its Marriage season again

Starting from 24th August to 2nd September, I have attended Seven marriages/receptions in a span of 10 days :). This is the maximum number of marriages I've attended ever in a short span. Some of the marriages happened together on the same day. So I had to decide between Marriage and Reception for different Friends. The first one to attend was Arul Selvam, my school friend's reception. His marriage was scheduled on Aug 24th and on the same day, my college friend Sivashankaran's marriage was there.

I went a bit early to Arul Selvam reception where there were not much crowd early. Got ample time to spend with him which we dont usually get to spend with the Groom normally. We talked for around 2 hrs remembering our (G)olden days. Met some of my school mates who were not my classmates. The next day morning, it was Sivashankaran's reception which was a bit Grand. The college friends who always appear in the marriages of our fellow college mates appeared there too as usual without gift like me. You see, attending the marriage itself is gift right? :)

The next one to attend was Yogendiran's reception at Neyveli. I had the chance to join with yogendiran when he saw his girl for the first time before for fixing. Started at Koyambedu with Sasi, Mega, Papa and Kannan. Yogendiran's marriage and Ravi's marriage happened on the same day. Both are very close. And they kept marriages at different places. Ravi's marriage was at Salem. Managed to attend Yogendiran's reception and Ravi's marriage on Aug 29 and 30 respectively. Also spent good time at Salem. We went to a movie complex which had Bowling facility like Mayajaal. Its ARRS complex, 10 minutes walk from the new bus stand. We booked the bus at 11 pm in the night and to spend the time from aftnoon to night, we went there. They also have some video games, Dashing car, etc. I would recommend the place if you have like four or five hours to spend and if you want to watch a movie and to kill some more time. If you have more than half a day to spend in Salem, then you might want to go for Yercaud, a small hill station with boating and usual stuff.,which is just 30 minutes drive from Hasthampatti, Salem.

On Sep 1, attended Mayil's reception. We worked for the same team in HCL and later Mayil moved to Intel. The next day, attended yogendiran's reception(again), which they kept at chennai for friends and relatives in Chennai who cant come to Neyveli. This was in the afternoon. Finished lunch there and gave Three rupees as gift on behalf of me, Dhamu and vijayan :) . In the evening, went to Madipakkam to attend Subramani's reception. I got to make friendship with Subbu when I joined HCL. During the induction time, we were put up in a separate place for the training purpose. The bride is also my friend whom I acquainted with through orkut initially.

So, thats the end of season and waiting for the next season to start soon :)

Welcome Back :-)

The singam is back after a very long break :-) This is just a reminder for myself to keep my blogs updated :) and to share my thoughts, views, experiences, etc with the friends...

See you very soon...

Everything happens together

In everyone's daily life, something will either happen many a times together or will not happen at all. When you wait at the bus stop for a particular route, you wont get any bus for half an hour to that route. Suddenly, four or five buses will come one after the other to the same route.

Now, this season is full of Treats and Marriages. So many treats and functions happened in the last month. For the treats, it started with my friend senthil's(not me). He got engaged and going to get married. so he gave a treat to me and madhan. And, my birthday treat went, one to my college friends and another to my office colleagues. The very next day I gave treat to my office colleagues, it was my PL's promotion treat. one day later, i was suppose to get treat from another friend Aravinth. It got cancelled somehow. And on this monday, got a treat from Abhilash as he is moving out to a different company. Again this thursday, we are joining for a treat to give it to him.

About the marriages and engagement., it started with my college friend LUX (Lakshmi prasad)'s engagement. Met few of my fellow college friends there. Yuvaraj came to invite for his marriage. Unfortunately, i could not attend his marriage as i was busy in the office and couldnt take leave. And even Thennarasu came to invite for his sister's marriage. couldnt attend that too. Then came my office friend Senthil's engagement. He kept the function at a remote place in ECR near palavakkam.

Then our office SUT mate Dhana's marriage. It was like a get to gether to meet many of my SUT friends. Another thing made the occasion so special and you know what i am talking about.. its a girl :-) . There was a pretty interesting girl in the marriage hall, who was moving here and there. I just looked at her and she too at times :-) and the fun ended as soon as we left the marriage hall. Then, I attended my college and office friend Arul jothi's engagement. Had got a chance to meet many of my college friends after a very long time. And the recent one is Muraly's wedding reception. He too kept his reception at a remote place somewhere near tambaram. one more office colleague invited for his marriage and i couldnt attend it.

Still few more marriages to attend. For all those Betrothal functions, I attended, need to attend for marriage/reception too. So, will be attending Lux's marriage, Aruljothi's marriage and Senthil's marriage. Apart from that, I also have my SUt mate Kiran's sister's marriage and Rijith's marriage. Might get some more surprising invitations as well :-)

Birthday celebrations !!!

Well, after a long time, am back to write blogs. I had many things in my mind to write in the blogs but was lazy to write all the time.

February 26, my birthday, and its very special this year, being my 25th birthday. This was one of the memorable birthday and it went colourfully. Had celebrations with office friends, college friends and ofcourse with my family members. And to my surprise, I had to cut three cakes for my birthday. First one was at office. I got a nice birthday gift from the office colleagues and a colourful cake to share. You can find the picture of cake below.



Second cake at home. I think this is the first time i get a big cake to cut at home. earlier they used to buy in pieces. The third one was at Beach :) . I went with my college friends(around 12 people i think) to the movie Kalvanin kadhali first. The movie was kind of ok. one of our friends, vijayan has bought the tickets for previous day instead of that day and we went inside the theatre too. Then we realised and bought new tickets. After the movie, we went to beach and there I was given the cake to cut. This is a new experience. First time to cut birthday cake at beach !!! and earlier it was planned to cut inside the theatre :-) since it might disturb the public, we withdrew it. After relaxing in beach, it was time for treat. So, we assembled at hotel Ranjith, rooftop restaurant. The treat was shared by four of us. Other three are Divakar, Gopi and vijayan who all sponspored for their abroad trips and me for my birthday.Overall, the day went well with lots of fun and enjoyment. Unfortunately, none of my very close friends were here this time except sasi. But still, it went too good.

Just got reminded about few of my previous years celebrations. Again going nostalgic :-). Last year, I celebrated with my closest friends Kumaran and Ravi. I was there in Ravi's room in the night to cut the cake. Ravi's room mate sridhar also celebrated his birthday. His birthday was some two or three days before mine and we celebrated together.

Another birthday to remember was during my final year of college. It was very late in the night to cut cake. My close friends had bought lot of cakes, like three boxes i think. Actually, on 25th there was campus interview at our college. Polaris came and recruited. I had to involve in placement activities till night and then attended a big treat from andappa, another friend who got placed on that day. I became sick on that day and after birthday celebrations, i was almost exhausted. The very next day in our college, there was a seminar which again I had to organise. I didnt have energy that day., i even vomitted in the morning due to ill health. so I gave the responsibility to my friend Karthik to take care of seminar and went to hospital with another friend Lux. The doctor said, i have to get admitted and we some how convinced the doctor just to get an injection and left.

The most memorable and happiest birthday was during my third year of college. During my birthday time, I was undergoing a camp organised by NSS (National service scheme). The camp was at a small school in a village nearby our college. The school was not properly maintaned and its a government one. mostly poor people were only studying. We took some classes on computers there and we painted the whole school. I got a lot of friends who are little kids :) . I still remember two or three kids who got very close to me. I celebrated my birthday there and distributed chocolates there. All the kids were really happy to have chocolates and i was like very very happy to see that. I would say, that was my happiest birthday i ever had. Before college, there were many birthdays went unnoticed.

And about friends birthdays in the recent days, Sasi's birthday fell on april 9th. I tried calling him on 8th night 12'O clock by all means. I am very unlucky that day.. couldnt reach him :( either on his mobile and on his home number. poor guy lost his mobile. I just sent him an email. And on 19th April, my chat friend Rjalakshmi celebrated her birthday. Again, i tried to reach her by various means. Even the mails did not reach her.. it bounced back. I could not convey her my wishes ever :(

Capturing history - Rare photos from India's past

Got this photos from a fwd mail. Just thought of keeping it in my blogs :-)


The daughter of an Indian maharajah seated on a panther she shot, sometime during 1920s. This picture and the others in this series appear in a new book, 'India Then and Now', by Vir Sanghvi and Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Roli Books, India. Pictures courtesy: Roli Books.




A throwback from the Raj: A British man gets a pedicure from an Indian servant.



The Grand Trunk Road, built by Sher Shah Suri, was the main trade route from Calcutta to Kabul. Here, transport leaves Ambala for Delhi.




A group of dancing girls. Dancing or nautch girls began performing at courts around 1830. They were known for their elaborate costumes and jewellery.




A rare aerial view of the president's palace and the parliament building in Delhi, both designed by architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.




Women gather at a party in Mumbai (Bombay) in 1910, a sign that women were very much part of the social scene in many respects.




A group from Vaishnava, a sect founded by a Hindu mystic. His followers are called Gosvami-maharajahs and own several temples.




An aerial view of Jama Masjid mosque in Delhi, built between 1650 and 1658 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.






The Imperial Airways 'Hanno' Hadley Page passenger airplane carries the England to India air mail, stopping in Sharjah to refuel.

Rare photos of India-Pakistan.

Aug. 15, 1947: Mountbatten swears Nehru in as Prime Minister of India



TRAIN TO PAKISTAN; India 1947. Trains packed with refugees - Hindus and Sikhs headed for India, and Muslims headed for Pakistan - were convenient targets for gangs of killers on both sides of the border. Inadequately protected 'Refugee Specials' were typically stopped, and the occupants butchered, several times in the course of the journey.


The dead - Punjab, 1947


1971: Indira Gandhi reviews the troops, in the context of militaryand diplomatic preparations for the Bangladesh War.


Ghandhiji Addressing people


Nehru and Gandhi at AICC meeting, July 1946


Mountbatten arrives at Delhi airport; received by Nehru and Liaquat Ali. March 25, 1947


1948: The news of Gandhi's assassination hits the streets. A stunned crowd gathers in Calcutta.


1948: Crowds in New Delhi wait for a glimpse of Gandhi's funeral procession.

A Library being divided at the time of partition. Heart trembles to see this sight and it is tough to imagine the state of the nation at the moment when people needed to hold hands.

with love,
Senthil
Jaihind

Rang de Basanti !!

Jan 27, '06 - Watched the movie on the very next day of release. After all, my fav hero in Hindi, Amir khan's know :)

The movie starts with an young lady from UK trying coming to India with her grandfather's diary, which has his personal experiences he encountered while dealing with Indian revolutionaries like Bhagat singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad. She meets five youngsters full of energy and decides to use them as heroes for her documentary. The first half of the movie is full of comedy and all the five are making fun of the English lady's documentary. Later on, they make them fully involve in it and realize the importance of freedom fighters. The most beautiful part of the movie is that, when they show about the freedom fighting, it is applicable for both flash back from her grandfather's diary as well as to the current picturization of her documentary. Its a kind of new to cinema. At the end, they themselves end up in fighting for the justice in the current scenario.

A must watch movie :) Kudos to Director and all the characters played in this movie. Would like to see more such patriotic movies down the line

Violence in recent Movies

Jan 19, 2006
Yesterday we saw the movie "Aathi" starring Vijay, Trisha, Nasser, vivek and others. The movie had a different beginning with heroine doing a murder :) Then it continued with lot of build-ups for the Hero and he kills two more persons from his part before the interval itself.. It continued with more of violence and repeated murders. Its gonna be a flop for sure in my opinion. Vijay's previous movie Sivakasi was far better. I see that violence is dominating in many of the recent movies. We saw another movie named "Aaru" recently which again is a story based on a couple of rowdies. Also heard that one more movie called Paramasivan is also like that. Not gonna see that. I donno why they keep on making such similar kind of movies.

However there are some good movies too. The last movie which I saw before Aathi was "Kanda naal muthal" which is a decent movie with a natural story. No super heroism, no exaggerations. This kind of movies will be good to see. Unless the people discourage the film makers making such violence movies, its not gonna stop!!! Its all in our hands to bring good movies from the industry :)

JAIHIND

Happy Pongal

Happy Pongal !!!


Jan 14, 2006... Today is the Pongal Festival. Woke up early around 10:00 am. My mom forced me to finish taking bath as early as possible to assemble for prayer for the Pongal. So got ready for the prayer and had the sweet pongal cooked in new vessel (not pot) served in plantain leaf. Told my mom to cook in POT to have the feeling :) lets see next year..

I didn't have any excitement for the occasion of Pongal and the feeling is same for any festivals or occasions happening for the past few years. All I/we do is greeting our friends through email or SMS or any community postings like orkut or through mobile and the wishes are especially to opposite sex whom you might not have acquainted much with. Time has changed. Gone are the days when I went to the shop and purchased greeting cards for wishing my school friends(only boys) and used to go to post office and post it. All these are done without any expectations, that is real friendship. Now that I don't even know what some of my school friends to whom I posted greetings, are doing now. Shame on me.

Yesterday was Bogi. I did nothing for the occasion. Just looking back at my childhood days, Bogi was one of the festivals which I enjoyed celebrating with full enthusiasm and excitement. I had a lots of friends around my home with the same age group living in a common compound consisting of 10 small houses. We burn a lot of garbage to make a big flame out of it and to beat others burning fire in the same street. It was like a big competition on who makes a huge flame and we have always won the race :) Around the flame, we make lots of noise and beat the tiny drum, we call it as "Molam" a small percussion instrument. We buy that small molam at the beginning of that week, search a thick stick to beat that, cover the stick with Tar(which are kept in the roads in huge drums for laying road). We make the stick a round headed one using Tar. The molam will be torn out in few days and some of us will burn it in bogi itself. However, I used to keep my molam for long days and years. I still remember keeping a molam for more than three years for the simple reason that it is expensive for buying it every year for my family. We used to wake up as early as around 3'O clock in the morning and wake all our friends up in that compound, collect materials to burn. That includes news papers, previous year calendars, cycle tyres, mats, etc. We were not aware of the toxic gases produced by tyres and tubes, but we prefer that for its ability to burn for a long time. We used to shout like anything with full of excitement and happiness. I still have a burnt mark in my left foot due to a fire drop from a tyre. hmm going too much nostalgic.

Continuing scripting my olden golden days.. For the Diwali and pongal festivals, my parents will take us for shopping dresses for us. I remember most of the times, my parents wont take dress for themselves or at least my father wont take for himself due to budget problems. (Thavamai thavamirundhu... reflects some of my past days :) ) Without realizing that I used to cry for asking so many things to buy. Once bought, we used to show the dress to everyone in our line(we used to call the set of houses inside the compound as 'line') before stitching. Sometimes the tailors wont give the stitched dress on time. For that we will knock his door at early morning on the festival day to get our stitched dress.

Hmm, I can write a full book of autobiography covering my childhood days :) Any festival, whether we had money or not, we were so happy enjoying the festive season. Now that we have enough money to celebrate it. But don't have the enthusiasm to celebrate. Not getting excited about any festival. We are not as happy as we were in those days. Computers and the modern world can bring money but not the real happiness. Let the almighty bring all the happiness to every human being and every living things in the universe.