Variety is the spice of life

First Thanksgiving in US. Everyone were going crazy a week before the day over what to shop, when and where and which is the best option to buy - online or in store. Every detail was discussed and dissected and plans were framed like military attack operation. Teams were formed and stores were assigned to each of them. Everyone were asked to be on touch over phone and any surprise sudden deals were to be announced immediately. All credit cards were fully recharged and were prepared for a good night full of bashing. The day finally came and the whole day was spent lazing around waiting for the sun to set. It was the proverbial calm before storm. As the clock crept towards 6 PM everyone started pouring out of their houses onto their cars and within the next half hour the entire complex was empty. And even that turned out to be late. For shops that were set to open at midnight, the parking lots were already full by 7PM. Electronic appliances stores had queues stretching for miles. As usua...

In my previous post, while mentioning about the quirks of Monk and how they make up majority of the episodes was wondering is it really possible to be so...hmm...confirming. Ipdilaam kooda yaarachum irupaangalanu yosichapo it reminded me of some quirks of my own :) School padikarapolaam if a paper...any paper(!!) happens to touch my leg, udanay thottu kannula othindruven :D My sister used to be a playful (read normal) soul and will step on anything despite my mom's warning that stepping on school bag means no padippu yerings in ur mandai. I took those warnings literally :) and till date none of my bags go anywhere near the toes :D aana padippu thaan yerina maathiri therila :D During school days, I used to wear my right socks and shoe first. Thappi thavari left socks potukittenna adutha arai mani neram kaalula etho weight katti vitta mathiri oru feeling irukkum. Will forcefully try to divert my mind into something else and wor...

Adrian Monk - America's answer to Sherlock Holmes. And my latest addi(c)tion to tv series. Its a detective series, where the lead character is the most eccentric of all detectives you would've ever seen. He is like "Thenali" Kamal with 312 phobias (as of season 6 episode 3) and is quirky at his wonderful best. An ex-cop, who lost his wife to a car bomb and part of his sanity, blessed with photographic memory and over the top analytical mind, the series revlove around not just how he solves each case but how he over comes each of his fear in the process. The way in which the stories are structured, in most of the cases, the "who" and in some cases the "why" also will be known before hand. Its always the "how" which would be the best part and would never be easily guessable. Well, thats the essence of a good mystery right. Monk episodes are testimony to it. The best part about the series is the subtle humour in each of the episodes. Kud...

Vara vara officela makkal thara kedupudiya vida government thara imsainaalaye makkal elaam vela paaka aarambichiduvaanga pola!! Facebook la yaar enna panraangannu inimay HR,network teamlaam monitoray panna venam. Antha antha ooru state governmentay ithelaam nalla paathukaranga. Mumbaila etho oru ponnu ipo recenta mandaiya poatta (Avvvvvvvv....pera type panna kooda bayama iruku!!) oru thaanai thalaivarukaaga ethuku bandh pannanumnu oru one line status poatathuku antha ponna pudichi ulla vachitaangalam mumbai kaaval thurai. Ithula uchha katta kodumai was..antha status ku like poatta innoru ponnaiyum ulla vachitaangalam!!! enna koduma saravanaa ithu!! Ipdilam restrict panni kadisila vela paaka vachiruvaanga polarukkay!!!  (On a serious note i guess it could have been preventive arrest to avoid any flare up and possibly for the girl's own protection..nallathay nenaippom!!) Inthe freedom of expression itha pathilaam elaarum medai poattu koovarapolaam realise pannathilla. But when it h...

Diwali @ foriegn desam apdina intha potluck, games, familya settle aagiruntha snacks and sweet distribution to all apartment veedu and bachelorsna oc saapaadu for couple of days. Guess this is the norm in most of the places. For this diwali, it was for the very first time, spent it with such a huge gumbal. Ithuvaraikkum entha oorla irunthaalum will get back to Chennai for festivals. This time that wasnt possible. But this experience was very nice too. Here they had arranged for potluck with some 20 plus families, with each one preparing a dish. Around 40 people had been invited. And i was made incharge for the most important and critical and essential and mandatory item, without which potluck wouldnt have been possible. Vera entha dish sample panna kedaikutho illayo ennoda item ilaama ethuvumay not possible and each one had to have one of it alteast. Avlo criticalana mukkiyamaana antha matter ennagareengala..athaanga Plate. Aairam thaan vagai vagaiya saapaadu pannalu...

There used to be a time when inbox would be filled with forward messages and pictures of lamps and crackers and godess Lakshmi and fundoo exe's. They were the fore runners for "mail storm"s i guess, where in each people marked on the mail dutifully either replied all or forwarded the mail to everyone else on their address books. When i was a fresher, we used to have a "competition" in our gang as to who gets/sends the most creative of forwards. My seniors used to complain that they have been seeing the same content as forwards for several years and some even went to the extent of creating rules to spam our mails :) We used to tease them as the dinosaurs of IT and our excuse always was that, though the content might be years old, that would've been the very first time we were seeing them. There was one akka in my team who would pass on her "critical review" for our mails and she always used to tell me that soon we would all get over it and there wou...

After a long long time, a James Bond movie with a decent script. Decent compared to the standards of those from the past 2 decades. Unlike the Harry Potter series, arguably the highest grossing franchise movie series ever, or any comic superhero series, which had solid backing of blockbuster story lines, James Bond series, are never really well known for their stories. Its neither on the adrenaline pumping category of a Jason Bourne series or the mind blowing situations of the Mission Impossible series. Every one knows that the character is a spy and come what may, he will kill the villain in the end, flirting and seducing every single female in the process. Yet, the franchise has survived 50 years and is still going strong. The titular role, is one of the most prestigious roles ever created in the movie industry and instant fame is assured in case of Box office success and so is instant doom of failure in case of a flop. I really wonder if anyone had actually read Ian Fleming's no...

FB has been filled with status updates of videos from MTV Unplugged 2. Especially from the yet to be released Mani Ratnam movie song "Nenjukkullae". More than that song, which sounds like a remix of "Enna ithu" from Nala Damayanthi..this one is my favorite of the lot. Loved the original version from Swades. Ennamo NRI's ellariyum ARR koovi koovi India vanthirunu koopdra mathiri oru super feel irukum. But this remixed version is simply awesome. Wait till 3:58 in video when he switches over to tamil. Goosebumps guaranteed. Awesome awesome rendition and amazing clarity. Bless you Rahman for these masterpieces.