Brutus & Longbottom Vs Ceasar & Harry Potter

Scene 1 :
Some time in BC .
A few senators plotting to kill Julius Ceasar ,prominent among them are Brutus ,Cassius and Quintus.

Caussius suggests, "we can kill Julius in bed when he's asleep,he sure doesn't sleep with another man ."

Others chip in,"yes, we could bribe some of his guards , even his cook, his taster and poison him "

Brutus shrieks out in anger "Gentleman ,this is not some cheap murder,It is an honorable thing that we do and it must be done honourably, in day light on the senate floor,with our own hand . . . with my hand . "

The intentions of others may be questionable but not of Brutus.
Brutus was neither a traitor nor a plotter, but did he indeed lack courage to confront Gaius Julius Ceasar ?

Scene 2:
Sometime in the early 2000's - Harry Potter & The Socerer's Stone.

Harry,Germoine and Ron sneak out during the nights to solve some mystery surrounding Harry and Hogwarts. They often get into trouble for breaking the rules and end up getting rebuked by the Professors.

As the climax nears in , they sneak out in the middle of the night again but are confronted by one Neville Longbottom holding a wand pointed at them warning them not to go and cause any more damage to the chances and reputation of Griffindor.

But as desperate as the audience are to get to the bottom of the mystery , they just hope Longbottom listens to Harry and backs off.
But Neville doesn't relent and holds up his wand at them and it takes a spell from the pretty lass to get him off their way.

And finally when Dumbledore announces the results giving extra points for Harry and Co for their bravery , they end up tied with Slytherin and then its the 10 points that is awarded to Longbottom which helps them win the year end cup.

And Dumbledore's explanation may well tie any literary work which will justify Brutus ' action.

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies,but even more to stand up to your friends"

Brutus judgement may be questioned but not his intentions and love for the republic and the people,including Ceasar.

Indeed Brutus was a courageous man . . . But for him Julius Ceasar wouldn't have been known the way he is now .who knows the world might have known him as the First Dictator ever known . .

But the most pertinent question is ,If you and I play Harry and Neville , who ll play the wise Dumbledore ?
Without that wisdom and judgement we could as well end up being Harry and Malfoy . .

THAMARAI - The Poetess crowns herself ...

Another set of haunting lyrics , aand guess who , yes its Thamarai .
she's back . . and back with a bang .. .

The first 4 lines of "Nenjukkul Peidhidhum . ." of the new Surya starrer "Vaaranam Aayiram" never parts you .. was waiting for those lines to repeat themselves thru the song only to find even better lyrics on the way .. .

some of the lines which many ,if not all , are going to get hooked on to are ..

"Nenjukkul peidhidhum maamazhai...
Neerukkul muzhidum thamarai ...
Sattendru maarudhu vaanilai ....
Penne un mel Pizhai . . . . . "

For non Tamilians .. the lyrics means some thing like this

"The downpour in the heart . .
The sinking lotus ...
And the Sudden change in weather ..
O Lady, thou are to blame ..."

And it gets better as the song goes on ..

"Nee nindhra yedam endral .. vilai yeri pogatho . ."

"Yenodu vaa vidu varaikkum , yen vitai par yennai piddikum "

The other "Gaana" song as Tamilians would classify " Ava Enna Enna . . " into , is another one with simple ,catchy , enjoyable lyrics inspite of the sober mood it depicts .. kudos to Karthik for trying out a different type of song ..
Once again Thamarai shines thru . . .

The other 3 songs of VM are also noteworthy.

Incidently the last song i enjoyed a lot was also penned by Thamarai .. another mystic number from "PathchaiKili Muthucharam" .. "Un Siripinil ..."

Thamarai, has an uncanny and inimitable style of her own . . and her choice of words for conveying subtle feelings makes her stand aloof.

Many may still vote "Ondra , Eranda Aasaigal.." from "Kakka Kakka" as her best work , but that was one of her songs i hated for its sheer casting and choreography .
Many may flay me for saying that ...
but Thmarai is surely taking gaint steps towards blending pure, unadultered tamil language in her songs and at the same time making them appealing and likeable .

It stikes a chord almost immediately .. i just heard 4 lines before i rewound to hear it again ffrom the beginning .

Final word - VM is an album to cherish and will linger on for long ,even if you have heard it just once , which i bet you be woulldn't be doing. You would want to hear it again , just for Thamarai's sake.

Lesson on Littering

I have always been conscious of not littering around , or have I ? hmmm
The answer is partly yes and partly no .
No is when i unconsciously decide to hone my foot balling skills just because a piece of paper is available in my hand and i don't find a garbage dump on the road ..
but that wouldn't quite justify littering ..will it? No, it wouldn't especially in the kind of Binary World we live in where are only 10 types of People .The ones who do and then the rest who don't.
So ,yes I confess, i do litter around.

Until I was put in place by a gentle pointing out that what i was doing was actually littering around.
It struck me.Sure, I'm educated enough to distinguish foot balling and littering, yet i never reasoned .
Some times you need people around you to knock some sense into it.I'm glad there was a good one around, else i would have continued with this practice for God knows till when.

The best part was that she practices it religiously.She carries the wrapper around until she hunts down a dust bin.

Thanks to her, my packets are always full of wrappers and papers when ever i have some thing on the move .And for once i felt good stuffing my packets with garbage.

Neutrality . . . Is it what it is ?

Impartiality, A neutral Stance, Detachment, refusal to take sides .
Type in "neutrality" in your new Vista powered 07 Excel, and these are the synonyms you get.
Well, did firmly believe in those words till i came across this dialogue in a movie called 'No Man's Land" (yes , your right -the very movie to which Lagaan lost out to in the Oscars in the early 2000's)
and it went some thing like this - mouthed by an UN Peace Keeper in the movie -
" There is nothing called Neutrality in the face of murder(war), in fact choosing not to do anything is indeed taking sides"
Its been a day still couldn't stop pondering about the line ever since i heard it.
Very true, not doing any thing and let the weaker,oppressed party be exploited is indeed taking sides with the Oppressor . And this argument can be scaled up and down to fit into a dispute of any possible magnitude. . . .

The Eco Prof

Sitting in the FCQ exam,looking back i realised that i have always been conveniently ignoring the Eco class and the Prof. The very first class, i categorized him as the modern version school master of the Malgudi Days. I had to battle really hard to keep my eyes open as i was sitting right in front of him.To be brutally honest it was boring.

The second class was an eye-opener.I actually enjoyed the the Oil Price discussions.But still, i it was an ignorable class, then .

But now sitting at the FCQ, hearing that his wife had passed away, i felt really sorry for him than myself. I had no clue what the question meant to me.

Suddenly my opinion about him started changing.I realized he was not that boring , he was funny and witty at times.

I could remember one quote distinctly.

He had said " F.D Roosevelt once said(',m not sure about the President, it could be Regan as well) ,"Give me a Economist with One Hand"

I was rather puzzled , why would a President want a partially disabled economist?

He continued,"Coz he said the Economists always say, on One hand this could happen, but on the Other hand, this could also happen"

Very true.

Now I'm actually looking forward to seeing him in the class again.

Quote Of the Day - 18/07

We moved across to the petite shop just near our hostel.It has become a ritual to go over there if i'm to leave for the college with Shekar.This time we had Dheeraj for company.

We were having tea as his phone rang.IT kept buzzing. With the tea in his hand Dhee toook out the vibrating mobile in his hand and stared it - " Now , why the hell does she call me?" he whinned .
Shekar queried "Who was it , machan?"
Dhee - "It was my Girl friend" ...
Lol . . Me -&&%%^$%$^%^
(Not sure if this would make sense to you.But the situation was funny)

Beauty in The Bus..... 2

But the little kid kept bothering me. I couldn't see her again the same way i saw her the first time. The little kid had ruined it all.
As i was debating within myself if she could be really that old or could the little one be her niece or neighbour, i was still gazing her.

She was beautiful,looked mild manner and every inch the female you would love to spend time with.She kept attracting me.I hadn't focused so much on a single thing since my 8 th Semester B.Tech exams,where in the exam hall i kept staring at my friend unwaveringly waiting for him to pass me on his paper. Then came the moment of relief, when the bus stopped at an intermediate junction and old man got down with the little girl. Phew.... she wasn't her mother. Yippeeee........

I didn't know why felt relieved but i felt. Funny things do happen. Next it was my turn to get down.I walked down and past her ignoring her and alighted at a stop near my company.
It thought it was over.Laughed to myself and started walking.
But was it?
I turned around at the bus and there she was gazing out through the window. We both were caught red handed by each other. The bus moved on and so did I. It was fun.

Half an hour of journey which I hated every day was pleasant today. Life does throw up small surprises every now and then.
Didn't think of her much after that until know when decided to text it down here.Had to dig deep into my memory to remember her face again,but could succeed only to an extent.

The Beauty In the Bus....1

It was the same sunny sultry Chennai afternoon. I moved across the road to the Bus Stand which i practically do on every work day,hoping that i could catch that elite AC Bus.

This AC bus is really cool, it was long overdue to the Chennaites.Luckily for me it was there.I hope every day it was there whenever i came to the Bus stand. Coz i was too lazy to ask the timings ,keep track ,stick to that timings of a silly non living thing.

Got in , went to the rear end and found a comfortable seat. Adjusted the AC vents on top to catch most of the chilled out vapours and looked forward.

And boy, there she was . What a beauty, she was a treat to watch. She was probably the third or fourth girl whom i got hooked to at the first sight. The worst thing about me is that i can't judge a Girl's age by her looks. She looked a bit mature and sweet(though i dont know what "sweet" as an adjective means when you describe a human Being). But people probably used that word coz they can't describe it any way else.

She seemed to be a college student . There was a old man sitting facing her. And then bang, out of nowhere a little appears near her. God,i questioned why do all the pretty females i like always got to be married. Leave alone married , there was a 3-4 year kid around her.

Felt dejected, but for some strange reason, i couldn't stop looking at her. I caught glimpses of her , while projecting to be looking around in the Bus.

She seemed to like the attention, i mean, am not an expert in Psychology and stuff, but i assume a person would sure be excited when some one of the opposite sex would be interested in him/her,especially when the interested one doesn't know you at all.