Fame reaches only few...

Ever since I have given my Humble Award to Gaana Rahman, the Gaana singer whom I thought will get popular soon, I keep my fingers crossed--'coz the fame reaches only very few. For instance, many people forgot Devendran, the music composer of Vedam Puthithu. I had to first create a Wikipedia page for M. M. Keeravani, whom many people can't realize that he composed the classic Devaraagam

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IP to ISP/Country/City (GeoIP) using PHP

I've noted that many people are searching here about how to find out City/Country/ISP details from IP; often referred as GeoIP. Here, I've compiled my replies that once I posted to comp.lang.php Get the IP Refer http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.xml and see which whois server should be used for the whois lookup Now, do the whois lookup. e.g., whois -h whois.apnic.net 61.x.x.x Parse the results. AFAIK, it will have the ISP, City and Country info For whois lookup, may use rwhois protocol through below PHP code: <?php function whois($host, $command) { $fp = fsockopen ($host, 43, $errno, $errstr, 100); if (!$fp) { $result = $errstr . $errno . "\n"; } else { fputs ($fp, $command . "\r\n\r\n"); $result = ''; while (!feof($fp)) { $result .= fgets ($fp, 128); } fclose ($fp); } return $result; } //debug... echo whois('whois.internic.net', 'php.net'); ?> Re...

The Overrated Tamil Culture

Since the COVID period, I developed an interest in exploring old books from the 1700s to the 1900s through Google Books. I first focused on the celebrated Protestant missionary Ringeltaube, but over time, my curiosity expanded toward understanding the demographics and social practices of that era. In Tamil Nadu, what is often celebrated as "Tamil Culture" revolves around the practice of monogamy, known locally as ஒருவனுக்கு ஒருத்தி — meaning one woman for one man. Some even compare this tradition with practices in other states, claiming Tamil culture is especially unique. This sense of pride is particularly strong around Madurai, where people often refer to themselves as “pure Tamil” when compared with neighboring regions like Kanyakumari, whose people they call Malayalis. What’s striking, though, is that this proud image doesn’t always align with historical accounts. A book published in 1885 (I’ve chosen not to mention its title or link to avoid stirring controversy) ma...

Stampede and the "Dirty" "Dark" Crowd

Actor Ajith Kumar’s recent interview has sparked quite a few conversations on social media. The part that caught my attention, was his take on crowds. About 30 years ago, when I first joined a college in Madurai after growing up in other places, I experienced a few cultural shocks. Perhaps these weren’t unique to Madurai, but that’s where I first noticed them. One major thing that stood out was the behavior of crowds. For instance, if you suddenly see people rushing to board a bus, chances are there’s a pickpocket in action. During one of Madurai's annual festivals, I noticed some young men carrying water bags — not to distribute water, but to spill it on women, often on their chests. Shockingly, this was almost normalized; parents would quietly tolerate it to avoid public embarrassment, walking a little farther behind the crowd. When some women happened to witness this, they would just shoo the boys away instead of confronting them. The crowd, in such cases, became a kind of...