Category: English Posts

Well, not really sure what to write about. Something like you wouldn’t know from which side of the bread that you should eat first. No matter the side, the bread would taste all the same. Likewise, wherever you start from there is one uniform stench that emanates – the one of corruption and official malfeasance.

Next the UPA II should be credited for one achievement of theirs – once you concentrate your energies and start collecting your thoughts on how to write about that particular ‘achievement’ – read malfeasance, corruption, demeaning act – then another comes about totally out of the blue and completely washes you off your feet so that you don’t know as to what happened to the earlier one with the result that the perpetrators of the earlier crime – read discharge of one’s ‘official duty’ in the service of the nation- are forgotten by the media and the people at large.

We encounter the peculiar nature of the current dispensation -the declaration of motto of UPA – II. The motto is : Un-hindered Plundering at any cost. The mascot being the Prime Minister who has put his image in the line to safeguard the all round plundering that happens at the backend.

When we start looking at the Spectrum achievement and start reading more on that and collect some thoughts on the same, the IPL looms into the foreground. Every high ranking minister is involved leave alone what his ministry has got to do with a pure betting exercise called IPL. The agriculture minister who doesn’t have time to look into the rising prices of essential grains has got enough time at his disposal to wriggle in a betting enterprise. His cabinet colleague Praful Patel who is incharge of aviation and is not able to control Air India’s woes has enough time at his disposal for IPL. Reason : National Service via IPL, you have to believe that.

Farmers are committing suicides in Maharashtra due to debt woes. The agriculture minister spends his time in IPL and BCCI. Reason : National Service via IPL and BCCI, you have to believe that.

Many thousands of tonnes of wheat get rotten due to lack of storage facilities. Agriculture minister negotiates import of wheat from Australia. What economics this ? Probably the economic stalwart in the Prime Minister would know !

While we linger on wheat, another wind blows over – the CWG mess. Suresh Kalmadi defends all his actions with a forged e-mail from the indian high commission from London only to accept a couple of days later that some irregularities would have happened in the CWG affairs. And the Prime Minister maintains his calm and composure as if nothing of significance has happened while the whole world laughs at India’s handling of the pre-games affairs. While China had completed its preparations for last year’s olympics an year earlier and Britain has completed
its olympics preparations for the 2012 olympics, India still is not ready yet for the CWG that would start in October this year. Aspiring for superpower status, did you say.

Time is running out for Sachin Tendulkar. His score is being bettered by Naxals everyday. The day is not far off when Naxals begin television broadcasts from their independent nation comprising of Andhra, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal. While this is the case, the union home minister talks of ‘inclusive’ talks, un-conditional talks and the like only to be countered by his own cabinet colleagues the next day. His only competitor in incompetence is S.M.Krishna who kept mum, looking like a doll, when the Pak minister lambasted the Indian Home Secretary. What is the PM’s take on this ? — A complete mum on the whole affair.

I don’t know how many more times would India need to handover dossiers to Pakistan giving credible evidence of its involvement in the 26/11 attacks. I have strong reasons to believe that there is some secret pact with the dossier making industry to make it more profitable than even Microsoft.

So, what did Azhagiri do wrong that has made him the so-called ‘villain’ in the Indian Parliament ?

What was the heinous crime committed by Azhagiri ? He didn’t answer questions pertaining to his ministry. He didn’t do so because he hadn’t attended Parliament since the last one year.He didn’t attend theParliamanent since the last one year because he was preoccupied with other foreign travels. International business development pertaining to his ministry probably. So there is reason enough for him not to be able to attend Parliament and hence not answer questions. So what is the noise in the media about ?

Let us imagine that Azhgiri had attended Parliamament and answered questions.

How would that have mattered ? Would the Fertilizer prices have come down to the delight of the farmers ? Would the price of the essential grains have come down thus bringing down the inflation ? Could the answers have saved the farmers from committing suicides ?

So what is the large debate about ? If this is about the vacation that Azhagiri had in Maldives when the Parliament was in session, even then that does not matter. This too doesn’t matter because nothing ever gets done in the Parliament now-a-days. Azhagiri’s probable answers would have helped the opposition members to stage a walk out thus compensating for missing their morning walks, if they had missed them.

So when the opposition asked the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to know about the whereabouts of Azhagiri, she expressed her ignorance. So did the Prime Minister. So when the Prime Minister himself is not concerned about the whereabouts of his Cabinet Minister, why should the opposition be concerned ? Just because they are opposition members why should they oppose ? How does the opposition dare ask about the whereabouts of Azhagiri ? The Prime Minister’s ignorance can be pardoned as it is a well known fact that the PM does not have a say in who should be in his Cabinet. It is decided by Powers-that-be and he is a mute spectator. Therefore asking the Prime Minister about one of his cabinet ministers is atrocious.

Then what is the point of bringing in Shashi Tharror here ? How does he compare with Azhagiri ?

Well, here you have the suave and highly erudite Tharoor on the one hand who was a minister of state and on the other hand you had Azhagiri on whom you cannot attribute these qualities. And it is not Azhagiri’s fault that he cannot be the repository of such attributes.

But, even with these admirable attributes, Tharoor is not even a minister of state but Azhagiri continues to be a Cabinet Minister even without attending Parliament for the last one year. So, who is better ? Here is a Cabinet Minister who is not answerable to the Parliament, leave alone the Prime Minister. He still continues to be a minister whereas Tharoor is busy cooling his heels in ‘God’s own land’.

Let us, for a moment leave alone Tharoor’s in-experience in handling a woman accomplice and ineptitude in handling a smaller scam to the tune of Rs.70 crores. Mind it, this was not public money / government money – this was private money in a black money diven private enterprise called as the IPL.

With all erudition and suave diplomatic characteristics, Tharoor was booted out of Parliament in a manner that not even Shibu Soren, a convict, is entitled to. His explanations were not even heard in the IPL row. When he attempted to speak, his words were not received at all. That was because he did not belong to a political class that has made politics as a means of earning money without any compunctions; a class that has made general public opinion a matter of print fit only for tissue paper; a class that has ensured that great political debate does not occur in the parliament. And here is a politician who has had dubious credentials as the chief of a fiefdom to the south of Tamil Nadu and who has created a new method of wining elections with blatant disregard to the norms yet still continues to be an Union Minister even without attending Parliament for the last one year. And there is this Prime Minister who doesn’t know where his Cabinet Minister was. Of course the PM wouldn’t have been taken by surprise this time as he has had this experience already when Shibu Soren went underground for some time even while being an Union Minister.

Hence, Azhagiri, the minister who is eternally present in Madurai, is far better suited to Indian politics than the erstwhile UN Under Secretary General. Tharoor is fit only for the US and not for us, the Indians while Azhagiri is fit to represent us in Parliament, although in eternal absentia, from Maldives.

Next in line is Raja. Sssshhhhh. Never talk about him. Just like you should not talk about “In-Justice” Dinakaran. However taller might be their acts of misdemeanor, they should not be acted upon and neither should they be talked about. That is social-justice as these two belong to a special class that Karunanidhi often talks about.

Day after day, you keep hearing the heroic deeds of the ‘warrior’ class called ‘Tamils’. Not a day passes without a special mention about the ‘tamil pride’ and erstwhile bravery of the ‘Thalapathis’ and ‘Anja Nenjans’ ( loosely translated as ‘Commanders’ and ‘fear-less hearts’ respectively) in many a news paper.

Special functions are held every alternate day to appreciate some leader of the ‘tamil pantheon’ for some supposedly brave act, an impossible feat that was supposed to have been accomplised by the person who is sought to be appreciated. Titles and awards flow freely in the state with every person awarding the other and the other reciprocating the gesture. If you happen to see two people talking in the street then the probablity of one giving away an award to the other cannot be discounted. Don’t ask as to what the award was for. An award has to be presented to somebody on a daily basis and that is a sacrosanct duty of the tamil populace. No questions to be asked by the news papers. They usually don’t for the large amounts of advertisement material from the powers that be. So, why spoil the steady revenue flow ?

Did somebody mention ‘freedom of the press’ and ‘un-biased reporting’ ? Probably you are referring to some words that are not even present in the dictionary. Now is the period in history where news papers are paid to publish a news.

Leave alone the awards. Let us look at the titles that prefix the names of the dignitaries. As per our tamil nadu’s tradition, one is supposed to address another by the title and not by one’s name. If you happen to mention somebody’s name, even by mistake, then you should probably belong to the so-called upper echelons of the society who does not want to recognize the title holder by the title. How dare you invoke one by his / her name ? Sacrilege, you see.

Some titles and the spirit behind the same :

1. “Amma” – In ancient times used to refer to one’s mother. But of late has come to mean only one person in the ‘Rationalist Republic of Tamil Nadu’. If you happen to mention the true name of this person, then you are probably against the female gender and you are probably a male chauvenist.
2. “Annai” – This also used to mean one’s mother. Currently means the female power center that reigns the country by proxy from New Delhi. Don’t ever mention the name for a CBI case would be filed against you anytime soon.
3. “Kalaignar” – Originally used to mean an artist. Its current synonyms roughly translate as “An expert in the three forms of the tamil language”, ” The Thiruvalluvar who is alive”, “The Head of the Tamil Family Worldwide”, “The Tamil Language”, “The Tamil Motherhood’s only son” etc
4. “Udan Pirappu” – originally meant one’s sibling. Currently means the grass roots worker of the party of “Kalaignar”. Literal meaning would vary from ‘readily available human-self-immolation-inventory’ to ‘humans spending all their lives for the DMK to the detriment of their own family’. In otherwords means ‘a sacrificial goat’. They are also the only readers of the party organ ‘Murasoli’ and who who get paid to attend party meetings.
5. “Rathaththin Raththam” – literal meaning – blood of the blood. Not sure what that means. Probably should mean the DNA, RNA, Haemoglobin etc of the blood. Currently means the equivalent of ‘Udan Pirappu’ in the AIADMK. This group waits in the hot sun for over 12 hours to have a darshan of ‘Amma’ for 2 minutes.
6. “Thalabathy” – No, not the tamil film of the same name. Currently represents the only person in tamil nadu – the Right Honourable Deputy Chief Minister who is also one of the chosen the sons of the Chief Minister ( in other words “Kalaignar”). Not sure about the wars that he had led from the front.
7. ‘Anja Nenjan” – Literally means ‘the heart that has no fear’. Currently means the other son of the CM. He also happens to be an Union Minister of Chemicals. Inquiries into the relation between his educational qualifications and the position that he holds are un-warranted. Such inquiries shall expedite one’s funeral. He has the innate capability to represent the people of Tamil Nadu in the Parliament without having spoken even once for them in the august assembly. A gifted non-speaker whose ignorance of both Hindi and English has not handicapped him from being an MP. Person who has devised a new electoral mechanism wherein money automatically lands itself in the hands of the voters in white envelopes prior to elections. No body has been able to identify the source of money. Probably Scotland Yard detectives are needed for the same.
8. “Eezha Thamizh Thalabathy” – This could be loosely attributed to Thirumavalavan, Nedumaran, Vaiko and the lot. Anybody who raises ones’ decibel levels over the others on the Sri Lankan issue at any point in time could be termed as Eezha Thamizh Thalabathy. In the current political scenario this does not fetch any electoral dividend and hence has been discarded by the ruling DMK. Therefore there are many left-over-chasers who have been detailed above.
9. “Varungaala Mudhalvar” – Literally means the ‘future chief minister’. India is so free that anybody can use this title. In fact, it has become a practice to invoke just-born children with this title. Latest entrant into this ‘elite-club’ is Mr.Karthik Chidambaram whose only qualification is that he is the son of Mr.P.Chidambaram.
10. “Doctor” – Literally means the person who practises medicine as a profession. Currently means who has enough money to lavish on the ruling party so that he could be conferred with this title. Chances are, if you happen to pass by an university, you will be ‘doctored’ on a first come first serve basis. Otherwise how do you call Stalin a Doctor ?

The insatiable ability of the tamil people to bear with such nonsense is to be admired at sincerely. Yes, I am talking about the TV programmes in Tamil that too of the SUN kind.

For the n-th possible time the network broadacasts the arrival of a new tamil film that has everything in it that can qualify the movie for a porn-certificate if only it does not have the gravity defying stunt sequences and gory blood-soaked scenes.

How does one stand this kind of non-stop-nonsense ? One the one hand you have the very slim and un-shaven hero putting to question all known laws of physics by his stunt scenes while on the other hand we have the heroine who appears time and again in so less costumes that one begins to take pity at her inability to cover the bare essential surface areas of her body. Added to that are the dance sequences ( you need to believe that those are dances ) that are nothing but aerobic exercises in fast-forward fashion of the most skimpily clad girls on the screen.

There is also this very essential duty of the heroine to reassure the viewers that her body anatomy is in order and that her cholesterol levels are slightly bordering on the higher side. This she does by appearing in the most skimpily designed costumes ( if you can call them costumes ) that don’t have any semblance of any culture ( leave alone tamil culture ). Probably the heroine reminds the viewers that the tamil populace have a very distant origin — trying to prove Darwin’s Theory that man evolved from apes. Probably that is why she apes the apes. The point to be noted is that the mother of the heroine ( a widow 99% of the time ) would be so poor that she wouldn’t have the means to buy a replacement saree. She would appear in the same saree all through the film. Additionally there is this handicapped-yet-brilliant brother of the heroine. ( No marks for guessing that the handicap would have been caused by the villain either by way of an ‘accident’ or by way of making the heroine’s mother drink some liquid that could cause deformity of the foetus).

Then you have the ubiquitous comedian. The person or persons who would need to have his private parts hurt everytime he appears on the scene – that is how you need to define a comedian. Going by the number of times the comedian Vadivelu has been thrashed below the belt, one can safely assume that he would not need to wear any safety guard attire if he would choose to play cricket anytime in the future.

Then come the ubiquitous villain – most likely a local politician who is surrounded by a bunch of goons sporting attire of every concievable nature. And the only intention of the politician would be to get rid of this gravity-defying hero.

NASA would do well to initiate technology transfer from Tamil filmdom unto themselves in the lines of how to make a human being stay afloat in air for a prolonged period of time and at the same time perform acrobatics. The other area of tech transfer could pertain to the ability of the hero to dodge any number of bullets fired from a machine gun. This could be useful in helping astronauts escape from the occassional meteorite while in space.

Here is an excerpt from the pages of ‘The Hindu’ dated 01-January-2030

Local News:

Madurai: The Chief Minister of South Tamil Nadu Mr.George Azhagiri presided over the 250th foundation laying ceremony for an IT park in Madurai. It is to be noted that all the 249 foundations stones are still intact in their older installed sites all over Madurai functioning as mile stones to depict the journey of IT in the city.

Chennai : The Chief Minister of North Tamil Nadu Mr. Anna Nidhi Stalin conducted the routine review meeting of the latest slew of fly-overs in the City. It might be noted that currently there are over 1000 flyovers all over the city and the current set of flyovers are being constructed over the existing flyovers to ease traffic on the currently operational flyovers.

The Opposition Leader in the North Tamil Nadu Assembly, Mr. Doctor Ayya Anbumani ( grand son of Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss ) reiterated his earlier demand that the statues of Dr.Ramadoss be erected all over the state should be attended to at the earliest. It might be noted that Dr.Ramadoss ( the founder of the now-defunct PMK ) merged his party with the AIADMK some 20 years ago after a string of defeats in the local assembly elections.

In another turn of events, the DK has proposed a motion that statues of its erstwhile leader K.Veeramani be erected near the currently existing statues of EVR all over the state. This, they say, would help erradicate the ‘brahmin hegemony’ in the state. It is a different matter that there are no brahmins left in the state as all of them have either migrated to the US on H1B visas ( to work in temples that have sprung all over the USA ) or have chosen to move to the other states in the country.

National News:

New Delhi: The BJP, the main opposition party, reiterated their demand for expediting the hanging of Afzal Guru. It might be noted that Afzal Guru was supposedly responsible for the attack on the parliament some 40 years ago.

Interestingly the UPA government has invited Afzal Guru to preside over the Republic Day celebrations this year. The government feels that Afzal Guru’s presence would help it win the J&K elections soon.

Home Minister Karthik Chidambaram ( son of an earlier Home Minister P.Chidambaram ) reiterated his resolve to fight terrorism. This he explained in the presence of Ajmal Kasab, one of the attackers during the 26/11/2008 attacks on Mumbai. Readers might note that Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru had earlier formed a political party by name TMK ( Terrorists Munnetra Kazhagam ) and have close to 10 MPs in the current parliament who provide outside support to the UPA-VI government.

International :

India’s Prime Minister Mr. Joseph Vadra Gandhi ( son-in-law of Smt. Priyanka Gandhi ), currently on his 10th visit to the USA, requested the US President George Bush VI Jr. to instruct Pakistan to stop funding terrorists in J & K. The US President, it may be recalled, a nobel peace prize winner famous for his talks on peace, has reportedly assured the Indian PM that he would speak with the Pakistan President Mr.Ashraf Musharraf, the grand son of the former President Pervez Musharraf.

Special News from Tamil Nadu ( both North and South ):

Mr. Aaditya, son of Smt.Kanimozhi, inaugurated a campaign to fight for the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils. It might be noted that such a campaign has been going on for more than 50 years.

Regular Local News:

Villagers staged a road-roko in Tiruchi to demand drinking water for their village.

Anna University postponed its admissions for the 8th time as the High Court had stayed the implementation of the reservation in admissions in the University as the same had exceeded 100 %.

The lawyers of the Madras High Court boycotted the courts for the second year in succession for an incident that occured around 20 years ago in the court premises. It is a different matter that it would not have helped expedite the pending cases even if they had not boycotted the courts.

Sudenly there is this talk of the Taliban taking over Pakistan and the problems that this is likely to pose to India. The Government of India (‘secular’ government at that) seeks to ‘express concern’ ( note : ‘expressing concern’ does not amount to condemnation, you see) at the peace pact between the Taliban and the Pak govt in not so harsh words, the reason being that an opposition to the ‘sharia’ law’s implementation in the ‘Swat’ valley would probably ‘alienate’ the minority community. Same holds good for the ‘elite’ news papers too.

While the threat from the Taliban is a reality, let us look at what that would translate to in terms of the threat perception for the different states in the cradle of India.

The governments of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala and Jammu need not worry much. In any case either there is arson in these states or a government in place, one being the synonym of the other.

Let us look at the ‘Rationalist Republic of Tamil Nadu’ as this state with in the state of India needs special consideration, considering the current political discourse and governance in the state.

What would the Taliban want to be seen in Tamil Nadu that would proclaim to the external world that they have gained control over a state / country ? They would want lawlessness, nepotism, ugly display of power, brandishing of arms in public spaces, disrespect to democratic processes, opposition to natural justice, a general feeling of insecurity and hopelessness in the minds of the people and an utter disregard for the welfare of the citizens.

But, wait a minute. Are these attributes not part of the state of Tamil Nadu already ?

Was there not utter disregard shown to the law of the land when the so called custodians of law, the lawyers, themselves took sought to prevent justice and hold the High Court of the State for ransom, attacking litigants and the police ? More than disregard, what is seen is utter contempt for law that too from the people who are supposed to enable justice for the common man.

Was the issue that they were protesting for, in any way, concerned with the welfare of the fellow citizens of the land ? Was it in any way related to the upliftment of the millions of people who don’t even get one square meal a day ? The pity is the fight was for the euphemistic ‘ethnic’ brethren of a different country while, in actuality, the agitation was for the welfare of a murderous group that has been hell bent on massacring its own brethren.

Then there was this by-election for a constituency in the state. A state minister who also happened to be the son of the chief minister was caught on tape, handing over wads of currency to voters, on the eve of the elections. An union minister was seen handing over the wads of currency to the money-giver. And what followed that was a list of all possible reasons for the money giving ritual. Such rampant corruption espoused by the ruling group has not been seen anywhere.

The violence perpetrated on Sun TV and ‘Dinakaran’ news paper, killing of employees of the news paper by the other son of the chief minister and the hush-up operations after that and what not ! If at all there has been a state government in India that can be compared with the current one in TN, then that could have been the first government of Jayalalitha between 1991 and 1996.The current one has every attribute to surpass the former.

Coming back to Taliban. We know that the Taliban demolished the statue of the Bamiyan Buddha that was standing since the last millennium. That was their way of demonstrating that idolatry was an sub-optimal level of realizing ones’ divine consciousness. Did not the DMK government try and establish the statue of EVR in front of the Srtirangam temple as if EVR was the substitute of the guarding deity Iyyanar of the hindu pantheon ?

The Taliban attacked and continues to attack people who dare to speak ill of or attempt to commit what they call ‘blasphemy’. Similarly the DMK ministers along with the Mayor of Chennai attacked the BJP headquarters in Chennai, confining even lady members of the BJP inside the premises and pelted stones at them, causing considerable damage to the premises. Hence the moot question is: Do we need another Taliban ?

Then we have this unique case of the formation of human chains by students from schools and colleges unmindful of pouring rains ostensibly for the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils. It is learnt that the students were forced to participate in this form of protest by the college authorities when the parents of the children had sent them to schools and colleges for education purposes.

On top of all that comes the much too frequent ‘Valedictory Functions’ to the Chief Minister and his kin. They are being felicitated for one thing or the other. If it is for talking in Tamil in the Lok Sabha on one day, it is for talking in English to the media on another day. It has become so customary for the people to expect some form of felicitation for the chief minister’s family daily and advertisements placed in leading news papers ( full page ones at that ) reminding the people of the felicitation function .

When it comes to ridiculing and making fun of the majority community as also meddling with the new year dates ( Tamil New Year has been “changed” from April 14 to January 14 ), indulging in laughable declarations even in the Assembly like asking the Central government to intervene in Sri Lanka or asking for re-writing the Constitution of India, indulging in wasteful expenditure like the distribution of colored television sets for free to the electorate, the current government appears to be more like the Taliban with its backward ideologies and thought processes that are not inclined towards taking the state forward.

Though it is a fact that the Taliban would feel more at home in the streets of Chennai than even in Afghanistan as the streets of both these places look alike with equal number of pot holes, I would very much doubt if they would really want to come to Chennai. That is because they would not want to be redundant in Chennai while their peers appear to be running the government in the state.

Yet another similarity that the Taliban would find between Afghanistan and Chennai in particular and TN in general is the general darkness everywhere due to the frequent power cuts. The state’s electricity minister should be handed over the Nobel Prize for Electrical Engineering for his innovative invention of the state’s electrical power cables that don’t create a short circuit even if you touch them !

Due to the above reasons, I don’t think that the Taliban would attack their own ilk.
Hence I congratulate the current government in Tamil Nadu for fending off the attack from the Taliban.

Yes. The grand icon has been elevated to the level of M.K.Gandhi. The University of Madras ( should it be Mad-Rascals ?) has hit upon the most novel idea of starting an M.A. Course in Karunanidhi Studies something in the lines of the Gandhian Philosphy and Thought notwithstanding the fact that the only difference between these two people is that the latter had some principles and the former hasn’t had any.

Well, you might call it the height of sycophancy. Others might call it the evolution of rationalism. I prefer to call it a practical longevity measure for the current vice-chancellor for the University of Madras.

In line with my attempt to help the future students of the course to pass the exams ( if any are conducted at all ), I have made a feeble attempt to prepare a model question paper and some answers. It is intended for people who are not from the ‘Rationalist University of Erode’ and therefore I have decided to prepare this sample in the lines of the ‘Konar Tamil Urai’ or ‘Konar Notes’ for the un-initiated. These non-rationalist lot needs to pass you see. People wishing to score high marks need not read this. They could indeed concentrate on ‘Murasoli’ – the mouth organ of the DMK.

Note : Hereinafter the grand rationalist pantheon shall be referred to as M.K. ( Gandhiji, pls forgive me )

1. Why should MK be given multiple awards daily ?

Ans : Awards are meant to be given to somebody. The only person available on earth who does not have anything to do but receive awards is MK. Hence MK should receive awards daily.

2. Who should present an award to MK ?

Ans: Anybody with enough money to lavish on ornamental decorations and some cash bags ( ‘por-kizhi’ for the tamils ) and are expecting some contracts from the state govt can give this award.

3. What are the pre-requisites for an award function for MK ?

Ans: Stalin, Kanimozhi, Alagiri, Dayanidhi and the multitudes of spouses of MK would need to be present on the dais. Poet Vaali and Vairamuthu should speak for 30 mins each on why the award should be given to MK. Veeramani should shout from the dais that the ‘Brahmanical hegemony’ would be torn down by this award. Then the award can be presented.

4. What has been the policy of MK on Sri Lanka ?

A. Srilankans are our brothers and hence we need to fight them.

B. Srilankans belong to a separate nation and the can take care of their problems themselves.

C. The Tigers are the same as the SL Tamils.

D. The Tigers are different from SL Tamils.

E. All of the above.

5. Which of the following describes MK’s action plan on freeing SL tamils?

A. Creating Human-Chains consisting of school children under heavy downpour

B. Writing letters to the Prime Minister urging action

C. Writing more letters to the PM and the ‘real’ PM ( read Sonia )

D. Passing Assembly resolutions

E. Taking rest in the beach ( called ‘fast unto death’ ) for 2 hours surrounded by a/c machines

F. All of the above.

6. What best describes ‘secularism’ according to MK ?

A. Ridiculing ‘Hinduism’ in every Ramzaan function

B. Writing poetry ( if you can call that so) deriding hindu gods in the party organ Murasoli

C. Extending ‘Ramzaan’ and Christmas wishes but not Deepavali wishes

D. Fielding only Muslim candidates and Christian candidates from constituencies where the two

communities are in sizeable numbers.

E. All of the above.

7. What is “State Autonomy” ( Maanila Suyaatchi ) ?

A. The token speech given everytime the DMKs terms are not accepted by the Congress party.

B. The term that occurs frequently when the DMK is in opposition and vanishes into thin air once

they form the government.

C. The term often quoted when ever Annadurai needs to be remembered

D. All of the above

8. According to MK, what best describes ‘paguththarivu’ ( ‘ rationalism’ for the un-initiated)

A. Visiting the memorials of Annadurai and EVR prior to embarking on any campaign

B. Wearing an yellow coloured shawl everytime in public meetings

C. Swearing at opposition colleagues in marriage functions of party cadre

D. Erecting multi metre high cut-outs for self and family all through the state

E. All of the above.

9. What does ‘fast unto death’ mean in ‘MK parlance ?
A. A two hour official siesta ( after a heavy breakfast) in the Marina beach, surrounded by a/c machines and relatives and friends with everybody controlling their laughter by trying to speak into their mobile phones.
B. A and some phone calls from the PM and Sonia Gandhi
C. B and some ‘self-torching-ceremonies’ enacted in the state.
D. All of the above.

10. What does MK do while not working for the people of TN ?

A. Write screen-play for un-watchable movies such as ‘Uliyin Oosai’

B. Repeat A.

C. All of the above.

11. What does MK do while ‘working‘ for the people of TN ?

A. Same as Question No 10.

Note : Though the course has been described as an ‘M.A’, once you en-roll, there are chances that you could be conferred with a Ph.D ( ‘Doctorate’ as it is called in TN ) as there is an abundance of doctorates vested with the Universities that any passerby is being pulled into an University and conferred the ‘Doctorate’, the latest ones being Stalin and Sonia.

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Well, water has been found on the moon, thanks to Chandrayaan and the M3 equipment from NASA. As usual, the moot question follows : Can we take that for ourselves ? When we are not able to share water between two states within a sovereign nation and therefore resort to bus-burning, statue erecting and other gimmicks to keep ourselves busy to “find” solutions to water problems, how are we going to utilize water in the moon ?

When we may not be able to take the water from moon to earth in the near future, it would be a wise idea to demarcate our “territories” in the lunar surface on a priority basis so that there is no LOC / LAC kind of altercation at a later point in time when different nations vie with earch other for terrirories in the moon.

Probably Pakistan ( with the help of China, obviously ) would want to create a ‘moonistan’ in the lunar landscape citing reasons of the relation between the different phases of the moon and the advent of ‘ramzan’ and also citing the presence of the moon in its national flag. There could be supporters too for this, in India, in keeping in line with our ‘secular’ tradition of accepting anything ‘pro-minority’ as holy and thus sacrosanct.

Next in line would be the exploration in the moon for the presence of oil so that the arabic nations can claim that since oil has been gifted to them by the Almighty in earth, the same principle would need to be adopted in the moon and thus all oil wells would need to belong to them. Probably a verse or two from some holy book could be cited as ‘evidence’ as well.

What can you expect the UPA govt to do next ? Start a new scheme ‘Rajiv Gandhi Lunar Yojana” and hand that over to some lunatics from the HRD ministry and the History Re-writing Committee and ask them to compose verses in praise of Rajiv / Indira / Rahul / Priyanka and find out some hidden meanings into their erstwhile statements and the moon and thus proclaim to the world that those ‘prodigies’ had indeed predicted the presence of water in the moon. There are very many ways to indulge in hypocrisy and one such would be what is stated above.

When the Congress behaves thus, can Mayawati be left behind ? There would be another “Ambedkar Park ” establishment project in the moon so that the ‘dalits’ would be emancipated on earth. Forget whether they have water to drink on earth. What is more important is the grant statuization initiative in the moon . If the courts scoff at that, then proclaim to the world that the courts are anti-dalits and go to elections.

While these parties become busy exploiting the moon, then shall come the ‘party with a difference’ that has currently become ‘the party without reverence’. It would be correct to say that this party can be called ‘ the differentially enabled party’ as well. Yes, it is the BJP that is spoken about here, if you remember that such a party existed on the face of India once upon a time when Atalji reigned. Coming back to the moon – the BJP’s next election manifesto ( if the party remains intact till then ) would proclaim that since the moon existed in the mythology of India and as Chandrayaan has found out water in the moon, there needs to be a separate temple for ‘Chandran’ in Chandrapur in Maharashtra with “Chandrayaan” as a ‘vahanam’ installed in front of the presiding deity. Needless to say that a section of ‘secular’ parties, with support from similarly inclined media, would come up with a theory as rancid as the ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ that in the proposed site for building the temple, there once existed a mosque / church / Jain Vihaar ( depending upon the vote bank that they seek to entice ) and would start an agitation on the lines of ‘Chandrapur Masjid Action Committee’ or as the case may be.

In the sidelines would be the ‘Left’ who have recently been left out of the political mainstream ( read blackmailing position ) in the elections. The Karat family, having been left out of media space for quite some time as also the Yechury warrior along with the T.Pandian-D.Raja comedy duo, would want to stage demonstrations wherever they find space. But you should not ask as to what they are demonstrating for or against as you could be termed anti-burgeoise anti-prelitariate if you do so.

While all these happen at the national scene, the Dravidian Rationalists from the Rationalist Republic of Tamil Nadu would have comeup with a novel plan. They would have spoken to both the Congress and the BJP and promised support for either of their schemes on the following conditions :

1. In the proposed temple, Annadurai and EVR should be the ‘Dwarapalakas’
2. Kanimozhi would need to be personified as Andaal
3. Stalin and Azhagiri would need to be engraved as Hanumaan and Garuda
4. Dhayanidhi would need to be the archaka ( priest )
5. T.R. Baalu would need to get the contract to build the temple
6. ‘Murasoli’ would need to be the official mouthpiece of the project
7. ‘Chandrayaan Award’ would need to be conferred on Kalaignar Karunanidhi

And Jayalalitha would continue to confabulate with Sasikala in the pristine environs of Kodanadu in the Nilgris as if there is nothing worthwhile happening in the country. You should believe that she is resting after the elections in the state.

And thus the Indian Political Tamasha would continue.

The more the discussion in the initialization part of anyproject, greater are the chances of the project getting scrapped altogether. Likewise, the more the focus and brouhaha on ‘austerity’, the lesser are the chances of the same getting implemented. Otherwise, there would be a grand emergence of the ‘cattle class’ in all modes of transport ( let the cattle forgive me for equating them to humans ).

While we would want to call the recent expenditure pertaining to the aerial tourism of Rahul Gandhi amounting to Rs One Crore an ‘austerity measure’, we would also need to call the ‘statueization initattive’ of Mayawati as an extreme measure in austerity. But you cannot discount the enormous ‘job opportunities’ that this Mayawati escapede has resulted in; probably more than even the NREGA initiatives of the Ulta Pulta Alliance govt.

It is a matter of great mirth that this’ austerity’ is being touted as a virtue as if that need not have been followed so far by anybody and that the Congress peole have invented the same as a remedy for the economic downturn. ‘Austerity’ has always been the halmark of Indian ethos and civilizational values. Never has flamboyance and extravaganza been applauded in the Indian scenario right from earlier days of Chanakya to the days of Mahatma Gandhi. Erstwhile leaders like Kamaraj and Kakkan had used public transport even wneh they held office as the Chief Executives of the state of TN. In fact, when Kamaraj died, his entire bank balance amounted to Rs 32 ( Rupees Thirty Two only ). I don’t want to guess what would be the financial worth of the current chief minister and his other ministers as that would be beyond my capacity as I wouldn’t know how many ‘zeros’ to add after 32.

The timing of this ‘austerity’ is really suspicious. Let us look at some of the incidents that took place simultaneously when this ‘austerity’ dawned on the high and the mighty of this land.

• Rahul Gandhi paid an ‘economical’ visit to TN by spending just Rs One Crore.
• P.Chidambaram returned from the US after a ‘damp-squib’ trip – after complaining “Mummy Mummy, Pakistan is pinching me daily”
• China made few incursions into Arunachal, Ladakh and elsewhere after these soldiers painted some rocks in the Indian side ‘red’ and engraved ‘Yellow River’ ( a reference to China ) in Cantonese.
• Krishna and Sashi Tharoor stayed in a 5 star hotel
• Karananidhi was ‘wheel-chair ridden’, as usual, attending various valedictory functions and receiving awards in the name of Anna Durai, EVR and Ambedkar.
• Stalin paid a vist to London for ‘routine’ medical check-up
• Prices of essential commodities continued their upward spiral more in line with the trajectory of the PSLV rockets of recent times
• Elections in Maharashtra were scheduled and farmer suicides continued without any respite.
• Monsoon failed and therefore drought conditions prevailed all over.
• Pakistan affirmed for the nth time that India had not provided ‘evidence’ of 26/11 attacks.
• Azhagiri contined to hide from questions in the Parliament.
• Jayalalitha tried to recover from election work related fatigue by continuing to stay in the palatial guest house in the Nilgris ( elections have been over for for than 4 months)
• Full page advertisements that proclaimed the supposed ‘achievements’ of the current government continued in news papers. Full page ads cost a bomb, anyways. But the government is practising ‘austerity’ – you should believe this .

  Unable to draw any conclusion from the above, I tried to look the other way and landed up on the volumes of ‘literature’ available in the news papers about the contours and otherwise of the female actors from Bollywood and Kollywood.

  Then it dawned on me – austerity is being practised by B’wood and K’wood in terms of the dress and attire of female actors. Hence I have come to the conclusion that the film industry is the only one that sincerely follows what M.K.Gandhi preached and practised – austerity !

  What a heavenly revelation !!