r.i.p.

well it had to happen anytime now and it did.
today the world's most advanced nation successfully starved an innocent woman to death. don't get me wrong, i fully support euthanasia and a patient's right to die, but, like i said before, let's not get barbaric in the process.
enough said.
may her soul r.i.p.

how to make a bowl of maggi noodles!

i hadn't realised how bad ganguly's reputation had become, until i received this on my instant messenger:
how to make a bowl of maggi (2-minute) noodles:
1. boil 2 cups of water in a pan.
2. when ganguly goes to bat, put the maggi noodles and flavor in the water.
3. keep stirring as long as ganguly is on the field.
4. when ganguly is back in the pavilion, the noodles are ready to eat!
maggi, maggi, maggi .....!

am i an orthorexic?

i always knew i loved eating healthful foods, but little did i know the extent of my obsession until my wife sent me this! am i really an orthorexic? even if i am not, there are definite signs that i am getting there!
and the scary thing is that the article mentions some of the exact symptoms i am displaying like taking only the healthy portions of unhealthy foods, reading the labels almost maniacally and also serially stopping certian classes of foods (already on the do not eat list: pasta, rice, nuts, cream cheese).
but the reason i am not really all there yet, is that i still love pizza (and milk shakes and icecream and cakes). just be there when i am at a pizza hut or sweet tomatoes buffet and you can be assured of a sight that is truly special (no, that's not me, but you get the idea!).
and hey, atleast i am not anorexic!

kaadhal mannan forever

it was with a sense of sadness, that i heard about the passing away of one more of the trinity of tamil cinema (the other two being, of course, the evergreen mgr and the inimitable "shivaji" ganesan). "gemini" ganesan lived to be 84 and his screen epithet of "kaadhal mannan" (the king of romance) proved true in real life too - 8 (known) children through 5 women including actresses pushpavalli (celebrity offspring alert: rekha) and savitri.
i will always remember him as the sambhar (so called for his portrayal of softer rather then action roles) who ran around singing "oho enthan baby" with vyjanthimala in the classic "then nilavu", although i can never forget "manidan enbavan deivam aagalam" (even man can become god) in a self-abdicating role in sumaithangi either.
truly a great loss for us on earth but maidens in the heavens above, beware! the king hasn't quite lost his touch yet!
and, oh, to the folks at the malayala manorama, it's "gemini" ganesan and not "shivaji" ganesan.

meanwhile, terri schiavo continues to dehydrate ...

i cannot (pretend to) ignore this anymore.

first, the facts:
terri schiavo is a woman who is *not* on life support, who smiles, blinks and follows you with her eyes but otherwise lies in a vegetative state and is being fed through a feeding tube. she has been like this for 15 years, but today she is suddenly at the center of a raging controversy that, after her feeding tube was removed on friday and she started to dehydrate, caused an emergency session of congress on sunday(03/20) and a 1:00 a.m. signing of a bill on monday (03/21) that forcibly transfers jurisdiction of the Terri Schiavo case to a U.S. district court for review by a federal judge.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continued to dehydrate ...
the judge then hemmed and hawed and went to sleep (after a hearty dinner, i am sure) without giving any judgement on monday.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continued to dehydrate ...
early tuesday came the news that the judge, predictably, refused to allow the feeding tube to be reinserted.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continued to dehydrate ...
now, the schiavos have appealed to the 11th circuit court of appeals in atlanta, ga and have requested for an emergency injunction to the earlier ruling.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continues to dehydrate ...

now, my opinion:
obviously, in a case like this, it is extremely difficult to make a point one way or the other because of the sensitivity of the issue. on the one hand you have right wing idiots like wabc radio talk show host mark levin who blames the husband for having "a woman on the side and having children with her". i feel the husband cannot be blamed for this - hey she has been in this state for 15 years! i would think that after a year of trying, the hospitals and the parents would have taken the right decision to euthanise her and rid her of the agony that her life has become.
on the other hand, i cannot believe the absolutely cruel ruling to "remove her feeding tube". wait a minute, i support your decision to end her life, but does it have to be this way? do we have to let her slowly dehydrate and let her organs fail one after the other as she wastes away into oblivion? is there no quicker option to end her life?
and before you judge me as a cruel and apathetic euthan-enthusiast, let me clarify that there are multiple reasons for my view on this case.
firstly, there is the time factor. this is not someone who has just lapsed into this state. it's been 15 years and it's a daily agony for many of her loved ones. yes, it's natural for her parents to hold out hope for her and we all wish there could have been another way, but there is none.
secondly, consider the economics of the situation. i agree, there is no price to human life, but there is one for terri's feeding tube. i have heard on the radio, that this is about $6000 per month. 15 years worth is about $1,080,000. this amount could save the lives of hundreds of childen who are malnourished and not brain dead.
finally, it's the law! the spouse, good or bad he/she may be, has the final say over such matters when the partner is not in a situation to respond. in this case, he claims she had told him (though there is nothing in writing) that she did not want to continue being fed through a tube. there are many nurses who have come forward saying he is a bad person who only wants his wife dead for her money, but again, that is a matter for the courts to decide.

my final thoughts:
FIRST INSERT THE FEEDING TUBE, WHILE YOU DECIDE WHETHER YOU WANT TO KEEP HER ALIVE OR NOT!
and then if you decide to euthanise her, use barbiturates or something - and get it over with.

meanwhile, terri schiavo continues to dehydrate ...

domain hunting

sometimes i like to think up some (what i think are) really cool sounding names for a concept, company or thing and then rush to a domain search site and see if it is available.
sometimes i feel really happy with myself when i see that the name is available (atleast was at the time of this posting) and no one else thought about it first! but othertimes, i am amazed too, but not just the fact that someone else came up with the name first, but with what they have gone and done with it!

ordinary words

while on a blogroll, i hit the love movie.
if you have a minute, just watch it.
even if you don't have a minute, just watch it.

that sinking feeling you get ...

... when you are driving ...
... and the radio is on ...
... and you approach a fairly long tunnel ...
... and you know you are going to lose reception ...
... and the verdict is about be announced ...
... in the long running murder trial ...
... and you wanted to hear about it first ...
... but you won't ...
... and then you reach home ...
... and someone yells "can you believe the jury voted - "...
... ... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...
... i hate that sinking feeling ...
... and i hate tunnels.

thank you for your payment ... your confirmation number is ...

... hey, wait a minute please! hold it right there. are people still writing down these confirmation numbers? i mean what the hell am i supposed to do with it? quote it the next time i get a collection notice that says i never payed? and what if they say they have no idea what this number is and they have no record of it on their system?
hey, you know what? if i make a credit card payment and it doesn't show up on my online statement in 2 days, i will know that the payment is not confirmed. so you can go take your confirmation number and ... no not that ... enter it in your system and keep it safely - i don't want it!
btw, your confirmation number for having read this blog entry is READMYLIPSNOMORECONFIRMATIONUMBERS!

Unakkum Enakkum Anandam ... say The Black Eyed Peas ...

This Tamil oldie has indeed got da beat! If The Elephunk Theme (song 11) by The Black Eyed Peas is any indication of things to come, rappers are now going back (aaaaaaall the way) to the roots - good old melodies from the southern lands of India. Ilaiyaraja'a classic from Rajni's Sri Raghavendra sung by Malaysia Vasudevan and S.Janaki has been metamorphosed into a surprisingly good remix. Check it out! For more info (and the really kooky lyrics) go here .

Gandhi all over the world.

Mahatma Gandhi on webcam? Telecom Italia has released an awesome commercial featuring the father of India's non-violent movement against the British rule.