Around the world in our indian railways!

It's time to bid farewell to the month of September and with this, i get to know that i have travelled almost a decade in indian railways. A decade back, i started my journey from my home town to college in Singara Chennai.

I tried to calculate how much distance i have travelled in our esteemed indian railways. By any rough measure, in last 10 years, i have travelled almost 80,000 kms on indian railways.

That's going around the earth almost 2 times! Google says, the equatorial distance of earth is 40,000 kms.
To add to this feat, i have travelled the earth almost 2 times only in Sleeper coach of our indian railways (barring one or two times on third ac classes) Around the earth only in Pearl City and Nellai express! I am sure there are lot of people over there who have come around the world more than 2 times!

However looking at the changes in train in last 10 years , there are very few

1) Tatkal tickets scheme brought around the time of NDA government
2)  New berth named "Side Middle" was created between Side upper and Side lower by Lalu. But it was discarded later
3) One or two plug points per coach and water bottle holders.
4) Ticket prices has risen by almost 40 %

Other than that, there have been literally no changes in sleeper coaches. Even train schedules have not changed much and no more additional trains were run. Getting ticket on any day is still an achievement on south-bound trains and you are The Chosen One like harry potter  if you get tatkal ticket on weekends.

There is no double lane route beyond chengalpattu even though work is going on for decades. You would be shocked to know that for every 15 mins from 19:00 to 22:00 , indian railways operates trains from chennai to trichy-madurai-tirunelveli-kerala route. At any point of time, in midnight , close to 20 trains cross each other back and forth in single-lane manual crossings! 

  I read somewhere the previous NDA government were in favor of privatisation of railways via PPP model. Just like the golden quadrilateral -national highway project which was a revolutionary one (in terms of perfect implementation in a country like ours),it would be glad if the next government brought about changes in railways.

Tamil nationalism

What is tamil nationalism(தமிழ் தேசியம்)?


For very long time, i was unaware of this word.What do they want?
 What are their ideals and policies?
Why do all tamil nationalists support LTTE ?
Supporting LTTE is one thing while behaving  like a  member of the organisation is entirely different thing.

Wikipedia states - 
With 77 million population, Tamils ​​are one of the largest stateless nation in the world. The desire for an independent Tamil state and patriotism to the Tamil language and culture were the main constituents of the Tamil nationalism

I was shocked on seeing this interview of a tamil nationalist leader.

Reporter:  Will you fight  parliament elections in 2014?
Reply:       Our aim is not to fight parliament elections, but to create parliament for tamils in future
Reporter: What steps are you taking for that
Reply:      We are trying to bring like minded groups in every other state in this country

Later, the tamil nationalists brought "Yasin Malik", a kashmiri separatist to attend the "May 18" function. The tamil nationalist declared  on stage to Yasin Malik "Eelam is your problem now and Kashmir freedom is our problem now"
The tamil nationalists want to capture power in another ten years and i shudder to think what will happen to this state if such secessionists capture power in future.

While the word "tamil nationalism" sounds great, for the sake of this country and the state, we have to somehow get rid ourselves of this tamil nationalism.I firmly believe the two main parties - DMK and ADMK - will somehow tackle the problem in long run.

முதல்முறை கிள்ளிப் பார்த்தேன் - Vairamuthu

After a long time, happened to hear this song . As some of you might know, Vairamuthu got national award for this song. He has won the award a record 6 times and the next person to bag maximum awards is Javed Akthar ( 3 times). 

The hero and heroine are on their way to their respective hometowns after a function. The song flows more like a conversation between them. One good thing about the song is that it doesn't use the usual மானே -தேனே and மயிலே- குயிலே thing. And also the usual stuff such as i will die for you, you will die for me and all other stuff which are found in almost 90% percent of songs are not in this song.

Some beautiful lines in the song are 

முதல் முறை கண்ணில் வேர்த்தேன்

கண்ணீருண்டு சோகமில்லை ஆமாம் மழை யுண்டு மேகமில்லை

ஒரு விதை உயிர் கொண்டது ஆனால் இரு நெஞ்சி ல் வேர் கொண்டது

விதையொன்று உயிர் கொள்ள வெப்பக்காற்று ஈரம் வேண்டும்

He even talks about science in the above lines and whenever i hear the song, i think whether this is true. Today, i tried to google and found the following

"In order for seeds to germinate, they need the proper combination of oxygen, moisture, temperature, and sometimes light"

We need to take into account the song was written in pre-google era (1999)

And not to mention music by legendary A.R.Rahman!

Movie: Sangamam

Music: ARR

Singers: Srinivas, Sujatha

Lyrics:

முதல்முறை கிள்ளிப் பார்த்தேன் முதல் முறை கண்ணில் வேர்த்தேன்

எந்தன் தாயின் கர்ப்பம் தாண்டி மறுமுறை உயிர் கொண்டேன்
உன்னால் இருமுறை உயிர் கொண்டேன்

முதல் முறை எனக்கு அழுதிடத் தோன்றும் ...ஏன்
கண்ணீருண்டு சோகமில்லை ஆமாம் மழை யுண்டு மேகமில்லை

கால்களில் கிடந்த சலங்கையைத் திருடி
அன்பே என் மனசுக்குள் கட்டியதென்ன
சலங்கைகள் அணிந்தும் சத்தங்களை மறைத்தாய்
பெண்ணே உன் உள்ளம் தன்னை ஒளித்ததென்ன
விதையொன்று உயிர் கொள்ள வெப்பக்காற்று ஈரம் வேண்டும்
காதல் வந்து உயிர் கொள்ள காலம் கூட வேண்டும்
ஒரு விதை உயிர் கொண்டது ஆனால் இரு நெஞ்சி ல் வேர் கொண்டது

சலங்கையே கொஞ்சம் பேசு மௌனமே பாடல் பாடு
மொழியெல்லாம் ஊமையானால் கண்ணீர் உரையாடும் அதில்
கவிதை அரங்கேறும்

பாதையும் தூரம் நான் ஒரு பாரம்
என்னை உன் எல்லை வரை கொண்டு செல்வாயா
உடலுக்குள் இருக்கும் உயிர் ஒரு சுமையா
பெண்ணே உன்னை நானும் விட்டுச் செல்வேனா
தந்தை தந்த உயிர் தந்தேன் தாய் தந்த உடல் தந்தேன்
உறவுகள் எல்லாம் சேர்த்து உன்னிடம் கண்டேன்
மொத்தத்தையும் நீ கொடுத்தாய் ஆனால்
முத்தத்துக்கோ நாள் குறித்தே

(முதல் முறை )

The Hindu - தி ஹிந்து - Thangameengal

English newspaper Hindu has now come up with new tamil paper. The tamil paper is also christened ' the hindu'.

I have great expectations for the tamil paper since most of the tamil papers are pure crap. The dinamalar with its single word headings and a exclamatory marks(!) irritates you. Only dinamani offers some meaningful editorials. Dinathanthi is the paper which very often makes news items such as "vandi damal. driver panal"
however, i have no idea about dinakaran .

I must also accept that i have not read a single copy of this newspaper. However, the below review of the movie Thangameengal is to be believed, Hindu is going to become 'yet-another' ordinary newspaper. Some people say they are doing this for publicity.



There is no need for The Hindu to write such a review . I somehow feel these self-proclaimed intellectual media should deal such kind of movies with kid gloves. Since off-beat movies are rare phenomenon, any review on such movies should be done with some care. Some examples of off-beat movies according to me, are Soothu Kavvum, Naduval konjam pakkatha kanom,etc.

The movie tries to tell you many things which are not understood by many people including me. Many scenes are implicit and left to our understanding.  Please read the detailed review here

I happened to see an Iran movie titled A Separation - which talks about human relationships in the way Thangameengal do. The only difference, the Iranian movie won Academy awards for Best foreign movie.I will try to write about the movie in another separate post.

Interestingly, Director Ram is publishing the untold parts of the movie here 

My tryst with Spectacles

It was my first experience of going to a reputed ‘hospital’ for eye check up. They gave me a form to fill. I was so happy that they are willing to know about their patient before checking.

After sometime, I was called into the doctor room. The doctor was a lady in mid-30s. He asked to put my cheek in a machine and she tested by projecting a beam into my eye. A couple of minutes later, she finished the testing and she looked a bit worried.

She said “ You have very high power and still you are wearing glasses. There is a possibility of getting ______(some medical term) in future…..” and she continued for full 3 mins. I was hearing her in pertified state and while listening, I wiped my eyes with my hands.

That was the end of world for her. She said “No No No. you should not do this. You will face this problem. Your cornea is too soft.. blah-blah” and she gave judgement stating that I have to do laser surgery.

 I remembered writing occupation as MNC in the form they gave me earlier and that was the reason for their new-found care in me. After the formalities are over, I said I will think about laser surgery and asked for my eye-power details. She told me to get it in reception. I went to the reception and asked for it. They asked me to go to the opticals which was inside the hospital. The optical guy was having the form I filled up and he was showing me spectacles in 10k range. The minimum starting price was 1k.This incident happened in 2007.I asked him for the sheet doctor gave. He was somewhat reluctant to give it and gave it after much persuasion.

That was the end of “reputed hospital” for me. I have become allergic to fully air-conditioned hospitals with receptionists speaking in English. But the stupid middle class, of which I am a part of, thinks that those hospitals provide quality healthcare. I hate people going to such dental care and eye care clinics. When the doctor in my street corner collects 100-200rs and detects my problems in the wink of an eye(which most street-smart-doctors do), these modern day doctors, whose sole targets are IT and ITes and other aspiring urban middle class elite, are nothing but puppets in the hands of corporates. They are given monthly targets and best way to achieve that is by making you undergo a series of tests.

Finally, I got my spectacles changed outside the hospital for less than thousand rupees. A couple of years later, I came to know a friend of mine whose relative makes these spectacles and sells them. He laughingly told how they would sell the same spectacle to local shops and these “reputed” hospitals at varying prices. According to him, the price of a single piece will never cross 30 rupees at any cost owing to mass manufacturing.

Enthiran ,Modi & Death sentence

Yesterday was a big day in India. Two events happened on a single day. Whether they are an eventful event or just a passing day, only time will tell

Event1:

Death for Delhi rape convicts. After looong time, our courts have given verdict within one year. While such judgement give a slight hope in our judicial system, there are still many hurdles out there. As per my laymans knowledge of our judicial system,the accused have 3 months to appeal in high court. The high court will take the case and once it confirms the sentence, which will happen most likely, they can again appeal in supreme court within 3 months. After supreme court, the case will go to President. Please note that the president is not obliged to act on it within any time frame. So, justice is good 2-3 years away by any conservative estimate.

Event 2: 
The BJP has announced Modi as its PM candidate. People are rejoicing as though he has become PM already. If facebook and twitter users are to be believed, BJP will will all the 300 seats it will contest(yes, they contest only 300 of 542 seats!)  However, most of these users usually don't vote (i hereby declare humbly that i have not voted even once in my lifetime even though i plan to cast my vote next time) . Before pakistan general elections, the whole of facebook and twitter was going ga-ga over Imran khan, quoting him as the next BIG thing in pakistan. A couple of western journals even called him the next Obama. In the end, he could only become Twitter PM and his party could get only 18 % votes. Verdict: Online popularity doesn't guarantee any thing,atleast till now in Indian politics. 


      In movie Enthiran,  Vasee's(rajnikanth's)  professor on seeing the robot gaining human feelings, will tell Dr.vasee, 'You have did the wrong thing by giving human feelings to this robot'. Everybody will laugh but his words will come true later in the movie. Read the same story, replacing Dr.Vaseegaran by Modi and his professor by Advani. But unlike Enthiran, we have to wait for the climax till 2014! 

Thanga meengal

Thangameengal - A very simple story of beautiful love between hapless father and a helpless girl. If you have loved  "Katrathu tamil" fully or even the non-gory part of that movie, then this movie is sure to amuse you. 

As you keep watching the movie, you realise that the director has built many stories within a story. As the movie starts rolling, the tamil cinema masala fan in you searches for a bad guy. First, i thought, hero's father should be a bad guy, then the husband of hevita miss as bad guy. However, the director through his characters explains beautifully how everybody cannot be either  good guy or a bad guy but a mix of both.  All the characters commit some mistakes at some point of time and almost all the time, realise their mistakes through the kid.

The movie talks about the mental pressure the kids face at school and home, father-son relationships,husband-wife relationships and tries to explore the kids world.The most important thing is that at no point of time, the movie turns preachy, doling out advices on all the above mentioned topics.
The director has put a few dialogues here and there which are sure to make an impact on you.

Just a few minutes into the movie, you get accustomed to the lake, the people ,the house ,Chellamma kid and not-to-mention, the poori kid.

On the flip side, the movie is not a classic movie nor a casual movie.The director makes excessive dramatization of a normal story but, the movie is a must watch for all students,daughters,sons and parents.