To start a blog is easy; but to maintain one is among the toughest things…
… thus started a mediocre blog. A year and 200 posts later, it still remains that way – more importantly, it remains!
Today is my first blogiversary.
Thanks everyone for tolerating my rants; thanks especially to those who drop in regularly in the hope of finding out “Has this person written something useful at least this time?”
The immediate requirement for the Indian cricket team is a good opener, someone who can hang in there. It is a specialised slot, and it requires a specialist. Gambhir would have been ideal, but he throws his bat around as much as Sehwag does, and that serves no purpose. We need someone who can keep a low profile, play second fiddle to Sehwag and weather the storm. If we are looking to win the next World Cup, we need an opening batsman who tackle these unfriendly, unforgiving Caribbean pitches.
A request to you, Mr. Chappell: let’s develop an expert opener!
This video shows the superstar trying out a step.
Here are links to two other videos on YouTube: Rajni practising a step, a group of dancers rehearsing.
Online friendships are strange, but fun. I’m sure most of us have tried our hand at it, at least in curiosity. However, the one downside of it is the durability of such a friendship.
In case you are interested in acquiring a new friend, I suggest you try this new website — Fo.rtuito.us — it is quite interesting. Once you sign up with Fo.rtuito.us, you are assigned a friend at random. All you know about him / her is the sign-in ID and a picture uploaded by him / her. That’s all. You can exchange messages with this person via the website over the ensuing four-day period. If you hit off with this assigned friend, you get to add that person. In any case, you will be assigned a new friend in four days.
I tried it; at least, the first time you do it, it is kinda interesting. After that… well, try it if you are really vetti.
This is not the first time that Trisha features in a song where the female lead sings in a male voice. I can recall that the equally poor Thiruppaachi had such a song too. Now, we all know that music directors pick playback singers to suit the actor and the situation. Other things remaining the same, I really really wonder what Trisha’s real voice sounds like…
The movie is about an adolescent who is driven to the world of crime because of circumstances, and his rise and rise in the underworld. It shows us that promising Dhanush who went AWOL since Kaadhal Konden. Kudos to him for choosing to get back to his brother for that badly-needed hit, and more kudos to Selvaraghavan for extracting the very best out of his brother.
With his physique, Dhanush might not convince us as the perfect gangster, but his acting — boy, he’s simply poured his heart into this movie. He has put in such a riveting performance that the jury for the State Awards can tell themselves they won’t see a better acting performance this year.
The movie depicts reality in all its gory glory. It’s long, mind you, well over 3 hours. And the story just keeps unfolding. Personally, beyond the 150-minute mark, I kept peering into my watch telling myself, “Oh, please, let this movie not end.” And that’s because each scene has been handled with utmost care. So much that one cannot say which is the best scene in the movie. Each scene clashes with every other scene in the fight to be called the best.
The background score is brilliant; top marks to Yuvan. Arvind Krishna’s camera work is magical. Every actor has chipped in with a good performance. In fact, the person sitting next to me quipped once, “How do they spot these actors? They are so natural, and so very good.” Sneha has put in a good performance. The same cannot be said about Sonia Agarwal though; but her screen presence is limited, and the characterisation is weak.
The only real spoiler, if you ask me, is the last ten minutes of the movie. There is a point in this film (just as Pasi Sathya departs) where the credits should have come up, and the audience would have left with a heavy heart, and in absolute praise. But the three ensuing scenes dilute that effect, and make you wonder, “Why did they do this? Why spoil the experience?”
However, if you choose to overlook the last ten minutes, I think this movie deserves a perfect ten! A movie like this, I have not seen before in Tamil. At least not since Dalapathi!
Pudhupettai is not a modern classic; it is a modern epic!
Thanks to a friend, I stumbled onto Shunya – a site which claims to be “a community site for people interested in contemporary Indian Technology.” Slashdot users will find the layout familiar.Shunya is also available in Hindi, which is pleasantly surprising.
Picture this. Two years of the UPA. Such a poor excuse for a government. On the second anniversary, as everyone in the UPA gathers to celebrate (?!?), there are so many burning issues. Arjun Singh doesn’t even know what he is doing, and triggers off Mandal II. Protesting medicos. And to top it all, Meira Kumar suggests that the private sector should voluntarily bring in reservations within two years. Srinagar is rocked. The Sensex crashes. There is talk of a major fuel price hike.
And yet the BJP, the main opposition party, is nowhere to be seen or heard. Any other party would have torn the Government to shreads. The BJP though is quite content in stoking its own internal clashes.
A couple of weeks ago, five states went to polls. Of more than 800 assembly seats, the BJP managed to win a very low number. This when projected in the Parliament would give them less than half a dozen seats. And every other seat would have gone to the UPA. Agreed that the BJP has never done well in any of these states. Agreed that the Left is spineless enough to support the Congress at the Centre after engaging in slanging matches in Kerala and West Bengal. But that is no excuse for the BJP.
The situation is compounded by the fact that the party is treated as an untouchable almost everywhere. No one wants to get into an alliance with the BJP. And their own parivar is unhappy that the party is compromising its core ideology.
That leaves them only one choice — unless the BJP can sweep the Hindi heartland, 2009 is a lost dream. But that is easier said than achieved. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat have BJP governments, where anti-incumbency might come into play. Uttar Pradesh’s polity is fractured, and indications are that Mayavati is the current frontrunner. Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand, well you never know.
Though the present Government is bumbling, the BJP is at pains to find an issue to touch base with the common man. Worse, the party is unable to keep its own flock together. Even worse is the lack of solid alliance partners. Add to this the loss of Pramod Mahajan, a key strategist and negotiator… and you have a party which seems doomed.
One wonders, what’s cooking at 11, Ashoka Road?
… is a very common type of logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical transliteration of the crossword. In principle, Cross Sums puzzles are integer programming problems, and can be solved using matrix techniques, although they are typically solved by hand.
That itself is enough to drive away a matrix-averse person like me. Hold on, it isn’t as nerd-ish as it sounds.
Enough of footie, you say? How about the movies? What do James Stewart and Cher have in common with me?
Puzzled? Can you think of a connection between great Israeli general, Moshe Dayan and yours truly? Or His Holiness the Late Mahaperiyaval of the Kanchi Mutt, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati?
Or the great Honore de Balzac who wrote the immortal statement, “Behind every great fortune, there is a crime”… Or the proponent of utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill?
It’s the 20th of May, Sherlock!
After watching the controversial film Da Vinci Code at a special show in New Delhi on Thursday, the Censor Board has cleared the film with an ‘Adult’ certificate.
The film has been cleared without cuts, but it will carry a disclaimer at the beginning and at the end.
deserve… persevere… succeed!There was no Miracle of Paris, then, just a predictable victory to the predictable victors. But it did not come about in a predictable manner…
Last evening, some careless channel browsing led me to NDTV Profit. The family of the slain Indian engineer Suryanarayana was back in the news. His wife, the one who had consumed some poisonous stuff, is recovering. Personally, I detest this affliction of TV channels to place a camera in front of wailing family members; however, this news item was different.
It seems that Suryanarayana’s eldest daughter, Anisha, is good at drawing. And she had drawn something (I don’t remember what). When asked, she was saying, “I used to draw and show the pictures to many father. He used to appreciate me very much…” At the next sentence, I froze. “My brother is too young to understand anything. I don’t know how I am going to explain to him.” Perhaps only a simple sentence, but I found it heart-wrenching!
Thiruttu Payale
Watched this movie, partly because it was highly rated by the newspaper reviews. Not disappointing. The story is not quite believable, however the screenplay made it engaging. Despite Mirchi Suchi’s dubbing, Malavika’s performance in a negative role was good. The director could have chosen to avoid protracted stunt scenes. Not one to steal your heart, but worth a watch.
Ilaiyaraja’s Thiruvasagam
After a gap of about 2 months, I am back to listening to the mastro’s rendition of Thiruvasagam. What about it draws me so much, I wonder. Perhaps it is because this work combines three things I like very much – religion, poetry and music.
I have heard of oxymorons (contradictory terms, like “deafening silence”). Come to think of it, “religious poetry” is probably the best anti-oxymoron ever coined.
Excuse my lack of vocabulary; however, none of the online dictionaries I consulted have an antonym for the word oxymoron. And it is time to invent one. How about oxygenius? Or hydromoron? Alright, pardon me, I just woke up…
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