Bird Flu

As the dreaded H5N1 virus causing Bird Flu has re-entered India through West Bengal, things are going topsy-turvy in the wingled world of Chickens and birds. I am sure, they must be scared of any human coming towards them. Ask any chicken, how is it feeling, I am sure it will answer, "I am fine."


The hundreds of chickens in all our poultry farms wouldn't know what hit them. Why suddenly they are getting killed in hundreds of thousands. I guess there will be panic all over. I remember the wonderful animation film, "Chicken Run", where they try to escape the clutches of a woman and a man.

The newspapers say that the virus has spread to almost all the districts of West Bengal and has even started getting into couple of North Eastern states of India. Egg prices have dropped drastically. No country wants import of poultry products from India. Chicken meat is available at a cheap rate throughout the country, I am told.

But, what I am wondering is, what gives man the privilege to go around killing hundreds of thousands of chickens because the virus may infect some humans as well ? In the last decades, some 350 people have died due to this virus; but how many millions of birds have been killed by us ?


What will happen if we are affected by some virus which will spread by air / water, and affect other humans or animals ? Though TB and Leprosy also spread like this, most of us have immunity and get away from the bacteria causing these diseases. But, if one of these killer diseases become resistant and if an affected person coughs next to us and if that results in we getting infected and eventually die, what will be our reaction ? Will we go around culling all the infected people ?

But, everyone is not so heartless. In the Hindu, there was a moving picture of a woman crying for the birds in her house when she was asked to hand over them for culling.
The dominance of man over everything else is sickening, but such images give some hope that humanity may survive - though these birds didn't.

Taare Zamin Par

Yesterday, we watched one of the lovliest of films - Taare Zamin Par. A very novel theme - and, an extremely important and relevant one in today's world - and carefully done film.

As the tag line of the film says, the story conveys the wonderful message of 'Every Child is Special'. Terrific performance by everyone in the film and extremely natural. It is about the problem of this child with learning disability - But, as much it is about the insensitivity / selfishness of adults (parents); narrow considerations of the teachers and the general competitiveness in our society. From the animations in the title, it will look like it is for children. But, it is a must-see for parents and teachers, I would say.

Many people have written to blogs and magazines that they will start respecting their children a bit more after seeing the film. Great !

Tremendous hardwork has been put in by the film team, I read. When there are so many scenes with children and in the class room, not even one child was conscious of the camera in the entire film and you could not spot even one little one looking at the camera. Congrats to the film team.

And, what a song - the 'Thuje Patha Hai Mom !'. And, a breathtaking climax.

Thanks to Aamir Khan and the entire team.

Time is running out ...

As the process for electing the next President of USA has been kickstarted, I am acutely aware of the sad fact. We are running out of time. Good days are going to end shortly. Just 10 more months are left. Yes, Bush will be gone after November. What will we do ? For entertainment, I mean.

The current Bush presidency will be remembered, if not anything else, for the excellent jokes people have come up with to celebrate his intelligence ! He brought out the best out of satirists and humour clubs, like no other Head of State in the world had done before.

Here is one more of those lovely jokes :

Three Brazilian Soldiers

Donald Rumsfeld briefed the President this morning. He told Bush that Three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq.

To everyone's amazement, all of the color ran from Bush's face. Then, he collapsed onto his desk, head in hands, visibly shaken, almost whimpering.

Finally, he composed himself and asked Rumsfel, "Okay. Anyway, tell me. Just exactly how many is brazillion ?"

As the primaries are gaining momentum in US and the talk will be around the prospective next President after the Super Tuesday, Bush may not occupy our minds that much. I hope, he remains a 'legendary' figure and continues to tickle us for years to come.

Long live George W. Bush (Junior) !!

Help for Apologising

One of the most difficult things is to apologise, I am told. Given the importance of this issue, I am musing boldly this time - I mean, this post is given in big letters.

Unfortunately, none of us are used to do things which are 100% evil. If we do purely evil things, then it will be just easy to apologise. "I should not have killed. I killed. Sorry. I apologise" would have just summed up the feeling.


But, in our 'mistakes', evil feeling is adulterated with many other impure things like misunderstanding, perceptions, etc. And, I am sure, even when we say 'Sorry', it is normally dressed up with all sorts of excuses, justifications, explanations and what not !
So, it requires skill to apologise. In this modern era of multiple-choice questions and computer-scanning answer sheets, it will not do to be eloquent in our apologies. It is not enough if you just hang around with a long face like this dog below or go with a bunch of flowers like the rat above.


You need to give it in writing. It should be properly documented. Your response needs to be categorised, analysed and filed in the database for future reference.

So, how about some pre-printed format in which we can apologise to our near and dear ? Here is one such format - called Form A-001. Click on it to see a clear version in a new window.


Remember to fill - in all - three copies. The first grey one to go to aggrieved party (apologisee ?), the second pink copy is sent to a mutual friend (if one exists), the third yellow copy is filed for future reference (and to have a good laugh - "remember the time, when we had a small tiff ?!") with the apologisor.

Department of Communication will notify any changes in the form and if Form A-002 (or Form B-001) is released.

Cricket and Nationalism

While writing the last post, I did not realise that it is going to the flaming issue of the cricketing world ! What a coincidence !! After the Sydney cricket fiasco, everyone who is something to do with Cricket is talking about issues like Sporting spirit, nationalism vs sportsmanship, 'after all, it is just a game', 'win vs vengence' and what not !

Of all the other commentaries from around the world, I liked the one by Peter Roebock which ends wonderfully.

"It is possible to love one country but not its cricket team."

What I was writing in the last blog was exactly this issue.

Being 'Number One' or the 'Best in the world' etc. have their own effects on people. It is easy to say that we need to think from the other person's perspective, but very hard to do. More difficult is to acknowledge that we have made a mistake. More so, if we are successful.


How can Ricky Ponting say Sorry for his behaviour, after he has won ! And, the way they celebrated winning against India.

As Gandhi said (or would have said, I am sure), it is quite easy to hurt or harm someone. Saying sorry or to apologise is the difficult part. We need some support on this issue.

Wait for the next blog on this.

Taj Mahal, Cricket and Patriotism

Vennila has already started cheering for Indian cricket team, even though she does not anything about Cricket. The change happened after she seems to have watched the last over in which India won the 20-20 world championship.

From then onwards, she now has the habit of saying 'I pray that India wins this game'. Once or twice, I told her that whoever plays better will win and praying does not help. But, this leads me to think about the issue of patriotism vis-a-vis supporting your national team ! (In any case, this cricket team is not our national team - it is only the team chosen by the Board of Cricket Control in India, which is - we all learnt quite surprisingly - a private body and nothing to do with the Government). Watching Chak De! and Iqbal during the last couple of months also helped to confuse me a bit more...

In my view, Arts and Sports are cultural in nature and hence, patriotism should not get confused with 'supporting' or 'liking' an artist or a player. For example, most of us were big fans of West Indies Cricket in late 70s and through 80s - not because they were winning all the tournaments, but because of the way they played.


Though the current Australian cricket team is almost invincible, no one outside Australia is a fan of this team ! It is wonderful to read about the Tennis star Roger Federer - though we are very fond of the american Pete Sampras. In Hockey, despite of our India + Pakistan teams not doing very well, I am a fan of their style of playing and do not like the winning styles of the european or australian teams.

It is wonderful to watch in TV the gymnasticians of the east european countries or from China, or the swimmers from Australia. In Cricket, of course, I prefer the unpredictable genius of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies over the successful teams, including India.

So, Patriotism should not get confused with supporting or liking a sports team, I feel.

Similarly, sometime ago, we had a big news that Taj Mahal has been retained in the list of 7 wonders of the world.

There were huge SMS campaigns to vote in a poll, that was to decide the current 7 wonders of the world. And, finally, Taj Mahal was retained as the world wonder and all we Indians were supposed to rejoice at the result !

Those who voted for Taj, did not know which are the other wonders fighting for their place. Just because Taj is in India, should I automatically think that Taj is the best wonder of the world ? And, if I think, the buddhas of Bamyan, Afghanistan are more wonderful than Taj, am I being unpatriotic ?

In today's world of shrinking borders, it is going to be more and more difficult to balance nationalism or patriotism with Values or artistic preferences. When we didn't know about any other breakfast, we were fine thinking that Dosa and Idli are the best dishes in the world. But, not today.

If there is a SMS campaign to decide the 7 best breakfast of the world, should I vote for Idli - which figures in my list of preferences even below the American Corn Flakes ? Never.

Words to Live by ...

It may not be right for me to have resolutions only for myself. So, I 'volunteer' to help all of you make some useful resolutions for the new year.

Still, instead of giving the resolutions straightaway, I thought, it will be good just to give you some useful tips. Here are some important ones for leading a better Life !

• Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
• The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
• The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
• Never argue with an idiot. The people watching might not know the difference.

• Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
• Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you've just made it again.
• By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
• If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.
• Finally, if there is light at the end of the tunnel, it must be the next train coming towards you. Run !

Let these guiding principles, well..., guide you in 2008 ! All the best. (Of course, I omitted the 'Never seek advice from a fool' from this list ...

Happy New Year !!

New Year Resolution(s)

One more year came to an end. Quite an eventful one. Lot of exciting things, but some of them really tested me to the limit. Looking back, I think, we as a family have done quite okay. The bad things were, more or less, beyond my control. Things happening in Iraq, for example !!

Importantly, another fresh year is also born. So, let me wish everyone a very Happy New Year, peaceful, creative and joyful year.

It is also that time of the year when we all try to make New Year Resolutions. This year, I wanted to make a set of resolutions, starting from 'not to become too busy', but the list did not proceed because too many things were happening. So, it is better to aim for achievable things, I guess.

Though started with a bigger list, finally I pruned to the following :

• There will be clearly specified hours everyday when I will not sit in front of the computer. (Morning 8 to 9 for example. Not to mention 11 pm to 6 am in the night !)
• Restart reading Tamil short stories. (Downloaded the catalogue, but have to start ordering books.)

• Start a Tamil Blog (Already started. Chuvadippookkal. But, to make it live).
• Spend a bit more time with Vennila. (I have another few years - before she starts understanding things. I will have no chance, then, of impressing her with my tomfoolery !)
• Help Durga in household chores. (The trick is to make a mess of things, so that she feels it better to do it herself.)
• At least, to send one handwritten letter in a month to someone. (Victims will be chosen randomly).
  

I am mentioning these to the world publicly. So, catch me if I don't stick to these resolutions.

Happy New Year, once again ...