ExpertDabbler

In my opinion the most unsual film album of the year should go to Pudupettai.
The audio tracks are so fresh and different.
And i am listening to that grand Kamal Haasan number as i a writing this. Another
noteworthy tracks are Enga Area kitte Varadhey…
Yuvan has come up with some theme tracks…
Looks like Selvaraghavan is making a Chennai ised version of that RVG masterpiece Sathya.
Very interesting album.
Selvaragahavn is another director who keeps improving with every film. His 7g was well appreciated. Hope the movie turns out to be interesting as well.
I am really looking forward to the film.

Why not? Even this blog url might change soon. Expertdabbler will have his own fully furnished independent house in the web soon. So this template is only an interim thing. Also, let me be honest here, some of my personal buddies wanted a light background. A small sized Trebuchet font against a dark background is a usability goof-up by PK, or so they think. So this is for them.

Section 144
In view of some experiences in the recent past, i’ve made a decision not to blog about the following anymore.

Pre-marital/Post-marital sex and other Panpaadu, Kalachaaram related issues
For more expert comments please contact all the women who have broomsticks to safeguard their sisters and daughters from vices like Kushboo and Suhasini. You can also contact Thiruma Valavan, Maruthuvar Ayyas, Thankar Bachan of “sparrow drilled some fruit” fame.

Uniform civil code, Color dress civil code
This country has enough number of pseudo secularists. My recommendation will be the Congress Party though.

Brahminism and Reservation issues
Ask Mr. Thamizh ina thalaivar for all reservation related information.
This includes the resevation done by Southern Railways and Sathyam Cinemas.

He is a friend of Brahmins, especially in Mylapore during elections, but otherswise a dead-enemy of Brahminism.

Tags
Tags, even the strongest of those, will be untagged here.

I’ve had enough. Time is becoming more and more precious and i want to think and write about stuffs which might help me in my profession and as a person.

Jennifer Capriati.
Hey, I know i am supposed to talk about Tendulkar. We’ll come to that.
But does anyone remember Jennifer Capriati?
In case you dont, Jennifer Capriati was a teen sensation like our own Sania. She was all of 14 years when she made to the semifinals of the French open in 1990. The next year she made it to Wimbledon semis. After that things began to fall apart. It took her ten years to regain her place in the tennis world to a certain extent. In between were things like being caught for shoplifting, arrested for possession of marijuana etc. She never rewrote the record books as she was expected to. What went wrong? If you are making the semi-finals of a grandslam at the age of 14, obviously you’re talented.

Sport,like my favorite sportswriter Nirmal Shekar is ever fond of saying, is a capricious business. Things rarely go the way as expected. Its very difficult to be a genius. Its almost impossible to be a celebrity without falling from grace. Its just impossible to be a genius as well a celebrity and remain at the top for 16 years. But Sachin tendulkar has done just that and keeps doing.

Starting young has its advantages. You know what you are going to do for the rest of your life unless something tragic happens. You can concentrate only on that. But it has a dangerous other side - Dealing with fame and success before you know the ways of the world.

Unlike Rahul Dravid who had to fight and write his own story in the sporting history of India, Sachin had his script written by the critics, the selectors, the public at the age of 16. It was clear what the nation expected of him ever since he struck 4 sixes of an Abdul Qadir over in a festival match in Pakistan.

After that, he had to keep up with the script or improve upon it. The acts just got tougher and tougher. Hundreds kept coming ever since the first one in England, a match saving one at the age of 16, a brilliant one at Perth, a classic one at DUrban in South Africa, some entertaining knocks back home before that spectacular hundred at Chepauk against the Aussies in 1998, when Shane Warne was shown his place, the most heart breaking one again in Chepauk when he single handedly took India from 80 odd for 5 to almost victory battling not just the Pakistanis but also painful back spasms, the determined 241 in Sydney scored almost entirely on the leg side.

And how do i explain the ODI knocks in Sharjah against Australia in the knockout as well as Finals? Incredible?

Amidst all this were issues like an underperforming team, a captaincy debacle, intra team politics, betting scandals etc.

But Tendulkar was shown no mercy. He just had to perform day in and day out. Every action, guesture of his were scrutinsed by the media, by the critics, by the adoring fans, by the opposition think tank and he had no choice but to live upto it or exceed expectations. A lesser mortal would’ve gone the Capriati way or Vinod Kambli way.

Some of the allegations against him are, he is not a finisher. He is not a match winner. He is well past his best, He plays for the records. I dont know, if a guy can maintain a strike rate of 80+ with an average of 45 in a highly competitive One Day circuit for more than 350 ODIs and if he can be accused of all sorts of things, then show me how many are better than him in India as well as abroad?

If Gilchrist scores a run a ball century in the first innings and Australia win that match, he is a match-winner. Tendulkar will do exactly that and our stupid team will still manage to lose and suddenly Tendulkar is accused of not finishing it out.

People refer to the stats about how many times Tendulkar has scored a century and yet India has lost. So what should he do? stop making runs so India can win? The stats after all these years makes it clear that Lara has been on the losing side more than any other modern greats. So does that make Lara a lesser player? Or does it reflect on the degradtion in quality in the WI camp?

Keep in mind, he was handling teams who always reserved their best strategies and plans for him. Be it a Mcgrath or a Shane Warne. They always watched him that much more, looking for that slight weakness to exploit and get on top of him.

Ever since his debut till now, Sachin is a match winner. Throughout the nineties and till the likes of Saurav and Rahul Dravid and Sehwags established themselves in the team, he was the only match winner.

I dont think Tendulkar is the greatest natural talent the game as ever seen. I have seen and am seeing a more brilliant Brian Lara. I’ve seen the dazzling Emperor of Cricket, Sir Issac Vivian Alexander Richards play the best of the attacks with abandon. I’ve heard enough about Sir Garry Sobers handling Dennis Lilee and Jeff Thompson on pacy Asutralian tracks and play some blinders. And we need not even talk about Sir Don Bradman. Considering the kind of bowlers they all tackled, with 8- ball overs and no head gears on pacy tracks, they are all truly greats.

But Sachin stands above all of these greats in one aspect. Nobody ever has played a decade and a half carrying the hopes of a cricket crazy nation with millions of TV viewerships as has this man. And he has lived up to all the expectations and looks like exceeding it in every single match. Sachin is in my opinion be the greatest living cricketer for the way he blended natural talent with discipline, method with madness, aggression with modesty and hitting out at his critics without even uttering a single word.

Culture:

“The word culture, from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance ”

Source: wikipaedia.org

Even providing for the different definitions of culture, nowhere is culture defined as something which starts and ends with procreation. It extends to each and every aspect of life. Just how desirable are our value systems in other aspects?

What are our current best practices in terms of healthcare (think AIDS), honesty in public life(our politicans), value for an individual’s life (think famines, floods, emergency services), public administration systems, education, farmers dying due to poverty, infrastructure? How accomplished are we in all these things?

We dont we feel about what we are going to passing on to the next generation in all these aspects but so overly concerned about sexual attitudes?

We talk about our rich cultural legacy in arts, architecture, science, mythology, literature, ancience sources of wisdom, vedic literature and so on. Just where are we now in all these? Is India the best place to live in this world?

Does our Bhagavat Gita prescribe corruption? Then how come India is one of the most corrupt country in the world then?

Has not our ancient texts talk about honesty and general discipline? How disciplined are Indians when compared to the cultureless west in public places?

We inherited great sources of knowledge from our ancestors, now what have done with it? Have we spread those good things to those who are not aware?

We follow Vaasthu shastra because we fear non-conformance might cause bad to the individuals and the family but we violate city development authority rules because there is no such fear attached to it. What kind of culture is this?

How many of the village children in India go to school?

Why these cultural guardians turn away when dealing with these, in my opinion, more important issues? Lets restore our cultural best practices in all other aspects of life first and then talk about sex.

Actually in that last post of mine about Cheran, i had mentioned about a scene from Chetan Bhagat’s novel. Prem, the musician’s question is, why such a scene should not be disapproved, condemned or in his words why a conservative stance should not be taken on such depiction.

A blogger is different from a novelist in the sense he cannot distance himself from his writings and say, “Oh, those are the views of my character, not necessarily mine.” As a blogger i try to be candid to the extent possible without any malicious intentions or meaning hatred to anyone personally.

My take on that is, we can choose to remain virgin in our lives till marriage; thats our choice. But we are nobody to decide whether a boy or a girl should or should not be a virgin. Whether we accept this as a reality or not is upto each person’s comfort levels and viewpoints. The people in question - the younger generation could not care less about our opinions.

Yeah i know i am talking about mishaps like sexualy transmitted dieases, teen pregnancies and so on. There are potential pitfalls sure. If i find someone who is indulging in such activities, i can only talk about those mishaps and try preventing it, but mishaps do occur inspite of all the preachings. It always will. My point is nothing much can be done about it beyond a point. There will always be the good, the sensible, the childish, the gullible, the sadist etc.

Accidents do happen in the roads, sometimes innocents get killed too, but that does not prevent us from using the highway everyday. We struggle, we swear at other road users, we get sweared. But eventually most of us learn how to use the road. Same goes with issues like these. The next generation will find what is optimum for them.
Some will be within safe limits(safe for them) some will live wild - again by their standards.

Many people have adviced me on the need to get married early. They say a guy should get married by 26/27 bcos he can get a son or daughter by 29 and by the time his son or daughter grows up, he can ensure that he is around to guide them and see them get married or in other words “settled”. This is a classic case of assuming too much in my opinion. They are assuming the youth of 25 yrs hence will be more like the way i was to my dad. I always repond by saying i do not expect my son or daughter to look upto me to have them “settled”.

Times change. My dad passed away without pressing a PC keyboard. PC is my livelihood now. The kind of media my dad was exposed to was different from the media i am exposed to. So obviously our opinions on certain things will differ too.

Today we are having mainstream Tamil magazines running articles on how to “pick up” a girl and how to “keep up” with those picked up. Can anyone imagine something like this 20 years before in mainstream tamil magazines?

I think with the advent of globalisation, a lot of things have changed.
Its not like we can have all the dollars, all the FDI, all the jeans trousers, Pizzas, Hollywood movies beaming into our homes 24 hours a day, broadband unlimited unrestricted internet, shows like “Desperate Wives” , “wifeswap” and MTVs and yet remain conservative in our outlook towards sex alone because it means protection against evil and conforms to our “tradition”. It all comes as a package.

If you are so particular about tradition, i should not be blogging about such issues to strangers and you should not be reading about a stanger’s views as well.
Was this our tradition?

Globalisation accelerated the change in the value systems. So its not a question of whether we like it or not. If we accept it as a change, living in this world will be
that much smoother till we die.

As an individual i am pretty neutral to it. I dont say this is how a person should live. Nor do i say a person should abstain from doing this. But i have every right to live the way i want - remaining a virgin, a heterosexual, a teetotaller, a vegetarian and non-smoker etc. My dad never laid down iron rules for living this way. I live this way because i am comfortable.

So whats in store for the next generation? Does that mean my son or daughter will probably have endless affairs before settling down with someone? i dont know.

As a person i think youngsters will never listen to what we say. but they will probably observe how we act. If i am consistent about what i say and how i act, chances are my son or daughter too will consider my opinion and willing to think about the good or bad in it. Please note, i said “chances are” and “might consider”. I think that is the best i can do. At the end of the day my daughter’s life is my daughter’s life.

My dad passed away leaving me single, but he sure provided me a good environment to grow up. As i mentioned before, there was a definite difference in opinions on certain issues.

But the way he lived his life has had a huge influence on me. There are so many things which i’ve just inherited from him. He has brought me up as a responsible kid. In fact he let me learn things so effectively and so very well much so i don’t really miss him now. That is the ultimate testimony of how he lived and brought me up. I think he did his duty as a father. Seeing me married or ensuring i am a virgin till marriage is not the most important duty of a father in my opinion.

This is not to say all nice people have nice sons, there are other factors as well.

I would be very happy if i can provide my child an environment which is was good as my childhood terms of intellectual growth, good thoughts, good habits, basic honesty, taking responsibility for ones actions, living with conscience and compassion, education and i mean allround education, not grades. The rest is not in my hands.

Whether my sons or daughters will look upto me for arranged marriage or will live with someone before marrying is not my problem. Nor can do anything about it even if i consider it to be objectionable. They will live their lives the way they want with or without my approval.

I am not sure if i have made myself clear. But this is all i have to say.

I know the internet is full of cultural guardians, I have to admit one thing here.
My father did bring me up nicely in certain aspects but not nice enough to let idiots put up insane comments on my background, community etc. either with their names / anonymously / pen names. So such comments will be promtply and mercilessly deleted no matter how long such comments are. People are hereby warned.

Odd combo isn’t it? Like Morkuzhambu with Cheese Burger.
Whats wrong with me? Well, just that i wanted to write about my observations about these two.

Let me make myself clear. The only Cheran movie i’ve seen is his Autograph. So its not like i am his fan. My adulation takes some time to grow. Sometimes decades.
On the other hand, i am a die-hard Mani Ratnam fan. I also like Kamal Haasan a lot. But that does not prevent me from cribbing about them from time to time

Sachin, i grew up watching him play. I’ve seen the way he played in the 90s. To me no other cricketing mortal comes close. I’ve been disillusioned with cricket off late. I don’t bunk office, or sit late nights to watch a cricket match. Heck, i was browsing the net when Sachin made his 35th ton in Feroz Shah Kotla. Just that i did not feel he would make it in Delhi so did not switch on the television
In short, i am a big fan of Sachin
Ok, Lets talk about Cheran first.

Cheran:

I don’t think he can compete with the likes of Mani Ratnam or Ram Gopal Varma for style or for novel story-telling techniques. No LIFO (Last in First Out) methods of storytelling as Mani did in ‘Alaipayuthe’ or “One story, Two viewpoints” in Kamal’s Virumaandi. No astonishing attention to detail like Kamal’s ‘Hey Ram’.
But we should remember he does not have the budget to attempt such a thing as those biggies. Please note i did not add Shankar to this list. Painting a vilage is a panchayat union’s job, not a film director’s in my opinion. Employing 65 cameras for a single sequences is just trying too hard to be seen savvy. Rejected case.

But cheran is one honest film maker i believe.
Honesty in what? Honest in telling a story or making a statement wth minimum package stuff. Not that its wrong to package it expensively. Song sequence in Jordan, New Zealand, South Africa or Sydney Harbour with white group dancers for a story happening in Madurai, nothing wrong with it. But then nothing great about it either. Its so much better to do stuff because you want to do it rather than because the producer or the distributor wants it. Or because you feel you have to tie the audience down from going for his smoke before interval.

Blame it on personal preferences, i dont like directors who just try too hard to woo the audience. Like a teenager trying to woo a girl who is not interested. To me a creator should have confidence in his story. He should believe that the audience will sit and watch his story. A trick or two is ok. But more of these cheap tricks
betrays the director’s insecurity. He should not be filming that story in the first place.

I’ve heard only good things about Cheran’s Bharathi Kannamma. He used Parthipan as a hero in is very first movie. Not the most sexy of actors. He later did movies like Vetri Kodi Kattu and Pandavar Bhoomi. Again simple stories not made on lavish budgets but not filmed theatre plays either.

Cheran could’ve added a kuthu paatu in Autograph. Or an item number with Simran to dance to speed up things. How many times have we heard Kollywood guys use terms like “Ippo idu daan sir trend” (This is the trend, Sir), “jananga idhu dhaan rasikaranga”? As if they have run a secret survey all over Tamil Nadu for it.

Till Autograph, i was mostly told stories where a guy feels for a girl all his life and ends up a Devdas or a story where another girl is in love with him. without the hero knowing it. Or a story where the hero’s ex-lover returns to torment him all his life. Hey there’s one such thing called “moving on”, and i think Cheran conveyed that very well in his Autograph.

I think i did that in my life too so i think i could relate to that.
I am not a 2 movies-a-week guy, so pardon me if that idea is old or stale.

Yeah, i too buy Ananda Vikatan and I too read Gyani’s statement that if it had been the case of a girl inviting all her ex-boyfriends, how will that go with the audience? Its not the film maker’s fault in my opinion. Right now i am reading a novel by Chetan Bhagat where the hero and heroine make love in a car (before marriage, lets be clear). And later on, the heroine conveys to the hero the news of her marriage with another man. So far no earthquakes. No 100 violins screaming or its literary equivalent. I don’t know what happened after that because i am yet to finish that book. But yeah, people accept such stories in the Rest of India. If Tamil Nadu cannot accept that, blame it on the vulgarisation of ‘Dhamil kalachaaram’.

The best thing i like about Cheran is that he is not trying to be too smart and end up copying English movies for new ideas as some of our more famous directors often do. Even that reclusive, bespectacled Alwarpet genius looks Westward for inspiration.
Atleast Cheran sticks to making movies about the people he knows about.

Autograph to me, is a throwback of the Malayalam cinema of the 80’s. People who have seen and enjoyed movies like “Kaatathey Kilikoodu(1983? Jo cheta, help please:)) or “Dasaratham” (1990?) or “Chithram” will understand that.

Or take for example the kind of movies Fazil used to make. What’s so great about “Poove Poochudava”? What style there? What novelty in presentation? What great treatment? Zilch! It may be news to some of you that PC Sriram was the cameraman for that movie. Now dont go and see that movie expecting any of the picture postcard wideangle shots or that chiaroscuro lighting technique PC is capable of. It has nothing of the PC Sriram we’ve come to associate with. But that movie will sure keep you engrossed even now. Because it had a decent storyline and a director who knew what he was doing. Cheran belongs to that KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) school of film making, atleast till now. And man, may your tribe grow!.

Here’s one guy coming from South of Madurai, with no connections in the film industy, no father to introduce him, no star to back him up and he is trying to make a cinema for the story value and emotional content rather than someone trying too smart and looking half-baked in the process.

The last time someone from such a background made one take notice was Bharathiraja. Gradually he too was caught in the stereotype of White-dress heroines, repeat cut-shots, and too much of “Directorial Touches” to my liking.
Any stale technique is bad enough. Its worse when a a good director gets addicted to it and never really lets it go. Nowadays Bharathiraja is busy giving interviews on anything and everything under the sun but not making movies.

Its good that Cheran sticks to making movies on subjects he knows and feels about and makes a statement if he wants to. Not that every cinema has to carry a message. Its not an email damn it. But its not a sin either. Whether we agree to his statements or not is a different matter. Lets give that liberty to the film maker.
Not that every movie of his will be a hit either. Its just that i respect people who have a story to tell and the skill to convey it well.

Lets watch a film for a story’s integrity rather than for the shine and gloss of the Stars, Foreign Locations, 125 cameras for a single shot, compooter graphics, Matrix like stunts, 250 group dances etc. Cinema is meant to deal with emotions. If it doesn’t its not good cinema in my opinion. Thats why people still cherish and talk about a Mouna Ragam, or or a Mahaanadi. I am not sure if Cheran is quite in the same league. I dont know. But he is soon getting there if not already there. He is one of the best among the younger crop of film makers. Lets appreciate and acknowledge that atleast.

Now, if people don’t watch movies like Cheran’s in theatres and end up cribbing about movies being “Kudumbathoda parka kudiyala”, then we might be served dishes like ‘New”, “Aa Aah”, “Madura’, “Thirupaachi”, “Sivakasi” etc. Dont blame Cheran if you get diarrhea because of food poisoning.

And dont’t tell me i didn’t warn ya!

We’ll talk about Sachin tomrrow. Take a break and have a kit-kat:)

I know i am not updating my blog the way i used to. The less said about my responses to comments, the better. Where did i go? I hereby request a general amnesty from all my regular readers for this irregularity
Well i was live and kicking for sure. Just that i was obsessed with work. A website redesign work which i hope will see the light of the day sooner rather than later.

Lets leave it at that for now. I think its more appropriate to read it when written in the relevant blog than me talking abt it beforehand.

Having said that, this also provided me a chance to introspect. What am i doing in my free time? What do i love to do? Is it all worthwhile or is there a better way to make use of one’s spare time? Where can i go from here? What more can i learn and from whom? etc etc.

Now, dont ask me if anything meaningful came out of it. As of now no clarity emerged. But i might branch out and begin my joourney on a few very rarely travelled roads
I am also thinking about going for an independent domain in my own name rather than being dependent on blogger. The redesign project sure had an impact on me

Off late, I find many traditional lunches with all these bisbela bath, Veg. Briyani stuff but without the all important Paruppu Saadham.
Folks, whats a function without Paruppu Sadham?
The thing i hate to miss the most on a special lunch is Paruppu Saadham with Sambhar as side dish.

Blame it on this contractor culture. None barring the brahmins stress on this Paruppu Sadham for wedding lunch. Its sad to see most of the hotels have stopped this Paruppu Sadam for Lunch by default. Its straightaway sambhar, Rasam, Vathal Kuzhambu, Curd.

The explanation I often hear is the cost. I simply cannot accept this cost factor. There are so many things which has gone way too expensive and we still continue our patronage.

If anyone is starting a campaign to give Paruppu Saadham its rightful place in the standard Tamilnadu meals menu, here is the first supporter.

Nowadays i hog my favorite dish at home with either Rasam combo or Sambhar combo on weekends.

Its funny how we can develop attachment to some of the s/w products we use everyday. Can anyone think of a life without MS Word?

Try this, uninstall MS Office and download Open Office or Star Office and try it for a day. Let it all be done in a day.

My network guys in my prev organisation actually did that. They uninstalled MS Office in all machines and installed Open Office overnight citing licence issues. To add insult to injury, we had some powerpoint presentation to make that very same day. Pretty good reasons to go mad actually. Not that MS pays us every month. But its because of the attachment we, the user develop to the software and its unique UI.

Its all sub conscious, we hardly realise it and then it strikes us only when it’s gone.

Okay, i am not against open source or whatever. But the point is MS Word is as ubiquitous as PC. And it takes a bit of emotional adjustment for getting used to a world without it. Whatever be the replacement, Open Office or Closed Office, the more similiar it is to MSWord, the less we are bugged with it.

The reasons for this blabbering?

I visited the macromedia website and it hurts to find the Adobe logo instead.
I owe my growth in my career to Macromedia Dreamweaver.
I did not know even HTML when i started my career. I was given a medieval looking software called Netscape Composer. It sure was a pain in the piles region.

Later on, i got hold of a Macromedia Dreamweaver CD, bought a book and started to use it and i never looked back after that.

Where would i be without it? It hurts to find that the ‘Macromedia’ part of it will be no more.

I hope Adobe does not kill those products under some pretext. These products are as important to half-baked guys like me as Google is to search for the common man.

Macromedia may be gone, but the spirit of Flash and Dreamweaver will remain for the next generations and the next.

Welcome back khanna please!

I missed you terribly. These past few days was horrible without you.
I now appreciate your true worth.
You know, its not just about the warmth that you provide, you are also the source of the much needed spirit and energy.
Without you i was like a zombie.

Ofcourse you are a bit hot and short-tempered some times but i guess that’s ok provided you dont abuse.

Please understand we need you everyday, all the year all through our life. You are our very existence.

Welcome back, Sun.

Makkaley ellarum oru dhaba kai thatungo, innaiku madras la mazhai illama miga midhamaana veyil adichudhu.