I just visited a few blogs i usually read, and realised they're not updated either! So i guess we're back to that phase in blog land where people are just too busy, or too bored, to update. I don't have anything in particular either, as always! But hell, dead blogs aren't nice :(
Nothing seems significant enough to go up on the blog! I know i shouldn't be saying this, because my blog title boasts of acknowledging insignificance! I don't know why I don't feel like writing about this beautiful, huge campus, the lovely walks, the river, the fireworks, the swipe cards, or Brisbane as such! Nothing seems to impress! Its not a nice feeling, when nothing is good enough to take your breath away... Its like, your 'expectation meter' suddenly shot up sky high! Maybe there will come a time when excitement will dawn upon this being, and my dark eye will notice the brighter side of things. I'll wait for that day! I swear, if any of you visit me sometime now, I'd be the happiest person on earth ;) and i'd do anything for u! Lol...
Its pretty amazing to realise the value of good company... there were a bunch of people who were always around, who understood every goddam thing you said, and enjoyed the same things you did... and suddenly, the rivers and the blue skies aren't lovely anymore because the people are missing. And even music can't work its charm on you and make your eyes appreciate beauty. A lovely star-lit night with a light breeze and the perfect music playing in your ears, doesn't bring tears to your eyes. You're in constant search of something, that is most likely, non-existent in the near future. You smile so much at strangers, not so much at non-strangers. You see the most beautiful sunset from the 6th level of an amazing building, an empty level with fluorescent green floors, and you're rooted to the spot for a moment... staring at the incredibly straight rays that emanate from a bush of light in all its yellow-ness...and you want that scene to play before your eyes everyday. Will that happen?
So is this all about belonging?
Yours" Well, it does feel pretty cool to swipe cards to enter buildings!"ly
signing off...
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Firsts...
I think I've taken a long enough break from blogging! And, it wasn't voluntary ;) First, to the 14th of July, 2008, a toast (well, an imaginary one!), for being the happiest, and the most tiring day in the past few months. Why would i want to offer this toast to a tiring day? Because it is after the most tiring days that you sleep most sound, and most deep :) Anyway, lets all wish my Anna and my Manni a happy happy life ahead! Love you guys!
Now to things more relevant to my present situation. My firsts in Australia.
Smiling, at random strangers, and all the time.
Drinking water straight out of a kitchen tap.
Wearing a Jerkin continuously, ALL the time, for a week (and i'm sure it'll be for longer!)
Shouting out 'Thank you' to bus drivers.
Finding banks tolerable, to the extent of mild liking! (but that does not change the fact that i STILL want the guy i marry to do all the banking later in life!)
Loving ALL the clothes that my mother bought me! (because she had the sense to buy me warm clothes. I on the other hand, was a total idiot! thank God for mothers...)
Walking up and down SLOPES. Its like you hike everyday!
Handling extreme courtesy, and niceness from great people.
Seeing SO MANY chinese people in one place. You get confused, start wondering if you're in Australia or China! No offence to any chinese though!
A thought...on how marriage should eventually work out :) Yes, a couple gave me the feeling, recently. It feels good to see people like that.
I could go on... :)
Missing everyone back home... love you guys!
Yours "Jahaan bhi le jaye zindagi..." ly
Signing off...
Now to things more relevant to my present situation. My firsts in Australia.
Smiling, at random strangers, and all the time.
Drinking water straight out of a kitchen tap.
Wearing a Jerkin continuously, ALL the time, for a week (and i'm sure it'll be for longer!)
Shouting out 'Thank you' to bus drivers.
Finding banks tolerable, to the extent of mild liking! (but that does not change the fact that i STILL want the guy i marry to do all the banking later in life!)
Loving ALL the clothes that my mother bought me! (because she had the sense to buy me warm clothes. I on the other hand, was a total idiot! thank God for mothers...)
Walking up and down SLOPES. Its like you hike everyday!
Handling extreme courtesy, and niceness from great people.
Seeing SO MANY chinese people in one place. You get confused, start wondering if you're in Australia or China! No offence to any chinese though!
A thought...on how marriage should eventually work out :) Yes, a couple gave me the feeling, recently. It feels good to see people like that.
I could go on... :)
Missing everyone back home... love you guys!
Yours "Jahaan bhi le jaye zindagi..." ly
Signing off...
Friday, June 20, 2008
Peters and Non-peters
We witness dwindling symbols of 'culture' and 'tradition' in today's Chennai. I'm a part of it. And so are most of the girls I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about anything big, or anything of great consequence or damage to our saastrams and sampradayams! A few observations, amusing ones, drive me to write this post.
How many times have you walked down a street and seen a foreigner, in very indian clothes, smile at poo-kaairs (flower girls/women) and kariga kaarans (Vegetable sellers), who return a knowing smile? Hell, even if I saw them everyday, they probably wouldn't smile at me, in all my Indian-ness and Chennai-ness! I believe that foreigners are way more polite than we indians are. But would I get the same treatment if I were as polite? No. And why? This woman, this (as the pookaris and kariga karans might put it) Vellaikaari, took to those 'articles' of 'culture' and 'tradition' that tamizh-penns these days seem to have shed blissfully :) And what might those be, you ask? First, the round red (or whatever colour!) mark on the forehead. The Pottu. Trying to coax us 'learned' tamizh girls into getting back to the pottu mode, dear paatis and ammas and maamis told us how that particular point on the forehead has a divine connection to the pineal gland, and thus, how we must not refrain from 'the act'. But what did we say? We said, we could just touch the particular point once a day, if it were so significant, and forget about walking around with a pottu. They obviously gave up on us, and our reasoning, probably with a "indha kaalathu ponngal laam yenga namba sonna pechu ketkardhugal?" line! We laughed it off!
Second, maligapoo. Jasmine flowers. Even today, thousands of tamizh women adorn their hair with neatly tied up maligapoo every evening, and thousands of pookaris are still in business, selling moonu mozham pathu rooba (It would be weird to translate that!), or actually, less than moonu mozham these days! The flowers that I loved pinning up to my tightly plaited, coconut-oil-oiled hair when I was younger, and less 'learned', now touch my hair only during kalyanams, or festivals, or poojas (despite the fact that i DO know that some guys STILL fancy the smell!), and that too, ten times smaller in size, and for a much shorter time period! In a few minutes, I'd be answering the question "thalaila poo vechukaleya di?" with "yengayo vizhundhurthu, vidungo parava illai!". Gone are the days when I'd wake up to crunchy, brown, dried flowers on my bed, with half-white fading, dying, flowers revealing a white string, pinned up across the back of my head, one plait to the other! I was very Kenyan-tamizh then! ;) Coming back to India, changed it all :) But of course, we always have enough things to blame!
Third. Golusu. Anklets. As a child, i wore these extrememely heavy, ridiculously noisy silver ankelts, loaded with a million small chalangu (the collisions of which cause the sound to emanate), which i would carefully take off before playing hide and seek, for the fear of being given away by the oh-so-tinky noise! I loved them depsite the fact that they scratched me more than i'd have liked! I still remember the jeweller asking me if i was learning Bharathnatyam! I wasn't. I still bought them! I don't know when i finally stopped wearing them, and when i took to buying beaded, noiseless, SINGLE 'anklets' (and NOT golusu), from besant nagar beach! Well, there still arent any anklets on my feet!
So here we have this foreign woman, a decently sized maroon circle posing in between her eyebrows, her BLONDE hair neatly pulled back in a long plait (perhaps the hair was oiled too!) and adorned with atleast one mozham of malligapoo, wearing a purple/pink salwar kameez, like she was born in it (!!), BOTH her ankles circled by velli golusu (silver anklets), with not as many chalangu as my childhood noise-makers, but enough to be heard, and a genuine, belonging smile on her face, riding a bicycle in the crowded streets of Mylapore Tank. Was she more Tamizh than me? She was Tamizh enough to earn the smiles of those who wouldn't really care too much with others. And what do we do? We complain about the crowded streets of mylapore tank, and the cows in the middle of the road, and consequently, their shaani (!) and avoid going there unless we HAVE to buy Kolu Bommai, or eat in Saravanabhavan! :)
Well, not all foreign women give me this feeling of lost heritage. There was once I had to walk out of Naidu Hall, in Tnagar, for the fear of laughing out loud at a bunch of american women, and their Indian chaperone, dressed in spagetti strap tops, and skirts, their pony tails circled with endless concentric circles of maligapoo, their feet lost in a sea of green Pothys polythene covers, deep in conversation with the saleswoman, with momentary interruptions from the indian chaperone, about what colour petticoat would best suit each saree they had bought, as 2 very exhausted looking american men, dressed in shorts, carrying huge bag-packs, sulked behind them! My mother was decent enough to smile, and continue her shopping :)
Amma and I sat down opposite another Maami and her daughter, at the aforementioned, eternally crowded, Saravanabhavan today. The next table, had a bunch of foreigners, with a very weirdly accented english, deep in conversation in their native language. The Tamizh waiter took their order, and the conversation sounded something like this -
(M - foreigner man, W- Waiter)
W - Orrder sir?
M - Yus. I want an Eppel Zuice (apple juice).
W - Aapil juice ah sir?
M - Yus yus. And a Tho-maa-tho Zuice? (Tomato juice)
W - One to-mae-to juice, ok...
Blah. The rest of the order was drowned in the din. A few minutes later, the foreigners at the next table were happily eating what we call "meals", with rice, and sambar, and the things that actually taste good at saravanabhavan. I smiled. I looked across the table, and realised that the tamizh girl sitting infront of me had ordered a Pizza! and her maami-mother, some Chaat item! Why? AND, she dropped a fork, and made all the foreigners look her way! Aah, i continued to savour my sambar vadai! :)
And thus, we girls become what college guys today call Peter (with stress on the r. More like Petrr). Also, Scene, or better, Vethu scene. Shed your pottu, maligapoo, golusu, and the likes, and speak english, and you have a direct ticket into peter-land! All are welcome ;) Sometimes, the criteria differ, thus, for further information on peters and their characterisitics, feel free to intreact with my dear cousin,visu, who presently likes to call himself Vishwa, for mysterious reasons! Peter, perhaps? :D
Of course i have to add that it is the Tamizh Ratham, and mentality that counts more than all the articles of show! ;) I don't need articles to yell out my tamizhness, do I? Sheesh, Captain Vijaykanth would be proud of me!
Yours "Tamizho Tamizh"ly,
Signing off!
How many times have you walked down a street and seen a foreigner, in very indian clothes, smile at poo-kaairs (flower girls/women) and kariga kaarans (Vegetable sellers), who return a knowing smile? Hell, even if I saw them everyday, they probably wouldn't smile at me, in all my Indian-ness and Chennai-ness! I believe that foreigners are way more polite than we indians are. But would I get the same treatment if I were as polite? No. And why? This woman, this (as the pookaris and kariga karans might put it) Vellaikaari, took to those 'articles' of 'culture' and 'tradition' that tamizh-penns these days seem to have shed blissfully :) And what might those be, you ask? First, the round red (or whatever colour!) mark on the forehead. The Pottu. Trying to coax us 'learned' tamizh girls into getting back to the pottu mode, dear paatis and ammas and maamis told us how that particular point on the forehead has a divine connection to the pineal gland, and thus, how we must not refrain from 'the act'. But what did we say? We said, we could just touch the particular point once a day, if it were so significant, and forget about walking around with a pottu. They obviously gave up on us, and our reasoning, probably with a "indha kaalathu ponngal laam yenga namba sonna pechu ketkardhugal?" line! We laughed it off!
Second, maligapoo. Jasmine flowers. Even today, thousands of tamizh women adorn their hair with neatly tied up maligapoo every evening, and thousands of pookaris are still in business, selling moonu mozham pathu rooba (It would be weird to translate that!), or actually, less than moonu mozham these days! The flowers that I loved pinning up to my tightly plaited, coconut-oil-oiled hair when I was younger, and less 'learned', now touch my hair only during kalyanams, or festivals, or poojas (despite the fact that i DO know that some guys STILL fancy the smell!), and that too, ten times smaller in size, and for a much shorter time period! In a few minutes, I'd be answering the question "thalaila poo vechukaleya di?" with "yengayo vizhundhurthu, vidungo parava illai!". Gone are the days when I'd wake up to crunchy, brown, dried flowers on my bed, with half-white fading, dying, flowers revealing a white string, pinned up across the back of my head, one plait to the other! I was very Kenyan-tamizh then! ;) Coming back to India, changed it all :) But of course, we always have enough things to blame!
Third. Golusu. Anklets. As a child, i wore these extrememely heavy, ridiculously noisy silver ankelts, loaded with a million small chalangu (the collisions of which cause the sound to emanate), which i would carefully take off before playing hide and seek, for the fear of being given away by the oh-so-tinky noise! I loved them depsite the fact that they scratched me more than i'd have liked! I still remember the jeweller asking me if i was learning Bharathnatyam! I wasn't. I still bought them! I don't know when i finally stopped wearing them, and when i took to buying beaded, noiseless, SINGLE 'anklets' (and NOT golusu), from besant nagar beach! Well, there still arent any anklets on my feet!
So here we have this foreign woman, a decently sized maroon circle posing in between her eyebrows, her BLONDE hair neatly pulled back in a long plait (perhaps the hair was oiled too!) and adorned with atleast one mozham of malligapoo, wearing a purple/pink salwar kameez, like she was born in it (!!), BOTH her ankles circled by velli golusu (silver anklets), with not as many chalangu as my childhood noise-makers, but enough to be heard, and a genuine, belonging smile on her face, riding a bicycle in the crowded streets of Mylapore Tank. Was she more Tamizh than me? She was Tamizh enough to earn the smiles of those who wouldn't really care too much with others. And what do we do? We complain about the crowded streets of mylapore tank, and the cows in the middle of the road, and consequently, their shaani (!) and avoid going there unless we HAVE to buy Kolu Bommai, or eat in Saravanabhavan! :)
Well, not all foreign women give me this feeling of lost heritage. There was once I had to walk out of Naidu Hall, in Tnagar, for the fear of laughing out loud at a bunch of american women, and their Indian chaperone, dressed in spagetti strap tops, and skirts, their pony tails circled with endless concentric circles of maligapoo, their feet lost in a sea of green Pothys polythene covers, deep in conversation with the saleswoman, with momentary interruptions from the indian chaperone, about what colour petticoat would best suit each saree they had bought, as 2 very exhausted looking american men, dressed in shorts, carrying huge bag-packs, sulked behind them! My mother was decent enough to smile, and continue her shopping :)
Amma and I sat down opposite another Maami and her daughter, at the aforementioned, eternally crowded, Saravanabhavan today. The next table, had a bunch of foreigners, with a very weirdly accented english, deep in conversation in their native language. The Tamizh waiter took their order, and the conversation sounded something like this -
(M - foreigner man, W- Waiter)
W - Orrder sir?
M - Yus. I want an Eppel Zuice (apple juice).
W - Aapil juice ah sir?
M - Yus yus. And a Tho-maa-tho Zuice? (Tomato juice)
W - One to-mae-to juice, ok...
Blah. The rest of the order was drowned in the din. A few minutes later, the foreigners at the next table were happily eating what we call "meals", with rice, and sambar, and the things that actually taste good at saravanabhavan. I smiled. I looked across the table, and realised that the tamizh girl sitting infront of me had ordered a Pizza! and her maami-mother, some Chaat item! Why? AND, she dropped a fork, and made all the foreigners look her way! Aah, i continued to savour my sambar vadai! :)
And thus, we girls become what college guys today call Peter (with stress on the r. More like Petrr). Also, Scene, or better, Vethu scene. Shed your pottu, maligapoo, golusu, and the likes, and speak english, and you have a direct ticket into peter-land! All are welcome ;) Sometimes, the criteria differ, thus, for further information on peters and their characterisitics, feel free to intreact with my dear cousin,visu, who presently likes to call himself Vishwa, for mysterious reasons! Peter, perhaps? :D
Of course i have to add that it is the Tamizh Ratham, and mentality that counts more than all the articles of show! ;) I don't need articles to yell out my tamizhness, do I? Sheesh, Captain Vijaykanth would be proud of me!
Yours "Tamizho Tamizh"ly,
Signing off!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
P-i-e-r-c-e-d
This blog has witnessed a myriad of descriptions of the the people we call Maamis, over here in Iyer land - The matchmakers, the grapevine controllers, and participants, the pattu-podavai-gold-jewellery fancying women, the "oru paatu paadu ma, kathukara illaiyo?" dialogue throwers,and the likes! With this post, I bring in one more aspect, and one that has been overlooked till date, but not purposely. The Mookuthi (Mooku kuthi,Nose-stud). They come in different sizes - sizes directly proportional, usually, to the age of the person on whose nose the jewel sits - and shapes, but always having to do with the 'round' shape, and never anything longish, or more importantly, never a ring, for apparently, a ring removes all 'decency' from the woman's face! But this unwritten rule, exists only in South india. Amazing, how all (or almost all) South Indian women share that opinion. In the North, on the other hand, the ring is fancied quite a bit, and if not the whole ring, atleast half of it is! Of course, younger generations just find the ring more 'hep' and stylish, so we're seeing more of it here too! Now that we're at differences, I might as well mention that South Indian women prefer their piercing to be on the right hand side of their nose, whereas north indian women, prefer the left. Whew!
Coming to the point - I got my nose pierced. I am now more a maami than i ever was! Why, you ask? Because, I not only love gossip and have quite commendable knowledge when it comes to Pattu podavais, and other podavais too, not only because I'm liking carnatic music more, and finding myself increasingly at ease having my hair in a kondai (Bun), not only because I'm able to have lively conversations with different paatis, and realised recently that I'm not bad at imitating people/speaking like others, but ALSO because, now, when I look at my face in the mirror (probably with a pottu on my forehead), i DO look very maami-ish! VERY. You have no idea!
I walked quite confidently into a small, stuffy room on the top most floor of a huge jewellery store, after very strongly dismissing my mother's suggestion of getting a diamond nose stud. The whole piercing experience was quite a pain, though I'm sure it couldn't have lasted more than 15-20 seconds. Seemed like an era of pain (despite the hideous red-coloured numbing cream, which evidently did NOT work!), like I could visualise the entire length of the gold penetrating every layer of my skin picometre by picometre! I couldn't scream obviously, or push away the pierce-r's hand either, for the love of the rest of my nose! So the silence proudly showed itself off as fat drops of tears at the edge of my right eye! And when i looked into the mirror, I was looking more at my eye than my nose :)The pain eventually did die down, within 5 minutes actually, and we continued commenting on random jewellery like the whole instance hadn't happened at all!
The past few days have been a series of mixed comments -
You look older.
You look like a villager.
You look outlandish.
*Says hi casually* *Notices something is different* *Opens mouth and eyes wide* *Silence* *Snaps back to so-wats-up?*
You look weird.
Your face has lost its Innocence!
And occassionally, You look nice! / You look cute / It suits you!
But the one's i'll put on the "made me laugh the most" list were -
Amma's comment - Maarvaadi madri iruke di ippo! (you look like a maarvaadi!)
Paati's comment - (after staring at it for a whole minute probably!)Romba nalla irukku ma! Ponnu kuthindadhu laam nyabagam eh illai, pethiya paathaa sandhoshama irukku (Its very nice, I don't remember the times my daughters got their noses pierced, but i'm happy that my grand daughter's got it done!).
I wouldn't want to forget this episode. It has been recorded! :)
Now, to an equally important part of the post... This post, I dedicate, to Mr. Nikhil Harikrishnan. Because
1) It's part of my punishment for missing the deadline (for my picture to reach his inbox) and sending the picture (by mistake!) to some random fellow who will probably now send me a thousand 'Franship' requests.
2) He has been one of the oldest and more vocal supporters of the campaign to get my piercing.
Credits for the above - An email sent to me by the aforementioned gentleman ;)
3) He asked for it!!!! :D
But more importantly, because i didn't see why i shouldn't! And, he said i look cute with the piercing! ;) Of course one can never be too sure if he just made that up :D
Nik, I'm well into the 48 hour deadline to put this up! I couldn't imagine what punishment i would get if this TOO was late ;)you better comment!
Yours "as my worthy friend seshan here said, 3 holes in my nose..."ly
Signing off....
Coming to the point - I got my nose pierced. I am now more a maami than i ever was! Why, you ask? Because, I not only love gossip and have quite commendable knowledge when it comes to Pattu podavais, and other podavais too, not only because I'm liking carnatic music more, and finding myself increasingly at ease having my hair in a kondai (Bun), not only because I'm able to have lively conversations with different paatis, and realised recently that I'm not bad at imitating people/speaking like others, but ALSO because, now, when I look at my face in the mirror (probably with a pottu on my forehead), i DO look very maami-ish! VERY. You have no idea!
I walked quite confidently into a small, stuffy room on the top most floor of a huge jewellery store, after very strongly dismissing my mother's suggestion of getting a diamond nose stud. The whole piercing experience was quite a pain, though I'm sure it couldn't have lasted more than 15-20 seconds. Seemed like an era of pain (despite the hideous red-coloured numbing cream, which evidently did NOT work!), like I could visualise the entire length of the gold penetrating every layer of my skin picometre by picometre! I couldn't scream obviously, or push away the pierce-r's hand either, for the love of the rest of my nose! So the silence proudly showed itself off as fat drops of tears at the edge of my right eye! And when i looked into the mirror, I was looking more at my eye than my nose :)The pain eventually did die down, within 5 minutes actually, and we continued commenting on random jewellery like the whole instance hadn't happened at all!
The past few days have been a series of mixed comments -
You look older.
You look like a villager.
You look outlandish.
*Says hi casually* *Notices something is different* *Opens mouth and eyes wide* *Silence* *Snaps back to so-wats-up?*
You look weird.
Your face has lost its Innocence!
And occassionally, You look nice! / You look cute / It suits you!
But the one's i'll put on the "made me laugh the most" list were -
Amma's comment - Maarvaadi madri iruke di ippo! (you look like a maarvaadi!)
Paati's comment - (after staring at it for a whole minute probably!)Romba nalla irukku ma! Ponnu kuthindadhu laam nyabagam eh illai, pethiya paathaa sandhoshama irukku (Its very nice, I don't remember the times my daughters got their noses pierced, but i'm happy that my grand daughter's got it done!).
I wouldn't want to forget this episode. It has been recorded! :)
Now, to an equally important part of the post... This post, I dedicate, to Mr. Nikhil Harikrishnan. Because
1) It's part of my punishment for missing the deadline (for my picture to reach his inbox) and sending the picture (by mistake!) to some random fellow who will probably now send me a thousand 'Franship' requests.
2) He has been one of the oldest and more vocal supporters of the campaign to get my piercing.
Credits for the above - An email sent to me by the aforementioned gentleman ;)
3) He asked for it!!!! :D
But more importantly, because i didn't see why i shouldn't! And, he said i look cute with the piercing! ;) Of course one can never be too sure if he just made that up :D
Nik, I'm well into the 48 hour deadline to put this up! I couldn't imagine what punishment i would get if this TOO was late ;)you better comment!
Yours "as my worthy friend seshan here said, 3 holes in my nose..."ly
Signing off....
Monday, June 02, 2008
The ROAD, conquerable?
I'm sorry about dwelling on the same topic, but driving does seem to be the first thing i do every morning these days. I thus dedicate another post to it, and also to dear doc friend Nidhee, who has very carefully formulated "The 4 psychological stages of a beginner in driving":
Stage 1 - Phase of Confusion. The ABC of driving is apparently simple enough. Accelerator. Brake. Clutch. The theory of it is easy to understand. However, when a beginner does step on these 'pedals' (which i must say, work much simpler in a bicycle!), its pretty mysterious how this car thing moves! And thus one keeps wondering, where the hell's what! Even more so, when one forgets to take off one's footwear, and thus, cannot 'feel' any of the pedals!
Stage 2 - Phase of enlightenment. One finally figures out which pedal is which! And how the car moves! But there's a catch - the gears! Now what the hell is that? And why the hell did they pick 'H' of all letters to desgin this box! H! Thus, the enlightenment needs to be extended. Of course, that process definitely includes going to the 5th gear instead of the 3rd, and also, the reverse gear instead of the 4th, much to the instructor's wrath!
Stage 3 - Phase of Pseudo-confidence. Point to be noted - this phase happens to be our favourite ;) You think you're running the show. You honk at the right places, turn the steering-wheel to the right degree, gears going good, pedal pushing better than ever, but, but, but... you're in for a surprise! I hear, most people finish their driving lessons at this stage, thinking they can drive for the rest of their lives, they own the road, they've conquered it! Apparently not. Which leads us to stage 4!
Stage 4 - Phase of reality. One decides to now take daddy's car for a nice long drive. And what happens? Everything is wrong somehow! The car vibrates noisily, jumps up when one releases the clutch, everything is haywire! And then it dawns upon the beginner (yes, still the beginner!), that one never really drove the car! It was the instructor, ALL ALONG!
And thus, one goes through the first 2 stages again (but this time, for REAL), and then converts the 3rd stage into the "confidence" stage! Well, hopefully!
Yours "i havent even crossed stage 2!"ly
Signing off...
Stage 1 - Phase of Confusion. The ABC of driving is apparently simple enough. Accelerator. Brake. Clutch. The theory of it is easy to understand. However, when a beginner does step on these 'pedals' (which i must say, work much simpler in a bicycle!), its pretty mysterious how this car thing moves! And thus one keeps wondering, where the hell's what! Even more so, when one forgets to take off one's footwear, and thus, cannot 'feel' any of the pedals!
Stage 2 - Phase of enlightenment. One finally figures out which pedal is which! And how the car moves! But there's a catch - the gears! Now what the hell is that? And why the hell did they pick 'H' of all letters to desgin this box! H! Thus, the enlightenment needs to be extended. Of course, that process definitely includes going to the 5th gear instead of the 3rd, and also, the reverse gear instead of the 4th, much to the instructor's wrath!
Stage 3 - Phase of Pseudo-confidence. Point to be noted - this phase happens to be our favourite ;) You think you're running the show. You honk at the right places, turn the steering-wheel to the right degree, gears going good, pedal pushing better than ever, but, but, but... you're in for a surprise! I hear, most people finish their driving lessons at this stage, thinking they can drive for the rest of their lives, they own the road, they've conquered it! Apparently not. Which leads us to stage 4!
Stage 4 - Phase of reality. One decides to now take daddy's car for a nice long drive. And what happens? Everything is wrong somehow! The car vibrates noisily, jumps up when one releases the clutch, everything is haywire! And then it dawns upon the beginner (yes, still the beginner!), that one never really drove the car! It was the instructor, ALL ALONG!
And thus, one goes through the first 2 stages again (but this time, for REAL), and then converts the 3rd stage into the "confidence" stage! Well, hopefully!
Yours "i havent even crossed stage 2!"ly
Signing off...
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Growing up. Growing Old.
This post shall show evidence to the stated title with 3 examples.(My exams got over a month back. Why do i still sound like a textbook?)
I'll take this in the order in which these 3 events happen every day, or almost.
Driving lessons. My mother said "you're 21, high time you learn how to drive!". I had quite a fair argument, stating that it won't serve the purpose, because i do not have a car to practice on, and hence, shall promptly forget the finer details once the license with my ugliest photo ever, reaches my hand! As it turns out, i DID lose my case. And here i am, rising with the sun (or slightly later!), with eyes that burn, and refuse to open at the unearthly hour of the morning that i NEVER see during holidays! And i sit in a Santro, with a thatha who tells me all sorts of stories to get me to learn how to concentrate on the road when people in the car talk, honking more than i've honked in the entire 4 years of my bike-riding put together, hoping desperately for the longest 20 minutes of the day to fly away like they would if i were asleep! And somehow, it makes me feel very old to be learning how to drive!
Cooking. Realisation of some big mistakes i made when i was younger, and less wise! Since paati would make the best rasam, sambar, mor kuzhambu, vethal kuzhambu, and the likes, i decided to learn all the north indian stuff, and the pasta and the other simpler stuff, so that i could make all those when my mom wasn't around. Big mistake. It dawns upon one that sambar, rasam are the essentials, and that thus, one doesn't know how to cook at all! So one dips her right hand into the luke-warm water with pulli (tamarind) in it, and spends so much time squeezing the life out of it (because its fun!) and gets laughed at by amma and paati, the at-this-pace-you-wil-never-finish-cooking-on-time laugh! One's chappathis still resemble various maps of different countries, and one still feels like adding lots of salt to anything! but one believes that she will get there ;) Atleast, right in time before one gets married! But since one invariably has to rush for paatu class, no single dish has been mastered! I should really work on the timings! Only old people cook :(
The mornings are busy. The afternoons are lazy, that being the reason they're totally loved.Oh and there's another reason. There's the afternoon iced-tea ritual!aah. Sweet! The evenings though, are a blur! A blur of a million different combinations of colours of kancheepurams, and silk-cottons and banaras-silks and the endless other varieties of sarees. A wedding is no small affair, and what's any south-indian wedding without having to visit as many saree shops as possible, and buy as many sarees as possible, and make sure they're perfect, irrespective of who they're going to be given away to? My eyes are now unfotunately trained to distinguish the right combination of border+body, the pure/tested zari, the jataang (our slang for gaudy), and the not-so-jataang sarees/zaris/borders/pallus, judging which maami would prefer a jataang saree to a sober, elegant one, which colour is 'new' and 'young' as opposed to 'traditional' and 'paati-like', and many many other things, which has made my brother a little scared. He has pronounced me a typical 'maami', and i must say, seems quite terrified at the prospect of having to introduce me to people as his sister! What still challanges me, though, is distinguishing sarees by name. Saamundrika pattu, jodi pattu, vasthrakalaa pattu, amrithavarshini sarees, parampara pattu, kalakshetra sarees, subhamangala pattu, very very innovative don't you think? ;) Mind boggling! God, this does make me feel like a maami! OLD!
To top it off, the saree shop salesman asked my mother if i am her sister today. And sadly, i recognised it to be a genuine question, and not a trade trick! How much worse does it get? So much for chauffering her around, and indulging her very admirable habit of pulling almost every saree out of the rack and buying nothing at the end of 3 hours! ;)Mothers and sarees...they go together like the mad gleam in my eyes and football/capt.jack sparrow! For my part, i spent 5 minutes buying one saree, and 10 minutes buying the other, and extracted a "yen ma jarigai ivalov chinnadha irukku" dialogue from paati, which i must say, left me very smug! Very very proud of it!
So yeah, you realise that you're doing things that only old people do, and you don't feel good! You don't. Somehow, i'm still very happy :D
Yours " div the oldie, use your dentures" ly
Signing offf....
I'll take this in the order in which these 3 events happen every day, or almost.
Driving lessons. My mother said "you're 21, high time you learn how to drive!". I had quite a fair argument, stating that it won't serve the purpose, because i do not have a car to practice on, and hence, shall promptly forget the finer details once the license with my ugliest photo ever, reaches my hand! As it turns out, i DID lose my case. And here i am, rising with the sun (or slightly later!), with eyes that burn, and refuse to open at the unearthly hour of the morning that i NEVER see during holidays! And i sit in a Santro, with a thatha who tells me all sorts of stories to get me to learn how to concentrate on the road when people in the car talk, honking more than i've honked in the entire 4 years of my bike-riding put together, hoping desperately for the longest 20 minutes of the day to fly away like they would if i were asleep! And somehow, it makes me feel very old to be learning how to drive!
Cooking. Realisation of some big mistakes i made when i was younger, and less wise! Since paati would make the best rasam, sambar, mor kuzhambu, vethal kuzhambu, and the likes, i decided to learn all the north indian stuff, and the pasta and the other simpler stuff, so that i could make all those when my mom wasn't around. Big mistake. It dawns upon one that sambar, rasam are the essentials, and that thus, one doesn't know how to cook at all! So one dips her right hand into the luke-warm water with pulli (tamarind) in it, and spends so much time squeezing the life out of it (because its fun!) and gets laughed at by amma and paati, the at-this-pace-you-wil-never-finish-cooking-on-time laugh! One's chappathis still resemble various maps of different countries, and one still feels like adding lots of salt to anything! but one believes that she will get there ;) Atleast, right in time before one gets married! But since one invariably has to rush for paatu class, no single dish has been mastered! I should really work on the timings! Only old people cook :(
The mornings are busy. The afternoons are lazy, that being the reason they're totally loved.Oh and there's another reason. There's the afternoon iced-tea ritual!aah. Sweet! The evenings though, are a blur! A blur of a million different combinations of colours of kancheepurams, and silk-cottons and banaras-silks and the endless other varieties of sarees. A wedding is no small affair, and what's any south-indian wedding without having to visit as many saree shops as possible, and buy as many sarees as possible, and make sure they're perfect, irrespective of who they're going to be given away to? My eyes are now unfotunately trained to distinguish the right combination of border+body, the pure/tested zari, the jataang (our slang for gaudy), and the not-so-jataang sarees/zaris/borders/pallus, judging which maami would prefer a jataang saree to a sober, elegant one, which colour is 'new' and 'young' as opposed to 'traditional' and 'paati-like', and many many other things, which has made my brother a little scared. He has pronounced me a typical 'maami', and i must say, seems quite terrified at the prospect of having to introduce me to people as his sister! What still challanges me, though, is distinguishing sarees by name. Saamundrika pattu, jodi pattu, vasthrakalaa pattu, amrithavarshini sarees, parampara pattu, kalakshetra sarees, subhamangala pattu, very very innovative don't you think? ;) Mind boggling! God, this does make me feel like a maami! OLD!
To top it off, the saree shop salesman asked my mother if i am her sister today. And sadly, i recognised it to be a genuine question, and not a trade trick! How much worse does it get? So much for chauffering her around, and indulging her very admirable habit of pulling almost every saree out of the rack and buying nothing at the end of 3 hours! ;)Mothers and sarees...they go together like the mad gleam in my eyes and football/capt.jack sparrow! For my part, i spent 5 minutes buying one saree, and 10 minutes buying the other, and extracted a "yen ma jarigai ivalov chinnadha irukku" dialogue from paati, which i must say, left me very smug! Very very proud of it!
So yeah, you realise that you're doing things that only old people do, and you don't feel good! You don't. Somehow, i'm still very happy :D
Yours " div the oldie, use your dentures" ly
Signing offf....
Friday, May 16, 2008
Another one!
Sementi, here be your tag :)
1)LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE?
I don't even remember...!wait...oh ya, Jodha akbar! I don't think i've ever spent so much on a movie+popcorn for 2 people! So much for trying to extract meaning from urdhu dialogue! Some scenes had class though :)
2)WHAT BOOK ARE U READING?
The much hyped Life of Pi. The wow-ness of the book is yet to dawn upon me though. I hear the last few pages hold the key! But tell me, isn't it unfair when one loves a book just because of the ending? Can an ending be so good, that one forgets how monotnous the middle portion was? Hmm, i guess i'll find out!
3)FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?
Life. Been ages since i played it though. Too busy playing with the "real" Life!
4)FAVOURITE MAGAZINE?
Reader's digest. For the variety of articles! Actually, i don't think i read anything else.
5)FAVOURITE SMELLS?
I did a whole post on this once. Here. "mann vasanai" or, the smell of the mud when it rains, coffee, petrol, vibuthi, Bioling tea leaves, endless :)
6)FAVOURITE SOUNDS?
Latest - Ice crackling on the surface of water. Always - The violin. Also, the piano. The crackling of dry leaves when you step on them. The sound of rain.
7)WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Helplesness.
8)WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?
Can i please please go back to sleep, for 5 more minutes atleast!
9)FAVOURITE FASTFOOD PLACE?
Nothing specific. Good food is always welcome, wherever the place :D
10)FUTURE CHILDS NAME?
Aah, there are some. Anyway, since the decision has to be 'mutual', we shall not reveal them ;)
11)FINISH THIS STATEMENT—’IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D’
Am not answering this!
12)DO U DRIVE FAST?
Not driving yet! But i do 'ride' fast when i feel like it!
13)DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
well, yes. Weirdly, i didn't do that all my life. Only since i was 17! When most people would stop! Well, i guess my bro decided to send the stuffed animal to me only at that time!
14)STORMS–COOL OR SCARY?
Depends on the company ;), or the absence of it.
15)WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
None yet. I can't stop gaping at the toyota camry and honda civic ont he road though!
16)FAVOURITE DRINK?
Right now, Lemon iced tea! Also...hmm...apple juice, watermelon juice...
17)FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD…
Definitely, the things i've wanted to do, but never had time to do ;)
18)DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
how does it matter? I do i guess!
19)IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
My hair is already black in dim light, dark brown in bright light, Golden in the noon sun, Reddish in the susnset-sun. Why do i need more colouring?
20)NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?
Chennai, Nairobi.
21)FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football
22)ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Don't really know her personally, I think she has a nice blog!
23)WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?
A harmonium. Dusty and old. I cant really say 'rusting' because its made of wood!My helmet, some bags. And loads and loads of dust, that drives my mother mad!
24)WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Maybe :)
25)MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
Night owl. Totally. Theres some calm to staying awake when everyone else sleeps. And, there are always the stars! ;)
26)OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
:|
27)FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Terrace. With music. or at home.
28)FAVOURITE PIE?
No pies. Chocolate cakes!
29)FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?
Baskin Robbins choco-vannila mix!
30)OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Am not tagging anyone :) Its open to all!
Yours" I've done this one before, dont know if the answers match..."ly
Signing out...
1)LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE?
I don't even remember...!wait...oh ya, Jodha akbar! I don't think i've ever spent so much on a movie+popcorn for 2 people! So much for trying to extract meaning from urdhu dialogue! Some scenes had class though :)
2)WHAT BOOK ARE U READING?
The much hyped Life of Pi. The wow-ness of the book is yet to dawn upon me though. I hear the last few pages hold the key! But tell me, isn't it unfair when one loves a book just because of the ending? Can an ending be so good, that one forgets how monotnous the middle portion was? Hmm, i guess i'll find out!
3)FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?
Life. Been ages since i played it though. Too busy playing with the "real" Life!
4)FAVOURITE MAGAZINE?
Reader's digest. For the variety of articles! Actually, i don't think i read anything else.
5)FAVOURITE SMELLS?
I did a whole post on this once. Here. "mann vasanai" or, the smell of the mud when it rains, coffee, petrol, vibuthi, Bioling tea leaves, endless :)
6)FAVOURITE SOUNDS?
Latest - Ice crackling on the surface of water. Always - The violin. Also, the piano. The crackling of dry leaves when you step on them. The sound of rain.
7)WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Helplesness.
8)WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?
Can i please please go back to sleep, for 5 more minutes atleast!
9)FAVOURITE FASTFOOD PLACE?
Nothing specific. Good food is always welcome, wherever the place :D
10)FUTURE CHILDS NAME?
Aah, there are some. Anyway, since the decision has to be 'mutual', we shall not reveal them ;)
11)FINISH THIS STATEMENT—’IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D’
Am not answering this!
12)DO U DRIVE FAST?
Not driving yet! But i do 'ride' fast when i feel like it!
13)DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
well, yes. Weirdly, i didn't do that all my life. Only since i was 17! When most people would stop! Well, i guess my bro decided to send the stuffed animal to me only at that time!
14)STORMS–COOL OR SCARY?
Depends on the company ;), or the absence of it.
15)WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
None yet. I can't stop gaping at the toyota camry and honda civic ont he road though!
16)FAVOURITE DRINK?
Right now, Lemon iced tea! Also...hmm...apple juice, watermelon juice...
17)FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD…
Definitely, the things i've wanted to do, but never had time to do ;)
18)DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
how does it matter? I do i guess!
19)IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
My hair is already black in dim light, dark brown in bright light, Golden in the noon sun, Reddish in the susnset-sun. Why do i need more colouring?
20)NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?
Chennai, Nairobi.
21)FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football
22)ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Don't really know her personally, I think she has a nice blog!
23)WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?
A harmonium. Dusty and old. I cant really say 'rusting' because its made of wood!My helmet, some bags. And loads and loads of dust, that drives my mother mad!
24)WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Maybe :)
25)MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
Night owl. Totally. Theres some calm to staying awake when everyone else sleeps. And, there are always the stars! ;)
26)OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
:|
27)FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Terrace. With music. or at home.
28)FAVOURITE PIE?
No pies. Chocolate cakes!
29)FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?
Baskin Robbins choco-vannila mix!
30)OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Am not tagging anyone :) Its open to all!
Yours" I've done this one before, dont know if the answers match..."ly
Signing out...
Sunday, May 04, 2008
4 years later...
The only thing that was missing was music. Trying to relate lyrics to what the eyes were feasting upon. But the wind sang. The wind sang the melancholy, and the happiness, oscillating, perfect for the situation. And the eyes took in every detail, like this time, this very last time, they wanted to make an imprint in the mind. The kind of imprint that time cant steal for itself...the kind that wouldn't fade until memory has a chance to refresh itself...
So the pair of them stared into the open. At the kids playing cricket, at the small lane of concrete road that I always wanted to walk through. The lane with huts on either side. At the trees that adorned themselves with tendrils. Yes, of course, it is May. There should be tendrils. At the sun, playing hide and seek with the eyes. Hiding successfully behind buildings, unsuccessfully behind trees. Blinding the eyes. At rows and rows of white buildings. At the mini-lake, that always looked so full of reflections, of trees, of bill-boards, of clouds. At the bus, standing a little too close in the traffic. So close, that i could hear her telling me to come out of my trance and push my hair behind my ears, like she always did. Always, when my hair was on my face. At the way the buses parted ways, as if to signify a deeper 'parting of ways'. At the mango tree, so full of mangoes hanging from every branch. I'd have loved to jump out n pluck a few. I could see myself doing it, but just inside my head. At the bridge, and the red-brick house from the bridge. The red-brick house of happy memories. At the smoke all over the place, almost making it seem like the red-brick house was floating in the heavens, as if it were not enough that it was indeed heaven on earth. At Chennai's smoothest road, and the endless string of restaurants lining it on either side, none of which I have ever visited. At the marsh, when there was a breakdown, when she hilariously imitated the way i sleep, inviting undying laughter. Yes, it was always something they laughed about. At the beautifully canopied road, where i always wanted to take a long walk with someone whose company i enjoyed. At the crowd outside the theatre, and the chips shop that always made my stomach growl...endless...
My last bus-ride home. From a college i spent 4 years in. Hard to believe! The things that i'm going to miss really haven't seeped through fully...they kind of did, when i sat on the verandah with my book open, doing everything but study. Chatting away to glory about the latest movies, class gossip, the extent of yuckiness of the subject, about lip balm and haircuts, dirty shoes and un-ironed dupattas, about marriage, and life as such. It did seep into me, that i was going to miss such talks and so much fun, so much laughter. Hell, we'll deal with it later :)
"4 years later..."ly
Signing off...
So the pair of them stared into the open. At the kids playing cricket, at the small lane of concrete road that I always wanted to walk through. The lane with huts on either side. At the trees that adorned themselves with tendrils. Yes, of course, it is May. There should be tendrils. At the sun, playing hide and seek with the eyes. Hiding successfully behind buildings, unsuccessfully behind trees. Blinding the eyes. At rows and rows of white buildings. At the mini-lake, that always looked so full of reflections, of trees, of bill-boards, of clouds. At the bus, standing a little too close in the traffic. So close, that i could hear her telling me to come out of my trance and push my hair behind my ears, like she always did. Always, when my hair was on my face. At the way the buses parted ways, as if to signify a deeper 'parting of ways'. At the mango tree, so full of mangoes hanging from every branch. I'd have loved to jump out n pluck a few. I could see myself doing it, but just inside my head. At the bridge, and the red-brick house from the bridge. The red-brick house of happy memories. At the smoke all over the place, almost making it seem like the red-brick house was floating in the heavens, as if it were not enough that it was indeed heaven on earth. At Chennai's smoothest road, and the endless string of restaurants lining it on either side, none of which I have ever visited. At the marsh, when there was a breakdown, when she hilariously imitated the way i sleep, inviting undying laughter. Yes, it was always something they laughed about. At the beautifully canopied road, where i always wanted to take a long walk with someone whose company i enjoyed. At the crowd outside the theatre, and the chips shop that always made my stomach growl...endless...
My last bus-ride home. From a college i spent 4 years in. Hard to believe! The things that i'm going to miss really haven't seeped through fully...they kind of did, when i sat on the verandah with my book open, doing everything but study. Chatting away to glory about the latest movies, class gossip, the extent of yuckiness of the subject, about lip balm and haircuts, dirty shoes and un-ironed dupattas, about marriage, and life as such. It did seep into me, that i was going to miss such talks and so much fun, so much laughter. Hell, we'll deal with it later :)
"4 years later..."ly
Signing off...
Monday, March 31, 2008
Drenched, in something more than rain...
She left the house at the first sound of rain drops hitting the ground. She left the conversation that the other members of the household were so engrossed in. It wasn't quite there yet, the intensity of the rain. She strolled around the area open to sky... a male voice singing into her ears...kyun tera sab yeh ho gaya, hua kya...she smiled, looking around at the place that had been her solace more than often...the view of the tops of buildings, the road beneath, the people walking...people who would never know they were being watched by a pair of eyes above them. It took her a moment to absorb the beauty of the scene...like she was carefully sorting the trees into different shades of green...like she wouldn't be able to see anything quite like this anywhere else, maybe because she really didn't want to. She walked, wondering why she felt like the rain drops were purposely evading her...she stood still, and then it started...like some force she couldn't fathom had heard unsaid words from her, and played to her wishes. The drops fell quicker, were more in number, and now fell directly on her head...dampening her hair...imprisoning it...not allowing the wind to dance with the long strands of black-brown. But she didn't seem to care...she welcomed every drop like it held purity undefinable. She spread her arms wide, and looked up at the sky, allowing her face to dwell in the chill...and she heard the words...Barf se Khelte baadalon ka, shauk hai... In a trance, she glided away into a partially sheltered area...now watching the rain...Neend ki goliyon ka, khwaab ki loriyon ka...her watch told her the time was 1.45, through a drop that magnified the time for her...she was leaning on a pillar...watching the trees sway...the grey clouds moving...to shower their drops on some other part of the city...she did not want to be left behind by the rain...did not want to remain there until the rain stopped. She started walking towards the exit...smiling involuntarily... Jisse tum ghunghunaaye, mere dhun hai vahin...somehow, it seemed to dawn upon her that there would come a time when she wouldn't be able to walk into this place whenever she wanted...she wouldn't be able to have her mid-day reveries...smiling for no reason at all...realising the irony of lyrics...She wasn't going to let the thought steal the goodness of the moment. She pushed her wet hair back from her forehead, made her wet face even wetter by wiping it on her sleeve, and walked away....from the rain, from the surrender she felt a few minutes ago, carrying in her heart the bliss she felt from the moment the first rain drop hit her eye...she walked down the green staircase. The door was half open, just the way she had left it. The same conversation was continuing inside the house, with very minor changes. And here was a world that remained untouched by the mid-day rain...where nothing changed...for all she knew, her absence wasn't even noticed. All she knew was, it didn't matter...something was changed inside her, and she had a pretty good feeling it was going to last for a very long time...Pyaar tumhe kithna karthe hain, tum yeh samaj nahi paaoge...
I didn't always like getting wet in the rain. Things change.
Yours "drenched, in something more than rain..." ly
Signing off...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tagged - A-Z!
Tagged by Sementi. Thanks for making me update :)
A-Available:
On messenger? Yep, never invisible :P
B-Best friend(s):
-:) We all have our own definitions :)and friends!
C-Cake or Pie:
-Cake!! Chocolate cake :) Trouffle!
D-Drink of choice:
- Lemon Iced Tea :) hot sweet tea. Occasionally,coffee. And, apple juice! at 12.00am!
E-Essential thing used every day:
-Too many to list
F-Favorite color:
-Green. In all its shades of nature :)Black. Copper sulphate/chloride blue.
G-Gummy bears or worms:
-Gummy bears...dancinng here and there and everywhere! Anyone watched the cartoon? :D
H-Hometown:
-Namba singara chennai! With the irritating traffic diversions. With boat club road. With the amazing feeling of being at home!
I-Indulgence:
-football. craziness to a level you wouldn't believe. Dancing with the air ;)
J-January or February?
-January :) Birthday month :) And also, the beginnign of a new year and all :P
K-Kids and names?
-No kids yet. Have some prospective names though :D
L-Life is incomplete without (would like to add, presently incomplete without):
-Small talk with Thatha paati (which i'm afraid wont be possible after a while!)
Chatting with mom when she's not here, acting kiddish or fighting with her if she's around. Listening to her stories about appa :)
Music (I've realised i cant do anything non-study without it! Need music when i'm eating, browsing, cooking, everything!)
M-Marriage date:
-Hoping i'll have one someday :P
N-Number of siblings
-One, technically.
O-Oranges or apples:
-Apples. Crisp, with a blend of sweet and sour :)
P-Phobias:
-Dogs (more a dis-liking than a phobia), lizards (eeks!).
Q-Quote:
-Cross the bridge when you get to it. (addiitonally, don't start hoping you don't see the bridge at all :D though thats what i do!)
R-Reason to smile:
-There's a list here and there's the next - no reason at all :)
S-Season:
-We don't really have seasons here. But i do think i'd very much like to treat my eyes to the reds and browns of autumn :) And, snow, is yet to be seen! In chennai though, the light drizzle times are the best. The floods are the worst!
T-Tag two people:
Sukanya (you'll have nothing to do after exams!)
Vinod (high time you updated your blog!)
U-Unknown fact about me:
-My wisdom teeth are currently growing out of my gums :P *div the wise*
Jokes apart, Someday, i want to work for a social cause.
V-Vegetable(s) you do not like:
Brinjal - I think this is on many many lists! poor thing!
Senakazhangu (because its a pain to make it!), don't ask me english translation!
Paavakka (bitter gourd) - Obviously, too bitter.
W-Worst habit:
Succumbing to the temptation of eating in the middle of the night!
And if you ask my mother, she would say, sleeping late and killing my immune system!
X-rays you have had:
Tooth xray :D Before i got my braces :D Nothing great :P Except they found out that some tooth of mine had been stuck in my gums for years and had to be pulled out!
Y-Your favourite food:
Come on, don't make me narrow it down! I love good vegetarian food! Ranging from thaalicha thair sadam with aplam, to pizza with baby corn and olives :D
Z-Zodiac
Not one :) Cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius. The prudent meet the creative :)
Yours "me, a-z"ly
Signing off...
A-Available:
On messenger? Yep, never invisible :P
B-Best friend(s):
-:) We all have our own definitions :)and friends!
C-Cake or Pie:
-Cake!! Chocolate cake :) Trouffle!
D-Drink of choice:
- Lemon Iced Tea :) hot sweet tea. Occasionally,coffee. And, apple juice! at 12.00am!
E-Essential thing used every day:
-Too many to list
F-Favorite color:
-Green. In all its shades of nature :)Black. Copper sulphate/chloride blue.
G-Gummy bears or worms:
-Gummy bears...dancinng here and there and everywhere! Anyone watched the cartoon? :D
H-Hometown:
-Namba singara chennai! With the irritating traffic diversions. With boat club road. With the amazing feeling of being at home!
I-Indulgence:
-football. craziness to a level you wouldn't believe. Dancing with the air ;)
J-January or February?
-January :) Birthday month :) And also, the beginnign of a new year and all :P
K-Kids and names?
-No kids yet. Have some prospective names though :D
L-Life is incomplete without (would like to add, presently incomplete without):
-Small talk with Thatha paati (which i'm afraid wont be possible after a while!)
Chatting with mom when she's not here, acting kiddish or fighting with her if she's around. Listening to her stories about appa :)
Music (I've realised i cant do anything non-study without it! Need music when i'm eating, browsing, cooking, everything!)
M-Marriage date:
-Hoping i'll have one someday :P
N-Number of siblings
-One, technically.
O-Oranges or apples:
-Apples. Crisp, with a blend of sweet and sour :)
P-Phobias:
-Dogs (more a dis-liking than a phobia), lizards (eeks!).
Q-Quote:
-Cross the bridge when you get to it. (addiitonally, don't start hoping you don't see the bridge at all :D though thats what i do!)
R-Reason to smile:
-There's a list here and there's the next - no reason at all :)
S-Season:
-We don't really have seasons here. But i do think i'd very much like to treat my eyes to the reds and browns of autumn :) And, snow, is yet to be seen! In chennai though, the light drizzle times are the best. The floods are the worst!
T-Tag two people:
Sukanya (you'll have nothing to do after exams!)
Vinod (high time you updated your blog!)
U-Unknown fact about me:
-My wisdom teeth are currently growing out of my gums :P *div the wise*
Jokes apart, Someday, i want to work for a social cause.
V-Vegetable(s) you do not like:
Brinjal - I think this is on many many lists! poor thing!
Senakazhangu (because its a pain to make it!), don't ask me english translation!
Paavakka (bitter gourd) - Obviously, too bitter.
W-Worst habit:
Succumbing to the temptation of eating in the middle of the night!
And if you ask my mother, she would say, sleeping late and killing my immune system!
X-rays you have had:
Tooth xray :D Before i got my braces :D Nothing great :P Except they found out that some tooth of mine had been stuck in my gums for years and had to be pulled out!
Y-Your favourite food:
Come on, don't make me narrow it down! I love good vegetarian food! Ranging from thaalicha thair sadam with aplam, to pizza with baby corn and olives :D
Z-Zodiac
Not one :) Cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius. The prudent meet the creative :)
Yours "me, a-z"ly
Signing off...
Monday, March 10, 2008
*Honk* *Honk*
Of all the things that happen everyday, and don't happen, i chose to write about this, because i don't think I've ever come back home from anywhere so angry, with some sort of undying rage, ever! I have never banged the door of the lift before, or banged my fist against the car park wall, almost cracking a knuckle, or given a traffic policeman my best shot at a disgusted look despite not having my license! Well, if you don't live in Chennai, this post wouldn't make any sense at all. The NEW traffic diversions (Read : Converting every road possible into a one-way) are a waste of time, petrol, patience, and make you want to run down every person u see wearing a white shirt and khaki trousers, throwing out hand signals! Even though they're just doing their jobs, obeying somebody else's orders. And WHY would they want to make changes to some part of the city that's not suffering from this problem half as much other parts! Maybe just for fun! Or maybe because it seems like a good idea to plant "no entry", "no left turn", and "no right turn" boards all over the place! Maybe too many of those boards were rusting and had to be used urgently! Maybe the barricades were rusting too, and needed to be thrusted exactly where people like me take turns! And there we waited on the road, under the sun, Guinea pigs to their trial-and-error methods to alleviate traffic congestion, people who spent over 2 hours inside a helmet, and ended up coming back home in the worst of moods, the kind that even hot sweet tea and good music could do nothing to help!
To the people out there who are busy charting these CHANGES out on paper, considering themselves the masterminds of this destructively disorganised plan that i sincerely hope fails, and fails big, so that things can go back to how they were, a few words for you:
-->Making every road, every street a one-way DOES NOT help bigger causes! It only makes us go in circles, and see the world before we reach home! Which i can tell you, is one of the worst things when one's stomach's already growling in hunger!
-->The congestion has only become WORSE. Actually, there was no congestion before! Where one would previously take hardly 5 minutes to ride across a road, one now takes a good 20 minutes! Or even more.
-->Give the traffic policemen a break. Its YOU who should be getting the disgusted looks and the million questions from the people who ACTUALLY use those roads everyday!
-->The next time you want to do something like this, just DON'T DO IT! :D
-->You have successfully proved that you have the ability to make our lives miserable. Get over yourselves and open your eyes to this unruly mess that you've landed us innocent citizens into!
--> Lastly, if the rusting boards are the problem, sir, with no attempts to sound proud, my project currently deals with metal resistant bacteria. I could get them to eat your metal up :D :D as long as YOU own up, and tell this city what the problem is!
Hell, am i the only person who has a problem with this? Is it all just abt RESISTING CHANGE? *wonders*
But, this still sucks.
I was thinking how it would be if a whole gang of people went on strike and rode bikes the opposite way on a one-way :D *Evil Grin* Maybe i should organise it?
Yours "resisting change"ly...
Signing off...
To the people out there who are busy charting these CHANGES out on paper, considering themselves the masterminds of this destructively disorganised plan that i sincerely hope fails, and fails big, so that things can go back to how they were, a few words for you:
-->Making every road, every street a one-way DOES NOT help bigger causes! It only makes us go in circles, and see the world before we reach home! Which i can tell you, is one of the worst things when one's stomach's already growling in hunger!
-->The congestion has only become WORSE. Actually, there was no congestion before! Where one would previously take hardly 5 minutes to ride across a road, one now takes a good 20 minutes! Or even more.
-->Give the traffic policemen a break. Its YOU who should be getting the disgusted looks and the million questions from the people who ACTUALLY use those roads everyday!
-->The next time you want to do something like this, just DON'T DO IT! :D
-->You have successfully proved that you have the ability to make our lives miserable. Get over yourselves and open your eyes to this unruly mess that you've landed us innocent citizens into!
--> Lastly, if the rusting boards are the problem, sir, with no attempts to sound proud, my project currently deals with metal resistant bacteria. I could get them to eat your metal up :D :D as long as YOU own up, and tell this city what the problem is!
Hell, am i the only person who has a problem with this? Is it all just abt RESISTING CHANGE? *wonders*
But, this still sucks.
I was thinking how it would be if a whole gang of people went on strike and rode bikes the opposite way on a one-way :D *Evil Grin* Maybe i should organise it?
Yours "resisting change"ly...
Signing off...
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Through and...through!
One's innocent finger tips fall prey to the unruly mixture of bromophenol blue, and coomassie brilliant blue. Finger tips, stained BLUE. One of those stubborn stains that refuse to leave one's skin even after near-bleeding attempts are made by rubbing it onto the damaged surface of rough stone! Of course, one should use destaining solution. Unfortunately, domestic homes do not store methanol and acetic acid in their refrigerators! And one has to eat before going back to the lab the next morning. So one eats. Looking at the rasam on the plate, more often than usual, to make sure it's not turning blue. One could use a spoon. But hell, no fun in eating rasam saadham with a spoon! Sheesh! The most one can do, is refrain from licking one's rasam filled fingers for one day. What deprivation!
And so, life goes on. Through melting petri plates, and boiling autoclaves. Through stolen media, and mistaken alcohol (Isopropyl!). Through unrooted craziness, and umbridge-like bossy-ness! Through dreams of making a difference to oneself. Through working sundays. Through insginificant conversations over glassware-sterilization throwing stressed out minds into fits of laughter. Through the hunts for the silver lining. Through the greetings from a french-bearded, joyous,blue-shirt-wearing, cupric-chloride-blue-bike-riding unassuming scientist. Through thoughts about the fates of Chappu and Pappu under experimentation in the animal house. Through staring at fish in a recently cleaned fish pond. Through contemplations on nose-piercing and hair styling. Through chola poori and chappathi kuruma. Through corridors and staircases, freedom and non-freedom, through power and its nonexistence, through piercing looks and teary eyes, through realisation and...speculation. Life goes on.
Yours "Center for B, AU" ly
Signing off...
And so, life goes on. Through melting petri plates, and boiling autoclaves. Through stolen media, and mistaken alcohol (Isopropyl!). Through unrooted craziness, and umbridge-like bossy-ness! Through dreams of making a difference to oneself. Through working sundays. Through insginificant conversations over glassware-sterilization throwing stressed out minds into fits of laughter. Through the hunts for the silver lining. Through the greetings from a french-bearded, joyous,blue-shirt-wearing, cupric-chloride-blue-bike-riding unassuming scientist. Through thoughts about the fates of Chappu and Pappu under experimentation in the animal house. Through staring at fish in a recently cleaned fish pond. Through contemplations on nose-piercing and hair styling. Through chola poori and chappathi kuruma. Through corridors and staircases, freedom and non-freedom, through power and its nonexistence, through piercing looks and teary eyes, through realisation and...speculation. Life goes on.
Yours "Center for B, AU" ly
Signing off...
Thursday, January 24, 2008
20/01/08
I'm going to let the photos do the talking this time :) Not like they'll tell you exactly what happened, or how i felt, or how amazing it all was...still, there was definitely more to this birthday than growing old ;)
After successfully accomplishing the task of waking me up and getting me out of bed (And trust me, its a very difficult task! You should ask my cousin(s) and my brother!), my friend very sweetly chauffered me...
Through the beautiful roads...sunlight filtering through branches...
...and to our destination...where she did one of the sweetest things ever...
Spent a moment reminiscing...
And some time acting like a scarecrow ;)(i'm not dancing for sure!)
and that, was the morning. Afternoon? Guess who sang for me! :)Couldn't get better!
But apparently, it could... :) Back to the beach in the evening. Another cake. Some more great company. Craziness.
My beautiful new door happened...
And so now i say...
Definitely, there couldn't have been a better way to turn 21! :D thankyou all for everything :)
Yours "Dear God, thank you"ly
Signing off...
After successfully accomplishing the task of waking me up and getting me out of bed (And trust me, its a very difficult task! You should ask my cousin(s) and my brother!), my friend very sweetly chauffered me...
Through the beautiful roads...sunlight filtering through branches...
...and to our destination...where she did one of the sweetest things ever...
Spent a moment reminiscing...
And some time acting like a scarecrow ;)(i'm not dancing for sure!)
and that, was the morning. Afternoon? Guess who sang for me! :)Couldn't get better!
But apparently, it could... :) Back to the beach in the evening. Another cake. Some more great company. Craziness.
My beautiful new door happened...
And so now i say...
Definitely, there couldn't have been a better way to turn 21! :D thankyou all for everything :)
Yours "Dear God, thank you"ly
Signing off...
Thursday, January 03, 2008
On Addiction and Attention
2 things deserve a mention on my addiction list. Or should i say, my 'latest' addiction list. One of them keeps me awake into the eerie hours of the morning. But i haven't managed to catch the sunrise yet. But i guess i'll blame that on the maargazhi maasam, which supposedly spells 'winter' in chennai-weather language, and hence, late sunrises! The TV show House. And its been thanks to my cousin's laptop (which btw, i christened Iris) that i've been able to snuggle up in bed, and get a horizontal view of a vertical screen ;) ok, i was just lying down and watching it! And so it played and played and played till my eyes couldn't fight gravity any longer. Suddenly i'd realise i had to shut Iris down, so that i don't kick 'her' off the bed assuming her to be a part of the enemy troupe in my battle-sequence dream! Yes, i dream of battles. But now, Iris is gone. And more importantly, my cousin's gone. So its goodbye to all the fun, and the excessively vetti things we did in the name of 'timepass', a term that's been abused way too much between us, in the past month. December has hardly ever been more fun! So thankyou, Visu, and Iris :) And i might add to dear cousin there, i'm sorry i ditched you and continued watching House. I was just addicted! So well, this humble subject is willing to accept any punishment from your highness ;)Iris took my addiction away with her! Maybe thats a good thing. I can finally get to all the pending work!
Addiction 2. This voice pouring its heart out singing "oh, its what you do to me..." I like songs that sound lazy. I like songs which are defined as much by the instruments as they are by the lyrics. This one though, has only a guitar. The voice seems perfect - lazy yet truthful, the lyrics sweetly romantic - not crossing the line to 'mushy', the tune - lovably monotonous. Plain White T's Hey there Delilah. Try listening :) It sure made someone who is presntly quite unwell smile for a while :) You're going to be just fine Lav!
And, for introducing me to both the show, and the song, i owe it totally to nitya. Thanks nit! (happy now nit? :D)
Attention can be a weird thing. The more of it you get, the more of it you demand. Maybe not always, maybe it depends on the kind of attention. But my opinion is that one shouldn't get used getting attention. It makes you dependent. And, will eventually be disappointing and difficult to accept once it disappears or lessens. *sigh* While we're at attention, House has been educating me, and un-boringly :)I now know that Munchausen Syndrome is an attention-seeking personality disorder where the patient seeks doctors' attention by faking diseases! Aint that so interesting :D
Oh, and, Happy new Year :) Welcome, 2008!
The lovely drizzle outside complements Hey there Delilah...perfect moment. True bliss. Smile...smile...smile :)
"The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame..."
Yours "Oh, Its what you do to me..."ly
Signing off...
Addiction 2. This voice pouring its heart out singing "oh, its what you do to me..." I like songs that sound lazy. I like songs which are defined as much by the instruments as they are by the lyrics. This one though, has only a guitar. The voice seems perfect - lazy yet truthful, the lyrics sweetly romantic - not crossing the line to 'mushy', the tune - lovably monotonous. Plain White T's Hey there Delilah. Try listening :) It sure made someone who is presntly quite unwell smile for a while :) You're going to be just fine Lav!
And, for introducing me to both the show, and the song, i owe it totally to nitya. Thanks nit! (happy now nit? :D)
Attention can be a weird thing. The more of it you get, the more of it you demand. Maybe not always, maybe it depends on the kind of attention. But my opinion is that one shouldn't get used getting attention. It makes you dependent. And, will eventually be disappointing and difficult to accept once it disappears or lessens. *sigh* While we're at attention, House has been educating me, and un-boringly :)I now know that Munchausen Syndrome is an attention-seeking personality disorder where the patient seeks doctors' attention by faking diseases! Aint that so interesting :D
Oh, and, Happy new Year :) Welcome, 2008!
The lovely drizzle outside complements Hey there Delilah...perfect moment. True bliss. Smile...smile...smile :)
"The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame..."
Yours "Oh, Its what you do to me..."ly
Signing off...
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Sparks of felicity!
A bike ride is like nothing on this planet. Its one of those things that dances to your tunes. You could be flying, or gliding, or simply just riding. A solitary ride on a breezy night, on an empty road, beneath a starry sky, guided more by the silver moon light than by the yellow head light, is a reprieve of sorts...but riding as a pillion rider behind somoene whose skills in riding you trust, is a different kind of bliss. You have nothing to control. You just let go...allow your soul to fly with the wind, as the wind. On a routine short ride with my cousin today, i looked up at the sky, more out of habit than anything else. The wholesome circular moon lit up the partly clouded purple space above me, a sky of scattered stars. And then, there was an aeroplane, flying right above us, and seemed to keep pace with us. It was some sort of fleeting feeling i cant describe. Like the inner core of my heart was struggling for expression, expression that would do justice, even though i was pretty sure nothing would. The only word that popped into my brain when i thought about it later was harmony. Weird, how I'm not able to relate that word to alot of other things i'd like to relate it to!
And that...was one of the lighter moments of the past 2 days which have been a myriad of unpleasant happenings and thoughts! The other light moment, which i classify as light only now, and didn't at all during its occurence, was my 15 minutes of 'fame'. Not literally, but within the family. A considerable amount of the attention that was focussed solely on my grandfather stole its way to my recklessly careless being for a while when i accidentally locked my uncle's car with the keys safely placed on the back seat, thanks to the thirupathi laddu that i had to free from the ants first, and then free from the car! I'm not going to explain how the hell i ended up doing that, but it happened! More disastrous was the fact that he was willing to carry out the task himself, but i insisted on doing it for him, and actually got the keys from him by saying "naan unga car ah onnum pannida maaten, saaviya thaango!" (I'm not going to do anything to your car, give me the keys). So much for trying to help! Me and my big mouth! Its a good thing they didn't have to break the door, considering there was no spare key...some sort of wire meddling worked. Whew! After all the cribbing and brooding i did before i mustered up the courage to break the news to my uncle! So,an hour back, when my uncle gave me the keys again, and told me to leave them at home, we had to grin at each other! And I, for all my carelessness, allowed myself some warm smiles for the renewal of his trust in me! Childish, yes, but it was the high point of the unfavourable circumstances! Or so I'd like to call it ;)
Lastly, i would never have updated in the present circumstances, but i was asked to...so i dedicate this post to that reader of this blog who hardly ever comments. Thanks for making me do this :)
Yours "with the wind, as the wind"ly
Signing off...
And that...was one of the lighter moments of the past 2 days which have been a myriad of unpleasant happenings and thoughts! The other light moment, which i classify as light only now, and didn't at all during its occurence, was my 15 minutes of 'fame'. Not literally, but within the family. A considerable amount of the attention that was focussed solely on my grandfather stole its way to my recklessly careless being for a while when i accidentally locked my uncle's car with the keys safely placed on the back seat, thanks to the thirupathi laddu that i had to free from the ants first, and then free from the car! I'm not going to explain how the hell i ended up doing that, but it happened! More disastrous was the fact that he was willing to carry out the task himself, but i insisted on doing it for him, and actually got the keys from him by saying "naan unga car ah onnum pannida maaten, saaviya thaango!" (I'm not going to do anything to your car, give me the keys). So much for trying to help! Me and my big mouth! Its a good thing they didn't have to break the door, considering there was no spare key...some sort of wire meddling worked. Whew! After all the cribbing and brooding i did before i mustered up the courage to break the news to my uncle! So,an hour back, when my uncle gave me the keys again, and told me to leave them at home, we had to grin at each other! And I, for all my carelessness, allowed myself some warm smiles for the renewal of his trust in me! Childish, yes, but it was the high point of the unfavourable circumstances! Or so I'd like to call it ;)
Lastly, i would never have updated in the present circumstances, but i was asked to...so i dedicate this post to that reader of this blog who hardly ever comments. Thanks for making me do this :)
Yours "with the wind, as the wind"ly
Signing off...
Friday, December 07, 2007
Oh yeah!
There are so many things that happen in life...so many phases, so many emotions that waltz with the mind. Yet, people chose to sing of love. And we don't seem to get bored of it. I'm not saying that other emotions, or situations, are totally ignored...Its just that, if theres a movie with 6 songs, 2 would probably centre around friendship, family, death or sheer fun/dabankoothu, while the other 4 will have something to do with the onset of love, descriptions of the girl/boy, or dreams of either, or when the love borne in the hearts of the protagonists is finally getting a name that society approves of with no qualms - marriage, or heartbreak, which ofcourse is very directly involved with love itself. Its very rare that vairamuthu writes a song like "Katrin mozhi", and that's because its not what is asked for. There are 5 other songs in that movie- mozhi(i'm not fond of the 6th one!)-which are as beautiful as this one, all that have something to do with this emotion i've been ranting about. Very pleasing music, and lyrics. So why are so many pieces dedicated to this theme? In indian movies, definitely because every story revolves around the romance, or the to-be romance. Even if it doesn't, there has to be a romantic track in the plot for sure. But what about english albums? Rock/pop/blues/hip hop anything! Maybe its the easiest to write about? Or maybe because its one of the most important things that happens in a person's life? Is it? Or because its a feeling that is capable of leading to a number of other feelings - happiness/pain/blah?
Ok, i don't know. The bottomline is, we still enjoy it. And we're not going to stop listening to it, even though we know its sort of over rated. Seems like an anticlimax? Was i supposed to announce to the world that no more love songs should be made, and that people better start concentrating their music and lyrics on the million other things around them? Yeah right, like anyone's going to listen to me. So i'm not complaining. I dedicate this post to one song (i know we usually dedicate posts or anything to people, but...). A song that describes what it feels like to be in love, but describes nothing about the girl, pretty much unlike alot of tamil songs. A song that has music that is capable of lifting you up from the dumps and making you smile. Lovely lyrics (I'm just not able to find out who wrote the lyrics! God bless him/her!). Its one song that makes me happy, eternally. Its already been mentioned on this blog before.
Vizhiglin Aruginil Vanam,from the movie Azhagiya theeye. Composed by Ramesh Vinayagam
Its got quite an adorable video too...with Prasanna, who i think has an awesome pair of black/brown eyes. Maybe the best i've seen, which i realised thanks to Kanda Naal Mudhal...lots of close up shots! But lets not get to all that now ;)
You can find the song, with the lyrics here. Last on the list.
"Irudhayame thudikiratha...
thudipadhupol, nadikiratha..."
Yours " Oh yeah!" Ly
Signing off...
Ok, i don't know. The bottomline is, we still enjoy it. And we're not going to stop listening to it, even though we know its sort of over rated. Seems like an anticlimax? Was i supposed to announce to the world that no more love songs should be made, and that people better start concentrating their music and lyrics on the million other things around them? Yeah right, like anyone's going to listen to me. So i'm not complaining. I dedicate this post to one song (i know we usually dedicate posts or anything to people, but...). A song that describes what it feels like to be in love, but describes nothing about the girl, pretty much unlike alot of tamil songs. A song that has music that is capable of lifting you up from the dumps and making you smile. Lovely lyrics (I'm just not able to find out who wrote the lyrics! God bless him/her!). Its one song that makes me happy, eternally. Its already been mentioned on this blog before.
Vizhiglin Aruginil Vanam,from the movie Azhagiya theeye. Composed by Ramesh Vinayagam
Its got quite an adorable video too...with Prasanna, who i think has an awesome pair of black/brown eyes. Maybe the best i've seen, which i realised thanks to Kanda Naal Mudhal...lots of close up shots! But lets not get to all that now ;)
You can find the song, with the lyrics here. Last on the list.
"Irudhayame thudikiratha...
thudipadhupol, nadikiratha..."
Yours " Oh yeah!" Ly
Signing off...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
*no subject*
It is the ones you like the most that you let go of...let them have it their way...bow out...and then, when your heart lights up with the memory of it, way into the years, you smile. Maybe you didn't do the right thing. Maybe you should have held on, displayed your stubborn-ness, the same stuborn-ness that disappears in the presence of a few. But no...if it wasn't the right thing to do, you wouldn't be smiling about it now. And ofcourse, there's always happiness in seeing them happy. Happier, perhaps. That, is the curious way in which the happiness inside the distorted head works. Quite marvellous sometimes. Painful sometimes. Giving some part of the mind a new lease on joy. Depriving another of the same. Laughing, but not really. Bitter-sweet. A battle you won, by losing. Where the victory exists, but not in your head. Loss or Gain? You know it for sure...but you secretly wish for an assymetrical slant towards the 'gain'. Maybe...
You let them go, you let them free, you make them happy, you're happy. Maybe thats selfish after all. There's something for everyone in everything that happens. Fringe benefits, or maybe, not.
Yours 'realisations of sorts' ly
Signing off...
You let them go, you let them free, you make them happy, you're happy. Maybe thats selfish after all. There's something for everyone in everything that happens. Fringe benefits, or maybe, not.
Yours 'realisations of sorts' ly
Signing off...
Saturday, October 20, 2007
In the dark
How does one handle the fear of becoming a nobody in life?
Of being dissolved into nothingness...
Of chosing the inappropriate course...
Of not being able to listen to one's heart well enough, because its not loud enough, and not being able to see the vision in one's mind clear enough, because its blurry...
Sometimes its just not enough how much ever you try. Maybe it never is. And its impossible to blame destiny, or anything or anyone else. Because you know theres something missing, and its too late to change it. And its not right to give up. But you feel like it. And then you're told its just the beginning...
If only...If only, i could hear that inner calling loud and clear. If only i could get myself to steer my ship myself, and in the right direction. If only this confused state of mind could disappear when i wake up tomorrow morning, and a new perspective, a new plan, could infest my mind and get me working. If only...
I've been told time and again that i do alot of thinking that almost always ends up in nothing. Maybe that is actually true. But what's there to execute when the thinking's not over? Or cant be over?
Yours"looking for the light"ly
Signing off...
Of being dissolved into nothingness...
Of chosing the inappropriate course...
Of not being able to listen to one's heart well enough, because its not loud enough, and not being able to see the vision in one's mind clear enough, because its blurry...
Sometimes its just not enough how much ever you try. Maybe it never is. And its impossible to blame destiny, or anything or anyone else. Because you know theres something missing, and its too late to change it. And its not right to give up. But you feel like it. And then you're told its just the beginning...
If only...If only, i could hear that inner calling loud and clear. If only i could get myself to steer my ship myself, and in the right direction. If only this confused state of mind could disappear when i wake up tomorrow morning, and a new perspective, a new plan, could infest my mind and get me working. If only...
I've been told time and again that i do alot of thinking that almost always ends up in nothing. Maybe that is actually true. But what's there to execute when the thinking's not over? Or cant be over?
Yours"looking for the light"ly
Signing off...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Pulling the heart's strings
I am presently addicted to apple juice. Apple juice at midnight.Nice way to start the day dont you think? :)I was hooked to Friends (the sitcom), but i guess that wore off because i didn't have more of it to watch.
I like sad songs...slow-soft-sad songs.maybe they just evoke emotion more easily in me than happy songs do...and one really sad song i've been listening to over and over again is "take my heart back" by Jeniffer Love Hewitt. I think sad songs hit one harder if they have a particular context in a movie or something...atleast for me, its like that. You know exactly why that song was sung, or the tune was played, and all the sadness in the movie just infests your mind and strikes your heart.Of course its not always like that...theres always the lyrics which you can relate to
your own life...but lately, more than the lyrics of the song, its the movie situation that has succeeded in making me sad! And then there's the tune...some tunes don't even need words to tell you its a sad one. Reminds me of the time my music teacher was teaching us this particular song in kalyanavasantham ragam, and the whole atmosphere got so gloomy and sad...not like we understood the song...just the ragam and the tune...Its like this sick feeling in your stomach,this emptiness around...like sorrow just swallowed the whole world, and there's no coming out of it. Some sort of enchantment, but a sad one. There's so much beauty in that...when something no one can understand makes each person in the room feel the same thing. I guess that's what they call the language of music :D
I haven't been able to come out of my BGM craze, or my awe for Mani rathnam (if you scroll down, you'll notice my previous post had alot to do with both!). This time, the movie is Thalapathi. I was totally bowled over by the balance of each element in the movie...quite neatly done. Its like Mani Rathnam used some mathematical equation to calculate the proportion of each element, and got it all right, and beautifully. Theres the friendship, the mother-and-lost-son element, theres the right dose of romance, very aptly balanced with the rage and the helplessness coming out of that "unfulfillable" love, theres a good deal of violence (which i guess the movie needed),and there are the well placed songs composed by the maestro, illayaraja. Another thing i liked about the movie is the bond between the little girl (banupriya's daughter) and Rajnikanth.
The BGM that made me re-watch scenes this time was the violin version of the song "Sundari kannaal oru seydhi". Brilliant composition. It makes me feel like the violin is crying out...shobhana's eyes speak it all out...the yearning, the bittersweet acceptance...so its like the violin complements her eyes. And when you realise all the helplessness that's involved in that scene of lost love, its some sort of poignant beauty.
I'm not uploading the violin piece i'm talking about...partly because i think its complicated, and partly because i'm lazy. So if you'd like to listen to it, you can leave me a comment, and i'll mail it across.
And thus we indulge in music and movies, and small or big analyses of them, to help us forget the bigger things in life. To stop dwelling in things that require patience...on things that do not entirely lie at our mercy. After all, I've heard that to get out of difficulty, one must usually go through it!
Yours "This too...shall pass"ly
Signing off...
I like sad songs...slow-soft-sad songs.maybe they just evoke emotion more easily in me than happy songs do...and one really sad song i've been listening to over and over again is "take my heart back" by Jeniffer Love Hewitt. I think sad songs hit one harder if they have a particular context in a movie or something...atleast for me, its like that. You know exactly why that song was sung, or the tune was played, and all the sadness in the movie just infests your mind and strikes your heart.Of course its not always like that...theres always the lyrics which you can relate to
your own life...but lately, more than the lyrics of the song, its the movie situation that has succeeded in making me sad! And then there's the tune...some tunes don't even need words to tell you its a sad one. Reminds me of the time my music teacher was teaching us this particular song in kalyanavasantham ragam, and the whole atmosphere got so gloomy and sad...not like we understood the song...just the ragam and the tune...Its like this sick feeling in your stomach,this emptiness around...like sorrow just swallowed the whole world, and there's no coming out of it. Some sort of enchantment, but a sad one. There's so much beauty in that...when something no one can understand makes each person in the room feel the same thing. I guess that's what they call the language of music :D
I haven't been able to come out of my BGM craze, or my awe for Mani rathnam (if you scroll down, you'll notice my previous post had alot to do with both!). This time, the movie is Thalapathi. I was totally bowled over by the balance of each element in the movie...quite neatly done. Its like Mani Rathnam used some mathematical equation to calculate the proportion of each element, and got it all right, and beautifully. Theres the friendship, the mother-and-lost-son element, theres the right dose of romance, very aptly balanced with the rage and the helplessness coming out of that "unfulfillable" love, theres a good deal of violence (which i guess the movie needed),and there are the well placed songs composed by the maestro, illayaraja. Another thing i liked about the movie is the bond between the little girl (banupriya's daughter) and Rajnikanth.
The BGM that made me re-watch scenes this time was the violin version of the song "Sundari kannaal oru seydhi". Brilliant composition. It makes me feel like the violin is crying out...shobhana's eyes speak it all out...the yearning, the bittersweet acceptance...so its like the violin complements her eyes. And when you realise all the helplessness that's involved in that scene of lost love, its some sort of poignant beauty.
I'm not uploading the violin piece i'm talking about...partly because i think its complicated, and partly because i'm lazy. So if you'd like to listen to it, you can leave me a comment, and i'll mail it across.
And thus we indulge in music and movies, and small or big analyses of them, to help us forget the bigger things in life. To stop dwelling in things that require patience...on things that do not entirely lie at our mercy. After all, I've heard that to get out of difficulty, one must usually go through it!
Yours "This too...shall pass"ly
Signing off...
Sunday, September 16, 2007
You're the rain, I'm a leaf!
I was telling one of my cousins yesterday that blogging about A.R.Rahman and Mani Rathnam has become so terribly cliched. Every other blog has a post raving about either of them, their work and their genius. But well, i guess alot of people do blog about them because they really rock...one sensible film maker, and one music genius. You know what's even better? The combination. When they work together on a project. And there, i'm finally blogging about them myself! But this is not because of how i'm totally in awe about their work (which i am actually, but that's a different issue!). So why has this post come up?
I happened to watch the movie Aayudha ezhuthu (pardon spelling errors if any) again, but only for the second time. All i could recall about the movie before i watched it again was this - I'd watched it in Mayajaal, after my dad bought tickets that i thought were grossly expensive, i was amazingly cranky and pissed off during the drive, and maybe that's because my brother refused to come with us, we ate some ridiculously dry vazhakai bajji in a small eat out before the movie, and it made me choke no end, my mother thought the movie was too violent and didn't like it,I totally loved the scene where surya is dismissed from college but he doesn't leave because all the students say they'll leave with him, I loved the way surya pushed bharatiraja out of his way in the last scene, and also liked the scene when trisha comes back from sivagasi. Ok i know i could recall more of what happened before the movie, than the movie itself! Maybe that's why i wanted to watch it again!
Anyway, to the point...i watched the movie, and liked it all over again. But this time, i noticed the finer details of the music that i may have noticed, but not gone back to, when i watched the movie in the theatre. The Background Music - the BGM. In the siddharth-trisha scenes. Lovely. Violins. Good dialogue + Good BGM = Scene that can be watched atleast 10 times on the same day ;-) Thats wat happened! But well... something quite funny just happened now. I'd been watching the movie with my cousin this morning, and we reached the part where sid doesn allow trish to leave the bus, and they sit there for a long time till the bus goes to the terminus and comes back to her stop. Theres a small song (a variation of hey goodbye nanba) in the background...I'd recorded the song in my mp3 player because i couldn't find it anywhere online. So i was telling him the lyrics go like this -
May mazhai Naan illai
Idhuku mel oru nilai
vidai kudu, pogrien
eeramai vazhgiren...
He gave me one look, and started laughing! Obviously there was something wrong with the lyrics...the lines didn't sound right! Things didn't add up... so he said he'll listen to it...and he laughed and laughed...because he thought the lyrics actually are...
Nee mazhai Naan Alai
Idhuku mel uravu illai
vidai kudu, pogiren
eeramai vazhgiren...
I laughed too. Mainly at his "when do we get rain in May?" question! But still, the eermai vazhgiren part didn't make sense... and then, the movie was playing on tv, and we were watching the same scene... and we realised...we got the first line wrong! It ACTUALLY is
Nee mazhai, naan yelai
Idhuku mel, uravu illai
vidai kudu, pogiren
eeramai vazhgiren...
Whew! And now, it finally makes sense!
Translation... (if u already understand the lyrics, please dont read this translation, it'll be terrible!)
You're the rain, I'm a leaf
We don't have any relationship beyond this
Say your farewell, I'll leave
And live in all Wet-ness! ;)
Anyway... its been an ayudha ezhuthu BGM week. Been listening to the same tunes, and watching the same scenes over and over again... some movie! If you want to check out the video of the song i've been ranting about... here
Yours "Vidai kudu...pogiren"ly
Signing off.....
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