Harry Potter Part N^2(1-e^x)*2

The whole series is probably a discarded Vittalachariar script stretched to many thousand episodes. Some Rakshasan type war scenes borrowed from Ramayana and Lord of the Rings to make it look big budget. I don't think the story requires this kind of visual extravaganza. Really nothing ever happens in this story that is devoid of any great plot twists or turns.

Harry potter is a series that has genuinely surprised me in terms of its popularity. Normally, when I don't like a popular movie, I at least get why others like it. This one's popularity has just been hard to understand. To me, most movies in this series have been so boring that I have been unable to even pretend to like it. You know, just to be part of the trend. This series has really tested the boundary of something being childish vs childlike. The creativity in terms of plot development or variety in magic tricks seems very basic and the entertainment seems to be of the trivial kind.

Theory II (Padmanaba Swamy Temple)

Since we are in a mode where vivid imagination is encouraged and possibly even spun off as investigative journalism - let me have my try at it.

The popular theory is that Sunder Rajan committed sacrilege by opening vaults of God and the sarpa dosham killed him. My theory is more along the lines of CBI officer Lakshmi Narayanan (played by SPB) in the world famous movie Thiruda Thiruda. Where he tells all of Thirunelveli that 1000 Cores of money is hid in a Container Lorry somewhere in the Taluk. When "thirudan 100 mile thoorathila irundhale naadi thudikkum" Inspector Santhosam asks Lakshmi Narayanan why he had to disclose such a huge secret when the CBI could have searched for it in stealth. Lakshmi Narayanan's theory is "ooru rendu patta CBI kaaranukku kondattam" which means the 1000 crores will not be smuggled out of the village under the watchful eyes of thousands of villagers.

While you can theoretically claim people behave ethically regardless of their caste or religion - I will take the cynical view. Sunder Rajan, given his caste and background (IPS, Intelligence Buerau, Rajiv Gandhi), must have always known the volumes of treasure present in the vaults of the temple. He must have strong reason to believe that the treasure was being slowly smuggled out of the vaults into private coffers. I am not sure which private party was trying put the hand into this rather large cookie jar. Given that this is Kerala it could be politicians, mafia dons, Christian missionary organizations, Islamic organizations, or (just to be politically "Amar Akbar Antony" correct) even private temple trustees who are in the know. What Sunder Rajan did was to make sure the entire country became aware of the riches of the temple. And the spotlight shines brightly on it. Before this became public no one ever knew what the temple was worth. Given its dilapated state one would assume it was worthless. Since we never knew what we had. we would never miss it. Now that Sunder Rajan has made it public - no one can secretly smuggle away the riches.

He may have died because he opened the vault.If I were to write a story around this, it would have Sunder Rajan knowingly risking his life for the greater good.

Also, while the demand by small section of people that this money be used for development/charitable purposes is stand-alone stupid. Let us set that aside. Is it that hard to figure out that (a) majority of public are satisfied once the money goes to *a* charity and don't care what the charity does with it and (b) most charities are a front end for a "different" kind of organization ?

Theory

Twitter pays media outlets to mention "twitter" during sensational news events. Twitter usually does not provide much incremental value during such events. However, it seems like the company wants to carve a niche for itself when it comes to providing quick (predominantly useless) updates on major events. So once some marketing dollars have been spent on news corporations to mention "Twitter" every 5-10 minutes - a memo automatically goes out to the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt and they mention twitter as if 'twitter' was some knowledgeable person from the PMO office.

The Unasked Question

The average intelligence of Indian journalists is less than plant life. Almost comparable the intelligence level of those who drink liquor. So most of her stupid questions to somehow find fault or sensationalize the issue is not surprising. But I wonder if there is a memo sent to all media outlets with a parcel of money by Liquor mafia people like Vijay Mallya. A memo that instructs them to never point out the evils of drinking liquor.

Sangakkara

One of ICC's agenda in the 5 day Hong Kong conference has been to remove political interference in cricket boards. The immediate spotlight falls on Indian, Pakistan and Sri Lankan cricket boards as they are the ones who are run by politicians.

And then Sangakkara makes this passionate speech. I am sticking my neck out here :-) but I think ICC and Sangakkara have planned this speech well in advance to reinforce the narrative that politician-run cricket boards is bad for cricket. It is not purely Sangakkara's passion for good cricket that caused him to make this speech. It is a stage-managed well-directed pressure weapon applied on Sri Lankan board to fulfill an ICC agenda. And he confesses indirectly that the scheming for this speech and the back-room politicking to apply pressure on SL board start as far back as the world cup.

So we have a speech prepared and delivered using the time-honored tool of politics that criticizes politics and agenda driven approach in their cricket board. And people who are self-professed haters of politics in cricket board are supporting this speech. Not that anything wrong about any of this. But deserves pointing out.

Mottai

...composed this song for Mr. Azhagarsamy's Horse. And I cant say why I like this song but it has me floored. The singer sings it in such a joyful carefree fashion.



Maybe because it reminds me of this song