If indifference is the first sign on the road to ruin, then Vedanthangal is probably headed there. Two years ago, there was a board on NH35 that clearly indicated where one had to turn off for the sanctuary. Expecting to see it this Sunday morning also, I casually dismissed the regular road sign that said "Vedanthangal > 12".
A debate on whether road signs like the one above should indicate the distance after the turn or the distance to the turn took up nearly 25 km. Thankfully, Vidya had the sense to suggest a direction check (or can I claim that I had the sense to spot it was time to accept that suggestion?). And we reached the sanctuary at 7.30 am, only about 45 minutes after our estimated arrival time.
The Forest Department person insisted that the board was still up there on the "main road". He was so politely insistent, so we let his word win the day!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
History!
TNGF Cosmo Golf Course, Hole 4, 135 yards, par 3.
A nice 5-iron on to the green for a birdie putt. Am glad I didn't muff par!!
A nice 5-iron on to the green for a birdie putt. Am glad I didn't muff par!!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
A matter of faith
Who do you worship? The Holy Trinity or the sell-out/wash-off duo of Judas & Pilate? In essence, that’s the question David Kottarathil (or DK, played by Mammooty) poses. The answer is obvious, and smoothens the difficult-to-swallow reformation of the top cop, SP Rajagopalan (Lalu Alex), as part of a rushed wrap up to ‘Nasrani’. The question itself is voiced to M.C.Paul (Vijayaraghavan), a ruthless politician who will stoop to anything to remain in power; but when his younger son, Dr Benny Paul (Arun) is murdered, how will the dice roll? Has his elder son, Xavier Paul (Biju Menon) inherited the father’s political acumen and ruthlessness? Like that shown by M.C. Paul, years ago, in allowing his friend John (Capt. Raju) to be imprisoned for a murder that was only an accident?
Faith is again a central theme, one that keeps the lead pair betrothed for over 10 years. The accident that sent John to prison set back his son’s marriage to Sara (Vimala Raman); Sara, whose mother still believes that John was the one who encouraged her husband to take on a paramour and later, killed him in a manic scuffle. Whose is the stronger faith, here? No prizes for guessing. Thankfully, reconciliation is given short shrift, and we don’t have to sit through tales twice-told. But the DK-Sara romance goes on strong; he tells her that he’d pick her up after college – and all the students cheer as their teacher runs to the helicopter that her boyfriend comes in to pick her up! Nice entry for Mammukka and for the helicopter too – that comes in handy later, when DK thumbs his nose at the SP and rescues Sara’s half-sister Annie (Muktha George), who’s being framed for Benny’s murder.
But who has killed Benny? The disgruntled ex-MLA Ummachhan (Jagathy Sreekumar), who had to vacate his seat for Benny? Thamban (Devan), the leader of a rival party? Armchair detection – with the occasional beating up of select villains, of course – takes DK to the truth, and his own way of bringing it to the open.
The armchairs are good, at the Cosmopolitan Club in Kottayam, and DK’s friends (Bharat Gopi, Manianpilla Raju, Janardanan, Baburaj) swap tales of their glory days while waiting for DK and his factotum Suku (Kalabhavan Mani) to do their detecting and beating up. And when you add on several other usual suspects, such as Innocent, Risabava, Bheeman Raghu, KPAC Lalitha, Sukumari, Bindu Panikker…. you start wondering if Mamooty’s superstar status requires so much of scaffolding!
Think ‘Kottayam Kunjachhan’. Don’t get analytical. You’ll then enjoy the movie, but you must have FAITH!
Faith is again a central theme, one that keeps the lead pair betrothed for over 10 years. The accident that sent John to prison set back his son’s marriage to Sara (Vimala Raman); Sara, whose mother still believes that John was the one who encouraged her husband to take on a paramour and later, killed him in a manic scuffle. Whose is the stronger faith, here? No prizes for guessing. Thankfully, reconciliation is given short shrift, and we don’t have to sit through tales twice-told. But the DK-Sara romance goes on strong; he tells her that he’d pick her up after college – and all the students cheer as their teacher runs to the helicopter that her boyfriend comes in to pick her up! Nice entry for Mammukka and for the helicopter too – that comes in handy later, when DK thumbs his nose at the SP and rescues Sara’s half-sister Annie (Muktha George), who’s being framed for Benny’s murder.
But who has killed Benny? The disgruntled ex-MLA Ummachhan (Jagathy Sreekumar), who had to vacate his seat for Benny? Thamban (Devan), the leader of a rival party? Armchair detection – with the occasional beating up of select villains, of course – takes DK to the truth, and his own way of bringing it to the open.
The armchairs are good, at the Cosmopolitan Club in Kottayam, and DK’s friends (Bharat Gopi, Manianpilla Raju, Janardanan, Baburaj) swap tales of their glory days while waiting for DK and his factotum Suku (Kalabhavan Mani) to do their detecting and beating up. And when you add on several other usual suspects, such as Innocent, Risabava, Bheeman Raghu, KPAC Lalitha, Sukumari, Bindu Panikker…. you start wondering if Mamooty’s superstar status requires so much of scaffolding!
Think ‘Kottayam Kunjachhan’. Don’t get analytical. You’ll then enjoy the movie, but you must have FAITH!
Friday, October 19, 2007
O-re!
This is not a commodity, it is a product.
Reddy's Global Industries is developing a solution that includes a mixer, a plastic (okay, okay, bio-degradable) cup and a touch of ooruga.
Not available in India yet (why not?); this is only for the local (Cameroun) market.
You can also keep track of exactly how much you have drunk. Oh, all right. Consumed.
Helps?
Reddy's Global Industries is developing a solution that includes a mixer, a plastic (okay, okay, bio-degradable) cup and a touch of ooruga.
Not available in India yet (why not?); this is only for the local (Cameroun) market.
You can also keep track of exactly how much you have drunk. Oh, all right. Consumed.
Helps?
Monday, October 15, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Is golf a call of nature?
Early morning is a good time. Doesn't matter if you're in bed or out, it is still a good time. Have known that for a long time, but laziness beats knowledge any day...
...until golf happened. A couple of months ago. And Sriram has been the drill sergeant, making sure
that I wake up at 5, so that we arrive at the range well in time to take our places at the head of the queue that builds up until the factories in Sriperumbudur blow their first shift sirens.
And it has been good, largely. Sleep deprivation hasn't happened. Hands and shoulders are now pretty friendly with the general ache. The back has held up. And these days, every shot seems to have 'Hole-in-One' written on it when it starts off; most end up in the general direction they were intended to go. The others - well, let's just say I'd have been proud of them on a cricket ground.
Sriram (yes, that's him with the hot-dog sock puppet) says I need to pay more attention to the
coach. Maybe, but when the morning is fresh, there're many other things creeping or peeping through the white-sheet grass that I can't help looking at them. Like this Giant African Snail: many years ago I'd seen such snails in Palakkad. Someone had brought a couple over, as pets and they’d multiplied like – rabbits? They were all over the place, huge guys, much bigger than this little fellow here, getting people all worked up over them. When I saw this chappie, I realized that it has been years since I've seen his friends. Where did they all go to? Hope they haven’t got on to any conservation red alert.
The snail was one of the larger distractions on the range. Check out the spider, just beginning to
weave its web under a flower. Ah, there you have me. We call it a dandelion, my son and I, because of the way its seeds fly out when the flower dries up. But I haven’t been able to find out what its common name is. I do not know the spider’s antecedents, either. That doesn’t matter; such delicate engineering effort was worth pausing for. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the spot again, so my ‘start-middle-end spider web’ series stops where it started.
But I ended up finding a patch of some other flowers, which were just waking 
up. And so, the two pictures, as the flower opens out and preens itself in the baby sunlight of the morning. Never been introduced to this flower either, so I just nod at it and walk away, feeling abashed at not being able to find a name for it!
More active was this black and white beetle – what’s it, a ladybird in disguise? This was the best
picture I could get, but I’m glad I got this one at least! Amazing speed on the ground and with the sun just coming up, the beetle was looking for the shadiest spots around. Managed to catch it just as it crawled into a hole in the ground – leaving me far away from any of the other holes on the range! No wonder my golf game sucks.
Finally, here’s the shy one. A rare sighting too, I can’t remember when I had last seen touch-me-nots in the city. They were always a summer vacation special and brought back a holiday season feel to the day. There were two patches on the range the day I took the photograph, but a couple of days later, one of them had been crushed by a road to bring in building material for the new ITC Hotel. The other, for now, survives.
...until golf happened. A couple of months ago. And Sriram has been the drill sergeant, making sure
that I wake up at 5, so that we arrive at the range well in time to take our places at the head of the queue that builds up until the factories in Sriperumbudur blow their first shift sirens.And it has been good, largely. Sleep deprivation hasn't happened. Hands and shoulders are now pretty friendly with the general ache. The back has held up. And these days, every shot seems to have 'Hole-in-One' written on it when it starts off; most end up in the general direction they were intended to go. The others - well, let's just say I'd have been proud of them on a cricket ground.
Sriram (yes, that's him with the hot-dog sock puppet) says I need to pay more attention to the
coach. Maybe, but when the morning is fresh, there're many other things creeping or peeping through the white-sheet grass that I can't help looking at them. Like this Giant African Snail: many years ago I'd seen such snails in Palakkad. Someone had brought a couple over, as pets and they’d multiplied like – rabbits? They were all over the place, huge guys, much bigger than this little fellow here, getting people all worked up over them. When I saw this chappie, I realized that it has been years since I've seen his friends. Where did they all go to? Hope they haven’t got on to any conservation red alert.The snail was one of the larger distractions on the range. Check out the spider, just beginning to
weave its web under a flower. Ah, there you have me. We call it a dandelion, my son and I, because of the way its seeds fly out when the flower dries up. But I haven’t been able to find out what its common name is. I do not know the spider’s antecedents, either. That doesn’t matter; such delicate engineering effort was worth pausing for. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the spot again, so my ‘start-middle-end spider web’ series stops where it started. 
But I ended up finding a patch of some other flowers, which were just waking 
up. And so, the two pictures, as the flower opens out and preens itself in the baby sunlight of the morning. Never been introduced to this flower either, so I just nod at it and walk away, feeling abashed at not being able to find a name for it!More active was this black and white beetle – what’s it, a ladybird in disguise? This was the best
picture I could get, but I’m glad I got this one at least! Amazing speed on the ground and with the sun just coming up, the beetle was looking for the shadiest spots around. Managed to catch it just as it crawled into a hole in the ground – leaving me far away from any of the other holes on the range! No wonder my golf game sucks.Finally, here’s the shy one. A rare sighting too, I can’t remember when I had last seen touch-me-nots in the city. They were always a summer vacation special and brought back a holiday season feel to the day. There were two patches on the range the day I took the photograph, but a couple of days later, one of them had been crushed by a road to bring in building material for the new ITC Hotel. The other, for now, survives.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
The Birthday
Many years ago, when I was close to browsing about “75% of the Internet” (Equbeer Bedi, where are you?), I had come upon an audio file that I thought could make a gem of quiz question – the only condition being that the quiz had to happen today. Today.
That audio file was dutifully saved. And after the past 8-9 years, I remembered my gem. But over many changes involving computing equipment, nations, residential shelters and breadwinning establishments, I am unable to find that audio file. (Google, how’s that door-to-door search thingamajig coming along?). There is nothing to do for it, but to get back on the ‘Net. In the meantime, all those chappies have figured out that there’s money in them thar binaries; couldn’t find a way to get that audio file into my machine. And today’s the key day: so, let a blog post stand in for a quiz.
If you’ve got this far, you’ve a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. Yes, it IS my wife’s birthday today. But no, I don’t trawl the net to find audio files featuring her. I get to hear her often enough otherwise, thank you. And anyway, I’m talking about something that happened long, long before Vidya came into this world.
I had found this great site that let me download a transmission from outer space – oooh, what a lovely quiz question, play those noises like many bugs in disharmony and watch the teams work it out! What a grand feeling it would have been, to be able to understand man’s first blabber from outer space!! Hear it for yourselves.
http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/sputnik.wav
But my wife thinks I’ve forgotten HER day. No way, lady! Let’s go, it’s time for the grand dinner!!
That audio file was dutifully saved. And after the past 8-9 years, I remembered my gem. But over many changes involving computing equipment, nations, residential shelters and breadwinning establishments, I am unable to find that audio file. (Google, how’s that door-to-door search thingamajig coming along?). There is nothing to do for it, but to get back on the ‘Net. In the meantime, all those chappies have figured out that there’s money in them thar binaries; couldn’t find a way to get that audio file into my machine. And today’s the key day: so, let a blog post stand in for a quiz.
If you’ve got this far, you’ve a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. Yes, it IS my wife’s birthday today. But no, I don’t trawl the net to find audio files featuring her. I get to hear her often enough otherwise, thank you. And anyway, I’m talking about something that happened long, long before Vidya came into this world.
I had found this great site that let me download a transmission from outer space – oooh, what a lovely quiz question, play those noises like many bugs in disharmony and watch the teams work it out! What a grand feeling it would have been, to be able to understand man’s first blabber from outer space!! Hear it for yourselves.
http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/sputnik.wav
But my wife thinks I’ve forgotten HER day. No way, lady! Let’s go, it’s time for the grand dinner!!
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