Movie Review - Aaja Nachle

We watched this movie on Saturday. Well to start with, for Madhuri fans, its something to be excited about. We enjoyed the movie though it picked up momentum only towards the end.
"Aaja Nachle" is a movie that places emphasis on the crew's dancing and theatrical skills and less of plot or acting. The dance sequences and the choreography has been done very well and its great to see Madhuri mesmerize us on the big screen. Its a very good comeback for Madhuri and she has played the role for her age. Kunal Kapoor and Konkona Sen also have performed well. There was some over acting and flow of emotions from Madhuri's guru. The final musical play was awesome and the crew did a wonderful job there. In all, its a colourful , off-beat movie and can be watched once. If you watch it without any expectations, you may end up enjoying it. For the pros, dance, colors and the cast keeps you awake even though the dialoges and the plot will try to sedate.
If you like Madhuri, you will watch it otherwise you can wait and grab a DVD on a lazy day.

Festive season begins in style

The festival season begins in India with the birth star of Lord Krishna. It is popularly celebrated as "Janma Ashtami" in the Northern India while it is celebrated with seedai, thatai, muruku, vennai, rava laddu etc in South India as "Krishna Jayanthi" or "Sri Jayanthi".

Pic 1: Krishna Nee begane Baaro


Pic 2: Yummy Snacks

Treating us with all the snacks, Krishna Jayanthi flies away giving way to Navrithiri in the consecutive month. Thus begins nine days of pujas and fun. In North India, the nine days of Navratiri is popularly celebrated as "Durga Puja" and the Goddess is worshipped for Her prowess and Divine Love.

In Southern India, Navrathiri is accompanied by the colourful and creative "Bommai Kolu" which is a display of beautiful, colorful dolls made of mud and plaster-of-paris. It is a feast to the eyes to see the bommai kolu which will be arranged in either 3 or 5 or 7 or 9 steps depending upon the convenience of each house hold. The kolu is accomponied with tasty sundals, of course.

This season is going to be even more electrifying with the arrival of "Diwali" or "Deepavali" and "Karthigai Deepam" before the winter begins.

Here is how we kick started the festive season at our residence in Austin, TX. We are thoroughly enjoying this phase and hope you guys have fun as well.

Happy Navarathiri and Diwali. Unleash the fun and frolic!!


Pic 3: Bommai Kolu Pic 4: Another view of the Kolu


Video 1: Srikanth gracing the Kolu with his
wonderful voice

Video 2: Srikanth singing the praise of Goddess of Knowledge

Why ask Why?

BalGangadhar Tilak, one of the Indian Freedom fighters, said "Swaraj is my Birth right". There is a species on earth who are disguised as human beings and say "Questioning is my birth right". Unlike a dinasour or rhinoceros,this species cannot be easily identified through their external features. They look very normal like anyone else. Also, they transform into normal human beings occasionally. It takes a couple of meetings and sometimes even more to identify creatures belonging to this species. Just like how normal human beings derive their most basic energy source by breathing, these creatures derive their energy by framing sentences starting with "Why".. "Why is this here? Why is that not moving?". While it is easy and makes sense to perceive these people as auditory learners, it is still worth exploring answers for their own questions before actually asking it loud out at others. By the way, why should i write about this? Take it easy.

Nearing 1000 Visitors...

Blogging has been bringing some positive energy into my days...It is very exciting to talk about random thoughts that pop up from time to time..Then I came across "Site Meter" from a fellow blogger's site ( BTW, I read this blog regularly and I like the writings: http://hawkeyeview.blogspot.com)...Since then, the period after a blog post has been quite anxious...Every now and then, I come back and see the "Site meter" if any curious reader has stopped by...By doing so, I end up being the most visited person of this blog spot (i know, itz crazy)...Anyways, here I go with my blogspot ready to receive its 1000th visitor...
Hail the blogspot

That that thing..That that place - Part I

My habits concerning home maintenance is no better than a college-going girl (all disciplined girls, pls excuse me)...one can always have the thrill of playing treasure hunt in the place I live..Despite the thrill this situation offers, most of the time it is not accompanied by fun. I've the credit of earning the wrath of many "that-that-thing,that-that-place" philosophers across the world. First of all my mom. Though she is worried about every single thing in the world most of the time, I enjoy a major share of it due to my talent of being highly dis-organized..like take the bag from a closet, fill it with stuff, go for an outing, come back and leave the stuff in the living room for 2 days..there will be a "beautiful, captivating" smell coming from the room. Of course, I'll be the person complaining about it and when we track down the "smell", it comes from the bag, and some of the stuff inside it had turned into a different form to emit this "smell"...there I go again, becoming the cause of concern for so many people around me..Lately, this not following "that-that-thing-in-that-that-place" has been getting on my husband's nerves...I put some thought on why these philosophers are so paranoid about their thought.They do really make sense and it always helps to find things in their place..I also thought about why most of us are not able to do it...will post my thoughts on it soon..

Patience is a virtue

Patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties (source: wikipedia)

Virtue : According to its etymology the word virtue (Latin virtus) signifies manliness or courage. Taken in its widest sense virtue means the excellence of perfection of a thing.

Possesing the trait of patience and treating it as a virtue is the most difficult thing for normal beings. It takes just seconds and absolutely requires no sense to lose patience, which means that patience is there in everyone and we only lose it. Isn't that a great thought? We possess a virtue inherently and just requires ignoring the common sense to lose it. In the first place, no one, who is sane, would ever want to give up common sense. Having said all this, it is still difficult to be patient under many circumstances. Like when you are waiting to hear from someone on an important decision making issue, you cannot really be patient. Sense takes backseat and it is only hope that will keep you going. To try and keep hope and sense as the flag bearers under these circumstances is quite a task....

An ode to 87 years of experience, discipline, punctuality, honesty and undeterred shouldering of responsibilities

My grand father Sriman U.Ve. Vichanthangal Prathivadhi Bayangaram Srinivasachariar left the world today. He has left a void so huge that it can never be filled. To know him is to know what uncompromising discipline means, what timeliness means, what judgment about the hours' need means and what shouldering responsibility truly means. This great man retired from his services as the chief auditor from Defense Accounts of India in the year 1980. It was a retirement forced upon him by the government regulations. He truly retired from work and life with the passing away of our beloved grand mother, his devoted best companion for 64 years in their life ( my grandmother was 76 yrs old when she passed away 16 months ago). Even then, the values he carried did not see a curve.
Father of 10 children, eldest brother of 8 sisters and 2 brothers, he has seen his own people raise above him in the walks of life with a touch of his dedicated work, perfectionist attitude, honest dealings and the mountain of his blessings.
His care comes out in ways different than normal. When we say, "Thatha, naangalam sendhu coorg tour poga porom", he promptly would say "inum oru maasathula kalyanatha vechindu engalamo poindrukaadhey. Jaakrathaya poitu vaango. Andha Kannan payanuku vayathu vali varum. Kandadha sapdama irungo" and would take a Rs.1000 from his pocket and give it to us. This is the same man who commuted by 21G MTC bus from Triplicane to Chromepet at the age of 86 and preferred to take the ordinary service rather than the deluxe bus ( because in deluxe bus the ticket cost is Rs.15 and in ordinary bus it costs only Rs.10 and the 5 rupees saved could be used elsewhere)
Thatha, no matter what your modus operandi with us was, no matter if you were mad at us most of the time for lack of discipline, if at all we show any traces of doing the best, keeping up time, understand the value for money,thinking about others' needs, taking a task to completion if we have begun it, then it is through your influence and radiance. When you come and ask me "Computer-la enna velai dee panuvey? Edhuku ungaluku avlo sambalam kudukara? what is the nature of your job?" i can only look upon you with awe as to how you want to understand the dynamics of today even though you have a countless series of accomplishments behind you. You have left behind a treasure of values and an example for us to look upon in times of trouble. We have never felt like 25+ year old adults so far, because we always had you with us and we always will be children looking up to you and longing for your praising. If you praise us, it definitely means we have done something very good as you have set such high standards for us. We will try to be the people whom you will be proud of anytime. You have left behind a huge family and we miss the light house.

The man that is called "Roger Federer"

Watching the French open tennis men's finale yesterday left me thinking how important it is to feel good about oneself. It was a classic game of tennis and the King surrendered gracefully to the clay court champion Rafael Nadal after trying him as much as he could that day. Federer is a new icon of the sports world and the character that he shows on court is worth studying. After having won the Roland Garros three times in a row and going with an unconquered 21-0, Nadal said "Roger is a champion, no matter if he wins or loses". Should we talk about Nadal's modesty here or Federer's magnitude? If a champion can talk about his runner-up after making history, then the man who never touched the Coupe des Mousquetaires so far, has definitely touched the hearts and the game of tennis players. Dear Rahul Dravid and team, please take a break from all your shooting for endorsements and learn some will power and attitude here (sorry.. couldn't give up being a crazy Indian cricket fan ). Federer is a phenomenon to watch, excite oneself, learn from and contemplate. Sports sans fight , concentration sans aggression, disappointments sans grudges are the hallmarks of the man that is called Roger Federer. And the best thing is he has evolved to become what he is today, perhaps taking very less time than most of us do.
Congratulations Roger Federer on finishing second to Rafael Nadal, gracefully...

Saaaaaaaaar...........Post!!

When I was studying BE in the year 1998 ( The era when moms and dads could not send emails and when I didn't have an email account).., we used to receive letters, i mean, real letters from our parents and friends. Once in a week all the news from home, around the home and anything that would interest us would be written in a concise 3 page inland cover. I love those letters. And it was also periodical..like once a week and when we are very busy once a month. It was a good challenge to say whatever you wanted to say in limited space and yet keep communicating..I loved those letters, nothing forgotten to communicate, constant touch and not overwhelming...

These days, with the power of emails that provide instant touch and lightening speed replies, inland letters are forgotten. We have the freedom to communicate to anyone anywhere whenever at zero cost and no time delay..Suddenly, I'm feeling this freedom has taken too many sane things away from us....I miss inland letters

Thou shalt not sit in front of the computer

Ever wonder why somebody always focuses on how to use time efficiently and not about how time gets drifted away?I've come across hundred things that could be done to make best use of time. Plan, organize, prioritize.....
But today, I'm wondering what captivates most of my time which I could otherwise use to do the above.
Here is a list of things one can do to waste time.
Disclaimer: I do not do many or most of the things listed below. But yet let time fly by
1) Create email accounts with all free email providers- yahoo, rediff, hotmail, gmail etc..
2) Send at least 2 mails from each email id to all the friends and confuse them. This will make sure you receive email in all the accounts
3) Check all of your email accounts once in every 20 mts
3) Create accounts in communities such as Orkut
4) Add every possible person as a friend
5) Read the scrapbook of your friend's friend's friend's friend and gradually reduce down to your friend's scrap book. Do this with all the friends in the list of each of your friend. ( If you want to break your head at this point, please go to a nearby wall or if you don't want to get up try the computer table)
6) Play solitaire
7) If you win aim for 3 consecutive wins
8) If you lose keep playing until you win and repeat step 7
9) Create a blog and write a stupid post in it ( like this one)
10) Check the blog spot every 3 mts to see if someone has visited and left a comment

At this moment, I want to go away from the computer...am leaving this prison of computer chair and the monster LCD monitor with a vow not to comeback to do any of the above.........

Roobaiku rendu..illa rendu oru rooba

The title is a famous comedy line from the tamil movie "karagatakaaran". It depicts the passion in our people to get involved in bargaining before purchasing any stuff which you want , or may be you want or don't want at all (IMHO, most of the times, the purchase you make after a satisfying bargain is something you never want in the first place ;-) ). I've had immense fun watching some good people I know do skillful bargaining and sometimes enjoy doing it myself. The common targets for such bargaining would be the vegetable and fruit vendors. It is kinda amusing to watch one's slang change from decent talk to an argumentative "Madras tamil" as one gets involved into the act of bargaining. For eg., "Inna nee ivlo vela solre?" as compared to "en ivalavu velai adhigama solre?" and did I forget mentioning about T Nagar or Pondy Bazaar or Usman Road or Ranganathan Street? I've witnessed some classic acts of bargaining in these places along with my aunts and it doesn't matter if it is GRT Gold jewellery or Kumaran Silks or Kalanjiyam cut piece, the fight is on. She goes on with punch statements like "naan ethana kadai paarthureken?" or "regular customers-kitta ipdi velai solreengaley?" or she will suddenly hijack the business from the shop keeper by stunning him with a "idhavida cheap-a naan unaku vaangi tharen". Wow!!hats off to her confidence :). So, if the lady doesn't strike a deal in that shop, then it is a bad shop with no quality. Quality is judged by how good her bargaining skills worked out in that place :). And yes not to forget the non-stop-nonsense "auto men" in Chennai ( all the good auto men, quite a few of them though, please forgive me!)..If the Indian airlines were to fly their Boeing between Triplicane and Chennai Central, I'd rather take it than argue on a hot sunny day with an auto wallah for getting a reasonable deal. I used to buy lots of Saridon whenever I commute to work by an auto and also got enrolled with a good cardiologist for a regular checkup thanks to the driving skills of our auto man. Coming back to our topic on bargaining, enjoy these clippings...

A passing thought

If you ponder over something for quite sometime ( more than 10 minutes..) and still don't make sense out of it, then it is not worth thinking over any further in the present. Enjoy the moment as it breezes past

Two lines

Live your life forward;
Understand it backwards...

SanAntonio Riverwalk

It was a wonderful day and we decided to go to SanAntonio to spend a relaxing weekend day. I was truly mesmerized when we approached the River-walk street in San Antonio,TX. It was a great sight to see the meticulously laid river paths and the creative, activity filled mall and restaurants on either side of the walk.
We throughly enjoyed a 4 hour walk with lot of happy people around...For once, it gave me a feeling of home where I can relate to people and understand them..I mean the common language around the place was "happiness" and "excitement". I love San Antanio river walk.

To bug or not to bug

This idea has been "bugging" my mind and was thinking hard as to if I should write about it or not..here it goes..the "bugging" issue...
Living in an apartment can be quite interesting most of the times. Lot of things are taken care of. If the tap leaks or if the light switch is loose or if the window needs mending, just place a call and someone is there at the door helping you. Also, the security is taken care of, you get a very good pool to laze and access to well equipped fitness center. But what is it with these bugs? Where do they come from? How do they go around all the places in the apartment which we visit maybe only twice a week (like the laundry room)? Having bugs in the apartment home can be quite frustrating, seriously..Now I know why they are called "bugs". I hate these bugs..

Fortune Cookies

We went to this Chinese restaurant( PF Chang's at Austin )the other day to indulge ourselves in delicious Chinese food and it was my birthday. Having enjoyed the meal and the bills settled, we were about to leave when the waitress gave me and my husband a cookie each. We broke the cookie to find a fortune written on it. I was amused to find the above words in the cookie. My husband's fortune read as "Those who seek will find"...

Kaatrinile Varum Geetham...

The name M S Subbalakshmi is not new to the carnatic music fans all over the world. The divine voice of this "Bharat Ratna" carries the listener beyond the worries of this world. Be it the rendering of Rajaji's "Kurai Onrum Illai" or Annamacharya's kirthanas, the divine influence is for us to rejoice. One cannot ask for more after listening to her rendering of the sanskrit slokas Sri Vishnu Sahasranama. Mahakavi Bharathiyar's songs come to life when MSS sings them with fervor and life. I'm posting some of my most favourite songs rendered by MS in the form of audio or video. Hope we'll enjoy this

Kurai Onrum Illai:

Kaatrinile Varum Geetham:

Meera Bhajan:

I Know it all

Dedication: To all the "All-in-all azhagurajas"** in my peer group and to the only such person we know: Madhu

"Take it easy dude. I'll solve your problem" is the favorite line of the all-in-all azhagurajas. No matter what your concern is, they have a suggestion. Sometimes they do give wonderful suggestions to their peers like "Try out Coorg* for an adventurous outing. It is a good place" and "Don't take the bus route between Mountroad* and Guindy* today, there is a procession. Take the suburban train". What is best about these people is that they pro actively contact you and give you a few tips with their vivid imagination guiding them to do so. For example, one day Madhu, my cousin called me at 6 a.m.. I woke up from my sleep and took the call with a sleepy hello. I was kinda wondering when he said "Charge your mobile phone..It's battery is going to drain".."how the hell he is saying that when we live at least 15 kms apart and haven't met in the past 1 month?" and to my surprise the phone was indeed running out of battery charge. We cousins kinda keep making fun of Madhu all the time and also conferred the title "Ellam Therinjavan ( the guy who knows everything)" on him. So whenever we have a problem we call him. Like the other day, Madhav, another cousin, had lost his wallet and was searching for it for about 5 minutes. Suddenly he realized "why take the pain?" and called Madhu to locate the wallet for him :)). Despite all the fun we make of Madhu, he is a sport and never tries to underplay his habit of sharing knowledge with others. Hats off to you Madhu.

* Coorg, Mount Road and Guindy are towns in Southern India
**Note: "All-in-all Azhaguraja" is a phrase which defines a person who is adept at everything he does.

I need a parcel

There is this energetic Indian guy who goes into Subway ( for those who don't know, Subway is a fast food chain in America) . He says "I need a veggie sandwich parcel". The cute attendant asks, "Sorry, what?" and this guy repeats "a veggie sandwich parcel" with a sharp accent. The attendant politely and confusedly replies "I'll give you a veggie sandwich but for the parcel you need to go to the post office". This situation may be quite stupid for most of you, but you should know the usage of this word parcel in some parts of India. People walk into a restaurant and say "one masala dosa parcel" and walk out happily with a masala dosa. The catch here is that in the US people refer to take away food as "to go" and "parcel" means a package. In India, the word "parcel" is used in both the places. So this bubbly chap wonders as to "why the hell should i go to a post office to have take away food?".

Home Sweet Home - Triplicane Rocks

• Want to taste hot idli sambar and spicy masala dosa?
• Want to indulge in the divine spirit of Lord Krishna?
• Want to chill out and have an evening with friends and family?
• Want to watch a nail-biting ODI cricket between India and Pakistan?
• Want to take a tour down the lanes of history?

Hang on, its all thrown open to you at Triplicane.

Triplicane also known as Thiruvallikeni ("Thiru alli keni" translated as "The Holy pond with Lily flowers") is a small yet beautiful town in the heart of the Chennai Metropalitan City in India.
It is densely populated with a variety of people like the Tamil Brahmins, Telugu businessmen (they do rice business, in large), the muslim community, the working bachelors and a variety of retail vendors from kaaigari (translated as vegetables) to clothing to grocery super markets. Not to forget about the kaiendhi bhavans(translated as fast food centers) and famous restaurants.

Ratna Cafe
This South Indian Vegetarian restaurant is very famous for its delicious Idli and Sambar ( a south indian snack prepared with rice and urid dhal with a spicy soup like side dish). Ratna cafe has a huge fan-fare from all over Chennai for its unique masala dosa and filter coffee. People even take "parcels" back home from this place. (To read an interesting anectode on how the word parcel is used in India and the US click here). To read reviews on RatnaCafe please click here.

Sri Parthasarathy Swamy temple ( A Hindu worship place)
Sri Parthasarathy temple is one of the 108 sacred SriVaishnavite temples and has Lord Krishna as its main deity. Partha Sarathy means "Charioteer for Partha alias Arjuna". As the epic Mahabharata unfolds, Lord Krishna himself takes the form of charioteer for Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers and enlightens him with The Bhagavat Gita (The Holy Divine Song from the Lord) leading the brothers to victory in the war against evil.

This temple is also known as "Brindaranya Kshetram". Sri Andal is the main consort of Sri Parthasarathy and Sri Rukmini Thaayar is the consort of the Moolavar Sri VenkataKrishnan. Even though the main deity today is Sri Parthasarathy, this temple originally had Lord Sri Narasimha as its main deity. The legend goes that Lord Parathasarathy requested Lord Narasimha to give Him a place in the temple so that He can rest after the tedious Kurukshetra war and He stayed there ever after blessing His devotees. Apart from Lord Parthasarathy and VenkataKrishnan, the temple also has the sanctum-sanctorum of Lord Narasimha, Lord Ranganatha, Lord Rama and Lord Varadharaja. In this temple, Lord Varadharaja offers Nithya Garuda Sevai ( The Lord sits on his chariot Garuda, the Eagle) to His devotees.
This temple is personally very special and close to my heart.

The Marina Beach
Asia's second longest beach, the marina is just the perfect place for an evening outing. Marina is a boon to the Chennai-ites given the scorching hot weather throughout the year. You cannot miss the paatani-sundal ( a spicy snack), molagai bajji (chili hot dog like) when you are out there.

The MCC Stadium
The Chepauk Stadium is no new name to Cricket fans all over the world. In fact, it is Sachin Tendulkar's favorite stadium as he blazes all around with his smashing shots. I was lucky to watch the third day's play of Australia-India Titan Cup Test Match at this stadium.

Down the lanes of History
All the places like Ratna Cafe, Sri Parthasarathy temple ,MCC Stadium are as old as my ancestors. Yet, thats not all with Triplicane. It has other famous highlights . One such monument is The Hindu Hr. Sec. School.
Some famous students of this "Red Building" are Mahakavi Subramani Bharathi, Nobel laureate Chandrasekar.
Vivekanandar Illam (associate this with Swami Vivekananda) or the "Ice House" is another famous landmark at Triplicane.

To Reach Triplicane,
Nearest Railway Station: Chennai Central ( approximately 3 Kms from Chennai Central )
Nearest Airport: Anna International Terminal, Chennai ( approximately 10 kms from the airport)

While you are there at Chennai, visit Triplicane. It definitely rocks!