Saturday Special at the S's

Food has never been my strong suit though I love to cook. My interest in cooking is purely because of V who truly believes, he lives to eat!! Being in NJ, with just one depressing season for most part of the year, to add some color to our lives, all we are entitled is to have get togethers at someone's place, either a potluck or a feast at the host's cost. My main catalyst for these social occasions has always been the crowd and never the food. With one of my neighbor's recent lunch invitation, for the first time I have forced myself to look for something better than just the mob:)

The S's hail from Palakkad and the awesome foursome (read husband, wife + 2 kids) are embodiments of hospitality. They are extremely artful in making you feel at complete ease when around. Between her very busy schedule of attending birthday parties, luncheons, servicing friends and families stop overs, travelling within and outside the country as frequently as possible, running the shelter for her girls friends sleep overs, organizing community functions, catching up with her native mates who dominate the neighborhood, following a few multi-lingual daily soaps in leading channels dedicatedly, not missing even a single movie that gets released in the 2 easily accessible theatres, she hardly finds time to breathe. Nonetheless the busy lady managed to extend a lunch invitation to us and another friend who lives in the neighboring community.

Though it was the elders at my place who were the actual reasons for the meal call, we planned to mark full attendance. I was overly enthused not about the big feed but to check out her ethnic costume collection and the appropriate accessories that she had stacked from her recent visit to the motherland!! I tried taking a guess at her menu and was somehow sure she was going to treat us to an enormous lunch buffet in authentic Kerala Style and my guess was perfect! As though reading my mind, she called to check if any of us had any apprehension to Jackfruit!!

In the whole universe, to the best of my knowledge the only state where this invasive species enjoys a status more than just a fruit is Kerala. When most part of the world is still unaware of the existence of such a massive produce and the population who have awareness don’t necessarily have any special fondness, it is only in this coconut island that every soul devours this fruit. Apparently it also happens to be the "State's fruit"..no wonder it finds its extensive use in every other household. The inmates do a thorough justice to all parts of the fruit. They are capable of using this fruit in every category of a meal - right from an appetizer to a dessert!! For an instant I even thought she was planning an elaborate Jackfruit meal! Good lord, she spared us from the inconvenience!!

I tried to probe on the menu for everyone else’s sake but as always she didn’t give even the slightest hint. On the D-day Jay was down with a bug and we had to take turns for the lunch. V and his parents made the first trip and I was planning to join the S's later. It was well past the lunch hr when I stepped in and I could smell the aroma of the foods right at the foyer which immediately started working hard on my digestive juices. I was literally starving because I had strategically skipped my breakfast!

I walked straight to the dining table and was taken aback on my plate...it was the banana leaf that she had got for this occasion driving 70 miles one way. When all gatherings these days are driven by self service and powered by paper stationeries, banana leaf and host service was a sweet welcome. It reminded me of the festive occasions back home. I was deeply touched and by then the other friends who claimed to be waiting for my arrival to start, was already on their third helping.

Taking my seat at the head of the table ready to hog, I couldn't help notice a pitcher right in the middle of the table filled with a transparent liquid which I assumed was water, with an inverted half coconut acting as the cover on top. I was anticipating rice when Mr.S took the half coconut away and offered the liquid from the pitcher. It was not water but tender coconut. The half coconut was a representation of the source of the drink. What creativity!!

I was sipping my drink and Mrs. S served the sweet - Jackfruit payasam. As I understand from the detailed explanation S offered on the recipe of this sweet, the fruit needs to be extremely ripe and the base preparation is a very cumbersome one eating up hrs of time. It was not until the end of the 20 minute monologue we understood that her real effort was only in explaining the process and not in the actual preparation. S had conveniently used the base (jam) she had brought and stacked from India!!! Still effort is an effort and the sweet tasted delicious. I helped myself to 2 glasses which is very unusual given my affinity for sweets!!

The main course included 2 vegetables (cabbage and plantain), Poricha Kuzhambu and Maambazha Puliseri. All of them were very well-made and yummy! One needs to have a tongue for the Maambazha Puliseri and not all who choose to try their hands on this dish can make it edible. S is definitely a specialist. Seemingly she has a lot of admirers for her Puliseri and am one!! I was stuffing myself passionately adding myself a few extra troublesome pounds. Amidst the fast-food and an average, one dish wonder families S stands out with her culinary skills and the varieties.

It was very hearty scrumptious meal and I look forward to more such invitations in the future:)

Infosys Jackpot...a life time experience!!

From the time I spotted the form on the internet to mailing it across to the channel’s administrative office on time, being shortlisted for the selection process and getting selected for the grand finale was all accomplished so smoothly. All of it seemed to have come to us so easily. I always have a feeling that there are no freebies in life. You work for what you got, or you wound up with nothing. A tiny part of myself kept reminding me of this and on a serious thought we were going to face the climax without many efforts from our side which scared me enough to think the final results would not be so favorable. I was determined not to let these blind thoughts ruin my excitement and consciously avoided the contemplation.

August 27, 2009

It was a lovely Saturday, the day after the Varalakshmi Pooja. I was already in Chennai on the Wednesday of the week to join my extended family for the religious celebrations and my partners were going to connect with me directly at the set the same morning. We had literally broadcasted the whole world that we were going to participate in the Jackpot show, very confident about the victory without worrying the consequences a bit if the result was otherwise. Somehow we never considered the flip side of the outcome as though we were born only to win!

We were asked to come prepared for a whole day shoot starting at 8 am. Each of the participants was allowed to bring in 2 guests and I promptly showed up at 7:45 am with V and my sister who cursed me all the way through, for having woken her up early. She had never seen sunrise in a few years then that too on a Saturday - after all she was a college kid...what more can one expect:)

When my team members joined me, the superstitious Meena was fully awake in me. I started explaining my team mates the signs of success that I had got from the Almighty the day before during the Pooja in the form of a flower falling down when I finished my prayer fluttering my eyelids open, the aarthy staying lit till I completed the Pradakshinam and the lamp's longevity throughout the day. V was the first to mock me for these childish beliefs - he always takes a polarized position and stays glued to it when it comes to Gods and beliefs but this time he had a counter and I should admit a more realistic explanation for all of my thesis.

Here goes his breakdown - when you continuously keep showering flowers on the idol mounted on a plethora of goodies which hardly have any balance, the flowers are bound to slide down - not only you, all in the room had noticed the falling down flowers which holds no significance other than one more proof to the theory of gravity. More the camphor’s longer is the life of the aarthy and when one keeps adding oil to the lamp at regular intervals as a way of monitoring it, the lamp is bound to stay illuminated throughout the day. According to him none of them were any signs or messages from the Almighty as I claimed! Though his comments were very disappointing inspite of its sensible meaning I chose to ignore and walked to the open space where I met a few more souls.

I was expecting one more team apart from us. Interestingly I saw a clump of human faces most of them ladies who looked more to me like fellow participants. As always, when I probed I was shocked to find 5 more teams shooting the same day. The organizer clarified that they were recording 3 shows the same day which confused me further. I was still holding on to the New Year farce and inquired only to make a fool of myself. The response I received from one of the technicians who was by then chuckling at my question was "New yearukkellam celebrities dhaan madam koopduvaanga" (They will invite only celebrities for occasions like New Year). I diligently interpreted his chuckle as a snicker - thanks to my female antenna.

It was a complete let down and I was fuming inside. Knowing my temper very well my partners started worrying if I would cancel our participation and pack up. Surprisingly I was not inclined towards any drastic decision and was a good sport about the bitter pill. As it was a team effort, I didn’t want to spoil the others excitement for egoistic reasons and had resolved to stay clam throughout the shoot.

Adding insult to injury, when the coordinator came around asking for every team captain's name, he never bothered to stop by us but I did see him write something. Desiring knowledge, when asked he amazed us saying that he has got the name. Exchanging strange looks we demanded further explanation only to be aggravated further. He pointed in my direction and said I have written her name - though he had it right we were lost as we never mentioned this to anyone.

As though understanding our dilemma he came forward with his vivid interpretation that this was no trade secret and his exact words still ring in my own ears uncomfortably "she speaks so much so we assumed she should be the spokesperson". That was the last straw. They had stretched me too thin for the day. All my earlier resolves were forgotten and I wanted to walk out but the pleading faces of my counterparts held me back.

The next test to my patience was when they announced the shooting slots - not sure how they decided who is going when but we got the third slot. I had to protest to this one too just as a way of taking revenge for all my earlier chagrins. After a lot of noise we got the first slot. By then our team was quite popular (read as notorious) on the sets.

Our opponents were a bunch of college pass-outs from Erode which only doubled our over confidence on the Easy Street. In our own minds we were already the winners. We then walked to the green room where we were greeted by professional hair dressers and make up man to help us look good in front of the cameras. With one final look at the mirror, convinced with my appeal I went to the main arena, ready to get the first sight of the grand sets of Jackpot show.

What I saw there was a complete blow. What looks so elegant, handsome and impressively majestic on the TV was in reality a pale, archaic, lifeless stage erected with huge cardboards displaying the channel’s, show’s and sponsor’s names. It was hard to believe the entire stage set up was constructed in a space not more than the living room of a middle class home. Only then I realized the real heroes of this show are the light and sound technicians who unfortunately get to work only behind the screens.

Worst was the sound proof room they send one of the participants in the final rapid fire round. There is no such thing existing in the set. All they have is a makeshift wooden cabinet no way close to even a reliable cupboard which is the assumed sound proof room. If you sneeze hard the joints would crack - that is the quality of the cabinet and they heartlessly showcase it as a sound proof room.

The participant is made to stand in that space with huge head phones during one of the recess for a quick shot and then sent out of the arena to avoid overhearing of answers - beyond doubt a very complicated way of accomplishing the goal though it appears differently on screen. God only knows why they even give her the head phones when the show is no way ready to resume and you will surprised to see the final output. It would appear as though the sound proof room had kept her from eavesdropping and heights of absurdity is when she is called in for her turn the anchor would question about the music she pretended to enjoy in the sound proof room. Holy Christ!!! How better can they volunteer for their self mockery??

If the sound proof room was bizarre, the backstage from where we had to emerge out waving our hands at the audience looking more like politicians was a nightmare. There was hardly any stage at the back. It was a narrow strip of a wooden plank where we were asked to stand most of the time praying and genuinely hoping that we wouldn’t fall off the plank or worse push the backdrop down. With so much of inconvenience hiding behind the curtains, our choice of costumes only adding to the awkwardness, we were expected to wear the plastic smile in measured steps and take our honorable positions to play the game. Not sure how I managed to climb down those so-called steps without tripping even once. It was definitely a miracle!

We had already spent enough time back home deciding our order on the stage - it had a lot to do with who amongst us was going to play which round. When we were trying our positions on the stage, fixing the mikes and testing them, endlessly waiting for the anchor to get prepared, the technicians altered our positions. They spared my spot as I was the head honcho but all others physical place was shuffled. We couldn't win the battle this time as the positioning had to deal with our heights and their camera positions. We gave in grudgingly and continued to wait for the hostess.

It was only a moment later when all of us had taken to maintain pin drop silence, did I catch a glimpse of a lady behind the assemblage of supervisors. It was the merest hint, the quickest impression and then suddenly I saw her standing there, the woman whom I had admired from my school days for her beauty originally, acting later and compeering recently. Her face was glowing, her attire was exquisite, her accessories were meticulous and she had the smile which would make any men's knees melt in a minute. Just being near her made one feel very nice. There was definitely something about her that made you want to stare at her in fascination. She had a startling dignity about her and for me it was my dream come true.

She greeted us gracefully and started her speech on women empowerment. It seemed like a decade when she was finally done with her extempore. I couldn’t really gather what she was trying to get across with so many retakes and interruptions. We had to break as the hostess had already exhausted herself rendering the half a page, 5 minute herculean message. When we resumed, as a custom she took us through the rules of the game, needless to mention with a lot of cuts and retakes, and then it was finally happening.

I was called to the podium for the first round. I was incredibly distracted by her that it took quite a long time for us to get the correct answer other than our names. We opened our account only in the 4th round which was all about loans. Our being in the professional world proved its worth over those college kids on the opposite side for the first time in the day. We were extremely thorough on all the loans when they were completely ignorant on the same:)

The round which was the deciding factor for the Jackpot was a General Knowledge round. We were given the questions in advance and most of it seemed simple. We had to challenge each other bidding for the number of questions we would answer. As the captain I had the responsibility to decide the number at which we could choose to get challenged or challenge the opponents. For a minute I forgot the numbers represented the number of questions to which we knew the correct answers or at least thought so.

I was just going on increasing the bid until the other captain took the smart move and challenged us. I had opted for 9 on 13. My team mates had already started cursing me for such a pathetic decision. A few of our well-wishers from the audience even thought I was out of my mind! I think it was the elation at being there, the adrenaline that had spurred me on which had begun to fade by then and the non-readiness soon after the dance performance all added up to the ambivalence.

We did considerably well, given the high number I had bid. Some of the obvious questions we missed and the question we were very hopeful that we had the right answer was improperly handled by the administrators which no one (especially the viewers) except for those who witnessed the live drama would ever know - thanks to their skilled editors.

The in-or-out question was "Budha engu parinirvanam adaindhar".
As handicapped as I am with pure Tamil, I requested an English translation and the bright hostess translated this to "Where did Buddha attain enlightment".

Clearly the answer to the English version of the question is Bodh Gaya. Unfortunately the Tamil version doesn't share the same answer as parinirvanam has nothing to do with enlightment - it is death. This was a multiple choice question and I chose Bodh Gaya very positively which only turned to be a disaster. It was the key that opened the door to our exit. I argued on the spot but it was worthless. And in the final output they had carefully edited the English version of the question and the following discussions:( We walked out upset but rejoiced when the other team did not win the Jackpot! Does it sound too sadistic..afterall we are ordinary humans:)!

Our favorite organizer who had arm-twisted enough came to express his condolence and told us the program would be aired on January 22nd the following year. As the results were not what we had hoped for, I hardly registered the date of telecast. I was more bothered about facing the crowd to whom we had advertised enormously. All our enthusiasm which was seen in the beginning of the day was lost and we walked out with our eyes cast down. I was not ready to make peace with an incorrect answer throwing me out of the game. But we were not heard and had to go with the majority.

With my work demanding my geographical relocation I had to leave the country soon after the shoot and this event completely slipped out of my mind. I hardly told anyone about the telecast. My own folks missed to watch it from lack of information. But much to my astonishment many of my friends and family had treated themselves to my show. I never knew this program had so many regular eyes until I got my performance's feedback from all over my "known" circles without even me asking for it:)

This show also played a vital role in the reunion of thyself with a couple of my beloved lost childhood friends. I was absolutely convinced by then that these friends’ episodes in my life were a dropped chapter and a re-entry was never possible. All my assiduous efforts including the major social networking sites to track them down did not give the desired results. What cyber technology couldn't do media made it happen:) Is that why they say media is any day powerful!!

It was a great experience though phenomenally tiresome and one that I would cherish forever!!

The videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0uJD15r9gw 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRO-Q5KtyBM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LDBgYtMjHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GKVqB4P48o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MhoVRmKvV8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scP5jqLuyW4

Infosys Jackpot....A Curtain Raiser!

August 1, 2005

It was a glorious sunny Monday afternoon, balmy and hot, after a heavy meal from a friend's treat, it made you want to lie under a tree somewhere and look up at the sky slowly dozing off watching the clouds roll by. It was definitely not an afternoon to indulge in the mundane coding routine. Reluctantly I was returning to my work desk in one of the isolated conference rooms in Infosys headquarters, still not able to make peace with what I was giving up.

It was one of those seasons in Infosys when the account's work force was way higher than the building seating capacity. To mitigate the situation all seldom used conference rooms were converted into shared cubicles. I was more than happy to volunteer for the office space in the conference room which only meant I would be having more souls to talk to and less monitored:) With Yuvan's music in full swing filling the background, I resumed work and it was when I was googling for a software help that I accidentally stepped on the application form for the Most Viewed Game Show in one of the leading Tamil channels today, Jackpot.

I couldn't resist my temptation to download the form and see what details were required. The form was very simple and I decided to fill it up after finding my partners. This was one of the easiest tasks in the whole process. All I had to do was turn around and ask my team mates to spell their names. Without questioning they did the needful - not sure if that was their nature or my seniority had an effect. If the roles were reversed, I am not sure I would have been as easy as they were to me. I would have bombarded the person with my thousand questions:)!

The only stumbling block in the application which I felt would delay the mailing out of the application form the same day was the photographs. Fortunately we had an instant photo studio within the office campus which took care of this need. Yes, Infosys headquarters was a mini town in intself!!The next stop was at the courier desk which was also within the campus. Before sealing the envelope, I had a brain wave...I opened the application form and printed the letters "INFOSYS TEAM" right on top of the form and gave it to the courier personnel.

Though we were not too positive about being acknowledged, somewhere in the corner of my heart I was a little hopeful heavily banking on the Infosys tag!! All of us had sworn to secrecy - we were not going to discuss this with any of our kith and kin’s unless something came out of it. This was a safety measure just to avoid being objects of ridicule knowing our families well!!

August 4, 2005

The Thursday of the same week my doorman greeted me with a postcard I had received when I returned from work. In the cyber world where emails are ruling and everyone is going paperless, these old-fashioned post cards definitely look very cheap. My experience with these post cards are only advertisement usage and hence I was least inclined to even see the “From” address. I kept my plans for the post card simple - dump it in the trash bin after reaching my apartment.

When I walked up the stairs, the post card slipped my hands and fell into a small puddle of water collected near the stair case. I thought of ignoring it and proceed further but then my short stay in the land of milk and honey woke my social consciousness and I picked it up with utmost disgust only to leave it at its well deserved destination.

Water was dripping from the post card and there were kids running up and down the stairs. Just to avoid embarrassment I decided to dry the water on the card when I noticed the word "Congratulations". I was still thinking this was some fake notice with sycophancy terms calling for investments.

Curious me decided to read through and couldn't believe my eyes. The "Infosys Team" as was mentioned in the card, was selected for the Jackpot's elimination round in Salem on the Sunday of that week. I was too thrilled that I kept climbing the stairs until I realized I was in the wrong floor - I was 2 floors above my house.

I was extremely desperate about sharing this information with V and my partners in crime. We got into a conference call, shared our excitement with woos and coos, appreciated each other almost as though we had already won the 1 lac cash prize. Slowly we became conscious that all that had happened till then was just a plain invitation to the selection rounds which could go either way and our over excitement was unnecessary. Clueless on the details of the elimination round, what to expect, what not to expect, except for the venue - a famous hotel in Salem, we decided to trust our spontaneity and oratorical skills and got busy with the preparations for the trip. Our secrecy was still maintained at work though not with the immediate family.

August 7, 2005

On Sunday, the 3 of us with a dedicated escort boarded the train from Bangalore and the fourth musketeer was going to join us directly at the venue. We reached the hotel pretty early - I should say 2 hrs ahead in time. To kill time, we wandered in the streets of Salem, had a good brunch, made new friends at the venue, chatted with the members of the other teams and took enough tensions awaiting the last team mate who managed to get there only a minute before our scheduled slot.

There were close to 500 people gathered in the small reception area of the hotel. When we enquired around, we were pretty impressed to find that we were the only team who had managed to get through within 6 days of applying. The longest wait had been close to 2 years and many were in the range of 8 to 12 months. Though this was something very pleasing, we were not sure what was in store for us in the evaluation.

Our appointed time for the meeting was 12:45 p.m and when we were called in, it was quarter to 2! We were not surprised considering the mind-blowing Indian punctuality we are all so used to, but were enormously worried about the delay directly impacting the availability of lunch in one of the most famous hotels in Salem that we had eyed on, the minute we knew the venue for the prelims! It was a shame to miss lunch in this restaurant after being in Salem since the first blush and well past the lunch hr!! We were keeping our fingers crossed and during the friendly discussion with the panelists we did say as much!! The interview did not scale up any more than a friendly discussion and we were told to expect the results in 2 weeks.

We waved a quick bye to all our new pals, rushed to the restaurant just in time for their last batch, had a hearty meal and returned home late in the evening.

August 9, 2005

The Tuesday of the following week, I received a call on my cell phone when I was in the middle of a meeting. The key panelist broke the news that we were selected and were expected to report to the studio in 2 weeks for the shoot. I was completely unprepared for what he told me next. He startled me when he mentioned our episode was going to be a special program which will be telecasted on the New Year's Eve.

Taking our claims as dancers and singers seriously, he wanted us to come fully prepared for a live performance - to quote his sweet talk "special performance on a special occasion”! His elaboration was more than appropriate for me to get thoroughly convinced that ours was indeed a New Year day show! I never understood then that this was just their tactful move to keep us in good spirits during the shoot - more of a faux pas. God only knows how many teams they went around promising the special status.

We made a big announcement to the whole account at work beaming ear to ear including the "New Year" joke - to us it was not a joke then. We trusted them sincerely which now I feel very funny. With the permission of our managers we started practicing for the event. We were so much carried away by the "special" tag that we focused very little on the strategy for the game show and were busy working all the time on the "special performance"! We were going to dance to the devotional Song "Bho Shambho Shiva Shambho Swayambo", a beautiful composition by Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati in Revathi Raaga set to Adi Taala.

Our singers, singing years of experience was a remarkable spectrum - one was close to a professional with 24 years of lessons when she herself was 26 years of age then and the other was a month old in the world of Carnatic music. But both of them perfectly complimented each other and their act was nothing short of a slick. A special mention to the novice who scaled up so effortlessly and the duo definitely stood out!

We dancers made our earnest efforts to match up to the singing and we sure did not let them down. With a major burden of the lack of necessary instruments to back up, it was a real challenge for our foot work to bring out the same effect as it would in a proper show. We still managed to take the best shot and were apprised during the dry run at work!!

We brainstormed on each one's introductory speech, acknowledged all critical feedback for the betterment of the recital, finalized our costumes and the order in which we would be standing on the Diaz, settled several logistics, paid attention to the minutest of all details as it was an event to treasure forever and we did not want to be anything lesser than perfect. All said and done we still hadn't spent a minute drafting the plan of action for the main game show!! Our prime focus took a full 360 degree turn - thanks to the organizer’s fair words on the exclusivity he painted for our entertainment. With abundant support from our family and friends, we were all set to face the camera on August 27, 2005.

A Comfortable Kanden Kadhalai

With last minute changes to our initial plans of catching up KK on a night show we settled down for a late matinee (4:45 p.m) on Saturday in Edison. As it was the eleventh hr decision, we literally had to beat the traffic to reach the venue on time. Inspite of all V's earnest efforts we were delayed by 20 minutes. When we entered the theatre Tamanna was rendering the dialogue "Theni kaara ponnu naan ...seeviduven seevi" which by then was very familiar to all our ears - thanks to the Sun TV promos.

I do plan to fill in the missed scenes but from the original movie, Jab We Met. They have meticulously copied frame by frame from the Hindi version with a few positive additions in the Tamil tale that watching either one wouldn't make any difference but for the language. In the copy act nothing has been spared. Right from the costumes - though they are absolutely inappropriate to the heroine's native town, camera work - any pair of eyes used to the Polaroid zooms in Bollywood wouldn't have failed to notice this, lead characters mannerisms without any interference of Tamanna/Bharath's individualism, expressions which remind you of Kareena/Shahid in a lot of places, nothing is spared.

Tamanna has done a good job with her homework - she gracefully tries to match up Kareena's role in JWM though the latter stands out in her performance. She does manage to get on our nerves with a few incongruous grimaces and grins but for most part of the movie she is tolerable. She admittedly has scaled up to real acting from just being a mere wax goddess pleasing her fans in a couple of duets in appealing costumes.

Bharath on the other hand has played it subtle which doesn’t pass muster. From the genre of movies he has done when establishing himself in the industry, the image I can best think of for Bharath is a proletariat handyman-next-door which he does with ease. The sophisticated, classy, cynical cultured chocolate boy representation is not what would suit Bharath to a T. Ineptly he has played the role of a high class business man where it is difficult to avoid seeing Shahid's face every time Bharath comes on screen especially in the second half.

The artist who has stolen the show beyond words is the often professional Santhanam. These days’ directors are obviously banking more on the comedians than their lead stars to help them save their deposit and this movie is no exception. Santhanam's efforts are paid very well. Evidently it is Santhanam and Tamanna who are outstanding and Bharath is immaterial.

When remaking a movie from a different language, it would be highly appreciated if the directors could take into the consideration the cultural differences we share. In the north where they are more inclined towards adapting the western culture, married lady eloping with another man and still maintaining the maternal relationship with her kids might be perfectly acceptable but to us it is gravely improper. Bharath stays depressed for a major part of the movie and the reason for his depression is his mom's extra marital affair and second marriage. They could have simply bypassed this event or corrected mid-course as the mother-son's plot was least significant in the movie, needless to say added no value.

Songs are barely all right with 2 numbers giving you a little sense of satisfaction. There were 2 of them soon after the intermission playing back to back which tested the patience of a lot of audience who chose to extend their break by walking out of the theatre. To me it was a great relief as it played a key role in retaining my toddler in his seat who was pretty restless by then. The solo song for Bharath looked to me like a deliberate inclusion to show off the star's dancing capabilities other than which there is nothing in the movie to showcase the stars worth.

A decent entertainer in a long while now when people have almost given up hopes expecting an A-Ok light subject and resorted to their precious DVD collection of evergreen favorites - a true light at the end of the tunnel.

One thing for sure is K.N. Maran is one hell of a business man. I can see that he keeps buying these off beat movies which are not that great (though this doesn’t fall under this category), and then advertises the hell out of it in his channel and makes more people watch it (read more revenue). After seeing the 50 million ads with the best clippings smartly edited so many times in a day, anyone would be easily convinced that they have to watch the movie at least once. Kanden Kadhalai is definitely worth watching at least once and not a let down unlike the earlier disasters:)!

Nostalgia Strikes........................

One of my friends blog on her mornings brought me back some of the lovely reminiscence of my badminton practice sessions and matches that I cherish forever. The only sport that all the girls in my school by default opt to play during the PT classes was badminton. All I remember is having a shortage of the equipments all the time which forced us to take turns playing the game even in a class of 6:) During an hr's class, the number of successful strikes each of us would have had will be much lesser than the number of times we would have had to exchange the racquets. Inside the dark, musty smelling indoor stadiums of Race course, Madurai was laid the foundation to my badminton courses!!

The days when I had to report for the matches are still fresh in my memory - I used to have to travel an hr by the local public transport (PRC service) to reach the destination. My house and the stadium were on either ends of the city. Route No.73A used to be my chariot - the bus would almost give me a mini tour of Madurai, steering through all the notorious suburbs and by the time one reaches the stadium you will be fairly familiar with at least the names of all the popular residential areas in Madurai!!

The best part of the matches have been these bus rides at the peep of the day - the brightening breeze with a delicate scent of nature, raw smell of the damp soil (Mann Vasanai) that rejuvenates every nerve of yours, the refreshing chillness that feels straight on your face, the devotional songs played at the most amplified volumes on the corners of every other road irrespective of any religiously significant days, hunger-passion cries of cows alternately coupled with barking sounds of stray dogs make it all serene and is definitely a positive influence in setting the mood for a game. One who has inhaled all this before a match is sure to walk out with the trophy!!

Just as I relocated from one school to another for my higher grades, my badminton choices also stepped up from shuttlecock to ball. In my brother's words, ball badminton is a game of 5 lazy bums:) and I only downgraded my preference and never upgraded as I claimed!! Till mid school I was practicing shuttle badminton and from high school onwards I conveniently settled down for ball badminton. As one half of the court is being shared by 5 people, the onus and pressure of the game is also equally shared. The only downside I can think of is the audience attention, which also gets distributed among the 5 players unless you have your own fan following squad dedicated to yourself in the cheering crowd:)

The most unforgettable experience of my ball badminton match series is the Zonals that we played in Kottambatti in '95. Though it’s almost 15 years since I played this match, it resides in my gray matter like it just happened yesterday. Being a student from one of the most reputable schools in Madurai (TVS Lakshmi), I always took pride in showing off my school badge just as a means to give off the academy's name especially in events where the participation was dominated from small schools in and around Madurai. Greater the reputation, higher is the expectation. We were no exceptions to this and satisfyingly we met the expectations with so much ease in all the qualifying matches. By the time we were ready for the finals there was absolutely no sign of tiredness in any of our faces. Many even thought we had taken byes and were playing direct finals. Thanks to all our competent opponents.

Going by the trend of the day we were pretty confident, rather I should say over-confident about the finals. The team that lined up on the other half of the court was adding to our belief - the tallest of the 5 girls was barely an inch over the bottom of the net which was roughly 4 ft above the ground! It was their home ground but still we could already sense the easy victory and were beaming from ear to ear when we took our respective positions waiting for the referee to blow the whistle. Having lost the toss we were on the receiving end of the serves but were very certain that we didn't even have to  change over from the right court to the left before all their 5 hands were down! We even doubted if the ball would cross the net in the first place!!

We had a very huge flock to cheer the teams - it appeared like the whole of Kotambatti was gathered in the grounds to witness the match! Much to our surprise the applauding force were cheering our team instead of their own which was actually a part of their super-strategy adopted to distract us which we realized pretty late - infact their approach worked way too well in their favor for more than half of the match. As naive as we were, we walked straight into their manipulation and paid a very high price - we lost the first set!!! Our trainer was extremely disappointed but she tried her level best to boost our spirits up. We played the second set with better hope and stronger determination which paid good results - We won:)

Now was the tie breaker - the opponent team had crafted their next smart plan of action to knock us off and taste the victory! They had identified their strong and weak opponents and had planned to direct all their strikes to the so-called shaky hands! I was shocked to know that they had spotted our 2 back hands as the weakest and the centre player who happened to be our captain as well, as the strongest. I was one of the back hand player:)

In the third set all the balls were clearly delivered only to the 2 of us carefully avoiding the captain. It was then we realised height doesn’t matter in this indigenous game..it was all about focus and target:) I was deeply upset to have been seen as a 'limp' and by the time I made an attempt to recover the opponents were at a convenient 15. The match ends at 29!! I dared not face my trainer who was shooting daggers at me by now and her very looks spoke volumes. Knowing her I was pretty sure I would be thrown out of the team even before we left the grounds if I did nothing to save the match and in one of the breaks she did say as much to me.


When we resumed, I was still not showing any progress and my trainer had given up. Most of the team was literally in tears. The captain tried to cover up as much as possible for the back hands but unfortunately there was only very little she could do. Even the deceptive cheering squad had chosen to stay silent as they must have felt their extra artful efforts are no longer required to sidetrack us. It was my turn to serve and my USP in ball badminton are my ace services. Without even me realizing I served one of my aces and boom we opened our account in the tie breaker!!!I was literally retaliating on the head honcho of the other team for having considered me as their key to the door of success. Inspite of severe warnings from all in my team and the coach I was stubborn on intending my serves only to her.

Our team was back to shape when the numbers started moving up on the score board. Before we knew we were at "28 all" and were playing the match point. To our advantage we were serving and I was called to use my ace!! This time the ace was not truly an ace and their back hand did pick up for a strike but fortunately it was a net roll. The referee declared us the winners and the amazing audience maintained pin drop silence as if someone had broken a very sad news.

We couldn't believe that we had done it. The other team didn’t even show up to shake hands with us as they had not anticipated this moment of losing the championship to us! This was one of the toughest tie breakers I have played ever and took us all the energy that we had saved from the 6 earlier matches to embrace the triumph!!

What seemed as a piece of cake was finally a touch and go!! I still value my contribution to the victory of the match and feel ecstatic:)

High heels - A Confidence Supplement!!

                                                

High heels used to be my obsession during my school days and I was forced to part ways with it post marriage for obvious reasons. Recently I gave in to my temptation, investing on a pair in easy spirit and ever since I feel my confidence have doubled:).

Wondering if it is the magical touch of the shoes or purely psychosomatic??

In point of fact I have invariably felt self-assured and phenomenally certain whenever I am in new clothes, glorifying high heeled footwear and finally complementing with GivenChy or Eternity!! Am struggling to understand if this feeling-high-in-new-attire is a wierd characteristic of the materialistic thyself or is it a girlie thingie or is it a genuinely human sense. However it is, it has aided me the best plausible excuse whenever I choose to go on a shopping spree!!

Walking in hightops has forever made me act like am wearing an invisible crown and swaying in an air of confidence!! I have always found my westerner associates most aplomb than most of us around and all of them wear only high heels!!! This fortifies my claims that high heels are the best confidence supplements in town and one of the secrets to women's success!!!