Swades – Capturing (N)ew (R)ealistic (I)ndians

December 2004 it was, and during the supposedly winter night I along with my brother and couple of other friends of ours wanted to get warm so we decided to go to a movie and fortunately we got to see the best picture of the year, we wanted to warmth and we got it in an “A/C” theatre.

The creator had a vision, which unfortunately hasn’t gone well with the audience. The perception about the “NRI’s”was spoken about in a different tone. I for one always believed that the so-called “NRI’s” are not what they are portrayed to be in the films. It’s different. The Director certainly has lived and breathed this film for a couple of years atleast. Hats off Mr.Gowariker for giving us such a wonderful lesson.

Here I would like to remind couple of scenes where the director has come up with real and true situations to emphasis that the “NRI’s” are not just Money centred.

(A) School scene where Gayathri actually ridicules Shah rukh Khan for not knowing the names of the Rivers and not knowing the newly formed states in our country. Here Shah Rukh comes up with the right answers and stuns Gayathri.
(B) Secondly the scene where Shah Rukh is asked by his aunt to get the money from a farmer. Here the director has managed to come up with an unbelievably great scene. The sympathy shown by Shah Rukh on the farmer and eventually giving him money instead of getting it from him just about sums up the good characters that an NRI has.

But the scene-stealer of them all is the scene where Shah Rukh is coaxed to buy a pot of water from a small station vendor. Even the beast would have cried in this scène, am just a human. We are rated as one of the top countries in the world as far as the economic status is concerned, but we still buy a sachet of water for 1Rupee to quench our thirst and the worst part is we pay 1 Rupee to use the Urinal to let out the water that we had in the first place.

The song “Yeh jo des hai ” rips my heart out every time I hear. I am sure many of the “NRI’s” would be feeling the same way as I do. It’s unfortunate that the song of the year has fallen on the deaf ears. For once the Hindi film industry is able to come up with this masterpiece and yet very ordinary films like “Veer Zaara” and “Main Hoon na” run to packed houses. The coincidence is all these films feature Shah Rukh Khan. Mr. Gowariker continue making Great Indian Films.

So lets all stop criticising the “NRI’s” for they are Indians too, as a matter of fact I feel sorry for them that they have to carry a proof of their identity 24*7 and show it to prove that they are a normal civilian just as the others.
Finally, the one thing that blows my fuse away is the fact that the so-called “Resident Indians” and majority of them don’t know in what order our “Tri colour “ should be. We should be ashamed for that. Pity the “NRI’s“ are being cornered for that as well.

Please protect our Pride.

Right I need to take a break, I’ll have some water. Oops I don’t have a one Rupee Coin !!.

Trip down Triplicane ! ! ! !

This is straight from the heart of an eternal flag bearer of the Triplicane Legacy. This is not a life history of someone who is confused or famous for that matter, just the” Triplicane sickness” if one can call it that way.

May the 8th of 1985 was the year when my parents introduced me to Triplicane. The day for starters was really an auspicious day atleast for me, it was my parents wedding day. To begin with I was new to the place and I was never exposed to the typical “Tam Bram” lingo, but got used to it in a couple of days. Then the awesome sight of the “Parthasarathy Temple” about which I had only heard of and just to be around the vicinity of the structure and its ambience just took my breath away. Nowhere in India would anyone find that kind of setting. Guaranteed.

Though I was primarily brought here to improve my education quality, I could learn more than just Text Book Lessons. Here’s where I found my very true friends besides “Vaitha Hotel”, “Marina Beach”, “Chepauk Cricket Ground”, “Aanjaneya Koil”, places very close to my heart. My friends and me met in our school,” The Hindu Senior Secondary School”(CBSE) and not the Red Building the other Hindu school which is ore famous than ours. The locals address it as the “Red building school” in “Big Street”. The Pycrofts Road is our “Times square”, everything from A to Z you name it and you will get it. The street stretches so long that it will take about 20 minutes to traverse.

The city is the epitome of old houses and traditions. Although these days very few houses are seen which are the essential “Triplicane Houses”. The place is also famous for it’s “ondu kuduthanam” houses where the neighbours are separated by just plywood boards. The long corridors and the huge wells with less water and the streets, which are narrower and filled with herds of cows and buffaloes and of course “Dung” for which the place is famous.

I was fortunate that my first house was the previous door to the Great Mathematician Late Sri. S.Ramanujam. (But I am the weakest human in Maths). The evenings are always glittering with the Parthasarathy Temple’s lights glowing and the “Pycrofts Road” with the shops overflowing with people.

The “Beach Road” stretches alongside the Marina beach is awesome sight anytime just take your pick. The recently installed neon bulbs just make the road even more captivating. Move Over “ECR” The “Kannagi statue” was our “statue of Liberty”, although the statue doesn’t exist anymore. The in lanes of the city were our “F1” Circuit and our “HeroImpacts” and” MTBs” and “BSA SLRs”were our “Ferraris” and ”Mc’larens”, we burnt the road. Those were the times when Triplicane was the be all and end all of our lives.

Some of the best days to be around the areas are the festival days, especially the “Deepavali” and “pongal”. Diwali was unreal, the mornings with the foggy clouds, taste of the sweet and hot, flaunting of new clothes to the public view as if it was straight out of the “Versace“ closet and ofcourse the sound of the crackers were as musical as “Mahathi’s” Voice. Pongal was an essentially Tamil’s affair with the festival stretching to 3 days. The streets of the city were the centres of attraction

Triplicane continues to grow older and with it are we too. Everyone in our group has left Triplicane and our friend has taken upon himself to carry the torch for him and for us.

Vijayragavan has moved to Melbourne,Santh has moved to Perungalathur,Jayakumar has moved to Mylapore,Vijaykumar has moved to Porur, i've moved to Nanganallur.But karthik remains the eternal Triplicanite. but our hearts are always in Triplicane, we have just moved to our inlaws Triplicane is our Mother's.......

"Jeena Yahan Marna yahan Triplicane ke Siva Jana kahan" ----- My brother.

“Hey Karthik hold it high for the rest of us!”

Momentous Occasion - On The Grandest Theatre of them all.

16th March of 2005 would be etched in every cricketing viewers mind around the Globe. What is so special about this day? Well a diminutive Indian Champion wrote his name in the history and the cricketing records. This is not the first time that he has done that. He has already created records that will stand the test of times.

He is the youngest so far to reach the 10,000 runs in Test Cricket. At 31 years of age he has over 23,000(appx) runs international Cricket to go with 71 International Hundreds. To people who don't understand cricket it is the equivalent of having 50 Grand slam singles title in Tennis or having more than 1000 Goals in Football.

For a person who started his career at aged 16, he indeed has come a long way. Hundreds against every test playing Nation, Youngest to achieve the 10000 barrier in the Tests and the Limited Overs Internationals arena, Youngest to have played 300 ODI's, Youngest to play 100 Test Matches, The "Young man" has achieved so much that many people have lost count of the no. Of "Youngests"he has crossed.

Before the start of this India/Pakistan Series there were rumours regarding this man's fitness, he has come out fighting and he has achieved one of the two pending records. A. The 10,000 runs in test cricket and B. The most no. of tons in Test Cricket. One down and one to go.

The incredible thing about this feat is that he's achieved it at the Grandest Cricketing Theatre of the all The "Eden Gardens". It would have been an icing on the cake had he scored the Hundred and broke that record as well but dreams tend to have a nasty habit of going bad when you least expect. It is ironic that the "Eden Gardens" is not his favourite pitch. The coincidence is that Sunil Gavaskar about 18 years ago got his 10000th run against Pakistan at Ahmedabad. Sachin has every batting record for himself now it would be very difficult for any other cricketer to break it.


This man's contemporary the great Brian Lara reached the milestone in the same number of Innings. (195 Innings). To be in an exclusive club of only 5 men and 5 true Greats at that (Sunil .M. Gavaskar, Allan R. Border, Steven.R.Waugh, Brian. C.Lara) And now Sachin. R.Tendulkar is an unbelievable achievement in itself.

Sachin belongs to a category where he has no company at all at least for now, may be in the future which is light years away. No less a man than "The Don" has said that Sachin is the closest to him as far as batting is concerned, that is one complement Sachin will remember forever. Though he stands a distant second to "The Don" he has an incredible hunger for runs and age by his side he has only one-way to go - Up! Up! Up!

Sachin has an amazing gift of picking up the ball very early compared to the other batsmen and he has incredible eye hand coordination, which acts as a catalyst to hit the ball very hard and far. On top of these he has the most beautiful what I call the "Floating Footwork".

I am pretty sure that the British would knight Sachin after his career but we have already done that.

Sir Sachin Tendulkar you were created on the 8th day of the week you are that special.

Adam Gilchrist – The greatest Number 7 ever and the Gentleman Cricketer!

We Indians consider the Aussies as their Second biggest rival after our neighbours Pakistan. Madras’s people in particular like the Australians more than any other Indian states. They appreciate Good game from whichever camp that comes from.

Good Sportsmanship! That’s the keyword. The term sportsmanship seems to be out of the dictionaries of the cricketers these days. But Gilchrist seems to be the exception. I’ve seen him walk about 5times atleast when he believes he’s out. The great Sachin Tendulkar didn’t walk yesterday after clearly edging a delivery. Why this unsportsmanship behaviour? For a person who’s considered to be the next batting great after the great Sir Don Bradman, he should have walked. But no he did not.

But Adam Gilchrist seems hell bent on maintaining that standard that he has set for himself and ofcourse for others. The West Indian Batting Great Brian Lara did this long before it got this much recognition. Thanks to M/S Gilchrist sanity has prevailed. We were very quick to jump on the Aussies the sledgers Bandwagon, similarly we should be sportive enough to Applaud them when they do good.

“Hats of Gilly”

Now is Gilchrist the greatest No 7 in the history of the game? Well the question should not have come at all in the 1st place. The rate at which he scores runs (Nearly 85 runs per 100 balls) in test cricket is quite unheard of, but that’s what Gilchrist can do. The number of times he has saved his team from near disaster to the safe shores is uncountable. To add to his discomfort or should we say responsibilities he does the thankless job of wicketkeeping and if that’s not enough he’s been asked to lead his country whenever Ricky Ponting has a date with his Physician’s table. I remember the record breaking innings by Mathew Hayden he was pummeling the hapless Zimbabweans in to submission, my younger brother told me the score is somewhere around 700, I told him may be Gilchrist would have scored his hundred he laughed and said how did u know? That’s what Adam Gilchrist can do. Blow the opposition like a twister in seconds with irreparable damage.

Now calling him the greatest allrounder would be an understatement, to call him a great Cricketer in general, well that’s the term that is being used to describe all and sundry who play the game. Then what do we call him?

May be we should call him “The Greatest Cricketing Gentleman” because he is the epitome of greatness and Cricketer par excellence.


Gily keep us all entertained for many more years…………

Ajay Jadeja - Hero to Zero! Is he?

My Idol, Poor man's Michael Bevan, Princely Cricketer, Ever smiling sporting Great. I think A.J's cricketing career came to stand still because of the Board's Politics more than his own faults. Here was a cricketer who won matches single handed, which was thought to be remotely impossible by many. He endorsed more products than Sachin did at one point, was consistently scoring runs and I would not be wrong in saying that he was by far the best captain that India has ever produced a Himalayan difference between him and his contemporaries.

He was a complete sportsman; he was very good at football, champion squash player, Good athlete and ofcourse he has taken rapid strides in the golfing arena so much so that he wanted to represent the country in Golf. Now what would you call a person who is that talented? A gifted player would be an understatement.

He had the world at his feet, but the Match fixing saga shot it's ugly head up and since then it has been downhill for this "people's player". The fighting ability in him is keeping him in good stead these days; he is able to domestic cricket, but still not able to represent any team, which has anything do with BCCI. The ban on him ends this December but I think it will be almost impossible to make a comeback in to the Indian team and regain his rightful place.

Here I've to say that the Indian board handed him a career ending punishment, the same controversy with Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa was handed a "pin head" size punishment. The cricket board of South Africa handed him 6 months ban. He came back to international cricket and since then he has been going one-way and that is upwards.
If only the Indian board had been little lenient, a king in the making would not have been reduced to an ordinary man.

The "Sidhuism" that comes to my mind immediately is "If ifs and ans were pots and pans there would be no Tinkers". So there is no point in speculating whether he had done any wrongdoings or not. He has served the ban and it's only fare that he gets to play once again and do the country proud.

M Runs 100's 50's M.O.M
197 5094 6 30 10

Are 25 - 30 The Ages to Experiment?

This is just out of the blue, some may think but no one has ever talked let alone writing about it, so let me start with it iam not writing or talking but typing it.

Why not Experiment?
Firstly the age limit in itself is the perfect one to try your experiments. I believe that after 30 or for that matter if you are married before 30 you will not be allowed to experiment. Let's just take couple of examples:

1. I have been having same hairstyle for the last 25 years i.e. side parting on the left and short hair ala Army men, but since last July I let my hair grow longer with the side parting giving way to the center one, I want a hairdo that is close to David Beckham, but my family members with the exception of my brother thought that I am a weirdo and that I am on drugs yeah that is true, My relatives comments were "Edhuku da indha paithiakara vela nee oru Iyengar, indha madhiri panna koodathu apdiye pannalum(Why this type of experiments which you are not supposed to do as you are an Iyengar?) You should be Taking the Archakar way" i.e. that I should be doing poojas at the temples and leave my ambitions.

Aren't these reasons ridiculous? People say as if I have committed murder or Stole Gold Jewels I am just trying something, which might just last for a period of 6 months Max. And then definitely my wife (if I do get married) would not allow me to sport the hairstyle that I want, so back again to the age-old army cut (In Madras lingo it's called police Kattu).

2. My friend who lives abroad tried the same thing that I tried but then he tried the shortest hair possible with some strands spiked up in front. What's wrong in experimenting? I am pretty sure he is enjoying his new look and I am pretty sure he will get back to his own inimitable style when he returns back to India to his beloved Madras.
" Dei Mr.Murugan is waiting for you".

In my father's words "Trial costs nothing", so I am just trying which won't cost me anything (May be 30*3 = 90 Rs for Murugan). The experiments can range from new hairstyle to career shift. I just think that persons who are between 25 - 30 can change their jobs or careers as they wish to any number of times till they feel that this is the one for them, just think about this for a person who is Married and over 30, it is a nightmare and believe me the amount of brickbats that will be thrown at will be countless. I personally have seen this scenario with my relative, so I suggest that you do your experiments before you are 31 and never when you are married.
By experiments I don't certainly mean trying smoking or alcohol or even unprotected sex or any unwarranted acts that would put you in the vicinity of the law. No! No! No! Do whatever you feel is good and right for you which doesn't affect others in any way or form.

I am sure people will agree with me and do post your views on this.

Sania Mania !!!!!!

Normally India always or atleast for a short period of time is struck by a fever called "Sachinosis" but for the last 2 months it seems India is suffering from "Sania Mania". what happend to india? Is it the Global Warming or Tsunami disaster? Oh No it is just an 18 year old Tennis superstar Mushrooming. This augurs well for the Indian Sporting Scenario as Sania's show has taken the limelight of The Master atleast for sometime.

We have so many Sportsmen not many Sportswoman to cheer,here's someone who has put her hand up and smashed her way up the ladder.Now we have someone to cheer,Sania
is an inspiration to all the Youngsters let alone women so let's start the celebrations.

The growth of this child genius has been in front of the Indian eyes for about 4 years now,but the Superstardom has been bestowed upon this Young Head is just 2 months old, Still a long way to go! but these are just Some of the stations that she is going to come across in her wonderful journey that had started at her hometown Hyderabad.

The "Charminar" Express has started its journey,only this time the train will be crossing Countries. This is Probably the first time that Some other sportsperson has been in the Headlines Other Than The Indian Emperor Sachin Tendulkar. Now Sachin has some of the Most Trusted brains in the sporting Kingdom to give him company.

The Princess - Sania Mirza
The Head Minister - Rahul Dravid
The Knights - The Sehwags,The Kumbles,The Leanders,The Dhanraj Pillays,The Gopichands,The Narains the list goes on and endless,,,,,,

What Sania has done to India is Not only Putting India on the Tennis map but made the world to sit up and take notice of the Indians. Here were the Indians Who were Supposed to be Very Polite,Courteous,Disciplined Etc,Etc,Etc.. now we can add one more Adjective to the list that we are Tough World Beaters.We have proved to the world that we Indians Are Brainy, Sania Has proved that we are brawny as well.

One Other Thing That makes my hair on my neck stand up is that Sania is all of 18 and the maturity she has shown is like a seasoned veteran.Sania Has 77 reasons to smile these days,let her smile and win more foreign Hearts on top of the titles.

Let's all stand up and applaud the feat that she has achieved.

GO Sania Go.