Memories of Paatti

My paternal grandma passed away ten days ago. Since my maternal grandma was dead before I was born, she was the only grandma that I had and knew.

Born around 1930, no one is sure of the exact year, she had lived close to 80 years of life on this earth. She was born and bought up in a small town called Gangaikondan near the southern tip of the subcontinent. She must have spent till her mid teens there, before she married Grandpa who was a draughtsman and moved to Madras around the 1949.

She has had about 10 child births and 11 children, of whom 8 of them grew up to become adults. This means that she had been pregnant for close to 1/8th of her life. The difficulties that she should have underwent bringing up 8 children in what could best be described as a lower middle class family is unimaginable to our generation, brought up in the nuclear family in a globalised and liberal economy.

She had a great attitude towards life, which definitely helped her in surviving close to a quarter of a century after the death of our grandfather.

My memories of her are that of a friendly matriarch, who helped me get ready to go to primary school by combing my hair and tying my shoe laces. On Friday evenings, she would take me for a walk to the temple nearby and tell me stories of mythology. She was a woman of those times when people were happy seeing others being happy.

She had very good eyesight, reading magazines even until a year ago, without wearing glasses. We are proud that we could donate her eyes with the consent of everyone concerned.

Aamir – In every sense of the term

I watched the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Award ceremony 2008 on SS Music. The award is given every year on August 12th for the best directorial debut in memory of the namesake. Srinivas died in the seas near Vizag while filming his first movie. His family gives the award which is decided by a jury comprising of Kamal Hassan among many others. Aamir Khan is the recipient of the 11th Gollapudi Srinivas Award for his beautiful ‘Taare Zameen Par’. The award carries a cash of Rs.1.5 Lakhs (loose change for Aamir?). The award was announced in March and it was reported that Kamal himself talked to Aamir to come to the award ceremony in Chennai in August. Aamir who refuses to appear at award ceremonies was moved by the story behind this award and accepted.

The evening started off with Ghazals by Jagjit Singh (a very rare event in Chennai). The stage was occupied by Director K.Balachander, Anupam Kher, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and of course Srinivas’s father. Anupum and Vidhu spoke of the Aamir that most of us don’t know. KB was the one who stole the show and moved Aamir to tears. He said Indian Cinema was in safe hands with Aamir at the helm. He also said that he is the real ‘Dawn’ of Indian Cinema and said the pun was intended. (at the other Khan). AK’s faith in the story to make his appearance only towards the interval was highly acclaimed. KB ended by saying that AK was the new AB of Indian Cinema and said AB was Abhinav Bindra. Bindra had won the Gold medal on that morning.

Aamir was with moist eyes for most of the time that KB spoke. When Aamir spoke, he had in abundance a virtue that I have seldom found in Mumbai – Modesty. He said that most of the credit needs to be given to the Story and the Screenplay writers of TZP. He cried on stage when he said he wished his mother was there to watch this. Aamir donated the money to help budding moviemakers. He also took the copy from which KB spoke saying that he wanted to read that out to his grandchildren. Don’t miss the video on You Tube.

Summer 2008: Part 2

Coming back to Chennai from the capital, I left to join Infosys on May 12. Reached the spectacular Mysore campus on the 11th . Was put up for a six week training , two weeks in HR and then four weeks in my department. The Mysore campus of Infy is one of the best corporate training facilities in India. Had the best time of my life doing a lot of things like playing tennis, swimming, bowling, Go Karting and watching a couple of movies at the Infy Multiplex every weekend.

I went to a lot of new places around Mysore with my family on the weekends.

Talakad - the place where the river Cauvery takes a turn in the direction and hence is said to be extra wide at this place.

Tirumukodal Narsipur - The only place in India where three rivers confluence.

Somnathpur – A lesser known cousin of the temples of Belur and Halebeid. Intricate rock cut temple built during the Chalukya reign.

Srirangapatna – The capital of the Mysore Tiger, Tipu Sultan, this beautiful island created by the Cauvery gets its name from the 10th century temple of Sri Ranganatha. The statute of Lord Ranganatha here is very similar to the one that comes in the first ten minutes of Dasavatharam (the 12th Century sequence).

Nanjagud – A very well maintained old temple of Lord Nanjundeswara

In Mysore, I watched Dasavatharam three times in the theater within the first week of its release, which I couldn’t have done had I been anywhere inside Tamilnadu. Its still running full house in Chennai, 35 days after release.

So, after having a gala time at Mysore, I was posted to Mahindra City, an SEZ near Chennai. So, I came back home after living in Coimbatore, Hosur and Mumbai since 2000.

Summer 2008 : Part I

I am back to blogging after 4 months. My life was in a transition mode. I formally became a Master of Business Administration, though nothing much has changed. That happened on April 26th. Left Mumbai on that night for a trip of North India.

New Delhi. After 17 years.

A lot of water has flown through the Yamuna. New Delhi definitely looks more like a capital city now. I roamed about Delhi on a bike with a map in hand. The bike ride from India Gate to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan was highly enjoyable, but for the April Sun. When I was waiting on the signal before the north and south blocks, the Prime Minister’s BMW passed by from the Parliament.

I visited the National Museum on the Janpath. Inside the museum, foreigners outnumbered Indians one to five. It is one of the most extensive museums, I have seen in India. It houses a huge collection from the Mohenjodaro and Harrappan excavations of the 1920s. The other section I enjoyed was the bronzes from across the sub-continent, across ages.

Then I left for Vaishnodevi and Amritsar. Travelled to Punjab and beyond for the first time. Enjoyed the trek to the temple and the queue less darshan (its wrong and unfair, but still I did it) at the temple, thanks to my chittappa in CRPF at Katara. Left Jammu for Amritsar and Wagah.

Saw the Jallianwala Bagh and the Golden Temple. I feel we have started maintaining our monuments and places of worship much better than what we used to a decade ago. Jallianwala Bagh is brilliantly preserved. A little more civic sense from all of us and they will be among the best preserved in the world. Left Amritsar for Wagah.

Saw the ‘lowering of the flags’ ceremony. There was a huge turnout of people on both sides to watch, with competing shouts of ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ &‘ Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ & ‘Quaid-e-azam Zindabad’. There was no significant difference between the people standing on both sides of the gate. I was just wondering how it would have been if India had not been partitioned. Easily the most populous country in the world, I somehow felt that managing the ‘Akand Bharat’ would have been a much more difficult almost impossible task. But imagine how strong the Indian cricketing team would have been.

10 years on, some thing has not changed

India powered itself to an impressive back to back win against Australia to clinch the CB ODI series. What makes this victory sweeter is that the invincibles have been defeated for two consecutive years, last year by England. Also this is the last time the series is held in the triangular form, so it is definitely a cup of woes for Ponting, who wrote a few days back that the Aussies will not need the third final. Neither do we.

Sachin's batting in the last 2 matches, brought back memories of the 1998 Sharjah matches on the 22nd and 24th April, when he hit back to back centuries to power India into the final and another one in the final to enable Azhar win the trophy against the Aussies. It would have been poetic if he had scored 9 more runs today to make it a complete deja vu.

I personally feel Sachin should pause his one day career on this high note to preserve himself for test cricket for another 3 years and come back into the one day squad just before World Cup 2011 to end his career as no one else has.

எழுத்தாளர் சுஜாதா மரணம்

கடந்த புதன்கிழமை இரவு எழுத்தாளர் சுஜாதா இயற்கை எய்தினார். 20 ம் நூற்றாண்டின் தமிழ் இலக்கிய வரலாற்றில் தன்னிகரற்ற உச்சத்தைத் தொட்டவர். BEL இல் பொறியாளராக பணியாற்றி, மின்னணு வாக்குப்பதிவு இயந்திரத்தை உருவாக்குவதில் பெரும் பங்கு வகித்தவர். இலக்கியத்தில் சிறுகதை, நாவல், அறிவியல் தொலைநோக்கு கதை (Science Fiction), அறிவியல், நாடகம், திரைக்கதை, வசனம் என பல நடைகளிலும் கலக்கியவர்.

ஆனந்த விகடன், குமுதம், கல்கி ஆகியவற்றை வாங்கிய உடன் முதலில் நான் படிப்பது சுஜாதாவின் எழுத்துக்கள் ஆகத் தான் இருக்கும். தமிழ் இலக்கிய உலகில் அவர் விட்டு சென்ற இடம் நிரப்பப்படுவது கடினம்.

Tamil writer Sujatha (Originally Rangarajan) died on Wednesday night in Chennai. He was 72. One of my favorite writers in Tamil, he straddled across different genre of writing including short stories, novels, science, science fiction, plays, screenplay and dialogues. He was Dr.APJ.Abdul Kalam's classmate in St. Joseph's college, Trichy. He worked as an electronics engineer in BEL, Bangalore, wherein he was a key member in the team that created the Electronic Voting Machine.

Everyweek i used to start reading Kumudam, Ananda Vikatan and Kalki from the pages written by Sujatha. He has left behind a void which is very difficult to fill in the Tamil literary world.

Jodhaa Akbar

Back after a long time. Was busy with a number of things for the past 3 months. Trimester, Placements, marriages of 2 cousins and my only brother and the usual load of lazyness that i am endowed with. Got placed with Infosys as a Business Analyst on Jan 31.

Now,back to the content of this post.

Watched Jodhaa Akbar today at Chandan,Juhu. After Lagaan and Swades, I was dissappointed watching JA from Ashutosh Gowariker.

Good things first.

Hrithik and Aishwarya have lived their roles as Akbar and Jodha. While watching history, we tend to assume the actors with the roles they play, if they play it well.Krishna is Nitish Bharadwaj, Shakuni is Gufi Paintal for me even when i read Mahabharat, from the DD serial on Mahabharat of sunday afternoons in the 1990s. Akbar will defenitely be Hrithik Roshan in my history books.

The movie seems to have been made to show how visually appealing and artistic AG can make a period movie. A lot of effort has gone into building the sets and bringing to life the Mughal architecture and the war scenes. The art direction is greatly complemented by great camera work and editing during the fight sequences.

Words need not be wasted in describing how good ARR has done in his forte involving a lot of Sufi music. Khwaja meri khwaja and Jashn-e-bahaara are my favourites of the lot.

But all these good things are not enough to keep one riveted for over 3 and half hours. The movie becomes drab after a point becoming more like a chronicle of Akbar's life and achievements. The movie involves a lot of Urdu which went over my head. Subtitles in English/Hindi would have helped me.

Its unfair to compare someone's subsequent works with their magnum opus. But still, JA din't give me anything close to what i felt after watching Lagaan and Swades

India after Gandhi

For the past 2 months have been reading this 750 page book by Ramachandra Guha. Extremely well researched, giving a comprehensive history on India from 1948 to 2006, this book is a must read for people fascinated by the idea and uniqueness of India.

The book carries deep insights into most of the events in post independent India. At the end of the book the author dwells into "Why India Survives?". This is one of the questions that baffle me. The last few lines of the book is as follows,

so long as the constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as the citizens can speak and write in the language of their choice, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army and so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive.

I feel most people of my generation (born post 1980) have a myopic view of leaders like Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Everyone had their own failings but we need to understand them in the context of the time in which they lived. This book lets one take a look at the leaders of India in wholesome and understand their successes and failures.

Narendra Modi 2007

Narendra Modi is back in national news, with the Gujarat elections nearing. Last week he walked off midway from an interview with Karan Thapar. The Nov 3, 2007 issue of Tehelka claims to be the most important story of our times. It has interviews with the rioters, rapists, bomb makers et al. It goes into the gruesome details of how they went about it in Gujarat for 4 days from Feb 26, 2002.

Gujarat riots 2002, baffles us because it defies our assumptions that education and economic development (Gujarat being one of the most developed states of India) will lessen the differences and occurrences of conflict in a society. It has proved that we will let ourselves to be divided and ruled, no matter the progress we make as a society. Most Gujaratis I have met (Incidentally, all of them have been Hindus) have an idolatry view of Mr.Modi. Some of them have even said that as long as they were not affected, they didn't care about what happened to the communal harmony in their state. Modi might have made Gujarat the state attracting the highest FDI in India, but it is long since he ceased to be a human being.

This post has nothing to do with the fact that Modi represents the BJP which I equally dislike. For the record, Congress has been equally bad. Who can forget the 1984 Delhi Sikh riots, when Rajiv Gandhi remarked that "when a tree falls, the earth is bound to shake". Despite the Congress being in power at the centre since 2004, nothing has moved forward with regard to the 2002 riot cases.

I seriously hope there is something called hell and Modi stays there long enough.

Little known Great Indians

Over the past one month, a lot of noise has been made of India's triumph at the world stage. It started off with the Twenty-20. Then it was Viswanath Anand. Last week it was Dr. Pachauri, though the Nobel is meant for IPCC, which he has been heading since 2002.

A lesser known individual, Dr.Ullas Karanth has won this year's WWF Paul Getty Award for conservation leadeship. Dr.Ullas works in the area of wildlife conservation in general and tigers and elephants in particular. He has been fighting with the Government of India, to adopt newer scientific methods of counting tigers in the wild. These new methods like capture- recapture technique will lead to the real number of tigers alive, which have been inflated by the government as we saw in Sariska.

In an interview, Dr.Karanth says that the tigers will survive to the next century. We still have hope, as long we have men like Dr.Karanth and Mr. Valmik Thapar.