Listen to Lucky

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 neec...

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 t...

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/...

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: 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 ? ...

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 ...

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.

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 flick...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 En...

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 Illay...