Sachin Tendulkar and the curse of being the best

The final frontier has been conquered. The Australians are the deserving champs no doubt.

If cricket is India’s favourite sport, then witch-hunting cricketers must be the second favourite sport. Discussions at tea-shops, bus stands, railways stations, parks and every other public space possible all hover around the one topic: What went wrong and who is responsible.

I will not go into all the possibilities of such conversations but there is one thing that disturbs me a lot. All the talk about "Has-Sachin-lost-it?" Recently, Outlook published an article with the headline Sachin Endulkar? The article speaks about how injuries have caught up with the master blaster and that he will never be the same again.

The truth is Sachin Tendulkar will never be the man he was five years ago. Well, that is true for each and every one of us. It is only the universal truth (sorry if I am philosophising or spiritualising here). Every moment is unique: Say the moment when Sachin blasted the Australian bowlers out of Sharjah in 1998. I remember the back-to-back centuries and the sand storm interrupting play as if it had happened only yesterday.

Our problem perhaps lies in our greed that our passion has blinded us from: We have paid the money, we have spent our time, we have seen your ads ... now come on Sachin, do us a 1998. The truth is even Sachin cannot guarantee a great innings every time he steps out on the field. He is after all human ... an incredibly talented, pugnacious, disciplined champion ... but human after all. And is it his fault that people are offering him his crores of rupees?

Perhaps, it is Sachin’s curse that the great Don Bradman invited him home for tea and had some nice words to say about the "bonzer little fella." Over the last couple of years, former cricketers, present cricketers, armchair critics, wannabe cricket writers have all invented reasons to see why the great man is great no more. It has become a universal obsession to see reasons why he is not the best. Bowlers who had been at his receiving end now talk about him being mortal after all. But when was he ever immortal?

It’s not Sachin but his innings that are immortal. I distinctly remember watching him play Shane Warne at MAC, Chepauk in the 1998 series. He would just step out of the crease, dance down the pitch and his heavy bat would "thwack" the ball out of the field. That sweet sound of willow ...

I have seen guys jump with joy to see the little master get out these days. "Of course, he has lost it. He never had it in the first place. Lara was always the best," a lot of people say. Where these people take a false sense of joy at someone else’s misery or several other Sachin fans face gloom thanks to the media coverage, I prefer to remember the best of Sachin and look optimistically for his next big innings.

I know that I will no longer see a 25-year-old Sachin smash a hapless Kasprowisz out of the stadium but I will settle for a 30-year-old Tendulkar gracefully guiding the ball to the third man for a boundary. Let us give our champion what he deserves.

Swades music: A.R. Rahman does it again! Does what? read on

I love Allah Rakah Rahman. There is no one like him. He rocks.

I just got "Swades" CD. The song "Yun Hi Chala Chal" by Udit Narayan, Hariharan and Kailash Kher is playing as I write this post. The song rocks!

So what else is new? Nothing, actually. Though it might discomfort some that ARR has duplicated one of his songs from Rajnikant-starrer "Baba". The song "Dekho Na" sung by Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan is set to the tune of "Baba ... Oru Mutham Tha". But after setting to tune for 6 original songs, seems like the great man just needed a break. Two songs are repeated as intrumental versions.

My immediate verdict: Swades passes muster, with 2 good songs and one great song (Yun Hi Chala Chal.) It's no Lagaan but it's no second-grader too. Perhaps, like all Rahman music, this album will grow on me and I will give it 5 on a scale of 5.

But right now, it is only 3 out of 5. And I prefer to skip that "Baba" inspired song. It worries me to think how SRK will dance to Rajnikant's tune.

Hamam ad: Honestly atrocious

I do not know about others but for me the latest Hamam soap advertisement playing on Idiot Box is nothing short of atrocious.

The ad features a mom(saree-clad housewife) getting all tense about her adoloscent girl, who has gone shopping. She worries if she will indeed buy Hamam soap because she did not wait for her to mention the name. So what will happen if she buys some other soap? "She will get rashes ... her skin will get spoilt, acne ... Oh my god, who will marry her ?!!!!!!"

OMG. :O

Do advertisers do this knowing pretty well that it will raise the hackles? We have seen Fair and Lovely resort to this kind of cheap gimmicks. But Hamam was a respected brand, wasn't it? Why are the womens' groups mum of Hamam's momtalk? Beats me.

Thanks Aadisht and lots more people

I am overwhelmed by the number of pageviews I have gotten for my post on the sexual harrasment incident inside Rohini Theatre complex in Koyambedu. The Hindu carried a follow-up on that incident this Sunday. And yes, the headline could have been stronger.

I also thank Aadisht Khanna from New Delhi for having given a link to my blog on his page. I am glad that plenty of people feel strongly about the incident. It's still an irony that the one person who should have felt strongly, the boyfriend, let it pass that day.

Anyway thanks a lot, guys.

7 G, Rainbow Colony: Stays like a splinter in the mind

Every generation boasts of a film director who is willing to break the convention and narrate things that are considered taboo with style, panache and conviction.

Selvaraghavan, whose latest movie, 7G, Rainbow Colony has been running to full houses everywhere in Chennai, seems to be this generation’s that director. The movie, which I watched a couple of days ago amid some rather forgettable incidents, truly carries the trademarks of a creator who holds his creation close to his heart.

The protagonist of the movie, Kathir, is in tradition of Selvaraghavan’s earlier heroes in "Thulluvatho Illami" and "Kathal Kondain". One can say Selvaraghavan has reinvented the average lower middle-class hero who paraded the Tamil screens earlier in direction of stalwarts like K. Balachander, K. Bhagyaraj and Visu.

And much like K. Balachander and K. Bhagyaraj, Selvaraghavan talks about pre-marital sex and other issues without any qualms ... Probably at a much more graphically liberated state. Yes, he is not the first to talk about sex but like the K.Bs, he is bound to face problems. 7G, Rainbow Colony has its fair share of sex sequences. A friend asks me whether the scenes were bold? Not really, if one goes by what is seen on the TV, especially the music videos.

There is the sequence in which Kathir, played by producer A. M. Rathnam’s son, shares a private moment with Sonia Agarwal, in his friend’s apartment. He wants to kiss her on her cheek but inadvertently kisses her lips. Selvaraghavan brings out the sexual energy between his lead players beautifully. So, should we throw an axe at Selvaraghavan for showing such blasphemy on screen? Not really, cmon let us face it. We live in an era where our magazines carry cover stories on teen sex. When you flip through India Today or Outlook, you read about tens and hundreds of people who had their first sex when they were 17.

The good thing about Selvaraghavan is he has been able to handle sequences depicting physical intimacy with a certain maturity. It was certainly not as irresponsible as Shankar’s Boys. Of course, he will grow with years and leave out the titillation bit once he gains in confidence.

But there are three great features of 7G, Rainbow Colony that makes it stand out:

Direction: It has to be said that Selvaraghavan is incredible at extracting work from unknown actors. He did that with Kathal Kondain. He does that again with 7GRC. The hero, whose name I still forget (I just remember him as A. M. Ratnam’s son), has done a decent job considering it was his first film. And Sonia Agarwal is not just an eye-candy ... at least in Selvaraghavan’s movies. She comes up with what I guess will be an award-winning performance.

Story and Screenplay: The movie runs for more than 3 hours. Like all really good films, 7GRC has its highs and lows. At least, I think a good movie should oscillate between highs and lows. This movie does that without much of masala elements like item numbers and fights ... Ok, there is just one fight. Selvaraghavan has been able to bring to life the incidents happening in a colony with such detailing as only a person who has truly experienced life there can. (He actually lived in a colony in K.K. Nagar)

We do not know if Selvaraghavan will live up to the promising start he has given. But he surely is a man who observes things and lives life to the lees. His movies, though they carry melodramatic undertones, are a celebration of life.

Music: Like all great directors of all generations, Selvaraghavan seems to be forging a great working relationship with Yuvan Shankar Raja. The songs are good. It is the background score that borders on incredible. YSR seems to be giving his best for Selvaraghavan, and that can only happen if they are both passionate about their work. Cheers to hoping that YSR-Selvaraghavan partnership will be on the lines of K.B.-Illayaraaja, Mani Ratnam-A.R.R, Bharatiraja-Illayaraaja (which I think tops the list).

Having said all the nice things, there are still a couple of downers to Selvaraghavan’s works. First of all, I think Selvaghavan needs to think out of the box at least for his next movie. In many places, the hero reminds you of Dhanush. (Did he dub the voice?) The manner in which he laughs, especially, is so Kathal Kondaen.

I have no hassles with using sex as a theme for the movie. Did we not see Bhagyaraj’s Chinna Veedu or for that matter any of K. Balachander’s time-trusted "I will bear the child as a sacrifice" movies. One problem, though, is that most of the catcalls in the theatres are all for the wrong reasons. You see the hero inadvertently (again!) slipping his hand into the heroine’s churidhar in an MTC bus. (Don’t ask me how, watch the movie.) The claps and whistles in the theatres are at their loudest for the scene. But when the heroine lambasts the hero and others who were watching the harrasment, not a response from the crowd! Nothing to give a clue about remorse.

Selvaraghavan might keep adding a few titillating elements here and there. But let us forgive him for that. There is probably the box office pressure he has to handle.

7GRC in its second half and especially in its closing moments elevates Tamil cinema to a different plane. Watch it. The movie will remain with you like a splinter in the mind for a few days.

And that is Selvaraghavan’s triumph.

Why do victims flinch?

For most crime victims, the real suffering begins after the Crime

It has been over an hour and I have finally been able to throw what happened at the Rohini Theatre complex out of my system (refer to last two posts). It truly was a like somebody had thrown a hammer at my head.

I must take this opportunity to thank all of you who had nice things to say.

I just realized that the harassment for crime victims (in this case, the couple) truly begins after the crime itself. I realize this but I don’t quite understand this.

Last year, we carried a series of articles in The Hindu on how police overstepped the line and detained couples in Anna Nagar Tower Park. It became a sensational case – it was voted by Radio Mirchi listeners as the biggest controversy of last year.

One of the personal reasons why I followed that story so vehemently was because it kept running in my mind: What if I had been the guy who got arrested in the park when I was in the company of the former-girlfriend and present wife? Just as I thought yesterday: What if those goons had picked me when I was with my wife?

But the point of this post is something else: When I visited the home of one of the guys who got arrested and sent to Vellore Jail in the Anna Nagar case, the family made it clear that I was not welcome. I actually met the sister of one of the youths. She greeted me by saying: “Please go away. My neighbours do not know yet and we do not want any trouble.”

It was not until the vernacular magazines picked up the issue and until the police finally decided to drop the charges did the families even contact me. A father of one of the boys thanked me profusely at the end of it all. “If not for The Hindu, the police would not have dropped the charges,” he told me over the phone. Of course, he still did not want to be quoted on the newspaper on how the police crossed the line. “We have suffered enough. Let us let it go now,” he said. To think that his son was actually at the park with a female colleague, a friend …he was sent to the Vellore jail for that? And here was the father wishing to bear the brunt rather than speak out.

There is probably only one rational explanation for this kind of fear psychosis from the victims: People generally believe that those who are wrong are at an advantage when it comes to courtroom trials and the process of getting justice is a pain in itself.

It’s real sad. Probably what we want now is for schools to teach students the various laws and the Indian Penal Code. (A movie starring Vijay, Tamizhan, had this theme a couple of years ago.)

God, Is this blog getting very serious all of a sudden. I stop here.

Seven booked for being public nuisance

At least something good came out watching "7G Rainbow Colony" at Rohini Theatre Complex yesterday. Seven guys got booked for being public nuisance.

And one guy is not going to that theatre for another six months at least.

Who? Who else? ;)

Eve-teasing and physical abuse inside a movie hall!

This is surely one of the longest posts there is. But PLEASE, PLEASE read this. You don't even have to comment. I just want you all to read this. And don't mind the foul language.

I had an unforgettable day today, and all for the wrong reasons.

It was my day off and I was planning to go to Isha Yoga classes being organized at Sri Rajah Hall in Purasawalkam.

However, the plan did not work out and I chose to do the next best thing: Watch “7G Rainbow Colony,” the latest movie from Selvaraghavan. The movie was playing at Rohini Theatre complex in Koyambedu.

I walked into the theatre around 3.15 p.m., just a few minutes after the movie started.

Just 10 minutes after I found a seat, a group of 10 fat bastards entered the theatre. Most of them were reeking of liquor and were obviously not the kind of people you would want to sit next to. Their behaviour was almost similar to that of the hero's in the movie. Selvaraghavan, as usual, had some sequences too close to reality … eve-teasing, physical abuse of women passengers in MTC buses … The gang was busy making cat calls.

Things really went beyond control when the 10 fucking bastards teased a couple by flashing the torch on the woman's breasts (Please read on) even as her boyfriend was seated next to her. It was the most unbelievable thing. THERE it was: 10 ugly f*&#%$@ eve-teasing and abusing a woman seated just four seats away from me. One of them even tried to grab her.

For a few minutes I did not know what to do. Yes, there was this thought to stand up and smash my fist at these arseholes. But let me face it, they were far too stronger than me and I am not even 10 per cent as fit as I used to be three or four years back, not that it would have helped.

And to top it all, the boyfriend was a total wuss.

The girl just stormed out of the balcony, her boyfriend closely following her. And incredibly, the bastards who eveteased her followed the couple out. Not a single person in the entire balcony, including yours truly, did a thing.

I really did not know what to do. But I know what it felt like to be me then: Like a worm.

Amazingly, the boyfriend consoled the girl and they chose to sit in another row.

I was still writhing: Beautiful Sonia Agarwal, brilliant music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, great screenplay … blah blah … I did not give a shit to what was happening in the movie.

Around half-an-hour later, a couple of police constables walked into the balcony. This was probably my best chance. Yes, I had decided to tell them what I saw. But incredibly, the 10 bastards abused the policemen and dared them to take them into custody. These guys had a political backing. And the wuss boyfriend did not even want to complain to the police. “Nothing happened, sir. It has all been sorted out,” he told them.

By then, I was bleeding inside.

Once the police left, the men started calling for the boyfriend. “Dai Pottai (Eunuch in Tamil) … Otha Thevediya Paiya.” (Please read on.)

During interval, I spoke to the person incharge of the canteen and pleaded him to call the police. I offered to identify the rascals to the police. Then I made a few calls on my mobile to my colleagues to impress upon him I was serious. Actually, I totally was. I might not be able to punch him but I surely can do something better.

The police arrived half-an-hour into the second half again. This time there were more than 10 of them, including the inspector of K-10 Koyambedu Police Station. I identified the lot, even as the affected couple kept looking the other way. A few people said I was being stupid. The bastards belonged to some fucking political party and were related to the “Mavatta Seyalalar” (District Secretary).

People said I was bargaining for trouble. I just did not care.

Probably in hindsight I pity that boyfriend … One puny fellow against 10 drunken men: What were the odds?

What really hurts me is that there were nearly 50 men in the balcony who knew what has happening. And all of them just chose to ignore what was happening.

I am not saying I did a great thing. I do not even deserve to be praised for what little stuff I did. Probably I should have reacted when the eve-teasing and physical abuse was happening. Probably, I am a coward for not reacting then. Even the little bit of courage I exhibited was because of my profession. What if I was not a journalist?

What I really want is for all of us to ponder over this: How many of us even react to blatant harassment happening in front of our eyes?

Let's Talk about IT: Part Two

Psst: IT refers to video piracy.
Pirated DVDs zindabaad.

Let's talk about IT: Part One

Let us lay down some simple rules for this post.

I will refer to it as 'IT' because my colleague, Suderman, says government agencies are going to bring up several Laws against IT and we, journalists, would cut a sorry figure if we publicly support IT. Afterall, blogs are getting listed in Google for keyword searches. And IT is politically correct.

But let me guarantee you that most of us have benefited from IT.

IT has really helped moviephiles like me. (Oops I gave IT away.) If not for IT, can a die-hard movie fan like yours truly have watched Seven Samurai, Amelie, Sanjuro, Ran, Full Metal Jacket, ...

IT is the great leveler. For several years, great movies have been seen only in select circles (read movie appreciation fora). And sadly, this restricted exposure has given birth to some you-know-what critics. Some of these critics are plain obnoxious thumb-suckers, their only claim to fame being their exposure to good movies. And over the years, these morons (Yes I don't like them) think their opinion is the final word.

But recent developments in Chennai and Tamil Nadu does not augur well for IT. We live in tough times. Many dealers of IT have shut shop.

Footnote: I was just wondering why I made all the fuss about IT. Just imagine if this blog turns out for a keyword search on Information Technology :O

The Cinderella Man, that's me

No, this has nothing to do with the Ron Howard directed movie, which is slated to release later this year. It also has nothing to do with any similarities (LOL) I have with Russell Crowe.

See, the last three days I have been covering sidelights of the India-Australia Test Match and am I enjoying it or what. A lot of people (God Promise) say I am writing REALLY well. :)

And I am getting to watch what I bet will be a famous Indian victory and hope my articles will turn up in the cyberspace whenever anyone searches the Net for the match details. (I know, I know ... My ego is mighty inflated now.)

I am the real Cinderella Man, because I am wearing the magic shoes that will take me Chepauk. (Actually a Rs. 1,800 ticket that my office sponsored for me.) After Monday though, that shoe will vanish and I will be back to reporting about garbage and overflowing sewage. :(

God, I could kill a sports reporter (Please don't tell Sanjay Rajan) to keep my Cinderella Shoes. Or for that matter I could kill a movie writer (You can tell Suderman. I am going to kill him anyway) ;)

An impossible fanstasy: If only all of us journalists got to write what we really wanted in our newspapers.

Answer to ground that Impossible fantasy: The Newspaper will be full of only sports or movie news.

Thank God I have my BLOG. :)

Okay, check out the sidebar please

Hi guys, Thanks to dear colleague Suderman who has been suffering from blogohrea for more than two weeks now, I know how to add links to others on my blog.

By and large, it has been fun knowing a lot of you from the blogosphere. I am happy to add some of your links to my page.

So let us blog it up.

Yours truly is truly tired

It has been a while since I really wrote SOMETHING in the my blog. I do not have the energy to key in some sense when all my senses have taken a beating.

I just returned from the second day at the Test Match and though I am a die-hard cricket fan, I have to confess I am absolutely drained of the my energy. And the onerous task of writing the articles for the day remain.

Know what I just realised, blogging is probably a good release for people who do not get write. But hey, I am planning to REALLY write something for my blog once I find out and set up the best possible broadband connection at my home. With the BB policy out, we can expect BB to come within the grasp of home users.

And talking about cricket coverage I do, some of you might be looling at the sports page. Hmmm ... that would be fine, but I am more the Page 2, Page 3 and Page 1 kind of guy.
Check this out for the kind of cricket stuff I write.

My better half thinks it is not bad at all. :) Okay, my ego has been pampered enough. Time to key in something for my newspaper.

What a day!

guys and gals.
I was THERE. At the right place at the right time: M.A.Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk on October 14. Oh yeah, people ... this is the day that will come to be known as THE day when Indian cricket team walloped (that's right) the Aussies.

And all you guys who seek the comfort of home for watching the match, forget it, grab your purse and make sure to be there tomorrow. For tomorrow is the day when Sehwag will explode and THE WALL will rise. Not to forget the LAXMAN factor. Yes, the incurable cricket optimist, that's me.

Let me also add here that the giant screen is good enough for the replays and you also get to watch advertisements in between overs. (Some people like it!).
The are two big pluses in watching the match in the Stadium:

First of all, No commentary.
Yes, you make your own observations and judge the game. Those dorks can be so off the mark. This morning, for example, as I just caught up with the pre-match commentary, L. Sivaramakrishnan and Micheal Slater were discussing about how the pitch was full of runs and initiative would rest with the team batting first.

Second, you get to watch the field placements and other changes that are happening. That's after all the essence of the mindgame.

Ok, I have to get back to my work now. I have file reports for the Match sidelights.

Bye for now.

Guess who is lucky?

One of the wonders of being a journalist is the chance the profession throws up to meet some famous people and shamelessly mix business with pleasure.

My office just informed me that I will have to be doing the sidelights for the India-Australia Test match that starts at the Chepauk Stadium on October 14.

Wow, this could be the opportunity to meet Sachin, Shane and co. You know this is still my job and I cannot be a gawky sports fan asking for autographs, can I. Hmmm... Can't I? ;)

The Test Match at Bangalore was dissapointing surely. But I, truly, believe the Indian team will come out on top in Chennai. Hopefuly, my articles in The Hindu will be about celebrations. :)

In one of the my earlier posts, I said I would write about why journalism is the best and the worst profession of all times.

This is surely one of the perks.

Is it just me or are there others like me?

Howdy fellas,

It's been a while really. Have not been able to find time.

Random Matrix quote:
Merovingian to Neo, Morpheas and Trinity in MR:
"If we never take time, how can we ever find time ..." ;)

Just took a day off last week and did a little bit of everything, which included trying to read "Lord of Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" that my colleague gifted me on my last birthday. I have tried (yes, that's right) reading the book around 10 times over the past 11 months, all the times with the same result: Four pages into the foreword and I go to sleep.

I understand the book has a phenomenal following and the movies by Peter Jackson rock. But somehow, I am not able to read the damn book. For me, this is one complicated work. Probably, I am a bit old (at 27) to suspend my disbelief for such lengths. But what amazes me about the book is the grit of the author (Tolkien) in creating such an history for middle-earth, the language, the funny spellings and et al.

In more recent times, George Lucas and the Waschowski Brothers have been able to create their own parallel universe for fiction-sake in "Star Wars" and "Matrix" respectively. But their attempts, thanks to computer-aided animation and the wonderful reach of the celluloid, were a lot easier to follow; they were also surely a lot more superficial than LOTR.

Tolkien must have been one obsessed writer. He surely had far lesser tools than the Lucas or the Wachowskis (I know this comparison is sacrilege); He just had his mind's eye, which is why perhaps LOTR has survived this long.

But to me, LOTR will remain in the list of "must-read but never read".

Phew ... I am destressed now and can go back to my regular work.

And about LOTR, who knows ... this weekend might finally be the WEEKEND I read the book without sleeping ...

The Third from my tribe

Ramya Kannan, another colleague of mine, will be the third from my office to join blogosphere.

Quotable Quotes from the Matrix:

Oracle to Neo: I can see the darkness spreading ...

Some valid reasons to celebrate ... And to blame my wife!

October 4, 2004:

Today I complete three years in The Hindu.

I have been a reporter for more than six years now and now is perhaps a good time to look back ...

I started out as a reporter for a freely circulated weekly called "The Campus Notes" way back in 1998. I had just passed out of my one-year PG diploma in Mass Communication and Journalism from the Institute of Continuing Education, Madras Christian College and I honestly did not want to become a journalist. I was looking more at television production/ direction and advertising.

But those were the days when advertising was taking a nosedive in Chennai and the well-established ad firms were either shutting shop or going on a major retrenchment drive.

Campus Notes offered me a chance to write, something I was not so bad at then and something I am, hopefuly, not so bad at now also. My first salary was Rs. 1,200 a month. A ridiculous sum, I agree. But then we did not have call centres or ITES back then. (Man, I sound like a 65-year-old not a 27-year-old, but these are fast times we are living in.)

After just two months at "Campus Notes," I joined News Today, a Chennai-based eveninger, on August 6, 1998. Why do I remember that date so well? It was the day I met my wife-to-be M. Priya Rao and her birthday was the very next day. In certain ways, if I am a journalist today, the entire blame should fall on my wife ... If not for her, I would have quit this god-forsaken profession long, long ago ... Hmmm ... Would I have?

Priya was truly the one who was interested in journalism. She was and is more passionate than me about writing. Being an English graduate, she knew more grammar than me. For me, a second-class Physics graduate from Sri Sankara Arts and Science College, past-participle and gerund are all the same.

I left News Today, just a month after Priya quit, to pursue a career in TV journalism thinking it would take me closer to the medium I really loved.

I joined Asian News International (ANI), the country only TV news agency in September, 1999. It was exciting work but it had its pitfalls. Unlike a TV news channel reporter, I would not appear on the telly with P2Cs (Piece to the Camera) nor would even edit my video shots. All the job required was to take my cameraman for a video features, shoot it and send the tape to New Delhi along with a write-up.

Somewhere else, some other TV journalist would pick the news feed through satellite downlink, use the visuals, read my feature and telecast it in his/her news channel with their own voice-over. It sucked big time that I was not getting recognition for my work.

In March 2000, I got an offer from The New Indian Express to join their "News Features" department. TNIE was an incredible learning ground for any young journalist ... You get to do stuff that is normally assigned for seniors ... Why? Because there were no seniors around, that's why.

For the next 18 months, I had a gala time. I would cover GSLV launch at Shriharikota, Public hearing on Nuclear Reactor coming at Kalpakkam, extensively write about Krishna water, Chennai's water crisis, ... Express was one whale of time.

And finally on October 4, 2001, I joined The Hindu, the Mecca of journalism in South India.

It's an irony now that Priya is not a journalist but I am.

Priya works as a Corporate Communications executive with Ashok Leyland. She writes for the in-house journal, Ashley News, while I write for the national daily with an 125-year-old history.

Funny how things turn out.

But I am happy that I have come a full circle: From Campus Notes to The News Today to Asian News International to The New Indian Express to The Hindu. And I have my wife to both blame and thank for that.

Read my next post: "The world's best and worst profession: Both are mine"

For the love of movies, Don't miss this!

People of Chennai,
There's a Iranian movie festival happening in the City and one of my all-time favourites, Children of Heaven, directed by Majid Majidi, will be screened.
Dear fellow moviephiles, this is a must watch. Do Not, I repeat DO NOT, miss it if you want to see one of the most heartwarming movies of all times.
Cheers :)

Into the mind of a BPO executive

Hey, my latest blogging convert is my sis-in-law who works for a BPO. Check it out. : )

Watch out, my tribe knows!

I read in a Chennai-based blog recently that it was high time that journalists started blogging.

And from my one week long bloggin experience, I understand that "journalist-bashing" is one of the favourite blogosports.

So guys, keep watching this space. My colleagues are planning a group blog very soon. One of my friends, Sudhish Kamath, has already put online his blog. Check it out.

Cheers