Vigneshwaraya Namaha!

Its a brilliant day!!! Blue skies, birds (crows) chirping and most of all, namma chennai makkal rushing to get their hands on the clay figures of Lord Ganesha!

Happy Vinayagar Chaturthi people!

Every year at home, i wake up to the smell of the yummy food being prepared and to the hustle and bustle on the streets! Young girls carrying miniature clay ganeshas, hawkers selling flowers, garlands, thoranams, colorful umbrellas (for the clay ganeshas) and other things that would sell on this day! Although i really do not understand the pooja part and the accompanying mantras, all i ever cared about was the kozhukattai! The soft gooey home made sweet that just has no diminishing marginal utility! Saaptukute irukalam!

And so, on this auspicious day, i pray that all of you have a prosperous life ahead filled with the goodness of Kozhukattais!! Lets hope that this world be rid of the evil and sorrow it is now infected with!

Happy Kozhukatai gorging u pigs!! :)

Anyway, me going back to the legendary movie of 2010 (on Sun TV): Sura (Nee adicha adi vizhum, Naan adicha ...IDI VIZHUM!)

Arrivederci!!

My Tryst with Mario!

Here i am..Rock you like a Hurricane..Here i am..Rock you like a..oh hi there!! I was just listening to one of the all time great rock anthems! ..You know the 80's is one of the greatest decades that mankind has seen and experienced! (including my birth in 1989!) It was the decade that ushered in a series of global events,iconic figures in music, politics, film and sport, and most of all - Technology. It was the age of computers, television, VHS, boomboxes and more relevantly - Video Gaming baby!! 

Video Gaming took the world by storm and Japan seemed to be the one of the best in Video Game development! Nintendo, Capcom and Namco especially were churning out games that would be played over the next two decades ! Well of course in India, we had the misfortune of being exposed to these gadgets only almost 15 years after its release! I will never forget the day when i feasted my eyes on the legendary Fourth Generation Nintendo Gaming Console (16 bit version). It was a thing of beauty, but alas, i had to settle for a cheaper copy of the console after weeks of pleading my parents! (this was back in 1999-2000)

And ofcourse ROM cartridges were needed to play and being a first time gamer i was pretty confused about which games to buy as i had no clue about the popular games at that time! In Pondy Bazaar, T.Nagar, is every kid's gaming heaven - Maya's Plaza. At that time, games were sold not individually but as a package with a lot of other games in the same ROM cartridge. 64 in One, 3 in One, 256 in One ; these were some of the ROM cartridges available at that time! So i chose the 64 in One (paid around Rs.400) , checked to see if it worked or not at the shop, and i returned home as fast as i could for the official console unpacking ceremony.

After unpacking and figuring out the connections in my old BPL TV, i finally switched on the power, inserted the ROM Cartridge and i just stood there. What i saw on the screen is etched in my memory even today. The plethora of 8 bit characters on the main screen coupled with the mono electronic music was an absolute delight! The feel of the controller was so amazing that i pressed the arrow buttons a hundred times before settling down! 

Good Ol' days of the Cartridges

And then it happened. I discovered the greatest game of all time, Game no.2 on the screen; the game that would forever make me want for more! the game that every gamer should and must have played -

The Super Mario Bros.  !!!!

On entering the game, i was welcomed by the screen shown above and what came next was the best part.

The Central Characters in the game are Mario & Luigi, Italian American plumbers living in the Mushroom Kingdom, the fearsome and evil Bowser - Mario's archnemesis and ofcourse the beautiful Princess Peach. The plot of the game is quite simple - Evil Bowser wants to takeover the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnaps Princess Peach. Mario & Luigi take it on themselves to save Princess Peach and Mushroom Kingdom. For this, they have to pass through eight worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom and defeat King Bowser at the eighth level!

Pretty exciting right?? :)

As days passed by, i was drawn more and more into the world of Mario, fascinated by the awesome gameplay, by its atmospheric detailing, the legendary theme music ringing in my ears even when i slept! Millions of people over the world can never forget the transformation of Mario in Super Mario whenever he eats the "Super Mushroom", the " "Flower" that gives Mario the power to shoot fireballs or the many times when that "One up Mushroom" was needed when Mario's life was short!! Level One of Super Mario Bros. can be played over and over again especially with that music going in the background! (Play Below!!)

It used to be so much fun whenever i stomped on the turtles and made them turn over their shells and when i collected as many coins as i could in the bonus levels when Mario went down the green pipe! And oh! the tension when the timer ticks down to the last few seconds and you know you have to make Mario run faster to the finish point in each level! Was that fun or wat!?! I still remember the many times iv tried to reach the top of the flag pole at the end of each level by making Mario run as fast as possible and and jump over the last set of steps so that i could get the maximum points! .. and who could not want to break the thousands of bricks in the Mushroom Kingdom and particularly Mario doing a Superman Stance every time he jumps!

Up Up and Away!

Mushroom Time!

You so want to buy that old 8 bit video game console don't you? :) Back when i was in 9th grade, i remember playing in the Two Player Mode with my baby sister and every time i lost a life in the game, i would take a life from her (She played Luigi btw) ! And the fight after that was even more hilarious!.. (evil aren't i?)

In one way, Mario and his world changed me. It showed me a whole new universe that i did not know existed ever before..If i were to calculate the total hours of my life that i spent playing Mario, it would roughly work out to over 1300 hours!!!  There are others who have clocked more than that :) You may think we are crazy, but we are not! Our sole aim was to save Princess Peach from the clutches of King Bowser! Period.

But as the old saying goes, all good things had to come to an end..my video console bombed 2 years later and i have never played Mario since then...

The truth is..Mario Bros. was not just a game. It was an essential part of my life, of everybody's lives. Mario made everyone happy and was the hero anybody wanted to be.!

There will definitely come a time, when i would tell my children and their children that once upon a time, there used to be a game called Mario. And how he changed my life forever. This was my tryst with the great Mario and soon it would be theirs.

Until next time...Cheerio!

P.S - Do let me know if you still have the old video game console with the Super Mario Bros. game :)

A New Beginning

Hello all of you! It is so good to be back! We are halfway through 2011 and i can't believe this is my first post for the year! So it makes it all the more special for me! So..what has changed in the last 8 months you ask? Well..iv gone from 67kg to 83kg, my old clothes don't fit me anymore, i bombed in a crucial test, became a complete workaholic, did not watch a single movie from Jan to June (in the theater that is !, which is quite odd for me), brooded day in and day out wondering why i ignored my blog so much when i went of to a flying start, and some other things which you wouldn't want to know ! But well here i am, rambling as usual, typing for the sake of typing.

But the point is! Why did i choose to suddenly decide to break the jinx and make the first post of the year? Well it happened last night, when i was thinking of the good times i had during school and college and how boring i have become these days! It couldn't have happened at a better time, right when a lot of my close friends have come down from the other parts of the world for a brief stay to take in the sambar-ness that is Chennai!! 

The last 3 weeks have been some of the best days of my life, catching up with old friends, reliving all those memories, cracking jokes about the nerd in school or about the dork in college ! My my..we have come a long way haven't we? It was at that same thought i realized how i am incomplete without the people i've grown up with! The people with whom you spent years studying, playing, dancing, fighting and a lot of other crazy things! They make me complete! A temporary void was suddenly filled like a Patronus Charm, full of happiness and joy! There is not a feeling that can come close to that, other than love, and it was that feeling that made me take of the sheets from over this blog and talk about the people that matter.

Im sure that each and everyone of you can relate to this, why even my own DAV-ites and VM-ites will second me on this! Who wouldn't want to get back to Sripad Hall and do one last hurrah for Entrenous! or who wouldn't want to get back to the playground and kick and smash the football or volleyball? or what about the nightlong dance practice sessions at a friends place, where everything else other than dance took place? or who wouldn't want to get back to those old classrooms and sit in their respective seats?

You tell me, who wouldn't?

I would. Anything to hit the reset button and go back in time. It is this feeling that incepted a new understanding of life in me...a new beginning.

Outbound!

Ok I just cannot contain my excitement! After weeks of planning and after so many hours of waiting this day is finally here! Yep it's my first trip abroad and I'm acting like a 10 year old already! Just sitting here at the airport waiting for our flint to depart is quite an excitement by itself..oh and by the way..our destination is singapore ..then spend the new year at malaysia..and then shop till we drop bangkok..

My fingers are already itching to blog every single moment of this trip..and so I have decided to make a travelogue if time permits!! With me on this journey are two people straight out of a comic book! Lol! Comic character no.1 is Mr.Srikanth Ramesh..he has to be the looniest fellow i have ever met!..he is a super steroid charged hyper nut with a touch of innocence and a hint of humor. Comic character no.2 is Mr.G Kaushik..he is what we Tamilians call as Ooma Kusumban! But one thing is sure..this is going to be one hell of a ride!

Well...the lady just announced our flight number in the three languages..tomorrow we hope to have an authentic singaporean breakfast with kaya toast, runes eggs and pandan! Mouth drooling already! Until then adios!!

Blogging After A Hiatus

http://bit.ly/eG1S0J

God!! Its good to be back!! Been a while since i crunched away at the keypad to update my blog..after a matter of 3 weeks..here i am! typing some nonsense..its a cool cloudy Sunday..the perfect day to just chill...nothing like it i say! 

As i type these incorrigible words, with the chilly breeze hitting my face from outside the window..i just discovered a truth..BLOGGING ROCKS. These 3 to 4 weeks of not updating my blog has left with me with some sort of growing burden and a sense of dissatisfaction..now its all gone..iv finally broken away..iv broken my shackles..feels nice..feels light..


And if your reading this...its good to have you back!! I'v got my spark again..the cogs in my brain have started to move(finally)...as Jim Carrey would say it. "Its Gooood"

I'm a happy man now...back to something i love a lot! Until my next post...arrivederci !!

A Vessel for the Soul

It was his favorite time of the day.

Little Anuj, 9 years old, was anxious for 12.30 PM to arrive. He repeatedly rapped his bench with his tiny fingers, his legs constantly shifting every 2 seconds; he was oblivious to his science teacher’s monotonous droning about the Earth’s ecosystem. As the clock in his classroom inched closer to that time of the day, he hurriedly dumped his books in his bag and counted of the seconds for the wonderful time to come.

Having lost his parents in a freak car accident at the tender age of three, his grandmother was everything to him. She loved him like none other. And when Anuj started going to school, his grandmother would bring lunch for him daily at 12.30PM like clockwork and they both would go to the lone peepal tree behind the school, a spot they both loved, were she would feed him with all her affection and would have a new story to narrate everyday. After all the fun and laughter, Anuj would take a nap for 15 minutes on her lap and would go back to his classes as usual. This was what Anuj looked forward to everyday.

And so, 12.30 came and Anuj ran out and towards the peepal tree, his eyes frantically searching for his lovely grandmother. And there she was. Like clockwork. She would not miss it for anything. Her face, a sign of the prettiness she enjoyed in her younger days, her hair, like the winter snow and her welcoming smile. He would do anything to see that smile all the time.

But strangely, she did not speak. Nor did she have any story to tell. Little Anuj wondered why. He ate in silence, under the scorching heat of the sun, which thankfully was lessened by the cool shade of the tree. And as he looked up at her, he saw a mysterious sense of calm and sadness in her eyes…the meaning of which, his young mind could not understand. Her eyes did not leave him, lovingly gazing at him; she finally opened her mouth and said

“Come Anuj. Come rest on my lap”

Little Anuj, without further hesitation, rested his head on her lap. Those 15 minutes on her lap, seemed like an eternity to him…in the comfort of her lap, he mumbled to himself

“I love you granma…”

and as her cool fingers caressed his forehead he dozed off seeing her pretty face…

1.50 PM. Anuj woke with a start. He knew he was late for class. He looked around for his grandmother, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe she left me to sleep. As usual” He thought. And quickly he hurried back to his classroom.

.................. 

3.20 PM. Little Anuj, on his way back home, thought about what exciting delicacies his grandmother had prepared for the evening and about the latest animation movie, she had promised to take him in the night. As he neared his home, he saw a moderate crowd, mostly his neighbours and some of his relatives standing outside his house. He was confused. Upon reaching the gate, thirty pairs of eyes looked at him, filled with melancholy. Still confused, he reached the main hall.

And there she was. Her pretty face, her snowy hair…But no smile came to welcome him.

Anuj heard somebody whispering “Poor soul…suffered a fatal stroke. The maids found her at around 12.20 PM”

Little Anuj understood.

Through the Window

And so I Flew

Band of Brothers

It was a lazy sunday afternoon..not much scenery around my place though :) Yet..the sky looked like the Sun had spilt its molten juice all over it, giving it the radiance of a 100 Suns! The most beautiful dusk i'v ever seen for a long time..And all of a sudden, our black brothers arrived from the distant sky, their deep and dark wings flapping against the wind..and then they settled atop the highest point in Saligramam (area in Chennai)...Their ever familiar crowing, a signal to their kin...and in a few minutes did i see close to 50 crows singing (crowing) in unison...who knows why? Maybe it was their way to pay a tribute to The Creator of All. I did not care. As i took in the evening light, with my camera clicking away to glory...i wished the day would never end. I wished i could take flight as these creatures did...Maybe one day i can...One day.