This is an experience of mine, trying to wake up the hibernator of our Ahobilam trip. It was very hilarious and I remembered my sister who used to blabber in a similar way when we tried to wake her up from a deep sleep.
Here is an unauthorised version of the same incident, abridged to suit the protagonist.
Here’s wishing you all a very Happy Pongal. I’ll be staying back in Hyderabad, so chakkarai pongal (sweet pongal) and other goodies today or the variety rices - puliyotharai (tamarind rice), lemon rice, thengai saatham with pachidi (raitha) and appalams tomorrow will be missed 
.
Among other interesting news, this Pongal has also become the showdown of sorts between the self-proclaimed heirs to Superstar’s throne in Kollywood. Three films Paramasivan, Aathi and Saravana of Ajit, Vijay and Simbu respectively are releasing simultaneously. The competition between Ajit and Vijay has become more and more apparent in the last couple of years with Vijay taking a swipe at Ajit through the lyrics in his songs and Ajit striking back vocally and directly. Also, all these budding heroes are hypocrites, claiming on one hand that the Superstar’s throne can never be usurped by anyone else, while on the other hand, trying every gimmick possible to imitate him on screen. Vijay’s effort in this regard has been very blatant whether it was dancing with Annamalai’s constumes or roping in Nayanthara for a song in his movie and having lyrics that reminded the viewers of her pairing with thalaivar in Chandramukhi. Ajit’s earlier film Anjaneya was his claim to the throne. The movie, as all its successors, have flopped completely in the box office and he’s still fighting it out to get some share of the eyeball. Simbu used to call himself “Little Superstar”. I don’t know what his title is right now, but I find his films a load of crap, notwithstanding the success of Manmadhan. He’s paired with the same heroine, Jyothika, now and whatever happens, I can assure you that I will never be able to sit through his movies.
To all these and other heroes, my only advice (and I’m not the first one to give it) is be yourself. I have seen many movies of yours and am very sure you aren’t even close to Kamal’s or Rajani’s calibre. Rajani is not style alone. During his heydays, he acted wonderfully. Accepted that you guys are doing somethings better than everyone else, for example the grace of Vijay when he dances is great, but you still need to prune your acting skills. In this regard, a hero who has recently appealed to all sections is Surya. He is doing different kinds of movies and winning accolades from everyone.
And, not to forget, there’s also this “Muzhu neela nagaichuvai thiraipadam” (full length comedy movie) Perarasu from Vijaykanth (who else 
). This movie will be interesting in the context that he has already started his own party and refused to align with any of the existing parties in Tamil Nadu. With elections round the corner and Election Commission’s directives yet to come into force, it’s a no-brainer to guess what the movie will contain (no, other than Captain’s comedy).
May the best movie win. Sitting in Hyderabad, it will be little difficult for me to check the pulse and declare the winner sooner. So will wait till the news is out.
It was amazing how we suddenly embarked upon such a wonderful trip. Rajanikant Mohan (he claims that he was born in the year when thalaivar’s first movie was released and inspired by thalaivar, his father named him after thalaivar), the ulagam suttrum vaaliban (for the non-Tams, the youth who roams around) was calling us to some trip for quite sometime. Four of us finally heeded to his invite and we planned to travel to a place called “Ahobilam”, an important theerth sthal for the iyengars. Legend has it that the Eastern Ghats is actually a long serpent with Tirumala forming the head of the serpent, Kalahasti, its mouth, Srisailam, the mid-part of its body and Ahobilam, its tail. All these places are in Andhra Pradesh. While Srisailam is a Shiva-kshethra, the rest are abodes of Lord Vishnu. In particular, Ahobilam is supposed to be the place where the Prahlada/Narasimha avatar episode occurred.
I am not going to explain a lot about the place, you can visit this site to know more about it. The temples are in a mountain that is not easily accessible. Some of these infact are temporary structures, not even fully constructed, understandable because of the terrain in which they are situated.
So, more than a month ago, five of us - Rajani, Ram, Ramki, Murali and myself hired a Qualis, travelled overnight and reached this place. It had been a long time since I went on such a trip with friends. The travel was such an interesting one. Atleast one of us had to stay awake to ensure that the driver doesn’t dose off and this meant there had to be a conversation so that one of us remained awake. Finally, for most part, all of us, but one (Murali, of course), stayed awake. If you want to keep the guys interested, the obvious topic for the conversation would be, well…., girls. So, both during the onward journey and the return journey, we kept ourselves engrossed discussing about girls from ISB, from each of the guys’ undergrad institutes, instances of ponnu pakkaraa ceremonies (the ceremony where the guy’s family visits the girl’s family before the match is decided) that some of us had gone through etc. I didn’t feel like we were going on a pilgrimage, it was more of a pleasure trip .
Ram has already written about our trip here and here. These are watered down versions, leaving out the spicy things . Also, Ramki has uploaded a lot of photos here.
There was one temple in Lower Ahobilam and at least nine other different temples (nava narasimhar) in the Upper Ahobilam most of which could be reached only by foot. The toughest part of the trek was when we went to a place called the Ugrasthambam (seen in the photo above). This picture was actually taken from some 2000 feet below. To reach that place alone we had to trek for around 2 hours and in the final part of the trek, there was just a narrow stretch of rock, only so wide for one person to climb, with drops as deep as 3000 feet on both the sides. Ugrasthambam itself (as can be seen in the picture) is on the tip of the rock which can hold a maximum of 4 people. It contains a steel pole and imprints of Narasimhar’s patham (foot) on a stone. Reaching that place and seeing the vegetation below can give you an exhilarating experience and for all of us, this was the most difficult trek that we had ever done in our life.
Another incident that I’ll never forget is when we trekked back to the main temple in Upper Ahobilam, we were very hungry. We had taken our breakfast at 9:30 am and it was already 6pm. We went inside the temple and asked the pujari if we can get something to eat there before going to Lower Ahobilam. When he learnt of our travails (and the fact that we’d visited The Sthambam) he assured us that he’ll definitely get something for us (”He who visits the Ugrasthambam cannot go hungry”, he said). He and his deputies then made swift arrangements and using the prasatham from the temple and his own preparations from home, he gave food for all of us. The food was so wonderful (BTW, the prasathams from Vishnu temples are always delicious) that I don’t remember feeling so satisfied after a meal. We thanked him profusely and began our return journey…
On the whole, this is an experience I’ll never forget.
My dad doesn’t like most movies. In fact, he cannot stand most of them. “Violence…”, he’d say with a typical frown of his face. The last time I’ve seen him not hate a movie was Chinna Thambi, god knows how long ago.
Since I was not used to watching movies in theatre regularly as a kid, I used to get over-awed everytime I was in a theatre and that was probably a reason I never disliked any movie. So, when my sister asked me how the movie Chinna Thambi was when we were walking home after watching it, I said it was very good and she replied that it was awful. My dad spoke on my side and said that though it didn’t have a story, it was pictured well. That is the last time when, I feel, he had spoken in favour of movie.
Till of course I asked him about the movie in the title of this post. It’s the story of a father who raises his kids and how the kids pay back their father in his old age (or some such thing). Apparently, my parents had watched it sometime last week and my father liked it immensely. He told me over phone that Cheran has directed an excellent movie. I’d read in many online posts that the movie is very good, though my friends said that it was not as good as his earlier film Autograph. The director has also acted in both of these films and has claimed that the content in these are autobiographical. I’vent seen any of them and till now assumed that the director has discovered an “ulti-senti” (ultimate sentimental) formula that he is trying to sell to the ever-emotional Tam crowd. But my father’s assertion interests me. As long as the director gives clean entertainment I shouldn’t have a problem. Will check out both these movies sometime…
I’m the M2 guy in this story. .
