Microwave Oven or Pied Piper?

Recently my kitchen had become the favorite playing ground of cockroaches and their families. At the outset, I was clueless to understand what made them love my kitchen so much. Though not sparkling clean, I don’t keep my kitchen that smutty! But that was not the time to think but to get involved in some serious work. Got ‘Hit’ spray, covered my nose and started my first ever experience of pest-control. While moving the Microwave Oven from the kitchen, I discovered some of my enemies inside it, which were beyond my reach, and I badly needed a Microwave Oven mechanic to open and clean it. Called at the LG service center and promptly they sent their representative (what a fast service! I must appreciate). He asked me what was the problem, I said ‘Cockroaches’. He was quite surprised to hear that from me. Anyway, he took out his tools, opened the hood, sprayed ‘Hit’ and joined me in killing the little brown pests. When he was just about to leave, I found that some very intelligent of the lot were hiding at even more un-accessible zone. I immediately asked him to open the inner bonnet. Then to my wonder, while trying hard, he cut his hand so badly that it started bleeding like anything. What to do, I had no way but to release him from his un-done work with a promise that he would be back next week. But before leaving, he gave me some very interesting information regarding the bond between a Microwave Oven and cockroaches. He said that it’s a very common problem with who ever have it (I was so happy to hear it, as this proves that I am not that awful in my kitchen) and also said that when the oven works, it actually attracts cockroaches. “Really? Oh my God! Microwave Oven or Pied Piper?” I was just about to say that!

Sense and Sensibilities

How can a man swim against the wave? If the waves are as high as mountain, how does he manage to keep his head straight and steady? Probably I will never come to know how much courage it requires to survive especially in an industry like filmmaking. I am talking about my two favourite filmmakers Maniratnam and Ram Gopal Verma.

My interest to South Indian movies was seeded by Mani Ratnam through his magical ‘Anjali’. I never understand the language or technique of movies. But I remember that it was the simplicity that attracted me. It was like not watching a movie but seeing some very close relatives busy in their day-to-day activities sitting in their home only. ‘Shiva’ was the next dubbed movie that came my way. Again the same feeling. The heroes and heroines were really like ‘next door neighbours’. I was very impressed by South Indian movies. Following my nature, I started to dig into the new invented interest and came to know that a bunch of my favourite movies were directed by South Indian directors. The list of my favourites went like – Garam Hawa, Sadma, Roja, Bombay, Dalpati and many more. I had the idea that South Indian movies are actually intense, sublime, vivid, rooted and detailed backed with some great music. But my idea was soon shattered after seeing ‘Humse Hai Muqabla’- the Hindi version of Tamil hit ‘Kadhalan’. So loud, so tacky, so cheap and so gaudy. Oh my God, was it a South Indian movie? Who is this Shankar? Why doesn’t he follow his ancestors? Well, soon I came to know that he was actually following his ancestors only. Kadhalan was a typical Tamil formula film with those double meaning cheesy dialogues and exaggerating emotional play. Now I understand it well that the part of South Indian movies I was mesmerized with was not the entire but a small subset of a large domain.

Heroes are superstars and megastars here. So much that Rajnikanth fans call him ‘SS Rajni’ where SS = Super Star. They are so tired of writing (and saying) ‘Super Star’ again and again that they actually acronymed it! Ask any Chennaiite, what is SS? Well, I hope you can understand what kind of response you will be getting!

Then how does Mani Rathnam continue to make films like Dil Se, Kannathil Muttamittal, Alaipayuthey, Yuva and Guru? Is he not frightened of failure? Must be, but probably he listens to his heart only just like his maneuvered scenes touches ours.

And Ram Gopal Verma. a man who himself defines unconventionality. Swimming steadily opposite the Shahrukh-Yash Chopra-Karan Johar camped clichéd and thousand times chewed sugar candy movies, this man actually gives a tough fight to these Bolly biggies. Kudos to his efforts.

Tiruvalluvar – A Homage

Being an ardent fan of A.R.Rahman it was not unexpected on my part to start listening to his Tamil compositions. Eventually I started taking special interest into the amazingly rhythmic sentences of Tamil and continued digging into its very beautiful curvy fonts. While grokking hard into the lyrics of Mayiliragae, with the help of my Tamil friends, one day I came across the word ‘Tiruvalluvar’. Being a 100% Non-Tamilian, at the outset, I didn’t understand whether this word refers to a man, a place, a dish, a society or a philosophy. But no problem, there is Wikipedia to help me out. After putting the word in search box, the result that came out was both shocking and surprising. The first sentence that came out was ‘Oh my God, this is the man!’ Which man? Well, this leads us to take a journey to the most visited destination of Tamil Nadu – Kanyakumari. Who ever have visited Vivekananda Rock and who have not, all know it very well that just at the adjacent rock of the famous Memorial, there stands a stupendous statue of a sage-like man. Yes, He is Tiruvalluvar – the great Tamil poet-saint. My rendezvous with his legendary creation was quite unlikely, but I am happy that it happened.

Slowly I came to learn some more interesting facts about him that fascinated me. A weaver by profession, following an ascetic lifestyle and believed to have lived during the 1st millennium, the legendary Tiruvalluvar gifted the society - ‘Thirukkural’, one of the best ethical works ever written in Tamil language. When there is dispute among the historians over his place of birth, there is no confusion that he finds a firm and irreplaceable place in the hearts of Tamilians.

Containing 1330 couplets divided into 133 chapters of 10 couplets each, Thirukkural describes the lessons on man’s duties, material life and love life. Considered as the gospel of Tamil society, Thirukkural has not lost its fragrance even after two millennia.

With my this little write-up, if I have been able to seed interest in you, please click the link below to know more about Tiruvalluvar and his poetic creation ‘Thirukkural’ -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruvalluvar

Jabberwocky - an account

This famous poem by Lewis Carroll talks about the nonsense of the society in a rather childish way. With some imaginary and portmanteaux words, Jabberwocky poem is fun for children while opens up some new horizons for adults too. The poet loves to play with words and came up with words like frumious – combining "fuming" and "furious”; mimsy – combining "miserable" and "flimsy”; slithy – combining “slimy” and “lithe” and so on. On one hand when the process of making portmanteaux words may be thought provoking for imaginary children, it may even quench the thirst of some writers who search thesaurus continuously for a perfect word. Interesting, isn’t it?

The poem actually takes for a ride into a neverland (a never seen land) where frumious Bandersnatch and mimsy borogoves roam around with open jaws and claws. When father bewares son from going out to avoid captivity by ‘jabberwocky’, isn’t it our very own world that peeps out? Seen from a different perspective, the neverland may actually collide with our very loved society created by ourselves only. Aren’t the portmanteaus referring to the double-standard lifestyle that we try to live up? Or just think of the savage fight between the little boy and monstrous jabberwock coming all of a sudden from the woods. The brave boy kills him and his father comes to praise him giving him a warm hug. On one side when the poem talks about the most-likable fantasy of children with a brave boy killing a monster, at the same time does the poet want to leave some hidden message in his coded scribbling? The wood like society, the monster like evil, a visionary hero and people’s love - all seem to come vivid. After a number of reading, hurdling at every second word, with nail biting into pieces, scrolling the mouse again and again for the translation of portmanteaus and appreciating each time the poet’s wit; ultimately when the poem is unveiled in its simplest form, it does not seem to be that simple. No wonder, it is one of the most interesting pieces of literature I’ve ever read.

Note :-

Bandersnatch - A swift moving creature with snapping jaws. Capable of extending its neck.
Borogoves - A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop.
Frumious - Combination of "fuming" and "furious”.
Mimsy - Combination of "miserable" and "flimsy."

If you are one of those people having never encountered this poem, please click below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky