Living in Water - Alapuzha

I had been to Alapuzha(Kerala) for 3 days and it has been one of the memorable experiences I have had so far. More than spending time on touring a place I got a different experience on seeing a very different lifestyle of people.

I visited Alapuzha and stayed in a village called Pulimkunnu about 18 kms from Alapuzha town. The resort I stayed was very nice. It is called a village resort,so it had basic features of our Indian villages like Power cuts,lack of telephones. But other than this this is a very good village atmosphere set in. You do not have much options to eat but what ever served was very nice.

The Kerala style of cooking though not much different other than using coconut products was nice to have.

The best part of the trip is the one day stay at the house boat. I have heard of couples staying at house botats in Kumarakom and bachelors partying at house boats at Alapuzha before but what I experienced was a entirely different one. The house boat started from Pulimkunnu and went for about 40 kms on the backwaters full into the villages. I was thrilled to see kilometer boards kept on the water for the destinations .

The life style of people in the villages I could see was entirely different from what I have seen before. Many tourist places these days are crowded and people also change their life style accordingly. There is not much nativity seen in many places . But these villages I saw live in water and spend their life in boat travel.

There are no big trucks,traffic roads and pollution.Most of the villagers user boats for commutation and for crossing the banks cars/two wheelers use the boat . Fish is the staple food here and god has given it in plenty to the people here.

School children commute by boats to schools,Government runs boats like they run metro buses. Though the life of people living close to the banks is a concern during heavy rains ,people does not seem to bother about it.

One of the different way of Irrigation I saw (Though I'm not a strong agriculturist),on either sides of the backwater the paddy fields are flooded with water during rainy days and once the monsoon season is over(June-Sep) the water from these paddy fields are pumped into the backwaters,paddy is cultivated and then harvested by February and then again by June they start filling water. The rain water harvesting is done traditionally here but they do not call it by that technical name

I would say this is one of the must see places . If you are a nature lover and love to read/experience different life styles of people Alapuzha is a nice place to go. If Anthony Bourdain has not visited here before,I would recommend him to do so.

The Boss - Review

By this time most of the Tamil youths would have seen Sivaji and many websites would have given their review. So lets not discuss about the story now. We will see the positives and Negatives of this movie.

Full credits to shankar for making a movie specifically for Rajinikanth. The whole of the movie is nothing but Rajinikanth. We have not seen this Rajini Style in long time. In the previous hits Rajini either came in Young/Old roles(Padiyappa) or he was doing Urban/Rural hero based stories (Muthu/Arunachalam).

Art director Thotta Dharini has done a amazing job and Shankar has picturised the songs so beautifully. If Sivaji songs are alone sold as Music Videos it would generate good business. May be AVM can think of doing this

Though the story line is very thin and screen play not too effective ,it is Rajini who keeps the momentum going on and keeps the audience happy. Vivek has supported well.

Shankar in all his movies has taken some social cause and this time it is black money. We believe that AVM and the production team has paid to all the people who worked for Sivaji in White money. One thing to accept is all developed nations have a better way to track the business and money transactions and India has failed to do so far.

From the revenue point of view AVM has done a good job in releasing the film in maximum locations to make profits in the first few weeks. This movie may not run weeks like Chandramukhi but it should get the profits well ahead

Shankar has come down in his ideas for screen play .Anniyan itself reflected it and this further proves it. He has to seriously put his efforts here else he can be over run easily

Some times stories make a film successful,some times Music makes a film success full,but for Sivaji 'Rajini' has made the film successful. Hats of to Rajini for giving such a entertainer.

Pathetic Display

It has been said said for the past 6 weeks regarding this Cricket World Cup 2007. Lets not waste time by criticizing Indian players and their performances. But when you seriously this world cup was a total disaster in terms of entertainment. Lets ignore the argument of a length tournament. Sports if it is played with total spirit and produces entertainment people will not question the time period of the tournament. All they want is entertainment.

None of the matches were interesting baring one or two that too on the preliminary stages . The Super 8's where totally One sided and Semi's and finals followed the same story...
We can ignore this at least but when we see the last few minutes Bad light saga by the ICC referee/Umpires it was so pathetic. We at least are in the Eastern Time Zone. I really pity those cricket lovers from Asia who must have been awake the whole night to see this finals. One of the most Idiotic decisions taken that day. The total communication failure among the officials reg the D/L system,Rules on bad light created a havoc. Even a normal person could have taken a proper decision that day which was totally screwed by the Umpires and ICC Referee.

With cricket loosing its fame in non subcontinent countries ,the teams not playing well and if the event organization is getting screwed we are seeing a very BRIGHT FUTURE for THIS GAME

Whome to blame

Last one week it has been a overwhelming news regarding the Virginia Tech Slaughter. Almost all news channels allocated most of their air time to cover this incident. Every one no matter whom it is who had contacts with the victims as well as the shooter were interviewed

Leaving all things behind if we have to see what thought would have made a normal human being do such a devastating thing ?
Killing people is not some thing a rare event. In war people kill each other. Terrorist kill common people without any kind of mercy. Of course War/Terrorism have some predefined definition for the killings.Whether they are right or Wrong that's different argument but the motive/background is known . But for this incident will a person who is a loner/mentally affected plan so well to execute a Mass Murder ?

I personally would say the parents should play a vital role in shaping a person. We can blame lots of parameters such as Gun laws,Lack of communication among Medical institutes/Police ,college authorities,etc. But none of these has a direct control on this person than those who are close to that guy. I'm not sure whether his medical records were shared with his parents. More over this country has laws of not sharing those things once a person becomes a major.
One main difference in the culture of West and of countries like India is a person is under parents control at least until he/she gets married. One gets moulded/gets to a better shape when he is surrounded by good people around him who care for him .
So a persons brought up in his younger age shapes him better. So Parents ..Pls do take care of your kids and put more effort in shaping them.

A thougtt

I was just seeing 'Gandhi' film few days back and reading his Experiments with truth book. In our younger days we have been told Gandhi as a great man,nobel,wise,etc in our books,etc. But when you read the whole story about him we kind of come to know great this person is. He seems to be a different person when you see him as a politician.

This man has kind of controlled whole of India in 1920's when the communication system was very very less compared to what it is now. Be it be British revolt or Hindu-Muslim clash the efforts he took and people loving him was too good to see. This person was beyond religious/caste/diversity barrier. Every Person from Kanyaumari to the extreme north (could be Pakistan now) liked him

The reason for me telling this is with the growing political trend we do not have a charismatic leader whom people love. Of late the President(Mr Kalam) is kind of liked by all and kids/youngsters consider him as role model. But he has nothing to say in politics.

Of course countries that practice democracy for a longer period than India like US have matured in the political arena. More than Individuals it is the policy/practices the parties follow make people align them selves towards them (Conservative,Left,Liberal,Socialist)

Even though in India we have our parties aligning themselves towards some of these still they do not stick on to it or follow it strictly. One good thing we have achieved is we are into this setup only for 60 years with the biggest diversities existing within the culture.


Having said this there is no point in blaming politicians/politics .Or we cannot expect a Mahatma now .One of the way to stream line/improve is to have educated people involving themselves in Politics.The parties won't chnage suddenly. Only the people running them should change it .So more civilized people and democracy within the party will help streamlining them

World Cup - So far

The worldcup is half way through. More than the tension/excitement on the matches media and public have already had lots of entertainment in various happenings.
India's exit from he world cup, and the related team/coach changes with new initiatives by BCCI ,Pakistan's poor performance and Woomer's death adding to this , Bangladesh's stunning performance against South Africa and West indies dismissal performance.

For a cricket lover barring two matches of Srilanka none of the matches proved exciting or nail biting. With Srilanka defeating Newzeland,the Semi final spots are kind of closed for England and Westindies. Aussies are still the favourites and I'm backing Srilanka to win this world cup...

Sivaji - The boss

As all we know the entire southern film industry is eagerly awaiting for the release of SIVAJI-THE BOSS . Songs were released on April 2nd and already it is rocking every Car/PC/house. Some of the stills released were really pulsating and it shows how rich the movie is.

AR Rehaman as usual has given blasting tunes and few of them get into the mind first time itsel. Followin Rehaman's trend the rest would become hits once we start hearing them.

Super Star's introduction song and one melody with Thirupavai are really good

More than films depending on their strength ,the films getting released on Tamil New years day expect Sivaji to get released the same day aiming that people will come to their films in the event of not getting tickets to 'SIVAJI'.

Hope like Chandramukhi SIVAJI wil satisfy all audiences and keep the people involved in Film business happy