For god's sake....

If you have been to temples in Tamil Nadu(Am not sure about other places),there is a spectacle you would have most certainly noticed.This is that of the 'special darshan' or whatever name by which its called.The system here is ,if you have got the money to spare,you get a shortcut to view the deity.What a wonderful idea!! And to think we were all equal in the eyes of god.

So we have different categories here,the more you spend(lets say you buy an Rs.250 'ticket' instead of an Rs.100 'ticket'),the shorter is the route or waiting time to view the deity.Can anything be more incredulous?If crowd control is the idea then certainly something more innovative can be done to handle that.This,I believe is a system which promotes inequality in a society already torn apart and divided by lopsided growth.Agreed,money guarantees better and prompt service almost everywhere but visiting a temple is a completely different scenario and a temple is not a goddamn restaurant where you can pay more for better service.If people are in such a hurry and they are so damn busy that they cant wait in a queue to pray to whom they believe as god,if they cant respect the other individuals who are waiting in a queue for a longer time that they feel they can barge in by paying some extra money,these people are completely unworthy of any kind of faith that they possess and they dont deserve to visit a temple at all.

Even to those who are reading this blog now,this wouldn't seem to be a big deal at all and that exactly is the worst part of this social evil,the society sees no harm in it and it's being encouraged.

The other day,I visited a prominent temple in a town which is supposed to be the home to one of the most well known temples in the state.When we(I was acompanied by a couple of my colleagues) were inside the temple,one of the guys who had accompanied me gestured us to wait and disappeared somewhere with his mobile phone.He got back after some 20 minutes with a triumphant smile and a slip in his hand and guided us inside.The temple was fairly crowded since it was an auspicious day and while I was wondering how long we would spend in the rather lenghty queue,this colleague of mine had a word with the guy manning the crowd and that guy after having a look at the slip produced by my colleague opened the side gate and let us inside and by the time I grasped what has happened,we had bypassed the long line of devotees standing there and had gone right inside the 'sannidhi' and we hadn't even purchased the special darshan 'ticket' coz that colleague of mine it seemed had some relative in the temple trust and he had used his name(written on that slip) to gain access straightaway. (making a mockery of other devotees standing there for probably an hour or more)

When we came out,this person who had used his 'influence' to take us inside commented that it was satisfying that we had a great 'darshan'.I felt thoroughly disgusted.Forget the inequality in society caused by purchasing darshan tickets inside temples,what this guy had done was a completely despicable act and he was a properly educated guy of the twentieth century and to top it all he felt that he had accomplished something.I just put myself in the shoes of one of the devotees who was standing in the queue while we had cooly walked past him.I felt anger.

God save our nation.

The Improbable role model

Those who are familiar with Tamil cinema can not miss him.Whether we love him or loathe him,we just cannot ignore him.He is T.Rajendar or TR as he is popularly known as.To be honest,the guy resembles a small bear(I don't intend to pass comments on his appearance,pl read on....).But this man has played the lead role in various movies in the past and continues to do so even now,this despite the fact that he is ridiculed and made fun of by most movie goers.

He not only plays the lead role but is also the cameraman,director,script writer and a dozen other things in the movie that he produces.

Am typing all this not because I am a fan of his.I dont even come close although I do watch his movies because nowhere else in the world can you find a movie where even the most serious of scenes in the movie(his recent action movie 'Veerasamy' was an absolute laugh riot)does nothing but evoke laughter from you and hearty laughter that is.

I've often wondered what kept this guy going, doing movies of this sort.Maybe he does'nt have high standards when it comes to delivering quality cinema but he must,I reckon,possess incredible levels of self confidence for without which he just wouldn't be a household name(not always for the right reasons though) now.That kind of self confidence just amazes me and it has actually made me feel that he is a role model(plz plz guys read the entire post) for anyone who is low on self confidence for if he can through his efforts (he certainly is not a hero or director material although he is talented) taste success in the past as a hero(& director) in the tamil film industry then so can anyone with enough self confidence in other walks of life.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Z2lIa6ACc --(Enjoy)TR mouthing english dialogues

ஏ டண்டனக்கா ஏ டனக்குனக்கா

The Inspiration factor

Its been more than eight years but I still remember the time when I wasn't taken seriously when it came to sports-athletics,cricket & any other damned wannabe macho activity,the reason?I used to be a lean(thin?) boy with  pathetic levels of self confidence....i still remember watching Rocky series the first time & the incredible effect these movies from Stallone(my idol,then & now) had on me....this movie played a major role in me taking up weight training although at that point of time all that I wanted was to pack on big muscle and look like someone who remotely resembled Stallone.

Its been eight years now and not only have I packed on big muscle but I've also acquired enough knowledge on the How,What and Whys of being fit and the various aspects of strength and weight training.

The other day when I was working out,I caught a guy staring at me and when he realized that I had caught his stare,he came to me and somewhat hesitantly asked like how long I had been working out and other related stuff.He turned out to be a college kid who had just hit the gym a few months ago.I told him patiently that i had been working out for years together and he almost gaped when I mentioned the no. of years.However before leaving he said that he was asking all that coz he wanted to build a physique just like mine...and hearing this I couldn't help but permit myself a broad smile.I was actually good enough to inspire someone and that moment made my day.

Trust me,It really was a great feeling!!

Why the system of ‘ARRANGED MARRIAGE’ in India is a joke

‘Arranged marriage’ doesn’t the name itself sound ambiguous? Well ambiguous in the sense, how can a marriage of all things in the world be arranged? All right lets get to the basics. Arranged all right but by whom? By the parents of the concerned guy and the girl would be the simple answer and yes that’s right. Also I never deny the fact that parents know best. I am what I am today because of my parents.

But how can the parents determine the life partner, the person with whom the guy or girl is going to spend the rest of their lives with. This is akin to saying that when you are in say school or college your dad comes over to your classes picks up a guy who looks decent and studious, comes to you and says ‘ok son this guy looks studious and decent so I want him to be your friend during the time you spend in college.’

Will you ever accept that? When it takes so much of time for you to understand and accept a person as a friend how can you simply look into a photograph or meet a person for a few minutes(during another joke of a ceremony)and agree to marry the person.

Now please dont think I am a rebel or some proponent of love marriages,I do attend these weddings day in and day out.I am just giving shape to my thoughts here!

Let us consider for instance the typical criteria for the selection of the groom:

1. First and foremost the dude should be from the same caste and creed.
2. The horoscope of the guy and the girl should match-very crucial indeed.
3. Must definitely be in a very well paying job that is deemed secure.
4. Must look decent, if conditions 2and 3 are satisfied even a not so decent looking guy would be an ideal match.

Even after meeting all these ‘crucial selection criteria’, the guy could be a complete nut case(like that dumb colleague of yours in office and might not even come close to your daughter who could be having a great creative side) or could even be a homicidal maniac.

And he could also be a great guy, a perfect match for your daughter. But is this something that can be left to chance? What if he doesn’t turn out to be a great guy but rather seems to be like the former cases.

Still the marriage will seem to be a success but mark my words it will only seem to be a success because we are a society of hypocrites.

What is the definition of success here? As I mentioned earlier the guy would be having a great paying job and the financial security would be in place and there would be a kid too now. So the marriage is a success. Or is it?

An eye on the vision

What is this vision all about?Companies have emblazoned it right across their offices ,its drilled over and over into students at B-Schools and blah blah blah
So here's my take on what vision is all about(maybe you can give it a different name)

You are at the shores of a river.

You have to get to the opposite bank.

The flowing river is swift with a strong current.

Now the success lies in getting to the opposite bank without being swept away by the strong currents.

Would'nt this be a simple task to do if you just have to hold a rope overhead(of course you have to cling on to it tightly) and follow the rope slowly but steadily.

This rope is what VISION is.

Difficult to cling onto it is'nt it?

A wonderful quote

Action without vision is a waste of time,
Vision without action is mere daydreaming.

C'mon it cant happen to me......

....the 'it happens only to others' kind of an attitude towards accidents is pretty natural and I had the same kind of an attitude myself before I was rudely pushed into reality and found myself involved in one.I remember the date too 9th Sept 2002.Well not serious enough to be marked in red but serious enough to have made me understand a few hard facts of life.A cool monday morning at around 6.30am and there I found myself just barely inches away from the wheels of one our beloved MTC buses on the Kodambakkam overbridge.

I am not going into the details of it but I missed death by a whisker but my six month new bike had taken the brunt of it for the rear wheel of the bus had run over it and my heart bled watching pieces of my new bike being recovered from underneath the bus.

I've passed through that way a million times after that in my same dear bike and the same thoughts pass through my mind every other time.

1.I could have died in that accident and caused irrecoverable grief to my parents but I did'nt so why not make them happy and joyous as much as possible.

2.I would'nt have enjoyed life myself so why not stop brooding over all the petty things in life and make masti.

3.Had I had some serious injuries from the accident,would'nt have been able to lift weights(my passion) so why not make working out in the gym a more serious affair(not that I was'nt serious then).