Ripples on the brain

At various times, a single song takes over the entire state and all radio and TV channels play it over and over again. Then a positive externality gets created through passive hearing, live requests and so on and the song continues to resonate all around the state. In the recent past, “Vaala meenukkum” and “June ponal” readily come to mind.

The current favourite seems to be Subramaniapuram’s “Kangal irandal“. I watched the song once and instantly fell in love with it. I remember when Minnale’s audio was first released, “Vaseegara” captivated people like me so much that we couldn’t wait to see how the song was picturised. When the movie was released, we actually regretted seeing it as Gautam Menon entirely killed that song. Thankfully “Kangal irandal” has been picturized very well. The 80’s feel (similar to Nizhalgal), wonderful lyrics (after a long time), a lovely leading lady suiting the lyrics, some funny portions - very pleasing overall.

Update: Isn’t the beat of the song very similar to “Ithu oru pon maalai pozhuthu“? Also, the nadaswaram interlude reminds one of “Poongathave thazhthidavaa”

For your listening pleasure:

One word - amazing! I just love this programme. Jodi No.1 and all the other immitations should atleast see these dancers once. Hell, if you cannot get dancers like these, atleast get a host like Cat Deeley. Drool!!!

Courtesy: http://subramanians.blogspot.com/

I watched the last couple of hours of confidence vote debate (well, yeah there was very little debate in the last 2 hours owing to adjournments). Even during the United Front days (Deve Gowda, I K Gujral), confidence debates used to be interesting, with a lot of speakers talking to the point. Going by the precedent the current confidence vote has set, I don’t think we are going to have such lively debates any longer. The bloc that finds itself in the losing side will start crying foul and prevent proper debates.

1. I watched the debate through CNN IBN’s streaming video. At the time of the vote, the speaker took a voice vote first and then said, “the ayes have it, the ayes have it…” and the opposition pressed for a division. Our friend Sagarika Ghose didn’t understand that a division has been requested. So, she interrupted the live video and announced that the UPA has won the confidence vote before her co-presenter intervened and educated her live in front of the viewers. Not willing to be put down, she said, “But in the view of the speaker, UPA has won”. After the electronic vote was over and the results flashed, Rajdeep came on the screen and mentioned that UPA has probably won. Sagarika Ghose again made her point, “Rajdeep, just to point out, CNN IBN has been predicting for the last 2 days that UPA will win”. Wow, she’s the new Nostradamus.

2. I think there was a confusion in the electronic voting (i.e. 50 odd members didn’t vote) because the instructions were so confusing. I don’t understand why every time confusion reigns at the last minute during the vote. The Secretary General didn’t appear sure on what instructions to read out. He read out only the instructions for voting from the lobby and the Speaker was having a cross-talk with some MP. Suddenly, the electronic voting process began.

I never thought I’d back to the same place that I came to for the last time, to the same project, to work with the same folks. I went back in May and came back in July to complete some unfinished business.

The best part of the journey was the movie “Kalloori” I watched on the flight from Chennai. I enjoyed every bit of the movie. The initial story kept reminding one of April Madhathil and 5star in parts, but obviously this movie is at a different level (it is a reminder of a real incident that happened a few years ago in Tamil Nadu). The story and screenplay are very simple, but the settings and the actors infuse realism into the movie. Except for the leading girl (who looks gorgeous, but still suits her role), the movie makers have shunned glamour and opted for actors who will suit their parts. Excellent selection of actors I must say! The country-side settings, which are crucial to the story, have been captured very well. The acting is above par for most of the time, considering most of the actors are novices. Except for the heroine, it is difficult to even find the names of the other actors who played crucial roles in the movie. The music is also excellent without being pompous and suits the overall story very well. I liked the first song that takes place in the bus very much.

The movie kept reminding me of my own experiences in my engineering college. It was for the first time I had the company of students from the rural background. Many of my classmates came from Tamil medium schools and hence, some lecturers taught the initial classes in Tamil.

I just realized that Shankar produced the movie. What a guy? I mean Shankar as a director and Shankar as a producer cannot be more contrasting. Look at the list of movies Shankar has produced - Kaadhal, Imsai Arasan 23 am Pulikesi, Veyyil and now Kalloori. (Ofcourse, Shankar also seems to have produced Mudhalvan and Arai Enn … Kadavul which are outliers in the list). It is very difficult to choose these small budget movies that involve first time directors and, more often than not, novice actors. But Shankar seems to hitting the jackpot every single time.

I could see 4 people in my vicinity in the place who were also watching the same movie. Actually, the other Indian movie that was among the options was Race (Hindi). I couldn’t help thinking Kalloori’s budget should have been less than the salary of each of the leading actors of Race and still Race couldn’t have been crappier. A good study in contrast, again!

After the triumph at Wimbledon last year, we all wondered where Federer will be at this year’s Wimbledon. We thought he might be fighting to get on par with Pete Sampras or probably to even dethrone him considering Federer’s clay court game had also been improving and this year he was due for a French title. And to watch Federer yesterday was just pathetic.

Not that he was playing poorly, but it was just amazing to watch how much effort he had to put to get a single point. Like for one of his serves, he just changed his plan the last minute and served it short and high so that he could volley. When Nadal was serving, he started moving around like how batsmen do in the last few overs in a cricket match. I didn’t like Nadal’s game, but I think the way he kept running and returning whatever was thrown at him was super human. He just seemed to defy the uncertainty principle with his power and precision. Now that Nadal has barged into “Federer’s part” of the season, it remains to be seen how the year progresses. Normally Nadal’s game plateaus post-Wimbledon, but this year may be different.

Though the general opinion is otherwise, I somehow like a sport being dominated by a single person - an icon. I cannot prove it through data, but I feel the attention to a sport increases whenever an icon dominates it. Schumacher readily comes to mind. Even in tennis, nobody remembers the period when these non-icons win Grand Slam tournaments. It might be probably because hero worship in ingrained my psyche.

Revathi tags me and wants to know my quirks. My first reaction was I’m too lazy to take up to tags. Sathish had tagged me once and I attempted to take it up, but never actually did it. Then I thought I’ll take it up and see where it goes.

1. I get too embarrassed whenever I recall some embarrassing situations I have been in, so much so that I need to do something rash to get over it, like banging my fists on the floor or suddenly accelarating insanely if I happen to recall something when I’m driving.

2. That brings me to my second quirk. I generally get lost in thought whenever I’m driving all alone. I start thinking about some random things that I normally forget something important I would have been doing just before I started and wanted to continue after I reach my destination. Sometimes, even when the drive is just 20 minutes or so, it feels like I had been driving all day when I reach my destination because I would have been imagining too many things.

3. Even at this age it is very easy for me to migrate into a world of fantasy. I imagine myself to be the PM, to be a player in the Wimbledon finals, so on and so forth.

4. I don’t like taking photographs when we visit places because I feel that it once I take the camera out, it becomes the sole point of interest. One more reason I dislike taking photographs is probably because I dislike seeing myself in one.

5. Even after so many years of experience, I get uneasy before getting into any conference call irrespective of the duration of the call and the number of participants.

6. I can never watch any of those thrilling matches especially when the team / person I support is losing. I just switch off the television or turn to a different channel.

Okay, compiling this list was quite tough.

I think the main problem with non-mainstream tourist places in and around Chennai (admittedly not many) these days is alcoholism. Actually I have no problem with people consuming alcohol if they weren’t such a nuisance to others. As it turns out, most of the folks in this part of the world consume alcohol just to flaunt and be noticed. The problem compounds if there’s a larger group, for then it turns into a mob with every person considering himself to be all powerful and also going that extra mile to get better noticed than the rest of the crowd. I cannot fathom why liquor cannot be consumed in the confines of one’s home or room.

I have witnessed a lot of such behaviour at college and also at work. In Chennai, especially during weekends, in places along ECR, notably Mayajaal, this is a perennial problem, so much so I that sometimes consider moral policing befitting these people.

We ran into one such boisterous mob during our stay in Le Auroville in Yelagiri. We chose that place based on some of the travelogues and also on the hospitality of the host when we were there. The “resort” actually has very basic accomodation facilities (it was converted from a school) that is definitely not worth the rates charged. However, the host boasted of the “experience” for the price we paid. We were promised of things like strawberry picking in his farm, night safari, bikes to ride around the place, parasailing and so on that really made us choose the place, though we were somewhat apprehensive about the security of the place considering its location.

As it turned out, an unruly bunch of guys turned up at that place on Saturday evening and ruined the whole serene ambience. They were drunk as they drove in. The host told us later that the group had reserved claiming that they were going to be with their wives. I believed that part of his story as he appeared to be a bit shocked to see this huge bunch of guys and enquired them about their wives as they checked-in. This group took over the entire common area in the resort and the campfire in the night. My wife and I were not too bothered till this point as we were more happy visiting places, reading, drawing and chatting away.

It is what happened in the night that left a bad taste in the mouth. As we retired to the bed resigning to the fact that there was indeed going to be no strawberry picking and no night safari that the host had promised, we found a hand in the dark grab the doors of our window and try to open it and peep into our ground floor room. Thankfully, we had earlier asked the resort guy to fasten the boltless door using a rope so that guy wasn’t successful. We immediately raised an alarm and called all the resort guys. At this time, we discovered that the guy had earlier tried to peep into two other rooms. By the time he was in our place, the resort guy already knew that this guy was part of the bunch that I was referring to. In the night, the resort guy offered to turn the bunch away if we identified the offender (he even offered to use his shotgun ). It was obviously dark and the guy wasn’t actually successful. Besides there was a thick curtain in the window and so we just saw a shadow. We opted to stay in the same room as the option of moving to a different hotel in the dead of the night didn’t appear feasible.

What happened the subsequent morning was more bizarre. When we enquired with the resort guy who offered to use even his shotgun against the offender claimed that he actually identified the culprit. But he found that the culprit was so drunk that he actually thought our window was the entrance to his room. This explanation was laughable because that guy had peeped into 3 other rooms including a bathroom window of an adjacent room. As we discovered, this group frequented to this place almost every other week and hence presented a continuous revenue stream to the resort. The resort guy obviously didn’t want to alienate this group.

We decided not to talk with guy any further and left the resort resolving not to let this lone incident sully the otherwise pleasant memories we carried from this place. This was also a lesson for us to choose places of stay. We are better off with rooms closer together than being spread out from a security standpoint and it is better to get rooms in the top floors rather than in the ground floor.

My wife and I went on a weekend trip to Yelagiri in the first week of June. It was a very enjoyable trip for most part. The best thing about Yelagiri is its laid back nature. There are not a lot of “tourist spots”, so you can just go around the place, do your kind of activity - reading, drawing/painting or just walking around/trekking in serene surroundings.

Since we were there during the summer vacations, we had to make some advanced reservations. We followed this travelogue of Ram for all the planning. Our experience turned out be very similar to that of Ram except for the unpleasant stay at the Le Auroville “resort”.

The drive was very comfortable. The roads are amazing, but the traffic discipline, especially as you near the towns like Vellore/Katpadi, Ambur and Vaniyambadi leaves a lot to be desired. Especially at a bridge stretch as you approach Vellore, you can expect a sudden onslaught of slow moving vehicles, two wheelers coming the wrong way. Other than that, from time to time, you need to negotiate the cabs that flout all lane rules and through caution to the winds as they embark on overtaking other vehicles. Those are the only blemishes in the otherwise wonderful journey in the plains.

The ghat roads are pretty good and following some of the basic rules like not following a heavy vehicle closely when driving uphill and giving way to the oncoming traffic when driving down the hill should make that part of the drive incident free. The 14 hairpin bends make the drive really interesting.

A 5:30 am start would be ideal from Chennai. That way Poonamallee can be crossed by sun rise and the highway should be good at that time. A breakfast stop at Vellore would be ideal and it shouldn’t take more than 4.5 hours to reach Yelagiri including the stopover.

We visited a few places like a garden and the lake that are usual tourist places. But what we enjoyed most was the visit to the offbeat places like the farms / gardens on the way to the Swamimalai trek. The one we had gone to had red chillies, beans, different varities of rose, beans, brinjal, tomato and root vegetable plants. The Swamimalai trek was also pretty good. We wanted to do some other stuff like strawberry picking, night safari in the jungle and parasailing, which were promised by our resort guy but not fulfilled. There is one State Horticultural farm close to where the Swamimalai trek begins. Unfortunately, the farm is closed on Sundays which is when the place hosts a lot of tourists.

We found Jackfruit to be very popular here. We ate a lot of them when we were there and also bought loads of it for home. They are a lot cheaper in Yelagiri. We had all our food at our resort and so didn’t have a chance to try any restaurants in the hills. The food provided by our resort was good enough.

Overall we found Yelagiri to be good place for a weekend sojourn.

A good video showing my undergrad institution. Wonderful memories. I don’t know how I missed the alumni meet this year. There seems to be some construction activity on in the campus. Hope to be there sometime this year.