The book on mind reading..

Lately, I was searching desperately for a good book and I wasn't prepared to give much to the theme of the book. Some suggested me Dan Brown's Angels and demons. I've already got my hands on this book and it is now right at the top of my list of favorites! Several suggestions were flowing in. But, I was pretty sure that the book one liked need necessarily not produce the same kind of affinity when it comes to another person because, as we all know, opinions differ. So, I wasn't sure how far the suggested books would go within me. Hence, I questioned myself as to which book I should try this time. It's almost been 7 months since I took the books with more than 500 leaves in my hands and now, I don't think I have the patience to go through the entire book if it is going to be one of those heavily loaded books. That made me go for a book with the number of pages neither excessive nor insufficient even to call it a book. This book was penned by Gordon Mooer. The book talked about the hidden efficiency of a human mind and its capabilities that are unreachable even by human imaginations. I was so happy to spot a book that gave the exact difference between a mind and a brain, which are often considered to be synonymous to each other. But, Mooer clearly came out with the exact difference that differentiates mind from brain. Brain is a physical structure but mind is all about visions and thoughts that emerge from the brain. Scientists have coined term brain waves which originate from the brain when a person tends to think of something or when the subconscious mind starts working on its own without any voluntary stimulus. I always wondered what people meant by Peace of Mind. This book gave me a clear definition of mind that I now understand commonsense has got nothing to do with our brain. What originates from your brain in the form of thoughts is put into action that decides your commonsense. So, next time you find a senseless idiot annoying you, don't think he has got no brain. It's just that the quality of thoughts that emerge from his brain is too low to bear with for you! I just love going through this book since it has taught me everything an aspiring psychologists need to know in the beginning.

Chain with weak links..

They didn't know what they were doing. They had no clue who they are struggling for. They didn't even know whether it was really an act with a good cause. But, they stood strong in the making of the longest human chain ever made possible in the country even when it was raining. I won't call it a heavy downpour as some of the TV channels with strong political backgrounds did. In a city with a population of more than 7 crores, only few thousands participated in the human chain that had a span of 60 KM according to the media reports and the best part of the funny fable is that the human chain covered some of the most busiest parts of the city, thus making it too difficult even for the pedestrians to walk through. I doubt whether the people other than politicians who participated in the rally really knew what their message through the human chain motion was to the Central Government. If you are one of those who were standing as a link for the chain, let me tell you what you were doing exactly. You were supporting who are completely responsible for all the miseries the country of Sri Lanka is suffering today. You were a wet goat yesterday because the politicians wanted to make you look dumb while they were waving hands at you staying within their bullet-proof cars and Z-Grade security ring around them. You were supporting the people simply because they speak the same language as you do. You forgot the fact that it was with the help of a large section of these people that Sivaraj and Nalini managed to infiltrate India and succeeded in their attempt on the life of this nation's Prime Minister. You were standing on the street on an overcast day trying to be a redeemer for these people who have illegally occupied a big part of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a Government like India. They have their own Prime Ministers and his cabinet to decide on this issue. Understand that Sri Lanka isn't a part of India if that is what you were thinking while making a clown out of you yesterday. If trying to push the Sri Lankan Government to spare the lives of millions of Tamil people living in Sri Lanka is sensible from your scrutiny, then it is quite acceptable if the Sri Lankan Government tends to interfere in the internal affairs of India and forces the Government of India to do something about it since these militant groups haven't got their hands on Sri Lanka anytime in the past. It's always good for us to know our boundaries and stay within it. At the end of the day, we had the politicians resting at their places after successfully making fools out of thousands of Tamil people, you standing wet on the streets, causing one of the biggest and annoying traffic congestions in the city ever and the world looking down upon you as a muck!

Questioning from the tainted side..

The hot news of the day is someone from the most arrogant, unmindful and tainted cricketing team in the world has come up with an issue that is totally against the fact, which is very obvious. People are convinced that the allegations from this man, who is known by the name Adam Gilchrist, from Australia are baseless and against reality. It's quite natural to find an internationally popular personality getting on to his nerves as soon as he goes on air in front of a TV camera. But, Gilly was completely enthusiastic while penning his autobiography, which paved the way for him to take on the little master, Sachin Tendulkar. Gilchrist completely annihilated the fact that the Australians were solely instrumental in building the technique of sledging so strong. Also, the Australians made the term 'Mind games' more popular than the name 'George.W.Bush'. Mind game is the filtered term they used to cover up their negative and filthy aggression. No one could stand a player from such a ruthless team talking rudely about the greatest cricketer of all times. Silly Gilly alleged that Sachin contradicted himself while he appeared for the Bhajji's trial in front of the board of umpires and that he tried to protect Bhajji. Finally, this man came up with a harsh statement that questioned Sachin's honesty. Why couldn't Gilchrist remember the Sharjah series between the two countries when Sachin walked out even when umpire didn't raise his crooked finger? Does Gilly even really qualify to spell the word Honesty when he couldn't remember what happened to Indians in their recent tour of Australia? It was Gilly's captain who took the additional responsibility and told the umpire the catch was clean. Where was Gilly's honesty at that moment? Players, after moving away from the game, should try staying away from such careless comments also. Gilly's arteries went down in the quantity of tequila which he had before sitting with the pen and a book to scribble his biography and he realized he did something wrong few moments back. That was when he called up Sachin and apologized for going beyond the limits by calling him a 'sore loser' and quoting that it is very hard to find Tendulkar in the dressing room for a handshake after the game ends in a high note for Aussie. This is now very funny. Sachin has nothing to lose and the world now knows who acted like a jester in this issue. Gilly has everything to lose. He has just started to lose his fame and glory that he earned while he was online even though he was under the umbrella of pointless Ponting.

Boom in the bloggers' world..

International markets are experiencing fatal financial crisis. Red glows all over the world markets starting from NASDAQ to NIKKEI. A part of the impacts of dropping share markets is felt on the food and oil prices, which have reached the levels that have never even been imagined of in the past. Name any industry and you would find it in the list of industries that possess broken statures in the economy today. Investors are not prepared to lend ears to what the Union Finance Ministry has got to say because the latter had always tried to soothe the former even when there were hard times approaching their pockets. The economic depreciation has been given a chance to engulf the nation by sparking what are known price hikes. When the cost of petrol per barrel has dipped below $80, which is the lowest value in the last 6 months, the petroleum ministry is unable to bring down the cost of a liter of petrol in India. The effect of inflation swung back to increase the magic figure of agony which reached a double figure very recently. You might be wondering what a blogger has got to do with all these misfortunes. Though these are unfortunate causes of inflation and price rise, bloggers from India are having a pleasant time under the hot sun while others are beaten by the heat. With the approaching economic crisis which started with U.S, the value of Indian currency has dropped to the record lowest value. This may indicate the signs of doomsday at India's doorstep. But, for the bloggers in India, this has brought the positive effect of inflation and weakened value of Indian Rupees against U.S.D. Now, I've earned around $700 through my blogs. A part of this amount reached my online account when the INR's value versus U.S.D was Rs.43. When I received the amount in INR, the value was Rs.47. Thus, for every American dollar, I managed to put up an excess Rs.4, which is flatly a bonus! Now, I don't know what I should do. I don't know whether I should feel bad for enjoying the happy turnover when the whole nation is suffering from critical economic crisis or feel good that I am capable of surviving the disaster called economic downfall.

Rules gone wrong..

Of late, we find so many changes in the traffic rules that are applicable within the city limits of Chennai. Helmets are made mandatory for bike riders. I always talk about this helmet issue whenever I talk about traffic policemen and anything related to them for I've dropped some bucks in their pockets, sometimes for not sticking on to the rules and sometimes for sticking to the rules but failing to convince these jerks in uniforms. At the end of the day, I hate them to the deepest core! Anyway, let me take you through the anomalies in the traffic rules we follow in Chennai. There are hard proofs available to stand firm on the fact that there is no coordination between the traffic police department, the oil ministry, health ministry and in fact, the whole Government. Today, the trend that is invading the minds of traffic policemen is "One-way or no way". Almost 30% of the main roads in the city, which were once used for two-way traffic, have been made one-way which, according to the police department, is an attempt to regulate and diversify the growing traffic in the city. Recently, I had been to Egmore and found that almost all the Roads at the junction had next to Pudupet had been turned into one-way roads. Something told me it's not going to be an easy task to reach the Commissioner's Office. I drove straight and when I was about to take a right, I found that the road is being used for one-way traffic and I had to go straight further. This isn't area with which I am quite familiar. So, I had no idea about the small roads in between the main roads which might probably take me to the destination in my mind. I reached the junction and now the rule is different. I am not allowed to take a right turn, though the road on my right is available for two-way traffic. The journey, straight down the road, continued with my bike running low on fuel. I reached another junction, where the signal timer continued flicking through the numbers for more than 2 minutes. At last I took a right turn, which was exactly the same I should have done 5 minutes back. Now, my destination lied to my right and I needed to take a right turn somewhere. I found a right and also a board that said 'No Right Turn'. But, the funniest part of the rule is that U-turn was allowed at that place. My journey on Kilpauk high road continued. The next right turn was a one-way. So, it kept me moving straight. Finally, the end of a long stretch came to an end and I found that I had reached the place from where my journey from Mount Road to Commissioner Office at Egmore. Thus, what I was left with in the end was a 'Pradhakshanam' around the Commissioner Office. I sought after the help of an auto-rickshaw driver, who, I was sure, would know even the smallest of streets in the city. He made me reach the place through a small street. Thus, I had a 5KM ride on my bike which should actually have been a 300 meter journey. Isn't this an idiotic act that puts down all the purposes of the oil ministry to bring down the oil prices? I was in great demand for petrol for my bike. Demand is the reason for the price hike. I could imagine the number of people who would have faced the same misery on bike as I did. That magnifies the demand which in turn gives Government no room to reduce the fuel cost. Since the entire traffic towards Egmore is diverted to Kilpauk High road, the congestion at the junction at the mouth of the main road has increased to several folds. Thus, the amount of exhaust gases let out in the atmosphere obviously goes up, which makes the conditions highly unhealthy. Thus, all the efforts of the Union Health ministry is made to go up in flames. I doubt whether Mr.Anbumani Ramadoss has the knowledge that smoking in public doesn't add as much smoke as the vehicle exhausts does to the atmosphere when the vehicle engines are put on idling at junctions and when the runtime of the vehicles on the roads increase due to congestion, which in turn leads to same effects on one's health as smoking. This reflects the complete lack of coordination between the different parts of the machinery called Government. Thus, the state has become a vehicle with the wheels at the rear end trying to go back while the wheels at the front pushing the system forward. And the system, which is the society here, stays right at the place where it was before the processes started, leading to stagnation!

Festive mood sets in..

The festival of lights is around the corner and the sky above the whole nation will be glowing for the next few days if one takes the bird's view. It's Diwali that we are inching closer to everyday! This is the most colorful and flamboyant festival one could think of. We should thank Lord Ram for giving all of us a reason to make the sky brighter than usual at nights for few days. Some, who are against Hinduism, may point to the fact that on the day of Diwali, pollution across the whole nation increases to a fatal level. Such ignorant facts should be eradicated from the Devil's workshop and such people should understand that Diwali isn't the only cause for pollution. Everyday, millions of factory outlets and billions of vehicles all over the world contribute in a major scale to pollution. Futile arguments shouldn't be pushed to the surface just because some have severe hatred for Hinduism. Diwali is not only a festival that spreads joy and happiness in the form of light. It is also an occasion that can remove the darkness dominating one's mind. Naragasuran, the devil in the form of human, inflicted pain to several people and there was no room for happiness in his kingdom. The purpose of Lord Ram's birth was to bring the miseries of people to an end by vanquishing Ravana, who is depicted as a human with 10 heads. After defeating Ravana and saving Seetha from his demonic clutches, Lord Ram proved his benevolence by offering a wish for Ravana. Unlike the villains the movies depict today, Ravana realized his mistakes before his life came to an end and wished for something nobody would have even thought of quoting as a wish. He wanted the people all over the world to celebrate the day he died and he wanted the day to be called Deepavali, which, over the time, turned into Diwali. Now, after experiencing 22 years on this earth with some really bad people, I don't find Ravan really bad. I doubt whether Lord Ram would be able to repeat the history now for weeding some of the unwanted elements in the nation who are personifications of evil. Let us hope this Deepavali spreads light on the minds of such blackened minds. Let’s spread the joy in the form of light! Happy Deepavali fellas!!

Music and movies..

I am a hardcore music lover. It's one thing apart from my blogger friends and other intimate mates that keeps me going when I decide to make a blog post in here. That is one of the reasons for adding this widget to my blog that plays music automatically when someone visits it. When I am listening to a good song, especially a TAMIL song, I feel really easy to club my ideas together without any obscurity. I don't why this happens but I feel plainly comfortable with my blog when music hits the background. If asked to rate the quality of music, I would put TAMIL songs at the top followed by English genres. I won't spare time thinking about the Hindi music world because such a thing doesn't exist. What actually comes from Bollywood is a Hindi NOISY world. Very rarely, good music comes from Bollywood and you would find the man behind the successful reach of the songs in South India will once again be from South India. [A.R.Rahman ;-)]. Tamil music has the essence to go deep within anyone except those that are technically termed 'KUTHU' songs. Sometimes, even these songs sound better than the ones that come from Bollywood after the music scorers spent so many precious hours in them. Bollywood is almost full of noisy tracks which don't sound pleasant for many. Lately, I tried to develop an inch of interest in me for bollywood music. I listened to the song 'Hello' from the movie 'Hello'. It was so boring and carried the same old hindi tradition of going the Western way. I guess people from bollywood think they are right on track to take Indian cinema closer to Hollywood. But, the fact is that they are damping the Indian movie industry's development by concentrating more on making movies that look very similar to their Hollywood counterparts. And they have even attempted to build the so called King Khan's image as big as Tom Cruise's in Hollywood. I have spotted Tom Cruise giving a touch to his hairstyle for his movies. The only change that this man from Bollywood managed to produce is a 6-pack. And his hair style remains the same from Baazigar to Om Shanthi Om. Thus, I feel if Bolllywood tries to turn a bit of its attention towards the improvisation of its music world, it will be helpful for the Indian movies. I find the Malayalam songs really good and I don't know why people don't celebrate Mallu songs and go for NOISY tunes. That is the only magic Bollywood came up with so far. So, my suggestion to all my fellow Indian bloggers is to listen to either Malayalam or Tamil songs while blogging if you are wishing to build an extremely well-shaped blog. If you want to produce a blog as irregular as Bollywod, listen to Hindi songs. If possible, watch Shah Rukh Khan's movies before you start with your blog so that you can get the 'Worst Blogger Award' if not the best. :-P

One full year of blogging!!

Finally, I've reached the place I aimed to be at exactly 365 days back in the past! I've been trying to keep up with my blog for the past 1 year and I guess I have successfully managed to build a good one. I was going through all the posts I had published in the past and I am point-blank satisfied by the way I have handled the titles and the topics. I am not trying to blow my trumpet. But, I have succeeded, for the first time in my life, in an attempt to feel self-satisfied. I am in fact very much pleased by my intentions to blog about topics that normally won't be considered for developing blogs by those millions of better bloggers out there in the world. I struggled really hard in the beginning to push my kid into the vast blog world. At first, I felt so small on looking at bloggers who were too professional and had the expertise in them to make some of the world's best blogs. I started blogging just to experience the elation when I see what ran through my mind blended with the blog template to produce the effect of a real and quality website. I was so happy after publishing my first post because I lifted myself to the status of Google's owner, though I don't who it is, since I own a niche right here like Google in the world of web. My initial posts were too long for the readers to go through completely and some of my friends even brought the request to reduce the number of words I used in my posts to me. It has become a habit now and I still couldn't get out of 'make-big-posts' practice. I owe my friends everything I earned through this blog in the form of bucks and many international blogger friends because they kept the thrust behind me steady and kept me moving deeper into the blog world. I don't know where I would be placed if I stand against other good bloggers I know today. But, I won't be disheartened even if I win the last place in the list starting with the best in the business. At the end of the day, a place in the list of bloggers is all I need and I want to make sure I don't find anything missing in me which might honestly be considered essential to make a good blogger out of anyone. And I couldn't drop out of this post without citing some of my good blogger friends, though each and every single blogger is held close to my heart, who are so nice to exchange messages and links with me habitually and helped me stay right on the track. Here are some of the best bloggers I enjoyed being with :

Ria Stevenson

Articles Blogger

Ask me recipe

Edelweiza

Momeen


Friends, thank you so much for making me a blogger. I love you all!!!

Degrading dress code..

What do you see in this picture posted above? An auto-rickshaw trying to make a U-turn at the other end? An auto-rickshaw taking a right turn? A black Ford Ikon trying to take a right turn from the far end of the picture? Yes. You can find all these things in this picture. And you can also spot the cyclist to your left looking at a clown in white shirt standing right at the middle of the road doing nothing. Don't mistake him for a vagabond. Actually, he is one of those vagabonds who are given uniforms and codes of conduct and also the name 'Traffic policemen'. They have a department. They make themselves responsible for maintaining law, order and discipline among the drivers on the roads of Chennai, which are gaining good shapes these days. They have even listed down a number of rules to be followed by the drivers and especially bike riders lately. All these rules are, according to these scavengers of money in uniform, drafted to ensure safety. My question is, whose safety are they trying to ensure? I am quite sure they are more worried about the gloomy days yet to be faced by Indian economy and they have already started filling up their bank accounts using the money which they get mostly from bike riders, to ensure their families remain safe when the whole nation is in grief. These traffic constables call helmet a part of a bike rider's dress code. And they say it's a must for a rider to have a helmet protecting his head while riding a bike. They are more concerned about the riders' dress code. But, look at this man in Khaki pants and white shirt in the picture above. Look closely at the picture. I know you have spotted that the beggar bound by baseless rules has not put on his rain boots. If you have a good vision, you can find another policeman at the far end of the picture, near the black Ford Ikon. You can find him in his rain boots. I accept that rain boots are not a part of their uniform. But, I don't think a pair of toilet slippers is a part of their dress code either. Are they? I never knew Chennai Traffic police department has brought some comfortable changes for making the traffic constables feel good when they become a mere spectator looking at the moving vehicles hours together, standing under the shade and rarely dropping out of it to stop a vehicle for the valuable insurance papers, which if missing would make them ask for the really valuable piece of paper called money. I can't stop imagining the other developments that would have their roots in the department very soon. What do you know? If this is a deliberate change in the dressing code followed by the traffic police, then I could guess the next big changes in line that would be brought upon these maggots. Low waist short pants, Nike shoes, sleeveless low drops, tattoos on arms and also on the bulky bellies, pierced ears and a haircut that appears like contour farming. After all, these would look really cool and comfortable. Won't they? :-P

Ultra-modern cities???

Chennai is becoming more sophisticated and advanced in terms of lifestyle, economy, opportunities and entertainment without giving up its image as a cultural hub. With cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad failing terribly in an attempt to acclimatize themselves to the lifestyle of Western hemisphere, Chennai made sure it followed its own unique way of development and progress. Initially, people were laughing at the way Chennai projected itself as a metropolitan city without a big number of night clubs and party floors which the people from above mentioned cities thought were the sign of development. Now, the world laughs at these cities for their ignorance about the real meaning of development and turning a city into a metropolitan on the map. I feel really bad for those cities because they thought they were right on track of development without carrying the reality in their minds, which is actually that they were going exactly the wrong way. Following the way people live in the Western world is good for a developed nation in the East. But, we should not forget India is a developing nation that has a heavy load of 120 billion people on its back and trying to imitate westerners is a blunder which the so called developed cities in India committed. First of all, how can certain cities alone be considered as developed parts of the nation when the whole nation is called a developing one? Isn't the word integration missing right at the root of this point? Development doesn't mean bollywood or night clubs or dance floors. Development doesn't even mean good looking girls wearing Low waist jeans and t-shirts with quotes on them that contain the words 'WANNA' or 'GONNA' in the places of 'WANT TO' or 'GOING TO'. People from these cities should understand development is a collective term that covers criteria like employment, literacy rate, specific, per capita income, establishments in various fields of business and the like. Just because a state owns Nasik, the capital of the state can't be called the New York of India. Chennai survives majority of these criteria, though not all. When it comes to industrial development and literacy rate, Chennai is several folds better than Mumbai or Hyderabad. People have just started to show themselves as trendy. According to a recent survey, among all the cities, the Chennai people spend more on entertainment and thus, Mumbai is beaten to the floor even when it comes to considering entertainment as the main criterion to judge the development of a state. Thus, I cannot search for words other then 'THE BEST' for Chennai and 'SATISFACTORY', though not completely, for other cities which proclaim to be completely ultra-modern, rich and decent.