Separation is such a sweet sorrow. brb !!

When I saw Shobhaa Dé, last week on the cable, she was extemporizing an interview. I thought it was yet-another-talk-show where they ask questions of national importance like this, So what’s your advice for teenagers or Why men hate feminists. It wasn’t. A little better.

Shobhaa Dé spoke in length about marriage, infidelity, love, sex and what not. Only today, when I saw this page on rediff that her latest book in five years, Spouse - The truth about marriage, has been released on the Valentines day and that cable interview was a marketing effort. Rediff report describes the book as, Spouse is a personal and insightful take on the institution of marriage and offers special love tips to make your marriage strong.

Even as a teenager and much later too, I liked Shobhaa Dé. I thought she was probably the most daring writer about sex in India. The hidden agenda is that you could rightfully read a Shobhaa Dé book at home without being mistaken for reading a porn magazine and yet manage to read all the vivid sex in it. As I found better writers, I mean in the real sense, I had given up reading Shobhaa Dé. She doesn’t even feature in my list of favorite authors. The last I read of her was a book called, Shooting from the hip. I stopped reading it after the first twenty pages and threw it from the balcony.

What makes Shobhaa Dé stay in limelight even after some not-so-indepth-writing ? Probably the arena she chose to write about. Her columns are mostly targetted for the urban lot and their issues of life. My only crib here is that those are shallow. If you are an urban man/woman living in the corner of some metro of India, this writing would appeal to you. You can write tons pages about love and sex life and generalise it. It may not be completely right but readers would still not crib as you are treading down an unmanned path. Easy job. Imagine, if you get a VIP ticket to those Page 3 people’s wild parties, you could just write about the true world inside dream factory and still be politically write. Easy job again.

I have this good/bad habit of watching a film even after the reviews say it is bad. This time the reviews for her latest book says, It’s good. I am not doubting the reviews but I am going to read it for myself to get some tips on, How to write a superfluous and successful book ?

P.S - Rediff did a ‘better’ marketing effort. Shobhaa Dé’s love tips -SMS SHO to 7333. Rediff guys, give me a break. Stop such SMS gimmicks.

While Chennai, around me, was buzzing around me with marathon activity, I was busy shouting at a Saravana Bhavan on charging 5 bucks extra for a masala dosa. Sure the masala dosa was tasty but I was so hungry to hog 2 dosas and get done with my hunger.

After a strong filter coffee, while crossing the road, I saw a gentle man with Temenos Chennai Marathon TShirt on his way back home. Excuse me, I burped. Thats being lazy, for you.

Sania Mirza is the latest matinee idol. I don’t say that. But having got more than 6 email forwards, just today alone, filled up with images of Sania Mirza, I accept. No pics of Sania in this post just to beat that.

Anyway, let’s not have another Anna Kournikova in making.

Chennai is getting ready for yet-another-hot-summer. Today was even worse. With the sun hitting hard, a chap was pushing his cylinder filled tri-cycle with barefoot, up the Doraiswamy subway. Life moves on.

Had to do some good amount of packing/unpacking stuff today, at home. A R Rahman gave a helping hand. You probably got that wrong. With a CD playing assorted Rahman songs, packing became a joyous occasion even for a lazy one like me. Music the life giver, reads a Rajinikanth t-shirt in the movie Johnny. How true.

Hanuman Chalisa[pdf] is probably MS Subbulakshmi’s best devotional music rendering, I’ve heard. We know MS sings from her heart, this one comes deep down from the heart. Not a day passes by without listening to it and I unconsciously keep humming it throughout. Thanks to Tulasidas for the ever-faithful lyrics and also to Latha for recommending this one. Do listen if you get a chance.

These guys at Grab A Geek, just got spidered in Google News as a news source and they are out with an article, One Ring to Google them all, that’s partly informal and partly informational about Google’s Behind-the-scenes.

Athu Andha Kaalam, a book by S.V Ramakrishnan, that talks about ‘those days’, was on the Uyirmmai stall in the Chennai Book Fair and I just overlooked the author for S.Ramakrishnan. While talking with Desikan, he said it was S.V.R and no S.R. He also promised on Mettioli to publish an SVR essay on his blog. He has now posted an extract from this S.V. Ramakrishnan’s book.

The essay(extract) talks about 10 years of railway history, from 1945-1955. SVR recalls the times and conditions of a third class travel during ‘those days’ clearly communicating the lifestyle of people in the early 1940s. This short essay doesn’t have sensational stuff but still is a gripping read(atleast for me). The flow of words and usage of ancient words adds flavour the essay, thereby making SVR a writer of sheer quality.

Adding creme to coffee is Ashokamitran, who after reading this essay in Uyrimmai, was inspired to pen his thoughts on the Indian railway. And he gives due credit to SVR for bringing out his memoris of the railway. And he, for his part, details a bit of railway history from 1935. This Ashokamitran column was published on Uyirmmai as a follow-up column to SVR essay. It’s happy to see if such noble gestures happen in the contemporary literary world. These days, if one writes a comentary on an issue, the so-called-opposites, write the opposite of that or try to eclipse the better ideas. That’s the evil world of publishing for you. I only wish we have much more writers like SVR and Ashokamitran and ofcourse magazines like Uyirmmai which give time and space for such writings of ‘those days’. I loved it and earning to buy the book, ASAP.

BTW, Chenthil’s account on Ashokamitran 50, was a nice read especially for the unfortunates like me, who missed the function. Do read. Thanks Chenthil.

Blogger’s latest release includes updates to their commenting system, which I think is one of the most ought update from the bloggers.

Now you can have your Blogger powered blog with pop up comments and profile image on the comments. This narrows down the gap between Blogger and other Blog software providers like Movable Type and Word Press.

I am eagerly waiting for their next update and I expect it to be blogposts import/export option. If only they provide it in their next release, I will be the first one to move from Movable Type to Blogger. I promise.

[Click on the image for a bigger version]

That’s the Surya’s Gajini banner that I was referring to in the Gajini post. This one is put up opp. to Panagal Park, T.Nagar and did attract me on the first glimpse.

Same picture from a longshot on my Flickr Photoblog, here and here.

[Pic : vikatan]

S. Ramakrishnan’s Kathaavilaasam may not be as sensational as his previous series, Thunnaiezhuthu, that he wrote for Vikatan. But Kathaavilaasam is important. For Ramakrishnan tries to throw to throw light on the great but not-so-well-known tamil writers, every week after week. This effort is infact very noble than Thunnaiezhuthu or any of his previous works.

Ramakrishnan first starts off with a true-life experience(there is little fiction involved here) and then draws a parallel between his experience and a writer’s story. All this being fine, the information about the writer gets shortened to a caricature and a paragraph. A much aspiring column would be to detail the writer’s work and dissect them very closely. I do understand by writing too much about the writer and his stories, Ramakrishnan may not able to sustain an audience for this weekly column. The majority of the readers are philistines and are not very anxious to know about a writer as much as they aspire to know about Namitha’s love affairs. It’s a pity state-of-affairs here with the tamil magazines.

Last week, Aathavan featured in Kathaavilaasam. Aathavan known for his path breaking Enn Peyar Ramseshan, writes just about the urban youth’s mind. At times he provokes you, makes you laugh at yourself and also feel upset about the ‘real’ you. If Mani Ratnam made movies about the upper middle class, Aathavan, much before him[in 1970s] made stories for/on them. I recently read his Kaakitha Malargal offlate and fell in love with his writings. Aathavan died in a river floods when he went to Sriungeri alongwith his friend. If only he had lived longer to cross the millenium, I am sure he must have made stories that would reflect us like mirrors. He is probably one of the three tamil writers whom I wanted to bring back alive. The first two being Bharati and Kalki.

This week, the writer in Kathaavilaasam is Ashokamithran.

Nope, that’s not Van Damme. Surya. Our Kakkha Kakkha Surya. Looks classy right. One more example that tamil cinema has come off age. Gajini to be directed by Murugadas is being starred by Surya and Asin(Hasin). Surya, the latest household name of Tamilnadu and Asin, the offlate dreambaby of Kollywood, is just a lovely combination for Murugadas to capture in Gajini.

From thursday, the city has been decorated with huge poster’s of Surya in a black winter cap, shot in three angles. Near panagal park, the huge banner displays Surya smoking with his hardboots, just like a cowboy action movie. Will defintely click it tomorow on my digicam.

This is Murugadoss’s third venture. Infact fourth, including the dropped venture of Mirattal (*ing Ajit). I loved his first flick, Dheena. Though Ramana, his second flick was impressive, was a little over-rated. Still, Murugadas is one of my beliefs in Kollywood and I firmly believe this dude is one of future pillars of Kollywood. I just couldn’t believe that Dheena was his first flick. Though it had a little slips in screenplay, was mostly engrossing, especially the romance between Ajith and Laila was well told, on-screen. If only he could make Gajini with the same class of Dheena and also Ramana, it would take him to heights.

[Pic : Vikatan.com]

Vikatan reports, that Gajini is an action movie with Surya as Sanjay Ramaswamy, one of the top 5 rich people in the world. There is more story told in the report. I have no clue why would they reveal so much of a movie even when it is pre-production stage. But then, it does increase the curiosity levels in the kollywood. Before Gajini releases we will have few flicks where the protagonist is one of the top 5 businessmen in the world, 1 of the top 5 beggars in the world, 1 of top 5 nutcracks in the world and so on. Murugadas will be astonished to see such co-incidence with his contemporaries. All due to this story leak even before the movie is shot. Follow, the Mani Ratnam stlye dudes. Make people wait for storyline and see the hype during the movie release.

Anyway, here’s wishing all the very best for the Gajini team.