2006

Finally 2005 is coming to an end. I say it with a kind of relief but on another level, it is interesting to know that as it is there is nothing that is going to change but only our perception that tomorrow somehow marks the end of another year and things will (may) be better from the next day somehow. Thats what my wife calls a cynical thought. But anyway, it gives a sense of measure to the life and going by that 2005 was not so good to me as 2004 but overall, I was happy about it. This year marked the end to the US life and settling down in Madras finally. It also marked the start of school for Sibi which is a big deal for me. And of course, the rapid progress Sibi is making in school is actually heartening. This year, more than the last, I think I am becoming more selfish and the tolerance has come down. Basically I am trying hard to losen some of the American traits and it ain't easy, anyway. Overall, happy to have come back and settled.

And it is something that I finalized the house on the last week of December(two days back!!). It is nice little house nearer to Sibi's school and has atleast most of what we were looking for (ofcourse, it is a flat and not a independent house). But to arrive at this point, I have to go through so much and waste many a weekends on looking at horrible to mediocre houses with exorbitant prices. The real estate in Chennai is essentially sellers market and there is no respite for small buyers who want to invest 10L or less. There are nothing available in that range and it is a horrible thing that space has become so much of a premium here. And the suburbs are just filthy and there is no point in finding a place there. Chennai needs a lot of infrastructure development to make the living in the suburbs at least tolerable. Anyway, enough bitching about it and am happy to have found a place.

And a happy new year to all of you who read this blog continuously. Especially Arun, hope you get married at least in 2006. And the friends in Hacienda Heights and all others, Happy new year to you all.

Thavamai thavamirunthu

Saw 'Thavamai thavamirunthu' over the weekend. First, hats off to Cheran for daring to take an offbeat movie without the 'commercial' aspects as defined by the producers/distributors of Tamil cinema. I have watched the movies of Cheran with interest over the years, because here is a person, working to bring the real rural life of Tamilnadu into the screen without any makeup. I always hated Bharathirajaa's village because of his trying to glamorize the village. Honestly, can we spot a Sreedevi in kottampatti?. And it never documented the people of the village (as the joke goes, his movies always started with an outsider(teacher/doctor) arriving in the village!). Compared with Cheran, the contrast is clear. Cheran focusses on the people of the village and when he introduces the outsider also, he does not lose this focus. What it gives is an experiance of the village without the frills. It is hard-hitting. Of course, while Autograph set some new standards in the narrative style, I rate it much lower than 'T.T'. 'T.T' is the story of a father aspiring to realize his dreams through his sons. Simple enough but told in a gripping 3.5 hours of emotional story. Having grown in a very similar household (probably true for a lot of guys!) with a father who never found a fault with me or my brother, it strikes a chord very close to heart. I think the success of 'T.T' is in making everyone to think a little about the father. And it did a lot of that for me. My father flunked his PUC and married my mother without any job. He worked hard and earned meagre. And it was tough sustenance as we grew older and borrowing money was part of the life. I still remember the insults he had to take to send me to a college. Money was a concern on a daily basis but still we never felt the misery because of my father always left his worries at the doorstep when he entered home. Its always jolly time and I dont remember a time when my father took his frustrations/anger out on us. Never. As he used to say everytime, he has given us the only asset he was able to give, our education. The fact that I am typing all these says a lot about this movie. Hats-off!!

Adhavan and an annual day...

I've completed reading Adhavan's 'Iravukku mun varuvathu Maalai' and Ambai's 'Veetin Moolaiyil oru samayalarai'. I.M.V.M is a collection of kuru Novels. Is there a genre of kuru Novels in English?. Remember reading a novelette by Charlotte Bronte ('The green Dwarf') sometime back. Think the Russians had also experimented with this (Dostoyevsky (Double), Pushkin (Captain's daughter) etc). But cannot think of a genre per se existing in English. Anyway, Adhavan's heroes/heroines are all people who have high aspirations who were met brutally with the reality of time and brought down to Earth. In 'siragugal' it is the girl who after finishing college tries to come out of the mould of getting married and tries to find a job. She finally succumbs to the pressure and get married taking solace in the fact that she went to a cinema with her would-be before marriage. Or 'meetchiyai thedi' where the hero longs to go back to his roots after living in Delhi for a long time. It resonates with the displacement loneliness I've felt while living in the states. Its a longing to attain something that is not there anymore. But what makes Adhavan different from others is his fantastic narrative style. Its more Marquez but at times better than him. The writing is more like a flow of thoughts than like 'writing'. I have always loved his stories from the day I read them first in 1996. But I think it is a sad thing that he has to die so young. I think its a curse if you are going to write in Tamil.

Sibi had his school annual day last weekend and for a change it was different from the normal school days I have known. The programme started with a one hour program on the life of Krishna (dances/skits based on 'Panchali sabatham' etc). All songs were written/composed/choreographed by the students and that was a great change from hearing the cinema songs. It was followed by a light music performance (one 60's song, one Bryan adams, one recent movie song) and some innovative dances like the 'searching lights' which I think is the highlight of the show with the students spread across the auditorium and the lights are off and the torch lights are used for the dances (choreographed by Ishwarya Dhanush). It was done very well. And the last part is about environmental awareness program with the five elements as leads. Entire program is interwoven with prize giving and honoring some veterens. And also, Rajni was there as a guest and that added some glitter but the show was completely done by Mrs. Rajni who did a wonderful job organizing and compereing the entire show.

Rain updates and Sibi's World

Things got bad this last week with the record rain on Friday night. Adyar and Cooum are in full spate and with the opening of the lakes and dams upriver, water is flowing to the brim in all the rivers. I saw the Saidapet kuppam people put up in Gandhi Mandabam opposite Anna university. Its very difficult to imagine life in such surroundings. It will be sometime before normal life returns here. Mercifully, no inundation in where I live and it was terrific to see people leave home in boats without knowing when they will return. With competetion between the irresponsible media networks intend on spreading rumors and their version of truth, it is disgusting to watch TV news at all. Truth is very different when seen through the Socially Unresponsible Network(SUN) and Jaya. It depends. Thats all.

Then watched a movie called 'ABCD' yesterday. Two things to recommend the movie. One, no college background. And no silly villains and mindless violence with the hero killing at will. So it was a bit different from the normal fare that passes for cinema these days. A wafer thin love story revolving around one guy and three girls, with a subtle social message running through, it was interesting to watch all the mushy romance on the screen. Waiting to watch 'Thavamai Thavamirunthu' and 'Kanda naal muthal'.

There is a series in NY times on India's golden quadrilateral project. Interesting read.

Sibi has this habit of talking to himself when he is playing alone or with the Dipsy plush he has. So I listened a little yesterday. He was diagnosing Dipsy for fever and was complaining that Dipsy bite his fingers while he was giving medicine. Then suddenly he talked about our former neighbours 2 year old daughter who has moved to a different house. Again back to Dipsy. His world revolved around simple things and pleasures and it is with a tinge of nostalgia that I watch him. Haven't we all yearn for that lost world of innocence when things were all fine and dandy and we were all happy in the true sense?.

A lot of rain and a few updates..

Finally a couple of days without rain here in Chennai. It has rained heavily throughout TN this time and it was sad to see the plight of people all around. Living in suburbs submerged in water, it is not easy to see your dream home drowned in water. All the encroachments and unplanned building is taking its toll.
Went to the Guildy Children's park yesterday. Although my wife takes Sibi every now and then, this is the first time and I was surprised to see that it was maintained well. So, there is scope that people will put trash in trash cans and keep a place neat. This gives some hope for the other 99% of the city looking like a huge dumpyard. Thats a little exaggeration but close to truth.
And the Cooum and Adyar rivers are in full spate and it was wonderful to see something other than sewage running in Cooum. But I also noted that the saidapet kuppam along cooum is fully submerged now and cannot but imagine the misery of the people living there. All the things that they value, the assets, are washed away in one flash flood and kind of hard to imagine the resilience it will need to re-build the lives again and again. Sad, but reality.
Another effect of the non-stopping rains is that Sibi's school is on leave and in the months of october and november, he has had school for about 5 days. Even he is bored and is incessantly asking when the school will re-open. Keeping him entertained is in itself a tough thing these days but he takes fun in playing all by himself and that helps a little.
Anyway, Sibi is becoming a lot more playful and talks really well and asks so many questions these days, it is getting difficult to answer him. He just makes me feel so good at times but also so mad some times. Yesterday we watched 'The bourne identity' together and he loved 'Home alone' the other day. He likes dancing and it was lot of fun to put on the music and start dancing with him. He has some good/strange moves.
And ofcourse, take time to visit this site on the Big temple in Thanjavur. This has a lot of interesting links and information.
I bought a bunch of books sometime back and am still to start even one of them ('Green Dwarf' - Charlotte Bronte, 'Double' - Dostoevsky and another one by Elizabeth Gaskell). Need to start sometime soon.

Aiyanars and Viral fevers!!

After a long stint with a viral fever and a couple of marriages and receptions (not for me!), it certainly tires one out to think of the trials one has to go through. The most interesting part of the last couple of weeks is the trip to Tuticorin and the marriage reception of Hari.

First the trip to Tuticorin. Not that tuticorin in itself is a good place, but we went to Thiruchendur, Eral and the Arunchunai katha Aiyyanar temple. It was raining all along and combined with bad roads, I am still recovering from the body pain it has caused. But the route was beautiful and with villages names like 'Thanneer panthal', the trip lent a wisp of poetic air also. The coastline of Thiruchendur has changed after the Tsunami but the temple remains the same. The seas have become rough and there is little resemblance of the beach that once was there. Eral has a temple on the banks of Tamirabarani (or a tributary of it, not sure) and it is a fascinating little temple. The most fantastic one is the Arunchunai Katha Aiyyanar temple in Ammanpuram beyond Thiruchendhur. Located in the midst of three 'sunais' or ponds, the temple houses the Arunchunai katha Aiyyanar. The sand is completely red in color and the surroundings exquisite. But the temple is crowded these days and on a sunday afternoon, the temple was brimming with people. There is a huge statue of the Aiyyanar mounted in a horse in the temple and a lot of other minor gods with names like 'Munnodi Murugan', 'Bairavan', 'Isakkiamman', 'periya natchi' etc are around. Aiyyannar worship in real terms is ancestor worship and what it means is that these are real people who lived a while ago and did something to merit being worshipped as gods. 'Arunchunai katha' is a clue but unfortunately, the real story is not known to many and I am still ignorant as to how the Aiyyanar saved the 'sunais' (although heard that the Aiyanar is actually a palayakar who saved the area from the foreigners and from religious conversions, not sure how he saved the 'sunais' yet). Here is a story on how he saved the sunai, but not sure how true this is. There is another temple for Karkuvel Aiyyanar (in Therimedu) which we couldn't visit for want of time. This is the family ancestor temple from my maternal side. Per my maternal grandfather and paternal grandfather, my ancestors were originally from these areas (therimedu and surroundings) and what it means is that my ancestors worshipped these same gods as I am doing today. And most of all, by exploring these areas with Sibi gives a totally new sense of learning about our roots together. There is still so much to read and know.

The marriage reception of one of my college mates happened and I went there in the hope of meeting some old friends. I did met a lot of them but there was absolutely no sense of happiness or a rush of adrenaline on seeing so many friends. Is it just that I dont treat them the same way as I used to do 8-9 years back or just that I have moved on with my life?. Puzzling.

Other than that the past 10-15 days is one of suffering from viral fever and taking heavy antibiotics and sleeping. Now am feeling a little OK. Sibi is doing fine and a gala time in his school children's day celebrations. He has grown a lot but Jeysri still stays at 21. Another puzzling thing!!!

Diwali, Sibi and Konastai

Its been a long gap since I last wrote. Anyway, belated Diwali wishes. We had a great first family diwali in India and Sibi enjoyed so much of it that he took to fire crackers very well. Anyway, it was rains, flooded roads and closed offices for most of the past 1 week. It was really good to see all that rain but it was boring to end up sitting in house all day without doing anything. And did a lot of shopping in the weekend and had a great Diwali!!

And Alliance books has republished all novels of Vaduvur Duraisamy Iyengar. I remember reading the detective Tigambara Samiyar's exploits at my grandma's house in Sivakasi long back while in school. But I never got to read a complete novel during that time and I am planning to get this set soon. It will be interesting to read the entire novel. BTW, anyone has heard of Konastai, who wrote in the 1940's?. I am searching for his novels also after reading a sample in my grandma's house long back.

Other than that, things are going as usual and Sibi is getting naughtier every day and I am not sure where to start on this. But of course, he has taken a liking to stories and everyday in the bed, instead of rhymes, we tell stories to each other till he dozes off. We had his head tonsured in Palani in the 2nd week of October and he had a musical toy which was grabbed by a monkey (he cried a river for that!). So, you should watch him explain the story of the monkey and the hat-seller. So funny and always with a reference to the 'monkey in palani'. Nothing like that. The long leave for rains, diwali and Ramzan has made him yearn for school and he wants to go to school now to avoid boredom at home!!