Howzzat!

Of course, Unobtainium is a figment of man’s (esp. James Cameron’s) vast imagination. The element is apparently hard to procure; is vital for survival of mankind; is expensive and man by all means will try to obtain it- even if it involves murdering hordes of fluorescent-blue skinned Na’Vis. (with reference to Avatar, folks) He's just showing off his bling. And happiness ? It shares most of the above mentioned characteristics of Unobtanium. Maybe not expensive for everyone and mostly, doesn’t involve killing (God forgive me for the ant-hill stampede the other day).  In our pursuit of ‘happyness’, we have turned into monks sold our Ferraris saw Kate wed William welcomed the non-monopolization of Maggi noodles. cheered the literal transformation of Kamal in ‘Vishwaroopam’,  watched Modi’s acceptance speech infinite scrolled our Facebook newsfeed. dished out 83 bucks to enjoy the “magnum” royalty. And there were things that hindered a...

“Kalki” Krishnamurthy is a master story teller with none to surpass him. People used to wait with bated breath for his novels serialized in Tamil weeklies for several years, just like how we wait to catch an episode of our favourite soap now. His magnum opus “Ponniyin Selvan” is a family-favourite. An historical marvel contained in 5 stonking volumes, reading it evokes an array of emotions ranging from romance to martyrdom and plays out in our minds better than any movie ever did, thanks to a God given gift to mankind called imagination. One of the many incredible aspects of the book is the amount of painstaking research ‘Kalki’ had put in to write the 2400-pages-long-epic. He is said to have read every piece of Sangam literature available on the era (upon which the book is set) and had even visited Srilanka a number of times to gather facts. No wonder all the effort has paid off so well – a gem of a book that is every Tamil book lover’s delight. It has been exactly...

There seemed to be a politician lurking in every student the past month. The Modi wave was clearly felt in KCT. Almost every student I knew voted for the BJP and each one gave a plausible explanation for the unanimous (!) decision. Modiji, et tu? ;( 10 Things I think made Students** opt for BJP 1.Modi can speak. Yes, he can! /*He doesn’t speak the way Ranbir Kapoor does onscreen. So I have trouble understanding his Hindi*/ 2. Manmohan Singh. Just look at how he's been called these days-   the puppet ruler, Sonia Gandhi’s spastic child, the silent spectator, solitary reaper (saw this one in Outlook), ‘mute-ant’ , male counterpart of twilight Bella,  etc..etc.. He has been the new posterboy of Santa and Banta brand of jokes.  3. Arnab Goswami … People believe he speaks right from the Upanishads.So hence goes the adage, "If one can’t duel  Arnab, he can’t rule the nation."  #RahulGandhikiAag 4. 3G…3G..3G . Not many had an inkling ...

Anirudh’s one of the rare composers who has made conversational Tamil sound more like music and it’s a good thing. His latest offering is “Maan karate” which has a sugar-and-spice combo of Sivakarthikeyan and Hansika in the lead with debutant Thirukumaran wielding the megaphone. “Maanja” has Anirudh crooning to his own tune. It is peppy and believe this- it is a love track. Karky belongs to the breed of “research-poets” still left in Kollywood. All his research on the Madras dialect seems to have paid off for the Chennai lingo is transliterated in style. The funky and the wannabe folksy “Darling Dambakku” (penned by Yugabharathi) scores with the brilliant vocals of the incredible but underutilized  Benny Dayal and ‘ kamli’ Sunidhi Chauhan. Anirudh does throw surprises. Non-Anirudh moments such as ‘Did- I- just- hear- a- flute?’ and ‘was- that -a- Sitar? ’ were aplenty. The Reprise version of the song (the same track with the vocals replaced by Nivas and Ka...

Admit it. Whatsapp has been eating into your Facebook time for quite a while now. Though the stats say Facebook users are as active as ever, status updates like “Movie boring..zzzzz”(never mind the trailing lines “..at the Cinemas with Cute Kavi, Bala Boyzz, Banu athai, Kowshi kutti” with the last two not being FB users) and “Had the craziest vaazhakka bajji ever! #semataste ” are growing fewer in number. Credit goes to Whatsapp for its no frills status updates with huge user pleasing capabilities as in, 1. Nobody, I repeat, nobody can add a Vadivelu meme as a comment to your status. 2. Opportunities to start a Vijay Vs Ajith presidential debate are considerably less. 3. You don’t have to feel bad for a Selfie that has been “liked” only by 5 people. 4. You can get people to know the kind of loverboy you are by updating “For every beat, my heart keeps saying happy birthday to the one it belongs to… <3 <3 <3 “ without your mom/dad/uncle/HOD-cum-FB account holders snoo...