Vijay Narayanan on October 31st, 2007

DesiPundit is looking for a new tagline, and is inviting suggestions. The folks are offering $50 for the one they will use. Cool money, and definitely worth a shot. The suggestions are already pouring in, and I can already see some winners there. You can add your idea as a comment to the linked post. [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 31st, 2007

Yesterday, Drexel played host to the first Democratic debate in Philadelphia in over 30 years. Which is a feat because Drexel is not the biggest, not even the second biggest, of the major universities in the city. UPenn, Temple and Villanova would have felt outwitted, outsmarted. But let’s not focus on that too much.
The debate [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 31st, 2007

Adrianne Yamaki, a 32-year-old management consultant in New York, travels constantly and logs 80-hour work weeks. To eke out more minutes for herself, she routinely farms out the administrative chores of her life – making travel arrangements, hair appointments, restaurant reservations and buying show tickets – to a personal-assistant service, in India.
The Bangalore butler is [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 30th, 2007

In this interesting article on Forbes.com is a compilation of America’s top 20 sedentary cities. Before reading the article, I had assumed that by sedentary, the article would mean a laid-back attitude. Rather, the data points are percentage of population that is overweight or obese, number of hours spent in front of the idiot box [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 28th, 2007

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Vijay Narayanan on October 22nd, 2007

The highly anticipated soundtrack of Azhagiya Thamizhmagan (ATM) was released today. Any Vijay movie raises expectations, but this is a double whammy because it is AR Rahman who is the music director. Of course, Shriya and Namitha are also around, so that’s another double whammy.
Here are my reactions after a couple of rounds of listening [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 19th, 2007

Warning: This sounds like a sermon.
I read a blog post today which said, “It is better to be happy than to be right.” Isn’t that unwise and dangerous both? It is the kind of belief that makes the world a lot worse than it should be. The kind that makes (wo)men crave for temporal, material [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 17th, 2007

… the latest debate is about a law that will enable schools to give birth control pills to 6th graders. What the hell! They are not even in their teens! To comment about it from a moral standpoint would be foolish, because the issue is beyond all that. But will not such a law encourage [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 16th, 2007

I have officially lost my nerd status… for thinking hitherto that Tabula Rasa had something to do with cooking for a lot of people during a Hindu marriage.

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Vijay Narayanan on October 13th, 2007

Please can someone explain this line?
viNmeengal kan paarkka suriyanum thOnRumO! pugazh maindhan thOnRinAnE
It appears in the song “anbenRa mazhaiyile” from the movie Minsara Kanavu. What fantastic wordplay!
The song is in praise of Christ, as sung by a group of nuns. Does the line mean that Christ’s advent was like the radiance of sunrise against the [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 12th, 2007

A week or so ago, I received the editorial of the Thuglak magazine from a friend as an email forward. In it, the magazine lambasts the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, for his (mis-)handling of and his attitudes concerning the Sethusamudram project.
Titled “Arrogance, is your name Kalaignar?“, this was a fantastic piece [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on October 4th, 2007

Do you have anything to say to someone who is very seriously considering uninstalling Windows Vista, possibly the worst ever operating system, and switching to Windows XP? Like a few words to wean me away from doing this…

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Vijay Narayanan on October 4th, 2007

If current trends continue into November 2008, the Clintons will re-enter the White House as President and “first laddie”. The Economist presents a detailed analysis of Mrs. Clinton’s political machine, her chances and what another round of Clinton-ization means to America. A good read.

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Vijay Narayanan on October 2nd, 2007

This has to be the funniest. Nothing comes close.

Gabtun turns techie in “Arasangam”
I’m wondering what the “death by numbers” dialogue will sound like… “pona varusam, Indhiya-vula moththam viththa laptop ettu lachathi ezhaayiram, adhula Dellu moonu lachathi pathaayiram, Hewlett Bacardi rendu lachathi naalayirathu muppathi ettu…”
(Thanks, Eshwar, for the link. You made my day!)

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