Alma's matter

Courtesy: Kaps

more on that.

Avala iva?

Indiaglitz says this one is back in action. She will be on the Natyanjali stage this year. Unfortunately, I can't forget her in kaathal oviyam.

Out of my cocoon

I have been hibernating. Not sure why.
Call me temperamental :-)

Spidey 3 is all black. Is that good or bad? Pink Panther was fun, even though it is not the same as watching Peter Sellers do his magic. My current fascination happens to be Stephen Chow (Chiao) after watching his Kungfu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. But why do his heroines have some kind of disability?

Caught some of Filmfare awards on Saturday. But unfortunately missed out the Will Smith part. No surprises for Best actor, when AB had taken up two slots in the nominations. Would have liked to see Javed Jaffrey get best comedy instead of Akshay Kumar. That guy was funny and did a good job presenting. Why was Tabu looking a little lost (but gorgeous). Rekha was all decked up as usual. Vidya Balan was the best debutante, and she looked good. Aish danced to Kajra re, which won quite a few awards - Gulzar, ShankarEhsanLoy, Alisha. She has lost weight again- Aish not Alisha who has found some. What is this rumor floating around about Ash hitching up with AB Jr?

IMHO, Hemachandra deserved to win SRGMP!

RDB was good, but Aamir needs to act his age! Kunal Kapoor looks cho chweet, tho he too is in his 40s!

For those missing out watching live performances from this year's Natyanjali, check out Kutcheribuzz's site. Wonderful!

Ada kadavule!

For those who can't get enough of the gab-tonne, there is good news. For the rest of us, a few more future movies to avoid.
Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Journey - Part 2

Sorry for the long delay, folks.

(Part 1)

Ravi was soon fast asleep, his last thought was about the rain drumming on top.

Ravi found himself jerked awake, the pain in his neck sharp. He opened his eyes to find himself almost upside down in an awkward position, wrapped around the chain holding his berth. There was barely any light. He heard lots of screams. He tried to straighten up, holding on to his neck. Something was on his foot. Someone's lighter flickered. As he slowly got accustomed to the semi-darkness, he could see a shape crumpled at his foot. He tried to free himself, but that person didn't budge. He felt something sticky running from his head. His mind slowly opened up to the shouts and screams around him. He sat there unable to do anything for some time. He could hear people moving about. After what seemed like hours, light seeped in slowly. He found out why he couldn't move. A couple of suitcases had fallen on top of the person who was lying on his foot. He slowly moved them out of the way and tried to move the other person. It was the young man who had sat across from them. He seemed to be in a bad shape. Ravi shook him gently after checking if he was breathing. The guy stirred slowly and immediately screamed in pain. He was clutching his leg, which was in an unnatural position. Ravi turned around to see if he could do something. The young girl was sitting up beside him with a stunned look. The young couple huddled together on the other side of the young man. The guy was bleeding in quite a few places, his short dirty and torn. The girl had an ugly gash on her forehead and another on her forearm. They were trying to clean up each other. Mr. Rangabhashyam seemed a little dazed as he helped the bawling Komalavalli madam. Ravi touched the girl on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded mutely, with a faraway look. She seemed to be in shock.

The crowd was fighting to get to the door. Ravi decided to wait rather than fight the crowd. Someone said a bomb had exploded, someone else said the tracks had been missing. No one knew for sure. The crowd thinned out slowly. He helped Mr. Rangabhashyam who was trying to give a hand to Mrs. Komalavalli. He turned towards the girl and tried to get her to move. She did so in a trance. The young couple helped each other and they started moving out. He tried to help the young man stand up on his good leg. It was hard.

"Can someone help here? This young man seems to have broken a leg."

Some kept moving, a few stopped to look, some gave a look of pity, but no one stopped. Finally, another young man came to help him. Between them, they managed to pull him to the door. Someone had dropped a sari from the door above and a few good souls were helping people get out. The train was cleared in another hour. Groups of people huddled near their respective compartments. Some were badly hurt, some had a few nicks and cuts and some were amazingly unscathed. Some men decided to pull all the luggage out of the compartments. Soon the able ones gathered together and unloaded the bags.

Ravi walked around, trying to find out what had happened. There seemed to have been some problem with the tracks, causing the train to run off them. All the compartments were damaged. The news had been conveyed to Vijayawada, a rescue team would reach them soon. They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Water stagnated here and there from the rains, a few trees gave some shade from the morning sun.

He sat on top of his bag, waiting it out. He looked around, Mr. Rangabhashyam sat under a tree, leaning against the trunk, dazed and lost in thought. Mrs. Komalavalli seemed to have calmed down a bit, but every now and then, she let out a few wails, wiping her nose on the edge of her sari. The young couple sat hugging each other under another tree. The young man, who seemed to have a broken leg, was being looked after by an elderly woman. She had tied a cloth around his leg and cleaned up his scratches. The young girl sat alone, an island among the numerous groups of people. Ravi went to her and tried to make sure she was okay. He kneeled before her and shook her shoulder slightly. She jerked as if she had been dozing and looked at him.

"Are you all right, Miss?"

"I think so".

"You need to clean up your wounds. Your forehead is bleeding again".

She touched her kerchief to her forehead. Ravi saw that it was already blood-stained and dirty.

"Here, use this". He pulled out a hand towel from his bad and helped her.

"Thanks, Mr..."

"Ravi. And you are?"

"Archana".

"I am going to check on the others. May be you should move to the shade".

Archana got up and moved her bags next to the young couple. Ravi went to Mr. Rangabhashyam and sat down next to him.

"Sir, are you okay?"

Mr. Rangabhashyam turned to him slowly. "Yes. I am okay. A few scratches. Do you have a cell phone?"

"Yes. But the battery is dead."

"I left my family".

"I am sure we can let them know as soon as the rescue team gets here."

"No. I left them for good yesterday. My wife and two kids. I was a coward. I am a coward. I lost my job sometime back and couldn't find another. My wife nagged me constantly. My kids were going hungry. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't take it anymore. So I ran away. I didn't tell them. They don't know."

Ravi listened silently, not knowing what to say. Mr. Rangabhashyam closed his very wet eyes and leaned back against the tree.

Archana looked at the young couple. They seemed to be in a bad shape.

"Are you two okay?"

"Uh, yes, yes." The young man replied. The girl just looked, she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"I heard the rescue team should be here soon. You can get back home soon."

That seemed to agitate them even further.

"When will they get here?"

"Soon. May be in an hour or so."

Archana looked around. There was confusion everywhere. As far as she could see, there was nothing else except the train wreck with the passengers milling around like ants. Her stomach rumbled a little. She was hungry. She hadn't eaten since the previous day's lunch. All she had was a half-eaten bar of chocolate. That would have to do for now. The girl next to her was sobbing. She could hear the young man trying to console her. Jenny, her name was. He kept repeating her name.

"What are we going to do, Rajesh?"

"Don't worry Jenny, we will figure out something."

"What if they find out?"

"They don't know where we are. They are probably thinking that we are still in Chennai."

Rajesh and Jenny, Archana thought. Wonder if they eloped. It certainly looked that way. She sympathized with them. They were in the same boat, well not exactly. Her thoughts flew back to the previous day, to her mother.

"Archana, do you really have to go away from us?" Her mom had cried pitifully.

"Mom, if I stay here any longer, all of you will drown my ambitions. You don't understand what I want in life. I don't want to marry Kumar and settle down. I won't get this opportunity again. Please try to understand, amma. And Delhi is not so far. You can visit me anytime you feel like."

Her dad had not talked to her and she hadn't bothered to reason with him. Their feud had started when she had graduated and had escalated to a point where talking was useless. She had left home a heavy heart, knowing that she could possibly not come back to the only home she had ever known.

The loud shouts brought her back to the present.

(to be continued)

what, not right? good!

One of the countless email forwards that I enjoyed:

"Who's calling?" was the answer to the telephone.
"Watt."
"What is your name, please?"
"Watt's my name."
"That's what I asked you. What's your name?"
"That's what I told you. Watt's my name."
A long pause, and then from Watt, "Is this James Brown?"
"No, this is Knott."
"Please tell me your name."
"Will Knott."

YOU LEFT THE TALKERS AT A POINT WHERE THEY WERE TOTALLY CONFUSED,
READ THE REST OF WHAT HAPPENED...

"Why not?"
"Hunhh? What do you mean why not?"
"Yeah! Why won't you tell me your name?"
"But I told you my name!"
"Didn't you say you will not?"
"Not not, knott, Will Knott!"
"That's what I mean."
"So you know my name."
"Of course not!"
"Good. So now, what is yours?"
"Watt. Yours?"
"Your name!"
"Watt's my name."
"How the hell do I know? I am asking you!"
"Look I have been very patient and I have told you my name and you
have not even told me yours yet.."
"You have been patient, what about me?"
"I have told you my name so many times and it is u who have not told
me yours yet."
"Of course not!"
"See, you even know my name!"
"Of course not!"
"Then why do you keep saying of course Knott?"
"Because I don't."

[Pause]

"What is your name?"
"See, you know my name!"
"Of course not!"
"Then why do you keep saying Watt is your name"
"To find out your name!"
"But you already know it!"
"What?"
"See, and you know mine!"
"Of course not!"
"Exactly!"

NOW THEY ARE AT A POINT WHERE BOTH THINK THE OTHER KNOWS THEIR NAME,
BUT THEY THEMSELVES! DON'T KNOW THE OTHER'S NAME.

"Listen, listen, wait; if I asked you what your name is, what will be
your answer?"
"Watt's my name."
"No, no, give me only one word."
"Watt"
"Your name!"
"Right!"
[Pause before it hits him]

"Oh, Wright!"
"Yeah!"
"So why didn't you say it before?"
"I told you so many times!"
"You never said Wright before"
"Of course I did."
"Ok I won't argue any more. Do you know my name?"
"I do not."
"Well, there you go, now we know each other's name."
"I do not!"
"Good!"

[Pause before it hits him]

"Oh, Guud!"
"Good."
"No wonder, it took me so long, is that Dutch?"
"No, it's Knott!"
"Oh, okay. At least the names are clear now Guud."
"Yes Wright.

We start 'em young

I am busy loading the dishwasher. The kids are getting ready for bed with dad to help. My older one comes and tells me that the younger brat has raided the makeup box. I hurry upstairs. The sight that greets me, do I laugh or yell? I give up to laughter. She seems to have a fair idea how to do it. Mascara used to cover half her forehead, a nice bindi to top it. Lipstick on her lips, and just to make sure she used enough, some on her nose as well. Clips in her hair. Not much on the white carpet. And then, "I am a big girl, I can put clips in my 'air !" Oh, Well! At least it made for a good memory!

Drowned in the tank

Ever since I saw the little ape doing the little super star (little upstar-t?) jig on Doordarshan, I had resolved not to watch anything featuring the ape or the ape junior. For some weird reason, there was a minor ab(h)erration to this recently. Why, o why? And I watched the tankman yesterday. That bugger cannot act. And over that, he looks scary when he tries to emote. Intha azhagula bayangara thenaavettu vera! That tank is fit to be drowned!!! punai peryarukku onnum koraichal illai! Wish Englishkaran hadn't been rented out. The old wannabe is much preferable to the young wannabe!

Triwizards, music and Kamal

Friday, I reached home early and boy, was I lucky? Caught the last half hour of thillu mullu on tv. I didn't remember this movie much, so had a good laugh and a nice surprise was Kamal in the last scene. Nice.

Got to play my veena and it was not a bad effort, being the first.

And then the highlight of the week, THE movie. yep, watched an older Potter, brawnier Ron and less frizzy Hermione. Director Mike Newell has done a wonderful job adapting it to fit the film length. I sorely missed Richard Harris. Dumbledore played by Michael Gambon, was a bit of a letdown. The cool and collected Albus was missing. Cho Chang! What can I say, I was thinking they would have someone like this, breathtakingly beautiful, but no, very ordinary! The Patil sisters, didn't seem to look like each other, even a tad bit, and also, ordinary. Of course, Diggory and Krum are quite the thing. Not bad there. Karkaroff seems ok and also the Barty Crouches. The kids are looking a bit grown up, hope to get to finish the rest quickly. Since most of the focus was the triwizard championship, the usual cast didn't get much screen time. Malfoys didn't show up much. Is it just me, or is Emma Watson's facial expressions a bit overdone? The world cup didn't take too much time either. The special effects need special mention. Great work there. In the scene where they first introduce the world cup venue, I thought I saw the Indian flag. It was too fleeting. Watch out for that one and do let me know.

All in all, crisp adaptation. To me, the only down thing about this movie was some of the casting. Must watch on the big screen.

A quote and opinions invited

Was reading Robin Paige's Death in Rotterdean, and came across this quote.

A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty. (Kipling)

Now, to me, this looks very accurate and logical.

But this was written by a man, so I guess for him, this was a certainty. Or was it?

What do you say? If you are a man, your comment is automatically devalued ;-) (I am not saying that, just an extension of the above statement).


Seriously, something related to a woman's intuition?

new word for the day: chi chi - ostentatiously stylish. Is that why Govinda is called so?

Seeing Red, etc

Seen on the road this morn - a pickup truck that has seen better days, flannel shirt, baseball cap, smoke stick in one hand, cell phone in the other, back to back traffic. Oh, and also a steaming cup of coffee balanced on the dash.
No, I didn't notice the color of his neck. I assume.

Note to self: I am not going to run on the treadmill again. Ennui!

Less than a week for the Goblet, reviews are too good!

McConaughey chosen by People. Definitely concur! Right, Aparna? :-D Here is the full list. I can't agree with the full list though. No.2 looks a little peaked, a bit of green on the corners. 3, 4, 11 (o, yeah) are fine with me, rest thumbs down. Well, it is all subjective, isn't it?

Sneha to get married, may be not, may be so. And Meera to marry Prithviraj, this one doesn't seem to die! Back to the rumor mill, is the sunshine pair, wedding bells on the ready. Super son-in-law is thinking along hospitality lines, now that his movies are bombing in a predictable pattern. If you haven't caught a glimpse of Kamal's junior junior, do so, pretty that one. And wants to follow parents, careerwise. Jo looking for a new jaaga, I thought she was co-building one!

oh, no! They think SRK can do an Amitabh in the new Don!

Memento and Bewitched, 2 good movies to watch.

Some interesting blogs rolled in!

Resplendent

During my yoga sessions, the instructor tells us to imagine our favorite peaceful place during shavasana. For me, it is usually rolling green meadows and clear blue skies, with the sound of the distant ocean beating against the cliffs, similar to Irish landscapes I have seen.

Yesterday, after a long break, I got back on the track, jogging leisurely in the evening sun. May be it is my imagination or it is the effect of this weird weather, the colors are glorious. I see trees of such beautiful colors, ranging from light green to the deepest reds to golden yellows. And the not-so-distant mountains, looking festive in green and red. Fall is no doubt, my favorite season, the colors vivid. How I wish I could capture them on canvas! I didn't take my mp3 player, instead concentrating on nature, and I was grateful for that.

Some of my favorite holiday memories have to do with fall colors. There was this halloween weekend that we took off to Smokey's and as luck would have it, stayed at a B&B (probably Little Greenbrier) right on the edge of the cliff, overlooking (I think) Cades Cove. We visited in the thick of Fall, the colors at their most brilliant. The balcony off our bedroom, overlooked this huge valley, we were right at the edge.

Then there was this small state park near Paducah, Ky (Lake Barkley I think), where we had a room overlooking the waters. It was drizzling and a bit cold, but the colors were magnificient. We even saw a few deers in the woods.

Fall is, to me, the best time for jogging outdoors. Once you warm up, you don't feel the chill and then you forget your exhaustion when your eyes are filled with such vivid landscapes.

I think I am going to add a bit of color to my shavasana imagery, and make those trees really variegated.

Verbose. or not

Diwali was so unlike one this year. I usually spend a few days making sweets to send off to friends. This time, we got some boxes of sweets from India, but they are sitting in the fridge. Somehow, this year seems to be a low key affair for celebrations. Wonder why! Ennui, perhaps?

Talking about diwali sweets, this is something I read recently. I like looking up etymologies. Surprised that sugar and candy are from the great subcontinent. Shakkar was dried and preserved around 300AD or so. The Persians, Arabs and then the Crusaders spread it around the world. Until then honey was the universal (well, western) sweetener. And another sweet note, Candy originates from Tamil. Now, who would have guessed that!

Email is 34 years old and so is someone else! Someone well known personalities born today - Laura Bush, Walter Cronkite, Will Rogers, Tabu and Markie Post (of Nightcourt fame). Hmm!

Motherhood

Shalu heard her husband moving about. She opened her eyes in the semi-darkness. It was 6:00 AM. She closed her eyes. Ashok shook her awake at 7:00 AM.

"Aren't you going to work today?"

"I don't think so. Can you tell them I am sick?"

"What is the matter with you? It has been more than five months. You need to get hold of yourself and try to move on. You think it is easy for me?"

"It is different. You didn't go through those nine months. I did. I nurtured that tiny life within me, you didn't."

Ashok knew the futility of arguing with her and left for work.

Shalu tried to go back to sleep. Back to oblivion, wanting to forget. She felt like crying, but her tears had dried up along with her milk. Her little son, Sumanth, stillborn, had sundered her heart in two. She had been in therapy for three months before she returned to some sense of normalcy. Yesterday, her cousin had called to announce the birth of his new son. She was happy for them, but it brought back all the heartache and longing. Years of fertility treatment, mental agony and dashed hopes had left her mind quite vulnerable. She was angry against fate for causing her so much pain.

Ashok seemed to be taking it better. He was deeply affected when they lost Sumanth. But while the therapy had been good for him, it was a temporary measure in her case. It was a disease now. She ached to hold a baby in her arms. Sumanth, not any baby. Her Sumanth, whom God had snatched from her, like the sadist He was.

She moved around in her nightgown, unkempt hair and unwashed face, barely eating anything. The TV was on, but her eyes had a faraway look. The phone rang. She let it ring. It stopped and rang again. Then it stopped.

An hour later the doorbell rang. It kept ringing. She finally moved from the sofa and opened the door. Her mom. Always looking poised. Why was she not like that! Mom came in, and hugged her silently, not offering trite words of comfort.

She made her sit, cleaned her face and brushed her hair. She made some food for her. Shalu ate in silence. Just having her mom next to her gave her a lot of comfort. She hugged her and the silent tears flowed in two pairs of eyes.

"Shalu, there is something I need to tell you. I probably should have told this a long time back. May be I could have saved you a lot of trouble."

Shalu looked at her mom, curious to know what she was going to say.

"Your dad was stationed in Delhi then. I was four months pregnant."

"Pregnant with me?"

"No. It was before you. One evening, on our way from a party, some drunk driver rammed into our car, your dad lost control and we hit a tree. I lost the baby."

"Oh, mom. I didn't know. I am so sorry."

"I was in bed for 6 months after that. We tried for another baby for years. Nothing worked. Later, I found out that my uterus had been damaged and I couldn't bear any more babies. I was heartbroken. Just like you."

"Then how...?"

"One of my friends look me to this place for orphaned kids. I started working there. I grew quite attached to the kids. Then your dad got a transfer back to Chennai. I threw a fit, I didn't want to go. Finally, your dad convinced me that we could adopt a child from the place. I agreed to that. You had been left there a month back. You were barely 3 months old then. I had been looking after you for sometime. We decided that you would be better off thinking that you were our own blood."

Shalu sat stunned. All these years, she had had no clue.

"Who were my real parents?"

Mom winced at that. "Does it matter?"

Shalu stared at her for sometime. "No, not really. You are my mother."

Tears of gratitude in her mom's eyes. "I could not see you killing yourself slowly like this. This is not the end of the world."

Shalu wiped her eyes. "Yes, mother." A slight smile appeared like a rainbow.

aaaaabbbbbbbbd ddddbbbbeaaa abbbd aabdd

If you are wondering about that title - long time no c :-) lifted from a PJ forward.

Sprained my back sometime recently. All I could do was lie and watch movies or read books. Very sad, I know. Recos - do not bother with I heart huckabees and power of women. Why did Hariharan do that, eh? A couple of songs were good. Parineeta, Sarkar are in the must see list. Reading recos - if you like victorian mysteries, I stumbled on the gaslight mystery series, set in early 1900s in NYC. Robin Paige is good too. Then there is David Baldacci's Camel Club and Sue Monk Kidd's secret life of bees waiting to get their turn. 5 people you meet in heaven is one of THE most awesome books I have read. Why? don't ask, just read it.

Then there was all that personal drama. hubby almost caught in the chennai flood chaos, water entering home, alone with kids and temporarily handicapped. Felt like I was in a sun tv MS. How do people ( actors and the audience) take this load every day? BTW, should we now have a new word "vidience" for the visual medium? One good thing, loads of diwali sweets from back home. Didn't have to break my back making them at home.

And for the few awaiting the next part of the journey, gotta wait some more time. There is a lot of distance between the mind and my fingers.

Mindblowing!

Only word to describe a concert performance by (Guitar) Prasanna and band. Didn't know someone who was so comfortable with a musical instrument. His fusion of east and west is beautiful. He calls his latest album, Be the Change. True to that, he is heralding a new style to Indian Classical, fusing it with other forms, making it appealing to the younger generation. Who wouldn't love Bilahari and Hamsadhwani, the way he does it! His drummer(Jordan) almost matched him, and it was a pleasure to watch them. His Ragabop (kapi) was awesome! I wish I had the whole concert taped!

Journey - Part 1

Ravi got on the train and found his way to his compartment. He tucked his suitcase under his seat, settled down with the newspaper. He hoped it wouldn't be too crowded.

All he needed was some quite time. There was the usual noise from outside the train and from groups of people trying to find their seats inside the train. His mind was not in the paper. His memories haunted him.

In a little while, others trickled in to his compartment. One middle-aged lady who should probably have booked 2 tickets instead of her one, to cover her ample posterior.

A young couple, looking scared; they were probably eloping, Ravi thought. A middle aged man, bespectacled, his shoulders seemed to be carrying half the world's weight on them. Worry lines ran criss-cross on his forhead. A young woman, ears plugged to some kind of bouncy music, shoved her bag above and sat down across from him. A young man, talking and laughing loudly on his cell phone, sat on the other side. Ravi looked at him with a frown. He was hoping the journey would be quiet. He seemed
to be a college kid, in his tattered jeans and mussed up hair.

The young man seemed to be afflicted with some kind of nervous disorder. He couldn't sit still. What is wrong with these kids these days, he thought. The young man caught sight of the young girl and gave a supposedly winning smile and quieted down. Well, thank God for that, Ravi thought. The young woman was looking out of the window, not bothered with her co-passengers. These young girls have grown gutsy nowadays, they have no problem travelling alone, Ravi sat musing.

The guard waved the green, and the train with a small hoot, started on its long journey. The older lady, who had been chewing her paan , leaned across him to spit it out, raising the heckles out of a bunch of people waiting on the platform to send off their friends and families. She sat down jarringly, a bit too close for comfort.

"Thambi", she called to him, "Could you get me that bag up there?"

There, it's started, he thought. He stood up to reach for her bag and handed it to her.

"Thanks, You are going to Delhi too?", she pestered him.

"Yes". And he turned to look outside.

"Thambi", this time it was the older man.

He turned. "If you are done with that paper, do you mind if I borrow it?"

"Sure". He hoped that would be the end of it.

"How depressing! All the news nowadays is so violent. This one killed a few. That one committed suicide. War in one country. I don't know why we bother reading all this."

Ravi just looked sympathetically and turned to the window.

"I am Rangabhashyam. I am on my way to Delhi too. Business, you see."

Ravi kept quiet.

"What is your name, thambi?"

"Ravi".

"Do you live in Delhi?"

"No"

"Official visit?"

"No"

"Going to see family?"

"No"

Finally, Mr. Rangabhashyam got the hint and hid his face behind the paper, muttering something like "young men these days... hmph".

The coffee guy came by. Ravi bought one. The older lady got one. The young couple got one after deliberating quite a bit. They shared it. The lady slurped hers noisily. She complained it was not hot enough. The poor man promised to bring her straight off the stove next time. Another guy came by to see if anyone needed dinner. The lady ordered pronto. The young couple ordered just one, again. Ravi ordered one. The older lady started off a (loud on her side) conversation with Mr. Rangabhashyam.

Her name was Komalavalli and she was going to visit her son in Delhi. He was a big officer there. She stayed in Chennai with her other son and husband. She asked about
him. He said that he was going for official reasons. Then she took a bag of spicy mixture, and continued her conversation, crunching loudly in between. She next turned to the young couple.

"Newly married?"

"Y y yes."

"Eloping?" Her face brightened with an unholy gleam.

"N n n no", the girl this time.

"The younger generation is too bold, I say. They do whatever they want, dress as they like, no fear or respect, I say. What do you think, Komalavalli madam?" This from Mr. Rangabhashyam.

"Yes, yes. Take my daughter-in-law. No respect towards elders. Always arguing about everything. Those days we never opened our mouth unless spoken to."

Ravi thought, you are compensating quite nicely now.

"My neighbor's brother's daughter ran away with a Christian boy, you know. And then he abandoned her when her father and brother went to seek her. Spineless fellow, you know. All these movies and western culture, you know, spoiling our kids. Very bad."

"Mr. Rangabhashyam, I agree sir, it is this new culture. They watch MTV at home all the time. It is hard to switch to my favorite shows nowadays. I have to fight to watch the good programs. Why can't they watch these serials with us? They are so good, very real, things that happen in our houses. But they want to watch all these foreign channels, so they can ape them."

The young man who had been silently eyeing the young girl, seemed to be annoyed at this and walked towards the door. Mrs. Komalavalli finished her packet of goodies, took out a bottle of water, drank some and burped loudly. The young couple smiled at each other. The meals started arriving. Mr. Rangabhashyam opened his home-made packet of curd rice and pickle and ate that with his bottle of water. The young couple put the plate between them and ate it together, smiling and talking among themselves. Ravi opened the lid off his plate and tried to swallow the barely edible fare provided. Mrs. Komalavalli, ate hers with relish and when she was done, opened a tiffin box from her bag and literally swallowed 2 huge laddoos. A few burps followed. The young man took out a bar of chocolate and chewed on it. The young girl seemed to have dozed off.

Soon everyone got ready to climb into their berths. Ravi went up to the top one. The young man stretched out on his seat. The young couple had the upper and middle berths. The young lady had the middle, right under Ravi. Ravi guessed that they must have switched berths among themselves. The older couple occupied the lower births. They were both snoring, each to his or her own rhythm and tempo. The young man next to Ravi kept checking on his girl below. Soon things quietened down except for the snores.

Cine muni - 4

Vettaiyadu Vilayadu seems to jinxed. The movie again came to a standstill due to lack of funds. Now Oscar Ravichandran has bought it (on Kamal's reco) and plans to reinvent it, meaning rename it. At least it is following the current trend - renaming :-)

Chimp is looking for English tongues to dub his manmathan for Hollywood. Anyone game? :-)

June R hero is again Biju Menon. What is Surya's cameo then?
Update: Acc. to my latest kumudam/AV mag, Surya is R in June R.

Anbey vaa is coming back. Supposed to be a rib-tickler with a message. Now wait for the MGR fan group to raise their voice against the name

Amitabh and Jaya Pradha in Police with Prashant, supposedly a bilingual in Tamil and Telugu. She looked good in salangai oli. And then she moved to hindi and starting acting in mystery movies. She used a whole box of pancake makeup everytime that it was a mystery how anyone identified her.

Thalavattam (Mohanlal in one of his best) in its hindi avatar, kyon ki (shirtless star) is ready for release.

Something to snatch your sleep away: village king is back as hero of Madurai Thangam.

ungal vote-u...

TN politics is undergoing (hope it is) a major change. Assuming no kootanis are formed (big assumption), who would you vote for?

1. oor sothu en sothu
2. oozhal samrajyam
3. gab-tonne
4. peraa maathu, cinema hitler.
5. Other - Specify


Hope keeps the world going!!

Dancing the years away

I love to dance. Classical, folk, movie, latin, all kinds fascinate me. I am still a student when it comes to bharathanatyam. Of course, I would probably have been better learning it at 13 instead of 30 :-) But age has nothing to do with learning a skill/art. It is all in the mindset. But when it comes to performing, I prefer to be in the company of similars. Imagine dancing with kids half my age. Which is what I did this weekend. Should I be embarrassed about it? It has not bothered me really. But don't mistake it for a wanna-be symptom. It is just that, when my feet are moving and my heart is singing, I care very little about the rest. Quite a few people came up and asked me how it felt to dance with the teenagers and then added that I didn't look too bad with them ;-) I don't know whether to take that as a backhanded compliment.

I have always been interested in learning to dance, but never got around to it until recently. So it is fun to dance alongside my daughter :-) What really motivated me was this 50plus lady coming down to Chennai for her arangetram. Even Rukmani Devi Arundale didn't start until she was in her mid 20s.

Agreed, it is not easy. It took me sometime before I could sit in araimandi continuously for 5 minutes. It took me much much longer to perform my first classical piece, but I did do it. But in a way, it has helped me spiritually. I feel closer to my faith, when I do something on Ganesha or Krishna, than I ever did going to the temple.

My mind is faster at grasping the nuances of an item faster than my body does which is good and bad. By the time I master the piece, I know exactly what I am doing. But the time taken to reach that point is, let us say, proportional to my age.

And added to all this, I am planning to learn to tap :-) What fun!