Listen to Lucky

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 diffic...

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 s...

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 coll...

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 ...

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 ...

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....

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 ...