Do you know Albert Einstein’s younger brother Herbert Einstein is the biggest fool in the world?

1930’s Albert Einstein took refuge in USA. He was remotely involved in Manhattan Project, a US government project, which was to develop nuclear atomic bombs. The project was headed by Robert Oppenheimer.

A Swedish crack dynamite expert named Allan Karlsson helped Oppenheimer’ problem to detonate the bomb. But after this project, while he was in Europe he was captured by Stalin’ men to get the atomic bomb secret. Since he was not a nuclear scientist, Allan was sent to Siberian prison camp. 

Meanwhile, Soviets were in hunt for Albert. Since Herbert was a look-a-like, the Soviet secret service got confused and caught Herbert. Later they smuggled Herbert to USSR. There, Stalin realized that they had caught a wrong man and deported him to the Siberian camp, where Allan was put up.

Allan initially was confident about Herbert connection with Albert. So Allan devised a plan to escape from the prison camp. He was hoping Herbert will help him.

The plan was simple- when they had to go for lunch; Herbert had to take a wrong turn into the laundry and steel two uniforms. Herbert had many questions, Allan kept on answering it. It took almost a year for Herbert to figure out the plan. By the time Allan lost his hopes on Herbert and gave up the plan. 

Allan then had to use a grenade..

I can go on forever.

PS: Herbert is a fictitious character in the Swedish film The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Albert had a sister.

6 Self help books

I'm a voracious reader of self help books.

The following are the list of books which will change your life forever,

>>1.  How to Make Enemies and Troll People

>>2.  The 7 Habits of Highly Laziest People

>>3.  Men are from Mandaveli, Women are from Villivakkam

>>4.  Aathma'vuku Atukkal Paya - ஆத்மாவுக்கு ஆட்டுக்கால் பாயா

>>5.  The Pichumani Who Sold his TVS50

>>6.  Who Stole my Muttai Bonda

So, what is your favorite ?

How do we welcome new members !!

This is not how we welcome a new joinee to our Chennai Blogger Club group. This is a fictional chat between an existing member in CBC and a new member. Inspired from Arasu film. Vadivelu & Sarathkumar comedy. JUST FOR LAUGHS

Existing CBC member – Six months ku oru thadava blog pannalena thukiduvom’nu sollirupalle?

New comer – Ammam sonnanga

Exg – Documents ellam fill panna sollirupalle?

New – Sonnnanga. Nan appove panniten

Exg- Discussion, ideas, activities irukum’nu sollirupalle?

New- Neraya learn pannalam’nu kuda sonnanga

Now the Existing CBC member tries to get an upper hand.

Exg- Seri, ethula blog pannurenga, blogger’a wordpress’a ?

New- Sondhamma domain vechi iruken, kita thatta 400 posts publish panniiruken, munnu varusamma ezuthureen..

Exg <logout>

New- Hello ? Are you there?

Few words about Chennai Bloggers Club

• It’s an active group of 320 members.
• The pivotal meeting point is a Facebook group.
• There are full-time, part-time, passionate (most) bloggers from all walks of life\profession.
• Anything under the sun will be blogged (written).
• Bloggers are from Chennai or some part of their time associated with this city.
• English and Tamil.
• Few bloggers had turned into authors and published books.
• Some kind of bloggers meet will happen at least once in a month.

For more Google search it - https://www.google.co.in/#q=chennai+bloggers+club

Some of my posts related to the Chennai Bloggers Club,

http://teashoptalks.blogspot.in/2014/09/chennai-bloggers-club-meet.html

http://teashoptalks.blogspot.in/2014/08/one-aspect-i-want-to-change-in-chennai.html

BEEP.. I like this sound!

How many of us know that this year Tamil Nadu legislative election is going to be held? If you are aware of it then you can proceed further (you can still proceed). The reason for me to ask this question is because I met a guy, who is working in one of the top 5 companies in India. He couldn’t differentiate between Lok Sabha and state legislative election! Call it ignorance, no, call it politically inert.

Now, if you are in this second paragraph, then, it is wise for me to ask “Are you ready to cast your vote in this election”, if yes, then how do you choose the person of your choice?

Are you going to choose the person by the party which he/she is going to represent or by their party ideology or by the caste of the candidate or the money which they are going to throw at you or the charisma of their respective leaders?

Good or bad there is an election manifesto published by all major political parties before the elections. Are you going to read it before you decide which one to vote? Are you going to judge the current ruling government by their election manifesto given in 2011 elections? Are you going to weigh their past performances or going to take a fresh route by choosing a new candidate (or party)?

So many factors to be considered, why? - Because these people are there to rule the government for next five years. In a utopian state, if we are going to consider all the above questions before we cast our vote, do we have we have time? I mean not our personal time; I mean the time given for campaign.

In last elections (2011) only 17 days were given for campaigning, I bet this year we might have similar schedule. So are we going to vote just by seeing the faces of the candidates (or their leaders). In an ideal state the candidates should debate in and out of the issues and the ideas, rather than throwing mud at each other.

Every time the ballot machine is pressed, there is a BEEP sound, which I like the most.

Let’s think before we leap.

CIFF - Notes from my diary

I thought not to go this time, but things didn’t turn up as expected, so I ended up in getting the pass at the last moment. For some reason, I kept self-abstaining from seeing non-Tamil-English films for past few months. There were times, when I would see 5-6 movies in a week and blog lavishly (!!!) about it. That’s like a machine, end-of-the-day I didn’t get a chance to empathize with the films I saw. Few social media interactions about the films, do fill the void, but it’s mostly a one-way communication or with no active interactions. I lost the hunger or interest. The much needed break (from seeing the films) made an impact to reboot it. Chennai International Film Festival is a place to start my innings again with a fresh guard.

Whenever someone ask me to recommend films to them, I give them few names with a word of disclaimer that I liked those films and it’s not necessary that you’ll like it as your tastes might be different. When a similar kind of discourse is seen in a film, then it is obvious that you have to like that film (assuming that I and the director\writer have the similar thought). I’m here referring to the movie- Taxi by Jafar Panahi. The crowd gave standing ovation. Jafar Panahi is a star in this year edition. The film mocks at the censorship, debates about capital punishment for petty crimes, women rights and cultural activity of pirated films. On total 82-minutes, the crowd was clapping once in 5 minutes. It’s a film which every film-lover has to see.

Swedish films aren't good only in their thrillers and psychology films, looks like they can make good black comedy films too. The title of this film created an interest in me to see it- The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. This must a European version of Forrest Gump. When I said it to an elderly film-lover the other day, he was surprised to see such a long title. I told him the story (time pass, since we were waiting for the next film to start). He felt bad that he missed the film. He said he is attending this festival for past 10 years. He asked the same question, gave me the schedule and asked to recommend good films to watch. I asked him you know Buster Keaton. He replied “who ?”.

Other notables will be Life Eternal and the biopic about Armando Reveron.

Most people felt or at least the people whom I talked felt Dheepan should have been screened in this edition. I’m sure the organizers don’t want any neighborhood political tensions to be discussed in public here. 

Venue – RKV Studio, Vadapalani is a good find. If you want to watch the film with the operator then you can head to it. People from west of Chennai can easily crash into it. Woodlands still has that creaking seats. 

RKV Studio

Rants – If people are blaming the volunteers, equally the audience should be blamed. Time and again, they are requested to silent the phones, but now-and-then an over enthusiastic business magnet’ phone rings.

Still three days left. I’ll see if I can get back with few more films.

***The heading picture is from the Bengali film, The letterbox. 50% of the crowd escaped half way through the film.