Double Standards in India

Bursting of fireworks is "regulated" for Deepavali and even the Supreme Court says that one cannot burst beyond 10 PM. Or the fireworks should not have x chemical or y composition etc.
All this is is ostensibly to prevent air and noise pollution.
Fair deal.

But why is there NO BAN for all the revelry that takes place in the residential localities like Besant Nagar. There are scores of misguided souls who are driving around like maniacs on bikes and cars. Doesnt that lead to air pollution?
And then the noise from the beach - noise from vehicles and also from the cacophonous sounds emanating from drunken hooligans - this is heard even 200-300 metres away from the beach. Isnt this noise pollution?

God save this country and the idiots living in it.

Happy 2010

Here's wishing all regular viewers, the lone follower and any accidental visitor, a very Happy 2010.

I am on leave today simply because I was on leave on the same date last year. Last year was pretty good professionally and since I didn't really change my style of working, I think only such superstitions can see me through every year. Touch wood.

இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்

End of post!

Cold start to 2009

Here's wishing you a Happy 2009.

The cold I picked up after watching this movie has still not left me. I have been going to office with great difficulty the past 3 days. And actually, today is a working day for us but am on leave. The first day of this calendar year and I am on leave!

I hope the rest of 2009 sees the clearing away of all blocks (literal and otherwise).

I have not converted my Tamizh New Year and other points that don't really warrant separate posts

A couple of months ago, the "illustrious" (sic) Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, introduced this new bill,seeking to change the Tamizh New Year to the first date of the Thai month in stead of the ages old tradition of Chithirai month.

Ordinary folk can afford to make errors due to senility, but letting such individuals be a head of state is bound to cause such official jokes. While he may have his own linguistic chauvinistic reasons to make this change, he basically ignored the religious sentiments of the Tamizh speaking Hindu community.

I don't want to get into more details of this bill which will soon become a law, but to me, my Hindu New Year falls in the Chithirai month. I am least bit bothered about what the Government decides is the New Year. My religion, my tradition, my culture, my customs dictate that my New Year starts with the Chithirai month and I am not planning to deviate from it!

Anyways, this puthaandu started on a relatively low tone at home. The reason was just that with all the painting work going on, things are still not in place (quite literally). So in terms of the Vishu kanee, it was nowhere like usual and definitely not like last time.

And this must be one holiday that I have spent at home without watching much of TV. Once again, the blame is on the painting job and it was only in the late afternoon that I reconnected my Tata Sky to my TV.

Other than that, I have spent quite a lethargic Sunday. Of course, I washed two loads of clothes and still have some left over, but other than that, I didn't do much at home. I did help around in re-hooking many of the screens and putting them back in place. But in general, I guess I was probably I am a bit tired after my outstanding performances of scoring 56,51,64 and 64 in consecutive Hoops games at City Center. I now have around 350 tokens and from next week onwards, I can probably think of redeeming them. I bet its gonna be QUITE embarrassing having to exchange tokens in the midst of kids, but just because I am bigger than some of them, shouldn't make me feel out of place right?

Also, my newspaper agent came by to collect the first month's prepaid coupons for my Times of India subscription. He says it will start tomorrow. Eagerly waiting for it!

On a sad note, the father of one of my superiors in office (in the same unit, but not my line manager) passed away yesterday - may his soul rest in peace. I didn't see the message he sent me and only when a friend of mine called me later, I came to know about it. We couldn't visit him yesterday and today being the festival day, we couldn't go today either. We planned to go tomorrow, but my mother says that the "Dhukkam" rules allow me to visit him only on Thursday. I will decide on the course of action after consulting with my friends at work tomorrow.

Ideal/Idle start to 2008

I actually didn't do anything today. Not that I usher in a new calendar with much pomp and gaiety, but this time, I didn't even step out of the house.

Even at home, I didn't do anything other than eat, browse, watch TV etc. Usually, my parents and I go out shopping and get something or the other. At the bare minimum, we buy a gold coin.

But this time around, it was nothing. So at some level the idle start sounds like an ideal start!!!

And here's wishing all of you a very happy 2008.

Sarvajith - The Tamizh New Year

The Tamizh New Year started off on a great note for me. And just to clear any doubts that you may have - I used "great" in a totally sarcastic note.

I went to bed a li'l late on Friday night - close to 1 actually - and so didn't want to wake up till say 9 AM.

But I also knew that since it was the puthaandu, I would have anyways been woken up earlier than usual and taken to the pooja room for seeing the Vishu kanee. The Vishu I refer to here is obviously the Kerala new year and not to the famous Tamizh actor/director with a similar name.


So here I was clocking in my required sleep, when I started to hear some rumbles. I also started feeling some cold breeze. My sub-conscious mind told me that there was a rain-ish atmosphere building up. But I wanted to continue my sleep.

That's when I felt water drops hit me. I ignored the first couple but then quite some more started marking their presence on me and so I woke up slightly startled. And I saw that it was pouring quite heavily. The rain had come to town with its trusted companions - wind, lightning and thunder.

It was only 7 AM but my sleep was completely broken. I had no option but to drag myself out of bed. After a minute or two, while I was still deliberating within myself if I should close the windows and resume sleep, my dad had come to my room - probably just to close the window. But since I was awake, he wished me a happy new year and took me to the Vishu Kanee layout.



According to some of my friends, this Tamizh New Year is supposed to bring in lots of rain and lots of heat as well. Going by the start we had, I sure do think that the former could be true (the latter is always true in all years).

Midnight pujai in temples for the new calendar year

Let me start 2007 with yet another pet peeve of mine - Hindu temples celebrating the "New Year" with special midnight prayers.

It makes absolutely no frigging sense. The "New Year" is not a new year per the Hindu calendar. The new year, if one follows the Hindu almanac, falls at different periods, depending on linguistic distribution of the Hindu population: Tamilians and Keralites have it around mid-April, Gujaratis have it with Diwali (and so do many others in North India) etc.

In which case, why the bloody hell do all these temples have special pujai at 00:00 hours on Jan 1 every year? Of course this is a recent phenomenon, perhaps lasting a decade. But still, it completely defies logic.

Any Hindu temple is supposed to close down with special prayers to the deity at night and you wake them up the next morning, again with special prayers. But on just this one day, we break all possible aagama shaastras and conduct prayers at midnight.

Why do you think this is? Blatant westernisation and commercialisation of the Indian mind. Most of the western world, heralds in the "New Year" with special midnight mass in their churches. That's of course, for the families. The youth are anyway going to be parading around the streets, or filling in the pubs and discos to dance into the "New Year".

We Indians have to copy all this right? So we have all hooligans roaming the street on the night of Dec 31. Zipping on their bikes like maniacs. Drinking like there is no tomorrow. Dancing in pubs/discos for obvious reasons. Again, this is the younger demography's domain.

So what does the average Indian family person do? Use religion conveniently. Lets have a midnight prayer in the temple. That way I get to be out of the house to bring in the "New Year". And since there is a temple in the plan, the senior citizens wont be offended. And for the temple authorities - its money baby. No one is going to enter a temple on such a special occasion and not put something in the hundial or the priest's aarthi thattu. Not to mention, the allied businesses around the temple like the flower and fruit vendors, the chappal stand people and the beggars, all stand to benefit!

Basically it goes to prove my theory that the temples these days function purely as a business.

So if you have even the least bit of faith in the Hindu religion, PLEASE DON'T GO TO TEMPLES at 00:00 HOURS OF ANY JAN 1.

Oops.... Have I proven myself to be an atheist again?