Variety is the spice of life

This year went in a quicker whizz than every previous year. As I turn back and see, last 9 months had been spent literally inside the confines of four walls. Guess that is how prisoners wade through their sentences. Especially those who serve life terms, I often wonder how come they manage their time. The answer is, the concept of time loses its relevance when the physical space for movement is restricted. Of course, mind can traverse across universes, but body definitely has its limitations. I couldn’t quite recollect anything significant that happened in this year but for the loss of so many well wishers and relatives and family friends. To be honest working from home doesn’t make much different for my lifestyle. Reading, watching movies, spending time at home are the only necessities for me. This year was good from the variety of books that were recommended. The most recent being “When Nietzsche wept”, “Rise and fall of third Reich”. Neither of which I’ve completed and would probabl...

The series finale is fast approaching, as fast as the end of the universe, as predicted and chased about from book 1 !! Mathew reilly’s  Jack West jr series, was introduced to me, about 11 years back, at Mumbai airport by boredom. I stumbled on book 2, “Six sacred stones”, as the first read of this series, without knowing anything about the context or how it would evolve into so many books. I thought it was a standalone one and the summary page on the back cover set my curiosity running. The theme involved two of my favorite genres – history and thriller. The story was super-fast racy and the book got over before I knew it. I wanted to check out other books by the same author and then landed on “7 ancient wonders”. Again, having no clue that this is going to create a craze, relished reading the book, which was even quicker paced than the second one. Having read the second part first, the cliffhanger (literally and figuratively) ending of first part was a spoiler even before I start...

One of my chithappa was working on AIR as a music director. It was at a time when Doordarshan was the only channel. Very rarely he would be called to conduct some music orchestra on that channel, especially during festival times, when the channel would invite individual performers/artists for some special day event. All he would do was to wave his hand in front of the troupe and in a space of 20 minutes, he might hardly be seen for a minute or two. But he used to say that, when he walked on the streets, people used to greet him like a celebrity. He was (and FELT) very famous during those times. With the popularity of satellite channels, this setup that Doordarshan popularized, waned and you no longer get to see such kind of shows. Orchestra definitely is mentioned on music reality shows. But I’ve rarely seen a conductor being involved. It was his view as well that, role of such people had become irrelevant in this new setup and with the new generation of folks, people like him, who onc...

Chai with Chitra on Touring talkies YouTube channel, has been my fast favorite this year. Have been watching most of the interviews on that channel mainly because of the interviewer’s style, for allowing people to talk. I have become a big fan of Chitra Lakshmanan for his humility and decentness with which he guides the conversation. For someone who has been very well acquainted with the industry almost having spent more than half a dozen decades, his style of querying the guest on borderline cases, with feather like prod on topics that may involve some personal points from their life and gently guiding them away if at the slightest hint of discomfort for them. His recent spate of guests have been all drama troupe pioneers from the 70’s. May be from previous birth or for whatever reason, dramas have always been a fascination for me. Especially the ones by Cho and viveka troupe. Being an alumni of that esteemed college is an added reason. I take immense pride in having studied at the sa...

From a conversation few years back with one fanatic movie star – “Do you know how much money they need to maintain their life style? It is not cheap being a superstar leave alone being his immediate relation. If you are normally dressed, media/people comment that you are way too simple and might even trigger controversies that you may be on bad times and debts. If you are lavish and stylish they would criticize you for not being modest and may question the legality of your source of income. If you remain under the radar, you cannot survive in the industry, where everyday at least 100 new people make their cut and could potentially lay claim to your throne shortly. If you are over exposed, that requires lot of patience and maturity, where even a single slip up could break your entire career and make you a laughing stock. You need to have an opinion for everything under the sun. You have to keep abreast of current affairs and any slip of tongue could ruin your carefully maintained image....

Recent fetish. Have been desisting from watching this series for a long while as there were many other investigative thrillers abound. Now that I started off with season 1, even before I could realize I am on to the next season. There is something catchy about those drama series that came in the early 2000’s. Be it sitcoms, crime thrillers, mystery series – after watching the recent ones on air, every one of them seems very down to earth and simple (for want of a better word). There is a very strong human element on each show, with the characters playing the role having a major say on the success. The backdrop for each characters are more defined, researched and at any point in time, are well fertile to have an offshoot series of their own. This human element being the single reason I could find across all of those famous and successful ones, which are equally rich on emotional connect with the audience. Be it FRIENDS, 24 (at least the first 4 seasons), Breaking Bad, Everybody loves Ra...

All languages la the one word that junior hates the most is SLEEP. When we try to put him to sleep, we tread around very carefully with that word, making sure never to tell it out openly. But still he would get the draft of it and would immediately jump into some activity to delay it as much as he can. Till the time some one scolds him and forcibly puts him on his bed or till the sleep overcomes his already heavily laden eyes, he always will kottam adichify. Sometime back at around 11PM in the night, after having given up on the activity and being dead tired, wifey slept soundly. Realizing that waking a sleeping dragon is bit risky even for his skills, junior decided to take the easier approach.  “Appa…un kaadhula oru secret sollata” “Secret na kaadhula than solanum..mookula ila” He didn’t got the mokkai, but realized I am teasing him. Mandailaye oru adi vizhunthuchi, enakku. “S..t..o..r..y” nu he extended every letter and whispered. “Enna story venum..ganapati story sollata” “Illa...

Possibly the cheapest or least expensive good movie ever made with multiple cast. It involves couple of cars, one cabin like room with minimal furniture, half a dozen people, some food items, couple of packers and movers who are in frame for couple of minutes and an amazing group conversation stretching over solid 100 mins. Man from earth puts min in minimalist movies and In on intelligent dialogues. The story is about a college professor well in his prime, who suddenly decides to resign his permanent tenure and promising career to move away from everything. His close circle of friends for last ten years, mostly his colleagues, are clueless on his decision and gate crashes his leaving. He is in the midst of shifting the essentials to his transport when the party makes the surprise visit. They delay him and pester him to share his plans. He finally relents and says that it is his ritual not to stay at a place for more than a decade and it is something he has been following from the time...

The thing with junior is everything would be on your face, be it comment or criticism or his feedback. No holdbacks and take no prisoners is always his response.  Be it food or toy or his dress or anything else that is related to him, his response will always be direct and no beating around. Intha poosi mozhugarathu..maane thene additions..uhumm.  Payapulla ipidiye continue aavaanaa nu theriyathu but most of the times the resulting situations are downright funny. During one of his online classes, his class teacher was showing how to draw a lion. She herself had made it clear prior that her drawing skills are slightly passable and the objective of that activity was to improve fine motor skills on kids, ensuring they get proper grip while writing. The lion she had drawn was around the “palm impression” where in she had made up the fingers as mane and somehow made a body of the actual palm. It was not immediately recognizable as a lion but if someone explains it, can understand k...

Anything related to junior is a designated department internally, with specified timelines. Be it for food or for sleeping or for playing or for doing homework or for sitting along with him on online classes, he has specific task for each of us. Usually the play activity comes to me or his mom. But since she takes care of his school related work, he has generously given her the break from having to manage him throughout. When he plays with her it would all organized games like building blocks, jigsaws or dolling up Ganapati, coloring dinosaurs etc. But when it comes to me, we prefer gibberish. It would be raucous and noisy, no one would be able to make any sense of whether we are playing or fighting. We usually invent new games and never stick to any rules even for the ones that we’ve created. The recent addition being a “game” called “Versus”. Junior is die hard devotee of T-Rex, the dinosaur. Next to Ganapati, Tyrannosaurus Rex is his Ishta dheivam, best friend, saviour and favorite ...

In Avengers Endgame, post the Infinity war where in half of the population across the universe just vaporize, there is a resurrection scenario through time travel, which enables the deleted population to come back into being. Rather the scenario of Thanos clicking his fingers with Infinity Gauntlet gets avoided. Wish there is one such possibility for Covid as well. In last 6 months, as a family we lost almost one well- wisher/blood relative per month and even before the grief could settle on one loss the next one took over. It was like an never ending wave, hitting back and forth that, made us all numb literally and figuratively. Many of them we weren’t even able to see their faces one last time as there were restrictions on travel. Some of them were in regular touch with us and when they suddenly ceased to exist, it was very difficult to comprehend and accept. It is not like a file that gets accidently shift deleted or some item that gets misplaced forever from memory. All of them had...

Read 2 Agatha christie novel back to back, leaving the third one unfinished. “Elephants can remember” was a book that I couldn’t quite understand and believe wouldn’t be on the “unforgettable” list by Agatha. Semma bore. Even though it was a Poirot mystery, the main detective/ lead is Ariadne. In the name of investigation there are conversation after conversation that it took me weeks to get through even half of it.  Next in list was “Clocks”.  The name of the book caught my fancy and was reasonably confident that it would be an interesting one. Again, the lead detective was not Poirot even though it was a Poirot mystery. But unlike the previous one, this story was narrated in a mix of third person and other characters, with the plot being quite intriguing. A stenographer girl is called for an assignment to a lady’s house. While she waits for the lady, she finds a dead body of an elderly guy soaked in blood. She runs out of the house screaming into the narrator who accompanies...

There is a cat, which I believe is a pet in some near by house, for it always has a tag around its neck. And semma “pushtiyaa” vera irukum. Junior had named it as “mani” cat. He is slightly afraid to go near it as it is twice his size. But would keep biscuits for the cat from a distance, like bursting crackers with a mile long oodhuvathi. This time, he was at his veera dheera best and went slightly closer to feed the cat.  He wanted to share his conquest and achievement with everyone and was calling out for anyone who was within shouting distance.  Finding his most important person, mom, missing Junior was running around the house searching for his mom.  She called out for him from Kitchen. Since he couldn’t hear her clearly, he kept running across the hall asking which room. Paya pulla paavamaachay nu I said  “Dei Kitchen enga irukunu unaku theriyatha..which room nu suthitruka” “Enakku Kitchen enga irukunu theriyumpa..amma enga nu than therila” Intha bulb vaanginapr...

Been on my mind for a long while since the news of SPB’s demise came in. If I’ve to prepare a playlist for the songs sung by the big man, these would be on that list for sure, in no specific order. Of the several thousands just picking those that came immediately on top of my mind. “Ilaya Nila pozhigirathu” – guess without this song, no playlist for SPB would be complete. Any person with a guitar, if they hadn’t tried that interlude on this song, are not worth owning a guitar. Dot. “Omkaara naadhaanu” – Shankarabaranam is a movie that I will remember only as a audio cassette. Have never seen the movie many times but would’ve listened to the songs at least a couple of 100 times each. His best effort, possibly nascent, in semi-Carnatic song rendition “Karpoora bommai ondru” – The lady version of this song is more like a lullaby while SPB’s version doesn’t have any instrument accompanying the rendition. I tear up every time I hear his version which is so soulful and gut wrenching that thi...

What more can I say about the most saleable English novel author in India. Afterall everyone loves to hate him but never misses a chance to read his books. It is like those trash movies, that are so bad that, everyone bad mouths about it and out of curiosity to see how bad it is, everyone eventually watches it and makes the movie a blockbuster!! Ditto goes for his books as well. The example is as crude as it gets, for his books are not that bad. He has a select set of audience and he caters to them. Whether the majority of the population agrees or not has never been his problem. This time, truth be told, he has tried something quite different from his previous novels – a murder mystery. His last one was “Girl in room number 105” which again dealt with exactly same premise of a lover girl calling her lover boy to her room, only for him to get framed for her murder. This time, the fiancée calls for her fiancé only for him to see her fall to her death. But considerably better treatment th...

 At times Junior stumps you with the most simplest of actions. With all the temples being closed or restrictedly made available, it has been a really long while since any of us went to temple. And junior has been on absolute house arrest for last 6 months not venturing any where beyond the main gate. In fact very rarely only he even steps out of the house. Going to be real tough when the schools re-open. After a really long while, my sister decided to take him out for a near by Pillayaar temple. He was super excited and immediately wore a mask and got dressed. Usually when he take him to temple or even at home, while praying will always ask him to pray that, he should eat well, behave properly and shouldn’t beat anyone etc. Today after coming from temple he was jumping around as usual, having been let out of the cage after half an year. He was immediately explaining what he did and how the trip was to anyone who wasn’t part of the troupe. I asked him what did he pray to god.  ...

This book has been on pipeline for almost 4 months now. Ever since Covid was tagged as “made in Wuhan” this book has been on the news for the fact that, there is a similar premise that is being mentioned on the book. When I read the reviews, they were mostly mixed and nothing majorly was being referenced to Covid and the theme of the book. I had made up my mind that this book was going to be another Robin cook kind of a thriller written by a different author. The initial chapter itself, threw me off the rails. It felt like a Stephen King horror story with paranormal and ghost related setup. To be honest I have never read books with horror or paranormal theme. Watching them as movies itself is scary and reading them would be allowing those thoughts to take visuals via my imagination and that would make it even scarier. But for this book, I was unprepared as well for such a setting. Eerie sounds, banging windows, falling things, messages suddenly appearing on boards, music systems blasti...

As the dust settles on the grave of the great man of music, looking at the outpouring of grief on social media about the famed singer, makes one wonder on the kind of life lead by him. To me he is a statistician’s nightmare, similar to Sachin. 40K songs across so many languages!! It is an impossible record to beat for any singer of this generation or upcoming generations. The survival instinct and capability to stretch his career well over 5 decades, maintaining his longevity is another impossible feat to match or even come close. With so many singers shooting up from every channel’s talent hunt and with so many music directors shooting up, picking voices from any and everywhere, there are plenty of fish in the ocean. Quite possibly there could’ve been an equally big crowd when SPB was making his splash as well. But how he managed to out do everyone of his competitor and picked every opportunity that came his way or other is probably a lesson to learn in survival and adaptation for pre...

Time travel has always been a favorite topic of mine to ponder. Have often wondered how it would be to revisit situations in the past and interestingly very rarely have I thought of travelling to future. My mind and head are always deeply buried in the sands of time to look behind, the path that has been travelled and about the turns not taken, rather than imagining a route forming up front at that very instant. When reviews were proclaiming this web series as the best sci-fi series ever, I was bit skeptical as I wasn’t sure if it would be easier to follow. Many of the times, in the name of making it as close to being factually and scientifically correct as possible, the makers kill the story element and end up creating a documentary with weird music. Dark starts off on the right note with some one waking up from a nightmare. That guy happens to be the hero and through him the story moves backwards, forwards, side wards, across dimensions and worlds. The starting premise reminds of Abo...

PK Dash.  As a name it may not send shivers down the spine. But the situations and issues it lead to really did made some people, not just shiver but literally got themselves hurt laughing. The day of onboarding: PKD: “Hey team..i’ven’t received my credentials” Recruiter: ”Did you submit all your forms?” PKD:”Yes I did. If you want I can resend them” Rec:”That would be great. Let me check in parallel on the status of your cred creation” Recruiter to IT (over call)  Rec:”Can you check why PK Dash doesn’t have his credentials yet” IT: “PK what?” Rec: “Dash” IT: “We can’t have special characters in name field” Rec: “Pls raise it with concerned team and resolve this system issue. The employee should get his mail id by today EOD” IT: “Connect me with the employee. Will talk with him” IT to PKD IT: “ Hi, we are IT. is it PKD?” PKD:”Yes” IT: “Can you let me know your full name with right spelling” PKD:” It is P as in PK, K as in alphabet after J and Dash” IT: “what is on the dash” PK...

Have always been fond of watching interviews regarding movie people and touring talkies channel has been a wonderful medium for those who have such hobby. Chitra Lakshmanan apparently is a walking talking google on movie people. The way he approaches each interview, the amount of pause he gives after each question only interjecting at portions where if he is looped in on that response is a lesson for anyone conducting interviews. The confidence with which he handles his host, despite the familiarity or personality of the person, the kind of personal questions he asks, some of which are way too personal, as compared to coffee talk shows like that of Karan johar’s does raise eyebrows. But the intent being absolutely clear on the seriousness behind the question unlike the wimpish attitude on the other shows, is quite evident. In all probability the guest is almost always sure that the host knows the answer anyway and are relaxed in being open about something which at times are outright pr...

As people are slowly learning to live with Covid, with initial levels of carefulness leading into the usual carelessness, there are scenes that emerge akin to those at disaster struck areas, post the dust settling down. Only difference here being, the locked down public, have decided to roll the dice of fate on their own out of boredom and are gambling with their lives, literally and figuratively. But it has always been a “Sophie’s choice” of life over livelihood. There were voices of GDP getting wiped out, economy in shambles, industrial sectors under irrevocable damage etc during the peak news coverage of pandemic. Now that the death and infection due to the disease, has become a mere statistic, relegated to a single slide of metrics, with mystery death of an up and coming actor taking up primetime coverage, the actual impact to the society, both financially and emotionally is slowly getting unraveled. Lucky for the present government, they don’t have an election to face at least...

What more can I say about this lady, whose every book makes me go WOW in amazement. So many different and more importantly original plot ideas, so many clues and event sequences conjured in that wickedly intelligent brain, so many villains with their devious ways of making a kill and every one of them equally or even better than the other. In this novel, as literally as the title goes, a murder is not just announced, but is advertised on a newspaper. Even though the premise and setup sounds ridiculously illogical, the master that she is, makes it as close to believable as possible. It is one of the slowest paced novel of her that I’ve read till now and really stretches your patience till Miss Marple makes an entry as late as 70 pages into the 250 pager. There are a curious bunch of villagers who gather at the house where the murder is supposed to happen, assuming it to be some public show. Dot on time as marked, the mystery guy does make an appearance and power goes out. Shots are hear...

 As with the first book, this one also is being read in bits and pieces and i am relishing every single chapter of it. One alarming thing that i noticed was, when i started reading this book, Covid was raising its head and soon hit a peak that was not even imagined by anyone. The previous book had talked about great diseases like plague and global level catastrophes in the form of war and famine. It was almost as if the virus was thumbing its nose at us and our present way of living. The more i started reading the second book, the more it made me realize, how true the concepts mentioned in the book were as compared to real life!!! It is a morbid comparison, but if one could compare the number of lives lost due to malaria, typhoid, water borne diseases, malnutrition as against the present pandemic, it definitely makes one wonder, why they were never dealt with such seriousness? Even now, the media covers Americas, Asia, Europe and the Australian continents. There is one major a...

At times, the universe sends you responses and replies across unforeseen mediums. With this covid adding to already depressing scenarios, getting addicted to mobile phone has only added to insomnia. My sleeping cycle entirely went for a toss and I was having trouble sleeping before 4AM. It further added to the mood and was thoughts were going on a downward spiral. Was getting irritated with everything and one night, unable to sleep, was wondering about how things would’ve been different for a “had it been” scenario. I never realized when I slept and next day stumbled on this tamil movie, “Oh my kadavulay”. Curiously, my friend had given me this movie long time back, recommending it as a decent watch and I had misplaced it. While browsing through some OTT landed on this one. To my surprise, the story was very similar to what I was thinking the previous night. The hero gets into a situation and wonders out loud to God himself, who gives him a ticket to try the road not taken. Evident...

 Another amazing movie recommendation from a friend of mine. I had watched this movie trailer couple of times and had given it a pass previously. Wasn’t sure how “James Bond” Daniel Craig would fit in role of a regular detective. After I saw the post that it was Agatha Christie meet Stephen king, was more than intrigued. As luck would’ve it, the movie was removed from the OTT I had subscribed for and after a hunt finally managed to catch hold of it. It not only has James Bond but also “Captain America” Chris Evans in it. Usually, people who get stereotyped into playing superheroes across couple of movies, find it hard to gel with regular characters shrugging off their much celebrated roles. With Avengers and Marvel universe movies running into dozens, any actor who had been part of those franchise have more or less settled for their career I guess. Both financially and variant role wise. It is very difficult to relate them to regular characters as well. Ditto goes for James Bond ro...

 Off late I’ve been watching way too many movies across multiple languages. Almost a couple of them a day. The biggest plus of OTT being, getting to watch other language movies that I would’nt have ever tried before. Have been hearing about this movie for a while and with Vijay Devarakonda’s career hitting all time high with his recent releases and this one having already won national awards, wanted to check it, but was awaiting a version with sub titles. Finally managed to land upon one and boy, was it a sweet surprise.  The movie was fresh from first reel itself and even though I couldn’t put a finger on it, there was something refreshing and relatable about it from the very beginning. The ease with which the character introduction happens and the setting is established, shows the knack of the director and wiki told that he was already a past master in making short films. It was evident with the speed with which he introduces the story along with the characters and on the mi...

Last couple of days had 2 experiences which were really interesting and felt were worth mentioning as well. One was about a book that I am presently reading – Year of Intern by Robin cook and other was an interview on a Youtube channel of a director.  I have read many of his novels, but this particular novel of Cook had a different feel from beginning page itself. The foreword by Cook mentioned that the entire novel was written from inside a submarine and probably was one his earlier novels. Initially I couldn’t put a finger on it but when I realized that the first chapter went never ending, finishes at 102 page, something struck. Whenever I write blog posts, I just keep typing whatever comes to mind. Never ever had I any thought of converting any of the stories into books or even to write one for that matter from scratch. But realized that, if at all I had tried my hand, the end result would’ve been something similar. The novel that I am reading is just half way down and rest of t...

With blockbuster creativity, Hot star gave away the movie for free to everyone who cared to download the app. What a way to cash in on the current sentiment over the deceased hero!! Wonder why no one bothered to raise a finger, whichever one it is, to this unabashed attempt at free publicity. But they are not alone in this. Ever since Sushant committed suicide, entire Bollywood is up in arms against its ow self. Any one who has vendetta against anyone else, takes to air to vent out, stating all they want to say and tagging they suffered just like Sushant. His death has become a public vehicle for movie fraternity to wash its dirty linen in public. If not for covid, we would’ve have supplementary editions of every single paper on print, having cover to cover interviews of every so called celebrity. Nevertheless, the movie did make it to the public and people lapped it up like anything to say the least. Whether it was because of the ongoing euphoria around Sushant or for the fact that it...

Restarting the movie musical series with this one, pending since I saw Gulabo Sitapo. It is a repent in a way to get over that movie!!! I don’t remember the first time I saw the movie, but it sure must be on doordarshan. First time when I saw the “Meet na mila de man ka” song it made me immediately realized one of my childhood photos with dad, where I had similar checked shirt/suit over a round neck. The song being a nice drawl was an addition to my thoughts on vanity. “tere mere milan ki” was an immediate favorite and the sadness on kishore’s voice coupled with the anguish on lata’s voice was mesmerizing. It has always remained as the favorite across many a playlist of mine. Wonder how that Mangeshkar lady makes magic just with her voice alone to suit to the situation and lyrics. But to me the best of the lot was, “tere bindiya re”. Rafi in all his mellifluous best coupled with shy yet clear quality on lata’s voice was magic. When I saw the picturized version recently, was amazed at a...

First of all, a huge shout out for the immense guts with which the movie has been made. And kudos to chettan and chechi’s for not burning Kerala down. Can’t imagine this theme or concept being released anywhere else in India. The movie deals with addiction as the theme and how religion is used/misused rather, as the all potent addictive of all time. The story travels on how people use blind faith as a cash cow and Christianity has been marked as the sample religion. Replace it with any other religion the situation and scenes would exactly be the same. After watching this movie, my respect for Fahadh as an actor has grown leaps and bounds. Not that it is of any matter to him but my movie watching list is surely enriched by one greatly talented actor. He owns every single minute of the 150 plus minutes of running time. Initial scenes are having tamil dialogues and I was wondering whether I am watching the tamil version. Later realized that the setup was in Kanyakumari. Be it as a over en...

Ever since they started this online schooling, more than junior, it has been a pain revisited for me. Naan padicha kaalathulaye school and teachers na avlo “ishtam”. Sitting even for 45 minutes in these online classes, that too so early in the day at 10 AM is becoming a boring routine. Both me and junior adichify kottam till 1AM and would be halfway into dream land when mommy dearest would ulukkify both of us from our slumber. Junior would sleep walk, literally, into brushing his teeth and if luck/mood permits might even take bath. I have the luxury of staying gabbu. Once the video is switched on, both of us would yawn in unison. The moment the session is logged out, junior would be at his sprightly best. Wonder how the parents who doesn’t have net connection or system at home manage? The school management has “generously” and graciously permitted the children to even come on mobile phone to attend the class. What if they’ve siblings and having two classes at same time is a multiple co...