Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Celtic Horoscope...

since I been busy doing nothing and haven't posted for a while, I picked this up... and I find scaring similarities...;)




You Are A Weeping Willow Tree



You are a dreamer, and you're into almost any kind of escapism.

Restless and capricious, you love to travel to exotic places.

You are easily influenced by others, as long as they don't pressure you.

You tend to suffer in love until you find that one loyal, steadfast partner.

An empathetic friend, you love to make others smile and laugh.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Letter to IBN's Anuradhu SenGupta

for Details/Background:
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/2007/07/anuradhasengupta-164.html
http://ezhilthedevil.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/sivaji-vs-sengupta/

Anu, I was among other 1000+ bloggers who posted comments on your Sivaji Post and expressed, why you shouldn't use IBN-Blog for expressing your view. Great to see you are listening. so I thought to express my thanks for that(/listening) and moving to personal blog

Iam was silent fan of your works from CNBS days. And I really hope you spend your energy and time on more important issues/subject.

I don't like CNN-IBN because its increasingly following CNN's pattern of BS stories/coverage. Indian media is getting big and with it increasingly ugly by lossing its standards/ethics. NewsPaper & magazine have far better standard(Times excluded). I know this is very common opinion among bloggers but this will never hit news channels. even if its doesn't with very biased view. But BBC had taken notice on New Indian Media.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5187242.stm

The big problem in Indian journalism is the lack of quality and experience at the copy desk

Liberalisation has led to the media targeting readers as consumers rather than citizens. There is a burgeoning of frothy supplements, loads of newsprint devoted to non-issues. It leads to the invisibility of those on the margin, which means those who make policy don't read about them and their problems as much as they should. Food and fashion journalism is unfortunately no longer confined to metropolitan cities, the regional papers are going the same way increasingly, because they too are targeting the upwardly mobile consumers in their cities.
If I may-- Please treat us as Citizen not as Consumer. with blogs,...opinions are evolving much faster among us(/blogger community, which is minority in India) and I do hope ugly part of Indian Media will take good hard look for reality check.

Thanks..

Friday, July 06, 2007

Book(Tag)ed..

I was Bookied by Sandhya. that didn't sound right..L), I was BookTagged. (/also thanks too http://aprilslady.blogspot.com/)

First, I must admit Iam not even close to bookworm. My childhood friends would be surprised to know that I developed reading habits. I cannot even call it habit, since Iam irregular and I read those that pass by my eyes/ears. for me, Its mental fight to finish big book(anything more than 500pages).

and I cannot possible mention all but those few which cross mind while posting this. meaning those which I read recently or blog about has weightage..9)). News articles, Magazines, Internet read, Gandhi's books, Comics which I loved are not in list(below) but something that's very dear to me.

But ofcourse its very best honest attempt to list down my book interest.

Books that Changed my Life:-- largely I will credit experience rather than books for any changes. Having side that, books which had influence on me:
a Long way gone: Memoir of Boy Solider
Chasing the Good Life
my Temporary Son by Timeri Murari
Ayn Rand-- For New Intellectual and some more from same author
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Lufficer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
Paradox of Choice: why more is less by Barry Schwartz

Books that I’ve read more than once:-- reading once is good for me. more than once means those had to be very good or may be I didn't understand the first time (mostly the later):
Swami and Friends by R.K. Narayan (OK, don't we all love this book!)
1984 by George Orwell
The Republic by Plato (I had to re-read to understand better)

Books I’d take onto a desert island:
Love in Time of Cholera by Garcia Marquez
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

Books that made me laugh:
The Inscrutable American by Anurag Mathur
Five point someone by Chetan Bhagat

Books that made me cry:
a Long way gone: Memoir of Boy Solider
my Temporary Son by Timeri Murari
Family Matters by Robinton Mistry
The Green Mile by Stephen King
Fine Balance by Robinton Mistry (/although I wouldn't like to market this book..))

Books I wish had been written by me:-- I cannot dare to wish that but at gun point my answer would be:
A Equal Music
(Un)Arranged Marriage by Bali Rai

Books I'm currently reading:-- kinda of just finished thou
The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen,
Collapse by Jared Diamond,

Books I’ve been meaning to read:
River Valley to Silicon Valley by Abhay. K (book title and recent interaction with the author.. made this to my to-be-read-soon booklist)
Maximum city: Bombay lost and found by Suketu Mehta
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Books that have fascinated me endlessly-- mostly fascinated that someone can think on those lines, which is far beyond imagination.:
Harry Potter series
1984 by George Orwell
Contact by Carl sagan
Runaway Jury by John Grisam (most of from this author..)
Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov

Books I’ve tried to read in vain:-- but haven't given up yet...
Stephen Hawking's-- too heavy and technical. need load of contraction and re-reads.
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (still will try again)
Freakonomics (still will try again)

Books I’d love to own-- with my history of relocation(s) and another one coming soon, I live out of 2suitcases. I dont have luxury of collecting books & DVDs now. may be in future when I return to my home-home, I would love to own a Library..;-7)

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Vatsalyam..peace

I don't have many words to describe this song. Neither Iam religious nor Iam very knowledgeable in Carnatic Music but this song is Peace to Soul

Vatsalyam (Mannupugazh)


Artists: Bombay Jayashri

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Paris, Je t'Aime

Over this weekend, I saw Paris, Je t'Aime (Paris, I Love You), eighteen international directors have composed a collective ode to the magical, innately lyrical place. The result, while bursting with perhaps a few too many stories, is well worth a viewing for the performances and stories that are at once haunting, charming, relatable and life-affirming.

Yes, Love in all its weird and wonderful forms is the subject of this 18 short films made by an assortment of international directors who bring individual vision to a collective love letter to the French capital. Most of the directors have written their own pieces, and they range from whimsical to romantic, to dramatic and tragic. With many familiar faces including Juliette Binoche, Fanny Ardant, Natalie Portman, Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi, Bob Hoskins and Gena Rowlands, the film is necessarily uneven but has an overall winning charm.

Given only a few minutes to present their segment, each director spins their own Parisian love song within a different district of the sprawling city. There are the requisite stories of meet-cute and first attraction, the resurfacing of old flames, and validation of relationships taken for granted. Those scenes are charming enough, especially with an omnipresent tinkling of French accordions in the background to give the film an airy, sentimental feeling; but love is not always sweet, and the stories that deftly examine non-romantic love, and even loss and longing, prove to be the most moving of the entire collection.

Ofcourse watching with English subtitles (Since I cannot understand French) may be not the fun part. Atleast they should have version with English voice over. Anyways, Concept was great and Movie was Brilliant.

Opera...

Last week, I went to Opera performed by Placido Domingo and Katherine Jenkins at Panathenaic Stadium. It was the venue for the first modern Olympic games in 1896 . It started 30mins late from schedule time and that's the day fire broke out in Athens due to heatwave. anyways, at 9:30pm with all fire engine noise Opera started.

I must admit this was my first live opera experience and Iam not very much opera person but I loved the experience. It was fab. I have very diverse music interest but I realize that I missed out on Operas. Its fascinating to see someone with such high controlled voice. Ofcourse, I saw few musicals but not concert.

You don’t have to be an opera lover to enjoy the voice of Placido Domingo. I read recently he celebrated 40years in Opera. I can remember him from Live8 concert back in 2005. and Katherine, speechless.. very beautiful and brilliant voice. After their performance of popular operatic duets, she couldn't resist changing into her shorts and running around the 400-metre track at the Greek capital’s historic stadium. some peaks for staying late for crowd to move, I endup seeing her interest for running as well..;¬)

Its even more fulfilling since the concert was dedicated to the MSF programs for the children victims of violence and malnutrition at the area of Darfur.

If this interested you--
Katherine Jenkins - Music Of The Night