Biking. Adventure. Nostalgia
My apologies to readers if they thought the blog is about Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan or Rock or Folk Music. I have already written a blog about my knowledge about Pop Music. This is about the change that's happening in India. We will get there in a bit. I have couple of News Apps in my iPhone... Continue Reading →
‘Let the boys have their toys, a man needs a man’s bike’ was the advertisement from Enfield when the advent of 100 CC bikes almost killed the company which made Royal Enfield Bullet Bikes. Another bike which took the beating in the 100 CC onslaught was Yezdi – a favourite with everyone including your neighborhood... Continue Reading →
Couple of weeks back, I watched a Tamil movie on Netflix, Radiopetti - ரேடியோபெட்டி -(Radio Box), by Hari Viswanath. The movie is about an old man and his Radio. Anyone who has ever listened to old Radio would feel a personal connect with the movie and I recommend watching it. It has rave reviews and has... Continue Reading →
A Tamil proverb says, "திருட்டு மாங்காவுக்கு ருசி அதிகம்" means, "stolen mango is tastier." The same applies to movies as well. The movie you bunked class to watch seemed more thrilling. While most of the students bunked class to watch a movie during college days, my friend Mohan Ram and I started it during school days. First... Continue Reading →
JK (my brother) called (video call) in the morning to show the temple he was visiting in Coimbatore. I could listen to Thirupaavai playing in the background. The Thirupavai rendition was from M L Vasathakumari or MLV as she was affectionately called. Thirupaavai is collection of thirty stanzas (பாசுரம் - pasurams) sung by Aandal on Lord Vishnu (or Perumal in Tamil). She had composed it probably in the eighth or ninth century. Aandal was the only female in the twelve azvars and the Thirupaavai is part of Divya Prabandham - an important literature in Tamil. It's sung in the month of Margazhi (the month falls mostly between December 15th and January 14th).
Our knowledge of Pop Music can be written on the backside of a bus ticket. But George Michael or more precisely ‘WHAM! Make It Big’ album would fill a significant portion of it. My brother JK and I got introduced to Wham and the Walkman at the same time. First, our knowledge about Pop Music.... Continue Reading →
I think it was Naseeruddin Shah, who once famously remarked, “If Presidential Posts are only ceremonial, let’s have Jayalalithaa as our President. At least we can have a beautiful photo hanging in Government Office Walls.” She was a Rajya Sabha MP when he made those comments. I completely agreed with the observation. She looked very... Continue Reading →
Marriages, as the proverb goes, are decided in heaven; but they are performed in our cities, towns and villages. We planned to attend one such marriage in Mumbai and our next adventure after the Yezdi trip happened. The Yezdi, as mentioned in my previous post, more often than not, was in the mechanic shop than with... Continue Reading →
For all the claims we make about being traditional, we give up traditions very easily. One always associates Madras - sorry - Chennai with two things. Music season in December and Test Matches during Pongal Holidays (around 15th of January). The tradition was followed for many years and as it happens with everything else in... Continue Reading →
