Star Wars

Finally, watched "Star Wars - ROTS" this weekend. I have mixed feelings about the movie. It was much better than the first 2 prequels and more interesting too. But as usual the acting/dialogues were horrible. Having read quite a bit about the Sith lords and their history, it was interesting to watch it unfold in the screen. The movie ends with the birth of Leia and Luke and it is a relief to see the franchise come to an end.

Since the wife and kid are off to Madurai, its getting boring everyday and the weekends are the worst. Watched 4-5 movies in the cable and that pretty much tells the story of the weekend. 'Moondru mudichu' was a fantastic movie with great acting by Rajni and Sridevi. Actually I was surprised to see how beautiful Sridevi is in the B/W screen. I never noticed it before. A beautiful story with a great bit of villainy by Rajni and how Sridevi solves the problems. The other movies I watched were so-so timepasses not even worth writing about.

A scene in the bus and remembrance of things past..

I ususally come to office by office bus/van. But in days when I wake up late, like today, I prefer to take MTC (a.k.a Pallavan) to office. There is a bus stop nearby and there are frequent buses to OMR where the office is located. I prefer not to take the autorickshaws for two reasons. One is that I tend to be a little frugal and the other is that MTC provides a variety of life happening which I will miss if I take an auto ride. Today, I got into a 19B after being dropped by my brother in the Saidapet terminus. There was a 20 minute interval from the time I boarded the bus to the time it started its journey. First the usual vendors (water packets, cotton candy and there was a man who was a mini-stationary shop!). Then came the myriad of passengers from girls in capris(probably from Malaysia/Singapore) with their mom complaining heavily to the husband about the non-availability of taxis and then the kids who ran around without bothering about anything and ofcourse, the most interesting piece of conversation in my back seat. They look like newly married couple and from their conversation I deduce that both are working as lecturers (Have I got no scruples listening to other people's conversations? apparently, Yes). Looked like they had their fight started back in home and the female was fuming and the guy was actually very nonchalant about the whole thing. He didn't bother to pacify her but was just casually letting some snide remarks escape his mouth now and then. It was not a street fight or anything, just a very decent quarrel conducted in hush tones. The female was complaining about how bad it is going to be in the coming days if they are fighting even as newly marrieds. It was interesting and I was trying to think of the first fight we(me and wifey) had. Surprisingly I dont seem to remember. Although we fight frequently over various things, it is not possible for both of us to sustain it for long so the fight fizzes of in no time. I think its because we love each other and understand each other very well. Love uda..

Before getting too mushy here, I was going through my old diaries yesterday. I have the diaries from 1988 onwards and somewhere around the year 2000, this habit has stopped (or at least slowed down to a large extent). But reading the diaries is like a little window into the mind of self and the evolution of the same over the years. Fascinating. One thing is the poems I have written. While most of the ones written (there is a statistics in one page claiming that in 1988 a total of 74 were churned out!) between 1988-90 were praises to nature or laments about the country or calls to revolution(with lots of exclamation marks!!), the ones in 1990-92 are primarily love-lorn scribbles. There is a marked improvement in the standard of the writing from 1992 onwards (when I started reading books other than 'vaaramalar'). I hope to publish all these in net and hopefully soon. Infact one of the things I want to do is to do a complete publication of the diaries in another,say, 20 years. But it is purely my discretion and so I may even say 'boo' after 20 years, so dont wait for it anyway.

Campus interview..

After 8 long years, last week I was in my old college for recruiting freshers. Its kind of a role reversal from where I came from. I was a campus recruit for my current employer and it felt good go back to the same college to recruit newer talent. There is nothing like it, I guess. The college (Government college of Engineering, Thirunelveli) looks old but is full of the youthful energy and the cherished memories that permeates the campuses. I went around and had a chat with a few of my lecturers and visited the classrooms and labs. Nothing much has changed and the college essentialy looks and feels the same way it felt 8 years back. Talked with few of the juniors and they are all enthusiastic and positive and care-free just the way we were. Its kind of odd that you start feeling older than you are once you start seeing the college we studied. It just emphasizes the point that we have moved on with our life to an extent where we can only turn back and sigh on the older days and cannot expect to re-live them. It just makes one feel old anyway.

Ofcourse, Thirunelveli was hot. Actually hotter than chennai. But the city itself hasn't changed much except for a few building that have cropped up here and there. It again goes to show that the growth in this country is not even and across the board. We are creating so much of wealth in the cities which is not getting distributed across the country for sustained even-development. While I am not advocating a socialist model, it would be definitely worthwhile to improve the infrastructure and facilities in cities like Madurai, Thirunelveli, Salem which can then be used to lure investors to set up shops here. This will generate employment and consequently wealth-generation. While this sounds simple enough, with the Indian bureacracy this task will become something of a cash-cow for funneling money into their pockets. At times, its even disgusting to think of these people and puts into question the entire moralness of this country.

Sibi - Three years Old...

Yesterday was Sibi's third birthday. Its amazing to see time flying so fast. It seems like only yesterday I was standing outside the opration room looking pathetic. And he is now three years old and going to start school. We didn't celebrate it but kept it a small family function. Sibi had a blue sherwani and was looking absolutely terrific. Will post some pics soon.
Then went to Santham for 'Chandramukhi' and it was good. Saw the trailer for Anniyan and it looked disturbingly similar to 'Indian'. Vikram looked stunning and this is one movie I want to watch anyway. The other movie which I am hoping to see soon is StarWars - III which by the way is going to the last Star Wars movie. Although the first two parts sucked bigtime, I hope this one is good enough to watch.
Dinner was in the food court in Spencers. In a place called 'The Noodle House'. It was interesting to notice the difference between the American Chinese food(looks spicy, tastes bland) and the Indian Chinese (looks spicy, tastes spicy with Indian flavors)food. I really want to know what the actual Chinese Chinese food will be like.

Vacation, Sibi and other updates...

After a vacation that became some sort of sick leave, I am actually bored and feel horrible to sit in office and work. But one has to do what one has to. Having said that, vacation was not that bad after meeting so many of the relatives and a cool, calm trip to Kodai for a couple of days. In fact Kodai trip was much relaxing than expected and the only activity was to take Sibi to cycle. Infact, Sibi had loads of fun by just cycling around the lake. And ofcourse, went and saw Azhagar during the Chithirai festival and there is nothing like the crowd for the festival. And Meenakshi amman temple is now well-maintained and is having the same charm it held during my school days. One way, it was a way to get nostalgic and remember the old days of chithirai thiruvizha. I think I have seen Azhagar after an interval of about 12-13 years and so it is very special.

Then Sibi is now speaking a lot and is becoming very mischevious. Not that I am complaining, but just that it is amazing to see the changes in him in the past 2 months. Next week he is turning 3 and we are planning to keep it a low-key affair this time.

Anyways, I had a bunch of things to blog about but couldn't remember a single thing now. Strange. I come to office through the Taramani road. NIFT is situated in the same road and was surprised to see a man hanging in the entrance yesterday (today also). Then on closer look it is a man created out of news papers and he is hanging with his hands outstretched towards the sky like he is asking for something. And there was another newspaper man on the building terrace standing like a scarecrow. It was an interesting thing to see on the otherwise dreary ride to office.

கீழடி அருங்காட்சியகம்.

உலகம் முழுவதும் இருக்கும் பல அருங்காட்சியகங்களுக்கு சென்றிருக்கிறேன். நியூ யார்க், கத்தார், துபாய், வாஷிங்டன், லாஸ் ஏஞ்சல்ஸ் போன்ற நகரங்களின...