The lady who Lived

She was born in a rich family with Three Brothers and Six Sisters (as far as I know there were Three Brothers and Six Sisters in that family), ninety years ago. The then Sourashtrian society had clusters of male chauvinists and very few women who fought for their rights. But this woman, neither fought against the male dominant society nor despised it for its ignorance. She survived all kind of difficulties a woman can. Firstly the great culture of Child Marriage had ruined her Education, then Tuberculosis killed her husband just after a few years of marriage leaving her in solitude with a toddling little girl child. As usual, as in old days, brothers betrayed their sisters for ancestral properties. Despite being denied even a single penny from her brothers and being isolated as a young widow, she never lost Hope and Determination. She was left alone all the time, but she never let herself lose her self respect from others. She just adjusted herself with the people around her to survive for almost 90 years to witness the transforms in and around the society, to nurture her grand children and great grand children as good citizens to the country (she might have never known what she was doing then). She never lived her life for herself. She is my Great Grandmother, Vijayalakshmi, who had just passed away this Tuesday (13.03.2012). I am happy that she no longer has to suffer the pain of paralysis which attacked her ten years ago. I am happy that I had the chance to look at her face one last time. I do still remember what she told me when I left for Chennai for higher studies, “Go wherever you want to, but be the son of Sridharan always. Never let anything change you. You will be successful”, and I want to tell her that I have kept my word till date. Rest In Peace my dear Aathamma…

One Dream

ஒரே கனா என் வாழ்விலே-

அதை நெஞ்சில் வைத்திருப்பேன்!

கனா மெய் ஆகும் நாள் வரை-

உயிர் கையில் வைத்திருப்பேன்!

வானே என் மேல் சாய்ந்தாலுமே,

நான் மீண்டு காட்டுவேன்!

நீ என்னை கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சினால்,

நிலவை வாங்குவேன்!

Love the way you Lie...!

On the first page of our story
The future seemed so bright
Then this thing turned out so evil
I don’t know why I’m still surprised

Even angels have their wicked schemes
And you take that to new extremes
But you’ll always be my hero
Even though you’ve lost your mind

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that’s alright because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
But that’s alright because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie,
Ohhh, I love the way you lie.

Now there’s gravel in our voices
Glass is shattered from the fight
And this tug of war, you’ll always win
Even when I’m right

‘Cause you feed me fables from your head
With violent words and empty threats
And it’s sick that all these battles
Are what keeps me satisfied

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that’s alright because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
But that’s alright because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie,
Ohhh, I love the way you lie.

-Rihanna

Scent of a Woman (film)

"Whoo-ah." I know it is very late to write a review on a movie that was released in 1992, but still, what to do! I was a toddler then and I have just watched it last night..!!

Scent of a Woman is about Charles Simms (Chris O’Donnell), a Boston prep school senior, and the Thanksgiving weekend he spends working as the aide and companion of Lt. Colonel Frank Slade (Al Pacino), a stubborn, lonely, blind veteran. The job, which begins as an onerous task performed principally for money, becomes a tour of self-discovery when Slade decides to make an unexpected visit to New York City. There, amidst all the holiday hoopla, the lieutenant’s actions force Charlie into making an emotionally painful and morally good decision, which could rot his entire future.

Acting is a divinely art and Cinema is a dangerous platform. It has seen men who had aspired to become a Super Star and ended as yet another Day Dreamer. But there are certain actors that, when they appear in the big screen, make the audience engrossed on their face (to be more precise, eyes). I can name few of those elite actors – Tom Hanks, Leo Dicaprio, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Brad Pitt… and Al Pacino. These guys above can do any roles given to them to the perfect extent possible. I have seen very few Pacino movies and of those few characters I have seen, Lt. Colonel Slade is the most difficult one – a stubborn, blind man with a soft heart deep inside, and no one could have done this role better than Pacino. His “Whoo-ah“s are ever memorable.

"...I don't know if Charlie's silence here is right or wrong; I'm not a judge or jury. But I can tell you this - he won't sell anybody out to buy his future! And that, my friends, is called integrity. That's called courage..." - Lt. Colonel Slade

Scenes and Dialogues, which apparently impress most of the audience, is one of the big reasons for the success of the Scent of a Woman. Director Martin Brest knew the secret and blended awesome dialogues with beautiful screenplay. Especially Pacino’s tango scene with Gabrielle Anwar, it was magical. Final dialogues from Slade, which explains how much he had learnt from young Charlie, were very convincing for me to believe that the Disciplinary Committee had acquitted Charlie. Some may argue it as an usual Hollywood ending, but I can say there could be no other perfect ending for a pleasant story like Scent of a Woman.

"No mistakes in the tango, not like life. Simple, that's what makes tango so great. You make a mistake... get all tangled up... just tango on." - Lt. Colonel Slade

If you ask for something other than Al Pacino’s role-play or Scenes or Dialogues which gives a reason to watch this movie, I can give you one to listen to Scent of a Woman – Music. Thomas Newman has given a divinely, peaceful and outstanding backscore which could be heard all day. Hats off to Newman!

Scent of a Woman – a masterful product by a perfect trio, which makes you forget your sorrows and makes you feel happier. Never miss it..!!

The Captain

For Him, the Passengers are of more importance than His Ship. He either leads them swim or gives them a boat. He would never let them sink with Him.

The Real Quest

It was after Three years, Eight months and Seven days, they had called me to receive an award – a Young Achiever sort of thing – which made me remember the day my plus two results were out, that is 9th May 2008.

I had no idea about how much I would get in my Higher Secondary Examinations. I had completely used the liberty provided to me by my Bodh Gaya – St.Xavier’s HSS, I had never assessed myself through Exams, and in Final Exams I had written whatever I had thought as Right. That’s it, the story ended there itself. I didn’t expect anything, My teachers didn’t expect me do anything new, My school never thought of a leap in results. Many “well-wishers” asked me about my expected marks and my answer to all of them was “err… anything beyond 900 is possible…” and at last it was 9th May 2008 ( I can write a whole post on that day alone ! ), results were out. I had got 1174 out of 1200. That’s all…! There is nothing more specific that I had done. There is no achievement at all !

After all these days, Sourashtra Students Society of Palayamkottai had invited me to get a cash award for being the overall topper in Higher Secondary Examinations from Sourashtra community till date, and named it as “Young Achiever Award”. But I do know that I hadn’t achieved anything. Marks! they have just let me choose an institution that was considered as prestigious, nothing else. So why accept it? I have accepted the award not as an award but as a challenge. Here is the deal, I keep the money given to me without spending or investing on anything, until I make a Real achievement. At the end when I do really achieve something in Life, that is satisfying me, I will spend that money on a book, I am going to invest it on knowledge. Till then, my quest will continue…!

Au revoir 2011, Welcome 2012

The Year 2011 ends tonight and a new year 2012 is about to born, and as since time immemorial it is a custom to take new resolutions to keep up for each year, I had decided to take some. To be genuine, I don’t really know whether I would be able to keep up with them, but I will try my best to avoid breaking them intentionally. Here they go…

1.Post regularly : This will be the first resolution that any budding blogger would take. This year I would post at least  three post a month, in total 36 posts minimum for 2012.

2.Eat properly : This may look a bit silly, but everytime I go home, the first thing my mom notices is that I don’t eat on a regular basis. To be proper, I have to keep up time and I know how hard it is for an hostel student to keep up time. Still I will try to do it, hopefully 2012 does not betray me in this one.

3.No Lies : Even more harder, not to lie, I would rather call it “To be True to those who Trusts me”.

4.Never get Angry : One thing I had learned from 2011 is that Anger hurts the one who shows it than the one on whom it was acted upon, and I don’t want to be hurt anymore. So from now on, whatever happens, I am going to be cool.

5.Read regularly : I had started reading novels only for the past two years, and I love reading them. It is nearly impossible for any human to stop doing something that is loved by him/her. So in 2012, I am taking an oath to read at least one novel per month, even if I am busy or I pretend to be, and in total 12 novels minimum.

That’s it for the year. Hopefully I could keep up my resolutions for the next 366 days, and continue them for lifetime. As I said in my first resolution, always stay tuned to hear more from me… 

Harry Potter and the End-Semester Exams...

“The Human Brain is the most outstanding organ. It works for 24 hours, 365 days, right from your birth, and suddenly stops at the moment you step in the Examination hall”. Engineers’ brains are exceptional. It never stops, even in the Exam hall, even when he/she blacks out, even when he/she dies, it works perfectly. They have the ability to understand a whole book just in six hours and in the Exam hall they accurately remember all the scenes from the movie they had seen previous night. And in my college, number of FB status a student posts increases exponentially with the semester they are studying. Starting from “tomo exams… scared…” to “exams at doorstep  :P” to “exams… so bored of them…”, FB status messages vary drastically with semesters.

My Struggles with Exams started from 10th standard. Before then, I had never cared about them. I was sort of Who Care About Marks guy then. But fate, though I never believed in it, had changed my attitude towards Exams. My mom, working as a Junior Assistant then, got transferred to Tirunelveli, as it was a routine among the departments in Tamil Nadu. Leaving the Safe Haven of 9th standard, I stepped into the vulnerable zone. There came my saviour, my Bodh Gaya, the great St.Xavier’s Higher Secondary School. Every thing about this school was optimum to the core for my character, my attitude, whatever you call them. The Awesome 3 years of my life so far, 2005-2008,  is credited from SXHSS. With less than expected 10th standard results and feel free 11th standard followed by a motivated 12th standard reaped an all time highest total and a district rank for My School. And then everything changed…

“SSLC is important beta… study well” –> “Plus two is at doorstep… Start Studying” –> “Just one year… Study well and enter into a good college… then you can be free…”. –> “Beta… get some good CGPA. Once you get a job it will be all over” this is what you get from your parents, grand parents, relatives and whoever you call as well-wishers, from 10th standard till you get a job. I don’t know further as I have just crossed the ‘getting a job’ stage. In a country like India, in a state like Tamil Nadu, you entire knowledge is assessed through the marks and CGPAs you have got, although they do not have a drastic impact on your knowledge level or IQs. But still that is the fact. The worst part is the syllabus you are pondering over with. They will tell you to use your first spell directly against You-Know-Who and will motivate you as you have defeated him, without considering the fact that you don’t remember the spell and even you had forgotten Lumos. But it never changes…

There came the dilemma, Medicine or Engineering? Once the people knew that I had got some really worthy marks in HSE, their next question was “Medical right??” In my case all their predictions, expectations, plans had gone wrong. With loads of advices from school faculty, ideas from friends, and with the liberty of choosing my path, I fell into the Engineering cloud. It was kind of bottom to top idea for me – I selected the field and tried to shine rather than choosing the one I am familiar with. I had chosen Anna University as it was told the best Engineering Institution in Tamil Nadu. I had chosen Electronics and Communication as every other toppers I knew had chosen it. No issues till then… and came the twist in the tale. With lot of expectation from my family and from myself I wrote my first internal assessment, and my past performances in schools reflected in all the subjects except one – The One – Fundamentals of Computing. Till this moment, I do not know whether I had written that assessment correctly or not, but I knew how it goes here in my college for exams. From then my performance in examinations continued to decline and I never cared about them. I had just finished my pre-final semester exams, with watching one Harry Potter movie before each exam. In examination hall, when I take my pen, it looked like elder wand, compulsory questions  resembled the You-Know-Who with other questions as Horcruxes. Lots of Prof.Snape to invigilate the exams and so many Death Eaters as Squad. It was one hell of good imaginary experience to assign HP characters to real time Exams and it made them look more funny (I was caught up thrice for smiling during Exam :P). But the only fear in my heart is for Optical Communication, as it is more likely for me to get my first CUP in this paper. Any way, past is past and could never be changed, and let’s hope for a better result without any ‘U’ for me.

“We’ll See”, said the Zen Master…

குறுந்தொகை
யாயும் ஞாயும் யாரா கியரோ
எந்தையும் நுந்தையும் எம்முறைக் கேளிர்
யானும் நீயும் எவ்வழி யறிதும்
செம்புலப் பெயனீர் போல
அன்புடை நெஞ்சம் தாங்கலந் தனவே.
                                  - செம்புலப்பெயனீரார்


இருவர்
யாயும் ஞாயும் யாராகியரோ நென்று நேர்ந்ததென்ன 

யானும் நீயும் எவ்வழி அறிதும் உறவு சேர்ந்ததென்ன
ஒரே ஒரு தீண்டல் செய்தாய் உயிர்க்கொடி பூத்ததென்ன 

செம்புலம் சேர்ந்த நீர்த்துளி போல்
அன்புடை நெஞ்சம் கலந்ததென்ன

                                                  - வைரமுத்து

Crowded Bus & Empty Hands

God created humans to help each other and live the life happily, and in that process after 2000 years, we have apparently failed. I have come through many self centered people as well as some generous people with helping tendency. But what I had experienced in my three hour journey in bus to home from Rameshwaram, was really sad and unbearable.

When I boarded the bus it was almost filled and I got an aisle seat. Crowd started rushing as the bus started, and among the crowd was a young lady with a child in hand. That nine month old baby started crying after half an hour, it longed for some air, its mother couldn't stop it from crying. Around her was a set of women sitting and no one came forward to atleast carry the child, the reason was more shocking, the child was a muslim. How could these women think about religion to carry a baby in hands? Aren't they all mothers? Then I asked her to give the child to me, she couldn't resist. After about five minutes that baby stopped crying as wind was gushing through the window. It started playing by holding up my fingers, I could feel the little warm hands tied around my fingers, it started sleeping with a smile on my lap. Does that baby know what religion it belong to? All it needed was a little hope of humanity. I got a little 'Nandri Thambi' from its mother as they left the bus. I was all left alone with empty hands, but happy heart...