New Smile

शुभ नूतन सम्वत्सर: !

May this new year shower you with overwhelming joy !

புது வருடம் மகிழ்ச்சி வெள்ளத்தால் உங்களை மூழ்கடிக்கட்டும் !

नया साल में आप आनन्द में भीग जाएं !

Keep rocking, Tamil !

When Tamil Nadu Government announced tax exemption for Tamil movies with Tamil titles, I did not feel bad. This act was different from the usual Tamil-fanatic acts that the ruling party is known for.

I was never amused by titles like 'Jeans', 'New', 'Run' etc. in the past. An occasional English name that is relevant to the movie's theme was ok, but a sudden surge of English names for Tamil movies was a plain marketing gimmick. After the announcement, this trend has almost disappeared ! I like innovative Tamil names like 'vETTayADu viLayADu', 'Ayutha ezhuththu', 'kAkka kAkka' etc.

These small acts will go a long way in saving the language from getting wiped out by socio-political environment of the country. I might sound backward, but I really marvel at Chennai that has been in the forefront of development while laughing at 'Hindi-only' speakers of the country.

Go to Mumbai - you cannot hear Marathi. Go to Bangalooru - you can survive without knowing Kannada. Go to Chennai - In one year, you WILL learn Tamil ! I don't find this to be rude. I equate it to Japan where you cannot live without knowing Japanese.

I agree that patriotism takes priority over one's language, but neglecting a 2000+ year old language for the sake of a 50 year old nation is stupidity, mildly put. A language cannot live on its own. It needs great poets and poetry lovers. It needs great personalities who speak it proudly. It needs native speakers who are proud of it. It needs the socio-political conditions to be favorable too.

Christianity would never have survived more than a couple of centuries without the political support of Rome. English is all over the world not because of just Shakespeare, but mainly because of the gun power of Britain in the last few centuries and the power of the US today.

Tamil lives on, thanks to its passionate native speakers.

Insane Evening

I and my friend Deva went out for Dinner 3 days back. What happened was strangely funny.

'Pizza Hut' in CMH Road. We were feeling clever to have chosen the un-crowded 7.45 pm time. Lots of empty tables gave us a very un-bangalorish feeling.

We started ordering: "Tomato n Basil Soup - One by Two."
The waiter said: "Sir, I will give you one soup and an empty bowl."
Deva jumped: "What ? Why can't you divide the soup in 2 bowls ?"
"Sir, our manager has instructed me to do so."
"We have had a proper one-by-two here before."
"Not anymore sir. Everybody is asking one-by-two. That is why..."

Deva was exploding now. He started questioning the customer service of the place and stuff. The waiter did not agree. Deva decidedly said: "Dei, let us go somewhere else."
We left the place with half-anger half-grin and headed for MG-Brigade.

'Three-Quarter-Chinese'. The receptionist offered us a table at the entrance of the restaurant, which felt like a side-upper berth in a train.
"No, we want a better table"
"Sir, can you please wait for sometime ?"
"No, thanks"

'Dalia- Japanese Cuisine'. We were so eager to taste the food of the land of rising sun. Both of us being vegetarians, the menu teased us to death - Most of the items were marked as non-veg. Some were even marked as veg+non-veg ! Of course there was a tiny percentage of veg items, but by then we started wondering how the Japanese might define 'veg' ! We left the place grinning at the waitress who failed to promise us a dish without any citizens of the Animal kingdom in it.

'Tangerine'. We wondered why this restaurant was located in such a secretive place. No wonder there were n't too many people eating there. Buffet. Looked tasty. We agreed to eat, but not before enquiring about the wallet factor. 250 Rupees seemed too much for the number of dishes, but the thought of finding a fifth restaurant quickly fixed us in the trap. Never in my life had I eaten a buffet which had no hot dishes like this one. Cold they were all - Pulav, curries, spaghetti. The quiet ambience was the only consolation, that was obviously because of a stupid location and mediocre food.

Is there a restaurant that serves decent food and has good service and is not too crowded and that does not vaporize my credit card ? I can hear Bangalooru shouting : "Get out from me !"

Ordinary Life

Most of us try hard to remain ordinary throughout our lives.

Every facet of our lives is plagued by ordinariness. We often fear that we might become different during the course of life. We try everything to prevent it from happening.

We make sure that we wear the leading brand of Jeans (If we can afford it).

We listen to the top 20 songs in the music channel. And believe that they are the best songs and try hard to 'like' them.

We eat Rasam Rice with a spoon in the office cafeteria so that others do n't think that we are not modern enough. Others too eat it with spoon and they too are thinking the same !

We yearn to buy that cool car the moment we know we might be able to afford it. What if somebody asks us : "Hey, you are a software professional for so many years. No car yet ?" So we buy the car partly to kill that question.

We read business magazines to make sure we don't lag behind our colleagues and friends.

We go to Adyar Anand Bhavan because everybody else goes there. How can we miss something that everyone else thinks to be good ? Long waiting time at the counter, no place to sit. So what ?

We go to Shabari Mala because everybody else thinks it is a good way to earn Positive Karma in 41 days. We too think so because we are afraid to think differently.

A certain amount of uniformity in our thoughts is required to keep the society from collapsing, but sometimes we go overboard - like a set of computer game characters with programmed lives.