End of an era

This is it... it has been a search, rather a marathon run that I have been running over the first stage of my life. To continuously challenge myself and arrive at a stage where I think - I belong, drained a lot of time. Men and their material wants. What is it with Indians and higher education, don't ask me - but it seems to be a common attribute or aspiration.

Was chatting over the internet to my friend other day. About things over commitments, responsibilities and what time takes away. People change, for the better, for the times or for the situations presented. One thing is never ending: change.

Encountered lots of things to record over this past 12 months. First flight, new country, masters, international friends, Singlish, travel aided by google maps, cooking, college reunion,  friends reunion in Singapore, Rat fever, Cousin's marriage, Girivalam, more cooking, construction of property, transfer of mortgage of existing property, semesters, combined studies, the list goes on...

In the meanwhile, caught up with friends. Setup skype in my TV for my mom, so that she can read in a 32" TV- monitor. Did a part -time stint with a healthcare company and on track to join back with them full time. Waiting for a few interview results. Is this a blog or a compilation of an advertisement - I dono, but the past one year had been a roller coaster really. It opened my eyes to new faces and characters. But wait, there is still one more scene in the climax of this year, wait up for it.

Deepavali 2010

Blogging is not an addiction, but a netizen's way of rethinking where he is heading. While socializing got restricted to an online activity, real life doesn't. So to take one's boredom, repetition and loneliness; people choose to call their loved ones, indulge in activities like traveling, visit to temples, meditate or get lost amidst all this. You see, it is not about propaganda or the page count that matters, it is just that people lent you their ears to your current state of mind. Sometimes, things don't make sense to the subscriber. The vivid descriptions are not painted the same way to the audience. This warrants a disconnect between the blogger and reader. Unlike writing a book, the blogger is not restricted to the constraints of the characters or the plot. You often find a blogger, floating around various topics under one heading. It goes on to tell you that, "the mind is a monkey" and even though it is staring at a wall, it doesn't stay on that frame.

Deepavali 2010 was a unique experience. My conception of deepavali, is waking up early. Sneaking out snacks before poojai. Bursting crackers, lots of''em and settling down to watch the newly released movies' songs. Having brought up in the bronx of Chennai - Royapuram. Deepavali always has some fights. Simple ones like kite-fights, hurling crackers at people and verbal spats. The new clothes were very special in those days. We have to wait for Pongal, birthday and Deepavali to earn those new clothes. Not anymore with a thriving Indian economy!!

This year was different. For starters I wished my mom happy deepavali through Skype. Wore a dhoti and went to a Murugan temple in Jurong, Singapore. Just looking at so many tamilians wearing new clothes and Indian music in background gives you a festive feel. Got back home, spent the afternoon cooking up biryani, prawns, sambar, dhalcha, carrot halwa. Yup, we did it!. The sleep after that meal is priceless. Woke up at 6:30 in the evening.

Deepavali is not complete without a dose of movies. So downloaded "Social network" and saw it to end the day. Nice movie, good screenplay and nice characterization - must watch!!. Chatted throughout the evening to various friends all over the world. Ended the day at around 2:00 AM into the next day. The huge pile of vessels left to be cleaned was laughing at me, the next day. Sighs. Another Deepavali has gone by. Happy Deepavali

Commonwealth games 2010

I did not know what to expect of commonwealth games. A few years back I heard the news that New Delhi is gonna bid for Olympics 2020 and is gonna build a sports village. Having won the bid for CWG, 2010 - the capital has a farsighted vision of going for the olympics. I shrugged off and said to myself "what is the big deal, if the medal tally is not going to go up from single digits?". As with any Indian - growing up in a crowd could hold you down. There are always doubters and lack of recognition, which percolates deep into the minds questioning whether sports is worth as a career?

When I heard there were issues with CWG, I honestly felt that media is blowing up the issue and piggy backing on a few minor issues. On the flip side, I did not believe the organizers as well. As they say "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". When it came to a point where CWG were about to be called of, I thought there will be some money transfers here and there to make it happen.To my surprise and to my cognition, the govt. was hell bent on making the event a success. The presence of Dr. Man Mohan Singh overseeing the happenings, made me rest assured that things are in full swing. Still, I was not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

Like many, I didn't catch the opening ceremony live. The next day, I saw pictures of the ceremony as a netizen. Reading through the article, I was consumed in by the list of acts put together for the ceremony. I searched all over, and with help of my online co-ordinator in Las Vegas and facebook - I got the recorded version of the ceremony. The sounds of Indian drums filled my mind. The young tabla maestro at the epicentre of the drum blast, enjoying the beats of India - gave me goosebumps and bliss. The events were well thought off, though for a little jag in line formation from top, all seemed fantastic. To top it up, performances by Hariharan, AR Rahman. What more can you ask for?

I thought, ok, now the fun ends. Tomorrow onwards is the boring part. We are gonna get delirious coverage of media from England, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada et al. For a change, India's time has arrived. They said the focus of organizing this event is to make India as a sport conscious nation. I could not understand what they meant by that, by then. Personally I like to follow tennis, table-tennis, boxing and wrestling. India was primed in all these sports and that made a hint to my perception on the notion of "sports-consciousness". Over the course of the CWG, listening to raucous cheers, live coverage, fist-pumping and adrenaline rush - the event was more than an administrative success for me. For it upheld its objective. The sight of athletes feeding off from crowd-support and oppositions wilting with the pressure made it even more appalling to watch.

I often hear people say, "Sachin makes me a proud Indian". WTF, I say to myself. As a sports lover, I want to see the tussle, team tactics ,the sweat, the hunger and "never say die" attitude - not just talent. Cricket is a team game, and we can't be proud for having individual brilliance. If not just for the medals, I can see better support-system for the athletes these a days and crowd-recognition. Hope the sponsors are listening.

The infrastructure, the outlook of Indian sports have really moved on from family tradition to individual expression. I am hoping that these are signs of days to come. bfn

Endhiran

The hype is unavoidable, partly by the developers but mostly by the hardcore fans all over the world. Was sincerely looking forward to it and shouting like hell, and whistling made us deaf through the titles. Movie starts in the research center, but wait a minute what in the hell are Karunas and Santhaanam doing in the lab. Ok, accepted, they are computer graduates specializing in robotics working as apprentices to thalaivar. Moving on, they are working on the final stages of a decade long work of Rajini (Vasi endra vaseegaran) in hope of building the perfect android humanoid. What is an android humanoid, android refers to mimicking human appearance to a robot and humanoids are ones that are modeled on human skeletal movement system. 

Vasi manages to come up with the perfect humanoid, capable to live in real –world which is a draconian ask for the best of robots today. Chitti, the robot seems to be on the learning curve, learning human emotions like “Why people lie, why people cry, etc”. As usual, Shankar throws science here and there to make the movie from a part of his PhD work. He tries to explain the absence of human rational behavior in Chitti. So Vasi is forced to add human psychology, emotions and other feelings into the routines of Chitti. From the camera’s eye the skin of Chitti is just molded plastic so how he feels the wind or a kiss is left to our own perception. Love the larger than life fighting, style and maassu of chitti in his fights and innocent nakkal nickel over the first half.

Chitti learns everything from medicine to martial arts. He is a built in electro magnet, able to communicate in any protocol through infrared, wifi, radio frequency and what not. I have to take the plot of Chitti reasoning with mosquitoes as a joke, even though he speaks in the bzzzt language. But all this from just a few units of electricity, you have to be kidding me. Terminator thought better by using a mini-nuclear reactor powered fuel-cell to charge the robot. Traditional battery storage, ha ha haa. Ok for motor movements, but for vision projection, communication and electromagnetic force, you ought to have though better.

I don’t go into the plot of the movie, but the songs seem to be loosely intertwined in the picture. You feel like suddenly you have changed the channel to MTV, listen to the music and come back. For beginners they should have at least used some part of the music in the background, the BGM seems to be empty for me.

Don’t kill me with the concept of human-robot hybrids, intra-species mating is observed to be a common factor like the case of Liger. This is through fluid exchange, in captivity. I would have agreed to any sort of bio-fusion, even spiderman for heaven’s sake. What about robot and human, the screw will impregnate an ovum, ROFL. Even if you are able to synthesize a fertilized egg, that could be conceivable in a woman, it grows with “oxygen, water and blood” or “current, silicon chips, nickel”. Please let us leave it here.

With regards to cinema making, Rajini looks awesome in the movie. Can’t dance to his own standards, but the performer juggernaut rolls on. Music is awesome, camera and photography is cool, the locations are exotic, but no life in the movie. The characters just make up for the number and hardly use up the screen space, meaning there is no scope for others in the film except Rajinis and Aish.

When there is a force, there should be a similar force to tackle it. Battle of transformers, terminators, aliens VS Predators. If not there should be extreme outwitting from humans to win it over the much able robots. Nopes, the Goliath fells over and got his head cut off by David. It makes a good fairy tale but doesn’t warrant a movie.

I felt a big headache after the second half of the movie. Though have to say majority of the scenes look good. I have my fair share of doubts which I have posted above. Can watch once for the Rajini factor, but not worth to watch it over an over.

P.S: In reality, robots are doing a fantastic job in precision cutting, painting, load handling which means they are larger or shorter in size and need not necessarily have to mimic human movements. Advanced robots do a dance or play a game of football, covering a few issues like getting up from a fall, in built AI to track opponent behavior and realization of a goal state, yes GOAL state. A concept of a complete android robot is way beyond today's technology.

Terminator, Bicentennial man, AI and Wall-E are a few of my favorites in this genre. Wall-E is more of a fun and watch with kids movie. Terminator explores the destructive capability of an intelligent android. Bicentennial man is the learning curve of a robot over the issues of humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, conformity, sex, love, and death. A.I defines how tough it is to train a robot human emotions. Shankar seems to have found and lost a match with all the above concepts

Rest In Peace

நான் எப்படி வளர்ந்தேன் ,
இந்த உலகில் தனியா நடந்தேன்
நீ விலகி இருந்தும்
அந்த உறவில் மகிழ்ந்து நினைந்தோம்

துறுவம் பிளக்க , அவரவர் பாதை விலக
பாசம் மறக்க, உன் மதியில், நம் விதி என்பது கசந்து போனதோ !!

நான் உறைந்த பொழுது
நீ இந்த உலகை பிரிந்தபோது
ஓர் நொடியில் என் உலகம்
உடைந்து மீண்டும் பிறந்த தருணம்

காலம் கடக்க, நம் வீட்டில் மீண்டும் உறவு உயிர்க்க
பிரிந்து கிடந்தும், உன் உறவை உறைந்து போன மனட்சுவற்றில் காண்கிறோம்.

Back to Bachelors

Back to Singapore

    People keep asking me, "wow, 3 months. Didn't you get bored? What did you do?". Well those 3 months were what I call my last academic summer vacations, remember the fun filled ones we had during our school days. It was not exactly like that. To begin with my friends were either married or out out station or simply busy. Managed to visit a few and share a few jokes but it was not exactly a vacation. It was a period to regroup and restart my next period in life. At this moment with all my friends getting married, and my greys increasing ever so often; my mom has started what we call bajji-sojji stuff.
   
    The vacations were about going to car-driving sessions, attending marriage, funerals, visiting friends, watching movies, going places, falling sick and finally a lot EATING and SLEEPING. Managed to spend some time with my mom discussing about a few family stuff and permutations. Had a few hot headed arguments and a few light hearted sessions as well. She said "Who will I now fight with?" when I was about to leave Chennai to Singapore but managed to put up a brave face when sending me off at the airport.

    Back to college, it embraced me with smiling faces and hi5's. Lost sleep in the first few days at my flat and consequentially eased into this place where I am put up with 4 more friends from NUS whom I met the previous semester. Life as bachelors is lots of fun, you manage to invent something new at food everyday. Not that we are that bad, but things go weird sometimes at cooking. Thank god, internet came about and we stay connected to the entire world within the reality of cyberspace. Recommending books and music happens over facebook. I found "The story of two states - Chethan Bhagat" as a very interesting read recommended by "several likes" in facebook.

    So another 4 months of college, self-cooking, downloaded movies and I would end up with my masters, Insha Allah!!. Interestingly I am enjoying this phase and I am beginning to miss it before it is about to get over as well. For the first time in life, I am not looking at tomorrow as a better day and enjoying and celebrating today. That is to do with myself rather than the place or people around me.

Madraasapatinam review

Chennai has found a new liking to shopping malls, well not quite even 10 years back Spencer's was a popular hang out spot for all genders and T.Nagar continues to be a female-magnet. With IT-fication of the nation Chennai has attracted many families from all over the state and has grown from what it was to what it is now.

So "express avenue" and "Sky walker" are the latest shopping blocks infused in to its today's lifestyle. I've been to Sky walker around January when many of its outlets were yet to be open and awed at its great interior decors. I knew it will be put to a stern test of countless window-shoppers and people who just want to hang out. Well I have to say its holding up pretty good after 6 months of its inception.

This complex also houses the famous PVR cinemas. Having got there I found it to be world class and was really astounded at the quality especially of my screen. The design was something straight from a futuristic decor book. Royal red all over with blue LED lights setting up the way. Ok..Now to the movie review.

The movie is set in Chennai of 1940s. The concept of an uptown girl taking a liking to a backstreet boy is explored. Arya is portrayed as a wrestler, looks authentic. The grapples and the counters that he performs are well researched. The traditional villain approach is cut off and people are conceived as righteous characters within their own frames. This is the best part - characterization. Music is OK, but has a bit of old Rahmania in it. The movie flows well but overall seems very slow. It is easy on the eyes and mind on a weekend night for a slow romantic movie but in the climax with a loud fast paced song to its back drop - the slow pace is irritating. The celebrated editor Antony could have done a better job by infusing the music into the background carefully.

Amy Jackson does a great job for her first movie that too in a foreign language. The director has put a lot of thought in preparing the script and working with the art directors. It shows in the movie's detail especially so when the Asst. Commissioner tracks the escapades with an old Chennai map (Mint street, Walltax road, Central and Buckingham canal). I stood up around 2-3 minutes before the end of the movie and found about 15 rows behind me still glued to their seats. That's an interesting scale to gauge the movie's reach.

Raavanan

Raavanan

    Raavanan tries to relive the epic Ramayana, it is a good watch with a prerequisite of knowing atleast the short story version of the epic. An able metaphor is to compare the differences between the history textbooks of India and Pakistan, saying the same tale differently. The movie's script varies greatly with the epic's script which involves clear demarking of good and evil. The focus on the movie is to create the character Raavanan and justify the broken reverance against Ram from Sita.

    For me these two are the eyes of the film and everything else are fillers in the movie, you just have to ignore the props around these two characters. When I talk about character portrayal, Maniratnam has given the character a complex blend. The character has severe mood swings but thinks deep, thats strange !! he is supposed to be the perfect gentleman but also one who enjoys doing all the deadly sins.

    Choosing not to kill Sita is a pivotal point in the movie, with that – Raavan has to play host, be decent and also eat the thoughts of keeping Sita with her. Raavan does not like Sita rather he adores her for the character she shows. As time progresses he explains his feelings towards her and I dare say that he even impresses her. First by justifying his stance against Ram and second by simply being the person he is.

    Sita understands that her relationship with Ram will never be the same again . She closes the door on Ram and boldly comes back to see Raavan. This is to be seen as a soul filling moment for Raavan. I dont know how their relationship would have been consequentially but can't help to get a feeling that Sita craves to be with Raavan (sexual or not). Got a feeling of Kaadhal Konden where Sonia Agarwal can't let go of Dhanush how so ever bad the world seees him.

Finally the one line version of character portrayal

Ram: Believes in glory and sancticity. Troubled by perverse thoughts, considers Sita to be his property and not as a person.

Sita: Believes in strength of mind and considers Ram as God and everything that is right. For a person of character and spirit, when her character is questioned she just feels deeply instigated.

Raavan: Free spirited, angry and a genuine person. In touch with the various personalities of himself which he might have mustered by meeting different people in his troubled life.

Naadi Josiyam explained

Well, here it is to Naadi Josiyam. Real records are very very rare, think about the odds but that doesn't stop juggernaut from rolling on.

1. How many letters are there in your name
2. Are you a christian, are you a muslim, is your name a hindu god's name
3. What is your first letter
4. What is your birth star
5. Have you loved anybody
6. Are you 27, 26, 28 , 29?


same applies to your mom, dad and siblings

Then based on your planetary positions he goes old skool and predicts your portfolio. Voila, the most hyped naadi josiyam.From here on everything else are calculations and combinations, he collects more than enough information and goes back to his shell to write self composed tamil poems which are just recitals in old Tamil with common stuff, trust me. I also find a few loan words from Sanskrit which came along recently in Tamil usage.

Naadi Josiyam - Myth or Math - Part I

Naadi Josiyam is an offbeat type of astrology. Unlike traditional indian astrology derived from planetary positions. Naadi is not predictions but supposed to be record of events, written over 2000 years back by holy men.

Its easy to doubt its pedigree and existence. If Naadi exists for each and every person in the world, not to forget those who have passed away in the recent years. The repository should be in the size of a huge library.

SUPPORTING ARGUMENT

From what I witnessed, each bundle carried about 100 names/combinations. Howsoever be the sorting algorithm, housing india's records alone would mean 110 crore/100 = 1.1 crore bundles, phew!!!

COUNTER ARGUMENT

The counter-argument presented is wrapped in mysticism. They say that not everyone will come in search of their records and thats why that name Naadi(To come in search of). Therefore it is also written for who may gets access to his/her Naadi records.

The second argument is the existence of such a thing. Its humanly impossible to write 600 crores or more records and not to miss the supporting documents as in 1-14(Gandams-subsects of main records). An entire lifetime would not have been enough given the writing techniques of that period. Unless, this takes another magical angle saying that Agathiar(a revered holy man) sprinkled water on barren trees and it got converted into records. (This is a fragment of my imagination)

COUNTER-ARGUMENT

The counter argument is simple, they are not ordinary men. God's hand is there, in forming these records. You can't argue with that can you?

The final argument is about the survival of these records over a 2000 years period, where Tamil has seen a major change in its character-set, words, dictionary, etc. Palmyra leave manuscripts have a very short lifetime and if these records have been reproduced over time.

1. Reproducing all these records and sharing these with several institutes all over India is a huge ask.

2. Why do we still painfully reproduce them in palmyra leaves rather than writing in paper if not computers. This seems a gimmick rather than means of saving the records.

My personal account of the Naadi visit and other information in the next blog.

Rice cakes and coconut cream

The Gen-X of our family set out early in the morning to Thiruvannamalai – A Shiva temple built at the foot of a sizeable hill. Got to meet my cousins, nephews & nieces. Our family setting is pretty huge that we need a 30 seater if we all were to travel. It was my uncle's initiative and he wanted to make sure his daughter gets all the blessings of Annamalai (another name for Shiva) towards her marriage life.

CMBT: The Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminal was once housed by Parrys near High Court, I remember buses operating at a gap of 40 minutes. The construction of CMBT and moving the traffic to the western tip of my city seemed irrelevant.

We were so used to booked tickets, confirmed berths or rented buses that anything otherwise seems adventurous. Having arrived by public transport to CMBT we were flummoxed to notice that there were three buses just about to start but all three packed to the roof and a sizeable crowd waiting. We tried to barge in to the next bus but the passengers did not alight even after the bus came to a complete stop, we then realised that the bus gets mobbed on the way and that we have to do the same to travel as a pack.

10:30 AM, we started from CMBT and the bus got passengers en route who were willing to stand all along those long 5:30 hours.

Thiruvannamalai has its charm. My uncle's brother-in-law found religious asylum to his second life at this town. He guided us through the temple and explained its history and arranged a special dharshan. I thought we were done, but the real trip started only after visiting the temple. We were about to walk 14 kms around this hill which is adorned by various incarnations of Shiva en route. A tribute called as girivalam.

The first 2 kms were tough given the damaged roads but went quick, from there after we counted each km passing as watching a (soap) serial without those ad breaks. So we had to start up some insane conversation just to know that everybody is around. One such discussion startled the concept of Kerosene => becoming Krishnaail, Palm oil => becoming Balmoil. As always I said something that made no sense to the rest by commenting just like ”Rice cakes with coconut cream”.

Blank reactions made me realise that none of those knew what I was talking about in reference to weirdly named stuff. I started with some narration, “Well, a friend of mine has this appetite for new and exotic dishes. He has eaten in major restaurants throughout the city and tried many specialities. He came around to pondicherry and went to this 3 star restaurant. One of the items in the menu read 'Rice cakes with coconut cream' – excited my friend went with this choice. After 15 mins my dishes were served and he waited another 10 more minutes for his food to arrive. For a person waiting with much excitement, he got dumbstruck when it got served. Its our idlis and thenga chuttney.(Rice cakes and coconut cream)”

We were able to complete the walk successfully, we took our ride back home at around 10:30 PM and reached back to CMBT at 3 in the morning. The adventure continued nevertheless. The same story: we had to hustle our way into our bus after waiting for about 30 minutes at this strange time. When we squeezed our way in, there were some highly intelligent zombies who booked the seats with towels, hand kerchiefs, bags thrown in from the window.

We had to stand for 30 mins to reach our next junction, not to forget surviving loss of sleep, tired legs, heat & sweat but also ticket-checking at about 3:30 in the morning. Blimey, a ticket checking at that time in the morning !!! , no wonder - why the conductor put up a 10 mins ticketing stage.

Adadaa Mazhai daa adai mazhai daa

Mazhai, ManVaasanai and Molaga Bajji

Laila's hovering around Chennai. The new cyclone strangely named as Laila puts up a thick cloud cover. No rain yet, till late in the evening. One thing that I missed in Singapore is heavy rain and a thing called 'Man Vasanai', sounds filmy but its one of those things that takes atleast 4 months of stark dryness and a gentle rain to raise that aroma around the town. Singapore has rain but almost every day. These cyclone ladies have some affinity for Nagapattinam or further south towards SL. Its been a year since my granny passed away. She was from Nagapattinam, the famous cyclone magnet. The illustrations about the heavy rain she witnessed were records of life from that era.

“Life comes to a stand still when there is an outbreak of rain. A fishing village with an iconic church facing the sea has its huts flooded. The clay which forms the base of the hut transforms into buckets holding sea water. Fishing has stopped before the rain has started and may be paralysed for 2 weeks or more. Temples and churches become humble abodes of hordes of villagers. The rain drops are heavy and decieves to form thick shiny silver strings towards heaven. These temporary settlement are not perfect shelter neither. These acts seem to remind people what are the most essential things of life. Amongst cries for people gone missing the genuine care for each other enables people to see through another cyclone.”

The first time I thought that she was exaggerating. Slowly I got to see glimpses of what might have been a terrible situation to be in. Having born in Chennai, with radio and Television. Rain is fun and heavy rain is unheard of. Oldies talk about hailstorms (Aalangatti mazhai), in Chennai, really !!. The first time i got to visit a hut house was in 1997-98, to visit my classmate's house. The house was only the size of an average drawing room but had a television, a pedestal fan and a cot. It housed a family of 5 and an infant. The sea was just 50-80 m away from those huts. My memories painted a quick picture of the yesteryears with those houses. We went passs a nearby temple which is ill-managed with a thick coat of sea-algae. I don't think prayers are offered anymore there and the last time I went to that temple was to witness distribution of rice and clothes after a heavy rain. The ration card's color decided the kilograms of rice to be distributed and the entire village was there to oversee the operations. Therefore rain, especially cyclone and now tsunami are big stories to be told about for sea-side dwellers like me.

Now, I am enjoying a light breeze with some Samosa&Sundal. I rewind myself to my yesteryears of summer rain: paper boats and games on the road. With motorcycles, traffic these; you can't have any sort of game these a days in the roads. So much have moved on and I understand that a generation has rolled over and I am in the middle of that process. Scooby Do/ Dexter/Tom&Jerry have given way to Pokemon/PowerRangers/Avatar(AirBender). I can't really appreciate these content is more proof that the ball is set in motion.

Now with a gentle drizzle, but a thick cloud cover I ride through my neighbourhood.

Stop 1: Molagaa Bhajji / Whats with Rain and Molagaa Bhajji I dono, they seem to be a wonderful pair. Molagaa Bhajji seems to have married Marina Beach nevertheless Mazhai and Molaga Bhajji make a good couple any time.

Stop2: Samosa Sundal / Traditionally the eateries pour sundal cooked as a semi gravy over smashed samosas and they make a lip smacking combination. Bought some and on my way back home, I rode slowly through one of the quieter areas to enjoy the drizzle.

The drum roll of heavy rain eludes as of now but the rain songs have started in the radios. Let me sit back and enjoy those songs from the present and past to take me to some cherished memories.

IPL 2010

Even before the series started I was pretty sure that Mumbai Indians will go into the finals, not because they bought Pollard or the unexpected emergence of Saurabh Tiwary/Ambati Rayudu but for that man Sachin Tendulkar and his magic. I can't but amaze and accept that there is a new found rejuvenation about the Mumbai maestro.
There is a story that goes around, Eagle is a proud creature and obviously a powerful amongst its kind but it loses it edge at halfway during its life.(Apparently this is a myth) Its beak tends to mellow down to become soft and fragile. Presented with two options: one is to live a half life with former glory or to endure great pain in breaking its beak and allowing it to regrow to its former self.
Sachin faced a similar problem during his mid career crisis with tennis elbows, he was not able to wield his heavy willow. He was asked to change to a lighter bat and change his game style from blitzkrieg to light cavalry. The fact that he created many subdued knocks that would have made the purists happy is a different story. The power and monster that Sachin has been at the crease was missing. Missing for 6 years. In all these times he was learning to master the 2,3 and 4th gear and when nobody was expecting it – Sachin announced himself with that 175 knock against Australia and then poor RSA had to face the new Sachin. The God is back.
With that sort of inspiration, the Mumbai team studded with heavyweights can gel in as a team. For there is a man who holds answers and ways for what could be achieved in a cricket ground. Being a Chennaikaran, I am fond of my Superkings and Superstars. Superstars were an excellent team – a Team in the first place. I just love the sight of Ian Harvey and Ganapathi Vignesh blasting through almost every bowling attack around. Sadly, I may sound as a strong critic here but the sight of Parthiv Patel or M Vijay along with Hayden was not making it click. I had great regards for Badrinath but he needs to put some muscles for sure. He can't clear a normal ground, he seems to time the ball very well but get caught at long on, deep fine leg, or deep extra cover. He then proved me wrong with a few innings of substance and moreover intensity.
Ok, IPL2010. The adminstrators of Superkings played down the event by not picking up any big marquee players. I just can't take Jacob Oram bowling at 120 k. We could use Joginder Sharma /L Balaji for that place. Naturally there was no teeth in Chennai's attack. I was routing for the return of ICL players like G Vignesh and R Satish but they were picked by KKR and MI teams, I was totally lost and using the choice expletives at the administrators. I still think they should have held them within CSK, but there is a reshuffle next year so who cares!.
Seeing my team, getting bashed real hard in the first half of the IPL made my stance even more obvious and the predictors said that CSK would have to play out of their skins to reach the semis. As usual there were some teams who were willing to top the IPL charts from the bottom. Kings XI and KKRs. Then the turnaround happend in the absence of Dhoni on a bright day in Chennai. Generally cinematographers use light and color themes to match the mood of the films, they picked the perfect color yellow to burn the demons away and mark the genesis of the new era. Managalam Undaagattum. It was burning hot and amber was the color painted all over Chennai. A brighter innings took the commentators and Chennai crowd screaming their lungs out. M Vijay and A Morkel smoked Rajasthan's attack to all corners and it was one of those innings where Vijay was in the zone and was timing the balls so fluently, Jujube.
From there on, we were able to witness the genesis of a team which was writing their own script. There was intense passion on display and not to forget the enormous grit and steel on the faces. The lead up to the finals is a story to be told from generations to generations.

KXIP VS CSK : Athaan vantenla says Dhoni, Yaarukitta

Dhoni had a quiet tournament till then, the last time the two teams met there was a heartbreaking tie and a subesquent loss to those Jalandhar Jalsawaalaas. Now, Marsh toys around with Chennai bowling and props up the score to 190+. It all looked bleak with Hayden and Vijay back in the hut. Much was expected of Badhrinath and Dhoni both left to prove themselves. A steady partnership was put upon and the match was in auto-pilot. With the match reaching its climax, all signs were pointing to Dhoni for Chennai and Dhoni was smiling away at the situation. Enter the final over, 15 runs were required and it was that man Pathan who added to Chennai's misery earlier with his bat. Ball 1 was dispatched through extra cover it was full toss at yorker length wide outside offstump and with the angle very difficult to even nurdle around, but Dhoni found the gap perfectly and threaded the offside field for a boundary, the second ball was a mishit and it was signs of destiny that it landed safely between long on and mid on. Still a taunting score to chase. Then came the moment and the arrival of the man. It was a full length delivery and all L Siva had to say after seeing the ball hit was “WOW”. He needed to catch his breath and say unbelievable. By then, the ball had been couriered from Dharamsala to LeordGanj, which resides over the hills off Dharamsala. The next ball was powered away to another six and semifinals berth was confirmed. Just to see Dhoni react at the opposition was tinitillating to watch, there is a remix version of that moment to “Puli Varuthu” song from Vettaikaran, believe me it matched perfectly as a backdrop to that moment.

SEMIS DC VS CSK
So there is was the big semis and neighbours in the political map of India it was Andhra VS TN. The ground DY Patil, Mumbai. Have to say that CSK had better support at the neutral venue. Half the side was lost early and again it was that man Badhrinath who silenced his critics and proved why he is in the side with a Steely 37, Dhoni provided much impetus to the score with some quick runs and yet the score was slowly moving ahead. It took some rush of blood from young Anirudha Srikanth to hit two towering sixes and prop up the score to 142 which was pretty decent. Game on, I said.
Now, now : The Chennai bowlers put up one hell of a show and was spitting at the batsmen with venom, scoring was impossible and getting big guns like Gilchrist and Gibbs bottled up the way they did was remarkable. Not to forget the catches taken by Anirudha and Raina, this is a team. At no stage was I so pumped up or feel affiliated to a unit than at that moment.

FINALS
So you have Sachin, Pollard, Harbhajan, JP Duminy, L Malinga amongst others, what do YOU have? Well we have a team. Even a team studded with superstars was not able to stop the colossus of the CSKs. Raina had a brilliant day and Sachin played amidst 5 stitches, there was coincidence that I carried 5 stitches on my right thumb just around the same time, LOL. The moment of vindication was in the destruction of Pollard. Well you have an exploding device which can ricochet the ball back with more energy wherever you bowl at it. What to do? When everything else fails don't retreat but follow the instructions. Who's that, the captain, Dhoni. Just put two fielders in the V in the offside and continue to bowl yorkers around offstump. This tactic may soon be called as “Cutting down Pollard”. The marauder hit the ball lunging outside his reach and picked the Brisbane fisherman who proclaims himself that he is a madraskaran now. Match virtually over with the stadium emptying before the final over started.

“The theory of evolutions says, only the strongest will survive, but the theory of sports says only the passionate will win”

Go Team.

Whats cool about NUS

Whats cool about NUS

When I upload photos from my university, my friends question "Is it a resort, nice!". Well apart from the history and reputation which many of its Indian counterparts have. The university is well funded. You have a stadium within the campus for track events. Football fields. Multiple Tennis, basketball and volleyball courts. Indoor stadium for badminton, Squash. Swimming pools.

Everyday I walk through the huge football field from dover bus stop to university hall bus stop within the campus. To my right I see athletes bustling around, stretching their thighs. The track is a synthetic hybrid track for better grip. To my left there are two nets for cricket practice and also 2 football fields. Generally people practice frisbee or baseball throws. There are several handball courts. This is where football enthusiasts practice their game, owing to the team count. Not to forget the swimming pool: clean, neat and a potential venue for regional swimming games. I guess you could also play water polo. The indoor stadiums are always noisy and buzzing.

OK, so I cross over to university hall bus stop from here I have to take an internal bus to go to my department. The university is so freaky huge and this shuttle service is free of cost for NUS students, of course. As I cross over, we have a university health service. It is an obligation of the university to provide health care to the students and apart from having NUH (National University hospital) within campus, they have this primary care facility. We have a Singapore post office next to the student's service center. The block also holds office for student's union NUSSU (NUS - Student's Union) which decides about events and privileges for the students. The same block hosts a few food stalls. I love the banana cakes and freshly brewed coffee at this stall.

The university has plush greenery and terrain. You have beautiful flowers decorating your passages, which you get to see only in movies which are artificially arranged for song sequences.

The library is fantastic. You can search for the books online, reserve them online, extend your reading period online. The location of books are cataloged well. Though almost all the academic books are reserved well in advance by stiff competitive students. If you want to return the books, well just drop them in the library book collection center. The campus WIFI facility is awesome, the fact that they have it linked up to individual sessions for each students talks about good communication framework and accountability.

As far as the classrooms go, they are called lecture theaters at least the ones for post graduation. Each lecture theater is equipped with LCD project, mike and speakers arrangement, WiFi repeater, PC, white board for writing, etc. The carpeted floor makes you feel as if you are in a business meeting at a hotel. The lecturers speak very good English - just that you'd definitely find the regional flavor heavily - sometimes in their accent or in their vocabulary.

Here in SG, it seems the girls spend twice as much what our girls do back home. They spend a lot on make-up, costumes and you know what. So, what do we get. We could just sit up and take notice. micro-shorts are something girls are comfortable with here and many float around with hot stockings. I am into long legs and I just love it. Public display of affection is something you witness everyday. You have to ignore and stay in your frame, something like what Russel Crowe does towards the end in -Beautiful mind.

The fact-a-doodle is that you won't feel out of your country. You could go up to Indian food stalls in any chain of restaurants within the campus and speak in Tamil to get your food. Not that you don't have many options, but I tend to stick with what I know which is sambar saadham and parottas. Queuing-up is in Singaporean culture but not a very soft society as in London. You get genuine warm smiles which make your day, everyday.

Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya

VTV

Another love story is all I thought before I did watch VTV. I bunked my classes to entertain my UG classmate - Jagadish and ofcourse watch the movie for myself as well. Along this review I may present my perspectives on love and how it differs between the genders which is again my perspective.

Simbu is Karthick, he could rather change his name to Karthick for a better second innings in his movie industry, I personally thought Sidharth was a better choice and someone else preferred Madhavan. Simbu has been ripped off from his theatrics. It was a major, major worry that how he would play a subtle love story, but have to say he handled it well. All was well but for the boxer part and that he is a light foot. He hardly moves around, just does a few jigs and relies on hooks. In reality one good hook will break your jaw so I can understand the fight choreography.

Simbu meets Trisha, or Karthick meets Jessi - The girl next door (literally  - a floor up). Daughter of a malayali christian self-doubted but confident, bold but craves for attention. Jessi looks at Karthick as she walks over the stairs to her floor - its a very blank look nothing to decipher from, while Karthick gets center shocked and falls not flat on the floor but bamm on a gate grill.

Jaw-dropping, show-stopping, time-freezing time capsules like that happens to almost everyone. After all, we all are Homo Sapiens aren't we? Characterization, very key here. In all his prior movies proposing is straight, fast and makes you go "WHAAT!" like Kamal's proposal to Kamalini in Vettayadu Vilayaadu or Kaakha Kaakha - Jyothika (Maya).

Here, we have a hero saying the right words, but can't look straight into her love's eyes. In reality your love's eyes are so penetrating that you are either looking down or away gathering words from heart rather than mind. You feel a big idiot, after making the proposal and try to rethink  what exact sense if made, nevertheless the vibe is passed on.

SCENE 2: Jessie is shaken, agitated and it also so happens that she takes those emotions to her favorite place with some cherished loneliness. The way in which she underlines her stay back @ her second home in Kerela is blissful for her - gives a hint. She is a person who seems to be searching for some space in her busy life. We are left to wonder whether the stone dropped in this clear pond raises many ripples or she is just a confused soul naturally. When Karthick finds Jessie in her most favorite and untangled state, she is just open towards her senses to do a plain talk with him. Natural question of "the proposed", "why do you like me?", Karthick gives a predictable answer of him being shaken-up like never before. Jessie is impressed but again gives a realistic answer of she doesn't want to walk the COMMITTED route. She is just worried about passing on from her zone of security and solemn to the unknown. She goes on saying quoting real life examples of what her sister went through for having loved another faith person, and how her dad got hold of her, etc.{He goes into the details of what is so special about Jessie and what defines her in the climax which blows her away but as of now, he can't explain what struck him that bad. It seems time answered all that for him.}

I am not sure but she does propose a casual relationship in the name of friendship rather than a commitment as in love in our society. All that are set to change for her in the first kiss and moment of tender with Karthick. You are tempted to say "Ponnunga vendaam naa venum nu artham!".

I heard many stories of craves "Unna enakku ippa vae paakanum, pola irukku!", if you so happen to stay near her place - rush sooner enough to at least stand at the potti kada opposite to her house. These are the things that will stand forever rather than spending an entire day walking with her. They live and die by small things, phew!. Generally and even Girls who earn,  have a good career and are totally independent in our society think more about their family, their security after their marriage{material stuff}and they tend to eat their emotions, drink water and sleep soaking their bed with tears. Very strange and the many who make easy commitments are you know, won't last forever or just don't honor commitments. The perspective is that arriving at a firm decision over heart and mind, body and soul,society and family towards a partner seems to be tough, that is the struggle that the character Jessie goes through. Okies I have had enough points of provocation already, lets move on.

From here on, it is a very intricate story and is more of life struggle and balance of emotions between these two. It is definitely a good movie to watch, and it either clicks or breaks. You either appreciate it or get confused. Anyways fall in love, such a wonderful passage of emotions to go through.

Chinese new year | Year of the tiger

Hey wassup, been a while but never far away from a blog. A special vanakkam for all the friends in BMC-Bally and a special mention to the team that we were "IS - Runagalam" LOL. First things first, heard that the IS team has been completely dislodged with almost half of the team disappearing. It all started with Selvameena, followed up Siebel Muthu, then me, then in the notice of .net Muthu, followed up by Rajkumar P and Subbiah. 6+ is a very big number for Bally in terms of attrition that too from a single team. Lots of fun, memories from that period and I guess we each will miss each other as we progress from this point on. Several fun moments like cricket, booze, team meetings, vetti discussions, weekly treats and the trips to Wayanad and Elagiri. Letting out things from these tour and events will be letting down ourselves.

Now from Singapore, welcome all to the year of the tiger. We celebrated the dawn of the new year traditionally with Yusheng. A special mention and thanks to Eugene our professor for Time and Cost management, who took a lot of effort in setting up this event. The tossed up food tasted good actually, I've had my share of problems with Chinese food earlier.

Now about Status Quo, my classes are typically 2:30 hours and also got a break between them. We call our classrooms as lecture theaters. Got people from all over the world doing their Project Management here. China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma, India, Sri Lanka, Greece, Switzerland, Finland, Ghana, Japan and of course Singapore and Malaysia. Its cool that I've got 5 people who could speak Tamil in my class as well. Not to forget two floating friends of mine from School of Computing who are doing a select module in my class. That's wicked.

Food, never felt far away from Home. We've got three tamil shops nearby. When I say Tamil shops I mean our typical Annaachi Kadai, with Tamil music and that unique smell which is totally Indian. You could get every spices, lot many choices with vegetables, you also get that famous food called maggie noodles and just about everything. You could also move your sorry self to a place called "Little India" which is supposedly Indian architecture and a little India within Singapore. Here you could even fund a powder mill to grind your traditional sambar podi and molagai podi. Yeah, all stuffs there but how do we go about preparing the meal, I guess we've got that covered.

Dinner is usually Chappaathis, Parottas, Rava dosais, Bread sandwiches or the excess rice, that was left over in the afternoon. We got Chappaathis and Parottas rolled and packed in frozen form, we got to heat them and eat them. Rava dosais are very similar to our own ready made maavu, just that this won't get that messy as it is with dosais. The fact that we use a hot plate and not a gas-connected stove makes a lot of difference. It's very slow and doesn't heat beyond a temperature. Yet, we manage to do regular south indian meals like kaara kozhambu, sambar, rasam,biryani, poriyal, aviyal etc. not to forget the omelettes and the Pickles which taste heavenly with all the food devoid of spice.

Now, with studies.Its going smooth. Pure concepts, management routines. Managed to roll out a few assignments and now glancing through a few materials. Need to kick up and start preparing notes, that will take me through to the exams. Did I forgot to mention that most of the exams are open book and I could carry any material written, printed or hard books on the actual day of exam. Sounds crazy, yet to test this on a real exam data, though have actually done this to a great degree of success ( unauthorized) during my UG days.

That's it for now, when people come and ask me, will you blog. I turn back and say "Can, can, Lah!" :)

Good bye Chennai

OMG

What an experience, truly life altering experience. It is completely a different world out here. I know the feeling of being lost but this is completely different. I had to attend an interview in Bangalore when I was 21, I went there in a morning train and reached bangalore around 11, and that day got wasted - the travel took a toll on me. I blew-up in an easy interview and that was the end of that. The next visit to Bangalore was in an air-con shatabdi express : life sure does change.

Now, here I was sitting in Jet airways air carrier getting on with my life. Beautiful stewardess hosting the show but can't help the butterflies in my stomach. The flight did a slow chicken dance before launching itself into air, felt more like a lift at the adventure rides in amusement parks. Felt as if Chennai was celebrating "Kaarthigai deepam" the amber street lights looked awesome from the sky. The kathipaara juction: majestic. The harbor kissed me goodbye, and the ships near anchorage winked at me while I was moving out from the east coast.Was a bit nervous throughout. "Eat light while traveling" should be something to learn from the trip, skip non-veg especially if you are traveling. I was worried all along on questionings and things that I can't control or plan, like luggage delay or something like that. All went well, I walked through a security gate, who gave me an entry card for ICA to verify. Here I got petrified since I could not find my ICA (Immigration control authority letter). I dropped my laptop in hurry and it prompted the officer to chirp - "so unprepared, silly boy". I got through that and got my luggage and found my friends(Ganesh and Babuji) waiting for me in the reception. Phew!, a big sigh of relief - now have to do a whole lot of procedures in my first day. Second advice:"Don't plan anything on the same day of travel, especially if you lose your sleep over it". I thought, well I got over this and I could manage - but no, it takes a huge toll on you mentally.

Got on a taxi, which were easy and plenty. The driver was a motor mouth. I don't know how they groom taxi drivers, my idea of Asians being shrewd and cold broke that day. He was so much fun, he had a good command over English and talked through a lot of things. Sooner than later, I was not able to wear my blazer with the sun doing its bling bling. I have to report at the university department, check-in at my allocated housing and also got to meet the folks at ICA. Well I was left with no other options but to travel on 6th, since all the flights were charging exorbitant rates and a few were full as well on 4th and 5th.

My session with Bee Mei at SDE(MS-department) was a quick process. She gave me my identity cards. I had to meet ICA staff shortly from there on. She said the location was walkable. Myself and Ganesh had a tough time walking up hill. Had a 6" sub near the student center, paid my hostel fees. Took a long queue to report with a few papers missing. The xray was supposed to be attached with a radiology report and I had to complete the formalities tomorrow which I was able to do. Singapore is a tight place with rules and I was told that the report would come after 1 week. The doctor was gracious on her side to push things faster to get it done the same day.

All these while I was totally lost in the midst of singapore, traveling. North-East-West-South all seemed out of place, the MRT is the best of its kind though. About singapore girls, food, places et al in the next blog.