Cricket and Benny Lava!

A lot of my friends here in America love to bait me because being Indian, I'm so passionate about cricket. I explain to them, you guys think people are nuts for football here in the south, that's nothing. Cricket is nothing short of a religion in India. It's the drug of choice for most people in the sub-continent. All I get is *smirks* But that's ok, as you might've heard on Seinfeld, from a cabbie, who was probably Indian btw, "Smugness is not a good quality!" And Seinfeld, is awlays right, wait a sec, I meant, always right.

But back to the subject. To these smug americans, I say: "A ha, a fan is born, more to the point, An American fan is born.."

Ta-da..

The next step in World domination is to... make sure everybody speaks Tamil. Hmm.. How do we do this!? I'm thinking. *light bulb moment*

Yes, Yes, we change the name of our biggest, most important city, to Tamil, except we forgot that the original name was from, wait, Tamil. Oh, who cares about facts, we're all for Tamil, don't you know. And so we get Madras becoming Chennai, and now most of my American friends think I have 2 hometowns. But yeah, that's what we want! We know we've been successful when even Wiki doesn't know how to refer to the city, is it Madras, or is it Chennai. Wait wait I'm confused.

No, that didn't work Brian! No we can't have that can we. Ergo we have Prabhu Deva, er.. hrmmm.. as.. Cue the fireworks.. Benny Lava!

And cogito ergo sum, I'm trying so hard to be kewl like the Architect in the Matrix Reloaded was it, who was what really killed the movie imho btw, (and now i'm trying to be like those kewl txting kids,) but that's a secret, we won't tell anyone that I'm trying so hard to be kewl..
Tamil featured on the Colbert Report..

..maybe I won't have to kill some kittens after all. I might still have to claim Chuck Norris's parents are Tamil though.

Teach a man to fish..

They say there is no news like bad news. Maybe that explains all the depressing stories you hear or read or watch about crime, disasters, riots, and such. Take Africa for example. On the surface, with the war zones, and ethnic conflicts, and illegal trade in ivory, diamonds, it seems like it was made for news.

And then you come across an interesting article, like this one, almost by accident..
http://www.good.is/post/african-dynamo/?GT1=48001

Gives one some perspective. Yes, it's a feel good story, but I'm rooting for William Kamkwamba, the Malawian kid.

And in this is a lesson. This Chinese proverb encapsulates it perfectly: "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day! Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime!"

Ok, so!? The developed world looks on at Africa with pity. And they feel bad. To assuage their guilt or out of a genuine sense of good, they send aid, sometimes manifested as food, medicines, clothes, or just plain monetary aid. Some of which winds its way to the people but a lot of which winds up lining the pockets of the rich and the powerful. While there is a place for charity in the world, in the long run, you're not doing much to further the development and progress of the place.

Why not?! Because when you dole out aid, like you're giving alms to a beggar, you're just teaching people to put out their hands. You need to trade with the continent, treat them as equals, that is true charity. Because that creates jobs, and jobs create prosperity, and so on and so forth. That will be truly empowering people.