Arshad Warsi……how beautiful SHE is…..

Yeah, you read it correct, how beautiful SHE is….

I was on the way to Chandigarh with high spirits. So very high spirit that the passenger next to me in the bus, changed not his seat, but the bus itself. No specific reason why I was high in spirit, but for general happiness, I guess…the bus spewed all the passengers in Chandigarh at around 7’o clock in the morning. Still disoriented to certain extent I took an auto to the guest room earmarked for me. Believe me, there were times when auto was easier than a cab….

I was working with an organization that was spread across the country and even overseas. I was positioned at a difficult area and the very word Chandigarh should have taken me to cloud eleven (why should nine have all the fun). But I was not…

I was to stay in Chandigarh for a month and undergo a training at Mohali.  

Reached the guest room, informed the concerned people and settled down. In my next room, heard some noises, strangely sounded similar to the noises from my room, like somebody else was settling there…just like me…

Here I must say about my proficiency in the language Hindi. During my school days, I had joined Hindi coaching classes, like everyone else. Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha conducts these eight exams from Prathamik to Praveen. You may undergo coaching classes if you want, then apply for the exams, attend, clear it and take certificate. It is used to be told that Praveen is equivalent to MA in Hinid. Only God knows if that’s true. But that was supposed to be a motivating factor.

The trend was generally you take six months to one year for first exam and thereafter you start clearing one exam every six month. I thought, let me also do it. The coaching was at the house of a teacher which was in the street next to ours. Also, couple of my friends were studying there. So I decided I will also join, have some fun time as well. I toiled the first year, and cleared Prathamik in First Class. Got motivated. Brimming with that motivation, continued to study for the second exam and was hoping to appear for the same in next six months.

Life is not so easy you see….My teacher said that I am not ready in six months. So succumbed to pressure of continuing for six more months and appeared in second exam and passed in Second Class. The story repeated for one more time and I appeared for third exam after a year. I passed the third exam also, but in Third Class. Now that’s something to ponder about. First exam in First class, Second in Second class and Third in Third class. By simple logic and knowing one’s graph, I realised that I will pass the Fourth exam in Fourth Class. Sudden revelation occurred….There is NO FOURTH CLASS….it is called as FAIL.

How can “I” fail…??? Can I let that happen….?? I decided….resolved myself.…bought forward all my courage….

Walked up to my parents, shared the simple logic I have mentioned above and they also agreed. So I stopped going to the Hindi Coaching Class.

The northern most part of India I had visited before starting my career was Tiruppathi. So when I went to Bhopal for the interview, training at a place even farther in North direction, the very aspect of going there was an adventure by itself. Somehow, I managed and started my career. Hindi in me was where ever it was, THIRD CLASS…..

In the job, I did something to my full conviction but people didn’t like it. They wanted me to be sent away for a break (their break, obviously)…So, here I am, settling myself in a guest room in Chandigarh.

The person next door was Alexander from Kerala. He was also in Chandigarh for the same training. In his job, he had done something good and people had sent him to enjoy. Felt strange….same place, same thing to be done, reason for one was happier and other was not so…

As obvious it would be, we both spent some time together to know each other. I realised I was the most adventurous type between both of us. The northern most part he had ever visited before picking up the job was Coimbatore, got interviewed at Bengaluru and trained at Chennai. And he dint have the opportunity of spending his evenings with some ‘good’ people in the pretext of Hindi classes. So, naturally I took charge of roaming around in the Ga Ga Garh….

One fine day we decided that we will go to a movie. Lage Raho Munna Bhai was the talk of the town. So we went to the nearest mall. So one Thambi and a Mallu went to watch a Hindi movie in Chandigarh. Believe me, we enjoyed the movie. Especially the heroine. She was the typical cute and beautiful looking women who was shown more beautiful by the cameraman. That too in the song ‘Pal Pal Pal Har Pal…’ she was amazing.

The good movie was nearing the end and we suddenly realised that both of us dint know the name of the Heroine. Not a national crime, but we both liked her it would be unjust not to know her name. Now how to find out the name..?? Alexander said we will ask the person next to us but I shooed him saying ‘what will they think of us…and more over why do you have to ask anyone….movie is about to end and finally the credit slides will roll over and we can know her name from there….’ The Mallu liked the idea of Thambi. Now I started praying that the credit slides should come.

Thank God, the credits for the cast rolled up…..was following it up very closely…Sanjay Dutt….Hero ka naam….heroine name heroine name….here comes after the hero’s name…eyes struck there…. Arshad Warsi… Wow what a beautiful name….befitting name….Thambi revealed to the Mallu that the Heroine’s name is ‘Arshad Warsi’…

For next few days, Thambi and Mallu were singing THE LINE, ‘PAL PAL PAL HAR PAL HAR PAL…..’ on repeat mode (for we could register only these many words) and discussing the Heroine, ‘Arshad Warsi……how beautiful she is…..’

CasteLESS Names

 Would you name all the Prime ministers of India…?? Let us not break our head in recalling all the names…let us do the obvious, Google it and see the list in Wikipedia…. The names are listed below (Acting Prime Ministers not included):-

1.    Jawaharlal Nehru

2.    Lal Bahadur Shastri

3.    Indira Gandhi

4.    Moraji Desai

5.    Charan Singh

6.    Indira Gandhi

7.    Rajiv Gandhi

8.    Vishwanath Pratap Singh

9.    Chandrasekar Singh

10.   PV Narasimha Rao

11.   Atal Bihari Vajpayee

12.   HD Deve Gowda

13.   Inder Kumar Gujral

14.   Atal Bihari Vajpayee

15.   Manmohan Singh

16.   Narendra Modi

            Would you kindly separate the given name from the Surname from the above list…?? Keep it aside.

Let us list the Chief Ministers of Tamilnadu…again, same cycle, list from Wikipedia…have taken the list from 1947 onwards (to be in sync with above list).

1.    Omanthur P Ramaswamy Reddiar

2.    PS Kumaraswamy Raja

3.    C Rajagopalachari

4.    K Kamaraj

5.    M Bhakthavatsalam

6.    CN Annadurai

7.    M Karunanidhi

8.    MG Ramachandran

9.    VN Janaki Ramachandran

10.    M Karunanidhi

11.    J Jayalalithaa

12.    M Karunanidhi

13.    J Jayalalithaa

14.    O Pannerselvam

15.    Edappadi K Palaniswami

16.    MK Stalin

Repeat the same….write down the surnames of the Chief Ministers of Tamilnadu…

Voila….noted the difference….??? Yes, maximum Chief Ministers of Tamilnadu did not have the so called Surnames. To name few celebrities hailing from Tamilnadu, Rajinikanth (Shivaji Rao Gaekwad is birth name but that is not what he is addressed in our part of the country, Kamal Hassan, AR Rahman, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (although a Delhi born, he is from Tamilnadu), Sir CV Raman, Nirmala Sitharaman, Anbumani Ramadoss, Kamala Harris, General PP Kumaramangalam, MS Subbulakshmi, Major Ramaswamy Parmeshwaran, Mariappan Thangavel, Viswanathan Anand, Sundar Pichai…..

Not only the Chief Ministers or the celebrities, check with any of your friends from the Tamilnadu, you will be surprised to know that they also do not have a surname.

Let us first understand a bit about SURNAME. Like any intellectuals do, search in Google and reach Wikipedia page on SURNAME. It is the portion of one’s name that indicates one’s family/tribe/community. Thus the surnames in rest of the country represents the caste they are born into. In other words, the SURNAME announces the caste very openly along with their names.

You may try to explain it lamely as ‘gaon ka naam’, ‘khaanthaan ka naam’, ‘TITLE’ (I find this particular explanation to be the most hilarious… “NO, NO…. THIS IS NOT CASTE, BUT TITLE”….duhhhh) etc… But don’t you agree to the fact that this word, which most of these people are carrying around like a badge of achievement denotes a group of people holding on to that identity, either by choice or default, for over a period of time to invoke a particular image associated to every SURNAME…..???

I can give numerous examples…just want to say this much to show the impact of these so called SURNAMES in our society, that one particular family changed the name of the person to whom their daughter got married to so as to embrace that particular SURNAME. With no rhyme or reason or logic or cultural example, even the subsequent women of that family is using the same SURNAME even after getting married to persons of different SURNAME. This is because the surname is the hottest currency in major portion of our country.

Not only those big names, even in other cities, towns and especially in villages, people stress upon telling their surnames first or rather, tell only their surnames. I have experienced the terror/impact/telling effect of certain surnames in numerous occasions. Why is this a point of observance now…???

On one side, everyone in the country says ‘let us abolish CASTES….everyone is same…we are equal and all stories…’ But are they really meaning it…??

Just imagine, a person walk into a hall full of people with an automatic weapon in hand and preach the gathering about non-violence…..??? Which will be more effective, his speech or the image he is representing there ….???

Exactly, you may shout at the peak of your voice for equality, against castes, against various atrocities, all the while being called to the stage to address the mass gathering along with your TITLE….. “Now our best speaker, KARTHIK CASTE1 will speak against the caste system in India……..” (For obvious reason, I have included my name as BEST SPEAKER and used the ‘CASTE1’ as name of a CASTE).

                                                       NOW YOU SEE THE POINT..???

Even the greatest human being of our country while being vocal about social injustice, denounced only the un-touchability and not the caste system itself. He himself carried his SURNAME with him always.

So how come one state seems to have escaped from this stigma….?? One word reply is DRAVIDIANISM.

No, pl don’t jump in to any conclusions….Am speaking about one of the greatest contribution of a social movement, which happens to be known widely as DRAVIDIANISM. It was not a single man/group/party people who did this social movement. It was not even in same time frame…it was the self-realizing thoughts put into actions by numerous people over a period of time. That’s why it’s a social movement. (Details are worth a separate blog….may be in future)

What is the single most contribution of this so called SOCIAL MOVEMENT…??? Just changing the names into something more fashionable…??? No…It is one strong and sure step towards reducing/removing the impact of caste to those at such places where it matters…..

Presently, we are aware of one party which is widely identified with Hinduism. Even the Gen Secretary/State Head/Leaders of that party in Tamilnadu don’t have these SURNAMES. Do you see the difference now…??? Realizing the impact…???

My Grandfather from father’s side had a SURNAME. My father did not have one. My Grandfather from mother’s side had a SURNAME. My mother never had one. Obviously I don’t have one. Even more obvious, my son doesn’t have it….. It is the result of the social movement, where in the people were made aware of the evils of the CASTE and stigmatized the words of caste. Has the CASTE system abolished in Tamilnadu…?? Not yet, but it is not rampant and not very obvious (Remember, BHARATMATRIMONY has community wise sites… ;P ).

But, this is a major step towards reducing/removing the impact of caste at the place where it is needed and for those whom it matters. Now, am saying, giving up the SURNAME is THE solution about the ills of castes…..No, but it’s a firm step in that direction.

Now people of Taminadu still know the caste of most other people whom they know. Otherwise also, with one’s name in Tamilnadu, a Tamilian can still guess certain aspects. But this trend of giving up the SURNAME has certainly reduced knowing/asking about the caste of any person whom you are meeting for the first time, for sure….

During my school days, once I have been asked in my own town by an elderly guy, “Neenga enna aalunga…??” (‘YOU ARE WHAT PEOPLE…??’). Basically that guy asked my name first and then asked this question…look at the smoothness of the question…without using the word CASTE, he asked me my caste…. Even around twenty years back the question was such a smoothie…..imagine now….nobody asks it for sure (there may be couple of villages/places where this might still be happening; also, am not ruling out the scenario wherein one doesn’t have to ask to know about the caste of a person, like in a remote/small village).

But don’t you think this is a sure way ahead…?? So what have the people of this one state replaced their SURNAME with….?? In Tamilnadu, everybody has a given name and approx. 97% will have their Father’s name as the second part of the name. This way of naming anybody is called as PATRONYMIC. Like my given name is Karthikeyan and second part of my name is my father’s name. Most of the times the first letter of father’s name is written as INITIALS instead of writing full name. Patronymic method doesn’t limit itself to Fathers’ alone, it may name of any male figure of the family.

Now, one may say, this male-chauvinism. I leave it that to you. (I mentioned approx. 97% use father’s name; this means people are using their wife’s name also as initials).

Mahakavi Bharathiyar (Subramania Bharati), almost all of Tamilnadu knows his caste, not by reading his name…. but by reading or knowing or watching his history. One more even more cherished Poet/writer of almost equally sweet language, whom the country will have to remember always, always wrote with his SURNAME. When I read that particular poet writing against the evils of the caste system, I get caught thinking the irony….

Try doing it….INDIA, try doing it…It is possible and it is for our good and future. CASTELESS names are possible…..CASTELESS SOCIETY is possible…

 

TV vs Projector

 

Earlier, we spoke about the comparison between Projector and a TV in an emotional point of view. Now, let us compare both of them objectively.

TV is a well-known piece of electronics, which we all are fairly used to. This generally creates an affinity towards TV and accordingly an averse feeling about the little known Projector. Actually, this is a strong factor. Most of the time, purchase of TV is an up-gradation from existing box which comes with some known features and a lot of unknown and unused features. While in case of projector, some of us may have experienced it in different ways but never would have thought of it with the perspective of buying one for yourself for personal usage. This natural affinity-aversion is a major blockade.

Let us take the TV first. The TV has the advantage of so called user-friendliness (which may not be the case fully in a SMART TV). Easy to install, connect, start and use. It has the speaker to fill your TV room/hall/living room. The clarity of the picture and the intensity in which the clarity is delivered is, I must say, is a feast.

The BIG TVs have an immense signature in the room and when combined with good speakers and a room set-up, it may give a “glimpse’ of theatre experience. The TV may allow you to watch the movie with your room light ON… Oh is that the theatre experience we are speaking of…??

I have listed top three glaring disadvantages of TV below:-

1.       The cost of TV. Cost of the TV for a display size above 40 inch ranges upwards of Rs. 38,000/-. That too old models, lesser known brands, conspicuously discreet HD Ready models lure around in this range. Any decent brand with desired results is upwards of Rs 50,000/- (I searched for SMART TV in Amazon.in with filters of four stars and Up, 40-47, 48-54 and above 55 inch)

2.       The impact of screen light on your eyes. It is a direct hit from the so-many LEDs packed and drinking so much of power to bring out the brightness to mightily impress you. While it does impress you, it does hurt you as well. You may be thinking that watching news broadcast, one match or a movie in the weekend will hurt. You right, but are you the only one affected…??

3.        Occupies considerable space. A 55 inch TV occupies 4 ft x 2.3 ft always. There is nothing you can do about it. Putting it on a stand…needs a TV console. Planning to mount in a wall…?? Mark the dimensions first to realise the size we are speaking about.

So what is my recommendation..??? Buy a Short-throw, non-3D, HD LED Projector.

Advantages of the Projector against a TV….

1.    Obviously, the image size. The size of the wall or the screen is the limit. 120 inch can be easily captured on the wall. Now, that’s a theatre experience. While the screen size of a projector is nowhere comparable to the theatre, considering the fact that you are not sitting farther than 2 meters from the screen at home against the minimum 25 meters in a theatre, yes it is a near theatre experience.

2.   The image is reflected image and hence the impact on your eyes is minimal. Consider you kid watching Peppa Pig for half an hour in TV and in Projector…?? No great science, obviously, the TV has bigger impact on the eyes.

3.     My second favorite reason after the screen size is the fact, that when not used, it is easily packed or tucked away above your head, with the roof or in one wall.

4.     You can easily shift to your garden or balcony area and have a night movie watching.

5.     The cost is very reasonable. With LED and Android OS, the cost of projectors from even reputable brands are very less. I searched for HDSMART Projector in Amazon.in, I could see a number of reliable products with 4 stars and above ratings in the price range of upwards of Rs 15,000.

So called draw backs in the projectors should also be known. I have listed them below.

1.    Decision to buy a projector should be based upon your house-layout, space available etc.

2.    You may initially find it cumbersome to connect HDMI cables. But an easy solution is to buy two set of HDMI cable, one longer enough to be connected always to the projector with it’s other end available near your DTH or Laptop. The second HDMI cable can be used when you are shifting the projector to a garden or something like that…

3.    Starting up a projector may not be appealing to all. Also, there exists a myth that a projector takes loooong time to be up and running….Latest TVs are taking comparable time to start.

How to or what to buy….??

While I may come up with guide for buying a projector in the future, I feel there are adequate guides already available in the net. Few terminologies have to be understood and your potential projector should have the numbers against these terminologies on the favorable side…That’s it.

Don’t worry much about the things like life of LED is 10,000 hrs only, the lumens is 3200 only, its only 720P, its not 3D enabled and all. Remember, BEST is the enemy of good. If you are looking for the BEST, you may end up looking for ever.

My personal view is buy a projector upwards of Rs 25,000 and enjoy the huge image. If you already have a TV which you were planning to replace, don’t sell it. Place it somewhere else and enjoy the feel. The projector do have in-built speakers, and is decent enough. However, you may like to connect an external speaker, through Bluetooth or 3.5 mm jack and enjoy a totally packed moment.

Few things that i recommend that the SMART projector should have are minimum Two USB ports (you can connect wireless mouse and keyboard), Three HDMI ports (you can connect Chrome cast or Fire Stick), Bluetooth, 3.5 mm jack, adjustable supports etc..,

Your kid may stare into the lens of the projector. You will have to encourage them to avoid the light and showing the ‘big’ picture. I was able to show the ‘bigger’ picture within a couple of times of my son staring into the lens.

So, enjoy….

BUY A TV OR PROJECTOR: AN EMOTIONAL INSIGHT

    As we progress in life, one of the common life-style up-gradation we all do is to buy a bigger, smarter TV. Is it really smart to buy such a TV or do we have any other option. Yes, one of the alternate that we are going to explore here is the option of buying a Projector. 

    Now, I presume that you already have a TV which may be functional or broken and with your progress in life, you have decided to upgrade it. Our attempt to explore the option of projector applies almost equally even if you are planning to buy your first TV. Major consideration that comes into play for up-gradation is the screen size. You have 28/32/40 inch screen sized TV and now you are planning to buy 55 inch or above. At this size, obviously you are looking at a SMART TV. 

    

    Before we proceed, please consider the following points deliberately and ponder upon yourself:- 

1. Where is your present TV placed..? Drawing room..?? Bedroom..?? Or a TV Room...?? 

2. What do you mean by SMART TV and what are the SMART features that you are looking for...?? 

3. What are the SMART features that the TV is bringing with it and would you use all of it...?? 

4. Do you already have a Fire Stick/Prime/Netflix/Zee/Hotstar subscription..?? If not, are you planning to buy...?? 

5. How much time do you watch, let us say, in a da...?? 

6. What do you watch…?? Movies, NEWS Broadcast, SOAP serials, etc..,. Obviously we are likely to watch everything at some point, what is that you are looking for the most…?? Movies or TV broadcast in general..?? 

7. How frequently you invite people to watch a movie/match etc.., with you at your place….?? 

8. Do you own any gaming console or planning to buy...?? 

9. Do you have TV watching kids at home...??

 

    Now let us get started...!! I have observed that at most of our houses, the TV forms part of the drawing room. Obviously, it is a personal choice, but reconsider this aspect....you are watching a movie and a neighbor or a friend of your sibling/mom/dad walks in... what happens to the movie…?? Also, imagine a 4 feet x 2.5 feet blank screen (physical size of a 55 inch TV) occupying your drawing room... ;P 

    While the latest SMART TV packs an endless list of smartness, you actually don’t use much of those stuff. Practically you need your TV to be WiFi enabled, Multiple Display & Sound modes, audio output (3.5mm & Bluetooth), multiple input options (minimum two HDMI in), connectivity to external device like mobiles/Laptops and capability to handle Apps. The TV manufacturers will give a list of so many SMART features which you may never even need. One of the feature that appears in almost all the lists of Top Must-have-features for SMART TV in the review websites is Music Streaming. Music Streaming by TV...??? Duhhhh.... 

Just imagine....you have a room set with a projector in one side, the opposite wall comes live and watching a movie with your friends on a 126 inch size image....Which is more fun, a Projector or TV...?? 

    Let us agree that most of us are past our prime to watch TV serials and NEWS Broadcasts in TV... We are mostly glued to TVs for Movies and Sports. The quantum of time that we actually watch TVs has reduced considerably because of the mobile phones... 

    Yeah, the clarity is important aspect that the TV will win over in argument between the TV and Projector, as the cost of Projector giving that much clarity will be at least five times. But for a moment, a take a breath and visualize watching 126 inch screen with lower clarity, connected to good speakers against watching the same in 55 inch with greater clarity…choice is yours.... 

    The projector doesn’t need space as it can be mounted in one unused corner/roof of the house and a plain wall can be used as screen. With the short-throw projectors with high lumens you don’t need big room or a dark room to see the movie. Obviously the image is a reflection and hence the impact on eyes considerably lower. Have a gaming console, try it with Projector...mind blowing. 

    Initial cost of the projectors that are available today are not very high as it used to be and the running cost is very low. Life, yes depends on the time you utilise it and out of my personal experience, wherein have been watching around two to three movies a week and frequent Kinect gaming for last seven years, I have not noticed any drop in performance. 

    When you called a couple a friends for movie over lunch, put it in any room, draw the curtains, connect your speakers for enhanced effects and enjoy. Have called friends for dinner..?? Shift the projector to garden or porch or backyard, connect your gaming console and have fun...or just watch that high volatage sports event you have been waiting for... or just a watch an horror movie lying on grass.... Your kid would love to watch huge sized Peppa Pig or Grizzy and The Lemmings and will keenly bring friends to show off the immersive gaming.... 

I have kept this post purposefully in an emotional point of view about utilizing a Projector instead of TV…Will do one more post bringing more head-on comparison between the both...