Variety is the spice of life

Wifey has enrolled Junior in a group called Bala Muktas. That group is run by a dedicated bunch of ladies who teach slokas and stories on our Puranas to kids for free. They conduct bajans and special performances at their homes and whomever is graceful enough to give them space. It is such a positive group that kids relish going to their sessions. What started as an online class during Covid times is now a thriving weekly session attended by at least a dozen kids along with their parents. Last week they had arranged for a recital cum drama kind of a presentation on Ramayana (till Paaduka pattabishekam part), where in each kid was given a short speech on the character they play. They have to narrate their part as a character sketch and the filler portions where supported by the teachers and rest of the kids into making it a mini drama with small acts. Each kid aced their role and the way they spoke without stage fear, the eldest of the kid being from sixth standard with majority of the ...

 I have read that one of the easiest signs that you are getting of getting old is the taste in music. One will begin to appreciate the same set of songs, that they might not have cared much about in their youth, and more so, detest the current crop of songs. I saw it happen with my dad, when he used to term Ilayaraja songs as "dapaanguthu" and would appreciate only MSV. In our household music was mostly silent for we never ever had a fixed time to listen to cinema songs unless they were being played out aloud in streets or in some music channel. I began to listen to music and my sense for appreciating songs from different languages actually blossomed and died in Bangalore. I maintain almost the same playlist that was formed during those days and very rarely does a song manage to squeak in. That playlist was an amalgamation of likes from several people known to me, who used my hard drive as a common repository for storing songs. Whenever i travel to office or on a long distanc...

 Of all the OTT's Netflix is hell bent on infusing drug culture as the way of life in India i guess. Every other series they come up with, not just glorifies the narcotics and its effects, it makes the police who chase the criminals as bad or even more eviler than the sellers themselves, there by giving more credit to the actual antagonists, painting them as better amongst the two evils!!  This series is so downright blatant in its attempt to make drug peddling common place that, right from first scene, the leading lady or at least one of the quartet, secretly peddles some local drug for curing impotence amongst her customers who orders home made food from her. The famous dabbawalas whom every management firm wanted to study for their greater than six sigma level of performances should actually protest and put a case against the makers of this series for defaming their good name and their very line of business as something so murky!! What starts as a within the apartment activ...

 Today only watched the movie and wanted to post the review right away illaati saami kutham aaidum. When the trailer of this movie was launched, like several like minded people i had cursed it to the extent possible, especially the way at which the hero proudly proclaims he has 48 arrears!! On top of that he gets to romance two good looking heroine, smoking like no tomorrow and of course the mandatory liquor drinking scenes, all coupled together to form such a cringe opinion about the movie that it was hate at first sight (or view in YouTube terminology). If i keep repeating the same flaws that have become common place across all the movies, i felt like repeating myself and had stopped posting about movies for a while. But after seeing several positive reviews about this one, was really curious to test the extent of rot that had set in the minds of people, that they were praising such a rotten to the core movie. I was happily wrong. In fact, the movie preaches exactly what i wanted...

 Ever since they launched the New Education Policy, the current day scenario was ripening for its own sweet time, with every ambivalent opportunist politician, worth their salt, having a go at the poor masses, confusing them with their crazy concoctions of deceit and lies. With the three-language policy, the current government has opened a literal can of worms across the country with each political nut, turning the other into a zombie, with their crack pot ideologies, across the spectrum. Why should one read more languages? what is the use? why not? what is the harm? you are lying to bring in hindi. you are lying because you already have hindi in your institutions. These seems to be the standard quotes that you get..no..are forced to hear whenever, by mistake, you stumble across any news channel. The harsh reality is way different. If i take junior as example, the way they teach tamil in his school makes me cry in anguish. Despite my best of efforts to influence him into reading ta...

 Ever since i saw "The Intern" i've been smitten by Robert De Niro. Agreed that he had done several magnificent movies prior, but his performance in Intern made not just his character but the entire movie impressive. When i saw his name being mentioned in this drama series, that was the first cue to mark it on the watchlist. The initial few minutes into the series, chaos reign supreme, with America being under attack for yet another time in the web series world, this time with all their cyber systems, from phone to plane, getting hacked simultaneously. With no group claiming responsibility for the attack which lasted just a couple of minutes yet resulted in several train/plane crashes and loss of thousands of lives, entire country is panic stricken, with people on the verge of mass hysteria. If we take a step back and try to imagine the situation, it may not make that much of a sense in a country like India, even though with increased technological dependency we may nearl...