Monthly Archives: August 2008

Dhaam Dhoom

To say that this movie was heights of kodumai would be an understatement! That was the opinion amongst all of us who watched this movie.

The only things that I liked in the entire movie were the lush green fields of the village and the locations of the song that came post-interval (Yaaro?) – the green mountains and then the temple (seemed like some Karnataka temple) and its tank. I absolutely loved the beautiful combination that the green mountains and the not-so-clear blue skies with some very nice shades of blue made! The blue water from which Ravi emerges unconscious looked nice too. Now that I have raved enough about nature’s beauty, let me move on to other things in the movie.
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Blue

Blue is my favourite colour. Nature’s beauty is at its best in the form of blue sky and blue waters. Beautiful is the word I would associate with blue. Yet I have always wondered why blue is also used to mean gloomy, depressed, sadness, etc. Though the answer was always just a Google search away 😛 , thanks to sheer laziness on my part, I finally found the answer only today. In case you are interested in knowing it, assuming of course, you don’t already know it, here is what wikipedia says:

In the English language, blue may refer to the feeling of sadness. “He was feeling blue”. This is because blue was related to rain, or storms, and in Greek mythology, the god Zeus would make rain when he was sad (crying), and a storm when he was angry. Kyanos was a name used in Ancient Greek to refer to dark blue tile (in English it means blue-green or cyan). The phrase “feeling blue” is linked also to a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships. If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port.

Life

One of my favourite quotes from Calvin & Hobbes is ‘That’s one of the remarkable things about life. It’s never so bad that it can’t get worse.’ This can really help one to look at the current condition in a positive way and help them comfort themselves. But how would you feel when every time just as you try to somehow make yourself appear cheerful despite all the problems, life makes it a point to keep showing that it really can become worse? How long do you think you will be able to take it all?

Time is said to be the best healing factor. But does time really heal? Yes time does help one accept things, those things which you never even imagined you would be able to bear, and move on with life. So is healing all about just finally being able to accept things in life?

Why ban mobile phones??

One of the engineering colleges in Chennai has this rule that says that students are not allowed to have mobile phones with them when they are inside the campus. This rule is applicable to those staying in hostel too. So when someone wants to contact a student staying in hostel they have to call the phone number given by the college. Now here’s where the problem comes.
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Some lesser known temples of Madras – a power point presentation and talk by Chitra Madhavan

I absolutely loved this talk by Chitra Madhavan. This was conducted as part of the Madras Week celebrations. Being someone who has visited lots of temples in Madras and who loves visiting temples and admiring the sculptures and architectures there, I had decided to attend this talk the day I saw the events lined up for celebrating Madras Week.

For this interesting talk that lasted for about an hour, Chitra had chosen some 20 temples in Chennai. Along with ‘some lesser known temples of Madras’, ‘some lesser known details about some famous temples’ were also a part of this lecture. With relevant photos being shown in the power point presentation, she spoke about the different architectural styles that these temples have, the era to which they belonged to, the inscriptions at these temples and some of the temple sculptures, among other things.
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Bowled over by Bowli & Nattakurunji!

Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
Nagai Muralidharan – Violin
Guruvayoor Dorai – Mridangam
Neyveli Venkatesh – Khanjira

Where & When? – Krishna Gana Sabha on 17th August

Concert duration: 2hrs 45 min

Songs List:
1. Varnam – Nattakurunji
2. Raa rama inti – Asaveri – Swarams at raa rama
3. Entarani – Harikambhoji – neraval & swarams at sheshudu
4. ambarame – Kalyani – Alapana, swarams at sempor kazhaladi
5. Nagagandhari – Nagagandhari – Alapana
6. innum paramugam yaeno – Begada
7. Parvati nayaka – Bowli – Alapana, Swarams at Parvati nayaka – Tani avartanam
8. RTP – Nattakurunji – Pallavi: manadhil urudhi vaendum vaakkinil inimai vaendum – Triputa, Misra chapu – Swarams in Subhapantuvarali Kumudakriya
9. kaaNi nilam vaendum – Ragamalika (Hamsadhwani, ?, Sindhu Bhairavi)
10. nijagadasa – Sindhu Bhairavi
11. idhuvo tillai – Sindhu Bhairavi
12. Mangalam – Sowrashtram
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Going gaga over Sanjay’s singing!

I switched on the computer to write about Sanjay’s amazing concert yesterday in which he sang the Nattakurunji varnam and an awesome Nattakurunji RTP among other pieces. As I started typing the list of songs, I started listening to his Nattakurunji varnam on repeat mode. Lost in the magic of Nattakurunji, I stopped the typing and started listening to more of his Nattakurunji – two different recordings of Jagadeesha and Vazhi Maraitthirukkudhe. Listening to Vazhi Maraitthirukkudhe made me want to listen to Ananda natana prakasham. Listening to it on repeat mode, I started browsing through Sanjay’s recordings that I have. After listening to a beautiful RTP in Hamirkalyani, I am now listening to the brilliant Bhageshri RTP. I have not been doing anything other than listening to Sanjay’s recordings non-stop for more than 5 hours now and still yeh dil maange more! 😉 Am at a loss of words to describe the effect that Sanjay’s music has on me. Sanjay is the best! 🙂