tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41067589759259879372024-03-13T10:48:29.598-07:00MUGAIYURUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-21771544698875019532013-06-09T15:20:00.000-07:002013-06-09T15:46:09.631-07:00Soodhu Kavvum- A twinkle in the serpent’s eye.<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;"></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/181473_10200209715380945_1154518039_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/181473_10200209715380945_1154518039_a.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 19.5px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What on earth a cinema does? Why do we keep gazing at the imposing white rectangle of moving images for over a century? For just entertainment…? Though mainly a pastime, cinema is here for reasons beyond that. There is that charming, visually enriched story teller in cinema who would drain our emotions, tickle us to bouts of laughs, amuse us, elate us, sometimes even enlighten and educate us.Man is eternally attracted to this most enthralling modern day invention which has been inseparably embedded in every major language-culture of the world, we can say that in cinema runs a parallel history of these cultures too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though a serious business, at times cinema can laugh at itself, we have proofs in spoofs and cinema didn't have hesitated to venture out of its notional boundaries and limited number of templates. We have seen mavericks and people who usually do the unusual at film making. Almost all the possibilities are given a try. Out of one such possibility comes to us the ‘unburdened movie’ which a traditional movie buff would scoff at.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Soodhu Kavvum belongs to this ‘unburdened’ category and it relieves us of cinema’s usual clutches while we can enjoy it whole-heartedly. If you expected a picaresque in Tamil Cinema Soodhu Kavvum presents itself with almost in its fullness the ‘details of the humorous adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his wits in a corrupt society’. This is only the story of an amateur kidnapper and his aides with all twists and turns of an usual cinema but the treatment is what that makes the difference. Soodhu Kavvum celebrates ludicrousness and because of just that it becomes so very close to us.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is the movie in which a fictitious character –Shalu (within the story) is presented without special light effects or dry ice fog. This is the movie in which you see T. Rajendar on the wall of a bachelors room. This the movie in which we find a kidnapper who takes a day off in the middle of a deal because that day happens to be a Sunday. This is the movie in which the usually most feared and revered encounter-specialist cop is kicked in the ass with a pistol shot. The film consciously prevents itself from leaning towards high emotion (when Shalu dies) or heroic valour ( while handling the encounter-specialist cop).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.5px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The entire cast of the movie deserves our praise. Vijay Sethupathy’s is a brilliant performance. His aides also do a commendable job. Dialogue is the forte of this movie. For want of nuanced subtlety from audience Soohdu Kavvum risks being written off for its incongruousness and it could well be the dialogue that comes to the rescue in such a situation. Nalan Kumarasamy and his crew deserve all praise for this healthy trend-setter in Tamil Cinema.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-64872497016843491852013-01-26T09:42:00.000-08:002013-05-25T09:02:34.921-07:00Obvious Agent Arumugam <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kWa1DdLRCFk/UQQVbFlMshI/AAAAAAAAAUw/juXQrOKtVhk/s1600/photo_146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kWa1DdLRCFk/UQQVbFlMshI/AAAAAAAAAUw/juXQrOKtVhk/s1600/photo_146.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
(Obvious Agent Arumugam is a
comical character which I have planned to portray in my upcoming work of fiction.
Here is a portion from the write up)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
‘The arrogant and the crocodile
hardly let go what they have at their hold’ Mimya used this adage when once I
was so adamant with my silly argument that had pushed her to the verge of
accepting defeat. Obvious Agent Arumugam was one such crocodile I often came
across. Obvious Agent Arumugam as his name suggests had no secret operations or
missions at his keep but his own living with tantalizing intellectual absurdity
skirting freaky pragmatism bundled in pseudo philosophy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The eloquent Mr.Arumugam was not
a typical chatterbox, but a well tuned jukebox and all we needed was to drop
coins of innocent questions which would kindle him instantly. He would play his
intellectual tunes nonstop. He was dead sure that in the world things were just the way he had envisioned them and he had not an iota of
doubt that they were the other way around. He loved to talk like a caged parakeet which had
starved in self-imposed silence for aeons. Whatever was the matter, he never
hesitated to open his mouth and unleash the barrage of words. His knowledge included everything from
Communism to Cannibalism, Adolf Hitler to Haruki Murakami, Arthritis ailment to
Automobile expertise. We asked and he said, explained, elaborated and
enlightened us without his enthusiasm dropping off a bit. He had his wits alive as an owl which had its
gaze fixed on a prey. He would tell us that how Jenny led an embattled life
with Groucho Marx, the meekest of us would ask meekly ‘wasn’t it Carl instead
of Groucho, Mr. Arumugam?’, then the owl of his wit would come into play. ‘You
know Carl is synonymous to Groucho in German, very few people in history knew that
Carl had been affectionately called as Groucho, even sometimes as Khrushchev’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Arumugam was known for his
uncompromising tidiness, for him godliness was next only to cleanliness. He was
three times more cleaner when compared to any one of us. He washed his plate once
before eating and twice after the meal. He would just sniff at the cup of
steaming hot coffee and say that the cup had been washed only twice.
Self-trumpeting came so naturally to Mr. Arumugam but he had the ability to
sheath it in seemingly uncontrived humility. When Obvious Agent Arumugam gets hold of a
fart which can’t sting even the humblest of noses he would make tall claims to
the levels of holocaust gassing and the never found WMD of Saddam Hussein’s
Iraq. Yet he dared not to let go the fart through the butt portion of his pants
beneath which, as some of us strongly believed, he had his divine brain. ‘You
have your souls in your butt cleavage’ a poet wrote and Obvious Agent Arumugam
chose to have his mind there for reasons not so obvious to us. For him the fart
that passes through as a fart is something unacceptable since it was from <b>his</b>
butt hole.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Without the likes of Arumugam the world would be a place of acute oscitancy,
so we are much indebted to them. By being so obviously sober they cause us our
discreet laughs. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-20914833953266647062012-08-28T12:34:00.000-07:002012-08-28T12:34:31.641-07:00Sri Lalgudi G Jayaraman :The Violin Virtuoso <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uXb1x4W2DBo/UDzgb_hKFpI/AAAAAAAAATU/5_ICsuY-9CY/s1600/lalgudijayaraman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uXb1x4W2DBo/UDzgb_hKFpI/AAAAAAAAATU/5_ICsuY-9CY/s1600/lalgudijayaraman.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 351.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">A
Tribute to the Living Legend of Violin, Sri Lalgudi G Jayaraman On the Occasion
of His 80<sup>th</sup> Birthday</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">‘Music
is a way; one has to travel in it. A whole life won’t be enough for the travel’</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
It has been almost seven decades since the boy wonder from Lalgudi started
making waves in the arena of Carnatic Music. The boy, a tender 12 year old, was
accompanying violinist to none other than stalwarts in the field, the Alathur
Brothers. According to his own recollection of the event he didn’t have the
slightest affright on the stage. He had done his home work perfectly. It is the
sheer hard work coupled with extraordinary genius which the world later came to
know as Sri Lalgudi G Jayaraman, the violin virtuoso nonpareil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
The violin, essentially
a western musical instrument has gained prominence in the field of Carnatic
Music and many believe that Lalgudi G Jayaraman’s bonding with the instrument
has played a major role behind this crowning glory of the instrument. The
master and his violin have journeyed through decades of mesmerising music and
along the way have enthralled multitudes of music fans with serene music.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
Young lalgudi had been in great
demand for accompanying vocalists, and he had accompanied such great vocal
masters as Ariyakkudi Sri Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Sri Srinivasa Iyer, Sri
G. N. Balasubramaniam, Alathur Brothers, Karaikkudi Sambasiva Iyer. As music
critics would point out, Lalgudi’s violin wasn’t just accompanying, it was
playing an individual concert in its own right. Thus Lalgudi rewrote the
definition of an accompanist, as one critic put it; he made his violin
sing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">The
legend recollects memories of his early days as a musician.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“I used to listening to concerts. There weren’t any concerts in Lalgudi at that
time. We only listened to concerts on radio. Only the rich had radios in those
days. A journal used to come to those people who possessed radios. There were
detailed schedules of concerts broadcast on radio. When musicians like
Semmangudi, Alathur Brothers were going to give concerts, with date and exact
time, the schedules will be given in that journal. I would take notes of the
schedule and inform the radio-owner in advance about the concerts I was going
to listen to. Usually these concerts were broadcast on Friday evenings between
7 and 9.30. I will listen to them keenly and back home I will play them exactly
the way they were. I will travel to Tiruchi and Tanjore in train, paying three
quarters of a rupee for the ticket, to listen to concerts. Again back home in
Lalgudi I will play the songs from my memory. I took the concerts sportively. I
didn’t feel frightened at anyone’s concert then. Once an awed Mani Iyer asked
me how come that I played all the songs so finely. I used to listen to your
songs many times on radio, I said. He was so happy to hear that. Before a
concert, I had the habit of practicing the songs that particular musician would
sing in the concert. So there wasn’t the question of being frightened at all. I
played with enjoyment, for me there wasn’t any difficulties in doing concerts
either.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;"> Whenever
there is a talk about this man why hyperboles galore, and what does his music
have indeed?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
"The ingredients of his music are a fascinating tonal allure, a
scintillating and polished delivery, a flawless fluency, a preternatural grasp
of the ins-and-outs of Laya, an unflagging zeal, splendid resourcefulness, an
unruffled self possession, an effortless virtuosity, a fine sense of
proportion, a tautness of texture, an impeccable musical idiom and total
creative brilliance. In short, it is a sweet ensemble of the choicest
artistic virtues" These are Prof. Ramanathan’s words on Lalgudi G
Jayaraman’s music. This is not just Prof. Ramanathan’s eulogy on the maestro.
But a spontaneously abounding praise for the music genius found in the depth of
every music lover’s heart, still waiting for the right combination of words to
get expressed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
From being an accompanist he started creating his own music too. His
compositions are widely appreciated and his unique pattern of music has become
a trend and is called as ‘Lalgudi Bani’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
One chronicler says “He revolutionised the style of violin playing by
inventing a whole new technique that is designed to best suit the needs
of Indian Classical Music and establishing a unique style that came
to be known as 'Lalgudi Bani'. His flawless and fascinating style, graceful and
original, yet not divorced from traditional roots gained him numerous fans.
This multi dimensional personality have to his credit composed several
'kritis', 'tillanas' and 'varnams' and dance compositions, which are a
scintillating blend of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>raga,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>bhava,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>rhythm and lyrical beauty. The
unique feature about Lalgudi is that his music is very expressive. Lalgudi's
instrumental genius comes to the fore in the form of lyrical excellence. He
brought the most-sought-after vocal style into violin, and his renditions
exhibit knowledge of lyrical content of the compositions.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
Sri Lalgudi passionately remembers his father Sri Goapala Iyer,
who was not only his father but also his Guru, an ardent fan, a fervent critic
and all.“….. There was a force within me which created all that was from within
me. That force kept on composing music anew inside me… in the morning, in the
evening, at midnight… all the time. I will play them to my father. He was my
Guru, an ardent fan, a fervent critic and all to me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
Violin can be attributed to be his third hand. What does the
maestro have to say about his beloved companion?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“Americans say that the violin is an unmatched
musical instrument. I am not sure about next birth, but if there would be one I
would like to born as a violinist again. There is no musical instrument like
the violin. In a Thirukkural, Valluvar says ‘Only people who hadn’t listened to
the prattle of young children would claim that the most mellifluous music is
that of the flute and the harp’. But had Valluavar got the chance to listen to
the violin he would have said otherwise. Even without any mythological
background (unlike the veena and the flute) the violin has carved a place for
itself in classical music.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">Concerts
and Accolades Abroad</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
He has given concerts extensively in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>India as
well as abroad. The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Government of
India sent him to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Russia as
a member of the Indian Cultural Delegation. At the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Edinburgh
festival in 1965,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Yehudi
Menuhin, the renowned<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>violinist,
impressed by Lalgudi's technique, presented him with his Italian<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>violin. He has also performed in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Singapore,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Malaysia,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Manila and
East European countries. His recordings submitted to the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>International Music Council,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Baghdad,
Asian Pacific Music Rostrum and Iraq Broadcasting Agency by AIR New Delhi have been
adjudged as the best and accorded the first position out of 77 entries received
from the various countries during 1979.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
He was invited to give concerts at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Cologne,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Belgium and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>France. The Government of
India chose him to represent<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>India at the Festival of India in USA<span class="apple-converted-space"> and
in </span>London and he gave solo and
'Jugalbandi' concerts in London and
also in Germany and Italy that
received rave reviews. Sri Lalgudi went on a tour in the year 1984 to Oman, UAE,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Qatar and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Bahrain that
was highly successful. He composed the lyrics and music for the operatic ballet
'Jaya Jaya Devi' which premiered in 1994 at Cleveland,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>U.S. and
was staged in many other cities in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>United States.
In October 1999, Lalgudi performed in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>UK under
the auspices of Shruthi Laya Seva Sangham. The concert was a roaring success.
After the concert a Dance Drama 'Pancheswaram', composed by Lalgudi was</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">staged.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black;">
Chief popular music critic in the arts section of the</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black;">New York Times,</span></span><span style="color: black;"> John Pareles wrote, "Like other Indian
violinists, Lalgudi Jayaraman holds his instrument downward, between the chest
and ankle. He has a warm tone and a style that used long liquid slides between
notes and the contrast between full-toned playing and clear, is quiet
melodious. The style is essentially vocalistic, although there were a few
points at which he varied the single lines of melody by playing a double stop
or a plucked note”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
In abroad people used to remark that he produced unfamiliar music from a
familiar musical instrument.When asked which is the place that he enjoyed most
presenting a concert? Unhesitatingly comes the reply,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“None. I was always concerned about
making my fans happy with my music. I hardly cared about places”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">Awards</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">The
genius has earned several titles like 'Nada Vidya Tilaka' by Music Lovers’
Association of Lalgudi in 1963, 'Padma Shri' by the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Government of India in 1972,
'Nada Vidya Rathnakara' by East West Exchange in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>New York, 'Vadya Sangeetha Kalaratna'
by Bharathi Society, New York; 'Sangeetha Choodamani' by Federation of Music
Sabhas, Madras in 1971 and in 1972; State Vidwan of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Tamil Nadu by the Government of
Tamil Nadu and Sangeetha Natak Academy award in 1979 etc. The First Chowdaiah
Memorial National-Level award was given to Sri Jayaraman by the Chief Minister
of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Karnataka. He has also
received honorary citizenship of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Maryland,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>U.S. in
1994and the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Padma Bhushan by
the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Government of India in
2001. He has won The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>National
Film Award for Best Music Direction for the film<span class="apple-converted-space"> ‘</span>Sringaram’ in 2006.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">The
divinity of Lalgudi’s music</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
It is a state of absolute bliss and one gets immersed in serene music when
Lalgudi performs. He conjures all the emotions of the lyrics in the
instrumental version. “<span class="apple-style-span">Sweet sounds, Oh,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="ilad">beautiful music</span><span class="apple-style-span">, do not cease!</span> <span class="apple-style-span">Reject me not into the world again.</span><span class="apple-converted-space">”</span> These lines of <span class="apple-style-span">Edna St. Vincent Millay is spoken out while she listens
to Beethoven and the same is longingly mussitated by the fans of Sri Lalgudi as
they get themselves engrossed in his music.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
There was this music loving tailor who was also a devoted fan of Sri Lalgudi.
Once he was invited for a concert by Lalgudi. He was overwhelmed with joy and
at the same time very anxious and couldn’t help waiting till the evening to
attend the concert. In apparent state of fervour he began to pray, “Dear god,
do keep me alive till this evening”. A number of such incidents stand testimony
to Sri Lalgudi’s spellbinding, divine and incomparable euphony.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
It seems that we cannot attribute the most humble, conventional saying that is
used to sum up the lives of unparalleled legends- ‘There is very little that
he/she hasn’t achieved’. Sri Lalgudi has in fact left no stones unturned
in his illustrious career as a musician. By any yardstick he measures to the
full, sometimes even more than that. On his 80<sup>th</sup> birthday we
bow our heads in loving reverence before Sri Lalgudi and wish him
many many more happy returns of the day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;"> <u>Practice</u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">What would be the atmosphere at
home as you ready yourself for a concert?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">
“I practice thoroughly in a calm atmosphere. I take gruel or something else for
breakfast and continue the practice. All in the house take care that I am not
disturbed. Then only I am able to get the calmness I desire.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<u><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">Compositions</span></u><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;"><br />
Most famous for his<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Thillanas and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Varnams, Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman is a
considered one of the most prolific composers of modern times.His compositions
span four languages (<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Tamil,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Telugu , Kannada and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Sanskrit) as well as a whole range of
ragas not conventionally used for Varnams or Thillanas. Characteristic of his
style, the melody of his compositions carefully camouflages subtle rhythmic
intricacies. His compositions are very popular with
Bharathanatyam dancers, even as they have become a standard highlight of
every leading<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Carnatic Musician's
repertoire.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">Leisure
Activities</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">How
does the legend spend his leisure time?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“I like being a ‘rasika’. I awe at nature. I awe at the million and million
years of unfailing routine of the sun and at God who created it. ‘To be able to
adore nature is a gift from God’. Rain, plants, the wonder of flowers
blossoming, I cherish and savour all this. When we talk about nature there
inevitably come God. Because God is the creator of all nature. (Nature means
beauty and beauty is nothing but God).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
I am interested in games. I am more drawn towards puzzles and riddles. I like
cracking jokes, a lot of them. In places like Muscat and
in the USA,
after I finish my concerts people would ask me tell jokes and I will oblige
them. They will enjoy the jokes and some will even record them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
I play the Keyboard, the flute and the harmonium in leisure times. Lord
Muruga is my favourite deity. God is an energy, power. We can call it by
masculine names, femeinine names like Devi, and whatever name we like
to.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">On
Actors, Films and Other Musicians</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“I like Sivaji Ganesan and I like watching James Bond and Hitchcock
movies, I like watching cartoons too (I like eating popcorn). When I
travel abroad I watch movies of those countries to know how they differ from
ours. In playback singing Lata Mangeshkar, Mehdi Hassan, Mohammad
Rafiq, T.M. Soudararajan, P. Suseela, S. Janaki and S.P. Balasubramaniam are my
favourites. In Carnatic Music I love listening to great masters like
G.N.B, Madurai Mani, Alathur Brothers, Semmangudi, Palakkad Mani Iyer, Pazhani-
(Mrudangam).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="color: black;">An
Ideal Student</span></u><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">What
makes an ideal musical student?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“A music student’s state of mind should be light and clean and the desire to
learn should be undiminished. There has to be discipline, readiness to work
hard and obedience. The student has to earnestly absorb whatever the Guru
teaches and develop those little openings into big paths by his own efforts.
One who aspires to become a musician should have in his mind the sentence ‘I
have to learn’. He should listen to good musician and appreciate them and to
take them as his role models. He has to work on to become one like them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">What
should be the ideal state of mind for an upcoming artist?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
“Music is really an enormous thing. I have to better my learning; I have to
better my performance. This kind of mind set is to be there. The student has to
look for certain nuances from big musicians. He has to absorb them and modify
them to be called as his own. I still feel like a student, a senior student in
that case. Music is not a thing it is a way. Travel how far you can and make
the most of it. An artist should never think that he has learnt everything. The
desire to learn should be endless. Art is like an exploration. If you stop exploring
there stops the art too. A musician should know the nuances of enjoying the
music while he creates it. As he performs he should have he ability to be his
own listener thus evaluating and improving his music in the process.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
His son G. J. R. Krishnan and his daughter Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi follow the
footsteps of their great father and are famous in their own rights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
We are so happy to be a part of his 80<sup>th</sup> birthday celebrations
of the maestro. We bow our heads in loving reverence before Sri
Lalgudi and wish him many more happy returns of the day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal;">To conclude this article here we quote Mr.
Srikantiah, his long time friend, "...I tell you Lalgudi’s violin is
really something else…the melody that he produces is simply out of this
world…he will take that raaga’s Jiva and squeeze it completely of it’s rasa…”</span></strong><span style="color: black;"> There is 500 to 600 hours of recorded music from this
incomparable genius which is really a treasure trove for his fans all over the
world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
We are so happy to be a part of Sri Lalgudi’s 80<sup>th</sup> birthday
celebrations. We bow our heads in loving reverence before Sri
Lalgudi and wish him many more happy returns of the day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: black;"> This
article was written by me on the occasion of Lalgudi Jayaraman's 80th birthday
in 2010. I wrote this with inputs from various sources. My sincere thanks to</span><span style="background: white; color: #eeeeee;"> </span></i><span style="background: white; color: black;">Abra Media and Mr. Sreeraman <i>on whose request I
wrote this.</i></span><span style="color: black;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 118.5pt;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-82466342876406358072012-08-28T12:23:00.000-07:002012-09-17T09:40:54.436-07:00V.V.S. Laxman:The Mark of a Diminishing Era.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3lTGxWXXRh8/UD0aYL73kJI/AAAAAAAAATk/GxtZpUoo81c/s1600/vvs-laxman-afp-670.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="167" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3lTGxWXXRh8/UD0aYL73kJI/AAAAAAAAATk/GxtZpUoo81c/s320/vvs-laxman-afp-670.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 16.5px;"><br /></span></span>
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16.5px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16.5px;"> <span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.5px;">Cricket fans were delighted to call Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman as Very Very Special Laxman and undoubtedly he deserved every letter in that sobriquet. V.V.S. Laxman had indeed been a special thing in Indian batting for over a decade and a half. Though he lacked the charisma of Ganguly, Dravid and the incomparable Tendulkar, he formed the formidable quartet of Indian batting with these three, the quartet which reigned supreme for about a decade starting from the late 90s. Laxman was endowed with a natural stroke play which stayed somewhere between sublime art and absolute elegance. He may not have had the wristy elegance of his fellow Hyderabadi Mohammed Azaruddin in ditto but at times he reminded us of the former Indian skipper with those silky touches. He batted as if batting is a 9 to 5 job and all he needed was to stay there in the middle. He never went after the bowling, was not in the mood to keep the scoreboard ticking and importantly not an ‘entertainer’ in the ’20-20’ era sense of the term. Thus he had been a quintessential Test cricketer and the bitter side of it was that he wasn’t a regular fixture in Indian ODI squads. During his career India played four world cup tourneys and Laxman had to watch all of them from the comfort of his home. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.5px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.5px;">The Kolkata Test in which India came from behind and turned the table on Australia Laxman scripted his unforgettable 281 in the second innings. That was his best knock and we all knew what was in store in this humble Hyderabadi.I remember one commentator quipping during this epic knock “He bats like a Maharaj”. But our Maharaj didn’t do justice to his cricketing potential on many occasions, may be our rajah wasn’t that ruthless in his hunts and let go his prey off the gun. He should have raised his bat and helmet- showing that piece of cloth that bulwarked his bald head from the rough inside of the headgear- in the cricketing fields more often than he did. This is the only complaint we have against this languid but committed cricketer. Laxman is a mark of a diminishing era in which cricket is played for the sake of cricket. We will miss your unhurried batting and that toothy smile VVS.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.5px;"> </span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-91724444074924698572012-05-28T10:28:00.001-07:002013-05-22T00:16:06.752-07:00Persistently Incessant (About the Tamil documentary 'Ooya Maari')<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JFA-wV6oPl4/T8O1XTRpYHI/AAAAAAAAARc/aAN7eKRgv5Q/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JFA-wV6oPl4/T8O1XTRpYHI/AAAAAAAAARc/aAN7eKRgv5Q/s320/1.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Have we ever heard the name
G.S.Lakshmana Iyer? For most of us the answer will not be in the affirmative, I
believe. But, after watching the documentary ‘Ooyaa Maari’ one will wonder how
this name was thrown into the oblivion of public memory while the life of the
man on whom this documentary is made deserves to be found in the pages of our
textbooks. ‘Ooyaa Maari’ (Incessant Rain) is a documentary by writer activist
S. Balamurugan which introduces us a humble man who, against all odds, lived the
life of a zealous social reformer who had dedicated his life for the upliftment
of Dalits. In the course of his reformist life he gets ostracized by his own community
and loses his wealth. It was on Gandhi’s
request that G.S. Lakshmana Iyer, a brahmin by birth, begins to work for the
welfare of Harijans in his locality. In
his endeavour to keep his promise to Gandhi he faces many obstacles. Sheer
determination and dedication helps him to overcome those obstacles. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The service he does to the Dalit
people in his locality is not the superficial ones we usually witness from our
so called leaders. Lakshmana Iyer is wholly dedicated in serving the Dalit
community. He allows Dalits to draw water from his well. In those times water
resources were used by the upper caste people as a tool to constrain Dalits and
ensure their submissiveness to them. As he narrates, this act of Dalits drawing
water from a well inside a brahmin’s house outrages other brahmins. They
ostracize him. No one from his community comes forward to perform religious
rituals at his home. He had to find a bride in far away Tanjore as brahmins in
and around his town were unwilling to engage with his family in matrimony. Unperturbed
he carries on with his mission. Later when he becomes the Municipal president of
Gopichettipalayam he digs wells in all Dalit neighborhoods. He also makes this
town to be the first Municipality in the country to be manual scavenging free.
As he says, he himself had volunteered manual scavenging during his prison days
and knew its evils. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He runs a hostel for poor Dalit
children. He had to overcome obstructions like lack of money and people’s
unwillingness to rent out houses for the hostel citing that Dalit students were
going to stay there. His determination helps him overcome these and the hostel
is being run even after his death. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The life of G.S. Lakshmana Iyer is neatly portrayed in this documentary and
reveals us an unsung social hero. One cannot help but think that if there was at
least one Gandhian like Lakshmana Iyer
in every district in Tamil Nadu, a lot would have been changed in the
lives of Dalits in the state. As the commentator quips in the beginning of the
documentary, this is not a story of an individual but an individual who had transformed
into a man of society. Lakshmana Iyer
used to sing nonstop the patriotic songs of Subramania Bharathi and was called
as 'Ooyaa Maari'- incessant rain- by his cellmates. But the Dalit people in and
around Gopichettipalayam would give other reasons for calling him so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Balamurugan deserves all the
praise for making this documentary which is rich not only in content but
also in presentation. The film has Lakshmana Iyer himself narrating things and
towards the end it registers the death of him. This gives the documentary a sense
of completion and perfection. Poet Lakshmanan’s voice over is majestic with
subtle nuances of the region’s dialect which sinks well with the content.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">For contact: <i>S. Balamurugan, 54,
Vallalar Nagar, Thondamuthur Main
Road, Vadavalli, Coimbatore-641041. email: balamuruganpucl@gmail.com</i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-20890134914397904652012-03-10T21:35:00.002-08:002012-06-20T03:03:26.834-07:00Dravid: Cricket’s Last Classicist Hangs Up his Boots Along with that Solid Bat!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V893i1k9n5U/T1w5EqLSLJI/AAAAAAAAAPg/LbjfEwVFWqo/s1600/dravid_1467446a+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V893i1k9n5U/T1w5EqLSLJI/AAAAAAAAAPg/LbjfEwVFWqo/s320/dravid_1467446a+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“Batting is dance with just a piece of wood in your hands” (sic) –Charles Burgess Fry (Former English Cricketer)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In the mid 90’s we fellows so innocuously worshipped Sachin Tendulkar, and the remaining 10 in the Indian cricket team were always taken for granted. But it was never our fault as the Little Master was pitilessly pulling down every cricketing record in sight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In January 1999 I was watching the India-Pakistan test match at Chepauk. Tendulkar played that epic knock which almost took the team to the verge of winning the test. Dravid had not had a bad Test either (53&10), but in the second innings when Wasim Akram clean bowled him for 10 there was hardly a sigh in the stands. People knew that the match is not lost until Tendulkar was there so the exit of Lakshmans and Dravids doesn’t matter. Even if Dravid had had a remarkably good knock the story wouldn’t have been any different. In the Tendulkar era (which started diminishing only a few years back) every other Indian cricketer was destined to the oblivion irrespective of his valuable contributions to the team.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As I grew mature, I started realizing that One Day matches are cricket’s vanity. A true worshipper of cricket needs to follow the true game of cricket, which is Test match. So vehemently I followed Test matches and was booed by friends for being old fashioned. That’s how I discovered Rahul Dravid, his solid defence with which he would make a raging delivery lie like a lump of clay by the side of his toe and the elegance with which he scored runs. Batting is not all about scoring runs, defending a maverick delivery needs more cricketing genius than hitting a six out of an ordinary delivery, I would say. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With that nonchalant look he played shots of extreme beauty, scored lots of runs, that too when the team needed them most. Literally he had been a scourge of bowlers but he downplayed the spirit to be seen as a dominant batsman. In South Africa once he hit a six off Allan Donald right over his head (Only a few batsmen would have imagined to hit a six off Donald when he was at his prime). A humiliated and incensed Donald started abusing him. Dravid stood there at the crease with that unchanged nonchalant look expecting the next delivery as if nothing had happened- the six or the making a scene by the bowler.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
‘He wastes balls’ was the accusation everybody had to level against Dravid. I wonder whether such an accusation would have had any place in the era of Sir Bradman. The question of wasting balls itself is blasphemous and un-cricket. It is the ugly by product of limited-overs cricket. Accusing a cricketer of wasting balls is like blaming a sculptor for not using every bit of the rock. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Like all the cricketing legends of the Tendulkar era Dravid too had to live under the shadow of a great cricketer, but in no way it undermines his own greatness as the exhausting numbers keep telling us. He is classicist in cricket and perhaps the last. Dravid was gracious even as he announced his retirement. He did that before the question of hanging around could be raised. He sought no farewell on the field or waited to call it a day with a ‘good knock’. Adieu Dravid. We will miss you and your cricketing grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-52546874038559227772011-10-02T05:59:00.000-07:002012-06-20T03:05:16.898-07:00FOR PEDAGOGS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D0mQgN2QFlw/Tohfzdx57MI/AAAAAAAAAKk/vqv-njtBl-Y/s1600/teacher-survival-guide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D0mQgN2QFlw/Tohfzdx57MI/AAAAAAAAAKk/vqv-njtBl-Y/s320/teacher-survival-guide.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As a kid I found it hard to grow a love for school and thus there wasn’t a teacher whom I loved then. I remember my uncle forcefully taking a quetching, crying me to school having me seated on his shoulder as if I were a sacrificial goat. I dreaded school. There was some little bit of this bitterness left in me even as I went inside the classroom on the last day of my schooling. I never knew then that I would have to spend most of my life inside classrooms. Now I do not complain about my destiny which made me a teacher but oftentimes, I remember to tell myself that ‘never make your classroom a dreaded arena for even a single student.’</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now, as I try to remember my teachers whom I like, there come many a names but as I wish to list out the ones whom I dislike surely there isn’t any. For any student there could hardly be a bad teacher. There are brilliant, skillful, affectionate, doting, funny teachers but never a bad teacher. Sometimes their teaching might have been under par and their attitude less inspiring but there would be nothing in them to hate or entirely detest them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In these days of denigrating values the status of a teacher, which is unquestionable nobility, also has come under the scanner. Ceasing to be a noble cause, education too has become a vacuous enterprise. However, even as all our hopes wane, the classroom is the only place from whereon we can hope to grow something that can bring about a change in this world, which is full of malice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
HAPPY TEACHERS DAY!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-50956136907001123462011-05-01T10:08:00.000-07:002012-06-20T03:06:17.938-07:00WATCHING WEDDING ROYALE WITH A 'JAI HIND, JAI BRITISH'.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CzOuux7Ifw/Tb2T4-v9jZI/AAAAAAAAAKE/FIr83hn1I8o/s1600/article-1265280-090A0777000005DC-821_468x514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CzOuux7Ifw/Tb2T4-v9jZI/AAAAAAAAAKE/FIr83hn1I8o/s200/article-1265280-090A0777000005DC-821_468x514.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
<br />
With just a dozen plus largely insignificant territories as overseas footholds, the sun in the British Empire no more sulks to set, of course it orbits away every evening plunging the English land into darkness including the formidable Buckingham Palace. But the grandeur of the British Royalty is as such that it evokes the awe it used to, even when it has ceased to be a truly existing monarchy. Though perched on the ornamental high pedestal now, the Royal family of the British continues to command awe and admiration not only from its subjects but all over the world, most of which are their past colonies. The recent gala wedding of Prince Williams and Catherine Middleton is evidence to the popularity of the British Royalty. <br />
<br />
Someone ironically put it that monarchies are nostalgia that nobody wants back and Royalties in the modern world elicit a mix of curiosity and marvel in people like that of those stuffed animals in museum racks. In Britain’s case the English people are magnanimous enough to keep their Royalty as Royalty whereas many nations have thrown them into the cold clipping their wings of authority and opulence. I wonder if British Royalty is not there the world would have been left to rely on the pages of encyclopaedia and decades old grainy film footages to know about Royalties. So, the British Royalty is the best working model of Royalty in the world complete with Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, Dukes and Duchesses, palace, guards, chariots, gala weddings etc., except that limitless authority.<br />
<br />
The British people have seamlessly embedded their nostalgic Royal line in their social and political system in a way that in no way it intruded into their governmental affairs and yet remained to be the seemingly supreme authority of the land. In history in almost all of the fallen or thrown out monarchies it is the self-serving anarchic agenda of the people at the helm that have soured their relationship with their subjects. Having colonized nearly half of the world and taking decisions for them in crucial periods and important policies whose impacts can be witnessed even today, luckily the British are loved and admired in most of their ex-colonies because the people seem to prefer to remember the good ones rather than the bad ones by them. It is like the people of India thanking the British rule for the Railways and English education and forgiving their plundering of resources here. After all the British Regality looks so down to earth with every now and then the Royal off-springs cutting across the Royal line choosing their to be spouse from the commoners and sometimes in the way losing their status of Royalty. (Or is it ‘Better cease to be a Royal than having to choose a bride or groom within a very limited number of Royalties’?) <br />
<br />
So it springs no surprise that Will-Kate (using sobriquets of Royal names isn’t an offence, you see) wedding was a real ‘Wedding Royale’ with millions around the world watching it. Whether it was out of curiosity or love or admiration or the esteemed pride in their Royal family, the multitude gathered in front of Buckingham Palace was indeed a moving sight. Watching the wedding on TV with the undying colonial residuals inside me, I too was virtually waving to the newlywed. It was under their rule that my grandparents lived and my parents were born. Located far away in time from the British Royalty and its rule I write this piece of parody on them in English which might not have been possible if they hadn’t ruled us. I wonder whether it will be right to sloganeer a ‘Jai Hind, Jai British’ and yell it from my rooftop now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-13597385764496789392010-12-25T05:57:00.000-08:002014-09-06T04:52:40.700-07:0030 ODD YEARS AND JUST ONE CHRISTMAS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/TRX3womgvhI/AAAAAAAAAJs/AZXHs_zdys0/s1600/Santa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/TRX3womgvhI/AAAAAAAAAJs/AZXHs_zdys0/s320/Santa.jpg" height="320" width="232" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I have hardly missed a Christmas in my life so far. As a kid and as a teenager I never wanted to miss one; in later years, especially when life was taken over by the typical family guy’s inevitable routines, I was not allowed to. However it seems that in all these years I have been part of not more than just a single Christmas. When I look back at these Christmases they all look alike. Despite my bodily growth and cognitive progression, how insignificant the latter may be, year after year, the three decades and more years of Christmas celebrations were one and the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The darkness of midnight and late December night’s dew adds to the allure of Christmas. Christmas is synonymous with midnight, dew and darkness here, if not with carol, cakes and Christ. The whole village is awoke at midnight; decoration lights, shining paper stars dangling from a treetop or an antenna on the terrace, people in new clothes. In the backdrop of subtle darkness, more than the lights it is the delight that illuminates faces. For many the joyous delight is necessarily not emanating from the festivity marking the birth of someone called Jesus centuries earlier. May be it is the pretext.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The aroma of Christmas also is unique. The smell of new clothes blended with that of talcum powder and perfumes with added pep from an occasional fart caused by a stomach disturbed in the middle of its night work. Women and girls wear that extra beauty in Christmas night. It is like a dream. As the choir goes on singing, always the poor girls complain of sore-throats the next morning, the midnight service progresses. When the service ends the revelry begins. It is ruckus revelry at its religious best; Santa Clause, fire-works, mutual greeting of ‘happy Christmas’, ‘merry Christmas’ with shaking of hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Worshipping the nativity model comes next in the order. The nativity crib is the main attraction of Christmas night. Every year the youngsters work overtime to bring the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place></st1:city> flavour to their work. The hill, huts, plants –cacti never give it a miss- and the country date tree as the Christmas tree. Every year they make it memorable. Inside the cowshed infant Jesus is flanked by holy Mary, Joseph, angels and some cattle looking startled at the blinding lights and the uninvited guests in their place. From the manger the newborn graciously smiles and blesses his flock with just a small loin cloth in place of a modern day diaper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Then the revelry shifts to streets. Loudspeakers blare and as they find the decibel inadequate the youth help themselves with their own singing and sloganeering. Booze aided light brawls rear their heads and disappear in no time. By the dawn of 25<sup>th</sup> December our Christmas is almost over. I hope I will go on with going to church and be part of Christmas in all the years to come. It is not any religious compulsion that drives me to do so, Christmas is ingrained in me as it is with a lot of my fellow villagers many of whom travel hundreds of miles to come to the village and celebrate Christmas. Even in the time of my atheist leanings I had no qualms celebrating Christmas. I found my own way of coping with the guilty of being a Christian; Detaching Christ from Christianity. From Dostoyevsky to Martin Scorsese I think I have learnt some fine lessons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-66744816763447917782010-04-20T09:16:00.000-07:002010-05-01T18:49:44.425-07:00The Dragon Ticklers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/S83TNIcw7fI/AAAAAAAAAJA/N0bZFBkdSAo/s1600/23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/S83TNIcw7fI/AAAAAAAAAJA/N0bZFBkdSAo/s320/23.jpg" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>“If you can't take the heat, don't tickle the dragon.”- Anon. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">For me this is a burning issue and even though I wanted to put it in the cold storage I was only able to keep it in the back burner for some time and now it has come out simmering. <i>This summer the heat is unbearable</i> as it was in the last and in the previous one and in the summer before that and… as our beloved ancient Freak philosopher, oops, Greek philosopher Thermalonics quipped, we never sweat it out for the second time in the same summer. Every time we step out of our house it is not the same old sun over our head.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The other day there was a heated argument between me and Mimya over the causes for this ever increasing level of heat. She accused me of releasing above normal amount of Green House Gases into the atmosphere. Bamboozled I told her that I do not own a Green House, let alone a small house of any other colour and due to the acute shortage in LPG bottles supply the only gas I release into the atmosphere is what that goes off when I use the loo. Dejected and angry she went out vrooming her bike and saying that I was such a moron who could never be taught the reasons behind the soaring mercury nowadays. I was so baffled to hear that Mercury is soaring; I guessed it is going to go up, up and up and into another galaxy thus leaving our solar system with just seven celestial bodies (I am not that bad a moron to have not known of the recent demotion of Pluto). If Green House Gases could drive a planet away from its place I thought it is indeed a matter of great concern.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Eating meat is one thing that adds to the planet’s temperature, I came to know. The reason is so gnarled and crooked like cankered ivy. It takes about some 20 kilos of plants to add a single kilo of flesh in a slaughter house animal. So whenever you have a mouthful of juicy beef or mutton it is actually 20 mouthfuls of green plants that goes down and vanishes into you. As we eat the cattle that eat the plants that protect our planet from heating…. you got it. So behold meat-eaters! You are all culprits and you are always denied a warm welcome into our eco-sensitive world. (‘To give up meat or give a fillip to the global heat’ is what our eco-friendly meat-eaters are contemplating hard now.) </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">If the sun goes on baking us folks at this rate we better equip ourselves to get prevented from being grilled like pepper bacon. The electrical gadgets like fan and air-conditioners are of no use in our land of never ending power-cuts. Our scientists (not the ones who involved in making cryogenic engines, Cry-O-Genic?) should come out with appliances which would not require power to run. Huge windmills at whose sight Don-Quixote drew his sword to fight will come handy. Windmills not only have wings like fans which would facilitate the blow of wind but also help in grinding flour and drawing water from well. We can produce even electricity with the help of a windmill. The problem is we need enough wind to move the huge wings. This too can be solved by felling the remaining, sparse trees in our habitats to pave way for the free blow of wind. (If some political party, taking a cue from me, announces in its manifesto for next year’s assembly elections to issue free windmills to all Family-card holders, I won’t be responsible for that. Yet, the sight of having windmills strewn all over the Tamil landscape will indeed be a sight unmatched. This will eventually lead to the sprouting of Cervantes’ and Marquezes in our literary arena and branching of magical realism in all spheres of life.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">As I go on typing this note Mimya reads from behind and murmurs, unscrewing an imaginary nut from her temple… ‘The heat has got its first victim here….’.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-38628171163602590432010-03-24T08:39:00.000-07:002012-06-20T03:28:34.320-07:00‘Madam, February Is Longer Than March!’<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/S6oyf50LakI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/OfRHNeqTlrw/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/S6oyf50LakI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/OfRHNeqTlrw/s320/Untitled-1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The above sentence is a proof that how euphemistic we Indians are and how carefully we try to avoid a situation where a woman’s modesty could be outraged for no fault of her. I hope some of our friends might have come across this expression and I am obliged to explain to friends who haven’t. You are traveling in a bus or pushing the trolley in the corridors of a mall or stepping out of a crowded lift or just waiting for train at the station. Then you notice this woman who is so deeply absorbed in her thoughts or what she is doing that only a blast could bring her back to this world. Her inner-wear, a very small portion of her brassiere is showing. The very sight of it makes you nervous and you begin to worry that what would happen to her modesty. You are so anxious to tell her about this delicate situation which she is apparently unaware of. You badly want to tell her about that small piece of cloth protruding out but you are afraid that it would amount to outrage of her modesty which you are supposed to safeguard here. You are really at a loss for words. How I can tell her that a little portion of her inner-wear refused to be inner-wear? <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From time immemorial or the time from which our eves started wearing these inner things, there were incidents of these things trying to show their whereabouts that too in the presence of gentlemen who would never tolerate the slightest dishonour to women. All those gentlemen went through this awkward predicament of ‘To say or not to say’.Finally at some point in the past century some gentleman at the very high of his linguistic knack found this expression and bailed out all men from the worst predicament. All men need to be grateful to this guy until there are woman and inner-wear on the planet. I believe this guy was an Indian because his fetish for feminine causes is unmatched to that of any man in this world even though the crime records speak otherwise (1 crime against women every 3 minutes,1 case of abuse by family every 9 minutes,1 dowry death every 77 minutes) and we need to overlook them. After all we have found euphemistic ways to help women in their time of great distresses like the one illustrated above.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our upbringing in our unique cultural values has also taught us to how to buy or sell a sanitary napkin or a condom pack. Buyer: Approaches the shop located some 3 or 4 streets away from his/her own. Makes sure no one is around. Asks for a pack of condom in a husky voice with his face twitching in unease. Seller: His face reddens at once he hears the word ‘condom’. He reaches for a secret hiding in the cupboard and brings out the pack. Tears the outer cover with explicit erotic illustrations and throws it away. Puts the content in a plain cover as if it were a strip of Aspirins. Tenderly hands it over to the buyer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bobbie Gentry said ‘Euphemism is a euphemism for lying’. It’s time we stopped lying.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-21577966143442410272010-03-21T09:10:00.000-07:002010-05-01T18:50:29.861-07:00Nithyananda and the case of pseudo morality coupled to incurable voyeurism.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #1b0431; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</h3><div class="post-header"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/S5POy-m_xZI/AAAAAAAAAII/PSSkkkuXAgc/s1600-h/voyr.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="color: #956839; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445923749616403858" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/S5POy-m_xZI/AAAAAAAAAII/PSSkkkuXAgc/s200/voyr.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 134px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i>“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”</i><br />
-Oscar Wilde.<br />
<br />
<br />
It was big sensational news in a long time. Video clippings of a famed godman in a compromising position with a woman (an actress, so the sensation doubles) beamed in a leading channel in its primetime news. Scandalous godmen or their exposed exploits are not new to us. From a humble fortune-teller to an internationally renowned holy man, we have seen them all being brought down from their thrones of sanctitude and celebrity because of their unholy deeds. The media had been so ruthless and unsparing when dealing with such men and they know that news of a scandalous godman is always more sellable than of a politician making crores fleecing the general public.<br />
<br />
If you want to settle a score with your rival or to improve the TRP rating of your channel or to increase the dipping circulation of your periodical, all you need to do is to clandestinely fix a video camera in a vantage angle in your enemy’s or any celebrity’s bedroom (unless your enemy is a celebrity the scandal is not going to get the media attention it requires). Naturally men could hardly resist biting the bait called woman and when the amorous acts of the person goes public you triumph with your hands down, and it is the end of that person’s public life.<br />
<br />
The incident involving Nithyananda raises many a discomforting questions and most of them point to the sheepish psych of our community which could be ignited and exploited at the slightest pretext that evolves around pseudo morality. One is numbed at the acts of the media (electronic) which stoops too low to serve the people with materials of voyeuristic quality in the disguise of news and ‘warning’ on the sole purpose of improving TRP ratings. If it had been a scandal involving money or other things, except woman, our media wouldn't have paid much attention.<br />
<br />
The phenomenon is dangerous. Readers and viewers who are gullible are taken for a ride and they are spoiled for good to be eager for more such filth. And thus we ruin a reader or viewer who could otherwise have been nurtured to become a neutral, rational onlooker to the happenings around him. In the case of Nithyananda it is up to the people who believe and follow him to deliver the judgment. He is not an elected representative of people or a public servant. He hasn’t breached any of the canon laws of Hinduism(at the first place is there canon laws in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hinduism?)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. As for as I understand, the argument that he has disgraced the religion of Hinduism is a tall claim. I don’t know whether this guy had preached celibacy and publicly vowed to adhere to it. If it isn’t so what he has done is nothing to complain about. (Celibacy is not a must for Hindu sanyaasis as it is for Roman Catholic priests and nuns, and we all know that Protestants do not adhere to celibacy too). After all, it seems he shares his bed with a willing partner only. If we are prepared to forgive someone who had peeked into a man’s bedroom and took video of him having sex with a woman, we should also be prepared to forgive that guy who is more of a victim than a perpetrator here.<br />
<br />
<br />
The anger is not because that this man has brought disgrace to the religion. It is the wealth he has amassed and the fame he had earned in India and overseas in the name of religion. If this man is a pauper sanyaasi we would have no qualms whatever he does. What Nithyananda has earned might have come to him as voluntary offerings and possibly not through coercion or threaten, so it is legitimate. His spiritual means,right or wrong, might have offered solace and guidance to some people and that was why he had a huge following. If we argue that these aren’t fair we should have said that when this man was doing them in broad daylight. If we had preferred to wait until some television channel to broadcast his amorous acts, it is solely our fault.<br />
<br />
<br />
Sex scandals exposed through video footages have become effective tools of vendetta nowadays. People who indulge in such ‘sting’ operations and the media that give prominence to such news have immense faith in the voyeur in us. They know that voyeur is always ready to pick the cue and act upon it. He portentously invokes morality to prosecute the culprit while secretly takes delight in that supposed act of immorality. In the long run the harm such deadly cocktails of moral policing and voyeuristic pursuit can cause could be immeasurable and unimaginable.</span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(This is a reproduction of my Facebook note which I published on 04-03-2010.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=387773127221" style="color: #956839; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=387773127221</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">)</span></span></span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4106758975925987937.post-64756996067921521122009-07-19T07:53:00.000-07:002010-05-01T18:51:04.150-07:00Devendira Poopathy's Three Poems<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/SmM2QT5T9XI/AAAAAAAAAEI/O6o11Il9otY/s1600-h/poem.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360187635347486066" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Kz8XrCNUaDE/SmM2QT5T9XI/AAAAAAAAAEI/O6o11Il9otY/s320/poem.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><i> The following three poems are translated from DEVENDIRA POOPATHY'S collection of poems titled 'Velichathin Vaasanai' (</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>THE ODOUR OF LIGHT).</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;">THE TORN, FLYING LEAVES OF THE CALENDAR </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> Some images</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">keep on moving</div><div class="MsoNormal">without being caught</div><div class="MsoNormal">in the span of the eye</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The wait for letters remain</div><div class="MsoNormal">at every dawn</div><div class="MsoNormal">like a poem</div><div class="MsoNormal">unwritten so far</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">In times when reality is </div><div class="MsoNormal">unconfirmed </div><div class="MsoNormal">thrusting change of season</div><div class="MsoNormal">slough shirts are skinned</div><div class="MsoNormal">Someone keeps gazing</div><div class="MsoNormal">from every bush </div><div class="MsoNormal">drowned in darkness<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Day and night go by </div><div class="MsoNormal">without alluring</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the dripping water</div><div class="MsoNormal">dissolves my self</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">What that visible atop</div><div class="MsoNormal">may remain an unseeable crest</div><div class="MsoNormal">beyond truths</div><div class="MsoNormal">even after climbing up after </div><div class="MsoNormal">much hardship</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Concealing the wings of the bird</div><div class="MsoNormal">that taking off its sight</div><div class="MsoNormal">eats on the happenings </div><div class="MsoNormal">life readies itself to fly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">DOGS THAT ESCAPED THE ROPE </div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Was asleep in the vehicle</div><div class="MsoNormal">hurrying on the road</div><div class="MsoNormal">Buddha in dream</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is time and space in peace</div><div class="MsoNormal">He might have asked</div><div class="MsoNormal">my mind was in the sun</div><div class="MsoNormal">whom does this vehicle abducting</div><div class="MsoNormal">I confirmed myself seeing</div><div class="MsoNormal">the dogs at my feet</div><div class="MsoNormal">Buddha’s face was like </div><div class="MsoNormal">that of Adhi Sankara</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sankara took some cotton</div><div class="MsoNormal">and made them into strings</div><div class="MsoNormal">then the strings into a rope</div><div class="MsoNormal">He tied it around the necks of the dogs</div><div class="MsoNormal">handed the rope to me and disappeared</div><div class="MsoNormal">I woke up with the rope in my hand</div><div class="MsoNormal">with just the rope in my hand</div><div class="MsoNormal">dogs were chasing</div><div class="MsoNormal">a Buddha on the road.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">REALITY PRESENTED GUEST </div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Knock at the door</div><div class="MsoNormal">before I could open the door</div><div class="MsoNormal">you entered yourself</div><div class="MsoNormal">took the seat in the drawing room</div><div class="MsoNormal">and introduced me to me</div><div class="MsoNormal">offered me tea</div><div class="MsoNormal">before I could ask who you were</div><div class="MsoNormal">I didn’t knew your address</div><div class="MsoNormal">nor I knew who you were</div><div class="MsoNormal">wearing the colour of darkness</div><div class="MsoNormal">reflected me in your attitudes</div><div class="MsoNormal">before I could say something out of awe</div><div class="MsoNormal">you asked what I needed</div><div class="MsoNormal">kittens began wandering in the room</div><div class="MsoNormal">when I gave my fingers to them to eat</div><div class="MsoNormal">you were seeping away through the cranny</div><div class="MsoNormal">between the doors</div><div class="MsoNormal">before I could rush to open the door</div><div class="MsoNormal">everything was over</div><div class="MsoNormal">when I woke up</div><div class="MsoNormal">bearing my odours</div><div class="MsoNormal">my drawing room was safe</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Translated from the Tamil by </i>Asadha.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1