Saasthri-graphy

Its been an eventful one year since completing college. So many changes in every aspect of life. Something I feel that has changed dramatically - the way festivals are celebrated. Everything is customized to suit one's needs and the person who thrives these times is "Mr. Saasthrigal".

With the start-up Saasthrigals driving with Rayban "on" in a Splendor or a Victor and the big budget double-decker saasthris driving an Ikon or a Sumo, these guys rule the roost on days like Aavani Avittam, Vinayaka Chaturthi and Varalakshmi Viratham. They have their own templates and settings. Of course, "Kalyanam" means "Kaattula Mazhai"...

Now, take Aavani Avittam as an example.

Those days (atleast till 2002 since my birth):
People gather at a common place, usually a temple or a Mut or even houses of their neighbours. One "Master" Saasthrigal (anga avar than Arch Bishop of Canterbury range-la proceedings conduct pannuvar) performs the "Maha Sangalpam". Chanting of the mantras and the abishekam (if in a temple) makes the day.

Post 2002:
Its been the introduction of amendments and clauses to the way things are to be performed. Yes, customizing as we say. If you ask for permission to come late on Aavani Avittam, your boss says, "Hey, what for?!? cassettes are available. Buy one, finish things off and come on time!"

Saasthris do give a handout of the mantras to be chanted on Aavani Avittam - documentation we say in IT - with apt publicity, amendments, acceptable criteria and clauses that are acceptable incase of violations of anything. This year, Varalakshmi Viratham and Aavani Aavittam fell on the same day. I shocked with something our family Saasthri told us; "Varalakshmi viratham can be performed on the previous friday ALSO". Looks like they have convened a meeting of all Saasthris and decided upon this (naatla ivanunga thaan association form pannama irunthaanga-nu nenaichen... remba thappu). There was a "Kurippu" in the handout we were given about this one. My parents and I couldn't help laughing out at the dubious stuff thats happening.

No prizes for guessing the reason for the emergency meeting and the resultant contingency plan... "DOUBLE DHATCHANAI". If you could have these two festivals on two different days, solid 200 (rate correct-a?) bucks man!! We would chat endlessly on things like this in office and end up laughing. What else can we do?!? Everyone of us are at the receiving end. Who is to blame? Whatever be the case, these things go unnoticed. We are in the IT era. No leave. So no other go... :-)

Saasthrigal kaattula eppovume mazhai thaan... All that we can do is drench ourselves and sing in that rain and swooying in that rain!!

P.S: Varalakshmi Viratham in my home was observed on the day it was supposed to be.

cRICKet

The new rules in ODI cricket. Does it augur well for the game of cricket? Well, a YES and a NO. This is "fast-food kaalam" - famous words in Tamil, now a cliche. Thats basically the reason for the introduction of these rules, the same reason why Twenty 20 evolved in England - a tonic for lack of patience. Infact it has revived interest in cricket in England, The Home of Cricket. Sounds funny isnt it?

People don't have the patience anymore to sit and watch a 50 over game. You come back from office, watch a game of Twenty 20 for 150 minutes... boy! that makes your day! No wonder twenty 20 games provide awsome entertainment. A lot is at stake - Funky team names, Free hits off the next ball after a no-ball, live chats with players during the game, of course high voltage cricketing action, not to forget the mascot race during the lunch break in the final with very good commentary. Ooh, what else can you ask for in a span of three hours?

Its with the same aim that ODI rules are being tampered with - just to make the game more lively and pulsating. Because, its only the first 15 overs and the last 10 overs that are being eagerly watched. The introduction of Powerplay is aimed around this area. The fielding captain definitely has more options although nothing much can be done if the batsmen run berserk!! The super sub rule is crap. It gives undue advantage/disadvantage to teams based upon toss! Already the toss swings the game heavily in a side's favour, leave alone the days of rain, this one is just to add misery.

The numerous clauses to these two rules at the end will make the cricket rules books bulky and the umpire's life more difficult apart from taking the charm away from the game. Who knows? There may be a super sub rule for the umpires as well in the days to come to overcome confusion over rules!!

10K for Dada at laaaast...

So Saurav Ganguly a.k.a Dada has finally snailed his way past 10,000 runs in ODIs. Its been an extremely agonizing wait for the former Indian captain (dunno if I can use that term yet?!?) to reach the milestone taking as many as 8 matches to move from 9936 to 10,000. Dada has overcome an incredibly big ebb in his graph, redeemed himself with a stint with Glamorgan and is now back. I have never known anyone who has had so much criticism during their lean period. From the open public outburst to the 2-minute Maggi recipe jokes and featuring the most in discussion forums of IT majors, Ganguly has faced it all. The matches which Ganguly has won for India with his batting were forgotten and its been criticism, criticism and criticism all the way! Just imagine anyone's way of playing being likened to Krish Srikkanth's hindi. That's the level of insult Dada has faced.

But Ganguly has remained Ganguly and that has helped him bounce back. His blazing 124 ball 142 against a strong Surrey outfit, though on a losing effort, set the tone and he hasn't looked back with the 50 against SL in the last game being a major fillip to his much needed confidence and peace of mind. Scoring 10,000 runs is not something everyone can do and Ganguly has been such a prolific scorer in ODIs that it was only a matter of time before he would scale the landmark. Perhaps the ebb can be called 'Drishti'. I know people are waiting to kick me after reading the previous sentence. Ok, take it for a Bengali... :-)

Last week I chanced to treat myself with Ganguly's classic 144 at the Gabba. Sir Geoffrey Boycott would say 'My prince is back, my prince is back' repeatedly during that innings. He would perhaps like to repeat that now. Well, if the prince is back, its certainly great news for the struggling men in blue in the emerald Isle.

A(a)d(i) A(a)d(i)

Step into a textile showroom anywhere in a city in Tamil Nadu this time around and you'll be overwhelmed by the fanfare there. And especially if you are from another state, you'll be bowled over just by the ambience. Its "Aadi" Sale and people try to cash in on what is being offered this time around. Or so they say. But its really the shops that make the most of the common man's mindset. Something is offered for free... what do we do??? You guessed it right... That happens on a large scale here. By the way, just go about asking a section of the people how their "Aadi" shopping was, a month or two later, most of them would end up cribbing!

After all too much is being made up in the name of "Aadi" sale. And the effort put in to rake in people is minimal. Quite simple as well. Rope in a film heroine who has had a good round oflate here in Kollywood, write the worst possible lyrics, shoot a song, advertise discounts. And boy! you find people all over the place. And the hype is extended a month or more before and after "Aadi". One shop has it this way... "Aadikku munthaya arpudha thallupadi". After that its "Aadi" and if they have leftovers perhaps we'll have one more round christened "Aadikku pinthaya aavesa thallupadi"! Not to blame the shops, its the people who are so foolish in being carried away. Of course the best example of people being fooled with elan is "Akshaya Trithiyai". Simple strategy man!

Coming back to the way the ads are shot, almost every shop follows the same thing. None of the famous film songs are spared. They will take care to ensure that you hate the original. And recently, the famous "Maalai Maatrinal.. Kothai Maalai Maatrinal" has been tampered with by a shop and its crap of the highest quality. A flurry of similar ads go blaring on the FM and TV. And to top it all, one of these ads is aired in Telugu at around 8.40AM. I can never forget this particular one. We'll be enjoying a tasty breakfast in the food court when this ad will tell us "Hey, enough... get back to work before your PL steps in or you'll be in for worser stuff!!..." :-)

Huh... afterall when somebody is there willing to be fooled around, monkey business is bound to flourish. Let me end up with my favorite quote... "Long to reign over us, God Save the King!"

Now its really... Sing in the rain...

There is no particular reason when I named this blog the way it is. I didn't even think about having to think of a name. This just came through my mind just like one of those famous jokes of Vadivelu that comes every now and then and takes up a good 4 to 5 minutes of my team mates' time during our prime time! Of course that culminates in a lengthy chat about the same during our scheduled coffee breaks and of course, lunch.

Today I had a different reason to sing in the rain... man its raining in Chennai! And what a great drive back home it was! The sky opened up and it was "Sing in the rain... I am swooying in the rain" all the way. It was great getting drenched in such a heavy rain after a very long time. I felt so happy for every Chennai-ite. We badly need this, though not the crazy thing happening in Bombay. No one can even imagine what will happen if Chennai gets even 15cm of rain on one day, leave alone 94.4cm on a day! Never mind, if you live here and you get potable water, you'll settle for anything else.

And when I entered home and switched on the TV, it was "vaigai puyal" on song with "Sing in the rain"... wao! Now I could go back to one of my friends in office who asks me often "what do you sing in the rain?" and say what I got to sang and what else I got when it was raining... a super water wash for my bike! :-)

Go Spurs Go

Vikhyath called me at around 8 in the morning and both of us started cribbing about the state of Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The defensive intensity was so much. San Antonio and Detroit combined for only 77 points in the first half and Detroit made it a one point game at the breather. This is poor basketball, some may say. No, its classical basketball. These teams take pride in forcing shot clock violations and swatting the ball away rather than scoring 100 plus points. Vikhyath read out a list of Detroit players whom he hates. He would have named the entire roster!

"Oh! this will be really boring"... That was what the people outside Texas and Michigan opined when the Spurs were pitted against the Pistons for the finals. After all everyone would love to see high scoring energy sapping affairs. After all thats the way things are changing; quite similar to the effect one day cricket has had and oflate the 20-20 games. But this is for the basketball purists. It is said that "Defense wins championships" and thats why San Antonio and Detroit are in the finals. The first four games were blowouts and the next two were decided in the final minutes and what else can you ask for in the final game?

That's precisely the reason I woke up early and sat in front of the TV. And I was spell bound for the next three and a half hours until the presentation ceremony. Detroit made it 48-39 and Vikhyath and I were probably the most disappointed guys in India at that time. That's when one man, who was was criticised for not playing the way he used to and he is expected to at crunch situations, took over. He is the man... he is basketball's Rahul Dravid.

"In comes Ginobili, whips it to Barry, Barry to Duncan and Duncan slams it home", screamed Hubie Brown of ABC TV and that was the turning point. Another scream at the same time. My mother came running out of the kitchen. It was me. So much excitement and Duncan turned the game on its head. He did it all. He made his patented bank shots, made his free throws, assisted on three huge treys and played terrific 'D'. The MVP award, his third, was only an expected addition to the superstar's hardware collection. Manu Ginobili, the Argentine superstar shooting guard with his slashy dare-devil style of play thundered the rim with a couple of unbelievable dunks. He brought in the real rustiness that you get to see in the South Americans enroute to winning his second ring in his third season. Bruce Bowen, one heck of a pesky defender blocked a three pointer. My-o-My, he is absolute nuisance for any opposition!

And it was all over with silver and black confetti streaming down the rafters. Tring.. Tring.. Vikhyath again... "Oh! what a play!" we screamed. That was what we were expecting. Our favorite team had won a championship. A terrific exhibition of individual brilliance combined with indomitable team spirit. I had to cut short our call as it was already 9.55 and I had still not had my bath. Man, I gotta go to office! Hastening things a bit, I left at 10.30. Damn hot outside. Thankfully T51 came in immediately and after helping myself out with Cardamom milk to beat the heat at the Aavin Parlour in Tidel Park, I made my way to work.

Oh! What a morning it was! Weekend mood started right in the morning!

Schumachers of Chennai

"They drive like maniacs, they show scant regard for traffic rules, courtesy?? thats greek and latin for them... " and so it goes, a flurry of complaints against the MTC crew.. If you have ever had the dubious pleasure of travelling in the badly maintained battered MTC buses, the lifeline of Chennai's transportation, you would not hesitate to accept it. And neither would I, for I had travelled in 21G, one of the most famous buses in Chennai, connecting the northern and southern ends of the city, for 4 years during my college life.

That experiece didn't change for me even a year after I passed out of college. But I was in for a surprise this morning. It was 6.45 in the morning and I didn't want to leave that early to office, for game 6 of the NBA finals had just started. It was chill outside and the weather, absolutely brilliant. Mr. Sun who was consistently serving at 40/30, as KG pointed out, was not yet out and what else could I ask for. T51 arrived spot on at 6.50. I happened to witness some impeccable behaviour of the crew. The counductor was courtesy exemplified. Never have I in recent times seen a conductor so polite to the passengers. He announced the name of each stop, never cribbed even if a 50 rupee note was given to him for a 2.50 ticket and above all, he was always on the move despite the heavy rush. The driver on the other hand, followed traffic rules to the core, slowed down and honked at the sharp turns, never crossed the speed limit and he let the real maniacs, the Sathyabama and SJCE college bus drivers, to overtake.

I was only happy that there are quite a few good crew members with MTC as the week began on a bad note for hundreds of commuters who were left stranded in the Tambaram bus stand as the crew went on strike. And demonstrations are becoming the order of the day everywhere in the city. Is Chennai becoming another Kolkata??

Engrossed in these thoughts, I alighted at Tidel and was all set to start a brand new day in office. The sun was still not out. The widening of the OMR stretch between Madhya Kailash and Siruseri had already started in the morning. Tidel Park is a beauty to watch in such a glorious weather. A tasty combo (Idly, Kichdi and Vadai) and delicious filter coffee at C++ Sandwiches made up my breakfast with "Kannum Kannum Nokia" in the background.

In the meantime, my favorite team the San Antonio Spurs had lost game 6 of the NBA finals. It would be a cracker of a finale on friday between two 'D' minded teams and I dont want to miss it. Its 'D' that fetches you championships, they say. Quite true it is!

Altogether a brilliant morning it was.. though a bit upset with the spurs losing a chance to wrap it all.