An untitled post

Seems like winter has started its trip for a hibernation and spring showing its head since so far this week I am getting up before 7 comfortably (touchwood!). Or is it the big day approaching fast?? Anyways, I'm not hurrying up for my work.

'Miss. Janaki' is coming great. Thank God I am blessed to read such masterpieces. I really don't know why tamil film directors are reluctant to film novels of yesteryears.

'GodFather' songs are catching up in me. As usual every repeated listening introduces me new sounds and instruments. Hopefully will have a judicious visuals to the enchanting music. Whatsoever delays are not denials.

P.S: This post was started a week back and because of my prolonged silence due to laziness it is published today (Match 7th). Though I forgot what I had planned to write, I heave a sigh as I managed to fill it somehow and publish it. Again I say the last line of the previous paragraph. BTW, I had planned to write a post titled 'Day after yesterday' but since it has been a week past 'yesterday' I am saving the title for the future.

Devan - Satirically yours

I was holding this for some time. But I couldn't stop me from writing this post. That's the magic of Devan. Blame my poor memory, I vaguely remember I was introduced to Devan through his "Thuppariyum Sambu" teleserial when I was in my seventh grade. All I could remember now is Y.G.Mahendra's bald head and curved nose makeover.

After a long hiatus, I was reintroduced to him a couple of months back with a great expectation of enjoying some vintage humor. Later I bagan wondering why Devan is considered as a funny writer. Even to my surprise, I view it as a misnomer.

Being born in 1913, Devan authored a wide range of classics that were well ahead of his time (1940-50s). If I could say rich vocabulary and grandeur style defined Kalki, it was the unconventional narrative style with unadulerated witticisms marked Devan's works. Be it the fictional accounts cooked up through Mallari Rao or directly from the author, each one the story had its own uniqueness.

Devan was more a screenwriter than a storyteller. It was 'Rajiyin Pillai' that showed me 'Alaipayuthey' was one of the offsprings of such back and forth narrative style. (Still 'Rajiyin Pillai' is a maze for me!). Currently I'm reading his 'Miss. Janaki'. An awesome narration. Will write about it later. Telling stories in letters, procedures, news items, and whatsoever unusual things you could hardly imagine can be encountered in a couple of his fictions.

So, what this guy has to do with non-fictions? This thought popped in me when I came across a bunch of non-fictions in his 'Seenupayal' (probably written during his tenure as "Ananda Vikatan" editor?). I knocked my head twice. I am not sure if complex issues such as war, independence, temperment, materialism, fast world (in 40s!!), aging, plagiarism, press rights, etc. are described in a more lighter vein anywhere else.

Although I am still not quite sure how to refer Devan for his works, I could say one thing. We lost another forty more years of irony, wit and sarcasm from this legend!

Reactivity issues

Bill: ...And what do I find? Not only are you not dead, you're getting married to some fucking jerk and you're pregnant. I... overreacted.
The Bride: You overreacted?
('Kill Bill: Vol 2')

Don't you find yourself often bumping into people like Bill who frequently overreact? One of my days started like this.

At 8:00 AM I was standing in the long queue before the Donut shop counter. Fifteen minutes later..."One croissant bread with cheese. No egg".
"Coffee?"
"No".
"Please step aside".
After three more people, at 8:22 AM, "Here you go sir". I ran to my office. Shit! Again I am late by five minutes.

"Hello" I answered my boss over phone.
"Did some one from telecom come?"
"Not yet".
"They said someone will be at 8:30..."
Knock...knock... "I think it's them".

"Hi".
"I'm from telecom. Ya' came jus' now?"
"Pardon". "I am waiting here for the last 20 minutes. Ya' asked me to be here at 8:30, I came at 8:20". The guy looked angry.
At 9, "Ok, it's done. Are you Mars?"
"Hmm...No". I checked and the phones are working fine. "Thanks". While leaving he said "smile" without any joyful expression.

Oooh! I'm hungry like anything. I open the packet. What the hell she has given? I didn't ask for egg. Heck! The phone rang. Boss again.
"Yes sir, it's fixed
....
he changed the phone jack
.....
sure
...
right away
....
in an hour
....
ok".

After 45 minutes. "Are you done almost?"
"Mostly... in another half an hour"
"Hurry up pal". Aaahh! This dumbo comp is unusally slow. Strange. Why this should happen today? Things will happen only now. Sigh!

Finally at 11:30, "Sir, the report is ready".
"C'mon pal. You said it will be done in an hour and it took you two and half hour. Hurry up man".
"Okay". Hooo! I came to my desk. My mobile rang. "Hey whatsup?"
"Don't forget. Tonight at 8, at Flattop".
"I'll be there". The other phone has been ringing four times. "Yes sir." "Did you check it once?" "Sir..." "Hell lot of errors. Redo it and listen, I need it A.S.A.P".

It was almost 7. What a long day has it been. Gosh! I almost forgot my dinner plan. I have to be at the restaurant in another one hour. Boy! I must change two trains and a bus. After a lot of hustled transportations I reached there five minutes to eight.

"...and I was runnng behind the dog with the cake in my hands and with a bag of pumpkins at my back". When a friend said this we all were laughing. We have been laughing for the past three-quaters hour. "Something similar happened to bud and it was hilariously funny"- I said pointing my other buddy. As I was describing the incident I asked,"is it a SUV or minivan?" to him. "My foot". There was anger in his voice. "Hey!"
"Do you think you never made any folly in your life so far?"
"Hey. Take it easy".
"Bull shit easy....." He continued talking. The situation seemed to appear more or less like the "am I funny?" scene in "Goodfellas". I didn't talk much till I returned home.

Before going to bed I checked my e-mails. God! Today I had an appointment with my prof at 2:00. How the hell I forgot? While brushing my teeth I was reminded of the line "please try to appreciate other's time" that my prof had written on his e-mail. Hmmm. Why always the bouncing ball hits my nose?

Every mammal has its day

Amazing! There are fifty days in February (Fifty-one if it is a leap year). This ain't in a special calendar. This is about the goofy and sappy or the unique holidays observed in this planet.

Do you know that today is Ferris Wheel Day? I am wondering if any single soul in this world is celebrating the invention of this amusement device, or atleast aware of this (I'm not including those Austrian guys). I bet the rest of the world is incognizant of this. No crime! You did not fail to learn your mother tongue. Instead my query is how significant it is to be acknowledged?

I was surprised to see a whole lot of "days". Yesterday was "Get a different name day" and tomorrow is "Singles awareness day". Often I wished to change my name (I was always at the end of the attendance register). Gosh! I missed it by a day. Had I changed my name yesterday I would have been eligible to celebrate "Middle name pride day". Hmm...I must manage with this same old name for another 365 days. Atleast I learnt about tomorrow. I must make use of it.

This Tuesday, I learnt whatever be a day is it has some significance and some specialty. Not every specialty is significant for everyone. If today is not your day then tomorrow is yours. And that is life my mate!! Did I say something wrong?

Freaky Friday

Disclaimer: This post has got nothing to do with the Hollywood flick with the same title.

This happened nearly five months ago. I was walking to my office hurriedly. When the stop light at the intersection near to my office turned from blinking "Don't walk" to a solid sign, I kicked the ground. The girl next to me smiled and said, "Relax, it's Friday".

A couple of weeks before I was sitting at my desk, with a tired face and weird look at the monitor. My colleague entered with a "Hi". I smiled... a troubled smile. He said - "At last it's Friday!"

So, what's in store for this weekday? Do the two holidays following this day make it so special? Or is it the past four working days? Why we entertain it so much than the other six days?...Whatever be the reason we do have a soft corner for this day and we can never deny it.

Me no different. I am all excited when I approach Thursday. Make plans for the weekend. Nope! Not the party arrangements you may be tempted to think. I schedule my weekend duties. Duties that I never did in the past five days and truly never going to be completed soon anyways. My Fridays are spent in planning, replanning, preplanning and all other activities that have suitable prefix with plan. Maybe I love prefixes so much that I seldom prefer to add complete my plans and add suffices to it. What on this earth could me made just in forty-eight hours of laziness that was not even dared to be started in the other 120 hours? I don't know. But still I make my plans.

Where am I going wrong? Is that the act of getting up at 10 AM on weekends being included in my agenda or getting a shower at 3 PM makes the difference? I really can't say. Afterall, I am being honest to me - executing some atleast, not all of my listed duties. I still remember the fact that was told to me in my childhood, "If you plan ten different things you may end up doing atleast four successfully". It's true. I feel uncomfortable to waste my holidays unplanned. Now I don't waste my time as I am smart enough to scheme everything for my holidays including rest!

Before I wrap things up I must say, for some reason, I am reminded of this line from 'Jeans', "indru oayivu thane velai...aanaalum oayinthu poavathillai..." I don't know why and I don't want to. Simple. I can't afford to pass my Friday plain. You know well. I have a lot of planning to do!

Odd man out

Today I feel different. I feel some sort of pain in my body, the pain you usually feel after a long tiring journey... Whatever it is I have to be at the school before 9 O' clock. Otherwise I have to meet my principal. Whoo... what a tiring life. It's already 8:40 now. Can I make it? I should make it. I push my bicycle pedals fast, fast and faster....Oh! my legs are paining. Its 8:50 now. I am only half my way... My God! Something said to me I won't be late. I was never late to school. So don't worry.

Only 3 minutes to 9. I am at the corner of the street where my school is. Damn! the signal turned red. I stop my bike and turn around. I see a movie poster that is pasted in the wall right to me. Two lovers sitting on a beach with a catamaran behind them. I stare the poster and am humming a tune from the film. I heard something in me telling the guy is the dad of two kids and the lady is married. Honk! The car behind me told the color changed to green. I pedal faster and faster and finally I reach the school at 8:59 AM. Whoohoo! I made it.

The first hour is physics. The teacher is talking something about simple harmonic motion. All I heard is pendulum, oscillation and pendulum. I am still panting with my heads down. Someone is calling me. I shake my head to see my physics teacher standing before me. "Define simple harmonic motion". I am mute. "What are you doing?". ".....". "You were not listening to the class". "....". "If you are not attentive you will not get through the half-yearly exam". After two minutes of silence I now sit down. I am smiling. Smiling? Yes! something inside me told I will never fail my half-yearly exam and to my surprise I thought this teacher will not work here till my exam. Any intuition?

Now the third class is Maths. My ears are hearing some words about differential equations, and my eyes are looking at the girl sitting on the row to my left side. Suddenly I turn my head and face the board. I feel something in me telling the girl is pregnant and expecting a baby soon. What? What the hell happened to me today?

I open my lunch box to see the usual food. My friend has his usual lunch. A guy approaches us, with a smiling face. "whatsup?" - my friend asks him. "hey! whatsup?" - he replies. "Meet my old buddy ...." I complete his name before he started. But I never opened my lips to say his name. How can I know one's name whom I am seeing for the first time in my life? I smiled again.

"You must practise the diagrams more" - my Botany Ma'am says to me. She is very much interested in me and hopes I get into a Med school. "Sure Ma'am" I reply her. But again the 'something' smiled. You will not go into a Med School. Shit!

After a long confusing, strange day I return home. Today something is different. Is ervything okay? I am checking myself in the mirror. Slowly combing my hair and gently touching my thin little moustache with my right index finger. Again I heard a giggling sound. Something said I don't have a moustache. What the heck!! I lifted my hand to break the mirror..."It's late. Go to bed" - my mom called. I feel tired and I don't know when I slept.

Still I have the same pain. I am in front of my computer checking e-mails. I see an e-mail from my old classmate. Good news! She has given birth to a baby boy. And another e-mail from my prof about the seminar in semiconductor devices next week. I feel tired. Let me refresh myself. I go to washroom and look in the mirror to see my well shaven face! Something struck me. I lifted my neck in frustration. I felt more pain than yesterday. Aaaahhhh!!! really it hurts.

Poetic heroism

"Enkitta Modhathae... Naan Raajathi Rajanadaa..." I was listening to this song yesterday. Being so attracted by this number, I played it in a loop and listened it for a couple of hours. After repeated listening something struck me. I was asking to myself-"Is this a heroic song?"

To my despair I couldn't find an assertive response. The song indeed has a few lines about the hero's bravery and his macho skills. So why doubt it? Call it a heroic song. OK I can call it a hero....hold on! I forgot the song also had some words that revealed the hero's political beliefs. Is this necessary in a so-called heroic song? Isn't it diluting the song that praises the valiance of the hero? Something is puzzling me. Getting down a little bit deep into the song, I was reminded that this song is sung by the hero after he turned to a brave man from a coward country person. Technically, this song must throw light on his heroism and not on his socio-political ideas.

Praising heros for their bravery is not a novel theme. Right from Sanga Ilakkiyam, we have poets lauding their king's gallantry with all those Thinais and Thurais in Puranaanooru. Not to forget the greatest bard Shakespeare spent a lot of his efforts in glorifying his Emperors' bravery and achievements. Our old heros were kings and emperors who ruled the world, and they attained those things that were not even visible to the eyes of an average person.

Today our heros do not belong to a great dynasty. They are common people and one among us. How can one call the song that praises the skills and expertise of a welder, auto driver, sickle maker, milkman, henchman, unemployed youth ,.... as a heroic song? It simply shows us how skillful and powerful they are. Nothing beyond that. Such ideas sometimes fail to appear poetic and powerful. I remember someone commenting the lines,
'Kambeduthu Aaduvaen...
Kaththisandai Poduvaen...
Kuthuvathil Sooran Naan...
Gusthigalil Veeran Naan...'
lacked a poetic touch even though they described the skills and the physical power of the hero only due to the simple reason the hero was a common villager who led a simple life. I'm not saying they can't be brave and intelligent. But summing up such successes mostly fail to appear big and often fail to leave an impression on us. Sadly, in due course of time they get closer to that place which is not far from calling them as an object of ridicule. Seems like they are void of something that will take them to the place where they can be considered as a song of heroism.

Surprisingly most of these songs have either a social or a philosphical overtone. This really creates a confusion about whether this song is a tribute to the hero's bravery and skills or a social/political/philosophical discourse set into tunes. Is this part of the verse pulls down to the song or are we missing something else that is essential or am I wrong in my view? Devuda! Devuda!