Maradhi Manni

An Important Place To Visit If You Are In Chennai - Anna Centenary Library

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:03:00 +0000

Anna Centenary Library, Chennai

I and my niece visited this famous library in Chennai, yesterday. This was built two years back and we used to watch it coming up very often whenever we crossed the road (Kotturpuram). But somehow we missed to visit though we used to talk of visiting often.

Now, after Jayalalitha took over the government, we again started discussing of visiting because she threatened to make it into a children's hospital (news here). The earlier Chief Minister had taken lot of pains to build this library according to international standard. Thank god, the court has stayed Jayalalitha's move.

All these days, we were thinking that the library will be mostly full of Tamil books. We are wrong. Please have a look at what wikipedia says about this library:

Built on 8 acres of land, the 9 floor library building houses a total area of 333,140 sq. ft. and has a capacity to accommodate 1.2 million books. The library has planned to adopt an integrated library management system that includes automated issue and return of books, user smarkcards, access controls, Radio Frequencey Identification technology and self-check counters. The library is designed to accommodate a total of 1,250 persons, an auditorium of 10,000 sq.ft. with aseating cpacity of 1,280 and an amphitheatre on the terrace that can accommodate more than 800 persons and two concerence halls with capacities of 151 and 30 persons are some of the facilities available. A dedicated children's section, spread over 15,000 sq.ft. has a fun-filled theme-based reading area with multimedia kits and story books. The library also boasts a high-tech section for the visually-impaired, with TALKING BOOKS and BRAILLE displays.

Their website gives more information here. I will just write about my experience. I was really surprised at the varieties of books they have and the cleanliness/neatness with which they are maintaining the library. We felt as if we are entering a library abroad. They don't allow anything inside...no camera, no hand bag (only purse), nothing else. We can take a water bottle which should be left at the entrance of every hall. We could make 6 floors (just a glance) yesterday. I saw very old books on Christianity, Sikhism etc. They looked like rare books. They are bound and catalogued nicely.

The Braille section has got many books. I saw the alphabets in braille for the first time. The link says that they have talking books too.

I loved the children's section. Have a look at this:

Since we were not allowed to take pictures, I had to google for them (thanks google!). You can see an artificial tree and children sitting under it and read. Some parents were reading for their kids. The section has got cartoon characters too. The books vary from fiction to mythology. Every book is kept in order. Every section had helping staff who were very polite which is very rare here, in our place. I saw a lady trying to take picture from her mobile. The staff went near her and patted on her shoulder and said 'no'. That is all! Many are there to help us find books.

I loved the reading area spread out near the glass wall of the halls. We can sit and read in natural lighting. They have provided tables also if you want to jot down something. I saw many people reading, which looked for a long time, sitting at the same place!

The place is not congested anywhere. the bookshelves are spread with lots of places in between.

I remembered my children asking me to take time for selecting books in our lending library, when they were kids, so that they can finish off reading some comics free of cost. This library is a boon for children like them. You can sit there from morning to evening comfortably and read books free of cost. I saw the 'French Loaf' outlet too in one floor! The Rs.46 cake was good!

After giving us so much facility they don't charge you even entrance fee! Great, Mr.Karunanidhi, our ex-Chief Minister. If our current CM, Ms. Jayalalitha continues to run this library like it is done now, let us say, 'She is also great'!

Edited to add after 2 hours: Membership cards will be made available in another couple of months. At present we can sit there and read!
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A Visit To Kairali, An Ayurvedic Health Resort.

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Some of my friends had visited Baba Ramdev's ayurvedic treatment centres, where they stayed for a couple of weeks, got rejuvenated and came back. My cousin said that it was very good. Ramdev's centre is in Haryana which is too far off for us. So, when we heard about this Kairali Ayurvedic Health Resort at Palakkad, near Coimbatore, we thought we will visit this place, first, just to have a look at the place. We stayed there for 2 nights and enjoyed the village type atmosphere. No traffic, so no air pollution, no sound pollution, clean air and good ayurvedically prepared food in their canteen. They have got their own vegetable garden and use those vegetables in the canteen.

The latest amenities also were there like A/C and TV! So, I think we, city people, will be able to stay there for long. Free yoga class was there and I did my yoga in the open with the other guests. Went for a long walk with my husband early in the morning. It was very peaceful. My son was happily reading some book, lying in a hammock tied among trees in daytime. The staff members were very polite so, there was no tension anywhere. Good, experienced ayurvedic doctors take care of the treatments. They have got walking tracks, swimming pool, tennis court etc. too.

Now, to some pictures of the houses where guests stayed for treatments. Each and every house was in different shape (according to vastu, it seems)!

We saw names for all the houses like Moolam, uttaraadam, pooyam etc. The name of the stars.

This brick is porus. I have seen these bricks used for building compound walls in Mangalore. Here, they have built houses with these!

Typical village look!

Look at the lock...so beautiful!

We used to sit here and chat...though just for 2 evenings!

Inside the house

The inside walking path

Dining room. The vegetarian food was simple and very tasty

We enjoyed our stay there. It was just the three of us, I, my husband and our son. We had a lot to talk to without any outside disturbance or work pressure. Sat in the outside veranda and chatted a lot, watching butterflies and snails and some birds! It was a nice pleasant experience!

Somebody Said That I Won't Cross 63 Years!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Until now, I have never shown any of our family members' horoscopes to any astrologer. I don't believe in astrology, I tell myself! When did I come across astrology...well, this is also a kind of astrology! One old lady with a brass stick with silver designs came into our colony shouting, 'jothidam paarkkarathu, jothidam paarkkarathu', means roughly, 'do you want to know your future?'. She keeps the stick in our palm and starts telling the predictions in a singing tone! I must have been studying in 7th or 8th. It was school holidays. So some of my neighbours called her for fun and asked for predictions. She started in a sing song tone and told some interesting (it should be!) predictions! Everybody was happy and she got her money! While leaving, she turned to me and said, 'onnai oru raja veleelerndu kudiraila vanthu thookkindu povan! Avan unga janam illai!' means, one King will come by horseback and take you away...he is not from your community! All of us laughed! But later on, my husband who is a Tamilian (I am a Kannadiga...this information is for the new readers!), who was quite tall with big mustache came and married me off! My horoscope or my husband's was not taken out for checking if we suite each other, which normally is the custom. My parents and his relatives just checked the gotra (people from the same gotra should not marry each other...they are supposed to be brother and sister!) and married us off! We are living happily ever after!

This prediction also was given off handedly, without asking for, by a man. He said that I will live upto 63 years! Later on one more person said nearly the same. Now, we have to wait and check this information...another 3 years are there! One 'face reading man' asked my husband to listen to his wife and that will bring goodness to the family! He is not following the advice fully, though!

My sister and sister in law always go after astrologers. Once my sister went to one for asking for predictions for my brother. My children were around 13-14 years. He predicts via sozhi (cauri shells). My sister just for fun asked him about my sons' future! I was watching with a big smile on my face (I don't believe in all these things!). He said that we have got 'naaga dosha' and we have to do sarpa samskara (His house has got a snake temple!) or Ashlesha Bali, i.e. doing shraddha for dead snakes. They draw a picture of a snake and offer rice balls with all the relevant mantras. He also said that the children will have health problem and their eduction will be disrupted. I was just laughing all the way home. But it happened in the later years. I went to Kukke Subrahmanya temple and did Aashlesha bali. I don't want to say openly that I believe in these things, but when it is concerned with the children we go to any length. Even now we go to that temple often to offer prayers. The children are doing well now. Amitabh, Sachin and many VIPs also visit this temple often!

My friend went to Vaiththeeswaran temple to read 'oalaich chuvadi' for her children. She is a Maharashtrian. Still she went to this temple and checked the future of her children and did some poojas. This temple is an ancient temple. She laughs now when talking about it.

My chikkappa (my mother's sister's husband) knows numerology and palmistry. He combines both and predicts our future. Whatever he has said has happened in my life. So I believe in him. I have not yet shown the horoscopes to anybody...that is a relief. This might become like an addiction! But when we become desperate and in trouble, we tend to do all these things, whether we believe in them or not. What do you think?

Cartoon courtesy: Google

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...Crafty!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Baby elephant!

I started blogging from 2004...but just wrote a few posts and stopped. Then started to write again from 2008 and have not stopped. I got some good friends through this hobby of mine and am very happy about it. Some came closer too. I take a long time to open up to friendship nowadays. Age?!

Suddenly one day a girl named Crafty Shines wrote to me asking is she can call me Sandhyamma because she liked to call me like that. I said OK. Until then, she had commented in few of my posts and I did the same to her posts. I had not seen her picture and she had not seen mine. I don't display my picture in any social network. Still, we, sort of, became very close to each other via a very few emails itself. And now, suddenly she asked for my address and sent these precious goodies! I knew that she is very good in this art but I never expected to have my favourite elephant in this art. You need lot of time to do the calculations for these tiny beautiful dolls and she is a working girl! Buying things from shops and sending as gifts is different and taking the time and effort to do these things and sending means a lot to me!

She knew that I love elephants and remembered to do the baby elephant for me! These things are precious to me and are going to be with me always Crafty! My son took the pictures as soon I got the package. He is also very happy for me...seeing me so happy! This is the first time I am getting a gift like this!

Have a look at the things I got from her:

Beautiful key chains

Lovely tea coasters

All put together

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((HUGGGGGS))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Two Movies' Review!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:10:00 +0000

I have never watched two movies in 3 days in my life until now...I watched a Tamil movie, 'Kaadalil sodappuvathu yeppadi', on Sunday and a Hindi movie, 'Kahaani', today, i.e. Tuesday! I liked the Tamil one a lot and the Hindi movie just 'one time watch' movie!

Let me tell you about today's movie first...Kahaani. It had rave reviews everywhere. This is totally a Vidya Baalan movie. The hero, or the male main character, Parambrata Chatterjee, a new face also has acted very well.

The story goes like this: Vidya Balan, a Tamil girl married to a Bengali, both software engineers, live in London. The husband comes to India, (Kolkata), on an assignment and goes missing. He was keeping contact with her for about two weeks, speaks to her continuously, then no contact at all. Vidya Baalan, 7 months pregnant now (film name Vidya Bagchi which was pronounced as Bidya Bagchi by Kolkatans), comes to Kolkata in search of him and how much trouble she gets into, is the story. To give colour, she comes during the famous Dusshera festival of Kolkata! This is a 100%, thriller.

I liked the way, Parambrata Chatterjee, a police officer who helps Vidya in her search, gets attracted to her though it is shown subtly, was not elaborated, which I liked a lot. Vidya Baalan, everybody knows now, is a very good actress and has done very well here too. The director of the movie is Sujoy Ghosh. But for a Hindi movie, this is a good thriller.

This is not going to be an unforgettable movie. Music is just OK. But I liked this song of Amitabh, a Bengali song (Robindra sangeeth?) which was played in the end, a lot. Music directors, Vishal and Shekhar have done well here:

The movie I watched on Sunday was a Tamil one, 'Kaadalil sodappuvathu yeppadi' . I loved this movie. The hero of the movie is Siddharth who acted in 'Rang de Basanthi' . His acting is superb here, in this movie. The actress, I am seeing her for the first time, Amla Paul also has done her role very well. The story is a simple one. The hero tells us how he bungled in his love affair. He tells about his friends' experience also in their affairs. The whole theatre was laughing for each and every sentence/dialogue. This is a simple movie but taken interestingly. Sometimes I felt as if my dialogue with my husband was repeated there! We have fights like these at home! If you follow Tamil very well, don't miss it. I noticed repeat crowd since the dialogues were shouted before they came in the screen!

Both hero and heroine did not have much make up also. They were looking very homely and natural which is very rare in our movies! I knew that Siddharth was a good actor but Amala Pal also has acted well here, it was not looking like acting at all! This is being re-made in Hindi too, I read somewhere. Ranbir Kapoor would suit well for Siddharth's role!

The director of the movie is R.Balaji. This is his debut movie. You can know more about him from my blogger friend, Kanagu's review of this movie here. In fact I went to this movie because of his recommendation!

Have a look at this video sample and you will love it:

P.S.: For once, both are clean movies. We can watch with the family, one thriller and one romance! Both films are box office hits! (Wrote this morning of 18th April, '12)
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Images courtesy: Google
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Foto Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Wordless Wednesday!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Our Andrew Ruled Us for 11 Years - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:15:00 +0000

10 Canine Commandments:

1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be painful to me. Remember that before you buy me.
2. Give me time to understand what you want from me.
3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial to my well-being.
4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your entertainment and your friends. I have only you.
5. Talk to me sometimes. Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I'll never forget it.
7. Remember before you hit me. I have teeth that could easily crush the bones of your hand but I chose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being unco-operative, obstinate or lazy, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food or I've been out in the sun too long or my heart is getting old and weak.
9. Take care of me when I get old. You too will grow old.
10. Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say 'I can't bear to watch it' or let it happen in my absence'. Everything is easier for me if you are there.

My friend Usha Pisharody had posted the above message in facebook, which pushed me to write this post about our Andrew. The first part is here, wherein I wrote how much we enjoyed his company. Like it happens with human beings also...with our own children, we have to bear their tantrums, take care of them when they are ill etc. we have to bear some things with our pets too. Though with dogs they are slightly different. It takes time to get used to including them as a member in our family. Unless you like/love them whole heartedly, it is very difficult to bring them up. With pomeranians, which have too much hair, we have to bear the 'tick problem'. We have to keep them clean. Bathe them and brush them regularly. Still somehow they attract ticks (small insects). So, from my personal experience long/thick haired dogs are difficult to bring up. Yearly vaccines for any type of dog is a must - we enjoyed going to the vet where we came to see many types of cute dogs/pups!

We must have somebody reliable to leave them when we are away from home, who will feed them, take them for walks, etc. Thank god, we had friends who loved our Andrew like we did when he was with us.

Now, to the 10th point of the above '10 Commandments'. Our Andrew lived with us for 11 years. He was unwell for a few months and my sons insisted on taking care of him like we took care of them. The doctor came home to have a look at him often. Then my son was unwell and was in the hospital for a few days. Still he was asking about Andrew everyday. Andy died when my son was still in the hospital. My mother said that pet dogs die if somebody in the family was unwell. I don't know about that but my son cried so much hearing the news that we were worried about his health. One of our relative broke the news to him against our wish not to tell him. Well...he was a good pet and will live in our heart always.

Now, to some more antics of him! As you know I have two sons and they were school going children when Andy was with us. They were asked to take him for walks, one on each day, after dinner. Until dinner, Andy will keep quiet, just keeping an eye if we finish our dinner. As soon as the dinner was over, he would start whistling, looking at each son, standing on two legs, dancing in front of the son whom he thought would take him out on that day. Sometime the sons fought, like, 'you take - you take'. Andy used to run to both of them in turns and dance! He never liked looong walks, only short walks! If we take him for long walks, he would just sit on the road after his due distance and would not budge. We had to carry him in our hands or hips!

He was very possessive about my husband. He never liked if my husband hugged my sons. He would start barking at them, push his face between my husband and son and separate them. He never liked when my sons fought with each other. He would stand up and bark at them loudly until they stopped fighting.

Some of my old relatives who never liked dogs also were made to love him by his friendly nature. He never climbed the bed but during the rainy season, thunder made him to climb and sit in between my sons! He always loved to be surrounded by people. He used to sit in between me and my friend on the sofa and sleep off when we chatted in the afternoons.

I remember his first birthday on 8th April '84. My sons also were small. All the small children from the colony celebrated it grandly...I remember my friend's daughter tying a small conical cap...well trying to tie (!) on Andy's head. All the children had those caps and a cake was cut with cheers, with Andy joining in with his 'wow wow...no, wok, wok'! Happy days!

I still remember him taking tiny bits of chapaathis from my 1 and a half year old niece, without touching her fingers. Another niece used to take him for walks (!) inside the house from one room to another. The chain used to hang between him and her hand. He never pulled her unlike he did with us! She used to act like a teacher later and Andy was the student. He just used to sit there and watch her. She is a mother of two children and tells stories of Andy to her daughter now!

I feel that if possible, it is better to bring up a pet, esp. dog, when we have got only one child. Then the child will develop sharing mentality and start taking care of the dog, which is like taking responsibility at a young age. This happened in our house...my sons adored him and were very close to him.

I can go on writing about him for a few more parts...but will stop now! Enjoy your pets!

P.S.: Cats are ruling us now! We have got 2 older cats at home which are sterilised and they entertain us now. No, no, we entertain them (husband says!). Anyway, cats are cats and dogs are dogs! Nothing can beat the friendly/loyal dogs!

Edited to add a few hours later: Our whole family is reading this article and they keep remembering new things about Andy! Once my husband's cousins had come home for the holidays when we were in Hosur. One brother used to take Andy for walks 2-3 times a day. So, Andy was giving him special attention! Whenever the brother changed from pyjamas to jeans, Andy would start jumping with joy, knowing that Anna will take him for a walk! Once Anna just changed back to pyjamas...you should have seen Andy's face, body language...he just went and sat in a corner...he was upset! I don't know how many 'edited to add' I am going to write now!

'Karnan', The 1963 Tamil Classic Movie Part II - Theatre Experience!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:45:00 +0000

We went to the theatre and watched 'Karnan', the famous Tamil movie classic, yesterday! I have already written about this movie here. Like they did with Mughal-e-azam, this, 1963 movie has been digitalised and screened now.

We went to Sathyam theatre, here, in Chennai, which was houseful on a working day! The audience was mostly of elderly people and some came with small kids, one, with a 2-3 month old baby! It was very very cold inside the theatre during the second half of the movie. The vegetable puff, the theatre sold was salty (Rs.40!) and the muffin was cold and tasteless. We used to love their puffs until a few years back. This theatre has got many screens, but Sathyam is the biggest and it had been full for this movie for the past many days, I was told! They have got huge parking lot and online booking service makes going to this theatre, a pleasure. The food in their small restaurant is very good. As it is now with all the latest multi-plexes, the sound system is very good. It was not hitting the ears.

I told my husband that I wanted to watch this movie in the theatre just to look at the eyes of Shivaji Ganesan! I really enjoyed watching him in his famous role. The first half of the movie was not very clear - it rained in the screen - looked like a typical old movie. We were not very happy with the sound of the dialogues also. They were not very clear. But the second half which is mostly about the Mahabharata war, was very clear and beautiful. We can watch this movie just for the second half and the songs! MS Viswanathan-Ramamurthy's music to Kavi Arasu Kannadasan's lyrics... ever greens!

The second half looked like digitally mastered and very clear. The war scenes were superb! Quite huge armies of elephants (each and every elephant had minute drawings on their faces!) and horses were used. Overlapping war scenes were beautiful! B.R. Pantulu, the director must have spent a lot of money for this war scene alone. Many soldiers from our Indian Army were used (read from my earlier post on this subject). So many colourful chariots!

Actor Savithri Ganesan (Duryodhana's wife in the movie and Gemini Ganesan's name is included with hers in the title!) is beautiful and her Tamil is superb. She has justified for her title as 'nadigaiyar thilakam' and everybody knows about Shivaji's acting, the 'nadigar thilakam'! Asokan, the famous actor who was famous for his roles as villain, did very well here as Duryodhana.

The best was NT Rama Rao, the late-Telugu super star. I know that he studied here, in Chennai. Still, I am amazed at his dialogue delivery in Tamil and his acting was superb. I must mention about Kunti, Karnan's mother (M.V.Rajamma). Nobody else would have done justice to Kunti's role other than her.

I liked the audience yesterday. Many claps were heard for the way Shivaji was walking (I too admire!), Krishna's and Arjuna's war field dialogues (they were quoted often in those days - Geethopadesha verses - and revived once more now!) etc.

We enjoyed this movie. Watch at home at least...this is worth watching, esp. for the 'Iravum nilavum' song! It looks beautiful on the big screen.

The video shows the quality of the movie. Enjoy!

P.S.: The last movie I watched in the theatre was 'Enthiran', I think! For many years now, I had never seen 'Films Division' clips or State Government's 'what we have done to the people' clips. Yesterday they showed Jayalalitha's speech for full 15 mts. about how much she has helped for the Cuddalore Thane relief scheme. Every dot and wrinkle on her face was clearly visible! But nobody can beat her intelligence...her Tamil was flawless and we didn't feel bored at all!

Wordless Wednesday!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Carnage, A Simple But Interesting Movie!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:45:00 +0000

Carnage (2011) movie

Well...let me first say how I felt while watching the movie....I was laughing loudly in many places!

This is the story of two couples, set inside one room in Brooklyn. The story is based on a famous French play, Gods of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza, which ran to full houses in the US, UK, France, Germany and other places. The movie was directed by Roman Polanski, the famous French/Polish director.

The first scene starts with two young children in a group, arguing about something and suddenly one boy hits the other in the mouth with a stick. The boy loses a couple of teeth. The parents think that they should discuss about it in a civil way and the parents of the boy who got hit (Jodie Foster and John C.Reilly), invite the other parents (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) home. The four of them meet. After the formal talks, slowly the discussion heats up. Jodie Foster and her husband try to be very accommodative, even cleaning the table of Kate's vomit (hilarious scene - don't know how she managed to vomit so violently!) where Jodie's books (she is a writer) were kept. Kate's husband is a lawyer and keeps on getting calls for every two sentences and everybody gets irritated. Slowly the argument deviates from the main point and gets personal. The couple's frustration with each other erupts out with the help of alcohol. They become so addicted to the arguments that they go upto the lift and come back to continue! Kate states that her husband is with the phone on the dining table, bed everywhere! She just throws the cell phone in a vase full of water with disgust once! The video shows a glimpse of the violent discussions. Every character's personal frustration is shown clearly and naturally. Nothing looks made up! All the four actors have acted their best!

After so much of discussions/arguments, the director gave a nice twist in the tale in the end too!

The director Roman Polanski has directed many award winning films. At present he lives in France. Check the link for further 'interesting' stories about him. But he has given here, a clean, good movie! Now, to the video:

Picture courtesy: Google

Tough Elevens!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:30:00 +0000

My dear friend and one of the persons whom I admire most, Usha Pisharody, has tagged me here! I am not very good at doing tags, a bit lazy too! But for Usha, let me try! Then Bikram's is waitng!

The Rules come first:
1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged. (That’s a toughie copied this too because I agree with you, more ,here! My imagination is very poor!)
3. Tag eleven people and link to them on your post.
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

Usha has asked 11 people these 11 questions. I am one of them! Looking for 11 people and churning my mind for 11 questions....both are tough, esp. the second one!

Usha's is very interesting... both questions and answers!

Let me try....hmmmm...

1. In one word, what have you gained, in life, that you hold most precious? (there, that rules out “weight” )

I could have used that answer but no, I am not on the heavier side! I have matured a lot! I used to be a scarecrow...never spoke my mind easily!

2. In three words, a pet peeve?

Dislike false praise (I know my weakness which are a mile long!).

3. A word you think you use a lot, unconsciously ?

I have this habit of calling god when I am fed up....Rama, Krishna, Govinda, Nayamana (it is Narayana but my son used to say Nayamana when he was a kid and I continue it all the time!), before sleeping, while getting up in the morning...it goes on! (I use the minimum, Rama, Krishna when the situation is worst!)

4. What is it that you love to do, most, and would rather spend your time doing it?

Nowadays, it is, sitting here, in front of my laptop!

5. What do you think others think of you?

A very ordinary, middle aged, a bit soft natured woman...most of my 'relatives' too say so!

6. Who would you say made you who you are today (other than your parents, if that is what you would answer )

My future changed when my school headmistress, Miss. Subbulakshmi, refused to give me admission in Tamil medium class in my sixth standard school entrance instead insisted on admitting me in English medium class, which has helped/changed me a lot later...well even now, here! Studying in English medium was 'great' in my circle, then! Though it is still in 'improving' stage!

7. What gives you joy?

Good music! Good book too...though reading is slowing down now!

9. If you could go back to one moment in your past, which moment would it be?

When my kid son said that I should have been his teacher! (I used to explain their lessons in my own way, in the evenings!).

10. Do you believe in alternate lifetimes? If so, what is the you there doing now? (It’s actually one question, with two parts )

I would have been roaming in Leh! Love to watch nature! I feel fine being a woman but for roaming wherever I want to, I would like to be a man!

11. What makes you you?

I don't know...my sincerity? I don't lie that easily, even for fun! So, less sense of humour, I was told!

My set of 11 questions for 11 others…

1. Do you remember your first day in school?

2. Your favourite song which you hum often.

3. Which was your favourite subject in school?

4. Are you happy with yourself always, well... most of the time, for what you are today?

5. Role model in your life?

6. Have you got the habit of cursing often?!

7. What do you do when you are very happy?

8. Do you believe in God or destiny or luck?

9. Any regrets in life?

10. A sweet memory which you talk about often?

11. Do you think you are a good son, daughter, brother, sister, spouse, parent? Mark yourself, if you can!

Thank god, this is over! Now, will happily trouble others!

1. Destination Infinity

2. K.Parthasarathy

3. Kavita

4. Saritha

5. Rahul Bhatia

6. Ashok

7. Swaram

8. Bikram

9. Vaish

10. Renu

11. R.Ramakrishnan

I will be happy if you do the tag, friends! It is OK if you don't feel like doing it too...sometimes I too don't feel like doing it! My questions are quite simple, aren't they?! So it must be easy!

Our Andrew Ruled Us For 11 Years! Part - I

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:50:00 +0000

I had been thinking of writing about our Andrew for a long time now. A Facebook message by Usha Pisharody triggered my brain and I am doing this post at last, now! I was afraid that I might write a lot and yes, I am going to!

Let me start from the day he joined our family! It was in Hosur! We had just then shifted from Bangalore to Hosur. My neighbour from Bangalore had a Pomeranian dog, Pinky, who had delivered 5 puppies and she offered me one. But we had to wait for the pup to grow up. So, he, whom we named Andrew, came home, by car to my husband's office and he sent him via his office boy who came by a bicycle holding him to his chest! Andrew was shivering when I took hold of him for the first time...he was looking like a tiny white soft woollen bundle with 3 black rounds for 2 eyes and a tiny nose, maybe the nose was pink! He was just 40days' old! Though we had a dog in my grandmother's place and then cats in my mother's place, Andrew aka Andy was new to us. My sons were in 2nd and LKG classes! So, three children to look after for me in a new place! And I didn't have a servant maid too! Imagine! After he slept, I ran to the shop, asking my neighbour to be with him, in case he woke up, to buy a small chain, a teething ring(!) and some marie biscuits. I feel as if I did all these things recently! We lived in a Housing board colony of independent houses. We had small garden areas in the front and the back but no fences! I had to keep an eye on Andy all the time! Because of Andy, all the colony children started coming home to play with him! If I closed the door, he was behind me playing with my saree and then just like that, sleep on my foot! I was cooking without moving my foot for a long time, I still remember!

One day, no, one night, we couldn't find him for quite some time. The year was 1983...TV was still new. It was a Friday and 8 O' clock Tamil film song programme 'Oliyum oliyum' was going on in the TV. The whole colony was deserted. Nobody wanted to move out because of the TV programme. Still many children joined us in the search. We just roamed here and there calling him! All of us were very upset...then we found him sleeping behind the gas cylinder when the whole group of adults and children had left the TV programme in search of him!

He had this habit of running to the neighbouring house and bringing home their child's toys! So, whenever some toy was missing, my friend used to come and complain 'unga Andy thookkindu vandiruppan' (your Andy must have brought it home!). Sometimes she was angry too! But Andy is a baby...a loving baby! Shail knows best!

I didn't know what to feed him in the beginning, so like I used to feed my babies, I fed Andy paruppu saadam (dhaal rice) with salt and ghee! Later on I was told that ghee and salt are banned for dogs! But in later years, he was fed saambaar rice by my servant maid along with her 4 children and this fellow was happily gobbling it up from her hand! She used to work in 4 houses, collect all the rice from those houses, mix them up and feed her children (making balls out of the mixture and dropping in the children's hands and then one ball for Andy!She used to feed him holding rice in her hand!) who came from a nearby school for lunch.

Andy used to play 'hide and seek' with the colony children. We women used to play tennikoit in the open space in front of our house. This fellow used to intervene and run away with the ring! We, women, children used to run after him! It WAS real fun!

When he was tiny, we made him to sleep on a small jute bag with a cotton cloth on it. Andy used to sleep on that, come out, urinate outside his bed, in small round puddles, go back and sleep! His bed was never wet for months together!

Ours was the only house which had a Pomeranian dog in those days. So it was called 'naai veedu' (dog house). Andy used to run away from home often for one or two days. Sometimes we used to find him in some homes. He was an over friendly dog! Once he was missing for a few hours and we found him sitting near a small plant...his chain was caught in a branch...he was a 100% budhdhoo and darpok!

I had already written here how he used to bring auto rickshaws by himself! Whenever we were out of station, we used to send the children and Andy to our friend's place. When we have a dog, we should have some friends who would be happy to take care of them in our absence. My friend's husband was crazy about Andy. He used to give oil bath on Sundays to my sons and his children and Andy too used to have shampoo bath with the children near their well in the open space! He really enjoyed life!

If I was not in station, my husband used to take him to his shop (he had an electrical shop then) and Andy used to sleep there! My husband had to coax him a lot to eat! Andy loved chapaathis and curd rice too! Sometimes we used to feed him eggs. He loved warm breads from the bakery...it SHOULD be warm, otherwise he refused to eat! He used to be very fussy for eating if I was not home! He never liked me going out. Whenever I tried to change my saree for going out he used to sit on it and make it difficult for me to wear it and then would start barking until I turned the street corner!

He never liked to take bath! I had to carry him in my hip like a baby, even after he was quite grown up, for giving him a bath! He would run here and there and hide beneath the low double cot and it was very difficult to pull him out. Sometimes my husband used to bathe him. Andy hated it more because my husband would apply soap on his body and rub him so hard that his whole body used to move from one end of the bathroom to the other! Then he started acting smart! Whenever my husband said 'Innikku naa Andyei kulippaattureen' (I will bath Andy today), this fellow would run and hide in his usual place - beneath the cot. My husband would coax him, plead him...no, he won't come out! Then my husband will curse him, go and bathe himself and come near the God to pray...now, Andy would come and stand beside him with his tail wagging!

My friend, whenever we met used to ask me 'Un moonaavathu paiyan yeppadi irukkaan? (How is your third son?)' He was like one.

I remember one more incident. Andy had the/took the freedom to go anywhere in the house. On the Ganesh Chaturthi day, he loved to sit near Ganesha among all the flowers and diyas, sometime sleep, keeping his chin on the cold flowers (this was in Chennai!). After the haarthi, I used to recite some shlokas and my sons used to repeat them.

Gajaananam bhoota...sons used to repeat and then Andy, 'Wow Wow'
Ganaadhi sevitam...after sons' repetition, Andy, 'Wow Wow'
or is it 'wok wok'?! The Pomeranian dogs have a unique small voice and our Andy had that!

Imagine Andy sleeping, keeping his chin on the flowers in front of the Ganesha!

I think I will continue in the next post!

Wordless Wednesday!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:38:00 +0000

'Karnan', The 1963 Tamil Classic Movie - Unforgettable Movie!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:42:00 +0000

Karnan, Tamil Classic Movie

When my children admired English movies and discussed about how they were made, what class they have got, etc. I went defending our regional movies, saying that we don't have that much funds or technical facilities, world viewers, etc. But after reading about the movie, Vijeta (1982), I did a post on it here), wherein I came to know that some of our films were made with great effort. I take a passage from my review:

The film is notable for some rarely seen aerial photography of combat aircraft active with the IAF in 1980's. The central character of Angadh himself, is a MiG-21 pilot and is shown flying the aircraft in ground attack role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Much of the movie, including the climax involving MiG-21bis, was shot at Pune. The IAF No.4 squadron (the Oorials), provided the pilots and planes for the film's aerial sequences. The movie included good colour footage of the Oorials aircraft in fight and in operations.

But even before that, in 1963 Tamil movie 'Karnan' a lot of effort was taken for the authenticity of the war scenes. It was not given much light until now, or I have never read anything about it. The Hindu article about the Centenary celebration of the Director of that movie, Shri B.R.Panthulu, his son said this:

“The money involved was on a mind-boggling scale. For the first time, a story from an epic was shot in opulent locations such as the palaces of Jaipur. Huge moving chariots were made in Chennai and transported to Kurukshetra, where the war sequences were filmed.Government permission was sought, and cavalry and infantry from the Indian Army were brought to the locations at Kurukshetra and the first rows of the charging armies on horses and elephants had soldiers from the Indian Army”

I still remember the war scene where in Karnan speaks to Krishna...Bheeshma in the arrow-bed etc. We keep seeing the movie at home too, often. Shivaji is a great actor and the Andhra super star of those days, N.T.Rama Rao acted as Krishna in that movie. As everybody knows, Karna is a story in Mahabharata, our Hindu classic epic. Karna is the son of Kunti from Surya Deva...wikipedia gives a short summary here!

The music for the movie is by the famous M.S. Viswanathan and Ramamurthy duo. They used Hindustani ragas for all the songs and rare instruments which were never used earlier in Tamil films like sarangi, dilruba, Santoor, Shehnai etc. Each and every song is a gem of its own. Now, let me show some videos of the songs. You can see the grandeur of the picturization here:

The above song is in raaga Hameer Kalyan. Savithri looks so beautiful...lyrics is interesting! Shivaji is best for historical movies...his features, his accent suit them very well.

You can see the Beluru (Karnataka) architecture as the backdrop in the above song. Raag Saaranga, I think.

The next one is sung in the war field. Krishna says that the whole world is acting according to his wish, whether good or bad. Seergaazhi Govindarajan is singing:

I searched for other beautiful songs from this movie, but couldn't get them. I love the song 'aayiram karangal neetti' a lot. But couldn't get it. Anyway, the above songs show the calibre of the music in this movie.

Edited to add (21.2.12) a scene where Karnan and Duryodana's wife (Savithri) are playing chess. As you know, Karna and Duryodana are very close friends. Still, when Karnan took the liberty to pull his friend's wife's waist chain, he feels awkward, she too. But Duryodana ignores it and discusses about the game. This story is often quoted for true friendship. I wanted to include some war scenes but no, I couldn't get any in you tube. So this scene will show the people who have not seen the movie, a glimpse of how it will be. This movie was made in Telugu(Karna) and Hindi (Daanveer Karna) too!

P.S.: Second part of this post is here

Top still courtesy: Google

Very Rare Successful Pair Of Father And Son In The Music World!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

R.D. Burman and his father, S.D.Burman or should I say S.D.Burman and his son, R.D.Burman!

Sometime back, I came across this article in 'The Hindu' which was a tribute to R.D.Burman, the Hindi Film music director. His father, Sachin Dev Burman comes from a royal family (mother, Princess of Manipur and father, Prince of Tripura!) who was a trained Hindustani Classical Singer. The son, Rahul Dev Burman also had learnt classical music. His mother also was a music student when his father married her!

My son is an ardent fan of S.D.Burman, the singer and I wanted to make a list of his songs but after reading the Hindu article and the biographies of his and his son's, I thought I should write about both of them, though one post will not be enough for listing their delightful, melodious cum rhythmic songs.

S.D. Burman is famous for music based on folk music mostly, one is here and this one is sung by himself for the film, Sujatha (I love Nutan!), 'mere saajan hai us paar':

This song is from Aradhana...S.D.Burman's voice is very apt for this folk type song.

The music is slow and haunting. Now, to one of his great evergreen song
from the film, 'Aradhana':

His son, R.D. Burman is famous for rhythm based songs. He changed the
Indian Film music by introducing Middle East tunes which became a
craze in those days. But he has rendered very good melodious music
too. Here are two examples. This song is from the movie Sholay. RD
Burman is singing for the famous Helen's dance and the song is, one of his best!

This song is from the movie 'Amar Prem'. Kishore Kumar is singing for
Rajesh Khanna. All the songs of this movie are hit songs which are melodious and soft type.

This song is from Film 'Padosan'. Latha is singing for the young and beautiful, Saira Banu. Slow and melodious song. Her voice is so young and beautiful (again!) and it suits Saira well. I used to sing this song when I was newly married. My husband used to listen with a happy face. You know why? The lyrics go like this: Sharm aathi hai magar aaj ye kehana hoga...ab hume aapke kadmoan hi me rehana hoga... (Saira sits near Sunil dutt's feet and sing this line!). Will I do it now? I wonder!

It was very difficult to select songs of this father son duo. Both of them have given so many melodious songs of different types. Normally if the father is very famous, the son is shadowed by his fame. It is very difficult to come out of it. But here, RD Burman also bloomed well under his father's guidance/taunting (read the Hindu article!). The father was proud to be called 'RD Burman's father'!
Now, one more song of the father, which is my favourite. I think I must make separate posts for listing more of the songs of this duo!

This is S.D.Burman singing for the movie 'Guide'. And Rafi singing for the same movie.

This is R.D. Burman's song for the film 'Pyar ka mausam'. Another song for the film 'Rocky' and this is one of my favourites by Kishore Kumar.

This song is by S.D. Burman for 'Yaadon ki baaraat'. The movie and the songs made history in those days. This one is for the famous Amitabh, Jaya film, 'Abhimaan'. Kishore and Latha are singing this song.

This song made history in those days. We used to hear this song in every street. Zeenat Aman became famous because of this song which is by R.D. Burman, for the film, 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna'. And his father gave a superhit song for the film Aradhana.

Can you believe this? These are R.D.Burman's song. One is from the film, Aandhi and the other is from the film, '1942, Love Story'. Both are melodious songs! S.D.Burman is right. He should be proud of his son!

I think I will stop here! Now, will you mention some songs of these father and son duo, which you admire? It will be fun knowing about more songs of these music maestros..

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School Memories Of A 59 Year Old Mother! (Part - II)

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:30:00 +0000

Thank you, BlogAdda!

First, I thought, I will skip the second part of my earlier post, School Memories of a 59 year old mother!...it might be boring. Then, I thought, I had committed (!) and I have to write now! So, here are some more memories!

As I told you earlier, we had one period of drawing class. This scrap book is from my VI Std. We used to take colour pencil box and water colour paint box to school on the day of the drawing class. I had done better drawings, but somehow only this book survived! I had some science record books also! Thank god, I was not able to trace them in my old box...you are saved!

Even now, this is my favourite rangoli! I draw this in front of my house during festival days!

I remember seeing these types of drawings in my grand niece's books also, now!

Water colour! The butterflies look funny!

This is not good, but I remember carrying coloured, polish papers to my class! The green coloured paper is inserted inside the pink one!

My children had beautiful labels with the pictures of cricket players etc. These labels were got from the shops free of cost, while buying note books!

My parents had 5 children! My mother didn't have time to monitor our school work. Most of the time, we were on our own! We, brothers and sisters were close to each other and we were in our own world. Somehow, it was fun! We used to play many indoor games like pallanguzhi, 5 stones, daayam etc. Then, card games like ass, 'gor kaththe' etc. This 'gor kaththe' game (kaththe means donkey in my language, Tulu! Collecting cards to become a donkey, will be the close meaning!) is interesting! For 4 or more players, we use 2 packs. Distribute 10 cards each. Place the rest of the card pack in the middle. Start the play with A Spade. If nobody has that card, then start with A arts or A clubs or A dice. If you don't have the spade, then pull cards from the pack one by one until you get a spade...it is fun watching people collecting cards! Whoever has the highest denomination card, starts the rounds. If you have two same denomination cards, whoever drops the first card, should start the next round. After all the cards in the pack are over, then the game is just like our 'Ass' game. In our game, the player who gave the 'cut' plays first after giving the cut! We call it 'Ramesh Kaththe' too because this cousin of mine taught this game to us when we were very small! Now, all my relatives play this game during get-togethers!

I had this habit of drawing faces everywhere...

This is an old cutting of the players of the 1971 India-England match - I had this cutting in my scrap book! I had written the names of the players too! One more link of the players of the same match is here

People were crazy about cricket in those days too but they had to go to the stadium to watch the match or hear the commentary in the radio! The radio commentators were very famous. I remember watching some clips in the theatre, before the movie started, before the 'Indian Films Division' documentaries! We used to admire Ian Botham - he was a jovial person and interacted with the spectators while standing near the fence during the match! I think we started seeing foreigners in these clips, otherwise we never came across them earlier, no TV and except in Hataari and one or two other English films, we never came across seeing white people! I got familiarised with the rules of the game from a Tamil magazine, 'Tuglaq' - yes, Cho Ramaswamy's magazine (now, he is famous for his role as a 'think tank/adviser' for Jayalalitha!). The game was explained with drawings!

I remember while watching the matches in theatres, as soon as the match was over, the spectators used to rush in to the playground and hug the players! If any player makes a hundred, some people would come in and hug the player! Now, the spectators are fenced off! The players too, as soon as they hit a hundred used to lift their bat, first to the sun/god and then to all the 4 sides - to the spectators and pavilion. Now, it is to the sun/god and then to just to the pavilion. They don't seem to acknowledge the spectators...well, most of them.

My teenage hero! He is really very handsome, hmmm?!

Like any young girl, I also hero worshipped a film hero...Dharmendra! I don't know why I admired him...now, he is an ordinary hero for me...better actors were there and are there now (I think so, now!). He is good in comedy than serious acting, I feel so, now! I remember watching his 'Satyakam' (Hrishikesh Mukherji's) and started admiring him! The story was a serious one and a good one! My mother used to take us to movies in those days! I had a collection of 10-15 pictures of Dharmendra but only a couple of them survived! This one is from an old, famous magazine of those days, 'Picture Post'! I remember getting angry with my mother because she didn't take me to 'Anupama', a Dharmendra movie! That was actually a good movie, I saw it in the TV, may years later, with my mother! My favourite is 'Chupke Chupke'! My sister was a Rajesh Khanna fan! We used to have arguments about our heroes! It sounds silly now!


I had this picture in my collection! The lady on the right looks like Bharathi, but it says Mala Sinha! I don't know why I had Dara Singh's picture ad.!

This is the end of Sandhya's story, for now!

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Seeveli - Elephant Procession At Vaikom Temple, Kerala

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Seeveli at Vaikom Mahadeva temple! Click on the pictures to have a better view please.

A relative of mine is from Vaikom (Kottayam, Kerala) and she had been asking me to attend the famous Vaikkaththu Ashtami festival at the ancient Shiva temple there. As you know by now, I am a fan of elephants and was happy I attended this festival, because the main attraction of this festival is Seeveli - the procession of the temple deity (Utsava murthy), on the temple elephant.

The temple is quite huge and the details of the temple is here.

Vaikom Mahadeva Temple.

The temple is believed to be built in Treta yuga. The area of the temple is huge and very well maintained - mainly, it was very clean even during the 12 day festival with so much crowd attending it. The main deity - Shiva linga is 6' high with ornaments for eyes, nose etc. The details are in the above link. I went there in the middle of the 12 day festival in November last. The whole town had a festive look with many pavement shops on the roads surrounding the temple. The temple had a huge auditorium where dance and music programmes held from morning to night continuously.


Dance programme at the temple. I couldn't get a place even to stand and watch!

I was there for two days and went to the temple three to four times. I saw the crowd like this, nearly all the times! In this age of cinema and TV, I was surprised to see so much crowd coming to the temple and watching dance and music (classical music) programmes. My niece also gave a programme of classical music here, her first stage performance, alone (she had performed in her college earlier, though).


The round garbha gruha is covered by this mural paintings of stories from mythology. I took this picture...a better version is given below!


The very very old mural paintings were redone and the details are here. I got the above picture from here

Vaikom Shiva temple is considered as one of the largest and the oldest of all Kerala temples. Vaikom Mahadeva Shiva Temple, along with Eddumanoor Shiva Temple and Kaduthuruthy Mahadeva Temple, is considered a powerful trisome! We visited all the three temples before Uchchi Pooja (before noon pooja), which is very auspicious!

As in Vaikom temple, Eddumanoor temple also had round garbha gruha and beautiful mural painting on the wall!

I noticed one more custom here! Normally, we do pradakshina (walking around the temple) in a complete circle. Here, we were asked not to cross the place where the water from the garbha gruha is let out. We had to go back and complete the other half of the circle!

This is called 'poram vilakku' (outside lamp). This is kept in the praahara of the temple. If we pay certain amount of money, the temple authorities will light the diyas in our name! It is fully booked for the next two years, it seems! Looks beautiful!

The outside praahaara of the temple. Many people were carrying their footwear in their hands!

All sides of the temple walls were lighted with diyaas like this in the evenings. It was drizzling on the day of my visit - you can notice it! So, less lamps were burning. Simple architecture unlike Tamil nadu temples but clean. No pesterings from the priests or other employees of the temple too! I was in a very happy mood here mainly because of this reason.

The elephants are waiting here to join the procession, until the main elephant gets ready!

The main elephant, which is the elephant of this temple with the uthsava murthy on it! I noticed that the elephants were fed often during the waiting period!

Uthsava murthy means, a miniature of the main deity. Most of the Kerala temples have got their own elephants. During Vaikkaththu Ashtami festival, the elephants from the surrounding temples too join here. We see around 7 elephants in the picture. 12 elephant procession is conducted on the 12th day, I was told.

Ankush for controlling the elephant!

I noticed the ankush with every mahout but they were not raised/used, even once when I was watching. I saw many policemen inside and outside the temple. The policemen who were on duty inside the temple were wearing dhoti and angavastra with a neck band which had a 'Police' tag! They were very polite while asking the devotees to move on!

Most of the people of the town never cooked at home during the festival days, it seems. The prominent people of the town fed people in different places every afternoon. Typical temple festival! Once my relatives lost me in the crowd...I was going behind the elephants with the camera and they were worried worried for sometime! I must go back again and watch the 12th day festival of Vaikkaththu Ashtami next year!

Wordless Wednesday!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:14:00 +0000

Edited to add on 19.1.12: Please don't forget to read my friend, Ugich Konithari's beautiful lines in the comment section! I am overwhelmed!

Noiseless, Pollutionless Holiday Story, Part III - Green, Green, Everywhere, At Munnar!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

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This post about our trip to Munnar, is due for the past few months! This is my first post for the new year!

When I said 'Green, green, everywhere', I meant it...you can see the proof in the pictures below!

This is the bungalow, called Nettikudi bungalow, where we stayed! The picture was taken from the backside road, when we went for an evening walk!

View from the Bungalow!


Partial view of the bungalow! The picture of the giant butterfly was taken from the left side roof of this bungalow!

Full view of the bungalow! We loved this secluded place without any interference from the outside world...heaven! Not even street lights were there in the evening!

We went to Munnar, after visiting Aathoor. I had written two posts on the above title and posted a couple of pictures also from Aathoor and Munnar here. We didn't visit the normal touristy places (visited Top slip and Kannan Devan tea factory, that is all!) but stayed at the bungalow we had booked and enjoyed the surroundings! Sometimes it was drizzling and quite cold but not unbearably cold. We went for long walks on the narrow roads which were meant for just the jeeps which were taking the labourers for plucking the tea leaves and taking the bags of the day's collection of the plucked leaves in the evening!

This is an old typical English Bungalow, which was built in 1927, for the Tea Estate Managers. You can read more about this bungalow with pictures, here!

They have got 3 rooms with old type furniture with clean linen. Our family and our friend's family took two rooms. One had renovated bathroom and one had old type bathroom...! The dining room had good cutlery and the food (vegetarian) was quite good! We still remember the taste of the Tea, they served there, which was very good! The staff were polite and seemed to work there from many years from generations! Have a look at their kitchen:


They use this choolha even now! They had a huge boiler in the corner too, which supplied water to the rooms! The light switches were of the old type, in the kitchen... round black one!


This old picture was there at the reception!

The beautiful dining room!

The front lawn of the bungalow! My husband and his friend were exercising here in the mornings!

The 'walking' bird!

The bird in the above picture was walking all the time! I saw it flying only to the beam of the building and started walking there again with a funny sound!

I didn't see much birds except the bulbuls, some humming birds and koyals! Majority were bulbul birds. I am very fond of them and feel them like members of our family, the reason is here!

Now, to the sceneries! Nature at its best!

It was drizzling most of the time. We saw these clouds in the mornings and evenings and sometimes, in daytime too!

Green, green...!

It looks as if the clouds bit the mountain partially!


Again, the clouds, mountains and valley!

Tea pluckers!

We saw these wild elephants on our way to Top Slip.

We don't have good photographs from 'Top Slip', a beautiful place at Munnar. It was cloudy or drizzling and the pictures were hazy. Went for elephant rides. Found a Jain hotel for lunch, where the food was quite good. Came back, played cards, had a good chat and slept comfortably! A typical holiday!

Now, have a look at a small clip of the video, we took it there! Click on the pictures to have a clear picture!

You can watch this video in higher quality on YouTube

Edited to add (11.1.12): The video was taken from the front side of the bungalow. It starts from the narrow lane, which is the way to the building. As I told you, it is situated in a remote area, pollutionless area! At 1.26 mts. you can see a beautiful white patch in the right side top corner, which is a waterfall!

Hair Offering Custom...Do You Believe In It Now?

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Picture is from The Hindu.

When I read the news in The Hindu, the caption, 'Tale of a hairy sale', which said that 'Trumala temple has got a huge stock of 471 tonnes of hair, offered by devotees, for disposal, profitably (!)', I remembered taking my sons to Tirumala long back for their hair tonsure!

As per our family custom, we had to tonsure my sons' heads, first at Gunaseelam temple, Trichy and then at Tirumala, Tirupati. This god (Gunaseelam temple) is supposed to be the elder brother of Tirumala's Venkateshwara. Read the rest of the details in the above link. We were supposed to do the first one, in the 3rd year for the first baby . Only 'odd' years! Until this was done, we could not visit the temple, both temples, Gunaseelam and Tirumala, for any reason...even for attending a wedding or for darshan! My first son had long hair (double plaited) when we went to Gunaseelam! The second son was some 8 months old. The babies were made to sit on their father's lap while tonsuring. I remember my husband telling me that both of them cried a lot! In those days, there were only male barbers for doing this job. Women/mothers were not allowed inside the room. Now, we can see women also doing the job (Picture above). After tonsuring, the babies should be bathed and some priest would apply sandal paste on their heads. Some devotee would apply the 'naamam' on their forehead too...like Lord Venkateshwara wears, like this:

I have got their pictures with shaven head and naamam on their forehead...I laugh and they glare at me, whenever they see it!

I was just wondering what our wikipedia says about this and yes, I got the story and only now I know why I offered my sons' hair to the god!

When Lord Balaji was hit on his head by a shepherd, a small portion of his scalp became bald. This is noticed by Neela Devi, a Gandharva princess. She feels "such an attractive face should not have a flaw". Immediately she cuts a portion of her hair and with her magical power she implants it on his scalp. Lord Balaji notices her sacrifice. As hair is a beautiful aspect of the female, he promises her that all his devotees who come to his abode should render their hair to him, and she would be the recipient of all the hair received. Hence it is believed that hair offered by the devotees is accepted by Neela Devi. The hill Neeladri, one among seven hills is named after her.

Some of my relatives (husband's side - Tamilians) offer their babys' hair at Vaidheeshwaran temple. But as far as I know, every child's first hair was offered to some temple, mostly Tirupati. My Maharashtrian friend said that they don't have this custom. My mother's side (Udupi) too, don't have this custom! Is it just the custom of the Tamilians?

I don't know if I would ask my son to do this ritual and the ear-piercing ritual for his children. The babies are too small while doing this and I can't bear the crying of small babies. Or as an elder, I might like them to do so...I might think it as the family custom and might be good for their well being! I think the younger generation would abhor this custom. They say that the hair will grow thicker if it is tonsured completely in the early years, do you think so?

What is your opinion?

Picture courtesy of Lord Venkateshwara: Google

Be Happy Always!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:13:00 +0000

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This song, based on raag Ananda Bhairavi, was composed by music director A.R. Rahman. He won the National Best Music director Award, Tamil Nadu State Award and Filmfare award for the songs in this movie, 'Minsara Kanavu' (Tamil). It was directed by Rajeev Menon. Vairamuthu was the lyricist. Kajol, Prabhu Deva and Arvind Swamy were the main actors.

I love this song by Anuradha Sriram, for the softness in her voice and the soulful melody of Rahman. The orchestra is with very less instruments. The picturization also blends with the softness of the song. And Kajol's eyes...expression in her face...great! Kannada actor Shankar Nag's wife, Arundhati Nag acted like a typical, devoted nun, here.

Hindi version of the song is equally good. Anuradha herself has sung this song and lyrics by Javed Akhtar:

They always say when they mention about Christmas, 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy Christmas'. I like it very much. I noticed that everybody whether they are Hindus or others, wholeheartedly greet everybody with this greeting, here, in our blogosphere too! Let me also join in!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

LET US ALL BE HAPPY & LIVE IN PEACE!

The Japanese Wife - An Unusual Love Story!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

I am a big fan of Aparna Sen, both as an actress and a film maker. I remember admiring her first movie as a director, '36, Chowrangee Lane', in which Shashi Kapoor's wife, Jennifer Kendal played the main character. It was a serious movie. Most of you must have seen her 'Mr. & and Mrs. Iyer', a beautiful movie, in which her daughter, Konkona Sen acted as a heroine (opp. Rahul Bose, who is the hero of 'The Japanese wife'). I was interested to watch this movie just because it was Aparna Sen's movie.

Now, to 'The Japanese Wife'! Snehomoy Chatterjee (Rahul Bose), is a school teacher, in a small West Bengal village. The village is like an island. Only boats connect it to other surrounding towns. He is fascinated by English and comes across the 'Pen Pal's section in a magazine and starts writing letters to a Japanese friend Miyagi (This girl's sweet English accent is interesting and has acted well). This goes on for a few years and without meeting one another, they plan to get married. He sends her the white bangles, which the married Bengal women wear, to her. He wears a wedding band sent by her. They continue to send gifts and mails to each other for many years. His aunt wants him to marry her friend's daughter, Sandhya, but he continues his friendship with his Japanese wife. Then the friend's daughter comes and stays with them with her son, as a widow, after her mother's death. As per the local custom, she wears a white saree and never comes face to face with Snehomoy. Slowly after sometime, they come to talking terms and even though he becomes slightly attracted to her, he goes back to writing letters to his Japanese wife. Her son comes closer to him. That boy also acted very well. Then Miyagi gets ill and Snehomoy goes to all types of doctors and sends herbs and golis to his wife and talks to her over phone to console her, with his broken English. His expression while searching for doctors for his wife's illness is superb. He is so much in love with his wife that he takes 6 months' unpaid leave to search for doctors to cure her illness. Such devotion! The love and concern for his unseen wife is visible in his face, so well. Then one allopathy doctor asks him to bring his wife to him for treatment, he gets very upset. On the way back, he is caught in a storm and then dies of pneumonia. In the end, they show his white saree clad Miyagi, with shaved head, coming to his/her home.

Moushumi Chatterjee who has acted as his aunt (mausi), was a famous actress in her hay days and here, she has done her job superbly. Raima Sen (Moon Moon Sen's daughter) as Sandhya was a surprise. I know her as an average actress - sort of 'item girl' actress. Her acting is superb, here, in this movie. She must be a director's actress. If the director is good, she is good! She has got huge, expressive eyes! Rahul Bose, is a good actor. Here, the subdued acting as a villager, takes him to a higher level. His body language is just like a villager's. His slow English with typical Bengali accent is very endearing! He keeps on saying, "my English while writing is better than while talking"! Miyagi's (Japanese actress, Chigusa Takaku) English also matched with his English! Her soft voice and expression is very interesting. Oh, I have to mention about the kite competition, which is very interesting! Snehamoy sends the kites his wife sent him, to the sky, as if he is connecting with his wife. I liked the way the villagers' and Sandhya's son's interaction here. The movie is like our normal movie in this portion! The picturization of the movie is superb!

The first half of the movie is tooooo slow. You need lot of patience to continue watching! The next half of the movie speeds up a bit. But in the end, you feel that you have watched a good movie! Rahul Bose and Aparna Sen give us that feeling! I watched the movie without sub-titles for the first half an hour, thinking that I will just follow it with Hindi words with an 'o' accent! But no, it was difficult! Well, did I tell you? This is a Bengali movie!

Let me show a small video clip, so that you can have a taste of the movie. The way Rahul Bose grows up from a young man to middle aged man...his hesitation in body movement in the middle age...well, he is superb, thanks to Aparna Sen. A clean movie to watch...no item songs or dances! No songs at all! Still, I had a good feeling after the movie was over!

Picture courtesy: Google

Edited to add on 21.12.11: Though I have given the wikipedia link to the movie, I thought I should mention that the movie is based on the novel of the same name by the Bengali writer, Mr. Kunal Basu.

Edited to add on 22.12.11!: Please read my friend Kavita's comment in the comment section! It is interesting!

Award for me!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:20:00 +0000

Thank you, Ashok for the 'Versatile Blogger' Award! I am honoured!

Ashok himself writes about different subjects and he is interested in architecture a lot, which you can find from his posts. He seems to be a good photographer plus a poet. His sketches also are interesting, one is here, which I liked a lot.

Nice to know you, thank you, once again, Ashok!

P.S.: It is very difficult for me to select and present this award to my friends now. Will take my time, Ashok! I was thinking about the names for a long time and then decided to postpone upto my 300th post?! Forgot in the end to mention, this! (Edited to add at 4 AM, 20.12.11!).
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Govind Nihalani's Classic Movie - VIJETA (1982)!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandhya) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I heard this classical raaga based song of Asha Bhosle in the radio programme, Sangeet Sarita, a couple of days back. The song is based on raaga Aahir Bhairav, a morning raaga and Asha's voice was impeccably melodious. Rekha is, as usual, superb in the song video. Then I saw the name of the movie, 'Vijeta'. I remembered that I had been planning to watch the movie for a long time and I did, today! And it is a Govind Nihalani, my favourite director's movie! I have watched, Ardh Sathya, Party, Aakrosh etc. and if I mention 'Tamas', the TV serial, it is enough to know of his calibre...I remember its impact on us when it was transmitted in Doordarshan, in the 80's. He was the cinematographer for the movie 'Gandhi' and he has done this job for this movie, Vijeta, too. Now, hear the song first and you will know why I got hooked to the song and the movie. This is the only song in this whole movie and this is a Hindi movie!

This is the story of how Nihal Singh's (Shashi Kapoor) son, Angadh (Shashi's real son, Kunal Kapoor), matures in his life from a confused teenager to a fighter pilot. Neelima (Rekha), as Angadh's protective mother, has done her job, superbly. I had never thought that Kunal Kapoor could act so well amongst the talented actors like Shashi and Rekha. He did his role very well.

The story begins with the India-Pakistan partition scene (though they don't show it, but just hints) where Shashi loses most of his family members and so, often gets nightmares. His mother, Dina Pathak offers her first grandson to the Sikh religion, as is the practice in many Punjabi families as a 'mannath'. So, Angdh is brought up as a Sikh boy. This is not a partition story or war story, but revolves around the emotions of the parents, Shashi, Rekha and their son. Shashi is shown as a sort of weak personality. Because of a short extra-marital affair, his wife Neelima is emotionally detached from him and the friction reflects on their son Angadh. He is restless and is not able to concentrate in his studies. So he was sent to a boarding school but he leaves it halfway and comes home. So, there is fiction between father and son and Rekha is very protective of her only son. Then, her brother, Om Puri (this superb actor comes in a short role, in this movie) suggests to Angadh to join Air Force so that he becomes focused in his life with the discipline he has to go through over there. Here, again, the father is against it. But Angadh joins the Air Force.

Then the story develops to show how Angadh gets accustomed to the atmosphere at the Air force, their training, his friends and how he changes into a self confident person as a fighter pilot and comes closer to his father. The training of the fighter pilot and later, the war scene (Indo-Pakistan war scenes are not shown in detail, but just the scenes where Angadh's personality is developed) are shown superbly. Govind Nihalani is a good cinematographer and it is visible in these scenes. Wikipedia says:

The film is notable for some rarely seen aerial photography of combat aircraft active with the IAF in 1980's. The central character of Angadh himself, is a MiG-21 pilot and is shown flying the aircraft in ground attack role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Much of the movie, including the climax involving MiG-21bis, was shot at Pune. The IAF No.4 squadron (the Oorials), provided the pilots and planes for the film's aerial sequences. The movie included good colour footage of the Oorials aircraft in fight and in operations.

I am a great admirer of Shashi Kapoor's movies (well, some of them!), like Junoon, Kalyug, Kabhie Kabhie etc. People who know/have seen Rekha's movies, will always be her fan. I can't mention her movies because it is a looooong list! She is one of my favourite actors. Khubsoorat, Kalyug, Silsila, Utsav...no, I will stop here!

Let me post some good scenes from the movie, so that you will definitely watch this movie after reading this review. I am very much impressed by it, you know!

The dialogue by Shafi Inamdar of 'Yeh jo hai Zindagi' fame, is superb, here. You can see KK Raina also here. Amrish Puri as Angadh's Fighter pilot instructor, has done a very good job in this movie. Supriya Patak is a stage actress (Angadh's girl friend) and so naturally, has done very well. Now, to the videos:

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Poster courtesy: Google