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This morning, when a browser window and went to Bloglines, one found posts by a couple of people touching on their nominations for the Asia Blog Awards for Q1 2006/2007 (so now we have quarterly awards? WHAT!!!!). After resisting for a couple of hours, the link was clicked.

The list of nominees for best India Blog has all the usual suspects plus a pair of blogs that one hasn’t come across before. Needless to say, as in the case of any awards, one feels there were others that were not nominated. In fact, even if the pool was made up of 50 blogs, the feeling would be the same. And that is because people are setting high standards and meeting them consistently.

So anyways, as is the norm, the comments were scanned and since then, one has been stuck speechless by one particular comment.

# Comment by Disagree on August 23, 2006 7:40 am

i disagree. we need more nominations. lazygeek, kiruba, chenthil, hawkeye, superstarksa, harish … so many people left out. how do we put in more nominations?

“Disagree”, whoever you are, thanks ba. But you are being too kind to us!

This is to inform one and all of the following.

* You jokers would have to first decide where I supposedly landed - Sharjah, Jeddah, Kuwait or in the latest version, New York City

* I have never landed in Sharjah, Jeddah, Kuwait, or in any of New York City’s airports.

* You get your visa for the US before even you take a flight into the US.

* I have never had to wait two hours for a visa.

* My first name is not Anantharaman.

* While some people do call me “Superman”¹, my last name is certainly not Subbraman.

* I know this is not a funny post at all, but why can’t you stoke my ego and laugh just a wee bit, you jerks!

1. This led to this blog’s tagline - I am No Superman - mostly because I have this obsessive need to stay out of the limelight.

This post was written using Quillpad. Any spelling mistakes can be explained by my less than perfect reading skills in Tamil. So all you Tamil language nazis, please be gentle with me since I am sure this is going to be a one-off post, to try out something new to demonstrate that one can blog in Tamil without needing special font downloads and such. Maybe this was possible before, but I am a Philistine when it comes to things like this. So thanks are due to the Sambhar don Kaps, for bringing this to our notice. And if your Tamil skills are worser than mine, please go straight to the the English translation for this post by clicking the “Continue Reading” link.

என் பெயர் அனந்த்தா. எனக்கு வேற எந்த பெயரும் இல்லை. எனக்கு தமிழ் எழுத்து கூட்டி தான் படிக்க தெரியும். பள்ளிக்கூடத� �¯à®¤à®¿à®³à¯ மூன்றாம் மொழியாக தமிழ் படித்திருந்஠¤à®¾à®²à¯à®®à¯, பொறியியல் கல்லூரியில் இருண்த பொழுது ஆனந்த விகடன், குமுதம், வாராமலர் போன்ற புத்தகங்களை படித்து தான், தமிழைய் நான் வலது கொண்டேன்.

எனக்கு சுத்தமாகா தமிழ் எழுத வராது. ஒரு முறை நான் தமிழ் கட்டுறை போட்டியில் பங்கு பெற ஆசை பட்டேன். பரிசு வாங்குவதற்க� �¯à®•à¯ அல்ல! வகுப்பில் உக்கருவது ரொம்ப கஷ்டம் என நினைத்து தான் அங்கே சென்றேன். ஏதோ சென்னை சம்பந்தமாக ஒரு கட்டுரை எழுத சொன்னார்கள். அதார்க்கு முன்பு எல்லோரும், அவர் அவர் à®ªà¯†à®¯à®°à¯à®•à®³à¯ˆà®¯à¯à®®à ¯, வகுப்பையும் வலது பக்கம் உள்ள கொட்டித்த இடத்தில் எழுத சொன்னார்கள். நான் எனது பெயரை எழுத துவங்கினேன்.

பெயரை எழுதி முடித்தேன். படித்து பார்த்தால், என் பெயரை நான் (à®…à®©à®¨à¯à®¤à¯à®¤à®¨à®¾à®°à®¾à ®¯à®£à®©à¯à¯) முதல் பாதி தமிழிலும், இரண்டாம் பாதி வட நாட்டு மொழிஇலும் எழுதி இருந்தேன். ஒரு நிமிடம் யோசித்ததில், எது தமிழ், எது வட மொழி என்று என்னக்கே புரியவில்லை. அன்று முடிந்தது என்னாது தமிழ் ஈடுபாடு.

இப்பொழுது சிலப்பதிகாரà� �®à¯, பொன்னியின் செல்வன் போன்ற காவியங்களை படிக்க வென்றும் என்று மனது ஆசை படுகிறது. ஆனால் தமிழ் ஞானம் குறைவாக இருப்பதால், ஆங்கில மொழி மாற்றம் செய்யப்பட்ட காவியங்களை மாட்டுமெய் முதலில் படிப்பதாக முடிவு எடுத்ுள்ளேனà� �.

The English translation follows. So (more…)

This post was in draft format on my blog for a couple of weeks till I actually chatted (over IRC) with Scott Carney who broke this story, at the Chennai BlogCamp early this morning and I decided to finally update the draft and post it now!

Tessa Quayle was murdered on a visit to remote Lake Turkana in Kenya. She was killed because she had gotten too close to a secret – one that involved a nefarious multinational drug company, a tuberculosis remedy with unfortunate fatal side effects and a cover-up involving the higher echelons of the British foreign office.

That of course, as some of you would have surely known, was one of the main elements of the plot created by John Le Carre for his book – The Constant Gardener. The celluloid adaptation of this book was one of the better movies to come out of Hollywood last year, but a real life version seems appears to be brewing right in Chennai. Sadly though, the said events have barely created a ripple, a Wired magazine feature and mentions on Boing Boing and Desipundit not withstanding. (more…)