The day I was SPAced out

                  It was perfect weekend with me got to do nothing as such and almost my first half of the day went on with watching back to back episodes of Friends. I just then remembered that it's been a week since I felt that I badly needed a haircut. I reached the place where I was getting it done, off late and a guy right away took me to a chair as if he was indeed waiting for me. In my usual routine manner I asked this guy to KISS (Keep It Short and Spiked) and he nodded in affirmation and dressed me up for it. Because of the dryness of the hair the comb was getting stuck to the hair and he "analysed" and suggested that the hair was in a bad state and need a SPA treatment badly. With absolutely no idea of what the hell this SPA thing was I did not bother to show interest on it. He just went on to trim my hair in the manner I had mentioned earlier and he was almost done doing it and started off again with the same SPA stuff and also the discounts that is offered there for that blah blah stuff. I just started to listen to it and for a moment I was carried away in the trance and I blurted those magic words "Sure, lets try it". 

          The sombre looking hair-cut guy till then, suddenly sprang to life with some new energy and started treating me like as if I own that place and like I'm welcome to do anything. I remembered my BPO work days where I used to pitch-in to the customers about various products without even bothered of whether they were interested or listening to me and ONLY help the customers out with their issues with all the extra care and concern  the moment they agree to buy a product. Today I felt like I've been a victim to taste my own medicine, on a different ball game though. I asked the guy to do shave job as well and he was ready with the stuff for that in a jiffy and was done with doing that in a few minutes.

        I was then asked to be ready for the hair wash and the SPA following it. I was all curious on what the hell that is gonna be as well as what good will it do to my "dry" hair. I was led into another inner private room and I was all covered up with just the head outside the cover and he brought an urn of some pale green gel, which just looked like Brylcreem. He then applied it all over my hair and also buried some of it between the hair, onto the scalp and left it dry for sometime. I was caught off-guard totally when suddenly he started punching my spine started from the neck. I could not comprehend his intention and then he said it's a part of the SPA massage. I felt the punches were nowhere close to massaging and I started having the feel of why the hell am I paying someone, to hit me by the way. I didn't know for what reason but he asked me to keep my eyes closed, probably he wanted me to actually "feel" the brutal massage I was subjected to, in a better way with my eyes closed. With some more of spine and shoulder punching, and a few times of a possible hand ripping attempts, he called it done and moved onto to my green-gelled hair.

       With another 10 mins of scalp scratching and his way of head massaging, I was left alone for a few minutes to recoup and get back to senses. He then dragged something over and covered my head. It looked like a head scanner, which was a typical machine that could be found at any hair salons. Right from my childhood days I had noticed it being kept unused in a corner of every salon I had been to, based on which I've had my share of sci-fi fantasies. The few mins of the head scanner part was, where the gel spread over my head started melting out. Finally to my relief, I had my head washed out and dried and the thought Never again...never again kept reverberating in my mind. I came back to my normal senses and zap came the bill which was nonetheless a loud slap.

         With no words exchanged, I handed over the money with a "This is bloody daylight mugging man" look and the cashier accepted it unperturbedly and returned the change with a glance that clearly had the sub titles "That's Natural(s)!!!"

The End of the Spinning Ball

      With the India Vs Srilanka test match having come to an end, it is the end of the road for Muthiah Muralitharan -The last of the trio of SPIN GODS of test cricket, after Shane Warne and Anil Kumble. There are no other spinning great potential identifiable yet, in the Cricketing world. This world record feat of Murali's test wickets  has lasted for a span starting from Craig Mcdermott (The first wicket) to Pragyan Ojha (800th wicket).

With this end of the era, it is also the end of...

• The greatest Off-spinner, the test matches has seen and will see, forever.
• The highest wicket taker in test cricket record will possibly never ever tumble again.
• The best of DOOSRAs, an off-spinner's answer to the googly.

Looking at the other presently performing SPIN talents, maybe the future of the quality spin bowling in test cricket is a BIG QUESTION, unless any of the "TRIO" take up the task of coaching the young talents.

My salutations to the legends of the SPIN game and I'm proud to have been a live witness during the period of these legends!!!

Me,my HTC and THE STORY

Thanks to,

Sunil

Ragesh - Vodafone

Periappa and collegues - MRF

Mama

Gokul

Ganesh
Sai

Chitappa

Sridhar

&

Mom

          It was July last year when I got the HTC Touch Viva phone for myself and it was a period where not many people recognized HTC as a brand of mobile and interpreted HTC as some korean handset. It was my habit to fiddle around with the Windows with some third-party softwares and apps and my HTC with Windows Mobile on it was no different as well. The happy period with this phone existed until the 20th of May, 2010 when I carelessly left the phone on the dining hall of my cousin's marriage reception. As it happens I did not realize that for more than half an hour and my search at every corner of the venue was in vain and I could not locate my mobile. I was so cross at myself for my carelessness. The phone was much invaluable for its rich contact info (for which I did not have a back-up) more than the cost of the mobile.

         I blocked the SIM and stayed disconnected without a mobile for a week, which my mom could not tolerate any further cos she was used to calling me at least thrice daily and she could not stay without doing that. Hence I finally got a duplicate SIM and was back online on the GSM world with a spare mobile of my friend. I explored loads of mobile handset reviews and maybe cos of my association with HTC or I did not know why exactly , I was so obsessed with the HTC models and was just pondering over which handset to choose and the HD2 was so very impressive for me and started checking out on who would offer that to me at the lowest price. With the history of my previous phone and the cost of the phone I was eying for now, the elders back home, in their usual predictable manner raised questions like  "Why go for another costly phone and maybe lose it again?"  "Why not go for a basic mobile handset?" etc etc..!!! With so many against in me buying the HD2, I was deferring the buying process.

       It was 3rd July, 2010 evening and my mom showed me her mobile asking me to have a look at a weird SMS she had got the previous day. The SMS sent a shock through my spine as it remainded me of those days when I had browsed the internet for my Windows Mobile apps and had installed a software that claimed to send an SMS of our choice to the mobile number of our choice if someone removes my SIM and puts another SIM. The SMS had the exact content which I had specified in that software when I had installed it. As I did not test if it was working, I was very unclear on how it is working after a month of me having lost it. I was in a state of "Will this happen for sure and will I get back my mobile?". With those thoughts running repeatedly our part of investigation started and within an hour we had the complete details of the SIM. We approached the police and they promised us that they will recover the phone in a day or two and get it to us and advised us not to contact that number.


       With the thoughts of the HTC reverberating in the mind, day in and day out I could not sleep well since the day I saw that SMS. I had a chance to go to my cousins' place (in who's marriage reception I had lost the mobile) and I told them of the developments about my HTC. My uncle who was less observant till then suddenly inquired again on the name and address of the SIM. When he heard it again he exclaimed that there was person at his workplace with the same name and similar area of residence. We checked out the reception video and the time he came to the reception and had dinner coincided with the time I had left my mobile. With the new development, my uncle promised me that he will check the details of that person and if it matches, its going to be a piece of cake to recover from him. With a sigh of some relief I went back home. The next day he called me and said none of the info which I had given matched with the company records of the person with the same name and hence he concluded that probably its a mere coincidence and asked to me push with the police to recover the mobile soon.


     The police (as one would come to know with experience) were postponing the errand stating they would do the next day, for some three days. After having been fed up of their response, I told another uncle of mine regarding the status and he said he would call the number directly and recover the mobile soon. I got the news after a few hours that the man promised to return the mobile asap. On asking for the details of how he was nabbed, my uncle narrated that he had called the person and threatened him stating that his entire call history since the time he put on this SIM has been traced and he had no chance to escape. The guy on the other side pleaded not guilty stating that he was working at a reputed firm for years and had a clean track record. To his misfortune the company he mentioned was indeed the same company where my cousin's father worked and he was indeed the same guy whom we already suspected from the reception video. My uncle called that guy again with my other uncle and that person's boss listening to the conversation, staying muted on the line and him without knowing who were on the line mentioned the same thing to my uncle and then both of them came of the mute and a deal was struck and he pleaded guilty finally and promised to return the phone and here I am back with my HTC yet again....!!!

Unasked Reservations

         Reservations in India has been existent for more than half a century now. It was then, the need of the hour, to close the gap on discrimination. Throughout the tenure of existence it has for sure made a lot of impact on the lives of almost every Indian, be it good or bad. Some of its notable impacts are as follows...

• It has given way for the people from the backward classes (which was also the economically backward class, when this was introduced) an equal chance to be able to pursue education at esteemed institutions as well as be able to get reserved opportunities to have a shot at the employment prospects at all Government  and PSU establishments.
• It has been a very effective political tool to win elections since then, till date.
• It has failed to completely bridge the discrimination on the people's mind but has been aiding communal clashes both big and petty.
• It has made any government employee reap benefits (everything or nothing) resulting in a divided mindset on this concept.
• This has paved way for a few truly potential individuals and many incompetent individuals to rise to higher levels in the organizational ladder.
• With bribery and falsehood at ease, another very important impact is that countless people have doctored their caste identity to fall under one of the backward castes to harness its benefits.

          It's certain that a politician will neither raise a voice to, if not abolish but even alter the reservation rules based on the present needs nor will he allow any other person who may try to do that, be heard. Also they (The Politicians) have already started looking at roping in other MNC based employment sectors to abide by these reservation rules as well, to boost up their political presence 

                 Since the idea of reservation was started for the equality of opportunities in education and employment. There has been a few other sectors which hasn't been incorporated into this system for a long time and I would like to throw some light in that direction.

In Politics

• Why not the 825 (280 in RS & 545 in LS) seats in the parliament be apportioned and alloted based on the reservation quota rules?
• Why not every state election strictly abide by the reservation rules. E.g in Tamil Nadu the 234 legislative seats must constitute the combination of all castes summing upto the total count of 234?
• Another option for the previous one, every political party should choose their candidates with the mix of people, applying the reservation quota rules.
• The elections at reserved constituencies must be contested by the those of that caste only.
• During the vote counting in a constituency where the a BC candidate of a party and SC candidate of another party are contesting, the SC candidate should be given more preference even if lesser number of people have voted for him.

In Sports

• The playing team in every sport should be according to reservation quota policies for whichever level of participation, be it school, college, state or even representing India.
• If it's an individual sport, matches should take place between players of different castes, wherein the winner will represent the State or Nation in that sport. However the winning rules are different for different castes. For eg in a five game encounter, the upper caste has to win all 5 to move on further however the SC/ST are through to the next round even if they win just one game.
• In the IPL, every team MUST consist of at-least one of OC/BC/MBC/OBC/SC/ST. Also the at least TWO foreign players MUST have valid caste certificate belonging to any one these.

In Entertainment

• How about the lead role casts be chosen on caste based reservations? Why do they need to pick the cast and crew based on their skill, beauty or talent?
• The screening or the auditioning process MUST have the caste based preferences as the   entry criterion.
• Why to spare the beauty pageant shows from these rules?
• The reality / talent shows should not eliminate people even if they are voted out, if that person belongs to any of MBC/SC/ST.

            Whatever that is age old, needs restoration and renovation and the Reservation policies are no exemptions. It's high time that either the bureaucrats and the politicians woke up and wear their thinking hats for the true progress of the nation or make the nation uniformly go down the drain on all fronts (like the few which has been suggested above) so that there is no discrimination (which is the core mantra of the reservation policies).

For Registration

           After quite a time of deliberation, I finally made up my mind to get a bike for myself and decided to go for an Apache RTR 180. I approached the vendor and completed all the initial paper work and settled for the coveted Perl-White baby. Now I progressed into the phase of deciding upon the auspicious date to register and pick up the bike and it was my mom who did all the math and concluded finally on "The-day" for it. Now since The-day was almost a week away, I decided to pick a fancy registration number in the mean time.

        With a specific range of numbers to choose from, my mom started listing out a set of preferred numbers and after the passage of a few days and many rounds of shortlist, I had ten sets of available fancy numbers to choose from, for my bike. I picked my three choices from the ten and with lots of anxiety on whether those were available at that instant or has somebody taken it already etc as The-day was just two days away. Also the pressure started building in my mind on whether the registration be completed on the specific date and the bike be ready for delivery. To fuel my worries further, the bike vendor expressed there was a delay on the consignment that was scheduled to reach on the day prior to The-day. Not sure and anxious on the status of my registration number as well as the bike, I somehow managed an almost sleepless night, only to wake up on The-day hearing of the necessity to go to work soon (of all days only on that day)  and not sure how worst that is going to make my already worsened day.

         With the onset of the evening, neither I had a clue on what happened to my bike registration nor had I heard about it from anyone. Finally when I could find time to get out of work, I called the vendor and he just asked me to come to the showroom and disconnected without even bothering to answer my anxious questions. I was really cross on him and started off to the showroom. I reached the showroom still with the fury in my mind only to find him with all smiles and he lead me inside the parking lot without giving anytime for me to ask him anything. He broke the silence to confirm me that the register number of my choice has been registered to the bike and the number plate sticker work was all that's pending. He finally gave me the bike keys and showed me the white baby with a For Registration sticked on it.

            I was in a mixed emoted state and my phone vibrations brought me back to my senses. It was a girl whom I knew and she exclaimed happily that she was getting engaged, in a weeks' time and the marriage is slated to happen in six months. I felt a coherence in what she told me and the "For Registration" state of my bike and in fact I literally felt like having heard from her that she's up "For Registration" sans the visible tag on her though, unlike the bike.

Have you ever wondered

In numbers

• Of all numbers why and when was 100 chosen as the emergency number?
• Why nine rounds in boxing?
• Why eight lanes in track events?
• Why 0123456789 from top to bottom in telephones and TV remote while bottom to top on keyboards?

In day to day practices

• Why and when most of us started wearing watches on our left hand?
• Why do we walk holding and pushing the two wheelers always by being beside on the left side of it?
• While blocked in a signal why does many have the habit of moving up in front of all and wait for the signal to clear?

In beliefs

• Why was English used and being used as the official language of communication, mostly world over?
• Why was white and dove chosen as the symbols of peace?
• The irony in the term "Peacekeeping Force".
• Why everyone's last name is either the dad's name or the dad's family name or even both but nothing w.r.t mom's name or her family name?

In Socializing

• Why many of us are obsessed with the number of scraps, photo comments, testimonials and friends on Orkut?
• Why testimonials have never been of a genre apart from leg pulling, praise and accolades?
• Why does most people find it easy to convey their hate or dislike but not their love and likes?
• Why does mostly guys and moms or girls and dads get along with each other so well?

In food and tastes

• Why do we add green chilly to food stuff, when thats the last thing we want to bite and usually hand pick and discard it before eating?
• Of all the kinds of tastes why the oceans and seas are only salty?
• If tongue is to taste why are taste buds only on the tip?

In technology and practices

• Why left/right hand drives were introduced and two traffic patterns based on it?
• Why the human race invented machines and started polluting the environment and now trying to reinvent to get to that pollution free situation that was prevalent in the past, to save the world for the future?
• Why only google and why not other search engines?
• If auto rickshaws can have rear-view mirrors without protruding outside the vehicle, why other vehicles not have it the same way but have it protruding outside on either side of their vehicles.

In sexist practices

• Why does  movie scenes with  topless males go unnoticed by both censor board and general public on the grounds of nudity in cinema?

In other miscellaneous 

• How and why East, West, North and South came into existence and practice?
• Why is it that the world timezone is based on GMT?
• Why does the natural dye henna does not affect the skin color above the neck, when applied?
• When people frequently say something is a pain at all wrong places, why can't those places be categorized as the right places henceforth, as it happens at those places always? 

Aayirathil Oruvan

        Finally here we have Selvaraghavan's brain child, a couple of years after the resounding success and critical acclaim of Pudupettai. No doubt he has bettered himself (just himself) on the direction front.

The Sugar Coat

• The first and foremost thing that grabbed the attention was its sound track which was launched long back and still topping the charts.
• The detailing created to make a fictitious history, is laudable.
• The make up, locales and costumes have been really wonderful and hand picked and it reflects throughout the movie.

The Shell inside

• The story starts with the look out for the missing Prathap Pothan and apparently  post interval neither him nor Andrea Jeremiah play a role, in the movie.
• The sort of military force used throughout, though not named explicitly Indian Army anywhere as such, fails to paint a picture of a well trained force that is ready to face the fights and challenges, which can be seen throughout.
• The final war sequence caused some rib-tickling laughter in me, with the manner the "Warriors with guns" handled "The group with bows and arrows" and shelding the shower of arrows was a wonderful look alike from the movie 300.
• The portrayal of army men as a group greedy for molestation and sexual abuse, towards the end of the movie is rather too cheap and disgusting.
• The need for Karthik and his group of human wagons is just a stitch-in to make a role for him in the movie because the army men obviously must have undergone all those load carrying trainings and be capable enough to do that job themselves.
• The remix version of the whole Original அதோ அந்த பறவை போல song was too dragging and slow for the present.
• In the encounter with the red tribe, why did the Army head wait until the attacking tribal came too close and how come there was not a single instance of Reema Sen reloading her guns though being in the forefront, in the line of attack?
• Why Andrea Jeremiah did not inform or share the information on any traps and risks prior to her talking about snakes?
• Andrea Jeremiah remains grief stricken from the beginning and seem to be a person of few "sane" words and the expletive conversation with Reema Sen doesn't actually fit in for her character portrayed prior to that or even after that.
• Kathik has demeaned the basic man instincts on all the occasions where either Reema Sen or Andrea Jermiah slapped him.
• The liquor found by Karthik seemed to be very less and the following song  shows it in increased quantities at some scenes. Were everyone  too drunk to notice this detail?
• The graphics is excellent at some scenes and many other scenes its evidently pathetic and primitive. 
• Selvaraghavan hasn't yet found someone who can actually make the blood graphics look real, I think he should have taken cues from the movie 300, on this front.
• Not sure whether it was to avoid protests and controversies from Blue Cross or something, a disclaimer on Animals is put up in the beginning and  some of the scenes that shows birds and animals lack clarity and its clearly visible that those are a cut and paste from elsewhere.
• Why and how would a single camel be found at a place which does not have any source of food or water or even shrubs?
• After a slave gives the Army head, a message from Reema Sen, he appears to search for signal to make a call. If it was supposedly a satellite phone he shouldn't have made such a gesture or if a normal mobile phone how was he able to get a signal at a place where there is no sign of any signal source within miles of his vicinity?
• When he was able to perform the act of strangling Reema Sen  via her shadow, why couldn't Parthiban perform miracles on the battleground?
• How the water (drunk by the Chola warriors) became poisonous just because Reema Sen added a few drops of her blood onto to it?
• The sudden "drinks break" for the Chola warriors during the final battle was " a poor directorial connect"  to the fact that Reema Sen had spilt her blood in the water earlier.
• The movie's end was neither a conclusion to the story which originally began as the conquest to find Prathap Pothan nor on the front from Reema Sen's quest for her lost goddess idol.

The Verdict...

         ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவனை கானுபவர்களில் ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவனாவது பாராட்டுவாரா ??