Tonsure

The concept had just always been fascinating to me right from my childhood. Men tonsure mainly for 2 reasons, one when their parents are dead and the other as a sacrifice to god. For women the later is the only reason out here in my part of the world. I have never clearly understood how sacrificing locks of hair can be a sacrifice to god. Nevertheless it does help temple generate income. The only benefit for us is we save time and money  taking care of the hair.

The last time I had tonsured was way back in school and that is when I was forced to do it with no respect to how I felt about. If I remember correctly I had my head shaven for almost every 2 years :( .... I had no clue why I had to do it nor did I get any reason except once when I had done it in Tiruchendur, that one was because my dad had become a diabetic patient and my mom somehow felt offering hair might get down the sugar levels. In fact being a baldy right through my school life had been one of the  factors of me being bullied right through my school life. Even today one of my school friend calls me Mottai :) :) :) It has been ages since and I decided to offer my hair to god in return for a favour that I have been asking him for quite a while. This was the first time that I had taken a decision about tonsuring and having got what I had asked for I held my end of the bargain. I went straight to Tirupati and had my head shaved. It felt so nice when the cold breeze caressed my bald head with ample sandal applied on top of it. Looking at the mirror I have only turned even more terrifying than I was already :)

It actually gave me an opportunity to try different styles of hair do which I would have never done before. Few of my friends even suggested that I try for villain role in the silver screen looking at my photos. Another added advantage that I have is, it is a summer now and I sweat a lot lesser than I usually do and that has saved me from catching cold. I was little embarrassed to say the least with the clean shaven head and I wished to get back my hair at the earliest. I didn't like myself with my head shaven clean.......

In retrospect I only realised that what I did was silly and idiotic. Having been any educated one may be I should have given a little more thought to it than I had done. I have no rights to criticize people doing crazy things in the name of god. What I had done was as stupid as what many do in the name of god. This experience had just thought what a human mind can actually do in dire needs and helped me understand that the stunts people do in the name of god like piercing through their body parts,beating themselves up, walking on a bed of fire is only for them to have a peace of mind and religion has nothing to do with it. As for me I am pretty much sure this will be the last time I am going have my head shaved unless and until I go bald :D :D :D

Grudge

Fate is something that I don’t believe in, but few things happen and you have no logical reasons to conclude on its occurrence. I had one such experience last year on March the 20th and I still have got no answers why it happened and what actually happened!!! The day which started out fine as any normal day would had an abrupt end after 48 hours giving life changing experience not just for me but for many and still continues to haunt me with questions for which I believe I am never going to find answers or rather get.

Going back in time ICC had opened booking for the IND Vs WI match back and I was not sure if I would be here in Chennai to watch the match though that was my last chance to watch a world cup encounter live with Sachin on the Indian team. So I decided against blocking the tickets but little did I know that I will be watching the same match with couple of my best friends that day. It was the day to pick up the tickets booked online and my friend was there at the stadium and fortunately or unfortunately there was this one ticket available on the same stand which is worth 5000 bucks. He had no money with him so he took the pain to request the counter guy to hold the ticket and walked few 100 meters to pick cash from ATM and got the ticket for me.  I know it is big money and many would curse me for spending the money for a match, but then you get to see the players in a close range. :) :) :) Actually I was cursing myself for buying that ticket for different reason altogether at the end ! ! !

The match was a disappointment for me just for the reason that Sachin was dismissed for 2 but never have I seen a standing ovation for a guy scoring just 2 runs midway of the tournament without him announcing his retirement which I doubt if he will ever do now…. J Nevertheless we had our dinner on the way back and just as I was about to hit the bed thinking the day was finally over I got a call from my friend’s mom who had left the match midway claiming that his mom was sick and he had to take her to the hospital. As it turned out it I was able to figure out that it was a complete lie hearing his mom crying over phone asking me where her son was and what actually happened to him. Here started the enthralling events and it had most of us on the brink for the next 48 hours and it never came to a conclusion for almost a fortnight. To me it hasn't concluded even today and will never .......

My friend was engaged only a few weeks back to his sister's daughter who was 10 years younger than him. Yes these crap still keep happening in our part of the world and the worst part of all is she had scored handsomely in her 12th grade board exams, but was forced to join an arts course just for the sake of getting her married to my friend. Absolutely ridiculous and pity factor is everyone in his family were decently educated and most hols government positions. I lost hope of any change happening in the society in this regard after this incident. Inspite of this all I could think was, who was this girl in his life which made him lie to us. As predicted his mobile was switched off. We started to his house and on the way I tried contacting whomever I know trying to narrow down on his location and at that time of the midnight there was very little help and it was driving me crazy. We all met at the road leading to his house and there we got the call from his mom saying he has reached and I could sense there was a secret yet to be known and his attempt asking us to go back only increased the curiosity and we went to his home only to find that he is to be married the next morning to some other girl whom he can’t stand and will even commit suicide if it was ever to happen. We were flabbergasted, dumb stuck, speech less, stunned and what not.  The next 48 hours was the most grueling one I have ever spent and will remain so till I start talking about my own marriage at home which is not too far away :) :) :) 

The thought of my friend having cheated was nothing short of someone running a heated knife right through my heart. It may be dramatic but that’s the way I felt and I am yet to sink in. There were cries all over his home, so called plans and tips to bring them back to their native safely without being caught by goons just like they do in movies. There were calls from people whom we have never met or rather never even know about their existence until that moment black mailing us and threatening us, life was all over the place and we could never figure out what exactly happened that day. It just continued for another 2 weeks before we had this news of the issue coming to an end the way we never wanted it to finish. It was all over now and my friend  whom we all thought was a good decision maker was there sitting silent just a coward girl letting this happen to him and little did we could when someone is that defenseless.

There are these events in life that you wish had never happened and few persons that you wish you had never met and few questions you wish you had an answer to, but then it happens in your life and just stays part of you for the rest of your life. There is nothing much you can do about it. All we can do is, just accept the fact and get along instead of thinking over why it happened and what would the answer!! ! ! I know it is easier said than done for I have not done it and I am sure I will never be able to do it. It has been a year now and the feeling stays the same for me even though many have moved along with the life and have accepted what has actually happened. Though I have tried my best to move along I still hold a huge grudge and have umpteen question that needed answering. I wish I can be like the rest  :) :) :) 

Friends

I know it is too late to talk about this fabulous sitcom but for most part of the last 2 months it has occupied most of my time even when things were getting very busy around. I was completely addictive to it that it made me watch it whenever I lost sleep even at the wee hours. Th first time I got to know about Friends was way back in college and people were going gaga about this. Most of the celebrity's answer to the question "What your favourite TV show" was Friends. So I did give it a try to watch couple of episodes back then and to be honest I didn't understand most part of it. What was even more interesting was the whole crowd was laughing then and there and I looked an idiot watching it :). There ended my quest to watch the famous sitcom. May be had I watched with sub-titles it might have helped a little but I doubt even that as I realise now that most of the jokes are purely timing.

I happened to watch the same sitcom after 6 years in Star World and now for some reason I was able to follow most part of it even without sub-titles !!! I just couldn't resist myself and started downloading the entire seasons going beyond my apprehensions to use Torrent. Now having complete all the seasonit was entirely worth it and I couldn't stop raving about the series. Everything was special in the show, the main 6 characters which are built with wide difference among them,celebrity episodes,equal screen presence for all characters and a practical approach to portray normal people's life in New York city. Who would have imagined A Geek , A Control Freak, A Play Boy, A Spoilt Child, A Weirdo and A Half Gay 6 put together will give us a series that's going to stand class apart from the rest and a trend setter for decades to come. Even the part time characters like Gunther, Janice were equally good and made us laugh enough to remember them :) Of all the celebrity episodes with Clooney,Van Dame,Sean,Bruce I personally liked the thanksgiving episode with Brad Pitt.

As the show progressed I seriously wished I could have such a life just like how those people had. They had their tough times but still managed to stay happy with their friends. And fa relationship is over if there was one fight it was nice to see people fighting and getting back together so often and still have fun keeping all those baggage apart. Among the characters I like Joseph the best. He has you in splits no matter what he does with all his stupidity and happy go lucky approach to his life.My favourites in the show by order will be
Joey
Ross
Rachel
Chandler
Phoebe and for some reason I hate this girl Monica and it only grew during the finals few seasons.

How you dhoing ?? will be the best dialogue of all  :D :D :D :D :D :D I wished that the show never ends just like many and it would be great if they can make a movie with all together for one last time.

One thing you can learn from the show leaving apart all the laughter is

"No one is perfect, but if you can see through all the imperfections of person you are sure to have a great time with them."

Mayakkam Enna

To put it simple ... One selfish,drunkard, psychic husband with a equally psychic wife if not more and a bunch of so called friends along with a trendy modern dad and a sister makes Mayakkam Enna. The movie was one hell of a dis-appointment and I curse myself that I missed a wonderful test match for this @#$%^&. use your imagination. :D

I seriously want to understand where Selva gets inspiration for such creation. I really pity Sunder of all the characters in the movie for obvious reasons. I am sure there is no such idiot in real world or at least I hope so. Yamini, cold and calculated who uses her date to win her man. Impressive stuff and the way the crazy girl defends her man in the car after the reception though looked nice on screen was ridiculous. I am sure it makes no sense to be with a man who is molesting and man handling her. Defending him is in a different league and I would never understand why anyone would want to do that. I would suggest girls not to be inspired to any extent by that scene. I don't know how long these people are going to project women in such mean way.

People who is going to argue that it was the accident which made Karthick do all the stuff he did please understand that if he can rationally think about the kid he killed in Yamini's womb and push her for sex he can do everything rationally. It is just that he is so obsessed with his passion and affected by the failure and unfair deal he go that he lets everyone around affected and disturbed. As for the friends are concerned I think I am yet to be matured to appreciated these kind of relationship. I don't even think if we can call them friends. May be they are acquaintances with benefits. What kind of benefits is only known to the director :D

The tagline for the movie was good one"Follow your Heart"....But Selva missed the trick of adding another line to it "Carry your brains with it".The climax was a little bit emotional which we have seen throughout the existence of Tamil industry with the huge flaw in the time frame defined. Overall it is a not movie worth spending 3 hours of our time.

Yamini's Eyes were glowing throughout the movie and I liked that facet of her a lot.

Just for Laughs

Strauss:Hey MSD u must know that the edge to the Slip by Bell was not intentional.

Dravid:Yeah...How we will feel if Sachin or VVS or Me had edged and we are caught.

Indian Team:Oh no...(Everyone feels bad...)

MSD:Ok I guess in the Spirit of game we should bring back Bell.

Strauss:Thanks Gentlemen

In England Dressing room....

Strauss : That's unbelievable ... I never thought Indians are this stupid ... Mate go score a Double century, I believe these idiots doesn't tour us for another 3 yrs or so .... :D :D :D

The whole team laughs and Bell chuckles" I know I was naive but not as naive as the Indian team..."

Pepsi

It was a time when One rupee meant a lot and people were happy with the treat that we have in the Bhaji stalls and Tuck Shops where it generally costs us 10 rupees or less for almost 6 people.I still remember flavoured or rather coloured ice cubes sold in plastic tubes for just 50 paise and 75 paise. There was even a variant for 60 paise which tasted a lot better than the other two. Interestingly it was named PEPSI and that was the way before we knew about the actual Pepsi. Vimal was the leading manufacturer of this Pepsi and I tried my best to get a picture of the same without much luck.

It was Sports Day for us and teachers made sure that everybody from the lower classes participated at least in one event. I just came to the ground from school in school van and I didn't know who will take me back to home that day. We didn't know much about the houses except for the fact that we wore different colour dresses or about the points awarded for each and every event or about the trophy my house captain will hold at the end of the event. We were split into teams of 10 and our objective was simple take the small balls for one circle to next in steps and do it in quick time. We were completely ignorant of the consequences and it was total fun. I remember I was in green house standing in the second half of the team and I have no clue who was in my team or even the opposition that day. The circles were placed in the track and there was a huge crowd awaiting us at the end of the last circle. At the blow of the whistle we started our routine and people were clapping and shouting like crazy. It was my turn and I finished placing all the balls in the intended circle and ran to the end. I was just clapping for the other members of my team hoping that we would come first.

The race was done and it was total chaos and I didn't know who won. There was this hand in that crowd which pulled me and handed over a 50 paise Pepsi. It was melt completely and once I split it open I was able to empty it in seconds which would have taken at least 10 minutes back then. It smelled and tasted weird didn't know carcinogens brought that effect. Recollecting the event today I am now able to realise the love my mom had for me. She was too excited and she didn't even know if I had won or not. She had come all the way from my home to pick me up walking almost 2kms in hot sun. She is not that educated and probably didn't know how Pepsi was going to taste once it melts down. All she had in mind was to get something cold for her son to have after the event. It was ignorance and love at it's best. I don't have half of the love what she had or have for me. I have no clue why is that so but then I have this feeling that I should probably should do what I can do the best to keep her happy within my limits.... :)

The reason that made me recollect this event is yet another Ignorance and Love at it's best bringing me masala idlies hoping that I would eat them hot in front of my office which is highly polluted and is the most in appropriate place to have. By the time I got to the idlies it was dry and close to in edibility but still it was full of love or rather stupid love :D I hope I am blessed to have it throughout my life.

KO

Two months of World Cup and now almost one month of IPL has managed to keep me glued to the TV sets in the weekends. The reason is not because I was so interested in watching the matches but because of the fact that there was no one to release any films for the past 3 months or so :( .... Finally "KO" was released few weeks back and It was very difficult to find tickets in all the multiplexes and finally I ended up booking in Devi complex. There was a huge expectation on the movie thanks to the songs which were topping the charts already. "Ko" in short is not a classic one but for sure you would find very little to keep you away from the movie. Simbhu for sure has missed a trick in refusing to take up project. May be he is following his favourite hero is rejecting good scripts... :)

It is a complete commercial entertainer with a clichéd story set in a different backdrop with new characterisations. The director should be appreciated for staying away form an exclusive comedy track as we find in most of the commercial movies today. That way the flow of the movie was not disturbed. The same cant be said about the songs though. It is sad to see that even good songs can stop the flow of the story considerably. Placement of the song "Vennpaniyae" could have been altered. If there is no reason that would make me go back to theatres would the cinematography and the locations of the song.

The story was well narrated  though there were few loopholes which were not explained till the end.The way present day politics was brought out was exceptional and I appreciate the producer who has refrained from deleting those scenes :) Of course the story is a fantasy and is no way closer to reality even for a considerable future. All the characters in the movie played their part to perfection and the character Saro needs a special mention as she keeps the audience light hearted in the intense story narration. The female lead has height to her advantage. I cant think of anything else special about her. Many think her eye brows were good but I had an opposite opinion on that. The male leads were perfect and has done a fabulous job throughout the movie especially Vasanthan which had more scope for acting than Ashwin.

The movie on the whole can be watched once for sure. Kudos to the entire team for meeting the huge expectations and K.V. Anand is turning out to be a successful commercial director without any kuthu songs :)