“She was very adamant that I should watch this movie as she loves Farhan Akhtar and Deepika. After I said I am going on Tuesday, she got jealous that I am watching this movie without her”

After a ‘Ok’ dinner, we 5 friends barged in to Seasons for Karthik Calling Karthik cracking gay jokes on two of our friends…. Farhan Akhtar as Karthik is a lame construction company employee who is bullied by his boss, peers and even the house owner. A low self esteem and an high self pity even doesn’t allow him to send 1300 odd emails which he had written to his office crush Shonali (Deepika), an architect who doesn’t even know that this guy exists. Everything changes when he gets a call from himself on the morning of his birthday. The voice empowers him, makes his career, gets his girl and changes him for the good. The ruckus starts when he reveals about his voice to Shonali. He loses all what he got as the voice playing havoc in to his life. He takes a blind journey to stop getting calls from the voice. The reason and the ending ends up after a long tedious journey for us.

The biggest problem of KCK is that it is not well defined – a romantic flick, a psycho thriller or romantic thriller? What it is?. You are just as confused as Vijay Lalwani the director. Farhan is awesome. We have seen him flamboyant in his previous movies, here he not even convinces but excels as a loser (in simple terms). Deepika is suave, stylish and sexy too.. (who is the costume designer). The romance in the first of the movie simply takes your heart away. Funny one-liners and interludes bring you smiles.

But when you enter in to the second part of the movie, you are just surprised whether it’s the same director who did the first half. The screen play goes haywire, illogical and the stupid justification which he gives how Karthik is Calling Karthik. Phir bhi Schizophrenia.. Give that psychological disorder a break guys. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy sound great in Hey Ya and Uff Teri Ada. The background score of Medival Punditz and Karsh Kale is perfect for a thriller. The movie seemed to be canned just to prove Farhan as a versatile actor. It proves  but don’t we know it. Farhan make more movies man, you are a better director than those craps running around…

Karthik Calling Karthik – missed call. Give the last half an hour a miss, even then you will understand the movie. 2.5/5

The worst part is after the movie one couple were discussing.

Girl : it’s a chic flick

Guy: nice thriller.

I was like ‘dudes’

PS: If you want a perfect portrayal of schizophrenia, watch a lesser known Tamil movie called Kudaikul Mazhai by Parthiban (if you get a headache, don’t blame me). You can also settle down with a DVD of  A Beautiful Mind

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Thursday morning and I was little bit down with tiredness due to the lack of sleep for the past few days. One of my friends has posted this in Facebook and I could not help but to admire this. It brought a hearty smile to my face.

The video credit goes to some one called Shyam… Wonderful work dude.

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Last week, I realized that I have never written a poem for myself. Here goes the poem for myself… I invite comments but i dunno whether I will be able to reply to your questions… Read the poem you will know why..:)

PS: The reason why i had said my mom has gone to “god” is that because she is a strong believer of God.

Photo Credit : Prakhar

http://www.flickr.com/photos/prakhar/ / CC BY 2.0

Only the poem is copyrighted and not the pic. The pic has been licensed under creative commons as mentioned above.

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I don’t remember the last intense romantic movie that I saw in Tamil. I found the fact funny at the start of the review but that’s what the plight of Tamil Movies in the recent past. Get this right, Vinnai Thandi Varuvayava is not a classic but a honest and intense romance which has it’s heart at the right place.

The movie starts with one unanswerable question “of all the girls in the world, why did I fell in love with Jessie?” – a pertinent question asked by all the lead characters in the movie to the protoganist (Any guy in love would have asked this question atleast once in his life time). Karthik (Simbu), a mechanical engineer pass out and an aspiring director falls in love with a Malayali Christian girl Jessie ( Trisha), whose house their family stay as a tenant. A love at first sight, Karthik tries to woo Jessie with encouragement from his cameraman friend Ganesh(Ganesh, co-producer of the movie). Although initially the age factor of one year difference (Karthik is younger than Jessie) comes in to fray, the main reason for Jessie not accepting Karthik is the religion. Jessie’s Father ( Babu Antony) a staunch Christian would never accept for it. Jessie even stops her marriage at the altar as she could not decide about Karthik. She accepts his love as she couldn’t resist it. What happens next is shown in a more realistic way (I would not say different as other reviewers claim it)

The chemistry between Simbu and Trisha equals the chemistry of Sharukh and Kajol in DDLJ. It may be an exaggeration but the chemistry between the lead pair levitates the movie to unimaginable levels. An underplayed performance from Simbu speaks lot about his talent and how he has been wasting it so far in craps. Trisha looks like a poem. Gautham has this style where he makes you eventually fall in love with the heroine of his movies. Trisha’s character resembles Madhu of Sujatha’s Pirivom Sandippom a lot. But Gautham hasn’t dealt with the character deeply enough. It’s always tough to understand a girl’s decision when it comes to marriage and a shallow portrayal remains the biggest flaw of the movie.

Ganesh is a casting coup. A very normal but unmatchable dialogue delivery makes the character admirable. Babu Antony and Kitty have helped the movie to move forward. KSR’s cameo is not wasted. The real heroes of the movie are 3 people who were behind the scenes. AR Rahman – I have always been a critic of his background scores but he has graduated to a new level with Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya. The violin piece in the intro scene of Trisha and the wise use of Aaromale in apt places bears testimony to the brilliance of Rahman. The non-linear musical experimentation in the songs with Thamarai’s lyrics is well received by the audience. Hosanna, Mannippaya and Kannukul are a rage in theatres.

The next hero is Manoj Paramhasa, the cinematographer. The color tones, right use of natural lighting and interesting angles is unbelievable for a new comer. Antony hasn’t hampered the movie with his fast multi frame cuts. The third hero is ofcourse Gautham Menon for giving a feel good romance after a long time. He knows where and when to touch the right chords of the viewer. Wonderful one liners and a well written climax dialogue explains the talent of the man.

The biggest and the only flaw I saw in the movie was the shallow portrayal of Jessie’s Character. A girl’s decision on marriage and love depends on innumerable reasons and her character craves for a better treatment. The movie takes a leaf out a lot of real life stories and don’t you know Gautham a girl’s heart is more deeper than what you have shown in Jessie.

What could have been the next Mouna Raagam or the next Kadhalukku Mariyathai, just stays as yet another nice movie

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya – Watch it for the Chemisty, AR Rahman and Gautham – 3.5/5

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It was a lazy Sunday morning in Bangalore and we (me,Sana and Ananth) took a budget hotel room in Cottonpet road to refresh, get ready etc… We were unaware of the last night news and turned on the TV to find the Pune Blast, which killed 9 people. The distress dawned upon us and we were cursing the terrorists and went in to the analysis of who would have did it. After few moments I cried “Should look at the history of German Bakery? Does it have any cultural importance like leopold cafe?”

Ananth “Come on man, can’t you see it as a news? You already jumped in to the trivia mode. That’s what Yaggy (fellow Quizzer and friend) said that life’s a trivia for quizzers”

Although my heart went to those young people who lost their life in the blast, my quizzers mind was already thiniking about something else. I went in to a deep thought process and started thinking whether Yaggy’s statement is true. I was interested in quizzing from school days but the chances were less in those times as I was in a small town and maximized my talent in the few chances I got. The college time was even worse. I started real quizzing only in my MBA days and it took sometime to digest the quizzing scene in Chennai. I realised I am a kindergarten baby among the behemoths of quizzing here. I understood the fact that you got to specialize in topics… As I was comfortable with business, I started knowledge mongering in business topics.

Everything became a question for me. From the business of child trolleys to god channel, from sanctity to shit (sulabh??), everything had a quizzing importance for me. Few of my friends used to tease me on the peculiar habit of analysing the manufacture labels of the products we buy. A few used to get angry at the insane trivia I come up with some brands, although it’s for my own good to reiterate stuff and a few have asked me to get a life. Don’t you think I need to get a life, when I went to a quiz on a valentine’s day?

May be we quizzers take life as a trivia. But the passion which runs in the quizzing fraternity equals the passion of Sachin when he plays cricket, passion of Brazilian when he plays football,passion of Kamal Hassan when he acts, passion of ilaiyaraja or Rahman when they make music because for almost all of us quiz is something similar…

The sparkle of eyes, the thump on the thighs, a hi-five with the team mate and applause of the audience is worth to take life as a trivia ( and of course the sweet money… Is that not?

– Post From My iPhone

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This blog post will be the start for the annual round up blog posts from my side. The music of 2009 was intriguing rather than interesting when it came Tamil movie world. Harris Jayaraj with his own set repeated jingles catered to the masses whereas Rahman settled for nil direct release in Tamil this year. Ilaiyaraja had very few and Yuvan was impressive only in parts. This year really belongs to the new bees – Thaman of Boys fame scintillated the audience with Eeram and Sundar C.Babu, son of yesteryear violinist Chitti Babu raised the rate of heart beats with Sambho Siva Sambho in Nadodigal.

The quality of songs and music have drastically come down in Tamil Cinema in the recent years. The songs are skewed towards hip hops and kuthu paatus rather than melodies. What’s worse is the amount of copycats and inspirations from different parts of the world. Harris Jayaraj is gaining prominence like Deva and Anu malik of the 90s…

Now for our Top 5 list. Click the title of the song to watch it in Youtube

5. Sambho Siva Sambho from Nadodigal – a heart thumping and fast paced number which runs like the vein of the movie.

4. Nila Nee Vanam Kaatru from Pokkisham – I wrote a detailed review on the song when the movie was released. It stuck to my heart. A titillating melody..

3. Om Shiva Om from Naan Kadavul – This one is a haunting piece from Maestro Ilaiyaraja and it sounds really eerie with the Sanskrit lyric sung by Vijay Prakash

2. Neethane from Sarvam – Hear out the scintillating prelude and the music arrangements. More than any other, this one is the best picturized song of the year

1.   Mazhaiye Mazhaiye from Eeram – The top slot goes to Thaman’s Mazhaiye Mazhaiye from Eeram. A riveting entry to youngster as a musician. I could not explain the song but hear it out when you walk or see the rain.. You will cherish the experience

The Hindi Music was dominated by the brilliance of AR Rahman in the first part and the second half was distributed to Shankar Ehsan Loy trio, Pritam and Maestro Ilaiyaraja. Pritam hasn’t stopped copying, Himesh hasn’t stopped shouting at his low pitch and Music directors never stopped producing mediocre albums. And more importantly the marketing has gone to the TVs where the singers and music directors promote their songs in music reality shows. If anyone hears a crap song for 10 times, he would start liking it. I mean i dunno where Hindi Film music is heading too… We had some great albums like Yuvraaj ( the movie was bad, of course) Bachna He Haseeno, Tum Mile but otherwise the music albums were more predictable and boring

Here are the Top 5 for the Year

5. Iktara from Wake Up Sid : Although i hated the movie, this song has that long lorn sad feeling to it and if you miss some one you will love it. The lyrics and the music are simple with amazing interludes.

4. Pehli Baar Mohabbat from Kaminey: Just one question – Why does Vishal Bharadwaj make so less music albums?

Next 3 are equally best from the best

3. Emosional Athyachar from Dev D: Amit Trivedi is the real hero of this movie which gives a practical dark take on Devdas. This musical piece has that tangy tune with meaningful lyric.

2. Mudhi Mudhi from Paa ( All versions): Maestro at his best. Few had a feeling it’s a rework of Ninnukori Varnam from Agni Natchathiram. But it has a far fetched resemblance to it. Simple situational lyrics make all the 3 versions masterpieces. Shaan or Sunitha Rao?

1. Rehna Tu from Delhi 6 : This album is one of the best from AR Rahman. I would even rate it well and above oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. When AR Rahman is given the freedom in doing music, he gives you the best. I still rate Duet, Kaadhal Virus as one of his best rather than Mudhalvan and Indian.

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The year end lists are always interesting to read. The IMDB’s best movie list, Time person of the year and Amazon’s top books list are eclectic to read… So I thought why not my list of best things of 2009 and what to look for 2010

First up my most favorite – movies

5 Kollywood Movies to watch in 2010

5. Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam

He made a fantabulous political satire after almost 30 years in Tamil Cinema – Imsai Arasan 23m Pulikesi and his second venture ” Arai yen 305vil Kadavul” was an “Bruce Almighty” experiment but it was different too. Now Simbudevan is all set to bring cowboy movies back to Tamil Cinema after36 years – the last one was “Ganga” starring Jai Shanker. The cast of IKMS includes Raghava Lawrence, Sandhya, Padma Priya, Lakshmi Rai, Ramesh Kanna, Mouli and produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram.  With an impressive cast and a creative film maker, a movie to look forward to.

4. Aayirathil Oruvan

Don’t worry the MGR Blockbuster is not re-releasing but this one is the magnum opus from Selvaraghavan. Made at a whopping budget of Rs.32 Crores, this has Karthi, Reema Sen, Andrea and Parthiban in the lead. The trailers and the songs indicate a mythical adventure kind of a story.  It can also have a Chozha connection, which increased my expectations manifold. Will it be the start of Indiana Jones of Tamil Movies?

Watch the trailer

3. Asal

Saran and Ajith combination have always been a runaway success. From Kaadhal Mannan to Attagasam, they never failed to entertain. In fact, Ajith met his wife Shalini in Amarkalam, a movie directed by Saran.  The deadly duo is back with a bang tagged with an impressive star cast of Bhavana, Sameera Reddy, Prabhu and Suresh ( Yes, the yesteryear lover boy is making a comeback of sorts as a villain). The story is under wraps and seems to be stylish crime-mafia thriller. Will Ajith get his next hit after almost one and half years?

2. Ashokavanam

According to me, he is the best director living in India. Who else other than Maniratnam can claim that title? Ashokavanam is the modern day adaptation of Ramayan from the master director. Prithiviraj as Ram, Aishwarya Rai as Seeta, Vikram as Ravanan and more importantly Karthik will be back as Hanuman. Ok they are not going to look in mythical costumes so don’t worry about it. With AR Rahman scoring the music and Santosh Sivan wielding the camera (after Roja and Dil Se), would you even think to miss this movie?

1. Endhiran

There is only one Super star and he reigns the number one spot here too. Writer Sujatha’s idea taking shape in the mind of Director Shankar with the music of AR Rahman and with Super Star is the best you can think of. Made at a paltry 120 Cr ( Pun intended) budget, this movie is produced by Sun Pictures. As usual, the production is under wraps and the whole of Tamil community is waiting for this one movie. A sure shot blockbuster in the making.

5 Bollywood Movies to watch in 2010

5. Rann and Koochie Koochie Hota Hain

Ramgopal Varma is the most misunderstood director in bollywood. He hits, he misses but he never stopped trying different things. In fact the different facets of Amitabh’s acting were brought well only in his movies. He comes back with Amitabh as a Harvard educated media baron who starts India’s first private news channel India 24×7 (Prannoy Roy). The star cast includes Ritesh Deshmukh, Gul Panag, Suchitra Krishnamurthy ( yes she is back) and Paresh Rawal. Ram Gopal Varma without controversies – that would be impossible – the promos aired had “Jana Gana Mana Rann” – a modified national anthem. How is that?

Watch the controversial song here…

Rahul and Anjali are back but with 4 legs… Confused? 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, a landmark movie which marked the entry of Karan Johar and sealed the place of Sharukh as the super star.
So how do you celebrate the anniversary? Make an animated movie with big stars lending voices to the love story of dogs… Sharukh, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee and Sanjay Dutt will lend their voices to animated characters directed by Tarun Mansukhani and produced by Karan Johar. A different attempt indeed…

4. Kites

After watching Life in a Metro, I started following Anurag Basu. Although his previous ventures were crap copies of Hollywood blockbusters, Metro was excellent. So here comes the long awaited ” Kites” with Hrithik Roshan ( when did we last saw him- yeah Jodha Akbar), Kangana Ranaut and Latina girl Barbara Mori ( isn’t she hot?). A love story between a Hindi speaking Indian and a Latino girl- interesting. This movie had it’s own set of controversies linking Barbara and Hrithik… Hmm Let’s wait for this …

3. Ishqiya

Whenever Vishal Bharadwaj makes a movie, you are in for a surprise. It’s like “Dan tan Dan” (Kaminey) and this time he has written the script with the first time director Abhishek Chaubey who will be wielding the megaphone for this movie. Music by Vishal himself ( he is a better music director than lot others. Chappa Chappa- unforgettable ). The star cast is the most interesting part Naserruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan. Two thieves escaping from their boss take refuge with a widow. They fall in love with her and eventual brawl follows. Guess who plays the baddie? You are in for a surprise there too …
Watch the trailer here

2. Raavan

Nothing to say more. The Hindi version of Ashokavanam with Abhishek Bacchan as Ram, Aishwarya as Seetha Vikram makes his Hindi debut as Raavan and Govinda most probably as Hanuman.

1. My Name is Khan

Karan Johar was always criticized for his rosy sugar coated feel good movies which always showed the brighter side of life. When he changed paths in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, he was criticized for that too. He is someone who can’t be ignored. He is bringing Raj and Simran back but they are not Raj and Simran any more…
Sharukh as an Aspergus Syndrome patient and a Muslim in US falls in love with a single mother – Kajol… In the wake of 9/11, how their life changes is the story line. With Fox Star pictures buying the rights for the movie at 100 Cr, this movie has become the talk of the town. Will it be another scorcher of a hit from Karan- SRK – Kajol ?

Watch the promo here

5 Hollywood movies to watch in 2010

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 1

Although I don’t like it, this one is going to be one of the most awaited movies of 2010. Although I don’t like it, this movie will be one of the top grossers in2010. Although I don’t like it, this movie is going to be a blockbuster. The Harry Potter trio will be back in the first part of the last book. Directed by David Yates, who directed the previous two Harry Potter movies

4. Toy Story 3

15 Years back when Steve Jobs was in Pixar, he ventured and succeeded in producing the most advanced animation movie of that time. It grossed a fortune and was marveled for the technical innovation. Pixar over the years has grown and made innovations which people can’t imagine. Ratatouille and Wall E were awe-inspiring.
2010 will see the return of Woody and Buzz in the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. And they will come in 3D. Directed by Lee Unkrich (co-director of Finding Nemo, Monster’s Inc) and Darla Anderson (original maker of Toy Story), the movie will be produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney. Can’t wait for Woody, my most favorite film cartoon character.

Watch the absolutely awesome promo…

3. The Expendables

Ok tell me this how about an action movie with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Laudgren and a cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dream come true? Yes it will be true in 2010. The movie will be directed by Sylvester Stallone himself and produced by Lions Gate films. The movie will be a tribute to all the action movies of the 90s which we grew along with. Don’t we miss it now?

2. Robin Hood

Although Blade Runner impressed the movie world, it was the Apple 1984 commercial that made Ridley Scott a star director. Then came a string of master pieces – Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator (where he joined with Russell Crowe), Black Hawk Down, A Good Year, American Gangster and Body of Lies. Russell Crowe has been his most favorite actor. Russell Crowe will dawn the role of Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett will play Lady Marion. Needless to say about the story as it’s legendary, the treatment is expected to be different.

Watch the scintillating trailer here

1. The Inception

The last 3 films of this guy are blockbusters and in fact the last one is one of the highest grossers ever. The Inception is a sci-fi thriller from Christopher Nolan ( the director of Dark Knight) starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Ken Watanabe ( the last samurai), Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Why it’s the most awaited movie? Just because it’s from Christopher Nolan after The Dark Knight.

Next up will be “5 Books to Read in 2010″

– Post From My iPhone

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I have this wonderful habit of dropping things when I eat and that day the soup cup was so fragile that I had to be extra careful that I should not drop it. I have to say about a few people I met during the breaks – Dinesh, my junior at MBA – absolutely creative guy who got a job in Oracle in the most bizarre way you can think of, left the job in 6 months to join Radio Mirchi because he felt Oracle was boring…

Felix Chandran – who did the creative stuff for TedX Chennai – Should I say more?

Smriti – consultant at Delloite US. She had come for a vacation and visited TedX

Rabi and Christian Fabre – CEO of Christian Fabre fashions – interesting personality.

Chinmayi – Singer, RJ, VJ and Enteepreneur. Had a good conversation with her about her business, reality shows, education etc. She has a company called Blue Elephant – a linguistics company – in simple words they do translation services. They also do translation services for Zoho.

Rama Vadakattu – works in eBay but with entrpreneurial spirit and a host of guys from Thoughtworks…

I was hoping for a good session after lunch because they had a good lunch and I didn’t want to sleep off…

Kavita Balliga

She started with these words ” I am not going to campaign for any NGO, any activism etc but I am going to share my story. Five years back the doctors broke the news to me” – I was like what news?

She had a type of Cancer and was given the date for death. What will you if you know your date of death? 90% of the people would lose heart, may be get religious, wait for the death day with utmost sadness. She was also shocked, didn’t know what to do but what she did afterwards was wonderful. She started learning guitar by herself, then went for formal music training, cooking, photography, she did whatever she could do…

She became a oprah singer, colloborated with AR Rahman for Passage and now teaches music in KM Music Conservatory of AR Rahman. Yes, she passed through the test of Cancer and she lives till now, positively. A inspiring and moving story ended with an oprah rendition of Laughing Aria. One statement of her stood in mind after her talk – ” my days with cancer and chemotherapy are the best days in my life”

N.Vittal

I think after the moving story – most of them were sad, few even shed some tears. But Vittal made everyone laugh and think at the same time. Mr. Vittal was part of the telecom and Internet revolution of India as a Chief Secretary in Ekectronics and Telecommunication Ministry and very widely known for his work as Chief Vigilance Commissioner.

His witty one-liners like

“Diabetes is like corruption. You can’t eliminate it but you can control it.”

“A consultant is one who borrows your watch for telling the time, and walks away with it!”

“Only two pathys kept me going over the years. Venkatachalapathy and Allopathy”

were hilarious but thought provoking. He seeded a thought in to our minds. He says the best warfare in the world is to nullify the strength of the enemy. The strength of those people who corrupt the system is money. He tried to open the minds of the people and asked them to think about ideas which will nullify the power of money..

Sathish Babu

I have been weary of bureaucrats all through my life. I believe that the inefficiency of the babus is hampering our country’s progress. Because they can’t be thrown out of power like the politicians. A corrupt bureaucrat is a bigger menace than a corrupt politician. But a few bureaucrats in India change the world around them fir the good. Some like TN Seshan are in limelight but a lot like Swaran Singh are hidden gems.

Sathish Babu is one such hidden gem. Now the director of Elcot, he explained how he and his team successfully implemented rural BPOs and backtoschool programs in Krishnagiri, one of the most backward and Naxal hit districts of Tamil Nadu

I can’t explain his achievements in a small article. The way they planned the BPOs, implement it in small abandoned buildings in Vilages and training the young unemployed youth. Tremendous achievement…

For getting educated youth, you need the children to go to school continously – to make it possible they have used technology and local actor fan clubs to track every child eligible for school education. He demonstrated the live tracking process. It was not design rich but I believe that’s one of the most useful applications ever made for the betterment of people.

Sathish Babu is positive about everything. He even alternate positive part of free tv scheme of the government. He says ut actually takes information to the poor people. I remebered the Superfreakonomics theory of TVs empowering Indian rural womenfolk..

He says “you can’t change India. If you think so you are a fool. You change whatever you can change in the domain you are operating. India will change by itself “… According to me his was the perfect TED Talk of TEDx Chennai…

Khurshed Batliwala – Art of Living

The last and the worst shocker of the day for me. I don’t understand the connection between Art of Living and TED… I am a non-believer and I hate life improvement classes. Who are they to say how I should live? I frame my rules,values and the way of living.,,

His talk was a perfect marketing pitch for art of living classes. In such talks you will have statistics which are hiked up and shown as more important than any other problem in the world. Then as a solution they will make everyone to do a simple meditation technique and then try to prove that way is the solution for your problems…

There are more people who die of poverty in this country than stress suicides. There are more people killed by terrorist attacks than suicides. The presentation was the richest as it was done in Mac but it was inappropriate and blasphemous for TED…

Jeeva Raghunath

After that dissapointment, I was waiting for someone who can change my mood. Who better than a children story teller. I think most of us would have forgotten the stories we hear and we make during childhood days. She rendered 3 stories with actions and she actually made every one as a child all over again. I just thought “how wonderful it is to be a child”

Satyabrata Dam

“I am damn jealous about this guy” - that was the live tweet I made when I was seeing the pictures he took. I love to travel, but I travel less. I took a vacation after 4 years… And it was the best 9 days I had. Every journey is a learning.

This guy was a traveller and he climbs mountains. He says he is trying to find new ways to kill himself. 22 years in Navy with 7 years as director of adventure sports in Navy now studying MBA at IIM A, a oceanologist, advisor to Irish Govt and an eternal traveller

I am not finding words to describe this guy. His life us scary, his photos were breathtaking and his talk was candid. Just visit his blog , you will understand what I am talking about…

Awesomeness Personified

TEDx Chennai was a fantastic experience for me. It actually gave me a inferiority complex. I thotht and still thinking whether I am living a monotonic life… I would not say it was life changing experience but it definitely inspired me to make some adjustments to my life. I will live better tomorrow than today…

So the answer to my question – I am going to stay in the same domain as I am and try to do my part perfectly. I have a small land in Tanjore, with which I am going to explore the opportunities of farming. I have decided to travel to one unexplored place (by me) every year and take my photography little bit seriously…

PS: Kudos to all the people who were behind TEDx Chennai. It was really a wonderful event..

– Post From My iPhone

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Disclaimer:

1. All views in the post are mine and written with an open mind.

2. I am not going to bore you with my bad photographs. Check the following link for wonderful photographs from Felix Chandran. ( another awesome guy I met in TedX Chennai)

http://picasaweb.google.com/felixchandran

I was travelling back from TedX event in IIT to my home. As it’s a long bus back, my thoughts were spinning around the people who I met, listened and interacted with. I had 3 questions in my mind

1. Should I quit my job and start agriculture, which I believe can be transformed in to an organized industry in India?

2. Should I quit my job and start travelling from North Pole to South Pole just like that haphazardly without any plan in mind? Mind you travelling is one of the many things I love

Or

3. Should I stay where I am and make small changes in my own domain with the simple powers I have and make a difference in the lives of the people I know?

The answer at the end of the series

TED is a short form for Technology Entertainment Design, a non-profit organization which has a sole aim of spreading new ideas in whatever domain you can think of. Recently TED came to India and the first conference held in Mysore was a huge success. Ok I don’t think people like me could have attended it because the ticket comes at a princely price of $2400 ( a lakh and odd). But you can see the videos for free online after two weeks of the event. The videos are a rage in Youtube – never miss those

For those people who can’t attend, there are independent TED events, licensed by TED foundation called the TedX. A set of volunteers from Chennai took the challenge of organizing and what a event it was….

I was personally inspired by the TED videos and when TedX was announced in Chennai. I was so sure that I am going to attend. I got the ticket from Joe, my friend who was also part of the organizing team (I paid for it guys). There were lot of people who were cribbing that Rs.1000 as costly but I knew the worth. I thought the organizers did it in order to restrict the number of people..

After a early rise on a Sunday morning ( that’s unusual for me. I usually open my eyes at around 10 on a Sunday) and a long slow bus ride (which I didn’t expect) reached the IC & SR Audi of IIT, Madras just on time for the breakfast. I savored the tasty pongal and Vada but missed the coffee (he he he). I should admit that I was thinking that it will not start on time…

With only few minutes delay ( events in Chennai get late by one hour usually), the event started with Kiruba Shankar, introducing TED and TedX. The first technical glitch came with the first video of Chris (TED Founder) which didn’t work. Kiruba was quickly rescued the situation joking on how they played it 20 times the day before.Sometimes Technology fails you even in a Technology event ( should I say windows failed you? )

Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan

It was apt to start the conference with music and that too a fusion of Western Harmony and Carnatic Music. Anil, a trained western classical pianist and Gurucharan, a Carnatic vocalist started their tryst of colloboration music 4 years back using Skype Chats. Now the duo is four fusion albums old and a number of awards.

Anil shared a few stories of how Sarangi became Piano and how western classical piece became “Kaatrinile Varum Geetham”. They dumped the talking after a few minutes and Anil’s piano started the talking, sorry stirring my soul… With Gurucharan’s voice blending, it was a morning filter coffee with the Cappucino twist. Slowly they moved on to “Aasai Mugam” by Bharathiar, which was soulful.

Anil felt the sounds were not good so they performed ” Naan yenna vilayattu Bommaiya” by Papanasam Sivan, which was ice cream topping for the morning. I was amazed the way western piano and Carnatic music blended. It was interesting to know that “Aasai Mugam” was written on Bharathi’s mother and Krishna. He wrote the poem after the picture of his mom was burnt in a fire.

P.S: The same western classical blend with Indian classical is what you hear in Ilaiyaraja’s music. For better understanding, listen to Thiruvasagam.

Krupa of Sukrupa

TED is about sharing the life experience of one and how they had made something in life. There is a very thin line of difference between sharing and pitching. Krupa along with her mother started an NGO Sukrupa which empowers woman slum dwellers to lead a better life through education and self employment.

Although her concept was great and idea was profound, the talk was more like a marketing pitch for her NGO rather than a Ted talk. I felt she could have put her experiences in a better way and that was the first shocker of the day.

Sharada Ramanathan

Sharada, an Independent Film maker and the director of “Srirangaram” – which won a host of international awards and was revered in famous film festivals.

Sharada’s talk was deep, thought provoking but extremely biased. I accept her thoughts about movies which have to go to the grass roots and create meaningful content but she tried to create a stir by criticizing the populist movies. It’s the same old argument of the so called “intelligent” film makers on the so called “masala” film makers. As a ardent movie buff, I believe all the type of movies can co-exist in an Eco system. The people of India are appreciative of any good movie which will enrich and entertain them. We usually compare our movies with Korean, French, Spanish and English language movies. I think all these movie ecosystems have all kinds of movies for the people to watch. Sharada’s accusation and statements were more like attention grabbing whereas it could have been a wonderful insight in to Indian Cinema.

GRK Reddy

The next shocker of the day. I can’t even remotely agree this was a TED Talk. I agree his life could have been a inspiring story of a bureaucrat becoming a businessman but it looked more like a simple sales pitch for Marg Swarnabhoomi. Don’t you agree the AR Rahman concert was the biggest marketing tactic to bring people to Swarnabhoomi and experience it? I can’t explain more as most of the crowd was disinterested in the talk.

Romulus Earl Whitaker

After a shocker comes the pleasant whiff of nature in Whitaker’s form. Romulus Earl Whitaker aka the Snake Man is a Herpetologist who was instrumental in creating the Snake Park in Chennai ( visit it once.. Your fear of snakes will fly away)

His talk was about how they are using technology and community development to develop the Agumbe Rain forest and conserve the King Cobra population in the area. King Cobra is a speciality of India and he explained the facets of Cobra with superb humour. His jab at Chennai ( Red Dog ) showed his love for Madras. Don’t worry Romulus, we don’t have a Raj Thackeray here

R.Madhavan

Madhavan’s talk was arguably the best talk of the day. An IITian, quit his job at ONGC and started farming Yes, he believes and works for making Agriculture as an Industry. His talk was so thought provoking and statistics were hard hitting

“If 80% of the population are in to agriculture why 40% of the children are mal-nutritioned”

“the agricultural universities never know the reality of the farmers and farmers do not even know there is an agricultural university. There are 100 prototype machines made every year in these universities bur never see the light of production”
Through his research he had identified 20 different parameters which can improve agriculture but he could explain only 5 major parameters due to time constraint.

His idea was simple. He says “it’s not about the amount of area used for agriculture matters but the productivity of the land is more important”. He also took a dig at the “Land Ceiling Act” which became a deteriorating factor for Indian Agriculture. Coming from the granary of India, Thanjavur, his talk created a whirlwind of emotions in my heart. I am not able to come out of it till this moment.

Abdul Kalam quoted about this guy ” we need a million Madhavans for India” … Yes we do need. With that thought we broke for lunch…

To be continued…

– Post From My iPhone

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I think even Robert Clive would have become tired if he has to make so many attempts. I am in the corporate biz quizzing scene for the past 4 years. I was a decent biz Quizzer in college days and even won a few quizzes. But to be true, the reality hit me when I saw the corporate quizzing scene in Chennai.

Chennai would be the toughest place on earth to qualify in to the finals of a Biz Quiz. I am not exaggerating and all the quizzers will agree. I never made it to a single corporate quiz finals in these 4 years. May be I was bad, may be I didn’t put the right effort or may be it was not written ( Slumdog he he he). .. But I never gave up.

My quiz partner Aparna, is a very good Quizzer. And I think my bad luck stuck on her too and we were so close in all the prelims we wrote in the past one year. One point here and there. I am not kidding even in Landmark we were so close that she is unable to forgive Karthik Narayan ( our other partner) for the Grand Prix – Roland Garros mistake. But the worst came in September when we were reserved team in the Tata Crucible Chennai Round. It took me a day to come out of it. It all changed yesterday but with a anti-climax.

BIM Quest has always been a tough quiz over the years. Hosted by Bharathidasan Institute of Management and presented by Giri ‘Pick Brain’ Balasubramaniam, BIM Quest has been regular fixture for most of the Biz Quizzers in the city. With a host of quizzers from Chennai moving to Landmark Bangalore, we thought we stand good chance of qualification. Although only 25 odd teams were there, all the teams had a equal chance of qualifying (yeah we know a few teams will qualify for sure).

Greycaps tried a unique prelim format this time around. A 26 questions prelim with answers in alphabetical order, the first question will have an answer starting with A and second question will have an answer starting with B etc., It was different and it helped the quizzers narrow down the guesses, even then it was not easy. It was really tricky. Giri explained that they would be trying it a lot with campus versions and I thought I could give a try for the next college quiz that I am doing.

If Absinthe was easy, Yardley was the best of the lot. I never thought James Hadley Chase started his life as a salesman. We were very nervous after the prelim and we thought we gonna end up as a reserve team another time. I felt relieved rather than happy when our names were called out.

I just thought we have broken the jinx at last and it was different to be on stage than sitting in the audience. I thought I should try and do better in the finals. The other finalists were Sanmar ( Ramkumar and Deepesh), Nokia ( Anish Raju and Arvind), CTS ( Krishna Pillai and Shubam Roy), Onmobile ( Guna and Team Mate) and Dell ( Rohit Nair and Lloyd)

If I say that the finals was great, it would be an understatement. Starting from Davey Brown index of calculating the impact of celebrity endorsements to Rawl’s plug the quiz was enriching. After a few passes, the reality struck me, We are sandwiched between two of the best teams in India and they were answering left right and centre. The answers We knew never came to us and for the direct ones we were clueless.

I used to tease my friends who went on stage before that they miss the easy ones. Believe me, it’s different when you sit on stage in a major quiz. I have been on the stage for college quizzes but the corporate and open quizzes are little more tough to handle. That’s why we see seasoned quizzers winning again abs again. It’s not about knowing the answers alone, it’s about stratigising and getting the right answers at the right time.

After a gruelling close finals the quiz was won by Anish and Arvind with Ramkumar Shankar and Deepesh in the runners up with just 5 point difference. We didn’t do a Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire rather we did a Zaheer Khan in the 2003 world cup finals. We ended up last but it was heartening when Giri mentioned that we broke the jinx of reserved team at last.

It was a mixed feeeling for us as we broke the jinx but ended up in a disaster. Real life never has a fairy tale ending. There’s always a next time. I never gave up these 4 years I would never give up in the future too.

Prelim Questions

A. What is an anise flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium and has exceptionally high percentage of alcohol?

Absinthe

B. Who in 1742 developed a circulating stove with metallurgical use to improve the airflow, providing more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fire place?

Benjamin Franklin

C. Marketing mechanisms of what were agreed through the Marrakesh Accords?

Carbon Credits

D. Logo of Murugappa Group – Name of HQs

Dare House

E. What French word, signifying ticket (of admission, etc.) first appeared in English in 1750?

Etiquette

F. Which company has the tagline ” we understand”?

Fedex

G. Symbol of Gold – Gold Council

H. What in India opened for first time at Bombay Dyeing Mill Compound, Mumbai – June 2006?

Hard Rock Cafe

I. Which government of India regulated body is chaired by him, his name is Sri Hari Narayan?

IRDA

J. Which writer started his career as a salesman of “The Book of Knowledge” in London in 1920s?

James Hadley Chase

K. Identify the brand? Through Pics – most of them got it from Pooja Bedi – Kamasutra

L. Maureen and Tony Wheelers – which publication?

Lonely Planet

M. Picture of Raju Brothers – Maytas

N. Bangalore based group boasts of keeping old traditional antique arts in India – Natesans

O. A 3i company who partnered with China- based Focus Media to bridge the gap between Indian advertisers and their audiences. Which company?

OOH Media

P. Which company was founded as Asahi Kogaky goshi Kausha in November 1919 by Kumao Kajiwara, at a shop in the Toshima suburb of Tokyo?

Pentax

Q. In July 1985, seven industry veterans cane together in the den of Dr. Irwin Jacobs San Diego home to build “Quality Communications”. What did they start ?

Qualcomm

R. What is common between India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius and Seychelles?

Rupee

S. It is produced by Hamdard Waqf in Ghaziabad, India. According to the package, it ” corrects the digestive system, relieves constipation, prevents and cures boils, pimples and skin eruptions.” what?

SAFI

T. Formerly Telecom Australia, the company was renamed in 1993. It was also formerly owned by the Australian Government. Who?

Telstra

U. It is another syonym for the term parasol. The word is from Latin, which inturn derives from the ancient Greek word meaning shade or shadow. What daily use object are we talking about?

Umbrella

V. With whom would you associate NexGen, Excite, @home network, Juniper Networks, Cerent, Corvis and LS9?

Vinod Khosla

W. World Bank Logo

X. “the sphere of connectivity design” is the new logo of which company?

Xerox

Y. Started in 1770 they are remembered for their association with Twiggy, Jean Shripton and incorporating product designs from some of the world’s most famous renowned designers including Reco Capey. Who?

Yardley

Z. Who is this executive director from the world of film production? Pic

Zarina Mehta

– Post From My iPhone

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