What's in the name

AC Milan's number 10 has simply been an outstanding footballer of 2007 and proved that claim by grabbing the Footballer of the Year Award. I was going through some articles on Kaká winning the World Footballer of the Year Award, but to my surprise almost every one of them had a paragraph on his unusual name. ESPNSTAR wrote - "His talent was as obvious as the jokes about his name were numerous and he was a key component of AC Milan's 2003/2004 Italian league winning team which finished 11 points ahead of AS Roma.".

Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi is famously said to have commented: "Kaka? We could never sign anyone with a name like that." Of course AC Milan had the last laugh and he went on to become one of the best players in Italy. What a shame!!

So, does a name defines a person's character or his actions. Surely, Mr. Moggi had pressed a wrong button on that occasion.

His nickname is pronounced as it is spelled, with stress on the second syllable. It is a common term of endearment of "Ricardo" in Brazil. In Kaká's case, however, it was born from younger brother Rodrigo calling him "Caca" due to his inability to pronounce "Ricardo"; it eventually evolved into Kaká.

Then, a few days back I was going through the blogs of other people. When suddenly I came across an unusual blog. The name of the blogger was "Ashanka". Which generally means "Apprehension" in English. But she was adamant in stating that it means "Hope". I don't understand why is she so conscious about her name, when her actions (her blogs) suggests that she is in total control and has no doubt. The blog is written here.

The GodFather

Finally, I managed to finish reading, the great novel "THE GODFATHER" by Mario Puzo which I had started in the summer of 2003 :D......

Cheers,

The Kite Runner

"The Kite Runner" is the first English novel written by an author from Afghanistan. It is the first novel by author Khaled Hosseini. It was voted the 2006's reading group book of the year. It was also the third best seller for 2005 in United States.

The protagonist of the story is Amir, a Pashtun boy from Wazir Akbar Khan district in Kabul, who hails from a rich family. He is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. This is the story of Amir's friendship with Hassan and how he atones for sins he had commited in childhood. The story is set against the backdrop of riotous events that rocked the nation of Afghanistan. It stated in 1973, when Daoud Khan staged a coup to overthrow Zahir Shah and established a republican government. It was the time of soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.

The story brings to notice the precarious condition of Afghanistan, i.e. established people losing everything, people getting severe punishments(even tortured to death) for petty crimes (some times the crime may not be a crime in true sense).

On reading some parts of the story, you feel such intense pain as though someone has heated an iron rod red hot and pierced it into you skin. But there are parts where you feel light and happy. For example when Amir and Hassan participate in the annual kite flying competition and, when they sit under the pomegranate tree near the Kabul river and Amir reads out to Hassan.

Overall an excellent work of fiction.

Cheers,

Pseudo intellectual

In the last few weeks I have been coming across this word - Pseudo intellectual, quite often. I heard Kintu characterizing Apurv as pseudo intellectual in the movie "Dil Dosti Etc" when they met for the first time in the library. Maya calls Raj pseudo intellectual in a pub in the movie "Mumbai Salsa". Then one day when I was having a serious discussion on asymptotes with a group of guys. One of them called me with that same word - pseudo intellectual. Till then I didn't know the correct meaning of the word. So I thought may be the guy means that I am intellectually sound and have a strong hold on the subject, after all I have a masters in mathematics. But his attitude suggested otherwise.

So that night I looked for the correct meaning. And then I realized that I was not pseudo intellectual but the other guy was..


Meaning: Pseudointellectual is a pejorative term used to describe someone who engages in false intellectualism or is intellectually dishonest. The term is often, though not always, used to describe one who regularly critiques the work of professionals, while lacking the requisite background knowledge and experience to have an informed opinion. Synonyms for this character include sophist, and in medical terms, mountebank and quack.

www.PleaseFindAName.com

Sometime last week during lunch at bay, I was having a light conversation with one of my friends who was in great pain. The cause of the pain was that he was unable to find a cool domain name for a site he had developed. He told me that he had tried many names but to his displeasure all of them were already registered. I was a bit surprised.

So that evening, after work. I sat down on my laptop to find a cool domain name for his site. I tried http://www.sutta.com, http://www.dhakkan.com, http://www.makra.com, http://www.timepass.com and many such faltu names. But to my annoyance all existed. Then I thought had Sir Tim Berners-Lee anticipated that his major creation would rock the world one day. And the name WorldWideWeb given by him was appropriate. I finally gave up the idea of finding a domain name for him.

Next day in the office my friend told me that he was able to find a name. I was excited to know the name and I could also see the relief on his face.

Finally the name he came up with was http://www.makkhi.com. :D

Cheers.

Creeper

This is a play which I went to see on Saturday evening at Ranga Shankara. I won't be telling much about the play, except that it was great. Acting was terrific, direction superb and the concept mind blowing.

Creeper is a modern re-imagination of the tale of Vikram and Betal. For more details about the play visit addledbraindump.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

In the novel "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari", Robin Sharma brings forward the problems a person faces in this fast paced world. I have often wondered, why are people always in a hurry? Why don't we stop worring about the future and enjoy the pleasures of the present? Why don't we spare some time to help others? And most importantly, why don't we have time for ourselves? These questions are like the million dollar questions which are difficult to answer but not impossible.

Sharma, outlines some methods and exercises that a person can practice to make his life better. I am not a very big fan of inspirational or spiritual novels. But I feel that some may find this book worth reading. And may find out the answers to the above questions.

Tagline: Carpe Diem. It is a phrase from a latin poem by Horace. It means "Seize the day, for tomorrow you may die".