சி.சரவணகார்த்திகேயன்

Does GOD exist? This is a Billion dollar query unanswered properly (or answered improperly) from the beginning of human history. As I am very much allergic to the spiritual/ religious views, let me see what my beloved/ esteemed brainies' stand on this. Most of the big scientists and philosophers of the world history (including Albert Einstein) nearly, believed the existence of God. But their theism emerged out of atheism. Means, their God is confined to the unexplained gaps in scientific explanations of nature - " The God of the gaps ". The most famous/ frequent example is gap in " The origin of species ". I am taking a different stand in this regard but based on the same logical fallacy of their argument. Theirs is " It's True as it has not been proven false ". But mine is " It's false as it has not been proven true ". Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor & theologian once said - " We are to find God in what we know, not in...

Girls are paradoxical . It's very much difficult to translate her words of mouth to heart. More harder if she is in bed. It's easier to talk with a child about sex rather the a matured female. To a girl, sex is moreover an appetite inside head and hence every girl needs to be wooed before any below-the-belt actions. It's very common globally that a girl often gets head-ache when she is signaled by her boy-friend which makes him think "Is she not in mood? But why?". Dr.Yvonne K. Fulbright, an Icelandic-American sexologist and founder of Sexuality Source Inc., answers with top 15 reasons - Why she says "No"? She feels fat. She feels gassy. She has her period. She's wearing grandma underwear. She has a yeast infection. She's sweaty or unclean. Neither of you brought a condom. Her parents – or yours – are too close for comfort. Her nether region feels dry. She's tired. She's already taken care of business. She's ticked off at you. She...

It's Autocracy , if Power rules; It's Plutocracy , if Money rules; It's Theocracy , if Religion rules; It's Aristocracy , if Heredity rules; It's Stratocracy , if Military rules; It's Democracy , if there are no rules .

James Hansen, the director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences (NASA), an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and science advisor to Al Gore, often termed as Godfather of Global Warming Science , at once (June 1988) brought the ill-effects of global warming to the public, for the first time. Exactly 20 years after that, Hansen is back now - " This is the last chance. We're toast if we don't get on a very different path ". Hansen said the earth's atmosphere needs to get back to 1988 levels (350 ppm CO2) , at least. Last month, it was 10% higher - 386.7 ppm. The slow disasters waiting in the queue are sea-level rises, glacier retreat, Arctic shrinkage (" The Arctic is the first tipping point " - Hansen), ecosystem collapse, tropical diseases, economy hit and even may be the mass extinction of species. A red warning on the gree n house ! Let us not see the human extinction in our life-time...

Everybody knows that π is a mathematical constant which represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry. Starting from Babylonians, Yajnavalkya and Archimedes, we have a handful of approximations for the value of Pi ranging from Aryabhata's " chaturadhikam śatamaśtagunam dvāśaśtistathā sahasrānām Ayutadvayaviśkambhasyāsanno vrîttaparinahah " to the Chinese fraction, 22/7. It's value with first 1000 decimal digits is 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751 05820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582 231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128 475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006 606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511 6094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912 27938183011949129833673...

Yesterday, My wife had a bed-time story for me from www - "A girl, at the funeral of her own mother, met a guy whom she did not know. She thought he was simply amazing, very much of her dream guy and fell in love with him. But she never asked for his number and could not find him. A few days later, she killed her sister." Then, she asked, "What is her motive?". I thought for a while and squeezed my lips (as usual). She continued (with smile-filled face), "This is a Psychopath analysis test by a famous American psychologist and many arrested serial killers answered this question correctly. It's good that you don't know the answer". Finally, she unveiled the answer - "The girl was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again". I don't know why I didn't open my mouth, even I know the correct answer.

" We have come alone in the world and we will depart alone; then why should we fall for somebody else? " - This is the core philosophy based on which FOSLA is evolved. FOSLA? It's Frustrated One Sided Lovers Association . They have a portal - http://www.fosla.org/ , claiming that they are the world's oldest unofficial association of bachelors (Obviously, they don't know about "Varuthappadaadha Vaalibar Sangam"). " Independent of anybody's mercy for love " is their reason to rejoice. It's a very big thing to be in such an evacuated mental state. All the Tamil Sithar s of olden days preached this state of art; in particular - Pattinathaar (will write about that in a separate post - needs a lot of reading and peace of mind). Recently, one of my closest friends gave the rest a definite shock by joining this association as a part of the disagreement consequences in his biography (His Gtalk custom message reads " Live for yourself -- th...

R.V.Chandravadan, Director, Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) made an unofficial remark " Nearly 20 to 25 sex centres exist at Tirupati with 400 workers engaged ". When Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) was in the urge to make clarification, the leaders of major political parties of AP condemned that the remarks should have been made only after getting to know the true facts as it hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus in the country. Why didn't they think off that their statement hurt the sentiments of the mentioned 400 odd people at Tirumala Hills?

World Information Access (WIA) - 2008 Report compiled by the University Of Washington speaks about the documented arrests of bloggers all over the world since 2003. The total number of bloggers arrested is 65 from 2003 to 2008, beginning. 3 Nations - Iran, China and Egypt accounts more than 50% the arrests. The number of arrests tripled in one year - from 2006 to 2007. During the 5 years, bloggers spent a total of 940 months in jail. The jail terms varies from few hours to eight years - average being 15 months. Emerging democracies like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand also involved. Philip Howard, the lead author of the report says " Governments are starting to take citizen bloggers seriously. They are not familiar with how to deal with citizens who speak out ". When am I? Do I?

Yesterday, AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE released a list of top 10 American films of 10 popular genres. Listed below are the films ranked first in each genre. Animation - SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS Romantic Comedy - CITY LIGHTS Western - THE SEARCHERS Sports - RAGING BULL Mystery - VERTIGO Fantasy - THE WIZARD OF OZ Science Fiction - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Gangster - THE GODFATHER Courtroom Drama - TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Epic - LAWRENCE OF ARABIA Bob Gazzale, President & CEO, AFI says “ This will serve as the ultimate guide to the very best in 10 of America’s most beloved film genres ”. The complete list is available @ http://www.afi.com/10TOP10/ . Can give a try, if you are choosy in movies.

Here, in the Indian subcontinent, we lack " Azhagiya Singer s " as Balram Naidu says in the movie - Dasavathaaram . Western world had a big list of hot females in pop - to name a few : Madonna, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Cher, Whitney Houston, Kylie Minogue and Spice Girls (Ode to their diet and culture). Women pop singers need a lot of talents/ assets - good vocal, music knowledge, authentic accent, beautiful face, impressive morphology, naughty expressions, sexy body language and a bit of dance. Everybody agree with me if i say it's difficult to catch an Indian girl with all these qualities (though they posses a variable subset of these). Also Pop music in any of its style - Folk, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, Rock & roll, Traditional pop is NOT much popular in developing nations like India. Even the pop itself is not a particular genre / style of music but just synonymous with, "popular music" over a period of...

The draft guidelines of Ministry of Telecommunication, GOI says " The electromagnetic waves emitted from mobile phones/radio terminals radiate Radio Frequency energy that heats up the tissues which can seriously damage the users' brain (as mobile phones, in use are usually kept closer to the ear which is very near to the brain) ". It suggests measures like limited usage of mobile phones by children below 16 (as their tissues are tender and likely to be more affected), pregnant women and people suffering from heart ailments, using hands-free, if longer use is unavoidable. I don't think it's possible to eradicate cellphones from teen-agers as it became their basic need next only to O2 and H2O.

The long time-slot film fasting of mine is over, at last. I have seen Kamal Haasan's magnum opus - DASAVATHAARAM with my wife (as first film post marriage) at INOX movies, Bengalooru on 13-June-2008, Friday, 03:45PM. (Also, this is the first movie review in my blog). The film already attracted the expectation among general public worldwide because of a bunch reasons such as one of the best actors of Indian cinema is doing 10 different roles, highest budget movie ever made in India (70 crores), Jackie Chan came for audio release of the movie, a supreme court petition against the movie / title and the "extra-ordinary" preview-reviews by Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, Super Star Rajinikanth and Director K.Balachandar. First of all, let me give a big hand to Kamal Haasan for performing the incredibly good 10 different characters in which he captivated the body language, voice modulation and slang of those excellently. The "dasa" avatars include Rangaraja Nambi , a 1...

The Bengalooru edition of "The Times of India" says that the US recession results in "penny wise" cost cutting amendments in Indian BPOs such as cut in salary increments, sancks, tea/coffee, stationery items and even the toilet tissue paper. The good thing is the costumes/ inner wears are not provided by the companies as a part of compensation.

Lie detector has been in news recently as Rajesh Talwar, accused in the Noida twin murder case involving his 14 year old daughter Aarushi was subjected to polygraph test by the CBI. Polygraph (or lie detector) is an instrument that measures physiological changes [in the parameters like blood pressure, pulse, respiration and skin conductivity] caused by the sympathetic nervous system during a conversation. But there exists a controversy on reliability of this device/ technique. William G. Iacono, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McKnight University and Director, Clinical Science and Psychopathology Research Training Program at the University of Minnesota, published a paper titled “Forensic Lie Detection" in 2001 which concludes that " it does not pass muster as a scientifically credible test ". Apart from polygraph, there are other methods also for lie detection such as voice stress analysis, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Brain fingerprinting (u...

A week back, a single-room was opened at Thuvaar, a remote dalit village (Sivagangai district, Tamil Nadu) said to keep women in isolation during their menstrual period and young girls on attainment of puberty for 16 days. This custom is termed as ‘ Muttukurichi ’ to avoid the provoked folk gods. The point here is, it was inaugurated by K.R.Periyakaruppan who is Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) minister of state government lead by chief minister M.Karunanidhi, an atheist and reformist. It's better if DMK Rajya Sabha MP - Kanimozhi justify this.

A research made at Monell Chemical Senses Center [for multidisciplinary research on taste, smell and chemosensory irritation] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. says that " the underarm sweat of males contains a complex compound of pheromones (with human genome called the Major Histocompatibility Complex - MHC) that leave a powerful subconscious effect on females, augment the release of the luteinizing hormone (which controls menstruation) , make them feel relaxed and attracted towards those men ". In future, the deodorant manufacturing firms may produce women seducing perfumes out of men's armpit pheromones with sweet (sorry! it's sweat) fragrance.

As there exists a current success trend of sequel (Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Dhoom-II, Sarkar Raj etc), let me engage myself with this fashion. I never thought I would write a second part (that too within this short span) when I wrote "THE COUNTERFEIT TECHNOLOGY" on last Friday. It's an incident happened this Sunday which sowed the seeds for this sequel. My wife and myself went to Bangalore city junction to send off her in-laws and mine. As it's too early in the morning (before sunrise in sky and kitchen), I didn't care too much when my wife asked me to buy platform tickets (those who read "THE COUNTERFEIT TECHNOLOGY - I" can understand the reason). While returning from the junction, we get caught (along with another couple - possibly unmarried) by an official with a charge sheet in hand. He asked us to pay Rs.500 as fine amount showing the previous fine receipts). I just stood unanswered looking at his face. He said " It's not me who intended to co...

Women express " everything to everybody " while men express " nothing to anybody ". There is line of median in between - express " something to somebody " which is difficult for either side to practice. Usually, I never express my feelings at extremes, particularly in trauma (and often, used to get scoldings from my wife for self-suppressions of such kind). Mark Seery, a psychologist from University of Buffalo (This "Buffalo" is a different one - a city in New York state, U.S.) based on a study, report in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology that people who chose to suppress their feelings were in a better mental and physical shape than those who chose to share their traumatic experience with others . Many experts disagree with this premise. But personally, I go with Mark. The report may become significant to understand the success of men over women, if proved.

Few days back (to be exact, 31-May-2008), Usain Bolt, an athlete from Jamaica set a new world record in men's 100 metres race with an incredible figure of 9.72 seconds at New York Reebok Grand Prix. This is really big compared to the current women's world record of 10.49 seconds set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. The men's record is rewritten often in recent past but that of women's remains unaltered for almost 20 years. There was a long term big dream of reaching 100m in less than 10 seconds in women's division. In 1980s, Tamil writer Sujatha wrote a novel - "Paththu second muththam" [meaning "Ten second kiss"] in which a teenage girl from a remote village of Tamil Nadu targets on 10 second margin. It's yet unattained. The reason is hidden in the cultural and social history of human race [Even my wife, an athlete in her school days, later, sacrificed her interests for various reasons]. But this globalised economy of today doesn't ...

Former Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid said " There is a limited amount of time. Twenty20 cricket is popular now so something has to give. The number of one-day games might get reduced. I hope they don't reduce Test matches, too ", when asked about Twenty20 cricket. Yes. He is absolutely right. T20 matches will upstage ODIs just as ODIs did with test matches before. This is quite natural and normal as people are running out of time. In 1980s, people are impatient with 5 days match and started engaged with one-dayers. Now its further reduced to 5 hours - in future, may be, even, less than that. Changes are inevitable. Its actually representing Darwin's theory of " survival of the fittest ". In fact, Cricket is surviving just by changing its duration (and not form or style) which is actually a good sign. But this can be dealt in a different aspect - an optimist's view on darkness. Cricket was played as retrospective game in 1900 summer Olympics but ign...

When I came to Bangalore, I was very much impressed by the fact that technology is reaching even a layman here at the door-steps. For instance, to get a railway platform ticket, you don't have to stand in the queue (of mile-length) for hours but rather send an SMS - " PFT " to 53939 , you will receive a 5 digit code which you have to enter in the Kiosk at the railway station to get the ticket printed. But (as usual) it never worked for me, sending such an SMS to the above-said number is always a failure delivery (I am using Vodafone - Even the "Happy to help" Pug puppy didn't came for rescue). Several times, I used to stand in railway station to receive my wife with wet hands shivering due to the fear to be get caught red-handed without platform ticket at anytime. I am not sure whether this is a problem with the Indian railways or the mobile service provider. But I am confident in another thing - " Everything is available at door-steps here but the d...

Right from our childhood, we were fascinated by the stories of heroism (in various forms - movies, comics, novels, plays). Even, some of you might noticed that the major plot of those stories got evolved when a female character is trapped in a serious problem. It may be hero's mother, killed by robbers or hero's sister, undergone a gang-bang or the heroine, kidnapped by terrorists. There is a site WiR ( http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir ) which lists the female characters in comics who were killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies. WiR is an acronym to " Women in Refrigerators ", coined by American comic writer Gail Simone with a foreword " it's not that healthy to be a female character in comics ". The basic idea is the story tellers are mainly males and the hearing females are pretty much happier about the heroism portrayed. Nothing to worry. Women got trapped and saved...

The following words were uttered by Ra.Parthepan, Tamil Film Director - Actor in the funeral mourning of writer Sujatha. Let me try to translate it. " He had writers as readers and made readers as writers ". I am from his school.

Human Saliva contains 98% water, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, bicarbonate and phosphate electrolyes, mucus (mucopolysaccharides and glycoproteins), antibacterial compounds (thiocyanate, hydrogen peroxide, and secretory immunoglobulin A), various enzymes (α-amylase, lysozyme, lingual lipase, salivary acid phosphatases A+B, N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase, NAD(P)H dehydrogenase-quinone, salivary lactoperoxidase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione transferase, class 3 aldehyde dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, and tissue kallikrein), human and bacterial cells (with small organic acids, amines, and thiols) and Opiorphin (a pain-killing substance). Every time, when you spit in public, this chemical set is forcibly ejected. Spitting, in general is considered as unsuitable task to do in public, worldwide (You will not spit in public before the girl/ boy whom you are trying to impress or your current school teacher/ college professor/ project manager). On the ...

The following is a snippet of " IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS " hand-out [with a foreword " All the students have to strictly obey the rules and regulations of the university "] issued to the students in a deemed university at Tamil Nadu during the time of admission. I am bit baffled whether I am living in 2008's free India or 1938's dictatorship Germany?

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said recently at a conference in Canada " The way you interact with the system will change dramatically, the computer users of the future will control their machines by voice and pen as well as touch ". This is a preface to Windows 7 which will use touch screen instead of traditional keyboard and mouse combination. Thus he signals the end of 45+ year computer mouse era originated byDouglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute in 1963. But I don't want to leave the mouse (so as the keyboard for Linux users). We are living in a society where the software professionals are identified by the scar of palm bottom which is formed due to handling mouse for long span. Also, people are very much comfortable with what they are using now (atleast I am). I have tried using trail version of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 which is so-called "simplified" to the core in all aspects. But I am not very much comfortable with it (till now ...

Amit Almor, an Indian-origin researcher at South Carolina University says " Subjects were four times more distracted while preparing to speak or speaking than when they were listening ". Avoid Cellphone Driving - Mandatory, if you have one or more girl-friend(s).

More than a month spanned fever got over with Australians Shane Warne, Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh being the winning captain, man of the series and top run scorer respectively and Pakistani Sohail Tanvir being the leading wicket taker in the inaugral "Indian" Premier League. There is no Indian in the dais except Shreevats Goswami of RCB who got under-19 success player award. IPL is peculiar place where you could see the teams - Rajastan, lead by Shane Warne, Hyderabad, lead by Adam Gilchrist, Mumbai lead by Shaun Pollock and Chennai, lead by Mahendra Singh Dhoni - They are relevant to the places in no way. Here is a dream IPL squad which is picked up simply based on final statistics - comprised of Indians 100% Gautam Gambhir Virender Sehwag Yusuf Pathan Suresh Raina Rohit Sharma Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C&WK) Yuvraj Singh (VC) Piyush Chawla Irfan Patan Santakumaran Sreesanth Rudra Pratap Singh Shikar Dhawan (subst.) Robin Uthappa (subst.) Pardeev Patel (subst.) Yo Mahesh (s...