He was researching Ella and her devastating impact on his blogroll when he noticed the link to her blog. He knew that her last post was months ago. Smirking, he moved to delete it when he noticed the calendar. He paused and with a sardonic smile, he let her link live to see another day.

Everyone assumes and makes an ASS out of U and Me. Sounds cliched, huh? Someone assumes that everyone who searches for “hot madrasi gals” on the Net is South Indian. And yet another assumes that someone who bitches about India is an NRI. In either case, the people making the assumption end up sounding like they have their face up their asses. What is even funnier is the people who follow these first movers and agree with the same assumptions under another mistaken assumption that more people agreeing to the same assumption makes the assumption come true. (more…)

A couple of weeks ago, I had a few hours to kill at Heathrow while coming back from my India trip. After killing time at a restaurant over a lunch of pizza and coffee, I walked into a WHSmith in the Terminal four lounge and was browsing through their cricket section when I chanced upon Richie Benaud’s My Spin on Cricket. I picked it up and put it on my “to read in bed” list that I had begun as a (my only) New Year resolution.

I started on the book and during this past week, I read about the GOI’s latest ordinance forcing private broadcasters to share sports feeds with Doordarshan. I realized that their could be an Australian precedent, according to Benaud. And based on what I have read about it these past two days, it looks like the Aussie measure dates back to a time as recent as ’04 early as 1992. (more…)

What the fuck is wrong with CNN-IBN? You think you belong to a nation of stupid cricket lovers and suddenly you get a dolt who can’t talk in camera to save his skin? So this guy, supposedly a cricket correspondent, rambled on and on and literally begged for the 30 member World Cup probable list to be shown on screen to save his posterior. I wouldn’t bat an eye-lid if it was economics or politics, but an Indian gent under 30 who can’t talk cricket? Where the fuck was the teleprompter?

I just wish to add that this sounds as surprising as my self-adopted guru doing a post last week highlighting a blog dedicated to Kamal’s career. Since he had advised me, his own protégé, “grow up or to stick to Rajini and Disney blogs and never come close to a political blog” like his, seeing that post has left me speechless. So much that a comment I put in vanished into thin air. Leaving me not just speechless, but comment less too.

Things like these only demonstrate that it is a new year after all. And that things change. WTF! Ya, go ahead and say it again for good measure.

I have been wanting to post about my apartment hunt for about a month now, for there have been so many experiences that surprised me. Now that everything is done I can put my legs up and talk about it.

It all started end of September. Two months before my lease expires on November 27, I started my hunt for a new apartment. After a year of staying in an apartment where the heating bills often ran to a number north of three crisp Ben Franklins, I needed to be by myself in a place where I controlled my own destiny and my heater. (more…)

In the 24 hours, a number of feeds on my Bloglines account have suddenly appeared in a “refreshed” state with their feeds in summary mode (example: Chennai Metblogs) rather than the usual full post mode that I have set them up as. Has anybody else noticed it?

Is this an issue with individual blogs or is Bloglines going through some maintenance?

In June, after I read a post titled The Highest Paid Indian Actor, I volunteered to do a post on DesiTrain about the actor, who despite occupying the same pedestal as Mithun Chakraborty in the collective consciousness of millions of people on the other side of the Vindhyas, still makes more money than any other actor in India. A couple of weeks later, I sent the post to Oz. But since the PassionForCinema group blog was in the cards, Oz told me to hold on to it and post it as my first post on there.

So here is the post, perhaps the first of a series…..A Brief History of Rajini..

* Aaron Sorkin

* I am still hung over after the final season of The West Wing

* I digg Saturday Night Live

* Matthew Perry / Bradley Whitford, among others who are West Wing alums.

* Lines like the ones below that seem so relevant, much like the West Wing plots.

Danny Trip: They want to see you take fewer whacks at Bush and looks like they are getting their wish. So you throw it out.

Matt Albie: … ….

Danny Trip: … …

Matt Albie: Four years later and by the way, I’d be happy to take potshots at the Democrats, if one of them would say or do something..

and monologues like this.

Update: In case you are wondering what Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is all about, NBC has made available the complete third episode (from last night) here.

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…)