Health camp successful.

The evening before the camp was held, we went around the streets of Pandur village distrbuting pamphlets about the health camp on the next day. On one of the “3 meters breadth” cement road at around 6.30 pm, I stood outside a hut and called out “Amma…”. A very old woman came towards me with her palm over the eyebrows. I explained why we have come there. All of a sudden, her face changed – as if looking deep into my eyes – and said “Nee en peran maathiri irukapa… Enaku yaarum illa… En peran Madras-la padikiran… Unna maathiri thaan irupaan” (You look like my grandson who is studying in Madras. He is the only one I have..)

I didn’t know how to react and said over a choked throat “Kandippa vanthudunga… Doctor paathupaar” (Do come tomorrow. Doctor will take care.)

Guess, I was alive on that day just to witness that.

P.S: Here are some of the pics taken in camp. I couldn’t surpress the “other Siva” of mine who gets haywire whenever a camera is given to him. Thanks to Shriman’s D80, some of them came out satisfactorily.

Karma Yoga Medical Camp tomorrow

Hope tomorrow’s medical camp at Pandur Village goes fine. Wish us luck!

Meanwhile, found some interesting blogs. I’ve been visiting these sites for quite some time and I must confess they are quite good. Not sure whether you’ll find them interesting.
The ET guy; Harvard Economist ;
Nobel laureate

Not surprising all these are economics blogs. Ever since our Economics Prof Rakesh Singh gave that inimitable lecture on that Thursday morning 2 months back, I am in love with this subject.

Review of my reactions after "Eeram"

Long time I wrote “review of my reactions” after watching a movie. I am real glad that “Eeram” happened to be the one to restart this series.

First things first. Go watch it. I simply don’t want to weave words around to say how good the movie is. Let me not waste time by telling how good the story is; how innovative the cinematography is; how good the characters are.

No.

I also don’t want to make big statements such as “The best thamizh thriller movie ever”, simply becuase I haven’t watched enough thamizh thriller movies. Generally I dont watch thriller movies in any language. So, I really don’t know whether it was a rip-off from any foreign language stuff.

But, it is important from my part to confess that I derived real pleasure from watching this stuff and I am extremely proud of THAMIZH CINEMA for the sheer diversity of films it gives us. One hand, we have a “moderately made” Kanthaswamy and in the other hand we have this flick.

It’s high time, we start going to Bombay and Calcutta and start dubbing and selling movies like “Eeram”. Time for us to go global. And what better way than to enter Bombay first.

Director Shankar – Man, I am real jealous of this guy. He makes movies he likes and produces movies he wants to associate himself with. What more a guy can want from his life?

I have already started googling “Arivalagan” – and he automatically adds himself to the list of Vetrimaaran and Sasikumar – Thamizh cinema’s next gen Directors and probably the ones I might compete with in later part of their careers.

“Actors were good” would be a crass understatement. I think this was the first time “The top angle Anna Flyover shot” (which would be usually shown in all movies) was shot during rainy season. I really loved every bit of camera work of Manoj.

For a long time, I had been talking about the impact of graphics in tamil cinema. And I was real glad to see that we’ve evolved from using “Kadhalan-like” graphics usage to usage in plot-based movies.

The intermission scene, which was the best scene of the movie according to me, is a perfect example.

Let me say once again what I’ve been saying for the past 3 hours after watching the movie.

AWESOME

Why am I watching a movie?

Ever since I moved to F5E, my new home aka hostel room, I have been put to sleep by some one of the on-screen’s characters. And for the last month or so, it’s been some body from the Bhiku Mhatre’s gang. Yes. I have been watching “Satya” continously for the past “so many days” before I go to sleep.

It would be of no surprise to you guys if you come to know that I know most of the dialogues from that movie. But, is it some thing to boast about? What do I gain by watching the same movie again and again? Accepted that it is a masterpiece. But, it’s some one else’s masterpiece. Not mine. What reason do I have to watch that? I mean, I think I am getting deep into the pysche of myself. May be of others too. Why do people want to watch a movie twice? For that matter, Why do people have to watch a movie? That too, spending time and money. What pleasure do they derive from it?

It seems hugely shocking for me when I think of it now. 99% of free time in my life were spent in the ticket counter and theater halls. Why am I addicted to watching movies?

I think there is an emotional thing involved. I, for that matter, tend to relate myself to one of the characters in the screen. Most of the time, it is the protagonist. So when Jagga Bhai poured that Whisky on to Satya’s face – I felt angry. When the director is able to make this emotional connect with the audience – he makes him realize that he is part of the movie. That is the catch.

Even though the director made this movie, he makes every body in the dark hall realize that “the product is not mine. It’s yours”. So, when Rajinikanth became an overnight crorepathi in the movie “Annamalai” – what had actually happened is that every damn person in the dark hall became a crorepathi. And that is the success of a movie.

May be. Just may be, I am too emotionally connected with the character “Satya” which makes me watch him every night before I go to sleep. Yes, it’s not some thing to boast about. But what the heck! Thanks Ramgopal Varma for making such a character who I am able to connect to.

What is that I am going to?

I just happened to sit at a guest lecture of Mr. T. Ramasamy – DGM, Indian Bank. I could not help but feel really ashamed about myself. The 2 hour lecture was an ultimate collage of information – right from evolution, biology, history, psychology, geography, modern mathematics, economics – classical and modern, physics, political science – I mean all the things on this planet which are studied were brought out. And yes, hold your breath! All this to explain the current global melt down and what’s the future holds for us. I had studied something about behavioural economics and how it was a major contributor to the current economic crisis. This person took it a mile above that concept and presented the holistic view of the whole situation. I got bored/disinterested after some time as I was really not able to assimilate so much information. Simply, my brain wasn’t exactly programmed for that kind of rapid assimilation.

The learning for me after this lecture is not about Global economic meltdown, as such. It isn’t about the huge colossus of information he shared with us. It has nothing to do anything related to the future world or things like that. It was all about interest. Here is a man, may be having a maximum of 1 year for retirement talking so passionately about something he has loved doing all his life.

What is that I am going to talk about when I am his age?