A new blog!

Started a new blog today. A tamil blog. The link is here. Why sudden enthu? Read a few tamil blogs in the last few weeks and felt like having one for myself. Initially I had posted that tamil post here in this blog, but it looked awkward, with both tamil and an english post side by side, so I decided I would create one seperately for the tamil blog.

It has been ages since I have written in Tamil and I have almost forgotten it. While it comes to choose between the 'na's or 'ra's or 'la's, I am struggling now. Which one should I use out of the two for this word!? Bad, very bad! May be it goes to show that you forget everything in this world (that includes your mother tongue as well) if you are not in a constant touch with that. Ok, now that I have started this, I want to continue writing in Tamil. One thing is, I found it very difficult to type in English and transliterate it to Tamil and post. I used this software called 'Baraha' and I am learning the ways as to how quickly I can type it out using shortcuts and all that. If anybody knows a better software than that or better way of doing this, let me know. People who already have Tamil blogs and reading this post, you might help me out. Of course, I need a freely downloadable software :D

Fatty, Smiling and Singing

These were the two comments by two influential people in my life. Both their names start with S, both know me for some time now and I met both of them in two different places under different circumstances recently and both had to say this:
1. I have become fat
2. I have got a huge smile on my face like never they have seen in me before.

It is funny how people tell me this: "Hey dude,(aah, the wretched word again!) are you hitting the gym regularly these days?". How nice, indirect way of saying, "Hey idiot, why dont you do something about your body?". Few are direct though. They tell me face to face, better go to gym, otherwise you would start looking bad. What can I do? I cant control eating a lot. I accept, I eat a lot and I dont exercise. Hmm, sometime I have to start gymming regularly.

And with respect to smile, I am happy from within and so it shows up on face. Nothing special about that. One of the S'es above even asked me whether it was because I got some 'chick' in my life now. I told S that may be I am happy 'cos I dont currently have one!

Anyways, these are some songs am absolutely mad at, right now.Listening to them many times these days. Giving a list here. You might have heard them all.In case you havent try them and tell me how did you like them:
1. Sindoori Aasmaan Hai from the hindi movie James
2. Sooraj Ki Kiranon from the hindi movie James

Man, Sonu Nigam's voice is like too good in these two songs and what a find in that female voice of Shweta Pandit. I am dying for these two songs. Absolutely slow songs and if you listen them back to back, you wont feel that they are two different songs.

3. Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal from the tamil movie 7G Rainbow Colony
4. Lajjavathiyey from the tamil movie Four Students

These two songs, I agree are little old, but I started becoming mad at them recently.Feels great listening to them.

5. Poo Maalai Vaangi Vandhaan from the tamil movie Sindhu Bhairavi

An absolute classic. No matter how much ever hard I try, I dont come even to close to Jesudas while singing this one. I hope to reach his stage one day though!

High-Fives

Ok, replies to the tag from CB and also from freeingmind. Here we go:

Five movies which I like the most

1. Page 3 (Hindi)
2. Black (Hindi)
3. Munnabhai MBBS (Hindi)
4. The Monster (English)
5. Cast Away (English)

Actually I have more to add. But then, the post is High-Fives!

Five things I can never live without

Oops. This question has made me think a lot.Cha,I can adjust to anything in life:If the food is bad,ok, I would eat whatever is there. No TV, no problem for me.No job, I am more than happy to sit idle. What can be done to me?I am thinking what I do everyday time and again that certain things have become integral part of me. After serious thinking, this is what the list came out to be:

1. Myself,hale,healthy and breathing. An obvious thing, but its important, you see

2. Vegetarian Food. I can eat anything you give me veg, even if its little bad in taste. But no non-veg please

3. Some sort of communication tool:It can be e-mail,messenger,telephone or mobile phone.I usually like to be connected to my family and friends.Even if thats not the case, I might use many of them to just pass time.Not that I need all of them, but atleast one of them

4. Worrying,thinking unnecessary things and spending time doing unimportant things. This is based on what I have been so far.I wish to remove this from the list one day though!

5. Singing,Songs and Music.Not that am a great singer or I listen to great variety of music, but I do sing within myself if I am doing nothing. I sing when am happy, I sing when am sad, all inside of me.No one might notice it.I like songs with good lyrics and I like analysing song lyrics.And I do listen to songs a lot.

Five most favourite celebrities

Aaah. Very few that I know and very few in that I admire.I give them all in five pairs.

1. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, Formula 1 Drivers.
Most of them who know me, know that am a hardcore MS fan.Kimi might be a surprise to many.Effect of 2005 season.Suzuka 2005 is a race I would never forget in life.And now MS retires,I have someone whom I would support.

2. Sean Hayes and Megan Mullaly, actors.
For the uninitiated, Jack and Karen of the sitcom 'Will and Grace'.Best comedy actors on earth,according to me.

3. Asha Bhonsle and P.Suseela, singers, Indian Cinema.
How did they get the voice they have, is a mystery!God only knows...

4. Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf,tennis players. I am a huge fan of these two.

5. Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi,national leaders.
Seems like a paradox,but they have something in common.They were able to charge up the whole of the nation and fight for a cause which they believed in.One was successful and the other failed in his mission,but the thing is,it is amazing to note that, one man if he wishes to change the world around him, he can do it! I would like to read the autobiographies of these two someday in my life.

Five things I miss now

What I would say is we dont 'really' miss anything in life that because of that everything else stops and life comes to a standstill.What if you are staying away from family and friends? Do you miss them? Yes, but what is the effect on you? You feel sad, yes, but life goes on.So there is no point in missing anything in life.Again goes to the same old philosophy:If you miss something so badly in life and if its something attainable, you would do all possible things to achieve that thing.Also, you always know that you have to miss few things for a period of time in your life so that you grow higher,better and stronger.

Ok, stop being preachy.People who read this, know all these stuff.Come to the question. What do I miss? Yeah, if these things were there, I would feel a lot better, let me put it that way.But is that what is meant by missing? Hmm, lets not get into that question, but lets go to the answers

1.Parents and home food.

2.People to stay along with.Sometimes solitude can be so bad that it would drive you to do crazy things. You would start thinking all crap and do all crap.So I miss my friends who would have been excellent people to stay with.

3.College:The grades I missed and the assignments I didnt do and copied instead :).Might sound silly to many, but I mean it a lot.If I imagine the situation where things are not the way they are with respect to these and much better instead,I would have been a different person in a different world.

4.The trust, good will and good relations that I had broken with few people.I cant do much about it except think about it and curse myself for doing the same.I wish things would have stayed much better with them.

5.Strong will power, specific aim in life, dedication and continous effort in achieving that goal

Anyway,some of these things I cant change even I wish to. So no point cribbing about those.If I want some thing so badly and if thats achievable, I would have to get it. So let me stop it there.

Five things I plan to do in near future

Aaaah. Not the kind of person who would 'plan and execute' effectively. Planning, yeah, am good at it.The problem comes with execution. Anyway, the question is what have I planned?

1. To do higher studies abroad
2. To learn swimming
3. To get Driver's License
4. To re-join some other gym
5. To be happy,worry free,sincere towards my goals above

Last movie I borrowed to watch & still not given back

I am sincere with respect to this though. I return all of them promptly well before the deadline :)Chaos might say Ghajini,but that is either yours or your room mates' responsibility to return :)
(May be I shall make a seperate post on my CD renting episodes).

By the way,in the post of High-Fives, why did this question come up? Sambhar only knows!

Five books I love

1.The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
2.The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
3.Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
4.Harry Potter collection of JK Rowling
5.Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Five people I pass this HIGH FIVES to

Hmm, after browsing little bit as to who has not yet been tagged in the list of blogs I read, I pass the baton to:
1.Venkat
2.Vishnu
3.Maharaj
4.Bhavani
5.Poornima

There are others as well who havent been tagged yet,but they hardly post, so I didnt bother tagging them.Let me see how many of these five continue the High-Fives thing.Guys and gals, do it if you get time and most importantly, if you want to!

Ok,me gonna take some rest from blog world and also from tag posts. Thats two in a day.Be back some time later. Till then,jike and others, have a good time.

Book[Tagg]ed - I

Ok, This is the first of the tag posts. I was tagged on June 19 by Woodworm,these are my replies.Very late response, I know. Just was too lazy to write on it.

Anyways,Here we go:

Total Books I own:
If that meant non-academic books:Hmm. Very less. Say,less than 20. Even if it meant academic books, the answer remains the same.I used to take novels from Woodworm,his library was freely accessible to me and I miss it. I buy books very rarely.

Last books I bought:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin S.Sharma

Last book I read:
The Monk who sold his Ferrari

Currently reading:
Nothing. I have borrowed three books from my friends though:
Disgrace by JM Coetzee,
A Gateway to India by E.M.Forster
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Though started a bit on Disgrace,havnet continued it.The goal for me now is to finish these three next before buying or borrowing further.

Books that have had an impact on me:
1. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Amazing book.If I have to create too much of hype out here I would say this: I would rate this book to be my bible.The greatest thing about this book is its simplicity.Its very very simple and very very powerful.Kind of book that can change your life for better, forever. Ok,coming out of the hype thing,I loved the simple story of this spanish boy,Santiago,his dream and how he realises it.If you compare this book with The Monk who sold his Ferrari, you would clearly see the difference between the two.The goal of both the books is kind of same, but I found The Alchemist better because, it was not too preachy, didnt bother you with any principles or mantras. Agreed, its a fable,but the message was conveyed better.Loved it

2. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Definitely would go down as one of the favourite books for many who would have read it.The story was told in such a way that I couldnt figure out truth from fiction. Dan Brown does a lot of research before writing on a subject and also wants to be in the centre of controversies, I believe.What other impact did it have on me!? Yeah, I searched the web whether Jesus Christ indeed had a wife and a child or not, it also made me buy Angels and Demons and made me read Deception Point. Digital Fortress, I havent read it, I was adviced not to!

3.The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
I was told that the book would be damn depressing. Yes, it was, indeed.But I liked this one a lot.Leaves you with a heavy heart and makes you feel sad.Because I was able to identify myself with the central character many times that I liked it, I dont know, may be yes.

Apart from these three, yeah add these as well. I have reviewed these books already on the blog, so am not going too much into them

4. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

5. Good Earth - Pearl S Buck

6. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

7. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Good collection of short stories. Liked all of them except the one on that house.

Books that did not have any impact on me:
1. Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Guess I read it just for Namesake. Again was reviewed already in the blog.So skipping details.

2. Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
I dont know,somebody explain me what is good about this novel, I found it very very boring.I was not able to appreciate it much.There are books like say, The God of Small Things, which I wont say was a great book, but atleast I didnt feel boring reading it. I was able to appreciate Ms.Roy's book if I see it from a child's point of view. But how much ever I look into Moor's Last Sigh, it doesnt make much sense to me.

Now, I have made this post as Part 1 of the series. I guess I would write a post like this every year once or if I am enthued enough at regular intervals and give my views on the books I have read in that period.

And I am not tagging anyone specifically in this post.Anyone whos reading this post, if they wish to write on the same lines, do write about the books you have read and what you liked,what you didnt like and leave me a note. I would read you.

Cb, your tag post next.Looks like Freeingmind has also tagged me on High Fives. So would write for you two and all those who might/have tagged me on High Fives

PS: Madam, if you reading this post, is it from The Alchemist that you got Maktub? I thought of you when I came across the word :)

She sang!

I moved towards her cabin, slowly and steadily and gave her door a gentle knock. She turned towards the door as I entered her room. There she was,in a green sari,no major changes around her.The first thing I asked her was that whether she recognised me(I least expected her to, for she meets so many people like me in her everyday life).She said that I have grown large(thats her polite way of saying that I have become fat!?),that I have become darker than before and I have got this huge smile on my face which she has not seen before and then she said that if she is not mistaken, I am... she uttered my name,bang on target the first time,without any hesitation or even a second of thinking. I was amazed,stupefied and whatever word you can think of for getting amazed, think of it. I didnt expect that from her.I told her that she was too good at that and that I never thought she would remember me by my name.

Then we started talking.She was the kind of person whom anyone would easily get friendly with. The conversation went into so many different things. We talked about the place as such, how it has changed so much infrastructure wise, but not much other wise.People have not changed much, I saw the same old faces mostly,but yeah few of them,we miss."This is not a place where changes are possible so easily", she said.But yeah,I have seen her drive a Bajaj Chetak before, I now see her driving a car.She says that, it helps her a lot as she travels a lot to the places nearby. She admitted that the number of four wheelers and two wheelers have increased in the place apart from the mobile phones. We talked about her husband, her two kids, got lost while admiring the sketches drawn by one of her kids.She would then tell me about the students these days, how bold and self-managing they are, compared to the timid faces of us she used to see long back. She says that students these days have become so smart and they dont need much of their help. And that smile on her face is something I would never forget. I am a big fan of her smile.The thirty minute talk I would have had with her after some years now,is something that I would definitely cherish.

She sang(as always)
I listened to her(as always)
We talked, we laughed,exchanged stories(as always)
Then we departed(as always)
Only to meet some other day(as always)