2008

Just after the 8 days vacation i am here back in bangalore. With few minutes left to start to office, i am trying to recollect what happened during 2008, that is worth to post in this blog. So it is going to be a bit personal so you can stop reading here if you wish.

Anyway 2008 was an uneventful year and not much happened through out the year.

Not much to comment about the job.
Saw too many movies in theater and through CDs and DVDs. No new year resolution to reduce that also :) So i expect the same situation will prevail in 2009 also.
The best part of last year is the trips along with my friends and seniors, lets see whether i can get them in the correct order.
Jan - Kollimalai, Shivasamudra, Bandipur, Mysore
Feb - Chennai
April - Goa
September - Jog, Murudheshwar
Oct - Tirunelvezhi
Nov - Trichy.
For the first time in lifetime saw a cricket match in stadium. Went to the IPL T20 match between Chennai Superkings and Banglore Royal Challengers.
My sis was blessed with a baby girl and i had a great time playing with the kid.
Attempts to learn hindi and kannada went in vain and almost dropped the idea by end of the year.
For the first time started reading tamil novels with Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan and soon completed Sivagamiyin Sabatham and Parthiban Kanavu.

I am not sure whether i have missed something. Since memory is not willing to cooperate, ending the post now.

Just one resolution for 2009,

Try to come home early :) I tried and failed a lot many times last year trying to do this. Lets see whether i can make that a habit this year :)

Happy New Year.

Ghajini (Hindi) - गजनी

After a long time i woke up today early in the morning when it was still cold outside. After a long time i had got up before 7.00 and i was amused by the fact that is was for a movie, that too in a language i am not fluent in. Ghajini got released in Hindi, today and i was there at 10.00AM at the "Sri Balaji" theater to get the tickets. After a long time i got an opportunity to see the first day first show of a movie and it happens to be the first hindi movie to be seen in theater spending money from my pocket. The main reason was because of all the hype and the expectations set by the movie. Also the film was special since it marked the introduction of Asin in Bollywood.

The movie lived upto the expectations. The movie was faithfully and dutifully copied frame by frame from the tamil version, except for the climax which differed a lot. So it gave a sense of satisfaction even for those who have seen the tamil version a lot many times. Instead of Sanjay Ramasaamy you have Sanjay Singhaniah and instead of chennai it is Mumbai and instead of tamil you have hindi. I might have got this feeling, if not for the beautfully made climax, which not so well crafted in the tamil version. Director Murugadoss has worked a lot on identifying the scenes that can be changed so that it is a lot meaningful. The best part of the movie is Asin, who is meticulous in showing the face reactions. Her face reflects the mood and totally allures the audience. Though all the scenes, dialogues and at times the costume was exaclty similar to that of the tamil version, i remained glued to the seat barely producing signs of motion whenever Asin appeared. When Asin is comical, the theater erupts in laughter, when she faces some ordeal, i noticed a pin drop silence. Looks like with Ghajini she has laid a strong foundation and can build upon that to establish a strong career in Bollywood. Aamir plays his role with ease but you could not help comparing Surya with Aamir and often conclude that Surya was a bit better in few scenes. Wont mention about the movie.

But anyway the movie is awesome and soon it might find its way into this year blockbusters. Worth seeing even if you had seen that tamil version many times.

P.S. - Thought the spelling for Ghajini is गजिनी but noticed it was गजनी in posters.

Side(u) Middle(u) Berth(u)

That day the train was on time for a change. Myself and Musi got into the S8 coach without wasting time. For some reason we often get seats in S8  and lot of interesting incidents happen whenever weravel in S8. The first reaction once we got into the coach was a sign of relief. The coach did not have a side middle berth. This side middle berth seems to be a ingenious idea of a sincere government servant. On the first sight the concept looked quite ok to me. Side middle Berth meant more seats to lie down and dream for the entire night. But thats the only thing you can do, if you get up a little
fast from your sleep, you will end up banging your head on the side upper berth. The most haunting part is the way in which thereservations are made and how the seats are allocated. The way in which seats are allocated is based on the old algorithm based on 72 seats per coach, so once you board it is just confusion with all people in coach proposing their own ideas on how seats are allocated. To confuse this further you have two numbers written near every seat. The confusion will continue till the TTE arrives. One TTE preferred not to do that and we were forced to sleep on the side berths, which in no way is convenient taking the height factor into consideration.

So that explains why we were happy on seeing the missing SMB. We made ourselves comfortable and started our discussion that ranges from modern day Asin to historic Kundavai. But that did not last long, soon we were disturbed by few people who claimed the seats belonged to them. Soon there were around four people checking the tickets. Everything looked perfect, except for the date of journey. We had reserved seats in S8 for the return journey. For the onward trip it was on S5. Once we realised that we were wrong, we did not stay there for more than one second. Ignoring the  smiling faces we walked away and never turned back.

S5 was in utter chaos, the reason was the SMB and two set of numbers written near every seat. Grrrrr once again there were theories floating around. Atlast TTE came around 11.00 and claimed that there is no change in the seating arrangements. The side middle berth is not to be used, which means the old numbering will be followed. But the confusion did not end, as people who boarded at the next station in the middle of the night had no other option other than waking up the people who are lost in dreams.

The final decision still remains unclear, will it continue to be like this, will it be discontinued. Hope government officials resolve it soon.

The Trichy Trip

Had gone to trichy two weeks back to attend see Senthil reluctantly putting an end to his Bachelor life but willingly stepping into the role of a family man. Finally found time today to blog about it. As usual, the preparations for the trip started a long time back, even the marriage preparations might not have happened at that time. And as usual after lot of discussions we decided on starting on saturday morning to Trichy. After a long time i enjoyed a bumpy ride in our normal TNSTC bus with attention oscillating between the "Sivagamiyin Sabatham" and the movies that were played in the bus. Conductor made sure that nobody slept in the bus and played the movie in full volume.

Reached Salem at 3.15 and from there started to Trichy. After a bit of reading, a little of discussion the tiring bus journey came to an end and we were at Trichy. From then started that eating spree. The marriage was grand, and food was just great. For two days every inch of space in the stomach remained occupied.

We did not have enough time to visit the temples around Trichy. When the initial plan was made, we had the plans of visiting all temples but once we started the trip we knew . Fortunately with help of Praveen we were able to visit kallanai and thiruverumbur temple. The recent rains have helped cauvery to cause enough damage to the nearby villages and we could see that on the way to kallanai or Grand anaicut, the dam built by Karikaala Chozhan before 2000 years. Due to the recent floods, water was diverted to Kollidam. The water gushing out of the opened shutters with great force creating a pattern and giving a illusion of standing in a ship was a wonderful sight. After visit to Thiruverumbur, we returned back to Bangalore pledging to return back to Trichy to visit the places we had missed this time. After reading Kalki's book the curiosity to visit the temples has increased a lot. Lets see how the plans go.

Home made office lunch

Inspite of the recession, customer escalations & annoying managers one thing that is to be appreciated about the software companies is, they always come up with something for the engineers to sway away from the work a little. Though most of them turn out to be favorites of management which they claim is good and voluntarily force you to enjoy, sometimes we do enjoy it. One such event happened in our office last week. Last friday we had a section cook off. Every team member was made to bring some home made food and a grand buffet was arranged in office. Not so sure how much one needs to spend to get a buffet like that. As far as bachelors like me, we had taken our empty stomach and participated only in eating. Anyway, it turned out to be a great event. There was almost all items that i could think off. To name a few, chicken briyani, chicken roast, chicken curry, egg masala, vegetable briyani, fried rice, aloo parota, chapathi, dahi vada, coconut rice, gulab jamun, carrot halwa, curd rice etc etc. For a guy who feeds on hotel food daily they all tasted delicious and i did not leave any item untasted. For the first time i ate food in office allured me. Thought it needs to be  remembered, so there goes the post.

What followed that is two customer escalations, which forced me to work from dawn to dusk in the weekend :( but that is a different story better when not thought about.

Vaaranam Aayiram

I liked the movie very much, it lived up to my expectations, looks like this is the best comment that can be made. Generalization might lead to argument. The movie has created mixed response and has kept people at two extremes, one who feel the movie is too good and another section who feel the movie too sentimental and moves at snail's pace. I was totally mesmerized by the movie and would love to see the movie once again. The story is about the life of younger version of Surya guided by his affable and responsible father, who is none other than the older version of Surya. I am not revealing the storyline more than this. Gautam Menon and Surya's hard work needs to be applauded, as they have worked really hard and achived success in showing the transition of Surya as ages from a mischievous school student to responsible Major in Indian army. What happens in between forms the story.

Though it is Surya who occupies every frame, the three heroines have used the little opportunities and make a little impression. The highlights of the movie are the songs and the romantic scenes between Surya and Sameera. Thamari's lyrics blended with Harris Jayaraj music and Surya's dance add strength to the movie. Almost all Surya's dialogue seem to begin with "Daddy" which tests your patience a bit. I am not sure about how many people will accept Surya's family using English to converse most of the times, even in critical situation they seem to stay away from their mother tongue. We have no clue on Gautam's  choice but it does suggest that the movie is intended for only one section of the audience. Other than the movie is great and does make an impact. It is better not to believe the reviews as there is a very high probability of you ending up liking the movie. Hope this film turns out to be a hit.

Ponniyin Selvan

This is going to be a review of the first ever Tamil novel i read recently and not about a junk tamil movie that got released in 2005. The book turned out to be quite interesting one. I was struck by Kalki's imagination, it appears as though everything happens right in front of the eyes. His depiction and the way the characters are introduces is awesome. So elaborate in explanation and so poetic in description kalki wins easily in delivering what was intended. The book also gave a great insight into the Tamil Nadu history and about the medeival chozha empire. The book gives a good description about most of the kings, clans and habits that existed during that time period. Kalki makes use of every available opportunity to provide some historical reference. His characters also highlight the practices that was followed during that time. There were places where Kalki changes the history for the sake of the story, but they were acceptable.

The story starts with "Vallavaraiyan Vanthiyathevan" a vanar kulam prince, taking a message from Aditya Karikalan to his sister Kundavai and king. Later the story plunges into the fight for the chozha throne with  unimaginable stories inter wined which keeps you thinking till you complete the end of the story. Believe me even after the story ends, you might be confused about few parts of the book.  He takes you through the city and Kalki explains the history and beauty of the cities through his eyes and thoughts. His job does not end with that and he gets tasks one by one and we are mostly introduced to the characters through him. Just like the cities,  Kalki explains the beauty of the princesses and their nature through Vanthiyathevan eyes. Kalki provides a very very elaborate description about the characters when they are introduced into the story, so that you get a mental picture of the character. That is the strength of the novel. Kalki has the strength to make you like a character or make it detestable. Kalki imagination seems to gone a bit higher whenever the princesses are involved. The comparisons he makes to compare their beauty is unmatchable.  One more interesting character is Azhwarkadiyaan, it is through him Kalki portrays the feud that existed between  shaivaites and vaishnavaites at that time. Vanthiyathevan is the most adorable character in the book  and at times he steals the limelight from the actual "Ponniyin Selvan". The princesses Kundavai, Vanathi, Poonguzhali and Nandini are lovable. There are many other characters involved in the book who are important in their own aspect, which you will know when you read the book. Once i started reading the first volume, i could not control my curiosity and i kept reading till i completed it. I am planning to read it once again, as i am completely mesmerized by the book. It does deserve a second reading. Also next in line is "Sivakaamiyin Sabatham" and "Parthiban Kanavu" from Kalki.

Suggestion: Better grab a copy instead of searching for online copies. The book is too good to get disappointed and does not cost much also.

Trip to Jog, Murudeshwar, Kollur and Sringeri

I am yet to recover fully from the effects of the trip, both physically and mentally. Physically it was challenging and it is not a trip to forget so soon. It was not a well planned trip but it turned out to be a great one with every piece falling into place at the last minute. The trip started with the journey to Jog falls, through the orphaned roads of Karnataka. Any road that is outside bangalore is neglected and looks like government rarely notices those roads. Anyway after few hours of bumpy ride, we reached Sagar where we spent sometime to clean ourselves and finish breakfast, before we headed for the most gruesome part of the trip. We reached Jog falls and then started the journey down to the abyss of the waterfalls. The cataract falling from around 900 ft height is the highest waterfall in India, and the journey to the bottom of the fall s through the half constructed steps tested the physical fitness. The view from the bottom of the Jog falls is worth taking and view and the  cool breeze is all too great to ignore and the pain is worth taking. Climbing back to the top required arduous efforts.

After that we went to Murudeshwar, a silent sea shore with a huge siva statue. Rest of the evening went in mini football. If you are in doubt what was mini in that, everything was mini right from the team, playground to the ball. Yep, we played football with a tennis ball in a small area with four members per team. But it turned out to be an interesting game. After few months, it was good be involved in some fat burning activity.

Next day we went to two temples kollur and shringeri. While kollur potrayed kerala architecture and look, in shringeri it was fully Hoysala (borrowed from Prabhu's IP). Sringeri temple is  located on the banks of River Tunga. This river deservers special mention because on the shores you will find huge school of fishes of size which i had never seen till now.  After that started the most difficult phase of the the trip, sitting in van for several hours and being rocked like a baby because of the narrow turns on the way to chickmagalur. Putting all together it is an wonderful trip to remember.

Before i fall asleep without switching my laptop, here are the links for the photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/JogFallsShimoga
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/Murudeshwar
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/SringeriKollurAgumbe

For my share stay in touch with http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003 It would take a little more time before i upload the photos. Before last half of the left eye closes, i am signing off now.

Dhaam Dhoom

Definitely did not want to turn this into a cine blog with posts only about movies, but movies seem to be the only matter of interest which is worth sharing in the uneventful life :( So here goes yet another post about recently released tamil movie.

Recently watched the movie "Dhaam Dhoom" along with two of my friends in theater that was almost empty except for 60 wavering heads. I was there since it was Jeeva's last film, and his previous two films had turned me into an ardent fan of Jeeva. The film was ok,  but you may notice few lapses in logic initially, something which i would not have expected in a Jeeva film. The film is about an Indian doctor who foolishly or unfortunately gets caught in a murder case in Russia, and runs to save his life from criminals and from police. As usual our hero escapes showers of bullets with small jumps. In this film you could also see Ravi defying laws of physics, and floating in air without effort. That is ok, Tamil Cinema never respected Newton's gravity.  Songs are the best part of the movie, and Jeeva's dexterity is visible in the locations selected for the songs. Kangana is good, Lakshmi Rai is better.  A bit of suspense is maintained but it should not be difficult to guess the villain. Though it did not satisfy my expectations, it is good and can be watched once.

BMTC bus journey

Yet another incident happened yesterday as usual in BMTC. For me a lot happens in BMTC. Yesterday i gave the conductor 20 Rs and asked for three tickets. He gave the right change of 5 Rs. I was waiting for him to give the ticket, he saw us for a moment and decided against it. Just a glance was enough for him to confirm that we are not locals and he has an opportunity to earn 15 Rs. Anyway yesterday i was in a pugnacious mood, and did not want to leave the matter just like that. If i was alone i would not have done anything certainly. Since i had the company of two of my friends, we decided to give it a try. But he was prepared for it. When we went and asked for the ticket, using the only known local word "Ticket Kodi" :) He just turned his face away and kept silent and did not even bother to see us.  Wondering how BMTC manages to run in profit. If we had known the local language, we could have tried a little more but even after one year, it is still difficult to pickup the local language :( and it is affecting a lot. Anyway i will get an opportunity to see the conductor again i guess, lets see whether i can do something that time.