Away from chennai

Last weekend i packed my bags rather carefully to make sure i am not short of any stuff for my trip away from Chennai. I went for Palakkad/Coimbatore for two days. The whole idea behind this trip is to get away from Chennai and this boring monotonous daily chores.

I started my trip on 19/11/2010 a rather freakish Friday. Freakish because of two reasons, A. fact that i left my train tickets at the office and came home. I had to travel all the way to ascendas, the place where i work to get those printouts. B. I had an eye allergy that week which made me skip work for three days. I boarded the cheran express around 10:10 Pm on Friday. I Started reading 'The Kite runner' in the side upper birth allotted to me. A tall, Beautiful girl dressed in T shirts and Jeans was reading Paul Coehlo's alchemist in the Upper Birth opposite to me. Our eyes rolled over and met for a few moments. It was 07:00 AM the next morning one hour late than the scheduled arrival time, thinking it was Coimbatore Junction. I tried to get down to see Erode junction. The train was three Hours late.

Day 1 :- I got a single room in vignesh lodge, opposite to the railway station. I would rather consider it great cause its so close to the railway station and the room ended before it begins. I do not want to describe about the attached bathroom facilities in that room, Leaving it unsaid the better.

I called my girl , to get suggestions about the places near palakkad which I could visit. Surprisingly she text ed me a whole lot of places in an around Palakkad. She is Malayalee girl born and brought up at Chennai, but she had wonderful knowledge about Palghat. I started my train journey to Palakkad with a 9 Rupees ticket from CBE. It was a CBE-Palghat passenger that set the day rolling. Interesting it was 9 rupees, the ticket from chengalpet to Beach station in Chennai cost more than 9 rupees. I felt like southern railways is damn good. Southern railways in partnership with Irctc are doing good work.

In Palghat i first went to a bakery named Top Notch they specialize in Nendram(a variety of Banana fruit) chips. They have two flavours of the same chips namely thrissur and Palghat flavours. Both the flavours taste differently. I took an Auto for Kapilavasathu restaurant to have lunch. The hotel recommended by my girl. They served wonderful lunch, though i wanted to have kerala rice. I took a long walk to Vaatika gardens and Tippu sultan fort both of them in the same compound. The tippu sultan fort was built in the 17th century and one of the important archaeological sites under Indian archeology department. The entire fort looked like one fortress, the amount of skill, labour, man management required to build something of that greater magnitude without any technology. It had a those huge walls( both in length, width and height) built of granite stone with the green Algae in it. A form of canal water running around it. I also had a look at the Jail/prison used during those days. I walked along the place which might have been 4 Square Kms overall. During the end of the Wall i had two huge glasses of Tea, the special Kerala tea from a good looking girl who was working in the canteen of the fort. I also went to the Kalpathi bagawathy amman temple inside Palakkad surrounded by ponds from all sides. It was a beautiful place to visit.

Another recommendation was the Malampuzha dam located outside Palakkad. This recommendation came from a guy named mukesh who travelled with me in the train as well as my girl. The dam looked beautiful during the night in the lights. The best part is the bridge constructed out of wood from where we view the dam. I took the express train back to CBE from Palakkad.

More than all the fun and travelling, I was able to understand more about my girl. I didn't expect her to help me out this way. Whatever she recommended was correct and found out that she much more understanding and caring more than i thought. I found a sense of understanding and a deeper inner meaning in our relationship. I am not coming to this conclusion based on the above incident. It's also based on the past 4 months. In someways she out thinks me and she is rooted to her culture and morals. We even had a conversation about some issues, I was really amazed about a facet of her understanding what this relationship means to her and to me.

Day 2 :- I got a surprise call from my school buddy named Vasanth Kumar. Vasanth a mech engineer and an IIM Mba grad working in nerolac paints CBE. We met for lunch at Adyar Anandha bhavan. The first line he spoke was about him putting his papers(resignation) even without having a backup plan. The idea of putting your papers and then searching a new job is kind of quite common nowadays. We had a great time driving around amrita college located in ettimadai a village in the outskirts of cbe. It has a small railway station, where the passenger train stops propably twice a day. The station is actually located inside the college campus. To test our stamina we climbed a rather uneven hill. The top of the hill was a rather small sivan temple called Uttama Lingeshwarar temple. It was a quite a difficult one considering i havent climbed anything in the last three years. It was nice meeting vasanth after a long time. Finally the event for which i came to CBE unfolded, The wedding. It was for the wedding of Charlie Jeba, a colleague of mine working with me. Rushed through the wedding and left for the night train back to chennai. I was taken by the surprise about the rather good nature of the TTR who re-embassed the cost of the ticket of my friend who pulled out of the journey in the last moment.

More than the journey away from home and the feeling of going of alone to some unknown place. It was the experience. the whole idea behind understanding travelling, getting to know about different people, different cultures and mainly about myself. I rather must not forget those moments, thats why i wrote this blog.

Mynaa - Another Poignant tale of love

Last week i saw Mynaa, which is touted to be the best film that has been released this diwali. I went to a theatre which was located near my home for a fifty rupees ticket. After watching the film I would say the film was worth even 100 Bucks.

Tamil Cinema has been growing leaps and bounds over the past few years. Artistic excellence, brilliant screenplays and good storylines have emerged. Prabhu solomon the guy who directed King, Lee, Laadam and Kokki. All these films barring the Item numbers and C centric music has been movies that doesnt disaapoint you, not at all bad films. With Mynaa i would say he has raised himself into a different league. Prabhu solomon seems to be a director who works with actors and technicians who are new to the industry and extracts decent work. He worked with Vikram in King, another wonderful actor Karan in Kokki, Literally changed Sibi in Lee.

Prabhu Solomon does films in a kind of a framework , minimal budgets, low key cinematography, Lesser known actors and technicians. Cinematographer Sukumar who has worked with him in laadam has done a wonderful job of shooting the film with minimal lights mostly in natural light. Casting is one of the toughest decisions to be taken in Pre Production. Prabhu Solomon has done a commendable effort towards it. He has intelligently opened the film with a conversation which seems like it didnt connect with the story, but it surely did near the end.

I dont want to review this film and create spoilers. Actors have done a great job specially Viddarth and Amala Paul(The lead). Imman has rediscovered himself through this film. The songs are full of heart and soul. I couldnt hear the Background score in the film, it never dominated the visuals. Go watch this movie, in my book this is the best Tamil film of the year till date, standing next is Kalavani,Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya and Raavanan.

I would like to count the list of tamil films that have gory, brutal or negative endings in the last few years. I figure it all started with Balaji Sakthivel's Kaadhal and Bala's Sethu. Came Nandha, Kallori, Bala's pithamagan, Ameer's Paruthi Veeran and Raam, Vasantha Balan's Angadi theru and Veyyil. Bala's very own Naan Kadavul, Ram's Katradhu Tamizh, Kunguma Poovum Konji Puraavum. Gautham Menon's Kakkhaa Kakkha and Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya. Has it become a norm that ending a film on a sad not and making the audience speechless makes the film work or do wonders at the box office? . Ending a film in a certain way depends upon the idea or the message you want to convey to the audience. Have a great week at the movies. You have good movies running in cinema Halls near your place and also awaiting for release.

Send your comments to rajivvikaas@gmail.com.