kirukkal.com

July 22, 2006

Badri Seshadri’s Interview – Aaraamthinai

I don’t think you should miss Aaraamthinai’s two-part interview[Part 1 and 2] with Badri Seshadri. It’s been sometime since the interview was published and it was only today I was able to read it.

Badri’s reply to the straight forward questions were as usual, very logical. He was spot-on about non-existence of competition in Tamil publishing circles and govt’s help for books publishers. Except that he was a little aggressive about the questions on tamil literature books. I wasn’t expecting Badri to be blunt with those answers, rather I should say it was a little shocking to hear that from Badri.

On a different note, recently Badri has become the face of Tamil Blogging. Whenever there is a snippet news or a covery story on Tamil blogging, they must be saying, “Call Badri”. Part of the reason is that he is Chennai and is easily reachable. Just like how Kribs [No comparison though] was there in every single blogging meeting or roadshow. While for someone new to blogging, it may be interesting but for bloggers who read stuff day in and out, it gets pretty boring to keep hearing the same person talk about blogging in main stream media.

In any case, if you have been watching the Tamil Publishing scene for the last couple of years, you couldn’t avoid but notice Kizhakku Pathippagam‘s birth and growth. They came in with a bang. Especially with Tamil blogging picking up and people who were involved in Kizhakku were bloggers, they had a good word-of-the-blog publicity. Also their marketing and quality of books were impressive. More impressive were line-up of books they got in. They published the entire list of Ashokamitran and Aathavan, sparing a couple of books. And they already published around 150 books to their credit. And that’s good going.
July 22, 2006

Balu Mahendra’s Kathai Neram

Sujatha details his friendship with Balu Mahendra in a recent Ambalam article, Baluvin Kanaakaalam. Very importantly he mentions two things about Balu Mahendra’s Kathai Neram serial.

Those who had watched Kathai Neram can vouch that it was one of the best serial ever made for television. Each episode was a seperate shortstory. And as Sujatha says it was a perfect example of adapting a shortstory for the screen. He also goes on to say that Balu Mahendra was able to tell a shortstory in 20 minutes without making it embarassingly loud or terribly boring. And as someone who saw most of those episodes, I have to say that Sujatha’s words aren’t an exaggeration.

Sa.Kandasaamy’s Tholaindhu Ponavargal was my other favorite serial. If I could re-collect it right, it was broadcasted on Thursdays from 10 – 10:30 pm. In Channel 2. Remember, Channel 2 of DD ?
July 21, 2006

Fifteen Minutes of Fame – 2

This is a sticky post. Regular programming continues below.

If you encounter these lines in a blog, please close the browser and move onto the next one. That blogpost would be a pure collection of some mindless posts, which even the blogger who linked to it hasn’t read completely. Why in this world would you want to read something that hasn’t been even read by the blogger, in the first place ?

The more the number of updates to the post, the more it gets linked. It would stand a big chance of becoming the reference point for that whole issue. Plus it might get insta-pundited or mentioned in some mainstream media.

Apologize my swearing but what the heck is “regular programming” ?
July 20, 2006

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Spirit of the Desi blogworld

Its amazing how quickly we’ve all moved on from the emotions of mumbai blasts which only happened a few days ago, its odd that none of have shed any tears for the Tsunami victims in Indonesia, its odd none of us have been reminded of the TN tsunami when reading about the recent Indonesian one. Its odd that all of us have now moved on to the Indian Government’s pathetic decision to stop people accessing blogspots within India. The in thing now for all us bloggers is to get on our high horses and scream at the top of our voices about freedom of speech and democracy etc etc until the next big thing hits the headline. Some might say that we are a stoic bunch of bloggers.

This post named, Spirit of the Desi Blogworld, isn’t a unique thought. But its the right way and the right time that WA chose to post it. I feel like locating the Wicked Angel and getting her~~/him~~ a handful of Baskin Robbins. What say ?
July 19, 2006

Katrathum Petrathum – 4

Just after completing the Silvia series, Sujatha is back with the next serving of Katrathum Petrathum. This is 4th part of Katrathum Petrathum and it starts with a Sujatha style analysis of the tamil world.

KP is turning out to be the biggest of series that Sujatha has ever written. While it started as an autobiographical column, it continues as an extended version of Kanayazhiyin Kadaisi Pakkam. Even Sujatha haters have been strong followers of Kanayazhiyin Kadaisi Pakkam in the 80’s. While KKP had more of literary stuff, KP is sort of a weekly blog. And I might right in saying that KP is slowly over-taking KKP’s fame.

Just in case, if you haven’t read Katrathum Petrathum Part 1, 2 and 3, you could get a compiled book version in the stores. And I hope someday after KP stops for good, there will be consolidated version. But for now, it KP Part 4.

Badri Seshadri’s Interview – Aaraamthinai

Balu Mahendra’s Kathai Neram

Fifteen Minutes of Fame – 2

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Katrathum Petrathum – 4