Hyderabad!

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The long absence was clearly explained in the title. Went for a course and had awesome fun! Nice city to live in, its got its pluses and minuses. Wide roads, no traffic sense, happening clubs, pan spit almost everywhere, purdah clad women, barely clad women, metered autos, expensive cinemas, huge lake, so called strikes, biriyani, rotis, chicken, mutton, Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and absolutely no English and tamil.! Awesome.! Banjara Hills is definitely the place to be, BBQ nation, HRC, INOX, GVK one, KFC, Karachi Biscuits, and everything else.! Golconda Fort is a must visit with a guide. Charminar is in the middle of a highly crowded market and very poorly maintained.

Birla Mandir. A Lord Venky Temple on a small hill just near tank bund circle. It was more than 16 years since I went to Hyderabad. My dad usually takes us along on one of his official trips back then so that we could sightsee. My mom’s most vivid memory of the temple happened to be the way i pestered her to get me a Ramayana for Kids comics by Amar Chitra Katha. I obviously had no remembrance of the incident. But i went to the only shop at the temple and enquired if they had the book. To my surprise, an updated copy was still being printed by ACK and i bought a copy. I flipped through and the images were so familiar.! I so remember the image where Hanuman took his leap across to get the Sanjeevani Mountain. The images looked so familiar. :)

And i so remembered the Musical Clock at Salar Jung Museum from the last visit. I wanted to go again, but word of advice, its a museum to be spent for a whole day.. There is no point going to the place for an hour or something. It is Huge.! Their collections are exquisite.

Paradise Circle. Definitely the best of biriyanis.! The flavour was so rich and the general quantity in that city is generous. The hotel is 5 floors of restaurants. A very well organised place. Its at Secunderabad and i went there expecting a bustling crowded hotel. But after getting there, i went bonkers just at the size of the place.

The movies.! I have watched Avatar in all 3 formats it released in.! IMAX 3D, 3D and 2D. IMAX is huge! They did not provide an interval. I was spell bound by the enormity of the screen. Mind bongling experience.!

Hunter (Tamil). Yes, i watched it too.! Full Kuthu! Full claps.! No words!

3 Idiots.! A careful effort to carve a feel good movie from Five Point Someone. Brilliant outcome i must say.! But a little too artificial.

I have loads more to write. But little patience. :)

Sandy’s Chocolate Laboratory

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OMFG..! Corner House, B’lore has stiff competition from Sandy’s!! I never thought that would ever happen. But yes, CH wins for its price, Sandy’s for innovation and taste.

Caution: the term chocolate laboratory does not mean you can try out stuff by mixing various flavours of chocolate. It is termed laboratory because the ice cream is served in beakers and the bills and the complimentary stuff are given in test tubes.

I have been to this place 3 times and i have had different experiences every time.

The first time, i went after dinner and ordered “Dark Decadence”. Its one of their specialities which is chocolate brownie with vannila ice cream served with a cookie and milk shake in a test tube. Oh wow.! i refused to drink water after finishing with it, lest the taste gets washed down. The cookie was so yummy too..! Impression made..!

The second time i went in the evening with my sister and another friend. This time i ordered one of their liquer based items called “pick me Up..” It was nothin but 30ml of kahlua with tiramisu cream on top served in a wafer cone. I was shocked by the amount of raw liquer and was more surprised the mixture of cream and kahlua which i should say was very delighting. I had ordered Dark decadence for my sister and my friend ordered milk shake.

The third time was last night. It was late at 10 30 in the night. We were the last customers and the menu card had changed. The number of liquer based items had gone drastically down. More specialty items were added and more surprises. i ordered “UFO – serves two”. sitting at the table with my friend, we were wondering why it was taking so long. The guy came, fixed up a large bowl to the table. Then got 3 bowls with edible dry ice, cream and finely chopped apples. They were actually going to make ice cream before our eyes. He poured the cream and then the dry ice and started mixing stuff. It was a pretty sight with the bowl filling up with vapour and flowing out. Then the apples were poured in and more mashing and mixing. Then 2 beakers came along and he split the mixing portion into 2 and served us. I have never tasted ice cream so fresh. and the apples were giving a wonderful flavour.

I noticed another item on the menu card which said “OMFG – serves you right”. I got curious and asked the very helpful guy at the counter. He started, “Sir, it has one piece of the chocolate cake on the counter, 3 big scoops of vannila ice cream, 3 big scoops of chocolate ice cream each topped with whipped cream, caramel sauce and a truffle cherry with a brown and a cookie.” My reaction was OMG. The size of the so aptly named “tiny-cake” was a whopping 4 inches tall and was huge. And he finished his explanation off my saying, “Serves two sir”. I havent had it till now. But just a word of caution, go with an empty stomach if you want to eat the OMFG. The guy was surprising silent with the F in OMFG.

Prices

Dark decadence – 280

Milk shake – 100

Pick me up – 250

UFO – 280

OMFG – 500

I did tell you it was pretty expensive. And ya. I did see a couple of kids yesterday who had large syringes in their hand which they used to squirt milk shake into their mouth. Nice place eh..
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Experience with Auro

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Auro. An average 12-year old boy with a very rare genetic problem made my afternoon. I had a great time with him, watching him dance. Paa was a fulfilling journey with Auro, BigB and family, Vidhya Balan, P.C.Shreeram and the Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. Brilliantly handled by Director Balki, my eyes were moist at the end of the movie. There was never a dull moment during the 3 hour movie with the story just flowing.

BigB was big before my time and I did not realise his power until i saw him as Auro. The tall, slumped over, broken teethed, large headed with veins clearly visible, mirchi loving, kitchidi hating, algebra genius who won the award from the hands of the coolest MP is brilliantly portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan.

Ilaiyaraaja’s BGM made me feel so warm at times and kept me immersed in the story. It was moving beyond comprehension at times and.. I really do not have words to explain his brilliance.

Just something i felt at the end of the movie. How much ever we spend on sound cards, music systems, and large screens to our computers, the experience of watching and listening is best at a theatre.

Thank you Auro.

This happened to me

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Tinkle is a magazine that ruled my childhood. Most of our childhood was made easier by Amar Chitra Katha. Their mythological comics and their monthly magazines were a sure treat to our young minds. Kalia, Suppandi, Shikari Sambu are some of their creations. The magazine also used to carry small snippets with reader submitted articles. One of them was “This happened to me”. Back in 1994-95, our family had to move to Coimbatore. This was one of the stories that happened then. I did write an article in 1997 about this on my dad’s laptop to send to Tinkle, but it never happened. Will try my best to write it as if i wrote it back then. Lets hear it now.

“I was studying in my 5th standard at Coimbatore. My grandparents used to visit us often and we used to go to Marudhumalai to visit the temple. We usually took the town bus which was most of the times crowded. On one of those occasions, we were going to the temple from Coimbatore. It was a very crowded bus and when it reached the bus stand, another crowd was waiting to get on for the return journey. I was sitting at the window seat and was just getting up to disembark. Some one called me from outside the bus and handed me a handkerchief. I promptly returned it back and politely replied that it is not mine. He kept thrusting it through the window and I just placed it on the seat and left. After I got down from the bus, I asked my grandfather as to why the man kept doing that. All of them started laughing and told me that the man was trying to reserve the seat I was sitting on by placing the handkerchief. This is one of my most embarrassing moments.” – Sekkizhar Prasanna, 5th Std, Coimbatore.

;)

Tinkle Rocks..!

State of comedy

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With the recent flood of comedy programs and channels on the airs, I started wondering about the sudden importance rendered to comedy. Almost everyone in Tamilnadu must have watched the famous banana scene involving Koundamani and Senthil. It featured way back in 1989. The pair derived their laughs from Koundamani ridiculing Senthil in all possible scenarios. We have seen enough of it. But how often have you seen original comedy scenes? The most recent movie that was fantastic for its dialogue delivery and humour was “Poi Solla Porom”. Situational comedy seems much better than the type that takes advantage of another human being.

Sarcasm pointed at a fellow human being is not funny. It may be at that point of time, but it makes another human being feel very low. How can you laugh at the expense of another human being? Sarcasm of a human being is wrong, but using it as a tool to ridicule a governing system gives me the splits. Charlie Chaplin does that brilliantly. Be it playing the part of a vagabond, or a monotonous factory worker, his movies always seem to speak volumes with absolutely no words.

The Tramp

"The Tramp"

Regionally, Nagesh is a true comedian. His movies like Ethir Neechal, Kadhalika Neramillai and countless others have left us intellectually provoked and made us laugh. His dialogue delivery and timing is fantastic. He made us feel better and forget our troubles countless times. May these comedians souls rest in peace.

Nagesh with MGR at inauguration of his Theatre

Nagesh with MGR at inauguration of his theatre

If you notice the stand-up comedians, a lot of cliched dialogues will be frequented.

1. நம்ம ஆளு ஒருத்தன்

2. இப்படித்தான் ஸார் அன்னைக்கும்

3. அன்னைக்கு, டீக்கடைல உக்கார்ந்திருந்தேன்

to name a few.

What is wrong with Vadivel and Vivek? I mean, come on. All your tracks are far from the story that most of the times the story is forgotten by the viewer. It seems as if you guys have started making comedy scenes for the sake of Siripoli and Adithya Channels. When will another “Munnadi Pinnadi Kannadi..” scene (Panchthanthiram) come again.

As always, this blog is my own personal view.

And i wanted to pay my tributes to Nagesh, the comedian. Rest in Peace.

Ponniyin selvan

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“Hari and Siva are one. Mud in the mouths of those who don’t know this.”

Roughly translated from a  tamil proverb.

This is the second time i am reading the translated work of Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan. A few facts about the book. It is a story of the great Rajaraja Chola who was responsible for building the Thanjavur Temple. An awesome read with beautiful characterisation. Wish i could read it in tamil as fluently as i can read in english. The book was first serialised in the popular tamil magazine Kalki which was then owned by the writer Kalki Krishnamoorthy. A rage during that published period, it was made into a book after the huge success. It originally had illustrations by Maniam, whose grandson I studied with. The illustrations of Vandiyathevan and Azhwarkadikan are still very popular.

Each of the 5 parts start and end on the banks of a river. It is very evident that Kalki thoroughly researched the said time period before writing the book.

I could relate a lot about the places in the book that pulls me in. Mamallapuram, Eelam, Poompuhar, lots of places in Tamilnadu feature in it. A five part series that i highly recommend.

In case you want the ebook, let me know. Will mail it in. But it is in tamil.

2012

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A mixed bag of nuts. 2012 was a visual treat. It had its share of drama too. Pretty long at 2 and a half hour. “Start engine” is one dialogue you should not miss. ;)

Watched the movie at Devi after ages. The things i am going to tell about Devi are true. Believe it if you want to. No more black ticket. Internet booking. Slick canteen. New cushions on the seats. Fully carpeted area. Improved leg space. Even your car parking spot can be booked online. Rs10 ticket can also be booked online..!! The sound system remains the same, but hoping they change it soon. Devi just got back into the big league..!

Putting aside the movie for now, what do you really think about the 2012 Apocalypse part? I read this article about the possibilities( http://news.discovery.com/space/ray-villard-doomsday-theories.html)  and i am pretty sure nothing will happen to us.

Even if it were to end, come, lets have fun..!!