கோலங்கல் (Rangoli) - 6

This Rangoli was drawn by my wife - Sai Lakshmi.

கோலங்கல் (Rangoli) - 5

This Rangoli was drawn by my wife - Sai Lakshmi.

Keep away from these people...

I read this quote in Deccan Chronicle dated 28th December, 2007.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too, can become great.

-- Mark Twain

கோலங்கல் (Rangoli) - 4

This Rangoli was drawn by my wife - Sai Lakshmi.

Don't talk over the phone while driving

வண்டி ஓட்டும் பொழுது செல்போன் எடுக்காதே;
கூப்பிடுவது எமனாக இருக்கலாம்!

This is one another nice quote which I read on a board maintained by Chennai Traffic department in Mahalingapuram road [on the way towards Loyola college from Kodambakkam bridge.].

கோலங்கல் (Rangoli) - 3

This Rangoli was drawn by my wife - Sai Lakshmi.

Life is Beautiful ....

Today I watched the movie "Life is Beautiful" which won the oscar award in 1998. I liked the movie very much and Roberto Benigni who was the hero, co-author of this movie has done a marvellous job.

There were lots of instances where I laughed out loud while watching this movie. For ex:

1. The way Benigni bumps on Braschi very frequently and builds a story around it
2. His translation of german officers instructions to English
etc.,

Story of the movie can be read here.

கோலங்கல் (Rangoli) - 2

This Rangoli was drawn by my wife - Sai Lakshmi.

Quote on preserving the trees / flowers

Not for you only
leave it for the next generation

I read this on a board maintained by forest department / wild life department on the way towards Munnar.

கோலங்கல் (Rangoli) - 1

This Rangoli was drawn by my wife - Sai Lakshmi.

Quote on why 'God' died!

Jesus died of our sins!
-- This is the quote which I read on a car.

Forget religion just replace 'Jesus' with 'Sai Baba' in that quote it would still hold good.
i.e., Sai baba died of our sins!

All I learnt from this quote is, let's be careful on things we do and make sure we don't increase our sins count knowingly!

Why Mohanlal isn't able to flourish in Tamil Industry?

Though I am a fan of Rajinikanth for various reasons which goes beyond the scope of this article, I have always felt that Kamal hassan is one of the finest artist now in Tamil Industry.

To my knowledge, the closest to Kamal hassan in Indian film industry is Mohanlal - the best artist of Kerela film industry.

When I went for vacation to kerela last week I happened to see few of Mohanlal's film posters there. At that time I thought about the title of this article.

Few kerela (male) artists like Mamooty and Jayaram have acted in many good films in Tamil. To be specific Jayaram's performance in 'Thennalli' if not better was on par with Kamal hassan's performance in that film. Where-as the films acted by Mohanlal in Tamil haven't performed well in box office! I am really wondering What could be the reason for it?

Do you have an opinion on this topic to share with us? If yes, post it as a comment and lets have a healthy discussion.

Few points to kindle your thought!

1. One of the way to look at it is 'Should we really bother about it as people know he is a great actor and he has proved it consitantly in Malayalam movies?'.

2. Are tamil audience looking for physic more than acting? But don't forget Jayaram is also little stout when compared to most of the tamil hero's. So is it really an issue?

3. May be Mohanlal need to concentrate more on the story line!

4. May be he hasn't understood the difference between the Malayalam and tamil audience!

Quote on the way to lead a life!

Today I read this beautiful tamil wordings in an auto.

நீ வாழ பிறரைக் கெடுக்காதே;
பிறர் வாழ நீ கெடாதே

The litral translation of this in english is:

Don't spoil others life for you to live;
Don't spoil yourself for others to live

Back from Vacation ....

I was on a vacation to Kerela with my wife. We visited Munnar and Kumarakkom. Will write a post on my experience tonight.

For now, I have uploaded few of the snaps which I took during the vacation here in Flickr.

Failure....

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently
-- Henry Ford

This is an excellent quote and it really motivates me whenever I fail in a task (be it official or personal) :)

Indian of the Year ...

NDTV is conducting a poll to find out the 'Indian of the year' in 5 different categories. They are:

1. Leader -- My choice was 'Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam'

2. Sports -- Out of the lot I always like the achievements of 'Viswanathan Anand' so I voted for him.

In my view, when Sehwag was in his peak form was compared with Sachin tendulakar. But he didn't last for long in international circuit with the same consistency! Now people has started to promote Dhoni .. only time can say whether Dhoni would meet people's demand consistantly!

3. Cinema - My obvious choice was 'Rajinikanth - the Boss'

4. Global Indian -- I left out this section as I am not too sure.

5. Business -- I left out this section as I am not too sure.

6. Music -- I went for A.R. Rehman

7. UnSung Heroes -- I went for 'Indian Soldiers - Super heroes'

Don't be left out, go and cast your vote here

Exerting one's strength

There are two ways of exerting one's strength;
one is pushing down,
the other is pulling up.
-- Booker T. Washington

One another wonderful quote which I read few days back. If you are powerful in terms of position, asset, contacts etc., try and help others in such a way that they can come up in life rather than blocking their growth!

Beautiful wordings related to safe driving!

Last Friday, I went to GRT Grand Days officially. While travelling somewhere after E.C.R check post I saw a hoarding on behalf of ('Traffic') police department on the left hand side. It read,

Heavens can wait
Drive slowly.

What a thoughtful wordings :) I felt this to be short and crisp way of saying 'Please drive slowly and safely as your lives is very important".

It's Superstar Rajinikanth's Birthday

[Source: http://www.dailythanthi.com/thanthiepaper/12122007/07ABRADVT.%202.11.jpg]

பிரியமான நாயகனுக்கு என் பிறந்த நாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

Superstar Rajinikanth turned 58 today. The only film star whom I love to meet in person someday is Mr. Rajinikanth. Today (12/12/07) is his Birthday.

Yesterday when I was travelling to Lister Lab I saw lots of posters from varied companies carrying Rajinikanth's birthday wishes. One among them was Hello FM. Only after seeing their posters I came to know that there is a FM channel by named 'Hello FM' itself :)

BTW for quite sometime people wheren't talking about whether Rajinikanth would enter politics or not. But now that his latest movie Sivaji was a super hit that topic of discussion have started again :) Check out the below poster (Source: Rajinifans.com) prepared by Rajini fans from Madurai. I would write a post on what's my take on this topic soon.

Lister Lab

I went for a medical checkup to Lister Lab (102, Dr. Radhakrishnan Road, Chennai) yesterday as tentatively I might travel to US next month. It was a pleasant surprise to meet my friend 'Logesh' after a very long time. I actually forgot where he stays and other facts as usual (as i have a very bad memory :( ) . He walked towards me and introduced himself and said he stays in Bangaru street, Ayanavaram. It seems he is working there as 'Customer Support Executive'. We chatted for a few minutes and then got to business as I went to the Lab during my lunch hour :)

While I was waiting there in the reception for the x-ray technician to call my name I read a nice quote on the walls of Lister Lab. It was ... "It takes months to find a customer seconds to lose one.".

I was thinking through that and thought in the same quote if we just replace 'customer' with 'good/true friend' it would still makes perfect sense! What do you guys feel?

Amazing fact!

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit

-- Harry S. Truman

Vijay TV is innovative!

Before actually talking about the topic I would like to write a short note on a debate show named ‘Neeya Naana’.

According to me, one of the popular TV shows in Tamilnadu is ‘Neeya Naana’ which is being telecasted on every Sunday @ 9 PM in Vijay TV. The host / anchor Mr. Gopinath drives the show very interestingly and he is one of the very few people I have seen speaking Tamil fluently (that too good Tamil) :)

I like Gopinath because?

1. He talks clearly and to the point
2. I love the way he translates the comments made by a person into a crystal clear Tamil sentence
3. He is assertive
4. Balances the arguments pretty well
5. I presume he is doing the home work well
6. He has a pleasant smile
7. The way he urges the participant to talk for themselves rather than quoting / referring about others
8. etc.,

Is there any change I would like to see in this program?

Yes. There were few instances where I saw people taking advantage of others. I would like Gopinath to step-in and make the point clear that they should not hurt other participants by their words.

Innovation seems to be the motto of Vijay TV

Vijay TV seems to be innovative in bringing in new programs very often and most of the Tamil channels seem to be pretty much copying their concept. These are the shows which they introduced it first among the other Tamil channels:

1. கலக்க போவது யாரு? (Kalakka Povadhu yaru?)
2. Super Singers
3. Super Singers Juniors
4. ஜோடி நம்பர் - 1 (Jodi Number 1 - though I didn’t like it totally for various reasons.)
5. கனா காணும் காலங்கள் (Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal)
6. Story of Shirdi Sai Baba
7. நியா நானா? (Neeya Naana?)

The concept of the first four in the above list has already been copied by almost all major Tamil channels now. The only difference those channels make is ‘changing’ their program name :)

In my view, Vijay TV is in the top rating (as far as Tamil channels) are concerned in the way they innovate programs and Sun TV is in the last spot in terms of innovation :) [I have just considered these channels, Sun, Jaya, Vijay and Kalainar TV].

Normally I don’t watch TV shows / Serials at all. For the simple fact there would be too much of ladies sentiments, superstitious, waste of time (!!!) etc., but now when ever I am early from office I watch ‘Sai Baba’ serial without fail. Also Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal was really interesting till the new 11th standard batch was introduced.

One of the popular programs of Vijay TV which I hate is ‘Jodi Number one’. I guess the director of the show likes ladies sentiments too much!! I feel they exaggerate a lot in that show. More than that ‘Jodi Number one – Season 2’ had ‘Simbu’ as one their judges. I presume him to be a publicity freak. He just cries now and then in the show! Also he tries to show himself as too clean, lots of ladies sentiments, too much of self-boasting, tough to get the mike away from him :)

That said, in ‘Jodi Number One – Season one’ I liked Raghav’s performance and really wished he would win the title. Unfortunately he lost in the finals :(

In ‘Jodi Number One – Season Two’ I liked only these two things:

1. Dance performance of ‘Master Sundaram’ (Father of dance Master Prabhu Deva)
2. Few dance steps did by Master Prabhu Deva (I am a hardcore fan of him).

If at all there is a ‘Jodi Number One – Season three’ I would like to see ‘Master Prabhu Deva’ or ‘Master Raghavendra Lawerence’ as judges. Also I wanted to just see the pure performance of the participants without any sentiments attached to it [So that audience won't be influenced based on sentiments!!]

Overall I am impressed by the way Vijay TV has come up in the last couple of years. Now that Vijay TV has set a standard for themself they need to concentrate on maintaining it consistently.

Wonderful quote by Winston Churchill ...

Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.

-- Winston Churchill

Investment in Knowledge....

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest
-- Benjamin Franklin

Bad thing about Good songs - Nice Quote

Bad thing about a famous song is it make all the people think they are great singers :)

[I read this in a restaurant]

Nice Quote by my wife's GrandFather

நெடுந்தூரம் நடப்பவன் நீண்டநாள் வாழ்வான்.

The meaning for the above tamil saying in english is - "One who walks long lives long". Her Grandfather was healthy till 95 years and he used to walk a lot. So I guess we should try and cultivate the habit of brisk walking in our daily schedule!

Budget - Nice Quote

A budget is a method of worrying before you spend instead of afterwards

[I read this in a restaurant]

Money - Nice Quote ...

Money talks but it doesn't say when its coming back

[I read this in a restaurant]

Celebrity -- Nice Quote

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become known then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognised!

[I read this in a restaurant]