Association for India’s Development – San Diego Chapter
proudly presents
Indian Ocean - An evening of rich indian music infused with western rock and jazz

When:
Aug 13th Sunday, 5:00pm-7:30pm

Where:
East County Performing Arts Center
210 East Main Street,
El Cajon 92020
Google Directions

Tickets:
Advance : $20,$30,$50
At the gate: $25, $35, $55
Donor Tickets: Suggested minimum $100
Tickets available online

Contact :
Sandiego Aid India
concert_aidsd@yahoo.com
858-437-1423

Indian Ocean is a contemporary fusion music band of Northern India. Some music critics describe the Indian Ocean music as “Indo-rock fusion with jazz-spiced rhythms that integrates, Sufism, shlokas, environmentalism, mythology and revolution”. Their music blends with different cultural boundaries and echoes the distant folk music that still prevails in rural India. The lyrics celebrate individuals journey to transform the self and collective struggles to change the world to a better place.

Indian Ocean has performed over 250 accomplished concerts across the globe in the past 15 years. In 1999, the band was honoured to perform for the President of India at Khajuraho Millennium Concert. They were selected ” Pick of the Fringe” at 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They have successfully toured across the globe and have performed at India Festival in Singapore, Melborne Arts Festival, New Zealand International Festival, Folklife Festival at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, Trafalgar Square in London and Indo-Pakistan Amity Concert at MIT.

Indian Ocean, Kandisa, Desert Rain, Jhini and sound track for Black Friday are their recorded albums. Jhini received AV Max award for the Best Produced Album in India. The group also featured as Artists of the Month on MTV in May 2006.

AID is a US based non-profit volunteer movement committed to promoting sustainable, equitable and just development in India. Donations to AID are tax-deductible in the USA where it is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. For more information, visit www.aidindia.org

All concert proceeds go towards developmental activities in India.

[Invite sent to me by Capriciously Me].

Last time around it was a strenuous search for two whole months. And as other fellow desis adviced I ended up with a 90’s Toyota Carolla.

Just today when I was thinking to car shop, I ended up in a Honda showroom. I was looking to buy the post-2002 Honda Accord in it’s magentic grey color. And I found one with moon roof and stuff. So that was a used one and costed more than some of the new ones they had in stock. Confused with the dynamics of US car market, I wanted to really look-out few more places before I nailed down on something. On the way home, I decided to drop into a Toyota showroom.

Driving the Corolla for a year, I started liking the Toyota brand and their service. And they are much flexible in terms of accessories than the Honda guys. But the dark greyish honda accord was mesmerizing me on the another end. The latest 2007 model of Camry was in the showroom. Though I didn’t have a big liking for Camrys, the latest model had some of the best curves and an affordable price tag to it.

So I found a magnetic grey Camry. Unfortunately(!!) it was loaded with some amazing accesories which I wouldn’t like to pay for. It had moon-roof, surrond sound bluetooth, 8 speakers which spilled 440 watts and mp3/wma compatible 6 CD changer. I made no sense to me to have mp3 and 6 CD changer together. Being the latest version, released just over a month back, they didn’t have enough of the metallic grey that I liked. They convinced me with a loan option. What else ? I bought it and drove home listening to Kaathal Ithuthaan Athuthaan Endru Ketkumaa.

Was it a good decision or not ? Let me see what I feel like tomorrow morning.

Two weeks back, the tamil world went bonker bonks with two back-to-back murders. The wifes killed their respective husbands. Not because their husbands didn’t buy them chicken briyani or they didn’t take their wifes to Azhagai Irukiraai Bhayamai Irukirathu movie. Adultery. One of them was marred for nearly 12 years and had two kids. the second one killed her husband on the third day after marriage, while they were off for a honeymoon. And that was shocking to many.

Passing moral judgements would be the stupidest idea. But atleast someone could actually look through these and discover what really went wrong. Connected to these two incidents, Anuradha Ramanan’s column on Vikatan named, Enna Aachu Namma Ponungalukku ?, hits the nail on the head. She explores the mindset of contemporary society and then derives reasoning as to how extra-marital affairs branch out. The concluding part of this column will be on the next issue but this is Anuradha Ramanan in her own style.

Couple of month’s back, I was reading Sujatha’s Katrathum Petrathum Part 1 where he writes a one page story named Thirai. Thirai starts off as any normal shortstory and within just one page, explores the issue of adultery so subtely that it shocks you just on it’s concluding line. One of Sujatha’s best shortstories. Infact, the shortest.

Today, Mumbai is back to business. People suffered a lot on Tuesday evening, but only after 12 to 15 hours they are back to their duties/business without any fear, travelling in the same crowded trains. This is the spirit of Mumbai. Terrorists can explode bombs in trains or even at strategic locations, but they cannot break the Mumbai spirit.

This spirit is sufficient to frustrate the evil design of terror-mongers. They can draw satisfaction from material damage but they are unable to break the moral, courage and spirit of Mumbaikars.

Despite the jamming of all telecommunication and transportation hurdles on Tuesday evening, Mumbaikars rose to the occasion. They helped each other; passed well-being messages through incoming STD calls; provided food, water and shelter to stranded fellow Mumbaikars; donated blood; helped the administration in traffic control and at blast sites.

[#]

Seems like RD got it all wrong. I’ve never been up at Mumbai. I don’t know what it feels be a mumbaiite. But when all the media is going ga-ga over it’s spirit, I couldn’t stop getting amazed. I want to stay at Mumbai for atleast twenty hours.

It’s been sometime since the previous one. So here you go.

Usual Stuff - For starters, guess the movie and the sequence. There is a clue available in every(well, mostly) kollywood car quiz. This is important - If you are planning to guess the answer, don’t open the comments box and spoil the fun yourself. Once you have guessed go straight ahead and comment it without looking for answers. All Kollywood Cars.

It’s a mystery to me
The game commences
For the usual fee
Plus expenses
Confidential information
It’s in a diary
This is my investigation
It’s not a public inquiry

I go checking out the report
Digging up the dirt
You get to meet all sorts
In this line of work
Treachery and treason
There’s always an excuse for it
And when I find the reason
I still can’t get used to it

And what have you got at the end of the day ?
What have you got to take away ?
A bottle of whisky and a new set of lies
blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes

Scarred for life
No compensation
Private investigations

Mark Knopfler, is genius thy middle name ?

Couple of weeks back, yet another nice soul, got a bunch of books from Chennai. This bunch didn’t contain any Sujatha books except for Katrathum Petrathum 3.

Ashokamithran’s Ottran was the highlight of this bunch and I’m currently at the fag end of this book. I think its a great book. One of the finest from Ashokamitran. Ottran is partly fiction, partly memoir. Ottran chronicles seven months of Ashokamitran’s stay in the Iowa University during the 70’s. He was invited to stay there as a part of global writers program. Ashokamitran makes some fantastic-yet-simple observations of the desi life in the US which hasn’t been registered in tamil literature until now. Being written in the first person style, this is a gripping and down-to-earth slice of a writer’s life.

The other books included two more from Ashokamitran. Karaindha Nizhalgal - a novel based on Chennai filmdom and Azhivatrathu, collection of Ashokamitran shortstories written after the millennium. This bunch also included two of S. Ramakrishnan’s series, Thunnaiezhuthu and Kathavilasam that were published by Vikatan. Ra. Ki Rangarajan’s Naalu Moolai was also one of them.

Watched Superman Returns in the IMAX with selected scenes on 3D. It’s an 85 foot screen with some fabulous sound system. And its probably the biggest screen a cinephile gets to watch in his lifetime. Still…Read ahead.

Kevin Spacey did disappoint. Why did he ever accepted to do the movie in first place ? That tells you I didn’t expect too much out Brandon Routh, in the first place. He has the perfect nose of a superman and he fits into the role. Atleast physically. More than helping the plotpoint of the movie, he serves as Mr.Droolover for the chicks. You could hears Wows and Aahs in the theatre.

Didn’t impress me much like Spidey 2.

[Source - Vikatan]

Usualy a quiet guy, PC Sreeram, in this small interview to Vikatan, actually talks.

And to my joy(!!), he also reflects his worries on the information overload thats prevalent in the contemporary society. Boy, I’m just about too convinced that information overload should be curbed. Starting from this blog.

How would write a two-minute review for a short film that only runs for six minutes and two seconds, to be exact ? You could. If the movie is well made. Not just because the maker is your friend. This isn’t written because I know Arun for sometime now. Arun’s The Seance is truly a good shortfilm. Like many other shortfilms, at the first viweing, there is a chance that you might not understand the story behind this movie. Any shortstory or shortfilm should considered as a slice of life. So there can’t be a three act structure for a shorty. Even with a single act, you could bring in the formulaic movie structure. Arun does it convincingly well.

The Seance could be classified as a horror shorty. It has superb production values and it doesn’t look or feel like an amateur film. Not even for a moment. The lighting and cinematography are just about immaculate. There is enough darkness as much as the available light. The music goes with the mood of the movie and is very scary at ‘that’ single moment. The actors are spot on. BTW, there are only two actors[Tom Cappadona and Rick Pisarro] in the whole movie. Bearing few shots where one would feel that the editor could have sliced just an extra frame, the editing puts up a neat show.

The execution of the script is the highlight. Honestly, superb direction. This is probably the best of Arun till date and it will go a long way in showcasing his talent. Having a great product on-hand, it’s now with Arun and his team to take this movie to film festivals and see how it fares. For that’s the only way for an independent movie can get noticed. The Seance is already getting rave reviews in Kevin Spacey’s Triggerstreet. I think you could watch the movie online if you register there. I got a high quality version sent from Arun but that shouldn’t matter. Do mail Arun[arun[dot]filmmaker[at]gmail.com] on your views. He is all ears now.