Friday, April 28, 2006

Trouble in Dubai - ill treatment of migrant Indian workers in Dubai and other countries in the Gulf

There's trouble brewing among construction workers in Dubai. All that glamour and eye popping grandeur is just a mask to conceal the real thing going on. This headline appeared in the Midday website about disgruntled construction workers working in Dubai's many high rise building projects beating up supervisors and vandalizing equipment. A similar story came in the March edition of the Outlook magazine.

Working on dirt cheap wages, treated inhumanely and living in appalling housing conditions, these migrant workers, mainly from Southern India and other countries of the Indian sub continent slave all day in the blazing sun on huge construction projects. What has been projected of Dubai over the past 10 years is just the icing over the cake. Not much has been documented about working conditions and the lives of migrant workers in the princely state.

The Gulf has a reputation of treating citizens from Indian, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladsesh badly. I had a first had encounter when i was growing up in Kuwait. I would go with my uncle to this place called Murghab and see countless Indians with desperation writ large on their faces trying to eke a living at the hands of their stinking rich Arab bosses and send the money back home, even still get to be with their family.

Now that the Indian economy is booming, this attitude among the Gulf Arabs has to change. Pity it has not. India has enough arsenal to reduce these countries to dust. Why is that we Indians always go abroad to lick another person's feet when we can live like kings in our own country? We give American clients the red carpet treatment whenever they come to India, trying all that we can to mask the poverty and dirt around them. When Indian employees go there for off-site visits, we are ignored. When will all of this come to an end? Only after we drop a nuke on some one?

What is the Indian government doing to minimise all this? We should throw our weight around just like the Americans do, arm twisitng the threatening them so they treat our citizens with respect and not like dirt. Uncle Sam sees red whenever the hair on an American's body is singed.

Indian migrants in the Gulf pump in an estimated 10 to 15 billion dollars (might not be the correct figure, correct me if i am wrong) and we offer nothing in return except for shocking silence and red tapism. The majority of this money comes from Mallus in the Gulf. I have met some of them when i was in Kuwait and they have come a long way since they went there during the pre-oil boom days. We should give them something back.

Folks out there, what do you think?

Monday, April 24, 2006

Painting grafitti on the Air Force One

This article on the Daily Tech website is about how some pranksters painted grafitti on a plane and made it look like they had done it on Air Force One, the official carrier of the Prez of the US. The folks who did this surely have a lot of balls. Wonder when that will happen in India.

Reading patterns of web users

Jakob Nielsen has an interesting article on how people read content on websites. You can access the article here.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Morphed images of Kerala politicians

Some dude has taken a bunch of Hollywood film posters and morphed them with images of Kerala's bumbling politicians reflecting the mood of the 2006 Assembley elections. Really funny. Check it out.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

India shining - suicidal driving



Go India Go!

Review of the Tamil movie Thirupathi

This is a funny forward i got from one of my friends. I am attaching it for your viewing pleasure.

Will somebody please stop making crappy Tamil films??

Thirupathi-Return of the king

Ennatha solla...Padam supero super.One of the all-time best in its genre.Perarasu has once again proved that hes a name to be reckoned with in the future of Tamil Cinema .An awesome masala with racy screenplay,interesting plot and cheeky songs(the lyrics are also a biiiiig plus here .'Udal mannkku,Uyir tamizhukkunu` ezhuthurathu evlo easy....But 'kiya miya kiya miya kiya miya rey,kozhi kunji kayil.... 'jus master pieces)..Ajith has also proved that he cant be written off.In every field from dialogue delivery to kutthu dances to electrifying stunts or heartening comedies he makes a lasting mark Hatsoff to Ajith for providing such top quality entertainment .Sada is drop dead gorgeous and words arent suffice enough to exploit in text, her glamour quotient
Right from frame 1 to frame n ,not even a single dull moment or anything that may cause u to lose even the slightest of ur interest.The plot is remarkable, the screenplay is quicker than lightning, cinematography without any flaws and an elegant music score which reverberates faster than the screenplay. Truly breath-taking. All I can say is that the masala-kingpin is taking commercial cinema to hitherto unexplored dimensions.
Needless to say. The film will mark the comeback of the King in exile-Thala Ajith Kumar.I hereby declare that I am a full fledged Thala fan (I am going to join the rasigar mandram soon). He’s 1 man fit to replace the present ruler . Enna charisma,enna screen presence,enna agility,enna flexiblity,enna dialogue delivery.vera yaaraalayum kitta nerunga kooda chanceaa illa Ready to bet on the pillar on whom the whole future of the tinsel town Kodambakkam lies
Verdict:Mega Block-Buster,200+ days
PS: Oh god,forgive this sinner.Neither one nor two,ive lied to the horizon of hypocricy and blindness---> 20 sentences of pure filthy fraudulence.Lies,truly lies.Concience prickling lies.So much of them that the above can be used as a hand-book for liars


Ini Unmai

_____________________________________________________

Thirupathi-Cliched and typically Perarasu

Story: appidina

Another instance squeezed through the usual Perarasus sentiment-commercial prototype.If it was a better 'Naan Sigappu Manidhan' in Thirupaachi here its a weak unsuccessful combination of Annamalai(traitor friend) and Padikkaathavan(Pleasure loving brother concept).
The first half is such a mess that harldy a few will bear the courage to risk enduring the second half.

First Half
-Hero Introduction Fight+Song
-Mokkai comedy tracks( none of them fail to give even a meanest jerk in the abdominal area)
-Riyaz Kahn-Heros best pal
-Director introduction(Oh my gosh...Watch the film jus for this.The whole theater erupted with waves of laughter.)
-Romance(a lot of filthy disgusting dialogues here)
-So called comedy tracks( which exploit the concept of a woman coming to age in the most disgusting manner)
-Dappankuthu duets with awful choreography
-Heroes sis introduction(back to her parents place for delivering her first born)
-Hero assisting his friend in some fishy missions
-Heros sister killed while delivering(due to delay caused by the doctor in his greed for makin more money.The doctor turns out to be the brother of Riyaz Kahn)
-Riyaz kahn comes between Ajith and the the doctor turning into a traitor :sleep:
-Ajith whips his friend,challenges him :yawn,mummy coffee..oh sorry idhu theateraa )

'INI YERUMUGAM'

Second Half

-Illogical twists(1 scenela logic irundha veedu thedi vandu enna seruppu kizhatti adinga) and action sequences narrating how he accomplishes his mission
-Hero understands that the whole society needs to be reformed and hence works tirelessly,reforming the society Perarasu is eligible for the next CM post
-Emergency law made ordering free treatment for 'Baby-Delivery'
(aiyyo kaadhu kekkalayey.Aiyoo thala vedikkithey,aah aammaaa)

Screenplay:

Disappointing.Lacks the magic in his earlier films.Though the story is better than his previous scripts,the screenplay is poor and he fails to make the plot gripping and convincing.

Dialogues:

Disgusting Some examples of his gutter dialogues
"Un pondatti enakku ava udamba kaatuvaalaa da.Aana etthana peru pondattinga unkitta thoranthu kaatraanga.En na doctorsa avanga manushanaa paakala,dheyvamaa paakuraanga"

Songs:(risk ur eardrums)
'Thirupathi vandhaa' is a typical Perarasu number which fits in perfectly.Other numbers are totally irritating and completely out of track marring the pace of Thriupathi

Action:

Had Newton stayed alive u can bet him to file a case on 'Thalapathi Dinesh'.Hes violated all of his laws.Hero flying in circles sending opponents 15 feet away in a direction opposite to the direction he hits them and much more of such circus clown-work.


Performance of the lead crew:
-Ajith as Thirupathi:Disappointing. Thirupathi is not Ajith material he fails miserably in almost all departments.Dialogue delivery is the most elementary attribute for a mass hero and thats the region Ajith is pathetic Lacking the ability to dwelve with fiery dialogue in a subtle and charismatic way he resolves to shouting to the upper limits of his throats endurance which not only hampers his vocals but also the eardrums of the poor lot unlucky enough to witness the movie in theaters.
-Sada as Priya:Passable
-Riyaz Kahn as Soori-Fits in perfectly
-Karthik(singer) as Sathish(Ajiths bro):A perfect find.
-Perarasu as an auto-driver: The director can try doing a comedian.NS Krishnan paathirukken,Nagesh paathirukken,Vadivelu paathirukken,Vivek paathirukken aana ivarai pol oru comediana naan paarthathey illai
-Livingstone,Pyramid Natarajan etc play their part well.
-Arun Pandiyan as AC of police:Sux in all departments

Pluses:
-Ajith(for his fans)
-Sada
-Story
-Cinematography
-Back Ground music

Minuses
-Ajith(for others)
-Perarasu
-Superman Stunts
-Dialogues
-Songs
-Comedy
-Sentiments
etc etc

Watch it if
1) Some1s bein messing with u and u wanna do off with them.Highly efficient way of mass killing.If by any luck they get out of the theaters stringing to the last of their precious lives,run for ur life.
2) U r a Vijay fan and wanna solid reason to stay as 1 forever.
3) U have an unusual flair for comedy and with the ability to extract them in the most unlikely situations.
4) U r an insomniac
5) No circus is put on show in ur town
6) Having problems with you gf and wanna settle with a permanent break(expect an immediate divorce if u watch with ur wife)

Monday, April 10, 2006

BarCamp Chennai - My Observations

The two day session of BarCamp Chennai came to an end on the 9th of April. It was a nice experience overall.

The event was held at the Ramanujam Centre for Advanced Computing, Anna University and was spread over two days, the 8th and 9th. The location of the venue is really nice. The place is surrounded by lots of trees and is so calm away from the noise and pollution of the city.

The event started about an hour late with the participants trickling in. There was a lot of enthusiam around and the mood was infectious. Kiruba and the other organisers were busy trying to get things in order before the start of the event.

Day 1.

Day began with a small introduction by Kiruba, one of India's best bloggers . He started by welcoming the folks and gave a small talk on the ground rules of the event and some anecdotes on the travails of organising the event. He intoduced Amit, one of the people behind BarCamp Delhi. Amit gave an insight into the history behind BarCamp and how the name came into being. Some of the participants came from Agra, Delhi and Bangalore.

Then came the presentations. There were some interesting presentations by Balaji, Arjun Ram (Taaza.com), Vinu ( mytoday.com), Ganesh of rupya.com, Vijay Anand and other folks. The one that interested me was a talk by Amit Aggarwal, perhaps India's only professional blogger who makes money through his blog. He gave a presentation on how you can make money using Google Adsense and other advertising services on your blog.

Day 1 ended with an informal gathering at a beach resort on the East Coast Road, booze included. Yipee!!

Day 2 beagan with live conferences by Sujatha and Sriram of podbazaar.com, from California on the nuances of podcasting. There were presentations by Ashwin and Moyideen, Prathul Prabhakar and a hot of others.

BarCamp was a good learning experience. There were some sore points though:

1. Wireless connectivity was not upto the mark.
2. There should have been a moderator panel for the presentations

It was the spirit of BarCamp taht mattered in the end. There were no charges for entry and people came to talk about technology, do some social networking and have fun.

See you next time folks.

Checkout some of the photos from the event at www.kiruba.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/barcampchennai/