BlurB.

Transcending meditation

2011-09-23T00:36:00.006-05:00

One of the practices unique to India is the presence of what we now call the "moral police". A lot has been said in the Indian press about the "immature" policing of various issues. While the phrase itself may carry a negative connotation, an infant of the same when taught as "moral science" in our schooling systems somehow exudes positive energy. It probably has to do with the fact that children need to be supervised until they are a major(or later,in most of the cases), anyway. I vividly remember the days we used to have a session of Transcendental Meditation in our school assembly every morning, and had to pass "Moral Science" as a subject to move onto the next grade. A lot of us struggled to keep our eyes closed for those five minutes in assembly everyday. Most ended up shooting funny glances, or playing pen-games on the ground with their Hero's and Parkers- ultimately getting pulled up for disturbing the forced peace.

It is getting to be almost the end of summer in deep interior Texas, and the cool breeze now sets in well before the sun begins its journey back for the day. That means evening runs in the park do not anymore come with a free bout of dehydration, and the lake stops serving as a humidifier. The benches by the shore are hot no more- and with a couple of hours of rain behind us, we are actually having quite a bit of water in the lake to enjoy the waves. Fall is fast approaching- as is evident from the leaves beginning to have a characteristic rustle. The sun no more sets at a quarter to nine, it is more of a quarter to eight. The soccer and basketball fields fill up with people late afternoon only to empty out at eight after a couple of games and a lot of banter. Same goes for the nearby high school's football practice, as the coach loses his voice every evening to get his boys up to scratch.

A couple of minutes of attention. An empty mind with nothing to give and everything to take. A moment of transcendence. Meditation? Not sure.

The cellphone rang.

Birdie

2011-07-30T02:26:00.005-05:00

Birds are a beautiful creation of God, a wonderful phase of evolution(depends if you're a BJP/DMK supporter) They're said to be one of the primary inspirations for man to invent the flying contraption that we now spend most of our travel time in. For long Man has domesticated them, sometimes even using them for his leisure. From parrot-tarot, ostrich racing to the Quarter Dollar to the McDonalds burger- they are in almost all the frames of our lives.

So why exactly, O dear birdie, do you choose my harmless little contraption sitting out in the sun to relieve yourself on? There might be a thousand monster trucks and 38 year old Cadillacs in the park, but amazingly you will always choose my vehicle to learn your version of body painting. World over, an avian flu disaster comes a distant second to how much of a trouble you crapping on vehicles is.

While I have been thinking of this over the past month or so, my only real favourite TV show Top Gear chose to feature this on one of their programmes. How very convenient to escape reading the rest of my balderdash here.
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/bird-poo-2011-07-11

On one of our family seaside trips, we happened to camp out by the beach for some lunch and lounging around. Needless to say the birds still tried enforcing the same fate on us as the cars. To my dismay the seagulls would not move an inch, however close I got to faking a hit with a polythene bag. A bunch of them got together and ended up making us finish a stone's worth of food in split minutes. (Don't ask me what a split minute is, split seconds just sounded too improbable there)

When we could finally find a place to rest- away from the birds, a strong cold sea breeze caught our attention to a huge rock about a mile into the ocean. Size of a five storey building, it appeared like any other random landform- but for the tens and thousands of birds nestled on it. As many other such jaunts are called, it was The Bird Rock. After a few minutes of looking around a steady icy drizzle drove us back indoors and away from the ocean for the rest of the day.

On the way back home we got discussing about wildlife in general, finally veering into those birds and how aggressive they were. I felt compelled to think that at some point in the distant past, they would have survived by living on land and never ever taken to the seas. Somewhere down the line they lost ground, quite literally.. before we gained control. Over the years, apart from the occasional bird attacks and droppings, they learnt to be content with a distant rock in the sea which no man can reach. Thus we peacefully coexist with our dear winged cousins, but for one niggle.

I still have no explanation why most of them choose a vehicle that I own- to shower their bowels on, and not someone else's.

If you are reading this part of the post, it either means
1. You never clicked on the TopGear link
2. You thought this was going to be a funny article but got lost somewhere in the fifth or sixth paragraph.. and are now checking this portion out to see if I have a tone to the story. For which my answer is unfortunately no.
3. You always read just the last few lines of my blog.
4. You are a random(useless) Googler interested in half-baked political stories who searched for a BJP/DMK Alliance and landed up here.
5. You love reading what I write.

As I live in the improbable hope that most of you will choose 5, that will be it from me..for now.

Faces on Facebook

2011-05-08T13:13:00.011-05:00

This post is going to be very crisp and to the point. I am here to enumerate the various kinds of characters that Facebook unleashes within us and around(Although I would like to say "around" is a better option for me). This is just a funnier take on things in the big bad Social Network.. Here goes!

1. The Friend-er
OCD towards adding a person as a friend when finding more than 2 friends in common. Also common are friend-races where two people race to having a certain number of friends. (Fake profiles included)

2. The Sport/Movie/Music maniacs
At the drop of the whistle at Emirates stadium/Cowboys Stadium/Eden Gardens/Monza/Wimbledon/Staples Center, a flurry of updates discussing who is the God for the day. Includes Sachinists. Ardent movie buffs posting one-line reviews/full length and spoilers thus ruining it for all on the list, lay in this category. Music maniacs too find themselves holed up here. (I was one, frankly).

3. PDA-ists
Doesn't he love expressing how much emotional he was yesterday when his girlfriend left him for good/told him an OK/gave him a kiss?

4. Silku Stalkers
Experts in finding out if a person's friend-circle has babes on a perfunctory look at the first 10 people in their list. Also find out new strangers to stalk every day. Stalking is a journey they say, not a destination. Characterized by unusually large number of random pics on their desktop.

5. Angry Young Man/Woman
Is angry from the point he/she was born. Doctors took bribe to do caesarian to take him/her out; admission in KG school with 4000Rs. donation; why does Anna Hazare have thousand as his second name; why did Kalmadi spend on toilet tissues when he had only wet bathrooms? Anger, anger, anger. Also characteristic: status updates coinciding with major scam outings/fast unto death/natural calamities.

6. The Erudite Shutterbug
Owns an SLR/DSLR. Suave looks, likely working/studying in US. Two-three photo updates a week. Strategy is to get maximum likes with minimally sensible photos(and lesser sensible captions). Shortly put, a bunch of wannabes.

7. The Linen washers
Somebody forgot to tell them there are sites like Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups. Poor things.

8. Me, myself, mine
They say the caption should speak for itself. (Except if it were from Category 6) Also includes self-advertising/advertising any group which they are part of.

9. Ping me not
Perennially busy people. Characterized by taking offence when receiving a "Poke", and friend lists of 25 or less. Also characterized by response times of 5 days per message/poke.

10. Babes.
Need I say more? Statistics say half of Facebook's activity centers around centers of attraction.

11. The Outcasts
These people don't use Facebook or quit Facebook because of all the other (does not include number 10) categories. Widely considered the worst kind of screwballs by the whole world. Includes me.

Appendix:

12. Check-in syndrome
Need.to.check.in.to.toilet.
(Thanks Rahul!)

13. Network maniacs
Urban dudes who look for the best of all networks. Did you know your Yahoo account can link to Twitter, Twitter to FB, FB to Yahoo? They know it.
(Thanks Rahul!)

14. Wikilinks
They pride themselves in being the Wikipedia for all fun links. 5+ status changes per day. Typically 2 videos, 1 funny blog, 1 stolen tweet, 1 sport. Irritable at times, but they keep the world running.
(Thanks Satish!)

On Cricinfo, again!

2011-03-17T22:17:00.003-05:00

One of these days I was idling through some of the Cricinfo player profiles, and chanced upon Michael Atherton's page. Puzzled me how the guy hit just four sixes in almost an 8000 run Test career. However averse he would have been to six-hitting, could'nt he have gotten himself a top edge or a small ground to play in- here or there? I remember him playing in West Indies where he faced the likes of Walsh and Ambrose- but thought it would be a good idea to "Ask Steven" this out. So I asked, and turned up on Cricinfo yet again.

So much for boasting about myself, but atleast I did something to boast of - probably a good result on the front page when one surfs for my name. So here goes the link:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/506181.html

Hope everyone's enjoying watching the World Cup - Go India! (and England, for the superb cricket they play. And South Africa, for they deserve a cup this time atleast.)

Quksace agjke

2011-03-03T21:29:00.001-06:00

Guys and girls,

Check out why Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University is making rapid strides towards being in the Top ten schools worldwide.

http://echoes-of-the-silent-heart.blogspot.com/

Quksace agjke'ing is going to be the next big thing in the tech world. So what are you waiting for? Quksace agjke TODAY!

The College Station/Bryan Vegetarian guide

2011-01-05T12:07:00.021-06:00

The Chennai MC Veggie guide probably gave me the impetus to write this guide on Veggie(desi friendly) options in College Station/Bryan, TX - home to Texas A&M, around 1(or less)% by population of vegetarians and more. The statistics I expect for this post aren't great. CS-B has a population of 120,000 people, out of which I know maybe a 400. Out of the 400, maybe a 100 are vegetarians by birth, and a 50% of them have chosen to overstep the blood line. 50 unique hits doesn't look good, anyways let me get on with it.

Real long list this- I've had some great contributions from readers writing in.. whoever said Veggies had no options here in the US? Eat your hat!

1. Chipotle, University Drive - Bol Burrito, strictly. Not here for its variety, but for the taste of its only Veggie offering.
2. Pita Pit, University Drive/By HEB - Great Pitas, lots of options!
3.The usual Pizza places - Papa Johns(Monday!), Pizza Hut, Dominos (try the $4 lunch pizza!), Cici's (custom pizza buffet)
4. Blue Baker, Texas Avenue S - Great sandwiches. Superb pizza. A little costly.
5. Los Cucos, Texas Avenue S - Tex-Mex food. Most items made with meat, ask for no meat option. Still tastes great.
6. Golden Corral, University Drive - Not too great, but given the humongous amount of dishes you could chance upon a few tasty Veggie items. Great dessert and ice cream.
7. Rosie's Pho Noodle, Texas Avenue S - Great noodle soup, milkshakes. Nice ambience. Quantity maybe a little more.
8. Frittella, South College Avenue - Great Italian food, maybe a tad too cheesy for a few.
9. Taz Indian Cuisine, Texas Avenue S - Bad to decent level Indian food. On here just for the number of Veggie dishes it offers.
10. Freebirds World Burrito, University Drive/Near HEB/Near Cinemark - Great classic burrito, in manageable to unbelievable sizes.
11. Which Wich Sandwich, Biochemistry Building, TAMU - Lots of Veggie sandwich options!
12. Schlotzsky's Deli - A chain allright, but commendable Veggie options. Affordable too!
13. Panda Express, Texas Avenue S - Only one option, plain noodles with fried veggies. Go here if you don't mind absence of variety.
14. Antonio's Pizza, Northgate - For ones who love their pizza only the way they want it. The smoked mushrooms are quite a thing here.(some may not like it) And keep to one slice first, its BIG!
15. Potato Shack, University Drive - For the ones who love their Veggie food, bland. And for those who love Potatoes.
16. Potbelly, University Drive - If Capone threatened me at gunpoint to choose Subway over this, I would still choose Potbelly.
17. Caffe Capri, Church Ave, Bryan - Decent Italian fare!
18. Cafe Eccell, Church Ave, College Station - Decent but a little costly Italian food. Winery attached.
19. Olive Garden, University Drive/Tx 6 Frontage Road- America's favourite Italian restaurant. I don't see a reason why it shouldn't be. (except that I personally prefer Carino's to this). Tasty food, superb ambience, always busy - be prepared to wait LONG.

McD, Subway, Taco B(H)ell have not been included. They are way too banal.

As always, suggestions are always welcome! Let me know if you feel any other place in BCS is great for vegetarians :) Shall be added!

Michelle says :
Pei Wei (University Drive) and Jason's Deli (Tx Av S) are fairly vegan friendly--Pei Wei has awesome tofu and veggies that you can get on any of the vegetarian choices. You could make amazing vegan salad at Jason's salad bar.

Balaji writes in to recommend:
Genghis Grill, Fat Burger(University Drive), Quiznos Sub, Aggie Cafe's Pasta.

Rahul Rangarajan at it as usual:
Gumby's Pizza, Texas Avenue S - They have amazing pizza sandwiches,
Shiraz Shish Kabob, Texas Avenue S - They have a falafel wrap, falafel with pita and rice, and you get a brilliant yogurt drink that is similar to neer more(Indian buttermilk).
Jimmy John's - University Drive/Near HEB - Good if you like cold sandwiches!

Zalak writes in:
On the Border Mexican Cafe, Texas Avenue S - Decent Mexican fare
Burger King - Lovely vegetarian burger!

A friend suggests:
Abuelo's - good Tex-Mex.. go after 3 or 9 for happy hour!
Carino's - good Italian cuisine, baked mushrooms a must try! Also try the skilletini - they do it w/o chicken on request.
La Bodega, Northgate - This has a mango rice item, which is pretty good.
Luigi's - impressive Italian cuisine, this is off TX 6.

Mahadevan brings up two popular Asian restaurants:
Jin's Asian Cafe, Nagle St. by University - Good variety for vegetarians, frequent jaunt for desis.
Vietnamese Taste, College Main - Appearances are deceptive! This is truly tasty Asian cuisine.

Lakshminarasimhan writes in to recommend:
Firehouse Subs, Texas Avenue S

Shraddha suggests two places in the Northgate area:
Burger Boy - decent burgers, Veggie options.
Happy Yogurt - more of a dessert place, where everything will be Veggie by default.

Manjeet recommends Spoons Yogurt on TX Avenue S - and goes on to say it's the best frozen yogurt place in town. They even have non-fat, and no sugar added yogurts for all you health conscious people! He also recommends Red Mango on Brentwood by the Lofts for dessert. Now Jamba Juice, University Drive and Coldstone on TX Avenue S naturally follow for dessert suggestions.

Manasa recommends my house for food! Must admit I am honored by that comment- but providing food for the world, erm I'm a bit poor to do that :)

World Cup 2011 Travel: The Chennai Vegetarian Food Guide

2010-12-22T15:42:00.057-06:00

So being a Chennaiite, this is the obligatory post to pay homage to all the "Madharasi"ness that makes us who we are. In no particular order, these are the places where a lower middle class vegetarian with a moderately acceptable spicyness index and who generously eats spoonfuls of Equal sweetener(and Lactogen) would love to dine at. Any treats to be given to me when I am back in Chennai can gladly be organized at the following locations.(For which I will not pay a single rupee, obviously)

-Murugan Idly Shop, T Nagar/BNB.
-The Dhaba, RK Salai. (A little costly!)
-Saravana Bhavan, Vadapalani.
-Kaiyendhi Bhavan, Brilliant Tutorials, T Nagar.
-Mathsya, Egmore.
-Palmgrove, Nungambakkam.
-Sangeetha, 1st Main Rd., Adyar.
-The Eden, Besant Nagar.
-Hot Chips, Pondy Bazar.
-Bajji Kadai next to Adyar Bakery, Adyar.
-Rathna Cafe, Pondy Bazar.
-Woodlands, RK Salai.
-Gangotree, Cathedral Road.
-Sri Bombay Halwa House, Anna Salai.

Any more?

Suggestions I've got:

-Cozee, Besant Nagar..
-The Eden, The Harrisons, Nungambakkam.. Courtesy: NJ Karthik
-Mathura, Tarapore Towers (How the heck did I miss this?? forgot its name!).. Courtesy: NJ Karthik
-Barbeque Nation, T Nagar, Don Pepe's Mexican food.. Courtesy: Rahul Rangarajan(Don Pepe reviews are BAD!)
-Bakyas - Jaishankar St./Station Rd., West Mambalam.. Courtesy: Balaji Kothandaraman
-Cream Centre, Nungambakkam.. Courtesy: Divya Murali http://www.creamcentre.com/
-The Grand Sweets, Gandhinagar.. Courtesy: Mom
-Sanjeevanam, Mogappair/Nungambakkam/Adyar.. Courtesy: Santhosh Rathnam (Apparently a health oriented restaurant)
-Cream Centre, RA Puram is apparently one of the best restaurants Nithin Bharadwaj has gone to. He tweets here.
-Vasanta Bhavan, Indian Chat Corner(Besant Nagar) Courtesy: Vidya (I like the VB-Namma Veedu restaurant)
-iD @Sathyam Cinemas, Annalakshmi(damn missed this), Flower Drum(exclusive Veg. Chinese), Bay Leaf (Veg. Bengali), Ashoka, National Lodge, Shree Mithai.. Courtesy: Harish Anand. He tweets here.
Mukundh Bala reckons the Jalebi shop opposite the bike exit of Devi Theatres is damn good for light snacks.
-Rajdhaani, Express Avenue.. Courtesy: Aishwarya, Pavithra
-Rangoli, Pondy Bazaar.. Courtesy: Aishwarya, Pavithra
-Crimson Chakra, Karpagambal Mess(Mylapore).. Courtesy: Aishwarya (see comments below)
-Harish Anand says the Nalas Aappakadai (OMR, Annanagar, Velachery) people take orders via wi-fi on an iPod app! Technology I say. The food's good, importantly, for the MC Veggie. (also has an NV section though)
-Divya Murali recommends Mansukh's at T Nagar for authentic "light on the purse" North Indian food, and Vaishnavi Chat Shop in Kilpauk!
-Pasta Bar Veneto at Burkit Road is a favourite Italian food jaunt for school treats, says Ashwin Kumar.
-Preeti recommends Copper Chimney's (Cathedral Road) Veggie menu.(old favorite) Might be on the higher side, though.
-Sriram recommends one of Vadapalani's local favourites - Town Bus by Kodambakkam Powerhouse on Arcot Road. Have they painted the bus back as yet?
-Sreevatsan recommends Karthik Tiffin Center @ Anna Nagar and OSB-The Chaat Shop at West Mambalam for economy dining... And Kwality Rivera, Adyar for great food!
-Rahul Rangarajan is back with his trademark reco's - a roadside Pani Puri stall at the intersection of 15th and 16th main in Annanagar.
-Mukundhan Rangarajan(or MB) asks with outrage why Madras Bhel Puri in Pondy Bazar near Gopalakrishna Rd. was left out of this list. He rightfully also asks us to mention his home on this list. Yes, MB- some of the most tasty food I have had is at your place. :)
-Srividya recommends the Margazhi Music festival canteens at all Sabhas.. (best being Gnanambika at Narada Gana Sabha-agreed upon by Sunanda Narayan and Harish Anand!). She also recommends Novelty Tea Shop on Mint Street.(oft overlooked area for eateries, some of the best are here!)
-Santhosh Rathnam is back with a new reco.. Little Italy!
-Pavithra is back too.. Mothers Kitchen at Nanganallur she says!

Update: The Kaiyendhi Bhavan seems to be no more as Santhosh Rathnam puts it. Sad.
Also, BBQ Nation's veggie options aren't that impressive. But worth a shot?
Aishwarya is coming up with a review of Tandoori Tadkka soon. You can find it at the Slurp Spots blog.

Unsurprisingly, most of the City's best Sambars(acc. to Harish Anand) seem to come from among these restaurants. Check them out here. .
(The chap reviews restaurants bigtime, btw!)
My friend's recommendations and reviews on vegetarian eateries in Chennai. http://slurpspotsreview.blogspot.com/ If you need to analyse more before you choose ;)

P.S. I forgot to include the best place of them all, Home!

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sreenathj

December.

2010-12-22T15:22:00.000-06:00

28 degrees Celsius on Winter Solstice is not really what you look for in a typical lead up to winter. In keeping with the hot weather, if you wish to follow what nonsense I think of on an everyday basis, follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sreenathj

Yes.. for once I did not include natural phenomena, unlimited underscores, or sms language on the ID.

See you there.

A song I've been hooked to, today

2010-11-30T19:27:00.001-06:00

Noor-un-ala from Meenaxi it is! Wonderful Sufi composition from A.R.R. Let me not hold you longer- go ahead and listen/watch it.

Noor un ala - Meenaxi - A.R.R

Skymall - half the world's pat(i)ented stuff is here

2010-11-12T12:20:00.004-06:00

UPDATE: Check out these links for other(better actually) funny Skymall experiences:
7 useless Skymall pool gadgets
7 most useless Skymall Products

If you have flown the domestic routes in the US, you would know what I am talking about. Otherwise, here's a quick look, http://www.skymall.com/ . Make sure you come back and read what I have to say. A beaten-to-death, pointless, if-you-have-nothing-else-to-read reduce-your-savings-to-minuses magazine which sits on the back of the seat in front - that's Skymall for you. Ever looked through the products it advertises? For people who've not had the chance to see this wonderful, eclectic display of the best of the best of the most useless patents in the world, here's a small sample.

Automatic sleep sound generator (phew,so does this snore?)
Stainless steel purse (pain in the arse, literally)
Pet residence bed wid bone pillow (okay...)
Double sided toothbrush which reduces brush time by 66pc. (Industrial Engineer stuff??;))
Low voltage electric blanket (Seems Vijaykanth uses the high voltage variety)
Video recording sunglasses (no nasty ideas, people)
Mens towel with a pocket (I desperately need my purse when I leave the shower... immediately!)
The million germ sanitizing travel toothbrush sanitizer (So other brands sanitize only 423967 of them?)
The precise portion pet feeder (my pet's going to die if it eats 0.01g more)
The warming cat bed (what am I warming the house for then?)
The digital swim camera mask (what is your target market,btw?)
Remote controlled tarantula (why would I get one for a 100 bucks when I can buy a real one for less?)
The headache relieving wrap (retro-Home Shopping Network)
The 40inch foldable foto studio (ingenious,buddy)
The voice activated r2d2 .. (this was a beauty)
The water squirting remote controlled car (again, target market?)
Shrub guards (these actually cover all the shrubs, and looks like a shrub itself.. who'd buy this is a question)
Pet crib which acts like a teapoy (wouldn't want my tea spilt if the pet shakes it)
An instant bedroom fire escape ladder (also useful for the occasional cheating on the wife/husband)
Cat potty trainer (seriously guys?)
Some more...
Movable restroom for pets..
Feng shui handheld suggestion compass..
Foldable slippers (Hilarious to look at! If ever you get a chance, check this out)

Feel free to add on to this list. Lets celebrate the freedom of useless patenting.

Rockarolla into the Windee City!

2010-11-08T23:15:00.000-06:00

Had a great flight from Cleveland to Chicago enroute to good ol' Cal! The flight attendant, Linda kept us in splits all the time though the duration hardly kissed an hour. The most entertaining crew member i've come across, hands down!
Some quips :
-If the plane lands in water, please pull out your lifejacket underneath your seats, if that doesn't work, pull the cushion and hold onto it. If that doesn't work, thanks for flying southwest airlines.
-Ladies and gentlemen we've landed in Chicago. I now tell you what my parents told me when I turned 18. Take your beep beep bags and get out.
-I hope you enjoyed flying southwest. We loved taking you for a ride too.
-Every year southwest nominates the best of the 1800 odd bla bla bla crew which flies between Cleveland and Chicago for the blehehehe award. We have successfully managed to avoid getting that for decades now. So if you need something go ask the pilot... we wouldn't care anyways.
-Please don't hesitate to get up and use the restroom for the interim 2 mins between takeoff and landing. Also I request you do us a favor and clean the lavatories if you ever use them aboard this flight.
-Southwest appreciates your business of making us richer by how much you're poorer flying us ;)

I was sitting at the very end of the aircraft but the flight attendant had us in splits all along. One of the best flights I've flown on- also one of the shortest. Short is sweet, I say.

Birth and death of Social Networks, w.r.t. Poor.Indian.Grad.Stud

2010-11-01T15:20:00.002-05:00

Much has been made about Orkut's waning star and Facebook's meteoric rise. How would it look like in the perspective of a desi-phoren-studying Grad's life? Circa Fall 2008(US Version). May apply to certain previous/after batches or other countries too.*

*Does not include twitter

%^& Maybe some references/styles borrowed from krishashok's blog. The idea of a graph..well that has been done too. I don't claim any originality for this except for the drawing and concept part ;)

Today!

2010-05-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

I know I will think how amateurish this post will look while scrolling back down my old posts say, a few years from now. It is as momentary as Boria Majumdar's repartees on Indian cricket's failures., as childish as that beaten-to-death parrot Laxman Sivaramakrishnan., as stupid as Warney's "Oh Yusuf is the next Bradman" quips.

But this is what's inspired me today- Michael Hussey and that blinder he played to take Australia into the World T20 Final against England. It reeked of sheer power, grit and determination. Borrowing from Cricinfo's quote on "Being Australian" or "Australianism"., here goes:

""Australianism," wrote Arlott, "means single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket down."

Absolutely true on the cricketing field., and true even more, off it. Stand up and be counted, people- "impossible" may have just been chucked outta the dictionary.

Managed to get onto Cricinfo!

2010-05-07T23:41:00.000-05:00

Between taking breaks to study for a final exam, I managed to get a comment onto Cricinfo's public commentary section. Might be too small a thing to brag about, but its a success for a person who is hooked onto the site about 75% of the time he is even accessing the net.

http://www.cricinfo.com/world-twenty20-2010/engine/current/match/412692.html?innings=1;view=commentary

Look for the Sri Lankan innings commentary - roundabout the 18th over :) Atleast something to feel nice about during death week.

Quest(ion)?

2010-04-30T00:39:00.001-05:00

As the Chevy Malibu whizzed past blurry scenes of pastures, meadows and water-bodies, time appeared to stop a bit- and rewind upon itself. The sky went a dull blue from the melange of colors that it was., the pines turned into teak and eucalyptus, the road from flawless tar to a random mass of fine gravel. The Chevy turned into a bus and my uncle and aunt into its driver and conductor. The only constant appeared to me, although hardly half the size of what I was barely a few seconds back.

Passing scents of ripe jackfruit and mountain flowers overcame the diesel smoke. The air was getting thinner and we were climbing uphill, which meant every corner in the road only made life tougher for, what now- were perennially blocked ears. Nevertheless the joy of visiting a hill station knows no bounds for an Indian kid from a hot city.

Hillstations represent most of what all Indian kids would want to embellish their summer vacations with- except for say theme parks. For the average urbaner who's just seen billowing smoke from vehicles and a stack of matchboxes for houses, the higher altitudes bring in the much needed romantic respite. The laidback lifestyle and wonderful climate soothes the mind and sets it thinking differently about the things in life you thought were pretty straightforward.

It was no different for me, on this trip. Nurseries, milk farms, cashewnut and coffee plantations, a blanket of mist, the roadside tea shop, the "monkey"cap-clad people, houses with dangerously sloping roofs, a fresh vegetable market.. absolutely everything about the things surrounding me felt beautiful. The bus was now a warm cozy bed compared to the dingy storeroom it looked like before. All around me appeared very simple, down to earth, lovable, one-dimensioned. People grew trees, crops, hens,etc. sold them to get food, or had a small shop of their own products, or were just random nomads quizzically staring at sophisticated people touring their place.

I was sucked back into the warp., and my eyes read a beautiful Californian countryside from the confines of the Malibu. The car sped by a farmer weeding a vegetable field. Chickens ran around the field and the mistress sat outside the farmhouse sewing a sweater.. Not very different from what my eyes saw ten years ago.

Somewhere in the quest for a better life,I guess man won...but mankind lost.

Just one more!

2009-09-10T17:08:00.000-05:00

Most of the blog entries in this page seem to be alluding to the past, or keeping it as a reference to current and future happenings. I am not sure if that is the way I think, write or wish the blog to be. ( However one-dimensional my thinking may seem, it's my blog, so there's no other go but for you to read it. Follow that up with a "smiling" smiley! ) It sure does make a lot of sense to me, to learn from mistakes and keep on improving. Yet again, this little scribbling would also allude to a minute reference from the past, to put my idea across.

I am sure every one of us would have had to listen to our headmasters and teachers lecturing on discipline, way back in school. It would be easy to guess how many of those lectures during the daily morning prayer/general school assemblies we would have paid attention to, and how many of those we would remember till date. Sometimes I feel sad when I realise how much efforts they take to direct us onto the right path, and how passive we are in our response. It could be the age where we couldn't concentrate on lectures, it also could be that we feigned hearing to them. But over the past few days I got to know the extent to which it could help a person , if he had paid attention to as small as one statement in a teacher's peptalk.

"Whatever you do, keep telling that you can push yourself more- and go the extra mile. Be it an exam where you don't know all the answers. Be it in sport where you are leading the pack. Be it at the track where you run for 20 minutes- run the extra minute. Be it in doing good for people- you can always do more. Be it when faced with repeated failures- do not give up, you never know if your next try could lead you to success! Be it in life, where you need to keep bettering yourself. Be it when you face death- by choosing to push yourself to live that extra second."

I remember the headmistress speaking these words at one of those peptalks that my school organised before our 12th Standard examinations. Frankly speaking, I was never a fan of hers- but chose to keep these words in mind, and live by them. There's been many a time when I've thought I should stop writing- for want of time and concentration, but every time that happens I've promised myself to write just one more.

By the looks of it, this shall keep happening all my lifetime.

Getting Habitual...

2009-07-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

It's been one year now, almost, since I came to the United States. I know that many of the people who are reading this blog would also fall in the same category of "studying-away-from-home". True that we all miss our homeland, sometimes to the extent of thinking why we came here to pursue our dreams. But then, after a while, we all tend to get used to it.

I remember the days I used to go to high school, which was about three kilometres away, every morning- on my cycle. There used to be a set route which I used to take, and I knew every little pothole on the road to avoid, leave alone the signals to dodge so that I could get to school on time. I felt as though all the scenes in the vicinity were programmed into me, so I could easily find out which shop had been shifted recently, and which was closed on what day of the week. Beautiful days, those. I remember having races against myself so that I could keep bettering the time I took to reach school from home.

The fact is that I had gotten used to the people, the places, the sights and sounds of the environment around me. To the extent that I could tell the schedule of the city buses which ran in the mornings and evenings, when I used to commute. That's one beauty of city life that I miss, being in a suburban Texan town.

One year into my life here, it somehow feels good to tell that I have got used to this place. There lies a pleasure in seeing things and people, daily - that you know you will not continue to see all your life., a pleasure that we sometimes miss to spot in our busy lives. This one year, I have surely missed India, but one year later when I am out of this town, I am sure I will miss the beautiful memories that it gave me, too.

Keep the faith.

2009-06-27T23:09:00.000-05:00

Lost for words to open this blog entry with, I could not find any other way but to foist in a brainless philosophical reference- " Revelations can occur to one anytime, from anywhere and anyone. "

Assuming that all the readers of this piece of writing would be atleast into their teens, and through with atleast one and a half phases of their lives by now- I go ahead with writing this.

In this journey called life, there are quite a few stages, like Shakespeare alludes to, in "All the world's a stage". It is interesting also, to note the metamorphosis of the environment around a person as he grows from being a toddler, to a boy, to a young man, and all the way till the end of his lifetime.

At every such stage of our life, occur various events that lead us to confide in a few people. Sometimes these people may remain the same for years altogether, some other times they may leave midway to return back- the worst case being they do not return back forever. Social circles tend to change, with the wrinkles on your face.

I am sure we would all agree to the fact that there do exist certain people- whom we used to give a lot of importance to, but now we would not. The vice versa would also be true. You may have been close friends with someone a year back, but not now. You may not have known your soulmate a month back, but would be willing to do anything for him/her now. Weird is the way of life.

What this teaches us, is that the key to being a balanced individual, would be to keep up the faith with the same person(s) you confide in, all through your life. Trust them, keep in touch, and express to them that you care, no matter what. Unfortunately the writer of this blog had not realised about his lack of expression until he was brought crashing onto this fact by a dear friend of his.

This Day, That Age..

2009-06-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

With the sun beating down like there's no tomorrow, and the weight and heat of a black-colored backpack threatening to vaporize me to nothing- I finally managed to beat the irritation to get a DVD box-set of a reasonably old Bollywood movie from the university library. I should admit, the predominantly American support staff of the library mediastore were finding it very tough to understand a huge phrase with big "oh-so-obvious" Indian words. A deadly combination, that. I had to suppress a laugh when I ventured out to find the English translation of the name for them. It said "Brave hearted will take the bride". I just could not stop bursting into a laughter characteristic of "Hey Dude, we call it DDLJ, got it? Now go get the DVD up for me!"

I remember the late 90's when DDLJ came about. It was the age of the perfect Bollywood song-dance-melodrama blockbuster. Three hours of singing, running around trees, symbolic love scenes, sister-brother sentiment, villain bashing and a happy ending. Add a local theatre and the entire family for company, and you had the perfect moneymaking machine for the film distributor. Bets were placed on who would watch DDLJ or HAHK the most number of times. ( local cable TV viewing of the movie would count as a negative ). Funny times, those. Even film extras oozed with makeup and glycerin tears.

The last time I had watched this movie, was back in 1997/98. After an eleven year break, here I was- watching it again, in a different age, in a different milieu- where we used to go to theatres to watch movies with family, I had a laptop and nothing but my room for company. The movie by itself, surprisingly, failed to impress me. I could not believe I had watched a movie and liked it for the first seven times, and hated it the next time. Surely something should have gone wrong somewhere- I cross checked to verify if I was indeed seeing the movie or its blooper DVD.

The DVD of the movie it was, alright. But maybe, all these years of my life coupled with movie watching had tinkered with the way I look at things. Where I used to see joy and color, I now saw garishness and a surfeit of non-detail. Where I once saw love, I now saw just two people acting what someone else told them to. Where I saw jokes, I now saw boredom. Some things in life never seem to change. Age doesn't seem to be one, unfortunately.

One Last Time..

2009-05-28T22:11:00.000-05:00

Most of the regular writers suffer from a range of dilemmas, before they set to write on a topic, or on perhaps no topic at all. A strange one I was suffering from since the past one month- was a lack of resources, and proper personal time to transfer my thoughts onto a blog entry. I should also take up some blame for being lazy to write, and thus depriving you of some much needed boredom.

In the meanwhile, life has chugged on - offering new insights, and experiences. But there's been one thought which has plagued me over a long time. The recession, as we all know has affected all and sundry. It also means a lot of opportunities for budding graduates from universities have been nipped in the bud. Sounds scary for the current crop of students- we live in a hope that good lies in store for one and all.

In a flip-side to the recession story, I probably have met many people for the last time in my life- or theirs. (Whichever ends earlier) A lot of the people I met after coming to the US, have had to go back to India due to the lack of opportunities. Extremely unfortunate for them, and I am aware of the practical thought that I might be on the receiving end before I say snap. This post is dedicated to all of them, who came here, worked hard, gave it their best shot- but could not make it due to a reason beyond their control. A natural flow of thought would establish the fact that we may or may not get to see them again in our lives, even if we go back to India, someday. Weird thought, but most of us would know it is true.

This post is also dedicated to one of my kin, a wonderful person who loved me a lot and showed me what rural India was all about- who passed away earlier this month. Unfortunate that the last I saw of him was when I left the shores of India a year back. Wherever you are now, this is for you- from someone who is indebted always.

The irony of life - they say. How more different can the same circumstance of "seeing a person for the last time", be?

As this post ends, I remember myself looking down at the distant winding canyons dotting the earth , from the confines of an otherwise uninspiring airplane. I do not remember caring about comfort, as I never know if I may see them again.

Itinerant..

2009-04-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

However good or bad one's past might be, it is common wisdom that one should not live in his doings of yesterday or dwell in the dreams of tomorrow, and rather concentrate on whatever is to be done at the moment. It is another story as to how many actually follow this saying. I believe a man is today because of what he did in the past (however immediate or far that might be) , and his present impacts his future standing.

Travelling alone often presents us with an unusually (continuous) block of time to spend with ourself. Some might choose to read a book or listen to music, some others defeat the concept of "personal time" by talking or texting over the phone, few introspect and dissect their actions. When I was just starting to wonder what of the above should I be doing, a brainwave came by. Why not rummage through my wallet, for a change? I had hardly bothered to check its contents over many years for now, except for the odd currency and ID.

The first thing I could get hold of was a bunch of photos of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. I remember my dad giving me a couple of those on the day my tenth standard exams started. I was to recieve another couple of them from him when I wrote my twelfth standard Board examinations. How we struggled to keep our tension and anxiety in check the morning of every one of those exams!

A faded out Identity card revealed a younger me- it appeared to be the Southern Railways ID card I had got in my first year of engineering, to travel to college. 155 Indian rupees for three months of unlimited tension-free airy travel with a lot of college mates for company - not even the best seat in Kodak Theatre would get better than this.

A wad of tickets came through- of varying types. Tickets to the IPL season one which took place in 2008. Splendid memories of a hoard of friends and a lot of sporting fun. Tickets to the Chennai Tennis Open, to which I had been to every year. Tickets to a test match at the Chepauk cricket stadium, where Virendra Sehwag famously scored a triple century. I remember cheering with every one of the 50,000 people in the stadium for it. A bus ticket for a ride from home to my grandparents' place, which I visited every fortnight. Tickets to a movie I remember seeing first day first show- The Pirates of the Caribbean- at the best theatre in Chennai.

A courier receipt turned up- of the consignment of paperwork I had to send across to universities, for my higher studies. An autographed piece of paper from one of my friends, wishing me best of luck for a second year engineering exam.

The next thing I know, stewards were shooing me off the Burbank (LA) Airport Runway. Travel can be lonely at times, but whoever said it bores, probably never meant it.

Past the prime..

2009-04-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

One of these days, we had to go out to the mall for some general purchases, and groceries. Going shopping with the fairer gender has an obvious downside for the males accompanying them- but surprisingly enough, I was to find out later that there was an upside to it, too.

When was the last time you had time to look at the price gap between an in-house brand of cornflakes, and an established one? When have you ever noticed the difference between the nature of various brands of kitchen tissue paper ? (the toilet paper is another story, altogether!) Would you care to look up those arbitrary coupons left on the shelves and get the exact brand of Granola bars, and the exact quantity, to save a relatively paltry twenty five cents? Never. That is, unless you are left to grocery shop an hour instead of the customary once-per-week-ten -minute routine.

Aimlessly staring at an aisle filled with a surfeit of dogfood, I walked the entire twenty metre stretch without realising the fact that neither do I own a dog, nor am I one-technically. (Some people may tell I am one, but then I hate to think how my consort would be called as, if I was indeed a dog) Half-lost in a world of nothingness, I wandered along just to remember that I had to pick up a carton of milk. So, the milk aisle I went- I had eternity left for the bus back home, and just one item to purchase, before the others returned. (for LOST fans- by "others" here, I just mean my friends.)

Maybe it was the music playing on the headphones, plain curiosity, or the level of boredom in me- I actually bothered to check the "Sell By" date on the carton. Philosophy, they say, can strike the aimless mind anytime. I second it- down went a spiral of milk , Bollywood Flashback style..

A friend we loved, the camaraderie we had with some people, all those weekends we just lazed around on the lawns waiting to be fed with good food, the talks we had with someone who's not with us right now , the puppy love which blossomed in school, the nights spent talking absolutely nothing over the phone, and umpteen more occurrences in life - would they be remembered by us if they had not ended? Would they be treated with as much nostalgia and love if they had become a routine like a daily bath ? ( only for people who do that ;) ) I reckon the answer would be a unanimous no.

Maybe....Maybe, things are valued only if they have a Sell By date. Be it a carton of milk, or life.

Ex"pat"erience..

2009-03-21T23:29:00.000-05:00

Being a Poor Indian Graduate(PIG as everyone calls it) in the United States, one is forced to look into a lot of "probably money guzzling" activities. Grocery shopping, as every person in my situation would agree, is one of them too. A lot of thought goes into choosing that perfect cereal , in the cheapest package and the best brand- probably even more time than what twenty-something women take to decide on their accessories.

We were still in the process of figuring out how to find the time and the strength to bring in groceries for four people, for a couple of weeks- without having to do with a car or any other assistance. Life was draining, and tough. Shopping meant a load of sweat coupled with shoulder pain. A month's worth of strength was sapped out when those gallon-loads of milk and backpacks of supplies were carried over a mile back home from the nearest bus stop.

An extended holiday weekend ahead meant no buses, and that meant we had to plan our shopping in advance, and get back more than what we usually used to get. My mind,heart and soul gave up on seeing the stacks of milk cans and bread pressed into balance in a sizeably large trolley. Just when I thought it would be a better idea to ask for a non existent door delivery, an Asian gentleman came up to me -

"Would you guys mind if I offer you a lift back home?"

Godsend. Bless the lord. Jai Shree Krishna. Allah hu Akbar. I would give him whatever he wants in exchange for this trip!

Fuzzy notions of my home swimmed in front of me- I was coming back, finally. There I would be, whizzing past other "grocery-shopping students", in a car, with the breeze taking every drop of this insinuating sweat off me.

"Thank you" I said.

"I just have space for one person, who would like to accompany me?"

I felt like Hermione. Pat went my hand. "I will come along, Sir."

A couple of minutes later , in the comfortable confines of his car, with a little girl (evidently, his daughter) on the backseat- when I was just wondering what to talk, or what not to, he took the lead.

"So.. are you a student?"

"Yes Sir."

"Even I was a student here. Now I work with the University itself. Even I have been through whatever you are going through now. A transition, indeed. "

Surprising. I nodded my head in agreement.

"That's my daughter in the backseat. Please talk to her in English. She does not understand Hindi, or Malayalam, which is my mother tongue."

"Oh. Okay Sir. ( tried to talk with the girl, but she was not in the mood to I guess ). So, have you been to India recently ?"

"Not really, I don't go back there nowadays as my entire family is here. I miss Indian movies though. Do the south Indians still go crazy over Rajnikanth and Kamal?"

Needless to say what my answer would have been. An obvious yes.

"I did not want my daughter to study in the city, as she may get spoilt.. that's why put her into a suburban school. Otherwise, life here is good. You will learn to enjoy it and live it up, soon enough young man."

We had reached back home by then. Stepping out, he noticed my place to be the same one he stayed in, when he was a student in this university a decade back. The world's a small place they say- I second it.

"Sir, you didn't tell me your name- could I have a contact of you or something?"

A rude reply. "Why do you need my contact details? I am there in the university directory, name's Brajesh- go check it out. I am leaving right now- bye."

The car whizzed back double the speed that it came in. There went my first encounter with a true ABCD (American Brains in a Confused Desi, as I put it). He had also talked to me about his personal life, apart from the things revealed out here- but chosen not to even give a contact address. Wonder why, I still have not figured it out.

In the seven months elapsed since then, I have learnt to even say no to beautiful girls offering me a lift back home from the Mart. How life and time change things.

Life, Through a McPane.

2009-03-05T18:29:00.000-06:00

One of these days I left home for college - only to realise that I had nothing to eat for lunch. Never mind, I said to myself- let me see if some free pizza party comes up as I get done with my classes... Alas, nothing in a mile's radius seemed anything close to one. The entire world seemed to have decided that I should not be fed that afternoon. Being a vegetarian in the United States is somewhat of a challenge- what with the sparsity of choices, and different meanings to the word "vegetarian" itself- viz. vegetables eggs and fish-eaters, or vegetables and egg-eaters, or the traditional vegetable eater alone. That reflects on the definition of foodstuffs in U.S restaurants too- something I had to contend with, and win against- atleast that afternoon.

The cheapest resort for a filling lunch would surely have to be a McDonald's, and it was right across the road. Couldn't get any better, and I had decided. I would go to a 95% non vegetarian eatery and fight my way through to something edible and vegetarian. Settling down with my "vegetarian" milkshake and side salad, I chose to sit at a place where I could have a view of the crossroad leading into the university. What a perfect lunch- salad and milkshake with noone but the signal signs for company.

Settling into the uncomfortable confines of a tacky and stony chair, there were just two things to do- eat, and gaze. The former was taken care of itself by a magnetically empty tummy. Washing down the milkshake cooled my parched tongue. What a blissful feeling. One moment I close my eyes, and open it back again to see a different world- all the noises have stopped., the waitress goes about her work mumbling something to herself. People cross the junction, cars speed by, muffled rays of sunlight knock on the panes, inching to come in. A girl and a guy hold hands and cross the road- understandably they're in love. A Chevrolet pickup swerves to the right only to encounter a girl in pink crossing the street with her cellphone to the ears. Wonder who she is talking to unmindful of a huge car right behind her. A group of my good friends walk across the signal, laughing and joking about with another guy- who, is not really known to be good. Should I go out and tell them he is upto no good? Maybe no., some things in life, make more sense when not revealed- like say, our future. I sit on, as an old man with a dog crosses by. Wonder if he has been abandoned by his family in this senility, or is on just another walk with his dog.

A hundred more things I note, before the 2$ milkshake empties out to a whimper from the straw when I try sipping on it. Should be the best lunch I had in a while, experiencing a different dimension of life- a-la an audience in a play. Would not the world be so interesting if I looked at it like this all through? Away from all the happenings yet into it, happily having the best seat in the theatre as the others involve themselves in worldly pursuits of love, hate and a thousand other things which would amuse me to no end....

Probably for the first time in life, I had experienced what being God feels like.

The Oscar beckons the Madras Mozart.

2009-02-19T19:04:00.000-06:00

Stepping into the Oscars weekend of 2009, the whole of India waits in anticipation for its most loved musical son to ascend the hallowed stage of the Kodak Theatre - A.R.Rahman. We need to celebrate the recognition of one of the best music composers who may have graced our land. Here are some of his songs- which were very popular, and some others- which were not so popular, but considered by me as absolutely un-re-creatable classics. Some made me very happy, some brought out the sadness in me, but every song has its rightful place in my heart. For someone in who's music I have lived an entire life, these words don't suffice. I wanted to post lots more, but limited it to just ten. Slumdog Millionaire is not one of his best albums, but Oscar or no Oscar, he is just too good! So here goes, have a good time listening :) Tamil tracks are included here and there, but I have largely kept it confined to Bollywood.

1. Al-Maddath - Mangal Pandey.

2. Chale Chalo - Lagaan.

3. Des Ki Mitti- Bose The Forgotten Hero.

4. Shauk Hai- Guru.

5. Khalbali- Rang De Basanti

6. Pudhu Vellai Mazhai- Roja(Tamil)

7. Ooh La La La - Minsara Kanavu (Tamil)

8. Tanha Tanha- Rangeela.

9. Bombay Theme- Bombay.

10. Ae Ajnabee- Dil Se.

I know some of you may not be satisfied with my selection , but let me tell you these are just what I thought of first. There are too many good songs to post here - may take me forever!

Reminiscence.

2009-02-13T10:58:00.000-06:00

The coarse sand rubs against the soles of my Bata shoes. Distant chants of the Indian Music classes make my ears tingle. I turn around, and a hoard of little children, hands on the shoulders of the one in front- run about from one place to another. A floor above, the bell itches to chime- announcing a break. Stacks of food arrive on a cart to fill up the canteen's coffers. It is going to be a very busy half an hour for them. The clouds have come out in plenty today, announcing a surfeit of respite from the already muted December heat. A gentle moist breeze blows across the little ground- sandwiched in between a concrete jungle. The banners advertising the music season sway in unison- enhancing the effect of an otherwise harmless windy day. Muffled noises of the heavy mid-day traffic outside the school offer a perennial background score to an already noisy scene. Rows of classes piled like matchsticks upon one another, bursting with activity and the exuberance of youth- offer a beautiful sight. Closing my eyes, I can imagine every little action from the sounds accompanying them. Maybe is this what it feels like to be blind? If it were, I would still be happy because the scene I recreate from the things I hear, is probably more beautiful than the actual happenings itself. Wonderful, I say. God gifts everyone with something. Even the "oft-sympathized with" blind have something to feel happy about. Magical, the art of creation.

My eyes open- the lights of my cubicle come back into full effect. The song playing in my headphones seems to have ended- anyways, I do not even remember which song I was hearing to. But the moment, I realise, has transported me back ten years into my life. Everything was so beautiful then, I ask? Yes it was. Right now, it is more of a worry, nevertheless I still find an innate beauty to it. Now, I understand- even a lonely cubicle has something to offer- insight.

This Valentine's day, love the life you lived, are living and will live. You deserve to.

Those one and half minutes...!

2009-02-02T23:40:00.000-06:00

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic for me, but I was kind of happy at the response that my review of Dilli 6 had got. Such good music deserves to be appreciated. So, coming to the point- what have I got to rant this time, then? I firmly believe that unless there is something worth writing about, I will not pick up the laptop to punch in whatever you are reading right now. And so it is, this time too. Over the two weeks of "hecticity" (which will probably worsen as winter fades out into spring) I went to a lot of buildings and did an awful lot of walking. When it comes to buildings, most of the American ones are embellished with generously outfitted lifts. Most of them are fast, extremely fast. Some may even claustrophobe you to a nausea- they are that scary. The first time I was in a lift in the US of A, I freaked out completely. My breath went for a walk, jaw dropped, teeth felt like falling out and the stomach felt as if it had been screwed up into my tonsil. The lift covered hardly four to five stories of the building, but it was insanely fast. I don't understand the need for such hugely accelerating lifts! What could people do with saving a milli-second or two? Foist in a date at Starbucks? (if the outlet is existent- I heard the economy busted even them).

Anyways, coming to the issue in question., this is a common experience everyone faces. What do you do when travelling with someone you don't know, in a lift ? I have encountered this problem of late... despite it being just a matter of a minute or two in total, I find it really difficult to remain to myself., keep off looking at what their cellphone looks like or who the person on the other end of the phone might be ( I am certainly not referring to any girl here ;) ) Seconds pass by like days, and the mind repeatedly asks me to look up at the person and give a gentle smile- only to be refused that by my neck muscles. I try to shut my mind and eye to the world, but the claustrophobic metal presses my forehead and pulls my eyelids apart. I proxy-open my cellphone to check non-existent missed calls and messages, only to realise the insides of the lift do not even receive cellphone signals. This is something I have no answer to- the "lift minute", I would say- is equivalent to a 100% busy day, or even more- in "mental confusion" terms. Despite having had so many tough moments in life, I have never come across something as awkward as going on a lift with someone whom you don't even know- for hardly a minute of fleeting company. Irony, they say- is the flavour of life. Bow to you, whoever said that !

Delhi 6 Music Review (Dilli 6)

2009-01-17T10:47:00.001-06:00

What a pity - this single available poster I searched out on the net for Dilli 6, does not have the maestro's name on it as a part of the main credits. Anyways, in short, A.R.Rahman has hit all other composers for a clean six with the Dilli 6 album. Here's a short review of all the songs, in the order that I listened to.

Masakalli - Mohit Chauhan

Originality, and freshness, in instrumentation and tune, and vocals. Mohit Chauhan is the newest talent on the block to be unveiled by Rahman. (Apparently he sung in Jab We Met too, but this song will get him recognition, I bet.) Watch out for him as this song climbs up the charts and stays up there for a good while from now. Instantly likeable, and on repeated listening you tend to notice the background instruments and vocals - this man Mohit has got the metallic tinge to his voice, the likes we saw in Kailash Kher and Javed Ali- he is somewhere in between the two. I absolutely went fida over this song.

Maula Arziyaan - Javed Ali, Kailash Kher

Astounding. Brilliant. Devout. Goosebumpy. Powerful. Five words to describe this song. The twosome I referred to before, come together to give this splendid number, ( I reckon its a Sufi style devotional song on the lines of Khwaja from Jodha Akbar ). This song is going to be played ages down the line for the definition of a devotional composition. Eight and a half minutes of bliss, and beautifully rendered verses. May generate tears of happiness, in my case it did.

Rehna Tu - A R Rahman, Benny Dayal, Tanvi

Sung by Rahman himself, the first impression this song gives you is that its one of those "forgettable numbers" you hear while dining at a restaurant. Truth that it is just not that. Goes up and down, stops when you think it would'nt, and the last two minutes define the difference between Rahman and other composers. I just cannot think of anyone who would thrust in an instrumental like that in such a song other than Rahman! Modern music to start off with, Arabic in between, and Classical to end it! Loved it on repeated listening, and the last two minutes I went ballistic with Rahman on the Continuum. Please tell me the raga in which the last classical piece is set in, I love it!

Delhi 6 - Blaaze, Benny Dayal, Vivinenne Pocha, Tanvi, Claire

A good title song for a movie, works wonders for its publicity , like we saw with Sivaji and many other Rajni movies. This one delivers, bigtime. Set keeping in the partying-multiplexing generation in mind, the familiar grooving and mixing associated with DJ-ing make this number a good peppy one to listen to. Nice rhyme scheme for the lyrics :)

Hey Kaala Bandar - Karthik, Naresh, Srinivas, Bony Chakravarthy

Reminds me of "Kama Kama" from the Tamil movie "Enakku 20 Unakku 18", and more recently "Behka" from Ghajini in the way the lyrics are tinkered with to set in the tune. Nevertheless, this one is also a party track, but Rahman would not leave it at that would he ? Starts off with a "Desert Rose"ish vocal, and later he brings in some competition between the singers Karthik, Naresh, Srini and Bony and it ends up being quite a lot to reckon with on first hearing. Glaring similarity to "Dil ka rishta" from Yuvvraaj (in the humming) notwithstanding, repeated listening makes things clearer - this one is the "in" thing for ringtones. Overall, good work.

Genda Phool - Rekha Bharadwaj, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar

Newbies at it again. Rahman uses a completely new set of singers for this composition, which is kind of the Ila Arun type lusty numbers. Effortless on the singing, and not a huge effort for the ears to take- this one meanders on, decent number. Not the best one, but is passable.

Noor- Amitabh Bachchan

This one's poetry, rendered by Amitabh Bachchan. I do not know why its been included in the album, but the verses are nice :)

Bhor Bhayi - Shreya Ghoshal,Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Gujri Todi

One of the best numbers in the album, this one's branded Hindustani from second one. Brilliant singing by Shreya Goshal with good backing by the Ustad. If you are a classical music person, this one will entice you to no end. It is just an immense pleasure listening to Bhor Bhayi! Rahman should be lauded for venturing into this one.

Aarti (Tumre Bhavan Mein) - Rekha Bharadwaj, Kishori Gowariker, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar

As the title reads, its a Mangal Aarti song- makes for good listening, and is otherwise not a mainstream composition. Characterized with good vocal-instrument synchronisation.

Dil Gira Dafatan - Ash King, Backing: Chinmayee

Reminds me of some old Hindi song, but I liked this somehow. Its different, slow, got a beautiful guitar accompaniment throughout , thrumming into the ears- grows into a joyful symphony full of little nuances. Ash has sung it very well, Chinmayee impresses in the little that is given to her( I just wish she had a song for herself :( ) I just hope this does not go into the background score in the movie. It somehow feels like the type of song when parting with home and sundry. The surprise of the album, is this. I didn't expect it!

On the whole, Arabic, Classical, Hindustani, Modern music. Peppy numbers, sad ones, mangal aarties, classical, party tracks, symphonies - got to be A.R.Rahman's best work in a while. Notches above Yuvvraaj in its range and reach- splendid on the ears. This man has proven he is worth his weight in Golden Globes.

Delhi 6 - 9.5/10.

(make my previous rating of 9/10 for Yuvvraaj, 7 on 10. Rahman has pushed the scale up further with Delhi 6. )

Resolution !

2008-12-30T23:32:00.000-06:00

One of these days on vacation I was feeling bored - result , was surfing through to download those car chases that we so often see on AxN or StarWorld in the name of "World's craziest cop videos". It took a while for me to figure out what all this "downloading from a mirror" and stuff meant. Meanwhile the site had asked me to wait for 2 minutes before the download could begin ( I figured that I had figured out what to do, finally! )

Oh God, don't those two minutes seem the worst you can have ? The longest , and most boring two minutes in which you cannot move your eyes off the screen and cannot even think of anything even if you wanted to ?

Not exactly. I decided otherwise. This time I was going to beat my "don't-think-of-anything-just idle-around" tendency. Drifting my eyes to the surroundings , I suddenly realised there could easily be a five hundred odd things to think about. Well, taking that as a legitimate number, it works out to 2/500 = .004 seconds per thought. Impractical. That meant I had to end thinking about something even before I could think of it.. That's crazy to say the least. Even if I had started thinking of say, Katrina Kaif , I would need a day or two instead of a second or two to get back to sanity ... Not joking but that's true of any desi guy I'd say - atleast over the last year. Why would she be the most Googled celebrity if it weren't otherwise.

The Vista sent a beep and my download had begun - successfully ending another unsuccessful resolution of mine. Only this time it was'nt for the New Year , and lasted as much as Monty Panesar on the field.

P.S. The picture that's carried in this blog entry, I feel- is the picture of the year. It is solely intended to poke fun at the Australians , and hardly took around 0.01 seconds to emerge out of nowhere as my favourite. Not bad , I'd say - 2 minutes is a lot of time if you're making fun of someone. :-)

Captured, on film!

2008-12-21T11:11:00.000-06:00

For good or for bad, more or less everyone of us has a cellphone in hand today. Most of the middle class(like me) , and upper middle class can afford one with a camera in it., in some cases even with a high resolution that one may not even come across in a conventional camera by itself!

So much for a mandatory introductory paragraph to every writeup. I am bugged of it, but as all wannabe-decent writeups need to consist of, I need to keep that in there to atleast give you an inkling of what may be coming by , in case I sound little "out-of-the-box". Frankly I'm just writing something till I get an idea to develop on, so never mind.

Of late, there have been a lot of things I have come across, worth photographing (I know some intelligent brains would think I'm referring to the female fraternity, OK people- they're included too! Agreed, for once :) ) There have been instances which have made it worth being captured on Memory(Its not Film, even figuratively, anymore :( So much for technology! But let's keep it as film, though.)

Recently, one of my friends passed on a picture taken in our childhood, with all the fade and conventional oldness of the paper-print set in perfectly. It brought back memories of all the fun we had playing cricket in spaces hardly a hundred square foot in size... losing tennis balls by the dozen, the trip to the local circus.. fighting over melting ice-pepsi's ( as they called it locally- those thin sticks of color-flavored sweet ice ) roaming the streets in 40 Degrees C heat , and probably a thousand thoughts more which could fill up all the print quota I have for my semester.

The thing was, the photo had captured all of us- by each other, posing for the Kodak moment. The beauty behind the thing was that, probably all the little incidents I had thought of when I saw the photo first up- had never been recorded anywhere- but in my mind.

The best moments of our life, I realise, may have never been captured on film.

Mumbai Massacre - Waking up to reality.

2008-11-27T12:32:00.000-06:00

The past few days saw me driven into what I can easily call "a writing euphoria". Walking back home a hundred metres from class , gave me a thousand different thoughts to write a blog on. The traffic signs, pedestrians crossing, the stray dog, emptied parking lots, church hallways, petrol bunks, the cloudy sky, even the wind that gently bristled my "not-so-long" but definitely unkempt hair. It is another story as to why I could not convert everything into writing - maybe on the reoccurence of that euphoria I would stop whatever I was doing and get to the nearest computer to write my heart out.

For now , I have been hooked to the news channels - since a few hours. As everyone would guess , this is just another write up on the Mumbai blasts , unless you take some effort to make out that it would be a little bit different ( from whatever you have read until now ) , and fortunately continue to read on.

Most people could classify me as a news-freak., bent upon getting apprised of all the happenings in the world, and especially the country of my residence. The Mumbai blasts also saw me do the same, only that the way I viewed it was a bit off the block from the way I had viewed the previous so-many attacks in various parts of India.

To say exactly, I was bored of these "terrorist attacks - people dead and injured - two days of continuous news programming - relief from government in form of money - ministers visiting injured and getting primetime footage - a week of incessant debates on terrorism - politicians blaming each other - a week later move on to newer stories - and then forget about it" routine. I know every one of us would have seen all these unfold on every previous occurrence of a terrorist attack. Maybe it was time I told myself that I was anti-national? I asked myself that question. The answer was a firm NO. I love my country, like no other, and I'm selfish when it comes to protecting it. Then I asked myself " Or maybe it was time I(we) responded maturely to this?" . Thinking over this for less than a second, I landed up with a Bingo for an answer.

Leave aside the media , which I believe blows out of proportion the troubles of the rich and discounts the value of the lives of the poor ( which even the government does ) , let us think on our feet first. Here are a bunch of hardly 20+ guys who come into a city which is more or less the economical crux of a country which is threatening to break into the top 5 countries list of the world. They came, they shot, and they conquered us , even if it be for only a few days. They killed our loved ones, removed our prized possessions from us, mowed down the people who protect us, and spread panic all around. Fear for life non-existent, we could only see in disbelief and awe as they rummaged through our valued friends and landmarks. What do they have that we do not? What makes them so much more attacking and gutsy than the police whom we bank upon to protect us?

Will Power. Unity. Choosing your time to strike. Building up your network to inflict the maximum damage. Lack of fear. Lack of love. Commiseration with the fact that death is inevitable at all costs. Patriotism to the organization served. Clearness of achieving a goal. On the whole,Maturity in response.

Look at all the above statements. Even a little bit of a terrorist in you could hit back against them. This is our country, let us not let it go. A maturity in mind is required for us to go ahead. Let us hit them back hard, in the best way possible- by not brooking the insanities that these organizations unleash on us. This blog is not a knee jerk reaction to what may have been the worst terrorist attack ( in type ) India has ever seen. But it is an opinion built upon years of looking at fateful incidents such as the one on Nov. the 26th. Looks it is time, finally. India is waking up to reality.

Inspirational Lyrics ( Translated) of one of the best songs I have heard.

2008-11-19T22:25:00.000-06:00

This country of yours is your motherland
And is calling out to you
This is a bond which can never break

How can you forget the scent of your earth
You can go anywhere but you'll always come back
In new paths, in every sigh
To your lost heart
Someone will say
This land of yours is your motherland

Life is telling you
You have achieved everything now what's left
Looks like happiness has been showered on you
But you're far from your home
Now come back oh crazy one
Where at least someone will call you their own
And will call out to you
That very same country
This land that is yours..

This moment has hidden in it
A whole century of life
Don't ask why, in the road
Has come a fork with two ways
You are the one who should choose the path
You should choose which direction to take
This very country

This country of yours is your motherland.

Of Manholes and Movies...

2008-11-17T22:39:00.000-06:00

Sometimes one tends to get abstract thoughts - questioning the very existence of some things which we may as well have taken for granted. It could be anything - like for example "why are manholes round in shape? " - most of my well-informed friends would know the answer to this, but for the benefit of who do not know , manholes are round in shape because they cannot fall inside the sewer below even if wrongly placed in position on top of the hole. If it were a square or rectangle, chances are that it may fall through.

This is just one example of things taken for granted - a very pedestrian one. As is the habit of the writer of this blog, who always lives in some dreamland where he wishes that everything he writes be classified " powerful, sophisticated, yet touching"- this time I came up with a cranky thought when my statistics course was getting too mindblowing to be accommodated into one night-out.

Are we ever able to imagine a movie without the concept of "love" ? Just ask yourself - and name a few movies (be it any language) - say ten of them from the past year which you know have no love stories in them at all as the crux of the film. Chances are that you may not be able to name that many- if you did then you should either be a critic or a genius! (Does not imply all critics are fools , although I wont object to it - ;) ) I do not know from where filmmakers came up with the idea of projecting "love stories" on screen - but agreed well and good that it has worked for what I would call eternity. Of late even animation movies are having lovetracks in them to reach out to the adolescents , and garner more recognition and acceptance among a larger age group. Hollywood though has started improvising on new issues of late - documentaries are also being widely accepted by the populace.

What about Bollywood and the other Indian regional film industries ?

Amitabh loves a 16 yr old (Nishabd) - Rajnikanth still runs around trees with women less than half his age ( I'm a Rajni fan but have to be little unbiased out here ) - Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna still fight goons and have more than one woman singing and dancing around them.

Love is the best feeling even when in excess , but that doesn't mean any kind of an overdose of it is acceptable.

High time filmmakers wake up to creating meaningful cinema.

P.S.- I started this blog entry thinking of writing about manholes alone for the day. Alas- perfection avoids those setting out to achieve it.

One of those songs which makes me speechless.

2008-11-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

Following are the lyrics of one song which literally made me go speechless. Sorry for the tamil and the occasional CAPS lock, people. But this song was just too beautiful to omit from being posted on my blog. Amazing tune, wonderful lyrics - (estranged lovers will love it!).

nenjE nenjE marandhu vidu..
ninaivinai kadandhu vidu..
nenjE nenjE urangi vidu
nijangaLai thurandhu vidu
kaNgaLai vitruththan Oviyamaa…
venneeril meengaL thoongumaa
kaNNeeril kaadhal vaazhumaa (nenjE nenjE)

peNNE peNNE unn vaLaiyal
yenakkoru vilangallavO
kaatrukku sirai yennavO
thanmaanaththin thalaiyai vitru
kaadhalin vaaL vaangavO
kaNmoodi naan vaazhavO..
unnai yeNNi muL viriththu
padukkavum pazhagik koNdEn
yennil yaarum kallerindhaal
sirikkavum pazhagik koNdEn
uLLaththai maraiththEn uyir vali poruththEn yen
suyaththai yedhuvO suttadhadi vandhEn….

nenjE nenjE nerungi vidu
nigazhndhadhai marandhu vidu
nenjE nenjE negizhndhu vidu
nijangaLil kalandhu vidu
kaththi vaiththa kaatrE vandhu vidu
kaigaL reNdai yEndhinEn..
kaadhal pichchai kEtkirEn…
nenjE nenjE nenjE nenjE..nenjE nenjE..

anbE anbE nee prinidhaal
kaNgaLil mazhai varumE.
kaatrenai kai vidumE
vidhai azhiththu sedi varumE
sippigaL udaiththa pinnE muththukkaL kai varumE
kaadhal raajaa.. ondrai koduththaal
innondril uyir varumE
unnai konjam vittu koduththaal
kaadhalil sugam varumE
asthamanan yellaam nirandharam alla
mErkil vidhaithaal kizhakkinil muLaikkum..

Movie : Ratchagan
Music: A.R.Rahman
Singers : Yesudas , Sadhana Sargam

If you haven't listened to it, please do. Its a gem.

Its (Y)our Life :)

2008-11-08T08:32:00.000-06:00

This piece of writing out here took me what I would say, a lifetime in experience to explain out. Probably the best way to put it would be that I took a lifetime to realise it ( what a dumber! )

There are millions of people you come across all your life- at work, study, on the roads, or be it anywhere you are. Chances are that you may not remember 99.99% even if you see them again. The remaining 0.01% ( or even less than that if people are shy-natured ) keeps changing as you pass through different stages of life.

You go to kindergarten, make friends there - and before you know to link the name with the person you're out of it. With it goes your memory of the people there ( there might be exceptions here , take me for instance - I still remember two people from my kindergarten!! But that I would reject as a highly insignificant number) Next up comes schooling where you get to grow as you learn, and make friends with all sorts of people. The uniqueness of schooling lies in the fact that you get to gel as a unit- you identify who's who as your age has crossed that level at which you could not remember things. Day in day out, you spend eight hours in class and other events in the school. For people changing schools often, they would have experienced how different each school and the students in it are. They would know how the people in the life changed as they changed schools and got to know new individuals. School grows into college where a completely new set of comrades take over as your "buddies" and "best friends" - invariably this is where one would find his/her best friends and wellwishers who would swear by him/her. ( I'm trying to imply that i'm not gender-biased ;) ) At this age I would say you are best equipped to choose the friends you want to, and actually decide whom you want to keep in life. Boyfriends/Girlfriends normally happen at this stage, and invariably with that clause comes breakups as an add-on. Wondering why I'm beating so much around the bush? Well all these factors point to the truth that the people in your life keep changing as life takes you places. Noone is permanent, the exeunt in the play can happen anytime. I just pointed out a few key exit points in the transitions from kindergarten to school and to college. What do you do when you realise noone is permanently embossed in the pattern of your life , and ultimately it is just going to be YOU and YOU alone who would be left?

At this stage, the pessimist would say - Since noone is permanent in your life, why make friends at all ?

The optimist would say - Since you know that noone is going to be around for you all your life, take your chances- have fun, optimize on every opportunity to be around for them- and most importantly, LIVE YOUR LIFE. Live this moment, and this second as though it is the last time they would be there with you.

Whether you choose to be the pessimist or optimist, lies in your hands.

Yuvvraaj Music Review -A.R.Rahman Strikes!

2008-10-19T12:45:00.000-05:00

The music release of the oncoming Subhash Ghai movie - Yuvvraaj , happened recently. I had reason to be excited- A.R.R scored the movie's songs.

To start off this brief review, a general look at the album first up and you realise that the film is an out and out musical. Talk about conveying things through music, Gulzar has done justice to Rahman's tunes by penning apt lyrics which create a sense of anticipation to the listener about the situation at hand in the movie when the song is on. Another observation - a lot of orchestration has been used- and almost all the songs have been seamlessly blended with one another on the BGM front (maybe for the flashback effect? who knows - Subhash Ghai and his fantasies !!)

Shano Shano -

A typical party track- gets you into the groove and dancing - I actually went to the extent of trying out karaoke for this song! Addictive and an instant hit for sure.

Shano Shano Remix-

A slower version of the same song remixed with some hiphop style lyrics-not as impressive as the original I would say. Sometimes certain songs are best left to their original version, or better, remixed by A.R.R. himself and not others. Hope he is listening:)

Main Hoon Yuvvraaj -

Unsure why they included this in the album, but this brief dialogue style song-wannabe with Salman Khan on the vocals is ok - passable. Subhash Ghai-ish again.

Zindagi Zindagi-

Sung mellifluously by Srinivas, here is where the album starts getting a bit hi-fi. Carnatic based composition which more than impressed me - will turn out to be one of the best hits of the year.

(has some common notes with Narumugaiye from Iruvar, Manam Virumbudhey Unnai from a movie's name I forgot, and more noticeably a common note with Luka Chuppi from Rang De Basanti)

Tu Meri Dost Hai-

This song is where the Yuvvraaj theme music kicks in - ARR has included it in almost all the songs, and infused life beautifully into it. A different duet, the music and vocals deliver bigtime- transports you to dreamland. Defines friendship beautifully with its lyrics, and surprise as A.R.R comes in towards the end to render a few lines by himself! Sureshot bigtime hit. (Found some common notes with "Aao Na.."of kyun ho gaya na)

Dil Ka Rishta-

One of my favourites of this album too - plenty of orchestra, vocals, and a totally refreshing tune. Never before heard this type of a rendition. Seven and a half minutes of absolute enjoyment, a peppy song ( supposedly emotional ) and one which has apt English lyrics to go with good verses in Hindi. A.R.R. does an Alaap in the end- don't miss out on it!

Mastam Mastam -

Another peppy track , with cues from Corrs' BGM ( and of course that means it has resemblances to Nenjodu Kalandhidu from Kaadhal Konden) but the similarity kind of ends there. One song which shoots up your energy levels, with nice little instrumentals accompanying it. Cute number.

Tu Muskura -

Bigtime hit. No words to describe how wonderfully this song has been sung. I think A.R.R. must have composed the tune and set the lyrics to it., but anyways it fits in so wonderfully that there is no way noone could not like it. Hear it to feel it - all I can say :) No comments :)

Manmohini Morey -

If Sonu Nigam was an everpresent phenomenon in this album who must have impressed you in all the numbers, here's one person who takes everything away - Vijay Prakash. A hindustani based composition, which requires a lot of training for performance on such a high scale- Vijay has pulled it off with ease. Remember him as the person who sung "Poovasam.." from Anbe Sivam - this is by far the best song in this album but by a slender margin( as far as I gauge this one impressed me the most). Don't miss the alaap interludes.

Overall, Yuvvraaj gets an 9.0/10 from me and a thumbs up to A.R.R. for having the guts to venturing on such territory and actually managing to pull it off.

Yuvvraaj - I'm hooked to it !

One Warrior Departs :(

2008-10-07T20:26:00.000-05:00

I dont know how to put the Ganguly retirement across in exact words but I have just written what I feel in this blog entry... It is like you have lived your entire life seeing these players play and now when its time to depart , even one leaves and u feel its a part of your soul ripped away. im telling this cos ever since i started watching cricket in 1992, kapil dev retired first, then came the era of azhar jadeja robin javagal venkatesh manoj manjrekar and the like., and then when the heat was on and i got into cricket and started playing it on the roads came the likes of tendulkar-, then dravid and ganguly burst onto the stage with dominating fashion- indian cricket seemed in good hands., .. there came the era of change-- cricket went from being a test sport to a one day sport majorly- we played more one days than tests.. precisely i must say it was the 1997-1998-1999 period when this change came into effect. the likes of agarkar and mohanty came onto the scene... but none seemed effective enough to support the batting weight of the team. by this time sachin and ganguly had formed a formidable opening pair - which later on went on to become the best in one day history by a large margin. match after match, day in day out, these guys slogged in the middle to get the runs and pile up the hundreds. our middle order stood tall in the presence of rahul dravid, azharuddin, nayan mongia, navjot singh sidhu, with the bowling still having problems apart from javagal srinath and anil kumble. prasad was beginning to become repetitive. and then laxman came to the fore in a rare find for indian cricket. he filled the void of a patient strokemaker who was willing to bat with the top order as well as the bottom order. under this influence, we marched ahead with a few losses and fewer wins. we lost azhar and jadeja and a few others to the match fixing scandal that rocked indian cricket- when all thought it was curtains for indian cricket, dada scripted a captaincy spectacle in the australia series of 2001. (notable is the way tendulkar smashed the aussies to smithereens in the 1998 home series also!)

He started what i will call the renaissance of indian cricket - where we went from being just a team to a force, a power in the cricketing world none can avoid. Thanks to the media and more than that, the performances of the four people who were now the crux of the indian batting lineup - laxman, sachin, dravid, and ganguly- they came to be known as the Fab 4. As they reached their peak together , other teams buckled under the constant pressure of their batting prowess. Ganguly grew from being a player to a captain nonpareil- tendulkar a master from being a stroke of genius- dravid from the master of dot balls to an all season player- laxman from a young irresponsible chap to a big innings player. Time and again, australia was the target they aimed at. Now, as they reach the end of what i will call the best ever era of indian batting, one warrior needs to depart. A god in his own terms as everyone else in the fab 4 is, he was what one can describe as the best enigma. noone could understand him, but he made sure he could understand everyone and make them gel as a unit. Only after he called quits did I realise the magnitude of the decision. one person i had grown up seeing him play, would no more be on tv smashing those bowlers for towering sixes and those gentle pushes on the offside. The fab 4 would no more be the fab 4.- they would soon be three., and two and eventually fade away. Time is the cruellest thing I would say- despite feeling really sad and down for the past few hours about this announcement, i should say ganguly did the best he can to indian cricket, as everyone else in the fab 4 did. he is a genius who lost his way somehow in the between and became a leader instead of the way tendulkar went. in my terms , losing his way meant his path to unending fame and glory as the best captain india had ever had. He would be remembered by one and all as a player who never said quits. As his swansong begins, let us all cheer him every moment in this series. He deserves more than just a tear from our eye.

Des Ki Mitti- by A.R.R.

2008-09-25T22:21:00.000-05:00

Well, this blog has been musically over-inclined and I guess given the madness of music in me, it will be that way for the rest of the future also.. And straightaway coming to the topic this time, I was listening to that old beaten track of A.R.Rahman that most miss out on - infact the entire album I should say is one of his very best.- Bose-The Forgotten Hero. Quite aptly to the title of the movie, the music was forgotten without any trace. Probably because it was a documentary? Lets chuck that out- for you guys and girls who're reading this blog out there- I strongly advise you to listen to this track - "Des Ki Mitti" from the album. I reckon it's instrumental version is what I listen to normally., and this piece leaves me stunned everytime I listen to it. Sometimes there are little tears forming in the eye- out of love for the nation. I mean, this guy knows his patriotism. There is a difference between those Lord Of The Rings'ish type of music which causes you goosebumps and such kind of music.. There is simply something extra in Des Ki Mitti which tugs at those gentle strings on which you tend to get a little bit emotional. The tune starts off as you can expect with any good instrumental, and then suddenly takes a turn towards the heavens - in reverence of the great Mother India. Listen to it and you'll know what I have been writing this blog about.

P.S.- For people from my Raga Discussing Group- I find a lot of Des Ki Mitti in ARR's Saawariya Sanwariya from Swades- especially in the beginning of "Sanwariya.." and also some of "Des Ki Mitti.." in "Vaazhga Vazhgave .." from Kadhal Virus - the Tamil movie - also of ARR's. Is it the familiar feeling of patriotism in the first two songs that is driving me crazy over them, or has it got something to do with raga bases being similar for all the three? Also - Des Ki Mitti seems to have tinges of the Instrumental bit which comes in between the 2nd and 3rd minute of "En Kaadhalae." from Duet- also an ARR masterpiece.

Cheers,
Sreenath!

Wrenching the soul out..

2008-09-18T00:40:00.000-05:00

Not so recently (but definitely relevant), I attended a special screening of Rang De Basanti - on Independence day. As the movie rolled on , there were invisible fangs poking into my skin- that feeling of your guts at rock bottom ( the feeling when you go up in a lift? ) and a lot lot more. Every moment of the movie brought back memories of people who had been there when I watched the movie first-up at Ega theatre in Chennai- but now, aren't there to see what and where I am. Little tears rolled down my cheeks and I could not hold back from being little emotionally overcharged( thankfully some death scene was going on in the movie too - I escaped notice by others) Subconsciously, my mind was pressing onto me the fact that I may have committed some sin in my previous janma- or life as they say it in Hindu Vedas. The yearning human mind searches for a multitude of reasons about what may have been the "kartha" or doer of this deed- in the end it ends up with too many things negatively pointed towards yourself. Inevitable I say- for the person that I'm- I keep telling myself something went wrong with me.

Perhaps I did commit some sin? Who knows- but I very well know that what is gone is gone and irretrievable., death of a person (be it in the body and soul) is all but the same- the latter I would say is more excruciating infact. I know many will concur with me on this. Its just the irony of life.

You know the value of someone only when they're gone and will never, ever, be with you again.

That Place - That Beauty... Called Home.!

2008-08-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

There are different ways in which people may perceive the tag "home" in this world.. Some hate going back there, some love it- some never want to leave it and some others do not even have one. So what makes home so special?

The very fact that its a place where you, and only you rule the roost.. Noone to disturb your routine and none at all to feel uncomfortable with.

The thought that it is YOUR home- the responsibility of having to maintain it as yours and feel comfortable in it.

That fact that whatever you do, it is all within the limit... those little walks to the grocery shop, beautiful times on the terrace chatting your way to glory on 10 paise calls with friends.. those get togethers where nothing seemed to matter except making fun.. Those moments when you think train journeys to college should never end...
those quirky moments when you looked back at a girl to see her look back.. and laughed to yourself..
those gully cricket matches you played in dead ends..
those eatouts when you literally didn't have more than 20 rupees in the pocket..
those moments when you cried because you ate too much of tasty homecooked food...
those times when you lied to friends to go out with your girl/guy..

all these will keep lingering on in my mind forever..

And I know everyone will know this- but yet again, this is the single largest reason for us to hate or love home.( In mycase, love of course).. Relationships. They are the single most reason we have such a close bond with our home.. we tend to associate home with cordial people who love you, who care for you, and who will go out of their way to make sure you have the best life possible.

For all those who have done that for me, are doing it and will hopefully continue to do so in the future , thanking them will forever be an understatement. Need I say more about why I miss that heaven on earth called home so much.

Its Cos I Love You All!

Sing-a-Song!!

2008-07-29T19:42:00.000-05:00

As most of the people who know me would already know- I am totally crazy about music as such- and singing in particular. Ever noticed some people keep singing their way through anything and everything ranging from bathrooming to cycling ? I'm one of those insane junta. Well, lets not scold the better half of the world by saying they're insane- now this is something very common that I have noticed. Right from a manager to a teaboy, it manifests itself in different ways. Freedom of expression they say., I say its the power of music.

The way which this singing manifests itself can be in these forms... - inadvertent singing in loops

- wantedly singing(in case bathroom doesn't have lock!!) - enjoyable singing

There may be many more manifestations that you may find- it depends on the person who sees this., I belong to the last kind of people. Singing is to be enjoyed. However bad your throat may sound, however sore it maybe, however sick you maybe, the right song when sung in the right spirit could get you that additional pat on the back that you need- to buck yourselves up.

So next time, don't keep singing "Newyork Nag....."...

Try going a step ahead(literally!!)

Newyork Nagaram Urangum Neram Thanimai Adarndhadhu.....

(I'm surely missing someone when singing this!)

Music - and the heart.

2008-07-19T06:13:00.000-05:00

The most beautiful aspect of music - which makes it all the more important to the sustenance of feelings in a human, is the creation of emotions- like from nowhere., bringing an untold attachment between the music(be it anything) and the soul. Many of us may have experienced such moments - many others would not have. But as someone who has gone through it- I must say it should happen to everyone.

One such instance came up, say three years ago(I guess) when A.R.Rahman's masterpiece-to-be album- Rang De Basanti released. All the songs went on to become smash hits- and here was this little track, Khun Chala, no more than a BG score for the movie. I hesitated to hear it given the short length that it was(normally the longer the song is , in cases of ARR, you want to hear it out).

All I knew was that I pressed the play button on the window. The next moment I can recollect is washing my teary face in the bathroom four minutes later. Here was one track that had moved me on the very first hearing. It was an anthem to me-an inspirational warcry- a masterpiece... IT WAS ANYTHING BUT A SONG.

Such instances in life are few and far in between. Especially if you tend to delve deep into music, you know some tunes move you- some others don't-and most of it doesn't even enter you.

Deservingly so, Khun Chala did to me what being hit by a car or smashing my eye into a pole couldn't.

It made me cry.

Sakkarakatti - ARR THE MASTER COMPOSER!

2008-07-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a review I saw over the internet, which echoes my views about Sakkarakatti's audio album. ARR ROCKS!! So here goes:

With everything from the movie riding on the shoulders of a single person, AR Rahman, and considering Rahman’s track record with films where he is the lone savior, one’s blood is really pumped to listen to the music where he doesn’t have to deal with too big expectations associated with stars, directors, etc. And ‘Sakkarakatti’ brilliantly adds up to the list of low key films where Rahman works up his magic wonderfully well

1. I Miss You Da - This song starts brilliantly with the haunting ‘Emine….” chant. The female singer sings in a very erotic and sensuous tone that fits perfectly with the situation of the song. As usual, Rahman works up magic with the multi layered background instruments. Experimentation is at its very best in this song. The female singer puts in a lot of effort to give the perfect feeling to the song. A situational song, but it should be lapped up pretty soon by the listeners and should be a favorite with the radio stations

Rating: 9.5/10

2. Chinnamma (Jhalak UN Nenjil) – This song has been used from Rahman’s own film ‘Meenaxi’. It’s one of the favorites with Rahman fans which they can’t forget. The song starts off with brilliant flute which is now Rahman’s most favorite instrument. The original had Sukhwinder Singh and this Tamil version has Rahman’s latest sensational find, Benny Dayal (the Madhuraikki Pogadhadee and Nee Marlyn Manroe boy!). The lyrics fit in very well to the song (a bit unusual for re-used songs where the lyrics actually don’t gel that well). The background percussions and instruments complement the song wonderfully well. It’s a song that should be a bigger hit with the rural masses too. Has the potential to be a TV favorite if the song is picturised well. Some of the beats remind us of ‘Konjum Mainakale’ from Kandukonden Kandukonden but that’s only for a very very minor part.

Rating: 9.8/10

3. Elay Ulagam – A song with the nostalgic traces of the classic ‘Roobaroo’ from Rang De Basanti. Rahman is a king of such tracks, and its refreshingly one more additional track from him in that genre. The violin and the guitars in the background attract us even more than the singers themselves. Naresh Iyer is a star in his own right, but as usual, he gives his best to the song instead of trying to impose himself like other big singers. A foot tapping song that again should be lapped up by the youngsters in Tamil Nadu who will definitely love this song (some after a few listens, while many on first time itself)

Rating: 9.5/10

4. Naan Eppodhu – A refreshing melody from the female point of perspective. A song that is firmly rooted to Rahman’s forte of brilliant melody compositions. The percussion beats reminds us clearly of Rahman’s style. The mix of Veenai and the water sounds (mimicking that of a river) sound very refreshing and different. The singer is just brilliant in this song and the effort is just top notch. Not an instant hit with non-Rahman fans but will surely capture your heart if you keep listening to it (for Rahman fans, this should be an instant liking).

Rating: 9.4/10

5. Taxi Taxi – What a start to the song??? TERRIFIC!!! Blaaze is in full form with this song. I can’t believe it if people do not start dancing on their seats when they listen to this song. The typical youth chartbuster that should be heard all over Chennai in a few days of time. Rahman is back with the Boys feel, and Chennai is going to just love it! The song has the perfect flow to it for a peppy number and different variations have been tried here by ARR which works out wonderfully well. When it comes to the singers, ARR doesn’t compromise on quality and it can be evident in the type of singers that sing for him. At a few places, the song reminds us of “Paapu can’t dance saala” from the latest Hindi blockbuster film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa, but it’s just restricted to a few seconds of the background tune that’s used in the song. Some of the lyrics used for this song can be classified as the typical ‘Rahman lyric’ like ‘Shaba, Balle Balle’.

Rating: 9.9/10

6. Marudhaani – A typical Rahman start to the song. Reminds a bit of ‘Sahana Saaral’ from the blockbuster Shivaji. Madhushree puts in a lot more effort with her Tamil pronunciation and it clearly shows in the song. Madhushree does a great job with her singing as she is always brilliant. Rahman gives her brilliant support with the background instruments. A minor bit of disappointment is that, he doesn’t sing with her for the whole song but he does satisfy us a bit by singing a few small parts in the song which will make his hardcore fans (LIKE ME!) go berserk! But I still Miss Rahman the singer and it’s a disappointment that we don’t have a full fledged song from him in this album. But another very soothing and melodious number that should be primarily a hit with the city audiences.

Rating: 9.4/10

OVERALL VERDICT: An album that has all the typical elements of Rahman associated with it – peppy numbers, the usual Rahmaniac melody numbers, a folk type number, etc but an album that still retains its freshness because of the usual experimentation done by Rahman to make them sound different. The album should be a huge hit with the youngsters, and it can become a RAGE if the songs are picturised well by the director. Shantanu can’t hope for a better start to his acting career!

Rahman has not been concentrating too much on Tamil these days but in every album that has done in Tamil in the last few years, he has emphatically announced that ‘I AM BEST THAT YOU GUYS STILL HAVE OUT THERE’.

Overall Rating: 10/10 (BUY THE CD NOW!)

On-Sense !!

2008-06-29T09:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you have loads of thoughts in your mind - to write about , and you never know what to choose to explain to the outside world. Some other times, there is not much going on in your brain to even write about, thoughts struggle to trickle in and flow from the intellect out onto the paper,or should I say, a computer screen in the case of a blog.

I don't know what to call this- writing fatigue, or boredom, or say plain listlessness. But then given that I have already blabbered a few lines out here, I should defiitely not be on any of the horizons of the phenomenon called "writing fatigue".

Enough of boring you people with scientific terms that I oh-so-intelligently managed to conjure up. Coming to the point of writing this post - I thought maybe I should for once try giving some nonsense as a blog also. I mean who doesn't write nonsense these days? Atleast be happy my nonsense makes grammatical sense!

I can hear you people murmuring "this guy has gone bonkers" already. Well, too much of comic-reading can sometimes lead persons to this frame of mind - where everything seems funny and impractically jovial. Things which would otherwise have escaped your humorous scrutiny can seem ridiculously funny , like this piece of writing here. I find it funny - and am laughing to myself, albeit surely knowing you guys find it a worthless piece of crap and a bore :-)

Cheers!

If... A poem could change you?

2008-06-22T13:24:00.000-05:00

Recently I happened to read this poem by Rudyard Kipling which I thought I should share with all of you. I must heartily thank Shruthi for showing me such a beautiful piece of literature, to understand, take in, and enjoy -most importantly. After all, whats poetry without living every word of it?

So here goes..

IF...
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Awesome is the only word I could say after reading this. Rudyard is a poetic genius.

Of Regrets and Confessions..

2008-06-17T01:58:00.000-05:00

After a long hiatus, I am back to doing what I do -albeit slightly better, than watching sports or music channels - Writing. There were a variety of reasons that caused this long gap in between the blogs, the primary cause being a lack of motivation arising from the roots of a constantly troubled and confused mind.
There have been situations aplenty in my life where I have been confused, lost, and probably motiveless- but the soup that I find myself in, had the dubious distinction of having created wholly by me alone. It is another story that I am repenting for what I did, and even for what went out of control- probably for a lot lot more too, as and when I am writing this blog. Now that becomes double trouble, repenting for what you did- and the entangle that you lie in after seeing the mess that you have created.

Most persons that I have met and spoken to, suggested me to clear the mess out myself by probably forgetting that it ever existed, or by even concentrating on things that I would be good at, or even ridiculous ideas such as seeing comedy shows aired on the telly. But I soon realised being forgetful or diverting your concentration on other things is not quite enough. Some things are just too much to forget,or even brush aside, aren't they?

The only thing, which I thought would be perfect, is to confess to God, as most of the Christian community does(I say there is nothing better than confessing your sins- this is one of the most impressive ideals of a religion other than Hinduism, that I adore). Do the best you can, and God- they say, takes care of the rest. It is never too late for anything.

"Look back at your past, and you almost always wonder that you could have done things differently" -

This very expressive excerpt, is from a stage drama enacted out by Mr.Y.G.Mahendra. Albeit being from a "comical-relief" sort of a play, it had a touch of truth to it. I had just about then realised its relevance to my life. Second chances do not exist in this age the world finds itself in- so almost all the while,latching onto the first becomes a prerequisite. Unfortunately, you or I cannot change the past- it is only fitting that we let our confessions of the past salvage some peace for us in the present - and enter the future with hope,belief, and the enthusiasm of attaining back what we lost.

May God bless one and all, and may he be kind to those who are in need of kindness.

A special Thank You! to all those who kept poking at me to write something at least. I would'nt disappoint you junta now on :)

Rahmania @ TOI concert!! ( Thanks to Maanasaa!)

2008-05-15T06:25:00.000-05:00

Well, here's an excerpt from my friend's blog on the TOI concert that ARR performed in Chennai on April the 20th. Wondering why I was'nt blogging all these days? Certain "feminish" factors(LOL!!) coupled with Rahmaniacal infection !! Enough of fooling around, here's the stuff people !

WHATTA MAN !!!!!!!What a day !!!!! Reached by around 4ish ! Yes.. that was pretty late .. but then.. bus journeys are so unpredictable !!!! This place, St. George's School Grounds was a fan-yard ! Every nook and corner overflowed with enthusiastic fans with expectations writ large on their faces ! My respect for Rahman Sir, incremented (any more if it could) by a million times !!!It was even exciting as Sir's assistant rang me up to find out if I could help on-stage with the scrolling of lyrics !!!! OH YES, I could !!!!! And with the brand new t-shirt on (Thanks Aravind :) ), it was easier to enter the arena ... and there.. was the never before feeling ! The all-tired group from Sharjah were rehearsing on-stage !!! and THE MAN ..was seated right in the centre, rectifying any mistakes !!! It was still 4.15 !! Messages and calls from friends said the crowd was roaring at the gates and had moved onto the road !! The stage was all set, there were lightings everywhere, and one view from the stage told us, that here , was the most popular man, to see whom, the crowd could hold no longer ! People were pouring in like a meteors-on-their-way ! Nothing could give more pleasure !I and a couple of friends did a little jig .. we had got a chance to snap-on with those celebs .. Sadhanaji, Shankarrrr, the Royal-Flautist Naveen et al ! Hariji was way too busy though !! I wish he had just spared a few minutes for fans .. the Radio Mirchi people took all the time for themselves !

And we are back, up on stage to check out the crowd :). And one glance sideways was enough to give me goosebumps .. LO ! Karthi .. seen walking right in front of me, is not spared ! Forever and ever ! Amen ! A call, a little explanation. and we meet him at his caravan ! (Yes, there are vvery few lucky people who he can identify with :P) Now all hyper and jumpy, the lyrics-scrolling didn't seem possible ! Though anyone would have exchanged diamonds to be there, the job involved little work, and no view of the concert ! So , we preferred seats with the crowd. But, it quite seemed impossible, as to walk to the crowd would be to risk a stampede ! A little contact here and there, and we were there, at the VIP section, seated in front of those dozing VIPs ! A seat, more diamonds would be swapped for :P.

It was a little dark, friends could not be located, calls and messages wouldn't reach , what with a 50,000(Maanasaa is'nt right here!!) crowd trying to do it all together !Finally, the purpose was beginning to be fulfilled ! Vijay Adhiraj (who has laughed at us for our WOW-ing :P) anchored the show, nothing much actually ! Because, nothing need be said about the songs of the Man awaited all long !

The show began with a rocking slow number Jaage hain from Guru , Rahman sir and Sadhanaji crooning to it ... what a beginning ! The crowd went ga-ga already !RAHMAN SIR - has never failed to churn out the best numbers .. they are tailored for relishing , at concerts or away ! He sang Dil se re .. the beginning percussions had the audience longing to listen to it !

The best of His was Khwaja, from Jodha Akbar (a song, apparently close to his heart, as he'd mentioned in an interview). They had set up a diwan, with Sir centre staged, and Md. Aslam and Javed Ali at either sides ! A prayer, nothing less ! The harmonium was played effortlessly, which only added feel to the already existing ! ROCKING !

The songs sung were

* Ellapugazhum from Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, the recent Tamil craze ..!

* Varaaga nadhi karayoram from Sangamam. What a song ... what singing ! Kudos to Shankar !

* Barso re from Guru. As I and a lot others feel, Neeti's neverr let any song down ! Awesome singing, though she did fumble at the naa-re part towards the end, lack of breath.. but chuck it ! She sings as gorgeously as she is !

* Vaaji from Shivaji had Hariji and Madhushree enjoying as they sang ! Mediocre I'd rate it !

* Jashn-e-Bahaara from Jodha Akbar. Javed Ali.. again.. one of Sir's best finds ! Effortless singing ... uninterrupted flow of the feel .. and amazing performance !!! I'm in love with him !

* GIRLFRIEND from Boys ..... YE ! KARTHI ! Enakkagave paadara maadiri oru feeling ! Lovely audience interaction .. unexpected sangadhis and a sudden burst into the high pitched 'Enakkoru girlfriend venumada' had me demented !!!!!!! I wish I just fainted , so he came and attended to it ! How i wish !

* Endrendrum punnagai from Alaipayuthey ... I dont need to mention it .. It's a rage !!!!!!!!! What with Shankar singing along ! Fun !!!

* Tere Bina ... a version better than the one at Marg's ! Looked very sequenced, but .. atleast it was flawless ! Lovely swarams .. don't know why .. but somehow, the swarams stole the show ! Chinmayi was good, she went nasal towards the end though !!

* Mayya Mayya from Guru ... Neeti Mohan ... dances, sings, poses, smiles all A+ ! What has she sung for Sir ??? Perfect singing !

* Sandhana Thendralai from Kandukonden Kandukonden ! Ha ... Shankar written all over it !

* Newyork Nagaram from Jillunu Oru Kaadhal .. rarely have I heard Sir speak so much ! He said stuff about the day being hot and sweaty and so lets go in for a 'jillunu' song ! WOW !!!! The song was a little messy .. he went out of shruthi .. but namma Sir na.. chalta hai ! :)

* Roobaroo from Rang De Basanti . Naresh looked out of form ! The song was edited such that 'jo gumshuda' never appeared !

* Athiradee from Shivaji ... overrated song(idiot Manas I love this song!) ! It was a lot of fun ! There was Md. Aslam centre stage, and Sir had vanished from his place near the Keys ! Ben, Naresh and Karthi occupied the top row and the guitar's already begun playing ! It was assumed that Md. Aslam might sing it ! But LO ! Sir emerged from underneath the Keyboard stand with Black glasses !!!!!! Sooooo situationally funny :P. Incidentally, he had forgotten a couple of lines from the song, but namma Sir dhaane :P... and yeah .. Karthi had me drooling to his 'Sananana Mananana' :D

* Chaiiyya Chaiiya from Dil Se. Reihana began the song, she got to sing after loong on stage for Sir ! Unexpectedly , it was Javed Ali for the Male vocals, and what a splendid job !!! Every note was perfect and the high pitches were even wonderful !

* Munbe Vaa from the Jillunu movie .. Chinmayi was shreya's substitute ... did a very nasal job ! She sang well though .. but the himesh-effect undid the feel ! Naresh was OK !

* Maduraikku Pogadhedi from Azhagiya Tamizh Magan. Ben was his usual Hyper self ! Dancing away all time .. and the surprise guest was Dharshana .. who sang it originally as well ! She did a nice job .. though got a little scared towards the end ! Her landing notes are perfect !

* Idhayam Idam Mariyadho from Jodha Akbar. This was a bilingual song.. there were Karthi, Javed Ali, and Madhushree on stage .. singing away ! Karthi began it so sofffftly, that, Sonu would have resigned his job ! And Madhushree was extremely captivating ! Javed ka tho javaab nahin !

* Kannodu Kaanbathella from Jeans. This , is what they call, a Surprise ! A complete katcheri feel ! Nithyashree, along with Valayapatti and a Mridangist were seated down, the carnatic way ! A full fledged RTP effect. And a couple of SGMPNSs, began Kannodu. She looked extremely confident in the standing position with the hand mic ! Lovely !

* There was a little break where the percussionists had their time ! It was not interesting :(

* Bombay Theme ... a lilting melody everyone would die for .. and Mr Naveen , had us all mesmerised with his feet long intruments !!!!! No wonder he's the Royal Flautist ! Cheers !

* Blaaze wandered for sometime on the stage, with 'style' for the bgm .. as he introduced the instrumentalists !

* Pray For Me Brother .. a surprise !!!!! Sir sang and played with ease and Blaaze had everyone enjoying his Rap part ! It was completely sequenced .. The whole track !

* The diwan. now held the unbeatable singer-pair .. Hariji and Sadhanaji ! A little aalaap and a a few Keys later, it was a confirmed Udaya Udaya ... what a song !!!!! And from there ... Hariji announced a teencee competition for the audience where we had to repeat his swarams !!!!!! Ah ! If we could do it, we'd have been on stage boss ! A million swarams later .. the tempo picked up and Behaag appeared out of thin air ! Ae Hairathen Aashiqui , jagaaaaaaaa math !

* Azeem-o-shaan- Veerapaandi kottayile- Rukkumani. How does Sir know how to merge his own songs to get the best feel ever !!!!!!! Towards the end, there were little kids on stage, (whom I envied) drumming and smiling from up there ! (naangalum varuvom) !

* Humma Humma. Ha ! Shankar and Sir were on stage with a little teaser of 'Ammmaaaaaaaaaaa' .. as it metamorphasized into HUMMA HUMMA as Blaaze had us all tapping our feet !!!!! And security guards appeared out of nowhere ! This was the cue that the concert was about to end ! Anyway .. Humma saw the bursts of several paper clouds and oohs and aaha from fans !

* VANDE MATARAM .. Salaam to Rahman sir for having given us this wonderful concert ! Towards the end of the song, all singers appeared on stage .. as is customary ! I thank Times of India and Rahman Sir for this ultimate opportunity , to sit close to the stage and have the time of my life ! I profusely thank Mr Radhan for having made this possible ... and one BIG hug to all the crazy fan-friends who made it there ...

A nice piece of writing na? Thank you Maanasaa! (and next time make it better)

Hi5 to every Rahmaniac out there!

MITAFEST 2008 - REVIEW.

2008-03-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

The annual cultural extravaganza of the Madras Institute of Technology – MITAFEST 2008 got off to an auspicious start on the evening of the 20th of march 2008 – at the Rajam Hall of MIT , in the presence of the Vice Chancellor of Anna University- Dr.Viswanathan and other notable dignitaries(Don't you think that Vichu guy sucks? ). With the Pro-show of Krish slated for the later part of the evening , the inauguration itself saw a good turnout. Previously SSMusic and their VJ’s were seen scouting MIT for voice talents in the SSmusic Voice Hunt, alongwith having some lighthearted fun by organizing informals. Accounting to the occurrence of heavy rain , the Intra-college choreo event was shifted out to the following day. Nevertheless the organizers ensured the pro-show took place. It was rescheduled and venue changed to the Hangar-1, where most of the events would take place. Krish and the accompanying orchestra ensured the audience’s minds danced to their tunes. “June pona”, “Manjal veyil” and “Oru mugamo” were the sure-shot crowd favorites , and they ensured entire hangar energized up to face the unabashed frenzy of Mitafest.
The second day of Mitafest saw a flurry of events , ranging from the Scitech and General quiz to the Intra college choreo and Light music. However , the sleepy hollow of Hangar-2 was the happening place throughout the day, with hoards of people appearing for the Literary events and Art events. Tamil events like arattai arangam and kavidhai-potti’s were also held during the day. The evening started off with intra college choreo sending the audience into a trance. It was ably followed up with the light music finals which saw intense competition between other college teams. B.S.A.Crescent Engineering College won the first prize in light music followed by SSN.
The final day was to be the crowning glory of Mitafest- with most of the events entering the final stage. On one side the hangar-2 saw gaming reaching hitherto unknown levels of excitement with counter strike videos being played and hardcore gamers pitching it out against each other. On the other side there were rangoli and other informal events taking place , besides the quizzes which ended up going down to the wire. But the real sleeping giant this year should be the shipwreck and JAM finals that took place in Rajam hall on the last day evening – parallelly alongwith the variety show. Shipwreck entered its final stages with the likes of jayalalitha and karunanidhi pitting their brains and wits against sharad pawar and ganguly. It was hilarious to say the least. Even better was the JAM that followed – Murali from SSN conducted the session and he ensured the participants had their share of laughter and the audience too. Mitafest 2008 concluded with an attractive choreo nite which was won aptly by A.M.Jain college, and others like Solomon twisters from CEG and Madha engineering college also participated in it.

On the whole Mitafest 2008 was an enjoyable ride of FUN,FROLIC AND FIESTA !

Countdown to MITAFEST 2008 !

2008-03-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

Just one more day to go for Mitafest to kick off - and this time it is sure to bring about the transformation of the geek to the freak. Ok, enough of putting up junk sentences trying to convey one meaning -
“GET THE HELL OUTTA YOUR CLAMSHELLS JUNTA !IT’S PARTY TIME!! ”
And now for the updates -
**********1. KRISH Pro-Show tickets are available with Vijayakumar- Ph.no : 9962222620. Book your passes as its FIRST COME FIRST SERVED . Other college junta are allowed , so CHECK IN GUYS N GALS !
2. The campus is being decorated gradually. So if you aren’t having time to notice those flashbulbs hanging from the trees, you’ll do well to get your eye checked.
3. The Open Air Theatre(OAT) galleria have been done, and this time the design looks different and a lot more spacious than previous years. ( which translates into more fun for us )
4. Stalls have been put up - and we hear quite a few good grub stalls are coming about this time ( Mexican food anyone ? )
5. Hangar -1 continues to house the sport-studs of MIT , but then by tomorrow it will undergo a sea change- housing systems for the gaming challenges. ( rumours are flying that XBox consoles maybe on the way - keep your eyes peeled!)
And remember to call your friends dudes and dudettes -
MITAFEST IS MORROW, NO MORE SORROW !
********** - Singers from A.R.R’s and Ilayaraja’s troupe coming along too:)

We ain't here for any Monkey Business, or are we??

2008-03-04T08:17:00.000-06:00

This is quite a moment I must say - one of the rarest occasions when I am left with too many things to write , too many people to speak about , and too many technicalities to explain. But still , this is our moment and let's savour every second of it. The ever elusive Commonwealth Bank/Victoria Bitter series has been won by India.
(Yes, this is not the Under-19 team which has won it - that is another long story altogether. Its the seniors team this time around ;) )
We remember seeing the familiar look on M.S.Dhoni's face at the conclusion of the T20 Worldcup last year in Southafrica - when we saw what he did today after India had won it all fair and square against Australia. Maybe a lucky look ? Who knows - either ways he is playing for our city in the IPL and its good if he has a bit of luck too!
And so, ladies and gentlemen, the much-talked about Australian summer has finally ended , and to India's credit - on an upbeat note. Let us travel back and analyse what we have learnt out of this gruelling three-month long slugfest.

1. Big-talking is fun. *
*if you aren't playing the next match.
*if you are playing the next match.
*if you have long hair plaited in a little bundle up there.
*if you are balding.(Haydos and Punter beware ;) )
*if you are not someone called "The Master Blaster"
*if you don't have any other job in the team to do.

2. Itching/scratching/touching yourself in the wrong places on the ground is forbidden. *
* Conditions apply to excessively under-dressed-populated Australian cricket grounds.

3. Streakers are a lucky sign for India. Everytime one appears we win. So then why were they two in the second final at Brisbane ? Sources tell there aren't enough nudist beaches in Brisbane's vicinity.

4. Want a free ticket back home + become a national hero + make the whole world talk about you ? Give a wrong decision + treat all appeals with equal racism.

5. Want to stay back on the tour ? Be under 22 years of age.*
*preferably belonging to Mumbai ,Delhi and having spiky/long hair.

6. How to go into a form slump ? Be paired with Deepika Padukone ( plus trade in your mom and dad to speak about the both of you on Headlines Today)

7. How to retrieve yourself from a form slump ? Look at the lady officers when the oh-so-masculine streakers emerge.***

***P.S - Any idea if Cricket Australia are recruiting female streakers to spread the game?

8. How do you make your wicket look very costly ? Let loose "obnoxious" comments on local radio. *
* ensure it gets across to the Indian Mafia(or Media??)

9. How do you screw up yourself ? Not let a veteran retire in peace and victory - keep him out of the team.

Lastly.....

10. How do you win against the Mighty Australians?

Let an in-form Sachin invent "Khatam Karo Ghar Chalo".

I think the last four words explain it all.

Jod"Haah!" Ak"baar" !

2008-02-29T11:01:00.000-06:00

Now, when I started writing this little review about this movie , the initial response was lukewarm to say the least . Infact one of my good friends - nicknamed American Express , for obvious overseas-admit related issues and other "Vetti-scene" matters went on to rubbish the very idea of a blog. But then positives and negatives happen, especially the female fraternity which has been eternally loving this hottie's(!!!LOL!!) blogs have again ensured this gets into the place where it needs to. So yes , enough of personal tirades and rubbish - let's get on with what this blog needs to be about.

Jodhaa Akbar is a very short(! ) i.e. 3 hour 30 minute takeoff on a part of the Mughal Emperor- Jalaluddin Akbar's life.( exceptionally short by Ashutosh's standards). It starts off with the Battle of Panipat where the little Akbar is exposed to the trials and tribulations faced by the prisoners of war and his armymen. Although it takes a while to learn the art of being an emperor , he grows into the part slowly, until a few incidents prompt him onto taking the mantle of the supreme-commander of the empire, and take decisions of his own. Faced with a potentially dangerous opposition in the Rajputs, Akbar brokers truce with the Rajput coalition , in exchange for the princess Jodhabai's hand in marriage. How this compelling union of two uncompromising individuals grows into a strong bond of love and understanding is what this film portrays over the length that I have already specified. Put in are a few elements of distrust and back-stabbing to make the plot interesting, and they do a good job at that.

Sometimes you would expect the movie to turn turtle with the negative reviews it has been getting from your peers , but then this was something I would not have missed anyday. It was the first time I was watching an Ashutosh Gowariker film in the theatre and I was happy with the experience this movie offered me, to be true. Despite few shortcomings like the length of the movie and occasional blooper-style shots ( especially in Khwaja Mere Khwaja - what was Hrithik doing there dancing like a Zombie? No marks for that song despite it being one of the best in the album - because it was totally zombified! ) At most places the dialogues were in chaste Urdu and Hindi , I understood around 80% of it - remaining 20% was totally new to me and I had to guess the meaning of the words from the way the scene panned out later. Although this may not be a negative , when reaching out to the big audiences the dialogues could have been penned viewer-friendly at a few places.

The music by A.R.Rahman needs no mention - its a huge hit all over. Ashutosh has done justice to every song except the exceedingly powerful Khwaja Mere Khwaja . Inn Lamhon and Azeem O Shaan were beautiful to say the least , and the rest of the songs played out in the background. Hrithik looks every bit the emperor that Akbar would have been like , and Aishwarya finally does some acting ( lessons learnt from Dhoom-2??) which is nice to watch. Akbar's mother and his foster-mother(sorry if the terminology is wrong I mean the lady in white) have played their roles well - so are the others in the movie including the eunuch. One can notice Ashutosh regulars scattered around the movie , especially Kulbushan Kharbanda and the "Jai Bajrang Bali" guy from Lagaan. A little more effective screenplay would have made the film powerful , although the stunt and action sequences have been filmed beautifully. Gowariker could have done away with the final Troy-like fight - that was one scene where I felt he had copied , the other being the battle scenes(image multiplying Mr.Ashu?) Locales are a treat to watch and this film has all the flavours of a classic period movie thrown into it.

There are a lot more to describe about this movie , which maybe noticed by me, or by you on repeated viewing. For now , it remains a classic movie which I would recommend as a must-watch for everyone who needs a time-off from the Heyy-baby or Dhamaal kind of junkbox comedies.

Ashutosh has done it again. On the whole , nice movie to watch with a patient person.(A Harsh Ad is good enough for me ) To put it in a phrase ,

"Yahaan Bhi Wahaan Bhi Hai Tere Dhol

Dhira Nom Dhira Nom Jalaluddeen Akbar!"

Indian Popularity Listing (I.P.L)

2008-02-25T10:03:00.000-06:00

Just when we had started thinking that club football was becoming popular in India , looks someone from the BCCI junta heard it. Bang came upon the IPL, formerly known to be the Indian Premier League, soon-to-be-known or blown into the Indian Popularity Listing. Peculiar expansion for the IPL you say ? I would say it is the perfect way of explaining this phenomenon.

To start off for the people who do not know what IPL is, it is a cricket league organised by the BCCI based on 8-city teams , and the Twenty20 format of the game. Similar to the English Premier League football, overseas players can be contracted(although only a maximum of 4 such players can play in each game) and also transferred , although there has not been any official procedure listed out for this provision. All we know is that there will be an annual transfer window to facilitate player movement from city to city.

Now that the basics have been dealt with , lets analyze(rather sensationalize) this hype-r thingy that the whole country is speaking about. The city teams have been bought by rich people , as we can so-goddamn-easily predict. Nothing new ? There is. As if all the other money-making media weren't enough , we have more of SRK out here too(more popularly known in non-Indian circles as the Smoke-Relishing-Khan). And the oh-so-wrinkly-beautiful Preity Zinta who gives him company here too ( as if the great disaster was not enough - I mean that "Kabhi Alvida.. blah blah blah"- whatever I don't get whats it with these Karan Johar four-word titles... too long to even remember !)

The rest of the owners of the teams are the same run-of-the-mill Ambani's, Mallya's and other corporations. Since the media has had enough of these people with their IPO's and New Year bashes there's been additional glare on SRK and Zinta's teams. Apparently nobody noticed the Delhi pace attack or the Bangalore keeper , but strangely there comes the news that Zinta's team is packed with goodlookers. (Guess the news channel which gave this bit)

With the IPL being a moneyspinner by the billion without a ball being bowled, the question remains if we are going to see a clash of popularity listings or real hardcore cricket.

Disclaimer :

*This article was solely written with the purpose of whiling away time and poking fun at the Greatest 24*7 Entertainment Channel that HeadlinesToday is proving to become. Any positive criticism can be fed back to me. Any negative points , please ring up the sick looking female who comes in H.T at 9 p.m every night and tells us beautiful "cock-and-bull" stories about Kareena's rashes and Soha's lips.

Run of the V-ill ...

2008-02-13T08:03:00.000-06:00

Its that time of the year again , ladies and gentlemen..

->When greeting cards get sold out ( including the one's for wives and husbands - despite wedding being described as hell even by the highly-cognitive junta)

->When guys go scouting a whole city to get one rose which is unblemished, untorn, and fresh - only to end up with a saggy bunch of dried bouganvillae picked painfully from the worm-infested neighbour's garden !

->When rumour mills go overboard on the entertainment channels about ongoing romances (be it the first or the second or even the umpteenth - as some hollywood stars go)

-> When everything that is being written or talked is about love, having boyfriends or girlfriends - and unfortunately there is nothing for the single humanoid to read(unfortunately even this post is about the same)

-> When slippers and blades get sold in advance - that too in bulk .. I guess you should work out the reason why this happens. (either ways - be it roses or slippers, the shopkeeper profits)

-> When some jobless guy proposes a dresscode depending on his minimal wardrobe, and that ends up being an SMS forwarded to the entire fraternity.

-> When you have silly people like me trying to create some laughs by showing what happens actually in the name of V-Day.

Ok - reckon that's enough? Let me get back to being mushy-mushy about this whole V-day thingy. Even though I am a non believer in this "Day" business, I believe in the fact that its always not too late to say "I love you".

Think a little bit , even you would feel the same I bet. Be it even the helper who helps your mom around in the kitchen, clears the utensils, finishes all the menial work in your house- its never taboo to say you love him/her. To your parents, who helped you walk your first steps - gave you a life to live, because of whom you may have the resources to read this blog, and because of whom you may become a bigger person than you expected - its time to say "I love you". To your friends, who have been by you in all the struggles in life that you have gone through, lent a shoulder for you to weep, been one with you in your heyday -from whom you may have to even part, its time to say "I love you." For all whom you have fought your wits out with its never late to patch up and say "I love you." For the little baby next door who makes you smile every time your glance falls on him, its all the more easy to say that. For the people who have guided you throughout your life till now , and may lead you to a bright future, its time to say "I love you." For nature , which has been kind enough to hold your transgressions and make you live despite harming it , its the time to say "I love you."

For God-

who's made all these which you have grown to love so much,

made you realise the value of everything and sundry,

made you cry both in happiness and in sorrow,

to whom this day has to be dedicated to....

it's time to say,

"I Love You."

INTECHO 2008 -The True Echo !

2008-02-09T22:10:00.000-06:00

The dawn of this Second Saturday of February , saw a rather unusual thing taking place - influx of hoards and hoards of students to a rather calm place called Madras Institute of Technology. Surely weird for a second saturday I must say. Apart from the fact that MIT was having a working day , every other college in the vicinity had the day off. Apparently even they realized Intecho should not be missed- we had a huge influx of students from all parts of the state , let alone the country.

The inaugural function got off to a slow but steady start at eight thirty or so, with the chief guest and a few of the faculty of instrumentation in MIT giving their special keynote address on the occasion. From then on it was mission brainstorming for all of the participants and audience at the Rajam Hall in the MIT, going all the way to the later part of the evening. With the paper presentation turning quite a few heads in the packed- audience , the sports quiz optimized on their enthusiasm- to spring quite a few surprises with the tough preliminaries which even the "best-quizzing" junta in the campus could not crack. Although there were some technical issues like unclear views of the screen it turned out to be a major success. The technical quiz followed which was a near-perfect stunner . Almost all of the audience got involved, be it the videos or even the multiple choice questions. We just about had time to fit in Shipwreck into the packed schedule , and that too got great cheers from the audience , especially the Vijaykanth wannabe and the Laloo wannabe. Apparently even the judges were flabbergasted at the speakers' insanity ! General quiz preceded the shipwreck - which brought in quite a few new aspects to the near-obsolete general quiz format. It was on the whole refreshing and a good crowd puller. The best things are reserved for the last , as we usually say. Pot pourri got it all right , from the anchor to the videos and the mix n match songs played , to the fillers in between , and even the audience chipped in with a few people breaking into impromptu jigs and sounds.

An event would not be complete without specifying the offstage events also.. They are the essence of keeping the audience occupied and literally glued to their seats every moment. Right from C debugging to the Hanging quiz , to the day ending technical crossword and even the preliminaries for the events such as shipwreck and circuiting, every event captured the attention of the audience.

Sponsors and the volunteers for the stalls attracted quite a lot of people, with their variegated products on display and even a sketching machine which photographed and printed people's portraits, quite realistically. I should also mention Findnearyou.com for their commitment towards making this event a big success , and providing us support all through the way, with their blogging and other contests.

Intecho 2008 - A Success which every MIT'ian will cherish for eons to come !

"Train"ing ...

2008-02-04T20:44:00.000-06:00

On the way to college yesterday , it struck me that I had not written anything about an integral part of me , the electric train. So what was next? Get my thinking cap on to create a flowery appealing blog that gets the maximum hits ? Nope. Try remembering which train I go in ? Partly yes. Give a brief and personal account of the train journey? Perfectly yes.

It is a general rule of the world that however good or bad the surroundings are, we tend to get used to it after a while. That is exactly what happened to me in the case of the electric train. 30 minutes seems a long time to stand your way to college ? Yeah. But does the train ensure you don't feel the time pass? Yeah!

In my first year of engineering , where I was still getting used to the mode of transport and the long walks into the college campus, the train journeys came as just another tiring bore. Especially with the gauge conversion work on, every other train plying would be full of people - and there would not be any place to stand other than the foot-board.

Time, as they say, changes everything. It changed the tracks from metre gauge to broad gauge - with it came about a change in my view of the electric train journey. My first year in engineering had me familiarize quite a few people who also used the train to reach college.Thankfully when the congestion decreased because of the new tracks , I found a lot more of them - most of them my classmates whom I had not tried to speak to in college.

I would describe the train as a "moving-scenery" - or even a "moving-scenery provider". The train moving itself is a beautiful sight to watch - what is even more beautiful is watching mist on a hill or a grassland, or even vehicles moving in a subway while the train chugs along. It is difficult to observe unless you are a frequent user of the train. (some days into the travel you realise that you consider seeing the surroundings itself as a fulltime job on the train)

Into my fourth year of engineering, sometimes I feel nostalgic about my previous years travelling in the train. Five years down the line I may still be doing that- but who knows if the employee in me would have the time to look around..

B(r)and Aid?

2008-02-02T02:43:00.000-06:00

Sitting through advertisements is a big pain - especially when they do not carry anything interesting but the Brand-name and the product/logo. Considering that I watch a lot of cricket, Formula one and tennis - I have got used to the passive-ad phenomenon. Any takers as to what this phenomenon would be like ? Let me explain.

Ever felt the need to keep your eyes open but mind closed immediately after an over ends in Cricket ? Ever realised that you do not remember what ad came up just a second ago? Surely nine out of ten people must be suffering from this syndrome.

In the initial times I had no clue what this weird thingy was all about. Reading about it in the papers made me realise what exactly was this ad-passivity working up to. We have all been witness to a retail revolution ever since India opened up its economy to world players after 1990. As more and more global players fill in the market, there tends to be more advertising and "jostling-for-screen-space" among themselves. Result - a crowded ring where the consumer is the bull surrounded by thousands of tamers. Imagining a situation similar to a "Jallikattu"? It exactly is that.

Although competition tends to enliven the market , such kind of ad-passivity may lead to the creation of a consumer who does not differentiate between products , or simply saying - has a lesser cognitive faculty(was that complicated enough to be simple?).

I offer no solution to this syndrome out here - albeit I can promise that I wouldn't be in neverland the next time a BMW or a Renault speeds down my Sony TV screen !!

First Gear... (stuck!)

2008-02-01T11:03:00.000-06:00

The picture I had posted on the inaugural writeup of this blog was taken by me on the Pondicherry-Chennai East Coast Road. And the circumstances that led me onto taking it were pretty interesting to say the least ! A picture-perfect postcard type weather for company , and a packed car travelling on dark gravel for miles at a stretch, seems like the best thing in the world to do? Exactly yes.

It was one of those weekend getaways which the average Indian yearns for- sometime with family, some sightseeing, some "never-before-seen" goodlookers of the opposite gender to see, and not the least of all - good food. Yet something chose to go wrong. Was it my mood? or the "oh-so-necessary-if-not-i'll-die" cellphone? or simply my baby cousin's diaper?

The answer was pretty simple though unexpected - the car's mudguard. Less than halfway from Pondicherry to Chennai there was a near-animal-hit to the car( thankfully the dog managed to escape) . Apparently the mudguard thought this was the apt moment to falter. Ten minutes later the car could not travel beyond the first gear without giving rise to a nerve-racking scrape with dry gravel.

And so the inevitable roadside halt came around hardly five minutes later. (Some intelligent brains in my family suggested coming back to Chennai in first gear itself - 130 km in first gear ???? ) We then set on to repairing the guard with some of our own techniques - including a plan to completely eliminate the mudguard itself. Nothing worked out as well as a rope to tie the hanging mudguard in place - going all through the bonnet and coming out near the front-grill to be tied up in an unprofessional knot.

As this idea was being executed I sat onto a nearby milestone and started thinking of what I may do to kill time until the others tie up the guard. There seemed nothing, absolutely nothing in sight to think about or capture on the camera except the road in all its glory. And so came about that picture - which had me keeping the camera on the sand and crouching to see the view (must have looked funny ) so that I get the output right.

By the time I was done with that snap, the knots were done, even better was the fact that I would not have to travel back 130Km in bullock-cart speed !

A relative quipped - "Sonny, It's time for second gear!!"

Starting Up....

2008-02-01T08:17:00.000-06:00

Hello Everybody/Anybody/Somebody ( depending upon how popular this page turns out to be)..

Just as I think about why I have written such a weird salutation to start off this blog with , I wonder why and how I decided to write a blog - I have possibly no answer to both of them. A random thought maybe ? I guess so - that is why this is titled "Random Blurbs". What about "Itinerant" then ? As far as my knowledge of English goes , itinerant means a traveller. We all tend to be travellers , on the huge boat called life which is subject to the "*Conditions Apply" clause as most of the discount-offering adverts(and even recent movies) carry. I'm no more than a traveller who is trying to create a little oasis for himself in life's huge desert.

Being done with the introduction is such a relief I must say - it gives one the right to go ahead with whatever he wishes to write or express. (phew- pretty long sentence!) As a slow but steady hum of music catches up with me out here, I realise there are so many things to write about - so many little deeds that need mention , a multitude of beautiful flowers from which I may have to leave out a few even if i pick as many as my hands can. Maybe the world continues to become bigger in heart - despite technology shrinking it physically.