34 going on 43

I thought I had lost interest in cricket or anything else that doesn't add value to my everyday life. Cricket, movies, music everything has taken a backseat these days. I am so busy being busy that I haven't been devoting any time to follow whats going on in Indian cricket or more specifically Sachin's cricket. I have come to the sad realization that he is the sole thread that ties me to the world of cricket. My Iam-a-cricket-fan days are numbered. Yesterday I watched the master at play. Thank you God for creating Sachin!! I will talk about Sachin and his exploits to my kids some day just like my parents talked about GRVishwanath and say cricket would never be the same without the hero.

ARR it is

ARRehman just received 2 Oscars. Thank God for him!! Kudos to you Sir. Loved seeing you there, loved your mention of Chennai and loved the Tamil end-of-speech but hated your speechwriter. Maybe there wasn't one and that is why you said what you said.:-)
Why did you use "Mere paas Maa hain"? It didn't fit in at all!!!!
Anyway, Jai Ho. We are proud of you.

Planned Marriage

My cousin is getting married. She is my first cousin's brother-in-law's sister's 2nd cousin but you know how it works - if you know them & you have some common relatives, they become your cousins. She is having an arranged marriage. I think everybody knows how arranged marriages work these days. At least most of the arranged marriages. The parents fix you up. You chat over the phone, meet a couple of times, talk about likes & dislikes and then you get married. Basically, you date with your parents' permission.

But, you know, love marriage sounds too cool. If she told everyone that she was having an arranged marriage, people would think she was getting married to a complete stranger or so she thinks. The girl and the boy seeing each other for the first time at their own wedding is passe (in 99% of the cases). But tell that to my cousin.

So she tells everyone she is having a "love cum arranged" marriage. She emails all of us and talks about how they had stealthily exchanged looks when he had come home to see her and how they held hands and enjoyed the sweet sounds of the birds chirping, autos honking, kids burping etc. The intention of the email is to tell one and all that they know each other so well and are having fun as "dating" couple. I am sure she is not alone. I wish all such couples the best this world can give. But please face it, you are having an arranged marriage. The more you try to conceal that, the more you look like a "wannabe". I know you get a kick when you refer to your fiance as your hubby. Its all part of that dreamy phase but please be careful when you pick your audience. Not everybody thinks that is cho chweet.

That being said, you and your fiance are sweet and Good Luck to both of you.

P.S - Its not you, its the economy

DD Days

I often use the words "DD days" to refer to days when "I don't have time" was not part of my vocab. There was enough time to do everything. DD had shows that, today, would be considered a drab...a sub standard program. The one hour dramas on Tuesdays, Chitrahaar on Wednesdays were watched with such enthusiasm that are reserved only for Word Cup finals and Super Bowl these days. I even watched programs like Ulavarum Olikkadhir, which showed clips of various functions, rituals held in temples around the city. And the king of all programs was Oliyum Oliyum on Fridays. Even Sunday evening movie came a distant second if there was a popularity contest between the programs.

Sunday would occasionally win the race if there was a "Malarum Ninaivugal" that afternoon. Otherwise, Friday was the clear winner. Even though most of us didn't know any Hindi then, we still watched the Saturday evening movie. Of course, the announcer would announce the story in Tamil before the start of the movie. Talking about announcers, VSRaghavan and Gemini Ganesan did the same before "Hum Log" began. Thus one more Hindi program was added to our list of "must see" programs. Chitramala was watched on Mondays with the hope that at least one Tamil song would be aired. In spite of all these programs, we were able to do homework, go outside to play, listen to the neighbors' gossip etc. And we never used the words I-don't-have-time.

Now there is no dearth of channels and there are many good programs but there is no time to follow any of them faithfully like I followed DD. Today as I sat on the couch rocking my 7-week old daughter, I was listening to PooMalaye by Ilayaraaja. Enjoying the song without my mind working in the background making a to-do list was new. And it felt good...took me back to DD days. When the next song played, I closed my eyes and was picturing Murali doing that ugly dance in front of Kuyili and singing "Aatthaadi paavadai..". It was like watching Oliyum Oliyum on DD. And then it was Karthik's turn to do an ugly dance in the song "Pani vizhum malar vanam". The steps had a certain amount of humor. All this was before Prabhu Deva broke into the scene with "Dol dappi ma" and raised the bar. Now even Surya is dancing decently. Next it was Nizhalgal Ravi with "Poongadhavey" followed by Chandrasekar's "Madai Thirandhu". Oliyum Oliyum with all your favorite songs!!! Aha, blissful.

Nandri, Thank You, Shukriya

I would like to thank my family, friends, neighbors and most importantly my friend Blogeswari for bestowing this great honor upon me. (I am trying hard to ignore the lump in my throat and fanning my dark-circled eyes with fingers. But the efforts fail) She not only gave this award but also liberally exaggerated by using words like "fan-following" to refer to people who visit this space because I plead, threaten or cajole them to do so.

Hail our friendship B. I owe you one.:-)

Kudos to our PM

When NDA lost in the last elections, I was sad. I thought the party that India needed most, the one with guts, was defeated by a party that keeps changing its agenda. From Pokhran, kargil war, the bus trip to the POTA, Congress opposed everything that the BJP did. It was clear that UPA would be ruling India, but the thought of Sonia Gandhi as the PM saddened me even more. I was praying it would be Manmohan Singh. His name came out of the blue. He was not a contender but it happened like magic. A highly qualified man finally became our PM.

As years went by, we all realized that the concept of Left and Right wing doesn't apply to India. Congress, which blamed BJP of cozying up to America, actually took steps that would strengthen the relationship between India and the sole super power. And BJP opposed every single action and called the PM a puppet at every possible occasion. The hypocrisy of the current opposition party is very apparent. They oppose without giving an alternative - so typical. Reminds me of John Kerry who kept saying "I have a plan" but never told anyone what it was and eventually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and made G.W.Bush the President again. I am quoting a few lines from our PM's speech here and they sound very sincere. One can never tell who would win the election next time but lets hope that at least the ideas of our PM survive after the election.

The moral of the story is that political parties should be judged not by what they say while in opposition but by what they do when entrusted with the responsibilities of power.


Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first 10 years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.

Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfil the dream of that young boy from that distant village.

The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.

Dasavatharam

Kamal is a narcissist; he is doing 10 roles for the heck of it - I heard this a million times and over and over from everyone around. When I heard that he was writing the dialogs too, I was disappointed. He is no crazy Mohan, can't be funny. I was wondering why he was becoming a T.Rajendar donning all the hats. Having K.S.Ravi Kumar as the Director means only one thing - that Kamal would be the main go-to-guy in the making of the movie. Remember Avvai Shanmugi?

But still the ardent Kamal fan in me couldn't wait to watch the movie and I did. Its true that some roles are very redundant. I still don't understand why he had to become Bush. Why not Manmoham Singh and Karunanidhi too? And what were the 3 heads doing sitting together after Tsunami? I didn't get it. One of the roles (Muslim role) was inspired by Bheem-boy from MMKR I think. The makeup was sad. He could have as well worn a venetian mask.

All that being said, its still a treat for people who are looking for some class act. Kamal is brilliant with the dialogs, especially the conversation between Napoleon and Kamal in the period drama shows how brilliant this main is. Kudos Thalaiva!! Asin plays a typical heroine - no brains, a lot of immaturity and finally falls in love with the hero. I am glad I watched this movie.

He might be a narcissist but he is a complete artist, people!! Acknowledge that. I heard this movie is a hit in Tamil Nadu. God indeed is present... to reward talent and hard work.