Sun tech days...

I was attending the 'Sun Tech days' for the past three days and was annoyed to hell with it. Before launching the tirade, the good things. The lunch (catered by Chola Sheraton) was exemplary. The evening entertainment with Sivamani and 'Vikku' Vinayakram was fantastic and the goodie bag was excellent. Thats pretty much it. The sessions were all total bores with very less technical content and it was one long promotional session for 'Netbeans', Java studio creator and other Sun products. Obviously it is a sponsored show by Sun but at least the focus could be on Java itself for a change. I slept throught the SAP key note delivered by a guy named Venkatesh who couldn't modulate his voice and was talking in a flat pitch which will make a bear hibernate in summer. Other sessions were not much to say anything of worth. And the college crowd was pleased to have the good food along with the attendance and the goodies. And we decided not to attend it anymore.

And Sibi was not feeling well for the past 3 days and finally got well now. He is having fun time drawing anything and everything that comes to his mind. Its kind of amazing to note some of the things he draws. Some odd things (at least to me, not to him!!) he has drawn are the toilet, TV with rhymes in it, tortoise mosquito coil, himself etc. How his mind works is totally amazing!!

Sibi...

Sibi has started in a drawing class now. I, for one, do not believe in sending kids to schools all the time since it tend to make them tired. But after watching Sibi drawing all over the apartment, we bought him lots of coloring books and a big black board. The books were done as soon as they were brought to home and he demands to draw new things on the board. So, we decided to put him in the drawing class. And he is doing pretty well there also. I think it acts like a valve to release all the energy he has within him. Its sometimes amazing to see the creativity he exhibits when playing. He sends the teletubbies to school, play catch, shouts at the students and enjoys playing with his grandpa. He listens well and asks questions. Makes interesting and surprising things with play-doh (like the tortoise mosquito roll). Its a joy just to watch him go about doing his things.

I read 'Nanjil naatu vellalar vazhkkai' by Nanjil Nadan. Its a record of the life of the vellalars in the Nanjil region. Its an amazing document on the life and culture of the vellalars. Then watched 'Kamaraj' on VCD in the weekend and I can just sigh on the difference between him and the current crop of leader we have.

One of the things I want to write for long is about the left parties in India but think that has to wait a little. I am also thinking of blogging in unicode-Tamil in the coming days.

Chennai book fair

Went to chennai book fair last weekend. It was a good experience. There were a lot of publishers and a great number of visitors. Bought some of the books that I have been wanting to buy for sometime. The list include Pramil's collections, Mouni's stories, Sugirtharani's poem collections, one translated novel by SriRanga (NBT publication), a VCD on Kamaraj and much more. I chose only to buy books that I may not get outside and so limited myself to specific publishers and was able to get some good books. The only deterrent was the crowd. It was suffocatingly crowded and while it is a good thing to see so many people buying books, I really hope that they find a more spacious place to host the fair next year. Overall, a fantastic fair.

Not much is happening otherwise. Got drowned in work this past week and so couldn't actually put anything on the blog. Will update when I have time.

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?.