Dasavatharam

I happened to see the Dasavatharam audio release program on TV! It was a winding looong program with mostly boring speeches. The highlight was Jackie Chan being the chief guest. He was so sweet and charming with a perennial smile and his world famous mischievous gestures. But it was pathetic to find that no one was posted near him to translate, atleast in pieces, as to what was being spoken (esp when ever his name was mentioned).That was a shame..When kamal did mention in English about his desire to act with him (rather kamal said, I shall remember ur promise of acting with me!) he gestured back which went like “I shall do the romancing and u do the action”..The CM MK actually did a biiig drab biography of Chan and all that Chan and Amitabh(the other biggie on stage) were doing was looking blank in that direction. Why shud these guys have such tall figures who don’t understand tamil as guests but go on grinding in tamil, che..illmannered stuff that was!

The highlight IMHO was when Chan was presented the first CD by the CM. He was presented in a big wrapped up cover with some fancy lace which was opened on the stage and as usual foto ops followed. Just as people on the stage were getting back Jackie Chan coolly walked up and picked all those plastic wrappers, lace etc and walked to the corner searching for a bin:-)
What a gesture! Did people watch it? Did those on the stage really notice and did they learn?? Or will they, ever?

Note: While am a big fan of his great works, I feel queasy about such hyped up pre-release stunts of Kamal and many a times seen them go dud. Aalavanthan comes to mind:-(
(as for the songs themselves, I heard once and none fell in to the tamil song variety..some were very hey ram-like! very noisy and westernish)

If u cant beat them, beat them..

or him?? so thought Bhajji and so this comedy unwinds at IPL..its an irony that the 2 worst behaved players went in to a spat..or is it a slap?
the only worthy thingy to watch for me in IPL till date;-)
what a shame..slapping another player, esp some one who was in ur dressing room till very recently..Now we know whether it was maa ki or monkey..or may be he is actually that 'obnoxious weed' of cricket and needs to be removed..
I will be terribly upset if he is not banned for lifetime.. what a shame the act itself was and worser sham it will be if he is let off with some slap on the wrist.
That shall leave one more weed - the one at the receiving end this time, sreesanth, to be removed soon..guys with less talent and so much of histrionics and regularly bringing the game to disrepute..it shud be good riddance to bad rubbish, deservedly!
I vaguely remember these 2 guys had a spat last year too in some local tournament (Ranji or challenger or something!)

howzzat?

-Rajanikanth makes onions cry
-Rajanikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
-Ghosts are actually created when Rajanikanth kills people faster than Death can process them.
-Rajanikanth can build a snowman..... out of rain.
-Rajanikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
-Rajanikanth can drown a fish.
-When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on, he turns the dark off.
-When Rajanikanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough to get in between Rajanikanth and Rajanikanth.
-Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajanikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
-The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth. He is the end of all things.
-Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
-Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.
-A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Rajanikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
-Rajanikanth's calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajanikanth.
-If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Rajanikanth?" It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."
-Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
-Once a cobra bit Rajanikanth' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
-When Rajanikanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live.
-Rajanikanth can kill two stones with one bird.
-Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
-Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajanikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
-There is no such thing as global warming. Rajanikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
-Rajanikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
-Rajanikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life… unless it gets in his way.
-It takes Rajanikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
-Rajanikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"
-In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajanikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
-Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajanikanth.
-Rajanikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajanikanth only recognizes the element of surprise.
-Rajanikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.
-With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajanikanth is beginning to worry about his drinking habit.
-The square root of Rajanikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajanikanth, the result is death.
-When you say "no one's perfect", Rajanikanth takes this as a personal insult.

and we built them with hands!

Oh yeah! We the people were used to building houses with hands, with available materials within our visibility range, with our own kith n kin and how we lived! Hmmm..sigh sigh..
Then we as a race “developed” and so ‘discovered’ so many stuff (esp synthetic and very environment unfriendly) and moved stuff from miles away, burning fossil fuel and happily showed off! In the process not guilty of the carbon footprint or the damage caused to the ecology..
But then its not always like that..some good souls show up, educate as many as possible and more importantly try and lead by example..point return is one such approach as we have seen here on many occasions..among various activities there like water recharge/harvest, off grid sustainable living (wind & solar power to be copiously used), organic agricultural practices etc, Cob building shall be one more exciting addition over there. As mentioned before the idea at point return is to have self sufficient cash with many such activities in the near abandoned land and more importantly to leave behind a worthy legacy!
Cob buildings date back to the ancient ways of house building using sand, clay, straw and water. They are supposedly seismic proof, fire proof and absolutely eco friendly..(an aside: when I mentioned about cob involving clay, sand & straw to a friend of mine the other day, he coolly pointed out sarcastically that I used my brains after a long time!got it? Nothing to write home anyways, he was mentioning clay:-)).
We had to construct a bathroom and a community kitchen (wait! the bedrooms come later). As always DV Sridar comes with so much of researched knowledge, data and his meticulous plans. We were eight volunteers plus DV’s work force! It was so heartening to see such enthusiastic youngsters (ya, including DV and yours truly) come out with such passion for such projects (some of them had come straight after turtle walk the previous night! Amazing energy that!!) We had to stamp the combo with our legs and make it in to a paste, carry them to the venue (a few meters) and then compress with hands and ‘construct’ the wall- feet by feet that is! Hats off to those young turks, for, the whole atmosphere was charged up and ofcourse lighted with so many jokes and giggles..siddarth’s non stop pun, Rathindran’s funny walks, Niraj’s quiet Lendl like work, Maya’s sincere & serious approach, Naveen’s all too familiar enthusiasm- I can go on here..sangee(who couldn’t unfortunately make it) was missed, but we know she wud, like in many events before, suddenly out do all us!
With so much of energy and pumped up action all we could do in a day was just more than a metre of 4 walls in both rooms! Get the enormity?
And BTW any of u interested in joining such outing mail/call me and lets plan..

What a man!

Dr.Nammazhvar (or Nammalvar) is an amazing man with enormous energy and was the pioneer in organic farming. It was he who started this organic movement in Tamilnadu and kept spreading it with so much energy and vigor. But for him, TN farmers would not have made such headway in chemical free toxic resins free organic farming. Not that whole of TN is now organic, but its bcos of him that TN is where they are now! He was with the agri dept in late 60s and in 3 years found it tuff to go about the wrong ways they were leading then..he did not want to lie or present wrong facts and stats and so quit his job! Since then leads a very simple yogic life traveling around educating farmers all over. He goes anywhere, stays anywhere and eats what ever is provided (he even goes without food for days and says one meal a day is more than sufficient!).
I had the opportunity to spend a day in his workshop at vikravandi (near villupuram) in an organic farm. What an experience it turned out to be.I was impressed by his style and approach - very friendly, sincere and down to earth! He goes about, in his cute inimitable style, the whole genesis of agriculture, mentions of agri in Thirukural etc, how and when we lost control and how the chemicals/green revolution/official machinery screwed our ancient and nature friendly ways and so on..inbetween nice snippets, slight pulls about MS Swaminathan & co’s dramas, our old proverbs and sayings an d more..In all a very eventful day and was packed with so much info..just walk along with him and u get so much info on each plant/herb u come across- their medicinal value and other uses..if so much cud go in to a person like me, who till a couple of years back never bothered about what happens in a field or what was agri and how it was practiced! Imagine how relevant and useful his speech wud be to farmers. A great man performing immense service to the society! Let him live long and serve us all!

xcusi

Those of you who had shades of jealousy about my retired life, smile please..am sure I have bitten more than I can chew..man! loaded with so many things to do..am swaggering like the sumo giants with loads of tasks weighing me down..'to do' task list only growing by the day:-(
Those of u who thought I wud be shouting “thangamani ensoyyyy”, no !am going to disappoint big time..
Those of u cussing me for not socialising, not attending some personal appointments or functions just peep in to last few days or my plans for the next days..
2 days in tiruvannamalai, one day to a couple of farms at singaperumal koil, 2 days at Madurai (ofcourse Dhan is the reason)
Next days? 1 day at Kadambai, next at vikravandi then 2 days to Blore, 2 days at Dharmavaram (Timbaktu collective) and 2 days at point return -to build cobs there! howzzat?
so folks, pl bear with such slow blogging!

shame shame

As it is our views and handling of the Tibet issue is pathetic. As though that's not enough, our external affairs minister voices his concern about HH Dalai Lama using India for political activities and a profound statement that India still follows what ever Nehru said about Tibet. What a shame!! as though one Nehru was not enough. sigh..sigh..
here is the funny part: GOI says, he can carry on his religious activities but not political..and hey, HH Dalailama was given political asylum right or was it religious asylum..but i know which asylum these guys of MEA belong:-)
As for our media, its ok bcos its china who is playing the aggressor..think for a moment if it was US and how much our pinkos would be jumping!

As always politicians on both sides have jumped on a no-opportunity and muddled it in TN and karnataka. OH! a drinking water project- like most projects and esp in TN and more so by these Dravidian jokers, never ended up in providing water..and here as hell just bcos there's an election round the corner, the Kar politrixians are making so much noise. Foolishly the film fraternity jumps in. what do these guys have to do in such political gamble. All these fellas- politicos and actors will be behind safe walls with our tax paid extra security and its those in the slums who will get all the injuries. Can't our actors stop at acting (ok, given that they don't even do that properly)or what ever and stop short of offering their fans (esp the ones in the slums who are easily identified by the banner/poster of their fav actor they display and so rampaged by resp opp crowd) as a prey to these gimmicks.
another silly issue, another political mileage seeking game and prolly another riot: result same! poor really poor folks will get the beating..and we will never learn. (read the title again)