Kanimozhi in Devils Advocate

The first question my 7th std studying cousin asked me
when I called up my home was ,"Did you see Jodi number one in Vijay TV,
Do you know what Simbu said(cried!!) last week" .Have seen the episode
that created a furore. Seems the current hot topic in Tamil Nadu is Jodi
number one.People say it is a trick to improve the TRP(is it TRP or TRB!!) ratings.
But seems the program is already a hit..!!

Watched Kanimozhi on Karan Thapar’s Devils Advocate.
The very first question from him is, Let’s start with your father’s comments
about Lord Ram. ‘Who is this Ram? Which engineering college did he study
in and become a civil engineer? When did he build this so-called bridge?’
Can you accept that to the hundreds and millions who worship Ram as God,
both the tone and the content are deeply offensive?

And the answer goes like this… “…In Tamil Nadu, we come from a culture
that questions and is open to criticism, be it culture or anything else..”
And she quotes Kaalamega Pulavar of 17th century who questions Lord Shiva.
She put forth her arguments in a composed, calm manner and in a clear way
that made the usually interrupting Karan Thapar to sit and listen to the other
side of the untold truth.And he went on to say,” I understand that you may
have a strong defence. Others may disagree with it. At least you have a chance
to explain it the way you and your father see it”

I was at pains to explain my non-Tamil speaking friends here when the issue rocked.

The intelligent thing is that she questioned the (sanity of ) questions being
asked.When Thapar asks, “ So in the interest of the project it does not matter
if a few egg shells are broken on the way”, she quips,” Actually, the point is
who’s breaking the eggshells?”. And she made it clear, he quoted Valmiki when
he says Rama drank.I still remember the news being flased in TVs and websites
misquoting or twisting the statements to make it sensational.

Remember, when George Fernandes said that, “had someone done this kind of a
thing in China, he would have been shot dead” - on the issue of Indo-US nuclear
deal accusing Congress of lying, the TV channels blatantly said Fernandes wants
Manmohansingh to be shot on head..??!!

The nice thing about the interview was Thapar pronounced the name Kanimozhi
correctly without much difficulty. The saree clad Tamil Nadu MP really impressed
the show by elucidating the facts.

Fine, I don’t have an answer to a hypothetical question that my friend asked,
Would the CM commented in the same tone,same way had Lord Muruga or
Lord Venkateshwara been involved in this issue.


The transcript of the program
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/father-was-quoting-valmiki-when-he-said-ram-drank/50516-3-single.html
The video
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/50516/10_2007/devils_kanimozhi_1/father-was-quoting-valmiki-when-he-said-ram-drank.html

புகைப்படப் போட்டி--இயற்கை

The 100 Euro chase!!

Guten Tag!
Get up at 6:30 in the morning.
Contemplate on going for a jog.
Tough decision.
Postpone it for one more time..!!
Clean up the mess created by yesterday's cooking.
Put rice in the cooker.
Take a quick shower.
Kick the lazy room mate
to take bath.

Have corn flakes by looking at the cute German
school kids through the window.
Suddenly become nostalgic.
Think about your school days.
A loud thud behind. Come back to reality.
He finished his bath.

Switch on the TV.
George W Bush and Condi discussing the
strategy for war on terror on CNN.
Enjoy thier comedy.
Pack up the lunch. Oops getting late for
the 8:05 Metro train.Run.Board the train.
Why the hellll it is goddaaamn punctual.

An indian girl in the train.
Does she resemble her!
Yes,the big eyes and the sweet
warm smile resembles her.
Bheege hont tere...!!
Breifly think about her.

As Al Pacino said in the movie, Scent of a Women.
"A life is lived in an instant"

Admire the monumental Munich olympics stadium and the tower.

Look at the ads displayed in the train.Read it.
Correlate it with the context.

Read the german newspaper scattered in the train.
Try to understand the meaning,correlate,assume,
link the words,pictures,learn the language.

Alight the train.Reach office.
Ooops where is the Ritter Sport eating French damsel!!

Have a look at the Alps through the window.

Briefly browse vikatan.com for TN politics news
and thehindu.com while tasting Wiener Melange.
Then GMAIL.

Go to xe.com.
Oops why theeeeeeee hellllll
Rupee is appreciating against
Euro..again murphy's law..!!

Start the day.
3G,clearcase,L3,RRC,Rational real time,
compile,testing,not working,not working,finally working..!!
Get engrossed.

Suddenly something..
A mail from a friend regarding superstar's Shivaji release
in Munich on 16th June.Feel happy.Book tickets.
Brag about this to ur friends in US and India.

Lunch.GMAIL.Again get engrossed in work.
Tea break at 4:30
Leave by 6:30
Board the train.

Why the hell I am working in an alien land
among alien people.Feel like boarding the next flight
and go to Bangalore where my friends are..but..
I have got a reason to stay, a crazy reason, a crazy reason
only me and my friend knows.

Reach home.Chop onions,prepare dinner.

Call up your relative.
"When are you getting married"-will be the first question.
Smile it away.

Call up your close friend.
"Machha, I am getting married..!
The girl said okaay even after seeing meee!!
Will you be coming for the marriage"
Dont have an answer.
But,he is my close friend!!

Call up mom.
Hear the sweetest voice.
Feel the warmth of the love.
Tell her will be back to India
soooooon...but when??
Dinner.orkut.com,GMAIL chat.

Have a walk in the cold night with
your room mate.
Ponder over the uncertainity of life by gazing
at the full moon night.
Plan the next move.

Come back home.
Retire.Sleep.
Auf Wiedersehen...!!



crashonsen@gmail.com

Who is she?

It was yet another dull,sombre saturday evening.
I was going to my native and I boarded the government
bus to Dharmapuri in Krishnagiri and when I am
about to open Vikatan Magazine,an angel passed by.
Yep,you read it right.It was an angel!.
She was fair,simple,but amazingly beautiful and
wearing a light color chudithaar(Does it has brown shade?)
She sat some two seats in front of me.

When I was contemplating whether to go
and sit near her, two persons came and sat near her.
The bus started and it was slightly drizzling outside.
The two persons started talking to her on
the midway.I some how over heard her name
in the due conversation.

The bus arrived at Dharmapuri by 7:30 in the
evening.She alighted and started walking.
I just called her.

"Excuse me"

She turned back and saw me.

If looks could really kill, I did be dead by then!

I can see her beautiful face in the
streak of sodium vapour lamp light.
There is one distinct feature on her
beautiful face that no one can miss.

"You are looking amazingly beautiful",I told her.

She was surprised,taken aback,but pat came the
reply.

"I didnt ask you"

"No,it is just a complement"

"Thank you!!"
And she boarded the bus to Mettur and
she is gone!!

Who is she?

Bangalore-I love this city and love to hate this city...!!

"It was the best of times,
It was the worst of times,
It was the spring of hope,
It was the winter of despair.."
Charles Dickens's immortal lines
may very well serve as an
analogy for Bangalore.
You can find the best of the city and
in the next moment you can end up
seeing the worst of the city.

You can have a pleasant evening stroll
in the boulevard's of bougainvillea
trees with purple color Jacaranda and
yellow color Tabebuia flowers
adoring the west of chord road,vijay nagar
and in the next moment you may
end up in the huge traffic jam on the Magadi road.
I love this city and love to hate this city.

You can find varieties in virtuosity.
You may see an insane crowd banging heads to the
numbers of Iron Maiden's Steve Harris
and in the very next day you can
see people queueing up in Rangashankara for
getting mesmerized to Kadri Gopalnath's Saxophone
or just there in kalakshetra to engross themselves in
danseuse Sobana's classic Bharathanatyam.
Glamour glares but simplicity soothes...!!

It is a cultural shock for a guy like me
from Tamil Nadu to see hotels
with hoarding that displays-
"Family bar and Restaurant",
and rather surprising to see
auto drivers speaking almost
all the south-indian languages and
Hindi at ease!!

After a tough days work in office,
the poor bachelors can always taste their
kind of food in kaaraikudi or kairali or in Gonguraa's
but the long wait in queue will make you to think of
getting married just to have good home food!!

But it is not always the best of the things
that makes you to love the city and not
always the worst of the things that makes
you to hate the city..it is the people,
the culture, the ethos that makes
you like the city.And this multi-ethnic
cosmo have it all.

You can curse the traffic snarls,
imprecate the BMP for the all the
havoc that was created by the rains,
but there are so many things in Bangalore
that makes you love the city.
The reason may vary from person
to person,but every Bangalorean
have got a reason to live here,have
an affinity towards this city...

Just imagine having an evening
walk with the angel you love by holding
her hands in the rain drenched
boulevard's of west of chord road
adorned with purple Jacaranda....!!
Isnt it the best place to live...

I love this city and love to hate this city!

Film Review--Guru

Guru
Direction: Mani Ratnam
Cast : Mithun,Abhishek Bachhan,
Aishwarya Rai,Madhavan,Vidhya Balan
Cinematograhy : Rajiv Menon.
Music : A.R.Rahman



So..to put it in Mani Ratnam's words good
fiction must be rooted in reality.Guru could
have been inspired from Ambani,LN Mittal,or
it could have been inspired from the fictional
characters of Kieth Townsend and Richard Armstrong
of Jeffrey Archer's The Fourth Estate.

It is about a protagonist who belongs
to "Veni Vidi Vici" category.It is
about an ambitious man brimming with
ideas for whom the ends justify the means.

The story starts with Gurukant Desai(Abhishek)
(in Tamil the name is Gurunath Desikan!)
going to Istanbul to nurture his ambitions
and returning back to India to chase
his own dreams.

Starts his own polyester textile business
in Bombay,initially struggles through
the bureaucratic hurdles, fights back,
slowly subdues his opponents,learns the art
of cajoling and coaxing the politicians,
expands his business and becomes
unstoppable at one point.

The carefully chosen words,meticulously
delivered dialogues and the strategy Guru
devises during his meeting with the
politician to prevail upon him to obtain
permission for his new petro chemical
business will of-course be a discussion
among the budding entrepreneurs. That sequence
is a typical Mani Ratnam's magnum opus.It also
exposes the dangerous liaisons that the
business tycoons and the politicians enjoy.

The love-hate relationship between Guru
and the newspaper editor(Mithun) seems
to be new to the Indian film industry.
Abhishek expresses his greedy ambitions
through his eyes.He is at his best in acting.
We can see his acting skills honed
right from RGV's Sarkar.

Madhavan is a young journalist who is up
against Abhishek in movie and in acting.
Vidya Balan is beautiful.

It will be a sin if I dont mention about
Mallika Sherawat's "Mayya Mayya" song.
It comes at the very beginning of the movie.
So...!! Sujatha's(Aishwarya) introduction
song at the top of the Mahabalipuram's four
pillared Mandapam and the Tere Bina song shot in
Maduarai Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal is aesthetic
and artistic.Seems Mani Ratnam is fond of these
two places.It has come in many of his movies.
(Iruvar,Bombay,Thalapathi,Thiruda Thiruda)

Rajiv Menon speaks through the colors and
lighting with great elan.Whilst the characters
speak through Vijay Krishna Acharya's sharp dialogues.
In Tamil it is Azagham Perumal,director of Dum Dum Dum.
Rahman's music is dulcet and the
back ground music full-fills the need
of the scenes.

Fine,why is that there is always a
shade of sorrow and melancholy in second
half screenplay when he is active in business.
Is it because pain is part of
one's life who has reached great heights.
We can see the same pain being protrayed
in Iruvar also.

Seems the slowness at some instances in
the movie cant be avoided when you want
to tell the real life.

Villager,Visionary,Winner applies both
to Gurukant Desai and Mani Ratnam!

கடந்த ஆண்டின் கடைசி பத்து தினங்கள்..

இல்ல, நீங்க நினைக்கிற மாதிரி கடந்த ஆண்டின் முக்கிய வரலாற்று நிகழ்ச்சியை பற்றி எழுதப் போவதில்லை...எங்க அலுவலகத்தில் பத்து நாள் விடுமுறை கொடுத்தார்கள்.பத்து நாள் கிடைக்கிறதே என, பேராசையுடன் மூன்று தமிழ் புதினங்கள், நான்கு ஆங்கில புதினங்கள்,பார்க்க முடியாமல் போன படங்களின் தகடுகள் எல்லாம் எடுத்துக்கொண்டு வீட்டிற்க்கு சென்றேன்.

ஆனால்,எதுவும் உருப்படியா பண்ணல..
பிரேம்-பூஜா,விஜய்-ரச்னா இவர்கள் எல்லாம் யார் என்ற நிலையில் இருந்து இவர்களுக்காக ஒரு கூட்டம் (எங்கள் வீட்டிலும்,அதுவும் என் மொபைலில் இருந்து..!!) SMS அனுப்புகிறது என தெரிந்துகொண்டேன்.வீட்டில் அடிக்கடி கேட்ட வார்த்தை ஜோடி நம்பர் 1,பிரேம்-புஜா,செல்வி,அப்புறம் சதாம் ஹுசைன். செல்வி-கடைசி அத்தியாயம் பார்க்க விடாமல்,அந் நேரத்தில் சேனல் மாற்றியதற்காக கொஞ்சம் திட்டு வாங்கினேன்.

இந்த தொலைக்காட்சி நாடகங்களும் கொஞ்சம் addictive தான் போல...!!!

புத்தாண்டு நிகழ்ச்சிகளின் கவனக்கலைப்பில் இருந்து தப்ப முடியாமல் கிட்டதட்ட எல்லா சேனல்களையும் மாற்றி மாற்றி பார்த்தேன்...
போன வருடம் எடுத்த அதே உறுதிமொழிகளை இந்த வருடமும் எடுக்கலாம்
என்று இருக்கிறேன்.

Fine..இதோ இந்த புத்தாண்டில் எனது ஆசைகள்.

Hope there wont be any natural disasters.
Hope karnataka and kerala wont fight
with us for water(or is it the other way around)
Hope there will be a big salary hike this year.

And last but not the least,
Hope Asin remain No. 1 in south indian film industry...!!
oops..finally Happy New Year.