It’s interesting to read how Writer Sujatha relates Edward Lorenz‘s Chaos Theory to Anniyan‘s premise. Here’s a small example to Chaos Theory known as Butterfly Effect, huge volumes of literature is available on the net. This is the same as what Sujatha’s points out in his column.

The flapping of a single butterfly’s wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month’s time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn’t happen. Or maybe one that wasn’t going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141). As given above, the chaos theory is also known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. This small change in the initial conditions might/can lead to a drastic difference in the final outcome.

Sujatha gives a relatable example in Katrathum Petrathum and establishes the base fact of Chaos Theory. He also says the premise of Shankar’s Anniyan is based on this Chaos Theory and it says that such very minute carelessness also should never occur. There you go. That triggers my curiosity even more in Anniyan. Should it be probably because of this Chaos Theory, Anniyan is insured for 29 crores, trying to avoid even the smallest mishap in the box-office.

[Pic : akkthefilm.com]

This is a long biased post. I have unbiased reasons to write it. Aayitha Ezhuthu which scores a century with today, has been one of the most expected movies of this summer.

It’s unfortunate that since Aayitha Ezhuthu’s release, it hasn’t created any kind of serious criticisms or analysis. Seems like both the media and the public have ignored completely it by not having an opinion on it. Forget creating waves of criticism it hasn’t even created ripples at all. A fact that was even true for Mani Ratnam‘s Iruvar. With Iruvar’s release there was a political cloud and that might have kept the public away from the theatre. But Aayitha Ezhuthu, though politically inclined, has also had elements of Mani Ratnam’s commercial brilliance. We aren’t talking about the usual cinema review of the media. It is about an analysis on the social, political impact that they movie represents and above all the spectrum of today’s youth it portrays.

Movies like Virumandi, Kannathil Muthamittal have been seriously argued even in the most commercial magazines. Aayitha Ezhuthu, I personally feel, has been shunned completely except just one or two magazines which analyzed it. Now, if you might feel why should a movie be analyzed or discussed seriously. Aayitha Ezhuthu represents a cross-section of the society. It doesn’t advocate or preach a theory, rather, subtly wishes political awareness among the progressive youth. The movie has been experimented in a form that’s tough for a normal cine-goer to grasp. But it is the media that should have encouraged the movie and should have given it five stars for the excellence in cinema that it brought along. While all this is an earnest longing to happen for any good film, here are my silly/serious/semi-serious reasons in Aayitha Ezhuthu to get five stars.

These are some sparks of brilliance, though silly they may sound, they carry forward Aayitha Ezhuthu and it’s theme. As they say, a film is all about teamwork. These five stars are named straight to the particular person who excelled though they are actually awarded to Mani Ratnam and his complete crew of Aayitha Ezhuthu.

Sujatha / Mani Ratnam
- Maddy cribbing to Sriman in the truck, Oru 50 milli sarayathukkaga saaraya kadayaye vaanga kudathu.
- Enna Autographa, Madhavan responding to the policeman while he signs the release register in prison.
- Vote for Inba Sekhar. The shot that subtly/obviously hints Inba Sekhar’s desire for power.
- Surya holding DNA responsible for even a headache.
- That amazing conversation of Bharathiraja – Surya in the university when b’raja tries to brainstorm Surya to rush away out of politics. Surya respoinding – Neenga mattum evalavu naal kashtapaduveenga, Naangalum varom.
- Glimpses of Michael Vasant’s genius in prison where he conveys universe isn’t made of infinetly dense matter. Though this is just a hint, it conveys the genius in him, helping the movie to move ahead. It’s a make-believe to make Surya’s character seen as a hipster. Yet another similar shot where he quickly talks about hormones and showing his disbelief towards the institution of marriage.
- Sidharth’s flirt dialogue with Trisha in the Coffee day. One of the most revealing dialogues of the SMS cultured modern day yuppie youth. Sidharth : Naappathi Rendra, Trisha : Ah !! Yaar Andha Arrai, Sidharth : Neenga Thaan, Trisha – Thoda and the following dialogue as to how Sidharth wants to make his life thereon.
- Sidharath saying Indha Pakkam Oru Vellakaari, Andha Pakkam Oru Karuppi, Naduvula Nala Venba Project. This is one is straight from Sujatha. It is his cute way of unleasing the mindset of the character.
- Surya talking amidst students in his house, Naama Poi Software ezhuthuvom, Coco-Cola vippom, aana inga endha poruppum eduthukka mattom, iIla.
- The amazing one-liner Surya tells the TV correspondent, Century Adikanumna Kooda Singlela irundhu thaan aarambikanum.
- Surya banging Madhavan’s head on the Napier Bridge, and telling him, Nee enga ethiri illa. Un Azhukku Arasiyal. Atha Naanga Maathaporom. Showing the clarity of Michael Vasant’s thinking which eliminates the sub-causes and going in for to rectify the root cause of the issue.

A R Rahman / Vairamuthu
- The theme of Aayitha Ezhuthu, though not a part of the album. That music that starts with a single bang and continues as a harmony.
- That fabulous techno music background during titles along with the sounds of buses and cars moving around
- The nice bit song, Nee Mazhai, when Sidharth and Trisha travel in pallavan bus, a variant of Hey Goodbye Nanba
- Fanah. Completely classy. Great contribution of Vairamuthu.
- Aayiram Elainargal Thunindhu Vittal, Aayutham ethuvum thevai illai. Lyrics by Vairamuthu.
- Nicely orchestrated Hey Goodbye Nanba, especially the jazz piano slowly playing at the back
- A classy re-recording throughout the movie, not to mention the final climax and techno feel music at the back, similar to the titles.

Mani Ratnam
- For the characterization of Surya as a progressive youth. Unaffected towards his goals by the elements that hinder. Even in the final scenes he carries himself while his friends dupe that they have lost in the elections.
- The characterization of Madhvan. Fabulously observed from the streets of chennai.
- The amazing sketch of modern day yuppies, the easy accessibility and the kind of escapist attitudes thats prevalent among them.
- The distinction he chose to make in the final scenes when a chudhidhar and a couple of jeans walk into the assembly.
- Surya, not uttering even a single word and just quietly, slowly pushing bharathiraja away and making his walk into the assembly, telling that he is unaffected. One shot for the entire movie that talks.
- For the amazing format, the movie was taken.

Team
- Surya for getting into the skin of Michael Vasant. That very derisive smile he does to Bharathiraja when they meet.
- Madhavan’s hysterical dance for Dol Dol song in the boat.
- Trisha mimicking to her friends about Sidharth when he calls.
- Sidharth and Trish for the very cute Wow…..wow.. long interlude in Hey Goodbye Nanba.
- The incredible co-ordination of everyone for Hey Goodbye Nanba.
- The well done climax scenes on Napier Bridge. Superb re-recording, editing, amazing steady cam shots and every other thing done to those shots.

These are just the positives of Aayitha Ezhuthu. The list of minuses are comfortably forgotten to meet the idea of the post. And if any of these points, provoke you in some way to like or dislike the movie, or even if it prompts you to watch the movie, the idea of the post is met. As Surya says in the movie, Century Adikanumna Kooda Singlela irundhu thaan aarambikanum. Aayitha Ezhuthu’s century today is one of such a single run towards good cinema. Yep, Aayitha Ezhuthu One (in a) hundred. Three Cheers, Aayitha Ezhuthu.

First title-less post after all hack to change URLs to be usable/hierarchical/understandable. Mark Pilgrim’s post on Cruft-free URLs in Movable Type was of biggest help. And the most lovable MTIfEmpty plugin of Brad Chaote (as mark mentions it, himself) did the job for me.

For all those who think, why am I bragging about so much for a title-less post, Movable Type loves titles for every blog posts. I don’t buy that argument, sometimes. I would love to title each of the posts but a title-less post at times, helps to start-off without disclosing what the post is all about.

Have a great weekend anyway.

Guest Blog #33 – Anand C

As if being nothing short of a god for a billion people wasn’t enough, AR Rahman‘s Warriors of Heaven and Earth is a solid introduction of ARR to the Chinese people (and mainstream western movie audiences)!

The excellent lyrics of Mehboob (who has many a time been in the shadows of Vairamuthu while composing Rahman’s lyrics in Hindi) and BlaaZe for hindi and english versions of Warriors of Peace can’t be missed. The soulful rendering and theme (in Hindi by Sadhana Sargam and English by Sunitha Sarathy) reminds one of “Tu Jahan Jahan Chalega…mera saaya saath hoga…” of yesteryears by Lata Mangeshkar.

The mysticism around the pieces makes one wonder when a Quentin Tarantino will pick up Rahman’s soulful and east-inspired pieces as background for a Kill Bill like martial arts scene…

Sivamani is back with two excellent solo percussion pieces, including one war-march. He is a percussion lover’s delight!

I can’t wait for an occasion to see him perform the pieces live!

Give it to Shankar Mahadevan and sleep tight. He is enough to carry the song through with his unique voice. Vidyasagar, having mastered the art of tuning for commercial movies, has done a neat job for Madura. This song Machaan Peru Madura is already on the charts and is selling the movie for itself. This also being a kolla kuthu song, has definitive shades of Pothuvaaga Enn Manasu Thangam from Rajini‘s Murattukaalai. Vidyasagar has been consistent since Dhool for such folk oriented ghaana songs.

This Vijay‘s latest flick, Madura, has created huge expectations because of his former hit Gilli. Gilli curently running at 130 days, is one of the biggest grossers of this year. Kamalhassan remarked in an interview that before all his experimental movies, he had more than 80-90 films which were just masala and usual love, sentiment stuff. Vijay might be also be buying this advice from Kamal, refuses to take risk with experimental stuff.

Opening today in theatres, Madura’s box-office success is yet to be decided. But with more than 200 prints, this movie is set to a massive opening in the box-office. I personally believe even acting in a similar commercial stuff is experimental stuff. You can never judge the kollywood audience. Everyone thesedays are aware of the masala formula. But only people like Dharani have got the knot of the formula. So should we say even Vijay is taking a huge risk.

Taking about commercial stuff and box office success, Vikram/Shankar‘s Anniyan has been insured for 29 crores with United India Insurance. Set to release on the pongal 2005, according to this sify report, I am sure that Anniyan would fill the void Shankar’s absence in the box-office after Mudhalvan.

[Pic: imdb.com]

Manoj Night Shyamalan‘s Village isn’t still out in Chennai. But the promos have already started. Last week, Star Movies featured two nights of Night’s movies. The first one was his not-so-hit movie, Unbreakable. Unbreakable is unmistakably one of unnoticed Shyamalan’s movie that had an amazing surprise twist. Even Signs didn’t have a surprise twist on par with Unbreakable. Forget Sixth Sense, it’s a movie par excellence. Unbreakable is also one of my favorite movies, all time.

Most of us believed in comic heroes, at least during our childhood. And so a kid also believes in comic heroes. What if his father itself is a real life comic hero? What if the comic hero himself takes time/effort to believe that he is one? What if life leads a man to a secret labyrinth after an accident? So goes the premise of Unbreakable. Being a comic addict, I just loved the idea of the movie made on a comic hero.

Bruce Willis as David Dunn amused me with his startling performance. We have seen Willis perform as an action hero but here he is an action hero without knowing he is. And so his subdued performance lightens up his capabilities as an actor. Samuel Jackson as Elijah Price, who is a physically frail comic book fanatic, creates ripples in us. The last time I enjoyed this duo was in the third serving of Die Hard called Die Hard: With a Vengeance. Remember Jeremy Irons saying ‘Simon Says’ in that mesmerizing voice.

Though many were disappointed by Shyamalan for Unbreakable after a movie like Sixth Sense, he proves his story telling ability once again. With two people who are connected to each other by their extremities, Shyamalan weaves a web of beliefs, comic books, super heroes and so so.

Samuel Jackson’s characterization as MR. Glass inspired me a lot. A true believer in himself, an optimist, a man despite his physical illness gets out finding a man who is directly opposite to him physically. No one, No one except Samuel Jackson would have done this role such perfectly. Let me know if you didn’t love that character when he shouts in agony, They call me MR. Glass. Riveting performance. And as he extends his hands to Bruce Willis in the final scenes, I never expected IT to happen.

I watched the movie a couple of years back in the DVD, I couldn’t believe the surprise twist in the ending and re-played the final scenes again. It’s easy to create a mystery from the beginning of the movie and keep it alive but what’s important is to unleash it by fulfilling the expectation bestowed on the mystery. Shyamalan did it convincingly.

I hope his latest offering The Village, keeps up to the same expectation that we have on this Indian storyteller.

Writer Sujatha‘s blog(thanks to desikan for that trivia), Katrathum Petrathum, in Ananda Vikatan is up for it’s third serving, two weeks back.

For those who have read Sujatha‘s previous two series of Katrathum Petrathum, would know what to expect. So expectedly in the current issue, he blogs about the concept of blogging and compares it to the handwritten magazines, which was a concept in yester years. He say it is for that fifteen minute fame, bloggers all over, write and wait.

While talking about writing for the web, he says it is the frozen permanency that makes web an amazing medium for writing. So whatever written now, can also be searched and read by any single man even after 50 years and it’s that longevity of writing that makes the web a viable medium for writing to prosper.

That’s from the horse’s mouth. Read more of Katrathum Petrathum.

On another note, Google’s Gmail is giving out it’s next set of invites. This time it’s just 4 invites for a set unlike the 6 invites last time. I have a couple of them and also a couple of reservations done for them too. But if you need one, leave a note and I will give it as I get it.

Guest Blog #32 – Anand C

The piece, “What should you do if you are #2?” which I got to from Marketing Playbook, got me thinking…

As Laura Ries says in this post, Avis is one of the most memorable #2 campaigns (some other examples are also listed), focussing on why they are different from Hertz. This ad, created by Bill Bernbach is indicative of the theme of the campaign that converts disadvantages to advantages:

Of course, positioning runs deep in Laura’s blood. Her father, Al Ries (literally) wrote the book on “Positioning”, in addition to several follow up (and not as interesting) books.

Her post has a lot of lessons for the harris jeyarajes, the bharardwajes, vidyasagars and Raja family’s second generation (and the other umpteen upcoming tune-makers). Instead of trying to be AR Rahman clones (the undisputable #1) that seems to be the way to go, it makes a lot of sense to differentiate from the #1 as much as possible – like focus more on melody and less on percussion, put out pieces inspired by village and folk music, more lyrics-inspired music, more situational tunes, etc.

In a way, this is a painfully long restatement of Guru’s simple plea earlier… there is no strong #2, and there seems to be scope for an Avis.

Guest Blog #31 – Anand C

I’ve been getting into several conversations about why I blog… in an attempt to try and answer that question, here’s a compilation of the things I’ve been intrigued by, as represented by past blogs:

Co-Blogs with LazyGeek: (World Themes for Indian Cinema)

1. The Man Who Saw Infinity – on Math Genius Srinivasa Ramanujan
2. ‘EYE’ THINK, THEREFORE ‘EYE’ AM – on Dr.V (Arvind Eye Hospital)
3. The Man in the Mirror – first attempt at verse.
4. Art for Art’s Sake – on dance and the arts.
5. LAUGHTER, THE BEST MEDICNE (Nightly Dose) – on NBC’s Jay Leno
6. Coming Soon…
7. ???
8. ???

The Lonewolf blogs:

1. Vairamuthu’s magAKK! – what kicked it all off!
2. Satrangi…Only You… now Fanah! – on ARR’s magic!
3. Social Influence in Media – Art or Science? – Influence is one of my favorite non-fiction books.
4. Funda on Fanah – Ripples thought this was interesting!
5. Footprints… – Bengali poetry in Hey,Ram translated into English.
6. Thillana’s Mann Vaasam – blogging about a concert.
7. Happy Birthday, Mr.Feynman! – learned he is Kingsley’s idol.
8. Reflections on Mani Ratnam’s Aayitha Ezhuthu
9. What makes NEWS? – rant!
10. Mani Ratnam and the “relative grading” syndrome!
11. On Coincidence… – 5 movies that impress upon the theme.
12. Week in Review – Once upon a time… – remembering a old teacher.
13. Mr. India, redux?
14. Goodbye, blue skies? – on space travel
15. The road to Nirvana… – wondering why Kurt Cobain died young!
16. Aayitha Ezhuthu titles – an easter egg? – thanks, Pradeep!
17. Fahrenheit 9/11, Control Room and the rise of a new genre? – Mitochondria didn’t think so!
18. An ode to 90 school children… – Kumbakonam fire tragedy.
19. Joy of getting something unexpected… – On hearing Matt Damon, watching Catch-22.
20. Glass-bangles Vinayaka (OR) Beauty is skin deep? – on R Parthiban
21. A tale of two Flip-flops
22. HmmM… Night?
23. David VS Goliath and the spirit of August 15th – on independent shops VS 800 pound corporations.
24. You may say I’m a dreamer! – titled after John Lennon’s lyrics from ‘Imagine’.

Looking at the topics above, I think I blog for the experiences it brings… for the interesting new people it introduces me to…for the freedom to think about the things I like.

Thoughts?

Guest Blog #30 – Anand C

We’ve all heard the “graduation speech” bit in most schools about the need for the young to dream. But it’s interesting to see Ms. Marilee Jones, the Dean of Admissions at MIT, integrate “day-dreaming” more of a criteria in the application process. More importantly, kudos to her for coming out and telling the public about it.

This response from her captures the essence of the problem with conventional admission systems:

Baby boomers have such high expectations for themselves and for their kids. The parents think kids have to have music lessons. They’re expected to play two or three sports. They’re expected to belong to certain clubs. They’re expected to do community service. Each one of those activities is headed up by an adult, who expects a lot from those kids.

About three years ago, I asked a group of students: “What do you daydream about?” And one kid said to me: “We don’t daydream. There’s no reward for it, so we don’t do it.” Boy, that hit me right between the eyes.

We tend to make our lives appear planned, smooth and thought-through on any college application, because “sat next to the window and dreamed about doing good for my hometown” or “read every spy novel in my library for no good reason” does not get any points or consideration in an admission process – until now. By giving kids the ability to be flexible and by giving the admissions process the flexibility to take in these flexible kids, MIT is sending out the impression that it’s OK to not be perfect and still succeed.

This new system (50 out of 1,665 would not have made the cut otherwise), is definitely a first step in the right direction.

Maybe we will discover the Ramanujans when they are young if our school systems thought about a similiar system of admission…

[Pic: hindu.com]

How would it be if the celebrities congratulate and ask questions to Vikram on the event of bagging the National Award for the Best Actor. The Hindu does a great job on this. Read today’s friday features column, Vikram, the Victor. For the character that was given (though the characterization had its own issues), as an undertaker in Pithamahan, Vikram did a great job. This one question from Shankar and Vikram’s answer proves his zeal for excellence.

Shankar : I was doing a survey about people’s secret of success. What is yours?
Vikram : Hard work. I am like a bridled horse. I like to do one film at a time. Once I start it, my waking hours, sleep, dreams, everything revolves round the film and the character. At the moment, I am eating, drinking and sleeping only Anniyan. I have taken a short break to enjoy the award.

I was expecting today’s friday review to also carry small write-ups on all the award winners from South. But there was only this feature on Vikram. Others might come next week. Iyarkai starring Shyam and Kutti Radhika which bagged the best tamil film and Meera Jasmine for her performance in T V Chandran’s Paatham Onnu Oru Vilaapam. Thanks to Ashok R in reminding me that I hadn’t blogged a word on Vikram’s award.

I did miss the book reading session of Girish Karnad last tuesday at Landmark, Spencer Plaza. Looks like his new book, Two Plays by Girish Karnad – The Dreams of Tipu Sultan / Bali The Difference has caught the attention. The nice commentary on the book reading session is here, Karnad and the King, in by Shonali Muthalaly. She made me envious on the audience to the session.

There is some good news for Chennai residents to celebrate. The Madras Day is being celebrated this weekend on August 22nd. The venue for the Madras day on 22nd will be the cinema fame Rajaji hall. From Photo exhibitions to painting spree on the landscapes of Chennai, to talk shows and quizzes on Chennai, the Madras day turning out to be fun. A note on today’s Hindu is here, Doing their mite for Madras. The three — historian S. Muthiah, D Souza, and Sashi Nair, a journalist — have been urging public relations agencies, children, corporate houses, artists and Chennai Corporation to participate in Madras Day, the first of its kind to be held in Chennai. S. Muthiah, the historician is the one who writes the Madras Miscellany column in Metro Plus. For a peek into his amazing column read this column on Ellis R. Dungan who made M.S. Subbulakshmi a film star.

BTW it’s TGIF dudes – Thank God It’s Friday.

Yahoo search launches it’s own Yahoo Search Blog like the Google blog. The most visible difference between the both search blogs being, that yahoo has opened up the comments feature and the author of blog signs below unlike the anonymous ‘The Googler’ signed google blog.

The first post written by Jeff Weiner, SVP Yahoo! Search & Marketplace writes “this blog is designed to provide a window into what our team is thinking and doing, in their own words (and maybe some guest bloggers as well)”.

Aye !! It also has a blogroll and one of the blogs to be listed is Google Blog. Should i say the blog race is heating up ?

[Pic: vasoolrajambbs.com]

Who would require a movie review for Vasool Raja MBBS? Actually it’s a crime to write a review for a movie like this. Wait. Read the next line before you think of firing me. You don’t actually need to read/write a review for this movie. The primary aim of the movie, I believe, is not to do any lifetime achievement in cinema. Rather the aim (other than cinema business) is to deliver laughs. And Vasool Raja does it royally and rightfully. Are you convinced now. Take a breather. Among the numerous laughs the movie gives, there is also an obvious kind pat to the doctors reminding them that patients need to be treated as humans and not as just cases.

Crazy Mohan known for this indomitable verbal and situational comic sense, has done a fantastic job for Vasool Raja. The only point is that, this movie is like Kathala Kathala has innumerous verbal jokes. Not the kind of comedy that you can remember until weekend and yap with him/her on the beach and laugh again with them. They are ephemeral in nature. Jokes like Dim Dip Dim and Manamirundhaal Marghabhandu are absolute crackers. Crazy is the uncrowned king of Tamil film comedy. Let Mouli forgive me for that statement. He wasn’t all that comical in his latest Nalla Damayanthi.

Not much with Kamalhassan. He has not makeup stunt [except for the first few scenes]. No huge dialogues and no persistent pathos that would allow him to make a loud cry throughout. It seems that he has had his breakfast, took a walk around his house, saw the shooting spot and came inside to enact a role called Vasool Raja. Very casual like what we have seen before in Pammal K Sampantham, Michael Madana Blah Blah, Tenali and of course Panchathanthiram. It is an accepted fact that he has a flamboyant comic sense. He just underlines one more time.

Let this not make you think I’m fastidious, but Bharathwaj hasn’t been upto the expectations. Though he isn’t fully to be blamed for the not-so-good songs and their picturisation, he could have taken his time in the composition. I have really loved his music for his previous films and thought he could weave a magic, having Kamal as the cast.

I hate to compare the Hindi Bhai and the Tamil Thambi but it seems impossible. One reason, why I Munnabhai MBBS was because I saw a song clip in MTV. That song in the hospital where Sanjay Dutt expresses his romantic encounters completely blew me away with the music and the performance of Sanjay dutt. I was placing my bid on Kamal’s performance of the same song in the Tamil version. Instead of a similar song, it was replaced with a silly song called Azhwarpettai Aandava which sounds/resembles like that Kandasaamy song in PKS. A true let down. Also that belly dance song looked like a cheap insert unlike the hindi version.

We know that Airtel is the prime sponsor for the movie but every time anyone’s cell phone rings onscreen it has a loud AirTel tone. Annoying and the height of embedded advertising. It is very clear that the movie was super produced in two-three months. Kamal’s next film cop haircut is visible from that Switzerland duet. If only Kamal can ditch those absurd looking coolers that he keeps wearing in every duet of every comedy film, how nice.

Blessed are those who haven’t seen the original version. Yeah, if you haven’t seen the original, watch Vasool Raja for the sheer Crazy Mohan and Kamal combo. They deliver. If you are the unfortunate one like me, watch it still, for the Kamal version of the don-turned-doctor-turned-don. Limited Feast assured, still.

We walk through the dark corridors of time, as the software industry gets on with it’s midlife crisis. Now, who doesn’t talk about the hostile takeovers? At a point of time in 1995 to be exact, IBM’s hostile takeover of Lotus was considered a sin, the reason being it was the first hostile takeover ever in the software industry. But now, as the bubble starts to burst, IT companies have no more options but to get consolidated. Consolidation is too polite a name to be given for the hostile takeovers of bigger corporations on smaller or their contemporary competitors. Be it the Oracle’s hostile takeover offer of Peoplesoft or the Microsoft/Sap merger and Sun’s plans on buying out Novell, consolidation is everywhere.

This statement of Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Inc reflects how the bigger corporations suffer from the merger syndrome “We wanted to be a survivor and a consolidator, and we felt the only way to survive and prosper was through acquisition,” Ellison said this in June.

An article in ZDNet called Survival of software’s fittest, by Martin LaMonica triggered me to write this post. A passage from the article says, “The worst job in the world right now is a software salesman–there are too many software companies fighting for too few dollars in the marketplace.”

I just loved the article for the facts that it reflected. Read it fully if you in anyway related to the software industry.

[some more pics on lazygeek photoblog]

Wanting to have a good detailed look the show, though I had no intentions of buying anything, I did wander around the Hindu sponsored Lifestyle Show like a kid lost in some festival. I made it on the Friday evening itself, to avoid the weekend rush hungama. Someone who went on Sunday complained that he didn’t even get a full coconut poli to eat in the food court, not to mention the very very overcrowded exhibition center.

Even as you enter the show, you shell out forty bucks as an entrance fee. Forty bucks. That’s a huge amount for an exhibition. Unlike other lifestyle shows which are organized in the little kalyana mandapams, this one was organized in the spacious trade centre. Each store had it’s ample space which was very appreciable. Worth the money that I paid on the entrance.

The Hindu had it’s own display right in one corner of the show where they had vintage pictures of Olympics. Their VIP lounge was as small as their ads on weekend classifieds. People had to bump on each other to see what’s going on inside. And when I tried the stunt, I saw someone like Pepsi Uma chatting with someone like Prashant. Before I could confirm their existence, an excited teenager was already trying to stand on my shoulders and peek inside, so I withdrew, swearing against the organizers.

The automobile stores had real cars parked inside and a family was seriously inspecting a Ford car for more than 45 minutes. I did a whole glance of the show and came back to the same store to see the father was doing something with the steering and the mom inspecting the headlights very meticulously. When I went it was the vice versa. The salesman was already sweating was having a panicked look of having troublesome customers. I did give him a friendly laugh and I think he got the sense.

All the homemakers (inclusive of grandmas, aunties and moms) who were accustomed to watch the evening Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin did take a leave and assembled for the show. There were northies than the southies. The crowd was only in the pakistani choli shop and in the carpet/mats shops. With a huge variety of shops, it was a real entertainment for them, especially.

If there is one shop were everyone bought things, including me, was the one dollar shop. Deriving the idea from the US where $1 shops are primarily used only by desis to buy toiletries and gifts for the Indian relatives (that’s what they do and it’s a fact), this one dollar shop was also damn interesting. Cheap look-alikes of Nivea and St.Ives were also found. Bu interestingly they had some real nice coffee mugs for a throw away price.

Finally the food zone, which had some real good restaurants like Copper Chimney (where you pay through your nose) and China Town were present. But with their usual speed of serving dishes, I only thought, they would have tough time coping up with the rush on weekends.

If you are a yuppie, earning big bucks from a MNC firm and a little spendthrift, you can loose thousands in such shows. While such shows display the luxuries in life than what you actually have now, they are definitely a hole in someone’s wallet. If you were present on the weekend to this lifestyle show, the first thing you do on the monday is to walk into your boss’s room asking for him for a hike.