[source - ananda vikatan]

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Anbe Sivam !!

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Yes, the 5th birthday of this blog. Four years completed. What started as an extremely spontaneous reaction to a rediff article[Part 1 & Part 2] by Anita Bora and Nidhi 'Sunshine' Rathi, has lasted for four complete years. For the first six months, I was the only reader for this blog. And then it was noticed by a few. After that three years of sheer roller-coaster ride with lots of fun, excitement, learning and sharing.

Unlike previous years, I was determined not to forget Feb 25th and I managed to remember it today. One sunny afternoon, while browsing rediff, I bumped against this article, I, Me,My Blog by Anita. It was a time when I thought writing a short story for Sulekha was the shortest way of becoming a writer. But heck, to be very honest I was never thinking of writing/scribbling anything like this. The article was certainly well written and it introduced me a word, WEBLOG. Thanks to Anita. The 'Also Read' section of the article had a link to another column, Instant Journalism which caught my fancy. I went bonkers over that story which said, a guy named Mahesh Shantaram had 60 followers daily. 60 followers daily. Holy Cow !!. Those days 60 unique page hits to a blog meant stupendous success. And Mahesh Shantharam was called a BLOGGER. A Blogger ?. My interest level was peaking.

Without much hesitation, I went over to blogger.com and signed-up. So what should be the author name, I thought. Who cares, I told myself. lazygeek was a nickname I gave myself when I created a rediffmail ID, few days back. A brain wave for that struck me, at the stroke of a midnight session at office when I was racking my brains to come up with a pseudo name for myself. I was neither lazy nor a total geek. So how bout lazygeek, an aspirational pseudo name. So this blog was named scribbles of a lazy geek. I didn't write a blogpost once I created an ID. I logged out and went ahead to see Mahesh's blog. Mahesh was the Big B of blogging at that time. As a matter of fact there were only a handful of bloggers at that time. After glancing his blog, I decided that the blog should have stuff that I love to discuss about and those things about my place/movies/people which never found the light on the internet. So I scribbled something as a post. Not one but three posts on the same day. First one at 2:14 pm, second at 2:16 pm and the third at 6:53 pm. I had very little idea about a blog and things needed for being a blogger. And that's how it all started. Rest of the story is available as four year archives.

As Dave Winer says, "This blog's readers are collectively smarter than the author". This ain't true not only for this blog but for every other blog around. So its the readers who have inspired me to write. Even when I was the only reader it was the reader in me who kept the thing going. Plain six months, no one else to read the bloody blog. I had no clue where to go and whom to ask, on how to pull audience towards a blog. No one blogrolled this blog nor even bothered to drop a comment. However, I didn't write anything great and that's one of the reason why no one dropped in. These days, given the wide awareness of blogs, every other blog receives a good readership and enough comments(including spams) to keep the fire going. But just in case, if you have a blog like what was here four years back, you are one your way to strike Hatrick at Indibloggies. Keep Bloggin !!.

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Anti did inform me about this but it was only today I actually bumped on it. This blog is one among the Top 500 blogs rolled through blogrolling. As of today its on rank 251 with over 237 blogs rolling it. Kiruba's is at 243rd rank.

These are all quantitative stuff. All quantitative and no qualitative analysis would lead to obscurity. So no yaps on the blog being one among top 500. Infact, I'm surprised by the number of blogs blogrolling this one. I have to extend my thanks not just by this blogpost but by this link back page, where there is a reciprocal link. Thanks again.

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Was watching Shankar's Kadhalan on the DVD player. Didn't expect that I would hate it this much. Talk about yelling like mad for 'once more' of Oorvasi and Mukkabla at Sathyam Theatre on the First Day First Show. While the corrupt governor talked about Shankar's social sense, the love story woven around it, I think, didn't blend very well. Who observed all these, when it was released. All I knew was to bang the tiffinbox for Errani Kurrani Gopala song, alongwith the hundreds of New College dudes. SPB gets to be the aatharsa appa. Remember the appa in Sujatha's Pirivom Sandippom who gives his son a couple of bucks for a smoke. Here SPB sips a bottle of Golden Eagle beer with his son. Shankar's improvisation.

Rahman was obviously the highlights of this musical. The variety of the songs was just phenomenal. From Jeyachandran in Kollayila Thennai Vaithu to Unnikrishnan's Ennavaley to Suresh Peters & Rahman's own Oorvasi, the grandeur songs and their picturisation just minisculed the stamp-sized story.

When it was released, I used to wait to catch a glimpse of Shankar and Raju Sundaram in the song, Kadhalikum Penin. Until today I was thinking it was only those two who were noticeable in that crowd. Today, I even saw another guy sitting left of Shankar. The one smiling at the camera in the picture above. I am sure we all know him by know. But just in case, guess ? Raju Sundaram is connected to this guy through the movie Jeans.

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That's the ratio of a valid comment to a spam comment, this blog receives. I think the spammers are just nuts. Despite the 'no follow' parameter set on every blog comment, I've have no clue why spammers are still busting this blog. Nothing happens to their comments. I simply delete them. Are they sadistic enough to waste time in churning comments and be happy that I'm wasting time in deleting comments? I don't think so. Would be great if some mainstream media does an underground story on them.

They say Word Press has excellent spam control stuff. Prabhu suggested this long time back. Now I'm not interested to move to Word Press because I don't want to do the same mistake I did a couple of years back in moving from Blogger to Movable Type. Though MT offers more than excellent blogging features, their spam control hasn't met the needs completely.

Also, I'm tad upset with Google for not being aggressive with Blogger. Even the blogger blog, Buzz, sucks big time. Couple of years back, they used to have wonderful editorials on Blogger. Now they have come to a near stop. Did Google do a mistake of buying Blogger? Would Blogger be better-off without Google? Instead of being bothered by these stuff, I only wish they buck up and finish the known issues & feature requests. At least let the world know what they are up to.

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[Source - Sujatha's Column in Kumudam ]

The last time he said that was in Vikatan. I had duly noted it on the blog, even then. Here's the blogpost, Aathalinal Kaathal Seithen. Luckily you don't need a UID/Pass to read the old column. FYI, this is a classical Sujatha style column.

Though I couldn't buy his argument from the perspective of a society, his science seems to convince me.

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Bill Gates talks to Channel 9, the Microsoft Video Blog. Unlike the usual interviews where formal keynotes and strategies are discussed, this one is a welcome break.

Gates is very informal in this seventeen minute clip. Though essentially played in Channel 9 as a curtain raiser to Mix 06, there are some interesting questions asked and answered.

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Jeeva, R B Chaudary's son, seems to be a natural actor. Couple of days back, I watched his first flick Aasai Aasaiyai and some parts of his latest flick , Dishoom. He is completely cool about his on-screen presence which I think most of our new generation heroes fail badly. Either they have to keeping moving on screen or they have to do something to hide their nervousness. Jeeva seems very very cool and his dialogue delivery is so natural that Vijay / Ajith / Simbhu can rightaway take join a two hour training session with him. And yeah, he is pretty tall and also capable of some good kollywood's gyrating dances.

Contrary to the public opinion, I disliked his characterization and his performance in Ram. And the movie sucked so badly that I wished it was never taken in the first place. If only he could sign-up for the 'right movies' unlike Ram, I'm sure he is going to hang around for some more time to come.

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Was listening to an old favorite, Minsaaram Enn Meethu Paaikindrathey from Vidhyasagar's Run. Absolutely elegant music with amazing use of percussions. The rushing tempo is also maintained throughout the song.

Harish Raghavendra was at his very best. Sadhana Sargam has been my favorite ever since her hindi debut except that her Tamil sucks. Azhagan becomes Alagan and so on. But then, I only wish she could get the pronounciation straight. Astounding voice. I think the guy who shouts Kaadhal Seeyae(continously) and the humming before the first saranam is the one listed as Jack Smely. What a team effort.

This was a personal favorite for a group of friends and we would listen to it all the time while driving. Forgot it somewhere down the line but enjoyed it thoroughly today.

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[Pics - Theeranadhi]

How much ever I dislike to talk about the petty issues surrounding the Tamil literature circles, Kutti Revathi's interview to Kumudam's Theeranadhi was more meaningful than just throwing duppatas. This interview is a must read if you understand what the paragraph below is trying to convey.

I completely agree with these statements made on the state of tamil literary reviews. Especially the last 4 lines draws a vivid picture. And before you start reading the complete interview, I have to say this, What's said here is also applicable to Indian Blogosphere.

P.S - Just in case you login to Theeranadhi to read the interview don't miss, Kamala Pudumaipithan's re-collection of pudumaipithan days.

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4-1. The robot playing with the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni did the magic. Looking like Anniyan Vikram, this guy is certainly a robot. I haven't seen such effortless sixers since Robin Singh. Every single minute of the last hour was so exciting.

And Yuvraj is becoming a sort of Michael Bevan, a run machine. Just that he doesn't come in as 7th down.

P.S - While Dravid would be the most happiest person now, he should think about not throwing his wicket with such bad shots.

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I've been constantly asking friends to buy tamil literature books that I couldn't get here in the US and they have been sending them in regular instalments. Now I seem to have books for more than a year's worth of reading as I'm still waiting for to the next set to arrive.

Last week, some more books from Chennai, arrived. And I was waiting to get my hands all over them. This set includes this year's most talked about books in The Chennai Book Fair 2006. The most expected was Aathavan's Shortstory Collection with which I now own all of Aathavan's works published recently. I know I've been rambling about Aathavan for sometime now and that's because of a simple reason, thamizh kurum nallulagam has missed a great writer and given him to the floods. I have just started to read this one but I've to say Kizhakku Pathippagam has done a noble job of compiling the aathavan's shortstories to feed his hungry fans. Indra Parthasarathy's foreword where he talks about his student Aathavan, clearly details the sorrow of missing a great writer.

Aathavan had a unique style which I couldn't compare to anyone before or even after him. I have this feeling that no one, literally no one details the middle class urban life as we see and live it. Sujatha to a large extent came closer to this. However, some of his urban stories moved away from the middle-class life that some(!!) of us lived. They moved away into a fantasy world which makes you earn for a middle-class life like that. Sample, the scene where Arvind Swamy smokes before his mom in Roja. Didn't most(!!) of us think, what a cool idea it is to have a mom like that ? Whether its morally/physically wrong or right, didn't we feel that the conversation they had in that scene, however exaggerated it seemed, was so damn cool. That's Sujatha. Aathavan was a little different. He wrote and wrote about the urban family life and he wrote it just like that. Just like that. The exaggerations were minimal. In this arena, we don't have a author in Tamil, parallel to Aathavan.

In Chennai Book Fair 2005, when I was in Kizhakku Pathipagam stall, a co-blogger introduced me to a gentleman, Era Murukan. While I knew nothing about him, to my surprise, he knew about Lazy Geek and spoke in length about Tamil writings. He said he worked for a software company and was extremely humble. As a foot note, he also mentioned that he wrote a book which was published by Kizhakku Pathipaggam. Though I believed it, the writers whom I've met before was nothing like him. He wasn't dressed in a Veshti/Jibba and didn't have a jolna bag like me. I moved on after talking to him. Now when I read his Moondru Viral, I wish I read this book a year back. Amazing details and vivid descriptions. Will complete the book and will certainly put up a post on this book.

Alpha is also one of the books that came along in this set. I am still awaiting to get Sujatha's Collection Of Plays and Sujatha Kaelvi Pathil Part 1 and 2. Though I've read most, infact all, of Sujatha's plays, this one will be in my collection. Sujatha virtually wrote all his plays only for Poornam Vishwanathan. Though Sujatha's plays are unknown to the outside world, his play named Dr. Narendiranin Vinotha Vazhakku (The Weird Case Of Dr. Narendran) is a class apart. If only theatres groups like EVAM could play such unique plays, the world outside Chennai would discover a playwright in Sujatha.

A zillion thanks to Ramki for getting these books straight from the publishers.

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It takes a year atmost for an unassuming desi to become wary of calories. While some 10-20% of them are already calorie conscious right from India, most of what-the-heck-is-a-calorie desis take atleast 12 months before they are soaking wet in the world of calories, fats, 2 % saturated fat, carbs and so-so. Amidst reading Pudumaipithan and Ashokamithran books, I recently found myself trapped with a book, The Bread for Life Diet : The High-on-Carbs Weight-Loss Plan. Mind you, I'm was the kind of desi who was once throwing a big damn towards all these calories and carbs.

I have to say I'm hugely impressed with this bread for life diet plan. Written by Israeli nutritionist Olga Raz's this is a innovative diet plan that tries to control your brain from hogging food, rather than controlling the physical YOU. By taking regular courses of light bread which has carbs, it aims to raise Serotonin levels in hypothalamus region of the brain are raised. Brain is often called as the hunger center of the body which initiates and processes the feeling of hunger. Serotonin is a chemical that influences the mood and hunger.

Raz says adopting to a diet fails for most diet-watchers because a crash-course diet usually advices low carb foods and hence serotonin levels decrease, incresing the hunger more and more. With regular carbs intake, through light bread and other vegetables, the Serotonin levels are raised and hence hunger is controlled even in the brain. The diet plan is actually dealt in detail but the crux of the plan is to intake as much as 16 slices of light bread for men and 12 slices for women. While even reading this book makes you think this is a radical idea for diet, the diet plan claims to have reduced the weight of thousands of people already. Following this diet plan, the average weight loss among healthy people is said to 10 to 20 pounds, which ofcourse may vary from individuals.

What ? Am I trying it ? Donno but the book was well written and was certainly high-carbs food for my calorie conscious desi-mind.

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[Source - Time]

This Time issue featuring The Google Guys is a collectible if you are a Google fan. Coming in a crucial time when some of Google's customers have starting looking at it critically, after the recent conflict with DOJ.

Though some of the stuff written might seem liked rehashed information, its very well written. Makes me think if it was ghost written by John Battelle, who is probably the most informed guy on Google after Danny Sullivan.

And yeah, you have to sit through a commercial to read the entire article on Time online. I am positive it's worth every bit.

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India won. After a long time, it was great watching Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj bat to their glory.

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The above pic has a self-explanatory email sent to me by Sriram.

Before that, my rambling note. I saw. I read. I was thrilled, excited and also sad. I hate to believe rumors that Camel Hassan's 'to-be magnum opus' Marudhanayagam will never get to see the light of the silver screens. I have my own reasons why Marudhanayagam should and should not release. The reasons why it should outplay the others. I expect just like millions of other kollywood fans, Kamal's dream would reach the screens and entertain us. Though wanting to explain the reasons in detail, holding you back before reading the email isn't quite right. Here you go.

Hi Guru,

I have been quite a frequent reader of your blogsite. I am too as passionate as you are about stuff like music, movies etc...Just wanted to share this incident with you.

Few months back I had this official trip to Switzerland, France and Belgium... And during one of those weekends at Evion, France, I met this French guy at a Cruiser in Lake Evion who happened to be my friend's old time mate. Once after he knew that I was an Indian, he immediately started to converse about Kamal Hassan. Did although pronouce it in a wierd "Camel Hasaan" way... He told me that he had worked in a French production company and spoke very highly of Kamal whom they met during his visit to France in 1997-98 for Marudhanayagam related work. The whole conversation with him ranged from films to Kamal to the very very special Marudhanayagam. He was asking me if I had Marudhanayagam DVD and if I could get him one! And after when he heard that the film wasn't got to be made, he was little put off as he said he had seen about 15 minute footage on Marudhanayagam and was amazed by the performances and script. He said its sad that such ideas and importantly days of hard work has been locked and never let out. It seemed that the range of the protaganist character in the movie was phenomenal, the adjective what he exactly used. As the character travelled from an untouchable lower caste to a near revolution to an almost death to joining an army force and then on to lead a kingdom.

I was just amazed by his narration for few reasons that his experience with Marudhanayagam happened before 6-7 years and importantly that he actually never knew the story or read the script. He said he had just seen the footage and a ppt presentation in french. He also claimed that Marudhanayagam was planned to been shot in French too apart from English.

I had to leave soon and before leaving I got a promise from him for mailing me pictures of MN which after initial hesitation he did. It was a wonderful experience to talk to someone knowledgable as him and bout something really Indian and that too to a French who loved Lagaan and kept humming Orey Chori from the same soundtrack (was a huge follower of AR).

After few weeks I did get a whole lot of Marudhanayagam Pictures and wav files of some french and tamil dialogues.

Guru, I am sharing few of them and I am sure you will be as thrilled to see them as I was. Keep posting blogs and opinions and your views does matter mate and its become a daily routine to checkout updates and articles on stuff like Google, AR, Maniratnam, IR to Kamal, Movies, Carnatic etc. Way to go. keep 'em coming.

With regards,
Sriram

Attached Pictures -

P.S - Did this meet the expectations from yesterday's build-up ?. If you didn't find yourself replying, Amaampaa Amaam then Jillunu Oru Panner Soda Adinga, Saar.

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Coming to a browser near you. Tomorrow.

To be precise, read this aloud in the famous SUN TV tone - Akila Ulaga Internetil Mudhal Muraiyaaga.....geek blogil...putham puthiya matter, Camel Hassan !!.

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Weekly walk-ins to the bookstore B & N, located right opposite to my residence is turning out to be a virtue. A virtue that would prevent you from information overload[provided you are reading this very blogpost]. If one would have noticed[ofcourse I don't expect someone to notice all this trivial stuff), the posts in this blog are getting lesser by the week there by saving nice people from being information overloaded. The more I get closer with books, the more I think of those days when I finished reading books even before the librarian grasped that I actually rented that book. And the more time I spend in bookstore, I am moving away from the blogosphere. I am getting more and more embarassed of writing and indulging in blogs than doing some quality reading. There is just about so much to read than to write a who's who of tamil cinema or how the seattle sun gets cross-linked to a kollywood potboiler flick which released a decade ago. I am starting to believe in this proverb(!!?). Whatever needs to be written has already been written. All the new stuff being written is just old wine in the new bottle. Yes, every single issue of Ananda Vikatan or New Yorker is full of re-written news and messages and thoughts and experiences.

The bookstore visit today pushed me to yet another extreme of deciding to stop gibberishly talking through blogs. Now that I'm writing this post announces that the obsessive compulsion to stop this digressive blog, hasn't gone beyond extremes, I may be unable to guarantee anymore. Or may be ?

Confused ? Me too. It's this confusion that keeps me coming back to write and read the blogs. Its also this same indeterminacy that keeps me asking the question, Are blogs just protocols of information overload ? And I'm turning psychically averse to the word Information Overload [This link itself is ironically a nice sample of information overload. After all who wants to read an entire page of wikipedia when the word is directly understandable]. With around 200 blogs bookmarked in bloglines and Google Reader, reading them everyday is becoming mundane. Not that the quality of writing has gone to dogs. The Indian blogosphere is getting better by the day but wider by the hour. And its tough to keep track of. Also, if you think I'm a classic case of blog burn-out. I'm not. I am not yet there.

I love the web. Just like anyone normal geek, I am intensely in love with the web[this is also known as tool lust] and how web has become the quintessential part of everyday life. Still, I want to relax with a dose of crosswords/ coffee / books while listening to Joe Satriani or Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. I know I'm turning to be a too-much dreamer but then when will that day come, when I would wake up and read the daily newspaper without switching on the PC and checking the blog. I dream.

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Its been raining in Seattle for the last three months. And everyday, yeah every single day, it would rain during my morning commute. I drive briefly to a park & ride, where I take the bus to Downtown Seattle. That's when I usually listen to NPR. I wasn't listening, today.

After a brief peek, last tuesday, the sun god finally came out yesterday. And it was a day when the whole of Seattle chose to lock themselves inside their houses and hope for the victory of hawks. They didn't. But the sun came out. And it's joyful news. Coming here from the water-'less' area like Chennai, I enjoyed the rain. But then just after six months, I started to appreciate the sun.

So today with the sun beaming across my face through the car window, I chose to listen to Rahman's music. Hello Doctor from Kadhal Desam. It was like gulping a full pack of Full Throttle. Such excitement.

I have a special softcorner for Kadhal Desam. Donno if I had mentioned it here but the reasons are numerous. While KD was being shot, I visited the mahabalipuram sets of Kadhal Desam and hence I could always relate to it. Though sets were just made of savukku kattais with the face of modern architecture, it was a cool attempt in kollywood. Rahman's songs were a big plus. Infact the biggest. Without Ennai Kaanavillaye or Mustafa Mustafa the movie wouldn't have hit the box-office, even for the first few weeks. And yeah, we bunked our second day in college to watch Kadhal Desam (for the third time!!) at Devi. It was gang of 20+ kids entering college and bunking the second day to run around the theatre in a train-like fashion, during the songs.

Above all I knew tons of college mates, imagining themselves as Vineeth and Abbas, trying to walk behind the girls just like that Ennai Kanavillaye song. One friend would tell me, Machan, naama onnum abbas mathiri periya persnalty illa da. Athanaala ippdikaa orama olinchu, ennai kaanavillaye paattula vara vinneth mathiri, namma figurea paapom. There is this other lot of guys with the so-called figure madikara personality who usually rode samurais and splendors, who carried a helmet with flashy colors and a question mark sticker on their helmet windshields. They usually said they got the figures. None could confirm that however. There is also the other set of 'counter-culture' boys who bunked all the lectures and sat in the cricket ground beneath a puliya maram to start a club called puliya maram priends kilub. These dudes get to the listen to the color color stories of both the other groups and finally be the naataamai. FYI, they only smoked filter kings and the guy coming with an issue should buy a single tea and filter kings for the others. Infact most times he lighted the cigarette to the counter-culture thalai. Sounds like Godfather ? But its true.

Me. I belonged somewhere in-between all of the them, spending time in ground, class, library and ofcourse theatre. If the counter-culture guys needed some time pass, they sent a guy searching for me and they would tell, dei namma paruppa isthukinnu vaa. And they were always happy to have me in the gang briefly for they were so excited about the stories I told. Like a first time director telling his proposed story to a producer, I would tell stories with vivid descriptions and some exaggerated facial expressions. From Aandipatti to Amsterdam, the stories opened and closed all around the world, with turning points in the right places. And I told them that I would shoot this particular story as a magnum opus and the other sci-fiction, which I kathachufied the previous day would be my third film. Kamal to Rajini to Nasser and sometimes even SPB became many characters of my stories and these CC[counter culture] guys believed I would really strike chord with films someday. Huh !!

The reason I say this is because Kadhal Desam reflected the everyday college. Though it had its own set of kollywood exaggerations, it was much closer to my college days. And no movie after Kadhal Desam, not even Thulluvatho Ellamai or Kathal Konden or even Yuva come closer to real college scene. Sightu, Fightu, Figure, NIIT, Internetu, Footboard, Sutta Pazham, Single Chayya, Con-donation pees, British Council Library, Hero Puch, Bachelor and Arrears aka Cupu. Some keywords, lotsa memories. What days!!. I am saying this here again but I wish to click my life backwards. I would wish to re-live my college days again. Again.

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Go Seahawks !!

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[Via Arun Kumar]

Update Feb 07 - The above pic is confirmed to Kamal Hassan. This picture seems to be shot by Atul Kasbekar but there is no mention if this was for Dasavatharam or not. The link to the picture is here.

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Oscar nominees are announced. Spielberg is still in the race. Kong awaits four oscars. Have to watch Brokeback Mountain, Syriana and Walk The Line before they start feeding us with too many spoilers. Just 32 days remaining for the Oscars.

These two blogposts[Part 1 / Part 2] are probably the best curtain raisers to Selvaraghavan's Pudhupettai. Though I did read these posts when they were written, I forgot to link them. These posts also made it to the print world.

Quinceañera wins the best dramatic film award in Sundance 2006. Anand C has some pictures from Sundance 2006.

Looking at Madhavan in Thambi, I am reminded of ArvindSwamy's Thaalaattu.

While the King talks about his music for Rang De Basanti, Gautam Menon starts to market Vettaiyaadu Villayadu.

NY Times - How Pixar Adds a New School of Thought to Disney.

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