Variety is the spice of life

I saw 2 interviews which formed the basis for this post. This has been running through my mind for quite a while now and recently saw another interview which eventually resulted in writing it all up. The first interview was that of Singapore's PM Lee Kuan Yew. It was more of a snippet about his views on India. The part that grabbed my attention was how much he is surprised about India as a whole and despite all its misgivings and contradictions how it continues to surprise everyone and sets an example for the world to follow, especially with its idea of Unity in diversity. He mentioned how easy or streamlined it is for his country or countries like China/Japan or even bigger countries like Russia, where majority of the nation follows a common language and it is easy for the government to pass on their policies and ideas to their population. Whereas in a country like India, which is more of a subcontinent and more diverse than even Europe, a small region which is actually an extensi...

Last year started off in the worst way possible and the wringer through which the whole year put me through emotionally made me as numb as possible. But when god puts you in through those loops the only reason is to prep you for upcoming situations and with the learnings from previous experience, what would've been daunting and shaking in the boots kind of situations became calm and manageable. The biggest lesson was to fine tune the expectations. When we expect the least, whatever turns up has little impact on your thoughts and actions. It is like jumping from a 10 feet high place as compared to somewhere closer to ground. The jump may have its jolt but when you are closer to ground the impact would obviously be less felt right. As simple as that. At times it felt that the year will never end with excruciatingly hot summer and severely high EB bills. Especially the months of March and April felt never ending! And the second half of the years comparatively just romped past! Oru vel...

After triple confirming the author, finally the post!! But one thing for sure if i can feel slightly good about the entire fiasco being, how much i loved both the authors. I've read Grisham's earlier works as well, which are made into Hollywood blockbusters. He is a master when it involves courtroom scenes, but somehow felt the rest of the storyline to be dragging. King of Torts nu oru book. Vandha pudhusula padika start panni almost 2 decades aaguthu. Still haven't finished it. Despite the bias and the confusion regarding the previous book, Archera nenachu padichirunthalum, my opinion remains the same.  When i started "End game" i was actually skeptical, due to the wrong bias based on the previous book that i had misread as his, but within moments, was happily drawn into the storyline, despite it being the most recent one amongst the William Warwick series. Wasn't even aware that it was a series, but the way he had framed the characters and the familiarity wi...

One liner to begin a book review - Read the book wrapper! Second liner to continue - book padikarapo wrapper cover OZHUNGA padikavum (self note) at least author perai muzhusaga padikavum!!! After reading " The Widow" as a Jeffrey Archer novel and sharing a post about it as a Jeffrey Archer novel, i wanted to pick a different book by Archer to see if it was "any better" than "The Widow". En nalla neram, John Grisham en bloglaam padikrathilla. Or atleast any of his millions of followers. Illati court case aagi asingapatruka vendi irukum. Avvvv...oray the puppy shame moment. Enda unaku John Grishamkum Jeffrey Archerukumay difference therilaye neelaam book review podalamanu kekarathu nalla theriuthu. Irunthalum..yet another "hehe" momentnu thodachutu poga vendiyathay. How i ended up finding this is a thing in itself. When i was checking for the chronology of publication to "evaluate" (mmkum) if Archer wrote "The widow" before or a...

When every one were going gaga over the first part, i felt it would be more like art movie, considering the trailer and the snippets i saw. More of a malayalam movie in kannada. But when the second part came in to high praise from everyone, was more curious to watch and started off with the sequel and boy was i impressed!  Rishabh shetty - yaar saar neenga!! Enna oru performance!! In this age of violence driven movie where the more modern the gun and more gruesome the mode of kill, the only variety that people can think of as a story line, he goes on to make a movie, that has interesting twists naturally ingrown and considering the strong mythical background, makes for a fantastic movie watching experience. The locations, that are so rich in greenery, wonder where he found such place or was it all CG? with so much of fire and burn happening across the movie, wonder if it faced any challenge from environmentalists!! But that apart, was totally smitten by his performance and especial...

After almost 8 years since crossing the 1000 post mark, here we are at the next 500th milestone post. In fact i wanted this to be a thanksgiving day post which would've been apt considering that all thanks to this milestone was courtesy mainly due to Thala Ramesh and his "patronage" (aged patron nu padikapdaathu). But as usual, lighta late aaidichi. Still aairathil oruvar pola, namma thala, 1500 ilum oruvar. So happy to have managed this post and glad that he is still following this space enriching it with his wise words. I am literally awestruck by his comments to even the mokkaiest post and how his comments elevate the actual post and the thought process behind it. Thank you thala for being the solo source of inspiration behind all these posts. While the first 1000 took about a dozen years to reach, the next 500 have been quite slow, with the turnaround time for each post having grown more in duration and the volume having dropped to 5 a month from usual 6. Many a time ...

Movie reviews kooda nambidalam pola but online book reviewslam utterly unreliable. May be taste in movies is more relatable to a larger group of people as compared to books? While some enjoy the story line, many enjoy the pacing while there are people who look for literary essence, choice of words and language used. Book reading being a more niche group as compared to movie watchers, their choice of recommendations are quite unique to the individual involved as well. When i was checking for recommendations for thriller novels, this one came up and since Jeffrey Archer is someone i see as my English teacher was immediately into this book. It started slow, infact very slow. The pacing or the way in which the story was progressing was very unlike any of the Archer novel i had read before and considering that this was based on lawyer as a lead character, was kind of surprised at the content. At the half way mark was even wondering, if it was ghost written by someone else, considering the a...

I first heard of this term about 4-5 years back. FOLO being fear of being left out and FOMO being fear of missing out. In past few days, the articles and posts that i read on Linked in have made me FSLO, feeling so low, that i was actually FOWE, feeling overwhelmed with emotion.  FOLO as a word has several expansions, each one borderline different than other. Most of the people in tech industry have a fear of logging off - even and especially when on leave. The fear of missing out is more common among non smokers and non drinkers, who definitely miss out on close circle conversations, where the tongue is let loose by whatever is being consumed. You may call it insecurity or lack of confidence. But it is a problem that is existential. Mine is more of a different form of FOLO which is fear of living offline. The "online" aspect is more towards being in trend on the technology side and which means not just improving/learning on what is new in our area of work, but also across th...

Certain stories stay with us for a while after they are over. At times because of the ending. Sometimes due to the theme or the content. Quite a number of times because of the characters. This particular series stands out mainly because of the performances of every character involved, not just the leads. Even the minor one like the first wife of the villain or should I say the main character, who comes for just one episode though being mentioned throughout, leaves such a strong impression that, her presence via the conversations seems justified. The FBI guy who triggers the whole sequence in the leading lady which ends up in not just the arrest of the villain, has a minor role but like every other smaller characters has a powerful presence that elevates the entire setup.  What more can one say about the main guy, who played Nile Jarvis!! I have never seen an actor who shows up different in different lighting! He was so amazing in the closeup shots where only half his face had light...

It has been a while since he wrote anything new as he seemed to have been occupied with screenplay writing for his movies. I was randomly checking and lo behold! A new novel from Reilley. It is a typical Reilley novel in every sense, even though the title may say detective. He has tried his best to alter the usual genre of his by venturing into investigative space. But rather than being Sherlock Holmes, Sam Speedman is Jack West Jr. Lite. He may have been mentioned as a person having autism. But seems to have more powers than Batman!! The story is haunting to say the least and one of the most thorniest topics in American history  - slavery! Trust Matt to churn up a potboiler of a novel on such a sensitive topic! Even though the struggles of Black people who are still being held as slaves and the cruelty of the Southern families is the core topic, the usual chase, hyperbolic villains who never seem to die unless pushed to the most goriest of fights, a meek but cat-like hero who has ...

Like many other people, i follow women's cricket only during world cups and especially if they make it to the knockouts. There is a sense of relatability and grounded nature to their matches and somehow the level of passion which they display on field shows more strongly and expressive than men's version. For every single victorious step - be it a wicket or a boundary or a six - leave alone a century or half - it only shows the effort and struggles that would've gone behind each of those actions which would be several times more than the men's version. Not to belittle their challenges or to show up the ladies. They may've their own problems and expectations and stumbling blocks which could be quite different than what their lady fellow mates may suffer. But there is something that comes out extra and makes the heart bit more warmer to see them celebrate their victories, however small or big they be. It feels like - justified - deserved - and several other better wor...

 As mentioned prior, there is a similarity in naming their novels between Matthew Reilley and Chetan Bagat. Though chalk and cheese could have more similarity than their writing styles, Matt at least had a reason for the naming convention, it was a series with a countdown starting from 7 ancient wonders. For CB i guess, it could be more of numerology or a success template that seems to work for him.  Unlike regular people who may use QWERTY keyboard for typing, CB has stereotyping set in his keyboard i guess. Like every other book of his, where the protagonist or the male character with least negativity, always happens to be a Punjabi, it is no different in this one as well. Like every single soul in Punjab, this person also drinks heavily, non vegetarian and as an additional character trait - is a health conscious gymaholic. Like tamils, bengalis and many other characters of different ethnicities that were shown in as poor light, or to be precise only in poor light, possible,...

 Having already posted about this series last year, was wondering if it really require a season by season post. But considering the presentation thought it was worth a quick mention. The leading lady, Keri Russell, who is also the executive producer, is the central character and the titular one. But in this series, it seems they ran out of plotline as densely packed as previous seasons and after the initial shock of her husband getting the post of Vice president, most of the series is dedicated to her affairs and love life. The series picks up towards the end and the last couple of episodes more than make up for the time lost. Instead of a 8 part series, story wise it would've hardly been a 4 part one. There were several jumps on other characters as to the sudden loss of interest and secret marriage of the defense secretary, introduction of a spy character, who even though hogs the second most timeshare, leaves as fast as he got introduced. The reason why Keri decides to leave her ...

One of the earlier books of Rollins before he started the Sigma series. There is a downside to success, that it makes you becoming restricted in your thought process, especially true for those in writing industry in the aftermath of hitting bulls eye with a successful launch of a series. You end up restricting your thought process to the set of characters and beyond a point it can't be stretched unless newer characters are introduced which ends up diluting the whole lot. You cannot simply offer the scope and limelight for every character and in fact have to pander to the characterisation of the popular of the lot, which results in the ultimate story line being compromised to certain extent. In the beginning books of the sigma series, the first chapter will set the tone for the book, with an impossible plot or an unimaginable level of danger, involving known places, people or situations. The Sigma series led by Gray and later by Siechan, will travel the length and breadth of the wor...

 I often used to wonder, all those super spies, how do they manage their daily routines, especially in midst of a major action. Sometimes, they are shown to go without sleep for several hours and there are rarely any note about their food habits. But they will be shown as connoisseurs of drinks and have in depth knowledge of several types of cuisines that they will proudly display to impress the villain or his spouse (especially James Bond) many of whose scenes and situations would be depicted around the dining table. While hero would be actively in pursuit, the villain would be shown as sitting and pondering or lashing at this cronies for having either lost to the hero or secretly planning his next action from dining table. Except for James Bond who made the shaken but not stirred Martini, there are hardly any other famous hero character who are known for their taste in any other routine like normal human beings. One reason that i felt was, rather than depicting how they get up, b...

I can say with all confidence that when it comes to cine music, my generation(!!) was the blessed one, for they were able to witness magic made live by great music directors of previous generations who were masters of melody, like MSV, KV, supposedly newbie, like Ilayaraja who successfully managed to bridge classical with western blending it with local dappankuthu, and his famed "assistant" ARR, who literally swayed the nation to his techno tunes and his peers who came after him like Harris Jayaraj, if you add Deva, Shankar Ganesh, and several other small players who had their moments in the sun, these giants literally ruled the movie music world and most of them are still active, even though their best of days are long behind them.  The taste in music is one clear parameter that defines ageing is my strong belief. The more one dislikes the music of the next generation, the faster they are becoming old is "Gils law". My dad never really liked Ilayaraja for he rarely...

 Be it SRK or Aamir they rode on the crest of a set of movies that took them to topmost tier of superstardom. While SRK took to love subjects and catering to NRI audience, aided ably by simple dance steps of Farah and pleasant lyrics of Javed Akthar tuned to hummable songs by a plethora of musicians including Jatin-lalit to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to ARR, Aamir took a more studious route, picking up stories like PhD subjects and dwelling more on the detailing and characterisation that set him apart in the Khan trio. Salman took the easiest route of all, remake southern hits and rehash the same hit into various versions in hindi. For a good part of previous decade and before, the trio ruled the BO with ever increasing foot falls and ticket revenue. The first to fall off the tier was Salman, whose masala movies began to bomb abruptly. SRK had a string of failures and interestingly he found success in the same formula that propped Salman - action movies. Aamir, despite choosing the script ...

The thing with having a bad memory is you get to relive as if the happenings are new and start afresh. It is especially helpful in cases of book that gives you additional joy of re-reading it as if for the first time, enjoying the same thrill that you might've felt when you read them prior. But the sad part is, if you'ven't remembered reading the book, chances are there that it might be one to forget as well and you might've not finished it for it could've been boring. With "Excavation" i am not sure in which category it falls under!!! Either way, having finished the book, i felt it was worth posting about. It all begins in typical Rollins fashion of a monk in run from natives, trying to protect or hide something that would cause the end of world, but would leave enough clues for future generations to find it out eventually!!! He commits suicide atop a sacred shrine of the native Mayans/Incas/Aztecs?? Edho oru tribe of that time. Right from there begins th...

 It has been a while since we disconnected cable tv at home relying wholely and solely on internet for tv subscription and viewing. And we didnt even realize that we have moved away from regular TV channels like Sun or Vijay till the time this incident happened, for mom, who regularly watches only Vijay, now has switched over to Hotstar app and doesn't even switch on TV!! It's all available within her palm at the touch of a screen. I am the only person who watches TV that too not on a regular basis, but to watch any sports or news. One day while browsing over the channel list i saw Anniyan movie playing on K TV and looking at references to Garuda Puranam, Junior was curious about the movie and said let that channel play. When the owner of the remote himself has decided, that wish obviously becomes the command right! After a while he came to me complaining that the TV was broke and something is wrong. I could hear that something was playing and was wondering whether the picture ...

After so many years yet another Dan Brown novel and based on who else but the redoubtable Robert Langdon, whose eidetic memory and the speed with which he could link clues would put any processor to shame!! This time, after several books, he finally finds his pair, Katherine Solomon, who, if i am right, is only the second recurring character, apart from Langdon, obviously. She is a renowned noetic scientist and if "Origin" was pushing the boundaries with its theme, you should read this book!!!  There were previous instances, especially the books leading to "Origin" were Brown was dwelling more on the creation moving slightly away from the creator, dabbling more into the sciences associated with that porous topic that is finding firm footing as we speak and is more evident in this book. As science advances more into unchartered territories, nothing could be more interesting or complex than what goes inside one's mind. As much as they try to explore the world beyo...

Yet another self peethal post.  For last 2 years, this blog was clocking 100K hits per year, which was possibly the highest it has ever encountered since inception. But intha varusham ennadaanna it has reached 250K hits already with last month alone clocking 100K hits!!! Ithanaikum my frequency of posting has a huge variance though i try to maintain the monthly average. Post podrapo hits kuraiyuthu aana podathapo neria varuthu!!! Enna thaanpa sollavareenga. Whatever the reason is, i was thrilled to see the hit counter turning yet another first digit and thanks for all the visits.  Ithu athanaiyum moola karanam, the one and only reason and person is undoubtably and absolutely Mr.thalai Ramesh. Thank you for your words of encouragement and as i keep mentioning unga comments padikarathukagavay edachum oru post podanumnu thonum. And possibly the viewers think the same as well as unga comments vanthaprum thaan hits rise after each post. Ungal aadharaviruku nandri. And ditto for oth...

The title is kept as such to to kelari vittufy the curiosity in Thalai..hehehe. OMITB is Only Murders in the building, a famous drama series which is into its 5th season, currently playing in Jio Hotstar and TMC is Thursday murder club a movie in Netflix. Renduthukum enna common? Well, both deal with elderly lead characters trying to solve murders. Selena Gomez elderly listla sertha paavam. But that crew involves Steve Martin and Chris short who are not exactly teenagers. The reason for this post being, i happened to see Thursday Murder club the movie on Netflix and couldn't help but wonder how such a stellar cast had been put to waste as compared to sterling attempt by the drama series crew!! The other reason why i was drawn to the movie being, it was a novel by Richard Osman, which came in a book recommendation list. I tried reading the novel and gave up midway as it was neither too thrilling for a murder mystery nor was it funny. But when i saw the movie cast involving the best ...

What is real and what is fake.  This has been the basic and barest of all existential question since the beginning of time itself. Some call it Maaya. Scientists may term it hallucination.  But what is real in the "real" sense?  The movie Matrix was a classic example that literally shook the concept of reality, despite being a fiction. People were so smitten and taken by the concept that many still believe that we all live in a Matrix while the reality is something else! Considering the rampant advancement in AI tech and related tools, specifically on the media space, no one can be sure on the authenticity of any media - be it audio, video or images. The deepfake media content is so authentic that even the concerned individuals may get confused for a moment on the content. And proving them otherwise seems to be the most demanding task at present. So many celebrities take to the streets on proving their "innocence" or "ignorance" on potential controversial ...

As i mentioned before, i was on a spree to finish all of the Alex cross series a while back and was ploughing through the whole series. Of the 34 books and counting, i managed to come till the 24th and more than fatigue it was terribly repetitive. Right from the titles, most of which are the starting lines of famous rhymes, to the villains whom most of the time happen to be patients or stalkers of Alex cross, to the way in which they get killed/captured only to return back in another book, or copy cats of the famous villains. But this book felt slightly different as the beginning itself gave hints that this might be more on vigilantism. A bike driver, capable of going at more than 100mph and still shoot without missing the target on an equally fast moving vehicle, starts of the novel by killing some one for violating speed limit, by violating the speed limit even more than the victim to shoot them. There are spate of murders, even by the count mentioned, grossing more than 50 in body c...

Life in a Metro (hindi movie) is a favorite of mine mainly because of its music track. Pritam's best i would say. And some of the stories in that anthology were nice as well. Especially the ones involving Konkona and Irfan alongside the one involving Kangana and Sharman (a direct lift off from "The apartment" movie). There were couple of other story lines as well, with the core theme being, relationships and love between couples of varying age groups and social status. It was the decade that began to normalize depiction of gay/lesbian characterization on screen and there are sequences involving those relationships as well. Overall the story was about how people fall in love, fall out of it and while some manage to fall back in love, some retreat into a shell and few ends up relinquishing it, living with the support of memories. When i heard that there is a "spiritual" sequel to the movie i was actually feeling bad, being dead sure that they would've screwed ...

There is a favorite quote of mine - venda veruppa pullaya pethu gaanda mirugam nu per vachaanam. Maareesan movie does quite fall into that description, but looking at the way it ended, made me wonder, indha padathuku kaanda mirugamnay per vachurkalam. But why Maareesan??!!!  Malayalam movie world has made Indian cinema take note of its success and its mastery in the thriller genre. The movie begins in similar note to any Malayalam crime story with even the lead actor being borrowed from there - Fahadh Faasil. Vadivelu in a "Maamannan" lite avatar, hardly gets to crack an emotion on face except for sticking very close to the character of being an Alzheimer patient. Alzheimer's patient na emote panna koodathu purinjintaangalo enamo!! Or probably it is called under play?? ennamo onnu. He comes with same pose mood and performance throughout the first half and the story moves from one town to another, taking as much time to travel in real time in reel as well!!! All just for s...

 Whenever you see some one saying, first halfu nalla irunthuchi second half was lagging or not upto expectations, outside a movie hall after watching a show, i used to wonder, had there been no interval, would they've still felt the same about the movie? Interval block nu onnu ilaati is it even possible to split the story into a good half or bad half? Possibly it can be categorized as good sections and bad. But this book by Patterson is definitely making a case for great first half and torrid second half!! May be the way he started the story at a break neck pace and the speed with which things unfolded, it was reminiscent of a Sehwag innings against Srilanka where he would've scored almost a double century over 100+ strike rate (obviously!!) in a single day only for the whole team score to still fall under 400!!! I was reading the entire series of Alex cross novels (almost 30 plus and counting i guess) and gave it up half way after halfway through, for the pattern became too bo...

" At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went out to play together for the last time and none of you knew it " If there is a quote that broke me, bothered me beyond words, this would be it. It was almost traumatic to read and somehow I ended up reading it in a loop unable to stop, with pictures from the past running like imax screen in mind.  I read something similar that every year we cross our date if death without knowing it. This one felt kind of funny. Morbid, yet gallows humor kind. But I became so emotional after reading that other quote that, it took a really long while to get over it.  Never realized just a quote can trigger so many pent up emotions and never realized those were pent up as well!!!! 

Mandela already dead aachay..avara edhuku murder panranunga..oru vela "Day of jackal" pola assassination attempt storya irukumo nu nenachu paakaatheenga..ithu adhu illa. Or mandala art perform panravangala poattu thalra storya irukumo nu guess panna adhuvum thappu. Ipdi mandaila egapatta madakozhapams cause panra titlekaga started watching the serial. First konjam viruviru nu poachu. Thideernu paatha running riverla oru body..sorry no body...not nobody because we know who that is/was. It is a dead body minus the body. Adhavathu only head and 2 hands and 2 legs stitched to that head, floating in the river. Ivlo vela menakettu edhukuda kill pannirukaan paatha..adhaan manadla murder. Mandailaye naalu poatu murder panuvanunga pola. It is a cult. Ithu oru ritualistic murder spree. Adutha murder ipdi thaan irukumnu aadhi kaalathu book onnu iruku. Adha decrypt panni decode panni decay aagitrukra andha document lendhu derive panni next death eppo and epdi irukum and adhu endha mathir...

We've a strong sentiment at home. Whichever movie my votes as good will turn out to be a blockbuster. If it even remotely manages to catch her interest, that movie is bound to be a sure shot hit. When "Pichaikaran" movie was released, i wasn't even following about the movie. And the first time we saw it was when it premiered on a tv channel. She liked it immensely and since she was watching the movie, we were all curious and it ended up being a fun watch. The movie was already a blockbuster, and Vijay Anthony is always identified as the "pichakara" actor (honestly not in disrespect but as the actor from the movie) in our house. Same goes for "Gentleman" and Arjun is the "appala kadai" person. When i started watching this movie on Prime, i wasn't too thrilled for it felt like an azhumoonji story with lots of forced melodrama. We began watching the movie as there was nothing else to watch at that time and were discussing the travails of...

I was introduced to this book through a recommendation in one of the sites as a good mystery novel. Initial opinion was that it was dragging a bit and still wanted to soldier on just out of curiosity. The story begins with a psychiatrist, joining a new hospital, wanting to treat one specific patient who had proven to be a tough nut to crack (no pun intended) for even the chief psychiatrist of that hospital. He slowly tries to engage with that patient, who had been admitted to the institution, for having killed her husband in cold blood. She had been diagnosed with the illness prior to that incident and had been known to exhibit hallucinatory and aggressive behavior. The very second meeting with the doctor, she attacks him and inflicts severe wounds. The biggest challenge in dealing with her being her silence. Never once had she spoken ever since that incident happened and despite the best efforts from everyone attending her, the result is always the same stony silence. The doctor slowl...

Till the time i was sitting to type this post i was wondering why they named the movie "Morgan" when there was no such character!!! 2 mani neram padam paathum padathoda title ku artham puriyama google panni paatha oray aal naana thaan iruppen!! Apparantly it means "one who follows margam (path)". For a while was wondering had this been based on Kumari muthi it could've been titled "Maaru kann" (squint eye)..hehe!!  Title apart, the movie was quite decent and interesting. The premise being a dead body is found blackened like coal and immediately the chennai police reaches out to the hero in mumbai for he is also similarly afflicted, except that he somehow survived the blackening with half of his face and body alone tarred!! The sad part being, his only daughter too suffered a similar fate as the dead girl in Chennai and what other pretext you need to bring him into the picture. He follows the routine investigation procedures and within no time lands up ...

The first thing that made me watch this series was definitely the name - it sounded so James Bond-ish. And within few minutes into the episode with the supposedly lippy guy (whom i thought was the hero) getting shot made me wonder was he really the hero? If not why so much scene putting for a side character? Then like true mega serial setup, the hero joins back to the police squad after the into name reels. I almost gave up on the series, when it suddenly switched into a different story altogether only to cut back to the police officer part in a bit. It takes some adjusting to figure out the story is about Past and what happens in the present. There are 2 "pasts" - one about the officer who gets shot at the beginning and other about a kidnapped woman, whose case comes to the officer as a cold case to pursue. He is joined by a deputy, who resembles guiness record winning hindi actor for having been typecast as inspector in over 100 plus movies. The deputy is an immigrant from ...

Bus - this multi tyred man made moving machine has played a major role in my commutation life. Right from the last year of my school life till the time corona made a grand entry into our lives, buses had been the de facto mode of transport for me. The very first time i travelled alone in a bus was during my twelth standard, from my place to Royapettah. The thing about 21 series is that it goes all the way to central which means, rather than getting down, people keep boarding the bus at every stop. It was a lucky design that the bus makers decided to have a seat for the drivers. Else 21 bus drivers would've had to manage the driving by sitting on the steering wheel!!!  There are several key criteria for being the conductor of 21, primary one being that he should be insulated from every sensory neuron in his body and waist should be less than size zero, for he has to squeeze in between 50 different tummy sizes. He should have the mental processing capacity of a gigahertz processor, a...

I came across a Reel video, which was actually "shorts" from a movie, with Irfan khan mouthing a couplet for the heroine and another couple of friends, all of whom were sitting around a campfire. My first reaction was that the poem sounded nice but there was a lingering feeling about it. It felt like i had heard it before but couldn't quite remember when and where. Incidentally the next video on the reels section was that of a kid singing that song in "Indian idol". The power of algorithm and how they line up things for our viewing is really amazing when it actually works for the reason it was meant to be!! From there began the rabbit hole that took me through the entire back story about the song, the singer, his background, his claim to fame, the original movie where it was picturized, the other movie where Irfan was quoting that song and finally why it sounded so familiar!! You would've heard of songs being ear worms, playing in loops in your mind, in that...