Kanden Seethaiyai!!!

I am a big fan of old S V Sekhar comedy dramas. Such a huge fan that I use many of his drama dialogues in everyday conversation. Comedy relief is especially the need of the hour!! Listen to his "Aayiram udai vaangiya aboorva sigamani" to find that the current political situation in TN is not all that different!

Listening to SVS drama cassettes on tape recorder was an entertaining passtime in the early 90s. It all started off with "Ellarum Vaanga". Logic less mindless laugh riot! "Periya Thambi", "Kadhule Poo", "Oru sondha veedu vaadagai veedagirathu", "Mahabharathil Mangatha" are my favourites. I think I can confidently say I've listened to all of his dramas now. I'm not sure of the chronological order but dramas with SVS & Sunda combination are the most enjoyable.

Now with youtube genie, I've also found video of some of his dramas. Looks like these are recently recorded ones. While trying to match those familiar voices with faces, I couldn't find the lead female character of the old dramas. The lady who lent her beautiful & awesome voice to characters Narasamma alias Seetha in "Ellarum Vaanga", Viji in "Kaatule Mazhai", Champa Devi in "Mahabharathathil Mangatha" was nowhere to be found!

After exhausting all full length dramas, I started on his TV serials. While listening to one of the episode called "Priyamulla Philomina" in "Nam Kudumban", I heard that lady voice again as "Philomina"! After finding the video of the episode, kanden Seethaiyai!!! I felt so overjoyed as if I found a long lost friend!

Any one knows the name of this actress??

Internet-il kandathum suttadhum

 OMG!!

 I-yo!!

 And the top-tucker!!

11/12/13

With cooler weather comes all kinds of fevers - viral, black friday and this year's added special, Sachin retirement fever!

Black friday craze is getting crazier by each passing year. Last year it was slightly promoted to late Thursday and this year the online version started from the start of the Thanksgiving week! Each and every year one or two items will go in my temptation list but by the time I consider and reconsider the item/time everything will pass!

Appappa! Even Sachin wouldn't have imagined this kind of a mega retirement party! Or else he would've decided to retire sooner! ;) Even after the official announcement when the last few matches were referred as his last match in Eden gardens, last match in Wankede I thought he would go around the world playing last Oval test, last Lords test etc. Wonder how his family is going to entertain him now?

Before I got the chance to recommend/suggest books to A1, she has already understood my taste in books and suggests good reads for me from her list! Though it surprised me a little I realised that I neither had access to as many books as her nor were they as many age appropriate books when I was her age. "Out of my mind" by Sharon Draper was one of them and it was moving story of a 10 year old girl with cerebral palsy. Powerful writing, real characters you can identify with woven in an emotional story! For a lighter read, I enjoyed "Eight keys" by Suzanne Lafleur,

Yaar Bharathi - A recent gem I found in youtube mine and on time for the birth anniversary of Bharathiyaar!
Like TTM mentioned in his last comment, youtube has become a video akshayapaatiram! S V Sekhar dramas are going in repeat mode. Haven't found that many Crazy Mohan dramas in there. Another latest favorite is Tamil 70s hits! Most not park-able but honey to the ears! This week I am watching Suhasini's Penn serial!

Para(web)sites

Last Saturday was one of my friend's birthday and I meant to send her a wish all weekend, only I never got around to it. On Monday morning I was greeted by a thank you msg from that very same friend on facebook and I was wondering if I sent her the wish after all or does facebook even read my mind?! After probing my facebook page, I realised when I accepted a greeting card from another friend a while back, that greetings app(or whatever!) had got stuck to my page and sends cards on my behalf!! Phew!!

Youtube is my best friend now! Any old, new, in-the-middle song, show or any audio/video of the past, present or future I just go scratch the youtube genie and lo! Recently I found a song so divine that I picked up courage to hit the 'like' button! The next day all our hotmail inboxes had extra junk mails! I was like "How?"(like Varun(Nagesh Kukunoor) says with a stress on the "H" in Hyderabad blues!)!

My latest research... Extroverts have twitter accounts and post one liners all thro' the day. Introverts have blogs and write paragraphs after paragraphs! You ask what about people who tweet as well as blog? I am working on that for my PhD!

Peri(ya)gee Moon

This past weekend's full moon was the special perigee moon The weather unusually cooperative with temperatures in the 70s, the kids enjoying their stay-up-late allowance and oohing & aahing at the yellowish moon rising in the horizon, A2 thinking it was the sun rising again and A1 wondering if it was a comet, it was quite an interesting night. All said and done, I still think, the rising moon seen at the Marina beach in Chennai appears even bigger and more beautiful especially with bgm by Mr.Waves.

P.S. - Boasting about all the technological and other developments in this 21st century, why-o-why do we still have to follow this 19th century practice of "daylights savings"? Can't the clocks be adjusted a half hour instead of going back and forth? Any petitions going around to change this system?

Books Roundup!

My recent fascination for cross-culture/multi-culture stories led me to read quite a few books. Interestingly, only after starting this post I realised that all in my listing were written by female authors!


Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - Sister of my heart

A very engaging story of two girl friends almost brought up as sisters. Anju and Sudha join my unforgettable characters list. The mothers, the aunt, the early Calcutta life described are all so realistic. The sudden but deep relationship of Sudha and Ashok felt so bollywoodish and the unnecessary Sudha-Sunil angle was a dampener(especially after the cute first encounter between Anju and Sunil)! Can be made into a nice mega serial (especially because of the portrayal of Sudha's MIL!). After reading this, I went on a Chitra D. B. novels reading spree but none of them were as good as this one.

Samina Ali - Madras on rainy days

Ofcourse, it was Madras on the title which made me pick the book in the first place. Even though the story's significant turning point(supposedly, even though one can sense it all along!)happens in Madras, I was disappointed because of my expectation from the title! The story is quite unusual in the sense that it is about an American bred Indian girl getting (arranged) married to a Hyderabadi guy. Inspite of having lived in India for quarter century, the life of Hyderabadi Muslims portrayed in the story was as foreign as the life of Afghans as described in Kite Runner. Anyway, it was quite different and serious natured than I had expected.

Laura Fitzgerald - Veil of roses

The gist at the back cover got me interested in this book. It is about an Iranian woman who comes to visit her sister in the US with the intention of finding a suitor to marry and settle in the states. The story started of very interesting that I found it hard to put down the book. But as the story progressed, it began to feel like Mills and Boon novel! Tamila Soroush, the main character of the novel didn't seem to have any depth even though there were some affecting bits about Iranian life(like that of Tami's parents who send both their daughters away to the US hoping for a better life for them inspite of the fact that they would never ever get to see them or the little freedoms like music, friends, strolls that one cannot enjoy in Iran). Timepass!

Pearl Buck - The Good Earth

A pulitzer award winning novel! It is the story of a Chinese farmer in the turn of the century. I was surprised at how culturally similar Chinese life was to that of Indian. The story reminded me of old b/w melo-dramatic Indian movies! The description of the life of farmers depending on nature once again brought back the plight of our farmers and all farmers around the world!

Round About!

Age of Innocence - Been wanting to read this Edith Wharton novel for quite a long time. Got to read it only now. Might have been a bold story in its time. As always I so wanted to watch the screen version as soon as I finished reading the book. But somehow Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer as Newland Archer and Countess Olenska respectively don't quite match the Archer and Olenska of my imagination. Anybody know of any other television series and/or older screen versions?

Somehow the story kept reminding me of Prince Charles' life. What difference a few centuries make!! When Charles and Camilla got married I couldn't help wonder at how their love triumphed after 30 years (despite all the tragedies in between)! True love, huh?

Anyway, happy Valentine's Day! Specially to the newbies,

and


For the oldies, mommies and crybabies, enjoy this!!

Do you....

(also) pace up and down while chatting on the phone?

Anyway,
the one and only habitable planet (until Corot proves otherwise!) that we know of is nearing its yet another 'venduthal' around Su(rya)n! Time again for new resolutions, hopes, plans, subscription renewals, account recharges...
Wishing everyone a good New Year!

For your eyes only!

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink.
If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture.
After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating.
It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear. This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see.



Happy Deepavali!

Outsourcing!

Blog-hopping, I come across a lot of book recommendations. Most of them are fictions which I am hoping to read in the (near) future. Deepak had posted this while reading "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman, a non-fiction which seemed quite interesting. Recently my husband suggested that I read this. "The World is Flat" seems to be its inspiration and I was thrilled that I was aware of that book!!

Appy birthday Kichna!!!

Enjoy some Krishna Jayanthi photos!


Kutti Krishna(s)



P. S. - We are going on Vacation for a week. So, catch up with you all after the labour day weekend. Happy long weekend[this week in India(not for everyone?) and next week in US]!!

1000th Issue of RD!!

I am not a voracious reader but reading is one of my favourite hobbies. Did not quite realise how a teeny-tiny baby could change one's life. Anyway, after a couple of years of break and inspired by fellow bloggers(especially, Balaji, and Munimma who with 2 kids, blog, read, watch movies, write stories etc. etc.!!!), I decided to renew my Reader's Digest subscription as a first step. Yesterday, I received my first issue and it was the 1000th issue of RD!! Let's see if I can live up to the challenge of finishing one book in one month!!!!

Happy Friendship day!!

Keep smiling, keep shining
Knowing you can always count on me, for sure
That’s what friends are for
In good times, in bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
Oh, that’s what friends are for

That's what friends are for

Dil Chahta Hai, Dil Chahta Hai
Dil Chahta Hai, Kabhi Na Beete Chamkeele Din
Dil Chahta Hai, Hum Na Rahein Kabhi Yaaron Ke Bin

Dil chahta hai

Mera to jo bhi kadam hain, woh teri hi rahon main hain.
Ke tu kahi bhi rahain tu meri nigahaon main hain.

Mera jo bi kadham hai

mustafaa mustafaa Don't worry mustafaa
kaalam nam thoazhan mustafaa
Day by day day by day vaazhkaip payanam day by day
muzhugaadha Shippay FRIENDSHIP dhan

Mustafa mustafa

Children's Rhymes?

Thanks to our daughter, now my husband and I know more nursery rhymes than we ever did! We have this CD collection with 100 rhymes. I was surprised that I only knew about 10-15 songs in the entire collection. Slowly along with my daughter, I too learnt them. Most of the songs are really cute like 'How much is the doggy in the window, Wooh, wooh!' or 'Do your ears hang low?' But there are some which are crude, gory.

There is this lullaby called 'Rock-a-bye baby'

Rock-a-bye, baby,
In the treetop,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall,
And down will come baby,Cradle and all.

I'm puzzled why anybody would sing this to their child?

Then, there is this famous, 'Three blind mice'

Three blind mice,
Three blind mice
See how they run,
See how they run!
They all ran after the farmer's wife
She cut off their tails with a carving knife
Did you ever see such a sight in your life
As three blind mice?

The farmer's wife in the rhyme is believed to be Queen Mary I of England. Mary was a Catholic and her persecution of Protestants led to her nickname, Bloody Mary. The three blind mice are said to have been three Protestant noblemen who were convicted of plotting against Mary. She didn't have them chopped up as the poem suggests, instead they were burned at the stake.
(http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/mailbox/
tm_objectid=15719201&method=full&siteid=
86024&headline=mailbox-name_page.html)

My daughter often hums this song called Clementine. The lyrics goes something like this...

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling
Oh, my darling Clementine
You are lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

How I missed her, how I missed her
How I missed my Clementine
Till I kissed her little sister
And forgot my Clementine!!!!!!!!

And there are a few rhymes my daughter refuses to listen to. One of them is

My bonnie lies over the ocean
My bonnie lies over the sea
My bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my bonnie to me

Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

My daughter can't understand English and it puzzles me if she can sense the mood of the song that she doesn't want to sing/listen!!

The whole idea for this post came to me since my daughter has started asking what these rhymes mean when we read/listen.