No End in Sight

It's a must watch for anyone who wants to know WHY things are happening the way they are in Iraq. And, it's also a must see for anyone who's interested in watching the United States of America admit and accept to the fact that it f****** up...big time.

I've seen quite a few documentaries based on 9/11 and it's aftermath and I can say without much hesitation that this has been the most hard-hitting of them all. And this is not because of an expansive conspiracy theory laying the foundations for the film or emotional interviews and graphic depictions of war that would force you to have an emotional outburst for a few minutes, only for you to get on with your life after that. Instead, it has facts presented by the very same people who directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowlingly helped orchestrate the farce that the war on Iraq was. With first hand admission of screw-up's by the who's who of the US intelligence and defence communities, it's hard to ignore what this documentary has to say.

To sum it up, it tells you how and why the Iraq war has proven to be a $1.8 Trillion dollar ugly mole, surgically implanted to scar the face of the US for a very, very long time to come. Plus, it justifies the throwing of boots on George W. Bush with aplomb. So, Mr.Rumsfeld, do you want a Prada or would Hush Puppies suffice? :)

I think I am...

...a loner. I always thought I was one, but I'm becoming increasingly sure of it with each passing day. Well, we'll just have to add that to my list of colorful qualities!

As per Wiki:
A loner is a label for a person who does not actively seek, avoids, or is isolated from human interaction. There are many reasons for solitude, intentional or otherwise. Various mental illnesses and social difficulties can be linked to reclusiveness; however no specific cause is implied by the term loner. The term loner is usually used with a negative connotation in the belief that humans are social creatures and those that do not participate are different. The label has often been applied pejoratively by the media to individuals deemed strange or pathetic. The loner may take pride in or be ashamed of his or her behavior.

I'm neither proud...nor ashamed.

Confused

I am confused! :|

The first outing!

After a booze party that lasted nearly 3 weeks, our fearsome threesome are back to doing what they do the best! Saving the world from themselves!

Scenario: A fire in just one room in a neighbourhood asylum.

Cave Man: "My bark of wood will catch fire, cross that out. My Fruity Fart will actually vent the fire! Cross that out too. AHA! 3 weeks worth of beer in my belly...I can "piss-out" the fire!...Muhahaha!"

Hamster Boy: "Power-Bite!! I'll nibble at everything in the building, bringing it all down!! I'm sure no one cares if a heap of rubble is burning, instead of the building itself!!"

The Sloth: "Guys, can you please pass me a can or 2 of beer before you'll leave? Thanks!"

Together, the Terribly Trepid Three save the neighbouorhood asylum...kinda...sort of...ummm...atleast they tried?...ish?

TTT!™

Friendly meighbourhood Superheroes!

Starting from next weekend, I'm gonna do a comic strip of sorts (not DRAW it) and I'll try my level best to update it every weekend (unless of course, the sky falls down on us...in which case reading/updating the blog won't be high on the list of priorities for anyone!).

On that bombshell, let me introduce you to our 3 friendly neighborhood superheroes who are always ready to lend a helping hand (or shamelessly ask for one!)...I present to you...

Cave-Man!

Bio:
Stronger than the strongest...err...strong man, Cave-man is masculinity personified beyond belief! When he's not spending time at the gym working out or sleeping (or eating...a lot...of anything...even if it doesn't look edible...), he's almost always trying to impress the opposite sex. And boy oh boy...do the girls love him or what (...mostly the ones who want a pet Yetti or a very very hairy dog...)!

Weapon of Choice:
a) A bark of wood
b) Fruity Fart (sounds sweet...I can assure you, it is anything but!!)

Theme Song:
Very similar to the Bird-Man theme. For those of you who are not very familiar with this, hit this link and hear how they say..."Biiiiiiird-Man!". Replace the Biiiiiiird with Caaaaave...and voila! A theme that will send shivers down the spine of /any/ rodent! OKAY?
Note: Cave-Man does not have any of those cool gadgets or rays or any other stuff you see in that video; Just raw, pure...manly strength (and stench!).

Hamster-Boy!

Bio:
Looks can be deceptive. Strength is only fur deep. If ever anyone wanted a better example for these 2 very famous quotes (the 2nd one /IS/ famous...I promise you!!)...look no further than Hamster-boy! What he lacks in terms of sheer muscle/strength, he MORE than makes up with his awesomely powerful...ummm...err...buck-tooth! Yes! Those 2 small, insignificant, totally unintimidating but SHARP teeth of his can cause a LOT OF HARM...to your vegetables and fruits. And as you can see, he works out too...OKAY? It's just that it doesn't...ever...show.

Weapon of Choice:
a) Power-Run (he can EASILY out-run the enemies chasing him!)
b) Power-Bite (If those sharp teeth of his strike your body...you better run to the nearest pharmacy...to get some deodrant...because his saliva stinks!)

Theme Song:
He refused to pay his PR agency...and so, atleast for now, our beloved Hamster-boy doesn't have a theme. But he'll have one...soon...hopefully!

The Sloth!

Bio:
Yea...that's right, be afraid...be V E R Y afraid; he's a sloth and you're not! Exceptionally calm, cool and collected, The Sloth will never react...to anything...ever.Period. Some call him lazy, some call him extremely lazy and some are actually demanding that the word lazy be removed from our dictionaries and be replaced with The Sloth. But little to these tiny humans know, that The Sloth can...ummm...do nothing. But that doesn't mean he's useless okay? He can /ACT/ as if he has super powers and that's MORE than enough to scare most insects away! So who's stupid now hah?

Weapon of Choice:
a) NoThInGnEsS™ (Whoever thought doing NOTHING would be this powerful!)
b) Hyper-Sleep (Drop a bomb, piss on his face...he won't budge from his nap. Now THAT'S dedication and perseverance of a superhero for you!)
c) Yes...he has a 3rd weapon! The CLAAW (with 2 A's...he was told it'll bring him good luck!). With this weapon, he uses his claws to scratch off all the ticks/lies and other creatures off of his body and onto yours...all this, while sleeping!!

Theme Song:
While other superheroes have elaborate songs that praise them and their super-powers, The Sloth believes in taking a minimalist approach. That's originality for you I say! Kudos to The Sloth!

Together, these three form the Terribly Trepid Three! TTT!™

Tune in for the adventures of TTT!™...hopefully every weekend!

TTT!™ ...Why so stupid?©

*NOTICE: Any resemblance to any person living, dead, soon to die, in the process of dying or to-be-born is purely coincidental. The author of this blog will not take responsibility for any damage caused to your reputation (or increase in how much you get teased/ragged) as a result of this blog.

Bachna Ae Haseeno

I saw a hindi movie after a long time yesterday and I haven't written a blog for a while now. And so I decided to write a review of Bachna Ae Haseeno, which after a long wait, I finally got to see yesterday.

Ok, so to keep it short and sweet, here's what I think about the movie:

a) Deepika Padukone is H A W T!

b) Bipasha Basu is stroke inducingly H A W T!

c) Minissha Lamba is "OMFG! The thermometer just burnt to ashes!!" H A W T!

d) Ranbir Kapoor is GHEY. Period. Seriously, he looks like what would come out of mating a recently exhumed corpse (male) and a really aneamic hedgehog (female)...a squint one at that! No, really, nothing you say is going to change it!! And that "side-kick" of his, Sachin...looks like some kind of a rabied dingo, whose hair caught fire while he was trying to shit between the bushes (a bushfire perhaps?)...

e) All 3...Deepika, Bipasha and Minissha Lamba are very HOT! No, ok, wait...I already stated that explicitly for each of them.

So yea, that about sums it up! Atleast that's the reason most guys would/should go watch the movie. But not to disappoint those who thought this would be an ACTUAL review...i'll just briefly sum up the ups and downs of the movie.

The reason my interest in this movie peaked was primarily because of the 2 songs; Aahista Aahista and Khuda Jaane...apart from getting to see Deepika, Bipasha and Minissha that is! For some reason, I find Lucky Ali and Shreya Ghoshal's duet to be simply amazing. Now for the movie itself...it's OKAY. While the story in itself isn't good per se, the mere fact that it's something different is reason enough for me to watch it. What I didn't like was the "oh-so-obvious" adversiting for Microsoft throughout the movie. While I can understand Microsoft's Marketing and PR department's plan of using the ultimate medium, bollywood movies, to advertise their products/brand-name to Indians, when I heard/saw Deepika trying "oh-so-hard" to discuss about the XBOX 360...I couldn't help but suck my toes and put either feet in my ears. Oh and trying to get that lil sardar kid to advertise Halo 3...god! Please! MAKE IT STOP! Oh, and I feel the director could have portrayed the "jerk" Raj character (His Gayness Shri Ranbir Kapoor the 16th) in a slightly less crude way. I didn't feel bad seeing what he did to Bipasha and Minissha and the way he did it; I felt like buying a dog and strapping a piece of steak to his underwear...and then maybe run him over with one of these.

*BTW, I think that dog and car are the ONLY things on what we call earth, that're uglier than His Gayness Shri Ranbir Kapoor the 16th!*

I am TamBram

About a year in the US (...a month and a half short of "one" year) has brought me at a perplexing juncture in my life where I am often left combing through thought processes in my head in search of an answer to one, cumbersome question; Who am I?

For those of you who read the last 3 words above and have come to the forgiveably obvious conclusion that I'm in some kind of a depression or perhaps clawing through a bad "phase" in my life, I'm sorry to inform you that it's not so. I'm hale and hearty, and things are chugging along in a non-depression inducing, though monotonous, manner. I have my summer classes, internship, friend circle of precariously varying size and my daily routine to keep me from falling prey to antidepressants. And now that I've made it abundantly clear that this blog is NOT the product of a mildly deranged mind, let me start from where I left off; Who am I?

For those of you who know little or don't know anything about me, here's a quick primer to my life: A 22 year old Tamil Brahmin Iyer from a very well educated middle class family (to which I am deeply attached) from Bombay that has weathered everything from glorious highs to tumultuous lows as not atypical of most (although not all) families, reasonably well educated myself ( currently pursuing my Masters of Science), happy about the way things are shaping up right now ( decent grades, an assistantship, an interesting and involving internship, an affectionate girl friend, few...but close friends) and in general, nothing to complain about as such (touch wood?). I am looking forward to working in an organization that matches my area of interest and at some point in the not-so-distant future, work towards my PhD. But beyond all of this though, I still am unable to come up with an answer as to Who am I?

It is when I live life on a daily basis, do I realize that my choice of words and/or actions guiding the decisions that I take/make are closely dictated by the values that my parents and my culture have imbibed in me over the last 21 years. What my mom used to tell me when I used to ask her for another chocolate (after she'd already given me one...or two) is what I tell myself now when I'm not sure if I'm pushing something, "Never over-do anything. Have/Use everything to a limit...only then will you value it". Likewise, whenever I used to stay up till late and my dad used to scold me telling that I would sleep at school the next day, is what I tell myself if I decide to watch a movie till late night, when I to wake up at 6.45AM the next day for work.

It is these very values that are acting as a compass for my life, steering me in the right direction. The sudden burst of freedom I got to experience the first few months in the US was the defining moment; I had taken up drinking (...about 2 cans a month...stop laughing!) and I in general decided to "live life to the fullest". But after the initial phase, I started questioning myself as to WHY I had to drink? Did it make sense to lose control over oneself under the facade of "enjoying life"...let alone PAY for it? Did it make sense to "party with friends" every single week (let alone multiple times a week!) when my aim to come to the US after spending a lot of my parents money was to /study/? I couldn't justify my actions anymore because every single time I ended up doing something I wasn't sure of, values rooted in me since my childhood surfaced. It is this process of self questioning/doubt that made me realize that I was veering wildly off course. It didn't make sense to do something just because everyone else was.

It is at this point that I realized that all of what I was made to do as a tambram kid, as much as I used to loathe it back then, is what is coming back to shape my life now. Getting up early everyday to do the Sandhyavandanam, sitting for hours in the same place doing the same thing during Avani Avittam, the simple but to-the-point nature of most of our rituals/ceremonies... have all contributed in their own ways to shape my outlook towards life.

I always used to wonder back home in Bombay what was going through people's heads when they used to say "Jai Maharashtra". To be be honest, I still don't have a clue (:p)...but yea, Who am I? I'm a TamBram...in and out.

*An interesting article for those who have the time and interest in perusing a typical tam-bram's nature in greater depth.*