Sivaji - Part 2

Yeap, some people, including my hubby, thinks I'm having a Sivaji - The B.O.S.S. overdose all because I haven't had the chance to catch the movie on the big screen as yet.

Well, perhaps I am and perhaps I am not, but then again, I'll just set aside other opinions for now and share with you the latest infomation received via email in relation to the technology which was used behind the scene in this movie.

Here goes:

Producer AVM Saravanan and MS Guhan and cinematographer K V Anand got together at AVM studios today to reveal the mystery behind Rajnikanth appearing white in the song 'Oru Kudai' in Sivaji.

According to Anand it is an attempt never done in the history of world cinema."We tried out skin grafting technology", he said.

The idea was made by Shankar and with the help of Indian Arts we managed to make it a reality.

We shot Rajni and an English girl separately and later combined using skin grafting.

The Indian Arts took 365 days to complete skin grafting for the 6000 frames in the song.

The song was shot for 16 days in Billbaw museum in Spain.

It is a result of hard work.

Cool!!!!

Oru kudai sunlight! oru kudai moon light! ondrage seithe color-thane yen WHITE!!!

(literal translation:a basket full of sunlight and moonlight combined is what makes my white!)

Sivaji - The B.O.S.S.

Age and ageing is something that none of us, mortal beings, can avoid.

We, can, however, choose to age gracefully - whether we look at in the context of behaviour (which would be my choice) or mere physical looks, is of course in the hands of the beholder.

The following is an entertaining pictorial reflection of how some noted Indian personalities will look like in old age and I have no doubts that all of them, including the Superstar Rajinikanth himself who now stars in the much talked about Sivaji The B.O.S.S. Tamil movie blockbuster, look best as how they are in real life as one grows with age.

What's there to be ashamed of looking old anyway? A year older, a year wiser, no?

Sachin Tendulkar now and later

Kapil Dev now and later

SRK now and later

Hritik Roshan now and later

But for the purpose of the silver screen (and you will know this only too well if you're an ardent fan of Tamil movies), Rajini alone looks decades younger to suit his matching female pair of a movie.

Rajini now - in real life Rajini now - in reel life

As much as critics within the industry and globally as well chide the Superstar for his extremely young looks, I have nothing but awe and great respect for the actor for still being able to dance his way through to the hearts of millions of Tamilians, Indians, non-Tamils and non-Indians alike.

Imagine being able to belt out dance sequence as well as he does on screen at the age of 50 plus - I don't know if I can do this when I reach that age at all.

For all that he has done in the film industry and also for the global humanitarian cause (in his own way), I salute Superstar Rajini and am proud of the fact that I'm among his millions of devoted fans.

The sad part about being his fan where I am concerned is the fact that I haven't the time nor the patience to brace through the thick crowd at cinemas now to be among the early birds to watch his latest master piece :-(

Hope I get to see his movie soon.

Why Men Are Happier Beings

What do you expect from such simple creatures?

1. Your last name stays put.
2. The garage is all yours.
3. Wedding plans take care of themselves.
4. Chocolate is just another snack.
5. You can be President.
6. You can never be pregnant.
7. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
8. You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
9. Car mechanics tell you the truth.
10. The world is your urinal.
11. You never have to drive to another petrol station toilet because this one is just too dirty.
12. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
13. Same work, more pay.
14. Wrinkles add character.
15. Wedding dress costs £1500. A Tux rental is only £100.
16. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
17. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.
18. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
19. You have one mood all the time.
20. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
21. You know stuff about tanks.
22. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
23. You can open all your own jars.
24. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
25. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
26. Your underwear is £7.00 for a three-pack.
27. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
28. You almost never have strap problems in public.
29. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
30. Everything on your face stays its original colour.
31. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
32. You only have to shave your face and neck.
33. You can play with toys all your life.
34. Your belly usually hides your big hips.
35. You need only one wallet and one pair of shoes.
36. You want only one colour for all seasons.
37. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look!
38. You can "do" your nails with a penknife.
39. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.
40. You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
41. You don't freak out when you go to a party and see another man wearingthe same shirt, instead you become buddies.

No WONDER men are happier...

World To End In 2060?

I came across the following interesting article while surfing the web today, although the article itself is dated 19 June 2007.

The world will end in 2060, according to Newton

His famously analytical mind worked out the laws of gravity and unravelled the motion of the planets.

And when it came to predicting the end of the world, Sir Isaac Newton was just as precise.

He believed the Apocalypse would come in 2060 – exactly 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, according to a recently published letter.

Scroll down for more...

The document reveals that Newton predicted the world will end in 2060

Luckily for modern scientists in awe of his achievements, Newton based this figure on religion rather than reasoning.

In a letter from 1704 which has gone on show in Jerusalem's Hebrew University, Newton uses the Bible's Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse.

The famous scientist

The note reveals a deeply spiritual side to a man more usually regarded as a strict rationalist.

Newton, known as the founder of modern physics, secured a royal exemption from ordination in the Church of England – something normally expected of academics in his day – so he would not have to follow its teachings.

But he confidently stated in the letter that the Bible proved the world would end in 2060, adding: "It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner."

Continuing in a decidedly sniffy tone, he wrote: "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail."

The exact words from the Book of Daniel that inspired his prediction are not clear.

But he got at least one thing right – in another document, he interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ended.

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The letter is on public display for the first time

Newton, who died 280 years ago, wrote that the end of days would see "the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews (from) captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom".

Yemima Ben-Menahem, one of the curators of the exhibition, said: "These documents show a scientist guided by religious fervour, by a desire to see God's actions in the world."

The papers – including more prosaic notes about his income and the price of tin – lay in a trunk at the house of the Earl of Portsmouth for 250 years before being auctioned in the late 1930s.

Since 1969, many have been locked away in Israel's national library.

Source:http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/

Cadbury Tastes Bitter

Well, well, well, for most of us (myself included), the mere mention of Cadbury will cause die hard chocolate lovers drooling over their sweet taste.

But, after reading the following piece of news, I'm sure Cadbury will now taste bitter than ever for the 7,500 workers who will be axed soon.

I know corporate restructuring and down sizing of head counts in large entities are unavoidable at some point in time - I have been a victim of the latter myself in 2002 - so, my only hope is that this dreaded exercise be done fairly and the affected workers be given what is reasonably due to them.

Indeed, for those who have dedicated their careers towards making the Cadbury brand a global success as well as for those nearing retirement, it will be really hard to cope with the potential loss of job(s) and finding a new one to continue having a means of income to survive.

Wishing each and everyone of them who will be affected loads of luck and may God continue showering you with blessings all through your lives.

NST Online » World News (Agence France - Presse)


Cadbury to cut 7,500 staff worldwide after US sale

Britain's Cadbury Schweppes said Tuesday it would slash 7,500 jobs, or 15 percent of workers at its confectionery division, in a major restructuring after the likely sale of its US soft drinks unit.

The group, which makes Dairy Milk chocolate, said in a statement that the process to sell Americas Beverages was "actively underway," while 7,500 jobs would go at its confectionery arm which employs some 50,000 staff worldwide.

Cadbury, which also produces Trident chewing gum, said Tuesday that it sought to ramp up its profit margins by 2011.

"Our target of increasing margins ... will be driven by a major group-wide cost reduction initiative which will result in the closure of around 15 percent of our confectionery sites and a 15 percent reduction in headcount," it said.

The headcount reduction is the equivalent to about 7,500 job losses.

"The separation of confectionery and Americas Beverages is progressing well and we continue to pursue a twin track process of either a sale or de-merger," the statement added.

Cadbury Schweppes will be renamed Cadbury following the successful separation of its US soft drinks business.

Analysts value Americas Beverages at up to 8.0 billion pounds (11.8 billion euros, 15.8 billion dollars), while private equity consortia are thought to be battling for the unit that includes Schweppes, Dr Pepper and 7-Up among its brands.

"The sale process is actively underway, and following expressions of interest, we now believe that a sale is the more likely outcome," the statement added.

Meanwhile Cadbury Schweppes chief executive Todd Stitzer hit back at claims his group was pushed into breaking up its business by activist investor Nelson Peltz.

Speaking to reporters, Stitzer maintained the separation was the result of two years of deliberations and followed discussions with numerous shareholders.

"No one shareholder or group of shareholders had any over-influence on that decision," Stitzer said."

The board made a decision based on its perspective that we had created two very strong, stand-alone businesses, and that there would be a terrific value-creation opportunity for shareholders in the separation," he added.

Peltz, who has built a reputation for purchasing stakes in businesses and forcing through operational change, took a holding of just under 3.0 percent in Cadbury on March 13.

Cadbury Schweppes had announced Monday the purchase of Japanese candy maker Sansei Foods in a friendly takeover bid which valued the group at 13.75 billion yen (about 111 million dollars).

The share price in Cadbury Schweppes finished Tuesday 0.85 percent lower at 700 pence on London's FTSE 100 share index, which in turn ended 0.80 percent down at 6,650.20 points.

Happy...err...Father's Day

Yes, I'm a little behind time when it comes to wishing my own naina (father in Telegu, my mother tongue) and all daddies out there a very, very Happy Father's day via my blog.

Well actually, there are two things here - first is the fact that my naina is still unable to understand why people blog but for that matter, don't assume he is computer-illiterate).

For someone aged 71, he is pretty computer-savvy, surfs the net, sends email and is also completely at ease with using MS Word and Excel for work purposes, but, for some heavenly reason(s), he cannot understand why people blog.

So, even if I did wish naina Happy Father's day on time via my blog, it's not like he's gonna read it.

Secondly, the most important reason for my delay in conveying the Father's day wish via my blog is the fact that my naina is strongly of the view - and he also raised my siblings and mua this way - that all these supposedly designated days such as Valentine's day, Mother's day, Father's day and even birthdays, are a little too commercialised.

We have argued about this all through my growing up years and even now, but at the end of the day, dear old naina, will always say this in mitigation, "I'm not against the concept and noble idea behind these memorable days - I'm only against the active commercialisation of these events so much so, simple, loving wishes are deemed unimportant as opposed to material gifts."

Each time this happens, we will consider the case closed for naina has had his last say and he will not budge from what he believes to be morally right.

As such, my siblings and I have grown up celebrating occasions such as birthdays, Mother's and Father's day without having to cut cakes and make a big deal about the said day - we buy gifts for them, yes, but apart from that, there is no cake cutting or extravagant dinners.

I grew up that way and as a mark of respect, I chose to celebrate both my parents' birthdays and other occasions minus the cake cutting and exclusive hotel dinners.

So there, the above should justify my delay and while I'm at it, I thought I should share something that I would term as an ingenious advertising approach.

Just look at the Durex Father's day ad copy below - I think it is self explanatory. The copy writer and art director of this project along with the client, Durex the company itself, should be given a pat on the back for such a refreshing idea (depends on how you look at it) and out of the box advertising approach.

Now, now, won't you agree this is an insanely creative way of handling growing competition?

And anyway, since I'm already blogging about it at length, Happy (belated) Father's Day, my dearest Naina. I love you.

Vatican vs Amnesty

I don't know about people's take on abortion generally, but I am of the opinion that nothing should be forced upon a woman - especially when it concerns child bearing issues, because these days, women are being put through so much torture and mistreatment and many of them are even unable to seek justice in relation to the unjust treatment endured by them.

Given this predicament, I'm of the take that women, just like their male counterpart, should be given the freedom of choice when deciding, if and when they would like to mother a child.

I surely understand religious sentiments concerning abortion and why it should never be encouraged in the first place but, often, I also feel that the time has now come for certain religious and even cultural practise, to move with time.

By expressly stating this, I don't mean to say that its time we discard age-old beliefs and tradition but rather adopt it in a manner through which it can be best applied in our daily life as how we lead it this very moment.

Many aspects of our daily life today is not how it is supposed to be, if we are to strictly go by the holy book of any religion...even I don't live the way a true-blue Hindu should but I don't think that makes me a lesser person in any way because I'm leading an existence today with a delicate combination of tradition and modern day living requirements.

So going back to the issue at hand, I fervently believe that women should have the freedom to choose about child bearing responsibility in extreme circumstances of abuse, rape, neglect, incest and much more.

Not allowing them to choose, especially under such milieu, is as good as going back in time of history, where women continued to be subservient to men and had no recourse of setting their life back on track after heart wrenching tragedies such as rape, incest, abuse and neglect, which could have occurred due to no fault at all on the part of the fairer sex.

So, by denying women the right to choose, we are only moving backwards and this is definitely a huge blow to global efforts towards promoting human rights and gender equality.

Sure, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion but I just feel that the move by the Vatican to categorically sum up and declare that no further aid should be channelled to Amnesty due to their selective stand in the issue of abortion, to say the least, is completely unjust.

Why should women, especially those who have been victimised and are enduring mental torture on top of everything else that has happened to them, be forced to pay the price for a lifetime?

Where and when will there be an end to this?

Vatican urges end to Amnesty aid

The Vatican has urged all Catholics to stop donating money to Amnesty International, accusing the human rights group of promoting abortion.

The Vatican also said it was suspending all financial aid to Amnesty over what it said was the group's recent change of policy on the issue.

Amnesty said it was not promoting abortion as a universal right.

But the group said that women had a right to choose, particularly in cases of rape or incest.

"No more financing of Amnesty International after the organisation's pro-abortion about-turn," said a statement from the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

'Misrepresented account'

The council's president, Cardinal Renato Martino, described abortion as "murder".

"And to justify it selectively, in the event of rape, that is to define an innocent child in the belly of its mother as an enemy, as 'something one can destroy'," the cardinal said.

Amnesty says it does not take any position on whether abortion is right or wrong.

But it defended its new position in support of abortion for women when their health is in danger or human rights are violated, especially in cases of rape or incest.

"We are saying broadly that to criminalise women's management of their sexual reproductive right is the wrong answer," Amnesty's deputy Secretary General Kate Gilmore told Reuters news agency.

"The Catholic Church, through a misrepresented account of our position on selective aspects of abortion, is placing in peril work on human rights," Ms Gilmore said.

Some 45 million unintended pregnancies are terminated around the world every year, the World Health Organisation says.

Nearly 70,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions, it says.

Source: bbc.co.uk

Before & After Marriage

Before the marriage:


He: Yes. At last. It was so hard to wait.


She: Do you want me to leave?


He: NO! Don't even think about it.


She: Do you love me?


He: Of course!


She: Have you ever cheated on me?


He: NO! Why you even asking?


She: Will you kiss me?


He: Yes!


She: Will you hit me?


He: No way! I'm not such kind of person!


She: Can I trust you?


Now after the marriage you can read it from bottom to the top!!!!

Hubby Turns 33

The Scandinavian Prince who is now my devoted and loving hubby, turns 33 today.

Not so young anymore, eh?

Tsk...tsk...tsk...you can't go on saying that you are still 30 forever ;-)

We had a very quiet cake cutting and royal masala flavoured pizza eating ceremony a few hours ago and no, there weren't any candle light dinners which followed because the Scandinavian Prince believes in eating under brightly lit fluorescent lights instead.

Many, many more happy returns of the day Scandy!

I love you.

How Do You Sleep?

It's Millennium Now...For Ethiopia

Amazed. Bemused. Caught of guard. Shocked.

In between feeling all the above, reality also bit me hard in the ass - how is it that I never knew all these while that there IS, indeed, a country in this wide world of ours, which doesn't exactly move with time in the manner the majority of us do?

I mean, it was just my routine habit of reading world headlines via BBC.co.uk today, as with most other days, when I came across a rather interesting article (see below or click on the link) that talks about how one country in the vast African continent is not so in sync with the rest of us where material time, date and year is concerned.

Although I read the article over and over again several times just to be sure that I'm reading and registering the right thing in my mind, I'm still kind of lost when trying to address various issues.

Well, its fine by me that they follow a different calendar but to believe that their calendar is seven years behind the widely accepted and used Gregorian calendar leaves me speechless.

During lunch today, I spoke about this with my friends and we had a pretty interesting discussion ranging from 'Hey, I need to get to Ethiopia to go back in time without even using the time capsule!', 'So, if Ethiopians wanted to know what the future is like, they can then fly to any country in the world to find out how much difference seven years can make', to even more intriguing questions like 'If I want to be seven years younger and turn back time, I know where to head now' as well as 'If I'm travelling to Ethiopia, then my passport will state that I exited Malaysia in 2007 but arrived in Ethiopia in 1999...cool!'

And yes, as much as some people may laugh it off and move on to more pressing issues happening around the world, I'm still trying to figure out some basic questions about our time 'zone' difference - how do the people live and communicate knowing that the world around them is seven years ahead?

Just how do the foreign news correspondents report from that end of the world given that they are still in the year 1999 (granted there may not be that much happening there all the time) and what about world historical facts?

How will people in that country know about the devastating September 11 incident or even the world shattering tsunami of 2004...more precisely, when will they come to know of it and how will they learn to differentiate that these things that have literally shocked the world, are now a thing of past for the rest of us?

Oh, just how is all these this possible?

Ethiopia set for millennium party
By Elizabeth Blunt BBC News, Addis Ababa

Ethiopia has begun the countdown to its own year 2000Ethiopia has launched a programme of festivities in the run-up to its millennium celebrations in September.

The country uses the ancient Coptic calendar. It is about seven years behind the more widely used Gregorian calendar so it is still 1999 there.

The countdown to entering the third millennium on 12 September began with a campaign to plant 60 million trees.

Ethiopia expects many thousands of visitors to come to Addis Ababa for its millennium celebrations in 99 days.

On a bare hillside on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's President Woldegiorgis Girma launched its millennium celebrations with brass band music, patriotic songs and a flurry of tree-planting.

Firewood demand

This is just the first in a whole series of events leading up to 12 September when, just a little behind the rest of the world, Ethiopia finally enters the 21st Century.

The guests at the event only had to look around them from the sight of the planned new millennium park to see how necessary the tree planting is.

The chilly climate of the Ethiopian highlands creates a huge demand for firewood.

Once the steep slopes are bare, torrential rains carve the eroded earth into deep gullies.

Every Ethiopian is being urged to plant two trees in the millennium season.

Senior government figures and church leaders led the way followed by the entire diplomatic corps.

Some of the ambassadors puffed a little at the unaccustomed exertion in business suits and at high altitude.

But most of them took it all in good heart.

"All of us know that we have to look after this environment," said South Africa's ambassador, Chris Pepani.

"Even if I'm not expected but I'll take personal responsibility to come and have a look at what happened to the tree. Because anything that you plant, you have to look after it."

Among other events planned are the 1000th anniversary celebrations of the historic city of Harar and a millennium race featuring some of Ethiopia's most famous athletes.