Myths !

Myths – I have a had my share of myths. I believed some for few days, some for few years and a couple until now !!! here is a list
1) I thought fried rice was raw rice deep fried in oil
2) I thought fried ice cream is a myth, you cannot fry ice cream without it melting
3) I really thought fairness cream will make you fair in weeks ( I tried for 8 years before I gave up)
4) I thought foreigners came from one country outside India and they all had blonde hair, fair skin and spoke English
5) I thought the world might stop spinning one of the Sundays and then I would never have to go back to school again
6) I thought you would make babies by kissing ( ok I was like 5 then ! )
7) Babies poop cannot stink, they drink just milk anyway
8) I thought colour of the food you eat and the colour of the skin were related. Example - Drinking milk will make your skin lighter and drinking coffee made it darker
9) When you lose a teeth, you need to hide it. If anyone saw it, then that gap will never be filled. I had to invent new places to hide my teeth everytime as my brother threatened to find it and i was scared i might never grow another teeth !

10) When i made faces, my mom said they would freeze and I will have a frown all my life. ( I just do 1 now..which little one imitates impeccably!)
11) If you eat a seed, a plant will grow in your stomach. I spent weeks worried about an orange pip I ate
12) If you ate too much, you stomach might burst ( I sort of sense why they would have told me this!)
13) When I tried to scare my little cousin with a cross eye, I was told my eyes would remain cross eyed forever if I used the trick to scare someone
14) The length of the hair and your body weight are inversely proportional. If you had long hair, all the food you ate would go straight to the hair and you would never put on any weight. (there was a phase in my life when I was underweight and yes I am telling the truth!)
15) If you swallow chewing gum, it will get stuck in your throat or ribs and the doctors will have to do a surgery to remove it. I dint know they get digested/ excreted like any other food !
16) Shampoo had chicken poop in them that created the foam, more the poop more the foam. Ok my grandfather who has never used a shampoo told me this when I was 4 or 5 and I was hesitant to use shampoo for few days until my brothers cleared it for me !
17) My brother said he had eyes at the back of his head and he would know if I did anything silly behind him.
18) A white spot on your nail means you are getting a new dress. I have tried to scratch my nail and show to my mom
19) When I wanted to see a dentist to pull my canon teeth down, my dad said it was a lucky charm and if I pulled it, the charm will go away !!!!
20) I believed when hubi told me the note ‘wastages will be charged’ in the ‘Banana leaf’ restaurant meant, the hotel manager would come and weigh your plate when you finish, calculate the wastage you have in your plate and charge you for that. I ate everything in my plate except curry leaves because i knew they dint weigh much.I was 26 years old then !!!!

I Judge

I know judging others is bad and as much as i judge others, they would be judging me too, but couldnt resist. Here is the list of 10 different kinds of people i would judge.

I Judge....

1) People when they buy a big bowl of chips with coke and take the lift to 1 level up..especially when this person looks like someone who can reduce some weight..hehe like me
2) When someone eats sushi and steamed vegetables in a buffet (also uses lite salt!)
3) People on their mobile phone ring tunes and the volume of it
4) Desis trying hard to sound like videsis with their with dodgy accents. This is annoying when the blending in so hard is taken overboard
5) Someone who would plan dinner menu at 8:00 am (hehe…that’s me)
6) School kids sitting in the park in uniform and being naughty !!!
7) The girl who never smiles at me, never talks to anyone but her 1 colleague at work and has her table lamp on all day, even though she sits right next to the window (no there is no glare, I have checked it)
8) The ex boss who asked me for my due date every time he say me....through out my pregnancy.( the man was probably doing a count down !)
9) People who say they are absolutely stressed at work and there is sooo much to do, when you actually know there is nothing to do!
10) The mathematical abilities of the sandwich lady who charges me differently every single time. I eat the same boring salad sandwich every other day.

Baby Talk !

I am not going into kulal inidhi yaazh inidhu pazhamozhi….( a proverb that says no sound of music is better than the ramblings of a kid) but sometimes when I have this conversation with my 3 year old, I am surprised with her vocabulary. Some of the words she uses, I wouldn’t have known them until I was like 10 or older..
Anyway here are some of the things that took me by surprise when uttered by her.

1) I am applying moisturiser for baby after a shower
Baby – mummy you missed my back
Me – I have done it baby
Baby - Smarty pants mummy !!!!

2) I am helping her dress up for our weekly visit to the temple
Baby - Ohhh ! this is gorgeous, I look like a fairy princess

3) Hubi singing ( he is a pretty good singer..unlike me)

Baby - Heyyyyy ! stop it, I am trying to sleep

4) I am asking her to nap and turn off the TV

Baby – Daddy my friend..mummy silly BOY!

5) We are walking in the shopping strip and she abruptly stops sometimes and I am trying to get her to walk again
Baby - Don’t push me mummy, I am standing here

( I wonder why she would simply decide to stand in 1 spot and think while we are walking !)

6) Watching Ice Age 3 -Ellie the mammoth gives birth to a baby mammoth

Baby - “aawww, soooo cute”

7) Any question starting with ‘why’ like why did you do this ? Why did you push diya? why dint you finish dinner ? etc..the answer invariably is
Baby – ‘Ofcourse’ !!!

8) Hubi – Do you like mummy or daddy?
Baby – Mummy
Hubi – Do you like daddy or mummy ?
Baby – Mummy
Hubi – Do you like mummy or daddy?
Baby - Daa…ummy ( obviously confused)

9) me – Let me help you with your shoes
Baby – No ! MYdo it

10) Classic - One fine day
Me – What’s that noise ?
Baby – My bum is burping !!!!!!!

Useless Information - again

Quoting 'Illiya Thalapathy Vijay' - I have tried several different roles in the past ( extremely difficult double action - one guy with hindi accent and another without it, role with 6 fingers, role of a car mechanic, cycle mechanic, kaaka, kuruvi etc) but my fans like to see me only in commercial movies and this is why i come up with masala movies every now and then (also read as always). Similarly i have tried awesome posts like movie reviews, song reviews, more movie information, but nothing is as famous as useless information. The number of readers and comments are inversely proportional to the quality of the information provided. In order to quench the thirst of the elite group i am friends with and their taste for information, here are more useless information

1) The name of the guy who acts as Joginder Singh in Abhiyum Naanum and as Officer Arif Khan in ‘Unnaipol Oruvan is Ganesh Venkatraman was Mr.India 2003 and represented india in Mr. World 2004 ! He was very convincing as a sardar and Muslim Police officer.
2) Ajmal, the actor from Anjadhey and Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru has studied Medicine in Ukraine. He is married and has a kid
3) Narain, the Malayalam actor from anjadhey, pallikoodam started his career as an assistant to Rajeev Menon bfore beginning his acting career
4) Silambarasan alais simbu was born on Feb 1984 owns a brand new while BMW X6, first of its kind in Tamil Nadu
5) Music director of Eeram, Thaman was one of the boys in ‘Boys’
6) Hero of movie Eeram , Mirugam ( which I am not planning to watch at all!) is also called as Pradeep Pinisetty, born 1982, studied in Donbosco and studied engineering
7) Chakri Toleti the director of Unnaipol Oruvan appeared as the courier guy in the movie Dasavatharam (thanks KV)
8) Actress Amala Mukherji was born Irish Mother and Bengali Father
9) Aamir Khan’s nephew Imran Khan’s parents graduated from IIT Bombay. His father works as Director of Operations in Silicon Valley. He is trained in film making from Los Angeles
10) Siddarth born in 1979, studied in DAV boys school, Chennai, B.Com from New Delhi and completed his completed his MBA in 2001 from S.P Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai
11) Aadhavan story was written by Ramesh Khanna with Hasile Fisile shot in South Africe and yenno Yenno shot in Ice land
12) Anushka ( heroine in ‘rendu’ and ‘Vettaikaran’) born as ‘Sweety’ (ya that was her name) on Nov 7th 1981, was a yoga Instructor before she came into movies.
13) Abirami ( heroine in ‘Virumaandi’) was born as Divya in July 1983 ( is she that young !!) has a degree in Psychology
14) Vasundra Das was born in 1977 (older than me!!!), graduated in Economics and her nick name is ‘Lovely’ ( seriously..think out of the box parents!)
15) Action king Arjun’s full name is Arjun Sarja born in 1964, married to kannada actress Asha Rani and has 2 daughters Aishwarya and Anjana ( Tamil actors should stop naming their daughters Aishwarya – this is the 4th one I have known)

Aarumugam

I always refrain from writing a bad review about a movie. If I like a movie, I would make an effort to write a review, but if I don’t like it I cannot be bothered spending my time thinking and writing about it. Also I sometimes feel it is not fair. A lot of people would have spent time, money and effort for that movie. If I did not like it, it was probably not my kind of movie and I wasn’t the target audience. The target audience may like it, like Kandasamy ( don’t get me started on the kozhi dance..which hubi does at home to entertain little girl), Pokkisham, Sarvam, Ninaithalle Innikum etc.

Anyway I watched Aarumugam yesterday despite serious warning from behindwoods and mitch. Now I cannot resist writing a review on the movie. First question to Bharath – what were you thinking ?, same question to Priya Mani and Suresh Krishna as well.

Lot of people think it is similar to Annamalai, I want to confirm it is different from Annamalai.
1. Rajini was paalkaran( milk man), Bharath owns idly kadai ( background music...todoying)
2. Rajini’s rich friend had villain daddy Radha Ravi - Bharath’s rich friend (with similar gold frame glasses) has villi Akka Ramya Krishnan ( tada doying)
3) Janakaraj – Karunas (tata do doying)
4) Rajini becomes rich after a song and becomes business magnet in like 18 years. Bharath becomes rich after a song and magnet in like 1 year may be. I don’t think they could convince bharath or Priya mani to do a daddy/mummy role..just yet (mudiyalai..vallikudhu)

Anyway quick review – Rich boy Karthick and Poor boy Bharath are friends. Rich Akka Ramya does not like her brother and his low class friendship. Walks around in awesome designer sarees, contact lens and gorgeous accessories, separates the friends. Now poor boy challenges to become rich over night with a number of punch dialogues ( how short are his fingers, in some scenes I thought may be he had them folded, with so many close up scenes and every second dialogue being punch they should have used graphics..lol). Anyway end of song (which we forwarded) owns 4 new idly kadais, couple of scenes later is very rich and owns bungalow, then big contractor who can get the entire rich villains to the street. Then everybody realises their mistake and lived happily ever after.

Twist in the story - Josier says karthick’s wife is pregnant and the baby could ruin their status. So villi hires Poovilangu mohan, a doctor to kill the baby. But when movie finishes, Poo mohan comes back with a 2 year old toddler and gives it back to Ramya !! He must have been following her, because he knew when she has changed her mind and where she was at that time - aiyo aiyo !!!!

Every other scene where Priya comes next to Bharath – there is a song in ridiculous costumes and something that will let Bharath dance too much.
Bharath agreeing to play the role of Rajini konjam 3 much dhan.
The trend of remaking / suttufying Enligh movies, then hindi, then telugu has been changed by Suresh Krishna. You can remake your own movie. God save Kollywood and people like me who bothered to watch it, write about it and you all for reading it.

Andrum Indrum ( Then and Now )

There are always things that you thought was impossible. With due course of time your perception changes, things you never thought would happen do happen. Here is a list of things i never thought would happen

1) Then - Aravind swamy looked so 'hot' lighting his cigarette in the kitchen, in the movie ‘Roja’. Now- I cant stop screaming at hubi for stealing my lighter from the pooja room to light his smoke (he quotes this allll the time !)

2) Then – A husband calling his wife ‘darling’ is the most romantic thing in the world. Now – when hubi calls me ‘darling’ my response invariably is, now what? Coz I know it is followed by something – bunch of friends confirmed this is the case with them too !

3) Then – I would get upset with my mom for cooking idly everyday. There was a day when we had this big fight over eating Idly on a weekend. me and my br ended up doing a 'take away' for breakfast refusing to touch the Idly. Now – Since I suck at making Idly , I crave for it all the time. I think when I go to India, I will ask my mom to make Idly everyday. ( i am sure she will laugh)

4) Then – Daddy used to be upset when we watched TV in study holidays and would be chasing us to our rooms. Now – daddy was watching cricket before his exam ( the man is doing his diploma in psychology at the age of 74!!) and we could say “daddy go into your room and study for your exam”

5) Then - Birthdays mean, waking up early, dressing up, taking a tray of red and blue caramilk chocolates to the neighbours. Now I would rather prefer that my neighbours dint know about my birthday, so they wouldn’t know how old I am ( I don’t think they even know my name)

6) Then – When mummy called me ‘papa’ I was always upset, I wasn’t a little girl anymore - I was a grown up ( I was probably 10!). Now – I am soo glad she still calls me ‘papa’ coz I am sooo damn young at heart..hehe

7) Then – Ms.SA and I would spend 7 hours at school, sitting next to each other and chatting, and the minute I am home SA would call me and we would be on the phone for the next 1.5 hours to discuss what happenned at school that day. Now – I cant remember the last time I spoke to her, I think on her birthday in November 2008 !

8) Then – we decide to watch a movie on our way back from work. Now – we plan 1 month ahead, fix our dates, book our tickets and pray no one falls sick during the weekend, watch the movie in fear hoping little miss cranky pants would watch the movie without any dramas

9) Then – I would scream out loud looking at a cockroach and expect someone to get rid of it while I stand far away from the crime scene. Now – Baby finds these bugs, come screaming to me and I am expected to fight the crime…well kill the bugs and spiders. Guess what I do it - i am not scared anymore, atleast thats what i tell baby !!!

10) Then – All we had was the sun, Sun reminded of hot, hotter and hottest. Wore masks, Bandhanas, gloves to cover every part of the body ( I was one of those zombies driving scooty in the late 90s). Would stay in the AC room to protect the complexion (duh !). Now – looking out for one weekend with nice warm sun. So I can take a walk, take the train to the city and finish alllll my laundry.

11) Then - 6 ( H, N, SA,SS,SuB and me) of us would spend alll day together in college, spent weekends together, watched movies (and MNM in sun TV) together and sometimes even studied together. Now - i wonder if all 6 of us would ever in the same country at one point of time or ever meet again :(

Pasta with cream sauce - easy dinner

This is the quickest, easiest dinner you can make - limited cutting, vetting and otting. Amigo i am sure you will like it !

Ingredients
Pasta – spaghetti/spiral
Thickened Cream/cooking cream – 1 small tub
Milk – 1 cup
Garlic – 3 or 4
Raisin – a handful ( optional)
Butter – 1 Tbsp
Plain Flour – 1 Tbsp
Cheese – 1 slice
Bok Choy / mushroom – optional

Cooking

1. Cook pasta as per instructions in the pack ( cook in water with a pinch of salt and a small tsp of oil) – I use spaghetti and spiral
2. Soak raisin in warm water for 20 minutes
3. In a pan heat the butter, stir in the flour for few seconds ( make sure you dont burn this)
4. Add the milk and stir it well – this makes the cream sauce
5. Add half the tub of cream into the pan
6. Now add the cooked pasta
7. In a seperate pan heat some oil and fry garlic and bok choy / mushroom till they are cooked

8. Add vegetables, salt and keep mixing
9. Top it with some more cream
10. Add cheese if you have them (I use the cheese let I use for sandwich)
11. Add the raisin

12. if you like avacado, you can mash it with fork and add to the pasta before serving

Thats it - it takes 20 minutes tops.

Why does it rain in Melbourne ?

Quoting Thirukkural

Nallar oruvar uLarel avar poruttu. ellorkkum peyyum mazhai ( translated to “ if there be one righteous person on earth, there will be rain for him and the people around him”)
Now what is the reason for my elite talk …I got my wallet back and guess what with the 20 dollars and USB stick in it..literally untouched.

I never thought I would ever see it again.

The wallet was handed in a police station the same afternoon. Although I complained in the nearest 2 police station and enquired, this was handed over to a station away from home and it took them 18 days to contact me.
In the meantime I had replaced all the bank and health cards (that were free) and tried a few times to buy a new license, but the screen froze both time I processed payment and now I have my license back ! It was a sign…thanks for the wishes and prayers friends

p.s – Alvi thanks for your support during the hard time ;)

Angels & Demons

Preface

Do you believe in the forwards that says – send to 10 people in 10 minutes ? I get them allllll the time from people but not once have I forwarded it. I usually delete them straight away, unless they were funny and worth forwarding. So I received this forward about an ‘angel’ from one of my managers who never sends me forwards. The day was very average and so was the week. So I decided to send this email to 10 people within 10 seconds of reading it, with a note ‘ I could really use an angel this week’.

Story of the week

Take 1
I drive back home and its freezing – as usual. I try to open the door, it is stuck. I tried soo hard while freezing and struggling in the dark, no luck. It was one of days vel is in university until 10:00 pm with his phone turned off! ( don’t ask!)

Take 2
I don’t lose hope easily. Thought of alternate options. I had the keys to the front yard door and the keys to side door.
So I open the lock in the front yard door now what are the odds. This latch is stuck as well. I could not open it at all.

Take 3
I call mitch who lives 5 minutes from home and you guessed it right - he did not answer to his mobile or the home phone. All the other friends were going to the airport to see off ‘ferni’ on his trip to end his bachelorhood.

Take 4
Finally got through to KV who offered to come in the next 20 minutes and help me before he left for the airport. He also suggested I could speak to Shangy who was actually visiting his fiancé 10 minutes away from home. Shangy came in straight away, could not get the door as well, but managed to climb on the bin, jump through the fence, open the side door and let us in. We were inside after about 45 minutes of struggle. Thanks to the ‘Angel’ for Shangy and KV !

Take 5
3 days later, I am shopping in Clayton – usual grocery. Parked the car far away from bank/atm so I can get a good walk to withdraw money and then do the shopping. When I finished shopping, got the bubby into the baby seat, put the stroller in the boot, hand bag in the left hand and was going to put the wallet into the hand bag…obviously not. Because I couldn’t find the wallet in my hand bag 10 minutes later. Walked back and forth in the parking lot and the shopping strip, could not find it. So lost the wallet with 20 dollars, bank card, medicare, medibank cards, coffee voucher and my favourite picture of bubby.

Take 6
Walked all the way to the bank again and cancelled the card, bubby kept saying she was hungry and I had no money. The bank guy must have felt bad, so he let me withdraw money without any proof of identification. I took 50 dollars out of my account, walked out wearing my optimist hat, thinking worse things could have happened (I could have had more money in the wallet, someone could have misused my card). Walked back to the car, took the mobile out of my pocket and realised the 50 dollars was gone. Don’t ask. It was GONE.

Take 7
It had started drizzling by then, bubby was sucking her thumb getting ready to sleep. May be she realised I was not going to get her any food and I was in a bad mood, anything she said would have upset me. So she just kept quiet. I went back to the bank- all the way again, asked for another 20 dollars. The bank people were now giving me weird look, they must have thought I was out of my mind. This time I went straight to the car, touching the money every 3 seconds to make sure it din’t vanish again. Bought lunch for bubby and guess what she was already asleep in her little seat.

Take 8
Went to Clayton Police station to lodge a complaint – it was locked !
Finally lodged a complaint in the nearest police station, after a few ‘ you are always careless’, ‘ you should have paid more attention’ and ‘ I told you so’

Bottomline
After the eventful week AND weekend, I cant help thinking if the angel has already paid its visit or not ! I am still wearing my optimist hat thinking, things could have been worse (ya right!) or may be someone might return my wallet ( Yaaaa right!). For now – “ vennam…vallikudhu…aludhiduven”

Useless Information - III

Considering the flop of my recent posts that were based on ME and MY VIEWS, I am resorting to masala post. Like many producers and heros in kollywood, I have realised that I need to have commercial posts every now and then while I test my audience’s patience with my thought process.

So here is bunch of useless information that you all love to read. This particular post has more useless information than the ones before.

1) The hindi remake of ‘Ayan’ will feature Salman in the lead role and Jackey Sheroff playing role of ‘doss anna’

2) Sasi Kumar – director/actor in Subramaniyapuram has a bachelors degree in business. He worked as assistant to Bala in Sethu and Amir in Mounam Pesiyadhey and Raam

3) Samuthirakani – the villain in the movie Subramaniyarupam and the director of ‘Nadodigal’ is the director of serials ‘ Anni’, ‘Selvi’ and ‘Arasi’. He also worked as Co-director in the movie ‘Poi’ and ‘Paruthiveeran’

4) James Vasanthan graduated in English literature, Carnatic Music from Madras University and Western Music from UK.

5) Singer Madhu Balakrishnan’s brother in law is Shreeshanth !

6) Sunaina Gulia – the lead actress in Masilamani and kaadhalil Vizhunden acted in a Hindi serial Dill Mill Gaye. She was born in May, 1985 in Haryana

7) Lakshmi Rai was born in 1981 in Karanataka, She is a model turned actress. She has featured in Bru coffee and Fair and Lovely Ad

8) Arya’s actual name is Jamshad Cethirakath born in December 1980 and graduated from Crescent Engineering College, Chennai

9) Venkat Prabhu, born in November 7, 1975 has a music degree from UK and wanted to be a music director, then actor and finally has become a successful director

10) Radha’s daughter Karthiga and Nagarjuna’s son are acting in a new telugu movie as the lead pair

11) Katrina Kaif was born in Hong Kong to Kashmere Muslim father and UK based Cristian mother. She is now being called the “Bollywood Barbie” ( hubi totally agrees)

12) Actor Rahman was born in 1967 as Rashid Rahman and he happens to be the co brother of A.R.Rahman- small world ( KV -asked me how old was rahman) – hence this useless info for him

13) Aishwarya Rajinikath is going to be the voice for Aishwarya Rai in Endhiran (Rajini/Shankar new movie) and Raavan (mani rathnam’ new movie)

14) Singer Krish’s real name is Vijay Balakrishnan and he has sung in Walt Disney’s ‘Enchanted’

15) Varalakshmi Sarathkumar, daughter of sarathkumar is making her debut alongside Simbu. She has degree in Microbiology from Hindustan College and Masters in Management University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Ottaigraph

Impressed with Cheran’s autograph and its lollu sabha version, here is my ottai graph Needless to say flash back is an end to end comedy story that misses ‘vaigai puyal’.
I am so glad hubi doesn’t read my blog.




1) I was in the 8th grade I think, we had PT ( Physical Training) for 2 hours twice a week. End of the session I was in charge of taking the props we have used back into the PT room. When I walked towards the room I saw this super senior standing outside and giggling for no reason and when I walked in, I saw 3 of my super seniors standing there pants down. Obviously they were changing in the PT room and the giggling senior outside was to make sure no one walked in.( yenna vachu comedy keemady pannalaiye)

2) The heart throb of the early 90s was obviously Aamir Khan. The three musketeers ( self along with L and S) were convinced this senior guy looked just like AK. So we decided to make friends with him We spent good part of our pocket money to buy this dairy milk chocolate bar, wrote a note saying “we think you look like AK”, all three walked together towards him, when I was standing in front this guy, I was alone, buddies had disappeared. What is worse, mr.smarty pants refused to take the chocolate from me. God knows what he thought, I was soo embarrassed and spent rest of the year hiding from him– loser ( naan avana sonnen!)

3) I was in the 11th grade, having serious arguments with daddy convincing him to buy me a cycle, as I thought it was ridiculous walking like 2 kms to take a bus for 1 stop. Dad could not see my point, so I decided to take my brother’s ‘street cat’ – boys cycle to school. But i did not want anyone in school to see me riding a boys cycle, so I took cycle from home to a friend’s house next to the bus stop and would walk the good 1 -2 km to school ( image kettupedumla), one fine day while I was in my triathlon of walking from school to friend’s house, then riding the cycle home. I had 2 other friends who would ride the cycle with me and there were these 3 boys from another school following us on a regular basis. When I saw these boys passing comments about us in the road, I lost control and fell down in the middle of the road. I hurt my knee so badly that I still have the scar. Idhu thevaiya ( appa ippova kanna katudhey !!)

4) 1st year of college, new found freedom was amazing. Formed a gang from day 2 based on one common factor – Big B, the handsome bloke in class (then !). One fine Saturday ( it was half day working then), we were all coming back in the same bus as big B and were deciding on lunch. Somehow we all ended up going together for lunch and needless to say spent the entire afternoon discussing Big B, only to find big B offered to come only because he thought V was coming along. Then we wondered how B would have spent his entire afternoon cursing the time he wasted with us ! ( vada pochey !)

5) We were in college – late 90s. Now we were called the ‘spice girls’ (duh !). Staff ( cant remember his name) who doesn’t favour girls is like the hero among the boys. This man walks into the class and talks about the performance and behaviour of the students, turned to our side ( 5 of us) and said this whole row is useless. No we weren’t humiliated, we were honoured that we were accused as part of the ‘ galeej’ gang boys. ( yenna thitinaalum thaangudhuga – rombah nallavanu sonnanga)

6) We were in 2nd year college, told all the parents that we were doing combine studies at N’s place (while her parents were away at work). Our studies started with 30 minutes of college gossip, next 15 minutes about movies, then decided to watch the movie “kuan’. Next few minutes we were in the theatre – the whole study group. After getting the ticket our only worry was what if we bump into someone from our college, because we had oil on our hair and were wearing the casual chudidhars. So we took the last row and spent the next couple of hours worrying about how to protect our image ( vaaliba vayasu !)


7) I was one of the 6 girls who were going to perform in the college day for a western fusion – cant remember the songs now, one of them was ‘final countdown’. So we are in the backstage ‘ most happening’ place in the college. We were waiting along with all the performers and the boys group who were there providing moral support to the performing girls ( no need to guess who would have been there for sure). We walk to the stage , standing there with our pose and the tape wouldn’t play. It was messed up, , we just stood there for few minutes and was asked to go back. The staff promised they were going to fix the tape and would call us back and we waited and waited and they never called. So I just walked out frustrated and cursing the guy who recorded the tapes – no need to guess again – none other than hubi dear and he just smiled at me continuing his moral support while I was cursing him ! ( room pottu yosipaangalo ! )

Anyway revealing more stories from past would result in tremendous damage to the anni/akka ‘image’ I have now. So comedy story stops here !

The Desi power – a post with a message

Living in clayton ( mini india), shopping in clayton and working in the city for 1 week - taking the train from clayton to city has changed my whole view of many things, most importantly – DESIs

Day 1 – Grocery shopping in Sharawan

Have you ever seen a horizontal queue. I see it everytime when I do grocery shopping in an Indian store. Somehow people realise everybody else in the shop are Indians as well and resort to our cultural horizontal queue. Everyone takes on a place closer to the counter and waits for the next opportunity.I was waiting in one of these lines next to the desi bhaiya who was making a payment. Our desi bhiaya was accompanied by desi beevi and desi friend. The guy behind the counter quickly scans everything and says the final figure. Bhaiya asks his friend if he got yoghurt – friend then goes to the fridge and comes back with 1 litre yoghurt, bhaiya is disappointed and sends friend back to get the 2 litre can. My toddler had a biscuit packet in hand and had already crossed her 2 minute waiting time and started to open the pack and so she can start eating. I am trying to show my disappointment by letting out different ways breathing signs hoping bhaiya would hurry up. Getting the message bhaiya tries to be the nice man around and screams at friend in hindi – make it fast, people are waiting ( avaru rombha nallavaru pa), then comes the beevi, utters something in Hindi/Punjabi something about some vegetable being 3 cents cheaper here. Offcourse what else is of prime importance to us if we can find an item few cents cheaper than in the normal shop. Desi ji asks her to get this as well. By now the counter boy is upset as well. He offers to swipe the card first. Now bhaiya ji starts thinking – offers to pay half by cash and rest with card. After some convincing from the shop guy that he does not get charged extra for the card, he agrees to swipe the card. 10 minutes later the transaction is complete – Why cant Desis finish shopping before arriving at the counter ?

Day 2 – Butchers ( no doubt run by desi)

With so much disappointment with desis I walked into the butchers. I walk in and see the guys are actually wearing the disposable gloves and are ready to serve. I was a bit relived and asked for chicken. The guy just before getting the chicken..just a second before touching the meat, scratched his head with the gloves on !!!!! Ok don’t ask what I did after this !- whether I bought the chicken home or not is not to be disclosed.


Day 3 – about 8ish in the train

After years I had to take the train to the city for some ‘training’. I got into the train with a book I have wanted to read for months. As I started to read – surrounded by desi uncle reading big bound book, desi thambi with headphones, desi annan reading something from a print out. After 15 minutes of peace, I suddenly hear desi beats. All I could hear was the ‘ dunda nakka’ bollywood beat and some high pitch voice. No it wasn’t a mobile ring tone, it was what I could hear from this desi bhaiya’s headphones. I could not believe someone could keep the volume so high. If what I heard from across the seat in the train was so loud, how loud would it be on his ears? I could not concentrate on my book anymore. I tried my usual turning back and staring, stage 2 - hmm and ahems did not work. I managed to get the attention of few other annoyed people in the train but our bhaiya did not care. So just cursed my luck and put down my head pretending to be reading while trying to figure out what he was listening to.

Day 4 – Train again

After spending a nice warm day in the city I was coming back in the train(again) to clayton. When I was getting off the train, I struggled soo hard to get the stroller with a sleeping toddler from the train on the platform while the desi thambi standing next to the train door was watching me. He did not offer any help at all

Ok this is just a sample, there are so many desis who run past you and push you to get a seat, get into the train, hit you while walking past and moves on without saying a ‘sorry’. Desi mama who called in regards to a job he applied for and asked me to ‘push’ his CV through for an interview because we are from same country.

Having said this, there some nice desis as well. Desi thambi who offered me and papa the window seat and stood through the journey in the train. Hubi goes to fill petrol and comes back after 45 minutes after having career counselling for desi paiyan who works at the service station and even shares mobile number because of the desi bond.

There are some really nice people out there but there are so many who spread the wrong message as well. I did read about an article which suggested some of these attributes were contributing to the so called ‘racial’ attacks on desis. I am not sure if this is true and there is no way this can be justified but I feel this creates an impression with people. I don’t deny the fact that people who are loud in the train are just desis but end of the day we get associated to a ‘culture’ we have created around us. Like how sarees and bindis are associated to desi women, how spicy food is associated to desi cooking, I don’t want some of these bad manners to be associated to us as a community. Its like a brand name I think and we are like brand ambassadors


Message time –
We need to respect other people in the same way we like to be respected. We need to treat people in the same way we like to be treated. Offer a helping hand when you can. Our smallest actions are interpreted as a culture of ‘our’ people. We don’t want our kids or our friends to be associated to a premonition we have created and I think it is upto us to reset this image. Brand repositioning is what we require I think. It is nice to be nice J
Smile, use ‘sorry’, ‘pardon’ when required. Spread the joy and reposition our brand image.

Quiz – Count the number of times the word ‘ desi’ was used in this post and leave the answers in the comments section. The winner gets a 4c fuel discount voucher from leading service station. he he
You cannot use CTRL F

Note – Love you all for reading my blog, missing the updates in my blog and leaving messages and comments and even sending follow up messages through hubi regarding this. You guys rock !

Fluvuku Mariyadhai !

I would like to quote Superstar (originally arjun) at this point “ Kanna panniga dhan kootama varum – singam singlea dhan varum”

The topic is none other than the much hyped Swine Flu(SF). There are about 1500 cases in Australia with Victoria alone with over 1000 cases. It has made people ...ahem ME paranoid. When a McDonalds branch was closed in one of suburbs following SF, we were frantically researching the internet to make sure it wasn’t the one where our little mighty toddler had her weekend treat the previous day. Since then we haven’t visited any Mcdonalds or any of these fast food places and little one is pretty much putting up with my cooking.

Anyway last week when i was hit by this terrible flu and little girly had cold/fever for like 2 weeks , we got scared. Hubi was non stop googling the symptoms of SF. This made us more paranoid as the symptoms are not very different from normal flu, so we decided to take the next step - visit the local hospital. Hospitals are actually better than seeing your GP, you get to meet an actual paediatrician, but the trouble is the waiting period. I have waited for several hours in the past. But we took the challenge. Stood in the queue for 10 minutes to be seen by the triage nurse, who usually does the initial assessment and then let you join the mob of waiting patients. It takes 2-4 hours of waiting before you are called inside !

Anyway the nurse gave one look at me and my girl, and the minute we said we had flu like symptoms, she came back with 2 face masks, and got us to sit in a special room and not the normal waiting lounge. We were very excited to be let inside straight away with the fancy masks and we took family photos(hehe) in the mobile camera. 5 minutes later a pedeatrician walked in to check on the little girl. Then doc confirmed it was swollen tonsils for the kid and I was asked to go to the adult clinic. When hubi went to get the floor plan for getting to the clinic ( it was a pretty huge hospital and you could get lost without a proper floorplan) , the nurse panicked and backed off. She said "no no stay there " and sent the floor plan through another nurse. She was not willing to come anywhere near us.

Anyway after 30 minutes wait in the adult clinic, an initial assessment by the nurse, then by the doc came theSWAB kit. They told me that the swab sample was to be taken from the back of the nose and not the throat. I was like ‘Wouw….do you really think I have THE flu’. After 5 minutes of beard scratching discussion between the doc and nurse, they decided they could let me go without any terrible sample taking process ( No! they did not say I was a ‘medical miracle’ like in our movies). This process cost the hospital/ government – 5 face masks, 3 pairs of gloves, and 3 aprons - just to decide that i do not need a test !
Yenna kodumai sir idhu !

Bongu Samaiyal - II

This one is for you amigo and all you bachelors who first decide what to eat for dinner, then go to the supermarket and buy the ingredients and then cook( unlike me who will decide based on the energy level and ingredients left over in the fridge)

So this is the cous cous & stew recipe. I make this when I am tired of eating rice for dinner. This is healthy because of the high fibre in the cous cous and the stew is just vegetables / meat and lots of water. I use a small chunck of every vegetable I have at home. For 4 adults I would add half a carrot, 1 small potato, 1/4th cauliflower, 1/4th brocholli, a handful of frozen peas, some beans and ½ kg of chicken (optional)

Ingredients

Cous cous – buy any brand from the supermarket ( you will find it along with the pastas)

For Stew
A few vegetables ( carrot/ beans/ cauliflower/ potato/ brocholli/ peas/ zuchinni/ chokoes)
Tomato – 2 (you can use ½ tin diced tomato instead)
Green chillies - 2
Chicken stock / vegetable stock - 200 ml
Any meat – 500 gms ( I used chicken) - Optional

Seasoning
Cinnamon sticks – 2
Cloves - 3

Cooking Instruction:

1. In a large deep pan add about 3 table spoons of oil / butter ( for elite ones)
2. Add cinnamon sticks, cloves and onion and fry till the onion is transparent
3. Add slit green chillies
4. Add diced tomatoes ( or tin)
5. Add the chicken ( brown the chicken in a separate pan if you want) *
6. Now add vegetables
7. Mix them well
8. Add the stock and let it boil for few minutes
9. Now add enough water to cover the meat and vegetables
10. Add salt, close lid and let it boil
11. Keep adding water until the vegetables are quite soft and the meat is cooked to soup consistency

You can cook this for over 30 minutes if you want and wait till you get the right consistency – like a thick soup
If you are like me ( hard pressed for time) , mix a small teaspoon of corn flour/rice flour with little bit of water and pour into this. Stew thickens in the next few minutes

Cooking cous cous.

The instructions would be in the box. Here is what I do
1. In a pan boil 1 cup water with a teaspoon of oil and salt
2. When it boils, turn off the gas and add 1 cup cous cous
3. Cover the pan and let it stand for 5 minutes
4. Add a spoon of butter/oil and run a fork through it.

Try this and let me know how it turned out !

Mummyum Naanum !

It is a bit late for a mothers day post, but I strongly believe that you don’t need mother’s day or father’s day or husband’s day to say how much you love them.

Anyway about 10 years back, when I bought my mom a flower bouquet, she said “ 30 roobaku poo yaravadhu vaanguvala” ( who will spend 30 rupees on flowers).
On another note I missed out on calling my mom this mother’s day, but when I called the following day and made my toddler say "aapi other day” mom was truly touched.

With all due respects to daddys, here are a few milestones with mummy, things that have crossed my mind while I sit back and think about life - I am transitioning between two roles within the same company ( vetti for 2 days basically!).

Here are things that like vadivelu says “ only you possible “ – Only moms possible.

1. I was 29.
When my little girl was little – ahem was 8 months I think, I took her to the tub to give her a bath, I slipped and almost dropped the baby. Little one bumped her head in the tub and was crying, while I was looking at her feeling extremely guilty, mommy who was standing next to me was checking if I was alright and kept asking me if I sprained my feet or something – mothers !!!

2. I was 28
I was pregnant – full term. Parents were arriving from India 6 weeks before the due date. I was waiting in the Melbourne airport along with hubi dear, bulbu ferni, cool Shankar vaval and sharsur family to receive them. It was about 11ish in the night when they arrived. Mommy walked out looking soo tired after the long journey and all she said was “ why did you come to the airport at this hour. You should have stayed home and rested”. There was no mention of how tiring the trip was, were they thirsty, hungry, nothing. Only thing was I was standing, in the cold night !! mothers…

3. I was 25
It was the day of my wedding. After the reception, I was to stay at hubi’s house, so I went into the groom’s room and was waiting for in-laws to pack up, so we could go home. Apparently my whole family was looking for me and finally found me. Mom was in tears saying she was coming with me to in law’s house to drop me off along with a bunch of relatives and I said with no emotion “ no problem, I will go in uncle’s car”. I did not have a single tear when I left my crying mom ! I could not see anything beyond my happiness of being married. soooo…meeee….

4. I was 25
My big bro was going back to Pune ( he lives there with his family and had come down for few weeks for my wedding) Mommy stood in the train station and was shedding tears. Big bro was in his early thirties, married and had a toddler then. Mommy was still crying coz she felt bad about how he was loosing weight, managing family and work, living far away from home! DUH ! mothers…..

5. I was 23
I landed on my first job with a HR firm which managed some HR projects and recruitment. One fine morning I had my neighbour’s car driver at the door with a piece of paper. His brother who is a graduate was looking for a job. The paper had his brother’s name and his degree information written on it. Mommy had gone around the entire Chennai city telling everyone she met that I could find a job for any one. So here was someone who believed in her. Mind you I was working like a graduate trainee then. The word has it that mommy is still going around telling everyone I recruit people to work anywhere in Australia. Mothers you see…

6. I was 21
I was in the last year of my degree and any wedding we attended, mommy gave special attention to all the moms with sons – the eligible bachelors. She was convinced I was the most eligible bachelorette in the crowd and each every prospective mom in laws were actually assessing me and staring at me. Mommy was dreaming of the overwhelming response she would get when I finished my degree. To her disappointment no one..not even a single lady from her top list approached her. Mommy could not understand why, afterall I was the prettiest according to her ( but I knew my prospects, so managed to find my own prospects (kozhi!) before graduating !)…Mothers..the dreamers

7. I was 20
My mom would keep on complaining that I never help in the kitchen ( which I never did until my mom stepped to MY kitchen), and once I couldn’t take it anymore ( the nagging offcourse), I went in to wash the dishes, and I must have hardly washed one plate when she came to me and said, don’t wash everything, your soft hands would becomes rough like mine ( showing her poor hard palms) and I happily walked off. Sentimental mommies…

8. I was 17
Mom wanted me to help in the kitchen !!! again… I was asked to get the Idly maavu(batter) from the fridge and hand it over in the kitchen – 2 steps away ( I was the hard worker at home !!!). While I was taking this out of the fridge, I obviously missed the huge bowl of rasam in front and spilled the whole pot of rasam on the floor. Mom came running and I was waiting for her to scold me, but all she said was “ paathu yeduka koodadhe, step out of the cold rasam, I will clean it”. Oh ! God, mother’s patience.

9. I was 16
Mummy was making dosai for me and big bro while we both sat in the living room watching TV (offcourse!). We were finishing up and mom made the lucky last. Offered to bro, he said he was too full, so she offered to me, I could eat it but I was upset that she did not offer it to me first. So I told her i wont eat it because she made it for my bro and asked him first before asking me. So I made her go back and make a new one for me and she agreed. WOW my mom rocks !

10. I was 10
Mommy bought diwali dreess for me and bros ..once upon a time. I was not happy. I did not like the colour and the fact that the dress did not have as many frills as I wanted (duh !) I refused to wear it, while bros accepted what she bought for them without any complaints. So mommy actually took me back to the shop returned the dress and bought me a new one which costed her twice the budget !

I do realise that like the movie “abhiyum naanum”, this post of “mummyum naanum” has been a very me, myself rather than about mummy !

But all said and done, if I am half as good as my mom when I am her age, I would consider myself a great success

Hoping to read the mommy moments of lavender, lazy blogger, touring blogger and wondering blogger soon.

P.s – English translation for tamil words are provided in the post considering the non tamil readers to my blog ( hehehe..)

South Indian Kitchen - Bongu Samaiyal 1

What is a blog without a recipe and I have decided to share my wisdom to the new cookies (tanglish). With number of little bro’s getting married and with the increasing number of brides arriving in Ausie land , I feel it is an absolute responsibility of a senior (alais peetha thalaivar) to share the tips and tricks to survive in the kitchen. Also after the call from dear babu and babhi (babu’s wife hehe), I consider myself in a position to provide culinary advises. Word of caution, my cooking is only for bachelors and amateurs , definitely not for the experts in the trade.

Preface :

I have never really cooked before I came to Australia and had few recipe books handy or call mom / mom in law when I stepped into the kitchen. I struggled to cook for more than 5 people because I would never know the right proportions. Then found something which I have named as “bongu samaiyal”. This is mix of authentic Indian cooking (predominantly south Indian) and modern microwave cooking and totally dependant on the time and patience I have at that point.

Most importantly its easy - tested and tried recipes. The cooking would definitely taste good enough for a weekday and relaxed weekends, can be shared with guests who are not critics ( I must say all the bros from KV to babu, ferni to amigo, shangy to buddy never complains).


Breakfast – Well we all would agree that we never have the time to cook any breakfast through weekdays. So in the weekends, I tend me make some decent breakfast which we end up eating at 11 ish.

Pongal – Sambar – This awesome combination is the simplest


Pongal
Ingredients ( serves 3 adults)
Rice – 1 cup
Moong Dhal (Paasi parupu) – ½ cup
Pepper – 10
Cumin seeds – 1 tea spoon
Green Chillies – 2 (optional)
Ghee – atleast 3 table spoon ( absolute essential)

1. Dry roast the moong dhal till it turns light brown
2. Wash rice and add dhal to the rice
3. Add 2 ½ times water ( for the measurement above – add 4 cups of water)
4. Add the pepper, cumin seeds and salt to this
5. Pressure cook this for 5 -6 whistles, the rice need to get the porridge effect
6. Switch off the gas and wait till the steam comes down.
7. For seasoning – in a pan heat 2 table spoons of ghee, add mustard seeds and slit green chillies and fry till the chillies turn white
8. Add this seasoning to the cooked pongal, add more ghee and salt if necessary

Sambar

Ingredients
Onion – 1
Tomato - 1
Toor Dhal ( Thuvaram parupu) – ½ cup
Sambar powder – 1 teaspoon
Tamarind Juice – 3 table spoons
Mustard seeds
Red chillies – 2
Salt

1.Cook Toor dhal with enough water in a pressure cooker
2. In a large pan add oil, finely diced onions and fry them till it turns transparent
3. Add the red chillies
4. Add finely diced tomatoes and fry till you see the skins curl
5. Add tumeric powder
6. Add any vegetable you want – to go with pongal have some soft vegetable – finely diced brinjal or carrot or potato. This sambar tastes fine even without any vegetable
7. Pour the cooked dhal into this, add sambar powder, salt and some water
8. Now add tamaring juice
9. Let it boil and turn of gas.

Options – You can add coriander powder and chilly powder when it is boiling to add additional flavours or even replace the sambar powder with these two.

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients
Shredded coconut – ¼ cup
Green or Red chilly - 1- 2
Roasted gram ( pottu kadalai) – a handful ( can be replaced with raw peanuts without skins ofcourse)
Garlic – 1 pod
Tamarind – a pinch
Salt – to taste

1. Soak coconut, roasted gram (or peanut) with just enough water for 10 minutes
2. Now just add all the other ingredients and grind in the mixie

For seasoning
1. In 2 table spoons of oil, add mustard seeds, split black gram dhal (optional) and very finely diced onions.
2. Make sure you fry the onion till it turns light brown

I can hear you all say ' vada pochey' - it is a bit complicated to be added to the bongu samaiyal list

Unique Voices

Have written about movies and stars, the next thing is music before i post a recipe. So here is my review on some singers. Unlike the old times when we had just TMS, PBS, SPB, Janaki, Chitra,now we have sooo many singers. Gone are the days when you hear a beautiful song, you can identify the singer. I struggle these days to keep up with the new talents in the field. While the music directors bring in unique talents and voices into the field, not all of them are a delight to your ears. Sometimes I wonder they overdo the unique factor. Here is my list of unique voices that has caught my attention.

1) ARR – Too many songs to list

The first time ARR lent his voice to ‘chinna chinna aasai' for a boat man, I must say I did not notice it. But he brings a passion and life to the songs he sings like kaneerey kaneeray – uyirey, New York Nagram – Jillunu Oru Kadhal, vandhey maatharam. His voice is so different, so passionate, so unique and so awesome

2) Neha Basin – Pesuhiren pesuhiren from Satham Podadhey

Neha ia a member of the Bollwood pop group VIVA, her only other song I know is Sei yedhavadhu sei from Billa. I am not a big fan of singers from other languages with their ridiculous pronunciation. But I think Neha has done quite well in this song. The lyrics are awesome too. You can appreciate it after you have watched this movie. Fell in love with it the minute I heard this. This is a special song to our dear KV ( his fiancé sings this song so well that KV keeps humming this tune)

3) Kailash Kher – veyilodu vilaiyadi , rangu rangamma, uyyalalo uyyalalo

Following the trend of hindi singers with terrible tamil pronounciation, here is kailash Kher. But I think his tamil is better than Udit Narayan. This voice is very unique, sometimes annoying but I must say I love his songs...well almost all his songs.

4) Jessi Gift – Lajjavadhiye to Andankaaka kondai kaari (Anniyan)

The first time I heard his voice, his voice was as different as the word lajjavadhiye – whatever it meant. The movie was just average, but the voice did get all the attention. I don’t think any one would think his voice is pleasant or beautiful. It is just unique. His other songs are 'Annakili', 'Gundu Maanga' - Sachin, 'Ketta Kudukara boomi idhu' - Sandai Kozhi, 'Freeya Vidu' – Aaru. Do i like this voice ? well i dont know yet.

6) Sukhwinder Singh

We all loved him in thaiya thaiya – uyire. But then there was a sukhwinder overdose I think. We have heard him in few different gana songs like'Enna Mattum venam solladhey' - Saravanaa, 'Arjunaru Villu ' - Ghilli, 'Jothi Neranjava' - 12B, 'Salaam Gulamu ' - Hello, 'Naan Salttu kottai' - Pennin Manadhai Thottu, 'CBI Enge' - Poovellam Kettupaar, 'Lucky Lucky' – Ratchagan. Especially the song from Dishoom – Kitta nerungi vaadi karla kattai odabu kaari (..sukhwinder sings 'karllla kattaaa udumbu kaari' - how can someone write lyrics like that !!!) and Sukhwinder pronunciations in this song is the worst ever !

7) Adnan Sami

The famous 'Lift Karadey' guy came to kollywood through 'Boom Boom' in Boys and 'Nenjam Yellam' from Aayutha Ezhuthu. His voice is very very different, but I just love his songs. His most latest is the Oru kal oru kannadi from Siva manasula sakthi. Its beautiful. i have wierd taste okay !

8 ) Preeta Utham Singh - ‘Kaadhal vaanile.,' (Raasaiya)

The first time we all heard this song, we all did hum it, but it did annoy you when it gets to the high pitch. The singer is Preetha Uttam Singh and her other song is Allah un Aanaipadi yellam nadakum with unnikrishan for Vijay’s Chandralekha. She is the daughter of Dil to Pagal Hai ‘s Music Director Uttam Singh. Interestingly Uttam was the Sound engineer for rasaiya! Now you know why !

9) Sayanora Phillip – Honey Honey (Ayan)

This is the voice behind Thikku thikku song from the movie Dham Dhoom. Her most recent song is honey honey. With all due respect to the singers, it does sound a bit too weird. Hubi hates me if I even hum this song. But i dont think its just the singer, music director takes half the blame for this song.

10) Mohit Chauhan – Masakali (delhi 6)

Mohit Dooba Dooba in Boondein was a huge hit in 90s. I haven’t heard any of his other hits from Rang de Basandi or Jab We Met, but I just love masakali. Just the word is so beautiful. Every word in this song is so well chosen. Unique lyrics, unique voice, beautiful song

Ayan - Movie Review

Don’t ask me what it means or its relevance to the movie. Atleast Vaaranam Aayiram, they made simran say this word, but I don’t know why they named this movie ayan and what it means !

Anyway going into the movie, the movie starts with surya in Chennai airport, dressed up like a cool dude, speaking to this corporate guy, then helping a single mom with a baby etc, all the time speaking in English and walks out of the airport only to change his language in a split second to local tamil with Prabhu. Surya has kept his body fit from the VA movie and is quite handsome. Surya appears in a few different makeups including perazhan, VA daddy role, Kaakka Kaakka and even like lady.He changes his hair style and beard for every scene and song, that KV strongly suggests couple of them were wigs !!

The story is probably 2 lines but the screenplay is fantastic. Interestingly the movie gives importance to a few characters like Prabhu, Renuka, Jegan and Ponnvannan, apart from the hero, heroine, villan combo. All of them have done a fantastic job. No overacting, no annoying acting. Just right with the flow of the movie. Especially jegan, we have seen him in the screens before, but he has done a pretty good job. The only part that I am not comfortable is his response to surya and tamannah falling in love. It is interesting to see the other side of the story wrt ‘thiruttu vcd’, smuggling drugs, director’s copying scenes from English movies, diamonds in Africa.
One thing that has not been given any importance is the logic ! hehe….well we don’t really need it for most Indian movies.

Tamanah is the pretty sister of Jegan ( yenna kodumai sir idhu !) and does the job expected of her. Thankfully she is not just a pretty face but can act as well. Hopefully she will learn Tamil soon and work on a better lip sync with the dialogues. Surya bumps into Tamanah while she is changing her dress and the next time they meet they are already in love ! Not sure if surya has got special instructions, but he makes it a point to say he likes ‘jo’ than Asin or Sameera reddy ! duh !

Following the tradition there is an introduction song for surya, song when he meets the heroine, when they celebrate his birthday and when they get together after a misunderstanding. But thankfully the songs are beautiful. Nenje Nenje with mahathi and Harish, vizhi moodi yosithal – Karthick are very nice.
Out of the blue you see Koena Mitra with a very bad nose job and a 2 piece dress dancing in the pub and you know surya would walk in and walk out of pub so they can connect it to the movie ! If you are wondering why the face seems familiar, well because we have seen her in the title song of Dhool with Vikram.
The camera is good.( that’s much I know about the topic so my comments cant go beyond good or bad). The screen looks beautiful and colourful, lots of blues, whites and yellows.

The movie does remind you a bit of ‘catch me if you can’, but the Indianisation of it is definitely awesome. There is enough sentiment, stunts and comedy to keep the flow.

Well all movies come with some ridiculousness, the missing logic is something you can forgo but definitely not the annoying villian Akashdeep saigal from “kyun ki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi”, his awful dopey facial expressions and his terrible lip sync.
If you wonder if there is anything worse, yes there is Haris Jeyaraj’s background score. It is terrible. When there is surya doing a serious somersault in a climax fight, you hear a “droooing” noise as background score.grrr

Overall for me , kudutha 16.50 dollarsku they showed more than enough of surya (hehe). Good time pass. Leave your cynical hat at home and you can enjoy this movie as much as I did. Before I forget thanks to hubi dear for baby sitting ( it’s a shame he doesn’t read my blog !)

List of useless information - Part 2

When the whole world is talking about global economy, while Australia is talking about Grand Prix, the tamil folks talking about even more important issue “vijay’s villu press meet, here I am still talking about the useless information. But by far this is the most popular post in my blog. So here is am with my useless information part 2.


1) Balu Mahendra’s actual name is Balanathan Mahendra, is a graduate from University of London, gold medalist from FTII in Pune. Mahendra is said to have witnessed the shooting of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai and was so impressed that he decided to become a filmmaker.

2) Actress saritha was the 162nd girl auditioned for the lead role in "Marocharithra", when director Balachander decided she was the right actress. Marocharithra was later remade in hindi as “Ek Duje Ke Liye”

3) Suhasini is a trained costume designer, hair stylist and cinematographer. She is known as the first female student to graduate from the Madras Film Institute.

4) Priya Vasudev Mani Iyer June 4, 1983(1983-06-04), known as karuvachi / Priya mani is the cousin of Bollywood actress Vidya Balan

5) Do you believe this, Wikipedia does not have any information about namitha and mumtaz.shame shame puppy shame

6) Sathyraj was offered the role of suman in Sivaji and Napolean in Dasavatharam. He refused to act because he felt the role did not have importance

7) Bhavna and karthika initially went for the make-up test for Naan Kadavul hamsavalli role before Pooja passed the audition

8) Tamannah Bhatia was born on December 21, 1989 – WTH !!!

9) The person who plays the role of Arya's father in movie Naan Kadavul is a noted producer Azhagan Tamilmani who produced movies like Malayoor Mamattiyan, Anbulla Rajnikanth and Solai Kuyil

10) Meena was chosen to do the role of panjavarnam in thevar magan, she could not do it, hence it went to revathy who ended up winning the best supporting actress national award for this role !

11) Aishwarya rai was approached for neelambari role in padaiyappa and then shreya’s role in sivaji. She could not do it due to her prior commitments ( or so she claims..hehe), could not refuse when rajini’s team approached again for robot ! The man is quite persuasive ;)

12) We all know actress Soundarya died in a plane crash, did you know she came into acting while she was in the 1st year of MBBS!

13) The story of minsara kanavu was written for Ash, she could not do it as it clashed with Iruvar schedule, so Kajol replaced ash

14) Balachandar’s full name is kailasam Balachandar. Prior to his involvement in Indian cinema, he worked as a school teacher in Muthupet, Tiruvarur District.

15) While on K. Balachander, we all know he has been the mentor for rajini and Kamal, but did you know he introduced srividhya, Sujatha, saritha,YG mahendran, ramesh arvaind, madhavi, Sri Priya and Geetha in tamil.

16) Actress Jayapradha married producer Srikanth Nahala who was already married. He then had children with his first wife after marrying Jayapradha. So both wives decided to share him ! Dhoda

17) Vijay did his degree in visual communications in Loyolla along with surya and yuvan and is 1 year younger than prashanth ( they are both 35 and 36 respectively)

18) Manirathnam’s actual name is Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer and his first movies were in Kannada and Malayalam before he directed Pagal Nilavu ( murali and revathy) and Idhaya kovil ( mohan, ambika and radha)!!!

19) Ramya krishnan is the niece of the ace comedian Cho Ramaswamy

20) Bhumika Chawla born in August 1978 Her birth name is Rachna and she is married to Bharat Thakur, a yoga teacher !!!

21) Actor Prithiviraj Sukumaran ( Mozhi hero) was born in October 16, 1982 (grr). He was still pursuing his Bachelor's in Information Technology at the University of Tasmania, Australia when Fazil recommended him for a malayalam movie.

22) Kiran Rathod acted with Hrithik Roshan (as his fiancee) in the movie Yaadein !

23) Actress Radha is married to a successful hotelier Rajasekharan Nair and has three daughters. Since her marriage she has settled in Mumbai and is into restaurant business with her husband. Radha Park Inn?

24) Karthi Shivakumar born may 25, 1977, finished his Engineering from Crescent college and earned his M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA

25) Meera Chopra, also known as Nila was born in July,1977 (atleast she Is older than me), did her bachelor's degree from Saginaw Valley State University In Michigan. After studying mass communications in New York, Meera worked with a leading national television channel.

The few people you meet in haven..ahem work !

We come across different types of people in life - friends, family and at work. I don’t want to talk about family or friends and lose my readership ( I only have a handful reading it now). So lets get to work weirdos who would never read this blog. hehe. “yenna aanatha udungappa”

Silencer

This guy walks in to work everyday at the same time, eats at the same time and leaves at the same time, views the same website everyday and all his shirts are either white or blue or a combination of white and blue. In detail, he walks in to work 8:30 everyday, browses sports news in “The Age” website for few minutes and then gets to work. You can never hear him, even when he is on the phone, he is absolutely quiet.At 12:03 you would see him next to microwave, heating his lunch or walking down the stairs to get food from café downstairs. Read general news from “The age” and “Sydney Morning Herald”. Leaves at 4:30, everyday. What is worse, when he works from home he starts at 8:00, allll the time. I have never seen him browse any other websites, speak loudly, eat late, step out for lunch ( I will check menu in the café, if I don’t like what is there, I will drive to the nearest shopping centre for lunch). For one week I had to sit next to this and it was horrible coz he wouldn’t chichat.

Talker

This guy is the loudest in the level 3. When I walk out of the elevator I know if he is in the office or not for sure. He is always on the phone talking (trust me ..always). Once I had to work in the ‘hot desk’ and I was praying he should not come in to work that day, but he sat right behind me and then it was all ‘start music’. I also heard him call his partner/wife I think and was saying how much work he has and how he was going to be late that evening. Then I saw him just walking up and down chit chatting.


Loner

This girl is sure the loner in the level 3. I have never seen her speak to any one.
Once she was standing next to me and said something and I almost answered, when I saw the Bluetooth on her ear ! You would have seen people listening to ipod in trains, while jogging, even in their desk, but not while you are walking inside the office. She walks around with the ipod. I have seen her sitting alone in the discussion tables working through spreadsheets.

USSSS

Okay. I am being rude here. This is a nice Asian guy and each time I meet him in the kitchen he asks me for Indian cooking, recipes and restaurants. There is something about him that sort of gives a girlish feel. I have always seen him conversing with other women about similar topics and one day while I was waiting in the lights I saw him walk across with this huge ladies bag in his shoulders. Hehe and he wears this shiny black very pointed shoes like a ladies cut shoe. There is something about this guy.

Talk of the Town - ARR

What is a blog without mentioning Oscars and ARR and ofcourse Pookutty ( funny name ya!).

There are only 4 comments you hear from Indians
1. SDM is not ARRs best performance ( Ok, so what !)
2. Illaiyaraja deserves an Oscar ( Okaay, okay, so what ! .. with all due respect and love to isaigyani)
3. Why is Oscar so important to us ( adangappa niruthungapa unga polambala)
4. Arguments on how they have portrayed slums in Mumbai, is it that bad, how we have progressed..blah blah blah blah

For the moment, we have won 3 Oscars, yes that many. We had a man stand up in the stage and speak in Tamil. Relish this moment, enjoy the glory ( I made it a point to mention Oscars to all my colleagues, then about ARR and then translate what he said in Tamil…it was a WOW moment)

So friends and family lets take a moment to say wooo hoooo !

List of useless information

I have received some feedback, that my posts have become very serious and on the high end (duh !). So like our kollywood heros performing in masala movies, here is typical masala post especially for you kollywood fans.
The aim of this post is to basically to make you say ‘ rombha mukhiyam’ pretty much end of every point you read. I have carefully screened information so none of these are good information. This is junk and junk only list.


1) Actress Sadha’s real name is Sadhaaf Mohammed Syed (Born 17 February 1984, in India) .She had completed her first semester in her Engineering in Information Technology at SNDT College of Engineering, Mumbai.

2) Diana Kurien (born 18 November 1984 in Kerala, India), is popularly known as Nayantara
3) Lakshmi's first husband is Baskar and her most recent husband sivachandran appear in 2 different serials in Sun TV ( Kollangal and Arasi).
4) Did you know jeyam ravi appears with toppa in some movies/scenes. Not sure why, but so does prabhu, bhagyaraj,karthick and amitabh bhachan
5) Sandhya, the tamil actress's real name is Revathy. She was born in Kerala in 1989 !!!
6) Actor Ravichandran married actress Sheela. Afterwards they got separated. Their son Vishnu acted in the movie "Kaathal Rojave" directed by Keyaar. ( i knew he resembled some familiar face!)
7) In "Melnaattu Marumahal" Kamahaasan's first pair was Vaani Ganapathy. But instead of Vaani, Jayasudha acted in that role. Afterwards Vani Ganapathy became Vaani Kamal.
8) Sarihaa acted in a small role in "Tic, Tic, Tic" before she married Kamal.
9) The shooting of "Thillu Mullu" took place at Sowkar Janaki's house. Latha came to interview Rajini for her college magazine, ended up marrying him.
10) Pooja (born 25 June 1981 as Pooja Gautami Umashankar in Sri Lanka) has a Masters Degree in Business & Management. She hails from the state of Karnataka, her mother is Sinhala and her father is Tamil.
11) Asin Thottumkal (born on October 26, 1985).Her father is a businessman and her mother a surgeon. She has completed her B.A. English Literature
12) Mamathi Chari , Sun TV Hostess of the show Rani Maharani was Miss Chennai 2000 finalists 13) As you all know Manirathnam writes his own screenplay, but did you know ‘Ram Gopal Varma’ wrote screenplay for ‘Thiruda Thiruda’
14) Actor Shaams real name is Shamsudeen. Shaam is from Madurai he studied in B'lore.(B.Com)
15) Actor Abass full name is Abass ali (hehe)
16) Bharathiraja’s real name is chinnasamy, Illaiyaraja’s is Gnanadesikan and Vairamuthu’s is Ramasamy
17) Amala was born in West Bengal to an Irish Mother and Bengali Father
18) Roja did her Masters degree in Political Science from Nagarjuna University !!!! (wikipedia, i need proof)
19) Anu Haasan has earned a degree in MSc and Management Degree from BITS Pilani, she is a martial arts student (kaLari art; has trained in Chiramam, Silambam, Kurunthadi and Kaipoor) and also a proficient basketball player who has represented the Trichy district
20) Actor Jeeva ( Raam, E) acted as a child artist in Suryavamsam and cheran pandian
21) Sruthi Haasan’s full name is Sruthi Rajalakshmi Haasan, has got a degree in psychology and has appeared in the Verve magazine. Her younger sister Akshara Haasan represents India nationally in Ballroom Latin dancing
22) Singer Karthick and Srinivas are both born on November 7th (so is Kamal Haasan) and interestingly Srinivas recommended Karthick to ARR. Btw srnivas was born in 1959, turning 50 this year !!
23) Preity zinta was born in 1975 and has a degree in criminal psychology
24) Actresses Rambha, Silk Smitha and Madhavi’s real name is Vijaya Lakshmi !
25) Actress Kaniha dubbed for Sadaa in Anniyan and for Shriya Saran in Sivaji. Deepa Venkat dubbed for Simran in Kannathil Mutham Ittal.Singer Chinmayi had dubbed for Bhumika in Sillunnu oru kaadhal, Tanisha in Unnale Unnale and Padmapriya in Sattham Podathey. Jayashree [of thendrale ennai todu fame] dubbed for Geetha in Azhagan and Jyothika in Pachaikili.

21 things to mess up your already troubled mind

Peer pressure from lazy bloger and lavender made me start writing a list. I first started writing 'I am not so vanilla list' , could not come up anything, then moved on to the 25 list that lazybloger tagged me into in facebook. Tried to contain the list within 20, but as you can see, couldn’t do it. What I expect from you readers is if there is any point you tend to agree or disagree or have answers to, then mention the number and write your comments.

1) Why is a yawn contagious?
2) How come listening to illaiyaraja’s songs now still kindles memories in you, while as much as you loved some of ( all of ) ARRs songs, you cant listen to them with the same feeling ?
3) How both my brothers looks exactly the same through the last decade while I look my age ?
4) How everyone has a totally different nose structure that you hardly see any two noses alike?
5) How the hell astrology, sun signs works. How can two people born during a specific period in different backgrounds share common personality ?
6) How the hell does telepathy work ? happens all the time for me, I can sense when hubi is typing me a message.
7) How come when I try and cook something really really simple it tastes quite nice, while I try really hard it sucks ? – my rasam tastes delicious compared to vada curry! Even though I spend 15 minutes and 45 minutes repectively, leave alone 2 hours of dhal soaking time
8) How did my mom manage to raise several kids in my family, with minimal support and still have the energy to raise grand kids ?
9) How my mom in law managed to have a career and 2 kids ? How she takes care of grand kids with the same energy and is so much more quicker than me ?
10) How come there are some books I can never complete reading, even though I would love to, I have couple of them half done for like a 4 years now. Everytime I start reading I rarely go beyond a certain stage?
11) How my little girl can finish an icecream in record time and ask for more, while she takes ages to finish a small bowl of perfectly right temperature, mashed rice? - it tastes delicious mind you
12) Why it is so hard to remember a dream the second you wake up ?
13) How the previous generation mums / mums in law are so satisfied with just husband, kids and their kids with no going out with friends, catching a movie with mates, day out with friends etc?
14) Why only the mother is able to understand what the kid speaks while everyone else thinks it gibberish, including the father ?
15) How come you tend to remember the lines of some songs even though you haven’t listened to it in ages?
16) How come you are so irritable and annoyed on a hot day while you don’t seem so on an extremely cold day?
17) How come fathers tend to love their daughters, while you were nothing but a PIA all the time? – I know a few examples
18) How you have friends to whom you don’t have to email or make calls, but when you do you can just continue like you have been in touch all the time ?
19) How actresses who were introduced as a tan heroine ends up fair towards mid to end of their career ( radha, radhika, simran etc)
20) How does Benny Dayal change his voice in every song, that it is almost impossible to recognise him in some songs?
21) How can a music director / lyricist bring out the feeling/ theme of a movie in songs? – I wonder each time I listen to Uyire

Perception of Happiness!

Okay ! After some healthy arguments and discussions on the sinusoidal wave post ( people do read my blog), it is perceived that some people are just plainly lucky that their wave is just soaring high, rarely coming down, while some have more than one's share on the negative phase, sometimes the negative phase refusing to change direction at all.

Is this true?
I did put serious thought to it for few weeks ( while wondering about my own vanilla list). Thinking on these lines I wondered so who decides what is happiness?
I think happiness is totally a perception, it is how you define it. More than just meeting needs and some of your wants, it is defined by each individual and also it is constantly changing through out the life time.

For example, when I was in school, my ultimate was always going into a college, so you can wear colour dress and be independent. In college, definition of independence changed, so now it was all about getting a job, earn good money and ofcourse finding the man of your dreams ( it wasn’t that easy you see). After college, placed on campus was not just enough, wanted to get married and have kids.

So I guess when you want something and get it, you get soo used to your gifted life, that you start expecting more, rather than relish what you have. You just take what you have for granted and await for ‘something big’ to happen. We spend all our life waiting for a miracle, wanting more and more. How often do we find someone who just say ‘I have everything I want and I am totally happy’. There is always something missing in the jig saw.

Now if I look back, there was a time while I was working, I had everything ( I still have everything….almost) completed the course I wanted, had a great job, had great friends, had more money than I could spend ( well spent everything on international calls), had the love of my life, had an adorable family, cooking, cleaning, washing, even ironing was taken care of. There was absolutely nothing I could have wanted more. But I don’t think I was that happy then. Then it struck me, i might just look back at this phase and have the same feeling.

This must be God’s plan. He cant be worried with people going to Him every other day with different requests. He would leave it to ‘karma’ and Sine wave so you have a flow in life, so you can appreciate life.

Moral of the story is basically:

1) Happiness is not just being in the positive phase, but also acknowledging the fact that you are actually on the positive phase - Instead wanting more and more, enjoy what you have right now, every moment you have. May be in future you might not even have this
2) Trust. Have immense trust in life - You are a good person, you have enough good karma from your share, your parents share of good karma and ofcourse hubi dear being genuinely nice to the world, shares his share of karma as well. So life would treat you well. If you are in negative phase, based on all the karma and schema of life, you would come back to your quota of good things

So don’t stop, continue storing more and more good karma. You would need it for you, your family and your kids as well.