2008 - The End!

The Start:
I dont know exactly how I started the New Year 2008 but from my short term memory loss, I guess I would have ended up the New Year by calling friends & family.

Trips:
1. PA & NJ - To visit my friends is a wrong reason; I was bored being alone and hence thought it would be a good break to be with friends. All those friends have gone back to India and I am happy that I visited them @ the right time
2. Seattle - Those two great days with friends...Those games that we played especially the 'To the tunes' game which became disastrous because of me singing only the tunes and not catching the songs...Those cricket matches that I watched with them, great food, the fun...
3. India - Neverthless to say, a splendid trip! Friends waiting at the Airport till midnight, Amma's Idli Sambar, Paati's batchanam, Appa's emotive speeches, friends gift and get together, the malarchi in all those faces that I saw there....Great but had to end within weeks :(
4. Boston - Sis' wedding day, her B'day and my B'day falling on the same month brings a celebration. Was in a shopping spree with Sis...She's the only one whom I like to shop with, as she knows my taste better than anyone
5. Last but not the least, LA - Trip last week. Had fun on the whole trip. Surprised to see lot of people knowing me. The biggest surprise for me was my humorous nature that was brought out there. I did not know I have that quality :) I was giving a 'Super cut' comedy to all of them making their stomachs split :)

Top favorites of 'I watched this' list:
1. Anbae Sivam - Not the first time that I am watching this. I love this movie to the core.
2. A Wednesday - Thought provoking
3. Cast Away - Unbelievable and Impeccable
4. Taare Zameen Par - Released my whole tank of tears
5. Pursuit of Happyness - Will Smith, you are the king of emotions :)
6. The Shawshank redemption - Hope, a life saver!
7. Friends - Comedy at its best
8. Super Singer - The Musical...
9. CSI Miami - Heart pounding thriller (Hee...hee...sometimes I watch it because I like Eric Delko :))

Those 'new' stuff:
1. Dance @ Diwali show
2. First Rental car drive to Walmart :)
3. Brand New Sony TV
4. Hosting a baby shower for a friend
5. Blackberry phone

The 'High's':
1. Achieving a professional target gaining appreciations all over
2. Jumping high on air and taking a photo...Jus kidding!
Not much...

The 'Low's':
1. Failing fourth time to get my article published in a magazine
2. Preparation for GMAT - Did not happen though as wished :(

My fav blogs of mine:
1. http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/08/he.html
2. http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/02/hmmm.html
3. http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-firstlast-penfriend.html
4. http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/03/second-attempt.html
5. http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/10/known-stranger.html

Songs that I listened most:
1. Vellai Pookal
2. Idhu Enna Maayam
3. Kangal Irandal
4. Naan Thedum Sevanthipoo
5. Pothi Vacha

Dont want to drag so much and hence I am ending it here. Wish you all a happy new year! Hope New Year brings all that you wish & dream for :)
No resolutions, No expectations but excited to begin the brand new year 2009!

Here's P.O.

Paadum Office - After a break, it's back! It brought me those pleasant memories that I had 3 years back. It was not called Paadum Office earlier. It was called as a corporate music show and I dont think it was shown on TV.

It was the first time I saw it in the newspaper and heard it from the HR folks at my office inviting people to join. Being a music lover and having a close friend who is good at singing, I insisted him to try although he was reluctant. There was no doubt about his great singing capability but he was hesitating because he had stage fear. But I dont want to see someone's potential being wasted and hence somehow forced him to take part.

From the day he enrolled in the competition, we used to discuss about the songs to choose and what would be the advantages/disadvantages of rendering such songs. Finally, he chose 'Unakena Mela Nindral' from Simla Special. I was there with him on the preliminary round encouraging him. Fortunately or Unfortunately, that song was sung by someone who went before him and he was tensed. He gave me this magical wand and said 'Whatever comes, it's your choice now; Tell me one song that I should sing'. I was happy that he trusted my choices and at the same time, did not want to choose a song that may throw him out of the competition.

I gave reasons for choosing this song - 'Nenjankootil' from Dishyum. 1. I was damn sure that noone there will attempt that song 2. It did not have lot of aalaps or hard sangadhis or the fast breathtaking notes 3. I have heard him singing that before and I liked it. He agreed and sang that on stage when his turn came. He was nervous at the first few lines of Pallavi but rendered it very beautifully till the end.

When he came back from the stage, he asked me if he did it well and if he will get selected for which I said 'I dont know, but I liked it except the first few lines'. He was confident that he will get into the top 10 out of 93 contestants. And before they announce the results, I had to leave to meet another set of friends. After an hour, he called me and said he got into the top 10 to face the finals. Got this details from him that the judges said 'Choosing an easy song and rendering it great is much better than choosing a difficult song and trying to prove yourself but failing badly'. His first try was worth it and happy, we were!!!

And here is one of the rendition from this friend of mine (Sriram). I am dedicating this post to him and his wife Sowmya...Un song Unakke Sriram :))



Kanava... | Music Codes

Saami kitta...

Wat a song, Wat a feel, Wat a rendition? One of the songs in my favorite sohamana songs list.

The Original:
http://www.imeem.com/sujakshan/music/jX4I0cJt/saami_kitta_solli/

My version of cracked track here :)
Saami Kitta | Record Online

Commentakshari - 'S'

Read this tag in MV's blog and had to write my own post, being the 6th one to post a comment on his. Since I was the 6th one, I had to take the first letter of the 6th word in my comment and post as a commentakshari. Ha..ha...ha...But I had only 5 words...Very clever me :)) So, I took my own favorite letter 'S' and started writing about the 10 words that starts with 'S'. Here I go...

Snakes:
Snakes and dreams go hand in hand in my case. Almost 80% of the dreams that I had was about Snakes. For no reason and without any intention, I end up having dreams about Snakes. And everytime I say this to my mom, I wished it not to happen again. I hate dreams about Snakes :(

Snow:
The white carpet whose beautiful flow that I love to watch it on an early morning with a hot cup of Elaichai tea :)

SSS:
Srinath, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shaun Pollock - My top 3 favorites of the cricketing arena. Although these 3 are not in the field as bowlers now, this tag reminded me of them. I had posters of all the three during those days and I used to get these player cards that come with some chewing gum brand. I still have those cards and posters that I saved in my diary :)

Sweets:
When people cannot even eat half of a milk sweet or a bowl of halwa, I can eat atleast thrice that amount on a single serve. I have a sweet tooth, u know? ;)

Slambooks:
I was introduced to this term when I was in my 12th grade. Everytime you see someone in the class, you can see them with a slambook in their hands and with an asaduvazhium smile requesting someone to write. Slambooks, not my choice!

Shawshank Redemption:
I believe this one particualr movie can change one's life. I love this movie for teaching about various lessons in life and in particular 'HOPE'. I would recommend everyone to watch this movie.

Strength:
People who fails intermittently always have a great power of inner strength. This strength gives them the taste of SUCCESS when they attain it and I believe in it!

Sleep:
It's one's own property which no one can surrennder. In addition to that, if you can sleep within seconds without waiting for the sleep to come to you, whenever you fall into the bed to sleep, how would that be? A boon indeed!

Sharing:
Sharing in whatever sense feels good. Ideas, feelings, thoughts - If you have a person that you can share anything with, that's the beauty of a relationship. Isn't it?

Sure:
The word that I often use nowadays and hence I am ending the tag with this - Sure :)

Now, the rules to continue this tag: (Took from the original tag of MV's)
It is your turn. If you would like to play “Commentakshari” you can pick the starting letter of the word from your comment number. For example, if you are the 3rd commentator, you can pick the first letter of the 3rd word in your comment. If you do not have a blog, you can write your words in the comments section. If you do not like to play “Commentakshari”, you can comment on my post but you are free to reject it and move on.

Beauty & the beast

When it comes to being beautiful or getting a chance to look beautiful or beautified, (Did I miss the 'u' here?, Na...;)) I can loose easily without any efforts. Make-ups - I drive them away. It's not my area is what I have always felt. Even if a make-up kit comes as a gift, I dont welcome it. It just hides away in the shelf for years unless otherwise asked by someone. Talking about beauty and the make-ups, the unforgettable moments cling together and this blog post comes as an effect of that. All I do is shaping eyebrows when I think of beautification or make-ups and here is more to that...

1: After coming to US, without anyone's advice, went to an American Beauty Parlour and came back as a 'Kroor singh' with thicker eyebrows that I ever had in life.
2: Tried another American Beauty Parlor this time. Did a research beforehand and got the guts to try it there. This time I came back in a different fashion with one eyebrow half cut and the other protruding with a bulged mark of hairs :( I couldn't see myself and stopped using a face mirror for days :):)
3: This time I couldn't see my eyebrows. It was thin like a line drawn from a pencil. I thought I had to visit an opthalmologist to get my eyes treated
4: After 3 fatal attempts, visited an Indian beautician giving her tips on how it should not look like after she is done. She did end up creating red and black marks near my eyebrows. Oh, itchy! I screamed :(
5: This time, there was nothing remarkable other than my eyes filled with tears. Don't get me wrong...It was not the tears out of joy, but out of pain. She was so smooth in handling my brows..hmm...period.
6: And now with a shape that I have never used in my Geometry classes. What should I call it?
7: The perfect one which I cherished and thought this should stay forever :)
8: Yet to come....this friday! Will I hit one of the first 6s or the 'I want to have 7th' or a different one this time? Thinking of putting a tag showing 'Handle with care'. Wat say? :P

Ha..ha..ha...

I got the CD of my group dance at the Diwali show with the local folks here. It was unusual that I was not excited to watch it. Usually, I will be on all highs when I get to watch all these stuff. But later I realised that it was good that I was not. I did watch it today evening and ended up laughing all the way through. The reason being it looked like we all danced in a fast forward mode and at times, it looked like I was trying to fight with someone. I couldn't focus on anyone in particular bcoz it looked that everyone was dancing in a haste. And I felt that I came like 'Vaama minnal' comdey girl in the entire dance video...Hilarious :) I guess whoever captured the video did it in a great angle that a dance show ended as a comedy show in the video (according to me) but I have to thank that person for taking the video. I will see if I could upload it in Youtube and give you all the feel of 'Laugh n Laugh!'.

Friday & films...

On a usual Friday night, I always end up watching a movie but last night, I ended up watching two movies of completely different genre. Yeah, I am going to talk about it now. The best part in watching those movies which did not sound me as a lullaby is mainly because of the english subtitles although they were hindi movies. One is 'A Wednesday' and the other one is 'Vivah'.

A Wednesday: When I finished watching this movie, it left me a trail of thoughts on movies like 'Mudhalvan', 'Indian', 'Evano Oruvan', 'Anniyan'. But I have to admit that 'A Wednesday' is a different kind from those listed but the effect was the same. I guess I watched it at the right time keeping Mumbai blasts in my mind. The aftermath of the Mumbai blasts did not have a greater impact on me like others being furious on those blasts and blogging more about it. But I talked about it more to friends and watched it continually for hours in the TVs and website videos. This movie gave me lot of answers although in reality it may not be the same that a terrorist would give a justification of what he does like Iqbal Khan in the movie but that was reasonable from an Indian religious mind. The moves and strategies handled by Nasserudhin Shah as directed is great. The furious police officer Arif Khan and 'the will do what you say' police officer Jaipal Singh has done their job perfectly. Out of the whole movie, I liked the last part a lot when the hacker says 'This man is the best' failing to give the location details of NShah; When the police officer Babu says 'The person in the skecth is only 1% similar' making NShah escape; Anupam Kher goes to the location and just shake hands with Nshah - All from a common man's perspective feeling that this man has done what I have not or what I will not; NShah saying 'You feel different since a common man has killed 4 people but you dint feel different when a terrorist killed 400 people, what's this officer?' It's like NShah conveyed everything that a common man wanted to. That's so realistic and hence this movie is great! I liked it and I will recommend this to anyone.


Vivah: A very ordinary movie without any thrills or grills which revolves around two families - of course, the bride and the groom's, trying to answer questions like 'What's in a marriage?' 'Why a relationship is important?' but it fulfilled those questions by answering only in word-of-mouth from Krishnakantji (Dad of the bride). When it comes to a dad position, I think all the directors go either to this man or AKher. They deserve it though :) Amrita Rao looks good at various angles but has only few lines to speak in the entire movie. Shahid did not fit quite well to the storyline, is my feeling. I do not have much to write, for the reason being the movie was not so enjoyable. I will give 1.5 out of 5 in my scorecard.

Image Courtesy:
Yahoo Movies(Vivah)
Times of India(A Wednesday)

Fav lines...Guess???

Guess the movie:

1. manidhargal silanaeram thadam maaralaam
manangalum avar gunangalum niram maaralaam
ilakkanam sila naeram thavaraagalaam
ezhudhiya anbu ilakkiyam pizhaiyaagalaam

2. kaatrin perisaiyil
mazhai paadum paadangalum oru maunam poal inbam tarumooOO
koadi keertanamum kavi koartha vaarthaiygalum thuLi kaNNer poal arththam tharumo

3. Dhooram endre sollai
Thookil poatu kolla
Nee vaaraay
Purai yaerum poadhellam
Thaniyaahe sirikindraen

4. pechellam thaalatu pola
ennai uranga vaikka nee illai
thinamum oru muttam thanthu
kaalai coffee koduka nee illai

5. maNNai thiRandhaal neer irukkum
en manadhai thiRandhaal nee iruppaay
oliyai thiRandhaal isai irukkum
en uyirai thiRandhaal nee iruppaay

6. Kan vizhithu paartha podhu kalaindha vanname
Un kairegai mattum en ninaivu chinname
Kadhari Kadhari enadhu ullam udaindhu ponadhey
Sidharipona sillil ellam unadhu bimmame

7.soalai malaroLiyoa unadhu sundharap punnagaidhaan
neelak kadalalaiyae unadhu nenjin alaigaLadi
koalak kuyiloasai unadhu kuralin inimaiyadi
vaalaik kumariyadi kaNNammaa maruvak kaadhal koNdaen

8. poovinaich choottum koondhalil endhan aaviyai nee aen soottugiraay?
thaenai ootrum nilavinil kooda theeyinai nee aen moottugiraay?
kadarkaraik kaatrae...
kadarkaraik kaatrae vazhiyai vidu dhaevadhai vandhaal ennoadu

There are lots more but I will confine this here...

Rayil Payanangalil...

While I was listening to songs, it just hit my mind and I started compiling a list of songs that falls into this genre - Tamil songs on a train. Do u remember anything other than this?
1. Rayile Rayile - 5 star
2. Vandi Vandi Rayilu vandi - Jeyam
3. Poovarasam Poo poothachu - Kizhakke Pogum Rayil
4. Goods Vandiyile - Kunguma Chimizh
5. Mey Madham - Jay Jay
6. Innisai Paadi Varum - Thulladha Manamum Thullum
7. Nenjukkul Peidhidum - Vaaranam Aayiram
8. Uyire En Uyire - Thotti Jaya
9. Thaalatum Kaatre Vaa - Poovellam En Vaasam
10. Thaiya Thaiya - Uyire
11. Ele Machi Machi - Anbae Sivam
12. Maratha vachavan - Panakkaran
13. Vellaraika - Kaadhal Kottai

a.e.i.o.u

Mazhaiyo Veyilo
Nee Illamal Naan Illai...

enadhu payanathin
Thodar kadhai neeye...

Thanimayai virumbamal
Jodiyagave Kaatchi alipadheno...

Adhu un poruppe
En seruppe :)

The Snow Shivers...

On a snowy day
I walked alone
With gloves and caps on
Pushing my hands on the side pockets
To get rid of the coldness
Bending my head down
To stay away from snow hitting my eyes
Crossing the road
Not knowing a car coming across
In a whisker
I stopped behind
Reached the destination
With a sigh of relief
Shivering in cold
Spluttering away the snow in my shoes
Looked at the mirror
Seeing the red ears
I thought
I wish I had a car

Screen of death :(

Although I love the color blue, I would not have expected my laptop to show it driving it to death. Want to know what it is? Read below.

I started hating Windows Vista for giving me problems always...My system has unexpectedly shut down >10 times in the last week and I was patient enough to look at the forums and found that it was due to an incompatible software with the OS. The patience period did not stop when I called the HP folks to fix it and had to wait for a long time which made me to fell asleep :) I ended up trying all those solutions that every Tom, Dick and Harry has provided in the web world and there was one Karuna Bhagvan shedding light asking to do a System recovery to an earlier date. And finally (may be not), the problem seems to be resolved. I watched more than a hour of video today and did not hit the 'Blue screen of death'. Hopefully, my patience will not be tested again..GOK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death

My Vote...

For the first time in this Super Singer show, I felt Ravi deserves to be in the winner spot. He was awesome when he rendered all the medley songs especially on the Udhaya Udhaya song, he was so emotive that anyone can feel the song from a true heart :) The song itself is a great one rendered by Hariharan. When Ravi was singing, it did not sound like he tried to imitate what Hariharan did but it was great to listen Ravi singing it and esp on the notes of 'Unnale..Thannale....'..WWWoowwwww...As always, I have a second spot to be taken by Renu in my voting system..Man, I love her voice. I have never found flaws in her singing so far. And for the third spot, I have Prasanna and Rohit in tie :) Have to see their performances in the upcoming episodes. Let's see whether my voting system clicks the right way (Enakku Sangeetha gnanam irukkanu therinju poidum?:)) Since this round induced me to listen to the song Udhaya repeatedly, I am providing the link here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyklQRnTFo0

Pursuit of Happyness!

When you get something big that you had been aiming for few years and know the intense of happiness you get when you achieve it, it's truly a bliss! :) Hee..hee...got my new TV - Sony Bravia 32" HDTV. And I am having a wide smile on my face for days :))

Alt. MBA

As always, Seth Godin has been creative in creating opportunities and firm in his principles (Details will tell you this :)) He has come up with a form of MBA - 'The Alternative MBA'. Although I wish I could apply, I cannot because of not being in NY :( If anyone is interested, you can fetch details here:
http://www.squidoo.com/Alternative-MBA