Transition of Thoughts

Weaving thoughts into words

Month: August 2010

A guest post by Yaamini Radhakrishnan for my blog: Movie Review – Inidhu Inidhu (Tamil version of Happy Days)

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On August 23, 2010

In Life and Times at VIT, Movie Reviews, Uncategorized


The Tamil remake of Happy Days, “Inidhu Inidhu” finally released on 20th August. Since not many of my friends know Tamil, I was in a huge dilemma on whom to watch the movie with. Finally to my luck, my childhood friend with whom I grew up in Tamil Nadu was in the city. So I watched this movie with this friend of mine. Watching this movie was a spontaneous decision. Both of us wanted to watch a Tamil movie and this seemed the perfect one .

The movie is set and extensively shot in the campus of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore. The choice of this college for the movie is simply superb as it has a wonderful campus. The movie begins with the introduction of the characters Sidhu, Tyson, Vimal, Shankar, Madhu, Jiya, Umar and Appu who are a bunch of freshers in a college. They get together and make a fine gang. Soon Sidhu and Madhu, Shankar and Sangeetha, Appu and Vimal fall in love in the second half of the movie. Meanwhile, Tyson ends up falling in love with a senior Shravanthi. The rest of the story of Inidhu Inidhu is how about they spend their four years of their education in the campus going through all the emotions of love, hate, jealousy everything.

The story goes with how these people with different backgrounds, join together and become friends. Their emotions and sentiments are wonderfully captured in the movie.

Inidhu Inidhu is a happy go lucky feel good movie that makes u laugh, enjoy and also brings you to tears. It is a culmination of comedy, college fun, family bonds, emotions, friendship, values, ego, jealousy, falling in love and heart breaks. There is not a single scene in the movie which u won’t connect to.

The movie doesn’t get too dramatic and is very simple and straight forward. The best part about this movie is that it is very close to reality as it shows the life of teenagers, their pressures in academics, troubles in friendship and also the values they learn in friendship and love.

Almost all college students will go through this phase of life. You will end up seeing yourself and associating yourself with at least one of the characters. The characters that really impress you in the movie are Siddhu (played by Adith), Madhu (played by Reshmi), and Tyson (played by Nararyan). They really stand out in the movie due to their realistic performances. There is a good feeling about the movie from the beginning till the end. You will just wish it never ends. This movie takes you back to your college days. It reminds you of all the fun happy and sad times you have had in college.

The music of Inidhu Inidhu composed by Micky.J.Meyer is simply superb and even outbeats his own composition in the original Happy Days. Few songs which were used in the original have been retained in Inidhu Inidhu and are sung by the singer Karthik himself, who sung the original. The songs Ammakale, Kalori Thayeh and Ennangal Vaannoki are new additions in this movie.

The movie begins with the song Ammakale which is a very peppy number and has a vibrant energetic feel to it. The song Inidhu Inidhu will definitely remind you of the person you love. The songs Kodi Kanavu Kanil and Kalori Thayeh remind you of the pleasant memories spent in college and are simply superb while the song Vazhkai Oru has a rock music start which is really different from the original “Oh my friend”. This song reminds you of the beautiful feelings of friendship and will definitely remind you of your best friend. Hats off to Micky.J.Meyer who has wonderfully modified his own composition of Happy Days.

All in all this is a movie one must watch atleast once. I can assure you that this is a movie that surely won’t disappoint you and it keeps you hooked on till the end. I thoroughly enjoyed myself through the movie. It is a different thing that this movie holds a very special place in my heart so I was badly waiting for this movie to release but I strongly recommend all college students to watch this movie at least once in the theatre irrespective of whether you understand the language or not . As one says language should not be a barrier. It’s all about how the movie connects to your heart.

An awesome treat to all college students who are still in college and also those who have passed out. Have fun guys!!!

My rating for this movie—4.5/5

Aid in the name of funding militancy? – Pakistan changes its colours by the second!!!

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On August 19, 2010

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized


The way our ‘beloved’ neighbour – Pakistan changes its colours, it would even surpass a chameleon. The reactions and statements coming out by ministers, terrorists and others alike in that country everyday show one fact – Pakistan is changing so much every second, that one has lost any idea of what is really happening. One day it blames India for attacks in Pakistan, Baluchistan and other unrest so that the world can target India and Pakistan can train its terrorists to strike and destabilize India while on the other day it says that the Taliban is their biggest threat.

The recent floods in Pakistan which have been probably the worst in their history have left millions dead, stranded, homeless and also led to massive damage to infrastructure, communications and the entire public system. Pakistan knows that its activities of supporting terror groups has literally made it a criminal in the eyes of the world. Even US which gives it billions every year despite knowing that the money goes to the so called war against India has been delaying the payments a bit in recent years. Therefore Pakistan was left wondering as to what to do.

Then they came up with the “most audacious solution” ever thought since 1947. “Say that terrorism inside Pakistan by Taliban and other terror groups is the number 1 enemy and not India”.

This link talks about that –

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-no-longer-Pak-ISI-s-enemy–number-1/Article1-588073.aspx

But sadly all of us know that this is another ploy in their vicious game to attract as much international aid as possible. And then in turn transfer this aid to terrorists to buy new equipment and artillery for their war against India.

These link shows where the aid money is really going –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Militant-groups-LeT-JeM-HuJI-set-up-relief-camps-in-Pak-for-flood-victims/articleshow/6330834.cms

Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and others have set up camps in Karachi to get aid for people who have suffered from these tragic floods. These groups have set up relief camps with different names to avoid police action (as if it happens). And interestingly they have the highest amount of aid even more than the government.

Yes, I agree that these groups may be helping people at one level to overcome the tragedy. But at another level, it just shows where all the aid is going – IN THE HANDS OF THE TERRORISTS! They want people to support them so that when they give a call for suicide bombers against the government, they are ready. And even despite this, US supports Pakistan because they don’t want problems to their forces in Afghanistan. This just goes to show that everyone is in the game for his / her own personal reasons.

So what do you think should India’s next response be? Turn a blind eye to this statement or regard it as something life changing?

Leh – A mystery or plain neglect?

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On August 14, 2010

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized


Leh was the capital of the kingdom of Ladakh but it has been converted to the Leh district now. With an area of 45,110 sq km, it is largest district in India after Kutch in Gujarat. Leh has been for long one of the most important trade routes as it has China to its east, Pakistan to its west and also Tibet to its west. Being at an altitude of 3,500m, its terrain is one of the most hilly and difficult to navigate among all the places across the country.

Being in Jammu and Kashmir, Leh has always had to face a lot of political, social and economic problems. Be it China’s claim over Aksai Chin and Pakistan’s claim over Kashmir, the central government’s neglect in terms of basic facilities like roads, education, health-care etc, the people of Leh have seen it all. They stand with their heads held high at hearing our national anthem everyday. But what they get in return – complete disregard from the government along with the entire population of the country.

The rivers, streams, snow, amazing landscapes and much more at Leh are those to watch out for. It is surely a tourist’s delight. But what about the basic facilities for the people? Does anyone care? The destruction caused by the recent cloudburst is mind numbing. You need to read this article by tarun vijay to know what exactly happened there. It will surely make you cry.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indus-calling/entry/walking-the-valley-of-death

There is no proper hospital there. There is no morgue to keep the dead bodies. One of the most famous schools there, the one showed in the movie 3 Idiots has been washed away, people have been rendered homeless – the whole area looks like a war ravaged zone. Did we need this to awake the people of our country and also those at the government?

Its a really sorry state of affairs that we talk about other nations attacking us, terrorist and Naxal threats, threats from Dawood Ibrahim and what not. But we cannot sadly provide basic facilities to parts of our country. The same is the case with the North East.

So how many more tragedies, catastrophes and disasters do we need to recognize the fact that even these places however far they are, are the parts of the country?

Do you think Leh / Ladakh is a case of mystery or plain neglect by the men at the center? Would love to hear your views!

Google’s social media plans have completely fallen flat! Haven’t they?

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On August 10, 2010

In My thots and scribbles, Social Media Roundup, Uncategorized


Google is the most innovative technology company of our times. It has led the way in new technologies on the World Wide Web from the day two entrepreneurs from Stanford University took it to the world. With applications like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Docs, Android, the Chrome browser, its search engine and more, it has shaped the way the world uses the World Wide Web. But today the world has gone more ‘social’ than ever and truth be told – Google is struggling to keep pace with the change.

Google Buzz, Google Wave, Orkut, Dodge Ball – Google has tried its hand at social media and social networking. But sadly it has not seen the kind of runaway success with which it has been associated in the field of technology. The reasons for this are many –

1. Despite the fact that Google has built various applications, it has mostly concentrated on search which is its USP. Like many others, it tried its hand in social media, but didn’t see the success it expected. Orkut is popular only in Brazil and India while Google Wave has closed down and Buzz has not seen much success either.

2. It probably was late in moving onto the social media scene as it initially played it down as a fad. But when a search was conducted as to how more people are spending greater time on Facebook than on Google, it got jittery and started taking drastic measures.

3. Orkut became really popular in Brazil and India. But sadly it hasn’t been able to be even half as popular around the world. And studies now indicate that Facebook is slowly but surely going to surpass Orkut. When Google realised this, it started added apps and also redesigned it. But again they were too late.

4. Google’s search is based on page rank. But today search has become social as more and more people are looking to their friends for views about different happenings.

5. One of the biggest things to worry for Google is the Bing – Facebook partnership which has resulted in Bing getting more and more search requests from the 500 million users while Google sits there and cribs over having missed such a huge population.

So what can Google do?

Google Me which is expected to be some sort of gaming social website can be its saviour. For this it had recently acquired ‘Slide – a gaming player’. But can Google fightback? You can write them out at our own peril!

Freshers party turned nightmare for Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies students!

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On August 3, 2010

In Life & Times at SIBM, My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized


At the outset, I would like to say that I didn’t know any of the people involved in this and neither do I support or I am against whatever happened on the night of 1st August in a farmhouse in Theur, 27km away from Pune. On Sunday, 1st August, 489 students of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Khadki, Pune were caught by the police for a suspected “Rave party”. Later they couldn’t find any evidence to call it a rave party and it turned out to be more of a random party like where alcohol worth thousands of rupees was found. I am of the view that a rave party is one where people are taking narcotic substances along with alcohol. But then our police and media call anything and everything a rave party these days.

My biggest question is to the police and the media. All you media guys, do you even freaking now that there are 35 colleges under the Symbiosis umbrella? Do you even care that what other students who would want to come to such institutes would think seeing such news? What the hell is Symbiosis Management Institute? In my knowledge there isn’t any college existing in that name ever. The students were from 1 of the 34 colleges. Who the hell gave you the right to blame the other 12? Don’t all of you – NDTV, Sahara Samay, Aaj Tak, Times of India, Asian Age and everyone know that there is a simple rule of confirming facts before publishing such news? But no! All you want is masala in your news items and more and more TRPs at the cost of people’s lives. All of you have just become money making machines and giving news to the people in the name of “We give people what they want”. HORRENDOUS!!!!!

And now to my next question. What is the problem if they were drinking? They were all MBA students. They surely must be above 22-23. So according to their age, they can drink or do what they want. No one is a kid here GUYS! No one is forced to drink or smoke or take drugs. Whatever they were doing, it would have been out of their free will. This doesn’t say that I am supporting them. But tell me, Which MBA college doesnt have freshers parties or for that matter such get togethers?

ITS JUST THAT WHEN MEDIA GETS SOME PIECE OF NEWS, THEY WANT TO JUMP ON IT TO INCREASE THEIR TRPs!!!!!

AND FOR ALL YOU DESPERATE VOYUERISTIC GUYS, WHO CAME TO MY BLOG BY TYPING SIBM PUNE FRESHERS PARTY ON SOME SEARCH ENGINE, THE PICS YOU SEE ARE OF OUR FRESHERS PARTY LAST YEAR!! I KNOW YOU ARE DESPERATE TO SEE NUDE FEMALES, KISSING OR SEX OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. BUT SORRY YOU WON’T GET THAT HERE!

All you media guys are just the same – SICK!!!!!

PS – I DONT DRINK OR SMOKE OR TAKE DRUGS BY THE WAY! SAYING THIS BECAUSE I AM SURE MANY OF YOU WOULD HAVE SURELY THOUGHT THAT!!!

Below are two articles of how Times of India (read TABLOID) called this first Symbiosis Management Institute on 2nd August and then finally called it Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies on 3rd!!!

350 detained for organising Friendship Day party – 2nd August

PUNE: About 350 students of city’s Symbiosis Institute were detained by police for organising a “friendship day” party at a farm house at Theur near here.

Some of the students, including boys and girls, had consumed alcohol at the party which was held at the farm house last night without “proper permission”, rural police said on Monday.

The detained students were being subjected to a medical test to determine alcohol level in blood under provisions of Bombay Prohibition Act, they added.

Dr Vidya Yeravadekar, director, Symbiosis Institute when contacted told PTI that the students had sought permission of the hostel authorities for a “late out” but had failed to return within the time limit prescribed by the institute authorities.

It was not a “rave” party at which narcotic drugs are consumed, police said.

According to Yeravadekar, the girls detained at the farm house, has been released by police.

The students involved are doing their MBA at the Symbiosis Management Institute.

An internal enquiry would be set up to probe the incident, Yeravadekar added.

489 management students held for Pune ‘rave’
 – 3rd August

PUNE: The police on Sunday night raided a party being held at a farmhouse at Theur, 27 km from Pune, and detained 489 students, most of them MBA students of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS).

Eighty-one students and seven others were later arrested for consuming liquor without permits and playing loud music. All of them were released on bail on Monday.

DSP Pravinsinh Pardeshi told TOI the students — aged between 22 and 28 — had organised a ‘‘freshers and friendship day’’ party at the farmhouse, ‘Sindhu’, located along the Pune-Solapur road, and owned by a Pune jeweller family. Pardeshi said the students arrived at the farmhouse in 10 buses around 8.30pm. Disturbed with loud music, residents called up cops around 11 pm. The residents were also angry with the parking of buses which led to traffic congestion.

When cops arrived there, the students told them that they had necessary permissions. Consequently, police approached the organisers, who said they did not have the required permissions. Police said there were 235 girls among the 489 students. They said 302 bottles of liquor and beer were recovered.

“However, nothing incriminating was recovered from students,’’ police inspector Balasaheb Mandge said. Principal director, Symbiosis Society, Vidya Yeravdekar, said the institute has taken a serious note of the incident. She admitted 350 students were from SIMS hostels. She said Symbiosis has appointed a four-member committee to probe the incident. The institute is located at Range Hills, Khadki. Seven doctors conducted a medical examination on the students. The police arrested 81 students and the seven organisers. All the girls were allowed to go, he said.

AND FOR THE INFORMATION OF THOSE WHO THINK THAT PEOPLE WHO DO ALL THIS DONT STUDY, I AM SORRY THAT YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN!!!

WAKE UP INDIA! KILL HYPOCRISY!!!!

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe – Do we even know about it?

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On August 2, 2010

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized


I am sure a lot of you would be surprised to see a post on such a topic by me since I mostly don’t go into the economic side of things. But I recently had a presentation to do on it in our Global and Indian Economy class and it really opened my eyes to many things I didn’t know and I am sure most of you wouldn’t know. To understand this post, you don’t need any technical knowledge or anything. So what actually happened in Zimbabwe to completely wreck the economy?

This is the history of the Zimbabwean Dollar –

In 1980 – 1 Rhodesian Dollar and 1 Zimbabwean Dollar (ZWD) were at par – 1 ZWD = 1.46 USD

In 2005 – 1 ZWD = 1/1,000,000th of British Pound

In 2006 – 1st Re denomination: 1 Revalued Dollar = 1000 Old Dollars (ISO renamed it as ZWN)

In 2007 – Third Dollar: 1 Revalued Dollar = 10bn Old Dollars (ZWR)

In 2009 – Fourth Dollar: 1 Revalued Dollar = 1 trillion Old Dollars (ZWL)


Re-denomination is the process whereby a country’s currency is re-calibrated due to significant inflation and currency devaluation. This shows that the Zimbabwean dollar was re-calibrated at least four times.

Hyperinflation is a type of inflation whereby the currency is continously losing its value and for three years continuously is above 50% and approaching 100%. There are certain things which can cause hyperinflation –

– Increasing amount of money supply due to excessive expenditure
– And thus since the money supply increases, the value of the currency starts falling down completely
– Inflation can also become hyperinflation when the taxes which need to be collected to fund the government expenses are not collected in time

One model of hyperinflation deals with increasing money supply which leads to very high confidence. The other model deals with loss of confidence as the expenses of the country become very high and thus leading to people selling the money rather than keeping it with them.

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe was caused due to –

– Increased supply of money because of excessive govt expenditure in the war in Congo, giving money to the war veterans in 1997, the controversial land reform procedure wherein the lands were taken from the whites and were supposed to be given to the blacks. But instead the dictator Robert Mugabe gave it to his party men who weren’t interested in agriculture and thus the crops were completely destroyed.

– The production costs increased due to drying up of foreign currency as many countries imposed sanctions and also IMF suspended its membership. The labour costs started rising excessively because of the labour unions

– There was a shortage of basic goods due to very high demand

– The inflationary expectations lead to increased inflation wherein people think that if they buy more goods the prices will rise or if the inflation for the previous 5 years has had a pattern, it would be the same for the next 5.

– The controlled market and production prices wherein the prices for selling goods had to be fixed keeping other factors constant destroyed the industrial sector. Organizations stopped production or moved to producing other kinds of goods.

– The exchange rate was set at a rate much below the market determined rate and this caused huge problems

All these problems finally showed such results!

In 2009, after a conciliation between Mugabe and the opposition party, finally the Zimbabwean Dollar has been removed effectively removing hyperinflation. Only the US Dollar runs in Zimbabwe today and due to this they made their first GDP growth of 3.5% in 10 yrs.

But there is still a long way to go for them if they want to reduce their 95% unemployment rate.

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