Pandit RaviShankar – the Sitar maestro..

I would like to share a story I have read..

Pandit Ravishankar was out for composing for a movie and nothing was happening for a couple of days. Panditji was out of mood and could not produce any tunes wanted. But the very next day, Ravishankarji came to compose afternoon at around 2pm and he appeared highly rejuvenated and in full energy. He was requested to share with the music mates what had happened to him.

Ravishankarji said he was playing Sitar from 4AM and stopped only after for 8 hours of intimate relationship with his Sitar. Then came to the room for composing with full zest. He didn't feel sleepy, tired.. He was out of mood initially because he could not play Sitar for a couple of days.

This story elevated me to a higher level and I later realized that if you involve completely in anything you love, you would never get tired; instead you will get more energy J

Also, we can make use of this valuable tip effectively in our lives. I have applied it to my life and found it very effective.

Make sure you do not go to bed tired(emotionally and physically) after coming back from work. So do something you love doing. This can be anything like reading, writing, listening to your favourite music, talking to your loved ones, playing cards, physical work out, etc and once you have regained your energy, then can you retire. This gives you a sound sleep and you can get up next day morning with a fresh body and mind.

Are You Coming With Me?

I am the River.. The river of Eternal Love..

Just look at me.. I am clear.. clear like a crystal..

Don't you see your image on me?

Come towards me dear.. get into me..

Drink me.. imbibe the everlasting love..

Swim on me.. I am here almost silent like a pond..

By the way, I am going to the Ocean..

The mighty ocean to get united with..

I would feel absolute bliss once I dissolves there...

By the way, Are You Coming With Me??

A Train to Khushwanth Singh with The Company of Women

This time I would like to share the experience I had when I read the book ‘The Company of Women’ by Khushwanth Singh. Took that book from the library near to Velachery in Chennai. What a book! Fantastic..

Just briefing the storyline for those who have not read it. As the title suggests, this story is all about the company of Women; of the sexual fantasies with different genre/type of women from different jurisdictions.

It is very hard to believe that Khushwanth Singh started writing this book at the age of 83 and completed it when he was at 86. I couldn’t even imagine this. I would be writing a ‘Ramayana’ at the age of 80 if I existed. I don’t think I will live that long J

Writing such an erotic content at the age of 86 is anything next to impossible. He had made it possible and did it brilliantly. It is such an amazing piece of work. No doubt about that. That’s why it became a best seller. It reached millions. In-fact millions reached for it!

The Boat race in Kottayam

Walked two kilometres from home to Thazhathangadi, where this boat race happens every year during onam. Our Meenachil river looked very serene. On the road, parallel to the banks of the river, walked towards the finishing point. Both the banks were occupied fully and there was not an inch space left. Anyhow, I managed to stand near to the finish line. I was infact standing on the trunk of a banana tree. We call it Vazhappindi. Actually this banana tree is not a tree; it is a plant. Here comes an old story on this topic in my mind; don't worry, am not going to tell you that this time!
I was well balancing in that pose not to fall into the river. There was too much of mud also.
Soon started the excitement. It was nice to watch the snake boats compete with around 100 guys on each boat. I could see a lot of foreigners coming there watching the even from their boats. There were a lot local people coming there on small boats; we call it kothumbu vallam. They parked those boats near to the banks.

There was tight competition in the preliminary round for no-snake boats. It was difficult for me to judge who won the race, even though I stood very near to the finish line. And there soon started issues on who won it. People over there split into two groups supporting those teams.
There I witnessed a lot of things for the first time in my life.

1) One Helicopter flying over the river where the race was happening. Heard that it cost 4200 Rs for 15 mins of flying over the city. Imagine watching the boat race from the copter. The snake boat itself looked like  a millipede from the top.(Courtesy: Ginness Pakru, the smallest hero acted in a movie).
2) One snake boat falling upside down with the rowers falling in water.
3) Two snake boats colliding at the finishing point in the Final. They collided just after touching the finish line. This too was very difficult to judge who won the cup.
It took a lot of replays for the chief judge to decide who the winner was. The snake boat Sree Ganesh who won the prestigious Alappuzha Nehru trophy boat race won here too. What a race! Both teams did their best to touch the line first and one of the boats lost balance and collided.
I postponed my Trivandrum journey to the next day since I watched the entire race and knew I would miss the Venad Express. I went back home walking with lots of memories. While walking back, I heard the announcement, Sree Ganesh chundan won the Cup. Thank you all.

Education??

Education should be the process of finding out our infinite possibilities, realizing our true potential, digging out the hidden talents, strengths and most importantly our various fears. Then enhance our talents to get an earning out of it. Secondly, at the very same time, work on your fears in a parallel way to ensure a fantastic living on this Earth.

But nowadays, the current system of Education imparts nothing but fear. It  fails to find out the talents of students. Their lives become miserable. They are being judged by their marks/grades. Nobody should judge them, instead by Education each and every student should be able to judge himself/herself. For that to happen, we need to have a Subjective Education instead of Ojective based Education.

Kari mizhi kuruviye kandeela..

Kari mizhi kuruviye kandeela..

Nin chiri mani chilampoli kettila..

Nee pande ennodonnum mindeela..

I liked the songs of the malayalam movie 'Meesa Madhavan' especially the above song. But what happens when you have no choice but to listen continuously to a particular song? You may put your index fingers into both ears not to hear it anymore. Anyway the topic is not related to songs..

Lemme come to the point.

A few years back, I often used to visit the rented house of my uncle during my B.Tech days. This rented house was located near to that of the owner. This owner had a son studying somewhere in Tamil nadu. He is going to be the star of this story. This guy used to play the 'Meesa Madhavan' songs, mainly the above song. The very same songs from morning to night!! I had no idea why he was playing the song again and again. Was he mad?

Whenever I stayed there, I used to wake up hearing 'Karimizhi kuruvi' and it became a Venkiteshwara Suprabhatham(Kausalya supraja rama poorva..) for me. Later I became frustrated by this.  Infact, I thought to gift him some new songs. But I procrastinated it well :)

Later my uncle relocated and also I went to Bangalore for job hunting. A few years later, I was told that the owner's son, the Karimizhikuruvi guy committed suicide! He had a love affair there at his college and some obstacles stood up against him. His parents would have said Yes had he informed them. He might have faced some challenges from the gal's side.. who knows..

I'm not going to dig further into this and hence the story ends here leaving behind some memories. At the same time, it pops up a few questions. Why SUICIDE? No other option? It has been observed that a lot of youngsters commiitting suicide nowadays. Why? Exams, love failure, job, some other issues.. sometimes they don't even need a reason!

I would point my index finger to the parents, teachers, the education system  and to the society. We are not letting our children groW. We decide everything for them. Never allow them to decide. They are not allowed to choose their life partners even after they started earning from their jobs.

We start spoon feeding them from the very child birth. Along with that, we impart our ideas, thoughts, views, etc, etc knowingly or unknowingly. We never let them think in their own ways. And the end result is they become quite immature throughout their lives, especially during the crucial times to take decisions. They don't know how to face situations, the ups and downs of life. Also the rate of divource is at an all time high.

We do observe the Europeans and follow those western styles to some extent. I dont't think any children there commit suicide. Instead they may kill others!! But that is not the topic. That is another version. The students over there enjoy a healthy lifes tyle. Thaty do take a 'Gap' after their studies and roaming all over the world. They visit many countries, experiencing many things,  culture, people etc and learning a lot. No parent is accompanying them. Here no parent would even think that. We should consider this seriously and we should change our methodology in treating the new generation for a better tomorrow.

Poem whispered by a Flower..

I was walking.. as usual.. walking.. slowly walking.. simply walking..
Met a young flower last day who claims that she is a newly blossomed flower..
And she whispered this poem to me.. I have just translated it..

Please...

Hello World.. I'm a newly blossomed flower.. Am I still blossoming?
My name is immaterial.. and I do not have any..

Hi world, just observe me the flower around..
I do give you everything I am having.. huh?

Do come and imbibe the eternal fragrance spreading out from me..
Hi guys, gently caress my petals at the most..

Dear guys,  do not squeeze me or pluck me from my home please..
After all, this world is very beautiful without lust...

You may Now..

Enjoy your ice-cream before it gets melt..
Absorb the fragrance of the flower before it falls down..
And say 'I Love You' before the detour..
You may not meet up with that special person again.. who knows..

At Malayinjippaara

Reached kottayam on time to enjoy the nercha kanji on Good Friday from a church there. Next day morning, started to Malayinjippara to visit a great man who devoted his 40 years in planting, caring and loving trees as his own children. I had decided to visit his place after reading an article on Malayala Manorama on his fabulous life last week.

First reached Eerattupetta via Pala and from there got another bus to Poonjar. Waited more than 30 minutes there in Poonjar to get the Koruthodu bus. Walked around 1 km after getting down at Malayinjippara since the person I wanted to meet was not staying exactly there as I thought!

At the abode of Devasiachan.. in the middle of a forest..

There I could see a lot of trees including Njaval, Parijatham, Kariveetti, Ambazham, Maravuri maram, Yakshippala, Israel tree(dunno the name.. it was brought from Israel.. and so the name!), Butter fruit tree, Anali vegam (presence of this tree with white flowers would keep away snakes), kunthirikkam to name a few.

Gone inside the man-made-forest and spent around 2 hrs inside with a shivering heart as I was afraid of snakes (I was told about this Anali vegam tree only after I returned from the forest L). At that moment I realized how valuable was life and how much I loved living in this world without any injuries.

Apart from the rare trees in the dense forest, there are a lot of jackfruit trees of different genres, many kanikkonna trees, wide varieties of mango trees, coco trees, jaathi trees, kamuku etc. I ate one Jaathikka(nutmeg) from there.

Near to his house, saw a pig enjoying in the mud created exclusively for this mud lover creature and three cows in a near-by farm. One of them was a kid. Fed the two big cows with some grass and leaves. They didn’t mind me initially. But soon they became friendly after giving them their food!

There was an Erumaadam(elevated hut on the tree) in the front side. Climbed up the Earumaadam and meditated there for a few minutes. It was a nice one built upon bamboo trees.. sorry bamboo plants of the grass family.. I don’t know why they are being treated as plants!

He asked me to have lunch from there as I didn’t eat at noon. But I requested to get coco fruit instead. He then plucked 2 coco for me. I ate one within no time. It was almost ripe.

Talked with him on the medicinal benefits of the herbal plants. There I saw Vaathakkodi plant leaves with its cables swinging down from some trees.

Upon leaving I hugged him and assured him I would be coming back with the seeds of ‘Lakshmi tharu’ from the Art Of Living Asram in Bengaluru. I left the other coco there instead of taking it with me. Got bus quickly and while sitting in the bus, I realized that along with that coco, I left my heart too there..

In search of Rajumon in oblivion – A trip to Kaliyar

Visited Thodupuzha last week to meet up with my friend who had undergone the angeoplasty operation a few days back. While staying at his rented house fully enjoying the tranquility, in the middle of a 2 acre plot mainly consists of rubber trees, suddenly came up an urge to find out Rajumon. No news of this Rajumon for a few years. No news of him after the college days. We were together at the college.. played cricket, bunked classes, watched movies, had food from local road side shops and stayed together near the Meenachil river.

Memories are precious.. which make you proud that you lived a fantastic life so far.. Like telling I had a rare collection of diamonds, emaralds.. or I had great elephants with Gajaraja title at home or had the sword of Tippu Sultan like that.. For me, I have these precious memories.. memories of togetherness with my greatest friends.. to cherish for my entire life..

Heard that he became a lecturer at an Engineering college.. But he is in oblivion..

No phone calls, no emails, no facebook, orkut etc.. But anyhow I got his number one day. One of my friends working as a teacher got his number and shared it to me. But I couldnot get him on mobile. It seems he quickly changes his mobile number, if he has any number active.

On Saturday, I started in the morning to Kaliyar from Thodupuzha. Got down at Vannappuram near to Kaliyar.  There I was welcomed by the shades of a huge mountain behind the scene just like a fantastic background image. After a good break fast, I started enquiring about Rajumon at a few shops there. Nobody knew him! Probably I was not at the right place L

Visited Vannappuram post office. They directed me to visit Kaliyar post office as they did n’t know him. But I decided not to give up my mission and proceeded to Kaliyar. On the way I saw a committee office of the Communists and for nobody’s sake enquired there also. I thought it would be of no help as this guy was not a follower of the red flag. But from there I got some valuable information of the place where he lived. I was repeatedly saying myself the name of that place while travelling in a private bus to there. This helped me not to forget the name J

At Rajumon’s place

Met a few guys out there and they told me how to reach there. But they insisted I should catch an auto as it would be a tedious process to walk upto that place. But I continued walking after throwing a faint smile at them.

Walking.. walking.. walking.. Asked a few people on the way. Finally reached the destination without any trouble.

I was imagining throughout the journey how Rajumon could face this surprise. I was in an ecstatic mood.. Oh God.. am going to meet him soon.. Nobody has done this so far.. Within no time, I planned to visit the Thommankuthu water falls nearby along with the local guy I had missed long back.. Now the Paradise Regained!!  What about meeting his friends out there.. Visiting their village club.. Watching Rajumon under the bar as a strong Goal keeper or as a Shoib Akhthar emitting tough targeted bouncers on the cricket field.. He would be overwhelmed upon seeing me there. Chance of a heart attack for my friend!!

But my bad luck, I was told by his relatives staying nearby that they were not at home.. They had gone to somewhere last day. They didn’t know when they would come back. After all, this Rajumon was not present. He used to come home very rarely, once in two months or so. Got his number from there and walked back. You know, he was again not available even on this new number!! Thats him. Rajumon.. Hey dude, I won’t spare you my man.. I will come back..

I'm a Bonsai Boy!

I'm a Bonsai Boy!

I'm a Bonsai Girl!

I was thinking of organic farming for some time and recently started with some roof top organic cultivation as a beginner. 

And there comes the Peepal/Banyan tree into the scene. Heard that this Peepal tree could emit oxygen even at night. What about getting one such tree at home. But space. That's the question. i had visited the Big Banyan Tree spanning in 3 acres in Bangalore. Since space being the constraint, the concept of Bonsai came into existence. I was told that the Bonsai of Peepal/Banyan tree available. 

When I shared my new experience on organic farming with my friends around, they praised my effort but they all didn't like the concept of Bonsai. They didn't like cutting the roots, branches etc to restrict the plant to grow in its own way. Thats good.. I too liked their concern. But I believe it is always better to have a bonsai at home rather than not planting anything at all. But I didn't tell them anything except 'Yeah.. you are right'. But later it made me think about the kids of this generation.

Are they allowed to think? 

Are they given enough space and oxygen?

Are they allowed to make any mistakes?

You are infact cutting their wings at the very young age. You teach them ethics, rules, good manners etc. But never letting them know their potential, their individuality. They are in-fact no less than the Bonsai trees.

Now the Complan ad coming to mind.. I'm a Complam boy.. Better change it.. I'm a Bonsai Boy!!

An Idiot's mail to Shankar

To Director Shankar, with Love

Hii, You are one of my favourite directors. I always enjoyed watching your movies. I was infact mesmerized by the screenplays of your films. Hats off to you for providing such fantastic movies. But let me straight away tell you, your latest movie 'Nanban' made me disappointed!!
I didn't see any Shankar touch in the movie. It was just a replica of the great movie '3 Idiots'. Every scene was taken exactly the same way. Even every frame was the very same copy. The costumes, the extent of make up, art work everything was pretty the same. Only difference is new actors.I don't know what forced you direct a movie like that.
Let me tell you, the director Shankar was not at all necessary to make a photostat of '3 Idiots'; any average director could have done the same. I never say 'Nanban' is a bad movie. But the fact is that it is not a Shankar film.

Mea Culpa. I am culpable. I blamed myself for setting a high expectation. It was my problem.
I ran very hard from theatre to theatre and finally got the ticket from the 4rth theatre! And I was late for 10 minutes. I was sad initially for being late and thought to watch the movie once again with my friends. But when the movie progressed, I changed my mind and decided not to watch it again!

Expectaion Vs Reality
When i first heard Shankar making '3 Idiots', expectation was all time high. I was expecting something big from you.
I thought of two possible approaches.
1) taking the screenplay of '3 Idiots' for granted, making some enhancements like rewriting a few scenes including the climax in a much better way with some Shankar touch. This could guarantee the drama produced by the original would be there in the tamil version.
2) making the tamil version based on the novel 'Five point someone', the way how '3 Idiots' was born.
Sticking to the novel anyway would make things more realistic but produce less drama. Also, this may not be a failstop attempt at the box office.

Hence I thought Shankarji would make his own version by skillfully modifying some scenes including climax. But nothing happened. I would have liked 'Nanban' had I not watched '3 Idiots' before. Also I would like to say actors like Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshy etc really portrayed their characters very well than the counterparts in the tamil version.
I knew it was because of my expectation that made me disappointed. But I would request you to make movies with Shankar touch. Even if you remake movies, please make it double better say for example how Ghajini was made in Hindi. It was not just a remake, it showed the real culture and some master brains.
With love
An Idiot aka your Nanban