MY SQUARE

It's an OOps factor

2010-07-03T00:41:00.000-07:00

Roger's Remarkable Loss

2010-06-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

London: A sense of stunned disbelief descended over south west London at 3.46pm on Wednesday when the unthinkable happened _ Roger Federer's remarkable reign as Wimbledon champion was finally over.

A clearly unhappy Roger Federer, the defending champion, waves to the stunned crowd at Wimbledon on Wednesday

When Tomas Berdych punched away a forehand winner to leave the Swiss maestro two matches short of reaching his eighth successive Wimbledon final, a chorus of 45,000 gasps could be heard around the All England Club and echoed by millions more around the sporting world.
The 24-year-old Czech's 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 win thrust a dagger into Federer's heart, leaving the six-times champion to contemplate going on holiday as he suffered his earliest defeat at the tournament since 2002

Trash can

2010-06-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

a quaff swims like a trash can

2010-06-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

Raavanan - Movie review
First the good things in the movie Raavanan:

1. Beautiful locations!!! Its a wonder, how our film makers missed these places for all these years. The chillness all around the movie, does give a wonderful feeling.

2. The cameraman - Santhosh Sivan. No doubt that Santhosh Sivan is a great cinematographer in our times and this is yet another powerful feather for his cap. His work for Raavanan/Raavan will surely be remembered for a very long time.

3. The actors, especially Vikram and Aishwarya Rai Bachan. Though it looks a bit animated at few places, Vikram is at his best in this movie. Even other actors like Priyamani, Prabhu, Prithviraj have given good performances.

4. Music for the songs. This needs no mention as the songs are already a big hit even before the movie release. This is quite normal for the Manirathnam - ARR combination and I am happy that it worked out even in Raavanan.

and now the bad or the not so good things about Raavanan, to me:

1. Dragging screenplay - As everyone knows the plot is from Raamayanam. The team could have worked a bit more to make the screenplay little more interesting. Except for very few scenes, the first half was rally boring.

2. Missing the tamil nativity - I don't know if I am the only person feeling like this. The location (which they call it as Tirunelveli), the people, the functions they show in the movie everything appeared like an dubbed movie.

3. Childish dialogues!!! You can feel the absence of Sujatha here.

4. Climax - many people might like this climax in the movie. Personally I feel, the scene that comes before the last 10 minutes, would have been the best climax for this movie. (may be Manirathnam wanted to avoid unnecessary controversies)

Compensation for victims

2010-06-28T01:30:00.001-07:00

Rs 10 lakh for kin of dead
Rs 1265-cr package for Bhopal gas victims

The Centre on Thursday announced a Rs 1,265.56-crore package for providing compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

The government also decided to push for extradition of the former Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson from the US and file a curative petition in the Supreme Court against its September 13, 1996, judgment that had quashed charges against Anderson and other accused under graver sections of the IPC and confined the trial to the offences under Section 304 (A).

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided that Attorney General G E Vahanvati would examine if a curative petition could be filed in the SC for raising the Union Carbide’s civil liability, which had been settled at $470 million in 1989.

The Centre will also move the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur to expeditiously decide the question of liability of Dow Chemicals or any other successor of the UCC or its subsidiary the Union Carbide Corporation Limited that owned the pesticide plant in Bhopal.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said the Cabinet had accepted all the 22 recommendations made by the Group of Ministers.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the government would make an additional ex gratia payment to nearly 45,000 victims of the tragedy — Rs 10 lakh for the family of each of the dead, Rs 5 lakh for each victim with permanent disability and Rs 2 lakh for every victim who had cancer and total renal failure due to exposure to the deadly Methyl Isocyanate gas that leaked from the Union Carbide Corporation Limited’s pesticide plant.

She said victims who had suffered temporary disability would get Rs 1 lakh as ex gratia.
The Cabinet decided that the CBI and other agencies would put together additional information required to pursue India’s pending plea to the US for the extradition of Anderson.

New Delhi had repeatedly — first in 2003 and the latest in 2008 — requested Washington to hand over Anderson to stand trial in India in accordance with the bilateral extradition treaty. But the US Department of Justice turned down the requests citing “missing evidentiary links” and stating that the extradition request did not meet the requirement of the Article 2.1 and Article 9.3 of the treaty.

Soni said the Ministry of External Affairs would “press the request for extradition” of Anderson with the US government after the concerned agencies collect “additional information”.

The Centre would spend Rs 310 crore for environmental remediation in and around the UCIL plant. It will also take steps to claim restitution from the persons or companies found liable for the damage on the principle of “polluter pays”.

Sharing with Writers and Readers: Amazon & Google Blogger Make Great Pair

2010-06-28T00:15:00.001-07:00

Sharing with Writers and Readers: Amazon & Google Blogger Make Great Pair