a space to scribble

Diwali...Then and Now...

2011-10-27T22:39:00.000+05:30

Needless to say,Diwali is one of the biggest festivals in India, being celebrated differently for different reasons in different parts of the country where every person finds a reason to rejoice, reason to do business, reason to have sweets, reason to meet relatives, reason to relax, reason to wish, reason to shop....its diwali time!

First I hated Diwali this time, for it fell on a Wednesday!! Then I liked when my one week vacation got approved.However the rains at this time has been interrupting the schedules intermittently. Even now had plans to go out...but started blogging as it is raining now outside....so was just thinking what to blog and then i thought i could scribble about my previous Diwali celebrations and how I celebrated this time! Wow...lots of changes!!!

It was during schooling, the excitement was at its peak. It seemed like I longed for this occassion every year. The festive mood starts well in advance where the count down begins as early as atleast by a month! I used to finish off the home work once I reach home and then bug amma for 15 Rs or so to get the 'seeni vedi' from the petty shop nearby and then spend the rest of the evening bursting one by one. In the mean time I would have gathered few of my street mates. Diwali also indicates new clothes for me. It was only during this time I get four to five sets of new dresses and keep it for all the occassions till next diwali. On the Diwali day, I get up early rather forced to get up. Then have an oil bath, put on the new clothes and make sure that I burst the 'busvaanam' and 'sangu chakram' before any of my neighbourhood does. I used to go to my grandma's house and other relatives...primarily to fill my pockets with 'Diwali kaasu' and seeking their blessings was secondary though!! Well all i knew that time is puthu dressu, vedi, diwali kaasu! Funny aint it ?

The first transformation came during the college days. The focus gradually shifted from crackers to movies. I used to watch a couple of movies during diwali holidays. It was during college, I had this habit of watching movies during the release weekend it self and diwali was no exception. I used to come home the day before diwali. It is one kind of excitement on Diwali eve, when I used to gather some local friends and roam around the west masi street and netaji road, do some petite shopping..probably belt or socks or t shirts and swim through the crowd to reach Sunnambukaara street to bargain some local brand footwears. Man you have to be on these roads on Diwali eve to witness the crowd. Probably I did not know much about Ranganathan Street or Commercial Street then!

Well, the enthusiasm today might even not be near, to what I did then. The way I see diwali today has changed a lot. Diwali seems to be a sign of relief after long working hours in office. So what do I do during diwali! After failing through irctc.co.in which never opens during peak times and managing a costly ticket from ksrtc for what they claim as SPL, which is only little better than the BMTC buses, we reach home tired. Then you unpack the sweets you got the previous night after leaving office and before catching the bus.

New Clothes - If I thought new dresses are worn on Diwali and other festival occassions, then I have to take any day in a month as diwali. Almost every weekend is a shopping weekend! So now the zeal of wearing new clothes has gone. After all its another day! Blame the IT-Lazy-Bachelor culture. I do make a visit to temple and grandma house. However, I still keep getting the diwali kaasu, but then it has become secondary now. :) Then come home, eat lots of sweets, scan through the tv channels, take a nap!

Crackers - Oh I dont even think about it these days...just go to the terrace or outside for some time....watch out the fireworks clearing the dark sky..have a sigh of joy and relaxation..come down...have some bajjis that mom prepared..watch out for one of the block buster movie that is aired on the satellite channels....greet and exchange wishes with friends and relatives..and that is diwali as of today!

Well one may think, what is in a celebration! However, sitting back and rewinding a few years makes one feel nostalgic! Doesnt it ?

Happy Diwali!!!

Mankatha and Ajith!

2011-09-02T12:26:00.000+05:30

There are various type of film goers in Tamil. Few for the hype, few for the music, few for the director, few for the genre but mostly for the star cast. And we all know where Mankatha fits in. Being myself a film goer of all the type, I went Mankatha especially for none other than Ajith. So whatever I write here might be biased. Beware! :)

Is it a new trend in Tamil cinema ? First there were heroes, then they did good for the people, then they fought for the good. Next there were anti-heroes. They had a flash back to prove their bad worth and then they turn good. Now is the era, all are bad, they talk bad, they live bad, they end bad. Here comes Aaranya Kaandam and now Mankatha! If there is anything common in both, its all about bad people and if there is anything that makes a difference and that is none other than Ajith!

I may not talk about the plot of the movie or its positives-negatives or its music or its cinematography but I may talk about the guy who made a difference. If you had asked me, if I had liked Mankatha without Ajith...well I have to think! I think acting bad is easier than acting good! People have always excelled. We all knew Sigappu Rojakkal and Endhiran! Ajith holds the film like John Travolta did it in Broken Arrow! Following all his movies including his flops, I cannot resist talking about Ajith here. His screen presence, his costumes, his looks are the USP and that is what that keeps the crowd cheering inside the theatre. He is damn smart in his natural grey hair and rayban coolers. He is open, natural and accepts he is aged forty. I might want to see this film once more for his daring villainous act. One of my favorite scene in the movie would be the chess sequence in the movie.

Well his characterization is of a greedy, selfish guy which is not a sort of a lead role the usual tamil hero plays in. Even if its a thief role, it ought to be a Robin Hood kind of role! But this one had broken all the conventions which is pretty new and welcoming here! It may sound awkward when the lead protagonist talks filthy language in Tamil cinema. Few of his dialogues are muted. Ofcourse we all knew those words and people in the theatre dubbed instead! So is it a question if all the female followers of him would not love this movie because he cheated his girl friend for money? Should an actor of star dom status not talk or act like this? Again all the barriers broken here!

Well if these kind of films have been tested and received in Hollywood, be it a gangster flick like The Departed or a heist movie like SwordFish, then why not Mankatha in Kollywood? You may want to complain about logic loop holes, lengthy first half, bad content and so on.. but who cares when Venkat Prabhu had used Ajith as the trump card for his game? Mankatha da!

Lame Excuses!

2011-06-22T23:03:00.001+05:30

I would have wanted or not wanted,

I would have known or not known,

It is intentional or unintentional,

It is the truth or a lie,

Somebody asks or not..

Excuses! Excuses!

Lame Excuses all the way!

When I wake up late...I say Bangalore is very cold in the morning!

When I dont jog..oops.. its already eight, I have to get ready for office!

When I skip office...I think i am not well!

When I spend unnecessarily.... salary had just been credited!

When I hardly talk to my old friends.....busy at work, you see!

When I skip a friend's marriage...project release on that day!

When I dont pick up a call....I am riding my bike!

When I party hard...weekend you see!

When I fail to impress... lets look out for another!

When I dont wash my clothes for the week... well who cares!

...And many more!

Excuses! Excuses!

Lame Excuses all the way!

Aaranya Kaandam - A unique chapter in Tamil Cinema!

2011-06-12T16:55:00.003+05:30

As usual, it was another lazy Saturday afternoon. We had gone to the less publicized Aaranya Kaandam. There was not much a crowd. We were hardly thirty people in the theatre. I didnt mind. I knew that this is an experimental movie and also there were no advertisements in television. However I had been desperately wanting to watch this movie, since its theatrical trailer and teaser had released. By seeing the teasers, I felt this movie could have been inspired from Taratino's movies and my guess was right. This movie is totally unique, stylish, bloody. Yes, its a complete adult movie. Its not a movie where you go with your family, but still this movie is different. I am not sure if such movies will fill the producer's pocket. S.P.B Charan has the guts thought. In fact there are no songs in this whole duration of 150 minutes.



Gangster movies are not new to Tamil Cinema. However what is new in this film is the plot is revealed at its own pace by the different characters of the movie and it is the situation which makes the characters good or bad. Its not a racy thriller. Its calm, composed and rises to peak at instances. Debutant director Thiyagarajan Kumararaja seems to have completely inspired with neo noir films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and he has given this product beautifully.
I completely enjoyed! Be it the blood shed scenes, the retro type background score, the ambience, the references to popular stars, its a complete inspiration from western movies. I am liking this trend in Tamil cinema. Even the plot of the movie is similar to Pulp fiction, where there is no story as such, but there are different incidents in which the characters cross each other and their transformation for survival. Every character here is a hero and every character here is a villain.



It is welcoming that there is no song in this movie. Yuvan's background score is promising. Silent in most places, violin interludes at a few places and Raja sir's songs at some places. Its again inspired from western films especially Tarantino's, where there are musical references like a popular song aired in a radio or television and some places there are references to the retro/pop culture similar to Kill Bill. Though Jackie Shroff's nude appearance doesnt impact or add any significance to the movie, the debutant character Somasundaram as Kaalayan and his son character Kodukkapuli, completely steal the show. An innocent-desperate-angry son and a completely drunk-dont care-attitude foul mouthed father. Their characterisation is laughable, interesting and entirely different.



If I am fascinated with the camera work, lighting, ambience and the apt back ground music, am more amazed with the kind of dialogues that are used in this film. They are raw at some instances, they are filthy in some but everytime they are spontaneous and that is one of the reason, I did find some difficulty in understanding a few dialogues. They were so spontaneous and lowly delivered that there should be pin drop silence to hear it. There are many notable places which will deserve applause especially when Sampath asks the kid whether he likes his father so much and the kid's response is simple and sensible. Another notable place is where the lady describes men and their attitude. I spontaneously laughed and clapped at another scene involving the astrologer.



I know its not the regular movie which will lure tamil audience and generate revenue. Still, this film will be a milestone in the list of good unique tamil movies. Well...I dont mind watching it again in theatre!

Its been a couple of months...

2011-06-11T20:35:00.001+05:30

... I had been scribbling in this space. Half the blame to the company I joined....I had been into a hectic project after a week I joined here and since then, there is no looking back. Somehow I felt that, I had been actively engaged with work in this project for the past three months.Well dont ask if I am able to deliver? :) Well I dont know. Am I trying to showcase or is there a pressure really? May be both are right. Sometimes had to work more than office hours..slog almost every day. Well more salary, more work!!! Wait Wait Wait!! Is that statement correct..no not at all...its not always true...May be its an inconvenience of being a bachelor. But in spite of all the wierd thoughts about work, slogging, working on weekends..I somehow managed to relax as well. I didnt miss to go to friend's marriages and engagements ...I still managed the weekend get to with my ex colleagues.. As usual I didnt miss to watch newly released movies. I did not miss to attend the A R Rahman concert here in Bangalore. None of my pastimes changed. Just that there is no free time. Its all occupied. I would say the lazy time of mine had just reduced. Somehow I am content about it. If you are wondering what a lazy time is, I would say its a time spent by me on a weekend or weekday doing nothing. Nothing means literally nothing.

Now that its almost three months, I just got some breathing space and just peeped in here. Reason being, I want to blog, atleast once in a while. And thats why I made a point to scribble here, though this post has no context or significance! I am not a writer or a philosopher. I am not preaching. I may be a liar. But I wanted to blog, and thats the beauty of blogging, you have this liberty to blabber whatever you want. Wish I blog with relevance in future!! I wanted to talk about the movies I watched recently, the places I had gone, the new restaurant I had experimented. Just that I should not be lazy. I know, once in a while I post such scribblings without any specific context. I start of with something and end with something irrelevant. He he, I am liking to do that!! :)

Cup of Joy - Regained!

2011-04-03T21:47:00.001+05:30

If there is something that unites all the states in India, the non national game, cricket is one of the major contributor. Particularly, when India hosts the world cup tournament of the most viewed sport here and when the trophy is retained for the next four years in Indian soil, the result is priceless. There is a quote "Coming together is a beginning, Keeping together is a Progress, Working together is a Success". Today this has been a truth in the history of Indian cricket. Its not only part of Indian history, but part of every ardent lover of Indian cricket. Particularly for me, I was never born, when India gained its first ever World Cup title in 1983. So its a first in my history. May be India will retain the title next time, but this moment is fantabulous. Its a nation's pride.

Every match after the preliminary round had been crucial. When India advanced ahead each step beating the current world cup champions and the age old rival, world cup was almost a sure shot. But the finals against the Srilankans was not an easy one though. A 275 target in a world cup final is not at all an easy task! Like its in the movies, there had been a initial twist with Malinga giving the early break for the lankans with sending the heros Sehwag and Sachin very early to the pavilion.

This may not be a better match for the Srilankan spin wizard, but a decent world cup exit for him, with 500 plus wickets in his basket. Competition should always exist and thanks to Mahela, without him this final would have never been a tough fight. However the rest is all history with Captain Dhoni and Gambhir at rescue operations and we all are happy now.

What a match! What a crowd! When all the icons were there at Wankhede stadium - Rajnikanth, Aamir Khan, Mukesh Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, victory is 50 percent acheived. I felt we just missed A R Rahman though! Its the power of the people. The success waves created by every single soul in India wanted this! This has to happen and it has happened. It is all written!

Its the last world cup for Sachin, and he will be the most happiest person than anybody else in the country. If this is not gonna happen, then it would definitely be a black patch despite of all his records and achievements in his two decade old career as a cricketer. We are all happy watching him being proud.

And one more feather in Dhoni's cap, the captain of success. His way of handling pressure helped us from sinking the ship in the finals. Be it the support he gave to Gambhir or his winning helicopter six, the moments cannot be erased so easily. We could witness all the emotions not only from the spectators but also from the players. Winning stroke after all!

One should experience, the after winning moments. You need not be necessarily in Mohali or Mumbai! You can be at Madurai also. Wow the crackers they burst on the streets, greeting each other, staying happy, cheering people, I dont think it can happen on any other occassion. It was an unanimous celebration altogether.

April 2, 2011 - Cup of Joy, Regained!

Run Lola Run!

2011-02-27T11:36:00.000+05:30

I happened to see this German flick - Run Lola Run! Life is all about probability based on time. Athletes win the race by milli seconds and nano seconds. And this movie explains it in a very interesting and fast paced manner. Especially with the style and the fast paced background music, this decade old movie seems to be technically brilliant and makes one sit at the seat edge!

Lola has twenty minutes and needs huge amount of money to save her boy friend. She decides to get the money somehow and run to the destination, where her boy friend is actually waiting. This whole movie is split into three different runs by Lola for the same situation, with the first two runs being a failure and the final run becoming successful. There are flash forward sequences shown for each of the people whom Lola encounters during each run. Even the life of the other people whom Lola bumps in take different directions for each run. The director neither says which one of the outcome is actually true nor he wants it to say as he only gives us a thought that only seconds of your time are required to change the direction of your life! Very true!

I sometimes imagine things in real life in a similar way. Sometimes very crucial turns in one's life happens in seconds. Most of the times we will not have control on it. I know we cannot go back and change things, atleast we have the liberty to dream about it. Knowingly or unknowingly, be it the past incidents or the future endeavours we always have a habit of dreaming those things in the present. We all have a wish to do something in life and most of us end up in doing something else. Like it is said in a Tamil movie - Mudhalvan "How good life be if it has an rewind option?" If every single person in this world is blessed with this option, I bet we will never go forward..what say? :)

First things First!

2011-02-18T18:46:00.000+05:30

It could be whatever you do, wherever you live, which ever place you had gone, who ever you have met, the "first" one is always a probable moment. It could give you loads of surprises and excitement. It could be a happy moment or a sorrow one. And irrespective of the outcome, I bet the first things always have a special place in one's heart. Be it your first school, first crush, first date, they all have longing memories! This time its first last day @ work!

Well yesterday was my last day in my first company. In these five years, I had seen people staying around and moving out. I could hardly recollect faces that I saw during my first year! But there are a few people like me hanging around still as if they were anchored deep to the sea bed! So as usual, it was my turn to send out my last day mail and I could not cut short the content. Whatever I wrote, came from the mind. I did not care if the recipient would care or not. An irony is that I had actually criticised others for their last day mails here!

It was a kind gesture having friends sending me off with all the usual cake cutting, wishes and memento. Finally, it took less than a minute to return my identity card and my longing association with my first company ended abruptly. And particularly when you are associated with a company for a very long time, it definitely takes a little time to get over the comfort zone. Its not only the organisation but the people, with whom you had built a relationship with.

Its like the timer is reset and again the time starts ticking from zero. I know this will happen and I wanted this to happen! I am a stranger now and I need a visitor pass next time to enter! But that is what life is all about. Every phase you leave something and you search and pick some other thing and move on with taking only the memories about those you had left in the first place!

Aadukalam - The ground set in Madurai Again!

2011-01-17T11:22:00.005+05:30

Director Vettrimaran unfolds a story which revolves around the descendants in southern Tamilnadu region who care and care only to win the age old gambling animal sport in southern Tamilnadu – Rooster fight. Rooster fight is an age old game not only in Southern Tamilnadu but all over the world especially in Mexico. Wikipedia says it has reference in Tamil literature which is more than 2000 years old. Such genres are very rare and welcoming to Tamil cinema. This film not only portrays the sport but also reveals its cause and effects over the people who were deeply involved and show us how determined and egoistic are they and how extent they turn villainous for retaining and regaining the pride in winning the blood sport game. For them it’s a life and death scenario.

Definitely the director has taken me to seat edge experiences in a couple of scenes, especially the rooster tournament scene. Be it the history of rooster fight or referring the diminishing Anglo Indian people in Madurai, the director has taken close to real facts and figures and filmed it. More than rooster fight, this movie is full of emotions. Every small character marks their presence and show justification to their role.

This movie also evolves a mind game filled with loyalty, trust, betrayal, cunningness between the mentor and his beloved student and when the student outsmarts his mentor, the director has cleverly handled the characters and reveal how trust turns betrayal, and betrayal seeks guilty. It is hard to say who the bad guy in this movie is. If you think one person to be the baddie in the beginning, you are probably wrong. There is no good or bad but the situation and circumstances is when good turn bad and bad turn ugly. What is something unique is the ending. It’s not about the stunts but the emotions between people that talks more.

Madurai based theme seems to be the genre these days. Most of the movies seem to be exaggerated and over shadowed creating a misinterpretation for how Madurai and Madurai people are. Well I think I have seen Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal more in movies than in person! Tamil cinema needs a destination change! Though this movie is also set in a Madurai backdrop, people shouldn’t care as the characters and the story outplay altogether.

The White Balloon

2010-12-09T20:20:00.000+05:30

When we were a kid, do we ever remember how we nagged our mom for a chocolate or a toy car or for that matter any thing we wanted at that moment? We were so adamant on that and we would either cry or be silent or shout until we get what we wanted. Did we ever care why our mom scolded us for not obeying her?

When we were a kid, did we ever know what is good and what is bad? We always believed whatever our teachers, our friends or anybody said is true and we follow it blindly.

When we were a kid, little we had known about the value of money and we were so determined about the small small things which would shower happiness. We didnt even know how long would that happiness last long! May be it would have lasted till our mind gets distracted to some other things we see. Have we ever remembered to talking to strangers? If so how did we do? Were we afraid? I dont recollect!

What if we had a chance now to see that cute little face of young times, when we showed all kinds of expressions through our little face - happiness, curiosity, anger, sorrow, fear, respect, loneliness, restless, adamance and so on...

It was a few days back, I came across this Iranian movie - "The White Balloon". I saw this movie, of course with subtitles and I could not say exactly why I liked the movie. The movie is about a seven year old cute litte girl who is desperate to buy a fat gold fish for the new year which is approximately 75 minutes far and this movie is narrated in a very ordinary, yet beautiful way from the little girl's perspective. Some movies are inspiring, some are fun, some are romantic, some are interesting, some are boring, some are bloody, some are crap. I felt "The White Balloon" is a feel-light-good-movie.

Be it the determined, yet sad face when her mother denies to buy her the fish or be it the change of her expression when her brother actually convices her mom or be it the way she builds confidence over the guy in the fish store or be it the affection she shows for her brother, when he is beaten by another guy or be it the determination and expression of hope she shows when she finds a way to take the money out or be it the way she tries to protect the money from the Iranian soldier or be it the courageous, yet fearsome talk she makes to the snake charmers to get back her money, or any other expression she had to make, one has to watch the movie to feel it!

So did I....Better late than never!

Five years and still counting...

2010-12-03T22:04:00.000+05:30

Okay, its a milestone in my life and I have completed five years in the IT industry! Ooph! Should I appreciate myself or should I think of doin something else? Well instead of talking about my profession, I thought I will recollect what all the irrelevant things I had gained out of this journey so far!

If I am blogging here right now, I dont think I would have done it or even thought of scribbling such crazy thoughts, if I am not in this industry. May be I could have not known what blogging is! Thanks to my "bench" days which actually made me to create a blog!

Something which I can boast of is may be I have learned basic cooking or atleast made some attempts to try to make some regular dishes. No no, dont expect a delicacy, I said basic cooking...!

If I am lazy and not active, thanks to most of the weekends spent literally by just staying at my so called bachelor family home and not doing anything. Sometimes we dont even go out for breakfast! And now we dont even do the basic cooking. Andhra Mess is our rescuer for most of the weekend afternoons. Birds of a feather, flock together, Bachelor guys mock Andhra Mess together! Any area you are in Bangalore, there will be one such eatout. Full meals with dhaal and egg burji! Wat a combination!!!

With the increasing factory outlets and shopping malls in the city and given the fact that we have to push the weekend going, we land up in these places and have most of our money exchanged for new tees and casuals almost every alternate week! Gone are the days, where you purchase clothes only during Diwali festival!

When you are in this industry and when restaurants offer corporate lunch buffets and when colleagues throw birthday treats and farewell parties and particularly when you are in Bangalore where you have lots of eatout options ranging from south indian to international, Almost, you can say you will become a foodie and so have I! It is very obvious, you get to go to all the team outings or fun trips and so did I. No matter if its Coorg or Las Vegas, it is the enjoyment and break you get out there!

In movies, policeman are portrayed with their pot belly, soon they may show IT people in a similar way. If its one thing I think I should take measures atleast now, is to control my tummy level! In fact I know, how much lean I was in my college! Thanks to KFC and Dominos and of course Andhra mess!

Almost I have watched most of the movies in this five years. I have learnt to admire good movies. If I am not in this industry, I would not have known the torrents site and wikipedia. May be its a very useful site for all purpose, but for me mostly I have used this site searching information about movies,actors and directors. I just love to click links in a link in a link and browse information.

So far so good....Five years and still counting!

Sujatha's நைலான் கயிறு (Nylon Kayiru)

2010-11-22T23:23:00.002+05:30

I dont know, suddenly I started reading novel. I remember being addicted to Rajesh Kumar's crime novels. Once I used to go to the streets near New Cinema Theatre in Madurai to get the second hand novels from the book stores. Somehow I came out of that habit!

And its now when we guys went to Erode for one of my colleague's wedding reception where we just happened to walk into a book shop opposite to the hotel we stayed and I picked up a couple of books which included Nylon Kayiru (meaning a nylon rope)!

Well its the first novel by writer late Sujatha in the end 60's which was published for 14 weeks in a Tamil weekly magazine. Now they have compiled all the episodes and published as a single novel. I started reading the novel and finished in 3 hours. The reading experience is like watching a thriller movie! So interesting!

I was amazed with his writing style and given the fact that it was published 40 years before! His style was different. He is so knowledgable. He is trying to intoduce unknown facts and also explains them. In one of the episode, he hints about a medical term "sepsis" and "internal hemorrhage". These terms are definitely new 40 years back and even now "sepsis" is new for me :) ! I did a google search to find its explanation!

He has adopted a different narrative style in this novel with inserting a snippet from a person's diary and narrating a murder followed by the sequence of its investigation and finally the investigation leads to the diary. It might have been a trend set in introducing different writing style. At first you dont get to know the relation between the diary and the scene described in the episode. Given the fact that it was published weekly, it would have created an immense curiosity among the readers! In fact, after reading the whole novel, I went back and read the diary snippets alone from each episode again to get a clear picture of the story! I am sure, movies are inspired from his writings! If I was amazed with the non linear editing style in Christopher Nolan's Memento, then I had a similar feel while reading this novel. I didnt know that through writing also one could give a non linear view!

Sujatha is no more, but he has shared lots of his knowledge and views through his writings and has given work for us to read, enjoy, learn and think! Indeed, Art is long and life is short!

It striked me when..

2010-11-15T22:56:00.001+05:30

... I went home for Diwali. I was occupied more with my laptop than with my mom! And this was not the first time. She was surprised when I started talking to her when the power got cut. She enquired for which I replied there is no power and there is no internet! She now understood the fact and asked me to disconnect the internet connection permanently. Lately there has been such cribbings in my home that i am being a guest at home and not spending most of the time with them. Very true, now there seem to be a sort of addiction among we young guys. Either we meddle with our high end mobile or glue to our lap tops all the time.

I guess, soon there might be a substitute name for a mobile phone as it is used for more than the required telephonic conversation. There will be no surprise at present if some body asks you that apart from being a teetotaller, how many hours you waste before the internet or how often you use your mobile phone per day. I dont know where it will lead, the destination is still unclear! And definitely not a healthy destination. On the other hand, its high time we can imagine being without mobile or internet! Its like the earth stood still and have a feeling like having losing something close to the heart.

I admit its important to stay connected when we are away from our dear ones. But, is it required when they are close and near is the next billion dollar question... Well then I can call it addiction! If you smoke or drink, it takes time to quit or you dont quit at all, may be you reduce the frequency and so is this..atleast stay away when you are at home !

Which generation are we?

2010-10-17T15:10:00.001+05:30

Off late, this question had been provoking frequently in my mind…which generation are we in? Any guy in the mid 20’s and 30’s can almost feel like being in a 50-50 generation…neither previous nor the next…Being in India and keeping the fact that it is a developing nation, there are day-to-day improvements in our happening life. Be it technology, culture, movies, education, food, travel, relationship and what not…

I don’t know, I always feel like a testing rat being tested with all the changes and developments happening around us. Or may be I am glued to this digital world so much that, I am forced to think so!

My uncle cherishes his nostalgia by recollecting the letters he used to write to home when he was in hostel. I can’t even do that...all I should have done is to have recorded my telephone conversation then.

During college days, my mom used to ask frequently, with whom are you talking over the phone. My dad used to ask why the phone charges are high. And now it’s mobile. You call it privacy..But yet you are not alone!

I cannot forget my cassette collections. Then CDs. We had to pay a huge price to get a CD player. By the time we get used to it, and then came DVDs and now Blu ray! Come on give me a break!

I could recollect using an ordinary Kodak camera with film rolls during my late school days. You don’t even know how the output is unless you finish it off and give it to a store to take prints! Then came the digital camera. They were tested on us. We paid more initially. Our first expression was Wow! Being able to see instantly the snaps we take and the capability to store it in our PCs without even having to print it. One single photograph in hand is worth more than the thousands of jpg files you store it in your PC! What an irony!

I still have a pass book of my first bank account. I was then thinking will there be any way to reduce the queue for money withdrawal. Now I don’t even need to know where my bank is present physically. But the queue has not reduced but switched places from banks to ATMs. I was thinking what would happen if a day comes when the internet world goes black.

What I thought in a computer was then a black and white monitor with some programs running. And thought computer programmers were genius! Am I a genius then? No not even the first letter of it. Yesterday they talked about internet, google, blogs, facebook on a larger screen…and now micro applications. We are forced to cope up or else we become obsolete.

I can say that these kind of thoughts will not strike the future minds as they donot have a chance to realise the transformations from what it was to what it is, like we realise it.

Changes are happening so rapidly that what has happened yesterday is outdated today. Somehow, we are in this period of time. Should I call it a boon or bane? It’s become an additional burden to strike a balance between our elders and our juniors. Nowadays even a short gap of two to three years between us and our juniors have a lot of differences in terms of ideas, education, technology, communication etc. So you cannot even call it a generation gap. What do you call then? The people who have hard times to stand these are our elders. It’s not their fault though. Most of our parents would find it hard to even understand what a computer is. So definitely they have hard times to cope up with the current trend. Imagine your father asking how to surf the net and your younger brother asking details about iphone. You know where you stand now!

Endhiran - An Experience!

2010-10-03T15:37:00.003+05:30

I have to admit that Endhiran is an experience! For me, it didnt start from the title cards. Rather I would say it started from its audio release! From then, every single bit of news about the movie spiced up my expectations. With the teasers released during the audio launch or the theatrical trailer released a couple of weeks back, one could not wait for the actual movie and I am no exception. Moreover it became a day to day activilty for me to do a google search with the key word "endhiran". I bet there is nothing unusual in it. Savvy?

So where is the difference? What creates all the hype and fun? The only name is Rajnikanth! Its like you are waiting to have your favourite ice cream and what will you do when you hear that it would be topped by hot chocolate, crispy nuts, raisins and berries giving the final touch. Dont you go berserk? So Rajni-Shankar-ARR-Ash combo delight dons the magic here!

So why Rajnikanth? Why are his movies have a cult following in the South? I have always wondered. Atleast to my knowledge from seeing his films, he is the only man in the industry whose films can be watched along with family..along with friends..along with cousins...at least alone! He is a mass entertainer! Be it any film..Baasha, Annamalai, Padayappa or Sivaji for that matter. Ironically he is the best villain than being the hero! If you think Karunas and Santhanam are for comedy..then what is Rajni for...Media portrays Rajni as a God in the South! Director Shankar has transformed this vision in a scene in this movie which is enjoyable. One must watch Endhiran for it! All you see in each and every frame of the movie is Rajni..Rajni..Rajni..

Shankar is the man of execution of one's own thoughts! You may drink a coke and thrash the tin...Shankar would use it in a song in Boys! He is an out of box creator who can make an aam aadmi to virtually experience the exotic locations! Watch the picturesqueness in Kilimanjaro and Kadhal Anukkal! However I felt the screenplay / plot in the second half could have been a little crisp. But who would think there would be hundreds of Rajni transforming to whatsoever objects we cannot think of! Visual treat! So any flaws in the story or script is covered here! Watch Endhiran second time for it! There are a quiet bit of social awareness too, may be its not told but thats what i understood. One is such a scene which shows a humongous dumpyard symbolising the environment pollution. When the Robot asks "Did I ask you to create me?", it was touching and also strikes a chord!

ARR songs have already been chartbusters! His songs are apt for the sci-fi-masala theme of the movie. So its doesnt make a point to compare with any of his other works! Its commercial, robotic, hypnotic, metallic. And when you watch it on screen with the visuals, its fantastic. ARR the magician! Its inevitable for people to expect that pinnacle of background score from the Grammy winner for Endhiran, so even the better background score doesn't leave an impact at the first time!

I think i haven't talked about the gorgeous lead actress Aishwarya Rai. Full credit to Superstar for grabbing my attention in spite of her on screen presence! It was very clear what to expect and what not to expect from the proven masters in their respective field! Thanks to Shankar for giving a new genre for the Indian audience and also making us to understand it as well. I thoroughly had a very good experience watching the movie in theatre.

Endhiran is an agmark Indian recipe with all the native masala ingredients topped with spices imported from foreign soil DOT.

When childhood pals meet...

2010-08-10T20:23:00.000+05:30

Its been almost nine and a half years we completed schooling and its almost five years, we had visited a place together. After Kodaikanal in 2005, its Pondicherry now!

Its been a long pending item, which we had achieved now. We missed our other guys, but still we six managed to make it. It was like married guys being single for one day and singles feeling even younger and surprised by the mature talks of the latter ;). The talks about our school were still fresh, still remembering and cherishing the good old days we were in school. It was great to see how we have transformed ourselves from how we were in school to how we are now. Altogether, it was a pleasant holiday! Lets see when we meet up again! Sometimes these kinda activities give us a sigh of relief from our routine...aint it?

I dont recollect how we came to this topic...

2010-07-26T21:45:00.006+05:30

...but suddenly one of my roomie commented about social networking especially twitter or facebook, that most often people use it to show off. He also added saying that some tweet unnecessarily saying that they are in the middle of so and so movie or they are in so and so restaurant or bla bla bla... My thought was completely different...I feel we have at least this freedom of expressing our thoughts. If some body tweets something or posts on his wall in Face book, take the one's which is relevant for you and leave the rest. Something which you dont like may be liked by others and vice versa... :) We dont get to talk to our friends everyday and atleast these networks help to keep us atleast aware of what our friends are doing currently, even if we dont respond. Of course, you may or may not be really interested in what he or she is doing at this current moment. But at some cases, it may help recollect good memories. Say for example, you happened to visit your old school recently and you tweet that, it may bring good old memories to your school friends who are following you. May be social networking is a time pass, may be it is useful, may be it is a show off, its how we see it...thoughts ?

Its been a regular routine....

2010-06-26T10:40:00.004+05:30

... to start my blog with.."its been a little while i blogged..." i wondered if i could try out some new way to start off with...

Now its been over a month, I am back to namma Bengaluru. Seems nowadays i feel even more lazy to tweet...some how made up to scribble here...so what shall i talk...should i talk about my stay abroad or should i talk about the way they see a guy after he returns abroad or for that matter how you take it....I am no exception..u could atleast find some symptoms of an onsite return..... and whatever i scribble here is the fun teaser my colleagues had to tease on me...

Once when my colleague looked at my playlist - Rihanna's Rated R...thats it gone...they even asked if i changed my name to Kish..or Ken or something...

The lift was really slow in the new building of my office...Should nt i ask about it ? It was the talk of the cubicle the next moment.. :) :)

I was a liitle cautious in whatever i speak...some how when i was speaking to my manager... "okay" turned "k"..and it repeated a few times and he also didnt leave me without making fun.... :) :) I was extra cautious in not using the word 'appreciate'.

One afternoon, I had my parota at the road side opposite to my office. It added more flavour to the talk...They had to tease me somehow and started like "See the simplicity of this US maapillai having parota in the roadside...(now i am not an Indian it seems :( :( ).

Mostly you will find a Cheroke brand in the Mega mart stores here. Is it my mistake to buy that brand? :) :) It had the eagle logo...They were asking if i remember our national bird.... :) :)

..i think its been a month and hope the fun teaser is over...you go away for one month or one year...they dont care...your legs need to be pulled...

What to blog? Why to blog?

2010-03-28T23:20:00.004+05:30

Hey ya! This piece may not be something interesting! Its a sort of cribbing at my own!

I have been into this space for quite a while. I was just lookin back at my own piece of scribbling. Either I just pour my thoughts on a movie or exagerate one of the place I visited or contemplate about my wierd cooking or some nostalgic memories to cherish! Is that all ? Why am i doing all this in the first place? Am I self centric and trying to attract with my extended testimonies ? Should I talk philosophical ? Should I comment on what is goin on the surrounding ? Am I not using the space properly ? Should I crticise something on a current hot topic ? Is it like being selfish and not thinking about others? Is it I am single and want to impress ? Who?

Hmmm...I dont know... The one that turns me on or at which I am interested more, drives me to scribble in this piece! I dont say that you judge a person completely by his writing here. It may be partial result. Of course I dont record bad memories or negative thoughts here. So why? Is it because people who read my blog might have a balanced impression on me? If so, should I care? So am I marketing my self in this arena ? Well whatever! At this moment, I didnt know what to blog and wanted to blabber something here! Blah..Blah...Blah!

No offence if this piece is boring and irrelevant or out of the context! I think I had given a warning at the start! :)

Sushi...is not my loaf of bread!

2010-03-13T23:03:00.005+05:30

I always had the thirst to try food at different restaurants and different menus. Though I could not remember the name of the recipe, mostly I liked it, at the least I could manage to eat it! But this time things went out of my way and it was really a very bad experience. May be I did not adapt to Sushi!

It was a team lunch with my client! And they are all a very big fan of these Sushi food. Well, I never had this before and I was excited to try it. We were in the restaurant and we were all set to order! I got my menu ! I was totally confused, what to have! The sushi menu had their own Japanese words. Except for the key words like shrimp, crab, scallop...I could not understand anything.

The sushi style is something like small rolls where in they will have the meat wrapped with several layers containing rice and sausage. I finally managed to order shrimp and crab tempura with rice....I could nt recollect. Another thing was the use of chopsticks. It was the first time I am using it. Ofcourse I had to ask how to use it. Its not as easy as it is for them.

My food was served. The first shock for me is it was a plain rice, along with this main stuff I had ordered. I cannot eat plain rice you see. We always gulp it with Sambhar, rasam, curd. It was the first unusual thing. I had to mix it with soya sause and eat it. That was horrible! I managed to take one of the roll using the chopstick and dip it in the soya sause, and managed to dump it in my mouth. What happened next is the most embarrasing moment! I felt it was a raw shrimp, probably they just boiled. I was sitting before my client.. neither could I spit it out nor could I swallow. Unwillingly, daringly gulped a few and left the remaining.

It was probably not my choice of food. We are always used to overcook the food with all masala spices added to it. I am not complaining about Sushi but it is not my loaf of bread!

May be a better dining experience next time!

Good Start...

2010-01-03T22:53:00.003+05:30

We were just thinking how we can celebrate the start of the new year!

We are totally nine in number including me here out of which three are married. Six of us are staying in two adjacent apartments. We thought, why not we arrange for a "PotLuck" gathering!? It sounded good! We had an agreement to meet in one of the bachelor's apartment on the New Year afternoon for lunch. Each person must prepare some dishes and bring. And then we would have a collective variety of lunch.

From our apartment we had agreed to prepare Aloo Bajji, Drumstick Sambhar and Vegetable Khurma. It was a different experience. I googled the recipe for Aloo Bajji (Google for Aloo Bajji....sounds funny huh!?) and tried that! Beginner's luck! It came out good if not excellent! Actually it was a collective work with all my inmates involved. More or less, I have become a master in Sambhar these days and it was a cake walk this time. My other colleague prepared the Vegetable Khurma.

The other dishes from other apartment included Vada, Gobi Manchurian, Puri, Vegetable Pulao, Vegetable Biryani, Tamarind Rice, Paratha, Papad and Kesari. It was fully a vegetarian menu! It may sound crazy to write the dishes here, but it would make me feel content when I read this after some time especially when i am lazy to cook and I end with ONLY dhaal and rice! He..he!!

It was a different experience. Not only the variety in dishes, but the variety in persons involved - families, kids, bachelors. Its also like South Indian states coming together - Karnataka, Andhra, Tamil Nadu & Kerala. The families had a chance to taste the bachelors' preparation. And we had a chance to taste theirs. It was fun altogether.

We had a good start! Happy New Year!

Cooking Confessions !

2009-12-22T07:58:00.004+05:30

Its been a great cooking experience these days, though painful sometimes. I have been cooking almost all evenings since I landed here last month and I used to cook for the next afternoon too. Its all new for me. I have never been like this. Usually, I dont eat the food cooked the day before. Things had to change now. If I want my native lunch, I had to cook. Well most of the days, I prepare rice and sambhar. Sometimes, I go to a lighter version, Rasam! I have almost tried dumping most of the vegetables in sambhar. One reason is I dont want to waste time cooking a side dish or I am lazy rather. Sometimes, I start cooking sambhar and end up in dhal. Being my only judge, my colleague has no other option...be it tasty or not, he has no way to go. Mostly I get a positive rating on my Sambhar though, the taste is unique each time I cook. :)

I am getting used to the open-heat-eat concept. Whenever I go to the stores, I look for the most possible ready-to-eat dishes that are available. It actually helps when I am very very lazy. :) I now wonder, how my mom got used to this all time cooking activity. Its indeed a tough task in the long run.

Above all, whatever it is, I feel satisfied and content when I eat what I cooked. Its because, when I do something and expect an outcome, my mind tries to console and also appreciate it .

Happy Cooking!

I am in a world...Experiencing the change!

2009-12-13T05:58:00.003+05:30

Its been a long time, I blogged here. I was lazy, rather. I have been experiencing a lots of transformations in self for the past one month. Been seeing new things, people, workplace and of course the culture variance. Sometimes its nice, sometimes its difficult, sometimes wondered, sometimes excited, sometimes bored, sometimes no thoughts...

I am in a world where people believe in rules be it in roads or anywhere. I am in a world where I feared to travel alone. I am in a world where I did not eat idlis or dosas in the morning but corn flakes. I am in a world where I rely on the internet and GPS. I am in a world where I was cooking full time. I am in a world where I am not @home.

Its almost a month since I flew all way from Bangalore to San Diego here in the United States for a short term assignment. Its been a new experiment through out. Be it the flight travel or landing in a foreign land or travelling alone in a taxi to a unknown place, the FIRST experience is always a mixture of all the expressions I could think off. Now things are settling slowly and I have started to explore in this world. I am now trying out the different varieties of food here - American, Mexican, Thai, Chinese etc. Of course, I had these flavours in Bangalore but I had preferred or relied mainly on my native rather. I still have a long way to explore out here!

See you then!

Unnai Pol Oruvan - Kamal's flavour of the original !

2009-09-22T16:57:00.003+05:30

I had not scribbled anything on “A Wednesday”, but some how wanted to for this tamil version. May be, because it’s a dual Padma shri movie, may be I saw the original version a couple of months later its release or may be this is something new to the “Tamil” audience.

This movie should be enjoyed in theatres as I did. This movie which has been released with hardly any hype unlike the previous venture “Dasavatharam”, is a fast paced political thriller involving five to six characters with absolutely no songs and the total duration winding up in less than 2 hours. It’s also very un-common in Tamil cinema to flash the hero’s name without a title, and this movie is one such. There is no “Ulaga Nayagan”. There is no “Padma Shri”. Of course there is no publicity required for this proven star. The whole movie is about a series of incidents happening in 3-4 hours duration of time and Kamal Haasan raises question on every one's mind about his portrayal of character in this movie until a few minutes before the end credits. His only company being a set of hi-tech gadgets which includes laptop to routers to cell phones and others. He has only phone conversations with two characters, except for the climax scene. Neither his name nor his religion is revealed in this movie though he gives hints in a few scenes. It’s always difficult for me to understand his dialogues which most of the time has an inner meaning. I saw Dasavatharam twice to grasp some. I think I should do the same here too.

Padma Shri Mohan Lal is the serious and responsible commissioner of Chennai, who speaks Tamil in his own Malayalam accent. His character just shows how, who and what kind of decisions will be taken at the time of an emergency situation and its impact. No doubts to his performance. He has done this role like a cake walk. The other guy, worth to mention was the clean-shaved-smart-rough cop. The interrogation scene is one of the scenes which just shows the attitude and power of that particular character with less action and dialogue. They have showed the female press reporter as a smoker in this movie. To avoid controversies, they never show the lady smoking. I am still not very clear on the point of such a characterization. Is it the job that is stressful or I don’t know why?

I enjoyed the dialogues in this movie. In fact the dialogues play a prominent role in this movie. It had a good number of sarcasms and revolves about the current affairs, especially the conversations between the both legendary actors. Unlike “A Wednesday” the character of Lakshmi was an addition in the Tamil version and was interesting too, especially her political heated arguments with Mohan Lal.

Shruthi Haasan’s background score was apt. I liked the song “Unnai Pol Oruvan” which was played at the background during the end credits. It remembered the end credits of ‘The Matrix’, when this song started with the lines from the holy “Bhagavad Gita”.

Finally, I felt it’s a welcoming movie for the Tamil audience and I do like to watch more such fast pace movies with no songs. It’s just like the T20 version of Cricket from the conventional 50 over ODI. It’s more thrilling and exciting you see!

Conjeevaram - More than a movie!

2009-08-07T15:21:00.008+05:30

Last week, I happened to watch this movie in one of the Tamil Satellite channels "STAR Vijay". It's really a nice experience watching this movie. The movie is setback in the period of 1940's. Personally I am excited when i see movies which are of unusual genre and this is one. You get to know lot of information about the past. May be its true or not, its told and we see it.

Conjeevaram, as Kanchipuram is originally spelled before independence is famous for its silk sarees. Saree is a traditional costume wore by married woman in our parts of the state. And Silk sarees are so special and are considered to be of a superior value, which is usually wore by Indian women on any important occasion or festivals. The other fact is this silk saree is hand woven by the people who have been in this place for centuries.

This movie talks about one such person, who weaves one of the finest Silk sarees. Though he weaves silk sarees, he could not own one such saree or even see a person wearing it. And this is the case for all the weavers in the place. After all they are just labours and the zamindars take credit and do the business. In this movie, the weaver dreams and promises a silk saree for his daughter at the time of her wedding. The movie takes through his journey on how he manages to weave and own a silk saree and was he able to succeed?

There are other aspects which is shown in this movie. It shows how communism had its roots in Indian soil and how it emerged. It shows how important a government job was when a constable feels restless when he finds his hat missing the government emblem. It shows how the present Co-operative society for the weavers in Kanchipuram had formed. It shows how the English were fascinated with hand woven silk sarees. It shows how the labours were charged in return for their marvellous work. It shows the Zamindari system that prevailed then. And there are more! I just watched and admired!

Admired the way it is filmed by Priyadharshan with Prakashraj in the lead role. Its not a movie and its more than that, may be awareness or education!

The Road Now Taken - Madikeri to Bangalore!

2009-08-05T12:52:00.003+05:30

This is a continuation of my previous post "Exploring Coorg!"

Now it’s that we have spent one day in visiting places in and around Madikeri. Our plan was to cover some places during the return journey and reach Bangalore before 9 pm, so that we could have a good sleep and avoid the tiredness on Monday while going to office. I mean we can be in office without working but cannot be restless in office.. he he!

July 19th Sunday 10:30 am, we vacated the home. We had our breakfast in one of the hotels on the way and then headed to Dubare Elephant camp which is around 20 kms from Kushal Nagar. We had to cross Cauvery River, using the boat service to reach the Dubare camp. Unfortunately, due to heavy rains, the river had higher water levels and the boat service was cancelled. So we could not visit this place. We then headed to Cauvery Nisargadhama which is also on the way.

Cauvery Nisargadhama is also located on the banks of the river. We had to reach the place by walking over a hanging bridge. This place is more or less like a park. It had tall bamboo trees all over. It also had a deer park. After spending some time over there, we then headed towards Bylakuppe.

Before starting this trip, I had just browsed and found that there is a Tibetan monastery. I was startled. Why would a Tibetan monastery be in Karnataka? I got the answer when I reached there. It seems the Indian government has given land for the Tibetan people who had come to India some time back. They have their own way of living, culture and tradition. The whole place looked like somewhere else. I could see monks or students with their unique maroon colored cloth or uniform. There is not only a monastery, but other facilities like hospital, petrol bulk, school, college etc. They have their language printed on all the hoardings, boards, public addressing etc. About the monastery, it’s amazing. I mean, it’s really different for me. This is the first time; I have been to a pilgrim center other than a temple, church or a mosque. The prayer hall is totally colorful. It has three tall statues comprising Lord Buddha at the center. The walls have the pictures of the different disciples of Lord Buddha. They have their own preaching and they are explained in the walls as well. It was more like a meditation hall, where we can sit and meditate for some time and of course, I did close my eyes for some time.

July 19th Sunday 03:00 pm, we started our journey back to Bangalore. We had our lunch on the way. We had literally been worn out and all unknowingly went in to deep sleep as we started our return journey. It was before Mysore, we all woke up. We didn’t want to visit any place and were keen to return. We stopped at Maddur in the evening to have a taste of its well known famous snack – Maddur Vada! We had Maddur Vadas in “Maddur Tiffany” which was on the highway. Of course it was different from the conventional Vadas we eat in Tamil nadu.

July 19th Sunday 08:30 pm, we reached Bangalore and our journey ended with last longing memories of this trip!

Exploring Coorg!

2009-07-30T16:57:00.007+05:30

This is a continuation of my previous post "The Home stay experience in Coorg"

July 18th Saturday 10:45 am. After our breakfast, we were just having a walk amidst the coffee plantations. Our plan was to go to Thalacauvery. It was around 50 kms from the estate where we stayed. We started our trip around 11 am. On the way to Thalacauvery, we witnessed the natural scenic beauty of this Coorg district. On our way, it rained heavily. Thalacauvery is located at a hill which is 4000 feet above the sea level. Bhagamandala is a place at the foothill. We reached Bhagamandala around 12 pm and to our excitement, the road to Thalacauvery was blocked. We were all very disappointed. It was because of the heavy rains, Cauvery is overflowing above a low leveled bridge and this was the only way to head to Thalacauvery. I thought our 50 kms travel would end in vain. Thanks to a local, he said that there is a boat service sponsored by the temple to cross the river and from there we can hire a jeep to and fro to Thalacauvery. It was really a different experience.

July 18th Saturday 12:30 pm. We stopped the Qualis, walked a few distance and crossed the river using the boat service. On the river bank was the temple. It was of Kerala style. I guess most of the temples in Karnataka and Kerala are of similar architecture, unlike the ones in Tamilnadu. We then hired a jeep. It was an eight km travel in hills from this place to Thalacauvery. As we started, it started to rain and gradually it turned heavy. On the way, we could see small waterfall and the natural Cauvery water flowing down all over. As we headed further to a higher altitude, the presence of mist couldn’t be avoided. The area was fully covered by mist. It was a very refreshing scene – full mist, raining and chill – all at the same time. The jeep driver stopped at one place and said that we reached the place. I couldn't see anything but mist. The whole temple was hidden. It’s a nice experience. I felt I am in Kulu or Shimla, though I have not been there. This place was believed to be the origin of river Cauvery and a temple was built and now it’s a tourist place. There is a view point as well above the temple. But we could view nothing except the mist. We clicked a few photographs, of course to fill our personal portfolios. We returned back using the same jeep, took the boat, crossed the river, returned to the Qualis and started our journey towards Madikeri.

July 18th Saturday 04:00 pm. We had our late lunch in one of the hotels in Madikeri. After that, we headed towards Abby Falls, which is around 5kms from Madikeri. Since it was monsoon time, Abby falls was overflowing. There is a hanging bridge which is built approximately 50 metres from the falls. The water fell with such a force that the water splash has made us completely wet, when we stood on the bridge. It was again a must visit place in Madikeri.

How is it possible for us to return Bangalore without getting Coffee Beans? So it was purchase time then. We stopped by a shop – “Ganesh Coffee” recommended by one of my room mate’s colleague. My father has specifically asked me to get the Coffee Bean from Coorg. Each of us got a kg of it and we headed towards our next spot – Raja Seat.

Raja Seat was like a park similar to the conventional parks found in other hill stations. Except that it had some historic identity. It seems that in the olden days, the king used to sit there and watch the sunrise and sunset. We could only see the mist. We returned to our home around 7 pm. We had already ordered for our dinner. As you know, Coorg is famous for its variety of dishes using pork. I did not have pork, instead had asked to prepare Chicken. We had a simple but awesome dinner – A few chapattis, rice and curd with Chicken curry. It was very cold outside. The rest of the night was spent chatting, listening to music. I had a very good sleep, really!

I will end my scribble here. The return trip would follow soon.

The Home stay experience in Coorg!

2009-07-24T18:40:00.008+05:30

Coorg as already known, is famous for Home stays. This is an idea where in people stay in homes and the house owners provide food and all the other facilities. Its like a feeling that we have a holiday house somewhere in a remote place. This is the continuation of “The Road Not Taken – An exciting journey to Coorg!” I thought I should describe my experience of one such home stay in this space.

July 18th Saturday 05:45 am, the sky was dull and grey. It was still raining. We reached the Beta Cad Estate after seeing the sign board. The road was very narrow. I could smell the aroma of Coffee all over. In a short distance, I could see a house with red tiles on the roof. Some 50 meters aside was the in-charge’s house. The place was in the middle of the coffee estate. I hope you could just imagine the scene. I could see tall trees and coffee plantations all over.

After a while, came in the in-charge with his umbrella on. He showed us inside the home. I don’t have words to describe the home. It’s simple, old and neat. It had a living room, two bedrooms, one kitchen and a verandah. There was no power since 3 days. The cottage had a UPS backup, so that we remain uninterrupted with the power cuts. The living room had a television. Its walls were not left empty, but filled with portraits and paintings. One part of the space was occupied by the dining table, with plates neatly arranged. An olden styled cupboard was there nearby, which had a provision to keep the plates, cups & saucers, spoons etc. On the other side was a sofa and besides was a book shelve, which had some informative books about Coorg and its culture. I didn’t have time to read it though! Each bedroom had an attached bathroom. One of them was a master bedroom. Both of them had a night lamp and an almirah to keep the clothes. The beds were all designed in olden style. It was of wood. The floors were all covered with big carpets. It was very soothing for the chill weather. One of the bathrooms had this manual heater, where in from the back side of the house, they heat the water in a vessel with woods and the tap in the bath room is connected to the vessel. The kitchen was filled with all the utensils that we require. It had a gas stove, a microwave oven, a mixer and a mini fridge. Hope I didn’t miss anything. I was just enjoying the facilities they have provided. It’s a perfect place for a family who plans for a weekend break.

We were all very tired as we didn’t sleep well during the travel. No sooner we laid on the bed, we all slept. We all then got up by 7.45 am or later. Coffee and break fast was ready by then. I should say I am more or less addicted to Coffee/tea, and especially the coffee they gave, I liked it very much. No sugar more, no less. It was no strong, no light. It was just what I wanted. I went to the verandah, sat on a chair with my coffee and started to admire the cool weather and the natural scene that surrounded the lonely house. After that, I had bath in the hot water. Wow bathing in the hot water, amidst the cold rainy morning….mmm…no words… Do you think, this is a routine work, we normally do? No, No…that too in the weekends, the probability is very less, you see.

The breakfast was ready then. They had prepared Coorg style Idlis, Sambhar and chutney. We were so hungry that, we didn’t even comment on the taste, though it tasted good. The Idli was a little different. They had added grinded cocunut to it. In fact, there had been a shortage in Idlis. People who came last to eat, had to manage with only 2 or 3 idlis. Fortunately, I was the first to eat! He! He!

Our plan that day was to cover Thalacauvery, and the tourist spots in and around Madikeri. It is the headquarters of the Coorg district. I will scribble more on that in my next post.

The Road Not Taken – An exciting journey to Coorg!

2009-07-23T19:35:00.012+05:30

Life had been the same for the past six months – same job, same project and same salary. I desperately needed a break. I wanted to relax. It has been more than a year; I had gone for a trip outside Bangalore. I was asking my roommates for an outing since then. It took so long for us to decide as one week or the other, one or the other person was held up somewhere or the other. Finally, it became a reality last week. Even then we had to go with one absentee, Raja. We had planned to spend one weekend in Coorg district. Many said that, the time we had planned to go is when the monsoon is at its peak. Even I felt the same. But on the other side, I was thinking, why should we worry about this? Can’t we manage this? Are we taking our family, to worry about the weather? Even the newspapers showed the photographs of the flooded areas of the Coorg district. Yet, we never backed off our plan. We didn’t want this trip to be called off because we knew that it would be difficult again to gather people. I had invited my ex-room mates also for the trip and few of them have tentatively agreed for the trip.

One of my room mate – Karthik had arranged for our stay in a lonely cottage which is inside a coffee estate. As usual we did some googling about the place, saw some photographs, made some analysis…the usual techie thing. It will be my first experience staying in a coffee estate. Everybody was excited as it’s our first visit to the Scotland of India as Coorg District is otherwise referred as. I packed my bag with one jean, a short shirt and two Ts, along with a jerkin and umbrella. I thought I would bring in my speakers, so that we can hear to some songs from my mobile in the cottage.

July 18^th Saturday 00:05 am, the Qualis, we had booked had arrived. We loaded the Qualis with all the snacks stuff, our luggages, speakers and finally ourselves. The vehicle started to move towards Maruti Nagar to pick my ex-roommates. I was accompanied by Arun and Karthik. In another 20 minutes, we were in front of my friend’s house. Karmegam and Magesh were the other guys, who will join us. My other ex-room mate, Vasanth, whom had already told his non availability for the trip, was standing in the terrace waving hands to us. I just asked him, one more time if he could join us in the trip. In 10 minutes, he came down with his luggage. So finally, six of us were ready for the excitment and fun. It was 1 am when we reached the Mysore road. The route was Bangalore – Mandya – Mysore – Kushal Nagar – Madikeri and the distance is around 300 kms. The Bangalore – Mysore 4 lane high way was just awesome to ride. I could see some bike riders as well on this cold rainy night. For the first hour, we chatted and slowly the voices dropped off as the time rolled.

I was half awake, seated beside the driver, trying to give him company. We stopped twice before we reached Mysore for a tea break. The weather was chill till we reached Srirangapatna. After that it rained through out. I thought, if it rained continuously like this, we should just stay in our cottage and not go out anywhere. We reached Kushal Nagar around 5 am in the morning, it was raining. The estate name is Beta – Cad Estate. Our driver spoke to the estate-in-charge to know the exact routes. The road was really bad here with too many ups and downs and water clogged here and there. Some 10 kms after Kushal Nagar, at the right side, the driver could manage to see a small sign board stating “Beta Cad Estate”. We were in the estate around 5.45 am.

I just saw my scribbling till now, and it had come to three paragraphs. I think I should stop till this post the remaining in parts. The rest of the journey would follow soon.

Wow !!!

2009-07-22T12:03:00.004+05:30

I was just casually looking at my own blog, which I always do. I found that my first post was on July 2007 and wow...i have completed two years of blogging with 25+ posts and 500+ visits. Though the statistics aren't very sound, it is still significant to me. Hope I should continue to blog more!

The Weekend - Delightful, Extraordinary !!

2009-07-17T11:24:00.003+05:30

July 4th Saturday Morning 6’o clock. The weather was very cold. I was standing in one of the platforms of the Bangalore East Station with my jerkin on. It was the second visit for my parents in my three years of stay here, but first visit for my bro and grand ma. I was excited. This time they had come fully prepared. They had brought the home made karahs, Murukkus, Rava Ladoos in tins.

It was really nice having them here in my home. They gave a positive comment on the way we maintained our home. No no..we are still a bachelor… he he ! I hired a car and took them to my office. They would have had a rough draft of my work place and when they saw in real, they were very happy. It’s the same feel when we go to onsite and see things for the first time..though I have no words to describe… Amidst the distance between places and the traffic in Bangalore, I could take them only to Shiva Temple and ISKCON during the remaining hours of the day. Next day my mom and grand ma (mom’s mom) had planned to prepare food for us. So in the evening we went to the nearby shops to get the grocery and other vegetables. It is just a simple ordinary task which is done day-to-day. I don’t know, even this simplest task made me rejoice.

July 5th Sunday Morning. It was not the usual lazy Sunday morning. My mom waked me up at 6 am or even earlier, an unusual scene in the bachelor’s dome. She served us coffee. I like her filter type decotion Coffee. She then prepared her favourite Poori and Channa masala. I felt everything was at my reach. Me and my room mates had the break fast, and all were gearing ourseleves for the lunch. I have never seen our kitchen so busy all these years. Even the uninvited Cat smells and peeps in often. The lunch menu was obviously non veg and I had asked to prepare Fish as we don’t often eat fish outside. After the heavy meal, we took a short nap and then planned to go to the Commercial Street.

I should say the weather in Bangalore during their visit was fantastic. The sun hesitated to shine brighter. The rain hesitated to fall off fully. It was a light drizzle here and there and the gentle cool breeze all through made us to switch off the fans. This sort of weather cannot be possible at my home town Madurai unless any geographical change happen. They just enjoyed the weather here. Sunday Evening and the next day fully were spent on shopping.

July 6th Monday 9.20 pm, they were waiting in the Cantonment Station to board the Tuticorin Express.I went with them to send off . I have never seen this train come earlier than 9.30 pm in this station. This time to my surprise, it arrived at time. They all felt very happy spending their weekend with me here in Bangalore and me too.

July 7th Tuesday 6.45 am, My mobile alarm beeps! Oops there is no body to wake up! I had to go out to drink coffee. I had to go to office. I had to have break fast in the office. The regular weekday routine continues… :)

India did not qualify...

2009-06-15T21:02:00.003+05:30

...for the semifinals in the T20 World cup 2009 after they lost the match to England by 3 runs. I was a little surprised as we lost the match. Yeah I too agree there had been a concern on the way we did our run chase or batting order, bowling etc. It’s finally how we enjoy the game. Yeah of course, if India had won, the rest of the matches would have been interesting.

The most annoying thing is the way the media has showcased this. Today morning all the news channels were literally commenting on Dhoni’s captaincy, strategy, tactics and whatever techno-words they use. We should note that the same media had praised Dhoni for his captaincy, for winning the previous T20 World cup. Joginder Sharma bowled the last over of the crucial final against Pakistan in the previous T20 World Cup and fortunately India won. I am not sure if that decision is good or bad but we won the match. By the way I am not commenting on his captaincy and I am not an expert either to do that. The other irritating thing is one news channel went one more step ahead and asked for polls – “Should Dhoni retain the captaincy after the T20 World Cup 2009?” Its not only this instance, but media wants to mint money out of every sort of news which may be useless, useful, critical, hot or important or whatever. I remember the movie “Mumbai Meri Jaan” where in they clearly bring media to the lights. It’s not only the media, but also my fellow people who respond to those polls. At least to the extent of my knowledge nothing had got impacted because of these polls, except they get charged for that sms and media or the service provider gains out of it.

India did not qualify “only” now…

....but lots to come favorable in future!

Pasanga - Not only for kids!

2009-06-10T20:03:00.003+05:30

I was waiting to watch this Tamil movie in a theatre but unfortunately it didn’t get released in Bangalore even after a month. Finally managed to see this in a DVD. It’s been a good experience watching this movie. Almost every one of us would have experienced in our life. It’s been a very long time, there had been a movie where kids do the lead roles. A daring attempt by debutant director Pandiraj, who had surprised not only the kids but guys like me too. The back ground score just suits the the movie. One of the melody “Oru Vetkam” composed by James Vasanthan is very pleasant and gentle.

Right from the beginning till the end, they talk about positive thinking, dreaming a vision, aiming higher. But not as an advice! They have said it with neat incidents and lots of humor. They also talk about how parents and teachers play a role in motivating a student.

There are many scenes which I could personally relate to my own. One of the scenes where in, the class leader writes the names of the students who are talking. The students show gestures and signs instead of talking. I myself had been a class leader during 6th or 7th standard. The other scene in which the hobby of collecting stamps is shown. My father had a stamp collection album which he gave it to me. I used to trade stamps with my neighboring friends. Good Old memories... hmm! The other scene where in a student does Karate ‘Katas’. We were also taught those Karate steps in school. Those were funny.. :)

Most of the time during this movie, I was taken back to my school days. Its definitely a movie to watch!

The Road Finally Taken – Bangalore to Chennai

2008-12-09T12:24:00.012+05:30

The after-college-life of mine now had been neither too long nor too short. I had not seen most of my friends these days. It had been almost two years I had visited Chennai. It took me more than a year to reach Chennai from Bangalore. Yes, I had said to my friends before a year that I will visit them there. I won’t lie – “I was busy or tied up with my work”. To be frank, I was lazy to travel to Chennai. Somehow I made up my mind to finally visit Chennai last weekend.

Chennai is a great place. Lots of changes had happened - Wider roads, New Flyovers, emerging IT Parks, New Multiplexes and malls. City got bigger and beautiful. I came at the right time when there is no much heat, so I did not complain much about the weather. Earlier when I landed in Bangalore for the first time, I was complaining about the bus fares. Now I am doing the same here. There are hardly normal (green) buses plying. The deluxe buses are in no way cheaper when compared to the BMTC buses here in Bangalore. Earlier I felt the cost of living in Chennai is less when compared here in Bangalore. But now I feel it is almost the same.

I should say the trip was so memorable. Though I couldn’t spend much time with each and every person, it was really good sharing happiness, cracking jokes and pulling each other’s legs. To me it’s a kind of refreshment after a couple of months. We didn’t go out for lunch; instead we did a combined cooking. Too many cooks actually “didn’t” spoil the broth in this case.

We went to Chennai’s most visited places – Spencers Plaza, City Centre, Sathyam cinemas and of course the Marina Beach. Passing a Sunday evening in the beach! Wow, I wish a beach here in Bangalore. Sathyam complex is definitely better than the PVR and Inox here.

It’s a great feel when you get to meet your old friends after an indefinite span of time. I stayed at one of my college friend’s house. There all my other friends joined in and we were all having great fun. We were chatting in all areas – Girls, Job, Chennai, Cooking, Finance, Movies etc. I was able to sense some kind of maturity in each and every person. Alarm raises – Then why the hell are we still single?

I met my school friends in the Marina beach. I need not explain the beauty of the Marina beach at sunset. We sat in a circle nearby the shore, sharing each other’s experience, it was nice you know. We were all laughing together. Sometimes our laughter was louder than that of the sea waves.

I started writing this blog with the intention of penning down all the cherishing moments of the trip here but I am really, really finding words to describe the same here.

Altogether, it was indeed a perfect Bachelor’s meet - All singles, being together. Yet another memorable trip for me!

An episode in a bachelor’s life!

2008-10-07T17:56:00.006+05:30

She has recently joined the company…
Somehow she felt to me as the most liking girl…
Was able to see a couple of times in the cafeteria…
Good looking fair girl with an innocent smile…
Seems that she has a couple of friends including one or two guys… (Burns!?)
Was wondering why in this world I don’t get such girls in my project. (Sighs!)
I wanted to say her “You are beautiful” and walk away…
Will she smile or regret?
Will she mistake me?
Will she think I am flirting?
So many unanswered questions…until I go and say to her “You are very beautiful”
No. I will not do that…I definitely know that!

After a couple of days…
She (another girl) joined the company…
Somehow she felt to me as the most liking girl…
Episode repeats…

Wondering how many.…

My Experiment with Oats!

2008-09-25T13:30:00.002+05:30

Last week, was my first mission towards exploring the culinary skills of mine. Being a lazy bachelor, thought of trying Oats. Bad choice!? Phew…I have never eaten it before. I would have just added Oats with milk and would have tried that. But a thought provoked when I just saw this recipe of making Oats Upma on the cover.

I just blindly followed the instructions given there and I was at the final stage. The Oats Upma was about to get prepared. I just closed the pan with a lid and was waiting for a few minutes to get it cooked. My alter ego was appreciating the way I had started cooking. What a start! It was like inventing a new dish as if the whole world has never heard of. Silly! 3 minutes over, I was back to the cooking world. I had opened the lid to see my product. It was like waiting for the results. Did I get an arrear or cleared off?

I don’t know what should I comment now, Shocked at the first look of my product, was re-looking the recipe. The outcome was kind of a “hygienic gum”. No words to speak or rather I am mute when I tasted it…so sticky!

Mission Success, Launch failed!
Crazy moments!

Eemini..Eemini…I am missing you!

2008-09-10T13:45:00.004+05:30

I miss you..miss you da !

Ennai vittu pogadhey!

Ishtam neeyada,

Yeakkathil thalladhey !

This song from “Sakkarakkati” drives me crazy. Wow! What a start from Chinmayi.

Eemini..Eemini..! The metallic tone of hers just melts one’s heart. The main song is sung by another singer (not familiar with the name). It’s surely a different composition from the Mozart of Madras. Its so fresh and young that I am able to feel the theme of the song even without the visuals. Especially the humming interludes with “I am missing you” are very expressively rendered by the singers, which makes me to hear the song repeatedly. I hope the visuals keep up the expectation levels!

In the name of God...

2008-09-08T10:21:00.002+05:30

Two weeks back a couple of groups knocked each one’s door in my street. They claimed to be the residents of my area and they wanted to celebrate Ganesh Chathurthi. No surprises! It was the usual collection they ask for, every year. Are they theists..(?). Why are they keen in celebrating this festival in the roads? If they are interested, why not spend their money? Why ask me? I am not an atheist, but I was not interested to aid them either.

The day came, the Ganesha procession was being held in the streets of my area! One of the guys was getting liquor from a shop in the corner of my street and was dancing before the idol.

I wondered...Why is all these? In the name of God…

Dhaam Dhoom - Only once!

2008-09-01T18:37:00.016+05:30

Amidst the continuous rain in Bangalore, I went and watched the matinee show of this movie on Saturday. This is cinematographer turned director Jeeva’s last movie. I liked his Ullam Ketkume and Unnale Unnale and that had driven me to watch this movie. If it was romance in his earlier movies, it is a action thriller in this movie. The movie is about how an Indian doctor on a visit to Russia for a conference, a week before his marriage, gets trapped in a murder case and how he escapes to prove his innocence in the murder case.

The movie is a mixture of romance and action. And it is not the conventional Tamil action movie where in the hero hits ten to twenty people. It is one of the occasional action sequels in Tamil cinema, in which the hero is being chased by the Russian police force and how he esacpes from them and solves the murder case. Probably director Jeeva would have been influenced by the “The Bourne Trilogy” series and wanted to treat the Tamil audience in a similar way. Certain chase sequences in this movie had similarities with the English flick. Even one of the back ground scores reminds the background score of the Bourne Series.

Nowadays, it has been a trend in movies to involve the current sequel and flashback sequel in a mixed fashion. In this movie, the Russian episode of the hero Jeyam Ravi is frequently intervened by his love memories with Kangna Ranaut in India. In the consequence, the love sequel misses all the logical essence.

Some of the things I personally liked in this movie is the murder plot in Russia, the characterisation of Jeyam Ravi and the chase sequels (usually he does a romance cast), the place Russia which is probably a rare destination for Tamil audience and needless to say, the cinematography. Be it the city of Moscow or the hotel room where the hero stayed or the lawyer’s residence or the village backdrop in India, it was definitely a visual treat. The lighting effect was so natural. This movie also speaks about the Russian nation and its challenges to deal the prevailing crime threats in their country.

The movie would have been better if any one of the sequels alone is told - Either the murder case in Russia or the love story in India and I prefer if only the action sequel is told. The script is so racy and I feel the sequels in India and a couple of songs were the unnecessary speed-brakers. At least in future can I expect a quality action-thriller Tamil movie which has no song interventions?

Amazing start...

2008-08-27T10:51:00.005+05:30

Neither do I speak telugu nor I am from Andhra. Yet, I was amazed at the overwhelming crowd yesterday in Tirupathi cheering “Chiru…Chiru” in Tirupathi. It was unusual for the local residents who always hear "Govinda..Govinda". The reason being none other than their own Mega Star’s official party launch. I actually know Chiranjeevi as a telugu super star and have watched a couple of films. And that’s all I know about him and nothing else. If it was NTR and MGR in the 80’s, it’s Chiru’s turn to prove his mettle.

My colleagues were all discussing about this party launch for almost a couple of days. I hardly peeped in as I am a stranger to the topic, which was totally irrelevant to me at any direction. It was only when I saw the party launch telecasted in TV and all the media experts speak about it. In fact I didn’t even understand a bit of telugu. Media people estimated that around 10 Lakh people from various parts of the state would have gathered yesterday during the party launch.

One thing that grabbed my attention is the posters of Dr.Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa used as one of the USP’s for promoting his party. May be it’s an old trick. The other thing is that many physically challenged persons came all their way to cheer their super star. It reminded me of the Tamil movie “Mudhalvan” (“Nayak” in Hindi).

At times I wonder, how cinema and politics are tied up together, especially in South India. Will Chiranjeevi create a revolution in Andhra politics? (Fingers crossed!)

Last Day Mail !

2008-08-21T11:38:00.005+05:30

“Today is my last working day I would like to thank you for all the support you have provided and making my stay here a memorable one. I would like to thank my managers who had shaped my professional career….bla bla… (yawn!)

You can always drop mail to somename@somemail.com”

As if there is a standard Last day Mail template, I see more or less every last mail in a similar fashion.

Is it a custom? Why do you add extra coloured quotes - memorable place to work, dear ones, you have been my role model, bla bla…? Do you really feel sad leaving your company or your managers? Why can’t you say just thank you and say goodbye? It’s only in a college farewell or a school last day where you leave the place with a sigh of sorrow and haunting memories and they are the places where you are in a compulsion to leave at one time. But here this is not the case here. You go happy to another company and that is what you wanted. (Fingers crossed!). If it’s your last day, your manager will never care. If not you there will be another in your place.

This was the thought that came to my mind when I read a last day mail yesterday! I know I will also do the same thing on my last day in office, in fact have collected a few last day mails (smiles!) but was wondering why all these? No offences, crazy thoughts after all!

The Pursuit of Happyness !

2008-08-19T15:07:00.002+05:30

I always felt if I have ever reciprocated to the care and affection that they had shown to me throughout my life. During schooling they got me whatever I wanted. During college, they gave me pocket money. When I was sick, she never slept. They bared all the useless complaints I make about the home food or the things they bought for me. I was not matured then.

Now it’s almost three years, where I am trapped in the so called a techie’s crap life which has the buzz words: Out Station- Bachelor – Office – Work or No Work – Sleep – Office – Weekend – Junk food, Home town – Once in one or two months.

I am back to office now after a 10 day vacation. I was cherishing the moments of my vacation. I felt very happy as I had time to spend with my parents. They also felt very happy. I was single and matured enough to share words with them. I don’t know if I could get another vacation like this. I do not know if they ever expect me to do anything for all that they had done for me till now.

I was about to leave my home to catch the train, it was then my father inserted a 500 rupee note in my pocket. I was surprised and dumb as tears rolled down slowly. It was a precious moment. Well my father had given me pocket money always during school, college, and the most during my unemployed days. But this moment made me to realise, I am always their little child. Should I call it "The Pursuit of Happyness" ?

They are always my caring mom and dad. How am I going to reciprocate? – The question which has infinite answers.

Chetan Bhagat – Now most of the youths in India know him!

2008-08-06T12:22:00.005+05:30

When I go to Landmark, I almost see 4 out of 10 teens pick one of his books. One reason, probably, could be its price – One of the cheapest books in the store. J . The captions were also attractive; it read “Best Selling Indian Author”. Probably the other reason could be because he is an “Indian”. Well I bought his books probably to see why he is the Best Selling Author or why almost all present youths have his books in their shelves.

I have now read two of his books – "One night at the Call Center" and "The 3 Mistakes of My Life". The reason is simple. His books are like an unedited script before making a cinema. A time pass cinema will have all the ingredients like romance, action, comedy, sentiment mixed in suitable proportions. And of course in cinema sometimes the logical element would have been brushed aside. It’s same with his books also. His success lies in his simplicity of relating current day to day happenings, incidents in his books. Some examples to highlight are the One day Cricket match between India and Australia, night life in the metros, reference to Orkut, the communal riots etc. His writing has no complicated English words. It’s easy to understand. Sometimes the producers of a movie insist on an item number showing the hottest models to promote the film. Probably that thought provoked Chetan to include love making chapters in his book too. Movies rarely give a message, while most of them only entertain. It applies to his book as well.

Another reason the reach of his books could be the area where he targets – IIT, Cricket, and Call Centers. What could be his next area of interest?

Subramaniapuram - A Betrayal Drama!

2008-08-04T13:56:00.007+05:30

Finally, I saw this movie yesterday. Depicting the darker sides of the unemployed youth in the 80’s in 2008 is a new flavour to Tamil Cinema. It’s really encouraging for the audience, for the variety of quality films that the new upcoming directors give.

The plot of the movie is how two friends decide their destiny and fall prey to the betrayal act of their most trusted set of people.

Debutant director Sasikumar is another feather in the crown of Tamil Cinema industry. I never expected a movie in the time lines of 80’s now. The last half an hour of the movie was fabulous and unexpected, with each and every character showing their true colours, giving shock to the audience. Debutant music director James Vasanthan has given an excellent effort in re-recording. The back ground score is in lines with the movie. Well it’s not like a debutants venture.

I enjoyed the movie very much. The first half of the movie is balanced with the romance sequences while the second half of the movie is where the theme of the movie lies in. The Television set, the heroine’s house, the telephone, the Ambassador car, the tricycle which is used for announcing film releases, the kind of advertisements they do in the walls of the houses, the PRC bus, the central theatre in Madurai and lots more which show the 80’s just bring a nostalgic feeling for my parents, if not for me. Kudos to the team. We had the old model telephone and the Dynora TV set till the 90’s. Well now it had got changed. Actually it was a nice feeling watching a movie which is backdated. It is backdated not too much that it is not history and elder people now can definitely rewind 28 years in their mind.

This movie shows three types of people.

The first is the set of people, who do anything for the other person, whom they feel trustworthy. In this film the two heroes kill a person for the most trusted person. In return they get nothing but ruin their lives.

The second set of people, who are like the cunning fox. They show case themselves as the most trusted person and trap the innocent people to almost do everything for them. In this movie, the ex-councillor’s brother convinces two of his faithful persons to do a murder for his benefit and ignore them totally after the execution. A perfect act of betrayal! Also this kind of people has a unique talent to convince people or create faith in them. In one scene, the ex-councillor’s brother brain washes the heroine’s mind which leads to the barbaric killing of her lover before her.

The third set of people, who are fond of money and can do anything for it. In the climax, the hero’s friend betrays him for money. Atlast the betrayer himself was betrayed by the ex-councillor and sent to jail.

Subramaniapuram – A Betrayal Drama enacted in the stage which is more than 25 years old.

Behold ! After all it’s your money !

2008-07-28T10:21:00.002+05:30

Yesterday afternoon, on the way to have lunch, I dropped by the HP Petrol bulk near Tin Factory, Bangalore to fill fuel for my two wheeler. I handed over a hundred rupee note to the guy and told to fill petrol for the same. He was diverting my attention by talking some other unwanted things, and by the time the meter read 100 Rs and the fuel quantity read 1.65 litres. I was shocked. I saw my fuel indicator, which moved only by a mm. I did not move my vehicle. I argued with him that he did not fill petrol for the amount I gave. After a couple of arguments, he accepted that he did not reset the meter before filling mine. Later he put petrol for 50 Rs and I left the place.

I just wanted to share this because; these guys are doing this intentionally. At the time of filling the petrol, they will try to divert our attention and do all the malpractices they want to do. If the fuel hike is more bothering, these kinds of activities add more fuel to the fire.

Hope people are aware of such activities. Whether the fuel quantity is same as the reading in the meter is a different topic. :)

Cheers !

Tobacco-Free Campus - The Greener Way !

2008-07-15T17:11:00.007+05:30

Last week, in my company iGATE Global Solutions Ltd, a new rule was brought with immediate effect that the whole campus will be smoke free and there will not be any smoking zones inside the campus. Instead there will be smoking zone put outside the office premises. This is one of the initiatives taken by the management to bring a greener environment inside the campus.

Its a very bold decision made. My view is that this may also bring down the count of the number of cigarettes a person smokes per day by at least one. The reason is many people may feel lazy to walk out of the premises, which may be approximately 150 metres from a person’s desk. Well being a non-smoker, I don’t have any regrets to this. Definitely it will be a little bit hard for my smoking pals. But it also has a positive side. The whole point of iGATE is not only to keep the environment smoke-free but also a gut feeling that it may tend to bring down the cigarette consumption of its employees.

Let’s say no to tobacco ! Cheers !

Kangal Irandaal - A song to fall in love with itself !

2008-07-14T13:41:00.005+05:30

Kangal Irandaal, Un Kangal Irandaal
Ennai Katti Izhuthaai, Izhuthaai podhadhena
Chinna chirippil, oru kalla chiripil
Ennai thalli vittu, thalli vittu moodi maraithaai !

The first stanza of a song from Subramaniapuram goes like this. This song is haunting me since morning. A gentle romantic song visualized very well. Wow, a lovely song with neat facial expressions especially the hero’s romantic smile and the heroine’s cute smile. Simply superb!

Yet to watch this movie as it did not get released in Bangalore. Will have to watch it, probably next week.

If I had fallen in love with somebody now, this song would be in my background for sure :)

Of course this is my current caller tune as well !

Is that what I wanted to cherish ?

2008-07-11T16:45:00.004+05:30

I am in Bangalore and it’s almost two and a half years. Still I fuss over the food here. And this is especially making sense for the non-cooking-bachelor who comes from the southern part of Tamilnadu. There are a quite few restaurants that offer food of our style but yet we can’t afford it always. At times when I don’t like the food here, I’ll say to myself… “This time when I go home, I should go to either Konar Mess or Kumar Mess.”

The moment I go home, I never eat out and always prefer eating my mom’s food. Of course nothing in the world is tastier than mom’s food. Kumar Mess and Konar mess never come in my mind. There were days during my childhood when I make a fuss about having milk in the night served at my desk. I should only drink it and that’s the only thing I should do. And Today?

I would not have realised this elixir if I had not stayed away from my mom, dad and of course my Madurai.

Dasavatharam - My scribbles about it !

2008-07-10T13:56:00.008+05:30

This is not really a review and more over you would not need it as it’s almost a month since the movie got released. When I read reviews in Orkut or in other blogs, I feel every other person gives their own views on each and every sequel of the movie. One thing is clear from this is that Kamal has left it to the viewer to take the message from the movie on their own.

I feel the whole concept of narrating a four day incident in three hours is itself new to Tamil cinema. Well only people who know this language will understand the movie better.

I enjoyed this movie the most, when I watched it for the second time. Most of us would have enjoyed Balram Naidu’s character in the movie. Another humour character whose attention was grabbed other than Kamal is M.S.Baskar. I enjoyed this character only when I saw it for the second time as I could pay more attention to his Tamil-to-English translation dialogues. There must be Crazy Mohan’s contribution to these two characters I guess. Without him those dialogues will definitely lack the essential sense of humour. Yes I noticed his name when the credits were screened at the end of the movie. I should also bring light to Late Sujatha’s contribution to other notable dialogues in the movie. Though the dialogues were written by Kamal himself, these two persons contribution added more flavour.

Some characters of Kamal were made to feel unnecessary in this racy script. But it was inevitable because that is the main selling strategy of the movie and he has mostly managed to relate them.

Many people give multiple views on the movie that it’s about Theism or Atheism or Science or Environment and again this is also left to the viewer to decide. I personally feel in this movie he has tried to show Agnosticism*, basically trying to express both spiritual and non spiritual aspects of life and nature. Whatever the view may be, one thing everybody who watched this movie must agree - it’s definitely an entertainer for all people.

Dasavatharam – Kamal’s show case of ten avatars with various makeup ingredients including Chaos Theory, Butterfly Effect, Atheism, Global Warming, Bio-Threat, Environmental pollution, Terrorism and the list goes on.

*Agnosticism - It is the position of believing that knowledge of the existence or non-existence of God is impossible. It is often put forth as a middle ground between theism and atheism.

Gulkhand – Tastes Healthier !

2008-06-12T12:25:00.011+05:30

I had throat pain, which I never realised till I felt my tongue and inner part of mouth burning whenever I had food or tea. For the first couple of days, whatever food, I ate; I felt it was too spicy. As I was staying away from my parents, there was no one to guide me with proper food habits in this situation. While talking to my mom over the phone, I was just saying about this throat pain. She said to take one or two spoons of Gulkhand everyday. I was wondering, if that would set it right. I just thought it is just used as a key ingredient in Sweet Beedas.

I bought one small pack of Gulkhand. I had two spoons daily (morning and nights) for one week and it really worked well. I am not sure that I am cured completely or not but I don’t feel my tongue or mouth burning now. I then realised that Gulkhand is more than what I thought it to be. From the web I found that Gulkhand has a medicinal value, though I am not sure if it is universally approved.

The main ingredients of Gulkhand are rose petals and honey. It is believed that it keeps your body cool and we should not prefer taking it in cold nights or in winter. Apart from being a mouth freshener, it also helps to keep away acidity. Since it tastes sweeter, one doesn’t need to fuss about having it. It is easily available in all super markets at a considerable price.

How is 2008 so far?

2008-06-11T13:53:00.003+05:30

It’s been a little long I had visited my own blog. I thought it would be ideal if I pour in some thoughts how this 2008 went so far. Like everybody, with the global markets blooming, I was also expecting a fabulous 2008.
It was only a three weeks of the year that passed and the first blow came. Yes it’s one of the biggest downfall of the Sensex. Being a fresher (IT Terminology) in Stock Market, I was not much affected as I hadn’t had a firm portfolio that time.

I was much occupied with my work mostly these days, as it was the Coding phase of my development project. A little sign of relief came from the Finance minister Chidambaram’s financial budget. The individual tax slabs were raised from 1,10,000 INR to 1,50,000 INR for the current year. I dreamt that I could save some money. My dreams never came real as Inflation rose to historical highs, Basic commodity prices increased. The worst thing is Crude Oil also hit historical highs.

The increased salary after appraisal and the tax slab relaxation seems to just meet the increased petrol expenses and food expenses. So far 2008 has not been a promising year, may be for me!

Thanks!

Wanna naturally pump your Adrenaline ???

2007-10-24T11:36:00.000+05:30

“Its already 12.30pm, Saturday!!?”

“So?”

“Isn’t it boring for you, wasting the whole day sitting idle ?”

“Yeah, man, Saturday sucks!! All movies watched…and also bored off with the Forum, Garuda etc..?”

“Phew...Weekend and No entertainment make Jack a dull boy.”

"Then How about an outing?”

“Yeah an adventurous one.”

“Trekking!!?”

“Hmm why not water rafting?”

“Near Bangalore?”

“Yeah, Bheemeshwari. An ideal place for water rafting”

We six guys decided to head to Bheemeshwari this time for a new adventure. We have heard of this place but hardly knew about its ins and outs. Its approximately 100 kms from Bangalore via Kanakpura. We had no other option other than booking a resort as rafting is provided by them with all the safety and guidance. Its good idea to book in advance as it is in demand. The resort is open only on Weekends and other National holidays.

We started from Bangalore around 7 am. We had to reach the place before 9.30 as the rafting time would start around 10am. We managed to reach the place in time though the road was very narrow and not good after Kanakpura. The resort was not very attractive in the front. The gate was closed. Yes, entry is open only to those who had booked in prior. No spot bookings.The place was close to the river. It had tent houses, volleyball court, hammocks here n there. Well the resort looked okay inside. Hmm...We were interested only on rafting. We did not care all about that.

We were all given life jackets to wear on. For each raft, there was a trained guide. He gave us all the instructions, on how to row forward or backward etc. Each raft would carry six to seven people excluding the guide. We dragged/ carried the raft till we reached the river and then sat on the raft. Our mission started.

At the beginning the water was running normal and the travel was not very thrilling and I thought...oh is it for this we came for? But soon we got our adrenaline high. Yes, as we proceeded the water was running very fast and ferocious. It had twists, turns, ups, downs. In between there were rocks. Actually I do not have the right words to express the scenario. Wow it was a beautiful place and was really adventurous.

The whole experience took approximately one and a half hours. They had arranged a jeep by which we returned back to the resort after rafting. A normal lunch was provided and after that, we returned Bangalore by evening.

This is a must visit place and ideal for people who wish to go for a one day outing near Bangalore and return early.

Warm Regards!

PS : The snaps were not taken by us. Its preferrable not to take cameras during rafting for the reason they will get wet.

Gone are the days of schooling – A Nostalgic Feeling

2007-08-24T18:13:00.000+05:30

How many of you are missing your school life though you would not have had this feeling at the time of schooling? Well most of us would have felt this now because life seemed to be less complex those days than present. We usually do not realize or enjoy things when we actually experience it and ofcourse, that is human tendency. I just wanted to remind you of your school days as I travel back to those childhood days. I studied in the same school right from my kindergarten till my higher secondary.

Primary Level was something I don’t remember most of the things. We used to come to school, recite our anthem…Johnny Johnny, Twinkle Twinkle, Jack n Jill etc…In the afternoons we all used to sleep over a large spread blanket. While we kids lie down, we do not know what religion is all about, we do not care if the next person is a boy or girl. Puppet shows were the only movies we watch with great excitement. We had also been great actors on stage. Yes, I remember being a “Tomato” in the Vegetable show on our then Annual Day Celebrations.

Middle Level was our next entry. It was the period, when we actually start to realize things but not fully. Our excitement start in a random fashion here. Fighting for pencils, stealing rubbers, eating snacks, playing together was fun. I remember my games teacher shouting “Fire in the mountain…Run Run Run” during our games period.We used to desperately wait for Break time as the school would provide us with a Marie Biscuit and Lime Juice. Are not those unforgettable moments? My school also took us to a movie “God must be crazy”. It was a very different experience going to theatres with my school pals with teachers as bodyguards. Doesn’t that sound funny? It was a custom in our school to celebrate "Break-up Party" on the last day of each class. We guys used to decorate our class room with colour papers and balloons. Each individual would bring eating stuffs such as snacks, cake etc whatever they could afford. The class teacher would collect all the snacks and would club it as a whole and then would distribute to each and every student. Well this was a great concept followed in my school. No ego, No Religion, No barriers...all were treated equal, all were taught to give and take and this was the theme of this "Break up Party".

Well, things started to become a little complex as we entered the high school level. Ofcourse, new subjects emerged our way. What we studied science earlier became physics, chemistry and biology now. As our class increased year by year, so was our bag weight. Though we had moved from middle to high level, our plays and mishchievous tricks had retained forever. It is funny to think of the class monitor, whose job is to write the talkative names in the corner of the board. We were so active, that we polish our shoes using paper, only when we notice our games master cross checking each and every one's shoes during the prayer time. :) We were taken to field trips to nearby places, which were full of fun. We used to participate in all inter school competitions for the reason not to win, but to gain one day of loitering here and there in a new place. Ofcourse, participation was important rather than winning. :) Normally we hated sports day as we were involved for the march past and sports drill and we loved annual day as we got more chance to bunk classes in the name of practise and rehearsals.

The higher secondary level were the most enjoyable though crucial. Well we were on the peak of our adoloscent period. We used to enjoyed a lot during these days. The school took us to movies like Mummy, Matrix, Deep Blue Sea. We also went to an excursion to Mumbai, Goa and Cochin during our 1st Term Vacation of XIth Std. Well, it was my first experience touring out with my school friends. We used to celebrate Diwali, by bursting crackers in school on the previous day with our school friends. Well all these entertainments were authorized in our school and was all done under supervision only. It would be full of fun. Our fun and frolic had come to an end when we entered class XII. Starting from the teachers to family to relatives, everybody started to force a little bit. It became a custom, in general to join tuition centres to score good marks. Practically speaking they were just to show the rest of the world that we were occupied with our studies full time. Nothing other than that! :)

I felt, my school was the place where there sprouted a gentle friendly relationship between our teachers and us. There were one or two teachers who beared all our mischeives and motivated or moulded us to do better in our examinations. My class had a very less strength and it was one of the reason that we school mates are still in touch, even now. My school had given equal importance to both fun and academics. And that is one of the reasons, I am proud of my school.

Well guys, guess you had been cherishing your own old school anecdotes as you traverse through my own compilation. Sweet Memories!

Thanks !

Shall it be named “The Imbalance Factor” ?

2007-08-21T19:50:00.000+05:30

This piece may be boring, informative, funny, and stupid or whatever it is. But since it was boring for me, I thought of recording my thoughts here at this moment.

I had to find time to sleep, find time to relax, find time to just chill out. Those were the crucial days of my project. My swipe history had an average of 15 hours for six months. I desperately waited for my project to come to an end, as the next day I would be moved to bench.
Finally the day had come, I was on cloud nine, felt like have achieved something extra-ordinary. After all I was moved to bench!
I was so excited to be paid jobless at the moment. As other bench mates, I passed my time by reading useless forwards, orkutting etc. Days passed slowly, and it had been a month since I was moved to bench. This was the point at which, life started boring. Yes, how long do I read forwards, how long do I orkut, how long do I sit idle? I felt those crucial days were better than these idle days.

Soon after two months of bench, again I was assigned to a new project. Again work started pouring in my side; I had to extend my stay in office than normal. My swipe history graph rose gradually. Now I wished the bench life back!

Well, this each and every software professional might have come across in his/her day to day schedule. Is it the mind’s imbalance or it’s the work imbalance? The answer may differ for; each and every person perceives things in their own way.

Weekend Gateway - Wayanad

2007-08-13T18:47:00.000+05:30

I would like to share some of the moments we had spent during the Wayanad Trip on August 4th and 5th.

It was a very cold Friday night. Though the whole Bangalore city was silent after the late night pubs, we guys (8 in number) stayed awake, to head towards the God’s Own Country, Kerala’s Green Paradise, Wayanad district. It was 1.15 am, when we started the journey on a hired Qualis. We took the Mysore Road. The road was very clear and was a very comfortable drive for we reached Mysore in just 2 hours. By then all our eyes started to roll in and we were all disturbed again when our vehicle stopped. It was 5 am, when we reached Gundlurpet. Our driver was fully exhausted, so he had stopped for tea. We all took tea and started our journey again. All guys were awake by now and we all witnessed some deer on the jungle roads which led to Kerala. There had been very frequent showers as we entered Kerala. As time rolls, we were able to see the natural beauty of the greeneries with the mist playing an apt role. We reached Kalpetta around 6.45 am, the place where we intended to stay. This place is 270 kms away from Bangalore. We booked three rooms in a lodge, where in we refreshed ourselves.

Day 1

We were all ready for the excitement, by 8.30 itself. We decided to hire a guide from the Department of Tourism, so that life would not be complex on the roads less traveled by us. We had our breakfast and were waiting patiently for the guide, who is expected to arrive office around 10 am (Government job naa !!!). The charges for the guide is 350/- per day. When the guide came and introduced himself, we were surprised to see him, as he was very formally dressed and looked like a techie with a French beard. I was mislead by the way the guides in Tamil Nadu look.

We had a seat vacant in our qualis, as if we had anticipated the guide in advance. We all took our seats and we started our day trip. The first place, our guide insisted to visit was Edakkal Caves. This place was approximately 25 kms from Kalpetta. We reached the scenic point in another 40 minutes. We had to go to the trekking point through a government aided jeep service. It was 50/- for eight persons for upward journey. We all got to the jeep and in another 10 minutes, we reached the place. From this point, we had to trek on the hill. It was an amazing trekking experience. It is advisable not to take kids or old people as the path is so steep. When we reached the top of the hill, the guide directed towards the cave. Man, it was an amazing scene inside the cave. Edakkal in its own words means a rock which is in between two mountains. The local guide says this place had been formed due to the earthquake, some thousand years ago. He also says there had been inhabitants living here. And all those were parts of history. We were also able to witness some of the carvings on the rock. The toughest part of the trip was to get down the hill. God, it was a tough task as the rocks were slippery due to the frequent showers. We had our refreshments when we returned down and we were all more excited as our next place is a waterfall. The guide directed the driver towards Soochipara Waterfalls, which was approximately 28 kms from Edakkal Caves.

It was a rainy day throughout and whatever we looked all appeared green and that is indeed Kerala! There were tea plantations all way, as we headed towards Soochipara.
We reached the place around 1 pm. We had to walk around 1 km flat and another 1 km down the hill to reach the falls. It was again a trekking adventure. The paths were very slippery and it was mist all over. We could here the sound of the falls as we head towards it. No words to describe the falls, it was breath-taking. The waterfall was so forceful that one could hardly take a bath. One should be very careful while walking, as there are leeches all around this place. It was heavily raining when we returned back. This was really a tougher one as we had to climb up the hill to reach our way back. In spite of the heavy rain, cool climate, all of us were drenched in sweat. That was indeed a good exercise for us!!

It was 2.30 pm and all of us were very hungry. We stopped in a town to have our lunch. It was already 4 pm after our lunch and we headed to Pookot Lake, which is another 15 km from that place. We had to rush because the boating tickets are given only till 5pm. We managed to reach the place by 4.45 pm and got our tickets. The Lake was a small one surrounded by mountains. It is indeed a must visit location. We went for a rowing boat as all of us were very tired by now. The boating time was around 20 minutes, after which we decided to comeback to our lodge.

We had dropped the guide on the way, where he intended to get down and reached Kalpetta by 6.30 pm and our one day excitement had come to an end.

Day 2

We decided to return to Bangalore as early as possible, as we had our friends from Chennai, who had to catch the Chennai Mail. We had to check out the lodges early by 7.30 am to avoid the rent to be paid for the second day too. Life cannot be that easy. Yes, one of the vehicle tyres had a puncture and it took an hour to get ready. We were all waiting outside the lodge. It was raining on this day too. After everything is set, we headed towards Karapuzha Dam, which is approximately 15 kms from Kalpetta.

This dam is an earthen dam, which is an ideal picnic spot. After spending some time there, we decided to return back to Bangalore.
Karapuzha Dam

On the way back to Bangalore, it was after Gundlurpet and before Mysore, we could see those sunflowers and other flowers along the sides of the road. It was a perfect landscape.

In Mysore, we made a visit to the palace. We had our lunch in Mysore and we went to Sangam, SriRangapatna. There we spent the afternoon playing in the river bank. After an hour of bath n fun in the river, we rode our way back to Bangalore. It was around 7pm in the evening we reached Bangalore. Thanks to NICE Road, as we could avoid the heavy traffic on the Mysore Road.

Two days of fun n excitement had come to an end, but those memories remain in our heart forever which can be cherished always.

கைமாறு - சிறுகதை

2007-07-11T18:06:00.000+05:30

''அன்பும் அரவனைப்பும் கொடுத்த என் அன்னைக்கும்.....
அறிவும் ஆதரவும் கொடுத்த என் அய்யனுக்கும்.....
இது நாள் வரையில் என்ன கைமாறு செய்தேன் ? '',
என வறுந்தினார்,
முதியோர் இல்லத்தில் புதிதாகச் சேர்ந்துள்ள
அறுபது வயது முதியவர் !!!

விலை என்ன ?

2007-07-11T07:40:00.000+05:30

கேட்டேன் கடன்....

கிடைத்தது பணம்.

விலை.... நிம்மதி !!!