Sudarshan, who belongs to AID-US is co-ordinating the Tsunami relief operations. He is sending out a call for or volunteers from AID-Chennai. There's still a HUGE need for volunteers for different teams. There's also a similar need of volunteers who can spend a few days in Pondicherry / Cuddalore/ Naagai / Kanyakumari. Preferably those who can speak tamil.

If there are any volunteers for the areas mentioned above, please contact the aid-india office or the telephone numbers given below.

Contact :
The main AID help line is 044-2835 0403, 044 5561 5629.
Chennai : 20, Ratheenam St, Gopalaupuram, Chennai-600086
Cuddalore: Balaji - 94440 61033, K.P.Narayan 04142-229108 and
Damu - 94442 41918
Nagapattinam: Jagadish - 98403 79889 and Ranganathan - 94440 18590
Pondicherry: 0413- 2290733

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There are bloggers and there are bloggers. ABC News declares People of the Year: Bloggers. A trivia that's very interesting is that a new blog is created every seven-and-a-half seconds. More than 10,000 new additions are added to the blogosphere each day. Thats a huge number.

This title of ABC could be hugely attributed to the Blogger's active participation in the US Presidential Election of 2004 and also other global issues like the latest Asian Tsunami attacks.

This week, their influence has become readily apparent. Dozens of bloggers have been filing firsthand reports from the areas devastated by southern Asia's deadly tsunamis.

"There is kind of an immediacy that people can relate to — can't help but relate to that in a very intimate way," said Jardin.

Bloggers around the world have made themselves useful, encouraging donations to relief groups, posting the names of the missing, and expressing sympathy for the victims.

Read more Internet Phenomenon Provides Unique Insight Into People's Thoughts.

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If you didn't, do it right away and come back.

GMAIL's mainpage chronologically lists the GMAIL milestones in 2004 and is ready to welcome 2005. My guess is closer to becoming right, atleast I hope so. Probably GMAIL will be made available for public, in early Jan 2005. So the beta issue attacks on GMAIL, just like Tsunami attacks on Asia, will have go to hell.

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I've had friends/relatives calling up if everything is safe because of the emrgency alerts flying red on the televisions. My friend who lives in Triplicane had informed that a portion of Radhakrishnan salai is blocked because it leads directly to the sea and their are divertions in that place.

Another friend panickly called up and said that people are leaving to their homes and the electric trains are already running full houses.

Update - Two hours after the previous para was written, the televisions are announcing that Tsunami alert in Chennai may be reduced. Looks like the Port Trust of Chennai will start functioning from evening.

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There's panic here as Chennai is put on highalert for Tsunami attack again. The news and rumors are all twined together making people more panicked.

It remains a question as to how many lives are pending to go before 2004 ends. God Bless !!

NDTV reports that the sea waves are seen to be rising near Chennai. Chennai Port Trust is put on highalert and starts evacuating people from there.

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[Click thumbnail to read the poem]

Vairamuthu's tribute to the Tsunami victims was in a form of a poem. A worthy read. This was the same poem which he quoted in Sun News Channel, a couple of days back.

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The guys at Google have done a wonderful job by giving a link to Tsunami relief sites on the home page. The websearch main page looks like the image above. By giving the link on the homepage they are spreading the news of relief operations faster.

The linked Tsunami Relief page displays lists of donation sites and information sites. The information site also lists the Tsunami help blog.

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The following tribute to Tsunami victims is written in Tamil.

- by Latha

Pirandha Pin Ninaitha Aayiram Aasaigal,
Arivu Thelindha Pin Artham Atru Pogalaam,
Arivu Mazhungi Aadai Inri Mannil Maraiyum Naal,
Aasaigal Artham Ketta Kelvigal Arthamaai Thonralaam
Vaazhvin Artham Edhil Dhaan Irukkiradhu
Annayin Paasathila, Iyarkayin Seetrathila
Illai Vaazhaikai Mudiyum Nodigalil Thonrum Seiyalatra Peedhiyila
Artham Atra Manidhanaai Vaazhavadhai Vida
Artham Thedi Alaiyum Aanmavai Iruppadhe Uyarvo?

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This article, Bloggers step in to help tsunami victims, in Sify written by Catherine Hours of AFP talks about the Bloggers are getting into the relief efforts of the recent Tsunami attack.

Not only people from Chennai are helping in Tsunami relief but there are many others around India who are contributing the efforts.

Blogs however should not replace professional journalists, said Robert Thompson, who heads the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University in New York state.

"But they are useful because they can do a lot of important work, they are very good at getting lots of information rapidly," he said.

The big news media organisations keep offices in large cities "but they can't be everywhere. The world of blogs means you get correspondents everywhere," he said.

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The Tsunami that swept over the coastal parts of India has left behind scars that would never heal. Apart from the fear of epidemics caused due to de-composition of bodies floating in water and buried in sand, there are many unheard issues cropping. This incident reported in dailythanti was specially heartrending.

A family from Chennai had been to the Velankanni Church near Nagapattinam. And when the Tsunami swept the shores, this boy along with his parents was washed away. After the Tsunami attack, he was lying with other deadbodies in an unconscious state. By mistake he was supposed to be taken for mass burial with other deadbodies. Miraculously at that right moment, Praveen became conscious and blinked at the whole scene.

While this makes one think about the rescue operation's alertness, we also have to agree that the rescue workers are also working round the clock without food and sleep and it gets tough after sometime. With bodies coming up as they keep digging, it becomes a routine and strenuous. It's only a hope that such cases don't happen in the coming days.

Also rescue workers face the wrath of rain and deadly creatures floating on the water. Snakes and scorpions are said to be floating in the waters near Nagapattinam scaring the rescue workers and the public.

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The articles taken to purview are limited to the scope of my reading and hence I am not sure if this is a perfect title to be awarded. Yet for the heck, since I've been reading a hell of these tech stuff in the last years, I wanted to give it a shot.

There are times when new technology has been criticised by the part of the tech world. Sometime the degree of criticism varies. But when most of the critics are up against a technology indicating the public to shun that tech, to rise up to the occasion and to write an article in support of it is a herculean task. Not just that you got to be politically right. You should also be doubly conscious that you and technology don't get into something much bigger than the original issue.

While there were many tech articles on Outsouring of US Tech jobs, Open Source on the main-stream industry, IPOD Mania, nature of Google's IPO and the Search Engine wars that created an uproar and comments from the readers, only a few will stay with us.

David Pogue's NY Times article called Google Mail: Virtue Lies in the In-Box, was an eye-opener for many of GMAIL's intial users. Though the credibility of NY times enabled this article to reach out for the people, it was the simple approach David chose to take in dissecting the philosophy behind Google's GMAIL. You would appreciate why I say this as the tech article of the year if you could fix it to the time of it publishing because its when the privacy issues started to peak up and this column of David was talked about for it's clarity and simplicity. From the article -

In fact, no human ever looks at the Gmail e-mail. Computers do the scanning - dumbly, robotically and with no understanding the words - just the way your current e-mail provider scans your messages for spam and viruses. The same kind of software also reads every word you type into Google or any other search page, tracks your shopping on Amazon, and so on.

Besides, if you're that kind of private, Gmail is the least of your worries. You'd better make sure that the people at credit-card companies, mail-order outfits and phone companies aren't sitting in back rooms giggling at your monthly statements. Heck, how do you know that your current e-mail providers - or the administrators of the Internet computers that pass mail along - aren't taking an occasional peek?

Daniel H. Pink's cover story for Wired magazine's February 2004 issue named The New Face of the Silicon Age addressed the then hot issue of Outsourcing. Daniel did his complete research for his article and his article reflects the intensity of research. This article talks about how India became the capital of the computing revolution. From the article -

This is a story about the global economy. It's about two countries and one profession - and how weirdly upside down the future has begun to look from opposite sides of the globe. It's about code and the people who write it. But it's also about free markets, new politics, and ancient wisdom - which means it's ultimately about faith.

Tim O'Reilly's research column The Open Source Paradigm Shift took me by awe. It presented the case about Open Source Software, it argued about implications of software commoditization and it spoke about building the internet operating system. It was long but comprehensive. It was a true break-through article. It talks to you like your fellow colleague and it makes you to do a personal paradigm shift.

I have a simple test that I use in my talks to see if my audience of computer industry professionals is thinking with the old paradigm or the new. "How many of you use Linux?" I ask. Depending on the venue, 20-80% of the audience might raise its hands. "How many of you use Google?" Every hand in the room goes up. And the light begins to dawn. Every one of them uses Google's massive complex of 100,000 Linux servers, but they were blinded to the answer by a mindset in which "the software you use" is defined as the software running on the computer in front of you. Most of the "killer apps" of the Internet, applications used by hundreds of millions of people, run on Linux or FreeBSD. But the operating system, as formerly defined, is to these applications only a component of a larger system. Their true platform is the Internet.

All the above three articles have made a great impact in their own domain and all have the right to claim the Tech Article of the Year 2004. Do leave your suggestions.

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If you are in India now, you probably would be donating stuff for Tsunami hit areas of Tamil Nadu and other countries through your corporate houses or your apartment buildings.

Making Tsunami donations to one common place can do all the good for the simple reason, the controlling body will make sure the money and the other donations recieved are shared across with victims uniformly. Hence, I personally believe that all donations collected by smaller organisations should be diverted to the PM or CM Relief Fund which will act as the controlling body in distribution of relief funds to the victims.

Just in case, you are outside India and wish to donate money to the Tsunami victims, see the PM's National Relief Fund page for more details.

Rupya, a blog on stocks is accepting donations that originate from USA through Paypal.

Association for India's Development, Inc. (AID), a US-based voluntary non-profit development organization is also collecting donations for Tsunami victims. Donate

The Hindu is also collecting donations online called The Hindu Relief Fund, which can be paid by credit cards. Donate.

A blog has been setup for the Tsunami relief called The SEA-EAT blog. It's an effort to consolidate news and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts. [Via Kribs].

Update [31st Dec 2004] - Some more links to tsunami donation sites are added here.

Indian Red Cross Society. Indian Red Cross Society, National Head Quarters. Tele: 011-23716424 Fax: 011-23717454. Donate

American Red Cross Disaster Relief through Amazon.com. Donate.

Children account for one third of tsunami dead. UNICEF responds to disaster that struck Asia. Donate.

World Food Program. Donate.

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[Click the picture for a bigger image]

NY Times Photo-essay on the Tsunami that hit Chennai and the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu. Images of heartrending pain.

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Apocalypse visits Chennai. I hate to believe it happened. This one is a consolidated article on all the updates by New Indian Express on the coastal calamity.

A timely editorial on Tsunami from Hindu - Death from the sea.

Chronology : Tsunamis at Guardian.

BBC Reports - South India struck by quake waves.

22,000 and the count keeps increasing. Diaster Toll - Sri Lanka:11,000 dead, Indonesia: 4,500 dead, India: 3,500 dead, Thailand: 839 dead, Malaysia: 44 dead, Maldives: 32 dead, Burma: 30 dead, Bangladesh: 2 dead.

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[Sea water flowing in Chennai roads. Pic: hindu.com]

So it happened and it happened just after all the newspapers and weeklies have bragged about the year that was. The most devastating incident happened during the last week of the year making people denounce new year celebration.

At 7:30 am on the Sun TV, it was officially announced that there was an earth quake at Chennai. From then on it was a roller coaster ride. People were seen on the streets talking and talking about the Chennai's second trembling earthquake. I switched to the sunday channel programs as usual. It was at 9:50 am when I recieved an SMS from my friend who said the sea water was flowing into the city and I thought it was just overstatement. And only when the Flash News started to roll, I believed. The first thing that stuck was the summer flick, The day after tomorrow.

At 10:30 am when I drafted the previous post, I had no clue that there will be such a huge impact. A reporter said Tsunami hits chennai on the NDTV news channel. Tsunami, what?. And Tsunami became the most used word of the year atleast here in Chennai/Tamil Nadu. I initally thought they had just a named the tremor attack like naming tornados in the US. I was completely wrong.

At 3:00 pm when I was at the Besant Nagar beach, there were around 3,000 people standing in the shores and watching the sea. The Earthquake and Tsunami at Chennai had taken thousands of lifes into the sea and it looked as peaceful as ever.

Over the Adayar bridge the water level has doubled, a sight that I have never personally seen before on that bridge. When I pulled my bike over the bridge, I could see a batches of huts that were half submerged in the water flow.

This is probably the most ravaging incident that hit Chennai and Tamil Nadu in the whole in my lifetime and as said in the previous post, this incident would be talked, blogged and narrated a thousand times in the years to come.

Intestingly Writer Sujatha's short story called Nagar Vallam[City Round-up] talks about a group of people visiting Chennai Triplicane on a boat because part of Chennai city is submerged over by the tidal waves. The come there by a boat to see the places where their fore-fathers lived. The story appeared on the Sci-Fi series written by Sujatha in Kalki weekly.

Here's is what wiki says about the Killer Tsunami

A tsunami (from Japanese ?? meaning wave in port) is one or a series of ocean surface waves that occur after a large earthquake (having a vertical component of movement), seaquake, volcanic activity, slumps, or meteorite impacts in or near the sea.

In deep water, the energy of a tsunami is constant, a function of its height and speed. Thus, as the wave approaches land, its height increases while its speed decreases. A tsunami has a very long wave length (in the order of 100 km), which makes it act as a shallow-water wave. While in deep water a person at the surface of the water would probably not notice, the wave can increase to a height of 30 m and more as it approaches the coastline.

Tsunami prediction remains an imperfect science. Although the epicenter of a large underwater quake and the probable tsunami arrival times can be quickly calculated, it is almost always impossible to know whether massive underwater ground shifts have occurred, resulting in tsunami waves.

Here is more on 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

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The ground beneath my feet trembled. The place was shaking all over. My comp fell down from the table. The wall clock just slipped down to hit my head straight. It had 6:45 am on it's hands and it stopped. I just realised it was a earthquake and quickly opened the door and ran faster and faster. It shook and I rolled down the stairs. Down and Down. Rolling.

Well, that was just a an exaggeration. I could possibly have a nightmare of sorts today just like this one. But truly it trembled. Just a little.

One unassuming december sunday morning was going to be an unforgettable one, specially for the ones who lived in Chennai. As I was about to wake up, this morning it was a feeling that someone was just playing with the cot. There was a thin shake and it stayed for a while. Even before I realised it was a earthquake it was over. It lasted just for a minute before it died down taking away so many lives all over Asia alongwith it.

Was in Adyar today and took a stroll after the quake to see if I was the one who was insane to think it was a earthquake. I understood I wasn't alone. However, I didn't comprehend the loss until it was announced in the televisions. Had been to the Besant Nagar beach now to see what had happened to the Chennai's proud asset. The beach memorial where Chennai Blogger meets are held is just so close to the sea. The original shores aren't too be seen and the beaches(Marina, Besant Nagar, Santhome and Thiruvanmiyur) have become museum pieces. People are coming in hundreds to watch the sea take over the shores.

This title doesn't hold a connection to the day after tomorrow movie but the day before tomorrow(it's today...come on) will be remembered down the memory lane. Sometimes Headline News happens just beneath you without you realising it is one.

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Watch Kathal.

Watch The Incredibles.

Watch Swades.

Enough of thinking lazy!!. Yun Hi Chalaa Chal has been running in the winamp loop for 12th time. Shutdown the comp and for heaven's sake, watch Swades first.

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[Surya as Michael Vasant]

This year wasn't a year of performances. We didn't have an array of classic acts that were tough to choose from. With the little lot that kollywood saw this year it wasn't like a photo-finish.

This year's little group of acts included Kamal as the naive Virumandi, Surya as Perzhagan 'hunch back' Chinna, Surya as the intellectual Michael Vasanth and Parthiban as a Schizophrenic in Kudaikkul Mazhai.

Not Virumandi Kamal, for various reasons. Not Perzhaghan Surya. Again for various reasons. One explainable reason was that, Michael Vasanth whizzed past us with the tag 'Actor of the Year'.

Virumandi had a soul-searching role. Kamal Hassan was missing. The story, the screenplay and the cast stayed with us and but Kamal just overplayed the role of director that he lost his focus on Kamal-the-actor. However, it was worth a mention. Parthiban's single act in Kudaikkul Mazhai was a neat job except that his screenplay didn't support him too much. Perzhaghan Surya was just patient with his hunch-back makeup. His characterisation walked away with the sympathies. Surya-the-actor was to be googled. The character won, however.

Surya as Michael Vasant in Aayitha Ezhuthu was the perfect choice. Hats Off goes to Mani Ratnam for casting Surya. Michael Vasant, a rebel, a prodigy and a progressive youth was impersonated with a class by Surya. It was his amazing timing and his perfect-perfect body language that really captured the soul of Michael Vasanth. Like Kakkha Kakkha, Surya downplayed himself to suit the role. Surya was also perfect with his intonations.

The tougher categories of Best Of Kollywood 2004 are coming up.

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If you think playing Chris Mom/ Chris Child is childish. No way. We played it on a 50 member team and it proved to be lots of fun and the best of team building exercises. Rocks.

2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist , the time-spirit of globe, has been released. Guess what - Britney, Christina Aguilera and Pamela 'Bay Watch' Anderson are topping the popular searches. There is just two male dudes in the top 10 popular seaches. Orlando 'Troy' Bloom and Harry Potter. Eminem did made it to the top 2 of Popular Men 2004. One a personal note I am excited that Kurt Cobain and Bob Marley are still in the Top 10 Male Celebrities. Ironically, on a year when music companies came together against music piracy, mp3 is one of the top 10 popular searches.

GMAIL is close to be released public in Jan 2005, I guess. Starting yesterday, GMAIL is giving out 10 more invitations to the subscribers. I know no one needs them anymore. Just in case, leave a comment.

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I have blogged about accidents and traffic in Chennai before, this is one more of that category.

Couple of days back, in a suburb of Chennai, while me and my friend were driving back on a two-wheeler, there was crowd in the middle of the road. A man's body lying there. We searched for the head. No head.

Next day in my office this was the talk-of-the-day. Looks like he was run over by a watertank lorry. We know that watertank lorries are the mobile God-Of-Dead in Chennai. But this one was truly heart crunching. Imagine that doomed man's thoughts just when he was alive under the wheels of that lorry. One moment and all his hopes, dreams, family and career boomed out.

No Preaching. A suggestion, Drive Slow.

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Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Not the Bob Dylan stuff but today is Vaikunda Ekaathisi.

Looks like Master Martin Scorsese and Di Caprio combo is going to work again. The Aviator rocks this year's Golden Globe nominations. Releasing for Christmas in the US and no sign of the movie release in Chennai.

It's a joke that you can't watch three continuous songs in Ktv. One of them will be a bad one. Suprisingly it wasn't today. Starting with Sivakumar and Nathiya singing Kanna Unnai Thedukiren in the Kodaikaanal cold, it went on Kamal Sridevi singing Perai Sollavaa from Guru. Finally it was Rajini and Deepa with a voice-over of Senorita !! I love you from Johnny. All three were SPB goodies, picturised at hillstations and also my fave ones. The joke was broken.

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This is usually awarded finally. Let's get this upfront and go back down the Best-Of-Kollywood-2004 list.

Among the numerous good and bad movies that kollywood saw this year, Virumandi takes the cake. Be it for Kamal Hassan's directorial skill or sheer touch of class in screenplay which was a tightrope walk or simply the cast of Virumandi which supported the screenplay, Virumandi walks away with the Best Movie of the Year tag. Few things that I probably felt were the best in Virumandi were, Picturisation of the whole movie inside sets which didn't seemed like one, Abirami's fantastical sketch of Annalakshmi, Pasupathy as Kothala Thevar and the Shanmugam as Peykkaaman.

Here are a few lines that I blogged just after watching Virumandi -

Virumandi is a just an observation of modern day, cell phone cultured rural folks of Tamil Nadu. There is however a message implied in this observation which is made without passing judgments on their life style, their sentiments and their everyday outcries.

Few other movies that I thought were worthy contenders are Mani Ratnam's Aayitha Ezhuthu, Cheran's Autograph and Selvaraghavan's 7G Rainbow Colony.

Aayitha Ezhuthu missed out in characterisation of Inba Sekhar though it had superb screenplay, dialogues and cinematography. Autograph had amateruish acting though Cheran had a novel approach in story-telling. Selvaraghavan came near close to Virumandi but didn't match it in the technical forte and background score.

The Best Of Kollywood 2004 follows. Do leave your suggestions/comments.

Tamil Moves that released during 2004 -

7G Rainbow colony, Aayitha Ezhuthu, Adithadi, Alagesan, Alagiya Theeye, Amma Appa Chellam, Anbu Sagotharan, Arasatchy, Arul, Arumugasami, Athu, Attakasam, Autograph, Bose, Campus, Chatrapathy, Chellamey, Dreams, Eathiri, Enavo pidichiruku, Engal anna, Gajendra, Gambeeram, Gilli, Giri, Image, Jai, Jana, Jeyram, Jore, Kalam, Kalumulla kalamvarai, Kamaraj, Kanavu meipada vendum, Kangalal kaithu sei, Kathal, Kathal dot com, Kathaley jeyam, Kavithai, kovil, Kudaikul mazhai, Kumaran s/o mahalakshmi, Kuthu, Loves, Mahanadigan, Manasthan, Manmathan, Matchi, Mathumathi, Mathura, Nee matum, Neranja manasu, New, Oru murai solividu, Peralagan, Pethi sollai thattathey, Puthukotailirundu saravanan, Saga, Sema ragalai, Setai, Shock, Singara chennai, Sulaan, Thendral, Udaya, Ullathai nee killathaey, Uyirosai, Vanam vasapadum, Varnajalam, Vasool raja, Vayasupasanga, Virumandi, Viswa thulasi

Thanks to Namma Nanganallur Vasant for the list of movies. I am not sure if this is a exhaustive list. Suggest if there are any movies to be included.

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Here's Google way of wishing Happy Holidays.

Google's desktop search gotta bug[Read it as Aerosmith's Janie's Gotta Gun]. A big bug. I suppose they will fix it with a patch. No Issues.

The last man I was expecting to write such an awe-inspiring essay, The Drive to Discover, in support of NASA's exploration efforts was James Cameron. Like his movies, he starts it with a mastered ease and then he makes you agree that what he says is close to perfect. Must Read.

Books of the Year 2004, says The Economist

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And you thought only film music was selling in millions. The carnatic season special CDs exhibition happening in Sri Sankara Hall on the TTK road will prove you wrong.

Last evening, it was brimming with activity and there people flock the place to get their favorite devotional, carnatic music CDs with a lovely discount. The growth of technology is only boosting the carnatic musical sales. Bharathnatyam, Bhagavad Gita and many other important music are now available as DVDs.

I picked up couple of CDs and some rare gems of MS along the way. Sangeetham's editor Sriram's Carnatic Summer is one of the appreciable efforts in this year's music season. Sriram chronicles lives of twenty great people of carnatic music like Chembai, Ariyakudi, MS, MLV and others in Carnatic Summer.

My friend who was thoroughly excited at the music exhibition loitered around the entire carnatic music section, went back to the other hall and bought AR Rahman's Bombay Dreams. Carnatic music sells, rarely, I agree.

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These well written tributes to MS Subbulakshmi talks about the person shw was and the music she lived with. These articles written after her demise are sure some worthy collectibles on MS.

Frontline's cover story, Enduring Music, written by K.Jayanthi and Asha Krishnakumar.

Gowri Ramnarayan's column in Hindu Magazine, An Elegant Simplicity, where she sketches her personal connection with her paatti MS. This one clearly talks not about MS's family life but also how she leveraged it with her very busy professional life. Not for feminists, especially.

Yet another article on MS Subbulaksmi's life by Gowri Ramnarayan in Frontline, The M.S. Phenomenon, chronicling the life of MS from her birth at madurai where she was born.

Hindu's tribute in pictures, A Life For Music. Has some of the rarest pictures from the archives of Hindu.

Coming Sunday[26th Dec 2004], the carnatic aficionados will gather in Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan to pay tribute to MS Subbulakshmi. The program would start with Bhajans sung by Sudha Raghunathan, Sowmya and others. Hindu's Editor-in-Chief N.Ram, Cho. Ramaswamy, Journalist Gowri Ramnarayan and others will pay tributes to MS.

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[Pic: Intercom with spielberg's signature ]

The passion for storytelling, the passion for being highly imaginative and the passion for delivering films with a sense of belonging can be attributed only to Steven Spielberg. As a kid, he was probably my first biggest inspiration for the wonderworld of films. If I could recall one instance of becoming an addict to cinema it has to be Spielberg's E.T. For me, a kid on 3rd grade, watching a film's story expand beyond boundaries of imagination and touch hearts despite dealing with a weird looking alien was sheer magic. And Extra Terrestrial still remains a magic till day, even after 22 years after its release.

From then, I have closely watched most of Steven Spielberg's movies with a sense of belonging. As though he was a friend teaching me the art of movie making. And never, never he has left me down with his movies. Even my favorite Indian Spielbergs have left me down in a couple of places failing to impress.

Having watched even the not-so-commercial movies like Schindler's List and Amistad in the dark and hot cinema halls of Chennai, like crazy, I can rather write a full length analysis on Spielberg and his dimension of movie making. Thats certainly not the point. Having watched his movies so damn well, I still can't guess what would be his next venture. Just like the how he made Catch Me If You Can after the techical wizardry in Minority Report.

Though we know Tom Cruise starring War of the Worlds[Trailer, must see], based on HG Wells sci-fiction, is set to release the summer of 2005, I can't wait more to watch it.

Spielberg loves to quote, "The only time I'm totally happy is when I'm watching films or making them". While he is turning 58 today, the movie lovers of the world would join together and wish him a filmy birthday. We don't have to hope for better films from him. He loves the movies more than the movie lovers themselves.

Happy Birthday Spielberg!!

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After a year of moving from Blogger to Movable Type, it's boring to look at this dumbo static interface of Movable Type. I intend to switch to a different blogging interface but the satanic Blogger keeps tempting me to come back. To honestly accept, I love the Blogger tool and desperately want to go back and use it.

One reason for me to get boring could be due to MT tool that is installed on my same domain and gives me a isolated feeling compared to Blogger.com which is a hub for bloggers. So when I am using blogger it gives me the true sense of blogging among bloggers. This could even be a bad-mood-weekend-rambling. Whatsoever, I can't go back to blogger for the simple reason, I cannot import all my movable type entries by date into blogger. Also we don't have a good tool to repoint all the links appropriately. Suggestions accepted !!

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[Pic : Rediff]

Ravi K Chandran's interview to Rediff on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black is passionate. He talks and talks about Bhansali at length and why the film Black is so special to him. Ravi says that handling camera for Black as the most important event in his film career until now.

Black starring Amitabh and Rani Mukherjee[Yo!!] is Bhansali's sentimental way of looking at a blind girl's life. The promos on the television are very classy and a perfect example of how Bollywood films have elevated themselves to Hollywood standards in promotion[Just promotion, I said].

Ravi K Chandran also talks about the dilemma he had in choosing to handle camera for Aayitha Ezhuthu and Black. His next project with Shahrukh Khan is being directed by a favorite of mine. Amol Palekar.

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Mani Ratnam back with full enthusiasm in Chennai . Sify reports that the next project would be with newcomers, starting April 2005. [Via Praveen].

The Unofficial SAS Weblog. Business intelligence provider SAS , the world’s largest private software company has an unofficial weblog. Its blogged by Ted Conway, SAS camper for the past 20 years. Lots of intresting stuff outa there especially for Business Intelligence entusiasts.

Jon Meacham's cover column on News Week named, The Birth of Jesus creates controversy. Gets debunked heavily in the blogosphere. Read more on The Year of the Blog.

Chennai finally goes YAHOO!!

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Re-reading a book of Writer Balakumaran, after 6-7 years set me thinking for the quintessential dramatic need at the end of every story. While dramatic need is a concept often talked about during the script writing stages of a movie-making, it plays a vital role in usually completing the story that had started.

Just like screen-writing, even the books have three distinct stages viz., the start, conflict and the end. Towards the end, most writers seem to hurry in sneaking a dramatic need and completing the story. This could either be due to the lack of space/time and other undocumented reasons. One other reason could be that the writer probably has already started work on his next project and wants to rush through the current one.

Anbulla Appa, a short novel of Balakumaran which was out during the late 90s did impress me at that time due to the philosophical values it hinted. Was discussing this with some friends a few days back and it prompted me to go back and re-read it. Reading a same book after few years is a wonderful feeling. At a sub-conscious level it scales your mental growth.

Coming back, Anbulla Appa talks about a teenager who due to his family compulsions is set to be sold for adoption. What follows is how he wades through these tough days to grasp the meaning of relationships. While the book itself is very philosophical, at the fag-end it stuck me that the writer rushed through the final parts just to complete the story. This is exactly where the dramatic need of the story gets transformed to a dramatic super-urgency. All the time, during the book, he was relaxed in preaching philosophy and just at the point of climax, speeded through. A similar quick-end also came to his recent book, Yezhaavathu Kaathal.

If this is in a case of a movie, I agree to the rational behind it. Making the movie climax at appropriate length is an art and its a tightrope walk. But a book can always accommodate two more extra pages to give completeness to the story. A movie watcher is tad different from a book reader. A book reader, presumably spends more time than in reading a decent sized novel and the most important distinction is that he reads it alone. Unlike movies which are watched mostly alongwith public. So the bond that the writer strikes with the reader is much better than a movie director. He can use this liberty to his favor. At times at the end of the book, I feel a let down. A let down just because the writer rushed through the final stuff.

Balakumaran is just used here as a reference. All or most of the writers have at some point of their writing career have done this. Now the question I am pondering over is that, if I am the odd one noticing stuff like this or are there other takers with better explanations ?

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I did get a chance to watch the interview of Badri Seshadri, co-founder of CricInfo and an avid blogger, in Jaya TV. Apart from the unique innovations that he planning for his publishing venture, Kizhakhu Pathippagam, his bullets to the aspiring entrepreneurs were worthy. It was obvious that they were drawn from his hard earned experience. Great going.

Desikan is on a Thiruppaavai trip. To celebrate the festive month of Marghazhi, Desikan plans to capture the magic of Aandal's Thiruppaavai in his blog. Today, his detailed writeup on Aandal[17 pages by print] takes the cake.

Google's new service Google Suggest simply rocks. This is where the quest for real-time seach begins. And there is a long way to go. Here, as you type the search query in Google, it suggests you the top 10 queries, word by word. Confused ? Try it yourself.

If you are searching me for the confusing title up there, escape.

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Finally. Oracle buys PeopleSoft for $10 billion. Isn't that a breaking news ?

This part of the press release is impressive -

"We intend to enhance PeopleSoft 8 and develop a PeopleSoft 9 and enhance a JD Edwards 5 and develop a JD Edwards 6. We intend to immediately extend and improve support for existing JD Edwards and PeopleSoft customers worldwide."

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[Pic: hindu.com]

Extract from MS: A Life In Music by TJS George, HarperCollins India -

M.S.Subbulakshmi and her husband once stayed at the New York Apartment of an executive of the Esso Oil Company. After lunch one day, MS began singing for the small gathering of friends who had assembled in the apartment. To their dismay, repairs in the adjoining apartment provided a steady accompaniment of hammer knocks and metal sawing. MS's host was embarrassed but said was helpless. MS alone seemed unconcerned and went on singing.

A few minutes later, the noises suddenly ceased and two helmeted American handymen appeared at the apartment door. "Can't understand a thing," one said, "but it's very touching. May we listen?"

----------------------------------------------------

by Desikan -

6 years back, I was newly married. Thats not the point here. I wasn't conversant in carnatic music, unlike my wife who has a carnatic musical base(over 18 years) thanks to her guru Mrs.Radha Vishwanathan (daughter of MS Subbulakshmi).

So it was my routine on every saturday morning to take my wife for music classes held in Radha Vishwanathan's house. One fine afternoon when we were about to leave, MSS came to her daughter's house. I stood up and didn't want to sit before her. Later, I sat on the ground as a mark of respect. She offered me a seat near her and asked my wife to sing.

My wife was bold enough, sang one of Surdas bhajans(orginally rendered by MSS). MSS listened to that fully and appreciated. Throughout the song I was sitting beside the legend. I could not express what went in my mind at that time. We prostrated to MSS and recieved her blessings, before we left. She did invite us to her house.

After 6 years, I wept yesterday morning over the news.

----------------------------------------------------

by Latha -

Perfection cannot be improved. If this statement could be related to MSS, then it wudnt be an exaggeration. All of us look upon her as the greatest musician this century has ever seen and probably will ever see. From being an ardent admirer of MSS, the Musical Legend, a single April morning of 1997 transformed me into a worshipper of MSS the person. Death alone can make me forget the moment I first met her at her residence when she walked into her living room and smiled at me. Until then I had only heard about the term Divinity Personified. That moment I realized that divinity is an understatement to describe MS Subbulakshmi. I wanted to get up & prostrate at her feet, but my knees had gone so weak that I cud not even lift myself. That day made me realise that one can look up on MSS with only one emotion. Not awe, not wonder nor admiration but reverence. Pure reverence. The mystery will always remain whether she grew on music or if music grew on her. The stark Tejas in her face & the warmth in her smile left me spell bound. Trust me, The other 2 times that I met her was no different from the first. The same shiver ran thro my spine & my throat went dry when I tried to speak to her. MS Subbulakshmi, is a human being par excellence.

Kurai Ondrum Illai Marai Moorthy Kanna. How can anyone ever sing this again ? Truly, the carnatic music world can now really have a period to talk about, The MSS Era. I am reminded of my father's words about MSS, "Even Maha Vishnu would get up late if MSS Suprabhatham ceases". This world may/may not see better musicians in the future. But MSS will remain the great of all the greatest. The glory of carnatic music was further glorfied by MSS voice, her passion, her respect for music & above all her Devotion. There is no doubt that she has left behind a huge void which can never be replaced. I am grateful to God, not just for having born in this century, but for also having got an opportunity to be blessed by her.

The angel who descended from Heaven has left us to get back where she belongs. Thaaye Unn Peyaer Sollumbodhey Idhyathil Minnale Paayudhe...Maa Tujhe Salaam !!!!

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[Pic: hindu.com]

Shocked. In search of words to say. Your voice will always heard and re-heard by the coming generations. You will live in the hearts of all carnatic music lovers and non-lovers. Good bye MS Subbulakshmi.

Update [13th Dec 2004]: This blog was closed yesterday in memory of Bharat Ratna MS Subbulakshmi. If you had dropped in here, the whole of yesterday and saw this closed today page, for the kind of admiration and respect that I had for MSS, I wanted to something within my limits to pay homage to the God's Own Voice and hence I decided to close this blog for one day.

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[Thanks to Thiru for the pencil sketch]

Last evening, after the office hours, me and a few of my collegues, unconsciously got into a conversation about Bharati. One of them had brought the Bharathiyar Kavithaigal to office and what started as an informal poem reading session ended up in a conversation of sorts on Bharati. Finally, we concluded that any amount of re-collection of his poems, forethoughts and writings will not substantiate Bharati. For he was always larger-than-life.

His birthday is being celebrated as a four-day Bharati Festival(starting yesterday) at Bharati illam, Thulasinga Perumal Koil Street, Tripilicane. This festival is a great way to remember the man behind these lines -

Ooyuthal Seiyom Thalai Saayuthal Seiyom
Unmaigal Soalvom Pala Vanmaigal Seivom.

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Fourth Time. Unacceptable man(i). Get well soon.

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There are very few musical compositions which can drive you crazy on the first listening. With no clue of how the music would sound, I landed in Subash Ghai's Kisna website. There were sounds of horses galloping and then an animated sword flies in and gets stuck into the battlefield mud, followed by a flute. Starts the the single high pitched flute and goes on and on getting accompanied with few distant drums.

Flute is a magical instrument. With just a flow of air directed across the hole bounces in and creates magic. Can literally take a plunge into your soul and can wade through it like a fresh breeze. This composition is one just a sample of the enormous possibilities, flute encompasses.

If you are reading this and heading for the website, you may probably not get the similar goosebumps like me. Even I may not have it for the next time. I went with no clues/expectations/blocks. It took me by a sweet shock. Try out your luck, anyway.

Kisna's music is not just by one but two, of the best hindi music directors, A R Rahman and Ismail Durbar. Now, will I be allowed to compare this combo with Mella Thirandhathu Kathavu / Senthamizh Paattu music composed by Illayaraja and MS Viswanathan.

Am heading this evening to buy myself a CD of Kisna. Sure.

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Had been to My Best Friend's Wedding at Hotel Palmgrove. Not the movie, a true wedding. While the Palmgrove at Nungambakkam is the toughest place to reach given the traffic that surrounds the place, it is a place for a good decent wedding. The only crib I have is that you may get lost among the many weddings that happen in the many wedding halls of Palmgrove.

During the wedding reception, three guys on the stage who called themselves a band, pulled up a great carnatic fusion instrumental show. While it was surprising to see a three member band, their quality of music was completely devastating. One was with a violin, one on a electronical pad that gave out drum sounds and the other with the synthesizer. Though its been couple of years since I started getting bored over the synthesized music, this one was a true experience. And the quaint manner they played Kurai ondrum illai was mind blowing. As a breath of fresh breeze, I think one should also listen to such nice fusion music to understand the spectrum of carnatic music, that is. I know understand why people outside India celebrate artists like Violinist L. Subramaniam and Guitarist Prasanna[Am a great fan of Prasanna]. The foreigners probably understand their musical notes and when carnatic gets transformed to western style, they appreciate the amazing notes of carnatic. In Indian carnatic circles, fusion is a sin. I vouch it isn't. Any takers ?

On the way back, we had pull up a cab to return home and the cab driver seemed to be full of josh today. The reason, Super Star had travelled in the same cab today. He said that Rajinikanth's Chandramukhi shooting is on at the MGM resort and for the shooting 50 of his company's cab were hired. Luckily, the car he drove was the one Rajini was travelling in the movie. And you know why he was full kush. He may probably not sleep today and tomorrow. It was the last place someone would look for such a gossipy news. So here you go journos, Rajini shoots Chandramukhi at MGM resorts with 50 cars. A saleable headline for tomorrow.

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This note on moneycontrol.com says that Life Insurance Corporation of India is planning to implement the largest insurance datawarehouse in the world by 2007. LIC is looking at a 60 terabyte DWH size in the first phase. US’s largest insurance data warehouse is understood to be deployed by Nationwide which is in the region of 20 terabytes.

The article however states the largest datawarehouse in the world as of now is Walmart's DWH with 300 terabytes. Thats not appropriate. I have no clue from where did they get a number thats just 75% of the original volume. Per New York Times, Walmart's datawarehousing capabilities are 460 terrabytes big. Thats a blooming number to match.

The application provided by Teradata – a division of NCR, will enable LIC to study trends not only among customers but also its 1 million strong agency force. The project will be implemented by Wipro and is estimated around Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million), to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million).

More than 10% of the country's population are the customers of LIC. Just 10% percent and we have the biggest Insurance Datawarehouse in the world. The kind of mining that could be done with this datawarehouse would be countless. A real worthy datawarehouse to build.

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Hurray !! This was what I was looking for.

In an interview, after Ananthu's demise, Kamal Hassan recollected his thoughts on Ananthu, his mentor, very effusively. While he agreed that its time to move on with Ananthu's memories, he remarked about his recent friendship with a french playwright who helped him with the French version of Marudhanayagam's screenplay. I did blog this on my Marudhanayagam blogpost. I did miss that French playwright's name when it was mentioned by Kamal. From then on, I was on lookout for the playwright's name and unfortunately Kamal didn't talk about him in media.

Now, in his recent Vikatan column, Love Pannuda Mavaney, he writes about his acquaintance with that french playwright. Jean Claude Carriere. And he details the meetings and the passionate discussions on cinema that he shared alongwith Carriere for 3 weeks in London. Kamal Hassan describes about the initial meeting with Carriere and how Carriere was impressed with the English version of Marudhanayagam's screenplay which lead to Carriere accepting to script the French version for a throwaway price.

After Virumandi, when Kamal called up on Carriere, he was introduced by Carriere to Milos Forman, the director of hits like Amadeus[on the genius of Mozart] and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The column is in Tamil and its a must read, especially if you have heard the name Kamal Hassan.

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[Sanjay Subramaniam in a kutcheri. Pic: hindu]

From Aalapanaas to Thukadas to silk sarees, canteen bajjis, sabhas, raskias and season tickets, everything is on for this December Carnatic Music Season 2004 in Chennai.

One of the biggest joys of being in Chennai, the cultural head of South India is this December kutcheri season also known as the Marghazhi Music Festival. With more 20 sabhas and an array of kutcheris(musical performances) happening all around the day, one would have to be lucky to glimpse the best of performers and the best of fine-arts. This Kutcheri season doesn't carry just carnatic music, it also embeds the best of dance, drama and other artistic expressions.

Come december and Chennai is already in the festive mood. Be it the Isphani Plaza which is decorated with jingle bells, welcoming teenagers and the new year or be it Narada Gana Sabha welcoming the music performers with the huge garlands. It is a pleasure to be in Chennai, especially during the Marghazhi month.

Kutcheri Buzz, an online kutcheri site which chronicles the musical performances during the season is all set for the music season 2004. Carnatic singers Sowmya and Shashikiran's Carnatica is already rolling commentaries on this season's performances.

Music Academy of Chennai, the most happening place of music kutcheris is unfortunately not conducting the music season this time.

Going by the schedules, Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha has some of the best performances lined up. Ofcourse, there are other nice sabhas which showcase the best of carnatic musical talent. Some kutcheris that I am looking forward will have Mandolin U. Srinivas's fusion show, performances of Sanjay Subramaniam, Aruna Sayeeram and Sikkil Gurucharan.

We are going to have a huge crowd of people coming down from the USA to sing, enjoy and watch the Kutcheris. It's going to be a month of celebrations and they have already begun.

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The computing big daddy Microsoft, makes his super slow entry to the blogdom. Now with the already late release, we would expect him to come with the latest(latea vandhaalum types...).

As of now(mind you, as of now) MSN Blog tool really bores with the look and feel. It has the typical msn layout with the kind of silly options that blogger and live journal were offering, sometime back. It's time someone in their R&D will buck up and re-invent them in tune to blogger. With the kind of money Microsoft can pump in, this is going to be just a matter of time, I hope.

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[Pic :hindu.com]

If I were to start listing from PC Sreeram, the list would continue like this. PC Sreeram[Meera], Santhosh Sivan[Terrorist], Rajeev Menon[Minsaara Kanavu], Jeeva[12b] and now KV Anand. You know what the list is about. KV Anand joins the list of cameraman-turned-director with his new flick Kanaa Kanden.

Kanaa Kanden will have Srikanth and Gopika[Vandallo Vandallo] star the movie with Vidyasagar on the tunes and Subha[Suresh & Balaji] with the dialogues. Hindu says, Kanaa Kandein is a racy romantic thriller. The photo and the ads are already out and they look classy. Anand remarks that he missed Swades and Anniyan for persuing this one. Hopefully this venture would make him forget that fact.

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Mira Nair recaptures the comedy of Munnabhai MBBS in English as Gangsta MD. Did someone believe Munnabhai MBBS had the script value to reach high places ? It happens.

'Blog' - Word of the year as per Merriam-Webster Inc. Blog was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year. We bloggers would love it. Why not. [via Spidey].

Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes. Imagine the data mining possibilities. The Internet has less than half as much data as this. Phew !! [via S.Anand]

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