Why Russians are masters of chess?

I got the below story as a forward from one of my friends. I liked it for the wonderful reasoning part of it. Gud one.

"After months of negotiation with the authorities, a Talmudist from Odessa was granted permission to visit Moscow. He boarded the train and found an empty seat. At the next stop a young man got on and sat next to him. The scholar looked at the young man and thought: This fellow doesn't look like a peasant, and if he isn't a peasant he probably comes from this district. If he comes from this district, then he must be Jewish because this is, after all, a Jewish district.

On the other hand, if he is a Jew, where could he be going? I'm the only Jew in our district who has permission to travel to Moscow. Ahh? But just outside Moscow there is a little village called Samvet, and Jews don't need special permission to go there. But why would he be going to Samvet? He's probably going to visit one of the Jewish families there, but how many Jewish families are there in Samvet? Only two - the Bernsteins and the Steinbergs. The Bernsteins are a terrible family, and a nice looking fellow like him must be visiting the Steinbergs. But why is he going? The Steinbergs have only daughters, so maybe he's their son-in-law.

But if he is, then which daughter did he marry? They say that Sarah married a nice lawyer from Budapest, and Esther married a businessman from Zhitomer, so it must be Sarah's husband. Which means that his name is Alexander Cohen, if I'm not mistaken. But if he comes from Budapest, with all the anti-Semitism they have there,he must have changed his name.

What's the Hungarian equivalent of Cohen? Kovacs. But if they allowed him to change his name, he must have some special status. What could it be? A doctorate from the University. At this point the scholar turns to the young man and says, "How do you do, Dr. Kovacs?"


"Very well, thank you, sir." answered the startled passenger. But how is it that you know my name?"

"Oh," replied the Talmudist, "it was obvious."

Art of Dying?!?!?!?

I thought of adding a picture for this post, but was struck with the thought of what kind of pic can I choose for this? Hardly can think of a pic. So, here we go, without a picture.

"மரணத்தை தேடி இப்படி என்ன ஒரு அவசர ஓட்டம்? வெட்கங்கெட்ட அந்த மரணத்திற்க்கு நாம் வெற்றிலை பாக்கு வைத்து அழைக்க வேண்டுமா? காலால் உதைத்து உதாசீனப்படுத்தினாலும் அதுவே வாலைக் குழைத்தபடி தானே தேடி வருமே! இயர்கையின் பேருதவியுடன் கண்டிபாக அனைவரும் அனாயாசமாக அடையப்போகும் அந்தப் பதவிக்கு அவசரப்பட்டு விண்ணப்பம் போடத் தேவையில்லை"

These are the words KamalHasan wrote about death and ppl who commit suicide, in a 2004 edition of Vikadan Magazine. I was shocked for few moments when I read those words. I was amazed at the ease with which he has asked us to think or face death. I really doubt if I can think this way. Even though I can understand the reality of these words, deep in my heart, I can feel my fear abt death. But if I/we can honestly think this way inside, then nothing in life would be too hard for me/us.

So lets play it COOL mamu :)

Thoduvaanam

தொடத் தொடத் நகரும்
வானம் போல்
தொட்டு விளையடும்
சந்தோஷ்ங்கள்

Most of the times in life, we wait for some dreams to happen; we pray for that, think of that everyday,rehearse how to react when it happens or when it doesn't..... But when it happens, we are so pre-occupied that we do not enjoy the success to the fullest, we do not wait to feel it in us. We would be worried of another dream or mission or prayer or whatever, to happen and the whole process repeats itself. Satisfaction and saturation in life becomes like a 'thoduvaanam'.

The most obvious example that comes to my mind is our fellow Indians who are settled abroad and really want to come back. I have seen this case with many of my friends, but I also agree this cant be generalized. Initially, when they leave from here, they plan to stay for 3 ro 4 years and take a vow to bring up their kids only in India. But once they settle down there, they get into their own commitments like own house, car, mortage etc and every year they postpone their return. And reality strikes only when their kids loose our cultural and ethnic identity in those multi cultured nations. Some times it becomes too late.

Watch out: Aish in the City

There's an article in 'The Hindu' on the Metro Plus supplement page, about Aishwarya Rai's latest visit to chennai to endorse a watch. It starts like this"It's funny that Aishwarya Rai endorses a watch when the lady does not have the slightest clue about time. After keeping the media waiting for an hour after noon, Ms.Mannequin draped in hues of pink and orange chiffon......" This reporter has the courage to write things as it is, without making any compromise. And there's also a stint of humor throughout. Read n Enjoy.

Venezuela and Guatemala

Today, the hot news in every news channel is the Voting for the Non-permanent member post in UN security council(UNSC) by Guatemala and Venezuela. There were many stories tied to this contest and the contest is still going on when am blogging this. Out of the 192 member council, either of the them has to secure 125 votes to win. Now Guatemala is leading Venezuela with a vote of 106 for 74. And the voting will continue till one of them secures majority. While this goes on, I was having a look at the views and stories associated.

There was a call from President Bush to our Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh yesterday. And it was said that the call was to discuss abt the nuclear deal debate held in the US congress earlier last week. But foreign policy experts see the 'timing' of this call and connect it to the election going on in the UNSC. They say that our Prime minister was compelled by Mr. Bush to vote against Venezuela, and Mr. Bush is continuing this with several other countries bcoz of which there was a major set back in votes for Venezuela which had equal votes against Guatemala in the beginning. This was associated with the remarks, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made against Bush last September.

1. First, some of the critics say that US has no right to 'compel' our Prime minister to vote against a country. They say that its India's right to decide on this based on our foreign policy.

2. Some say, the remarks Hugo Chavez made against Bush were very harsh and even diplomats in US, who were on Mr. Chavez side criticized him for his act in a public body meeting. So US has every right to lobby on getting votes against Venezuela as what Mr. Chavez is also doing, offering petrodollars in exchange for votes.

3. There’s also a comment that, Venezuela in 1998, was very keen in bringing up a motion against India, for our successful nuclear test. On the other hand, US also have been against our interests at times, esp. in the matter of border security with our neighboring countries. So considering all, India has to decide on whom to vote.

Above all, this is a secret voting, nobody will get to know who voted for whom. So countries can decide to vote on their own despite any pressure. And for whoever our PM decides to vote, it is not going to solve any of the domestic issues we have here, right from Chickun Gunya and Dengue fever to the issues relating the dam across Narmada River, Naxalites ET all. So let’s get back to our daily worry of escaping a mosquito bite :)

Netல் சுட்டது

Love hurts

Here comes my second 'Kirukal' ( first one in the previous post ). Professional Poets, pls bear with me.

என்னை நிறைய நேசிப்பவர்களே
என்னை நிறைய காயப்படுத்துகிறார்கள்
நான் காயப்படும்போது
நிறைய வறுத்தப்படுவதும் அவர்களே!!!!

Who ever reads this, pls leave your valuable comments to help me to improve my poetry skills.

Moments Lost

உண்டதே உண்டு
உடுத்ததே உடுத்து
உரைத்ததே உரைத்து
நினைத்ததை மறந்து
மறந்ததை நினைத்து
கழிந்தன நாட்கள்

New terrorist - Mosquito

Current super star of India is our old friend - The Mosquito. His latest gift to us is Dengue fever after the most familiar Chikungunya. Unlike Chikungunya, dengue is a killer disease. It is spreading wide in Delhi killing 18 ppl and on its way to TN to say diwali wishes to us. It also spreads when our friend(ofcourse mosquito ;) ) kisses us during day time, mainly during ealry morning and twilight. Only precaution we can take is to escape the from mosquito bite, which is an impossible task in congested cities like chennai. So if you can escape this year from these two ( so far, may be more to come ), you have a reason to celebrate 2007.

If theres a slum area or a congested area near your house or office, pls take few mins to inform(or educate) those ppl abt this epidemic. Doesnt hurt, does it?

The Return of the Legend

Here i am, after a long gap( nearly 17 months ). When i look back over these 17 months, there has been few Katrina s and Rita s in my life. Anyone wondering if these affected me as they did for US, a big NO. It has definitely raised my confidence level 100%, given a new perception for Life. Life isnt too hard after all :)

Have decided to blog more regularly, have written a few tamil kavithai's( i guess they fall under that category ;), will upload them too. So, all stay tuned and enjoy.

My First Blog

And atlast, i too join the blogging community. This is after a long time, constant and compelling encouragement from one of my friend, who does blogging regularly. This very idea seems to be funny( may be i change my view in future), people who dont find time to reply to their friends mails, find time to create a blog regularly. May be, they find this to be a stress reliever , a means to show their anger, share thier views....

It took ten minutes for me to decide on a name for my blog link. First i decided to use, " Kirukalgal" which was already selected by some lucky fellow. So i settled for "Gnabagangal". I decided to start blogging mainly for the sake that it will help me to improve my language skills. Ah, what an irony, i have started something to improve my english language skills on a Tamil New year day :)

Thats it for my first blog. Whoever reads this, have a great day/evening ahead.