Taare Zameen Par

‘Taare Zameen Par’ hits the screen with lot of hype and expectations around it. Frankly, it supersedes them and stands out as one of the best ever made bollywood films of recent times. A movie about a child with Dyslexia is a new concept and the treatment that 'Director' Aamir Khan gives to it wonderful.

Aamir, the long celebrated 'Perfectionist' of Bollywood, does stand up to the expectations as a Director - Actor and a producer. The movie starts with the child Ishaan (Darsheel Safary), and slowly educates the audience with the problems faced by him. It is not revealed at this stage to the audience about Dyslexia. When packed off to a boarding school and the child’s metamorphosis into an introvert from being an active kid, and the subsequent entry of the 'Temporary' art teacher in Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan) is where the real problem of Dyslexia is revealed in good detail, with examples that sounds like the 'Who's Who List'. The rest of the movie is about the teachers efforts in making the child, his parents and the school faculty on how to deal with the kid.

First, kudos and praises for Aamir Khan, to have directed a masterpiece in his debut as a director. The actor Aamir too has every reason to smile for his splendid yet non-overshadowing portrayal of the teacher's character. The child artiste Darsheel Safary is the real hero of the film, rightly depicted in the title credits with his name appearing before that of aamir. Darsheel does act naturally with all the innocence of an 8-9 year old.

The movie is captured in a very poetic way. The photography, the music by the very talented trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, the story flow, everything is so poetic that it feels like traveling with a small kid with his own problems and a 'Pied Piper' to help him out. The music and the songs have also boldly created for the script and not for the audio sales. The title track 'Taare Zameen Par' and the tearful 'Maa', both rendered by Shankar Mahadevan do stand out.
Actors other than Darsheel and Aamir, to have been true to their roles, be it the mother or the always supporting elder brother, the characterization seems so non-bollywoodish. This is also one of the plus points to this film; being natural and realistic without the 'Drama' feeling.
As many have said, there are lots of scenes from the film that remains with you even when out of the cinema. Like, the 'Ishaan's Day out in the city alone' scene, 'Don't send me to boarding, mein sab kuch seekhoonga' scene, 'Aamir explaining Ishaan's problem to his parents' scene and the final 'Revealing of the two paintings' scene. It was an emotional journey into the life of a kid with Dyslexia. Personally, this movie seems like the next best one after Anjali by Mani Ratnam. The movie goes with a tagline ‘Every Child is Special’; so is this movie.A MUST WATCH FOR ALL, NO AGE BAR.

Blue Umbrella - A Visual treat

We decided to test the MOD [Movie on Demand] offered to us by Tata Sky (we are proud subscribers NOW!). As an inaugural offer they did offer us one free MOD and we decided to put that to good use. The first debate was on the movie to be selected; fortunately TATA SKY did not take up this responsibility. The ones available in the movie showcase were, Awaarapan, Bheja Fry, Shootout at Lokhandwala and The Blue Umbrella. As we had seen Bheja Fry already and no one wanted to watch the terror drama Shootout we decided to go for 'The Blue Umbrella'. Awaarapan was not even considered for the selection. Once chosen TATA SKY plays the movie till Midnight.

I had read about the film in some reviews which were all positive. The names Vishal Baradwaj and Gulzar did create some expectations in me. And did they meet? Well, frankly..more than that !

The story is simple. A girl in a remote village with an attractive blue umbrella, is suddenly grieved by the loss of it and she suspects all those in the village who had an eye on it, especially the 'Kathri', the tea shop owner, amazingly portrayed on screen by Pankaj Kapur.
Never before, have I seen Himachal so beautifully captured on screen, with all the green and the snow white during the last part of the movie. The director goes poetic when on screen he shows the transformation to the winter, from the cotton dust to snow flakes. The other main character of the movie is the music. The songs and the BGM do add to the feel and look of the film.
It's a treat to watch this one. Though categorized as a children’s film, it is for all ages.

Trip to Coorg...

I was going to Coorg after 5 years, the first it was from college. To date the college trip to coorg remains one of my most moments of my college life. But now, five down the line life has changed a lot. I have changed a lot. And the first thing I noticed, when we reached Madikeri, that even Coorg has changed a lot.

We started at around 9:30 pm on the 26th October from the office premises. We were eighteen of them, from all ranks in the project. Three project managers, few project leaders and other developers like me. But this distinction remained only till we were seated in the bus. From then on, it was a joy ride.

We reached Madikeri on the morning of 27th October. We had hired a new resort house, in the outskirts of Madikeri, which had 5 rooms to accommodate us. Once washed up, we all had a quick brunch in the Madikeri town and headed towards Talacauvery. Talcauvery was getting being renovated with construction activities all over the place. We visited the temple and the view point in Talacauvery. From there we made our way back to the resort to have dinner and a small camp fire. The camp fire was riddled with jokes and the famous/infamous incidents in the office. The next day we went to Abbey falls. The water area was restricted and no one was allowed to go past the suspension bridge. From there on we moved to a place which was the backwaters of the Harangi dam. Some of them rinsed themselves for a while in water there and then we headed towards Kushal Nagara Buddhist temple. The Buddhist centre has numerous temples (or monasteries???) inside its campus. The main one has 3 statues, center one being Buddha of 60ft in height, and the other 2 statues of Guru Padmasambhava and Buddha Amitayus of 58ft. The later two are the followers of Buddha. The statues are made up of Copper, plated with gold.

Then it was all the way back to Bangalore. The fun was unlimited inside the bus on the way back to Bangalore, with mimicry, anthakshari domination most part of the journey.

Coorg is the perfect place to run away from this urban crowd and get lost in the nature.

My Music Chart Toppers..

This is the list of My Fav Music as of today. Note that they are not ranked, just listed.* SONG -> (MOVIE/ALBUM, LANGUAGE, SINGER)

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* Ninindale -> (Milana, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)
* Jab Se Tere Naina -> (Saawariya, Hindi, Shaan)
* Daastan-E-Om Shanti Om -> (Om Shanti Om, Hindi, Shaan)
* Bol Na Halk Halke -> (Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Hindi, Rahath Fateh Ali Khan;Mahalaxmi Iyer)
* Giriraja Sutha -> (Remember Shakti, N/A, Shankar Mahadevan)
* Kalyana Malai -> (Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal, Tamil, SPB)
* Mungaaru Maleye -> (Mungaaru Male, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)

Getting older....with a new wish

It is very hard for me to accept that I have crossed 24 years of my life. Still feel like a kid and want to shy away from all those responsibilities on one side, and on the other a strong urge to prove myself in the world. Well, those urges last for a moment before being occupied in the work station with some work.

It was in these thoughts, last week; there was a new desire in my heart. It can be termed weird by anyone, I do not care, but there is certainly a thought behind it. The desire is simple, when I die, I wish there are at least 500 people in my funeral. This, I believe will be the only certificate of my deeds and good work down here.

But there is a catch! It is going to be a very very very long wait...especially for me !

PIXAR - At its delicious best again!

It is usual to expect PIXAR Animation Studios to churn out meaningful animation entertainers. Once again they have cemented this belief, by presenting RATATOUILLE (pronounced RAT-A-TOO-EE).

RATATOUILLE trailers were first showcased during PIXAR's previous CARS shows in cinemas. This did generate the interest in this venture among the film goers. The first word remark about the movie -> FUNTASTIC!

PIXAR Animation Studio seems to be getting better at animation technology, with the 'world' in its films' canvas closer to the actual world. Adding to this technical brilliance, the characterization and handling of the emotions, which has been a forte of both PIXAR and Walt Disney Pictures makes this movie, as I see it, a better one than its predecessor CARS. CARS, though a brilliant work of imagination, did not connect with me as much as RATATOUILLE due to its lack of the 'HUMAN' factor. But with RATATOUILLE, it is the perfect combination of IMAGINATION, EMOTIONS, MESSAGE, and CHARACTERIZATION that makes it for me a better fare than the splendid CARS.

I am not going to talk about the plot or its characters. It is a thing to be experienced. I am blogging this to express my astonishment and excitement over the animation film. Some people have dubbed it, without watching the film, as an 'Animation film for the children'. Trust me, its not. It’s for everyone. This is one more feather in PIXAR's hat, having made a genre that was thought to be for the children reach out to all age groups.

This week, if you have decided to watch a movie, watch RATATOUILLE, at a cinema near you. If it’s not running at a cinema near your place, wait till November 2007 to buy the original DVD and watch it. But make sure, YOU WATCH THIS ONE.....

India 60

First, Wishes on our country's 60 years of independence.

I just thought this was the right moment to take a look back and analyze certain things. 60 Years of Independence is fine, but don’t you all feel there are matters which are not attended to from the beginning? Are we now realizing what our fore fathers had dreamt of?
We talk about the freedom struggle, the independence, August 15th for a few days in the second week of August. That’s when we dust out all the famous patriotic movies and watch them being telecasted on the televisions. This second week is when schools force young minds to dress up like Subhas Chandra Bose, Gandhi and the likes and have a 4 hour program. The next bout of patriotism will hit most of our countrymen only during the third week of January. May be I am over critical, but as per my definition of what is part of patriotism I believe I am right in saying this.

With Freedom comes Power, and with power, Responsibility. We struggled for that freedom for 3 centuries and when we got the freedom and power we lost the sense of responsibility in us. Unfortunately this has been in practice for the past 60 years, and now is embedded in most our minds. We blame the government, we want everything to be done by the government, and as citizens we do nothing in return. We are responsible for the bad government at the top, we are responsible for the bad roads or bad infrastructure as most of us do not even bother to pay our taxes right. And when it comes to following the rules and regulations, we stand at the last with the majority of our population always opting for a shorter route or taking pride in going against the rules of law.

This might sound not right, showcasing the wrong things on such an occasion. Trust me, I have just mentioned only few of our shortcomings, there are lots more. This day, instead of forwarding the usual messages of 'Happy Independence Day', let’s try to make ourselves better in a small way. We talk about resolutions on New Year’s Eve. Let’s have one such today.
Let’s make up a resolution that we will try to be an Honest, Law abiding, model citizen of India. A nation is because of its people. If we are right, the nation is Right.

Be Right. Love India.

Jai Hind.

It is not what you gather but what you scatter..

I read this one-liner somewhere and liked it a lot.

"It is not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived."

I believe it talks about KNOWLEDGE. A person learns a lot in his/her lifetime, but sometimes forgets that with learning comes the responsibility of sharing the same with people with a thirst to learn. A man who cannot share his knowledge and expects to be respected on the grounds of his knowledge deserves no respect.

I know a man, whom I considered to be a sort of a mini encyclopedia, who not only shared what he knew all his lifetime but also had a thirst to learn something from everyone till the last day of his life. It was always easy for him to explain the most complex of theories or formulas or historical facts in a simple manner, and put it across in a language depending on the age of the listener. I have seen children, middle aged people and oldies all getting to know a lot from him. He never made people around him feel that he knew a lot. Actually, he always used to say everyone knew so many things and it was good to share it. This might be the reason that when it comes to matters of computer technology of electronic gadgetry, he used to seek answers/opinions from me. And when he did not know it, he would never hesitate to ask me, his grandson, about the same and also make me do a KNOW-HOW-TO-OPERATE checklist for himself. Such greatness was what I always adore in my Grandfather.

He was a genius with History, Crosswords, Fables, Idioms, Sports, geography and world matters. I still remember a Crossword program in Doordarshan, where contestants used to compete on a crossword puzzle. When all the viewers would be waiting to see which of the two contestants would answer first, I always used to wait to see when my grandfather would miss to answer before the two contestants. And that never happened.

There is a reason for me blogging this now. My grandfather is not alive now. It’s been more than a year since he left us. And in the meantime I have regretted of all the knowledge that I have never bothered to learn from him. He was always telling me to start doing crosswords which would improve my English, but have never done it. He was also bent upon sharing his knowledge with everyone. I feel that is a great philosophy and being a grandson, I am trying to Learn and share the learning with everyone.

There are lots of memories of my grandfather, but I felt this virtue of his is a great one, and should be respected and followed. Learn from everyone, irrespective of them being elder or younger to you. Share what you know to the needy, in way they understand.

Because, knowledge is wisdom......

My Music Chart toppers..

This is the list of My Fav Music as of today. Note that they are not ranked, just listed.
* SONG -> (MOVIE, LANGUAGE, SINGER)
---------------------------------------------------

* Athiradee -> (Sivaji - The Boss, Tamil, A R Rahman)
* Unaale Unaale -> (Unaale Unaale, Tamil, Karthik)
* Nee Amritadhaare -> (Amritadhaare, Kannada, Harish Raghavendra)
* Mungaaru Maleye -> (Mungaaru Male, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)
* Laree Choote -> (Ek Chaalis ki last local, Hindi, Xulfi)
* Mera Jeevan Kora Kaagaz -> (Aandhi, Hindi, Kishore Kumar)
* Hoton se choolo tum -> (Prem Geet, Hindi, Jagjit Singh)

Celebrities behind bars

World over, it seems to be the season for the celebrities to cool their heels behind bars. The latest being our own Sanju Baba. With the end of the 14 year long case of the BOMBAY BLAST, Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to 6 years of Rigorous imprisonment.

I thought it was unbecoming of the Film fraternity to openly tag it as a sad moment. Sanjay was an actor, accepted. An actor, who has dished out good films and good performances. But this cannot ever become a reason for pardoning of a crime committed by him. Law should stand above the status or importance of an individual. There are accusations of other celebrities/politicians being let off free in other high profile cases and Sanjay alone being punished for his crime. Well, if this is the first time that a celebrity has been punished, so be it. Let this be the beginning and be a reference to other high profile cases in the future.

Personally, I feel the punishment could have been more severe. Being an actor, in a capacity to cast a spell of his own on-screen personality on fragile young minds of the country, he might for all be giving a wrong sense of social message being involved in such a ghastly crime and let off free on the grounds of it being a 'Small mistake committed 14 years ago'

There has to be a fear and respect for the Law, and public awareness that, irrespective of the stature of the person in the society, a criminal act would be punished.

Designing Logos..

From my junior college days I was excited about creating logos and bizarre sketches. Those were the times when the boring classes were always an invitation to sketch names, themes and movie names in the last pages of the note books. Though mostly it was a hobby or a pass-time activity, it has on few occasions helped me when I was involved with extra-curricular activities. The first time it happened was when I was planning the first cultural day of our Engineering College (I was the Cultural secretary for the four years I was in college). We named the event as 'CAROUZAL' and I took the responsibility of designing a Logo for the same. Though the logo was appreciated and applauded by many, the then reigning principal of our college, the EVER - REPLACABLE short sighted person, Dr. Chaitanya Kumar cancelled the whole event and that unfortunately even aborted the logo going public. For reasons unknown even to me today, we never considered naming the Cultural day for the next three years (by then Dr. Chaitanya Kumar was long ousted from the institution) and that meant the pre-mature death of my first Logo. But this year, after about two years of my exit as a graduate from the college, my friend, who is my junior and the present Cultural secretary of the college, called on me regarding the Cultural day for the present year and asked me to suggest a name for the same. The first name that came to my mind was CAROUZAL and to my amazement they used the same for the Cultural day, though the Logo was still not used.

Now, at my workplace, the onus of designing Logo's came to me twice, during team outings for the project mates. The first time it was I and my friend Vishal who designed the logo for the First team outing, and the next time around it was with my talented friend Avi. I relish the responsibility and confidence that people had on me and used the same logos for both the outings. The challenge during the design of these was trying to fit in all the suggestions and requirements of all those managers in the team. But sometimes they too were co-operative and understood that ALL can’t go into ONE.


Above are the CAROUZAL logo and the Logos designed for the team outings, namely 'PRAVAAS' and 'PRAVAAS - II'.
Hope future has more opportunities to nurture my hobby.

A Sunday Trekking Expedition..

Shivganga is a perfect spot for a Sunday trekking expedition. And that is exactly what on 27th of May 2007, I, Suppi, Sudhi and Guru did. Shivganga is a mammoth hillock, with a temple at the top and a natural water source sprouting along the path leading to the top. Shivganga is situated at about 50 KMs from Bangalore towards tumkur. A 6 KM deviation from the Bangalore - Pune highway lands you at Shivganga. We started out journey at about 8:45 AM in the morning and reached Shivganga at about 10:30AM. The search for a decent breakfast landed us into a small hotel that supplied only THATTE IDLY with chutney and two bondas. After consuming the idlies and packing my backpack (the others did not carry any such load, the reason for which was revealed to me only during the ascent to the hill top) we set out on our trekking expedition. The start was a bit slow for it was days or months since we had actually taken such a journey and we made stops every few minutes to rest and proceed. It was then that the fellow trekkers and the people descending downhill started warning us about the monkey menace that was awaiting us towards the top of the hill. They even pointed out that animals were particularly showing an interest in the bags or backpacks that the trekkers carry. It was then I realized that I was the one carrying the backpack stuffed with the snacks and it was not my intention to be purred or attacked by the primates. I revealed the same sentiments to Sudhi who guaranteed me that he would take the security department into his hands, and he did pull out his waist belt and held it in his hands as the weapon against the danger. It was also the suggestion by the other trekkers that the monkey at Shivganga displayed more obedience at the sight of a waist belt rather than a stick. But being over cautious I did carry a stick, the one that I called my 'Asthra' in my hands. Meanwhile Suppi was busy showing his interest in photography by clicking the different views of the land below. Guru was slow and tired due to the rising heat and was sweating profusely. And we moved on.

The first stop was at 'OLAKAL THEETHA' which was the point of origination of a water source. That is the place where we first got the feel of the monkey menace. They were everywhere, on the rooftop standing in front of us on the ground and hanging on the poles and ropes around the small shrine that is built to worship the water source. With a charge of Rs. 2/- we are allowed to go into the small cave dimply lit and heavily dampened and try our luck by getting the water from a small hole in the cave. I did get handful of water and used it to wash my face of sweat and dirt. After a very brief halt at that place we started out journey uphill. From then on the terrain is steep and with minimal steps and heavy rock surface with a great danger of slipping. On the way there was an ancient statue of Nandi and some ruins and we encountered a battle between two chameleons. It was an adventurous trek till a point from where the journey is straight upwards at almost 90 degrees with slippery steps carved on the rock. Before this we made a halt at a petty shop with Sudhi drowning a glass of Lime sherbet, a full cucumber and some CHURMURI. We reserved the ordeal for the downhill journey. And then after about some 20 minutes of literal rock climbing we reached the top of the hill. It took us around 3 hours to reach the top. There is a Nandi statue on top a small pedestal, a suicide point called as SHANTHALA DROP and a small temple. The Shanthala drop was a suicide point with a great view and the stories ranged from that of Shanthala being a court dancer of some king to being an actress in the cine field. There is a small shop at the top which among other stuff offers Buttermilk, which comes with a heavy price tag of Rs 5/- per glass. Though the buttermilk is more diluted and the price too high, due to the sun the shopkeeper did have a roaring business and we ourselves indulged in gulping two glasses each. One point that I made note of in the shops, both the CHURMURI one and this buttermilk one, is that they had the option of plastic disposables for the fluids apart from the conventional glass ones that is usually considered unhygienic. We did exercise the disposables option to be on the safer side. The Lime juice at the CHURMURI shop and the Buttermilk at the top were refreshing indeed. After spending few minutes at the top we started our downhill journey.

The downhill journey was quick, but a little bit dangerous due to the momentum and the slippery rocks. But we made it in about 90 minutes with just about 15 minutes if stop in the CHURMURI shop were, all of us had some cool lime sherbet and CHURMURI. And then it was almost a non-stop descent. This time we followed a different route till the OLAKAL THEETHA. Guru bought more THOTAPURI raw mangoes and we consumed them. Meanwhile I and Suppi did take some snaps of us and the view from the top. The first person to reach the ground level was Sudhi, followed by me and then Guru and Suppi came at last after clicking the last few snaps from Sudhi's mobile. Then we left for Bangalore and reached Bangalore by about 3:45 PM.This trip to Shivganga was a long planned one from Sudhi and it was getting postponed and cancelled due to various reasons, and he was a happy person to have at last made it to Shivganga. We all did miss our other close buddy Adu THE DOC on that day.

Re - Take!

Sometimes when listening to songs, I have felt that it could have been a better composition, disliking some of the elements of the song. I believe everyone out there have felt the same sometimes. A song sometimes is so enchanting that some minor glitches in between strikes a jarring note. Below are few such songs in my opinion.

1] Pehla Nasha (Movie: Jo Jeetha Wohi Sikandar [Hindi])
Not exactly a jarring note, but it is my sincere opinion that this song would have been a lot better if it would have been a solo rather than a duet. Even otherwise it is not a normal duet; it is just the male and the female characters singing each stanza. After the first stanza and the first bridge there is an undeniable desire to hear more of Udit Narayan's voice as the same voice started the song, that still is one my favorites.

2] Sundari (Movie: Dalapathi [Tamil])
Ilayaraja is indeed a great composer. A true maestro. But it is not uncommon of him to compose a song has a superb start (pallavi) but loses out in the intermediate music bridges. I have been aware of this in many of his songs, most notable in this very melodious and romantic song from the Maniratnam film Dalapathi. It starts with the great voices of SPB and Janaki, but the music bridge (charanam) in between the stanzas just don’t seem to blend with the main melody. I do agree on screen it depicts a battle scene, but still the jarring bridge is not justified. In this regard I love the music bridges of A R Rahman (not that Ilayaraja has none to his credit, he has far too many).

3] Preethi yeke (Movie: Excuse me [Kannada])
This song is a good romantic melody. Everything is so perfect except for the male voice in the song. I have felt, whenever I listen to this song, this had to be sung by someone with more MALENESS in the voice. The voice in the song has a touch of feminism which does not blend with the mood of the song. I would have preferred a voice like SPB or Hariharan for this song.

I know it’s easy to post the comments/views than actually creating music. This post is just to convey that one cannot please everyone at all times. All the three tracks listed above are great ones, all three being my favorites, but still I felt something amiss and just noted it down.

'Music Can Knock ME Down' - Jayanthan R

Information is Wealth

Man realized very early that his memory was limited. But by then there arose a need in him to gather and store information. This invented the very first method of data storage, mainly in form of written records, both in cloth or papyrus and eventually in paper. This was the customary way of recording data during the days of the Kings and the Queens. This even continued at the start of the modern age, during the late 60s and early 70s.

And then the real problem surfaced. The problem was due to increase in the amount of information to be stored, due to various factors like increase in the human population to the diverse ways of making income in the society. And this meant huge amounts of data on a daily basis. The solution was a system to record data of such huge amounts. There was one more additional requirement, that of to store not only the incoming new data but also to store and maintain the data collected earlier and make them available when necessary. The system that was the solution was a DATABASE SYSTEM.

Data now, across the world, in huge monstrous amounts are being keyed into many databases around the globe and used for business purposes. This system also reduced the space for storing these data. No more rooms with stacks and stacks of dust layered files and cabinets of data.
A Database system has its own method of storing data. The data inside this system is organized, usually in the form of records and tables. A Record can be considered as a set of related information. A Table is a collection of many such records. Many such tables, classified based on the functionality can be maintained to store data. This makes the data storage organized and easily accessible.

There are numerous advantages of such a system like the classification of data which made the retrieval system easy. Data which can be stored easily was even accessible with little or no effort. The Database systems also allowed multiple systems to read and write data (with certain restrictions) to it, which made them as a single central repository of data and reducing the redundancy of data. The other uses of a Database system in the real world are for Business reporting purposes. This requires the reporting system to chew through the tonne's of data for reporting purposes.

One new and interesting concept related to the Database is that of Data Mining. Simply put in, data mining involves digging through and analyzing enormous amount of data and extracting the 'MEANING' of the data. They detect a pattern in the data and help in the business decisions and processes. This concept is a boon to the current business world to predict the current trend in the market and act accordingly.

With all the pros and certain cons, a Database system has become a necessity with almost any business application in the world. Storing, retrieving, managing and analyzing data is after all not an easy task.

As someone said, INFORMATION IS WEALTH.

Raindrops were falling on my head!

It rained crazy on Wednesday (2nd May 2007) in Bangalore. And I while returning from my office, took at most pleasure in soaking myself in the rain. After a long time, it felt good, and flooded my thoughts with memories of my childhood.

Those were the days, when I enjoyed rain the most. Especially on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when we had to be dressed in pure whites to the school. But, my mom never used to be impressed at the end of the day. I somehow used to manage soiling the white shirt, white half trousers and the white, newly creamed, boots and appear with a brown shade on my whole which ended up with a frown on my mom's face. After a class on cleanliness and related subjects, the next week would be a repeat of the same. Though the non-rainy season was not that interesting for me, I somehow used to manage a light brown shade thanks to the dust and the mud.

In schooldays, I and my friends had a lot of theories to explain rain. The most common one was the mythological character Arjuna furiously riding his chariot and creating havoc. But the most funniest and gross theory was given by one of my friends who claimed, rain was nothing but GODs above us relieving themselves!

One weird thing I have noticed about rain is that, my personal experience, in my childhood, whenever (as far as I remember) they used to play the movie GANDHI on DD-National, it used to rain. Till date I haven’t reasoned it out, but I do surely remember that it did rain when they played it a few times.

One other good experience, and the most cherish able one that I have is of my grandfather teaching me to make a KATHTHI BOAT (paper boat with a protruding sharp edge at its bottom). He taught me how to make it and sail it in the rainwater puddle that used to form in from of our house. Now though I have lost touch in making those KATHTHI BOATS, I do recall those days when it rains, and say a THANK YOU to my grandfather.

And with these memories flooding my thoughts, I reached home fully drenched in rain. One other change that I noticed was that, my mom did not frown. Instead asked me to freshen up and have my food as it was late. And maybe because, I was no longer the child and the rain puddle outside my house was empty without any KATHTHI BOATS.

Walk the talk with COO!

It’s not every other day you meet the COO of your company. And it’s not every other day too, that you get to talk to him or walk a few steps with him/her. But this scenario that can be easily tagged as a rare occurrence, happened to me this Wednesday. It was a usual day, with the same usual work and the same usual evening cab to drop me back. One difference though was the presence of our company's COO in the cab that day. When all the passengers registered this development, rumors started floating in the cab, which was still not in motion and resting its whole in the company parking lot, on the various reasons behind his visit. One even went on to say, he is there to assess the employees behavior in the cabs. I thought that rumor was rubbish, but to be on the safer side maintained my silence and did not even try to use my I-POD. And the journey began.

Length of the journey was marred by the COO trying to talk fellow passengers and getting a muted to a one line response. But by then it was clear that there was no purpose or hidden agenda behind the sudden attendance of the biggie in the cab. I was all eyes for my bus stop. At the bus stop, it was a surprise when the COO too got down from the cab behind me. As I started taking my own way to my home, I heard him approaching next to me and he asked me where I was put up. And from then on it was a question and answer session.

Let me tell you all readers that I was not scared or anything of those sorts, but it was just not usual for me to talk/walk with biggies. So, coming to the journey back home by walk with the COO, it started with his question and my answer to that. And then as if making sure that I did realize whom I am speaking to, he asked me whether I knew who he was. I smiled and answered "Yes Sir". I was expecting the next question to be "Your Name?" or "So, you are....?", but he did not seem to be interested in that. He then enquired on the project I was working on and how long I have been associated with this company, the answer to which (almost 2 years) did bring out a small smile of appreciation. I was just cursing myself on my inability to ask him the same questions back. How could I ask the COO "Which project you from?" or "How long have you been in this company?” It would sound dumb. And then unexpectedly the question that I was anticipating popped out from his mouth. "How do you feel here ? Any feedback?” I was about to tell him most of the things that I wanted to tell some biggie, that I realized the point of parting our ways was fast approaching. I had all the time (and courage :-)) to tell him "All fine, Sir" and then the customary "I will take my leave sir, Good Night".
And there ended the Walk the Talk with the COO of my Company!

PS: The next day, in a meeting, with his entrance, I did receive a special smile and a nod from him, which till then was reserved only to the Managers and the Leads.

My Reservations on RESERVATION!

Ours is probably the only society, where people pride themselves of their 'BACKWARD' or 'MOST BACKWARD' (sic) social status. It is not the merit or the capability of an individual that matters for one to get into any educational institution, but the BACKWARDNESS of one's caste. When the whole world should concentrate on progress, both economical and social, we as a nation still want to retain and maintain BACKWARDNESS in our castes, and give them special treatment.

Reservation for what? Being born in a caste, which is classified as BACKWARD in some government order or gazette? Should an important decision of life as Education be left to be decided by fate? What is the good that these politicians are bestowing on the society other than consolidating their Vote Bank?

I know there is always someone who says the hardships faced by the BACKWARD castes are not known to the others. Frankly, in my opinion no injustice is done to the people belonging to the BACKWARD castes at least in most parts of INDIA. Rather, their faction has become strong over the past few years, with numerous political wings of their own mushrooming day by day.

It’s high time we are done with the Reservation system. Make every selection process in this country based on the Merit system. I know it is easier said than done. But these are the reforms we are supposed to be talking about to make this country one of the POWER nations. Reservations, especially based on caste / religion / language, are plans designed to destroy the bright future that INDIA certainly can hope for.

Jai Hind

My Music chart toppers !

This is the list of My Fav Music as of today. Note that they are not ranked, just listed.

* SONG-> (MOVIE, LANGUAGE, SINGER)

* Anisuthide -> (Mungaaru Male, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)

* Mungaaru Maleye -> (Mungaaru Male, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)

* Athiradee -> (Sivaji - The Boss, Tamil, A R Rahman)

* Balleilakka -> (Sivaji - The Boss, Tamil, S P B)

* Gumsum hai dil -> (Kya Love Story Hai, Hindi, Sonu Nigam)

* Raindrops -> (--, English, B J Thomas)

"Music can knock me down !" - Jayanthan R

Alternative ending of SHOLAY!

I was not aware of an alternative end to the blockbuster movie SHOLAY. I found it last week on YOUTUBE. But it was sensible of the movie makers not to make this as the ending in the final cut. The evil Gabbar killed by the Thakur, by just jumping and kicking on his chest and getting him stabbed by a protruding object from a pillar, would not have been the ending for the magnificent movie that SHOLAY is. The original DVD (Ultra) does not have any special features or deleted footage. For those who want to see the alternate ending, here it is..



NJOI !

Intolerance among the Masses…

I see a lot of intolerance on various issues among the masses. The alarming factor being that this intolerance is predominant among the educated people of our society. And the latest battlegrounds for these people are the message boards on the net. For example, looking into the message board of Rediff, any news nowadays leads to a battle of messages ultimately deviating from the news topic and ending at an argument of North India(n) Vs South India(n) or Hindu vs. Muslim or Hindu Vs Christian or One state Vs Other state or One language Vs Other Language.

It can be pardonable even if the argument is subjective, but the usage of unparliamentarily language, venomous attacks targeted on individuals and posting of provocative stories and statements is disgusting and disturbing. Most of these messages are posted by educated minds sitting idle either at home or at workplace. What disturbs me is that, if these are the lines along which the educated minds are thinking and acting then what might me the mindset of the uneducated and the misguided people of our country. Hatred is rampant among many groups, on the lines of religion, caste, language, state, status in the society. Name it and you have an association or a group for that cause. Most of these are indirectly aided and abetted by major political parties for their gain.

On the net, the news about the release of the Audio of a south Indian Super Star, leads to a combat between a North Indian and South Indian, the dismal performance of the Indian Cricket team leads ultimately to a feud between Hindu and Muslims. All the message boards for every topic end like this nowadays (especially in REDIFF). These intolerant mass have not even spared the message boards dedicated for share markets.

I do not want to go into the details of the issue of trying to create a divide in here, Bangalore, along linguistic lines, because I am accused by some of being a Tamilian writing as a Tamilian on issues close to Kannadigas without any concern for the state and its people and its language. My intention behind these posts and my views on these issues, especially the one about Kannada, Tamil and Karnataka are well known to my friends, so I do not need to prove anything here.

Rediff, even after thousands of appeal by genuine readers, has not taken the initiative to close down the message board option for the news items. It’s cashing time, and they are playing their part well. What concerns is the big picture. If out society follows this trend, then the future is scary. This intolerance and hatred will just pull the nation down from its upward journey in progress. This definitely would not have been the idea of our forefathers when they fought to free our nation from the outsiders. Today if any one of them would have been alive, would surely agree with me that, the nation was better of without the much hyped DEMOCRACY. We do need freedom, not only from the foreign rulers, but from the anti-social forces flourishing within, which is in the constant pursuit of trying to divide the nation on the basis of Religion / caste / social status / language etc.

All I can do now is to hope that we understand the needs of the society and mend our ways. No new Avatar or no new messenger is going to descend on the earth to educate or teach us. We, the people need to do it ourselves. Let’s, teach ourselves!

The BOSS is back!

The mere mention of a new Rajini movie creates enough expectation and hysteria among the public. And being tagged as the costliest Indian movie ever made, and the first time collaboration of the ace director Shankar, Music wizard A R Rahman and the Super star Rajini has added to the frenzy!

Being one the many fans of Rajini, I too am expecting the release of the movie soon. The Audio is expected to hit the market on the 4th of April and the movie is rumored to hit the silver screen on the 14th of April or sometime in the middle of May.

Cheers to all the Fans! Hope to watch a Block Buster!

GOD, Superheroes and Bestsellers!

Sometimes, friends do end up discussing things at a great length, which gives everyone an opportunity to know about ones friend a bit more. It’s sometimes a revelation.

Unlike the intensity attributed to the previous sentence, Suppi, Sudhi and I, did have a discussion on Sunday (25th March 2007) on an issue that can be termed by some as controversial and some as debatable. The most part of this discussion was carried out by me and Sudhi, with Suppi giving his point of view at different points in the discussion.

It all started with me telling these two buddies about how the kids of this generation have forgotten the most admired and most charismatic super heroes of our childhood, like HE-MAN. The trigger that made me make this statement was a kid of one my relative who failed to name the super hero HE-MAN doll on my bookshelf.

This statement then led us to discuss out own Indian Television super hero SHAKTHIMAN and that’s when the main topic of our discussion started brewing. It was I who mentioned the plan of gifting someone the model of the scene where Lord Krishna preaches the Geetha Upanishad to Arjuna on the chariot. Even this would not have been such an issue had I not mentioned, how the person who could preach the Bhagavat geetha and follow all the malpractices in and out of the battlefield in MAHABHAARATHA. It was, and is, my personal opinion that Krishna did indulge in many malpractices in MAHABHAARATHA which should not merit him the status of a GOD.

This led the discussion to the two epics RAMAYANA and MAHABHAARATHA and the status they should deserve in our society. It was Sudhi's belief that these two epics were indeed sacred and ought to be protected so that the future generations will learn about the grand culture of our Hindu society. His point was that these two epics are a social and moral guide by themselves that teach us about our culture and the principles laid out for the good society. In short he was of the opinion that these two epics were SACRED enough for our society and ought to be given that status and regarded with highest respect and never criticized.

My point was against the dramatic, fictionalized and hype stereotypical description of the characters RAMA and KRISHNA in these two books. I told my theory of the origination of these two books, which I believe would have been a composition of a court poet or an author, decorating his king through a fictional account and attributing all the godly characters to him and all the evil ones to the king's certified enemy. Some of incidents told in the books might be true, but I do believe most parts of the books are fictionalized to a great extent with the sole intention of pleasing the king, the patron of the author.

But I do agree that, if looked as a fiction these two books are great in their own sense, having been bestsellers for centuries.


That evening the discussion ended without any conclusion. But I did notice an unusual silence from my buddy Suppi. I do believe he did have something to say and add, but chose not to on that day. Expecting him to talk about this to both me and Sudhi soon.

Escape From Alcatraz

I did have the chance at last to check on the film, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979). It was always tagged as one of the good films of the impeccable CLINT EASTWOOD. And I did have a very small knowledge of the Alcatraz prison or 'ROCK' before watching this film.

Well, as a matter of fact, I was not very much impressed by the film. It was definitely a good film, with a nice cast and a tight script, but I had a feeling of watching a re-hash of 'THE SHAWSHAK REDEMPTION' while watching this film (It should have been the other way around, but I ended up watching the SHAWSHANK before ALCATRAZ !).

To start with, I do agree with my buddy Suppi who says 'All prison movies look similar'. Have to, it is not expected that prisons (in US or elsewhere) differ to a great extent from one to the other. But the librarian in both the films being a black, both the films having characters that tend to assault the newcomer physically, the warden being a person with a stone heart........all these gave me feel of watching a SHAWSHANK again.

But the film is a good one. Clint Eastwood, true to his reputation gives a splendid performance right from the place where he confronts the WOLF with a cool attitude (BLONDIE !!??) to the scene where he shows his controlled temper during the sudden death of character who is supposedly Al Capone...he is just brilliant !

The actual escape, right from its planning stage is described well and depicted in a time frame that appears close to the real. It is also not over-dramatized, except for a scene where in the prison guard has a doubt on the sleeping figure in Frank's (Eastwood) cell and goes near to discover Eastwood in the bed and not a dummy as he suspected. The last scene, where in the warden finds a flower left behind by the escaping men, is a nice touch.

I did feel the lighting could have been better at some parts of the movie, where darkness overshadowed the physical movements of the screen characters.

But on the whole a good movie. A must watch for Eastwood fans.

Japan se laaya Mera dost.....

I was gifted 2 chopsticks from my buddy Suppi, on his return from his professional trip to Japan. I had never taken the advantage of giving him a list of goodies that I always wanted from Japan, but nevertheless I did expect him to get something for me from there. True to my belief, he did get me a pair of CHOPSTICKS and few chocolates (yet to receive it from him though...he says it’s stocked up for me!!)

Well, initially I was surprised / excited / taken aback when he revealed the two medium sized sticks from a plastic pouch for the benefit of me and my other friend Sudhi. I had always seen chopsticks in those martial arts flicks, our own national channel's telecasting of OSHIN and in some BBC and NG documentaries. But never in real life. The two sticks had a polished look on them, which kept me wondering as to how in the earth those people ever get to get hold of even the last grain of cooked rice by this.

Suppi who I believe already knew that me and Sudhi would go through these thoughts, gave us a demo on 'HOW TO USE THESE STICKS FOR YOUR BETTER'. I believe he intended us not to keep this pair of sticks not as a memento but instead USE IT for real!! Anyways, he started the crash course by asking us to hold the two sticks by our right hand, with one of the sticks lying on the thumb like on a cushion and the other above it being held on the side by the middle finger (sic) and the index finger lying over the stick at the top (pretty confusing I know....see the pic above)

After the course Suppi gave even a practical demonstration on 'HOW TO PICK UP A BIT OF CHIKKI USING CHOPSTICK'. By then me and Sudhi had strewn the Times Of India all over the Sofa in the living room of Suppi's house. Then getting an inspiration from Suppi's gallant act of picking the CHIKKI piece, me and Sudhi decided to try the same. To everyone’s amazement Sudhi did it right the very first time. After giving him due share of applause I tried my hand at the same brimming with confidence. Both the CHIKKI piece and my confidence came crashing down in my first attempt. But both Sudhi and Suppi encouraged me to try it again and again till I succeed, which I did after some 4 - 5 attempts. And then the Supreme soul who not only parted with two sets of the CHOPSTICKS for us, but also took time to share his knowledge on how to use it, dear buddy SUPPI, certified us to become the proud owners - cum - users of the CHOPSTICKS !!

Thanks Suppi! Love the gift!

Now, the pair of CHOPSTICKS lay rested in the penholder on my desk soon to be savored by dust!!

The Great Shawshank Escape !!

I always thought I have seen the most of the good It would have been understandable to have missed a few not-so-famous or not-so-heard of ones. But to have missed these two for such a long time, was unbelievable. I hate to admit here that my close buddy, a hard movie buff himself, did not enlighten me about atleast one of these movies from a long time in spite of having the knowledge of its beauty.

The movies I am referring to are 1] The Shawshank Redemption 2] The Great Escape (written in the order of my tryst with them)

The first, Shawshank, landed with me in the form of a VCD just by chance. My buddy suppi when leaving for a visit to Japan gave me few of his collection (actually only ONE!) to spend the weekends. I remember telling myself the only two names I recognized was MORGAN FREEMAN and DOLBY!! I played the movie with little or no anticipation of a great cinematic experience. The few minutes I told myself it’s just another prison story and maybe Kamal hassan would have lifted some scenes for him MAHANADI from this movie. I was wrong on both the assumptions. Neither was it ANOTHER prison movie, nor an inspiration for Kamal Hassan for his MAHANADI (wonder why ?!). The movie though seems to be a slow narrative, keeps u hooked till the end. Some scenes are unforgettable even days after u have watched it, like the one where old brook inscribes "BROOKS WAS HERE"....and the way red does the same inscription...but leaves on to take a different journey !

The Great Escape is one movie that I have heard about a lot from my grandfather. Thanks to him, I always knew it was a great movie. One more person who deserves my gratitude is Tejas, one other close buddy of mine, who gave me this DVD to watch.Here too I made an assumption, thankfully only one, that ended up wrong. By the feel of the first few moments of the film, I did think it’s gonna be the tale of a successful escape from the highly guarded prison with a humorous note all along the way. The film did keep on quizzing my thoughts of what was to happen next and how. Brilliant performances and a superb photography, it was a treat to watch this film.

Now, after having watched these two films, something struck me. I do not know if I am right or wrong, but somehow these two films seemed to be related. But the stories and the concept were opposites. Both have a warden, Shawshank - a bad one, Great escape - Not a good one, but a man with a nice heart. Shawshank - One man made his escape plan, did not include anyone, not even his close friend. Great Escape - The escape plan was chalked out to accommodate everyone and all. Shawshank - The escape plan is know to the audience only at the end. Great Escape - The plan is there from the start. Shawshank - Unexpected happy 'HOPEFUL' ending. Great escape - Unexpected but a tragic ending.

My recommendation, if you haven’t watched anyone of these two films, grab a DVD soon and watch it!

Who will water the fire?

Water should never have become this big an issue. At least not to the extent of two states fighting it out mean.

When the POWER that created this land and water, I believe, it was meant to be shared. But today the sharing itself has become an issue and has demanded that we go to a third party seeking their interference and then when that third party does give a solution we again go on a protest against the solution. If both the interested parties will be satisfied only if they get more than 3 quarters of the total available water, this issue is like Kashmir, where for decades both the parties are going to be engaged in talks, meetings, conferences, petitions and not reach an agreement point.

The common man is more burdened by the day today protests of various self-centered organizations protesting in the streets demanding a better verdict (sic). And the sad part is that the main issue being the sharing of water, these mindless, ruthless so-called politicos have shifted the focus from water to Language and fighting it out on the streets. Its beats me as what has a language got to do with water sharing? The regional satellite channels of a certain language being blocked because the state that got more share of water speaks predominantly that very language, sounds ridiculous to me. Who taught these people that though the Indian states were divided based on languages, no other language speaking person can reside in a state. This demand was also raised by few agitating organizations. It’s high time they got a lesson on the fundamental rights of Indian Citizens.

Why am I so concerned about this issue? Simple. I am born, bought up, educated and working in Bangalore, except for a small fact that my mother tongue is Tamil. This has always given birth to a weird question from some of my acquaintances. I usually consider that to be, according to them, a test of my nativity. The question in question is, 'What do you think about this? Don't you think kannadigas are cheated?’

Though I try to mumble a diplomatic answer to that, my inner self as always asked me to ask them back a few questions. I believe the conception of the issue being a Tamil VS Kannada or a Tamilian VS Kannadiga should be erased.

1] The issue is more political than just about sharing of water
2] The inclusion of language and regional issues into this feud by some organizations is to gain some momentum for their popularity
3] A court order is to be followed or appealed against. Protesting against the order is a sheer display of disrespect to the judiciary
4] The issue is more complex than that could be discussed in the name of a language or state.


Here is my simple, humble request. We in democracy believe in a judicial system. Hence we are set to appeal against what we see as an injustice to our needs. Now it is the time to wait and await the final verdict of the judiciary and accept the same in all grace. Language and culture in itself is great. And one need not, or should not connect the same to controversial issues like this and try to gain mere publicity and momentum.


Let peace prevail in our country,

Jai Hind

Welcoming myself to the BLOG world !!

Its been a long time since i wanted a blog.....days when i did not understand what a blog meant.......not sure i do better now.....but here i am, finally having a blog of my own... !!


Jai