Some common Tamil words with two meanings

கலை - art; scatter  

காலை - morning ; leg (accusative case)

மாலை - evening ; garland ; Lord Vishnu (accusative case )

ஆடு - goat ; dance

நாடு - country ; seek

நடு - central ; plant (verb )

அன்னம் - swan ; food

மெய் - truth ; body

தாள் - paper ; foot

சித்திரை - star ; month

நூல் - thread ; book 

படு - endure /undergo ; lie down

படி - read ; step

பாய் - leap ; mat

மடி - fold ; udder

குடி - drink ; family

திங்கள் - Monday ; month ; moon

கல் - stone ; learn

முயல் - rabbit ; try

முடி - hair ; finish

பொறி - fry ; spark

நீர் - water ; you (with respect )

தடி - stick /cane ; thick /fat

தட்டு - pat ; plate

விடை - answer /reply ; good -bye

இடை - middle ; waist

பொருள் - thing ; meaning

கடை - last ; shop

கால் - quarter ; leg

பால் - milk ; gender

ஏடு - cream ; paper

மதி - to respect ; intellect

கடலை - peanut ; sea (accusative)

ஆறு - to cool down ; six

எட்டு - eight ; reach

அடி - beat ; foot

மக்கு - stupid ; decay

ஊசி - needle ; to go stale

மஞ்சள் - turmeric ; yellow

வாசம் - residence ; smell

காய் - dry ; vegetable

காயம் - wound ; body

தை - month (Jan -Feb ); stitch

இடம் - left ; place

பார் - see ; world

Wave to shave

I remember the Seinfeld’s comment on surfing: “Surfing is the sea’s way of telling ‘I don’t want you’. You try all the time to go in and the sea throws you back on the shore. Come on, get the message”.

Wondering if the same applies to shaving. You use the best of implements (barring Laser surgery for hair removal, of course) to get rid of the facial hair and you success doesn’t last beyond 12 hours. I am not a Sikh or a naturalist, but I find it quite logical not to have a smooth chin. If men were intended to have smooth chins like women, wouldn’t God/Nature have made us that way?

Wonder if good friend Balaji would call shaving as ‘playing God’ and what Rajesh’s response would be. FYI, Balaji believes that trying to change the natural course of things is playing God, while Rajesh, well, is bearded.

Fruit punch

For the first time in my life, I took a bite out of a full apple yesterday.

Since time immemorial, our family had always chopped apples before eating them. This was mostly due to the fact that apples used to be rare and pricey and thence, had to be shared. It could also be due to the fact that apples cannot be broken off like bananas (“breaking off bananas” –OK, that is a different story) with bare hands.

Even in my years of solitude, I continued to chop and eat apples. For the first time, on 11^த August 2009, wifey packed a whole apple for my afternoon snack. I asked for it to be cut first, but she looked like she would plunge the pointy end of the knife into me, rather than into the apple and I beat a hasty retreat. (Any guesses on why ‘wife’ rhymes with ‘knife’?)

Late evening and I was not quite sure if there was a right way to dig in. To understate the experience, I consumed the thing with great difficulty and awkwardness and was finally relieved when I did what my C programs on Unix used to do in my programming days: dumped core. All the while, I felt uncultured and just about as savage as any of your ancestors. Will I do it again? Yes, on the 31^st of next month and every year after that.

Back with a little bang

Though the Earth's revolutions mean nothing to me, lest posterity and lower mortals who follow the terrestrial calendar allege that I went into hiding in the year 2008 AC, I hereby acknowledge my existence on this plane this year.

Live long and prosper!

Views on News - Part 2

Amazing news item 1
In the wake of the survey result publication about the possible successors to his throne, TN CM Karu had announced that he did not believe in dynastic politics and nepotism. Considering that he had once groomed his first legitimate son Muthu to counter MGR's rise, seems to be grooming his son Stalin as his political heir, let another son Azhagiri run his personal fiefdom in the Southern districts, tapped his daughter Kanimozhi to enter the Rajya Sabha and the central ministry not withstanding her lack of experience in public affairs, I am amazed at how Karu can keep a straight face while saying, "I don't believe in dynastic politics and nepotism".

Amazing news item 2 - walking invertebrates
The AIADMK executive has authorised their leader Jayalalithaa to decide on the candidate for the president. My memory is a bit weak and I would like someone to remind me of the last time they took a decision by themselves (other than to re-elect the lady as their leader) or offered a counter-opinion to their leader.

As we can assess, this is a new phase of evolution - invertebrates (spineless ones) who can walk. What would Darwin say to this?

Shame on Air Sahara
Sahara offers no sahara to the disabled, so it seems. I guess this airline must be run by a bunch of juveniles who revel in poking fun and calling names at the disabled. The only punishment for such insensitivity should be revoking the licence to fly. Nothing teaches a man better than loss of money. Do it, IATA!

Views on News - Part 1

This was meant for a vlog, but my camera's audio quality was not up to the mark. A rather delayed opinion some items that made the news and one that should have.

The Abhishek- Aishwarya wedding
The media coverage was thrilling, to say the least. Now that we have had a happy closure to the Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984 Sikh massacre and other malaises that had been plaguing India since independence, the A-A wedding was the most anticipated event for the common man. I was thrilled to know that Mani Ratnam was (probably) the only invitee from Chennai. I thank the media for keeping me up-to-date on what is most important to me. If only they could tell me the name of the courier boy who delivered the invite, I can rest peacefully.

Meaning of the above paragraph: You idiots in the media, get a job!

She becomes a 'He', should 'He' receive alimony?
CNN deemed it fit to cover this piece on its front page as a top news item:
A divorced woman underwent sex change and is now a man. Her ex-husband refuses to pay alimony because the 'woman' he divorced no longer exists. Court rules that he has to pay until the ex-wife dies or remarries.

I should say I am thrilled with this news item full of family values that it needs to appear on CNN for two consecutive days. Sure, it is more important that Iraq or Darfur. Right?

Interestingly, in this case, in Tamil, the money received by the transsexual would be 'ali money'.

Bindi Irwin - Australia's tourism ambassador
The daughter of the 'killed in action' Croc Hunter Steve Irwin is touring the world. All of 8 years old, she has been nominated Australia's tourism ambassador. What comes to my mind? Just two words: Child labour.

Cricket World Cup 2007
My interest in the cricket World Cup 2007 pertained only to Kensington Oval, in the country where I lived and worked. I had a secondary interest too. I was hoping that India would reach the semi-finals, albeit for selfish reasons. Had India reached the semi-finals, a horde of BCCI officials would have been given a free flight to West Indies.

My hopes: You know, flights take off, accidents happen, you know what I mean, right? A bright future for Indian cricket! Alas, but that was not to be.

The item that didn't make the news, but should have:
School faces Laya's music
Parents of Laya, a 10-year old, took her to one of Chennai city's premium educational institutions as it was closer to their place than the current one. The school (belonging to a group of schools run like the mafia by a 75+ year old woman) offered the happy parents admission for their child, but Laya turned it down with something on the lines of, "There is not a single tree in sight. I don't want to join your school".

Moral of the story: The kid has her priorities right, the educators and the parents (including myself) don't.

Similarities

Look at the similarities between the two fields:

• You don't need to be qualified for the job.
• Even if you have the appropriate qualification, it does not guarantee that your work will be better than others'.
• Normally, womenfolk don't run the show.
• You normally do your job with poor planning, missed deadlines and alarming cost overruns.
  
• Even if your product has many flaws, people will still want it.
• End-users will complain, but will come back for more of the same nonsense.
• On occasions when the product flops, blame the disaster on the rest of the team, disassemble the team and start a new team to repeat the same mistakes.
• The point is how well your end-user is impressed with your song & dance, rather than the core feature.

Otherwise, the only difference between movies and IT is that, in the latter, the good guy doesn't get the girl in the end.