics of the world.

Now more foreigners are visiting in India, not just to visit the Tajmahal and other historic monuments, not just as CEO 's to oversee their companies overseas operation in India, but also to get trained here in software field. Even our batch ( I am undergoing training in Infosys) has around twenty such people from US.

I would like to share few real incidents that one of them shared with us. When one among them was walking in the streets of Bangalore, one police man had approached him and said "Hi you are from US, you must be having lot of money, Why don't you give us some?". I felt terribly bad as an Indian, when i heard that. What sort of image India will get? What he will tell about India once he returns to US.

It is relating to corruption, I could understand that at least because we all know India is in fact very corrupt. But the next incident that he said shook me a lot.

He added that he and his friends (he is White but some of his friends were blacks from US) went to one bar in Mysore. Only foreigners go to that bar. The blacks were refused admission into that bar and they also said only Whites are allowed inside that bar and even Indians are not allowed inside. This guy fed up with that racial discrimination, said that if my black friends are not allowed in, neither I'm coming and returned back without entering.

He dint say anything, but his look after narrating that incident seemed to be asking, " How the hell do you permit people to deny entry for your own people in your own country". When US government denies visa to few of our people we get upset. But then inside our own country , there are these establishments ,which deny entry to the sons and daughters of the soil.

Is it fair? Is it the image we are going to provide to foreigners visiting India? What is the use of our tourism ministry spending so much for advertisements, when at the end we are giving to provide such an poor image of our country.

Let's do something immediately about it. We can't attract tourists by just showing ads, please every one of us understand that.

BLOG AFTER A LONG TIME

Few days ago , as I was watching Sun Music, there a female caller was talking to teh person conducting the program. In that program, when the anchor asked her where she will take her mother in law during free time, shje replied spontaneously that she won't take her anywhere, and also unleashed a barrage of remarks on the negatives of her mother in law. When the anchor asked what if her mother in law see this program, she proudly said that she was currently in a village where the sun tv does not come.

Agreed in almost every house there will be differences between mother in law and daughter in law, but then is that a issue that needs to be shared in a mass media? Can a person who speaks so bad about her own mother in law in front of virtually the entire world, can be a good mother?

In the same program, she later said that she has a young child. I pity for that child.

Was The Tamil Nadu Government Fair?

In the shoot out incident at Virginia Tech, US, the death toll included the 51 year old Indian professor of civil and environmental engineering, namely G.V.Loganathan, and the entire Tamil nadu was shocked to see that one of the Tamilian was killed in a brutal incident across the other side of the globe. Each and every one of Tamil nadu felt as though one of their family member has passed away. The Media's continued telecast of the grieving relatives of the professor increased the people's sympathy towards the family. Every one in Tamil nadu prayed that his soul must rest in peace and asked God to give the confidence to his wife and daughters to face the rest of their life without him.


When we move through the life of the deceased professor, it is seen that he hails from a small village in Erode district of Tamil nadu and had worked hard and earned a place in IIT, one of the premier institutes of India. Giving due credit to him, we ought to state that for the greater heights he achieved, many people need to be praised, including his teachers during school days, who transformed the young mind from rural areas into an intellectual one fit enough to study in IIT. We also need to remember the many IIT professors and we the people (Remember, the Indian Government gives huge subsidy to IIT, (i.e.) our tax are being utilized by those studying in IIT) are also responsible for him achieving greater heights.


But some how the deceased professor felt it would be better for him to teach US students rather than students from his own country. I have no problems with that. He has every right to decide where to work. The professor also felt for some strange reasons that his body be buried in US and not in India, which contributed mostly to his success. Again I have no problems, as every individual has a right to decide where he needs to be buried. Immediately after his death, the Tamil Nadu Government took steps to make sure that his relatives received passport immediately and visas without much delay. I appreciate that on the humanitarian grounds that a family which is already struggling with the fact that they have a lost a close one was not put into much more trouble.


But then the Government decided to sponsor the entire travel expenses of the family members for their travel to the funeral. It is where I disagree. Why has the Government decided to spend the tax money of the people (every one, even a beggar pays 50p as sales tax, when he buys a soap) to sponsor the relatives from attending the funeral of a person who must have been earning more than what most of people from Tamil nadu earn, who studied with the help of tax payers money but did not want to repay it and who did not want even his body to be buried here?

At least if he had died due to fault of the Government of India or Tamil nadu, we could understand Government helping them as a compensation. But he died due to the fault of the US government , the country he seems to have cherished so much that he wanted his body to be buried there. If any Government had to pay for the expenses, it should have been the US government, not the Tamil nadu government.

There are so many villagers, who help us to get food every day and serve us in what ever way possible, and at last die due to various factors like lack of proper treatment in Government Hospital, lack of proper transportation facilities in the villages to transport the ill, etc. But when those people die ( here the Tamil nadu Government is actually responsible for their fate) the Government does not give a single paise for their funeral. I know many families who literally beg so that they can do their last rites to their deceased family members. Worse still, in most of the Government Hospitals they don’t allow the people to take the corpse out of the hospital unless they pay the bribe to concerned people. Is it the equality our constitution teaches us?

So the moral of this incident: If you want the Government to help with your funeral, get all possible help from India as possible and then go to abroad and don’t serve your country. If you want the Government to neglect you and worse demand bribe to take your corpse to your home, you stay in the country, work hard and do what ever little you can do for the country.

JAI HIND

SUN - THE BEST FINANCE MINISTER?

Most of you would know the mechanism of rain formation. You would have studied about it in the science books of your primary schools. Any way let me again take you through the mechanism of rain formation.

Three fourth of the earth is filled with water. But most of the water is present in a salty state in ocean and hence not useful to the humans for consumption. Here is where the almighty Sun comes to our rescue. The sun absorbs the excess of water from the ocean through evaporation and then pours them down in the lands as rain. The rain helps every one in the world, whatever be their race, religion, language, customs, culture, etc.

Imagine what would happen if the sun does not does this activity. The excess of water in the ocean would be wasted and we the people would die due to lack of water. Imagine what would happen if Sun decides to absorb all the water in the ocean, rather than absorbing only the excess if water from the ocean? The ocean would dry up, marine animals would die, the eco system would be upset, and the world would cease to exist. But the Sun absorbs the excess of water from the ocean in the right proportion that the life in earth continues to survive.

Now compare the excess if water in the ocean to the excess of money in the hands of rich. The Government should act like a sun in that it should absorb the excess of money from the wealthy in the form of tax and distribute it to all sections of the society, without showing any partiality due to their religion, language, race, culture or customs. The government should also follow the other Golden rule of the sun, that if all the water of ocean gets absorbed, life in earth would be upset. In the same way the Government should tax the wealthy in such a way that only the excess money gets absorbed. If this rule of sun is followed by all the Governments, it would result in happiness and prosperity.

PS: The views expressed in this article are not my novel idea. These ideas are derived from the works of an unknown Tamil poet who lived around two thousand years ago. So it would be helpful for our Honorable Union Minister for Finance if he could replace some of the economics books in his shelf with the Sangam literature books.

Long Live Tamil!

Temples And Exams

Going to temple just before exams is a trend now a days, more so before important examinations like public exams. Many people ask a query, "Will the God help you, if you don't study anything and then go and ask God's blessings in the last minute?". Ya I do agree. God may not help such a person.

But what about the student who has studied well. Will going to temple before the exams would be of any advantage to him? The answer may differ, depending on the beliefs of the person. But my answer is YES, the person will benefit. Don't feel that I am saying this just because I believe in God. I will give you some scientific explanation to prove that a student who goes to temple regularly before exams will benefit from it and score better marks.

1) Scientific experiments conducted by psychologists suggest that, if we say some thing for many times, it increases the probability of that thing happening. That is if you say "I want to get good marks in the exam, I want to get good marks in the exam" every day, it increases your self confidence and there by increases your probability of getting good marks. This is exactly what you do in temple. You say to God every time "Please help me get good marks" with at most sincerity and belief e very time you go to temple. Applying the same principle here, your probability to get good marks increases with visits to temple.

2) "Students who study seriously, often neglect regular exercises and proper diet. As a result they get into trouble during exam days in the form of sickness or disease"- says many famous doctors. But in today's fast paced world, students never get time to do any exercise. When they go to temple, they are supposed to walk around the temple once or thrice, thus they get proper exercise. Some of the 'Prasadams' like 'Tulasi' offered in temples also helps to keep the disease away. Thus the visit to temple serves to keep the students fit without their knowledge, and thereby boost their performance in exams.

3) Meditation improves concentration. Hence it helps to concentrate better in studies. This is the fact accepted by many educationalists. Very few students could afford to get a quiet room alone in their house to do meditation. On the other hand, when they go to temple, they are supposed to sit in the temple for some time in silence just before they return back. This provides a proper setting for meditation at least for few minutes and helps the students to concentrate better in studies.

4) Due to the extreme pressure students face just before the important examinations from all quarters including parents, teachers and other well wishers, they study virtually twenty four hours, few days before exams. Every person would agree, students would preform better, if they take a bit of break in regular intervals, relax and then study. It will help them to study with more energy and determination. Whenever you ask the students to relax, most of them immediately switch on their television sets or start playing video games. I am sure, even my atheist friends would agree that going to a temple would serve as a better source of relaxation then watching television or playing video games. If they go to temple during the time they take break, they not only get time to relax themselves but also derive the above said three benefits.

My first essay

I did my first creative writing when I was around six years old, a essay on 'Bus', written in my mother tongue, Tamil. When ever I just come across this essay of mine, while my mother arranges the old trunk boxes, I congratulate myself for the logical mind I had even when I was so young. Frankly most part of that essay, written in a yellowish paper which is at the verge of being torn now, deals about the external appearance of the bus, uses of the bus and the other such silly things that excites a six year old. It also has a small diagram of a bus drawn in crayon. But what excites me most about that essay even today is one particular paragraph.

Before I write about that paragraph, I need to give you some information. In those days, the buses in Tamil nadu were run by different transport corporations, depending on the district in which the bus runs. Each transport corporation had names of famous personalities, kings etc, and the names were painted in bold letters on either side of the bus. Now there are only few transport corporations in Tamil nadu and they have their names of the cities in which the head quarters of the transport corporation is situated. (eg, Villupuram transport corporation.) The names of the personalities were replaced by cities names, since the people belonging to every caste wanted the names of the famous leaders of their caste to be given to transport corporation, and it led to lot of chaos and the Government could tolerate it no more.

In those days, the buses in my district were run by Dr. MGR transport corporation, named after former chief minister of Tamil nadu.( the fact I did not know then). The buses in Chennai were run by Pallavan transport corporation.

Now lets read the translation of that paragraph:

"The buses in Chennai were named after Pallavas, who were the kings of areas surrounding Chennai (as I had studied in history). The buses running in my village are named after Dr. MGR. So I think Dr. MGR must have been the king of areas surrounding my village."

My logical thinking (!!!) had converted the chief minister of Tamil nadu to the petty king of my village. Any how I still admire my creativity at such a young age and look myself in the mirror with pride.

read my diary

HI ,

I request every one of you to read my on line diary when you have time. In the blog I would continue to write abt my views on important issues but to know more about my day to day acticities visit my online diary at

my diary

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".