The Tamil New year controversy

Couple of years back (much to the irritation of tamil nadu middle class), the DMK government in Tamilnadu changed the tamil new years day to Thai (tamil month falls around january 14 ) 1 from Chithirai 1 .

Thai 1 is  already celebrated as pongal by people of tamilnadu , this was received with a lot of sckepticism as with most political moves . I didnt have much issues in this , back then i didnt have reasons to support it . Recently read an article in vikatan about the importance of the month of thai .

–> Thai month is a month in which people of all religions / casts extend their thanking to the nature especially sun which is a source of energy . Pongal is like the Thanksgiving celebrated in the US . As being a festival that is celebrated by people of all religions and casts , its kind of ideal to be a tamil new years day.

–> In villages Pongal is not impacted by theetu , that is a happening of death does not hinder the festival’s progress .

–> Aandal in thirupavai and the sangam literature speaks the greatness of the month of thai , i could not post the poem in sangam literature verbatim here will try to do it sometime . So we have great affection towards the month of thai , IMHO , tamil new years day should reflect the glory of the language and thai is ideally suited in this regard .

These are not arguments made by a DMK fanatic but by people who have been reading tamil society its cultural heritage for a very long time . Any festival has a starting point , someone in history thought of chithirai 1 as an ideal tamil new year’s day , now a change has happened . 1000 years from now people may change it again , change is always constant . So just because a political person envisaged that change does not mean it should be stupid ( but the chances are high it may be !! ) .

To be honest a democratically elected leader is far better than a religious sermon or a king , because after all it was we who elected him .

The “Untouchable” among Gods

Year end vacation has given me time to see people and reflect upon the problem of “caste” in Hindu society.For many this may be seem like a reflection may be a decade old and highly irrelevant to the current time .

But habits always take time to die especially bad habits .Hailing from a liberal bhramin family and from a place such as Srirangam gives a birds eye of the problem.

Organised hindu religion with its god’s (Bhrama , vishnu shiva ) the vedas are seen as a scientific way of expressing ones faith towards the almighty . The mooniswaran , karupannasamy et al are seen as a touch lower on the hierarchy of gods . Most Bhramins atleast the oldies i see share a aversion towards the gods worshipped by the masses . Organised religion has successfully adopted gods from “pagan” deities into mainstream religion . One of the most notable example in this case is lord “muruga” , historians argue that the history of murugan can be summed up as the history of the dravidian people itself , the popularity of muruga made him the son of lord “shiva” .

Pagan god of the masses

The one thing that bothers me the most is the treatment meted out to poor village people in bhraminic temples like srirangam for example . The poor people who come from long distances are looked down upon as parasites , and are not even given 2 minutes to worship their beloved god. I have seen this happen , in srirangam lord renganatha is in “anatha sainam” so people who come to see from long distances at times are unable to even see him . After they come out of the garbagraha many complain that “They told some god will be lying down we were unable to spot him ” .

There is no dearth of devotion to god among poor people , the only glitch may be they are not erudite as the scholarly people at times . They may not be aware of the 4000 dhivyaprabantham or azhvaar paasurams . The bhramin priests treat them with utmost sense of aversion . At times the moments i see these injustices while taking my friends to temple i feel bad for coming to a place lacking in culture and civilisation . The poor people who travel from very long distances to catch a glimpse of lord renganatha at times never see him sleeping in the darkness . If you are not lucky enough and watch out for him carefully , chances are very high you may never see him (literally !!) :p .

If you dont watch out for him carefully , you may never see him

As Marx said “Religion is the opium for the masses ” , most human beings inspite of their castes require gods / religion to satisfy their fears . To participate in religious activities , to carry one’s god on the shoulders are aspirations that are common to most people irrespective of their casts / religions . Organised hindu religion is totally dominated by Bhramin priests who consider the low caste people atavistic and uneducated . Thus low caste people suffer alienation in the hands of caste hindus in religious places of worship . Many people due to this tend to convert to other religions or build their one temples and rituals . All rituals / prayers come out of devotion , experience, and no one form of god worship is superior / stupid, they are just different forms of a single truth .

Sadly the majority in upper caste never tend to realise it , if killing animals in the name of god is atavistic then what you call the stupidity of pouring milk / water on stones in the name of abhisheka .

If you go to vaishnava temples in villages , like say thiruvallarai near trichy you can see the balipeeda there , long back traditional hindu religion had the belief of giving animals as bali . Bhramins used to perform this ritual that habit is not followed any more these days .

The practice of considering majority of people as “outcasts” and discriminating against them will affect the sustainability of hindu religion . Even educated people have reluctance in marrying people in other casts citing cultural differences . The beauty of human race is the diversity in its behavior , the belief that once culture is pure and superior is the most stupid dogma you can ever have . Let me finish it of with a quote “The only thing that is true with all cultures is the impurity of all of them ” .

Wayand trip and the trek on the Chembra

This will be one of the most memorable treks i have ever had in my life as this is my first anyways . 11 Guys mostly college mates from bangalore and chennai decided to visit Wayanad on October 2 – October 4 . As with most other bachelor trips , it started of as a casual email conversation between me saikrishna and vins . Although there was very limited time and all sorts of odds we managed to pull it off .

Six guys from Chennai joined us in bangalore on October 2 morning , we had a tempo traveller arranged for all the travel . Started at 5:30 Am and hit the mysore road ( it was bliss driving there ) . After finishing the breakfast on the way we reached Sulthan bathery through Gundulpet .

We had arranged for a dormitory in ambalavoil near sulthan bathery and reached there around 2pm . Although the hotel was far from what we expected it was very cheap for 11 people and sufficed our needs . We had torrential rains on 2nd and 3rd october . Inspite of that we visited places like Edukkal caves , kolapara dam on the first two days .

Our main intention of the trip was to do some kind of trek , the Menmutty falls had a landslide so it was cut off . Our last resort was trekking on the Chembra peek , and decided that we will visit that on sunday morning hoping that the rain gods will be kind enough .

Heart shaped lake on the chembra

The trek on the chembra peek starts in a estate and takes around 6 hours to complete . We had a great time the journey up was very easy and good . We reached the heartshaped lake on the top of the chembra and decided to return .

the mountain we didnt climb

The journey downwards very slippery and most of the guys managed to fall and slip took tremendous difficulties in reaching the base . We could not have been more lucky , was totally flabbergasted by the change of fortunes . On october 2 / 3 we had so much rain , everyone was skeptical about the whole trip .

good work out

May be i will quote Paulo here “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” .

Software as a Service aka Google vs M$

The dominant enterprise players in Office suite have been Microsoft and IBM for a long time . Although they may not be the greatest software to have been developed but enterprise is just a bunch of risk fearing morons especially the big ones . So they are used to live with crap or to be honest shit most of the times . Microsoft has been using all sorts of bullying techniques concomitant with License sops to blackmail companies to use its Operating system / Office suite . I have heard people complaining of companies not allowing employees to use Firefox or Google Chrome and insisting on using IE .

But to face it big companies didn’t have much leverage they have to toe the line of M$ . Primarily because people are used to its crap and will resist change . GNU/Linux has not been able to make rapid inroads into desktop market especially in companies . This is mainly because of lack of awareness / knowledge among people especially the non – IT / CS workforce . So companies were forced to use a costlier office solutions . Now Google has been a subdued player but off late has been catching up on the big fish . For those who don’t know  Google offers Gmail/Google Calendar /Google docs / sites / GTalk based office solution with 25 GB free space . The servers will be hosted in Google and its said that Google data center with its state of the art technologies ensures reduction in carbon foot print . The major catch here is that the cost for which this is offered 50$/user/year .

This has raised alarm bells in Redmond , Google recently announced that Wave will be available for Google Apps Premier users . People still complain that web mail is not that powerful compared to email client like thunderbird . Many big companies seldom use thunderbird but crap client like Outlook . IMHO , gmail is way better than Outlook in its search and other capabilities .

Google labs has been producing new features that is consistently raising the bar . With the web based office solutions companies can look forward to using operating system such as Ubuntu and others to reduce cost per se .

Anyways still the question of data privacy and other generic concerns of a cloud based system are still valid while using Google Apps . But its way better than the Diktuts of M$ .

Udayar the life of great king Raja Raja

Raja Raja you are a great king

I see a lot of praise on Kalki often on the blogosphere (even i did it once i guess ) but balakumaran gets very scant attention for the Magnum Opus Udayar , a epic book on the Brihadeeswara temple (பெருவுடையார் கோவில்) at tanjore . Raja Raja Cholan the greatest king of the Chola dynasty has a vision to build a temple for Lord Shiva , with the Gopuram alone around 216 feet made entirely of granite . The temple kalasam is a monolithic granite (a single stone ) of weight around 81 ton . So the story starts with the great King envisioning to build this great temple for Lord Shiva. He is shown as astute follower of Hinduism or Santhana Dharma . Raja Raja’s vision is seen by skeptics like his son Rajendra Chola as impractical and virtually impossible . But Raja Raja is absolutely committed to the temple .

The story was absolutely gripping , i can go on with the highlights of the book , but i am too lazy to that . So I just want to share those splendid things which i liked the most in the book :

Raja Raja’s Characterization I dont’ know how much of it is Story and how much is real history . But I love this king , i had dreams of seeing him when i was reading the book . At times i could relate with certain characters in the book , at times i was even thinking “May be I was this guy then in my previous incarnations ” (I still remain a strict rationalist just a too much of the book ). He is a absolute definition of a leader , the way he inspires people to contribute to the temple , or the way he handles complicated matters like the Caste differences in the Chola dynasty . On a personal note he is a very good romantic lover , especially with his wife panchavanmadevi .

Rajendra is shown as a Angry at times even rude and foolish heir apparent, the way RajaRaja matures him and breaks his foolish and egoistic thoughts is astounding . Especially Rajendra abhors the special privileges offered to Bhramins . He is interested only in waging wars , and believes that the Wariors should be given supreme importance in a society . RajaRaja as a king during non-war times is very loving and caring , this makes Rajendra think of his father as weak , and Rajendra’s battalion to be more powerful when compared to his father . In this context RajaRaja will remind him that even the battalion of Rajendra comes under his order as he is the King of this nation .

Karuvoora Thevar : He is the Guru/Saint of RajaRaja , shown as a Sidha Purush who guides RajaRaja in matters of strategy and Spirutal thought . Every human being at some point requires logical (call it spiritual i am bit skeptical about the word ) thinking that does not make him too arrogant for his own good . So RajaRaja is attributing all his success to the Lord himself .

The Story covers very different areas of Chola history , the caste system that was present in the Chola history . The Sirpa Art which was in all its glory during the period of RajaRaja is described in great deal . The Story also discusses how such huge granite blocks were carried to the top . The temple construction required wars to be fought , it involved lot of slaves captured during wars . The temple was built using the properties looted during the wars with the Chalukyas , Pandyas etc .

Let me quote the famous inscription that is still there , which was inscribed while the temple was inaugurated by Raja Raja :

‘Naam kuduthanavum nam akkaan kuduthanavum nam pendugal koduthanavum koduthar koduthanavum…’ (I could not get the tamil one , maybe if i get the one i will update ) . This is basically a reference to all the people who contributed to the temple . When the book was over , i felt a void in myself . I am planning to go to the temple very soon , just a historic mission .

A great King and a great book to cherish for generations to come !

The urge to consume everything

A Life driven and defined by the frenzy of consumption , books , travel looks more and more to me as mere ways of human consumption. The urge to differentiate with others , the urge to be judged different , intelligent modern and what not .

I am seeing a broad taste similarity among people especially in Bangalore . I dont know is it a natural urge , or people have decided together if certain things needs to be done now .

A lot of avengers , people are a, sking me to buy bikes from day one i came to bangalore .

The topics of discussion center Xbox , LED Tvs et al , i tend to believe am i into some kind of exhibition out here .

Taste just is a matter of consumption , i saw “x” films in a day , “y” books in a week and travelled “z” places in a month .

What are we trying to prove?   why are we doing this ? why are we destroying this place ?

Some kind of manufactured reality , guess need to sleep !!

After all not a sporting disaster

Of all the sports i follow , Football , Tennis and F1 much of the teams i supported were looking down the barrel early this year .

Chelsea and Real Madrid were not in a position for any major silverware . Ferrari were outclassed by the relative unknowns the Brawn Gp and Red Bull (they still continue to !) .But the worst nightmare was RF breaking down on his loss to Nadal early this year in Australia .

As times changed , Federer has come back to win in French open and Wimbledon , surpassing the great man Pete Sampras .

I felt like crying when Federer jumped in ecstacy after surpassing Andy Roddick in a epic five setter .

Real Madrid has gone into a buying-spree after bringing Kaka and Ronaldo to the Bernabeau . Looking forward to a good show by the Galacticos in the coming season .

Ban on ENR technologies to Non NPT nations

Much of the last year the Indian political discussions were centered around the Indo-US nuclear deal , over which the Left withdrew support to the UPA Govenment  . The basic argument then was that , even if the US government refuses to provide full civil nuclear cooperation we can fall back on Russia and France to do that .

I seriously doubted this argument as USA  prime concern then was the profitability of the deal to US Nuclear industry . So it will never accept a position that is in disadvantage to the US .

Now the G8 ban has proved the sceptics right on the issue .

The election results and the left dilemma

India has voted and voted for a stable government . With Congress led UPA heading towards a simple majority , the stakes at question are we leading to issue less elections in the future . People have voted in a way so that a stable government can be formed at the center . This 2 to 3 % swing of votes in the states like Tamil nadu , kerela and even West Bengal to some extent would have tilted the base in favour of the Congress and its allies .

The left experiment of forming a non-congress , secular government has hit a serious setback . Its a dream come true for the pro-rich media that the Left are not in any strength to have influence in the government . This will facilitate the so called ’sensible reforms’ to be pushed through the government .

What this election results mean to the future of Indian politics . Is it meaning that the Indian People voted for the nuclear deal or pushing through capital account convertibility in financial markets , as political pundits have analyzed ?

People have rejected the sectarian force like BJP , but the only pan Indian presence today is the Congress . In states like Kerela and West Bengal even if the Left had win as before they were not in position to form the government . This is the real message the elections try to convey . People don’t expect good things to happen from the government but what they don’t want is a hung parliament and the ensuing horse trading that may affect the Sovereignty of this very nation . This is a serious setback to progressive forces and the nature of Indian democracy were real people issues have taken a back seat .

The only way the left can try to gain grounds in the central politics is to build the party in states other than Kerela , West Bengal and Tripura , all said and done thats a very difficult thing to achieve in the short term .

Am i a python addict

Off late i am finding myself reading too much of python all the time . Some of my friends have been cripping that i have become a Pythiam . Honestly speaking i love this language , and gasp with such amount of awe how this language is a piece of art to work with . It is the amount of time it saves me in doing a lot of work . People often dont know the power of the language, my colleagues often ask me is it not just a scripting language ? I just reply back to them that its a programming language which is a credible alternative to Perl or much worse bash scripts .

When i use python language these days, mostly all the time working on some stuff that is pretty much insane for most people around me . I at times become brain dead seeing ugly perl code that are just trivialities in python .

I have started to like the ipython interpreter off late , its very useful  with built in auto-complete functionalities among others .I worked with the pexpect library for automating operations over ssh recently. The itertools , funtools modules are my personal favourites . I love programming when its working with python, the disadvantage of which is that most other languages look very ugly to me .