Ramblings of a madman

After 22 years of my existence in this planet I finally got to watch a night show. Surprisingly my mom didn’t have an issue with it. One of my friends called and asked me if I would accompany him to Udhayam theatre for watching Mankatha-night show. Normally I would immediately refuse the offer if it read the word “night” But I just had a hunch and said a yes. I heard a lot of good things about the movie from a friend of mine who watched it earlier that morning and yet wasn’t that excited.   The guy who accompanied me was a Vijay fan, needless to say the kind of things he said when we were about to enter the cinema hall. “Dei padam sumaar dhan da, IPL final la panam kolla adippan” The ticket we had for the movie were complimentary and we didn’t spend a single penny. Obviously I had nothing to loose not even sleep. It’s been so long since I slept before 2am.   My idea of a night show all these years was that it would be deserted, people wont come with their families, posse ...

Now many of you non-tams must have been dumbfound how to pronounce Azhagiri or KaniMozhi or Thamizh Nadu for that matter. I have heard some amit news anchors pronouncing them as Kanimoyi or even a Kanimozi with a literal “z” sound worth cringing my whole life. I feel like I want to put “dharbai” in their tongue and posikkify their mouth. Before going into the step by step method to pronounce the letter “zha”. Zha represents the Thamizh letter  “ழ”. The sound of the letter and its variants are quite unique that only Thamizh and Malayalam have it. Variants of Zha by vencurd Those of non-tams who cant pronounce it, don’t worry! Even many Tams cant pronounce it. Many people substitute it with a “La” sound. A friend of mine from south of Tamil Nadu even claims that it is the right sound hahaha! Don’t worry you are in safe hands! I will teach you how to pronounce a “Zha”. It’s closest equivalent is the American ‘r’ If you don’t find that good enough here’s a simple way. S...

    I keep telling this to all my friends. Let me without further ado say it here. I have seen more Chennai in the past four months than I ever did in my entire life before that. I’ve been travelling, travelling and travelling. It has been a welcome change to my “lock yourself up and meddle with your computer” lifestyle.    We Friends decided to meet up and go somewhere, now that our results have been announced. We decided to meet up at ICAI and then head off to “Semmozhi Poonga” which is at a walk able distance from the institute and nearer to the Gemini Flyover. I went into the ICAI and was checking vacancies for Articleship Clerks, now that I have got through the 1st group of my IPCC . It’s funny I was eligible 2 times for doing my articleship. Once after my CPT in 07, which I opted out and now, which I have no option but to take.    I was looking out for firms within my locality, that is West Mambalam, Ashok Nagar, T-Nagar and that belt. There ...

Oh Yeah! If you didn’t know my full name, it is Venkatadri. Now let us rewind to the past, say August 31st 1989 7.08 pm. The baby Venk was born nameless. The Baby Venk’s dad decided to name him “Venkatadri” because he had a friend by that name who was polite, God fearing and wore a “Thirmann” (for you guys it is simply Naamam) in his forehead. Years passed and The Baby Venk soon became The kid Venk. The Kid Venk passed LKG with flying colors and he had to write his name on a cardboard hat. Every other kid just had to say the name and the teacher would spell it. But The Venk had trouble brewing, the teacher asked “Come here, What’s your name?” He never knew the eternal mantra “It doesnt matter what the name is” so he said, “My name is Venkatadri” The teacher was quiet befuddled “Venkatachalam?!!” The Kid Venk got pissed off “No miss! Venkatadri” The clueless teacher replied “Do one thing child, let your mom write your name on it!” The Kid Venk returned home and asked his mom...

  Its been a really long time since I blogged, that's mainly because of me being sandwiched between 12 hr classes for a month now! Out of the blue my second session for the last day of the 2010 has been cancelled and I am writing this post. Being back home at the stroke of 1 seems a luxury!   Same time last year, I was pondering the fact whether 2010 would be a good year because ‘even years’ have never been great for me. But 2010 has just turned my world upside down, probably the most successful year of my life ever. Considering that I was such a success deprived person for almost 3/4th of my life it's quite overwhelming for me. I did things, which I've not even dreamed that I would do. 2010 has been a year of many firsts in my life.   1. First proficiency prize   2. First graduation   3. First Tweet   4. First blogger meet   5. Meeting my blog friends, in person and further strengthening the bond   6. First #perkytweet win   7. Fi...

Yesterday me and my friend “machi” left for the Sai Baba temple at the ECR. As usual i managed to crap up something and have fun. Since the temple opened only at 4pm and there was a solid 30 mins, we found refuge in a beach near VGP at the ECR. I was searching the place for something interesting to do, what I call “podcast” and what others may call “crapcast” The Beach basically contained garbage, rotten wood, tonic bottle ( i wonder what they did with them :-O), Liquor bottles of all shapes and sizes from 1/4 to full and one of the pair of slippers/shoes. What in the blue hell is wrong with people throwing just one slipper/shoes. Here’s me trying doing a Bear Grylls after find growth of flowers on one such bottle. And then “machi” spotted a crab! I was shouting like one those wildlife enthusiast, which was similar to that of seeing aliens. Suddenly “The Venk” enters and asks what he was cooking. Damn! I even “gommalla”ed the crab. hahaha   And here is an octopus shell, ...

   The unlimited access to the internet has ensured that i have round the clock access to all kamal Haasan’s work i haven't seen and also to YouTube videos too. The more I see the man’s work, the more is the respect i get for him. Sometime back i bumped into this song, “Azhage Azhagu” from Raaja Paaravai. I really wanted to watch the film because i have heard a lot about it from my father. I was really shocked at the kind of vision the producer, Kamal and the director, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao had as early as 1981 when running around trees and singing duet were the norm, truly a "Royal vision" as the title suggests . Not to mention the same guy directed Pushpak aka Pesum Padam starring kamal, which was also way ahead of its time. The film contains no dialogue and is mime based.    It is a love story between a budding writer (Madhavi) and a blind violinist (kamal) The film is devoid of any unwanted songs and very natural. This could have been easily a sob story wit...