ExpertDabbler

What do you guys think of sleep?? I guess sleep patterns vary as greatly as our signatures. From early risers, to nocturnal animals to insomniacs, the variety is endless.

Here is one conversation between me and my friend in Hyderabad.

He: “Dhinam office cab la poganumnu nenaippen,, aana auto la dhaan poren”

Me: “Yen da”

He: “Hm.. auto kaaren nalla irukatum nu nalla manasu dhaan.. ada yenda nee vera cab pudikanumna 9 o clock ready aganum…“

Me: “9’o Clock is reasonable time da”

Me: “Velaike avadhu da. Dhinam night ‘nalaikaavadhu 7 manikku elundhirkanumnu nenaipen, innaiku adhisayama correct a 6:45 ku elundhirichen .. seri innum 15 minutes iruku.. waste panna koodadhu nu thirumbi paduthen… gabaal nu 9:00 aayiruchu. Aprom vazhakkam pola auto dhaan”

Well, having known him for the past 10 years, I am not surprised. Surukama sollanumna ‘avan appadi thaan’
Pakkathile anu gundey vizhundaalum asayave maataan leave alone getting up. Even during our Goa Trip, he drank his morning coffee at 10:45 sharp!

Even if he wakes up, he will need approximately 30 minutes to boot his OS (Forgive the geekism here).

If he is like that, I am almost his opposite when it comes to overnight sleep. No matter when I go to bed, I’ll manage 6:30 hours sleep at night subject to a maximum wake up time of 7:30 AM. Even if I go to bed very late and have a very early morning train to catch, I somehow manage that till date. I don’t use alarm clocks (right from the days when Team India played Benson and Hedges Down Under at 4:25 AM).

But afternoons naps..Oh dear that’s a different story. I’m scared to take a nap during weekends. The reason?

Afternoon naps are to me what overnight sleep is to my friend.
“Padukka maaten, padutha elundhirka maaten” and to add to it, I get damn irritated when someone tries to wake me up too, my mom getting the brunt of my rage when she tries to wake me up. Result? She doesn’t try that nowadays.
I’ve had instances where my nap had stretched from 3 PM to 7.30 PM or even 8 PM.

I find most of my friends are nocturnal creatures. They can stay awake till as late as they wish but once they hit bed, they are practically a log of wood till late morning or early noon.

Some people say ‘Its good to wake up early in the morning’ But I now think it’s more of an empty gyaan. I’ve never done anything useful all this years anyway. What’s the big deal in getting up early??

Its 3.30 PM now, a decent lunch, no work to do, none to talk to nearby and here I am trying my level best to retain my composure……….Yyyyaaawn!!!

Mind the gap. Another masterpiece by Paul Graham.
How wrong I was in some of my ideas! Sigh!

This is a poem penned by my friend who prefers to be named Ponnamma

Colors

Alone I was with a wistful heart
for colors that could never be seen
Black, white shades of grey apart
were the only ones I could dream

A sudden fleeting feeling
lots of color and hues
home came some sunshine
that wiped away my blues.

Was it real Was it a dream
I just pondered why
The sunshine did some magic
as the day went by..

Touches of green, pastures below
A tinge of blue- clear sky above
A blade of grass that turned yellow
A silvery cloud that showed me love

The gleam in the eyes was back that night
The touch of gold felt so light
But as soon as I had gained my sight
Lo behold..It turned to night!

As the darkness swept me through
All the colors I saw diffused
All I could was tell my mind
to hum the song left behind

I took a brush paper and paint
see I could recreate sunshine..
And once again I thought I’d find
the endless love for which I pine.

Last Sunday, myself, Keerthi along with two other common friends Gana and Sudharshan decided to meet in Anna Nagar tower club park. The idea was to take some photographs. As it turned out, we did 5 minutes of photography and about 200 minutes of vetti arattai This was one of the shots that turned sahikable.

There was some crackers display in the sky. We did shoot. Summa sollakoodadhu.. kevalama vandudhu

Quite a few people have commented about my previous post.

Some of the ‘top itams’ are as under

1. That I’m mixing up issues. The issues allegedly mixed up are ‘development’ and ‘compensation’.

Now, if only things were so simple in this country!

To avoid this so called mix-up I have to assume that the government will pay ‘market value’ leave alone ‘150% of market value’ of the property as compensation.
When the government has made no such announcement that I know of, there is no reason for me to ‘assume’ that. If that’s a proposal let the government announce that.

2. Airport need be expanded, no doubt

For now, let me not even get into the politican’s land angle.

Is there any law which states that Chennai can have only one airport and that too only in Meenambakkam?? How come Bangalore is constructing its own international airport which is a good distance from the city?? Who the hell stops the Tatas, Birlas and our own Maran family from forming a consortium with some foreign developer and build a new airport in govt. land in some far away place??

Won’t the flights land and take off from there?? Do you guys forsee any vasthu issues??

I’d say the govt. can even think about some area in North Chennai. That would bring in some development in there. This would also mean some punniya aathmas who have lived in South Chennai all their lives can leave their foot prints in North Chennai due to which that area may get vimochanam and see some real development.

3. Filing PIL.

Its like saying someone will come and take my property and then I have to file a PIL to get the sale proceeds from him. That means by default I’m plundered, but I have to file a PIL and run behind courts to make it look like a sale.

And ladies and gentlemen, PILs are like masala dosas - u ask now, u will be given in 10 minutes flat, yep thats how fast the courts work. Sigh!

4. Boat club matter

I sincerely apologize. I should’ve realized that boat club area alone is too small. I should’ve included areas like adyar, kotturpuram, alwarpet, abhiramapuram etc to stress my point.

Sarcasm apart, the point I was trying to make was that any area has the potential to be ‘developed’ for some purpose or the other. But no ultra rich has never ever been affected by any ‘development’ to the best of my knowledge.

5. There is always a cost to development.

That’s only half the sentence, the other half reads “and that cost is never borne by the rich and almost always by the middle and lower classes in this country”.

6. I should’ve simply mentioned about compensation

I deliberately did not mention that because a house has got a lot of senti value to those who have only one property and who have lived there all their life. I am nobody to suggest a price for that.

If there are no options (thats a big IF) then the govt. which wants their land so badly has to take the initiatve and come up with a decent proposal to the PAP (project affected people).

My advance apologies for suggesting an offer price, but say, if the govt. comes up with an offer of 10-15 lakh per ground and a job asssurance to the affected people who need a job in their family then I think the number of agitators would be far less than what it is now.

But as I said earlier, it’s for the government to come up with a decent offer. A house is like a loved one in a family. Just because our loved one’s lives are insured for X amount does not mean that’s the value of their life and that we would kill our loved one if only we get that X amount.

6. Am I a Communist?

No. Its just that the people who control the market forces in the country would do well to have some conscience and a sense of right and wrong.

7. What I write is bullshit.

Good! It has taken 700 posts of mine for people to understand that.

It pains me to read about this.
Some of my friends own houses in this place. A few have been living there since their childhood. Their house is perhaps their only asset.

How come no further ‘development’ expansion projects comes up in places like Boat Club?? I’d say Boat Club is an excellent place to build another air port, so that VIPs and dignatories can use that and come into the city fast than struggle all the way from Meenambakkam??

Curiously, none barring the HINDU talks about any of these issues. The mainstream media’s primary concern remains with the release of ‘Bheema’, Vijay’s next remake and of course, ‘Shivaji’ and ‘Dhasavadharam’.

I don’t even know if i’d written about this.

I admire AR Rahman nowadays. There are so many layers to his tunes. The base tune is catchy and the inner, subtler layers of his music reveals itself as you listen more and more. Rahman’s songs are like a love affair. It gets deeper and more complex. You enjoy it more as you invest your time and energy and get intimate with it. It’s sheer progressive pleasure.

On the other hand, i also listen to some of Ilayaraja’s classics. I mean, what can i say? Here you are not a listener anymore. You find engulfed and swept in a musical tsunami after which somehow you feel you are born again. Honestly, this is what i feel when i listen to orchestrations like this in the song Deva Sangeetham. Check out that solo number by KJY. I think it was Anantha who pointed to this piece in Chakra’s blog. I can never forget this piece. Those who kinda know the super natural story base of this film and seen the picturisation of this song will realize the genius of this score. Atleast i do.

Or for that matter “Thendral Vandhu theendumbodhu” from Avadhaaram or “Naan paadum Mouna raagam ketkavillaya” in Idhayakoyil…nothing can be told in words, nothing need to be.

Most of the people in Tamil Nadu believe in God for good reason.
Whenever an average layman listens to soul stirring music from Rahman or Ilayaraja in peace, he tacitly understands such mindblowing music is not possible by a mere mortal.

What am i writing here? I dont know. It’s 12:50 and guess listening to music at late nights just makes me go crazy.

Mantri’s Altius may have been making news since last year but it was only yesterday that i came to know of it. Till then, the 4 crore per apartment deal by Vijay Shanthi builders in Nungambakkam was the most expensive project i ever knew.

But most of those who covered Mantri Altius failed to highlight the maintenance charges - Rs. 50,000 per month!

There is a saying which goes like “When your taxi driver and your paan walla start giving out share tips, you know its time to get out of the stock market”

I think this applies for the real estate as well. Too many people talking about real estate boom. Nalladhukku illai!

For long, we were told that ‘having it in our genes’ meant we can’t do much about it.
We’ve heard leading researchers stating ‘Indians are genetically predisposed to Diabetes, heart attack” etc.

What if someone comes and says ‘the function of genes changes according to surrounding environments and stimulation’ in this book??

Laughable?? Not quite. Especially when that someone is not some self-help guru keen to make a fast buck but a world renowned scientist.

>>”I have the backing of the ONGC, but what about others? The government of India pays for playing only three official tournaments in the whole year. How do you expect the players to raise money for the rest of the meets?

I think its high time our marketing guys started supporting sports people who really bring laurels to our country.

I think we should all have a banner in our own blogs with tags like
“Sponsor only performers” or words to that effect.

It’s time we honour the performance of our athletes, hockey guys, and chess prodigies rather than worship professional models shooting in South Africa.

Koneru Humpy, we are proud of you! Way to go!!