Skandagiri Trek

The Starting Problem

Well , I always wished to try out trekking atleast once in my life for i found it to be uber cool and felt that it would give me a very different experience . When I came to Bangalore, my desire to trek intensified for there are many mountain ranges near by.

I came across a trekking club which organized trek to Skandagiri a one day trek and i got excited about it. But I was not sure if I’m fit enough to trek as it would put my physical endurance to great test. Moreover, all my friends over here were busy and  I had to join the trek with some unknown strangers . I had 100 thoughts whether to trek but finally decided that i should give it a try.I was relying on my new found love for photography and wished that it would keep me occupied in worst case.

The ‘D’ Day

I couldn’t sleep the previous night, may be I was too excited and hence woke up even before my alarm could wake me. It was shocking to see from my room window outside – it was raining hard. I was terribly upset and wondered why I committed to this. But thankfully it stopped raining half an hour later and i was happy. I was able to reach the pick up point of the touring cab after some anxious moments in finding the destination paying the price for not knowing Hindi.

The Warm Up

Slowly people starting joining and it was pretty dull and silent in the cab for some time . I had second thoughts in getting introduced to every one there. We had our first pit stop which was very useful for us to get introduced to every one and by the end of break fast, there was a good rapport between every one. It was interesting and unique experience for me to interact with different facets of people and loved every moment. We packed our lunch and bought water bottles and snacks. I had some time to shoot sparrows and try out some panning shot not so long when my driver cried that we have to start.

Getting started

We reached the foot of the hill and started to trek after having brief introduction. Our guide was leading whereas the organizer was accompanying the ultra slow walkers like me. The climate was warm and no signs of rain which was a great relief to me .

Mission Impossible

It was fun for some time, but after minutes, it became quite a task. Though it was just 5 kms ,  the steepness of the hill made it difficult to climb and progress . I was gasping for breath and took incredibly many short breaks. There was a point where in a fellow trekker offered to carry my bag. It was so nice that people helped me out a lot during the entire day . I was thriving on glucose, chocolates and water. But i was very determined to reach that top and hence did not give up though i was climbing at a very slow . Had very few snaps and found the otherwise light camera to be pretty heavy.

Reaching the top

After umpteen short breaks , managed to reach the top of the hill. It was mist all over .Every one was celebrating and I joined them. It was a exhilarating feeling and I enjoyed the moment thoroughly. There were few shops selling tea, coffee and omelet. A very old temple mandappam like structure was present there. We were exploring the places around. As with every trek , I was the pampered kid. Thanks to my selective filtering, I was able to get through it.

Lunch with the Sun

We settled on a place which provided us with amazing view point and stared to lunch. The very moment it started shining and was happy for i feared of not getting an opportunity to wear by coolers. Started running behind butterflies and things of little wonder over there. Few of them tried climbing a small stretch of rocks . I had chances to shot candid moments of trekkers over there. Few started writing their memories and experiences.

The Down Trek

I always knew that down trek would be relatively easy. We had wonderful views while trekking down. There was a friendly dog that accompanied us all through our down trek. We did manage to visit a small cave and started to walk fast after some time and managed to reach the foot of the hill with out much difficulty.

It ended memorably…

While returning, we did play dumbcharads and I encountered pretty funny, weird and unknown movies that need to be enacted and felt crazy. I had a very great feeling and it was exciting through out the day. I not only loved trekking but managed to interact with all the trekkers. It was a great and lovely experience and i wished to meet all of them some time sooner on some other trek .We parted every one with a big broad smile.

Well, it was one heck of a trek: Amazing and Adventurous.

And Life goes on …

Life hasn’t changed much in this brief mull . But interestingly , it has opened me up new avenues for looking at the smallest things in life and enjoy them . Well , there are couple of things which am doing now .

Spending time on photography . The inspiration to do this came from my office friends and am learning it slowly . It’s quite interesting atleast until now . Though it’s a hobby , it costs quite a sum to pursue it. I have never ever opened up eyes to so many things  before . I guess photography is more like a search – search for divine beauty thro’ your eyes  which is very subjective.

I never had time to notice that small little birdie near my room nor the garden lizard which looks like a dinosaur at eye level or at least the cute flowers that blossoms every day . All my painful photo walks nearby to capture that  2 wow shots keep myself roaming around .Planning for few trips near by to shoot – Trekking and Photo walk are on the cards.  I hope to discover a new world thro’ this new perspective – I can very well  say that  I have got  new eyes .

The other thing is watching and listening to hindi/english  movies/sitcom and music . The redundancy to tamil movies and music bored me to a great extent . F.R.I.E.N.D.S. have now  become an integral part of my life now and opened me up to this interesting sitcom culture. Well , All I can say is that , There is little fun if you keep sarcasm aside.HBO/Star Movies/Zee Cafe/Star World/M Tv/Channel V and Zoom are my only life saver . Well , how can I forget that awesome  HeadLines Today which does a special coverage of Raaki Ki Swayamvar.

Life is precisely difficult in a new place .Whenever I walk past ,  I ought to turn up and look at people who speak in my native language. Well , I miss Tamil and Singaara Chennai. Just imagine how difficult would it be to translate in English a  vadivelu’s one liner like ‘Anniyae Pudunga Vendaam ‘

But on the contrary , I’m meeting up with people who have varied interests . Nowadays , it’s becoming my hobby to try out few of  other’s interest which interests me .

I’m not going to avoid life being a hard-on to me , it is actually helping me to think and re-align my priorities in life and understand what I really want and love in life .

Life is not fair , get used to it.

Cheerz,

D

Abiyum Naanum movie review

Expectations were pretty high , atleast from me , for the team of Radha Mohan and Prakash raj strikes together again. But I felt disappointed after watching the movie. Though the team has to be appreciated for their meaningful and decent cinema , this fails to impress me .

The main reason being the waffer thin story line about an extra cautious dad trying to grow along with his daugther and the problems faced by the dad in seeing his child grow up independently with free thought . The plot is good , there are some interesting and touching moments , but the story is superficial and fails to touch your heart as a whole.

Most importantly , the way how dad ushers love for his daughter is not subtle , indian dads are known for this , but prakash raj’s love  for his daughter is showed too loud and lousy.

The movie is interesting at places , the humour is laced through out the movie beautifully and it has come out well.Some nice worldly , humane thoughts are brought out well.

Prakashraj steals the show but i feel he has over done the role and rest of the crew has nothing great to offer.Songs are a bit let down and dampens the already slow movie’s pace even further.

The movie delivers in parts and on a whole an above average decent flick worth to be watched with family and friends.

Bridge Watching

A very unusual habit with Chennaities , i call it ‘Bridge Watching’ ! Chennai recently saw the opening of new two fly overs , one at Kathipaara near Guindy and another besides the Airport in Trisulam.

Had a chance to travel through both of them.First experience was with the air port flyover. Was travelling  at night , when I saw many cars and autos and two wheelers parked by the side of the fly over. I initially thought there was an accident . But fortunately it was nothing like that and to my suprise i find  people getting down from their vehicles to watch the near by airport and run way .Truely ,  the run away and airport view from the fly over  was stunning  and we could easily see planes taking off and landing off clearly . Many people including me spent some time watching the airport and the colourful  run way in awe.

Video here

The following week , the same happened at the Kathipaara fly over .The Kathipaara is really good , the fly over is huge and a welcome relief for the traffic congestion for all the chennaities travelling down south.There were flood lights and  decoration lights adoring the fly over to mark its inagural.The butterfly shaped fly over view was splendid in short. 

YouTube Link here

Some time back ,  I was discussing with my cousin abt this , he too quoted similar instance that there are a lot of people who come to see the Liberty bridge near T Nagar for fun at nights .

Quite unusual and amusing too

The 26/11 Mumbai Cacophony

It’s been two weeks but still the wrath of  terror attacks on the Mumbai hasn’t lowered , thanks to indian media and the politics.

Every time when such a terrorist attack happens , there is a huge uproar with the public and government faces extreme criticism with patriotic fervor reaching incredible levels and jai maatha ki being the buzz word.

No doubt , the attacks are disturbing and impacted the whole nation to a great extent. The flavor of terror did strike me hard watching the news channels , those hard to believe heart stopping shellings and gory blood stains, were indeed awful.

A grand salaam to all those brave souls , the martyrs ,police men , NSG commandos , marcos , hotel staffs and the south african commandos and to each and every one of them , with out whom , a lot of lives would have vanished with out a trace.

As an aftermath of the terror strikes , we now witness the usual political stunts and media running frenzied behind literally everything to catch hold of their TRP’s aloft.

This attack has some significant impact on the politics being played across the country . Most of the time , it is only the common man who gets badly affected by these assaults – normally these happen on the roads , trains and other places where the common man moves often . Hence the slack govt hasn’t cared enough to take stringent actions, but this time , the target is on the elite section of the country . Now this should be a big head ache to the government for all the rich bell weather are completely outraged and this could strain the politicians relation with them .The Tatas and the Oberois and all of them .Hence we could find some significant actions and security increased across the country.

Though many famous people like NRN has commented that the coverage of these attacks were the finest piece of journalism in this decade , famous tamil writer Gnani has an entirely different opinion about the way the news channel and politics haven taken these .Read about it here .

Instead of continuing with the blame game , we need to move on -Enough is Enough. We need to extract the learnings from these and convert them as action items and try to implement them soon.

Be more vigil and have better disaster recovery plans. There was certainly some lapses in the way operations were carried out , there was no co-operation between the different units that was part of this rescue operation . Each acted on its own and no one was able to gain the holistic picture of the situation and sped forces in sync with the events unfolding .

It’s true , our country hasn’t faced such an unfortunate event that the combined efforts were not diligent.We need to formulate better plans and be more prepared to handle such tragic issues.

This moment , we are united and have expressed solidarity . Let’s learn from this crisis and become double stronger and declare our war against terror in all forms .

Let us believe in a positive change.

Vaaranam Aayiram Movie Review

When Simran runs to help the struggling Surya screaming in a urban english accent ‘What happened ?……...’ in the initial minutes , we are reaffirmed of the fact the movie is niched for a select urban audience who need to prepare themselves for viewing a different genre of movie , a slow saga and breaks all the mirch masala . You would love the movie if your into it with out any pre- conceived notions and expectations about the movie.

Sharing my thoughts which I felt interesting to me .

Gautham is incredible . He’s the next best to Mani Ratnam in handling romance , he’s best in the mush . The Surya – Sameera scenes are truly no words to describe . What a vibrancy and youthfulness ! Let it be the train romance or be the berkely episode , every frame is literally painted like a poem. Can some one other than Gautham think about a gal proposing to an adorable guy standing under the clouds , with a view of the lovely Golden bridge in San Francisco . These should sweep every one by their feet for sure. No way , give credits to this guy . Awesome photography , lovely music and impressive costumes – only gautham can do such wonders .

Surya for sure is incredible . Be the dad or the son , he’s given one hell of a performance . His painstaking effort is evident in every frame , he look worth more than one million bucks .He has taken utmost care in his looks , he fits in as a ‘T’ in almost every make over through his various stages of life. He is able to change himself for the mood of the movie quite easily.His emotional break up to his dad and mom on losing his love through a phone is the best . He should make gals go crazy over those romantic interludes. The portions where he suffers from an emotional break and the way how he comes out of it is quite unusual yet different.

Sameera Reddy , C’mon guys should i say anything more.

Very rarely , we could find an urban family being portrayed in tamil movies. I think those segments were etched out well. .It’s delightful to see a dad being so cool and casual with his son , being a friend , asking his son to follow his heart.How nice a dad calls his son by cute nick name .Even when I was a child , I have seen my neighbors converse very casually in English at home.So the director is not at fault , he has just shown the environment in which he grew up .

The music has really carried out the movie incredibly to new levels . Each and every song is a visual splendor . The Raja’s classical cult is brought out in the most lovable way in the movie. Adiyae Kolluthaey for sure rocks big time . Nenjukkul Peidhidum is actually painted . Mundinam Paarthanae could have been justified better with visuals.Only Gautham has the guts to have a romantic classical in the likes of Anal male panithuli towards the end of movie . Sad , that this is probably the last Gautham – Harris combination.

The dad – son relation ship should have been the most compelling factor of the movie .But these portions were pretty few and lite. There should be been more depth in trying to build up the character of Krishnan and on how be became the role model to his son.This the weak point of the movie , the dad is super uber cool and romantic but some how I felt it lacked depth and the strong bonding with the son wasnt that impressive. Had there been few more lorry and the cricket positive energy episodes , it would have been really nice.

The movie doesn’t advocate ‘No Smoking’ . But it has implicitly brought out very the message well.The movie is for sure a good one , though it could have been better.The movie towards the second half trodden towards unprecedented terrains , it drags a bit but since the movie moves through eventually to a son whose desperate to see his dad .

The movie cannot be termed as one of the classics but it was good attempt though falling short by miles.Movies like this has to be well received so that tamil movies can move to the next level.

Hats off to Gautham for a straight from the heart movie

PC Reloaded…

For a while  my PC at home was left unused . It was a very old one , bought in 2001 , upgraded once in 2003 . The idea of updating my hardware was in mind for quite some time .

And now I have upgraded it successfully . As i had a P4 processor , I upgraded it  1 GB Ram , loaded a new DVD writer .Installed Ubuntu straight away.

This is my first post from Ubuntu. Ubuntu is really cool

Random Musings

And here it goes again

-Lots of things running over my mind , in short ,  not sure what i wanted from life . It’s difficult to pin point one thing in which I’m interested. Day 1 to Day 30 the aspirations change with time .Difficult to ascertain whether it’s a passing cloud or it is some thing that my heart wishes for.I hope its high time that I sync my heart and mind to a moment of inertia.

-Have some idea to come up with a personal web site soon. Looking thro the web for various ideas . Should think about using  open source tools for the same . Blog should be the most significant feature of it . Planning to put in some random stuffs about me and my family and some of my interests . It should serve me as a platform to write what ever i feel . Spending some time for the look and feel is all about ways of killing times during the lazy weekend.

-Of late , my english proficiency is hitting at an all time low . This is a serious concern and need to be dealt with utmost caution . Hence planning to write as and when i have time and try to improve my stint with the language. English was my favourite subject during my school and college days and I was the teacher’s pet .Though I read a lot nowadays and my vocabulary is not that bad, i find it difficult to put some thing across in my writings . For some reason , I don’t have the patience to watch the hollywood movies . Some time back , saw  ’Dark Knight ‘ . I was watching it pathetically and was not able to follow it . I’m not at all comfortable with the american english accent and all I hear is some zzzzzzzzz  literally at the end of every word.Looking forward  to blogging some thing regularly.

-Been following Jammy for quite some time  , the guy tries to write some funny blogs . At times , he succeeds in evoking laughter . Interestingly , he’s a tamilian and many times , could relate to his post . In many posts , he writes killer stories , yeah one that cuts your veins and keeps blood oozing . But common , you have to give the credit to this guy , for he writes well and i like his humour.At times he goes over board and can’t help it out .He helps readers with flirting tips and how to look cute gals when you have your beloved by your side as such .He is a crusader I suppose.That is Jammy for you. Happy Reading.

-Planning to buy a music player soon . The travel time to appice is tiresome and at times when you don’t get sleep , it pushes to the edge of boredom.I wish to get some thing that is very sleek and all i expect is to carry some hand ful of songs , I guess 30 GB is too much for me. Actually speaking , I don’t like to listen to my own play list , listening to songs in the FM is quite a nice experience . With namma singara chennai hosting nearly 9 FM channels , the FM option should be one of the significant part of the MP3 player.I was impressed with YES and Transcend.

Yeah , both are ultra sleek . My roomie has YES and it is good actually . One very good new option is that , it has two ports means two set of ear plugs can be used and at the same time , two persons can listen to it with music to both the ears.Though the user interface is not that good , I feel its kind of ok .But then transcend too is good . Need to evaluate with friends too.  I can then use this music player , plug to the my PC speakers and can listen to music , with out booting my p/c . Wow , thats a  definite time saver.

-Also hoping to give my age old pc and buy myself a new lap top . But the big question is what would i do with it . This takes me to my school days when i asked my dad to get me a new PC when I was doing 11th . He asked me why does one need it during those serious +1,+2 days. I replied him seriously that the comp sci syllabus has been changed drastically and i have little time in my lab to try hands on . I need to try it at home and there is no other go other than getting a PC . My dad was thoughtful and he got me a new one immediately . I had that moment when I felt like My Dad is the best . But interestingly , I didnt even try out a single program at home. I used it Just  to listen to music , play games and browe the web and i acknowlegded it as a costly entertainment.Now coming back , why I would i get a lappy . May be I can try out the Springs Depedency Injection and trying out the RMI on JBoss Server . Oh if that is what you think , sorry buddy . I declare , whomsoever it may concern , I’m gonna just use it to do the same things – watch movies , listen to music , browse and laze around ,one thing where in  I lost interest is playing games  and hence wont resort do it. So suggestions welcome for a ultra sleek lappy .

Hmmm

SA-RO-JA Movie – Vaaranam Aayiram Music Review

SAROJA – Movie Review

Cool movie , was fun . Watched it with my team .Had a really good time and most importantly every one liked it and can be watched with family . Venkat Prabhu has directed it well . The story telling on the lanes of Babel and Crash , photography and the music is noteworthy.

Though all the pivotal characters have done it well , Premji and Shiva tickle your rib to the core. People start laughing at Premji the moment he appears on the screen and its a bliss for the director.The timingly comedy at the most unusual places with out hampering the pace is executed well .

Though the movie moves at good pace , I felt it got bit pissed towards the end with some tiring long fights that bored me . It was my fatal mistake on having known the climax and hence there was no big suspense. The director could done some thing better to the climax .Seems it was loosely inspired about the real incidents on how cops turn as baddie and was in news for some time.

The quality of the movie was good and Yuvan was on song in this movie too.He has shaked his leg for one hip hop Cheeky Cheeky . It was funny though.

On a whole , a very decent entertainer and this success is  very important and eye opener to all those run out of the mill story tellers of Kollywood .

Way to go ,Venkat

Vaaranam Aayiram –  Music Review

Gautham – Harris – Thamarai combination has struck gold for the fifth continuous time.

Adiyae Kolluthae

Awesome number . I’m an incredible fan of  electric guitar  . Krish and Benny Dayal growing with  age with some awesome rendering . High light of the song is the electric guitar and sruthi haasan’s electric voice . The way how she modulates towards the end made me go crazy . It has already grown in me well

Mundinam

Pick of the album . What an amazing piece of singing my Naresh , too good.Though this songs reminds of some  song which is quite evident in many of harri’s recent offerings , this one impresses me even then.I’m waiting to see how this song is picturised.Surya’s magnetic voice at the start and the way how he delivers the ‘….Am I love ‘ can make girls go crazy.

Nenjukul Peidhidhum

Once again a feel good song , most of them would love it for the very first time.Hariharan fits in for the mood of the song like a ‘T’.The song as it progressess offers nothing new and we get that nostalgic feeling again . Sorry Harris.

Oh Shanthi Shanti

Very similar and an add on to the one mentioned above.But the pace is bit fast and gives it a very joshful feel.

Yethi Yethi

A peppy one that brims up  from the very start.Again Benny and Naresh sings it with some really cool attitude and it shoud do down well with the youths.

Ava Enna

Wonder what this kind of kuttu song does in a Gautham movie , should be interesting to see how the urbane director has handled it.Lyrics are funny .

There is another one song sung by Sudha Raghunathan but it havent impressed me so far.I’m not matured enough for it.

On a whole , a very impressive album.Harris has given the right mix of songs . Gautham is one director who makes some really good movies in the recent though many of them deeply inspired from Hollywood ,I don’t care.The promos - the freshness and vibrant colour of the movie is a definite teaser. Waiting to see the 6 pack Surya playing characters of different ages. Now I should search for the ‘Hello Tunes’.  Now am thrilled to bits and awaiting to watch the movie.

Frozen Thoughts – Magazine Review

Happened to read a magazine by name ‘Frozen Thoughts’ for the past two months . Liked it very much for the attitude -very motivating , thought provoking and had always given me a point or two to drive home.

The monthly magazine has various articles out of which my personal favorite is the ‘Voice of Love’ written by the author. The striking thing put forth is the need to stay connected to the environment and GIVING BACK.

There are other articles too but we get a feel of reading a moral science book at times . Never mind , there are some gem of articles written.Articles regarding professional growth and stressing the importance of relationship are some of the featured columns.

There are some posters featured at the centre page with some inspiring quotes too.

All is fine but the magazine costs 80 bugs and half of the pages is filled with advts.Better suggest to read it from some one who owns it to get a feel.In the case of being impressed ,Go and grab your copy hence .