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January 30, 2005

Saarang 2005 - Images

Kurt Cobain on the Tees
[More here...]

Saarang 2005 which just went by had some cool moments that would be recorded in the official photographer's camera. But here are some Saarang images that I clicked. I personally liked to click them because the pictures have an amateurish flavor as you can see. And these were clicked outside the OAT [Open Air Theatre] where the pro shows were conducted. They frisk chewing gums to cameras at the entrance of OAT and hence I didn't want to take along my camera inside.

Have put in captions for each of the images. They were selling a photo CD of Saarang 2005 at the venue, which had images shot during all the professional shows and the crowd of Saarang. It had pics that were something like the Spirit of Saarang and was just costing 20 bucks. If I can get hold of that CD, will upload some professional show pictures taken from the terrace of the OAT, for those who missed Saarang 2005. Do let me know if you enjoyed the pics. Also will write about Prasanna's Jazz show.

Thanks to the Google Picasa. As Google released Picasa 2, last week, I downloaded and to my suprise found it a lot better than what I had expected. So the picture page that you will be seeing is a Picasa generated page. All I did was to download the images from the camera and clicked on export to webpage. Vroooomm. It's Done. Great software as it even digged my entire computer to bring out pictures that I was assuming to be mis-placed. Try Picasa for your PC.

January 29, 2005

225 years of Indian Newspaper

Indian Newspaper celebrates its 225th birthday today. This same day on 1780, the Indian newspaper was born and a new jobs called paperboys emerged. Hopefully it will continue to swing for the next 20 years like this. 20 years is just too much of a guesstimate given the supersonic developments in the tech area. However, newspapers would live longer than that but may not be in the same paper form. Who knows ?

Atleast in this part of the world, newspapers have been the prime source of news for more than a century. Else Bharati wouldn't have never attempted to edit a newspaper called Vijaya when he was undercover in Pondicherry. The televisions which glare the red colored flash news snippets are just about picking up and can never replace newspapers. The internet however can.

Imagine, after 10 years from now, all of us might carry a tabloid PC or smaller than that, where we would subscribe to online editions of The Hindu, Times of India, Deccan Herald and those paperboys might just loose their jobs. Though personally I wish that never happens because there are numerous people whom I know, jump-start their morning biological compulsions only after a cup of filtercoffee and a gulp of morning news from The Hindu. Am sure Hindu's online edition would improve dramtically then, to adapt the bulging online junta.

Vikatan group which publishes the widely read popular weeklies, is making it's their online editions as a paysite. I am sure their online readership would continue to drop in the coming months but I am positive it might pickup in a year or two. All these days Vikatan.com was a free site and it was serving Vikatan only as a way of marketing their magazines. Now they are continuing to do what they have been doing online but for a sum of money. Even a few thousand dollars for them through the online subscription is extra. They can atleast break-even with this to pay their online content managers.

Back in the US, as the newspaper van throws a plastic covered newspaper at the doorstep which most of them pickup only when they take their cars out to work. They get dose of news from the numerous news channels and online news sources delivered to their multi-tasked PDAs. Ofcourse, I've read newspapers like Chicago Tribune, NY Times, Sun, Wash Post that have provide amazingly opinonated views to the news. It's only that the urgency of life that make newspaper being read online than offline. A similar case would also happen even in India. I ain't under estimating the power of newspaper but it's due to complex lifestlyes, newspapers might get shrinked as marketing media for the readers. There could even be a Hindu evening edition in the coming years just for the whole lot of population that only gets up in the evening after a tiring night shift at callcenters.

All the above were on the future of newspapers. Taking about the contemporary state, few newspapers have started to take political sides or caste-based sides. A commoner has to read atleast two newspapers, watch the biased channel news, read online just to decide what the actual story was. Here's the positive note for all those who think I was a little negative through out the post. If only newspapers continue to report(this is dicey word) news as they are, they can give a run to the online news content and news channels.

For those who missed to read today's newspapers(in the wood pulp form), here are some the fabulous ad caption that The Indian Newspaper Society published as multiple quater page ads in most of the newspapers.

- If this was just a paper, it wouldn't have lasted 225 years. The Indian newspaper. Born 29th January 1780. Just as powerful today.

- Go back to reading the paper. On this day in 1780, the first Indian newspaper hit the stands. And so began a ritual millions indulge in everyday. Come to think of it, that's what you were doing before we interupted.

- Just this once, the big news of the day isn't in the papers. It is the papers. 29th January, 1780. The first Indian newspaper hits the stands. And ever since, the papers have become an essential part of daily life. Now there's a truly newsworthy event.

January 27, 2005

Single Sensible ?!

Outlook loves to overhype it's articles. Their recent coverstory on the cliched topic, sex / India / Indian women got criticised for overhyping it. This one on the celibates-by-choice isn't one of those category. It makes real sense maybe because I am able to relate to it. The article details on the growing population of singles in the metros of India.

I've gone through this feeling of being a single throughout life, several times. Had even joked to friends that celibacy may not be a choice but the only option left. Fortunately, I wasn't lucky like those singles. Have no qualms. Infact, its a lot lot better than being single. I have to admit marriage softens oneself. Forget the dreamy romance stuff. It's not about it. It's about the rebel in you getting toned down to accomodate two minds, rather than one. Many a time, softening down gives you a matured perspective. However, you slowly loose the rebel in you to become a middleclass 'ambi'. Ambi or Rebel, you've got to choose.

I am sure that there might be varied thoughts as this is a larger area under discussion and I have chose to talk only about a few.

January 26, 2005

Saarang 2005 Round-up !!

The ambience is electrifying. The lights are dazzling. The dudes and the dudettes are simply classy and make Britney spears and Orlando Bloom have re-look on their fashion sense. There is appropriate security. The crowd rocks and there are no in-decent events reported. Saarang is cool. Not great, though.

There is a thin air of null and void that makes this year’s Saarang look a little dull. It's the audience who have added color to this year's Saarang. I ain't concluding because there is still a cool performance of Guitar Prasanna's today in the Jazz show. I am not the complaining type but it's just plainly visible for any Saarang frequenter. The organisers and the volunteers are the ones who have worked hard to make Saarang a success but then the selection of performers (inter college and pro-shows) should have been done with a little more care.

On the Bindaas Park, Hutch has a huge team of guys and girls who keep conducting the age old games. Last year, this Hutch team rocked. They didn’t do all the gimmicks like now. All they had was a small jam machine that was re-mixing songs with a DJ and the crowd loved to dance, dance and dance baby. Now, not only they bore the on-lookers but they also seem bored by doing this year-after-year. I am sure this is not Hutch’s marketing issue but they could have selected the ambassadors better. It was a common opinion and not just mine. How many times will we dance as a couple by folding the sheets of paper untill we step out? Change the game dudes and see the fun. This is not only true for the Hutch stall but also for the Nokia stall. Nokia, is the prime sponsor this year for the Saarang and has made sure all that they execute the promotion well.

Decibels 2005

The decibels show(inter-college western music contest) is one of the best things that happen at the Saarang. Not to forget Cluedo and the dramatics. I managed to watch the pre-lims and the finals. On the prelims conducted in the Bindaas Park, the teams either wasted time in setting up their musical instruments or talking about the music they loved to play. These days, most teams play own compositions which are sometimes better than the professionals. A band called Black Legions(I think!!), who had very little time to sing in the pre-lims because their lead guitar went out of shape, played good rock-and-roll of yester years. Their first song called Crash Course to Rock ‘N’ Roll which was an own composition was note-worthy.

On the finals, it was Guitar Prasanna and another guy(who arranged the Jesus Christ Super Star in Chennai) who were the judges. A female singer Nandita sang a Van Halen number which was clearly one of the best. Powder in Ash Tray, a band with amazing Vocals and great leads, walked away the with Decibels 2005 award.

Light Music 2005

Thiruda Thiruda might have failed in the box-office but it doesn’t mean the movie and it’s music would be forgotten. Thee Thee song from Thiruda Thiruda and Minsaara Poove from Padayappa were the popular ones. They were sung twice by two teams. Also Konjam Nilavu was attempted the MCC. That girl from MCC sang the movie so stlyishly that I was thinking she might win the best female vocalist prize.

Songs like Thee Thee and Konjam Nilavu are highly synthesized and it’s tough to reproduce them with just intruments and a keyboard. If only the college teams would agree with this, they might sing Illayaraja numbers and walk away with the awards. I am not tipping that AR Rahman music is tough to be re-produced. But with live audience and live sounds, for an amateur it might be a little tough to get that perfection.

Whereas Minsaara Poovey which has a cool combo of classical and synth music was welcomed by the audience. Also there is huge scope in the song to display voice modulations. I would anytime advice people to sing Megham Kottatum, Vannam Konda Vennilavey or even Illamai Itho Itho to walk away with the prize.

Rehana, AR Rahman’s sister and Saagar, Devi Shri Prasad's brother alongwith Keith Peters were there to judge the music show. Rehana rightly said that the sound system was tuned for western music show and that’s probably why the teams had tough time tuning the instruments.

Will detail more on Saarang 2005 and KK light music show alongwith Prasanna's Be the Change show, tomorrow. Also will upload pictures, sleeping the digi cam, by the weekend.

January 25, 2005

Second Timer at the IndiBloggies

Best Humanities Indiblog

Whoa !! Thanks to everyone who took time to read and vote this blog as the Best Humanities(Arts) IndiBlog 2004, for the second time. It's certainly an extra dose of inspiration served as an award. I am sure there are many other blogs on arts and media that are covering some amazing stuff who also need to appreciated now.

Thanks to Debashish(Indiblogger) who did a great job of showcasing the best of Indian blogs through the IndiBloggies Awards. Congrats to all other bloggers who won Indibloggies.

January 22, 2005

A not so important post

Am on a Saarang high, over the weekend. As usual they don't allow photograhic equipment inside the Open Air Theatre. So the digital camera that I carry along would be frisked. Hence, will post some pictures taken outside. Picture postcards of current fashion.

My mom celebrated the silver jubliee year of Sumeet mixie in our house. It was bought somewhere in the early 1980 when I was still a crying mama in the kindergarten. It stills rotates faster(!) to make yummy Thenga Chutney and Pudhina Thugayal. May sound trivial. But I am just thinking, as engineering gets better, do the contemporary products have better life. To think back, our B/W Solidaire lived longer than our recent color Videocon television. I understand the usage has increased but still. I am not sure how long my philips 'digital' television will continue to show images un-distorted ? I hope it happens sooner than two years. A plasma television might just come barge into my drawing room, only then.

January 21, 2005

Friday Quickies

Channel [V] ropes in A R Rahman and Adnan Sami for the final-phase auditions of Super Singer contest. Handful of them would certainly get a chance to sing ARR's compositions. Lucky them.

Marriage inisde the family. Dum Dum Dum to Hotmail and Outlook.

Will anybody stop loving Raymond even after they are done by May 16 2005? Its one of my fave show.

JavaScript : The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language. Interesting. [Via Kottke].

January 18, 2005

Popular Demand

Dr Kamal Hassan
[Pic: Hindu]

Not just this post but also the doctorate itself was by a popular demand. This guy is certainly worth one. Dr. Kamal Hassan. Doesn't that sound a little odd ?. I perfer to call him simply by his first name, Kamal.

Just noticed that the previous post was on Rajini. This has happened before. Can't beat this combo.

January 17, 2005

Chandramukhi Preview

Chandramukhi Rajini
[Pic: idlebrain.com]

Chandramukhi is on the sets. Rajinikanth looks much younger, just like the Arunaachalam make-over. IdleBrain and Behindwoods are up with galleries. Check out.

January 16, 2005

Kaanom Pongal !!

That title wasn't a spell mistake. Intended. It's a day when people usually are out on the sea bathing, eating pannju mittai, going gala rounds on the raatinams, teens driving supersonic bikes with their girlfriends in the pillions and hiding faces with dupatta on the east coast road, people throwing 'rastali' bananas at the orangutangs in Vandalur and what not. Many of them were missing in action, today.

Was driving by the Marina shore today and to my surprise saw there were hardly anyone for the pongal celebrations on the beach. There wasn't even the a crowd that comes down on a weekend. And as I took a 'U' turn on the war memorial and came back through the Napier bridge, just can't beat the thought of Aayitha Ezhuthu climax scenes. Stopped the bike on a corner of the bridge, looked back at it and took off again. Drove along the Kamarajar salai to reach Santhome and then the Elliots beach. Hardly any crowd there at 5 pm. Gosh, couldn't believe my sight. Went near the shore after parking the bike. Desperately wanted to touch the water but it was restricted today. The bajji stalls are now moved far from the shores and it looked that they were the ones seriously hit by Tsunami attack.

There was even very low turn-out on the Chennai Book Fair. Was roaming around from 12:00 to 3:00 in the noon and it wasn't too crowded as the other day. Only on such a day you can leisurely browse books and also get a good glimpse of the fair. Leaving my outfits, I gave off everything else in the book fair for buying books. Now, I have to find a place in my house to arrange them.

Some book thats I bought today - 6 out-of-print books of Sujatha from Thirumagal Nilayam(mostly compilations of columns that he wrote for Kanayaazhi), Gnani's Kandathai Sollugiren (columns that he wrote for India Today) and Sundara Ramaswamy's Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai. Need to buy - S.Ramakrishan's Ulaga Cinema(World Cinema) and Upa Pandavam, Ashokamithran Katuraigal, Aathmanaam Poetry, Jeyamohan's shortstory collection and thousands of such nice ones. The bookfair will wind-up by tomorrow.

January 15, 2005

Saarang 2005

Guitar Prasanna
[Pic:eer-music]

Chennai is yet to take a breather from the crowded book fair but then there's no time. Saarang 2005, the cultural mishmash of IIT Madras is happening again. I shouldn't be saying it's happening. Because as the IITians says, it isn't an event. Saarang is a state of mind. And this yearly festival starts from 21st Jan 2005 and goes on till the 26th. This is an inter-college show and so the youth is outta there. A gentle breeze after the rather dry december music festival and the book fair.

I've been a regular to this yearly event for close to a decade and it gets better every time. Be it the pro-shows or the arrangements or the fashion statement, Saarang simply rocks. It makes you feel young and yearn for those good-old college days. A true extravaganza. Last year, Saarang was devastating. Euphoria and Strings created a magic on the last day and I could still remember the whole stadium singing Maa Thuje Salaam. Also Decibels, intre-college western music show was the best of all the years. And I hope this year it will become even tougher. You also have this usual nice to watch Ad-Zap, Jam and creative writing competitions, not to forget the popular Mr and Ms Saarang.

This year's schedule is out. For the pro-shows KK(the same Kakkha Kakkha KK) will be performing light music on 24th. Orange Street alongiwth Moksha will perform the rock show on 22nd Jan. There comes a suspense which I nearly guessed(rather wanted to happen). Guitar Prasanna will be performing again for the Jazz show named, Be the Change. Be the Change is actually the latest album released by Prasanna in the mid 2004. He along with Jeff Coffin on sax, Kai Eckhardt on bass guitar and Derico Watson on drums will perform the show. During Saarang 2000, he played along with Alphonso Johnson. I had been to that show and I must say it was exhilarating.

Guitar Prasanna is well known to Chennai music fans for his carnatic compositions with guitar. I did like his albums on Jazz than the carnatic ones. He was probably inspired by the Miles Davis school of jazz and took over jazz from blues. He owns more credit for spreading the reach of carnatic music in the American music circles. With Illayaraja his last work was for Vaanavilley in Ramana. He played those enchanting acoustics for Yej Jo Hai Tera of Swades for A R Rahman. I am definetly there for this show and also for the KK's light music.

Catch up with the never ending State-of-Mind Saarang next week. If you are coming do let me know and we can plan along.

Indibloggies 2004

Indibloggies 2004

Indibloggies is the Indian version of Bloggies. These are awards given away for the best blogs during the year. This blog, lazygeek.net was the Best Media Indiblog, last year. This year the name has been changed to Best Humanities(arts) Indian Weblog. Am not sure why they had to change it ?

Anyway, this blog is nominated again. Unlike last year, there are more competitors this year. If you think it's (still) worth it, do vote.

January 13, 2005

Round-up - Chennai Book Fair 2005

Enter Bookdom

As usual there are books and bookworms in Chennai. However, the Chennai Bookfair 2005 isn't only about them. Strangely, the book fair is getting very sociable. A typical social gathering than just a book buying crowd. But if they are able to translate the visitors into book buyers the goal is reached.


computers and aeroplanes

This year, probably the first time, they have changed the architecture of the book fair. Until now, the entry and the exit were through a common gateway. Now, it's much streamlined and you go in through a way and come out of the other. This probably has to be appreciated because there is enough space to move around and adapt the bellying visitor count. The organizers are strict and they don't allow any single stall to occupy more space than what was allocated. When I was in a stall, they even asked that stall hosts take out a single chair placed at the side of the stall.

Apart from these operational stuff, there are books. In plenty. And there are readers to buy books ranging from Five minutes Briyani to Yoga and it's therapeutic approach.

Kaalachuvadu has an amazing calendar for 2005 which hosts pencil sketches of eminent Indians. From J Krishnamurthy to MS Subbulakshmi this is a good buy. Bought a compilation of G.Nagarajan's short stories which includes Naalai Matrumoru Naaley.

checkout Cho and Sivakumar in Alliance

Alliance publishing has released Actor Siva Kumar's autobiography named, Ithu Rajapaattai Alla. I couldn't find Cho. Ramaswamy's Sarkaar Poghundha Veedu, Koovam Nathi Karaiyile and Enge Brahmnan in print at Alliance publishing. Looks like it might a month before they come back to print.

Badri Seshadri's Kizhakku Pathippagam Ashokamithran's Assorted Columns

Badri Seshadri's Kizhakhu Pathippagam is certainly doing a great job. Probably one of the most professional of the lot. They have a good collection and are adding some more books. Their list includes, Pa. Raghavan's Dollar Dhesam, Hari Krishnan's Hanuman - Vaarpum Vanappum and a book by Ira.Murugan. is probably their Bought Aathavan's Iravukku Mun Varuvathu Maalai.

Kadavulgalin Pallathaakku Sujatha's Selected Shortstories


Uyirmmai also has come out with a great collection. Other than Sujatha's books they also have other new books like Aathavan's Kaakitha Malargal and S.Ramakrishnan's new book.

S.Ramakrishnan's book on World Cinema is selling hot cakes. Released by Kanavu Pattarai it is well priced at 500 bucks and is a good buy. I just scanned a few pages and am planning to go for it.

finally some space

Then there was Dheemtarikita and Gnani was as usual talking to his visitors socially. Last year, Vairamuthu's Kallikattu Ithikasam was the hot seller. This time, Vairamuthu's Konjam Thaneer Niraya Vaanam was out and there weren't any major marketing for it.

Relax Bookworms !! Bye Bye Book Fair

As I said on the curtain-raiser, there were huge crowds on the Vikatan shop and also in the canteen. There are many tamilians from abroad who are visiting Chennai just for the book fair.

I am planning a glance again tomorrow to meet Writer Sujatha on the Uyirmmai stall by 5:00 pm. Will write more on the books in the next post. BTW, if you haven't visted the book fair, you have just three days more. It's rocking and if you aren't there you are certainly missing out on the books.

Also: Chennai Book Fair 2005 - A Curtain Raiser. Click here to see all the pictures together on Flickr.

Amitav Andaman and Amrish

Amitav Ghosh, the writer of The Calcutta Chromosome, writes to The Hindu about his experiences on The Tsunami disaster in Andaman as a three-part series.

Amrish 'Mogambo' Puri passes away. In pictures. His last film was Kamal's yet-to-be-released Mumbai Express.

This year's Bhogi went without fogging any flights and the traffic. It's improving every year. Good going.

January 11, 2005

The Incredibles movie review - Unbelievably Incredible (!)

The Incredibles

Why would Vishnu incarnate as Rama in the epic of Ramayana and be sent to exile? He needs to kill Ravana. That’s one perspective. Being a staunch bhaktha of Shiva, it's the path that Ravana chose to attain Moksha. That’s another. Put both into a single glass and see through it. I am sure you get another perspective. Every perspective also has a moral. A moral that so glaringly and sometimes very subtly told. This probably is the reason Ramayana still exists as the numero-uno of moral story building forte.

The paragraph above has nothing to do with the movie The Incredibles. It's just how every Pixar movie starts with a moral depicting short film. So does a review. I know you want to kick me but then I love to follow the Pixar way. Even when the first-time-Pixar-movie-watchers are shocked with the kind of un-related story that starts, I certainly believe it is a way to prepare your audience for the grandness that follows. The morality could be similar but the presentation format amazes. Bounding is the short film that’s been played in the beginning of this movie.

The Incredibles is truly incredible for the most part. Of course it's unbelievably incredible(!) just like the huge robot ball that creeps on to the earth in the motive of destroying mankind. The Incredibles has a story that is metaphorically exhilarating but as it travels through the screenplay roller coaster, it boils down to pedestrian fantasy movie.

Just like how Mr.Glass of The Unbreakable was looking out for super heroes, Syndrome, the so called villain dude is also tracing and following the super heroes. His theory, "If everyone has super powers, no one really has". And he is characterized by bristling hair, jazzy dress and a whacky smile, good to enough to say that he is a villain. He succeeds one third of a movie to put our hero to trouble and finally gets destroyed. Yet another kollywood masala. Yet another James Bond + Indiana Jones combo. Still, there lies a difference. Incredibles has a what-if story. What if Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Mandrake, Phantom and all super heroes are represented, indirectly, in a single movie? That's probably the best aspect of the movie giving a large scope for creativity to unleash.

As a family to superheroes, dubbed by the public for de-railing the social laws, are sent in exile by the government, to live among the commons, as commons. The story then treads into a land of reality and details the living of superheroes in a distant city trying to fulfill the American dream. Our hero, the patriarch of the family, Bob Parr, is frustrated by the mediocrity and hypocrisy which the commoners posses and writhes to escape from the middle class exile. There comes an opportunity for him to break this cage and so he does.

Bob's unwillingness to stay in exile is clearly depicted at two instances. During his son's kindergarten convocation ceremony, he remarks in perplexed tone, "They keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity". One single line that conveys all. Secondly, his body language when he drives that unfitting sedan from office. Bob's wife, Elastigirl(voice by Holly Hunter) has an untypical role of savior and a mom with super powers. While in exile, her characterization and intonation ring in front a typical American housewife. The costume designer needs a special mention here. Then there are three kids of Bob, each with a special quality and extremely witty in their own ways. Violet, the teenaged daughter, who is head-over-heels on a school stud. Dash, the naughty and loud, speed runner. And the last kid, who has a hair similar to Ananda Vikatan symbol. All these plus there is a buddy of Bob Parr named Frozone (rendered by Samuel Jackson) who is the positive Mr.Freeze of Batman and Robin.

If I am rambling this much about the storyline in an animated movie, it's an accolade for the entire technical crew. Because, I've got over the fact that there are no real humans in the movie but computer rendered graphical shapes that is make-believe to be a human. The humans are nearly true to life. Their skin texture, their facial movements and their amazingly perfect shadows are all the magic of software run on Pixar's computers. Robert Zemeckis and his team nearly perfected the art of shadowing two dimensional animation even in Who framed the Roger Rabbit? But then Pixar always makes a giant step and they keep perfecting the art. Having read Pixar's biography in The Second coming of Steve Jobs it's interesting to visualize the growth of Pixar in the animation industry. Pixar would continue to grow and their animation would become milestones for other aspiring animation factories.

The sets and the costume design are cleverly designed to be address reality and at the same be spectacular. The background score by is shockingly silent. Very refreshing because the visual effects gets are highlighted and noticed.

Brad Bird, the director of the movie, is also popularly know for his direction of The Simpsons and The Iron Giant (which I would love to watch), gets the entire credit. He gives due regard to the audience intelligence and hence makes you feel elated as the movie passes, unseamed.

As the movie title goes, it is an incredible watch except for the stereotyped climax. The movie thoroughly extends the borders of large-scale animation entertainment by engulfing the adults also to watch it. A phenomenal success this is.

Profit for NDTV

NDTV, one of the unbiased and no-nonsense(personal opinion!!) news channel is moving ahead to the business arena. Their new 24 hour Business News channel, Profit, will start operating from Jan 17.

Business News Channels aren't new to India. We have had TV-18 operating for a long time since now before getting merged with CNBC to make Indian oriented business news. Looks like TV-18 is also moving ahead with a full-time hindi business news channel by the next month. Zee Business, a business news channel in hindi is already up and running from November 2004 end.

Vikram Chandra, CEO of NDTV will also head the NDTV profit and I hope they will be television news portal for Indian Business within less than a year.

January 9, 2005

What if Elvis were alive?

I forgot to wish Elvis Presley, Happy Birthday, on his 70th Birthday. Not his fans. Having known Elvis only through his music and ofcourse through Forrest Gump, I think he is more of a philosophy than an idol.

Here's more. What would it be if Elvis was alive ?

January 8, 2005

Shankar gets on with Anniyan Promos

Vikram and Sadha in Anniyan
[Pic: Vikatan]

As kollywood gets ready to witness one of the finest summers with many blockbusters lined up, Shankar talks about Anniyan. In his quick inteview[needs user id/password] with Ananda Vikatan, Shankar seems to be happy about the shoot until now.

He describes that when an Indian travels to the foreign nations, more often, he behaves like a the green-eyed monster on their lifestyle, cleanliness and financial growth. Anniyan is an answer never-ending question of "When will India shine?". He is also happy about Harris Jayaraj's music. I was also expecting that he would talk about the cinematography of Mani Kandan. There wasn't a question about that. Shankar also reacalls his experiences with Kathal as a producer.

With movies like Rajini's Chandramukhi, Kamal Hassan's Mumbai Express, Vijay's Sachin and Surya's Maayaavi all waiting to be released on April 14th, Shankar's Anniyan will also be in this league of hugely expected movies. What more does kollywood want except a race to box-office like this ?

Weekend Tech Bits

IBM strengthens it's Business Intelligence capabilities by acquiring SRD, a company specialising in identity resoultion. SRD's products can answer "Who is who?" questions in the area of analytics with accuracy. That's a big leap for IBM in the BI arena.

It's over. Oracle has purchased more than 97% of PeopleSoft's stock, and the application vendor is now a wholly owned Oracle subsidiary.

Must read for the Google guys. This is a long read but a neat technology review of Google and suggestion for Google on the road ahead. What’s Next for Google by By Charles H. Ferguson.

Windows Media Center PC is making way into the living rooms.

January 7, 2005

Rahul Saxena. Who's that ?

Rahul Saxena

Rahul Saxena wouldn't have featured here if I wouldn't have heard him sing. He wouldn't even be known to a 1000 people throughout his life if only he didn't participate in Sony's Indian Idol competition. Today Rahul Saxena is a hero. A true spirited gentleman.

Rahul came into the competition with a great singing talent but had no clue that he could also become an Indian Idol. He didn't have a great personality of a Pop star. He was just the average joe from the Indian middle class. Obviously because of his singing gift and quaint charm, he rose up to the top 10 singers category in the competition. The short-listed singers were made to stay in a star hotel. Rahul became a friend of all. He had an attitude that made everyone love him and his voice that was as nice as him.

Today, on an elimination round of Indian Idol, there were 8 singers alongwith Rahul Saxena. Based on yesterday's round of singing, Indians had voted through SMS. Shockingly, Rahul was eliminated today. The audience were dismayed. His fellow participants Aditi and Amit Sana were literally crying. The judges were completely blown-away. Farah Khan couldn't believe the scene and was in tears. Sonu Nigam seemed to be the most upset off all. For me it was the only show where the judges cried on a participant's fate.

Rahul stood nearly in tears but chose to sing a bye-bye song. The crowd alongwith the judges gave him a standing ovation and he was still there in the middle, singing as merrily as ever. Entusiasm is infectious. Rahul Saxena proved it yet-another-time.

P.S : Due to heavy comment posting, I'm closing the comments for this post. Thanks.

28th Chennai Book Fair - 2005

I can just copy/paste the first para of my last year's Chennai Book Fair post here. It would still be appropriate and make sense. So here you go the same para with small changes to the dates.

The 28th Chennai Book Fair 2005 opens today[7th Jan 2005] and will go on till 17th of this month. Organised by the Booksellers' and publishers' Association of South India (BAPASI), it's happening in Quaid E Millet College,Opp to Hotel Connemera. If you are expecing some dazzling girls there, don't bother too much. They are all concentrated in Nungambakkam stadium where the Carlos Moya and Srichappan are fighting for the TATA Open Tennis title. The last couple of years have been successful for the organisers and the participants of this book fair. The crowd was enoromous and sales reached it's peak. As Sujatha says, it's a cycle. Book reading habit will come back and people will pull out the heads that are stuck to their televisions. It's happening. I'm planning a peek throughout the next week in undecided intervals.

The newer stuff begins here ;-)

Come January and the carnatic kutcheris logout and it's time books take the centre court along with the tennis stars playing Chennai Open. More than 3 lakhs people visited the last book fair of 2004 and that explains the frenzy crowd. As Chennaites lovingly say its a yearly Khumbh Mela for books. It's a pride of Chennai. Some serious book lovers however consider the crowd to be very superficial and stay out. For just 2 rupees as entry free, anyone would be interested to barge in. I agree that there are more onlookers than actual takers but it in noway stops someone from taking a spin. If you would do that I am sure you would have alreay spent a good 1000 bucks on worthy books.

The tamil publishing has come over the age and if you can compare the quality of the print to the western styles. Badri Seshadri's Kizhakku Pathippagam has also joined the band wagon and their online bookstore Kamadenu is already out with new releases. I'm expecting them to make a difference. Uyirmmai is ready with the set of new books to be released. Here are some books of Sujatha and other newer books to be released in the book fair. Sujatha's new book Kadavulin Pallathakku is compiled by Desikan. Kadavulin Pallathakku is a compilation of essays of Sujatha which haven't been seen in form of a book.

As usual Vikatan has also compiled columns in form of books and we know thats where the crowd is. I have a bunch of books to be bought inclusive of the Ashokamithran's shortstory collection which has two parts and each part is priced at 750 bucks. This book fair is probably the best place to buy such costly ones because you get a straight 10% discount on them.

Just like every other year, the evenings will have talk shows by the writers. Coming Tuesday [11th Jan] evening, I am expecting a huge crowd to join. Jayakanthan will be talking amidst the crowd and it's certainly going to be a great show. If you are in Chennai during these days plan your schedules around the Chennai Book Fair. I am sure you wouldn't regret later.

January 6, 2005

Happy Birthday Dude !! - AR Rahman

AR Rahman

As South Asians took root around the world and their local movie culture avidly followed them, one could hear Rahman’s music even if it didn’t puncture the consciousness: as background music in restaurants and posh stores, in the very beat of certain neighborhoods, and of course in the movies that occasionally broke out of Desi ghettos. Lagaan, the insurgent epic centered on an Anglo-Indian cricket match, was nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar. Again Rahman’s work went uncited — though not, by Western film cultists, unappreciated. As they discovered India’s pop cinema, they realized that along with the ferocious emoting and delirious dances, there was a master composer — the man Indians call the Mozart of Madras.

The column of Richard Corliss, That Old Feeling: Isn’t It Rahmantic?, appears to be a timely one. A fantastical testimonial of AR Rahman and his timeless compositions. A must read for Rahmaniacs on his b'day.

My bit is here. On a hot sunny afternoon, walking by the crowded streets of Tambaram, I stop by the corner of the road for a synthesised music blaring from an audio shop. I could even identify ABBA, Jackson, Eagles and Carpenters before that. But this music was soothing and very different. I'm not making nay comparions here. No exaggeration. True. Someone on the audioshop said the composer was a 25yr old guy. I bought the cassette not for the music but for Mani Ratnam. It was Roja. The year was 1992.

Since then I've been mesmerized by AR Rahman for good and never turned back. If I were to know a Rahman music album got released, I bought it blindly. I never bothered the crew and the cast. If it was Rahman, the cassette was mine. I even bought music of movies like Andhi Malai which never released. And yeah I closely followed ARR music release schedules. Would have posted them here if only there were blogs in 1995.

Rahman still continues to inspire a generation of people , around the world(is that politically right?) who are transfixed to his musical chords. And we should be pleased that a unassuming dude from Chennai is making the world dance to his HUMMA HUMMA.

A $100 TRY[Tsunami Relief and You]

This isn't a spoof of CRY[Child Relief and You] but just a similar naming which flashed me while I was driving to office this morning.

If you appreciate this TRY[Tsunami Relief and You] and would love to use this name for you Tsunami Relief fund, go ahead. Pay me a $100 which I would donate back to TRY itself. Howzaaaat ?

January 5, 2005

State of Blogging

The US media is now bloated with the news about Blogs. A survey by PEW Inernet & American Life Project named as State of Blogging[PDF] in America, has done all the good to float the news about blogs and their mammoth growth in the year 2004.

Interestigly the report conveys,

blogger graph

Blog creators are more likely to be:
• Men: 57% are male (An older report says bloggers are mostly women)
• Young: 48% are under age 30
• Relatively well off financially: 42% live in households earning over $50,000
• Well educated: 39% have college or graduate degrees

And as BBC sums it up -

Blogging in America -
Blog readership has shot up by 58% in 2004
Eight million have created a blog
27% of online Americans have read a blog
5% use RSS aggregators to get news and other information
12% of online Americans have posted comments on blogs
Only 38% of online Americans have heard about blogs

In India, its still a long way to go. In the urban India, we desperately need broadband available, broadly and ofcourse cheaply. Then let's teach the kindergarten kids about googling. Even if they start blogging at 3rd grade, we can have some classy writers at teens. We are awfully short of children literature in India. In Tamil, the genre of Tamil Children literature is nearly extinct. Probably those teenage bloggers can bring that genre back to life. I dream of that.

January 4, 2005

My Sulekha Sojourn

I don't frequent Sulekha anymore. Not like how I was hooked onto it four years back. Initially when I discovered Sulekha online in late 2000, it was a dream website to me. Then Sulekha was still growing and wasn't as big as now.

Until 2001, I didn't even know a word called Weblog existed on the internet. Then, Sulekha was my haunt. I went back again and again because Sulekha had writings of Indian Diaspora with whom I could relate to. It wasn't like a column nor it was like an email sent by a friend. Its writings were somewhere in-between and were truly classy. To think back, sub-consciously, Sulekha was a big inspiration for me to start blogging. I never wrote anything on Sulekha but admired the writings. Newshopper and Coffee house where the places of my interest. Newshopper had the best of Indian news items that never weren't headlines but were just good opinions.

These days Sulekha is cluttered and full of ads sprinkled. The good writing is lying there somewhere but then who has enough time to dig them out. Their weblogs section really needs a re-org desperately. To put it simply, they have just too many information on a single page and they are trying to sell them hard. A part of the right side is devoted to those gif advertisements which keep blinking at unexpected intervals and keep pestering click here...click here for those cheap $5 phone cards. Sulekha have grown over the period and probably this financial model is doing well for them. In this internet age of Weblog boom and neatly designed websites, they probably should also look into designing their site, uncluttered.

The point here is that, while googling for the Giggles bookstore, I came across this article, The Chennai Sojourn, written by Ranga Rangarajan. Yet another Sulekha gem. This, I believe this is a work of non-fiction though only the writer can say what percentage of fiction is involved. However, Rangarajan brings in front the contemporary Chennai that I see everyday. His observations finest and his detailing very vivid. As someone pointed out in the comments there is a sad undercurrent throughout the article but that only makes it a engrossing read. Do read.

Google's Total Recall

google trio
[Top - Eric Schmidt, Left - Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Pic: AP]

As CBS puts it, "Google has opened its doors, to let 60 Minutes Google them". In India we don't get CBS 60 minutes relayed through CNBC so it's only this internet update available.

This article, Defining Google, is yet another recall of history from how Google started in a converted garage with these two unassuming dudes and how it changed the life on internet. Certainly as a Google partisan it doesn't bore me to read their history again and again but what surprises is they live by their motto, Don't be evil, from the time of their existence.

Extracts -

Google has a brand image to maintain. And their image is they’re all about innovation and they’re all about the Internet, and they’re all about trust. They’re not about selling out. They’re not about getting rich quick. So you’ve got a culture like that; I think if anyone were to buy, you know, a new Mercedes convertible and drive around with the stereo blaring, and miss work a couple days because they’re rich now, that would not be acceptable behavior at Google.

Users would, he adds have a device which is in your pocket, which looks like a phone, and you go to a supermarket and you see a potentially overpriced box of pasta. And you take that device and you wand it over the product code, and you see comparison prices from Google of three other stores that are within a mile, OK? That’s power. That’s search. But no one has quite figured out that. That’s also the future.

Brin won’t say if it's something in Google’s future. But there is one ambition he admits to: finishing his Ph.D. "My mom asks me every week," he says. "I actually do keep meaning to finish it. But I haven’t found quite the slot of time."

That last statement could be just a casual end remark but I choose to believe that each Google employee is as ambitious as Sergey Brin.

January 3, 2005

Devar 'Oscar' Magan

Kamal in Devar Magan shoot

Was watching Devar Magan yesterday on the SUN. It was as gripping as it was on the first watch. Also yesterday we had a visitor who kept saying that Devar Magan would have grabbed an Oscar in the foreign film category if not for the silly mistake that was made. Kamal Hassan, the Devar's son didn't shave his head and his moustache after his father's demise and that was considered as inappropriate by the Oscar recommendation committee. Because as the Devar community custom, a son should tonsure during the last rites. I know that this is a silly hearsay that we keep hearing.

He was probably not aware of the dynamics behind Oscar recommendation and the lobbying that happens to make the Oscar committee to watch a movie. We saw that happening with Aamir and Ashutosh for their Lagaan. But it stunned me that he was so sure that about the fact(?!) and kept harping on that.

Few other situations that this rumour was in circulation were - Kamalhassan not shaving his armpit hair as a male dance in Salangai Oli( this hair issue seems to come in rounds), Tinu Anand using his dead father's pistol in Mani Ratnam's Nayakan as pistols should not be given to the family of dead policemen.

I ask the same question again, why do we need to send movies for Oscars Awards and also expect it as an critical acclaim for Indian movies. Moreover such excuses for not be awarded an Oscar seems to become a serious joke.

Yesterday was a huge revelation.

Yesterday was a huge revelation. All that I blogged and blogged about Tsunami went for a big toss. I understood what it is to go out and help and I am satisfied that I did my best. This isn't a brag. There are still so many unsung heroes helping the relief operation. They don't have blogs or internet. They probably don't even have an email id. And if you allow them to write or express how numb they have become towards death, pages wouldn't be enough.

Even after you meet the first victim of the attack, you know all that is reported cannot even match that single man's sadness. There are some emotions that couldn't be expressed, written or reported. Pain and personal loss are probably the best representatives. They have to be felt. Again, yesterday was a huge revelation but it was not even close to the tear in that single man's corner of the eye.

January 2, 2005

Not just Tsunami; also geeks

What is here is nowhere else; what is not here, is nowhere. If that sounds like Rajinikanth's quote, it isn't. It is Mahabharata. Shashi Tharoor exposits on the rivetting epic, Mahabharata. Looks like the column would run into weeks, keep watching that space if you are interested.

And you thought software engineers just did coding. They also take up tougher tasks like the relief efforts at the Tsunami hit locations. BTW, What the heck am I doing here ?

Sevanti Ninan's column is always a refreshing read on sunday mornings. This time she has some nice things to say about Weblogs and Bloggers. Read more of The Tsunami Blog.

Is there a difference between this musician and her music ? KG Vijayakrishnan pays a tribute to the MS Magic.

I hate countdowns and numbering stuff but I certainly need to mention this article, Top Bollywood newsmakers of 2004. For a reason. Check out the top-most newsmaker and you know where Bollywood is moving towards. Also this guy, Karan Johar managed to get into the list even without a movie. Fancy that.

January 1, 2005

Looking ahead 2005

This ain't an astrological predicition but might prove logical. The new year did start off with a sad note due to the heavy loss of life and property Tamil Nadu is facing right now. Last night, the Kamarajar Salai, the road that runs parallel to the marina beach was closed. This place is usually the epicenter of new year celebrations in Chennai. A candle light prayer near the Gandhi Statue, last evening, was a noble gesture.

The star hotels also closed down their new year celebrations. It must have been a heavy loss to them but again it was a very appreciative and responsible move. Even the huge cracker bursts at the stroke of midnight were missing except for a few. Places of Workship replaced sevas with prayers.

Overall, it was a come together by the residents of Chennai, in specific, to remember the doomed and the homeless victims of Tsunami attack. Let the sad note drift away to no-man's land because this integrity by itself is a epitome of the bright future lying before us in the year ahead !!

Thendral, the first daily internet

Thendral, the first daily internet tamil radio in the US is conducting a Special Non-Stop 12 hour Live Program in Thendral.com, tomorrow [Sunday, January 2nd]. This program is a fundraising song request program to raise funds towards relief operations of Tsunami victims. Check out Thendral for more.

The Year of Blogs

Have a peaceful and delightful new year!!

This year is unofficially declared as 2005 : The Year of Blogs. What say ?