Ajaya Book 1: Roll of the Dice, by Anand Neelakantan

When I got Book 1 of Ajaya from Leadstart for the review (thank you for that!), I thought it would take me forever to sit through the book. But no, I finished it one fine Saturday.

I am not too keen usually about books laced with religion, songs and pages of praise as dialogues. Especially most of them on Ramayana or Mahabharatha. I'm also not keen about books that change the storylines of epics to present alternate points of view.

This book is none of that. This one is different.

Anand Neelakantan manages to take all the superhuman, illogical & divine elements out of the storyline without affecting the storyline much, leaving us with the crux of the story. In Mahabharatha's case, that includes the strategic moves and dreams of the various players in the kingdom, and what they do about it.

The first book focuses more on the the Caste system of the time than anything else - and naturally, the main players in the scene are Duryodhana (Suyodhana, the author calls him - and there's a line of research that claims it was his actual name), Arjuna, Parashurama, Krishna, Shakuni, Vidhura, Bhishma, Jara and the Nagas, apart from two of the most inspirational stories from the epic - that of Ekalavya the talented and Karna, the King of Anga.

The storyline for Book:1 extends from the time the Kuru princes are children up until Shakuni's fateful dice game that more or less confirms the great war. The basic storyline doesn't really require any reviews, least of all from me. It's an epic that has stood the test of time, with its characters idolised in temples and pagodas across South & East Asia. That includes Duryodhana and Anand's work tries to explain the good in him and how even the best of men can err.

For he truly was, as has been my stand for quite some time now - despite his flaws. History has always belonged to the winners and the losers are demonized, deservedly or otherwise. What the Mahabharatha explains to the world is that conflicts are rarely between good and evil. They are always between two sides who wholeheartedly believe that they are on the right side. What the Mahabharatha has managed to spin off as a result is the endless number of interpretations of the various events in the story.

Anand presents the case of Duryodhana, his main character, and goes on to make him the 'hero'. As one cannot become the hero without there being a villain, the Pandavas and their supporters bear the brunt of being casteist. Book 2 and so on could present their side too, though I find it improbable that it is going to happen through the eyes of Duryodhana. The primary antagonist of the Mahabharatha is the hero who believes in righteousness, dislikes discrimination and fights for equality with whatever power he gains. To make him relate-able, the author has made him one of us, reacting to events rather than causing any of them. For example, Bhishma sends the Pandavas to Vanavrata here, not Duryodhana. Shakuni controls Purochana's building of the House of Lac here with no involvement of any Kauravas, because that would make them look bad.

I see how these are necessary deviations if the character needs to be portrayed as a hero, but did he have to be such a complete hero? I guess not. Readers can still relate to & root for someone less than a faultless hero. Only Karna has deserved that status across all interpretations of the epic, I think.

Anand has managed to win hearts with this interpretation, if the reviews I see are anything to go by. I believe he's done a fantastic job with this book overall, and he's managed to make Ajaya a better hero than Arjuna without deviating much from the original storyline, which is the major achievement for me.

And he's done this without pissing anyone off (surprising, given the portrayal of Krishna). That's quite something too.

Have you read it yet? I'm off to rate this on Goodreads now.

Reviving #3

It's been a very long time since I wrote anything here. So yea, Hi. How have you been?

Ever since I started working on the Immortal Game series, I stopped writing elsewhere - on football, music or anything else.

This is just an update-type-post, really.

I'm kinda done with the first book of the series now. Does it matter if I send it out to Publishers or not? I am personally not too happy with the output, so I might end up burying the book instead of getting shot down. I have sent a crude version out to a couple of them though.

Whatever, I am going to start writing normal stuff again. Here, that is.

Thinking of (re)starting with "#TheLaymanMusicReview", talking about AR Rahman's recent albums. Or maybe I will write about my experiences with quitting my last job, picking up my new one or the incredibly stress free hours I spent writing. Or maybe about the stress and the worries and the pizzas and the reducing account balance that dominated my non-writing hours.

If you want to figure out if you're a good writer, you should write a book. Articles and fun posts can only tell you so much about yourself.

Haven't told anyone yet, but I just started working on another (possibly) short story today - and no, it's not about either humour or madness. It's mostly a tribute of sorts to two of my favourite authors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christie. Will probably publish it here if it doesn't get much bigger than a short story.

I have started rambling about mobile games as well. I'll post on twitter when my first post gets published.

One pain point is that there is no money in any of this. #Sucks #SourceOfAllStress

In the short term, I'll probably listen to 'I' this week and talk about it here. Do you want to do this together? Let me know.

What do I do for work, you ask? That could be another post, but all you seven readers already know about it, don't you?

Of Google Scholars and Wiki Wizards

Art by Retronator at Deviant

'Wait. Really?'

Peter Tharoll opened google in a new tab and typed 'Amit Rover involvement in murder'. He skimmed through the top two links, one about some hearing about it that happened two weeks earlier and another was a random blog that seemed very anti-political. All major politicians were linked to something or the other in that blog.

He went back to the facebook discussion where people were arguing for and against the fellow. His first googling showed him his manifesto and it looked good. He had mentioned development, roads and schools. So, Tharoll put in a statement supporting Rover for the elections that were coming up. Some random guy named Ajay Pradhan showed up and said, 'but he is being investigated for murder!'

Tharoll didn't have a clue. He told himself that he should have refrained from putting that comment on his friend's post. Now, everyone would know that he didn't know anything.

The case was still being heard. 'Ha, there's a point I can use', he thought to himself.

He went back to the post and started typing out the comment, 'I knew some guy would show up and pin it on Mr. Rover and here is @Ajay. The case is still being heard. Who are you to...' he went back to Google and looked up the top two links about Mr. Rover's major opponent in his constituency, the sitting MLA. He found lots of complaints about how the constituency became worse than it was five years ago. 'Brilliant', he thought to himself.

He started retyping the comment. He was determined to make the other guy look stupid. 'Mr. Rover is a national icon and a possible ministerial candidate. That'd bring a lot of focus to the constituency and development will be forced to happen. Also, the case you're mentioning is still being heard in the courts. Accusing him of that reeks of stupidity and disregard for the Law. Do the words Innocent until proven Guilty mean anything to you?'

Two edits later, he published the comment.

-

Ajay Pradhan saw his notification.

'What? The case is still going on? But I read on that blog...' "Damn it", he shouted at the empty room around him.

He went back to googling Mr. Rover and his opponent. He thought he found something against Mr. Rover when he saw that blog. Now, his comment just looked stupid. He found how the sitting MLA had zero cases against him (score!) and researched more about the case and Mr. Rover in general. He found some accusations about local goondas being protected by him. 'Awesome, I can make something out of this', he thought. He found a random blog post where a lady complained about eve teasing on the roads in one of the arterial roads in the area.

'Mr. Rover's election will only embolden the Goondas in the area to become more shameless and fearless. Read this link about how a lady was harassed by Goondas backed by him. And you want citations for that, I suppose? Read this news from a local media channel. You mentioned that the case was still being heard. Did you see that all the guys who are in police custody are goons working for this rowdy Bajan Raj? There is little doubt who did it, but the law is being arm twisted to protect Rover.

Our sitting MLA has enough problems protecting the likes of you and me from monsters like Rover. And he has zero cases against him. It is appalling to see how you could support such antisocial elements.'

That looked good. He was getting prepared for a long debate on that thread.

-

PS: Unedited version. Thought of putting this up on the stories blog, but this didn't feel so much like fiction.

Medieval Dreams.

Around 1995, I used to imagine that things would go back to medieval times - and people would fight with swords and shields again - that I would rule an ever expanding kingdom - with a couple of friends ruling neighbouring kingdoms - that every honest citizen of my kingdom would be happy - that I would have this majestic white horse, Chetak, the very image of which would bring hope to friends and fear to enemies - that I would have this uber awesome Queen by my side and we would rule most of the country some day. You know, every hero on screen had a girlfriend, or ended up with one. 

It was my Destiny. I was sure.

Around 1998, I thought I would be the person who would end up inventing the Light Saber. No one else seemed to care much about the infinite potential that the single invention would have. First, I had to create the laser guns used in the movies and then, the Light Saber would be a necessary defence mechanism and the Jedi way a necessary way of life. It amazes me to think how I believed that I would actually change the way the world worked.

I was destined to change the world. I knew that much.

Around 2002, I started filling school notebooks with stories. Stories that would happen in my dreams, that I would see on the streets that no one else cared to observe, that would be exaggerated a little to add that thrill or drama, that usually involved a bad ass villain, an honest hero and how one of the two overcomes the other. It wasn't necessary that the good guys won. I was a Darth Vader fan and I gave an equal chance to the villain. I controlled what I wrote.

I'd decided I'd settle for an Agatha Christie-like popularity instead of riding to war on Chetak. Sounded safer and a lot more peaceful.

These old thoughts, I think they were pushed to some unused area within my brain. There are loads of such areas, by the way. When I fell upon the facebook profile of the Commander of my Infantry units from 1995, it all came rushing back to me.

The Human Brain has infinite capacity for data and...hope. 

It's a shame we all prefer to get a monthly salary instead.

Normal and Beautiful

To know what it was, he had to know what it wasn’t.

It wasn’t magical. It wasn’t the once in a lifetime event that would serve as the spark for the rest of his life. It wasn’t the story for the classics section, or for any other section in that huge bookstore he knew. It wasn’t a story to even be written, for alas, no one else might find it engrossing enough. It wasn’t the fairy tale he had imagined it would turn out to be. It was just normal.

He had talked to her a few hours back. He had planned every word he would have to speak to impress her, carefully considered answers to every possible reply she could come up with and all that, but had slid into that beautiful ride called spontaneity. He couldn’t care less about the actual content of the conversation, though it could have entailed a long, slow, lone death, several years from then. He couldn’t care about what she would think of him either. 

For when he was around her, he could care only about her.

He had always wondered what a perfect life would have. Inclined perfectly for comfort in that corner of his apartment’s terrace back in the coastal city, he would get lost among the stars and merge into the past, the future or the imaginary. He was particular about having that griffin and that wolf for pets. He thought nothing could be cooler. He wanted the weather to always remain what it was at sunrise, with that cool breeze, wondering if the solar energy would be enough to grow all the fruits he wanted in his own garden. He wanted magic to be real, with spells, telepathy and telekinesis just some more subjects to study in primary school. He loved silence and thought no sound can be better. He wanted life to have a melodious but rich theme in the background, to which he could dance whenever he wanted. He wanted people to all be the same, all being kind and courteous to others in word and mind.

In that one conversation with her, his idea of what the perfect world should be changed entirely. He thought it really didn’t matter what the world had. What mattered was what the world would feel like. Right then, he felt as content as he would if he had all of those wishes from childhood and more. All that his world needed was her smile – and everything else just became perfect.

It was just another conversation, a conversation he could have had with anyone else. It wasn’t about love. It wasn't about how they would live happily ever after in infinite care and unbelievable understanding for each other. It was talk that lasted more than a few seconds and less than a few minutes. He didn’t even remember what he had talked about. All he knew was that she enjoyed talking to him as much as he did talking to her. He knew it. He felt it. That was all that mattered to him.

He could not bring himself to believe that he had lived in this world all along. He was sure everything had changed. Suddenly, reality was more beautiful than every world he had ever imagined.

Chess Writing

I know this is a bloody weird area for me to write on - because I am an average writer and quite an average chess player.

Meh, who cares? Catch me on Sportskeeda, writing about chess - mostly for the advanced beginners.

http://www.sportskeeda.com/author/aswinsam/

I am also planning to start playing the game again. Only this time, I am actually going to learn stuff.

Velayutham Review - Pattaasu!

In two words, Mass Entertainer.

On seeing the trailer, I was a li'l bit scared. I was scared if this was gonna be another thirupaachi (who am I kidding? I didn't like that movie) - but no, this one was good! In fact, I was quite happy at the end of the movie. It's a must for Vijay fans and fans of the masala movie genre (yes it is one now!) - it's a decent watch for the rest.

This is an Ilayathalapathy movie and we know he is not going to be killed or anything and that the good guy will beat the hell out of the bad guys in the end. But then, the movie itself was handled quite well and there was something in the movie for A, B and C markets, and last I checked, only thalaivar movies had the guts to try that.

I was eagerly looking forward to the next scene all the time. The village sequences were funny, Santhanam was mostly brilliant, very talented people like Soori (parota guy), Pandiarajan and Sayaji Shinde had only a small role to play (Manivannan was there, wasn't he?) and do I even need to say this? Vijay was awesome. Darling Genelia was also awesome (as usual). Given this is my blog, I guess that goes without saying. It was awesome that she had a fair share of the screen time - something that's (in general) not very common in mass movies these days. Hansika's role was an example for the stereotypical heroine portrayal so that made it easy for me to compare as well. Saranya Mohan redid Mallika's Thirupachi part but thankfully, it wasn't as useless as it was in the other movie - she did have a role to play as the sister who keeps her brother from going out of the way to help people.

*Spoiler paragraph*

The story as such was cool. A superhero is created by a journalist (Genelia) to create some sort of fear in terrorists, ministerial accomplices and goons - and Vijay happens to have the same name. On reaching the city from his village, his trysts with Santhanam get him involved with some of the superhero moments. On finding his name to be Velayudham, people believe he is the superhero. He saves Genelia when she gets mixed up with the gang and she explains everything to him. "Will he stay and fight powerful people or Will he mind his own job?" forms the rest of the plot. Predictable, yes. And #wellofcourse, it ends with the 'You shouldn't wait for a hero to emerge. Everyone's a hero.' dialogue.

*End of Spoiler para*

Particularly liked the unintentional superhero storyline (Vijay - Santhanam sequences). There was a lot (a LOT) of action, a lot of comedy, less senti, less punch dialogues, only a couple of mokka comedy attempts (kenathukulla thangam type) but even that appealed to some people in the theatre so I can't complain. I guess that kind was for the kids - but decapitation and stuff don't go hand in hand with that, I think. The Assassin's creed stunt sequences were kinda cool - the guy next to me (a fan of the game, he says) said that some stunts were exactly as it was in the game. Dozens of trained thugs and terrorists were no match for a happy go lucky guy from a village - but that's the way it is in mass movies everywhere and this is no different. In one scene, Vijay just walks in and beats the hell out of some thugs in their hideout. I felt some dialogues totally did not go with the scene (hire me!) - and Vijay should do SOMETHING about those caped dresses in song sequences. Talking about songs, the songs were much better on screen than they were while listening to it, though in all, only average they qualify only as 'much better than average' (repeated listening, you see). (except the brilliant Mayam Seidhayo). Chillax was worth tapping a foot to and again, Maayam Seidhayo was without a doubt the pick of the lot (if you take out the embarrassing Chennai tour part).

Umm, what else? Yea I was so expecting some 'trademark punch line' from the movie - you know, the kind that repeats itself a few times - but that wasn't to be. Sureshot hit in cities. B and C markets would be all over the movie, what with a village resident teaching stuff to city dwellers. In all, I might sound critical of the movie because I expect superior movies from Vijay.

The Mangatha song in the tea stall was kinda nice, without taking any digs at Ajith (especially because of that). I don't want Ajith or Vijay digs in the comments section too, keeping in line with the movie's sentiment. If you insist on being an idiot, please find another blog.

So yea, how was it, you ask? Thumbs up. Yohan can't release soon enough!
(I don't really care about 3 idiots)

Mythos has begun.

That's the code name for something I've started working on. For the past couple of months, I had been struggling with two book ideas. The struggle was about deciding which book to start working on.

One is a book on changing the world. Another is a book on transforming it.
One is about what we can do in the future. Another is about understanding the past.

Chetan Bhagat's R2020 seems to mildly tread (actually, stomp hard) on the 'changing world' and 'future' parts - including a character name, how about that! So, I have decided to start working on the other one. While I am thankful to CB for making my decision easier, I am not sure whether I should be happy or sad that he thought on the same lines; well, will know for sure if and after I read his book.

When you see me here after, ask me where Mythos is heading. Would help me spend more time on it.

Game Theory in Macroeconomics?

I am curious.

Today, I attended a quiz in Macroeconomics... There were ten multiple choice questions, 5 questions that required very short answers and a graph to draw. I, of course, didn't prepare one bit for the exam...as usual.

I set out like solving a Hindu Crossword. For example, there were two questions with similar options.

If A = B, then C or D
If A = 1- B, then C or D

Picked same answer for both in the sense that one of them would be right. The person who corrects it would be obviously confused... 'how could even the dunderhead-est student possibly think that both questions could have the same answer?' ...but that's game theory for them right there. I was somehow trying to get that one mark, one way or the other :)

Even when I worked out what each word in the question paper meant (big bang theory helped. seriously.) and worked out what the answer could be (in vain, of course), it took me about 30 minutes to complete everything - yet, I was the third or fourth student to leave the room.

If one didn't know anything, that's the maximum effort one could have put in the exam hall - 40 minutes (giving 10 more minutes for slow readers). On the other hand, if one knew everything, he would have left in ten minutes or so. So, leaving out the people who give up and leave immediately, the majority of the batch should have left the exam hall between 10 and 40 minutes. But they didn't. They stayed on.

Oh, I never understand these humans.

Yea Ok

I truly and deeply hate it when there are a gazillion things to do to get a useless degree and you don't want to do any of them. Not one. And the best part is, no other college is any better. Some are far worse off.

Some things I don't like and MBA has:
a) PPTs (presentations)
b) Cases
c) More or less pointless assignments (I think SMBDP assignments would be useful...but I don't understand that stuff)
d) Mandatory attendances
e) Lectures after which I know I learnt nothing
f) People who like all of the above
g) People who don't trust others
h) Closed book Exams
i) Awfully high importance to placements and grades
j) There's nothing here about anything I wanted to learn. All the good stuff, I can do only outside the course hours and stuff (brilliant talks, real projects). This course is about making money. Urm, maybe I took the wrong course and have no right to blame anyone. Whatever.
k) ...and oh, add to it frikkin' lectures at 8 frikkin' AM.

Some things I like and MBA has:
a) Urm..... DC?
b) Not opening a book and still be able to lurch along.
c) Some fun people

Some things I wish MBA had:
a) Any level of focus on real issues. So much so that a prof used to kid, "If I hear anyone tell me 'but in real life', that's all..."
b) Anything that's fun to learn. No, I am not talking about movie making and stuff. Even with interesting subjects, the academic procedures around them make them hell.
c) Want to go out there, change something and say 'See, I did this.'

So people, when you ask 'hey how's college?' and I say 'yea ok', don't push it any further :)

Phoebe: What's with all this negativity?

Nitrodamus: Oh cut the crap already.

Chandler: Can this get any more boring?

The Laws of Laziness

Aswin's laws of laziness consist of three metaphysical laws that form the basis for classical laziness. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its resistance to those forces.

First law - The Law of Inertia: 
Every lazy person remains in a state of rest with a uniform motion of thought, unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force, like a slap. This means that in the absence of a non-zero net force, the center of mass of a body continues to remain at rest, and the thought process moves at a constant speed, usually zero (blank thoughts) or negligible (eg. a distant, repeating-once-in-ten-seconds 'thud'ding noise).


Second law - The Laziness Quotient: 
Laziness m subject to a net force F undergoes an acceleration a that has the same direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the laziness, i.e., F = ma.

This clearly shows that no force can affect the masters of laziness whose laziness quotients are beyond any force known to man. Hence the acceleration (to snap out of the lazy world and do some real work) that is developed due to the force will always be negligible. Attaining this stage is called 'Godliness' (you know, those old movies where sages keep praying to the Gods and it takes 20 years for the God to appear in front of them?)

Third law - The Law of Potential: 
"The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are unequal and usually opposite."

This is an extension to the third law of motion that Newton came up with centuries ago and fills in the gap that made it imperfect. He said that whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body, if not lazy (filling the gap), exerts a force −F on the first body. F  (action) and −F (reaction) are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

However, in the event of one of the actors being lazy, he need not react with a force equal to -F. He ignores. He forgives. He stays... and the kinetic energy exerted upon him (F) will be converted into potential energy and be stored for future requirements as a kind of fat. This is why you hear people say, "This guy has potential. Sad he's not using it."

This law is sometimes referred to as the action-but-no-reaction law, with F called the "action" and the rarely encountered strange look on the lazy guy's face called the "reaction". The action and the reaction are usually not simultaneous and is separated by a delay proportional to the aforementioned laziness quotient..

The three laws of Aswin were first compiled by Sir "I-suck" Aswin in his work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Athica (yet to be published. He was too lazy to find a publisher), dedicated to Athica's, the store in IIMB that understands his laziness quotient by ensuring room delivery of simple stuff like water bottles that he could anyway get by walking 100 metres from his room to the nearest water doctor.

Also, Aswin used these laws to explain and investigate the motion of many physical objects and systems. For example, he showed that these laws of laziness, combined with his own extension to Newton's law of universal gravitation (for another day, people), explains the several flaws in Kepler's laws of planetary motion... and also why Planets move like a bum, so slowly that we don't even notice it.

PS: No offence to Newton or his laws (ideally, open this in another window and compare them). Also, the 'He' used in the paragraph does not mean it is applicable to guys alone. Lazy to use he/she bla bla stuff. 

Totalement en mer.

Dreams...

They show you your own emotions.
Fear, Hope, Anger, Pride, Envy and most of all, Love.
Sadistic that you're shown what you lost...
even after you'd managed to find it.

So these dreams - they make the real world
your personal hell, mostly.
Or heaven perhaps... if you ain't me.

You used to think that dreams can but help you.
Like they could tell you things in advance!
So that the hurdles won't be out of the blue
and you might, after all, stand a chance.

...but wait, you couldn't have been all that right
coz' life, with all its bloody might,
ran you down with out so much of a shrug.

Perhaps, those days, it was on some drug.

She was but the central theme
around whom the dreams revolved...
around whom your world evolved.

and then, because of your belief in fate
that love is destined to succeed,
or simply because your tongue tied itself
and fingers typed zilch when she was involved,
She was there no more.

Oh, like she even knew what was going on.
She knew zilch and would only know zilch
about your love, devotion, adoration and worship...
about your world and how she is everything to it
...its very soul.

You dream only about her these days, I gather.
Hours and hours and hours of her smiling face.
Ta vie, mon ami, elle est totalement en mer...
Totalement en mer.

Ha, but life's cruel in a crazy way, coz
You, hereafter, can only dream about her!
...and dreams, despite being your personal hell
are your only sources of respite.

Ironic.

Crumble, Tumble, Rumble, Grumble

The world crumbles. I can hear it.

Will it lead to a whole new world?
Will that world be good?
Will the new crumble too
or will it stand its ground?

Will it be a political change
or will it be a mindset change?
Will it be a change of plans
or will we stare ahead with nothing in hand?
Will the new world be full of good
or will the baddies win the game?

Will this crumbling lead us anywhere
or is this that math e thing that never leads to zero?
Wait... is anything crumbling at all
or are we just hearing noises?

Bah, let it all be. Why bother?
I have a class at six o clock.
Good night, mes amis.
I go back to my dreams.

My life is not about me

This is a beautiful but sad world...
Sad because people are about themselves,
The self, the family and friends...
But I am not about myself and that seems wrong,
because people find me disturbingly different.

I find it hard to eat at big hotels
Or participate in treats and parties
When millions can't afford a grain of rice.
I don't like to buy suits and ties
Or new dresses for every passing festival,
When there are people who can't afford clothes.
I can't ignore the people on the road.
I can't stand to see people shoo off the strays
From their food, from their selves.

My mind revolts against me if I ignore all that, but
The haves, in general, they find the situation okay.
I think they are vaccinated against empathy.
Please tell me where to get one myself
I badly need it to live up to your expectations.

Some argue that tis the fate of the poor...
That they're too lazy to work for themselves.
The haves convince themselves that the poor can die hence.
The farmers die, the hungry die, the nameless die
and no one seems to even care about it.

I am not about myself, try to understand me.
I am not about myself and I'm sure I am right,
but the world around me finds it impractical.

It's not that I don't want to lead a comfortable life, heck I do!
I just want to take everyone else with me.
I don't see any point in 'progress', ye World
when you can stay nonchalant about deaths!
There's no difference between us and the Nazis
If we can coolly brush it off and stay selfish.

Yes, call me crazy and go on, world.
How else can you convince yourself?

A Rah-maniac looking for his dope...

A song from Kadhal Desam (1996) by AR Rahman.



While listening to this song, I was wondering about how time changes even the best of the best - AR Rahman.

The reason I posted this video rather than the thousand other awesome songs by Rahman (Ennavale, for example - Or 'punnagaiyil' from Jeans - Or... Leave it.) is because of the sequence from 4:16 to 4:33. It is kinda more awesome to me than all six songs in Endhiran (yet). But of course, you can't have an Ennavale for Thalaivar. Another thing that I'd like to highlight is the change from the sequence in the first stanza at 2:53 to 2:58...'Nijam Undhan kaadhal endraal', and how SPB ends it in the last saranam.

Haven't heard any recent song with that much pull. Mr. Harris Jeyaraj tries a lot (Vaarayo in Adhavan for example), but I don't know, he kinda fades in comparison - Or Am I just too biased? :)

Or are there no movies now-a-days that demand it from the Genius? Should Bharathiraja work on a music video with ARR (and stop right there) for the others to know what is possible from the Mozart?

In any case, I am prepared to wait.

Not just for the ears

You've never been for just my ears,
Or so I learnt today - good day this.
You are the complete people, your tunes philosophies,
With every single drum beat hitting that part of my brain.

You've helped me a lot, my dear friends.
Time and again. A million times.
Those situations you kept me distracted from,
And those situations you got me through.

Then, slowly, I got cool new friends,
And I confess, you went out of my mind.
I got on with my life - without all you guys,
Gross treachery, isn't it, of every kind.

Today, I saw you after such a while,
I erupted in joy; urm, these days, that is a little rare.
When I shared my happiness and troubles with you (all those years ago),
I realize, now, that I left a part of it there.

You remind me of my whole past life,
And all that you had been.
You also show the change in me,
Which I otherwise might not have seen.

You guys are all such awesome friends,
To have hung around - all this while - for me.
I now realize that there are always some super cool friends,
whom I'll strive all my life to deserve.

Thank you, Music, for being there for all of us - at times when others just wouldn't care.

The Five Minute Window

Detached from the world, I was in my very own shell;
I couldn't think of a future; Life and I didn't gel.
I was smiling time away; I couldn't care less.
I shut myself out from the whole worldly mess.

You! you lived in that galaxy far, far away,
Why would you care about this zero-watt soul?
But when it hit me that you could be in this city today,
Zap, zap, zap, zap! I was back in my role.

The single thought of meeting you found its way in,
even if only for five awesome minutes.
Not just a mistake, my abandon was sin.
Life is not giving up. Life is to win.

Soon, I realized that you couldn't be here,
An Ah, then an Oh, from this heart full of woe.
My mind struggled to re-adjust - it was a little weird.
For it was now filled with love and the deepest of low.

-
By someone who thinks he could also be a poet someday.

Bloodfinger

So, I am one finger short at the moment.

No no.Nothing serious. One of them was just mehendi-fied with a rather strange antiseptic cream (a topical steroid (yikes!), but more on that later) and is hence out of action for a while.

It all started that day when I reached home and found on washing my hand that there was a sign of blood (blood's never a good sign, I tell you :P ).  On further investigation, I found that there were a couple of drops of blood peeking from behind the fingernail. Washed it off. Didn't give it much of a thought.

Two days later, there was some pain. "idukelam bayapadalama? naanga elam pala vaaram valikara adi elam vangirukom, onnum aagadhu" (I've got injuries that've been paining for weeks. Yours is not even in the picture). Courtesy, my roomie Shiva. I went on with my job.

A few days later (let's not worry about the exact number of days please), the pain was random but on the rise. Got a band-aid, put it around the finger and tried to forget about it. Removed band-aid in a day...seemed alright.

It was four days ago that the pain was beginning to irritate me. I couldn't type, that being an index finger. Got Boroplus antiseptic cream because it was the only freakin' thing available that didn't seem life threatening at that pharmacy. That despite my best attempts not to buy it, as a part of my "Quit products & services with pathetic or frustrating ads" initiative. Applied that for a couple of days. It only got worse. This morning, it was paining even when I didn't touch it.

Now, that's bad.

What do we do when things go bad?
Yes, Telephone the family.

Q: "How long has it been?"
A: "Urm...A week?"
Q: "What?!"
A: "Three days"
Q: "Did you see a doc?"
A: "No..."
O: "Go. Now." (O means it's an order)

Went to the doc.

Doc: "Do you know that if this infection had taken its course, you'd have seen pus coming out of it in another week?"
Me: :O
Doc: "Leaving it that way for N days (true number hidden for security purposes) is bad in itself. Worse, leave it that way for another N days and you might have as well said Goodbye to that finger."
Me: ":O :O You're just scaring me, aren't you?"
Doc: "You Wish! By the way, how long has it been since you've had a tetanus injection?"
Me: "Whazzat?"
Doc: :O

An injection later, here I am at home typing this out. The ointment I've just applied says 'topical steroid + besomethyl something' that could cause Glaucoma if it enters the eye. So, I am being extra careful and stuff, you know.

I have a theory this injury might be due to the revenge of the non-human 'Santoshes' and their Big Bs in my house, but that's for another post.

Dare to read updated.

http://letmekillyou.blogspot.com/2010/05/simple-dialogue-complex-reactions.html

Do read when you have time...

Through to IIMB... but do I wanna do the PGP?

Like I mentioned two years ago (that I will get into an IIM in 2010) and about one month back (that God wanted me to), I got into an IIM this year. Yea, Bangalore at that. Kinda freaks me out actually that the Nitrodamus in me was fully functional way back in 2008 with extremely accurate predictions.

But do I really want to go there?

FAQs to follow. ie. Questions frequently being asked by others (urm...not just others) given my current 'dilemma'.

"How many times do people get a chance to study at IIM-B?"

I know. But looks like I should give them 15L and two years of my time to get myself confined to a single campus. Should it not be the other way around? Even if it's with some of the greatest minds of the country? I have my doubts.

"Why did you try this in the first place?"

Now that I think of it, probably because of my hate towards IT. Probably not.

I do want to start my own company sometime, though. I like reading stuff related to that, and I guess there is no better place to learn about that..but paying back 15L is going to throw this out of balance, I suspect. I can as well use it to start one now, but heck which bank's gonna give even 1L to me to start my own publishing house or NGO? And take it lightly when it goes down the drain?

"You're gonna be so good at a lot of things after 2 years. The best in the country. You'll be working on so many assignments and presentations every day for two years that things you think you can never carry off now will be a cakewalk after two years."

I don't want to be the best in anything at all. Not even the best writer of Brindavan street 4th cross.

I don't want to conquer nature. I just want to enjoy being a part of this world. You know, laze around and stuff.

"You can't earn that way"

That's why you don't see me doing it.

"You can go back to this job after two years of IIMB if you like it so much."

Why should I leave it in the first place? And go back to it with a huge loan on my shoulder?

"IIMB. Some of the best lectures in the country. From some of the best brains..."

Very interesting, but worth two years and the hard work?

"Do you want to get married at all? This is your only chance!"

Much as I know that the IIM tag is probably my last chance of impressing any girl in this century, I don't think I really want to marry anyone. Yikes, I said it out loud, didn't I?

"What about your dream NGO? You need hell a lot of money to eradicate illiteracy in this country, dude!"

I know, but is this the way? at least one of the ways? How can I be sure?

"Sports Management, Politics... You could as well change the face of Indian football! Is that not another of your dreams?" 

Yea, but all the hard-work people are 'proud' of actually puts me off. I just want to write stories, you know.

"You're not the greatest writer"

I know.

"Anyway, looking at the profiles of people coming in with you, you will lose that laziness of yours just to keep pace with them, I think. Is that not a good enough reason?"

No. No. Nooo. Laziness is all that's kept me alive through all the rat races. I refuse to cooperate.

"Then you'll end up getting the last rank"

Who cares?

"You might not get a job then."

Oh.

"Remember this is at your Bangalore?"

Don't tempt me now. This is an unwanted question irrelevant to the current situation.

"Ooooo. Bangalore. The only IIM you've always respected."

That's probably because of the quizzes and the campus.

"Bangalore... The only 'city' with such a good climate."

Ha. Will somehow take a loan and buy a farmhouse in Coonoor or Calicut soon. Beat that.

"Bangalooooore... Family... Friends..."

Ok. I give in.

"Hey, you're supposed to resist."

Come on, you know that I really don't care about anything. Thinking about this exhausts me.

"What if you can't pay the loan back later?"

I'll try to pay the poor blokes back. If I can't, let them arrest me. Who really cares?

"Do you want to do it, then?"

Even if the whole thing is just a hyped up Gold-quest-like business done legally by the Govt to put people like me in a lotta debt, Yes.

"...but why?"

I have to do something in life, I guess. Evalavo panitom. Idha pana matoma?

-The End-