Excuse to post links
First link to Dagalti:
So much for literary tastes. Photo NSFW aam 
Velukudi Krishnan Swamy:
Couple of days back, I had some work in Nanganallur, and I also wanted to use the opportunity to test Nanganallur Anjaneyars prasadam. Ponavan super pongal sapta mattoda vandha thevalai. I also entered the Giri trading stall nearby. And I saw Velukuddi’s ‘Kambaramayanam’ upanyasams CDs. I might read Nassim Nicholas Taleb, but realistically, reading Kambaramayanam is a stretch. So if there’s one way I can digest such stuff, I figured it can only be via Audio CDs. But I was a bit scared that this person after all is liked by writer Charu. If you wonder why should one be scared of someone liked by Charu, then perhaps you do not know Charu. Lets just say Charu ‘andha madhiri’. Blame it on post-modernism. But when I listened to Velukuddi, I was truly mesmerised. Charu does like normal, sane, brilliant people with brilliant skills every now and then after all.
I felt like Velukudi will not stop until he recites all the 24000 slokas of Ramayana in one go. What memory! What fluency! What analogies and examples! Amazing! I listened for 90 minutes non-stop which is incredible. Listening to anything heavier than film songs puts me to sleep within 30 minutes unfailingly, but not Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy.
The strike of 1997
The talk about piracy and the question about giving royalty to technicians made me reminiscent of the infamous 1997 tamil cine industry strike. I initially wanted to recount that in my own words but I found a better resource. Check out the coverage by Sandhya Krishna. The title was hilarious. As if it was the twentieth century version of The revolt of 1857. Whatever. These poor, hard working folks are as likely to get IP royalty shares as Namitha is to get decent family woman roles in tamil films.