Aayirathil Oruvan

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

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

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

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

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

Someone Like You

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?

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

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

Kandaswamy

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

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

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

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

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

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Celebrity Tattoos

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

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

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

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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?

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...