Vijay Narayanan on December 28th, 2007

India are chasing 499 for victory. We have two days to get there, to rewrite Test history. But one man can write a script totally unexpected - Rahul Dravid.
At stumps on day 3, Dravid was batting on 3 off 30 deliveries, a scoring rate well above that in the previous inning, where he managed to [...]

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PHL

Vijay Narayanan on December 16th, 2007

Comment from the Metro’s Philadelphia edition last week:
The Philadelphia International Airport has been voted as the nation’s Best Airport to meet someone: Yes, of course. If you are delayed habitually for 6 hours, then it is surely the best place to meet someone!

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Vijay Narayanan on December 16th, 2007

… look the best team currently, most likely to win the League this year. Of course, Manchester United will win it nevertheless.

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Vijay Narayanan on December 15th, 2007

That the movie Malaikkottai be renamed “Kaadhile Poo”.

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Vijay Narayanan on December 14th, 2007

Barack Obama came up with probably the best comeback line of the 2008 Elections so far in last night’s Democratic debate. In doing so, he gave Hillary Clinton a superb nose cut. Here is what happened:
Moderator: Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser, State Department policy director and Navy Secretary, among others, [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 13th, 2007

1. Vel: Above-average masala flick, evidently designed to please as many sections of the audience as possible in over 2 hours. Excellent performance by Surya, in his first (?) double role, that puts to shame Vijay’s ATM. No doubt Vel is rocking the BO this Deepavali. Despite the music being a let-down, the movie is [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 12th, 2007

நீ பார்த்த பார்வைகள் கனவோடு போகும்
நீ சொன்ன வார்த்தைகள் காற்றோடு போகும்
ஊர் பார்த்த உண்மைகள் உனக்காக வாழும்
உணராமல் போவோர்க்கு உதவாமல் போகும்.

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Vijay Narayanan on December 10th, 2007

It is very clear - Surya currently leads the race to become the next superstar of Tamil cinema. One can arrive at no other conclusion after watching Vel.
Surya’s introduction scene in the movie is cliched - and he uses even more cliches when he talks about how to hold the aruvaal. But once the dust [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 9th, 2007

Watching the Boro v/s Arsenal game. Half-time now, and Boro have been pretty impressive. In fact, for a while, their combination play has looked like Arsenal’s. Tuncay and Downing have been excellent. And the Gunners have been uncharacteristically poor.
Update: Boro hold off for a win. Deservedly so.

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Vijay Narayanan on December 8th, 2007

… especially, simple South Indian vegetarian cooking has to be among the easiest things to do; so algorithm-like, that there simply can be no excuse whatsoever for someone to be a bad cook.
P.S.: I must confess though that the spinach curry didn’t taste very good.

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Vijay Narayanan on December 6th, 2007

CNN IBN reports that the Supreme Court of India has allowed women to ply the bartending profession. Shocking!
The “discerning reader” would be quick to label this writer as a male-chauvinist and someone mired in old, stupid ideas that stereotype the role of men and women in society. Welcome to the club!
As someone who looks down [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 3rd, 2007

Roger Cohen writes an excellent article in the IHT, drawing eight rules of modern, global politics drawn from the supposed problems between Venezuela and the United States. I have tried to compare the rules and their applicability in the Indian, mostly Tamilian context.

Trade trumps politics. Wrong! Well, mostly. In India, politics trumps everything. Only inaction [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 2nd, 2007

Today I chanced to watch the movie Azhagiya Thamizhmagan. I was surprised that I found myself liking it, when everyone who had spoken to me about this movie had trashed it. Even more surprising because I didn’t like the songs very much, yet basically everyone trashed my music review.
The movie reminds me of MGR’s Ninaithadhai [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 2nd, 2007

The first snow shower of this winter in the Northeast.

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Vijay Narayanan on November 22nd, 2007

I’m looking for the name of an actor in S.Ve. Shekar’s Natakhapriya. He has a distinct voice, and features in almost all of S.Ve. Shekar’s pre-2000 dramas. Generally he plays a cameo, but very memorable ones.
Some of his most enjoyable roles are as S.Ve. Shekar’s father in Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam (”Maargazhi thingal…”), and as [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on November 21st, 2007

Suppose a neutral fan had been told at the start of the just-concluded Euro 2008 qualifier between England and Croatia that one of these teams had already booked its place in next year’s finals, and the other needed a draw to qualify, he / she would have told you at the end of the game [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on November 21st, 2007

What is the claim to fame of Sundarrao Nadkarni with respect to Tamil cinema?
Update: Ok, that turned out to be a damp squib. Shri Nadkarni was the director of Haridas, the most successful Tamil movie pre-1950.

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Vijay Narayanan on November 20th, 2007

Check out Customers Vote on Amazon.com.
You get to vote on 6 products out of 18. And those products with the maximum votes will be offered for Black Friday prices (a 1000-dollar laptop for 300, an 1800-dollar LCD TV for 700, Nintendo Wii for $79 etc) to lucky customers after a draw. I think this is [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on November 19th, 2007

The Hindu has published a long-pending editorial on the ongoing credit crunch in the US which is a result of housing lenders competing against each other in the recent past to provide home loans to unqualified people without properly assessing the long-term risk of their actions. Promptly, the editorial cites the chances of a similar [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on November 18th, 2007

Oram Po, starring Arya and Pooja, is slated for release in a couple of weeks. The movie has faced lots of problems, hence the delayed release. I chanced to catch the trailer (which has been out for long) yesterday. Must say it is one of the best movie trailers in recent times. If it is [...]

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