Watch out, the Competition starts in the womb?

'A' took a deep look at my face for few seconds and suddenly just like that he burst out a smile. He was five months old then. I had gone to his house for a navarathiri visit. Just as I was sinking in this moment with him, came a voice.

"Has he started making pa, na sounds , yet? ", asked another guest at the house.
(what a five month old baby does that?)

"No", answered my friend, A's mom.

"Oh, my Nithya has already started doing it. She is a month older than him. But she had already started saying pa a month ago."

"This one doesnt appear to say anything yet."

"Even my elder daughter had started saying few letters by 5 months. I think girls start so early."

oh man, isnt it bit early and quite ugly to start comparison now. A five month old baby for god's sake. He crawls around fine, is sitting on my lap right now. I have seen my share of babies with loads of cousins, nephews and nieces around to say this child was just doing fine. The whole life is ahead for this sort of competition. On the other hand, arent educated masses like us sitting in US with our Master degrees not believe in this sort of competition any more. I know, S and K(A's parents) dont want him to be in any sort of desi stereotypes of doctor, engineer. They really hope he is into sports one day, so knock out lady, his parents arent into the race.

Mouna Raagam - Title visuals

Have these visuals in the title song ever puzzled you with respect to the movie? It isnt hard to guess these are the childhood pictures of one of most adored,loved and celebrated tamil actress Revathi(who was totally worth all the that, btw).

A mix of Back ground music used in the film plays along as the title credits roll on. Illayaraja's bgm was undisputably one of the four stars of the movie, the other three being Maniratnam, Revathi and Karthik. Mike Mohan without the Mike comes somewhere in the movie but doesnt make the cut though is immensely tolerable for once.

But the music isnt what puzzles me, it is the pictures. Mani is known for his screen aesthetics but doesnt use them for the sake of it. So, they couldnt have been there just because they were better than black background or were they?

Dialogue

Tried killing several times, but didnt work!
- me, at Work in an email reply. needless to say I was talking about processes.

Article 377 and landmark judgement

Indian society is hardly fair and free, but for the most part, the laws and constitution are. That is one bit of nice thing about India. This portion of article 377 that criminalises homosexuality stands against that bit of sanity. Treat people equally atleast in Paper, give them rights atleast in Paper. I hope atleast the gets corrected. Atleast one step.

Also, ever since the issue of gay rights and case against article 377 started in India, I have been curious about the reaction of the hindu extreme group. Islam and Christainity have specific instances in their respective books that condemn homosexuality. Hinduism has 1000 books probably, but I dont think any of them condemns homosexuality, if anything it is the reverse is what I hear.

So, if Hindu groups are condemning it, arent they just aping the religious conservatives of the rest of the world, even though it is the belief of completely different religion(their supposed enemies)? or did they suddenly wake up to the notion of diverse religions and tolerance to their beliefs? Just shows how brainless the fundamentalists are, I suppose.

Ps: honestly, before reading some of the blogs written by gay indians, I wouldnt have understood their plight or gave it a thought. my previous post on this

rang ranga pani peke

" Rang ranga pani peke, Seedhi sadhi ladki bhigad gayi",* goes a line in this current favorite of mine. It has been playing non-stop in my car. The song has a peppy tune. And yeah, insane lyrics. Series of line found somewhere in the middle of the song goes
"tareef teri karna hai,
tujhe khone se ab darna hai,
haan, bul gaya ab tujpe din me
chaar dafa marna hai"
- in one shot, a mockery of most hindi songs we know. I love that.

The minute of visuals i have watched has Deepika padukone showing some expression on the face. This is akin to my high school friend getting a 1/50 in one of the tests at the IIT coaching center. The Prof. told her that she might feel she has improved infinitely considering her previous her score was 0 but sadly that isnt true . That is exactly what I would say for Deepika as well.



*Pardon my indi, it comes some where after english, tamil, telugu for me.

Mature audience

In 8th standard, during a tamil lesson on a poem about love(the detol kind), the giggles of the girls just wouldnt stop. The tamil teacher was irritated at how the guys our age had gone through the lesson without any hiccups, while us girls were stretching it for two classes simply because we couldnt stop laughing. That was understandable as the girls were just stepping into their teens especially in India.

It is slightly irritating though that after many years later, a much older bunch(ranging from 20 to 60), a supposedly matured audience laughed everytime sex just loomed somewhere in the corner of the conversation. That too in play about a woman's sexual emanicipation.

Surya ki antim kiran se surya ki pehli kiran thak, is a hindi drama about a queen who is made to participate in a ritual where in she seeks a surrogate husband for one night from the residents of the state due to the king's inability in providing her a heir. The play had its share of laughable moments and some dialogues were intended to be funny. But the audience were laughing even at serious moments. Like when the Raaja expresses his frustrations about the experience he could never have/had.

Otherwise, the performance and staging was very professional(after all we did pay money that too without even a charitable cause associated with the name). Amol palekar has made a marathi movie called Anahat starring Sonali bendre based on this drama few years ago. I havent watched the movie, but the drama/movie/ just the script is a must for every woman, probably men too.

Ps: Next time, I plan to go on the stage and say, "she and he.. umm..". I am sure that would be enough to make the crowds burst out with laughter. should be easy being a stand up comedian for this crowd.

Shiney Ahuja - the current news obsession

Shiney Ahuja, is all over the papers, so I assume you already know the deal. His wife kind of had a parade of all neighbours, friends and so on, in short, people who were ready to give their good behavior certificate for Shiney. But the truth is, there is noway of Judging a man's behavior in this regard based on your all other interactions.(may be true for a woman too , but i have no actual experience there). Yes, even his wife could be unaware about his intentions in this regard. That is just the way it is. Unfortunate.
*********

On the other hand, the case isnt in trial as yet. We dont know whether he is guilty or not. We all know we should wait till the judgement. But we are all in a rush to make our own judgement. News agencies want too as well. They know even as alarming news as this can only be carried on for couple of weeks. So, they need to cash in, stretch it as much as possible. Quick snap judgements sell better. Ethics be damned.

Eventually when judgement comes, probably one newspaper will report it somewhere. People wont read or remember. Years later, we would still be delivering our judgements than the one based on a trial. That is just the way the world is.

Examples for the point, Few months ago, a 12-year old boy from England made news for becoming a father. A lot of debate went on the internet after the news. People obviously spent days and nights discussing it. Panelists were called to discuss the dangerous situations, the repercussions and all other bull shit. Later on, couple of boys also claimed paternity of the child. Eventually, a Paternity test was done and it was proved that the boy was not the father. How many people do you think are aware of the last piece of info? 1 or 2% of the population that read the initial news.

A first year student, Navarasu's murder rocked tamil nadu. John david, his Senior's name came up in the investigation. Eons and eons of articles written about him. Gruesome story. How many people are aware that he has been released on appeal because the evidence(found sufficient for a life time in the lower court) was found insufficient. Needless to say, no one I spoke to knows about the last sentence.