Entries from July 2008
Most of us have memory associations with a particular song or album. I always associate songs with a time period of my life. Minnale always reminds of post 12th standard summer hangouts in the beach, Rhythm with chemistry class rides with D, Pehla Nasha of singing in the moonlight on the terrace…I digress..But you get the point right!
So anyway, I was browsing through my music and chanced upon this piece from Sanjay Subrahmanian’s Tamil Moovar CD. The Yadhukula Kamboji composition by Maarimutham Pillai..I love tamil compositions. I emote better with tamil songs. Especilally songs praising the dancing lord of Thillai! Yadhukula Kamboji is a joyous raaga with wonderful glides and I almost envision a gentle swaying when I listen to it. The first time I heard Kaalai Thooki was when my Athai sang it in her almost abaswaram koral. My Athai is a little overweight due to thyroid issues and always gets teased by us on her weight. On one such day she took chagrin to it and told us about how she was super slim when she was young. And about how she was the choice dancer for school plays and events. “Valanju valanju gracefull a aaduven theriyuma?”, she said. Cruel kids that we were burst into laughter immediately! And to prove it, she immediately launched into song and dance :”kaalai thooki nindradum deivame”..And to her credit she managed the Nataraja pose pretty well..She was breathless very soon..But we were quietened. And I fell in love with the song! My athai is a super sport, and since then has always complied to put on a “Kaalai Thooki” performance whenever we requested, sometimes with my other Athai providing a slightly (very slightly) improved vocal support!
You can listen to the song here : http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/ZqK2pqqMHd.As1NMvHdW/
Categories: Family · Music
The word “lesbian” comes from the Greek island of Lesbos which was home to the 6th century homoerotic poet Sappho.
Related news : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7520343.stm
P.S : I shudder to think of the kind of google searches this post is gonna lead to my blog!
Categories: RFOTD
I love the Mahabharatha. In all its forms, renditions and narrations. It is one of the biggest stories ever being atleast 10 times the size of the Illiad and Odyssey put together! It is the mother of all masala movie scripts. It is not as preachy as the Ramayana with some wonderfully multi-layered characters. Duryodhana’s character is one of the best explored one.Almost every charcater is painted with shades of grey. It is a fantastic exploration of the powers and devices of the human mind.
Starting from appa’s awesome bedtime narrations of the smaller more obscure stories and plots, I graduated to the various Amar Chithra Katha volumes almost as soon as I could read and comprehend full sentences. And like every other kid that grew up in the early nineties, I would join the rest of the family in front of our TV religiously every Sunday to catch up with Mr.Samay. I remember this one time where appa and perippa with a lot of effort taped the theme music for me to use in a school annual day play. I played Nakula, amber was one of Drona’s (played by a droolicious S Murthy - BG remember?) sidekicks, D was very aptly Duryodhana (ha ha), and we were recreating the bird’s eye aiming story. Soon enough by the time I was in my early teens I was finally permitted to read our family bible - Kamala Subramanian’s Mahabharatha. It is almost like a coming of age ritual in my family, considering my dad and all his siblings know the book cover to cover! My dad’s favorite Sunday afternoon pastime used to be conducting “The Mahabharatha Quiz” ,my cousins and me being enthusiastic participants, right after Mastermind India finished on TV and usually during the Spirit Of Unity concerts. It is from that time that I remember useless information like names of Krishna’s charioteer and Bhagadatta’s elephant (Daruka and Supritika if anyone is interested!). We had this awesome Hindi “non-detail textbook” in the 7th std , from NCERT I think, which had wonderfully glossy pages and even resembled a slokam book with a landscape page format! For once I listened in Hindi class. And my love for this epic continues till date. I am sure I would have watched Ekta Kapoor’s crappy “K” Mahabharatha with equal deligence if I were in India now.
I hope that some day my kids would inherit my passion for this wonderful tradition and epic and go to sleep listening to tales about Karna’s bee-bite and Abhimanyu’s valour. I for one will continue to return to my tattered copy of the book enjoying the stories from the days by-gone and memories from the years that were!
*Sparked by a recent discussion on the tennis court with friends*
P.S: The new header image is from my library at home in Chennai. I can even spot the Kamala Subramaniam book at the right extreme in the second row right by the Pears cyclopedia 
Categories: Family · books
I am obsessed with my google reader! I refresh it way too often! I check my own space more often than it really deserves. If I leave a comment I check for replies like a million times. I am Dandilsa and I need help!
Categories: Uncategorized
Too many random thoughts in the head. Need to pour them out!
Everyone is calling it the greatest match in history! What is the fun in watching 2 baseliners smash the ball around waiting for the other to make the mistake! Agreed it was a superb see-saw of a match with 2 brilliant players. But give me a Becker-Edberg or Rafter-Ivanisavic anyday!
If they sell motivation anywhere please let me know! My to-do list looks too familiar now!
Been listening to a little Dhrupad. I feel a little ignoramus about not knowing about it. I always thought it was a style of Hindustani!
Is it good to be image/appearance conscious? Where is the line between wanting to be fit and being self obsessed? If I choose to be plump and happy am I being lazy?
I think I can live in Chennai with a lifestyle that I am used to with Rs. 28,000 per month. Am I being grossly stupid/naive/impractical???
I don’t work well under pressure…I work only under pressure! Again please ..any heads up on the motivation front??
If I say only nice things (most often when I mean them) to everyone and treat them well but keep secret, spiteful and not so complimentary thoughts, am I still a decent person? People might think I am…but am I really! This thing bothers me a lot!
When you are waaaaaaaaaay past the deadline that you set yourself on something why do you only feel like procrastinating more!
Why am I writing this post instead of working on that wretched paper???
Categories: Opinion · Rants
The media has been facing constant onslaught for sometime now and rightly so; for their over-hype and slipshod research! Often sensationalism wins over telling the real story. Undisclosed sources are made up and often the news is too! Read on at http://www.penpricks.blogspot.com/ about one of the best planned spoofs to reveal the real face of news reporting in India today!
Categories: News · Opinion
