Greatest Speeches

I have always wanted to be a decent , if not a good orator. Any good, commanding speeches in TV , movies or in the public make me pause and listen to it.

A few good speeches that i have enjoyed are:

1. P.Chidambaram's budget proposal speech in the Parliament.

I do not remember which year was it .But it was a typical example of expression of power, confidence and knowledge .He was brimming with energy throughout the session and his clarity of speech was exceptional. I guess i will remember it forever.

2.Narration of Tom Hanks in the movie Forest Gump.

An epitome of poise.I think, many behavioural and soft skill trainings in the corporate world still use this movie for demonstrating the narrative, communication skills.


3.Denzel Washington's role in Richard attenbourough's 'Cry Freedom'

This is a movie based on the life of a South African freedom fighter.I think this is the best movie of Denzel i have ever seen.His powerful screen presence, the fiery dialog delivery can be matched by none. I will strongly recommend this movie to everyone at any age group. It is an equally touching story to Gandhi's.Only sad difference is that the main charecter is killed by the colonial regime .

4.Brutus and Antony's speeches after Caesar's murder:

I have read the scripts of both the men's speech .But yet to hear somebody deliver it.They are supposedly the most powerful arugument and counter argument in the history. I like the part where Antony takes a dig at Brutus everytime saying 'Brutus is a honourable man'.It is an amazing set of speeches one should read, rather listen to, to appreciate the genious of William Shakesphere.I am still waiting to get a chance to watch Cleopatra movie to enjoy this particular scene.


I am sure there are many more better speeches than the above.Like the one by Martin Luther King , Yaseer Arafat's UN addressing,Che's inspirational speeches. But i have not heard them yet.

NEED FOR ANOTHER QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

It has been more than a month since Brangelina and their band of body guards had come down to Pune.They are here for the shooting of a movie based on Daniel Pearl's story.Since their arrival,they had been acting as if the have stepped straight down from Heaven.

The security has been beefed up to an unimaginable extent by the local police themselves.Since Brangelina do not have faith in the Indian law and order system ,they have brought some third rated Goondas in the name of body guards.

Brangelina are always surrounded in the security circle of these hoodlooms whereever they go.The whole neighbourhood of the hotel where they are staying have come under a very tight security by the rowdies.Even the native residents have to undergo these security checks .It is closed at 10 PM in the night and those who return home after 10 PM in the night are not allowed to get into thier very own home.

As a climax to their India stay drama,their body guards assaulted the parents of the school children where they were shooting for the film.The kids were not allowed to get out of the classrooms and their parents were pushed and called 'Bloody Indians ' by their rowdy guards.

What on earth is going on here?They come to our own backyard and attack our own people..??Do we have to start one more Quit India Movement to get rid of these scumbags?If they are so scared of their security ,why the hell did they come here ?I strongly feel that the government should intervene and ask them to leave the country immediately citing the nuisance they have created so far.If the hollywood guys can create a 10 km stretch of a high way set with peak traffic spending millions of dollars for 'The Matrix' ,they can very well create a set for a mumbai railway station and a local train in some remote desert.

Ms Jolie ,there is nothing left in you that people are yet to see.Every movie of yours shows you FULLY.Need proof,i would recommend 'Original Sin' of Jolie's.So,Ms.Jolie ,you need not have to worry about your security at all.There are hardly a few thousand people in India that would recognise you.And Mr Brad (t) , you would hardly be recognized in your own backyard .Then why worry about your security in some 'Bloody country'?

I pity the kids that were adopted by these two.They would be better off at their own home starving than to be like a pet animal at these people's custody.

Please leave us in peace.

People of India have better things to do than being a 'security threat' to some low lives.

Kabhi KANK Na Dekna!!

It was the longest three and half hours of my entire life in this world.I went through the toughest endurance test yesterday evening when i watched Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna.I wanted to write this as soon as possible so that i can write whatever i feel staright forward.I think KANK is and will be easily the worst movie i have ever seen and will ever see.It is a loud,shallow,sloppy movie one would ever witness.I basically never had a great opinion about the Bollywood movies and espcially stayed away from KJ's movies.I just hope Karan johar stops movie making or go back to the primary school of movie making.


This is a movie for losers.They can very well relate themselves in SRK as Dev's sleeves in this movie.Also,it is directed by a guy who is ashamed of accepting his orientation in real life,but forcing the audience to accept his orientation through his movies.

In just 10 minutes through the movie ,i was already getting bored and was wondering what i was doing there.The movie started off with the very stereo typic SRK with those boring raised eyebrows and stuttering laughter et al.Rani falls in love with SRK just because he is a loser.Losers,you can be in solace from now on.You are sure to get some hot babe falling for you just because you are a loser.Or,you can sleep around with somebody's wife.

There are numerous scenes that clearly indicate the director's alternate orientation.Nobody is bothered about his personal life here .But i wonder why is he thursting it in his movies also.Even those scenes are not handled with maturity.Role plays,whips,spankings,dolls...dough!! Give us a break Karan.

Poor Abhishek Bachan,in spite of his decent performance,the movie falls so flat.I liked the song where the father-son duo rocks in a party floor(Rock n Roll soniye).It's pretty good and peppy.

I am not at all exaggerating ,but i still have a headache and my colleagues are telling me i look very sick.I need to watch a good movie very soon to get over this bad experience.

TV Snippets

I came across some wizardry of Sun Music channel VJs sometime back.
I am going to put it in Tamil only coz it loses the essence when it gets translated.
The conversation goes like this:

Scene 1:

VJ:ஹலோ, யாரு பேசறது?

Caller:ரமேஷ் பேசறேன்.எங்க பெரிய அக்காவுக்கு இன்னிக்கு பர்த்டே.அவஙகளுக்கு விஷ் பண்றேன்.அப்புறம் ,எங்க சின்ன அக்காவுக்கு நெக்ஸ்ட் வீக் பர்த்டே.அவங்களுக்கும் அட்வான்ஸ் விஷ்.

VJ:Ok.சின்ன அக்கானா தங்கச்சி தானே?

???????????

Applause people!.Unbelievable question.

Scene 2:

VJ:நீங்க என்ன பண்றீங்க?

Caller:நான் ஏர்போர்ட் ல எக்ஸ்போர்ட் புரோஸெஸ்ஸிங் ல இருக்கேன்.

VJ:ஸோ,அப்போ நீங்க எக்ஸ்போர்ட் எல்லாம் பண்ணுவீங்க இல்ல?

Wow!! I wish these people start some management school and pass on their wisdom to all the low lives like us.


These days,I am waking up a bit early in the morning like 6.30 types.I do not have too things to do that time ,than to read newspaper and watch TV.I usually stay fixed to the Cartoon Network in the mornings.But,i found a program in JayaTV very interesting.

It's a carnatic based program,comes up at around6.45 AM and runs for crispy 15 minutes daily.It is conducted by the renowned singer(is he?)Neyveli Santhana Gopalan along with couple of disciples.He takes one Keerthana at a time and analyses it so elaborately.He sings along with the disciples and goes on to explain the lines.He even plays Veena while he sings.He also explains the innate details of its Raga,Thala combinations.He does it so passionately that it catches up even with the viewer.

This week he is doing 'Entharo Mahaanubhavulu',a very famous Thyagaraja Keerthana.A very soothing program to watch in the morning.It has been a very good start of the day for me these days.

Wimbledon 2006 Awards

           This year, the Wimbledon academy have decided to honour the Kollywood by giving away awards to the players in our Kollywood stalwarts's names . Here are the awards and the winners.

Surya Award:

           This is given for putting up a substantially good performance in the recent times and tremendous improvement even in the not-so-comfortable territories.This person comes close to the Zenith quite often and with a very good respect for the game.The nominee for this award is given to a young player who has a lots of good years ahead.And the award goes to Rafael Nadal for his brilliant show in the tournament.


Vikram Award:

           This is for the man who has been outstanding and extraordinarily consistent in the game and is always compared to his legendary seniors.He is expected to break all the current records and set a new standard to the game when he decides to call it a day.This award can goto the one and only Roger Federer.


Ajith Award:

           The year's most prestigious (?) award.The person who receives it always does a over-the-top show off while playing but shows a very little performance on the field.This is a very special award that requires very little contribution and a lot of hyping around.The winner for this great award is Lleyton Hewitt.

Karthik Award:

           This is for the person who has been moderately successful in the game but never really peaked anytime.This award indicates that it is time to hang up his boots and start an academy for a living.This goes to the oft hoped-oft-torn apart Tim Henman.

Namma ooru Namitha Award:

           This goes to Amelie Maurismo,who is feeling out of place in the women's league.

Nayanthara Award:

           This is for our own Sania Mirza,who at times gets noticed for her performances too.I guess it is pretty obvious why she gets this azward.

Aachi Award:

            To the aachi of women tennis.The one who had broken all the records long back and still raring to go.The award goes to manorama err.. Martina Navarathilova.

Chittappa Award:

          This is to all the aging horses who are unable to show anymore decent performances and still refuse to quit.This is in honour(?) of the 'College student' Murali,the league of incorrigibles like Vijaykanth,Sathyaraj,Sarathkumar et al.

Kamal Award:

           This is the pinnacle of all the awards.It is not always that you get to see somebody receiving this award.It is an honour and privilage to receive it.When one talks about the person who receives it,his name himself is more than worthy of an award by his name itself.It's none other the great PISTOL PETE.The man who raises the pulses of the audience and still able to keep his ice cool temper.It was always a treat to watch and i am so glad that i lived during his time to watch him play.
Everytime Wimbledon comes up,we all miss him so much on the center court.

Life in Shenzhen

          Two kind of non-chinese people can survive quite easliy in Shenzhen.One,who can speak Chinese language.The other one is, who knows BharathNatyam or any other dance well.Because there is no other way one can express self without words.

          In the last post, i longed to be a Superman to avoid Bangalore traffic jams.This week, i wish i could dance a bit of BharathNatyam.People back in India ask me that i would be relatively comfortable in China because i knew a bit of Japanese.There is absolutely no connection between the Japanese and the Chinese other than the similarity of the Kanji(a type of Japanese script).The only brownie point i have is,i can recognize those identical ones.For example,i will not land up in the kitchen searching for the loo.;-)

          I am here for a week and some of my Japanese colleagues are also here.Their plight is much worse than me .In my case,when i goto a restaurant,i will be easily identified as an 'Alien(without Antennae on my forehead)' .But poor Jappus,once my Jap colleague was scolded by a Chinese waitress for not speaking Chinese inspite of being a Chinese.

          Whenever i go for shopping in Shenzhen , i love the bargaining part of it. Sometimes i say the numbers in Japanese and they could comprehend it .Most of the times , i just talk in Tamil itself.What difference does it make anyways?:-) When it goes out of control , i show the calculator in the shop or show a notepad on the table.Then we start typing or writing the prices.So far,this has solved the problems.:-) This is kind of interesting.

          The experience with the food gets gross at times.I entered into the restaurant of the hotel to have my dinner and was annoyed to see a pig sitting on the buffet table.I was wondering what on earth is this pig doing in the dinner table.When i went close to that,then i found out that it was a pork cooked in its actual shape,just the skin peeled off.Pretty gross..huh?Somehow,my Chinese colleague could find a Chinese restaurant that has quite a few Vegetarian food.I was surprised to see a typical paratha in their menu also.So far, it has been our regular lunch time menu.


          All said and done,i still would love to come to Shenzhen again.It's a nice place to visit

God!How i wish i could fly like Superman!

You ask anybody who has gone through the agonizing Bangalore traffic jams,they wouldn't agree more with the title.

Boy!! What a movie!!I had been waiting to watch this movie ever since i saw the news of its production.We could not wait longer to watch this movie.If we plan it for the weekend ,i was sure we will not be able to get the tickets soon.Whole of Bangalore is in the multiplexes, and want to spend the evening watching any movie,how much ever crap it is.Of course,i am one of them.


So,we decided to hit it on friday evening,the release day itself.We could get the tickets luckily.When i went inside the hall,i wanted to forget myself and go back to my sunday evening times of my school days.I used to watch the Superman cartoon and so mesmerized with the famous dialog"It's a bird,It's a plane..No,it'ssssss Superman!!!"..(Whistle,Whistle!!!)


That exactly happened with the movie .It not only brought back the memories,but it was so enthralling also.I do not know who did the casting .But Brandon Routh as a superman is THE perfect choice .He just fits in that famous undy-on-top:-) outfit of Superman so perfectly.He oozes grace in every movement of his.I know i should control my adjectives here ,or i am in a danger of being doubted about my orientation;-) .



I just love the way he flies!! There are no sudden jerks or thumpings in his flight or landings.He just glides down like a feather when he touches the ground.It is simply amazing.The man who conceived these ideas must had been a real kid at heart.

Though the movie is extravagant et al,the action sequences are a bit less compared to the Spiderman-II.

I heard the superman's action scenes can be seen with 3-D effects in IMAX theaters.I want to try even that.In my life ,i have never seen a 3-D film so far.As i say usually,go watch it in a good movie hall,i am sure you'd love it.

The Television

It was a quiet evening at home and i was watching TV with my wife and parents.We were sharing our memories of my school days with my wife.We bought a TV quite later than many in our neighbourhood.My mom was recollecting the days when i used to run to our family friend's house on a Sunday morning to watch Disney adventures and Ramayana and later for Mahabaratha also.I used to hang in the window grill of our neighbour to get a glimpse of the TV program.Sometimes ,they were kind enough to keep the window open and at times ,they used to slam it on our face.:-( May be for this reason,Cartoon Network is always a fascinating one for me even now.I know the value of watching it.;-)


I have watched so many films till date .Many of them never lived up to their hype.But,my running on the road for watching Disney adventures never disappointed me.Uncle Scrooge(Mr McD),Launchpad or Donald Duck always entertained me to the fullest.It was fun watching it even in the dubbed Hindi version.

The day we bought TV,it was one hell of a celebration at home.My granny was totally against buying a TV ,the reason i do not understand even today.So,my dad had to drop her at my periyappa's house for sometime.(I remember her yelling "Achichooooo!! idhu enga vandhudhu?? " looking at our pet TV.)I still remember every single moment of that Saturday.I even remember the catalog of that Bush TV that my dad brought with the TV.It was so shiny and colourful and had a Rugby player's photo with various colour adjustments explained with it.I had saved it for a few years.

We were initially thinking of buying a B&W TV.But,thanks to my dad and thanks to that salesman who persuaded my dad ,dad brought a lovely colour TV which was a pleasant surprise for us.

Setting up the TV was not as easy as it is these days.The setting up of antenna costed at least half of the TV's price.There was a huge truck at our doorstep.The TV was brought in first and there was this 20 ft long steel pipe and 2 sets of antenna arrays,one with 10 ft long and the other 5 ft.(Our village was a coastal one and these antennas really posted a life threat of falling on the head to the passer-bys when there was cyclonic winds.) The bigger array was for the telecast from Chennai,which is 250 km away from my place.The other smaller array was for the Kodaikanal relay station.There were 2 signal boosters(UMS antenna boosters,i hope this flashes one's mind) for each set of arrays.Also,there was a separate tuner at the TV table.One had to tune it every time to get a picture.It took a whole day for the mechanic to set up the antenna.He tuned the TV to some setting that we got some kind of 'image thing'.We thought it was over and we were ready to enjoy the TV at our own home.Then came the trouble.

One of my dad's colleagues somehow sniffed that we bought a TV and came home the same evening.He came and saw the TV and asked my dad whether he could tune it better.Dad said yes and there started the trouble.Our self proclaimed TV specialist(who also happened to be my physical education teacher at school!!) started flexing his muscles with the TV for more than an hour and by the time he finished, or rather got tired of things,there were grains and only grains in TV and nothing else.

We all concluded that he messed up with the TV.Though we knew that the signals will be really weak if it travels 200 odd kms.We could not accept it anyways.We were at the mercy of wind to watch the TV and it hardly showered any mercy on us.

I remember one day they were showing 'Salangai Oli' in the Tamil channel and we were all set to watch such a rare good movie from Tamil channel.Surprisingly,the signal was so crystal clear.We settled down in front of the TV and the movie titles were on.Once Kamalhasan appeared on the screen ...blip!! oh no!! the power went off.Damn it !! the whole crowd was cursing the EB for an hour .Finally when the power came ,Kamal was dead in the movie.This is one of the disappointments i could hardly forget.This movie is up in one or the other channel every second week.But ,that moment will never come back.

The MeltDown

Man!my weekend rocked with lots of comedy movies.Just the way me and my wife want it to be.
Best of them all was the sunday movie,Ice Age-2:The Meltdown.Ever since i saw the news that the sequel was hitting the theatres on April 21st,i was just counting the days to watch it.The first part was also a fundoo one.I would have watched it countless times.The sequel also lived upto the expectations.My wife was a bit reluctant to watch 'Cartoons' on big screen because,she did not watch the first part.But,i was quite sure that she would love it.

The whole crowd at the hall loved the movie.Especially,the kids loved it so much with hearty loud laughs,which surprisingly was not disturbing at all.Of late,we had quite bad experiences at the hall watching some tamil ,hindi movies.The so called youth crowd that turn up for the movie pass some stupid ,lewd and loud comments,thinking people enjoy such comments.Yuck!!disgusting to say the least.Wearing neat clothes alone do not make people civilized.


The best part of such animation movies is that the charecters are the finest actors.They are made to show finest expressions and apt body languages.At least you don't need to struggle watching pathetic actors like Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock types.

I somehow enjoy the dialogues in such animation movies than the ordinary motion pictures.I don't know why.They are very Crispy.Hats off to those that give voice to those charecters.They don't just give voices,they give life to the charecters.

What should i say?You will miss something ,if you miss it.

TopSlip

Lots of fuss going around on the two events that happened in Lakme fashion week in Mumbai.Both of them due to the 'wardrobe malfunction',at least that is what is being cited as the reason.
I do not want to talk about it in my words. (That's why the link,for those who do not know about it.(wink;-)

I remember Janet's (in)famous flash in the Super bowl sometime back.She had blamed the blown out hue and cry on American president.(Wow!!).I hope these models do not blame this media buzz on Sonia and Manmohan Singh.

There is one question that always rose in my mind when i watch these shows.Whom are they designing those dresses for?There are hardly any dresses that can be worn in day-today life.Leave alone the daily attire,they can't be worn even at the dress-up parties.I do see that there are themes for the designs.Even then,i do not understand it at all.


As usual,the news channels had a meaty(!!) news to chew for the whole day ,if not for a week.They are seriously running out of news and trust me ,there are too many news channels around and too few news .In this case, no news is not good news at all.

Double Trouble!!

Which one would you choose if you are to choose between a single big can of beer and two small medium cans of beer? i will choose 2 medium cans.So, two smalls are preferred to one big.
But,this will definitely not suit in all the cases.At times ,one is forced to have a single one.I realized this truth on the most important day (or night?) of my life.;-)

Though it was quite an enjoyable one,i(we) will not prefer it all the time:-).I had to apply my adaptability to react to the situation and make the most of it.I really wish to talk about it here .;-) But the situation is not so conducive to put it in words now. Ask me how.

It's good to have something different than the typical ones.Just like when you have a very long waiting time in the transit and you get a chance to do some cool things in that time.

Of course,it is not everyday that you get to do different things.

Reboot

Uff!!It's been ages since i blogged.So much water has flown in this period of time.I am writing after a gap of more than a year.I guess this one year has been and will be the most eventful year in my personal life.To write about all of them in this blog will take days to complete.So,planning to pen it down over a period of time.

I have taken few decisions completely on my instincts.They happen to be the most important decisions.I hope they work fine for me.

I am feeling quite rusty and left in search of words because of this layoff.Many asked me about me not writing anything in the blog.I used to update the blog quite regularly for nearly a year and then once i came back home,it stopped completely.One reason is,when i was away from home,i had so much time and so few friends that, whatever i wanted to discuss with friends,i used to put it in words.Now that i catch up with lots of people and talk about everything with them,i find it boring to put it again in words.

Meantime,some of my friends also started to blog and i am enjoying reading their stuff.One guy particularly updates it quite often and quite interestingly too.

I joined back the office after a long vacation last week.Not doing any great work as of now.Just gossiping around in the cafetaria and pantry.

I came across some interesting gossip today in the pantry.One of my colleagues was talking about the movie Casanova.I became curious and asked her about the movie.She told it was funny.That would have been the last comment I would have expected about Casanova.I had read about him earlier.People generally assume Casanova in synonymous to being playboy.

But his story is so sensual and touching to see how women found his company so comforting.Quite an amazing life he had lived.Trust me,it is so hard to be a good listener ;-) .My colleague told me that the movie was not handled so well.So sad.


Need to get back home after sometime.