A layman notes on "Pinneyum" the movie.

• Actors looking into the camera unknowingly - irritating.
• Actors waiting/pausing for reaction - irritating.
• Kavya as an actor - guaranteed an award.
• Entangled in roles - Wife mother et al - all good.
• Dileep appears to be in a learning mode - average.
• Dileeps sister - shows potential.
• Devi's grownup daughter - acting is so sad.
• Job Interview, Police interrogation - average.
• Story gaps -
• 3 elderly people conspire in a murder including a retired teacher? what are the driving factors ? Am lost.
• hay for burning car - seriously ?
• What the importance of victims kid in second half - perhaps to get Devi's sympathy - hmmm.
• Plastic surgery - its so 80s an idea for 2016.
• Alternate stories perhaps ?
• That boom-boom sound in the background - an irritation.
• Recreates a lot of typical scenes and actions - rain, sound of rain, the busy wife, useless BIL - good.
• Strong dialogues as usual touches the human heart - pains of a gulf employee, jobless husband captured - good.
• Captures the typical observations - including the T-shirt worn by BIL/toys after Dileeps visit from gulf, the usual homes of 80s - good.
• Movie impact - average to low.
• Adoor definitely needs to hire one or more young assistants! We have a potential strong movie, but needs lot of scrubbing & cleaning.

O My. What a car. (2002 Opel Corsa 1.6 Royale)

* also at http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Opel-Corsa-1-6-GLS-review-nuqpoortnr *

It has been a long time since I last posted on MouthShut - For a background, my first car was a Maruti Esteem (read its review here). Have to report on my present day car, Corsa too; unfair otherwise.

Bought my Corsa around 4 years back from a colleague who had taken extraordinary care to maintain it; I definitely must have been lucky to get a second hand car in this tip-top condition. It continues to amaze me each time I hit the road.

To start off, its build is nothing like any of the entry level Indian cars (read "less than 6 lakhs kind in 2012") where pieces come loose, no nagging complaints of oil/water leaks, no loose nuts, no cheap plastic, a heavy solid body, no vibration-hell as you touch 100kmph and you don't feel tired even after a non-stop 8hr drive. The suspension does its best job in taking the Kerala roads - kudos for it.

Being the high end version of the Corsa, this car is fully loaded - alloy wheels, wind spoiler, wooden finish in dash board, quality plastic that has not yet faded and much more.

Power/Speed: @1600cc, 93bhp@5600rpm this is a solid beast that can pretty much take on most of the cars on the highway on the run and at the lights. In the last 4 years, there have been very few instances of overtakes ;). The last drive through Avinashi-Salem highway gave me goose bumps at 160kmph (and it kept asking for more). Even at these speeds, the steering, brakes and the overall cars "road-balance" /"road-grip" were in total control (not unlike my old Esteem where once you hit 110kmph, tension was in the air and the car appears to go out of control), giving you complete confidence. In the past 4 years, there has been no case of a/c-OFF-for-more-power mode which was pretty standard sequence in my old Esteem :(. An high performing a/c that does it job even in the worst of Kochi summers make sure the passenger is left cool.

I had one bad incident when a Qualis fellow crossing the main road hit Corsa directly on the left front door straight on. It appears the steel rods which runs through Corsa's left door had taken the complete impact. The front end of the Qualis (grills, air vents...) together with its engine were all piled up and seems to have considerably displaced deeper into the vehicle. I had to take its driver in my Corsa to the police station to get the acknowledgement. Felt sorrier for him - he had to tow his away. Drove my car then to Kropex; all good as new in a weeks’ time.

Maneuvering this car in the Bangalore traffic is pretty smooth - given its small width, I can pretty much get into most of the gaps and squeeze my way in, which appears to be a much required feature for cars these days in Bangalore.

Maintenance when compared to my old Maruti Esteem was way cheaper over the year. It should be noted that though the per visit charges appears to be high, over the year it is cheaper to maintain when compared to my Esteem for which the number of visits I had to make were innumerous. No issues as of today in getting spare parts - Kropex has been very helpful till date.

Petrol Efficiency - city ~10, highways ~14. Nothing much exciting to report here.

Overall a beautiful piece of German engineering that got released into the Indian market way too early. Achtung Opel/GM if they are is listening : we are more ready today - blow us out again please!

Mature enough to Learn?

Do we really think a 20yr old who has completed his 3yr graduation (say B.Sc/BA) is mature enough to absorb, appreciate, critic, comment, develop what would be taught for post-graduation studies ? Don't think so.

Suggestion : Have a compulsory break of at least 8 years before going in for a post graduation study. At this point, also include compulsory courses on humanity and humility. A holistic approach to the subject in concern is highly required at this point to create him a better educated person.

Thoughts?

National Rural Livelihood Mission - Participate

Check out this advertisement in the 'The Hindu' daily yesterday (29.10.2011). An opportunity for experienced folks to participate directly in an initiative headed by the rural development ministry. Participating in this should give you that much needed sense of achievement.

(click on the above image for a larger version)

Read more about NRLM here

Goodbye "Booker".. Welcome "Literature"

Literature in its pure form is back in focus.

Its great to know that there are more folks that think Booker Prize is no longer living up-to its reputation. Some of the queries that I raised in a 2008 blog entry appears to be answered : The new "Literature Prize" should be something to look forward to, given the promises it appears to make.

Readers and Writers, there is still light at the other end. 

A related Link from The Hindu

Why I got off Facebook.

Not sure what drove me to Facebook when I had similar result with Orkut, Ryze, Buzz .....

In case of Facebook, haven't yet figured out in the past few weeks why I need to share my status, photos on a regular basis with 'friends', to be in the active mode. I am quite reserved with anything that involves self, family and friends. On similar lines, not really interested to know the 'status' about my 'friends' either. I am not really interested to know that you are now in a hotel with your kids or on top of the mountain. Nor am I interested in your profile photo that now has a red hue. Why the heck should I 'like' it ? Its your lunch, your kids, your trip, your life - great for you mate.

Call me an introvert, but you need to ask yourself if that fellow on the 'friend' list is really your friend or just an acquaintance. Don't have a clue to what drives people into sharing stuff with these acquaintances. In my case, I just need something for maintaining acquaintance/friend contact details, which Smartr currently appear to do a job good.

It appears to be more targeted at youngsters (from schools, bachelors etc.) who are always on the lookout to prove they are doing great things to 'friends' ?

It really has not helped me with getting in back in touch either. Other than the chain-messages that you share just after you 'add'ed a 'friend', your connections slowly appear to fade out.

The amazing set of applications too are good for a one time try; gets boring after that.

Facebook has turned into a unwanted cruel addiction with no real social / other benefit. To share my thoughts online, its gonna be blogs for some more time.

Quick tea anyone ?

Reddit - the best of the month - redditor magazine

Though a frequenter at reddit.com, didn't know about this magazine until now http://theredditor.com/
Now you know what to do today post lunch :)

Onam @ Eenam

The team at eenam is back with this years onam compilations:
http://onam.eenam.com/

Lokpal Bill - reviewing Bill + contacting standing committee

Anyone seriously reviewing the Lokpal Bill and wanting to contact the Parliamentary standing committee should check out the related documents at Rajya Sabha portal :

http://164.100.47.5/newsite/press_release/bill_committee.aspx

Search for "Lokpal" section. The first link takes you to the bill itself while, the second link, called "press release", has the email-ids of the standing committee members where your comments/suggestions can be send to, before 3rd September 2011.

In addition to reviewing the current Lokpal bill on its own, you might want to compare this with the JanLokpal and propose the most practical / sensible options among them.

Why Anna Hazare fails to convince me.

1.) The concept of indefinite fast is good to get attention and for the concerned people to act. But, does it mean that the fast/peaceful-protest etc would continue until all the items requested are accepted by the concerned?

There appears to be some disconnect here. Assume I am convinced that capital-punishment should be enforced by the law and then start an indefinite-fast such that people take notice. Yes, it would definitely attract a set of people who think capital-punishment is right, say a crore. Does this mean the law makers should accept my terms and enforce a new bill/law ? Isn't this like twisting the arm?

India as a democratic country expects the legislative assembly, who are its people representatives to discuss, debate and finally pass any bill. The system expects that the parliament is the place where the bill would be discussed/debated out. Yes, you can definitely put your points forward through an indefinite-fast, but don't expect everything to be accepted as-is.

2.) Supporters for the bill might come from all walks of life, but it has to be noted that these people are NOT the majority of India. Population of India is around120 crore - even if 1 crore people become part of any agitation; it IS NOT THE representation of India! The representation of India as a democratic country is its elected members. From the last count, the support for Anna is in the range of thousands (6 crore mobile support supposedly)

3.) JanLokpal as a committee : After all this, if JanLokpal as an independent committee gets affected, what's the guarantee that it itself does not get corrupted ? Would we have Lokpal-Supreme committee then formed to oversee Lokpal ? Where would this end ?

3.1) Isn't this like leading to a Lokpal Dictatorship? Why do we want a parallel government to be created with so many rights?

Shouldn't we be fixing what's wrong in the current system rather than have a new committee that is above and over the parliament/judiciary ? The possible rights of JanLokpal as listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill sounds pretty dangerous.

4.) The supporters are mostly youngsters (school goers too!) who might not be capable of absorbing the intricacies of the bill and the path followed.

4.1) On a related note, wonder how many of his supporters really understand what the difference between Lokpal and JanLokpal are and what they are really supporting for ?

I think Anna has to have more constructive discussion with the government to come out with a more effective law/committee rather just sit around in a indefinite-fast and trying to break an existing powerful democratic constitution.

Culture lost

Came across this site when reading on Hindu philosophy, Mimamsa, Chattambi Swamikal et al:

http://malayalamebooks.wordpress.com/

A great ebook collection of spiritual,philosophical thoughts, quite a few that reflect the Kerala culture & life and that has books on Aitihyamala, Advaitha studies etc.

On a related note, its quite sad that a generation has been lost who has no clues to the idealogies, thoughts, philosophies, legends of their ancestors. I think that this 'lost' feeling applies to all other branches including science, mathematics, literature and everything else where the past seems too rich, as we dig deeper into it. Where did we loose all of it?

How do we reset, perhaps starting with the education system such that it builds upon the lost past ?

Partnership only firms

Isnt it an exploitation of humans that they have to work for someone else for 9hrs daily ? Whatever happened to human rights ? Is salary a convincing enough reason for an employee to help the shareholder grow richer by the day while missing life ?
Where are the partnership firms ? Need a model where there are only partners-as-employee with stakes. No employer-employee.
Time to head to office.

Update 05.05.2012 : Came across at an amazingly flat structure @ Valve. Read their employee manual

Make their day today through worldvision.in

A great opportunity for you to help the underprivileged children today through worldvision.in. Gift them and make their day.

Read more here : http://www.worldvision.in/gifts/gc10/mailer01.html

Chilli Chicken Andhra Style?

This tasted more or less same (better?) to the andhra style chilli chicken you get at some of the Andhra restaurants in Bangalore. Here it goes:

Ingredients:

1.) Chicken small-medium pieces - 1 Kg
2.) Pepper powder - 1/2 tbsp
3.) Lemon - 1
4.) salt to taste (under 1/2 tbsp recommended)
5.) Onions - 5
6.) Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
7.) Cloves - 3
8.) Cardamom - 2
9.) Cinnamon- 1"stick
10.) Corainder powder - 1/4 tbsp
11.) Turmeric power - 1/4 tbsp
12. ) Cooking oil - 1/2 cup
13.) Green Chilli - 10-12 - cut in length, then in half.

Procedure:

1.)
a.) Mix well items 1-4 (chicken, lemon juice, salt, pepper), pressure cook till the first steam in medium flame.
b.) Once cooked, open and put in the corainder & turmeric powder. Keep aside.

2.)
a.) Use the mixie to make a paste of the onion, ginger-garlic. Ground items 7,8,9 (cloves, cinnamon, corainder powder) and mix it with the onion paste.
b.) Heat the oil, put in this onion-masala paste and cook in low'est flame for 20-25 minutes with lid on, stirring occassionaly. (the idea is not to make the onions brown, but to cook in while it absorbs the masala flavor)
c.) Put in the cooked chicken into this. Stir.
d.) Mix in the cut green chilli's, stir on high flame for 2-3 minutes.
e.) Close lid, let it stay on the stove for a minute or two.

Serve hot!

ExitSourcing

Though the primary aim of the slashing the tax breaks to US firms by Obama is to make sure that the business stays within US, a possible final end result ('ExitSourcing') after all these policies are affected is that the US based firms would instead totally relocate their business offshore.

Hey Obama, no more outsourcing required - we are currently based out of India. Cheaper anyways.

Beef Groncu

This beef recipe ended up as a hit with our guests over the many fish preparations by my sis, mom, wife. Thought its best to narrate it too; especially if some poor man wants to impress his roaring wife (and vice-versa)

Stuff Required:

1. 1 kg fresh beef cut to small pieces
2. cooking oil (us Keralites prefer coconut oil) for caramelizing the onions.
3. 10-12 green chillies cut in length, then midway.
4. Two handful of curry leaves [make it four if your hand cannot hide an egg ]. We need lots of this.

For cooking the beef :

5. 1.5 table spoon vinegar
6. 1.5 table spoon red chilli powder
7. 0.5 table spoon turmeric powder
8. 1.5 table spoon coriander power
9. 0.5 table spoon pepper powder
10 Salt to taste

11 A cup of water

12. 3 onions chopped to small pieces
13. 4 onions cut in length.
14. half table spoon of whole mustard

[just realized that I appear to use the table spoon quite a bit; but then it does serve the purpose]

Start cooking :

Mix items 5 - 11 in a pressure cooker, then cook the beef for 5 - 6 whistles. Heat the cooking oil in medium size kadaai. Put in the mustard and when they pop add the onions (item 12) to it. Stir in low flame until the onions turn medium brown (should take 20-25 minutes).

Add the cooked beef from the cooker, straight into this. Put on medium flame and cook for another 20-30 mins. Towards the end of this routine, we want to crush the beef using a heavy spatula until the beef ends up as strands.

Turn to low flame, add in the curry leaves, green chillies and the onions (items 3,4,13). Mix the entire stuff for around a minute (and not too long). The core idea here is that we don't want the chillies, onions, curry leaves to over-cook.

Turn off the flame, close the kadai and leave it for 5-8 minutes. We need to wait for the flavor of curry leaves and chillies to spread through the beef.

Serve with rice and enjoy the comments :)

Now for the name - GReen chillies ONions CUrry leaves - Groncu.

A human trap that works - learn it from the authorities

May 11th 2009:

Haven't seen or for that matter heard of a human trap as good as this one. The trap in concern - the 6ft deep pits dug into the median running through old madras road, Bangalore. The entire 5-6 km stretch of the median has been dug with a series of 'man holes' presumably for the electric/light poles which should soon stand tall (see pics below). The problem here being that some of these pits are precision aligned with the zebra crossing, waiting for a accident to happen for that poor pedestrian.


I was such an unfortunate pedestrian. While crossing this road in the middle of the night, running for his life from the approaching trucks and buses, thought for a moment that it was safe at the median. Alas NO! The authorities (BDA/NHAI/BBMP ?) had different plans for me. What laid straight ahead of the zebra crossing at the median was a perfect pit build to order - the entire width of the median was dug deep. I went straight in, heads et al :( . Took a moment to realize that I was 6ft deep in a hole, in the pitch of the night. Thankfully my climbing skills from teenage helped me jump back onto the road when there was no approaching vehicles. That should have been a sight for some of the car drivers - a man coming out from deep under with a laptop on his back.


Cannot imagine what would be been the situation if it was a small kid instead of me - would have remained there until another pedestrian came (fell?) through?


That medicine shop fellow at Big-Bazaar had some pity on my plight and offered water to clean up & some anti-septic for my minor bruises.

Strangely all those pits lay there as it is for further two more weeks without any warning signs before the light poles finally made its way into them. Sub kuch chaltha hai (everything goes OK) here in India.


Concerned authorities , please put up some signs at these pits the next time.



Copied to
1.) Commissioner BDA (com@bdabangalore.org)
2.) Chairman BDA (chmn@bdabangalore.org)
3.) PRO BDA (pro@bdabangalore.org)


Content also available at http://crosswaves.blogspot.com/2009/05/human-trap-that-works-learn-it-from.html

Why ? Why ? Why ?

This was the question that came into my mind when I finished reading 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga this week after many in-between pauses. Why did this rather average book get the Man Booker prize ? A point worth commendable about his writing could be his 'observation' on the life around him and how it gets narrated through the voice of Balram. Note the single quote. This is necessary to indicate the narration which the author assumes to be from an Indian background; while in fact most of the time his 'observation' would not make believe an average Indian.

Additionally, the writing is rather too plain and is really a very very light read. When you think about the numerous novels with good English, you wonder what is special about this writing. If you take the other Booker's like The God Of Small Things, Life Of Pi or for that matter the Inheritance of Loss, the language is in a different class of its own, so is the narration. I would not dare to compare this book with 'Midnights Children' - centuries ahead.

Am no literary critic and perhaps someone could clear up my why's. But then, my pea brain never understood why R.K Narayan never received a Booker or a Pulitzer or a Nobel.

Finally what matter here now is the moolah and the sales which comes with the award. Good for Adiga.

Bangalore-Kochi-Bangalore on Enfield Bullet

With wife away at her hometown and an upcoming four day weekend, could not resist the temptation to ride down to my hometown-Kochi from Bangalore on my newly acquired second hand (fourth actually) Enfield bullet. A few words about the machine - 1999 make, single cylinder, 350cc,18bhp, cast iron engine, classic thud thud :). Read more about this bullet version here. http://www.royalenfield.com/app/IN/Products/Bullet350.asp

Got it serviced a day before the journey from Teknik Motors on CMH Road run by Anand. The mechanics there does appear to know their job well, though the service centre itself appear a bit disorganised. It was the best thud thud ever after the service. Anand did give me a few tips for the upcoming 1100km (550kms oneway) trip including varying the throttle frequently, 10-15min stops after a 100kms and the very much required confidence to get me going! For that matter, I could not think of a better way to build confidence with the bike rather than get going.

May 01, 2008 - 04:00AM
Packed the shoulder bag light with a couple of tee-shirts and two bottles of water. Made sure that the shoulder straps of bag was extended to its limit such that it would 'sit' just behind me. The bike-start routine went perfectly well and here I was thumping down the Hosur road. The engine seemed to get more smoother once it covered a few kilometers and heated up. Down the road, the engine seemed to thud perfect when the speed was maintained between 55kph-65kph. At this speed everything appeared to be just in sync - the bike, the road and the rider.

It is interesting to note that the 50kph average speed was maintained throughout the entire trip through Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Salem - Erode - Palghat - Thrissur - Angamaly - Kochi route, with 10min breaks after each 100kms. Enjoyed the gazes on the bike while on road and the intrigued bike queries from the locals during the breaks. It definitely is easy to make friends while on a bull. The hotel waiter at Salem wanted me to take a few hours of rest in the a/c room with a cool drink since this road trip did not make sense to him.

Loneliness took over when travelling across the Coimbatore bypass. Perhaps it was the boring dry landscape and the many cars that overtook you. But then, the idea behind bullet is the systematic thump, speed and patience. It is a different matter that most of the time you manage to overtake these cars down a few kilometers when they slow down behind a convoy of trucks.

Around 400kms, the end of my spine started to pain unless I kept adjusting my seating position. Thankfully, the numbness of my bottom appeared to subside at each break. The breaks are crucials not just for cooling down the bike, but also to make sure you gulp half a bottle of water to prevent dehydration. Another advice for prospective riders is to use a hand-glove unless you want to get the darkest tan (read black) ever.

I was home at Kochi for the evening tea and had completed 550kms in 12hrs. Not bad considering the innumerous breaks. To think about it, my best timing in my car was 9hrs without a single break and my usual Bangalore-Kochi car trip takes 11 to 12hrs with two or three breaks.

The return journey on May 04 was more easier since I started early from Kochi and missed the infamous Kerala traffic . The rattling sound from the back of the bike did worry me; before I figured out the loose bolt which held the chain cover. Tightened it at Avinashi and it was beautiful thud thud time again. Made it in 11.5hrs back to Bangalore. I did not feel the tiredness this time, but felt more confident with the bull.

The consistent and reliable performance of the bike through the 1100kms needs to be noted.
Moves you. Literally.

Court's Take

Few of the court observations from today's 'The Hindu' newspaper.

Only Centre can end Kannur violence, says High Court

While requesting New Delhi to act at Kannur, the court said, “all-party peace missions are nothing but a hoax to hoodwink the fickle-minded public.” and “All political parties there seem to freely indulge in the cult of violence.” True indeed. The court appears to have the same mindset of the general public.

The fellows engaging in these activities in Kannur appear to be of the same kind, no matter what the color of his flag - zero principles, no clues to why this is happening other than that they could not resolve the allegations verbally. This leaves the public as idiots and the sufferers.

"Do not treat anonymous letters as PIL" says Supreme Court

A matter which could have got resolved at the High court itself I believe. Supreme court had to confirm that anonymous letter cannot trigger investigations. The case in concern being the anonymous PIL filed at High court against Divine-Retreat-Centre, Thrissur. The High Court judge appears to have ordered independent investigations based on this anonymous letter. Why? Perhaps the Judge knew the anonymous ...

High Court directs DGP to initiate action against DSP, SI

If you thought that the registered police case getting closed this quick (in a matter of hours!) was the efficiency of the police department, you got it wrong. It appeared to be a case of police in hands with the culprits, leading to High court wanting actions against them.

Plea to decommission Periyar dam rejected

Court says - “all your concerns will be taken care of in the suit” .

Classic case of one case overriding another case. The 100yr old dam is in more than one news. On one side we have an NGO asking to decommission the dam since its too old and the related dangers it pose. On the other side, we have TamilNadu filing a case against violation of some water conservation Act and requesting that the dam operations be stopped temporarily. Court believes that the two cases can be clubbed together to reach a final verdict. Hmm.

Hope

Anyways, the words from the courts does appear to make sense most of the time in this odd democracy. With a more or less functional Judiciary, guess we still have hope.