tHe BiRtH oF a FaTHer!!

(straight out of ma sisters writing pad) 

Aniyathi (sis): Brownieee!!! That’s it!! I liked it!!
Appoppan (grandpa): nay!! It sounds christian!! Why can’t it be say hmm...ehh...hmm...pachu, bhasi!!
Aniyathi: cmmon appoppa!! Think broad!! You know dhanya rite, during a family function at her home, she louded at full throat... "kuttappaaa", and catastrophically two heads turned almost simultaneously, one our very own kuttappan, and the other her mothers, father in laws, younger bro "THE KUTTAPPAN". Younger bro was furious being clubbed with that cute little canine and that day nearly saw the end of a loving model family!! So forget about the common popular man’s name and pls don’t attach any religion to it...let it live an atheist!!
Me: diii, but brownie is too unglamorous a name?? Let’s go for something trendier!! I liked pachu more than brownie!!
Aniyathi: da no interference!! See mom first spoke to me about the little German shepherd's home coming!! It’s me who got the news first, so naturally I do have some rights. Furthermore I am ready to be its full time caretaker...bathing, playing an all doggy stuffs!!
If you can do all this, you can call him by your name!! I mean by the name u choose!!
She herself knew I won’t ever reply to such a deal...so brownie was set!! Appoppan was also silenced, he sensed his losing wield of power in the silliest of silly homey things!!
we all sat at varandah waiting for amma and our nue co. I thought how fast life changes for people. It all started with that Saturday morning call from my mom’s office. aniyathi did the talk:
""ye amma...
waaatt!! Yes Pls amma we need him...
Don’t worry about achan, i will make tat rite!!
Bring him fast!!
bro,He’s sleeping!!
appoppan with us.. No more talking bring him fast!!""

Mom was soon at our gate with the carton carrying the symbol of a veterinarian (transferred to some far flung pattikadd) show of gratitude for the unending support my mom’s bank did for him...Amma gave me the carton and stepped in the auto and rushed back to office. I kept it down and slowly opened the lid!! It was one big mayhem after that!! The small pup just rocketed off from the carton. Aniyathi was outdone by this ferocity and with a deep shriek, resisted gravity and was at the top of a sofa in no time. First impressions from whatever little I saw were next to dismal. It looked nothing more than a moving bunch of bones, deprived, malnourished. The only attractive things were its pointed ears, black patches here and there and it’s mighty half a ton tail!! The restless and insane pup bit me a thousand times that day and kathu remained airborne for the rest of the day. In between whenever he crapped and looed, I locked him inside some room and as was decided “brownie’s caretaker” aniyathi did the clean ups. The increased frequencies of cleaning meant kathu roam the rest of the day, with a broom on one hand and dettol on the other!! Anyhow the pup completely shook all our conventional thinking about them, they aren’t the soft, chubby, non aggressive creatures we tag them with...May be brownie is different. Being the son of an aristocratic thorough bred German shepherd and a roadside mongrel, it was only natural that a refined persona was something of an over expectation!!
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3 yrs later...me, aniyathi n brownie all grew. Mom felt that among we three, brownie grew the fastest and was the most disciplined and refined of the lot!!

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I was home after a few months.
Mom came in, hugged an complainingly asked "da, never come home..be at that wretched hostel..Smells disgusting!!"
I simply love her for her nagging. After exchanging the common dose of pleasentries and gossips with mom, I turned my eye over others...
Am I seeing a depleted family?? Yupp!!! where is brownie??
hmmm..aniyathi who was till then "i donno where" came in!!
"da it went missing..i mean it went missing jus in front of my eyes..@ afternoon to be precise.its almost 8 hrs now..Someone had left the gate open and this son of a bitch escaped when his den was accidently opened!!”
I fumed "why didn’t u go for the search??”
Kathu shot back “I did a small scale combing operation but think it’s at least some kms away!! Since you were coming today, I thought let it enjoy the freedom until then.”
Amma quipped "da go get him. I will serve you dinner after that!!"
That was cruel from moms part but okk I need to know that we are all living in an unkind incentive loaded world. So I got ready for the midnight search operation. Got into my moms scooty and dashed off to the bleakly lit street. I honked and revved hard, my own invented ways of attracting the senses of a lost brownie. He knows all the sounds of our home.
I had travelled almost a km by then...the Devi kshethram and the kaavu were now clearly evident. Still there was no sign of brownie. Another 5 or ten minutes...
Suddenly saw some movements under the wired fence along the kaavu .it’s a secluded place; swampy and with thick vegetation. A four legged creature emerged. I immediately turned ma scooty and prepared for the return...But to my dismay it wasn’t brownie but amminni. Our next door freewheeling, country roaming female canine!! I was dejected!!
The hungry me, roared with all hopelessness... brownieeeeeeee!!
As if hearing my desperate call, brownie emerged out from under fence. I without any wait, vroomed my gaadi towards home. The honking was still on. Brownie on his part turns foolish at times. This was another of his tryst with folly!!
Whenever I keeps honking and speed the vehicle, he feels am challenging him for an open race. I never really tried to correct him either. Once the race starts he chases me with all his might and seldom overtakes. I lost many times before, but tonight it was different and I was in no mood to lose!! I raced so hard that, the sleeky scooty transferred shakes of the magnitude of a richter scale 6.2 onto my body...anyways I did my best and got in to the widely opened gates of our home first. Brownie finished may be a couple of secs behind. And as soon as brownie entered, from the edge of his eyes, saw the movement of the gates. aniyathi plays her role of gate trapper to perfection every time this kind of episode reels at our home. brownie realising his folly braked hard and tried to do a u turn. But it was too late. He looked miserable. His eyes were blood red and body was mud soaked beyond recognition. The tail tip was kissing the ground and the face revealed the guilt for his "without your permission" escapade. Dad, the genial do gooder, entered the scene with a meter long vadi... wristy whips and the "i am sorry" howls ensued! After uncomplainingly accepting half a dozen of dads brutal whips, brownie scurried towards his cage...Dad followed and tried a few whips inside the cage too...brownie now was losing all his poise and gave out some very strong verbal cues demanding an end to the whole hit drama..
dad, a bit frightened, bit tired, understood that brownie meant "that’s enough, I now need rest". dad threw the vadi away and roared “the fellow is turning more and more spoilt now. See how he started protesting after a few hits!! No food and water till further say!!”
but dad can’t act rude..after a few minutes he himself fed him food!! brownie cleaned the plate in a jiffy and wagged the tail in a pardon me tone....
the long night ended!!

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after a long time away from home, I was home again..
Full family greeted me at the door!!
Brownie had added lot more flesh now.
aniyathi said "come bro..will show u something And pulled me to our neighbour sharada chechis home. she pointed towards the back of the house..the skeletal black amminni was there with... her little new born pups!!
sharada chechi came out and said both are male. Projected both of them to us...One was black and skeletal and the other...
A brown, black nosed, prominent tailed pup!! I looked at aniyathi and asked is it brownies --???
Kathu retorted, Yupp. I am sure they have brownies Y chromosomes!!
Remember the 8 hr bunk he did the last to last time you visited.
I was excited beyond measure. Brownie jr was all brownie. Was barking at amorphous sounds. He was more of the same brownie that came to our home 4 yrs back. I went in to sharadechi home, Played with the pups saw them drinking milk from their moms stomach. It was all great. When I returned I felt a new high for brownie. He is a man now!! I slowly ran my fingers through his face and torso...I knew that I had started respecting him...

“kathu, did he see his sons”
“No may have heard their sound, there happens a bit of communication across the wall b/w amminni and brownie. But am sure he hadnt seen them.”
“cmmon kathu, Let’s show him his family...We won’t take him there. That may seem intrusive...so let’s take him to the terrace and show him his sons and wifey from there.”
We took him to terrace and rested him along the parapet and made him stand on his two legs. sharadechis home was now visible to all three of us and we showed brownie, his wife amminni and their two sons..Brownie breathed hard. Looked heavenwards and widened his eyes towards his separated fly. Brownie jr, “the Mr incredible”, looked up at us and started his irritable barking. brownie gave a slow peaceful cry in reply. amminni who was till then lying with her back to us, stood up and turned sharply..She then passed a high frequency cry in return...Brownie jr and his bro were a bit confused and the jr again sent out a "who the bloody hell" bark @ brownie..
Brownie looked sullen and immediately amminni gave a sharp reprisal to the jr "hold on u bloody...It is...it is your paa"
Both the pups were silenced and gave respectful bow down to their paa. Brownie too was in the midst of silence...me and aniyathi too were dragged into this emotional vortex...brownie once again looked skyward and slowly started to push himself away from the wall. he slowly uncomplainingly started walking towards the terrace door..
Just then aniyathi called out "brownie...Sorry we are helpless...we can’t unite you with them"
Brownie heard it, gave a small tail wag and entered our home...I was speechless and I did saw a drop of moist in his eyes!!

wHy i diDnT njOi PR-tHe MallU mAgnUm OPus!!

Wherever i went, i saw ppl raining praises on the mallus swantham magnum opus "pazhassi raja"..The film is good, no doubt, but not to a scale many are hyping it into...There are a lot of positives, at least dozen more than the negatives i intend to jot down.. but for me the few minuses are glaringly uncomfortable to be taken lightly and so I bravely take the other view, the view of the quintessential ignoramus, faceless, normal, moronic, front bencher of the movie hall near you...


The list that made me an Anti PR!!


OVVs ghosts kept hovering near me!!
Somewhere at the middle of the film, rushes of "Oru vadakkan veeragatha!!" kept knocking ma mind and sadly PR on aesthetics and content was nowhere near that timeless classic!!


The tale of edachena kunkan!!
Heard (means not sure) that MT had planned a script on Edachena kunkan at first, (the role played by sarathkumar) and went a lot ahead with it...But somewhere in the middle he traced back and finished a script on pazhassi raja instead..Why this turn??? Was it market pressures or the dedicated devotion of a cultural icon to preach the glory days of a generation to the uninformed malayalee masses?
Any which ways from a cinematic POV, edachena kunkan wud have been clear winner..We cud have seen whole lot of legendary MTisms in the framing of such a hitherto unknown bravado!!


A NRK Moovie??!!:
The film never quite looks a malayalam film. Something of a NRK!! May be am sounding highly archaic. I didn’t feel any malayali thanima in the movie.It never seemed rooted to the famed malayalam way of filmmaking. Malayalam way of film making?!.. For me its films lyk OVV, padmarajans masterpieces etc!!


A Bourgeois capitalist film!!
The opulence. The hard earned money of a lakh of investors of sree gokulam chit funds kept flying high at every shot, every scene in the movie...Did the movie needed so much money??? I doubt and the sad part is even with all this extravagant rupee pumping, the film never reached the grandeur of films like a Vaishali or a OVV...For the liberal commie lyk me, it looked nothing more than a a bourgeois capitalist film!!


Music by illayaraja, u must be kiddin!!
Less said the better...Thoroughly lackluster considering the tunes are by the maestro Isaignani illayaraja...The songs don’t go well with the film.. I remember 3 songs in the movie (there are more I believe) and each one doesn’t add any element of value!! The anthem"Aadiushassandhya Poothathivide" sounds similar to a song in Rajeev Anchals "GURU"!! Incidentally both are said to be done in collaboration with the famed Hungarian Symphony Orchestra!!


The big old nayakan!!
Mamooka looks old and downplays the role to an unbearable extent...he looks highly vulnerable and passive at many places...Donno PR was this way!! Certainly didn’t enjoy!!!


Makkom!!
Makkom (kaniKa) in the first half hour lived as if she was some sort of a damsel in Indra Sabha...the shots looked fully dedicated to reveal the infinite no. curves in her body!!! Can ladies of that era been so freewheeling and loose as it’s proclaimed in those scenes?? Or is it that am having evil eyes??


Jagathi+Jagatheesh!!
Very very ordinary!! Still wondering why are they in the moovie in the way they are!!


And to top it all the moovie goin experience!!
I emptied 450rs (150*3) to sit in the 3rd row (of a 20row something screen) with two of my closest bugger friends for the Saturday evening show...The screen was so big and so near that once by the time I travelled from Sarathkumar’s one chest peak to the other, the frame changed...The whole movie going experience was pathetic!!


The highly obvious Plusses!!


Sharathkumar(top of the list; hoooge body)+manok k jayan+devan+lalu alex+padmapriya!!


Resul pookutty+ R shetty+ Tech Team!!


Resolve and intent of the crew to make the Biggest of all Malayalam films till date.


P.S.
Breaking News: PR not in indian panorama @ IFFI!!
wats the surprise here!!

congrats the team of Kanchivaram!!

congrats the team of Kanchivaram!!

certainly a grand film from priyadarshan. with this award winning movie, he certainly authenticated his brilliance as a film maker to the whole world. its great that even when making all those money milling mallu born bollywood films, he sided his mind on making such a superb movie. prakash raj rightfully earns a place with the best in indian cinema. a rajat kamal for the second time..

i consider even priyan wont feel bad missing the coveted best director trophy. kanchivaram in first place is more than just a directors cut. its an aesthetically rich movie with strong creative signatures of crewmen lyk art director sabu cyril, cinematographer thiru and the subtle but strong perfomances of actors. it was more of a complete movie excelling in various details of filmmaking. the award for best film was the suitable testimony of the wholesome value of the movie.

all said,one thing i missed in kanjivaram,priyan's all time best, was mohanlal as Vengadam. certainly had been a pleasure to watch both the buddies work together in such a great movie.

May16 Thots!!

• Indian republic thought the claims of an 82 yr old strong saffron patriach, that a 78 yr old Dr Singh is weak and doesn’t deem to be on the stongest chair of the worlds largest democracy, was nothing but a childish desperation of an old man who ran and ran the whole day without ever touching the coveted finish line.

  
  

• It was Curtains down for all the wannabe king makers of india, I meant the laloos, paswans,ramadosses,jaya et all. For me they were nothing more than a bunch of political eunuchs who were ready to fit in anywhere and with anyone. Their democratic atyachaar will sorely be missed (atleast for a few good yrs).

  
  

• NDA fact finding committee: NAMO and saffronized gandhis on their side, reason for NDAs debacle!! Not surprising and the clairvoyant me quite knew it before.

  
  

• A "shock laga" saffron inclined fellow at my apartment. “Was congress so good? A while later.. Yaar, they werent all that bad rite, looks quite deserving to win”. I cud only pass over a zig zag nod back.

  
  

• Its almost certain I may have an External affairs minister at my neighbourhood. (I mean shashi).

  
  

• Who will win today?? Mumbai Indians n sachin..who else!! hmm…not everyone were interested on the Election outcomes, atleast the boys in my apartment had more amity 2wards IPL.

• Thanks to rahul effect and since "nothing gleams like success”, its now ok and no longer a taboo to be known a congress man in india..that doesn’t mean I like to be called so, I am forever the liberal commie.blood running in me is still thick red!!

• Finally a humble request from a ordinary one in a million faceless red sympathizer. Rearrange comrades!! We cant go this out of our hands. We the commies know Politics is not a one day game and the foundation we have doesn't erode in a days political overturns. But certainly we need some serious introspection!!

• On a personal front I will have something more to remember of the day..this day A small happyness added to my life. A TVS APACHE RTR160. kewl rite!! trully a Epoch making day!!

oNe HuNDrenD peRCEnt De-stReSSed!!

was home and back. the 10 days went quite fast. the 2 days that comes in sepia mode about my visit are the zeroth day when i got down at the platform 3, kayankulam jn, in a black khaki shirt an a levis jeans and the ninth day gettin back on a northbound train in the same khakhi an jeans.they are rememmbered so vividly cos it brings out the most happiest and saddest part of ones home visits.

sayin ma bye to fly at the end is always a saddening experience. it is that time wen you feel "whats gud a lyf if it cant be spent with your loved ones". mom was alredy leaking her eyes, sis gave her gud co. dad stood rock solid behind the ladies of ma home. being a grown up man lyk my dad, i had to be brave and believe acted my part well. only i believe..

its now almost a week i have been back to poona. the longing for the good life at home is still lingering everywhere. am stressed and the stress pains me sometimes. hmm.

was looking the ways to destress myself. chatted with ammachi. but ammachi kept n asking my visit visheshams. plunging me more into sickness..IPL doesnt intrests me unless it is Sachin vs warney or muralidharan or mc grath..that wasnt tre..then the last resort started googling..saw an ad of aamir khan in Tv -> googled him-> the brands endorsed by him-> tata sky->teach india-> titan->be more ad..

then visited the titan webaddress. the site had info abt titans remarkable mktg techniques, their ads, music in ads->mozart symphony 25; and finally linked into the titan tv on the site. ohhh..it is here the co. showcases their ads, rolled out through the yrs. in ado, i youtubed titan ads and saw the entire range that were broadcasted.. it was a grt experience..kinda smelt my yesterdays in those ads..they were endearing, soothing, musical (mozart is a genius), and highly sticky(kept seeing it again and again).

i didnt stop tre an went on to seein some other vintage crafty ads too..the asian paints,cadburys,fevicol.. i couldnt stop smiling watching those vdios. faizoo immersed in IPL (royal challengers vs deccan chargers) (" boring"), thot tre was somethin really happening at ma end..

these videos, inadvertently, brought wat i wanted the most..a truckload of cheer into ma dispirited soul!!! i was for sure a happy man and felt myself one hundrend percent destressed!!

thanks to veryone involved in these ads!! they still retain a charm of their own!!

4 mor:http://www.titanworld.com/titan_tv

e:diARy-2: pARticIPATorY wOeS!!

It is now a fashion in todays debate circles to discuss about the lack of people involvement and participation in nation building, lyk in Elections. The Eday, as many rightly suggested, has turned out to be one of the kind of a long overdue holiday, where you catch up with your family and friends. The public are not to be blamed as it’s the most logical step to do if there is not much to choose from the candidate list. The guilt for the falling voter turnout and lack of participatory role of junta in election lies majorly with the political parties and the candidates they field. As in every selective exercise, there should be an underlying tempt, that may fuel the junta to rocket out of their comfort zones to exercise their franchise. when politicians whose sophistication runs no more than a few glitzy films or a mindset of bygone era or a long roll of criminal records - whats there for people to choose. "nothing". but sadly in our EVMs there is no option for that "nothing". if there was this option, which you can press if you dont have faith in the neighbouring names, it would have been democratically great and a lot of fence sitters and an entire detached, election averse log would have marched in to the election dens. In a democracy, I believe in addition to the right of choosing "one" from the set, there should be an option for "none" from the fielded set. It can be a ready rejoinder for parties and candidates that how bad they are and how they are worhless of ones vote.this option may be the ultimate opium for the junta to vote, to prove they are not just dakkans out there. They can banish the egos of the staged candidates with a blatant “NO”. The political parties would also feel extremely embarrassed by a situation of this sorts and may well come out with decent candidates.

It may sound good to voice our displeasure, but think, apart from a few good ones, people would certainly be having no choices at their front. The most bizzare thing imaginable in such a case would be an assembly where a majority of seats occupied by a “none from above” group.  What happens then? Chaos. both disturbing and dangerous. I admit it might be a cynical's way of viewing things.

what is the other more optimistic alternative for bringing more people in E- business. its for political parties to show grit by staging candidates who can provide good governance to the nation. gear up political parties, get the best on the race, compel people to participate in the election. after all no party is bigger than the people they serve. so listen to peoples call. we need more shashi tharrors and the lot. an amartya sen from kolkatta, a narayanamoorthy from banglore.......the list goes on..

 

e:diARy-1:shAsHI THirontHoRAthIL!!!

its official..come april-09 and shashi tharoors name will charm the electonic voter machines (EVMs) in trivandrum. i had made a word around 6 months back to my politically inclined frnds that if this gentleman contests from trivandrum (as it was heavily rumoured then), i would be at sasthamangalam lp school, thiruvananthapuram, casting my vote on the D day. And if verything runs as planned, i will be sticking to my word.

Its these kinda intelligent, charishmatic, slick, erudite contestants that we need in a national election. It was indeed stately on Sharoors part to contest for a place in the Indian democratic establishment from his self affirmed proud home land. Given his reach among delhi’s intellectual and political pecking order, he could have guaranteed himself a wild card berth (safe seat or a rajya sabha seat) from anywhere in india.  Still he chose kerala to be his spring board to the lok sabha. May be he believed that every great journey must start from ones roots. his relation with kerala as he himself said runs nothing more than the occational holiday visits and his malayalam speaking parents. But still he prided himself as a chauvinist marunaadan malayalee. Even in his acclaimed non fiction "the elephant,the tiger and the cellphones" he keeps ruminating his kerala love affair with a series of fact loaded essays. He adroitly pronounces kerala as truly what it likes itself to be called “a gods own country”. A land, whose life closely parallels the very idea of India, secular, open, culturally and literally rich..concisely he just cries out that malayalees are a breed apart!!

The fact that the global malayalee previous competitive contest was for the chair of UN secretary general makes him almost an invincible larger than life character. The man who addressed the whos who of the global power list now talking to the sankarankuttys, abdullakuttys, georgekuttys, kochammani’s et al in trivandrum sounds quit lyk a modern day fairytale. He proves that he can be a different politico as he had a reputation of sticking to his spoken words and written scripts. If he said he is proud of kerala, he made it prouder by contesting the election from here.  It can well turn out to be citys date with history, an event with positive repercussions for a great future. 

it is well candidates of this size and character who pulls you from the comforts of your home to the polling stations on the E-days.Common man (I mean women too) should be having concrete reasons to feel committed to be a part of the long lines on an E day. It can be a need for change, a hope that goodness is a vote away or it would be the enticing pull of a magnanimous contestant. The Obama wave had all these ingredients in the bipolar American election scene.  Only a very few leaders have managed to create hysteria of that scale and I do believe in substance Sharoor can do the same to trivandrumites. His weblinks provide what he aims to achieve for trivandrum in detail. All looks promising, that doesnot diffrenciate him from others as everyone bring out their own impropable high points, but it is then the integrity and the scale of the sharoor makes his contention taller than others.

All thw bests Mr. shashi tharoor, voting for me wont just be another right, but, a privilege this time along. Thank you.

P.S. kerala politica without reds would just be like a “fart without a sound”***. its big bro attitude and ruffles with allies notwithstanding, they had come with an egalitarian mix of candidates. its always been in reds DNA to give people a strong and capable list of candidates. Another more notable thing is the no. of new young faces on their list this time. its now not just nandan nilakheni and FMCG marketing board rooms, who are aware of the demographic dividend and the targent lots. best of lucks to all comrades. Let the best win!!!