Bingo!!!

I had to create a list containing all the names of my classmates in college for some purpose and I was surprised that I could remember all the 68 names with their respective roll #s. It's been 6 years since I was out from college and am only in touch with some people but managed to remember all those names and that too with their roll #s...Bingo!!!

The visual trove

There are few people who are unique, who are innovative, who are talented or gifted with a talent...And these people in the below videos fall into one of these categories and they are inspiring. Although these people stand in the news for a certain epoch of time, I still love to hear the speech by Steve Jobs even if it was done 3 years ago. Be in business or anything in life, there are two main things that are pretty hard to have - One is determination and another one is creativity. Only few people have these two in life and they tend to taste the essence of success. Enjoy the videos :)

Steve's commencement speech @ stanford:


The 'Sixth' sense:
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/index.htm#VIDEOS

Tribes:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

Happy @ work?
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/05/7_ways_to_be_happier_at_work.html

Britain's got talent:
Similar to 'American idol', this one had news on Susan Boyle for months and her video got youtube hits in 6-8 digits I guess. But Shaheen's performance speaks it all...the charm of a 12 year old :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wqyEjkX_m4&feature=related

The 'fantabulous' finals...

I don't know if the title is well justified but that's how it is being called by the anchors of 'Airtel Super Singer 2008'. I did not watch last week's mokkai episode but at the same time did not want to miss the finals as I have been in this 'looonnnggg' journey with the contestants but as a spectator ;) I am not a great fan of 'Old is Gold' type songs but did watch the entire episode to see how each one of the contestant perfoms. And my views here...

I am not going to repeat what judges said :) In the order of my favourite performances today:
1. 'Unnidam mayangugiren' - by Ajeesh. I loved Ajeesh's voice and whenever he said 'En arumai kaadhalile(an improvisation here at the end)', it was great. But I am not sure if it comes like mayangu+giren as Ajeesh sang. I thought it should have been sung as a single word...Anyways, I voted for him. The one title that I would give him is 'Man of improvisation'
2. Ravi - It was a clean performance and as I have always seen, he emoted so much that he sunk into the song. The one title I would give him is 'Mr Versatile' as he can even do great rap songs like the one he did on 'Karka 'Karka' from Vettaiyadu Vilayadu
3. Ranjani - To me, she has emerged as a talented singer. She delivered what was expected and the one title that I would give to her is 'Ms. Nightingale' as she has a very sweet voice :)
4. Renu - Among the stage show singers whom I have watched so far, my top favourite is Renu for one main thing called 'the diction' which is one area that most of the singers failed to prove and even slip at times. Although I did not vote for her this time and the last time and she may or may not win the title of the show, I'll be a big fan of her always. Her performance cannot be categorized into 'Wow' group today and hence she is in the bottom two on my list. My title for her would be 'Woman of diction'
5. Prasanna - His performance today was just normal. I cannot even say 'Great' or 'Good' but it was OK. My title to Prasanna is going to be 'Mr Perfomer' since he can just pull out the crowd and make them dance to his tunes :)

And on tomorrow's performance trailer which was shown, I am actually excited to know that those songs to be sung tomorrow are my favorites especially 'Uyirile' (Vellithirai) and 'Engirundhu Vandhayada' (5 star) but I don't think I know the song that Prasanna is about to sing...

And with 'Makkal theerpe Mahesan theerpu' as a verdict criteria, the title winner to be chosen by the people could come as a surprise...you never know who is going to be crowned.

Short & Sweet...

In the recent times, I have been watching more short films and some of them are amazing...In few minutes, they convey the meaning or the message that they intended to. Here is one such that I liked watching:

A 'variety' jukebox

I love listening to all these songs and love watching the #3 especially :) This list involves a lingustic mix although most of these are very popular. Each one has an originating history in my jukebox.

Rock On - Socha hai
After watching 'Dil Chahta Hai' and 'Rock On', no wonder that Farhan Akthar became one of my favorites :) Although his voice is unique, I like this song and the guitar chords used in between.


MLTR - Paint my love
This is one of the top two songs that was taught to me during the western music class when I was introduced to English music albums.


Swapna Koodu - Karupin Azhagu
One of the songs that I love to watch which ensembles a jolly mood. To me, everything in the song looks beautiful :)


Khadgam - Nuvve Nuvve
I had a telugu friend in hostel when I was in Chennai who used to sing very beautifully. This is that one song which she used to sing to me often and that's how I came to know about this and since then I started liking it.


Azhagiya Theeye - Vizhigalin Aruginil
All time favorite...Most of my friends also like this

Step/Level cutting?

I used to have some sort of stylish haircut of those days called 'Monkey crop' (not sure on the origin of this name though :)) when I was a kid. I used to take pride on myself saying that it looks good on me until I came to know that it was very funny when people who saw my photo with this spl. cut laughed :) And now as anyone says 'Ilamai thirumbudha?', am having a different hairstyle for few months. I never liked long hair which is an unusual saying of traditional girl but I don't, is the fact. And this different hairstyle of mine happened 2 months back. I was in this salon and when the haircutting woman asked what I wanted to do and I don't know why I said some new type of level cut without any initial thoughts and uttered some # when she asked 'how many inches?'. Once she was done with her work, I was searching where my hair in my head was (Thedi kitte iruka pora :))...u know wat? I felt so light in my head...;) When you experience something new which is out of your habitual nature, you usually feel weird and worry about it and yes, I did too. And eventually it grew below my shoulders and I am wondering what shape and texture it potrays now. Although few people told that I look too 'professional' in this style, I have decided that I am not trying anything new like this with respect to hair styling and cutting. I realised that there are few things that are always good only if they are in their usual zone and this is one such for me :)

No turns...

I am not a fan of English songs but I selectively listen to few songs which people suggest and this is one such. It's a long road by Dan Hill - The lyrics sounded too meaningful and I liked it so much. Here it is:

It's a long road
When you're on your own
And it hurts when
They tear your dreams apart
And every new town
Just seems to bring you down
Trying to find peace of mind
Can break your heart
It's a real war
Right outside your
front door I tell ya
Out where they'll kill ya
You could use a friend
Where the road is
That's the place for me
Where I'm me in my own space
Where I'm free that's the place
I wanna be
'Cause the road is long yeah
Each step is only the beginning
No breaks just heartaches
Oh man is anybody winning
It's a long road
And it's hard as hell
Tell me what do you do
To survive
When they draw first blood
That's just the start of it
Day and night you gotta fight
To keep alive
It's a long road ...

Varaprasadham :)

I've been waiting to write this blog for few days. Sometimes when I listen to some songs, I feel the divinty in the voice of the person who sings it. And when it comes in the form of a concert with SPB, Chitra and Vairamuthu, it can be definitely called as 'varaprasadam'. I did not know that there was such a concert until one of my friends told me last week. First of all, I should thank her for making me to listen to such a
wonderful concert. There are some portions which I loved and I am going to highlight those here. The content referring to this post may be old but their voices are still afresh :)

* Vairamuthu introduces SPB as 'Sareeramum Saareramum ilaikadha Baalu avargal'
* Also Vairamuthu quotes 'Puvikku arasanaga irundhirundhal Baaluvin idaiyalavukku thangathai thandhiruppen, aanal naano kaviarasanaga aiyvitten..Adhanal indha thanga changili mattum tharugiren'
* The uvamai of 'Thappa Thappa?' and 'Thappathapa' in Paadariyen Padipariyen - The way Vairamuthu explains it is great
* On the 'En Kaadhale' song, he says 'Baalu idhai paadirapdhai kaetal, innoru murai kadhalithu thorkalam polirukiradhu'...true it is :)
* How can someone emote in a song so much??? I always wonder how SPB does it with ease in any song, be it 'Pothi vacha maliga mottu'(when he says 'aaha..' with such a romantic touch) or 'En Kaadhale'(sings as if
he feels the pain of lost love) or 'Sangeetha Jaathi mullai' (as if he has lost his eyes and crave for his lady love)
* It was great to listen to songs like 'Kannamoochi Enada', 'Paadariyen Padipariyen', 'Andhi mazhai' rendered by Chitra. Although 15-20 yrs have passed since she sang these songs, there's a freshness always which is a gift
* Being SPB on the other side who is an improvisation mannan, Chitra couldn't control her laughter and she too tries to improvise and smiles like it did not come well but it did
* 'Vaana magal naanugiral, veru udai poonugiral' - Wat a lyrics!!!
* I have heard these lines of 'Pothi vacha' but never knew the inner meaning of it until Vairamuthu explained it...'Aathukulla nethu unnai nenachen, matha neram poga manja kulithen'...I thought whenever the heroine did not think of hero, she takes a shower...Wats der in it? ;) But actually it is: vekka neram and not matha neram :) When the heroine thinks of the hero, she may grow red because of the shyness; To hide it from the hero, she takes a tumeric shower :) [I know my translation is too poor but you have to adjust :)]

Although some of these songs were my favorites even before watching this concert, it has proved the worth of watching especially when Vairamuthu explained it. It is indeed a musical treat...A varaprasadam! I would highly suggest all the music lovers who had missed watching this concert, to watch and enjoy the beauty of such voices and lyrics :) Type in 'SPB Chitra concert' in youtube and there you are!!!

Is it funny? ;)

I guess it's the 10th or 11th time that someone is making fun of my voice msg...No issues...I'm totally enjoying it :) This is how it goes...

Listening to my very first voice msg, this is what my friends had to say:
1. The same tone as I used to say 'Rajalakshmi Muthukumarasamy' to show that it's funny
2. Enna 'Sanjay Ramasamy'nu nenapsa? Edho oru bayangaramana tonela solre...
3. Naan call pannadhe un voice msg-a kaeka dhaan...overa nenachukadha...adha kaetu sirika dhaan...
4. Eppavachum bore adicha un voice msg-a mimic panna try panren....but un alavukku varave mudiyala...:)
5. Un pera solli mudikradhukulla inga BSNL bill ehiridum pola...

For a change and to get rid of the above sarcastic remarks, I tried a new one but the remarks never ended :)
1. The very first friend who heard this had left just laughs as a msg...I totally understand it :)
2. Another friend of mine says 'En yaarayo adikka pora maadhiri arambikira? Naan kooda vera yaarayo call panitomonnu nenachen :)'
3. Chance-a illa, Maduraila maadu mechutrundha ponnu ivlo americanized-a pesudha? Namba mudiyala...ha ha ha :)
4. Enna oru range-a voice msg vachirukka? Enna matter???
5. Pls voice msg-a change pannen....and I said Change pannadhu dhaan idhu :)

I may try a new one few months after... :)

The Wo(blu)nder...

Based on my blogger friend's request, I thought of drawing some new type that I have not tried before. And I started drawing 'The Eiffel Tower' but halfway, my pencil lead broke and I did not have any new lead to fit in :( So, the shades are half done but it may not look like...Looks like an easy draw but the bumps and the curves did not come as a free flow as I thought it would...So, if it does not look like an Eiffel tower, blame my pencil ;) Adios...