Well, for want of a better title I chose this !
Gajabhuja in Sanskrit means the trunk of an elephant !
So, in short, the title means big/huge fundas !! :-)
Out of a total of 30 jumps into water, I managed to do 27 and a half. I had to skip some of them, more out of the fact that too much water had entered my mouth, my sinusitis and I was weary from trying to keep myself afloat; than the fear of the jump itself. I did have a precarious slip (almost certain death according to those who were watching me slip) in my very first jump itself, but I guess mother earth and motherland Madras have to tolerate me for some more time ;-)
Mark my words when I say this -- you need to be physically very fit and preferably know swimming well to complete this trip. This trip is a one-way traffic. If you start it, there is no other option but to finish it. Also, five jumps into the water is compulsory, with the least altitude among them being 30 feet, and a jump into pitch black darkness, being the other.
Photos and detailed trip report in the next few days.
I think I now realize when people say things like "Strike when the iron is hot" and other proverbs. For ten years, I had the chance to learn swimming from my grandmother in the cauvery river, but blew it all up without realizing how important it is. In one of those swimming lessons she was giving me, I embarrassed her by crying out for help ! If I had known swimming, this trip would have been an even more enjoyable one. And then again, swimming is a more complete exercise than anything I have encountered so far.
Pain is, when your lower abdomen gets heavy with nature's call material, but it refuses to go out; you were determined to run at-least 10 kilometers, but had to stop halfway.
Life sucks. And this is why I refuse to run at any time of day except early mornings.
If you are looking for a good introduction to carnatic basics, this is a good place to start off !
Courtesy, my friend Raghuram, who strives to maintain a minimalistic virtual presence.
Speaking of Carnatic, go here to listen to Prasanna play "Alaipayuthe" and go here to listen to him play "Vathapi Ganapathim". In case you did not know who Prasanna was, go here !
Seriously speaking, where do those Americans who take crucial decisions have their brains ? In the places in their bodies where the sun does not shine ? (Okay, that is a polite way of saying their a**es ;-)). Or is it that they do not have brains at all ?
They ban any sort of liquids, toothpaste, e.t.c., e.t.c., from their airplanes, but are now going to allow cigarette lighters in their flights !
I think the rest of the countries must gang up and declare that, they will not allow passengers flying into their countries, to board flights if they have cigarette lighters !
This song is a timeless classic ! The haunting chorus, the mesmerizing flute pieces, the violins, and above all the soft and sensuous voice of S.Janaki. Man, Raja is indeed raja ! Check out the way he opens the song with those beautifully orchestrated violins and the soft flute pieces.
In case you are interested in a piece wise analysis of this song, go here.
When Amma wanted to take over the cable Telivision distribution in Tamilnadu and make it a government enterprise, the first person to oppose it was Karunanidhi, since he feared that the monopoly that his grand nephews, Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi enjoyed, will disappear.
But, now that his nephews have burnt the bridges with him, he is all set to do the same thing. This is real egg on his face !.
It has been ten years since the movie Thullatha Manamum Thullum was released.
I still do not know why these two songs have left some indelible impressions on me.
This one
and this one
Is it because of Hariharan ? Or is it because of Simran ? (The second thought is a distinct possibility ;-) ). It definitely is not because of the musician S.A.Rajkumar.
Or is it because that I was away having a ball in my hostel at NIT (REC) Trichy ? I would not know. But, yes, there are lot more such songs which transports me to another time, another place, another world.
Firstly, I read quite a lot of reviews where the reviewer had mentioned that the movie is dark and disturbing.
I am not aware whether that was meant to be a compliment or a criticism, but I have a question to ask them. It has been three installments since that book was released. The lead characters are no more kids. In fact, they even make out ! That being the case, what is all this lame arguments about being dark and whatsoever ? Silly.
Coming back to the review, this movie, strangely enough, when compared to the previous movies, has nothing in terms of story. It could be possible that the director has made some drastic changes when compared the book and hence, made a lame movie out of it. Since I have not read the book, I cannot compare that scenario.
The plot has been beaten to death in many reviews and I will refrain from writing about it. There is nothing spectacular in terms of visual effects or whatsoever. While the previous movies had some dazzling CGI in form of the Quidditch games, this one does not even have that too. Somehow the idea of Harry teaching the kids to use their magic did not gel well with the overall movie. In fact, except for one or two situations, I did not see the kids using their spells anywhere else.
And the director has glaringly left out many details about the Order of the Phonenix. He tries to give some introduction to it, but inexplicably, there is no mention later on in the movie about it. Some amount of movie time to that aspect might have made the movie a tad more interesting. And what happens to Harry's crush Chang ? Is it a part of the next installment ?
At the end of the movie, you somehow feel the emptiness in the movie. And that is not a good sign !
In case you did not know, pirated versions of Harry Potter's final installment is getting ready in the streets of India and maybe, China too.
However, before jumping to any kind of conclusions, think of this.
The manuscript is being prepared in London (I assume this, since Rowling lives there) and is being sent to many stores throughout the world under heavy security. If the leak did not happen at the source, i.e., the place where the manuscript was being printed or where it was being written, where else could it have happened ?
Now, what is the point in blaming India, China or for that matter, any country for this leak ?
The fault, without any doubt, lies at the source. So, a sincere piece of suggestion to the so-called western countries to first set their houses in order, before blaming others.
Before I started to jump. My phobia of heights (Yeah, yeah, I know most guys are surprised when I say I have fear of heights ;-)), made me wait a full 5 minutes before I jumped. In case you are wondering why my hands are crossed on my shoulders, it was to balance myself. There was this dead weight that was tugging my legs !
And then, I jumped ! A second or two of free fall.
Almost at the end of the jump.
You start oscillating like crazy. That is when the yippie-ka-yey war cries escape out of you ;-)
The cable comes down to hosit you back to safety !
And there you are back !
This was Mexico's tallest bungee jump it seems. 70mts. The one in Bangalore was taller !
Crap. Totally avoidable. Micahel Bay needs to come out of the mindset, that whatever crap he coats with American Jingoism, people will watch it. How many times does have to use slow motion technique to show pilots boarding their planes ?
And yeah, as for the CGI, well, it plainly sucks.
Ebay being browsed by aliens to find out stuff ? World Wide Web being made available galaxy wide ? Come on, doesn't that sound real lame ?
Apart from a few really comic moments, there was/is nothing to really write about.
Excuse me, Mr.Bruce Wills. You had made an interesting character called John McLane. One of the most interesting points in that character being a larger-than-life hero, was the villains that he battled. A sneering German, a smooth talking German e.t.c., e.t.c..
Can you please tell me where they are in your latest installment that you have dished out ? I mean, the jokes are plenty, the action, thankfully, looks real (what was that flyover sequence ? Looked pretty lame), but where is the story and where are those menacing villains, who are absolutely necessary, to elevate the stories of good vs bad to really effective levels ? While you have managed to maintain continuity by making sure that your daughter is now in the thick of things, you seem to be pretty jaded yourself. Some more enthusiasm in paying your role would have helped. I seem to think that Justin Long has actually manged to play his part pretty decently, given his, "Hi I'm a Mac" sentences that we were used to !
In the absence of the all important aspect, viz, villain and an effective story line and screenplay, sorry Mr.John, you are indeed a Timex watch in the digital age.
I am generally not given into too much emoting and stuff when I watch movies. But, it was this movie that really created that lump in my throat feeling.
To start off, Straight Story is a pretty simple movie. An elder brother makes a difficult (considering his age and financial situation) journey to mend fences with his ill brother.
Unlike many other preachy movies about relationships and stuff, this movie just presents situations that the elder brother encounters along his journey. Situations which, if you are a traveler, would encounter.
The directory, David Lynch, strikes a chord with his viewers, extracting simple, nothing flashy and very effective performances from his crew. In fact, the screenplay is again devoid of any relationship jingoisms or any other overtures, and instead, concentrates and presenting realistic situations to the viewer. Note the situations where the lead actor bargains over the repairs done to his tractor.
This movie was based on Alvin Straight's real life story. Richard Farnsworth plays the role of Alvin Straight and to put it simply, provides a magnificent performance, literally living out the role. Sadly, it looked like he has reserved his best for the last. This was his last movie, before he passed away committing suicide.
Particularly touching were the last few scenes where it becomes really hard to dismiss this movie as "Just another movie".
Matacanes, 
Swimming
Pain
Running
Carnatic
Guitar Prasanna
Mozart
Thyagaraja
Adventure
Crazy
Air Travel
Comedy
Illayaraja
Tamil Songs
Madras
Chennai
Sorgam
Puratchi Thalaivi
Jayalalitha
Karunanidhi
Vidyasagar
Tamil
Simran
Harry Potter
Bungee
Bungee Jumping