ExpertDabbler

I just got the news that one of my close relative has named their new born baby ‘Asmitha’.

Some of the names for the new born in Thamizh speaking families I have come across recently are as follows:
Arya, Aditya, Akshay, Shivani, Yogitha, Harshad, Chinthith, Pranav, Pravanthika, Sayaash, Harjith, Rohan, Sushmitha, Akshitha, Hadwik, Twisha, Sujana. Given this, I will not be surprised if a true blooded South Indian family name their kid ‘Karan Johar’ anytime soon. Gone are the days when kids had the names of their grandparents. Nowadays none of the grandmas/pas will be able to pronounce these new names correctly but no body seems to be bothered by it.  

I am at a loss to understand what is wrong with names like Uma, Padma, Lakshmi, Lalitha? If someone thinks such traditional names are common place, and the parents are adding value with these supposedly ‘unique’ names, then my answer is in the next generation, going by the evidence, most of these names will be common place anyway. Odds are, what sounds like a conservative name can turn out to be exotic when these kids grow up.
    
In a matter of  two generations, I think the one god with the biggest loss in mind share has been our very own tamil god - murugan. Two generations back, every family would have a balasubramanian, arumugam, shanmugam, then a generation back everyone was obsessed with karthik, kumar, senthil, saravanan, etc. Folks have by and large forgotten murugan.
  
It is evident that each generation get influenced by one another within their generation - their kith and kin.  
But I think there is some reason for a shanmugavel, or palani to name his kid rahul and gaurav.
And I suspect the present day ‘professionally educated’ ,’upper middle class’ new tamizh parent finds something very aspirational in these Sanskrit/ North Indian names. And that is precisely why I am not able to digest this ‘vadakathi’ obsession.

I think we guys should learn a thing or two from mallus especially mallu christians - they never had any issues with names like mijo, majo, biju, bijoy, sijo, tindu, mundu, geo, gijo, babykutty, sidin, etc. they do not ape anybody else when it comes to names.            
  
If and when I have a kid, I will give go for a Thamizh name - I do not want to go by the ‘thamizh’ as defined by DK, MK etc. It will be a name tamizh enough and comfortable enough for the past two generations in a Tamizh family.
Not for me the names like Rahul, Gaurav, Haldirams, Rasagulla etc.          

After being a contractor in a well known Internet firm for the past 40 odd months, I have become full time employee.

The implications? My access card will work late into the night at work. One more additon in my resume even when nothing has changed. And more importantly I will get a stupendous pay hike of about Rs. 910* per month. So anyone who wants VC funding, or finish off their home loan in one go, please contact me. Since I come from a middle class background which will project anything and everything into next 20 years - a monthly hike of 910 rupees means 10920 Rs in one year, and Rs. 218400 in 20 years, I gladly accepted this offer. In fact there were only two radio buttons:

- accept,
- gladly accept

 And a submit button below.

The relationship between me and the client till now was governed by some BOT model.
Never mind those who do not know what a BOT model is, in terms of working its not very different from the model below.

A) boy meets girl,
B) they get into a No Strings Attached live-in relationship
C) after two years, decide to have babies, and then,  
D) after 2 more years decide to legalize the whole thing by getting married.  
By which time, both the parties are tired of the relationship and look forward to starting the whole thing again with another partner.

On personal front we also managed to hold a small family function in the name of house warming ceremony for my flat which i booked so long ago I basically forgot when. The builder did say he had some 5 year plan in mind when I first booked the flat, but I did not realize then that completing the project was the whole essence of the plan.
Another lesson learnt  - holding any function in the most auspicious day of the month in short notice is a logistic nightmare. Everyone will test your patience.

The purohitar will not come on time because he has multiple bookings.
The caterers will not even accept orders and if they do will delay the food because of ditto above.
The guy who agrees to provide table, chair, shamiana will agree to come at 7 in the evening but will turn up at 11 in the night.
Guests who promise to attend will give a valid excuse, ‘I have another function in thiruvotriyur, tell me what to do’. As if you had nothing else to deal with.
Some of those who do turn up will go to the wrong house first as there are 8-10 grahapraveshams happening in the same apartment complex on that same day. And chances are, a few other house owners are named ‘prabu’ too.  
So essentially you have no choice but to keep the faith.

All this and more happened in my case too, but due to sheer luck things just went fine. And all is very well that ends very well.

* - remember ‘Anbe Sivam’

http://www.influenceatwork.com/Media/BrokenWindowsArticle.pdf

Anyone who had been to the lighthouse MRTS station will vouch for this. I don’t think we need research to prove. But anyways.

What would happen if the game of cricket would again be restricted to the good ol’ white countries?

Media houses in the INDIAN SUB CONTINENT will run out of ‘news’.
Vetti journos would lose jobs.
Actresses would choose less dumb boy friends.
Players will not make the kind of money they do. If you don’t exist, you can’t make money.
We will not have cricket boards, hence no question of ‘the richest cricket board’.
Cricket will be restricted to the home backyards, where hopefully it is not ’spot fixed’ and hence it is in it’s purest form.
Cricket will be forgotten in due course (the world will not end because of this).
People will grow up and move on to much more important things. Which is not bad at all.

Knowing full well the true titans of the game from the INDIAN SUB-continent countries, and with due respects to their achievements, after considering all the pros and cons, I think net-net, it would only be good for everyone, especially the sub-continent countries if they stop patronizing cricket.