Left or Right???

This is a question which often confuses me a lot... To turn left or right, which side of the road is my house located, which end of the shelf is something located - all these questions leave me dumb for a moment before I could actually give an answer...

If an autowallah asks me whether he should turn left or right, I say "mmmm........left(or right)".. I may be correct but to make sure, I promptly point my hand in the correct direction.

If somebody asking my address questions me on which side of the road do I stay, I will have to imagine for a moment that I am standing in my street and then tell them on which side of me is the house located :-)

I don't know if it is a disease or not, but many times I simply laugh at myself for such directional confusions...

Waves of Desctruction - An year after

Its one year exactly today since the waves of destruction Tsunami ravaged Indonesia, Andaman and many parts of Tamil Nadu. The worst natural calamity I have seen ever since my birth and I pray God this should be the first and last such thing to happen.

In this one year, people have almost started back their normal life thanks to the aids that have poured in and the activities from NGOs. The most heartening fact is that 100s of children have lost their parents and have become orphans... Let God bless those children with a long life spans including those of their parents.

Amidst all these, one good thing has happened. Yes, it is again proved that Humanity is unshaken by nature, inspite of swallowing too many human lives. Two of the instances I read in a weekly magazine recently moved my heart...

16 kids from villages around Ngapattinam district were brought home by a couple. This couple, after losing their 3 kids to Tsunami have become the father and mother of 16 children now. What they say today is "We have done nothing for these kids.. But they have given us so much happiness by calling us Amma and Appa".....

Next is about 100 children who lost their families for Tsunami in Nagapattinam, now taken care by District collector Radhakrishnan IAS... He meets them everyday enquiring about them and spending time with them. His wife has also joined him in this noble cause. The children call this couple Appa and Amma and why not, he is planning so much for their future life and welfare.

Sure, human beings might have died, but Humanity lives for ever as long as such people exist!!!

And do read this article/slideshow from Rediff.com about this day:
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/26sld01.htm

One man innings

Recently, I was learning from my cousin about his experiences in hostel. Hostel life is something which intrinsically has lots of fun as my hostelite friends told me. In spite of being away from home and parents, you learn a lot, which unfortunately many people miss as day scholars. Suddenly, I remembered my one man innings... :-)

I had a short term of stay in a bachelor room when I came to Bangalore. It was actually a good experience. You are responsible, regular and without any restrictions. To tell frankly, I was happy even in those days... Thanks to the wonderful mansion I stayed in.

I used to think of my uncle at those times because he left home for studies long back when there was no cell phones or even proper telephone connections. He had told me lots of his experiences in hostel life.

I think of them many times...and me, staying happily in a mansion, with a servant maid to do half of my chores, earning handfull, cell phone and monthly visit to stay close to my family....God, how could I ever think of being unhappy?

After my uncle, my cousin has done it again after a very long time. Hats off to my cousin and as I mentioned in the first line, I am learning a lot from him... :-)

Trains - My Passion

Talking about my nightmare in the previous post, I was reminded of my passion towards trains. From my childhood, trains have been my biggest wonders. Even today, I keep wondering about how they run in two rails at very high speeds and how a single locomotive can pull tonnes of load behind it. May be R L Stevenson (if I am right) deserves all the credit.

As a kid, I used to enjoy counting number of coaches in a train, making sounds like a running train and collecting train tickets like antiques. Even today, the very idea of train journey exites me a lot. My happiest moment was when I visited Integral Coach Factory(ICF) in Chennai and learnt to some extent on how a train is put to shape.

The journey of life is also similar to a train journey... You are wonderful and exciting as long as you are on the right track. Once you derail, you will destroy yourself and lots of other lives associated with you. Sorry for that mokkai thathuvam :-)

One of the recent sayings from Thathuvam Thangasaamy:

"Naama train-la erinaalum,
Train namma mela erinaalum
Naama thaan ticket vaanganum" :-D

Nightmares

Your sleep of 6 hours a day will be pleasant as long as you are blessed with dreams, if not sweet dreams. A night mare is really dangerous, in the sense, it may go even to the extent of spoiling the whole of the next day for you.

My frequent nightmare is that I am starting off for a journey somewhere and after so many things happening on the way or in the station, I miss my train. I will be trying to catch that train somehow, when it would be time for me to get up....

Recently, I was about to board a train 5 mins before its starting time when I find that I have misplaced my baggage in some other platform. :-D

Depending on my thoughts, my co travellers would range from my mother to my relatives to my friends. But somehow I will be the only one to miss the train. The interesting fact is that I never think about a train or train journey anytime in my day to day routine.

May be I am getting a reminder that there is still a long journey waiting ahead for me in my life :-P

Common cold

I just escaped from signs of one more attack of cold last week. Last month I became a victim of it and suffered for almost a week. Every year I will be under the attack of the disease atleast twice(once in summer and once in winter).

The nasal tract irritation, running nose, cough that follows are all symptoms, that proves you the existence of satan in this world. I feel like throwing away my nose many times. And if you are also affected by sinus, then you are the most pitiful person in the world.

But there are a few things that I have learnt about Common Cold till now. Some of these may be even scientifically proven facts:

1) Once you are affected by cold, you become resistant to any other common disease.
2) There is no medicine for curing cold. Whatever medicine we get from doctor can only reduce the effect of the virus but the virus still remains within you. It will leave your body whenever it wishes to...
3) The best thing you could do, to reduce the effect of cold is to eat well and sleep well. Atleast thats what I do. :-)
4) The best way to escape from cough after cold is to blow out all the phelgm as much as possible. Without caring for what others will think, if you do this, then you need not worry about cough.

But still, even my worst enemy should not get affected by Common Cold...It is the biggest torture for a person :-)

Chaala change ayi poyindhi :-)

My weekend normally goes along with watching atleast two movies of my choice. This time too it was the soft romance of "Kanda Naal Mudhal" on Friday and hard core action of "Athanokkade" yesterday.

I am watching a Telugu film after a very long gap. But I had to appreciate myself for choosing the right movie to watch :-))

The story line was the historical period one: "taking revenge on those who destroyed my family".... But the presentation and racy script makes the movie worth a watch. And if someone wants to visualize the changing phase in Telugu movies, this movie is a must watch.

Hero KalyanRam is from NTR family. How generations can change cine industry? Better to watch it on screen and understand. The transition to modern and youthful movie-making from "hero an heroine in bright and gaudy costume with a dappankuthu dance number of comical steps" (which is still believed to be Telugu cinema by most people) is very much evident from this film.

Was that heroine the same Sindhu Tholani who was a total junk in the junk movie called "Sullan"??? I still could not believe my eyes. Completely stunning performance. Again something that must be learnt from Telugu Cinema - How to give importance for heroines in movies.

If movies like this and the likes of "Okkadu" are given consistently, Telugu cinema will very soon come out of the long term blame cast on it by critics.

Avunu, Telugu Cinema chaala change ayi poyindhi :-)

P.S: My bad attempt to include Telugu phrases may kindly be excused :-D

Kanda Naal Mudhal - Review

I watched the movie "Kanda Naal Mudhal" yesterday. The movie was produced by Duet Productions of Prakashraj and directed by newcomer Priya, an associate of Manirathnam. The movie stars Prasanna, Laila, Karthik Kumar, Revathy, Lakshmi, Divyadarshini and others and has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

The story is a simple one liner. It is all about how Prasanna and Laila, who are like north and south poles from childhood come closer, fall in love and unite together inspite of Laila's engagement to Prasanna's boss and friend Karthik Kumar.

How director Priya has made this one liner story an entertaining fair for 2+ hours remains the success of the film. And frankly speaking, watching the movie doesn't make you feel that you are "watching a movie at a theatre near you", but "watching a family at a home hear you". Thats where the film impresses you.

Prasanna and Laila have both done a very good job. And this is for the first time, I like watching Laila in a film. Karthik Kumar, in a close-to-cameo role fits in well. Lakshmi and Revathi portray the same old screen mothers but in a different style. Rest of supporting cast have made a great contribution in taking the movie forward.

Songs gel with the mood of the movie. I could notice the change in the nature of the songs from the "Eri malai naane" loudness to the soft romantic "Pani Thuli", as Laila and Prasanna gradually transition from a quarellsome pair to a romantic jodi. Whether it was done intentionally or unintentionally, it is simply great.

With all these postives, a few dragging moments and dramatic situations in the movie is almost unnoticed from the negative side.

Finally, a soft romantic and sweet movie after all matinee idol worships and action flicks of Tamil cinema. Prakashraj deserves a huge applause for making such a clean family entertainer. If this film is not tasting success, then it is true that the taste of Tamil audience is degraded to very low levels. Because such movies are a must need among masala and action flicks.

Verdict: Indha padathai "Kanda Naal Mudhal" Tamil cinema meedhaana madhippu melum koodi vittadhu. :-)

Google Competitor???

I received a forward yesterday speaking about this new search engine which is still in its beta version.

http://beta.previewseek.com/

This is what the forward said:

"Also preview seek is more intelligent than google! You type 'Mercury' in google and it will also show you results of Planet mercury even if you are looking for info on the element called Mercury. Where as in PreviewSeek first you get different categories of mercury (Planet, Element and what not!) and from there you can proceed only into that category. Even a search for DSC 80, a sony digicam gave astonishing result sets with also categories on left side to preview its reviews or to buy it."

Well, how far it competes with Google is a thing for us to wait and see...Till then, lets do Previewseeking too along with Googling :-)

Songs of the soil

"Disco vandhaalum kisko vandhaalum
Oram pogaadhu indha paatu
Michael vandhaalum Madonna vandhaalum
Thothu pogaadhu tamizh gaana paatu
Rap-u vandhaalum Jazz-u vandhaalum
Kaaram korayaadhu indha paatu
Rock-u vandhaalum break-u vandhaalum
Shake-u aagaadhu tamizh gaana paatu"

Have you ever thought why gaana, folk and kuthu songs make it big in music countdowns everytime? Well, I have thought about it and was able to arrive at one conclusion :-)

The main reason is that these songs have lots and lots of nativity. Just a rewind to our old ages, the music in Tamil Nadu was only of two types. Classical or carnatic type and the folk lore. And the latter was the song of the soil. Our village songs, kaavadi chindhu, kummi paatu etc etc all are peppy hip-hop numbers, catering to the taste of common Tamils.

If you think further, for the same reason only, bhangra and other folk songs of Kashmir(Bhumbro), Maharashtra(Aika Dajiba) etc are popular even among the DJ mix and metallic beats of Hindi Songs.

Aryan culture popularised Carnatic music and Hindustani whereas western culture brought in rock,jazz and the likes. Still the songs of the native rulez..Thats what is summarised in the song verse in the first few lines.

God's own country

I am back after my short trip to Trivandrum. This was my third trip to the place and was one of my most memorable trips till now. I was simply awestruck by the beauty fo Kerala(and of course, ahem, Kerala girls..hee hee).

I was lucky to have travelled in a train that passed through lots and lots of beautiful towns and villages of Kerala. Not to forget the great railway network of Kerala that takes us through all these beautiful places. It was green and lush green all the way till Trivandrum.

It is not just God's own country, but its a country where you can feel the existence of God in each and every inch of it. From the awesome nature, beautiful temples, friendly people, pleasant climate to even the sweet water and rich food there is a touch of divinity in each and everything associated with Kerala. It should be felt rather than understanding in words.

Blessed are those people who live there and God bless them all for their hospitality and kindness. I am waiting for the next chance to be there very soon :-)

On a Vacation

After quite some time, I am going on a vaction, this time for God's own country. Yeah, I am leaving for Trivandrum, Kerala for 5 days to attend a marriage.

I love the city though I have been there only once. Its my grandfather's native and going to that place brings me his memories. I will meet my relatives, visit the beautiful temples and of course, have a very good meal for my appetite for the next 5 days... :-)

Above all, I simply love the ambience and the people of the city and just could not wait till tomorrow evening to begin my trip.

I will be back next week with my memories of the trip in this space....

Till then bye 4 blogging...

Work Load

Just came across this image in a forward...And thought of the real meaning of "loaded with work". I am not into such a bad situation till now and really wanna thank God for that!!! :-)


Thought for the day:
The wise makes proverbs and fools repeat them
.............Isaac D' Israeli

Dedicated to friendship

I have a few songs which are very close to my heart. One such number is "Oru Nanban Irundhaal" from E-20 U-18. The movie might have been a total crap, but this song, simply rocks!!! Even today, it reminds me of all my good old friends, whenever I listen to it...Here goes the lyrics:

Oru naNban irundhaal Oru naNban irundhaal
Kaiyodu bhoomiyai sumandhidalaam
Thodu vaanam pakkamey Thoda vendum naNbaney
Nam paeril dhisaigaLai ezhudhalaam
Kadalil nadhigal peyar kalandhadhu
Indha natpil engaL uyir kalandhadhu
Natpu enbadhengaL mugavari
Idhu vaazhkai paadathil mudhal vari
Indha ulagil migaperum eazhai naNban illadhavan....

ThoL meedhu kai poatu koNdu Thondriyadhellam pesi
Oorai sutri vandhoam vandhoam
Oruvar veetiley paduthu thoonginom Natpin porvaikuLLey
Indha kaadhal kooda vaazhkaiyil Azhagiley thondrumey
Thozhan endra sondham ondru Thondrum namadhu uyirodu

NenjukkuL nenjukkuL uLLa
ENNangaL eNNangaL solla naNban orey sondham
Namadhu mejaiyil uNavu kootaNi Adhil natpin rusi
Ada vaazhkai payaNam maaralaam Natpudhaan maarumaa
AayuL kaalam theerndha naaLil naNban mugamdhaan marakkaadhu

Long Live Friendship!!!