Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Santhosh Subrmaniam

Saw the movie santhosh subrmaniam last week which turned out to be a good one. Fast paced and filled with comedy, it was a good entertainer. For those who have seen the telugu version "Bommarillu" may find it to be  an exact copy of it. Since i had not seen the telugu movie, i could not find any issues. But comparing the pictures of both the films i could see that there is not even a slight difference in the costume of telugu and tamil version. Genelia had done the role of an innocent girl with ease and impresses all the way. No wonder she is offered the role in Hindi also. She looks beautiful, gorgeous, lovely and add all other adjectives that describe beauty. As for Remake Ravi, he seems to have a liking for remakes. As usual he has danced well but in this movie his dance steps seem to be different and attractive. For Prakash Raj, it is a cake walk and he fits into the role of the caring father easily. Kousalya, cricketer Ramesh's appearance go without notice.  Comedy track is too good with special appreciation to Baskar who comes as the college professor in few  scenes. Yet another remake that could turn out to be a hit for Ravi.

IPL T20

Yesterday i was there at the chinnaswami stadium to see the IPL T20 match between chennai super kings and Bangalore Royal Challengers as a supporter of the mighty super kings. This is the first national or international i witnessed from the ground. Inside the stadium it was sweating and the view was not that great as that of what you see in television. But those are the only negatives which will vanish when you take the fun factor into account. IPL T20 was a visual treat. Sixes, fours, missed catches, runouts, music and cheerleaders and all in four hours was too great.

We were there in the stadium at 6.00 and were able to see the players practising. Though most of the players were practising seriously Makhaya Ntini and Muralitharan responded to shouts of the fans. After a while the Washington Redskins, cheer leaders of Bangalore Royal challengers, lit up the atmosphere with their presence. They did attract a lot of attention of the crowd. The chennai cheer leaders preferred to stay away from the attention and walked silently to their places. We were also able to catch a glimpse of the Kollywood and Sandalwood heroine and Bangalore Royal challenger's brand ambassador "Kuthu Ramya" (as she is called  in kollywood). The crowd wave started and continued for a long time.

Once the match started it was pure fun. When Dale Steyn bowled the first over, he did reduce our hopes. The same happened when Hayden and Parthiv Patel returned to pavillion. Once Hussey and Dhoni joined and when the partnership started flourishing, it was fun. When Dhonis started bombarding the stands with his huge six, none of us were in the seat. Though we, the chennai super kings supporters were outnumbered by the Bangalore Royal challenger's supporters, we had more opportunities to celebrate and we used it fully. Sports brings unity, yeah it was true, soon the chennai supporters were united and responded to shouts and comments of different groups in the stand. Drums sivamani beats took us to TN.

The Bangalore Royal challengers started their batting in style, and looked formidable untill they started losing wickets. Till that the fun was with the Bangalore supporters, they were shouting "Jeetaegaa  Jeetaegaa, Bangalore Jeetaegaa". Once the wickets started falling it  was for us to enjoy. With Sap leading the group, the  chants continued  in the local language, which most of the people might not have understood.   To mention a few,

"Atho paaru lightu, Chennai na weightu"
"Gummathalakadi Gummavaa, Chennai na summava"
"Sala pula sala pula, gummthalaka" and the famour "O".

Throats dried up, Legs ached because of dancing but nobody was willing to let tiredness take away the opportunities of enjoyment and the celebration continued. When super kings won eventually we erupted in joy. It was Royal challengers match gifted by them to Chennai superkings. Anyway once the match ended, we  reached home safely in auto fully satisfied of viewing a fantastic match. Anyway that kindled a small desire in the corner of heart, should witness atleast one India-Pakistan match in Chennai.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

House hunting

Had been searching for a good house for two days in and around the area where we were living. The first day it ended up in just phone calls, as most of the house owners are allergic towards the word bachelor.  House owners give a scornful look once you pronounce the word "bachelor". I was forced to check at times whether i look that disgusting. I thought myself and my friend looked a little ok, and not like rogues.  Probably they are expecting us to come out of the college married :)

Some were not willing to reduce the rent, the reason they are giving the house to bachelors. Anyway house owners have their own policy and looks whether you want it or not, like it or not, they are expecting an eve by your side. The hunt is on and is still going on, i mean the hunt for a decent house to live. Now i know why people were so particular in owning a house. It avoids hell a lot of problems.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Stories from a three days Goan

Atlast found some time to chip in something for the blog. Last weekend i was at Goa, a welcoming break from the boring job. Started to Goa on April 4 Friday night by train, setting aside two escalations that were pestering me for sometime. Once the trip was on it was only fun. You could see signs of Goa in the train itself. Most of them were tourists going to train and most of them were already in excited state with the help of drinks. The train was travelling through the western ghats giving some opportunity to explore the scenic beauty of the mountains.

Reached Goa by 1.30 on Saturday. From the journey to the hotel we could confirm what we have heard about Goa. Yeah Goa is famous for drinks  because of low tax, and is visible from the numerous wine shops in the  roads. Most of shop that serve soft drinks also contained atleast some  cans of beer. But one thing that is not known about Goa is that, it is  difficult to move around in Goa, unless you have a lot of cash to burn.  We had booked room near Colva beach and were soon at colva beach having  a really good time in the beach. Though the sun was scorching the skins, the sea water helped in with standing the heat. Evening we were at
Majorda beach, playing football after around 4 years.

On sunday we hired five vehicles, and started the trip to the northern beaches. We started the expedition with a visit to Dona Paula. Then  we were at Coco beach for a boat ride to see the dolphins. We were  lucky the back of few dolphins. Be careful about the rates for the  boat ride, it ranges from 100 to 400 depending on persons. While we  went for 100 per person, we had two people in the same boat paying  Rs.400. Then we visited the Aguada fort and few other beaches like calangute, Bagga. But did not spend much time there.

On monday morning the plan was to visit paulolem. But since time was running out, visited cavelossim and Benaulim beaches near Colva. After that we were off to Panaji or Panjim to catch the evening bus. While on the way stopped at the Basillica of BOM jesus church, a 400 year old chuch that still contains the body of St.Francis Xavier who died  few hundred years ago. After some shopping in Panaji market for a while  we boarded Sharma travels for a 20 hour trip back to work. Heard that KSRTC is better when compared to private transports.

One last point about Goa, Goa does not follow the Indian rules and the policemen there have their own rule and gazette. If the fine for driving without "Pollution check" is 100 in other cities, in goa it is 500. Before you  rent a vehicle make sure you check for all the docs and make sure you have the DL.