sappa matters -#12

SM1: I don't understand the pseudo-glamorous concept behind the "sh" sounds. "Siva" is local, "Shiva" is class?

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SM2: A perfect case of heart vs brain: Saw Kuselan and desperately wanted to find loopholes to like it. But the critic in me prevented that. What's more? I had no defense against scathing criticisms by Charuniveditha and Gnani (on kumudham, needs login)

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SM3: If you say "Madras" in place of "Chennai", please don't correct yourself mid-sentence.

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SM4: Reading "Life of Pi". I can connect to the story at several levels. Have not read a more honest book until now. In fact, reading this book made me kick myself on the back and write something. ANYTHING! Hence this post.

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SM5: "It will be there until it is there"

- a simple but profound axiom I was lately impressed by.

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SM6: Went for a trail after a long time. Took this picture.



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The games we played...

.. in school during boring classes.

Pencil cut:

A fresh sheet of paper is needed. Rarely used E.V.S -II notebook would suffice. Two, or maybe one sharp pencil (sharpness tested by poking self on the cheek, gently) required. Note that the pencil must not be too new (long) or not too short (ends before it begins).

The players choose their corners which are diagonally opposite on the sheet. Each has X arrows drawn in his corner. Position the pencil hook-down on top of first arrow (now the tactic is to keep it exactly vertical) and flick the pencil. Follow the graphite marks and draw an arrow head. The other player has to somehow cut the "current" mark of the enemy. The guy who got cut needs to restart while the other can continue on.

This may sound simple, but it requires a lot of technique and cunning. Especially during the start and very close calls. Also, it is advisable to have a referee to settle "old" marks versus current paths. There is also a genuine case of marks mysteriously disappearing and re-appearing as a "point" when an expert flick is made.

Beginners should also exercise caution when flicking too enthusiastically and thereby making the pencil land in the side benches filled with girls who scream "Miiiiisssss" at any given chance, or worse, if it hits the "miss' herself!

Fruits

What would we do without them? They are absolutely essential to us, but still many of us don't give the due respect they deserve. Without fruits, we might be exposed to serious malfunctions and troubles. And despite all the good things fruits provide us, they can easily turn sour when they come in contact with a rotten specimen.

But there are some fruits which never rot, irrespective of what is done or where they are. I am referring to FRUITS (pazham a.k.a nerds) whom we meet in our day-to-day life! Don't we really try hard to "change" them?

At school, it is pretty easy to recognize them in a room: most often than not, they are front benchers (not because of height, but due to their enthusiasm), teacher's pets, jump to answer any question, ask for permission for opening a geometry box, etc. We, the "normal" students, would not be caught dead talking to them in a general sense, but would need them for copying forgotten homeworks. For some reason, most of the fruits belong to the male gender (maybe there are pazhams in the opposite sex too, but I don't know), and are gun shy talking to them, so at any given oppurtunity, we would innocently push them in a girl-group and walk away snickering! Actually, the fruits should thank us for helping them to initiate communication with girls, well before we did it!

As is the case with most of the schools in TN, almost everyone becomes seriously involved in studies at their 10th, 11th and 12th classes. Yenna periya studies - mug ashhtu poindey iru. Yet, the fruits manage to outbeat us by scoring 100% even in class tests. Class tests, for God's sakes! And as always, they are the ones who cream the board exams and the entrance exams.

Some of the pazhams solidify at college level, since biologically speaking, the hormones kick in and you just cannot afford to be the same pazham in vadikattina paal. But not all pazhams change. I know a guy in college who, until the final year, mugged everything in the textbook. And there was this other guy who would skip lunch that day if he scores anything less than 90 in a unit/class test! There was this pazham whom I have never heard utter an expletive - he used to say swimming fool, for example. During the last day of a semester, there was this fruit-salad who questioned a girl why she was flinging paper rockets in class and I can still picture the girl's amazed expression which said "Man, act alive!". And even at college level, the teachers compare others with them. We tried to corrupt them by any means necessary, but ALL failed. Maybe it was due to the fact that these things were done in a notorious college where the pazhams feel right at home. In any case, we were unable to do anything to them.

After graduating from college, it was difficult to come across new fruits. My graduate school friends were all veteran convicts. So it was kind of a struggle to cope up all those strange CS concepts by ourselves. We really missed fruits during that time. After all, they made good friends and helped us a lot during exams.

At work they are even more rarer. But I did manage to locate one in one of past jobs. He is a post-doc, comes from an affluent family, and is a mega-fruit. If I need to have some fun for a change during work, all I need to do is to ask him if he knew a certain person (hyothetical) in a so-and-so university's department. Once I asked him if he knew Dr. Dre who works at UCLA, specializing in chronic liver disease studies. He spent the next 15 minutes searching for Dr. Dre's publication records in PubMed but could not find anything. He was confused since he graduated from UCLA. So, then I asked him if he knew "Dr". Patrick (I am sorry, I cannot give the link) who specializes in gynecology at UC Davis. He could not find that one too and was getting "weird" search results! After I finished rolling in laughter, I told him that Dr. Dre was a rapper and "Dr". Patrick was not even close to being a professor. All in good spirits. He was a good sport.

Fruit friends - What can we do without you?

TN Elections 2006 - Aftermath

The DMK led alliance is all set to form the new government in Tamil Nadu. What this means to the people is something to wait and watch. In WB and Kerala, the left would be forming the government. In the meantime, an attempt at reading the minds of some of the people who were involved in this election:

NOTE: This is just for fun!

M. Karunanidhi: Thank "god!". Dayanidhi Maran's hacking device in the EVMs worked!
M.K. Stalin: Damn! He is 83 and still becomes the CM. When is my turn?

Jayalalitha: Ok! Time to get the paper shredders out. And, somebody, for god's sake fix that astrologer!
Vaiko: Ulladhum ponadhada nolla kanna!
Thirumaavalavan (DPI): Does this mean that I need to return the suitcases back?!
Sarath Kumar: Oh Lord! What was I thinking?

Lok Paritran1: You dunces cannot even understand Schrodinger wave equation or Theory of relativity. How can we expect you to comprehend our manifesto?

Lok Paritran2: Let's all go and beat Manirathnam up!

Vijayakanth: Wow! I actually won!

Left: LOL! I can't believe that communism is still selling!

People: Yaay! free color TV and cheap rice!
NRIs: *grumbling* Rice is bad for health man.

Take it easy!

Cat Policing! - 2

It happened again today! - this time with a fly swatter and the same rich-girl-cat heroine and poor-guy-cat hero.

For all those who are wondering if I have no other job except monitoring atrocities made against cats... well, heh!

Flashback to Cat Policing 1.

Monkey business

Arboreal causes flutter at State Park

A runaway monkey was found climbing the trees of a state park in Florida. Hikers later told the press that the animal was climbing the tall trees along the rapids and posing for photographs, of which many were taken by curious onlookers. Unlike its more rowdier cousins of the East, this particular specimen seemed to be only interested in having a nice time and not at all keen in destroying park property. The monkey later disappeared into the very depths of the forest.


Have a nice weekend!

hrrmph! Action!!

Clearing the throat - whether necessary or otherwise, that is how Kamalhassan would probably start his lights, camera action routine!.

Just finished watching the black & white classic - avargaL. Quite possible that Kamal started his casual way of acting from this movie - peppered with banging against furniture while walking, that hesitant way of talking... No, no, I really loved his acting, after all, he is born for acting. Somehow that has become his trademark way of acting, of course, his un-abashed on-screen crying!

Thinking along the same lines, most of the acclaimed tamil movie directors have their own trademark styles/techniques painted, sometimes, scribbled all over their creations. I am not trying to generalize their ways, but it is more likely that it may be the case.

1. K. Balachander:

• most of his movies would have a house with a long set of rooms, with multiple entrances to each room. Just so because, the all-enduring female lead character can retort to each and every family members' rants
• he will make sure you don't forget the mirror-reflection technique
• symbolic scene settings - like kilo yenna velai for the depth of music interest
  

2. Manirathnam:

• very short dialogs, which sometimes would be understood only by the writer
• some of his older movies definitely had a rain sequence
• one of the characters would be referred by his caste name

3. Bharathiraaja:

• graamam
• particularly in song sequences, a shot of a flower, or the heroine showing her pearly-whites (teeth!) or a group of birds flying would be repeated and merged in a transclucent manner

4. Visu:

• simple sets - just one or 2 houses
• character named Uma
• this guy takes theorem-proving/tautology very seriously
• climax scene would be a 2 page dialog. For every person in the house. For two iterations.
  

5. Baghyaraj:

• makes us to wait for his "story, screenplay, direction" title card after a solid trademark scene
  
• tremendously taut screenplay
• subtle matter dialogs

6. Shankar:

• rich sets. Vairamuthu or vaali must be partly blamed for this. Some of their over-enthusiastic lyrics makes Shankar think too literally and the CGI costs of those special effects run riot!
• i believe he introduced the "jerky movement" scenes
• glorifies brahminism - true isn't it?

7. Selvaraghavan:

• no-holds-barred story settings
• yuvan shankar raja
  
• None of the characters are normal

Just for fun!. Have a nice weekend!.

PS: Merry Christmas and considering how frequently I post, Happy New Year!

Car kaalan(m)

Aparna had posted about driving in various countries some time back. This prompted me (although a bit late!) to write about some aspects of driving in the US. Indian drivers: I am sorry, this does not apply to you!.

Most of the cars in the US have automatic transmission ("gearless"). Although I too drive a similar car, my concept of "driving" is when a car has a manual transmission (stick shift). You can only "move", not "drive" in an automatic transmission car. To this date, the best cars in the world have manual transmissions. On any given day, they are more fuel efficient and have faster pickup than automatic. Oh, and you can actually go to the 5th gear (and above!) in a manual transmission, whereas most of the automatic cars can only "go" upto the 4th.

Andha 4 gears use panni indha oorla drivers adikara koothu irukkey!!..

As far as we (drivers) are concerned, anybody who is driving below our speed is an idiot and those who drive above our speed is a crazy guy. And yes, each of us would say we are a safe and calm, and most importantly, a cool-headed driver!. In reality though, it is amazing how even the calmest person you know swears like a sailor when he/she is behind the wheel. But members of the jury, we have our reasons -

1. Consider this: It is a straight road, with 2 lanes on each direction. Traffic is not that bad and the road is relatively clear. You are driving at just the allowed speed limit behind another car. Ok?. For no reason at all, the driver in front of you breaks. There is no necessity at all -just checking if his brakes work or not!.

2. A similar scenario, and oh, this has to be my favorite one for popping a vein. You are going downhill/down a bridge, and as usual, are behind another car. And again, there is no one in front of him. Just because he is going downhill, he brakes. No, he has never heard of removing the foot from the accelerator, but prefers to brake. Seriously, I think it is high time someone builds a smart car which would deduct $10 from the driver's account everytime he brakes without reason. This is an absolute abuse of the automatic transmission system - like he is playing a video game.

3. I am not a sexist or anything, but I am very wary of a woman driving an SUV, talking in the cell phone at the same time. They may feel that they rule the road from atop the huge SUV, not me!. Thanks, but no thanks!.

4. Friday and Saturday night driving?. Go to the nearest temple next day for thanking God that you are still alive.

5. I am not sure about others, but there are few things as suspensful as driving behind a huge SUV or truck which has dark tinted glass. You have NO idea of what is happening in front.

6. Living in Florida has its pros and cons. The biggest con HAS to be sharing the road with senior citizens. Don't get me wrong, I respect old people and all, but please, please don't ever drive anywhere within 500 feet of an old driver in Florida.

The beauty of old drivers in Florida is that they are old, stinking rich (have a house up North and one winter home in Florida), and have ALL the time in the world. As a consequence of their wealth, they go for higher end cars - which is ok with me. Typically, the left most lane is for faster cars, the right most for slower ones and the middle one is for lane changing. If the speed limit is 55 mph, our friends would amble at an earth shattering speed of 25 mph on the left most lane, with their long-forgotten blinkers (indicators) on, just because they MAY turn left at some point of their journey.

And the clincher? - since they are rich, they would be driving the snazziest sports car you can find in the market!. Grrr!.

As Jerry Seinfeld mentioned in one of his epsidodes - "if you are 75 years old, do 75 mph, 90? do 90".

Have a safe weekend!.

சாம்பாரில் பாயாஸம்*

* Saambaaril Paayaasam

Some things just don't go well together. Try as they might - it just doesn't happen. Such as:

1. World XI Super series team members: Worst!!. Classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen.

2. Democracy and TN: Refer to any latest post of, well, any blog.

3. SJ. Suryah and Children's movies: he he!. And he had the audacity of going on the record, saying that two of his songs in his movies were for kids. Yea right!. For making kids, perhaps.

4. NRIs and affected accents: Why won't we just give up already?. It is best to be original.

5. MK and Gitopadesam: Now, the sun may rise in the west, but this would never happen!.

6. Ganguly and the short ball: Tendulkar aavadhu cricket aadinadhaala tennis elbow vandhutthu. What mountain did Ganguly move to get a slight case of Tennis elbow?.

7. Americans and Excercise: 2/3rds of all Americans are FAT!.

8. Namitha and "24": hee hee!. Now, THIS is one which we don't want to mess up with!.

9. Vijayakanth and தமிள்: தமிள் வால்க!

10. Hollywood and Marriage: Paris Hilton's breakup makes CNN headline news. IDIOTS!

11. Bush and sense: duh!.

But there is one thing which goes well together:

1. Me and dharma adi: as a result of causing anger to all fans of Bush, Namitha, Vijayakakanth, Ganguly, SJS and MK!.

Peace out!.

Cat Policing!

Caution: This post may be rated R or A!.

The whole blogworld off late has been feeling strongly about the moral policing (Dinamalar photos and Kushboo's statements) taking place in Madras now. Now, I don't want to write yet-another post about it. Hence a humorous post.

One of the foremost duties (Dharma) of any living being is the continuation of one's own gene pool or progeny. Animals do this dutifully (well, atleast the ones which haven't been neutered). It is us humans (and dolphins) who do this for both duty and looty!. In fact, the poor animals wouldn't even do it for time pass. There is some mechanism which makes their "clocks" "tick" only during a specific time (say a week) in a year. If you are reading this, you are human and you better be glad about it!.

Now that there is only a certain time where the animals can act like, well, an animal, isn't it bad to prevent them to "express" their freedom?.

In my apartment complex, one of the families has a cat (female) in their house. This cat is really pampered: eat good cat-food several times a day, sleep in the nice, cool shade of trees or cars, stretch and roll a couple of times, and thats it. Well, to cut right to the chase, it is that time of the year!.

Today, there were these 2 stray cats (a white one and a black one) mewing constantly before the female cat's house. The female cat was also outside. There are some things in this world, which are so self-defining that it needs not even an iota of explanation. The tenant came out and she was shocked to see her dear pet's virtue about to be tainted. How dare they!?. What would happen to our dear pet if it mixes with these mangy devils!. It is against human-cat culture!. Thinking so, she poured a jug of water (literally) over the lusty-fire being stoked by the threesome. And she chased her cat (thara thara nu izhuthu, pazhaar nu oru arai, podi ulla!) back to her house.

It seems that the tenant's expression meant: "Forget it, you uncouth strays!. You ain't gettin' no "pussycat"!.

Yenakkenna!. Poonai paavam summa vidaadhu!.

Moral policing seems to be the norm today!.

PS: Kadandha 7 naatkalaaga yennoda bloggukku vandhu pudhu post illai nu paarthu bulb vaangina anaivarukkum sorry!.

They spun a web for me

"They spun a web for me" is a line from the Coldplay song - "Trouble", one of my all time favorites. Ironically, literally, and metaphorically, this line is true in my case.

You see, I walk with my head in the clouds. The weather is different up here......

All right, I am tall!. When I talk about sports, the first thing people ask me is if I play basketball, which I don't. I would see this sad look on their faces, which obviously means "you are wasting your height". I just don't play basketball (I watch it, though). I like other sports like cricket and football (off late). But that is not even the point!.

There are times when I really like being tall - say when I don't have to measure up against the minimum height requirements in the roller-coaster lines, or when I only have to reach up a wee bit to get things from the top shelf, and so on. But there are other instances when this could pose a problem:

1. I cannot even attempt to sit in the back seat of a car, unless the driver or the front passenger is extremely small.

2. Only aisle seats in the plane, please!. Atleast one leg needs to get some respite. But hey, I can help put the gorgeous female's carry on luggage in the overhead bin!.

3. Train berths in India?. Forget it. Unless passengers need my blessings.

4. Buses?. Good luck with that!.

5. Never in the front row of a group photo, unless it is one with NBA stars!.

In India, I was definitely the tallest in my family and friends circle. Understandably so, since the average height of the Indian male is around 5'6'' or so. Funny thing is, it seems like I am still considered tall here in the US. I mean, what is the problem in creating some way so that I can have more leg room?. A stupid beach chair can withstand upto 250 pounds. Why only in the weight sense of things?. Why not in the Y-axis?.

Looks like if I need more space and comfort, I need to pay more - business class, or more expensive luxury cars. :-((

So, my take is that, there is some conspiracy theory going on against tall people. Or may be God himself has spun a web for me, so even though my head is up in the clouds, my feet HAS to be firmly on the ground.

Literally speaking, even the spiders seem to have something against tall people!. I had been to a forest hike today with 2 other colleagues (no prizes for guessing who was the tallest among us). The trails have a lot of spider webs criss-crossing, since its a forest and not a lot of people walk there. Irrespective of who was leading the group or trailing, I successfully cleaned up all the webs with my head!. These webs are not like the ones found at home. They are pretty strong (like string) and are huge, but almost invisible. For god's sake, how can one be expected to watch out for spider webs while walking?. I was filling the forest with expletives every time I took out another web, while my colleagues were happily marching in the clear space in front of them.

"Innum ennai enna seiya pogirai" nu paada vendiyadhu dhaan!!

Instant Karma

Instant Karma may mean a cause-and-effect phenomenon (like regular karma), except that the fruits of the deeds would be realized much earlier. (Incidentally, Instant Karma is also the title of John Lennon's (Beatles fame) single.)

I had my share of instant karma yesterday.

Work at my office would be fairly divided throughout the day, but the pre-lunch session (cricket maadhiri!) was exceptionally busy and tormenting. Added to that, I was ravenously hungry all morning and was just waiting for the clock to strike 1 PM.

On reaching Tacobell, I prepared to order the usual (the order-taker knew my usual anyway) and opted to eat-in, rather than take-out. Before me, there were 2 persons (American-teenagers). Both these guys were talking (typical valley-girl accent) in their respective cell phones and simultaneously deciding what to eat. They were ordering each item with several conditions - "like, no X, no Y, like, more of Z, less of H...like, oh wait, cancel that.. what's that?.. dude!, like, the gordita is awesome...". I was cursing them mentally, thinking - "so typical of them". Finally, after 10 minutes, they decided to complete their ordering and I ordered mine.

First-in-first-out method is followed (usually) in these eateries. So, the teenagers' order comes out first - a huuge quantity. But there was no sign of them collecting it. Where were they?. They were yakking away in the cornermost corner table of the restaurant. I was already losing it. The food disperser was calling out their number, but they were just ignoring it. Here I am, with my stomach rumbling with hunger, and my order gets delayed due to the traffic jam in front of me. I was thinking: "God!, why are they like this?" - to put it lightly.

Finally, they came to pick it up. I gave them my best Glenn McGrath scowl at them. I then proceeded to take my tray of food. I was so hungry and irritated at that time, that I started walking out the door with the tray!!. I did not even realize it until I reached my car. Picture my embarrassment when I tried to put the tray on the passenger seat!.

Beet-red faced, I walked back to the restaurant, tray (with food) in hand. To add insult to injury, the teenagers shifted their sitting to a table just in front of the door. They understood my situation when I entered, and man, how they laughed!.

I think, I beat my previous record in speed-eating that day.

Instant karma!.

'Change'd

Nowadays, I am not checking the change I recieve from stores or shops. Maybe it is due to the "balance display" in the cash-register and also since the employee states the balance explicitly, or my implicit(!!) trust that the change must be correct. Of course, this does not apply if I pay by card.

So this is my normal course of action: I pay for the items I buy, get the change and put the change in my car change-compartment or any other such "reservoir". Then if I need to use the vending machine, I fish out change from these "reservoirs".

Some weeks back, I was taking change out as usual, and I saw that I had, not one, but 3 Canadian Quarters (25 cents) instead of the US quarters!. The vending machine was refusing to take the coin in. Now I don't know if those three were given to me as change in one transaction or I had got them on separate occasions (the shame of it!). But it was definitely due to my negligence.

This was not the case in India. Right from the change which I was getting from the bus conductor, I was going through them diligently. Maybe I am taking technology for granted.

Oh, in case you were wondering what happened to the Canadian coins, I "(un)wittingly" passed it on at a Tacobell restaurant!.

Graphics/Special effects in Tamil movies

Special effects are to be used in movies to enhance the visual experience. To be more specific, graphics are being used as a replacement of an original scheme (e.g., sinking of the titanic, volcanic eruptions, etc.), bringing fantasies/anachronistic events to life (e.g., dinosaurs) or can be used in an entirely "unique" area (also known as tamil cinema).

With the limited tamil cinema knowledge I possess, special effects can be very nicely split into two eras - Pre-Shankar and Post-Shankar.

Pre-Shankar:
I do not remember a lot of movies using special effects in the pre-Shankar era - maybe a few jaganmohini type movies, popularly known as "Vittalacharya" movies. I have not seen much of that genre, so I am incapable of commenting on them. Apart from this type of movies, there were scores of other movies which depicted "feshal" effects by brilliantly pasting disjoint scenes - like a forest scene, where MGR fights a lion: The lion's footage would be an age-old African savannah shot. Of course, the close-up would have a big furry lion doll trying to paw MGR. Crocodiles, tigers, snakes have also graced the silver screen without their knowledge. Of course, one cannot blame the movie makers; they had limited technology and money, and who cares if a snake is getting a pay-check.

Post-Shankar:
Post-Shankar, however is a completely different story. The main reasons were that producers were willing to spend more money and technology was picking up. With the advent of high-tech companies, software professionals started to wet their hands in this field. It required both creativity and implementation skills - not an easy combination. The graphic designers were fresh and willing to experiment (and not to mention that the director had NO IDEA of what specifications to give and what to expect). In this learning curve, a main aspect, however was forgotten/ignored. Why use special effects for a particular scene?. Rather, it started something like this: a programmer or his group had probably implemented a new module and the TEAM LEAD convinced his manager to use this somehow, somewhere in the movie. Who knows?. If that particular graphic module was selected, he may be sent to "ON-SITE".

Actually, this ploy worked pretty well. We, the audience had no idea what to expect, so if there was anything compooter-generated, jaws dropped. Shankar adopted this technique of using the producers' money in a proper fashion ("it's worth it, Kunjumon sir"). The problem started when graphics were used by every other director and for any and every scenario. What started as a "haiii, sooper maa" became "aiya, dho da".

From what I have scene (sorry, seen) on the screen, the following list has scenes/movies which mis-used graphics, and thereby incurred the audience's (hee hee, naanthaan) displeasure:

Asattu graphics or unwanted graphics in no particular order:

1. Anniyan: This movie had a 27 crore rupee budget. I can think of atleast 5 cuts in the editing room which could have saved the producer a couple of crores. Some of the achhu-bicchhu graphics are -

• the scene in which bits of information fly through the fibre-optic cables and enters a database of cached web sites. COME ON!. Give me a break!.

• the entire anniyan.com website (in the movie), complete with the yerumai maadu.

• ala matrix style stunts. It was cute the first time in Matrix. But even the subsequent (2 and 3) were dragging.

2. Boys: A costly attempt by Shankar, but too bad for him. Thulluvatho Ilamai was so much better and was released before Boys.

• what the hell is that "dabara" song - the one which ends up with a coke can. It was so irritating to watch it.
• the multiple camera angles was ok for once or twice. But an entire song like that?. Shankar infact "perfected" the multiple thingy in Anniyan, where Sada's fall from the stairs(?) is taken in a vertical multiple angle shot. #$$#*&#&#!!!
  

3. Mudhalvan: I like this movie a lot - but for a few special effects.

• paramapadha paambus - such a pathetic looking sequence. The scene is complete with Manisha Koirala closing one of the snakes's head (Vadivelu, I think) with a pot!.
  

4. Baba: Thalaivar's debacle. The lesser said about this movie, the better. Nevertheless -

• kite scene - can you believe it?. An entire 6 minutes wasted. I wish he had wished for some other wish.

5. Monisha en Monalisa (!!): I did not watch this movie, but unfortunately I happened to see one of the songs from this movie - sung and danced by Simbu (before he officially started acting as a hero). I think the song was a lift-off from Ricky Martin's Worldcup football song.

• A Tyrannosaurus Rex dancing on a rotating CD!!. This image has been immortalized in my memory!.

6. All of the Ammann movie series: Sample - An elephant in a dress plays cricket. What can I say?

7. Kadhalar dhinam: A movie which I love to hate. Cheesy dialogs, lyrics, scenes.. you name it.

• Overkilling the dancing baby, people typing on a keyboard randomly - for the first time, I was ashamed of being associated with Computer Science.
• All those chat graphics. I am not even sure if today's chat software has roses swirling when someone types ROJA. Talk about AI!.
  
• Roja Roja song - Oh my god!. Sonali Bendre is flying in a bed of roses, and Kunaal is urugifying for her. Need I add that Unnikrishnan's voice was at its effeminate best.

8. Indian: Not much complaining here. One of my all time favorites. Except for a few scenes -

• Race track fight - poor quality graphics. Even the front-most frontbencher would have groaned looking at it.

Sometimes Graphics and special effects have been implemented nicely, with good results:

Wise-use:

1. Jeans: I think this movie revolutionized dual-roles. Indian did have some good scenes with the Indian thaatha and the other Kamal, but this one was miles ahead. The skeleton dance was a new addition and was actually enjoyable.

2. Kadhalan: The headless-dance in the "Muquabla" song was widely enjoyed. Intro graphics in "Ennavale" was also nice.

3. Indian: A good tribute to MJ's Thriller video (and Dangerous) through "Maya Machindra" song.

4. Chandramukhi: Towards the end of the movie, the scenes depicting Jyothika's past were pretty welll done.

5. Kurudhi Punal: The last scene (Kamal) was well taken. I am not sure if it was CG or just "ropes", but the end-result was good.

6. Anbey Sivam: Very subtle graphics in the Umbrella fight (Kamal's flashback). Neatly done.

It seems like Shankar has both revolutionized graphics and also mis-used them. But do we need them at all?. For instance, Manirathnam (exception: Anjali's star wars song), Bala and Selvaraghavan are able to give such strong themed movies without any antics. It could also be because these three guys do not spend a lot of money for their movies. Mani has never shot a scene outside India!. Maybe I am speaking too soon!. Who knows?. Selvaraghavan's future movie (Savaanah vil senthilnaathan) may feature Danush as a psycho safari ranger, and we may see the lion-pawing scene again!.

To get one or not to get one; that is the question!

Hair today!

A haircut, that is!.

If you are thinking - "what is there to think about?. It is so simple", hold on. It is not so simple if you are a certain me:

1. In the US, you need to tip the barber - say a couple of dollars. On an average, the base charge would be around $12.
2. The only suitable day I can get a hair cut is a saturday.
3. Any cash in my wallet would be spent in a snap - on lunch, groceries, etc., before Friday.
4. Same is the case with cash-back recieved from departmental stores. Poof!. they are gone.
5. The least denomination an ATM can spit out is $20.
6. I won't drive to the ATM just for the sake of getting cash out. There is a barber shop within walking distance from my place.
7. Even in the rare case of having a crisp $20 bill in my wallet, I cannot use it - since there would be some awkward moments when the barber attempts to retrieve the change and I would be forced to say "keep the change". And no, they don't accept credit cards.

So that is my dilemma. Already the talk of my office is my hair!. Some like it, while some ask - "are'nt you satisfied with your height?".

I almost made an attempt to go today, but sat down in front of my laptop to blog about this. Shame on you, computer!. You made me miss my haircut this week too!.

Oh well, maybe next saturday!.

Non-Workaholic

Hell No!

I will not be intimidated by the number of hours you work.
I will not be struck by awe and wonder watching you work on multiple projects.
I will never talk about work outside of work, let alone bring work to home.
I would not feel proud if I don't take time off or vacation.
I am proud to say that "I have hobbies other than my job".
I am proud not to be a workaholic.

Aan = paavam

I happened to see (~10th time) one of my all-time favorite movies - Aanpaavam. This was Pandiarajan's directorial (and acting) debut.

I would probably say that this movie, along with Baghyaraj's "Andha 7 naatkal", "Indru poi naalai vaa" and Kamal's "MMKR" have the tautest screenplays I have ever seen in Tamil movies. The Maestro was at its peak (circa 1985) when this movie was released. AMAZING background music!. Also, this movie had several situation-type comedic scenes - "Muttudhaa? - Muttidichu" being one of them.

For several years(!), I had this nagging question - why did he name the film as "Aanpaavam". I think I found it out only the last time I saw the movie.

A small backgrounder of the characters:

1. Pandian and Pandiarajan are the sons of V.K.Ramasaamy.
2. VKR starts a theatre (touring talkies) in the village and becomes even more important by doing so.
3. P & P are useless fellows.
4. VKR arranges marriage for Pandian (the elder one).
5. Kolangudi Karupaayee is P& P's grandmother.

Scene:
******
Pandian to KK: paati.. ponnu karuppa sevappa nu kezhunga..

KK to VKR: yenda raamasami.. ponnu karuppu thola, sevappu thola?

VKR to everyone in general: puli tholu!...kazhuda, kattunaa katta vendiyadhu dhaane?

Pandian to VKR: yemppa?..ponnu yenakku pudikka venaama?

VKR: ponnukku unna pudichaa podhaadhu?

*****

Voila! and so true!!. Poor guy(s). It doesn't matter if the guy likes the girl or not. Adhanaala dhaan "aan paavam" nu title.

Cha!, life is not fair at all.

Nizhalinn arumai

Time and again, I am being proved that I am just an ordinary human - various bulbs, lessons in humilty... the list goes on and on. This time, however was my state of helplessness due to my dependency on a thing as materialistic as a cell phone.

While I was gloating about my relief on how I escaped the hurricane, I failed to look beyond my one-dimensional view. Seems that the winds knocked some telecommunications towers of my service provider (T-Mobile) elsewhere and I am being affected by that. In fact, I did'nt even know that I was affected until my cell phone mysteriously glowed by itself. Little did I know that it was happening when someone was calling. But here was (is) the weird thing - I can make calls, just not recieve them. My friend KR who lives in Minnesota usually calls me multiple times during the weekend. Now, I always kalaasify this guy since his phone coverage is bad in his residence. Now it was his turn to turn up the heat. Oh my, what a dose I got from him!. Nizhaloda arumai veyyil la dhaan therium. I don't remember being so isolated in the recent past.

So, I called customer support. Apart being put on hold for eons, the voice recording was adding insult to injury by saying "Now that your complaint has been logged, you can hang up and we will call you right back...". Nondhuttein. They must have restored the service partially, since today it seemed to work most of the time, but one of my colleagues said it did not ring when he called me.

Lessons learnt: I realized some subtle things: I was the same person 2 years ago, when I did not yet have a cell phone. I did not care about it, in fact, even the land line which we shared in the apartment was rarely used for talking (only surfing). Apidi irundhavan, pudhusu pudhusaa yedhuko pazhakkam aagi.. tholla thaangala.

My brother used to read 'Autobiography of a Yogi' and such books and used to tell me: You got to be attached to the un-attached. I used to tell him - "ennada solra?. poi rasam saadham saapudu".

Ippo puriyudhu....

Aaaga mothathula nalla paadam enakku.

Has this happened to you?

While blogging, I just noticed myself doing some things unconsciously, which amused me. I am not sure if this happened to anyone else?!.

1. When you go blog-hopping, have you noticed a girl's name and clicked on it (which takes you to the profile - obviously no age there - "kaanjiyaa?") and clicked again on the blog link - only to see loooong poems, and you are out of there in 2 seconds?. I must admit, I have done this several times. So stereotypical of me.

2. Feel annoyed or *gulp* jealous that a lousy post received 30+ comments?. And pretend to feel better since the author himself has written lots of comments?!

3. See a really nice post and feel obliged to comment - only to see that your thoughts have already been expressed - "yovv.. ellam munnadiye solliyaachu. po po.."

4. Forced yourself to comment because you have an obligation to do so, since you visit some blogs frequently? .. (please, please, frequent visitors to my blog - I don't mean you.. you are gems!!!)

I just hope these things are natural to everyone. Else, I am one screwed up mental case!!

Just for fun!.

PS: Reason for my happy mood - great escape from hurricane dennis!