The date.

From the days A R Rahman spawned out the song chinna chinna asha for the movie, Roja, I had found the ideal man. If it has you on toes to know who the guy is, yes, peoples, it was none other than our own Arvind Swamy. Arvind Swamy, as in not the actor but the character portrayed by him in the that movie. The soft spoken, handsome, decent and mischevious unassuming guy just took over my imagination of the perfect guy.

He was irreplaceable. For me. There was no way anyone else could even come close to him. Even if you would point out the flaws in him, I would not see that.

I normally don't watch tamil movies as much. Firstly because, I have kind of stopped watching commercial movies at all. Secondly I don't understand the language. If you ask me to watch any movie, I would read the reviews, reread the reviews, ask someone who has already watched and then watch the movie. Yes, the spoil sport that I am. See I will not invest my time for something unworthy.

But upon the insistence of RV, after much hassling over the choice of movie, I watched the movie Vaanaram Aayiram. Needlessly to say, I am fawning over Surya ever since then. Man, what charm, I cannot help stop gushing over him. The character is so much full of life.

Now that I have said enough, I am unable to decide if its the character in the movie, or the hero that portrayed the character that has worked its magic on me. Wait, I have got to go and watch other movies of Surya to decide that..:)

So, books it will be!

That is, given the choice to read a book that was made into a movie and then watch the movie or vice-versa, I would prefer to read the book to watching the movie first.

I would not want to miss out the minutest nitty gritty details that the book would describe, which could otherwise be discarded in the movie.

Which explains why I haven't watched the Lords of the rings trilogy. I am still stuck with the first book, wherein Frodo is traveling through the forest with his friends. The forest seems never ending and so is the book, with Frodo discovering dense thick forests, open spaces, battles with trees that move, hiding from hooded strangers.

I am waiting for something exciting to happen in the book, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Still reading the book.

An update to one of my old posts.

In response to one of the stories that I read on a blog, I wrote a post titled "The fear of worse" that was based on the folklore of my native region. The story was narrated to me by my paternal grandmother.

One reader who read my post pointed out to me that the story was similar to the one called Devvade Mane penned by K. V. Iyer in his collection of short stories. So, with due respects to the original author, I would like to make it clear that I wrote the story based on what I heard from my grand mother and have an update included in the post as well. This post is for the readers, just so that update is not lost.

And to my reader who pointed it out to me, thanks for introducing me to another author, whose books I am going to include in the must read list..:) Thank you very much.

A little common sense and a lot of gade mathu(nudi mutthu)

Even as I published the previous post, it reminded me of something that I thought should be said it aloud. And so here I am, writing it on my blog.

I grew up in a typical family from North Karnataka. If you know what I mean. At least one of our meals in a day consisted of Jolada rotti and curry to go with it. That also meant that the entire three storeyed building in colony would know from the clop, clop like sounds emanating from the wooden konabe which my mother slapped to make thin, crisp Jolada rotti's. Its a time tested truth that even the famed Kamat hotels fail to churn out such crisp rotti's.

And our day to day conversation would almost be incomplete with a adage, a gade mathu, the conventional wisdom that spoke volumes of the experiences of lives before, with a huge dollops of humor interwoven and served so commonly that you don't realize that it has become a part of your life. Humor can be found in the driest of places, wry-est of situations, only if we can see it. Most importantly, it was common sense that was handed down from generation to generation. All lumped in one single line.

The names Sarvajna, Shishunala sharifa, Basavanna, to quote a few, are names that resound ubiquitously in any North Karnataka household. My personal favorite happens to be Sarvajna. Which man would be vain enough to name himself, Sarvajna, and yet be humble enough to humor himself . You did not have to belong to the community that they belonged or follow their ideologies.

And no, the sayings are not taught in schools or by a private tutor. Until recent times, there was no written record of what they had to offer for the world. The wisdom lived on just through the people's lives. There is a line for every occasion. A line that celebrates the joyful welcoming of the baby, to death of a person, defining the each and every stage of a man's life.

Whether it was the men busy in the fields with the plows or harvesting , or the women who toiled at homes on the stone grinder, or put the babies to sleep, common sense prevailed. Through the hard times, through the happy times, and through the normal times. The words flowed through the songs that people hummed as they worked, went about their lives.

These days, I listen to pretty great deal of personality development workshops, telling how to develop positive attitude. There are a whole lot of books, cassettes, discs out there telling what is required to be successful in life. I don't need someone else coming and tell me that I have to develop a positive attitude, and mint money with it. Its a decision that people have to make within themselves. All it takes is a little common sense to understand that and the wisdom required is right there in your backyard.

A recent discovery!

Found this link recently, and I am hooked to it, big time, I mean, really big time.

Subhashita Manjari

Am browsing through the entire blog, still haven't finished reading it...:)

I rather leave this post untitled!

How could she! Something akin to restlessness was building up inside him. He fumed. She was showering all her attention to someone else. Even as he stood and watched them, he wondered, how could she neglect him!

She looked up and found him watching her intently. For a moment, she thought she saw a slight uneasiness in him. Slowly she let of the guys hand she was holding, went up to him and spoke to him. Slowly, the uneasiness in him started melting away.

Someday, when his son would be all grown, the man would tell his son of how he had to share the attention of the one woman who meant so much to him, with him.

One sleepless night...

Silences, ear splitting silences, with no one around, just sleepless. I get up, try to read a book and loose interest within no time. I switch on the laptop, browse internet for some good material, again, nothing interesting turns up. Its 12:00 in the night. No sleep.

Its cold outside, I boost the heater a little more. Still no sleep. Pull the comforter more close to yourself, curled up in the fetal position. No noise except the whirring of the heater. Pick up the same book and try reading.

The laptop is still open, and me, still ensconced in the warmth of the comforter, I fire up the internet explorer, open gmail, check for emails, restlessly hit the refresh button, quite often. Nothing interesting here. The time is 2:00 am in the morning. I am yawning now. But the sleep still seems to evade me.

I get up, make some tea, make a mental note to buy some sugar tomorrow. Come back to my bed, drink my tea, think of the stupid happenings of the day. Remember some good times. And some not so good ones. Either ways, smile all by myself at the stupidity of some situations. At the silliness of the situation, or my actions, reaction and at times, both.

Its 4:00 am in the morning. I am feeling hungry now. I kind of vow that I am not going to eat at this unearthly hour. Somehow the resilience is slowly breaking. Its kind of getting cold. I once again get up and enter the kitchen, scavenge for something to eat. I find some bread, milk, and some leftovers of the dinner. But then, don't feel like eating and so hit the bed.

The laptop is till open, I type out the post on how I am not able to sleep for the night. Its 5:00 am in the morning. Slowly, little by little, my eyelids are drooping. Its hard for me to keep awake. I think I am going to sleep. Ok guys, if you are still reading this. I must asleep then.

See you guys laters!!!!

My time...

I am trying to write something. And the words don't seem to flow. Stuck up inside.

All I need is a gentle break.