Variety is the spice of life

The one show that I watch with all eagerness would be "Tamizh Paechu engal moochu" on Vijay. For the very simple reason that, I totally and completely adore the concept. Today's topic was pretty interesting. A topic that is taboo even in present day society - Relationship without any name between men and women. It was quite an interesting topic and challenging one for the speakers and they spoke quite eloquently without majorly dabbling on the point for want of time. The society we live in has names for all relations. Father, son, brother, uncle, grandfather, lover, boyfriend, husband and even if there is a loss in the relation there are names for them as well- widower, divorcee, orphan(!!) And equivalent ones for women as well. In between this maze of names blooms in a friendship or two. Man - woman relationship which falls under the last category are often looked upon with suspect. A friend of mine once told me, there can be only 3  kinds...

For a while I used to be a big time fan of Super Singer's and Jodi number One's. The very reason that, I got to hear classics without their awful picturisation and some really amazing talents set the tone for the whole show. But over period of time, they've grown to be awful and more couldn't be more fake with the concept of reality being only on name. Forget the kind of nonsense they churn up in the name of TRP's but the damage they are doing to kids and art in general is becoming irreparable. They've become that virus that've begun to feed on the very essence of art form. Music classes have started advertising coaching for reality shows. Cine dance forms have replaced traditional variants and with hardly any patronage they are at the risk of not surviving into the next decade. I've quite a lot of sabha's near my area. But for December, where people throng to see the famous personalities lining up for a handful of concerts, who otherwise spend the...

Thondrin pugazhodu thondruga..agthilaar Thondralin Thondraaamai nandru The "Thirukkural" mentioned above means - If you are born in this world, be with the qualities conductive to fame. For those who can't, better not be born. Last week was full of farewells of people I am very fond of. First came the news of Phani, my toastmaster mentor of one speech (not sure if his decision to quit the job was due to that), then it was Sachin's retirement news followed by my good friend Mahesh's last day in office. You couldn't pick a more diverse bunch if you ever want to choose one. But they have one common aspect - being famous. The Phani-funny cliché has been too clichéd even for a cliché. Still its not without reason. I often used to wonder how can a person be so dedicated to a cause, in which he gets to be the backstager rather than on stage most of the time. The way he used to show to time out for over eager speakers from the last row even when he wasn't ...