Shhhh....

The "Sakhiye... Snehidhiye" Moment.

2012-01-07T05:15:00.000-08:00

Disclaimers: As usual, I have not allowed the truth to come in the way of a hopefully entertaining blog post. Like Vidya Balan says in the Dirty Picture, Entertainment is what matters. Not the Truth.

After a long awaited game of cricket today morning, I was on the way back, dead tired, on the Mumbai local back to upstate Kandivali, from downtown Parel, engaged in animated discussions with young Himanshu on how we had grown old and out of touch (conveniently forgetting men who are on an average a decade older than us, and still playing on for a 100th 100). After Himanshu alighted at Mahim, I was on my own, and almost drifting off to sleep.

There definitely is a relationship between me and trains. Its quite a hide-and-seek though, for trains only seem to play host to a lot of my unromance - meaning the romance that almost was.Today was no different, when I got bored of sitting as we neared Malad (a station just before Kandivali), and ventured out to the door of the compartment. Just to be precise, there is no door. It is a simple doorway with a steel pole in the middle, which hurts significantly more than it helps, as millions of people jump in and out the train every day during rush hour.

So there I was, in my dirty cricket tee and tracks, standing by the pole in the middle of the door, the wind and sun on my face. Which is when I realised I had my sportsman sunglasses in my bag, and promptly put them on as well! Now you get the full picture. Basically, no less than Alaipayuthey Madhavan, with a bag slung over my right shoulder.

Enter the speeding local that was almost overtaking us on the parallel track. If i had known what was waiting, the sound of the local would have sounded like a fast Veena in romantic Nalinakaanthi. But since I did not, it sounded like a speeding local. As the compartments went past us one after the other, the ladies compartment came up exactly opposite where I was standing.

And there she was. Heavvy! Completely standing out from the rest of the sisterhood. Literally too, she was almost falling out of the train in the rush. When our eyes met, my first instinct was of course to pull in my paunch. First things first. Those 4 seconds when she was gazing in my direction, and I was looking squarely at her - albeit through my tinted glasses - were when i heard the "Sakhiye.. Snehidhiye" refrain in full volume in my head.

Those 4 seconds... Super mama. Ready? 1... 2... 3... 4!

Inexplicably, there seemed to be a "what a changeover mama" moment, as that gaze seemed to create some sort of distance between us, and she seemed to be withdrawing from me ever so quickly after a brilliant 4 seconds. Which is when I realized my slow local was slowing to stop at my station, while her fast local was just changing tracks to move on the other side of the platform and speed past menial Kandivali to go to happening Borivali.

The humming stayed with me the entire time I walked from the station back to my house, until the moment Divya opened the door for me, with a word about my looks that made me slightly uncomfortable - "Panja Paradesi".

Cha.

But, as Airtel famously says "Ovvoru Figure-um theva machaan".

Nee Naan Sivam...

2011-12-01T05:55:00.000-08:00

Over the last 5 days, I had two experiences both of which made me feel hugely good about life.

Sunday, November 27, 2011:

After my Sunday morning session with my Tabla guru (what a genius that man is, he deserves a special post someday!), I was on my way out driving down that slope, when I passed a little boy clutching his eyebrows, with a couple of boys gathering around him. As i continued gingerly down the slope, a lady ran past my car up the slope, with a cry that overtly showed anger, but actually was loaded with love. I tried to look through my rear-view mirror, at what the fuss was all about. The boy had his entire right half of his face soaked in blood that was oozing out of a deep cut just above his eyebrows. The disappointing part of this was that I actually gave it a thought, before I acted on it. But after a quick 2 seconds, I put my car on reverse gear and went up all the way on the slope. "Hospital jaana hai kya?", I said. Within a minute, I had the bleeding, crying son and the wailing worried mom on my backseat, guiding me to the nearest clinic. That minute after dropping them off at the doctor's clinic, where I took leave, and the mother was visibly thankful, but too worried to leave her son's side, felt meaningful. Like Phoebe says, I guess there is no unselfish good deed. Getting back into my car, I quickly flipped radio channels, looking for "Rangrezaa... Rangrezaa", but had to settle for

"Kyu sach ka sabak sikhaaye

Jab sach sunn bhi naa paaye

Sach koi bole tto niyam kanoon bataye

Tera darr, Tera pyaar, teri wah

Tu hi rakh .. rakh saala".

Dont know what the words mean, but they felt bloody damn good.

Thursday, December 1, 2011:

I had a chance to visit a school in a place called Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh, where P&G has one of its manufacturing facilities. This school is completely sponsored by my company, which has helped build the rooms, get the books, pay the teachers, get mid-day meals and what not. Me along with other folks from the Mumbai and Singapore offices were received with a round of ROUSING applause, and as we walked to the stage through the crowd of students, we felt like we had just won the oscars, with the number of kids who wanted to shake our hands! When it started about 10 years ago, there were 7 students and 1 teacher, and today this school has 26 teachers and 962 students, of which more than 500 are girls. We sat on stage, even as the kids performed the local dances on stage, followed by another dance swaying to "Maa Tujhe Salaam". Awesome, awesome experience. I've done NOTHING at all to deserve that affection from those kids, but am terribly happy to be working for a company that cared to do its bit.

Feeling very, very good about life.

I cannot not say it.

Nee.... Naan.... Sivam.

Ghazia-BAD!

2011-07-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

The creation of this note has been caused by the fusion of 2 things, like most other creations in this world, only that in this case, it is the fact that an extremely tired me has no energy to talk on the phone for the next 2 hours that I will be on this cab from Ghaziabad to Delhi Airport, and the non-availability of either Facebook or any normal book for that matter, on this god forsaken road. The music selection of my cab driver is very much on expected lines, with yesteryear absolute classics like Pardesi Pardesi jaana nahi, Poocho zaraa poocho, Tum to teher pardesi, Choora ke dhil mera and the like, Kumar Sanu’s jewels that adorned the glorious period of Hindi film music through the 90s before ARR ruined it for them.

Anyway, the objective of this blog is to immortalize my current feelings on the reasonably unique official work that I was paid to do, earlier today. Statistically speaking, I am almost certain I would truly be 1 in a million when it comes to this particular feat of mine. But before we get to that, let’s also immortalize the place where I stayed over the past 2 days – a completely “not recommended” hotel called City Garden, in Ghaziabad. Of course, I wasn’t expecting it to be the Leela Palace, but you would typically expect that the AC would work in a room called the Executive AC room. Or that the tap in the bathroom would spew out some water and not clean air. Or that they would have what their menu called the “City Garden Breakfast”, which was quite the rare combination of corn flakes, coffee and a boiled egg. Of course, I wasn’t even asking for luxuries like a bottle of water in the room or 24 hr power supply et al. Never mind, 1.5K room, so easy goes.

Am fighting all my elaborate blogging instincts to keep this to only as long as the Facebook generation can digest, but what the heck, I have some time on me now, so let me be.

Post my elaborate substitute for the out-of-stock City Garden breakfast, I walked down to the training room. It is not often that you walk into a room, and all the 100 odd folks in that room stand up. When that happened today morning, I nonchalantly and humbly waved them down, with that look of shock and surprise that is supposed to say “You guys are all elder to me, why do you feel a need to stand up when I walk in? Please sit down, O respected comrades”, while I could hear a mix of Yejamaan kaaladi Manneduthu and Hey, Vaaraan da.. Ivan veeran dheeran sooran dhaan da playing secretly in my mind.

Starting my training session, I started off mustering up all my Hindi, with “Aaj hum kiske baare mein baat karne wale hain, pata hai?”, to which I got looks that conveyed the highest levels of interest I have had a group of 100 women ever show in me. Not wanting to hold the suspense any longer, I had to let it out: Whisper Ultra ke baare mein!

80 out of the 100 heads dropped, staring with keen intent at the floor. The other 20 heads turned to look at each other and giggle. My head – in that brief moment – looked up at the heavens to utter a silent prayer. 6 hours to go.

As I started off educating reasonably well-informed women in their twenties with “Whisper kab use karti hai log?”, to which I got one sincere response from what appeared to be an old hand who was surprised that a grown up lad like me did not seem to know this basic life truth, a bubble above my head took me into a brief flashback:

July 2004. National University of Singapore. Girish Kalyanaraman, M.S Computer Science. Somewhere, I could see a godly figure looking down, with a hint of a wry laugh.

Cut back to real life, and the 100 clamoring women who were not very keen to listen to the knowledge about menstruation that this 28-yr old boy was about to impart to them. How I did manage to, and escape from that room unhurt, will remain a memory I would keep to myself I guess.

Life does take one down strange roads, eh?

Till next time, Have a happy period!

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubramaniyam

2010-02-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

It is quite unbelievable that the man has been singing in films for 44 years now.
44 years!
We heard him live at Shanmukhananda hall yesterday, and sure enough, every thing is still intact. The typical butter-coated mushiness, the sudden upsurge of manly energy, the inevitable laugh in the middle of a line, the Telugu-sounding English, the immeasurable love for Ilayaraja, the humility to confess to his mistakes on stage, et al. Overall, delightfully pleasant!
After a 5-minute long monologue on stage which started off with "Music is an ocean.. (yeah, you get the drift)" and ended with "... and so I will make mistakes, it is my right, and you guys have every right to excuse me...", he jumped straight into Ulaa pOgum neram.. kanaa kaaNume.., the first in a long list of nostalgic numbers, mostly Ilayaraja's, much to my delight! A lot of old classics followed with the occasional smattering of Telugu (Sankaraaaa!) and Malayalam numbers.
It was quite mind-boggling to hear him say things like "When I recorded this song in 1969..." and the likes. Insane achievement, I must confess, still drawing the crowd he drew yesterday - in a city that has not even heard 40,000 of the 45,000 songs he has sung till date - and still sounding exactly how he sounded at least 10 years ago. Hats off.
Putting together Sundari Kannaal oru sedhi on stage was goosebumpy. Credit to the 9-man orchestra for pulling off the wild number. SPB kicked off the song with the typical words of a south indian music lover in bombay, "Listen to this song, and you might understand why Ilayaraja is a genuis of the rarest kind". Words that I have felt and said to the infinite number of unfortunates who have not lived out their 20s listening to Raja's insanities.
Other notable singers joining SPB were Goutam, Nikhil Mathew, Mrs & Mr. Anoop Sankar and Ananthu. Special mention to Ananthu, who I think is as talented a singer as anyone I have heard. His Pramadhavanam was remarkably perfect, and his Ponnondru Kanden with Goutam was a delight. I dearly wished Viji would sing a duet with SPB, but time constraints dictated otherwise. That Anoop managed to wrap up with his own medley of Raja songs even in an SPB show was outstanding and a simple reminder of his well-deserved growth in this industry, and very reminiscent of the days when his medley at the end of our shows were his signature!
Thanks to Anoop and Viji for the complimentary tickets! Awesome evening guys!

How I met Simran...

2010-02-19T22:44:00.000-08:00

As has almost become the norm, here is something that happened to me during another of my rushed official trips to Chennai.
Surprisingly early to check in for a change, I handed my ticket printout and photo ID to the girl on the other side of the Kingfisher counter at Chennai airport. As the girl wished me a good evening, the girl standing in the adjacent queue - also holding a Kingfisher ticket - turned.
WOW.
She was carrying a hardbound copy of a book I had not heard of. Respect.
"Aisle or window, sir?", the girl behind the counter interrupted.
"Can you put me on the seat next to her?", I was almost tempted to say. I didn't. Instead, I shrugged, subtly trying to look indifferent, and hence cool. I noted though, that the girl - lets randomly call her Simran or Simi for want of overusing the word girl - turned to see what my preference was. She chose a window herself, loud enough for me to hear.
Simi finished her formalities and headed for security. Now, when I caught up, there were some 9 people between the two of us in the line, and she branched off to the female line leaving me wondering why there was a special line for women.
I looked around to engage myself in something remotely not her, but some commotion on her side made me look in her direction again. And she looked at me. Again. Interesting.
Some guy had raised a stink about something he had in his checkin baggage, and she seemed a trifle pained. She looked at me -AGAIN! - and her expression said it all. I almost reached out and comforted her with a "Oh never mind.. Some people never obey the rules" level comforting pat on the back. But did not. Instead, I simply gave her a blank stare in return. Cool, still.
Simi went behind the screen that they had for frisking the women, and the officer seemed to have taken a liking to her. Simi did not seem to enjoy that and turned again in my direction with a longing expression that yet again yearned for liberation from this physical trauma (her face was above the screen, and I could see. Or she could, vice versa...). Blank Stare from me. With a hint of withdrawal. Cool max!
She got done in a minute, and chose a seat near the front of the departure lounge. The seat next to her was empty. Gotcha!
I strolled into the departure lounge and casually looked up at the screen showing the departure schedules and gates, carefully appearing not too eager to go find the seat next to her.
The screen said our flight was on time - damn! - only hope now being our seats were together on the flight too. My eye moved to the right of the screen. An arrow pointed upwards, telling me that I had to move to the lounge on the first floor. WHAT!?!?
I turned and looked straight at her, without even considering the possibility that she might be looking in my direction. She was. Embarrassed and exhilarated at the same time, I dropped my gaze, and reluctantly made for the escalator, walking slower than Inzamam's walk back to the pavilion.
The escalator seemed to be in a hurry, and whisked me upwards, while I turned back - for one last time - to see what Simi was upto. That she held my gaze all the way to the top of the escalator was one of the defining moments and possibly the crowning glory of my late twenties life.
Life on the first floor seemed slow and pointless. I called Divya to tell her how my blossoming romance had been rudely cut short by the powers that be. She wished me luck, and asked me to not lose hope yet. Encouraged, I kept turning back to see if the escalator would bring the only good thing about that day back into my life. It did not.
"Kingfisher airlines announces the departure of its flight IT 3184 to Mumbai...". Damn!
Finding my seat next to a balding, obese uncle - not unusual at all - was the last straw.
The surprisingly disheveled air hostess offered me water, which i rather despondently drank down before i dozed off, obviously not noticing her name tag, that said "Simran".
And we soared skyward, and back to Bombay.

Life though, is back to being good, at home with wife.
Thanks for all your wishes and prayers, if any.

Long time no see...

2009-08-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

God bless the Bangalore International Airport for the 1-hour free broadband in the departure lounge. If nothing else, it at least helped me get back to this long lost art of blogging. The blog comes right at the fag end of a fab 4-day trip to Bangalore, with quality time spent with Vatsa, J and the respective wives. And as Charlie would say, it waf Awefome! (Hint hint about the Sunday evening activity). 2 consecutive days with 9+ hours of sleep, tamil masala mindless (and actually quite useless too) movie, and a solid piece of filmmaking, music sessions, cricket-watching sessions this time (if not playing), amazing food all through the day, all in some gloriously perfect weather. The other guys in the gang were sorely missed, and now am looking forward BIG time to the gang get-together very soon! Heading back to base camp now, normal life awaits. Albeit, with a bunch of lost and found passions, including reading, tabla classes, guitar classes coming up very soon, and the short film scripts that keep getting shelved owing to the unavailability of the script writer's call sheet. Animation films present a whole new passion as well, with me and divya having watched a reel of reels (Ice Age 123, Finding Nemo, Sleeping beauty) in quick succession following Wall E and Kung Fu Panda. Completely smitten by animation films! And even as the announcement says "Jet Airways flight to Mumbai...", I shall hang up, and take leave after this highly happy blog that am sure did not make for easy reading. Thanks nevertheless, if you did manage to stick on! Am loving that am loving writing again!

Part 2: The untold story of Muthu...

2009-05-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

{continued from this post}

Muthu's father owned a little poultry farm, and made a living selling eggs. School not being an option for the boy, most of the boy's time day in and out went into carrying the baskets of eggs across to the houses which his father asked him to, and collecting the money that they gave him.
On good days, his father would pinch his cheeks and hand him a 25-paise coin, which he would gleefully put in his piggy bank, to buy himself a Jigarthandha when he hit a total savings of Rs. 2!

The monotony was broken in the month of October 2008, when his father fell ill. Managing the farm now was a much harder task, and Muthu was clueless. The household's loyal servant Paandi - who was Muthu's dad's right hand man - took up the reins of the farm, and Muthu did all he could to ensure he delivered the eggs efficiently to the people of the village. It was not as easy.

Word got around that Muthu's father was ill. The other egg-seller in Vettiyoor, Kumbaa, knew this was the best chance for him to establish himself. He purchased a new horse-cart and did one round of the village every morning, announcing his new special offer, whereby anyone who purchased half a dozen eggs got 2 eggs free!

The next week, Muthu noticed that the number of people who wanted eggs from his farm had gone down by more than half. As he was getting ready to sleep on his newspaper bed on the floor, he wondered how he could counter Kumbaa's threat. He was reminded of something that his father had once told him... the quality of hens that we breed give superior eggs, which make anyone who eats them much stronger! Kumbaa's hens are NOT as good!

Sitting up from bed, he had no clue how he had hit upon the thought. Elated, he went back to his deep sleep, unknowingly spilling saliva on the pehelwan in the Dabur Chyawanprash advertisement in the paper..

The next morning, Muthu was on his way to the house of Ranga, the strongest man in the village. Ranga regularly bought eggs from Muthu, and everyone knew him as the strongman of the village. Making an effort to slow himself down on the way to Ranga's house, Muthu could not help beam with pride on how he had thought about it. Everyone knew Ranga was strong. Muthu knew Ranga bought eggs from him. The only missing link was that everyone did not know Ranga bought eggs from him! Muthu was almost sure that this was the kind of thinking that they taught in the schools. Bah, he thought! He did not need schools.

Ranga it turned out was not in town, and would not be, for the next 2 weeks. His wife Thilaga would not agree to his portrait being painted on a poster that advertised Muthu's eggs. She was worried Ranga might not agree to it. Muthu however figured out that the problem actually was that she was paranoid about making a decision in her husband's absence. He had seen his mother behave in exactly the same manner.

As he started walking back from the house, he saw 2 eggs lying in a corner of Ranga's house, evidently having been used that morning. The flies feasting on the remnants of the egg caught his eye.

The next morning, Vettiyoor saw a very interesting set of posters across the length and breadth of the village. The posters were all over. 2 eggs were painted on a piece of cardboard, and the eggs had 2 eyes and a mouth. The speech bubble from the eggs chorused in unison - "We come from Muthu's poultry farm. Buy us, and you get another one free!".

Muthu's father had not liked the idea. Muthu, though, was of the opinion that this was the most earth-shattering thing that had happened to the people of the village. Given the dismal state of the business, Muthu's dad had allowed Muthu to go ahead. The boy sat up all night, painting on cardboards, and in the wee hours of the morning went around the village putting up the posters wherever he could find an appropriate spot.

The eggs sold like hot cakes(!), and Muthu was smiling again. He smiled to himself when he walked past any of the school teachers.

***

The only 2 things that kept Vettiyoor busy in the first week of February were the village fair, and some new company that was putting up some HUGE towers in the outskirts of the village. One curious boy fell and hurt himself trying to climb the tower, and after that no one tried. Muthu liked to stand near the tower and look up at it, as though he had built it. The tower, to him, was a symbol of him growing up.

The village fair was the most awaited event of the year, and this time it came with a rude surprise.

{to be continued soon...}

Saturday evening live...

2009-04-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to listen to Vasudha's carnatic concert here in Bombay. And in doing so, got another generous dose of the oft-seen "carnatic music appreciation clique" and their ways.

1. Silk-saree clad maamis with their flowing necklaces and blinding bangles which evoke greater appreciation than the girl singing her throat hoarse on stage. The handbag appreciation society was a Mumbai speciale', and clearly established Mumbai as the pseudest of the carnatic concert destinations!
2. The headbanging maamaas who dutifully accompany their well-draped and well-fed maamis, and lose themselves listening to "O bhagwan.. raksha karo" level songs..
3. The really involved listeners, who sit and make a list of the songs that are being sung, and wait to establish eye contact with the neighbor ladies who would then ask for the notebook, and boost their own egos because they identified the ragams right - this is usually accompanied by knowing smiles and mutual appreciation between the ladies.
4. A poor paatti, who could not sit beyond 2 hours, who walked across to one side of the seating area and repeated the foot exercises she had learnt in school - keep your hands on the hips and raise one leg and rotate the ankle clockwise and then anticlockwise. This again I thought was solely because there was no canteen at this particular hall, which is gross injustice really to the starved peace seekers.
5. The uncle who closed his eyes in a violenty meditative state, and putting thaaLam on his keychain - as inaccurate albeit loud as one can put thaaLam to a simple bhajan.
6. The uncle who had "minnaladikkum vennmai" level hair, who waited till the thani aavarthanam was over, impatiently fidgeting with his car keys, and then flashed a pseud little yellow post-it note from his pocket, wrote "KuRai onRum illai" on it and handed it over looking as obedient as possible, to the Mridangam player, who promptly flashed his "romba sandhosham" smile at the pleased mama (lets call him Ambimama, for cliche's sake).
7. All the uncles who turned and the some who reached out to shake our triumphant and widely grinning Ambimama's hand as a gesture of gratitude when Vasudha obliged. Some evolved aunties did the Thumbs up gesture from the other end of the hall, even as Vasudha could not believe sitting on stage the power of the kuRai onRum illai cult.

I could go on a bit more, but since J on gtalk is telling me to just post it, I shall prematurely truncate the bliss.

PS: Vasudha deserves more than a word of praise for a wonderful concert, smattered with an energetic medley of songs - bhajans, Sruthi bhetham, thillanas and the vritham mischievously sung in raag Vasanthi ;)

For want of a blog entry...

2009-03-07T03:46:00.000-08:00

J: what is happening

Girish: nothing da.. am washing clothes at home.

J: am also upto something as mundane only

Girish: and came online even as the washing machine is on wash mode...

J: yeah

Girish: did one round of baniyan jetti, put all those for drying, now doing the shirts...

J: went to the gas office, telephone exchange and grappled with the broadband guy till now - finally after 5 hrs the broadband is up

Girish: and in between i also cleaned the bedroom floor, and madichu vechufied all the other clothes lying around...

J: total 1 week since we applied for bband

Girish: very good. cheers to both of us for having successfully become family men.

J: bband

kindeed

now I am online to pay my airtel bill

Girish: iniku evening ramu mama wil come here and he wil stay for a week..

J: inbetween managed to put tea and give for maamanaar

Girish: so avar vardhukulla i need to clean the floors, peruki thodaichu etc.

my velaikaari is on pregnancy leave..

J: will be upto such nailbitingly exciting stuff for a while I think..

Greatness.

2009-01-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

I slept at 3 in the night yesterday, struggling to finish some office work that had piled up.
I woke up at 7 in the morning when the maid disturbed my diaper dreams.
I worked my ass off till 9 in the night today at work.
It was my longest day at work yet.
I came back to a lonely apartment, and cooked Maggi for myself.
One delightful conversation with J. We spoke about one very specific marketing funda.
Divya is away in Madurai, it did not even occur to me that I should call.
Watched Abhiyum Naanum.Actually shed a tear when the dad hugs the son-in-law in the climax. The bloody movie kept reminding me of Appa. So wanted to see him. Still want to.
It was midnight when i finished watching the film.
It is now 1:40 AM.
A full 100 minutes of sheer unbounded joy. It is abysmally unfortunate that there is no one at this hour to share this inexplicable happiness with.
Nandalala. Ilayaraja. Ecstasy.
On just the second listening, I sat up. I did not want to sleep.
I played Roadrash (minus the sounds) with the album on a loop for one full hour. Wanted to keep awake with this addiction. I did not mind it one bit that I was getting "busted" time and again in Level 3.
I still do not want to sleep.
Sheer greatness.
The day the man dies, I am flying back to his funeral to get one glimpse of him. I sincerely wish the laws of my life would allow for that. I am sure I will cry buckets, LOL.
Anyone care to join me?

chEARS to the Hero...

2009-01-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

Train journeys on Mumbai local trains with an ipod in hand are good. Better when I have good earphones, and best when Ilayaraja is playing. Listening to songs that I have already heard a zillion times automatically draws me in so much that I end up playing those invisible guitars and drums and keyboards all at once, in thin air, wherever I can find some in those insanely crowded compartments.
A million eyes then fall on you, and you have to necessarily tone down, lest someone calls the police suspicious of terror calls on this weird phone-like device. After a raging internal debate on my duty towards Ilayaraja versus not offending the onlookers, I invariably bow to Raja and carry on in my own little space where every shake of my fingers meets an imaginary snare or every tap of my feet meets a fictitious kick pedal :)

In the most recent such journey, I was stuck at one point where I could not change the song coz there was no way I could reach into my pocket and unlock the ipod and so forth. And that was how I ended up listening to Naayagan for that entire journey. And realised for myself what an absolute gem the album is.
I have big time new found respect for Naan sirithaal DeepavaLi. I think it is one of any composer's best creations. How he manages to make the string instruments mischieviously dance to his tunes in the backdrop of a bombay brothel is simply unbelievable.
And if one were to start singing the stanza - as is the trend these days - it is just brilliant.
The orchestral start to Thenpaandi Cheemaiyile. Sensational.
The brisk violin sections in Andhi varum, the holi song. Intriguing.
The banjo (i believe) in Nila adhu vaanathu. Titillating.
Mani Ratnam must have had an orgasm when he heard the tunes first time.
And when the background score was done for the film, god (aka Ilayaraja) knows what he must have done.

That insanely amazing celebration of strings made yet another innocuous train journey blogworthy. Balls to the onlookers. I will play on all the violins you will never see with your naked ears.

Crisis!

2008-11-22T05:27:00.000-08:00

1. I have a strong feeling I am losing all creativity in life.
1a. Creativity/flair has become limited to just those instantly thought-up one liners or those Crazy Mohanish quips during Chai sessions in office.

2. Alarmingly, my attention span is at an all time low, I think, unable to sit and do ONE thing for more than 15 minutes.

3. Just to clarify, the passion's there, no two ways about it. On all things i was ever passionate about, I still am.

4. Reminder to myself:
4a. Write (lyrics/music/blogs/short stories)
4b. Sing
4c. Play (Tabla/guitar/cricket/badminton)

5. Now that I've written one of my worst blog entries, let me go and do the other stuff.

Anil Kumble (Right arm leg spin)

2008-11-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

Even as the shadows started to lengthen at the Kotla today evening, Anil Kumble - for the 10th time in his career - opened the bowling for India, and in his second over, sent down a leg break that pitched outside Hayden's off stump and TURNED so much that Dhoni had to jump to his right to collect it behind the stumps! That, i guess, was the most poetic way for the world's second most successful leggie ever to hang his boots and bid adieu to his game... he had actually learnt the art of turning the ball!!
Turn or no turn, what I expected would be one of the most boring post-tea sessions in the history of Ind-Aus cricket turned out to be one of the most emotional, as the flash news suddenly said "Anil Kumble decides to retire from cricket after this match"... Even as Divya had moist eyes and started recollecting stories of how she had loved the bespectacled spinner over the years and his Hero cup heroics of yore, I was just soaking in as much of the man as I could.
The retirement speeches that these guys make - and all the associated festivities - are what take cricket closest to films... the lines that these guys manage to effortlessly belt out seem to easily outdo all those well rehearsed lines with meticulous rerecording to back!
The only common factor is that these things make me cry.
Whether it be the emotional climaxes of recent films where I've started liberally 'dehydrating', or retirement speeches - i remember Gilly's recently - I have somehow lost the art of keeping my emotions in check. And cry, I did, for the most part of the presentation ceremony, where these buggers refuse to understand what I'm going through, and keep going on and on saying things like "modern day greats", "one of the giants of the game" and all that jazz. Aargh!
End of the day, I must be one among millions around the world wishing Kumble well and thanking him for the fantastic entertainment over the years, but I shall still specifically thank him for spurring me on to get off and write a blog entry :)
An alarming afterthought also is that I do remember the time this guy started his career! And watching his farewell only told me that while he went about collecting all those millions in prize money and all those wickets and awards along the way, what the hell have I been doing? Sitting on my ass and growing a paunch?
Someday, at least some 10 people have to watch me on TV say something like "Its been a long journey... I thank my family and my friends...." :-)
LOL, that can wait.

Morning Noon Night.

2008-08-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

[6:31 AM] No way! Its NOWHERE near time! {thud!!!}
[6:35 AM] {thud!!!}
[6:39 AM] {thud!!!} Aarghhh! LEAVE ME ALONE! You go get ready if you want to!
[7:15 AM] {yawn…} Hmmm… Not yet! {thud!!!}
[7:51 AM] {yawn…} Oh shit! {thud!!!} Yawn…
[8:20 AM] Froot Loops is like the best thing ever!
[8:43 AM] Chakala ek bhaiya…
[9:03 AM] Chal dude, coffee?
[9:45 AM] Dei busy da, will call later… can?
[10:25 AM] The question to ask is what the consumer wants, at the end of the day…
[11:31 AM] Am still waiting for the revised translations of the TV copy…
[12:07 PM] Aap log jaao, mein ek minute me aa rahaa hoon…
[12:23 PM] Dude, that scene in Jaane Tu was the funniest man!! Outstanding stuff!
[2:00 PM] Ok, just to clarify, here is my understanding…
[3:45 PM] Bhaiya, theen chai, ek packet Parle-G, chaar vada pav
[4:55 PM] Incremental volumes will net out at…
[5:25 PM] Can you just read through before I send out to the GBU?
[6:00 PM] Mahendra, ek minute office aa sakte hain? Usme kuch changes hai…
[6:30 PM] Will start in 15 mins wife…
[7:00 PM] Will start in 10 mins wife…
[7:30 PM] Am almost out.. just gimme 2 mins… will call you…
[7:48 PM] Vijay prints bhaiya… woh Sakinaka signal se right…
[8:01 PM] Wife! Yaam aam vandhOm!!
[8:22 PM] Guss-a pOdu! Only vetti is allowed!
[9:01 PM] Thala max my man Yuvan!! Finish!
[9:21 PM] Joey, Chandler and one finishing rasam saadham. Ferfect combination!
[10:25 PM] Paavi! How many “Skip”s will you have! And Draw Four also. Worst max!
[10:55 PM] Wake me up tomorrow at 6:15, AT ANY COST! PLEASE don’t let me sleep!

Lives so different...

2008-07-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

RR: Anna, mailing u my latest tune.. scratch version dhaan. please listen..

Girish: oh!

finishing!

classical tune idhu, right?

RR: general ah rough ah padirukken

basic tune and chords

Girish: paravaalla

wil listen da.

very soon.

now some important meeting.

RR: ok

okok

meetingaa..

kekkave perumaya irukku!

-----------
Hahaha, minds so similar, yet lives so different :D

The untold story of Muthu..

2008-05-30T07:32:00.001-07:00

Muthu was a small boy of 11, in the village town of Vettiyoor. You could see him wearing his pair of woefully oversized brown shorts and what he liked to believe was a baniyan, either sitting on the branches of the big jackfruit tree in the village or in the rich expanse of the glorious paddy fields. Muthu was the darling of the womenfolk, never thinking twice about running errands for them, whatever time of day, be it fetching their daughters from school or filling up the pots with the water from the fields.
The only time he got to himself, he played his favorite game of Catch-Catch. He liked playing with himself, in some sense loved the feeling of competing with himself, having mastered Catch-Catch beyond perfection! The innocence in his little game of 'throw-the-stone-in-the-air-and-catch-it-till-the-world-gets-bored' was infectious and delightful. The game was in many ways a good reflection of his life. Easy, uncomplicated, and monotonous.

this was written on a lonely friday evening in office, even as yours truly was waiting for the wife to call.
Having just gotten that call, I shall duly leave, leaving Muthu at your mercy to blossom as you please! :)

R.A.N.D.O.M

2008-03-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

A multitude of people clad in baniyans and cargo pants run to school - BK leading the bunch - backpacks slinging over their shoulders, with the school looking dangerously similar to the NUS campus, though the classroom interiors look like a lecture hall in the movie Vasoolraja MBBS.

My father-in-law mysteriously enters the room with a bamboo cane in hand, and asks a question to the student sitting in the first row, who resembles Najim Arshad, a singer you might notice on a show called Idea Star Singer, on Asianet. Najim rises, wearing a sleeveless grey baniyan and stares helplessly, when Aishwarya Rao from the female section of the classroom stands and says "Blahblahblahblahblah....., much like our Darsheel Safary did, in TZP.
< At this point, J enters and says "CUT!">

When a guy who is a Girish "danger cross" walks out of the room (camera following him), the guy is using his hands to shield whatever his cargo pants should ideally have shielded. Yet again, it looks like he's gone to school forgetting his pants!

2 more steps forward, and Girish (lets call him that, for convenience), trips and stares down to see that the staircase going down is actually a bottomless abyss, and keeps falling - face first - until he miraculously lands on a dirt-track with minor injuries! Thank God!

Arvind Rayappa suddenly challenges the Girish guy and Srinath (affectionately called Payaaloo, who happens to be around too) to this great big race, and the backpacks (are back!) rumble as the trio race off, kicking off dust that blinds the camera!
Girish looks down at his mobile to see "The Wife" calling, and races into a loo for some relief after all the water that he's drunk during the race.
The stench in the loo notwithstanding, the Girish guy braves all and sundry to take the all-important leak, heaving a sigh of relief.

This is the precise scene that gets played over and over again.

Some force inside the guy asks him "Are you ACTUALLY sure you wanna pee now?", and he pats his own back reassuringly, "Dude, this is a LOO, for god's sake. The room expects pee! Come on now!!".

And then it slowly spreads - the realisation i mean.
Yikes!! NOT AGAIN!!!
and immediately afterwards, a "Phew! Almost!!!!!!".

Have similar things happened to you?

What marriage has done to an ordinary man...

2008-02-26T06:12:00.000-08:00

Marriage has changed my life in more ways than one.
11 fundamental ways, actually.

1. I get to sit outside "ladies only" beauty parlors and type blog entries.

2. I actually look out for "payatham", "uLutham", "thovaram", "kadalai" and more such paruppu variants on shopping trips.

3. I walk back home from Big Bazaar with angavashtram-like shopping bills (of course, with my Maggi still there as the "jarigai"...)

4. I maintain an excel sheet of accounts to sigh at, before going to bed every night.

5. I run down from office at literally "beck and call", to the waiting auto with a woman in it, religiously at 6:30 PM everyday.

6. I sit cross-legged and cut cabbages for dinner every alternate night.

7. I sit cross-legged and cut vendaikkaai for dinner every other alternate night.

8. I get to use the words "my wife" and other related big words when i talk to colleagues at work! (this somehow still sounds rather unbelievable to say, though).

9. I actually have floor cleaners, wash basin cleaners, toilet cleaners, toilet frangrants, toilet flush fragrances, window cleaners, face wash, hand wash, disinfectants, and other such unnecessaries, which i hardly even knew existed.

10. I also buy "kadipathaa" and "aadhaa kilo dahi" when i am walking back home from my 20-rupee haircut (at my thalai Royal hair stylists!).

11. I feel occasionally insanely happy about managing to finish a blog entry even as "my wife" is spending a meagre 350 bucks "trimming" her hair.

Seeing Music...

2008-01-25T06:29:00.000-08:00

Me and my sis were just doing random timepass, just days ahead of my marriage, when we hit upon this seemingly arbit game...

If you close your eyes and listen to these Raagas, what color do you see for each?
(please try and be as specific as you can imagine!)

To help, the name of a film song in that raagaa is included with each raga ;)

1. PantuvaraaLi (Hai Raama yeh kya hua)
2. Madhuvanthi (kanda naaL mudhalaai)
3. Valaji (Koovi azhaithaal)
4. KalyaaNavasantham (ninnaiye rathiyendru)
5. Desh (vande maataram)
6. Sindhu bhairavi (oru naaLum unai maravaadha)
7. Bhairavi (flute bit in Sandhana thendralai)
8. Vaasanthi (adho mega oorvalam)
9. NaLinakaanthi (endhan nenjil)
10. Malaya maarutham (Ragasiyamaai)

Please reply with the colors that you saw!
My sis and i had some unbelievable 'matches' when we played!

Wishing everyone a great year ahead!

2007-12-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

People,

The blog post is an attempt at conveying my heartiest new year wishes to my people in a much more efficient and much less irritating way as compared to "Click here to send a scrap to all your friends at once" Orkut.

So...
Have a very meaningful, joyous and fruitful 2008, and equally amazing years beyond!

Cheers,
G

WHAT THE?

2007-11-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

Received this SMS today.

"Hey, bought a sari for myself. Its violetish purple, with a mustardish peachish border...".

Please read that again! and again!

Is it only me?
Does the rest of the world find the above SMS totally normal?
:-s

update: The lady in question has duly returned the above mentioned saree, for reasons too profound for this author to digest...

High-neken!

2007-10-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

On the flight back from Singapore to Mumbai now, and one hour into the flight, intheresthingg!

For one, I tried out the in-flight audio ‘manoranjan’, and found to my pleasant surprise that they actually had a Tamil film music channel, a Carnatic/Hindustani classical channel and another Ghazal channel!

Thanks to some absolutely out-of-place slow Hindustani stuff and a prehistoric ghazal playing in those respective channels (the bollywood channel not being an option for me), I tuned into the tam film music channel and what do I get?

Vaigaasi nilave, vaigaasi nilave, mai poosi whatever….

ROFL, this was like god telling me “You never had the patience to listen to thalaivar Harris Jeyaraj, now you have no option!”. And ha-ha, I did manage to keep my fingers away from the remote control, and ended up listening to the whole bloody album! :-s

Must confess though, I felt IMMENSE moments of pride during Vaigaasi, where my thalai Haricharan has effortlessly outsung Sadhana Sargam, in all his nonchalant improvising glory! Some moments were truly brilliant, and all his efforts made me listen to the otherwise average song in rapt attention J

(Now the channel is playing Un paarvai mele pattaal.. Yuvan rocks!)

Then came the drinks. The guy asked me my preferences, with the options being Tomato juice, Apple juice and Orange juice, all 3 of which I passionately HATE.

I settled for my standard peanut order, but going overboard in a demonstration of obscene loyalty, I instinctively ordered 2 packets of peanuts… Did not take long for me to start thinking “Shit idiot, you did it again, over-enthu!”

Almost as if the heavens below had ordained it that way, the air-host (whatever happened to the attractive hostesses) intervened.

“Any hot drinks sir?”.

Adappadupaavi. SandaaLaa. Naa sivane-nu dhaane da okkaandhundu irundhen.

“What beer do you have?” said I, almost like it was beer to go with my twin packs of peanuts. Verkadalai-ku thottukka beer maadhiri ;)

“Sir we have tiger and Heineken” went the fellow.

Tiger sounded like tiger balm or some local baniyan brand, and I placed my first official voluntary order for Beer, somewhere I would not have expected to months back :)

The music channel started playing “Meendum palliku pogalaam” even as I opened the can of Heineken and let the fluid flow… Haha! If I did not exist, what would be the image of the guy be like, who orders beer coz he could not eat 2 packs of peanuts without something to go with it, then decides on Heineken coz it sounds pseud, and then has his gulps listening to Meendum pallikku pogalaam on his earphones? ROFL!

(Aargh. The entire playlist is over, and after some 15 songs, vaigaasi nilave is ACTUALLY repeating now!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!)

Anyway, the thing is that I have discovered that I am an alarmingly fast beer drinker. Though my upper limit is 330 ml per week, when I do drink, I almost always manage to gulp it down in quick time. Either Heineken premium lager beer tastes pretty damn good, or it was the peanuts or just plain thirst, but I did manage to down the entire can in next to no time, when I had finished only one pack of peanuts. My principles were totally in place though, and 330 ml it was for me, the strict upper limit.

The point I have been trying to pen – in vain – is that I THINK I might have experienced what the world calls the “high” for the first time ever, thanks to sheer pace ~ 100 ml per minute.

I did feel faint for the next 5 minutes, and liked the feeling like my head was not attached to the rest of the body, like as if I had fewer bones, whatever! Might have been just the height and not so much the high, though :)

They started playing Jhoom barabar Jhoom on the TV screens, and just when I was looking for some mindless masala, the unruly (believe it or not!) crowd shouted out the movie in favor of a supposedly pseuder Ocean’s thirteen. Was totally not for me, and back to the Tam channel it was for me, though I had to patiently listen through Harish Raghavendra (b@$tard) singing “Nee dhaanadi en kaadhali”, as if I cared.

Hmmm, now that I have my laptop out, the choice of music is pretty obvious.

(btw, my Singapore protégé Payyaalu is head over heels about this song too, after we caught this movie yesterday night in a deserted Yishun theatre…)

Innum oar iravu… innum oar nilavu…

Innum oar ninaivu.. idho.. idho.. edhiril irundhu bayamuruthu…

Shit, when on some infinite loops, life IS good.

PS:: looks like the plan itself is going slightly crazy, we just had the longest phase of turbulence I have ever experienced, lasting a WHOLE THREE minutes! For a moment, I almost decided I was never going to see innum oar iravu…

Fingers crossed. Miles to go before I land.

So [that four letter word]ing BAD!

2007-10-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

(deeply disturbed, bad enough to write a proper blog after ages!)

THAT FOUR LETTER WORD is a film I have been following the fortunes of, right from its conception i guess. I vividly remember the blog that Sudhish Kamath used to have on this brainchild of his, and also remember we used to use it as a sort of inspiration for the online publicity of our own child Man-gal-Y-a.m (btw, the movie did see light of day, not the online publicity though..).

No wonder when i saw it being listed here in Fun Cinemas Andheri, no second thoughts!! Booked an online ticket for myself, all alone, after i found no takers to come with me.
But little did i know that the "no takers" part was more than just a mere case of my mumbai mates being obviously offline on Gandhi Jayanthi holi-day.
I turned up at the counter and first reaction from the tickets guy was "Sir show mostly cancelled, you are the only one to ask for a ticket so far..".
What the ????

Determined to hang in there, I did, till 6 others chose this god forsaken cinema hall to live out their after-dark fantasies, and thus ensured that i did get in armed with my 70-rupee popcorn, albeit having to brook the incessant moans and groans emanating from the couple-cushions :)

There I was, popcorn in hand, valiantly fighting against all odds in the vain hope that Sudhish had done serious work in the 7 years (as he claims in the end credits) that he spent thinking this one up.
And then it started to roll.

and [THAT {that four letter word}ing FOUR LETTER WORD]!

What a MESS. Atrociously immature. Grossly unreal. Cheap, in more than one sense of the word.

I found new hope, though.
Ance Sitco's efforts thus far are not too bad after all. We might not have the studios, the cameras and all that jazz, but our grey cells are definitely in place.

If Sudhish earned a living reviewing and critiquing films, he most definitely runs a serious risk of losing his job, no joke!

I could see the youthful energy to create in front of oneself a dream well laid out in the mind. You know... the "Yeah, my name comes on the screen, my dialogues get spoken by those characters, look at the color correction dude, and there is a BACKGROUND SCORE in my movie man!" euphoria that a first time filmmaker goes through...
What disappointed though was the fact that a film critique was so eaten by his dream that he failed to see the plain mediocrity of his script, the looseness of it all, the NEEDLESS visual effects-cum-color correction, that was clearly like redefining the dosage of overdose.
The film - he says - is based on real people. Just my hunch that he might have ended up making a much better film had he made the story as it happened in real life. Good old tamil dialogues. Good old NORMAL people. the odd lifting song, written in TAMIL words.
Out of the 7 of us, 4 people walked out in the interval, and the other 2 were the couple who were more than delighted to see more and more people walking out. The words for them ranged from the monosyllabic to the longer lettered words and artistic phrases too ;)

For one, the english dialogues were a farce. Totally pseudo and mostly unreal, dialogues i guess are the weakest link in the film. Story being the next. Sudhish Kamath, in short.
Sindhu Rajaram had done a decent job on the sound design, though she didn't have any decent music to work with, save for a couple of short scores in the first scene in the second half and the chase sequence. Blaaze's song was a joke.
Madhavan carried of pseud very well. Totally wasted though, he must have been deeply indebted in some way to Sudhish, for I see no point in Maddy getting involved.

A wasted evening.
But one that made one thing very clear.

That Satyam Cinemas shall one day play my film.
Hello, World.

Life coming a full circle...

2007-09-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

XYZ: 5 interviews done.. therila about job

Girish: oh!

kadavul paathupaar da...

no worries..

XYZ: vendiko

Girish: of course machi

XYZ: enakaaha cause nee than konjam decent bugger baaki ellaarum sinners...

Girish: of course da... sincere prayers da machi.. nallaa pannu da.. and please update pannu on what happens...

=====

recent conversation with an IIM-A friend..
First time i heard a mention of god from him,
just was struck by how it all comes back to that man upstairs, finally..

update: The Prayers have been answered!! God Bless :-)

Breakfast brainwave!

2007-08-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

These days, i have breakfast usually in a hotel called "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" with my room mate Arvind Rayappa, and we have commoditized the process(!).
We have a standard order that just orders itself these days..
1 plate idly sambar (2 idlys)
1 plate vada sambar (2 vadas)
1 plate idly vada (1 apiece).

Here is the insight.

2 idlis cost 16 bucks.
2 vadas cost 18 bucks (probably because of the incremental oil content, and the aesthetically superior design coupled with the "crispier, crunchier" blah blah)

1 idly and 1 vada though, which should logically cost 17 bucks, actually costs Rs.18!!

Now what should that tell a tambram management grad?

Yeah... that there exist SIGNIFICANT SYNERGIES in the idly-vada merger!!

There! and i never expected to apply my MACR concepts to real life, in all lives of mine, present and future!

More soon... (yeah i mean the vadas!)

A decent day...

2007-07-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at Landmark suites..
Lunch at the J W Marriott..
Coffee at the Hyatt Regency..
and dinner at the ITC Grand Maratha..

Hmmm... :-|

The phenomenon that is Rajni!

2007-06-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

Find below a chat conversation between 2 graduates from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, both working in top notch global firms

Kuchi: sivaji whattay trailer !!!!!

Girish: shoore

i hav the trailer on my desktop da

first day satyam ticket vandhudum :)

Kuchi: me too da....what style !!!!

Girish: andha style paattu ippo enaku internalised da... world class feel da

kabaaaaala response... and ALL the news channels feature some sivaji news everyday da.

Kuchi: but that scene where he says BOSS , and the last scene and the guitar fighting scene are 2222 much da

Girish: simultaneous signatures using both hands also sex da..

and the coin style... funkist !!!

Kuchi: yeah that signature thing is othan range

and when he says COOL

sure shot 200 days da

Girish: dei, no doubts at all!

people are expecting political reforms and all that da....

Kuchi: lots of rumours about 2 roles

Girish: flashback-la appa rajini is mottai it seems da

Kuchi: enna ???!!!!!

whattay !!!

Girish: appa rajini gets killed da.. those 40 minutes flashback are apparently OTHA RANGE!!

and in the climax fight, hero rajini also comes as mottai it seems da... KABAALA FUNKIST!!!!!

Kuchi: oh....im sure it is...dei pull arikidhu da

adadadadaaaa

Girish: dei, straight GIL-MAA da, matha padam ellaam.. ONLY one padam dhaan Odum da, in whole madras :) :) :)

Kuchi: yeah

bombay i hope i get tickets

Why does appa rajni get killed? story?

Girish: i saw news on NDTV, CNN IBN, headlines today da.. all showing mile-long queues in front of theatres da.. handicapped people all sitting in the queues.. one small boy da.. both legs gone..

Kuchi: whattay

real life mudhalvan

Girish: he tries to make some educational reforms da.. gets killed by the bad guys... hero rajni then comes to know of this, the villains rape him too.. he is left with one rupee at the interval it seems

one rupee in hand, interval.... KAPEEM KUBAAM !!!!

Kuchi: dei !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Girish: then after interval, he sets the ball rolling by making a phone call with that one rupee and takes it from there polarku :)

Kuchi: dei now i cant work entire da

dei !!!!

Girish: hahahaha.... :)) :)) :)) :)) i am gonna put this conversation on my blog da.... will help the world know thalaivar better :)
.
.
.
.

Black Sunday...

2007-05-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

May 4th 2007, 2:00 PM

"Saar. yeththini?"

"Naalu (4)".

"muppadhu aruvadhu (30 60)"

"kudunga (Done)"

May 6th 2007, 10:45 AM

"Saar. Yethini?"

"yettu (8)".

"ortharukku nooru (100 for 1)"

"yezhu kudunga (Give me 7)"

Fade Out.

Inbetweengap presents...

Black Sunday

A second viewing of Chennai 600028 on Friday with J, Vatsa and Momo cost us 60 each for tickets that actually cost 30 apiece. Never mind. More the norm these days, with people giving up almost anything for the airconditioned confines in the "ugli-ly" hot afternoons.

My peripa's son was getting married near Tirupathi, so off I went in that Qualis, with 8 others who collectively averaged around 60 years of age. Ilayaraja - though in the 60+ bracket himself - kept me much better company on my ipod, and all was well.

After the marriage that was attended by all of some 45 guests, both bride and groom families combined, a visit to the nearby temple at ThiruchaaNoor was last in the agenda.

The temple is apparently at its crowded best on ripe sunday afternoons, and we entered to find a long queue that said "Free Darshan Queue" (with Darshan being spelt Darsan) and another couple of lines that said Rs. 40 Special Queue and Rs. 200 Kumkumarchana Queue. Apparently the Rs. 200 was for 2 people, but whatever.

Deciding we had no time for the long "free" queue, and having entered without bothering to buy tickets (because of the queues in front of the ticket counters), we were left scratching our untonsured heads to gory glory..

When my athimber led a 'broker' aside and struck a deal to get all of us in for a 100 bucks apiece, the athais and perimaas were all but limping for joy, for want of a fit pair of legs...

Somehow the story of the multiple queues reminded me of Maayakkannaadi , and to me, something didn't sound right.

"Go ahead, you seven. I am NOT entering the sannidhi with black tickets. I'll much rather stay out. There are lots of posters around, and they'll do..."
Interrupting a barrage of disapproving remarks from my athimber, my chinna athai managed to give me a silent pat on the back. And haha, I felt like a grown up!!

As if that was not enough, that precise moment, the Utsava PerumaaL, which is the deity that's taken out of the sannidhi on a procession appeared round the corner, carried mightily by 8 young men...

My athai turned to look at me.

"Onakkaaga dhaan da vandhirukkaar avare..."

I looked away and smiled to myself :-)

PS :: I decide not to think about the ethical so-called-dilemma issues in both situations. Period.

Privileged :)

2007-04-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

(extracts from a chat conversation...)

R: THIS

BEST

JAZZ

LIFE

Girish: ?

R: THIS IS A DIFF GENRE OF JAZZ

CALLED

COWBOY JAZZ

Girish: ok.... :)

R: PECHCHCHCHCEEEE ILLA

R: I'M A GENIUS

Girish: hehe :D

R: GOD PROMISE

ILAYARAJA RANGE

pls listen...

listening?

pleeaasee

say something

Girish: i aint qualified to judge genius... but definite psycho you are :)

==================
==================

Now... Why am i feeling privileged?

Spaces in togetherness...

2007-04-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Possession is 9/10ths of the law ... or is it? How many popular songs and movies have been about possession, rather than love? The airwaves are constantly filled with themes like "My Girl," and "You belong to me."

"Let there be spaces in your togetherness," writes Kahlil Gibran, "And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls .... Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping" (from The Prophet).

The idea of ownership of another human spirit goes contrary to principles of truth. Even in marriage, possessiveness imbues relationships with dysfunction and abuse, rather than the life-giving nurturing needed for love.

Possession is a form of domination and control, stemming from selfishness. The possessor manipulates objects and others for his own purposes. Many issues of abuse come from co-dependent relationships, where one person feels the need to control the other. It's a lot like closed a fist, trying to keep a butterfly from flying away.

Love is on the opposite end of the spectrum, like an open hand, letting the miracle of nature rest undisturbed...

...You never own another. You can only give your own heart...

Even as I can imagine J saying K to this, I thought this looked remotely relevant...
To some of us, at least :-)

Home Alone....

2007-04-11T03:23:00.000-07:00

Cannot even start to write how empty my favorite city looks.
Sitting at home in the middle of nothing.
Was just reading this post...
Awfully familiar, except for a few names changed..

Lazy, even in vacuum...

2007-04-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Laziness aside, i had to restart somewhere..
and thanks to Nivy, here i am.

a little one-liner that i wrote eons back...

avalaththilum alaipaayaa nenjam... avaL atra nilaiyil azhuvadhEn?

It doesn't mean anything, though ;-)

Till very soon,
me

Locked out....

2006-12-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

My breakfast today was 2 eggs, 2 omlettes, 4 slices of bread-butter-jam, 2 bananas and 1 bowl of corn flakes with milk. Operation Kilogram ON in right earnest.
What this meant is that I could not change what i have been doing for the past 3 days... turning up for the 10:10 lecture at 10:20..
Today, however, the visiting faculty had other ideas.. and what do i find?
A locked door (with the usual 6 people who come to class on time seated inside, listening in rapt detention to the drone... )
which is why i am now in the library, waiting for the 11:15 break, when i would get my chance to sneak in to the second half of the lecture :)
Too bored to pen anything more here.
Am Still alive...

Update: The guys (the 6 on-timers) who came out in the break told me that I had been marked absent for both sessions together, and would not get my attendance marked by attending the 2nd session... So... no point at all, is there?

Technology playing havoc, albeit in rather weird ways...

2006-11-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

Conversation on Google Talk
----------------------------------

S: hallo anna

S Raghavendra is online.

S: are you there>

Girish: yes

sollu da

enna nadakkardhu

S: today subbu va ponnu pakka vandhanga (/* Comment: Subbu is SR's Akka */)

kalyanam fixed

by april

marriage

innoru news

i ve got a new mobile

samsung x700

Girish: OH !!!!!!!!!!

S: mp3 player

fm radio

camera

Girish: subbu-va ponnu paakka vandhaangaLaa!!! paavi!!!

S: audio recording 3 hours

Girish: padupaavi!! subbu news details sollu da...

S: ha ha

freeya vidunga naa

video recording half an hour

mothatla super mobile

it also has blue tooth....

and so it went...
SR has to be one of the cutest things on the planet... Absolutely world class cute!
Akka kalyaaNa news and some worst mobile news in the same breath, and guess what takes precedence!!
I seriously didn't see technology playing havoc THIS way!!

Is iLaiyaraja cool?

2006-11-06T06:11:00.000-08:00

I never had thought about it before. Until this psycho fone conversation yesterday.
Hmmm.. well, essentially how many of iLayaraja's numbers would the guy sittin on his bike wearing coolers, on besant nagar beach like? Will a guy like that ever say, "Dude, that guy's cool, man..."? about ilayaraja? even 20 years ago, would guys have called ilayaraja a dude or called him 'cool'?
And i don't mean guys like me, who also go paranoid about songs like "poongaathu thirumbuma" and "vetti veru vaasam". Ilayaraja is the masses' delight, no doubt, and has this HUGE list of "singaari sarakku' kind of songs that set the blood boiling.. not quite wat we are talkin about though..

Simply put, how many songs of iLaiyaraja fall in the same bracket as, say, a Fanaa?

(For those who don't know me, I HAVE to say at this point of time, that i am one of the die hardest ilayaraja fans. Just that this question seems valid... disturbingly so.)

ilamai idho idho seems like close to wat am lookin for. But one example is not good enuff in as long and illustrious a career as his.. Songs like sikkaadha sittondru will fall into the koothu genre, and iravu nilavu rasithadhu and raja, rajathi rajan indha raja are not again the kind of songs you would actually play on the dance floor.
So there we go, dance floor songs for the pseud listener. Can you think of any?
I was alarmed i could not think of too many.
If i get to make a film someday, I would want to have iLayaraja score the music, and have 2 numbers of the totally rocking "idhu kaadhalaa" kind, just to set the record straight...
I had my own theories though, as to why this has happened the way it has. But shall wait for you guys to voice your views..

As the chant goes,
I'm just a man... imperfect... lowly...

Nalla annan, nalla thangai....

2006-10-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Vidya: cheta

Girish: yes aniyathi!!

Vidya: enda cheyunnadhu

Girish: naa gundu chattiyil kuthira ottunnu

Vidya: haha .. adha anganeye maintain cheyyu

Girish: listenin to a song in the trialer of "poi"... sexbomb!!!!

hahaha

nyaan andha "poi" song-ku vendi manda valathu.. manda mela oru konda valathu

Vidya: bale bale .. thankita thaka dimi malayala bhagavati

Girish: hahahaha.. actually nyaan sirikkunnu

Vidya: punchiri niruthanu kutti

Girish: ee palakkaatu madhavane oru pennkutti sodhicho!!

sathyama idha vera yaar padichengilum.. oru mayirum manasilaavoollaa...

Vidya: haha edo gobi

Girish: maadhu un perandu vandhurukkaan

Vidya: adhe adhe ... nammal prandunu vishwasikkum

haha ...

Girish: hmmm.. catch my pOint!!

pOind, in fact!

Vidya: BA paashaandi

Girish: hahaha... paadradhunnaa PAAdradhu!!

Vidya: maadhu .. ngoppan vandhukaren.. raamsaamy
.
.
.
. and so the insanity continued...

(a bit of context: Vidya is just back from a tour of Kerala where she had a few concerts.. hence the malayalam hangover. And most of the stuff in the chat is a product of Vidya's insane addiction to comedy tracks in tamil films, and an obscenely above average frequency of repeat listening of Crazy Mohan dramas...)

Learning Lessons...

2006-09-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Life is this boat.
I love the idea.

The Master is back....

2006-08-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Move over mortals... Mani is back.
Looks promising!

Pollaa vinayen...

2006-07-27T13:06:00.001-07:00

Romba naaLaa ezhudhaNumnu nenachundrukken. mudiyala.
epdi ivvlo dheiveegam oru paattula irukka mudiyum?
idhellaam namma nenachabadi uruvaaka mudiyaadhe. thaanaa uruvaaganume...
adhu ilayaraja-ku mattum epdi thaanaa amaiyardhu?
saadhaarna piravi illa avar. avarukkellaam saave varakkoodaadhu.
Maasatra sodhi apdinnu ilayaraja-va dhaan ezhudhirukkaaro oru veLai?
ennamo.
manasukku marundhu...

I'm just a man... imperfect... lowly...
Namasivaaya vaazhga.. Naadhanthaazh vaazhga...

Disconnection...

2006-07-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

One of the most painful feelings of them all - as i recently found out painfully - is that of losing a simcard, and all the numbers that go with it, not for the loss of mobile numbers - which are anyway transient ;) - but more for the one day that is today when I have my new simcard ready and rearing to go inside my good (but) old handset, WITHOUT the damn Sim being activated, having no 'IDEA' when the heck its gonna flash the name on my mobile screen, everytime finding the same message 'Sim Card Registration Failed' when i switch off and switch back on in the vain hope of a change for the better, not knowing how much longer this pain is gonna last.....

(ps : I hav completely lost the knack of blogging. That was my SECOND single sentence post in a row, crap).

A Life so changed...

2006-07-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

3 English(!) movies a day, Cricket in the night, Gym, FRIENDS, World Cup Football, Orkut, Google Talk, Meebo, Dorm bonding, movies of the other kind, Unseen cases, Unheard lectures, the guitar, Malayalam music, Orbit chewing gum and Chhota Pepsi, Juice NB, hypothetical teaser posters for non-existent films, 43 emails, Plain maggi and nimbu paani, the tabla, 5 hour phone conversations, 3-part SMSes...

Job's dun for Australiar...

2006-05-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Refer this previous post.
:-)

And all those involved will probably remember May 28 2006 for a while...
And God Bless Swetha...
And maybe me too :)

Update: And Someone Bless God too.. He deserves it..

Update (15/06/2006): Well, he probably doesn't.

How Girish accosted a girl, got her intro and got a life

2006-05-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

{GUEST AUTHOR: Ashwin Balasubramaniam (aka) Geela}

DISCLAIMER: The writer of this piece insists he has unintentionally borrowed material from a certain book title and this is purely due to internalization and deadline pressures from the owner of this blog. He also regrets that he hasn’t been able to do the same for his various subjects so far. Also as a matter of academic interest no book packaging company has been involved in this literary piece.

Tired of vegetating at home I floated a suggestion “let’s go to some place some mall”. I thought it would a good way to pass the evening do some window shopping and figure out how to splurge the stipend we are to receive. Bancho agreed immediately but Girish took some persuasion especially after the heavy lunch we had in Mani’s lunch home (after 2 cups of extra rice how Girish manages to remain thin is still a scientific mystery). After much effort we fought of the inertia and managed to abandon our current favorite sport of channel surfing and started heading towards the station and headed straight to Mulund towards R-World Mall. On the way in a bout of overconfidence after my recent 48 hour no smoke achievement I bet Girish I wouldn’t smoke for a week (ok… you guys can stop laughing for the record it lasted a whole humongous 8 hours). We finally reached the destination and 4 specialty stores and dozens of expensive clothing later we reached the third floor where all the eating joints were housed. We went into Pizza Hut and ordered a meal for four (considering how much we eat I thought we should have ordered a meal for 6-7 unfortunately there was no such offer).
Seated opposite to us were 3 girls ….

(To Be Continued)

{ The writer insists that this has not been done because of a writers block but purely to maintain the suspense and because this was a 2 blog deal signed for a kingly Rs 5.}

God has no music sense...

2006-04-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

Life should have songs. and a background score.
It sucks without these....
Totally.
Is God a nyaanasooNyam?

A small someone...

2006-04-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

April 22nd, 2006: Saturday 2330 hours

Girish was alone at home, watching Rang De Basanti on a local cable channel, when Geela, Kuchi, Bancho and LapeT returned home after having collectively boozed for 7100 bucks that day.
Barely alive, it was purely to see if Bancho could still think straight that Girish needled him on the pointlessness of a film like Ice Age (which the abovementioned 4 had watched earlier that day, when Girish was busy at home playing soccer with schoolkids), as compared to a Rang De Basanti.
What started there, went on to become EASILY one of the most meaningful and passionate conversations I have ever had. I still cannot believe 4 men as drunk as that could make SO MUCH SENSE.
We talked about the indian freedom struggle, conservative bastardly risk averse south indians, the state of the economy, the andaman cellular jails, the british system, law enforcement, student politics and so on and so forth. After these guys had downed 19 pitchers of alcohol. The conversation lasted 4 straight hours, and I personally have not heard stuff more meaningful ever.
The outcome, though, is simple.

I decided to coin wat i call the :
------
"Small resolutions of a small someone"
1. I shall NOT, pay or accept a bribe.
2. I shall NOT travel ticketless
3. I shall NOT spit/litter in public places
------
You are free to copy paste this onto your blog/whatever.However, I do not expect you to.This blog entry is just my way of giving expression to an emotion felt so deeply, that I thought should not just die away.

Sometimes, a small someone counts.

Vaishnav Janato..

2006-04-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

The post has nothing to do with the sentiments expressed in the title.. Jus that vaishnav janato happens to be the song playing on my comp now.. (well, that is actually because I watched WATER yesterday and was quite amazed by Rahman's work in the film.. and the sudden prick in the conscience to do justice to the music of the film...)
And this blog entry is a product of more me having no clue what to do with less than 3 hours to go before i flit off to mumbai for my summers. Thank God for that, coz Ahmedabad is turning out to be quite a fryin pan for the past week or so.. and i mean literally.
PGP1 is now a thing of the past, and life suddenly looks beautiful, though I will miss Section A, and will miss some of my tucchas.
In Bombay, i aint asking for too many things. Just solid weekend holidays. Trips to Chennai and Pune are top priority, and god shalt not let Mankind down (cccf : Dbab).
Mankind with be droppin anchor with God, Devil and a few other noblemen down at Bombay, a la the friends of FRIENDS fame... (Winamp now switched to Tears in heaven, eric clapton..)
**Have been sittin in front of the comp, swaying, for 5 mins now, not knowing what to write**.
Thats become a staple feature lately.. not knowing what to do. I find it happening too frequently of late.. Hmmm...
Oh Finally, i realised what could possibly be a point behind writing this entry.. to kinda inform junta that i might probably not be online as frequently as I am here.
Job's done.
Take care till then.
and wish me luck!
ps :: All you guys in Chennai, J, BK, Makki.. @#$%^&*&^%$#@

TOW the fake party!

2006-03-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Kuchi and I were watchin F.R.I.E.N.D.S (The One with the Fake party).
But for once, our minds were elsewhere, notwithstanding a delectable Jeniffer Aniston prancing around in her tight red cheerleader's dress wooing her Joshua..
"Dei, guss podu da...**** gaandaa irukku' Kuchi finally gave up, closing Media player before Rachel could slip out her undergarments from underneath her top in what was supposed to be her ultimate seductive manuveur..
'****EVVLO neram da... **** oru maNi nerathukku mela aachu... *****aa avan..', I echoed, opening the door, hope personified..
After an excruciatingly long 5 more minutes of walking around the room and occasionally peeping from the balcony at the long and lonely walkway, it happened finally!
Knock on the door.
Kuchi and I almost banged each other's heads off in our rush for the doorknob..
There he was, the slightly tired lookin stodgy man in a checked dirty sleeveless shirt that emphasized his paunch a bit too strongly for his liking.. he didnt seem to care though, as he gave us a warm smile "aap order kiyaa saab"?
"Yeah, aayiye" we ushered him in.
"Kitnaa"? i asked him, murmuring to Kuchi, "oru vazhiyaa vandhaan da"..
"Naappathi anju saar" he said, momentarily catching me off guard, making me look like a pig.
We then looked around for something that we could use to hold what he had brought with him. Nothing. A quick visit to the pantry. Still Nothing.
With no sane options, the brown WAC envelope seemed the only remote possibility, and so there it was. Serving a different purpose!
As though we had ordered the forbidden fruits, he stealthily removed the container and emptied it face down onto the unsuspecting WAC envelope.
TWELVE IDLYS!!!
The Sambar and Chutney were there too, albeit cold, in covers that looked exactly like the sapthagiri parcel covers.
After giving us his visiting card that said "Keshav Rao: South Indian Food: Home Delivery", he left us to break our heads about where to empty the sambar and chutney into.
Completely lost, we decided that the Dominoes Pizza Sheet that had the menu on it would we the placeholder for the Thengaai chutney..
The pick of the day was Kuchi's stroke of genius.
The empty glass of fountain coke from Mcdonald's!
After a quick wash, that glass suddenly found itself playing host to cold fountain sambar!
Six idlys apiece, with the dripping chutney and all that sambar later, two very very satisfied men leaned back on their chairs, and resumed F.R.I.E.N.D.S, though this time focusing keenly on Jeniffer Aniston's black undergarments...
"****. kabaala sex da", Kuchi said.
"**** ", I chorused.

Sheer viewing pleasure...

2006-03-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

Silence.
Long shot.
A sullen shobana sittin by a temple pond.
A simply clad rajni clims down all the steps.
Says "enakku theriyum. idhelaam unakku pudikkaadhu... unnavida rendu vayasu kammi. andha ponnukku. kondu poyi lockup-la vechirundhaanga. raathri ellaam. oru sub inspector naalu constable. padhinanju vayasu ponnu.adutha naaL velila vittaanga. ava veettukku ponaa. eduthaa podavaiya. maattikkittaa. poNam....."
"indha surya apdidhaan..."
faint strains on the bells there. no other music.
shobana starts crying.
rajni: "enna aachu? yen aLugara? kekkaren illa? YEN aLugara?.. pudikkaliyaa.. indha maadhiri aaLu.. adi dhadi aaLu.. pudikkala... inga paaru..(lifts her face holding her chin).. pinna enna"
shobana says "pudichirukku" (what an expression on that face!!!)
one simple, short and absolutely delightful phrase on the flute.
rajni: "adhukkedhukku azhara".
shobana: "therila".
and puts her head on his lap. in one quick motion.
temple bells ring. fade out to long shot.
the song... Sundari, kannaal oru sedhi...

'Rocking' placements?

2006-03-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Prologue:
Hmm.. a couple of days ago, in one of my reveries during a class on fertiliser subsidies in economics, i dreamt that IIM Ahmedabad was gonna be completely razed to the ground on the eve of final placements by some weird force of nature or watever.

Today:
An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the richter scale shook IIMA 2 hours ago.
Final placements is tomoro morning. "dream coming true"?? hasn't happened to me before..
God forbid, there has been no damage done, but things really are lookin like placements is gonna be rockin' tomoro!
Anyway, life here is well and truly back to normal within an hour of the earthquake, and people are back to wrapping up their SFI, Marketing and OM submissions all of which are due in the next 48 hours.
And i hav volunteered for placecomm work for day zero (which is tomoro and day after), and am really lookin forward to it.
These guys, the seniors, have been here 2 whole years. Its been one helluva fast ride and a rather bumpy one at that for sure... and tomorrow morning - in less than 5 hours from now - these fresh products from IIM Ahmedabad are gonna be facing the likes of Mckinsey, Boston Consulting, Bain, and the age old list of traditional day zero companies... With 2 years of management education behind them, tryin to make certain for themselves wat lies ahead..
In what CAN be called the biggest thing in Indian placements, i really am excited about PR-ing for one of these companies tomoro, and kinda get the bird's eye view on what day after's education plus wil write about.
Good Luck tucchas! Go Rock placements 2006!

Epilogue: (not strictly one)
Spoke to Arun (my cousin in the US) over the fone now.. we spoke about how we have all drifted apart and none of us (Arun, I, divya, vinu...) could be in chennai to attend dear ol' gangleader Raji's marriage a couple of days back. Got me totally senti. Missing home and my people...

The day...

2006-02-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

... is not too far away..
Whats the big deal anyway?
and thanks to poza and the tucchas for a brilliant corpoD.. that really was the seed :)

Been here.. been there....

2006-02-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

As u can see, i seem to have seen most indian states in life... makin a mental note today to see what i have not, someday... (and this does not include the states i have passed thro on a train, and settin foot on railway station soil...)
:D
courtesy: here

Roobaroo... Roshni....

2006-02-09T01:17:00.000-08:00

This post comes immediately after an enlightening 65 minute shower, which, honestly, ends a woefully long 10 day drought(or thereabouts) of bathlessness...
And riding on the back of that highly useful conversation with J yesterday ,when i was still caught in the limbo between sleep and wakefulness, the long long bath did help.
Guess i am on my way to waking up... Touchwood.

Jana Gana Mana...

2006-01-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

Seems like Mani Rathnam’s Yuva is getting off the reels. Five
IITians, all in their 20s, have decided to take up mainstream politics. The
youths, based in Jodhpur, will be in the city to campaign for their national
party, “ Paritrana’’ , which was launched in Jodhpur on Friday.
“Giving up handsome pay packages, comfort of family and support of friends
wasn’t that easy,’’ says Tanmay Rajpurohit, the national president of the party
and B Tech in aerospace from IIT Bombay followed by an MS from GeorgiaTech and
double masters in arts.
“But my inner voice told me that I should invest my efforts in my country
rather than making my pockets heavier,’’ said Ajit Ashwalayan Shukla, vice
president of the party.

“People think we are crazy so much so that our families have also failed to
understand our motto, but we won’t give up,’’ he added.
The core team of “Paritrana’ ’ comprises Rajpurohit , Shukla, Amit Beesen, also
the vice president and a B Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay and a LLB
graduate, Chandrashekhar (national treasurer), B Tech (computer science) from
IIT Kanpur, Bharat Sundaram, the PRO of the party and B Tech from IIT Kanpur
and PhD in electronics from Melbourne.
“Paritrana means complete relief from the various causes of distress, and that
is what we want to do for our people,’’ added Chandrashekhar. Low funds have
not discouraged them in their efforts of holding door-to-door campaigns in
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and parts of Maharashtra.
“We strongly feel that the politicians of today are no longer the voice of the
common man but instead they voice their own personal agendas through which they
can fetch maximum votes,’’ said Shukla.
“We are not here for the power game. We are here to deal with the grassroots
issues of each and every small village that we come across,’’ added Shukla.

The zeal and burning desire of the five youngsters sounds sincere. “I believe
that we are just five ordinary boys from the middle class family with no
godfathers in politics but have dared to come forward and fight for our
rights,’’ said Chandrashekhar. “And we will succeed in it,’’ he added.
After the launch of the party at the Suchana Kendra in Jodhpur, the party
members, as a part of their promotional campaign will tour Jodhpur, Udaipur,
Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.

Courtesy: Indiatimes.com

To or not to..

2006-01-12T00:52:00.000-08:00

Nee illaa oru nilaiyo
neer ottaa thaamarai ilaiyo
ivvuRavirkedhu veli endru puriyavillai
evvaLavirko idhu pOli endru theriyavillai
Kattu padu endru kattaLai ittaal
kanavilum ketpadhillai

enai muzhumai aakka nee thevaiyaa
en iLamaikkaana oru pOrvaiyaa
ivvudamaikkaana kaaraNangaL aRiyavillai
ivvinimaikkaana nyaabagangaL azhiyavillai
thikki thadumaari thediya nenjam
thevaiyai theerkavillai...

just thought its kinda high time i posted one of these on my blog..
this one was written moments after the new year was born..
Puttin up a poem as a post was inspired by 3 things:-
1. not having posted any sense here for quite a while...
2. J's post on his blog
3. Nivy's posts on her blog

Travelogic...

2006-01-06T12:47:00.000-08:00

A journey from Mumbai airport to mumbai railway station costs me Rs. 120.
A journey from Mumbai railway station all the way to ahmedabad costs me Rs. 60.
A journey from Ahmedabad railway station to IIMA costs me Rs. 70.
WTF.

Deifying the do-gooder...

2005-12-28T06:03:00.000-08:00

He is a good man. Totally.
Before you know it, he gleans all the rot in you.
Spare the evil forces, he does not.
And he is not a violent man, either. Gentle on his foes, and a friend to the needy.
I am not talking about Rajnikanth's next film, nor am i tryin to convince you about the administrative prowess of my friend who wants to run for student president.
I am here to give his share of justice to one of mankind's recent friends, the one who stands by you in the loneliest of times, giving his life and breath to save the life and breath of his breathren...
Put your hands together for Mr. Toilet-Nozzle....
(i wanted to call this entry 'An ode to the toilet nozzle', but that would have meant losing the suspense factor...)
The man who thought up this innovation has to be a genius. One of the most-overlooked-though-integral needs of the human race, and it took us 2000 years to invent him! How dumb are we...
Back to the creation himself, i can tell you from everyday experience about how much better he is as compared to the 'traditional' methods of cleanin yourself after a p/pee, and how good he makes one feel as a worthy substitute for tissues or "hands"(dont go 'yuck' yet... hands were/still are the way of life for god knows how long..)
I dont know if my frequent exposure to the lukewarm squirts from the toilet nozzle hav created this illusion of being clean on the underside, but it might just hav had an impact on my fast dwindling bathing frequencies... ah, every invention comes with a side-effect?
In some sense, he makes you feel like Jesus christ.. Show him one cheek, and you end up showing him the other too... and sometimes u forget yourself, coz he makes it so easy for you to do other stuff wen u r at it... like reading the ahmedabad times(which,btw, has to be the world's second worst newspaper after the Mumbai Mid day) or the Khalil Gibran, which i was reading today...
----------
Digression: (excerpt of a short story from the Khalil Gibran.. verbatim)
Once i said to a scarecrow, "You must be tired of standing in this lonely field".
And he said, "The joy of scaring is a deep and lasting one, i never tire of it".
Said I, "Its true. For i too have known that joy".
Said he, "Only those who are stuffed with straw can know it".
Then i left him, confused, and came back a year later, when i saw two crows building a nest under his hat.

Now, what kind of psycho wrote THAT?
---------------
Well anyway, i beseech all of you.
Pray spread the message.
Make this a movement.
Make India a better place to live in.(even NUS and MIT didn't have such technology!!)
Say no to tissue paper. Believe in toilet nozzles. They rock.

Would ideally want to write more about my man of the moment, but i hav a train to catch in an hour... Coming home tomoro!
Will be in Chennai for a week. Lookin forward to meetin J, and the december season..
Bye Bye IIMA for a week...

Guts 'n' Glory : Aussie ishtyle!

2005-12-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the psycho for this invaluable link. Kept me awake most of last night. And the above scorecard was the moment of crowning glory.

ps :: Also try this link - in that moment of boredom - to keep yourself engaged for the good part of an hour before you decide to give up and peek at the walkthrough on google. Do tell me if u manage to solve either of the three mysteries (Blue Chamber, Crimson Room, Viridian Room) your own . ;)

sCRAP book slip-ups....

2005-12-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

Now now.. need i say more? or can i find anything appropriate to say?
This was sometime ago, on 'one of those days', when i decided to leave a scrap to my friend, with enquiries about a certain someone( who i have never spoken a word to, ever).. And look what happens. Jus saw it again. Lol.

(Scraps on orkut are in reverse chronological order, so the one on the bottom was the first one i wrote.)
(the previous bracketed comment is assuming that you were really dumb as to not figure that out by yourself, or never have heard of orkut...)

P(X=x) = exp(lambda)???

2005-11-24T06:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes i fail to understand life.
and people.
Like the QM prof.
When he gave us a problem today, "Assume a hen hatches eggs according to a poisson distribution...."
WHAT THE??
Does IT even know?
And why should i bother aT ALL??
wat good is this to the world??
Stumped...

Following my fortunes...

2005-11-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

My Orkut fortunes for the last 6 days have been:

=You will have a comfortable old age.
=You will be recognized and honored as a community leader.
=You are soon going to change your present line of work. (even he knows!)
=Good news will be brought to you by mail.
=A pleasant surprise is in store for you. (this definitely came true..)
=You will never need to worry about a steady income (wat exactly does he mean?)

All that is now on the record.
I do hope Orkut gets its predictions right now and then... :)

Vaan medu pallangal oru iru mani neram....

2005-11-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Wrote one of the worst exams of my life. Thought it was 3 hours. was 2 and a half hours. screwed. Came back to my room... listenin to Kaatrile parandhu... There still is hope...

In times of no time...

2005-11-02T04:02:00.000-08:00

Profit Maximization Sucks.
Break Even Rocks!!
(I am getting painfully better at getting to the point...)

ON@TCC...

2005-10-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

This one is dedicated to you-might-know-who.

"There can be ex-girlfriends, there cannot be ex-feelings"
-Chetan Bhagat
--------------------
"Ok, the story deals with three main themes – ex-girl friends, bad bosses and God..."
More here.

The 5th sentence of my 23rd post....

2005-10-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Anshul for showing me this exciting new way to waste time..
I dug into my Squarespace Blog and here is what i found to be the 5th sentence of my 23rd post.

That much for the bad news.

Macroeconomixed Morning Coffee..

2005-10-19T03:15:00.000-07:00

'As liquidity increases, interest earned decreases'

Preliminary hypotheses on music...

2005-10-05T02:24:00.000-07:00

UPDATE:
Here is an amazingly insightful article on music theory, one of the best ever i have come across online. Something that every carnatic musician should know, which i doubt they do.
Hats off Srikanth.

(Sincere thanks to "N.Vijayanand")
The first part of this post is a verbatim reproduction of Vijayanand's thoughts on his blog, reproduced here for the lazy reader.
==========================
I always had this view that composing songs that were bad was a really hard task. Because of the simple fact that we "get used" to the song and start liking it after repeated listenings.

So what exactly do we mean when we say a partticular song/music is good.
It can only be governed by the following function H(t) : The 'happiness' (due to lack of a better word) we
derive from the song/music as a function of time. Four parameters for this function govern the quality of the song. The rate at which the function reaches its maximum value, the maximum value, the rate at which the function decays from the maximum value and finally "hysterisis",the rate of slow trace back(increase of happiness function) of the curve due to long periods of not listening to the song.

Let us look at the parameters individually:

1) Attack : (rate of increase): This , I guess, is dependant on the level of musical expertise of the person.
For example consider the song "Azhagana Ratchasiye.." -- If this song is heard by a person who is familiar with the raaga reetigowla, then the the attack will be higher for that person. The next obvious qustion is why? I think the answer has to deal with psychological reasons which I would reserve for a future post.

2) Decay (rate of decrease): After listening to a song repeatedly, we tend to lose interest in the song. Again I think the reasons for this are psychological. I think this phenomenon may be independent of the musical expertise of the person.

3) Maximum value: How good a song is should depend on the maximum value. But based on my personal experience it is very hard to distingush the maximum values of two good songs/music. (I get the same "kick" from all songs when I am enjoying it the greatest!)

4) Hysterisis: Suppose we hear a song continually for a week. By this time, the H value would have increased to its maximum value and would have started falling say to value 'l' (say) after a week. Then
if we we wait for a year and again hear the song. Now the H value will not be 'l' , but a much higher value beacuse of the trace back in the periods of non-listening.

Now let us explain the reasons for the following using our theory:

i) Common men enjoy film music more than classical music.
Based on two reasons:
a) Musical expertise of common man is low. So often the attack (rate at which H(t) increases) can be low.
b) Common man listens to (is forced to listen) to film songs in the initial stages, (even when the H for that songs has not risen).

ii) The old melodies dont die, the newer songs die a quick death:
This is a fallacy. Again explained using the frequencies of listening and hysterisis. (The old songs are heard at a mush lesser frequency compared to new songs).

iii) Carnatic music is of inherently higher quality than film music
I would have say no and yes to this.
I would say inherently there is no difference in the quality of music. (All the four parameters are probably not much better than film music)
But the reason for carnatic music's speciality is "manodharma" (the creative part, or the improvising part). By having this we have ensured we are not hearing the same (ditto) song/music again and again.
Each time we are hearing an improvisation. That is the reason ragas and krithis dont decay at all.
=====================
On top of that analysis, let me also say that there are 2 factors which influence the "happiness quotient" of a particular song.

a. Singability (simplicity to the ear)
b. Singalongability

Singability - the non-musician's perspective:
is a measure of how close to the original can a person reproduce the song or the effect it has on a listener. am talkin about non-musicians here, who value the singing component of a song generally much higher than the orchestration (save for a few explicit pieces of backing).

Say, for example, a song like Sa re ga me (of BOYS) fame, though an amazing song, has a low value for singability, simply because the orchestration is such an integral part of the song. Sans the orchestration, the song cannot be sung alone.

The "fallacy" that Vijayanand talks about old/new songs is accounted for here, again for the simple reason that a greater emphasis on orchestration and technical finesse in newer songs (from the point of view of "sounding" good - with nothing mentioned about the musicality here) sort of distinguishes old songs(i am not talking about the intensely classical "oru naall podhuma" or the "paattum naane" types) as some that you would easily relate to (being a non-musician).
These are the songs that have a large hummability value. At any random public function, or at a gathering, these are the songs, the singable ones, that one chooses to sing, because most of the essential flavor is retained.

Lets look at a few examples of GOOD songs with high and low singability:

Nilave ennidam nerungaadhe : Old with high singability
Konjum nilavu : New with low singability
Machaan peru madhura: New with High singability
Oru naall podhuma: Old number with low singability
Carnatic music: in general, low singability.

2. Singalongability (the musician's perspective):
Arbitly named, this is a measure of the same from a musician's perspective. When performing a song, the technical- and technological- factors in the song that render it easy or difficult to perform.
Say, a song like konjum nilavu (shown above to have low singability) has a high singalongability, and thus, a musician, with the 'band', would love to perform this song, and the viewers (non-musicians) would go crazy "singing along".

These songs would be sung infrequently on occasions, and this is no way erodes their "lifespan".
All singable songs i guess are also highly singalongable.
The converse is not always true.

GOOD Songs with low values of both might be best admired with the film... or heard over and over, but never "sung".
eg: Enakkoru Girlfriend venumadaa. Too much of technology in the song. Too many layers. Lots of vocal harmony. Even ARR can't perform it live on stage without resorting to a CD playing a (-1) track.

I know i should put some more thought into this and streamlined them, to actually speak some proper sense, but i never seem to have the patience these days..
Improvements, corrollaries, flaws... please do voice it out.
This could be interesting.
Just my 2 paise.

Written & Directed by,
Girish.

Singanadai pottu Sigarathil eru...

2005-10-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Thaai maargaLin amoga aadharavudan...
Ulagengum vetri nadai...

100 DAYS on campus!!

2005-09-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Vetti Arattai Arangam...

Around the world in 80 ways...

2005-09-23T01:52:00.000-07:00

Day before yesterday was quite an eye-opener of sorts.
After a sleepy early morning (read midnight, or alternatively 4 AM precisely) drive in appa's new car(yeah!! we now own a car all to ourselves, a brand new second hand maruti 800, bought for a price that screams "Beat me!", at 60K flat...), all the way down to Chennai airport, the next leg was a 2 hour Air Deccan flight to mumbai. The flight was spent in blissless sleep, the attractive Lalita notwithstanding. The airhostess is the best thing that happened to me on any form of indian transport, but even she couldn't disturb my dawndreams. The aviatophobiac in me was regularly woken up rudely by a combination of the roughness of the rainclouds and the obvious struggle of the aircraft to cope though... When we touched down, Mumbai was raining, as it recently has been, almost like as if it had a patent to rain...

An auto next, from the airport to the Dadar railway station, where we had a connecting train to ahmedabad later in the day. With his meter working perfectly, we must hav switched off all our meters inside, for we ended up paying the 100 that he asked us for a meter that read 62, in spite of dropping us off halfway to the station, giving some reason in Hindi on both counts... we decided to let these pass, in spite of the clear case of fraud. Amen!

Taxi for the rest of the distance to Dadar, another 50 bucks down the puddles...
Mumbai's suburban trains suck. or the people do. Either way, it is a guarantee that any given train journey on a mumbai local train would culminate in at least one of heartburn, a dislocation of the spinal chord, a fracture of the hindlimbs, mutilation of the mucus membranes or, at best, a victorious wounded warrior.

The morning onward trip to churchgate was nowhere near the limits though, and we (AC and Momo being the other 2) made it in serene silence, and ended up spending the best part of the next 2 hours on platform no.2, churchgate station, solving 2 classic crosswords, 1 bollywood crossword, sudoku and Jumble, all in that solitary page among SIXTY SEVEN other pages of uselessness of Mumbai Mid-day..

After a pizza lunch with Chandru joining us, the Gateway of India was where we headed to, though we decided on a ferry to the Elephanta caves the moment we got to the gateway, which did not inspire any awe. The rain had stopped, as if under orders, and we set off on our voyage to elephanta, armed with copies of Animal farm and Jonathan livingston seagull. With the estimated travel time slowly growing from 45 mins to double the duration, the caves seemed to go farther and farther. The decision was made in quick time, and the moment we docked at the pier, we jumped across to the nearest return boat, and in our effort to make the cyclic trip worth its 480 bucks, we ended up having a ball on the return journey, digesting such interesting sights as starving sea birds, static fishing boats, floating thermocole on water, ocean currents, the color of the water and so forth, doing a leonardo (sans the Kate) on the boat rails, humming the Jurassic park theme.. So much for elephanta..

The return trip to Dadar by train has to be the highlight of the day though. The headcount was insane. Defying all laws and logic, I still cant swallow the fact that one compartment could have held that many heads, and double that many legs. I was standing, incredibly, at something like 45 deg to the horizontal, and holding on to nothing at all.. Gravity, trigonometry, out the window! If men could reproduce by themselves and if suddenly all men in that lil box were to be stripped off their clothing, that single compartment could have yielded upto 4 dozen babies i tell u... With one hand on my purse and other other holding my laptop way above my head, i had to literally wrench my way inch by inch across to the exit, taking an unprecedented 3+ minutes to cover that distance of one meagre metre.. Momo almost slipped under the tracks in the process of getting out, but his half-smile from behind those tortured spectacles said it all...

Bus journey next, to chandru's house, accompanied by a pained tamilian soul who seemed to take pride in the fact that he had survived so many train-trials to finally get home every evening to lie "nacked" under his bedroom fan..

Delightful dinner at chandru's later, we headed back to Dadar and our train to Ahmedabad.. It was raining buckets, and boy, i was glad to get out of Mumbai.. The boyfriend conversation with Mimi and Batti was enlightening to say the least.. Michael madhana kama rajan on the train, in our laptop..

Life here at ahmedabad hasnt changed. We arrived yesterday, and classes started today, with readings totalling to 120 pages in economics, 65 pages in marketing and a case preparation in Quants...As AC would say, FISH!

When the soul sleeps...

2005-09-20T00:05:00.001-07:00

There is no J in chennai.
No BK.
No Ranga.
No Divya.
No Vasanth.
No Navneeth.
No Prasanna.
Mahesh is under house arrest.

And at this precise moment,
RR has college.
SR has school.
Paru has office.
Both Sujas have college.

Amma is sleeping.
Vidya is at music class.
Appa is at work.

What am i doing here?

Koi saaya jilmilaaya.. and God bless...and (n-1)!!

2005-09-01T03:33:00.000-07:00

Am positive most of you guys have not heard that song... here is a link to this must-hear. The album is called Hazir(Hariharan+Zakir hussain), and its absolutely the best ever. My dad experiences hysterical ecstacy when he hears a distant strain of Hazir, and his attempting to emulate hariharan's impossible improvisations despite inevitable disappointment is a sight to behold!
The reason why I am bringing this up is our very own Section A online jukebox here on campus, called Radio Fatli, named after its founder, previously known as Anurag Singh.. He plays these request songs and special playlists, and day before yesterday happened to be ghazal night, on repeated requests from yours truly... and that night too passed.. peaceful music did help, even if only marginally, when i was getting entangled in the web of operating leases and deferred tax liabilities.. at the end of the night, there was at least something good to look back on..

[break to go get the answer scripts of an Individual Dynamic Quiz..fingers crossed..]
[am back! 10/10.. collar up! after god knows how long, some decent score to show! i really am building up quite a rapport with ID TA i guess.. but thats not for public discussion,so...]

==========================

Yesterday being blog day, i failed in my duty in not linkin to new-found blogs..

Highly Recommended:

Sleepless-in-iima : Blog of Tattu, previously known as Oka, and almost never known as Karthik. IIMA classmate, and rotfl funny transcripts of classroom lectures and more here...

Sine-Qua-Non : Tankhi, previously called Suze and almost never called Sujatha(except affectionately by our Profs probably).. She is union-leader material, eyebrow-raising-dancer, and quite a handful of a dramatist.

Nivedhitha: Nivy to the world.. Du to me...My newest Thangai, and a new-found poet. Dancer, singer, what not.

Ionic imbalance: Rad, never called Radhika Viswanathan. We never knew she blogged, did we?

=========================

My hindi exploits here are already part of iima folklore, and someone try figuring out what these mean.. My northie classmates are awestruck, to say the least ;)

1) raasthe hain jaane ka (at saiyaan for an amazing Manac rem!)

2) tum dono badaa pathar badaa samay!! (at sebi and saiyaan for an amazing joint-manac rem!)

3) Yeh kya roti dhimaag hai? (in conversation with Dopey...)

4) Main aadhmi-thandaa ka dabbaa pad rahaa hoon.. (D-babbling...)

Cheers!
(Ah, now these pearls of wisdom wont be lost forever to mankind..)

--------------------------------
more in this highly disconnected post...

jus back from collecting the second quiz answer sheets of the day... Economics it was... considerin that my previous scores were a zero and an 'A', today was good enough... God Bless (n-1)....but there is more to life, really. I collected Momo's answer sheets too, and actually cribbed and got HIM 2 extra marks that i thought he deserved! Sebi's handshake at my noble deed in this evil place made my day..On my way back, all that i saw seemed rehearsed. One of the many pigeons on campus, flew so close to my right ear like she was applauding for me to hear, and then, weirdest of weird things, the lone peacock on campus decides to spread its feathers and stare straight into my eyes under the 3:45 sun... I stood there for half a min, and then hurried back to inscribe it here..
K Girsh, you are a good man...

Ladies and Gentlemen..

2005-08-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

Mark my words.
Here is a name that you will recognize much faster in the not too distant future. Touchwood.

R.Raghavendra it is.
He is presently doing an innocuous First year Visual Communication with the DG Vaishnav college of arts and science in Chennai. And the only reason he got in was that his uncle was/is the principal of the place.
But that is not wat is gonna make him a legend.
Sample this:

Vellai veLicham bhoomiyil vizhattum
kollai pona inbam meendum pirakkattum
nam kanngal kaaNum indha poRkaLam
oru swargam aagattum
indha ulagam marubadiyum piRakkattum
nam nenjathil poo pookkum

Bhoomiyai amaidhiyaai kaaNum kaalam kanavaa
manidhargal manidharaai maarum kaalam kanavaa
aayudhangaL azhindhu ange anbu kaRangal neeLumo
poRkalangal pudhaindhu ange punidha sthalangal thondrumo
varungaalam edhirkaalam porkaalamaagattum...

A verse written and set to music by this 17-yr old.
RR(as he is known to everyone who knows him), had me totally proud when I heard this song.
I will duly upload the song itself after adding some copyrights to it, and i promise you your jaw will drop.
Add to that a fast-growing carnatic career as a full-time vocalist, with some 100+ concerts (and having just completed the music for an animation film to be screened at the Tokyo Film Festival) under his belt, and winning the Ragamalika event on jaya tv under the watchful voice of SPB, and he begins to drift into unimaginable territory.
My prayers to the one up above to give RR good health and a long,long musical life.

I am a proud brother, yet again. (today happens to be Raaki day, so love to the other person i am so proud of.. Vidya)

Cheers!

ps :: next wil hav to write about the only person who brought tears to my eyes when leavin chennai for ahd..

Pala naall thirudan..

2005-08-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

indru agappattaan.

prologue:
saturday:
my manac prof sings to me.." thoongaadhe thambi thoongadhe" after the manac lecture where he caught me in a state of blissful sleep...

T-Nite is going on.. (T-Talent).. Sleep is unheard of these days, except in the belowdiscussed situations..

Today was crucifying day..
3 lectures, 3 professors. 3 hours.
and 3 times. i got caught by the professor for sleeping in class.
First it was HRM.
Monday morning dark blues, i am driftin off, when a missile in the guise of a chalkpiece thuds into me. I went out and washed my face, with the prof thankfully taking it lightly, it being the first time i have been "caught napping" in his class..

WAC then.
As usual. The lady speaks so melodiously, almost like an air hostess, and wen it happened to me again, she said the usual "Girrish, Girrish, wake up...". and i did. till the end of class..

OM last.
I was sleepin open mouthed from wat i remember, and the prof must have called out to me twice or something ,coz wen i did hear him finally, it was a really loud "GIRISH! WAKE UP SOMEHOW!!!"... Thanking the heavens that he happened to be in a really good mood too, coz he was smiling and laughing away when i was lookin on, not knowing, yet again, wat expression to wear on my face...
Here is the clincher, and the signature of his "beyond-all-that"ness.
"Girish has been conveniently sleeping in at least SEVEN of the last 10 lectures..." laughter. and i laughed along too.. How magnanimous of him to abstain from disturbing my diurnal dreams for seven whole lectures.. Am still thankin God..

Which reminds me, i really have to catch some sleep in watever lil time i get now.. and hopefully stay awake when it matters...

ps :: Reminds me of an old post of mine..

Well.. I am words' worth....

2005-07-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

As the title of the post might have suggested, this post is dedicated to the increasingly profound and mind-boggling contortions that modern day tamil poetry is going through.. I just happened to listen to the latest addition to the list of the definitely-future-hall-of-fame works, set to tune by who-else-but-harris-jayaraj. And this post was an automatic aftermath.
Gettin straight to the point, let me cut and paste an excerpt from the piece of TAMIL lyric for a TAMIL film called Thotti jayaa... (a completely tamil title, in an industry where naming a film in tamil is snowballing into quite an issue). But here is how the lyric goes.

ON first listening,

Eeee.. So... ai... ye...ee... (an initial appetiser)
(Chorus)

Zolime DheFo...
Modhilo Seelo...
Yamadhanjaago...
Ivandhaano..

(repeat)
Zemeno seebo...
Modhilai Zaano...
Nethi adi dhaano
jeya.. yeah hero...

hee..Zolime Dhefo..
Huh..Modhilo Seelo..
Hee.. Yamadhanjaago..
Huh.. Ivandhaano..

ha...

Eee...yeah...zai..eeyaahee....

--End of Song--

And as if that were not enough, here comes Blaaze (the popularly known name of the much more tamil name Rajesh Raman), with his rapping, that is gonna blow my top sooner than later, under the blissful impression that a random string of syllables assembled and screamed with oohs and aahs smattered to fill up breath pauses make up a rap.. CRAP!!

The latest offering from SJ suryah's stables (formerly known as BF, name now changed to an innocent A..Aaa...), has Rahman doing the music... And there is this song that goes like marangothiye, which means a woodpecker. Dont see how that is romantic and danceable.
But to top it off, Blaaze starts it off with something AS RIDICULOUS AS

Wud I Wud I Wud I Wud I Wud I Wud I Wud I be a Wudpecker!!! (sung 4 times, in a metronomic monodrone, that kills the song, day zero, even before the pitch report. I cant but laugh out loud..)
Wud I Wud I woodpecker????
Who the hell writes these lyrics?? Woodpecker? Motherf-? Let me stick to my limits..
What crap!
Someone murder the lyricists. Someone speak some sense into these idiots please.
Tamil music needs some good lyricists..

Ommahaseeyaa vaahiyaalaa...
Shamse mama mamse...
Yela yelaa yelaa olaa olaa olaa..
Mumbasseiyo!! doyourpeeyo!!
Alamba polaama omayo seele seele...

Nonsense... and there is an idiot called ilayaraja who sits and meticulously transforms the thiruvasagam (a celebrated tamil work of literature) into a symphony.. Who cares? Silly old man... Not many of his kind around..

The future is dark...
Paadal pala ketkumbodhum sila neram ennam thadumaarumo....

2005-07-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalo...
@ Girish

I Got Mail...

2005-07-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

The following is a mail sent out by the PGP Chair to all the first years here at IIMA..

=================================================

Advice to students who want to do well in exams: *SLEEP! *

Most of you are studying hard to do well in the quizzes, assignments, and exams. In your anxiety to do well, some of you might be tempted to forget that you are but human beings and reduce sleep to unsustainably low levels.
DON'T!
The body will revolt and not let you do your best. So do work hard, but don't ignore your body's modest need for food and sleep.
Learn to relax.
However dark the sky appears now, you can be sure that the sun will rise in a few hours.
.
.
.
.
I wish you all the best in the forthcoming mid-term exams.

MMM-- Matthukutty M Monippally
Professor, Communications Area
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad 380 015

============================

Well well....
:-)

2005-07-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Life is like a miniskirt...
@ Girish

Good Morning!

2005-07-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Going with my self-proclaimed and widely acclaimed status of Kadavul, i must say there is a lot of divinity to the way i live life here..

Irrespective of whether i sleep at 12:30 (day before yesterday), or at 4:45 in the morning (yesterday), i wake up every morning, with my mobile showing EXACTLY 07:47.. Its almost programmed.. The alarm is set for 8:15 though, everyday, givin me jus enuff time to brush, fake a bath, and head to breakfast.
And i leave my comp switched on, playing a playlist of some 400 odd songs every night, consequently wakin up to a different tune everyday.. It was Banjar hai sab banjar hai yesterday.. and was a much more sprightly O humdum soniyore today.. no wonder i actually have managed to take a proper bath already..
Leavin my balcony door open at night lets the first rays of the morning sun in too, and it is only at precisely 7:50 that the sun beams directly into my eyes.. And when it does that, it leaves me no choice but to say Good Morning!
I have never been so consistent about ANYTHING in my whole life... sure feels different!!

Garbaa (formerly known as Girish).

ps : : Dude, where the hell is your humor? why are u writin like a freakin lecturer preparing a monthly sales report???

i am @ iim-@

2005-07-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

Well lol..
have had lots to blog about this past 3 weeks (already?!!), but shall just stick to the essence... (yeah, i am growing increasingly good at getting straight to the point..)
We usually study in a group, and the group meets at like 11 in the night, and then we disperse and sleep by 2-3 ish in the night, to wake up next morning at 8 for a breakfast of corn flakes, sambar vadai, omlettes, boiled eggs, jam sandwich, cheese sndwich among other kosurus.. gearin up adequately for 4.5 hours of classes afterwards... High voltage sessions... (Read Oka's Blog, titled Sleepless in IIMA).
This happened today morning. Just half a fraction of half a second.. But i thought i shud note it down.

Kuchi (aka) Slidy (aka) Shreyas asked me : Ennadaa kannu sevandhiruku? slept late yesterday?

Garbaa (aka) Sab (aka) Girish replies : Illada... seekram thoongitten mooNu maNikkellaam.. (i was asleep by 3 am da.. slept early)

Who would have imagined...

Now lemme paste the rest of the menu for an average day (idea cogged from AC's blog)

LUNCH
======
MALAI KOFTA
GILODA MASALA
MIXED DAL TADKA
PALIOGARE RICE
CURD, BOONDI RAITA
SALAD
ROTI
FRUITS

H / TEA
=======
VEG. SANDWITCH
TEA / COFFEE

DINNER
=======
RAJMA MASALA DRY
VEG MANCHURIAN GRAVY
DAL MASOOR
CURD, ONION RAITA
VEG PULAV
ROTI
SWEET: MALPUA

Have a NIce Day!!
-Messcom.
===============================================
Wil scribble more wen i find more time.. tata all.. this entry was jus to reinforce attendance...
Can already hear the Tucchaas (2 + facchaas, the second years) shouting hoarse outside.. Muggo facchon muggo...
faccha - fresher + bachaa.. we first years..
So yeah.
tata.

2005-07-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

His Holiness Kadavul...
@ Girish

2005-07-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago...
@ Girish

2005-07-01T22:57:00.001-07:00

Room view from balcony...
@ Girish

2005-07-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

Room view from door...
@ Girish

2005-07-01T22:56:00.001-07:00

From my Room balcony 2...
@ Girish

2005-07-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

From my Room balcony...
@ Girish

2005-07-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Viru virumaandi Virumaandi..
@ Girish

2005-07-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

Oye... Ennandra..
@ Girish

HELL-O...

2005-06-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

On the evening of June the 21st 2005 , 7 tired souls aboard the navjeevan express were gettin ready to alight at Ahmedabad. A kind hearted gentleman, apparently a local, offered these souls some solace by reassuring them about taxi fares and prepaid billing and all that, and even went to the extent of bargaining with some local cabbies to get these sevensome a fair fare deal..
That done, the secret seven(?!) now started the last leg of their journey, fully loaded with tons of luggage, on 3 taxis, rocketing thro the rocky roads (rings a bell anyone?), in search of a place called Vastrapur.
Girish and deepak were on the same cab, and discussing how ahmedabad suddenly looked like Ooty and suddenly the next moment some place looked exactly like mylapore... Thorougly exhausted, Girish was slowly drifting off, when Deepak spotted something.
Vastrapur, said a sign board.
And up ahead, they could see Vaibhav restaurant, a place that Ramu mama had prescribed for south indian food. Excited, they craned their necks to see what was to come, and then they saw lights in the distance.
'Dude', said Deepak.
As the place slowly came into view, the first word to meet their eye was Management. Moving to the edge of their seats, they then saw the engraving, Ahmedabad. As the taxi got closer and closer, the entire sign came into full view..
Ahmedabad Management Association, it said.
The taxi moved on, and the visibly frustrated duo settled back into the barely sittable seats, when the taxi slowed and swerved to the left.
A guard met them at what looked like an entrance and babbled something in Gujju-or-hindi-or-whatever to the driver. They could see they were entering a huge campus, but there were no sign boards in view, no arches, nothing at all !!!!!!!!!
Girish started mumbling his usual prayer-words as the taxi glided past the gates.
'Dude.. big moment, actually", said Deepak.
The taxi stopped.
'Kadavule', said Girish, loud enough for the heavens to hear it and take note, and then proceeded to open the doors and set foot on IIM soil.

Wish me luck.
Will post soon.
Cheers.

ps :: Prayers for Rani chandran
ps2 :: happy birthday 'best friend' aarthi!
ps3 :: Wish J luck too.. dei waitin for news from u... how is IIMB?
ps4 :: Check out http://girish.squarespace.com for an interesting update. More stuff coming there this week :-)

Life is Good..

2005-06-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,
This is a line that i am typing for ABCD's purposes. This line is gonna be caught on celluloid and be immortalised for ever in the hearts of the above average movie goer.

Today was an intriguing day.
People sure are a mystery. From what i saw and what i heard today, people are real difficult to understand. And i dont see that changing in the near future.

As for me, life is good...
Good Night.

Nothing in particular and everything in general...

2005-06-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Just sitting down on my computer after a heavy dinner composed mainly of thayir saadham with 'adaimaangaai' - a variant of maangaa oorgaa made with some kinda dry mango or something. This is simply my all time thayir saadhathukku thottukka favorite.. And only my paatti {now no more} knew the menu. My athais {2 of them} try and still make some adaimaangaai occasionally for me.. Thanks to them, on the record.

Over the last 3 days, whenever i have had time, i have gone on a 'crane-my-neck-and-look-at-some-distant-invisible-nothing' spree.. And everytime, it has been thoughts about how much life is going to change in exactly 6 days from now. No denying that i am beginning to get sentimental about chennai and all that it has held for me all these years..

I visited PSBB (my school, for the ignorant reader) and had a delightful time. With a 'media-shy' J, a just-passed-out from school sister, and her 483-on-500 classmate and soulmate, it was so good to simply be there, and watch all the drama unfolding inside those hallowed gates that Munuswamy once used to guard.. Michael - the other watchman- was still spotted there.. Sankar sir, the physics lab assistant, rememberd me and proudly told me about the completion of his 25th year at school. he looks 40 and is 51 it seems. Perumaiyaa irundhudhu ennamo enakku... Lime juice (5 bucks) at the new improved psbb canteen was delicious in the heat...Lots and lots of teachers remembered the puny short guy in school, who they were surprised to see standing at 6'1" with his agathiya maa munivar beard.. Anand bakery underlined the visit, signin off in typical old times style..

Apart from that, have not done anything but ABCD for the past 4-5 days..

Swetha consented to help out, and my thanks are due to her. Went out to lunch after that with Swetha, J and Prasanna. Will remember that lunch(except that i had to shell out 245 bucks..). Swetha has been plannin a surprise party for me i came to understand ,when she mistakenly sent me the sms that she was supposed to send to mahesh. Am supposed to act surprised at the party when it does happen, as things stand now..

Am sure I will write another blog before i say tata to chennai..
That ringtone that i talked about in my last post is simply so special... Somehow, i keep listenin to it all the time...

Tamilselvi called all the way from sweden. And damn, when the call got cut, and she called again, i was inside the house with lots of visitors, and could not speak properly at all.. Am sorry i wasted that call from u tamil, but call panninadhuku mikka nandri.. unnoda kalyanathuku epdiyaanum vandhudaren in december..

With Bk gone too, chennai definitely feels incomplete. My world for the past 4 days revolves around J, RR, Prasanna, Sriram, vasanth, Raamaa, Barath (all names male there!), and sms contact with divya, swetha, suja, sujatha, paru...

And yeah. A paid me a visit. and this time too, she didnt get to come inside, and had to sweat it out under the heat of the sun and more (as she writes in her blog, http://aishwaryarao.blogspot.com) lol.. aazham edhu aiyyaa.. andha pombala manasu dhaanyaa.. not for nothing have they been traditionally saying that a woman is difficult to decipher.. Life is a comedy..

And after that highly incoherent entry, am gonna go sleep. And hopefully dream of something good, or someone special.

;)

Silent Symphonies...

2005-06-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is a tribute to two of the most delightful pieces of background scores ever composed in the history of Indian cinema. No wonder that both scores belong to the same film, made by the greatest indian filmmaker, music scored by the greatest indian composer. (And i entertain no arguments on both issues). Which is why this film has now usurped nayagan's place as my favorite film ever. For people who still have not guessed, i dont intend lettin out names here. You have to be an alien to tamil music to be still in the dark...

Find below my versions of both pieces, as composed on the composer app in my Nokia mobile fone. Anyone with the time, please do type this in on ur nokia composer, and i guarantee u wil love it wen someone calls u next.
Everytime i listen to my phone ringing, I want it to keep ringing. Never feel like answering the phone at all...

4#d3 4g2 4#g2 4g2 4d3 4g2 4#d3 4g2 4e3 4e2 4a2 4e2 4b2 4e2 4c3 4e2 4d3 4f2 4g2 4.f2 8- 4d3 4g2 4b2 4c3 4e2 4f2 4.e2 8- 4c3 4f2 4a2 4#a2 4d2 4#d2 4d2 4b2 4d2 4#d2 4d2 4f2 4d2 4g2 4d2 4a2 4d2 8g2 8b2 8c3 8d3

4#g2 4g2 4d2 4#d2 2.b1 4g1 4f2 4#d2 1#d2 2- 4#g2 4g2 4d2 4#d2 2.b1 4g2 4#d2 4d2 1d2 2- 4b1 4c2 4#a2 4#g2 2.#g2 4g2 4e2 4f2 4#d3 4d3 1d3 1c3 1#a2 1b2

(Both pieces tempo 200)

The second of the ringtones has found me a new best friend, and my cousin who happened to be with me while i was actually composing the ringtone thinks i am a genius. Little does she know where the real genius lies. But i am sure she does..

Cheers.
10 Days. To Go.

Monotonous turned memorable..

2005-06-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

It is a shame that human beings do not tell each other that they like each other as often as they probably should.
Lookin someone in the face and sayin, 'You are special to me'... is that difficult?
Which is what i did today. But i so strangely feel proud of myself for it. Should i?
Had one of my best evenings - qualitatively- in the recent past, after a morning when i suddenly started to feel the pangs of separation some 15 days before it is actually gonna happen. Restless is the word. was pacing about to and fro, for most of the morning.
Come evening, mood swung to the other end of the spectrum..
Dominos pizza (this was the highlight. No words..), a visit to Mahesh, and arattai in a nearby playground, footballs whizzing past every now and then, joined by K Arvind(now into IIM-B) and V Ashwin (into IIM-K). Mani came - cigarette in hand - and asked me to hold it for a moment while he locked his bike or something. And given my high spirits, i gave it one small thought, and with just a hint of hesitation, gently put it to my mouth and breath..e..d.. cough cough, sputter sputter... No.. No way.. not for me. Mahesh did nothing to deter me, so if i take to smoking in the future, blame it on him too. spare Mani.
Anyway, How on earth do people inhale that kinda crap. Say no to smoking.

A couple of smses lit up the rest of the day too, and all is well with the world..

Just an afterthought -> 15 days. To go.

Thirty-Eight point something

2005-05-27T01:34:00.000-07:00

Goa was good.
We were 6 of us who were supposed to go. My 2 uncles, 2 aunts, my uncle's daughter and i. (clarifications right at the beginning : My uncle's daughter calls me Anna. So it ends there...)
Let me get to the point(s) straightaway.

/*Chennai
1. 6 tickets were booked in a 3-tier AC train. All 6 tickets were available only in the RAC category.
2. One of my uncles then was called upon to go to Germany on official matters. So 1 ticket cancelled.
3. My other uncle, now the leader of the pack (and the sole sponsor too ;)), now had this brainwave that the remaining 5 tickets might not get confirmed, and with 3 ladies in the group, we better book 2nd class tickets too, just in case.
4. 5 second class tickets booked, in addition to the already existing AC tickets. These newly booked tickets too, were in the Waiting List. Drat.
5. This led my junior aunt(who happens to be the most i-dont-give-a-damn-to-what-i-spend kinds), to egg on my uncle to book 5 tickets to and fro on a Jet airways flight at apex rates of 3K per head or so.
So now we have 5 tickets to and fro on AC train, Sleeper train and Flight.
6. Our AC tickets advanced to RAC numbers 1,2,3,4,5. Bright chances of confirmation, with 3 days to go.
7. So my uncle promptly cancelled the flight tickets the next day.
8. One of our AC tickets got confirmed.
9. My uncle cancelled the sleeper class tickets as well.
10. Now my senior aunt, dealt a divine digression to the whole trip, insisting that we halt at Mantralayam on our way back from Goa.
11. All 5 return tickets from Goa cancelled.
12. Return tickets from Mantralayam booked. 2nd class tickets. Goa to mantralayam could be decided after we reach Goa and explore options there.
13. The sole accompanying uncle now gets some work in Chennai, has to be here early, so HE cancels his return ticket alone, and books a flight ticket for himself for the 24th.
14. Day of journey, we book a Call Taxi, to pick us up from home at 12:30 for a 2 PM train.
15. 12:45 no sign of the taxi. Call him up, CANCEL the taxi booking (no form of transport spared from our cancellation chaos), and rent another cab down to the station.
16. Arrive at station, all tickets stand confirmed. Vaazhve Thavam.

exit Chennai*/

/* Start of Train Journey
17. On train, female company at long last. A voluptuous aunty was all i had for company for a while, until the only vacant seat in the entire compartment, the seat opposite mine, was taken by a 20-ish girl. Wow. Never happened before ever. Hasbi Rabbi Jalallah!
18. Then came her amma. Kezha bolt aunty. Maafi Qalbi Ghairullah!
19. And then came the son. 2 years old. Noor-e Muhammad Sallallah!
20. And then she called her son Kaif... Haq La Illa-ha Illallah.
End of Train Journey*/

--in Goa now--
21. Search begins(!), for transport from Goa to mantralayam.
22. Nothing. NOTHING. WTF is mantralayam, people ask. Zilch.
23. Retrace plans. Look for alternate destinations. Bangalore.
24. Book tickets on a semi-sleeper bus to bangalore for the 24th night.(this was after enquiring flight charges from Goa to Bangalore and chennai).
25. Cancel the Mantralayam - Chennai return train tickets.
26. New brainwave - why not leave by a comfortable AC Volvo bus instead of a non AC semi-sleeper?
27. Book 4 tickets to bangalore on a Volvo Bus.
28. Cancel the other bus ticket.
29. Also meant that we could cancel our hotel room bookings for the 24th. Checking out one day ahead of time.
--exit Goa--

-Goa to Bangalore--
30. Bus journey. Seats numbered 1,2,3,4. First 4 seats on bus. Clear view of Road ahead. Bus going up and down the western ghats. At speeds nearing and crossing 100 kmph.
31. Man sprawled on road, drunk, sleeping in bliss, middle of road. Bus brakes hard. gets my aunts' heads spinning.
32. Senior aunt vomits all over.
33. Plans of stay in Bangalore in jeopardy.
34. We reach Bangalore at 10-ish the next morning. head straight for the railway station.
35. Unreserved tickets to Chennai for a 2 PM train, 3 hours in the bangalore railway station waiting room, and then a rush for the seats that get toweled up even before zeroth hour.
36. Mahesh 'macha kammanaati' balaji has to leave to mysore too, and comes to the station, gets to talk to my uncle's daughter. @%&$#%@.
--exit Bangalore--

--Bangalore to Chennai--
37. Drunken sleepard on train on berth above. Constantly absently shifting positions, almost giving us a 'the sky is falling' feeling. Sick. in more ways than one definitely.
38. Back in Chennai, and living happily ever after...

Soragame endraalum.. adhu nammoora pola varuma.

The Sands of the SeaShoore..

2005-05-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Today evening, I met my friend Paru after some 2 years. The last I saw her was before I left for singapore. And then she left to the US when i was back in India, and finally all the planets found it appropriate to allow me her darshan today evening..

But the blog is about what happened before the meeting. Waiting for her, back to the sun, at besant nagar beach, I was silently typing smses, when a sight so delightfully reminded me of those days gone by..

Four small boys (average age around 10)(and lets call them A,B,C,D), armed with a bat and a tennis ball, dived into the soft sand, and went berserk. With loud cries of the now famous 'lakalakalakalaka', the chubbiest of the guys, say A, forgot the rest of the world and threw the ball as high as he could up into the spotless evening sky. He only looked chubby i guess, coz the ball hardly went some 2 stories high before it was dutifully dropped by a diving wannabe, say C.
Resting the bat for a mo, these kids started playing 'catch-catch' and then one of them (D) inevitably threw the ball to the other group, ball landing way short of the waiting duo(A,B). Angered by the apparent violation and for arrogantly snatching away an unfair point, B picked the ball up and threw it straight back into the sand, and ceremoniously called 'One All !!'. This now piqued the ire of the opponents (C,D), but they were the ahimsa cult i guess, for they repentantly retorted with a 'Ok daa.. Re-throw'.. I couldnt help laughing to myself.. those days... When the game resumed in all fairness, loud laughter followed by a lakalakalakalaka was the highlight, every time someone dropped a sitter. Notable was how C dropped the easiest of catches and then proceeded to vent his frustration on the ball, throwing the ball way beyond the AB team, ball finally hitting a small child who fell on the sand with the force of the impact. Next moment, these 4 guys are at her side, and yelling at C for his carelessness. It simply was oh-so-good.

When ABCD dispersed, still no sign of Paru... I looked around, and there was this small boy, rubber ball in hand, gazing out into the distance, quite obviously waiting for someone. And thanks to all that lakalakalaka-ing, I was so much in the mood.
'nee velaiyaadaliyaa'
'varuvaanga'
'namma aaduvomaa catch-catch'
'mmm'
And jump into the sand i did! Sheer joy for the next 10 mins. And i had an audience too, thanks to my powerful throwing arm which sent the ball quite a way into the sky, even eclipsing the evening sun for a fraction.. A tired ABCD now had someone to 'look up to', and craned their necks and cheered everytime i sent the ball soaring. Thanks to the strong breeze, 'my' kid dropped most of the catches, but the enthu was so nostalgic and sublime..
(As a last-ditch attempt to convince Paru that i was not the same hawai chappal - mukkaal pant - muppadhu rooba shirt Girish that she knew me as back in undergrad, I had worn a decent full sleeved shirt, neatly tucked in to a new newport jeans, belt et al.. )
But now, ball in hand and kid in sight, nothing doing.
Sleeves rolled up, Shirt let loose, pant folded up, forget the rest of the world, and fly...
And when paru eventually shone on the shore and we went to planet yum, she drank some tropical delight-or-whatever drink, while i scanned the entire list to order Assam Tea.. Thanks to Baristas, one of my all time fave drinks that. Yeh jo des hai mera..

Anywhere in the world, anybody(TRS style), the sight of schoolkids running riot on chennai beaches, is yet another definitions of the phrase 'true joy'.
Life is Good...

Revert back to roots.

2005-04-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

True to the name of this blog, I intend to use it only as a filler when u guys decide to bomb my good old Squarespace blog.. I love Squarespace.
And for the ones tht dont know, my original blog is at http://girish.squarespace.com

And its a top draw on Google did u know?
I recently come to note that espnstar columnists have visited that place and thanked me for the praise that i showered on one of their writeups... So back to squarespace one.

Cheers.

Our Local lexicon..

2005-04-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Definitely guilty for not having blogged for sometime given the ongoing calm after the storm(s), here is something tht i thought i should write about for people who know me and my gang incompletely. Chances are, you might not understand a word of what we are talkin.. So here i go, givin you some gyaan on our verbals...

Athav :- is a seemingly innocuous word that was born out of the inexplicable sound engineering roots of Mr. Navneeth. The popular technique of reversing a sound wave was thus extended to the sound wave that said 'Vatha' - which in itself is a morph of its more (in)famous cousin, Otha. Usually accompanied by a withdrawal of the hand backwards, as a symbolic reverse of an outstretched hand that usually goes with a disdainful 'vatha'. A pleasant, well-meaning expletive, for once...

Naech :- a brainchild of RamC's.. the word first saw the light of day at the IDPL grounds, when the dons met at dawn.. Can be used interchangeably with 'athav'..

Pedal :- when born, the word was almost always accompanied with the prefix 'pinni', to make it "pinnippedal" in totality.. but of late, pedal stands on its own legs.. substitute for the above said 2 words..

Bright Feature :- our way of saying "Bright Future". has 2 variants, positive and anti-positive. For eg. saying a small girl has a bright feature goes to show our strong belief that she is gonna develop into a fine young lady, whereas saying a singer has a bright feature might actually mean that we see no spark at all in him, and he is destined on the path to definite damnation... both variants are usually accompanied with a clap of the hands, shoulder shrugs and a wry laugh.. RR deserves the plaudits for pioneering this phrase..

Laikki Child:- a direct lift from a Vadivelu comedy classic, its a customised way of saying "like a child", initially coined to sneer at someone u thought was behaving like a kid. But these days, context is immaterial. When bored, just clap your hands and say "laikki child".. RR's favorite phrase this...

Shoore :- Courtesy one of my illustrious classmates at Hindustan College of Engineering, this phrase has stayed on.. Put simply, this is just "Sure" gone wrong. Nevertheless, the word has since then spread FAR and wide, and is now prevalent abundantly...

Can :- traces its origins to my singaporean sojourn.. Is a one-word answer that conveniently replaces "yes" or "ok" or "i will come" or "the food is good" or "she looks awesome" or "there is still time" or anything at all that has a hint of positivity around it. definitely can. makki's favorite of late... last seen using this word one hell of a lot.

Kuruvikkoodu :- Thanks to Sriram - RR's classmate - for this one. and this word is absobloodylutely convenient. Anything that goes under the broad category of 'sentiment', be it mother-daughter, husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend, or simply friend-friend, is strictly kuruvikkoodu. Most tamil film dialogues, like 'Anne.. naa UNGA thambi anne..." or "neenga illaadha oru vaazhkaiya..." or "kaadhal apdingaradhu... oru poo maadiri..." fall under this category.. The word is also extended to real-world situations, and is used on people who take pride in effusively gushing out such lines in real life... ;)

Sshhh :- used to refer to people who are unquestionale kings in their own right.. The title of the blog (does that show my Leo instincts?), the word HAS to be said with finger on your lips.

Studmax :- borrowed from some of the IIT junta that i met at the IIM interviews, the word means pretty much the same as "Sshhh". Quite self-explanatory, the word is yet another way of singing something's glory... like 'have u watched BLACK? Man.. it is studmax...'

Inshaallah Izz.. definitely Izz.. :- This is SR's own. An absolute straight dig at Inzamam ul-haq's way of speaking at pre- and post match talks, SR cant stop when he has started... And it makes me laugh every time.. (no offence Jawad) :-)

Anything i have left out, tis upto u guys to point out..

Given all that, here is how a sample conversation takes place when guys come home...Cricket being played in full vigor. inevitably.

Girish :- Bowling da SR. Seriyaana length.. pedal
J :- Andha solid defence paathalla... Sshhh... Sshhh... Aey!! Sshhh...
Makki :- Oye.. Shoore edge idhellaam.. Can Can apdinnu edge...
RR :- Anna ennanna idhu... Laikki Child...
(At a passing gurl on the road)
Girish :- Aahaa... BK paathiyaa.. Athav!!!
BK runs to the front of house to catch a glimpse of her..RR is already there too..
BK :- Aahaa.. semma saathvigam da... Naech!!
RR :- Annaa.. bright feature naa andha ponnukku... Bright feature...
SR :- Yeah definitely Izz... the boys izz.. inshallah izz... we bounce back izz... sulman bhatt izz..izz....izzzzz...
J :- andha ponnellaam innum four years da... Shoore Studmax dhaan...
RR :- J anna... neenga vennaa ippo oru six adinga.. naa andha ponnu kitta poi ongala pathi edhaanum kuruvikkoodu panni Laikki Child haha... nalla... a... ha ha...

And there i choose to stop the nonsense.
Sshhh....

India & Saurav : Futures and Options...

2005-03-31T21:27:00.000-08:00

Verbatim from Anshul's blog

the indian team has disappointed beyond measure and words. that we lost the match in bangalore is sad, but an occupational hazard of playing and following sport. that we failed to win the series which would have been the first back-to-back victory of an indian side against pakistan is painful, but acceptable. clearly, pakistan could hold their own and in the bangalore test especially, were clearly the superior side.that the indians bowed and virtually gave up under pressure at bangalore is intolerable.

that they fail to admit that they had a defeatist attitude sucks worst of all. lets start with ganguly's ridiculous statement after the match... on being asked about the team's strategy after sehwag's dismissal, he said "we decided to play normal cricket". i may not be the wisest cricketing pundit around, but in my opinion whatever happened on day 5 at bangalore was the most abnormal cricket that i have seen from india in a long time. sachin tendulkar scoring 16 runs off 98 balls, when kumble scored 37 off 52 later in the day? the reputed indian middle order apparently deciding not only not to go for the target, but not to make a single run if they can help it? scoring all of 189 runs in the whole day when the previous day saw over 350 runs being scored? normal cricket? bantha phoodoo!

a decade-old one-day game comes to my mind. i think manoj prabhakar and ajay jadeja had to make some 60-70 runs in the last 10 overs, and they surprisingly decided to just play the 10 overs out. bangalore could have been a mirror image of giving up hope. at this moment, as then, the prospect of an indian team giving up remains unacceptable. if we had been 214 all out at tea trying to go for the total, we would still criticize but not be depressed, and even proud at the team's spirit. like we were at the demolition against Australia in the World Cup final. sadly, though, even a show of that spirit was denied us.

the indian team has long been accused of hanging on to the coattails of one star player - be it kapil dev, sachin tendulkar, or the latest star, virender sehwag. is this wise, or necessary, especially with this indian side? even as overly critical and deeply cynical fans half a decade ago, we used to retain hope till the last recognized pair had left the crease. at times, our prayers would be answered with great innings from then-unlikely stars - jadeja, mongia, agarkar, yuvraj and kaif. but now our esteemed captain says, we stopped thinking about the target once sehwag got run out. excuse me? at 87/1, with four middle order players with a combined experience of over 350 test matches and 26,000 test runs yet to come to the crease, you give up? and not just give up the chase, but apparently decide to go so much into a shell that the opposition can put seven fielders around the bat and not suffer a single run for 52 balls? against the might of proven bowlers like kaneria, arshad khan and afridi?

it is time for rethinking and a time for action. sport is about facing challenges - all the more bravely for the fact that you can afford to lose. we need a new drive, and we need a new leader. and if it means losing our most experienced and "talented" players, so be it.

-----------------------
From a mail i received :

You can see the following message behind maggi 2 minutes noodles pack: Step 1: boil one cup of water Step 2: as soon as ganguly goes for batting, put the noodles in the boiled water and put the tastemaker. Step 3: stir till ganguly is onfield. Step 4: As soon as ganguly is back in pavilion, your noodles r ready to eat.

What is the next number in the series 21, 12, 12, 1, 2, ... . . .
Only Ganguly knows it. Because these are his scores in the latest Test series

This is the precise summary of the third test match, as expressed in DH - Editorial today: India's defeat Sir, The Indian cricket team losing the third Test match to Pakistan in Bangalore brings to mind an old Arab proverb: "An army of lions led by a sheep can be vanquished by an army of sheep led by a lion "

India Pakistan Match has started. As to be expected, it's a charged up atmosphere and the heat is really on! .......... India is put in to bat. As to be expected, three wickets down, for a measly score. .......... There is phone call for Ganguly, at the Dressing Room. The Team Manager picks up the call. .......... "Hello ! I am Ganguly's friend speaking . Can I talk to him now ?" ......... The Team Manager replies : "Sorry ! He has just gone in to bat . " ....... The caller replies "No problem . I'll hold the line ! "

Shoiab Akhtar admits Ganguly is faster and quicker than him. "I haven't seen any one get out so fast. Man, I envy his speed. I am quick but he is quickest.", he says. "I think I should now cut my run up short when I bowl to him. Or else, he might be gone when I am half way thru my run up."

2) How can u say "Get Out" to Ganguly politely? Ans: Ask him to go to bat

3) If Rahul is "The Wall", what is Ganguly? Ans: The hole in the wall

5) Who is the only cricketer who does not bat, bowl or field and yet plays international cricket? Ans: no comments.......

Q: Any Guesses which is Ganguly's favorite movie? A:Gone in 60 seconds

Life chugs on...

2005-03-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

Unless you are an engine driver or a guard waving the flags for a living, it is not often that you would find yourself on a train for 8 consecutive days...

*break for a half an hour chat conversation followed by a 29-minute phone conversation with J*
Having lost that train of thought about the trains completely , let me train my eyes on a fresh start..

I have always maintained that Lady Luck (also known as Luck with the ladies), has failed me time and again, without fail, when i set foot aboard the billowing caravans that run on tracks.. In all of the last month, when train journeys were more the order of the day than any kinda stationary shelter, she has always managed to be conspicuous by her absence, consistently making sure to pied pipe the rest of the female species with her too, leaving me to fume with some dhaadiwallahs and beediwallahs that so often try to chat me up with endearments like 'thambi enna panndraappola', and the like.. Not even guys my age. Not that i am particularly lookin or longing for them either... A guy is certainly not an adequate replacement for a girl on a train journey. period.

When i eventually reached the Delhi rly stn by auto (worth a mention is that the autowallah was an old OLD man, with a osama-like beard), i didnt know wat was coming. Lady luck was practially dead. Picture this.
Of all the days in the english calendar, and of all the trains that Shri Laloo deems fit to criss cross the vast expanse of Mother india, and of all the pitstops that that these trains take time to fart at, the 17th of March, 2005 Tamilnadu Express train was the chosen one. here is how.
As many as 6 second classes coaches were bulk-booked by a home for the old-aged. apparently by some asylum that planned to shift all its inmates from delhi to chennai suddenly, moving my destiny closer to me in effect. And as if that were not enough, 3 of the remaining 5 coaches were snapped up by a school for the blind. This meant only one thing. S4 to S12 was wasteland (unless you are a good samaritan like some of my friends out there..). And being in S11 and the pantry somewhere near S5, i never got farther than that, into greener pastures (the optimist in me..) Worst kannaa Worst..

I have been told that the number 7 is lucky for me ( in hindsight, 7 was my speaker number at FMS), but that simply doesnt justify an atrocious frequency of berth number 70 being allotted to me everytime i ask for an upper berth (for my eunuch-phobia again). being the last berth on the compartment, and closest to the exit means two things. One, i have to sleep like an idiot, using my briefcase as a footrest to make sure someone doesnt whisk it away while i am slumbering away.. and Two, i am CLOSEST to the toilets - western and indian - and thus having to courageously brook the fusion of various foreign fragrances that assault me everytime someone heeds a call of nature.. these indians never bother closing the door behind them.. lil wonder then that the only time i managed some words with females on previous occasions was when some female forgot to close the door, and since the scent from the toilet is crass irrespective of the beauty quotient, i ventured into a polite word askin them to close it. the door, i mean..

On day two, the sun decided he had to do his bit to spoil my party (??) too.. and scorch he did.. I was armed with a copy of Ignited minds by Kalam, but it was my behind that was close to ignition, given the skyrocketing temperatures.. had a real tough time toweling myself with some cold water every second minute.. And as a corollary that i derived from the Alchemist, "When someone up above decides u r gonna have it, all the world conspires to let u face it"..
No lunch on board. Next station in 2 hours. Hungry as hell. meant a long trek to the pantry car, making way for all those oldies, all clad in whites (Life's way of throwing subtle hints?), only to finally find that they had nothing but a loaf of plain bread, with nothing to go with it. a bottle of water might help.
so that was how i finally ended up eating half a loaf of bread all morning and afternoon.. trust me, i made a pathetic picture..
J called in the evening to give me good news - of an FMS admit - that instantly seemed to make life look a lot more considerate... Instantly decided that i deserved better than the remaining half a loaf for dinner, and waited till the next station to get myself some cup noodles, which made for a much better dinner..

Next morning, went back to relive some old memories.. stood at the entrance at 6 Am, and thrusting my face into the biting wind and chilling cold, bravely sang Sonnaalum ketpadhillai and the others... My early morning throat was as coarse as the skin of an old male bufallo sufferin from peptic ulcer, but today, I wouldnt relent. The sun refused to oblige too, and finally i gave up my battle and took my seat, absently singing Yaar yaar sivam.., when suddenly the sun peeked out mischievoulsy from behind the end of the earth... i had goosebumps. 'A thing of natural beauty is a joy forever'. Suddenly, I was in a different league altogether, and read 4 chapters of ignited minds in one go, and alighted a satisfied man in madras central...

The indian railways aint all that bad after all.. We must do something to help the old and the blind.. and on-board railway restrooms are harmless too..

Life chugs along.. lol..

The feel-good factor...

2005-03-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

The past week threw at me a strange new challenge, one that i have never been thro before..
A couple of friends called me asking if i could help them with their music for the popular Sun TV show, Sapthaswarangal. With no idea of what was expected of me, but with nothing much to do in life otherwise, I decided to give it a shot, and maybe win a few acquaintances on the way..

Day 1 (at harini's place) was highly unproductive, and things didnt seem to be going anywhere near smooth, especially given that they were facing a formidable Hindustan College band in their quarterfinals...

The wheels were set in motion the next day - at Sujatha's place - when we sat down and composed a freaky lil instrumental piece that bordered on lunacy.. Everything seemed to fit in, somehow though..

The news of an unexpected victory against the much vaunted Hindustan band came as a pleasant shock, but this meant only one thing - more work for the semifinals...

It wasnt much of a contribution from my side for the Semifinals, and all i did was to kinda oversee some of their stuff, with Ravi singing a Thillana, ably supported by Sriram and Bharadwaj (the savior), and another splendid remix composition by Prashanth, Venkat and Nut...
Sujatha's mom deserves more than just a word of thanks for her delicious lunch and tea.. putting up with all that noise, what with some 12 of us cramming up their 2nd floor apartment..

The guys managed to win their semifinals too, and this meant a LOT of work - a rehash of an old song, a completely original composition and a brand new instrumental piece - to be done in ONE day! S-O-S!!
In what can be nothing but God's grace, RR had this one line in mind that we worked on, and the lyrics evolved on their own in an hour's time... the original composition was suddenly ready and looking good...

Thanks to a complete lack of time, and some poor management, I had to stay overnight (the idea was not to leave it half-done, having come this far), and thanks again to Sujatha's folks for the wonderful hospitality.
Harini is an extremely gifted keyboardist and a ridiculously fast learner.I couldn't have asked for an easier person to work with.. Andhi mazhai pozhigiradhu was remixed at the speed of light.. Prashanth - though highly temperamental - is quick to learn and adapt, and is an asset to the side..
Aishwarya - who i mistook to be Aarthi for a long time - reminds me of 'cute'. She played the bass on the keyboard, and was very easy to teach. Aarthi was on the other keyboard and it was mostly Harini's responsibility to co-ord the 3 boards..

The own composition - a difficult one for the vocalist, given one day's time - was painstakingly learnt by Ravi, who shut himself up in one of the rooms and rewound the tape so many times till it yelled back at him.. Again, the orchestration was smooth thanks to some inspired work from harini, sriram and Prashanth..

Composing an instrumental piece doesnt get easier than this... Laughable it might sound, but I am confident that the group wont take more than 10 mins to do a whole new instrumental piece, given the way we have been workin on these.. The piece in raag Chandrakauns happened automatically . Flute Srikanth, younger bro of our own G.Srinath, finally shed his inhibitions and hit form...

I was feeling all the while that the female vocalists - Sujatha and Ranjini - needed to be given more work, and watchin them sittin without much work to do didnt do any good.. which was why I insisted on a female solo for the 4th round, and had them learn it overnight. And learn they did, and had me satisfied when they sang for me after half an hour... Ninnukori Varnam...

This bunch of highly likeable and enthusiastic musicians gave it their all in the finals of sapthaswarangal. Completely satisfied with their performance, calling it their best ever, they sounded pretty positive on their phones and SMSes when they were waiting for the results..
Unni menon was the judge it seems.. no idea how he is qualified enough to judge a group music thing at the Sapthaswarangal finals..

And then it came. They had lost.
And then they partied, for all the memories and for all the camaraderie and the sheer fun of the past week... The loss hurt, yes, but they knew to put things in perspective. And God bless them for that.
In a party that happened at a Roof garden restaurant late in the night, they pushed me close to embarrasment with their ovation and all the affection that they showered on me unconditionally...

If any of you are reading this, let me tell u guys that I had an absolute blast. It was seriously amazing, and I loved that night-out, with drooping heads singing full throatedly, and the poor gurls being woken up rudely to learn their parts for Ninnukkori.. Prashanth on the phone was rolling-on-the-floor funny.. Thanks guys for being what you were... keep the enthu going...

Coincidentally, one line in our composition went.. 'NinaivugaLe... nirandharame... sugam tharume..'
Its amazing how some things just fall into place..

Mr. Gareth Callaghan says...

2005-03-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

Interesting link at THIS PAGE, to supposedly find what ur british names are...
Could be just a bit addictive..
I looked up mine, which was Gareth Callaghan.
I had half a mind to look up all you folks too, but then decided i better put on a cloak of busybeedom...
On a related note, here is the same site that supposedly gives you your future partner's name. I know this is stupid, but arent we all? {MY wife is supposed to be some Gloria norman..} Praise the Lord!

Cheers..
(ah I am learnin to be shorter with my posts, since people supposedly are busy...)
:-)