Opinion poll

I was watching preview of Ind-Pak title clash on Headlines Today this morning. Like most news channels, HT too had a gawky interface with stock prices and headlines scrolling across the screen. I was attracted by a rectangular box on the left of the screen that carried results of an opinion poll.

The question was: "Who will win today?"; Options: A) India and B) Pakistan. The results till then was 87%-13%, that would delight any Indian. Even then, the 13% of votes did surprise me. Who would have voted for Pak? Whoever it may be, I promise there would be no cricketing reasons.

But the question is still open. I put the question to myself. "Why would you vote for Pak in this poll?". I'd say, "I am better of being in the group of lesser strength, if randomly picked one from one of the groups will win a gift."

As I brainstormed, I found other things that made some real sense to me: There are lot of people around who believe "if they vote for India, then we will lose". Hmmmm, true!! And, What if the channel forges the results to attract more SMS votes from the viewers? You never know.

Ram Setu, Superb Friday, & Bharathi

Who's Ram? Was he an engineer?
From which school did he graduate?
These are the questions making the headlines this week. Talk of the town, noooo, talk of the news channels seems to be Ram Setu and the Sethu Samudram project.

This project - so-called dream project of Tamils - aims to create a ship channel across the shallow waters of Palk Strait. Since it's start, politicians have been cashing in on the Ram setu - a mythological bridge - issue. So what? Nothing. After all, I dont care people crying for votes and cheap publicity!!

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Friday, Sep 21st.

It's not an usual weekday for me. I woke up early and went through the dinakaran right from page 1 to page 16. Then had my breakfast and a nice coffee, while surfing the news channels. Ah. For once, I am seeing something different on CNN-IBN - the heroics of Indian cricket team. Thank Ram, it's not Ram setu again! :-)

Then I went on to sleep again. After an hour, my dad waked me up. I watered the plants - something I love to do in the morning. That really humored me. Trust me, for the first time in 2 weeks, I was thinking about something other than the office. I read a chapter on User Security in Oracle; played a couple of games on my desktop; tried to solve a Samurai Sudoku - solving 5 connected Sudokus in one go is fun; and the morning passed interestingly.

It's noon then. Slowly, I started to ready for office. When I realized that I was slower than the Hare that lost to a tortoise, the clock had already gone past 1. :-(. I dressed up fast and duly signed out from home.

Then came a long wait in the bus stand. I dint get a rickshaw even. However, I was not cursing anyone; was playing Snakes on my 2300. Argh! The invevitable had arrived - received a call from Singapore. For a change, the guy on the other end was in good mood too. Why he shouldnt be? It's his friday evening! ;). By the time the conversation ended, I was in share-auto enroute to my office and about a minute away.

Wow.. A nice SONG was playing on radio inside the auto. That was written by the most prolific of 20th century poets. " Theme: Independent India. Title: சிந்து நதியின் மிசை நிலவினிலே The beauty: Bharathi composed it years before independence...". As these details passed through, I heard the lines "சிங்களத் தீவினுக்கோர் பாலம் அமைப்போம், சேதுவை மேடுறுத்தி வீதி சமைப்போம்". Hang on. What's he saying: "Let's bridge across Pak Strait; heighten Setu to causeway to Lanka"??
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