Our home’s first basic necessity – TV has conked out. It was just 4 years since we bought this one. It is a Toshiba 21″ CTV – a very ordinary telly that very much catered to our needs. We bought this one just before 2006 Football world cup and we chose Toshiba over another unknown brand that had similar features and cost 30 quid less, naively thinking that a known brand translates to better quality and would last longer. How gullible we had been?

Anyway, there is no point in crying over spilt milk and broken TVs. We have to go for a new one any way and we have decided to go for a HD TV. Researching on which is better – LCD or Plasma. Any inputs will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance people.

Way back in 2004, couple of months before Athens Olympics was due to begin, there were concerns that several infrastructure projects were way behind the schedule. There were even speculations that if things were not ready at a certain state by a certain date, International Olympic Committee might even push back the games after levying heavy penalty to Greece. The fact that Greece was plagued with numerous labour strikes didn’t help the matters either. However, things somehow fell in place and Athens 2004 was pretty much successful by any standards.

Fast forward to 2010, we all know the state in which New Delhi is w.r.t. Commonwealth Games 2010. With less than two months to go for the Games, CWG 2010 is in the news for all wrong reasons one could imagine. From toilet rolls to treadmill, everything has cost the tax payer a fortune and the blame game is happily on. Sooner or later, these allegations of corruption and mismanagement will soon be forgotten, just like how we have forgotten 2G Spectrum and numerous other controversies. Given some luck, I am sure that the organisers will also find a way to get the stadiums and other venues ready, as there are reports that ‘work around’ is being done to get the venues in shape. No prizes for guessing if these workarounds will stand after the Games and if the venues will be usable at all.

If all you get to see and hear is about the rubbish that comes out of CWG 2010, I was more than curious about the state of affairs in my adopted country for the forthcoming Olympics. With less than two years to go for the Olympics, it looks like London is far ahead in terms of getting the venues ready. All the venues are ready and will be available for trial runs twelve months before the Games. What I am really worried about is how good the Olympics opening ceremony will be, as the Chinese have set the bar so high in Beijing 2008. However, after watching the happenings in CWG at Delhi, what matters most is not the opening ceremony – but a fair and clean Olympics and am confident that London as a host city will do a good job on that front.

* Today, I start my sixth year with GE for I joined the company on this day in 2005.

* I had so many stories to blog about in the last one month, but each of them had at least one element that stopped me from discussing anything in public.

* Watched Kalavaani and Madharasapattinam. Both of them could be watched at least once. Could smell the greenishness of Thanjavur district, in Kalavaani taking me back to the days we lived there.

* Facebook is beginning to excite me these days. Catching up with so many people from previous life. Well, almost.

* Anirud’s summer holidays has just begun and we are wondering how to maintain our sanity for the next six weeks.

* We are seeing a slight increase in the trickle of NRIs in our circle who are relocating to India.

King Roger of Wimbledon has been dethroned. After the five-setter with Falla on Day 1, and another hiccup in second round in Court no. 1, we all could see that coming. But just when Fedex was getting in to his good, old habit of three set walkovers, this was a jolt. Never before since 2002, the King has quit the Championships this early. I should kick myself for thinking that except for Nadal vs Soderling match, everything will be an one-sided affair. Something in me says that it is going to be Murray’s year, in which case I promise not to go anywhere near the sports pages in the newspapers for the next few months.

This is a nice tweet about the match: Perhaps fitting that Tomas Berdych, whose father was a train engineer, has knocked out the Fed Express.

When I read the reviews on this movie yesterday that said ‘unforgivably boring’, it was unbelievable. How could a director like Maniratnam dish out a movie like that, although I made a similar comment for his ‘Uyire’. Despite the fact that every child brought up in India knows the storyline, we went to watch the movie (the Tamil version) at Cineworld, Feltham. Story is not a big deal, it is the screen play and the treatment that counts. Isn’t it? After all, don’t we believe Maniratnam is different from Ramanand Sagar.

One issue with Maniratnam is his past performance. He has set the bar so high for himself that one starts expecting so much in three hours, comparable to fans expecting Sachin to hit a century everytime he walks in to bat. One must commend the manner in which the film opened. No filmy introduction of hero, heroine or villain. Mani came straight to the point. Locales were great. Kudos to whoever chose them and full marks to Santosh Sivan for handling the camera. Scintillating scenes all through the movie, as his camera traverses through the mountains and jungles, most of the time in rain.

For some reason, may be because we know the story line – the film was not gripping. Especially the first half, where we always seem to know what is going to happen next. Who doesn’t know that Aishwarya is going to survive when she jumps off the cliff? In my opinion, that is biggest setback for the film. The thing that was sadly missed is a riveting screenplay like that of Roja’s (again, a known story treated with brilliant screenplay).

Vikram’s characterisation was just okay. Did Mani want to differentiate his hero by making him utter rubbish like ‘dan dan dannn…’ and ‘Bak bak bak..’? That was simply annoying. Aishwarya looked good and a lot better than any of her other Tamil movies of the past. In my opinion, she acted too. What to say of Prithiviraj? Apart from looking like Aishwarya’s younger brother, he was totally clueless about his role in the movie. Shouldn’t one show some emotion when his wife is kidnapped? A total misfit. Perhaps Surya, or may be even Arya or Vishal would have done a better job.

How about the Oscar winner? Good, if not great. Perhaps, Maniratnam is missing the services of writer Sujatha. He could have turned to pros like Balakumaran or Jeyamohan, rather than letting his better half handle that responsibility. That was another big let down. Comparitively, the second half was a lot better than the first and the manner in which the film ended was also nice.

Overall, the movie was worth watching once for its visuals. If you watch it as one another Tamil movie, it is a lot better than so many masala stuff that come out every other month. But if you go expecting one another stellar performance from Maniratnam, you’ll be disappointed. Watchable once, certainly not ‘unforgivably boring’. Forgivable, for it is Mani who taught us to expect class in Tamil movies.

Watching Tony Hayward, the beleaguered BP Chief testify before the US Congress on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it was clear how annoyed the Americans are when their lives were shattered due to the spill. Borrowing our new boy David Cameron’s words, I can ‘understand the frustration of Americans’, but at the same time, don’t you think that they were over-reacting. If they feel so much pain and sorrow at the loss of eleven lives and the huge damage to the environment, how could they not feel any remorse when more than 20,000 people perished in Bhopal and the environment was contaminated in equal measure?

Well, I started this post with the intention of writing more. But, more I think about this, more annoyed I get. Let me end here and I promise that this will be my last post on Bhopal.

As mentioned in my previous post, I volunteered as a ‘marshal’ for the annual carnival held in our town. As part of the carnival, there was a procession across the town that included floats decorated by various schools. Each of the marshals were assigned a road and at the appointed hour, we have to put up a barrier with ‘Road Closed’ sign and be around until the last float passes that point, after which the barriers and the signs should be removed. Not a big deal at all.

For Health & Safety reasons, we were given the high visibility vests. As I walked on the street wearing one such vest, an elderly gentleman approached me and asked, ‘Excuse me, Officer! Can you tell me if the buses will be plying today in view of the procession?’. I turned around to ensure that he was addressing me and indeed, it was me he was talking to. Perhaps, he took me for a police officer, who were also present in the vicinity sporting high visibility fluorescent coloured vests. Needlessly, I got reminded of the comedy sequence in the movie ‘Indian’, where Goundamani would sarcastically wish Senthil ‘Good Morning Officer’. Even while I was answering that gentleman, I couldn’t control my laughter and was really hoping that the guy will move away soon. He did, but not without a parting shot – ‘Thank you very much Officer. You are very kind’.