Cultural Differences
Hi folks!
If this cartoon is offensive to some of you, pl let me know - I'll remove the post. However, for my Indian friends, this one is reasonably humourous and hilarious!
Regards,
N
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Sunday 20 January, 2008
Cultural Differences
Hi folks!
If this cartoon is offensive to some of you, pl let me know - I'll remove the post. However, for my Indian friends, this one is reasonably humourous and hilarious!
Friday 18 January, 2008
Side-effects of Tata Nano Car!
Side-effects of Tata Nano Car!
Here's an interesting link for those who love the Nano (and also understand some basic Hindi!) ... ... ...
Regards,
N
Saturday 12 January, 2008
Staying Young
All about Staying Young!
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Friday 11 January, 2008
Living in 2008
Living in 2008
Hi folks!
Got this mail from a friend. Thought that it is indeed worth sharing with all of you!
- - - - - - - - !
Wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous new year. Wish that 2008 will be better in every manner than 2007.
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2008 when...
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played Solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12 You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't#9 on this list
AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.
Regards,
N
Thursday 10 January, 2008
Article On TamBrahms
Article On TamBrahms
Here's an interesting write-up on "TamBrahms" (So-called Tamil Brahmins!) that I came across. Interesting stuff, and surprisingly accurate with a tinge of exaggeration to make it warrant a posting on this blog. Do excuse the spellings & grammar - They have been retained in the original form to retain the colour and spice!
Regards,
N
!!!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -!!!
The below article is in good humour...
Those born and raised outside Tamil Land, some of the Tamil words like "maami " may be confounding, but can guess the meaning from the context.
Centum is of course a Latin word. It is the short form for Centum per Centum (100 out of 100) - Some use the phrase " Cent per Cent". But Tam Brams being very pithy, just stop with "Centum" to mean the same thing!
"YOU graduated in Literature, right?" asked my young cousin. "No, in Economics." I hastily clarified . "Economics honours," I added for good measure. The question coming from anyone else would have been innocuous, but from my cousin who was a third year engineering student, it was almost offending.
As a card carrying member of the Tamilian Brahmin community, or TamBrahms, as the endearment goes, I knew that in his world-- that included his parents, relatives, colony friends, project group, dorm mates--someone who graduated in Literature obviously did so because he or she had a learning disability.
The poor thing was a freak who couldn't get admission into an engineering college or even a pitiful, but definitely more acceptable, science course. Or worse, such a specimen was a wasted wanton whose desire to do B.A was an irresponsible, rebellious act, almost akin to joining a Neo-Nazi like cult group and living on the edge of civilized society.
In any such conversation with a bonafide TamBrahm, I find myself fervently hoping, that despite falling under the horrifying category of B.A Economics, with its connotations of statistics and analysis of numbers and trends, would redeem me a little in their maths-science obsessed eyes. For a TamBrahm family mathematics and science are not merely subjects in the school curriculum. They are a religion. And the dharma of every TamBrahm student is to master them and pave his way to the heavenly portal of an IIT. Or at least to the ordinary portal of a local engineering college, which the family will eventually reconcile to, in the absence of the 'real thing'.
The first time I seriously understood this was when I was in primary school and on one sunny day was gleefully reading out my final exam results to Grandpa who was sitting on the porch and frowning in attention. "English: 90 percent, Hindi: 85 percent, Social Studies:85 percent.." I prattled on. "How much in maths?" interrupted Grandpa.
"Maths: 97 percent," I said grinning widely. "What happened to the remaining marks?" was his unexpected reaction. After which he asked me to fetch the question paper, spent the next two hours going through each problem and figured out where I could have lost the precious three marks.
"Nothing less than a centum in Maths next time." he said finally.'Centum'is a word unique to the TamBrahm world, that a child grows up listening to. It is a figure that even if sometimes elusive, is never lost sight of throughout the academic career. Centum, Maths, Science, Brilliant Tutorials, Engineering, IIT, B.Tech, Computer Science, USA, Financial Aid, I-20, Student Visa, M.S, San Jose, California, Oracle, Microsoft, Intel. These words and names are like carefully arranged furniture in the mental landscape of a TamBrahm boy-and increasingly girl- below the age of 25 Care is taken not to clutter it with anything related to useless stuff like literature, history or art.
Show me a TamBrahm boy who wants to be a fashion designer, VJ, historian or air force pilot and I'll show you something wrong in his blood line. For all such are heathen, a blemish on the fair face of the community. Till about 15 years ago, the only heathens were girls who did not sing. Formidable maamis from the neighbourhood would drop in for a casual afternoon gossip session with grandmom and on espying any hapless young girls in the vicinity, would pounce on them with the dreaded entreaty, "Oru paatu paadein." (Sing a song). A simple three word sentence, you would think, but in maamiland it is a deceptively camouflaged barometer of the girl's cultural grooming and readiness for TamBrahm society (read marriage market) and her mother's efforts in making her a fine Tamilian lady.
A TamBrahm girl's singing talents always have to be on standby, as they could be called upon by anyone no matter what the time of day, nature of the occasion or profile of the audience, by simply uttering the three powerful words, "Oru Paatu Paadein." And woe betide the girl who in shameful ignorance, takes the words at face value. When the words were uttered by a visiting neighbour, I readily accepted and joyously broke into a popular Hindi film ditty. I had finished the second paragraph when I stopped to check audience response. My mother had a strained, embarrassed smile on her face, grandmom was scowling hard, an aunt hurriedly excused herself and went inside and the venerable neighbour looked so disturbed, I thought she was on the verge of a heart attack."Well..that was nice, but don't you sing any varnams or keerthanais?" she finally asked, after an awkward silence. My mother hurriedly explained how in the culturally bereft North we were unable to locate a Carnatic music teacher nearby...but hopefully by this summer she would manage to do something about it. That's when I realized that the only music that was expected to pour out of your mellifluous throat where classical Carnatic songs. If you didn't know any, you simply shut up and ducked out of sight of visiting maamis. And if like me, you are a non-engineer-non-Carnatic-trained loser of a TamBrahm, you should be drowning yourself in a drum full of idli batter for having wasted this lifetime.
Tuesday 8 January, 2008
Euro English
Euro English
Came across this gem on the net - Source / Author unknown!
Read on and enjoy:
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
Regards,
N
Wednesday 2 January, 2008
Stone in Dinner? Don't throw it in a hurry!
Stone in Dinner? Don't throw it in a hurry!
When going out for dinner, we often find a stone or two and get annoyed about it. Henceforth, don't get annoyed! Do take away the stone carefully and check it out thoroughly. You may just get lucky. If you are wondering why, read on:
Regards,
N
Tuesday 1 January, 2008
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Dear friends,
Here's wishing you all a very happy, prosperous, healthy and peaceful 2008!
Happy reading!
N
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