All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.

- Gautama

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During the early 90's before Michael Learns to rock hit India with a boy band status, I heard them through CDs that my friend's friend got from the US. Johnny Hates Jazz (remember the shattered dreams number) was a similar band with great numbers on their first album. MLTR's Colours was their first biggest hit and it was released in '93. The next album, Played on Pepper, had a great number That's Why.

With Paint My Love album the ind-teens and MTV celebrated them as an usual mushy mushy boyband and chicks went gaga for them. But thats when I started to hate them.

Last week, I put together a 90's pop hits CD and MLTR's songs were also some of them. My first favorite was Sleeping Child but I have out-grown that song now and just can't listen to it. Someday Someway and 25 minutes are two numbers that I keep humming usually. Wild Women is a philosophically cool number but Paint My Love sucks, big time.

Great memories of my first Sony CD player and MLTR CDs. For now, someday is the one on the hotspot.

In my search for freedom
And peace of mind
I’ve left the memories behind
Wanna start a new life
But it seems to be rather absurd
When I know the truth
Is that I always think of you
someday someway...

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இங்கு தான் அனைத்துமே
போவதென்ப தெவ்விடம்
உமது நல்ல சீடருள்
அவர்கள் புனையும் கதைகளுள்
பல்கி வாழ வாழ்த்துவேன்
அந்தம் அறு ரங்கராஜனை !!

Do leave your memories about Writer Sujatha at sujathalogy.com.

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I have gone crazy in the past few weeks. As nidhi, mentions it, writers love movies. That includes a short story writer who are small timers like me. Well, i've completed the sequel to my orginal short story named the duplicate dream. I am the only writer probably who would have written a sequel to a short story. My ideas of making this a trilogy is at the back of my mind. I wish I could meet David Davidar to publish this short story. Currently, I need to WATCH MOVIES. :( But here i am in my office cublicle on a monday morning preparing for a technology presentaion scheduled this afternoon. Well, who said software engineers don't day dream.

I have actually been off from writing blogs for 2 full weeks. I miss them a lot. Quite a lot to write of the past week's experiences. I swear by the moon and the stars to write a lot on my blog. Hope i do !!

I wrote that blogpost on April 22, 2002.

I only wish, I can get back to my early blogging days. Raw, naive and unfettered.

I wrote that blogpost on July 30, 2005.

Its 2008 now, nearly six years after that 2002 post was written. And today, I would love to write a blogpost just like April 2002(with all that spell/grammatical errors) but all I could do is only repeat what was written as of July 2005. You get it ?

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I'm the typical south-indian morunjchaatham[curd rice] types. Not very keen on what I get to eat except that I'm a veggie. My wife, on the other hand, is a food junkie - the food channel types - the pastas, the teriyakis, the pitas, the paninis, the calamaris, the polentas and whatever. And she is a fabulous cook who makes sure that I get my share of onion rava masalas and aviyals and vatha kuzhambu and whatever you-get-to-eat-only-in-chennai including rava kesari, puffs, aama vadai and home-made 'samsa'[remember pammal k sambandam].

As you land in the US [though that was a while ago], you get overwhelmed by the types of food available. From Japanese to Continental to the typical American food, there is just too much lying around. In the last one year, I found myself saying no to most dishes but still enjoying the vegetarian dishes offered by all each type. I even found myself eating greek food. And it's called, Kolokythokeftethes which is: Zucchini & Cheese Croquettes. So as I acquired tastes from distant lands, I found myself falling in love with Pasta.

Pasta, the Italian pride is probably my most favorite type of food after the south indian thaali. Just like all great types of food, pasta can be made in different shapes and sizes. The pasta dough can also be made of different flours ranging from Unbleached White Flour to Brown Rice Flour to Mung Bean Threads. Just like a barbie doll, you could decorate it however. Add Garlic and Herbs or dump Strawberry or even chocolate, pasta would still be great to eat.

At first, I hated the word Macaroni. When I had my wife serving plain Macaroni, I preferred to eat Rava Uppuma. Next time she added some Marinara Sauce to it. Since then pasta was my love. Marinara Sauce is made of Italian tomatoes, garlic, basil [the italian tulasi] and oregano [for the aroma]. Now I can eat just about any pasta ranging from Macaroni to Capellini to Spaghetti to Rigatoni to Fettuccine. All I need is a cup of Marinara sauce.

Other than my home which is pasta headquarters these days for me, I also like to have it in the Cheesecake Factory. CC Factory is one famous restaurant chain in the US that dictates the next modern American food. Time had an exclusive coverage on Cheesecake Factory, couple of weeks back. CC Factory truly keep changing their menu regularly and every time your there you find a lovely dish. So here in the US if you want to know if a certain dish is a good one, check to see if CC Factory had it on their menu or not. If it was there, its sure is hot stuff.

Surprisingly its one of the few places where me and my wife love the food. Its usually me who is choosy about food, partly due to my veggie habits. So you could be sure that Cheesecake factory serves food for people on either side of the food spectrum. I heard they serve lovely cocktails too. And some amazing appetizers like the Chilly Cheese Sticks and Bruschetta [Freshly Baked Pizza Bread Topped with Fresh Chopped Tomato, Red Onion, Garlic, Basil and Olive Oil]. Needless to say they have some lovely cheesecakes, one of which is the lovely Tiramisu Cheesecake.

I'm finding myself in an urge to try out such high calorie food these days. But then at the same time, I also buy 2 Gallons of Fat Free Milk from Costco. Just to underline how crazy a desi could get.

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தடங்கலுக்கு வருந்துகிறோம் !!

As I ponder over life's important questions, also trying to answer some of them, you might want to watch Pudhupettai or gulp a davara full of suda suda coffee.

I hate such hyped posts before taking a hiatus. Something that's not my natural self. Still. It might be over a week or two before I bounce back with the usual enthusiasm. Or maybe more. Or may be much lesser. Who knows where these questions might lead me to ?

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If you are a blogger, chances of being affected by IOS is one hundred percent. Information Overload Syndrome. I intended to write this as a comical post but didn't want to miss the message(thoda hero!!).

One of the prime reason, to apply brakes to this blog was that I found myself unable to sustain interest in reading a full news article. Inadvertently I was just skimming through the news sources. Astuteness was missing. Usually link bloggers who write several posts linking to various blogs/ news during a single day have written in the past about having time only to skim through news sources. Though this blog isn't a link blog, over the last few years of blogging regularly, I found myself doing this skim stuff.

Bloglines is a necessary devil. The more blogs I subscribed via bloglines, the more time I spent trying to catch up with the un-read stuff. The big pile of unread posts, started to bother me. It's just me. Some of them really have time to read all the blogs. With the assortment of interests that I have, I had to divide time between all of them.

I'm slowing down. Clearing things up. My online reading list has been trimmed to the most important news/blog sources that keep me abreast of happenings. Offline, I've cancelled all the 32 books on queue at the public library. I'm now set out to read the absolutely necessary stuff. And read it with the same interest as before. Currently, I only have April Reader's Digest and a shortstory collection[Story-wallah]. The other things are deferred until I finish these.

Ofcourse this post is highly personal that I needn't have posted it here. I could have saved some information overload on you. Since this addresses one lazy man's struggle of keeping up with information overload, thought someone else might also say, Aamaam paa Aamaam. If you find yourself nodding to that statement, just get the hell out of here and read a rajeshkumar novel.

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Above all the email wishes on a birthday, the two-liner e-mail in a telegraphic format, completely typed in CAPITALS, was the most precious. It was undersigned, APPA, AMMA. 21-03-06 AT 15HRS.

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the previous post and the one before didn't make any sense, this might. vacation.

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Vaenum...Puthiya Theevu Theevu !!

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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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I love Milk Bikis. Yeah, It sounds like a naive statement but I love eating Milk Bikis. Ask my family and they would sing my childhood adventures with Milk Bikis.

This post isn't a Milk Bikis reminiscent. This is a much serious(!!) observation that I had over a period of time. Has anyone noted this or is it just me. I find South Indians going crazy over Brittania's Milk Bikis while the northies love Parle-G. Donno if it’s just due to the logistics issue of the goods or has it something got to do with the taste.

Not that I don't like Parle-G. Its actually tastier than Milk Bikis when I don't get to eat Milk Bikis. Sitting in Seattle, the only option is to eat the mini Parle-G [sold 4 packs/dollar].

And yeah I love biscuits. The critics of this blog [who term this as the Worst Popular Indian Blog] can now go and call this as the Blog of a Koyindey Payyan. Infact I should be thankful for that written word for after all namma ellam etcetera thaaney, maamu !!.

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[Image - Acharya]

Just another new year wish.

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These are a series of ramblings on Marghazhi month. May not be all that interesting as these are personal posts. Just wanted to register interesting and funny stuff about childhood in chennai. These were one of the prime intentions when starting the blog. Along the way, I drifted elsewhere and now I'm trying hard to get back the original groove.

Let's start from Ven Pongal. During the month of Marghazhi[15th Dec - 14th Jan], when you rush to a perumaal koil in the wee hours of morning, you get two things. Apart from sighting aathi pinnal girls, you get handful of suda suda ven pongal and spirituality to the heart's content. Perumal Koil pongal is much better than Ghee Pongal[Rs.13.95] in Saravana Bhavan. But those days when I went to the seenivaasa perumal koil along with my mom at 5:30 in the morning, I knew nothing about Saravana Bhanvan or Naachiyaar Thirumozhi. All I knew was that my mom, quietly made a big kolam and went to koil in the early morning of marghazhi month. When she came back, I was still brushing my teeth, thinking about the boring social studies homework given, the previous day. She came back with a dhonnai full of steaming hot ven pongal. So after brushing my teeth, I got to eat the pongal even before my coffee. There was something special about the pongal and hence decided to hitchhike my mom during her kaarthala koil trips.

I landed in perumaal koil, after bath, sharp by 5:40 am. Along the way to the temple, women keptdrawing, what is called as Theruvadaichaan, a maavu kolam that spread the breath of their respective lanes. In the koil, they recited a sloka and mom would recite alongwith them. With atleast 50 people, reciting the same sloka(I thought) at the same time, I had goose bumps for no reason. After sevichu'fying perumaal and thaayaar, a queue(?!) gets formed for the highlight. As you proceed along the queue, one maama stuffs a dhonnai in the hand. The other bhattachari, has a huge karandi in his hand. He scoops a mountain of the ven pongal from the andaa and filled the donnai. I always get this itching feeling that the bhatachari gave me less pongal than whoever stood before me. Anyway, the minute I get my donnai filled with ven pongal, I would go to the main pragaaram of the temple and eat pongal to my heart's content. My mom gets her share also to me. Now that I'm done with both the donnais of pongal, I head back home and sleep again by 6:15 am.

Till this day, Marghazhi reminds me of Ven Pongal even before Thiruppavai. Thiruppavai ?

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Aries March 21 - April 19 Daily Overview for December 08, 2005 Provided by Astrology.com Daily Extended Forecast

Quickie:
Watch your frustration level today. Inconsiderate people will test your patience.

Overview:
It's time for you to put an end to whatever you've been beating yourself up about. It's over, it's done, it wasn't a deliberate or malicious act, and you know it. Give yourself a break.

Was running anti-spy on yahoo tool bar and was accidentally taken to My Yahoo. Thats where I read the my sun sign astrology today, as given above. Donno what it means except someone is forcing me to take a break.

BTW, am not a jerk on astrology. I certainly believe(after all my experiences with astrologers of chennai, for my friends), astrologers are grossly wrong but astrology is right.

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Yet another deepavali-less year passes by. Have fun this dhoni deepavali.

P.S - Called home to wish and the only sound I heard was the cracker 'music'.

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Warning - This post may not have any sense of direction. I'm just wanting to pour out a few things and hence may sound like a rant. You might want to stop reading here. I'm positive. You're not missing anything.

Once upon a time, I was thinking the only joy in the world was reading. Slowly movies started octopusing my life. Reading was a joy even then. Now, there are just too many interests and as one quote goes, "It's only the human who complicates his own life".

While there is so much to read, I'm starting to feel embarassed when I realize, that I'm typing more than what I read. As Internet expands, the information overload increases and you don't feel at ease when don't catch up with the online world even for a day. For that matter, Ignorance is the biggest bliss. Earnestly, I'm trying to get back to the world of books without any interupption to my love of online world. I'm trying to pay equal attention but it sucks. With a lovely, confronting techie job in the day and the few hours that I get to surf the web in the night, my reads have reduced to a unit of tenth. The pile of books that I want to read but haven't, keep increasing. Especially reading fiction has reduced to zero and I think I've lost the innocence to read fiction. For someone who had tried to read as many Wodehouse or Chase as possible, sitting through even Da Vinci Code seems tough now. Though Da Vinci Code follows some of the tried-n-tested methods of thriller fiction, I felt there was nothing big that was going to happen. That zest to complete it wasn't quite there.

As the blog world is fights a worthy war, here is me fighting a different war to shut myself and read a book in a strech. Let's see, if I can do that. Will update more , but for now, back to books.

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They are not allowing me to stop ranting on this subject. Just when I was about to close the Fox on Fire[FireFox..hee hee] and catch some sleep, I see this link on Sri Hari's movie lane and that's enough to blow my sleep.

The last sin they commited was to give Page 3 a national award and now they are selection a bunch of sloppy movies to go to the Oscars. I have been shouting lonely here, here and here on the comedy of sending Indian films to Oscars and to baffle me they have considered nominating films like Anniyan and Sachein. Probably someone's making a mock of Oscar nominations from India.

First of all I don't agree with this joke and even in the wildest of my dreams, if I agree, Swades and Black are two good contenders for the nomination. I know Amol Palekar as a great actor but haven't watched any of his films including Paheli so gub-chup.

Anway for all of you to enjoy, I have selected text from the reviews of Sachein and Anniyan. You could relax on your seat and take a trip back to these movies !!

Sachein was horrendous. When the movie was announced, from the posters, I sensed that it was a going to be a 3 hour long advertisement like Minsara Kanavu. It ended up just as expected and was also hugely non-interesting. Yet another good example of how a movie can bore you to the core because of bad/no screenplay.

Sometimes tributes end up as screw-ups. Though being inspired and inspired again by his movies, Shankar fails poorly to display his tact in handling social subjects with proficient ease. Anniyan ends up being a bad exercise in execution and is undoubtedly a defective tribute to his own classics. I was sold even during the first 15 minutes of the movie. After that, just like a bad one day cricket match, the movie treads into an unrealistic path with a face mask of realism, only to bore you and me to the core.

Comedy Time-pa !!

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Even as I am contemplating to include myself in the workaholics list, I hate Sundays. The only reason is that they have a following Monday, week after week. And that's pretty irritating.

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"Etho oru sunday, naamalum lungiya madichhu kattikittu, samachiduvom. Athu Nallavum vandudum. Athukaaga..." says Arjun in Muthalvan. That's exactly what I did yesterday.

Armed with lungi/kathrikka and tons of 'experience', I logged into the kitchen with the idea of cooking some exotic meals. A few hours later..... I was running for a glass of water, hot spicy saambar.

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If jeans was the only trouser type available, I would be happy as hell. Like most of us, I love the jean clinging onto the legs and make you feel much younger than you actually are. Especially the original dark blue denim color like the one Rahman wears in Vande Matharam is my favorite.

It's a great feeling to enter a new jean, straight from the store, with the labels still untouched. If only it's fits you as though it was handwoven for you, like the Ray Ban on Kamal's nose in Kurudhi Punal, WOW. Who wouldn't love a perfect fit ?

P.S - Honestly, I wrote this non-stop with a stream of conciousness and couldn't avoid those filmy mentions. Heck !!

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Someone with a smiling face approached me at a grocery store when I was busily hunting for a three way lamp. It was a desi. That was unusual. For a desi to smile at you in US, it should comply with these rules, either he knows you or he needs something done by you. I don't know him. My 7 to the power 12th sense alerted me.

"Hey howyodo?", says he.
"Doing good, You ?", reading seriously the carton of GE's three-way lamp.
"So you work here ?"
"You mean this grocery store, No !!". I thought he believed me to a cart push-boy there.
"That was funny.... I meant in Seattle", says he with an instant laugh.
"Yeah", answering and reading the same lamp carton again. Get lost, dude.
"Want to work on free time ?. I've got couple-a guys workin on part-time for me ".
I took three bulbs and said,"My hands are already full, like this". Was curious on what area where those couple-a guys were working.
He continues without listening, "Its an e-commerce business that they are working on. Good Money".
I googled my brain and sensed what he was upto. Asked,"And whats it called ?"
He said,"It's called q..............."

I know. I know I know. Vudu Joot. BTW, goto pickup those three-way lamps tomorrow.

P:S - It's only after this post, I realized I am so bad at writing direct speech. Punctuation sucks big time. Dialogue writing is a great art and not my cup of tea, atleast now. But don't worry Mani Ratnam, I can improve ;-)

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Separation is such a sweet sorrow. brb !!

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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.

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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.

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Had been to My Best Friend's Wedding at Hotel Palmgrove. Not the movie, a true wedding. While the Palmgrove at Nungambakkam is the toughest place to reach given the traffic that surrounds the place, it is a place for a good decent wedding. The only crib I have is that you may get lost among the many weddings that happen in the many wedding halls of Palmgrove.

During the wedding reception, three guys on the stage who called themselves a band, pulled up a great carnatic fusion instrumental show. While it was surprising to see a three member band, their quality of music was completely devastating. One was with a violin, one on a electronical pad that gave out drum sounds and the other with the synthesizer. Though its been couple of years since I started getting bored over the synthesized music, this one was a true experience. And the quaint manner they played Kurai ondrum illai was mind blowing. As a breath of fresh breeze, I think one should also listen to such nice fusion music to understand the spectrum of carnatic music, that is. I know understand why people outside India celebrate artists like Violinist L. Subramaniam and Guitarist Prasanna[Am a great fan of Prasanna]. The foreigners probably understand their musical notes and when carnatic gets transformed to western style, they appreciate the amazing notes of carnatic. In Indian carnatic circles, fusion is a sin. I vouch it isn't. Any takers ?

On the way back, we had pull up a cab to return home and the cab driver seemed to be full of josh today. The reason, Super Star had travelled in the same cab today. He said that Rajinikanth's Chandramukhi shooting is on at the MGM resort and for the shooting 50 of his company's cab were hired. Luckily, the car he drove was the one Rajini was travelling in the movie. And you know why he was full kush. He may probably not sleep today and tomorrow. It was the last place someone would look for such a gossipy news. So here you go journos, Rajini shoots Chandramukhi at MGM resorts with 50 cars. A saleable headline for tomorrow.

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Been down for the last couple of days with a viral fever. It's not just me but a good number of Chennaites who share this virus along with me[Per doctor, it wasn't a viral fever. just a fever, whatever]. Also thanks to my nice eating habits in any roadside shop of Chennai. That noble habit is under tight scrutiny at home and I nearly swore on camphor that I would avoid (note- avoid, not stop) eating elsewhere.

For all these years, eating on Saravana/Kaiyendhi Bhavans has made me immune to most of the quick spreading germs. A few months of good home food kicked out the immunity and I am now a welcoming victim for all these germs. Enough. To cut the long story short, if you are at Chennai, the best way to protect yourself is to eat anywhere without looking for any hygiene. Within couple of months, I assure, you are Mr. Immune.

So the whole of the weekend, I've been at home. This is the only week I've been completely at home. And when you have nothing to do except books and the television it is so cool. Watched television to my glory yesterday. Not just the usual kollywood stuff but some good ones like the Biography of Sidney Sheldon, a documentary on the man behind Bram Stoker's Dracula in the History Channel and ofcourse Steve Ballmer's visit to India in CNBC. Also did watch one of MGR's initial hits called Mahadevi and was zapped by the production values and the screenplay.

This morning the fever was again peaking and a very close friend who has come down from Canada was here to invite me for his marriage. A few hours of chatting got us nostalgic and we happily shared those days of filled with a plethora of emotions. Especially biking around Chennai even during the floods, the long evenings which we spent talking all kinds of stuff at the Drive-In Woodlands and even the toughest of events that we just laughed out.

Just after he left, I realized, the fever gone. Poye Pochu !!

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Was on impromptu trip to Madurai alongwith the rain and the winds. It's raining cats and dogs in Madurai. You could see only a sample of that here in Chennai. The deepavali hungama in Madurai is already hot. From 50% discounts to Silk Sarees to 75% off on hankies, Madurai is on a high. However, they could improve the standards of the Madurai FM Radio. The afternoons are nothing but mere how-to-make-thakkali-briyani. Too bragging at times.

Actor Rajesh [remember his classic, Antha 7 Naatkal] has a hotel down the Ulunthurpet highway. All KPN buses do lodge there for a refreshment. And so both ways, I did have a chance to smack the food there. Other than the delicious tiffin they supply, the hotel has a nice decor. With wall hangings of the tamil cinema greats, they also feature potraits of hollywod greats like Marlon Brando, Roger Moore and many others. Probably they are some of Rajesh's personal inspirations. In the middle of that lonely highway, it was a feel good to have dinner with a cinema taste.

During my return from Madurai, on A/C bus of KPN, we were just 6 people on the bus. Surprisingly they operated the bus and landed us on time. More Surprisingly, the A/C was working. I couldn't have dreamt of such professionalism some years back.

On the way back via Trichy, the best thing happened. Know what, Cauvery has water. On the banks of Srirangam, Cauvery which was earlier a dry barren land, has atleast water that is moving, if not gushing. The sight of Cauvery running around made my day and the glimpse of Srirangam gopuram made it better.

After all this, I personally think, if you plan a impromptu trip(is that an oxymoron?), you are going to enjoy it. Sure.

Looks like Rajini has started shooting Chandramukhi. Interestingly, not a single poster or even an adv has appeared on the dailies. Except for this Chandramukhi official website which has links to exclusive pooja pictures. If only it was Mani Ratnam film, I could comprehend why. This one makes me inquisitive.

Here's a another bonker bonks for you. Dhanush and Rajinikanth's daughter Aishwarya are getting married on November 18th. So whats has been a rumour for sometime now, has come true[Thanks, Dhina Thanthi]. The Kadhal Konden guy is the mapillai of Super Star. Super Star a mapillai by himself. Aren't you getting it ?

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The long Navaratri festival weekend is here and is already promising to be fun. The Nobel Prize in Literature winner, V.S.Naipaul will be here in Landmark today for a book reading session of his latest book, The Magic Seeds. His visit to Bangalore Landmark store, yesterday, seems to have awed the Bangalore book lovers.

The Magic Seeds is set to be a sequel to his previous bestseller, Half a Life. Willie Chandran (who first appeared in Half a Life) continues his quest for purpose and a place that he can claim as his own.

Having read his path-breaking short story collection, In a Free State, very recently, I was interested to check-out the session. I am still not sure if I can make it. But I am hoping to. And if anyone makes it, do share the wit and images.

7G Rainbow Colony was out last week. Seems like Selvaraghavan has done it again in the box-office. 7GRC has recieved some rave reviews already, in the media. The word is spreading and the theatres are already crowded. Thanks to the curb on video piracy too. The tickets are sky rocketing. Getting tickets over the weekend is going to be tough. But thats the disporting thing in watching tamil movies on the opening weeks. I am going to make it.

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Close to 10-12 hours of Jugalbandhi, rap singing, yapping, singing, shouting, yelling, antakshari, aimless dancing, corporate games and team building stuff got my vocal chords torn mischievously. I could hardly whisper now. Similar for most others who came alongwith to the Thenmala.

The trip to Thenmala in Kerala, was a magical experience. God's own country was truly a god's own country. Having small-time water falls on roadsides, Kerala boasts of more than enough water. A cribbing Chennaite like me would certainly be envious about the water running there. All I could do was to hope that I could carry a train compartment load of water back to Chennai. Some parts of Kerala are still unexplored. Completely wild and untamed. Thenmala is one such destination. One surprising thing, the chaaya you get in every other nair shop there is more or less similar. Great consistency.

The Paallaruvi falls is a nature's miracle. The water plunging from 80 feet above falls straight on your head with all that speed it gathered on the run and runs down further to end up in the dam. A couple of hours under that could get back your senses. Any time more than that may result in vice-versa. And the steam boat ride with just hills around and water everywhere, transported us to a different world. Not to mention the romatic rain that caught us unaware in the middle of the ride. Imagine, a terrace of a steam boat, hills where clouds hang around upon their peaks, foggy weather in the evening and that rainfall. Shangri-la!.

Thousands of pictures clicked by the entire team. Some ten digital cameras. Couple of camcorders that recorded most of the travel and our silly dance programs. To share them would be difficult. So we finally decided to join all the pictures and the footage and provide a copy of the CD to everyone. Will post some of the good ones in the my photolog.

With two full days of no television, no newspapers, no internet, no blogging and no googling was a moral booster to me. Made me believe that we(especially me) could live even without these things. Something that I wasn't ready to believe off-handedly. And today morning when I woke up lazily with a berth coffee and the dailies in Chengulpat railway station, it said, Indians had chance of winning against the Aussies. Twenty minutes from then when I landed in Tambaram, I knew we were to be blamed for getting the rain back from Kerala.

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This weekend our whole team[a huge crowd] at office is off to a ecotourism spot called Thenmala in Kerala near Trivandrum. We are taking the Thirunelveli route to catch a refreshing bath in the Indian Niagara, Kutraalam.

Thenmala, is India's first planned Ecotourism Destination. The website boasts of this - Thenmala : "Then + Mala" , i.e. in local parlance "Then" means honey and "Mala" means hillock i.e. it mean honey hills. The honey collected from Thenmala forest region is of good quality and of high medicinal value because of the unique floristic composition of the forests. The Shenduruney Wildlife Sanctuary is the ecotourism resource of Thenmala.

The best part is the adventure zone that they recommend which consists of Mountain Biking and River Crossing. Not the usual River Crossing. Looks like you to hang on a rope to cross the river. Pretty adventurous, huh!!. Check out the adventure zone pics here.

We have booked a whole compartment in the train. The guys are already excited. Not to mention the whole lot of halwa shopping that is going to happen on the way back at Iruttukadai Halwa Shop, Thirunelveli. Looks like its going to be lots of fun.

Unrelated Note - This link on MIO that says Kamal Hassan's next film is (re)named as Mumbai Express and there is already a conflict running on that. I guess it's a rumour going around. Thanks to praveen for the pointer.

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This current template of my blog is completely consumed. I feel a need for change. I am contemplating for quite sometime about it. No Idea when it would be implemented.

I have been using this template for more than 2 years. This was actually a template in blogger and when I moved to movable type, I tweaked the css to get that same look and feel. It looks stale now to me. Thats pretty much how things are in life. A philosophy thats well understood by experience than being told.

Meanwhile, I'm still mourning over my camera's sudden paralysis. This Chennai traffic literally bogs me down to move all the way to Blacker's road and get the camera fixed.

While my yawning like this lazily, do send any suggestions, comments on the present/new template. Would appreciate.

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My Digi Darling has gone bonkers. I've been using this Canon Powershot A60 for quite a while. Last week when I had been to Vailankanni, I had shot extensively with it. Today when I switched it on, the images in the LCD panel looks blurred and distorted badly. I have no idea how it happened.

While I'm looking around to get my digital camera back to shape, any thoughts/places to refer for a good service of canon cameras in chennai are welcome. Would dedicate a blog post to you if your referral works. Deal.

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[Pic: thehindu]

That title relating RK Narayan to me is the height of hopes. But seriosuly there is a thin line of connection. Read on.

Last week, I had to meet a childhood friend at Purasawalkam and hence went there. Purasawalkam is at slightly north of Chennai just after Egmore near the Poonamallee High Road. If you can remember Hotel Dasaprakash, you can remember Purasawalkam. It's my most favourite place on earth. Quite Naturally. I was born and brought up in Vellala Street of Purasawalkam. Until 15, my entire childhood was spent at purasawalkam. Being a born go-rounder, I had literally walked, cycled, biked through every square feet of Purasawalkam. It had some nice temples like the Gangadeshwarar temple and some beautiful parks around. Also crowded with theatres/sabhas, Purasawalkam was probably one of the reasons why I grew a movie/music buff. From Abirami complex to Sangam, Ega and more, we had totally 15 theatres within a 3 KM radius, some of them are either converted to wedding mahals or run porno stuff these days. A lot of sabhas which are now converted to flats played enough carnatic music next to Mylapore. The musical legends like the gods's own voice, MS Subbulakshmi, DK Pattammal and others had lived at Purasawalkam. At that time Purasawalkam was still striving to become the heart of Chennai. Today it is the shopping paradise of Chennai after Pondy Bazaar in T.Nagar. I no more live there but now when I go the place even after few months, I get a feeling the place, the roads and the buildings are getting smaller. Donno if someone had a similar feel when they visited their childhood place after long time.

Like anybody else, to tell about that place and my childhood, I have enough stories. But back to point. In his Autobiography, My Days, RK Narayan writes the first few chapters of his childhood that was spent in Purasawalkam. His full name being Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Naranayanaswami. After Swami and his friends, he shortened it as RK Narayan. He was born and brought up at Vellala Street of Purasawalkam. He talks about the corner of the street to where he used to run and see the bullockdrawn carriages moving around. Also RK Narayan recollects about the nice Ponni Amman Koil that he visted with his family. I had read his autobiography a long time back and didn't give a note to it, truly.

A friend's dad and also another friend of mine had asked if I knew the exact house where RK Narayan lived. One of them even told the place but I wasn't grasping it. I wasn't too sure because the street was a kilometer long and had many sub-lanes and he could have lived anywhere.

Yesterday I was talking with my thatha, my grandpa, who had spent more than 45 years of his life in the same purasawalkam, I remembered this interesting point to clarify. When I asked him " Thatha!! RK Narayan, namma vellaala theruvula enga irundharunu theriuma? ". Do you know where RK Narayan lived in Vellala Street ?. He smiled and with a natural ease said " Namma aathukku rendu aam thalli irundhaar. Ethana thadava idha onakku sollirukken, badava". He said "RK Narayan lived just two blocks away ". Oh ! my gosh. Just two blocks. We were just two blocks away to where the malgudi creator RKN lived and even after my grandpa pointing it out when we lived there, I hadn't noticed it. Fool, I thought to myself. Though RK Narayan wasn't even there when I was born, it was a GREAT joy and delight to know that my house was located so close to RKN's childhood home. That was be sufficient to allow myself, a RKN fan, to feel connected to the genius. Thanks Thatha!!, You made my day.

Further :
The musical memories of Purasawalkam.
Walking with RK Narayan in The Frontline
An interview with RK Narayan's brother RK. Ramachandran by Randor Guy.

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Vesukindra Thendraley, Vellai Illai Nindru Po
Pesukindra Vennilla, Pennmai Illai Oyindhu Po
Poo Valartha Thottamey, Koondhal Illai Theerndhu Po
Bhoomi Paarkum Vaanamey, Pulliyaaga Theyindhu Po
Paavai Illai Paavai...

This post lingers, time and again and again.

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Apart from the Seemandams, Kai murukku & Therattipaal featuring Nichayatharthams and mega Kalyanams, there aren't many occasions when we tend to have a family meet. How about a family meet in a movie. Though the family cannot actually talk in length about which athai-payyan got wed locked or which onnu-vitta-chitappa got a golden handshake, the family can actually laugh together. Ok, Ok, I'm trying to agree myself to this with these excuses.

While the beach or a common house maybe the exact location for a family meet, someone has to prepare Pulliyotharai, arrange litres and litres of filter coffee and all this might actual end up in dozens of cribs and complaints. Hence, we planned a family watch of Vasool Raja MBBS. Two common grounds on Vasool Raja. Most Athais and mammis like Kamalhassan. Two, Laughter is something that we long for in this fast fast (!!) food culture. The plan is shaping out. Let's see.

Who said Chennai isn't happening? The weekend has more than enough things happening in Chennai.

a) Three movies that I'm interested, Vasool Raja MBBS, Kyun Ho Gaya Na and the Asimov inspired I, Robot are out this week.

b) The Hindu Metro Plus sponsored Life Style show is at the Chennai Trade centre opens today with Shobana featuring on the opening day. Hindu also has a eight page detailed supplement of what's up on the show and it promises to be much better than the other life style shows in the city.

c) Lalith Kala Academy has a photography exhibition on the architecture of American roadside motels, bars and clubs. A promo on the television yesterday was cool and did interest a lot. These photographs have been taken over the last two decades clearly showing the growth in the ideas and architectural styles.

d) The Landmark quiz, one of the biggest open quiz shows in the country is on the 15th in the Music Academy. If you are someone who hates quiz, here is the program, just for you. And if you are not inspired still, I have no clue.

There goes my laundry list of weekend to-do's. The target it atleast 70% of them. Movies can be postponed not the shows. Right.

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