Viji unplugged

Hope this letter finds you in good place, shape and mind.

I also hope that you haven't met my son so far.  In case you haven't met him yet, then I want to assure you that he is in good place, ?shape and ?mind too.

Just for you to have an idea about his great mind, he is a great thinker for his age.  He was right next to me, when I titled this post and asked me innocently in Hamam style, "Daughter in law na yaaru ma?" (who is daughter-in-law?)  I replied, "un varungala pondatti" (your future wife). "Oh! You mean my "sister in law"?. I blinked.  "If she is your "daughter"-in-law, then she should be my "sister"-in-law". Ayyo ayyo ayyo.. mudila pa...

Wherever you are, please come soon. Not that I am trying to get rid of my son. He is nice, good looking, tall, fair, handsome and he is in his first year of college and spends 4 hours in travelling to college  and 6 hours in college and 6 hours sleeping.. The rest 8 hours he eats, watches TV, play games in laptop, mobile and eats some more and stay angry.

He got his own weird, twisted sense of humour, most of the times you don't get them and when you get them, you wish you didn't.

He has close to 2000 friends in his FB account and out of the 250 odd indian names, all other names sounds like korean/japanese/chinese. Whatever status he puts in FB, these Korean/Japanese/Chinese promptly likes them and they call themselves as Ma(a)nga something.

He calls everyone Machaan, I am losing count of the machaans and am worried if he means them literally.

I'd rather warn you beforehand to learn and play games, that way you can login from your laptop and he from his laptop and be part of the same multi player games and earn lots of lives and live happily for multiple lifetimes.

If you are a cleanliness freak, then maybe you should learn to ignore little things like the dry food plates collecting fungus lying next to him, a dozen pillows strewn around the room, and his go green, "let us not waste water" during weekends, by taking bath.

Well! all said and done, the bonus is you will get a husband, who will take you to movies everyday and watch English serials with you the rest. If you want to get his attention, try to get an audition with the BBT team and act in Big Bang Theory and I assure you, he will watch the episodes 3 or 4 times a day and you will be duly attended to.

He will not fight with you or hear you screaming as long as your voice crosses the alarming decibel limits. Most of the time, he has his ears plugged to some English music and hums loud.  Not to worry, I will ask him to buy you an earphone too, and you can plug it on as well.

If you are a health freak, then probably you should be less fussy again, as all his favourites consists of either cheese, butter or ghee and one word, no make it two words not in his dictionary are fat-free and sugar- free.

He enjoys his life the way he wants and if you mold your style to match his, welcome aboard.  I have an apartment ready for you guys and it's all yours with my blessings. What!?! No, No I won't move with you guys. What do you take me for? I am not that dumb to come between a young couple.  He is all yours!

Dying to meet you soon.

Regards,
Your Husband's Mom

PS: Unlike other friends of yours, you won't have anything to complain against your mother-in-law.

Having waited for a week to watch Vishwaroopam made me restless, curious and eager and I was at Sathyam Escape Cinemas one hour before the show time on 14th february. Though a weekday, the mall was crowded being St. Valentine's day.  All the men walking behind, beside their women, with foolish smiles, scary smiles (especially when they stretched their arm and point out to a shop). Everywhere valentine day posters, special programs, hearts seen from toffees to stuffed toys to cakes. Shopkeepers busy uttering a silent thanks to our saint.


I grabbed my cold coffee, popcorn with extra butter, a piece of creamy cake and potato wedges.  Mind it was for two people and not one. And this boy had a hearty appetite unlike me.

We entered the theatre 10 minutes before show time and settled in our seat to watch the film.

After all the hiatus and hiccups,  finally I started to watch the Vishwaroopam.

It was a new experience.  If not for the Tamil dialogues, it moved with the same pace, style like a nicely shot Hollywood action thriller. I might be naive, when I refer to English films as Hollywood films. From the land of Bollywood, Gollywood, Tollywood, I am quite religious about the woods.

I expected a strong storyline, but I got nicely made sequences of shots.
The kathak song and dance by now older Kamalhassan (tried to identify him with the elder kamal of salangai oli. Man! ageing is beyond our imagination) is good. But, somehow the expressions are lost behind those wrinkles on his face. I think the hardship of shooting such a spectacular film shows the strain.

The movie shifts between flashback and present just like Hey Ram and  there are places if you are not attentive might miss the shift.

There are loads of action perfectly shot. At one place when the Jeep fall on a man, you can't help but gasp. There's this other place when the remains of a body land before Kamal Hassan after a bomb blast. For us, who never used to grumble but watch, when they show cardboard boxes for computers in Doordarshan Tuesday dramas, this is sheer luxury.

Humour laced through out the film, not jarring but makes us smile. Thank god! Err.. rather Kamal for not having seperate track for humour.

Andrea, shekar kapoor had very less role to perform,  almost non existent. Hope to see their performance in the part 2. Pooja Kumar and Rahul Bose stood out and whoever lent the voice to Pooja is amazing, for once the Brahmin slang is perfect and not exaggerated.

I loved the scene when Pooja climbs the stair and lie down on her bed, Kamal snoring with his eyes open. The expression on his face is priceless. The expression on Pooja's face after she witnesses her husband's valor is priceless too.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy a joy through out. BGM definitely needs a special mention. Doesn't go overboard.

Lots of characters are shown, to imply the depth of other characters and for us to determine the nature of other character. The lady doctor, Rahul's wife, his son, even the Horse that's shot by Kamal Hassan. Not sure if this would reach all audiences.

The film shot in the US and Afganistan, the location and scenes are well framed and neatly arrayed.

I still am quizzing for the reason why the film was banned. Only bad was shown as bad makes me quiz even more.

But, why is that when the film ended, I sat for few more minutes... Did I expect more? Hoping the second part happens and even if it does, hope it doesn't get chopped off for reasons that cannot be explained.

One has to agree Kamal is an entertainer and near perfect in what he does. It was worth the wait. But, mera dil maangae more kamal sahab... :)

Let God bless his atheist son!

To introduce Mr. D.T. Mohan, he was running a school until recently and been serving the society by providing good education to young minds and watched them grow, develop wings and grew immensely in their careers.

I feel really proud to have his thoughts here.  His time is more valuable.  A senior citizen, who had seen the past and living the present, but without any reserve had given his views, laced with humour, can't help if it's little wry/sarcastic; the situation demands for it.

Thanks so much, Sir. 

(I am mentioning names in this post to make sure the thoughts are recorded, especially as the anguish is from a senior person, from the educational sector.)

Here we go:

His e-mail to me started with his communication with Hon. Justice Verma.

Friend 3:

Friend 4:

parliament. Punishments should be like 'kasai adi' as in Singapore.

Friend 8:

-to be continued

There are those who love Jobs and those who hates him. He brings about extremes of emotions in people, it is either love or hate and nothing in between.

Today, I remember him as the great man behind this product called Apple.  Trying to imagine the world without those beautiful square icons adorning the phone screen.  How good it is to touch the screen and to see them spring alive. Every time I play a game or use an app in my friend's iphone, it never cease to wonder on the simplicity and user friendly UI of Apple. Pioneer of smart phones...

Every product release were carried out with style and grandeur, yet not garish but quite simple.  It piqued the interests of people all over the world and the mile long queues on the day of product launch can be called as "standing" ovations for his products.  Should we call him branding guru?

To create a product or trash it to promote another product needs guts.  Jobs had the guts to go to any extent to do anything to make his product success, including killing few of home product itself.  Should we call him God?

I salute Jobs and remember him today. Apple had seen few new product launches and few law suits, yet it still tops the list of smart phones.  

Kudos Jobs!  Life is beautiful with your products.

I have one thing in common with you Jobs and that is my black turtle neck t-shirt.  

This post is to share few snippets on Olympic season, on few funny quotes from winners, the hits, the misses. 

Salam.! England.! 

Britain known for her glorious past, a small isles which ruled many countries spread over many continents.  The pride when they say, "Rule, Britannia!rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves." There is a pride in their anthem, undoubtedly that came with power.  

There were few distinct advantages due to the rule of English in our country.  Social reforms with regards to woman, railways, telegraph, post office, educational system. Not that we wouldn't have achieved them on our own, but it would have taken more time.  More than everything, all the diversified rajyas got united to fight for independence.  We got in to the "unity in diversity" mode from then on. 

India's participation in Olympics:

83 athletes from India, represented to play at London Olympics 2012. They participated in 13 different sports.  We won 6 medals, a mix of silver and bronze, I am happy while the winners are lauded and rewarded handsome for their win, let us not forget those who lost it close.  Hope all the awards, money, gold doesn't make the medal winners happy and content and lose out next time.

Let us not concentrate only on the winners, there are few athletes who came close to winning the medal, who are promising.  We should train them well and gear the up to win the next Olympics. Every school if they start to train their students well in sports, then definitely there would be good number of budding athletes would turn out every year.  Unfortunately, we are in a country were most of the Schools does not have a play ground for kids. 

Funny happenings around Olympics:

India honored the athletes on a dais, and the anchor due to excitement or lack of preparation made one blunder after another.  It was quite funny to watch, how someone can be that clumsy. Narang and Saina were announced as silver medalists. Shooter Joydeep was taken by surprise when he was called an archer. Saina was called Sania Nehwal and Yogeshwar dutt was referred to as Yogender Dutta...

Few quotes: Courtesy: The Montreal Gazette

Blogger's note:  

Maybe we should conduct Olympics in India.  Myth: If players play in their home ground, chances of winning is high.  Who knows, we can win a gold in gymnastics too.

The last decade or so, we see a new dress code evolving. The dress which dominates over other dresses.  Easy to wash, hassle free and quite roomy is the fact why women love to wear them when they are at home, be it night or day or when they go out for local shops or while dropping their kids at school. Night dress a.k.a Nightie is not a sleep wear anymore.

Recently few schools in Bangalore have banned parents from dropping their kids at School wearing nightwear.  After reading this news, I watched a commercial which came with a tagline, "oru kudumba thalaiviya enna unara vaipadhu bla bla bla"... It's weird and quite funny to watch this ad.  Don't miss it! 

                           

These commercials highlight that this dress covers women from head to toe. Probably we are missing something here aren't we? nightwear is not supposed to cover from head to toe, it is supposed to be brief, hassle free, less cumbersome... ahem! to sleep with :p

Google doodles Amelia Earhart on her 115th Birthday, that's today.  Now did I hear this name quite recently somewhere?  I tried to recollect and Oh! Yeah! the Maruti Suzuki sequel "kitna deti hai".  Quickly checked wiki and realised that it was Amelia Johnson, yet another aviatrix.

Leaned back on my chair,  with my morning cup of coffee slowly thoughts drifted to the day when I flew for the first time.  It was from Mumbai to Chennai and I was 38 years old then.  My brother booked the flight tickets and I was thrilled as well as slightly afraid.  Along with my mom, husband, and son entered the airport.  It was flying for first time for all of us except for my husband.

I checked in at the airport and waited for the security check. My wish to fly was so intense, I would have dreamt about flying at least 10 or 15 times.  For a person who had never seen the insides of an airplane, in my dreams I saw it as a bus.  There were times when I stood, holding the iron rails on the roof of the plane, probably to balance when the flight turned right or left.  There were times when, I stood on a long queue to buy tickets for my flight to the US, and my mom would precisely aim that moment to wake from me my dreams.  And once in my dream, when I was about to enter the airplane, I heard two men talking in whispers about their plans to hijack the plane and I call the watchman/police aside and tell them what I overheard and they stop the flight.  But, never once the flight took off and I travelled on air.

It was a low fare flight and with so many what-ifs running in mind, climbed the air plane, to be greeted by the air hostess and a dashing steward.  I gave my usual broad smile, wondering why others just nodded off those greetings.  I got into the flight but forgot to bring the cotton to plug in to my ears.  Anyways, I remembered my brother showing me a pouch with earphones, toffees etc and was waiting for them to deliver my kit.  After a while, I realized they don't provide such kits in low fare flights.  Those flights were meant for everyone to fly and the flight charges affordable to everyone.  I saw an old man carrying an old polythene bag and thrust the bag inside the cupboard on top of his seat.  He carried on with the flight rituals as if he travelled everyday from Mumbai to Chennai. I kicked myself for visiting the prominent shop which sells high class leather bags and paid a fortune to buy one, just because I was flying the next week. 

A pretty girl who sat on the row before me, pressed the switch and called for the flight attendant.  The handsome guy who greeted me walked through the aisle and asked her how he could help her.  She asked for some cotton and he provided her some.

I coughed and asked him little hesitant if he can provide me some cotton too.  He apologized and told me that they don't have the cotton and if he could help with anything else.  Felt embarassed and decided not to ask him anything until of course he comes back to me with an apology.

I was thrilled when the plane slowly crept to the run way and like a thunder zoomed past the runway and lifted its wing.  Finally my dream came true and I started to hum, "I believe I can fly; I believe I can touch the sky", though on a different context, I did fly and tried touching the sky and with due thanks to my brother.

All the jubilation, remained only for 3 or 4 minutes, all of a sudden the air plane slowly tilted to its left and then to right and went down few feet low, my stomach lurched and I knew for sure something was wrong and waited for the crew to announce we are living the final few minutes of our life. No announcement came and after few minutes the airplane righted itself. I was aware of every move of the plane.  Most of the time the plane was tilted and I decided to reduce some weight before I flew the next time.

There was a small commotion, when the air-hostesses dragged a small pantry on wheels and took the orders, collected the money and delivered the goodies .  I didn’t bat an eyelid when my son wanted a cold drink and heard the price was thrice the original cost, but bought it with a flourish.  

My hands held tight and lips chanting "Ram", the 1 hour and 45 minutes stretched like one day for me and held my breath tight till the final announcement came that we are landing the Meenambakkam airport, Chennai.  I was still holding my breath, till the third wheel was lowered with a thud on the ground.  I had heard that accidents happen, when the third small wheel attached to the nozzle of the flight refuse to lower. It was only when the air plane stopped at the runway and I stood to get down, I realized that I had been a fool not to enjoy the trip but spent it worrying hard.  Not that I wanted to smile, but wouldn’t it be considered rude if I didn’t return the smile of the handsome steward as I was leaving.

Did I tell you that I am now 41 and travelled 7 times after my first experience and still get little queasy when the wings slightly lower and balances after the take off and I had gained 8 kgs since then. And, did I tell you that I am scared of heights?

  Food or drinking water... look at the colour of that liquid... it smelled bad too

The whole place stinks and except for some birds and deer and 20 to 25 Monkeys, I didn't find many animals here.  

Guindy park then:

When I went to this park 7 or 8 years back, It wasn't this bad and there were Bears, Hyenas, a Lion and lots of elephants and monkeys and hundreds of birds.... Nothing! absolutely nothing now.  Hope those animals were transferred to Vandalur zoo.

(May be if they can't do much about the facility, then the animals and birds should be transferred to a proper place, where they can have decent food and clean water and some space to walk or fly. For the birds the nets are placed too low, three or four feet from ground, they will forget to fly, am sure about it.)

Guindy park now:

Lovers park... You just have to take a 10 rupees ticket per head and go in and spend the whole day, talking and have fun.  The couples cuddled and doing everything except making love... (Not my business) Guards gazing at the couples and enjoying what they were seeing, instead of stopping kids playing pranks with animals, throwing stones at them.  There were kids who fed the animals with kurkure, lays chips and their snacks, while I appreciate the love of kids, I was scared that the snack can be hazardous as the kids can't differentiate between adults and baby animals... the kurkure or chips can choke the baby animals.

PETA or Blue Cross or any one who have a heart... Save the animals and birds before they die... 

"Animals - its their world too... Help us to help them"

- Blue Cross of India