Monday, November 28, 2005

Then.. Now

Then: Thayir Saadham, Oorgai, Potato Chips
Now: Saarayam, Oorgai, Potato Chips

Then: Moru
Now: Beeru

Then: Rajini Hairstyle
Now: Rajini Hairstyle (minus the wig!)

Then: Odi pudichu velayadradhu
Now: Beedi kudiche aliyaradhu

Then: Quarterly exams
Now: Quarter sams (lite)

Then: Padu Chutti
Now: Ore Vetti

Then: Play, no care
Now: Pray, ore care

Then: Zero tension, Ore happy than
Now: ?????????????????????????????

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Non-Judgement

Judging someone. Every one does that. The world is full of it. Prejudices. After birth, we are taught to eat, talk, walk and probably the next thing is to Judge. You constantly judge and are judged - by the way you look, the company you keep, what you do, what you don't, the way you behave, the community or people or race you represent and in many other ways, possibly restricted only by the narrow mindedness of the person judging you. A person can change a lot about him or her in due course and generally create a different impression contradictory to the so called "first impression", and soon people tend to think otherwise about him or her.

One thing that someone can never change about them - is the way they look. First things first. Everyone is beautiful. In their own way. Everyone. But when it comes to classic, conventional good-looks alone, not everyone fits the bill. We are not responsible for the way we look. We can do very little about it. Some are labeled as handsome, some cute, some gorgeous, some beautiful - and then there are the rest of us - billed as "average Joe" or "plain Jane", and probably worse.

The media is full of articles and photographs of "beauty" in varied forms. Sania Mirza occupies more news space than any other sports person, and we all know why (other than her game, which is of little help!). Hrithik Roshan was termed as Adonis, reborn after a few thousand years, in India instead of Greece. Aishwarya Rai becomes a global icon because she can make different people "connect-to-her" with her Aphrodite looks. We have only good-looking people in the film world, ad world and we tend to remember only handsome/beautiful ones from the sports or business world.

Due to all this, the "not-so-good-looking" ones are made to believe that they were born with a "disease" that needs to be cured ASAP. Advertisements are all over the news, bill-boards, toilet-paper, cookies and what not, to make the average Tom, Dick or Harry and Rachel, Jen or Rita to look like their favorite celebrities in 21 days. These ads are not restricted to the few that follow. Lose 375 pounds in 17.5 seconds flat and look more appealing to your man or woman. Whiten your teeth so much so that your teeth color replaces the "White" shade in Asian Paints brochure. Color your hair orange, pink, maroon, violet, green, magenta or any other color that you can possibly invent and look exotic. Get a nose-job, this-job and that-job and replace all working parts in your body, by visually appealing ones, and be the next "hot-new-cool-thing" to grace the fashion magazine covers after Jen and Paris. Apply "Fair and Lovely" to your skin, eyes, nose, ears, hair and tongue - spare nothing. Bathe only with Lux, why cant you when SRK himself can!?

There is a show that comes on American television, in which people are shown before and after they get a "make-over" and they are brought in front of the audience who give them a standing ovation, while they hug their friends/family and shed tears of joy! Be sexy, feel sexy and look sexy is the mantra of the world.

Importance is given to looks by the whole human race. I am not sure if such things happen in the animal kingdom as well. Possibly, since the dogs and cats see TV nowadays and the other animals in the zoo are, well, trained by humans. All these things make you feel that looks are one thing that is of paramount importance and not having them is a serious personal and professional handicap, in today's world. It is given more weightage over character, and not having the looks that "give-the-hots" for others, make you not-so-well-equipped. We live in this make believe world and eventually turn victims to this false propaganda, and are generally convinced that we lack the main-get-it-done skills". We are made to feel insecure and weak.

Hence, the "average" ones fail to make-the-cut when it comes to getting better jobs, or getting better deals as customers anywhere, or getting a pay hike, or getting love, or getting to be the boss' pet, or getting anything under the sun for that matter. They lose to their better looking counterparts, for no direct fault of theirs. There was a research on this topic a while ago, and it was found out that the "good-looking" ones were more successful in the business world and sometimes "good-looking" kids were treated better by their folks (What the heck!?) than the rest.

I don't care as to whether someone likes the way I look or not. I am only bothered about whether people believe I am a nicer person at heart or otherwise. I certainly believe there are like-minded ones out there. I have many a time observed that the "not-so-good-looking" ones are perhaps the nicest, humblest and simplest souls I have probably known. Some are highly unassuming and polite, and their "un-noticeability" is a growing and a never ending pain.

On the contrary, one of the most insanely frustrating things about some of the "hot and cute" ones is their attitude. And arrogance. I wouldn't blame all, but most are like that. The way they carry themselves, seems like the rest of the world are the children of a lesser god! To such people whom I constantly run in to, who indirectly or directly try to belittle the rest of us poor souls, I have this to say - Congratulations on making the opposite sex drool all over you. We're all very proud of you for being able to come out of your mother's womb like that. You are a master piece. I bet it should have been very hard. Your popularity has always been sky-rocketing, and you get more proposals than you can count with your hand-and-toe fingers combined. And we truly appreciate that. But, you piss me off sometimes. You can be abusive and rude sometimes and you are partly-coerced to believe that making fun of others is also your birth right. Your sense of "being and doing good" seems to be a rare gift rather than a common trait.

That said, I would kindly request you people with above-mentioned traits to go back to kindergarten and learn the ABC's of how not to look down on people and throw your weight around. And the media, hey, you should learn to change your ways too and stop projecting few as demi-gods. Credit should be given to the person and their skills, more than the way they look. Advertisments should be more "Euphemis"tic. As of now, you people make me want to literally puke and nothing else. I can't help but feel sorry for the "average" world. I can do nothing about it though. And that's quite possibly the most frustrating thing of all.

Friday, November 25, 2005

93101

Happy After-Thanksgiving day shopping everyone! I have completed mine and have picked all possible anda, gunda, satti, paanai, lota, lottu, losku that I could find for free. Hope you all did too.

Had been to zip 93101. Very beautiful place and it was 73F there. Came back to the east-coast just to be greeted by snow :( If all goes well, shall try to re-locate here:

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Fun Video!

Short video, but worth a watch! Four Friends met eachother in NY after a long time:

  • Video
  • Friday, November 18, 2005

    Change!

    I, Blogger Anonymous, residing at Unit-1, Nadu Theru Rendavudhu Maadi, shall henceforth be known as Eclectic Blogger, vide affidavit sworn before the odanju-pone mirror at JC Penney on 11-18-05, in addition to being recognized worldwide as Aduthe Pope, Veeran, Sooran, Koman, Komban and shouldering the responsibility of a few other "an"s (those having positive connotations) from Tamil literature.

    Vidai Peruvadhu,
    Eclectic Blogger

    Wednesday, November 16, 2005

    Alone!

    I have been living with others (roomies) for a little more than two years. After I moved out of school, and started working, I have been living alone (Ok.. not alone, as a PG) for the past five months. Now I have my own space, can't complain. But my chances of knowing, or for that matter even meeting, new people or making friends, guys or gals, have been drastically reduced. I dont have desi colleagues, and my friends in school (pretty closer to work) have started to move out as well. Having lived with all kinds of eccentric roomies (Trust me, I have seen it all!), moving with even one another desi gives me the shrieks. Adhukku badhila thaniyave kuppai kottelam. Idhukku than oru nalla GF venumgeradhu... Early bird catches the prey nu kelvi pattirukken, all the prey nu yaarume yen kitte sollaleye ;-) Inime Mexico vil than thedanumo ennamo...

    Tuesday, November 15, 2005

    A nice read for all working people!

    A little consolation for the battered hearts & the bruised egos, have a look.

    A butcher watching over his shop is really surprised when he sees a dog coming inside the shop. He shoos him away. But later, the dog is back again. So, he goes over to the dog and notices it has a note in its mouth.

    He takes the note and it reads "Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please". The dog has money in its mouth, as well.

    The butcher looks inside and, lo and behold, there is a ten dollar note there. So he takes the money and puts the sausages and lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog's mouth. The butcher is so impressed, and since it's about closing time, he decides to shut the shop and follow the dog.

    So off he goes. The dog is walking down the street, when it comes to a level crossing, the dog puts down the bag, jumps up and presses the button. Then it waits patiently, bag in mouth, for the lights to turn. They do, and it walks across the road, with the butcher following him all the way. The dog then comes to a bus stop, and starts looking at the timetable.

    The butcher is in awe as the dog stops a bus by pulling its left leg up and gets in it. The butcher follows the dog into the bus. The dog then shows a ticket which is tied to its belt to the bus conductor.

    The butcher is nearly fainting at this sight, so are the other passengers in the bus. The dog then sits near the driver's seat looking outside waiting for the bus stop to come. As soon as the stop is in sight, the dog stands and wags its tail to inform the conductor. Then, without waiting for the bus to stop completely, it jumps out of the bus and runs to a house very close to the stop.

    It opens the big iron gate and rushes inside towards the door. As it approaches the wooden door, the dog suddenly changes its mind and heads towards the garden. It goes to the window, and beats its head against it several times, walks back, jumps off, and waits at the door. The butcher watches as a big guy opens the door, and starts abusing the dog, kicking him and punching him, and swearing at him.

    The butcher surprised with this, runs up, and stops the guy. "What in heaven's name are you doing? The dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the life of me!", to which the guy responds: "You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this stupid dog's forgotten his key."

    Moral of the story.....

    You may continue to exceed onlookers expectations but shall always fall short of the boss' expectations.

    It's dogs life after all.....

    Saturday, November 05, 2005

    An open letter to the guy in the pic below:

    Hello Mr.





    Yes, I just happened to see your latest flick. Oh... My... God!!

    I just want to know why you act in such movies. You could do much better than that. You could try something different than your typical "Mass Masala Movies" (which by the way seem to work only for you!). But just because they work for you, does not mean you could carry on forever like that...

    Other actors: Make atleast a crore less than (sometimes half of) what you do.
    You: Last heard, 4 crores a film. One movie for Diwali, Pongal and Tamil New Year, that is a whopping 12 crores a year! If Rajinikanth is not considered, you are easily the highest paid actor in India when annual salaries are compared!

    Other actors: Publicity and marketing needed to some extent. Willingness of producers to spend money on it and news feeds in print/electronic media are much needed to pull crowds to the theatre.
    You: You seem to be a one-man publicity machine.

    Other actors: Their movies sometimes flop, sometimes do not... 50 per cent success...
    You: Your success rate at the box office.. for the past five movies.. er.. close to 10O? Next three movies.. also close to 100!!

    Other actors: Satisfy their fans.. partially.. may be.. try to atleast..
    You: No questions asked. You rock!

    Other actors: Affairs, rumours, gossips...
    You: Clean Slate! General good-boy image.

    Other actors: Box Office "OK's".
    You: Mass Hero!!! Your ability to make your producers smile all the way to the bank is unbelievable. You seem to have mastered the Midas touch. Other actors simply are clueless as to how you can do that. May be you yourself dont know the answer...


    You dont even look better than the average of the average guys, hardly act differently. Is there anything that is going to stop you though? What makes you click? If it is your "mass image", how did you even get it in the first place??!! I wish to know, please.