Listen to Lucky

Mr ChandraMouli....

2009-07-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

If at all there is an evergreen character which I (many would have) loved in Tamil Cinema, it would be Manohar (Karthik's Character in Mouna Raagam). This scene is evergreen scene and nobody could have performed better than Karthik Muthuraman.

The highlights of the scene was when Karthik innocently asks the name of the Revathi's Father and one particular dialogue which blew me was "Irumma Sir kitta Pesittu Irukenla"...is ultimate...

I wish there are many more loveable characters like manohar in future...

~Lakshman

Bottle-tharangam....

2009-07-13T00:12:00.001-07:00

I used to be curious about the music which comes from our own jalatharangam - particularly from Mr Ananyampatti S Ganesan, which is an undisputed master in the art. It needs greater knowledge to have the cups of different sizes, Water levels etc to play a song...

I came across a similar guy who played with bottles with skates, which i saw through You-tube.

I was just wondering how it would be if somebody can play a keerthana similarly ?..

~Lakshman

Where were you all these days Kuntalavarali ??....

2009-07-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

The first time, if at all I do remember, I heard this Raaga in Trichy when a girl played a beautifully krithi on her veena in one of the competitions and I came to know from her that that was of a Raaga Kuntalavarali. That was my first crush for Kuntalavarali....probably like many a love story ours ended there without much fanfare.

Last evening I was listening to Ganesha Pancharatnam by MS Amma and the fourth stanza of the song rang bells to me again after so many years. Its the same Kuntalavarali which I missed for so many years...listen to the 4th stanza of this song, you would love the raaga (for people who can't appreciate the beauty just listen to the tune...its an absolute gem of a rendition)...

watch out for these lyrics:

Akimchanaarti Marjanam Chirantanokti Bhaajanam
Puraari Poorva Nandanam Suraari Garva Charvanam
Prapancha Naasha Bheeshanam Dhananjayaadi Bhushanam
Kapola Daana Vaaranam Bhajaey Puraana Vaaranam.

This video has lots of Ganesha Idols (which I adore and the best part one of the ganesh is actually blinking ganesh-a...)

Coming back to the Raaga....the second piece which I would love to refer to the song "Oru Murai Vandhu Parthayo" was from the film ManichitraThazhu...This song was one of the best songs I have heard and seen where picturisation add beauty to the song rendered by the Vintage voice of KS Chitra and KJ Yesudas.

The beauty of this raaga it is very much on the lines of Kamas (at the first look as being the Janya (Child raaga) of HariKhamboji...). The place where KJY sings the following lines....

Anganamaar moulee mani
Thinkalaasye chaarusheele
Naagavallee manonmanee
Raama naadhan thedum baale

MG Radhakrishnan has to be saluted for bringing the lovely touch of western classical strings (it reminded me of few traces of Shankarabharanam...), but to add on top of this you need to enjoy the dance of the duo (Shobana and the guy) - it resembled me of synchronised swimming / synchronised gymanstics...

This is a classical version of the Sara Sara Samarai (Tyagaraja song by Manasa Ramesh.

Consumer Service in India - Part 1

2009-07-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

I had listed out the pathetic instance of consumer service in India. Many a time, we as such we never care of Consumer Rights and we are being taken for granted. Telecom Revolution in India has come in a big way, but the way Telecom companies do work in a sh*tty way.

The Following are the excerpts of my letter to nodal officer of karnataka (when i was in Bangalore and this letter contains few derogatory references to the company and the way they treat their customers. If you kick few asses in India, things get done. I would encourage all people to write to their bosses, in blogs, to media to promote consumer awareness so that we don't we don't get shitty customer service. You have every right to screw them as they do if we don't pay. The moral of the story - Screw them.

Madam R,

I have just got your details from the Airtel website and if you ask me, i can publish reams of grievance and concerns about the poor customer care standards maintained by Airtel India. This is not the first time, I am at the receiving end from Airtel, but what is really astonishing to me its the sheer arrogance of your employees particularly the customer care to address and settle issues. I solemnly believe it is better to stand in line physically to address our issues w.r.t PSU like BSNL, then wait for days by pressing the keys to get replies from your IVR system. I have four Airtel connections ( 2 in chennai - of which i am still maintaining one, and 2 in bangalore, a mobile connection (997249XXXX)and a now broadband connection which is yet to come. If you want i will quote my problems and grievances with Airtel Chronologically.

1. During my Chennai days, It so happened that after 4 months of prompt response and bills sent, I never received bills all of sudden except for SMS, even though i have subscribed for paper bills. Suddenly Airtel is so conscious being environment friendly, forget the number of unnecessary phamplets which features all your Ads. All the time, i need to talk to Airtel, that i never received my bills on time and to waive the fee. ( I dont expect this to be answered, as you very well - say its a chennai issue. But can you provide me an assurance that these "ugly practices of charging late fees to customers due to faults of Airtel in karnataka circle is not there" ?)

2. My Broadband connection in Bangalore. I have requested for a connection on 21/07/2008 and they told me that i need to wait for couple of days for checking the availability of broadband in my area. Fair enough. Inspite of myself providing my neighbour's number and connection details, i never received a call for 5 days. On the 6th day, when i enquired CCare, I was told to call back after 1 hour. After an hour, the history repeated the same way. After few hours later, when i tried later, the madam (one Ms HaXXX has left for the day), leaving me to stay as a foolish chap. Inspite of my repeated yelling, one gentlewoman saved her friend and she was not ready to take my grievance, nor provided me solutions. Now tell me, If i have a problem with network / services, i report it to Customer Care. If i have a problem against Customer care, Whom should i report it to ? Sunil Mittal (or) Shahrukh Khan. ?

3. After few days, one more gentleman (SugXXX) called me and told me that he would provide me a broadband connection within the next three days. I had prepared to chuck airtel and go for BSNL and thanks to this gentleman's promise, I was retained by a false promise. One thing is common to Mobile and Credit Card companies here. As long as you need new connections, they would run after the customers, once the payment happens, its the customer turn to chase you as a dog. On last Saturday (02/08/2008), finally neither the gentleman turned up nor Airtel has changed. Yet another false promise like a politician during an election rally.

4. The last of the wonders from Airtel. This evening i was in a meeting, when one gentlewoman from CC called me to pay my bills by tomorrow, if not Airtel would be prompt in disconnecting my connection, as i was over my credit limits. Thanks to "Chota Credit"....What i couldn't understand whether the lady who spoke to me doesn't have the sense / so stupid to understand that i have a mobile office (Blackberry connection / service) for which i have subscribed for 12 months in advance. Hence the major portion of my bill is with the blackberry service charges and associated tax charges, where i would have hardly spoken for 500 Rs out of 8300 Rs worth of bill.

Could there not be proper soft skills training be imparted to your staff to address the customers properly and also have little knowledge whether they hold any premium services, its only voice and data before harassing a customer ? I am getting highly irritated with the credit alerts / notifications, as i never violated single payments w.r.t all my credit cards / loans / payments. nobody has bugged me better than Airtel. By now, you might be tired of reading my mail, as i am tired of your customer care (which i am sorry to say second to sh*t. You can very well discard this mail, as all your colleagues have done previously to ignore my grievances. If nothing happens, there would be day where i would never even hesitate to take this matter to Sunil Mittal / even TRAI. Thanks a lot for your patient listening and sorry for being harsh to you for all the mistakes of somebody else.

--
Thanks and Regards,
LaksXXXX

Ps: I would be happy if you can truly act on this mail and forward this mail to VP Customer Care and other big shots.

The best thing with this mail - I got calls from the nodal officer for the next 3 days till all the things were settled to my satisfaction. I would write in my next blog - what are the TRAI recommendations and suggestions to protect consumer interests and also the contact details of nodal officers to lodge complaints..

Lakshman

Akashe Jyotsna.....

2009-05-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

I had read this poem after watching Hey Ram and forgot to capture the beauty of the lyrics written by Jibonanda Das, probably mesmerised by the piano recital composed by Illayaraja (I am not sure whether it was stephen devasi who played the piece for IRaja - Nee partha paravaikku or Nandri...)

The original lines of the bengali poem is described here (which was recited by Rani Mukherjee in the film)...

Akashe jyotsna
Phuler pathe chita baagher gayer karam
Hridoy amar horin jano
Ratrer ei niraboder bhetor, kondike cholechi?
Rupali paatar chaya amar shorire
Kothao kono horin neyi
Aar joto door jaayee, kaashter moton banka chaand
Shesh shonale horin, shorsho khete niyeche jano
Taar par dhire dhire dube jaache
Shata shata mrigedaar choker ghumer andhokaarer bhetor

The translation goes here....

Moonlight in the sky
On the Forest Trail the Scent of the Leopard
My Heart is like Deer
In the Silence of this night, which way am I going?
The silvery shadow of leaves on my body
No more deer anywhere
As far as I go I see the moon bent like a sickle
Cutting the last golden deer-grain
Then sinking slowly
Into the darkness of all the sleep
In the eyes of a 100 does.

I was floored by a particular line which had the lyrical beauty - "Ratrer ei niraboder bhetor, kondike cholechi?" - In the Silence of this night, which way am I going?

~Lakshman

Great Indian Tamasha - Elections 2009..

2009-03-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

Voter's Paradox - I always have this guilt feeling of choosing the best of the worst leaders as my candidate representing my constituency (which means i haven't chosen the right one anyway). If i fail to choose the one among the worst, I have another feeling of guilt, which reminds that i haven't even chosen the candidate (whether the right one / wrong) to do good.

I am not sure how to answer this paradox. If some intelligent person convinces me and tells me that "Arey ! you have to vote for the right candidate, say XYZ, what is the chance of my vote contributing to his win, when somebody offers free television sets, other ones offers 2Rs / kilo Rice, another idiot offers 25 kg of wheat..burning the exchequerer.

My next question would be - Is there any way to canvass / convince all my voters in My constituency to vote for the right candidate, so that my vote/right to franchise picks the right candidate - to do good for the people. I neither have the money / muscle power to withstand the goons/politicians of the modern day (Yaaruppa !! adi vangarathu...)

Then I thought whether i can sought the help of media to find out and project any good leaders, I never found even one single channel which is bother to showcase any real potential and take them to people. They are very much eager to fight to claim who is secular, who is pro-poor, who offers bribes etc, if not bothered about Size Zero of a bollywood actress / a gay actors - walk on the ramp.

When i analyse further, I understood that I had no clue of the candidate's assets / their background (even background checks happen for a fresher in a job market not for politicians), their nexus, their revelations etc. If i had lost my faith in political parties, is there somebody to stop them / arrest all those violations ? - I doubt there is someone.

If an institution takes a firm stand and advises the party not to field a candidate who spoke irresponsibly, why they failed to act against a former CM's threat againt a District Magistrate who is a lady (come on !! where the Mahila Sanghs and NCW now who protested for beating the girls in Mangalore).

If ruling party accuses the opposition for a irresponsible candidate's emotional address in a rally, i never understood why congress never apologised for his father (Sanjay Gandhi's deeds when it was in power)? or why there is a clean chit to 1984 Sikh riot instigators (I might sound like a BJP supporter, but i would like to clarify that I am neither member/attached to eny party)...

To me the question is why is there double standards when an opposition party does, an ally which fails to join a coalition is treated differently on similar issues by the institution which conducts elections, media and the highest legal body.

I never understand Secularism - To me its the most abused word..(Secularism is nothing but differntiating / demarcating the Religion with State - according to wikipedia) which literally means, there shouldn't be any religion during ruling the state / contesting the elections. If building the Ram temple - which is an action item in a party's manifesto is communal and not secular - which i accept, how come parties like Muslim league / any other religion can contest/have a name which directly signifies any religion.

The so called pesudo secularists (ably supported by all leading news channels in TV) never question anybody who represents a minority. India is one country, which stoops down for all the minorities irrespective of the religion. I have lived in UK, where I being a Hindu which is a minority / my uncle who is naturalised citizen there never enjoys anything as Minority...Infact you can't claim anything in the name of religion.

To me voting in Indian system seems to be futile exercise and (sorry to quote) but i believe it has the same result as a tissue paper after the flush. I was shocked to understand a foreign diplomat and writer who is going to contest from kerala has 21 crores (as a part of the "disclosed assets - mind you it is disclosed)...

Tell me frankly till few years ago, the candidature's allocated expenditure was a lakh...now increased upto 25L...I hardly understand how come EC came to conclusion that 25L is sufficient when i can't build a house in 25L. Elections are polluting, see the noise, songs and dances at the time of exams with MGR's " Nalai Namathey" songs when students are rigorously working hard...see the amount of paper used....
with everybody colorfully smiling as "varum kala mudhalvar (future CM)".

On one end, you speak about caring for the environment by not printing an e-mail, here its the other way. Nobody talks about, what they can do....(or) what they will do, how to create jobs, how to afford education, how to increase the standard of living of any BPL family - Blank NO....

They speak about Eelam, Price Rise, Job Losses (Even they are global repercussions and not state govt's faults - as they are not that knowledgeable to screw the system).

To clean up the system, which is really difficult, I would strongly recommend the progress card / report system of how much you have accomplished of what you said. To me India doesn't need a dictator, doesn't need an economist who can think and runs behind a lady for advises, doesn't need a scientist who can't do beyond the presidential powers of forwarding to the cabinet.

To me I would like to be led by a man like gandhi, a guy who can guide without any great aspirations(mind you guide and no remote controls like any firangi ...) millions to vote / not to vote, to make people accountable for being the servants of this country and not ministers/MPs who go around in cars, get gas connections in the capital.

If by civil disobedience, you can boycott the british army and generals, i sincerely believe we can boycott these men too who beg for votes from us.

Swadeshamitran.

Classic Nuances of Test Cricket...

2009-03-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

I always have a fascination for Test cricket compared to ODIs / T20s as they are not for the mass (or) a mundane crowd. To watch test cricket, to understand the nuances of Test Cricket, you need to fair amount of cricketing knowledge to understand the Climatic conditions, New ball funda, Grass on the wicket, Seam positions, Shuffling Batting Orders, Pace of the Cricket etc.

Most of my words in the previous paragraphs may not mean much to Modern ODI watchers particularly in television sets. VVS Laxman's innings / just a leaning drive on the backfoot on Napier Test is more on the lines of a camera angles of a Kurosawa movie, a neraval in a song by MS in a Kutcheri.

I am pretty amazed by anybody who talks to me/anybody on Cricket, that a particular XYZ should have played this way (or) the other. To me playing, Observing Cricket in itself is an art. I would love to follow VVS/Azhar's Ondrive/flick with their wrists as much as a piece in synchronised swimming / dancing on the skates.

I am one of the few who feel helpless that Test Cricket and Spin Bowling are arts which are dying and which needs help like our heritage monuments. To understand and comment the game, I would strongly suggest people to play the game before they comment on. There is a widespread criticisms about Cricket, particularly test cricket that its boring, waste of time and not entertaining.

I have witnessed 2 tied tests, India's loss to Pakistan in Chennai (I still rate this as Sachin's best innings - considering the attack), Laxman's 281, Bradman's century on every session at Oval, GRV's 97, Gavaskar's 220 (Sir Len Hutton rates this as the best he has ever seen), Kapils' 4 consecutive sixes - I can go on...

Probably commercialisation, money inflow, BCCI's might has literally killed the nuances of Test Cricket. The way Gambhir played at Napier, reminded me Test cricket is as good as the old wine (infact it reminded me of Mike Atherton's Match Saving innings in Jo'berg against Springboks of 90's). Test cricket, teaches you to be disciplined, be patient, wait for the right opportunity, take small steps to reach towards milestones, conserve energy for the last mile and atleast also teaches that things will turn around as any other event in life.

T20 - probably taught how to earn money...nothing else except to infuse hard hitting cricket (totally a batsmen's game with bowler more like an side artiste in an Indian Movie !!).

Let the fans understand and patronise test cricket better and world of test cricket coming back to its past glory and entertain me and many more fans of cricket.

Regards,
Lakshman

Confessions - Professions - Recessions

2009-03-05T09:46:00.000-08:00

To say this in an optimistic way, its close to 2 months, I have been at home relaxing at home. To really paint the gloomy picture, I am without a job for the first time in my life for more than couple of months. Its quite frustrating and enjoyable in parts.

Whenever you work/slog, you expect a break, you want a longer weekend, a late start for a monday, early friday party. But when you're without a job, the initial period is relaxing for a week or two, but beyond that you start to feel the realities of life.

Recession / loss/want of a job teaches great lessons in your life. It teaches the importance of money, the value of whatever you wish to spend, the time you need to spend which matters most to you, the people who you will be in touch (who helps in crisis hour) in all walks for the rest of your life, the liabilities and assets you need to dispose off to save your face.

Life is a neither bed of roses nor cot of thorns. How many times in your life you get rejected for a job being overpaid / over qualified?. But frankly, I would tell you that if you have a supporting family, it acts as a Pain Reliever, but you still carry the wounds with you. Sometimes, life poses an ugly picture in front of you, but i can honestly, adversity creates the best out of man.

I am still reminded of Walter Hunt, the inventor of Safety Pin. There was an absolute necessity for Hunt to invent safety pin to pay a miniscule debt of 15$. Finally he sold the patented rights for 400$. The famous oil crisis of 1973, revolutionised the thinking to go for small cars. Life teaches you great lessons during moments of crisis.

I hope this crisis teaches me many more things to be a successful human being for the rest of my life.

~Lakshman

Wake Up !!! Indians Wake Up !!!

2008-11-29T05:10:00.000-08:00

Enough is enough !!! After watching 3 days of news, live action on Terror, Counter Insurgent Operations, Commando Operations, Combing Operations and Sanitisation. The Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, still lingers in my memort as the second most prolific monument and stamp of Mumbai, next to Gateway of India was literally raped.

Thousands of people who were pushed to states of horror and grief. Hundreds of people who suffered for couple of days in locked rooms and toilets in luxury hotels. Lakhs of People are watching them helplessly with fingers crossed expecting a superhero (as in hollywood movies to save them !!!). And here, we have Spineless Prime Minister, Incapable Home Minister who attends press conferences after each and every blasts and waiting for the next one.

Thanks to Politicians for literally looting this country like the erstwhile mughal rulers of ghazni and khilji dynasties. And here on the D-day, there wasn't even one single politician to take charge of the whole situation and provide the confidence to the common man that things will be in control. This is another atrocious act which opened the cans and let us know that the functionaries in the state governments are incapable and we still require the Army and Central Para Military forces to step in and control the situation. Thank god !!...Mr Karunanidhi, we never had a separate tamil state...or else life would have been miserable with Tamil Security Guards (TSG).

This is another example which clearly illustrates that there is no point in sticking to democracy and its bull-shit policies. For a country as big as my pot belly, You cannot control them unless you have a man with strong will and iron hands. We are "Sh*tting" democracy which believes that more people are about to come and make the place much more stinkier (I am not sure about the usage of words here !!!).

There are so many blasts in the last 6 months, that i cannot keep account of each and everyone. It resembles like a Indian Cricket Team's itinerary, where every month you have one series (or) the other. I/We the people of India, require people holding high offices to come with actions and plans to execute those actions with strong wills and to crush whichever neighbour country if required to raise from ashes.

There are 60-70 ministers in the modern day cabinet and we still don't have one minister dedicated to handle crisis situations in a country like India. I may not sound like Humanitarian, but I solidly believe that people who act so acrimonously needs to be taught a lesson in Public by closing their chapters.

If terrorists never act in a humane way, why should human rights needs to be applied for their sentences? Hang them. Show them on TV and instill the fear on people who are willing to join them in future.

I solemnly believe in God and Justice. But tell me, if people don't believe in god (as most of them in TN) (or) have fear in god, in judiciary, how can they be disciplined.?

The Moral of the story is quite simple. Instill the fear for anybody who is committing a crime. Thats a Pre-emptive step to stop all future crimes. Protect your territory and fence your borders. As long as, we have strained relationships with Neighbours, I don't want India to establish any bilateral ties (from Cricket to Trade) with them. If your neighbours are bad, what you do ?. I shut my doors...I am not sure about Congress, but i expect one strong willed prime minister to weaken our neighbours economically and bring them to our knees.

Last but not least, I would request the Home Minister to put his papers as I did and accept his responsibilities, or else it is going to be too difficult for congress to think about Victory.

Hoping for a Better India,
_Indian.

Financial Tsunami - Hurricane Lehmann

2008-10-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

Following the reports of last few weeks regarding the financial Tsunami which is sweeping America and also the other parts of the Interdependent world, I was wondering how "coupled" we are with other parts of world. Probably this tsunami/pralayam might be good example of Chaos Theory which Kamalhassan tried to explain in Dasavatharam.

There was a good article on ET by Mr S Iyer terming them whether this is the end of the beginning / most likely beginning of the end of US economical supremacy. Even though India has not fully opened up its markets (thanks to Left Front and few other political Geniuses), I fully understand the implications of this crisis which might have an impact on India as everybody understands except India's FM (with continuous rebuttals and playing safe with Media on the crisis).

Even though i observe markets from the India's point of view, the first major symptom which shook me of was the sale of Bears and Sterns. 6 months later, we saw the fall of Lehmann bros (perhaps Laidman bros)...sale of Merill Lynch and Nationalisation of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Still I hear Wachovia struggling...Citi writting of billions....GE persuading Mr Buffet to step in and what not.

As a Layman, I never understood the hype associated with the Gloabl MBAs and Day Zero Placements, 7 digit salary, high flyer jobs all these companies were boasting of. If the investment banks, NBFCs and other banks are not able to manage their losses and balance sheets, how were they judged to be the capable guys to handle OPM (other people's money) ?

whether the concept of Investment banks were myth ? Whether these guys were really worthy for their tags? Do they have any tighter regulations ? When a country like India which i believe as a Robust bank system with RBI playing a key role in controlling inflations, deficits, how come when US and Fed boasts of so many stalwarts never had a visibility of the bubble in the making.? When QoQ (quarter on quarter) RBI keeps raising the interest rates, why Fed never hiked it for 15 years - which amounted to this bubble ? - I keep questions one after the other...

Any export driven industry in India would have a great impact. Particularly IT companies servicing BFSI guys worldwide, textile exports to US and developed markets / slowdown is anticipated in Realty / any industry related to higher FDIs.. - Enough Pointers to move ahead...
Jobs would be less if not nil. Lay-offs bound to happen....stick on move head carefully...

Men at Work - Will the Bailout save US (united states) and us ?

God Only Knows..(Probably Bush comes out as Kalki avathar...to finish the world.)

¬Lakshman

Matrimonial Hunt...

2008-10-04T07:11:00.001-07:00

Are you a Vadama ? atleast a Tam Brahm ? Do you have H1, if yes can you please move closer to bay area ? I am 5ft 2 inches, I need a boy who is atleast 5'10" if not shorter than kobe bryant ? We prefer iyers from Palakad, if not preferably from pittsburgh. Give me a break.

Broadminded / like minded / Innocent Divorcee / Chennai Only / H1B holder / East (or) West Coast - The List is endless.If you look into / get a chance to browse any of the matrimonial sites / the sunday edition of Hindu / vernaculars / matrimonial communities which are located in different pockets of Chennai / South India, you would have definitely come across these above stated preferences.

What does H1B / anywhere in bay area going to do with your partner ? If i have preferences of settling in US, I would have accpeted to live as an american and marry an american. What do they mean broadminded ? - I might be broadminded but not to the extent of Shoba de. I have seen profiles of Innocent Divorcees on paper, with the alarming rates of divorces in india, how come all the divorcees are innocent and ignorant. G.O.K

I had chat with my friend sowmi recently and she confided that it is too difficult to identify, choose according to one's preferences. I hear similar stories from few other friends as well. Marriages of late for the last decade (or) even before has become more a matter of convenience, than anything beyond that. If you go to the "Tathpariyams" of marriages, to understand why we need to go for them, understanding the importance / sanctity of the age old institution, we can understand that the modern day marriages have digressed far from the real truth.

I had even heard debates about love marriages vs arranged marriages and I solemnly believe that there is nothing called love-marriages. According to me, there are only two kinds of marriages either you arrange yourself (which others deemed to believe that love exists in them) and the ones which all the mamas and mamis arrange. If at all there exists love, I solemnly believe most of the couples experience that feeling when they cross 50. To me modern day marriages are happening like yet another One day match series which our BCCI keeps arranging with Pakistan/Australia without any reason.

If this is the case with Indian Marriages, Western marriages are much more worse. I had a discussion with my english friend O'shaughnessy and he told me that marriages are more likely to be prelude to go for progeny. Ironically, what i never understand even after my conversation with him, how come people go for livein relationships and stay for so many years with a person and finally decided to marry the same guy and ending up with divorce immediately.

Preferences of modern day youth (both Men and Women) have changed over the period. Its no more about complexion,vital statistics etc which matters the most, but everybody has their own preferences which ranges from the place of origin to your career ambitions. Probably the truth with modern day are people are tired of relationships, they are struggling to find a new partner, new person in their lives. Forget partners, it is very difficult in the modern day to identify few good friends in your life.

Probably this is not an outlet to express my frustration on the hunt rather its the attitude of people (particularly Brahm Community) and so called modern day mindset which is nothing but b****it.

Happy searching if you're in the hunt and if you're already married - all the best for your remaining part of your life.

¬Lakshman

Coming out of Hibernation

2008-08-11T09:56:00.001-07:00

After a long hibernation, i am back into blogging. I am not sure whether i can blog that frequently as i used to do it before. Life has been on a fast lane after i had moved back to india. Everyday something or the other i learn in my life / job and it has been a steep learning curve. Initially, it was more like a cultural shock when you visit india after a long time (even though i had my visits every year, it is too small to notice a change). I went to a extent where i never used to honk when i drive for the first 15 days, and even it is more a nuisance to me if somebody honks just for the sake of fun/thrill.

I had so many thoughts to pen down which ranges from Driving sense to the way the no-confidence motion was conducted. But I have decided to keep my mouth shut in my personal's interests and decided to observe more of late rather than reacting to all the things which happen (bound to happen) around you.
The two things which i seriously enjoyed in India are my mom's food and driving from my office to home in the night.

Whenever you don't take you get more chance to think and when you think the more, you're better in your life. In short, talk less so that it gives better meaning to your life. I have come around a big circle in the last decade, where the beginning of the decade, nothing less than a crisis equivalent of "subprime crisis" and to bounce back from the shallows to where i stand today, I should be a happy man, if not the happiest man.

It all started exactly like Marvan Attapattu's career (which started with 5 ducks and who went to make most number of double centuries next to bradman).
I would definitely like to thank god for whatever he has showered on me till date. I used to considerate myself as fortunate to survive against these odds.
I had great friends over the last decade and a half, with few of them i still cherish a great friendships, but with most of them i have stuck with my usual HIs and BYEs. But I need to thank few of my friends in particular, who have helped me to come out of these odd times. I always use hibernation to analyse people, myself, my relationships, my failures, my personal life etc, so that i can take stock of the situation, if its warranted.

After taking up my new role, knowingly or unknowingly most of my day goes more into technical matters and from now on you can expect few technical articles on this if not a separate blog might be started to discuss my technical stuff. Suddenly, i have got a fascination for architectures, designs and technology apart from gadgets. My target would be Xbox / Playstation PSP3..

Signing off,
~Lakshman

Goodbye, UK

2008-02-29T07:05:00.000-08:00

It has been a fantastic two and half years of my life in UK mostly in Maidenhead and Reading with the fitting finale in central london. It resembled as if it was yesterday, but it has been tremendous couple of years, in which i had beautiful experiences of life, great friends, enjoyable vacations, tantalising tours to neighbouring countries, critical projects and what not.

I had struggled my first month in this country, not knowing anyone (i was new to TCS as well), but i had great roomies in Veeru and Anand, with whom i shared one of the best parts of my life. There was so much of camaraderie among the three, but the relationships grew from good to great as each day passed by.
Apart from the two, I shared a great relationships with Sreedhar Bhumaraju a.k.a Chirugaru, with whom, we had a gala time including vijayadasami celebrations.

It would be unfair on my part if don't thank my friends viz., Jegan, Sandy mone, Dharam, sudip, Dinesh, Krishnan (affectionately mama) with family, Ganesh and Natarajan for their outstanding support and cooperation which was extended during my stay and the relationships which i would like to extend for the rest of my life. Coming back to my UK experiences, the following would be list of things which would be in my memory forever.

1. Lonely nights in Kingswood.

2. Watching telugu movies with Anand and Veerubhai.

3. Fights between Ketan and Prabhakar during the cricket matches.

4. Won the runner-up in the badminton tournament conducted by Keyur.

5. Mimicry and Chantal roberts' walk by Sreedhar B

6. Cricket matches with Hitachi and ESL in Braywick Park

7. Visits to Birmingham Balaji temple, thanks to Sreedhar G for those visits.

8. Purchases of Yoghurt in Tesco (we were literally made fun by the whole gang).

9. Sutta sessions with Dharmendra and Bitching Fridays.

10. Humming and Jamming sessions with Sudip on ARR's tunes.

11. Watching Twenty 20 finals in Office (with whole office supporting for india) - courtesy - Kiran Alluri

12. First day first show for Sivaji along with TCS gang whistling for thalaivar...

13. Watching the Indian team in Lords for a test match.

14. Bought my PSR E403 yamaha keyboard and played vaseegara (zara zara) was scintillating.

15. Attended the MBA tour and fumbled in my GMAT examinations.

16. Had my first drink in Isle of Skye.

17. Superb italian tour with filmi finish of catching flights in the eleventh hour (thanks to Sandy and Anandbhai)

18. Had a great time with Krishnan Family in bristol (me best weekend in UK - undoubtedly...chumma it was like staying in FIL house...)

19. playing Table football both in London as well as in Reading.

20. Had a good pool sessions with Karthik "numeriq" ramaswamy and others.

21. Early morning deployments for provident with Flo and Paul.

22. Memorable Last day farewell at Reading with Anilbhai presiding the event. (Mams !! orey feeling irukku....one more JD Double with Coke...)

23. Great south indian lunches at Mani mama's place.

24. Badminton sessions with KK, Taha and VMS.

25. Implementation of TOD project.

26. Morning coffees with Selva (mostly with vadivelu jokes!!!) and Jegan.

27. Haircuts @ mohan ka melaram and Hyderabadi briyani @ southall.

28. Initial sightseeing tours with Ravikumar (HP)

29. Had a lifetime opportunity to meet Dickie Bird @ lords.

30. buying camera for Anand (ha ha what a comedy !!)...

31. Talking about kollywood gossips with chimbu and krishnan...(anney !!...vandiya naama vachu irukkom...sopanna sundariya ippo....??)

32. Had a beautiful afternoon walking in the woods with Manju...and discussing about ecology to ethiopian music.

The list would be endless and even though there might be few things which might miss in this lists, but would remain in my cherished memories.

This would be my last blog in UK and I may not quite often write my blogs in india, but still would write when i find time.

Wishing you all good luck in all walks of life,

~Lakshman~ (a.k.a white rajini)...

Metamorphosis....

2008-02-20T15:12:00.000-08:00

Metamorphosis - a.k.a "Parinama Valarchi....."

How many times in life we would have crossed and seen a bud and would have missed the time to take note of that which has transformed into a flower ?. Similarly its very much possible that we miss the transformation of larva which struggles to become a butterfly.

Quiet often we failed to observe our children / children of friends /relatives as they grow and we see them one day as grown up. Before observing others, if we introspect ourselves, how many times have stopped for a moment to observe that we have changed / transformed, before somebody realises and convey us that we have "grown up" before we observe ourselves.

I see myself everyday both on and off the mirror (agathilum / purathilum - In/Out) to observe how much i have changed myself than the previous day. Very recently, I observed that i have transformed a lot within a week, probably this is what i believe that beginning of the metamorphosis.

"Vedan valmiki aanathum...

Puzhu pattampoochi aanathum ariven...

Naan Avanaga mariyadhai Maranthen..."

- translation of the above tamil couplet...of mine..

I have observed the transformation of hunter to sage valmiki and also that of a Pupa to butterfly, but i failed to realise that i have changed to someone.

~Lakshman

Ps: This would be my penultimate article from UK, as i would be leaving shortly before writing a tribute to English Summer, Cricket and Vodka.

Saare Zameen Par...

2008-01-23T04:02:00.000-08:00

The markets in India (as well as the other asian markets) were in red for couple of days following the tremors that the US markets are heading for recession. Of late, I have not been watching markets too keenly except for my portfolio, it was quite astonishing that the markets have time and again proved all the critics could go wrong.

It is easy to be a Harsha Bhogle of Stock Markets than as a Sachin to face Shoaib Akthars' (markets plummeting to all-time lows). If at all i have understood few words of wisdom from pitamah of markets "Swami Warren Buffet Maharaj" of Berkshire Hathways Mutt, it is just not to follow anybody and use your own instincts / analytics to buy/sell in markets.

I haven't escaped unhurt in this big bang, but one thing i would suggest and advise all of my friends is to be ready to take bloodbaths if required, as you cannot be playing Rahul Dravid in Markets. Stock Markets in India as became a fascination to anybody to enter more like a Exhibition (porutkatchi in tamil) where people will flock with their folks and goto different stalls and try different things out there right from buying a appalam to merry-go-round.

I sincerely believe that people need to talk seriously about markets, understand it better before stepping into markets. If not all T-nagar mamis and LIC mamas might have to lose out their post retirements benefits as the some time back with chit funds offering 30% interest and 2% incentive ("uka thogai in tamil"), whereas your "principal" might be with a cinema guy.

I believe in India's Growth story on seeing india by road last time, I could analyse about the scope of Infrastructure industry's growth in it. I have few advisors within my family who follow the markets more professionally than i am. But still i believe the onus is on the individual's instinct to predict and place your requests.

If there is only thing i love in the last 5-7 years, its nothing but art of making money and markets. To me as it is to many, it is an art, it can be taught to somebody, probably you can fine tune / refine few steps, but no padma subramaniam can change any dumb girl to a danseuse. It requires a methodical research and study, observation skills, extensive reading right from fiction to geography and what we call intuition to make a mark.

If you read my last few lines, People from sampras to sachin, buffet to bill gates, Kalam to kamal hassan would have these skills to succeed. Thats the reason, I said it is an art.

Hoping for a Promising days ahead,

Signing off,
~Lakshman

Naalu Penngal...

2007-12-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Adoor Goplakrishnan for suggesting a new title for my blog. This is not going to be another movie review of his recent film which he has directed. This is just my own observation of 4 different women, who belong to different genres, ethnicity, roots and profiles who are basically striving to push hard and move in their lives.

Whenever i walk into one of the famous Indian restaurants which has branches even in UK apart from Chennai, I have observed the way P1 works in the restaurant. (It would be wise on my part to make the references and hide their original names). Basically she is from Poland, her langauage is different, her lifestyle is different, but she needs to survive and compete in this country which is as alien to her as it is to me/ to you.

P2 works as a lecturer in one of the tutorial college and she also works in nearby supermarket store. I know her, as she stays as my neighbour and they are also from a hindu country which is marred with violence in the recent years. She strives by working in multiple places, managing a child and family with a brother-in-law as well.

P3 is another woman, who is basically from our "chittappa pasanga" country. She lives with her own kids as well as a husband who keeps snoring everytime and lies lazy. I have seen her struggling to live with those kids in a room which would be same as mine (its ok for a single person and not a family) due to their educational and economic conditions. Sorry to comment about certain aspects of a particular religion, I still believe, its not only the veil need to be removed from the women's face, rather it has to be removed from the men's mind as well.

P4 is a typical middle class thamizh lady who wants to supplement and support her husband's responsibilities by trying and looking out for newer opportunities in this foreign land. She has the typcial duties of a normal household of bringing her kid, to manage a family, and to have a better way of living.

Like in Yuva/Ayudha Ezhuthu/Amorres Peros, all these 4 characters will not mingle, but i found unique similarities in them. Everybody wants to support their family, all of them were striving hard in a alien land, they are not exactly behind money but craving for a quality lifestyle.

These "Naalu Penngal" taught me the truth of sustenance in this world, the value of the money, Striving for a quality life, to care for your own family. I owe my thanks to them for letting me to realise this truth.

Life has taught me lot of things through informal means of observing people, situations/circumstances, taking it from society. I just thought I can jotte these experiences, so as others to learn as i did.

~Lakshman

Evano Oruvan....

2007-12-28T12:38:00.000-08:00

What an excellent title (first of all, thanks to Marati director Nishikant Kamat without any english tag lines and titles) for a beautiful (infact, you can say it as a thoughful movie). I was fascinated by the first 4 minutes of the movie where they showed a shot which describes the protagonist's daily routine.

There are lot of movies which has projected the heroism of the hero to fight against the system by taking the law in his hands and killing people mercilessly. This movie was quite different in that front. The hero erupts in anger after he is being criticised for his honesty, his loyalty and belief in this system that every single individual has the right to live a decent and calm life in this world.

Beautifully set in typical "brahmanal" location on Nanganallur, Sangeetha played the role of "vatsala" with such ease and elan that it reminded me of many vatsalas which i had seen KK Nagar / Pazhaya Mambalam (West Mambalam). Typical middleclass house, cute little daughter (Iyer aathu Kutty ponnu) and middle class "polumbals"..hats off to Nishikant and Madhavan.

Seeman has played a very dignified role which probably resembles as an inner voice/conscious part of the movie, which triggers many questions to viewers. It reminded me of Rajesh's role in Mahanadhi who tries to reform KamalHassan (Krishnaswamy).

Ofcourse, the movie has few loose edges which leaves many questions unanswered. Just because somebody provokes you to change the system / do good to a society, will somebody carry on his hunt?. School donations / Tuition fees / Irresponsible doctors / selling goods little more than MRP (Maximum Retail Price) have already became a norm in our society, Is it not stupid to show as though he is seeing this for the first time?.

As seeman beautifully says that a society which has its head down, will it accept it, if somebody raises their head in the name of questions. Though there are flaws in storyline, still we need to accept and applaud Nishikant's effort in bringing "Dombvilli Fast" to Tamizh along with Madhavan.

Finally, I would appreciate Tamil cinema to have churned beautiful movies of different genre in this year, be it a rustic "Paruthiveeran", a touching "Mozhi", thought provoking "katradhu Thamizh" / be it "Evano Oruvan".

Moment of Ecstacy

2007-12-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

To spell bharathi's words "Ethanai Kodi Inbam Vaithai Iraiva"....I couldn't control my moments joy of touching and feeling my new Keyboard (Yamaha PSR E403) which i had bought after postponing my purchases and controlling my temptations for the last few years.

Postponements were not made bcos of the price/issues surrounding them, but purely on the basis of how am i going to bring that to India (which is still a nightmare). But when i started playing for the first time i enjoyed every moment of the whole night.

I had a small session of trying my hand on few songs of Raja (few background scores etc), it was a fun which cannot be described in words, it has to be experienced.

My next sessions would be on the christmas day and i am looking forward to it so eagerly.

~Lakshman

24 Frames Per Second...

2007-12-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Cinema is one of the "C" things which i would appreciate after Cricket/Carnatic Music/Cartoons/Coffee (the list is endless). There are very few people with whom i have shared great discussions with related to movies of World Panorama. Recently, I had a discussion with one of my friends called Venkat Reddy who has a great passion for world cinema.

This guy runs a website called 24fps.com (translates as 24 frames per second) and he has been writing reviews of all the films which would be featured in film festivals and works as the special correspondent apart from owning the site.

After couple of rounds of drinks on my farewell party, we had a interesting conversation, which started with Rituparno Ghosh's latest english movie and ended comparing Kurosawas to Francois Traffaut. The best part of the conversation moved towards Adoor's Naalu Penngal (4 women - one of the best titles i have picked for my next blog...) and his narration of the episode which featured padmapriya and nandhita das.

Finally he narrated to me couple of movies taken in romanian and also one of the latino languages, the story seems to me so inspiring that i thought seldom people in India would be taking such stories to direct.

As JKB of Sindhu Bhairavi says...It gives immense joy to sing (practice)/ listen (observe) and thirdly to discuss about music (Subject)...This holds true not only for cinema, but also undisputedly true for Cricket and Music as well.

Sometimes it is a pleasure to talk about the Camera Angles / Lighting effects / Sets to Screenplay which is very much similar to the "Cover drive of David Gower" (or) use of "Counterpoint" by Illayaraja.

~Lakshman

Tamil Search engine

2007-11-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

I just found something interesting recently. Check it www.dosai.com.

You have a typeset in tamil and you can key in your tamil words and search pages related to those strings.

Ps: who knows they might bring a new chat facility in tamil and name it as pongal.com

Festive mood back home...

2007-10-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

It was quite frustrating on my part to be away from my family and friends in a remote world and missing a great occasion back home. My brother Ram's engagement would have happened today and I was very determined to be part of any occasion as it is related to Ram.

But right now, I am in a position where i can't be there with him on this occasion. I had already planned and booked my tickets to India for Jan-Feb as he is getting married at that time. It would be great if i can spend some more time with my family rather than working on ethernet and fibre optics.

Congrats to Pushpa and Ram and hope to see you guys very soon.

Regards,
Lakshman

Moving Out of Reading....

2007-10-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

I am writing this after I had packed all my bags. Alas! I am moving out of Reading, UK in another 8 hours from now. It has been wonderful out here.

Trip down the memory lane, I became very nostalgic about this place, even though Maidenhead is still remains as a queen of my homes as Veeru (i call him bhadra) and Anand (I call him budi) and myself enjoyed at 125, clare road as the second heaven. Comapred to that I didn't have the same intimacy to Reading, still I loved the town centre, mcilroys' building (where most of my friends live), TGIF and her favourite Gremlins and Margaritas, My famous sessions with Nuts (Natarajan), DJ Guggs (Sreedhar) and Guns (Ganesh) at TGIF coupled with My favourite "Lynchberg Lemonade" is ultimate.

My cricket days were equally thrilling with Prabhakar & co and we need a nice time with folks here on most of the evenings in summer. Time has come to say good bye to Reading, UK and Finally I had to accept that I fell in love with you as i loved Maidenhead.

Ciao Reading,

Lakshman

My Last day @ Ericsson - Pics

2007-10-14T14:28:00.001-07:00

- Doston, Aaj Meri office ke aakri dhin hain...I Mean it ? Tata Kehten hai bada kaam karega...

- Anil (he is one of the big shots in my office is presenting a card and gifts on my farewell.

- had a gala time with my friends around...

- Myself interacting with Kiran, Dharam bhai with "V" Salutes and Sudipda looking into the camera...

-- Nostlagic Snap at my Desk - Courtesy Guns..

My Last day @ Ericsson

2007-10-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

It was both sad and happy day for me to enter the office on this friday (12/10/2007), as that had been my last day @ Ericsson Services, UK. I have been associated with Hutch 3G/ Ericsson Services for the last 2.5 years.

This has been wonderful association as it had given me great friends like Veeru, Anand, Sreedhar B, Jags, Krish, Guns, DJ Gugs, Nattu etc and also professionally has given me more responsibilities and learning opportunities to understand how business works on the macro level, how to grow yourself and how best you can develop your business and organisation and also at the same time without losing your cool and fun.

The sad part is I will be missing Provident (the application i had worked for 4 years, it has given me an opportunity to code/test/design/analyse etc, which is quite rare in this industry to do for a single product). Sadly, i would be missing her, but time has come to say big goodbye and thank you to Provident.

I had drafted my farewell mails in advance, one for TCS team, one for my cricket team and one for the others. My day began wonderfully with a special hot chocolate prepared by Elsa (who came to knew that it was my last day and complimented it with a spl hot chocolate...which is my favourite drink).

My folks took me to Nandos for Lunch (this restaurant is a portuguese ones, i love my spicy rice and peri peri chips, which i had got it as promised by my folks).

Myself and Kiran (my lead) teamed up to play one last game of table footie (football) against the arch rivals Sudip and Dharmendra and to make my day a great one, we crushed them clinically.

Finally there was a ceremonious farewell given by my Manager Dave Harrison along with the team and I was asked to give my oscar speech to thank each and everybody.

I had invited my folks (all friends of mine, my team etc) for the leaving drinks and it was all fun when Anil Bansal (who is head of CMS, My Manager's boss) joined the party and its all fun after several rounds of JD (double coupled with coke)...

I had been given a nickname of "white rajini" by my folks, for imitating rajini whenever i find time. I was given a special request by my folks and Anil Bhai to perform the same in a "gora pub" was the ultimate highlight.

It was a great evening and never i had felt so much of happiness and fulfillment which this journey has given to me. I will heading for my next assignment and i hope the same way as i had enjoyed this one.

Dharshan to Dalal....

2007-09-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

The last week was one of the few weeks where I am still enjoying my honeymoon period in office. With 2 more weeks to go and keeping my fingers crossed for my next assignment, it has been nagging week (with least amount of work - finally i had modify few scripts - except that i hardly have any great piece of work.

The week was bit lengthy and but the week had few great moments to finish. It all started with Raja's Farewell (one of my colleague who has moved to work for BBC), the farewell drinks therafter. I had a gala time with few of my folks at the Island cafe (which is on the Thames Avenue) with a beautiful view of the riverside.

We guys had fair amount of jokes/fun and i had a nice time with my Tennesse and a Margarita, watching the moonlight night from the armchair on the riverside and enjoying the drizzle which was tickling me and my thoughts.

Saturday came and it was a different altogether, where i had destined to go to Acton and EastHam, but "Insha-Balaji", i was offered a darshan at Tividale, Birmingham. Had a nice darshan (incidentally i was reminded by my mom that it was "Puratasi Sani Kazhamai", and it was very divine and auspicious to get the darshan. I was totally ignorant of all these facts, i had just went as though i am heading for a town centre/downtown. But the best part was yet to come, we had a nice food in the name of Prasadham.

That week also marked a great surprise as the Sensex surpassed 18k and still hovering around the 18k (marginally short of 19k). I was so upbeat as the markets as I had one of my multibagger which gave me terrific gains in this bull run. I was mocked by my friends with whom i discuss markets, about the promising story of Adhani Enterprises. But my friend Adhani (thats how i refer to my pick, was class apart as he was sending the balls to the pavilion). It is sad to part away from stocks, but it is wise to do so without emotions.

Markets are heading for a gala time as diwali is around the corner. Hope it crosses 20k as predicted by ram.

Fotos from my vacation...

2007-09-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

- Ram seated with an exalted smile at ShantiNiketan - Raghuvamsa.

- Appa (1940s illaya...so Black and White..la) - Idhu eppadi irukku ?

- janaki maami with Maavilaku Ma ...

Ram - Nostalgia...

2007-09-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through one of the archives at my home, where i got to see one of my favourite and most loved fotos of my brother Ram. I have never seen kids more than Ram when he was in childhood. Following were the snaps of kids in my family who are grown up...

- Ram was seated in an arm chair.

- Doesn't he look like the Farex / J&J kid ?

- Appidi yennada Kushi ?...

- She was the cutest girl child i had ever seen....my cousin nitya...There was time she resembled steffi...with monkey drop hair style...another cutie...

- Though I didn't like my fotos, this one was cute, one of the very few fotos where i am sitting quiet..eppadida...?

Remembering KV Thatha....

2007-09-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan a.k.a KV thatha (my favourite thatha) would be subject of this blog. Never I had imagined that i would be writing an obituary column for this great man (the one among the few whom i will ever see). He was affectionately called as Vaidyanatha Iyer (Chief Cashier Mount Road, Chennai), who had seen such higher pedestal and who had such a command to recruits of young blood into the ocean of State Bank of India.

Born in Melatur, lost his mother before the age of 1, also had bitter experiences and treatment meted out by his step mother and a lunatic father at a very young age. KV, was patronised by his maternal uncle (Mr VS Subramania Iyer) whom he had respected and adored and also mentioned and remembered him with a sparkling smile. This man was a self made man, who had tremendous will power and sheer determination right from his young age till his last breathe.

When you hear back the stories of My Parent's marriage (btw, it was a twin marriage - at the same mandapam) and the people who talk high about his father-in-law (KV Thatha) to my father, made me to realise that he was a man who had the astronomical powers to go places but never aspired to be in the big league.

He was ably supported by my patti (Neelu....What a sweet lady) - She was born in Nagapatinam and were raised by foster parents (Mr Srinivas Iyer and Madam Alamelu) in an aristocratic manner. She used to tell me about the stories of her years in Poona/Aurangabad and the days with her parents. My patti is an addict to cinema where if she would have born before Thomas Alva Edison's phonograph, she would cursed the whole world.

There were instances of Ram (my brother) who was forced to watch a ANR movie instead of Andhaman Kadhali for a "five star". All my patti needed was a 2 yr old to come with her for a movie. Her knowledge of Music and her carnatic rendition of a theeratha vilayatu pillai was only next to NC Vasanthakokilam / MLV. She should have been great singer, had my grandpa thought otherwise.

Going on vacation to Chennai for Summer holidays (especially to the granny's place is always of the enjoyable ones...i believe the coming generations not only they will miss these treasures, but they are pushed to levels where it would be a fanstasy to aspire.

To mention in the words of Ram, KV and Neelu were more like the Boon and Marsh (the famous australian opening pair), who had not only successful, but had one of the finest innings and finishes. Though there had been middle order collapses in the name of their sons, the couple had a great journey till they had their last breathe.
Building a house at the age of 75 and the stubborness coupled with great mental resolve was the one of the admiring factors of KV.

I would be much happier had Neelu stayed with us to see my house (or) KV stayed for our marriages. To quote one of the favourite quotes of my headmaster Shri TMS - "God takes the people whom he likes the most",probably he liked KV and Neelu more than rest of us.

Regards,
Lakshman

Munbe Vaa...

2007-08-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

This song is one of Rahman's best and that has fetched Shreya G the filmfare award which i had predicted to my friends (previously i have predicted successfully for thangathamarai (minsara kanavu) for SPB and (Engey Enathu Kavithai for Chitra).

I have listening to the inaugral piece on santoor which Rahman used beautifully after Roja. Though I have listened to this few hundred times, i was hooked to this one for a different reason. "Valiba Kavignar Vaali" has come out with wonderful and mesmerising lyrics particularly the charanams, which i have posted here.

[ shreya ]
Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
oone va uyire va

Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
poo poovai poopom vaa

Naan naana kaytane ennai naane
naan.... neeya, nenjam sonnathey..

Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
oone va uyire va

Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
poo poovai poopom vaa

[shreya]
Ah....
Poovaithai poovaithai
nee poovai-kor poovaithai
mana poovaithu poovaitha
poovaikul thee vaithai
Ohhhh...

[ Naresh ]
Theyney nee malaiyil aada
naan maan naan nanainthen vada
en nalathil un ratham nadikul un satham
uyireah..Ho...

[shreya]
Thozhil oru sila naazhi
thaniyena aa-naal tharaiyinil meen mmm....

Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
oone va uyire va
naan naana kaytane ennai naane....

[naresh]
Naan naana kaytane ennai naane..

[shreya]
Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
poo poovai poopom vaa...

[music interlude]

[naresh]
Nilavidam vadagai vaangi
vizhi veetinil kudi vaikalama
naan vazhum veetukul
verarum vanthaley
thagumaaaa......

[shreya]

Then malai thaykathu nee thaan
unthan thozhgalil idam tharalama
naan saayum tholmel verorum saainthaley...
thagumaa...

[naresh]
Neerum sengula cherum
kalanthathu poley kalanthavar yaar...?

[shreya]
Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
oone va uyire va

Munbe Vaa En Anbe vaa
poo poovai poopom vaa..

[naresh]
Naan naana kaytane ennai naane
naan.... neeya, nenjam sonnathey
munbe vaa....

[shreya]
Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
oone va uyire va

Munbe vaa en anbe vaa
poo poovai poopom vaa....

Who/What is better X (or) Y ?

2007-08-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had a debate with my friend krishna on whether Shane Warne is better than Anil Kumble (or) not. Personally i like Shane warne for his heroics, his attitude on the field, his competitive spirit, his aggression and his sportsmanship. Even though, this blog is not about this comparisons, it is about comparisons. The need for this blog is just to outline how our views and focus gets towards comapring personalities / products etc.

I have been tired of people comparing Sachin with Lara, Federer with Sampras, Schumi with Kimi, Kapil with Hadlee, SPB with Yesudas, Illayaraja with MSV / ARR and the list is endless. I feel that comparisons should not be done in the first place, if done it has to be with proper analysis and parameters. I don't understand how people can compare Sachin and Gavaskar / Steve Waugh etc. The reasons for the akward comparisons are people played in different era / conditions / pressures / batting order / People's likes.

There are hundreds of Mamas/uncles (D-Stand Arm Chair Critics) who watched Vishwanath's 97 in Chepauk against the West Indian pace quartret, they would rate that as the best innings they would have ever seen, whereas in this era of 20-20, their comments would be stupid and outdated. It just requires small change in accepting that both the events / arts / people could belong to different era, genre and we just need to accept that positives could be available in all the stuff which we compare and rather focusing on who/what is the best.

If somebody who speaks to about different genres of music, I may not be able to appreciate Jimi Hendrix / christiana Aguilera when compared to John Mclaughlin to D K Pattamal, but we still need the tolerance to appreciate Norah Jones and Ghulam Ali. I still remember one of the conversation which i had with one of my English professors in my college. I asked him why he didn't do his Phd on his favourite poets. He conveyed that Shelly was his favourite, but if starts to focus to climb the summit of research on Shelly, he might have missed Tennyson,wordsworth et al on the way to reach his peak.

There was so much of truth, in what he said. If i start liking an actor / song, we have the tendency to get caught in the web of following them/that and missing out many things which we come pass by. I would like to remain on the basis of the summit and try to widen my horizon rather than have my likes to few things which distracts/doesn't allow me to see a wider canvas. We have this habit of being critical / judgemental of who/what is good, which i believe we need to stop and start accepting anything instead of discriminating it by our judgements.

~Lakshman

The Namesake

2007-07-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hats of Jhumpa Lahiri for such a beautiful story and Mira Nair for adapting the same in a very elegant manner. The story reveals around just 5-6 characters, but the picturisation is apt and to the point. Tabu (what a performance!!!), there are few performers who try not to overact/overreact, I can definitely rate her to be one.

I still remember her performance in The Namesake resembled her underplayed role in Kandukonden KanduKonden. If i forget to mention the performances of Irfan Khan (another Om Puri in the making!!), it would be unjust and biased. He has come out with one of the best performances till date. His emotions as a survivor from the crash, the way he explains to Tabu about the new place, life style to the newly wed wife, explaining the reasons for namesake to his son, subtle expressions while hugging the "videshi Bahu". Irfan is absolute to watch.

Tabu is class on her own. Very much lovable as a typical bengali girl, who aspires for a marriage, finding it difficult to come terms to Alien culture, accepts husband as the only FPG (friend/philosopher and guide), her reactions to accept max, her understanding that the children are moving away from them, all these have been beautifully captured.

Kal Penn - I don't have words for this chap. This guy has come out with a decent performance and when he recollects his father's words is truly emotional. This movie has picturised the true agony of the first generation migrants who find it difficult to accept the realities of the next generation who grew up in the alien land.

Its worth to watch once. Probably another canadian entry for oscars on the cards.

Yezhu Gundalavada..Govinda ...Govinda...

2007-07-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Myself and Guns teamed up with Krishnan and family to make a special darshan to "Mr Venky" a.k.a Lord Balaji (whose UK HQ is at Birmingham...). Being a Saturday, it would be both auspicious and also relaxed day to meet Venky. Unfortunately, the trains from reading to birmingham were cancelled due to the recent floods in Oxford.

We started thinking that Mr Perumal has started his litmus test on us. We took the tickets and headed of to Euston to catch train to Sandwell and Dudley (which is UK equivalent of "keezha thirupathi". It was one of the annoying train journeys, i ever had my life where the whole journey took close to 5 hrs.

ShivHari (Krishnan's son) was there to entertain us throughout the journey. After reaching Sandwell & Dudley, we took a cab driven by a sardarji (i believe there are equal number of "Sardar Cabbies" to "Nair Chaiwallahs") and reached TiviDale (equivalent of Tirumala).

On entering the temple, we could see hundreds of expats/NRI (Non Returning Indians) going for darshans and teaching their children (I almost saw tens of Tabu and Kal Penns - who are caught in web of confused cultures and identities), trying to explain "what is a prahara ? the way to do namaskara...? (Enna kudumai idhu saravanan !!!)

After Darshan and couple of "pradhakshanams", it was time for "prasadhams" which are offered in the temple premises. We had a nice Payasam / Thayirjam (or) Dhadhi Annam (as iyengars call),unfortunately, there were no "madapalli"(s) to try out for typical "pepper murukku" / Laddus. We were desperate to hang out for dosas, but due to lack ot time and necessity to catch trains, we decided to skip it. This is my second visit to Tividale after the "kumbabhishekam" which happened sometime back.

On returning back Shiv gave us few cracking moments, with his "mazhalai talk"..particularly the words "achacho mann yennai"...(which nobody could tell, where he picked this one...). He was pulling the legs of few co-passengers (majorly brits, with his mazhalai talk..and ryhmes).

When we reached we were literally exhausted, just had enough time to see the highlights and hit the bed.

Yezhu Gundalavada..Venkataramana...Govinda ...Govinda...

I had a dream....

2007-07-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

I didn't have a great dream like the one of Martin Luther King Jr, but today i had realised one of my dreams which i had visualised 25 years ago. Row 4, Seat 70, Mound Stand, The Lords cricket ground, watching the 3rd day's play between India and England. I never had better saturdays in my life than this one.

This was the ticket which was issued to me at lords. One of the cherished possessions.

After collecting my tickets at the counter, there was security check and we had a big queue to be checked before being allowed to witness the match.

After the security checks, I passed the edrich and compton stands to reach the Mound stand. Row 4, Seat # 70, Mound Stand - I sat there in that place with so much of adamancy like karunanidhi (that for next 6 hours i was not ready to move away except for food and rain). India resumed the overnight innings with Ganguly (dada struggling a lot on seaming conditions and RP singh playing the night watchman's role).

After the middle order collapse, VVS (Very Very Special) Lakshman was running out of partners before India bundled out for 201. Indians came back to the field and had the usual huddle (probably they might have discussed about the next pepsi ad?).

Then there came the lunch break, My "Madhya Pradesh" (stomach) ringing bells for her state budget allocation. I was going through the "outfield bar", couple of panini/pasta stalls and finally encountered a "Desi Stall".

There was a old gentleman like "our thathas"...who got inspired by the flavour and aroma of mixed vegetable curry, was enquiring about mixed vegetable curry (probably he had a "setha naaku" after eating those deadly sandwiches. I had my share of pulao and veg curry (this was more like our aviyal !!!) and i was enjoying this aviyal with the square drives of michael vaughan (wah wah....what a combination !!!)

There was heavier showers and the match was temporarily called off with the covers on. This was the most irritating and boring part of the match, as the audience really got irritated with the incessant rain.

Then when the played got resumed, sreesanth and zaheer bhai were firing all cylinders from both ends. Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook were managing few boundaries, but there was a huge expectation building in our minds, that wickets were about to fall sooner/later.

But there was a beauty (in cricketin parlance its a "peach" of a delivery) to dismiss andrew strauss and Sachin had the safe pair of hands to send strauss back to pavilion.

Rain interfered again and there was a delay in the proceedings of the game. We guys were pulling Ganguly's leg about his performance and his fitness by screaming about Dada and asking him to wave the sweaters, With one friend of mine wanted to scold Anil Kumble so that he played better cricket.

Another friend of mine, a sardar and his band gave us a gala time by singing songs and whistling and cheering the crowd. The Barmy Army (british fans) were competing with our Bharat Army and we had fun time booing Kevin Pietersen..

When the play resumed, Kevin pietersen and Michael Vaughan safely harboured their ship and it was a session where it went wicketless.

At 77/2, badlight was offered to the batsmen and they had taken the offer, the match was drawn to stumps. I was literally disappointed for the number of overs (that i cudn't witness 90 overs), but there was a surprise gift given to me by the almighty.

I had a chance to meet and spend 15 mins of his time with Sir Harold Dickie Bird (greatest umpire, by the standards of cricket) and I was enquiring about his health and cricket commitments and in reciprocal, he was asking me whether sachin should call it a day/not. I enjoyed our brief chat and we posed for a foto before angus fraser (the mighty fast bowler stepped in).

With Cameraman (lakshman), this is lvprasad reporting the 3rd day's play back to the studios. Over to You Harsha !!!

~Lakshman

Rameshwaram to Raisinai Hills...

2007-07-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

I was deeply touched / emotional to hear (if not see the diplomatic guard of honour and farewell bestowed on Bharat Ratna Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam) who was introduced to me by Ram, in one of our discussions of Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles and the design and development of missiles and ammunitions (Agni/Prithvi/Akash/Trishul/Nag/MBT Arjun/Pinaki etc...). Till today, this amuses me that most of the defence related product development bears hindu mythology related names in sanskrit, i thank god, the so called secular forces never interferred with these as well.

Born in a lower middle class family, a man who proved to this generation that education can definitely take you to places and education coupled with humility would take you even greater heights. I have read his books (Wings of fire and Ignited Minds) which can be treated as text books (the reason why i said to make it as text books, as i wanted it to be made as a must read one, as i feel the Gen-Next lost the habit of buying books and reading them).

My previous lead Mr Pandey used to talk so high about Dr Kalaam as he had the privilege of working directly under Dr Kalam. According to him, Dr Kalam was not only an expert in field of rocket science and but also an highly capable and motivated manager. Dr Kalam and Ambani are two great people whom i admire a lot in the last 50 years who shared lot of commonality between them. Hailing from villages in India, Experts in their fields, "Dreamt big about India", had visions to build a bigger enterprise and the mother of all of them, they wanted to see a "sufficient and self-reliant India".

After completing his studies, he wanted to fly planes. So he was interviewed for an Indian Air Force job. But he stood ninth in a batch of twenty-five when there were only eight openings. He was shown doors and very disappointed. He went to Swami Sivananda ashram in Rishikesh and APJ was sad and asked for Shivananda's advice. Swami Sivananda said, "Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for the true purpose of your existence.". Little Dr Kalam would know that he had a destiny to design and manage a project called LCA (unmanned - light combat aircraft), which was launched in the 2000-01.

I take this as a lesson always,as i have observed in my life that nobody knows what's in store for them in future and what destiny has in store for us (like Dr Abdul Kalam, who failed to become a pilot, managed to develop a unmanned combat flight). I would be happy in my life to see an educated scientist as a president of India and super economist as a prime minister of India which would go as a rare occurence in the history of india. Dr Kalam is one of the few presidents who rarely visited other countries on the basis of bilateral visits and ensured he covered all the states within india and addressed children before his first vist to a foreign country.

Though it might be emotional farewell to Dr Kalam from all the children/youngsters, who had a great fan following from the next generation next to sachin and shahrukh. But in a way, i am happy that he would be enjoying playing his veena / reading Dr radhakrishnan's / books of shri aurobindo and work with the students rather than talking with constitutional experts to dismiss state governments.

Saluting him with pride,

Thanks Mr Kalam for your outstanding contribution,

Jai Hind.

My trip to Isle of Wight...

2007-07-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

I had been to Isle of Wight (it is a tinly isle on the southern coast of England, south of reading, where i stay). i had joined along with sreedhar g & team to visit this exotic place called Isle of Wight. After my trip to Isle of Skye (which is on the western part of scotland), i love to spend my time/vacation in Isles. If you have a car and a caravan attached, these Isles are the best to visit.

After starting off from Reading, we caught a virgin train to reach Southamption enroute to Brokenhurst. I had my memories of Phileas fogg reaching southampton on his way back home on 79-80th day in Jules Verne's novel which is a classic and one of my all time favourite.

After reaching Brokenhurst, we took a vintage train to reach Lymington Pier to catch a ferry for the next hour drive. After my trip through Englisg Channel, travelling by a ferry is an interesting experience - add a latte and a good book, you would definitely enjoy the ride.

We landed in yarmouth and from there we took a tour bus which went around the isle and we had our first hop at the Freshwater bay. We had a great time walking over the pebbles and had few great snaps. I had taken few snaps of the beachhouse, coastlines of the beach which resmebled on the queen's necklace of marine drive.

From there we went to a place called needles and we had a beautiful Rope Car drive for 500M-1KM and it was a thrilling ride. From there we were on our way to needles and the light house in needles.

After week of bad health and sickness, I went out today with a week long stubble on my face and Guns flashed this snap and I liked this foto which was taken by Guns.
It was a memorable day after a long time.

iGoogle

2007-07-05T07:06:00.001-07:00

iGoogle -

This could be one stop shop for all your day to day stuff you do on i-net. I loved it when clicked on igoogle (which is available on the classic version of google page (your normal google interface)). iGoogle offers you to customise your page to have your weather, news from reuters /WSJ /NYT, Play hangman, get technology updates like updates on Sony's PS3, apple's iPhone. You can also add and customise gadgets (this is how googlers call it) and add to receive latest blogs,podcasts etc. I have attached snapshot of my iGoogle, get your version by keeping your hands dirty.....hurry up....

Paatu Paadava....

2007-07-03T04:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Geeman for tagging me and hailing me as a musical connoiseur. I have been planning to write an blog on music for a very long time and this was just a start from my favourites. I have tried to list down the best romantic duets in tamil films and here they are:

TOP 10 romantic duets in tamil:

Ulavum thendral katriniley - mandhiri kumari

This was from the movie called mandhirikumari and this was one of the most romantic songs boat songs ever featured in B&W

era. Probably doordarshan might be the only owner of this movie/print but still i enjoyed the tune (composed on the raag

maandu which unfortunately tried in Iruvar's Narumugaye) and the tempo of the song set exactly as the tempo of the boat ride.
MK radha one of the yesteryear actors was playing the negative shade in this movie had a brilliant portrayal.

Maasile unmai kadhale - Alibaba and 40 thieves

This was undoubtedly a masterpiece from the eastman color genre. This was one of the rare AM rajah - MGR combo (if not the

only one) songs which i have heard. Banumathi at her best and song finishes with one of the best lines (anbanale ondru

serthom ingu naan inga vazhvil ellai kaanuvom)

Parthen sirithen - veera Abhimanyu

This is a class apart. Beautifully tuned by K V Mahadevan (affectionately called as mama) on Sahana raaga, this was an

everlasting masterpiece.The lyrics of kannadasana was ultimate with maintaining the "then" sequence throughout.

Athikkai kaai kaai Alangai vennilave- Bale Pandiya

This is another piece of art from kannadasan. Kaviarasu came out with a classical tamil lyrics and I loved every line of the

song particularly the lines of "iravukkaay uravukkaay engum indha aezhaikkaay neeyum kaay nidhamum kaay naeril nirkum

ivalaikkaay". This song was sung by two pairs (TMS-Susheela and PBS-Jamuna rani), but this was a timeless masterpiece with

lyrics and simple tune.

Sippi irukkudhu muthum irukkuthu - varumaiyin niram sivappu

This was an amazing piece of battle between MSV and kannadasan and eventually we got one of the classiest songs on earth.It

was also beautifully complimented by SPB and SJ (I consider that they did enough justice to provide the jeevan to this song)

and also romantically set in Kodai where this was shot. MSV - the king of melody played in front foot with the beautiful

guitar piece to start and taranas sung by SJ (particularly the ghazal style lines of "thevai paravai paavai). But Kannadasan

came back strongly with "kodutha sandhagalil en manadhai nee ariya naan uraithen" which was complimented by superb sitar

piece from MSV. A true delight to listen to this under the moonlights.

Poongadhave Thazhthiravai - Nizhalgal

This one is from the IRaja's Classiest stable, tuned on the traditional adi raga (MayamalavaGowlai - mother of all) was a Rare gem. I have listened to so many composers using this raaga till date both in filmi and carnatic, but i have never come across someone who has used this to a Dabbankuthu to a melody like this. Uma Ramanan and Deepan chakravarthy were at their best and this has one of the best intros again with beautiful Veena played by parthasarathy (father of Sriram Parthasarathy - of ilangathu veesuthey fame) and humming in the end for "poovai...pen paavai" was masterpiece - beautiful way to finish a song.

Poo malayeh thol seruma - Pagal Nilavu

I love the orchestration of this song of Iraja particularly the violins in the beginning of the start followed by occasional

flute piece and a sitar ending. One of the classiest composition on Shankarabaranam, SJ and IRaja had beautiful pieces of

[ilaiya manadhu (dheemthana dheemthana) inaiyum pozhudhu (dheemthana dheemthana)] which is very difficult to sing without

tracks and Raja was at his best in this song and i strongly believe that SJ was the best partner to sing along with him.

Sundari kannal oru sedhi - Dhalapathi

If there is song i would like to rate as "the best of Illayaraja" - I would be rating this. I never come across which has

technically so beautifully crafted than this song, where Raja starts with the violin strings followed by a flute piece and

the drums which i think was played by shivamani/Michael was class. The song was picturised on of the

Kanmani Andbudan Kadhalan Naan - Guna

I need not say anything about this song. The piano rendition in this song was amazing and the chords played were class. Shot in devil's kitchen (now officially rechristened as Guna caves), I had been to that place and it is next to impossible to shoot in those caves. The soothing piano music (played by karthickraja for IR) and candlelights on the caves and cinematography of PC Sreeram, what more you ask for a song to be a great composition. Last but not the least, the voice modulation of Kamal hassan in rendering the dialogues and Janaki's version of the song was amazing.

Pudhu vellai mazhai - Roja

This was one of the songs which has beautifully picturised song by Mani and santosh shivan combo.The song starts with the

Madhu's eyes widening to see the snow capped mountains and slowly the song picks up the tempo. Lyrics by Vairamuthu was apt

and Rahman to me was scintillating and weaves a magic with this everlasting tune. The song was beautifully supported by unni

menon and shrill voice of sujatha (particularly when she goes high with "nadhiye nee aanal karai naane"...). The visuals of

Santosh Shivan was another masterpiece.

Though there are not less than 100 songs to compare and pick the best 10, i have thought enough to pick songs where you had matchless quality in lyrics / visuals / structuring a song sequence by parts / orchestration. This may not be acceptable by many who read this, but this is more an equivalent of picking a world XI cricket team.

s/w companies vs kazhaga arasiyal...

2007-06-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

I was literally amused by the way Azim Premji announced his son Rishad's arrival to take over the mantle from him. This was very much on the lines of the senior politicians in our country who initially will convey that their children will not step into politics or join their own party.

But every party leader has his own son and daughter (latest to join in the list being "kanimozhi" for DMK/MK). I didn't understand this hypocracy of quoting that my children / i will not enter politics and step into the same after few years in a timely planned manner.

The worst thing is that now software companies would follow the same as these munnetra kazhagams (which takes care of only their "munnetrams" and their families' munnteram). When I heard that rishad premji would be joining Wipro Munnetra Kazhagam, I was laughing at their Council's decision (Seyar Kuzhu mudivu...he he ellam namella edukarathu thaan...ketta Seyar Kuzhu...Sambhar Kuzhu nnu)

I hope all these companies will have dynastic politics as our kazhagams do have, where they have their own retirement plans (thank god jyoti basu got himself retired and MK still remains as not out !!) and their own succession plans...

In my observation, Parties and Companies both have so many things in common. They have missions and visions. They have their own quarterly targets / annual targets. They have their own committees which are elected democratically (he he "anna...enakku oru seat"...!!). They have very good marketing campaigns.....and fool the people with their own presentations. There is also an equally good number of foolish crowd in markets to follow the companies as in voters for parties.

If high command is criticized in any form, both parties and companies never like you and you would be expelled and stripped of your primary membership. All the parties (except national parties) work on linguistic flavours as i could see a striking resemblance in S/W companies originating from different states like AP / Karnataka have their own people in top management. Parties and Companies have been created out of Mergers and Splits (example DMK, RJD...Infosys, Igate etc).

Both have their own committee to meet the ethics but never do they follow one. Both have media friendly spokesperson to project their happenings. Both politicans and company promoters want Tax Sops...(Investor Friendly climate...appidina tax pay panna mattom..).

Nalla Plan...being a guy from family business, these guys can study from Harvard to Yale, aprum few years in consulting and back to soap /cement business.

Now I understand why companies will carry with dynastic rule ?. If Rahul's Son (born to columbian mother) can contest from rae bareli (who is going to speak hindi in spanish accent unlike his grandma who speaks in Italian hindi...), Why will Media Moghuls and Business tycoons will differ ?.

Sivaji rocks!!!

2007-06-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Abbada !! The wait was over to see the superstar. We guys @ office made sure see the movie on the first day first show as a die hard idiot would die in india. Here i dont need to wait in long queues in hectic temperatures, just a click would do.

Coming to the Point, Sivaji was technically a slick movie in Pan Indian standards (better to hundreds of desi hindi movies which still relies on multiple stars, family songs, foreign locales, plagaraised music and ofcourse amitabh bachan to appear in cameo.

I was disappointed by the narration of second half in Sivaji by Sujatha (Rangarajan, noted writer and Shankar). Ideally even today i feel had rajni did Mudhalvan I would have enjoyed it lot more than this movie. But this was complimented by the first half, Vivek had a big part and had created a laugh riot for the first hour. The comedy was pretty decent and short of double entendres (except for the "Adi/kabodhi" scene.

I was not convinced about the main theme of Black Money Hoarding/Laundering, and this would not be appreciated either by class/mass. Suman was far from convincing in this movie and my ideal choice would be Manoj K Jayan/PasuPathy.

KV Anand and Thotta Tharani should have been appreciated for the outstanding work especially the songs. I believe Thotta might get an award for the sets constructed for the vaaji song (which was babylonian arches erected in Ramoji filmcity)

At the end of day, nobody provides guaranteed entertainment like Rajni and I definitely loved the scenes where he enacts like sivaji,mgr and kamal and scenes with the mimicry artistes ( U have to accept that this man has the talent, which was never picked by anybody other than KB).

:Lakshman

Can CyberSpace be more humane ?

2007-05-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

I was reading "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L friedman and this would be one of the most cherished books of my personal collection. In one the chapters, when he discusses the case of Ellsworth vs Yahoo, he brings out a beautiful point.

Excerpts from the Book:
On November 13, 2004, Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, twenty, was killed by a roadside bomb during a foot patrol in Iraq. On December 21, 2004, the Associated Press reported that his family was demanding that Yahoo! give them the password for their deceased son's e-mail account so they could have access to all his e-mail, including notes to and from others. "I want to be able to remember him in his words. I know he thought he was doing what he needed to do. I want to have that for the future," John Ellsworth, Justin's father, told the AP. "It's the last thing I have of my son." We are moving into a world where more and more communication is in the form of bits traveling through cyberspace and stored on servers located all over the world. No government controls this cyber-realm. So the question is: Who owns your bits when you die? The AP reported that Yahoo! denied the Ellsworth family their son's password, citing the fact that Yahoo! policy calls for erasing all accounts that are inactive for ninety days and the fact that all Yahoo! users agree at sign-up that rights to a member's ID or account contents terminate upon death.

This is rather a classy example of another touching story which illustartes lucidly that we are caught in the web of "Who Owns XYZ on Cyberspace ?". As my knowledge is limited on this context, i am not sure who owns my mails/blog/accounts. Is it me because i am the user, the one who extensively uses it (or) the web company because it has own servers and networks which facilitates my communciation.

Probably the next evolution of the e-mail and internet should even consider the role of nominee as we have in "bank accounts" to show that the Cyberspace is bit more humane. It may not sound exciting to web companies, but might be more useful to the members of the deceased families who might be interested to revisit memories with their kith and kin. I hope there is a change which benefits somebody in this process.

-Lakshman

Param - Fumbled mission...

2007-05-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

I also have few projects of my own and "Param" is one for which i have dedicated atleast last 4-5 months. 29th of May 2007 would be marked in my calendar as one of the darkest days of My life as I ended up with yet another failed attempt to scale new peaks. I was happy about "TOD" (Technical Order Decomposition) went into production and getting live the previous week with few hiccups in the morning.

The project was of massive scale which required 1800 man days and the best part of mine was to step into the Matt's (principal designer) shoes and execute it under critical conditions in the absence of Matt K. Though it would take few days for me to recover from Param, Param would be still under consideration and will be executed one day sooner/later.

~Lakshman

High time to (Re)examine...

2007-05-15T05:34:00.001-07:00

I was just going through the Hindu this morning and came to know that one of the XII std girl has committed suicide because of the fear of low marks scored in the recent examinations. Ever since the board exams came in mid eighties (if my memory is right, it was introduced by MGR govt in 1984), there is unusual tension which percolates to even the 80 year old granny in a family where one of the kids apperaing for the board exams (to scare somebody call it "public exams").

Are we producing Ramanujams and Ramans by these exams?. The max thing which would be brought by these exams are the corner seats allocated in the AIR 13 (thats my favourite room in REC trichy) for the so called elite students who keep mugging / reading things by heart (dabba adiakrathu / mug adikarathu in layman's parlance).

I used to make fun about people (who keep mugging things as sukkumi-laguthi-ippli instead of sukku-milagu-thippili). I always like to provide instances to substantiate my reasoning. I was intellect in my own style, but never aspired to be an engineer by choice. I performed my exams and scored the same 80-85% marks in my std XII and My class Topper (in fact TV Sriram) scored 1170/1200. But finally he was working in Wipro and I was with HCL.

We might have started from different scales, but we are almost on the same boat (You can also think about your toppers, where they are now, 99% of them would be the same as you're.Skip the IITians, thats a differnt arena altogether). I don't blame the kid, if it wants the pride to stand first in all walks of life, hats off TV for that. But i didn't understand why there is undue pressure built by sponsors (parents) and media (pakkathathu mamis) like the one experienced by Indian Cricket team.

Thanks to all these "pakkathathu mamis" for their outstanding "thathu pithu comments". I went to a kalyanam sometime back, I was introduced to one of the mamis by my mother and after 2mins, the lady was scaring me with "her little knowledge of slowdown in US" and why BEs are preferred to MCAs. I was totally astonished for a moment and thought sarcastically that you can replace Sam Pitroda (Chairman,National knowledge commission) with these mamis..

(Note: The only thing which you get free of cost in india is advise from the so called "seniors" - all LIC mamas / Bank Mamas will give umpteen fundas to a guy with Pepe Jeans and he will ignore all those with "unakkum "pepe" unga appankkum "pepe")

Parents should be in a position to guide the kids regarding the education, for that to happen, a parent should first keep themselves abreast of latest happenings rather asking all his friend mamas who is experienced. This is more like a senior cricketer like sobers / hanif mohammed who played a stellar role as a player and asking them to coach present day team. I can prove it always that a good player need not be good coach (example - dave whatmore/tom moody/brad gilbert/terry jenner etc)

MY next target is media. As usual even this year we have girls scoring 85% and Boys scoring 76% (ennaya stats idhu). Are we doing enough coverage to project kids with high intellect/innovation and sponsoring kids to be creative ? If you see any channel, you would have numerous programs regarding singing and dancing stuff. I never know why there are not enough responsible actions to project talents among kids in science/sports/literary fields instead of targetting only TRPs and there by coming out with more "self-reliant independent woman who works and saves her family one after the other crises and will be sacrificing her life for the family". - kadhai mathungada !!!

I don't want another person to commit suicide for all these reasons, for that matter for any reason however great the reason might be. It might be short term workaround for the person, but creates a mess for the family.To me education should make you a man to handle things more maturedly. To see a real life situations, how somebody should react to them. It has to be a life time learning process and not a 2-3 hours examination which tests a 192 page book from education board textbooks. Life is learnt a hard way by experiences / observation / desire to learn and moreover all these "pakkathathu mamas and mamis" would never will be there when u require them.

Its time to learn and think upon...

~Lakshman

Jhanvi - A step forward

2007-05-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

It would be strange if you read and interpret the title, this is one which i have been nurturing in my neuro-barn for a while. I still remember my discussions on the lawns of bishop heber, with my friend Subramanian (Sup) and my lineage to work with few NGOs and do something worthful in my life.

But when I moved out of my academic pursuits, i had my own compulsions of making money and i am still in the process of making it as many people around me. But there is a compulsion within myself for which i don't have enough answers at this point of time to address them.

I have been in my shell (which resembles the cave in cast away island) and i keep contemplating for months (nalla velai...i didn't go to Tiruvannamalai as shri ramana...though even i had questions of who am i. i believe only sadhus and jackie chan might know an answer for this question...ha ha)

There are always many things which i have received and i feel that i have been fortunate among the lot who accepts the life what it gives. With my recent discussions with Srivats which was an eye-opener, i feel that microfinance has the potential to uplift our people from illiteracy and poverty. Thanks to Shri Mohd Yunus, nobel laurate.

When reading our sacred texts, i came across beautiful point, which emphasise that there should be personal social responsibility (psr) - just to pay 6paise/rupee to a cause. That was the motivation to start a foundation which i have named it as "Jhanvi", as i have picked the name specially in honouring couple of them who are close to me.

Though this is still inception, i have a long way to go to make it a legal entity. At this point of time, i would be managing it and contributing to it. Though the Main motive of this foundation is just to focus on children's education.

I would definitely get back to all you guys, for your inputs on how to make it better for a worthy cause.

/Lakshman

Piano moments...

2007-05-12T04:47:00.000-07:00

I just told in one of my earlier posts that i had a passion to play Black Piano and I was cribbing that i couldn't buy one. But i was fortuntate to be invited by my friend Manju to her college and we had a great time playing piano and debating about MS Swaminathan and his vision.

Thanks to Manju for providing me an opportunity to play a Yamaha Piano (which was available on Imperial college, London).

Another one....I was playing Raja's Illam Kaathu Veesuthu and singing the same...

Her college was situated in a beautiful serene environment. We had lengthy discussions about consumerism and its environment impacts and had a nice lunch (she got me couscous ..i don't know what it is but it was cute...

(It is a moroccon dish made from semolina base - thanks to Subramanian for giving me the etymological reasons behind the dish. Sup (Thats how we call him, always has an answer to all these unknown fundas in life. I can write a separate blog with my interactions with Srirangam Gang.)

The evening went on with myself singing few songs on malayalam and imitating Mamooty and Jairam. I am not a profession guy who does mimicry but every now and then i have done in my office to fool and surprise my colleagues. I just tried to emote a scene solely from Dalapathi (Suryava pidichirukka ? - mamooty talking to shobana..) and she said it was the best, which i cannot comment on.

Had a nice day after long hectic work schedule...

~Lakshman

Dwijavanti - a tribute to melody...

2007-05-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

“The aim and final reason of all music should be nothing but the glory of God and the refreshment of spirit.” - i often wondered this quote by JS Bach - whether he referred to our carnatic music. I was listening to Dwijavanti (the raaga) in different forms and i was fascinated finally to conclude by a famous lyric "Kanneer Thuligal Thaan Kalaigalin Vegumanam".

Though Rishivani's janyaraaga - "Kiravani" is my all-time favourite among the raagas, Dwijavanti is slowly catching up with kadhanakudhuhalam and kaapinarayani.
The best part of this raaga,it sets up the melancholy mood for the song. For few friends of mine, who cannot unerstand what a raaga is ? - It is basically a scale of notes but it has to to be sung with the proper bhava /moods to induce the listener.

I still remember, i was hooked for the first time when i listened to "Chetasri Balakrishnam" composed on Dwijavanti by our well know Madurai Mani Mama. Incidentally Dwijavanti is very much like the first cousin of Sahana (which you guys might have heard from lot of songs in cinema like Parthen Sirithen from the Veera Abhimanyu).

I was looking out for a Tyagaraja / Illayaraja song on this and incidentally hasn't composed even one (what an amazing trivia !!!), whereas our Vidyasagar and A R Rahman have composed on this after Muthusamy Dikshatar.

Hats off to ARR for coming out with a wonderful song (anbe sugama from parthala paravasam..). Another kudos to Shri Muthusamy dikshatar for converging a hindustani raag and gave it to us.

Regards,
Lakshman

(listening to hindustani equivalent of the same - Jaijawanti..played by Pt Ravishankar)

Lifex - secrets of Life's indicators..

2007-04-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking on life and markets all the time and all of sudden i realised there are lot of common things which could be associated. The title - Lifex was abbreviated form of my life's index (which goes every week up and down). Though I am not Bernaud Baumohl, to list all the indicators as he quotes in his famous book. It all started this way, when i started sometime back to question, am i feeling good / bad compared to yesterday / last week / last year.

Definitely, when you compare the living standards, salary, wealth, education (or) which is quantifiable /measurable, we would have definitely progressed. But when u compute all the parameters, few of them could be intangible, which can bring your up / down. As we have 30 stocks that determines sensex's performance, I just thot of identifying few stocks (idnetifiers) which would determine by Lifex's performance.

Career
Wealth
Family
Health
Morale
Vision
knowledge
spirituality
Entertainment and
self-realisation.

The above mentioned factors are the few hand-picked ones, though not necessarily in the same order. I believe all the ones which are stated above requires equal importance as being a good punter, it is advisable to understand that not one single industry/share will fetch you a higher balanced returns.I have provided 100 points to all the parameters and rank them to find whether I touch the magical index of 1000. I understand that not all the parameters namely family, Morale, spirituality, harmony could be quantified. But i strongly believe that I can ascertain whether we could notice improvements in fitness / mind, knowledge to understand where we stand and where we need to head on.

I don't know how far it helps others, this process helps me a lot. Once we quantify the things we want on paper, it is easy to ascertain, evaluate and position ourselves to think clearly and helps me in better decisions either those are professional and personal as well.

So, where's your Lifex heading today ?...

/Lakshman

Lara's theme...

2007-04-23T07:09:00.001-07:00

The last week in cricket was eventful with many exits and the greatest of all was Brian charles Lara's retirement from ODIs and which marks as a prelude to hang the curtains of his cricketing career, one of the fabulous cricketers along with Tendulkar, Akram, Warne, Murali and Walsh et al, i have seen in my during my living years.

I would be talking with pride to my grandchildren as my uncles talk about richards / vishy about the exploits of Lara's single-handed demolition of / Sachin's swashbuckling "operation desertstorm" in 98' / Warne's ball of the century. Lara's cricket has brought enough joy to me, who signalled his arrival with a magnificent 277 at sydney (he named his daughter as sydney after that knock...)

The one thing which i admired with Lara / sampras / lance armstrong / sergei bubka is their appetite to win and challenge their own records and the way lara jumped and pumped his fist after he got his record back from hayden stands testimony to my observation.

The best innings i had seen of lara was in a ODI against, where he single-handedly won the match by scoring a match winning hundred with his second fifty came as lightning one. His backlift and the way he moves his feet resembles to elegant footwork of romanian gymnast silvasa daniela (or) effortless nudges against symcocks resmebled that of mike russell's exquisite shot with a cue.

He had his own nemesis (with quality bowlers bowling intimidating offcutters particularly from mcgrath and srinath - the bowlers he struggled the most). I hope i stay enough to watch brian when he plays this summer for warwicks...

Brian and warnie - many thanks for entertaining us...

( i thought of writing a separate blog for warne who was the most entertaining cricketer in the last 10 yrs)

Lakshman

Clefs, Treble and Staves

2007-04-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

If I would be regretting a decision at the end of my stay in UK, it would be my decision for not buying my Yamaha E403 keyboard (could be E303 would do...even). I tried to resist my temptation of not visiting "Dawsons" the music shop in reading till yesterday, finally decided to enter the shop only to come out with tears which would have expressed my inability to carry back a keyboard (a Priced Posesssion) back to India.

"Price Does Matter" - but i never found a way to carry back due to the restrictions of baggage/weight in Heathrow. Though there is an option to sell it back here (which i never would do, as it is valuable to me not in terms of price, but for other reasons).

But this is one of my agenda to get a decent 61 keyboard once I am in India and start my lessons with musee musicals / Promusic in chennai. I have been longing to get a decent KB right from my 5th std in school, but unfortunately now i can afford to buy one, but i cannot take it back. That left me little emotional, as being a cancerian i can understand how i feel about my possession.

But I also had a dream in my childhood to buy a piano (particularly in black colour with coat of varnish)after being struck with awe, when i first glanced one in Mohandoss unlce's house way back in late 80s. But I would like to buy one which is compact and can be accommodated within my house (raghuvamsa).

Even though i didn't buy one, I had the joy to play my fav tunes in Yamaha E403 and Rolands/korgs (though there was a restriction placed not to play the pianos...). I had picked few books published by trinity college of music to understand music theory ( u can sit for exams for theory alone...) and did a skim-reading of the same to understand semi-breves and crotchets and also humming Illayraja songs (to understand my theory of tempo being used in tamil film music - use of minims in "chaiyya chaiyya"(3 beats), use of crotchets in my favourite song "naan padum mouna ragam" (4 beats))

It reminded me of my keyboard classes with Mr John in chennai and Sam in trichy. A nostalgic experience !!!.

Duet Movies - trilogy

2007-04-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hats off to Prakash Raj and Radha Mohan to come out with yet another decent movie. I just saw Radha Mohan's Mozhi, which is a simple tale of love between a musician Karthik / Babu (played by Prithivraj Sukumaran) and a deaf and dumb girl Archana (played by Jothika).

Movie is pretty crisp in narration and free from cliches of the way they showed a deaf and dumb characters earlier in movies. The lead pair was beautifully supported by Prakash Raj, Swarnamalya, Bhaskar and Brahmanandham (famous telugu comedian).

Viji's dialogues are apt and pretty straight from the heart. The use of Sign language was brilliant (even i wish i could learn after seeing the movie). Vidyasagar's music was class and particularly the piece "en jannalil" and Kannal pesum penne (remade from his own malayalam piece "walking in the moonlight").

Prakashraj who churns out meaningful and decent movies from his stable and I loved his previous ventures of Kanda Naal mudhal and Azhagiya theeye. Prasanna was at his best and PC sreeram's camera was amazing in kanda naal mudhal.

I would definitely recommend all the 3 movies for viewing it once.

~Lakshman

Scots, Pipes and Skye....

2007-04-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

This is not a detailed account of my visit to edinburgh, highlands and Skye. I have just captured my kodak moments of the tour and posted the selected ones for you.

The castle on the background is the famous edinburgh castle.

Frontal view of the Edinburgh Castle.

This captures scenic beauty of Glen Coe. I tried my best to capture the misty mountains (Inspired by PC's work in Idhayathai Thirudathey...)

Solitary House on the hill ...I wish i owned one...

Myself sitting on the banks of Atlantic Ocean...it was a wonderful feeling...thanks to my geography teachers to touch and feel atlantic.

Another marvellous scenic place in Skye. There were strong winds blowing in this region and one of the best shots.

This was the shot I dreamt through out my journey. Inspired from Kandukondein Kandukondein song from the same movie where Eilean Donan Castle appears in the backdrop of the song. I spent 1/2 hr to pick the same location and the shot. Next time when u see the song, do see this pic.

Myself with Eilean Donan Castle in the background.

(WG) Gracing the Lords.....

2007-04-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

It was a scintillating experience last week when i walked across the long room and stepped into Lords, the Mecca of Cricket. BV, Suchet and Myself went to Paddington and then hopped into St Johns Wood station in the tube to reach the cricket lover's Kabba.

As i had passed through the Bicentenary gates and then through the Grace gates, it was a wonderful feeling, which could be best captured in words only by Nirmal Shekar.
MCC arranges for a daily tour at 12 and 2 everyday (except for the days you have matches...)

We got our tickets and I was gazing through the antiques kept in the museum (in fact If my facts are correct, this might be the only place where you have a museum for cricket. First thing that struck me was the bat used by none other than WG Grace...He should be tall man who used long handle ones...

Then I stepped in Brian Johnston theatre(one of the All-time best commentators of the sport) where i saw portrait of Sunny Gavasakar (aamchi mumbaikar...) and was looking out for colonel vengsarkar's three centuries on the roll of honour...

From then, our guide Dave took over and led us to the long room and its bar. He was describing the different portraits and had a small quiz, which i had won (namake va...!!). I had a glimpse of the royal box, visiting team's dressing room where indian/australian team stays during the matches.

When dave opened the balcony, i was first person to step out into the famous balcony where vengsarkar was jumping when india won in 1983...(incidentally i might be the 2nd person to wave my sweater after saurav...did the famous one...).

Then I went to the gallery through the Edrich gate (named after the famous opener) and had few snaps, before we moved into the commentary box. What a view of lords from there....it was amazing experience...

And finally the most desired thing happened. I stepped into lords as a debutant and sat there for a while. The most pitiful thing was, we were not allowed to have a closer look at the 22 yards...

I just slowly moved into the lords shop and coolected few collectibles...took a grey-nichols willow and tried my hand for couple of minutes, before we walked towards the exit.

But definitely, till the game remains in my memory, the visit would remain in me.

Water - Drenching the Souls

2007-04-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hats off to Deepa Mehta for coming out with a beautiful narration of the movie "Water". The Screenplay was neatly sketched and dialogues by anurag kashyap was class on its own. Ofcourse, I required sub-titles to follow few intricacies of the dialogues and narration.

The Movie starts with Chuiya (the kid has played really her part well) is sent to house where the Widows are forced to live their rest of the life. The lady of the house played by Manorama, an yesteryear actor, runs the house and forces few girls to "facilitate" the so-called aristocrat "babus" of yesteryears.

Chuiya befriends Kalyani (lisa ray) and Shakuntala (seema biswas, deserves definitely an award for her portrayal). Chuiya initially hesitates to accept the home (the one for destitutes) bt finally accepts the new way of life. In the meanwhile, Kalyani meets Narayan (John Abraham) who has rational thoughts and is moved by ideals of Bapu.

Narayan wants to save Kalyani from the bereft state of life, proposes her for the marriage. Kalyani is optimistic of new lease of life offered to her and but her honeymoon of imagination comes to grinding halt when she comes to know about his father.

The movie ends with Shakuntala trying to save chuiya from the destitute-home and hand over the kid to Narayan to take care the kid.

The movie had lot of open questions, but equally had discussed lot of issues related to illiteracy, widow remarriage, exploitation against women etc. This movie reminded me of the short story "Yuga sandhi" by Jayakanthan which i had very recently.

Th short story deals again with widow re-marriage and how the society had apprehensions to accept it. The narration was crisp and had the stamp of Jayakanthan.

The memorable lines of the Movie - Water was "Do we need to believe in our texts / the law (as the law by 1940's legalised widow remarriage...), though this question was ignorantly asked by seema, that conveyed greater amount of meaning.

Definitely i would recommend that this is worthy enough to watch.

~lakshman

Game of Death...

2007-03-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was totally disturbed and disgusted the way the game of cricket has been progressing these days. My first pranams to Mr Bob Woolmer who was such a magnificent cricketer and a great coach who was regarded as the father of modern day coaching who had the scientific temper to modernise coaching cricket.

He was a great man, great visionary who transformed the springboks to came back strongly after the apartheid. I have always stunned by his coaching styles of introducing bowling machines,fielding coaches, use of laptops, understanding opponents bowling by watching the video footages etc.

As Alan Donald, rightly put it, he spent his life for cricket and also paid for it.
But still, it sucks to see the game of cricket has gone to such a horrible depths where media/threats/money play such a vital role and totally took away the charisma of "its another game".

I would blame the media and advt companies, which unnecessarily adulates any xyz and make him a celebrity, patronises him by offering contracts/endorsements, pushes him into overnight celebrity and puts his game into back burner.

What is the need for so many channels to follow sehwag's form, xyz's love affair, any cricketer's restaurant / hair saloon ?. Gone are the days where it was played with such an enthusiasm/joy in international arena where "it was just a game" and and not "another strategy to make money".

Sports should inculcate the enthusiasm to play for the audience and also provide enjoyment to audience to watch it. Till mid-eighties where the game was played well within the commonwealth, it had its pride and glory. The moment few sheikhs who brought the game to barren lands of Sharjah, we had the first nail in the coffin.

Thanks to members of asian cricketing boards, who saw a huge potential to market the game these are never taught in harvard....Mr Mark...!!!) and players signing endorsements for huge sums and always performed well in "pucca/plastic pitches" and became "tigers on paper"

Another opportunity for Bollywood-Cricket nexus (which started from abid ali to azhar) which got extended to the "goodfellas". There is so much of politics in today's cricket where it is no more a sport where merit alone counts. If u get a chance to watch the movie "iqbal" by nagesh kukunoor, which beautifully portrays how difficult it is for a kid to get into a cricket team.

To me it was not a surpise, when India lost to Bangladesh (thanks to indhira gandhi...for 1971...their liberation..), it was very much predicted. To me i strongly believe any form of art/sport/profession can be practiced only when the performer is committed to it. I couldn't see even minute traces of commitment from the present team. There is absence of camaraderie when u have 3-4 ex-captains in a side..(resembles 92' indian side which had 6 ex-captains!!!)

I hope there might be someday when indian cricket will have the same fate as the indian hockey team which was once 8 time olympic gold-medal winners...(thanks 2 Mr Gill and his foolish decisions...)

If that day comes, I would be there to write an obituary column for Indian Cricket reaching the acharyan thiruvadi (Born 1933 - Died 2007)

May Woolmer's soul Rest in Peace,

~Lakshman

Int(a)xicated on 28 feb....every year...

2007-03-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

Quote: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

The nation's (Inda's) budget has been presented on 28th of February (which also incidentally to be our national science day). Time and again, i have seen our finance ministers who keep smiling with a brown coloured briefcase in his hand, spelling out the most (stupid) surprises every year.

This year it was no different except for the finance minister to present his speech on native dhoti (Aam aadmi...yaar!!!). Coming to the point, if i go through the points which are highlighted in this year, I couldn't see a single point which is very much different from the previous year by PC.

I believed that there might be major allocation happening on the Infrastructure/Primary Education/Agriculture to focus on the area which needs more long term vision and realistic goals. But most of the key points just resembles that the old wine has been well packaged in "Tetrapaks".

I strongly believe that we desperately need the second "Green Revolution" as pointed out by Ram in my discussions, the plan to open up retail / next phase of IT and telecom (targetting a greater level of penetration of PCs / Bandwidth / computing infrastructure to sustain the global competition and sail against the next wave.)

I also want my taxation to be simple and straight and far from complexity. I was reading a good article, which was hard-hitting how bollywood heroes and samajawadi thakurs who are still "gifting" bentleys/maybachs but they don't fall under the scanner of either VDIS / 6-in-1 scheme.

To stay in india and pay taxes as a "salaried class" is really a pain in the a***.
I still don't understand why a doctor/lawyer/anybody who does private practice does not fall into the category of salaried class and who is also subjected to the same pain/torture as any middleclass guy.

The last time when i heard that the MP/MLA whose monthly salary is close to 4k (note this is salary, i am talking about hidden / fringe benefits...). Say even after the implementation of 5th pay commission, it could have gone up to 10K. But I have never seen a MLA/MP in india who lives within the 10K. Possibly, i believe there are few guys in Pondicherry (the CM of Pondicherry was going on cycle...paavam...pozhaikka theriyadhavan!!!).

It is high time that the Government of India (India Inc to refer in ET slang), to act as a Profit centre and speed up the projects and cut short the revenue losses and scrutinise the loopholes in tax system to accommodate greater number of people and reduce the tax burden of individual.

All these are very much possible, when you have a majority government with few individuals at helm with a clear thinking and not fiddling with issues of vote bank politics.

Amazing kid...

2007-02-22T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hey,

I just got this new video from one of my friend.(courtesy:anupama).

This kid is amazing and the best i liked about this chap his fingers were awesomely rolling like the dancers on the skates..

what a talent...if beethoven had seen him playing his fur elise, he wud have loved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldVc2tHCdLQ

Video Description
"When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."
-- Ludwig van Beethoven, quoted by Bettina von Arnin, letter to Goethe, 1810
"...And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. —John F. Kennedy (eligarf)"

kalakare da chotu...i salute you for your talent.

/Lakshman

Chuck and Wilson....

2007-02-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I have been collecting DVDs of few great movies and adding them to my personal collection ( I like to see the all-time top 100 movies and read the all-time best sellers during my lifetime) and in this blog i would like to describe about one such movie which is all-time classic.

By the title of my blog, most of you would have picked the title of the movie. Yes indeed it is "Cast Away". Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland who works for FedEx, who is struck by a disaster and a dramatic escape only to have the most traumatic stay in the islands.

The beauty of the director and the actor, they have beautifully pictured the way the man who forces himself to live and win the situation. The way Chuck searches for drinking water, creates fire to eat his fish, builds the shelter, calculates the ropes required to march on is awesome.

Wilson (the volleyball) plays a crucial role and in fact plays the role of mute listener (equivalent of K balachander's use of irumbal thatha in edhir neechal / jathi malli / unnal mudiyum thambi to name a few) and Chuck keeps talking to Wilson.

The scenes which would move anybody was the joy Chuck expresses after the lighting the fire for the first time singing "light my fire" by "The Doors", the moment he loses his wilson and in dilemma to save his life/go for wilson (who was with him for so long) and also the final scenes with kelly (helen hunt), where she has to decide her course of life were exceptional.

The music score by Alan Silvestri and the cinematography by Don Burgess was splendid (particularly in movies like this and phone booth, their scope is restricted to backgrounds, few landscapes, and also camera angles)

But to quote the best lines of the movie...When ...Chuck explains to his close friend, "I've got to keep breathing. Because tomorrow, the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"

The movie was shot in modriki island in fiji and i heard that the movie was shot in 2 schedules after an year so that Tom became very thin and hairy for this movie.

Its one of the best movie experiences i had watching this on a lonely night all alone (A perfect setting to have chuck noland, wilson and Myself).

/Lakshman

Countdown and Calypso...

2007-02-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

This would be my first world cup after '83 when kapil's devils came back with the prudential's and i still remember the celebrations back home when "jaggu mama" woke me up said india has won. I was a kid aged 5 then, but still that was the best victories which reminds me as though i had won (In fact, that marked the beginning of Cricket as the religion which had its origin in india).

Here in the so-called mecca of cricket at lords, i don't see the same celebrations/fever which we have for the cricket world cup. Cricket to me is one of the "C which i liked and has been inherited from the "gora log" next to janu's coffee and cinema. Date 06 feb 1985, i still remember we (ofcourse in the company of ram) really bugged my father AVR during the world series (remember ravi shastri got an audi car...), finally came in Mr BPL to our home.

I lost my first teeth, injury on the forehead, ram's broken thumb all still linger in my memory. Cricket in those days were so cute in coimbatore...where i was studying 2nd standard (i don't remember the sections....) playing with guys like butter, sundar, KR who were on the final years / doing CA etc. Being the chotu, I will be getting the additional "gaaji" (its local term for another innings...ofcourse my mom always use to referee the matches give the verdicts like the appelate tribunals set for the rivers...)

Cricket is like Lord ganesha where you can play whereever u want / with whatever u want. (i have seen ppl making ganesha in turmeric to murukku maavu...). In Erode, we had grown up little more and serious cricket with ravi/kumar/dasarathi/ram etc. In Gulli cricket, the best things i like are the rules the kids design it. If it hits number 8 / vasu sir house its a four", if it hits xyz, you're declared out. The rules keep changing depends on the palyers whims and fancies and their capabilities.

There are so many unwritten rules which could be added in ICC as well to make cricket more an interesting game. Next time when u meet guys playing cricket, you can observe whenever somebody says "its over"...the bowler would say ! "last ball"...one pitch catches ( i have never heard in international levels...).....French cricket for the immobile and the book cricket for the bookworms...

The stares and glares which these "pakkathathu mamas..(neighbourhood uncles) give at these young kids, scolding them when the tennis ball hits the windows...the kids which run by throwing the bats and go for hiding....all those experiences are wonderful.

During my UG and PG, we had gala time in the ground, where we threatened/persuaded the juniors to lose against us, as we would be royally raped in front of our class (esp the girls...) in our department tourneys..I was forced to bowl my leggies thanks to spb, even though i never tried to turn as much as sultan of spin (warnie dada...)

One another incident which still flashed in my mind was the way GG settled scores with him by trying his so called pacebowling on my retina..thanx da Harsha for saving me from another one...

I watched lagaan last week for the first time, and it also reminded me of the peculiar bowling actions of my friends...

I used to have hot discussions / bets / fights against the line-up with JB / Sumanth /UK and i still remember the whole office was watching when sachin cleared the ropes against andy caddick....in HCL...

When speaking about cricket, the best guys i have interacted who predict the outcomes/strategies / gameplans better than most of the anchors in ESPN STAR / the lady with necklines...(woh kaun thi...he he) was my beloved ram and shabir (he is absolute fanatic who used get up at 3AM to listen to commentaries...)

Missing the world cup this time would be hardest thing now, but of late i might be a veteran to state that my cricket has lost the charm and it is not the same it used to be.

If you get a chance, never miss WC, as you cannot afford to miss the beaches and calypso...

ooolala layo ooolala....oolala...

/Lakshman

Are we not fortunate ??...

2007-02-06T13:39:00.000-08:00

I am writing this article with heavy heart, as i have been contemplating the purpose of life for more than a week before writing this piece. I was watching TV the other day (rarely i see TV these days except for comedy soaps viz., friends/scrubs etc), there was a program on extra-ordinary people and to my irony they were showing a documentary on the people who are literally not grown on ages for very long time.

I was not able to digest that girls and boys who were shown that series were not grown as full-fledged as we are, but their growth was struck by some syndrome (i am not going into the medicine/biology here). But the greatest shock to me, was a lady (a mother) had both the kids which are afflicted by the syndrome.

The best part of it was the children were accepted as normal in their schools, but still the kids have the anxiety (which is very much visible in their watered eyes...) that they could not live their lives as others (probably like us)...

Though we might have suspicions/doubts like "madhavan in anbe sivam whether do god exists / why should a kid of 3-4 yrs which hasn't done anything yet in life should suffer ?

But I have asked this question many a time in my life and i have also found an answer for this. I have never seen/observed a child which is mentally challenged / a slow learner without parents in the first instance ?. Probably these kids get better parents than any of us. ( you have your own chance to be jealous on them !!!).

When ever we grow with our ego, we would be able to witness a beautiful episode which brings us back to earth. This was one such incidence to me and could be to few of us as well.

I have to thank and acknowlegde few of my friends who have influenced me with the concept of social work. I don't even like to call it as social work and it has to be termed as "personal social responsibility".

In my humble opinion, every man (ofcourse woman as well) has the responsibility to make this a better world by giving it back to them whatever they can.

do you still think your life sucks....are you not fortunate ??

/Lakshman

iPhone

2007-02-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

Innovation is to apple is what invention was to edison. I was completely amazed by the pics of iPhone which were published in apple's website. Though the sleek design resmbles me of Nokia N-series, the user-interface and touch screen display would provide the competitive edge similar to the case of ipods and other Mp3 players. The use of safari browser indicates another classic feature in this handheld stuff. I am waiting for the release to check my company releases this version as well.

/Lakshman

i have provided few sample pics. you can also check this is apple site.

Unanswered Questions....???

2007-01-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

Unanswered Questions:

1. Why do rock stars have a funky hair style?
2. How can actors meet with accidents in bus stops and start their careers in cinema ?
3. Why should be a villain always call his right-hand guy/lieutant with christian names (namely
david/peter etc) ?
4. Why do the state government officials (if you see somebody in educational dept / revenue / sales tax) always wear none other than a safari ?
5. who could be the first person to introduce a word from foul language (say a four letter word /any other vernacular)...cha (enna brainla ??)
6. Do the soldiers who die in wars, will talk for fifteen minutes like our bollywood/kollywood heroes after getting hit by 15 bullets ?
7. If parents are interviewed for their children's admission, what will happen to a child whose parents are illiterate ?
8. why should heroes are always poor and heroines are rich in screen ?
9. If you have educational qualifications from conductor to collector, then why my beloved MLA is uneducated ?
10. "Congratulations, neenga appavaga poreenga" / ellame 48 hrs kazhichu thaan solla mudiyum / we tried our best - god is great - are these are only words which are taught in medical college ?
11. Why do girls speak in english in front of the guys (even though both of them knew their mother tongues..."tameel theiryum pa" - fellow stella marie peter...)
12. why the hell heroine always say (ennai onnum pannidathey - dont come near me) in a rape scene, instead of reminding him the guy to rape him, she cud have called for coffee shop
13. why actors like ARS / Veeraraghavan / V gopalakrishnan were not give chance to act in NYPD serials ?? (most experienced in acting as police officers)
14. If whole of tamil nadu shud not learn hindi, then how come sons and relatives of politicians can alone speak hindi ?
15. who is the one niraburadhi (acquitted) who should not be punished, whereas the hundred criminals can be set free ?
16. why can't autos in chennai alone will not come to KK Nagar/Adyar (adhu varathey sir...), whereas autos in banaglore and hyderabad can come anywhere ?
17. where does one get ideas to write songs namely (lalakku doll dappi maal / omaha seeyan) ?
18. why do managers set a target of 125% (qualitative attribute mind you not quantity like intelligence/hard working) in your appraisals which they expect to beat their expectations ?
19. If i copy a song of illayaraja / AR Rahman and release it and if it is called plagarised, then so many vidwans are doing the same in december season without paying royalties to swami thyagaraja? (ofcourse Sabhas don't encourage free kutcheris he he ....)
20. why do most of the feminist writers who speak about female emancipation never live with a male and lead a successful life ? (dei lakshmana...ofcourse the males also great freedom from them ....ha ha )

/Lakshman

Gurubhai a.k.a Dhirubhai

2007-01-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

This post is written after watching the much awaited film of the year "Guru" by Maniratnam. I always love mani ratnam for his marketing style, casting, managerial skills, sensational stories. But still mani is worth few credits for giving sensible cinema for the last 20+ years. Hats of Mani Bhai for depicting Dhirubhai's story in his typical "shtyle".

But I loved the story which has greater resemblance of Shri Dhirubhai Ambani (to whom i have a greater respect, even though there are questions of ethics were always posted against his style of doing the business).

The movie starts with Guru who has failed in exams pursues to do work in turkey (dhirubhai went to Aden (Yemen), and works for Shell (burma shell company). Once he earns sufficient money guru has the passion to do business on his own. Marries Sujata (aishwarya) for dowry which he uses it as captial and proceeds on his way to start his venture "Shakti Corporation".

During this time he befriends manik das gupta, the media barron (this resembles of Shri R P Goenka of indian express) , who helps him initially to start the company and fights with Guru for his unlawful practices, in the later half of the story.

The movie has lots of resemblance on Dhirubhai's life, on Reliance, their logo, the way the backward integration was extended from yarn-rayon-chemicals-refinery etc. Guru (Abhishek) the way he parts away from his brother-in-law and starts his business (dhirubhai parted with his cousin and resumed his business) and gets paralysed with his right arm in a immovable state. The sequence of conducting the sharholders meetings in stadiums were started by Reliance in india which was portrayed the same way in the movie.

It shows yet again that all his stories are not original and basically inspired from mythology(dhalapathi from mahabaratha / satyavan savithri (roja, where she fights for husband's life) / inspiration from a news article (kidanapping of IOC official Doraiswamy (roja) / varadha bhai (nayakan) / chor chor (kshanak kshanam) / yuva (amigo perros) / Guru (Dhirubhai).../ pallavi Anu Pallavi (aboorva raagangal ,young guy falling in love with older woman)

I would have been much happier if Mani would have given enough credits to Dhirubhai who was the real villager, visionary and winner. If you want to read more about Dhirubhai read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhirubhai.

Ofcourse, you can watch this movie for the technical grandeur viz, usage of handheld cams by Rajeev Menon for Barso Re song and Mayya Mayya and Samir Chanda's photography. But the usual locations of Melkottai (which comes in chor-chor / in rakkama song of dhalapathi) / thirumalai nayak mahal (similar to kehana hi kya) do appear in this movie (thanks ram for info about melkottai, a place on TN-karnatka border) . Interestingly my friend krish pointed out the striking resemblances of train and rain sequences which appears in every mani movie also appears here.

/Lakshman

A long walk....

2007-01-14T15:31:00.000-08:00

I had listened to you a beautiful tamil song and i have translated the lyrics in english as this could be appreciated by other friends. This is one of the songs which has haunted me a lot in the recent past.

Note: This piece of translation may not follow the strict rules of english poetry and i am an amateur and this is my maiden attempt.

Oh! my nomadic friend who walks on the forestside,
Reach your destination before the sun sets,
It is not as sunny as the mid-day,
Focus on your foot and keep walking,
You will learn a lot during this walk,
Stay focussed on your journey,
Mind is the only friend who accompanies you.

Life is a perennial river,
Hope being the banks on her sides,
Never stop her and allow her to have a free run.
If she stands still, make her to run
She keeps moving as the days pass by
You can never reach her roots,
Realise this and keep walking.

Lakshman

Have a great day ahead.

Melifluous Tunes...and the Classic Ultaas(flicks)

2007-01-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful night session on music where i was picking up the best tunes which i had heard and came to best of the songs which were plaigraised / ultaa-ed in indian parlance to our desi audience.

This song "chittuku nalla chittukku (from the movie nallavanukku nallavan) of illayaraja was one of my favourites as tempo of the song was very slow and this has been inspired from 18th century russian composer (http://www.emusic.com/album/10872/10872285.html)

The best of the inspiration which i heard was a tamil song flicked from antonin dvorak symphony 9 (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/dvorak_sym9.html - listen to scherzo). The song was flicked by none other than maestro Illayaraja for a song called "chittu kuruvi vetkapaduthu" for the movie chinna veedu..(beautiful piece...)

One of the interesting flicks made in hindi was by "Yeh dil na hota bechara"http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000691.html from jewel thief (composed by S D Burman) was flicked from yesteryear David lean classic The Bridge on the river kwai. (http://www.archive.org/details/SNK003 -colonel boogie with intro - listen to that)

I have also added one of the finest tunes which i got to know from my guitarist friend mukund, who identified this song from Beatles (the song called "girl" one of my all time favourites...)

This has been used the yesteryear ad of reynolds if you remember way back in late 80s / early 90s.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYl0iMSlMQg - don't miss it...

Ek Thitili ....Down the Memory lane

2007-01-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking the other day reminiscing the days of my past and thought of sharing the few rollicking/rocking moments of "DoorDarshan" which i enjoyed in the past. The earliest things which i remember are the progrmames which came in doordarshan which was so much informative.

All the kids in my neighbourhood use it assemble at sanju's place in '82 to watch the "oliyum oliyum (tamil version of "chitrahaar") / at my place to see one new song which would have come for diwali / new year. Whenever there is Christmas / Good friday, Sivaji used to sneek into my house with "thevane ennai parungal" / another song from vellai roja. Even on the new year, there used to be songs like "happy indru muthal happy" (which means i am happy from today) / a song from kamal movie guru.

I even remembered prepared a skit based on the schedule of doordarshan with their schedule. for those who has forgotten the classic schedule, here it is ( i hope DD still sticks with the similar one...)

11:30 - kanpom Karpom (best classes of Dr Nannan)

Enga "pa" ezhuthunga .."pa" "da" "il" - "paadal" "padayal illapa paadal"

ezhuthiteengala azhachidatuma (can i rub the board ?)

12:30 - vizhuthugal ....(most probably most of the "aunties" wud be fan club members of this !!!)

2:00 - shanthi - oru (periya) kudumbathin kadhai

3:30 - thanmanam (swabhimaan) - this was mahesh bhatt / shoba de's crap one.. i seriously understood who went with whom ...indian version of bold and beautiful (u cannot keep track which character was going with XYZ)

4:00 - some crap AVM serial

5:32 - kanmani poonga (they are only ones to start at 5:32...)

Jayagopal garodia palli manavargalin isai nigachi...

5:50 - manai maachi ...

pinju pona thuniyil bommai seivathu eppadi endru solli thara varugirar vimala ramanan (some lady name !!!)

6:10 - ulavarum olikathir - this is the one prgm all "oldies" will watch where they show all kumbashikams...blah blah..

6:30 - naatupura kalaigal... vijayalakshmi navaneethakrishnan kuzhuvinarin paatu...

7:00 - kaani nilam thantha varam thavaram ....(how can one forget this sweet rendering of MSV's grammy classical)

In this the comedy was most of the time the guy(agri college prof / fertiliser company guy) wud talk in english to the tamil farmers about farming...

sample converstaion wud be like this ....

manavari paguthiyila....neenga 3 kilo "kadalai punnakum" 2 kilo super potashyum serthu payrukku thelicheengana...amoga magasool kidaikum, athoda "sottu neer pasanam" muraiyila neenga vevisayam senjeekangana...nalla 3 bogam parkalaam... (most of the words i never understood)..

some Fertiliser urea ad will also appear....with one guy on dhoti and banian...he he ...

7:30 - extra ordinary tuesdays... - u will get the indigenous "play" which is conceived by DD itself.

the same devi lalitha /j lalitha / gopi / delhi ganesh & co will act and the best part will be the sets where there will be one sofa / one stair case (with 3/4 steps) and the steven spieleberg of drama (Mr GPR who directs the crap)..

8:31 - desa bhakthi padal....- remember DD was a predecessor to ARR in promoting maa tujhe salaam...

8:40 - All time favourite Shobana Ravi / Fatima Babu ("kuranji malar fame...he he ) will keep blasting with rajiv gandhi's foto being flashed during the sports section...

9:00 - back to national programmes...

Though the above-mentioned was dig at DD, there are wonderful progrmames which were conceived like Quiz time / Sports quiz (by Dr Narottam puri) .../ world of sport (anupam gulati)
ramayan and so on...

I wud still enjoy the edhiroli - feedback session where a DD guy will never accept that they mada mistake - was a class comedy.

Modern day u have more variety but still the impression left by DD on me and some of you wud be indellible mark.

except for the few technical havocs where if the batsman hits on the leg side, the cameraman will still focus on the off-side in cricket matches and the expressions to say that the time is running out.

Thinking about DD gives so much of joy....watching i doubt it might give me the same...

jot down your memories....about DD

Meendum ungalai sandhikum varai ungalidum vida peruvathu ungal abhimana....

/Lakshman...Lakshman Lakshman......(echo pa !!!)

Deep Thought....

2006-12-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

The subject of today's blog, in my opinion, is one of the œuvre d'art (masterpiece of creation of God) next to water a.k.a Adam's Ale. If you can infer from the title, you get a pat from me. Its the "Human Brain". I always wonder how "bill gates" and next door neighbour "bhagyam mami", though both are gifted with similar brains, they differ in their extremities of thoughts.

I am not going to talk about cerbellum/spinal fluids...blah blah. The thing which fascinates me, still "where does a thought begin ? how do we initiate a thought ? what makes us to think ? - these sort of questions are the ones which fascinates me.

In our Uttar Pradesh a.k.a Brain, there is neither lockouts/hartals/strikes as our communist friends who keep doingin bengal, nor it experiences crashes, memory leaks etc as my office pc. If it is all that is true that "Mind is set to rule the world" as google, we could have courses to condition our minds instead of still reading about Ashoka and his roadside trees!!!.

Recently i had a discussion with my roomie on the man vs machine related challenges and how kasparov was finally defeated by IBM's brainchild. One interesting observation is, even brain works very much like the modern day computer, even though the latter is modelled on the former. Who knows, there might be a day where the smell/aroma of masal vada/sambhar could be captured as files and computers could identify it.

There are so many amazing inventions this mankind has come across and has participated, but still there are so many things which we have within us, which we find difficult to comprehend. what an irony !!!.

I was fascinated by shruti my friend and next door neighbour (aged 3), who was the only child which i had witnessed right from birth to the days of kinder garden. Her amazing sense to pick new words ("emote thaa" - give me the remote / "thathi" - for grandma etc) was a glorious sight to watch.

I was told that when i was kid, i used to cry for "shanka songs" (shankarabaranam movie songs) / "jajikanth movies". The point which i wanna make here is, how does a child's brain, understand that these are the words to learn / the music it likes. I have even observed from shruti, they are highly intelligent enough to understand whether we stare/smile/etc at them and accordingly play their cards.

Though i read recently more about the human brain the way we infer/reason, it is still a man's unexplored territory. For sure, never scold any man whether he has brains (moolai irukka!!!), as we know everybody has it, only a few realise to use it...

Will come back with me next observation...

Lakshman

Mendeleev and Melakarthas

2006-12-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests, i always had a fascination to when i read and observed the mela kartha raagas (which are basic "mother" raagas - 72 in number) had a similarity with mendeleev's periodic tables. The similarity which i have noticed (could be done by lots of ppl who can relate the "chemistry" between bhilari and shankarabharanam).

Basically the 72 raagas can be classified into 2 sections (one with "shuddhamadhyamam(it denotes swara ma)" and the other set with "prathimadhyamam" (in languages, it has to be "nedil/badi ma").It has another classical history that these classification of raagas follow Katapayadi sankhya shastra. This technique is more like a modern day algorithm which classifies the raagas and number them based on the mathematical numbers and swarastanas.

If you see the periodic tables advocated by dmitri mendeleev, he classifies them based on valency and weight. similarly the chemical elements have been grouped as alkali, alakaline earth, halogens etc, as the raagas are classified and grouped as different chakras namely indu / netra/ rishi /agni etc (12 chakras and each chakra contains 6 raagas).

As the number of valence shell determines the elements in different groups / families, similarly the change in different permutations of the swaras determine their order and chakra.

Apart from my observation, i even read very recently that when dmitri mendeleev was naming the elements he names 3 of the elements in sanskrit as well, which were renamed later.

Another observation to be mentioned here is the best use of permutation and combination which is integral part of most of the competitive exams are being used in melakarta system as well as in the linguistic system. The combination to arrive new alphabets (uyir and mei combo) in all indian langauages is again based on permutations and combinations

Eternal Bliss - Sandosham Kondirukka Seivai

2006-11-06T03:13:00.000-08:00

I still remember the day i watched "Bharathi" the movie by Gnana Rajasekharan (retired civil servant who takes better films than the film institute guys !!!). The movie had a such great impact on me that made me to watch the back-to-back shows...(Never in my life i was so beautifully moved by a theme(story) and sparkling performance of Sayaji Shinde and backgound score of Illayaraja, the maestro).

whenever the chips are down, the following poem of mahakavi use to haunt me, which illustrates that we need to push ourselves beyond the normal
vicious circle and think beyond the mundane.

Thedi Chorudhinam thindru
PalaChinnanjiru kadhaigal pesi
ManamVaadi thunbamiga Uzhandru
PirarVaada pala seyalgal seidhu
NaraiKoodikizha paruvam eidhi
KodumKootruk Kiraiyenappin Maayum
PalaVedikkai Manidharaip Pole
NaanVeezhven endry Ninaithayo?
Ninnai Sila Varangal Ketpen
AvaiNere indrenakku tharuvai
EndranMunnai theeyavinai payangal
InnumMoolathazhindhidudhal Vendum
Iniyennai Pudhiya Uyir aaki
EnnakuYedhum Kavalaiyaracheidhu
Madhithannai miga thelivu seidhu
EndrumSandhosham Kondirukka Cheivai!!

The following lines are beautifully used by kamal Hassan in the movie called "Mahanadhi" where the protagonist is serving a sentence and who wishes to have a new outlook in this new life.

Yetho Dhrishti Thatho Manaha

2006-10-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hi,

This is my first blog and i decided to jot down on my favourite movie. I was watching the tamil version of Sagara Sangamam a.k.a Salangai Oli. I like the scene where padmasri kamalhassan teaches/demonstrates the various forms/sampradhayams of classical indian dance in that movie and quotes the lines from abhinaya shatra,

Yetho Hasta Thatho Dhrishti,
Yetho Dhrishti Thatho Manaha
Yetho Manaha Thatho Bhavaha,
Yetho Bhavaha Thatho Rasaha”

(Where hands go your eyes follow;
Where your eyes go your heart follows;
Where your heart goes your expression follows;
Where your expression goes, there is your gift to the audience.)

The crux of the scene which lucidly explains that any art form requires an absolute form of dedication/commitment from the disciple/practitioner of the art/science. There are lots of scenes which are so beautifully picturised where the art form and the protagnist's dedication has been classically captured.

Due credits for the Director K Vishwanath / Maestro Illayaraja for his classical background score (both in the flashback and the romantic interludes which involves Kamal and Jayapradha which involves a beautiful "kiravani" with percussions on mridhangam (played by my friend's uncle) !!).

I was seriously amazed by the strength of the movie content which is absolutely absymal in modern day movies.

"There is not end for art" - last line of the movie symbolically puts the romance on the backburner and has duly highlighted "the art". The one intersting point missed by many critics was the emphasis of one classical dance form (mix of bharatanatyam/kuchipudi/kathak...etc) as "bharata natayam (India's dance)...

Catch u vey soon with my next one.