kirukkal.com

September 16, 2004

Happy Birthday Dude !! – MS Subbulakshmi

[Pic:thehindu.com]

As MS Subbulakshmi, the god’s own voice, celebrates her 89th birthday today, all we can do is to wish her The Hindu way, Many healthy happy peaceful returns of the day. Offlate, her recent setbacks on health front did worry millions of her fans across the world and this is probably is one nice way to wish her great health.

The quest to enjoy her music, live in an auditorium, has only grown over the days and has never suffered a downfall. Everytime you would hear Kurai Ondrumillai or the Bhaja Govindam or her Meera Bhajans, her music grows on you. These are just some popular examples that one can relate to. A long time carnatic music fanatic would be able to identify a raaga sung by a contemporary singer and relate to how MS has/would sung the similar raaga better.

While Raaga Aalaapana, they say, is easier said than done, I have heard people who talk/write about her ability to research deeper into a raaga during the Aalaapanai and still keep the audience glued. But again, we are just gifted to listen to her music on tapes. I constantly envy those who have enjoyed her carnatic kutcheris in person.

Few years back, while I had to visit my friend in the Apollo Hospital, we saw MS was just walking slowly in the reception area, probably for a doctor visit. And before me and my friend could realise it was MS herself, a few teenaged girls literally started running towards her. Bowed her down and were damn excited to see her. The next moment, a small queue got formed and they started falling down on her feet to get her blessings. While me and my friend stood transfixed by her tejas and the kind way she responded to those girls, we also realised that she was so embarassed to have a queue waiting to fall in her feets. All this within minutes and then she had gone. Though I had seen her before in a kutcheri, this recent one remains so fresh and couldn’t believe even today that we actually glimpsed MS, so near, in person.

Fly here for a complete profile of MS Subbulakshmi. This Happy Birthday Dude!! is kind of getting on like a impromptu series, so allow me to call everyone informally, a dude, including MS.
September 15, 2004

Times Today

Nokia 6600’s the hero in Cellular. Was suprised to see this headline. Cellular is a hollywood flick that released last week in the US.

According to The Wall St. Journal article, the Nokia 6600 is central to the film’s dark storyline, which portrays both the best and worst features of cellphones. Kim Bassinger plays a mother who is kidnapped, locked in a room — and manages to make one random cellular call — from a rotary dial phone that was smashed by the kidnapper. She reaches a random individual, played by Chris Evans, who drives around Los Angeles trying to help her. And here’s the twist, Ryan must overcome common wireless frustrations, including poor signals, a low battery and inadequate customer service, to save her. In the process he is stuck with rude sales people while he stopped at a shop to buy a charger. Read More.

HP ran more than 4 pages of Ads on their range of computer systems in The Economic Times, Chennai edition. No idea why so much on a single day ?

Zoom, the to-be introduced mass niche channel(read commercial) of Times Network has ads all over the Times dailies. Zoom is planned to be aired on the third week of this month. Don’t know if our local guys at chennai have any plans for the CAS subscribers. Read more in the India Television site.
September 15, 2004

Fighting Comment Spam in Blogs

Online Journalism Review has an interesting write up on the how Bloggers fight comment spam. The article, Bloggers Declare War on Comment Spam, but Can They Win?, talks about the chronology of events leading to this war and few rules of thumb to fight comment spammers.

Incidentially, I had more than 500+ spammed comments flooding my MT installation. More spams were coming in every day in lots. I had installed MT-Blacklist a month back. And I should say it is one of the best. Jay Allen, the developer of MT-Blacklist is a demi-god. MT-Blacklist fight spams like nobody’s business. It have literally taken out 98% of the comments that are spams. The in-flow of spams has also reduced drastically since then.

If you are looking for the best-of-the-best solution to comment spam, the practical suggestion, install a blacklisting service.
September 14, 2004

Recipe for Writing : First, Get a washing machine

This column of GV Krishnan in Zine5 is noteworthy. Starting from rounded pencils, washing machine sounds to heavy metal music, the strange habbits of writers required while writing, truly amuses. I remember, Writer Sujatha mentioning in one of his columns that there are such oddities in a writer’s life and the only thing he always required was the compulsion of a deadline to write.

Art Buchwald, they say, cluttered his office with something else – bundles of fan mail, with the most interesting among them stuck on the office walls. Among the certificates that found wall space were the ones that said – Are you a writer or an idiot?, You stink, and We girls think you most contemptible; go to hell.

The above are the lines from the column Recipe for Writing : First, Get a washing machine. I laughed thoroughly. Read More.
September 14, 2004

Is Chennayil Oru Mazhai Kaalam a rare Phenomenon ?

Sify reports that the second coming together of Gautam & Surya may not happen. Looks like their Chennayil Oru Mazhai Kaalam is dropped. Gautam gets to direct Kamalhassan on his next venture and Surya gets to act in a Bala’s production.

The teaser pics of Chennayil Oru Mazhai Kaalam looked near perferct with Surya – minus moustache + a guitar + extraordinary lighting. It’s a sure shot miss.

Update: The Co-Blogging Series World Themes for Indian Cinema marches forward in the Guest Blog. A well written commentary on the Broadway edition of AR Rahman’s Bombay Dreams by Ashok Rajamani is also up there.

Happy Birthday Dude !! – MS Subbulakshmi

Times Today

Fighting Comment Spam in Blogs

Recipe for Writing : First, Get a washing machine

Is Chennayil Oru Mazhai Kaalam a rare Phenomenon ?