ExpertDabbler

According to the tradition ( ennamo 1000 varusham tradition!, ellam neram )
i am supposed to find 5 hidden gems from the blogosphere and link here.

I am not sure i can manage five.

I’ll manage one though.

Folks, check out rprabhu.blogspot.com he definitely is a potti to our Maaya Priya in terms of reading and analysing ancient tamil classics.

And this person is neither a newbie nor hidden but i’ll go ahead and link her bcos i promised her that i’d do so sometime back in her comments section, so here we go to subha’s blog.

Ennanga 5 ku koncham dhaaney(4) kurayudhu?, freeya vidunga

I am not exactly a bhakthiman. I rarely visit temples. Mainly because I have developed a hatred for crowds in temples. Let’s just say i have my own ideas about when to visit a temple (either early in the morning or late in the evening but never during crowded auspicious days) and what to do there. But that does not prevent me from being a huge fan of bhakthi music.

I somehow feel some of the devotional songs hardly get the mention and following it righty deserves. This inspite of it having survived for generations and still going strong.
(Eg, Pallikattu Sabarimalaiku)

Here are some of my favorite bhakthi songs till date.

Harivarsanam Vishawamohanam

A trip to any iyyappan temple is not complete if you are not priviliged enough to listen to this classic from KJY. This is especially so if one considers I’ve never understood the lyrics clearly. But still one’s soul stirs everytime one listens to this. There is a saying which goes like ‘Thiruvasagathirku urugadhaar oru vaagathirukum urugaar’. But this would apply equally to this song as well.

Azhagendra Sollukku Muruga

MSV’s music and top notch lyrics by Kovai Koothan ably support TMS in elevating this number to a totally different level. Those days no krithigai would be complete without my mom playing this song at home. The death of our home cassette system also put a full-stop to this. My mom, happened to listen to this after almost a decade, thanks to musicindiaonline.com

Thamizhisai paaduginra vaanambadi

Absolutely wonderful lyrics and rendered by the one and only Seerkazhi. His thamizh pronunciation is just amazing. To me he is the ultimate in Bhakthi music.

There are some talented musicians in the contemporary scene who are great in the devotional genre. My mother, for example, vouches for the ability of Aruna Sairam. Though i have not heard much of her. Maybe i should in future.

What makes a good bhakthi song?

Unlike film music, you can’t get away with the likes of Udit Narayans.
Feeling and pronunciation are of utmost importance. The instruments definitely take a backstage.

Also, the tunes have a very strong classical flavour without getting too classical
with alaapanas etc. That is it should have a carnatic base but should be understandable even to the common man.

BTW, I am looking for ‘Chinnajiru Penn Poley’ sung by Seerkazhi himself. Music was by Papa (according to dhool.com). Any pointers with the URL would be more than awesome.

Whenever i talk to people who have sons of marriageable age (this includes my mom too), i could not help but feel they live in their own sweet protected world and something far removed from reality. They visualise the present day world and its people as nothing more than an extension of the world that was during the late 70s and early 80s. Invariably that was the time when they themselves were at their prime.

Times are drastically different now.

Recently, my mom told me these incidents. And it was apparent she was more concerned than me.

Our neighbours and one of my friends both belong to the same community. Knowing this, my mom had asked our neighbour if any suitable alliance/horoscope is there for my buddy.

And this is what my neighbour has replied,”solren nu thappa nenaikadheenga, ippo laam yaarayum nambi reccomend panra madhiri illai.” and had went on to tell the story of her own relative.

The guy is 30-ish. very well educated. top notch IT professional, been in the US and all. His mom, like all other moms decided to get her son married. So she’d collected hundreds of horoscopes and had the all the girls’ horoscope, family background thoroughly vetted from all the angles as one would expect and had selected one girl whome she thought was ideal.

The marriage took place but there ends the happy news.

On the very next day of the marriage, the girl had apparently told the groom that this marriage was against her wishes and that she’s madly in love with some other person.

Soon, she managed to walk out in 3 months flat, went to her lover, and promptly delivered a child.

Spare a thought for the guy. He is well into 30+ age range, and now has a ‘divorcee’ tag to boot.

There was another bizzare incident where the girl, on getting married, realized she’s more in love with her brother-in-law (sister’s husband) and so runs away from the husband.

The third was even more unreal. One young girl hads visited an elderly houseowner for a flat near pallikaranai. She has somehow convinced the lady houseowner (who lived in velachery) with stories like she does not have a father, only earning member in the family, family problems and that she’s in chennai for find a job. On being asked why she is stayng alone without her mom, the girl had replied that her mom has to take care of her younger brother who is in school in her native.

The fact is - she has joined a call center job and wanted to freak out without anyone interfering or questioning. Some male colleagues had taken another house for rent in the same apartment complex. The kind of scene these people managed to create prompted the flat association to intimate the house owner about the happenings and the girl had to be chucked out.

And if you thought all this happened only with people from shady family backgrounds, all these are happening in one of the well-educated, orthodox, conservative families and communities.

I think in 5 years time, the concept of insisting on ‘HIV negative’ certificate will become mandatory in Indian marriages.

So folks, before you go about bashing the directors of ‘thiruttu payale’ and ‘uyir’, watch out for what is happening in your neighborhood.

Also, parents are well advised not to go by just horoscope and family background (read status, commuity etc) alone. it all depends on that particular individual and so its better to find more about the person than the status labels he or she comes with.

In short, turbulent times ahead so better watch out.

And another interesting information. Almost all the major communities have their own matrimonial portal.

http://www.naidumatrimony.com
http://www.mudaliarmatrimony.com
http://www.chettiarmatrimony.com
http://www.devarmatrimony.com
http://www.saivaneri.org

Nadarmatrimony.org seems to be temporarily down.

Hmm. Idhukku onnum kuraichal illa!

Hey all,

i’m feeling much better now:)
Advices kum nalam visaarippugalukkum, mukiyama ennoda comments section la pesittu irundhadhum rombo nandri:)

Bharathanatiyam’s aside, the thing i’m planning to do is join some yoga class. This has been a long pending thing, slighly above in priority to learning swimming and cooking. So i’m planning to tackle this first. Those of you who can give me some pointers for a good yoga teacher in chennai(south chennai, adyar, thiruvanmiyur, besant nagar, velachery thereabouts) will have my blessings to finish 100 long years healthily!

Left for cbe on friday night and back just now. The crowd that was in the unreserved compartments in the kovai bound Cheran exp. on Friday was just unbelievable. There should’ve been atleast 300 ppl in each of the unreserved coaches.

One brave soul who had actually traveled in one of those coaches later told me in coimbatore, that in the middle of the journey, he’d visited the toilet and was back in a flash. Atleast 5 people were standing right inside each of the toilets!.

I thanked God for giving me the sense to book atleast in tatkal. But the worst thing was that i was allotted SU berth and that too the one right next to the coach door:(
Regular train travellers would know that for a person of any decent height, that’s only slightly better than a seat in the unreserved coach.

I managed to lie down at about 11 PM after the mandatory TTE checking and was wide awake by 1. The reason - some members with waitlisted tickets from the unreserved coaches had trickled to the sleeper coaches. What’s more they decided it was a cool idea to keep the door open and smoke!not to mention some heated discussion about DMK and ADMK, mind you all this at 1AM in the night!

Ennatha solla!

There were some 8 of them and so i thought there was not much point in getting into a fight in the middle of the night. By saying this, i’m not elitist. I too have traveled like that during the past. But the least they can do is keep quiet IMHO.
It was a struggle for the rest of the night, i think their chatting and smoking carried well upto Erode! After which they should’ve got down or settled on some other empty berths. I drifted to sleep for sometime due to sheer tiredness.

Anyway i really wish our schools and colleges imbibe public ettiquette and sense to to the next generation atleast. This is N times more important than learning Newton’s law of motion or trigonometry.

While in coimbatore, i came across this CD in music gallery. i presented it to one of my friend’s sister. I was told it’s really good too. please do check it out.

And then i attended this reception:D

The return journey was as smooth-as-an-ice-cream affair. Of course i was in 3 tier AC and for the first time in my life, some really good looking girls were in the same compartment as mine
PS:
Evlo kastappatu andha Vazhai link kuduthen! no comments about their work? worst ba:((

Yep. That’s how i managed at office too…
Long hours in front of the PC for weeks at a stretch has taken its toll on my right hand. Terms like carpel tunnel syndrome has been flashing my mind. But honestly i think a few days of rest should do a world of good.

Blog mukiyam dhaan but adai vida kai,kaal ellam mukiyamnu amma solraanga…

Hopefully nothing serious. i should be normal soon.
Expect some action early next week.
Till then check out this website which caught my attention via vikatan
vazhai.org

Hey all,

Hm, this post is some distance from attempted kavidhai etc.
In fact its kinda technical, so to speak.

Please visit here and find a video playlist built in flash. There are 3 flash video files listed on the right side. This whole stuff is based on a video by Lee Brimelow.
Please feel free to let me know the issues you face while accomplishing a task as simple as watching a streaming movie online.

The single main advantage with this playlist is that its easily extensible with xml.
In that if you want to add a new video to the list, all u need to do is add the file to the folder, add a line of code to the XML document and u r already flying!

And add to it the ubiquity of Flash players which has prompted even AJAX pioneers like google to flirt with Flash in Google Videos and Google Finance.

What’s more, if u have two or movies to share with people online, u need not run to youtube. You can publish the movies over web right in your own page with your own skin complete with PLAY/PAUSE and stop buttons.

Please use this interface. i know its quite crappy and have a laundry list of things to improve. But i thought let me have that laundry list to be completely user driven.

PLAY button toggles for PLAY/PAUSE
REWIND button for rewinding and start playing from 1st frame.
THE SCRUB arrow is the playhead and can be dragged
I need help from nerdy folks who can fix the irregularities there. For eg, once the first video is over, it automatically has to go to the list item in the list. It isn’t working as of now. Please drop a line if you can help.

NOTE:
One caeat i missed to mention y’day. Flash requires the video files be encoded into FLV format. THis does not mean you need to have flash professional to do it. One can very well do it through small, cute, free FLV encoders available here

கயிற்றில் தொங்கியபடி பதினாறாம்
மாடிச்சுவற்றில் வண்ணம் பூசியபடி யோசித்தேன்
‘குரு திசையில் நீ பெரும் உயரத்திலிருப்பாய்’ யென
ஜோதிடன் சொன்னது எவ்வளவு உண்மை!!

Note:
This story belongs to psycho/bizzare genre - something i’d not written before. Please read this at your own risk.

This piece and all my fiction attempts(however mediocre it maybe) is dedicated to my late father who passed away the same day 6 years back. Over to the story now…
—————————————————

“Doctor enakku irukaradhu normal prachnai illai…. Enakku ..Enakku… Epdi solradunne therila…” was how Kandha Kumar started.

It was 8.30 in the evening. He was Thamizhvanan’s last patient that day. Thamizhvanan is one of the most popular psychiatrists in Chennai. His columns appear in almost all the leading journals and Tamil magazines. He answers questions posed by Sun TV viewers late in the night every Sunday, although almost all of it are related to sex issues.

“Normal prachnai is an oxymoron Kandha Kumar. Ellarum normala irundhitta naan vera velai parka poiruppen. Enna vishayamnaalum thayangama, maraikama sollunga!!” Thamizhvaanan the psychiatrist responded in a calm, professional manner.

“Enakku koncha naala olunga thoonga mudiyalai doctor …. last 2 / 3 months aave mandai yedho kudayudhu…”.

“ ”

Thamizhvaanan was merely listening, careful not to interrupt Kandha Kumar’s flow.

“Nalla thoongittu iruppen.. thideernu mulichukaren… aprom thookame varaadhu….Rombo restlessa irukken.. office la velaye odalai… naan nimmadiya velai parthu rombo naala agudhu…. Project Manager laam useless resource nu solra alavukku … oru kalathile Outstanding Performer Award ellam vangirukken… aana ippo….…”
Kandha’s faced twitched. The doctor could see tears forming in Kandha’s eyes. It was evident he was desperate for help.

“Sonna nambuveengala therila doctor, enakku, en mandai ku ulley yedho kural kekudhu!!!. En kooda enna ennamo pesudhu enna ennamo solludhu! enakku bayama irukku doctor…neenga daan epdiyavadhu enna kaapathanum!!…”

“Kandha, relax!” The doctor came around and touched Kandha’s shoulder in a comforting way.

“Eppo laam pesudhu? Enna solludhu… go ahead!” He was keen to get more from the patient’s mouth. Usually that had more clue to the disorder than anything else.

“Neraya solludhu doctor. Eppo arambikumne theriyadhu… ana adhu solradhu ellam nadakudhu.. adaan doctor bayama irukku…”

“ ”

“Ipdi daan 2 months munnadi, ‘Dei Kandha, indha masam nee keezhe urundu elundhirkka porey ’nu sollichu doctor. Adhile irundhu office ku vandi la poradhaye niruthitten doctor.. office bus la daan poren… Oru naal lunch time la office kitte Old Mahabalipuram road la naan paatuku orama ninitu irundhen doctor. Oru bike kaaran nera vandhu en mela modhittan….Anga en colleagues athanai per irundhaanga doctor, elarayum vittutu avan yen nera en mela vandhu modhanum?… Andha kural sonna madhiriye urundu elundhirichen doctor!!!”

“Aprom? Enna achu? Onum perisa adi padalaye ? Idhu yedho freakish, one-off incident nu nenaikiren Kandha, relax!” Thamizh was keen to know if Kandha would respond and come up with some more incidents like this.

Kandha responded as expected.

“Idhu mattum illai doctor, ‘Dei Kandha, seekiram un wife unnai vittutu innoruthan kooda poiduva!’ nu sollichu doctor. Enakku nambikkaye illai. Kalyanam aagi 3 yrs. enakkum en wife kum oru chinna sandai kooda vandhadhu illai, avlo nimmadhiyana kudumba vazhkai, thideernu oru naal evening veetuku varen, veetile oru letter kedakudhu… en wife eludhi vechadhu

‘Ennai theda vendaam, naan enakku pidithavanudan vazha pogiren’ nu….

En life ey norungi pochu doctor.. Naan inime uyir vazhndhu enna panna poren ne therila…”
Kandha was beginning to sob now and at the same time was trying hard to control his emotions. He looked pathetic.

Thamizh could not help but feel for this patient. Losing a partner to someone would be devastating even for the most tenacious characters. ‘No wonder this guy is mentally upset’, he thought.. It’s hard to understand how life can be so cruel to some.

“Ippo Naan, en behavior, yedhuvume ippo en controlla la illai nu thonudhu doctor. Enakku enna bayama irukunna, andha kural sollradhukkum, incidents nijama nadakaradhukkum irukara time gap kurainchutte varudhu doctor….”

“Ipdi dhaan pona vaaram ‘Dei Kandha, nee office la periya sandai poda porey’ nu sollichu doctor…’

“Adhu ketta date la irundhu correcta 3rd day, office la en PM kooda sandai… status kettanga, thittinaanga, naan avarai ketta ketta varthai la ellam thitti, avar mela kai vechutten doctor… udaney veetuku anipichutaanga!…”

“”
Thamizh was thinking now. And he asked his next question.

“Seri , ippo latesta enna sollichu unga kural?” Thamizhvannan asked. He could see a pattern.

“Nethikku ‘Dei Kandha, nalaiku nee oruthar kooda manasu vittu pesa porey, ennai pathi ellam solla porey’ nu sollichu doctor…adhukku apurom daan naan unga secretary kitte pesi unga appointment vanginen..”

The doctor was really surprised and alarmed now. He could asses the gravity of the situation better. The patient was beyond his conscious control.

He started to scribble in his prescription pad and said

“Kandha kavalai padadheenga! Yellam seri pannidalaam! Naan parthukaren! Neenga relax pannika, night thoonga tablets eludhi….”

The doctor was interrupted by Kandha now..

“Innonum sollichu doctor, ‘Dei Kandha nee yaaru kitte ennai pathi solriyo avarai kolai panna porey nu!!…

With that Kandha took out his knife from his right pocket in a flash and pounced on Tamizhvanan!

குளிர்சாதனத்தின் சாதனை

குடிசை வாழ் குப்பன்
மட்டுமே உண்ட பழையதை
கோபுர வாழ் குபேரனும்
உண்ண வைத்த சமூக சீர்திருத்தவாதி!

——————————————

சென்னையில் அன்று

அனேக குடும்பங்களில்
வாரம் ஒருமுறை விகடன், கோவில்!

சென்னையில் இன்று

அனேக குடும்பங்களில்
வாரம் ஒருமுறை அம்மாவின் அன்பு, சமையல்!

PS:
syam anaathey daan pona post inglees la iruku nu rombo feel panninaaru!
adaan ipdi:D

nalla irunda ennai appreciate pannunga. pudikalena syam annatheva thittunga!!
idhukku ellam annathey daan karanam:D

Will this be the tiping point and herald a new era in gaming?
Maybe we will soon have a gaming explosion just like we had blogging explosion
Let’s wait and see