Variety is the spice of life

It was a glorious evening when breeze slowly descended on the park. The day before was pretty warm and humid as the climate was at its finicky best. To those regular visitors and irregulars, it was yet another pleasant evening breeze that they enjoy when they visit the park, for the breeze in itself was seasonal. Even, the die-hard regulars, at times skipped the park visit whenever they had other priorities. The trees on the park, wither and flourish per the season. The trash bins start their day empty and end with full bin. Even the park benches, probably the most stable of the lot, undergo a coat of repaint, once in a blue moon or when council elections are round the corner. But for Ove and his evening visits to the park, everything changed. Every single evening, he would turn up sharp at the exact same time. He would start with his routine of a brisk walk around the park and exactly after the third round, he would sit on the exact same bench. If it was occupied, he would go near...

If finding a seat in crowded cafeteria is an art, I am Sam Anderson of it. Kaadhal Kondenla Dhanushku kuda kadisi rowla seat kedachirum, but I would often roam the length and breadth of the food court and still wouldn’t find a solitary seat. It’s even worse when I go with friends as I would often end up with the task of finding seats for all of us. If by some miracle, I do manage to find a couple of seats, it seldom lasts long. Every alternate second, someone or other will come and ask if anyone is coming to the table I am holding for my friends. It makes me wonder, why would people ask that question? Unless I carry a lunchbox like Mayabazar Ranga rao, it would make little sense for a single person to hog a whole table, right? And it’s not that people are that dumb, not to notice my single Tupperware dabba, sitting on the table and the only possible explanation could be I am waiting/holding the place for someone else. Unless they may think that, a single person sitting alone on a table...

Few months back when I had posted about “Saithan” movie, I had quoted that, the movie was based majorly on “Aah” by Sujatha. I happened to read the novel recently and was amazed at how fresh the story is, despite having seen its adaptation on screen and having read the story once long time back. Considering that it was first published quarter century ago, some of the situations and terminologies involved were astonishing!! The reason why Sujatha is much sought after even today, is his ability to weave futuristic technologies and identify, amongst those, which will be most relevant and would be popular and above all, present such a nascent idea in simple language, all the while making a story out of it!! Such was his genius to spot technologies that would change the world was that, almost all of his sci-fi stories from 2,3 decades back have become common place situations in present day world. Going with the theme for the month, the works of Sujatha are master piece case studies on how...

When you are introduced to a new word, what would be your first feeling? Especially when its thrown as such a commonplace item, about which you had been so ignorant that, such a casual mention of it makes you wonder, why you never came across it in first place, till that time. I’ve had my fair share of such words and each time the emotions were no different. I wasn’t even introduced to a computer, when during a theory class on operating system, my compskey (school time slang for comp. sci – computer science) teacher casually mentioned about THE word – “version”. It was the first ever time I was hearing about it and even before I could contemplate its meaning from the context or the sentence, he had passed on to several other topics. Yet that one word, kept lingering in mind, like that solitary wet cloth, refusing to fly away in wind, holding on to its clip. I asked my friend immediately after the class is over what the word meant. He was clueless but somehow wasn’t much troubled by i...

If at all there is a place to venture out with your opinion, internet should be the last, if not never, on the list. Especially social media. Such has been the abuse and opposition from trolls on SM platforms that, even to state your name can get you into controversy, based on your other opinions. The reason behind this post is due to the ongoing hue and cry over a lady and her comments on a south Indian star’s well known dud movie, which incidentally is acknowledged as a flop even by the star’s own fans, the response from the online community of self-proclaimed fans of the star and the aftermath. The effort taken by the trolls (as they are collectively and individually labelled as), who dug up several years old posts of that lady and established a criminal conspiracy behind her actions in targeting their hero alone for mockery and criticism, would put tax officials and CBI to shame. Armed with random links between posts scattered across several years, the trolls went hell bent on sham...

Whenever there is talk of a new political party being formed, the first thought that runs in mind is what difference these guys are going to make which the others haven’t tried before. This could be due to the fact that, none of the newbies, for that matter even the existing ones, ever share a detailed plan on how they will accomplish whatever they are claiming. They could say that due to the fear of the rivals copying their approach, they may not want to share it. But even after coming to power, the secrecy (cluelessness maybe) remains. Even if they are open, the lingering doubt anyone willing to throw in their hat into the political arena is mainly due to the fact that, how will they identify 200 good candidates who are honest!!? Most of the major parties always have a figurehead around whom they rally. So it is, for the newcomers, say for example, if, at all, Rajini decides to start a party, unless he opts for an unconventional way of selecting candidates, in all probability it’s ...

This “How to” and “How not to” seems to have become a theme for this month, at least for the first three posts. While the first one dealt with how not to screw up a good story, the second post was about how to package old wine in attractive container and make it a success. This post is again a review post, about a book that I got as a gift 2 months back. Either I am going dud by reading only ebooks, which has resulted in me going super dud on hardcopies or the book, “Saboteur” was such a page turner by itself!!! I want to believe the reason is a mix of both. Of the few authors that I’ve Arthur Hailey is my favorite, for each of his books are almost like thesis on the theme of the novel. You read his “Airport” by the end of it your perception about the entire place would go for a 360 degree change, especially those airports located at places with extreme weather conditions. You read his “Hotel” or “Evening news” , it would give you all new dimension about these otherwise common place ...

Tamil movie world is split across, those who’ve seen Vikram Vedha and those who are yet to. Such has been the response the movie has been garnering that, people are already awaiting the next release from the husband-wife director duo. More often than not, the movie that wins at BO is not always because of the uniqueness of the story, that is never told before, nor always on the strength of the leads. There are times when, despite being so ordinary and repetitive, the art of storytelling, carries the movie to its success. Vikram Vedha is a perfect fit for such a case to study. Even with success of author backed movies, there is somehow a reluctant tendency amongst movie makers to opt for such scripts. Whatever the reason may be, its high time, the tide changed. Also, rather than aping everything from Hollywood and Korean movies, lifting scripts from international movie festivals, we need to see within our treasure trove of stories, is another lesson for others to follow, which the succ...