Hello World...

It’s been almost 6 years since I wrote anything in this blog. Not that I had a huge following when I was actively writing 😊 However, it is interesting to read those articles again and fascinating to see how my thought process has / has not changed in the intervening years. The world around has also changed dramatically. Blogging itself has dropped in popularity. Back in the 2000s, almost everyone I knew had a blog and wrote lengthy articles. Now, almost every single blog is lying dormant like mine. Blogging has now become restricted to serious writers and professionals who are looking to market their offerings or make money out of their blogs. 

Don't break the law... Don't sing 'Happy Birthday to you'

Did you know that you are commiting an 'offence' by singing the traditional 'Happy Birthday' song to your loved ones? I certainly didn't know this until our professor mentioned this while talking about coyrights and Intellectual property rights in class.  I dutifully surfed the net for details and here's what I found.

This tune of this song that is the most widely used and recognized across the world, comes from the song 'Good Morning to all' which was written and composed by American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. They were kindergarden teachers and composed this song for their students.

The song was copyrighted by the Summy company in 1935. The copywright was sold to Time Warner in 1990. Apparently, this copyright is valid till 2030. Currently Time Warner is charging USD 5000, every time this song is sung in public places, movies and performances. In 2008 alone, they have collected USD 2 million as royalties for using this song.

Source: The Absurdity of Copyright: "Happy Birthday to You"

So, the next time you are wishing your friend, you are voilating the law unless you pay royalty to Time Warner !!!

Ridiculous world of copyrights !!! - I'm thinking of getting a copyright for the word 'Hello'. So, everytime someone picks up the telephone and starts with this word, they have to pay royalty to me. I'm going to be a rich man !!!!

Sunday Blues

I've been struck by 'Sunday Blues' - yet again :(

It is that dull feeling that I get on most Sunday afternoons. It is not the sadness of the week ahead or the feeling of the passing weekend. It is just a feeling of boredom - not interested in doing anything that is physically tiring, not interested in studying, but not interested in staying at home either. I feel like going out and enjoying, but not so interested in traveling or doing any remotely tiring.

This happens almost every Sunday. Back home, I'll meet my friends in one of our houses, by around 5. We'll go to his terrace and keep talking something till 8 pm. Then we'll go out to eat somewhere - It could be the local 'Bhagya's' or 'Gangotri'. It could also be a short bike ride to 'Eden' or 'New Yorkers' :) Oh! Those good old days ... terrace cricket... carrom... besant nagar beach... one of the countless 'eat-outs'...

"Universe Conspiracy" theory

“When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
- The alchemist, Paulo Coelho

My friend, ‘Mr.M’ was quoting this to everyone. He was actually quoting it from a Shahrukh khan movie. I didn’t think it was originally from the movie. So I googled and found the source – Paulo Coelho from his famous ‘Alchemist’ (Alas, I’ve not yet read this very famous book which everyone else seems to have).

Obama...Osama ???

I was preparing a small write-up on great orators and as an obvious choice, I started writing about Obama. And there it was - the notorious squiggly red line of MS-WORD. This time, WORD had dutifully underlined Mr.Obama's name. I dutifully right-clicked on the word; Here is it's suggested correction:

I know that this blooper has been noted and talked about so many times in the world wide web. But I could not resist posting my 'discovery' here :)

Coffee with camel's milk

"Ottaga Paal-la tea podra; Ottaga paal-la tea podra-nu ethana vaati solliruken. Dubai-lalaam appadi than poduvaanga"

- popular lines from a Vadivelu comedy that sprang to our minds when we saw the bottles of camel's milk in a supermarket here in Dubai. :) Since coming to Dubai, we've been having coffee / tea only with cow's milk :( So, we decided to give camel's milk a try. Still skeptical of the taste, we decided to go for a small bottle.

We came back to our rooms and told our plan to a few people around and it spread across the entire place with many people curios about this. But no one really wanted to try it out. One of the guys from Rajasthan warned us that Camel's milk taste very bad. After lot of hesitations, we decided to try out. My friend made coffee using camels' milk. Our first victim was a girl who was brave enough to come and try this. I was having a camera and closely watching her first expressions after sipping the coffee. She first looked at the colour and texture of the drink; smelled it slowly; looked at us; and slowly proceeded to take the first sip. Then her facial expression changed - not happy; not distaste; but disappointment. My friend had used a lot of coffee and very less camel's milk that we couldn't really taste the milk. So, we decided to directly drink the milk. I decided to take the plunge and took a first sip from the bottle. For a moment, I didn't feel anything different. It didn't even taste like milk. Then it slowly came out - slightly sour, more salty and little thin. Final verdict - not bad.

But contrary to what Vadivelu said, they don't use only camel's milk to make tea/coffee in Dubai :) In fact it was very costly - Double the price of the usual cow's milk !!!

And here's the vadivelu video :)

UNCLE, Uncle, uncle...

"Uncle - Kitta poriya ? Uncle Chocolate tharuvaaru !!!" - sounded the voice of my colleague. She was pointing at me and talking to her baby girl. There was a small voice in my head, that echoed like that background voice in the popular hair dye ad , "UNCLE, Uncle uncle...". When did this transition happen - the shift from "Anna" (elder brother) to "Mama" (Uncle)? Ever since I was a child, I had always been an "Anna". Of course, the elder kids would call me by name. But to all the younger ones, I was introduced as "Anna". Over the past year (or even more), there has been a transition from "Anna" to "Mama".

I'll not forget this particular instance that occurred a few months back. We were having a company get-together and many of my colleagues had brought their families along. I was trying to play with one of my Colleague's Kids. I stretched my hands towards the kid and called out, "Anna-kitta variyaa?". My colleague was sitting nearby tending to his other kid. From that seated position, he just lifted his head, looked at me with a slightly amused-cum-mocking look and said "Anna-vaa?" :)

I realize that it's not only me. I've seen many other guys who are about the same age as me, react in a similar way. On a more serious note, of course, all of us accept that we're getting older. In fact, we rarely bother about it (We're not that old, yet). But on a lighter vein, hearing someone introduce us as an 'uncle' give a slight prick :) One of my friends has taken to signing his name as 'Youth' in his personal mails to friends :)

Nowadays, age (or 'youthfulness') is a regular way of teasing others. The younger guys in our group will call themselves 'kids' and tease the older ones as grandpas, while the older guys will pretend that the younger ones are not old 'enough' to understand certain things :). But as soon as a guy marries, this equation will automatically change. He will then become the 'Big uncle' or the 'Grandpa' of the group, even if he is much younger than the rest of us.

We are going through a transitional period of our lives - We're getting older and moving out of the college (or fresh out of college) mentality; settling down in our respective careers; seeing so many fresh baby faces around in our workplace (against whom we seem older); hairlines receding (this is a very important one); and slowly each one is entering into marital relationships. I guess, all these are making us want to hold on to the image of "youth", a little longer.

I would like to revisit this post when I make the next transition - from being an 'Uncle' to a 'Thatha' / 'Grandpa'. I wonder how it'll be then :)

Life after IPL :)

A nice cartoon in the 'The Hindu' capturing the imapct of IPL on our people :) It has been like a huge festival for the past 1.5 months. The entire nation re-adjusted its daily schedule to suit the IPL and now it's going to be difficult to go back to the "old" ways.

I think its going to be difficult for the players too. Especially in cases where players from different countries would again have to return to the national teams and play against those who played with them in IPL.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060399991000.htm