Come Back..

Come back.. Come back..

Come back and take me with you forever..

Come back.. Come back..

Come back and hug me with your beating heart..

Come back my true friend..

Come back my only friend..

Let's together climb Mt. Everest..

Let's hit some pubs in the evening..

Let's explore the unknown streets at midnight..

Let's wine.. Let's dine..

Let's dance.. Let's forget everything for the time being..

Come back...

Come back my true friend..

Come back my only friend..

Come back with our childhood days..

Come back and bring me those cherished moments..

Let's together walk on the rails..

Let's together piss under the Eucalyptus trees..

Let's then go back to the neglected old paddy field..

Let's throw pebbles on the cow-pats..

Let it fall and spread all over our shirts..

Let’s then throw our shirts away and dive into the river..

Let's swim and splash..

Let's play music on the waves..

Come back my true friend..

Come back my only friend..

You put your hands on my shoulder

And showed me the full moon..

You cooked food and fed me with love..

You gave me medicine and sat near to my bed..

We woke up early despite the after effects of Fuel Vodka..

We watched sunrise and hid our feet under the sand..

The tiny crabs out there then flew away.. Hey.. Hey..

Come back...

Come back my true friend..

Come back my only friend..

Come back...

Let's once again wine at the lake side..

Let the police come.. let's dash half naked

Without losing the grip on the beer bottles we held..

Why don't you come my true friend..

You loved me with all your heart..

Let's forgive and forget...

Love never fails..

It never can be..

Why don't you come my true friend..

Why don't you come my only friend..

I wait and wait.. at least come to my dreams once my friend..

Come back.. Come back..

Come back and hug me with your beating heart..

Come back.. Come back..

Come back and take me with you forever..

Come back... Come back...

Mullapperiyaar

Heavy rain + Earth quakes..
Keralam Vs TamilNadu..
Sohan Roy and Dam 999..
Paavam Mullapperiyaar..

Break and Go

Break break break break..
Break all the walls..
Go go go go..
Beyond the rules..

The quote of Mark Twain

Whenever I re-introspect, I could feel certain things which would have made my life extra ordinary missing it's place. I don't know what to do and I'm really scared whenever the famous quote of Mark Twain fills in my mind.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." 

— Mark Twain

Now am worried when I realize the fact that I do not have the courage to move on. I'm afraid to take risks. These risks make this world beautiful. The beauty of my life is getting deteriorated day by day as I am afraid to take risks. Everything is getting shrunk except fear and the fear in me continue growing to beat Mount Everest. I would prefer crying rather than blaming other people and the world around me.

Now life is nothing but the sum total of the worries made on the things which were supposed to be done in the past and the fear to do the desired things in the future.

Every now and then conflicting thoughts do come into my mind and it haunts me sporadically.

Lottery.. lottery..

Visited Kottayam last week and witnessed one of the rarest incidents. Saw two lottery sellers fighting each other. You now think this is not an uncommon scene as fight is very common on the streets in this country. But the funniest thing was one of the fighters was blind and he was trying to hit the other seller with his walking stick kinda equipment. Do you believe this second ticket seller was  seen struggling with his handicapped right leg!  Both of them were fighting as if they were not physically challenged. One passer-by came into the scene rescuing the blind by beating the other fighter. But soon  this stranger man was told by someone around that this blind person should not be given any help as he was more dangerous and troublesome than the one-and-a-half legged ticket seller.  Then I saw the third ticket seller, who was physically alright watching the fight from a distance not less than 3 metres! I believe these kinds of adrinalin filled fights make people forget their shortcomings without attending any personality development courses :) The moral of this story is human is to err irrespective of their physical, mental or psychological illnesses.

An unasked question to Sathyan Anthikkad

Now am relieved! I could avoid asking this question to Sathyan Anthikkad, the film director. The question lost it's very significance.
"Sathyan sir, why Johnson master was not utilized to compose songs for your latest movies?"
To be precise, Johnson mash was not used after the movie 'Yathrakkarude sradhakku'.


Johnson master - Orma mathram

The highly talented Johnsonji possessed a unique style, which was impossible for others to imitate. He hid his identity in each and every song he composed. That was fantastic.. After hearing a few(n) songs, you easily identify the (n+1)th song of the master. It was Johnson whose songs I first identified that these songs belonged to this music director.
He had in-depth knowledge in playing instruments and was also able to incorporate western style in this compositions. So he was highly successful in background scores. This main disciple of Devarajan master was fortunate to work with great directors like Bharathan, Padmarajan, Kamal, etc etc.

I think the malayalam film industry didn't really make use of talents. He was gradually going away from the mainstream films due to the flood of fastfood kinda songs.. Only Sathyan Anthikkad was making use of his talents. So I used to anxiously wait for Sathyan movies to listen to Johnson's classic songs.

Unfortunately after 'Yathrakkarude sradhakku', Sathyan called upon Ilayaraja instead of Johnson. Heard that it was because Rajasab could easily compose all the songs within no time. But I myself felt that was not at all required. What Sathyan's films needed was met with Johnson's music. Whatever the genre may be, Johnson was able to produce all kinds of music including melodies, folks, touching songs filled with subtle feelings. But Ilayaraja was invited. Also, I feel the songs of Sathyan/Ilayaraj didn't much identity. And I could smell some sort of replication of tunes which didn't last long in the hearts of listeners. It didn't have any life in it.

Hence as a lover of Johnson's music, I had wished to meet up with Sathyan mainly to discuss this. And I believed it could bring Johnson back. One of my friends assured me that he would make the arrangement to meet Sathyan at Thrissur. But that didn't happen. Now when I heard Johnson master's departure news, this question again did pop up. 'Why Sathyan sir, why?'

EndOfsulfan

Endosulfan is one of the most toxic pesticides on the market today, responsible for many fatal pesticide poisoning incidents around the world. There are a lot of issues happening over Endosulfan nowadays. The biggest debate here in India is whether to ban Endosulfan or not.

Several studies have documented that endosulfan can also affect human development. Researchers studying children from many villages in Kasargod District, Kerala, India have linked endosulfan exposure to delays in sexual maturity among boys. Endosulfan was the only pesticide applied to cashew plantations in the villages for 20 years and had contaminated the village environment. Because of its threats to human health and the environment, a global ban on the manufacture and use of endosulfan was negotiated under the Stockholm Convention in April 2011. The ban will take effect in mid 2012. It is still used extensively in India, China, and few other countries. And in India, it is still freely available in most of the shops in places like Tamilnadu.

For the government, the latest news is that there is no such cases reported elsewhere. So the debate is still open!  I dont understand why the government do not ban endosulfan. It seems they are influenced or are waiting for some more reports and they simply want this tragedy to happen in most part of India.

In my opinion, anything which is artificial, not natural is sure gonna affect the lives of all creatures on this Earth.
There are many alternatives. I mean herbal products can be made out of the herbs and other available substances in our Nature which would yield the result without touching the lives of people. If the farmers could go back to our traditional products, there would be no more incidents. We all must ensure that we should not use any artificial product for the sake of our children, plants, animals and our mother Earth.

Daddy Mummy not @ Home

Daddy Mummy not @ Home

It is a well known fact that if kids could sing and enjoy a new song, it would become a super hit.

Heard my niece( hardly 2 yrs of age) singing 'Daddy mummy veetil illa'. At first, I didn't understand anything. So I enquired, what she was singing. I was told that she was singing a song from the new Tamil movie starring Vijay. That made me stunned. I have not even heard that song and didn't know the name of the movie. But she sings the pallavi with ease. And the History repeats.. This song too became a super duper hit. Okay, lemme come to the story.

One day, this kid was singing the same 'Daddy mummy veettil illa'(daddy n mummy not at home). Upon hearing this, Grandma asked, 'Evideppoyi?' (where did  they go?). This kid immediately replied 'Aasuthrippoyi'(Gone to hospital)..

Her sudden witty, serious, innocent answer made me laugh.

[Note: Hospital was the only place where this kid didn't like to visit with her parents. So her daddy and mummy told her that they were going to hospital and instead of going there, went to some other place. Poor kid.. She believed it.. ]

Lola Rennt

 Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run)

Saw this movie at the German Cultural Centre, Goethe Centrum, Trivandrum during the Annual German Film Festival last month. It is a crime thriller film starring Franka Potente as Lola.

The story follows young Lola who needed to obtain 100,000 German marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life.

The main part of the film is divided into three "runs". Each run starts from the same situation but develops differently and has a different outcome. Each run contains various flash-forward sequences, showing how the lives of the people that Lola bumps into develop after the encounter. In each run, those people are affected in different ways.

These three different "runs" make this film a versatile thriller. Many congratulations to the director Tom Tykwer for presenting this movie in a mind blowing style.

Bottle Gourd For You

Bottle Gourd

As the name suggests, this vegetable looks much like a green water bottle. It has a lot of health benefits. It can be used in our diet by cooking it or by making juice out of it.


 

It is available in the market.  One day I bought the vegetable from the market and brought it home for testing. Upon seeing this green colored vegetable, I was asked: "What is this and Why did you buy this? You could have bought some Bitter Gourd instead."

I took a short session in front of my mom on the benefits of Bottle Gourd, though I was aware of its uselessness :)

Some of Health benefits of Bottle Gourd

• The cooked vegetable  has a cooling, relaxing effect on the body and acts as a diuretic.
• Plays a vital role in treating urinary disorders and heals the burning sensation.
• Helps to reduce weight as it is very less in calories and contains more than 95% of water.
• Effective thirst quencher in summer days.
• Contains minerals like sodium, calcium, phosphorous etc.
• Good for treating diabetes, acidity, indigestion, constipation, piles etc.

How to make Bottle Gourd Juice

• Just peel it.
• Chop it into small pieces.
• Juice it. Add a pinch of salt. That's it.
• To get more taste, juice of lemon/ginger can be added.

(Special Thanks to Baba Ramdev for making people aware of the existence of this  wonderful vegetable.)

Easy method to reduce hair fall

There are a lot of reasons behind hair fall and many different methods available to reduce the loss. Hey, I am not going into those things.. :)

Reducing hair loss is at your hands!

Can you believe it?

The procedure is pretty simple:

Rub the fingernails of both hands against each other.  That’s all. Do this exercise for 5 to 10 minutes twice a day. You can do this at any time when your hands are free!

The Theory I have read:

The nerve endings just under the fingernails are related to the hair roots. This rubbing process increases the blood flow to the scalp and helps in strengthening the roots. .

In acupressure, there are many energy points on your palm which when pressed stimulate the corresponding organ.  This rubbing process has nothing to do with acupressure. But if you think acupressure does well, then you can easily digest this simple logic.

Courtesy:

Thanks to those ancient gurus and special thanks to Baba Ramdev for sharing this knowledge to the modern world.

Better NOW Than Later

Scene 1
@ Home

Mother: Will you take me to Veli lake? I would like to get into an A/C bus. I have never experienced it.
Son: What? Are you crazy? There is nothing to watch at Veli.
Mother: Boating is there.. especially speed boats..
Son: Speed boat is not safe for you and it costs much.
Mother: Then take me to Technopark.. Aah.. there are plenty of such buses to Technopark. I have never visited your Technopark.
Son: There is NOTHING in TechNOpaaark. It is nothing but a forest with a few buildings scattered here and there. Better go visit Zoo!
Mother: Then take me to any place where these a/c buses go. I want to travel in a/c bus.
Son: Motherrr, just shut up.. this month am very busy.  Have many things on my plate.  Don't you see? There are world cup matches going on. And see, appraisal is gonna happen soon. Before that I have to achieve my personal objective of getting the certifications. So let's make it next month.

Scene 2
@ Hospital
Friend: Come on man.. let's go home. Here completed all the formalities. Let's take mom to the ambulance?
son: da wait. Is there any chance to get an a/c ambulance?? It was her desire to travel in ac bus. She had longed for it.

Scene 3
In JnNURM A/C Volvo(Kazhakkoottam - East Fort via Technopark)
I suddenly opened my eyes to see many people sitting around comfortably in the ac. But I was sweating. I felt like no ac in the bus. Bus now reached Chaakka bypass and took left detour. And I have just decided not to procrastinate things. Better late than never.. no dude.. Better Now than later..
"Grant your mom's wish. Do it man".. I said myself after getting down the bus at over bridge.

Is Woman a necessary evil?

Hi all women.. This is for you..

Friction is a necessary evil. I still remember my physics teacher telling this.

Friction is  needed for survival.  If it is in excess, then it causes problems.

I later redefined the quote. 'Money is a necessary evil'. At that time I didn’t have enough money. No earning, only expenses.

Now I have redefined it once again. 'Woman is a necessary evil'.

Without woman you can't live. But with her, sometimes your life may be miserable. Woman can break your peace of mind.

You know why god created woman? It is because he wanted man to suffer!!

But this suffering is only a side effect.

To all my female friends, let me tell you.. Without you people, without you woman, this earth is nothing but a big desert. But with you, this world is a tiny hell!!

You women make this earth a beautiful place.  You make our lives colorful. You give meaning to our lives. You give life to this universe. It is amazing. When live together, even those small sufferings are blessings. I salute you woman. I salute the mother, the goddess, the child, the Guru in you.

Mobile mania Keralites

I would like to share a few glimpse on the new mania of mallus. It is nothing but taking videos by using mobile phone cameras. Taking photographs is okay but continuously taking the video, that too disturbing the people around them is what's happening here in God's own country. Not only in Kerala, you could witness the same pathetic view anywhere you found mallus.. They have been degraded to such a low level that they do not feel ashamed of what they are doing irrespective of the situation they are into.

Last month, I went to Mookambika mainly to listen to Yesudas performing on his 71st birthday. He visits and spends his birthdays there at Mookambika temple. I entered into the temple after a long queue very early in the morning. After the darshan, anyhow I managed to secure a small space on the swara mandapa where Yesudas performed. I was sitting very close to the accompanists. In-fact just sitting behind them and almost touching the body of the khatam maestro.

Before the arrival of Yesudas, singer Manjari and co were singing as a tribute to Yesudas. The mallu guys were absorbing the beauty of Manjari into their mobile phones. Manjari on that early morning had a well designed hair style. I guess that could have consumed more than 3 hours to make that hair style. I was amazed and guessed at what time this singer got up to get it done to reach here to perform this much early in the morning!!

There was not a single inch of space to move your legs to avoid the pain. When Yesudas arrived, it became very hard to manage the crowd and they were hanging over my head due to lack of space.
I could see a lot of hands with cameras taking videos/photos over my head.

In short, lemme tell you, it was very horrible to sit there, as the mallus with mobile phone were over my head taking videos of Yesudas performing. Some guys did dare to tilt my head to left or right according to their needs. A few people squeezed their hands and cunningly inserted their mobile in between my shirt and my  elbows making my sitting  uncomfortable. It was not Sukhaasana!

I knew Yesudas would not like people taking videos. But who cares. Nobody wanted to listen to him. Everybody wanted to record him singing. Later Yesudas himself told them to stay quiet and listen rather than struggling to record it. Finally police had to come to make the situation somewhat manageable. They threw many people out. I was almost caught, but I told them that I was assisting the Khatam maestro :)

Last month, I was fortunate to attend many art/music performances at Nishagandhi, trivandrum by KTDC. They conduct Nishagandhi festival every year in January. This time Yesudas's concert was the main attraction on the first day of the festival. I could see a lot of guys with digital SLR, tripods, mobile phones standing in front of the dais blocking the view of the connoisseurs sitting in the front. A lot of foreigners too were present. They had come to watch the traditional dance forms of India and to listen to the hindustani/carnatic vocals and instrumentals.

The doyen ace singer Yesudas before starting the concert, demanded people to not record the concert and allowed the media to record it for the first 2, 3 minutes.. A big Thanks to Yesudas. That was really helping people like me. It helped me avoid watching the back of guys taking the videos!
But sad to say, on all the other occasions no other performers demanded like what Yesudas did and it was difficult to watch them perform as these uncultured mallus made the situation uncomfortable.How could the people do like that? And the foreigners too were struggling to watch the events.. They were fed up watching the backs!! This is infact an absolute shame to the entire keralites..

Double Violin

At Nisagandhi festival, I was fortunate to attend the double violin concert last month. It was by Neyveli Radhakrishnan. One key point about double violin is there is only 1 double violin in Asia and a few in the world. Now you can say who owns the single double violin in Asia.

This instrument composed of two violin stems with 5 strings each. Thus making a total of 10 strings. You can play bass, cella, viola etc on this double violin. Hence this is widely accepted in east and west. By his scintillating performance, both east and west merges into a single entity called music! Amazing..

Sarangi

In January, I attended the Nisagandhi festival here in Trivandrum, a 7 day music and dance festival including various forms of dance like Mohiniyattom, Kuchippudi, Odisi, Sufiyani Kathak, Bharathanadyam and the concerts of Yesudas, Sarangi + Gazal, Khawali by Hussain group, Hindustani/Carnatic Jugalbandhi by Sriram & Anuradha Sriram, Double violin.

I'm now tuning Sarangi before you!!

This Sarangi is a fantastic instrument with some 40-50 strings, fretless indeed.

It is very rare to find out a recently manufactured sarangi. Actually a typical sarangi is morethan 100 years old and has been passed from generations.

According to the famous sarangi maestro Farooque Lateef Khan,

sarangi banana muskhil, milna muskhil, aur bajana mushkil hai (A sarangi is hard to manufacture, difficult to source, and tough to play).

As for the “tough to play” part, we agree as the sarangi is notoriously difficult to tune and play – the use of the fingernail/cuticle makes the physical effort very painful.

We know the sarangi as a beautifully expressive and evocative instrument. Both the chitraveena in Carnatic music and the sarangi in Huindustania are perhaps the closest to the human voice. Chitraveena by Ravikiran is a must watch concert.

onnu poyi kidannurangu penne..

Recollecting those days at CEK(College of Engineering Kidangoor).

The star of the story is Dhaneesh alias Dhairan.

I don't remember in which semester we were in then. 6,7 or 8? It does not matter. From 6th sem onwards I started staying with Rajumon n co at Punnathura. The rented house we stayed there was located in the middle of a rubber estate,  a kinda forest!!

Though it was a small place, Punnathura had everything needed for common people. Church, temple, Meenachil river, Ladies Hostel(We called it Bhargaveenilayam), Shaap(Toddy shop) etc etc. But we didn't like the hotels there. So we liked going to Kidangoor or Maanthaadi junction for dinner.

We used to catch the bus 'Nandikesh' at 7 pm from Punnathura. Then we either bought parcel or quickly finished our dinner to get the same bus returning at 7.45 pm.

Our star Dhairan was staying at Maanthaadi junction with other friends as a PG. Most of the days we guys(non PG guys) too  had food from his PG home and stayed there many nights. 

This guy used to come with us to Punnathura and used to stay with us once in a while.

One night, Rajumon and I bought parcel from Maanthaadi junction and were waiting for the bus to come.

At 7.45pm. We saw the bus coming and then saw this Dhairan running towards us. He then told us that he too would be coming with us. We immediately hid our parcel. I think I hid my parcel in the pants pocket.

That was the first thing I did upon seeing him coming towards us.

While returning to Punnathura in the bus, I was imagining Dhairan finishing the porotta and beef. We would have bought more porottas and beef, had he informed us earlier. For Dhairan, this kind of parcel is simply nothing. And he didn't have any such formalities and would simply clean the plate alone. So we were in dilemma.

We didn't tell him any words like food, dinner, parcel, etc. Dhairan might have thought that we had our dinner from the hotel itself.

We reached room around 8pm. Dhairan straight away occupied Sunu's room and started studying.

Rajumon and I felt the danger of taking out the parcel then. We decided to open the parcel only after hearing Dhairan snoring.

We too opened a few books and started learning. 9,10,11. clock ticked.. This guy was not sleeping. We visited Dhairan every 30 minutes. At 11pm, I was saying 'onnu poyi kidannurangu penne' inspired by the  Priyadarshan movie 'Kilukkam'. There is a similar scene in that Mohanlal-Jagathy starred movie.

Mohanlal& Jagathy decides to open the parcel(porotta and chicken) after Revathy sleeps. But she is not sleeping. Then Jagathy says 'onnu poyi kidannurangu penne' means 'please go to bed'. The climax of this scene is interesting. After ensuring Revathy slept, the duo removed their blanket and crawled to kitchen only to watch Revathy finishing the parcel food. Rajumon and I recollected this scene and were just saying this dialogue to Dhairan. But Dhairan took another book and started solving some programming examples.

Time passed midnight.. 12.30, 1'o clock..  No hope. Finally at 1.30am, we decided to take the risk. We came out of the house, moved to the back side, opened our parcels, stuffed the porotta with beef, put it in the mouth and tried to swallow it like a python does with a rooster. We  were able to finish the food within no time.  That was the first time in my life eating food with that much  pace.  Oh, what a huge relief that made. I drank some water after that to just push the porotta down from the throat. I still don't know at what time Dhairan slept that night. Till now, Dhairan is unaware of this story.  I have not told him this. Whenever I watch that comody scene on TV, I do remember Dhairan and this story..