Month: July 2009

Random (tamil) Punch Dialogue

Raghuvaran voice (RV) to be in deep throated croaking voice:

RV: Gun irukka? (Do you have gun ?)

Police: Irukku sir. (Yessir)

RV: Bullet?

Police: Irukku sir. (Yessir)

RV: Enga ? (where?)

Police: Pocketla sir.

RV: Govt edhu kuduthaalum pocketa ? (whatever govt gives, you put in pocket?)

Police (squirming)

RV: Bullet gunla irukkanum. Moolai thalaila irukkanum. (Bullet should be in gun. Brain should be in head!)

Waah. Waah. What thatthuvam (logic)! Whaah.

No entry tax – Karnataka – Sensible judgement.

Wah. I was waiting for this stupidity to end. Thank God for a sensible judge who overruled it. Karnataka forces people to pay entry tax (and it is as steep as 12% for cars/scooters/…) whenever you buy a vehicle outside the state and bring it in. It was the main reason, why I sold my WagonR in Noida, came to Bangalore, and then bought my new car. Add to the woes, the road tax in KA is probably the highest in the country too.

…road tax in the state is supposed to be the country’s highest. Road tax on cars below Rs 5 lakh is roughly around 10.8%, and from above Rs 5 lakh it varies between 13.75% and 17.5%. The tax in New Delhi is 4% and in Kerala it’s 6%. —source

Phew, and now a sensible judge has overruled this. I particularly like the wordings that were used. Beautiful.

Justice Kumar observed that the makers of the Constitution had favoured free movement and exchange of goods throughout India, which is necessary for the economy and for improving living standards of the country. In his 200-page judgment, he noted that Article 301 emphasises that the economic unity of the country would provide the main sustaining force for stability and progress of the political and cultural unity of the country. Justice Kumar pointed out that in the present context of globalisation, privatisation and free economy, the national boundaries and barriers should be sidelined for the benefit of economic development of the world, “If a state’s economy should be prosperous, because of the tax holidays and lower tax rates, it only shows a mature political leadership vibrant tax planning and marshalling resources available in the state. It is worthy of emulation by other states by free flow of trade and commerce from such a state to neighbouring states.”

Army Recruitment Violence

Just read this news article, about violence at an army recruitment camp in Uttar Pradesh. Brings out a few thoughts/questions:

  • The violence apparently started because the candidates thought there were some irregularities in the enrollment. Is this really happening ? The US is also fighting a similar battle. Some very startling news arising out there, on enrolment based on color.
  • Ok, say that there was some evidence for this irregularity, is arson and violence, the way it should be handled. Are these ‘so-called-candidates’ the right ones, if they react to this like this. What will they do in the army? The army is all about obeying the commanding officer, whatever. And when I say, “whatever”, I mean “whatever”. This is what I have heard. Arson, violence ..? I cannot digest this.
  • The state government issued a statement to the central government, telling them to intimate the state government, before such camps are handled. Is that the solution? In my parlance, that is called “passing on the buck/blame”.

Why is the Indian cine/fashion world so mesmerized with everywhere outside India?

I have this nagging question, that I do not get satisfactory answers from anyone. I think you will get the point if you try and answer the following  questions:

  • Why was the IIFA awards held in Macau ?
  • Why is the Miss Chennai / ChennaiMan awards held in Colombo?

Why? Why? Dont we have world-class auditoriums in India ? Dont we have good audio systems in India? Or um, dont we have enough crowds in India? If you think, the answer is ‘no’ for the first two questions, then why the he** arnt we doing anything about this ? I am sure, no one will answer in the negative for the ‘crowds’ question. We (as in fans), love our stars. We will be there to cheer them up.

A very related rant that I have is, why does every movie have to have an international location song? Why ? Dont we have enough scenic locations? I am not saying New Zealand is not pretty (I have been there myself, and I can vouch for the prettiness). But the locations in which these shoots happen, are similar to dozens of location in Uttarakhand, Darjeeling, Coastal Karnataka, Nilgiri mountains, should I list more? Snow capped peaks, um, dont we have more than 80% of the Himalayan range within our territory. Even if we discount Kashmir as being not too safe, we still have a fair share n UP, Uttarakhand, HP, …. Well you want beaches – dont we have Goa, Coastal Karnataka (Murdeshwar), … — why do we always have to look at the coral greens in Maldives and Australia alone.

Why, why, why …

I am not going to get an answer .. but alteast I ranted my heart out.

Robin Sharma books

I have just started reading “The Saint, the surfer, and the CEO”. Will do a book review later. I have gone through a couple of chapters now. The book is a typical Robin Sharma book – starting off as a story, and a lot of conversations, between the ‘hero’ and ‘teachers’ that he finds (or is assigned to). I find both Robin Sharma’s books and Paulo Coelho’s books interesting, only because of this. Their story-like way of illustrating things is nice to read. Even if some of the concepts are similar, and you may have read it in other self-help books, it feels different and closer hitting, when it is shown as a conversation between 2 seemingly real people in a story. One other strong point in both of these authors works is the presence of ‘teachers’. Their characters seek these teachings from wise men.

It is my opinion, that these draw close parallels to Hindu epics like Bhagawat Gita, Ramayan, Bhaagavatham etc. The Gita is a good example in itself. It is a great self help book. Arjuna is seemingly a real world character – of that time – a warrior in a war. He gets his teachings from a wise man – Lord Krishna.The bible is one such book too. People looked up to their guru – “Moses”. Interesting. Leads me to believe – religion itself is a huge self-help paradigm, and religious scriptures are the self help books, that one is recommended to read.