4-1. The robot playing with the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni did the magic. Looking like Anniyan Vikram, this guy is certainly a robot. I haven’t seen such effortless sixers since Robin Singh. Every single minute of the last hour was so exciting.
And Yuvraj is becoming a sort of Michael Bevan, a run machine. Just that he doesn’t come in as 7th down.
P.S – While Dravid would be the most happiest person now, he should think about not throwing his wicket with such bad shots.
I’ve been constantly asking friends to buy tamil literature books that I couldn’t get here in the US and they have been sending them in regular instalments. Now I seem to have books for more than a year’s worth of reading as I’m still waiting for to the next set to arrive.
Last week, some more books from Chennai, arrived. And I was waiting to get my hands all over them. This set includes this year’s most talked about books in The Chennai Book Fair 2006. The most expected was Aathavan’s Shortstory Collection with which I now own all of Aathavan’s works published recently. I know I’ve been rambling about Aathavan for sometime now and that’s because of a simple reason, thamizh kurum nallulagam has missed a great writer and given him to the floods. I have just started to read this one but I’ve to say Kizhakku Pathippagam has done a noble job of compiling the aathavan’s shortstories to feed his hungry fans. Indra Parthasarathy’s foreword where he talks about his student Aathavan, clearly details the sorrow of missing a great writer.
Aathavan had a unique style which I couldn’t compare to anyone before or even after him. I have this feeling that no one, literally no one details the middle class urban life as we see and live it. Sujatha to a large extent came closer to this. However, some of his urban stories moved away from the middle-class life that some(!!) of us lived. They moved away into a fantasy world which makes you earn for a middle-class life like that. Sample, the scene where Arvind Swamy smokes before his mom in Roja. Didn’t most(!!) of us think, what a cool idea it is to have a mom like that ? Whether its morally/physically wrong or right, didn’t we feel that the conversation they had in that scene, however exaggerated it seemed, was so damn cool. That’s Sujatha. Aathavan was a little different. He wrote and wrote about the urban family life and he wrote it just like that. Just like that. The exaggerations were minimal. In this arena, we don’t have a author in Tamil, parallel to Aathavan.
In Chennai Book Fair 2005, when I was in Kizhakku Pathipagam stall, a co-blogger introduced me to a gentleman, Era Murukan. While I knew nothing about him, to my surprise, he knew about Lazy Geek and spoke in length about Tamil writings. He said he worked for a software company and was extremely humble. As a foot note, he also mentioned that he wrote a book which was published by Kizhakku Pathipaggam. Though I believed it, the writers whom I’ve met before was nothing like him. He wasn’t dressed in a Veshti/Jibba and didn’t have a jolna bag like me. I moved on after talking to him. Now when I read his Moondru Viral, I wish I read this book a year back. Amazing details and vivid descriptions. Will complete the book and will certainly put up a post on this book.
Alpha is also one of the books that came along in this set. I am still awaiting to get Sujatha’s Collection Of Plays and Sujatha Kaelvi Pathil Part 1 and 2. Though I’ve read most, infact all, of Sujatha’s plays, this one will be in my collection. Sujatha virtually wrote all his plays only for Poornam Vishwanathan. Though Sujatha’s plays are unknown to the outside world, his play named Dr. Narendiranin Vinotha Vazhakku (The Weird Case Of Dr. Narendran) is a class apart. If only theatres groups like EVAM could play such unique plays, the world outside Chennai would discover a playwright in Sujatha.
A zillion thanks to Ramki for getting these books straight from the publishers.
It takes a year atmost for an unassuming desi to become wary of calories. While some 10-20% of them are already calorie conscious right from India, most of what-the-heck-is-a-calorie desis take atleast 12 months before they are soaking wet in the world of calories, fats, 2 % saturated fat, carbs and so-so. Amidst reading Pudumaipithan and Ashokamithran books, I recently found myself trapped with a book, The Bread for Life Diet : The High-on-Carbs Weight-Loss Plan. Mind you, I’m was the kind of desi who was once throwing a big damn towards all these calories and carbs.
I have to say I’m hugely impressed with this bread for life diet plan. Written by Israeli nutritionist Olga Raz’s this is a innovative diet plan that tries to control your brain from hogging food, rather than controlling the physical YOU. By taking regular courses of light bread which has carbs, it aims to raise Serotonin levels in hypothalamus region of the brain are raised. Brain is often called as the hunger center of the body which initiates and processes the feeling of hunger. Serotonin is a chemical that influences the mood and hunger.
Raz says adopting to a diet fails for most diet-watchers because a crash-course diet usually advices low carb foods and hence serotonin levels decrease, incresing the hunger more and more. With regular carbs intake, through light bread and other vegetables, the Serotonin levels are raised and hence hunger is controlled even in the brain. The diet plan is actually dealt in detail but the crux of the plan is to intake as much as 16 slices of light bread for men and 12 slices for women. While even reading this book makes you think this is a radical idea for diet, the diet plan claims to have reduced the weight of thousands of people already. Following this diet plan, the average weight loss among healthy people is said to 10 to 20 pounds, which ofcourse may vary from individuals.
What ? Am I trying it ? Donno but the book was well written and was certainly high-carbs food for my calorie conscious desi-mind.
The above pic has a self-explanatory email sent to me by Sriram.
Before that, my rambling note. I saw. I read. I was thrilled, excited and also sad. I hate to believe rumors that Camel Hassan‘s ‘to-be magnum opus’ Marudhanayagam will never get to see the light of the silver screens. I have my own reasons why Marudhanayagam should and should not release. The reasons why it should outplay the others. I expect just like millions of other kollywood fans, Kamal’s dream would reach the screens and entertain us. Though wanting to explain the reasons in detail, holding you back before reading the email isn’t quite right. Here you go.
kirukkal.com 