Time to Bury Bribery

In this fast-paced world all of us work against time to make as much money as possible; to go up the ladder as fast as we can. There is no problem with such ambitions. The problem starts when we are willing to stop at nothing to achieve them- even if it means resorting to illegal and unethical ways. Yes, this article is about corruption, especially bribery- something that we have become immune to. Our country has become so corrupt to the point that people actually wonder if there is anything wrong in issuing bribes.

All of us must have been affected by corruption in one way or the other. In most cases, it is only after reaching a dead end; we resort to bribery, having left with no other choice. Personally, even I have had such an experience. Power cuts are frequent these days. On one such day, there was no electricity in our house for two whole days. Our calls to the electrician fell on deaf ears. Those two days were enough for us to appreciate Edison’s invention! In the end, we decided to give a hundred rupees to the electrician to get the job done. He finally came the next day and ironically, light was restored.
I am sure all of you have had such an experience as well. While issuing bribes, we only think about how important it is to get our work done on time. But have we ever thought about how this act influences the society? If we a government official a thousand rupees, that adds to his bank balance while it results in a shortage of a much-required thousand rupees in the government’s treasury. In the present economic condition, a thousand rupees may not be a big deal. But if a hundred of us give a thousand rupees each it results in a significant reduction of money from the government’s treasury. Money, that could have been put to effective use that could have benefited many, has now been sadly reduced to the personal use of a single man, or rather, two! Earlier corruption, though prevalent, was increasing in an arithmetic progression. But now, it is growing in an overwhelming geometric progression. What is the reason for this gargantuan growth?

Only when a person is ready to give, another is tempted to receive. This prompt readiness to give should be nipped at the bud. We must understand the fact that our selfish desire affects the society, as a whole. As an individual we must declare a strict ‘NO’ to bribery. Immediately snide questions like “How can a single person change the world, especially in an issue involving a huge giant like corruption?” will arise. True, it may not be possible, as an individual. But we must keep in mind, the fact that small drops make an ocean. As India’s youngsters, the responsibility of running tomorrow’s nation falls on our shoulders. A corrupt nation can never succeed. So, let us take a resolution, this minute, never to dirty our hands in bribery. Let us vow to work against corruption and uplift our nation.

I do not know how many minds I changed by writing this article. But I will sleep in peace even if it’s just one. Because every single mind counts!

Written by: Viju
Edited by: Vaagdevi

The Endhiran Experience

I finally watched Endhiran (Yay!!!) and that too, for just 60 bucks (Double Yay!!!) :D . And I liked it. I was actually quite surprised at that because, as a rule, I don’t like the recent Rajini films. They are mostly just commercial with heroines just for duets and to act as the damsel in distress in the end. So, what’s different about this film? Find out by reading this review ;)

Movie: Endhiran
Genre: Science fiction
Actors: Rajinikant as the Scientist Vaseegaran, Rajinikant as the Robot-Chitti, Rajinikanth as a thousand other robots, Aishwarya rai bachchan (is the spelling even right?)
Storyline: A scientist creates a robot with the intention of donating it to the military so as to spare human lives but things go grossly wrong as the robot learns about human feelings.
Bottomline: Watch the film for the sheer magnificence of it.

Well, finally I was at the theatre with my four friends waiting eagerly for the film to begin. After having watched the trailers, I was eager for the film to start. I should add an advice note to Sun Pictures here though: Please… DO NOT run the trailers quite so often!!! Frankly, they become very irritating after a few days to the point of setting the particular song as the alarm in the morning. ;) Let me continue. The movie finally began. Scientist Vaseegaran (Rajini) creates a robot Chitti (Rajini again) that resembles human beings in every way. Vasi exhibits the various skills of the robot in the international conference. Personally, I liked the part when someone asks if god (the creator) is there. Chitti answers by saying that Vasi was the one who created him and hence, god is indeed present. Sana (Aishwarya) is Vasi’s girlfriend and befriends Chitti. Chitti fails to get a patent as, the villain proves, it obeys anybody’s command and does not have the sixth sense to realize who are the good guys and who are not. Also, when Chitti saves a girl from a fire accident, she commits suicide as the reporters take pictures of her without any clothes on as there wasn’t any time to look for clothes in the raging fire. (Obviously!) I found this particular scene ridiculous. Wouldn’t you be glad that you were alive instead of worrying about some stupid pictures? Anyways, this leads to the scientist teaching the robot about human feelings. As a result, Chitti falls in love with Sana (how totally unexpected :P) and forgets the whole purpose of his creation. In anger, Vasi dismantles Chitti and throws him away. The villain gets hold of Chitti then and programmes destruction in his neural chip. The rest of the film is about how too much dependence on machines is harmful to mankind.
First, let us look at the positive aspects of the film. The songs were all really good, even though it did take some time for me to like them. The location of “Kadhal anukkal” was heavenly and the choreography of “Irumbilae” was very apt. Aishwarya, as usual, looked stunning and proved that she is an extremely talented dancer in that song. Chitti was absolutely awesome. When he gets angry for the first time, Rajini looked so cute. :D Also, it was so refreshing to see Rajini as the villain after such a long time. He was actually menacing as the villain. The stunts were déjà vu, but now Shankar has an excuse for all the inhuman stunts that Rajini is able to perform. ;) The special effects were very new to Tamil cinema and it is important that we welcome such efforts. I guess that about sums up the pros.
Vasi’s beard, sunglasses, scarf etc looked as though they were present purposely to hide the numerous signs of aging on Rajini’s face. But, sadly, they fail to fulfill the purpose as Rajini looks older than ever. Chitti’s make-up was intact though. There was absolutely zero chemistry between Rajini and Aishwarya. The song “Kadhal anukkal” failed to impress me. The director has to understand that just the location won’t suffice to bring about the feel of a duet. It looked like Rajini and Ash were dancing in separate video tracks. I couldn’t find any interaction between the two. The song “Kilimanjaro” was frankly, quite irritating. It was unnecessary and got on my nerves. As the film neared its end, the violence was a bit too much and the power ranger-like special effects were overdone. Sana, who is the core reason for all the havoc looks least bothered by the destruction happening all around her. There is not a hair out of place in spite of all the blood and revenge surrounding her.
Despite all the negative aspects, the film worked for me. It was one of a kind… and hey, after all, at the end of the day, one has to accept the fact that Rajinikant is, in fact, the Wonly won!!! :D

Don't make Jack a dull boy!

During my English exam recently, the topic for the general essay was “Deterioration of the standard of education in Tamil nadu and methods to improve it”. I heaved a sigh of relief (because at last, we had been given a topic for our age and not stupid ones like “My hobby”, “My family” etc). So while others were breaking their heads over what points to write, I was doing the same over what not to write. My head was so crammed with ideas and this was a perfect opportunity to vent my frustration. And this was indeed perfect, because the reader would be the actual person concerned with the topic, my teacher! And hopefully, there would be some change in her attitude and others’ too after reading my essay. And so, I began.

In my opinion, the most important reason for this deterioration would be Board exams. Due to the board exams conducted for the 10th and 12th grades, many schools omit the portions of the 9th and 11th grades and the students end up learning the same portion for 2 years. Schools want to improve their reputation and flaunt the marks scored by their students in the Boards and thus, the student’s welfare is in jeopardy. Students are taught only the 10th and 12th portions and as a result, they are ready only to face the board exams. They are not ready for the big picture. They can’t get into prestigious universities like IIT because they fail miserably in the entrance exams conducted by those institutions. This is because board exams do not test our knowledge; they test how well we can mug up the entire book. Also, students do not know how to apply the theory that they learn. Practical examination is of no or negligible importance. The reality is so much different from how things should actually be!

The syllabus is never revised. As a result, we are still learning how companies used to distribute the shares around 10 years ago in Commerce and not the present method. When we asked our teacher why the syllabus had not been revised according to the present scenario, she managed to dodge the question by saying that “It is important to learn history, right?”!!! Accepted, there is nothing wrong in learning how things used to be, but isn’t it more important to learn how things actually are??? To that, I think she had no answer!

Nowadays, students become slaves to even language guides. The main object of a guide is surely to just "guide" the student! We can maybe use the guide for improving our grammatical competency, vocabulary, etc. But students learn even essay and paragraph questions from the student guide. The object of conducting an English exam is to test the grammatical competency of the student and see how originally he can reproduce a poem or a prose piece. But as students abuse the guides, they lose their originality and fail to get the fluency of the language. I have seen my own classmates mugging up even the side-headings of the essay questions! The situation cannot get more pathetic.

Some teachers have the bad habit of asking the students to learn only certain questions from certain lessons as in the blue print given by the Board of Education, it is prescribed so! This is atrocious. We are not learning only to get through the Board exams. We have a world to face. But my own teacher told us “It is enough if you learn 10 mark questions from these lessons and 20 mark questions from those lessons ma… Don’t waste your time learning everything”!!! My friends and I were totally appalled. Is this what a teacher is supposed to say? “Don’t waste your time learning everything”? No wonder the standard of our education is going down the drain…!

We were also asked to give some suggestions to improve the standard of education. I gave the following:-
1. Students, parents and teachers must change their attitude towards exams. We are not learning for the sole purpose of getting through the Board exams. The object of learning should be “gaining knowledge” and not “gaining marks”
2. Exams should be conducted in such a way that they test the originality of the student. Questions should be asked not only from the exercises given in the text book, but also of their own. Only this will test the knowledge of the student.
3. Language guides should never be encouraged by teachers. Students should be encouraged to write on their own. After all, that is the point of conducting an examination, right?
4. Blue prints should, first of all, not even be made. The object of conducting an exam is lost when students learn just what is given in the blue print.
5. The syllabus must be revised regularly. Many changes could have been brought about but because of the prevalence of the old syllabus, the students may fail to get updated accordingly.
Give me some sunshine, give me some rain; give me another chance I wanna grow up once again. But if this condition prevails I am not sure if I would want to ‘grow up once again’.

Thus I concluded my essay. I was extremely satisfied with it and was convinced that I was going to get at least 8 on 10. But in spite of writing the truth or maybe because of it I got just 6 on 10!!!
(Title: Courtesy-Vaagdevi)

Can't they teach them lessons on how to deal with life's problems?

I read this article in the Open Page of "The Hindu" dated 25.07.10.. It was really good. It was written by Pallavi Praveen. I just thought I should share it with you guys... Do read it!


Can't they teach them lessons on how to deal with life's problems?
Last weekend, after completing my household chores, I sat in front of the tv hoping to rest my aching feet when all of a sudden there was a power failure and I was engulfed in darkness. To beat the sweltering heat, I groped my way to the verandah only to realise that all the neighbouring houses were brightly lit. Uncertain as to what to do next, I decided to have a look at the fuse box. Armed with a torch I proceeded as planned.

I looked baffled at the brown fuse board almost as if it were an object from outer space. Completely clueless as to what to do, I was left with no option but to go in search of an electrician and indeed finding one on a Sunday is a Herculean task indeed. Luckily I did find one willing to come to my rescue. Within minutes he figured out the problem and did the repair work. He explained that the fuse wire had burnt which he had replaced. After thanking him and, of course, paying him twice as much — remember it was a Sunday — I returned to my seat in front of the idiot box, but a thought kept gnawing me. I wondered why they did not teach me something as simple yet essential as repairing a fuse back in school.

Why was I burdened with sine theta, cosine theta, lengthy equations and multitudes of theorems? Apart from scoring the desired marks in the examinations I have never found the information of any help in my day-to-day living. Before all the mathematics teachers start waging a war against me, let me clarify that I don't harbour a personal grudge against Mr. Pythagoras. But I do sincerely wish that learning is modified in schools with an emphasis on more practically useful syllabus that makes one more competent to tackle day-to-day problems.

Teach Trigonometry if it is a must, but why not stress more on banking, various saving options, and investment schemes. It would be more fruitful to teach how tax returns are filed and EMIs are calculated. Why not teach what to do and what not at the site of a traffic accident, how to give basic life support in a medical emergency? And I don't mean the bookish, mugged-up answer to this, I am talking about the simple practical skills and training that can be imparted and mastered in order to be actually implemented when a crisis strikes.

Why not teach and make kids practise healthy lifestyles, daily exercises and relaxation techniques. I think this knowledge is far more necessary than cramming botanical and zoological names of the entire plant and animal kingdom. Imparting knowledge which has practical relevance is more meaningful in simplifying life. Indeed, someone particularly interested in a certain subject could always pursue it in great details but why should complicated heaps of irrelevant information tax all the young minds? Let them learn the simple practical lessons which will equip them to tackle the real world efficiently. Let the knowledge that's imparted make their lives easier and learning be an enriching experience in the true sense.

Hey,
This is not my creation. I got this article from Yahoo! News. Read it...

HOT?? You ain't seen nothing yet!!!
In what could be called the worst scenarios for global warming, the temperatures could reach such heights that it would be impossible for humans to survive on the planet, say researchers from Purdue University and the University of New South Wales, Australia.

For the first time, researchers have calculated the highest tolerable "wet-bulb" temperature and found that this temperature could be exceeded for the first time in human history in future climate scenarios if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate.

Wet-bulb temperature is equivalent to what is felt when wet skin is exposed to moving air.

It includes temperature and atmospheric humidity and is measured by covering a standard thermometer bulb with a wet cloth and fully ventilating it.

The researchers calculated that humans and most mammals, which have internal body temperatures near 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, will experience a potentially lethal level of heat stress at wet-bulb temperature above 95 degrees sustained for six hours or more, said Dr. Matthew Huber, who co-authored the paper.

"Although areas of the world regularly see temperatures above 100 degrees, really high wet-bulb temperatures are rare. This is because the hottest areas normally have low humidity, like the ''dry heat'' referred to in Arizona. When it is dry, we are able to cool our bodies through perspiration and can remain fairly comfortable. The highest wet-bulb temperatures ever recorded were in places like Saudi Arabia near the coast where winds occasionally bring extremely hot, humid ocean air over hot land leading to unbearably stifling conditions, which fortunately are short-lived today," said Huber.

The study did not provide new evaluations of the likelihood of future climate scenarios, but explored the impacts of warming.

The challenges presented by the future climate scenarios are daunting in their scale and severity, he said.

"Whole countries would intermittently be subject to severe heat stress requiring large-scale adaptation efforts. One can imagine that such efforts, for example the wider adoption of air conditioning, would cause the power requirements to soar, and the affordability of such approaches is in question for much of the Third World that would bear the brunt of these impacts. In addition, the livestock on which we rely would still be exposed, and it would make any form of outside work hazardous," said Huber.

While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change central estimates of business-as-usual warming by 2100 are seven degrees Fahrenheit, eventual warming of 25 degrees is feasible, he said.

Steven Sherwood, who is the paper''s lead author, said prolonged wet-bulb temperatures above 95 degrees would be intolerable after a matter of hours.

"The wet-bulb limit is basically the point at which one would overheat even if they were naked in the shade, soaking wet and standing in front of a large fan. Although we are very unlikely to reach such temperatures this century, they could happen in the next," said Sherwood.

The study will be published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Vinnai thandi varavillai

Guys, here is my review of Vinnai thandi varuvaya.

Movie: Vinnai thandi varuvaya
Cast: Silambarasan, Trisha, Ganesh
Director: Gautham Vasudev Menon
Music director: A.R. Rahman
Storyline: A guy falls in love with a girl at first sight. The girl denies her love in the beginning…gradually accepts it but leaves him in the end.
Bottom-line: Old wine in new bottle (Courtesy: Sujatha:-D)

The cliché love story again! Love at first sight…opening song illustrating guy’s love for the girl; Guy proposes, girl denies, and then agrees to be friends! Girl finally falls in love with him, but leaves him in the end when she realizes they cannot end up together. To sum up, VTV is just another love story that we people have seen and read and heard of. So, what’s new about this love story, one may ask. Well, as mentioned above, it’s just old wine in new bottle. But wine, they say (having never tasted it myself ;)) tastes sweeter and better as it ages. But unfortunately, that is not quite true in this case.

Let’s start with the pros of the film. One of the biggest, or if I may say, the biggest asset of this movie is, without a doubt, its music! Kudos to the Academy award winning composer Rahman for his heart-melting tracks. All I can say is, he has done it again. Be it the peppy Hosanna or the musical delight Omana pennae, one cannot help but get addicted to his music. Rahman’s wonderful music accompanied by Thamarai’s beautiful lyrics is just wow!!! The thirukkural addition in “Mannipaaya” is something very new. Lines like “Ananivarum urangidum iravenum neram, enakkadhu thalaiyanai nanaithium neram” in Mannipaaya, “Kadhal kondu naan pesa…kathi thooki nee veesa…pakkam vandhu thottu pesum kanavugal kandaen….innum satru aruge vandhu muthamum thandhaen…ithanai nadandhum kadhal illai yenbadhu sariya…aanaai naanum pennaai neeyum irupadhu pizhaiya”, in “Kannukkul” bring a small smile to your lips! If you have only listened to the movie’s album, you have only experienced half of the magic. You have got to go to the theatre to see the awesome cinematography of the songs. They are simply wonderful. Hosanna, shot in Malta, Omana pennae, showing the vast expanse of the blue sea are visual treats! A round of applause to the art director Rajeevan, for portraying Rahman’s music so beautifully. Small touches like when Karthik (Simbu) squeezes Jesse’s (Trisha) feet, Karthik’s joy when he first sees Jesse and many more light up your face and warm your heart. Also, this is without a doubt, the best movie of Simbu and Trisha, yet! What a make-over for both of them! They have never looked better. I was actually cheering for Simbu’s entry!!! The director sure knows how to groom his stars…! Nalini’s costumes are to be appreciated. The actors have done a pretty good job. Trisha, especially, has given her best to this role.

Coming to the cons, well, they are many! First of all, the dialogues were a major let-down. After Vaaranam aayiram, I am sure all our expectations were sky-high. Mine were of course, the same and boy was I disappointed! Some of the dialogues were so…cheap! I mean, I, for one, definitely did not expect the classy Gautham menon to write such dialogues. The movie’s pace was also extremely slow. Jesse’s characterization was poor and showed her as an extremely confused person. She rejected Karthik 4 times!!! (I am not kidding!) First she refuses, then accepts, then refuses, then accepts, then refuses…gets engaged to another guy, leaves the poor guy at the altar, then accepts Karthik again and finally refuses! Phew! Karthik sure has a lot of patience!!! :P Also, the editor should have been careful with the twist in the end. When “Anbil avan” started, people actually thought the movie had ended and started leaving the hall, thereby missing the most important part of the film. The editor should have given a hint of some sort that the movie was not over yet.

The film was definitely disappointing if you had any expectations. However, if you didn’t expect anything great and definitely not something like Vaaranam aayiram’s magic again, you will probably like it!

PS: Copyrights reserved to me, and me only!!! :P