Howzzat!

My recent visit to Karur to see my aunt and grandparents was very enjoyable. It also had something else in store for me – my aunt’s long kept book “The Power Of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale.  I initially borrowed it for a few days but as was my nature, I forgot to return it and brought it back with me to Coimbatore (Sorry Chithi!) I usually skim self-help books but I couldn’t help reading every line of this brilliant book. My mom says that I’m very pessimistic. My mouth always gets me into trouble. Once she asked me “why don’t you learn tailoring Swetha?” “I don’t think I’m capable of doing anything with that. It’ll be waste, ” I replied. And…. You already know what must’ve happened after that. When my struggle with ‘I can’t..’s, ‘But..’s, ‘What if…’s and ‘Oh no!’s never seemed to end,  “The Power of…” came as a blessing.  It is a very peaceful book. It revolves around ideas that can lead to a positive state of mind. The book applies Christian principl...

April 13, the day to vote in Tamil Nadu. As always, the battle is set between the two mammoths, the ruling DMK and opp. ADMK.  I support neither and I’m of no use either since I turn 18 only next year.  Both the parties have offered a slew of freebies in their manifestos. I’m excited at this prospect, excited to witness the fulfillment (or half-fillment) of the promises by whichever party that comes to power. The Election Commission(ers) are now seen as the most annoying  after the Income Tax people. Everyone’s complaining from the DMK chief to the bank official who had his ATM money seized inorder to curb the “cash-for-votes” exploits. Transactions have been severely affected between mill owners and the like due to the order imposed by the EC to seize any unaccounted cash of more than a lakh. EC have been on a rampage seizing any dosh found via random checkposts. But 5 crore rupees seized from an omni bus??!  Whew! Coimbatore is seeing busy days too. The PM was ...

Flashes of joy, Flashes of pain Seem to surround my mind in vain Never have I felt such a feeling strong To say goodbye is mighty wrong I am reluctant to let it pass To part with you is the real cause Till we meet again, I try to say If you ask how, I see no way All these years, together we spent Missing moments, so much to repent Anyway, I hope you get the cue And never say adieu….    Dedicated to my school friends and all school, college pass-outs...

My exams are finally over. Phew! Back to blogging after a three month hiatus. I’ve resolved to read as much as possible this month (not lessons, books). Will really miss my folks back at school. Can’t believe my 14 years of school life has come to an end. We were quite an unlucky set. Exam fever, cricket fever, election fever and ordinary fever- all hitting us at same moment when Japan was hit by devastating waves. (oh Wikileaks fever began to hit the parliament too). But what hit us most was the unnerving news of death of two persons close to us. One was our classmate and friend dear Harsha’s dad’s death ( I’m set to write a tribute to him) and my friend Asha’s unfortunate death. Asha studied with me 2 years ago and was an extremely talented girl. On the eve of her final physics exam, the girl had a fatal fall from the third floor of her apartment with the physics book still in hand. My heart goes out to her grieved parents. She doesn’t deserve this at all. Rest in peace, Asha. ...

So finally the moment has arrived. The widely criticized (rather than anticipated) XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 is about to start. Everyone has had their say. Ministers of various commonwealth nations, CWG officials, the Olympic Games Committee folks, most importantly ‘The Media’ and even this 16 year old who has never come close to anything known as ‘Sports’ (if only ‘hide-and-seek’ belonged to this category!) I’m not going to write about all that has been much said and hyped about by the Media. I’m not going to point out the “unpreparedness” of the games nor would I say anything about the foot bridge collapse, the sanity of the CWG village, the incident at the weight-lifting arena, pulling out of (over the) top athletes, the dumb reasons given by our sincere officials ( not to mention the dog’s dump on the athletes’ bed!!). “Seeing is Believing” they say, which is just another way of saying “Hearing is not believing” But we saw the pictures of filthy village in the p...

  All smiles! Chennai Super Kings are on a roll! They were runners-up in the first edition of the IPL (2008), were in the semi-finals in 2009 and won the tournament in 2010. And now just five months after lifting the IPL trophy, they've lived it up once more, in the second edition of CLT20 as CSK drowned Warriors by 8 wickets! Last night, CSK thrashed the Warriors in what seemed to be a match set right by the bowlers.  M.S.Dhoni is one-big-lucky guy (thanks to Mrs.Dhoni!) The venue was Johannesburg - the same venue where the lad led India to its 2007 World T20 title. Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan (3/16) and R. Ashwin (2/16) took five wickets as Chennai restricted Warriors to 128 for seven after the South African team elected to bat at the New Wanderers Stadium. With the most runs (294 off 6 matches) of the tournament, Murali Vijay took home his "golden bat" and R. Ashwin was awarded the Golden ball (the guy deserves it for his most timely wicket of the dang...

    The greatest thing about festivals is the food ; and the love and warmth that is served with it. The Biriyani served during Ramzan (that’s today), the ‘kozhukattais’ made during Ganesh Chathurthi (that’s tomorrow), the sweet pongal prepared during the festival of pongal and all the jalebis , ladoos and home made murukku   on Diwali….wah!  the list goes on.. Meet the Masal dosa hola Rasgulla! Early this year, Outlook proclaimed Masala Dosa as India’s national dish and Rasgula (Rosgulla, Rasagola or whatever it is called) as nation’s favourite sweet. But that sounds so weird. There can be never be anything as such. Every time a magazine conducts a poll on food- which state’s favourite dish is which, I really get annoyed. Every sweet, every dish that has been ever made is so special and wonderful with a distinct flavour of its own and picking something as India’s national dish is incredibly unfair. ...