Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Billa : My review

Its been a long time since I blogged. Infact there was no mood and topic for blogging! Yesterday happened to watch Billa. Here goes my review of the same...

The storyline is the same as that of the Rajni's Billa. But the look and feel of the movie has been taken to a different level altogether. The movie starts with an amazing introduction of 'thala' Ajith. The first half is racy and adrenaline pumping. The director has made sure he has got all the hollywood action movie elements in place. Some of which are car chase sequence shot using high speed cameras, monochrome ambiance(black and white used superbly), distant roving camera shots, designer clothes, crisp dialogues, very low EQ (emotional quotient), using computers and so on.

Hats off to VishnuVardhan, the director of the movie, in his ability to bring the creamy look to the film and the guts to remake the yesteryear blockbuster without tweaking the plotline. The main hero of Billa seems to be Nirav Shah, the cinematographer of the movie. His work is excellent and comparable to the best in the business. The movie rides on the charm and charisma of Ajith and if you are an Ajith fan it can't get better than Billa. Ajith performance cannot be said the best but his looks are amazing in this movie. He rocks in his Armani suits and never has tried to imitate Rajini or SRK.

Yuvan has done a decent job with music. Though none of the songs linger in our mind much; the title track and background music is truly awesome. Next up, Prabhu has played his part well as a cop and so is Rahman. The other cop (dont know his name though) has also done quite well.
Santhanam's comedy looks out of the box and is injected for commercial purpose. The film seems to be a bit longer though esp. the second half. The over-use of sunglasses by each and every character in the movie could have been avoided.

The second half of the movie slightly slackens with its screenplay. The item song with a new girl completely puts one off. :-( Namitha has tried hard to bring the oomph factor but has failed miserably at the hands of Nayanthara. 9thara looks amazingly sexy and the TombRaider Lara Croft look fits on her nicely. She has flashed her cleavage to good effect in billa's success :-D

People looking for a twist in plot are in for some disappointment as this is a honest remake of the original. The main feature of the movie is; you won't be able to recall a single sequence of the movie easily after watching which itself gives you the experience of watching a high-end holly flick. One can always complain what is the need for imitating hollywood, but ain't we bored with the usual stuff??

Overall, we can enjoy Ajith's Billa much more if we dont carry the baggage of Rajini's Billa in our mind.
Billa = Visual Treat!!!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Happy Gokulashtami

Today is Janmasthami day. Wish you all a very happy Gokulashtami day.

Janmasthami is a celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna and every ritual in the celebration of this auspicious occasion is associated with various phases of his life, which have been immortalised in both the religious and the folk literature.

Janmasthami tops the list of my favorite festivals. As a Iyer brahmin family we celebrate this festival with lots of zeal and enthusiasm. Typically the celebration starts with my mom preparing mouth watering eateries like cheedai, then-kuzhal (a form of chakli), thattai, coconut appam etc (pic attached).
pics: cheedai, thattai,thenkuzhal(from L to R) coconut neiappam(below)

Special care is taken so that I am not allowed inside the kitchen ;-) The snacks are not tasted before the Krishna pooja where Lord Krishna will himself have the first bite. Its a anxious wait for the next day for the pooja as we can enjoy the snacks only after Neivediyam (offering it to the Lord). There is also panagam (dry ginger-jagerry water), buttermilk, honey and fresh fruits as part of the Neivedyam.
The house is cleaned and spruced up for the D-day. A big kolam (rangoli) with beautiful diyas welcomes the visitors to our house. The major attraction being the baby foot-marks drawn using rice-flour paste all the way from the entrance to the pooja room where Lord Krishna is celebrating his Bday with lotz of fervor. This symbolizes the entry of the infant Krishna into his foster-home. My mother dressed in traditional Silk saree would perform the Krishna pooja. After the pooja is done, Ladies would sing the EntharoMahanu Bhavu keerthana of Sri Raaga to welcome Lord Krishna to our humble house.

After the pooja and the Neivedyam is done with its snack time... I am dearly missing all the fun and fervor of Gokulashtami sitting in this moron cubicle of mine. Entha ro Mahanu bhavuuuuu...........


Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Trip to my native.

I had been to Trivandrum for my cousin's wedding. So as to spend my weekend (awaying from boring Blore) I went to my native place Parakkai (7 kms from Nagercoil). It was such a nice feeling to experience the serenity of our village. Myself and my cousin bro had a great time out there.

Parakkai (see wikimapia on your left) is a nature's gift pregnant with fresh unpolluted air, dashed with greeneries and fresh water ponds (kulam) all around. Our house is part of the beautiful Agraharam (houses around the temple). The Madhoosodhana temple has a beautiful fresh water pond facing it. Almost everyone in and around the Agraharam take their morning bath in this pond. Straight after bath a divine darshan of the Almighty. I realized how peaceful life is away from the pollution, space crunch, concrete jungles of the cities.


Saturday Evening... We decided to visit Sothavilai Beach.(see the pic) Its just a 3 km drive from Parakkai. I must say this beach is one of the best I had ever seen in my life. No crowds, zero pollution, whitish sand with lots of corals, surrounded by thick blanket of coconut trees etc.. U cant get better than this one... We drove the bike through the beach coast, cutting across the waves and strong wind... it was an experience to cherish for lifetime.

We took a bath there and it was a exhilarating experience as the waves were very strong and ferocious. There were none at the beach except two of us. At a roadside shop, just outside the beach we had hot Chilli Bhajjis and Chukku Kaapi(Dry ginger coffee). It was time to get back to home as it was getting darker, but we decided to visit Manakudy(a village 4 kms away). This village was devastated by the Tsunami and so was Sothavilai beach. More than 150 had lost their lives then :-(


When we reached Manakudy I was shocked to see a big bridge broken away in the lagoon by the Tsunami (file pic attached). Now there is a small makeshift bridge to connect the two villages across the bay. There was aroma of fish all over the place(Manakudy is a fisherman's village). I got a glimse of new houses all similarly designed for the Tsunami affected. After spending some time in Manakudy we headed back to Parakkai. We were feeling very hungry [forget the Bhajjis we had ;-) ] we stopped at a roadside small hotel. We both had Rasam Vadais, Paper roast Dosas and Coffee all for Rs.14/- . Surprised huh?? Tats village life for u.




Next day we visited Suchindrum(1 km from Parakkai) which is house to the famous Anjaneyar(Hanuman) temple and KaniyaKumari. We visited Vivekananda Rock memorial, Tiruvalluvar Statue, Gandhi Mandapam and surrounding beaches. U can see the Vivekananda rock and Tiruvalluvar statue in the adjacent pic.

Then it was time to say Bid Adieu to my brother and Perima and Peripa(Uncle and Aunt). It was a great break for me away from my boring job.

Now I am back in pavilion(I mean office) :-(
but rewinding my trip through this blog.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Oh No, Not Again!!!!

It was a rocking week in Bombay. I had been there for a family function as well as seeking a much needed break. The week got spend like just few minutes. Finally, yesterday i had to leave for Bangalore. I just didn't feel like coming back... :-(

My train was Udayan Exp. at 9:00 am from Bombay. Traveling alone that too in train..cannot get more boring than this.. My only hope was finding some good looking girls. Suddenly, 1 nite@ call centre book by Chetan Bhagat flashed my mind shoving in more excitement. I was hoping against hope..

My watch said 9:05 am and i could see Udayan slowly chugging in platform no.4 of Kalyan JN. I quickly went through the chart of S-8 coach. My seat no. was 48. What I saw was....

Seat No.~~~ Age ~~~~~Sex
-----------------------------
. . .
46~~~~~~~~61~~~~~~~ F
47~~~~~~~~67~~~~~~~ M
48~~~~~~~~23~~~~~~~M
49~~~~~~~~48~~~~~~~ M
50~~~~~~~~30~~~~~~~ M
. . .

There were not even any girls (leave alone good-looking) in my bogie.

Luck never favors me these days.... :-( :-(

Monday, August 6, 2007

Meeting !?!

Today its busy in office than usual... everyone seems to be in some sort of hurry... These days its very chilly in Bangalore. Mercury level has decreased and visits to the loo has increased considerably. ;-)

I went to the restroom, and could hear a gentleman talking loudly on his phone. It was like someone was barking inside the toilet room. He was obviously in a unloading session. Suddenly, he seemed to end the conversation and said, "Right now, I am in a meeting.. Will call up later.!!" :-)

Btw I have a meeting now, catch u later. :P

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Army Diaries

SSB Army selection

It was year 2002. I had just joined my engg college. I never wanted to do engg. just for the reason that there are enggrs everywhere. Most of my cousins are enggrs. I was desperate to do something different at that time.

Kargil was fresh in my mind and I had, have and will have lots of patriotism in me. Adrenalin was running high. I decided Army is my destination. I wanted to become an Armyman and do something fruitful for my country.

The SSB (Service selection board) army interview for Men (10+2) advertisement caught my attention. I wasted no time in applying for it. After some days I got a call from them to attend the selection camp in Bangalore.

My mood was upbeat on getting the interview letter. It was a feeling that I had already become an Army officer. I arrived in Bangalore(for the first time) and was intimidated by the scores of aspirants. Finally, we reached the SSB campus in Brigade Road, Blore. We were welcomed by Col.Singh and were briefed about the selection process.
There were some 180 candidates in all from nook and corner of the country. For the first time I got a taste of Unity in diversity. It was proud feeling.....

Next day morning was the written test followed by a GD. It ended by 10:30 AM and then started the anxious wait for the results. The candidates who passed in this test would be asked to stay back for the physical tests(and various other tests) for next 3 days, others would be heading back home. Everyone was feeling nervous. We had made quite a few friends by this time. Again it was aggregation of people on linguistic basis. There were tamil group, hindi groups, bihari gangs, marathi guys and so on.

Here I met Jegan, Jones, Ashok Kumar and 1 Telugu guy(forgot his name though). We gelled nicely and had long chats discussing about life, girls, food etc.. Then a officer came and asked the folks to re-group based on our ID. Butterflies were flying in the stomach. The officer started to read out ID and names of the pupils who were selected. I was just praying to get selected. I saw the shock and enjoyment on faces of others. My ID was 73. The officer called out 69, then 72, and then went on to call 78.

My dreams were shattered. It was as if I couldn't breath for a moment or two. Life seemed to have ended and I couldn't hear anything after that. A guy beside me shook me up and said he is calling ur number. I was shocked and surprised and then realised that he had missed calling out my number. Hurray, I was selected for the physical rounds. It was a great sigh of relief more than pride.

All of us, Jegan, Jones and Ashok got selected for the physical test. The poor Telugu guy had to make his way back home that day :-( We felt very sorry for him and missed him.

The next 2 days were gruelsome days in my life. I remember a drill called "Tiger leap" where we had to climb up a platform and jump some 3 meters in air to catch hold a big rope. I jumped but couldn't grip on to the rope(thanks to my extra pounds). The force of gravity was unkind to my weight. I came down screeching with the rope and was left with skin peeled-of from both my hands. I was girthing in pain and was given a dressing by the medical team.

3 more days passed. Everyday, Our drills/tests/GD et al would end by 11:30 am and we were allowed to go out and return back by 8:00 pm. Myself, Jegan and Jones went out everyday roaming the streets of MG road, Brigade road etc. It seemed to be girls, girls and girls everywhere. Jegan was at his flirting best in those days.. :-) We saw 2 movies in those 3 days and did lotz of shopping. Jegan used to say ,"Maapla, MG road la oru TEA kadai podanumda!!!" (Dude, We should open up a TEA stall in MG road) obviously to have a peep at the babes 24/7.. :-)

It was D day, the fifth day of our stay in the garden city. The results were going to be announced. The guys getting selected would be commissioned permanently in the Army. The unlucky would as usual go back home... Col.Singh came dressed in full Army Uniform. After the usual pep talk, he received a paper from his sub-ordinate. It was a feeling which i could never again experience. From Army uniform, Movie Border, Bofors, AK 47, Paki enemies, Param Veer Chakra...everything brushed my mind. The officer started reading the names.. We were 28 in all. He read 3 names and said,"Thats All". And my name was in the majority :-(

It was the most killing moment in life. There seemed to be no future. All hopes were shattered. I was not going in the Army. A so close, yet so far kinda feeling. Me Jegan, Ashok and Jones all heading back home. Only relief was no one got selected from our group. The officer left. It was a moment of grief amongst the 25 unlucky folks. It was pin drop silence in the hall. Everyone was unable to come over the grief. Suddenly Jegan shouted with great enthusiasm jumping up and down....

"Heyyyy!!!!!!! All of us are selected for going HOME, CONGRATS"

Hall burst out in laughter hearing that....Everyone got relaxed and shared a light moment after that..

Thanks to Jegan...

:-)

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Flop show!!!

Few days back, I saw a beautiful girl in my office food court.. There was something special in her which made me follow her a bit...She was magnetic in a sense.. :D She had a beautiful smile which even an angel would envy(too filmy huh :P). Her whole persona amazed me. She just seemed to be my dream girl. One more to my list of dream girl(s). hehehehe... Actually such feelings happen to me every now and then. :P This was supposed to be just another one....

I had noticed her Emp No. on her ID. After I went back to my desk, first job was to know her name in the Telephone directory. I had to contact her somehow. I was just thinking of some pretext. Mail seemed to be the best option. I mustered some courage somehow and decided to mail her my feelings. It all seemed awkward. I was no more in a college. But i just couldn't avoid myself from mailing her....

What was my mail and what was her reply.... Check that below....

p.s: font colored for better reading!




From: Ashwath
To: (name intentionally left blank)
Subject: hi...


Hi ,
Are you from Bombay and do you know Priti from KJ Somaiya, Bombay??

Confused??? :-)
Lemme explain….saw u at Lotus Eaterz today noon and was perplexed… U are a carbon copy of my frnd back in Mumbai… :-) R u her sibling???

I wanted to ask you then and there but felt little awkward (donno why!!) Jest happened to see ur name on ur ID…

Anyways, How abt being frnds??? :D If u r okay with this idea, I hope u don’t have any reservations having a coffee with me?? :-) :-)

Reg,
Ash7



From: (name intentionally left blank)
To: Ashwath
Subject: RE: hi...


Hi Ash7,

No I m not frm Bombay.

No I do not know Priti.

No I m not her sibling either.

(But I m sure u already know dat)

Anyways, I do not like coffee.

TC


From: Ashwath
To:
(name intentionally left blank)
Subject:
RE:RE:hi...

Hi,

(But I m sure u already know dat) – mere khayal se hindi films aap bhi bahut dekhte hain :P

Anyways, I donno whether you like TEA if not coffee ??? :P :P

Regards,
Ash7




From: (name intentionally left blank)
To:
Ashwath
Subject: RE:RE:RE: hi...

:-)



After this I didn't bother to re-re-re-reply her again ;-) Anyways it was a flop show. You are welcome to suggest some other good ideas which will work out in future....


Btw shall we go for a coffee??? ;-)

Friday, June 1, 2007

Two daughters (girls) !!

A lazy afternoon post lunch and a boring applied science class lectured by a equally boring lecturer. Life can't get cruel than this.

We were in the 1st year of our engg. and everything related to academics seemed to kindle boredom. Our Applied Science madam, Mrs.Kobze; had the best sleeping pill in the world. We seldom missed her lectures, as it gave us 1 hr of gooooooood sleeeeeeeep!
That day students decided to revolt and demanded Mrs.Kobze not to take the lecture. But, She was hell bent on making us sleep. Better sense prevailed and she decided it as a off-period.

Students started to move out of the class but suddenly she said, "All of u give me your intro!" Students gazed at each other in disappointment and pestered the madam to herself start with the Introduction parade!

She started with her typical English!

My name Mrs.Kobze madam. (Ah! What a start!) I in this college for 3 year(I in what?? ). I teach AS to students (whom else she hopes to teach !?!). I are married. (are??????) I have two daughters...both of them are girls (No comments!!! God save her and her pupils!!)

Attestation!

I did my engg. from XYZ college (Umm..huh..don't wanna tell its name! Infact its not worth a mention!!). My alma-mater was a so good that its pupils were better in english than its staffs(lecs/profs). I prefer to call our college Shetkari Mahavidyalay (Farmer's college in Marathi)..hehee...

One of the most funniest moments was in our college's administrative office. Me, Pawan and Arun(my best pals) had been to the office to resolve some issue. There was a lady-staff who was chit-chatting with her colleague at one of the counters...We decided to do so eavesdropping. What we heard was absolutely the most memorable moments in our life..nothing can be more funnier than this...

Lady-staff: "Saheb, Ikde attestatation { this is how she said!!! 1 extra 'ta' :D } kuthe hote??? " (Sir, Where is attestatation done here?)
Gent-staff: Ikde atetion {this is how he said!!! 1 'ta' missing :D } hot nahi, maidam??? (Atetion is not done here)

Hearing them we forgot the right pronunciation of "Attestation". ;-)

Free Banana!

There has been no dearth of innovations from vendors to sell their product. The more innovative their advertising skills, merrier is the sales of their products...

This incident confirms this....

I often go to Dadar (a Mumbai suburb) during my college days. There were two reasons to it.. One was to attend some crash courses on some Engg. subjects and the other being the huge crowd of truly cosmopolitan girls~most of them college going! :-) Dadar was famous for 5 things viz., 1) Engg. Classes 2) Nice looking urban babes 3) Vada-Pav 4) Crowd and 5) Fruit Market.

I was on my way back to Dadar railway station walking on the narrow aisle of the Fruit market. There were many fruit stalls with their vendors yelling from their deep-throat~ They speak a mix of Hindi, Marathi and English U c... for ex. "Yeh phroot(fruit) bahoot tasteeee aahe saab!!!! " (This fruit is very tasty sir!)
But, there was a big crowd in one particular stall. A young kid was manning the shop. Curious to know the big crowd in front of his shop, I went near it only to get completely washed of my feet hearing the lad's screams...

"Saab!!...Kela toh muft hai...bas daam chilke ka hai....!!" (The banana is free but only the cost is of its peels).

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Kiss Me!!

It was a sultry noon. A noon where you would love to send your mother-in-law for a walk...I boarded the bus at Trivandrum going back to Bangalore. I had been to Kerala for a family function. I was very much sure about my luck and expected no Good-looking girls as co-passengers. But, there goes a saying that, "Every dog has its day". That day was my day indeed.



Her name, I tried to find out at the boarding point office but to no avail. She looked like a damsel in distress, a typical Keralite girl next door. Droplets of sweat rolling down her smooth cheeks and forehead; her mind-blowing perfume, which left me totally dazzled. Her stylish way of holding her mobile on her ear with jest her index finger was truly amazing. At last the bus made a move. There were hardly some 6-7 passengers. Others would board the bus at different places. I try to make a eye-contact with her, but she didn't give a glance...These things only happen in reel, not in real :( ...


I was lying on the sleeper berth and she was seated right below me. All of a sudden, I heard her sweet voice of KISS-ME. I was perplexed. She was telling KISS ME and there was no one around us. Curious to know to whom she addressed that, I just got out of the sleeper berth and looked at her....


To my disappointment, she was talking on her mobile and later on hearing her conversation realized that she meant 'Kismien' (where) in Hindi with a typical
Malayalee accent.




P.S.: Folks be careful when a Kerlaite girl speaks in hindi. :)

Friday, January 12, 2007

3 years ago..........Futurzmail.com

Three years ago, I had put a mail to Futurzmail.com, where we can put up a mail which will be re-sent to our email id or postal address(i chose my email id) after the say (3,4,5,7,10) years back to us. I chose 3.

This site was meant for people to put their resolution (or anything which they wanted to see after a long time..)
I recently recieved a mail which had my name in "Sender's" row..I was quite confused as I had forgotten ab it...i got my mail after 3 years(exactly) from Futurzmail.com

Here goes my mail......

<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Date:7th Jan, 2003 17:44 hrs +5.5GMT
Sender:ashwath_k4@Futurzmail.com
To:ashwath_k4@hotmail.com

Sub: mad-fellow!

Hi to Me,
Today I had completed my 1st Sem exam in engg. These 5 days of exam were the most horrifying days in my life. Even if I graded my paper, I would not give more than 20 in any.

I feel, I am the most unlucky person in the world...I went to a 'B' grade school, then to a 'B' grade junior college and now I am in a 'Z' grade engg college. God save me from this place...This college is nothin but a hutment where ghati people rule..

There is a fool called Choudhary...who is my BEE prof...hope he is not alive when i get this mail back..

I hate this Mumbai Univ for having college like this and for having Round 2 in their admission process.

My future seems pitch-black for me...but I still feel I have the spark..

Right now I am savouring bhajjis made by my mom..delicious...coz I told my mom the last paper I will "PASS"

Lets see what happens in my life b4 I get this crap back to me...


Ashwath K

<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


What a fool I was 3 years back!!! :-)
It was round 2 in which I took my engg admission. I could have got into a better college, If I had waited for Round 3... (no probs)

Now I have finished my engg. and working as a s/w enggr in a big MNC.

Happy New Year 2007!

Wish you all a very Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2007!

As everyone does I am also goin to make a resolution, which goes.......

1)Thou shall try not to break the following resolutions.
2)Thou shall try to work in the office. :-)
3)Thou shall stop complaining about others, facilties, etc..
4)Thou shall try to be courteous to all.
5)Thou shall never again make a resolution. :-)