Child Labour

Are we really a party to child-labour?
Sadly yes, but most of us think the answer is "no".

Go to any shop/hotel/establishment, one can see that almost all shops/hotels/establishments employ kids for regular chores :-(
And we just take a sorry look at those kids and then continue to buy the lesser-priced products(quality) coming out of their hands :-(

Cruel really! :-(

Remember most school-kids/school-establishments avoided buyin deepavali-crackers cause they felt that buying such child-laboured products is "wrong". But do these same folks really bother to think about the children they employ directly or indirectly, tough question really!

Sidhu - My God

"If one-day cricket was pyjama cricket, then Twenty20 is underwear cricket."


Navjot Singh Sidhu waxes eloquent, but he doesn't stop there...

Bowled over by Eagles

Currently listening to 'New York minute' and 'The Last Resort' by 'the eagles' back-to-back and in that too in an infinite loop :-)

Damn good songs both..

Vive les bleus

Today, it s gotto be France winning 2-0 against Italy.

Yesterday, the match between Portugal and Germany was good.. both teams played attacking game.

I think Trezegeut is going to be the pick of the finals!

Movies by Weekend

Pudhupettai:

Ordinary movie. Wish Selvaraghavan could have made a better movie :-(

Superman Returns:

Ordinary movie. Not worth the watch ..
Some sequences reminded me of watching 'captain' movies... "shock ku ke shock adikkum"... :-)

Rockumentary: This is Spinal Tap:

This Rob Reiner's documentary was fun to watch in phases, but it was difficult for me to appreciate this rockumentary cause I had never heard 'spinal tap' earlier.

Hell Freezes Over:

Nice rockumentary this one. Enjoyed listening to songs 'New York minute' and 'The Last Resort'.

Freedom from the known

Some excerpts taken from the book "Freedom from the known" by J. Krishnamurti...

"We are trying to understand violence(which is fundementally the problem,either from you to others or from others to you) as a fact,not as an idea,as a fact which exists in the human being,and the human being is myself.And to go into the problem i must be completely vulnerable,open,to it.I must expose myself to myself - not necessarily expose myself to you because you might not be interested - but i must be in a state of mind that demands to see this thing right to the end and at no point stops and says i will not go further.
Now it must be obvious to me that i am a violent human being.I have experienced violence in anger,violence in my sexual demands, violence in hatred, violence in jealousy and so on - i have experienced it, i have known it, and i say to myself, 'i want to understand this whole problem not just one fragment of it expressed in war, but this aggression in man which also exists in the animals and of which i am a part.'
Violence is not merely killing another.It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear.So violence isnt merely organised butchery in the name of god, in the name of society or country.Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are enquiring into the very depths of violence.
But to be beyond violence i cannot suppress it, i cannot deny it, i cannot say,' Well, its a part of me and that's that ', or 'i dont want it'. I have to look at it, i have to study it, i must become very intimate with it and i cannot become very intimate with it if i condemn it or justify it.We do condemn it though; we do justify it.Therefore i am saying, stop for the time being condemning it or justifying it.
It is no good just sitting back and asking, 'How am i to get such a mind?' You have to want it as you want your next meal, and to have it you must see that what makes your mind dull and stupid is this sense of invulnerability which has built walls round itself and which is part of this condemnation and justification.If the mind can be rid of that,then you can look, study, penetrate, and perhaps come to a state that is totally aware of the whole problem."

--
This passage was sent by my friend via email.
Somehow me thought this had some amazing similarity to 'Johari window', the problem of course is the workability of this total-introspection !

Allez les bleus

It s going to rain goals on the finals of the world cup.
France Vs Italy

I think France will win this match 2-0.

And in the semifinal seeing Ronaldo(Portugal) diving for no reason was slightly irritating. Fellow does some amazing dribbling, disco dancing, moon walking, salsa etc., but still tries some cheap tricks like diving :-(
If the fellow grows up maybe he would make a real good star!

Find the Variables (Movie Connect: Great Depression)

Name the movies 'A' and 'B'(and also, try to find out 'C' and 'D').

Both the movies 'A' and 'B' were set during the 'Great Depression' times(real-stories).
The protagonists of 'A' and 'B' had to struggle a lot during the Depression days, but with typical Hollywood-grit they fight back and show the rest the 'art of fighting spirit' and everyone can leave the theatres feeling-good.

Clues:
-> The character(playing the title-role) in 'B' lived for just 14 years.
-> The movie 'A' had actor 'C', who got nominated for Best-Supporting Oscar for his role in 'A'.
-> 'C' is currently playing the lead role in the movie 'D'.
-> The director of 'D' had earlier famously told:
"I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. If there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it. This is life or death to me. If you tell audiences there's no difference between a theatrical experience and a DVD, then that's it, game's over, and that whole art form is going to go away slowly. Movies will end up being this esoteric art form, where only singular people will put films out in a small group of theaters."

Surprisingly, both of these movies 'A' and 'B' did not make much of an impact in Oscars.

Leave your answers in the comments section.

Gaming Question

"Pilot Geneva's spaceship through the mission to defeat the alien forces. Fly a spaceship in space and explore planets with a ground vehicle. ....."


That's how the story goes on... (in bold). Identify the name of the game.
Leave your answers in the comments section.

GI

How do American Marines fighting in Vietnam during 60's and 70's call Vietnam rebels as and why?

Clue: for the first part of the question,
Almost all American movies on Vietnam wars will have American GIs or Marines calling Vietnam rebels with this name.

Leave your answers in the comments section!

FIFA Cup - Semifinals

Hmm... things really didnt go well for England. Becks leaving the ground with an injury and Rooney red-card spoiled it all!

France did what I thought i.e win over Brasil but the margin being just 1-0(real surprise, as one would expect Brasil to score for sure).

The matches are mostly turning out to be real bore to watch with the negative tactics adopted by all the teams :-(

Now, the predictions for semi-finals:
Germany wins over Italy 1-0
France wins over Portugal 2-0

FIFA Cup

Nothing really goes as per my plan.
Yesterday, Germany pulled off a miracle by beating Argentina!
I was expecting Argentina to pull-off a 3-1 win, going by their agressive-game. But sadly, after goal one, Argentines went on the defensive(a needless move, instead of going for the sucker punch) and that cost the match.
The match was overall boring otherwise(except for these two goals and the Argentine offensives from nowhere). Quite brave of the commentators to make the prediction earlier in the match that 'if the match goes for penalty kicks, then Germany will win thanks to their home-advantage' and it became true!

Next match, I was hoping Italy will win 1-0 going by their defensive-game plan. But alas, Italy did attack after goal one!

My predictions for today's match:
France vs Brazil:
Though I think Brazil is strong on paper than anyone, France will pull-off a win this time.
Scoreline:2-1 for France

England Vs Portugal:
I think England will win this match 1-0.

Movies by Weekend

"Rumor has it..":
Nice start for the movie i.e 'The Graduate' connection, but otherwise the movie was a bit ordinary..Shirley Maclaine's role was entertaining!

"Guns of Navrone":
Did not like this movie much, maybe because I had seen better war movie-thrillers.

"Sing in the Rain":
Good movie. Enjoyed watching this movie. All credits of course goes to Vadivelu for popularising this title song 'Sing in the rain... I am sing in the rain...". Cosmo(real name: David O'Connor)'s dancing was simply awesome and fun to watch. The man who plays the role of a producer in this movie has some striking similarity to the way 'Ranga Rao' would have played in any tamil movie adaptation of this. And Cosmo has some striking similarity to Nagesh or Chandrababu.

"Tin Tin":
Saw a few Tin Tin episodes lately (Red Rackham's treasure and The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun). Not sure whether I really enjoyed watching those episodes again, but noticed 'Blistering Barnacles, Thundering Storms, Greats Snakes' all too well that I might use these phrases often :)

"Who is afraid of Virginia Woolfe?":
Absorbing drama. Initially thought this movie was really going nowhere with the slander between the husband and wife going-on-and-on, but was hoping that climax would be interesting after all the real redundant slander. And found the climax to be quite good, not the violent one that I had anticipated which might have introduced blood bath into the plot.

"Lost Highway":
One of those really confusing David Lynch movies, but not as confusing as the 'Mullholland Dr.'. Nevertheless enjoyed getting confused with the plot that this movie had to offer.

"The Italian Job"(the original):
This movie was fun to watch, not the action-packed-thriller that had Charlize Theron and Mark Wahlberg which had no comedy whatsoever(maybe that's its plus). This movie had Michael Caine in the lead role and one would really enjoy watching the 'Lord' Noel Coward as Mr. Bridger who finances the loot. The movie had decent action sequences as well, but having seen better action sequences one would really not get moved with these action sequences. Mr. Bridger's antics are enjoyable, but surprisingly Benny Hill's antics are not really all that rollicking.

Some Trivia on Michael Caine: For all soccer addicts who got to watch the documentary-style matches(episode produced by FIFA themselves) of previous FIFA world cups, the narrator in the background is none other than Michael Caine himself!

"Basic Instinct 2":
Total disastor of a movie. Really bad sequel for the original.

"Shadow of a Doubt":
Good Hitchcock movie this. The movie did not have much of a dull moment. Hitchcock is really a master of making-thrillers!