Madras in Margazhi

There is no doubt that Margazhi is the most pleasant month in Chennai.Music performances and Thiruppavai discourses compete with each other for the number of places where they are held.If you are a connoisseur of arts and a spiritual aspirant,you are doubly blessed to be in Chennai around this time.

It is interesting that we keep learning newer things every year about Andal's magnum opus.It is a delight to know the various levels of meanings attributable to the same pasuram.If one hopefully keeps growing spiritually every year,one will savour a different Thiruppavai every year.

Having darshan of the Lord in the temples early in the morning is an additional bonus.Spending Margazhi in Chennai gives us enough maturity to see through the remaining months of the year.

we are not winning.we are not losing.

President Bush was at his obfuscational best when he rationalised about his adventure in Iraq."We're not winning.We're not losing."Then what are we doing? Should more lives be lost before there is a definitive answer?

Sophomore

The overblown Kaavya Viswanathan episode should expand the meaning of "sophomoric" to include "plagiaristic".Till date ,the meaning has been (courtesy:wikipedia):

"In the US, a sophomore is a second-year student. Folk-Etymologically, the word is said to mean "wise fool"; consequently sophomoric means "pretentious, bombastic, inflated in style or manner; immature, crude, superficial" (according to the Oxford English Dictionary). While it appears to be formed from Greek sophos, meaning "wise", and moros meaning "foolish", it is in truth from the word sophumer, an obsolete variant of sophism [1]. "

This seems to be the season of plagiarism.Raytheon's CEO recently published a plagiarised version of managerial ideas.The Board denied him a raise,as a consequence.Incidentally,as the saying goes,if you copy from one source,it is plagiarism.If your sources are multiple,it is research.

Judas:Image makeover

The Gospel of Judas now disclosed by National Geographic will become an important part of Christian literature.Apparently a product of Gnostic philosophy,a la the Gospel of Mary Magdalene--a trigger for the Da Vinci Code-- ,it rehabilitates Judas.A traitor is converted into the most faithful.Gnostics are said to have possessed a secret knowledge of how people could escape the clutches of their material bodies and return to their spiritual origin."The codex is a Genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature" is an interesting quote found in the NYTimes.

Flight Safety

Last year,a domestic flight landed in Tambaram instead of Chennai.It was piloted by a Russian who mistook "right" for "left" in the directions given by ground-staff while landing.

Recently,an Air Deccan flight from Coimbatore to Bangalore landed on grass overshooting the runway.The pilot was a Nigerian.

A couple of days back,the maiden flight Air Deccan flight from Chennai to Tuticorin had a Columbian pilot in command.

Are we not escalating the flight risk?

Greenspan's mumbo jumbo

How much is Alan Greenspan's mumbo jumbo worth?

Penguin has agreed to pay $8.5 million for his memoirs.He says," I do not intend to dwell on personality aberrations, except as they affect policy decision-making - which, of course, always involves personalities" .This is probably the least confusing statement ever by Greenspan.Alas!One has to wait till next year before the book is published.

Majesty of the Courts

Following observation of the Supreme Court comes not a day too soon:

"Courts are not tape recording machines. They have to play a participatory role. People have started feeling that criminal trials are like cobwebs where small flies are getting caught and big people are dashing through. Courts have an over-riding duty to maintain public confidence and uphold the majesty of courts. The interest of society is not to be treated with disdain. The duty of the court is to uphold the majesty of law".

Stability of any society depends on the reliability of its judicial system.