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just wramning up myslef for antoehr post...its been a wihle since i put 1 here...so stay a1ive!

Chak De India!!!

It's been just a few days since my last post, critical on the T20 format of the gentleman's game and today, India has won the inaugural T20 world cup beating Pakistan at the Wanderers in a thrilling encounter. While it is indeed true that I still have my dislikes for the concept of the game, the spirit of India beating Pakistan to win a World Cup is something fantastic and is here to stay!

Chak De India!

T20

I have never liked the concept of Twenty20 Cricket, not because I have never watched one but because it definitely takes the essence out of the game and degrades the quality of the classic One Dayer's. The zipped version of the game cannot be compared to the classic shorter version of the game. It lacks quality, common sense and what not?

I accidentally happened to bump into Sanjay Jha's blog on CricketNext and would wholly agree with him that ICC's bizarre ideas are sending the gentleman's game to the backseat. Cricket seems more like the American games, Baseball and Ice Hokey. *SIGH*

Grandeur of Chettinad Wedding

Hailing from the same community, I am quite excited to read an article in the Friday Review (The Hindu) about a "Pirivom Sandhipom", a movie currently in production that surrounds and showcases the Chettinad Heritage and customs. The highlight of the movie is expected to be a song that showcases an extravagent chettinad wedding. While extravagent weddings in this community are common, it would be staggering to watch on big screen and importantly reach out the masses.

Directed by Karu Palaniappan, also a Chettiar, the movie casts Actor, Director and Producer Cheran with Sneha in the lead with a band of other reputed stars. Important to note would be that the movie would not have any dream songs, fights, stunts or women in revealing costumes, Whoa! It would be very interesting to see how the movie would fare at the box office. Given that his first directorial venture, " Parthiban Kanavu" venture was a runaway hit, I am keen to look forward for this one.

Check out the entire article here

Sivaji - A Review

At a whopping 100 crore rupees budget, produced by AVM Productions, one of the leading production houses in India, directed by the most high profile director, Shankar, AR Rahman composing the tunes and studded by the super star Rajinikanth himself, a movie cannot get bigger. Undoubtedly, Sivaji is and probably will be the biggest tamil film to hit the kollywood screens.

I was very excited to watch the file after almost 2 months of its release while I was back in Chennai for a brief period. Having booked the tickets at Satyam, the best place to watch a movie in the city, I had been to the movie with my mum and dad, again something 've done long long before. With kid and wife away to her home town, it was ready set game for 'no thangamani enjoy!'

Storyline: Our hero, a US return wanting to spend all his earnings for a noble cause in setting up educational institutions for the poor and needy bumps into a political kingpin, having educational institutions raking up tens of millions from all sects of the public as capitation, etc loses all his wealth and makes a comeback in overcoming not only the kingpin, Suman but many other industrialists and high profile individuals who had evaded taxes thereby creating black money.

If I were to sum up the entire review in one line, The movie was a big let down. The fight scenes were clearly the biggest let down with each of the for about 8-10 minutes, the matrix styled action did not really gel-well with the typical kollywood one's. The movie itself ran for more than 3 hours. Rajini and Suman filled the screns right from the start till the end. Shreya does a neat role with opportunity for acting besides the revealing in the songs. The 2nd half dragged quite a bit with unbelievable ways in which our super star uncovers the black money from others.

Vivek was good in the first half while seasoned stars like Raghuvaran, Livingston and VMC Haniffa not being utilized to their best. Vadivukkarasi, Manivannan and Nayantara are also in the cast.

The picturization of the songs, as always, was exceptional. Another typical from Shankar. A special mention for the cinematography where KV Anand scores a perfect 10.

Coming out of the movie, I am unable to conclude if Sivaji is a Rajini movie or a Shankar movie 'coz it lacked a decent storyline, punch dialogues, mannerism, creativity. Probably the face saving factor was Rajini's Style which was all over the movie.

Driving through chennai traffic

It's been just a couple of days since 've returned from Chennai and I have still not recovered from the chaotic traffic scene. While it's been close to a year since 've been in Singapore, I would say that the traffic in Chennai must have doubled during this time, given that there are so many completed and upcoming projects, especially IT companies that house tens of thousands of people all over the country and some even from abroad.

Best examples would be GN Chetty Road, Venkat Narayana Road both in T.Nagar, having 6-7 new buildings that have come up in less than 2 years and probably holding up ten to fifteen thousand employees. This apart from the floating crowd around T.Nagar who are busy shopping in Pothy's, Chennai Silks, RMKV, Saravana Stores, Nalli, Kumaran and Sri Krishna Collections.

The 100 feet road on Ekkaduthangal which was once not so popular with old and sick industries, now boasts buildings with more than one lakh square feet. While Olympia Tech Park and Virtusa are completed and occupied, the other two projects are close to the heels of completion which would only add to the chaos. No special mention for Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur which are neighbours to the OMR.

Adding to the already chatotic traffic is the coming up of 5-6 flyovers across critical junctions in chennai. Koyambedu, T.Nagar, Kodambakkam and Kathipara Junction to name a few.

However, mature areas like Nungambakkam and most importantly Mount Road, once considered to be the life lines of Chennai city were scantily crowded. These were clear indications in the shift or transformation of the profession to Information Technology and IT Enabled Sector for the new breed.

While setting the traffic scene right in Chennai looks next to impossible, it is important that law and order is at its best. Something that I doubt would happen in Chennai in the next 200 years ;-) The above collage, which I managed to grab from flickr and google are clear indicators of what I mean. While it is true that the traffic scene in Chennai cannot be set right overnight, there are'nt any indications that it would be any better in a decade or two. The only way I guess is to stiffen up the law and order scene by imposing heavy fines of say 1000 or even 5000 buck for traffic violation which probably would frighten the crazy Chennai motorists, especially the auto and two wheelers, not to forget the buses and heavy vehicles and the cars...and everyone infact!

Wait, I have another idea to set the traffioc scene right in chennai. It would be to have all the political flags and sirens removed from the politicians vehicles and let then drive through the above areas with no escorts in the front or rear of their vehicles, what say???

The best get's better

Cho Ramaswamy, a vetran actor, playwright, columnist, editor and above all a political commentator in Tamil Nadu, known for his satirical dig's at Indian and Tamilnadu politics just (ok, a couple of weeks ago!) got better!

In a meeting organized by the Indian Liberal Group, Chennai on 13th July, Arun Shourie (BJP) and Cho Ramaswamy participated and talked about the Congress Presidential Nominee (now President!) Mrs. Pratibha Patil, bluntly opposing her candidature for the top job. One of the best ever from Cho!

Indian politics has had tainted Ward members, Councillors, MLA's, Ministers, MP's and Chief Ministers, but Congress & Left have just gone beyond it to find a tainted President for India. Looks like they are making up for all their blunder in having picked Hamid Ansari for the Vice President's post, but God save India!

Alas, how can one forget Cho's famous dig at the Left "If the Left has a future, India will have no future left."

Cho Ramaswamy (20.55 min, English and Tamil)


Arun Shourie (English, 32.16 min)

If you can't say it, just SMS

Check out the video, one of my most favorites. The creative guys in Optimus indeed deserve a pat :-)

Moving on...sigh

While some might read the title with a big relief, I would like to clarify that I am not going to stop blogging. Read on...

Just 10 months have passed by, since 've migrated from 'filter coffee' chennai to 'fine' singapore to join one of the top private bank's in the world but I 'am already changing jobs! The move is definitely a blend of excitement and disappointment. While the excitement awaits me in the form of what I had always enjoyed doing at where I probably belong to, disappointment in terms of my inability to adapt to a new workplace, new team especially a new domain might probably haunt me for sometime now. I guess I need to do a lot of homework if I were to continue to be what I am in the years to come...Anyways, wish me good luck with my new assignment!

English Grammar

So near, yet so far

I just got through my Basic Theory Test to obtain a driving license in Singapore. Phew, I am indeed relieved now!

I had enrolled for the test in April and managed to get the earliest test date for private candidates only for July 2nd. The preparations for the test did not happen till last week of June until I heard the passing score was 45 on 50 and a few I know flunked the test on their first (some even second) attempts. I had no choice but o carry the BTT booklet on the MRT like many others and read through it during my travel to office and back home. I could do that only for 2 days 'coz they weren't rocket science!

Come July 2nd, I did everything wrong, right from taking the wrong bus, missing the shuttle, struggling to find a cab, finally sitting in the wrong room until the instructor directed me to the right one. For the test at 9:15 AM, I took incharge around 9:20 AM and was out in 10-12 minutes passing my test. The questions, like I've been telling my friends were so dumb and its quite funny when you have get through 50 such one's to clear the test.

While I had a sense of accomplishment (despite the dumb questions), the major blow came in when I realised that despite having a foreign license and having cleared my BTT, I was required to have the International Driving Permit (IDP), usually issued by the domicile country of the candidate. Yikes!!! All my excitement crash landed like the Colombia Space Shuttle. Given that there aren't any easy options available to get through, I have decided to wait for a couple of months after which I would go to my hometown for my vacation and have this thing done as the first activity :-(

Bless me!

Smile, for a day...wish it is forever ;-)

The autorickshaw's in Chennai had been demanding for a revision (okay, an increase!) in the fare and after months and years of deliberation the fares were increased in January, early this year and the auto drivers were not too disappointed though they had some concerns. However, it is no secret or surprise that the auto drivers now use the revised fares to demand more and continue with their contract rates. Given that the demand for revision of minimum fare had been settled with the GoTN, the Tamil Nadu Auto Driver's Association has now called for a state wide strike on the 8th August citing various reasons as below;

a. Discontinue the act of cancelling the driving license of auto drivers causing road accidents

b. Provide allowance of Rs.5000 for auto's running on LPG

c. Implement ESI scheme for auto drivers

d. Increase the pension from Rs.400 to Rs.1000

e. Prevent ill treatment of auto drivers by the policemen

f. Curb the brokers domination in RTO's during the processing of FC's, Registration, etc

I've never liked the attitude of auto drivers in chennai city, for that matter in the whole of Tamil Nadu. Lessons from our neighbour, Karnataka, must be learnt in this aspect, who have every reason to boast of their reliable autorickshaw drivers.

The auto driver's and their "association", predominantly controlled by the politicians & policemen in Tamil Nadu is one bunch of unsettled, ever dissatisfied crowd and their knack to pick causes for going off the road and creating the stir should be observed.

I wish they go on strike starting 8th August till their demands are met 'coz I feel the state will be a lot cleaner and nicer, especially the traffic scene, with the auto's off the road, forever!

PS: Too bad I would not be in town to enjoy my drive through the chennai roads without the auto's...sigh...sob!

Virtual Barber Shop - Scintillating

More than ten days since I posted something to my blog and I think this is the right one to go in.

Tried to get this plugged into my blog the whole of last noon as soon as I listened to this from one of a forward. Close your eyes and put on your headphone in full volume, sheer brilliance!

Unnalae Unnalae

I happened to pick up the CD of this Tamil movie after a few unsuccessful attempts in a video rental shop nearby my house. I should say it really wasn't worth the attempts I had made earlier to watch this.

The movie starts off with Sada as Jhansi and new face, model turned actor, Vinay as Karthik ending their love affair due to Vinay's fun loving, playful and flirtatious character. Vinay is deputed by his construction company to Melbourne (Oz) and bumps into another model turned actor Deepika as Tanisha in the plane. Surprise awaits Vinay when he sees Sada escorting Tanisha away from the airport. Sada happens to be working in the company that had contracted Tanisha for an assignment.

The movie then runs into flashback with a few songs in it and ends with the split that happened to be first scene of the movie. Jeeva seems to be adopting his "12B" style of movie making and I should say has fumbled in this one as well.

The rest of the movie surrounds Vinay trying to patch up with Sada with Tanisha and Srinath helping them despite Tanisha having a soft corner for Vinay. Eventually, the movie ends with Sada leaving scene, setting up for Vinay and Tanisha's union.

The music by Harris Jayaraj was the biggest plus and the movie towards the climax was pretty okay. Otherwise, the movie was a very big let down, especially with Sada's role, more or less similar to her previous one in Priyasaki with Madhavan. Model turned actor's Vinay and Tanisha did justice in their debut. Vinay's dancing skills deserve a special mention as much as Jeeva's skills with the camera. He is awsome with the camera more than his direction skills. Choreography, handled by Raju Sundaram who also happens to play a role in the movie as Vinay's friend is neat!

PS: I am just waiting to get hold of my wife's cousin who said the movie is awesome and much better than Mozhi. He better stay away till I compose myself $&^$&#*%&*%*

கதையல்ல, நிஜம்!

- நன்றி இட்லிவடை / தினமணி

Chicken or Egg?

The incredible has happened!

The spat between the DMK's first family and Maran's family has opened up lot of If's and But's. To me, from what I have observed since Murasoli Maran days, it's basically a Chicken or Egg story. Both sides were complimenting each other well enough to create an impression that the SUN Group was the unofficial bandwagon of the DMK. On the other hand, It is indeed difficult to say that the SUN Group could have emerged as such a large media house in India without MK's political backing.

Following Murasoli Maran's death in late 2003, Dayanidhi Maran, with absolutely no prior political experience was fielded by the DMK from Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai in the following central elections in 2004 May and eventually made the Central Minister of the plum portfolio, IT & Telecommunications. What SUN TV managed out of the ministry is a different ball game. Just a blog post cannot detail the nitty-gritty's of it and I ain't Dr.J.Jayalalitha to dig to the history and geography of the subject and have it on top of my head ;-)

In-turn to thank grandpa, the Maran brothers let use of their SUN Group as extensive as possible for him to return to power during the 2006 state elections. DMK led alliance crushed the AIADMK alliance and made it to the power. With DMK in power in the State and virtually controlling the Centre, DMK's point man was identified as Dayanidhi Maran and he was seen shoulder to shoulder, sometimes like a walking stick for MK. I could hardly remember of any ocassion with MK involved not having Dayanidhi besides him. There have been instances when MK.Stalin was missing at time ;-) This definitely irked Stalin and Big Brother, MK. Azhagiri and definitely many others within DMK who were waiting for the right opportunity. The burning of Dinakaran office in Madurai was what probably everyone against the Maran's were waiting for. I shoudl say that all of them have used the opportunity very well to outst Maran's and create a sense of uncertainity for the SUN Group which is planning to venture into Aviation, publish English tabloid with Media baron Rupert Murdoch and what not?

With all the history behind us, it would only be interesting if the family feud will settle (I wish not!) or will create more surpises.

Copy Cat

I should really say that Sun TV is becoming a copy cat or probably running out of ideas as once blogged by Kaps. First it was the poaching of the Kalakka Povadhu Yaaru from Vijay TV and it was also rumoured that the comedy show Lollu Sabha was also targetted. While Lollu Sabha team did not succumb, it later ran into troubled waters, thanks to the Sun TV's creativity in finding ways to tone down the show's originality, etc.

Latest in the list is the copy of the Airtel Super Singer show on Vijay TV (again!). As always, they have gone a step ahead and roped in Rahman to judge the finals of their show, Ooh La La La. While the Vijay TV's show is the hunt for an individual event, Sun TV's one is for a band. Big deal? Huh!

I am sure there would be plans, probably already drafted, to copy out the other interesting shows like Neeya Naana, Koffee with Anu and Jillunu Oru Jodi which feature on Vijay TV.

Who can forget the curtailing of the Vijay News (no prizes for guess which channel instrumentalized it), which probably was the only unbiased news channel with superior quality amongst the others sometime back?

Posted on 6th May >> I just realized that the Koffee with Anu is also copied, hosted by my all time favorite actress Gowthami as "Anbudan" on Sun TV and BTW, my wife disagreed that the Ooh La La La is not a copy of the Super Singer...I hate my wife ;-)

Bon Appétit

Having had the thai sizzler a day before our wedding anniversary, we decided to go in for the mexican sizzler the next day. This one again is from the Tarla Dala website.

It's the usual story, my wife made it, me di a bit of helping, infact my 3 years old darling daughter chipped in her bit by watching TV throughout the preparation of the sizzler, not disturbing us ;-)

The food was awesome, a fitting brunch for our 6 year old relationship.

Burp!

My wife and me have always enjoyed eating various cuisines of vegetarian food and equally enjoy it when it comes to cooking. While I have not contributed much to the cooking bit, 'coz she does it best herself, we decided to do Thai Sizzler, a recipe for which she pulled out from Tarla Dalal's website. While usually the recipe on the website and the actual outcome do not match closely, the Thai Sizzler was awesome. I have a feeling that the Thai Sizzler my wife made would have been better than the one Tarla Dalal would have really made ;-)

The sizzler had much of Thai ingredients and also some Chinese flavor. Coconut curry, Red Curry Paste, Soya Sauce, Corn, Herb Rice, Baby Corn, Broccoli, Carrots and much more. While we decided to have it as a 'brunch', when we made it at 10:30 in the morning, being very hungry, we finished it much ahead of the plans ;-)

Oh BTW, we (okay, my wife) decided to make the Thai Sizzler for our 6th wedding anniversary (April 29th), could not wait till the next day, so made it and had it a day ahead of our anniversary and...slurp....burp!


I love my wife!

Kids Kampong - Pasir Ris

Saturday was okay, infact did nothing much and was home doing the usual household chores (hope my wife does'nt read this post), some shopping with my wife and kid in the evening.

Sunday started as early as 8 AM for us as we had planned to take our kid to the Kids Kampong at Pasir Ris with a few other freinds and their kids. We started around 10:30 am and reached the Kampong around 11 am. The kampong had various activities like fishing, fish feeding (both for kids), an aquarium, koi farm and a pet department store (was as big as a decently sized NTUC, whoa!)

The fishing bit was fun. We were provided with a fishing net, bucket with water, some fish feed, coupons for ice cream and water for the kids. At $11 per kid, it was indeed worth the price. However, all this did not impress my my three year old daughter who was terrified after having caught a fish. It was them my wife and me doing the fishing bit. I must say that the fishing bit was very exhaustive. Infact i was passing a comment to my wife that I seem to exert myself more at the fishing than a complete week at work! LOL. We managed to catch some fishes and gave it off to our friends for them coz we were not too sure of a place to grow them.

After the fishing it was the feeding bit. The fishes were big with mouth as big as they'd probably eat a kebab or a spring roll ;-) The fish feed however never seemed to turn them away. While my kid and me stayed away from the feeding bit, worried if it would bite us, my wife was bold enough (as usual) to try her hand in feeding the fishes and even touching them (horrified aftert she touched the fishes is a different story). We later has some food and moved onto the aquarium, the koi farm and the pet department store in quick succession to escape from the scorching sun.

Back home at 1:30 pm. Phew...