Aathaa Naan Pass Aayitten-1

It took 43800 hours to complete, 1825 days that is. Its graduate school for you, no.. no.. me no PhD material, I knew that while I was at undergraduate studies itself.

Yup, after taking my first graduate level class on August 23rd 2001, it was coincidence that I completed my defense for my MS degree last Friday - August 25th.
(Well if you still dont see the coincidence part, aug 23rd and aug 25th - almost similar datesl??). I felt so happy after my defense that I was smiling for no reason, times when I should have felt sympathetic, apologetic (when a friend of mine talked about how difficult getting married is), my natural reaction should have been "aiyo paavam", but nope not right after my defense, me still smiling, my ex-roomie detailing his second consecutive parking ticket, nope no sympathies, only smiles..Infact this should be the second most happiest moment in my life (Disclaimer: acads-wise), I think this would rate right after the days of smiles when I got into Infy just before I finished B.E.
Anywaysss, I know this calls for a toast, but the least I could do is write a blog series on this....
(read: lack of ideas for the blog :P)

And there goes the reason for "Aaathaaa... naaaan pass aayitteeenn**" series...
(Hindi padam maadhiri padathoda title a appo appo nyapaga paduthuven...)

Day 4: The travel back...

So this was the 4th day of my stay at Lexington, KY. This is where most of my friends in the US are. One thing about being in a city for quite some long time is you will know almost everyone in the city, namma senior, senior-oda senior, namma batch, namma junior, junior-oda junior, indian store aunty, uncle nnu poinde irukkum. More friends imply more places to eat at when you visit them :D, ofcourse means more fun as well, but then lets concentrate on the food part for now :)

So here I awake knowing I need to leave by noon to take the 8 hour boring lonely drive, winding through the mountains of Virginias, so I have ample time to sleep for the next day at work. oooopsss!!! leave at noon? and it is already 930am? And we have a starbucks coffee morning, lunch invite at our family friend's place (really, a friend who has a family), and then some shopping to do for a girl and hoooo, that is a tough one to buy something that a girl likes. Okay, all these done by noon, noo wayy....

So I wake up thinking its okay if I leave by 2pm, I can still get home by 10pm. Okay, plan confirmed, wakeup and brushup... and I wake up to a very bad news on TV. A passenger plane from Lexington crashed killing close to 50 people 1 minute after it took off from the airport. Man! I feel only when things like these happen close to where you live, you realise the magnitude of the incident. By realise, I mean, you will ponder a bit longer, feel sorry a little more than when it happens somewhere in England, and ofcourse get on with life. And the reason behind the crash - pilot took the smaller defunct runway, and the plane crashed into the ground exactly 1 minute after it took off, just 1/4 mile away from the runway. So after a sympathetic minute or two, there I was at Starbucks exactly 30 minutes after I woke up.
Same time, last year a Sunday morning at Starbucks would have a junta of 15 people. Our usual tendency is to comment like "ooohh, cant believe its been one year since blah..blah..". But come to think of it, one year is a pretty long time for drastic changes to our established relationships, work-related relocation and family committments. So, there we were, 15 turned to 4 at the starbucks - P,V,V and yours truly. And what will 4 guys talk about? Work/studies/family are never talked about and there is no rhyme or reason to talk about it as well :). After some wholesome gossipping, me and V left to the mall to get something for the girl S who had her housewarming the previous day.


We entered Garden Ridge, a home decor store and my head spinned. I am so vacillating when it comes to shopping for others, because I dont want to get them which they dont like or better still, I dont want people to keep it just because it was gifted. (Remember, Rachel in Friends!!??). So there I entered the humungous home decor store not knowing what to buy. First thumb rule while shopping for a gift - I should like it first of all, and then visualize the "Wow" in her face when getting something as a gift. So the biggest visualized "Wow" will finally be chosen :) That is why it makes it all the more harder to shop for a gift.
Walking a few aisles, I suddenly saw something on the left that "Wow"ed me....

To be continued...

**Maathaaji, mein pass ho gayaa.....

One Man 10 Roles

Can't believe from looking at this poster that Kamal is a 52 year old.
I feel he still looks like the young-bubbly, MMKR- Madan .
He is just unbelievable...
This is probably the eagerly awaited movie after Shivaji.

Sify says - Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu has cleared the censors & its account of financial troubles and hitting theaters next Friday. Waiting for next Friday then..

ps; I know I am posting too much on cinema, but thats my forte probably :)

SSUE

Something Something Unakum Enakum

சம்திங் சம்திங் உனக்கும் எனக்கும் - ஜெயம் ரவி, முக்கியமாக திரிஷா, மற்றும் பலர் நடித்து, ரீமேக் ராஜா (ரவியின் அண்ணன்) இயக்கிய படம்.
படம் வந்த சூட்டோட download பண்ணி பார்க்கிற சுவையே அலாதி தான்.

குடும்பத்தோட வந்து படம் பார்க்கனும், மெசேஜ், பன்ச் டயலாக், இத்யாதி-னு கஷ்டப்படாம, அரைச்ச மாவாக இருந்தாலும், பரவாயில்லை னு அரைச்சிருக்காங்க. அதுவும் தெலுகு-ல ஹிட் ஆன படம் வேற இது, மசாலாவுக்கு கேக்கணுமா என்ன?

love sentiment, amma sentiment, annan sentiment, doll sentiment, villain sentiment-nu எல்லாமே உண்டு.
லண்டன் பையன் ரவி, cousin கல்யாணத்துக்கு india வர, அந்த cousin'இன் பிரண்டு தான் நம்ம திரிஷா. அண்ணன் பிரபு சின்ன வயசுலேர்ந்து தூக்கி வளர்த்த தங்கச்சி - பாசம், நேசம் னு நிறைய விக்ரமன் sentiment'nu vachukonga. பிரபு இருக்கிற பார்த்தா, 10 திரிஷா தூக்கி வளர்க்கலாம். பிரபுக்கு பணக்காரங்க-னாலே பத்திக்கிட்டு வரும்.(அதுக்கு ஒரு குட்டி flashback-vera).

So, city-ku vantha Trisha-va எப்படி, ரவி மடக்கறாரு - அது தான் கதை. மடக்கினா மட்டும் போதுமா?, மடங்கின figure'ku என்ன என்ன எல்லாம் விட்டு தரணும்-னு நம்ம மக்கள் ரசிக்கிறா மாதிரி சொல்லியிருக்காங்க.

நீங்க, Maine Pyar Kiya பார்த்து இருந்தா, second-half எழுந்து வந்துட்டே இருங்க. Ditto- adhe story in the second half. (அதுக்காக Hindi-la வர Antakshari எல்லாம் கேக்கப்பிடாது.) பட் first half, actually moves in a good pace, that makes you glued into the second half.

படத்தோட highlight'lenthu ஆரம்பிக்கிறேன் - திரிஷா first-half la செமத்தியாக இருக்கா. ஒண்ணும் பெருசா நடிக்க கஷ்டபடலை, அழகா வந்துட்டு போனா போதும்-னு கொஞ்சம் நிறைய அழகாவே இருக்கா. இவ்வளோ நாளாக, திரிஷா-voda talent- தெரியாம போச்சே. இந்த படம் release போது, திரிஷா-வுக்கு உதயம் தியேட்டர்-ல கட் அவுட் வச்சாங்களாமே, next time me too join the gang, pananum...

ஜெயம் ரவி, - ஹ்ம்ம்ம், அவ்வளோ மோசம் இல்ல, சகிச்சிக்கலாம். His chemistry with Trisha was good, in the first half... adhu kooda trisha naala thaan rasikka mudinjutho?

பிரபு - பார்க்க பார்க்க அப்பா சிவாஜி மாதிரியே இருக்காரு, size'la மட்டும், ஏதோ சம்ம ரோல்'னு சொல்லி ஏமாத்திட்டாங்க.
இவங்களுக்கு அடுத்த படியா, பெரிய ரோல், அந்த குதிரை பொம்மை-க்கு தான். எவ்வளோ நாள் தான் இந்த sentiment varumo?

Ivvlo solliyum - I think I liked the movie, mainly because it was way off from the violence that I saw in recent movies, and if you like watching a movie once-in-a-while that kindles the romantic inside you with boy-meet-girl story, I think you will like it too.

படத்தோட பேரு, சம்திங் சம்திங் உனக்கும் எனக்கும்- னு வச்சதுனால, நம்ம ஹீரோ, first half-full'aa "something-something" னு சொல்லி அலைஞ்சிருக்காரு, ஆனா கடைசி நிமிஷம், tax-cut காக, Something Something-a தூக்கிட்டாங்க, title-lernthu. ஐயோ பாவம்...

சுருக்கமா சொல்லனும்னா, திரிஷா, பாட்டு, dance, first half super...ஒரு தடவை பார்க்கலாம்.

உனக்கும் எனக்கும், Sometimes - Inikum, Sometimes - Pulikkum...

Machakaari

I am listening in infinite repeat mode the Machakaari song from Sillunu oru Kaadhal.
A close second to me was the New York Nagaram sung by ARR himself.

And for now, I hate the MajaMaja song, it resembles strongly the "thazhuvuthu nazhuvuthu" feel from Anbe Aaruyire...

And as you all might already know Jo-Suriya's marriage has been officially confirmed for September 11th.

Jo - Innoru kili um paranthu poguthu.. Sigh!

Closing Down

No, No, No!!!

For all those happy faces, NO i am not closing down this blog.
But I am scared to visit blogs these days. I am just hoping I wouldnt see a "I am getting busy, I wont write any more blogs", " from now on, there wont be any more writings from me" sort of things.

I mean it really is catching up everywhere. This last week alone, I saw 3 of my regular reads closing down their blogs for a variety of reasons. While I wish them luck in their endeavors, I have to find 3 more blog sites to regularly visit and keep myself occupied.
That is so mean of all of you! :)

Actually, thinking of it, these 2 months have been the busiest I have ever been - with work and a variety of things - including some summer engineering courses, my project, working on a IEEE paper with my advisor (yes, you heard it right!), and ofcourse the other innumerable things...

But it feels nice to be occupied all the time with something or the other. But hopefully all these other things will end this month and I will have more time to blog and make-up for all the "Curtain"ed blogs.