Mama

Camp 3 to Summit

2012-01-12T01:45:00.000-08:00

We reached Camp 3 and there was some surprise for sure.

The environmentalist did not need aspirin. He actually needed the inhaler, but he managed to borrow one from some other team who decided to help (this happened on its own and was not part of the simulation).

The photographer and environmentalist were at critical health. Everyone else was at weak health. Satellite communication went for a toss. All weather predictions had to be done manually. Every team member had been given a set of data that could be used to calculate the weather range, windchill factor and windspeed. Based on this information, the team could decide whether to move to Camp 4 or stay put for another day.

The team got into action. All data was collected and using traditional temperature formulae and windchill tables, the weather forecasting was done. We found out that we risk a frost-bite within 5 minutes of ascent. That was the last thing we wanted.

The biggest decision was made. To stay back, stay alive and stay healthy.

The decision helped us. It was the 4th day and the sherpas delivered the oxygen cannisters. Our next job was to divide the oxygen cannisters among the team members. Health status has improved and everyone was good to climb. Weather was fantastic and there was no point in waiting. Again, everyone had relevant information on the oxygen cannisters. The number of cannisters were to be decided based on the hours taken to summit and back, from Camp 4, and the rate at which oxygen was being consumed by each person.

We did some calculations and then split the cannisters. As we were doing that, we also figured out that there was a cost associated to with the cannisters. So we were quite careful about allocating extra. We were also mindful about the weight that it would add to the backpack. This was a big mistake on our part.

None of us needed medicines. We put our footsteps forward. Camp 4 seemed to be a tough place. Icy winds and troubling temperatures. Health had come down. The environmentalist was not very sure now. He had an incentive to stay here and collect some browny points. So, he started suggesting us to think about leaving him at Camp 4. The leader was not too keen on doing that. The other question was to decide whether we need to administer medicine or not.

After prolonged discussions, we decided that if we were going to leave the environmentalist behind, then we will not give any medicine to him. Our other option was to give him the medicine and move to summit. The photographer was also weak and he needed aspirin too. We administered the medicine and decided to Summit.

The worst happened. The marathoner, environmentalist and physician could not summit and they were rescued.

Camp 1 and 2

2012-01-05T22:09:00.000-08:00

After the brief was sent out, I had a break for close to 10 days. Our first meeting happened after I was back. Some groups had already finished the simulation by the time I was back.

Our first meeting was quite a breeze. We were at Base Camp. We sat through and introduced ourselves, stating what we look forward to during this simulation. As everyone was in great health, we decided to proceed to Camp 1. We reached the camp without any problem at all.

The next decision was to move to Camp 2. The photographer had some issues because he had an incentive to stay at Camp 1 for one extra day. None of the others had any motivation. There was a restriction to have only one rest day during the six day trip. The environmentalist wanted to spend an extra day at Camp 4. The leader wanted everyone to stick together. Seeing all this happening, the photographer decided to move to Camp 2. He thought that if things did not go well, he could stay in Camp 2 for an extra day and then get back to Camp 1; basically not summit at all.

Everyone ascended to Camp 2. This place was first sight of how things could go awry. Everyone's health had come down. The environmentalist was critical. Anyone could contract asthma or AMS. The physician did have the medical equipment (inhaler, aspirin, blood pressure monitor) to administer to one of the team members at a time. The important decision was to know what medicine to give and see how we can progress.

The photographer was in a fix. Now he had to decide. He was the only one who had a different motive - "Stay back". The discussion began. The leader was quite clear. He didnt want to keep anyone back. The overall team objectives were at stake. The photographer decided to take a call. If he didnt stay back, he would lose only 25% from his overall goals; but the team as a whole would achieve more, perhaps more than 30%. He decided to let go of his personal interest.

The team took a call to administer the aspirin to the environmentalist and move to Camp 3. The marathoner played the very important role of gauging the temperature at every stage. We were at Camp 3 now.

Mt Everest

2011-12-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

Mt Everest is a simulation exercise that focuses mostly on team work, leadership, and conflict resolution. As part of the training program, its being administered here.

We have been divided into teams of 5. There is one leader. Every person on the team has a defined role to play.

The Team needs to progress from Base Camp to Summit. In between there are 3-4 camps to cross. Moving from one camp to another is a decision that the team needs to make. This decision could be based on individual interest, climatic conditions, individual health, availability of supplies, need to rescue etc.

Yesterday we got the first email about the simulation. Immediately one of the teams called for a meeting and I got to know about that. I had just logged into the system to see my role and my goals and within that short period of time, a team meeting had been called.

Anyways, the team met and this is what happened. As a given rule, everyone could access the system through the same password, which means, I could use my friend's email id and know what his role in the team is (which I think is a big flaw in the administration of the simulation). So, this team actually logged into the system for everyone on their team, copied all the details and sent out a single document containing all the information for each team member. Now, this means that every team member knows what the other's role in the group is. They also get to know more details about each role such as individual goals against group goals and scoring patterns for all the individual goals.

The simulation is rigged now. This will not give rise to any conflict as the leader knows what the other team members want and he will know what to answer without any reason for negotiation. The game will be staged rather than being simulated.

Now, the team says that they did this because they want to be the number one in this game; whatever it takes. 'What does that mean' when they were asked back. They said 'They would get points as a team and every individual would also get points'. So yes, now you got all the points that you need and you also won the first place. So What??

Nothing happens. This is an office and you don't get a performance bonus to win this game. This is just a simulation to know how teams work and how they resolve conflicts. If the most ideal and healthy situation was simulated, then there is no need for a team. The leader can himself see everyone's strengths from the simulation screen and make a decision. HA HA HA

While I was writing this, I got an email from the organizer that its okay to share information (even with unique passwords, team members could still share information). The most important thing is if that can be converted into actions. Let's see what happens next.

Fiction: Separation

2011-11-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

They were good friends. Absolutely no strings attached. He'd been observing her for sometime now. There was something strange about her. He didn't know what. She was smiling and sounded normal from the outside, but deep within, she had locked herself into the room of dark secrets.

He imagined there was pain. The good person in him didn't give away. There was an urge to help. He wanted to help her break free and smile. He thought about it - really hard. It wasn't easy getting into someone else's life. There were risks. It could affect him as well.

He asked her. Told her that he felt strong about seeing her happy. She didn't respond. He was persistent. He was not the kind who would just walk away from anything. In him, he had already decided that he wanted to do this and he wasn't going to change his mind for the world. She suddenly sounded stronger than him. She wasn't giving him a chance to intrude and for a moment he felt that he was losing the battle. While this happened, he noticed her full eyes. He couldn't say more. He walked away.

Months passed and one fine day she had gone, untold. He looked terribly pained and there was no one to hear. As time passed he realized why she had hesitated, in the very beginning. It was the pain of SEPARATION she was afraid of.

PS: Something I had written years back and I don't even know if this makes sense but it was lying in the archives; so decided to give it a little polishing.

Mayakkam Enna

2011-11-25T10:05:00.001-08:00

A group of friends are always fun to be with - drinking, gossip, dinners, lying around the house drunk, late nights at the beach. Your friends are your best judge and sometimes your worst enemy. Nevertheless, its only your friends who can forgive and forget because they have seen you every moment. They understand what you are going through; your toughest moments are easy when they are around. You can do what you want when you are with them and not bother about consequences.

Love happens. You don't know when it hits you. It could be your friend's girlfriend too but she doesn't care. 'She was never serious the first time' she says. You try to resist the feeling but this time, it hits you like a hurricane. And this is when life gets complicated. You are torn between the most cherished parts of your life - your true friends and your new love. The weirdness begins. You want to be lonely. Its not the loneliness but the fear that makes you run away from believing the truth. You don't want to accept. You tend to think that running away would solve all the problems, rather that creates the most uncomfortable situations.

Amidst all the chaos, life begins in a modest way. Being a part of the middle-class you have your own share of difficulties in life. There is pain, struggle, betrayal, frustration, alcohol, bruises, blood, tears and definitely lack of power. With so many negatives in your life, there is nothing much to look forward to except for that simple reason called hope which emanates from the love that you originally had, to begin that life.

Selvaraghavan lets us walk into the life of an aspiring photographer Dhanush who neither has the education (atleast we don't know this part) or professional support to be successful. The meek and submissive character that he is, although he bosses around with his friends, he is mentally affected by failures. Success comes his way in a big way, but life has taken the toughest turns until then.

Mayakkam Enna is a true director's movie with the least "masala" elements available in the typical tamil movie package. The movie has Selvaraghavan written all over it without any doubt. The hilarious first half makes you wonder what's going to happen in the second and that's when he decides to give you a high voltage shock.

Overall: Fantastic movie. Would be a great script for a malayalam movie sans the songs. Tamil cinema lovers may hate this.

Sadda Haq

2011-11-13T20:23:00.001-08:00

The first time I walked into a movie hall in Bombay (mid September), I was totally floored by the trailer. Every movie I saw after that, I used to wish for the trailer to come back again.

Every musical note in this movie was magical and that is the only reason why no one other than AR Rahman could have done this. ROCKSTAR is all credit to ARR. If there is one thing that someone should talk about after seeing this movie is the power of Rahman's music. Music maketh the movie. Rahman got Orianthi Panagaris to play the lead guitar (she used to play for Michael Jackson). Orianthi breaks all barriers and strikes gold right from the first minute. Rockstar is character driven and guitar is the predominant portion of the whole movie. The smashing hit song "Sadda Haq is only proof to that. Not just this one, but every other song represents the mood the character moulds into; be it a fun song in Prague or the qawwali inside Hazra Nizamuddin.

Janardhan Jakhar aka Jordan, dreams of making it big in music while his family wants him to join their business. He idolises Jim Morrison and when we look at the posters and the graphics we get the same feeling as well. He is surprised that fans were so thrilled when JM walked into the crowd and showed a middle finger while he was being slapped by a police officer for making sensible music at the bus stop. His closest aide tells him that the power of music relies in feeling the pain of love, loneliness, betrayal and the journey begins there; but Jordan is simple, clueless and is always confused all the way.

Ranbir Kapoor has proved himself all through the film. Right fron blending into the costumes, showing the serious attitude and making us feel that the voice lent by Mohit Chauhan (Dooba Dooba fame) is almost his; Ranbir pulls it off quite well. Of course, there are some problems with the guitar and serious guitarists would laugh at that, but we can forget it.

Nargis Fakhri as the Kashmiri lass Heer brings more beauty to the script. Frame after frame, she brings a ravishing touch to the screenplay. Although a lot of things that she does reminds us of Katrina Kaif in a good number of movies in the past, Nargis steals the show being happy-go-lucky. Performance needs a lot of boost and I hope she can do better in forthcoming films, if any. Bollywood is quite open to debuting women beyond 30, which is a really good sign.

Visuals are a treat - streets of Delhi, snow clad mountains and roads, lakes, locales of Prague, Rome, Hazrat Nizamuddin; the choices seem perfect. The film starts off with a concert in Rome - flashes back to Jordan's story and keeps coming back when required. Imtiaz Ali weaves the story aptly to make it interesting till the end.

Overall: Rockstar is a must watch. If not for the script, definitely for the music.

7-Aum Arivu

2011-10-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

What was Murugadoss thinking when he decided to make this film? I still havent figured out that. Sometimes I think that he was partly inspired by Michael Moore.

7AA is a commercial documentary. The first 20 mins of the film is a technologically advanced version of the usual videos that films division used to show in cinema halls years back. Remember the video about Nehru; this was no different. This is where Bodhi Dharma is introduced. ARM goes on to tell us that whatever we saw in Crouching Tiger and other films - I mean flying swords, people and stuff that we saw in Shaolin soccer; is closely related to what Bodhi Dharma taught the Chinese.

The present day Chinese Military begin Operation Red whose only objective is to kill a girl in Chennai.

Suriya plays a circus performer in this film. I still can't figure out why he agreed to do that part because it didnt go well with the script of the film. I wonder if it was done to help the script where Shruti is looking to experiment with a monkey or ride an elephant (this scene is horrible), it still doesnt convince at all. We definitely know that a connection needs to be established between Bodhi Dharma and Suriya but not through a circus.

Coming to the main plot - The Chinese want to kill Shruti Hassan because they think she has done some research that would make India, some kind of a superpower. What I dont get from all this is the depth. Its never there at all. If it were such a research, then how come the Indian scientists are not bothered? And there are a bunch of people fighting about Tamil and English. Gimme a break director!!! There is a lot of cross-border tension between India and China, but China sending someone to India to kill Shruti is like watching a cartoon. The chinese villain using hynotic techniques to use people to his advantage is quite weird and at times very irritating as well.

Shruti Hassan has a very long way to go. I doubt if she will be very successful in the movies. She is awesome on the screen but dialogue delivery needs a lot of work. It feels like watching some US return tamilian on screen. We cannot put the heavy weight on her shoulder that she is Kamal's daughter. She is super talented but I am not sure if this film has done the magic for her.

I cant speak much about the new chinese villain who we have seen in many other hollywood movies. I dont remember doing anything other than staring.

The movie tells us that our traditions and superstitions have scientific reasons behind and we should understand the science and not blindly believe everything. And some of the examples are very effective. What I cant get to grips is when Shruti starts a scientific experiment on Suriya for 12 days; the villain manages to kill the experiment on the penultimate day and miraculously Suriya is still in great form. Suddenly, there is a superhero who has broken the scientific laws. Did I watch a Science Fiction?

What can I say about the songs. Same Harris style. He reminds you that every new song will remind you of his previous compositions. The SPB song in this movie reminded me of the 'Kanne Kalaimaane' sung by Yesudas but a few beats faster in the former. Most other songs are typical and sometimes the beat feels like a lift-off from ARR too.

The movie definitely lacks a good script and depth. Sometimes it looks as if the scenes were just put in place to make some logical sequence. I am supportive of the fact that ARM took up a different subject and exlpored a lot, but converting that into a bio-war is again like venturing into the lines of Dasavatharam. All of a sudden, the film starts wrapping up. The last 30 mins has all the prime content and I wonder why it was only for 30 mins. Romantic sequences were just time wasting tactics getting nowhere and only becoming script spoilers.

One piece of information I got from this movie is that the Chinese definitely have a great idea to eliminate the stray dogs in India but we never want them to help us do that.

Poem: The Untold

2011-10-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

silent dinners
late nite walks
lake side views
lying under the stars

deep dark lines
shaping her eyes
without a word amidst
the fish smiles

lost in her
in the untold
he revels
silence still prevails

lips dont move
with words waiting
she knows
he knows

a strange feeling
yes its a feeling
only the beginning
it has a fragrance

fragrance not known
not to anyone
just the two

brings a breeze
lends a voice
never stays quiet
never stays hidden
still remains untold
the secret of life
the secret of love

The way they work

2011-10-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

My boss here is quite a big guy. Atleast that's what I can figure out. We really don't have a place/site where we can see hierarchies of roles; hence I cannot make any conclusion. My previous company used to have defined roles and all that used to be visible on Outlook. Here, the whole outlook of Outlook is different.

Anyways, in between, I must also tell you that its Diwali season here and the whole office is in bright colors (of course I am not. I didnt wish to wear kurta and enter a suburban train). Diwali here is as big as Christmas in the United States. People take off for more than a week. Literally no one is working in the office today. Most of them are preparing for the festive evening get-together for their respective departments and let me not tell anything about Monday and Tuesday next week. Work is out of question as the office will just be having a few faces here and there.

My boss is a very technically sound person. He has great ideas. I dont know how he has the time to know a lot of things but he does. Also, he has a lot of people reporting to him. By a lot, I mean really a lot, like hundreds. I am sure all these hundred don't meet him everyday, but it does make things complicated. For example, if I need to meet him, I need to go and find out where he is first and then fix up a time to meet him. This is because he would always be in other meetings all day.

This brings me to another juncture. People hardly use meeting requests here. All my meetings have been confirmed on the phone. Whenever I ask anyone for a time to meet, they say ' come anytime today ', which is a very ridiculous answer according to me. Nevertheless, I haven't been requested by anyone for a meeting. If they did, then I'd ask them to send a meeting request for sure. I wonder if there is any meeting agenda that is circulated at all.

Also, when you are discussing with another person inside a meeting room, someone would knock. They would come in and start talking to that other person. Once they are done, your conversation would continue. Nor the person you were meeting with or the person knocking the door takes the decision to postpone the second conversation. Bottomline: 'different meetings happen in parallel'. And because there is a good chance that another party is waiting for a discussion in the same meeting room while yours is happening, they may give their free unwanted advice to you when they hear your conversation.

I think there is more to come on this. Most of this is rather very funny to witness.

Bounce - Book Review

2011-10-21T05:01:00.000-07:00

Matthew Syed is a British journalist and broadcaster, who was once a table tennis champion. He was the English number one for quite a while, then three times the Men's Singles Champion at the Commonwealth and also played on the GB Olympics team.

Bounce - written by Syed is a book that focuses on excellence in sports. Syed keeps you entertained from the beginning of the book by not focusing on the science of sports but gives anecdotes from his own table tennis days; about how it matters to indulge in sports at the right time and have the right ingredients like the coach and facilities to practise.

Syed comes across as very gentle, clear and authoritative as you flip the pages. He starts talking about the ten thousand hours (remember Gladwell's Outliers.. and there is a lot of mention about that in this book) and that's when you tend to believe in the effort that great sportsman that we hear of today - Roger Federer, David Beckham, Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar, Shizuka Arakawa; would have taken. Most of the top ranking sportsmen started playing when they were roughly about 6 or 8 yrs old. Ten years of focus, meaningful practice and performance improvement at each level elevates them and they are what we see today.

Syed also talks about different experiments carried out by people across the world. The research on the West Berlin Music Academy; the research on strange distribution of birthdates of Canadian ice-hockey players; incredible working memory of SF who can remember more than 40 digits sometimes and the experiment on how we control the mindset of people.

Bounce also has a good selection of information about how top players in various fields started off initially. Syed takes us through the lives of Shaquille O'Neal, Williams Sisters, Mozart. He also discusses about the sudden increase in South Korean women golfers in the LPGA circuit.

Every human being, be it in sports or not; is always affected by certain sparks in their life. This may be like jolt out of the blue and that is it. Its such a powerful effect that it becomes a life changing moment.

As you read through, you also tend to understand why high performers sometimes dont perform at all. He very simply calls it choking and its quite evident when you pull up the facts. Top sportsmen havent always done well when it was required. And this not because they didnt practise well. Its only because their mind is choking with all the facts about the game.

After getting very serious on experiments and choking, Syed starts talking about sentiments in sports. And I would totally agree to this. Even if it doesnt make any difference, I too have such sentiments when I play frisbee locally in my city. Yes, its not even a championship but I still believe. So I could very much relate to what he says.

The next part of the book is about attentional blindness and the example is a plane crash. It is a very good insight into how people use only a part of their attention skills to focus on something they are very familiar with and then work on the remaining. The section on anti-doping and the effects of doping; followed by arguments about genetically enhanced genes for mutual benefits gets you thinking about the role of advanced science and whether we need such evils/boons in our life or not.

The gene research extends a bit and goes on to understand how Blacks dominate atheletics (sprints and marathons). The American and Jamaican atheletes are the sprint champions with the Kenyan and Ethiopians taking the marathons.

Bounce is a great book for people who are interested in sports and knowing about excellence in sports. It gives scientific insights into sports that were never known before. Any coach who wants to keep his students motivated should read this book.

Life changing experiences

2011-10-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

About 10 people are seated in a small conference room. Everyone is wearing a white shirt and a black trouser, some sort of a uniform I think. Some of them have their laptops open and the others are chatting up about when is the latest they could leave from that place. A few others were already making calls to the local cab.

All of a sudden, the boss walks in and starts a discussion with everyone. Each one of them quotes a line or two and then its time for him to talk.

And this is what they heard

" We heard all of your thoughts now and today I am going to tell you my story and let me tell you.. this was a life changing experience for me.

About 10 yrs back, I joined the workforce at this place. Prior to that I had about 12 yrs experience. When I joined, I was given a cabin. For the first week, I really couldn't meet my boss. I didnt like my cabin and hence I requested to be seated outside with everyone. They didnt give me that option. So, I decided to sit outside along with the others and started mingling with everyone. Another week was also passing by and I had no work. My boss was very busy in meetings all day.

One day, he came by and told me to work with someone sitting in another town and help that team with some infrastructure. I did that and came back. Again, there was really not much to do.

Slowly, I began to notice that my boss used to leave very late from the office.. roughly around 11pm. I didnt know what he was doing but I wanted to know. There was no way to find out. I decided to stay late and leave only after he left. I used to spend roughly 5 hours at my desk, mostly doing nothing or at the max read some articles on technology. One fine day, the boss noticed me and asked me why I was staying up late. I told him that I wanted to know what he was doing this late and hence stayed. The boss then invited him to late night dinner with a vendor. From then on, the boss would always call him whenever he went out for dinners. During the day, the interactions used to be very minimal.

The opportunity came when my boss gave me the job to take care of vendors. I arranged for all vendor meetings (which probably meant hospitality, food, meeting rooms etc) and ensured everything went fine.

There was no looking back after this. I was always with my boss. Seeing my with my boss, people used to think that I was someone very senior in the company. They used to ask my questions about projects that happened prior to my joining; and I used to confidently answer them like I was there when it happened. To make people in other departments do some work, I used to take my boss' name and even sometimes the names of few other big people in the organization. That ensured that work was always completed.

Sooner, the guy who I worked with first in another city for a small project was reporting to me.

So, friends, all this has been the most important part of my journey in this company and I urge you to take similar steps to chalk out your future here."

Atleast half of the audience was super-shocked. They hadn't expected to hear such a story. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.

The meeting

2011-10-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

Let's get there by 11am was the latest message on Thursday night. I was not sure if I heard it right. Why get to a place by 11am for a 2.45pm meeting? But these guys never want to take chances when it comes to the Chairman.

We were at Makers on Nariman Point by quarter past 11 or so. Our team was sitting in a small conference room preparing for the afternoon meeting. My slides had pretty much nothing to say as I had spent the least time here - just about a month and my work started early this week.

The feeling had not sunk it until it was 2.30pm. I was going to meet the man behind the new Reliance. The son who made all of this happen. The person who is in the news almost everyday. I had not imagined that this would ever happen. Absolutely not.

As we were seated in the room, MDA comes in and meets everyone personally for a few seconds. Then our presentation begins. We present all our slides - few mins each. He asks a few questions to everyone to get a feel of whats happening.

The meeting in whole was quite interesting. I wouldn't say it was very empowering but there were some key messages. MDA expects this new bunch of people to take up good leadership roles within the company. He mentioned to us about the need visualize to the future and create the path to excellence.

There was a mention of the concept of Generational Peace. He kept talking about the fact that the older set of leaders needed to shed some of their key responsibilities and believe in the idea of young blood taking the reins. For this to happen, the new set needs to step up a little.

At the end, he told us to think about the end state and then work backwards. Overall, it was ok but there could the other side to this. And that will be my next post.

Signed up for this?

2011-10-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

Moments of loneliness inside a less than 550sqft apartment perched in between hundreds of similar ones sometimes makes you think hard about the choices that you make and whether they seem relevant.

Life in Chennai was peaceful and fun but work was boring. It never seemed to get better and no one seemed to bother about it. That was the reason to quit and do something else.

Bombay seems way out of place. Its not about the new place and adjustments that you need, to get settled. Its more about what you really want.

I get up everyday before 7am. Uncertainities in my life didnt allow me to buy even a refrigerator. So, I have to walk up to the nearest store everyday to buy a packet of milk. Now, I need to finish the half litre pack because it would get bad by evening. Bombay - the city where everyone wants to be, has power cuts everyday. The power goes off at 7.30am pretty much every day and comes back after 4 hrs. So, if I get up late, then I have to drink cold milk (i dont have a gas stove, only induction). Under rising temperatures of the morning, I shower and still keep sweating until the breeze hits my face when the auto makes a rush to the railway station. A 20 minute train ride in a not-so crowded train. The moment you get down, you need to make a quick rush to get into the free shutle to the office. If you don't rush, you will still make the next one but you may have to bear the heat as the driver wont leave until the bus gets full.

Even if you reached office as early as 9.30am, the official work timings begin at 10.30am. Thats when people start walking in. The day goes by and then you wait till 6pm as you can get out only then. Another rush to for the free shuttle. Then the train ride and an evening walk to the apartment; if possible a dinner somewhere in between.

Yes, its a bachelor life in all, but a little too demanding. Even in Pilani, there used to be a guy who'd come and get your clothes, wash and iron, and deliver it back to your room. Finding a maid here is become the most difficult task. The Lokpal Bill may be passed but I may not find a maid.

They always say that you should look at ways to elevate yourself when you move into doing anything new. Yes, I have obtained the elevation in terms on being on the 4th floor; but nothing beyond that. I never imagined before that, at 31, I would wash all my clothes, mop the house and worry about cockroaches/moths/other insects entering my house.

Like Thalaivar Simbu says in Vaanam "Enna Vaazhka da ithu"

Sountrack

2011-10-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, I get to do some work and its sounds very interesting. Although, I cant discuss what I will be doing; its definitely close to what I have been doing before - except that playing ultimate and working from home is not part of the job description now.

I happened to see this awful film called SOUNDTRACK. Its about this music obsessed hero who wants to make it big in Bollywood and first starts off being a DJ in a club. I didnt know that DJ's in India had so much perks - this guy gets to drink litres of alcohol, smokes up all kinds of stuff and also gets to bed the hottest women in the club. AND he gets paid to do all of that!!! Whatever, the movie had no sense of script and direction. It was a mess. Post interval, our man becomes completely deaf and goes into alternative therapy.

The websites are flooding with research articles about pancreatic cancer. The newspapers in India have also started publishing front page articles with stats about the p.cancer scene in India.

The best news I read today was about SIRI - the talking iphone app for 4S. I was stunned when I saw the video demonstration. It can reply to ur SMS, fix appointments on your phone, lookup restaurants near you and can even give you suggestions on life!!! Everytime I keep thinking what Apple can add to an already feature friendly exotic phone is when they come out with something that you can never imagine.

I started reading a book by name BOUNCE, written by Matthew Syed. The book is fantastic. I think I will be writing a post about the book very soon.

Almost a month

2011-10-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

It will be a month in Bombay, one week from now. I still dont know how I am able to survive the 6 day week. Its a big drain on personal life when you know that Sunday is the only day left in your whole week. A mid-week holiday, whenever it comes by, although it rarely does; is definitely a boon.

Last week, we had presentations from different group companies. Each rep explained to us in detail about the businesses that they were in-charge of and the kind of markets they serve. It was quite interesting to see the diversity of products that is being handled by this single entity called Reliance. I mean, its just a few words to say that they backward integrated from textiles to oil and gas exploration - but what a TASK to get that executed and moreover the will to do things so massive! Thats unbelievable.

The presentation week concluded with our visit to the Jamnagar refinery. We took a corporate jet from the military base in Mumbai to Jamnagar.

Truly World Class. There is Jamnagar, which is a small town and then there is Reliance Jamnagar, which is a whole new world altogether. For the first time, I saw the Reliance Mart which is comparable to the Walmart SuperStore in the US. The WM Store is still bigger, but I guess in India; we are always in a struggle for space and if we need big spaces, we have to go out of the city atleast 35kms. The city population would never drive all the way there to buy the household stuff. If retailers built such huge establishments in the city, they end up paying a hefty rent and hardly beark-even with such stores.

So, Jamnagar was a construction marvel. 700 acres of guest house and residential land. Amazing recreational facilities including two huge football fields, just enough to play some wonderful ultimate everyday.

The refinery itself is a maze. Although I couldnt understand every technical explanation that was given, it was still mind-blowing to see how the whole place was running all day and all night without a glitch.

Reliance has also spent loads of money on developing a green belt, which has a million plus mango trees; the largest in Asia. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw that. We were driving through kilometres of mango trees. Now I have to wait until May 2012 to taste some of that.

Twelfth Day

2011-09-24T03:20:00.000-07:00

Its been twelve days now. Work has not started. Over the last week or so, I met a lot of people who are in-charge of different departments within the information techology organization. Just the usual introductions and trying to understand what they are doing and how my future work will fit into the whole context etc etc

There is also a weird attendance policy in the company. You have to be in by 10.30 am and you can get out only by 6pm. If you came late or left early, you need to justify; else you lose your pay for the day. Stupidity I thought, only when I saw lines of people queuing up at 5.55pm; waiting to swipe their card out at 6pm and then rushing to catch the first shuttle to the station. I kinda get the feeling that a lot of people dont like this but I guess they cant help it.

Just like it happens in traditional Indian Companies, the Sir culture is present here as well. And being the north, rather west, they also add brother along with your name once in a while. Its becoming very difficult for me to switch to the respect format from a first name format. A friend of mine told me that eventually I will end up doing that - I mean start accepting the system and not questioning. Right now, its not like that. I definitely dont want to change; but lets see.

Evenings after office have been well spent. Vandhaan Vendraan and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. I was glued to my seat watching Miss Kaif give that naughty wild smile - oooohhhh.. goose bumps and because she was playing a girl from London, she did all justice she could. Hopefully I will watch a Telugu movie during the weekend.

Engaeyum Eppothum

2011-09-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I took a bus to Bangalore. The bus left Adyar at 10.30pm, picked up a few more in T.Nagar around 11pm and then reached this place called Silk Board in Bangalore by 4.15am. I was happy and shocked when I got off the bus. Happy because I reached Bangalore much early for the function that I was going to attend and shocked as I looked back on the journey time taken by the bus. I thought the bus driver was literally standing on the accelerator pedal all through the journey!!! Although this is a common phenomenon for buses that run between Chennai and Bangalore, its still an alarming fact that the operators dont have any control on speeding.

Engaeyum Eppothum, in some ways exposes us to one harsh reality - your life could be in the hands of a careless bus driver on the highway. You can always argue that what has to happen will definitely happen and if the bus driver is your chauffeur to hell/heaven its just a means. But what the hell.

As the movie opens, you witness a horrible accident between a private bus operator and SETC. As the scene unfolds, we are taken into the lives of different people who are travelling on both the buses. The lead characters are part of this bus journey and we learn more about their life when we go back a few months.

A girl(Ananya) from Trichy comes to interview for a job in Chennai, solicits help from a handsome looking stranger to help her get to the venue and also doubts his character all along their journey. I would have been convinced if the director actually chose a more interior town than Trichy to portray the girl's humble and innocent character. Trichy is quite cosmopolitan these days. Air Asia flies to Trichy directly from SE Asia!!! Anyways, through the journey, we obviously expect her to fall in love with the guy. The story is being told from the girl's perspective - a little different because I am always used to Parthiban's narration in a flashback. This was a welcome change. Almost 6 months later and love untold plus a failed desperate search to find the guy, she boards the private bus to Trichy from Chennai. The stranger who is in Trichy, boards the SETC bus to Chennai.

Jai and Anjali are in Trichy. Very middle class life - long working hours and earnings just enough to manage a decent living. Jai plays a very quiet character while Anjali is the extrovert - very strong and demanding. The director thought a lot about her character in this movie. Until the accident, every scene she is part of is a surprise package - we don't know why she is doing what she is doing and at the same time its quite hilarious. They board the SETC bus from Trichy to their hometown near Villupuram.

In between, we are also introduced to a few characters in the bus - a bunch of girls who are celebrating their tournament victory; a young college boy who happens to meet a beautiful girl also in the bus; a dad returning from Saudi to see his 5 yr old daughter who he hadnt seen since birth; a doting husband who actually comes to drop his wife but cannot leave her alone in the bus, so ends up taking the journey with her, and many other people who would be just like the one sitting near you in an inter-city bus. Conversations between the people sitting next to each other reminds us about random chats that you would have during a bus/train journey. In fact, the director makes it very realistic by not revealing passenger names.

This movie will not do well at the box-office. People will not like it, but I believe that it would send the message to a lot of people about highway incidents.

The Monday that was

2011-09-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

I got into the office quite early. Two trains and then a small ride in the auto I reached the gate. The corporate office is spread over 500 acres (more than 2 times the size of ISB and 1.5 times BITS Pilani). People actually take shuttle buses to go from one building to another. The building numbers are also a little weird. Building 9 is still under construction(I heard) whereas 1-8 and 10-12 are already functional. This company has many businesses in the same place. There is Oil and Gas, Retail, Technology, Life Sciences, Solar, Food Testing Lab, Textiles and what not (I guess I missed a few). But there are hardly 20000 employees here. There is a lot of open space and some of that is being used to maintain the greenery of the place. There is a horticulture department that takes care of the same.

I met the guy from the external consulting team who gave me an overview of the whole project. After that I spent some time reading old artifacts about the program. Then I met an old friend who had joined a similar team. We spent the next hour chatting up about our old job and what was happening here. It was quite a realization after I heard what he had to say. I am quite sure I will have enough opportunities to talk about the same and can add my experience as well. I met a few other people who had also joined the program in various other departments. A lot of people here speak Hindi right royally. A similar Tamil culture was evident in Cognizant as well. No wonder my friend once told me that its Chennai Technology Solutions and not Cognizant. I used to join a few lunch circles or gossip circles in Cognizant and yes, most of them spoke in Tamil. Matter of convenience I guess.

My first induction / training starts tomorrow. I checked out a few houses in Nerul. I decided that I need a furnished house as it did not make sense to buy all the electrical stuff here, because of the only fact that I dont know how many months I would last in this place (I will talk about that in my posts to come).

A new life?

2011-09-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Landing in Bombay one day before the immersion of the Ganapthy idol was not a bad idea but the day of the immersion was a big mess. The whole of Bombay felt like that main road in Triplicane.

Thank God, Madras is not this bad. Sunday evening here was a mess. Crackers bursting everywhere, policemen all the place, people dancing, processions and the icing on the cake was the rain. What a horrible evening it was. But I made most of my evening by choosing to do something more useful. I made a rush to FAME Cinemas in Vashi to watch Thala 50 - Mankatha. Ooooohhhhh!!! Whattay movie!!! I was impressed. The only thing that I didnt like about watching the movie or rather I deeply regret is the crowd. No one is shouting or whistling. Such an indecent and obedient audience. Of course they are all Tamilians. Dont know what Bombay has done to these people.

My Amex co-branded card with Kingfisher was so useful at the Chennai airport. I got a Priority Check-in and Priority Boarding allowance for my Gold Status. Also managed to get free lounge access. I helped myself with some really good food while I was there. Finally realizing the true benefit of using my Amex Card.

Bombay never sleeps. Very true, these guys where pulling the carts with the idol of the God all through the night. My guest house overlooks the main road and its probably the route in this locality that has been allocated for the procession. Every half hour I was woken up by drums. What a huge public nuisance!!! I hope I am not in Bombay for the next such procession.

Trains are always a pain here. For the next two weeks, I need to take two trains to work and its quite a bad experience. Its really disgusting to see someone crush your 60 EURO pure leather bag atleast 50 times during that one journey. Also while you are standing there, a few bald headed idiots would wipe their sweaty foreheads on your shirt while they rush to get down at the next station. No amount of cursing is going to help because these guys do this everyday. I was just one of today's victims. So from tomorrow, no bag.

House hunt has started. I looked at a few apartments today. Nothing great but still charging a bomb for the place. Thankfully this is New Bombay and hance its lesser than original Bombay. And on top of that you need to pay the brokerage as well.. which is sometimes 2 months rent. Ridiculous. What more.. if you renew the contract after one year, you need to pay the brokerage again for the next year. This stuff doesnt even happen in the UK!!!

The Wake Up Alarm

2010-12-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

So what's the purpose of having an alarm?

Well, the intention is to get up at the set time.

As long as that is clear, I guess we are okay.
Then why press the snooze button for the next one hour? Might as well, set the alarm to ring after one hour? Doesnt that make more sense?

Actually it truly does, but who wants to buy logic.

Its an Alarm! For you, it may sound like birds chirping inside the room trying to wake you up. For the other person who doesnt want to get up, its a damn alarm and when it rings for 12 times in the next one hour, its definitely annoying. Aint it?

I really wonder if the mind works like clock-work. Every five minutes, find that snooze button, press it and then get back to routine.

So you dont like me keeping an alarm to get up? I wont keep an alarm at all ever.

With this, I am trying to start the regular updates on my blog. Hopefully, interesting events would trigger and that would give a chance for coverage and representation.

Jessie

2010-04-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

The base guitar chords create a magical moment to start with. When the camera moves from the Punnamada Lake in Allepey to the beautiful church, you hear...

"Of all the girls in this world, why did I fall in love with Jessie?"
This dialogue is repeated a number of times in the movie.

When you hear this dialogue from Simbu, you can feel love.
When his camera-man friend says this, there is a bit of fear.
When his sister says this, it comes like a natural warning and disapproval.
When Jessie herself asks the question back to Simbu, you can understand the confusion in her mind.

Sexy, classy, well read. Thats Jessie for you.

Gautam Vasudev Menon, in his latest movie, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (VTV), has taken a very simple subject - Romance, given it the exact touch it needs for the year 2010 and has displayed brilliance in execution.

With romance in the air, you can be rest assured that AR Rahman is definitely going to treat you. In fact, romance is a subject where every music director shows his best. With ARR, you dont have to ask. Remember Bombay - those beats and background scores when they show Shaila Banu. Its the same with VTV. Rahman has given importance to melody along with modernity. In fact, the screenplay for VTV is best explained only through ARR's compositions.

Hosanna - a song picturised in the shores of Malta introduces us to love. This song is the beginning of a wonderful love story; a simple love-at-first-sight song yet powerful. What I like about VTV is the way the story is being told. The viewpoint is always from one angle - that is from Simbu. The story is what he sees and feels. There is not one scene where Simbu is not there, which probably supports my argument as well.

Omana Penne - the second song in the movie and another love song. Well, actually the love is still not there completely. Its still one sided. Before this song, Trisha asks Simbu why he liked her so much and this song gives all the answers. Every word in this song is reflective of what Simbu feels or atleast what the director wants Simbu to feel.

Kannukkul Kannai - Jessie is confused. She does not want love because she thinks its going to hurt her. But she does not stop her lover. She wants the relationship to be open and at the level of being friends. When its love, you cannot make such boundaries. Thats what this song comes to say passionately. The violin portions in the beginning show the intensity of the lover, his anger towards Jessie for being impossible. Even though he is angry, he loves her and he cannot leave her. The line "Kadhal endraal kaayam thaan" - meaning love always hurts brings so much meaning to the situation.

Mannippaaya - sung by Shreya Ghoshal and ARR. If you ask me, I would say that this song is where love actually begins in the movie. Jessie is madly in love. She accepts, realizes her mistake of not revealing her love for Karthik. "Mannippaaya" sounds like a sad song but its nothing like that. Its a true reflection of how Jessie understands the real feeling of being in love.

Gautam Menon has always kept some part of himself in all of his movies. He has given his voice for Jerry, Jessie's brother. We also notice the "GVM 8004" written on the ship in the song Kannukkul Kannai.

VTV's story maybe the same as what we saw in Alaigal Oivathillai. Hindu boy falls in love with Christian girl, family doesnt like, and then there is a rift. But the good part about watching a movie with the same theme in 2010 is how each of us can connect with it. In love, there are no enemies who will come in 10 Tata Sumo's to attack you. You dont have to jump across 20 men or hit all of them at one go. Its only about love and the two people involved. VTV is like just another love story that happens in your college or friends circle; the songs and locations are to add some flavor for the 2.5 hrs you spend in the cinema hall.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya - Thamarai's lyrics beautifully rendered by Karthik, the splendid guitar chords take us to the peak of love.

Aromale - a complete malayalam song written by Kaithappram (a well renowned musician and lyricist, brilliant carnatic singer as well); sung by Alphonse (a music director as well). Karthik is reflecting back on love. He takes us back to those wonderful moments in few minutes. This song reminds you of some accoustic compositions of Bryan Adams. There is a bit of soft rock in the beginning; the tempo builds later.

Anbil Avan - celebrating love happily. Jessie and Karthik say their vows and get married. Chinmayi and Devan mesmerize you completely with their voice. ARR blends carnatic instruments perfectly into this themed song where they show a church and temple wedding.

Gautam Menon should always be appreciated for his choice of actors for the movie. The way he conceptualizes a character and fits the actor there is mind-blowing. Trisha is so perfect for Jessie. Eevry dialog, expression is so hand-crafted. Just like how they make the Rolls Royce. But sometimes you dont like the trims. Like I didnt like the way she kept reminding us that she was a Malayali by talking three words in malayalam every 20 minutes. And grow up Simbu rather Gautam, you cant be so dumb in 2010. Kerala is not just about "puttu-kadalai". You get the same quality or even better even in Chennai. We know that you want the guy to act stupid in front of his girl; the typical girl-guy conversations when the guy has to make some stupid arguments or comments, but could have done better there.

Overall: Awesome movie if you like love stories

Swimming

2010-04-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

Summer time in Chennai. To beat the heat, I decided to join swimming classes. Today was my third class. I am still learning to float properly. My body has become very stiff - I guess its mainly because of going to the gym. Quads are not moving as required. Shoulders are also quite rigid.

Anyway, today the instructor was watching me do the float drill for sometime. And then he also asked me to do the float and kick drill. While I was doing that, (obviously I wasn't doing it right at all), he tried to help me. And then he started.

First, you should take a deep breath. Then push the wall with your legs; go inside the water, keep head down, touch chest with chin and keep your hands straight. You should loosen your body and try to float. While doing all this correctly, you should also start kicking with your legs straight.

The moment he finished this and I started my first try at what he told me, I remembered this sequence below (starting at the 55th second) and I just went straight inside. Took me a few seconds to come back on my feet and bring up head out of water. In process drank some as well. Enjoy

Paiya

2010-04-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

Before the release of this movie, Actor Suriya told - What Kaakha Kaakha did to me, is what Paiya will do to Karthi.

After you see the movie, you will probably understand what he really meant. After Kaakha Kaakha, the Suriya and Jothika relationship went really strong. Maybe that's what Suriya meant about Karthi and Tamannah. HA HA HA

God knows what was in Lingusamy's mind when he decided to make a movie and name it Paiya. There is absolutely no story.

A jobless hero sees the beautiful heroine on a bus-stop, decides to fall in love with her, accidentally runs into her in a train station and drives her from Bangalore to Mumbai because she asks him to. That's all. So, we know that there is absolutely NO SCRIPT for this movie, which means that SCREENPLAY also takes a straight dive into the ocean. When there is no script and screenplay, what can you do with direction and cinematography. So, all technical aspects of the movie score negative.

Karthi maintains an informal urban look all through the movie. I think his acting skills were wasted ever since the days of Parutthiveeran. In this movie, he is just a driver. He fights like a warlord. Apart from that, he is just imagining and dreaming about Tamannah.

I dont understand when Tamil cinema will make meaningful fights. I mean fights that really need to be there and that make you believe. Paiya has fights that are unwanted - totally unwanted; just occupying screen time.

What makes you feel good when you see the movie is, I am sorry but its a guy thing - Tamannah. She is super dazzling throughout the movie. She is not the hot and sexy types. She also doesnt portray herself that way. Its like this. Remember how sexy and hot Sameera Reddy looked when she acted with Shiny Ahuja in some hindi movie, but Gautam Menon brought her to Tamil, gave her some super nice costumes and made her look stunning without all these revealing clothes. Just the same way with Tamannah. She is awesome in a decent way.

But otherwise, if you asked me what is there in the movie Paiya. Absolutely Nothing. I am sure that some of our Hindu Newspaper reviewers are going to praise this movie for this and that.

Even the music is very pedestrian. Yuvan has sung one song and every time I ask this question - why do you have to sing a song? I mean, its not happening for you. For ARR, the charm works. Don't you realise that its not working well with you. Please stick to composing. Again, all songs are pretty sub-standard. There is no wow-factor.

Lingusamy - please internalize, realize and react. Your movies like RUN and Sandakkozhi, which were also themed on fights, were brilliant. Both were a commercial success. From Bheema, you've been on the wrong side of the learning curve. I hope you can do something better.

Overall: Fails to impress.

Aayirathil Oruvan

2010-01-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Well, this was definitely the most awaited movie. But post the imtermission, you really start to wonder - Is this what I get after 2 years and 4 months of effort! That is Selvaraghavan's Aayirathil Oruvan (AO) for you - A period movie which sometimes makes you feel like a period porn movie. Never watch it with your kids.

12th century - The last remaining Chola king orders his people to escape an invasion.
21st century - a team led by Reema, with support from the army and an archaeologist (Andrea) start an expedition in search of Andrea's father who is reported missing from an island off Vietnam. Researchers believed that this island is where the Cholas landed centuries back and still lived there. The remaining part of the story is how the team gets there and what happens henceforth.

Andrea Jeremiah plays the role of an archaeologist. What makes me wonder is why she gets very little screen space in the whole movie. Hardly any dialogue. For an archaeologist who is going in search of her father who is also an archaeologist, what I would think is she should be playing an important part. Andrea is of least importance to anyone.

Karthi is part of a gang of workers, who are helping the team carry stuff during the expedition. Again, this is just a small graduation from the previous movie where he was an uneducated village rowdy. Karthi does his part really well in the first half of the movie. His random comments about the expedition, trying to show some style on both the women and his fears about what's happening keeps us laughing and interested in the whole movie. In the second half, we dont get much of him.

Director Selva has done brilliant work on the script and theme. Trying to create something in the lines of Indiana Jones, Jack Sparrow, and the likes of King Solomon's Mines for the Tamil audience is actually wonderful and breathtaking. Talking of the rivalry between Cholas and Pandiyas, going in search of a kingdom in an unknown island, crossing obstacles - fire, warriors, snakes, hunger, haunted village, quagmires etc is mind-blowing. I dont know what happened to Selva after having come up with such a nice theme. There is enough foul language. Soon, we have the women shaking their bottoms violently, showing the belly, hurling abusive words at each other. "Govinda" song is like a bondage and domination song.

Post intermission, we see interactions between the people of the lost kingdom and the team (Reema, Andrea and Karthi). This is where the story loses pace. Reema and Andrea are flashing their you know what (obviously we dont get to see them). Soon, Reema and Parthipan (playing the role of current Chola King) have a part that keeps dragging and dragging. Seemed like an awful waste of time and money. The Chola king is thinking only about sex and food. And this is where you begin to hate what you liked all the while. Then there is a war and the movie comes to an end at some point.

Hats off to the cameraman, art team (graphics and props). It definitely is an amazing display of talent. Be it the ancient village, warriors, scary snakes, fireballs, stonehenge type rock settings, a golden town, and then the kingdom inside the caves - every penny has been well spent.

Reema has an awesome role. Leave apart the places where she is wearing less clothes, showing her back, little bit of front as well - her character is full of fire. Reema is the only person who makes a definite impact in the second half of the story.

AO is a bold attempt in an era where directors only think of making money through hopeless commercial movies. I would have been happy if there was less emphasis on displaying the body. This kind, of shows, that in history, we were more bothered about sex and nothing else. That sucks. Also, we don't have to have songs in such movies. The movies can be made for 2hrs and can still do well.

Overall: Historical adult movie

The Guru

2009-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

The word GURU is split as GU and RU. GU means darkness and RU means removal. A GURU is someone who removes the darkness that is present in our minds.

The song "Guruleka Etuvanti Guniki" composed by Saint Tyagaraja is an excellent piece on the importance of the GURU.

There is a definite difference between a GURU and the ACHARYA. The GURU is supposed to give us Diksha and prepare the disciple for mukthi. An Acharya is for Siksha and that is why we have Vijayadasami. Acharya gives us vidya to be successful.

Purandaradasa says that without Guru, you cannot have anything in life. Whatever you do, even if you read the Shastras on your own, you will still need a Guru. Kabirdas also says that given a choice he will always choose the Guru over God. This is because the Guru is the only person who will accept you as you are and try to change you into being a better person.

A person needs Guru for three reasons - Samithpani, Shrothriyam and Brahmanishtam. The Guru needs to have Anubhavam and Aanmeekam and should be able to follow both. If the disciple does something wrong, then the sin comes to the Guru.

The disciple needs to look at the Guru in 5 forms - Father, Matropadesha, Vidyopadesha, Annadaata and Bhayadrata.

"Guruguhaya Bhaktanu" composed by Muthuswamy Dhikshithar is a great composition where he says that my guru is the one who is the supremo and knows everything.

There were two main Gurus, one for the Devas - Brihaspati and one for the Asuras - Sukracharya. When Lord Vishnu came to ask Mahabali the whole world and in turn wanted to send him to the bottom of the earth, Sukracharya asked Mahabali not to give anything. This brings us to another point. The Guru should never teach the disciple two things - To not believe in God and Be dishonest.

The vedas state that there are instances where the sishya has surpassed the Guru in knowledge. Prahalada learnt in less than 10 years what Sage Narada has learnt in 3 lives.

This is what I learnt about the Guru in today's concert by Dr.Vijay Siva.

Bhavan's Music Festival

2009-11-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

Today, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at Mylapore kick started their series of Carnatic Music Concerts.

Andrew Simkin, the Consul General for the United States was the Chief Guest. Other know people were Nalli Kuppuswamy, and Leela Samson (Kalakshetra).

Nithyasree Mahadevan's concert marked the beginning of this wonderful journey for the Bhavan for the year 2009.

The concert was delayed by almost 30 minutes. Nithyasree began with a salutation to Lord Ganesha singing Sri Vignarajam in the raagam GambheeraNaattai. This was followed by Shambho Mahadeva in the raagam Bowli. The next one was Smarane Sukamu in the raagam Janaranjani. Entha Naerchinaa was the next rendition set in the raagam Suddha-Dhanyasi. Ayyane Nadanamadiya set in the raagam Nadai-Bhairavi followed next.

The most important piece of the whole concert was Sri Kanthimathim set in Hemavati raagam. By the time this song ended, it was time for me to leave. So, I could not sit and listen to the songs that followed this keerthanai. This segment is usually the best because the artists sing very popular songs.

I was also pretty irritated because of the person next to me. He was coughing like a diesel locomotive from the 70's. And on top of that he was chewing paan I guess. That smell was killing me.

The average age of the people who came to listen was 58. It was so sad to see such a boring crowd. Half the people were hungry by the time the concert started and then started to leave right from half past eight.

And then there are some people who still follow the practice of reserving a seat using their hand-towels. Since they are in the post-retirement stage, you cant even argue with them. you just have to dismiss them and move on.

one other thing i noticed is that there are more medical insurance companies at these concerts than any other business entity. i guess they know their target segment in this time of the year. haha.

more to come by as and when i come out of concerts.

Let the music begin

2009-11-20T10:03:00.000-08:00

Thats the tagline for the HINDU FRIDAY REVIEW NOVEMBER FEST. And as it rightly says, the month of music began for me today at the Music Academy.

I was there to witness OS Arun and Sanjeev Abhyankar enchant the audience through their wonderful renditions of the poems by Surdas. Every composition was unique.

Arun and Sanjeev took time to explain to the audience, the underlying theme of every poem and the emotions that Surdas brought out.

Poems were about Lord Krishna's childhood, his friendship and respect to Dharma, Surdas' interpretation of hw the Lord would appear to him. Akhiyan Hari Darshan Ki Pyaasi, Jasumati Man Abhilash are the poems that I remember.

Compositions were rendered in different scales. So the raga was not important. Abhogi, Behag - if i remember right, were some of the ragas.

The Raas Leela at the end was the highlight. OS Arun's aalaap during the Raas Leela was fantastic.

This is just the beginning. The Chennai Music Season is warming up and will be in full swing, roughly about 10 days from now. And I am going to be in as many sabhas as possible. It only gets better and better.

Blank

2009-11-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

It was food poisoning I thought. I was feeling weird on Monday evening. Went to bed without taking any medicines. On tuesday morning, I had fever. Decided to take it light and had medicines. The fever was under control but I had to go to the doctor in the evening.

Wednesday was spent pretty much in heavy doses of paracetamol. The doctor did not give me any antibiotics because he thought it was just fever.

I got up on around 3am on Thursday. Entered the bathroom and locked the door.

I am lying on the bathroom floor. I am trying to open my eyes, but I am finding it difficult. My head is spinning and there is a feeling that I have been struck by a huge club. I felt like I was falling into an abyss. Heavy noises in my mind and I am going crazy but unable to do anything. Breathing had become extremely difficult and I was nauseous. I still hadn't figured out what had happened. There was a conflict between what I wanted to do - which was, get up on my legs somehow; and what was actually happening to me. One part of my brain was telling me to get up but there was an overpowering force that was just putting me down. I just couldnt think at all.

Seconds after I locked the bathroom door, I had fallen unconscious. And then somehow by God's grace, I regained consciousness.

I am lying face down. I try to push myself up, but I still cannot do anything. I try and hold the water pipe but that does not help. There is pain all over the body. I turn myself around a bit but the spinning never stops. I still cant see anything around me clearly. I start shouting. My dad is woken up and he rushes, but he cannot help. I have locked the door. He is communicating to me and I am able to hear. Cant do much. My body is still failing me. I push myself a little bit towards the door. I am trying to reach the latch but I cant. I try harder and my hands reach the latch but I still cant push it. It was such a difficult moment for me. Almost like escaping from the clutches of a demon. That instance, I almost gave up. There was absolutely no energy left. Few seconds. I tried to reach that latch again. This time I managed to push it. My dad opened the door and dragged me out.

The sweat was gushing out of my body. My body was COLD. I could feel it. There was no strength to do anything.

From then on, it took almost 3 hrs to get back to normal. And 2 bottles of glucose drips.

Now, this is not the best way to start blogging after a break, but certainly is a shocking start. Hoping to get back to normal soon.

Chennai Heat

2009-09-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

Someone Like You

2009-09-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

This time it was Springfield in Arkansas. The Tamil Assoc here decided to screen the film at Sunset Cinema, 15 miles from my place. Closer the better. I HAD to watch this movie. Every tamil from around this area was there. The hall was packed.

Unnai Pol Oruvan - as we all know, is a remake of the Hindi movie - A Wednesday. The Hindi movie, when it was out, created an amazing impact, was immensely successful and brought a new dimension to the until-then-trashy Hindi cinema. The Tamil re-make hence, had huge expectations.

And the tamil version does not let you down one bit. Considering the fact that the Tamil movie has come out in a time when you could have forgotten a good number of scenes from the Hindi movie, it manages to keep pace with the original in all aspects.

Strong characters - Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal play the lead roles.

Mohanlal, who is narrating the story for us, as the commissioner, has done a wonderful job. His patience in dialogue delivery and then moving into the comfort zone of malayalam when he gets tensed is very interesting. The conversations with the Chief Secretary and then the Chief Minister - I would rather call them intervention, show the need for protocols required when any action needs to be taken. The right use of police terminologies and words, brings intensity to the movie. Mohanlal also scores in handling dialogues with subordinates. The change of tones when giving orders and then making discussions with police officers is a great way to characterize a commissioner who controls the whole of Chennai.

The use of Karunanidhi's voice for conversations with the CM is quite funny, but makes the situation feel important.

Ganesh Venkatraman makes a comeback, after Abhiyum Naanum, as Arif, the hard-hearted police officer. I am sure that he is going to get noticed after this movie and will do well in films to come.

Aunja Iyer is the TV reporter. I wouldn't say that she scores better compared to the one who did the role in the Hindi movie. She is okay.

Being a re-make, there is not much to comment on the storyline or the screenplay. Its just the same. People, dialogues.. every bit. Art by Thota Tharani is worth a mention.

Shruti Haasan is a rockstar! Right from the titles, she has ensured that her Dad's movie gets the perfect score. Well, we know that the mood of the movie is extremely serious and Shruti's music brings that out, right from Minute One. Judicious use of Rock and not exactly Metal, shows that this Berkeley grad is out to achieve a lot more in the future. What I think could have been avoided is Kamal's voice for the songs. Those are not exactly songs, but bits and pieces in the background.

Padmasri Kamal Haasan. I dont need to tell you that he has done a wonderful job. He can never screw up. For serious roles, we dont have to judge him at all. It comes to him naturally. Kamal has portrayed Naseeruddin Shah's role in a flawless manner. His description of the "common man" is touching. His dialogues are powerful and have an iota of humor hidden here and there. In the first half, Kamal comes across as a powerful character. This is when he is in command mode only. In the second half, we get to see other dimensions of this multi-faceted personality. This is where it gets a bit emotional and conversational.

The other good things about this movie, like the original - No one has had to change costumes. No songs to waste your time. No unnecessary fights.

Something to mention. Sriman plays a role in the movie as a famous actor asking for police protection. His dialogues remind us totally of Illaya Thalapathi Vijay. Its a total dig at him and its hilarious.

Overall: Brilliant Movie.

Scared?

2009-09-13T10:14:00.001-07:00

An afternoon in LA. A car is speeding. At 110 miles per hour, down a road, that I am not sure of. There is not much information as to who is driving the car.

The cops have begun the chase. There are 4 cars following. The speeding car slows down to normal speed. The cops are still behind. Now, there are two helicopters that are part of the operation as well. The cops wait to see what's happening. The car takes off again for some more distance. This keeps happening for a while. Atleast 15 minutes. The cops stay, way behind the speeding car. No one is taking any action.

The speeding car comes to a stop. Its a lady inside. Looked like a more than middle-age woman. She couldn't even get out. The cops were still behind with their guns. They never came close. Very Very slowly, they came closer and then took her into custody.

Watching all this, live, on TV, I was wondering.

It takes so much time for cops with a lot of advanced technology and equipment to stop someone?

4 cars and 2 helicopters to catch an old woman on the car?

Wasn't that such a big waste of time and resources?

And why did they have to be so careful before trying to just nail that person down?

The day it happened was September 11. All over the country, everyone is cautious about crime happening on that day. They fear anything could happen. Anything unusual and everyone is on the alert.

The other thing I realised is the level of freedom that this country has given its people which is now turning against the same people. Anyone can get a license to buy a weapon - that can range from a small pistol to almost a shot gun. The cops who were chasing the car were, I dont know, maybe afraid or over-cautious, of the woman in the car. What if the woman just pulled out a gun and opened fire? Or if she had something else lethal?

The only point I can get out of seeing all this around me - The country wants its people to be free enough to do what they want to do. So they allow them to do anything and everything. Ok, not to the extent of building nuclear arms but something way lesser. And then they build their laws around what they can allow people to do. And when they do that, the law backfires. People start taking the law into their advantage and dont bother about the protectors. And that's exactly the reason why this place seems to be such an insecure society.

No one knows what his neighbour is doing. Its not his business, the neighbor could be doing a lot of scary things under the basement, but they dont care. One day it errupts like an uncontrollable volcano and then they wake up.

Agreed that they have enough control points. They track everything about you, but does that really help?

Important Discussion at the Oval

2009-09-04T20:25:00.001-07:00

I thought it would be better that I put my creativity here rather than on FACEBOOK.

Kandaswamy

2009-08-23T19:57:00.001-07:00

Of all the movies I have seen this year, I will definitely remember Kandaswamy.

When I heard that Kandaswamy was going to release, I did my google research on where all in the US the movie was going to release. I found out that Kansas City, 220 miles from my place was the closest. I got excited. I knew that it would take the whole day but what the hell. Can't I do this much to see a blockbuster tamil movie!

And boy, the movie was worth every mile and every penny I paid for the trip. It was a GREAT ENTERTAINER

When Kandaswamy begins, you feel a little bit annoyed because of the attire and the funny actions that Vikram makes. But thats only the beginning. The story immediately takes a turn and gets only extremely interesting.

Kandaswamy is like a lot of other movies. Themes are heavily borrowed from Ramana, Sivaji and then Chiyaan's own Anniyan, Gentleman of course - basically a lot of movies that put a question on stopping corruption, black money and helping the poor.

Vikram plays the role of Kandaswamy, an IPS officer with the CBI. Kandaswamy is also the main deity of the temple in Thiruporur (Kanchipuram district). Kandaswamy helps the poor. Anyone who needs monetary help, writes a request and ties it on the tree and Kandaswamy helps.

Vikram plays his role with ease. As the CBI officer, he acts very polished and smart. I would appreciate the director for using the stunts as and when necessary. It really shows that the protagonist is much like a common man. Vikram singing all his songs is quite a big thing. I dont think anyone has tried anything like that. And I can only appreciate Vikram for this.

Shriya - what can i say about this piece of beauty! Right from the beginning till the end, you cant take your eyes off her. Pretty, vibrant, bold and magnetic - thats how she comes across throughout the movie. Her coiffure is so sexy. Lip syncs did not work well. Suchi did a perfect job in the dialog bit. Emotions came out extremely well. But Shriya didnt learn her dialogs. Costume selection are a 150% above the mark. Very Chic and suit Shriya's personality.

Prabhu plays an important role in the movie. I am sure that he will be appreciated a lot. Ashish Vidyarthi has Shriya's dad and YG Mahendra as his secretary - both of them play the bad guys. The two of them have done a wonderful job. Towards the end, we dont see Ashish. God knows what happened. There is one more bad guy. I dont get his name. He is the one who gets the song. This is one movie in which the bad guys dont fight with the hero directly. In fact, there are hardly any fights. I could count three I think. There is less emphasis on the Dishyum and Kaboom stuff. More work for the brain.

Comedy by Vadivelu is definitely a treat. Its a separate track. After a long time, comedy gets its place in the film. Usually heroes do a bit of comedy as well and sometimes it doesnt go too well. And then heroes join with the comedian too. But in this movie, I think it made a lot of sense to keep the hero in his serious mood and leave the job to Vadivelu. Tremendous effort to keep the audience laughing. Connecting to previous movies during the comedy track is fantastic. Mansoor Ali Khan is back in this movie and he does some light comedy as well.

Music by Devi Sri Prasad is actually amazing. "Excuse Me", "Meow Meow", and "Mambomamia" have been favorites for a very long time, topping all charts. I liked "Mambomamia" the best, for the choreography and setting. This song was taken completely in Mexico and its just beautiful. Background score just gives an amazing lift to the whole movie.

Its almost towards the end of the movie and somewhere the bad guy has to get caught. And like any other tamil movie, the bad guy gets an item song and then the hero enters. So, "En peru Meenakumari" doesnt really come as a suprise.

Susi Ganeshan needs to be congratulated for giving us a total entertainer. His story may look like the ones from before, but the entertainment value is very high. The storyline has been handled with meticulous effort. Everytime you see that the bad guys and the police get this close to catching Kandaswamy and then the story takes a small turn. Which is good because the director has understood the mood of the audience well and planned the twists in the story accordinly. This is not some movie where the hero keeps flying in the air. The director shows that its actually science and engineering that makes it happen. Well, its not 100% believable but its still a great attempt.

I think Kalaipuli Thanu will make a lot of money.

OVERALL: GREAT ENTERTAINER. MUST WATCH

The Natural State

2009-08-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

For the next 8 weeks, I will be stationed in the Natural State. I didnt know that this American state was called the Natural State. When you look around, you'll definitely feel so. Nothing much around other than lots of empty tracts of grassland. And then some buildings just to show that its not a forest reserve or something.

My flight to the US was quite exciting. The chennai to bombay flight took almost 3 hrs. After a point, I was wondering what the pilot was really doing. the next leg to frankfurt was sleeping time. in frankfurt, i met prof rakesh vohra - our ISB Eco prof from Kellogg. it was very nice to talk to him after almost 2 yrs. we were talking about consulting, ISB, the mohali school, the placement scenario, my new client and all sorts of stuff. i got into the flight to chicago and then figured out that my seat was also allocated to another german girl. knowing this, the air hostess gave me a business class seat. it was a pleasant shock. maharajah seats that turn into a bed at the touch of a button, all sorts of controls, special treatment from the staff, amazing food spread - i had a wonderful time.

then the wait in chicago was terrible. my next flight was only after 6 hrs. so i had to literally waste time. one thing i noticed at the domestic terminal 3 in chicago was there is only one payphone that allows you to use a credit card. for everything else, you need to put coins.

the next flight was for 1.5hrs. when the flight reached XNA (the airport in Arkansas), i was really tired. there were less than 20 ppl who came with me. my luggage had already arrived on a previous flight.

my hotel was like a 30mins drive from the airport. on my way, i figured out that walmart, jb hunt and tyson foods are the only big employers in this state. and in bentonville, where i was going to work, its was just walton's world. i noticed a delivery center that was as big as an international airport. there must have been a thousand trucks waiting to load goods.

office is very strange. everyone here comes to work at 7am!!! and then they leave only by 5pm. do they really have that much work to do? also, this place is a real factory. we've heard of factory model in IT, but here i saw it live. there are thousands of people around you working for the same company. everyone walks in a line. when they reach a junction (inside the office), they slow down to see oncoming traffic and then they proceed. especially during the lunch hours, if you tried to jump the line or go on the wrong side, you'll create chaos maybe. it feels as if you are in the middle of programmed employees. Like the ones in i-robot.

on friday, i got a car as well. when i entered the rental car office, they showed me PT Cruiser. I had no intention of taking that. Then they showed me a Chevy HHR which was an extended version of the Cruiser. I was definitely not taking that too. Then I noticed a Pontiac G6 in the garage and I asked them about it. Apparently it was available and they had no idea that it was there in the garage. I signed up and took the car.

so thats the travel update and i hope to write more about the natural state and maybe from the factory as well.

Ebony and Ivory

2009-07-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

First of all, I should thank Vedanth Bharadwaj for having sent me a Facebook Invitation for this concert.

Ebony and Ivory - a concert by Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan accompanied by BS Purushottam on the Kanjira.

On a beautiful Friday evening (24th July 2009) in Kalakshetra, Anil and Guru entertained the audience for about 1.5 hours through some amazing raagas.

The concert was dedicated to the great MS Subbulakshmi. MS's piano, which dates back to almost 1947 was gifted to the Kalakshetra by the MS family. The school already had a piano that belonged to Rukmini Devi. Anil Srinivasan, Leela Samson and a few like minded people decided to restore the piano and celebrate the hard work through a concert. This free concert that was conducted on Kalakshetra premises attracted people like Anita Ratnam, Aruna Sairam and Unnikrishnan.

Anil played both pianos. MS's piano had been recently restored and did not have the capacity to stand a whole concert. So Anil just played one song on that one. All other songs were played on the other one.

All through the concert, Anil explained about how the piano was restored and the effort that had gone into the concert. He also talked about every song, gave a bit of background and history when it was required.

The first one was a ragamalika - Sindhu Bhairavi, Kalyanavasantha, Poorvikalyani, Neelambari and Madhayamavathi. It was such a free flowing music from Guru and Anil on the piano. The transitions from one raagam to another was very good and when it came towards Neelambari, it sounded so sweet that there was a feeling of happiness rushing through me.

Gurucharan also sang "Naan Oru Vilayaattu Bommaiyyaa" and the music was played on MS' piano.

There were two Annamacharya Krithis that were also sung. I forgot the songs. I think one was set in Pantuvarali.

There is no Sikkil-Anil concert without one from the albums they have released perviously. So Guru embellished the concert with Poonguyil from his album Maayaa. This Kalki Krishnamurthy song was set in the raagam Kaapi.

The last piece was Hari Tumharo set in Darbari Kanada and this song reminded me of Malare Mounama from the movie Karnaa and Vedant told me that even Poo Maalai Vaangi Vanthaal from Sindhu Bhairavi was quite similar.

Even though the concert seemed to be very quick, it was a great experience to see some stalwarts around me. It was simply wonderful to see the pride that everyone took in associating themselves with the MS Family or Kalakshetra. Whoever came on stage, gave us anecdotes about the piano, MS, musicians of the same era.

The concert was called Ebony and Ivory because the keys on MS' piano were made of ivory and the wood used was Ebony. The piano was bought for a princely amount of Rs.2000 during the pre-independence years and its great to see that it has been restored and will be housed within an institution that is world famous for its carnatic roots.

Pasanga

2009-07-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

9th grade - we were asked to help in moving the new notebooks to the library on the 3rd floor from the ground floor. we formed a chain and started passing notebooks from one hand to another. one bright idea during the whole execution and we pushed a few notebooks into our classroom. no one from the staff noticed and 30 notebooks were in our hands. but there was someone accounting for it somewhere. the next day we were all standing in the assembly hall in front of the whole school.

7th grade - i still remember standing in front of the principals room with my dad. my friend and i had done some mischief during science class and triggered a big commotion that someone decided to complain.

8th grade - my friend copied an expected exam essay question answer on his test notebook's last page and then forgot to tear that page off before handing over the notebook. the teacher accidentally found out and gave him a zero for that test.

7th grade - i was on a casual running race with my friend and when we were almost close to finish, i ran close to him and did a smart leg trip. he fell down and was badly hurt.

10th grade - my science teacher asked my friend who was sitting on the first bench to tuck in his shirt. obeying her, he immediately unzipped and started tucking in. she got furious and made him stand outside the class without his shirt on.

Pandirajan's directorial debut for the movie PASANGA, although set in a small town, brought back all those wonderful years in school.

PASANGA - as the name suggests, is all about kids, their lives in school, friendship, inter-gang rivalry, mischievous children playing spoil-sport and double gaming on each other, competition, their influence on parents lives and vice versa, ambitions, expectations when they see people around them, the list could go on.

Anyone who has been seen life through the eyes of a middle class family can definitely understand the vibrations this movie sends out. Of course, the director had to add an element of romance to keep the audience interested. Otherwise, I would have been bored with just the kids fighting with each other.

Anbukkarasu joins a corporation school in a new town. He is a super achiever and very down to earth. Jeeva, Pakkada and Kutti Mani are the trio who hate Anbu and there starts our story. Small skirmishes between Anbu and Jeeva's gang lead to even the parents shouting at each other. I am sure that we have seen a lot of this even when we went to school.

Meenakshi Sundaram (Anbu's uncle) and Sobikannu (Jeeva's sister. saw her last in the movie Saroja) bring a smile to the whole movie. Their love story has been dealt with simplicity and fun. The exchange of dialogs using cell phones is highy innovative and impressive.

The kids are the central theme of this movie. Playing small games, inducing jealousy between each other are part and parcel of the movie. The movie goes on to tell us that the emotions that the kids go through are quite the same as we do. Ours is a bit more magnified. Trying to put honey on the head of the guy you hate to make his hair go white or setting up an elder cousin to punch the guy on his way back from school or asking some random guy to chant some hymns to ensure that your rival fails in class - I am sure that all of us thought of some thing or the other, to oust our rivals in school.

The rivalry goes a little further. The parents start hating each other initially until an honest conversation between the two dad's brings the families a little closer. The kids still remain enemies. The love story unfolds. The parents decide on a wedding. The kids dont like it. Whether they remain friends is the remaining part of the movie.

James Vasanthan's music is definitely a treat. "Oru Vetkam Varudhe" - the romantic number is simply beautiful. The background score fits well into the scheme of things, especially when it comes to the fights between the kids.

Kudos to the director and cameraman for having given this movie a natural yet professional touch. Nothing looks very funky or unbelievable. Its just what you'd see in school or inside your house and its right there on the screen. No overacting from any of the kids. Powerful dialogs and the delivery from all the kids is amazing, as professional as any seasoned actor in the industry.

Overall: Great entertainer and a must for all parents and children.

The cycle ride

2009-07-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

3.15 am on Sunday! I dont think anyone would think of getting up at that time on a Sunday. I had to and the only reason was the bike ride to Mabahalipuram.

TI Cycles was organizing a ride to Mahabs. They started new group called Chainreaxion on Facebook and then informed a lot of us about the ride. It was a while since I did my last ride. So I decided to do it. Manu, Kaushal, Bajji, Subbu, Abhinav and myself signed up for the ride. Subbu dropped out because of two full days of management training prior to the ride and that was more than enough to tire him out. Abhinav was dehydrated from the previous day's party. I wonder how because he was inside the swimming pool most of the time. Ultimately, it was just the four of us.

4.00am - picked up Bajji from Abhinav's place.

4.15am - reached the starting point to find out that no one had come. quite a shock. the emails that were sent out mentioned that if anyone turned up late, they would be left back.

4.30am - some ppl were there but no signs of the organizers. they were supposedly on their way. by this time, manu and kaushal were already there. we decided to start warming up and do some stretching. bajji was fast asleep in the car.

4.45am - some more ppl arrive. one car comes with some really cool Bianchi cycles. the employees of TI decided to show off with some of those expensive bikes.

5.00am - most of the organizers are there but the trucks with the cycles have not yet arrived. we were already 30 mins late. Tanvi Shah lands up. I have been talking to Tanvi about the ride over the last 2 days or so. In fact, I have been asking her questions over questions and she has been patiently replying to me. So I met her and told her that I was the one who was quizzing her so much. Later Bajji comes and tells me that she is Tanvi Shah, the playback singer. I didnt believe him. And then a lot others confirmed the same. I was like - Oh my god! I have been talking to Tanvi 'Slumdog' Shah! I hope I didnt annoy her too much with my silly questions.

5.15am - first set of cycles arrive. they are the usual BSA machs and the hercules ACT series. I rode the ACT during the last TI ride and i had a very bad experience. the resistance was very high and the gear shift mechanism was hopeless. so this time i didnt take the ACT. everyone is testing cycles, pulling up seats and making all sorts of adjustments.

5.30 - two other trucks arrive and i finally managed to get one mach cycle. there were a bunch of so called new cycles. and these cycles had air pumps, mud-guards, rear-carrier etc. I was like - who will buy this. all these things add so much weight to the cycle. it affects the ride quality. anyway, TI was supposed to come out with a geared version of the Mach, but they are probably sleeping on it. the one i pulled out had no gears. i changed my seat to a smaller one because it had to fit my gel seat cover that i had got. i was also wearing cycling shorts for extra comfort. just to ensure that i dont sleep on my chest the whole of sunday.

5.50am - we were all set to leave. we entered the road to ECR from thiruvanmiyur bus depot. myself, manu and kaushal crossed the road. bajji was a little behind. after we crossed, i started pedalling. i never looked back for a while. after sometime i noticed that there was no one behind me. i didnt know what was happening but i didnt want to stop as well. i kept riding.

our first stop was the PIT STOP restaurant. this was the only time for which, the vehicle that carried water was in front of me. I had some water. emails promised gatorade but there were no signs of that. started riding again. from there on, it was a very long ride. there were two stops before the final destination but i did not stop because then i will have had to wait for the vehicle to catch up with me. the vehicle was following the crowd and the crowd was way behind. only one guy (a blue dart pilot) was riding with me. and we were cruising at 25kmph roughly. the first half was really tough. i was quite pained to ride a cycle with no gears. it was horrible. i wanted to take my TREK but the only problem was getting it back; because our way back was by a bus that was arranged for us. when i saw the board that said 13km to Mahabs, I was thrilled because from there it was downhill by the numbers and I had to just keep going.

i was pissed that the vehicle was not leading us and trailing somewhere behind. i needed water and there was no chance of getting it. the only option was to walk up to some hut on the way and ask for some. i decided that i'll manage somehow. in exactly 2 hrs we reached the destination - Chariot beach resort. about 45 kms from chennai and past all the architectural beauty of Mahabs.

i guess the guy at the resort wasnt expecting us so early. breakfast tables hadnt been laid out. he took some time to do all that and in the meantime i stretched. english breakfast was served - cereals, muffins, donuts, baked vegetables, juice etc.

slowly people started getting in. by the time everyone arrived it was 10am. Action King Arjun was also there. his daughter was riding with us. so he decided to give us company. i heard that NDTV HINDU made some coverage during the ride but we were way past all of that action.

it was a great ride. would have been better if we had started by 5am. could have avoided a lot of sun. also, there werent any helmets. we were promised but it wasnt there.

hopefully, next time, this will get better.

Beach

2009-07-03T02:02:00.001-07:00

Brilliant Pics! have a look.
Beach, Please!: vanityfair.com

Shared via AddThis

Celebrity Tattoos

2009-06-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

With Transformers up for release in India quite soon, I was looking up stuff about Megan Fox and I came across this somehow.

I saw this movie "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". Its about this British journalist who lands up in New York and finds it very tough to be an honest journalist. The one reason for which I wanted to see this movie was Kirsten Dunst. And then, I noticed that Megan Fox played a not-so-significant role in the movie.

In the meantime, I was also thinking about why people still keep telling everyone around them about recession. I dont really think there is any recession.

Atlantic City on the east coast had full casinos. All the roulette tables were full. people were playing on piles of cash. these people are all retired from work and they dont know the meaning of the word SAVE. and if you are one of those unfortunate US taxpayers who has to just pay tax and not get any benefit, yes, you really get pained seeing all this.

here in home country, TATA has unveiled the Jaguar and Land Rover - serious gas guzzlers. and costing a bomb. yeah, people will buy, because there is a lot of money available. the recession is just a rumor.

im doing a lot of random talking. enjoy the tattoo for a moment. Its from a Shakespeare story.

Crash Boom Bang

2009-06-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night I left home a little before 10pm towards Anna Nagar. I was on 2nd Avenue, which is one of the main roads towards the city.
It was past 10pm when I was half-way on that road. The lights had gone Amber and almost everyone on the road was riding at a more than average speed. As I was coming close to the junction near the Ayyappan Temple, a car suddenly came into the main road from the right side, out of nowhere.

That was it.

In seconds, I braked as hard as possible. My car turned and then it was the bang sound I heard. The right side of my car collided directly with the left portion of the Maruti A-Star. Nothing had happened to me. I got out immediately and went to the other car. A woman was riding the other car. I checked if she was ok. She was. By that time, a huge crowd gathered. Luckily both of us did not have any injuries. My car was badly hit. The plastic bumper on the front gave in and had a huge hole. The bonnet was bent. I figured out that it was a major accident for my car. But luckily, my car was mobile. So I managed to drive it away from the spot to a place that did not affect the usual road traffic.

The Maruti A-Star was in quite a shape. The whole wheel assembly was bent. The car could not move. We had to lift the car somehow and move the wheels to a stable position before moving the car to the edge of the road.

Since, it was not peak time, there weren't too many of these unwanted interferers on the road. Most people who came to help were reasonably educated and they did not cause any trouble. Also, I kind of took charge of the whole situation and then ensured that I will manage anything going forward.

What followed afterwards for almost 3 hrs was what irritated me. By this time, my cousin and uncle reached the place. We wanted to call the police and let them know about the incident because the insurance agents usually ask for a report. The woman's family did not want to do it. I really didnt know why. They were telling that we could just leave and create individual reports from the police station. After some time, they agreed. But they wanted to write a report mentioning that the dad was riding the car and not the woman. We were wondering if there was anything fishy. We didnt care. We just said No.

Then the police came. He talked to both parties and then he told me - "the fault is on you. since she has almost come into the road, you should have stopped". I was like, "do you know what the rules are?" the fact of the matter was, the woman was crossing a main road after 10pm without even looking at whether vehicles were approaching from both sides and then I get the blame. my uncle got furious and he started blasting the police. he told them that they had no idea of the rules and they were just talking some random shit. and he was right. the guy on the main road gets the right of the road. anyone crossing has to wait, in fact, to be safe especially when the signals dont work, also flash both the indicators to show that you are crossing to the road straight across. the maruti was only 6 months old. so i got a feeling that the woman was probably inexperienced; these guys were just supporting the woman and trying to frame the case on me. or maybe they wanted to extract money.

then it was finally decided to get a police report about the collision. the report would just state the facts and it would not be any kind of complaint. by the time we did this, it was almost half past midnight.

now the other horrendous formalities have begun. estimation, insurance claims, verification etc. each one has an SLA. i went to the insurance office today and then i asked him when i should show up tomorrow. that guy says - "come after 11am". thats probably when his day starts.

anyway, the way i look at it now, it seems as if i am going to be seriously immobile for atleast a week. hopefully not more than that.

my relatives tell me - "thalaikku vanthathu thalappa oda pocchu" which means "something was targetted at the head and luckily escaped by taking only the turban"

Poem: Root 3

2009-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

i fear that i will always be
a lonely number like root 3
a 3 is all that's good and right
why must my 3 keep out of sight

beneath a vicious square root sign
i wish instead i were a 9
for 9 could thwart this evil trick
with just some quick arithmetic

i know i'll never see the sun
as 1.7321
such is my reality
a sad irrationality

when hark! what is this i see
another square root of a 3
has quietly come waltzing by
together now we multiply

to form a number we prefer
rejoicing as an integer
we break free from our mortal bonds
and with a wave of magic wands

our square root signs become unglued
and love for me has been renewed

----------------------------------
PS: if you can let me know where you've heard this, WITHOUT doing a Google search, i'll buy you a beer. Women get martini.

What are you doing?

2009-06-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

The place I live (hotel, I mean) is quite a fantastic place. Its a Marriott and its a wonderful place for long stay.

There are a lot of firms around this place, the well known ones - Satyam (erstwhile), Alcatel Lucent and then a good number of pharma firms. NJ is the pharma hub. Novartis is just a few miles away and employs a lot of indians.

At the Marriott, english breakfast is served everyday. During breakfast everyday, I definitely make it a point to note what the other people are doing. And with respect to the Desi and ABCD crowd, I wanted to validate whether the Desi junta did go through some cultural adjustment training before they landed here and whether the ABCD junta still have some of their original indian roots. So here is the scoop.

There is one ABCD family - 3 to 4 children. I see them almost everyday. They first have their breakfast and then they start packing. The volume they pack is perhaps double the quantity they have for breakfast. Each one of them would carry a huge tray full of food - apples, banana, yogurt, milk cartons, just about everything you can find on the table. Then today evening I noticed them again. In the evening, Marriott serves snacks. Fortunately, we reached on time for some snacks. This family was again loading some 5-7 plates of snacks. I am surprised that the "if given free, i will drink phenyl" attitude is still around. So this is one side.

The other thing I noticed is about the indian mother with kindergarden kids. I dont know if this can be generalised to all indian mothers who come to the US but this was way too funny.

One guy landed here a few weeks back from India. His wife and kid joined him like a week later. One morning, I saw them at the breakfast table. The guy had his breakfast and left to the office. The mom was having breakfast and the kid was sitting on a baby chair. I think the kid was getting a bit uncomfortable. So, he tried getting out of the chair. The mom was chatting with her husband's colleague. When she noticed the kid, she raised her voice "Aman! What are you doing?". The child looked a bit perplexed. He didnt utter a word. Few minutes passed. Again he started moving. The mom goes "Aman! What are you doing? Why cant you sit in one place?" and all that "cant you keep quiet" type speech.

I was like. What the hell. A week back, you were probably talking to the kid in Hindi, or Gujarati or definitely an indian language. And all of a sudden, you switch to English? Are you out of your mind.

I am sure the kid had a mind to say this - "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Talking to me in a completely unknown language. Are you out of your mind?"

God save these people.

Calling...

2009-05-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

First Impressions

2009-04-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

So I was in New York yesterday. I arrived in the US on Saturday. There wasnt too much of a jet lag, so we decided to see some parts of NY.

Our train reached the New York Penn Station and the one thing I was surprised to find out is that no one knew where the tourist information center is. Everyone was guiding us to the tickets and information center which was servicing for the train journeys. anyway, we figured something and got out.

we decided that we'll walk to times square. why? because we were somewhere close to that area. nothing special.

whatever. NY on first impression is such a boring place. its crowded everywhere. all you can find is tall buildings. the sight of just stuctures around you kind of irritates a lot. the only factor that saves is perhaps central park and the rivers that run on either sides. otherwise, NY feels like an over-crowded jungle.

and again, if a city is like that, you cannot expect anyone to be in order. although the vehicles dont jump signals because of strict policing, there are enough number of people who would cross a busy road when the signal is green.

so we walked past all the famous stops - times square, grand central, rockefeller, chrysler, trump, united nations, and all that shit. nothing phenomenal about all of these places. some have shopping malls attached, so people like to just get in and waste time.

i think my opinion of NY would never change. i would prefer a lesser built up city. more open space and less crowding. the place where i live right now - parsippany jersey is actually a nice place. there is lots and lots of space around you and its pleasant to be outdoors.

Anandha Thandavam

2009-04-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Theory: Aascar Ravichandran profited a lot from his last movie. So he decided to fund some of that on a project that wouldn't really take off well.
AR Gandhikrishna, who shot to fame with Chellame; thought that he could turn a Sujatha novel into a fantastic movie. But the movie was too late to the audience.

Sujatha's novel - Pirivom Santhippom was based on situations that were perhaps a decade old. Affluent NRIs marrying innocent pretty girls; going back to US to lead a luxurious life. The girl never realises that she is being ignored. Emotional drama, but not suited to how things are at present. Especially, when everyone is talking about RECESSION!!!

Anandha Thandavam (dance of ecstasy) is a movie that failed to capture the characters that Sujatha had created in his novel. In between, we also have a hero who is the most vulnerable character I have seen, maybe in years. The director, even after sticking to the novel, could not create the right impact.

Pathetic Editing - We see a car getting onto a highway in the US. In seconds, the same car is hit by a trailer in Malaysia and then the next minute, everyone's in KL Airport.

Great locations near Tirunelveli and Tenkasi. Bana Theertham is a place to visit. The cameraman has captured some wonderful landscapes in interior Tamil Nadu.

I must definitely talk about the music. An amazing rendition by Shubha Mudgal and Nithyasree Mahadevan. Kanaa Kaangiren (see my previous post) is a brilliant song with splendid choreo. Worked well for Rukmini. GV Prakash's music is just getting better and better. Poovinai sung by Srinivas and Shreya is also a great song that is shot in Atlantic City. These two songs will stay on your mind for a while.

Tamannah plays the innocent pretty girl. A mix of the child and woman - young at heart and mind too, she plays silly pranks with her brother, listens to her parents and doesn't have a clue of the outside world. If this was what the novel wanted from her, then she did 125% of what was required.

Siddharth (a newbie), does exactly what a newbie is expected of. Everything goes belly up for him - acting, dance, delivery, emotions. Totally shreds up into pieces.

Rukmini is another actor we have to watch for. She scored pretty high in Bommalattam. In this movie, she definitely strikes a chord. Her character and then few others (eg. Kitty and the US Uncle) bring a lot of direction into a screenplay that just goes astray every now and then.

This movie is a pot pourri. Its about love at first sight through the eyes of an unemployed youth who has no direction in his life; parents wanting their daughter to live a rich life abroad without understanding what could be in store; a father who gets blamed and ignored for being concerned about his son's life; a loser who cannot come to grips with what is not his own. There are too many characters who in their own way impact the storyline, but I am thinking that these characters would have been carved well in the novel.

Overall: Fails to deliver.

Kanaa Kaangiren

2009-04-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

Kanaa Kaangiren - I am glued to this song. From the movie Anandha Thandavam (Dance of Ecstasy), what an amazing song.

Sung by Nithyasree, Subha Mudgal and Vinitra, this song would go into the history of tamil music as one of THE BEST wedding songs of the 21st century.

The video is set in Belur, Halebid and nearby temples. The one below just has pictures and not the original video.

Following the lines of the wedding songs in Alaipayuthae (Yaaro Yaarodi) and Paarthaale Paravasam (Adhisiya Thirumanam).

This song has amazing lines and the beats are excellent. If you get on to youtube, you can see the lyrics on the side bar.

I am just waiting for the video to arrive on youtube.

Horse-Do?

2009-04-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

A new hairdo for the horses. And guess what, these are based on some famous people in the world.

Can you take a guess?

Clues:
Left: American celebrity, model, singer
Center: English model
Right: Australian actor

Post your comments

Ayan

2009-04-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

Ayan - What does Ayan mean? Well, it means a lot in different languages. I am not going to delve into that.

Ayan - Suriya's latest movie after V.1000 is a super entertainer for the masses. Suriya has been telling everyone that he couldn't give a fun-filled movie because he devoted more time with character based roles in movies such as V.1000 and Kaakha Kaakha. For the long wait, Ayan surpasses all expectations.

Suriya plays the role of an educated street smart under-the-table-business associate. A computer science graduate who uses more of his brain than muscle to get rid of people who come in his way. In a lot of places, he would remind you of what Clooney did in Ocean's or Leonardo did in Catch Me. I mean, its a lot of fun to watch. Nevertheless, tamil cinema cannot do well without fights. So, there is scope for that too. One fight that was shot in Congo is bleddy amazing. Its like the one that Daniel Craig does in Quantum. Extremely fast, through small buildings, windows, terraces, winding streets. Kudos to the guys who planned the cameras. It was PERFECT.

Ayan introduces you to another world that's flourishing big time in India. A world of dvd's, cocaine, gold biscuits, diamonds - everything unaccounted. Talking of diamonds - I like the way they explain the diamonds business in Africa.

The villain gets introduced in less than 10 minutes from the beginning. So no great shakes. We always know that if something goes wrong, its always because of him. Villain is a Bollywood import and he does quite a shitty job. Very bad voice syncs.

Prabu is Suriya's boss and he controls a lot of this business. Its interesting to see how these guys get the smuggle the stuff from the airport to India and back to other countries. While we know that a lot of this could be true, its quite shocking to see what happens.

Jagan - the guy who hosts America's Funniest Videos on Star Vijay is Suriya's pal in the movie. Tamannah is his sister. NOW THATS A VERY BAD MATCH UP for a family. Black Coffee and Milk. Jagan as Chitti has a very interesting role. He has done a fantastic job. I am guessing that this is a great break for him and the future holds a lot for him.

Tamannah - this hard working Punjabi kudi rocks! In this movie, its not just love and songs for the actor. Love happens in like 5 mins. They meet and the next scene they are already in love. Costume selection would score a 4 on 5. She is surely getting better in every movie of hers.

There is no separate comedy track. Suriya, Jagan, Tamannah, Karunas, Renuka (Suriya's mom) - everyone does comedy to their own capacity. When prime characters perform comedy, it gels into the movie and it also lightens the audience's view about a particular character.

Songs and the picturisation are a treat. Hariharan's voice in Pala Pala is so FRESH. Like always, Harris' music reminds you of all his previous creations. Grinding the same dough. I am guessing that Harris is fond of a few raagas and he composes only on those. One of the songs, i think Nenje Nenje, was shot in Walvis Bay, Namibia, where the sea and sand dunes are next to each other. Beautiful Place.

Story, Script, Screenplay - would give a min of 3 on 5. Very skillful. Even though we have heard of so many con-job movies in the past, this one is quite entertaining. There is more focus on smart smuggling rather than using plain ammunition with mobs. Creativity is fabulous - KV Anand and his team will be appreciated for this. In a lot of instances, they quickly show the way things unfold from the past. That's very thoughtful and neatly done.

Overall: Great entertainer from Suriya, after a long time.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance

2009-03-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

So, in July last year, the guys from HDFC Standard Life Insurance called me and told me about their pension plan. You know how they can make it sound very attractive and all that crap. I am not going to go into the details of all that.

My dad was telling me that just one insurance policy and a PPF account is not enough. Maybe I should put some amount from my salary somewhere else as well instead of just keeping it in the bank.

I signed up for the Pension Plan. The moment you say yes for the policy, you know how fast things happen. The representatives came home. The application forms were just ready to make the signatures and nominations. I paid the first premium through cheque and then opted for ECS to pay the remaining premiums. I had to sign a blank cheque, cross it. Also sign in two different places, just for matching signatures. Everything happened with ease. In about 2 weeks time, I got the policy papers.

August, September, October, November and December. No problem at all. Every month, HDFC would get a payment from my bank. I would get a copy of the receipt through the mail and I would also check it online once in a while.

In January, I got a call from the call center informing me that HDFC could not take an electronic payment and so I should make an online payment or go to the nearest office and may by cash or cheque. I didnt bother. I had signed up for ECS only to avoid all this headache. Then I got another call 2 weeks later telling me that the ECS payment was not taken because the signatures did not match. I was like - WTF, you morons. You took payment for 5 months using the same signature and suddenly in January the signatures did not match? I asked them the same question and you know about these call center executives. They hardly have any knowledge. The only answer they have is pre-programmed - "Sir, according to our system, the payment could not be processed because the signatures did not match. In order to avoid further delays with respect to your policy, please contact the nearest HDFC Standard Life Office."

So, obviously, you know that these good-for-nothing fellows are not going to be of any help to you. And the funny part is that they also ask you one question towards the end - "Is there anything else that I can help you with?"

For which, you have to say "NO THANKS". And the conversation ends there. The ball is in your court. For no mistake of yours. In all this while, the guy who is your policy advisor has no interest whatsoever to take up your case or do anything in that regard. If you want something, you have to call him.

With my wedding coming up, I had better things to do. So, I kept quiet. By this time, I got a letter from HDFC that the policy is lapsed and if I need to renew the policy, I have to call some random toll-free number. All this while, the guys at the top are not bothered at all. All they follow is some senseless protocol. There is no relationship manager or anything of that sort who takes up this case and tries to find out what happened. They just send letters one after the other.

A few days later, one more guy called. He had the same story but he sounded a bit more sensible. He told me that I could make an online payment. I did that. By this time, it was end January. In about a week's time, I got a receipt for the payment I made. February passed and in March second week, I got a call again from HDFC Bombay about my policy. I told them that I made one payment in Jan and will make another payment that week for Feb and March, which I made. I got a call again from someone in Chennai. I told him that I made the payment. Then the Bombay guy called again. I confirmed with him again that the payment was already made but its not reflecting on the site yet.

Then that smart ass fellow says "Please call the toll-free number and lodge a request giving all the details". Again, I was like - idiot, you get all the time to do follow up calls and check whether I have paid, but you cant do a simple help for your customer?

After so much help that they did to the customer, HDFC also did one more thing. After taking payment for 3 months, they sent me a letter yesterday.

It says
"We wish to inform you that we are unable to revive your policy since we have not yet received the information/clarification that we had sought from you vide our earlier letter"

And then some more bulshit in the letter. The letter has also come with a cheque for amount that is like one tenth of whatever I have paid till now.

I called the call-center and told them that I have a letter like this. They know that I have already paid whatever is needed to revive the policy. But all they have to say is "Please visit our nearest branch tomorrow"

I cant believe that a company like HDFC is doing stuff like this. RIDICULOUS. They put ads like "Sar Utha Ke Jiyo" and all that effin crap on every TV channel. Why the **** ??? It makes no sense. Sad part is; I guess I am locked for a very long time on this. The next thing I have to figure out is how to reduce this already "pain in the ass" pension plan to something bearable so that even in the future if i dont get the money, i wont be too worried about it.

Every private company seems to be a blood sucker of the third rate. LIC would have been better I guess. Any comments?

Back

2009-03-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

Oh, its so difficult to get back to something after a very long break. Here I mean work and blogging.

Three weeks of vacation - first my wedding, then a trip to delhi to attend a close friend's wedding, a day trip to agra, back to chennai for the reception, then to perth via singapore; to chrischurch from perth, a week in the south island, back to perth again for about 5 days, stop over at singapore and then back to chennai. Whoooaaah!!

Whattaaey TRIP maan.

After all that, when i came back to work, there was no work. Thankfully, I had come back for something more interesting. Ultimate Frisbee. Yes, the Kodaikanal Fly Baba tournament is coming up during the last weekend of March. And Chennai is going to Bendy Field in Kodi with a 35 member team. This time we got our own bus!!!

Other than ultimate practice, i dont have much to do. the week i landed, i spent one day in office sorting out proofs for tax purposes. the recession is quite bad. bad bonus, no promotion and maybe no hike too. promotion and hike decisions have been postponed till june or july. management is buying time to see what the market reactions will be. haha. last year, around 200 people were made directors in the office. i was like - WHAT is WRONG with the guys in talent management?

Whatever, I still have to write atleast one post about my kiwi land trip. Until, then I am just signing off.

The Persians are waiting for me to lead their army.....

The Wedding Photos

2009-02-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

FROM MY D80

FLASH VERSION

HTML VERSION

The Wedding

Kabadi

2009-02-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

A sport that has a small connection to an epic like Mahabharata, also widely played in many states across India, a prominent sport in Bangladesh. Yes, its Kabadi.

Director Susindran has perfectly executed a script based on Kabadi with simplicity and finesse. This is not like Chak De, Lagaan or any other sports movies like Goal or Victory. This movie has a completely different take on Kabadi. There is no money, glamour and fashion. The game itself has little popularity among the masses. We hardly find anyone talking, which probably makes it easy for the director to have a small village like Kanakkanpatti as the nucleus of this movie.

A group of youngsters, who have different backgrounds, in terms of caste, work, status, are great friends and stand united only because of Kabadi. Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu is what they call themselves and they take pride in attending the local kabadi competitions. Winning is almost like a nightmare to them and to keep their heads high amongst their villagers, they play the weaker team from the next village. Their ultimate aim is to win a tournament so that they can walk inside the village with their heads high up.

A movie where almost everyone is a newbie, maybe a budget of a few hundred thousands, no expensive props and mostly everything natural is what makes VKK so special.

Mari, the uneducated young lad who is a goat-herd, is the principal character in this movie. Other than a very sad background about Mari, what we get to see is only his inclination for the sport and his love for the anonymous girl Saranya Mohan, who comes to the village festival from Madurai. Its interesting to note that the director has beautifully brought out the love between the two without even letting out the girl's name. Also, its awesome to note that they never exchange any contact information. They decide to wait till the next years festival. It works like that in villages. How difficult but at the same time, fascinating.

The other characters have been neatly sketched. Each one has an interesting background and they bring vibrance and color to the movie. Kishore, as the Kabadi coach, sets the pace in the second half of the movie.

Comedy is not a separate track. The kabadi players by themselves are an enthusiastic crowd. Moreover, being villagers, "nakkal and nayyaandi" comes automatically to them, atleast the director has made sure that there is no need for an extra character to bring humor to the screen.

Music is quite a plus to this movie. The songs are simple and melodious. No powerful instruments to make you feel jolted out of the blue.

Overall: MUST SEE

Women and IT

2009-01-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

Sometime back, a company ran this intolerable ad.

Between 2001 and 2007, 37000 women in the UK have abandoned IT Careers.

And Tim Berners Lee said this about sexism in IT "A culture that avoided alienating women would attract more female programmers, which could lead to greater harmony of systems design. If there were more women involved, we could move towards interoperability. We have to change at every level"

Is IT predominantly a "boy thing"?

Padikkathavan - Cool Cocktail

2009-01-24T10:11:00.001-08:00

Super Star's son-in-law is back. A movie of the same title was another feather in Super Star's cap during his career. I guess the same holds with Dhanush. His performance in this undoubtedly commercial movie will definitely take him a long way.

Padikkathavan is a generous cocktail of all the commercial aspects that any one would look for in a movie. This movie is all about how Dhanush - a 10th Fail, who gets humiliated by his father at home for not studying, decides to get ahead in life by almost forcing someone who is highly educated fall in love with him, who happens to be Tamanna.

Dhanush is the everything in this movie. He fights, dances, jumps, runs, does all sorts of stunts in the movie. With his Bruce Lee figure, he takes a dig at punch dialogs and excels in comedy as well. We know for a fact that Dhanush himself did not complete his education before entering films, but he has to be appreciated for the great work he has done in this movie. The title of the movie by itself had raised expectation of the audience by a few notches. Dhanush has carried this movie quite well.

Music is a plus for this movie. Mani Sharma's music may not be something innovative or out of the box, but it definitely gels with the script. "Raanki Rangamma" and "Hey Vetri Vela" are numbers that would stay on charts for a few months.

Milky White Tamanna - is she going to ride a wave like Simran? She sure does a wonderful job in the movie. With the kind of offers she has been getting from directors and producers in tamil cinema, if she continues the hard work that she has been doing, I am quite sure that she will give native actors a big run. In this movie, she is total entertainment material. But what surprises all of us is how her character evolves in this movie.

This film has got too many bad guys. At one point you are bored seeing people just killing each other. Extremely Painful. And by the time, the twist in the movie is revealed, you just want everything to get over. Suman, one of the bad guys, has more scope in this movie than just handling rifles and knives. Suman's acting in those extra scenes brings some seriousness into the movie.

Vivek's comedy begins only in the second half. First half comedy is completely ruled by Dhanush and his "tea-kada" friends. Vivek starts off well, but is somewhat annoying a little later. In the second half, he is always accompanied by dhanush. so, as soon as comedy gets a little off-track, the script ensures that patching work is done.

Overall: Only entertainment, no logic.

Poem: Her favorite steel tumbler

2009-01-15T10:53:00.001-08:00

she woke up
morning birds her alarm
this sunday
was no different

nowadays she was
used to the rhythm

prepare
deck up
new batch arrives
stand straight
genuflect
sit gentle
sing devotional
serve coffee and snacks
listen to elders jabbering
ancestral connections

nothing made sense
hot and bothered
acted with obedience
she held her emotions tight
never spoke an extra word
in her own territory

the hand had moved
a few degrees south
in some time she thought
life will be normal

with anger and hatred
she looked
at the kitchen sink
tumbler and plates
put to wash

for,
the seventeenth time
a stranger's lips had
left
another dirty mark on her
favorite steel tumbler

Villu - Hopeless Bow

2009-01-13T23:20:00.000-08:00

In an era, where actors struggle to make an impact among the fans, Vijay gives a pedestrian performance for a movie that lacks every aspect of a good movie.

Third day after the movie has released and I saw people walking out for every song. Intermission - complete chaos. Fans were frustrated. Second half - complete damage. Atleast the first half was bearable. Second half is a disaster.

Villu opened this Pongal hoping to be a commercial success. This time, the Prabhu Deva - vijay combination has backfired. Pokkiri was phenomenal. After that one, this movie comes across as a major letdown for Vijay fans.

Now, Vijay has a few flag. An emblem rather, from his fan club. So thats the introduction for the actor. Vijay in the lead role has just killed time on the screen. No acting. Nothing that any person from the audience could appreciate. Ok, the dance sequences are quite nice. Comedy hasnt gone well. Everything else is below average. Villu for Vijay's career is like how Kuruvi did sometime back. Just more damage. I hope Vijay finds a way to fix his script choosing skills. This commercial mass entertainer formula is not working well. Gone are the days of the standard formula. Everyone wants something different and out of the box.

Music by Devi Sri Prasad. Another let down. Jalsa song is okay. Every other song has an amazing telugu touch. Devi Sri - please understand. We don't like movies where actors do 5 stunt scenes and 5 songs. We know to appreciate good music and we always like it that way. You have done a good job before. So I dont understand why you have miserably failed this time.

Prabhu Deva - the director. Some say that this movie is similar to Soldier in Hindi. The bobby deol movie. I dont remember that one. Whatever. But whats there to direct in this movie. Deva told on TV that this movie is like an MGR movie - wholesome entertainer. Well, definitely not. This movie is a pain in the ***. Was there anything called STORY in this whole movie? Bottomline is REVENGE, but the way it has been handled - extremely atrocious. Its usually the end of the first half where you can try all your direction gimmicks and possibly screw up. in the second half, you have to patch up and give a powerful comeback so that people walk out with a enthusiastic feeling about the movie. In this case, post intermission is complete trash - especially the flashback.

Nayantara - she is beautiful. Camera captures her well. Comedy goes great. She has done a neat job. Otherwise, no scope for acting.

Vadivel - first half comedy is AMAZING. Keeps you rolling. The sequence with the english song "I just cant stop loving you" is a fantastic and innovative effort. Second half comedy is again waste. Hopeless.

Prakash Raj, Anand Raj, Sriman, Gita, Manoj K Jayan, Ranjitha - all these characters add more trouble to the weak storyline.

Overall: Huge letdown for Vijay fans

Nature's New Year Gift

2009-01-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

Straight from the tree at home. Organic Produce from the home garden. After quite a long wait, we managed to get hold of these fruits. Thankfully, the arboreal rodents and the birds were busy doing something else.

Ghajini - In Hindi

2008-12-30T09:42:00.001-08:00

Prayer to God - SRK please dont watch Vaaranam Aayiram and ask Karan Johar to copy the movie for you.

When I walked out of the movie hall, that was the feeling I had about Aamir Khan's Ghajini - a remake of the tamil version. Comparing two movies is not the way to go, but what the hell. I think this way I can represent my thoughts better.

Two hours of this movie is just the same. Copy Copy Copy. This is Bombay and that was Chennai. The last 30 minutes was dealt with concentrated effort to make it look professional.

Aamir Khan has done a lot of hard work in this movie, but gets distinction only. You have to give it to Suriya for his outstanding performance in the tamil version. Khan looks very royal in the first bit. So its a bit difficult for a third tier model to visualise him as an aspiring model. Surya does that part well. He looks pro when he is a CEO and he appears very down to earth during his part with Asin.

Props look more sopihisticated this time. A posh apartment in Hiranandani Gardens is too much to ask for. That too, well laid plans and pictures. Everything looks clean and doesnt look like a house that belongs to someone who suffers from short term memory loss.

Asin steals the show. She is the same Kalpana we saw a few years back but what an amazing performance. Bollywood lassies - beware! Miss Thottumkal has already established her position with class.

Ghajini might be a hit in Bollywood because Bollywood has not seen movies with meaningful scripts for a very long time. Most movies are luxurious commercials. So this movie will definitely go a long way.

Jiah Khan plays Nayantara's role in the movie. I thought Nayantara was such a waste of time in the movie. Jiah says - No, how can that be! I will prove that I am the worst for that role.

AR Murugadoss has done a great job. He has ensured that the second version is much better and cleaner than the first one. As a director he scores more points for the hindi version.

AR Rahman's music. I seriously could not appreciate the songs. Background score was mindblowing. Songs - sorry. Sanjay sees Kalpana and falls in love with her. "Oru Maalai" in Tamil was such a fantastic representation of the mood. Here in the same situation, the song sucks. And then Suttum Vizhi - it was another mega hit song. Perhaps Rahman thought that he shouldn't bring the same mood inside the hindi version but these songs in tamil gave such a boost to the storyline. It didnt do that much impact in Hindi.

Overall: A new experience for hindi movie lovers.

Silambattam - Little Star Rises

2008-12-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

Little Star does it again. A complete entertainer. A bit of everything that you would expect in a excessively commercial movie.

I think the main highlight of this movie is Yuvan's music. I should talk about it before anything else. Yuvan has given the best again. The music is well aligned with the commercial aspect of the movie. Dont expect the song visuals to be aligned to the script. NO WAY. The songs are just to enjoy. 'Vechikkava' - a remix and mega hit from Simbu and Suchitra, after 'Dandanaka' in Kaalai. This song sets the mood for all the songs to follow. 'Vechikkava' also reminds you a bit of 'Maarugo maarugo' from Vetri Vizha. 'Nalamthaana' is also a cool one. Yuvan has made ilayaraja sing for one of his songs and its come out really well.

Story - well, its again related to revenge and gory fights between two families. They just keep killing each other and then you know what happens in the end. but still, there is a reasonable twist in the story and its quite nice as it generates enough masala content for the audience.

Simbhu does the role of a priest in the temple. What I dont like here is the way they have portrayed the priest community in the movie. They just make a lot of fun and its not good. I mean, I haven't seen a lot of movies that make fun of the christian nor the muslim community. In fact, I cant even think of one where they made excessive fun of these two communities. Even for that matter, a chettiar or a nadar or those deep down south ones. most movies take a dig at brahminism and this movie takes it to an unbearable level. So, Simbu's characterisation is quite nice. He has acted well, the typical styles follow. He has also worked well on the song sequences.

Sana Khan - major time pass girl in the movie. she is best used only for the songs. exposure - yes. that element is there too. lip sync is quite bad i thought. dont know whether she will go a long way. but definitely item number material.

Prabhu does a character role in the movie and it goes quite well for him. Sneha is also around for a while. She plays her part with elegance.

Action is an important element of this movie. Rather the main element. Kanal Kannan manages to pull it off again. Very skillful and neat.

Comedy by Santhanam and Manobala in the Brahmin setting really sucks. They just take a dig at multiple people and sometimes sound quite offensive. Karunas in the second half of the movie makes you laugh naturally.

Overall: Mass entertainer. Try once if you have time and money to waste.

Weekend Well Spent

2008-12-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

My weekend started on Thursday evening when I boarded the train to Kodai Road. It was a fun filled three day weekend. Highlights as follows:

1. Ran to catch the moving train. I was actually sitting inside another train on the opposite platform until my friends came and told me that I was sitting in the wrong train.

2. Was forced to listen to a torture conversation from a supporting actor by name Y.Vijaya. She always comes in the tamil movies as someone who belongs to the bad guys family.

3. Got to see some of the spots where the movie Subramaniyapuram was shot.

4. Awesome breakfast at Sholavanthan.

5. Got to check out the Vadipatti artifical turf ground. Apparently, Vadipatti churns out the maximum enthusiasts for hockey from Tamil Nadu.

6. Tried Paneer Soda after almost a decade. God, it was so refreshing. And then, Bovonto, another amazing drink.

7. Took a small walk in Kodaikanal on Friday evening. Visibility was like 2 feet.

8. Saturday morning was bright and sunny. So, we ended up doing a 30 plus km cycle ride in the hills. Went around the lake and took the upper lake view road straight to the golf course, then Pillar Rocks and then the Berijam Checkpost. From there headed down another hill for about 15 kms.

9. Amazing uphills and downhills. Downhill speed of atleast 35-40kmph. Got knackered completely on the uphills. Every hill was a challenge. There was always this tendency to give up and get on to the support truck. But, giving an extra mile of effort is such a pleasant feeling and it gives you a great feeling at the end. So I kept riding the cycle until the guys just forced me to stop.

10. Bought half a kilo of home made chocolates from Kodi - Raisins, Dates, Butter Scotch, Almonds. Every possible flavor.

11. Took a scary ride back to Sholavanthan. The driver drove the Omni at 60kmph through the hills. He reached the foothills in about an hour. Every minute, I was fearing whether I was going to throw up.

12. Reached Madurai on Sunday morning and tasted the world famous Jigar-Thanda. There are only 2 shops in Madurai that are famous for this. Every other seller is trying to fake it.

13. Visited the Thirumalai Naicker Mahal, which was under renovation. So nothing much to see, other than concrete, cement and paint all over the place.

14. Silambattam - the best thing to happen in Madurai. Totally Simbhu style and killer movie.

15. A mindblowing concert by Vedanth Bharadwaj at the INTACH Madurai to end the holiday.

Just heard

2008-12-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

One of our relatives came home on Sunday evening. They had something to tell.

Someone in their family was the Revenue Manager(RM) at the TAJ. He was leading a team of 5 people. They were holding a meeting at the TAJ about the arrival of a cricket team for the ICL. After a while, they got news that the cricket team was going to get delayed indefinitely.

The team plus RM was reporting to a General Manager(GM), who had recently joined the TAJ in Bombay. He still hadn't found a place to live, so he was living at the TAJ with his family as well. After this meeting, the GM asked the RM to leave since the cricket team wasn't going to come to the hotel.

So, our relative, who was the RM, left the hotel. He was just 10 minutes away from the Hotel, when he heard the news. Obviously he couldn't get back to the hotel to see what was happening. But he got the news three days later.

The 5 people who were in the meeting room with him that day were brutally shot by the terrorists.

The GM, who heard the news of the attack in the Hotel, was getting down the elevator. There was so much commotion that he could not get to either the team nor his family. He wasn't allowed to go anywhere, rather. But the mean terrorists had entered in multiple places. The family was shot as well. It took them three days to get the bodies out. The mother had been holding the child locked in her arms when they were being shot by the terrorists. After three days, the rescuers could not even unlock the hands to separate the bodies.

Just hearing to this was so painful. I seriously cannot imagine what the immediate families would be going through.

Mumbai Storm Chasers

2008-11-25T22:04:00.000-08:00

WOW, Ultimate scene in India IS really getting bigger and better. Check out the news video on the Mumbai Team. These guys will be here in Chennai over the weekend for the tournament.

Chennai Beach Ultimate Championships 2008

2008-11-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

Click on the image to view in full resolution mode.

SEE YOU THERE

Malayalee Pennae

2008-11-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

I was watching Kiran TV today and I came across this totally beautiful song. Its called "Malayalee Pennae" - translates to "Malayalee Girl".

I think this song is perhaps the best non-film malayalam song I have heard in recent times. And maybe one of the best to come from the Malayalee Youth as a dedication to the women folk.

If you are Malloo reading this, enjoy the feeling !!!

Connect 101

2008-11-18T01:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Readers

See the picture below.. if its not clear, then click on the picture to see a better size. After you've carefully looked at all the pictures, let me know what connects these pictures. There is ONE SINGLE THEME.

I'll buy you beer and dinner if you get the right theme.

Please use the comments section to give me the answer.

Vaaranam Aayiram - life must go on

2008-11-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

Varanam Ayiram Suzha valam seithu; naranan nambi nadakkinran enrethir
Purana porkudam vaitthup puram engum; toranam nattak kanak kanden thozhi nan

Life is a box of chocolates - happiness, love, affection, success, good friends, etc would add sugar to your life and make you cheerful. But, life is not just a box of chocolates - fear, failure, diffidence, sorrow, separation, etc would add the salt and bring those tears. Come what may, LIFE MUST GO ON. For every individual has his share of ups and downs in his life. He needs to see what he can do for the future that awaits him.

Gautham Vasudev Menon's Vaaranam Aayiram sends home this simple message with a plethora of emotions that any individual can relate with. The movie literally takes you through high and low tides - you walk out with mixed feelings but generally good.

The story is about a son who, after the demise of his father, reminisces the time of his life when his dad was around. Right from birth till the stage he is currently in, he tries to bring back all the incidents; sees how his dad has been a great motivator and a role model who influences his life in every small way possible.

Not every actor gets to play a role, which is almost something like a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity. Suriya is the crux of this movie. The movie revolves around him and his relationship with his dad (another Suriya). I could clearly see that Suriya is getting better at every film as an actor. People say that he is following the foot-steps of Kamal Hassan. Quite true. As an actor, Suriya is giving everything he can to bring completeness to the director's vision. Suriya's escapades with love reminds you of Madhavan in Minnale. Suriya's deep low voice and reactions, background vocals in some situations give you a feeling of the Suriya we saw in Kaakha Kaakha.

Simran - oh, what a comeback! She initially plays the lovely lady who steals the heart of the Dad Suriya. Her predominant role is a mom character who tries to be a good support for her family and ailing husband.

Sameera Reddy - she is definitely going to go places in the industry. What an amazing character - full of life. I think she deserves a big applause for having done a wonderful job in the movie. She takes the movie to a different high and the 20-30 minutes of Sameera and Suriya on the screen keeps you in the best of spirits.

Divya Spandana - she comes into Suriya's life during the second half of the movie. Although she doesnt have a bubbly role, she gives meaning to her character by doing absolute justice. Too bad, she doesn't have the best songs in the movie.

Harris Jeyaraj's music and background score is amazing. All songs are topping every chart in South India. A good part of the movie is based on music, since son Suriya plays the guitar. Right from wooing his girlfriend by strumming the guitar to entertaining his mom and dad with his music, there is music everywhere. "Adiyae Kolluthae" is a total highlight. Shot completely in Berkeley, this song is an energy booster.

The movie has an overdose of English. Too many "Daddy"; "I love you dad"; "I love you mom"; "I miss you dad" phrases and then conversations between the family dominated by english words in between. I wonder why Gautham imposed this on a simple middle class family? Did he plan to appeal to the current generation of youth?

Cinematography handled by Rathnavelu is above all. Starting from the 80s themes, the train journey of Suriya and Sameera, and the shots of Golden Gat Bridge where Sameera proposes to Suriya - all that is mindblowing.

Overall: Another great movie by Gautham

Trek 3700

2008-11-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

I finally bought myself a TREK 3700

I wanted to get a nice road bike for a very long time. Over the last six months, I did a lot of research on different bikes available in the Indian market. Went through product brochures of BSA, Hero, Hercules, Avon, Firefox, Lumala, LA Sovereign, TREK, Merida, Raleigh etc etc.

All the Indian brands are mostly priced below 10K. But the build quality is not good. There is always some stiffness with the bike and the gear shift mechanism is not very smooth. I have tried the BSA ones very often. Even the latest one called ACT 105 isn't that great. There is something that makes the imported ones feel better during the ride.

Lumala is SriLankan. They are good, but very heavy. And there is no guarantee for good service. And also difficult to get spares. LA Sovereign is a joint venture with a Thai firm. They have good alloy bikes, but not that great for the price that you pay.

Then I checked Merida through a dealer in Bangalore. Great bike, but the logistics of getting the bike to Chennai and then servicing it here. Its not easy.

Raleigh - amazing bikes from the UK. These are produced right now in Asia. The Hypercity in Bombay has stocks but they dont ship to other states. If you have anyone in Bombay who is willing to ship it for you, then the Explorer and the MTRAX models are absolutely great bikes.

Firefox Target and Firefox Reloaded were also in my budget. I was almost buying the Reloaded, when the guy suggested the TREK. I had a look at the bike and it suited my requirements better than the Firefox. The Firefox has tyres that are better suited for the flat roads. So, for off-roading, you'll need to have another set of tyres. The TREK comes with the tyres used for mountain biking, but the best part is that the TREK on a flat road with such tyres is as good as the Firefox. Also, the Shimano gear system that is used on both these bikes is different. That enhances some quality of the product as well.

Anyway, now I am all thrilled about my new road bike. I am just waiting to hit Kodai in December for that wonderful cycling tour.

And if you need any help on buying road bikes, do feel free to reach out to me. I'll be glad to help.

Support for Srilankan Tamils

2008-10-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

For quite some time, a number of groups in this side of the country have started raising their voices for the Srilankan Tamils.

I really don't know why. Srilankan Tamils may be connected to the Indian Tamils or the Dravidians through history. But that's like so many hundred years before. Those guys decided to move to a different country for a living. They are of a different nationality. Why do these political outfits here cause trouble for us citizens?

The other day, last week. There was a human chain staged by the DMK. Rain was already causing enough havoc all over the city and these guys added more fuel to the fire. There was complete chaos in major parts of the city. People were stranded at most places. It took at least 4 hours for the traffic to clear and find some breathing space. And on the next day, there was no news about the situation. Most newspapers were celebrating the success of the human chain. WTF.

Today, I hear that there is a trade closure. Most shops, rather all shops are closed today for supporting the cause of Tamils. But what the hell again? Why should these people disturb public life? Like actor Vikram says in the movie Saamy, all these political outfits should go to Marina Beach or Island grounds and do whatever they want.

What a waste of resources? When will these fellow learn to think objectively? Beans is selling for 80 rupees a kilo and most vegetables are above the Rs.30 mark. Not too far before we hit a crisis and someone here is worried about a bunch of Tamils. I can agree to this agitation if the Indian Army was involved in the firing of Tamils. Instead of supporting, we should be more careful about these people entering our land and causing trouble for us. There are so many hundred thousand Bangladeshis inside our country who are illegal immigrants. We have enough trouble from our neighboring countries. And we also have so many outfits within the country who keep bombing cities day in and day out. And here in Tamil Nadu, we have a bunch of stupid fellows who are busy supporting rather than safeguarding.

If the Tamils don't have food, then send them food supplies or whatever you can to support them. Why trouble me to support them?

Oasis 2008

2008-10-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

WOW, this is such a wonderful coverage of Oasis. We never had so much publicity. These guys are talking of thousands of students and we used to celebrate when the registration crossed 1000. The guys are mentioning about a budget of half a crore and I still remember that we had a budget of less than 20 lacs. If everything else in pilani is working like before, then this year, a lot of people in SUB and StuCCA Body are walking away with a huge bank balance.

Aegan - Diwali Show-gun

2008-10-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

The man who is known for his luck at the box office is back again. Yes, its none other than our THALAI. He has done it again! Truly this is THALAI-DEEPAVALI.

Aegan - meaning the one and only one, also referring to Lord Shiva, made a gala opening on Saturday the 25th of October 2008 all over.

Ultimate Star Ajith, whose screen name is Shiva (in line with the theme Aegan), has given a great light hearted movie for his fans, this Diwali.

Aegan is a cool copy of Main Hoon Naa - the SRK movie that made wonders a few years back. The movie has all elements of entertainment that anyone would look for. Even though it was a copy, the script and the screenplay was done really well.

Ajith is back to make you laugh after his success with Billa. He is fat and not agile at all when it comes to dance. That shows clearly. If he had lost like 5 kgs of weight, mostly at the belly and a little on his face, then the impact would have been much better. Considering that SRK looked quite trimmed in the original, Ajith here looks totally like UNCLE. Some of his actions are also remind you of his style in Billa. Maybe he is still not out of the Billa Superhit Hangover. Having said all that, Thalai still rocks.

Comedy comes out really well. With stalwarts like Cochin Haneefa, Jayaram and then support from others like Sathyan and Nasser, every moment is quite enjoyable. The Jayaram-Sathyan combo during the first half is simply mindblowing.

Nayantara is the Professor at the college. The HOT PROFESSOR. Not just hot, but too hot to handle. Continuing after Billa and Satyam, she takes glamour to the next level. Nayan dons sexy outfits in the movie. Even the saris would make you go agape. As usual, there is not much scope for acting. More for singing duet songs in the Alps and some romance filled brushes with Ajith, just to set the ball rolling in the college.

Piya (from Poi Solla Porom) and Navdeep (Arinthum Ariyamalum) are the other important characters in the movie. They have done a good job. Nothing different from how it happens in Main Hoon Naa, but they have given enough justice to their role in the movie.

Yuvan's music is good. Background score is just GREAT. Especially the AEGAN Beat. Some songs would remind you of previous compositions. One actually reminded me of Michael Jackson. But a borrow from here and there but not exactly a true copy is warranted i guess. Check the trailer for the initial beat (starting at 00.34). Its going to be the ringtone of the quarter.

Raju Sundaram, another well know choreographer, has tried his hands at direction. For a first timer, he has played it safe and chosen a proven script. Taking less chances for experimentation and more emphasis on maintaining the script originality, the director makes a good start. We can hope to see more movies.

What didnt gel too well was the villain trying to do some comedy. It was ok to begin with but then it got too irritating towards the second half of the movie.

Overall: Nice timepass.

Beautiful Karnataka

2008-10-24T03:09:00.000-07:00

So here is a full set of the photos that we took during our trip.. Enjoy and do let me know if you liked them... Mama

Beautiful Karnataka

Sringeri, Horanadu, Belur, Halebid, and Shravanabelagola

2008-10-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

So my amazing trip to all these places began on Friday when I took the bus to Bangalore. By the way, never take SHAMA SARDAR Travels to Bangalore. Its horrible. The drivers are totally drunk and very customer unfriendly. They let people sleep on the aisle for half the money and some of them would just walk away with your luggage. Lucky, my luggage was safe.

At around 9am on saturday, we (myself, Abhinav Shankar - my frisbee mate and his mom) left Bangalore on NH4 and took the road to Hassan via Nelamangala, which is NH48. On the way, we made a stop at Chennarayapatna (CR Patna). There is a Kamat Restaurant just after the town on the highway. Next to that is a Cafe Coffee Day as well. After about 3 hrs of driving, this place is perhaps the best place to make a halt.

Our next stop was Belur - an important city of the Hoysala times. We spent about an hour there taking photos. If you have more time to spend, then best take a guide. We hit the road again to this place called Baalehonnur via Mudigere. We took a tea break here and then started again to Sringeri.

Sringeri is a temple town at the banks of the river Tunga. Adi Shankara selected this place to stay and teach his disciples. This place is of great importance for people who follow the Yajur Veda. We reached Sringeri around dinner time. There are very few hotels in Sringeri that provide accomodation. Most people stay with the Mutt's lodge. Very basic accomodation and just enough for one night. Advance booking is always appreciated. Now that a lot of people have taken to religion and belief in God, its better to play it safe. We showered, had food at Hotel Guruprasad and attended the Chandramouleeswarar Puja. The Puja was done by the Acharya himself. After that, we had a quick darshan of him and came back. Next day morning, we visited the Mutt again for a Paadha Puja (Feet Puja). They have a sandal made of silver worn by the Acharya, rather several copies, and the disciples do Puja for the same. Once that was done, we proceeded to Bhikshavandanam, where we get to meet the Acharya and seek his blessings. Remember, for all of this, you have to get tickets at the temple's desk at around 10am in the morning. Next stop was the Thorana Ganapathi (Its a Ganesha on a silver door frame. There is no temple, but its just on a door and frame.), where we did another special puja. Yes, you have to get tickets for this as well.

Next was photo time. We came back and took pictures of the temple and the surrounding areas of the Mutt. At the banks of the river Tunga, the devotees keep feeding the fishes. That's almost customary these days. The fishes were HUGE. Each one should have weighed like atleast 5kgs. Also, on the steps is the place where according to history, Adi Shankara noticed the cobra giving shelter to a frog. Then we had lunch at the Mutt. The Mutt provides free food to all devotees and let me tell you, the lunch is amazing. You should never miss it.

Post lunch, we left Sringeri and took the road towards Horanadu. Horanadu is about 60kms from Sringeri. The road is scenic (you can spot many lakes and waterfalls) but very bad for your car. An SUV is a better choice. Annapurnaeshwari is the main deity at Horanadu. She is made completely out of gold and her smiling face gives you such a blissful feeling.

From Horanadu, we took the road to Kalasa and then drove straight to Chikmagalur. This town is an estate town, dominated by coffee growers. We stayed the sunday night at an awesome place called the Kadur Club. Next day, after English breakfast, we headed towards Halebidu. The route was first to Belur and then 16kms to Halebidu. This city was also part of the Hoysala kingdom. Architecture is very similar to what we saw in Belur. Some of the important statues that we noted here was Krishna carrying Govardhana Giri and Ravana carrying Kailasa mountain.

Shravanabelagola was our next stop. We drove from Halebidu to Hassan and then stopped at the Kamat Hotel before CR Patna for lunch. We parked at the foothills and walked to the temple. A steep walk of about 650 steps leads you to the top for a view of one of the worlds largest monoliths. A view of the town surrounding this hill is brilliant.

From here, it was just back to Bangalore. We took the road to Kunigal and then to Nelamangala.

Au Kate

2008-10-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Siren is the name of this statue. Sculpted my Marc Quinn, its none other than one of the top international supermodels in the world - Kate Moss. Pure 18 carat gold - weighing 50 kgs. Thats exactly what Kate weighs in real life. This is a yoga pose and its supposed to depict the modern day Aphrodite.

One thing I really wonder... Did she actually pose like this for Quinn? Then she is really Kate Flexi Moss.

This statue cost 1.5 million pounds to make and is expected to fetch atleast 10 million pounds when it goes for the auction in January 2009.

More and more research on the topic led me to some interesting websites.

One is called Body Casting (explore this website a bit and you'll get to see some of their wonderful projects) and then the modern day Picasso called - Pricasso.

Leave the Dow and Bourses aside for sometime and learn to appreciate ART.

Old Ads

2008-10-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Saw a few ADS on a British Newspaper - really old ones. Not in print anymore. And yeah, they are quite alarming.

Do click on the picture and check them out.

The ET Madras Plus Coverage: Today

2008-10-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

THE NEW BEE IN TOWN!

This bee is buzzing. And has people leaping into the air with excitement. Ultimate Frisbee is here!

Deepti Sivakumar

Come sunrise; the Elliot's beach springs to life with people. There are the aspiring cricketers, the joggers, yoga practitioners, laughter club members, the bluegreen health concoction vendors… Amidst these groups, there is one more. One that has people cheering excitedly. Ultimate Frisbee. As even a quick internet search will tell you, the sport is mostly called Ultimate since frisbee is a trademark brand name for the discs.

Chennai Ultimate Frisbee (CUF) is a group of individuals who are passionate and committed to the cause of turning unsuspecting beachgoers into Ultimate addicts. For the uninitiated, it is a lot like playing rugby or American football as far as the game-objective is concerned. Teams have to score points by passing the disc between its members in the opposing end zone. But unlike rugby or football, Ultimate is a nocontact team sport, which means if you have a broken nose, you can have no grudges.

Though Ultimate's origins can be traced all the way to North America, the sport is gaining popularity in many parts of India too, courtesy the people who fly to the US for education, and expatriates. Ultimate is only about four-years-old in India, but the national teams are already gearing up for one of its biggest tournaments. On November 29 and 30, Chennai will play host to around eleven teams; ten from across India and one from Sri Lanka. "There have been national tournaments before, but participation from ten national teams makes this Ultimate Frisbee's biggest so far," says Narayan Krishnan, one of the founders of CUF.

What's interesting about this game is that even at the international competitions, there are no referees; the game is self-refereed.

Ultimate is a sport that believes in fostering the player's sportsmanship over everything else. That explains the total absence of sledging or heckling on the Ultimate grounds. "We will win because we are better than the other team in skill, speed and stamina; and not because we can cheat, bully, sledge, trip or push them around," explains one of the Ultimate pamphlets. "Sometimes people get too caught up in the competition and they forget the spirit of the game. We're just a bunch of people who have got together for the love of the sport," trails off Manu Karan, CUF's pillar of support.

The CUF members meet four times a week to practise their dives, catches and throws. But besides that, they also teach Ultimate to children from the underprivileged sections of the society. In fact, in cities like Ahmedabad, Ultimate is being adopted by NGOs as a method to inculcate confidence, teamwork and leadership qualities among different communities. As a sport, Ultimate is associated more with the sheer joy of playing more than the "win at all costs" spirit, and the focus is more on team work and camaraderie between the players.

The fitness angle cannot be ignored too. Ultimate goes a long way in giving the players something to look forward to, at the end of the day. "Most of us have full-time jobs; some of us are techies, some business analysts. But the work-home-work rut is a little difficult to break away from, once you get sucked in. Ultimate is my breakaway from the rut, even if it means waking up earlier on the weekends," says Manu. For some, the game is that last push one needs to make or break a habit. Muthuraman, an Ultimate lover, can't wait for the tournament to begin. "Ultimate helps me take my health seriously," he says.

Currently, CUF has around 35 members. "Newbies come over weekends to watch us play and some of them become regulars," says Manu, but he does add that the awareness levels are still low. For a game completely devoid of on-field cursing, Ultimate is surprisingly competitive, and even after the game is over, you can always catch the players practising their catches and throws. What's also unique about Ultimate is that it's unisex. Regardless of your age, sex, height and weight, you can play. Go on, be a part of the frisbee experience!

PS: By the way, the man leaping in the air to catch the disc was a photography trick!

Kadhalil Vizhunthen - Review

2008-09-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Everyday for the last two weeks or so, in fact, every 20 minutes or lesser, all the SUN NETWORK tamil channels (SUN TV being the producer for the movie) were showing the trailer for Kadhalil Vizhunthen(KV).

The music was pre-released on the Internet very long time back. The famous Naka Muka song was topping the Kollywood music charts for months. No one had a clue about this movie and the songs were already a treat to the common Chennai listener.

The run up to this movie was quite good. I was impatiently waiting to see the movie.

Before we go the movie, I should definitely praise Vijay Anthony - the music director. What an amazing score!!! Simply superb. Peppy numbers that would make you remember. And not just one song. Every song in this movie has been composed carefully. With so much effort and thought, the songs bring a whole new life to the movie.

KV is a movie about obsessive love. The first half of the movie is extremely fast. I really meant it. There is enough entertainment that you dont realise the passage of time. The storyline has been dealt with so much skill that you are just wondering as to whats going to happen. The second half gets SERIOUS. So much that you get tired and disgusted; just waiting for the movie to get over. The entertainment value curve gets to the third quadrant and remains only there.

The story at the base level is the usual poor boy - rich girl love story but it does get disturbing to the eye and I would defnitely not recommend watching this with your family. School children - definite NO. The suspense in the movie starts off quite well and then gets so much out of control that it becomes just a waste of time. Turns out to be a bug drag.

Screenplay, script, dialogs, direction - all these aspects are absolutely worthy until the Intermission bell rings. Second half is disastrous.

Nakul - the fat guy with spiked hair in BOYS movie is the hero. Being half his size and for a first movie as hero, he has done really well. The best part is dance. It looks like this guy is going to have a good future. But he could have chosen a much lighter subject to start launch his career. After a point, his actions in the movie just intolerable.

Sunaina - simple and pretty. A newcomer gets so much screen presence. Quite commendable. In tamil movies, that too in recent times, female leads have just been for time-pass. Sunaina as Meera is quite an angel in the movie.

Sampath - the bad guy in SAROJA, has an important role to play in this movie. He has done well. Two good movies in a row for him. We'll see more of him I guess. Livingston does a good role too. All other characters are very random and not worth any special mention.

KV comes across as a movie that has borrowed/copied themes and ideas from so many other movies in the past - GUNA, Kadhal Kondaen, 7G Rainbow Colony. By this time you should have guessed the outcome of this movie. Yes, its a major TRAGEDY.

Overall: First Half - Wonderful. Second Half - Super Torture

Marc Faber on US Economy

2008-09-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Investment analyst and entrepreneur Dr. Marc Faber concluded his monthly bulletin (June 2008) with the Following:

”The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part.’

Sakkarakatti - Damn Shitty

2008-09-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Let me ask one simple question. Do sons and daughters of actors have to necessarily become actors as well? Can't hey just study and do something else? And why completely tarnish the image of their parents who probably did really well during their time in the film industry.

Such is the case with Bhagyaraj's children. His daughter screwed up big time, in a movie a few years back and now its his son Mr. Shantanu. Like Vadivelu asks in one of his movies - YAEN !!!!

Shantanu - please! I am very sorry for you, son. I can already see your career plummeting. Unless you do something phenomenal. There should be a director and a producer who never heard about or saw this movie and they should cast you back in a movie. Thats your only hope. I dont know whether its your inability or the script, but this never worked for you. Your ratings - sorry, I dont think anyone would want to rate at all.

The movie is a crappy love story. During the movie, my friends and I were wondering whether its something wrong with the movie or we have grown out of such stupid ways of showing love. The way the movie treats love and relationships is absolutely at gutter standards. I wonder if college going people nowadays are like this.

AR Rahman - why Sir? Why did you do this to yourself? Did you really hear to the script before composing? Did someone influence you politically or catch you by the neck? Songs are nice but could have been composed for another film. For these films, it would have been good to have some random amateur music director. I am not taking any names.

Picturisation for songs - what a disaster! Too much of graphic effect that doesnt even gel with the movie. Themes copied from famous Hollywood movies. Learn guys. Learn.

What I am feeling is - Kalaipuli Thaanu made a lot of money with Dasavathaaram and maybe a few other movies previously. So he gave some black money to his son Kalaaprabhu and told him to just spend it with no sense whatsoever.

Shantanu's friends in the movie - what a bunch of losers! I hope I dont get to see any of those guys on the road. I dont think they'll come out too. They have lost even a crowd role in any south indian cinema.

Ishita - I think thats her original name. Screen name is Deepali. Whatever. How did they find her. She has no idea what she was doing in the movie. Did she act for free?

Vedika - remember the Kutti Pisaasu in Simbhu movie Kaalai. Yes, thats her. She is the one who does a reasonable role in the whole movie. Some good acting compared to everyone whho screwed up. Someone in the team had a mind to give her a good role. He/She definitely needs an award for having thought so much because no other person involved in this movie gave a thought about anything while making this movie.

I can just see the movies' revenues taking a downward shift right from day one. The van driver at Sathyam Cinema in Chennai told me that someone influenced the cinema management and made this movie run in a big hall. Pity Sathyam.

Overall: Worst movie of the year!!!

Funny Browser: n resworBynuF

2008-09-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

unlmehg g amitgogn ttonog. i nkftmy oardoilagleuwhtry oissea u elithcnntn o sthehellhai ? gnnepp si t ahw .ihtfo drwadnatsredu oa i .si ek nercs eht nopswohsdna delbmrcs steg rworb ht nept i evea tb goo ro lzm ro byek hiw siht i won t'od elog gniahc dnawo thir eciff eht ni nits i.nineppahsiynnufnitos yedds

suddenly something funny is happening. i am sitting in the office right now and chatting on google. i don't know if this is with my keyboard or mozilla or google but whatever i type on this browser gets scrambled and shows up on the screen like this. i cannot understand a word of this. what the hell is happening?

Like they say in X-Files, ARE THEY HERE NOW?

SAROJA

2008-09-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, no critical review about this movie. SAROJA, an adaptation of the english movie "Judgment Night (1993)" is a great movie. Its a must watch. WHY?

Venkat Prabhu - the director, has done a NEAT job. For a person who is quite new to the art of direction, he has proved himself.

A very successful low budget movie. More than 70% of the movie has been shot outdoor with minimum requirements. A run down factory is the main place of action. Best use of available resources. No money for costumes as well. Its pretty much the same throughout the movie.

Most of the people in the cast are ones you see everyday in all the mega serials on SUN TV and other TV Channels. And since the movie particularly runs around these four friends and some key characters, I am guessing that most of the others made just a guest appearance. If thats the case, then so much money saved as well.

Movie is never serious. Comedy kicks in every now and then. So, you don't get tensed, get to the corner of your seat or bite your lips as to whats going to happen next. Even if you tried doing that, a unexpected Premji Amaran's dialog or expression will totally put you off-track.

Ok, one thing I don't understand is why did they give a name called SAROJA to that girl. I mean, its such a prehistoric name. Whatever.

Movie Team takes a dig at some Kollywood stars after their first attempt in Chennai 28 became immensely successful. Here its on Vijay's dialog "Evlovo Pannittom, idhu pannamattoma" and Rajni’s "I was helpless; I was kaarnered"

Nobody is a HERO in this movie. So, there is no one man beating 20 people phenomenon. Every thing is quite natural and acceptable to the mind. What would you do, if you are in trouble. You wont fight or fly in the air. You'll think and act. Thats what happens here as well. So, its a good reflection of a normal person.

Yuvan's music is very youthful and apt to how the story flows. "Dosthu bada dosthu" may end up being the latest friendship anthem and perhaps beat "Mustafa Mustafa".

You Knew?

2008-09-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Stunning
Beauteous
Ravishing
Graceful
Bonnie
Comely
Lovely
Attractive
Pulchritudinous
Exquisite
Resplendent
Splendiferous
Gorgeous

GOD, I never knew that the word "Beautiful" had so many similar words. Well, a few months back, everything in this world used to be Good and Pretty. It was so simple. Now those two words seem to have no meaning.

By the way, the image here is called "Aquarian Awakening". It was quite a surprise for me to find a picture like this.

Stylish Coke Ad

2008-09-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

This is such a cool ad. I liked it a lot.

Dham Dhoom

2008-09-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

Dham Dhoom is one movie from which you can learn a lot. Such as:

1. Toyota Innova is a great car for sensual love and romance.
2. In a foreign land, everyone around you, even your own country man, is a stranger.
3. A pole dancing stage in a bar is usually for women strippers and not men.
4. Don't get carried away by pretty women in a new country. Known devil is better than unknown angel.
5. Gut feeling can do magic.

Gautam (Ravi) is selected to go to Russia for a medical conference. He gets into trouble there and how he manages to set himself free is all what this movie is about. Jeyam Ravi's performance is quite good. As a stranger in a new land, he acts well.

Late Director Jeeva, who had worked with Director Shankar for a lot of movies and also independently gave hit movies like Ullam Ketkume and Unnale Unnale, had begun this project and was later completed by his team due to his sudden demise during the journey of this movie.

The first 20 minutes or so has almost 3 songs. That was like a shocker. In a way, its good too because later we will not have songs to distract us from the pace of the movie. As the movie gets to Russia, one of the guys from the Indian doctors team shows extreme emphasis about being careful in a new place. This gives enough ideas that in the next few scenes, our hero is going to have big trouble.

What I wonder is how Russian Immigration allows the Indian team to just enter without clear immigration checks. Also, why would you want to help some random woman in a foreign land, when you know that you are going to get married in like 15 days. Why try last minute flirting.

Harris Jeyaraj is back again with some numbers that are melodious. Background score reminds you of the Bourne movies. Its quite a straight copy.

Kangana Raut as Gautam's ladylove, Senba, is extremely skinny for a village girl and its completely unacceptable for "Tamil Nadu Village Girl Standards". Some flesh, especially near the hips, is required. Also, lip sync is bad.

Lakshmi Rai, supporting actor, is the advocate who helps Ravi in Russia. After a few glamorous roles, Lakshmi is back with character and substance to prove herself.

Malayalam actor Jayaram plays a very important role in this movie as an official from the Indian Embassy. When you closely observe his dialog delivery in the beginning, you get a feeling as to why it lacks assurance or assertiveness. Later, when things unfold you understand this well.

Overall: Good time pass

Jeyam Kondaan - Doesnt Win

2008-09-06T01:04:00.000-07:00

Satya Jyothi films is back again helping director Kannan make it big.

Jeyam Kondaan takes us through few incidents in an ambitious young man's life. At the outset, its a brother-sister movie. So, this movie is somewhat like a re-jig of the Mani movie Agni Natchathiram. Definitely not any close.

Vinay returns from London to start a venture in India. After he lands, he finds that the money he had sent to his dad is missing from the bank. His quest to find out what happened to the money and then solving all the problems connected is the rest of this movie. A group of close friends, a step-sister with whom the sibling rivalry begins, a house in Madurai and its tenants, a local goon, are the main characters that shape this movie.

Vinay, as the lead role, in this movie, has done his part quite well. Most of his expressions remind you of his previous movie Unnale Unnale. His work on the songs part is hopeless, but what can he do. You just have to blame the choreographer.

Lekha Washington is the pinion of this movie. This is her first here and she has performed like a seasoned actor. Her arrogant and adamant nature reflects the generation of headstrong people whom you'd come across. If there is anyone who deserves credit for this movie, its Lekha.

Bhavana's performance is nothing to mention. She is just a supporting actor in this movie. Yeah, she has a few songs with Vinay. Otherwise, her role is very restricted to cute talking and she has no scope. The director has tried a "Dum Dum Dum Jothika intro song" similar with Bhavana in this movie. It hasn't worked well.

Vidyasagar's music doesn't deserve a clap. Songs like "Athai Koodava" and "Adai Mazhaikaalam" are melodious but don't strike a chord with the audience. You wouldn't want to hear to these songs again. The background score isn't any effective either.

Comedy takes two separate tracks, one with Vivek in the city and another with Santhanam in the suburbs. Both do well. In a certain instance, Vivek travels into a serious note which is quite commendable.

The movie comes with a host of extra characters who try and make as much impact as possible. Thalaivasal Vijay, Nizhalgal Ravi, Megha Rajan, Cochin Haneefa are a few to name. Krishna, who is Vinay's friend in the movie, has given an excellent performance. I would also appreciate the director for showing some depth in Krishna's character.

Overall: Watch it only for Lekha

Learnt

2008-09-03T02:25:00.000-07:00

THERE WAS A GIRL
WHO WAS
TALL THIN AND FAIR

HER HAIR
HER HAIR
WAS VERY VERY LONG

Invitation Fiasco

2008-09-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

I suppose, the idea of a perfect wedding never works that well with the men.

So I spent like one or two weeks deciding how to send an engagement invitation to my friends - BCC them on an email or send them a prepared invitation from an external site. There was a need to know the numbers, so the best way was to get people to reply on a page that was available from a site. I started searching on the internet. Narrowed down a few sites, created login ids on all those sites and also got a few templates shortlisted.

As this needs suggestions and validations from you know who, I spent considerable amount of time on chat, discussing what needs to be done. My initial research was well appreciated. Then, she rejected two top priority sites of mine and came up with another site that she had seen. Later, she told me that all the templates that were available on the sites I suggested were hopeless. So she spent some time creating a new template. It came out really well. We spent a few days making some final changes. It was good to go.

She had decided how she wanted to send the invitation. She did that. In fact, she sent me a test invitation as well to see whether everything worked fine. Field Engineer's mind works with precision. Like everything you do on the rig is important as the operating cost is extremely high, same principles worked with the invitations. Extra care and attention was given.

I took extra time and finally realized that it was high time to send the email out. Last minute pressures. I created an account in a site that I liked (actually it was the one she had used. you know how easy it is to copy-paste) and started preparing the invite. While adding email ids to the address list, I did an overconfident import from my gmail account and 1500 plus email ids were added to the address list. Until then it was okay.

Something funny happened. I was on some screen on that website and then I saw a button which said "PREVIEW and SEND". I clicked that and then it started showing me an hour glass button on the screen. For about 10 seconds I didnt know what was happening. Suddenly it struck me. I knew something was going wrong and then I pressed the "CANCEL" button on the page.

By that time, the deed was almost done. The system had already started sending emails to my friends. Worst, it sent emails to some yahoo and google groups that I had subscribed to, as well.

Sometimes its typical IT Industry mentality. Do something called development and send it. When it bombs, we will do maintenance and support. And thats exactly what I have been doing. I have no clue as to how many people have got this invitation email. Every reply is like a support call now. I am answering back with thanks and letting them know about the incomplete invitation. I hope I dont spend the whole of tomorrow doing this.

What a fiasco !!!!
Enna Kodumai Saravanan Ithu

Trip to Rameswaram - Part 1

2008-09-01T00:13:00.000-07:00

On a Friday evening; especially when the saturday is a no-moon day; you definitely don't want to take a train to Rameswaram from Chennai. The average age of the passengers is 50 or even more. All through the train, you get the smell of onion or tomato chutney. Let me not forget to mention the amount of home cooked food as well. These are some routes where the railway catering probably makes no money. And then you have a bunch of people singing songs in the name of God.

And fortunately or unfortunately; a bunch of us, office friends, boarded the Rameswaram Express at 5pm from Chennai Egmore station. 12 hours to reach the temple town. What a painful journey! And guess what, everybody on that train is going to be at the temple in the morning. Thats like a lill more than 1200 people. Dont forget the people who are going to take vans, buses and all other forms to transport to the town. Moreover, this weekend was after the no-moon day when the eclipse was also around. So according to some priests, there is more reason to crowd around Rameswaram.

At 5 in the morning, the typical smell of a fisherman's town woke me up. At that time, the train was just going to enter the Pamban Bridge. In about 25 mins, we reached the station. Our rooms were booked at the Tamilnadu tourism hotel which was near the sea shore. There arent too many hotels here. Only a few good ones. If you plan to be here during a festival or any important weekend like this one, you better book rooms. Otherwise no chance!

Agnitheertham is the point to start your tour of Rameswaram. This is the spot on the sea right opposite the east tower of the temple. You need to take a dip in the sea and then walk to the temple. There are 22 sacred wells inside the temple where you have to shower as well (not really shower, but a guy will pour some water from a bucket on your head). If you take the standard temple queue for this, then the rates are very nominal, around Rs.17 i think. If you use an agent; of course, they will come and find you, then it varies between Rs.50 and 75 a head. Definitely, an agent does a good job. So, dont mind the money at all. Once this is done, you have to get back to your room, change into dry clothes and come back for darshan. Ramanathaswamy (Lord Shiva) is the main deity here.

After darshan, you can go around the hallway of the temple and see the architecture and paintings. There is also a shrine for Parvathy, Lord Rama and Hanuman. This temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingam temples in India. Some of the other things about this temple is the Palliyarai Darshan you shouldnt miss. At around 8.15pm, the puja for the Lord ends and the lord is brought by the priest to the Palliyarai near the Devi Shrine. The Palliyarai has a golden cradle where the lord and the goddess rest. A special puja happens and then sandalwood paste is given as prasadam to every devotee present. At a Shiva temple, its usually Vibhuti (ash) and never sandalwood paste. So this is also different. Next day morning (5am to 6am) is the Spatika Linga Abhishekam. This is the only time when the Spatika Lingam is taken out and bathed with milk. Just before this happens, you can watch the priest bringing the Lord back from the Palliyarai to the main shrine.

This temple also has a nice legend associated with it. Click here to read about that.

After completing our morning dips, we went back to the lodge. I had my breakfast at a hotel near the temple. The roads on the east and west side of the temple are the only ones that have decent hotels. Don't expect great service. They serve good vegetarian food. Thats all.

Our next trip was to Dhanushkodi. We hired a jeep. A jeep can take 5 people and it will cost you Rs.950. This place is about 20 kms away from Rameswaram and its the point of confluence for the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The ride was extremely tiring, but the views we got of the seas was amazing. On this picture, you can see one of the islands. Jump a few of those islands and you are in Ceylon. On the way back, we visited the Kothandaramswamy Temple - the place where Lord Rama crowned Vibhishana.

Independence Day Frisbee

2008-08-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Chennai Ultimate Frisbee conducted an Independence Day bootcamp. We made a poster and invited people to join us at the beach.

Network 18 group was very keen on covering this event. Divya, an ultimate player, who also works with Network 18 covered our camp live from Besant Nagar Chennai at about 7am. Here is the video (not edited).

Ramadass attacks CII’s Chennai version 3.0

2008-08-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

So, today, our ever-revolting friend Ramadass has opened his mouth again. Read that here

I have observed this for some time now. For anything that is aimed at development or industrialization, our man is the first person to protest.

This time its against Chennai 3.0 - the CII conference.

When some people are dreaming of making Chennai like one of the top cities in the world, this guy is speaking of driving away the middle class and the poor sections.

The last time I took a walk around Parrys Corner in Madras, I was thinking to myself - "Wow, Madras would be such a beautiful place if Parrys Corner was converted to look like Manhattan or Nariman Point. With high rise buildings on that side of the city, it will be a whole new transformation"

Obviously, when cities grow and become important for business, people will have to move out to the suburbs. We still cant have the same auto rickshaw guys loitering around and creating a traffic menace. Things have to get organized at least some day. To this day, when we speak of having visionaries and thought leaders amongst us, we have some thoughtless leaders like this one.

What are you?

2008-08-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

So let me know what kind of a person you are - Left or Right? I am hoping to get some thoughts about this before I post more information.

By the way, an explanation for FONDU is available here

Sathyam - Tries Hard

2008-08-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

I found some time yesterday evening. So I decided to catch up on the latest police based movie - Sathyam.

Sathyam - starring Vishal is what I would call as "yet another police story", but definitely not a very successful attempt.

The film begins by mocking a few themes portrayed by previous police movies - Kaakha Kaakha and Saami but still doesn't fare well. Even after seeing so many mature police movies through directors in the past, Sathyam's director still shows his IPS officer has a super hero, which is truly unbelievable.

Vishal has toned his body a lot, to look like a completely athletic police officer. The six pack craze has come to everyone now after King Khan displayed his. Sad, every other officer around him, sports a reasonable "tamil nadu police belly". Obviously, we know that Vishal cannot dance well. And that clearly shows in the song sequences. Dialogue delivery is okay but needs some clarity and thought. Vishal has performed quite well, otherwise. His portrayal of an honest police officer is quite commendable but that doesn't last for long.

We know that there are only some things that a policeman can do. There have been too many movies in the past and some have actually hit reality quite well. Sathyam is quite out of sync that way. Especially the fights. Totally insane. No police man can fight 20 plus people at a time. Its stupidity. I mean, why keep fighting. If you have to get them out of your way, then shoot below the waist and get going. Why waste your script on stunts.

Script and Screenplay takes a downward turn from the beginning. Encounters are done at gangsters or criminals not because politicians are bored of giving them cover. Its another way of eliminating people who repeatedly commit crime. We know that justice is in the favor of the advocate who argues convincingly. Encounter eliminates a chance for the advocate. That's all. And like they say in the movie Kaakha Kaakha, encounter is not done on any tom, dick and harry. When the criminals don't fear about shooting cops, why should the cops shoot below the knee? Sathyam movie takes you to a car chase. The background is the court near Egmore but the car chase happens on the highway to Andhra Pradesh. Vishal surviving and trying a monologue even after a bullet is fired at his chest. Too much love in a police movie kills the momentum. Sathyam does that as well. Finally, "mother sentiment". Can't we just get rid of this? Why do you have to portray heroes as "mamma's boy" - so loving, caring and all that bulshit. For god's sake, this is not a family story.

Upendra - the kannada hero, in his first tamil movie has done a wonderful role. Until a certain point in the movie, he keeps you wondering about why he is doing what he is doing. He definitely turns the movie around a bit. His thoughts in the movie totally reflect a resonably educated man and I do agree with him.

Nayantara - again, a waste of time. Her try with comedy is sick. Her moves in the songs are quite sexy. The introductory scene is quite interesting. After that the love scenes start dragging. In of the songs, it looks like Vishal and Nayantara are totally in love with each other. One police story in the past, with such scenes, ended in a wedding. Let's see if this one does too.

Harris Jayaraj's music hasn't lived upto the expectation. Background scores clearly show that he cannot try something new. Even the songs. The last one reminds you of "Kalyanam Thaan" from Saami. The rest also have deep connections with songs he has composed before and other tunes in the market. Composing music is a really tough job - agreed. Safe bet is to try an existing formula. Doing that again and again is a very bad idea.

Work on the camera is very good. For whatever script and screenplay was decided by the financiers and the director, the cameraman has done an amazing job. Scenes are very crisp and have a touch of perfection.

Overall: Moderate.

Insights

2008-08-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

I ran into this piece of information on the web. And I was surprised.

If you think, you can give an explanation to this one, then please add your comments.

Kuselan - somehow friendly

2008-08-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

What happens when a Malayalam movie is made in Tamil with a different set of actors and technicians? you'd rather call it a new Tamil movie.

I have strong reasons to believe that Katha Parayumbol - a great Malayalam movie starring Srinivasan got a similar treatment by the director P.Vasu. Commercialization. That's the only word to describe.

The story is about the life of a barber who lives in a town; and his superstar friend, with whom he had studied in school. The superstar comes to his village to shoot for a movie. The whole village is in a celebration spree to get a glimpse of the star. The moment they get to know about this connection, everyone in the village treats the barber and his family like how they see a person who has won the lottery. In that way, this film is a great representation of how behavior changes. But very soon, the movie starts focusing more on the superstar and the barber goes out of focus.
Pasupathy plays the role of a barber and Meena plays his wife. They try very hard to make ends meet. They don't have money to pay fees for their school going children; live in the most run-down house of the locality and don't even have food to eat, but Meena manages to wear starched saris and foundation / rouge for every scene.

Pasupathy does an excellent portrayal of a poor barber. His expression and dialog delivery is superb. I think he has studied Srinivasan's role from the original movie; in detail. But what to do, commercialization of the movie has erased the main theme and his presence. He gets sidelined and then the director suddenly remembers - oh my god, we forgot about this barber guy and then gets him back to focus again. This sequence keeps repeating.

Nayantara - total time pass I would say. No scope for acting. Actually she does nothing worthy in the whole movie. I wonder why she accepted to do this role. Too many close up shots on her body is definitely some eye candy. Rain dance and song is hot. Just before that song everyone wonders, rather they panic, where Nayantara is. Then they show the song. After that no one is bothered about Nayantara.

Coming to the comedy tracks. Vadivel - the vaigai puyal. Although he spends a lot of his screen time beating up his employees, his comedy concept is nice. Santhanam, Livingston, Santhanabharathi, Manobala and a lot others who are part of the comedy really keep you rolling in laughter. At least comedy is what sells in this movie through the first half. It really saves the movie.

Music by GV Prakash Kumar. Quite good but reminds you a lot about songs that you have heard before. One song (Perinba) reminds you about the title song in Veyil. Another song (Nayantara's rain dance song) looks like a slight lift off from a song that was composed by one of the bands in AR Rahman competition "Mirinda - Ooh La La La". The Shankar Mahadevan song about cinema, the way filmdom works and about Superstar, all in a song, is beautiful. The Egyptian theme based song sounds very much like "MJ's Remember the Time".

Last but not the least. Superstar. He is at his best. Apart from the usual scenes about fans and stardom, he comes across in the movie as such a simple person, which is highly commendable. If you've read the book, "The Name is Rajnikanth", then you'll be able to closely relate the last scene of this movie with superstar's life. There was actually a Kuselan in superstar's life; because of whom superstar managed to leave Bangalore and reach Madras in search of a future. But, what the hell. This movie still largely glorifies superstar and not Kuselan.

The message that comes out towards the end is about friendship. At the end, the producers could have made a witty remark saying "Happy Friendship Day" considering that the movie was released in August.

Overall: Good time pass for the family.

Friendship Day

2008-08-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

NO greeting card 2 give, NO sweet flowers 2 send, No cute graphics 2 forward, Just a kind heart of an ever loving friend wishing u advance "HAPPY FRDSHIP DAY"

So thats the first SPAM I got today morning for Friendship Day. And then few more started coming in. But they weren't as funny as this one.

Anyway, I always believed that after a point in your life, you kinda feel weird rather funny about these things. I mean, there are so many other things to do than buying an elastic friendship band or some filigree stuff that you can tie to your wrist or pin up to your shirt or bag. God knows who came up these ideas.

You know what - Friendship Day and all those Days dedicated to Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Dog, Cat, Neighbors are all for the West. Ok, we have Rakshabandhan. That's a different story altogether. But why I connect this to the west is mainly because of the magnitude they attach to these relationships. Children are so independent at young age. They are left to decide what they want to do. They marry. Not once, but quite a number of times. Also do several other things that we may not do. So, for them, relationships are just like written on paper. Ok, I am not telling that the people in the west do not have values. Their bold thinking about what they want to do in their life takes more gets more preference. That's all. So, they need such days to periodically remind them. And during such moments, they do everything they can to make that day special for that person in their life.

We Indians are not like that. When our friend calls, we have all the time in the world to spend with him or her. Sometimes, we go over and above the limit to do anything. Same goes with the values that we attach towards our immediate family and relatives. At least its been like that. I don't know how much of this "me and my space" concept has influenced us lately.

So the one thing I remembered distinctly among several others about Friendship and Friendship Day was this video. Wait! don't go and click immediately. So, I managed to find this on You Tube.

Closely watch the dialog at 1:32 about Friendship. Now that's simply amazing I say.

But don't be surprised if I go ahead and write a poem on friendship or maybe an icky sticky mindlessly sentimental post on the essence of friendship. I am capable of doing that. Just for the sake of writing another post; fill space you could say. That's all.

Wonderful

2008-08-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

I was super impressed after seeing this on the web. I really wish I could write stuff like this and send it to you know who.

I hope you like the video.

Swipe for lunch

2008-07-31T07:35:00.000-07:00

From tomorrow, we have something different to look forward to, at the office. MEAL CARDS.

So, it used to be like this. We paid 15 rupees for lunch and the organization paid the same. Now that's not there anymore.

We got this new thing called a meal card. One more extra card. Amidst so many credit cards, debit cards, fuel cards, MTV card, dhaba express discount card, oh yeah, access card; now we have this card to used at the cafeteria.

Company will not pay that 15 rupees. They have brought this new scheme called Flexible Benefit Plan. I seriously don't know how flexible this is. If I end up paying more tax by July next year compared to this financial year, then I'll know about the inflexibility of this flexible plan. Company will top up a fixed amount every month on this card and then you can swipe this card for lunch.

Previously you just paid 15 rupees and it was the hassle for the accountants in the finance department and the guys from the access card department to figure out how many ate or how many swiped twice, whatever that maybe. Now all accounting headache has been shifted to the employee. Every time you swipe, you have to ensure that the person at the counter enters the right amount and if you need to track the account, then you need to keep the bills and later claim if you need to reconcile. There is also an online account tracker.

But you know what? Having been here for about a year, I am sure my company will tell me to scan the receipt and send it via email to a given email address and raise a query in a new system.

By the way, this card can be used in other retail outlets within the city as well. Other than the big names, I really don't know where else you can use the card.

One of the names I saw on the list of outlets in Chennai said "PADMA STORES" and that's it. That was effin crazy!!! I guess there are enough surprises like this.

Subramaniyapuram

2008-07-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

A step back into the past - about 28 years. The year 1980. Think about what was in store then.

I went back to the old photo albums lying in the house to understand everything. The eighties. Wavy or curly hairdo, a rough look on the face sporting a thick beard or a nicely shaped mustache, bell bottom pants, colorful and kaleidoscopic designer shirts with an insanely long collar, wide belts with large buckles - thats the men. Now for the women - plaited hair (it was always black), jasmine flowers, half saris, eyeliner.

Subramaniyapuram (S.Puram) - set in the year 1980 was nothing different. Everything that you would possibly expect from a situation in the 80s was provided with utmost attention to detail. Even the motor vehicles - take the auto-rickshaws and the trucks - the registration number plate also reflected the 80s.

S.Puram is about the life of a few unemployed men who spend their lifetime living in a small town, working for a local wannabe politician, and how they end up becoming outlaws. S.Puram is also a story about living a life for today. Characters in the movie do not have great ambitions. They are very down-to-earth.

What I liked about the movie was the simplicity in the script. There was very clear emphasis on how friendship binds people, and the innocence among people that allows them to go to any extent to do what they want.

Swathi - the girl with the coy glances. She was just amazing. Without any glamor or style, in most of the romantic sequences, it was her big round eyes that did all the talking. Credit goes to the director for having delved into that direction of romance.

Love in the 80s wasn't any close to what we see in the movies nowadays. It was like running water on lotus petals, very much on the surface, brimming with emotions. No violent kisses or vulgarity. It brought in a divine feeling.

Jai - the bowler from the Rockers team in movie Chennai 28; has done an amazing job as Azhagar. Equal credit goes to his friend in the movie who plays this character called Parama. Imagine the angry young man of the 80s. Thats Parama for you. Azhagar is also on similar lines but partly enamored by Tulasi.

The movie lacked a forewarning of violence. There should have been a clear communication to the cinema halls telling them not to allow children for this movie. The second half of this movie deals only with blood filled violence and its quite shocking to see all that. Its comparable to the final scene in Paruthiveeran. If you;d scene that movie, then I am sure you wouldn't recommend watching that with your children or school going cousins. This is quite similar.

Overall: Great movie for a small budget.

If you knew or

2008-07-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

BOY meets GIRL in college. They spend over 5 years together or whatever - don't remember the exact number of years. For convenience lets keep it 5. Start off as friends. Surrounded by a gang of common friends they together hang in cafes, cinema halls and parties.. and lots in that line.

One thing I don't understand is why BOY doesn't feel more than being just friends with the GIRL. This is absolutely unbelievable stuff. I mean, in the last 5 years that BOY had known GIRL, he should have had enough feelings for her. He should have felt more for her than being just a friend and let me tell you straight - at least once in that 5 yrs he would definitely fall in love with her.

BOY and GIRL can't remain JUST friends and keep doing the following - talking to each other everyday for hours, spending time with each other more than required, dinners, dance parties, dates blah blah blah.. all of that will lead just to one thing. LOVE.

Well, that's what Jaane Tu comes to tell you. And according to me, you don't really need another pretty girl and smart boy between BOY and GIRL to help them understand what they feel for each other. But you know what - the director is actually right. Most of the times, BOY or GIRL doesn't realize that they are actually in LOVE and they just keep denying it. And you always need that external catalyst to start off that new reaction. In that context, I would agree with Abbas Tyrewala.

Old wine in new case. Thats the only description about Jaane Tu. BOY is Jai and GIRL is Aditi.

Rahman's youthful music just makes you love the film. "Pappu can't dance" - a dig on Salman Khan totally. Even if Aamir Khan says NO in public, I wouldn't agree because everything about that song is a punch on Salman's face. Especially stuff like muscular, playing the guitar etc etc. "Kabhi Kabhi" - the song thats been around everyone's minds for a few months now, is another highlight. In the middle the background score and some other song reminded me of "Michael learns to rock". Anyway, musicians are influenced by some style or the other.

Coming to the narration part. Rotlu, Jiggy, Bombs and Shaleen (all friends) decide to tell Mala about Jai and Aditi's story. This way of narration is an exact copy of the Tamil movie Azhagiya Theeyae

Another theme in the whole story is about fulfilling the pre-requisites of being a Rathore family member. Naseerudin Shah as the photo dad keeps talking to Jai's mom and troubles her with his witty dialogs every now and then. Arbaaz and Sohail Khan do a cameo in the movie. They are fun to watch.

Genelia is as usual - the same in Tamil and Hindi. No change at all. I don't understand how every director gets her the same kind of role. Always bubbly and immature.

Imran - the new kid on the block. Looks very smart on screen and does his role quite well. I think Aamir has provided a good opening for his nephew.

If you find someone enjoying this movie in the cinema hall, then you can be rest assured that these are the college going kids because this movie is so damn predictable that someone who is a little more matured will never want to sit through this for more than an hour or so.

Overall: Colorful

21: The Movie

2008-07-11T04:32:00.000-07:00

Hmm, I usually don't do a review for an English movie, but what the hell, a good friend of mine recommended this movie and asked me to write a post. So, here we go.

21 is a movie based on Ben Mezrich's 2003 bestseller Bringing Down the House - a tale of how brilliant MIT students supposedly took the Vegas casinos for millions of dollars at blackjack, using devilishly clever card-counting techniques, but somehow lost it all again.

Ben Campbell, a science genius needs about 300 grand USD to fund his education at the Harvard Medical School. He applies for a scholarship and the dean asks him for a challenging story that would help him get the scholarship. Ben doesn't have one and there starts his quest for a great story.

21 is an exciting movie packed with the right elements that would expect in movies that revolve around the life of 21yr olds.

Kevin Spacey (Micky) plays the professor who runs a team of card counting specialists. They fly to Vegas every weekend and literally plunder a casino.

Kate Bosworth is the college babe that everyone wants to hang around with. For 25, she looks sexy cool and pairs up really well with Sturgess who is just 21.

The movie is more about how observant you are whilst the game is in progress and what clues you pick up. So, there are keywords that you need to know and watch out for, signals, gestures and formulas for the cards that are being laid down. Another important part is the effect of emotion over your decision making power. Once you overcome the emotion, stay calm and composed, then you have a mathematical formula that takes you right close to the answer and you don't have to think twice about making that decision.

21 also shows how young and geeky college students yearn to date pretty women in the same college but never manage to get there easily. Very typical. And when the guy almost gets the girl, they try to act smart in front of their friends.

21 also emphasizes a lot on how to control your mind and thoughts as a person, how not to be greedy and not go overboard, loyalty, betrayal, camaraderie, team work, most importantly NEGOTIATION. The last part where Ben asks Micky to play one last game is a classic example of how he manages to turn the tables to his favor.

Overall: awesome movie for a night show. you'll definitely not sleep.

Kadhalikka Neramillai

2008-07-08T02:27:00.000-07:00

Found this song on the internet

Listen carefully and you'll realize that the tune has references to so many Tamil film Songs.

Oops, for the people who don't understand tamil. The post title means - No time for love. Actually, this is the title for a soap that runs in VIJAY TV or STAR VIJAY.